Trystn's Occult Journal

These Dreams ...

2011-11-08T07:31:00.000-08:00

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.

Compass Form Musings - The Witches Compass - The North Wind and the Castle of Spirits

2011-08-22T11:17:00.000-07:00

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)

Compass Form Musings

2011-08-18T08:11:00.000-07:00

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 ...

"Clergy" - who needs them?

2011-08-16T10:07:00.000-07:00

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."

A Thoroughly Mundane Topic: Plagiarism

2011-07-11T12:27:00.001-07:00

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.

Heresy

2011-04-06T08:29:00.000-07:00

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

Paradigm Shift

2010-12-30T10:09:00.000-08:00

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

Thoughts on Relgionism vs GnosticPanennontheistic Experience and Thought

2010-11-15T08:43:00.000-08:00

Jesus Christ Never Existed

La Sagesse

This is Klaus Schilling's summary and translation of the work "Jesus Cristo Nunca Existiu" by the pseudonymed author La Sagesse, available in (Brazilean) Portuguese (.pdf) (.htm). Formatted and copyedited by Michael Hoffman with Klauss' permission, May 15, 2005.

http://www.egodeath.com/LaSagesseJesusNeverExisted.htm#_Toc103935160

I Jesus Christ Never Existed
During centuries, church tradition had to defend their historical Jesus in order to consolidate their faith. Many documents had to be fabricated for that purpose. Only a few decades ago, Pope Pius became tired of the struggle and declared Jesus to be a fact of faith only.

Emilio Bossi wrote a book "Gesu` Cristo non e` mai esistito" (Jesus Christ has never existed), where he compared Jesus to Socrates, both having a circle of disciples, but left nothing written on their own. Alas, the disciples of Socrates were no analphabetic parrots of the tradition of the fathers.

The sociopolitical power of the Vatican oppressed any free thought in Europe for many centuries until the Enlightenment, when humanism without superstition was made possible.

Jesus is an ideal invented for midrash of Scripture.

The Jewish people migrated from Central Asia into the Semitic areas of the Near East. It was subject to a lot of hostility and oppression. The Jewish religion grew in that environment. Starting as a people of nomads and itinerant craftsmen, it evolved into a people of merchants. At this stage, literacy became important.

The sect of the Essenes demonstrated elaborate community ethics. Their messianic expectations in the Diaspora gave cause to the formation of Christianity.

Christianity was thus a tool for survival of the diaspora Jews. It became more and more popular among the high society of the Roman empire. An authoritarian class of priests thus was established once Christianity took over the rule of the Empire.

Modern science shows that a lot of early Christian writings are forged and faked.

II The Proofs and Counterproofs
Tacitus, Suetonius, Plinius, Philo, Iustus Tiberias, and Flavius Iosephus have all been tampered with by church scribes in order to camouflage Christian origins.

According to Tacitus, Augustus and Tiberius expulsed some Judeo-Egyptian superstition from Rome in early first century.

The most important author for the formation of Christianity is Philo Alexandrinus. In a lost tractate, Philo supposedly wrote about the good god Serapis. The tractate may have been similar to the Christian Gospels and ruthlessly abused by plagiarists. Thus non-apologist scholars showed that Christianity started out in Alexandria. Philo adapted Judaism to fit in a framework of hellenic philosophy, especially Platonism.

Of course Philo would have known about a historical Jesus of his generation, if there had been any.

The same silence extends to the apostles, to Mary and Joe, and so on.

Church tradition is built on fabrications and forgery only, the head of the enterprise having been Eusebius of Caesarea in Constantine times.

Starting with the Tuebingen school, the historical value of the bible was step by step reduced to naught. Like Jesus himself, it's a heap of fictions, arrangements, and adaptions.

Jean Guitton underlined the significance of perspective in NT research. While denying the historical existence of Jesus, Couchoud affirmed the ideal existence of the same.

Voltaire exposed the parallels of John's Gospels and Philo's collected works, and that Christian philosophy is essentially Philo's.

Historical criticism also suggests that Paul is a creation of Marcion.

[La Sagesse falsely scribes this to the Tuebingen school]

The bible, claiming inerrancy by appeal to higher authority. is full of primitive contradictions and humbug.

Hundreds of gospels have been written before church dogmatics reduced them to four. Laterre holds that they all copied one from another, starting with Mark's, in a chaotic race, and from sources being in part prior to Hebrew scripture.

Since second century, a historified Jesus was invented for sociopolitical reasons. Finally the Empire was assimilated during the rule of Constantine.

A. Loisy concluded that the Christian church based its structure and dogmatics essentially on Essene doctrine and ritual. The Jesus figure is thus derived from Essenic legends.

Prosper Alfaric, author of "L'e'cole de la raison" (school of reason) expounds on the efforts of reconciliation of Christian faith and reason throughout church history. Alfaric underlined the parallelism of Jesus and pagan solar cults, and sees the Qumran scrolls as the missing link for proving that Jesus is the legendary Chrestos of the Esseni. The Habakuk scroll mentions a righteous teacher, a traitor, and a vicious priest. The scroll predates the Common era and its legendary character influenced a lot the Gospel stories.

Christianity is nothing but syncretism of a diversity of Jewish sects, seasoned with pagan cult elements. The term Evangelion (gospel) already appears in Homer's Odyssea. It was applied to Emperor Augustus, as is seen in an inscription in Priene in Ionia.

The gospels "according to" someone were not actually written by those persons. Justin Martyr did not know of acts, gospels, and letters. This underlines that they were not known much prior to 150.

Marcion was a contemporary of Justin. He came up with a letter of Paul to the Romans, for the very first time. The letter was not to the liking of the Catholic church, like the other main letters, and went through dogmatic mutilations and redactions before being added to the canonical writings.

For Engels, the Apocalypse is the oldest of the NT writings.

Origenes accuses Flavius Iosephus of neglecting Jesus. This shows that the TF is posterior to Origenes and faked, just as the Testimonium Tacitum. Suetonius wrote about Jews instigated by a certain Chrestus, which can be seen as a reference to legendary essenic Chrestus.

Christians in the proper sense never incited revolts and similar stuff but proved as obedient inhabitants of the Empire. The letter of Plinius has been shown as falsified from front to back by various methods.

Seneca was the first prominent carrier of Christian ethics.

Judaism built much on the solar deity cults of the Mediterranean world, especially the Osiris-Isis cult. This carried over to Christianity. Mary is essentially Isis. Seth, the enemy of Isis- Osiris-Horus, turned into Herod. Christianity is thus just a renaming exercise. A very important source is the Mitras cult and its relative, the Sol Invictus.

Hobbes and Spinoza proved that the Pentateuch is from the Hasmonean era. Reimarus shattered a lot of superstitious church tradition by showing that the whole fulfilled prophetic stuff smells fishy. Dupuis showed the absurdity of the humanity of Jesus by usage of solar mythology that was abundant in ancient times. Kalthoff underlined the socio-economical aspects of early Christianity which fit nicely into the general situation of Rome and its environment.

III The Fabrications
Extrabiblical evidence for Jesus is based on Flavius Iosephus, Tacitus, Plinius II, and Suetonius.

An educated romanophile Jew like Flavius would never write such a humbug, as underlined by Pater Gillet. No one before Eusebius dared to refer to Flavius as a witness for Jesus. Phocius of Constantinople already stated the absurdity of the testimony ascribed to Flavoius Iosephus in the 9th century.

Tacitus wrote about Christ-driven sectarians in Rome as enemies of mankind. The interpolatedness of this passage is plainly self-evident.

Ganeval noted the expulsion of Jews and Egyptians, members of one superstition, from Rome, concluding that this must refer to Alexandrian Esseni, followers of Chrestus.

Suetonius explicitly used the term Chrestus for the troublemaker.

Also the forgedness of the passage in Plinius' letter to Traian is self-evident.

If there had been a real Jesus Christ, the church would not have invented fraudulent witnesses.

IV The Painful Silence of History
Ganeval emphasised the thorough similarities of Christianity and Osiris cult, which go ultimately back to Sun worship.

>From the fragments of Papias it becomes obvious that the Gospels he

saw referring to the Egyptian Christ.

Based on Phocius, Ganeval underlined that most early Christian theologers had absolutely no concept of a physical, historical Jesus. Heresiologer Epiphanius insinuates in his refutations that Jesus was essentially seen as Horus, closest relative of Osiris.

For Hieronymus, those heresies go back to apostolic times. Emperor Hadrian supposedly wrote that the Christians were worshippers of Serapis, and vice versa [see John Abrowus' post at Jesus Mysteries around June 11, 2004]. Philo's writings and the UrGospels certainly refer to Serapis, not Jesus. Even Clems Alexandrinus and Origenes still dance to a similar tune. They did not believe in a Jesus incarnate, as they did not believe at all in incarnation. Phocius mentions this in his comments on Clement's disputes.

Dupuis and Volney exercised a thorough study of comparative mythology, showing that the Gospels fit into a general mythical framework. Philo described the ascetic sect of the Therapeutes, proper precursors of Christian monastery movements.

V A Jesus Christ without History
Now that it's made clear that Jesus was an anthropomorhised God, and not a deified man, it will be examined where the picture of Jesus as a man painted in the Gospels derives from.

Jesus means the God's saviour.

Christ means anointed, Messiah in semitic languages. This is a term used occasionally in the Old Testament, referring to various kings of glory, including gentiles like Cyrus the Parthic and the Punic King of Tyrus.

Thus for centuries, the idea of God's anointed king of glory lurked around.

The Jesus Christ of the Christian Gospels now turns out as a figment of second century with the goal of fulfilling Scripture.

Jesus Christ may be seen as an actor on the stage. He implements the dram around Golgotha and vanishes from the stage after this act. Already the birth narrative according to Matthews fulfills various prophets. Many more examples are listed here [and generally known to most of us].

Messianism was an invention of the priest class in order to silence and exploit further the common people. Often the context between prophesy and fulfilling Gospel event is blurred and skewed.

The transformation of prophetic phantasy into evangelical pseudo-reality was awkward and cumbersome.

Proscriptions of Christianity only started with second century. The ideal of martyrdom was propagated by many church fathers starting with that time, expounding on the example of Jesus' own passion. Ireneus saw the epistle of Peter as wayshower. The epistles express a pending eschatological expectation. The connection of martyrdom and eschatological expectation also shines through in Paul's epistles.

VI Jesus and the Time
Only after centuries did the year of Jesus' birth get fixed to today's traditional date by Dionys Minor. Many considerations were necessary.

Also the date within the year was subject to disputes and schisms during an extended period, ranging from early winter to early spring.

The finally prevailing 25th of December is not by chance coinciding with the legendary birth date of Mitras, another solar redeemer deity.

The choice was made by a John Chrysostom. Only Matthew's and Luke's mention a birth tale at all. The tales are full of superstition and wannabe Tanakh fulfilling. Same is valid for the Passion narratives.

Pilatus was never aware of anything that may be named Jesus Christ.

And the life in-between is filled with superstitious thaumaturgy.

Havet underlined the unreality of Jesus, unlike that of Socrates, from the former's realistic description by his disciples Plato and Xenophanes. Renan emphasises the imaginative power of the early Christians leading to phantastic stories. Miron admits the impossibility of knowing anything about the life of Jesus. Labanca refutes the mere possibility of reading any biography of Jesus from the Gospels, who are solely theological tractates, and nowhere near historical records.

VII Jesus in the Gospels
The Gospels are tales about the God jesus, not the man. Verne`s showed that everything in the bible is symbol and midrash.

Only Ireneus started with assigning names to the Gospels, connected by 'according to', which does not say anything about authorship. The first to refer to Gospels was Papias of Hieropolis, who was martyred under Marcus Aurelius. Early Christians were barely literate, and whatever may have been written is most likely destroyed , especially under Emperor Constantine, on whose behalf the council of Nicea was invested with the approval and rejection of Christian writings according to the needs to the Roman state.

The Gospels are utterly full of inconsistencies, anachronisms, anatopisms, and mutual discord. Holy inspiration was invented in order to silence rising critics. This is common practice in religious thinking. Stefanoni figured that those writings reflect the spirit of the time and place they were written, but not the Holy Spirit.

VIII Jesus Christ Is a Miracle
The Gospels are full of thaumaturgy, Jesus being involved both actively and passively in miracle tales. The church was always in an inner conflict between Jesus' humanity and his divinity. The miraculous, supernatural aspects prevail. Not much is there to distinguish Jesus from other gods walking around in human shape. John's Gospel presents Jesus as the incarnate word (logos) of God.

IX Jesus Christ, a Biblical Myth
From the absurdity of all pretended historical evidence for Jesus we already know that we deal here with a myth, based on the Tanakh and general traits of solar deities.

La Sagesse warns against the dangers of a connection of theocracy and capitalism.

Again, the construction of Jesus after Tanakh prophets and other legends is pointed out.

Even the number of books in the bible has a symbolic function. OT and NT sum up to 72 books, akin to the number of Elders that climbed Sinai along with Moses.

The messiah is told to be a Nazarean, according to scripture, and thus the village Nazareth got invented by the church fathers in order to fulfill this. Also the temptation of Jesus in the desert is anticipated by the Tanakh. The 40 days in the desert are akin to the 40 years of Israel in the Exodus. Jeremiah and Isaiah both anticipate the temple cleansing. Like Moses changed water into blood, Jesus changed water into wine, his own blood. Jesus death around the Paschal feast is akin to his role as the Paschal lamb, alluded in Scripture.

And so on and so on and so on ... the historicity of Jesus thus becomes a bottomless joke.

X The Contradictions Concerning Jesus Christ
Luke and Matthew give genealogies of Jesus in order to derive Jesus in male bloodline from David. But on the other hand, Jesus is not son of a human man, thus the whole genealogies turn into a ridiculous joke.

The birth dates of Jesus according to Matthew and Luke differ by eleven years.

Mark and John don't see any value in Jesus' infancy and start with the baptismal by John Baptist.

Bossi noted how absurd it is that Mary, after the miraculous birth, is still astonished about Jesus' thaumaturgy and powerful appearance.

Luke's and John's description of Samarians towards Jesus conflict.

The synoptics let Jesus die the eve of Paschah, John on the day of Paschah.

And so on and so on ...

Bossi gave a more detailed description of all the contradictions.

XI The Contradictions of the Gospels
Only a few day after the glorious march on Jerusalem, the same people that cheered Jesus request his crucifixion. Pilatus is told to be convinced of Jesus' innocence, yet sentences the same absurdly. It also contradicts Philo's picture of Pilatus, who would never respect the mood of the people and recklessly exercise his office.

Paul's letters invent a certain Apollos with loose relation to the apostles. While knowing everything about Jesus, same Apollos only knew about the baptismal scene, according to the apostolic acts. What a ridiculous joke. First Corinthians equates Apollos even with Jesus.

Paul describes Jesus as a theological entity rather than a historical one.

Romans 1:8 makes Paul appear enthusiastic about the diffusion of the faith from Rome. But this doesn't jibe with himself facing serious accusation by same Roman believers.

Eusebius tells that the Christianity of Egypt is Therapeutist, and Tacitus confirms that Judaism and Egyptian cult formed a superstitious unity.

XII Some Sources of Christianity
Indian deity Vishnu had a series of incarnations (avatars) , the most prominent being Krishna and Buddha. There are some fancy parallels between Krishna and Jesus, like the annunciation and the missing corpse.

Also Buddha shows some parallels to Jesus.

Like the Pope, the Dalai Lama is under an nimbus of infallibility.

The link between the Indian world and Christianity may be the cult of Mitra, the solar deity of Iranian origin. Jesus appears as a cheap copy of Mitra in several aspects.

Firmicus emphasised the similarity of Christian and Mitraic liturgy and ceremonialism.

Horus, Bacchus, and Adonis play a similar trumpet. Already the Phoenicians had a sort of passion rite.

Redeemer gods were usually solar deities, also in cultures off the Mediterranian and Indian zones, like Belus , the celtic deity.

Dupuis described the solar myth in detail.

Jesus is thus just one more example of one large brood of solar - redeemer -deities.

XIII Jesus Christ, a Religious Copy
As many elements of the redemption theology of Christianity were present within the neighbour cultures of Judaism, one just had to loan and patch them together.

For example, Yahveh and Ahura mazda both approximately mean "that what is". The Genesis derives also otherwise a lot from the Zentavesta.

For example the story of Adam, Eve, and the fall is paralleled within Zoroastrian Scripture. The paradise is from an Iranian word for garden. The purgatory has been used already by Plato, who divided souls into pure, cleansable, and beyond hope.

Chaldeans and Phoenicians , like Jews, specialised in commerce. Religion turned out as an excellent merchandise. Becoming literate, it was easy to copy and distribute legends that have been patched together.

Emilio Bossi figured that Manas, Egyptian lawgiver, and Manu, Indian lawgiver, can't be quite unrelated, and also Moses of the Hebrew and Minos of the Minoic culture should be seen in this brood. Following Jacolliot , it doesn't take much to see that Krishna and Jesus are in a similar relation. Egypt may be speculated to have been colonised from India.

Thus in general, Jesus is an amalgamation of divinity aspects of older cultures.

XIV The Redeemer Gods
The sun was the first source of energy human life had, until mankind was able to kindle fire itself.

Many solar deities like Mitra also have been worshipped as fire gods.

The discovery of fire gave mankind an immense advantage in controlling the world.

Plato and Aristotle deemed sun worship as rational to some extent, although they were more sceptic to popular religiosity in general.

Solar deities like Salvitri and Mitra tend to be born shortly after the winter solstice. Herodot already knew about Mitra. Plutarch tells us that persian pirates brought the Mitra cult to Sicily.

Jesus' life is somewhat typical for the life of a solar deity. Birth around winter solstice, resurrection around spring equinox.

For Egyptians, the sun was the celestial father. This is underlined by some obelisk dragged into the Circus Maximus at Rome.

Jesus is just the same old sun god in a new dress.

XV Jesus Christ Is a Solar Myth
Dupuis derived the general pattern of the biography of solar deities like Jesus from astronomical observations, esp. solstices and equinoxes, and so on. Solar cult prevails in modern Christianity as well. Jesus is the lamb of God, akin to the significance of Easter, usually celebrated during the passage of the sun through the zodiacal sign of Aries. Origenes justified sun worship for its symbolic reason. Tertullian admits that Christian resurrection is akin to the Mitraic counterpart.

The portuguese term for sunday (domingo) derives from Latin dominus.

Mani and Satornil identified the sun as the Christ and true home of the soul.

The church tried to hide the fact that Jesus is just yet another solar deity after a long struggle.

XVI Other Sources of Christianity
As already seen, all of the Jesus story is copied from those peoples the Jews had contacted throughout their history, thus there's nothing new or unique in Christianity at all, with the possible exceptiopn of eternal damnation.

For example, the golden rule is a whole lot older and spread across the western hemisphere. Pythagoreans taught forgiving of enemies before Common Era. Panecumenical fraternity was e.g. promoted by Philo Alexandrinus. Plato emphasised the value of virtues. The Sicilians abandoned bloody sacrifices during the wars of Hanibal with Rome. Epictetus and Marcus Aurel may be considered as perfect teachers of Christian virtues. And so on ...

XVII Judaism and Christianity
Most of the Jewish roots of Christianity have been floating around already prior to Judaism, like the role of free will and sin. Psychic immortality has been established in pre-Zoroastrian Iranic religion.

Many other cultures did so, too. Monotheism and trinity are Indian.

Church fathers had to admit that pagans held these concepts since ancient times. The divine word was already an Egyptian concept.

Stoics like Seneca and Cicero cherished concepts of Christian ethics and virtues.

Christianity is result of a hellenisiation of Judaism. Therapeutae abandoned Jewish orthodoxy because it was impractical in the diaspora and a source of conflicts. They practice strict ascetism.

Philo was the involuntary founder of Christianity. He emphasised the major currents of hellenic diaspora Judaism: Essenic eschatolohy, Therapuetic ethics, and the dioctrine of the Logos personified. Also the personification of wisdom in hellenised Jewish literature, especially the wisdom of Solomon, fits in this context. Philo established the role of mercy (Charis) which God shows towards mankind, and the mediating role of the Logos. The logos was also deemed the bread of life, which anticipates already the Christian Eucharist.

Paulus, Origenes, and Clemens Alexandrinus stayed in this framework.

XVIII Christianity without Jesus Christ
It's plain obvious that Christianity works well without Jesus Christ.

The role priesthood is akin to that of Brahmanic tradition who had established the necessity of professional priests long ago. The situation is similar in Buddhism, with its monastries and priests. The Zoroastrian priesthood established an inner hierarchy. Already in Egypt, the priests formed the ruling social and political class, responsible even for voting the king.

Indians also practiced masochist practices that were popular in medieval Europe, like self-flogging.

The Romans practiced human sacrifices for the sake of human race.

Chastity votes were practiced in Buddhism. Pure virgins as mothers of deities abound in the ancient world.

Greeks invented the week of seven days, each dedicated to its own deity. And so on ...

Thus Christianity is one eclectic copycat.

***********************************************************************************

The above was sent to me as a link by Claudio De Carvalho. I agree with a great deal of this essay and find it well thought out. What the author does not say is that Christianity would function better without a "literal Christ."

Iesu Nazeretus was invented and deified by the Emperor Constantine in 325 AD. Constantine did this in an effort to stablize a Roman society that had been ripped apart, internally, by Christian Violence and Christian Crime. He combined Christian Myth with those of the extant Mystery Traditions active in Rome at the time, particularly the Mithraic and Rex Nemorensis Traditions, but not excluding Platonist, Neo-Platonist / Hermetic, Pythagorean, Isis and Osiris and other popular Mystery Cults. His new Roman Universal State Religion - read "Roman Catholic Church" - centered on the Imperial Cultus, with Constantine, Pontifex Maximus, assuming both the visible role of "Vicarius Filius Deus" and keeping the less visible role of "God the Emperor" or "God the Father." One can see echoes of this in the addresses to European Aristocracy even today. The Monarch is refered to as "Sire" - from which we derive "Sir" - or "Father" or by a suitable matronymic in the case of a Queen. In short, umpteen generations of literalist Christian simpltons have been, and continue, worshiping a dead Roman Emperor.

Iesu Nazeretus Rex Iudii, Jesus of Nazereth King of the Jews (for the ill-educated,) or "god the Stick Puppet," as he would be more accurately described, served as a perfect figurehead, to which, Imperial edicts could be attached. Vicauii Filii Deii has the ear of god, because, as "St. Paul" puts it "...governments are the arm of god."

Today this absurd construct spawns webs of confusion and violent crime worldwide. One can see this behavior in Christian corruption of government officials; Televangelist claims that they are told to seek public office by visions of a "200 foot Jesus" in the back yard; Christian sexual crimes such as those of the recently convicted and sentenced Hopkins; Christian "witch" fear mongering in the U.S. and Africa and the violent, criminal behaviors arising from these.

One can see these behaviors mirrored in the activities of Islam and of large, "pagan churches," who are likewise motivated by fear mongering and leaders who claim "divine inspiration" and demand political conformism as an "article of the faith" whether said conformism be to so-called "marxism," "feminism," or any other pet political ideology.

