An Abstract on Abstraction

The focus on the abstract and the symbolic in many modern traditions is a bit odd in my opinion. Not that the abstract and symbolic don’t have a place or value, of course. As a born mystic, these things have always intrigued and interested me. It’s the amount of focus and the importance placed that I think is a harmful thing for really growing and practicing.

As a specific example, my main objection to the Classic elements in folk magic is the lack of practical application to the real work. I can’t hold elemental Fire or Water or Earth or Air in my hands, I can’t mix them and make something out of them. But I can take the soil of the land and mix it with water from creek or pond or river or lake, to make mud, and form it into a figure of someone or something or a tablet or a disc for an amulet, and can sit it out for the wind and sun to dry.

You won’t hear a farmer use a blessing like, “may you have water and air and earth.” That is too abstract to be meaningful. You would hear something closer to, “may you have rain or irrigation water to water the crops, may you have fresh air to breathe and wind to blow away harmful insects, may your land be fertile and rich and produce.” Or something more along those more practical lines.

This holds true in many areas. What good does a symbol do if it isn’t applicable in a material or at least methodical way? The Work is about doing the work, not about symbols that can be meditated on but have no pragmatic purpose.

The toad bone was not obtained by some because it symbolized all the things it can be seen to symbolize. These symbols aren’t of no importance, nor are they not real, but they aren’t the point. The toad bone was obtained for very specific purposes, to control animals, to have power over people, and others. Read Andrew Chumbley’s The Leaper Between, and you will see the application is the major focus, not the symbolism, though that exists as well.

I come from simple people, even if I work in an industry far from that, and move at times in higher society. My ancestors on both sides were mostly farms, and when not farmers, still working class people. Salt of the earth, honest folk. This is why my grandpa lost everything twice, as to him, a handshake was a deal. This is why my father always felt more comfortable out with his drilling team in the forest pulling up rock core samples than in the office with those who were more concerned with politics than the work. My father tastes dirt to know what it is made of. My grandpa on my mother’s side worked the ground most of his life, as his father did, and his, all the way back to Germany and Prussia. I come from simple, working class, people, not academics or philosophers, not politicians or old money. And when you live that life, or come from that seed, or do that work, you do what needs to be done, rather than worrying what it means.

Both my father and my mother’s father were water witchers, and could find whatever they were looking for beneath the ground with their skill. It didn’t mater what the meaning of anything was, it mattered that it worked and they could find what they needed. My father used that skill with the drilling team, and they always hit the vein they were trying for when he told them where to drill. There was no symbolism, no hidden meaning, just a skill others couldn’t use that was accurate and got the job done.

Except among philosophers and theologians, symbols and meanings are secondary to what you can use the thing for. The Classical elements are great for discussion and even as symbols in ritual, but, as Bearwalker would say, you can you grow corn in them? The abstraction from the physical things that we interact with when we get our hands dirty to the philosophers’ symbols and metaphors is often a distraction from the work, work that only truly gets done when we get our hands dirty and do the work.

FFF,
~Muninn’s Kiss

 

Age of Aquarius

The words of a song echo, a song that came out of the New Age movement, a movement looking to a new age as the answer, as a Utopian time of peace and love. The song is Age of Aquarius but 5th Dimension:

When the moon is in the seventh house
And Jupiter aligns with Mars
Then peace will guide the planets
And love will steer the stars
This is the dawning of the age
Of a Aquarius, the age of Aquarius
Aquarius, Aquarius
Harmony and understanding
Sympathy and trust abounding
No more falsehoods or derisions
Golden living dreams of visions
Mystic crystal revelation
And the minds true liberation
Aquarius, Aquarius
When the moon is in the seventh house
And Jupiter aligns with Mars
Then peace will guide the planets
And love will steer the stars
This is the dawning of the age
Of a Aquarius, the age of Aquarius
Aquarius, Aquarius

The Age of Aquarius is of course based on the progression of equinoxes, Plato’s Great Year, which I’ve discussed before. Twelve ages of 2200 years, give or take 100 years. And one theory, based on Vedic astronomy subdivides each age into sub ages, about 180 years each, with the first subage being of similar nature to the current age, and last sub age in an age having similar nature to the next Age. This would imply that the last subage in a given age is a taste of what the next will be.

The idea that the Age of Aquarius would be peace and harmony and everyone loving everyone is a misconception, as anyone born in Aquarius, or anyone who has known one can attest. Aquarius likes to the be a peacemaker, but is more a leveler. We’re not talking peaceful cooperation and everyone getting along. Aquarius disrupts and brings chaos and complication. It is the destruction of hierarchy and differences, but doesn’t present a solution or restructure. If you are looking for that, that is Capricorn, the age after. Aquarius isn’t described by the verse “he will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning nor crying nor pain any more, for the former things have passed away.” (Revelations 21:4 RSV) It is described by these verses:

Every valley shall be lifted up,
and every mountain and hill be made low;
the uneven ground shall become level,
and the rough places a plain.
~Isaiah 40:4 RSV

See, I have set you this day over nations and over kingdoms,
to pluck up and to break down,
to destroy and to overthrow,
to build and to plant.
~Jeremiah 1:10 RSV

It’s important to realise that the Age of Pisces isn’t just defined by the Fish, but by the Virgin, Virgo, across the sky from Pisces. The Fish is the Son of the Virgin, Pisces is the Son of Virgo. When the sun is in Pisces, at midnight Virgo is at height, Pisces occulted and concealed, Virgo plain to see in the night sky. Pisces has no boundaries, no firm borders, it runs over all it encounters, flowing like a flood over the ground. Pisces is the Conqueror, conquering all. “And I saw, and behold a white horse: and he that sat on him had a bow; and a crown was given unto him: and he went forth conquering, and to conquer.” (Revelations 6:2 RSV) And while the age we’ve seen does reflect this, the building of empires through conquest, there is another aspect, the restriction, the restraint, the control. This comes not from Pisces, who would move on to the next thing. It comes instead from the Mother of Pisces, from Virgo, the Virgin. The Water of Pisces brings change, but when the Flood is past, it is the Earth of Virgo that settles, with teh restraint only she can bring. She marks the midpoint, half way through the Age.

Which brings us to Aquarius. While Aquarius does want peace and harmony, it doesn’t know how to bring it. It uproots old orders, like the Fall of the Tower, it brings down the haughty and mighty, the mountains and hills, and raises up the humble and downtrodden, the valleys, but it doesn’t know what to do next and looks for the next injustice or inequality to fix, not leaving a structure. The result isn’t peace but rebellion and disorder, people turning on each other. “And there went out another horse that was red: and power was given to him that sat thereon to take peace from the earth, and that they should kill one another: and there was given unto him a great sword.” (Revelations 6:4 RSV) We are in the subage of Aquarius, and it has had and will have a taste of peace and harmony, this isn’t the main trait. Watch how empires and nations have, are, and will crumble, how Super Powers fail, hierarchies fall, economies splinter. This subage has not been one of piece, but of breakdown, breakdown that takes away peace. This is a taste of the Age of Aquarius.

But once again, that isn’t the whole story. Look across the wheel. Aquarius is the Son of Leo, the Son of Fire. This is the key to understand the Age of Aquarius.

“Son of Fire”

Let he who has ears to hear hear, let she who has eyes to see see.

FFF,
~Muninn’s Kiss

 

Toward a Binary Western Structure

I was re-reading part of The Web That Has No Weaver, and was reading a section on analysis that was essentially about a trigram, External/Internal, Excessive/Deficient, Hot/Cold, each a Yang/Yin pair, eight possible states from three binaries.  My mind wandered and I started thinking of Western magical systems, particularly the four elements.

What follows is an interesting (to me at least) investigation on whether the four elements can be described by two binary pairs.  As much of the following is about systems I seldom work with, Greek classical elements, alchemy, and Western astrology, please bear with me, as this is a bit of a tangent from my own practice and from much of what I post here.  It does, however, lay a groundwork to help others understand another post I’ve been working on but am not yet to a point to publish, my Chthonic Zodiac, and what happens when you turn the sky upside down, and the lore and myth that become obvious with that understanding.  That post will have direct application to my own practice, so this tangent has a use.

Consider for a moment the Western approach over all.  I’m simplified it, and generalizing, but there’s a tendency to break everything down into either the four Classic Greek elements, fire, water, earth, and air, or down into the three alchemical principles, salt, sulfur, and quicksilver.  These two sets provide some unique patterns mathematically, and Western magic seems to always love things that can be expressed mathematically.  Four and three are helpful, because added together, they give seven, which is found so often, with the seven wandering bodies in the sky, the seven days in a week, the seven stars that make up Woden’s Wain, the seven stars seen as the Seven Sisters, the various uses of seven years, and so on.  And multiplied together, they make twelve, another useful number, with twelve Zodiac signs, twelve months, twelve Olympians, twelve apostles and tribes, and so on.

Modern paganism has thrown a wrench in this, though I suspect few have seen it as such.  By combining various holy days in Northern Europe to make eight Sabbats, they have the interesting issue of mapping eight days onto twelve months.  Four works well, but eight is problematic.  This likely isn’t a big issue, but the Northern European concepts don’t map well onto the Southern European concepts.

Looking just at the elements first, we have a pattern that lends well to a binary system.  Earth and Water are considered passive, and Air and Fire active.  This works well for the first pair, very much a Yin = Earth/Water/Passive, Yang = Air/Fire/Active pairing.  So far so good.  But what of the other pair?  What separates Air from Fire and Earth from Water?  What is the same between Air and Earth, and opposite from what is the same between Fire and Water?  The answer isn’t forth coming.  Innately people pair them in that way, considering Air opposite of Earth, not Water, and Fire opposite Water, not Air.  And they obviously are.  Air and Earth can be seen as Sky and Land, above and below.  Fire and Water tend to be universal opposites, as Fire changes Water into Air, and Water puts out Fire, in effect, bringing it to Earth.  But what quality defines these?

Lets look at the Zodiac a moment.  There are three attributes that define each sign, and an understanding of these can help in understanding of the signs.  These are the quality, the mode, and the element.  Qualities are one of three, cardinal, fixed, and mutable.  Modes are active and passive.  Elements are the four classic elements we are discussing.  The signs lay out as follows:

Aries	Cardinal	Active	Fire
Taurus	Fixed	Passive	Earth
Gemini	Mutable	Active	Air
Cancer	Cardinal	Passive	Water
Leo	Fixed	Active	Fire
Virgo	Mutable	Passive	Earth
Libra	Cardinal	Active	Air
Scorpio	Fixed	Passive	Water
Sagittarius	Mutable	Active	Fire
Capricorn	Cardinal	Passive	Earth
Aquarius	Fixed	Active	Air
Pisces	Mutable	Passive	Water

You’ll notice three cycles, the qualities cycling regularly three the three states, the mode cycling regularly through the two states, and the element cycling regularly through the four states.

If you examine the table, you find mode isn’t too useful for this discussion, as it lines up exactly with the passive/active states of the elements we already discussed.  Any give element is always the same mode.  So we will ignore mode for now.

