Very often, in the pursuit of Magic, dreams bring us information, herald changes, and explain processes that we are experiencing. The mantic state is very similar to a dreaming state in some ways, and this is - perhaps - why so many magical tales and mantic utterances take the form of dream sequences, have dream-like abrupt transitions from the familiar to the seemingly absurd, (Lleu Llaw Gyffes is struck by a spear, turns into an eagle and flies away ...)
A dream that I wish to examine occured last night. As a prelude, I want to say that Lena and I had just toured the Birthing Center of St. Joseph's Medical center (I was amazed by the place)previously yesterday evening.
In the dream, Lena and I repeated our tour of the birthing center, with seven or eight people whom Lena seemed to know, but who were completely unfamiliar to me. (Not members of the child birthing class we are attending.) We saw the room with the (Wow!) water-birthing tub - which I really thought was impressive - and the view out of the "sea monkey aquarium" bubble shaped windows and so on. As a group we stepped into the elevator to ride down to the post-partum ward on floor 12 and stepped out into a cabin in the woods. The same seven or eight people were present. One of our companions, a tall, almost-painfully thin brunette with sort of stringy, bobbed hair and a sharp nose, wanted to go into town, abruptly, for reasons she didn't explain. Nobody wanted to go and finally, after much "hemming and hawing around" Lena told me: "Just take her, please?"
We stepped out onto the back porch of the cabin, and looked up at the night sky, where heavy dark clouds were gathered, promising a respectable rainstorm. Across from us, the woods loomed, dark and dense. I asked: "Are you sure you want to go out in this? The roads are going to get bad around here when this rain hits." Nothing would do but our friend must get to town. So we stepped down off the porch to walk to my car.
No sooner had we stepped from planking to gravel than the weather broke and the rain came down in a torrent. We ran for the car. I unlocked the doors and we got in. Just as I was fastening my seatbelt and fitting the key into the ignition, a flash of lightning erupted directly overhead and a clap of thunder shook the car. I held up my hands to ward off the glare and saw, out of the corner of my eye, my companion sitting stiffly upright and pale, with her hands gripping the center divider (where my car's stick shift is) and the hand belt on the door on her side. Then a whistling and moaning filled the air, coming first from behind the car. I could hear voices on the wind. A funnel, too large to be a dust devil and too small to be an F-1 Tornado passed by the car on my side. It circled the car clockwise and then seemed to simply evaporate in front of the nose, in the middle of what would have been its second pass.
I threw the car into reverse and quickly backed up alongside the porch. At this point, our alarm clock went off and woke me.
Tuesday, November 8, 2011
Monday, August 22, 2011
Compass Form Musings - The Witches Compass - The North Wind and the Castle of Spirits
In the previous post, I dealt with two forms: The Empedoclean and the Solomonic circles. One is a dynamic cosmological form, the other a stationary "magical fortress" construct. Each has its uses and applications in magic. But I promised a third form - the Witches Compass.
Like the Empedoclean form, the Compass represents a cosmology. It is dynamic, ever changing, and quite shifty. It operates almost exactly opposite to a Solomonic form in that, where the Solomonic Circle of Art is designed to operate as a fortress or a "pressure cooker," the Compass represents a Vehicle - a means to move and explore. Where the Solomonic and Empedoclean forms both represent understandings of external forces independent of, and divorced from, the magician; the Compass represents an understanding of "all forces meet in the center" and at the center stands the Witch.
I've already mentioned that the previous two forms base their character in Form - Solidity. This is done by understanding "Form" as occupying the "power direction" of North (in the Northern Hemisphere.) In terms of a Cosmology for the Northern cultures, this is completely inaccurate and has led to some occultists attempting to understand Northern figures as "earth" figures, when everything they do - in the myths they inhabit - suggests otherwise. "Earth" figures do not hurl storms at other beings. Wind and Storm figures - like the Celtic (sic) Lugus/Lugh/Lleu, the Brythonic Cailleach, or the Nordic Woden do. Attempts to understand such beings as "earth figures" - based on a Solomonic construct - are laughable. It's very clear that the "researchers," who attempt to do so, are great at copying old documents and lousy at adding 1 and 2 to get 3. Likewise, in pop, neopagan commercialism, the bizarre notion that Lugus and Woden are "sun gods" persists, fueled by poor quality and fabricated "research" and despite the notion being refuted by literally *every* myth associated with these figures from their earliest cultural appearances to the modern day. (MacCana. 1973. Celtic Mythology: Ellis. Et al ...)One such "researcher" actually graduated from the University of Wales - where Professor MacCana was Chair of Welsh Studies - but was actually ignorant of his very existence ...
In the cosmos of the Northern Cultures, several forces are immediately identifiable as associated with North. The first of these is Polaris - The Nail of Heaven - the guide star by which explorers and raiders navigated for millenia. It is associated with the Source of Spirit in Traditional Witchcraft and with the mythic weapons of spirit. Both Caledfwlch (Excalibur) and the Spear of Destiny (Spear of Lugus) were said to be forged of meteoric iron (creating extra-hard nickel-steel) which are thought of as "sparks from the forge" - bits of Polaris. They are also associated with a particular natural phenomenon - the Lightning Bolt, thus their attachment to the Northern Oak - Lightning - Mistletoe symbolism. Mistletoe - associated with Air and Lightning - cannot grow on a healthy oak tree. The tree's immune system is too strong to tolerate the parisitism of the smaller plant. However, it will grow in profusion on an Oak that has been struck by lighting and survived. It can be seen as "crowning" the oak with its dark green foliage and white berries much as Taliesin speaks of the "Mind of Fire" and of course, this explains his line "I am the oak and the lightning that blasts it." He is not speaking of a literal blasting by lightning, but rather of a figurative stroke that both slays the ego and ensouls the body, allowing the head to be crowned with fire.
Another association with North is the North Wind. This is - and always has been - associated with Winter, with the "winding sheet" of snow, and with the howling storms it brings. It also came to be associated with Viking raiders, who powered their longships with large sails, and sailed southward on the North wind to raid, loot, and destroy. In other words, in the Northern Countries, the North Wind has always been seen as a Bringer of Death and Violence. It can be said to have been the Wind of War. Also, in the howling and whistling of northern gales can be heard what sound like, or perhaps are, voices. These are understood, in Traditional Craft, as the Voices of the Dead and of those who choose and hunt them - the exultant voices of the Valkyrie and the baying Hounds of the Wild Hunt.
Yet another association with Death is Time. This is the force that not only contains what we understand as "reality" and gives it a time and a place in which, to happen; it is also the truest agent of change within the cosmos. That which is unmanifest is born and becomes the young manifest. The young becomes the old. The old dies off to make room for the new young. In fact, viewed from an occult perspective, birth and death are the same thing. In order for a spirit to be born, it must cross the line of Death, into Time, and be entombed in impermanent flesh, which is, in fact, dying all around it. In order for that spirit to be released back into its truest form, that body must die, allowing the spirit to once again make the crossing. This also encapsulates the deepest of Witchcraft's Mysteries, although it is not the body but the illusory "ego self" that dies in their process ... This is what is meant by "crossing the river" or "crossing the hedge" - crossing the line of Death, out of Time, and surviving to return. This particular Mystery is held in great dread by religionists and political narcissists throughout the world, even though the religio-political ideologies they espouse *all* specifically prescribe it ...
Thus, in simply a look at the North Wind, we see something emerging that is very different from the ordinary view. North operates as the realm of Death and of the Dead. It can seen as the Castle of Spirits and the Realm of Hades. It is also the source of conflict and violence and connects, because of these, to the line of Birth/Death. It is also associated with two figures that have very interesting Mythic associations: Woden and Lugus. Both of these figures are identified, mythically and historically, with Mercury, that is to say, with Hermes. Hermes is the one being in all of Greek Mythology who could enter and leave the realm of Hades at will. Hermes was also sometimes seen as ambisexual, as were many of the associated figures. Likewise, both Woden and Lugus are viewed, in much of Traditional Craft, as Guardians of the Dead and guides in the World of the Dead. Mercury is also associated with Wind, as are Woden and Lugus both, which makes our picture clearer, although the Compass can be very clearly viewed as the Crossroads of the Four Winds.
