The First Spirit

One thing that comes up in traditional systems of witchcraft and magic is the idea of introduction. Either a spirit or another magician, perhaps even some event, that introduces the magician to the spirits with whom he will work. Spirits are often approached in some sort of “spirit court” or a group of spirits with which the magician and his family or his fellow magicians work. Even magicians who don't work in that context will often talk about “my spirits” or the spirits with whom they have a working relationship. Even looking at the grimoires, particularly the personal miscellanies which survive, we find descriptions of handfuls of spirits with whom the magician worked for various purposes. More sweeping systematic grimoires often have larger lists collected together as if to be comprehensive, and of course some miscellanies have large collected lists, and some systematic texts only have a few. But most magicians will have a core group of spirits they work with, even in the large lists we see a lot of spirits that do the same or similar things. We see spirits which have structural elements for ruling and summoning other spirits or facilitating other spirit magic. While there are an array of spirits which need to be part of our world, we don't necessarily need to be in contact with all of them all the time, and we don't need to necessarily conjure every spirit under the moon.

So how do we know who to talk to? How do we approach our group of spirits initially? How do we transition from one to several?

Jake Stratton-Kent has done a lot with advocating for the return of the intermediary spirit to modern ceremonial magic and spirit conjuration. He has pointed to this being an element of the Grimorium Verum which is lacking in other grimoires but likely points back to older magic not necessarily recorded in the grimoires themselves. He has also presented a way of working this into modern ceremonial work by preserving Scirlin's function in his Goetic Liturgy system. As to intermediaries or introducing spirits being a part of traditional magic, we can see signs of this in the Greco-Egyptian Magical Papyrii, so it is a fair assumption that this occurs in older magical systems. We also see it in living sorcery traditions in the Caribbean. To some degree the Abramelin operates in this way, the angel granting authority to call the Kings and the kings then introducing the rest of the spirits...but arguably this is working through a hierarchy rather than an intermediary.

The Testament of Solomon is probably the easiest clear example of such a thing existing in a source that directly feeds into the Solomonic literary tradition. In the Testament of Solomon we see the presence of thwarting angels, or angels who can be called upon to subdue unruly demons. This can be cited as existing in earlier magical systems and we see it echoed if not outright present in some later grimoire traditions. We also see the archangel Michael present Solomon with a ring and with the divine authority to command spirits. These two features are the ones which are arguably familiar with grimoire magic in a ritual sense, and otherwise the book is largely like a spirit catalogue presented in a mythological form.

A significant component is the introduction to the spirits. Michael doesn't bring Solomon a demon, or introduce him to a spirit. Michael gives him tools and authority. Solomon encounters the spirit Ornias because Ornias is harassing a boy whom Solomon cares for. He naturally experiences a supernatural event which creates a spirit encounter and he then uses his position to compel that spirit to introduce him to other spirits and learn how to command them.

This is the clearest example of an intermediary. The spirit introduces Solomon to the ruler of the infernal spirits and is used by Solomon to call upon the spirits. Ornias is sometimes associated with Oriens; there may or may not be a relationship. In the Clavis Inferni Oriens is given as Urieus, and in the Testament Ornias says that Uriel is his father. Ornias is given as a spirit of the East in the Hygromanteia and in the Testament he falls under the sign of Aquarius linking him to the East and the element of Air. In Livre Des Esperitz Oriens is given as the first spirit of the group of spirits following the chief spirits. Part of his office is to bring the other spirits to the magician. This is of course the function Ornias serves in the Testament.

Whether Ornias or Oriens are related or not it still illustrates for us that the spirits may be encountered by way of introduction. Clearly magicians also just conjure spirits. But developing a relationship based on the existence of a pervasive and developed spirit world which surrounds us and is part of our lives allows magic to be interwoven into everything. In a world where spirits maintain their existence and work regardless of our psyches, while they might work with us when we randomly call them up, it's an easy assumption to think things with personalities might not just jump all in for any stranger that beckons. So a spirit who can be like “Hey, here's my bro, get to know him, he might need your help sometimes” can be a useful ally.

I posted about this concept previously in my spirit conjuration guide. But there I talked mostly about picking a spirit based on that function, like for example crossroads spirits. Here I want to talk about your “first spirit.” You first spirit is a spirit you're able to encounter and naturally develop a relationship with, not necessarily one whose job is introductions by way of his ordained function. For me when I was a very small child, about three, the spirit of one of my grandfathers came to me. I didn't understand who it was at the time, just that he was a spirit who cared about me and would help me when I needed it. When there were other more problematic spirits he helped me navigate them and avoid them. When I got a little older he helped me with meeting nature spirits and starting to learn magic.