The end result remains the same. The personality cult figure at the center of the religio-political web of illusion sets him or herself up for material success by setting up his or her followers up for spiritual failure. Hence the prohibitions in the origins of these constructs against taking money for magic or "acts of faith."
The fact remains: $t. $o-and-$o does not "have the ear of "god (TM)" or "the goddess (TM)" and is nowhere near infallible, regardless of how much sycophantism he or she may promote. Nor are they "preparing anyone for the times to come." Such mass, popular "movements" remain nothing more than examples of mass exploitation.

So, having disposed of the literal "god" or "goddess" figure, what remains? What benefit is gained from spiritual practice, once we strip it of the illusions of "christ" and "clergy?" Interestingly enough, it begins to function. The Mystery Figure at the center, be it animus or anima mundi, becomes exemplar, initiator / initiatrix, and embodiment of Awareness and its evolution. In short, this figure becomes the named figurehead for both immanent and transcendent Gnostic Deity - the "god within," rather than an object of external adjectification. Cult figures become unmasked as either idealists or as frauds - sometimes as both - and we cast them aside.

Christianity no longer wields the Beast's terribe weapon of Fear, nor does Paganism wield the fearful, dogmatic prod of "karma," but instead, the true exemplars point the road to Self Knowledge or Gnosis, Theosis, and finally Theophany. "I Am a wonder, revealing cause for terror," reads the riddle poem, and this Terror represents the sum of all fears: The Release from Fear, through the casting down of illusion. "My goddess gave birth to your god" becomes, once more, amusing since both are, in reality, all in our heads ...

"truth (tm)"

2010-10-12T12:47:00.000-07:00

“truth ™”

I would say that the notion that "truth exists" is, like everything else, open to debate and subject to individual testing. The concept itself is highly paradoxical and runs something like this: "Truth exists, outside of existence, unknown, in its totality unknowable, only glimpsable and subject to the perception filters of those who catch a glimpse of it." Taking it this way, it is not the "truth" that matters, but rather the questing for it, this is to say, the undertaking of the impossible and - hopefully - the experience of the inexpressable. I say "hopefully" because *NOTHING* is "safe" and *NOTHING* is guaranteed. It is in this last that the lack of belief becomes your greatest ally, for where neither "belief" or "disbelief" hold sway, all is possibility. The human idea of "gods" therefore takes two forms:

1. The human attempt to set human agendas and limitations on the unknown and unknowable. In Qabalistic terms this could be expressed as the "attempt to personfy Ain Soph." In either terms, an exercise - at best - in futility; at worst a mechanism for exploitation. This is the nature of religious dogma.

2. The recognition of, and interaction with, spirits whose existence is postulated within Time and who serve both as identifiers and interfaces for the forces of Creation and Destruction that operate within Time. If you look at the Letters you will note that RC takes a very unique and, to my mind, insightful and highly scientific approach to the relationship between Time and Awareness: "These two then appear as Twins, but they may be the same person." This offers you the question: "Does Time create Awareness or does Awareness create Time or do they create each other?" In more relativistic terms, you could say "Light" instead of "Awareness" and thus posit physical energy and the relationships of Space/Time and Event/Motion/Energy if you like, but to my mind these latter two bleed over into each other so as to be indistinguishable in the case of human psychology. .

The existence of these spirits is not even a given - it is quite contested. There are those who suggest that we actually create them ourselves in order to have an interface that can talk to us. It is further suggested that all but three of these spirit/imagini are actually human in origin, and only Time, Fate (Causality,) and Awareness are "big enough" to be called "gods." You are going to jump up and say "But Awareness is human" and so it is, and if you think about it a moment, you can see an interesting connection to Crowley's statement in Liber Al: "There is no "god" but Man." Going further with this understanding, there is no way that these spirits or interfaces could be "gods," regardless of who may render them worship. Taking the "spirits" idea as my "given" for the sake of clarity and brevity of conversation; they are not our superiors, they are our peers and in some ways they are to be pitied as they have become trapped in the roles of the handmaidens of Fate. Siddharta Buddha had ideas very similar to these and, if you want my opinion, his followers - pardon my bluntness - fucked him over by making a "god" of him. After all, it was he who said "If you see the Buddha, kill the Buddha." The role of a "god" was the last thing he wanted ...

So, if you want to play "creation myth" you could start: There was an old fellow called Time, and he had a wife whose name was Fate, and they had a home in the midst of a lake called "The Head ..." and go from there. Now we could really have some fun with the role of Creation / Flood myths in Gnostic Mystery Systems. I am going to suggest that you look at such in the context of the above and consider the Creation myth to be taking place, not in the "literal" and illusory World of Form, but within the psyche and perception of a single person, destroying and recreating that person's way of Perceiving. The most fundamental prop, on which rests the human perception of "reality," is the perception of Time. If you drastically rearrange how Time is perceived in an individual Awareness, what do you imagine might occur? One final thought in this vein: Since the process of this rearrangement can only occur on the Individual level, and cannot be guaranteed, then mass movements - religions - are all making hollow promises. In short, they are designed to set their priesthoods up for material success by setting the vast majority of their followers up for spiritual failure. It is for this reason that "broad, inclusive" movements and definitions of Mystery Systems are inherently absurd. This is not only the case with Wicca, it is also the case with Catholicism, Eastern Orthodoxy, and other such large systems. Buddhism - like Western "Witchcraft" works around this by postulating existence as not one, but a series of attempts, all aimed at "short circuiting" the serial and cyclic nature of Fate.

You can also see this metaphorically expressed in Christian writ, although the Christian Priesthood does its very best to cover up the concept by glossing over the details and concentrating on a literalistic "shock and awe" view of the picture. (Of course, if you know your Christian History, then you *can* assert, with some effectiveness, that "Jesus" - Iesu Nazeretus - was invented in deified in 325 CE by decree of the Emperor Constantine and is a very different beastie from his *possible* historical basis in the persons of Joshua Bar Abbas, Joshua Ben Mirriam and John of Antioch. So much for "revealed religion" say I ...)

Is it any wonder that my joke's in iron, and the joke's on you!

2010-09-18T10:16:00.000-07:00

This by way of a bit of historic commentary on the preceeding article. Masking is a well - and Universally Known - shamanistic technique. It specifically permits the submerging of the ego within the mantle of a carried Spirit. It is used ceremonially to enact the role or Mantle of said Spirit.

Recently, a talk was given in London by a couple who make certain claims. However, their claim regards masking is: "EJJ - Magister of Tubal Cain - taught us everything but this part is wrong." Ok, if this part of what John Jones taught you is "wrong" then how much of the rest is misdirection? How about your Admissions? Are these misdirection as well? Giving someone a bogus "initiation" on the way back from the pub of a night is a well known joke in the British Witchcraft Community ... Their claim that guising is merely "ego stroking" is certainly supported by medieval Christian, as well as by modern Neopagan Dogma, but not by Mumming, Morris Dancing, or other forms of well known British masked magic. I would submit that this claim belongs, in reference these folk, among the ranks of the SCA and live action Fantasy Game Players, where it most certainly does occur. However, I created this blog to discuss Traditional Witchcraft, not the SCA (tm), not Dungeons and Dragons (tm), or who was spawned by such things.

But back to the History. Robert Cochrane - Magister of Tubal Cain, during his lifetime, is also known to have made use of the masking technique and with considerable success. To the many who shrink back, saying "Isn't that dangerous?" I reply: Of course it is, but when you work magic *NOTHING* is "safe"" Now the question remains: If one is to claim to carry a legacy, should not one *at least* attempt some proficiency in all of its facets?

I'll tell you, here's a twist ...

2010-09-18T10:13:00.000-07:00

Reproduced here by the kind permission of the Author; Shani Oates, Maid of the Clan of Tubal Cain

The Profane Art of Masking: A Study into the Darker Elements of our Winter Masking and Guising rituals

“Masks were invented by Satan: ‘It was he who put on the Mask of a serpent in Paradise”
[Gesner]

What is a mask, actually? Magically, a mask is understood to represent three characters: the wearer, the personage it represents and the spirit that synthesises the two. Dramatically, it is considered as the ‘persona’ (voice carrier, that through which sound is carried) contrived for profit, disguise or deception. Psychologically, in hiding the person, it frees the self, this double face imposes its will, engaging and manipulating the environment to which it is subject. Countless generations of revellers have exploited this expression of power, given free license to act, prompt, cajole, intimidate at will an audience always unsure of the motivation and intention of the figure in disguise. Ranging from animal to supernatural forms, something of their nature is imparted to its wearer. But is it really that simple? Why do people don mask and disguise? History reveals cultural practises that are secular, religious and/or supernatural.
Originally, cathartic dance, mime, drama and divine musing were all held as sacred acts by the ancient Greeks yet they gradually became secularised by the pragmatic Romans into farce and other hellish funereal acts (fabula atellana) separating worship from celebration, formerly held as one by their Grecian predecessors. Further east and north, supernatural or magical elements were emphasised as culture dictated. Naturally, considerable aspects of all three practices become synthesised to a greater or lesser degree, and this is typified in various Eastern, African and South American religious carnivals and festivals. However, when assessing the purpose and intent of these rites, academia cautions against the supposition that traditions over time (and more evidently over greater periods of time) remain the same. Traditions at opposite ends of such a spectrum may differ considerably [Twycross & Carpenter, 2002:1].
Masks are the oldest expression of humanity. They retain the element of mystery, inculcating uncertainty within the onlooker. According to anthropologists masking has just one role, to deceive by illusion, either by the gods inspiring them or the alter egos of people wearing them. They adopt a public face by hiding the private one; they transform, protect, scare, intimidate, shock, all by inversion! Masks generate transformation in the viewers mind, for the wearer of such a tool, this is immensely empowering. It is also liberating. They are the intercessors between the gods and man, hence all the superstitions accorded to them by onlookers. Masks command attention. As an idiom, mask is derived from the Italian word ‘masca’ meaning hideous. Culturally, Anglo-Saxons are responsible for our modern concept of the ‘Grim Reaper’, a psychopomp (and epithet for the devil, the stealer of souls), formulated from the word for face-mask -‘grima’ the root of which originally meant the expression of ferocious or enraged man, which links again the violence and aggression associated with its adopted features [ibid.18]. Curiously it is now commonly worn in celebration remembering the dead, albeit in deflection of the spirit it represents, an apotropaic pagan concept that averts mischief from the wearer.
Mediaeval ‘Comedia dell’arte’ descended from the ‘fabula atellana,’ and as inheritors of the Christian Roman perception of masks as representations of ‘evil,’ the first mask made was a caricature of the Devil himself. This was used provocatively in satirical plays to parody the licentious or greedy natures of both nobility and clergy. Also popular was the ‘Aliquino’ (Harlequin), the prince of demons. Excommunicated by the Pope, all players became wandering troupes of rogues, players of satirical buffoonery and farce. Subversive potential was further parodied by them as each Italian city and class were masterfully condensed into a character and typified by the artful features of each mask. [1]
In Britain, similar troupes know as ‘mummers’ would carouse the streets during seasonal celebrations, but more commonly over winter. Folklorist Ralph Whitlock [1978:21] suggests the unlikely meaning of disguised revellers common to Scotland and Cornwall, known as ‘guizers’, is ‘geese dancers’; due he claims, to their bizarre propensity to wear rags and skins/pelts of animals, Incidentally, these traditions acquired the socially uncomfortable and normally forbidden aspects of begging, especially amongst children, thinly veneered in the custom of ‘soul-caking.’ Apparently, both adult ‘mummers’ and ‘guizers’ would gain entry to homes by an unwritten law, on the pretext of ‘sweeping’ away the ills of the old year to herald in the new, entirely reliant upon the superstitious need to avert ill fate and fortune for the coming year. Thus granted the threshold powers of Janus, they exerted a protocol which was known and readily accepted.
To cover ones face is alluring and motivates intrigue, it cultivates curiosity and fear; it arouses suspicion and often engenders unease. We cannot see through the mask to the face beneath and are unsettled by our reactions to that. Subtle expression, the guide to comprehension, is denied by the blank stare from a static mask: the poker-face, the dead-pan gaze of void-less emotion. We cannot know our tormentor, entertainer, anarchist; they remain shadows to our senses. These disturbing reactions assert the need to recognise the social and cultural complexity of masking and disguise, remaining mindful of their practise and purpose, from the past though to the present. There is no full communion between masked and unmasked, interaction is restricted. We are simultaneously seduced and repelled by it. The mask and disguise invites an intimacy that is at once a barrier, paradoxically enforcing separation. This duality sets the viewer on edge, considerably disadvantaged by the wearer.
Such a psychological advantage has been the vehicle by which a performance engineers a shift in our reactions at odds with the instinct it arouses. Movement and speech become grossly articulated, exaggerated, expanding the unreal. Visual images processed in one side of the brain, conflict with stimulus by words and aural information, processed by the other. Robbed of our wits, we are tormented by an alien foe. We are confused. Are we entertained or the entertainment? Do we project our fears or receive theirs? We are thus at their mercy and apparently defenceless.
We know them not and therefore cannot hold them to account; essentially they are beyond the bounds of Law. Do we ask or answer the puzzles and mysteries suggested by their antics and posturing. Do we imagine they are pointing the finger at us? Can they read our minds? Surely we agree, but why then do we shuffle, is it because we are unnerved in spite of the humour. Is this folklore, history or myth? Is it satire, protest or anarchy? All of them; assuredly? Fascination weaves its spell and we are engaged, hooked by the mesmerising magic of theatre, the immanence of something ‘other’.
Mundanity is vanquished, momentarily banished in this small suspension of reality. We are drawn into an alternative worldview, and we believe it, just for a moment. We have become juxtaposed to our environs, severed from our comfort zones, cajoled into a spectacle of manic behaviour, amused by farce, within which we feel a distinct shift. For a few brief moments we experience euphoria, elation whilst riding the tide of unease. Friction or fiction? Success depends upon our willingness to engage. Fight or flight. Adrenalin rush either way. This is pure magic and heady stuff. So where and how did all this devolve?
Certainly during the 17th century, English public records do reveal winter folk activities that more closely resemble those former Roman/Continental methods of celebration, especially in the wearing of masks, popularised during the Middle Ages in spite of the several Penitentials between the 4th and 8th centuries condemning that practice. Commonly, it is suggested this may have been due to their desire to stamp out whatever they perceived as superstitious rural customs of the ‘pagani’ [Twycross & Carpenter, 2002:24-25]. Interestingly, the masking rites of the ‘pagani’ ridiculed and satirised the ‘human’ antics of their Gods. Early Christians too joined in these processions as exemplars of this ‘mock’ piety! Succinctly, humanity at its most bestial is an inconceivable affront to divinity, pagan or otherwise.
Pertinently, this is extremely relevant to this study because it calls to attention the often overlooked yet vital reasons why animal guising and masking was considered such an abomination by the Church offering a contra view to the popular and over simplified anti-pagan view as mentioned previously. So sacrilegious in fact, it was rendered the worst offence simply because it mocked nature, God’s perfect creation, it violated the divine, in both Pagan and Christian celebrations during ‘mundus inversus’ (the earth inverted) that is, when it is ruled by the Devil! [ibid., 27]. St Jerome in attacking Classical theatre, inveighed vehemently the horror and insult to God in the concealment of our natural state, the form He chose for us. Ironically though, Jerome had shown his supreme ignorance because, within Greek theatre, the Mask expressed or revealed ‘Truth’, personified in stylised conceptual forms to avert corruption by the actors’ human features! [ibid., 285] Let us not forget; all theatre is illusion.
Deception is made real by our own belief in it. Magic manifests in our acceptance. Moralists and fanatics of the medieval period in openly citing the opinions of their predecessors during the early and formative years of the Church, especially in regard to the Kalends and Saturnalian celebrations, have erroneously forged a spurious link that is commonly perceived as revealing a continuity of practice of those festivals throughout [ibid., 296-7]. Hutton [1997:329] concludes how revelling, masking and the exchange of clothes redolent of these ancient festivals, indicate secular, rather than religious practises, wherein a relaxation of the normatively stringent laws surrounding the liturgical year regarding the sacred. This asserts that even in ancient pagan times, such secular activities were always understood as being outside these rules, beyond their bounds in fact, not worship in any way, given over to free and abandoned public license.
So were the Christian moralists right to condemn masking and guising? Was it or can it ever be, just harmless fun? Are we drawn inexorably towards aggression, depravity and decadence when immersed in our darker natures? How are such things determined and measured? Is it liberating and edifying or intimidating and oppressive? Surely it all depends from which side of the mask we view the world? And this is precisely where we enter the realms of the sacred use of masking within the Mysteries wherein the individual seeks the companie of the ‘other’ from both sides of the mask......

“All the world’s a stage, and all the men and women merely players……..”

[edited extract taken from the entitled article published in ‘The White Dragon’ Nov. 2008]

Back from the Underworld

2010-08-23T18:02:00.000-07:00

It's been a hel of a long time since I posted to this journal. Since my last post a great many things have happened. Trying to go over all of them would be the work of days and perhaps I'll have a chance to fill it all in.

What I think I will look at is again the Admission process. We've looked at Initiation and now it behooves to start looking at Admission. The difference between thw two is most pronounced at the outset, although they are tied together. Quite frankly, the one should not be possible without the other. The attempt to combine or to blur them is a mistake that a great many groups make. It is also the source of the bizarre notion of "self initiation" that has been packaged and mass marketed by various unscrupulous and irresponsible individuals over the years.

The main challenge in Admission to a given current lies with the candidate. It consists of a mutual affinity between the candidate and the clan or cuveen spirits. Quite frankly, it is possible to have an initiate who is not a fit for admission. Of course it is just as easy to have a complete failure at Initiation who gets - under some misguided sentiment - admitted. In some currents, such an individual will tend to weed him or herself out rather quickly. The current's Robin will reject the individual and the Clan Spirits have nothing to do with them. This, of course, does not prevent said individual from pretending to access that he or she does not have, but to the eye and ear of someone who does possess the affinity, the poseur will become apparent rather quickly. Unfortunately, to the public, who will likely form such a person's "court of appeal" the falsehood will not be so readily visible.

So, given my penchant for work alone, as well as group work, why am I addressing Admission? Because I am a member of a current, and because human beings are pack animals. Face it, we are social carnivores. One of the funniest sights I have ever seen was a crowd of some fifteen or so "solitary wiccans" at a public event, banding together to loudly proclaim their "aloneness." What came across most clearly to me from that display was the fact that in all of their proclamation of social phobia, not one of them had an inkling of the inner loneliness that a Witch, or indeed, any successful Occultist, must face and learn to work within. Ultimately, despite the existential connections that we know operate essentially to magic and to existence itself, at the still, small center we will first contend with a place in which we are, each one of us, at first encounter, utterly alone.

So, back to Admission, at first glance it appears merely a "welcome to the club" or an adoption into the Clan. This, of itself, represents a major change of worldview from that of the Seeker, or the Solitary Cunning Person. Anthropologists have studied and written about tribal groupings - clans and villages - whose members shared a "common dreamscape" where all who were "of the People" could share in both benefits and dangers, while those were not, did not.

In today's neopaganism, infected as it has become with absurd political illusions, the very idea of this sort of shared, inner awareness between members related by clanship gets decried as "anathema" and "elitism," simply because it appears to rub someone's nose in the basic truth of: "I am this, and you are whomever, and whatever you are." Neopaganism, infected as it is by the dogmas of politically inspired fundamentalism, cannot stand the idea of a "noninclusive" diversity is simply a matter of "who is whom." Remember, by definition, Fundamentalism operates in a forcibly inclusive manner, demanding that it be the "one rule for all," and "forward the revolution." "Inclusive / exclusive" become meaningless labels when we respect each others' space and mind our own business - and I can hear the shades of Cochrane and Crowley laughing at this. Once again, the implications of "Do what thou wilt" and "Do what is needful" come surging to the forefront. We are interested here in revolt, but not in revolution, if one can make the fine distinction.

So, having winnowed out the chaff and smokescreen of public and politicized perception, we turn again to the concept of admission. We now have two points to consider, both of them functional and meaningful only within the context of the admission. The implications are staggering, of just these two points. Mutual acceptance of and by the Clan Spirits marks one for all time as of their Kindred, and demands that one carry the growth of this Kindred forward within one's own Self. This is a daunting task in and of itself. When we consider the implication therefore of "Accept all that you are given, give all of yourself" in this light, the task of the Admission Holder appears staggering.

Next we add the attachment within and interaction with the Clan and Cuveen shared "other consciousness" or "dreamrange" or whatever you want to call it. My personal preference is "Robin, the Childe of Arte" This is to say, the consciousness and magical entity that is produced by our interaction. When we look at Heisenberg, for a second, we realize that the Robin changes everyone with whom it comes into contact, and it is likewise changed by them. Each contact, each work, each clan member causes motion, and motion causes evolution. No wonder the admonitions not to bind ourselves to scripts or "group prayerbooks." The very interaction of the Robin renders these tools of very limited, and ultimately of no, use!

The well-written and concise "book of instructions" ultimately serves as nothing more than a tool for deception.

Every Second is a New Spark - Sets Your Universe Aflame!

2010-02-20T08:24:00.000-08:00

This month has marked some very interesting changes in my situation. The whole process of the divorce has been a full Crossroads experience in itself. This comes complete with dreams, journeys, visions, good advice from sighted Friends, Brothers and Sisters and loved ones. One Loved One in particular.

I will say that these are the times when support is most welcomed, and most dangerous. Those we love wish they could take up the blackthorn for us. They cannot, but their love and support is more than appreciated. So it has been for me.

A week ago, in the dark of the moon, I laid the Foundation for my new Hearth and Home, setting my hearth stone. This was a simple rite, performed - of necessity - indoors. I would have much preferred to work outdoors but the closeness and composition of my new neighborhood forbids such brazen display.

The new Stone comes from a place where Land, Sky, and Sea meet at the High Tide and from the same place I gathered seawater - both the stuff of the Old Ones and the Tears of Fate. My normal working water is created from a combination of water from Chalice Well and from the headwaters of the Nisqually River on Mt. Rainier. This is stretched with distilled - and thus dead - water and exposed to Sun and Moon for a month before use to allow the living waters to work their synthesis upon the dead, raw material provided. I find myself inclined, in future, to further strengthen this with "tinctures" of Gold and Silver. The hearthstone was further bathed in Vinegar, Wine, Ale, and Needfire Ash. For the first time in the new place, I called to the Old Ones, my Clan and our Ancestors and they came. The Mark is set upon the stone.

A very dear Sister of mine, whose support has been nothing short of wondrous, has suggested further work in this vein upon successive Dark Moons and this seems strongly right to me.

The next phase of my work is the getting back of other magics let go in the Flood of the Divorce. This is both the simplest and the hardest part of my work for it also entails the process of re-disciplining myself. I must again remember and I remember that I am a Magical Being - I Am The Witch first and foremost. This also means delving back into the deep places of my life once again. When I was born I was given the name "Gregory." Little did my ueber-Lutheran mother understand that she had named me Fallen One. In accepting the Love of the Rose, the Fallen One was destroyed and the Noisy One - Trystn - arose. Trystn has carried me thus far, and in the open shall continue but there is another Me, even more the Devil with the Head of Fire, emerging. I have felt its presence even prior to this and have jokingly described it with a nickname. That nickname I now realize is something I now wear in sooth.

