Tales from the Underworld-Chapter 16-Sex
November 10, 2009 at 7:15 pm (environmental, love, magic, marriage, medicine, metaphysics, parenting, philosophy, religion, sex)

So here we are again. I am continuing to revise my book, and as promised I am giving you all previews. This chapter falls as the second to the last in the book. I will publish more soon. But here is another teaser for your perusal:)
Chapter 16-Sex
As I sit here and read over what I have written so far, I feel like I am looking at an ancient building. A crumbled relic that is little more than badly damaged foundation. But even though the building has long since collapsed, I can still feel it’s presence, almost make out shadows of walls that once stood in grand testament to the very basis of humanity itself . I struggled with the relevance of all I had learned over the years. I struggled to get it, what the profound conclusion was that all of it was pointing towards. And I struggled with it because I was still thinking in terms of something complicated, something grandiose, something very cerebral. But as much as I hate to admit it, even I was still falling into the patriarchal trap of always ego consciousness. I was still thinking, instead of feeling.
I look at our world and I am deeply saddened. It is not the kind of discontent that makes me want to blow up buildings or organize protests. It’s the kind of discontent that makes me wonder what everyone is racing around in circles for, and why doesn’t anybody else get the futility of the way society is set up. I feel like I am sitting in the center as the chaotic world rushes about me in fast forward. I got what I asked for all those years ago. I got perspective in spades, but when it came down to it I am so very lonely, because I feel like I am the only one who gets it. Thoreau said in Walden, “Simplify, simplify simplify“. Such wisdom is not new. Many have followed his path and words, and strove to return to nature and concentrate on the things that really matter. But what are those things. What is the key that is missing, the overlooked piece of the puzzle? One half is sex.. Sex in all of it’s forms. Love, Marriage, emotional bonding, the physical act, and sex as in all it produces, death/rebirth/birth, and regeneration/healing.
A person needs shelter, food and water, a bath, clothes, social companionship and love. Yet people scurry out of the big box stores with cartloads of crap they don’t need, and then wonder why they are still miserable and have to work so hard to afford to live. When people look to external satisfaction, the cycle never ends, and true satisfaction is never achieved, instead the cycle of despair deepens as people realize the retail therapy fix is fleeting and still leaves a person feeling used and alone. Many have said it before but the focus needs to be internal. We humans are a universe on to ourselves. You will find never-ending amusement and exploration within yourself if you would only learn to listen. You have God within you, and he/she will tell you and give you everything you really need. It appalls me how many people have to have a TV on, or radio, or something to fill silence. And the reason is that in that silence one is forced to listen to ones own internal monologue, and in the mind of a person who is sick off of prescriptions drugs, sugar, refined grains, excessive meat eating, hopped up on stimulants, that internal monologue is freakishly out of control.
Sex is the most fundamental aspect of being human aside from eating, menstruation, breathing and evacuation. People want to dress it up, and escape it as much as possible, even hating themselves for having desire, but when it comes down to it, you are ruled by it. Period, end of story. You can run from it and be controlled by it, or you can face it and have it be a source of natural happiness that is given positive outlet. Being a dancer I saw this everyday, and it seemed the more Christian or socially elevated a person was in the outside world, was all the more they were depraved when they came to me. If you suppress it, you only turn it into a demon, and then you have the rapists and child molesters as a result, and you re left with a profound sense of emptiness and loneliness that drives you to fill the void in other ways.
The Christian Church taught us that to indulge the most basic desire for sexual congress was a sin. Even in the bounds of marriage it was only for procreation, and things like fellatio were an abomination. Pleasure was out of the question. Thus even the legal vehicle for sex was stunted, and left the couple in a state of profound shame or resentment that often led to infidelity or hatred. Women were encouraged to dress modestly, lest they be confused with whores, and that their only function was to be vessels to be filled. Men were left with wives that did little to arouse them, and such the woman he loved became the ball and chain he loathed.
I think the reason why the lessons of aesthetics have not been heeded, and by that why people still look to external satisfaction instead of internal, is that these “gurus” have paired this wisdom with less desirable pursuits, such as celibacy. I’m sorry but you are not wise if you cannot reconcile your own sexuality and instead choose to mutilate it and stuff it in a drawer. True wisdom comes when you can accept being human and nature as it is, and that we are created sexual creatures for a reason. Just as the Church fathers betrayed their abnormal preoccupation with sex by their derogating it with such an obsessiveness, any teacher who says sex is shameful, or dirty, or that desires of the flesh should be transcended for enlightenment is really saying that they are still quite immature that they cannot reconcile body and spirit, and that they are ignorant of the very foundations of humanity and thus religion.
Even in the aftermath of the feminist movement, the hippies and Vatican 2, we were supposed to be liberated from our sexual prisons, but yet things are still in disparaging condition. The divorce rate in this country is 50 percent. Sexual predation is going up, not down. Depression is rising and the adult entertainment industry is still doing a booming business. If we were indeed freed, why is everything still a mess? Because nobody has sought or fully explained the divine nature of sex, that is the birthright of every human being, everyday. If you tip the scales so far in one direction, as sex was when it was maligned as evil, you must let the scale fall back the other way. Sex needs to be recognized as the holy and life giving force that it is.
You ask most people about sexual alchemy and they will look at you with at best a blank stare. Few people even know about it, let alone what it is. Even tantra, the most famous form of it all, that still is alive and practiced today, is at best badly misunderstood. We are holy. Every last human being on the planet no matter how depraved they may come has a small spark of the divine within them. Whether you recognize it or not, it is there. There have been so many debates as to why a basic act for procreation is so pleasurable and I don’t know if I want to laugh or vomit at the absurdity of it. It was made pleasurable for us to enjoy it.
This is not to say that I condone mass orgies, because I do not. The various transformations of sexual worship over the centuries was a necessary development in our human spiritual consciousness, but Bacchanalian rites I feel are ones that are best left in the past. We are evolved and civilized and the divine can be fully honored in a monogamous relationship and should be. Just as the Divine lord and lady are one, so should man and woman be one. Not man and woman plus another man and another woman ad infinatum. Even Tantra teaches a committed monogamous relationship is the best to practice alchemy in, because trust is key here, and I’m not just talking about sex, I’m talking about love too. If more people had a lover, and had time to enjoy said lover, there would definitely be less anti-depressant prescriptions being prescribed. There would be less crime, as everyone would be busy getting it on, and probably a lot happier, their would be less pollution, as instead of going out and conquering mother nature, men would be in bed conquering their women, and the women would be most grateful for it. The artificial edifice of commerce and employment would shrink to a more normal size, where it actually serves the needs of man, as opposed to enslaving them.
The wisdom that was buried with the dark goddesses was the salvation of sex, as in it‘s healing regenerative power. You do not need to be an initiate in sexual alchemy to partake in the holy aspect of lovemaking. Make no mistake though, there is more than meets the eye when it comes to sexual congress. However you need only have an open heart and love to feel renewed. Anyone who knows, has felt the redemptive power of love, and the bliss at the moment of orgasm. It transcends all feelings of separateness and loneliness and for a brief fleeting moment, you are One. You could be having the day from hell, but the sweet passion found in the arms of your lover can reset anything, or at the very least dull pain and put distance between you and whatever caused it.
Sex and religion are intricately linked however, there is something quite profound in the conjugal act. Most have sought to suppress the sexuality of man or control it, as a means to control the faithful. But that approach is hideous and horribly wrong. I am not surprised the Catholic Church has become what it is, old, stale and full of child molesters. They committed a grievous sin when they put the strictures on sex that they did, and their fate is the price they pay. As an undercurrent to all the Goddesses I mentioned there is that edifice I mentioned in the beginning of the chapter. Something so deep, so profound that nothing could completely destroy it. Sexual Alchemy and ritual lovemaking is the foundation of humanity. Almost every great ancient culture had some form of it, and it is no surprise to me that with the suppression of these rites also came the gradual attrition of grandeur from architecture, art, spirituality governance etc. Sex is the sacred fire, it must be maintained
The fundamentally profound nature of sex is that it is a means to empowerment, enlightenment and immortality. In Tantra there is the kundalini, a serpent that is coiled in the base of the spine, the practitioner envisions the kundalini uncoiling and going up the spine into the skull, providing a direct charge to the brain at the moment of orgasm. What I have learned and practice though is something called the Sex Magic of Isis. There are two ways of doing it, either alone or with a partner. It involves visualizing two serpents coming out of the base of the spine. One is the lunar serpent (the essence of void, magnetism, gravity, feminine) and the other is the solar serpent (the essence of light, radiant, nuclear, masculine) The solar serpent comes out on the right and the lunar comes out on the left. If doing this alone, you visualize the serpents crossing through each of the first five chakras, crisscrossing each other as a result, and ending at the area that physically is your brain stem. This is called the chalice, and you visualize a cup in the area where the spine meets the skull that each serpent is poised over so at the moment of orgasm, the energies of the two serpents travel up the spine, through each chakra and discharge their respective energies into the chalice. If you are doing this with a partner, you run your serpents through them, as opposed to through yourself, and they do likewise, and you climax together. You must trust each other to do this because the energy that will be released, is mind-blowing. Physics tells us that when matter and antimatter meet, they annihilate each other releasing tremendous force. The energies of the two serpents can be likened to matter and antimatter. I will get into such magical topics in greater depth in the next chapter, but the more you practice this most holy form of regeneration, the more psychically powerful you will become, and eventually it is supposed to lead to eternal life. Conversely just like matter and antimatter annihilating each other, there is a definite potential for serious psychic damage if done incorrectly. I encourage you to fully explore this most holy and powerful practice through further research. It will be most worth your while.