When people ask me about how to learn witchcraft my first thought is to tell them to go meet some spirits and ask the spirits to teach them magic. That's really at the core of witchcraft. We have some of our access to magic because of our connection to our ancestors and the spirit world connections they can broker for us. Certain ancestors will connect with us because they cared about us in life. Others maybe because of some circumstance. Either way, they make for the easiest spirits to build a natural relationship with. The initial one you connect to can help connect you with the other ancestral spirits, and the overall group of ancestors can back you up in your work with the spirit world and help you negotiate relationships with spirits.

But maybe you haven't encountered an ancestor. Maybe you have to reach out and work to make contact with them. You can pick a person you knew, or maybe someone you've heard stories about. Or maybe your first spirit doesn't have to be an ancestor. Emma Wilby in Cunning Folk and Familiar Spirits begins the book by recounting the story of Bessie Dunlop, a 16^th Century Scottish Witch. She worked her magic by way of a familiar spirit, not one of her ancestors but the spirit of a dead man she encountered one day. The story implies that the spirit needed help with issues with his family and used his relationship with Bessie to resolve those issues. The relationship was formed because of a mutual need for aid. Your first spirit can be a spirit you encounter where it needs to encounter you just as you need to encounter it. The world has an abundance of spirits, so it's a matter of being able to make contact and be aware of them, but it's also important to be cautious to ascertain the nature of the spirit and the relationship being formed.

Aside from spirits of the dead, faeries are a traditional familiar spirit for witches. Exploring encounters with the fair folk can also be a way to obtain a first spirit, and traditionally faeries have connections with the dead and with those spirits more commonly conjured in the grimoire systems, so they are positioned traditionally to broker those connections and aid in teaching magic. The familiar spirits given to witches in the trial accounts often seem to be fairies rather than the demons inquisitors wanted them to be. Even the Black Man who gave witches their familiars had a relationship with the Elf Queen. The overlap between the fairies and other spirits shows up in Reginald Scots's compendium of spells. He explains that magicians might make pacts with condemned criminals and then raise their spirits, creating a rather natural first spirit encounter since the encounter is prearranged while the person is living. The spirit of the dead can then go find one of the primary sisters amongst the seven fairy sisters, Sibilya, and retrieve her so the magician can make contact.

So maybe you don't know any condemned criminals, or dead people, or ways to find fairies. Nature spirits may be the easiest to approach in this case. The first spirits my First Spirit introduced me to were nature spirits, and nature spirits were the first spirits to teach me any magic. They mostly just concern themselves with their natural functioning and so what they want in the relationship is less of an issue. They will mostly also just teach you about magic of interacting with them and related nature spirits. Depending upon their function they may or may not be particularly helpful in navigating other spirit conjuration, but they can be helpful as companions and in dealing with basic areas of life and house holding. To clarify these nature spirits are not necessarily fairies.

With them being the easiest to connect with, they're the easiest ones to give examples of how to approach them, and familiarity with working with them could at least build the skills needed to bridge into openness to encountering other types of spirits. Sarah Ann Lawless has recommended that a witch should go into their environment and just introduce themselves to the local spirits. I think this suggestion is a great way to start. Maybe add to it making some small offerings, milk, corn or some sort of meal, honey, flowers, or a little shrine. None of those things will necessarily introduce you to a spirit but they might start building a relationship where the introduction could be a little easier.

A next step might be putting yourself in a place for the encounter. When I was entering adulthood I wanted to further explore hereditary witchcraft and began working with a woman I had met who married into a family that had their own magical practice. The beginning of witchcraft for her was “becoming a good animal,” which involved becoming in touch with your surroundings, the natural currents, and the spirits that were there. The first step to doing this was to just go sit outside and be open. Look, listen, breathe, and observe; feel. If you don't have a natural propensity to seeing or observing spirits, and no spirit has naturally approached you, and you have no dead folk to reach out to, but you want to dip your toe in rather than go the conjuration route right away, this may be your entry point. Introduce yourself to the spirits of your back yard. Make some offerings, go out and say hello periodically, and then, like a good animal, get to know your surroundings. Sit and be open to what's there.

So yeah, traditionally, a witch would be able to connect with spirits, a sorcerer would be introduced by the sorcerer initiating him...but, maybe you don't have either of those as an option. Maybe no spirit has naturally approached you and so you've got to take it upon yourself. If you've been sitting on the sidelines waiting to figure out this whole spirit magic thing, start with your dead, and if you have no dead, start with your back yard. Build a relationship that can help build your confidence in spirit communication, and can also help create a position in which you're more ready to meet more spirits.