Quality does lend something of interest, as it doesn’t coincide with a specific element.  In fact, if you count, each quality has one sign of each element, and vice versa.  Every quality/element pairing is unique.  This of course makes sense with twelve signs total, because three states means four cycles, and four states means three cycles.

Lets look at the nature of the qualities for a moment.  What do they mean?  Cardinal is a sign that points, a sign that initiates something, starts something.  Fixed is a sign that tries to stay constant, to not change.  Mutable is a sign with a tendency to change and move.  Those that are familiar with alchemy but not with astrology (if you can be familiar with alchemy but not astrology) might find these of interest.  The description of fixed signs instantly brings to mind salt.  Salt is the process of crystallization, just as fixed signs crystallize into a set pattern, not wanting to change.  The other two are harder for me, not being an alchemist.  But reading descriptions, I see quicksilver, mercury, in the mutable signs.  Mercury is of course the messenger of the gods, carrying messages between them and man.  Quicksilver is constantly changing, constantly moving. This leaves sulfur for the cardinal signs.  Does this fit?  Sulfur is seen in alchemy as a seed, or, more graphically, the sperm that is forcibly implanted into the egg.  A seed, a beginning.  Quicksilver is the solution, salt dissolved in it, sulfur added as a seed to bring about change.  This is very much the same as the cardinal signs, so, yes, it does fit.

We have a new table:

Aries	Sulfur	Fire
Taurus	Salt	Earth
Gemini	Quicksilver	Air
Cancer	Sulfur	Water
Leo	Salt	Fire
Virgo	Quicksilver	Earth
Libra	Sulfur	Air
Scorpio	Salt	Water
Sagittarius	Quicksilver	Fire
Capricorn	Sulfur	Earth
Aquarius	Salt	Air
Pisces	Quicksilver	Water

Where this gets interesting is when we rearrange these to show what is across the year, or sky, from them:

Aries	Sulfur	Fire	Libra	Sulfur	Air
Taurus	Salt	Earth	Scorpio	Salt	Water
Gemini	Quicksilver	Air	Sagittarius	Quicksilver	Fire
Cancer	Sulfur	Water	Capricorn	Sulfur	Earth
Leo	Salt	Fire	Aquarius	Salt	Air
Virgo	Quicksilver	Earth	Pisces	Quicksilver	Water

The first thing we notice is that the qualities remain the same on the opposite end of the sky.  Every sign has the same quality as its opposite.  The next we see is that Fire and Air are always opposite, and Earth and Water are always opposite.  This relates back to our earlier question.  What separates Air from Fire and Earth from Water?

Let’s look at the pairings.  Aries/Libra, Taurus/Scorpio, Gemini/Sagittarius, Cancer/Capricorn, Leo/Aquarius, Virgo/Pisces.  In what way are these opposites different?  It isn’t the quality, for each pair shares it.  It isn’t the mode, for each pair is either both passive or both active.  What, then?  Let’s look at some attributes of each one, first the Fire/Air pairs, then the Water/Earth pairs.

Aries and Libra.  Cardinal.  Aries is the Ram lowering its head and charging, beginning without thinking things through, starting is the goal, Aries doesn’t worry about what comes next.  Libra is the scale weighing the options, trying to find balance, only beginning when all outcomes are considered and weighed, Libra won’t act until it knows where the action will lead, and then, and only then, will it begin.  Both cardinal, sulfur.  Both active.  Fire acts immediately, concerned with getting started, Air analyses and acts when the outcome is known.

Gemini and Sagittarius.  Mutable.  Sagittarius is the arrow pointing toward the goal, killing anything that gets in its way.  The end justifies the means, the collateral isn’t important.  Gemini is the twins, identical but opposite, accepting two opposite truths as both true, moving between them, considering them.  Both mutable, quicksilver.  Both active.  Fire is driven toward the goal, concerned with reaching it, not what might be in the way, Air analyzes and cares more about the means than the end, weighing the truth of each side.

Leo and Aquarius.  Fixed.  Leo is a lion, unstoppable, proud, a leader and ruler, what is has, it holds no matter what the damage to others.  Aquarius is the water bearer, pouring out the water of Pisces to allow it to be replaced with air, controlling the flow, controlling the change, maintaining a balance between what was and what is to come, holding to that balance while avoiding upsetting or hurting others.  Both fixed, salt.  Both active.  Fire holds what it has, concerned with keeping it, air controls change, concerned with the balance and peace between parties.

Fire, in all three states, has a specific goal, be it starting, reaching, or holding.  Air, in all three states, weighs and tries for balance, be it starting, negotiating, or holding.

Cancer and Capricorn.  Cardinal.  Cancer is the crab, using its claws to protect what it creates or gives birth to, giving birth with intention to protect what is born immediately upon birthing, going from loving and nurturing to angry and protective at the first sign of danger, willing to hurt anything that seems a threat to the new thing.  Capricorn is the sea-goat, half fish, half goat, the fish half would be fast in the sea without the goat, the goat part would be fast on the land without the fish part, each part slowing the other down, requiring careful planning to get to the goal, so start what is needed, planning and starting early, but knowing how long it will take and what steps are necessary.  Both cardinal, sulfur.  Both passive.  Water begins with the intention to protect, focused on how to protect, not the process, Earth planning and preparing and knowing the whole process before hand.

Virgo and Pisces.  Mutable.  Pisces is two fish, chasing each other’s tails through the water, two emotions, cycling back and forth, it doesn’t analyze the emotions, it accepts them and moves to the next.  Virgo is the Virgin, waiting for the very best before having sex, planning with patience, waiting for the right desire, right moment, not letting emotions get ahead of her, only letting emotions take over when they are needed and not until then.  Both mutable, quicksilver.  Both passive.  Water lets the emotions cycle, doesn’t worry about if they are right or wrong, just lets them come, Earth planning for the moment to let them have control, changing but only when analysis indicates it’s time.

Taurus and Scorpio.  Fixed.  Scorpio is the scorpion with a venomous stinger and snapping claws, and a hard shell to protect the soft, easy to hurt interior, assuming everyone is trying to hurt it, or will given the chance, so ready for a fight, without analyzing who is friend or foe.  Taurus is the bull, standing its ground, not to be moved, and if necessary, will charge and pierce with its horns, but only if it needs to, watching, analyzing.  Both fixed, salt.  Both passive.  Water presumes and fight and strikes, earth watches and observes, and only fights when pressed or it is needed.

Water, in all three states, reacts without analysis, be it protecting the beginning, cycling emotions, or protecting what it holds.  Earth, in all three states, analyzes and decides, be it planning before hand, deciding when best to change, or protecting what it holds.

The three states, cardinal/sulfur, mutable/quicksilver, fixed/salt, give us three views of each of the element pairs and show a common trend.  Both Fire and Water are reactive, responding, not planning.  Both Air and Earth are proactive, planning and analyzing before acting.

So we can define the four elements with two binaries, active/passive and responsive/analytic.  Active and responsive are Yang type qualities.  Passive and analytic are Yin type qualities.

Fire	Active-Responsive	Yang-Yang
Air	Active-Analytic	Yang-Yin
Water	Passive-Responsive	Yin-Yang
Earth	Passive-Analytic	Yin-Yin

And so we come to a defined binary description of the four elements.  It is interesting to look at these again in the Zodiac cycle, where we have Fire-Earth-Air-Water as the order.  This gives us Yang-Yang/Yin-Yin/Yang-Yin/Yin-Yang.  The first part has a Yang/Yin/Yang/Yin cycling.  The second part as a Yang/Yin/Yin/Yang cycling.  This means the first pair cycles every sign, and the second every two signs, so twelve one month groupings for the first, and six two month groupings for the second.

This provides a new way to look at the Zodiac, as we now see Pisces/Aries as a grouping, Taurus/Gemini, Cancer/Leo, Virgo/Libra, Scorpio/Sagittarius, and Capricorn/Aquarius.  Interesting thoughts and ideas form as you look at those pairings not in the terms we have above, but in the pictures representing them and the similarities within each pair, and where the division between groups lies.

Our final Zodiac table looks like so:

Aries	Sulfur	Active	Responsive
Taurus	Salt	Passive	Analytic
Gemini	Quicksilver	Active	Analytic
Cancer	Sulfur	Passive	Responsive
Leo	Salt	Active	Responsive
Virgo	Quicksilver	Passive	Analytic
Libra	Sulfur	Active	Analytic
Scorpio	Salt	Passive	Responsive
Sagittarius	Quicksilver	Active	Responsive
Capricorn	Sulfur	Passive	Analytic
Aquarius	Salt	Active	Analytic
Pisces	Quicksilver	Passive	Responsive

FFF,

~Muninn’s Kiss

 

Hammer and Anvil: The Smith and the Craft

I’ve been thinking of Witch as Smith. He (using male pronouns here but “she” is equally true and brings us to Brigid or Athena rather than Weyland or Hephaestus) is truly the master of all four classical elements (ignoring Spirit or Ether here, but if included, this would be the Smith himself). Earth is the hammer and anvil, and the metal he works, but more elementally, earth is used in the annealing process to cool slowly verses water’s fast cooling. Air is the bellows, heating the fire hotter. Fire is the heat, the shaper and temperer. Water is the cooler and quencher, causing hardening.

The process of smithing shows a lot of things about the Smith and about the weapons and tools he makes. It’s interesting to see Witch as the Warrior (Hercules) that uses the weapons (Kornephoros, the Club Bearer) the Smith forges, the Hunter (Orion) using the weapons (ensis, the Sword, consisting of Theta Orionis C, Hatsya, and the Great Orion Nebula, and the Club, consisting on Betelgeuse [Orion’s hand], Nu Orionis, Xi Orionis, Chi1 Orionis, and Chi2 Orionis) to hunt, and also the Ploughman (Bootes) using the plough (Ursa Major, the Big Bear, also called the Big Dipper, but in this context, the Plough pushed by Bootes). Orion is significant to me this time around, because of an encounter during my recent bone rite, which I won’t discuss here. Bootes, the Ploughman, is significant, as several British traditions see him as Cain, who holds much significance in their mythos. And Hercules is significant since a large portion of the constellations we have today are based on the myths relating to him.

So, what is a smith? The English word smith comes from the Old English smið, meaning, not surprisingly, “one who works in metal”. This comes from the reconstructed Proto Germanic *smithaz, “skilled worker”, from the reconstructed Proto Indo European *smei-, “to carve, cut”. So we could say a smith is one who carves or cuts to make something. A stonemason could be called a stonesmith. One who works with the Threads of Fate could be called a wyrdsmith or weirdsmith or fatesmith. This is Witch. Tin is white metal, so a tinsmith is a whitesmith. Iron is black metal, so a ironsmith or steelsmith is a blacksmith.

Looking primarily with iron and steel smithing, blacksmithing, though much applies to other metals, here’s a basic discussion of the stops. A bit simplified, and written by myself who has never done any smithing, so don’t use it as a guide. This summary is for discussion sake.