Cave! Trystn Meles sum!
Increbrescabo!

New Beginnings - Divergence from an old channel

2010-01-29T21:27:00.000-08:00

"The time has come to talk of many things" says Lewis Carrol's walrus. So the time has come for me to talk of many things, and work many more. The way ahead is twisty and tricky. It is choked with thorn and mire. It is warded with Blackthorn and Mandrakes. It is my road. At the end of it, my revelations.

This Saturday night, I will be taking the first steps to that new beginning upon the Twisted Track. I will begin the consecration of the new Hearthstone that I found, after quite a bit of looking, poking and prying, on Titlow Beach - just where the tide mark lies. This stone will be bathed in the waters of the Pacific, the Nisqually, the Puyallup, and of Chalice Well (Glastonbury) Libation will poured upon it and it will be introduced to Old Betsy. If all goes well, and it takes, the new Hearth will be kindled. It will be my hearth and mine alone until a new Magistra joins me in working. However long this may take.

I will give it a month to settle - to take. A month of watching and listening and waiting. If it does not, then I must search for yet another stone, and return this one whence it came. If it does, then I will have set my house finally in order and I will set the Threshold Charm in place. At the verge of my plot, I will plant Blackthorn and Mandrakes - the latter prepared after the fashion of my clan - to watch and ward.

Again I will watch, wait and listen.

I have already had some signs that I am making good choices here. Choices that are right for me. Slowly I am succeeding. Things foretold for me are coming into play and this I find heartening. The people I was suggested to watch for were indeed waiting in the wings - you know whom you are.

There are those who know that they are not to come with me. Go whither you need, with my love, and my benizens.

There are those who even now work with me. You are welcomed with open arms.

The work begins anew and all things are renewed within it. I will cast the old holding free and proceed to the new. I am renewed and I feel the fire again growing strong within me.

Cave! Ad sum!
Increbrescabo!

I Want Out, to Live My Life ...

2009-12-26T14:13:00.000-08:00

So now, with difficulties abounding, my parents have decided that it is a prime moment to "reconvert" me to Churchinanity. "If you weren't in "that religion" this wouldn't happen. Jesus wouldn't have let this happen to you." What part of there are plenty of poor Christians - for whom their evangelical views have scant sympathy - do they not get?
I've been a Traditional Witch for going on 23 years. A Witch all my life. Why? Because that is what and who I am. Quite frankly, the Mind of Fire is not a "relgion" that can be put on and off like an old coat. Once open, the Sight does not close. Sure, I'll take the familial support and the love is always welcome, but I don't need the pressure to become a North Door Methodist *chuckle* I belong to *no* religion, but apparently they can't understand this.

Perhaps here and now is a good time to examine some of the differences between the Craft and a religion. Why the former is what it is and the latter is not.
The Craft is a process of learning and experience. What I'm going through is a part of that process. Sure it's depressing, and disheartening. My wife of nine years left me, and I have all sorts of bills and deadlines to meet. But this is clearly a lesson I needed to learn. A large part of this lesson deals, believe it or not, with loving her. To really love her means that I have to desire her happiness and this means letting her have her head and go whither she will. Sure it hurts, but lessons are painful.
The Craft is a process of "remembered learning" rather than stuffing doctrines and dogmas down one's throat. No, I don't believe in a wrinkly old guy with a beard in the sky who wants to spank me. No, I don't see my straits as "divine retribution." Quite the opposite - the Christians' own writ tells them "If you are not of this world it will hate you"

"If you are not of this world, it will hate you." In other words, the ways of the grind will not prosper those not driven by its motivators. The motivators of the modern age are Greed and Fear, which are really just facets of each other. Therefore, the Faith, which is focused on spiritual development does not equip one for the life of Ebenezer Scrooge.
However, the economic-political realities of established religion play directly into the machine of the world of money. All in all, it's rather humorous to see the "conservative christian" declaiming "It is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of the needle, than a rich man to enter heaven" while practicing exactly the opposite, and claiming "Give me god and gold." Thou canst not serve both God and Mammon.

The same is manifestly true in the more commercialized veins of the Pagani. Thus, religion do I not wish for myself. I have no interest in internet televangelism. I'm not impressed by it. I see it for the fake that it is.

Quite frankly, any religion that tells you "Be afraid of "this and them" - whatever these may be - toe my "party line" and give me money (because god/dess is chronically short of cash don't you know?) is an out and out fake.

Stand before the Mighty Ones, with head held high. Look them in the eye, and leave your wallet at home!

Debunking "Eight Sabbats in a Year and a Day"

2009-12-19T07:38:00.000-08:00

This is a very simple exercise - anyone with a compass, a protractor, and the math skills of a fourth grader can do it. As I said you will need:
A couple of sheets of ordinary paper
A compass or several different sized drinking glasses (to draw circles)
A protractor (no way around this one)
A couple of sharp pencils.

1. Take a sheet of paper and draw a large circle on it. Draw a smaller circle about 1 1/2 inches inside the first. Draw a third circle about 1 1/2 inches inside the second. This will produce three concentric rings.

2. Measure and mark a line vertically through the center of your three concentric rings. At the top of this mark a five pointed star and label it "Summer Solstice." Mark the bottom end of this line "Winter Solstice." Erase the section of line that would pass through your inner ring - the one that we label "British Commons Calendar"

4. Using the protractor, mark off sections of 30 degrees, starting at the Winter Solstice mark and proceeding *Counter Clockwise* around the outermost ring. When you've done this, use short lines to divide the outermost ring into 30 degree sections.

5. Once step four is finished, you will find that you have two short lines that *would* make a horizontal line through the whole drawing if they were connected. Label the line on the right side "Spring Equinox" and the one on the left "Fall Equinox"

6. Starting in the section immediately on the right side of the Winter Solstice point, label the sections, *Counter Clockwise*, in order: Capricorn, Aquarius, Pisces, Aries, Taurus, Gemini, Cancer, Leo, Virgo, Libra, Scorpio, and Sagittarius.

7. Go to your "Capricorn" section. Mark a short line one degree to the right of the Winter Solstice. Label this "Extra." Mark a second short line 12 degrees to the right of the Winter Solstice and label this "Twelfth Night"

8. Go to your Aquarius section and shade in a "notch" from 1 to 15 Degrees Aquarius. Label this dark area "Candlemas" or "Imbolc"

9. Go to your Taurus section and shade in a "notch" from 1 to 15 Degrees Taurus. Label this dark area "Beltain" or "Roodmas"

10. Go to your Leo section and shade in a "notch" from 1 to 15 Degrees Leo. Label this dark area "Lammas" or "Lughnassad"

11. Go to your Scorpio section and shade in a "notch" from 1 to 15 Degrees Scorpio. Label this dark area "Samhain" or "Hallowmas"

12. Label your outer ring ""Zodiac" or "Cauldron of Annwfn" Calendar" and label the dark shaded, 15 degree, areas 'Sabbati.' Label the Equinoxes and Solstices "Albans." Label the Extra Day also as "Sabbati" and Twelfth Night as "Albans"

13. Move inward one ring on your drawing. Extend your "Extra" line segment through this ring.

14. Counting from the Extra Day, divide this ring into sections of 28 degrees just as you did with the Zodiac ring.

15. Label these sections counterclockwise, starting from the section that *More or Less* corresponds to Capricorn according to Graves, Gwen Thompson or what ever month naming source you use for the 13 month. System.

16. Label this ring "British Commons Calendar"

*** You will note that ONLY the Nameless Day and the two solstices align in both calendar rings*** This is because the 13 month calendar DOES NOT line up to include all FOUR PLUS ONE Sabbati and FOUR PLUS ONE Albans. It includes ONLY ONE OF EACH. The Zodiac calendar, on the other hand includes ALL FIVE OF EACH. This contrast has very specific significance to certain currents.

*** The Sabbati do NOT fall on specific days in either calendar. They do NOT have specific astronomic phenomena to mark them. In the Cauldron Calendar, they are regarded as "Outside of Time" This is because the Zodiac consists of 12 equal months of 30 days each, plus five days left over. These are the five Sabbati - the Festivals of Darkness and Saturn. They are ruled by the tides of the Void and powered by the force of Misrule.

*** The Albans (which means "Lights") DO fall on specific days and this is because they are marked, very precisely, by specific astronomic phenomena. The Winter Solstice occurs when the Sun passes from Sagittarius into Capricorn (and yes, from the ground, it appears to travel "counter clockwise" through the Zodiac) and is occasioned by the longest night and shortest day of the year. The Summer Solstice occurs when the sun passes from Gemini into Cancer and is marked by the longest day, and shortest night of the year. Likewise the Spring Equinox occurs when the sun passes from Pisces into Aries, and the Fall Equinox occurs when the sun passes from Virgo into Libra. These are both marked by equal day and night periods (Equinox = Equal Night)

*** You will note that the Albans deal with the Midpoints of Seasons - ritually speaking (the beginnings of seasons officially) and stay put - They are "Nailed Down" The Sabbati move around and the ONLY Sabbat that has a predictable date is the Extra Day.

*** You will note that the ONLY festivals that line up in BOTH systems are the Winter Solstice and the Extra Day. The Sabbati do not "crack" the Commons Calendar and the other Albans do not "nail it down" as they DO NOT occur between months.

*** You will note that the "And a day" (the extra day in the 13 month Calendar that is outside of time) is the Extra day.

I find it sad that when the Farrars wrote their horribly misleading "Eight Sabbats," they didn't have the sense to sit down and do this little exercise, even though *someone* certainly wanted to portray herself as "knowledgeable."

What is sadder still is that many people don't take the time to sit and think these things out at all. If they did, they would realize that the Cosmic Symbols, Land Symbols, Ritual Symbols and the Human Body all tie directly to each other.

It is also worth noting that the 13 month calendar *IS NOT* a "lunar calendar" in any way, shape, or form. Lunar Days and Months *ARE NOT* equal. There are not 13 lunations consistently in the year. There *can* be as few as 11 or as many as 14. Likewise, lunar months can have as few as 27 lunar days or as many as 29. The 13 month calendar measures from a SOLAR Event, in Exactly Equal months of Solar Days divided into four EXACTLY EQUAL Solar weeks. The only thing that could be called "lunar" is that the months contain a number of days consistent with an *approximately average* lunar month.

FFF,
Trystn

Many New Things

2009-12-05T11:17:00.000-08:00

As we move toward the Solstice threshold and its tanist symbolism, I'm working through many changes and discovering many new things. Some wonderful people have come into my life, and some have departed and taken their own roads as they must. Comings and goings can be joyous and painful as appropriate. Each carries its own knowledge and its own keys. Thus do I see in my life. But now it's time to move away from the strictly personal and back to the personal and magical.

I plan to write examinations of several bits of Lore and some understandings of them in the next few posts. Some of these include items found in my own stream's argot - things we ask or tell to other folk - and some from Robert Cochrane's writings as well, along with my understandings of them.

This is something I *must* impress upon the reader: I AM NOT a member of Clan of Tubal Cain and I DO NOT have access to its inner, private knowledge. What I post as my understandings is just that: My Understanding. Nothing else.

One item I want to examine is Cochrane's statement "A Witch is born, not made, or if a Witch must be made then blood and tears must be shed ere the Moon can be drawn." There is a great truth lurking in this little line, and not just for Traditional Witches. It marks a great difference between those who are driven and called to work the magical streams as opposed to those who want a religion to follow. It is very true that anyone can "walk through the front doors" of a religious edifice and in a relatively short time find themselves appointed Deacon, or Church Elder or whatever. But what is really gained? Certainly, it is to be hope that this person's fellows profit from service rendered, but what transformation has taken place? If any?

What Cochrane describes here is a ritual threshold crossing and confrontation, both with Spirit - "the gods (TM)" - and with the inner workings of Self. He refers to two myths, each potent in itself, to propel the magical worker forward into a state of of change, and hopefully growth. I must impress here that in this ritual he describes is NO sinecure. The only safety can come from one's own inner steadfastness and determination. Likewise, the only true danger comes from one's own fear.

Fear is the most obvious and immediately dangerous confrontation here and it can - and will - kill a magical life aborning. Fearful avoidance of inward confrontation leads to immediate stagnation and a demand that everything "always be the same" in a cosmos and a compass where "Be Still" or "Be The Same" are the only things that never happen. Often one sees this manifest is temper tantrums in magically and personally challenging situations. Magically, this failure is fatal. The would-be Witch is stillborn, the pagan quickly shows the signs.

Fear of learning is another deadly trap. This is one of the most interesting angles, considering that the Stream demands an eternal thirst for learning. "The driving thirst for knowledge is the forerunner of wisdom." Likewise the constant demands for spoon feeding and external validation; coupled with refusal to investigate the implied; the refusal to learn by inference and context, and most fatally the refusal to learn on one's own lead again to 'corpses walking about playing at "high priestess"' as my own Magistra said more than once. To "hang up" on a single word, on a name, or on a single lore point and to refuse to examine further often marks a fatal hesitation. Very often this sort of fear will manifest in codependent intrusion and control behaviors - e.g. "I don't want to be involved in that" - whatever "that" may be - intruded into a piece of work that is none of the offender's business. In this case it's time to grow up and realize the obvious: "Nobody invited you. Nobody said "you must."" But the intruder here will only repeat their tiresome refrain over and over in an infantile attempt to "validate" themselves by ruining or "controlling" the work of another. Fundamentalist avoidance becomes even more amusing: "I don't want that ____ "shit" - I mean "stuff" - you've found brought into *my* circle." Very well, I won't be there. Sooner or later the individual may realize how they've alienated someone with their behavior. I must say that Frank Herbert didn't go far enough. Fear is more than a mind killer. Fear is a soul killer.

Yet Fear cannot be expunged from the psyche altogether. It remains, like a large dog, standing in the doorways at the back of our minds. We cannot quite manage to "shoot the dog" magically. It is a part of what Freud called the Id and what a magical person calls The Beast. If we attempt to deceive it, we find that its nose is more keen than our illusion. If we attempt to flee it, the dog merely runs us down. Those who've tried these approaches - those who try to "hide in the sun" to use another expression - lead magical lives that can be best compared to a household where the family dog is completely in charge. Need an example? We have plenty of public figures who exemplify this sort of behavior. Pick someone who uses fear as a whip and you will find someone who is whipped by fear. Any religio-political ideologue or demagogue will do. Households ruled by the dog.

On the other hand, we can throw the dog a bone - or a corn cake - put it on a leash and give it a kennel. We suddenly find that the "big bad wolf" is really "our best friend" who is happy to bark at strangers on our behalf.

But back to our threshold. We've established Fear as the major obstacle to overcome. This also tells us that the confrontation will be personally fearsome. "Blood must be shed" Cochrane says. Of what blood does he speak?

Being a Witch who is not afraid of the Old Testament, I look and see the blood of Abel, shed by his brother Cain. The implications here are deep and varied and I must leave it to the reader to ferret out all of them. But here is the tangle: In the initial confrontation Abel represents that, which is subject to Fate, slave to the Titanomachy, and thus pleasing to the Nature Gods - the Elohim. (One can also see a Hebrew attempt to "validate" the transhumant, herd following, existence of their early tribes as "more pleasing to god" than the permanent, "decadent," dwellings of those who based their livelihoods first in horticulture and eventually in agriculture.) So here we see the sacrifice of the Old Priest-King by the New, presented in a most primal context. Cain represents a force born of the Titanomachy that rebels against it. He is also portrayed as giving way to rage. The Beast slays the Man. But Cain is marked and driven forth to become the Wanderer, the Ploughman becomes the Rider Upon the Four Winds. The Beast is crucified in his turn, and the higher self - the Seraphim - emerges from its prison to flow into and merge with said Beast. They become potent allies in this hybridization. The Beast's passion and instincts combine with the Archangel's otherworldly Sight and magical acumen. The Man, who really only serves as a filter and a communications interface anyway, is regrown to maintain these functions with respect to the consensual, physical world. However, the new Devil With the Mind of Fire will dispose of a great deal of the opacity of the filtering function, finding it nearly useless and that clinging to it represent a mere clinging to illusion. This, of course, would only constitute a repeat of the above paragraphs on Fear ...

So we've found our source of bloodshed, now what of tears? In the assorted myths ascribed to Lilith, we find that she is able to bring about the resurrection of slain loved ones by means of her tears. Likewise Isis, with Osiris. Grief marks a great gift of the supreme Goddesses. Why? Because Grief is the major means by which the wounded psyche is able to heal itself. The Grief process works through a psychological "cleansing of the wound" that culminates in Acceptance of the new situation - the wound closes. It will remain tender for some time, but it is closed. So now we find that the Higher Emotions of the Archangel, allied with the passions and instincts of the Beast, are able to effect Resurrection - the Survival of Death and the Overthrow of Fate. This is heady stuff indeed when we look at the magical processes contained herein.

So now we return to the seasonal attribution: The Winter Solstice represents the sacrifice - the "death" by manifesting within form - of the Spirit of the Waning Year King, who in the final examination emerges as the Omega, the Master of Four Winds. This figure, in several myths, surrenders his head. In some of these myths, the head becomes an oracular and atrotropaic gateway and talsiman. We can see the former in the stories of Bran or Brennos, of Saints Justus and Pastor, and of John the Baptist. Likewise we can see the atrotropaic function in the entombment of the Sacred Head in the White Mount (Tower Hill) in London and in Golgotha (Place of the Head) in Palestinian (regional) Traditions. Here then, the Beast must offer up his life to prepare the way for the Child of Promise to be born and for Lucet to arise from the Underworld as the Morningstar. Thus does the Magician transform, and claim the birthright implicit in the draught from the Graal.

For I Have Wept My Blackthorn Tears

2009-11-21T10:09:00.000-08:00

For I have wept my blackthorn tears
Tasted of the poisoned cup
Have I taken the crooked road
I've seen the sum of all my fears

The starry night shall be my friend
One star shining brightly from all
One Kiss to lighten all my load
I do not see this journey's end

Yet I shall eat all my past sins
I shall see them all consumed
I shall seek the true benison
I shall keep faith with kith and kin

I hold aloft my lone lantern
Its steady flame a trusty guide
Its beacon call an orison
Until to the Rose I return

Don't Shed A Tear For Me, I Stand Alone

2009-11-21T08:47:00.000-08:00

By now, a lot of you reading this know that my wife (now ex) and I are parting ways. This does not strike me as something sudden. Our lives have been moving in this direction for some time. The real blow that struck down many things came last January with the death, by his own hand, of our friend and - by extension - Kinsman, David. Grief shattered our two cuveens and set in motion a series of events that have caused many partings of ways. This parting will hopefully be the last, but it is possible that the process will continue.

Now at this journey's end, we've traveled far and all we have to show are battle scars.

From the beginning of this painful leg of the journey, I've been supported by, and have supported dear friends, Kith, Kin and other. On a purely personal note, I am thoroughly grateful to these loving people who've encouraged, supported, listen to, challenged, and worried for me. You all know who you are. The worst worries aren't needed, thankfully, and I'll go further into this later in the post, when I return to looking at this process magically. The smaller worries, I share but am working hard to mediate. Sadness and painful partings have been the way of this year. Despair is not my way. I go forward: Increbrescabo.

Magically speaking, we started seeing omens of this process well over a year ago. In 2007, a Midwinter's reading of the Ogham Fews by Duir indicated that one of our number was to perish. For a time, we worried then put our fears aside and continued onward. Midwinter 2008 did not hold a gathering of the clan for us, due to dangerous road conditions. In January 2009 Duir's premonition struck, but it was not alone. D.B. also lost her nephew to leukemia, Wren lost a dear one as well, and Tettens continued to reap a harvest of our folk. By summer, ten - a full Fall - had passed over the river.

I have not spoken much of Liam's passing. The grief was too raw and I worried for his parents and kin if they should know of what came to my understanding. I will say now that I took the journey to the water's edge. There I met the Old Man, kindly and wise as ever. He said to me: "If you're looking for the little lad, you're too late. He went aboard straightaway, but don't worry: He was not alone. He's well looked-after." I knew who had come back to make the crossing with him and I left the coins to pay for his passage in an appropriate place. I saved my concern for the living and grieving.

David was a concern and three Witches, well skilled in this sort of journey and work, searched for him, but all we found was a trail already cold that led westward to the sea. Despite the terrible manner of his passage, he knew where he wanted to go and wasn't hanging around. He also managed to avoid the ley line that runs from Mt. Rainier down the Puyallup Valley. (This ley is likely the reason for the Puyallup being the "Valley of Ghosts") This is also a weight off my mind.

Rest you gentle Kinsmen.

So now forward. In magical terms, my own process. At Samhain, DB and I worked a combined rite of the Passing of the Waning King and Tapping the Bone. DB indicates that she received certain messages as did I. I cannot speak for hers, but must leave her to work with them as she understands necessity. I can speak to mine. Betsy Bol said to me: "Finally, you understand who I AM." This carries deep import for me as I've journeyed far this last year, increasing my understanding by leaps and bounds - sometimes to the alarm of friends who don't see where the thread leads for me. Our Clan Chief also spoke. He wore his totemic face and stood tall. His words were: "You must pass through the stone to finally rend the veil." So this now, is my passage. It is a hard way, and a lonely one; yet I undertake it and I intend to prevail.

To pass through the stone is to either roll it aside or to blast through it. In either case, to walk out of the prison of Fate. To transform her into destiny. It is to take up the Sword. I have many cautionary tales to guide me. I understand that many have erred on this path, and to err is, in one way or another, fatal. Some who have done so - even well warned - have paid with their lives. Some have paid with their souls and are still breathing. I have Seen. I have Heard. I have and will Learn.

To pass through the Stone is to surrender everything. Physical comforts will not likely be my companions in any great measure. I must pass beyond simplifying and be stripped of everything that is not necessary. I must be stripped of everything that hindered or harmed me from within. This, I feel, is the final forging. To be stripped to bare iron and to be Tempered strong, resilient, and bright. To learn the Mystery of the Knowl Star for true and to take no word for it that does not come from it. This is my task, and I shall prevail.

Increbrescabo - I shall prevail - is my new magical motto. I must hold nothing back. To this hard and crooked road I have committed myself.

So now I come to the core image that I reference with the title: The Old Village Lanterne. Here is my North Star and my Fetchlight. I shall keep it firmly fixed in my Sight.

An echo upon the Wind, you hear my voice

Hallowmas 2009

2009-11-01T08:14:00.000-08:00

Hallowmas is a powerful time of year for Witches and occultists. It marks one end of the Great Crack in the Cauldron or the rent in the Veil. In terms of Compass Geography, it occurs roughly at Zodiac W by SW, while its counterpart, May Eve or Roodmas occurs at approximately Zodiac E by NE. The understanding of the positioning of these days, and the Crack that links them, is critical for they mark the doorway out of the veil and into the Holy of Holies. It is interesting that, though understanding of the positioning of this Crack is critical, it does not occur consistently. If you look back at my post on the Sabbat Tides, you'll note that it's fall lies within a range rather than on a specific date. This is a trait that it shares with all but one of the Five Sabbati, and even that one occurs within a variable, albeit much smaller, range.