The association of Birth/Death is planetarily acribable to the Moon and its association with the ninth Sephiroth of Yesod. In Traditional Craft, it is also viewed as the Prison of Cain (the Man in the Moon according to certain mythic traditions) who is also associated with this figurative complex. Since Cain has the reputation of First Murderer (indeed Fratricide) this reinforces the Hadean imagery. The Moon is also associated with Time, marking its passage with a more or less orderly progression of phases, and because of this stepwise progression, with Fate, which brings into the picture the figures of Hekate, Lilith and others.
Finally we come to Conflict and Death, and these are planetarily and mythically ascribed to Mars in the Northern Traditions - personified in such figures as Bran, Samael, Tiw, and Arawn.
In this complex body of imagery, inference and association we begin to glimpse the nature of the Compass, in which no influence or force of Creation and Destruction is discrete or "stand alone," but rather in which all are closely interwoven, interdependent, and inter-related. In other words, we see an emerging figure that bears some resemblance to the real cosmos, rather than to an idealized, artificial construct. We can also see that these associations and relationships are rather easily understood, if one will only invest a bit of time and effort, rather than expecting to be "spoon fed" or to "find the secrets of the cosmos" on the shelves of a bookstore ...
Next Time: The Castle of Spirits (continued)
Like the Empedoclean form, the Compass represents a cosmology. It is dynamic, ever changing, and quite shifty. It operates almost exactly opposite to a Solomonic form in that, where the Solomonic Circle of Art is designed to operate as a fortress or a "pressure cooker," the Compass represents a Vehicle - a means to move and explore. Where the Solomonic and Empedoclean forms both represent understandings of external forces independent of, and divorced from, the magician; the Compass represents an understanding of "all forces meet in the center" and at the center stands the Witch.
I've already mentioned that the previous two forms base their character in Form - Solidity. This is done by understanding "Form" as occupying the "power direction" of North (in the Northern Hemisphere.) In terms of a Cosmology for the Northern cultures, this is completely inaccurate and has led to some occultists attempting to understand Northern figures as "earth" figures, when everything they do - in the myths they inhabit - suggests otherwise. "Earth" figures do not hurl storms at other beings. Wind and Storm figures - like the Celtic (sic) Lugus/Lugh/Lleu, the Brythonic Cailleach, or the Nordic Woden do. Attempts to understand such beings as "earth figures" - based on a Solomonic construct - are laughable. It's very clear that the "researchers," who attempt to do so, are great at copying old documents and lousy at adding 1 and 2 to get 3. Likewise, in pop, neopagan commercialism, the bizarre notion that Lugus and Woden are "sun gods" persists, fueled by poor quality and fabricated "research" and despite the notion being refuted by literally *every* myth associated with these figures from their earliest cultural appearances to the modern day. (MacCana. 1973. Celtic Mythology: Ellis. Et al ...)One such "researcher" actually graduated from the University of Wales - where Professor MacCana was Chair of Welsh Studies - but was actually ignorant of his very existence ...
In the cosmos of the Northern Cultures, several forces are immediately identifiable as associated with North. The first of these is Polaris - The Nail of Heaven - the guide star by which explorers and raiders navigated for millenia. It is associated with the Source of Spirit in Traditional Witchcraft and with the mythic weapons of spirit. Both Caledfwlch (Excalibur) and the Spear of Destiny (Spear of Lugus) were said to be forged of meteoric iron (creating extra-hard nickel-steel) which are thought of as "sparks from the forge" - bits of Polaris. They are also associated with a particular natural phenomenon - the Lightning Bolt, thus their attachment to the Northern Oak - Lightning - Mistletoe symbolism. Mistletoe - associated with Air and Lightning - cannot grow on a healthy oak tree. The tree's immune system is too strong to tolerate the parisitism of the smaller plant. However, it will grow in profusion on an Oak that has been struck by lighting and survived. It can be seen as "crowning" the oak with its dark green foliage and white berries much as Taliesin speaks of the "Mind of Fire" and of course, this explains his line "I am the oak and the lightning that blasts it." He is not speaking of a literal blasting by lightning, but rather of a figurative stroke that both slays the ego and ensouls the body, allowing the head to be crowned with fire.
Another association with North is the North Wind. This is - and always has been - associated with Winter, with the "winding sheet" of snow, and with the howling storms it brings. It also came to be associated with Viking raiders, who powered their longships with large sails, and sailed southward on the North wind to raid, loot, and destroy. In other words, in the Northern Countries, the North Wind has always been seen as a Bringer of Death and Violence. It can be said to have been the Wind of War. Also, in the howling and whistling of northern gales can be heard what sound like, or perhaps are, voices. These are understood, in Traditional Craft, as the Voices of the Dead and of those who choose and hunt them - the exultant voices of the Valkyrie and the baying Hounds of the Wild Hunt.
Yet another association with Death is Time. This is the force that not only contains what we understand as "reality" and gives it a time and a place in which, to happen; it is also the truest agent of change within the cosmos. That which is unmanifest is born and becomes the young manifest. The young becomes the old. The old dies off to make room for the new young. In fact, viewed from an occult perspective, birth and death are the same thing. In order for a spirit to be born, it must cross the line of Death, into Time, and be entombed in impermanent flesh, which is, in fact, dying all around it. In order for that spirit to be released back into its truest form, that body must die, allowing the spirit to once again make the crossing. This also encapsulates the deepest of Witchcraft's Mysteries, although it is not the body but the illusory "ego self" that dies in their process ... This is what is meant by "crossing the river" or "crossing the hedge" - crossing the line of Death, out of Time, and surviving to return. This particular Mystery is held in great dread by religionists and political narcissists throughout the world, even though the religio-political ideologies they espouse *all* specifically prescribe it ...
Thus, in simply a look at the North Wind, we see something emerging that is very different from the ordinary view. North operates as the realm of Death and of the Dead. It can seen as the Castle of Spirits and the Realm of Hades. It is also the source of conflict and violence and connects, because of these, to the line of Birth/Death. It is also associated with two figures that have very interesting Mythic associations: Woden and Lugus. Both of these figures are identified, mythically and historically, with Mercury, that is to say, with Hermes. Hermes is the one being in all of Greek Mythology who could enter and leave the realm of Hades at will. Hermes was also sometimes seen as ambisexual, as were many of the associated figures. Likewise, both Woden and Lugus are viewed, in much of Traditional Craft, as Guardians of the Dead and guides in the World of the Dead. Mercury is also associated with Wind, as are Woden and Lugus both, which makes our picture clearer, although the Compass can be very clearly viewed as the Crossroads of the Four Winds.
The association of Birth/Death is planetarily acribable to the Moon and its association with the ninth Sephiroth of Yesod. In Traditional Craft, it is also viewed as the Prison of Cain (the Man in the Moon according to certain mythic traditions) who is also associated with this figurative complex. Since Cain has the reputation of First Murderer (indeed Fratricide) this reinforces the Hadean imagery. The Moon is also associated with Time, marking its passage with a more or less orderly progression of phases, and because of this stepwise progression, with Fate, which brings into the picture the figures of Hekate, Lilith and others.
Finally we come to Conflict and Death, and these are planetarily and mythically ascribed to Mars in the Northern Traditions - personified in such figures as Bran, Samael, Tiw, and Arawn.
In this complex body of imagery, inference and association we begin to glimpse the nature of the Compass, in which no influence or force of Creation and Destruction is discrete or "stand alone," but rather in which all are closely interwoven, interdependent, and inter-related. In other words, we see an emerging figure that bears some resemblance to the real cosmos, rather than to an idealized, artificial construct. We can also see that these associations and relationships are rather easily understood, if one will only invest a bit of time and effort, rather than expecting to be "spoon fed" or to "find the secrets of the cosmos" on the shelves of a bookstore ...