Whether you practice alchemy or not though, let your life slow down. Make time for love instead of work. Believe me, work will find you, you don’t need to schedule that.. And besides a good hour or two worth of work can get a lot done, spend the rest of the day in pleasurable pursuits. Make love, worship your partner as a God, and ask that he love you like a Goddess. Pleasure him in whatever way, and do not be ashamed of anything he might want to do, if it’s physically possible, there is no law that says it’s wrong . Don’t be in a huge rush. Spend three hours in bed, and if you have kids well make time where your not interrupted by them. You must maintain your relationship, your kids will suffer if you don’t. Spending all day in bed is not a bad thing. Get stoned, or mildly drunk. Behave irresponsibly. You will find that even just a little indulgence in that department goes a long way to your mental and emotional wellbeing and happiness.
When your not in bed spend time building your life together. Grow your own food. Maintaining a garden is both a spiritual and sexual act, that can strengthen a relationship, not to mention provide you with food. Do the ancient rite of Beltane, and of Demeter, of making love in the garden to ensure the soils fertility. What is produced becomes a symbol of bonding and of union, that you participated in that act of creation. Work together around the house, help when he’s fixing stuff, you might just find him hanging around when your doing the dishes.
When you begin to recognize the act of love making as holy, your life takes on new meaning. You become satisfied, you become more sedate. When you have a healthy bond of love you are complete. Many psychologists will tell you that you must be an individual in your own right, and that looking to another for completeness is a form of codependence. You do need to know who you are as an individual and come to terms with that yes, but we do find completion in another, because whether your male or female, your either lacking in a certain department or you got a little extra, and when you find the right mate, you will fit together perfectly, and in that you find completeness. As far as I am concerned the notion that the natural state of humans is to be alone is a load of bullox. No man is an island unto himself. It is separating us in an artificial way, that flies in the face of natural order to sell more anti-depressant prescriptions, because inevitably when your alone, you get depressed and anyone who says otherwise is either lying or a sociopath.
But a life where our most basic nature is holy. Where man and woman are God and Goddess respectively. That is the Garden of Eden we were kicked out of, that is paradise. When you slow down, and consume less and make love more you find peace. When you know that you have the power of God within you, and sex is but another vehicle of the expression of that divinity, it is liberation. When you acknowledge your body as holy, attraction to drugs and other vices cease. The need for constant external input ceases. For the record, I do not classify alcohol and marijuana as “drugs“. They are, but they are natural ones. They have been used with reverence since ancient times, Marijuana being sacred to both Shiva, the consort of Kali, and Tahuti or Thoth as he is better known, the husband of Ma’at. They are a means to greater pleasure, but also must be used with wisdom and temperance, lest they begin to control you. What I am worried about are hard synthetic drugs or heavy duty psychedelics which can drive you insane.
If the world is to get better, the messed up attitude our society has towards sex needs to change, we need to recognize it as the holy powerful force that it is and it begins with woman. In Tantra and other forms of sexual alchemy, woman is held higher than man. Not to say she is better but the feminine wisdom that is called soul, that resides in the Crown Chakra, is the highest principle of all, and women are the embodiments of it. We women are the center of society. We are the culture bearers, the childrearers, cooker of meals, cleaners and creators of homes, and it is our magnetic beauty that brings men to us longing for union with us. Beauty that is inspiration for both poems and the great works of art, and unfortunately wars as well. Feminism rightly threw off the yoke of sexism, but it made it so that women who did want to be happy housewives were still somehow oppressed. I don’t know about anybody else, but I like sitting at home, gardening, taking care of the animals, reading and writing, and I love cooking for my sweetie so that when he gets home from work he has a home cooked meal, prepared with love to restore his strength. Frankly the outside world scares me, there are a lot of out of control weirdos wandering around and I would rather not have to go out into it everyday. I wouldn’t trade my role as homemaker in for the world. The afterbirth of feminism is that it tried to make women the same as men, we are not.
Man’s energy is direct, initiatory, whereas woman’s is mutable and receptive. The four phases of the moon is the perfect way in which to describe the nature of woman, hence it being no coincidence that the moon is more often than not considered feminine, just as it is no coincidence that if a woman spends enough time outdoors, her periodicity will synch with the moon, so that she is fertile during the full moon and bleeds during the new. The four phases of the moon directly relate to not only the phases of a woman’s life, maiden, mother, crone and then death, but it also speaks to the monthly cycle of woman, and therefore her nature and strength. There is no suppression of the light side of woman. That is what is socially acceptable. However there is most definitely a misunderstanding and suppression of woman during her new moon, underworld death phase, signaled by her moon blood. Just like the death goddesses of the underworld, there is something priceless to be gained by not only facing this aspect of woman, but joining with her as well.
In our culture, a woman’s period very often is viewed as an inconvenience at best. This is especially disconcerting to me. You can hear it in the misogynist idiots who talk about not trusting something that bleeds for seven days and doesn’t die. In ancient times a woman’s “dark moon time” was viewed as the height of her power. The menstrual blood is viewed as especially regenerating in sexual alchemy traditions(think rusty sword and you’ll get it) and across the board it is during this time that a woman’s powers of prophecy were considered to be at their greatest strength. At the new moon, a menstruating woman is in greatest tune with her emotions that are an underworld onto themselves, and dreams and oracular visions come from the underworld. Just as the underworld Goddesses regenerate, so bleeding every month is also a woman’s way of renewing herself, flushing out the month before so that at the end of her cycle she can emerge healthier and stronger.
Woman need to stop trying to keep up with men during this time, and take the time to rest and sit in introspection. Eat chocolate, sit around in bed, read books, watch movies. Ignore those who tell you that you need to be able to keep on during your period, they are ignorant to say the least. You can actually damage yourself if you exert yourself too much during your moon time. It is a time when the delicate emotional undercurrents surface, and are especially vulnerable. You’re not a man, stop trying to be one. A woman’s moody seeming bipolarness, is the way she supposed to be, because we are equipped to dip down into that frightening underworld of death, of emotion, of oracular vision and magic to regenerate ourselves, and those that have the courage to unite with us during that time.
I think the truth of why the wisdom of the nature of woman was lost, and the feminine suppressed is in those matriarchal prehistoric cultures, men were treated as inferior, and that paved the way for the pendulum to swing back the other way so that woman are now treated as inferior. What goes around comes around. I believe in the equality of the sexes, one is not better than the other. We are equal, and we are different. We both need each other, but we need to learn to truly understand and respect the fact that we are different, and not be afraid of that fact. We were created that way for a reason. We were created as such so we might feel the ecstasy of reuniting with each other.
Just as women are not men, so men are not women, and it is up to us women to be men’s emotional strength. Maybe you have a man that is in touch with his feminine side and can articulate his feelings, but the majority of males look at being emotional as being effeminate, and they are taught to suck it up and deal. Your not going to get them to talk to you like another girl so don’t even try. This stuffing down of emotions is very unhealthy, that can leave them emotional cripples, but the constancy that results from not always dipping down into ones emotions all the time is valuable. The comfort that comes from knowing my partner will always get up and do what needs to be done is priceless. At the same time though, men can become ticking time bombs and violent if there is never any attempt to understand why they do things or how they feel, or if they feel used or unappreciated. All that magnificent strength men possess can be turned against you in the most horrific way. Men have their own darkness too, and for their own reasons.
