Lammas
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
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.
Litha/Midsummer
So this weekend was Litha or for you mundanes, the summer solstice. This pagan sabbat celebrates the Sun at the height of it’s strength, and the change from the light half of the year to the dark. This change is allegorized in the struggle between the Holly King and the Oak King. The Oak King reigns over the light half of the year and the Holly over the dark. At summer solstice the Holly King is victorious, at Winter Solstice (Yule) the Oak King is victorious. It is a holiday of abundance and the awesome splendour of the sun.
Divination-Oracles
One of the most important tools in my magickal repertoire, is the Oracle I study, the I Ching. As far as I know it is the oldest known divinatory tool. It began as Chinese “Shamans” using tortoiseshells, and writing the result on said shells. It then morphed into the system that is known today with the legendary Chinese Emperor Fu Hsi, who is said to have meditated on the shapes of Nature and spontaneously arrived at the basic trigrams of the I Ching. After him there were several more addendums and additions by later emperors, but it’s basic form remained the same. It was a tool for emperors and was forbidden to commoners. There are two methods of asking questions, three coins, or fifty yarrowsticks (bamboo bbq sticks work well too:) )
As far as I can tell it works off of chaos theory, and by that I mean that in seeming chaos there is order and that order is the voice of the divine and the spirits. When you deal with statistics and numbers enough, and this is at heart mathematical, you start to see patterns in seeming random events. These patterns are what the Oracle works off of. When you count the sticks or cast coins when asking a question, you adding in an unknown (chaos), and through that unknown, of not knowing how many sticks or how the coins are going to come up, that otherworldly voice has a chance to speak.
I’m not going into the exact procedure of how to consult the I Ching, if you want, go get a book, and it will show you. When choosing a book keep in mind that the I is a Taoist work, and as such there is no good or bad, good or evil, it just is. A lot of translators have translated the work from a christian, heaven and hell perspective, like when something like hexagram 18 (decay/rotting) or hexagram 36 (darkening of the light, underworld journey) comes up. Neither of those two concepts are evil, decay is what creates the fertile ground for the new, and underworld journey is going within yourself to find strength and renewal, but most translators label these two hexagrams as bad omens, that isn’t true. They must be seen in the light of the question asked, and how they speak to the diviner.
The I ching is composed of 8 trigrams, which combine to make 64 hexagrams (8×8 matrix for you math people, also note that it works off of the constant interplay of yin and yang, yin being a broken line and yang being a solid line, it is at heart a binary system). It is a treatise on change, in fact it’s name means the book of changes, and it speaks to the fact that the universe is alive and dynamic, never fixed, which to an adept means everything, if nothing is fixed than anything is possible. It shows you how to tune into the unseen forces in the world, and put yourself in harmony with them. It’s a lot easier to go with the flow than fight it, and the I Ching shows you how to do that. It can show you hidden motives in yourself and others, it is a tool of self exploration as much as it is a predictors of the future. And yes it can predict the future, but it will usually come veiled in a context you’re not immediately going to understand. Which is another point, Oracles are never clear, they are always cryptic, you’re not going to get a yes or no answer out of this, and by consequence you can’t ask yes or no questions, because the I isn’t equipped to answer them. It will give you an answer, but it may confuse you more.
There are many types of divination, there is the Asatru system of the runes, there is the more widely known Tarot, and there are things like tea leaves, cloud divination and then Augury as i have mentioned before. Always be careful with these tools and the I though, they are very reactive to you’re subconscious. If you’re upset when you do a reading, the answer you get may upset you even more and drive you nuts. That’s not to say that it’s wrong, it’s just going to make you insane. Oracles also come from the Underworld, Prophecy and divination of any kind are associated with the land of the dead, I think that is why they have been labelled as evil. When you’re dead, you live outside of time, past present and future have no meaning and you can see both directions, both forward and back. Keep this in mind when you are doing this, you are talking with ghosts, treat them and the tool with respect.
Dreamwork
The Ancient Egyptians believed that a person was created of several different “bodies”, such as the ba, the ka, the ib, the sheut etc. They believed that one of these bodies, the ba left a person during their sleep and came back when a person woke up. The way I look at things is not much different. I do not know where it is that I go in my sleep, but I most certainly go somewhere, because I have some fantastic dreams. I dream the future, quite regularly, prophecy was the gift I asked for when I dedicated myself as a priestess. They come veiled in their own imagery, but for those who are willing to pay attention, dreams are priceless messages being conveyed. Let me give you a few cases.