Next Time: The Castle of Spirits (continued)
Thursday, August 18, 2011
Compass Form Musings
Time again to take up the pen, and offer my poor thoughts to any who care to read them. Musing today on the Witches Compass and the Witches Picture Book - or any good tarot deck - as a map to it.
There exist a number of different forms we can use to do different aspects of magical work. Some are mobile, some stationary. Some are based on movement, others based on the idea of stability. We need first to differentiate between Motion and Stasis. Empedocles conceived a form that varied between the ideas of Absolute Being - Complete Stasis - and absolute Unbeing - Complete Chaos. He viewed these ideas as his "north" and his "south" respectively. Existence could not occur at either extreme, he said, because existence is dynamic and changing, and neither complete being or unbeing is actually capable of directional motion. He viewed existence as either proceeding toward absolute being - becoming more ordered - or moving toward absolute unbeing - decaying into chaos.
This model presents us with a spiral/cyclic view not unlike that of the Hindu concept of the forces of Shiva (Order) and Ganesha (Chaos) Shiva dances the world into being and causes it to proceed toward order. Ganesha finds that this process creates impediments to motion and breaks up order to promote further development. An important concept to acknowledge here: *At neither extreme is existence possible* Between these two forces, Fate and Time operate giving a place and a time in which, events occur and providing a framework of cause and effect that interlinks existence. Action, in other words, acts upon everything around it. In turn, the action is passed on as reactions become causes. Cause to effect becomes cause to effect in an endless "hound and hare chase." Time - symbolized by "Water" was situated to the Left or West side, associating with Sunset and Death and connected to the force of decay, while Awareness, symbolized by "Fire" was situated to the East, and associated with the Sunrise - since Empedocles saw Awareness as a force that tended to operate by promoting Order.
In the 15th Century, a Grimoire called the Key of Solomon was created that posited the idea of creating a working space that would protect the Magician and keep unwanted influences out. The Magic Circle or Circle of Art was never intended to serve as a cosmology - although attempts have been made to see it thus. (Attempts to equate this form "to the Celts (sic)" or talk about the "four elements of the Celts" are ludicrous and have no basis either in historicity or in practical work.) It is rooted in the idea of stability, with all forces that the Magician acts upon contained within. It oriented itself Eastward and saw this as "Air" - which Empedocles saw as representing Chaos and the Unmanifest.
Thus the awakening region was associated with Spirit (out of body) and with Change (Chaos) since all Change essentially deals with something interacting with air. (On the physical level, one can see this illustrated by the process of burning. Fire does not burn, it is the result of burning which is actually Oxidation ("rusting" if you like) occuring at high speed. Assertions that "fire changes everything it touches" are, at the most basic level, completely false since Fire - Awareness is, in fact, the *result* of change that, in chain reaction, becomes the cause behind further change of the same kind. (Burning heats matter near it and causes it to begin to interact with Oxygen (air) and thus more oxidation occurs, and more energy (fire) results. We can also refute the idea of static, discrete "elements" since *everything* we are describing is actually interaction, change, cause and effect.
To return to the Solomonic Circle: We next turn our attention to its "power" direction. For Northern Hemisphere Magicians, this is North as every form of guidance in our various cultures keys on Polaris as its origin and guide. In the Solomonic form, as in the Empedoclean, this is "Earth" - solidity, stability, being and form. Working a construct that places "form" in the Power direction, therefore creates a construct based on solidity. This is to say, a "magical fortress" or an "inverted cauldron." Many Magicians who use this form apply it as a sort of "pressure cooker" - raising power upon power upon power within it, until an effect rather similar to the Tarot "Tower" is achieved and the forces within rip apart the magical walls containing them. Others use it as the Grimoire prescribes, as a protective construct, keeping unwanted (or even wanted but potentially hostile) forces at bay. It is in thsi function that we see the idea of "crossing the lines" or "breaking the circle" as a bad thing. To put it simply, create a breach, and anything on the inside can get out, while everything on the outside can get in. Interestingly enough, as the Grimoire Traditon maintains humanity as "Children of God" - Nephilim if you will - an therefore holding a position of power and authority over most spirits; it also maintains that some of these same spirits are perfectly capable of ripping one apart if allowed past the walls. Given that a number of the spirits detailed in the Goetia and Theurgia Goetia sections of both the Key and its accompanying Legemeton are highly unfriendly, this caution seems understandable.
What is not understood is the nature of the "walls" and that of the "nails" that hold them together. The Key and its fellow Grimoires do not include instructions to raise walls of stone (form) or other materials. Likewise, these "magical manuals" or "Books of Lies" (see my earlier posts) as I like to call them, do not attempt to explain these walls, relying on the philosophical grounding and understanding of the practitioner. What must be observed as that the Circle of Art is intended to "create space that is not space, in a Time that is not Time." This is a clue frequently overlooked. The force in the cosmos that creates space - both in the eyes of ancient observers such as the Prophet Enoch and the composer of the "Imram Bran" and in the eyes of modern theorists like Einstein - is Time. Rather like both of the earlier sources, Einstein sees Time and Space as one and the same thing. Time is seen as not only creating, but containing the World of Form. Likewise, Time or Space - Time, by stint of its other feature - Gravity - is the only force that can actually bend light (without prismatic action) simply because its curved space is the medium through which, light must travel. By traveling through the space, light - being energy - creates change and causes events. Indeed, modern physics has postulated that "linear time" is an illusion and entirely the product of human perception. This falls neatly in line with the accurate understanding of forces traveling in a spiral pattern, within the Solomonic circle, to form a "cone." To finish this off, we again have "Water" - representing Time - situated in the West, in the position of Sunset and Death although it can be easily see surrounding Land, and defining it, just as bodies of water are defined by their attached landmasses.
So, we've taken care of the "walls" - what about the Cardinal Points - the "nails" or "Watchtowers" that hold the construct together? The Key - and associated Kabbalistic material - speak of "Watchtowers" at the Cardinal Points. These are associated with "elements" in their grossest and most crude understandings and with "Elemental Archangels" in their higher forms. (Yes, I said Archangels, and the fact that neopaganism makes use of an unabashedly Christian form should be noteworthy. Even if we follow the assertions of some neopagan "authorities" and try to "thow out" the Kabbalistic associations, instead of seeking - intelligently - to *understand* them, we are left with this glaring fact, along with another glaring fact: Throwing out understanding is nothing more or less than willful ignorance - stupidity - and once again we find Stupidity keeping company with religio-political Ideology.
The Archangels that rule over the Watchtowers can be seen in two possible configurations: Air - Raphael (Archangel of Mercury); Earth - Anael and / or Sachiel (Archangels of Venus and Jupiter, respectively) Water - Cassiel, Asariel, Gabriel - (Archangels of Saturn (Time) Neptune (Sea) and Moon respectively)and finally Fire - Michael and Samael (Archangels of Sun and Mars respectively.) We can pare the groupings down a bit when we move into three dimensions and away from Modern Astrology - this especially works well with the Compass Form later on. To clarify, we need to look further. Anyone who knows anything about Kabbala also knows that Seven of the Sephiroth are associated with the Seven Classical Planets and the Seven States of Wisdom and the Seven Classical Sciences as well as the Sevenfold Spirit of "god" or "goddess" - Animus/Anima Mundi. When we consider this small idea, the "Watchtowers" spring into clarity, as do other avenues of adjusting and understanding them. The Circle of Art's Northern Watchtower becomes either Netzach, Chesed, or possibly a combination of the two. Its Southern Tower becomes either Tiphareth or Geburah. To its East we find Hod, and to its west we find Binah, Yesod, or again a combination of the two. The main reason we find ourselves looking at confusing possible pairs (or trios) of Planets / Sephiroth is that we are trying to force seven points into four in two dimensions. As anyone can plainly tell, this really doesn't work very well, although it does illustrate *some* of the bleed-over and interaction between the points. As I said, we can pare this down a bit thus: East - Spirit/Thought/Motion - Mercury, Hod, and therefore Raphael. North - Form - and therefore Venus (Creatrix and Destroyer of Form) Netzach and Anael. West - Time - and therefore Cassiel and Saturn (which both binds and unbinds form and serves not as being composed of "Water" but as the Ferryman across it.) Finally we have South - Awareness - and therefore Sun, Tiphareth and Michael. The remaining three Sephiroth can be moved into an Above - Middle - Below configuration giving us three dimensions. Since many Traditions see Fate - Wyrd/Hekate ... as a Ctthonic force - residing in "Hell" or Hel, we can place Jupiter / Chesed (associated with Fortune / Fate) along with Sachiel below. The Kabbalistic Tradition (as well as Traditional Witchcraft) sees The Moon - Yesod as the Gateway upward, to climb the Tree or the Ladder, so we can place it - along with Gabriel - "Above." This leaves Geburah along with Samael - the Lover of Lilith and the Serpent (Seraphim translates into Fiery Serpent) - operating in the "Garden of Eden" - Center.