If you've already jumped in and work with spirits, maybe revisit who the first spirit you worked with was. Was your first encounter a natural one, maybe even one not connected to your magical practice now? If so maybe it's time to look at why you had that encounter and whether or not that spirit should have a place in your work. If your first encounter was a spirit you conjured, why did you start with that one? Was there a good relationship, and do you still maintain it? If you don't still work with that spirit should you touch base and maybe see how they fit into the rest of your model?

In the end it kind of depends upon you and your situation. Maybe the encounter that introduced you to spirits just served to show you spirits are real and you should learn magic, but it did so because the encounter was awful. Maybe that's not a spirit to go pursue looking up. Kind of like people in our lives. Sometimes those foundational people stick with us, sometimes they drift out and reconnecting would be good. Sometimes they're gone and it's good they're gone, but reflecting on their impact can still tell us something about where we are now and maybe help us plan for where we're going. 

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A Faery Story

Today is, as you probably already know, St. Patrick's Day, so, Lá Fhéile Pádraig Sona. I'm not a fan of wearing green plastic, or hanging out with cups of green beer, and Padraig doesn't fit into the Saints with whom I work in my ancestral work. So I didn't have any thought towards posting for St. Patrick's day. But yesterday I saw Rune Soup had posted a link to some resources on faeries, and today a Tata I know posted another faery article, and they caught my eye as faery work is something I've been researching a good bit lately. So far I've collected multiple grimoire sources spanning about 800 years and representing about four or five countries, not counting some of the folk and grimoire examples which may or may not be about faeries (like in in Cyprian). Then there are the witchcraft examples which seem to bridge between the traditional faery lore and the ceremonial magic forms. When I'm through some other projects I'll be putting out some material on faeries in traditional ceremonial and grimoire magic, and eventually I intend to look at the transition and relationship between the traditional cultural sources and the later magical ones. For now though...posts about other stuff...hopefully slowed down by writing some non-blog stuff too.

But since there was some other faery stuff that popped up, I figured I'd share one of the faery myths I've enjoyed since I was a kid. Here is a translation of it by Kuno Meyer. Another source that I find useful for myths of interaction with faeries, which gives some discussion of how people initiated interaction if The Tales of the Elders of Ireland. Pretty different than the witchcraft and the magical sources, still a good read. Anyway I hope you enjoy your St. Patrick's Day and the story of Nera.

The Adventures of Nera
translated by Kuno Meyer

One Halloween Ailill and Medb were in Rath Cruachan with their whole household. They set about cooking food. Two captives had been banged by them the day before that. Then Ailill said: ‘He who would now put a withe round the foot of either of the two captives that are on the gallows, shall have a prize for it from me, as he may choose.’

Great was the darkness of that night and its horror, and demons would appear on that night always. Each man of them went out in turn to try that night, and quickly would he come back into the house. ‘I will have the prize from thee’, said Nera, ‘and I shall go out. Truly thou shalt have this my gold-hilted sword here’, said Ailill.

Then this Nera went out towards the captives, and put good armour on him. He put a withe round the foot of one of the two captives. Thrice it sprang off again. Then the captive said to him, unless he put a proper peg on it, though he be at it till the morrow, he would not fix his own peg on it. Then Nera put a proper peg on it.

Said the captive from the gallows to Nera: ‘That is manly, O Nera!’ ‘Manly indeed!’ said Nera. ‘By the truth of thy valour, take me on thy neck, that I may get a drink with thee. I was very thirsty when I was hanged.’ ‘Come on my neck then!’ said Nera. So he went on his neck. ‘Whither shall I carry thee?’ said Nera. ‘To the house which is near­est to us , said the captive.

So they went to that house. Then they saw something. A lake of fire round that house. ‘There is no drink for us in this house’, said the captive. ‘There is no fire without sparing in it ever. Let us therefore go to the other house, which is nearest to us’, said the captive. They went to it then and saw a lake of water around it. ‘Do not go to that house!’ said the captive. There is never a washing- nor a bathing-tub, nor a slop-pail in it at night after sleeping. ‘Let us still go to the other house’, said the captive. ‘Now there is my drink in this house’, said the captive. He let him down on the floor. He went into the house. There were tubs for washing and bathing in it, and a drink in either of them. Also a slop-pail on the floor of the house. He then drinks a draught of either of them and scatters the last sip from his lips at the faces of the people that were in the house, so that they all died. Henceforth it is not good [to havel either a tub for washing or bathing, or a fire without sparing, or a slop-pail in a house after sleeping.