First you take the iron or steel and heat it in fire and coals, using the bellows (Air) to raise the heat until the metal glows bright red. Then you hammer the metal into the needed shape with the hammer on the anvil, heating it again periodically when it cools. This is forging.

Next you anneal it, a process that decreases ductility, the compression of the metal under stress, and increase hardness, by aligning the metal. This is done by burying the hot item in soil, in earth, until it cools slowly and naturally to a temperature that’s cool to the touch. This is repeated several times, heating the metal in a lower temperature fire than the forging process.

Third, you sharpen it if needed (some weapons and tools need sharpening, some don’t), on a whetstone or file, or some other controlled grinding tool.

Once sharpening is done, it’s time to demagnetize the item. This keeps the filings from sharpening from sticking to the item, allowing the unneeded pieces to fall away instead of staying part of the item. This is done by repeatedly heating the metal to an orange colour, then slowly heating it above red until a magnet won’t stick to it.

The fifth part is quenching. This is in water, oil, or brine, all Water for out purposes. The item is quickly doused into the Water, cooling it rapidly. It is left in the Water until it completely cools, resulting in through-hardening.

Next is tempering. This is done by heating the item from the spine (the part away from the edge, the thickest part) until the spine glows yellow (so not as hot as the orange and a long way from the red). This makes the item more flexible, so less brittle and less chance of it breaking.

Next you mount it if you need a handle or other wooden control piece. This is typically done by heating the tang, the part the handle fits on, and using it to burn the hole needed into the wood.

The final step is polishing. While this might seem needed for, say, a ploughhead, the purpose isn’t purely ascetics. This is the process of working out the imperfections and textures of the metal. A rough plough will have more resistance in the soil and be harder to clean. Basically, this is just sanding off the roughness, starting with course sandpaper or stone and working to finer and finer to make it as smooth as possible.

Let’s look specifically at several of the Smith’s tools. Of note are the hammer and anvil, the forge and bellows, the whetstone and tongs, and the quencher and mound. There are a number of other tools, and some of these are more representative than actual. But they help in the current discussion.

And hammer and anvil tend to be the symbol most used for smithing. Who doesn’t think of them when they think of a smith? The large man standing with a hammer in his hand, the metal on the anvil, striking it over and over. The words of the English folksong, “Blacksmith”, call out in the voice of Steeleye Span:

A blacksmith courted me
Nine months and better
He fairly won my heart
Wrote me a letter.
With his hammer in his hand
He looked so clever
And if I was with my love
I would live forever.

In practice, while that image does hold, it’s simplistic. First off, it was common to have a striker, who was an assistant, often an apprentice, who swung the sledge hammer when it was needed. The smith, the master, would hold the metal in the tongs and direct the striker where it hit. In addition to the sledge hammer, there were smaller hammers, which is where the image described above comes from. There were often several for different jobs, and these were used along with many punches, used to create holes, chisels, used to chip at the metal, and other tools called swages, used to shape the metal. There is also a hammer called a fuller or a creaser, a rounded hammer used to create grooves and to spread the metal.

An anvil is basically just a large, hard block of iron, tempered to handle the force of the shaping done against it. It was primarily used during the forging process, when the metal is very hot and the force against it is hard. Once the shaping began, the swage block was used instead. A swage block is perforated and used for more fine work and finishing work.

Next we have the forge and the bellows, Fire and Air. These are the heating part of the process. The forge heats the metal, the bellows heat the fire, or more accurately, the bellows provide more oxygen to feed the fire of the forge, causing it to burn richer, and therefore hotter. The forge is the heart of the smithy, and the bellows are it’s lungs. Without the forge, you can’t smith. Without the bellows, the forge can’t be raised to the temperatures necessary for ironwork. Another related craft to smithing is casting. His also uses a forge, but requires much hotter temperatures, because instead of softening the iron or steel (or other metal), you need to completely melt it to pour it into a cast, giving its shape through fluid pouring then cooling instead of my solid pressure from the hammer.

The whetstone and the tongs aren’t related in the way the hammer and anvil, and forge and bellows are, but they are two tools that are distinct from the others.

The tongs, obviously, are used to hold the hot metal. You can’t reach into the forge and pull out the metal with your hands, nor can you hold it in place when it’s being hammered and worked while hot with your hands. The tongs serve as an extension of your hand, fireproof and stable.

I use whetstone here to represent several different types of tools. Not all smithies contain the same assortment, and different types of work require different assortments. All are used for grinding and sharpening. They are course, to different degrees, and all are used to remove, not to shape. Shaping implies changing of what’s there into a different form. These tools remove excess to give a new form. Chisels could be placed here as well by that description, but there’s another characteristic of these tools: friction. They are used to remove through rubbing, not chipping. These tools include the literal whetstone, which is a piece of actual stone that’s harder than iron and rough in texture, files, which are rough metal tools for grinding, sandpaper, which is paper with some type of grit on it to wear off the metal, and grinding machines, basically a stone wheel turned by a mechanism similar to a mill stone, which the metal is held against to grind.

Finally, the mound and the quencher, Earth and Water. As the forge and bellows heat, the mound and quencher cool.

Mound I’m using symbolically; there isn’t a mound of earth in most smithies. I’m referring to process of burying the item to slow cool it in the anneal process. Sometimes the heating during the anneal process is done in a separate fire outside the forge, then the whole fire buried in earth, other times, the forge or a secondary forge is used to heat it without using the bellows to raise the temperature, then the item is buried in a pit, or sometimes an actual mound.

The quencher is a barrel or trough or similar container filled with the oil or brine or water, used for, obviously, quenching. The difference in fluid is due to the boiling points needed to effectively cool the metal quickly. If the boiling point is too high, the metal will cool too quickly and likely crack. Water has the lowest boiling point, so cools faster as the heat vaporizes it. It is sometimes used for iron, but sometimes cools too fast. When it does, brine is often used. Brine is in effect salt water. Adding the salt raises the boiling point. Steel requires slower cooling than iron, so often requires oil, which has a much higher boiling point than water or brine. For “oil” this varies from vegetable or animal fat oil to petroleum based fluids like transmission fluid or petroleum oil. Of course, in the days before wide spread petroleum availability, plant or animal oils were primarily used.

Now that we’ve looked at the tools, let’s look at the process from an esoteric viewpoint. Here’s the steps outlined above:

1) Forging
2) Annealing
3) Sharpening
4) Demagnetizing
5) Quenching
6) Tempering
7) Mounting
8) Polishing

Forging, as discussed, is the process of softening the metal and shaping it with tools. It is fire of the forge, air of the bellows, and earth of the hammers, tongs, anvils, and related tools. Fire, air, and earth. Softening and shaping. Think about these in your life. What heats things up? How does it soften you, making you malleable so you can be shaped? What shapes you? In what ways? In the military, this is Basic Training, the initial training that shapes you into a soldier. Looking deeper, think of the mysteries. What stage is this? This is the teaching phase, the prep work, the daily practice, the period of observation and learning. It is the time of the student and teacher, the period where you get a taste of the tradition and that taste changes you. This is Gwion stirring the Cauldron of Ceridwen and finally getting a drop in his mouth. It is a time of hard work, of sweat and tears.

Annealing, that which makes the metal ductible, and hence unable (or as close as possible) to break under pressure. This is the process after it is the right shape to avoid it losing that shape. The setting of it in that shape. This is, as stated, the process of burying to cool, heating, cooling, and so on. Earth to cool, fire to heat. Earth and fire. Making ductible. Think about this in your life. The process of shaping you creates rapidity, afterward, you have to be made to handle pressure or you will crack. You see this in the military, where the initial training hardens you and sets you in a certain shape. Following that, the soldier responds by muscle memory and reflex, which is often necessary, but makes it harder to make a decision outside the training when needed. The period afterwards requires adapting that training to an active process, if the soldier is to become an officer or any type of leader. Otherwise, you will crack under pressure, because once you reach the end of what you were trained for, you have nothing left. Looking deeper, think of the mysteries. What stage is this? Often the later period of training is different from the first, a period of testing where the teacher analyzes if the student is ready. During this time, you are made to be able to handle the pressure that will come later. In the tale of Taliesin, this is the period after Gwion drinks the drop. Ceridwen is chasing him, trying to kill him. He must change and adapt or die. This is shown in the shapeshifting contest, Gwion changing into forms to get away, and Ceridwen changing into forms to catch him.

Sharpening, the grinding stone, where anything not needed is stripped away. This is earth and only earth. Forging starts with fire, air, and earth, air is removed for annealing, now fire is removed. Earth. Removing. Think about this in your life. Once you are able to handle pressure, unneeded things can be stripped away. Before, the lose of them might break you. In the military, this is your first battle or series of battles. Once in the fight, your shape (training) and ductibility (ability to adapt) are tested and anything unneeded is stripped away. At this point, either the the training and ability to adapt serve you well, or you die. Looking deeper, think of the mysteries. What stage is this? This is initiation, in whatever form it takes. In a very real way, that which isn’t needed is stripped away in death, and what is needed emerges from the other side. In the tale of Taliesin, this is Gwion becoming a grain, and Ceridwen into a hen and eating him.

Demagnetising, the reforming and realigning of the metal so it won’t hold onto what was removed in sharpening. This is done with fire and only fire. The metal is heated, let to cool some, heated, let to cool some, and so on. Fire. Letting go of what was removed. Think about this in your life. After the unnecessary things are removed, how hard is it to really let go of them? What has to happen to really move on? I’ll leave the soldier analogy behind at this point, as, never having been a soldier, I’m not sure how these steps apply at this point onward. Digging deeper, think about the mysteries. What stage is this? After initiation, in the period following, many people feel lost, because they haven’t let go of what was removed, but haven’t come to terms with the changes that occurred. It’s a transitory time, a birthing you could say, with initiation being the time of conception. And this parallels Taliesin’s tale. Ceridwen is pregnant after eating the grain, and gives birth to Taliesin nine months later, Gwion reborn.

Quenching, the hardening process, by which the metal is made to be strong enough to hold off any impact (or as close as possible). This is a water only process, if you view water, brine, and oil all as water, which they have the characteristics of. Water. Hardening. Think about this in your own life. The point following the final letting go of the things you’ve lost tends to be an emotionally null time, a quenching of your emotions, a hardening of your spirit. This is necessary to hold onto what is needed after losing what is not. “What have, I hold!” as Cochrane would say. Which leads us into the mysteries. What phase is this? After we’ve come to terms with the changes, we have to apply them. This requires determination and persistence, and force of will. A quenching of our desire, so we can do what’s necessary. Not a period that lasts forever, but a necessary period. In the tale of Taliesin, this is Ceridwen, who had intended to kill him when he was born, tying him in a bag and setting him adrift in the sea. his period, floating on the sea, was a time of hardening, and directly visible as being quenched in water, since he was put in the sea.