Right about now, I'm certain that someone wants to remind me that I said that these understandings could be easily adjusted to align with Pagan / Heathen understandings and mythic figures. So they can. I will start with East, and move around counterclockwise and offer up a trio of possible Pagan / Heathen figures who can also be seen as associating with these planets, forces, and "Watchtowers."
In the East of the Solomonic Circle - Air or Wind and therefore also Storms - we can see such figures as Hermes, Lugus ("the Celtic Mercury" and a Storm god despite the ill-informed and poorly researched efforts of popular neopagan authors to turn him into "the celtic sun god" - which concept does not exist in a Northern Cosmology where the Sun is Female - see Celtic Mythology - Prof. Pronsias MacCana, until his death Chair of Welsh Studies at the University of Wales, for a start)and finally Odin/Woden and of course the Brythonic Winter Storm figure Cailleach. (Someone is going to argue that Cailleach belongs in the North and were this form a Cosmology, they would be right. However, the Solomonic Circle is not a cosmology, it is a Construct - a tool that bases its functioning on the fact that Cosmic forces move and shift around. In point of fact, the cosmology upon which this construct is based is expressed not as a circle but as a Cube - see Temple of Solomon)
In the North of the Solomonic Circle - Earth or Form - we can see Venus/Aphrodite (and Erinyes / Antiphonos)Freyja, and of course the Welsh/Brythonic Cerridwen/Cariadwen.
In the West of the Solomonic Circle - Water or Time - we can see Lir/Ler (the actual "celtic sea god" whose name actually means "The Sea") Saturn, or Chronos.
Finally in the South of the Solomonic Circle we find Apollo / Lucifer, the Celtic (sic) Sun Goddesses Brigid/Sulis/Grainne and of course the Nordic Sol.
Below we can see Wyrd/Hekate/Hades; in the center Mars / Ares / Bran, and above we can see Diana / Luna or Artemis. We can also see Cain - as the Man in the Moon.
By allowing for Personification of these forces of Creation / Destruction we allow for what many people find an easier time interfacing with them. (We give you a Spirit you can talk to ...)
To be continued next time with The Witches Compass ...
There exist a number of different forms we can use to do different aspects of magical work. Some are mobile, some stationary. Some are based on movement, others based on the idea of stability. We need first to differentiate between Motion and Stasis. Empedocles conceived a form that varied between the ideas of Absolute Being - Complete Stasis - and absolute Unbeing - Complete Chaos. He viewed these ideas as his "north" and his "south" respectively. Existence could not occur at either extreme, he said, because existence is dynamic and changing, and neither complete being or unbeing is actually capable of directional motion. He viewed existence as either proceeding toward absolute being - becoming more ordered - or moving toward absolute unbeing - decaying into chaos.
This model presents us with a spiral/cyclic view not unlike that of the Hindu concept of the forces of Shiva (Order) and Ganesha (Chaos) Shiva dances the world into being and causes it to proceed toward order. Ganesha finds that this process creates impediments to motion and breaks up order to promote further development. An important concept to acknowledge here: *At neither extreme is existence possible* Between these two forces, Fate and Time operate giving a place and a time in which, events occur and providing a framework of cause and effect that interlinks existence. Action, in other words, acts upon everything around it. In turn, the action is passed on as reactions become causes. Cause to effect becomes cause to effect in an endless "hound and hare chase." Time - symbolized by "Water" was situated to the Left or West side, associating with Sunset and Death and connected to the force of decay, while Awareness, symbolized by "Fire" was situated to the East, and associated with the Sunrise - since Empedocles saw Awareness as a force that tended to operate by promoting Order.
In the 15th Century, a Grimoire called the Key of Solomon was created that posited the idea of creating a working space that would protect the Magician and keep unwanted influences out. The Magic Circle or Circle of Art was never intended to serve as a cosmology - although attempts have been made to see it thus. (Attempts to equate this form "to the Celts (sic)" or talk about the "four elements of the Celts" are ludicrous and have no basis either in historicity or in practical work.) It is rooted in the idea of stability, with all forces that the Magician acts upon contained within. It oriented itself Eastward and saw this as "Air" - which Empedocles saw as representing Chaos and the Unmanifest.
Thus the awakening region was associated with Spirit (out of body) and with Change (Chaos) since all Change essentially deals with something interacting with air. (On the physical level, one can see this illustrated by the process of burning. Fire does not burn, it is the result of burning which is actually Oxidation ("rusting" if you like) occuring at high speed. Assertions that "fire changes everything it touches" are, at the most basic level, completely false since Fire - Awareness is, in fact, the *result* of change that, in chain reaction, becomes the cause behind further change of the same kind. (Burning heats matter near it and causes it to begin to interact with Oxygen (air) and thus more oxidation occurs, and more energy (fire) results. We can also refute the idea of static, discrete "elements" since *everything* we are describing is actually interaction, change, cause and effect.
To return to the Solomonic Circle: We next turn our attention to its "power" direction. For Northern Hemisphere Magicians, this is North as every form of guidance in our various cultures keys on Polaris as its origin and guide. In the Solomonic form, as in the Empedoclean, this is "Earth" - solidity, stability, being and form. Working a construct that places "form" in the Power direction, therefore creates a construct based on solidity. This is to say, a "magical fortress" or an "inverted cauldron." Many Magicians who use this form apply it as a sort of "pressure cooker" - raising power upon power upon power within it, until an effect rather similar to the Tarot "Tower" is achieved and the forces within rip apart the magical walls containing them. Others use it as the Grimoire prescribes, as a protective construct, keeping unwanted (or even wanted but potentially hostile) forces at bay. It is in thsi function that we see the idea of "crossing the lines" or "breaking the circle" as a bad thing. To put it simply, create a breach, and anything on the inside can get out, while everything on the outside can get in. Interestingly enough, as the Grimoire Traditon maintains humanity as "Children of God" - Nephilim if you will - an therefore holding a position of power and authority over most spirits; it also maintains that some of these same spirits are perfectly capable of ripping one apart if allowed past the walls. Given that a number of the spirits detailed in the Goetia and Theurgia Goetia sections of both the Key and its accompanying Legemeton are highly unfriendly, this caution seems understandable.
What is not understood is the nature of the "walls" and that of the "nails" that hold them together. The Key and its fellow Grimoires do not include instructions to raise walls of stone (form) or other materials. Likewise, these "magical manuals" or "Books of Lies" (see my earlier posts) as I like to call them, do not attempt to explain these walls, relying on the philosophical grounding and understanding of the practitioner. What must be observed as that the Circle of Art is intended to "create space that is not space, in a Time that is not Time." This is a clue frequently overlooked. The force in the cosmos that creates space - both in the eyes of ancient observers such as the Prophet Enoch and the composer of the "Imram Bran" and in the eyes of modern theorists like Einstein - is Time. Rather like both of the earlier sources, Einstein sees Time and Space as one and the same thing. Time is seen as not only creating, but containing the World of Form. Likewise, Time or Space - Time, by stint of its other feature - Gravity - is the only force that can actually bend light (without prismatic action) simply because its curved space is the medium through which, light must travel. By traveling through the space, light - being energy - creates change and causes events. Indeed, modern physics has postulated that "linear time" is an illusion and entirely the product of human perception. This falls neatly in line with the accurate understanding of forces traveling in a spiral pattern, within the Solomonic circle, to form a "cone." To finish this off, we again have "Water" - representing Time - situated in the West, in the position of Sunset and Death although it can be easily see surrounding Land, and defining it, just as bodies of water are defined by their attached landmasses.