Thereupon he carried him back to his torture, and Nera returned to Cruachan. Then be saw something. The dun was burnt before him, and he beheld a heap of heads of their people [cut off] by the warriors from the dun. He went after the host then into the cave of Cruachan. ‘A man on the track here!’ said the last man to Nera. ‘The heavier is the track’, said his comrade to him, and each man said that word to his mate from the last man to the first man. Thereupon they reached the sid of Cruachan and went into it. Then the heads were displayed to the king in the sid. ‘What shall be done to the man that came with you?’ said one of them. ‘Let him come hither, that I may speak with him’, said the king. Then Nera came to them and the king said to him: ‘What brought thee with the warriors into the sid?’ said the king to him. ‘I came in the company of thy host’, said Nera. ‘Go now to yon­der house’, said the king. ‘There is a single woman there, who will make thee welcome. Tell her it is from me thou art sent to her, and come every day to this house with a burden of firewood’.

Then he did as he was told. The woman bade him welcome and said: ‘Welcome to thee, if it is the king that sent thee hither’. ‘It is he, truly’, said Nera. Every day Nera used to go with a burden of fire­wood to the dun. He saw every day a blind man and a lame man on his neck coming out of the dun before him. They would go until they were at the brink of a well before the dun. ‘Is it there?’ said the blind man. ‘It is indeed’, said the lame one. ‘Let us go away’, said the lame man.

Nera then asked the woman about this. ‘Why do the blind and the lame man visit the well?’ ‘They visit the crown, which is in the well’, said the woman, ‘viz, a diadem of gold, which the king wears on his head, It is there it is kept’. ‘Why do those two go?’ said Nera. ‘Not hard to tell’, said she, ‘because it is they that are trusted by the king to visit the crown.’ ‘One of them was blinded, the other lamed’. ‘Come hither a little’, said Nera to his wife, ‘that thou mayst tell me of my adventures now’. ‘What has appeared to thee?’ said the woman. ‘Not hard to tell’, said Nera. ‘When I was going into the sid, methought the rath of Cruachan was destroyed and Ailill and Medb with their whole household had fallen in it’. ‘That is not true indeed’, said the woman, ‘but an elfin host came to thee. That will come true’, said she, unless he would reveal it to his friends. ‘How shall I give warning to my people?’ said Nera. ‘Rise and go to them’, said she. ‘They are still round the same cauldron and the charge has not yet been removed from the fire.’ Yet it had seemed to him three days and three nights since he had been in the sid. ‘Tell them to be on their guard at Halloween coming, unless they come to destroy the sid. For I will promise them this: the sid to be destroyed by Ailill and Medb, and the crown of Briun to be carried off by them’.

[These are the three things, which were found in it, viz: the mantle of Loegaire in Armagh, and the crown of Briun in Connaught, and the shirt of Dunlaing in Leinster in Kildare.]

‘How will it be believed of me, that I have gone into the sid?’ said Nera. ‘Take fruits of summer with thee’, said the woman. ‘Then he took wild garlic with him and primrose and golden fern. And I shall be pregnant by thee’, said she ‘and shall bear thee a son. And send a message from thee to the sid, when thy people will come to destroy the sid, that thou mayest take thy family and thy cattle from the sid’.

Thereupon Nera went to his people, and found them around the same caldron; and he related his adventures to them. And then his sword was given to him, and he staid with his people to the end of a year. That was the very year, in which Fergus mac Roich came as an exile from the land of Ulster to Ailill and Medb to Cruachan. ‘Thy appointment has come, oh Nera’, said Ailill to Nera. ‘Arise and bring thy people and thy cattle from the sid, that we may go to destroy the sid’.

Then Nera went to his wife in the sid, and she bade him welcome. ‘Arise out to the dun now’, said the woman to Nera, ‘and take a bur­den of firewood with thee. I have gone to it for a whole year with a burden of firewood on my neck every day in thy stead, and I said thou wert in sickness. And there is also thy son yonder’. Then he went out to the dun and carried a burden of firewood with him on his neck. ‘Welcome alive from the sickness in which thou wast!’ said the king. ‘I am displeased that the woman should sleep with thee without ask­ing’. ‘Thy will shall be done about this’, said Nera. ‘It will not be hard for thee’, said the king. He went back to his house. ‘Now tend thy kine today!’ said the woman. ‘I gave a cow of them to thy son at once after his birth’. So Nera went with his cattle that day.

Then while he was asleep the Morrigan took the cow of his son, and the Donn of Cualgne bulled her in the east in Cualgne. She [the Morrigan] then went again westward with her cow. Cuchulaind over­took them in the plain of Murthemne as they passed across it. For it was one of Cuchulaind’s gessa that even a woman should leave his land without his knowledge. [It was one of his gessa that birds should feed on his land, unless they left something with him. It was one of his gessa that fish should be in the bays, unless they fell by him. It was one of his gessa that warriors of another tribe should be in his land without his challenging them, before morning, if they came at night, or before night, if they came in the day. Every maiden and every single woman that was in Ulster, they were in his ward till they were ordained for husbands. These are the gessa of Cuchulaindl. Cuchulaind overtook the Morrigan with her cow, and he said: ‘This cow must not be taken’.

