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

The Raccolta and the Holy Guardian Angel

In my post yesterday on Lent I spoke about the unique moments of the Pascal season which provide liturgically significant times for spiritual work involved in connecting to the Holy Guardian Angel, and to The Beloved. The Angel runs parallel to the Prince of the Presence, who in early Jewish mystical systems was the angel charged with functioning as the apparition of God, and also as a guide forward into the higher realms of creation and unto the Palaces of the Divine Throne room. Along this path the angel also taught seals, passwords and invocations which gave access to the heavens and the spirits who resides therein along with their magical secrets.

For Abraham the Jew the function of the Angel was to teach the Sacred Magic and guide the magician in his magical endeavors, as well as to function as both an intermediary and a thwarting angel who singularly brought all demons within the purview of the magician's control.

In modern magic the angel is our guide, our source of power and authority and our connection to divinity.

Often people think of Knowledge and Conversation, or the Abramelin working, or Liber Samekh as the magic the angel relates to, but the angel is a part of our daily life and experience as a magician. Even for those who have not made firm committed contact with their angels, it is advisable to seek routine communion with the angel even from the beginning of one's magical career. If you have this communion already it becomes easier for the angel to guide you in determining if and when and how you should seek to make firmer your connection.

There is a lot of material in both magical and religious tradition which can be used for working with the angel. We've talked about some of it in posts here before, and we'll continue to do so. Since we took a stop into Catholic territory to discuss Lent I figured we could also look at a short simple prayer to the Guardian Angel from the Raccolta.

TheRaccolta is a collection of traditional Roman Catholic prayers which have been granted various “indulgences” by Popes. Essentially these are prayers which have been given added institutional power, a sort of official magic, which is supposed to add to their spiritual effect. Personally I think this is pretty cool. There are a lot of prayers in it which won't be of particular interest or use for the magician, but there are a lot which can be used in work with the Saints, the Dead, and of course the Angel. So for a magician working with these spirits this is a pretty awesome collection to explore because these are prayers which carry weight within the spiritual traditions connected to some of these spirits.

In the future we may explore some additional Catholic angels prayers (haha “may”...we totally will...) but for now here is a simple one we can look at today:

“112. "ANGEL OF GOD," ETC.

While we give thanks to God for having granted to each of us a holy angel for our guardian, we ought ever to bear in mind the respect, devotion, and loving confidence we owe to this blessed spirit; and with these feelings we should often think of him, and implore his constant aid with the following well-known invocation:

Angele Dei, qui custos es mei, me tibi commissum pietate superna, illumina, custodi, rege, et guberna. Amen.

O angel of God, whom God hath appointed to be my guardian, enlighten and protect, direct and govern me.

Or else.

Angel of God, my guardian dear,
To whom His love commits me here,
Ever this day be at my side,
To light and guard, to rule and guide. Amen.

Pope Pius VI., in order to kindle the fervour of the faithful to have frequent recourse to their holy Angel Guardian, granted, motu proprio, by a Brief of October 2, 1795 -
i. An indulgence of 100 days every time the above-named short prayer is said devoutly and with a contrite heart.
ii. A plenary indulgence to those who have been accustomed to say it morning and evening throughout the year, on the Feast of the Holy Guardian Angels, October 2; provided that on that day, after Confession and Communion, they visit a church or public oratory and pray for the Sovereign Pontiff.
iii. A plenary indulgence, in articulo mortis, was added by the same Pope, in another Brief of September 2, 1796, to all who had been accustomed during life frequently to say the said prayer. In this Brief also, motu proprio, he confirmed the Indulgences already granted.
His successor, Pius VII., afterwards, by a decree of the S. Congr. of Indulgences, of May 15, 1821, besides confirming afresh the above-named Indulgences, granted -
iv. A plenary indulgence to all the faithful who say at least once a day, for a month together, the said prayer, Angele Dei, &c., on any one day when, after Confession and Communion, they visit a church and pray as above.”

-- The Raccolta

I have included in our quotation the indulgence info just as an example.

The prayer itself does not need much updating to fit a less Catholic worldview. It's pretty standard in its connection to the angel. “Rule” might seem out of step for many contemporary magicians but it needn't imply submission to an authority so much as acceptance of a standard of guidance. It could easily be replaced by “inspire” if one dislikes “rule.”

The prayer could easily be said at the outset of the day, or before leaving for some task. It could be incorporated into a sort of rosary or used as a chanted prayer for meditation to connect with the angel. It is short enough to be memorized and could be used as a quick recitation to center oneself on the connection to the angel when the events of the day set you off center.

Adding a lamp or candle consecrated to the angel as a point of focus can be useful when praying such prayers. Anointing with Abramelin oil, or with an ash like that described yesterday can be another good material way to connect with the angel during such a prayer. Novena candles for the Guardian Angel or for the Holy Spirit, possibly combined with prayers on petition papers could draw a more magical focus to either building the connection or connecting the prayer into a magical petition to the angel.

Lent, The Holy Guardian Angel and the Calcination of Failure

I've had a bit of an interruption in my "American Gods" series of posts because of some work deadlines, but will be back to those soon. In the mean time, Lent is a really big deal to me, so I wanted to make an Ash Wednesday post. I would have liked to have made it yesterday...but...time keeps on slipping, into the future. 