Women however are extremely in tune with their own emotions and have a tremendous capacity for empathy, and so it follows that one of our functions in a relationship is to provide an emotionally secure environment where men eventually sense that can let out how they feel. Don’t berate or beat it out of them, just be there to help when they want it. Our intuitive nature is invaluable in childrearing as well, to figure out our children and why on God’s green earth they do the crazy things they do. I had three boys, I know how bizarre it can be. But the converse of this all is that we can do serious damage if we abuse this emotional trust. It is a pity more women do not realize the power they possess, for I know all to many men who have grown to hate women because somewhere in their past they were repeatedly hurt by women who cheated on them, crushed them emotionally, and have no knowledge that they even did it, or worse yet looked at the guys like they were sissies. A lot of women are like kittens, who ambush an unsuspecting victim, sink their claws in and then run away, all to the end of trying to prove their power and prowess, because they are unsure of it. Most women do not realize their power because it was buried in the foundations of the Church, and with great power comes great responsibility. This is where the concept of Soul comes in.
A woman, who has gone through initiation, who has learned what her power is, and how to use it wisely, becomes an embodiment of Soul. It is a difficult concept to describe, but both men and women have them, just as they have spirits, but the two are entirely separate and distinct. Opposite sides of the same coin, with Spirit being male and Soul being female. Soul is associated with the concepts of surrender, release and incoming will. One could call it Karma, but it is this highest form of feminine wisdom that can serve to put both man and woman in harmony with God and with Nature. This is the Goddess that man seeks to worship in an offering of Love. By the magical gifts women are endowed with, which again I will get into more in the next chapter, we serve as being a holy guide. Woman is the totality of what can be known, and man is the knower, the hero who responds to the challenge and seeks to know her to her very depths. When the two are perfectly matched, the knower and the known, they are both released from pain and suffering, and the man who can accept woman, and not shave off parts of her he doesn’t like or cant control, is king of the universe. In the joining of male and female who are equal in power and strength, comes salvation, and this applies to when the male and female mythologies and religions of the world are matched perfectly as well. It is the salvation of our planet.
The role of initiate or priestess in ancient cultures included not only being an intermediary and embodiment of the divine, but a healer as well. They were trained in magic, herb lore, music etc. In essence I am sending out a call for priestesses with this book, priestesses of love, and what I learned as a dancer, as a student and as a mother I am passing on, so that the world may be healed by the institution of a college of the feminine mysteries, to finally balance the male, both in joining with Him fully, and having the power to check Him when He gets out of line.
So number one, take care of yourself. What is within shall come out, and what is out shall come within. Your beauty is your number one asset, true beauty being soul, hold onto it as long as you can, and that is actually longer than you think if you respect the delicate balance that is a woman. We are far more sensitive to external influences and emotional trauma. Women are more likely to internalize pain and suffering and manifest it in the form of breast cancer (breasts are the symbol of a woman’s nurturance, her sensitive empathy: breast cancer is a direct sign that that nature has been abused in the woman in question) or other disease. Women are very delicate creatures emotionally. We can be stronger than any force in the universe as well, but not if our basic nature is not respected and nurtured.
Women need significantly less protein than men, so that being said eat a mostly vegetarian diet. I say mostly because you do need some meat in your diet, but try to get the stuff that is high quality and treated humanely, or that you hunted yourself. You are what you eat, and the suffering of a creature that was only raised for food, and never saw the light of day, as all non-organic, non-cruelty free meat is, will manifest in your psyche and your soul and affect you negatively. A vegetarian diet will clean you up on the inside.
The natural world is a direct reflection of human consciousness, and if we heal ourselves we will heal the earth. The quality of ones food needs to be paid attention to. In our current age of anxiety and stress, refined foods such as sugar and over milled grains further accelerate and destabilize our bodies’ metabolism. Magnesium, a mineral found in brown rice and stone-ground wheat (make sure the ingredient label says stone-ground because otherwise it’s been refined) directly acts to break up what scientists have dubbed the anxiety peptide the forms in the brain. The magnesium found in whole grains cures restless legs, muscle cramps and spasms and has a general stabilizing effect on the body and mind.
Stay away from synthetic drugs of any kind. Even the legal ones destabilize you and will age you faster. Learn to calm your mind, as mental hyperactivity and stress will also eventually manifest as premature aging. Herbs such as chamomile and valerian work very well as sedatives, as does marijuana, an herb that contains significant amounts of EFA‘s including Omega-3 and 6 and Gamma Linolenic Acid. These substances have been proven to help with vascular renewal (the heart and mind are linked in oriental medicine) and mental function. Maintain a healthy weight, and get regular exercise of some sort. The herb Pau d’arco greatly aids weight loss as it destroys pathogenic yeast that gums up a persons metabolism and thought processes, in addition to drying up the dampness of obesity. Meditate and focus on the development of your mind and your morals. As I said true beauty comes from within, concentrate on your Soul. Even in a situation like dancing, it’s the ones who can talk and carry on an intelligent conversation with substance, or express either by speaking or dancing a fundamental truth about the human condition and experience, that make the big bucks. You can be drop dead gorgeous, but it will only carry you so far, if you’re a monster who doesn’t care about anything except yourself, not only are you ugly to everyone around you, but you are doing your own internal goddess a tremendous disservice.
Confidence is a big part of sexual attraction too. Men are turned off by women either looking for a daddy or constant approval. Seek that inner goddess that every woman possesses, let her shine forth. She will transcend all your mortal shortcomings and you will indeed be beautiful beyond compare. Learn to recognize your sexuality as holy as well. Know the power you have, and the responsibility that comes with it. This responsibility not only includes not abusing your power, but also using it when necessary. Beauty is something that is sorely lacking in this world right now, and it is what is needed to get people to start making love to each other again, to stoke the fire of humanity. Because that is the truth of it, when the sexuality of a culture dies, the culture dies too. Not only is this in the procreative sense, that without offspring a population dies, but in the more fundamental role of sex, that of the life force of humanity that is the source of all inspiration. This is why our world is getting duller by the day, and stupider I might add, we’re letting the Sacred Fire burn out.
So that being said, is there some sort of rule that once you graduate from college your supposed to get married, gain 50 pounds and then lob off your hair? I really wonder because that seems to be the norm. A woman’s number one power is her beauty, and not extroverted go to them beauty, but magnetic mysterious attraction that drives men wild. Ladies use your magnetic receptive strength to its greatest potential instead of blighting yourself and acting like a man. Men want to know that they have indeed won a prize in their mate. They want to believe that they indeed have the most beautiful woman in the world, and it is woman’s duty, if she wants to keep her man, to keep up that attractive power. Men want to work for it, they want the challenge, they want to prove themselves man enough, it is in their very nature to conquer, and in that is implicit that you need to put up a fight, you need to give chase and you need to be attractive enough to inspire them to do so. There are very few women though who are appropriately schooled in our role in the mating game .
Soul is true beauty, but physical beauty is just as important when it comes to attracting a man. Men are visual creatures, they want something good to look at. Wear makeup, jewelry, corsets, stockings high heels whatever. And don’t just go for hot or sexy, your trivializing it when you do that. Go for queenly or Goddess like, and act the part. True beauty and majesty do not need to boast. If you are what you need to be, believe me, men will notice without you saying a word. By being beautiful and seductive, you are not a whore, nor are you submitting to them. Whore is merely a label inferior men have used to try to control something they know they can’t. Be the beautiful mysterious magnetic Goddess, that your men have been coming to us strippers to see.
Learn to dance for your partner as well. This is not a talent show, your aiming for seductive and erotic. Women dancing naked for the pleasure of men, is pretty darn normal and natural, its when it’s relegated to dark dirty bars, that are living disease factories because they are never properly cleaned or aired out, that it becomes unnatural. The schism between light and dark is unnatural. Put the beautiful maiden or mother back together with the seductive siren and you get a woman so beautiful, so passionate, so worthy of respect and adoration that no man dare deny her.
People stop being so prudish. Stop hating your body, and the fact you have feelings and urges, stop hating the opposite sex because of whatever trauma in your childhood put you through and realize that there is a very real form of salvation in act of lovemaking, and all that leads up to it. Lose yourself in blissful abandon. There is no feeling like dancing for your lover, and seeing the desire on their face, and finally have build until finally your wildly riding each other with complete abandon. There is nothing more satisfying than knowing that your partner burns for you, and only you. Stop playing by mans rules and make your own.
Which brings me to the other side of sex, the side that unfortunately is a very real possibility when the holiness of love is not respected . Love is the death of the individual. That is why sex was associated with the death Goddesses. With the relationship of love and sex, there is no I or you anymore, only us, and know that that union is an entity in and of itself, with its own power. You can either charge it with the power of love, or something else. But know whatever it is that you do fill it with will spread to all that come in contact with you. I’d rather be spreading love and life.
