Devotional Preparation For Magic

While a year of pandemic inactivity has often slowed my brain to a crawl, I have continued to plod away at creating a series of Pagan devotional practices. Inspired by the form of Roman Catholic 'novena' prayers these practices involve a more detailed series of prayers, meditation, and offerings than most simple Shrine devotions, without the set-up required for a full Fire-sacrifice rite.

Having completed a set of eight seasonal Pagan calendar devotions, I have been writing works for various more practical purposes (as is the custom with novenas). The list of possibilities is endless, so my initial outline will include one devotional for prosperity and success, one for rescue from ill or danger, and one for preparation for other magical works.

Traditional magical instruction, documentable back into pagan times, includes the idea that magic depends on a ritual relationship with the gods and spirits. Magicians are taught to regularly practice religious devotions, to pray for wisdom, love and power, and thus to come before the spirits in fellowship when we want to ask for (or even demand) something.

Some of the traditional instructions provide prayer-texts and rites of purification for such preparation. More simply instruct the magician to attend the holy rites of the local religion, and empower themselves with the blessings available there. This can work for modern Pagans if we live near an organized Grove or public circle, where we can attend seasonal rites.

However it is personal prayer in the focused zone of a personal shrine that is the heart of such preparation. So I offer these formal prayers and works, at least as fodder for creativity - tunes and themes on which to riff. For some they may serve well as written - that is my hope, after all.

One element of these prayers that may be controversial is the 'confession'. I resisted the idea a long time, but it is simply undeniable that even the oldest traditions we have include such prayers. I wrote one to satisfy myself - may it serve for the spirits.

The work requires only a basic shrine, with a designated fire (candle or more...) and a bowl of ritual water, a censer and a small offering-bowl, and whatever idols or images are proper to your work. A cup of drink is a useful symbol for the Blessing.

For those of us adapting traditional ritual magic to a Neopagan frame, devotions such as this are a firm step toward doing as the ancients seem to have done. Most instructions call for at least three days of preliminary prayer (along with the usual instructions to avoid pointless entertainments and the 'company of fools'), but it might often be the case that more is better in such things.

A Devotional To Prepare for Magic
1: The Reading: In Pagan magical arts, there is a teaching that is often concealed behind instructions for ritual and practice. Those who succeed in speaking with the spirits and gaining their aid are those who have become the kind of people that spirits listen to! It is one thing to know words of power, and to perform effective ritual, but the ancient wisdom teaches that it is by a process of personal empowerment that the magician becomes a conjuror. Tradition frames that process as a system of purification, prayer and blessing that amounts to the preliminary work of magic art.
                As human beings we are, or possess, or express a spirit which is as much a part of the spiritual world as any sprite or imp. Our involvement in flesh and the material world easily distracts us from our place and standing as spirits, creating an ordinary kind of forgetfulness. One intention of a round of preparatory work for magic is to remind us of our spiritual presence, and recall us to the ability to act in that power.
                Through purification, attunement to spiritual powers and focused direction of those powers in the self we can approach magical operations as persons (as beings…) of power, luck and will. Traditonal instructions often include monk-like ascetic measures – refraining from meat, or sexual activity, or even from ‘foolish company’. Those of us who do not bring the concept of ‘sin’ to our spiritual work can think of such measures as ‘acts of will’ – we demonstrate to ourselves and to the spirits that we are masters of our deeds. As a basic method we undertake a series of prayers and contemplations such as this; may fortune favor, in the work.
So let us do the Work:

2: Blessing the Work:
The Fire, the Well, the Sacred Tree
Flow and flame and Grow in me.
In Land, Sea and Sky,
Below and on-high
Let the Water be Blessed and the Fire be Hallowed,
And Let my voice be heard by the Holy Ones!
Now may the Powers of Underworld and Heaven bring their cleansing blessing.
Anoint and cense the hands, and any items proper to the work, saying:
By the might of the Water and the light of the Fire,
this (place/thing/work etc) is made whole and holy.

