It’s that time of year again to honor the Triple Faced goddess who is One and Three. For more information please click the link! This is the third anniversary of this rite, so let’s keep the Fire burning bright!
A Lunar Rite
It is nearing midnight and all is prepared. My fellow crafters and I make our way down into the fields and into a small valley next to a frozen pond. The moon is full and coldly bright. A wonderful night, charged and pregnant.
A fire is lit and charmed with the Dagger of Arte. A special powder is thrown onto the fire sending multicolored sparks into the air like tiny fireflies. Words are intoned to send away those that would hinder the work. A compass is laid strongly with stout staves of wood. The spirits of the Waters and the Land are called, and I feel the Serpent coiling ’round beneath my feet.
Bucca, Bucca, Bucca! Foul and Fair, Goat-Angel! Bucca, Bucca, Bucca. The Skull is alive with Hir powerful gaze. We are in the Goat Stare.
Dancing, laughing, singing in dizzy tones, screaming, howling, wind pulsing, fire raging. Bloody pumping with new-found spirit energy drawn from the Full and Pregnant Moon Serpent. Up into the mind and inflaming it with Cunning virtue.
We are all properly tranced and mazed, as the Cornish say. There is nothing but the moon and my trio of crafters and I, the spirits and the Bucca and the Serpent Red. In this state I say a few well chosen words over a cauldron of various herbs and Moon blessed waters. A charmed potion of sorts to lay upon a sick uncle.
Drumming, spinning, breathing fast. The energy spirals and my friend’s working is complete.
An offering is given up on high and deep below and somewhere in between. The spirits are called, as are our minds. We return to the world of Man and part ways.
A Mystery is shown. Tonight I shall dream and gifts will be given. I am tired, but in a way that feels that I have worked hard toward an equal and powerful goal. Until the next moon.
Filed under Magic, Paganism, Poetry and Prose, Praxis, Ritual, Witchcraft
The Moon shines brightly upon a pond
The Moon shines brightly upon a pond.
The pond, being frozen, glitters,
And a silver fire reflects, and mirrors in my soul.
Here is shown a Mystery.
Beneath my feet I feel a Serpent,
A Serpent coiling ’round.
The Flames of Cunning slither and sneak
Up my spine into my mind,
Out my mouth, out of my eyes,
And up into the Moon.
Tingling, buzzing, shivering;
It’s a sweet, candied poison
Inflaming and destroying my soul.
I am filled! Full! Pregnant with Serpent!
I am a full Lunar body.
Here is shown a Mystery.
Expanded I fly, touching stars:
Silver wire strands wrap, entrap,
And write their secrets upon my arms.
I burst, scattering like the dust I was.
Pure fire, now, one with the sky,
Calmly floating down, down.
Down on the ground, sleeping now,
Returning to mundane indifference.
~March, 2012
Filed under Paganism, Poetry and Prose, Prayer, Witchcraft
Entheogen
An entheogen is a psychoactive substance used in a religious, shamanic, or spiritual context. Some of the more well known ones are Peyote, Fly Agaric, Salvia, and Marijuana. In my practice of trance I sometimes incorporate a substance to help deepen my trance. Usually I just use wine, as I react strangely on marijuana and a few other substances.
The idea behind the entheogen is to help the shaman or witch gain access to certain powers that they may not already have (such as flying, or shapeshifting) or allow them to communicate with spirits or gods in visionary trance. Mythically some of these entheogens have taken the form of special lifting salves, or flying ointments. One such salve is that of Medea, the famous sorceress of Greek myth.
Medea was an expert in the ways of the variety of witching plants that made up her home. According to myth she created a special ointment from the Mandrake root to help Jason in his tasks. This special ointment can still be made today. Sarah Lawless once had a Medea salve for sale through her shop, but no longer.
Other flying ointments have been passed down, many of them with horrifying ingredients that were either made up or exaggerated from forced confessions out of supposed witches. These ointments mainly consisted of aconite and belladonna, usually with thorn-apple and henbane or hemlock as well. Coupled with this it was said that the base salve was made from baby fat! and contained bat’s blood and soot, in some recipes. These latter two ingredients could be looked as symbolic of the purpose of the flying ointment: that to fly by night, unseen. Soot colors the skin black, and bats can “see” at night.