When the trust between man and woman is betrayed however, either by infidelity, or a woman is raped and abused, that darkness manifests. Just as sex has the power to manifest the beauty of life, it has the power to manifest Hell. Not only for the woman, but for the man who must then deal with the Karma of his actions. Make no mistake, each woman has a Goddess on the inside, complete with Her powers, both those of beauty, and horrific pitiless life sucking vengeance. Hell hath no fury like a woman’s scorn. That is the true paradox of the death Goddess. What was maligned as evil mindless destruction by the Church fathers was actually a deity that more often that not would go after the abusive egotistical monsters that I’m sorry, deserve to die. That is what I was doing unconsciously as a dancer, through the dark side of sex, acting as a Siren, I was grinding down those who really didn’t deserve their life or money anymore. So yes the Dark Lady destroys but for good reason. To maintain the balance and cosmic justice, just like the Furies of Greek lore. She destroys, but she builds something new and better out of that aftermath.
This concept of death being a passage to new life has been lost. Not only is it a means of vengeance but a means of renewal. This world can become very heavy and it can weigh your soul down, and it that capacity, death is mercy. But the loss of this wisdom can be seen everywhere. You can see how people are afraid of this renewing process, in the amount of anti-depressant prescriptions being written, because people are afraid of the breakdown/regenerative process of depression and psychosis. You can see it in a government that madly throws money into a failing system, all the while firmly refusing to acknowledge the stable ground to which they cling has already turned to quicksand. This cycle can be seen in the rotting of a compost pile, or a carcass at the side of a road. As gross as it may be, the microorganisms and flies break down the rotting matter into it’s constituent parts, providing the most fertile ground for the new. Death is but one facet of a Goddess and of the Divine, that is beyond all mortal comprehension. All you can do in the face of this regenerative process is face Her. Face what you most fear, for you will find the seeming destruction and degradation that surrounds Her is actually the cleansing sacred fire of rebirth. Renewing all who go through it and regenerating and healing those who have the courage to look and to Love.
There is one final concept that needs to be addressed in the discussion of sex and that is other aspect in which lovemaking is intricately associated with death. It is in the birth of a child. Motherhood takes away your individuality in a sense, especially when you are pregnant. Everyone knows pregnant women have a tremendous appetite, one that can be seem as having the same nature as the all devouring death Goddess, but as I said that destruction provides the ground for the new, a pregnant woman must consume to nurture the growing life inside of her. Motherhood forces you to have new priorities, it is no longer all about you. It is a redemptive, healing institution as I found out, where you learn so much about yourself and your true nature through your child, but a vocation that is subject to a lot unfairness.
If we want to heal the world, and save ourselves, maybe we should start with the mothers of our children, and beyond that the mother of us all, the earth. For no matter how scarred childbearing may make a woman, they are still beauty incarnate, in fact soul wise, they are even more beautiful after making a baby. They are the word made flesh, they took the spark of the father and manifested new life within them, sacrificing very real parts of their body to do so. Motherhood is a holy institution, whether you are married or not. There is the monstrous notion that a single mother is just a gutter tramp who deserves nothing, thanks to the Church and it‘s overzealous followers, but mothers, especially single mothers are heroines, and should be treated as such.
Mothers protect their children from the evils of the world. The patriarchal, capitalist world that values only money and will commit all sorts of atrocities in that pursuit and has is in the past, is a very real threat to the well being of children. There is a plethora of social woes facing us right now and they are a direct result of the ignorance to the feminine and Her mysteries. The Earth is our mother. The feminine in our society, just as with the Earth, suffers from a total lack of respect. We humans are the most spoiled brats out there for what we do to our Mother. The patriarchy takes and takes and takes with little or no thought as to the toll it takes on the feminine and that somehow, somewhere, that unsustainable growth has to be checked, by unstoppable destruction.
The patriarchy is corrupting our children with this taking without giving something in return mentality. We are raising a crop of spoiled ill-prepared children who are taught for no good reason that they are special, and that everyone’s a winner. Truth is, your only special if you truly strive to be and sacrifice for it, and you’re a winner when you earn it through your blood sweat and tears. Teaching children the mindless drivel that is predominant today is creating a set of adults who are lazy, feel entitled and cannot cope with the inevitable adversity life brings. You’re a monster if you would dare lay a hand on your bundle of perfection, but frankly you need to teach adversity, and how to behave as a moral adult in the controlled environment of their childhood, for their own good, lest you want someone who does not love them like mama teaching it to them later on. I love my little boy, but he can be an unholy terror when he wants to be. Children, just like adults, are a combination of both forces of creation and destruction, good and evil if you must label them as such. They are innately self serving and manipulative. They need to know boundaries, and they need to know them right away from the start, otherwise it results in confusion and personality problems later on. It is better to express displeasure immediately than let it build until people are so rageful at their children that they do cross the line.
Children are treated as if they are better than adults. I swear some people look at kids like they are supposed to save us, that adult life is flawed and only this new life has the power to change anything. It fits in totally with the throwaway attitude shown buy most people in this country that instead of working with what is already created, we simply throw away anything that requires any creative effort to fix and just make more cheap plastic crap, its true for household items, buildings, cars whatever, it is a very clear trend towards the whole yang constantly creating, always new mindset. We have surrendered our own personal power and asked our babies to save us. Does anybody else see a few problems with this?
The social services system in our country is a complete failure. Somewhere in the 9 months your baby is gestating your supposed to totally get your head straight and be this perfect mother. But what if the mother herself was abused? Is that not valid and does that not need to be addressed? But families are being torn apart because of the fact people in our society can not stop judging each other long enough to see that we are all human and no one is flawless. Social Services more often than not gets used as a weapon. Let he who is without sin cast the first stone. This judgmental mindset shows a total lack of responsibility and imagination on the part of American adults. We need to address the reason why people are beating their kids as opposed to relying on quick fixes that aren’t really fixes at all. Cursed is the tree that bears fruit, especially when it bears alone.
Childrearing is ten times as hard when poverty enters the picture. Which in the case of single motherhood it always does, because of some self righteous Christian right, who are neither right nor Christian. I wonder if it ever dawned on some of these religious nutcases that maybe some women would prefer to not marry. That maybe the life that awaited them in marriage would have been suicide, either mentally or spiritually? If you want to get back to what Jesus actually taught. Jesus taught God is Love, He taught that the meek shall inherit the earth, to love thy neighbor as thyself and He deemed a lowly prostitute worthy of his salvation. How dare we say otherwise.
Tales from the Underworld
August 21, 2009 at 1:02 am (environmental, magic, metaphysics, religion)

So a while ago I told you, my reading public, that I was writing a book. And I promised you that as I had parts finished I would publish them for you to have a sneek peak. Well I am proud to say that for the most part the rough draft of my book is finished, and I am now in the process of revising and editing. I think I have the Introduction to my liking and so here is you first teaser. The working title of this book is “Tales from the Underworld”; exotic dancing as the modern resurgence of the dark goddess archetype and it’s relevance in the face of global annihilation. I hope you enjoy, and by all means comment. I love feedback, of any kind:)
Introduction
Our lives begin as an act of congress between our parents. From the energy of their union we are born like tiny stars. We take our turn at the great wheel, and after our mortal flesh is spent, we return from whence we came. What is Death? Where do we come from and where do we go when we die? The modern mythologies fail to answer this question sufficiently. Maybe their answers are suitable for the simplistic, and those who would rather go through the motions and be rewarded with hollow promises for their mediocrity. If you the reader, are interested in simple happy answers, well then I suggest you put this book back where you found it, and go on your merry ignorant way. But if you are like I, whose has seen to much to be satisfied with Sunday school stories and dogma, I press you to read further.
We cannot escape our own death. Nobody wants to talk about it, certainly not face their own mortality, so it is a subject of taboo, that white robed priests fumble to describe and offer insight to at funerals, but it is precisely because we do not want to face it, that we do not understand it, and as a result fear it, and become victims of it, before our mortal flesh even perishes.
When death’s meaning is lost, we as a people, as a culture are stunted. We become more like animals, in our unmitigated instinctual fear of it. Stepping on others for our survival, and dying forever with the regret. What most people do not understand is that no matter how much we run from it or hide from it, She will find us. Even while we live, living death finds us; pain, despair, degredation, depression, and the more we try to avoid them, the more they tend to follow and rule us.