Equally critical to understanding this event and the cosmological and magical events contained within it, we find the understanding that Hallowmas - Samhain - like the other five days, is *not* a part of Time as marked by the Zodiac. Understood as a calendar, the Zodiac contains 360 days, plus five that are not a part of time - not marked as Zodiac degrees - but occur none the less. Robert Graves posited the Albans as occupying a similar status, but given the specific events and dates of the Albans, as well as their very different character, we can dismiss this assertion, well satisfied that - far from not being a part of time - the Albans serve as the "nails" that hold Time together. My own working tends to confirm this conclusion. This leads us to the understanding that there is no "wheel of the year" as posited in the popular Pagan idea, but rather some five or six Mill Wheels of Fate. We can describe these as The Sabbatic Wheel - containing the Five Sabbati: The Albanic Wheel - containing the five Albans: The Summer or Waxing Year Wheel - beginning properly at Brigidmas: and The Winter or Waning Year Wheel - beginning at Lammas or Lughnassadh.
Additionally, we *can* combine these four figures into a single, Wheel-like or figure-eight form that we can call The Stations of the Sun. Quite a few occultists also posit the Agricultural year, but the associations of this are *very* loose and completely tied to climate and weather so this form can only be applied regionally and one year at a time.

There have been assertions from time to time that the Fire Festivals or Sabbati carry a "lunar" character but, as remarked before, they do not have specific lunar phase, or conjuction markers to indicate their falls. Thus again, we can dismiss the idea of a "lunar" association beyond the loosest terms and concentrate on the very clearly manifest association: Time. The Five Sabbati deal in *Cracks in the Cauldron* or *Rents in the Veil* which is the illusion of "linear time." They further deal in inversions of perceived "normal" order: the Dead and Spirits reveal themselves easily, Witches fly to keep Sabbat, certain "normal" social behavioral limits are traditionally considered void and the transgressions of these mark Sacred Acts.

All of these point to a very particular quality: The Sabbati are Saturnine Festivals. This makes their relationship to the Compass very clear indeed. The Albans carry an indisputably Solar connotation. Their falls are clearly marked by specific, predictable, precisely timed Solar phenomena. That the Sabbati carry Saturnine qualities therefore marks them as belonging to the opposite side of the Compass. The Albans entail Lightbringer Rites, while the Sabbati deal with those of the Nightbringer - Lucifer and Noctifer. This can also be seen as laying to rest the misunderstanding of Sol and Luna as "opposites" and also clearly shows the Lightbringers as rulers of Sun and Moon - their traditional, historic roles. It also slams the coffin lid on the ridiculous notion of "eight sabbats for witches" as long perpetuated by those imitating the Farrars. Referring to a note by Robert Cochrane, we note that these two figures "...appear as twins but they may be the same person ..." (The Robert Cochrane Letters to Norman Gills - "Basic Structure of the Craft" by Robert Cochrane, ed Evan John Jones and Mike Howard, Capall Bann.) This again serves to unify the ritual structure and establish the working connections between the two sets of forms and forces.

Bearing these ideas in mind, it's time to have a look at some working ideas and forms. I'll try to list a few ideas and thoughts.

The Double Compass: The Clan of Tubal Cain, according to Cochrane, worked a Double Compass Rite at Hallows that may now be understood in a much deeper light than simply moving from Summer to Winter. By crossing a verge between two working areas, as described in the Cochrane Letters and by Evan Jones, the Clansfolk move through the Crack and into the Otherworld. This can also be seen as akin to magically passing through a cracked mirror.

The Fire of Bones: Bone is understood as the House of Spirit. This is one reason that a malevolent shade can be laid by burning its mortal bones. This also releases the spirits that the bones housed, creating a "Kirkyard" effect that is a doorway into the other worlds that may remain accessible after Time has resumed its "normal" behavior on the other side of the Crack. One can think of several other reasons for this but I don't find it necessary to list them here.

Burning of a Wicker Man: This is very akin to the Bone Fire and carries several of its connotations. What must be understood is that the sacrificial figure is *not* the Waxing, but the Waning Year King. Thus tying this sort of rite to Tapping the Bone is a good, workable idea.

Tapping the Bone: The Crack in the Cauldron has the effect of making this piece of work much simpler to work effectively. The Bone's connections to every item I've listed above should jump out at the insightful reader and the purpose of the rite should become clear. A given person or group works to contact its ancestral spirits, both genetic and magical. This is very much akin to the Golden Dawn's notion of "Contacting the Secret Chiefs" although in the case of Traditional Witchcraft, the number of spirits being sought is much smaller.

Turning or Treading the Mill: This means of working Kundalini energy is effective in most circumstances, and even more so here.

Our own rite contained the above elements in one form and another and went very potently. As always, I was well aware of the Pack gathered about us. In fact its presence was nearly overwhelming at times and I had to work hard to see the *whole picture* rather than allowing myself merely to concentrate on the movements of the Cwn Annwfn.

I was very aware of the passage of certain conditions that I have long accepted as the "norms" in my life and of the need to embrace and pass through the changes. That these are, in fact, a challenge to gain much greater Gnosis - Self Knowledge and to work for greater realization of Self Authenticity in my life. This is the deep meaning of the Challenge of the Roebuck and, if one thinks about it, the reason why so many dire warnings surround this challenge in both Lore and in recent Craft History will come clear. It carries a powerful temptation to bow to the childish desires and "self-validation" attempts of the Ego self (magically the Man.) It is here that one can see where those who have sought to be "magical or religious celebrities" start down a slippery slope that leads, ultimately, not to the unbound Freedom of the Mysteries, but rather to the Ego-Slavery of an ever more ponderous commercial imaginos relationship - that of the so-called guru and fan base (followers,) where one is obliged to peddle what the fans want to hear rather than being and presenting an authentic Magical Self. Again, I came to some stark realizations about my own past here. I also came to a better vision of what I may be able to build in future - with perserverance, and hard work.

Lingering in my ears are the words of what I've thought of as the Bone's "Guide" spirit - she is and isn't such: "Now you finally know who I really am." After receiving this revelation, the words of our Clan Chief followed - strong and encouraging - and fell like balm into my being.

She Came to Me With A Serpent's Kiss

2009-10-11T20:00:00.000-07:00

Yes, I've copped a bit of style from someone I respect rather highly. Robin the Dart of the Clan of Tubal Cain is fond of titling articles after favorite songs and this seems to me not a bad idea. So here it is.

The associations with November of Scorpio, Death (Tarot Trump XIII) Samhain and the Hallows prompts me to think about the Great Goddesses and their role as Keeper of the Gateway to the Void (The Moon) Rulers of Lust, Love, and Death (Venus) Creatrices/Destroyers (Venus/Moon/Mercury) Lightbringers (Mercury/Sol)Violence and Conflict (Mars) and Time (Saturn) and this in turn conjures up the image of a perfect Crossroads. Indeed, the rulers of this mantle can be said to embody this image perfectly. Some examples of these potent Goddesses include the Irish Morrigan, Sumerian/Babylonian Lilith, Greek Hekate, Nordic Freyjavigdis, Welsh Cerridwen/Cariadwen, Aranrhod, Blodeuwedd, and Rhiannon (Rigan Annwfn) and the deeply syncretic Babalon. Some of their symbols include well known psychopompic beasts such as the Crow, the Owl, the Horse, the Sow, the Hound, the Serpent and the Seven Headed Beast (which bears a striking resemblance to Lilith's monster children, the Marililitu.

These symbols all carry strong underworld associations and clearly connect with death and decay. The Crow, as the true victor on all battlefields is also the symbol of the Welsh War God and King of the Underworld, Bran and the Nordic/Germanic Psychopompos Odin. The Horse is both a Sovereignty symbol and associated with the terrible visage of the Nightmare, as well as being a cosmic symbol associated with Odin and Cain. Serpents and Owls both find association with Lilith, Hekate and with Babalon. The Serpent, sometimes called The Dragon, is a promethean figure who betrays the Gods - be they Elohim, Egyptian Gods, or Olympians - giving the Fire of Wisdom and therefore the realization of inner divinity to humankind. This is a betrayal and a transgression of the deepest kind, for with it we can overthrow the tyranny of Fate and surpass the Gods who are her handmaidens. The serpent is also the symbol of the Archangel Sammael, of the Seraphim (Fiery Serpents) and of Set (Seth) and Typhon as well. The Hound has long been a potent psychopomp. It is found in the image of the Pack of the Wild Hunt also associated with Gwyn ap Nudd, of the Kirkyard Grim, and of the Cuveen Robin in the legend of Alice Kyteler. The Owl is a well known haunter of the crossroads by midnight. Cerridwen's Sow needs little explanation as a scavenger who feasts upon decay, and as a fertile creature who brings forth abundant life from said scavenging. Lilith's Marililitu can be seen as expositions of the Nephilim both in their parentage - born of the Archangel Sammael and the first woman Lilith, and in their symbolism incorporating seven arms and serpents.

Equally interesting is that each can fill the role of the Neo-Platonic World Mind or Hekate. I find it worthwhile therefore to view each of these Goddesses in turn as contributing Keys to the Crossroads. Even more than this, each can be said to stand at the center of the Crossroads, at the confluence of the Seven Worlds, at the point of ultimate destruction, offering rebirth. Each gives us a glimpse of the Mystic Rose.

My friends, Peter and Alkistis, have done extensive work with Babalon and their chronicle - The Red Goddess - relates it in detail. They dealt with several vital concepts that I will look at here and in later posts. In my eyes the most vital of the keys they unearthed can be expressed as Transgression. Transgression deals with the internal violation of external and artificial strictures worked into each of our consciousness by societal mores and training. We are taught not to see certain things - they might upset the neighbors or frighten Mum (the Closet Monster is very real, just ask any child!) We are taught to believe in the world we can see because "darkness is bad" and shun the Night and the world of the unseen.

Religionists and the political posturing of so-called "scientists" unite to tell us this because "the devil might get us" and "it's all superstition." The Devil - the Divine of Union of Archangel and Beast - terrifies the religionist who demands conformity - "We are Jesus' little lambs, now line up to be fleeced, bleat in unison and march off to the slaughter, onward christian soldiers ..." - because it points the way to the overthrow of the desert Thunderer and Ragnarok just isn't a pretty picture ... just imagining Jehovah drowning in his own Flood while impaled on Leviathan's fangs ... Equally fearful of Goetterdaemmerung is the so-called scientist - who admittedly unlocked Evolution's secret chest of Creation's details and Truths - but who, likewise, cannot stand the idea that there might be something beyond the human senses (despite Heisenberg who demonstrated that such literalism is, at best, nothing more than fearful neuroses.) ""This darkness is really full of light ..." poppycock, indeed, we can't see the dark, can we? I can't see it, must not be there ..."" Someone needs to take a refresher course in Socrates ... But, of course, "political atheism" is the liberal fashion statement par excellence. Never mind the fact that the TWO great lies we tell ourselves in this Western Society are Religion and Politics. Never mind the fact that the two are really the same thing ... "Hush now baby, baby, don't you cry. Mumma's going to make all of your nightmares come true ..." Roger Waters can wax frighteningly prophetic and religio-political extremism remains, as ever, devoid of thought.

Transgression involves throwing off these limits to the psyche by internally breaking them. By crossing the limits of fear that our parents, schoolmates, and the preacher drilled into us. By going into the dark places "where angels fear to tread" we find out just what there really is to fear - nothing but fear itself.

So what comes of our encounter in the Crossroads? What happens when the Great Queen, with her scarlet locks washed in blood, confronts us? Do we dare accept the apple / pommegranate? Can we look her in the eye? Dare we seek the Traitor's Kiss from her lips? Are we prepared to survive Death and look with, once again, newly opened eyes upon hearts that "...unfold like flowers before us ..." Dare we seek the Mystery? or should we simply grovel in the dust before yet another "Jesus in a dress?"

The Witches Picture Book - Progress Report

2009-10-04T12:29:00.000-07:00

Most of you know that I am one of the two members of the creative team for the Witches Picture Book Tarot. We've been hard at work on this deck for three, nearly four, years now and we're nearing completion. As I type this, I am taking a break from working on the "Dextral Separation by Tens - Sinistral Return by Unity" chapter, which covers an in-depth method of plotting compass correspondences with the trumps that was started by Nigel Jackson, continued by Griffin Ced, and finally I arrived at the point I'm working at. I haven't received a *lot* of questions about the deck - more comments on the imagery. But I thought I'd address a couple of these:

1. Do you mean a Wiccan deck by "The Witches Picturebook?

A: No, we do not. The Witches Picture Book follows a line of working within the Luciferian Stream of Traditional Witchcraft. It does not address the lore of Wicca as most of the Wicca - and Gardner and Sanders - approach it.

2. Can this deck be used to understand Wicca better?

A: No. Please see Q and A #1. One could approach the subject via Leland's angle as both Gardner and Sanders drew heavily on Leland, but one would then have to understand the Wicca Goddess as Lucifera, as well as Noctifer, address Noctifer as "She who dances on the graves of her lovers," and understand the Wicca God as Hermes Psychopompos / Hades, as well as Cernunnos as "Chief of the Horn." In terms of Compass, this would give you a Waxing Year Queen - a la Brigid and Sarah - and a Waning Year King a la Bran and John the Baptist. Such an understanding *is* possible, but not orthodox, within the milieu of Wicca.

3. Are the planetary cards arranged in a strict "magical circle" formation for this current?

A: No. The planetary cards are arranged in a compass-form halo. This means that in compass terms they move around. The World also does double duty so the Washer's relationship to it cannot be ignored. Any idea of "fixed positions" should be disregarded as a lapwing.

4. Do the stories portrayed in the cards have any bearing on Traditional Witchcraft's workings?

A: Yes! These stories illustrate concepts that can be found in all manner of Traditional Lore. You can see their echoes in tales of heroes, gods, angels, the Flood, Graal Tradition and a myriad of other places. You should also be able to see where these concepts can sycretize and connect with similar and related keys from other currents and tales.
Traditional Witchcraft contains strong currents of both Charming and Storytelling. While I firmly hold the idea that when we try to freeze magic into written words, we find ourselves lying; I also have a strong experience that pictures, spoken words, ballads and songs can take us amazing places when we open up and journey with them.

These four questions I thought worth posting here, and I invite more - always more! Feel free to post them to me by message, by email, by comment, or whatever!

FFF,
Trystn

Esoteric Book Convention - Seattle 2009

2009-09-20T22:01:00.000-07:00

This post marks a bit of a departure from my usual musings. Its flavor has more to do with involvement than with inner work and inner thoughts, yet at the same time, its outward connections mark inward ones as well.

I originally wanted to go to the convention to see Daniel Schulke, and I was not disappointed as he spoke this evening. I found his presentation interesting, informative and certainly thought provoking, as well as both very clear and connected. He seemed a bit ill at ease with the crowd, and I wasn't about to mark myself out by raising my hand when I *did* recognize a couple of several slides he showed. His account of a part of a tale I know as "The Fairy Bride" was also most engaging and produced an interesting insight from another member of the audience.

The whole event was very Golden Dawn and OTO *heavy* with presentations on the roots of the OTO, Golden Dawn history. Adding color, interest, flavor to the days were a lecture on the Chaldean Oracles by Brandy Williams and a lively talk on the faustian mindset of the Grimiore Tradition by Christina Oakley Harrington.

But the real *stars* of the two days, for me, were Peter Grey and Alkistis Dimech. Their presentation came as a surprise and kept me on the edge of my seat. Peter is the "Hermes" of the duo, and a deeply penetrating psychopomp he brings forth. Alkistis, on the other hand, comes across as a young woman of pure Awen-fire. At times I *saw* her burning so brightly I wondered how her flesh could bear to hold its intensity.

Peter comes from a themelic point of view while Alkistis works as an unrestrained, unabashed Aweniddon in the best and purest sense of the word. Quite frankly, to connect to her presence is an Od-Serpent experience in itself. I took in their presentation with my spine on fire, thinking "Yes, more, yes, and again more ..." and wishing the people sitting behind me would quit fidgeting. These two are unabashed Luciferian Rebels in the very best sense of the idea and I think we can look for excellent things from them. I was so impressed that I gave them a salmon to show my appreciation.

The Fool: Alpha and Omega (Part Two)

2009-09-14T21:35:00.000-07:00

Since we've looked a bit at the meanings of "Fool" and some related characters in mythology and medieval romance, let's get into the occult meanings of the trump itself. The Fool represents both the first expression and the crowning achievement of Human Awareness, or the Luciferian Spirit, as it manifests in the flesh. It is both the babe, newly emerging from the womb, and the saint or lightbringer at the pinnacle of apotheosis. That these two seemingly divergent points in development receive representation from the same vehicle might be reason to take a pause and to take stock. What exactly do we mean by "I AM the Alpha and the Omega?" For me, the first thing to come to mind is the luciferian axiom: "Lucifer and Noctifer appear as twins, but may actually be the same person." In simpler terms: Awareness and Time appear as twin forces. They even appear to create each other, but they may, in fact, be one and the same. Apollo *may* be another face of Chronos. This certainly lends an interesting spin to the concept of the *I AM* as expressed in the Christian Legacy and a more than cyclic motion can be seen in John (Origen's) description of "Man, your mother. Woman, this is your son," rather than simply John (now the Apostle) resuming the mantle of Waning Year King that was offered up with the beheading of his predecessor of the same name. In a more pagan vernacular, the figure of Nodens Mercurianus takes on new dimesions in relation to an already vital and potent Brigid/Lucet figure.

But the Fool is *not* a Mercury-Sol or Sol Invictus figure. It comes first and follows after the Child of Promise. Alchemically it is neither Sulphur or Salt, but rather Mercury that arises from their reunion in the Chemical Wedding. At the same time, we see the Fool crowned with fire at the moment of Apotheosis, just before Parzifal retires to the sanctum sanctorum of Montsalvat to assume the duties of the Graal King - or Sinner King, who has much in common with the traditional Scots figure of the Sin Eater. Thus we see the Redeemed Sinner King, Lucifer Restored, and Cain as ruler of the Moon, while yet each of these remains prisoner to his mantle. The line between Alpha and Omega appears hair fine.

Since we do not find the Sol Invictus in our Fool, we must look elsewhere to understand our Alpha and Omega. I've already mentioned the Mercurial connection, as well as commenting on the Fool's place as both inception and crown of the supernal group of the Trumps. Since we do not find him driving the Chariot of the Sun, perhaps we can find him laughing at us from behind the North Wind? Certainly, in the vagabond imagery of the card, we can find much to point us toward Woden the Wanderer and Cain the Outcast and in each of these, having given up what they held most dear by their own hands, we can find both the wod-madness and the Narnn- nonsense. By now it must become increasingly clear that the more we attempt to rationalize the Fool, and the Wanderer, the more nonsense comes spouting out of our own mouths, while the Fool stands, hands on hips and comments: "What? You don't know me? But I met you tomorrow!" and then he gives us the sly twinkling eye: "Ah, but you were older then."

The Fool: Alpha and Omega (Part One)

2009-09-13T12:31:00.000-07:00

The figure of the Fool can be found shadowing nearly all of the imagery of the Tarot, and likewise, dominating a great deal of mythic lore. We find in it one of the most powerful, complex, and easily misunderstood bodies of imagery extant in both the worlds of the Occult and of Psychology.

Many people want to take a romanticized or parental attitude toward the Fool, seeing in the figure a carefree vagabond, a child-like soul, and a capering comic. They want to see it as "innocent and holy" and, in fact, a great many Fools have their titles - names - badly mangled in translation to suit this agenda. In its role as the first expression of Human Spirit and Awareness, the Fool certainly does have some of the "innocent wonder" about it. On the other hand, as it develops toward the Omega, the Fool also reveals some truly terrible, wonderful, and powerful traits. The most commonly mangled names are "Percevale" and "Parzifal." The former is actually based upon the latter, with Chretien De Troyes and Malory modeling their French and Anglo-Norman heroes upon the German hero of Wolfram von Eschenbach. All three bear a loose relationship to the Welsh figure of Peredeur ap Efrac, but the influences of Latin thought and the close ties to the Graal Mythology make this a tenuous connection indeed.

Returning to the issue of the names, I think we need to ask "Why are they so important and why are we calling them titles?" Names in mystery lore do not work in the same manner as our modern day personal appellations. They are not simply convenient markers to connect face with personal knowledge. They serve as titles, and as definitions to partly explain the nature of the character and they thus indicate why said character takes the role and acts as it does. So, if we take a closer look we can find a small exposition to enlighten us.

Parzifal *does not* mean "Holy Fool," in keeping with the popular misunderstanding. "Fals" means "Circumstances" - "Fals du bist schwanger ..." or "If you happen to be pregnant ..." is a warning sign one can see in any German medical facility near the X-Ray rooms. Parzi derives from the root "perse," which it shares with Persecute, Parsimony, Persephone, and so forth. It means "poverty" or "suffering." So we can translate Parzifal as "Circumstances of Suffering" or "Circumstances of Poverty." Likewise, we can look at Percevale and find a similar meaning. "Vale" means a "small valley" and we see it used throughout medieval literature from Roncevale - the Valley of Thorns - where the hero Roland meets his end to the "Vale of Avalon" found in Malory's "Morte D'Arthur." "Perce" shares the same root of "poverty" or "suffering" with Parzi and thus for Percevale, instead of the popular but badly mangled "Holy Fool," we have "Valley of Suffering."

So, what's in the name? Why do we need to see the Fool's Alpha as a figure of poverty and suffering? This certainly flies in the face of watered down, non-confrontational, newage thinking. It also delivers a healthy slap across the mouth to pop-neopagan fads that wish to see everything occult through rose-colored lenses. The reason can be found in the roots of a great deal of Mystery Tradition Lore - at the founding points. Sidharta Buddha seeks to transcend suffering through enlightenment. Hold it, isn't this theme extrememly similar to the apotheosis achieved via the Graal? I answer "Yes, indeed." In the Christian legacy we find a similar meme in the self sacrifice of the Christos - or "Toad on a Thorn" as I call it. Yeshua ben Mirriam translates as "Hero, Son of Bitterness." The same theme can be seen in the Mabinogi where the Lynx of the Long Arm must overcome the three fates sworn upon him by his mother, Aranrhod, whose name means "Round Hill" and suggests a burial mound. Of course, by referencing the grave in this manner we see that the transcendence of suffering follows along with a transcendence of Death, which is to say Fate. Religions try to take this concept literally, proclaiming general resurrections or bodily assumption into paradisical states in their various doctrines, dogmas, and advertising. The Mysteries make no such blunder and show us instead a pathway to transcend and overthrow the cyclic, spiralling repetitions of Fate and thus to transcend the doom of the "gods," (I've addressed this idea in a earlier series of posts entitles "This Day All Gods Die,") most of whom are revealed as the handmaidens of Fate, forever identifying the cosmological forces of Creation and Destruction and playing out the cycles of these forces over and over. Clearly, Parzifal, as he achieves the Apotheosis of Montsalvat, describes just such a process of transcendence through the Survival of Death, so we have our Omega foreshadowed for us here, and our Mystery of Judgment (Trump XX) explained somewhat as well.