So, we've taken care of the "walls" - what about the Cardinal Points - the "nails" or "Watchtowers" that hold the construct together? The Key - and associated Kabbalistic material - speak of "Watchtowers" at the Cardinal Points. These are associated with "elements" in their grossest and most crude understandings and with "Elemental Archangels" in their higher forms. (Yes, I said Archangels, and the fact that neopaganism makes use of an unabashedly Christian form should be noteworthy. Even if we follow the assertions of some neopagan "authorities" and try to "thow out" the Kabbalistic associations, instead of seeking - intelligently - to *understand* them, we are left with this glaring fact, along with another glaring fact: Throwing out understanding is nothing more or less than willful ignorance - stupidity - and once again we find Stupidity keeping company with religio-political Ideology.
The Archangels that rule over the Watchtowers can be seen in two possible configurations: Air - Raphael (Archangel of Mercury); Earth - Anael and / or Sachiel (Archangels of Venus and Jupiter, respectively) Water - Cassiel, Asariel, Gabriel - (Archangels of Saturn (Time) Neptune (Sea) and Moon respectively)and finally Fire - Michael and Samael (Archangels of Sun and Mars respectively.) We can pare the groupings down a bit when we move into three dimensions and away from Modern Astrology - this especially works well with the Compass Form later on. To clarify, we need to look further. Anyone who knows anything about Kabbala also knows that Seven of the Sephiroth are associated with the Seven Classical Planets and the Seven States of Wisdom and the Seven Classical Sciences as well as the Sevenfold Spirit of "god" or "goddess" - Animus/Anima Mundi. When we consider this small idea, the "Watchtowers" spring into clarity, as do other avenues of adjusting and understanding them. The Circle of Art's Northern Watchtower becomes either Netzach, Chesed, or possibly a combination of the two. Its Southern Tower becomes either Tiphareth or Geburah. To its East we find Hod, and to its west we find Binah, Yesod, or again a combination of the two. The main reason we find ourselves looking at confusing possible pairs (or trios) of Planets / Sephiroth is that we are trying to force seven points into four in two dimensions. As anyone can plainly tell, this really doesn't work very well, although it does illustrate *some* of the bleed-over and interaction between the points. As I said, we can pare this down a bit thus: East - Spirit/Thought/Motion - Mercury, Hod, and therefore Raphael. North - Form - and therefore Venus (Creatrix and Destroyer of Form) Netzach and Anael. West - Time - and therefore Cassiel and Saturn (which both binds and unbinds form and serves not as being composed of "Water" but as the Ferryman across it.) Finally we have South - Awareness - and therefore Sun, Tiphareth and Michael. The remaining three Sephiroth can be moved into an Above - Middle - Below configuration giving us three dimensions. Since many Traditions see Fate - Wyrd/Hekate ... as a Ctthonic force - residing in "Hell" or Hel, we can place Jupiter / Chesed (associated with Fortune / Fate) along with Sachiel below. The Kabbalistic Tradition (as well as Traditional Witchcraft) sees The Moon - Yesod as the Gateway upward, to climb the Tree or the Ladder, so we can place it - along with Gabriel - "Above." This leaves Geburah along with Samael - the Lover of Lilith and the Serpent (Seraphim translates into Fiery Serpent) - operating in the "Garden of Eden" - Center.
Right about now, I'm certain that someone wants to remind me that I said that these understandings could be easily adjusted to align with Pagan / Heathen understandings and mythic figures. So they can. I will start with East, and move around counterclockwise and offer up a trio of possible Pagan / Heathen figures who can also be seen as associating with these planets, forces, and "Watchtowers."
In the East of the Solomonic Circle - Air or Wind and therefore also Storms - we can see such figures as Hermes, Lugus ("the Celtic Mercury" and a Storm god despite the ill-informed and poorly researched efforts of popular neopagan authors to turn him into "the celtic sun god" - which concept does not exist in a Northern Cosmology where the Sun is Female - see Celtic Mythology - Prof. Pronsias MacCana, until his death Chair of Welsh Studies at the University of Wales, for a start)and finally Odin/Woden and of course the Brythonic Winter Storm figure Cailleach. (Someone is going to argue that Cailleach belongs in the North and were this form a Cosmology, they would be right. However, the Solomonic Circle is not a cosmology, it is a Construct - a tool that bases its functioning on the fact that Cosmic forces move and shift around. In point of fact, the cosmology upon which this construct is based is expressed not as a circle but as a Cube - see Temple of Solomon)
In the North of the Solomonic Circle - Earth or Form - we can see Venus/Aphrodite (and Erinyes / Antiphonos)Freyja, and of course the Welsh/Brythonic Cerridwen/Cariadwen.
In the West of the Solomonic Circle - Water or Time - we can see Lir/Ler (the actual "celtic sea god" whose name actually means "The Sea") Saturn, or Chronos.
Finally in the South of the Solomonic Circle we find Apollo / Lucifer, the Celtic (sic) Sun Goddesses Brigid/Sulis/Grainne and of course the Nordic Sol.
Below we can see Wyrd/Hekate/Hades; in the center Mars / Ares / Bran, and above we can see Diana / Luna or Artemis. We can also see Cain - as the Man in the Moon.
By allowing for Personification of these forces of Creation / Destruction we allow for what many people find an easier time interfacing with them. (We give you a Spirit you can talk to ...)
To be continued next time with The Witches Compass ...
Tuesday, August 16, 2011
"Clergy" - who needs them?
It seems that every day, I find myself accosted or bombarded by someone who claims to have some sort of "authority" over me because they are self-proclaimed "clergy." By this they mean that they have set themselves up as "public priests or priestesses" - supposedly to "serve" the public, but the reality tends to somewhat murkier.
One "public priestess" recently insisted that she should not need to follow the rules of a facebook discussion group "because she'd been a "priestess" running a "public temple" for twenty plus years and thus had the "right" to be "above the rules" and looked down her nose upon all the rest of we mere mortals by "virtue" of her "superiority." This same "priestess" is a loud advocate of marx-inspired "legislated equality." In other words, nobody can think for themselves except those who follow - unquestioningly and uncritically as she does - her "crowd." She has also insisted that association with her agenda is "associated with intelligence." Since when is unquestioning crowd following an intelligent behavior? Since never, say I.
Interactionist and ideologist posturing remains the insecure behavior of someone who is terrified of what lies outside the "box" of ideologism's rose colored fairy tale.
In another episode, I was once told by a teenager "you will call me "your priestess." Why? Because she had a piece of paper she'd printed from "witchschool." A supposedly "respectable unitarian priestess" in my area did much the same thing - except her piece of paper came from the "society of celtic (sic) "shamans"." This group also repudiated her, making her doubly a fake in my eyes. "Online witchschools/wizardschools/seminaries/mystery schools" and their ilk simply exist to exploit the gullible and prop up the egos of the attention seeker, in my not so humble opinion. Ideologies and attempts to insist that "to be a witch you must validate the ideology or subscribe to it" are equally full of stinky brown stuff and their perpetrators are really nothing more than greedy, self-indulgent hucksters. "March in my line, carry my sign, and give me money (for the great goddess "The" who is always as short of cash as "Jesus" don't you know ...) remains the first and best sign of someone who does not deserve your trust.