So what is the wisdom of our ultimate destruction? Why should we face the ultimate horror? Because there is a part of us that doesn’t die, if we should choose to honor it, and honor Her. The Death Goddess destroys because she has to. It is not because she is wicked. For 2000 years we have been told to cling to the light and the light will save us. But as we stand in a world polluted seemingly beyond repair, with people regularly destroying themselves on hard synthetic drugs, or killing others before turning the gun on themselves, in a world where the government is way out of line and needs to be put back in it’s place, where is the salvation the Solar Gods promised? We’re supposed to cling to a shred of hope that something better exists in the next life while we shamelessly trash the one we have? Is being given dominion over the all the creatures of the Earth license to destroy them? No, and it is high time the balance be restored.
Death takes the old, the worn out, the useless, the dangerous, the selfish, the greedy, the dishonest, and transforms it. The Sublime Lady of the Underworld takes all and grinds it down in her great mortar and pestle, to create the fertile ground for the new.
She is the Erinys of Greek Mythology, the avenging furies dealing out justice, and without pity delivering the ultimate punishment. She is Kali, cutting through egotistical pretentions with her mighty and bloody sword She is Sekhmet, the fearsome lioness protecting those who cannot protect themselves. But she is also Ma’at, the ultimate truth of existence, who is beautiful and terrible and the same time. She is Persephone, who’s return brings all the world to life again. And she is Isis, who with her sister is the archetypal land that bestows dominion, and all the treasures that go with it.
There are those who would say that the stories of these great ladies are nothing more than old fairytales, conjurings of a primitive people, that has long since been replaced with something better. An infantile worldview, that strips the individual of their power, and teaches them to fear the natural way of things is not better. A religion that teaches us that our most basic fundamental nature is evil, is the abomination Spirituality is supposed to help an individual to cope, and to live in peace and harmony. No, these ladies stories and wisdom are not fairytales. They are the only thing that will save us.
The Dark Goddess is within all of us, because she is part of the fundamental truth of existence. Death is rebirth and even though her wisdom may have been suppressed, or forgotten, she is still here. She still calls to us, she still rules us, because she is within us and she is the energy ground on which the entire universe rests. Carl Jung wrote of archetypes, psychological imprints that resurface no matter what, that can cause a person to do things without knowing it, and the individual may not be able to reconcile it for years, if ever. She is not dead. She has still called women to her priesthood, whether they know it or not. Exotic Dancing, and all that goes with it are her temples, the dancing girls and prostitutes her acolytes.
For years these girls have been acting out a story as old as time itself, one of ancient honor and holiness without even knowing it. The wild passionate instinctual opera that is stripping, is a modern resurgence of the ancient temples and rites of these Goddesses. The heirodule, the beautiful mysterious priestess, trained in the arts of seduction, dancing with wild abandon, offering solace for the world weary in her embrace, mediatrix of the mysteries of rebirth inherit in the act of lovemaking, free to anyone making an offering to the Goddess, finds her modern equivalent in the exotic dancer.
Unfortunately, with a shift in religious attitudes, and the resultant persecution of anyone who held a different opinion, this history of sexual alchemy, that is the foundation of civilization itself, was buried. And with it, so were her priestesses, cursed to a life of degradation and despoilation. It is the greatest tragedy in history, for love and pleasure were replaced with shame and immolation. A life of leisure, intoxication and bliss was exchanged for back-breaking work, disease and misery. And if you think I am only referring to the girls, you are sadly mistaken, for I speak of all of us. We have been sold short, left wallowing in slavery to ideals and institutions that care nothing of us. This book is to teach what has been lost, and to take back our birthright. May I expose to light what to long has been held in shadow.
Just another note
May 19, 2009 at 4:43 pm (magic, metaphysics, religion, shamanism)

For those of you just visiting my site and wondering why there isn’t a Beltane post, it is because I started that series, last Beltane, and so Ostara ended up being the last in the series. Go back in the archives to last May and you will find it. Also alot of the meat and potatoes of my blog, is older archived stuff, so poke around, there’s all sorts of crazy stuff on this site:)
Ostara
March 21, 2009 at 6:04 pm (magic, religion)

So yesterday was Ostara, and as promised I will write a little blurb about that. It is the festival of the Vernal Equinox, where the periods of light and dark are equal, and it is officially the start of spring. Now last night it snowed here, so it may not seem very springlike, but one of the rituals I have witnessed on this occasion is “waking up the Earth”. Going around with drums, cymbals, anything noisy and yelling, singing and chanting, walking through the woods, to wake Mother Earth up. Also the symbols of Christian Easter owe their roots to Paganism, both Ostara and Beltaine, with fertility symbols of the eggs and the rabbit. The time of hibernation and sleep are over. Rest assured the warmer days are coming, life once more comes forth from hardship.
Imbolc
February 5, 2009 at 2:55 pm (environmental, magic, metaphysics, philosophy, religion, shamanism)

So February 2nd was Imbolc. The year turns once again and we are blessed to stand witness to it. Imbolc is the start of the end for winter. It’s a time to step back, take stock and be like, “hey, we made it!!” From here on out, we can expect warmer days. Yes there is still going to be cold snaps and blizzards, but they are on the wane. In six weeks is the vernal equinox, and the official start of spring, so if you haven’t started planning your gardens, you might want to start. It is a time to gather with friends, and be thankful for your continued existence. I know I am, because the last few months have been extremely trying for me, surviving -20F temperatures in an RV with no heat that isn’t properly insulated is no joke, it sucks. Some Imbolc traditions are that it is a traditionally ascribed to the Goddess Brigid, of Celtic lore, friendship bread, the oath ring and others. It is also the time of years when sheep start having their babies, which for our most ancient ancestors was a definate blessing because it meant they had milk, which is another tradition of Imbolc, the associations with milk. So there you go, there is you’re extremely brief overview of Imbolc:)
Yule
January 16, 2009 at 3:53 pm (magic, metaphysics, philosophy, religion, shamanism)

Yule (also known as Candlemas) is Winter Solstice and most of it’s mythos stem from this association. The solstice is the time when the days are shortest and the nights are longest, but it is the night where the sun is reborn if you will. Even though January is where you get those bitter cold snaps (as I’m sitting here writing we are going through one right now, it’s -23 F, and that’s before windchill) you can assume that as bad as it’s gotten before Yule will be how it will be for the rest of the winter. It is a time to share with others and gather together in friendship to survive the long cold. There is the ritual of the Yule log, something you decorate and invest with intents/”things” you would like to perish from the old year and hopes for the new. Save the ash if you like for other spells, or for Samhain or Yule of next year
Samhain
January 16, 2009 at 3:41 pm (magic, metaphysics, philosophy, religion, shamanism)

So it’s a little after the fact, but better late than never. Samhain is, for you muggles, Halloween. It is the day of the dead. It is the end of the pagan year and it is the time where the veil between the worlds is the thinnest, hence the legends about the witching hour at midnight where unwary travellers run the risk of being abducted by disgruntled spirits and ghosts. It is a day to remember those who have come, and gone, before.
Basic Spellwork
January 15, 2009 at 10:39 pm (magic, metaphysics, philosophy, religion, shamanism)

I guess the next order of business as I outlined before in the series I’m supposed to be writing is basic spellwork. I have no idea what tradition or whatever my practice most closely resembles, as far as I am concerned if it works who really cares, and I have not really much more than disdain for the purists who say if you don’t do something in a specific way it’s worthless, because what in essence they are saying is that the words are more important than the intent/spirit, which is bassackwards to say the least.
To do any kind of magical working you need to create sacred space. There are a few no brainers obviously such as have a clean working area, be clean yourself, have all distractions eliminated and make sure your in a centered calm state of mind. I cannot stress enough that you need to do stuff like this calmly, you’re peeling back the fabric of the universe and tinkering with it, it is all to easy to get more than you bargained for.