Some people might wonder why Lent and Ash Wednesday would be exciting to a magician, but since I've had OTO friends literally suggest that I'm a crypto-Catholic it probably isn't too surprising. I like grimoires, and I like the pre-Reformation grimoires, I like studying Catholic liturgics and Sacraments to deepen my understanding of the grimoire practice as well as my work as a Gnostic Catholic Priest.

But I find this time of year to be one of the most exciting for a deeper reason than the appeal of traditional Catholic aesthetics. It is a time steeped in the Mysteries, in the sacramental theology and a Gnostic soteriology, so deeply that as a mystic, a Priest, and a magician I can't help but be excited by it.

It isn't a time of penitent contrition but one of anticipating Triumph. Which in my thinking is very Thelemic on its own, but when we explore this Triumph it gets even better.

Lent anticipates not just Christ's Triumph over death but our Triumph by way of participation in his death and resurrection. We experience the Mystery of the resurrection and likewise become an initiate who has conquered death. The whole Lenten season is steeped in the act of embodying the Passion within the experience of the people. The connection to the Passion Death and Resurrection is subtly built in the people every time they take the Eucharist - just as ours builds within us the sacred marriage of Earth and Heaven and with it communion with the angel; but Lent steps up the experience by immersing the people in reflection through the Stations of the Cross.

Triumphing over Death. This is central in most contemporary Mystery Traditions. The Wica explore this in the Descent of the Goddess, the Masons in the story of Hiram Abiff, the OTO in...well...I'll just say it's public knowledge that our Master Magicians explore the mysteries of death. This is such an important element of the Mysteries that we see it all throughout Europe and the Near East going back at least 3000 years.

But, we're not just conquering Death, with Life, we're conquering Falsehood with Truth. Liber AL tells us death is a lie. The Mysteries expose for us that we are the same light as the source, and death is not the submission of that light to darkness but rather the revelation of that light as it rejoins eternity. This idea touches both on the sacramental ideal f Ash Wednesday and the Gnostic soteriology of Easter Saturday.

Ash Wednesday is the beginning of a sort of alchemy. The ash in a traditional context is made from Palm leaves saved from Palm Sunday. This is often interpreted as wearing the ashes of penance while recalling the impending victory of Palm Sunday and the Triumphal entry into Jerusalem.

But Palm Sunday isn't Victory. It is a Pseudo-Thronosis, or false enthroning - a common act in initiatory passion plays. In these rituals the initiate is elevated and perceives success but the success isn't real. Being caught up in that falsehood we miss the reality of our situation and get caught in the snares and traps of life, but if we dig deep beyond the appearance of darkness and difficulty we can find that truth remains.

At Ash Wednesday we burn the Palms; we burn the falsehood. In alchemy one of the first phases is calcination or burning the material to ash. For the alchemist that which burns away is the dross, the false material that that hides the valued and true components of the material. That which is true survives fire, that which is false can not endure.

From a Gnostic and sacramental perspective this gives us an interesting liturgical moment from which to work. In the RCC Penance is one of the seven Sacraments. Tau Apiryon has said that the EGC equivalent of this is Will. I personally interpret this to mean that rather than seeking forgiveness we assess our shortcomings, our failures...the falsehoods which hold onto us and prevent us from succeeding at knowing truth and expressing that truth by doing our Wills. This flips the idea of penance on its head and instead of finding fault we find strength. We recognize that we aren't just our actions and instead of crapping on ourselves for not being perfect we can recognize our potential, we can seek divine inspiration, we can commit to being awesome.

Ritually I've applied this idea by writing a confession, not of sins but of ways I haven't committed to the Work and to my success. I've then burned the confession. Once the confession is burned I make prayers to my angel and reconstitute the "salt" or the ash of the confession with the "sulfur" or "soul" using Abramelin Oil. So my ash doesn't just have ash, but like Chrism it has fire. 

This confession first played out for me while doing the Abramelin Working, which contains a confession and wearing of ash. This idea of confessing to falling short of the Work seemed a fitting way to work on committing to it. From there, reflections on Ash Wednesday and Lent led to this association between the act and the season. It is of course something you can do at any time, and I personally keep my "angel ash" around as a means to connect with my angel through material imposition. It is a very refreshing meditative and spiritual practice. 

This connection to the angel brings me to my last part, the Gnostic soteriology. Soteriology is a theology or doctrine of salvation. In traditional Christianity Christ replaces the sacrifice and becomes the scapegoat. He takes on our sins and as a result, unlike the goat who is taken by the spirits of the wilderness, he descends to Hell weighed down by our sins, but he conquers Satan and Death and rises again so that our sin no longer has the power of death, since sin is what lead to death originally in Eden. He transforms the game by being awesome for us so that we can ride along and get into heaven based on his awesomeness. There are some interesting ideas at play here, but I don't want to get into most of them. 

From a Gnostic perspective it works a little differently. 

Jesus said these things:

"(13) Jesus said to his disciples, "Compare me to someone and tell me whom I am like." 