So, even if said "clergy" are sincere, what is their use? What is their function? From a Traditional Witchcraft perspective, which is to say one of Gnosticism, not much. The whole point of the Gnostic process is that *everyone* is as much a "high priest or priestess" as anyone else - in their own place and to themselves. Quite plainly, if everyone within a given praxis has a similar "open door" to that which is Divine, Unknown and Unknowable, then what use for "middlemen?" Who needs someone else to "talk to god" for them? To interceded and intermediate? Nobody.
This is not to say that we all can't use a friendly ear to bend, every now and again. Very much the opposite. Personal support from a good friend is a wonderful and uplifting thing. But nobody is "set in authority" above anyone else, except by virtue of consent and expertise, this is to say, by Occult Results. To take this further, someone who is getting these results is too busy dealing with them to worry about setting him or herself up as a "public icon" or about having a "martyr complex."
What does this mean? It means that you can be the "High Priestess of Temple Ishkabibble" all you like. It means just exactly nothing to a Witch, who is by nature a rebel against such authoritarianism. It also means that nobody who is thus accomplishing results will insist that they are "too accomplished" to talk to someone else. As my old Magistra used to say: There's a word for a Witch who's stopped learning: Dead Witch. Amazing the corpses one finds running about, playing at "high priestess."
One "public priestess" recently insisted that she should not need to follow the rules of a facebook discussion group "because she'd been a "priestess" running a "public temple" for twenty plus years and thus had the "right" to be "above the rules" and looked down her nose upon all the rest of we mere mortals by "virtue" of her "superiority." This same "priestess" is a loud advocate of marx-inspired "legislated equality." In other words, nobody can think for themselves except those who follow - unquestioningly and uncritically as she does - her "crowd." She has also insisted that association with her agenda is "associated with intelligence." Since when is unquestioning crowd following an intelligent behavior? Since never, say I.
Interactionist and ideologist posturing remains the insecure behavior of someone who is terrified of what lies outside the "box" of ideologism's rose colored fairy tale.
In another episode, I was once told by a teenager "you will call me "your priestess." Why? Because she had a piece of paper she'd printed from "witchschool." A supposedly "respectable unitarian priestess" in my area did much the same thing - except her piece of paper came from the "society of celtic (sic) "shamans"." This group also repudiated her, making her doubly a fake in my eyes. "Online witchschools/wizardschools/seminaries/mystery schools" and their ilk simply exist to exploit the gullible and prop up the egos of the attention seeker, in my not so humble opinion. Ideologies and attempts to insist that "to be a witch you must validate the ideology or subscribe to it" are equally full of stinky brown stuff and their perpetrators are really nothing more than greedy, self-indulgent hucksters. "March in my line, carry my sign, and give me money (for the great goddess "The" who is always as short of cash as "Jesus" don't you know ...) remains the first and best sign of someone who does not deserve your trust.
So, even if said "clergy" are sincere, what is their use? What is their function? From a Traditional Witchcraft perspective, which is to say one of Gnosticism, not much. The whole point of the Gnostic process is that *everyone* is as much a "high priest or priestess" as anyone else - in their own place and to themselves. Quite plainly, if everyone within a given praxis has a similar "open door" to that which is Divine, Unknown and Unknowable, then what use for "middlemen?" Who needs someone else to "talk to god" for them? To interceded and intermediate? Nobody.
This is not to say that we all can't use a friendly ear to bend, every now and again. Very much the opposite. Personal support from a good friend is a wonderful and uplifting thing. But nobody is "set in authority" above anyone else, except by virtue of consent and expertise, this is to say, by Occult Results. To take this further, someone who is getting these results is too busy dealing with them to worry about setting him or herself up as a "public icon" or about having a "martyr complex."
What does this mean? It means that you can be the "High Priestess of Temple Ishkabibble" all you like. It means just exactly nothing to a Witch, who is by nature a rebel against such authoritarianism. It also means that nobody who is thus accomplishing results will insist that they are "too accomplished" to talk to someone else. As my old Magistra used to say: There's a word for a Witch who's stopped learning: Dead Witch. Amazing the corpses one finds running about, playing at "high priestess."
Monday, July 11, 2011
A Thoroughly Mundane Topic: Plagiarism
I normally wouldn't be writing a post like this, or on this topic, but in recent months several cases of internet pagan / occult plagiarism have received considerable attention. In one of these, an American author calling herself "Rochelle Moore" was found to have plagiarized several other authors to create a highly commercial text that she then marketed.
More recently a person called variously "Raven Avalon" and "Lady Abigail" was found to have plagiarized both works of art and photographs of well know people in running a Facebook Group and, apparently, in a self published text. Details of both these people can be found here:
http://sehnga.blogspot.com/
Most recently, a group opened up on Facebook with a "hate list" of so-called "goblins," many of whom have spoken out in favor of respecting the copyrights of authors and artists, proper attribution, and of publishing only original work under one's own name. Other people on the "hate list" have no discernible connection to any of this and the presence of their names is highly perplexing.
I'm writing this post to voice my support both for ethical attribution and for those ridiculously accused. The latter have been seen to include: Lisa Hunt (Artist); Wendy Rule (Vocalist); Shani Oates (Author); Raymond Buckland (Author); Macha Nightmare (Author/Editor); Alicia Folberth (Activist) and others.
It seems clear to me that the purveyors of this list are expressing a combination of "entitlement" issues and a collective "persecution complex."
My take: If you think I'm a "Meanie," so be it. If you don't like the fact that I've called out or pointed out some of the behaviors above, then feel free to contact me and take issue with the *issue.* Posting my name on a "hate list of persecutors" and hiding behind a facebook block is simply cowardice of the most lame and pathetic variety.
More recently a person called variously "Raven Avalon" and "Lady Abigail" was found to have plagiarized both works of art and photographs of well know people in running a Facebook Group and, apparently, in a self published text. Details of both these people can be found here:
http://sehnga.blogspot.com/
Most recently, a group opened up on Facebook with a "hate list" of so-called "goblins," many of whom have spoken out in favor of respecting the copyrights of authors and artists, proper attribution, and of publishing only original work under one's own name. Other people on the "hate list" have no discernible connection to any of this and the presence of their names is highly perplexing.
I'm writing this post to voice my support both for ethical attribution and for those ridiculously accused. The latter have been seen to include: Lisa Hunt (Artist); Wendy Rule (Vocalist); Shani Oates (Author); Raymond Buckland (Author); Macha Nightmare (Author/Editor); Alicia Folberth (Activist) and others.
It seems clear to me that the purveyors of this list are expressing a combination of "entitlement" issues and a collective "persecution complex."
My take: If you think I'm a "Meanie," so be it. If you don't like the fact that I've called out or pointed out some of the behaviors above, then feel free to contact me and take issue with the *issue.* Posting my name on a "hate list of persecutors" and hiding behind a facebook block is simply cowardice of the most lame and pathetic variety.
Wednesday, April 6, 2011
Heresy
Our perceptions, our understandings, our “wisdom,” as well as human willful ignorance, crowd following, ideology, and so forth are all products of Human Awareness.
Gnosis, whether you approach it simply as “literal knowledge,” or as Divine Self Knowledge, or as “Knowledge in Conversation with the Holy Guardian Angel” or as “talking to “god/dess” or as Personal Insight (UPG) is likewise a product of that awareness. One might suggest that it is awareness of that awareness.
Human Awareness is a constantly evolving phenomenon, just as human beings constantly evolve. Therefore, Gnosis is not a “completed” state of “perfection.” It is a state of constant change and flux. However, on a occult level, one can posit an even more interesting phenomenon: Interactive Awareness or the “group mind.”
Nothing can interact with anything else without changing what it interacts with, and being changed by that interaction. When a group mind phenomenon encounters another awareness, the two interact, especially if the gateways to gnosis are successfully pointed at, and the new awareness becomes attached to the existing group awareness. You can give all sorts of names and titles both to the group awareness and to the interaction but it is at this point that a fundamental fallacy arises in understanding: The fallacy that the interaction will change the new awareness to conform with the old. As you can see from the preceding, this is not possible in Gnostic terms.