Nera went back then to his house with his kine in the evening. ‘The cow of my son is missing’, said he. ‘I did not deserve that thou shouldst go and tend kine in that way’, said his wife to him, On that came the cow. ‘A wonder now! Whence does this cow come?’ ‘Truly, she comes from Cualgne, after being bulled by the Donn of Cualgne’, said the woman. ‘Rise out now, lest thy warriors come’, she said. ‘This host cannot go for a year till Halloween next. They will come on Halloween next: for the fairy-mounds of Erinn are always opened about Halloween’.

Nera went to his people. ‘Whence comest thou?’ said Ailill and Medb to Nera, ‘and where hast thou been since thou didst go from us?’ ‘I was in fair lands’, said Nera, ‘with great treasures and precious things, with plenty of garments and food, and of wonderful treasures.’ ‘They will come to slay you on Halloween coming, unless it had been revealed to you’. ‘We shall certainly go against them’, said Ailill. So they remain there till the end of the year. ‘Now if thou hast anything in the sid’, said Ailill to Nera, ‘bring it away’. So Nera went on the third day before Halloween and brought her drove out of the sid. Now as the bull calf went out of the sid, viz, the calf of the cow of Aingene (Aingene was the name of his son), it bellowed thrice. At that same hour Ailill and Fergus were playing drafts, when they heard something, the bellowing of the bull calf in the plain. Then said Fergus:

I like not the calf
bellowing in the plain of Cruachan,
the son of the black bull of Cualgne, which approaches,
the young son of the bull from Loch Laig.

There will be calves without cows
on Bairche in Cualgne,
the king will go a . . . march
through this calf of Aingene.

[Aingene was the name of the man and Be Aingeni the name of the woman, and the appearance which this Nera saw on them was the same as that which Cuchulaind saw in the Tain Bo Regamna.]

Then the bull calf and the Whitehorn meet in the plain of Cruachan. A night and a day they were there fighting, until at last the bull calf was beaten. Then the bull calf bellowed when it was beaten. ‘What did the calf bellow?’ Medb asked of her neat-herd, whose name was Buaigle. ‘I know that, my good father Fergus’, said Bricriu, ‘it is the strain which thou sangest in the morning’. On that Fergus glanced aside and struck with his fist at Bricriu’s head, so that the five men of the draft-board that were in his hand, went into Bricriu’s head, and it was a lasting hurt to him. ‘Tell me, O Buaigle, what did the bull say?’ said Medb. ‘Truly, it said’, answered Buaigle, ‘if its father came to tight with it, viz, the Donn of Cualgne, it would not be seen in Ai, and it would be beaten throughout the whole plain of Ai on every side’. Then said Medb in the manner of an oath: ‘I swear by the gods that my people swear by, that I shall not lie down, nor sleep on down or flockbed, nor shall I drink butter-milk nor nurse my side, nor drink red ale nor white, nor shall I taste food, until I see those two kine fighting before my face.

Thereafter the men of Connaught and the black host of exile went into the sid, and destroyed the sid, and took out what there was in it. And then they brought away the crown of Briun. That is the third wonderful gift in Erinn, and the mantle of Loegaire in Armagh, and the shirt of Dunlaing in Leinster in Kildare. Nera was left with his people in the sid, and has not come out until now, nor will he come till Doom

English Spirit Magic Following the Reformation - Thoughts inspired by Dr. Francis Young

"Magical practitioners were disconnected from the stereotyped role of exorcist – a role no longer recognised by the Church of England after 1550 – and one fruitful line of enquiry might examine whether post-Reformation magicians relied less on confrontation and command and developed relationships with spirits instead." - Liturgical Change and Ceremonial Magic by Dr. Francis Young

Young makes this point to explain that there may be an element of reformation magic which is distinctly non-Catholic where as most protestant magic ends up having Catholic roots. Juratus suggests a shared relationship with the spirits. The magician achieves the beatific vision and therefore enters into a state similar to the angels and calls them by the shared virtue of loving creator in whose presence both he and the angels have stood. In earlier systems we see a shared status occur in the "Mithras" Liturgy in which the ceremony confers initiation into magical power by virtue of making the magician appear to be the same as the gods and spirits into whose plane he has been elevated. Contemporaneously the Merkavah also used a system of elevating the magician to the various planes of the angels and made him acceptable to move amongst them by giving him words, signs, and songs so that he might praise god in the same manner the angels of that world did. Therefore he would gain the powers of that heaven and the ability to call upon its spirits.