Tempering, heating the blade once more to make it flexible. This once again is fire only, but a lighter, milder fire, not heating as hot. Fire. Flexibility. How does this apply to your life? Hardening after loss tends to lead to rigidity, and while necessary for a time, this is bad in the long term. Once that phase has passed, you need to regain flexibility so you can weather any future trouble. Your heart has cooled in hardness, now it’s time to warm it back up, not to the point of forging, but from where it is. Looking deeper, how does this apply to the mysteries? What phase is this? That initial digging in and hardening must be followed by a more flexible time. Hardening applies what you learn, growing flexible makes it yours, adapts it to you. It’s a period of renewed growth. Growth doesn’t end with initiation. In Taliesin’s tale, this is the period following him being found among the salmon as a child, during which he grew up.

Following tempering, is mounting, the putting of a handle or hilt on the metal. This is often done, once more, with fire alone. Fire. Mounting. How does this apply to your life? A tool can’t be used without a way to hold it or attach it. The same is true of our lives. There is always a bit more pain before we are ready for what is to come. This is preparation. Digging a bit deeper, how does this apply to the mysteries? What phase does this represent? In the Eleusinian Mysteries, this is the Greater Mysteries. The initiate, after passing through the Lesser Mysteries which were initiation, then can enter the Greater Mysteries, a second initiation in some way, yet different from the first. This is preparation for the real work, the first initiation and the period between the preparation for this. This holds true for other types of initiation as well. Initiation prepares you for the rest of the process, but there comes a time of change that prepares you for the actual work. In the tale of Taliesin, this is his exploits in court, where he has to outsmart the others involved to save what is dear to him.

The final phase is polishing. The metal at this point is perfectly formed, shaped, ductible, flexible, and strong, but it’s rough. The imperfections are removed by polishing it, giving it’s final look. This is a process of only earth, and is fine and careful work, persistence without a heavy hand. How does this apply to your life? The only thing left after you are prepared for what will follow a time of loss to to smooth out the rough edges so you don’t get stuck on things that might hold you back. The same is true in the mysteries. The last stage is the years of polishing all your imperfections out, so you don’t get caught up on things that might hold you back from the great work. For Taliesin, this is his travels as a bard after the tale is done. He’s doing the work everything before has prepared him for, polishing his skills as he goes.

And so it goes, as with the Smith, so with the Witch, as with the craft, so with the Craft. For, the Craft is the Craft of all Crafts.

FFF,
~Muninn’s Kiss

 

As the Moons Change

And the tides turn and the moons change.  The Moon fades, the Moon grows.  The Summer warms and the Summer cools.  Summer gives way to Autumn.  As the moons change.

In July, I talked of the Flower Moon, of the Summer Solstice, of the Fire Moon.  The Fire Moon faded and another moon came.  That faded, and yet another came.  As the always do.  As the moons change.

After the Solstice, the Year marched on.  The Sun began its slow movement Southward, the days shortened.  Lugh’s Day Came and went.  As the moons change.

Fires seemed to grow until the Full moon of Fire, getting worse, bur as the Moon faded, so did the fires.  Fires continue in areas, and the ones that were here are not all out, buy with the passing of the Fire Moon, they no longer touched our lives.  They became forgotten, ignored.  New fires did not come, at least here.  With the moon, the fires withdrew for consciousness, from importance.  As the moons change.

So, we moved on in late July, from the Fire Moon to a new moon.  In the dark it was born.  With it, my allergies started acting up, an oddity, since usually this doesn’t come until the second week of so of September.  My allergies here in the valley have always been strange to me, as they never occurring in other places I have lived across the West.  Only once did I react to pollen, only one type.  As a kid, I sniffed a bundle of white yarrow flowers, and immediately sneezed.  Tried it again to test with the same results.  I had no reaction in general, only when I sniffed it directly.  So why allergies for a month here every year?  As the moons change.

Close to the middle of the unnamed Moon, just after the Full Moon, I traveled up into the mountains first to the East near Happy Jack, then the Southwest near Lake Owen.  I found plants in seed that I had expected to still see blooming.  I saw plants blooming that usually don’t until later.  I saw a world changing to Autumn when it should be the heart of Summer.  But Spring and Summer both came early, so no surprise there.  I thought to call it the Seed Moon because of all that had gone to seed, but it didn’t seem right.  I thought to call it the Moss Moon, for the moss I caught blooming.  But that didn’t fit either.  But I did find something that both fit the Moon and explained a mystery.  Everywhere I went, I saw yarrow blooming.  In small patches, it was scattered everywhere in the hills.  And I realized, the other signs I had seen all pointed to the time period of my normal allergies.  Like the other signs, yarrow was blooming early.  Though early, it was the time for yarrow to bloom, the Yarrow Moon.  As the moons change.

Earlier in the Yarrow Moon, just before the Full Moon of Yarrow, many calendars mark Lugh’s Day, also called Lammas (Hlaf-Mass, Loaf Mass) or Lughnasadh/Lunasa/Lunastal/Luanistyn (Lugh’s Feast) or Calan Awst (the Calends of August).  The myth goes that Lugh’s foster mother Tailtiu died of exhaustion after clearing the plans of Ireland for agriculture.  In memory of her sacrifice and to honour her death and memory, Lugh held a huge feast and sporting contest, the prototype for later jousts and similar events.  In another account, it marks Lugh defeating Balor (or Bel or Baal), the king of the giants, Fomorians.  Often, this was Lugh’s grandfather, and Lugh proclaimed a day of mourning for his death.  In later legends, it becomes Lugh who died and is mourned.  Lammas comes from the Saxon name, and was a Saxon feast around the same time.  Both are harvest festivals, the beginning of grain harvest, typically the first of three harvest festivals in the British Isles.  The clearing of the plans is obvious, the killing of Balor, not so much.  There are a couple hints in the details.  The death of the old giving rise to the new.  The mourning ceremony that continued almost to present day.  Bres, who had recruited Balor to fight that battle, being found alive and begging for mercy, first by offering to insure the cows of Ireland always give milk, then offering four harvests, then offering and having it accepted to teach the Dé how and when to plough, sow, and reap.  The last is obvious, it was on that day they learner the steps to get to harvest, which begins that time of year.  But what of death and mourning?  The harvest marks the death of the grain.  They grow until harvest, then are cut down, their heads cut off like people killed in battle, like Balor, cut down by Lugh’s spear through the back of his head or neck or through his one killing eye depending on the myth, his head falling and splitting and being impaled on a hazel tree, tree of wisdom and prophecy.  Many symbols there, but I won’t go into them now.  For our purposes here, Lugh cutting down Balor is the reapers cutting down grain in harvest, the mourning of that death.  As the moons change.

But that’s the origins and practices of tradition in the British Isles, among Celts and Saxons.  Wyoming is a different time and place, I am a different person, and Grimr is a different stream.  Lugh’s Day does not mark harvest here most years, where hay is the only crop.  No, I must look elsewhere, for the blooms and seeds, the harvest and births are here lunar, not solar, but the solar, and stellar, year hold mysteries beyond planting and harvest.  The secret lies not in the harvest per se, but in the day’s Twin across the year.  As Beltane and Samhain are linked, the Wedding and the Sacrifice, and Summer and Winter Solstices, the Child in the Womb and the Waking Serpent, so Bride’s Day and Lugh’s Day reflect.  The first thing to note is that Irish folk belief said animals didn’t give much milk in winter, but started producing after Brigid’s Day, Bride’s Day, when birthing began.  With milk comes butter, golden, like Lugh’s wheat at harvest.  Lugh’s from plants, Bride’s from animals.  There are also stories describing St. Brenden as father at Lugh’s. Feast and St. Brigid as mother.  Brenden can be shown as a sit in for Lugh, who could no longer be present in a Christian society.  Brigid/Bride became St. Brigid.  St. Brenden’s father was named Fionnlugh, Fionn Lugh.  Fionn was a great Irish hero, and we know Lugh.  Many rituals ones done in Lugh’s name are now done in St. Brenden’s name.  St. Brennan is of course the patron saint of navigation because of his voyage and roughly mirror’s the voyage of Bran mac Febal.  Bran the Blessed in Welsh tales, the giant who was King of all Britain, the possessor of the Cauldron of Rejuvenation and brother of Branwen, who was a sea god by all appearances, is often seen as the same as the Irish Bran mac Febal.  Bran the Blessed’s brother, Manawydan fab Llŷr in Welsh tales is Manannán mac Lir in Irishmyth and is the foster father of Lugh in Irish myth.  Like Bran in Welsh myth, Manannán in Irish myth is a sea god.  Curiously, it’s Manannán who prophecies to Bran mac Febal.  Both Llŷr and Lir are also sea gods, though little is said of them except who they are fathers to.  There is indication that they are the personification of the sea itself.  The similarities between the voyage of Bran mac Febal and that or St. Brenden, and the familial connections of Bran mac Febal, through Bran the Blessed and Manawydan, to Manannán, combined with his part in the voyage of Bran mac Febal, plus the abundance of sea gods and sea voyages in this confusing web, and Manannán being both the foster father of Lugh and the prophet directing Bran mac Febal seem to place St. Brenden in a role similar to that of Lugh, in a convoluted way.  (And it should not be ignored the Bran the Blessed became the Fisher King in Graal legend, and the connection between the Fisher King, the Land and Wasteland, and the Graal, with Lugh’s Day’s connection to fertility and harvest.)  So, in St. Brenden and St. Brigid overseeing Lugh’s Feast, we have Lugh and Brigid, father and mother of the feast, of the food, of the grain and butter, of the bread.  Fertility begins with Brigid, with the beginning of new life in February, ending with Lugh, with the harvest of August.  As the moons change.

It’s important, of course, to take the Zodiac into consideration. Lugh’s Day lands in the middle of Leo, the Lion.  The characteristic normally associated with people born in Leo relate well to both Bran the Blessed and to Lugh.  Generous, creative, enthusiastic.  Bran the Blessed was well known for his hospitality, his generosity.  Lugh was the master of all skills, he could do anything, create anything (among other things, like Brigid, we was a smith).  Creativity definitely applies.  And both were definitely enthusiastic, giving everything to anything they did.  The sun moves into Leo around July 23rd, reaches the middle around Lugh’s Day, then moves out around August 23rd.  As the moons change.

So we have a framework, but where does Lugh’s Day play into our cycle, the myth cycle I have described in previous posts?  The serpent killed in the Tide of Samhain, Awakened in the Tide of Widwinter, Called in the Tide of Candlemas (Bride’s Day), Reborn in the Tide of the Equinox, Wed in the Tide of Beltane, and Father of the Child in the Womb in the Tide of Midsummer.  Where does Lugh’s Feast find our Winged Serpent and our May Queen?  If impregnation was with the wedding at Beltane, and Midsummer had the focus of her pregnancy, Lugh’s Day must be the birth.  This is appropriate across from Bride’s Day, the Calling.  As the Winged Serpent crawls up the Well of Worlds, so the Horned Child is born through the Well of the Womb.  Twin and Twin.  Just as the Winged Serpent stirred in the Womb of Death as Midwinter, so the Horned Child stirred in the Womb of Life at Midsummer.  Twin and Twin.  Fitting parallels across the circle of the Year.  So, Lugh’s Day is the birth of the Horned Child.  Now, looking at Lugh and Brigid again, at the Golden Wheat and the Golden Butter, at Plant and Animal, looking at our cycle, the Winged Serpent becomes the Lord of Animals, and the Horned Child the Lord of Plants.  The Red God and the Green God.  The Hunter and the Gatherer.  The Herdsman and the Ploughman.  Abel and Cain.  Twins.  And Nexus and Catalyst as we will see as the year moves on.  As the moons change.

