800
Wiccan Beliefs
Since the religion of Wicca (or Witchcraft) is so diverse in it's
beliefs, I have included several documents here that encompass
the majority of the traditions involved. Again, this is simply a
basis...NOT the be all and end all.
Wiccan Rede
Bide ye wiccan laws you must,
in perfect love and perfect trust
Live ye must and let to live,
fairly take and fairly give
For the circle thrice about
to keep unwelcome spirits out
To bind ye spell well every time,
let the spell be spake in rhyme
Soft of eye and light of touch,
speak ye little, listen much
Deosil go by the waxing moon,
chanting out ye baleful tune
When ye Lady's moon is new,
kiss ye hand to her times two
When ye moon rides at her peak,
then ye heart's desire seek
Heed the north winds mighty gale,
lock the door and trim the sail
When the wind comes from the south,
love will kiss thee on the mouth
When the wind blows from the east,
expect the new and set the feast.
Nine woods in the cauldron go,
burn them fast and burn them slow
Elder be ye Lady's tree,
burn it not or cursed ye'll be
WHen the wheel begins to turn,
soon ye Beltane fires will burn
When the wheel hath turned a Yule
light the log the Horned One rules
Heed ye flower, bush and tree,
by the Lady blessed be
Where the rippling waters go,
cast a stone, the truth ye'll know
When ye have and hold a need,
harken not to others greed
With a fool no season spend,
or be counted as his friend
Merry meet and merry part,
bright the cheeks and warm the heart.
Mind ye threefold law ye should
three times bad and three times good
When misfortune is enow,
wear the star upon thy brow
True in love my ye ever be,
lest thy love be false to thee
These eight words the wiccan rede fulfill;
An harm ye none, do what ye will.
801
One of the Pagan Oaths recognized nationally here in the U.S.
A Pledge to Pagan Spirituality
I am a Pagan and I dedicate Myself to channeling the Spiritual
Energy of my Inner Self to help and to heal myself and others.
* I know that I am a part of the Whole of Nature. May I
grow in understanding of the Unity of all Nature. May I
always walk in Balance.
* May I always be mindful of the diversity of Nature as
well as its Unity and may I always be tolerant of those whose
race, appearance, sex, sexual preference, culture, and other ways
differ from my own.
* May I use the Force (psychic power) wisely and never use
it for aggression nor for malevolent purposes. May I never
direct it to curtail the free will of another.
* May I always be mindful that I create my own reality and that
I have the power within me to create positivity in my life.
* May I always act in honorable ways: being honest with
myself and others, keeping my word whenever I have given it,
fulfilling all responsibilities and commitments I have taken
on to the best of my ability.
* May I always remember that whatever is sent out always
returns magnified to the sender. May the Forces of Karma move
swiftly to remind me of these spiritual commitments when I
have begin to falter from them, and may I use this Karmic
feedback to help myself grow and be more attuned to my Inner
Pagan Spirit.
* May I always remain strong and committed to my Spiritual
ideals in the face of adversity and negativity. May the Force
of my Inner Spirit ground out all malevolence directed my way
and transform it into positivity. May my Inner Light shine
so strongly that malevolent forces can not even approach my
sphere of existence.
* May I always grow in Inner Wisdom & Understanding. May I
see every problem that I face as an opportunity to develop
myself spiritually in solving it.
* May I always act out of Love to all other beings on this
Planet -- to other humans, to plants, to animals, to minerals,
to elementals, to spirits, and to other entities.
* May I always be mindful that the Goddess and God in all
their forms dwell within me and that this divinity is
reflected through my own Inner Self, my Pagan Spirit.
.pa
* May I always channel Love and Light from my being. May my Inner
Spirit, rather than my ego self, guide all my thoughts, feelings, and
actions.
SO MOTE IT BE
802
In the Wiccan Rede above, and scattered in the oath, we find
words such as Perfect Love and Perfect Trust. What are these
strange words and what do they mean?
Before one can analyze the meaning behind the phrase "Perfect
Love and Perfect Trust", one must first define the words. For
this purpose, I will use the Webster's New World Dictionary of
the American Language 1982 edition. Perfect: adj. [L. per-,
through + facere, do] 1. complete in all respects; flawless 2.
excellent, as in skill or quality 3. completely accurate 4.
sheer; utter [a perfect fool] 5. Gram. expressing a state or
action completed at the time of speaking - vt. 1. to complete 2.
to make perfect or nearly perfect - n. 1. the perfect tense 2. a
verb form in this tense - perfectly adv - perfectness n.
Love: n. [<OE. lufu] 1. strong affection or liking of someone or
something. 2. a passionate affection for one of the opposite sex.
3. The object of such affection, sweetheart.
Trust: n.[ON, traust] 1. a) firm belief in the honesty,
reliability, etc. of another; faith b) the one trusted 2.
confident expectation, hope, etc. 3. responsibility resulting
from confidence placed in one. 4. Care, custody 5. something
entrusted to one....
Using these definitions, we come up with "Flawless strong
affection and flawless faith.
Is this possible? Those that follow the religion of Wicca often
give excuses for this just being words. When this is the case,
they are not obeying their faith....thus..they are not following
perfect love and perfect trust. But to the rest...the answer is
a resounding YES. This does not ask that you "like" a person.
It asks that you see the divine light and love within individual
whether you like them or not. Can this be done...YES. As to the
perfect trust...we can always trust a fox to be a fox right.
Therefore, when we are entering circle, we can honestly answer
perfect trust even if it is on shaky ground. We may have faith
that this person will act like any other human.
It with these beliefs and doctrines that I state that not only
was the doctrine, or teaching almost identical, but the
vocabulary was extensively the same.
It's with these beliefs and doctrines that I state that not only
was the doctrine, or teaching almost identical, but the
vocabulary was extensively the same.
803
Greek life was characterized by such things as democratic
institutions, seafaring, athletics theatre and philosophy. The
mystery religions adopted many expressions from these domains.
The word for their assembly was Ekklesia of the mystai. They
spoke of the voyage of life, the ship, the anchor and the port of
religion, and the wreath of the initiate. The Christians took
over the entire terminology, but had to twist many pagan words in
order to fit into the Christian world. The term Leitourgia
(meaning service of the state) became the ritual or liturgy of
the church. The decree of the assembly and the opinions of the
philosophers (dogma) became the fixed doctrine of Christianity.
The term for "the correct opinion" (or the doxa) became orthodoxy.
The mysteries declined quickly when the emperor Constantine
raised Christianity to the status of the state religion. After a
short period of toleration, the pagan religions were prohibited.
The property of the pagan gods was confiscated, and the temples
were destroyed. The metal from which Constantine's gold pieces
were coined was taken from the pagan temple treasuries.
The main pagan "strong holds" were Rome and Alexandria. In Rome,
the old aristocracy clung to the mysteries and in Alexandria the
pagan Neoplatonist philosophers expounded the mystery doctrines.
In 394, the opposition of the Roman aristocracy was crushed in
the battle at the Frigidus River (modern stream of Vipacco, Italy
and stream of Vipava, Yugoslavia).
According to the Christian theologian Origen, Christianity's
development during the time of the Roman Empire was part of the
divine plan. The whole Mediterranean world was united by the
Romans, and the conditions for missionary work were more
favorable than ever before. He explains the similarities as
natural considering the cultures etc. The mystery religions and
Christianity had many features in common. Some examples of this
are found in their time of preparation prior to initiation, and
periods of fasting. Their were pilgrimages, and new names for
the new brethren. Few of the early Christian "congregations"
would be called orthodox according to later more modern
standards.
Though for many years, the pagan "churches" of this area tried to
bring about a unity among their "doctrines", beliefs, and
practices to raise support for their practices, the Christian
philosophies and doctrines were so organized and strong that this
fell as well. Little did they know that a couple hundred miles
away, peoples were still worshipping in pagan temples.
Let's take a look up north.
The worship of trees goes far back into the history of man. It
was not until Christianity converted the Lithuanians toward the
close of the 14th century that tree worship was thought to be in
the past. The truth is...whereas they are not worshiped, they
are still honored by society today in the burning of the Yule
log, May Day bon-fires, Kissing under the Mistletoe, and the ever
famous Christmas tree.
804
The worship of the oak tree or god appears to have been universal
by all branches of the Aryan stock in Europe. Both Greeks and
Italians associated the tree with their highest god, Zeus or
Jupiter, the divinity of the sky, the rain, and the thunder.
Possibly one of the oldest and most famous sanctuaries in Greece
was that of Dodona, where Zeus was revered in th oracular oak.
The thunderstorms which are said to rage at Dodona more
frequently than anywhere else in Europe, would render the spot a
fitting home for the god whose voice was heard alike in the
rustling of the oak leaves and in the crash of thunder.
Zeus of Greece, and Jupiter of Italy both were gods of thunder
and rain, and to both the oak tree were sacred.
To the Celts, or Druids, their worship was conducted in oak
groves. The Celtic conquerors, who settled in Asia in the third
century b.c., appear to have carried with them the worship of the
oak to their new home. In the heart of Asia Minor, the Galatian
senate met in a place which bore the Celtic name of Drynemetum,
"the sacred oak grove" or "the temple of the oak."
In Germany, we find that the veneration for sacred groves seems
to have held the foremost place. According to Grimm, the chief
of their holy trees was the oak. Again, here we find that it is
dedicated to the god of thunder, Donar or Thunar, the equivalent
of the Norse Thor. Among the Slavs, the oak tree was sacred to
the thunder god Perun. Among the Lithuanians, the oak tree was
sacred to Perkunas or Perkuns, the god of thunder and rain.
The Christmas tree, usually a balsam or douglas fir, was
decorated with lights and ornaments as a part of Christmas
festivities. The use of evergreen trees, wreaths, and garlands
as a symbol of eternal life was an old custom of the Egyptians,
Chinese, and Hebrews. Tree worship, common among the pagan
Europeans, survived after their conversion to Christianity in the
Scandinavian customs of decorating the house and barn with
evergreens at the New Year to scare away the devil and of setting
up a tree for the birds during Christmastide. It survived in the
custom observed in Germany, of placing a Yule tree inside the
house in the midwinter holidays.
The modern Christmas tree originated in Western Germany. The
main prop of a popular medieval play about Adam and Eve was a fir
tree hung with apples (the tree of Paradise) representing the
Garden of Eden. The Germans set up the Paradise tree in their
homes on December 24, the religious feast day of Adam and Eve.
They hung wafers on it (symbolizing the host, the Christian sigh
of redemption). In later tradition, the wafers were replaced by
cookies of various shapes. Candles were often added as the
symbol of Christ, though they were also a pagan symbol for the
light of the God.
805
As we can see, even though the pagan community has been trod
upon, it was never destroyed. The date of Christmas was
purposely fixed on December 25 to push into the background the
great festival of the sun god, and the Epiphany on January 5 to
supplant an Egyptian festival of the same day and the Easter
ceremonies were set to rival the pagan spring festival.
Let's take a look at a few of the holidays and compare.
As we can see, even though the pagan community has been trod
upon, it was never destroyed. The date of Christmas was
purposely fixed on December 25 to push into the background the
great festival of the sun god, and the Epiphany on January 5 to
supplant an Egyptian festival of the same day and the Easter
ceremonies were set to rival the pagan spring festival.
Let's take a look at a few of the holidays and compare.
Easter
On Easter Sunday, everywhere, the children hunt the many colored
Easter eggs, brought by the Easter rabbit. This is the vestige
of a fertility rite, the eggs and the rabbit both symbolizing
fertility. The rabbit was the escort of the Germanic goddess
Ostara who gave her name to the festival by way of the German
Ostern.
The first day of Spring holds much in the way of folklore. It is
also known as the Spring Equinox, Ostara, Eostre's Day, Alban
Eilir, the Vernal Equinox, or Festival of the Trees. It takes
place between March 19 and 22. It marks the first day of true
spring (verses the balmy weather that may precede it.)
The day and night is equal on this day, thus the name of Equinox.
There is a story in one culture that says that the sun has begun
to win it's race with the night and that the days get longer as
the sun pulls ahead. (Followed by the fact that the sun begins to
lose the race at Mid-Summer, and loses the race at Mid-Winter
just to start the race again the next day.)
It is a time of beginnings, of action, of planting seeds for
future grains, and of tending gardens. On the first Sunday after
the first full moon following Eostre's Day (the name from which
the Easter was derived), the Christian religion celebrates it's
Easter Day.
Spring is a time of the Earth's renewal, a rousing of nature
after the cold sleep of winter. As such, it is an ideal time to
clean your home to welcome the new season.
Spring cleaning is more than physical work. Some cultures see it
as a concentrated effort on their part to rid themselves of
problems and negativity of the past months and tho prepare
themselves for the coming spring and summer.
806
To do this, they approach the task of cleaning their homes with
positive thoughts. They believe that this frees the homes of the
hard feelings brought about by a harsh winter. Even then, they
have guidelines that they follow such as any scrubbing of stains
or hand rubbing the floors should be done in a "clockwise"
motion. It is their belief that this aids in filling the home
with good energy for growth.
To the Druidic faith, this is a sacred day occurring in the month
of Fearn (meaning, "I am the shining tear of the Sun"). Part of
their practices are to clean and rededicate outdoor shrines,
believing that in doing so they honor the spring maiden. This is
a time of fertility of both crops and families. In promoting
crops, they believe that the use of fire and water (the sun and
rain) will reanimate all life on Earth. They decorate hard-
boiled eggs, the symbol of rebirth, to eat during their rites,
and such foods as honey cakes and milk punch can also be found.
The mothers and daughters give dinners for each other and give
cards and gifts as a way of merging with the natural flow of life
and with each other. (The Druids consider this also as Mother's
Day.)
In Greek mythology, spring was the time when Persephone returned
from the underworld (where the seed was planted in the barren
winter months) and thus represents the seedlings of the spring.
Demeter, Persephone's mother represents the fertile earth and the
ripened grain of harvest since it is alleged that she is the one
that created the need to harvest crops when her daughter was
kidnapped and taken to the underworld. It was through an
arrangement that her daughter could return for 1/2 the year that
Demeter allowed the crops to spring forth for that time until she
again went into mourning for her daughter in the fall.
In some cultures, even today, the ones that continue to celebrate
the rites of spring rise on Easter morning to watch the sun
"Dance" as it rises.
The Christian festival commemorating the resurrection of Christ,
synchronized with the Jewish Pesach, and blended since the
earliest days of Christianity with pagan European rites for the
renewed season. In all countries Easter falls on the Sunday
after the first full moon on or following March 21. It is
preceded by a period of riotous vegetation rites and by a period
of abstinence, Lent (in Spain Cuaresma, Germany Lenz, central
Italy, Quaresima) and by special rites of Holy Week.
Everywhere Easter Sunday is welcomed with rejoicing, singing,
candle processionals, flowers in abundance, and ringing of church
bells. Many pagan customs survive, such as the lighting of new
fires at dawn, among the Maya as well as in Europe, for cure,
renewed life, and protection of the crops.
May Day
The first day of May: observed as a spring festival everywhere in
Europe, the United States, and Canada, and as a labor festival in
certain European countries.
807
Rites such as the ever famous May Pole occur in the town squares
or in the family's front yard. The gathering of green branches
and flowers on May Eve is the symbolic act of bringing home the
May, i.e. bringing new life, the spring, into the village.
The May Queen (and often King) is chosen from among the young
people, and they go singing from door to door throughout the town
carrying flowers or the May tree, soliciting donations for a
merrymaking in return for the "blessing of May". This is
symbolic of bestowing and sharing of the new creative power that
is stirring in the world. As the kids go from door to door, the
May Bride often sings to the effect that those who give will get
of nature's bounty through the year.
In parts of France, some jilted youth will lie in a field on May
Day and pretend to sleep. If any village girl is willing to
marry him, she goes and wakes him with a kiss; the pair then go
to the village inn together and lead the dance which announces
their engagement. The boy is called "the betrothed of May."
This festival is also known as Beltane, the Celtic May Day. It
officially begins at moonrise on May Day Eve, and marks the
beginning of the third quarter or second half of the ancient
Celtic year. It is celebrated as an early pastoral festival
accompanying the first turning of the herds out to wild pasture.
The rituals were held to promote fertility. The cattle were
driven between the Belfires to protect them from ills. Contact
with the fire was interpreted as symbolic contact with the sun.
The rowan branch is hung over the house fire on May Day to
preserve the fire itself from bewitchment (the house fire being
symbolic of the luck of the house.
In early Celtic times, the druids kindled the Beltane fires with
specific incantations. Later the Christian church took over the
Beltane observances, a service was held in the church, followed
by a procession to the fields or hills, where the priest kindled
the fire.
In some rituals, a King and Queen May symbolize the male and female
principles of productivity.
We have looked briefly at the similarities of the philosophies
and vocabularies, but is that all that they had in common? Let's
look at symbologies.
For many years, the cross has been the symbol representing the
death of the Christian Christ. It has represented that through
his death, man could be reborn into God's grace. Thus, we have
the philosophy of life in death being connected to the cross.
Is this the only time where this symbol was recognized as such?
Let's go back to Egypt and find out.
An upright piece of wood, tied to a horizontal beam indicated the
height of the flood waters on the Nile. This beam formed a
cross. If the waters failed to rise during the season of
planting, it meant a poor harvest for these people. Thus the
cross was revered as a symbol of life and regeneration.
808
The Ankh represents the genitals of both sexes. The cross itself
is a primitive form of the phallus, and the loop that of the
womb. Again, we continue the symbol of the cross as the giver of
life.
Oh my gosh...did I use the word phallus in connection with the
cross? Oops!
Yes...even prior to this time was the cross a symbol of the
phallus or fertility. This is not the only thing that the
phallus has symbolized over the many centuries within and without
the pagan world. It has also been used as a symbol of strength.
Within the Bible, we find several references to the horn also as
a symbol of strength.
2 Samuel 22:3 - He is my shield, and the horn of my salvation.
Luke 1:69 - And hath raised up an horn of salvation for us.
Psalm 18:2 - He is my shield and the horn of my salvation.
The move from horn to helmet is followed up also in the bible as
follows:
Isaiah 59:17 - For he put an helmet of salvation upon his head.
Ephesians 6:17 - Take the helmet of salvation.
1 Thessalonians 5:8 - ...putting on faith and love as a
breastplate, and the hope of salvation as a helmet.
In Roman days a warrior would were horns on his helmet. If he
came back defeated, he was said to have been dehorned. There are
several references where a soldier who lost his helmet on the
field was killed for this offense because it meant dishonor for
him to loose his horn.
Shakespeare had much knowledge of the use of horns as a symbol of
protection and victory as is evident in his works "As You Like
It" (IV,2) and in "Measure for Measure" (II,4:16) when he writes:
"Let's write good angell on the devill's horne; tis not the
devill's crest."
Even in modern days, the Catholic Church uses this symbol when
setting the mitre upon the head of a newly consecrated bishop.
The words used at such a time are: "We set on the head of this
Bishop, O Lord, Thy champion, the helmet of defense and of
salvation, that with comely face and with his head armed with the
horns of either Testament he may appear terrible to the
gainsayers of the truth, and may become their vigorous assailant,
through the abundant gift of Thy grace, who didst make the face
of Thy servant Moses to shine after familiar converse with Thee,
and didst adorn it with the resplendent horns of Thy brightness
and Thy truth and commandedst the mitre to be set on the head of
Aaron, Thy high priest, Etc..." (Copies in Latin and translated
can be found in The Order Consecration of a Bishop Elect with the
imprimatur of H. Card. Vaughn, p. 14, Burns and Oates, 1893.)
809
If we are looking at protections and the like, we must look at
the use of stones and crystals within our lives. Yes, even in
the Christian bible, the powers and uses of stones is mentioned.
Exodus 28:15-21 - "Fashion a breastpiece for making decisions -
the work of a skilled craftsman. MAke it like the ephod: of
gold, and of blue, purple and scarlet yarn, and of finely twisted
linen. It is to be square - a span (9 inches) wide - and folded
double. Then mount four rows of precious stones on it. In the
first row there shall be a ruby, a topaz and a beryl; in the
second row a turquoise, a sapphire (or lapis lazuli) and an
emerald; in the third row a jacinth, an agate and an amethyst; in
the fourth row a chrysolite, an onyx and a jasper. Mount them in
gold filigree settings. There are to be twelve stones, one for
each of the names of the sons of Israel, each engraved like a
seal with the name of one of the twelve tribes."
Exodus 28:9-14 - Take two onyx stones and engrave on the
names of the sons of Israel in the order of their birth - six
names on one stone and the remaining six on the other. Engrave
the names of the sons of Israel on the two stones the way a gem
cutter engraves a seal. Then mount the stones in gold filigree
settings and fasten them on the shoulder pieces of the ephod as
memorial stones for the sons of Israel. Aaron is to bear the
names on his shoulders as a memorial before the Lord. Make gold
filigree settings and two braided chains of pure gold, like a
rope, and attach the chains to the settings.
Though it does not say as much, we might take the engraving as a
form of runes, again creating a similarity between the craft and
religions of old.
From man's search for protection, we come to the telling by the
stars...Astrology, and the use of stars as protectors of man.
The lore behind the star of David is an interesting tale. The
easy interpretation is that of Zionism. The more research you do
on this though, you will find that once again, depending on the
cultures you look at, it's interpretation changes. The six-
pointed star formed by the superimposing of one triangle on
another. The symbol is a combination of the male (apex upwards)
and female (apex downwards) triangles; it is said, in cabalistic
writings, to comprise the signs of the four elements and the four
letters of the Tetragrammaton, and thus it came to be the symbol
for God. Since the Biblical commandment puts a taboo on the use
of the Name of God and on the depiction of God, the symbol was
inscribed as the graphic representation of God in synagogues and
wherever the Name was appropriate. In alchemy, the star of David
combined the symbols for fire and water; hence, it meant
distillation. Until recently, therefore, it appeared on shops
selling brandy. The star of David is the symbol of Zionism and
appears on the flag of Israel. As Solomon's seal, the hexagram
possessed power to control demons of all kinds. The stopper on
the bottle containing the bottle imp or jinni was stamped with
the seal of Solomon. In the Nsibidi script of West Africa, a
native form of writing, the symbol means ardent love; the
universality of the male-female content of the sign is here
apparent.
810
Astrology also has interesting roots. Though the word itself is
made up of the Greek words meaning "star logic" (astra - star,
Logos - logic), the actual origin is yet to be determined. We
read in the Epic of Creation of Sumer - Akkad, or Early Babylon
(ca 2200-1900 B.C.) that: "The Star - Jupiter who brings
prophecies to all is my Lord. My Lord be at peace. The Star -
Mercury allows rain to fall. The Star - Saturn, the star of Law
and Justice..."
The telling of fortunes by the stars underwent an avid growth
spurt during the times of the Roman Empire, and though with minor
qualms with the Christian church, it co-existed peacefully until
the time of Constantine when all "pagan" activities were
outlawed. Though outlawed within the Roman Empire, Astrology
continued to thrive within the Middle East.
I realize that I said that I would touch on the inquisition and
such, however, I think that it is common knowledge the document
used to persecute those involved was written by the Friars within
the Catholic Church at the time. The document, The Malleus
Maleficarum, was a document designed to bring about fear within
the Christian community, and more power to the church. What is
not widely realized is that the majority of the persons that were
either burned, drowned, or hung were not witches, but Protestants
within the Christian church. (The ones that were Protesting the
Catholic church.)
I realize that, at this time, this is a rather sketchy document.
I hope in the near future to be able to take the time to develop
more of the depth that I would like to put into bring up our
roots. I hope to include in the expanded edition the times of
burning, modern witchcraft, more symbols, and famous persons in
the craft.
We've changed...but then as a good friend has told me on more
than one occasion..."When we cease to change, we cease to grow.
When we cease to grow, life ends."
811
Bibliography
The Golden Bough - Frazer, Sir James George, Macmillan Publishing
Co., NY, NY c 1922
Witchcraft The Old Religion - Martello
Funk & Wagnalls Standard Dictionary of Folklore, Mythology and
Legend
The History of Witchcraft - Russell, Jeffrey B., c 1980
Encyclopedia Britanica - 1986
The Holy Bible (New International Version)
Under the Spell of the Zodiac - Mark Graubard
Alchemy: Origin or Origins? - H. J. Sheppard, AMBIX, July 1970
Magic, Supernaturalism, and Religion - Seligmann c 1948
812
MAGICK, Physics, and Probability
Now, as most of you may know, Magick is a somewhat controversial issue.
Even the spelling of the word is argued about! I have picked up the habit
(only the gods know where I picked it up ... possibly from my occasional
perusals of Crowley) of using "Magick" for the real thing, and using
"Magic" for what a stage magician does.
Before I go any further, I guess that I had better define Magick. One
definition is: "the art or science of causing change to occur in conformity
to Will" - A. Crowley.
Now, while Crowley himself, was quite controversial, I think we can all
agree that this should serve as a generic definition of Magick. But, one of
the differences between types of magicks is in the way of raising or
calling energy to cause change. Thus, such a change may be accomplished in
one of a couple of ways:
1. The magick may be caused by the action of only one person or group of
people.
2. The magick may be caused by the intercession of some higher (or lower)
being who was evoked or controlled by a person or group of people.
3. The magick may be caused by the action of one person or group of people
who is/are "borrowing" energy from some higher being (lower beings may sell
energy, but seldom lend or give it).
4. The magick may be caused by the person or persons use of an object or
location which was previously charged with energy (ie. a Magickal Tool,
Talisman, standing stones, etc).
Note: The use of a sacrifice (which can range from symbolic sacrifices of
Grain, Wine, etc., all the way to Human Sacrifice [something which I,
personally, am against]) is a combination of methods, in that a relative
amount of energy is released at the sacrifice itself, and, a larger amount
of energy is usually then given forth by a higher or lower being.
In many ways, Magick is quite similar to the harder sciences. In both, one
must expend energy in order to effect a change, or, TANSTAAFL (There Ain't
No Such Thing As A Free Lunch). Another difference between types of Magick
is in the Focusing or Concentrating of the power being raised. This may be
accomplished through the use of chanting, singing, dancing, various types
of meditation, and through formalized Ritual steps, which may or may not
involve Magickal Tools. Which brings us up to another controversial
issue... the use and meaning of the Circle in Wiccan and Ceremonial
Magicks.
813
Now, as some of you may know, a Magickal Circle serves a couple of uses,
and, as far as I can see, the argument is really over which is the most
important aspect of such a Circle. Most modern Wicca types will say that a
Circle's property of: "Holding and concentrating the energy being raised,
until it is ready to be released" is the most important. Many Ceremonial
types cite the Circle's ability to keep out negative energies and
influences as being most important. While, some others say that a Circle
relates the tie of spirit to body, and the ability of spirit to act on the
body, with the tie of the people on the inside to the world(s) without, and
a similar ability to cause change.
As for my own position on this argument, while, in most areas, I tend to
favor the Wiccan position (albeit, with a decidedly Discordian slant),in
this case, I'll say: "Who CARES which is most important!?! A Circle does
all of the above, and more, but, it's not worth arguing over!" So, on to
the heart of this article: Explaining Magick in terms of Quantum Physics
[{chuckle}, I knew a couple of Physicists who used to explain Quantum
Physics in terms of Magick {grin}]. This covers the how and why Magick
works. PLEASE NOTE: I do not claim to be infallible, this is not a laying
down of the LAW. Rather, this is simply a theory. But then, E =
MC(squared)is simply a theory. However there exists lots of data which
supports both theories. Since I've already covered some basic Magickal
Theory, it looks like time to start on the Physics end of things. I'll
start with the theories of Probability and Uncertainty.