What’s interesting is that these very dangerous plants that are used in these ointments are used today by many modern crafters. There is a famous salve by one Giambattista della Porta that contains belladonna, henbane and mandrake, together with a few other plants as a base. There was a professor, or a doctor or some such (what’s sad is I just read this story not too long ago, but the book is not on my person. Watch for an edit!) and a lawyer that did an experiment with Porta’s ointment. Allegedly they slept for twenty-four hours and experienced the Witch’s Sabbath of medieval lore! Truly a visionary experience with this famous entheogen.
One plant entheogen that I have used to great success is the Salvia plant (Salvia divinorum). After giggling uncontrollably for a while, along with the sensation of turning into a wolf and running about outside for a good ten minutes, I dove down into the hollow hill and trance overtook me. I mixed a bit of swaying and breathing into this so I could stay in control. I will not speak of the visions that I had, but they were truly awe-inspiring. It felt as though I were dreaming, but I was aware of my physical body. Quite fascinating.
Salvia was used in Central America for the purposes of gaining prophetic insight from the gods. They would either chew the fresh leaves until trance (a long and spittle filled method, I’ve been told) or boil the leaves in water as a tea. It reminds me of Germanic magicians using wormwood and mugwort in their salves and smokes to achieve similar aims (something that I do before bed if I want to experience a True Dream). Germanic magicians would use goose fat as their base and slather the salve on with a goose feather. They saw the goose as a sacred animal to the goddess of witchcraft Frau Holda and saw in the flights of these birds the spirit paths.
Entheogens are powerful substances, and should be approached with caution. Many of them are truly poisonous and we shouldn’t be using them at all. We know now, and we know of other ways that use safer plants to dive down into trance. If you plan on using entheogens in your practice, do your research and start with small amounts to test your tolerance. For example when it comes to marijuana I have the rule of four: “Take only four hits from whatever vessel you are smoking from.” Any more than this and I have a bit of a panic attack which is swiftly calmed by sleep (fun dreams are fun!).
Resources
Crew, E.. “Erowid.” Psilocybin, ahauasca, lsd, dmt. N.p., 2011. Web. 5 Mar 2012. <http://www.erowid.org/>.
Müller-Ebeling, C., Rätsch, C., and Storl, W.D. Witchcraft Medicine: Healing Arts, Shamanic Practices, and Forbidden Plants. Inner Traditions, 2003.
Dedication
When I think of dedication I think of the hard work one puts into something, be it a project or a skill of some sort, or even trying to type through a blog post with a faulty keyboard. (ahem) In the pagan community the word dedication usually summons up an image of a young neophyte swearing fealty to a god, or many gods, and his path. Many books on witchcraft or paganism usually include some sort of self-dedication near the end of the book so that the reader has a sort of guideline on where to go next.
For me personally dedication is merely symbolic, and is not strictly necessary for one’s survival in the Art. However, I have made dedications because I need to. I need to cement in my own mind through action th changes I make in my life for my Art.
It was precisely a year a go when I re-Dedicated myself physically to the Land Beneath my Feet. Though, shortly after this I left Montana for Washington, and immediately felt a pull for back home. I let my blood upon the Land, which seemed the traditional thing to do. I knew in my heart of hearts that this would bind me forever to this place, and I am perfectly comfortable with that. Here in Montana is where I am the most healthy, the most aware, the most happy.
And now I must do it all again. This previous dedication was to shed my old life behind so that I could reaffirm my compass; I have done that now. Now I have determination in my heart, I know what it is that I truly want both for my Art and for my daily life outside of the Art. Though, of course, I have started to realise that the two are not mutually exclusive. Indeed, they should, and do often, mix and blend!
This dedication is not a ritual, exactly, but it certainly contains one. In truth the dedication contains many. I have set out a list of fifty two rituals that I want to complete through out the year. This includes necromatic rituals that I have always been too afraid to try. It also includes a spirit vessel ritual concerning Old Bumble. These are not weekly, of course, many of them (twenty four of them to be exactly) are just moon ritual for the full and dark moons.
This year I am being dedicated to Consistency!
The Cord is Knotted, the Stang is Raised, the Old Goat is watching.
And I am prepared.