Young could mean that a relationship along the lines of a familiar spirit. This would be sensible with the relationship between familiar spirits and witches in later literature because as Young points out, much of what was ascribed to witches was really a protestant response to "popish necromancers." The Arbatel is clearly influenced by the reformation and introduces a close relationship with its spirits which is echoed in the Rabbi Solomon Key which treats the Olympic spirits are the familiar spirits of the planets. If we look to the earlier spirit texts such as the French Livre Des Esperitz we see spirits described as ruling legions but less readily described as providing familiars. Many texts we have which from more Catholic periods like the Heptameron don't seem to stress providing a familiar spirit. Certainly texts we have providing means for obtaining fairy familiars (Scott, Book of Oberon, Spells for Binding the Seven Fairy Sisters, Book of Treasure Spirits etc) fall within the purview of post-reformation or at least concurrent with reformation English magic.

So it's possible if a relationship with the spirits is less a matter of a theological underpinning of the ability to conjure spirits by way of relating the magician to the spirit so that some sympathy allows interaction and more a matter of establishing an ongoing working relationship based on an introduction this may seem reasonable.

The problems I see with this view are that we can find pre-protestant examples of establishing ongoing relationships with spirits, and even in most post-Reformation examples spirits are still called by coercive methods based on confrontation and command in order to initially obtain congress with spirits and then to “bind by oath” a familiar spirit who has been commanded in lieu of the spirit originally confronted and commanded. (The Arbatel being of notable difference from this).

The Abramelin, which while its provenance and religious context are debated, there are definite elements linking it to Askenazic Jewish magic, is clearly based around the idea of achieving familiar spirits. It dispenses with much of ritual magic but not by means of asserting popery as in Protestant texts. Further the level of ritual magic inherent in protestant texts, and likely the elements of image magic, would be equally condemned by Abraham the Jew as would those of popish, or Catholic, magic.

Continuing to earlier forms the Hygromanteia does not seem to focus on providing familiar spirits, but it still has methods which can be used for gaining or working with spirits in a manner similar to a familiar spirit or a helper spirit. Young also notes a shift from demons and angels, to fairies and the dead in post-Reformation magic, but again the Hygromanteia provides means for working with both.

The PGM of course provides examples of receiving helper spirits and daimons bound to service of the magician. As noted above the “Mithras” Liturgy which occurs in the texts now known as the PGM provides an ancient example of magic built around relating the magician to the hypostatic phase in which the spirits he wishes to entreat reside.

So both the idea of creating a sense of similarity between the magician and the spirits and, as Young notes, authority derived from the divine status of the magician by way of the divine virtue ascribed humanity by way of Christ's redemption of Mary and his assignment of her as mother and of the importance of Christs humanity, can be seen in earlier Catholic magic and also in pre-Christian or at least early first millenium magical practices and their related philosophies (Hermeticism and NeoPlatonism). The idea of working with a familiar spirit also appears in earlier pre-Reformation magic.

The idea that liturgical changes and appendant theological reform would bleed into changes in magic makes sense and creates a ready system for exploring a major period of history in conjunction with exploring an important period of magical literature. But it seems like at times changes may have been small and ideological and impacting appendent pieces of practice rather than sweepingly major reforms of magical practice. Young himself notes that many seemingly Protestant examples of magic are pulled from earlier Catholic magic and magical ideas.

The reduction of a focus on virginity and purification is interesting though.

Beginning Conjuration and Spirit Magic pt 8: The Fair Folk

Presenting part 8 of 8 of our series on Conjuration and Spirit magic for beginners. The final post in the series Today we'll talk about what is perhaps the least discussed traditional component of conjure magic: Fairies. We started the series with a list of book recommendations and then moved to information on setting up a devotional practice to develop support in the spirit world. Then we discussed scrying, followed by conjuring the elementals, we talked about intermediary and crossroads spirits. Then we discussed angels and demons. We dove into Necromancy, and now we're on our final post for this series. Other cool things will come, some of it will continue stuff we talked above over these posts, so please like us on Facebook, and share the post with your friends so that can enjoy it as well.  

Beginning Conjuration and Spirit Magic pt 8: The Fair Folk

We're wrapping up our series on conjuration by looking at fairies. Modern Ceremonial Magic has largely ignored any spiritual creatures outside of angels or demons from the post-Golden Dawn period up through now. I have often wondered why. Originally, when I was younger I assumed that most of reason for this was that fairies and dragons and nature spirits showed up primarily in folklore and pagan stories and magic and not in grimoires. Over time, exploring more and more grimoires and old books it became clear that this wasn't the reason, there is actually a lot of evidence that magic involving fairies and similar creatures was intertwined somewhat seamlessly into other magical systems of the middle ages.