Probability can be likened to Voltaire's Theory that: "Since this is the
Only One of All Possible Worlds that we know, it must, therefore, be the
Best of All Possible Worlds!". While this may be an interesting concept,
Voltaire's logic is slightly flawed. A better statement would be: "This is
the most Probable of All Possible Worlds". Thus, the Theory of Probability
is quite simple. Everything we see or experience is due to probability.
An Apple, when dropped, will fall (as long as it's in a gravity well, like,
the surface of a planet, and, no other forces are acting on it), because
falling is the most probable course of action open to it. Uncertainty
comes into play when there IS no one most probable thing to happen. Good
examples of uncertainty in action are small things, like electrons in orbit
around an atom. Since there is no one most probable spot for that electron
to be, it isn't in one place. There is a locus of higher probability,
where in a lower energy electron is more likely to be closer to the
nucleus, and higher energy ones farther away. Thus, scientists may either
pin down where an electron is, or, where it is going, but, they CAN'T pin
down both at the same time. Also, electrons tend to vibrate in energy
level, spontaneously bouncing up and down, seeking their most probable
states.
814
So, "Where does Magick come into play?" one may ask (assuming, that is,
that one has made it this far). Well, one of the tenants of the Theory of
Probability is that: the possibility of an event occurring depends upon the
events probability. Thus, if said probability can be changed, one could,
theoretically, either make such an event happen, or prevent such an event
from happening. And this is what Magick really is ... the Art of Changing
Probability. And, here's how that happens ... Einstein, as some may
recall, was NOT happy with the theory of Probability. Since, who decides
what is most probable, and, how can such decisions be altered? Einstein
said "God does not play dice with the universe!", and tried, for years, to
come up with a better theory. But, he failed, and so far, all the data
collected tends to support the theory of Probability. Some others have
come up with possible answers to the above posed question. One of which is
that Chance determines probability (this is the theory that Einstein
commented upon). Another theory is that some sort of GOD decides
probability. Needless to say, whatever being who could alter probability
at will, WOULD be a god! And so, that brings us to the present state of
affairs. No doubt, even as I write, somewhere, there is someone trying to
come up with some more theories governing the manipulation of probability,
and thus, allowing the construction of a machine which does just that.
But, there are also some who have found that such a machine exists...
PEOPLE! There is already lots of evidence, some documented, most
overlooked or kept hidden by the use of vows, that People CAN affect
probability.
Blessed Be... Hurn
815
Definitions
Some food for thought for those of us who are fond of the word
magic.
"... as the symbolic background of magical techniques as well as their
deployment in official ceremonies shows, the transition between magic and
religion is very fluid. Since religious symbols are always a synthesis
between the visible and the invisible, they may be looked upon as signposts
in the search for religious meaning, or misinterpreted as ends in
themselves. In this sense each ritual may be either religious or magical,
conditional upon the intention of the participants.
Distinctionscan be made, as precise as the symbols and principles
employed allow, among various types of magic. Substitute Magic is based
upon the idea that a part substitutes for the whole, thereby reversing the
transcendental principle that the part may represent the whole. Man seizes
power over someone else by possessing parts of him, e.g. bones, hair,
nails, etc. Contagious magic obtains when the substitution of the part
for the whole is only partially realized and integrated into a scheme of
causal connection. By touching or wearing power-laden objects such as
relics, fetishes, sacred stones, amulets, etc. or even by assimilating them
as in the case of cannibalism, man integrates him-self and his deeds into
the efficacy of an invisible power structure. Sympathetic magic deals with
symbols and their supposed unity or sympathy with that which is
sympathized. It differs from substitute magic by the ideational character
of the substitution. Examples are the anticipation of a successful hunt by
striking a picture of the animal; the manipulation of pictures and figures
in general; the use of curse figurines or dolls; the deployment of arcane
formulas, both in connection with pictures and statues or independently
from them. In this latter instance, the practice of subjecting the
godhead, a ghost, or an individual to one's will by means of a name or
proper formula should also be mentioned. Gnoseological magic appears as a
more or less autonomous type when the instrumental function of knowledge
and reason becomes an end in itself. The knowledge of the right time, the
right setting, the godhead proper in a given situation, is in itself
sufficient reason to achieve the desired goal. The world of the sacred as
a means of orientation for the growth and meaning of the person turns into
a state of impersonal and mechanically effective anonymity. Ascetic
technique becomes its own end, effective by its very deployment.
As a technique of reaching goals by means different from those
required by these goals, magic is of particular significance for the social
life of a community. In this regard we have to distinguish between
official and private magic. Official magic obtains when public affairs are
treated by help of magical techniques, e.g., when a drought is counteracted
by the imitative act of sprinkling water, or when the office of a shaman
is a generally recognized institution. Private magic on the other hand is
a matter of individuals and/or exclusive groups who, often in deep secrecy,
use their knowledge and techniques in order to pursue their particular
goals....."
__________________________________
From the Encyclopedic Dictionary of Religion.
.......... FROM RMPJ, 2/3/1987
816
THE BASICS OF MAGICK
I. Ethics
A. The Wiccan Rede
B. The Law or Return (sometimes called the "Threefold Law")
C. Perfect Love and Perfect Trust (among partners in magick)
II. The Witches' Pyramid
A. Faith in your abilities and powers.
B. Imagination to vividly create in your mind that which you desire
to manifest.
C. Will to achieve your goal despite all obstacles.
D. Secrecy to keep your magickal intention concentrated and pure.
III. The four Qualities of the Mage
A. To know
B. To will
C. To dare
D. To keep silence
IV. Preparatory Skills (hatha and raja yoga are good aids to developing
these)
A. Cleansing, clearing and stilling
B. Grounding
C. Centering
d. Concentrating ieving one-pointedness)
V. Defining the Goal: Form vs. Essence
VI. Working with the Power
A. Confining it (casting the Circle)
B. Raising it
C. Sending it (channeling it)... for immediate effect or into storage
D. Earthing the excess (grounding it)
VII. Systems and Techniques
A. Spellcraft
B. Words of Power and affirmations, charms and
incantations
C. Dance, postures and mudras
D. Meditation, trancework and hypnosis, fascination
E. Stone magick
F. Candle magick
G. Amulets and talismans; power objects or "psychic batteries"
H. Healing
1. Psychic (visualization, laying on of hands)
2. Herbal
3. Energy channeling iwht auras and chakras
4. Color therapy
5. Other systems listed above
817
I. Divination
1. Scrying
2. Astrology
3. Tarot
4. Runesticks
5. Lithomancy (casting the stones)
6. I Ching
7. Other systems
8. Pendulum or radiesthesia
J. Astral travel
K. Thought forms; wraiths, fetches, artificial elementals
L. Extra-sensory perception
1. Clairsentience
2. Clairvoyance
3. Clairaudience
4. Precognition
5. Telepathy
6. Telempathy
7. Psychometry
8. Telekinesis
9. Teleportation
M. Sympathetic magic (poppets and such)
N. Runes
O. Mediumship, necromancy, and spirit guides
P. Philtres and Poteins
Q. Cleansing, purification, protection and blessing; exorcism;
ligature, binding
R. Power animals, totems and familiars; shapeshifting
S. Tree magick
T. Dreamcraft
U. Ritual tool magick
V. Invocation, evocation and going into aspect
W. Symbols, sigils and images; Tattvic symbols; numerology
X. Conjuration or summoning; banishing or exorcism
Y. Commemoration or linking
Z. Past life regression or recall
AA. Pathworking on the Tree of Life
BB. Ceremonial magic
VIII. Timing
A. The lunar cycle
B. The Wheel of the Year
C. Astrological conjunctions
D. Planetary hours and days
E. Individual biorhythms
IX. Creating your own reality, following your True Will
Prepared by: Amber K
Our Lady of the Woods
818
"Magick is the Highest, most Absolute, and most Divine
Knowledge of Natural Philosophy; advanced in its works and
wonderful operations by a right understanding of the inward and
occult virtue of things; so that true Agents being applied to proper
Patients, strange and admirable effects will thereby be produced.
Whence magicians are profound and diligent searchers into
Nature; they, because of their skill, know how to anticipate an
effect, the which to the vulgar shall seem to be a miracle."
The Goetia of the Lemegeton of King Solomon.
*
"Whenever sympathetic magic occurs in its pure unadulterated
form, it is assumed that in nature one event follows another
necessarily and invariably without the intervention of any spiritual
or personal agency.
Thus its fundamental conception is identical with that of
modern science; underlying the whole system is a faith,
implicit but real and firm, in the order and uniformity of
nature. The magician does not doubt that the same causes will
always produce the same effects, that the performance of the
proper ceremony accompanied by the appropriate spell, will
inevitably be attended by the desired results, unless, indeed, his
incantations should chance to be thwarted and foiled by the more
potent charms of another sorcerer. He supplicates no higher
power: he sues the favor of no fickle and wayward being: he
abases himself before no awful deity. Yet his power, great as he
believes it to be, is by no means arbitrary and unlimited. He can
wield it only so long as he strictly conforms to the rules of his
art, or to what may be called the laws of nature as conceived by
him. To neglect these rules, to break these laws in the smallest
particular is to incur failure, and may even expose the unskillful
practitioner himself to the utmost peril. If he claims a sovereignty
over nature, it is a constitutional sovereignty rigorously limited in
its scope and exercised in exact conformity with ancient usage.
Thus the analogy between the magical and the scientific
conceptions of the world is close. In both of them the
succession of events is perfectly regular and certain, being
determined by immutable laws, the operation of which can
be foreseen and calculated precisely; the elements of caprice,
of chance, and of accident are banished from the course of nature.
Both of them open up a seemingly boundless vista of possibilities
to him who knows the causes of things and can touch the secret
springs that set in motion the vast and intricate mechanism of the
world. Hence the strong attraction which magic and science alike
have exercised on the human mind; hence the powerful stimulus
that both have given to the pursuit of knowledge. They lure the
weary enquirer, the footsore seeker, on through the wilderness of
disappointment in the present by their endless promises of the
future: they take him up to the top of an exceeding high mountain
and shew him, beyond the dark clouds and rolling mist at his feet,
a vision of the celestial city, far off, it may be, but radiant with
unearthly splendor, bathed in the light of dreams."
Dr. J. G. FRAZER, "The Golden Bough".
*
819
"So far, therefore, as the public profession of magic has
been one of the roads by which men have passed to supreme
power, it has contributed to emancipate mankind from the
thraldom of tradition and to elevate them into a larger, freer
life, with a broader outlook on the world. This is no small
service rendered to humanity. And when we remember
further that in another direction magic has paved ther way for
science, we are forced to admit that if the black arts has done much
evil, it has also been the source of much good; that if it is the
child of error, it has been the mother of freedom and
truth."
Ibid.
*
"Prove all things; hold fast that which is good".
St. Paul.
*
"Also the mantras and the spells; the obeah and the wanga; the
work of the wand and the work of the sword: these he shall learn
and teach.
"He must teach; but he may make severe the ordeals.
"The word of the Law is THELEMA."
LIBER AL vel xxxi: The Book of the Law.
-----------
This book is for
ALL:
for every man, woman, and child.
My former work has been misunderstood, and its scope limited,
by my use of technical terms. It has attracted only too many
dilettanti and eccentrics, weaklings seeking in "Magic" an escape
from reality. I myself was first consciously drawn to the subject
in this way. And it has repelled only too many scientific and
practical minds, such as I most designed to influence.
But
MAGICK
is for
ALL.
I have written this book to help the Banker, the Pugilist, the
Biologist, the Poet, the Navvy, the Grocer, the Factory Girl, the
Mathematician, the Stenographer, the Golfer, the Wife, the
Consul--and all the rest--to fulfil themselves perfectly, each
in his or her own proper function.
820
Let me explain in a few words how it came about that I blazoned
the word
MAGICK
upon the Banner that I have borne before me all my life.
Before I touched my teens, I was already aware that I was The
Beast whose number is 666. I did not understand in the least
what that implied; it was a passionately ecstatic sense of identity.
In my third year at Cambridge, I devoted myself consciously to
the Great Work, understanding thereby the Work of becoming a
Spiritual Being, free from the constraints, accidents, and deceptions
of material existence.
I found myself at a loss for a name to designate my work, just
as H.P. Blavatsky some years earlier. "Theosophy", "Spiritua-
lism", "Occultism", "Mysticism", all involved undesirable con-
notations.
I chose therefore the name.
"MAGICK"
as essentially the most sublime, and actually the most discredited,
of all the available terms.
I swore to rehabilitate
MAGICK,
to identify it with my own career; and to compel mankind to
respect, love, and trust that which they scorned, hated and feared.
I have kept my Word.
But the time is now come for me to carry my banner into the
thick of the press of human life.
I must make
MAGICK
the essential factor in the life of
ALL.
In presenting this book to the world, I must then explain and
justify my position by formulating a definition of
MAGICK
and setting forth its main principles in such a way that
ALL
may understand instantly that their souls, their lives, in every
relation with every other human being and every circumstance,
depend upon
MAGICK
and the right comprehension and right application thereof.
821
I. DEFINITION.
MAGICK
is the Science and Art of causing Change to occur in confor-
mity with Will.
( Illustration: It is my Will to inform the World of certain facts
within my knowledge. I therefore take "magical weapons", pen,
ink, and paper; I write "incantations" --these sentences-- in the
"magical language" i.e. that which is understood by the people I
wish to instruct; I call forth "spirits", such as printers, publishers,
booksellers, and so forth, and constrain them to convey my message
to those people. The composition and distribution of this book is
thus an act of
MAGICK
by which I cause Changes to take place in conformity with my
Will) *By "intentional" I mean "willed". But even unintentional act
so-seeming are not truly so. Thus, breathing is an act of the Will-
to-Live.*
II. POSTULATE.
ANY required Change may be effected by the application
of the proper kind and degree of Force in the proper
manner through the proper medium to the proper object.
( Illustration: I wish to prepare an ounce of Chloride of Gold.
I must take the right kind of acid, nitro-hydrochloric and no other,
in sufficient quantity and of adequate strength, and place it, in a
vessel which will not break, leak, or corrode, in such a manner as
will not produce undesirable results, with the necessary quantity
of Gold: and so forth. Every Change has its own conditions.
In the present state of our knowledge and power some changes
are not possible in practice; we cannot cause eclipses, for instance,
or transform lead into tin, or create men from mushrooms. But it
is theoretically possible to cause in any object any change of which
that object is capable by nature; and the conditions are covered by
the above postulate.)
III. THEOREMS.
(1) Every intentional act is a Magical Act. *In one sense Magick
may be defined as the name given to Science by the vulgar.*
(Illustration: See "Definition" above.)
(2) Every successful act has conformed to the postulate.
(3) Every failure proves that one or more requirements
of the postulate have not been fulfilled.
822
( Illustrations: There may be failure to understand the case; as
when a doctor makes a wrong diagnosis, and his treatment injures
his patient. There may be failure to apply the right kind of
force, as when a rustic tries to blow out an electric light. There
may be failure to apply the right degree of force, as when a
wrestler has his hold broken. There may be failure to apply the
force in the right manner, as when one presents a cheque at the
wrong window of the Bank. There may be failure to employ the
correct medium, as when Leonardo da Vinci found his masterpiece
fade away. The force may be applied to an unsuitable object, as
when one tries to crack a stone, thinking it a nut.)
(4) The first requisite for causing any change is
thorough qualitative and quantitative understanding of the
conditions.
(Illustration: The most common cause of failure in life is
ignorance of one's own True Will, or of the means by which to
fulfil that Will. A man may fancy himself a painter, and waste
his life trying to become one; or he may be really a painter, and
yet fail to understand and to measure the difficulties peculiar to
that carrier.)
(5) The second requisite of causing any change is the
practical ability to set in right motion the necessary forces.
(Illustration: A banker may have a perfect grasp of a given
situation, yet lack the quality of decision, or the assets, necessary
to take advantage of it.)
(6) "Every man and every woman is a star". That is to
say, every human being is intrinsically an independent individual
with his own proper character and proper motion.
(7) Every man and every woman has a course, depending
partly on the self, and partly on the environment which is
natural and necessary for each. Anyone who is forced from
his own course, either through not understanding himself,
or through external opposition, comes into conflict with the
order of the Universe, and suffers accordingly.
(Illustration: A man may think it his duty to act in a certain way,
through having made a fancy picture of himself, instead of
investigating his actual nature. For example, a woman may make
herself miserable for life by thinking that she prefers love to
social consideration, or visa versa. One woman may stay with an
unsympathetic husband when she would really be happy in an attic
with a lover, while another may fool herself into a romantic
elopement when her only true pleasures are those of presiding at
fashionable functions. Again, a boy's instinct may tell him to go
to sea, while his parents insist on his becoming a doctor. In such
a case, he will be both unsuccessful and unhappy in medicine.)
823
(8) A man whose conscious will is at odds with his True
Will is wasting his strength. He cannot hope to influence
his environment efficiently.
(Illustration: When Civil War rages in a nation, it is in no
condition to undertake the invasion of other countries. A man
with cancer employs his nourishment alike to his own use and to
that of the enemy which is a part of himself. He soon fails to resist
the pressure of his environment. In practical life, a man who is
doing what his conscience tells him to be wrong will do it very
clumsily. At first!)
(9) A man who is doing his True Will has the inertia of
the Universe to assist him.
(Illustration: The first principle of success in evolution is that
the individual should be true to his own nature, and at the same
time adaot himself to his environment.)
(10) Nature is a continuous phenomenon, though we
do not know in all cases how things are connected.
(Illustration: Human consciousness depends on the properties of
protoplasm, the existence of which depends on innumerable physical
conditions peculiar to this planet; and this planet is determined by
the mechanical balance of the whole universe of matter. We may
then say that our consciousness is causally connected with the
remotest galaxies; yet we do not know even how it arises from--
or with--the molecular changes in the brain.)
(11) Science enables us to take advantage of the contin-
uity of Nature by the empirical application of certain
principles whose interplay involves different orders of idea
connected with each other in a way beyond our present comprehension.
(Illustration: We are able to light cities by rule-of-thumb
methods. We do not know what consciousness is, or how it is
connected with muscular action; what electricity is or how it is
connected with the machines that generate it; and our methods
depend on calculation involving mathematical ideas which have
no correspondence in the Universe as we know it.) *For instance,
"irrational", "unreal", and "infinite" expressions.*
824
(12) Man is ignorant of the nature of his own being and
powers. Even his idea of his limitations is based on
experience of the past, and every step in his progress
extends his empire. There is therefore no reason to assign
theoretical limits to what he may be, or to what he may do.
*i.e., except--possibly--in the case of logically absurd questions,
such as the Schoolmen discussed in connection with "God".*
(Illustration: A generation ago it was supposed theoretically
impossible that man should ever know the chemical composition of
the fixed stars. It is known that our senses are adapted to receive
only an infinitesimal fraction of the possible rates of vibration.
Modern instruments have enabled us to detect some of these supra-
sensibles by indirect methods, and even to use their peculiar qualities
in the service of man, as in the case of the rays of Hertz and
Roentgen. As Tyndall said, man might at any moment learn to
perceive and utilize vibrations of all conceivable and inconceivable
kinds. The question of Magick is a question of discovering and
employing hitherto unknown forces in nature. We know that they
exist, and we cannot doubt the possibility of mental or physical
instruments capable of bringing us into relation with them.)
(13) Every man is more or less aware that his individu-
ality comprises several orders of existence, even when he
maintains that his subtler principles are merely symptomatic
of the changes in his gross vehicle. A similar order may be
assumed to extend throughout nature.
(Illustration: One does not confuse the pain of toothache with
the decay which causes it. Inanimate objects are sensitive to
certain physical forces, such as electrical and thermal conductivity;
but neither in us nor in them--so far as we know--is there any
direct conscious perception of these forces. Imperceptible influences
are therefore associated with all material phenomena; and there
is no reason why we should not work upon matter through those
subtle energies as we do through their material bases. In fact, we
use magnetic force to move iron, and solar radiation to reproduce
images.)
(14) Man is capable of being, and using, anything which
he perceives, for everything that he perceives is in a certain
sense a part of his being. He may thus subjugate the whole
Universe of which he is conscious to his individual Will.
(Illustration: Man has used the idea of God to dictate his
personal conduct, to obtain power over his fellows, to excuse his
crimes, and for innumerable other purposes, including that of
realizing himself as God. He has used the irrational and unreal
conceptions of mathematics to help him in the construction of
mechanical devices. He has used his moral force to influence the
actions even of wild animals. He has employed poetic genius for
political purposes.)
825
(15) Every force in the Universe is capable of being
transformed into any other kind of force by using suitable
means. There is thus an inexhaustible supply of any
particular kind of force that we may need.
(Illustration: Heat may be transformed into light and power by
using it to drive dynamos. The vibrations of the air may be used
to kill men by so ordering them in speech as to inflame war-like
passions. The hallucinations connected with the mysterious
energies of sex result in the perpetuation of the species.)
(16) The application of any given force affects all the
orders of being which exist in the object to which it is
applied, whichever of those orders is directly affected.
(Illustration: If I strike a man with a dagger, his consciousness,
not his body only, is affected by my act; although the dagger, as
such, has no direct relation therewith. Similarly, the power of
my thought may so work on the mind of another person as to
produce far-reaching physical changes in him, or in others through
him.)
(17) A man may learn to use any force so as to serve
any purpose, by taking advantage of the above theorems.
(Illustration: A man may use a razor to make himself vigilant
over his speech, by using it to cut himself whenever he unguardedly
utters a chosen word. He may serve the same purpose by resolving
that every incident of his life shall remind him of a particular thing,
making every impression the starting point of a connected series of
thoughts ending in that thing. He might also devote his whole
energies to some one particular object, by resolving to do nothing
at variance therewith, and to make every act turn to the advantage
of that object.)
(18) He may attract to himself any force of the Universe
by making himself a fit receptacle for it, establishing a
connection with it, and arranging conditions so that its
nature compels it to flow toward him.
(Illustration: If I want pure water to drink, I dig a well in a
place where there is underground water; I prevent it from leaking
away; and I arrange to take advantage of water's accordance with
the laws of Hydrostatics to fill it.)
(19) Man's sense of himself as separate from, and
opposed to, the Universe is a bar to his conducting its
currents. It insulates him.
(Illustration: A popular leader is most successful when he
forgets himself, and remembers only "The Cause". Self-seeking
engenders jealousies and schism. When the organs of the body
assert their presence otherwise than by silent satisfaction, it is a
sign that they are diseased. The single exception is the organ of
reproduction. Yet even in this case its self-assertion bears witness
to its dissatisfaction with itself, since it cannot fulfil its function
until completed by its counterpart in another organism.)
826
(20) Man can only attract and employ the forces for
which he is really fitted.
(Illustration: You cannot make a silk purse out of a sow's ear. A
true man of science learns from every phenomenon. But Nature
is dumb to the hypocrite; for in her ther is nothing false.)
*It is no objection that the hypocrite is himself a part of Nature. He
is an "endothermic" product, divided against itself, with a tendency to
break up. He will see his own qualities everywhere, and thus obtain a
radical misconception of phenomena. Most religions of the past have
failed by expecting Nature to conform with their ideals of proper
conduct.*
(21) There is no limit to the extent of the relations of
any man with the Universe in essence; for as soon as man
makes himself one with any idea the means of measurement
cease to exist. But his power to utilize that force is limited
by his mental power and capacity, and by the circumstances
of his human environment.
(Illustration: When a man falls in love, the whole world
becomes, to him, nothing but love boundless and immanent; but
his mystical state is not contagious; his fellow-men are either
amused or annoyed. He can only extend to others the effect which
his love has had upon himself by means of his mental and physical
qualities. Thus, Catullus, Dante and Swinburne made their love a
mighty mover of mankind by virtue of their power to put their
thoughts on the subject in musical and eloquent language. Again,
Cleopatra and other people in authority moulded the fortunes of
many other people by allowing love to influence their political
actions. The Magician, however well he succeed in making contact
with the secret sources of energy in nature, can only use them to the
extent permitted by his intellectual and moral qualities.
Mohammed's intercourse with Gabriel was only effective because
of his statesmanship, soldiership, and the sublimity of his command
of Arabic. Hertz's discovery of the rays which we now use for
wireless telepathy was sterile until reflected through the minds
and wills of people who could take his truth, and transmit it
to the world of action by means of mechanical and economic
instruments.)
(22) Every individual is essentially sufficient to himself.
But he is unsatisfactory to himself until he has established
himself in his right relation with the Universe.
(Illustration: A microscope, however perfect, is useless in the
hands of savages. A poet, however sublime, must impose himself
upon his generation if he is to enjoy (and even understand)
himself, as theoretically should be the case.)
(23) Magick is the Science of understanding oneself and
one's conditions. It is the Art of applying that under-
standing in action.
(Illustration: A golf club is intended to move a special ball in a
special way in special circumstances. A Niblick should rarely be
used on the tee, or a Brassie under the bank of a bunker. But
also, the use of any club demands skill and experience.)
827
(24) Every man has an indefeasible right to be what he is.
(Illustration: To insist that any one else shall comply with one's
own standards is to outrage, not only him, but oneself, since both
parties are equally born of necessity.)
(25) Every man must do Magick each time he acts or
even thinks, since a thought is an internal act whose
influence ultimately affects action, though it may not do
so at the time.
(Illustration: The least gesture causes in a man's own
body and in the air around him; it disturbs the balance of the
entire Universe, and its effects continue eternally throughout all
space. Every thought, however swiftly suppressed, has its effect
on the mind. It stands as one of the causes of every subsequent
thought, and tends to influence every subsequent action. A golfer
may lose a few yards on his drive, a few more with his second and
third, he may lie on the green six bare inches too far from the hole;
but the net result of these trifling mishaps is the difference of a
whole stroke, and so probably between halving and losing the
hole.)
(26) Every man has a right, the right of self-preserva-
tion, to fulfil himself to the utmost. *Men of "criminal nature" are
simply at issue with their True Wills. The murderer has the Will-to
-Live; and his will to murder is a false will at variance with his
true Will, since he risks death at the hands of Society by obeying
his criminal impulse*
(Illustration: A function imperfectly performed injures, not
only itself, but everything associated with it. If the heart is afraid
to beat for fear of disturbing the liver, the liver is starved for
blood, and avenges itself on the heart by upsetting digestion, which
disorders respiration, on which cardiac welfare depends.)
(27) Every man should make Magick the keynote of his
life. He should learn its laws and live by them.
(Illustration: The Banker should discover the real meaning of
his existence, the real motive which led him to choose that profes-
sion. He should understand banking as a necessary factor in the
economic existence of mankind, instead of as merely a business
whose objects are independent of the general welfare. He should
learn to distinguish false values from real, and to act not on
accidental fluctuations but on considerations of essential impor-
tance. Such a banker will prove himself superior to others; because
he will not be an individual limited by transitory things, but a
force of Nature, as impersonal, impartial and eternal as gravitation,
as patient and irresistible as the tides. His system will not be
subject to panic, any more than the law of Inverse Squares is
disturbed by Elections. He will not be anxious about his affairs
because they will not be his; and for that reason he will be able to
direct them with the calm, clear-headed confidence of an onlooker,
with intelligence unclouded by self-interest and power unimpaired
by passion.)
(28) Every man has a right to fulfil his own will without
828
being afraid that it may interfere with that of others; for
if he is in his proper place, it is the fault of others if they
interfere with him.
