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 ...