Simon Peter said to him, "You are like a righteous angel."
Matthew said to him, "You are like a wise philosopher."
Thomas said to him, "Master, my mouth is wholly incapable of saying whom you are like."
Jesus said, "I am not your master. Because you have drunk, you have become intoxicated from the bubbling spring which I have measured out."
And he took him and withdrew and told him three things. When Thomas returned to his companions, they asked him, "What did Jesus say to you?"

Thomas said to them, "If I tell you one of the things which he told me, you will pick up stones and throw them at me; a fire will come out of the stones and burn you up.""

"(108) Jesus said, "He who will drink from my mouth will become like me. I myself shall become he, and the things that are hidden will be revealed to him.""

"(50) Jesus said, "If they say to you, 'Where did you come from?', say to them, 'We came from the light, the place where the light came into being on its own accord and established itself and became manifest through their image.' If they say to you, 'Is it you?', say, 'We are its children, we are the elect of the living father.' If they ask you, 'What is the sign of your father in you?', say to them, 'It is movement and repose.'""

(The Gospel of Thomas)

Jesus compares his teachings to a bubbling stream of which his followers may drink and become drunk thereof if they truly understand, as does Thomas. He elaborates that there is no difference between himself and the one who carries his spirit by becoming drunk on his teachings. He further elaborates that the Father is the Light that established itself of its own volition, that man is a child of this light and as a child has the light in him and that this presence of the light is what makes man living. This presence of the light is likewise the basis of the teachings of the Word. 

Jesus stresses in many other instances understanding the living and the dead, and the relationship between the living and the dead and that one should not focus simply on the dead but appreciate the living Word which is before them, and which is the message they take in in order to become living themselves. A steady theme is the overlapping equation of Jesus, his message, life, and the Father. Each part in some way relates to another. But ultimately salvation for the Gnostic is not being saved by the act of another, salvation is recognizing death, seeking life through that recognition, and coming alive by embodying the Word and therefore becoming the same as the Word and therefore an expression of the Father. 

Salvation is the knowledge that we may uncover Truth and conquer death. 

In modern magic a key component of this is developing a relationship with the Holy Guardian Angel. In some ways Jesus's experience in the desert, like Moses's experience on Mt. Horeb, has a lot of similarity to encountering one's Holy Guardian Angel. Jesus continues this exploration further in the Pascal narrative with the Gethsemane. Jesus slowly uncovers and accepts his Will even if there are moments which are blinding flashes, not unlike the experience of a mystic or magician. Much of Lent suits itself to communing with the Holy Guardian Angel, which would reflect the Pentacostal imagery of initiation and the reception of the Holy Spirit, it is similarly hinted at in Christ's baptism, and of course his struggles in the desert and at Gethsemane to understand and accept who he is and what his calling is. But outside of the mythos, the ritual narrative plays this out for us as well. 

We burn away what we aren't as we seek to commit to what we are. This is the commitment we make when we seek the angel ardently for the purpose of making a firm commitment to on going communion. The angel speaks to us, and pours out the bubbling stream which changes and anoints us. The angel leads us through our Gethsemane moments, to Triumph through our own Golgatha and understand the light within ourselves. 

Ultimately this is the crowning moment of Lent. Not the joy of the resurrection, but the dark moment in which man can lose himself to distraction and terror or in which he can know that he is a child of the Light and that the light resides within him and is with him even in those moments in which we are most alone. As Jesus dies the veil of the Holy of Holies is torn asunder. The imagery calls to mind the leader of the Sanhedrin tearing his garments in protest as if God angrily shakes his temple and tears apart a symbol of His sacred presence in protest of his son's death. 

But this isn't what's happening at all. 

The veil kept people away from the adytum. The people couldn't directly experience God. But God became a man. In fact, God became man so hard that he died, an excruciating death, full of embarrassment, shame, fear, pain, and sin...so...much...sin, that you couldn't ever imagine having the weight of guilt, anxiety, self doubt, and confusion that God experienced. In that moment of death God is so infinitely human that the entirety of the experience of God is held within the experience of Man. God is ultimately alone in the darkness in a way which is the opposite of his infinite nature (which is likewise alone in the darkness), Which is what we are by virtue of being human. But here we see the divinity in that experience because here, for a moment, God is drawn into the lowest expression of our existence and therefore is closer to us than any other time. 

In a Liturgical sense the Roman Catholic Church recognizes this as the death of the Church. It is often explained that since Jesus is dead, and the Church exists as his Bride than she has no existence in that time that he is in Hell. But more than the Bride of Christ, the Church is an intermediary between Man and Christ, between Man and God. The intermediary dies because God is so deep in the muck with us that there is nothing to mediate anymore. We're there together alone in the darkness, and we just have to open up and realize the Light. 

We have to burn the Palms.

American Goddesses

Yesterday we talked about American Gods, or our heroic apotheosized figures, as well as Great Ones, or ancestral figures who we haven't yet raised to mythic levels. We noted that America also has legendary, perhaps divine figures aside from our heroes and ancestors. The ones we passed over yesterday were male figures who are important to the legendary identity that forms the American self image, but we also have other figures, who are perhaps more nebulous, and definitely more female, who form a pantheon of somewhat loftier magical figures, these are our American Goddesses.