Once you’ve done all that you want to call the Watchtowers/Quarters. Watchtowers are Elementals, Earth Air Fire and Water, and they correspond to the four directions, North East South and West respectively. I start in the North (Earth) and go clockwise, calling each Watchtower. Usually I just say something to the effect of “Hail to the Watchtower of the North, Earth, I call you to this rite and ask your blessing” standing in the North of the circle, then I move to the East, repeat for East/Air, than move to the South and repeat for South/Fire, and then move to the West and repeat for West/Water. You can be more fancy with the invocations if you like, but the Elementals aren’t dumb, they’ll get it if you just stick to the basics. One you’ve done this the circle is open, you are standing in sacred space. I ususally pronounce it as such but I don’t think it is necessary as long as in your mind you recognize it as such. The next step is to purify the circle. I have a special powder made of herbs that I use for this purpose and I go around the circle clockwise, again starting in the North sprinkling it and saying while I am doing it “I purify this circle, only Love may enter, only Love may leave”. Now traditional Wiccans will purify the circle by the Elements, that is sprinkling salt for Earth, then waving a feather or something of the like for Air, incense for Fire and water for Water. Again it’s up to you to do what you want. Sometimes I also use bells to purify by sound. I especially like this method because if you meditate on it as you’re doing it, which you should be anyway, it’ll clear out your head. The next step after all of this is to purify yourself. I use either frankincense oil or a combo of violet and white musk (balancing to the crown chakra) for this purpose and I anoint my brow while saying, “I purify myself, may I be filled with love, purity and with bliss” Again I’m sure other people do it differently but whatever, as long as the intent is there, you’re good. At this point you’re ready to welcome the Lord and Lady to the rite. When I first started I looked at them as being a man and a woman like me, only invested with divine powers. As I have matured in my practice I now look at them as the primal forces of the cosmos, but I still have that kind of child talking to her parents relationship that I did when I dedicated myself. I have my own names for them, which I share with no one, just I have a name that only they know me by which I will also not mention. Either way, welcome them to your working, in whatever way you see fit. At this point do your spell/working, keeping in mind you are in the presence of the Divine and you stand between the worlds. It’s not going to feel really all that different, it’s not like you’re going to see all sorts of freaky stuff, at least not usually. When you’re really going to notice is after you’ve closed the circle, and you realize that you’ve been sitting there for twice if not triple the time you thought you were. I’m not joking when I say you are literally standing between the worlds, time has no meaning here.
Okay so you do whatever it is you wanted to do and you’re ready to close the circle. You do everything you did to open it (except purification) only backwards. Thank the Lord and Lady for their presence and blessing, I usually say “Lord and Lady, I thank you for your presence and blessing, I walk with you always”. Whatever you say be respectful, but don’t grovel. If you are doing this you are well on your way to becoming an adept, and those who serve the Gods eventually become the Gods themselves. After you’ve said your “farewell” to the God and Goddess, you then walk around the circle counterclockwise, starting in the West, dismissing the Watchtowers. I usually say “Watchtower of the West, Water, I release you and thank you for your blessing”, and the repeat the process for South, East and North. Once you’ve done that, you can pronounce the circle closed because it is, and there you go, you’ve done a spell. Some helpful hints, do not not discuss a spell for at least 24 hours after you’ve done it. Also the more you let go of it the better, ie don’t be looking for results, let them find you, trust me they will:)
I think the only other thing to cover is the pagan wheel of the year. There are 8 sabbats that mark the turning of time. Yule/Winter Solstice, Imbolc, Ostara/Vernal Equinox, Beltane, Midsummer/Summer Solstice, Lammas, Mabon/Autumn Equinox, and Samhain. Even though I haven’t been keeping up on it on my blog like I said I would I will go into details in the other posts specifically as to what each sabbat represents. What I will say here is that these are days of High Magick, meaning they are established Holy days and are more important than any personal spellwork. By observing these days you are centering yourself and aligning yourself with the energies of the Earth and of the Cosmos. You are also helping to keep the world glued together by helping will the “Wheel” to turn once again. Any sabbat observance is done in the same way as an ordinary ritual but instead of a spell, you meditate on the meaning of the particular sabbat and you make offerings as is appropriate. Like Lammas is a harvest holiday, the first one, so an appropriate offering would be first fruits from your garden if you have one, and if you don’t have a garden get something from your local farmer’s market and offer that. Also offer “cakes and ale” to the Lord and Lady at this point. This can be whatever you see fit, turth be told mine are usually a really big Little Debbie Zebra Cake and some Sangria table wine. You eat them (although pour and drop a little on the ground for the Divine and spirits etc). Other than that you do the same as you would for any other ritual work.
One thing you will notice I have omitted is ritual tools. They are omitted because when it comes down to it, they mean nothing. The magick comes from you and the universe, not your tools. I run into far too many pagans who get lost on not only the words and “procedures”, but on tools and such. They mean nothing everything comes from within. Yes I have tools, I have a staff, an athame(knife), a chalice, incense burners and candles, a consecrated altar and a consecrated statue of Ma’at sitting on said altar, but they are just ephemeral material things, nothing more. The most powerful magick I have done has been performed on Rib Mountain (which is made of quartzite so it serves to magnify Magickal energies times a million, and that’s not exaggerating) with nothing more than myself, some incense and some oil, with the ritual written down on some paper. More often than not tools are distractions to me.
So there you go, there is your crash course on basic ritual work. Blessed Be!
Lammas
August 20, 2008 at 3:55 pm (magic, metaphysics, religion, shamanism)
So I figured considering the next installment in my series has to do with ritual writing, and considering I said i would explain the sabbats as they came up, I would publish the ritual I just led this Lammas (Aug 1). I think the ritual will explain what Lammas is and it will give you a real example of spellwork. Enjoy:)
Lammas Lugnassadh-2008
Saturday Ritual
-Guardian of the Circle
Standing at entrance to circle with sword raised to participants, “It would be better to thrust yourself upon this sword, than enter the circle with fear in your heart”
-Anointing as entering circle
Frankincense in circle with cross pattern on forehead, “May you be filled with Love, with Purity and Bliss”
-Smudging
-Call Watchtowers
1.Hail to the Watchtower of the North, Earth, I call you to this rite and ask you for your blessing. Pillar of stone, guardian to the mysteries of rebirth, lend your energies to this working on this most holy day.
2. Hail to the Watchtower of the East, Air, I call you to this rite and ask you for your blessing. Pillar of Wind, guardian to the mysteries of the beginning of all things, lend your energies to this working on this most holy day.
3. Hail to the Watchtower of the South, Fire, I call you to this rite and ask your blessing. Pillar of Flame, guardian to the mysteries of the zenith, lend your energies to this working on this most holy day.
4. Hail to the Watchtower of the West, Water, I call you to this rite and ask your blessing. Pillar of sacred springs, guardian to the mysteries of the wane of all things, lend your energies to this working on this most holy day.
-“With that the circle is open”
Purification of Circle
-Purify circle by Earth(?) (herb mixture), while sprinkling circle in clockwise direction (starting at north), “I purify this circle by Earth, only love may enter, only love may leave”
-Purify circle by Air (?)(incense), While waving incense in air in clockwise direction around circle (starting at north), “I purify this circle by Air, only love may enter, only love may leave”
-Purify circle by Fire (?)(anthame), Pointing anthame at participants in clockwise direction (starting at north), “I purify this circle by fire, only love may enter, only love may leave”
-Purify circle by Water (?)(springwater), Using fingers to sprinkle water in clockwise direction around circle (starting at north), “ I purify this circle by water, only love may enter only love may leave”
-Purfy circle by Ether (intent) “As I will it so mote it be”
Welcome Primal Lord and Lady(me)
O Truth behind all the religions, the Eternal Unamable Duality of all things, the Two that become One, creators of all things, Eternal Lord, Eternal Lady, locked in the passionate embrace of forever, be here with us now. Master and Mistress of the cosmic dance of life and death, grace us with your presence. Preside over the workings of this most holy day. We come to you with open hearts and open minds. The great Wheel turns once again, towards the darkness, towards the wane of all things, towards rebirth. We come to honor this mystery today. Hail and Welcome.
Lammas commentary
Lammas is the first harvest holiday. It is the first sabbat of the dark half of the year. Even though the sun is still strong, the pendulum has begun swinging the other direction, from light to dark, from wax to wane. It is a time to begin contemplating the coming cold, to start the harvest and storing of the crops for winter. It is a time to offer the first fruits to the Gods and Spirits, to thank Them and to join together with each other in solidarity to survive the coming cold. It is a time to recognize a fundamental shift has occurred, we are no longer in the expansive spring and early summer months, we are entering the realm of the Underworld, the place of darkness that is the font of introspection, of gestation and the mysteries of rebirth. As always at this time of year, we are in the month of Leo, the sign of the Lion, king of all beasts. It is a sign of fire, a sign of kingship, it is a sign of the sun at it’s zenith, perhaps a little past, like the light of the afternoon sun; warm, strong, beneficent. This year the moon is the sign of Virgo, the sign of the virgin, a sign that is attentive to detail, feminine and dry. It is also a strong sign as it is of the unshakable earthen foundation on which we stand today.