(Illustration: If a man like Napoleon were actually appointed
by destiny to control Europe, he should not be blamed for
exercising his rights. To oppose him would be an error. Any
one so doing would have made a mistake as to his own destiny,
except in so far as it might be necessary for him to learn the
lessons of defeat. The sun moves in space without interference.
The order of Nature provides an orbit for each star. A clash
proves that one or the other has strayed from its course. But as
to each man that keeps his true course, the more firmly he acts, the
less likely are others to get in his way. His example will help
them to find their own paths and pursue them. Every man that
becomes a Magician helps others to do likewise. The more firmly
and surely men move, and the more such action is excepted as the
standard of morality, the less will conflict and confusion hamper
humanity.)
----------
I hope that the above principles will demonstrate to
ALL
that their welfare, their very existence, is bound up in
MAGICK.
I trust that they will understand, not only the reasonableness, but
the necessity of the fundamental truth which I was the means of
giving to mankind:
"Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law."
I trust that they will assert themselves as individually absolute, that
they will grasp the fact that it is their right to assert themselves, and
to accomplish the task for which their nature fits them. Yea, more,
that this is their duty, and that not only to themselves but to
others, a duty founded upon universal necessity, and not to be
shirked on account of any casual circumstances of the moment which
may seem to put such contact in the light of inconvenience or even
of cruelty.
I hope that the principles outlined above will help them to
understand this book, and prevent them from being deterred from
its study by the more or less technical language in which it is
written.
The essence of
MAGICK
is simple enough in all conscience. It is not otherwise with the art
of government. The Aim is simply prosperity; but the theory is
tangled, and the practice beset with briars.
829
In the same way
MAGICK
is merely to be and to do. I should add: "to suffer". For Magick
is the verb; and it is part of the Training to use the passive voice.
This is, however, a matter of Initiation rather than of Magick in
its ordinary sense. It is not my fault if being is baffling, and doing
desperate!
Yet, once the above principles are firmly fixed in the mind, it is
easy enough to sum up the situation very shortly. One must
find out for oneself, and make sure beyond doubt, WHO one is, WHAT
one is, WHY one is. This done, one may put the Will which is
implicit in the "Why" into words, or rather into One Word. Being
thus conscious of the proper course to pursue, the next thing is to
understand the conditions necessary to following it out. After
that, one must eliminate from oneself every element alien or
hostile to success, and develop those parts of oneself which are
specially needed to control the aforesaid conditions.
Let us make an analogy. A nation must become aware of its
own character before it can be said to exist. From that knowledge
it must divine its destiny. It must then consider the political
conditions of the world; how other countries may help it or hinder
it. It must then destroy in itself any elements discordant with its
destiny. Lastly, it must develop in itself those qualities which will
enable it to combat successfully the external conditions which
threaten to oppose its purpose. We have had a recent example in
the case of the young German Empire, which, knowing itself and
its will, disciplined and trained itself so that it conquered the
neighbors which had oppressed it for so many centuries. But
after 1866 and 1870, 1914! It mistook itself for superhuman, it
willed a thing impossible, it failed to eliminate its own internal
jealousies, it failed to understand the conditions of victory, it did
not train itself to hold the sea, and thus, having violated every
principle of
MAGICK,
it was pulled down and broken into pieces by provincialism and
democracy, so that neither individual excellence nor civic virtue
has yet availed to raise it again to that majestic unity which made
so bold a bid for the mastery of the race of man.*At least it allowed
England to discover its intentions, and so to combine the world against
it.*
830
The sincere student will discover, behind the symbolic techni-
calities of this book, a practical method of making himself a
Magician. The processes described will enable him to discriminate
between what he actually is, and what he has fondly imagined
himself to be. *Professeur Sigmund Freud and his school have, in recent
years, discovered a part of this body of Truth, which has been taught
for many centuries in the Sanctuaries of Initiation. But failure to
grasp the fullness of Truth, especially that implied in my Sixth
Theorem (above) and its corollaries, has led him and his followers into
the error of admitting that the avowedly suicidal "Censor" is the proper
arbiter of conduct. Official psycho-analysis is therefore committed to
upholding a fraud, although the foundation of the science was the
observation of the disastrous effects on the individual of being false
to his Unconscious Self, whose "writing on the wall" in dream language
is the record of the sum of the essential tendencies of the true nature
of the individual. The result has been that psycho-analysts have
misinterpreted life, and announced the absurdity that every human being
is essentially an anti-social, criminal, and insane animal. It is
evident that the errors of the Unconscious of which the psycho-analysts
complain are neither more nor less than the "original sin" of the
theologians whom they despise so heartily.* He must behold his soul in
all its awful nakedness, he must not fear to look on that appalling
actuality. He must discard the gaudy garments with which shame has
screened him; he must accept the fact that nothing can make him
anything but what he is. He may lie to himself, drug himself,
hide himself; but he is always there. Magick will teach him that
his mind is playing him a traitor. It is as if a man were told that
tailors' fashion-plates were the canon of human beauty, so
that he tried to make himself formless and featureless like them,
and shuddered with horror at the idea of Holbein making a portrait
of him. Magick will show him the beauty and majesty of the self
which he has tried to suppress and disguise.
Having discovered his identity, he will soon perceive his purpose.
Another process will show him how to make that purpose pure
and powerful. He may then learn how to estimate his environ-
ment, learn how to make allies, how to make himself prevail against
all powers whose error has caused them to wander across his path.
In the course of this Training, he will learn to explore the
Hidden-Mysteries of Nature, and to develop new senses and
faculties in himself, whereby he may communicate with, and
control, Beings and Forces pertaining to orders of existence which
have been hitherto inaccessible to profane research, and available
only to that unscientific and empirical
MAGICK
(of tradition) which I came to destroy in order that I might fulfil.
831
I send this book into the world that every man and woman may
take hold of life in the proper manner. It does not matter if
one's present house of flesh be the hut of a shepherd; by virtue
of my
MAGICK
he shall be such a shepherd as David was. If it be the studio of a
sculptor, he shall so chisel from himself the marble that masks his
idea that he shall be no less a master than Rodin.
Witness mine hand:
TO MEGA THERION (in Greek) (zayin, vav, yod, resh tav): The Beast 666;
MAGUS 9=2 A.'. A.'. who is The Word of the Aeon THELEMA;
whose name is called V.V.V.V.V. 8=3 A.'. A.'. in the City of
the Pyramids; OU MH 7=4; OL SONUF VAORESAGI 6=5, and ..... ..... 5=6
A.'. A.'. in the Mountain of Abeignus: but FRATER PERDUABO in the Outer
Order or the A.'. A.'. and in the World of men upon the Earth, Alleister
Crowley of Trinity College, Cambridge.
832
Laws of Magick
by
Simon Magus
Magick, not unlike physics or chemistry, operates according to certain
laws. These laws, as well as those of the sciences, reside in reality
within the heads of those who use them. However, the analysis of reality
into artificial categories is useful at certain levels of investigation.
It is well to bear in mind, nevertheless, that such categories reflect more
the contents of the human mind than they do of whatever "reality" might be
out there.
For the following analysis we are indebted to REAL MAGIC by P.E.I.
Bonewits. Mr Bonewits, incidentally, holds the first Bachelor of Arts
degree in magic(k) ever awarded. He, much to the chagrin of some of the
faculty of the University of California, was awarded the degree in June,
1970.
LAW OF CAUSE AND EFFECT
Anything done under EXACTLY the same conditions will always be associated
with exactly the same result. This law is taken for granted in the
sciences and in everyday life. The whole concept of causation is now on
shaky ground, thanks to developments in the field of quantum physics. But
for practical purposes, in magick as well as in our everyday lives, we
ignore causality to our own peril. We must assume, at least in dealing
with things the size of human beings, that effects follow causes. Even in
the constantly flowing, changing astral realm we find the law of cause and
effect in full operation.
LAW OF KNOWLEDGE
This law tells us that "understanding brings control," that the more you
know the more powerful you are. If you know all about something, you have
total control over it. "Knowledge is power."
LAW OF SELF-KNOWLEDGE
This is a sub-law of the previous law and follows from it. If you know
yourself, you control yourself. The more you know about yourself, the
better you can control yourself.
LAW OF NAMES
This law is related to the Law of Knowledge and to the Law of Association.
It states if one knows the whole and complete name of a phenomenon or
entity, one has complete control over it. This is one of the reasons the
Mystery Religions (including Christianity) conferred a new name on the
neophyte. His new name was then his true name, but it was known only to
his fellow members of the mystery. The Law of Names also relates to the
Law of Personification which will be explained later. Two premises behind
the present law are: (1) Names are definitions. This is more obvious in
simpler languages, but it is as true of English as of any other. Sometimes
the definition is hidden in the origin of the word, as is often the case
with those derived from Latin or Greek, but it is there. (2) Names are
mnemonic (memory) devices which trigger a range of associations. (See the
Law of Association).
833
LAW OF WORDS OF POWER
This is a sublaw of the Law of Names. It states that certain words trigger
changes in the inner and outer realities of the person saying them. Many
of these words are corruptions of the names of ancient Gods. Words like
"Abraxas," Osorronnophris," "Abracadabra" are examples. They have no
meaning to us today, but THEIR POWER LIES IN THE SOUNDS OF THE WORDS
THEMSELVES.
LAW OF ASSOCIATION
If two things have something in common (anything!), that thing can be used
to control both. Bell's theorem in quantum mechanics indicates that every
particle in the Universe affects every other. The following two sublaws,
which anthropologists think are the basis of "primitive" magick, are more
useful in practice. These are the Laws of Similarity and Contagion.
LAW OF SIMILARITY
Most people have heard of sympathetic magick, which is based on this
principle. Effects resemble causes. To make something fly, put feathers
on it and make chirping noises. Wave it in the air. The example is not
entirely absurd and serves to illustrate the principle. Much of the magick
of "primitive" people is of this nature. For example, rain is made by
(among other actions) sprinkling water on the ground (or by washing your
car -- a modern example of the same principle!).
LAW OF CONTAGION
This is the principle behind doll-sticking and such in "primitive" magick.
This directly relates to Bell's theorem and states that things once in
physical contact continue to influence one another after they have been
separated. This relates more to our consciousness than to things as
they are in the physical world, but defining the two is more difficult than
they appear on the surface. Thinking, feeling, and memory are
associational functions of the human brain. New data are related to
existing knowledge and patterns are established which correlate particular
elements of knowledge. The overall pattern, which includes the
"personality" and the "world view" is the METAPATTERN of all this. This
metapattern we may consider to be made up of the memories, fantasy images,
beliefs, values, techniques, rules of behavior, attitudes, etc. which make
up the individuality of the person.
LAW OF IDENTIFICATION
This law relates to those of Knowledge, Association and Personification.
It states that by complete association between your metapattern and that of
another entity, you can BECOME that entity. You can then examine your own
metapattern from the point of view of that entity. At full identification,
one "becomes" the entity. All idea of distinctness vanishes and you are
empowered with all the attributes of that entity because you ARE that
entity. The danger here is that many people become lost in the new
identity as the stronger metapattern submerges the weaker. Proper
training, practice and guidance will lessen the danger.
834
LAW OF SYNTHESIS
Two opposing ideas or items of data will be resolved into a third idea that
is more valid than the first two. This principle allows you to hold two
seemingly contradictory ideas (such as, "Electrons are particles," and
"Electrons are waves.") at the same time. Reality is as it is, not as we
conceive it (or even as we perceive it, for that matter). The
wave-particle duality in physics is an example. Physicists were nonplussed
to observe in their experiments that light behaved (depending on the
experiment) sometimes like a wave and sometimes like a particle. Light
striking a surface of copper, say, releases electrons from the surface.
This phenomenon, when examined closely, demonstrates that light is made up
of particles (now called photons) which impart energy to the electrons,
allowing them to escape. However, another experiment, in which we direct
a beam of light at some pinholes, "proves" that light is of the nature of
waves. If we direct a beam of light at an arrangement of pinholes:
---------------------------------------
I I I
I I I
I I screen--> I
I I I
I <--pinhole I
I I I
I I I
I I
LIGHT I I
I I
I I I
I I I
I <--pinhole I
I I I
I I I
I I I
I I I
---------------------------------------
assuming that we have a beam of "parallel" light (a plane wavefront),
we see the light projected onto the screen. If we cover one of the
pinholes, we see a single illuminated spot on the screen. If wwe uncover
the first and cover the second pinhole, we again see a single spot
projected onto the screen. Now, if we uncover both pinholes, what do we
see? Two spots of light? No! We see a pattern of alternating light and
dark bands on the screen. This phenomenon is due to INTERFERENCE between
the crests and troughs of the WAVES of light as they strike the screen.
When two crests occur together, or two troughs, the amplitude is doubled,
and we get a bright area. But when a crest and trough coincide, they cancel
each other, and the result is a dark spot of zero amplitude (no
brightness). The point of all this is that interference is necessarily a
WAVE phenomenon. The experiment demonstrates the wave nature of light.
How do we resolve the dilemma? By realizing that we are dealing with
something that is neither a wave nor a particle, but SOMETHING ELSE.
835
Mayan Deities
From Sekhet Bast Ra Lodge
The contents of this file is derived from the research
resources from within our lodge and is the sole property of
Sekhet Bast Ra Lodge. Copyright 1987.
777
Column XXV
Mayan Deities
Key Scale - Mayan Deities - Explanation
0 - Itzam Na - This diety encompasses all deities yet this
Diety is beyond all comprehension.
1 - Itzam Na - "one" or "unique" He is the greatest of
the Gods.
Hunab Ku - "All powerful God of no Image" I listed
this diety although information shows
this diety did not exist until after the
Spanish Conquest. It probabily came
about due to christian influence.
2 - Ohoroxtotil - Father of the Sun.
Ben Ich - "He of the Starry Sky" He is a
great infinite Jaguar (his spots are
thought to be stars and planets).
3 - Ix Chebel Yax - Mother of the Sun.
Ix Hun Zipit - Lady of the Sea.
4 - Kunku Chacs - 'Kun' means "kindly" or "tender"
'Ku' means "God".
5 - Ah Hadz'en Caan Chacs - "Lash" The Sky God.
6 - Ah Kin - "He of the Sun".
7 - Ix Ahau - "Mistress" She is the Mistress of
Creative Arts and the Master of Weaving
(she like Athene, in the Greek myths,
worked her magick on the loom).
8 - Ah Kin - as the Patron of Knowledge and Power.
9 - XAhau - "Lady Ahau" Moon Goddess Wife of Ah Kin
(the Sun God).
10 - Cobel Cab - Mistress of the Earth.
Ix Tan Dz'onot - The Child of She who Sits in the
Mud, the Child of She who emerges
from the Sand.
836
11 - Acan - God of Wine (Actually he rules over
intoxicating drinks such as beer, wine,
Kola, etc.) He is known for his loud
"bellowing" and his foolish behavior
He is Cacoch's aid (Cacoch is a God of
Creation).
12 - Ah Kin Xoc - 'Ah kin' means "Priest". 'Xoc' means
"to count or read". He is a great
singer, musician, and poet. He won
the respect of the Sun God when he
took the guise of a Hummingbird and
wooed the Moon Goddess. Husband of
the Plumeria, the sacred flower of
Itzam Na (this flower rules Divine
Sexuality, its colors are red and
white). This Flower contained the
secret of Truth and Immortality.
13 - Ix Chel - Moon Goddess She rules over Pro-
creation, birth, medicine, and wisdom.
She is a Virgin but she had a secret
cult which she is regarded as a Sacred
Mistress to Itzam Na.
14 - Ix Ahau Na - "Palace-Lady".
15 - Canan Chul Chan - Guardian of Holy Sky. "Big
Star".
16 - Itzam Na Kinch Ahau - Old Sun God of balanced
judgement. Ruler of the
Bacabs (Elements).
17 - Xbalanque & Hunahpu - Twin Heros Brothers who
heard the Divine Call of
Itzam Na which lead them to
destroy the False Ones who
had exalted themselves and
deceived some Mayas to
worship them; and defeated
the Lords of Death.
18 - Nucuch Chacob - "The Great Chacs" Four horsemen
who are the Rain Gods. They
bring Water of Life from the
Gods to the Maya.
19 - Balanke - "Jaguar-Sun" This aspect of the Sun is
the essence of Strenght (warrior-type
strenght). He is considered a Great
Breast. All His Priests and Priestesses
are His harlots.
20 - Xob - Mother of Maize. All Maize Deities sprang
from Her seed (literally corn seed).
837
21 - Ek Chuah - He is the Merchant Diety, but most im-
portantly is ruled the cacao which was
the Mayan's biggest trade commodity.
22 - Itzam Na - as Great God who oversees Justice
between the Gods and the Mayan who
worships the Gods.
23 - Ku Kulcan - The Aztecs called Him "Quetzalcoatl".
He is the God of Self-sacrifice which
was done so the Maya could survive
and gain acknowledgement of Itzam Na.
Some myths place Him as the Judge of
the dead (but I would take this with
a gain of salt).
24 - Yum Cimil - "Lord of Death".
25 - Zip - Protector of the Deer (according to myth
the Deer created the Vagina of the Moon
Goddess by stepping on Her abdomen and then
she was able to bear children of the Sun
God. Note the sole of deer's foot looks like
a Vagina). Zip would deceive hunters to
believe he was shooting a deer when in fact
it was a iguana (a sacred animal of Itzam
Na; to kill one incites the Death penalty).
To those who gained Zip's Favor meant a
successful hunt.
26 - Ah Ahaah Cab - "Awakener" He is associated with
the Morning Star (Venus).
27 - Cit Chac Coh - "Father Red Great Puma" The Lord
God of War.
Buluc Chabtan - The God of Human Sacrifice and War.
28 - Bolon Tzcab - The Ruling-Lineage Diety. He kept the
Line of Itzam Na pure and made sure the
Nobility of the Maya was strong.
29 - XAhau - as Moon Goddess.
30 - Kinich Ahau - "Sun-Eyed Lord" It is said He had
a golden Sun eye (some say it was
almond eye) at the place of His
Ajna Chakra.
31 - Hun Kak - "Unique Fire" The Divine Fire that
consumes all what ever remains is
prepared for Divinity.
32 - Ben Ich - "He of the Starry Sky"
838
A Celebration of
M A Y D A Y
--by Gwydion Cinhil Kirontin
* * * * * *
"Perhaps its just as well that you
won't be here...to be offended by the
sight of our May Day celebrations."
--Lord Summerisle to Sgt. Howie
from "The Wicker Man"
* * * * * *
There are four great festivals of the Pagan Celtic year and
the modern Witch's calendar, as well. The two greatest of these
are Halloween (the beginning of winter) and May Day (the
beginning of summer). Being opposite each other on the wheel of
the year, they separate the year into halves. Halloween (also
called Samhain) is the Celtic New Year and is generally
considered the more important of the two, though May Day runs a
close second. Indeed, in some areas -notably Wales - it is
considered the great holiday.
May Day ushers in the fifth month of the modern calendar
year, the month of May. This month is named in honor of the
goddess Maia, originally a Greek mountain nymph, later identified
as the most beautiful of the Seven Sisters, the Pleiades. By
Zeus, she is also the mother of Hermes, god of magic. Maia's
parents were Atlas and Pleione, a sea nymph.
The old Celtic name for May Day is Beltane (in its most
popular Anglicized form), which is derived from the Irish Gaelic
"Bealtaine" or the Scottish Gaelic "Bealtuinn", meaning "Bel-
fire", the fire of the Celtic god of light (Bel, Beli or
Belinus). He, in turn, may be traced to the Middle Eastern god
Baal.
Other names for May Day include: Cetsamhain ("opposite
Samhain"), Walpurgisnacht (in Germany), and Roodmas (the medieval
Church's name). This last came from Church Fathers who were
hoping to shift the common people's allegiance from the Maypole
(Pagan lingam - symbol of life) to the Holy Rood (the Cross -
Roman instrument of death).
Incidentally, there is no historical justification for
calling May 1st "Lady Day". For hundreds of years, that title
has been proper to the Vernal Equinox (approx. March 21st),
another holiday sacred to the Great Goddess. The nontraditional
use of "Lady Day" for May 1st is quite recent (within the last 15
years), and seems to be confined to America, where it has gained
widespread acceptance among certain segments of the Craft
population. This rather startling departure from tradition would
seem to indicate an unfamiliarity with European calendar customs,
as well as a lax attitude toward scholarship among too many
Pagans. A simple glance at a dictionary ("Webster's 3rd" or
O.E.D.), encyclopedia ("Benet's"), or standard mythology
reference (Jobe's "Dictionary of Mythology, Folklore & Symbols")
would confirm the correct date for Lady Day as the Vernal
Equinox.
839
By Celtic reckoning, the actual Beltane celebration begins on
sundown of the preceding day, April 30, because the Celts always
figured their days from sundown to sundown. And sundown was the
proper time for Druids to kindle the great Bel-fires on the tops
of the nearest beacon hill (such as Tara Hill, Co. Meath, in
Ireland). These "need-fires" had healing properties, and sky-
clad Witches would jump through the flames to ensure protection.
* * * * * *
Sgt. Howie (shocked): "But they
are naked!"
Lord Summerisle: "Naturally.
It's much too dangerous to jump
through the fire with your
clothes on!"
* * * * * *
Frequently, cattle would be driven between two such bon-fires
(oak wood was the favorite fuel for them) and, on the morrow,
they would be taken to their summer pastures.
Other May Day customs include: processions of chimney-sweeps
and milk maids, archery tournaments, morris dances, sword dances,
feasting, music, drinking, and maidens bathing their faces in the
dew of May morning to retain their youthful beauty.
In the words of Witchcraft writers Janet and Stewart Farrar,
the Beltane celebration was principly a time of "...unashamed
human sexuality and fertility." Such associations include the
obvious phallic symbolism of the Maypole and riding the hobby
horse. Even a seemingly innocent children's nursery rhyme, "Ride
a cock horse to Banburry Cross..." retain such memories. And the
next line "...to see a fine Lady on a white horse" is a reference
to the annual ride of "Lady Godiva" though Coventry. Every year
for nearly three centuries, a sky-clad village maiden (elected
Queen of the May) enacted this Pagan rite, until the Puritans put
an end to the custom.
The Puritans, in fact, reacted with pious horror to most of
the May Day rites, even making Maypoles illegal in 1644. They
especially attempted to suppress the "greenwood marriages" of
young men and women who spent the entire night in the forest,
staying out to greet the May sunrise, and bringing back boughs of
flowers and garlands to decorate the village the next morning.
One angry Puritan wrote that men "doe use commonly to runne into
woodes in the night time, amongst maidens, to set bowes, in so
muche, as I have hearde of tenne maidens whiche went to set May,
and nine of them came home with childe." And another Puritan
complained that, of the girls who go into the woods, "not the
least one of them comes home again a virgin."
840
Long after the Christian form of marriage (with its
insistence on sexual monogamy) had replaced the older Pagan
handfasting, the rules of strict fidelity were always relaxed for
the May Eve rites. Names such as Robin Hood, Maid Marion, and
Little John played an important part in May Day folklore, often
used as titles for the dramatis personae of the celebrations.
And modern surnames such as Robinson, Hodson, Johnson, and Godkin
may attest to some distant May Eve spent in the woods.
These wildwood antics have inspired writers such as Kipling:
Oh, do not tell the Priest our plight,
Or he would call it a sin;
But we have been out in the woods all night,
A-conjuring Summer in!
And Lerner and Lowe:
It's May! It's May!
The lusty month of May!...
Those dreary vows that ev'ryone takes,
Ev'ryone breaks.
Ev'ryone makes divine mistakes!
The lusty month of May!
It is certainly no accident that Queen Guinevere's
"abduction" by Meliagrance occurs on May 1st when she and the
court have gone a-Maying, or that the usually efficient Queen's
guard, on this occasion, rode unarmed.
Some of these customs seem virtually identical to the old
Roman feast of flowers, the Floriala, three days of unrestrained
sexuality which began at sundown April 28th and reached a
crescendo on May 1st.
By the way, due to various calendrical changes down through
the centuries, the traditional date of Beltane is not the same as
its astrological date. This date, like all astronomically
determined dates, may vary by a day or two depending on the year.
However, it may be calculated easily enough by determining the
date on which the sun is at 15 degrees Taurus. British Witches
often refer to this date as Old Beltane, and folklorists call it
Beltane O.S. ("Old Style"). Some Covens prefer to celebrate on
the old date and, at the very least, it gives one options. If a
Coven is operating on "Pagan Standard Time" and misses May 1st
altogether, it can still throw a viable Beltane bash as long as
it's before this date. This may also be a consideration for
Covens that need to organize activities around the week-end.
841
This date has long been considered a "power point" of the
Zodiac, and is symbolized by the Bull, one of the four
"tetramorph" figures featured on the Tarot cards the World and
the Wheel of Fortune. (The other three are the Lion, the Eagle,
and the Spirit.) Astrologers know these four figures as the
symbols of the four "fixed" signs of the Zodiac (Taurus, Leo,
Scorpio, and Aquarius, respectively), and these naturally align
with the four Great Sabbats of Witchcraft. Christians have
adopted the same iconography to represent the four gospel-
writers.
But for most, it is May 1st that is the great holiday of
flowers, Maypoles, and greenwood frivolity. It is no wonder
that, as recently as 1977, Ian Anderson could pen the following
lyrics for Jethro Tull:
For the May Day is the great day,
Sung along the old straight track.
And those who ancient lines did ley
Will heed this song that calls them back.
THE END
P.S.--I would be glad of any comments, corrections, additions,
etc. regarding this article. Please E-mail them to Mike Nichols
(a.k.a. Gwydion Cinhil Kirontin) 73445,1074
P.P.S.--A special thank you to "The Rune", Kansas City's premiere
Pagan publication for permission to reprint this article, which
originally ran in a somewhat condensed form there.
P.P.P.S.--Please feel free to reprint this article wherever you
see fit. I ask only that I be given credit as the author. Also,
it would be nice if you could drop me an E-mail note and let me
know where you are using it. Thanx!
842
________________________________________________________________________
Taken from the 1960 reprint of AN ENCLYCLOPAEDIA OF OCCULTISM
by Lewis Spence, University Books, Hyde Park, New York. First
published in 1920, it is considered to be one of the best
sources on the subject.
Submitted by Alan Wright, Atlanta GA, Illumi-Net 404-377-1141
________________________________________________________________________
NECROMANCY: Or divination by means of the spirits of the dead, from the
Greek work `nekos', dead; and `manteria', divination. It is through its
Italian form nigromancia that it came to be known as the "Black Art".
With the Greeks it originally signified the descent into Hades in order
to consult the dead rather than summoning the dead into the mortal
sphere again. The art is of almost universal usage. Considerable
difference of opinion exists among modern adepts as to the exact methods
to be properly pursued in the necromantic art, and it must be borne in
mind the necromancy, which in the Middle Ages was called sorcery, shades
into modern spiritualistic practice. There is no doubt, however, that
necromancy is the touchstone of occultism, for if, after careful
preparation the adept can carry through to a successful issue, the
raising of the soul from the other world, he has proved the value of his
art. It would be fruitless in this place to enter into a psychological
discussion as to whether the feat is possible of accomplishment or not,
and we will confine ourselves tit he material which has been placed at
our disposal by the sages of the past, who have left full details as to
how the process should be approached.