Two of the three about whom I'm going to speak are pretty commonly known, and most Americans even recognize that they are essentially Goddesses, although we often assume they are Goddesses of some earlier religion rather than Goddesses within the construct of our National identity. The third is less familiar but more wholly American as she is the divine persona of our country itself.

Liberty, Justice, and Columbia.

These three Goddesses are those most associated with American ideals and are also those who would be associated with shaping our National course and the manifestation of the virtues and values we associate with our Nation. In regards to Liberty and Justice they also rule over very practical concerns for our daily lives, as well as practical concerns regarding how we direct our momentum as a culture. Columbia represents the ideal of America and the American dream as a whole, and at times she is herself associated with Liberty, but is more essentially the goddess of what it is that is America and Americanism.

Liberty appears as Libertas amongst the Romans. A temple was erected to her on the Aventine during the second Punic War, and she was placed on the estate of Cicero once he was subdued by the forces of Augustus. So Liberty as a Goddess reaches back into antiquity and has remained a force of power and inspiration across the world, with numerous depictions in the United States, as well as depictions abroad as Freedom and Democracy. She was further depicted on Roman coins, which could be obtained as offerings or talismans in her honor.

On her Statue at Liberty Park in New York, which is most likely her most recognizable depiction internationally, and could be viewed almost as the global shrine to Liberty is the turn of the century poem by Emma Lazarus in her honor, The New Colossus:

The New Colossus

Not like the brazen giant of Greek fame,

With conquering limbs astride from land to land;

Here at our sea-washed, sunset gates shall stand

A mighty woman with a torch, whose flame

Is the imprisoned lightning, and her name

Mother of Exiles. From her beacon-hand

Glows world-wide welcome; her mild eyes command

The air-bridged harbor that twin cities frame.

"Keep ancient lands, your storied pomp!" cries she

With silent lips. "Give me your tired, your poor,

Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,

The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.

Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me,

I lift my lamp beside the golden door!"

This would function easily as an invocation to this Goddess or a prayer to be made in her honor, especially with its tie to one of the most important contemporary symbols of her, especially within the consciousness of our Nation. The poem was originally penned as part of fundraising efforts for building the statue and therefore functioned on some level as an invocation calling forth the physical presence itself making its use as an invocation to this goddess even more appropriate.

Liberty appears on several coins and state and National icons and therefore has a fixed tie to our National and State government institutions. She is often depicted holding a glad, or with five pointed stars, or in the case of Lady Liberty in NY holding a torch as a beacon drawing people towards the Freedom she represents, the Freedom at the core of American idealism.

Justice appears in several forms historically and our contemporary American Goddess of Justice, sometimes reduced to the idea of the anthropomorphic image of our court system, retains the classical imagery and is therefore essentially a contemporary manifestation of this ancient Goddess. While some suggest that the attributes of Lady Justice, the scales and sword, represent a combination of attributes of several goddesses we see these associated with the Roman Justitia and of the Greek Goddesses Themis and her daughter Dike. The Blindfold was an addition that began in the 15^th century but still predates the modern depiction.

Lady Justice is sometimes thought of as the moral power of our court system which is a little more esoteric and appropriate than simply anthropomorphizing our court system, but it still misses the mark on understanding the more cosmic force of Justice. Themis was a Titan who could see the past and future and her sword cut between fact and fiction giving a clarity of vision which allowed her to give true oracles. Themis has communion with the Fates and was associated with Divine Law and the customs which originated from the manifestation of the divine will. So her relationship to justice is essentially the institution of divinely inspired righteousness and the ability to discern and proclaim truth. A significant power that any magician should seek to be in touch with.

Themis's daughter by Nomos, or Law, is Dike. To me this is an interesting idea, Justice proceeds from the joined application of Law and Righteousness, what is Customary should be what is Righteous, and the execution of restraint (legalism) is elevated by the righteousness of divine order. Justice isn't about our feelings, it's not about our sentiment, it's about what is right and good within the construct of social order. We often look at Justice as Blind because she is impartial, but impartiality implies that she is not sentimental or emotional. Dike, according to Hesiod, carried out the sentence or executed the final decision of the Fates regarding a person in order to accord their outcome to that which was moral and right.

Lady Justice is a combination of these elements, and she has a series of attributes which we can examine to further explore her nature. Her depiction as a maiden is said to show innocence, and that innocence allows for her to be impartial and unbiased. Again, she is not colored by emotion or desire or sympathies or sentiment, as the maiden she has not gathered the ties and connections to be burdened by bias. This maidenhood allows her to be depicted without her blindfold and allows us to incorporate her vision into the past and future, when she is depicted with the blindfold it is likewise a symbol of this impartiality, and carries with it the implication that she is a blind or undirected force, and so when she is applied to a situation it is a natural and automatic act. She does not assess and make concessions, she simply executes her power to balance.

She is depicted in Grecian attire, robed. This has been suggested to link her to Classical thought and a philosophical worldview. Even amongst the Romans the Greeks were thought of as symbolic of higher learning and philosophy. This therefore reflects that Justice is rational and accords with the higher minded impulses and the impulse towards the Public Good.