On the 17th of August, the Yarrow Moon drew to a close and a new Moon was born in the Dark of the Moon, as a new Moon is always born.  With the fading of the Yarrow Moon, my allergies faded and vanished as the new Moon began to grow.  This was a hard time for me, as my grandma died the day before the New Moon.  I distracted myself that evening by spending it in the high mountains below Medicine Bow Peak in the Snowies, started near the Lake of Tears and Skye’s Cairn.  I stopped many places on my way up, and spend several hours in the country around the mountain.  I realized that high country was very much what Jutenheim would be like, a place of giants and ancient power and wisdom.  On my way up, I discovered the sagebrush had begun to bloom in places.  On the Dark of the Moon itself, I went up to my working site and had an encounter with Deneb among other things, though I won’t go into detail in this public place.  Deneb was once the Pole Star, before it shifted to Polaris.  It sits in an open Well of Darkness in the sky, right by the Milky Way.  This is a timely experience, as the Chinese Feast of Qixi, the Night of Sevens, falls on the seventh day of the seventh lunar month.  The Moon following the Yarrow Moon is that month this year, placing Qixi on the day beginning at sundown on the 23rd of August this year the Thursday following my experience.  Qixi celebrates Zhinu and Niulang, the Weaver Girl and the Cowherd.  The Weaver Girl was princess of Heaven, and the Cowherd, a lowly human herdsman.  They fell in love and the Jade Emperor, the Weaver Girl’s father, got upset and placed a river between them.  Each year on Qixi, the magpies (it is also called the Magpie Feast) gather and form a bridge over the river so they can be together for one night.  Vega is the Weaver Girl.  Altair is the Cowherd.  The Milky Way is the River.  And Deneb is the Magpie Bridge, the Bridge across the River that separates Heaven and Earth.  Deneb is a Bridge between the Human and the Divine.  I’ve talked of Bridges before.  Sunday following the Dark of the Moon, I traveled down to Colorado to pick up my love from the airport.  On the way, I stopped and observed, and the sagebrush was blooming more and more.  This continued.  Some bloom sage green, but some bloom bright yellow.  sagebrush is important in Wyoming.  It the main native plant of the High Plains.  Some sagebrush in Wyoming is over 200 years old and seven or eight feet tall.  I call this old growth sagebrush.  Like those who settled in Wyoming, sagebrush is hard to kill. It survives the extremes of weather, from hard winters to hot summers.  It does fine in the short growing seasons.  It can survive on very little water but isn’t killed by flooding.  But it spreads very slowly and is virtually impossible to transplant, so once it’s cleared, it will take a generation for it to reclaim the fields.  sagebrush was used as a medicinal plant by natives to Wyoming.  It was used to treat infection, treat headaches and colds, and to stop internal bleeding.  Infection was treated with a poultice.  It was inhaled for colds and head aches, sometimes just breathed in, sometimes burned and the smoke inhaled, depending on the tribe.  For internal bleeding, it was drank as a tea.  On the Full Moon of this Moon (which was the Blue Moon, as I discussed in a previous post), I once again spent time outside in meditation.  I encountered the Twins in a dark mirror, but can’t give any more details here.  As this Moon draws to a close, I look back on the month, at the death of my grandmother on the 16th before the Moon changed, to Deneb on the 17th, to the return of my love on the 19th, to the lose of my job on the 24th, to my grandma’s memorial service on the 26th, to the Twins on the 31st.  I look at the darkness of the first half of the Moon, but growing light in the second half.  I look at the steadily increasing signs of Autumn as the days grow shorter and the temperatures drop, as the leaves slowly change and the sagebrush blooms.  The second Moon of Autumn, early but firm, draws to a close.  Looking back, this month of death and endings, of darkness and light, seems to be a month for the sagebrush of the plains, not the trees or plants of the mountains.  It’s a month of ranchers not mountain men, of cattle and antelope, not the animals of the mountains.  Life fades in the mountains, but the prairies bloom.  So here we draw to the end of the Sagebrush Moon, wondering what the Dark of the Moon tomorrow night will bring, what the third Moon of Autumn has in store for us, what the coming Equinox will reveal.  As the moons change.

FFF,
~Muninn’s Kiss

 

Ever After: The Pursuit of Passion

Since it came out, one of my favourite movies has been Ever After.  I’m sure most people have seen it, and it is old news now, but I sit here watching it again, and as always it captivates me, insides me, and leaves me thinking.

For any who are not familiar with the film, it is a retelling of Cinderella staring Drew Barrymore set in France in the time of Leonardo da Vinci.  Henry (Dougray Scott), the prince of France is engaged to marry the princess of Spain in an arranged marriage.  He feels trapped by this marriage and by the responsibilities of his birth and his future home.  Danielle (Drew Barrymore) is the Cinderella figure.  Her father was a merchant who married a baroness and died jet after, leaving his manor, and Danielle, to his new wife, who had two daughter.  The Baroness raises Danielle as a servant.  She has several encounters with the prince, who believes her to a Comtesse, because of the name she gives.  It’s a beautiful love story and I’m a hopeless romantic, so I of course loved it.

But it’s not the love story I want to talk about, but Passion.  There is a lesson to be learner from the film for all of us, as most of us live our lives as the prince had previous to meeting Danielle.  This is summarized in Henry’s speech to Danielle in the library of the Franciscans:

“In all my years of study, not one tutor has ever demonstrated the passion you have shown me in the last two days.  You have more conviction in one memory than I have in my entire being.”

And also in his discussion with Da Vinci at the beginning of the movie:

Henry:  “I know.  I lied.  I thought I’d see the world before I gave up my life for God and country.”
Da Vinci:  “Why on earth did you stop?”
Henry:  “I suppose I lack conviction.  You seem to have it in spades.  Besides, you said it was a matter of life and death.”
Da Vinci:  “A woman always is, Sire.”  (unrolling the Mona Lisa)
Henry:  “She laughs at me, sir, as if she knows something I do not.”
Da Vinci:  “The lady had many secrets.  I merely painted one of them.”

Prince Henry had grown up having everything.  The best tutors, access to libraries most couldn’t dream of, he had never gone hungry, never had to do hard labour, never known loss, never suffered the way “lesser” people did.  He had never lacked anything.  Except Passion.

Danielle, on the other hand, though living a sheltered early life, experiences loss when her father dies.  From then on, though she always has enough to eat, she is treated like a servant and spends her life working and labouring.  She spent the rest of her life after his death without certainty, with no position, no access to any of the advantages the prince had.  But what she did have was Passion.  She was naive and idealistic to a point that she was bound to be disappointed by life, but she had a Passion that was a raging fire inside her.

Danielle’s Passion and Henry’s Apathy are shown in their confrontation the second time they met.  Danielle dressed up as a courtier and went with 20 pieces of gold to redeem one of the servants.  The Baroness had given him to the Crown for a debt of 20 pieces of gold.  She tried to make the driver of the cart hauling the poor debtors to the coast to serve in the new world to release him, and he was getting angry with her because she was delaying him.  The prince arrives and steps it.

Cargo Master: Get out of my way!
Prince Henry: You dare raise your voice to a lady, sir?
Cargo Master: Your Highness. Forgive me, Sire. I meant no disrespect. It’s just er… I’m following orders. It’s my job to take these thieves to the coast.
Danielle: A servant is not a thief, your Highness; and those who are cannot help themselves.
Prince Henry: Really? Well, then. By all means. Enlighten us.
Danielle: If you suffer your people to be ill-educated and their manners corrupted from infancy then punish them for those crimes to which their first education disposed them what else is to be concluded, Sire but that you first make thieves and then punish them?
Prince Henry: Well, there you have it. Release him.
Cargo Master: But, Sire…
Prince Henry: I said release him!
Cargo Master: Yes, Sire.
Maurice: I thought I was looking at your mother.
Danielle: Meet me at the bridge. Prepare the horses! We will leave at once! Thank you, Your Highness.
Prince Henry: Have we met?
Danielle: I do not believe so, Your Highness.
Prince Henry: I could have sworn I knew every courtier in the province.
Danielle: Well… I’m visiting a cousin.
Prince Henry: Who?
Danielle: My cousin.
Prince Henry: Yes, you said that. Which one?
Danielle: The only one I have, Sire.
Prince Henry: Are you coy on purpose or do you honestly refuse to tell me your name?
Danielle: No! And yes.
Prince Henry: Then, pray, tell me your cousin’s name so I might call upon her to learn who you are. Anyone who can quote Thomas Moore is well worth the effort.
Danielle: The Prince has read Utopia?
Prince Henry: I found it sentimental and dull. I confess, the plight of the everyday rustic bores me.
Danielle: I gather you do not converse with many peasants.
Prince Henry: (chuckles) Certainly not, no! Naturally.
Danielle: Excuse me, Sire, but there is nothing natural about it. A country’s character is defined by its everyday rustics, as you call them. They are the legs you stand on. That position demands respect, not…
Prince Henry: Am I to understand that you find me arrogant?
Danielle: Well, you gave one man back his life but did you even glance at the others?
Prince Henry: Please, I beg of you a name. Any name.
Danielle: I fear that the only name to leave you with is Comtesse Nicole de Lancret.
Prince Henry: There now. That wasn’t so hard.

It’s clash of cultures and classes, but ultimately, it shows her Passion and his inability to understand that Passion.  It was foreign to him, beyond his understanding, like explaining flying to a deep sea fish, or the sea to a high mountain bird.  But that incomprehensible, that bafflement, is what fascinates Henry about Danielle.

He runs across her again at the river when he was accompanying Da Vinci to test a new invention and she was there swimming.

Prince Henry: You’re angry with me.
Danielle: No.
Prince Henry: Admit it.
Danielle: Well, yes, if you must know.
Prince Henry: Why?
Danielle: Because you are trying to bait me with your snobbery. Prince Henry: I’m afraid, mademoiselle, you are a walking contradiction and I find that rather fascinating.
Danielle: Me?
Prince Henry: Yes, you. You spout the ideals of a Utopian society, yet you live the life of a courtier.
Danielle: You own all the land there is, yet you take no pride in working it. Is that not also a contradiction?
Prince Henry: First I’m arrogant, and now I have no pride. However do I manage that?
Danielle: You have everything and still the world holds no joy. Yet you make fun of those who would see it for its possibilities.
Prince Henry: How do you do it?
Danielle: What?
Prince Henry: Live each day with this kind of passion? Don’t you find it exhausting?
Danielle: Only when I’m around you. Why do you like to irritate me so?
Prince Henry: Why do you rise to the occasion?