When a new awareness simply conforms, it subsumes itself to the ideas and ideologies of the dominant awareness in the group – its leaders. This is not a process of heightening awareness and freedom of learning and expression. It is rather a process of ideological enslavement and emotional codependency that we like to call “politics,” “established clerical religion,” and “fundamentalism.”
On the other hand, when a new awareness achieves some measure of Gnosis in contact with a Gnostic group mind phenomenon, both the new awareness and the older group awareness are changed – forced to evolve and adapt – by the interaction. Conformity is neither possible, nor desirable, since both forces must continue to evolve in order to remain living entities.
Now a bit of heretical idea for you to have some fun with: Neither “orthodoxy” nor “orthopraxy” are possible or desirable within a gnosis-provoking stream of consciousness. They are, in practice, indistinguishable from each other and they are nothing more than attempts at enforced conformity via static repetition. The only thing within successfully provoked gnosis that can be seen as “static” at all is the awareness of Time as the “eternal now.” However, as a couple of astute practitioners have opined, this “eternal now” is not actually static because it compasses and includes all possible change. Hence we hear the description of “whirling without motion.”
Now to the most fun bit: The above is an Idea. It is the beginning of an understanding. It is not “final” or “perfect” in any way.
Tempus fugit e flux et aeternas,
Trystn
Gnosis, whether you approach it simply as “literal knowledge,” or as Divine Self Knowledge, or as “Knowledge in Conversation with the Holy Guardian Angel” or as “talking to “god/dess” or as Personal Insight (UPG) is likewise a product of that awareness. One might suggest that it is awareness of that awareness.
Human Awareness is a constantly evolving phenomenon, just as human beings constantly evolve. Therefore, Gnosis is not a “completed” state of “perfection.” It is a state of constant change and flux. However, on a occult level, one can posit an even more interesting phenomenon: Interactive Awareness or the “group mind.”
Nothing can interact with anything else without changing what it interacts with, and being changed by that interaction. When a group mind phenomenon encounters another awareness, the two interact, especially if the gateways to gnosis are successfully pointed at, and the new awareness becomes attached to the existing group awareness. You can give all sorts of names and titles both to the group awareness and to the interaction but it is at this point that a fundamental fallacy arises in understanding: The fallacy that the interaction will change the new awareness to conform with the old. As you can see from the preceding, this is not possible in Gnostic terms.
When a new awareness simply conforms, it subsumes itself to the ideas and ideologies of the dominant awareness in the group – its leaders. This is not a process of heightening awareness and freedom of learning and expression. It is rather a process of ideological enslavement and emotional codependency that we like to call “politics,” “established clerical religion,” and “fundamentalism.”
On the other hand, when a new awareness achieves some measure of Gnosis in contact with a Gnostic group mind phenomenon, both the new awareness and the older group awareness are changed – forced to evolve and adapt – by the interaction. Conformity is neither possible, nor desirable, since both forces must continue to evolve in order to remain living entities.
Now a bit of heretical idea for you to have some fun with: Neither “orthodoxy” nor “orthopraxy” are possible or desirable within a gnosis-provoking stream of consciousness. They are, in practice, indistinguishable from each other and they are nothing more than attempts at enforced conformity via static repetition. The only thing within successfully provoked gnosis that can be seen as “static” at all is the awareness of Time as the “eternal now.” However, as a couple of astute practitioners have opined, this “eternal now” is not actually static because it compasses and includes all possible change. Hence we hear the description of “whirling without motion.”
Now to the most fun bit: The above is an Idea. It is the beginning of an understanding. It is not “final” or “perfect” in any way.
Tempus fugit e flux et aeternas,
Trystn
Thursday, December 30, 2010
Paradigm Shift
Do not do what you want, do what is necessary
Take all you are given, give all of yourself
What I have, I hold
When all is lost, and not before, prepare to die with dignity ---- Robert Cochrane
I've banged on the idea of paradigm shift quite a bit in my series of posts and I think that now might be a good time to explain what I mean. Cochrane beats on this topic relentlessly throughout the letters. Chumbley does so in Qutub. The Mystery is the survival of Death - which goes directly into Cochrane's Laws and to his poetic lines paraphrased from Amergin: "I am a wonder, for I have survived Death." In this survival of Death, Time, or its perception, is re-ordered. In terms of human perception, the entire cosmos - the way it is perceived - is inverted. Time goes from a flowing line moving from "past" to "future" to a hub stretching out in three and more dimensions to eternity. All of Time becomes "mythic time" this is to say "now."
Why do I call this a paradigm shift? Because all of human perception depends on how two forces are understood: Time and Light, and these two depend upon each other. Cochrane says "These two may be seen as twins, but may in fact be the same person." The Book of Enoch states flatly "The supreme King of the world is Time."
This reordering - destruction and recreation of the perception of Time - has drastic consequences for Awareness. Since all of perception depends directly on the perception of Time and Light, and reordering the perception of one reorders the perception of the other, then to invert the perception and understanding of Time means that ALL of human perception becomes drastically altered. The cosmic paradigm shifts dramatically, as I've outlined above. In mythic terms, the Flood consumes the world in fire and water; darkness covers the land at midday, the earth shakes, the dead leave the grave and the veil in the temple is rent from bottom to top.
Let's take a look at these items. The Flood, Cochrane describes as Time. Time destroys the world, not via a slow process of erosion but rather by the action of a single, catastrophic instant. Why is this so? The answer is obvious: The perception of Time - and therefore the filter through which it is perceived - is destroyed. So now, let's check to see exactly what is being destroyed. The answer, of course, is "the world." This is to say, in ancient terminology, the entire cosmos *as it is perceived.* If we look to the Gospel of Matthew, from which I draw the other imagery, we see that the Son of Man - the Man - has indeed been crossed. So, of the three "consciousnesses" - Beast, Man, and Archangel - the Man is destroyed, along with its perceptions of the world. The next item to examine is "Darkness covers the land at midday" - in other words midday becomes midnight. Time, or the perception of it, is completely inverted. Next up: "The earth shakes," and here we see again that the perception of reality is altered. That which was seen as "solid" - the ground - is revealed as shifting, and shaking out of all possibility of control - "all the ground is shifting sand" as the old hymn goes. I doubt the church lyricist quite intended those words to be so far reaching, but indeed they are. "The dead leave the grave," is our next item as we can find all sorts of parallels for this. The most immediate lies in a condition that some call "shamanism" where the world of spirit, and the dead within it, oft appear more "solid" than do the living. ( There's an old dead fellow who sometimes stands at the intersection of SR 512 and South Tacoma Way, who has played merry hell with me more than once, stepping out in front of my car as I turned through the intersection. The first couple of times he did this, I hit my brakes only to discover he'd vanished.) Finally we have the veil in the temple. This has a two pronged thrust to it. On one hand, a Temple is a cosmological model, so we can see the rending of the veil as the rending of Time, ergo the Flood. On the other hand, the veil masked the Holy of Holies - the most Tabu place in Judaea - and its tearing renders that place - once restricted to a ritually prepared High Priest - accessible to anyone. Tabu is deliberatly violated and rendered null in the process of this destruction of the Man or the Crossing of the Son of Man. (same idea) who, interestingly enough, in being a crossed abomination - a cursed Nephilim - becomes the most blessed figure in the West for more than a thousand years. Talk about inversion ... in spades. With Holy of Holies standing open: *Nothing* is tabu ... All subsequent "tabus" are revealed - as my friends Nicholaj and Griffin point out in their writings and in conversation - as illusions. So much for the "holy of holies," the "sacred circle," "sacred space," "holy ground," and so forth. There is no ground that is not Sacred, and the formerly "profane" is, in fact, a part of it.
The rest we know. The Stone of Fate is rolled away from the grave after three days (and back to Cochrane's Laws again) and the World - Time - is reordered. However, now the Apostles can see the dead. Tongues of fire appear over their heads ("I am a Devil with a mind of fire" says Taliesin)and all languages are as one to them (again formerly perceived divisions are erased.)