The sword is a multifaceted symbol. It may retain the implication from Themis of cutting between fact and fiction, discerning what is true and what is false in an argument. It can also imply swift action and the idea of justice being quickly and directly administered. When can reflect the harshness of sentencing, but pointed downward can imply judgment tempered by mercy.

With the two sided sword we also see the scales which balance each side of a situation and weigh the truth between them. In this idea we see the idea of two opposing parties, the accused and the accuser or the person seeking restitution and the person claimed to owe restitution. Justice is not necessarily always about two sides of a case, although in any case where we call upon justice I suppose it becomes that, our point of view versus that of the person we wish justice to act upon. But Justice may not way one story against another, it may way one story, or one person against Truth, or against what is right. In this reading of the symbol we might consider the scales of Ma'at. When looking at the scales as weighing between two parties, it may also be a matter of bringing about balance rather than looking simply at who is right and who is wrong. In the end, Justice balances the forces of a situation and applies law and order to remove those things which destroy that balance.

She may also appear with a scroll. The scroll has been said to represent the law itself and the application of law. It also has been suggested that it represents knowledge and education and with Justice as a central element of the Public Good and the social ideal that she reminds society that education is a necessary component of that social Good. People have to seek to understand law and society and be knowledgeable about the social order. Another way to consider it is the relationship between Justice and the Fates. The scroll is the story, law itself can be described as a story or a mirror for the story of what ails mankind. We write laws to circumscribe those impulses, those fears, those acts into which we might fall which would undo society. Laws describe to us the problems we have encountered and anticipated and in a sense they tell us something about our history, our hopes, and our fears. The Fates likewise ordain our history, our experience, and what may come for us. The story which Justice holds is the story written on the loom of Fate.

Justice may also appear holding a torch or the fasces. The torch is a symbol of the light of Truth or the ability to seek out Truth. I like to think of the torch again as a beacon calling people towards a life of Truth and Justice. The fasces are a symbol of authority, and in traditional Roman iconography represent the right of life and death, or the ability to pass sentence. When taken together, one in one hand, the other in the other, they represent the idea that authority will be exercised within the light of Truth, or the authority to institute a sentence or ruling based in the truth of whatever matter is at hand.

The Orphic Hymn to Themis may be used to call upon certain aspects of Justice:

“The Fumigation from Frankincense.
Illustrious Themis, of celestial birth, thee I invoke, young blossom of the earth;
Beauteous-eyed virgin; first from thee alone, prophetic oracles to men were known,
Giv'n from the deep recesses of the fane in sacred Pytho, where renown'd you reign;
From thee, Apollo's oracles arose, and from thy pow'r his inspiration flows.
Honour'd by all, of form divinely bright, majestic virgin, wand'ring in the night:
Mankind from thee first learnt initial rites, and Bacchus' nightly choirs thy soul delights;
For holy honours to disclose is thine, with all the culture of the pow'rs divine.
Be present, Goddess, to my pray'r inclin'd, and bless the mystic rites with fav'ring mind.”

The Orphic Hymn to Dike can also be used for some aspects of Justice:

“The Fumigation from Frankincense.
The piercing eye of Justice [Dike] bright, I sing, plac'd by the throne of heav'n's almighty king [Zeus],
Perceiving thence, with vision unconfin'd, the life and conduct of the human kind
To thee, revenge and punishment belong, chastising ev'ry deed, unjust and wrong;
Whose pow'r alone, dissimilars can join, and from th' equality of truth combine:
For all the ill, persuasion can inspire, when urging bad designs, with counsel dire,
'Tis thine alone to punish; with the race of lawless passions, and incentives base;
For thou art ever to the good inclin'd, and hostile to the men of evil mind.
Come, all-propitious, and thy suppliant hear, when Fate's predestin'd, final hour draws near.”

Along with Dike perhaps Dikaiosyne, or the goddess of Equity would be an appropriate figure. Equity or Equality perhaps figured more in the ideals of the French revolution but is still an important idea within the American identity. I would not necessarily say that Equality and Justice are the same, outside of Justice's ability to bring about balance. There are times where Equality might involve things outside of what would otherwise apparently be just, but the impulse towards Equity is still an important one. In the Orphic Hymns this prayer is given for Dikaiosyne:

“The Fumigation from Frankincense.
O Blessed Equity [Dikaiosune], mankind's delight, th' eternal friend of conduct just and right:
Abundant, venerable, honor'd maid, to judgments pure, dispensing constant aid,
A stable conscience, and an upright mind; for men unjust, by thee are undermin'd,
Whose souls perverse thy bondage ne'er desire, but more untam'd decline thy scourges dire:
Harmonious, friendly power, averse to strife, in peace rejoicing, and a stable life;
Lovely, loquacious, of a gentle mind, hating excess, to equal deeds inclin'd:
Wisdom, and virtue of whate'er degree, receive their proper bound alone in thee.
Hear, Goddess Equity [Dikaiosune], the deeds destroy of evil men, which human life annoy;
That all may yield to thee of mortal birth, whether supported by the fruits of earth,
Or in her kindly fertile bosom found, or in the depths of Marine Jove [Zeus] profound.”