3: Prayer of Intent

This my will, now hear my voice.
The fire is laid and the water filled, and I remember the Center of Worlds.
Where the Wells of the Deep are full to overflowing
Where the Fire of Sacrifice is my Hearth
Where Nine Hazels grow, or one great Ash,
And the Pillar-Tree of the Roof of the World upholds my holy work.
It is I who come, I…
(and here, tell the spirits who you are)
Whose face you have seen in the Fire of Offering.
Bless me in my intended work, I pray,
(and here describe the working for which you are preparing)
Clarify my heart, honey my tongue
and Let the rite be worked in truth and beauty
In Wisdom, Love, and Power, be it so.

Prayer of Confession and Statement of Virtue
Holy ones, in humility I seek wisdom.
• It is true that I have failed in Wisdom, forgotten Piety, been blind to Vision.
These faults come to us all.
• It is true that I have failed in Strength, forsaken Honor, been lost to Courage.
These faults come to us all.
• It is true that I have failed in Diligence, slighted Hospitality, shorted Generosity.
These faults come to us all.
• (If there is anything specific to say, it should be said here. )
• Yet I seek Wisdom, Piety and Vision; I seek Strength, Honor and Courage; I seek Dilligence, Hospitality and Sensuality. For these good virtues I will strive, though I might falter - I will strive. To that end, I seek the work of wisdom.

4: The Vision
Antiphon  of the Vision
Let the Inner Eye be open, let the spirit eye be clear
Wisdom speaks in spirit-vision, let the truth be on me here.

Sitting in your meditation seat, breathe and seek your peace in silence.
Let your bone uphold you
Let your blood beat in you
Let your breath flow through you
For a moment, in silence…
And let the Powers of Earth and Sky rise and shine within you… breathe deep, and let roots draw up the Deep strength… let the bright lights of the heavens be reflected in the Waters within you… Breathe deep, and let the flow of breath move the Shining Waters, filling your whole form… feel yourself… as if you could see yourself… filled with the Shining Waters, the Light and Shadow… from toe to eye to fingertip…
And so you bide… with the Powers in you… Now you will place a seal upon your heart… a sign of power, that expresses your magic… conceive that symbol in your mind… and compose it in vision, placed in the field of the Power of Earth and Sky… When you know clearly what sign you will bear, envision it appearing in the Light and Shadow of the Powers, over your heart… breathe deep, and let the power grow in the vision, as you empower the sign, and the power of the sign flows into your spirit…
And so you bide… filled with your power, charged with your sign… and in such a way you might speak even to the gods themselves… an empowered spirit among spirits…

Antiphon  of the Vision
Let the Inner Eye be open, let the spirit eye be clear
Wisdom speaks in spirit-vision, let the truth be on me here.
 
Prayer of the Vision
The Fire, the Well, the Sacred Tree; Flow and flame and grow in me. To the Three Kindreds I pray – know me as I come before you. To The Fire in me I give the fuel of my heart. From the Well in me I draw the strength of my life. See and know me, as I stand at the fire and call. In wisdom, love, and strength, so be it.

5: Offering to Your Allies
I come to the Shrine, calling!
Fire Shining, Well Flowing
Firm standing, gift giving
I call to the allies of my magic!
Mighty and beloved Dead, you I call
You of my Blood, whose life gives me life
You of my heart, who inspire and guide,
(Name any Ancestors or Heroes you wish to remember…)
Root of my Blossom, Source of Strength
I give my offering, here at my Shrine.
Spirits of Stone and Soil and Green
Of Sea and Wind and Cloud
And even of the Lights of Heaven
(Name any Landwights you wish to specify)
Co-Walkers, Earth-Dwellers
I give my offering, here at my Shrine
Gods of My Altar, You I call
First of the Spirits, Eldest and Wisest
(Name the gods fitting to your shrine, or those proper to the intended work)
Blessing-Givers, Lit by Flame
I give my offering, here at my Shrine.
All you spirits, I bid you welcome. Be warmed at my Fire and quenched by my Well, and be at peace in my service. I make due offering to you with these simple gifts, offering my love and reverence. Let it be as a thousand to you, a feast and a flowing cup, as the silver and gold of my worship. Aid me in my work, uphold me in my magic, as I (state intention)! So be it!