One of the most recent dreams I had consisted of three separate dreams. The first was I drove back to a town from my recent past I wanted to talk to my ex Jason that lived there. I did and then I went back to wherever it was my current boyfriend Josh was and found jason’s mother cutting his hair, at which point I informed him I was going to sleep with Jason. Jason’s mother made a comment to Josh at that point sarcastically that he knew how to pick them. The next dream was of me trying to find Josh at work. I needed to pick up my son and Josh was uncaring at best, I had to nag him into coming with me to get my son. The third was me being at this shopping center that is actually a reoccuring setting in my dreams, and I went and hid in the bushes because I was naked, my parents found me and I was angry at them because I was still getting dressed, at which point I was back in the shopping center and my mother was like a demon trying to gore me. Those were the three dreams that I had in the same night. This was about two weeks ago. Now let me tell you what has happened since then.
I went up to a pagan retreat I go to in the area where I used to live. I went up there for Beltane. I came back early and had a wonderful two days with Josh. Monday rolled around and I needed to go to an appointment for energy assistance. I forgot the get the info i needed from Josh so i had to call him at work. He was uncaring at best. When he came home that night we got in a fight that ended the relationship. He’s been gone for over a week now. I did not tell my mother right away because I was still too hurting to face her, but she could tell something was wrong and so i told her at which point she started going throught the reality of things in my life, in a way that only mothers do, and it was quite painful. I since have called my ex Jason and we have started talking again. I don’t think it takes to much thought to see that I saw that coming.
Another dream I had a few months ago, was that I was looking for this lecture on ancient egypt at the UW. I was walking through these parking garages and finally I stopped and asked this lady in what looked like a ticket booth and she told me where the lecture was. I finally found it and I caught the tail end of a lecture on something biology related. When the lecture ended the professor, whom I had never seen before in all my life, and who I distinctly remembered how he looked, started talking about how it was really stupid that marijuana was illegal. That was pretty much the dream.
About a month after I had that dream I was driving in madison on my way back from a meeting, when I had to stop at a red light. It was a few blocks away from the campus, and as I sat there a man walked right in front of my car ( I was a few cars back in the line), and guess what, he was the man from my dream. He was dressed like an intellectual so I’m pretty sure he was a professor, he was too old to be a student. I just sat there with my mouth agape.
Another dream I had was one where I was in this hotel with a person from my past who slept with a 16 year old when he was 18 and because of it is a sex offender. The hotel was somewhere in Indiana, and I distinctly remember it because it was very stately, it had low recessed ceilings with large square columns supporting it. Again I had never seen the hotel before in all of my life. I was watching public television a month or two ago and a story came on about a change in sex offender laws, and they were interviewing a woman and guess where she was standing, in that hotel, in Indiana. I swear I have never seen the place before my dream.
I could go on and on with examples, but the point is pay attention to your dreams. I have a dream journal that I keep next to my bed, in which I write down dreams as I wake up, along with two different dream dictionaries. As you meditate more and get more and more used to conciously experiencing the unconcious, you will find that you can start to control what you do in your dreams. Like I dream alot that my mother or my sister is chasing me and invariably I run off into the bushes and I never totally evade them. Well last night I had the same dream but instead I conciously chose to fly off instead, and guess what, I did, and I finally evaded them. I dreamed the other night that I found the ark of the covenant (or that it found me) and that the cherubim on top were turning and looking at me, a which point I was afraid because they have the power to zap people. I predicted getting pregnant with my second son in my dreams, I’ve come up with solutions to problems in my dreams, I’ve even predicted plane crashes. Dreams are also pyschological tools, they can tell you things you need to work on, things that you are conciously stifling in your waking life that need to be paid attention to, fears that you are trying to cover up ( I already told you a few of mine, for those who can read between the lines:) ). Dreams are invaluable. For anyone seriously interested in exploring this side of themselves, I have these recommendations.