It was common in the ancient world for a Nation or a People to have an ancestor who had some sort of divine origin. This element appeared in most Indo-European's mythologies. For Romans they had Romulus and Remus, who were sons of Mars. Romulus was later deified as Quirinus and was essentially the god of the virtues and ideals associated with Roman citizenship. We don't really have an equivalent element in US history. The various colonies have stories of their founding and we teach children the histories of those who founded our states. Often there are elements of these stories which explain trends or issues which make our state somewhat unique. This is not the same sort of thing though, at least not yet, maybe someday in the future this will take on some more legendary element.

Another similar element in National identity was a Goddess who embodied the Nation just as their was a God who embodied the people. For Romans this was Roma. For Britian it is Britiannia, for Ireland it is Eriu. For the United States it is Columbia. Her name began to appear as an alternate name for the Americas in the 15 and 16 hundreds. She began to be personified in connection with the United States during the American Revolution, a slave named Phillis Wheatley wrote a poem dedicated to General Washington calling upon her, and she was the central figure of an early US National Anthem. She is associated with Lady Liberty but was a different figure. She has been used at times for various ideals and efforts that occupied American attentions. This is significant because she is a reflection of American idealism, American virtues, goals, vision, and identity and so she concerns herself with whatever concerns may affect the United States. As such her depiction changes over time as well. She usually appears in some sort of robe or dress, sometimes white and flowing, sometimes made from an American flag, other times simply recalling the colors of the flag. During World War one she appeared in a sharp Grecian dress in the pattern of the flag with a Phrygian style cap. Sometimes she has a crown like that of Lady Liberty. Early depictions included a laurel wreath or a feather bundle as a crown. In the 19^th century Thomas Nast depicted her in several political cartoons as a defiant woman in a white dress defending minorities and protecting the rights of the marginalized. While not often recognized by modern people of the United States she appeared over and over through iconography and popular media of our Nation in various forms.

Columbia is perhaps the most important and most difficult to understand in trying to approach the ideals of the Goddesses of America. She is the most far reaching because she is us, all of us, when we rise to the ideals of the American dream, and when we commit to the entrepreneurial, industrial, pioneering spirit which built America. She is a goddess who stands up for her citizenry regardless of social opinion. She is a goddess who supports Liberty, and Justice and calls for them to be part of her collective trinity of torch bearers guiding her Nation. But regardless of the specific issue at hand, unlike Justice or Liberty who are concerned with Justice and Liberty, she is concerned over all with the issues which face the Nation in a more sweeping and complete way.

The original poem to her was that mentioned above by Phillis Wheatley “To His Excellency, General Washington”

“Celestial choir! enthron’d in realms of light,
Columbia’s scenes of glorious toils I write.
While freedom’s cause her anxious breast alarms,
She flashes dreadful in refulgent arms.
See mother earth her offspring’s fate bemoan,
And nations gaze at scenes before unknown!
See the bright beams of heaven’s revolving light
Involved in sorrows and veil of night!

The goddess comes, she moves divinely fair,
Olive and laurel bind her golden hair:
Wherever shines this native of the skies,
Unnumber’d charms and recent graces rise.

Muse! bow propitious while my pen relates

How pour her armies through a thousand gates,
As when Eolus heaven’s fair face deforms,
Enwrapp’d in tempest and a night of storms;
Astonish’d ocean feels the wild uproar,
The refluent surges beat the sounding shore;
Or thick as leaves in Autumn’s golden reign,
Such, and so many, moves the warrior’s train.
In bright array they seek the work of war,
Where high unfurl’d the ensign waves in air.
Shall I to Washington their praise recite?
Enough thou know’st them in the fields of fight.
Thee, first in peace and honours,—we demand
The grace and glory of thy martial band.
Fam’d for thy valour, for thy virtues more,
Hear every tongue thy guardian aid implore!

One century scarce perform’d its destined round,

When Gallic powers Columbia’s fury found;
And so may you, whoever dares disgrace
The land of freedom’s heaven-defended race!
Fix’d are the eyes of nations on the scales,
For in their hopes Columbia’s arm prevails.
Anon Britannia droops the pensive head,
While round increase the rising hills of dead.
Ah! cruel blindness to Columbia’s state!
Lament thy thirst of boundless power too late.

Proceed, great chief, with virtue on thy side,
Thy ev’ry action let the goddess guide.
A crown, a mansion, and a throne that shine,
With gold unfading, WASHINGTON! be thine.”

This, like the poem to Lady Liberty, might serve as an invocation or prayer to Columbia. It even feels like Thomas Taylor's renderings of the Orphic Hymns. It may need some modification since it is largely a prayer for Washington, but it could be used as a prayer in a working calling upon Columbia and Washington.

There was also a song which was treated as our National Anthem unofficially until the 1930s according to one source.

Hail Columbia

Hail Columbia, happy land!
Hail, ye heroes, heav’n-born band,
Who fought and bled in freedom’s cause,
Who fought and bled in freedom’s cause,
And when the storm of war was gone
Enjoy’d the peace your valor won.
Let independence be our boast,
Ever mindful what it cost;
Ever grateful for the prize,
Let its altar reach the skies.