In the case of a compact between the conjuror and the devil, no
ceremony is necessary, as the familiar is ever at hand to do the behests
of his masters. This, however, is never the case with the true
sorcerer, who preserves his independence, and trusts to his profound
knowledge of the art and his powers of command; his object therefore is
to 'constrain' some spirit to appear before him, and to guard himself
from the danger of provoking such beings. The magician, it must be
understood, always has an assistant, and every article named is prepared
according to rules well known in the black art. In the first place,
they are to fix upon a spot proper for such purpose; which must be
either in a subterraneous vault, hung around with black, and lighted by
a magical torch; or else in the center of some thick wood or desert, or
upon some extensive, unfrequented plain, where several roads meet, or
amidst the ruins of ancient castles, abbeys, monasteries, etc., or
amongst the rocks on the sea shore, in some private detached churchyard,
or any other solemn, melancholy place between the hours of twelve and
one in the night, either when the moon shines very bright, or else when
the elements are disturbed with storms, thunder, lightning, wind, and
rain; for, in these places, times, and seasons, it is contended that
spirits can with less difficulty manifest themselves to mortal eyes, and
continue visible with the least pain, in this elemental external world.
When the proper time and place is fixed on, a magic circle is to be
formed, within which, the master and his associate are carefully to
retire. The dimensions of the circle are as follow: - A piece of ground
is usually chosen, nine feet square, at the full extent of which
parallel lines are drawn within the other, having sundry crosses and
triangles described between them, close to which is formed the first or
outer circle, then, about half-a-foot within the same, a second circle
is described, and within that another square correspondent to the first,
the center of which is the seat of spot where the master and associate
843
are to be placed. "The vacancies formed by the various lines and angles
of the figure are filled up with the holy names of God, having crosses
and triangles described between them. The reason assigned by magicians
and others for this institution and use of circles, is, that so much
ground being blessed and consecrated by such holy words and ceremonies
as they make use of forming it, hath a secret force to expel all evil
spirits from the bounds thereof, and, being sprinkled with pure,
sanctified water, the ground is purified from all uncleanliness;
besides, the holy names of God being written over every part of it, its
force becomes so powerful that no evil spirit hath ability to break
through it, or to get at the magician and his companion, by reason of
the antipathy in nature they bear to these sacred names. And the reason
given for the triangles is, that if the spirit be not easily brought to
speak the truth, they may by the exorcist be conjured to enter the same,
where, by virtue of the names of the essence and divinity of God, they
can speak nothing but what is true and right. The circle, therefore,
according to this account of it, is the principal fort and shield of the
magician, from which he is not, at the peril of his life, to depart,
till he has completely dismissed the spirit, particularly if he be of a
fiery or infernal nature. Instances are recorded of many who perished
by the means, particularly Chiancungi, the famous Egyptian
fortune-teller, who was so famous in England in the seventeenth century.
He undertook a wager, to raise up the spirit "Bokim", and having
described the circle, he seated his sister Napula by him as his
associate. After frequently repeating the forms of exorcism, and
calling upon the spirit to appear, and nothing as yet answering his
demand, they grew impatient of the business, and quitted the circle, but
it cost them their lives; for they were instantaneously seized and
crushed to death by that infernal spirit, who happened not to be
sufficiently constrained till that moment, to manifest himself to human
eyes."
There was a prescribed form of consecrating the magic circle, which we
omit as unnecessary in a general illustration. The proper attire or
"pontificalibus" of a magician is an ephod made of fine white linen,
over that a priestly robe of black bombazine, reaching to the ground,
with the two seals of the earth drawn correctly upon virgin parchment,
and affixed to the breast of the outer vestment. Round his waist is
tied a broad consecrated girdle, with the names Ya, Ya, - Aie, Aaie, -
Elibra, - Sadai, - Pah Adonai, - tuo robore, - Cintus sum. Upon his
shoes must be written Tetragammaton, with crosses round about; upon his
head a high-crowned cap of sable silk, and in his hand a Holy Bible,
printed or written in pure Hebrew. Thus attired, and standing within
the charmed circle, the magician repeats the awful form of exorcism; and
presently, the infernal spirits make strange and frightening noises,
howlings, tremblings, flashes, and most dreadful shrieks and yells, as a
forerunner of their becoming visible. Their first appearance in the
form of fierce and terrible lions or tigers, vomiting forth fire, and
roaring hideously about the circle; all which time the exorcist must not
suffer any tremor of dismay; for, in that case, they will gain the
ascendancy, and the consequences may touch his life. On the contrary,
he must summon up a share of resolution, and continue repeating the
forms of constriction and confinement, until they are drawn nearer
to the influence of the triangle, when their forms will change to
appearances less ferocious and frightful, and become more submissive and
tractable. When the forms of conjuration have in this manner been
sufficiently repeated, the spirits forsake their bestial shapes, and
enter the human form, appearing like naked men of gentle countenance and
behavior, yet is the magician to be warily on his guard that they
844
deceive him not by much wild gestures, for they are exceedingly
fraudulent and deceitful in their dealings with those who constrain them
to appear without compact, having nothing in view but to suborn his
mind, or accomplish his destruction. With great care also must the
spirit be discharged after the ceremony is finished, as he has answered
all the demands made upon him. The magician must wait patiently till he
has passed through all the terrible forms which announce his coming, and
only when the last shriek has died away, after every trace of fire and
brimstone has disappeared, may he leave the circle and depart home in
safety. IF the ghost of deceased person is to be raised, the grave must
be resorted to at midnight, and a different form of conjuration is
necessary. Still another, is the infernal sacrament for "any corpse
that hath hanged, drowned, or otherwise made away with itself"; and in
this case the conjurations are performed over the body, which will at
last rise, and standing upright, answer with a faint and hollow voice
the questions that are put to it.
Eliphas Levi, in his `Ritual of Transcendent Magic' says that
"evocations should always have a motive and a becoming end, otherwise
the are works of darkness and folly, dangerous for health and reason."
The permissible motive of an evocation may be either love or
intelligence. Evocations of love require less apparatus and are in
every respect easier. The procedure is as follows: "We must, in the
first place, carefully collect the memorials of him (or her) whom we
desire to behold, the articles he used, and on which his impressions
remains; we must also prepare an apartment in which the person lived, or
otherwise, one of similar kind, and place his portrait veiled in white
therein, surrounded with his favorite flowers, which must be renewed
daily. A fixed date must then be observed, either the birthday of the
person, or that day which was most fortunate for his and our own
affection, one of which we may believe that his soul, however blessed
elsewhere, cannot lose the remembrance; this must be the day for the
evocation and we must provide for it during the space of fourteen days.
Throughout this period we must refrain from extending to anyone the same
proofs of affection which we have the right to expect from the dead; we
must observe strict chastity, live in retreat, and take only modest and
light collation daily. Every evening at the same hour we must shut
ourselves in the chamber consecrated to the memory of the lamented
person, using only one small light, such as that of a funeral lamp or
taper. This light should be placed behind us, the portrait should be
uncovered and we should remain before it for an hour, in silence;
finally, we should fumigate the apartment with a little good incense,
and go out backwards. On the morning of the day fixed for the
evocation, we should adorn ourselves as if for a festival, not salute
anyone first, make but a single repast of bread, wine, and roots, or
fruits; the cloth should be white, two covers should be laid, and one
portion of the bread broken should be set aside; a little wine should
also be placed in the glass of the person we design to invoke. The meal
must be eaten alone in the chamber of evocations, and in the presence of
the veiled portrait; it must be all cleared away at the end, except the
glass belonging to the dead person, and his portion of bread, which must
be placed before the portrait. In the evening, at the hour for the
regular visit, we must repair in silence to the chamber, light a fire of
cypress wood, and cast incense seven times thereon, pronouncing the name
of the person whom we desire to behold. The lamp must then be
extinguished, and the fire permitted to die out. On this day the
portrait must not be unveiled. When the flame is extinct, put more
incense on the ashes, and invoke God according to the forms of the
religion to which the dead person belonged, and according to the ideas
845
which he himself possessed of God. While making this prayer we must
identify ourselves with the evoked person, speak as he spoke, believe in
a sense as he believed; then, after a silence of fifteen minutes, we
must speak to him as if he were present, with affection and with faith,
praying him to manifest to us. Renew this prayer mentally, covering the
face with both hands; then call him thrice with a loud voice; tarry on
our knees, the eyes closed and covered, for some minutes; then call
again thrice upon him in a sweet and affectionate tone, and slowly open
the eyes. Should nothing result, the same experiment must be renewed in
the following year, and if necessary a third time, when it is certain
that the desired apparition will be obtained, and the longer it has been
delayed the more realistic and striking it will be.
"Evocations of knowledge and intelligence are made with more solemn
ceremonies. If concerned with a celebrated personage, we must meditate
for twenty-one days upon his life and writings, form an idea of his
appearance, converse with him mentally, and imagine his answers; carry
his portrait, or at least his name, about us; follow a vegetable diet
for twenty-one days, and a severe fast during the last seven. We must
next construct the magical oratory. This oratory must be invariably
darkened; but if we operate in the daytime, we may leave a narrow
aperture on the side where the sun will shine at the hour of the
evocation, and place a triangular prism before the opening, and a
crystal globe, filled with water, before the prism. If the operation
be arranged for the night the magic lamp must be so placed that its
single ray shall be upon the alter smoke. The purpose of the
preparations is to furnish the magic agent with elements of corporeal
appearance, and to ease as much as possible the tension of imagination,
which could not be exalted without danger into the absolute illusion of
dream. for the rest, it will be easily understood that a beam of
sunlight, or the ray of a lamp, colored variously, and falling upon
curling and irregular smoke, can in no way create a perfect image. The
chafing-dish containing the sacred fire should be in the center of the
oratory, and the alter of perfumes close by. The operator must turn
toward the east to pray, and the west to invoke; he must be either alone
or assisted by two persons preserving the strictest silence; he must
wear the magical vestments, which we have described in the seventh
chapter (of Levi`s "Ritual of Transcendent Magic"), and must be crowned
with vervain and gold. He should bathe before the operation, and all
his under garments must be of the most intact and scrupulous
cleanliness. The ceremony should begin with a prayer suited to the
genius of the spirit about to be invoked and one which would be approved
by him if he still lived. For example, it would be impossible to evoke
Voltaire by reciting prayers in the style of St. Bridget. For the great
men of antiquity, we may see the hymns of Cleathes or Orpheus, with the
adjuration terminating the Golden Venus of Pythagoras. In our own
evocation of Apollonius, we used the magical philosophy of Patricius for
the ritual, containing the doctrines of Zoroaster and the writings of
Hermes Trismegistus. We recited the Nuctemeron of Apollonius in greek
with a loud voice and added the following conjuration:-
"Vouchsafe to be present, O Father of All, and thou Thrice Mighty
Hermes, Conductor of the dead. Asclepius son of Hephaistus, Patron of
the Healing Art; and thou Osiris, Lord of strenght a vigor, do thou
thyself be present too. Arnebascenis, Patron of Philosophy, and yet
again Asclepius, son of Imuthe, who presidest over poetry.
* * * *
"Apollonius, Apollonius, Apollonius, Thou teachest the Magic of
Zoroaster, son of Oromasdes; and this is the worship of the Gods."
846
For the evocation of spirits belonging to religions issued from
Judaism, the following kabalistic invocation of Solomon should be used,
either in Hebrew, or in any other tongue with which the spirit in
question is known to have been familiar:-
"Powers of the Kingdom, be ye under my left foot and in my right hand!
Glory and eternity, take me by the two shoulders, and direct me in the
paths of victory! Mercy and Justice, be ye the equilibrium and
splendor of my life! Intelligence and Wisdom, crown me! Spirits of
Malchuth, lead me betwixt the two pillars upon which rests the whole
edifice of the temple! Angels of Netsah and Hod, strengthen me upon the
cubic stone of Jesod! O Gedulael! O Geburael! O Tiphereth! Binael,
be thou my love! Ruach Hochmael, be thou my light! Be that which thou
are and thou shall be, O Ketheriel! Tschim, assist me in the name of
Saddai! Cherubim, be my strength in the name of Adonai! Beni-Elohim,
be my brethren in the name of the Son, and by the power of Zebaoth!
Eloim, do battle for me in the name of Tetragrammation! Malachim,
protect me in the name of Jod He Vau He! Seraphim, cleanse my love in
the name of Elvoh! Hasmalim, enlighten me with the splendors of Eloi
and Shechinah! Aralim, act! Orphanim, revolve and shine! Hajoth a
Kadosh, cry, speak, roar, bellow! Kadosh, Kadosh, Kadosh, Saddai,
Adonia, Jotchavah, Eieazereie: Hallelu-jah, Hallelu-jah, Hallelu-jah.
Amen.
It should be remembered above all, in conjurations, that the names of
Satan, Beelzebub, Adramelek, and others do not designate spiritual
unities, but legions of impure spirits.
"Our name is legion, and we are many" says the spirit of darkness in
the Gospel. Number constitutes the law, and progress takes place
inversely in Hell - that is to say, the most advanced in Satanic
development, and consequently the most degraded, are the least
intelligent and feeblest. Thus, a fatal law drives the demons downward
when they wish and believe themselves to be ascending. So also those
who term themselves chiefs are the most impotent and despised of all.
As to the horde of perverse spirits, they tremble before the unknown,
invisible, incomprehensible, capricious, implacable chief, who never
explains his law, whose arm is ever stretched out to strike those who
fail to understand him. They give this phantom the names of Baal,
Jupiter, and even others more venerable, which cannot, without
profanation, be pronounced in Hell. But this phantom is only a shadow
and remnant of God, disfigured by their willful perversity, and
persisting in their imagination like a vengeance of justice and a
remorse of truth.
"When the evoked spirit of light manifests with dejected or irritated
countenance, we must offer him a moral sacrifice, that is, be inwardly
disposed to renounce whatever offends him; and before leaving the
oratory, we must dismiss him, saying: "May peace be with thee! I have
not wished to trouble thee; do thou torment me not. I shall labor to
improve myself as to anything that vexes thee. I pray, and will still
pray, with thee and for thee. Pray thou also both with and for me, and
return to thy great slumber, expecting that day when we shall wake
together. Silence and adieu."
Christian, in his "Historie de le Magic" (Paris, 1871) says: "The
place chosen for the evocation is not an unimportant point. The most
auspicious is undoubtedly that room which contains the last traces of
the lamented person. If it be impossible to fulfill this condition, we
must go in search of some isolated and rural retreat which corresponds
in orientation and aspect, as well as measurement, with the mortuary
chamber.
847
"The window must be blocked with boards if olive wood, hermetically
joined, so that no exterior light may penetrate. The ceiling, the four
interior walls, and the floor must be draped with tapestry of emerald
green silk, which the operator must secure himself with copper nails,
invoking no assistance from strange hands, because, from this moment, he
alone may enter into this spot set apart from all, the arcane Oratory of
the Magus. The furniture which belonged to the deceased, his favorite
possessions and trinkets, the things on which his final glance may be
supposed to have rested - all these things must be assiduously collected
and arranged in the order which they occupied at the time of his death.
If none of these souvenirs can be obtained, a faithful likeness of the
departed being must be procured, it must be depicted in the dress and
colors which he wore during the last period of his life. This portrait
must be set up on the eastern wall by means of copper fasteners, must be
covered with a veil of white silk, and must be surmounted with a crown
of those flowers which were most lived by the deceased.
"Before the portrait there must be erected an alter of white marble,
supported by four columns which must terminate in bull`s feet. A five
pointed star must be emblazoned on the slab of the alter, and must be
composed of pure copper plates. The place in the centre of the star,
between the plates, must be large enough to receive the pedestal of a
cup-shaped copper chafing-dish, containing dessicated fragments of
laurel wood and alder. By the side of the chafing-dish must be placed a
censer full of incense. The skin of a white and spotless ram must be
stretched beneath the alter, and on it emblazoned another pentagram
prawn with parallel lines of azure blue, golden yellow, emerald green
and purple red.
" A copper tripod must be erected in the middle of the Oratory; it
must be perfectly triangular in form, it must be surmounted by another
and similar chafing-dish, which must likewise contain a quantity of
dried olive wood.
" A high candelabrum of copper must be placed by the wall on the
southern side, and must contain a single taper of purest white wax,
which must alone illuminate the mystery of the evocation.
"The white color of the alter, of the ram`s skin, and of the veil, in
consecrated to Gabriel, the planetary archangel of he moon, and the
Genius of mysteries; the green of the copper and tapestries is dedicated
to the Genius of Venus.
"The alter and tripod must both be encompassed by a magnetized iron
chain, and by three garlands composed of the foliage and blossoms of the
myrtle, the olive, and the rose.
"Finally, facing the portrait, and on the eastern side there must be a
canopy, also draped with emerald silk, and supported by two triangular
columns of olive wood, plated with purest copper. On the north and
south sides, between the each of these columns and the wall, the
tapestry must fall in long folds to the ground, forming a kind of
tabernacle; which must be open on the eastern side. At the foot of each
column there must be a sphinx of white marble, with a cavity in the top
of the head to receive spices for burning. It is beneath this canopy
that the apparitions will manifest, and it should be remembered the the
Magus must turn to the east for prayer, and to the west for evocation.
"Before entering this little sanctuary, devoted to remembrance, the
operator must be clothed in a vestment of azure, fastened by clasps of
copper, enriched with a single emerald. He must wear upon his head a
tiara surrounded by a floriated circle of twelve emeralds, and a crown
of violets. On his breast must be the talisman of Venus depending from
a ribbon of azure silk. On the annular finger of his left hand must be
a copper ring containing turquoise. His feet must be covered with shoes
848
of azure silk, and he must be provided with a fan of swan`s feathers to
dissipate, if needful, the smoke of the perfumes.
"The Oratory and all its objects must be consecrated on a Friday,
during the hours which are set apart to the Genius of Venus. This
consecration is performed by burning violets and roses in a fire if
olive wood. A shaft must be provided in the oratory for the passage of
the smoke, but care must be taken to prevent the admission of light
through this channel.
"When the preparations are finished, the operator must impose on
himself a retreat of one-and-twenty days, beginning on the anniversary
of the death of the beloved being. During this period he must refrain
from conferring on anyone the least of those marks of affection which he
was accustomed to bestow on the departed; he must be absolutely chaste,
alike in deed and thought; he must take daily but one repast, consisting
of bread, wine, roots, and fruits. These three conditions are
indispensable to success in evocation, and their accomplishment requires
complete isolation.
"Every day, shortly before midnight, the Magus must assume his
consecrated dress. On the stroke of the mystic hour, he must enter the
Oratory, bearing a lighted candle in his right hand, and in the other an
hour-glass. The candle must be fixed in the candelabra, and the
hour-glass on the alter to register the flight of time. The operator
must then proceed to replenish the garland and the floral crown. Then
he shall unveil the portrait, and erect it immovable in front of the
alter, being thus with his face to the east, he shall softly go over in
his mind the cherished recollections he possesses of the beloved and
departed being.
"When the upper reservoir of the hour-glass is empty the time of
contemplation will be over. By the flame of the taper the operator must
then kindle the laurel wood and alder in the chafing-dish which stands
on the alter; then, taking a pinch of incense from the censer, let him
cast it thrice upon the fire, repeating the following words:- ~Glory be
to the Father of life universal in the splendor of the infinite
altitude, and peace in the twilight of the immeasurable depths to all
spirits of good will !"
"Then he shall cover the portrait, and taking up his candle in his
hand, shall depart from the Oratory, walking backward at a slow pace as
far as the threshold. The same ceremony must be fulfilled at the same
hour during every day of the retreat, and at each visits the crown which
is above the portrait, and the garlands of the alter and tripod must be
burnt each evening in a room adjoining the Oratory.
"When the twenty-first day has arrived, the Magus must do his best to
have no communication with any one, but if this be impossible, he must
not be the first to speak, and must postpone all business till the
morrow. On the stroke of noon, he must arrange a small circular table
in the Oratory, and cover it with a new napkin of unblemished whiteness.
It must be garnished with two copper chalices, an entire loaf, and a
crystal flagon of the purest white. The bread must be broken and not
cut, and the wine emptied in equal portions into the two cups. Half of
this mystic communion, which must be his sole nourishment on this
supreme day, shall be offered by the operator to the dead, and by the
light of the one taper he must eat his own share, standing before the
veiled portrait. Then he shall retire as before, walking backward as
far as the threshold, and leaving the ghost`s share of bread and wine
upon the table.
"When the solemn hour of the evening has at length arrived the Magus
shall carry into the Oratory some well-dried cypress wood, which he
shall set alight in the alter and the tripod. Three pinches of incense
849
shall be cast into the flame in honor of the Supreme Potency which
manifests itself by Ever Active Intelligence and by Absolute Wisdom.
When the wood of the two chafing-dishes has been reduced to embers, he
must renew the triple offering of incense on the alter, and must cast
some seven times on the fire in the tripod; at each evaporation of the
consecrated perfume he must repeat the previous doxology, and then
turning tot he East, he must call upon God by prayer of that religion
which was professed by the person whom he desires to evoke.
"When the prayers are over he must reverse his position and with his
face to the West, must enkindle the chafing-dishes on the head of each
sphinx, and when the cypress is full ablaze he must heap over it well
dried violets and roses. Then let him extinguish the candle which
illuminates the Oratory, and falling on his knees before the canopy,
between the two columns, let him mentally address the beloved person
with a plenitude of faith and affection. Let him solemnly entreat it to
appear and renew this interior adjuration seven times, under the
auspices of the seven providential Genii, and endeavouring during the
whole of the time to exalt his soul above the natural weakness of
humanity.
"Finally, the operator, with closed eyes, and hands covering his face,
must call the invoked person in a loud but gentle voice, pronouncing
three times all of the names which he bore.
"Some moments after the third appeal, he must extend his arms in the
form of a cross, and lifting up his eyes, he will behold the beloved
being, in a recognizable manner, in front of him. That is to say, he
will perceive that ethereal substance separated from the perishable
terrestrial body, the fluidic envelope of the soul, which Kabalistic
initiates have termed the `Perispirit'. This substance preserves the
human form but is emancipated from human infirmities, and is energized
by the special characteristics whereby the imperishable individuality of
our essence is manifested.
"The departed soul will give counsel to the operator; it will
occasionally reveal secrets which may be beneficial to those whom it
loved on earth, but it will answer no question which has reference to
the desires of the flesh; it will discover no buried treasures, nor will
it unveil the secrets of a third person; it is silent on the mysteries
of the superior existence to which it has now attained. In certain
cases, it will, however, declare itself either happy or in punishment.
If it be the latter, it will ask for the prayer of the Magus, or for
some religious observance, which we must unfailingly fulfill. Lastly,
it will indicate the time when the evocation may be renewed.
"When it has disappeared, the operator must turn to the East, rekindle
the fire on the alter, and make a final offering of incense. Then he
must detach the crown and the garlands, take up his candle, and retire
with his face to the West till he is out of the Oratory. His last duty
is to burn the final remains of the flowers and leaves. Their ashes,
united to those which have been collected during the time of retreat,
must be mixed with myrtle seeds, and secretly buried in a field at a
depth which will secure it from disturbance of the ploughshare."
850
The last two examples are, of course, those of "white" necromancy.
The procedure followed by savage tribes as of course totally different.
Among certain Australian tribes the necromants are called Birraark. It
is said that a Birraark was supposed to be initiated by the "mrarts"
(ghosts) when they met him wandering in the bush. It was from the
ghosts that he obtained replies to questions concerning events passing t
a distance, or yet to happen, which might be of interest or moment to
his tribe. An account of a spiritual seance in the bush is given in
"Kamilaroi and Kurnai" (p. 251): The fires were let down; the Birraark
uttered the cry "Coo-ee" at intervals. At length a distant reply was
heard, and shortly afterwards, the sound as of persons jumping on the
ground in succession. A voice was then heard in the gloom asking in a
strange intonation "What is wanted?" At the termination of the seance,
the spirit voice said "We are going." Finally, the Birraark was found
in the top of an almost inaccessible tree, apparently asleep.
In Japan, ghosts can be raised in various ways. One mode is to "put
into an andon" (a paper lantern in a flame), "a hundred rushlights, and
repeat an incantation of a hundred lines. One of these rushlights is
taken out at the end of each line, and the would-be ghost-seer then goes
out in the dark with one light still burning, and blows it out, when
their ghost ought to appear. Girls who have lost their lovers by death
often try that sorcery."
The mode of procedure as practiced in Scotland was thus. The haunted
room was made ready. He , "who was to do the daring deed, about
nightfall entered the room, bearing with him a table, a chair, a candle,
a compass, a crucifix, if one could be got, and a Bible. With the
compass he cat a circle on the middle of the floor, large enough to hold
the chair and the table. He placed within the circle the chair and the
table, and on the table he laid the Bible and the crucifix beside the
lighted candle. If he had not a crucifix, then he drew the figure of a
cross in the floor within the circle. When all this was done, he rested
himself on the chair, opened the Bible, and waited for the coming of the
spirit. Exactly at midnight the spirit came. Sometimes the door opened
slowly, and there glided in noiselessly a lady sheeted in white, with a
face of woe and told her story to the man on his asking her in the name
of God what she wanted. What she wanted was done in the morning, and
the spirit rested ever after. Sometimes the spirit rose from the floor,
and sometimes came forth from the wall. There was one who burst into
the room with a strong bound, danced wildly round the circle, and
flourished a long whip round the man's head, but never dared to step
into the circle. During a pause in his frantic dance he was asked, in
God`s name, what he wanted. He ceased his dance and told his wishes.
His wishes were carried out, and the spirit was in peace."
851
In Wraxall`s "Memoirs of the Counts of Berlin, Dresden, Warsaw, and
Vienna" there is an amusing account of the raising of the ghost of
Chevalier de Saxe. Reports had been circulated that at his palace at
Dresden there was secreted a large sum of money, and it was urged that
if his spirit could be compelled to appear, interesting secrets could be
extorted from him. Curiosity, combined with avarice, accordingly
prompted his principal heir, Prince Charles, to try the experiment, and,
on the appointed night, Schrepfer was the operator in raising the
apparition. He commenced his proceedings by retiring into the corner of
the gallery, where kneeling down with many mysterious ceremonies, he
invoked the spirit to appear. At length, a loud clatter was heard at all
the windows on the outside, resembling more the effect produced by a
number of wet fingers drawn over the edge of glasses than anything else
to which it could well be compared. The sound announced the arrival of
the good spirits, and was shortly followed by a yell of a frightful and
unusual nature. Schrepfer continued his invocations, when "the door
suddenly opened with violence and something resembling a black ball or
globe rolled into the room. It was enveloped in smoke or cloud, in the
midst of which appeared a human face, like the countenance of the
Chevalier de Saxe, from which issued a loud and angry voice, exclaiming
in German,"Carl, was wollte du mit mich?" - "Charles, what would thou do
with me?" By reiterated exorcisms Schrepfer finally dismissed the
apparition, and the terrified spectators dispersed fully convinced of
his magical powers.
- end -
852
_REACTIVE_RESPONSE_AND_PROACTIVE_ENCOUNTER_
_Dealing_with_the_Media_
This is a description of what WindFire Coven does to attract
positive media coverage:
During the latest period of Satanism hysteria the energies were
flowing in a negative direction as far as Wicca is concerned. The media
loves controversy and knows that to have controversy they must present more
than one side of any given issue. Consequently when planning some report
that may be negative in context they will go out of their way to present
another view of that same issue.
Reactive Response
This, of course, is reactive not pro-active in nature. This is how
WindFire got the media exposure the last two times. I'll start with the
Denver channel first.