Witchfire
Mayster Pouck with the Light Between His Horns
The Cunningflame. The Fire of Heaven. The Promethean Fire. Witchfire. The Hidden Element. Throughout various cultures Fire has represented man’s artifice, man’s consciousness, man’s awareness, man’s cunning.
I think that man has forgotten this. They have forgotten that their heart, their spirit is gifted to them by the spirits, by the Gods. We have forgotten why we are able to build skyscrapers and huge roads and have a worldwide web. Now our fire is electric, cold and distant and expensive. What use have we of the trees now that would once fill our homes with sweet scents and cook our foods.
Ever since man was gifted with fire he has been able to work night and day. With fire man could work to build roads, form new weapons, read at night, work at night. He could use fire in new ways: to clear trails, burn forests, hunt, kill, heal. Now we have forgotten. We have forgotten our Fire.
That is physical fire, but there is another fire, an inner fire that represents our spirit and our artifice as a species. The Medium Between gifted it upon us at the beginning of the world. The Great Serpent gave that poisonous apple that inflamed our minds and taught us to be of the gods! It gave us Spirit. It gave us Knowledge. All in exchange for our mortality. And a fitting exchange! All the knowledge of the worlds at our hands in exchange for not being able to live forever. What could we do with that knowledge? Basically anything that we wanted.
This Fire gifted to us by the gods also gave us the knowledge to reach them again. In modern paganism books will tell us that our body is of the four classical elements, that is Air, Water, Earth and Fire. Air, Water, and Earth are easy to describe (Breath, Blood, the bones and muscles). But where is Fire? It is the Hidden Element, the Heat that we give off, the Fire of our Minds. It is that spark that gives us life that we can not explain. It is the electricity that runs our brains.
Without this we are dead, truly dead. Stopping the breath stops the billowing of the fires that warms the cauldron that heats the waters. Cutting out the blood pours waters onto the fires. Aging throws dirt upon the fire. It all connects, as it should be connected.
I call this Divine Fire the Witchflame or the Cunningflame. I also believe that it is this Fire that is used in witchcraft to create supernatural effects. In more modern terms this Fire may be called energy. When one is learning to create energy balls and such what one starts with rubbing their hands together (much like a force fire) until they feel a heat and maybe even a tingling sensation. This is of course easily explained away by science as the friction created when rubbing our skins together, but others can also feel this intense heat that we give off! Pulling our hands apart we can feel the energy (or perhaps fire) pulling away and creating a resistance. This is the first step to feeling the Fire, and sensing energy.
Many modern readers know about these techniques (to my knowledge there is something similar in most books about spellcraft today). However, what many do not include is the use of the breath. Our lungs are like billows that fuel the fire. We can heat up our bodies by breathing in and out very quickly and holding in our breath (though if one does this without practice they are likely to get light headed and faint). It is best to start with slow deep breaths to fuel this fire. I have had wonderful effects with blowing out the air as one would to build a small fire. From here after one has built the energy, the Fire, they can direct it through the hands, or through a device such as a wand or a staff to create fantastical effects. Or they might inflame their mind to send them into other worlds or to incredible heights!
This Fire is the Fire of the Serpent. Robert Cochrane would explain it as a serpent spiraling up the spine to the head, and indeed it does feel like that! I can really feel it in my head at the base of my cerebellum when I billow the Flames. It gives a brightening vision and everything seems to glow. Cochrane detailed this better in his explanation of the Treading of the Mill and compared the practice to the Kundalini, which details a kind of serpent energy that comes up from the Root Chakra (or the sexual chakra) all the way up to the Crown Chakra and beyond to gain cosmic wisdom. And is that not what the Serpent is? He is the Life Force; His Red Blood courses through our veins empowering us always.
Of course this Fire is dangerous, what fire isn’t? One can become too consumed in the flames, as the publisher of Cochrane’s letters warned about. They may become too sexually lustful, or too energetic, or too hot and feint. But through these burns hopefully comes the knowledge one needs for True Witchdom.
The manipulation of this Fire, this Inner Fire, and the manipulation of the physical flame are the traits that make the Cunning Witch so cunning. That is the Art of the Cunningflame. And he is a servant to it ever.
The Witchflame. It is the Light of the Stars. The Fire of the Sun. The Hidden Light Within the Land.
Filed under Magic, Paganism, Ritual, Witchcraft