-Go to bed clean and showered
-Make sure your bed is comfortable as possible and clean
-Remove or shut off all electrical devices lights what have you that are in your bedroom, these will interfere, that and you’ll sleep better
-Don’t eat within three hours of bedtime, eating late tends to give you nightmares, in addition to making you fat
-Sleep with moonstone, this stone enhances dreams and therefore how well you retain them when you wake. It may make you dream too vividly though and if it does, sleep with out the moonstone
-Have a dream journal (and a pen) right next to your bed, and write down your dreams as soon as you wake, even if it’s at 3 in the morning
-Invest in a few dream dictionaries, these will help you interpret your dreams
Sweet dreams:)
Magickal Force
There is no set definition out there, but I believe Magickal force comes from your life energy, and from the life energy of everything on this planet and in the universe itself. Everyday galaxies and stars are born, and die, and crash together, all releasing ridiculous amounts of energy. We are all made of stardust and we are all connected, everything. As an adept you learn to recognize the gateway to the beyond in yourself, the Tree of Life of Genesis, guarded by the angel with the flaming sword. The Lumen of Truth that is so bright it blinds the unprepared, and conceals what lay beyond it. You learn to feel instead of see, and travel inside yourself into the Collective Unconcious (or as I like to say, God) to invoke this Force. Despite anything the Christian Church would like to say, what you are doing is holy and sacred. It is to be treated with the utmost respect and reverence. You may be a part of this Mystery, and It a part of you, but you do not own it, and it is by the Grace of the Divine alone that you walk on this Earth. Now you are spending life energy everytime you cast a spell, and the greater the spell, the greater it taxes you. I’ve actually gotten sick several times after casting spells, because the amount of energy required temporarily broke down my immune system. Which makes the case that you should not do spellwork capriciously. What you put into Work is exactly what you’ll get out of it and if you just fire them off with not a lot of thought or preparation, you’re going to get some crappy results.
You can also draw off of emotional energy, which the case could be made is life energy, but you must also be careful with that. When you start being ruled by your emotions and you start doing things as a result of them, you can get yourself in a few binds, and that’s if you’re lucky. Beware of anger, for it leads to the darkside:) Even well meaning emotions can serve you for ill. I once tried to save my mother from the throes of several age related illnesses and well it backfired, my father started paying the price. But you can take emotional energy and transmute it. There’s something I do, where I breathe negative energy off of people and places(watch out for factories, they’re really bad), and conciously negate it, by grounding it in the Earth or by using it for beneficial energy work. You can do that, in fact it is a very positive way to release energy. Think about it. Whatever it is, meditate on what would counteract it, like anger is negated by patience, fear by courage and doing the right thing, grief by vigor, worry and anxiety by giving. Hell if you want an example, I took several betrayals and the “loss” of my second son(I offered him for adoption) that all occured within the span of six months, by choosing to wake up and start doing the right thing, and I began writing about things I thought were wrong, and well what you are looking at the progeny of it. Now that isn’t necessarily a Magickal example, but it still illustrates a point. Energy is energy, and you can shape it and meld it to serve whatever end you want.
Think about we are all beings of light and energy, electromagnetics to be specific. Everything is made of energy, and everything as a result is malleable and plastic. The only thing that holds our world together in truth is belief. Belief that the sky is blue, and that if you let go of something it will fall to the ground, and that life will continue on in the same way as it did the day before. But what if that belief were not there? In our modern nihilistic age we have devised all sorts of theories to prove these immutable physical laws, but even science in it’s rationalistic separatist approach is starting to find that the very building blocks of our world, subatomic particles, react to the expectations of the observer, belief. I must also point out that since the fall of Christianity which I would roughly place at about the time of Vatican II, our world and country really started to fall apart, and to me it is obvious that it was because there was no longer any unifying belief system. Magick changes belief, and what you expect is what you are going to get. Magick is whatever you want to make it, for good or for ill.
I Isis am all that has been,
that is or shall be;
no mortal Man hath ever me unveiled.
-Inscription from the Temple of Neith (Isis) in Sais, Egypt
(Isis is the Goddess of Magick)
Animals; familiars, totems and spirit allies
As a person who feels closer to my cats than I do to most people, animals are a very big chunk of my spiritual outlook. Christianity has relegated them to the status of beasts, but it is my most fervent belief that they are just as intelligent and have just as much worth, if not more so than humanity as a whole. They can teach us quite alot, about simplicity, about humility and about compassion. They did not surrender their instincts like we did, and they are still very much listening to the grand design that is Nature. As such, there is a lot to be learned from them and what their myriad shapes and forms stand for.