It was a few weeks after File 18 was given toeach member of
WindFire that we dedicated a full moon ritual for magickal work toward a
solution. WindFire is not structured so every member got to focus their
power in their own way toward the solution. The solution was to promote a
positive understanding of Wicca in the local mundane communities.
The verynext day,not 24hours afterthe ritual, wegot acall
from channel 7, Denver. They were in the Springs and wanted to talk to
some witches about ley lines and power spots. The two person crew was at
Celebration Book Store but the attendant didn't want to be on camera.
Fortunately the store attendant had our number and called us. We talked
with the camera crew and arranged an immediate interview.
Twoconsiderations areimportanthere. Thefirstis thatjustlike
any other form of magickal work the magick takes it's own form. So be
ready for anything. And two, when the media calls they usually will not
wait around for interviewees. Be prepared for anything, at any moment.
When the lightning strikes...
Channel 7 told us that they were doing the interview to balance out
some of the reporting on Satanism, but they didn't stress the fact that the
report was about Satanism. Further we didn't know enough to ask what the
focus and content was for the report. Always ask what the focus of the
report is. You may find yourself, just like WindFire, shocked that we are
being visually, if not verbally, associated with Satanism.
Forthe interview,bepositive. Ican'tstress thatenough. Smile
and let them see that you are sincere in your faith in the Goddess. Laugh.
All the reporters see in Satanism is somber faces, confessing their sins.
Let them know that you are happy with your path. Stress the difference
between patriarchal monotheism and pre-Christian, pre-Hebrew Goddess
religion. Have your resources ready for the reporter to look at if they
need a quote for something. Trot out your tools and instruments if you feel
comfortable with that. They love to see the various tools. You don't have
to show them all or any of your tools but it sure helps them get a picture
of what is going on.
853
The media people like robes so wear your best. Covert groups that
have fears about discovery of illegal activities will not don their robes
or show their tools. By doing so you show that you are not aligned with
covert, illegal, fearful groups. And by disassociation you show that you
are doing nothing illegal or dangerous.
There are three parts of the interview: the preview, the personal
interviews and the ritual. In some or perhaps most cases, the ritual can be
left out. [Please note that these terms are descriptive of their function,
not their technical names. The reporters may have a different technical
name for them.]
The preview is a time for the reporter to get to know the members
of the group, circle or coven. They will talk to you for a period of time.
For WindFire that was about an hour for each camera crew. Please remember
to be civil as a group and not blurt things out all at once. Believe me
it's hard not to do that in the excitement. During the preview the reporter
will select who they want to interview.
Personal interviews last about 10 minutes. The reporter will
generally select different questions for each interviewee. Be prepared for
some hard and personal questions. At the end of the personal interview the
reporter will sometimes ask if you have anything particular to say to the
public. Please don't waste this opportunity. Have a personal message
ready for the public.
The ritual can be anything you feel comfortable with. We generally
choose a related focus such as increasing understanding in the mundane
public. The camera crews seem to like this. Be patient, they may want you
to duplicate some particular action for different camera angle.
accommodate them when you can. We got through a partial ritual before the
second camera crew ran out of tape. Don't forget to complete the ritual
before them before you let them leave. Be complete.
Remember that there are generally two people in a camera crew, the
reporter and the camera operator. When the reporter is previewing the coven
have another witch talk to the camera operator, telling them what the tools
are for and what incenses and crystals are used. Be discrete but talk to
each and every camera crew member because they all have input into the
editing of the tape. If the reporter has a good feeling about the coven but
the camera person thinks you stink you may have visual problems later. Make
sure each and every camera crew member goes away with a warm fuzzy feeling.
Offer them refreshments. They will generally refuse alcohol but
water, sodas, coffee and fruit juices are welcomed. Help the crew as much
as they will let you. If they need cables or furniture moved, do so.
Now for Channel 13 in Colorado Springs. This reporter was doing a
report on Satanism alone. Unfortunately the ONLY resource she had was James
McCarthy in Boulder. The reporter used the "S" word, the "W" word and the
"P" word all in the same sentence without differentiating between the
three. Admittedly the context of the sentence was ritual. Still no
differentiation was made. We started a telephone campaign and had about 15
people call the newsroom at the station and complain.
854
Here it is especially good to not bitch unless you have a solution.
If you complain to a reporter do not leave them hanging with no way to
clean up the mess. Talk to them, give them your phone number so they can
call you back later. They are busy people. Try to make sure they can
successfully reach you, not your children, not your message machine, not
your dog. If you give them your number and they don't call you back, call
them. Find out what the problem is.
Duringthephone campaignwe leftthe reporternumerous waysto
contact us. She did and we scheduled a time for the interviews. We
scheduled it for our regular weekly meeting time so that all the members
could be there and a generic ritual could be filmed. Members who didn't
want to be on film were situated so that their faces were not on camera.
The camera crew will do this for you. They don't want to inadvertently
expose unwilling and innocent people to possible harassment.
On the appointed day the camera crew showed up fashionably late.
We went through our usually horror story about being butchered by the media
in the past and they (both crews) were sympathetic to our concerns. Don't
be afraid to stress how badly the media has treated witches, but don't bore
them; everyone has a story to tell but boredom is out these days.
Let them see a generic ritual with a generic focus. The immediate
focus was understanding in the local community. That works well so you
might want to try that with your group or coven. It impresses the camera
crew so that they will be a little more interested.
Proactive Encounter
Proactive means acting before something happens and puts you in
reactive response mode.
Perhaps the best thing to do is to put together a packet that you
can send to your local media: Tv. stations, radio stations, and newspapers,
which also include your local neighborhood weeklies if you're brave enough.
Send a well put together packet to these medias and be sure they
can get in touch with you on a few days notice. You might have more than
one contact for your group, circle or coven. WindFire has three or four.
I suggest for this packet that you include three or four brief
statements from willing coven members, a longer essay on Wicca with
resources, the New Woman article, some artwork and poetry. Include also a
reading list of your favorite Wiccan authors. Be sure to include names and
numbers to call back. While the reporters won't read everything they will
probably read the brief statements from your coven members and look at the
reading list. You might suggest book stores the reporters can find the
reading list books at.
The main time of the year for reactive procedures is Halloween.
Funnymentalist just love to hammer us during Samhain. So be proactive and
let the media know how you view Samhain. Send the media an article about
Samhain about two weeks before. Let them know that there are other views
and that the funnymentalist are slandering a perfectly good holiday.
855
In fact you could emphasize any holiday/s that seems appropriate
for your area or group. Include your resources and/or xerox copies of other
articles you may find, with copyright if needed, on any holiday you deem
appropriate.
Reactive Response Summary
Be prepared to act at any moment if they should call you. Be
positive, smile and laugh a lot. Talk to all the camera crew members. Let
them know your concerns, stress the problems of the past but don't offend
the media people. Make it a magickal time for all the people involved
including the camera crews. Remember to augment your mundane activity
(interviews) before hand with magickal work.
Proactive Encounter Summary
Prepare a good information packet. Sound like you know what you are
talking about. Don't be mousey. Be aggressive and call them if you feel the
need. Make sure they can return a call to you successfully. If you get an
interview be positive and firm. Media people are strong people, they like
other strong people. Be prepared to act at any moment when they call you.
Devote some personal and collective magickal time for magickal work to
attract positive media attention.
I'm sure that you will be challenged by the opportunities your
magick will bring you. The Goddess will bring your efforts to full fruit
if you are ready to support Her when the time comes. It's not an overused
saying to state that we should be prepared for the effects of our own
magick.
AN UPDATE OF IMMEDIATE CONCERN
Just before Halloween Channels 5/30 in Colorado Springs interviewed
WindFire Coven in the pro-active mode. The reporter was concerned that her
boss wanted a sensationalized segment on witches to go with segments on
Satanism and various local New Age groups and psychics. She told us that
she would try to talk her boss out of sensationalizing the segment. No
guarantees were given and we accepted her word that she would try her best
to represent us fairly. WindFire Coven was filmed for four or five hours
for the 3 minute segment and some promotional footage.
Some problems arose inthe promotionals and broadcastthat we
didn't anticipate.
In the promotionals various members were visually associated with
Satanism by default, that is, Wiccans and Satanists were shown together in
the same promo without distinction. This caused quite a lot of concern when
clients and associates of those involved either refused to speak to the
involved or blamed them for some unspecified hardship in their lives. To
complicate the matter one members face was overdubbed with a hags cackling.
This hurt the member greatly as she is nothing like the voice indicated.
MAKE SURE THAT YOUR PROMO IS YOUR OWN WITH NO VISUAL ASSOCIATION TO
ANY OTHER SEGMENT WITHOUT YOUR KNOWLEDGE AND PERMISSION. MAKE SURE THAT
YOUR MEMBERS FACES AND VOICES REMAIN INTACT THROUGH THE PROMO AND
BROADCAST. GET IT IN WRITING UNLESS YOU ARE WILLING TO SEE THIS HAPPEN
TO YOUR COVEN. REFUSE THE INTERVIEW IF NECESSARY.
856
During the broadcast and promos various tools, icons and artifacts,
including a piece of copyrighted artwork, were used in others segments
without our permission.
MAKE SURE THAT YOUR TOOLS, ICONS, ARTIFACTS AND ARTWORK ARE NOT
USED IN ANOTHER CONTEXT WITHOUT YOUR KNOWLEDGE AND PERMISSION. GET IT
IN WRITING UNLESS YOU ARE WILLING TO SEE YOUR TOOLS, ICONS, ARTIFACTS
AND ARTWORK PROFANED BY USE IN AN INAPPROPRIATE CONTEXT.
Another problem arose when the editors inserted a Christian into
our segment who said that Wicca was inappropriate because it is not
Christian. When asked why such was done the reporter replied that it is
good journalistic practice to offer two sides of an issue. WindFire Coven
feels that should a contemporary religion be represented, such as the
Jewish or the Mormon faith, the station would not be as quick to put in
dissenting views. We feel that Channels 5/30 leaned toward promoting the
stereotypical image of witches by having a Christian define what we are and
are not. Such cannot be allowed to continue any longer.
MAKE SURE THAT YOUR SEGMENT IS YOURS AND YOURS ALONE. DO NOT ALLOW
THE EDITORS TO INSERT DISSENTING VIEWS IN YOUR SEGMENT. DISSENTING
VIEWS CAN BE PRESENTED IN ANOTHER SEGMENT DEDICATED ENTIRELY FOR
DISCUSSION OF DIFFERENCES. MAKE SURE THAT WICCA IS REPRESENTED BY
WICCANS, NOT BY CHRISTIANS, NOT BY NEW AGERS, NOT BY LOCAL PSYCHICS.
TAKE CONTROL OF THE INTERVIEW BEFORE IT TAKES CONTROL OF YOUR COVEN.
Blessed Be!
Copyright (c) Ammond Shadowcraft Oct. 1988
857
--------
This is an sample form to be used when reporters come to your home
to interview your circle or coven.
--------
WRITTEN AGREEMENTS AND GUARANTEES FOR INTERVIEW WITH WINDFIRE COVEN
Dated: ________________________
Note: For the purpose of this Agreement WindFire Coven is termed
the Interviewee and ______________________ is termed the Interviewer.
TheInterviewee agreesto acceptreporters fromthe Interviewer
into their homes and/or sacred space to witness and report seasonal and/or
generic rituals, to photograph and film tools, icons, artifacts, artwork,
poetry and songs, to interview the Coven and individual members, for a
period not to exceed 24 hours, providing that the following agreements are
made:
The Interviewer will employ the usable or airable video footage
filmed, photographs and/or recordings of/during this interview for any
segment and/or report as a singular complete segment and/or report and in
such a way as to retain the original context and atmosphere intended by the
Interviewee. No other individuals, religious faiths and/or religious
groups will be included in this segment/report without the express
permission of the Interviewee.
The Interviewer will employ the usable or airable video footage
filmed, photographs and/or recordings of/during this interview for any
promotion as a singular complete promotion and in such a way as to retain
the original context and atmosphere intended by the Interviewee. No other
individuals, religious faiths and/or religious groups will be included in
this promotion without the express permission of the Interviewee.
The Interviewer will treat all persons, tools, icons, artifacts,
artwork, poetry and music filmed, photographed or recorded as integral
parts of the interview and will not use any cassette, video or photographic
representations of these persons/items in any other context or external
segment, report or promotion without the express permission of the
Interviewee.
____________________________________________________
For WINDFIRE COVEN (Interviewee)
____________________________________________________
For __________________________________ (Interviewer)
____________________________________________________
Witness
____________________________________________________
Witness
____________________________________________________
Witness
858
QUANTUM MAGIC
REALITY AS DESCRIBED BY QUANTUM MECHANICS
In quantum mechanics, reality is described by waves defining the
probabilities of different outcomes from the same interactions.
These waves manifest as what we have been taught to call matter,
energy, particles, and/or waves when observed.
These probability waves overlap and continue forever. The
interactions between different entities constitute a single
structure of linked wave patterns, so that the entire universe
can be thought of as an unbroken whole. The waves form a matrix,
with all parts of the system affecting all other parts. Non-
local relationships exist between parts of the system that are
distant from each other [1]. It is impossible to distinguish
two particles of the same type in a region of space in which they
may be found simultaneously [2]. Particles loose their
individual identity in such regions. Thus, the physical universe
is fundamentally unified.
The basic equation of non-relativistic quantum mechanics is
Schrodinger's Wave Equation [2]:
2 2
i h (p)Q /(p)t = - h /2m Delta Q + V(x,y,z) Q
satisfying the normalizing condition:
Integral 2
over all |Q| dx dy dx = 1
space
where:
h = 6.63E-34 joule sec / (2 pi)
pi = 3.14...
V(x,y,z) = Potential energy, as a function of
coordinates x, y and z
m = Mass
t = Time
(p) = Partial derivative of
2
Q = Wave function of the particle, where Q dx dy dz is
the probability that the particle may be found in the
volume element dx dy dz at a particular time. Values
of Q are components of the "state vector."
859
Values of Q are quantum mechanically defined states and
constitute components of the "state vector." These quantum
mechanically defined states define the probabilities of various
results from quantum mechanically defined interactions [2]. In
one orthodox interpretation of quantum mechanics, a system exists
simultaneously in all quantum mechanically possible states until
an observer (or apparatus outside the system) interacts to
"collapse" the state vector" and obtain an observation.
Quantum mechanical systems can go from one configuration to
another instantly, without passing through any states in
between. Quantum mechanical movement is discontinuous, with all
actions occurring in discrete amounts (quanta).
Schrodinger himself discovered one of quantum mechanics' more
distinctive features: whenever two systems interact, the
mathematical waves that represent the two systems do not separate
but remain linked. The link does not drop off with distance and
the link acts instantaneously at both locations, but the
specificity of the link can be diluted through interactions with
other objects [7].
WHAT UNDERLIES QUANTUM MECHANICS?
There are lots of hypotheses on the nature of the underlying
reality described statistically by quantum mechanics.
o Some scientists are content with the hypothesis that there is
no more subtle structure than the probability waves described
by quantum mechanics; and reality, at its most basic level, has
a large amount of randomness whose limits are described by the
quantum mechanical wave function, making the wave function
itself the fundamental reality. This is called the probability
doctrine. It asserts that such indetermination is a property
inherent in nature and not merely a profession of our temporary
ignorance, from which we expect to be relieved by a future
better and more complete theory [2].
o Einstein speculated that there must be some underlying
mechanism, some hidden variables, that uniquely determines
the outcome of the interactions quantum theory can only
statistically predict.
o J.S. Bell showed mathematically that, if such a mechanism
exists, and the math of quantum mechanics is strictly correct,
hidden variables must not have any functional dependence on the
separation of events in space and time [3].
860
o According to David Bohm, from both a consideration of the
meaning of the mathematical equations and from the results of
experiments, particles can be understood as projections of a
higher-dimensional reality. This reality can not be accounted
for by any force of interaction between independent entities,
but can be understood as a process of enfoldment in a higher
dimensional space [1]. Information within the quantum wave
determines the outcome of the quantum process. This
information is potentially active everywhere but only actually
active when and where it enters into the energy of an observed
particle, implying that all particles have complex inner
structures [10].
o Recently, superstring theory has been proposed, describing a
ten dimensional webwork of space-time at an incredibly small
scale (1E-33 cm) underlying the phenomenon described
statistically by quantum mechanics, relatively, particle
physics etc.
Some scientists consider speculation about the nature of the
underlying reality to be irrelevant, since the predictions of
quantum mechanical equations match the statistics of the results
of experiments. To the best of my knowledge, experiments have
not been performed that unambiguously distinguish between these
alternative world-views. On the other hand, experiments have
been proposed; and some work is underway to check some
predictions of superstring theory. Eventually, from the results
of experiments, some of these hypotheses may be screened out and
others elevated to the level of scientific theory.
We are one and the same as the structures that underlie the
matter and energy that we manifest as; and that structure is
continuous, interconnected, and non local in nature. Whatever
the underlying structure behind the interconnected wave pattern
described by quantum mechanics (if any), we are that.
QUANTUM MECHANICS AND CONSCIOUSNESS
Getting back to established scientific theory, normal waking
consciousness occurs when the nerve cell firing rate (synaptic
switching rate) is high enough to spread out the waves associated
with electrons to fill the gaps between nerve cells (synaptic
clefts) with waves of probability of similar amplitude. This is
described mathematically by the quantum mechanical mechanism of
tunneling. These waves are interconnected throughout regions of
the brain through resonances, resulting in a large, complex,
unified, quantum mechanically defined resonance matrix filling a
region in the brain. The waves are interconnected with each
other and with information storage and sensory input mechanisms
within these regions of the brain.
861
The nerve cell firing rate (v') at which this occurs has been
modeled mathematically by Evan Harris Walker (at the U.S. Army
Ballistics Center at Aberdeen Proving Ground) and corresponds to
the threshold between waking and sleeping consciousness in people
and animals. For normal waking consciousness to exist, the
synapse transmission frequency for the brain (v') must satisfy
the condition:
2/3
v' must be greater than or equal to N /T
where:
N = The total number of synapses in the brain (in humans,
about 5E11)
T = Synaptic transmission delay time (the time interval
required for the propagation of the excitation energy
from one synapse to another)
This theory ascribes consciousness to an association of the
events occurring at any one synapse with events occurring at
other synapses in the brain by means of a quantum mechanical
propagation of information. The sense of individual identity is
an aspect of the continuity of the wave matrix residing in the
brain [4].
862
QUANTUM MECHANICS AND PSYCHOKINESIS
By merely observing a phenomenon (resonating ones brain with it)
one can affect the outcome, since the physical mechanisms in your
brain are part of the wave matrix described by quantum mechanics.
The information handling rate in resonance determines the amount
of effect, along with the elapsed time of resonance and the
probability distribution of the phenomenon you are observing
[5]. According to Evan Harris Walker, quantum mechanical state
selection can be biased by an observer if [5]:
W te is greater than or equal to -Log P(Qo-Qi)
Q 2
where:
P(Qo-Qi) = Probability that state Qi will occur by chance
alone
W = Information handling rate in process in brain
Q associated with state vector selection (bits/sec)
te = Elapsed time
Q = Overall state vector
Qo = Initial physical state of system
Qi = State that manifests "paranormal" target event
The effect of consciousness is incredibly small on macroscopic
systems; but it can be measurable when it occurs on quantum
mechanically defined and divergent systems, where a slight change
can amplify itself as it propagates through the system. The
effect is about 1E-17 degrees on the angle of the bounce of cubes
going down an inclined plane. Changes in the angle of bounce
result in changes in displacement of the cubes that increase
about 50% on every bounce, and the effect is measurable after
many bounces [6]. The theory successfully and quantitatively
modeled the differing amounts of displacement observed in
experiments on cubes of different weights and weight
distributions [5].
Walker also modeled information retrieval in "guess the card"
experiments. Simple, classical, random chance would predict a
smooth, binomial curve for the probabilities of getting the right
answer versus the number of subjects making successful
predictions at these probabilities. Walker's model predicts that
the curve would have peaks at certain levels of probability of
getting the right answer above those predicted by chance alone.
Experimental data showed peaks at the locations modeled.
However, more people were successful at the higher probability
levels than Walker's model estimated. This is considered to be
evidence of learning enhancement [5].
863
SCIENTIFIC THEORY
Mr. Walker's ideas and equations would only be hypotheses if it
weren't for the fact that they have been tested experimentally
and found to predict the results of experiments with reasonable
accuracy [4,5]. The evidence meets the usual rules of proof for
scientific theory, and this makes Walker's equations legitimate
scientific theory.
The non-local underlying wave patterns beneath manifestations of
matter and energy that we hold in common with our surroundings
allow us to influence reality and to obtain information about it
using the power of the mind. This underlying interconnecting
pattern is the very stuff of consciousness and manifests, not
only as matter & energy, but also as psychokinesis, precognition
and other phenomenon that are only now beginning to be recognized
and embraced by some theories of modern physics.
IMPLICATIONS OF QUANTUM CONSCIOUSNESS THEORY
Deflections caused by consciousness are not caused by force or
energy in the conventional sense; but by something more subtle,
namely effects within the underlying wave structure out of which
matter and energy are manifestations (collapse of the state
vector) [5].
To psychically obtain information about a target or to
psychically influence events, one has to have one's brain
resonating with aspects of reality interconnecting the brain with
the target. The more one's brain resonates with non-local
aspects of reality connecting with a target, the more
communication and direct influence one can have on it.
The more fundamentally diverse the potential outcomes of a
process targeted are, the more effect one gets from resonating
ones brain with it [5]. Also, the more small changes in the
system tend to amplify as larger changes in the end result, the
more effect one can get. This provides an explanation of why
patterns exist within seemingly random events and why successful
magic often results in a chain of synchronicities.
For a given subject (performing under optimum conditions and
having no difficulty visualizing the nature of the experimental
target nor psychological aversions to the target), the
magnitudes of the results obtained in tasks to affect the
readings on measuring devices (such as magnetometers, radiation
detectors, Josephson effect devices, balances, etc.) can be
related to one another by calculating the probability of the
reading based on the standard physical principles of quantum
mechanics [5].
The sporadic nature of psi phenomena can be explained as a
matter of outside observers randomizing the process, causing
dilution of will data channels and randomizing the results [5].
Thus, the need for secrecy in magical operations.
One can no longer maintain the division between the observer and
864
observed or between consciousness and the physical world.
Rather, both observer and observed, along with both consciousness
and the material world, are merging and interpenetrating aspects
of one whole indivisible reality [1].
Whatever the subtle level of reality underlying matter and
energy, we are that (including our consciousness). If hidden
variables exist, we are the hidden variables. It has been
theorized that consciousness is an inseparable aspect of this
underlying reality. When our awareness connects with the deepest
layer of reality interconnecting everything, we may experience
the level of consciousness beyond time and form reported by many
mystics. It is this non local structure that we share with
nature that makes it possible to "attune to nature," to
psychically participate in nature, and to live in accordance with
it.
What we are usually aware of (normal waking consciousness) is a
relatively superficial movement in the order of things. Behind
the things we are aware of in waking consciousness are a vast
array of less strongly linked phenomena. This latter realm is
commonly called the unconscious (and parts of it the
subconscious). The unconscious is not very accurate, since it
forms a kind of ground of consciousness [8]. Our awareness can
link with this ground of consciousness to gain information and to
influence events.
THE GODS, GODDESSES AND NATURE SPIRITS
At this point, I diverge from theory and describe some plausible
hypotheses. Consciousness, at a fundamental level, is associated
with the continuity of the underlying structures out of which
matter and energy manifest. Everything shares this continuous
structure; therefore everything has consciousness to some degree
(though not necessarily normal waking consciousness).
Quoting from Evan Harris Walker (4): "Consciousness may exist
without being associated with either a living system or a data
processing system. Indeed, since everything that occurs is
ultimately the result of one or more quantum mechanical events,
the universe is 'inhabited' by an almost unlimited number of
rather discrete, conscious, usually non-thinking entities that
are responsible for the detailed working of the universe. These
conscious entities determine (or exist concurrently with the
determination) singly the outcome of each quantum mechanical
event, while the Schrodinger equation (to the extent that it is
accurate) describes the physical constraint placed on their
freedom of action collectively."
In shamanic and in religious practice, one resonates with other
intelligences to get their assistance, inviting them to join in
the work at hand. These intelligences can be thought of as
consciousness resonance matrices. Some may be localized, as we
are (such as other biological intelligences, plant divas, power
spot spirits, some deities, etc.); and some may be non localized
(spirit animals in the other world, some deities, etc.).
865
The personalities of the Gods, Goddesses and spirits that many
practitioners of religion relate to can also be thought of as
consciousness resonance matrices. They can be very non-specific
and disperse, or very specific (such as the Orishas and other
deities that can manifest in full possession of those who invoke
them).
QUANTUM MECHANICS AND MAGICAL RITUAL
Consider a typical structure of magical ritual and its quantum
mechanical explanation:
o Purify one's mind and one's surroundings, freeing them of
interfering resonances, quieting the static so that one can
get a clear and strong resonance on the target desired.
o Achieve a non-localized state of consciousness, often by
resonating ones mind with ones inner being, with the Earth,
the sky, and ones surroundings.
o Meditate on the elements (Earth, Air, Fire, Water)
representing non-local essences. This helps your mind to
resonate powerfully non-locally.
o After reaching out with one's mind and connecting its
resonance pattern intimately with the non-local web of wave
patterns connecting everything, invoke deities whose natural
function is related to the purpose of your ritual. If
successful, this connects your mind to a powerful,
established, non-localized, intelligent resonance matrix that
(hopefully) joins in the magic.
o Focus on the target of the work, connecting with the target.
o While connected with the target, visualize the end result
desired, thus creating a resonant template for the phenomenon
one wants to achieve.
o Energize the resonance through dance, drumming, chants, pure
channeling of will power, or other means.
o Release the energy into the target while strongly visualizing
the target achieved (energizing the resonance in the target).
o Ground, removing ones mind from the direct, resonant link
with the target, so that the patterns you have set in motion
in the target can continue with minimum interference (to
throw a ball, one has to let go).
o Thank and say goodbye to the intelligences one works with, thus
disconnecting ones mind further from other resonance matrices.
866
There are other forms of magic, and much more detail to the
forms I described. There are also ethical considerations. This
paper provides a description of some aspects of the integration
of quantum mechanics with magickal thinking, but it does not
cover everything.
SO WHAT?
To read about theories of magic is like reading about sports.
You may pick up a few ideas; but to become proficient, you must
participate and play the game. People have been teaching and
performing magic for thousands of years, without the benefit of
quantum theory. Many magicians have had to separate their
scientific training from their magical practice. Now, magical
theory has been merged with scientific theory, and more of the
mind of those trained in science can resonate with magic. Also,
critics of magic can be shown the scientific theory and data
validating it, to show that there is more to magic than
superstition.
I have not seen any other quantitative scientific theories that
explain the results of experiments on psychokinesis, extrasensory
perception, and consciousness as accurately as Walker's theory,
or that give as satisfying of an explanation of the
synchronicities that I, as a worker of magic and a scientist,
have observed from personal experience. This is not to say that
these ideas represent ultimate truth, that alternative theories
no not exist, or that flaws will not be found and that
alternative theories will not replace them. I would welcome
hearing from others who have additional information and insight
into the applicability and limitations of the theories of modern
Physics as applied to the occult.
MULTIPLE UNIVERSES?
One interesting hypothesis is that of multiple universes. As I
understand it, this hypothesis states that all of the alternative
possibilities allowed by quantum mechanics actually occur, but in
different universes. Magicians can interpret their magic as
moving their awareness between these alternative universes. I
have never seen the multiple universe theory set up
mathematically in a way that would allow it to be quantitatively
tested, using physical measurements (like was done with Mr.