He sees the Passion in her and wants that.  He sees dynamic life in her, where his is static.  He seeks her out again the next day and takes her to the Franciscan library.  This is where the first quote I gave occurred.  By this point, his consternation has faded and awe has replaced it.  It is no long her foreignness where he focuses, but his lack of Passion and conviction.  This side was obvious to the audience in the previous encounters, but he noticed the Passion in her more than the lack in himself.  As he becomes familiar and comfortable in hers, it no longer eclipses the lack in him, and he desires what she has, where previously he desired the presence of hers.  Passion is contagious.  He is catching it, and it is beginning to light a fire in him.

The next morning, he storms into his parents’ bedroom, the fire of Passion now fully upon him:

King Francis: Off… with his head.
Queen Marie: Francis, wake up. Our son has something to tell us.
Prince Henry: Mother, Father. I want to build a university with the largest library in Europe, where people of any station can study.
King Francis: All right, who are you and what have you done with our son?
Prince Henry: Oh. And I want to invite the Gypsies to the ball.

Henry has now found a purpose, as he tells Danielle when he meets her at the ruins later that day:

Prince Henry: Hello.
Danielle: Hello.
Prince Henry: Are you well?
Danielle: I fear that I am not myself today.
Prince Henry: I feel as if my skin is the only thing keeping me from going everywhere at once. There is something I must tell you.
Danielle: And I you.
Prince Henry: Oh, here. Your book, you left it in the carriage yesterday. Danielle: Your Highness…
Prince Henry: Henry.
Danielle: I cannot stay long, but I had to see you. There is much to say.
Prince Henry: Come. I want to show you something. I used to play here as a boy. It was my father’s most cherished retreat before the war.
Danielle: It’s beautiful.
Prince Henry: I’ve measured my life by these trees starting here all the way up there. And still they grow. So much life to live but I no longer imagine it alone.
Danielle: You’re not making this easy.
Prince Henry: I have not slept for fear I would wake to find all this a dream. Oh, last night, I had a revelation. I used to think, if I cared at all, I would have to care about everything and I’d go stark raving mad. But now I’ve found my purpose. It’s a project actually inspired by you. I feel the most wonderful freedom. It wasn’t me. Nicole. You are unlike any courtier I have ever met. Tomorrow, at the masque I shall make it known to the world.
Danielle: Why did you have to be so wonderful?
Prince Henry: Now, then. What was it you wanted to tell me?
Danielle: Simply that last night was the happiest night of my life. Ow! I must go.
Prince Henry: Nicole! No.

This whole transformation reminds me of the song Standing Outside the Fire by Garth Brooks, which I’ve quotes before on earlier posts:

We call them cool
Those hearts that have no scars to show
The ones that never do let go
And risk the tables being turned

We call them fools
Who have to dance within the flame
Who chance the sorrow and the shame
That always comes with getting burned

But you’ve got to be tough when consumed by desire
‘Cause it’s not enough just to stand outside the fire

We call them strong
Those who can face this world alone
Who seem to get by on their own
Those who will never take the fall

We call them weak
Who are unable to resist
The slightest chance love might exist
And for that forsake it all

They’re so hell-bent on giving, walking a wire
Convinced it’s not living if you stand outside the fire

Standing outside the fire
Standing outside the fire
Life is not tried, it is merely survived
If you’re standing outside the fire

There’s this love that is burning
Deep in my soul
Constantly yearning to get out of control
Wanting to fly higher and higher
I can’t abide
Standing outside the fire

Standing outside the fire
Standing outside the fire
Life is not tried, it is merely survived
If you’re standing outside the fire

Standing outside the fire
Standing outside the fire
Life is not tried, it is merely survived
If you’re standing outside the fire 

Without that Passion Danielle had that Henry caught, we truly are merely surviving.  Without it Fate overcomes us, directs us, controls us.  We go through life on auto pilot, taking the default choice, having no control of our life, and often not even realizing it.  But Passion changes that.  It gives us purpose.  It releases our True Will, our Destiny.  It allows us to step out of the ordinary, out of Fate and her bonds, into the extraordinary, into Destiny and her freedom.  It allows us to burn hot like starfire, not die out like a dying coal.  As Neil Yong sang, later quoted in Highlander, and in Kurt Cobain’s suicide note, “It’s better to burn out than to fade away.”  As Meatloaf sings in Jim Steinman’s Everything Loader than Everything Else:

I know that I will never be politically correct
And I don’t give a damn about my lack of etiquette
As far as I’m concerned, the world could still be flat
And if the thrill is gone, then it’s time to take it back
If the thrill is gone, then it’s time to take it back

Passion is that thrill in life, the spark, the fire.  We were made to burn hot like the stars we come from, not smolder and smoke and go out.  T. Thorn Coyle says in Evolutionary Witchcraft that Victor Anderson talked about four types of fire.  These were: coal, flame, arc, and star.  Think about these a moment.

A coal, and ember, holds heat for a long time, if other heat is present.  It doesn’t burn like the others, but it cooks evenly and can be used to light other fires.  It is the fire that is used to forge iron.  This is the level most people’s Passion burns at, the Aleph 1 of Passion, Infinite Passion if we only knew it.

Next we find the flame.  When fuel is added to a coal, you get flame.  Flame burns hotter, but less even than a coal.  It creates some change, turning the fuel (assuming a wood fuel) into more coals.  This is where Henry was after contact with Danielle.  She began to light something in him, fanning coal to flame.  This is the Aleph 2 of Passion, infinity raised to the power of infinity.  These are the people we find who are driven, who we can taste the Passion in, but who haven’t fully stepped into Destiny, and those who have burned at arc or star fire and are now walking in Destiny, but have calmed from the initial high to a more sustainable point.

Arc fire is short lived but instantly changes.  It is more powerful than a flame, but then is gone.  It is lightning from heaven.  It is an arc welder instantly joining two pieces of metal.  This is the Aleph 3 of Passion, infinity raised to infinity to infinity.  This is a sip from Odin’s Mead of Poetry, a sip from Ceridwen’s Cauldron of Inspiration.  It changes you in an instant.  It is Epiphany or Revelation.  It is the Tongues of Fire of Pentecost, it is Buddhist Enlightenment.  You will never be the same.  But it isn’t the greatest Passion, the greatest fire.

Star Fire is the fire of the gods, ecstasy, frenzy, berserk.  This is the Feast of Dionysus, the Berserking of Odin, the panic of Pan.  Wild uncontrolled Passion.  Fire so hot is consumes us.  This is Aleph 4 of Passion, infinity to the infinity to the infinity to the infinity.  This is Passion at its most extreme, at its hottest.

Coal fire is heated to flame fire.  Flame fire is heated to arc fire.  Arc fire is heated to star fire.  Star fire recharges arc fire.  Arc fire recharges flame fire.  Flame fire recharges coal fire.  Star fire is the mountain top.  It is important, it is needed, but we can’t live there.  As the Meat Puppets sing:

Coming down from the mountain
I have seen the high and mighty
I will go again someday
But for now I’m coming down
Coming down from the mountain
I have seen the lofty glory
I will go again someday
But for now I’m coming down

Looking back at Ever After, we see that Danielle is Henry’s Muse.  She is the inspiration that leads him to his life work, to the building of a library where anyone can go and study.  Her Passion, which fanned his coals to flame, is arc fire, changing him forever.

In Classic Greek myth and belief, there are nine Muses, the Mousai.  These are daughters of Zeus and Mnemosyne, of the Divine and Memory.  For it is when Muninn, Memory, the past, connects with the Divine that inspiration comes.  Inspiration builds on the past, but transforms it in the Star Forge of the Divine.  The Muses are Calliope (epic poetry), Clio (history), Euterpe (flutes and lyrical poetry), Thalia (comedy and pastorial poetry), Melpomene (Tragedy), Terpsichore (dance), Erato (love poetry), Polyhymnia (sacred poetry), and Urania (astronomy).  They’re leader was Apollo.  They are goddesses of knowledge, and remember all things that have passed before, a legacy from their mother.  They can be seen as chroniclers or historians of all time.  They are the past, pointing to the future.  They are the Threads of Fate.  They are also goddesses of wells, the deep flowing water below the earth that we can drink from.  This water is Odin’s Mead of Poetry, and the content of Ceridwen’s Cauldron of Inspiration.  It is the Well of Mimir, the Rolling Cauldron, and the Well of Urd.  It is significant the Brigid is both a goddess of wells and a goddess of fire.  The Muses pull forth Memory and use it as fuel to light the fire of Passion.

It is only through Passion that Change can come, the true power of witchcraft.  It is only through Passion that we can overcome Fate and find the true Graal.  It is only through Passion that we can learn to bind and loose the Threads of Fate.  It is only through Passion that we kind find our Destiny and True Will.  It is only through Passion that we can change the world.  Passion is the Catalyst, the Changer of Fate, and it is the Nexus, the Bringer of Destiny.

The movie Ever After ends with a line that sums this all up nicely.  “My great-great-grandmother’s portrait hung in the university up until the Revolution. By then, the truth of their romance had been reduced to a simple fairy tale. And, while Cinderella and her prince did live happily ever after, the point, gentlemen, is that they lived.”

FFF,
~Muninn’s Kiss

 

Wildfire: Necessity and Power

I’ve talked several times about the importance of fire in the lodgepole pine / pine beetle cycle, of how fire must come to kill of the beetles, and to open the cones to bring new life.

Here’s a summary of that cycle for those unfamiliar.  The cycle begins with the rebirth of the forest after a fire.  Out of the cones, new lodgepole seedlings sprout.  There are very few pine beetles alive.  As the years pass, the trees grew and slowly a new forest forms.  The trees reach up toward the sky, underbrush growing below.  The animals live beneath.  Each year, the lodgepole drpp two types of cones, a normal cone that opens as it dries, and a cone that only opens in fire.  Slowly, the pine beetle population grows.  Each year they lay their eggs beneath the bark.  The eggs hatch, the larva grow, then become pupa, become adults, all the while feeding on the tree.  The adult beetles emerge and look for a new tree.  A female finds a tree and starts burrowing into the bark and begins giving off pheromones that attract other females and males which mass attack the tree and trees near it.  The beetles have a special structure on thier heads that carry blue stain fungus. At the beginning of the boring, this structure infects the tree, and the fungus prevents the tree from producing resin, the tree’s natural defense against the beetle.  The males fertilize the eggs and the females lay them, beginning the cycle anew.  Between thr lavae and pupae eating thd wood and the fungus blocking the tree’s ability to get water and nutrients to the wood, the tree dies.  And tree by tree, the lodgepole die as the beetles increase in numbers.  Dead lodgepole are very flamible, and as the number of dead trees increase, so does the chance of fire.  When it reaches a point, and fire starts, it races through the forest, destroying the dead trees, but killing the beetles within them, and opening the cones, allowing the rebirth of the forest and the completion of the cycle.

We have been nearing the end of that cycle in much of the Western US and Canada for a long time.  In at least Wyoming, Colorado, New Mexico, South Dakota, Montana, Idaho, Utah, Nevada, Arizona, Eastern Wasington, Eastern Oregon, North Eastern California, and Alberta, maybe other states, at least 65% of the pine are dead from the beetle.  Near Laramie, here in South East Wyoming where 60 MPH winds are common, about 80% are dead.  It’s been since the fires of 1909 that many beetles have been killed.