Richard Kieckhefer talks about this somewhat in Forbidden Rites. Work with fairies could be considered either natural or demoniac magic during the middle ages. Fairies could be viewed as spirits who work within nature under the direction of the divine plan. Fairies could also be viewed as spirits who taught humans magical powers outside of the will of god similarly to demons and devils. We see this latter feature in other sources dealing with witches. Witches were sometimes believed to have fairy familiars, either given to them by the Devil, like in the case of Isobel Gowdie, or simply spirits which approached the witch on their own. In both cases the fairy would teach the with magic.

In more ceremonial sources we see fairies conjured for an array of reasons. Oberon or Oberyon is conjured as a treasure finding spirit. He also is conjured to teach the magician a wide array of things. Sibylia and her sisters provide a ring of invisibility. Fairies do a lot of the things we conjure demons for. Fairies have a reputation for causing trouble because they don't think like humans, and some have an antagonistic view of humans. But fairies are still more like humans than demons are. Fairies are also part of the elemental world in which humans reside, even if they're part of a separate phase of it. With these elements in mind fairies are likely a very useful group of spirits to approach for many practical everyday sorts of purposes.

Personally I've never been much for fairy magic. Growing up with fairy stories and traditional magic the NeoPagan approaches to fairies did not seem safe or sensible. The idea of treating fairies like gods or guides neither fit with what we saw of fairies in folk tales, nor what happened with them in mythology, and it certainly didn't address the fact that pagan folk traditions and their Christian counterparts seemed focused on keeping fairies away because they were dangerous. So my fairy experience growing up is somewhat limited. I'm still putting together thoughts on fairies for ceremonial magic, and so this post today is largely focused on ideas and sources and thoughts to consider. We're wrapping up our exploration of conjure magic with thoughts, and hopefully inspiration towards moving further to add an additional element to conjure magic rather than instructions for something else we've all done before.

Like I said above, I was not a fan of the NeoPagan approach. But I think there is a problem looking purely at the approaches we see in ceremonial magic. October 6^th 2016 I posted this to Facebook after reading selections from Joseph Peterson's The Book of Oberon:

“If conjuring a king or queen of a sovereign race of spirits why would you do it by divine names to which they hold no allegiance? I'm not of the mind of demonalators who would suggest that demons are gods and should be approached without constraints of divine names. They exist within a cosmological structure which explains why to use those names. I can see the approach which I believe JSK uses of using chiefs and Kings as names of authority more amenable to the spirits in the case of demons. The Abramelin method is kind of like that. I can understand why the grimoire structure works though. If dealing with Djinn I can understand using the names of Allah and Islamic holy verse since Djinn legends acknowledge that Djinn have religion and some are Islamic. But usually legends of the fair folk don't suggest that they are Christians or acknowledge Christianity. So when reading the lengthy conjurations of Oberyon I kind of felt like “wouldn't Oberon just give me the finger and not show up?” Even from a grimoirist perspective they were kind of unwieldy feeling but they also don't seem consonant with their purpose. I get the worldview which would say all spirits must respond to these names, I guess not being a hundred percent that worldview though it seems like calling Oberyon to come of his own volition would be more fitting.”

I had started looking at the Book of Oberon because my curiosity about conjuring fairies had increased. For about a year or two at that point I had been wondering about work with fairies in a ceremonial context. Reading some Isobel Gowdie transcripts made me more curious about it. I started looking more earnestly instead of considering it just a future project.

But as you can see I didn't really like what I found in the Book of Oberon. The conjuration takes about five pages. It reads like a more cumbersome version of what we find to conjure demons. A lot of asking the spirit to show up and not be frightening and to not delay, and to show up in the appearance of a pleasant looking child, and it references, but without using them, holy names, and then it escalates as such things do and begins to reference angels and saints and names of god and curses and commands. To me the names don't make sense because Oberon as a king of fairies would be a power to call upon to command other fairies. He exists in a whole other world of gods and spirits outside of Christianity and Judaism. I very much feel comfortable working within a Christian context, and believing in the powers of that context, when it is appropriate to what I'm doing. But it doesn't mean I don't believe in anything else. I believe in the gods and spirits who are subordinate to them as well. If I wanted to call upon Athena, I'd probably just call out to Athena directly, but if I needed some higher authority it would be Zeus not HaShem.

Aside from that the conjuration is just too long and not smoothly put together. It's just not aesthetically pleasing.