Chorus

Firm, united let us be,
Rallying round our liberty,
As a band of brothers joined,
Peace and safety we shall find.

Immortal patriots, rise once more,
Defend your rights, defend your shore!
Let no rude foe, with impious hand,
Let no rude foe, with impious hand,
Invade the shrine where sacred lies
Of toil and blood, the well-earned prize,
While off’ring peace, sincere and just,
In Heaven’s we place a manly trust,
That truth and justice will prevail,
And every scheme of bondage fail.

Chorus

Firm, united let us be,
Rallying round our liberty,
As a band of brothers joined,
Peace and safety we shall find.

Behold the chief who now commands,
Once more to serve his country stands.
The rock on which the storm will break,
The rock on which the storm will break,
But armed in virtue, firm, and true,
His hopes are fixed on Heav’n and you.
When hope was sinking in dismay,
When glooms obscured Columbia’s day,
His steady mind, from changes free,
Resolved on death or liberty.

Chorus

Firm, united let us be,
Rallying round our liberty,
As a band of brothers joined,
Peace and safety we shall find.

Sound, sound the trump of fame,
Let Washington’s great fame
Ring through the world with loud applause,
Ring through the world with loud applause,
Let ev’ry clime to freedom dear,
Listen with a joyful ear,
With equal skill, with God-like pow’r
He governs in the fearful hour
Of horrid war, or guides with ease
The happier time of honest peace.

Chorus

Firm, united let us be,
Rallying round our liberty,
As a band of brothers joined,
Peace and safety we shall find.

This one calls less directly to Columbia the Goddess as a personification of our Nation but more to the land of our Nation, which will be important for our next post. There are definitely elements of this one which would be useful in contact with some of the ancestral spirits of our nation which we discussed yesterday and therefore would work well in calling upon Columbia in conjunction with them. It would also serve well as a prayer or song to incorporate for the ideal of defending our Nation and for National solidarity even if not calling upon Columbia directly through its use.

I hope you have enjoyed our discussion of American Goddesses, and yesterday's discussion of American Gods. If so, please stick around as we continue our look at the intersection of America, State Religion, and sorcery. Like or follow us to see more.

American Gods

Stick with this...it'll get to the magic...

I read an opinion piece on HuffPo the other day which essentially suggested that America is over. The Right has clearly communicated that the differences between the Right and the Left are irreconcilable, and that like a couple who has stayed together for the child (Our Nation), the Left has realized that the desire to win, and to hurt the other is more important in the minds of the Right than the love of their shared child, and so therefore...the only, and the clear answer, is divorce. The relationship has been ending for decades, but now tearfully, the abused spouse, the Left, realizes it's over. At least, that was this HuffPo author's take on things.

As I mentioned before, I don't want this blog to be political, it's a magic blog, maybe sometimes and religion or spirituality blog, not a politics blog. But, maybe we live in a world where neutrality is over.

Either way, I think the author is hitting on something. America has some problems. Whether there are problems in our electoral system, or the executive branch or the legislative branch, or our economic system or not is not the question I want to answer, I'm not saying whether it's on the Left or the Right, or shared between both. It's obvious we have some problems wherever they are, and those problems definitely involve a vast divide in our people. I don't necessarily agree with the one sided point of view this HuffPo author has asserted, but again, I recognize our cultural climate is not where we need it to be. For my purposes it's not about pointing out what the problems are or whose fault it is. That can be up to you as a magician to interpret. I want to talk about how magicians can apply magic relevant to our Nation, and our location to work on making things better...whatever that may mean.

America may engage in separation of Church and State but we still have a state religion...we just don't always realize it or practice it clearly. We are however amidst a powerful auspicious time within our state religion. President's Day. While it's a Federal Holiday and therefore is essentially a formal designation rather than a natural moment or an event based moment, it is still a moment which presents essentially a national moment of Hero worship or Ancestor worship...the two having a certain significant difference. Outside of Presidents Day we also have some important presidential birthdays this time of year.

So let's look at how Hero Worship and Ancestor Worship come into play here.

In Greek and Roman traditions Heroes were not simply people who were heroic or who were epic adventurers, they were essentially demigods, people with divine blood who as a result of their divine parentage were called towards great adventures. Specific temples called a Heroon or Heroun were built, often over mythical sites associated with them, so that heroes could be worshiped as semi-divine figures. There were also Great Ones, or as the Romans called them Maiores (I speak Latin, not Greek...so I'll stick to Roman terms as much as I can). Maiores were ancestors who distinguished themselves, sometimes for the over all city, or sometimes for a particular clan or family. They weren't heroes though, they weren't gods, they didn't receive the same apotheosis.

There were essentially two classes of humans that received special recognition and who could be reached out to for help. As we've said before figures like this are special for us as magicians because they, having been human, recognize and care about our experience, they know what we're going through, and they understand the world we live in and the kind of help we need. Maybe not precisely because of the space created by time...but still with more sympathy than most other sorts of spirits.