Back to the idea of paradigm shift. Where does this lead us? Whence now? Two friends of mine, Griffin Ced and Arnett Taylor have both offered answers for this: The Witch's entire life is consumed by the search for Truth. It becomes, simply, a huge Sacred Act, made up of dextral and sinistral choices that must be made and their consequences - Necessity - accepted. The Witch, seeing through a combination of the Archangel's eye and the Beast's instincts, finds that the world of form becomes an ellusive shadow, difficult to grasp and with which to deal. "If you are not of this world (form and illusion, the world of the Man) the world will hate you ..." the Gospels of Luke and Thomas both advise us and so it does. We have flown in the face of Fate, accepted the deadly Kiss in the crossroads and our paradigm - our worldview - stands completely inverse to that of those caught up in the illusions of the World of the Man - politics, riches, influence, and so forth. (This is my "why" for my criticism of any focus on politics in a witchcraft stream. Politics is, by nature, the manufacture and mass marketing of illusion and those who court it are caught up in the snare of the Lapwing. This is also why I liken religio-political ideologism to crack cocaine ... Yet the Duty of Care compels us to aid our fellows while demanding we maintain our freedom - another tricky razor blade to walk. In order to understand the "truth" about politics one must needs cut away the layers ideological nonsense and expose the flagrant self-interest of the politician.)
So now, a final thought. Another person once raised a point that I think many folk have overlooked, and that demands address. "Can this be related to rite / praxis?" My answer is an unqualified "Yes, it is needful so." I can think of several rites and parts of rite that, in fact, do so to the point of depending upon it. A piece from my own strain that does so, is one I've partly quoted in this blog several times. I won't quote it directly in its entirety for reasons of my Word, but to paraphrase a bit:
Thus I betray thee with a kiss
And Bless and Curse thee all in one
With vision to see too far
With something like a heart to know too much
And with the voice that may never lie
FFF,
Trystn
Take all you are given, give all of yourself
What I have, I hold
When all is lost, and not before, prepare to die with dignity ---- Robert Cochrane
I've banged on the idea of paradigm shift quite a bit in my series of posts and I think that now might be a good time to explain what I mean. Cochrane beats on this topic relentlessly throughout the letters. Chumbley does so in Qutub. The Mystery is the survival of Death - which goes directly into Cochrane's Laws and to his poetic lines paraphrased from Amergin: "I am a wonder, for I have survived Death." In this survival of Death, Time, or its perception, is re-ordered. In terms of human perception, the entire cosmos - the way it is perceived - is inverted. Time goes from a flowing line moving from "past" to "future" to a hub stretching out in three and more dimensions to eternity. All of Time becomes "mythic time" this is to say "now."
Why do I call this a paradigm shift? Because all of human perception depends on how two forces are understood: Time and Light, and these two depend upon each other. Cochrane says "These two may be seen as twins, but may in fact be the same person." The Book of Enoch states flatly "The supreme King of the world is Time."
This reordering - destruction and recreation of the perception of Time - has drastic consequences for Awareness. Since all of perception depends directly on the perception of Time and Light, and reordering the perception of one reorders the perception of the other, then to invert the perception and understanding of Time means that ALL of human perception becomes drastically altered. The cosmic paradigm shifts dramatically, as I've outlined above. In mythic terms, the Flood consumes the world in fire and water; darkness covers the land at midday, the earth shakes, the dead leave the grave and the veil in the temple is rent from bottom to top.
Let's take a look at these items. The Flood, Cochrane describes as Time. Time destroys the world, not via a slow process of erosion but rather by the action of a single, catastrophic instant. Why is this so? The answer is obvious: The perception of Time - and therefore the filter through which it is perceived - is destroyed. So now, let's check to see exactly what is being destroyed. The answer, of course, is "the world." This is to say, in ancient terminology, the entire cosmos *as it is perceived.* If we look to the Gospel of Matthew, from which I draw the other imagery, we see that the Son of Man - the Man - has indeed been crossed. So, of the three "consciousnesses" - Beast, Man, and Archangel - the Man is destroyed, along with its perceptions of the world. The next item to examine is "Darkness covers the land at midday" - in other words midday becomes midnight. Time, or the perception of it, is completely inverted. Next up: "The earth shakes," and here we see again that the perception of reality is altered. That which was seen as "solid" - the ground - is revealed as shifting, and shaking out of all possibility of control - "all the ground is shifting sand" as the old hymn goes. I doubt the church lyricist quite intended those words to be so far reaching, but indeed they are. "The dead leave the grave," is our next item as we can find all sorts of parallels for this. The most immediate lies in a condition that some call "shamanism" where the world of spirit, and the dead within it, oft appear more "solid" than do the living. ( There's an old dead fellow who sometimes stands at the intersection of SR 512 and South Tacoma Way, who has played merry hell with me more than once, stepping out in front of my car as I turned through the intersection. The first couple of times he did this, I hit my brakes only to discover he'd vanished.) Finally we have the veil in the temple. This has a two pronged thrust to it. On one hand, a Temple is a cosmological model, so we can see the rending of the veil as the rending of Time, ergo the Flood. On the other hand, the veil masked the Holy of Holies - the most Tabu place in Judaea - and its tearing renders that place - once restricted to a ritually prepared High Priest - accessible to anyone. Tabu is deliberatly violated and rendered null in the process of this destruction of the Man or the Crossing of the Son of Man. (same idea) who, interestingly enough, in being a crossed abomination - a cursed Nephilim - becomes the most blessed figure in the West for more than a thousand years. Talk about inversion ... in spades. With Holy of Holies standing open: *Nothing* is tabu ... All subsequent "tabus" are revealed - as my friends Nicholaj and Griffin point out in their writings and in conversation - as illusions. So much for the "holy of holies," the "sacred circle," "sacred space," "holy ground," and so forth. There is no ground that is not Sacred, and the formerly "profane" is, in fact, a part of it.
The rest we know. The Stone of Fate is rolled away from the grave after three days (and back to Cochrane's Laws again) and the World - Time - is reordered. However, now the Apostles can see the dead. Tongues of fire appear over their heads ("I am a Devil with a mind of fire" says Taliesin)and all languages are as one to them (again formerly perceived divisions are erased.)
Back to the idea of paradigm shift. Where does this lead us? Whence now? Two friends of mine, Griffin Ced and Arnett Taylor have both offered answers for this: The Witch's entire life is consumed by the search for Truth. It becomes, simply, a huge Sacred Act, made up of dextral and sinistral choices that must be made and their consequences - Necessity - accepted. The Witch, seeing through a combination of the Archangel's eye and the Beast's instincts, finds that the world of form becomes an ellusive shadow, difficult to grasp and with which to deal. "If you are not of this world (form and illusion, the world of the Man) the world will hate you ..." the Gospels of Luke and Thomas both advise us and so it does. We have flown in the face of Fate, accepted the deadly Kiss in the crossroads and our paradigm - our worldview - stands completely inverse to that of those caught up in the illusions of the World of the Man - politics, riches, influence, and so forth. (This is my "why" for my criticism of any focus on politics in a witchcraft stream. Politics is, by nature, the manufacture and mass marketing of illusion and those who court it are caught up in the snare of the Lapwing. This is also why I liken religio-political ideologism to crack cocaine ... Yet the Duty of Care compels us to aid our fellows while demanding we maintain our freedom - another tricky razor blade to walk. In order to understand the "truth" about politics one must needs cut away the layers ideological nonsense and expose the flagrant self-interest of the politician.)
So now, a final thought. Another person once raised a point that I think many folk have overlooked, and that demands address. "Can this be related to rite / praxis?" My answer is an unqualified "Yes, it is needful so." I can think of several rites and parts of rite that, in fact, do so to the point of depending upon it. A piece from my own strain that does so, is one I've partly quoted in this blog several times. I won't quote it directly in its entirety for reasons of my Word, but to paraphrase a bit:
Thus I betray thee with a kiss
And Bless and Curse thee all in one
With vision to see too far
With something like a heart to know too much
And with the voice that may never lie
FFF,
Trystn
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