 

6: Antiphon of Blessing
With open heart and centered mind I seek the flow of blessing
Shine from Above and Rise from the Deep
Litany of Blessing
Holy Ones, we remember you
response: Grant me the Blessing
All beings beneath the Fire of the Sun
response: Grant me the Blessing
You to whom I make these offerings
response: Grant me the Blessing
That there be blessing in our spirits, bright and deep
response: Let the Blessing be in me
Let there be blessing in our minds, calm and clear
response: Let the Blessing be in me
Let there be blessing in our Flesh, whole and strong
response: Let the Blessing be in me
That Wisdom guide me
response: That the Blessing be mine
That Strength empower me
response: That the Blessing be mine
That Love sustain me
response: That the Blessing be mine
Antiphon of Blessing
With open heart and centered mind I seek the flow of blessing
Shine from Above and Rise from the Deep

Antiphon of Contemplation
In soul-peace I let light reflect, and shadow bide in the deep
May my stillness reflect beauty, and
abide in wisdom
Now abide a while in silence, and let the whole Power of your intended Working be upon you
Antiphon of Contemplation
In soul-peace I let light reflect, and shadow bide in the deep
May my stillness reflect beauty, and abide in wisdom

7: Final Prayer
So Oh Holy Ones, behold me as I am purified, and empowered, and devoted to the Work. Grant me your Blessing, and I will see the work through. In Wisdom, Love and Power, so be it!

What is a spell?

In the ongoing series of long answers to frequent questions. Pardon my formatting difficulties, please:

 The word ‘spell’ travels with a lot of baggage, and is used with very little technical consideration. It has been redefined especially by fantasy writers in so many ways that sorting nonsense from tradition, and determining a useful technical definition for our modern magic art is a project worth doing.

Linguistically the word means 'a spoken charm or incantation', and so we could limit its meaning to 'the spoken component of a magical rite'. That isn't what people mean, these days, though.

Allow me to begin at the end, and attempt a definition of a spell – we’ll see whether it’s the same at the end.:

“A spell is magical or spiritual work with a specific intended effect and usually a specific target”

In traditional magical literature ‘spells’ are most often small ritual patterns, involving a combination of natural objects, spoken words, proper timing, ‘occult’ symbols and often the aid of specific gods or spirits. Folk magic tends to quietly bury these elements in traditional rules, that often don’t accompany the transmission of spoken charms – one is supposed to know the rules. More formal ritual magic instructions may make a spell seem like a complex working of its own, by listing the work in detail and sequence. Both of these approaches can be practical and correct. I tend toward the latter.

The whole business of using magic to obtain a specific goal may involve multiple smaller sub-rituals, offerings etc. All these ‘spells’ together are often described as a ‘working’.

In our post-European, post-Christian USA there is that tendency to want products neatly packaged and labelled with instructions. So many who ask for ‘spells’ in internet forums seem to want the proverbial ‘magic words’, that make things change in the blink of an eye. This is, in fact no more likely in magic than in medicine, and spellcraft can involve multiple ‘appointments’ to accomplish a goal. 

Here it may be useful to quote and discuss my favorite definition of ‘magic’. It comes from the Greater Key of Solomon

“Magic is the Highest, most Absolute, and most Divine Knowledge of Natural Philosophy, advanced in its works and wonderful operations by a right understanding of the inward and occult virtue of things; so that true Agents being applied to proper Patients, strange and admirable effects will thereby be produced. Whence magicians are profound and diligent searchers into Nature; they, because of their skill, know how to anticipate an effort, the which to the vulgar shall seem to be a miracle.”

Allow me to paraphrase:

“Magic is the study of the secret and spiritual forces of nature, their character and powers, so that by applying proper force at the proper place and time effects can be produced which have been called ‘magical’. So magicians learn to predict effects by knowing cause, which makes them seem to be wizards.”