So we come to this year.  Typically in this part of the country, fire season is late July to late September when the snow starts to put them out.  The fires started in late May this year.  Last major snow in Laramie is usually late May.  It was late June last year, but early March this year.  Typically the Laramie River crests second week of July.  It was last week of July last year, but second week of May this year.  Typically, Spring rains are from May to
early July.  Last year they were late June to early August.  This year, March to May.  Typical late June, early July temperatures are in the high 70s, and if it breaks 90 at all, it’s in the second week of August.  Last year, it didn’t break 80 until around then.  This year, we’ve have 90+ temperatures for the last two weeks.  It’s a very very dry year, much hotter than normal, normal strong winds, no rain to speak of for most of the last month.  Perfect conditions for fire.

Fire.  The classic elements place earth as heaviest, then water, then air, then fire as lightest.  Earth and air are passive, water and fire active.  The order of heaviness is mirrored in the Kabbalah worlds.  The highest world, the World of Emminations, is the World of Fire, and Shin, the Mother of Fire.  Below that is the World of Creation, the World of Air, and Aleph, the Mother of Air.  Next is the World of Forms, the World of Water, and Mem, the Mother of Water.  The lowest is Malkuth, which contains Fire, Air, and Water, but is the only world containing Earth.  The three upper worlds is the first Breath.  Breath is made of heat, air, and moisture, all combined together.  But heat rises, up the the World of Fire, and moisture condenses and sinks as the temperature drops, sinking to the World of Water, leaving Air between.  You see a similar thing in the symbol for Aquarius.  You see two sawtooth waves, one above, one below.  The space between is Air, for Aquarius has always been connected to Air.  Traditionally, below the lower wave is Water, the oceans and lakes and rivers and streams of the earth.  Above is traditionally the water above, the water that falls from the sky, rain.  It’s the Firmament separating the two waters to the Hebrews, though this is Greek, not Jewish, relating to the Greek Flood Myths.  But the upper wave can also be seen as the boundary between Air and Fire, the starlight and fire above the Air.  Rotating the Kabbalic Three Worlds and Three Mothers, you get Three Pillars.  It rotates to the right.  Fire, Shin, Emminations, becomes the Right Hand Pillar, Pillar of Fire, Pillar of Chesed, Pillar of Mercy.  Water, Mem, Forms, becomes the Left Hand Pillar, Pillar of Water, Pillar of Geburah, Pillar of Severity.  And between them, Air, Aleph, Creation, becomes the Middle Pillar, the balance between the two.

Fire.  What does Fire do?  It consumes, and converts matter to heat, matter to energy.  It is inherently distructive, yet that destruction produces heat and energy, which are necessary for life.  The Sun is Fire in it’s most powerful form, consuming, destroying, and creating, and life on earth is impossible without the heat and energy it produces.  In the Chinese classic elements, Fire creates Earth, as, when it burns wood, it produces ash, Earth.  Wood creates Fire, as Fire burns out of wood.  Fire controls Metal, as it melts it and allows it to be worked.  Water controls Fire, because it extinguishes it.

Fire.  There are two professions that depend on Fire more than any other, that intrinsically depend on it.  And both are some of the oldest professions, and necessary for human survival.  The first is cooking, for you can’t cook without Fire, whether wood fire, gas fire, or electricity.  The other is smithing, the working with metal.  Without smithing, there are no tools to farm, no nails to build, no weapons to hunt.  Well, primitive ones of each, but smithing is what allowed expansion and progress, the ability to do more than just survive.  And without fire to melt or soften the metal, there is no smithing.  The Smithcraft is very closely tied to many Witchcraft traditions.  As makes sense.  Smithery is magic.  You take one thing and change it to another, and only initiates, only those knowing the secrets of the craft can do so.  The secrets were passed master to apprentice, father to son.  Many traditions are connected to Tubal Cain, the first worker of metal, the first Smith, in the Biblical record and in many parallel traditions.  Some are connected to Wayland, the legendary Smith in Northern tradition.  Some are connected to Hephaestus of the Greeks, Vulcan to the Romans, the Smith of the gods who crafted Zeus’ lightning bolts and was kicked out of Olympus by his mother Hera for being weak.  Smiths are very much connected to the craft.

Fire is very real here in the Western United States at the moment.  The trees that have been awaiting fire are burning in many places.  There are two fires near to home, one about thirty miles to the west, very near my working site, making it off limits, and one to the north that is much larger but without as much potential for a bigger disaster.  The one the the west is just over 10,000 acres but borders many hundreds of thousands of dead trees.  As of the moment, it is 95% contained, which is good news.  The one to the north is almost 100,000 acres, and 65% contained.  The whole valley has been covered with smoke for a long time, first from the Colorado fires, and lately by the local fires to a much larger extent.  Fire is real, and Fire is dangerous.

Though the trees need to burn, to kill the beetles, to renew the forests, large fires burning the whole west are dangerous to the people living here, to the ranches and houses, to the people I know as my people.  It is necessary for the fires that are inevitable to burn for a bit and be put out, instead of burning and burning and burning.  Both Let-It-Burn policies and putting out every fire are bad options, but sometimes all the technology of man can’t control a fire.  Only nature can put it out, can control it, can direct it.  So sometimes the approach isn’t technology.

Wildfire

Note:  This is a Grimr spell with Feri and 1734 influence.  It is keyed to me and shouldn’t be used as is by anyone else.  Please feel free, however, to draw from it or adapt it for your own purposes.  If you do so and would like to share your creation with me and/or the results, please email spellsandrituals at grimr.org.

IN A DARK ROOM, FACE THE DIRECTION OF THE FIRE.  LIGHT A CANDLE IN FRONT OF YOU.  CLOSE YOUR EYES AND TAKE BREATHES, PULLING IN POWER AND ENERGY FROM WHAT IS AROUND YOU.  WHEN YOU’RE READY, OPEN YOUR EYES AND STARE INTO THE FLAME.  LET YOUR EYES UNFOCUS.  THE CANDLE FLAME REPRESENTS THE WILDFIRE, IS THE WILDFIRE.  REACH OUT THROUGH THE FLAMES OF THE CANDLE INTO THE WILDFIRE.  VISUALIZE TWO DOORS DECORATED IN BURNING TREES.  THESE DOORS ARE THE GATE BETWEEN YOUR CANDLE FLAME AND THE FLAME OF THE WILDFIRE.  THIS IS MORE THAN VISUALIZATION, THE VISUALIZATION IS MERELY A TOOL TO HELP YOU SEE THE DOORS THAT ARE ALREADY THERE.  OPEN THE DOOR.  REACH THROUGH AND LET YOUR CONCENTRATION AND INTENT FOCUS ON THE FLAMES THROUGH THE FLAMES.  NOW BEGIN.

Beginnings, Creation, Ingress (REPEAT THREE TIMES):

By fire burning,
Both wild and free,
I call your names,
I call to thee,
Boreas and Notus,
Zephyrus and Eurus,
Tettens and Carenos,
Lucet and Node,
Nordi and Sudri,
Austri and Vestri,
Hapi and Imsety.
Duamutef and Qebehsenuef,
Black Mother and Shining Flame,
Star Finder and Water Maker.
Four bright stars,
That are as one,
Four winds blowing,
Come to me,
Four stones resting,
On the edge,
By water and soil,
All are one,
This valley is mine,
By right and deed,
In Nimue’s bosom,
We start this thing,
As fire started,
By human hand,
We start the process,
To end again,
Bring the wind,
To turn about,
To move away,
From beetle blight,
Bring the rain,
To put it out,
Pour down moisture,
To cool the drought,
Soil from which,
The trees did spring,
Draw back the ashes,
Bring new life,
Fire, destroyer,
And bringer of life,
Pull back your hand,
In morning’s light,
Four bight stars,
That are as one,
Four winds blowing,
Come to me,
By fire burning,
Both wild and free,
I call your names,
I call to thee,
Exitium in initio,
Ponebatur.

Centre, Sustaining, Congress (REPEAT SIX TIMES):

Cool breeze and rainfall,
The temperatures drop,
Moisture and rain clouds,
The wind brings relief,
We all know the fire,
Is destined to come,
Needful and necessary,
A bringer of life,
Beetle killed lodgepole,
For thousands of miles,
Only the burning,
Can bring an end,
But houses and ranches,
People and beasts,
I stand for protection,
I stand for their lives,
As this burning candle,
Is controlled and contained,
I declare limits and boundaries,
Control of the flame,
By Mari’s sweet presence,
The boundaries stand,
This far and no further,
And turn it around,
Rain will fall gentle,
And limit the flame,
Wind will blow it back,
A binding hand came,
Earth will fall silent,
Asleep in the rain,
And fire will turn back,
Moving inward again,
Cool breeze and rainfall,
The temperatures drop,
Moisture and rain clouds,
The wind brings relief,
I stand for protection,
I stand for their lives,
Exitium in initio,
Ponebatur.

Endings, Destruction, Egress (REPEAT NINE TIMES):

All things that start,
Must come to an end,
The candle that’s lit,
Must soon be put out,
A fire contained,
With no place to go,
Shall eat up its fuel,
And burn itself out,
By four names we bind,
By four names we loose,
The fire that started,
Must soon be no more,
Boreas and Notus,
Zephyrus and Eurus,
Tettens and Carenos,
Lucet and Node,
Nordi and Sudri,
Austri and Vestri,
Hapi and Imsety.
Duamutef and Qebehsenuef,
Black Mother and Shining Flame,
Star Finder and Water Maker.
Four stones the border,
Four stones the edge,
What’s started and limited,
Must reach and end,
Lodgepole that’s burned,
Is lost in the wind,
Fire that’s extinguished,
Makes room for new life,
Cones that open,
In the destruction of death,
Grow to new life,
A snake eating its tail,
Beetles are gone,
And with them the trees,
Sacrificed on altars,
Under sweet Ana’s knife,
New life comes slowly,
And sprout from the seed,
Beginnings from endings,
New life it brings,
By four names we bind,
By four names we loose,
The fire that started,
Must soon be no more,
All things that start,
Must come to an end,
The candle that’s lit,
Must soon be put out,
A fire contained,
With no place to go,
Shall eat up its fuel,
And burn itself out,
Exitium in initio,
Ponebatur.

STILL FOCUSING ON THE FIRE THROUGH THE FLAME, EITHER BLOW OUT THE CANDLE OR SNUFF IT OUT BETWEEN WET FINGERS.  SIT IN SILENCE AND DARKNESS UNTIL YOU FEEL RELEASED BY THE SPIRITS.




FFF,
~Muninn’s Kiss

 

The Year is Drawing Nigh, a Samhain poem

The Year is Drawing Nigh

A Samhain poem by Muninn’s Kiss

As darkness fall, the veil thin,

The year is drawing nigh.