Having looked at some of the figures we find associated with the Fool, we can now look at some of the titles of the general figure expressed by the Tarot. "Fool" we already know, and can look at it from the viewpoint of "child," "dazed and confused," "jester and entertainer," "vagabond" and so forth. But what of the figure's other names? In French, it is "Le Fou," which translates both as "Fool" and as "Moonstruck" or "Madman." In Italian, the figure is blatantly "Il Matto" - "The Lunatic" - in German it is "Der Narr" or "The Foolish One," and in Spanish it is "El Loco" or "The Madman." So now we have our Fool associated both with Madness and with suffering, or the Condition of Fate.

The Root of Confusion: Admission vs Initiation

2009-07-12T09:27:00.000-07:00

I find a lot of confusion among occult and pagan practitioners between the terms "Initiation" and "Admission." I've seen this confusion expressed by my friend Caroline Tully who said "I'm a member of several groups and their "initiation" is nothing more than "Welcome to the club."" I've further seen it in Gardnerians who insist that nobody can be a Witch unless they are "...initiated in a circle like I was ..." I've further seen eclectics pontificate "I'll never initiate, it would tape my wings down" and "I would only self initiate." That sad fact is that not one of the above statements is true and all express the confusion between Initiation and Admission.

A person cannot initiate themselves. Nor can a person initiate another person. This is Admission - "Welcome to the club." Shani Oates, the Maid of the Clan of Tubal Cain has expounded beautifully on this point and her words, once published, will be well worth the reading. Admission rites may be intended to trigger an initiatory experience, but they are far from guaranteed to work although many groups insist that they work every time and insist that someone going through their rite is an initiate, whether they show the signs of successful initiation or not. This means that a great many groups and lines find themselves weighed down with a dearth of failures who do nothing to carry the stream forward, and often do everything possible to attract attention to themselves. Such individuals often run about insisting that "to be an initiate" one must "be an activist" or subscribe to a particular political ideology. Not only are these statements flagrantly false, their result is the creation of organizations that do nothing more than mimic the function of Christendom and its various churches. The hallmark of this mentality is a sense of abjection or victimhood that, far from carrying the stream forward, does everything possible to stunt its growth.

An Initiatory Experience consists of a collision - and I use this word with full intent - with Spirit. The spirit in question will be an initiating spirit - a Lightbringer and/or a Destroyer. The great Initiators are, in fact, the Destroyers. These figures include Cain, Woden, Taliesin, Legba, Herodia, Abraxas, Lugus, Lucifer, and other figures who have passed through the process of the Initiation. This is to say that they have destroyed or sundered their world, recreated it, and survived Death thus becoming the embodiments of the evolution of the Divine Consciousness. The Destroyers are the Great Mothers - The Morrigan, Hekate, Lilith, Ereshkigal, Isis, Gode, Freyjavigdis, La Madonna Negra, and others of their kind. Far from being the "gentle, laughing goddess" these beings stand at the center of the crossroads - at the point of ultimate destruction - created by the confluence of the seven worlds, offering rebirth and recreation.

Neither of these spirits should be sought out lightly. They are not gentle and their love is death. But it is this Death that the would-be Initiate must court, experience, and survive. The mythic imagery of this process and its symbols is well known and very nearly universal. We find its symbols in Hindi, German, Welsh, African, Irish, Finnish, and Christian mythos, just to name a few sources.

It must also be understood that worship is neither the key nor the desired result of this process. The key and desired results are Epiphany and Apotheosis. This is to say that the Initiate does not seek to follow meekly in line behind the Lightbringer, nor to grovel at the feet of the Destroyer, but instead to realize his or her own inner Godhead and become a Lightbringer in his or her own right. This is why I said earlier that Initiation entails a collision with Spirit. The process feels as though one's life has experienced a "train wreck." One's world or world-view is destroyed utterly in a cataclysmic process and then recreated in the image of Spirit.

The desired result of the Mystery of Initiation is not "now you're a member of group X." It is "Now you are on the road, intended by the True Gods." It is not "Now you will have "good karma" but rather "Now you have overthrown karma and surpassed most of the spirits men call "gods." This ties to the point I made earlier that "the gods" do not evolve. This is not their purpose, nor is it their nature, and the idea that they do is largely a product of pop-culture. The purpose of most of the spirits men call "gods" is to cause and catalyze human evolution. Indeed, most of these spirits were human at one time and have, in fact, evolved as far as they are able, and have become the servants of the terrible Pale Dame Fate. Again, our heritage or birthright is not to likewise become the slaves of Fate, but to overthrow this terrible foe, and transform her into Wyrd - Destiny - that we carve with our own hands. This is the upshot of the views expressed by such luminaries as Gautama Buddha, Robert Cochrane, Pythagoras, and others of like kind. But all of these figures also express their own cautionary tales, their own Poisoned Chalices, for the body is subject to Fate and that which is mortal will eventually fall prey to one of her traps. In the end, she lines her nest with our bones.

When Creating New Terms Doesn't Help

2009-07-11T10:54:00.000-07:00

Sometimes, in the course of magical work, we gain an insight for which there simply is no word. Sometimes modifying an existing term helps and sometimes we find that we need to create a "Barbarous Name." This is all well and good.

The time that this doesn't help is when we badly use existing words from a living language to string together, hoping to convey our meaning. The result, more often than not - especially if we don't speak that language - is that we convey nonsense and give the indication that we do things in half-measures. Face it, the language resources available are tremendous given a little effort.

An example of such a half measure is the non-word, ostensibly in German, "Gabelreiterinen." A well known author published this, and presented as "the German word for male witches." Now, as anyone who speaks German can tell you, the word for male witch is "Der Hexer," and its plural is "Die Hexer" or "Die Hexern," but this author wanted to convey the idea of someone who rode a magic staff in the manner that is mythically ascribed to flying witches and shows someone "riding" or hanging on the World Tree. Good intent thus far, but the word used remains nonsense to someone with even a rudimentary knowledge of the language, even given the propensity of German to create new terms out of old ones.

Let's take a look at "Gabelreiterin" and see what said author actually managed to say. Der Gabel is "a fork," good enough so far, but our fork is singular and our author's word is plural so immediately we get a sense of a rather crowded magical staff with many riders on one object! Next, we come to "reiter." This is not a word at all. Reiten means "to ride a horse" but the rider of a horse is "Der Ritter," (which also denotes an aristocrat of equestrian rank or a Knight) plural "Die Ritter" or "Die Rittern." (The difference is dialectic.) So, "reiter" actually points us to "reiten" - that is "to ride" or "to be riding a horse." So thus far we have "to be riding a fork-horse." While this might make sense in terms of magical imagery, it makes no sense as a noun linguistically and German is a stickler for its rules.

Next we come to the suffix "in." This is a "Berufsendung" or professional suffix. In German, all professions carry a "male" connotation, and thus require an additional indication when the Professional Person is a woman. This is what the "in" suffix does. It means "Professional Woman." Thus "The Doctor" - "Der Artzt" becomes "Die Aertztin" if your doctor is female. The same is true of teacher - "Der Lehrer" - which becomes "Die Lehrerin" as a woman, and so forth.

So "Gabelreiterin" is both a feminine and a professional idea - "Woman to be riding a fork-horse for a living." This really makes no sense whatsoever. "Die Gabelreiterinen" therefore comes out "Women to be riding A fork for a living (professionally,) which is utter nonsense.

So, to correct the term, we first need to make our fork agree with its manipulators. Der Gabel is singular and thus "Rider of a Fork-Horse" would be "Der Gabelritter." To pluralize it, we umlaut the "a" in Gabel and this gives us "Die Gaebelritter" for plural and for feminine. This indicates that riding the fork-horse is something that these people are identified as doing, but not something they do professionally to earn a living i.e. Doctor, Teacher, Judge ect.

This leaves just one linguistic quibble: German is very strict as to the difference between riding a horse - a living being capable of self-motivation - and riding an inanimate object, say a bicycle or other mechanical device. The fork we're talking about is a tool, not *literally* a living creature. (I truly hate to use the literal connotations here but the language does use them.)Therefore it is not ridden, but rather driven. (Even such actions as skiing are regarded as "driving.") So, the correct term for a "Fork Rider" would actually be "Der Gabelfaehrer" for a male and "Die Gaebelfaehrer" for a female or for plural.

I guess what I am really saying as my point is this: If we, as occultists, are going to point to the axiom "If you're going to do it, do it right" that is to say "thoroughly," then we need to first apply this axiom to ourselves.

Musings on Death

2009-06-17T20:15:00.000-07:00

A lot of folks reading this will already know that my nephew, Liam, died last week at the "ripe old age" of four. He passed from this life well - better than many adults I've known have done - and his death provokes thoughts on mortality, Fate, and appreciating the folks around me.

Liam was a cheery, handsome, brave, imaginative boy of two wonderfully loving parents. He was cherished by his entire extended family and when he was diagnosed with leukemia a year ago, all of us dug in for a grim struggle with Fate.

At first, it seemed as though our initial counterattacks against the disease gained ground. His prognosis was excellent. Chemotherapy and other measures - both mundane and other - seemed to gain ground easily. Then came the first relapsing and we became aware that he would need to go through a heavy and sustained course of chemo and radiation, ultimately requiring a bone marrow transplant. Again, here we collectively seemed to make incredible gains. Through an incredible effort, a donor was found and secured. Again mundane and other counters to the illness seemed to gain ground.

His transplant was performed and took. There was no sign of leukemia in his system. He developed a case of graft - host illness that is a normal side effect of the transplant. Then Old Grim Fate responded with a vengeance, virtually erasing all gains made on all levels. Brendan, Liam's father, warned friends and family that time was short. We made plans to visit last Friday.

Those of you who know my Face Book links will know that Liam died in his mother's arms Wednesday morning. Her account, Liam's Caringbridge Journal, is heartrending and inspiring. Liam's final words are perhaps significant ...

Here is where I return to the occult mode of this journal. The story is, likely, all too familiar to some folk. Old Dame Fate has us all in the end of this life, and she is no respecter of youth or beauty. In fact, she sometimes seems to delight in plucking the youngest roses, just as they start to blossom. The lesson here, for me, is to cherish those to whom I am close. To give of what I have as freely as I may. To value where I can best.

On a magical and experiential level I save the last bit of my thoughts: When I was told of Liam's death, I "went looking" for the boy. Brave as he was, I wanted to do the final service I could perform for him. I met a kindly old fellow in grey, who looked me up and down and finally said: "If you're looking for the boy, you've missed him at the docks. You needn't worry, he was looked after."

I didn't want to have missed Liam at the dock. I wanted to have been around to give him some sort of send off - a few words, a hand squeeze - but at the same time, I am grateful. Even in this, there is some sort of kindness. Even I, the "old badger" can take some small comfort.

Thoughts on Tettens

2009-05-30T09:30:00.000-07:00

Tettens is a town is Ostfriesland, in north-eastern Germany. Situated directly in the "low" areas of the northern plains region, it has one of the shortest summers and one of the coldest winters possible in that country. It is battered by storms that come howling in from the North Sea. "Fries" itself derives from "frieren" - "to freeze." It is also situated in some of the most historically significant ground in Europe.

It is in this area of Ostfriesland that the Germanic tribal groups who formed the "Anglo-Saxons" and who created England overlapped. The Angles and Jutes came from the Jutland Peninsula, just to the north-east. The Saxons came from Sachsen, just to the south. Ostfriesland also borders on Denmark.

Tettens' north-east region is also home to some of the most occultly interesting Germanic folk and mythic lore. It is of stories from this region that Goethe was to create his poem "Erlkoenig" or "King of the Alders," a terrifying vision of the old rising up to strike down the young and new. The Alder King, in Germanic myth is old Tiw, god of strife, death, and warfare, who was supplanted by the Ash King, Wotan. While he could demonstrate himself a being of great honor, Tiw also shows a cruel and calculating quality that we can see in many of the Northern Kings. A god of the night, and a haunter of lonely and wild places, Goethe's setting of "Wer reitet so spaet durch Nacht und Wind?" or "Who rides so late through the night and the wind" directly sets the scene for the horrifying vision and death of the child at the Alder King's hands.

Robert Cochrane comments on Tettens that he is " ... tall, dark, and cold ... and King of the Alders ..." clearly indicating two forms - the British Bran and the Germanic Tiw. However he goes on to say "He is Hermes" and here we must look to Tiw's relationship to Wotan, for the Hermes or Mercurial association belongs more properly to the Ash King, while Tiw comes across as a wintry mix of Mars with Hades. Here also we must look more at Cochrane's specific Compass, for understandings of the Compass are not as universal as some might like and vary somewhat from strain to strain.

In northern traditions, north is the realm of Night, Winter, Wind, Warfare, and Death. This holds true for Brythonic, English, and Germanic cultures. Tiw is Wind, Night, Death and Warfare. Wotan is Wind, Lightning, Resurrection, Wisdom (very mercurial,) Death and Betrayal. Wotan associates also with Loki (Lightning or Light - Thorn. Mistletoe, Thistle) and Thor (Thunder, Fate, and Oak)forming a symbolic triumvirate that is not lightly sundered. Tiw is, as noted early, a lonely and cold being as night black as lightning is startlingly bright. So we see here a startling picture of opposing twins, who partake of each others' nature. Both have been Allfather in their realm, as has Bran ("Bendigeidfran was crowned King of all this island")

Do "the gods" Evolve?

2009-05-25T09:18:00.000-07:00

I recently read a short article by a well-known, popular, neo-pagan author that insisted "the gods are still learning ... they are still evolving." I made a comment disagreeing with said statement for any number of reasons that resulted in her "unfriending" me on Face Book. It would seem that I "dared disagree" one time too many. But this post is not intended to focus on the dogmatism practiced and promoted by validation seeking neo-pagans or attention seeking ideologues and celebrities. The question of whether the spirits that are variously called "the gods" evolve and learn is worth a look see.

My answer remains: "No, they do not. The spirits people call "gods" are not capable of evolution. Likewise, what most neo-pagan agendas - particularly those espousing celebrity status or touting a political ideology - mean by "learning" is "jumping on the bandwagon." Again, the spirits called "the gods" are not subject to Time and "the bandwagon" goes by and changes too rapidly for most of them to notice that it was ever there in the first place.

But the reasons run deeper than simply this. The spirits I'm discussing today inhabit what can be called "mantles" - roles that identify their function within the processes of the cosmos. This assessment is born out by every, and I do mean every, mythology on the planet. It is one of the reasons that Christianity's assertion that "it worships the creator while everyone else worships the created" is so patently laughable. JHVH is merely another thunderer and IHWH has quite a different meaning than as misunderstood by the edifice supporting, discrete theists and "eclectics." So seeing where the disputed viewpoint originates, we can posit that its origin is, at least partly, due to the inability or unwillingness of eclecticism and abject theism to see the forest for the trees.

The Mantles define roles within the cosmic processes and these, in turn, we understood by seeing them as interactions between the mantles. What is often not understood is the connection between the Human Awareness and these processes. The fact is that the two are scale models of each other. This takes us back to the widely understood psychological view that the Human Cosmos is created and shaped by the Human Awareness. "Let there be light" can be seen and understood as "Let there be awakening." Science further tells us that this reality that we cherish our awareness of is created by the deterioration of light. This takes us back to the Luciferian Spirit - the Divine Spirit within each human being and posits that we create our own world in our own image. It certainly then shoots the political ideology in the head, for it places the responsibility for our condition squarely in our own hands and refutes the "oppressed / persecuted victim" stance of the communally codependent thoroughly.

The Mantles therefore can be described as Time ("water,") Fate (Cause and Effect, Instinct, "sin") Spirit (Force/Conflict, Change, "air") the Child (incipient or evolving awareness) Knowledge (Form, Manifestation/Resolution, "earth") Wisdom (Creativity, Adaptation, "fire") and Love (Change, Self Sacrifice, "the Gateway," and "water") and the Finally Manifest, which is a gestalt of all of the above.

The spirits that inhabit these mantles would likewise seem to be viewable as sevenfold, and indeed some views do just that. Others might see them as thirteen or even fourteenfold, understanding each mantle as a spectrum of interaction, with two inherent, intertwined and interdependent polarities within. The symbols for these mantles, consistently, take the form of the Seven Classical Planets and consistently follow the pattern that occultists call "The Fall" which is really the story of Creation and of the evolution of Human Awareness. Simply rereading any creation myth and noting that it lays out these positions and interactions, as well as an ordering of the processes implicit within, tells us that we are on the right track. We might also note that a great many myths blur the mantles together, emphasizing their interaction as well as their function as polarities of large spectra.

Thus Saturn = Time, Jupiter = Fate / Sovereignty, Mars = Spirit / Force, Venus = Knowledge / Form, Mercury = Wisdom, Moon = Love and the Sun is the evolving awareness or the Child of Promise.

So now we can have a look at these more clearly. Right at the outset, we can comfortably say that Time does not evolve. It behaves in the same manner as it always has, actually whether we've been aware of it or not. It has no need of our awareness. The same can be said of Time's daughter power Fate. She is cause and effect and functions exactly the same way in all known times. Spirit is a force for change, but acts as a catalyst, causing other things around it to change. The Child is almost universally depicted as a Titanic force - a monster child - ready for awareness but not really aware, it requires its Herald and Charioteer to interface for this. So the Child is capable of learning but will not do so on its own. Mythologically we can say that without the Morningstar influence of Apollo, Helios could care less whether it rides across the sky or crashes into the sea and the consequences of each mean little or nothing to the Titan. For all its bright, shining splendour, Helios' awareness remains restricted solely to itself. (Anyone ever notice the self absorbed teen who blunders into all sort of trouble by failing to take note that there is more than one person in this world?) Knowledge, associated with Venus by both the Apple (in the North) and the Pomegranate (in the Middle East) brings about the beginnings of this awareness by bringing - as is described - the understanding of suffering, bitterness and consequence (Pandora) and the awareness of the choices of good and evil. (Thus the tale in Genesis is not the story of "original sin" as is posited to the ignorant by edifice religion but rather the End of "sin" as an excuse.)Knowledge does not really change or evolve either, it simply amasses. Next we come to Wisdom / Mercury, which serves as the exterior symbol of the evolving awareness. Wisdom is adaptable and mutable and does change constantly, along with its ability to comprehend and usefully interpret knowledge. So, at this point, we find two of seven forces of Creation and Destruction - two of "the gods," out of seven, that can learn - actually learn through growing awareness not jumping onto some ideologues bandwagon - and adapt and evolve. The others function to support and catalyze this process of evolution. Finally we come to the force of Love, which brings all of the others together and catalyzes them into a single, central gestal process of growth in pursuit of Truth. Love causes change, but does not actually change, itself. (By Love, I do not mean "romance" or eros but rather Agape - that which seeks perfection for that which is loved.) So again, Love does not evolve but rather causes evolution. The final step, the gestalt, is each of us, ourselves. Bearing the Fiery Spirit within us and, hopefully, crowning our brows. This final step must evolve or it dies and decays.

So now, to the gods. Do they evolve? For the most part, no they do not. They are the slaves of the processes of Fate (as said author should have known from her own studies) and as such, being chained to the execution of said processes, they cannot evolve. It is the divine, lightbringing and lightbearing spirit, that manifests itself in our human awareness, that can and does evolve constantly. What can evolve with respect to "the gods" is our understanding of them and their functions.

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A final note: As to the so called "controversy" between Creation and Evolution, I find that there is no controversy. Without Creation, evolution would have no place and no time in which to occur. Without Evolution, Creation would freeze into place and nobody could even age, have children die or decay as these basic processes require change.
So "creationism," clinging as it does to a stability that does not exist, is laughable. Likewise, doctrinaire atheist visions of evolution, clinging as they do to a stability of disjointed nihilism that also has no basis in reality, are equally absurd.

Cracking the Cauldron

2009-05-03T12:49:00.000-07:00

Today is Roodmas. We've seen Walpurgisnacht and Walpurgistag already in the last couple of days and some of us have experienced a peak in the Sabbatic tides that indicate, to us, the Fall of Beltain. So I think that today is a good day to talk about the tides a bit.

Traditional Craft makes use of two calendar forms in a magical sense. These oppose, and in many ways, directly contradict each other and yet they also perfectly complement each other. Each has its own Lore to communicate.

The first of these is the Zodiac, which we reckon by tracing the apparent passage of the sun through the ring of constellations on its lemniscate track through the year. It is from the Zodiac that two working compass forms can be derived, switching roles depending on whether we're working in the Northern or Southern Hemisphere. The Zodiac is understood as a "perfect circle" that is to say 360 degrees. This causes immediate confusion as the solar year contains 365-odd days. Some neo-pagan authors have attempted to reconcile this by positing an "extra month" of five days around the Winter Solstice. This, of course, doesn't work very well and fails to explain how we're supposed to cram those five degrees into our 360 or why.

Robert Graves suggests that four of the days can be seen in the Equinoxes and solstices and this is a step in the right direction, but he hits the snag that these days most certainly *are* part of Time. They make up and essential part of our understanding and do not fit the description at all. Thus the Four Albans, or Four Lights, fall into a different category altogether.

This leaves us with what many understand as the Four Darknesses - the Sabbati. They derive their name from the Latin / Italian "Sabbado" or Saturn's Day and from the Hebrew "Shabbas" or "Rest." We also note that no precise agreement exists as to when they fall. Thus we find ourselves looking at four imprecise days. This contrasts the Albans directly, for these are marked very precisely, and by specific astrological phenomena. Not so our Sabbati. To take the matter a bit farther, in Traditional Craft, many streams understand these festivals as "Tides," that is to say that their fall is determined by forces very different from the orderly progress of the Sun. That they associate with Saturn, ruler of the Void, and deal with the disruption of Time finalizes our requirement. Here then are four of the five points of darkness that are not a part of the orderly cosmos of time. Rather than associating to a specific date, they are determined by the peak of the Tides, forces of the Void, and intrude themselves within ranges - roughly between 1 and 15 degrees of their respective Zodiac signs - although they can occur slightly before or after.

This then also correlates with the old heathen understandings of Samhain - November - as the beginning of Winter, or the Zodiac's sinistral months and of Beltain - the Raid of Beli - as the beginning of Summer or the Zodiac's dextral months. We can also now look at Taliesin and see the Cracking of the Cauldron for what it is: A split that runs from Samhain to Beltain rendering two compasses, one dextral for the orderly or rightful months and one sinistral for the Wasteland or the Flood Time, with a transition point between. This ties neatly with the Double Compass rite many clans work at Samhain where folk pass from one area to the other through the Crack in the Cauldron.

The World In Four Airts - Part 5

2009-04-26T08:27:00.000-07:00

It's been awhile since I posted and since I proved too weary to get up to go fishing this morning, I decided that it was time to get back to this blog as well as to other serious writing. So now we pick up again:

Cochrane's choice of Tettens in the north indicates the region where Germany and Denmark border with the rest of Scandanavia and with Holland. Here, in Ostfriesland, we find the town of Tettens. We can infer a number of things from this geographic reference as it is one of the points in the old world where the Celtic speaking tribes were in contact and overlap with the Nordic and Germanic tribes. This cultural interchange can be seen in the appellation of "Teutonic" for the German speaking tribes. This word comes from the Teutones - the Sons of Teutates - who were a northern Gaulish tribe who intermarried with Saxons, Allemanii, and other neighbors. Teutates - Father of the Tribes - is the old northern Allfather, a martial figure who was supplanted by the mercurial Odin or Wotan and stayed on as Tiw ruling the realm of conflict.