Can I tighten it up?:

“magic is the knowledge of the hidden (occult) powers of things, and of the spirits, and the application of those powers to produce effects.”

So spells are a specific application of this principle – the application of the occult powers of natural and spiritual things to work personal will.

Spellcraft Inside Polytheist Religions

In many world traditions of polytheism and animism the use of religious symbols, rituals and skills for the immediate personal gain of worshipers and their families is a normal part of the work. These traditions teach rites for prosperity, health, fertility and inspiration, much the same as the desires of modern magic-users.

Sadhana 

A symbolic arrangement for a sadhana

            The Sanskrit term ‘sadhana’ can be translated as ‘a specific practice or form’. In dharmic religions the term is used both for the prescribed spiritual practice a teacher might set for their student, and also for specific sets of practices intended to produce results. The latter are patterns that may include proper herbs, proper colors and numbers of candles, proper offerings of incenses, flowers, etc and of course a proper spoken incantation (i.e. ‘mantra’ in Sanskrit). These patterns are often transmitted through what amount to spellbooks, and are an orthodox part of Hindu and some Buddhist religion

Ebbo 

Offering array for an Ebbo

            In the post-African religions of the New World ‘Ebbo’ is a word meaning offering or sacrifice. It can be applied generally to religious offerings to the spirits, but it also refers to specific patterns of practice intended to produce specific outcome – i.e. spells. The forms of some such ritual offering are determined by the spirits themselves, but there are also specific traditional forms, including arrangements of specific numbers, types of fruits, colors of candles, etc., arranged in the proper way, place and time, with the proper invocations. Again, by the terms of western magic, this amounts to a ‘spell’.

Late Classical Paganism

Remnants of traditional Euro-middle-eastern polytheism and spiritism were preserved in the important proto-grimoire called the Picatrix. This ritual manual focuses primarily on the Planetary powers, themselves remnants or reflections of Olympian Gods. The rites usually center around an image or idol of the spirit, and then use number, color, type, etc, to determine a proper set of offerings. This style of offering-ritual, preserved for us in text over the past 2,000 years or so, bears a remarkable resemblance to other forms of spirit-based devotional spellcraft.

A planetary rite of offering

This style of devotional, offering-based ritual seems ready to introduce into our modern polytheist efforts. Drawing on lore, tradition and the inspiration of the spirits rites of this style could be devised in nearly any ethnic system. Of course ethnicities will each have their distinct customs, which can add to the depth of such designs.

Folkloric and Popular Spellcraft

Offering-based spells that draw on the spiritual power of core cultural gods and spirits are one side of the coin of traditional spellcraft. The other is the vast body of lore that employs the ‘occult' (i.e. hidden or little-known)  powers of natural things’, along with the basic principles of mechanistic spellcraft.

The latter were defined by Frasier as “sympathy” –like affects like; and “contagion” – that which has been in contact continues to influence the contact. These are not so much the actions of spirits but natural principles, which operate regardless of the spiritual environment in which they are used. These techniques, plainly called ‘tricks’ in some traditions, become dressed in the mythology of whatever culture takes them up.

For instance, the ‘packet talisman’ – a small bag or wrapped packet containing herbs, stones, seals etc. can be identified in the 16^th century scholastic occultism of Agrippa, yet it also arrives in the New World through Congo ethnic custom, producing the ‘gris-gris’ or mojo-bag of the hoodoo tradition. Such a charm-bag employs sympathy by using herbs and stones of the proper resonance, and employs contagion by the wearing of such a charm next to the user’s skin. Charm-bags are made with prayers to saints, invocations of the polytheistic gods, or even animistic address to the aggregated spirit of the charm itself. This is icing on the basic mix that makes the spell.

Crystal 'grids' use the powers of semi-precious stones
to accomplish specific goals.

Colored candles or lights, proper incenses and perfumes, traditional or discovered magical sigils and seals, all of these are part of this category of spellcraft. Image-magic, the old hair-and-fingernails gag, the use of photographs, drawings or even the written name of a target, all of these use sympathy and contagion to ‘transmit’ the intention of a practical spiritual work. Often these methods are employed along with offering and invocation to direct the power of whatever spirit is offered to.