Shadows lengthen, gather strength,

The year is drawing nigh.

The dead they stir, and look around,

The year is drawing nigh.

Tonight they walk, tonight they dine,

The year is drawing nigh.

The sinks down, she’s dying now,

The year is drawing nigh.

Beneath the hills, the dying sun,

The year is drawing nigh.

Hollow hills, they open wide,

The year is drawing nigh.

Faerie folk, the mighty dead,

The year is drawing nigh.

Samhain’s fires, burning bright,

The year is drawing nigh.

To dance around, in death’s embrace,

The year is drawing nigh.

Ancestors dead, some long gone,

The year is drawing nigh.

We tip a glass, we place a plate,

The year is drawing nigh.

Death stands up, tonight he reigns,

The year is drawing nigh.

In darkness strong, the dying year,

The year is drawing nigh.

The revelers grow deathly quiet,

The year is drawing nigh.

All knees bend and all tongue stilled,

The year is drawing nigh.

For Death takes all and all will come,

The year is drawing nigh.

The Gates of Death, they open wide,

The year is drawing nigh.

His face you meet, at Death’s great doors,

The year is drawing nigh.

A friend, a judge, a lover, a blade,

The year is drawing nigh.

His embrace is sweet, but deathly cold,

The year is drawing nigh.

In love he strips you, bone from bone,

The year is drawing nigh.

Nothing left, you pass beyond,

The year is drawing nigh.

The veil it parts, the doors swing wide,

The year is drawing nigh.

Your last strong breath, last orgasm,

The year is drawing nigh.

And through you go, to what’s beyond,

The year is drawing nigh.

But Death’s great doors and Life’s fair doors,

The year is drawing nigh.

What’s dead and gone, will be reborn,

The year is drawing nigh.

A new breath breathed, a new day dawns,

The year is drawing nigh.

Death to Life, he takes your hand,

The year is drawing nigh.

All is gone, but all in new,

The year is drawing nigh.

The new dawn’s sun, in the east,

The year is drawing nigh.

The cold it flees, the shadows hide,

The year is drawing nigh.

Dark Samhain’s night to new year’s light,

The year is drawing nigh.

What was dead has come again.

 

Nine Acts of Witchcraft Become the Three Grimr, Part 1, Nourishment…

In 2009 and 2010, I wrote a series of ten posts on the first nine acts of witchcraft.  These posts were an analysis of the nine acts, the nine changes, G-d did at the beginning of Genesis which brought about the creation of the world.  I looked at them in sequential order as they occurred over the seven days in the myth.  I’d like to take another look at these acts by looking at them in a different way.

The nine acts are:

1. Let there be light.  (link)
2. Let there be a firmament.  (link)
3. Let the waters under heaven be gathered.  (link)
4. Let the earth put forth.  (link)
5. Let there be lights in the firmament.  (link)
6. Let the waters swarm and let fowl fly.  (link)
7. Let the earth bring forth the living creature.  (part 1) (part 2)
8. Let us make man in our image.  (link)
9. And he rested.  (link)

People usually focus on there being seven days, but few ever mention that there are nine acts.  The number nine doesn’t occur often in Hebrew texts and thoughts compared to other numbers, but is is very common in Norse and Germanic myth.  Among many other occurances of the number, there are nine worlds, Odin hung on the Tree, a sacrifice by himself to himself, for nine days, and nine of the gods survive Ragnarok.  Also, in Greek myth, there are nine muses.  In Robert Cochrane’s letters, you circle the alter three time three (9) times for the Maid, three times six (18 which is 9 time 2) times for the Mother, and three times nine (36) times for the Hag.  Also, he indicates nine Rites or Knots of the year during which the male and female clans would come together.

But nine is always related to three in myth, as is six.  Six is three sets of twins, and nine three sets of three.  When you look at the nine acts as groups of three chronologically, not much emerges.  In the first trinity, we see separation, separation, coming together.  In the second, we see three things coming forth.  In the third, we coming forth, making, resting.  While these sets are interesting and shouldn’t be ignored, they don’t form any patterns that are common for all three sets.  But if we group them by taking each one in the chronological grouping and put them with each in the next set and so far, some interesting details emerge.

Let there be light.  Let the earth put forth.  Let the earth bring forth living creatures.

Working backwards, we see the the earth bringing the living creature, and the earth putting forth plants.  The connection here between the two is easy to see.  The earth brings forth both.  The interesting thing is there are two words here.  Let the earth put forth uses dasha (דָּשָׁא), but when the earth obeys, it brings forth, yatsa’ (יָצָא).  Dasha is to sprout, to grow green.  Yatsa’ is to put forth, to depart or cause to depart.  So it sprouts, then grows up, out, away from the ground.  But G-d tells the land to bring forth, yatsa’, the living creature.  And all the living things of the earth (not of the water or the air) are brought forth, pushed out of the ground.  And then, it says, G-d makes, ‘asah (עָשָׂה), fashions all of them.  So they come forth, then are formed.

But back to the first triune, the first of the Grimr.  The first two are easily connected, the earth bringing forth.  Out of the earth they come.  But how does that connect to the first?  Let there be light.  To see the connection, we must understand nature and cycles.  Let’s start with the creatures.  To begin with, they only eat plants.  Only later do some eat other creatures.  Plants.  So animals, the third part, eat plants, the second part.  So what do plants live on?  If animals get their energy from plants, where do plants get their energy?  Light.  Ah ha, light!  The first part.  So light feeds the plants and plants feed the animals.  Now this triune starts to make sense and come together.

But there’s another element here.  The plants and animals come out of the earth, but where does the light come out of?  Let’s look back a bit:

1 In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.
2 Now the earth was unformed and void, and darkness was upon the face of the deep; and the spirit of God hovered over the face of the waters.
3 And God said: ‘Let there be light.’ And there was light. 

And afterwards:

3 And God said: ‘Let there be light.’ And there was light.
4 And God saw the light, that it was good; and God divided the light from the darkness.

So, before light, there was the earth, darkness, waters, and the spirit of G-d (The four elements.  Earth and water.  The spirit is wind, air.  The darkness is black fire, see The earth was (tohu va-vohu), chaos and void…)  And it’s the darkness that the light is intermingled with, not the rest.  So it would seem that the light came out of the darkness, just as the plants and animals came out of the earth.  There is a verse somewhere in the Zohar that says that light is brightest that comes out of the darkness.  The black fire of inspiration brings forth light, illumination, Truth.

So the darkness, the fire, brings forth light, and the earth brings forth plants, then animals.  The light nourishes the plants.  The plants nourish the animals.  The three are a cycle, the three become one.  On the first day.  On the third day.  On the sixth day.  The first act.  The fourth act.  The seventh act.

FFF,
~Muninn’s Kiss

 

Kabbalah and the Elements…

This and the next post were replies to an email on a list, though I’ve removed the parts that are relevant only to the message I was replying to.  I liked how I said what I said and figured I’d share it with anyone who wants to read it.

In Kabbalah, the way I was taught, the three elements are tied to the three Mothers in the Hebrew alphabet, Shin, Aleph, and Mem.  The world began with the first Breath, G-d breathing into the universe and giving it life.  Breath is words and words is breath, the world was spoken into being, the world is made of breath, the breath became sound, the sound, became letters, the letters became words, the words became creation. “Let there be light.”  The Breath is the letter Heh.  Heh is breathed more than spoken.  Notice the similarities between the Hebrew Heh and Hawaiian Ha, breath and four.  Kether, Crown is that Breath, Chokmah, Wisdom, breath from breath.  In the Jewish Tree, Heh connects Kether and Chokmah.  Chokmah is like Kether, and Binah, Understanding, reflects Chokmah.  With Binah there were two, duality.  Vev connects Kether and Binah.  Vev is the hook that hangs the Veil in the Temple.  Vev is And in Hebrew grammar.  With Binah, there were two, Chokmah AND Binah, Abba and Imma, Father and Mother.  But I digress.

G-d breathed into Adam, giving him life.  That breath, that Ruach (wind, breath, Talker) gave life.  The mud man became the living man.  Just so, G-d breathed into the universe of Void and Chaos, which sounds a lot like mud in the Zohar, and gave it life.  As above, so below; as below, so above.

The first Breath filled the void that is the Tzimtzum, the Contraction, the Womb of the Star Goddess.  Breath is Air with heat and moisture, Fire and Water.  Heat rises and water condenses on the lower surfaces, hence Fire rose above and water condensed below, leaving Air in the middle.  Fire is Shin, the upper Mother, which connects Chokmah to Binah, and is the upper world, Atziluth, the World of Emanations.  If you look at the form of the letter, Shin is three flames.  It’s said that in the world to come, it will have four flames.  Air is Aleph, the middle Mother, which connects Chesed to Geburah, and is Briah, the World of Creation.  If you look at the form of Aleph, it is a bar with a Yod on each side.  There’s other symbolism, but you can see it as Air being the bar, with Fire above and Water below.  Water is Mem, the lower Mother, which connects Netzach to Hod, and is Yetzurah, the world of Forms, which is the Great Lower Sea, Binah being the Upper Sea.  Mem literally means Water, but also the Womb.  If you look at the form of Mem, the top looks like a wave on the sea.

Now, in Kabbalah, the masculine is that which gives and the feminine is that which receives.  This is why G-d, who is both male and female, and neither, for there’s no duality at Kether and above, is seen as male.  G-d gives and his Bride, Israel, receives.  Heaven gives and the Earth receives.  The metaphor is sexual.  The male “gives” his penis, and the female receives it into her vagina.  The male gives semen and the female receives it into her womb.  In the Tree, above gives and below receives, so above is masculine and below is feminine.  Kether is masculine to everything, and Malkuth is feminine to everything.  For the rest, it’s relational.  Chokmah is feminine in relation to Kether and masculine in relation to Chesed.  Likewise, this is true left to right.  Chokmah is masculine to Binah’s feminine.  Which brings us to the Pillars.

The three Mothers rotate and become the three Pillars.  So, the Pillar of Mercy, the Pillar of Chesed, is the Pillar of Fire.  The Pillar of Severity, the Pillar of Geburah, is the Pillar of Water.  And the Middle Pillar is the Pillar of Air.  The Pillar of Mercy is masculine and is made up of Chokmah, Chesed, and Netzach.  The Pillar of Severity is feminine and is made up of Binah, Geburah, and Hod.  And the Middle Pillar stands between them, the balance.  I’ve written a lot in my LiveJournal about the three Pillars, but most of it isn’t important here.

So, at least in Jewish Kabbalah, Netzach would be Fire and Hod Water.  Of course, most of the attributes of Netzach are things that the modern Western world associate with feminine behaviour and traits, and most of the attributes of Hod are things that the modern Western world associate with masculine behaviours and traits, so many Westerners flip the two, making Netzach feminine and Water and Hod masculine and Fire.  But this is because we have different cultural biases and stereotypes and don’t understand that everything is both male and female, Fire and Water, for all is in G-d, in the Star Goddess, and there is no duality in that True reality, only in the illusions of this world.

FFF,
~Muninn’s Kiss