So now if we look at the above in combination with what we've already seen from Carenos, we have the North - South axis of our crossroads explained in a most satisfactory manner. North represents the power of Spirit, and the force that causes change. South represents the body - specifically the bones - that house this spirit force and give it form and purpose. In this interaction both are changed as evolution is set into motion. This, then, is really what the creation tales are about. They do not represent some childishly literal attempt to explain physical creation - as ignorant Protestants, other abject theists, and willfully ignorant Doctrinaire Atheists would have us misunderstand - but rather they set forth, most elegantly, the process of the evolution of human consciousness. They also make very clear that our "consensual reality" is understood to result from the evolution of this consciousness. Here then is one secret of "I Am." It is not some externalized bearded old man in the sky waiting to spank us, and it is not "the great goddess "The"" waiting to fulfill a sterilized fantasy of "sensuality," rather it is the divine Luciferian spirit within us, waiting only to rise up and crown us with the fiery crown of the Awen.

This then puts an entirely new spin on the old Christian cop-out of sin. Sin is the result of the unconscious. It is not the result of the exercise of will. Thus we go back to the myth of the Garden and we see that eating the fruit of Knowledge was no mistake, nor was it "original sin" as the Church's political control mechanism would have us believe in order to perpetuate itself and its parasitic professional clergy. It is rather the elimination of the excuse for with the Knowledge of Good and Evil our actions become willful decisions. "Sin" is then our own, personal unconscious baggage and damage. We find it nothing more than our unthinking knee-jerk responses. While our deliberate actions become either Good or Evil. This knowledge, then, should form a good basis to inform our ethic in dealing with others for the combination of Knowledge and Power confer also Absolute Responsibility, and thus Complete Freedom. Earlier in this blog, I quoted R.J. Stewart: " ... the purpose of the Tradition is freedom from tradition," and here we find an occult vindication of this idea. This does not mean "do what you want is the whole of the law" as some irresponsible and self-indulgent twits would like to self validate. It means "Do what is necessary for we are absolutely responsible for our actions, thus no other can bind or censure us."

This also obviates the victim stance adopted by the various political control and codependency ideologies for what it is: Nonsense. The lore of not a single Tradition - to include the Christian - supports this stupidity. The Religio-Political ideology of victimhood thus reveals itself to us as merely a childish attempt to avoid responsibility.

The World in Four Airts - Part 4

2009-04-04T21:46:00.000-07:00

The South, by contrast, has always been the seat of prosperity. even its legendary places - Ynis Afalon - refer to green and growing things. Southern Britain was home to the Roman Civitas, as well as to Britain's oldest cities. The south is also the warmest and most temperate part of the island and has the best growing season. Thus it becomes the peace and prosperity to counterbalance the militarized North's chaos and conflict. It holds, both in its chalk lands and in its mythic White Mount, the form to contain and direct the North's force and the bones to house its spirit.

So as North takes on martial and hadean qualities, the South can be seen in a contrasting light as venerian and thus we find its associations with manifestation and form. It takes on the role of the founding glory of what became the "Empire On Which the Sun Never Sets." Thus we see in it Netzach or Venus, particularly associated with the White One and Lily White Boy of myth.

The other two horizons, by contrast, are more easily grasped. To understand Wisdom in the East one merely needs to understand the relative positions of Britain and Greece. However, we can go deeper and note that the Morning Star has been associated with this direction in numerous cultures. The sun sinking into the seas of Time in the west also needs little explanation. Thus we can see the easy line up with the planetary associations of the Renaissance.

The ruling King/Spirit of this mantle may cause some confusion, certainly to the minds of literalists who fancy themselves "historians." Robert Cochrane refers to this mantle as "Carenos," a name that many take for the latinized Gaulish "Cernunnos." In wiccan and neopagan parlance, this name is translated as "Horned One" and he is taken as a hadean "horned god." However, a closer look at his name, following Celtic-Q language rules tells us "noun first, adjective second" in a compound name. So the noun is "Cernu," which is singular. So not "horned" but Horn. The adjective os is an honorific seen in other names to indicate chieftainhood or royalty. So we get "Chief Horn" or "King of the Horn." Rather quickly, we can tell that this name doesn't have much to do with wearing a set of antlers. Rather it refers to the horns that were prominent in its society: The Drinking Horn - which served as the hospitality cup of a household, among other things - the Hunting Horn, and the Horn of Feasting, later called Cornucopia or Horn of Plenty in Latin. So we have two Horns of Hospitality and Plenty and one that has more to do with royal sport than with sustenance hunting.

Cochrane, however, was never satisfied with giving only one piece of information to an item. Many researchers and practitioners have assumed that in distorting the names of the Wind Kings as he does in his "...Letters," he is merely following the adage "Thou shalt not profane the names of god with writing." If we look deeper, however, we can find still more meaning. "Carenos" does not come across as latinized Gaulish the way Cernunnos does. Rather, it smacks more of gallicized Latin and we can examine it the same way. "Care" is, of course, the Latin root of our word care. Both of these have to do with love, mercy and service to the loved one(s.) Os, again, is "chief." So we have "Chief Love" or "Chief Mercy" (caritas is Latin for mercy) which give us both the vernerian connotation in the former, but also a Hesed or Fate/Jupiter connection as well. This serves well with our partly human and partly bestial image of this figure and we can see him now presiding over Form and Prosperity, and all that is subject to Time and Fate. As we noted above, our Chief of the Horn sets a hearty table.

The World in Four Airts - Part 3

2009-03-15T14:57:00.000-07:00

To say that the North Quarter System is rooted in the mythic structures of the Northern Cultures would be accurate. To say that it is deeply rooted in the collective cultural undercurrents of the North would be more so. This, then, is why we find the huge gaps in function that occur when someone attempts to interpret northern myths in a solomonic context. The Key of Solomon and its Circle of Art were never intended to function in a culturally organic manner. The construct simply does not apply to the Northern Mysteries, or indeed to the mythic structure of the Mystery Process. It was intended to function as a fortress in which a sorceror could work, reasonably sheltered from the hazards of his or her work.

The North Quarter system, likewise, sets itself apart for those who are able to connect with it. It draws upon the ingrained cultural psychology to interface with its environment and provides a vehicle for navigating in that environment. This leads us naturally to TIW's boast that "We have stolen the Axis Mundi and located it beyond the pale." If the results of our work are any indicator, this boast is far from idle. This is also a part of the reason that TIW practitioners who are working truly in accord with the Stream have no interest in "mass appeal" or in "being mainstream." Mainstream and in the public disunderstanding is where the power of the Witch, quite simply, is not. The same can be said very easily for those who try to use public opinion to change the internal workings of a given stream. They stand where the power is not and they are not of it.

The North Quarter system also associates Severity with Force, as does the Qabbalah. But in the Northern Traditions, this is change, spirit, love and death and these we associate with the North Wind. This would be cognate, to the Qabbalist, with Shekinah, the breath of spirit that moves over the waters of the Void and the Flood and with the Breath of Life, breathed into the Body of Earth to quicken the spark of divine fire within.

Mythically, we can see this in the figure of Odin chasing through the sky on his eight legged horse Sleipnir; in the weather-wielding Blue Hag or Cailleach, who is "washed" from the darkness of unmanifest spirit to the White of manifestation; in the titanic martial figure of Bran, and in the raven-winged Morrigu. Odin is, of course, the Nordic All-Father, King of Storms who travels with his companions Thor and Loki (Thunder and Lightning.) The Cailleach holds the Spring Dawn, in the form of the Lightbringer Brigid, hostage until she is housed in bone (turned to stone.) Bran, cognate also with Arawn, is both a King of the Dead and of Conflict and nobody fails to glimpse something of the Morrigu's deathly, airy, beauty.

Force often finds its expression in conflict and this further brings up the image of the Wasteland. In the British Isles this finds historic echoes in the indiscriminate destruction of warfare, which swooped down upon the fertile South from the militarized North. North was home to the Picts and Scotti, who lived north of Hadrian's Wall. North was home to Danish and Swedish Vikings (the latter coming again as William I's Normans) as well as to Angles and Saxons, striking out across Northern Gaul from Jutland and Ostfriesland, where one finds the town of Tettens. Thus do we find TIW's understand of North Wind, Geburah and its association with Mars, characterized in the figure of Tiw, Father of the Tribes and of conflict.

Here we also find the meaning of Taliesin's line "...breath is black." Black, the absence of color, symbolizes the unmanifest and the conflict of force and spirit ever roiling against itself. But it also reflects a very simple physical fact. As I've noted, "black" denotes the absence of color. All one need do is exhale in normal temperatures and note the "color" of ones breath. It is, of course, colorless like all air. Thus, "breath is black" and we have yet another connection to our Northern Airt, hardly a mystery or a lapwing ...

The World in Four Airts - Part 2

2009-03-14T18:34:00.000-07:00

The North Quarter system essentially works in the opposite manner as the Magic Circle (or Circle of Art.) Where the Circle is static and rigid, rooted in unchanging stability, the North Quarter Compass has a fluid character rooted in change and motion.

The first difference to comprehend lies in the understanding of the monads or sephiroth of Geburah and Hod. These differ dramatically from the Qabalistic model, and yet still manage to connect to it. This is the main reason why, in TIW, the root decad is most often addressed in the form of the Tetraktys, rather than that of the Qabalistic Tree. The result of this difference may be called "The Northern Tree." Its understandings are derived culturally - that is directly from the Northern Mythos - rather than copied out of a grimoire.

In this system, we find it necessary to divorce our thought from the literal and to address the mythic. This also means that we do not necessarily interpret myths as stories about supposedly "real," literal figures - as I've mentioned before - but rather as expressions of the interactions of forces and processes of creation and destruction in the cosmos. The mythic process also gives an exposition of the keys of these processes and the interactions of these forces.

In the mythic framework, we find these forces identified in two ways: As mythic literary figures that is to say the mantles of gods occupied by clan spirits; and as symbols that is magical objects associated with or wielded by these figures. Some prominent examples of the latter include the Four Hallows, the Hangman's Noose, and the Great Cauldron. For examples of the former, we can quote Cochrane and say "Merlin, the Devil, and the Wounded Lightbringer."

The World in Four Airts - Part 1

2009-03-09T21:31:00.000-07:00

What exactly are the Four Airts? What are the Four Fifths? What is the difference between a Northern Compass and a Solomonic Magic Circle? Don't they serve the same ends?

The first thing to understand about both the Northern Compass and the Solomonic Circle is that they serve as cosmological constructs. The difference between them is twofold: First comes the simple fact that the Northern Compass is a cultural construct. This is to say that it derives directly from the history and mythology of the northern tribal societies and that it expresses itself in both their folk and their occult traditions.

By contrast, the magic circle was created deliberately by continental occultists of the Renaissance period to serve a specific purpose and its record was preserved, in a very literal form, in the Grimoire Tradition.

The two are clearly related, but at the same time, they serve different purposes and exhibit different dynamics. The reasons for this can be uncovered by pacing them out and examining them from "the ground up."

Each form contains a horizon or perimeter, and a center point. Here the similarity comes to an end. The Solomonic circle uses its perimeter as its main power channel, further contained within the square that links its "four watchtowers" together. It also takes no account of vertical dimensions and recognizes only a "material world" and a "spirit world." Its practitioners understand their form to occupy a threshold position where these two worlds meet. All of this may be ascertained from the Clavicula as can the circle's main function as a fortress.

The question here is, then: "How does the circle's form follow its function?" We can find the answer simply by dividing it into its domains - the regions ruled by its watchtowers - at the cross quarters. When we do this, we should also note that the diagram in the Clavicula puts forward East as its "power" direction at the top, and North as the sinister direction to the left. The Four Domains may therefore ascribed these qualities: East - Wisdom - as might be expected in a construct attributed to Solomon by a European magician. All wisdom comes from the East - Greecy, Persia, and Palestine. North, on the left hand, becomes the direction of the Unmanifest and the Unconscious. South, on the right hand, is the Conscious and the Manifest, while West "at the bottom" is the realm of the Foundation. From this, the answer to our above question becomes apparent when we examine what forces are invoked into these directions.

In the sinistral direction, we find Netzach - which rules "form" and is often erroneously identified with "earth" - occupying the unconscious realm of Time and thus determining that the character of the form should emphasize "stability." Thus it imbues the circle with the qabalistic quality of "glory" and the functional character of the manifest.

Opposite this, in South, we find the watchtower associated with Geburah - often misassociated with "fire" - giving it the qabalistic qualities of Power and Severity. Thus the circle is visualized as a fortress - temple of stability and power. The World (Earth!) properly understood as "center" takes on an essentially unchanging character. Change, and power, swirl around this "eye of the storm" as a huge, double cone.

Taking a Small Break --- A WPB Blurb taken from the WPB MySpace Blog

2009-03-06T19:59:00.000-08:00

I had an interesting insight today, although I don't really know if I want it to find its way into the WPB text or not. In the UK there is a spring myth concerning Brigid held hostage by the Hag, until she is rescued by Angus Mac In Der Og (The Irish Zeus Hades who winds up as king of the Tuatha De)

All of the elements of the Washer are present although she is divided into two figures: The unmanifest spirit of the Hag and the threshold figure of the Brythonic - Gaelic Lightbringer Brighid, who is this tale takes on the threshold role of the Washer as she washes the Hag's cloak from black to white. While this goes on, Angus searches for her and ultimately rescues her.

Of course, we know that Brighid carries the "Eternal Virgin" key of a Fate figure and that by assuming this threshold role, not only does she take on the persona of the Washer, she is clearly imposing the ordering of Fate upon the black (blue) being of the unmanifest hag. In this context the washing of the cloak, from black to white or from the Spirit of North to the Bone of South is painfully obvious, especially given Britain's mythic cosmography. This is further reinforced by the Hag herself, turning into a stone, next to a sacred well.

Angus' rescue carries the keys both of the Abduction of Kore - here with Hades assuming a "heroic" rather than a "villain" role and of course of the Finding of the Virgin that is also keyed in the earlier and later festivals of St. Lucy (Saint Lightbringer) and the Annunciation of the Virgin.

Of course, the painfully inaccurate and biased view of several "celtic scholars" who base their cosmologies upon Gerald Gardner's Key of Solomon - inspired wiccan circle is thrown off simply because they insist on searching for an "earth mother" (see 1960's hippy movement) who is "being washed" (baptized.) While Brigid does carry somewhat of this venerian key as the imposer of order, her position at the threshold, her known roles as Eternal Virgin and Lightbringer (she is a "Jack of All Trades" in the same manner as Lugus) and her dealings with the Hag - a being who rules wind and weather - quickly combine to bury the neopagan "earthmother" nonsense.

This Day All Gods Die - Part 6

2009-02-28T20:50:00.000-08:00

In my last post, I discussed the Spirits who deserve the honorific of "gods" but who have no need or desire for the ensuing grovelling and blithering of the theistic masses. Of these, the most important are Fate - who becomes Wyrd once overthrown - and the Wounded Lightbringer who overthrows her, and is thus the great "Traitor to the Gods."

These are not the only mantles in the cosmos, nor are they only figures with whom we must reckon. This is where we come an understanding and relationship with our Clan and Ancestral spirits and accord them their proper places as well. We must come to understand that there are two aspects to the Great Mother: One is the Great Darkness who births the Lightbringer. The other is the Queen of Manifestation who gives birth to all that is Form. In the tarot, she is called the Empress, Venus, and she is the wife and Queen of the Dread Mars - Lord of the Winds of Conflict and the old Father of the Tribes. These two can be seen most simply as Unmanifest Spirit and the Bones that give form to its fleshly house. Spirit, is of course, force and power. While form is the channel that gives force its direction and purpose, the bones that give it shape.

You may notice that I speak of Force and Form, Dark and Light, Love and Wisdom. These are vital pairings that cannot exist without each other. There is no light without the darkness that defines it. There is no love without the wrath that fuels it. Though it horrify today's pc, "socialist" neopagan, nothing exists without its necessary, oppositional twin. You can hide in the sun all you like, but you will never see the light without the shadow it casts. Without that shadow, quite simply, there is no light.

Today, it is quite common to find highly codependent, if not downright masochistic, neopagans who call themselves "lightworkers" and think it an "act of love" to sit and absorb all of the abuse that evangelicals can heap upon them. They think it only right that such should be allowed, unchallenged, to tell them that Jay-ee-zus (supposedly a being of "love") hates all that they stand for and they will even attack any who dare stand up for them. This is, of course, not love but a twisted fantasy of "being in love," for Love does not tolerate, or accept, needless abuse.

"If I turn the other cheek, will you hit it too?" is a very valid question. When the answer is "Yes," as it often is, then the best response is "Then I'll not give you even the once, and should you succeed then my repayment is nine for one." This may not seem "right" in the eyes of the abysmally sniveling pc, but it will insure that one is never struck in the face again ... not by that fool anyway. As Crowley put it "The simplest means of dealing with a dog that keeps you up all night with its howling is shoot the dog."

This Day All Gods Die - Part 5

2009-02-08T12:38:00.000-08:00

In the last installment, I discussed the uselessness of theism to the occultist. I commented that very few of the spirits that men call "gods" actually merit the title. What I mean here is that most "gods" are simply very powerful ancestral spirits who have come to occupy certain functional mantles within their given cosmological context. I do find, however, a few spirits who operate in these contexts who do merit the position, but who can be said to have little to no use for "worship" behaviors. I will examine these in very general functional terms.

The first of these would be Saturn, ruler of Time, and therefore Space. Quite frankly, without these, existence would not exist. Saturn's is also the power that permits the operation of Fate - the orderly progress of change through cause and effect - within the reality of the magical cosmos. It can be said that Fate is Saturn's daughter. While the being who occupies the Saturn Mantle does not exist within Time, Fate does and she is its true ruler. This is borne out by every mythic system in the West.

However, Fate is not the "Great Mother" so badly mangled and mis-portrayed by popular neopaganism as the "great goddess The." We find her better characterized as Bitterness, the Eternal Virgin and Cruel Mother, who challenges, curses, and sacrifices her own offspring. As Sidharta Buddha so accurately noted, she is not humanity's friend. She is the enemy. Robert Cochrane comments that Witches must "...continually be watchful for her traps ..." for she tests us sorely, again and again. The nature of this testing, we can find expressed mythologically as the Temptation Game of Illusion, Fear, and Delusion and to fail at any one of these is magical and spiritual suicide. To those who challenge her authority and then fail, Fate is a most unforgiving judge. We can ascertain this simply by looking at her name and considering the imagery it calls up: Hel.

Third in this little list we find the figure of the Creatrix/Destroyer, who causes the process of the manifestation of Spirit into Matter to begin. Again, this spirit is well deserving of the title of Goddess, for she rules even Fate, but if we look at her mythos, we find that she, as well, presents us with a harsh mistress who has no need and no care for human worship.

Finally we come to the Luciferian spirit, the Lightbringer, who overthrows Fate. The ramifications of this concept cannot be overstated. Mythologically, luciferian figures are so prominent that one must stop and wonder how they can be so easily misunderstood, but for those who will not taste of the Apple (or Fig or Pomegranate)of Knowledge and who wallow in the Slavery of Natura, the idea of such freedom must be terrifying indeed. The Lightbringer is the Immanent Deity of Human Consciousness. The luciferian tale, telling as it does, the story of the birth and evolution of that consciousness, along with its cataclysmic overthrow of the animal self and ascent of the Great World Tree, provides the chief preoccupation of more than western mythology and Mystery. But once again, this spirit is not to be worshiped, but rather realized for it is not an external deity to whom we must bend the knee, but rather our internal heritage and birthright. Bending the knee to a perceived external Lightbringer - regardless of what we call this being - simply invites the Trickster to jump on our backs and ride us down to the feet of Fate. We have only to look at Evangelical and Dominionist Religions to see the results of this failure. Love is the transforming force in the process of the Mysteries, while Hate and Fear enslave. We need only look to the ideas that preach love and practice hate and fear for the perfect example of what not to do.

For my part, I never cease to be amazed at the earnest, supposedly intelligent, people who boldly make clear that their life's goal is to repeat Churchinanity's blunders. They seem determined to expect different results from repeating the same, tired, theistic behaviors. Likewise, the so-called "atheists" who line up behind demagogues - once again evangelists - and proselytize in the name of a god called "science," engage only in repeating these same worn out dogmas.

This Day All Gods Die - Part 4

2009-01-25T14:24:00.000-08:00

Ritualism and abject theism or "churchianity," tie directly to the same sort of self-perpetuating slavery as does Ideologism. Ritualism consists of repeating supposedly "sacred" acts simply out of habit or for the sake of repetition. When one questions these actions, those participating rarely know of any significance or functional reason for them at all. The answer given is invariably "It's 'always' been this way" or "Ask an 'elder.'" Of course, said 'elder' will rarely have an answer, other than to repeat the former response, discourage further questioning, and mark the questioner down as a potential, or likely, trouble maker. This sort of response has long been the hallmark of Protestant Evangelical Fundamentalism. It is also a hallmark of theistic neo-pagan Evangelical Churchianity. It is also interesting that those most likely to present these are those who present themselves as "recruiters" or "competent spokespersons" for said evangelical group. This sort of displayed ignorance can hardly be said to cast these sorts of organizations in a good light.

There exists a vast gulf of difference between this attitude of ritualism and the Common Knowledge necessary to the function of effective ritual work within a given group. Common knowledge consists of shared understandings that will vary from person to person, but that will be based upon a common shared core of understanding. Partly shared, or group, Gnosis will also contribute to this pool of information lending it depth, power, and will cause apparent repetition, coupled with understanding, to become a combination of reinforcement and further exploration. These ingredients will combine to make any rite a potent brew for all participants to drink in.

Repetition, for its own sake, of actions and words that nobody understands simply "because the common prayer-book-of-shadows says so," on the other hand, is merely pointless and constitutes an obscene waste of time and effort.

The purpose of ritual is twofold: First, to open and reinforce access to doorways to inner world awareness and personal gnosis. This is the manner in which ritual can support the true function of Faith, as it serves the individual as a bridge into the other worlds. Second, is to open the inner doorways to our own personal empowerment, which also serves our faith-bridge. This is not "belief." It is NEVER "belief." Belief is useless to the occultist as it is merely a mechanism to control behavior and limit information access. The Faith serves each of us as a personal bridge - a way to "walk upon the waters of the Void" - in order to gain the doorway of the Castle of Roses.

If the Compass serves us as our magical bones, then the rites are our muscles. Exercising and flexing these muscles in a deliberate and purposeful manner results in development. But mindless repetition merely results in the magical equivalent of carpal tunnel syndrome.

While ritualism is nothing more than slavery to mindless repetition, Abject Theism constitutes nothing more or less than a state of servitude to a slave, or worse, a slave gang. We've already noted that most of the spirits that people call "gods" are, in reality, the slaves of Fate. This is to say that they merely serve to identify the forces inherent in cause and effect. This is also demonstrable both mythically and in functional occultism. Thus, to render oneself slave to these "gods" is merely to render one the slave of the slave gang.