Right now I have two cats, Yoda and Gugnir, and they are very much my familiars. Familiars are pretty much animal allies, they’re usually pets, but their role is far more honorable and deep. They are your friends, and they will lend their energies to whatever work you are doing if you learn to recognize and treat them as such. When ever I cast a circle for spellwork, if the two of them are not already in the room, they’ll beat the door down to get in, and complain loudly at said door about my oversight. They have stuck with me through circumstances that most “pets” would not be so loyal through. I had to have them live outside for six months because I had no place to live, and the only place I did have to stay, i couldn’t have them inside. They stayed, through that and through living out in the woods on several occasions. There is a bond there that goes far beyond mere “ownership”. I let them know their honored place, by giving them gifts (a little catnip goes a long way:) ) and by never debasing them. They have a statue of Bast in her cat form next to their dishes and I think it is safe to say that they get the message. Familiars can be any animal, a dog, a mouse, a bird, a snake, it does not matter. You can also garner yourself wild friends too. Everywhere I live I attract cats, and my other half Josh, has wild animals regularly walk up to him (a muskrat and a sparrow among others) At my initiation, I had a buck walk right up to me, look at me, and then disapear into the woods. Which brings me to the other half of this subject, spirit allies and totems.
The fact that I had a deer walk out of nowhere and come within a few feet of me when I pledged myself to the life long service of the Lord and Lady was a two-fold message. One, that I was now allied to the natural world, and by my service I could enjoy the blessings and protection of Nature, and two that my magickal service would be colored by the deer totem. Totems are what an animal archtypally stands for, qualities that a person who has a particular totem embodies. Spirit allies are very similiar to totems, I think the only real distinction is that you can have an animal be your ally, without it being your totem. Deer stand for innocence and gentleness, and the elk, a relative of the deer and another totem of mine stands for strength and nobility. I have been told by more than one source, by people who have no knowledge of what I have seen, that I am a natural innocent. I simply do not think in jaded pessimistic terms. I am openhearted to the point of being stupid, and most of my work, has an innocent utopic flavor to it. I have had many people note my strength, and my ability to carry myself with grace through some of the worst experiences a person can have. Totems are related to augery, in the sense that if you see a particular animal outside of the normal frequency or circumstances, it is a message.
Animals are wonderful for the simple fact that they put us back in touch with the Natural world that too many of us are too far removed from. I love looking into my cats eyes when the light hits them just right and they glow, for I am looking into another world. A world of fierce ruthlessness, but that is spectacularly beautiful at the same time. When you look at your furry, or scaly of feathery buddy next time, think about it, and let them speak to that primal side of you.
Herbs, Oils, Crystals and Metals
So this is going to be a tricky post to write, for the simple fact that unless i want to upload encyclopedias and violate copyright laws, it’s kind of hard to write anything succinct or meaningful. Oh well, I love uphill battles so here we go.
Herbs
Herbs have many uses, there are the mudane uses such as ornamentation and culinary, then there are medicinal and then magical. I’m not interested in discussing mudane uses of them, but ritually they have a very important roles as symbols. Psychologically, when you add an herb to a spell, there are unconcious attributes to whatever herb your adding that serve as a trigger within you to affect the desired result. The first thing a spell changes is you, ie your internal world shapes your external world, and when you cast a spell, you are changing that internal unconcious world and thereby, creating the desired effect in the outer world. Herbs are a tangible tool to use. Make no mistake you need nothing but yourself to cast a spell, but symbolism and physical tools help to create a more powerful result, because your physically doing something, instead of just mumbling to yourself (besides, people might look at you funny) There also is the consideration that the plants have energies of their own and if you harvest them respectfully, they’ll impart their energies into your work. In my own personal use, I use sage regularly as incense. I guess it gives some people headaches, but for me its a piercing smell that is a trigger for me to enter into that theta state. It is symbolically an herb of wisdom. Other herbs that come to mind are ivy for fidelity, basil for money, rose petals for love (red for passionate, white for virginal). I use a mixture of cinnamon, clove, nutmeg, allspice, bay and rosemary as a purification powder for use in place of salt in ritual space clearing. A really good book to pick up for this purpose is Cunninghams Encyclopedia of herbs. I believe that “to ride a Silver Broomstick” has a basic list, as does Green witchcraft. You also can make up uses as you see fit. If a plant or natural object (such as a pine cone or piece of bark) holds a special significance for you, then use it. That would be more powerful than any “approved use” from someone elses list. For me, I did an Earth mindfulness spell that I used a piece of birch bark for that was given to me on a walk with an old friend of mine. It became symbolic of the Earth, and the spell worked.