Wrapping Up

So, then, a spell is a ritual or set of rituals intended to employ spiritual or occult power for a specific practical goal. This sort of practice may exist as part and parcel of a religion or spiritual tradition. If it doesn’t it almost certainly exists just outside of it, relegated to some category like ‘witchcraft’. In my opinion our Neopagan religions, as we construct them, can benefit from making such techniques integral to our spiritual work.

Three Charms to Open Vision-Doors

Hot-diggity-doggerel, here are three rhyming charms meant to set one's course for the Underworld, Heavens and the back-side of the Middle-world. Real text article coming before month's end...

Spirits, Daemons, Gods - Toward a Coherent Model

In the development of Neopagan religious practice and discourse several disputes have arisen concerning the true nature of the gods and spirits. In my opinion these disputes arise mainly due to the remains of Judeo-Christian theological thinking, combined with the influence of modern skepticism and rationalism. As one who finds consideration of theology and metaphysics useful, I will attempt to venture perhaps further into such speculations than is common in our modern Pagan discussion.

The Reality of the Spirits

Let me begin by saying that for this discussion we will treat the world of spirits as ‘real’. In this we need not adopt any firm description of the final nature of that reality. Whether it is a subcategory of ‘material’ manifestation within the quantum foam, or a psycho-linguistic field, or an epiphenomenon of human telepathy, or any other thing, the whole world – every culture in every age – has experienced the presence of the spirits. Communication; direct material action, possession and para-personal expression are just some of the spirit-phenomena common to many or most human cultural experiences. Materialist science has devised a number of clever efforts that attempt to ‘explain away’ such phenomena.  In the mythic reality of our Paganism, let us begin by taking spirits as given, and making it our business to know how to deal with them well. 

While we may not be able to box up the ‘True nature’ of spirits, we can approach them as phenomena, and discuss the traits that humans have seen. To avoid a long summary of world-wide evidence, I will presume to propose a list of general behaviors and characteristics of spirits, in no particular order:

• Spirits are not primarily material, though many traditions describe them as able to manifest bodies of air and smoke, or even of more dense elements.

• Spirits act both psychospiritually and on occasion materially. Like much of magic, spirits seem to operate by affecting How Things Go – which crossroads are taken, which way the coin falls, etc. It is rare to the degree of ‘miracle’ for spirits to act directly on matter, but it is not unknown.

• Spirits resonate with and respond to the material world. When described as ‘animism’ we think of spirits as being ‘in’ or ‘of’ specific material objects – the spirit in a tree or of a waterfall.

• Spirits act through living people, not only by direct possession or guidance, but by influence based on their nature. A merry spirit makes mortals near it inclined to merriment.

• Spirits are widely various in their influence on mortals, some being potentially or overtly dangerous or destructive and others providing blessings worthy of the divine.

Non-Locality of the Spirits

Spirits who become the ‘Gods’ of humankind seem to be those who are particularly powerful or able. In essence they are those who respond to human worship, and give good blessings. While some spirits seem rather localized – attached directly to a specific material basis - the spirits who are called ‘gods’ by the poets often have presence in a wider range of culture and geography; they transcend the local. Sometimes this has a natural material basis – the Sun is visible in all places, even if its effects vary. Sometimes it has a widespread cultural basis – customs surrounding hearth-fire can be relevant to most human habitation.

As a Pagan I take nature and its dance to be a map of the real nature of spiritual reality. As above, so below, the old wisdom says – nature is the materialization of spirit, and we can learn much about one from the actions of the other. When we apply this principle to the nature and presence of the gods we arrive at what I see as the center of polytheism.