The constellation Virgo is associated with the Egyptian God and Goddess, Osiris and Isis. Their greatest story and mystery is in keeping with the spirit of this sabbat, so it seems only fitting that we should honor them today. Osiris and Isis were the product of an intrigue between the Earth God Geb, and the sky goddess Nut. When the Sun God Ra perceived that his wife Nut had been unfaithful to him, he declared with a curse that she should be delivered of the child in no month and no year. He sent the great god of the pillars of light and the father of Geb and Nut, Shu, to separate them. He commanded them to part, which they did, and in doing so was the first act of creation. But the goddess Nut had another lover, the Moon God Thoth, or Tahuti, and he playing Checkers with the Moon won from her a seventy-second part of every day, and having compounded five whole days out of these parts he added them to the Egyptian year of three hundred and sixty days. This was the mythical origin of the five supplemental days which the Egyptians annually inserted at the end of every year in order to establish a harmony between lunar and solar time. On these five days, regarded as outside the year of twelve months, the curse of the sun god did not apply, and accordingly Osiris was born on the first of them. At his nativity a voice rang out proclaiming that the lord of all had come into the world. But Osiris was not the only child of his mother. On the second of the supplementary days she gave birth to the elder Horus, on the third to the God Set, on the fourth to Isis, and on the fifth to the goddess Nephthys. Afterwards Set married his sister Nephthys, and Osiris married Isis.
Orginally Osiris was a God of nature who symbolized the cycles of vegetation. In time however he became God of the Dead. Reigning as a king on earth, Osiris reclaimed the Egyptians from savagery, gave them laws, and taught them to worship the Gods. He oversaw the building of the first temples and statues to the gods. Before his time the Egyptians had been cannibals. But Isis discovered wheat and barley growing wild, and Osiris introduced the cultivation of these grains amongst his people. He is also said to have taught them how to grow corn. Moreover Osiris is said to have been the first to gather fruit from trees, to train the vine to poles, and to tread the grapes. He taught them to make bread and wine. Eager to communicate these beneficent discoveries to all mankind, he committed the whole government of Egypt to his wife Isis, who ruled wisely in his stead, and traveled over the world, diffusing the blessings of civilization and agriculture wherever he went. In countries where harsh climate or poor soil forbade the cultivaton of the vine, he taught the inhabitants to console themselves for the want of wine by brewing beer from barley. Loaded with the wealth that had been showered upon him by grateful nations, he returned to Egypt, and on account of the benefits he had conferred on mankind he was unanimously hailed and worshipped as a diety. Osiris symbolizes the regenerative powers of the natural world, as well as the threat posed by severe weather conditions to the well being of humanity.
Isis was the most famous of Egyptian goddesses. She was supreme in magical power, which was taught to her by Tahuti/Thoth, Lord of the measures, god of science and knowledge, patron god of scribes and of medicine. Although she was born as flesh, her powers rivaled those of the gods of spirit. She personified feminine creative power, and although she was worshipped as the beneficent mother of mankind she was worshipped as a virgin for “no mortal man had ever her unveiled” She was the faithful and loving wife of Osiris. Nephthys was her sister and athough she was the wife of Set, she always remained faithful to Isis. In fact it could be argued that they were different aspects of the same goddess, much as Innana and Ereshkigal in Sumeria and Kali and Parvati of India. She was oftened pictured with a throne upon her head and her name means stone seat. She is the throne of kingship, the archetypal land that grants dominion. Her lap is the throne of Egypt. And she is the mother of Egypt. She is depicted with huge sheltering wings. She helped Osiris civilize Egypt, in addition to discovering wild wheat and barley, she taught women how to grind corn as well as how to spin and weave. She also taught people how to cure illness and instituted the rite of marriage. She became so popular that in time she absorbed qualities of almost all the other goddesses. She was a great mother goddess, a bird goddess, a goddess of the underworld who brought life to the dead and a goddess of the primeval waters. Her following spread beyond Egypt to Greece and throughout the roman empire. She was worshipped for more than 3,000 years, from before 3000 B.C. to well into the Christian times. Her cult and many of her images, passed directly on to the figure of the Virgin Mary.
-Murder of Osiris
All five children of Nut were of the flesh. They could be killed by violent means, even though they were immortal. Osiris’ brother Set was jealous of his popularity, so he plotted against Osiris with seventy two co-cospiritors. Having taken the measure of his good brother’s body by stealth, the bad brother Set fashioned and highly decorated a coffer of the same size, and once when they were all drinking and making merry he brought in the coffer and jestingly promised to give it to the one whom it should fit exactly. Well, they all tried one after the other, but it fitted none of them. Last of all Osiris stepped into it and lay down. On that the conspirators ran and slammed the lid down on him, nailed it fast, soldered it with molten lead, and flung the coffer into the Nile. This happened on the seventeenth day of Athyr, when the sun is in the sign of the scorpion, and in the eighth and twentieth year of the reign or life of Osiris. When Isis heard of it she sheared off a lock of her hair, put on mourning attire, and wandered disconsolately up and down, seeking the body. The coffer containing the body of Osiris had floated down the river and away out to sea, till at last it drifted ashore in Byblos. Here a tamarisk tree, also known as salt cedar grew up around the coffin, enclosing it in it’s trunk. The king of the country, admiring the growth of the tree, had it cut down and made into a pillar of his house; but he did not know that the coffer with the dead Osiris was in it. Word of this came to Isis and she journeyed to Byblos, and sat down by their well, in humble guise, her face wet with tears. To none would she speak till the kings handmaidens came, and them she greeted kindly, and braided their hair, and breathed on them from her own divine body a wondrous perfume. But when the queen beheld the braids of her handmaidens hair and smelt the sweet smell that emanated from them, she sent for the stranger woman and took her into her house and made her the nurse of her child. But Isis gave the babe her finger instead of her breast to suck, and at night she began to burn all that was mortal of him away, while she herself in the likeness of a swallow fluttered round the pillar that contained her dead brother, twittering mournfully. But the queen spied what she was doing and shrieked out when she saw her child in flames, and thereby she hindered him from becoming immortal. Then the Goddess revealed herself and begged for the pillar of the roof, and they gave it to her, and she cut the coffer out of it, and fell upon it and embraced it and lamented so loud that the younger of the king’s children died of fright on the spot. But the trunk of the tree she wrapped in fine linen, and poured ointment on it, and gave it to the king and queen, and the wood stands in a temple of Isis and is worshipped by the people of Byblos to this day. And Isis put the coffer in a boat and took the eldest of the kings children with her and sailed away. As soon as they were alone, she opened the chest, and laying her face on the face of her brother she kissed him and wept. But the child came behind her softly and saw what she was about, and she turned and looked at him in anger, and the child could not bear her look and died. Isis hid the coffin in a swamp. Set however found the coffer, and knowing Isis had the power to resurrect the dead, he rent Osiris’ body into fifteen pieces and scattered them abroad. But Isis, with the help of her sister and Set’s wife Nephthys, sailed up and down the marshes and would not rest until they found all of Osiris’ body. She earned great respect from the people of Egypt when they saw just how devoted and faithful she was to him. They did recover all of him, except his male member which had been eaten by the fishes. Isis fashioned a replacement of wood and with the help Anubis, mummified Osiris. Isis was mistress of magic in Egyptian lore, the secrets being taught to her by Thoth. She made love to Osiris, and using her knowledge of magic revived him through sexual alchemy. At this point Osiris was so disillusioned with his brother than he chose to quit life and became Lord of the Underworld. For these reasons he is depicted as a mummy, green in color and bearded, holding the crook and flail of kingship.
He and Isis conceived a child though through this act of resurrection, Horus, who would later go on to destroy Set and avenge his father.
The murder of Osiris is a story that has a lot in common with tales from other cultures. The part about Isis in the court of the king of Byblos is almost identical to a part in the story of Demeter and Persephone, and I think it is safe to say that like all ancient wisdom it serves as an allegory to the fundamental truths that form the basis of our world. The story of Isis and Osiris serves to remind us of the cycle of life to which we all must submit, most specifically the rhythms of agriculture, of sowing, of growth, of harvest and of regeneration. Osiris was a God of vegetation and his most central story is almost the same as the cycle of farming. He grew to be a magnificent charismatic man, he spread blessings throughout the world, but he was cut down in his prime and if it were not for Isis saving the pieces of him, and literally taking within herself his seed, there would have been no next generation, no Horus to continue the cycle of life. Their story is the story that we honor today, of harvest, of cutting down the vegetation in it’s prime to survive the winter, and the storing of seeds that must occur if life is to continue the next year.
Invocation/Hymns to Isis and Osiris
I have banished the Unbalanced and Negative, From forth the Veil of Eternity, I call Isis and Osiris
Hymn to Isis
O goddess of mystery and Magic
Of secret and arcane knowledge
Of resurrection
Great mother of All
Thee I call.