More mythic figures like Heroes may or may not have been people in the case of Greece and Rome, but in our case most of them certainly were. There is still perhaps a difference, not necessarily in the divinity of their parentage, but in the size and gravity of their persona and therefore in the altitude of their purview. Aside from our presidents we have other folk figures who might be American Gods...John Henry, Paul Bunyon, Johnny Appleseed...but they may not be useful for our political issues. When looking at the figures who fall within our category of Heroes it is probably pretty easy to distinguish them...Washington, Jefferson, Franklin, the Founding Fathers, in particular those which any child can name, those who have temples built to them in our Nation's Capital, along with the Founding Fathers would of course be Lincoln. Figures who we don't simply know the histories of but about whom we have created mythic iconographies and apocryphal stories. We have memorialized our Heroes by carving them into mountains, building giant obelisks for them, setting up temples with ever burning flames where people make offerings of flowers and go to pray for inspiration. We have a state religion, and we have Heroes who have received apotheosis and who we expect that we can connect with in some way through these monuments, through connecting with history. We don't typically connect with them with an expectation for anything more active than centering ourselves and hoping for guidance, or for a renewed sense of pride in our Nation. But we can.

We also have Maiores. We have other presidents who we remember as great, other revolutionary figures who've gone down in history, but who haven't been elevated to mythic proportions, who haven't been enshrined or received by national consensus a certain apotheosis. We have thinkers, inventors, developers, business men, artists, writers, and a slew of other sorts of people to whom buildings are named, whose birth places are historical sites, with schools and streets named for them, who did something which meant something to our society and so we commemorate them and keep the memory of them alive. We have soldiers memorialized on walls, shrines, and statues and other memorials because they fought and died in causes our Nation deemed worthy of the ultimate sacrifice. These are people who cared about our country, about causes, about things they could do for our society, people who like our personal ancestors deserve to be remembered, and who in exchange for that remembrance and recognition can give us their help, especially with those things they already cared about.

So how do we engage these figures? We can go to monuments and historical places, but those are not always convenient. Making offerings, setting up shrines, setting lights dedicated to them, all the ways we work with spirits, gods, ancestors, these are ways we can engage these figures as well. Many of them care about this Nation and so calling upon them, making an offering, and asking for help with the Nation is exactly in line with them, just like calling on an ancestor to ask for help with your life or the lives of your family would be.

Again, I'm not making a call on what the problems are or what needs to be fixed, just that there are problems, but that we also have tools to work on them. In my next two posts I'll be talking about other America specific spiritual powers to call on, and then a post on more specific ways to work magic with them. I hope you'll stick with us through them.  

Success Stories

When I was a kid, it felt cool to me when I would get messages from people about how they were working some ritual or an idea from an essay I'd written into their practice. In my early twenties, the cool thing was to hear about results people had from public conjuration rituals I would lead. I've had a new cool variant of that this week.

I don't do a lot with taking students, and I don't sell classes like a lot of other magicians. Currently the only thing I'm doing is the occasional blog post and slowly rebuilding my blog...and slowly working on some writing projects. Sometimes answering questions for people. I rarely teach public classes anymore because I just don't have much time. But I'm hoping to do some more of those soon, and hopefully finish some of those writing projects, and speed up the website and increase the blog posts...and...well...lots of other things I'd like to get done. Sometimes not getting your own stuff done isn't so bad when you get to see your work help others. This has been something that has come up in my life as a fencing coach, no longer being a competitor my successes are now found in seeing the successes of my students...who are way more successful than I was anyway. It's not quite the same with magic, but it's cool getting to hear success stories.

During this passed week I've had two friends reach out and tell me really cool stories about successes they've had with early experiments with spirit conjuration after having read the Beginning Conjuration series here on Glory of the Stars, and other posts about my early conjuration experiences. One friend worked with a spirit from a group of spirits with whom I've done some work and he got a lot of very similar stuff communicated to him in ways that sounded very similar to the ways they were communicated to me (I have neither posted about nor told him about those experiences with those spirits as of yet). Another worked with spirits described in the conjuration series and got some cool esoteric responses that fit with stories I've heard from other people, and then she had some practical success with a spirit I had conjured early in my conjuration career.

I'm not going into any details, because I didn't ask if I can retell their stories. But, it was super cool getting to hear them. Actually a bit more cool than hearing about people getting stuff they wanted from rituals I was doing. It's cool seeing other people successfully doing magic, and getting to know I helped with that. Jason Miller does Field Report posts where he recounts success stories from his students. I get it a little more now why he does that. It's not just showing how cool his classes are, it's really cool getting to see how your work is helping someone else. More so though, talking about people's magical successes inspires other people to do magic, especially people who are on the fence waiting to try it out. I think it's even more powerful when people see stories from people who aren't teachers, or who don't have an image of being a magician who is successful. When people hear Jason, or Rufus, or JSK did some cool magic with cool results, they expect it and maybe don't interpret it as something they can do to. But hearing someone trying out magic experimented with something cool they'd read about and had success might inspire people to try things and accept that maybe they can do magic too.

So with that in mind, I'd like to run the occasional success story. So if you read something on my blog, and you try it out, or if a post inspires an idea and you experiment based on it, please send me your tales of success. Or if you have questions as you're prepping to try something, reach out with your questions...and then share your successes. I'd love to post some occasionally.  

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.