Just as with any real thing in our natural world, the divine exists in and as multiple (infinite… uncountable…) entities. The gods as they appear in ‘mythology’ – in the bodies of tales preserved and retold by poets – bear only a generic resemblance to those gods as they are present in local temples and regions. If one considers “Diana” of the Anatolian city of Ephesus, in comparison to the Artemis/Diana of Greco-Roman story my principle is clearly indicated. This phenomenon happens across the polytheist world. In both India and in W African religions it is often formally acknowledged. The Goddess or honored spirit ‘of’ a local village may have the same name and stories as that of three villages away, yet have local presence, history and nature that clearly distinguishes her from another presence in another temple. This doesn’t prevent scholars and theologians inside the tradition from identifying them all as one entity, or villages from competing over whose Goddess is the coolest.

To me this entirely blurs the argument between so-called ‘hard’ and ‘soft’ polytheisms, in which ‘hard’ insists that every iteration of a deity is a distinct entity and not an ‘aspect’ of some other, while the ‘soft’ holds that deities are trans-individual, existing in many aspects. It is clear to me that traditional polytheisms today, and almost certainly those of European ancestors, are and were both. I sometimes propose an axiom that gods and other mighty spirits simply have the power to exist as multiple persons.

The Daemons

To find a specific solution in the myth and metaphysics of Pagan peoples I turn to the Hellenic notion of ‘daemons’. The word ‘daemon’ (from roots meaning ‘separate being’) is a general Greek term for ‘a spirit’. Homer applies it to the Gods while popular Hellenic Paganism could apply it all the way down to one’s garden-sprites as well. In Classical Greek Pagan theology the Daemons were similar to what we think of as ‘angels’ – agents and messengers of the gods. They were understood to attend the sacrifices on behalf of the gods, to carry the blessings of the gods in turn to mortal worshippers, and in essence to function *as* the god at the local level. In this way Zeus “of” a particular regional temple could be both a separate self-acting agency, and a ‘person of’ the storied deity.

I have described Sam Webster’s Fire metaphor before, but it is so very apt here. If I take a spark from a fire, and go a mile away, and use it to light another fire, it will be, in many ways, almost exactly the same as the original – same chemical processes, consuming the same kinds of fuel, etc. It is Fire, in the directly descriptive sense. Yet each such fire is distinctly individual – it is in a new place, it illuminates new things, it develops a unique history and narrative. So, we might think, it is with the Gods. A new image is made, a new ritual fire is lit, and customs are established influenced by the landscape and climate of the new temple.

We may say that in such work a different daemon of the deity is attracted to one temple than to another. In essence these spirit ambassadors or presences act and exist as the deity, as it may appear in the setting mortals have made for it. Mythic tales tell of deities making their own places of worship, reshaping the material world but, again, this level of the miraculous is not the rule. More commonly humans make a particular pattern, lay a sacred feast with a particular flavor, and it attracts the deity in and as a properly resonant daemon.

In this way it is not mistaken to think of the beings that act in each temple as separate and individual beings, who may have their own inclinations and desires. Likewise if you spoke with any one of them they would identify themselves as That God From the Stories, even as local versions of the myths diverge. This polyvalent perspective renders empty many disputes about which kind of worship, which narrative, which theology, is the “real” version from Ancient Days. The real pattern of ancient Paganisms was probably a patchwork of localisms linked by larger cultural forms.

This model has applications at both the most immediate levels, and at the transcendent. For those of us working to establish a home cultus it offers the freedom to establish the work as we will, and accept the results we get. When we establish a home shrine, develop out customs and implement them ‘religiously’ we summon a daemon of the god who is fit for the work we are fit for. If one wishes simply to establish harmony, get a good blessing, and live in peace then the simple sacrificial relationship with your own local daemon of your god may be all you need. For those of more mystical bent, the divine work of formal ritual makes a pathway of linkages – from the image of the God in your mind, through the material form of an idol and invocation, to the daemon of the God who serves at your fire to, perhaps, the cosmic principle of the God themself.