Walker's theory),
It would be interesting to determine if and to what extent the
multiple universe hypothesis can be integrated with Mr. Walker's
theory. Consciousness, acting at a gross level, seems to be
relativistic - something experienced by observers relative to
their frames of reference. Consciousness, at its ultimate level,
seems to be subtler than time and location.
867
When two observers see the same thing, they both may have certain
experiences in common, they both may affect the thing observed,
and they may report some of the events the same and some
differently. Experience may be categorized in a multiple
universe mode and/or in a single universe mode. If would be
interesting to know which mode is most useful for various
purposes.
It is obvious that some people have such a different personal
perception of reality as to be seemingly out of touch with the
world we experience around them. Their self-world image becomes
more important than anything, and they adjust their memories and
perceptions to meet whatever emotional needs they have at the
time [9]. Delusions of personal reality and the high
probability that such realities are real for the person
experiencing that reality can result in interesting questions
about what is real and what is unreal.
Although the universe may be a seamless whole, most physicists
describe it in two different modes, depending on whether things
are being observed or not [7]:
o A classical, mechanistic mode for the definite attributes of
observation, and
o A statistical, mathematical, quantum mechanical mode for the
wave patterns described by quantum mechanics.
David Bohm has begun to develop new terminology that integrates
both the process of observation and quantum theory [1].
868
REFERENCES
1. Bohm, David. Wholeness and the Implicate Order, ARK
Paperbacks, London, 1983.
2. Merzbacher, Eugene. Quantum Mechanics, John Wiley and
Sons, Inc., New York, 1967.
3. Bell, J.S. "On the Problem of Hidden Variables in Quantum
Mechanics, Review of Modern Physics 38, 447-452, 1966.
4. Walker, Evan H. "The Nature of Consciousness,"
Mathematical Biosciences 7, 1970.
5. Walker, Evan H. The Complete Quantum Mechanical
Anthropologist. U.S. Army Ballistic Research Laboratories,
Aberdeen Proving ground, Maryland, presented at the 73rd
Annual American Anthropological Association Meeting,
Mexico City, November 19-24, 1974.
6. Walker, Evan H. and Nick Herbert. "Hidden Variables:
Where Physics and the Paranormal Meet," Future Science,
edited by John White and Stanley Krippner, Anchor books,
Garden City, New York, 1977.
7. Herbert, Nick. "Notes Toward A User's Guide to the Quantum
Connection," Psychological Perspectives 38, Jung
Institute of Los Angeles, Spring-Summer 1988.
8. Bohm, David. "Consciousness and Self-Consciousness-A
Working Paper," Psychological Perspectives 38, Jung
Institute of Los Angeles, Spring-Summer 1988.
9. Bohm, David. "Beyond Relativity and Quantum Mechanics,"
Psychological Perspectives 38, Jung Institute of Los
Angeles, Spring-Summer 1988.
10. Bohm, David and Peat, David. Science Order and Creativity,
Bantam, 1987.
***************************************************************
I used WordPerfect to write this article, and I used CompuServe B
protocol, Procomm 2.4.1 and an Everex Evercomm 24 modem to transmit it.
I don't know how to transmit Greek and many mathematical symbols with
this software and hardware. As a result, I had to use non-standard
symbols in the equations. Any suggestions?
Note that "E" in numbers like 5E11 stands for five "times ten to
the" eleventh power.
869
Personal Effects of Magic Ritual
By Nihasa
LC> I am exploring the power of change, as applied to
LC> ritual. When I step out of my suit and tie and into my
LC> ceremonial robe, then step out of my rooms and into my
LC> temple, then leave behind my everyday life and enter
LC> into the sacred space, what is it that makes it 'work'
LC> for me?
.
One part of the effect seems to come from an unconscious pact
you make with your many-faceted mind. When you remove your
"street" clothes, you give your mind permission to likewise
"put off" important thoughts about "mundane" life until you
return to those clothes. Notice that I don't say "compel
your mind" to avoid those thoughts...that generally doesn't
work very well. Instead, you acknowledge the importance of
the mundane thoughts and promise to return to them after the
ceremony (gee, did you know you were being so polite to your
self? <-;).
.
Likewise, when you don your ceremonial robes you invite your
mind to start focusing on the ceremony ahead and the general
context of such ceremonies and their associated mental
states. For those who work 'skyclad', this effect is often
achieved by tieing on a cord or putting on ritual jewelry.
When you step into the ritual chamber, you reiterate those
invitations while you step out of the transition and into
the magick.
.
These dynamics are fairly universal...they are the same for
a Christian priest and his vestments or a Toreador and his
Suit of Lights; from an actor slipping into his costume and
character to a couple slipping into those "special" night-
things. The mechanics vary from a simple "change clothes and
walk in" to elaborately formal vesting rituals with
prescribed chants and gestures at each stage. In NLP we call
the clothes and places "anchors", while others call them
reminders, Mnemonics, or talismans. They can be constructed
consciously or evolve unconsciously.
.
870
THE HERETIC'S CORNER
(c)1986, Buck Jump
Greetings, my Pagan friends; may your Gods be well disposed
to you. May the rain fall gently on your rhubarb. May the hail
fall in a lake or on a parking lot. May our little six-legged
friends develop an allergy to your pickle patch.
Now is the sweet season of our year. Our Mother the Earth
is pregnant with the harvest to come. The days are long and the
thoughts of the season are long, long thoughts. In the soft
afternoon sky the white thunderheads sail serenely on like ships
of dream in dreamland seas. Surely even such as I can be
forgiven for dreaming a bit, for letting the fancy roam free.
In dreams I see a world set free. I see the human race
living in peace, with each one going his own way but with
courtesy to all who go another way. I see us as one species,
which we are, and all of us acknowledging that fact. I see each
walking in beauty, with dignity, and respecting the other
person's dignity. I see us loving one another, helping our
fellow men along their way. When I dream, I don't mess around -
I rear back and dream up a doozy!
So much for dreams; back to the world we live in, back to
the life we know. Before I spring my question for the day, a
little background, a few facts:
Every one of us must come to terms with his environment and
his heredity. We all live on one Earth. That is the main part
of our environment, or at least the location of it.
We are all human beings, homo occasionally sapiens. That is
the basis of our heredity.
Anything that is done to one of us is done to all of us.
Anything that happens in one place on this planet has some effect
on every place on the planet.
We are, all of us, stuck with our whole species. Here we
are with a bunch of people we wouldn't willingly walk down a
country road with. Indeed, we are as ship- wrecked mariners in a
lifeboat with a bunch we wouldn't sit down to eat a free meal
with. To jump out of the boat is to drown. To try to toss those
_______________s out is very apt to upset the boat and drown all
of us. These facts are self-evident, axiomatic.
I have always held that we should all walk the path of life
with our hands outstretched in fellowship with respect and love
for all. Of course, I have a caveat - keep a Bowie knife handy
in case they haven't all heard the message.
As the Ultimate is reported to have said when the mountains
were made, "Now for the background". The present situation is a
mess. Violence is everywhere. Not even foolish violence, but
violence without reason. Surely a leopard is in our streets and
a shark loose in our swimming pool.
871
An armed bandit shoots down an unarmed clerk who is
cooperating. A litigant in court shoots down an attorney. A
parent beats a child to death. A driver gets cut off coming onto
the freeway and guns down the chap in the pickup who did the
off-cutting. An otherwise reasonable young man is annoyed by the
sounds of traffic on a mountain road and starts shooting at the
cars passing. Those are only a few examples culled from the news
in recent months. In truth, senseless violence is loose in the
land.
As it is with the individual, so with groups. From the
racist fringe movement on to great governments. Violence for the
sake of violence is epidemic. Each age of history has had a
plague - the plague of this age is senseless violence. I have
friends of the "born again" persuasion who tell me that it is the
Devil doing it. I don't think so. As far as I can determine,
devils are a disorganized bunch. Satan Mekatrig Lord of Chaos is
a confusion in terms. Seen another way, that's organized
confusion. As I see it, the flow of the power of the Universe is
organized and rational. So it seems to me that any force opposed
to that flow must be disorganized and irrational. That is to say
nothing of the personal devils within us. They must have a hand
in at least some of this senseless violence.
I have other friends who blame it on some as yet
unidentified virus. Could be, but it's a rare virus that has no
fever, nor nausea accompanying its onset....
Others hold that it is all explainable by Sigmund Freud and
others of that ilk. Again I say could be, but what mental
discomboomeration comes on suddenly with no sign of
disorientation nor disturbance until it suddenly manifests itself
in the acute stage?
For all I know, none of the above are correct. The fact re-
mains that a wild unreasoning violence is loose among us, a
danger to us all. The fact is, we are all in the same boat, and
the boat is encountering some heavy weather. Don't you think we
should do something about it? I personally can think of a whole
lot of folks who I don;t really care to rescue, but being as we
are all in the same boat, I am sure going to do my best for
them....... But what?
In case this is all some psychosis, maybe we should engage a
firm of head shrinkers to drag in a trainload of couches and get
everyone to undergo psychoanalysis. I refuse to consider the
logistics of this. The idea by itself causes my mind to boggle.
Or, suppose it is a virus. In that case when the
virologists and immunologists have a bit of spare time from their
search for the cause and cure of AIDS, they could do the same for
the senseless violence virus. In view of the fact that we are
all at greater risk from senseless violence than from AIDS, it
might be a worthwhile task.
Or, just in case the gnostics have some truth in their
ideas, and it is Auld Clootie, maybe a mass general exorcism is
in order. Once again, my mind refuses to consider the logistics.
872
In view of the fact that the cause of senseless violence is
still unknown, we might get a government grant to study the
problem. Considering the speed that such grants usually get
results, I would expect a definite answer by the twenty-second
century. Of course, such a grant would have the added advantage
of keeping a large number of researchers out of the pool halls
and off the streets.
Now I am going to go against my usual custom and make a
suggestion; only a suggestion, mind, and not to be taken as a
dictum, but only as an idea to be considered. It has been my
observation that there are only two occasions when magic is apt
to work. One is after all other methods have been tried and
found ineffectual. The other is when there is no other method.
Now I believe that I have explored the other methods and found
them impractical if not impossible. So I feel that I am safe in
saying it's going to take magic to stop this purposeless killing.
So how to go about it? What spell, what charm, what
ceremony shall we use? What power shall we invoke? What power
evoke? Magic works, the proper ceremony at the proper time, done
for the proper reason, will work. True for you, you may well
say, but which ceremony? When? Why?
I just told you. The proper one. The one that is proper
for you is the one you yourself believe is proper. This is not
an essay on morals and ethics, so I refrain from putting in my
two cents worth on what is in my estimation proper. When you are
fighting a grass fire is no time to discuss what sort of shovel
to use.
In my dream we were all walking each in his own way, each
helping the others as much as possible. So here let us not try
to all walk in one path. No point in the universe can be reached
from only one direction. Let us rather each from where it seems
most right and comfortable, try by magic means to stop this
senseless violence. Not-ice I said senseless violence, not just
violence. Some who follow the old Norse way could hardly be ex-
pected to endorse some anti-violent intention, but I know of none
who do not deplore reasonless violence. We have our differences,
but surely no one objects to improving all our chances of kissing
our grandchildren.
So, what I propose is this. Sometime in the next quarter
year, whenever it seems most proper, let us in our various ways
by whatever means one believes in, try by magic means to stop
this epidemic of senseless violence.
873
I have noticed a few things about power on the unseen side.
For a ceremony to be more than a mere charade, everyone involved
in it must believe in the ceremony and in whatever power is used
in it. Everyone must believe that the ceremony can and will
work. Everyone must want the ceremony to work. If anyone
involved in the ceremony does not so believe and want, that
person will be a dead weight on the others that do. When I say
everyone, I mean everyone, all, each one with one belief and one
resolve. What can be done by a group acting in true spiritual
harmony is indeed amazing, but first you must have that true
spiritual harmony.
That is why I suggest we go at this not as some sort of
super- coven ecumenical pagan group. I have seen a few of these
"lets all get together" bunches back in the sixties, and they
couldn't even get drunk.
I personally am in favor of any religion that don't practice
human sacrifice, interfere in the private lives of the
nonbelievers, or use force in conversion. I love 'em all, but
I'm not fool enough to yoke the ass and the ox together. So
let's all go, but let's not try to make it a parade.
That is my suggestion, and my question is why not? I'd
appreciate your ideas on this, I truly would. If you have any
ideas on the subject, please communicate them to the editors of
the RMPJ. Even if the ideas are along the lines of, "You're
Nuts!!", just say why you think so. I'd appreciate it.
May your dreams come true; may the wind cool without
chilling, and may you reap a harvest even richer than the seed
catalogue said you would. May your shadow fall long on the
Earth. Go in peace, remember your fellows, and with these words
I do part now from thee.
________Buck Jump. ....from RMPJ 8/86
874
The Heretic's Corner
Greetings, my Pagan friends, may your Gods be well disposed
to you. May the sad and ugly in your lives be covered by the
blessing of beauty even as the trash of Autumn is covered by the
beautiful snow. May all that is sad in your lives decompose
beneath the blessings even as the dry leaves decompose beneath
the snow; out of the dead past a living future. The flower of
hope ever springs from the mulch and compost of dead regret.
Remember, a curse may force its way into your citadel, but a
blessing only enters through an opened door. In other words, my
blessings upon you, may your Gods bless you, but do your part
too.
Samhain has come and past, the leaves of autumn have fallen
to the ground, the veil between the worlds is once more grown
thick. It is winter now, early winter, but winter none the less.
Our mother the Earth is now the old woman by the fire- side, past
all passion now, but also past regret. She is the loving wise
woman, the old one who looks back in order to show us the path
ahead. Youth is the time for courage and hope, but courage
without caution is spectacular suicide and hope without wisdom is
gentle madness. The fruitful Mother Summer changes the snow-
baby's diaper, but Grandmother Winter shows her how. The Romans
dedicated this quiet season to Janus who looks back into the past
and ahead into the future with good reason. It is the season of
history and prophesy. The sound of the pipes dies in a wail,
the nimble fingers of the harper are still upon the strings, a
hush falls over the hall and the blind seer of things unseen
makes his way slowly up the length of the Ard Righ's great hall,
tapping with his staff before him. It is the hour of telling the
King's fortune, the tribe's fortune. When the blind seer begins
to chant all tongues are stilled, all ears are straining to catch
every word. So it was, so it still is, and my guess is, it will
be so as long as men walk the earth.
Now for my questions. A heretic without questions is a
confusion in terms. I may be confusing and even [some say]
confused, but I am a bona fide heretic here to question any faith
- even my own.
First question: What do you see up the road before us?
There are Tarot cards, there are Runes, there are crystal balls
and dark mirrors, peep stones and visions in the mind. I can't
even begin to list all the ways of looking into the future, but
whatever method you use, won't you tell us what you see? As a
voting member of the human corporation you owe it to your fellows
to share your vision with us all. So come on all you
astrologers, scryers, mystics and shamanic prophets, give us the
word. Now I know how hard it is to go out on a limb, I lived in
a tree house for a while. No one but a masochist or a publicity
hound wants to be proved wrong in public. Even the delphic
oracle used to state her predictions in ambiguous terms. The
fact that any prophet can at times be wrong tends to make serious
prophets a rather close-mouthed bunch. I understand how that is,
no one's complexion is improved by egg on the face.
875
Now I think I have a way for you to share your vision
without going out on a limb and falling like Lucifer if the limb
breaks. Write your prediction to the editors of the R.M.P.J. and
ask that your name be kept confidential. It will be. I know
Kyri and Gary and I give you my word and oath, they are honorable
people who will respect your confidence. A Pagan Priest or
Priestess is no more apt to break the seal of confession than a
Christian one. In the case of astrologers this is hardly the
case. The stars are a matter of public knowledge and any error
in an astrological prediction is a matter of interpretation
rather than false vision. To some degree readers of cards and
runes are the same as astrologers - the error is more apt to be
in the reading than in what is read. Anyway, in these troubled
times [that is a redundancy] we all can use any guidance we can
get, so please pass on to the rest of us any vision you have. So
that is the first question. What do you see, and that's a public
question.
Here is the next question, and it is a private question -
that is, answer it, but don't pass the answer on. If you do, it
can only lead to quarrels, argument and sorrow. We have enough
trouble in the world without adding to it. Answer, but keep your
answer where you found it. The question is this: Is the future
you saw the only future possible?
The idea that the future is fixed, that the last day's
doings were inevitably programmed before the first day's dawn did
not begin with John Calvin. If the future is fixed then it can
be known - however, if it's fixed, knowing it won't help. In
fact in a totally known or knowable future even your finding out
is part of the programme.
Now as for me, I'm a heretic. I truly can't call myself a
Pagan and I'm sure not part of anything else either. I wouldn't
try to get anyone to share my beliefs. For one thing, being "a
poor seeker after the truth, whatever it may be" is lonely, for
another it is apt to give a person lots of shocks. So if I toss
in a bit of private faith at this point don't think I'm trying to
make any converts. I only bring this up for your consideration.
If you see a coyote chasing a rabbit and the coyote is
gaining, you can predict rabbit dinner. The odds are you will be
right unless... You didn't see the hole one jump ahead of the
rabbit, or you may have overlooked the hawk already stooping on
the rabbit. All of these, coyote, rabbit, and hawk, are living
creatures, self-directed by minds, so we must consider these
possibilities too. The coyote may become a vegetarian, the
rabbit may take a quick course in judo and the hawk may become a
guru and announce that she has become a butterfly. The future
will probably be a continuation of the past, what is in motion
will probably stay in motion, but so long as minds are a part of
the future, the future is changeable. The ability to change is
the chief attribute of a mind.
876
So, if I'm right any vision of the future, even if it cannot
be totally exact will be of value to me. If I'm wrong and the
future is fore-ordained, prearranged, fated or kismet, I would be
wasting my time even considering it. The worst part of that is
even my wasting my time must also be fated. I don't believe
that, but it is a consoling thought when I've lost the rent money
shooting pool.
Now the last question. This one can be public or private as
you prefer. I can't see how the answer or how you answer would
in itself cause any real trouble. Oh, those who agree with your
answer will call you wise and those who disagree will call you a
blind fool, but that goes on all the time anyway. The question
is this: How did some of the old-timers in the game of
prediction roll up their impressive scores?
There was the oracle at Delphi, the Roman spurinna, St. Malachy,
and Coinneach Odhar the Brahan seer; they all rolled, so far as
we know, a perfect score. How did they do it? Or did they? It
may well be that their hits have been remembered and their misses
swept under the rug.
Then there are others; Nostradamus, Homer Lee the hunch-
back, Roger Bacon and Robert Nixon the cheshire idiot, to name a
few. These all proved quite accurate after the fact. That is,
their pre-dictions have been seen to be accurate after the events
predicted have come to pass, but difficult to understand before
they happened. This in spite of the fact that both Lee and Nixon
were quite plain spoken.
Some have had dream visions, some have been suddenly granted
knowledge, some have had visions in trance and some of them were
correct. Others by the same methods or means have been totally
wrong. Is there a way to tell the true from the false before the
predicted event either comes to pass or passes beyond
possibility? If so how? Did they, the visionaries whose visions
were accurate beyond the laws of chance, see the real and only
future, or the most likely future? Did they perceive the causes
in their times and follow them logically to their final efforts,
or did they physically go forward in time?
No big deal, but something to while away the hours when the
snow keeps all but those employed outside (and brave fools)
isolated by the fireside with nothing but a bunch of books to re-
read and the idiot box to look at. When the white blanket cuts
us off from society it is well to have something to occupy the
mind. Figuring out the prophets of old ought to last even a busy
mind through a day of blizzard.
Any way, let us have a bit of prophetic prediction from the
readers. I have no doubt that there is at least one Michel de
Nostredame out there and probably several William Millers.
Miller, if you don't know, was the gent who predicted the end of
the world for Oct. 22, 1844. If you haven't noticed, he was
wrong. Let us hear a word from the future from these Rocky
Mountains.
877
The snow grows deeper up in the hills; old Yuler skiis over
the mountains and through the canyons, his long red cap trailing
behind like the tail of a comet and his merry laugh ringing in
the crisp air. Yuler of the winter stars, friend of wolves,
fools, drunks and children - enemy of armies, noble princes, and
"the brave of mouth, coward of heart", - may he take a liking to
you. Even more, may you be the sort of person he likes,
cheerful, full of laughter, not boastful, simple of heart, open
of mind and blessed with a generous giving hand.
Be of good cheer dear friends; listen to the voice of our
Mother. The longest coldest winter will end one day in spring.
However deep beneath the snow the seeds are buried, in time the
flowers will bloom again. I don't need a crystal ball to see
some rough times ahead. Times are hard and getting harder, but
we humans have weathered some bad times getting this far. We can
make it. My blessings on one and all, with which words I do part
now from thee.
__________Buck Jump
.......from RMPJ 12/86
878
THE HERETIC'S CORNER
Copyright (c) 1987 by Buck Jump
Greetings my Pagan friends; may your Gods be well disposed
to you. May the smoke go lightly up your chimney, taking the
ills and sorrows of your house with it. May your wood pile
diminish slowly and your fire kindle quickly. May you not lack
for ale nor friends to share it with.
Yule has come and passed, the sun has once more turned North
and the short winter days grow longer. For all that, the wolf of
winter howls the louder around our doors. The sky holds a
promise of spring; the wolf howls louder and prowls closer around
our doors for he knows his time is short.
We people of the North Intemperate Zone are the children of
the seasons. Our special magic is weather magic. Out of the
cold hard winter and the hot blazing summer we have fashioned our
arts and our inventions. All the strength under the sky is of no
avail without some-thing to push against. Yet for all our clever
inventions we are still shaped by the seasons, ruled by the
weather. here in the rockies, all our promises and our contracts
carry the unspoken clause, "If the road is open and the crick
don't rise."
Our Mother the Earth speaks to us by the seasons, in the
ever changing, ever repeated weather. Hereabout when Mother
speaks all men listen. Now in the hard season be-tween the
winter solstice and the vernal equinox the lesson Mother teaches
is one of patience and introspection.
Consider, my friends, how it is this time of year. We walk
abroad in a world that seems dead, or at least dormant and
sleeping. Yet out of this seeming death will spring the life of
the summer to come. Life into death, death into life the seasons
roll on. Under the frost the seeds of the plants to come are
waiting. Deep in their roots the grass and the greenwood trees
are gathering strength for the green to come. A person who won't
learn from nature won't long cast a shadow on the earth.
Now is the time for planning and preparation. Now, when
every thing is moving slowly is the time to set our minds for the
quick decisions to come. The time to plan for a journey is
while the road is blocked with snow. Perspiration without
preparation is a waste of effort. Now in this quiet time we
should prepare for the busy season ahead. In this life the quick
and the dead are judged. Those who ain't quick are judged dead.
True enough, but quick alone won't get it. The frog that means
to survive must be ever ready to jump, but he has to jump in the
right direction. Old Blue Heron gets many a meal from frogs who
jump the wrong way. We live in a hard world where to do nothing
is to die, and to do the wrong thing is suicide. The eyes that
look not ahead are soon stopped with grave dust.
879
Look into the future to plan for the future, but don't
forget the past. Old defects and mistakes are a better teacher
than old triumphs. Remember what went wrong in the past, so it
won't go wrong again. Anyone alive to read these words must be
at least fair at for-seeing the future, or have luck beyond the
ordinary. Now is the time to get out the crystal ball, cast the
horoscope, shuffle the Tarot cards, consider the predictions of
sages and experts, read the record to establish a pattern, and
then meld them all into some sensible plan of action. It's not a
bad idea to have a contingency plan or two on hand just in case.
Enough of this, I am beginning to sound like a guru, and I
only meant to pass the time of day. I have no certificate of
appointment signed by the ultimate and witnessed by our Mother
the Earth appointing me councillor to the human race. No, I'm
just the asker of questions, and I don't need an appointment for
that. Does a bird need an appointment to fly?
Don't pay too much attention to me, or to any other tribal
elder. We are all of us ever tempted to sit in the seat of the
oracle, and reveal to the young the words of the Gods, that we
heard in the age we call golden. If the elder is really good at
it he can even recall an age when every goose was a swan and
every goat a gazelle. The flower children who said "don't trust
anyone over thirty" had good reason for saying it. I would add
"Don't trust anyone under thirty, either." If you can't trust
your own observations and intelligence, you have a real problem.
I trust you to know the difference between gold and bull-
plop. I will propose questions, you will have to find your own
answers. If I, or any other old crock,knew the answers to all of
life's questions, do you think we'd be here casting our pearls of
wisdom to the winds?
When, and if you have a bit of time to consider general
questions, after considering your own specific problems, here are
a few good ones.
What should our relations be with one who has gone wrong?
We should love all life, even the self made mess, the scoundrel
who knows no law save his own appetites, the seeker after free
lunches, the T.V. evangelist and all the self proclaimed "great
leaders". We should love them, but how close should we get?
Holding hands with a fool who insists on standing under a tall
tree during a thunderstorm just isn't bright. The laws of nature
have no pity, and being an innocent bystander is the most
dangerous employment known to man. So the real question is, how
close should we get?
880
Another to ponder, how far should we go in turning one of
our fellows from the wrong path? "No effort to great to promote
the right" sounds good but is it? Consider: When does a
friendly word of warning become a pack of alarmist lies? How far
does friendly persuasion go, before it becomes `unfriendly
coercion? It's all very well to be the dedicated teacher, but
when does the teacher become the demagogue? How far can a
teacher go before he is interfering with the student's free will?
Where does seduction end and rape begin? Just how far can one go
in correcting a friend gone wrong without buying in to a real bad
deal? I was once picking apples with a fellow who was color-
blind. With the best intention he picked a small round hornets
nest. We learn by observation.
Here's one to ponder on long cold nights when old Fenris
howls outside the door, and ghost lights gleam in the northern
sky. Can right ever be wrong? At first glance, it looks like
the Old Heretic has drunk too deep from the good plum wine.
Could be, but consider before you judge. Take for instance the
statement "The Earth is our mother, we should all love, cherish
and protect her." Now, I don't think you can find a sane person
anywhere who don't agree with that statement, at least in spirit.
Self-preservation demands that we try to save our home and
our heritage. So far so good, but just how far should we go in
our protecting? What weapons should we use, and how use them?
Adolph Hitler had the idea that over-population was our big
problem, and he set out to fix it. The laws of nature don't need
a bunch of petit bureaucrats to enforce them. No judge and jury
are needed to sentence a fool to dismemberment for failing to
show the proper respect for high explosives. It doesn't take the
hand of Lud to drown a fool who shoots a hole in the boat. The
laws of nature have no pity, you who know better and are in the
boat with the armed idiot will drown along with him if he fires
the shot. The trick is to save the boat. In a case like that,
anything that works is right and proper--if it works. Throwing
the armed lunatic overboard is fine if you can do it without
upsetting the boat.
Anyone can cure a dog of running away by shooting him in the
head.
It's a poor medicine that causes more pain than it cures. It is
not enough to know right and defend it, you must still be right
after your defence triumphs. The end would justify the means
always, except any end must reflect the means and be a part of
them. So I lied a little, right can become wrong. The real
question is how does one defend right without destroying the
right defended? That's one we all damn well better have an
answer for every day.