Oils
Oils also are one of those things that have both mundane and magical uses. I primarily use them in purifying roles although I have also used them in an awakening/anointing aspect. The four oils I have used the most are frankincense, sandalwood and then violet and white musk in conjunction. The frankincense and sandalwood are just precious oils, both being in use as purifiers since ancient times. White Musk and Violet I use also for the same purpose of anointing my brow and purifying myself before invoking the Lord and Lady, they are balancing to the Crown Chakra, and being a woman, that is the highest feminine chakra (its just the highest chakra period). I also have used oils ceremonially to animate guardian totems. I have two foo lions that I place outside my front door wherever I live. I smudged (incense smoke waved over an object) and anointed them and invested them with energy and intent, so far they seem to have worked, I swear they get fiercer looking every year.
Crystals
Crystals are just plain fun. Maybe I’m weird but I like rocks, especially if they are pretty colored ones. They have all sorts of uses, but generally they serve to magnify and impart their energies to any given working. I use obsidian, placed in a window to ward against a particular negative influence, rose quartz attracts true love, shiva linga restores faith in male power, tigers eye protects, amethyst invokes dreams, moonstone amplifies empathy and psychic power, jade and sapphire are said to attract wealth. As with herbs and oils, there are encyclopedias that go into depth on the subject and can tell you everything you ever wanted to know about any stone.
Metals
Metals also have their own energies. The Ancient Egyptian alchemists created a metal in their tinkerings that as far as I can gather was the ultimate dark energy metal. It was the anti-dross I guess and was proported to be extremely powerful and very sought after. The three common ones are gold, silver and iron. Gold attracts wealth (duh) and is associated with the sun and as such useful for solar workings. Silver is associated with the moon and is associated with dreams and intuition, lunar workings. Iron is a metal of protection and strength. Metallurgy is not something that is quite so common, there aren’t as many books floating around as there are on the three previously mentioned subjects, but that is in no way a diminishment of their importance. Pay attention to the jewelery you wear, as impure metals will actually detract from your aura/energy. If you don’t believe me, take a piece of pure gold, no matter how small, and then a piece of diluted impure metal. Extent your arm out from your shoulder so that it is parrallel to the ground. Hold the gold in your hand and have someone press down on your arm. Then switch to the impure metal, and have your friend push down again. You will be amazed at the result. For the record I only wear pure metals, crystals or gems, or hemp necklaces with semi-precious stones for charms. Impure metals are weakening.
So there you go, there is you’re crash course on herbs, oils, crystals and metals. It would be a wise investment for any aspiring adept to buy encyclopedias on the subject, you will find them invaluable.
Communing With Nature
The next step I would have to outline for learning the path of Magick is literally, becoming one with Nature. First of all it is naturally rejuvenating; the green color is healing, the sounds and sights are stress relieving. There is a lot of peace to be found in just quietly sitting in the woods someplace, or up on a rock outcropping where you see for miles, or sitting on large flat rocks in the middle of a stream soaking up the sunshine. In our absurdly fast paced world, it’s nice to slow down. But that is not all of it. Nature has a voice all it’s own. There are patterns to be found, and messages to be recieved for those patient and centered enough to listen. In ancient times this reading of the patterns was called Augery, and Julius Caesar among others studied this venerated art.
When I say patterns, I mean that you will see there is a pretty set likelihood you’ll see a squirrel, or a sparrow, and then there are the likelihoods you’ll see something more rare, like a deer or a heron. If you see something that is outside of that normal range of experience or frequency, usually it’s a message. Everything you see in Nature carries with it some sort of unconcious meaning. There are books that you can buy that have lists of things you could see and interpretations of them. Animal Speak and Green Witchcraft are two books that I know of that have these lists, but you can also look to dream interpretation books as well. A good example I can think of is when I started falling in love with certain individual from my past named Jeff. I walked out my front door to go to school, and there was this spectacular red flower growing on the front path that I swear to the Lord and Lady, was not there the day before. I looked up the meaning and sure enough it had to do with love and passion. Another example was right before I started trying to move “off-grid”, out in the woods, pretty much by myself. I saw within the span of a few days, several herons, it’s like I couldn’t get away from them, and I don’t usually see so many. So I looked up their meaning and generally they are associated with rugged self-determinism. As I see it the whole environment is directly reactive to our unconcious. It is plastic and ever changing, and every species has archetypes associated with it. I was out walking yesterday I started seeing these strange red bushes down by the Rock river. Now one of the first things that was impressed upon me as I began my little sojourn yesterday was the big-ass powerline spanning the river, but I also noticed the amount of birds there were. That’s a good sign as to the health of the river, that means there are lots of bugs to feed on. But then I started noticing these curious flame red shrubs. They were identical to the normal brown ones, except in color and then it dawned on me, I think the shrubs were adapting to the increase in electromagnetics in the area, and given the color, red, I think the plants are ticked. These are my musings and observations. For all I know those shrubs could be there for any number of reasons, but my point is the patterns. Pay attention to the trees and shrubs and flowers and wildlife, they will tell you alot. They manifest according to Divine will and for those who are listening, there are lessons to be learned.