This model can lead us toward certain other speculations. Modern Pagans often ask ourselves about how such culturally similar forms as, say, Diana and Artemis, or Manannan and Manawyddan may be spiritually related. For those drawn to lumping, this daemon theory can easily be expanded from the local to the regional. I, myself, find it just too unlikely that thunder-gods from neighboring cultures with linguistically-neighboring names such as Taranis, Thunor and Thor must be utterly distinct entities. If there is some shorter list of great powers behind the many cousins of the European pantheons, the transpersonal and transcultural spiritual powers behind so many local daemons. Even so they need be no more relevant than a poet’s tales of the Earth-Mother are to bringing in a good harvest, as we approach those Powers almost exclusively through their local expressions. There is nothing in Pagan ways to insist that the ‘highest’ must be a special object of worship; practical work often is better done through more earthly spirits. Once again, we need not try to decide which is “true” – that all gods are separate individuals, or that some gods are ‘aspects’ or ‘persons’ of one another. We can comfortably and reasonably go for “both”.

Gods and Spirits, Magic and Prayer

“Prayer is a form of magic.” “Magic is applied prayer.” One hears these saws often enough in current discourse about Pagan religion and practical magic. Neither assertion has ever rung the bell for me. I feel as if there is a significant difference between what is done when we pray, and what is done when we work a spell for a practical goal.

Refusing to resort to dictionaries, I assert: “Prayer is a verbal or internal address to a/the deity. Often it includes a request for specific aid, though it may be or include some other conversation. While traditional prayer was often scripted, traditional and uniform, prayer is also often performed ex tempore.” Beyond that description, prayer has the connotation of a request to a ‘higher power’, and the inevitable implication that the request might be refused. “All prayers are answered,” we hear from monotheist apologists, “but sometimes the answer is no.” 

Magic arts, on a different hand, intend to cause effects and not merely to ask for them to be caused. Magic is a body of technique that uses spiritual skills to work the individual will of the magician. This is accomplished, in tradition, by a combination of work with the living spirits, and with impersonal spiritual forces. Allies are gathered, patterns woven, and pressure-points targeted in the clever ways that are also used in engineering or even artistic composition. One expects that once one has built skill that doing the work correctly will produce the desired result, without being dependent directly on the will of any higher power. “Magic always works – if you do it right,” is the basic aphorism here.

To do a little context, magical manuals are full of prayers and instructions to pray, and how to pray. The preparation for high-end ritual magic commonly involves periods of fasting and prayer 

Philosophers have found reason to object to traditional magic because it implies an effort to coerce the gods. This is a reasonable objection – that mortal-level efforts cannot have the juice to coerce a large transpersonal power, any more than we can move a hurricane with fans. Yet traditional magical rites, and the spoken ‘prayers’ they preserve, are full of both invitations and direct commands to deities and to a variety of other spirits. Here we find the point I intend to make in this piece:

Traditional Magic does not depend on asking the gods to accomplish our goals.

I think this is the core reason I find magic and prayer to be separate.

If magic is not based on petitioning and requesting, what is its basis? As I said, it is a combination of relationship between the magician and the spirits, and the magician’s ability to employ impersonal spiritual forces. What can be missed by modern students, especially those who are inclined to apply generalized ‘religious’ principles to Paganism, is that the Gods are not the only focus of Pagan religion and sometimes not even the primary focus. I have a point to make about practical work with the gods, but first let me think about the big kindreds of non-deity spirits that play a part in magical work.

Magic of the Dead

Traditional sorcery is heavily, perhaps predominantly, powered by the Dead. The ‘hordes of spirits’ often summoned to carry out the conjuror’s will are composed of the restless dead – those spirits inadequately settled by rites or fate, whose hunger, lust and anger can be exploited by magic. In our modern lives we are lucky to be far freer from violence than our pre-Christian ancestors could have imagined. Likewise the culture of magical hexing and spellcraft for personal gain at another’s expense is greatly reduced. Many of us work to calm and cool the restless Dead, not to exploit them. 

Ancestor worship is a different matter, concerned with family, affection and reverence. One no more commands ones ancestors than one’s grandparents. Rather we maintain our relationship with the Beloved Dead and they become primary protections and instructors. Spirits from our family lineages may become familiar allies or important contacts, but often they remain background counselors and support.