So, aside from the Folger Manuscript/Book of Oberon, where can we look for ways to conjure the fair folk? There are a lot of sources, and I'll be doing posts based on information we can get from various places in the future. There is way too much to do all in one post here. Reginald Scot's collection of materials has information which is useful, including a couple methods for contacting fairies. Doctor Rudd's material doesn't, as I recall, give much in the way of instruction but it gives several types of fairy and fairy like spirits and information about them. We noted the Folger Manuscript as a resource in terms of it's long conjuration, it also holds several seals and the names of several fairies, and presents some under the rulership of Oberyon and some under Mycob. The Book of St. Cyprian has been suggested by Jake Stratton-Kent as a possible source, as has On Magical Ceremonies by Agrippa. The Grimoire of Arthur Gauntlet and the Book of Treasure spirits contain some material as well, but they both are drawing from Folger. There are a ton of sources which we would call “ceremonial magic” or grimoire magic books that include work with the fairies.

Some magicians would incorporate aerial spirits, and the elementals as described by Paracelsus as examples of fairies, which would expand the ceremonial sources and methods we have available to us. I'm not sure I would consider these as fairies necessarily.

There are also non-ceremonial magic sources we can use. Robert Kirk's Secret Commonwealth is a valuable resource for exploring work with fairies in a folklorist context but from a practical perspective based on someone who encountered the fair folk prior to NeoPagan views on the subject. The Fairy Faith in Celtic Countries is another resource for folklore related to the fairies. Exploring folklore more directly by looking at fairy tales and folk customs can provide insight as well. The mythological and religious systems of the Greeks and Romans, the Celts, and the Norse and Germanic peoples will all provide further insight into who rules fairies, what things they want, and how they can be approached in traditional systems. What we lose in exploring these sources is the practical magical component. But we get a feel for how to approach, which is what is missing in a lot of the more magical texts. Combining the info we can take from each type of source can help us put together a full picture.

Identifying what types of spirits we think of as fairies would also help. I think a starting point is to consider spirits that aren't gods, or angels or demons. That gives us a pretty wide range. From there we can look at descriptions of fairies in various folklore. We can look in magical texts at how fairies overlap with other spirits. As we begin to come up with a series of features, behaviors, responsibilities, we can start to catalogue and build structures for understanding these spirits and how to work with them.

If you feel curious about working with fairies in a context more like standard conjure magic but with an eye towards a conjure system appropriate to these spirits, I'd love to hear about your work. There seems to be a sudden growing interest in this. In addition to my post and the ensuing discussion about it back in October, about two months later there was a pretty thorough discussion with more people involved in the Solomonic group on FB, and in another group Dr. Al Cummins started posting some blogs on the subject beginning around Noveber 5^th.

Before we leave off, and again we'll be returning to this subject a fair amount, these are my thoughts on a direction towards a method.

1. Just like we discussed work with an intermediary, there are spirits who serve this function in the various cultures we might explore for fairy work. If we're looking at elves or dwarves or wights we might look at Heimdal, if we're going with Irish or other Celtic fairies we might look at Manannan or another nation's variant of him. So we might call upon the gate keeper who the fairies would fall under and ask him to open the way for the fairies to get to us.

2. The fairies often live near the dead. So, the work we have suggested with ancestors and the necromantic work may come into play for seeking the aid of the dead, or those who might rule the lands adjacent to fairy. Reginald Scot specifically suggests using the dead to go find the fairies one desires and bring them forth.

3. Some prayer of conjuration should be used. We see this in the ceremonial examples. But those conjurations work with the authority of God names foreign to the fairy. So we can identify gods to whom the fairy might respond. For Irish Fairies the Dagda has been associated with the places where the fairies reside, for Norse and Germanic Fairies Weyland may be an option or Othin, for British Fairies Oberon could be an option, for Nyads and Dryads and other spirits from Greece Zeus, or Pan, or gods and heroes with whom those spirits had a relationship. While not all fairies are nature spirits, they do often seem to have a connection to either nature of the underworld, and so the authority of the land itself could also be used as a means for calling them, as the land itself and the natural features of the land would be filled with gods and spirits and would in some cases form boundaries and sources related to the power of the fairy.

4. Some gift or offering should be made. In the Colloquy of the Sages the fairies are often drawn out by giving apple branches. So for Irish fairies apples seem an obvious gift. Certain mythological features would make apples sensible for British fairies as well. Milk and butter, bread, those are also common gifts, and so likewise looking at fairy stories, mythology, and folk customs would provide information on gifts.

5. Water and glass/mirrors may make sense as scrying devices, or candle flame. Crystals are of course the standard for spirits and so could be used as a scrying device as well.

So again, we'll come back to this subject over time. I'd love to see what others are doing with it as well.