881
These grey days that keep me indoors have gotten me full of
questions; a house-bound heretic is a menace to man's peace of
mind. Here is a question to discuss with friends by the fire
over a mug of ale. I toss this in as a gift. After you have
discussed the weather and displayed your knowledge of sports
you'll need a topic of conversation. That boring lull in the
conversation is all too easy to fill with remarks about the
neighbors, and that leads all to often to digging a grave in the
frozen ground. So here is my gift to the peace of the
neighborhood. When is it proper to work weather magic?
I won't bore you with a discourse on the ways and means of
weather magic, they are many and for the knowledgeable person
they all work. I know that there are a few world-class weather
fixers in my audience. Most of us are somewhere between poor and
fair at weather magic. In terms of snow we range from a white
frost to an occasional ground hider. The real adept can bring on
a real road-blocker at will. The question is not "can it be
done?", the quest-ion is "When should it be done?"
Why? Before you answer it might be well to consider another one
of those laws of nature. There is one that can be stated
`whatever you do by whatever means is your responsibility', or in
the vulgate "if you order it you have to take de-livery on it and
pay for it."
My first three questions are intended for private answers,
I don't want to know your answers, but I hope you do. As long as
your personal moral code doesn't endanger me, I'm in favor of
you keeping it personal. I have trouble enough with my own moral
code. I'm not interested in yours, but I hope you are.
I'd like some input on the last question. If you have any
ideas on the subject please pass them on to our ever-tolerant
editors. We who love our Mother Earth, and practice a bit of
benign magic owe it to each other and to humanity generally to
share our ideas. Some of the magi of the old times seem to have
worked out the morality of weather magic, but that was then, this
is now. Or does that make a difference?
I have done my best to give you something to think about,
something to keep boredom at bay and break the monotony of the
cold grey days. If this doesn't work you can shovel snow and
keep your body so busy that your mind won't have time to grow
bored. If you don't have any snow of your own to shovel I'll let
you come over to my house and have at the drifts with a shovel.
My blessing to one and all; may the green grass of spring
know your shadow - with these words I do now part from thee.
P.S. Women: Please read mankind for man, and Hers or His for
his. I respect all of you persons, but I plead `non culpa' to
the charge of male chauvinism - I did not invent the English
language, I only use it.
882
THE HERETIC'S CORNER
by Buck Jump
Greetings, my Pagan friends; may your Gods be well disposed
to you; may the bugs flee your patch as from a crow; may the
gentle rain fall softly on your flower beds; and may your lovers
be all you wish them to be. Now at the season of long lovely
days and short passionate nights, when our Mother the fair Earth
is at her richest and most bountiful, it is hardly the season for
deep thinking.
When nature is at its very best and the season most
enjoyable are we not all of us tempted to shut of maymental
processes and enjoy life in a purely sensual mammalian way? Of
course we are, to do less would be an insult to creation.
At this glad time, here comes that old pest, the heretic,
like the ghost at Ceasar's feast. Consider, dear friends, even
as the screech owl is put into this world to scare goose bumps on
our backs, the here-tic is put into the world to ask hard
questions and discomboomerate the quiet mind. The only place on
this sweet earth where we can look for a quiet unchanging stay is
a graveyard. It is so with me, even as with you.
The other day when I was minding my own business [a most ha-
zardous occupation], a stranger came to me with a request. He
wanted me to magically restore to him a lost love. It seems that
he had, by his own actions, turned his lady's love if not to
hate, at least to an active dislike. He was sorry. He knew it
was all his own fault. He agreed that she was justified in
leaving him. He beat his chest and cried `mea culpa', but he
wanted her back, and he wanted me or someone to, as he put it,
"push the right button", and change the situation. Before he
came to me he had been to a friend of mine. The friend is a
scholar and practical magician who is rather more daring than
most- he had by magic means caused the lady to recall the best of
the past. With that, the lady consented to talk with her ex-
inamorata, and discuss, in a civilized fashion, her decision to
be done with him. At that, the magician bowed out. He pointed
out to the petitioner that from there on, it was up to him. My
friend maymagician can be, when he has to be, a most impressive
man, and I gather he dismissed the `lorn lover' with a definite
dismissal.
Then he came to me. I pointed out that there ain't no free
lunch in the universe and I had no intention o making on a
karmic debt of considerable proportion for his possible benefit.
I told him that it is easier to move a mountain than to move a
human mind if it will not be moved. I told him that he was
trying to find someone to do for him what could only be properly
done by himself. I pointed out to him that his situation was an
effect of a cause, a cause that he was responsible for. I told
him that magic is fine as a last resort, but hardly to be
considered as first aid. I told him ...... I wasted my breath.
Such a one hears only what he wants to hear.
883
The petitioner only said, "I just need someone to push the
right button - she used to love me. I am not asking much, I just
want things to be like they were."
I refrained from pointing out that Hitler could have said
the same thing in the bunker. Then he said, "I am willing to pay
you. Just tell me how much it's going to cost." Some things are
an insult from a knowledgeable person, and a joke from a fool. I
laughed. He was the sort who would ask "How much?", referring to
one's head.
Now I am, I think, a reasonable sort, patient, and in my own
way polite, but enough is enough, and this chap was rapidly
becoming too much. I told him flatly, that I was not about to do
any button pushing. I gave him what I felt was good advice.
That is, I told him that if he was determined to further his
amours by magic means to learn to do it himself. I referred him
to a most knowledgeable teacher. I was in that way certain that
he would either learn what was involved in his request and give
it up, or more likely abandon the whole thing as too slow and too
difficult. (The teacher informs me that he never bothered to
even go around to see what the teacher had to offer. A case of
"Gimme my daily bread, I'm willing to wait with my mouth open".)
Then he countered that if I wouldn't "push the button" could
I refer him to someone who could, or would. I inquired around.
One col-league I know is willing to try just about anything. He
once did a weather spell out on the high plains in tornado season
and another time worked a charm to rid a field of grasshoppers in
hail season. I add, both were successful in a disastrous way.
When I contacted him with the case, his words were, "I'd like to
but I'm going on a trip to South America." Surprised, I asked
about the trip, adding I hadn't known about it. He replied, "I
didn't know about it either, but if that dude shows up here, I'm
going!"
Failing to find a genuine scholar and practicing magician
to attempt the matter, I tried a couple of unethical charlatans.
In view of the fact that the petitioner was a large muscular sort
who would expect instant results, they regretfully declined.
I was beginning to feel like Sinbad the Sailor when he
carried the old man of the sea piggyback around the island. At
wit's end (where I have lived for years), I suggested that he try
religion. I offered to introduce him to some nice Pagan folks,
or even get him in touch with some T.V. type evangelists. He
refused on the grounds that they would be too slow and uncertain.
He wanted instant gratification.
At last, thanks be to the power that watches over well-
meaning fools like me, another lady hove into sight, and he took
off in her direction with deep breath and flashing eyes. This
sad fellow is but one of many I've had my misfortune to meet. I
am sure most of you could recount similar sad males. We'll all
have to get together and I'll haul out the portable wailing wall,
and we can share a cup of tea and all sympathize with each other.
884
I wouldn't have bored you with this all too familiar tale
except I have a question. How does one deal with such people?
Is there some way to tell a person with a real problem who can be
helped from the person who has an endless amount of wants and no
energy to help himself? That is, some way, without finding out
the hard way? I can handle skeptics (I am one myself), I can
handle cynics, I can handle atheists and deal with convinced true
believers of all sorts, but how do I deal with a person who
believes that I can work miracles?
One question leads to another. I have a few more on the
same line. How comes it that as soon as people, some of them at
least, find that one is not part of some main line orthodox
church, they straightway want you to work some magic? Are Roman
Catholic and Episcopal priests pestered by miracle seekers? Are
T.V. evangelists? If not, why not? They deal in magic as much
as any Pagan or free thinker. Is the prevalence of lazy
freeloaders the reason that Christianity for the last fifteen
centuries or so has been down playing the magical basis of the
early Church? This is a topic worthy of our consideration.
Another question comes to mind at this point. A question
about magic in general. I am sure you know what magic is, just
is I am sure I know what it is. The definitions are many and
varied, but they all basically state in one way or another, that
magic is the practical side of religion, and the practice of
magic is the art of causing changes in the tangible by intangible
means. Or, to put it another way, magic is a mental way of
changing the physical by means o the spiritual. That is what
magic is, no question there. The question is what does the
uninitiated, uninformed layman think magic is?
If you are going to make a living repairing televisions and
radios, it is not enough that you know electronics. You must
also know what your customers believe about electronics. The
degree of success in the TV-Radio repair business is generally in
direct proportion to the amount of customer knowledge the
proprietor of the business has. The rule is, if you deal with
the run of humanity, you must understand the general run of
humanity. You must not know only what you know, but also what
people ignorantly suppose you know.
I pass this bit of wisdom on to you, for I think it has
value to any serious student of matters intangible. An old
doctor of medicine told me this some forty years ago. The
occasion was a patient of his inquiring about an operation for a
then inoperable condition. I, only an army medic, was astounded
at the fellow's ignorance and when the Doc and I were alone, said
as much. "Son," the old doctor said, "Here is something to
remember Anything that works that you don't understand is magic
and a magician can do anything. That's not the truth, but
ninety per cent of the human race believe it is." That is how
people who have never studied the arts of magic see it. To them
it is a power without cost and without limit.
885
Now, the final question for this time is, what should we do
about this situation? How should one handle a request made in
good faith, to do something clearly impossible? Don't tell me
the answer is nineteenth century elitist secrecy. Even if one
is a member of The Mystic Confraternity of the Aureate, six
fifteen A.M. some well intentioned ill informed citizen is going
to crawl out of your woodwork either begging for a miracle or
demanding one. Secrecy restricts the free flow of information
and the cross fertilization of ideas, besides which it don't
work. I fear that people more or less like the chap I described
at the start of this will ever be with us. What can we do about
them, how should we do it? I am as always serious with my ques
tions. If anyone has some idea on the subject please let us all
know. Write the editorial staff of the RMPJ. Don't hide your
light in this dark world.
Now, having done my best to dispel the boredom of too much
of a good thing, I part now from you. May the sunshine fall
softly on you, tanning but not burning. May our sweet Mother the
Earth long know your shadow. May you go ever with the current of
the power of the Absolute. My blessings on one and all.
(c)1986, by Buck Jump .........from R.M.P.J. 8/86
886
THE HERETIC'S CORNER
Copyright 1987, Buck Jump & RMPJ
Greetings, my Pagan friends--may your Gods be well-disposed to you.
May the rain be sufficient unto the needs of your gardens but not so much
as to change the creek bottom geography. May the fish be attracted to your
bait and the deer flies and mosquitos find you nauseating.
Now is the sweet season of our year when our sweet Mother the Earth is
at Her most satisfying, must nurturing aspect. Ripe Summer just a moon to
come, Spring with her fickle teasing just a moon past. Now the days are
long and our thoughts are longer. The nights are short and our sorrows
even shorter. To add my blessing to the blessing of being alive in this
glad season would be to lay a penny on a gold-piece. Rejoice and be glad
that you are alive in this season.
According to my Almanac, which holy writ I have so far found to be
true, on the night of June 25 the Sun and Moon will both be in Cancer.
That night if the clouds are not intervening we will be treated to the
sight of the new moon with the old moon in her arms. The earth light then
is so bright on the moon that we can see it from here.
The Teutons call it the geigenschine, and, in the old times at least,
believed it was the time when one might peer through the veil of time, to
see both past and future. The Celts held that the new moon was pregnant
with the harvest to come on these nights. Those who follow the seasons in
their doings hold it a grand time for beginnings. A good time for marrying
and giving in marriage. The Hebrideans hold it to be the luckiest of times
for launching a fishing boat. Come to think about it those two things are
not very different.
Any way it's a fine night for a bonfire and a picnic. I must confess
in my own case it's hard to think of a night that isn't good for a fire and
a feast, but when the new moon holds the old moon in her arms seems the
best of nights for partying and feasting. It is a time without equal for
blessing ceremonies -- especially ceremonies to bless the beginning of
something.
Most of you, I am sure, know more about this than I do, but I thought I'd
just give you all a gentle reminder. Another thing -- it is generally said
to be ill luck to start the new cider in the fall with over half the old
cider still not drunk. Party time, friends!!
887
Now I may seem to change the subject. I have found that only the
Absolute Ultimate Intelligence and the tables of mathematics can be trusted
totally. That is why I trust the Almanac, the axioms of geometry, and the
equations of physics more than the revealed words of all the prophets. Not
that I think prophets are liars, far from it, but one man's truth may be
another man's fairy tale. If you don't think that is so, consider: Three
honest, fair, sober citizens witness the same event, say a wreck on the
highway. One is a farmer from the San Luis Valley, one a Denver truck
driver, and one a sheep herder from Craig; they tell their story in what
they all fondly believe to be standard English. What do we hear? Three
different stories that don't even seem to concern the same event. Now take
three metallurgists, or chemists, or physicists - any three people all
knowledgeable in the same physical discipline. Let one be a Swede, one a
Chinese and one an American; let them all make the same observation and
report on it each in his own language. The equations they use explaining
the observation will be identical. That is why I hold Almanacs and such to
be holy writ.
Interesting, but what has that piece of information to do with a feast
by a bonfire or a ceremony under the new moon? Music is what. Music is
that form of mathematics that describes and evokes emotion. A ceremony
without music is like a feast without food, a confusion in terms.
I can't speak the highland Gaelic, but when a good piper blows "I will
see ye no the more" I understand what it is to go bravely into a battle
knowing you won't win, and can't win, but can't avoid either. They had no
piper, but I wonder if someone didn't whistle that sad brave tune inside
the Alamo that morning when Santa Anna's trumpeter blew "Death and Glory."
A native American blowing on a bone flute can tell you more about the Hopi
nation and what the coyote's song means than a whole library full of
anthropological studies. A classic Chinese orchestra playing "Dragons
Crossing a River" will put you more in tune with China than a year spent
studying Kung Fu Tse in translation. A drummer from the Congo banks and a
drummer from the Shetlands don't have the same beat, nor do they carry the
same message, but each can understand the other.
Magic is at least in part emotion, a mood-thought or as we say in the
country `you have to hold your mouth right.' So if you do plan some
ceremony for the night of the double moon, give a thought to the music. It
is not enough that a ceremony "work" it has to "work right."
Now for my question. I am not just being silly with this, I ask it in
hope that we can establish some uniformity of terms. At the night of the
new moon we who count time by moons begin a new count. Different folk in
different places name the moons differently. That is, the full moon
occurring when the Sun is in Cancer or first after the Summer solstice is
called Green Corn moon, Catfish moon, Strawberry moon, or First Heat moon,
to name only a few designations. I am not trying to establish any
uniformity in these names. As the heart feels let the mouth speak. Any
way a list beginning with the Full moon next after the Vernal Equinox is
easily translated from one name system to another.
888
What I'd like to know is something else. The other day I was playing
trivial pursuit and one of the questions was "what is the second full moon
in a month called? I missed it. The answer was a "blue moon." I lost
fair and square, a game is played by the rules of the game and damn the
facts. In fact, a blue moon occurs whenever there is a cloud of volcanic
dust in the stratosphere. We had several after St. Helens blew up. There
were some emerald sunrises at that time too. We had `blood on the moon'
some fifty years ago during the dust storms. That red moon phenomenon
occurs during forest fires too. Signs in the moon of impending doom and
disaster are too well known to warrant comment, so I won't make any.
What I want to know is what does one call the second full moon
occurring in the passage of the sun through a single sign of the Zodiac? In
four full years there are 48 sun signs, but 49 full moons. What does one
call that extra full moon? For instance it happened now would it be
"second full moon", or "early currant moon", or "more catfish moon", or "If
you didn't catch 'em last time moon get 'em now moon"? Being as I'm not
color blind I know it's not a "blue moon" but what is it?
So dear friends the year rolls on. Enjoy the good green days when
Summerland is here and not hereafter. To look ahead at the cold to come
will spoil the enjoyment of Summer but it won't make Winter any less sharp.
So enjoy the sweet days while you may. May you so live that the Summer
days will live in your hearts throughout the whole cycle of seasons and be
with you even when you pass this way again. May our Mother bless you and
guide you. With these words I do now part from thee.
--Buck Jump
889
THE HERETIC'S CORNER
(c)1986, Buck Jump
Greetings, my Pagan friends; may your Gods be well disposed
to you. May your harvest be bounteous, may your winter meat be
fat and easily gotten, and may the autumn sun warm you for the
cold to come.
Now is the time of the grand payoff when what we have worked
for throughout the long summer is at last laid in the granary. A
little while to enjoy the sweet earth, the time between harvest
and wood chopping. Our Mother is especially sweet just now - past
bearing but not yet the wise old grandmother, our Earth is still
warm with passion, a lover of pleasure without consequence.
Autumn is the year's reward. May yours be rich and filled with
ecstasy.
The black birds flock for the long trip south; the wild
geese return from the arctic barrens. The coyotes sing their
wild song of life and love. A night wind rustles the drying
leaves under the Hunter's moon, and I hear the horn of the wild
hunt rushing over the land. The veil between the worlds grows
thin and the past comes back into the present.
There is a sweet nostalgia in the past. Old loves still
warm the cooling blood; old triumphs still make the heart beat
faster; old mistakes still bring a blush to the cheek. "Old
mistakes", as the English sailor said in the Japanese bath house,
"Aye, there's the rub."
I hope the wild hunt in passing your house, starts only such
game as you will want to see. I fear that old Herne has started
a hare in my woods that I neither knew was there nor wanted to
see.
My Pagan friends, forgive me... I goofed. Mea Culpa, and I
should have known better. At least I give thanks that I can
acknowledge my goof before it goes farther, and thanks too that I
haven't entirely dislocated my arm patting myself on the back.
When last I wrote in these pages, I suggested that we all
work some magic to put an end to senseless violence. I thought I
was being reasonable, I thought my idea would perhaps inspire an
outpouring of spiritual power that might well improve our common
environment. It seemed like such a good idea. I was proud of
myself. Well, pride goeth before a forced landing.
890
I have a friend with whom I've debated many an issue of
moral philosophy over many a cup of coffee. He shall remain
nameless here, but I can identify him as a Talmudic scholar who
has taken a post graduate course in human nature in the "second-
hand" business. He is a master schooled in both theory and prac-
tice. As soon as you issue of the R.M.P.J. came out, I
rushed down to the coffee shop to gloat and play `one-up' with my
friend. I went in like a falcon and got shot down like a goose.
He read my prose carefully, and re-read parts of it. He is a
scholar and a gentleman. The former kept him from agreeing, the
latter kept him from being nasty about it. Every philosopher
should have such a friend, someone to keep our feet on the
ground.
"I agree with your position", he told me, "I think you have
a noble idea, but your first premise is false. There is no
senseless violence -- all violence seems sensible to the one who
does it. Now you, I, and every well intentioned reasonably
intelligent person must agree the examples you cite are
senseless. To us they are senseless, but to the people who did
them they were sensible."
Then he proceeded to show how, from the warped viewpoint of
these violent people their actions were, to them, both sensible
and justified. He convinced me that I was making a moral and
value judgement rather than a positive statement of natural fact.
In order to achieve what I wanted, I now realize, would require
some drastic reshaping of a lot of minds, an overhaul of millions
of psyches. I didn't realize what I was asking. Well, when I
dream, I dream big....
If all the moral philosophers, gurus, religious leaders,
prophets and shamans who have tried and failed to re-shape
humanity en masse were gathered together in a single place, it
would take a Texas wheat field to hold them. In order to stop
senseless violence it will be necessary to get everyone to agree
on what is senseless. I know what is right, you know what is
right, but that wierdo next door has some other idea. Before we
can feel safe around him we have to get him to agree with us.
I'm not too optimistic about a mass mind change even by magic.
It is worth a try, but recall - in the past, some real eternity
class magicians have tried and failed. Some of those old boys
could control the weather, transmute metals, turn juice or water
in to wine instantly and levitate, but they couldn't change the
mind set of mankind. It's easier to move a mountain than a mind.
To use force either real or implied, either physical or social,
is only to replay the inquisition, and we've already had too many
remakes and sequels to that. Education seems to be the only
method that works, and that's as slow as evolution.
891
Right and Justice are not to be had in job lots, even with
magic. Every case must be approached individually one by o@e.
To change minds in mass lots can be done magically; however
people who are so changed are not really changed, but only
suppressed -- what you get are a bunch of zombies. So far as I
know this sort of thing is only done by magicians on the dark
side. Adolph Hitler and Jim Jones are two examples that come
readily to mind. For all I know both of the named examples may
well have started with the highest motives. When you start
superimposing your mind o@ the mind of another or others, things
have a way of coming unglued. History is full of examples of
groups that acted with one mind for a while and then unravelled
when the guru leader either died or ran out of gas. No my
friends, it won't work, even with the noblest of motives it just
won't work.
I knew all this from long ago, but I was misled as to what
was going on. I thought the senseless violence I saw around me
was from some outside source. A mad spirit, a virus or some sort
of "dis-harmonic vibration". If that were the case my idea would
have been a good one. On the off chance that something like that
is now afoot in our world a general intention for reason and
against violence can't hurt, and may well do some constructive
good. I'm all for anyone who tries to clean up our environment,
seen or unseen. Considering the sort of good folk who read the
R.M.P.J. I'm not too worried that anyone who read my last little
effort will be misled by it. I fear that at worst, those of you
who followed my suggestion may have wasted both time and effort -
- I hope that at best, you may have done some good by promoting
reason and discouraging confusion. Cleaning the house won't stop
a fire, but it will lessen the chances of spontaneous combustion,
and make a fire easier to fight if it does break out. As I see
it, my mistake was in supposing we all have more or less the same
values and in externalizing he source of senseless violence.
Enough of apology and explanation. Breast-beating and
patting your back are both good exercises .....in futility.
One good bray from the donkey, o@e good hoot from the owl, and
then back to work. We are still at risk from some angry fool
armed and dangerous. What can be done? What should be done?
I can think of several things to do. First, learn to
perceive the violent odes. Some of us can see auras, some can
pick up on "bad vibes", some can "smell" trouble -- however,
whichever, my advice would be to use it. An antelope don't long
survive in the veldt without looking, listening, smelling and
generally keeping on the alert. Second, surround yourself with
protection. Some walk in a sphere of protection, some are guided
by some unseen force, I rely on my guardian spirit, guardian
angel or however you call her. In any case, whatever protection
you have, use it. Whatever ceremonies, prayers, incantations or
deep meditations you use, don't neglect them. That is about it.
We're back where we were when we wore fur bikinis and hunted with
stone-tipped spears, but haven't we always been there? Safety
is, in this life, I fear only an illusion.
892
One thing more we can do, and should do -- we can teach.
Part of the debt we all owe to life is to clean the place. Non
only should we pick up the trash, but we should also clean up the
vicious bull-shit wherever we find it. Like it or not we are all
teachers. Whatever we do, whatever we say is part of the
lesson we teach.
Before all the Gods I wish I had some magic formula to give
you that would clean up the world both seen and unseen, but I
don't. The life of mankind is a hard road to travel, that is why
the ultimate designed a hard bunch to travel it. My blessings on
you one and all. May you find enlightenment. You are smart, may
you find wisdom. Let this subject now be closed between us. If
you have any ideas on this subject pass them on to our long-
suffering editors.
Now it may be that I can resume my clown suit and once more
arm myself with my gadfly stinger and get back to the heretic
business and leave metaphysics to those better equipped to deal
with it. A silversmith shoeing a horse rarely does a good job of
it.
In the spring the wild plums were a'blooming. White
blossoms on the bough, lace for the bride. In the long summer
the little green plums grew and changed to a lighter green color.
When the first frost was still up in the high country the plums
grew sweet and turned a lovely purple-pink shade. Then at the
time of the autumnal equinox, they were picked and crushed. Now
the new wine works behind the air seals in the fermenter. The
promise of spring blossoms is redeemed in the good strong wine of
winter. What we learn in any one place we can use in another
place. The wild plums are a part of life; from them we can learn
about other parts of life. When the wine falls clear, a drink
all around, a toast to life. May we all go our separate ways
bound for a common goal. May the flowers bloom where we have
passed. Go in peace, well disposed to your fellows. With these
words I do now part from thee.____Buck Jump
.......from RMPJ Oct '86
893
THE HERETIC'S CORNER
Copyright 1987, Buck Jump
and the Rocky Mountain Pagan Journal
Greetings my Paganfriends; may yourGods be welldisposed to you. May
the breeze of Autumn cool your sun-browned skin while the heat of summer
past still warms your heart. May you find pinon nuts in plenty -don't
forget to leave a few for our furry friends. May the cider of your apples
be finer than the best champagne. May the sacred blue corn from your corn
patch be enough to see you through the winter, enough to plant next spring,
and still enough to make cornbread for all your friends when your next
year's corn is as high as your knees.
The full moon of Libra rides now in the sky. The Blood moon, the
Hunters' moon, time for such of us as are not vegetarians to go on the
hunt. Now is the time to make proper apologies and then lay in the winter
meat. The fine days of Autumn are upon us. Enjoy the beauty of the season
even as you work like one bailing a leaking boat in the middle of a large
lake, to prepare for the cold to come. These are fine days, these are hard
days. Our Mother the Earth loves us, but she is a stern parent. It's work
or die for us Her children. Be glad that this is so; if Mother only gave
what a bunch of spoiled brats we would be. So dig your potatoes and while
you dig remember the folks who held this land before us. Bless them for
the potatoes and the sacred blue corn. Tread lightly on the ground -who
knows whose graves we walk upon.
The other day a lady inquired of me as to where to get some clear
quartz crystals. I referred her to a couple of rock shops that I have
found to both reasonable and reliable. In the course of our talk she began
to question me about the ghostly and magic qualities of crystals generally.
I had to tell her that as to crystals, my knowledge was rather like my
knowledge of electronics-- purely academic. I know that both are useful in
the hands of one knowledgeable about them, and I know that I am not so
knowledgeable. I advised her to get some of the good books on the subject
and to enroll in a class to study that discipline.
I wonder why it is that people assume that because I have some
incomplete knowledge of magic sticks and enchanted rings that I would know
about crystals. Some folks suppose that since I can play a mountain
dulcimer I can also play an indian flute - I can't. Do they also suppose
that a stone mason knows the cabinet maker's trade? Most of the
definitions of magic I have read were written by magicians, from within as
it were. Here is one written by one not at all knowledgeable about magic,
from without. It is this, "Magic is anything that I don't understand that
works." It also has a corollary: "A magician can do anything." That's
another good reason to soft-pedal your pagan beliefs. Besides the people
who want to throw stones at you, you have to contend with a pack of nuts
who expect you to turn their leaden lives into fine
gold with no effort on anyone's part. I digress, but I feel this paragraph
may be of use to you.
So back to my conversation with the crystal seeking lady. She next
remarked that I probably had never had a lucky piece nor a lucky stone.
Again, I surprised her. I told her that I had several such. That led to a
discussion of lucky stones in general, and the difference in crystals,
metals, and shapes that will work for any knowledgeable person, and special
talismanic tokens that have power usable only by an individual or a small
group of people.
894
A true lucky stonehas a value,at least to itsowner, that hasnothing
to do with its price. A natural crystal has a price fixed more or less in
relation to its value. Such a stone is rather like any other tool or piece
of equipment. Personal lucky stones are another matter - I know a good
deal about them, learned by both study and experience. Any solid object
may be a lucky piece. Usually it is a natural object, but it can be
something manmade. There is extensive literature on the subject. If you
are interested you can look up talismans, mazels, gluckenstinen, destiny
stones, Indian medicine rocks, lucky stones, they are all the same thing,
no matter the language. I personally prefer "lucky stone", the common
American term, and why not? I am a common American. So much for
nomenclature, how do they work and where can you get one?