O goddess who civilized us from beasts
Who is forever faithful
Yours is the throne of kingship
Thou that bear the cross of light and life
Thee I call
Possessor of the wisdom of the serpents
The font of immortality
The rite of sexual alchemy
The true meaning behind the Caduceaus wand
Goddess of healing and of love
Thee I call
Bridge between this world and the next
Eternal virgin
The uncatchable, unknowable woman
That no mortal man may ever unveil
The solid earthen foundation from which we all spring
And to which we must all return
Thee I call
Come though forth I say, come though forth
Be with us on this Lugnassadh Day
Bear witness to our proceedings
And bless and honor us
As we strive to honor you
Help us to a deeper understanding
Of the great mysteries and lessons of this life
And help us on our way, for this I pray
So mote it be
Hymn to Osiris
O God of Agriculture and civilization
Of grain mysteries,
And of sacrifice
Eternal Lord of all
Thee I call
O God who civilized us from beasts
Whose divine seed is the source of all life
Yours are the fields of heaven
Thou that bear the cross of light and life
Thee I call
Ruler of the seasons,
And of the might of the storm,
That both bestows the life giving rain
And the winds of detruction
God of vegetation and the vine
Thee I call
Martyred king
Ruler of the dead
The ultimate sacrifice
Whose blood fertilizes the corn
Whose death creates the new
And guardian to the mysteries of life from decay
Thee I call
Come thou forth I say, come thou forth
Be with us on this Lugnassadh Day
Bear witness to our proceedings
And bless and honor us
As we strive to honor you
Help us to a deeper understanding
Of the great mysteries and lessons of this life
And help us on our way, for this I pray
So mote it be
-Communal Cauldron, Ting tripod
-communal offerings(whoever has anything to offer)
-herbs for the occasion, add to cauldron
Intent
We live in very troubled times, everyday there is mention of the desruction and desecration of the Earth; the violent storms, the crop failures, global warming. There’s the mutilated and mutated animals that are raised for food. Our government is beyond evil for the things it has done. We are so frightened and confused as a race that there re those who cannot trust anymore, their fellow man or even themselves. We live in a time where medicine has become poison and justice has become oppression. Very troubled times indeed. But within even the darkest times there is always a small seed of light. Hope, Faith, Courage, Belief, Love. To these principles we must hold fast, if we let go of them, we are obliterated. Our standing here this evening is a testament to these virtues, not only that unity and belief do still exist, but also by our willing of the wheel to turn, our observance of Lammas, or any other sabbat or esbat, we hold the world together. By our beliefs and actions, we create the world. To most it is unconscious, but to us it is very conscious, very deliberate. We hold the power to change anything. And so, on this holy night of High Magick, let us put this power to use. All the problems I mentioned, let us will them to change. Put in your mind your heaven, visualize the world in harmony, in balance, in peace, ad will it to be. Believe that anything is possible, nothing is fixed, nothing is fated. As we begin harvesting the fruits of this year’s labor, let us be ever mindful of the world as it is and how it could be. Let us be mindful of the fact that change happens first in the individual, the collective comes after and let each on of us shine with this revelation and be a beacon of Hope, of Faith, of Courage, of belief, of Love. And the world will be healed.
Osiris, God of Storms, forgive us our transgressions and protect us as the climate further destabilizes. God of vegetation, bless us with an abundant harvets. Isis, mother Goddess, protect our hearts from the pain and suffering that our world is rife with. Heal us from the poisons we are infected and surrounded with. Goddess of Magick, teach us and aid us in our intentions and workings today.
-“Forge of creation,
Elixir of life,
Wind of the Storm,
Rock of Foundation,
Come thou forth, I say Come thou forth.
Hear our hearts on this Lugnasadh Day
So that every spirit of the firmament,
And of the Ether,
Upon the Earth,
And under the Earth.
On dry land,
And in the water,
Of whirling Air,
And rushing Fire,
All thoughts and manifestations of the Lord and Lady,
Shall once again be in Harmony
As I will it so mote it be
-Meditation-Moment of Silence
-Thank Lord and Lady
-Thank Watchtowers
-Pronouce circle closed
-Recessional
Triple Moon Goddess
June 30, 2008 at 3:19 pm (magic, medicine, metaphysics, philosophy, religion, shamanism)
This post is geared towards women, I would do a post on men’s mysteries except for the fact that I don’t have the right equipment, and to speak like I had any idea about what it was like to be a man, would be arrogant at best. So with that being said, in various cultures, the sun and moon are interchangebly associated with male or female dieties. Most of the time it’s a Sun God and a Moon Goddess, but sometimes it’s vice-versa, in Japan there is a Sun Goddess and The Ancient Egyptian Tehuti or Thoth was a Moon God. For my purposes though, we’re going to go with majority and discuss the correlation between the moon and the archtypal feminine.
There is a concept in paganism of the Triple Goddess. Her symbol is pictured above. Women are naturally aligned to the moon because of their mestrual cycles. A woman who spends enough time outdoors will naturally synch with the moon so that she is fertile during the full moon and bleeds during the new. The Triple Moon symbol speaks to the 4 phases of a woman’s life, maiden, mother, crone and then death. The waxing moon correlates with the Maiden, the young virginal woman, untouched by man, unfettered by children. The full Moon correlates with the Mother, a woman at the height of her strength, with the primal power to nourish and give things form. The Crone is associated then with the waning moon, and it symbolizing that yes her strength is waning, but her wisdom grows with each passing year. Finally there is the inevitable death, symbolized by the new moon and archetypally by the death crone, the hideous half rotted hag like the Norse Hel or Izanami of Japan, the Lady of Death who offers priceless wisdom to those who have the courage to look and face her, that priceless wisdom being that death is regeneration, rotting results in the fertile ground for the new. The cycle never ends, the cycle never breaks, death is the passage to the new. If one can learn to face this, death loses it’s sting, and that is priceless indeed.
In our culture, a woman’s period very often is viewed as an inconvience at best. This is especially disconcerting to me. You can hear it in the misogynist idiots who talk about not trusting something that bleeds for seven days and doesn’t die. In ancient times a woman’s “dark moon time” was viewed as the height of her power. The menstrual blood is viewed as regenerating in Sexual Alchemy traditions such as Tantra and across the board it is during this time that a woman’s powers of prophecy were considered to be at their greatest strength. Part of this is due to at the new moon, during a woman’s period she is closest to her “underworld” dark aspect, and dreams and oracular visions come from the under world. Bleeding every month is also a woman’s way of renewing herself, flushing out the month before so that at the end of her cycle she can emerge stronger. Woman need to stop trying to keep up with men during this time, and take the time to rest and sit in introspection. To hell with people who tell you you need to be able to keep on during your period, they are ignorant to say the least. You can actually damage yourself if you exert yourself too much during your moon time. You’re not a man, stop trying to be one.
Which brings me to my final point. Meditate on these mysteries as there is much more wisdom to be found than what is written on this page. Stop playing things on men’s terms. The greatest strength of a woman is her magnetism, implicit in this is gravity and magnetism at it’s extreme, black holes, which can crush anything that enters into them, not even solar masculine light can escape, stick that in you’re pipe and smoke it for awhile:) Our strength is also our ability to get along with other woman. Bond together, and bring men to us on our terms, instead of chasing after them, because no matter how good you are, you’re playing their game on their terms, you’re gonna lose. I said it in my previous post about “the roots of the subjugation of the feminine”, if we women would learn to band together and not give into men until our demands are met, demands like decent compensation for “woman’s” work, like being treated with dignity and respect, men would have now choice but to listen. Don’t try to go to them, make them come to you, use you’re receptive strength to it’s greatest potential. I realize this might make me sound like a ball-busting feminist. The truth is if a man comes to me with honor and respect, I will return it threefold, but if my love and affection are taken for granted and I am ridiculed, I know my power and I have no compunctions about using it. I believe in the equality of the sexes, one is not better than the other. We both need each other, but we need to learn to truly understand and respect the fact that we are different, and not be afraid of that fact. We were created that way for a reason. A woman’s moody seeming bipolarness, is the way she supposed to be, because we are equipped to dip down into that frightening underworld of death, of emotion, to regenerate ourselves, and those that have the courage to unite with us during that time. I think the truth is in those matriarchal prehistoric cultures men were treated as inferior, and that paved the way for the pendulum to swing back the other way so that woman are now treated as inferior. What goes around comes around, and unfortunately among the Goddess/Pagan circles I hang out in, there is definately the notion of male inferiority, which truly saddens me. We are equal, and we are different. We were created as such so we might feel the ecstacy of reuniting with each other.