Centered Perception
Okay so you start out by knowing yourself as I outlined in the stability and foundation section. The next step as I see it is to really understand what is going on in the world. I think far too many of us live in this isolated world, where the only real input is the TV or a person’s circle of friends that they’ve had their entire life and who all think alike. You need to step out into the world that you don’t know, you need to step out into the unknown. I’m not saying leave your friends behind. Your friends will anchor you, and they are true treasures, never burn those bridges. If you never associate with new people however, you’ll be stuck in the same rut of perception you’re whole life. Do something out of the ordinary, go someplace you would never go. Face your fears, and walk in the front door of your own worst hell. Think about what would be your exact opposite and go there, meet those people. For me my opposite was becoming a stripper, and I did it for 9 years off and on. It was the craziest, weirdest most depraved thing I have ever seen, but I would not trade in the experience it gave me for all the world. I also willingly became a single mother, twice. I stayed in abusive relationships where I had a gun held to my head, I was punched into a wall and I was raped just to see if I was cheating on the individual. I did things that no sane person would want to do, but I did it because I wanted to truly know. A person from my background can easily become isolated, and fall into the trap of elitism. It’s standard in the world I came from to go to school, go to graduate school, get married, buy a nice little house in the suburbs, have a nice little career, live and die without ever knowing a day of discomfort, but it is also a life of never knowing anything truly real. I guess my point is you need to see the poles of our world. All the world is an interplay between yin and yang, creation vs. control, and if you never see another’s perception your world will forever be a mind-numbing gray area. You need to know the dark to truly know the light.
With a centered perception you will also start to see other things, things you would never guess, other-worldly things. I see ghosts, and “demons” and “angels”. Sometimes you will see them as actual entities, orbs of lights, concious shadows, spirits that are green in color, sometimes you will see them manifest in the people you’re interacting with, such as unreasonable anger, attachment, pyschic abilities in person that doesn’t usually have it. There is a whole other world that people fail to see because they are so sped up and so off balance that they are literally blind. It is a regular occurance for me to see these things, and even though I’ve been seeing these things since I was four, I still haven’t gotten used to it. When you look at the world through tranquil eyes, you will see these supernatural things have a direct relationship with our “reality”. It’s like a fish in a pond in a rainstorm. The raindrops (spirits) cause ripples in the water (our world). The fish (us) have no concept of rain (unless your a catfish, i’d consider the shamans and witches of the world to be the catfish), and so are left to wonder at the causes of this phenomena. I’m sure all sorts of theories would be posed in this world to explain this unseen force, but the truth is that it is something “otherworldly” that’s doing it. It’s the same thing with supernatural. Children naturally have the ability to see these things, but most of us by the time we reach adulthood have turned away, either because we were told to by our parents or we didn’t have the stomach to keep looking. But even if we do not see things, does not mean it’s not there. Talking the ostrich approach is only hurting you, and your development as an enlightened human being. Make no mistake there is some freaky disturbing stuff out there, but if you ever want to find heaven (heaven is within you I might add, as is hell) you must look, you must understand.
Believe me you may emerge from such a venture as I am proposing half crazy or even dead if you’re not careful, but you must know these things, you have to understand how the world truly works, to be able to tinker with it. It is the price any adept pays, you will emerge so changed that few will understand you, and it can be a very lonely path. You’re free to walk away at any time, but know that even a short jog down the path will change you, even if you do not follow it through to the end. For those who can handle it, there is the ability to change anything, to have everything you’ve ever truly desired. Notice I say truly, not everything we think we desire is actually what we truly want. Sometimes what we want is unconcious, and we do things without knowing it to bring about this hidden desire. Make sure you really know yourself, I cannot stress it enough.