As for the first question, life is too short to give a good positive
answer. I have a private guess, but for anything definite you'll need to
study cosmology, physics, metaphysics, geology, psychogeology and
"energyology." If you should come up with a good positive answer, one that
can be proved by demonstration, please let me know.
Now for whereto obtain alucky stone or luckypiece. First,you can't
buy one - oh, you might buy the stone, but the seller loses the luck and
the buyer don't get it. I guess it goes back to wherever it came from.
Second, you can't steal it. True, a clever thief can lift any solid
object, but the act of theft reverses the luck. If you doubt that, I refer
you to the history of the Hope diamond. So, having forewarned you what not
to do, I'll proceed to what you can do. You can obtain a lucky stone by
gift. You can be given a lucky stone provided the gift is made in love,
without fear nor hope of future favor. I have one such, which I got by
inheritance. The best and cheapest way to acquire a lucky stone is to have
it thrust upon you. A gift from the hands of the Gods, as it were. To put
it another way, a lucky stone becomes a lucky stone at some moment in time
when you and the stone come together in some, to you, great event. For
example, bringing down a deer when you are really starving; being
near-missed by a bolt of lightning; a truly monumental moment of love.
By wayof illustration, here'show two ofmine came tobe lucky stones.
The first is a sort of family lucky stone, the one I got by inheritance.
One day in early June some sixty years ago a gang of relatives were putting
up the hay crop on my grandfather's farm. Purely by chance, everyone there
was a member of my mother's family. You may wonder what a boy not ten
years old was doing there. In those days a kid to load the stacker pony
was a regular part of most haying crews. Suddenly there was a flash of
greenish light, a sonic boom, the earth shook and a thin wisp of smoke or
steam rising from the meadow. One of my uncles took a shovel and ran over
to investigate. A wisp of smoke was rising from a hole in the ground. He
dug up a red hot meteorite, rare enough in its self, but this particular
one is an isotropic form of copper. It is somewhat cylindrical in shape,
about the size of a large salt shaker. That is the family lucky stone. It
has been handed down in the family ever since. All I can say is,
comparatively we have had better luck since then than most other families.
The keeper or custodian of the piece has always been favored with unusual
good fortune.
895
The other that I will describe is a piece of red and white Oregon beach
agate. It is about the size of the first joint of my thumb, polished and
shaped by the random tumbling of the waves and sand - it seems to have a
sort of Salvador Dali eye on one side. What a certain lovely lady and I
were doing in an Oregon beach cave at low tide I leave to your imagination;
when we again returned to the world we usually live in I was gripping the
stone in my hand. My own personal love charm.
I know a manwho carries with himeverywhere a watch, meltedand fused
into a worthless chunk of brass, but still recognizable as a watch. He
found it smoking in his pocket as he hastily shed his pants after being
knocked off his feet by a bolt of lightning. That is his lucky piece.
Soit is withall lucky stones,they are souvenirsof a great occasion.
Magic sticks are made, the result of human intention. Lucky stones are
given or granted by power or powers outside the ken of man. If you are
fortunate enough to get one, you will know it. We have an instinct about
some things. If you have one, guard it well. Remember, the difference
between worthless and priceless is in that inner wisdom that only a
superior person possesses.
My question this time rises from this: In the regalia and equipage of
Kings, the royal orb and scepter of royalty are second only to the crown
itself in importance. Now what I'd like to know is this... In the old time
of "the simple rule and antique plan - of him to take who has the power and
him to keep who can", was the scepter the head man's shillelagh and the orb
his lucky stone? Along the same line another related question. Would
kings still rule as well as reign if the scepter were cut with appropriate
ceremony from a living tree and the orb of power was a true lucky stone? I
have noted in history that royal power began to wane about the time kings
began to rely on courtiers and craftsmen for things they had better done
them-selves.
It is well to have friends, it is well to be a part of a group, but
when you inwardly begin to identify your self with some thing or person
outside yourself, you begin to inwardly diminish. Yours should be a part
of you while you have custody of it, otherwise it's only trading stock and
capital.
So much for magic sticks, and lucky stones for history and kings,
autumn is upon us. The wild hunt rides the night wind, the veil between
the worlds grows thin, it's time to prepare for the cold to come. Now is
the time when the long long thoughts rise in our minds unbidden.
May you have food and fire for the winter and thoughts to meditate upon
when your paths are blocked with snow. May you be blessed, may neither
boredom nor hard living trouble you, with which words I do now part from
thee.
___ Buck Jump
896
THE HERETIC'S CORNER
(c)1986, Buck Jump
Greetings, my Pagan friends; may your Gods be well disposed
to you. May your harvest be bounteous, may your winter meat be
fat and easily gotten, and may the autumn sun warm you for the
cold to come.
Now is the time of the grand payoff when what we have worked
for throughout the long summer is at last laid in the granary. A
little while to enjoy the sweet earth, the time between harvest
and wood chopping. Our Mother is especially sweet just now - past
bearing but not yet the wise old grandmother, our Earth is still
warm with passion, a lover of pleasure without consequence.
Autumn is the year's reward. May yours be rich and filled with
ecstasy.
The black birds flock for the long trip south; the wild
geese return from the arctic barrens. The coyotes sing their
wild song of life and love. A night wind rustles the drying
leaves under the Hunter's moon, and I hear the horn of the wild
hunt rushing over the land. The veil between the worlds grows
thin and the past comes back into the present.
There is a sweet nostalgia in the past. Old loves still
warm the cooling blood; old triumphs still make the heart beat
faster; old mistakes still bring a blush to the cheek. "Old
mistakes", as the English sailor said in the Japanese bath house,
"Aye, there's the rub."
I hope the wild hunt in passing your house, starts only such
game as you will want to see. I fear that old Herne has started
a hare in my woods that I neither knew was there nor wanted to
see.
My Pagan friends, forgive me... I goofed. Mea Culpa, and I
should have known better. At least I give thanks that I can
acknowledge my goof before it goes farther, and thanks too that I
haven't entirely dislocated my arm patting myself on the back.
When last I wrote in these pages, I suggested that we all
work some magic to put an end to senseless violence. I thought I
was being reasonable, I thought my idea would perhaps inspire an
outpouring of spiritual power that might well improve our common
environment. It seemed like such a good idea. I was proud of
myself. Well, pride goeth before a forced landing.
897
I have a friend with whom I've debated many an issue of
moral philosophy over many a cup of coffee. He shall remain
nameless here, but I can identify him as a Talmudic scholar who
has taken a post graduate course in human nature in the "second-
hand" business. He is a master schooled in both theory and prac-
tice. As soon as the last issue of the R.M.P.J. came out, I
rushed down to the coffee shop to gloat and play `one-up' with my
friend. I went in like a falcon and got shot down like a goose.
He read my prose carefully, and re-read parts of it. He is a
scholar and a gentleman. The former kept him from agreeing, the
latter kept him from being nasty about it. Every philosopher
should have such a friend, someone to keep our feet on the
ground.
"I agree with your position", he told me, "I think you have
a noble idea, but your first premise is false. There is no
senseless violence -- all violence seems sensible to the one who
does it. Now you, I, and every well intentioned reasonably
intelligent person must agree the examples you cite are
senseless. To us they are senseless, but to the people who did
them they were sensible."
Then he proceeded to show how, from the warped viewpoint of
these violent people their actions were, to them, both sensible
and justified. He convinced me that I was making a moral and
value judgement rather than a positive statement of natural fact.
In order to achieve what I wanted, I now realize, would require
some drastic reshaping of a lot of minds, an overhaul of millions
of psyches. I didn't realize what I was asking. Well, when I
dream, I dream big....
If all the moral philosophers, gurus, religious leaders,
prophets and shamans who have tried and failed to re-shape
humanity en masse were gathered together in a single place, it
would take a Texas wheat field to hold them. In order to stop
senseless violence it will be necessary to get everyone to agree
on what is senseless. I know what is right, you know what is
right, but that wierdo next door has some other idea. Before we
can feel safe around him we have to get him to agree with us.
I'm not too optimistic about a mass mind change even by magic.
It is worth a try, but recall - in the past, some real eternity
class magicians have tried and failed. Some of those old boys
could control the weather, transmute metals, turn juice or water
in to wine instantly and levitate, but they couldn't change the
mind set of mankind. It's easier to move a mountain than a mind.
To use force either real or implied, either physical or social,
is only to replay the inquisition, and we've already had too many
remakes and sequels to that. Education seems to be the only
method that works, and that's as slow as evolution.
898
Right and Justice are not to be had in job lots, even with
magic. Every case must be approached individually one by one.
To change minds in mass lots can be done magically; however
people who are so changed are not really changed, but only
suppressed -- what you get are a bunch of zombies. So far as I
know this sort of thing is only done by magicians on the dark
side. Adolph Hitler and Jim Jones are two examples that come
readily to mind. For all I know both of the named examples may
well have started with the highest motives. When you start
superimposing your mind on the mind of another or others, things
have a way of coming unglued. History is full of examples of
groups that acted with one mind for a while and then unravelled
when the guru leader either died or ran out of gas. No my
friends, it won't work, even with the noblest of motives it just
won't work.
I knew all this from long ago, but I was misled as to what
was going on. I thought the senseless violence I saw around me
was from some outside source. A mad spirit, a virus or some sort
of "dis-harmonic vibration". If that were the case my idea would
have been a good one. On the off chance that something like that
is now afoot in our world a general intention for reason and
against violence can't hurt, and may well do some constructive
good. I'm all for anyone who tries to clean up our environment,
seen or unseen. Considering the sort of good folk who read the
R.M.P.J. I'm not too worried that anyone who read my last little
effort will be misled by it. I fear that at worst, those of you
who followed my suggestion may have wasted both time and effort -
- I hope that at best, you may have done some good by promoting
reason and discouraging confusion. Cleaning the house won't stop
a fire, but it will lessen the chances of spontaneous combustion,
and make a fire easier to fight if it does break out. As I see
it, my mistake was in supposing we all have more or less the same
values and in externalizing he source of senseless violence.
Enough of apology and explanation. Breast-beating and
patting your back are both good exercises .....in futility.
One good bray from the donkey, one good hoot from the owl, and
then back to work. We are still at risk from some angry fool
armed and dangerous. What can be done? What should be done?
I can think of several things to do. First, learn to
perceive the violent ones. Some of us can see auras, some can
pick up on "bad vibes", some can "smell" trouble -- however,
whichever, my advice would be to use it. An antelope don't long
survive in the veldt without looking, listening, smelling and
generally keeping on the alert. Second, surround yourself with
protection. Some walk in a sphere of protection, some are guided
by some unseen force, I rely on my guardian spirit, guardian
angel or however you call her. In any case, whatever protection
you have, use it. Whatever ceremonies, prayers, incantations or
deep meditations you use, don't neglect them. That is about it.
We're back where we were when we wore fur bikinis and hunted with
stone-tipped spears, but haven't we always been there? Safety
is, in this life, I fear only an illusion.
899
One thing more we can do, and should do -- we can teach.
Part of the debt we all owe to life is to clean the place. Non
only should we pick up the trash, but we should also clean up the
vicious bull-shit wherever we find it. Like it or not we are all
teachers. Whatever we do, whatever we say is part of the
lesson we teach.
Before all the Gods I wish I had some magic formula to give
you that would clean up the world both seen and unseen, but I
don't. The life of mankind is a hard road to travel, that is why
the ultimate designed a hard bunch to travel it. My blessings on
you one and all. May you find enlightenment. You are smart, may
you find wisdom. Let this subject now be closed between us. If
you have any ideas on this subject pass them on to our long-
suffering editors.
Now it may be that I can resume my clown suit and once more
arm myself with my gadfly stinger and get back to the heretic
business and leave metaphysics to those better equipped to deal
with it. A silversmith shoeing a horse rarely does a good job of
it.
In the spring the wild plums were a'blooming. White
blossoms on the bough, lace for the bride. In the long summer
the little green plums grew and changed to a lighter green color.
When the first frost was still up in the high country the plums
grew sweet and turned a lovely purple-pink shade. Then at the
time of the autumnal equinox, they were picked and crushed. Now
the new wine works behind the air seals in the fermenter. The
promise of spring blossoms is redeemed in the good strong wine of
winter. What we learn in any one place we can use in another
place. The wild plums are a part of life; from them we can learn
about other parts of life. When the wine falls clear, a drink
all around, a toast to life. May we all go our separate ways
bound for a common goal. May the flowers bloom where we have
passed. Go in peace, well disposed to your fellows. With these
words I do now part from thee.____Buck Jump
.......from RMPJ Oct '86
900
THE HERETIC'S CORNER
(c)1986, Buck Jump
Greetings, my Pagan friends; may your Gods be well disposed
to you. May the rain fall gently on your rhubarb. May the hail
fall in a lake or on a parking lot. May our little six-legged
friends develop an allergy to your pickle patch.
Now is the sweet season of our year. Our Mother the Earth
is pregnant with the harvest to come. The days are long and the
thoughts of the season are long, long thoughts. In the soft
afternoon sky the white thunderheads sail serenely on like ships
of dream in dreamland seas. Surely even such as I can be
forgiven for dreaming a bit, for letting the fancy roam free.
In dreams I see a world set free. I see the human race
living in peace, with each one going his own way but with
courtesy to all who go another way. I see us as one species,
which we are, and all of us acknowledging that fact. I see each
walking in beauty, with dignity, and respecting the other
person's dignity. I see us loving one another, helping our
fellow men along their way. When I dream, I don't mess around -
I rear back and dream up a doozy!
So much for dreams; back to the world we live in, back to
the life we know. Before I spring my question for the day, a
little background, a few facts:
Every one of us must come to terms with his environment and
his heredity. We all live on one Earth. That is the main part
of our environment, or at least the location of it.
We are all human beings, homo occasionally sapiens. That is
the basis of our heredity.
Anything that is done to one of us is done to all of us.
Anything that happens in one place on this planet has some effect
on every place on the planet.
We are, all of us, stuck with our whole species. Here we
are with a bunch of people we wouldn't willingly walk down a
country road with. Indeed, we are as ship- wrecked mariners in a
lifeboat with a bunch we wouldn't sit down to eat a free meal
with. To jump out of the boat is to drown. To try to toss those
_______________s out is very apt to upset the boat and drown all
of us. These facts are self-evident, axiomatic.
I have always held that we should all walk the path of life
with our hands outstretched in fellowship with respect and love
for all. Of course, I have a caveat - keep a Bowie knife handy
in case they haven't all heard the message.
As the Ultimate is reported to have said when the mountains
were made, "Now for the background". The present situation is a
mess. Violence is everywhere. Not even foolish violence, but
violence without reason. Surely a leopard is in our streets and
a shark loose in our swimming pool.
901
An armed bandit shoots down an unarmed clerk who is
cooperating. A litigant in court shoots down an attorney. A
parent beats a child to death. A driver gets cut off coming onto
the freeway and guns down the chap in the pickup who did the
off-cutting. An otherwise reasonable young man is annoyed by the
sounds of traffic on a mountain road and starts shooting at the
cars passing. Those are only a few examples culled from the news
in recent months. In truth, senseless violence is loose in the
land.
As it is with the individual, so with groups. From the
racist fringe movement on to great governments. Violence for the
sake of violence is epidemic. Each age of history has had a
plague - the plague of this age is senseless violence. I have
friends of the "born again" persuasion who tell me that it is the
Devil doing it. I don't think so. As far as I can determine,
devils are a disorganized bunch. Satan Mekatrig Lord of Chaos is
a confusion in terms. Seen another way, that's organized
confusion. As I see it, the flow of the power of the Universe is
organized and rational. So it seems to me that any force opposed
to that flow must be disorganized and irrational. That is to say
nothing of the personal devils within us. They must have a hand
in at least some of this senseless violence.
I have other friends who blame it on some as yet
unidentified virus. Could be, but it's a rare virus that has no
fever, nor nausea accompanying its onset....
Others hold that it is all explainable by Sigmund Freud and
others of that ilk. Again I say could be, but what mental
discomboomeration comes on suddenly with no sign of
disorientation nor disturbance until it suddenly manifests itself
in the acute stage?
For all I know, none of the above are correct. The fact re-
mains that a wild unreasoning violence is loose among us, a
danger to us all. The fact is, we are all in the same boat, and
the boat is encountering some heavy weather. Don't you think we
should do something about it? I personally can think of a whole
lot of folks who I don;t really care to rescue, but being as we
are all in the same boat, I am sure going to do my best for
them....... But what?
In case this is all some psychosis, maybe we should engage a
firm of head shrinkers to drag in a trainload of couches and get
everyone to undergo psychoanalysis. I refuse to consider the
logistics of this. The idea by itself causes my mind to boggle.
Or, suppose it is a virus. In that case when the
virologists and immunologists have a bit of spare time from their
search for the cause and cure of AIDS, they could do the same for
the senseless violence virus. In view of the fact that we are
all at greater risk from senseless violence than from AIDS, it
might be a worthwhile task.
Or, just in case the gnostics have some truth in their
ideas, and it is Auld Clootie, maybe a mass general exorcism is
in order. Once again, my mind refuses to consider the logistics.
902
In view of the fact that the cause of senseless violence is
still unknown, we might get a government grant to study the
problem. Considering the speed that such grants usually get
results, I would expect a definite answer by the twenty-second
century. Of course, such a grant would have the added advantage
of keeping a large number of researchers out of the pool halls
and off the streets.
Now I am going to go against my usual custom and make a
suggestion; only a suggestion, mind, and not to be taken as a
dictum, but only as an idea to be considered. It has been my
observation that there are only two occasions when magic is apt
to work. One is after all other methods have been tried and
found ineffectual. The other is when there is no other method.
Now I believe that I have explored the other methods and found
them impractical if not impossible. So I feel that I am safe in
saying it's going to take magic to stop this purposeless killing.
So how to go about it? What spell, what charm, what
ceremony shall we use? What power shall we invoke? What power
evoke? Magic works, the proper ceremony at the proper time, done
for the proper reason, will work. True for you, you may well
say, but which ceremony? When? Why?
I just told you. The proper one. The one that is proper
for you is the one you yourself believe is proper. This is not
an essay on morals and ethics, so I refrain from putting in my
two cents worth on what is in my estimation proper. When you are
fighting a grass fire is no time to discuss what sort of shovel
to use.
In my dream we were all walking each in his own way, each
helping the others as much as possible. So here let us not try
to all walk in one path. No point in the universe can be reached
from only one direction. Let us rather each from where it seems
most right and comfortable, try by magic means to stop this
senseless violence. Not-ice I said senseless violence, not just
violence. Some who follow the old Norse way could hardly be ex-
pected to endorse some anti-violent intention, but I know of none
who do not deplore reasonless violence. We have our differences,
but surely no one objects to improving all our chances of kissing
our grandchildren.
So, what I propose is this. Sometime in the next quarter
year, whenever it seems most proper, let us in our various ways
by whatever means one believes in, try by magic means to stop
this epidemic of senseless violence.
903
I have noticed a few things about power on the unseen side.
For a ceremony to be more than a mere charade, everyone involved
in it must believe in the ceremony and in whatever power is used
in it. Everyone must believe that the ceremony can and will
work. Everyone must want the ceremony to work. If anyone
involved in the ceremony does not so believe and want, that
person will be a dead weight on the others that do. When I say
everyone, I mean everyone, all, each one with one belief and one
resolve. What can be done by a group acting in true spiritual
harmony is indeed amazing, but first you must have that true
spiritual harmony.
That is why I suggest we go at this not as some sort of
super- coven ecumenical pagan group. I have seen a few of these
"lets all get together" bunches back in the sixties, and they
couldn't even get drunk.
I personally am in favor of any religion that don't practice
human sacrifice, interfere in the private lives of the
nonbelievers, or use force in conversion. I love 'em all, but
I'm not fool enough to yoke the ass and the ox together. So
let's all go, but let's not try to make it a parade.
That is my suggestion, and my question is why not? I'd
appreciate your ideas on this, I truly would. If you have any
ideas on the subject, please communicate them to the editors of
the RMPJ. Even if the ideas are along the lines of, "You're
Nuts!!", just say why you think so. I'd appreciate it.
May your dreams come true; may the wind cool without
chilling, and may you reap a harvest even richer than the seed
catalogue said you would. May your shadow fall long on the
Earth. Go in peace, remember your fellows, and with these words
I do part now from thee.
________Buck Jump. ....from RMPJ 8/86
904
THE HERETIC'S CORNER
by Buck Jump
Greetings, my Pagan friends; may your Gods be well disposed
to you; may the bugs flee your patch as from a crow; may the
gentle rain fall softly on your flower beds; and may your lovers
be all you wish them to be. Now at the season of long lovely
days and short passionate nights, when our Mother the fair Earth
is at her richest and most bountiful, it is hardly the season for
deep thinking.
When nature is at its very best and the season most
enjoyable are we not all of us tempted to shut off the mental
processes and enjoy life in a purely sensual mammalian way? Of
course we are, to do less would be an insult to creation.
At this glad time, here comes that old pest, the heretic,
like the ghost at Ceasar's feast. Consider, dear friends, even
as the screech owl is put into this world to scare goose bumps on
our backs, the here-tic is put into the world to ask hard
questions and discomboomerate the quiet mind. The only place on
this sweet earth where we can look for a quiet unchanging stay is
a graveyard. It is so with me, even as with you.
The other day when I was minding my own business [a most ha-
zardous occupation], a stranger came to me with a request. He
wanted me to magically restore to him a lost love. It seems that
he had, by his own actions, turned his lady's love if not to
hate, at least to an active dislike. He was sorry. He knew it
was all his own fault. He agreed that she was justified in
leaving him. He beat his chest and cried `mea culpa', but he
wanted her back, and he wanted me or someone to, as he put it,
"push the right button", and change the situation. Before he
came to me he had been to a friend of mine. The friend is a
scholar and practical magician who is rather more daring than
most- he had by magic means caused the lady to recall the best of
the past. With that, the lady consented to talk with her ex-
inamorata, and dis-cuss, in a civilized fashion, her decision to
be done with him. At that, the magician bowed out. He pointed
out to the petitioner that from there on, it was up to him. My
friend the magician can be, when he has to be, a most impressive
man, and I gather he dismissed the `lorn lover' with a definite
dismissal.
Then he came to me. I pointed out that there ain't no free
lunch in the universe and I had no intention of taking on a
karmic debt of considerable proportion for his possible benefit.
I told him that it is easier to move a mountain than to move a
human mind if it will not be moved. I told him that he was
trying to find someone to do for him what could only be properly
done by himself. I pointed out to him that his situation was an
effect of a cause, a cause that he was responsible for. I told
him that magic is fine as a last resort, but hardly to be
considered as first aid. I told him ...... I wasted my breath.
Such a one hears only what he wants to hear.
905
The petitioner only said, "I just need someone to push the
right button - she used to love me. I am not asking much, I just
want things to be like they were."
I refrained from pointing out that Hitler could have said
the same thing in the bunker. Then he said, "I am willing to pay
you. Just tell me how much it's going to cost." Some things are
an insult from a knowledgeable person, and a joke from a fool. I
laughed. He was the sort who would ask "How much?", referring to
one's head.
Now I am, I think, a reasonable sort, patient, and in my own
way polite, but enough is enough, and this chap was rapidly
becoming too much. I told him flatly, that I was not about to do
any button pushing. I gave him what I felt was good advice.
That is, I told him that if he was determined to further his
amours by magic means to learn to do it himself. I referred him
to a most knowledgeable teacher. I was in that way certain that
he would either learn what was involved in his request and give
it up, or more likely abandon the whole thing as too slow and too
difficult. (The teacher informs me that he never bothered to
even go around to see what the teacher had to offer. A case of
"Gimme my daily bread, I'm willing to wait with my mouth open".)
Then he countered that if I wouldn't "push the button" could
I refer him to someone who could, or would. I inquired around.
One col-league I know is willing to try just about anything. He
once did a weather spell out on the high plains in tornado season
and another time worked a charm to rid a field of grasshoppers in
hail season. I add, both were successful in a disastrous way.
When I contacted him with the case, his words were, "I'd like to
but I'm going on a trip to South America." Surprised, I asked
about the trip, adding I hadn't known about it. He replied, "I
didn't know about it either, but if that dude shows up here, I'm
going!"
Failing to find a genuine scholar and practicing magician
to attempt the matter, I tried a couple of unethical charlatans.
In view of the fact that the petitioner was a large muscular sort
who would expect instant results, they regretfully declined.
I was beginning to feel like Sinbad the Sailor when he
carried the old man of the sea piggyback around the island. At
wit's end (where I have lived for years), I suggested that he try
religion. I offered to introduce him to some nice Pagan folks,
or even get him in touch with some T.V. type evangelists. He
refused on the grounds that they would be too slow and uncertain.
He wanted instant gratification.
At last, thanks be to the power that watches over well-
meaning fools like me, another lady hove into sight, and he took
off in her direction with deep breath and flashing eyes. This
sad fellow is but one of many I've had the misfortune to meet. I
am sure most of you could recount similar sad tales. We'll all
have to get together and I'll haul out the portable wailing wall,
and we can share a cup of tea and all sympathize with each other.
906
I wouldn't have bored you with this all too familiar tale
except I have a question. How does one deal with such people?
Is there some way to tell a person with a real problem who can be
helped from the person who has an endless amount of wants and no
energy to help himself? That is, some way, without finding out
the hard way? I can handle skeptics (I am one myself), I can
handle cynics, I can handle atheists and deal with convinced true
believers of all sorts, but how do I deal with a person who
believes that I can work miracles?
One question leads to another. I have a few more on the
same line. How comes it that as soon as people, some of them at
least, find that one is not part of some main line orthodox
church, they straightway want you to work some magic? Are Roman
Catholic and Episcopal priests pestered by miracle seekers? Are
T.V. evangelists? If not, why not? They deal in magic as much
as any Pagan or free thinker. Is the prevalence of lazy
freeloaders the reason that Christianity for the last fifteen
centuries or so has been down playing the magical basis of the
early Church? This is a topic worthy of our consideration.
Another question comes to mind at this point. A question
about magic in general. I am sure you know what magic is, just
is I am sure I know what it is. The definitions are many and
varied, but they all basically state in one way or another, that
magic is the practical side of religion, and the practice of
magic is the art of causing changes in the tangible by intangible
means. Or, to put it another way, magic is a mental way of
changing the physical by means of the spiritual. That is what
magic is, no question there. The question is what does the
uninitiated, uninformed layman think magic is?
If you are going to make a living repairing televisions and
radios, it is not enough that you know electronics. You must
also know what your customers believe about electronics. The
degree of success in the TV-Radio repair business is generally in
direct proportion to the amount of customer knowledge the
proprietor of the business has. The rule is, if you deal with
the run of humanity, you must understand the general run of
humanity. You must not know only what you know, but also what
people ignorantly suppose you know.
I pass this bit of wisdom on to you, for I think it has
value to any serious student of matters intangible. An old
doctor of medicine told me this some forty years ago. The
occasion was a patient of his inquiring about an operation for a
then inoperable condition. I, only an army medic, was astounded
at the fellow's ignorance and when the Doc and I were alone, said
as much. "Son," the old doctor said, "Here is something to
remember Anything that works that you don't understand is magic
and a magician can do anything. That's not the truth, but
ninety per cent of the human race believe it is." That is how
people who have never studied the arts of magic see it. To them
it is a power without cost and without limit.