This Day All Gods Die - Part 3

2009-01-02T14:56:00.000-08:00

Ideologism involves the creation of a completely artificial set of standards through which, the ideologue views - and demands that everyone around him or her also view - events in the environment. Conservative ideologues often dub these standards "morals," while liberal ideologues term them "political correctness." the end result is the same in either case. pertinent information is carefully ignored if it challenges, or cannot be interpreted in a manner that conforms to the "party line" of the ideology. In legal situations, this behavior is known as "suppression of evidence." When it is found in a university thesis, it is called "academic fashion." In religious circles it is called "dogmatism" and sometimes "fundamentalism." In the occult, we simply call it "stupidity."

We realize that we cannot assess our environment in terms of how we wish it would exist and function in order that we could be "morally," or "academically," or "socially," or "politically" comfortable. To do so is to work upon ourselves a childishly simplistic illusion. We must view the environment as we mirror it within our own being, as well as by the manner in which, it interacts with us among its other parts. To fancy ourselves "outside" this environment or "not a part of its nature" - and thus immune to its laws - is another common, childish delusion shared, interestingly enough, by industrial farmers and "animal rights" activists alike.

We must learn to view our environment, to the best of our abilities, as it interacts with us precisely because this makes us uncomfortable. Our discomfort forces us to recognize that processes must occur and changes take place within ourselves for our relationship to our environment to become workable. This is to say, one in which we take on the role of the proactive and responsible Initiate rather than the irresponsible and infantile "victim" role of the ideologue. We can identify the codependent, self-victimizing behavior as the primary force that renders the ideologue personally impotent and magically incompetent.

Individually, persons such as described above, can wreck any group as behavioral studies of the "bad apple" have demonstrated. In numbers, such creatures produce only the fruits of corruption and incompetence. Evidence for this can be found in the histories of the Soviet Union and the Bush Administration.

This Day, All Gods Die - Part 2

2008-12-28T15:11:00.000-08:00

It is in the imagery that comes from prophetic utterance, however, that we find our clues to the self - shattering first stage of the Mysteries. Further confirming clues can be found in parallel images and sequences found in Shamanistic visions, and finally again in the myths of the myths, which are simply encoded versions of the above, that form the first functional vehicles of the actual processes of the Western Traditions.

The presentation of these myths to the candidate represents the beginning of the foundational work necessary to catalyze the experience. Quite plainly, these myths contain the Apple of Knowledge that allows the psyche to begin extending its awareness beyond the bounds of the self to the cosmological processes that are its birthright and heritage. We must achieve the connection of the psyche to these forces in order to begin the work at hand.

Most important to this awareness must be an understanding of the ego-personality and its state of servitude to Fate and the forces that operate within it. Symptoms of this slavish, caged existence include entanglement in religio-political ideologism, identification with the abject - including abject theism and abject ritualism ("churchianity.") We can examine each of these pitfalls briefly, and it is a good idea to do so, for in these traps we can see the workings of the Temptation Game. We need to pay particular attention to these for they represent both the deadly snares it sets, and the vital lessons and insights it grants.

The Temptation Game itself consists of three challenges that amount to illusion, fear, and delusion. We can find examples of its workings in various forms in the Book of Genesis, in the Mabinogi of Pwyll and of Math, in the Gospels of Matthew, Thomas, and Judas, in Malory's Morte D'Arthur, in Monmouth's Historia, in Chretien's Percivale, in Rosenkreuz's Chemical Wedding, in the Life of Siddharta Buddha. They confer three vital lessons, and open the doorway to three Mysteries. Anyone remotely familiar with the relevant Lore will also note that they line up with other triple images such as the Lapwing, Dog and Roebuck and Oak, Ash, and Thorn and correspond to them directly. We must understand, with painful clarity, at the outset of our magical journey that failure in any one of these challenges is failure in all of them. Further, failure equals magical and spiritual suicide.

It's very worth noting that edificial religions rule and control their masses of followers through fear and that fear is, in fact, the easiest of the Temptation Game's traps to fail. We can say quite confidently that the central function of the church system is to set its Priesthood up for temporal success by setting its Followers up, through dependency, for spiritual failure. It is this central fact that makes the Mystery Tradition, with its "no laity" condition, so attractive to the open eyes of the serious magical worker.

This Day, All Gods Die - Part 1

2008-12-27T15:44:00.000-08:00

Here's an ominous title! Conjure up all sorts of dread, as well we should in the minds of sheep grovelling in their churches, and facsimiles thereof. This single truth of the Mysteries is responsible for the magical suicide of more aspirants, than any other.

Childishly literal theists see, in these images, predictions of the end of the world. Christians reach for the Apocalypse of St, John, and the more idiotic among them conclude that it somehow makes "spiritual sense" to figuratively defecate on their own dining tables and in their own beds, as well as those of their neighbors, in an effort to bring about "the end of days." Northern Traditions think of Ragnarok or Goetterdaemmerung. Newagers (that's right "newage," rhymes with sewage) prepare to panic in 2012, much as the Evangelicals I just mentioned did in 2000, with not even a myth to support them other than the fact that Mayan astronomers, doubtless having other tasks piling up, left off calculating their calendar a mere 3000-odd years in advance.

The common thread to all of these "night terrors" is that they are based in interpretations that demand the understanding of prophetic and mantic utterance be taken in a line-item literal fashion to represent direct fore telling. ("... and on the fifth day Johnny shall crash his bicycle, and shall bend its wheel, and it shall have three, not one, nor yet two, but three broken spokes ...")

Quite frankly, any Initiate of the Mysteries knows that this sort of interpretation is childish hogwash. Prophetic and mantic utterances are never literal, only rarely external, and mainly occur in the present tense. This is to say that the prophet describes eents as they occur - to him or herself. This is the major difference between prophecy and seership, which does deal with events external to the seer.

Prophecy serves as a mantic vehicle to propel the recipient into the experience of the prophet. What it describes are processes occurring in the context of the present. Seership or fore telling - oracles - occur almost as a side effect to the main prophetic state. This is not to say that oracular work should be neglected or its fruits disregarded, simply that it needs to be understood in its proper context. We must bear in mind that an oracle is a message, while a prophecy in an outreach of an ecstatic experience. The one may result from the other, but they are not the same thing and do not necessarily depend upon each other.

Witches Picture Book - FIrst Pentacle Article as seen Samhain 2007

2008-12-22T21:55:00.000-08:00

First Pentacle Article as seen in Pentacle Magazine Samhain 2007
Themes in TIW: The Great Queen – Creatrix and Destroyer
Traditional Initiatory Witchcraft, or TIW, is an umbrella term that describes a sector of
modern, mystery tradition witchcraft, including such note-worthies as The Clan of Tubal
Cain of Robert Cochrane, Joe Wilson’s 1734: The Living Myth, and Andrew Chumbley’s
Cultus Sabbati, as well as a host of lesser-known lines and groups. It expresses itself in a
distinctive manner, using tales, songs, poetry, rhymes, riddles and images to convey
traditional information. It also uses the experiences of exploring and journeying through
these media as a large part of its training and growth process. It works, as Cochrane
explains, “…to teach by poetic inference …” forcing the student to divorce the
literalistic, praxis-oriented approach and thought patterns learned from personal
background and upbringing and adopt a mythically oriented, metaphoric approach
instead. This is not to say that the “real world” function or behavior of a symbol cannot
influence, reinforce, or add to its magical-symbolic function, but rather that these features
become a part of the mythic language of these symbols.
A fine example of this can be found in the Cochrane Letters where the word “Lucet” is
used to indicate the ruler of the eastern – or sunrise – domain that we associate with
knowledge. The fact that a lucet is a two-tined tool used for cord-making hurts the value
of the word as a diminutive for “Lucifer” not at all. The cord symbolism enhances the
richness of the content rather than detracting.
Each image or symbol likewise carries a body of associated, referential meaning. It is a
common error to find a single association and decide that one has all that is needed. A
literary analogy would be to imagine a person who decides that they understand an entire
chapter from Leo Tolstoy because they have managed to translate the first word. Each
association asks its own questions, leading eventually to further associations and images
that eventually build into a living vocabulary of associated meaning behind a given
symbol.
Enter the Tarot. In 1398 the Milanese artist, Bonfazio Bembo executed the earliest
example of what would become the modern tarot as a commemorative commission
celebrating the Visconti – Savoy wedding. He followed this with a second, and betterknown,
commission commemorating the Visconti – Sforza wedding. Bembo was heavily
influenced by the Neo-Platonist philosophies of Gemistos Pletho, if not Neo-Platonist
himself, and incorporated these influences into his trumps along with biblical, classically
mythological, folkloric, and contemporary cultural imagery. The information expressed
in the pips and courts, is sparer contrasted with the richness of the trump imagery. The
Visconti family gave these hand-painted miniature masterpieces as wedding gifts to the
grooms.
The decks created since Bembo essentially followed the pattern of his creation. Some
occultists would be impressed with them. Some, like Court de Gebelin, would
romanticize them out of all proportion, while still grasping something of their intrinsic
value.
At the end of the 19th Century, English occultist Aleister Crowley, studying the Tarot in
the course of his work with the Golden Dawn, was struck by certain patterns in Bembo’s
decks, and noted that they are repeated in every deck that succeeds them. He applied his
own occult background to the system, publishing his Thoth Tarot and the accompanying
Book of Thoth. Doing this, he effectively created a modern “Magician’s Picture Book”
that remains unsurpassed among teaching tools of its kind. Other occultists and
researchers – notably psychologists – rode Crowley’s coattails publishing either decks of
their own or examinations of Tarot symbolism in either mythic or psycho-symbolic
idioms. Often, the two sets of terms overlap and may be put to use in a complimentary
manner.
At the end of 2006, a friend of mine from another TIW Tradition was discussing with me
a project of his. He suggested that the best ongoing training a Second Admission holder
could work is a Tarot expressing the cosmology, mystery, and theological lore of the
given tradition in its own dialect. A month later, a mutual acquaintance put South African
Pagan artist Diana Fegen in touch with me. On impulse, I asked if she would be
interested in executing a complete TIW oriented Tarot, in my Tradition’s symbolic
dialect. She agreed and we set to work. The results speak, quite strongly, for themselves.
One of the ubiquitous concepts in modern Pagan and Witchcraft thought and work is the
role of Goddess or Goddesses. Understanding of, and relationship to, the female or “Left
Hand” deity varies as widely as do Traditions, Pagans, and Occultists. The Goddess role
includes such functions as Mother, Destroyer, Lightbringer, Nightbringer, Betrayer,
Opponent, Oppositional Twin, Cruel Mother, Prophetess, Sorceress, Queen of Plenty, and
so on.
In TIW, we call these roles “mantles.” Sometimes one God or Goddess can occupy more
than one mantle. This is well exemplified in the well known Gaelic/Brythonic deities
Lugh and Brigid, both of whom may be described as “many artful,” that is, able to
manifest anything and to (at least temporarily) occupy any mantle in a TIW cosmology.
Conversely, more than one God or Goddess may occupy a given mantle.
The principal Goddess mantle that we work with is that of the Great Creatrix and
Destroyer. She is our Great Queen and holds the unifying role in our “Tribes of the
Gods” (a more functional term for our case than “pantheon.”) The figure that my own
stream offers, wearing this complex mantle, is the Washer; who occupies Trump II or the
“Popess / High Priestess” position in this deck we call The Witches’ Picture Book.
Trump II, The Washer:

The Washer crouches atop her weir, apparently
intent upon her task of cleansing away the
detritus of mortal life from the mantles of
spirits. She ignores the tiny crane-skin coracle
with its precious cargo bumping against the
posts of the weir. It will have its due time.
Behind her, the sun sets in a fiery orange and
red sky. Silhouetted by this fading glory, the
swan ship plies its course across the seas of
time.
The dreadful and wonderful Washer at the Ford
stands at the point where time and the manifest
world intersect. It is she who mediates that
interaction. Behind her, the swan ship travels
further still.
In the Cauldron of Inspiration, the Washer is the
twin and counterpart of the Magician. He
presides over the coming of the light, so she the
harbinger of the night.
Even more than this, the Washer carries every
key held by the Priestess card of other decks,
although she has eschewed the Catholic
trappings of a tame, if subversive, Popess and presents her nature defiantly.
In her being meet day and night, order and chaos, death and birth. She is the gatekeeper between
the worlds of form and time, and again of time and the void. She is the keeper of the Mystery of
the Veils and she is a potent reminder of the perils inherent in approaching – even seeking - those
mysteries.
This is not a simple or a facile being. She bears little resemblance to the kindly laughing Goddess
of popular Pagan myth. She is the stern and tireless keeper of the Mystery of Creation. It is she
who hauls the unformed spirits of the void across her weir and imposes upon them the order of
the manifest. It is she who brings these beings to light, and it is she who releases the
Lightbringers into the world. It is to her that the double bloodlines, revealed in the mysteries of
Cauldron and Graal, are ultimately traced.
Likewise, she is the great Destroyer. She is the Raven Goddess of Lust and Death, whose hair is
washed in blood and whose appetite for destruction is never fully sated. Her hand is found in
every one of the daughter manifestations between Creatrix and Destroyer. As such, those seeking
to pass the other direction must also cross her weir as they seek the journey upon her husband’s
swan-prowed ship.
Cerridwen, Modron, and Morrigu all find expression in the form of the Washer. She is the
complex and paradoxical personification of all crossroads. The Washer is the Keeper of Mysteries
and the mistress of the unconscious and the super-conscious, as well as of the emotional. As such,
her planetary attribution is the Moon, and the moonlight reflected in the contents of the Graal, or
upon the deeps, is one key to her mystery. Thus does she tie into, and invoke, the great Mill of
Wyrd.
In the Gaelic An Duille system of cosmology, in which all directions and aspects of creation are
shown as interrelated and connected, the moon is tied to the mind of the Witch, and is said to
represent the inward path. In some Traditional Witchcraft systems, this association is not overtly
invoked and this is also a great and paradoxical key, for it may be said that its invocation is the
greatest part of many rites.
Aleister Crowley called the Priestess in his deck a “pure and gracious influence,” and her secrets
are often left at that. But what is meant by the mysteries of purity and grace? In her Cerridwen
role, as Creatrix, she brews the Awen from the “thirteen deadliest things” and herein we may find
a triple set of mysteries.
In alchemy, the Elixir of Life could be brewed only from the deadliest of all poisons, and was
then to be transmuted by the power of the Philosopher’s Stone. Indeed, those of us whose
children are fans of the wildly popular Harry Potter™ or who don’t mind taking a fantastic
journey into the fabric of myth and folklore ourselves, may recall the character Nicolas Flammel,
who is presented in the story as the only living creator of the Philosopher’s Stone.
The Cauldron of Annwfn will not cook the meat of a coward; can return the bodies of the
violently killed to a semblance of life.
The Graal can banish the Wasteland; heal the wounded Fisher King, and will poison anyone not
of the royal, half-breed blood of the Sacred King or Lightbringer who drinks from it.
These are called the Vessels of Grace in a variety of Traditions and from this we may deduce that
by “grace” is meant to indicate Virtue, that is the power of the Awen, that ignites the Witch
Kindred’s mind of fire.
The Washer also holds the key of Purity, although not in the sense of a Catholic nun. Her purity is
that of the eternal virgin who brings the Lightbringer, fatherless, into the world. It is she who
binds the three Kindreds of the Titans, the Bright Gods and the Witches together, and each of
them can trace its bloodline to her. This is true of the Cauldron Bloodline of the Elder Gods, the
Graal Bloodline of the Bright Gods, and the mixed lineage of the Witches. All are found in her.
The two skirts represent the twin veils of matter – this is to say, perceived order – and time that
serve to hide the mysteries she carries. We should note that the Washer’s breasts are bare and
unbound by any restraint. This shows her both as the Eternal Matrona/Creatrix and as the Eternal
Virgin free of the crippling artifice of guilt and shame, thus we can see that she recalls both
Artemis and Cerridwen.
The Washer is Queen of the Cauldron and represents the Great Matriarch of the Three Kindreds.
As the Titan Cerridwen, her husband is Lír, sometimes called Ludd, Nudd, or Nodens, and
associated with Tegid the Bald, that is to say “The Old Man.” Whatever spirit one chooses to
invoke into this mantle, he is the ruler and personification of time. He is Saturn, for whom the
Sabbats are named and under whose auspices they function. It is his swan ship that we see plying
the seas in the background. There, it carries the keys of Time and the tripartite Saturn Mystery.
The Washer is the gateway and gatekeeper to those mysteries, as well as of the deep meanings of
the Mysteries of the Sabbats, which reveal their connection to the Saturnine by their collective
name, derived from the Italian “Sabbado” or “Saturn’s Day.”
She carries the mysteries of Don/Dana or Rigantona as Matriarch of the Bright Gods of Men.
Here her consort is the Great Good God, Belenos, and the Dagda Mor, whose hidden mysteries
and connection to old Lír are well worth exploring.
As Rhiannon, whether we translate the name as, once again, Rigan – on (from Rigantona) or
Great Queen, or as Rigan – Annwfn (Queen of the Underworld,) she cements the three kindreds
together and brings their relationship full circle. As such, she is the queen of transformation,
bringing forth the Awen from the deadliest of poisons, birthing and reigning over the Kindred of
the Bright Gods, and marrying into the kindred of Men, giving birth again to the half-blood line
of the Witches. Thus she holds the gateway to the deep mysteries, as well as the knowledge of the
Arts.
The blood-drenched garments she holds out over the waters show the enfleshed double bloodlines
of the Witch kindred and serve to exemplify our relationship to the spirit world and the Gods. The
clothing itself represents the incarnate human Witch kindred, flesh surmounted by spirit. The
blood is the Lightbringer bloodline of the bright Gods. The seawater of time represents that of the
titanic Elder Gods.
The weir, itself, serves to mediate the interaction between matter and time that is between life and
death, and between the manifest and primordial. It is from the mystery of this interaction that the
salmon, carrying keys of Awen itself, is cast up and caught when the tides of time recede under
the influence of the moon. It works as a threshold or crossroads place much as does the
Magician’s dolmen arch.
The red and grey pilings in the weir’s structure again show the roles of pairs of opposites between
which, the Washer stands and works; as well as pointing to her position along the middle pillar of
the Qabalist Tree of Life. More importantly, they serve as references to the great World Tree,
where Taliesin, shown here in his crane skin coracle or Crane Bag, and later Lugh, will hang in
their respective apotheoses as Lightbringer and Sacred King. The weir itself also conceals the
form of a dolmen arch – the Ultimate Threshold – once again doubling the Washer’s twin, the
Magician.
About the weir, you can see clumps of rushes growing in the shallows. These are the “flags” of
the saying “Flags, flax, and fodder.” Although they are not shown in blossom in this sunset
depiction, they are sacred to Isis and serve to further expound the mystery of the Washer as she
stands athwart the thresholds of day and night, and the worlds of form and time.
The coracle – a crane-skin bag stretched over a wooden frame – is an early expression of the
vessel that would come to be realized as the Graal, which has its origins in the cauldron, and thus
with the mantle of the Washer as carried by Cerridwen. It ties also to the Roman story of Diana
and Dianus. As the Lightbringer is born of the titanic creatrix, so the cauldron is the wellspring of
the Crane-bag or Graal.
Throughout this image, we see the pairing of twin concepts: Cauldron and Graal, Creatrix and
Destroyer, manifest and unmanifest. The concept of the Great Goddess as creatrix and destroyer
is hardly new or unique. Nor is the concept of the Goddess who births or creates, pursues and
ultimately consumes her son/lover to have him reborn and apotheosed as Lightbringer. Pursuer
and Destroyer and even Sister/Nightbringer are part and parcel of many mythic traditions. The
concept of the three kindreds, the Giants or Old Gods, the Bright Ones or Gods of Men, and the
Children of the Gods is also well known. What is not widely understood then is TIW’s means of
fitting together the roles of the Great Creatrix/Destroyer and her daughters and “daughters-inlaw”
and their roles within what can be called the Tribe of the Gods. This is one concept that we
have sought to expound, using the tarot as our vehicle.
2007 Trystn M Branwynn and Diana Fegen

To Hel With the "Elements" - Part 9

2008-12-22T19:09:00.000-08:00

I'd like to take moment to wish any and everyone who reads - or plaows through - this journal, a Merry Midwinter's. Ours was pleasant with a snowfall in Western Washington that even a snowbelt resident like I found respectable. My goddaughter Jade was our Lleu this year,m and although she eschewed the poetry of the role, she made up for it in attitude. Long live the angry, teen aged lesbian and her spear.

The art of carrying, or aspecting, the spirits I mentioned in the last post, grants access to the fullest extent of their participation in the Mysteries of the Compass. So, in our final experience, there are no "elements" at all. Rather, we find ourselves dealing with the Mantles that express the workings of the Compass, and the mythic figures - the Spirits - who occupy them and work their processes. These mythic figures then represent the identification of the root power s of these processes, as well as their development thorough interaction in the Compass. It is the process of identification and precedence of the the processes that serves us, presiding over the forces of creation and destruction. Human consciousness participates in these processes in a never-ending, helical, roller-coaster ride.

IT is a mistake to call these spirits "gods" or to grant them such authority. In the final reckoning, only the "I AM" - the humanly conscious gestalt of them all - remains standing at the center of the Compass after the wind of Spirit has blown back the black waters of the Void.

To Hel With the "Elements" - Part 8

2008-12-19T15:45:00.000-08:00

To the end of the last page, "Cavare Religiosi!"

The foregoing brings up two further points for us to examine: First is that the Fall - the process of the manifestation of Spirit in Matter - is an ongoing process both in our physical reality and in our consciousness. We often forget how closely tied these two are and this is a lesson a Magician cannot afford to forget. It is worthwhile to bear in mind that our perceived "physical reality" is largely the product of that consciousness just as "consensual relaity" is 94% consensus - it is because we agree that it is.

This, of course, means that changes to our consciousness cause changes to our "consensual reality." It also means that these changes are really changes to our collective conscious state. If you need examples, just look at the "equal opportunity" laws that exist within American society. Because these rules depend upon the perceptions on the receiving end, it is perfectly possible to "sexually harass" someone that one doesn't know exists. I've actually witnessed a prat of this occurrence in a workplace where coworker "A" was told "Coworker B was offended by what you said last week. She's talking to HR about sexual harassment action," and the response was "Who the hell is 'Coworker B?' I've never heard of her!"

The idea that changes in our collective consciousness equal changes to our perceived reality is further borne out by such luminaries as Einstein and Heisenberg. It shows that the trend toward literalism - both theist and atheist collective ideologism - in the various forms of evangelical movements (make no mistake Richard Dawkins and his followers are as evangelical as any follower of Jerry Falwell)constitutes an alarming psycho-evolutionary step backward as we teach our media how to tell us what to think. This represents the state of consciousness in the West, elsewhere in the world, it is worse. The most senselessly violent movements in the world - and in its history - can be seen to espouse exactly this sort of literalism.

The process of destruction likewise goes on at the same pace as form breaks down in the course of time and Fate. These are vital concepts to understand as they are central to the functions of the Mysteries - those of the Compass. The two are inextricably linked and mutually supporting if hte proer links within the individual have been forged.

The second point should be equally obvious from all of the foregoing. The Mythic figures, that is the spirits men call "gods" really serve as identifications of the forces of creation and destruction they oversee. Many of them are, as Buddhism points out, very powerful human spirits who have become enmeshed in the various mantles. They have thus become slaves to Fate and dependent upon interaction with incarnate spirits in the realm of the manifest as they carry out the dictates of Fate. I find only three exceptions to this state of affairs, and these are the inhabitants of the Mantles of Diana / Luna who is the Creatrix and Destroyer of Spirit into the manifest realm; of Saturn, who is the ancestral spirit of the whole cosmos; and of Lucifer who carries the dual heritage of Titanic and Human spirit, being the identity of Wisdom, that is to say the manifestation of divine spirit in fleshly matter and of the transcendence of that spirit beyond matter. His, is of course, thet of rebel against Fate and Traitor against, and over thrower of, the old order of the Titans or Elohim. Of course, the Lightbringer's true identification as the Divine Spirit within the human body of clay holds the root of the Great Deception that Christendom and the other forms of externalized theism have worked upon themselves.

So let us not make the mistake of calling the clan spirits of the compass "gods." Those who would take on such a title rarely deserve it, and those who do couldn't possibly care less about anyone's "worship" or other groveling. It is, however, these mantles adn the spirits who can occupy them that merit out attention best. Interaction with these spirits brings knowledge and experience of their keys. This further brings us into contact with their all important roles in the Mysteries.

To Hel With the "Elements" - Part 7

2008-12-18T18:50:00.000-08:00

Thus far, we have rejected the static, dysfunction of the so-called "elements" in favor of a more flexible and workable system based in the imagery of the seven classical planets. These range from Saturn, lined up with the third Sephiroth, to the Moon, which aligns with the ninth. We can see this illustrated in the table in the second installment of this series.

The Planets take their names from Greco-Roman mythic figures and have, in occult circles, long been understood to represent these same forces. Thus Mars presides over conflict and the un-manifest, representing pure force. Venus, Mars' wife, rules over manifestation and form.Mercury rules wisdom, will and creativity, and Luna over emotion, and the line of death and and the unconscious. The Sun is the Divine Prisoner; Jupiter rules Fate and Order, associated with Fortuna. We can, of course, lay this configuration out in the Tarot trumps as their creator, contrary to the current popular fad of disunderstanding, intended.

So we have saturn associated with the World, and suddenly the image of the Sun, imprisoned within a time symbol - such as the Oroborus - and guarded by a figure who might be Lilith or Hekate becomes painfully obvious symbolism. Jupiter aligns with the Wheel of Fate, turning in its framework of Fortuna Major. The name Tarot is an anagram for the Latin name of this central figure, ROTA, and we know that Saturn (Time) governs the operation of the Wheel (Fate.) Mars associates with the Tower, which we may properly understand as the Iron House, ripping itself apart from within. Venus shows her face in the bountiful Empress, who presides over Form. She deals, as we know, with both its rise and its fall. We are careful to remember this last, lest we forget the figure of Aphrodite dancing upon the graves of her lovers. In my Witches Picture Book, you can see the reminders of this in the sacrificial well and the enshrined skulls. This is also seen in the knife with which she ensouls her lover.

the Magician represents Mercury and in him we see as much Trickster as Juggler. Likewise he is equally the shamanistic Master of Fire, dancing out the creation of the world upon th threshold. The Sun we see in the card of the same name, adn we need little effort to detect both the Child and the Liberated Prisoner. The Moon, finally, we find in the form of the Popess, keeping the doorway behind her veils. She guards the way to the ultimate point of self-destruction and rebirth.

This little synopsis gives us two useful tools. In one we have a picture book - a temple in miniature - that we can use to set up, examine, and get our hands on the Compass. The second is an arrangement of mythic mythic associations and identifications that - like the iconic images of saints in a cathedral - render accessible an understanding of the forces of creation and destruction at work in our cosmologies. For a hand's on verification of this concept, we need only look at the tarot's use as a divination tool. How can the tarot purport to describe the forces at work in a querent's situation unless it can depict those forces? It is this simple question that eludes today's eclectics, who continue to use, and produce new versions of a divination system that - according to their own ideology - cannot work. Of course we know the the Tarot does work for us, and we've just discussed a small part of why. These simple facts render the tarot effective in all of its functions. They also clearly demonstrate that in order to fulfill any of these functions it must be a map to the magical cosmos, serving as do hte old temples and cathedrals, as a "map to the mind of God."

These simple gems should have laid certain disputes to rest long ago. Certainly they make clear that in its attempt to appear "popularly wise," the academic eclectic body has succeeded, primarily in revealing its own central ignorance, which it masks behind veils of abject theism and assertions of "were they "real gods" or "literary gods"" carefully ignoring the fact that, whether anyone built them a shack or not, all "gods" are literary characters.

To Hel With the "Elements" - Part 6

2008-12-14T15:17:00.000-08:00

So we find that our seasonal ritual keys are better explained Astrologically than in the common terms popular with the neopagan crowd. I must really credit and congratulate Prof Hutton for creating the greatest lapwing of the modern era. The phrase "In the popular understanding ..." is the most misleading and obscuring thing one can say. It would be more accurate to say "In the popular misunderstanding or, better yet, the popular disunderstanding.

Popular masses understand nothing. They simply follow along with whatever irrational, emotional and ideological appeal happens to wet their knickers at the moment. Then they look to each other for "validation," which can only come, of course, from internal Gnosis and has nothing, whatsoever, to do with what the neighbors are doing.

Looking at this behavior, it is little wonder we see such a strong movement of Evangelical Churchianity among pagans. This can clearly be seen in the rise of both real world and online pagan mega-churches that uniformly dump a load of disjointed balderdash into the laps of those whom they gull, and claim to "recognize growth" by awarding "merit badges" a la the Girl Guides and, even sillier, strings of beads similar to those handed out for "flashing" and other fin behaviors at Mardi Gras. These "awards" carry about the same weight and significance as the Mardi Gras beads. I have never met anyone as blindly ignorant as those who fall for mega-church scams. So, let us waste no more time examining that particular stupidity.

Astrology is one of the three root Occult Sciences, and all all occult operations tie into it. This ranges from the picture book known as the Tarot to the Stations of the Sun - also the title of one of Prof Hutton's most illuminating opuses incidentally, although, truth be told, someone should organize classes in "How To Read Hutton in an Occult Light" just as there really needs to be some sort of course in "How to Read the Christian legacy" in the same manner.

Astrological keys account for two of the Compass' rings and for a great many of its functional concepts. These must be understood, they are vital. It also plays a role in understanding a third ring - "The Moat" Cochrane calls it although a better name for it, in cosmological terms would be "The Graal." On this scale, the Graal aligns with the Zodiac at the Winter Solstice and at this point only. The understanding of this apparent disunity is vital to the occult understanding on this scale. The apparent disparity between the Graal ring, and the Zodiac or Rim of the Cauldron has cause many of the "academic" persuasion to dismiss the Graal ring and this is their failure. Likewise, I must caution the reader to avoid assuming that only a single symbolic tie exists. At this point we are examining only one of many vital symbolic connections.

The importance of this ring can be seen in Taliesin, and indeed in any British source, that works with "a year and a day" as a symbol. This refers to the old British Commons Calendar, in use until the Tudor Dynasty, which had 13 equal months of 28 days plus one additional day that is "outside of time," making it a "fifth sabbatic day." It is to this calendar that Robert Graves - or his mistress - attached his Tree Calendar. The use of Ogham attributions to mark a canonic year has no historical provenance, but makes the very best kind of occult sense. I am aware of yet another system that combines traits of the Zodiac and British Peasant systems, and uses a BLF oriented marking system.

The main point here is that we have, numerologically, a perimeter of 13 + 1 inside, nd occupying the same space as the Zodiac system of 12 + 5. We see this in the Christian legacy in the actions of Judas who "betrays" Ysh for 30 pieces of silver (an extra month,) as well as in Taliesin who stirs the Cauldron (Zodiac) for a "year and a day," again cramming 13 into the space of 12. The result? Darkness, covers the land at midday, the earth shakes, the dead leave the grave, and in the Temple, the veil of time is rent in two from bottom to top.

To Hel With the "Elements" - Part 5

2008-12-08T18:45:00.000-08:00

This is where we pick up the trail again. Once we understand the meanings of the Compass associations, then we must also understand that it reveals to us a dynamic interaction of forces. These forces move constantly through processes of inception, interaction, manifestation, dissolution, and destruction. So what we can boil all of this down to is that the Compass mirrors and describes the process of creation as it relates to both human consciousness and the Western Mysteries.

In classical occult thought, these forces are ascribed to planetary influences. Mars rules conflict and so forth. This strikes me as a likely starting point. The planets not only make excellent and easy to remember place holders, they have the added benefit of being associated in our minds with motion., as well as with their astrological interactions with the Zodiac. This last gives us an even more in-depth understanding of these forces and the keys they contribute to of rites, as well as to specific - or "occasional" - magical work.

This gives us twelve (3 x 4) different aspects of any given force, based upon the individual planets' interaction with the Zodiac. These aspects will tend to flavor magical work, while seasonal keys can be seen in the Compass' interaction, both in detail and as a whole, with the dominant sun sign of a given event. This last is particularly true of the Four Albans - the equinoxes and solstices- since the (3 + 1) Sabbats do not tie to specific solar events, beyond the fact that the sun is somewhere between one and fifteen degrees of the appropriate sign.

In these festivals it is difficult to predict what sign may be influencing a given planet. as the Sabbatic Tides peak at irregular intervals, more or less, within the parameters I've mentioned above. It's easy enough to determine ht detailed astrology for a selected day but more difficult to accurately select the actual date. This suggests that we will have better results by examining the dominant sigh's key influence on the Compass as a whole, rather than attempting an analysis in detail - with every planet in its particular house at a given moment. Some detailed understanding is certainly desirable, but we need not attempt such extremes in the case of the festivals of darkness and disorder.

We can look at an example of this idea using Hallowmas as an example. This Sabbat falls between one and fifteen degrees Scorpio and so its overarching influence deals with the splitting of the Cauldron and the breach of the line of Death that triggers the Flood. Looking at the keys presented by the planets in light of this influence we find first , that Mars - as the classical ruling planet of Scorpio - presides over this Sabbat. We can also look ath the Tarot attributions for additional clarity. Its attributions of disorder, death, un-manifest spirit and chaotic force certainly play into what we know of the prevailing keys. We have no trouble at all seeing how this forces manifests itself as the Spear or Gae Bolga, streaking down into the matter represented by the South and Venus. In tarot terms, we see the Tower, torn apart form within, crossed by Death. Mercury, influenced by Scorpio, becomes the Sovereign who lays him or her - self down both the the bridge into the otherworld and as the willing sacrifice, and thus becomes the Sword - the Royal who fashions the bridge. We can esily see these ideas in the forms of the Magician crossed, again, by Death. Venus, as ruler of manifestation, displays for us the body of the Man of Earth who hangs suspended upon the Tree. This is harder to see, but clearly findable, looking at the Empress, crossed by Death, bringing her role as Sacrificer to the forefront. The Moon in Scorpio is very clearly the gatekeeper to the track across the Void, and thus the Graal, and we have no issue seeing this in the Popess - or in my Witches Picture Book Tarot - The Washer, crossed by Death. Jupiter in Scorpio, or The Wheel (The Great Mill of Wyrd)crossed by Death, becomes the Stone of Fate, sealing the prison of spirit. Finally the Sun in Scorpio, or the Sun crossed by Death, shows the path that the Prisoner must take to achieve his crown. In these astrological associations, we find clearer and truer keys expressed than in any hazy, "agricultural" explanation based on backward projection.

To Hel With the Elements - Part 4

2008-12-07T17:26:00.000-08:00

To understand the metaphor of compass form, we must understand that the compass is, itself, a metaphor. Since all literary images are metaphors, and since language itself is a metaphor, we look at it inferentially and referentially to see what it may reveal. What information does it convey? What ideas should we ponder?

All sacred precincts have one feature in common: Their physical layouts serve as "maps to the mind of God." This is to say that they are models of the cosmos. They reflect the understanding of the cosmos as held by heir respective Traditions. We need only look to Bembo's Tarot decks to see the truth of this. If they do not map out the cosmos, and the forces active in it, how are they to serve as either picture books of those forces? Especially as they most clearly do - or as predictors of the actions of those forces? In this one simple question, the eclectic - academic argument of a "random divination generator" is laid bare for the laughable fantasy that it is. The simple fact of the very deliberate arrangement of the Tarots of Bembo and serious occult artists since, lay waste to the clearly dysfunctional political agenda of those who favor such ignorance. in the face of Traditional Functionalism versus Eclectic Ideologism, we may recall that ideas are for thinkers, but the root of ideology is - demonstrably - "Idiot."

Sacred Precincts serve to reflect the cosmos as their given streams understand it. This concept holds true across many cultures and through many mythic systems. Southern Baptist Churches are neat rectangular cubes, with steeples over the doorway. Everything inside lines up in regular, unchanging and regimented rows. This clearly reflects the static and stagnant cosmological understanding of Protestant Creationist. Of course, the only process possible in such a system is one of rot, corruption, and decay, and this too is well demonstrated.

A Cathedral takes the form of a Tau Crucifix, with the seasonal correspondences portrayed in stained glass around its perimeter. Iconography, indicating the Stations of the Cross, occupies appropriate positions, as do niches dedicated to patron saints. It is very hard for the knowledgeable Occultist to ignore the Qabalistic "Kether to Malkuth" and "Binah to Chokma" symbolism. It is especially difficult when these relationships are expounded upon so clearly in the Books of Genesis and Enoch. I find it likewise difficult not to spot the Pythagorean 1:2:3 ratio, the same as those of the Pentagram, in tge arrangement of the cruciform's line segments. So-called "academics" may scoff, but then they have a difficult accepting the reality of something not bound to the written page, even when it towers before them in metal and stone. Likewise, many of these will assert "it's only happenstance" when both Socrates and Heisenberg - the root fathers of all philosophy - make clear that no such thing exists.

But it is with the precincts of Nemi, Dodonna, Delphi, and Emain Macha tha we concerns ourselves. Likewise, the precinct of the Compass remains our topic. We work no "book of shadows," for such is best writ on shadows, though we may keep a Common Book of Rites. IN the Compass we find depictions of processes, relationships, Time, and the core mythologices of the Fall and the Awen clearly laid out.

The information in the Compass is, perhaps, more clear because it relies upon the informed and experienced understanding of its initiates, rather than the half inforemd guess-work or outsiders, to convey its meaning and messages.

To Hel With the Elements - Part 3

2008-12-03T19:05:00.000-08:00

In Traditional Witchcraft, this connection and, what is more, the understanding of it between the person of the Witch, the working form of the Compass, and the moving, magical cosmos that the Compass represents and to which, it connects, is absolutely vital. This is one of the very few absolutes - the need to understand. The Witch must comprehend, on a gnostic and spiritual level, on a practical magical level, and emotive and experiential level, and a tactile and visceral level, that he or she is intimately connected to the Compass. What is more, we must ome to understand, on all of these levels, that we - at the center of our Compasses - are the gestalt of its components. This is what Robert Cochrane referenced when he wrote to Joe Wilson "... Adom Kadoman is the sum of the names of all archangels."

We've already discovered that we find our selves better served, magically, to think of our magical cosmos metaphorically rather than in literal terms. This is one more reason for the poetic references and descriptions that endlessly confuse the Wica and cause them to accuse us of "deliberate obfuscation." It is for good reason that we admonish our students to take nothing in Witchcraft at "face value."

The poetic references serve to divorce our thinking from the literal and linear perception - demonstrated illusory by such luminaries as Einstein and Heisenberg - of the so-called "straight line" of "consensual reality." Of course, all space is finite and curved and the "straight line," beloved of Dawkins and Falwell alike, is banished to the company of gronkeydoddles and unicorns as we become aware, as were our ancestors, that all motion is cyclic. However, we can never approach the same point twice in the same time. As space adn time are analogous, this means that all physical motion and all event motion are, in fact, spiral, or in three dimensions each reality, helical. Interestingly, this provides us with yet another lovely connection to our cosmos as the very blueprints of our existence, our DNA, which controls the sequential events of our physical development, follow this same pattern, taking the form of the double helix.

To Hel With the "Elements" -- Continued

2008-12-02T20:11:00.000-08:00

The first question that the foregoing paragraphs raise is "How do three systems line up?" The answer is simply by a one to one correspondence. We can arrange it as a table thus in TIW terms:

The Qabalistic planetary numbers line up directly with the associated monads and sephiroth directly. The An Duille is a somewhat different system, but still lines up along the Fall as you see, some of its associations differ somewhat.

Looking at this table, we can discern a great deal more information. For example, we are now able to to see mythic figures and their cultural mantles interacting as the identifications of these forces of creation and destruction represented by our place holders. We are also able depict those placeholders in other, less literal and more flexible, functional terms. We are not yet able to determine the nature of their relationship to the Compass, that is to say what processes will be set in motion as these forces interact throughout it, but we can begin to see how these symbols and their associated forces relate to ourselves.

To Hel With the "Elements"

2008-12-01T18:20:00.000-08:00

"There are four "elements."" Are you certain? A lot of pentagram-bsed diagram list five. What about An Duille? It lists - depending on your version - seven or nine? "What the Hel happened to the Periodic Table?" an apprentice once asked me. To her question I reply "What indeed?"

I thought I'd start off this blog with a "Bang!" and toss out the idea that the concept of the so-called "four elements" is damned near useless. The metaphor of the elements has been beaten, bastardized, literalized, and dogmatized into a useless stew of murky, p.c. mush. While it was clearly intended as a simple metaphor to encapsulate and render accessible the concepts of the forces of Creation and Destruction exemplified in the various Fall Myths, and in the Tetraktys and the Qabalistic Tree, as well as providing an easy and innocuous medium for communication of ideas, the "four or five elements" have become set in stone and hidebound in the worst possible way.

They are viewed as "separate," in many circles and compasses, with no interaction or interrelation between. Either North is "earth" or north is "air" and that is that. Workers standing in said circles and compasses see these things as "part of the circle" with no connection to themselves. What stymies me is that would-be serious occultists - who know that magical processes rely on interaction of interdependent opposites - actually take this nonsense seriously. My mind boggles. Thus, I have determined to take understanding backward - to a more complex and interactive and connected state. I must do this from the view point of a Traditional Witch, and yet I must avoid using "Clan Specific" descriptors.

My solution to this is to fall back on the general groupings of Greek Mythology and Magical Philosophy that influence all of us in the West, and those of the Northern Traditions, which include - contrary to some "purists" and so-called "reconstructionists" the heavily interrelated traditions of Norse/Teutonic and Celtic Mythos. If I seem to refer to any one group's imagery "too much," I apologize in advance. I am trying to provide the reference that most clearly illustrates the point at hand.

I have said that the Greeks influence everyone. So they do. Orpheus, Pythagoras, and Plato were philosophic, scientific, and occult giants and the value of their legacy cannot be overstated. The Platonist school of Mystery influenced even the major "state" religions of the West, near, and Middle East heavily and it is no accident, and no wonder that the creator of the Magician's Picture Book - the Tarot - was a Neo-Platonist Master. Bonifazio Bembo was, in fact, the student of Gemistos Pletho and his uncle, Cardinal Bembo, was - and is - the foremost authority on Plato in the western world. He was also heavily immersed and influential in the Occult Italy of his day, and the mere ownership of the three original copies of his second - and master - effort, lay to rest the "academic," eclectic fantasies of those who wish to hide in libraries and pontificate without ever turning a mill or smudging a finger. This criticism is not to downplay the value of academic research in any manner, but rather to urge those so engaged to walk in the world, to get their feet wet, and explore and include the human element of field work into their efforts.

So let us be mindful of the Tarot's value as a "picture book" learning aid. I will refer to it frequently.

The next point I wish to make is that neither the Magic Circle, as laid out in the Key of Solomon, or the Witches Compass, as outlined in the Robert Cochrane Letters and derived from the Bardic Traditions of Britain, is dependent upon the so-called "elements." The Key makes very clear that the associations of its four directions correspond to four of the lower seven Sephiroth, which in turn line up with the lower seven monads of the Tetraktys. These are, for the Circle: Netzach in the North, Geburah in the south, Hod in the East, and Yesod in the West. In the Compass form, Geburah rules the North and is understood differently, while Netzach is South. When one invokes these directions in this form, one invokes the ruling Archangel of the Sephiroth in question. This is also where the Golden Dawn and, later, Gardner, got their forms.

If we want a more easily remembered sequence, we can look to the associations of the Seven Classical Planets and here is where I find the most useful and flexible metaphors and placeholders. So, for the Compass, Mars is North, Venus is South, Mercury is East and the Moon is West. Already we can see an alignment with the Western, Luciferian, Mysteries for Venus, Mercury, and the Moon are also the Guardians of the Lower Triad, the completion of which causes the processes that reveal the Upper triad of Chokma, Binah, and Kether to the Initiate. It is also these three that complete the process of the Fall, or the Manifestation of Spirit into Matter that is the creation of the human cosmos.

The "elemental" trip-up occurs when the "elements" get assigned to the Sephiroth, Monads, or Planets. First and fatal is the assignment of "earth" to Venus or Chesed. It is this blunder that throws understanding to the winds for Netzach and Venus are no more "earth" than a rabbit is a cat. Earth, in the process of the Fall, is assigned to the Tenth Sephiroth of Malkuth, and the tenth Monad of the Tetraktys. It is not one of the seven classical planets for good, sound, magical reasons. It is the meeting place and manifestation of the physical aspect of the forces represented by ALL of the lower seven. In simpler terms, "earth" is not "an element;" it is "all elements" physical, just as Kether - the Crown - is "all elements" spiritual or magical. "Earth" is not a "planet," in the magical sense, it is the center of manifest reality. It most certainly does not fulfill one of the horizons, it is the center of both Magic Circle and Witches Compass.

Therefore Netzach and Venus cannot be "earth. " What they represent is therefore Form and Manifestation, working in oppositional concert to Force and Spirit, represented by Mars and Geburah. This leaves us Mercury for Wisdom and the Moon for Love, which complete the horizons.

---To Be Continued ---

Opening Day

2008-11-24T19:41:00.000-08:00

I've toyed with the notion of creating an electronic occult journal for some time. This blog will be an experiment in this direction. Since it's online and readily available to the public, references to internal Cuveen business will be masked and no names will be used. When dealing with the world of the Occult, Heathen, and Pagan public, where I am a notorious Old Badger and an unabashed critic, no punches will be pulled. If you don't like what I have say, then pipe up, I'm always game for an argument. Prove me wrong if you can. If you want to whine and play victim, plain and simply "Shove it!"

in ht next post, I'll start off with some links to reference materials and sites I find to have merit. The same goes for books. Believe it or not, there is some decent stuff in print that be useful to someone. I'll try to point a bit of this material out.

You're also going to hear details of various trips, both magical and mundane and the places where these two sometimes meet. In the case of our local rivers, where they nearly always meet.

So, dear reader
Avaunt!