Folk-magic customs may seek aid from a specific spirit. Customs surrounding graveyard dirt and such tokens may call on a specific spirit in a specific grave. In some places such graves have become shrines of a sort, regularly visited by those seeking aid. Magic has always had it’s ‘saints’, and even post-Christian magic seems likely to continue the tradition. 

That kind of individualizing and personifying can happen with the non-human spirits of nature as well.

Magic of the Land-Spirits

A variety of magical traditions draw on spirits present as plants and animals. To gather herbs for practical magic is to make a pact with the spirit of the herbs. Plants of special power and lore may be more individualized allies – the mandrake is an example of this kind of plant familiar.

More mobile spirits abide in wind and weather, and can be called to aid the magician, along with the shining beings of sun and moonlight. These spirits, along with the spirits of the green world and even the sea often appear in the forms of animals.

My own intuition is that such animal-formed Landwights were frequently the ‘familiar spirits’ of medieval folk-witches.

Lore is full of tales in which spirits appear as ‘chimaeras’. In Greek story the Chimaera was a Titan-spirit composed of lion, goat and serpent. Thus the ancients depicted mighty spirits in this composite way. The Satyrs and Centaurs of the Greeks, the Griffins of the east, even the Water-Horse or Nuckelavee of Celtic lore use animal forms to display the power of the Nature-Spirits.

Lacking a literate remnant of Northern Pre-Christian magic, we can find many examples of chimaera spirits in the grimoire tradition. The spirits called ‘demons’ in the medieval theological atmosphere of the grimoires can easily be understood as Landwights or ‘elementals’, appearing in animal-mixture forms proper to their natures. The medieval Christian cosmology relegated all such beings to demonic status, even the gentle ‘demons’ that teach poetry and herbcraft.

Daemons of the Gods.

It seems reasonable that even the most able mortal should not be able to ‘command’ great transpersonal spiritual forces. Ancient skeptics and modern have wondered why the planetary powers of wind or water should respond to our calls. I think a reasonable answer lies in the ancient understanding of the Daemons. 

In Hellenic Paganism the relations between mortals and the gods are managed through the uncountable number of spirit servants attendant on every deity. These spirits were called ‘daemons’ (or ‘daimons, same pronunciation…) a word derived from roots meaning ‘able to act’. The daemons attended the sacrifices as regents of the deities, receiving the offerings and ‘carrying’ them to the gods, then bearing in turn the gods’ blessings back to mortal rituals. In doing this they acted (as their name implies) as the active powers of the god, and would have appeared and acted as the deity, often bearing the symbols and tools of the god. So if a traveler were visited by an apparition of a fine naked young fellow with wings on his hat, he would likely assume it to be both a daemon of Hermes, and a visitation from the god, unconcerned about the distinction of person that might be involved. 

It is such daemons of the gods that magicians seek to employ in practical magic.(more here) The magic of the Greco-Egyptian Papyri often explicitly invokes gods, asks them to send a daemon (or some daemons) and then commands those agents of the god by the borrowed power of the god. In this way one is not, in fact, claiming to command the mighty power that rules the (whatever) of the cosmos, but only their agent, specially selected for and by your magic to be in tune with you and your desire.

So, I feel as if I might define ‘prayer’ as an attempt to invoke and speak directly to the cosmic principle or higher being of a deity, and to entreat it through supplication (i.e. by asking for something). Magic, in turn, is an effort to bring an active agent of the divine near to the mortal world, and arrange to have them aid your goals. In practice this can be the daemon of a God, or a Landspirit, or one or more of the Mighty Dead. Note that in basic magical theory it is spirits who are closer to the mortal world, to the world of forms, who have power to act in our realm – far more so than the Great Abstractions that might lie at the top of an imagined Platonic ladder.

Prayer can be used as a technique of magic. Often it is a preparatory technique intended to attune the magician to those Great Abstractions and thus make us more suited to speak with the related spirits. As a practical spiritual tech for getting results I can see it being useful perhaps with deities with whom one has developed a long sacrificial relationship. However I can’t see prayer as the equivalent of practical magic, or imagine that it could have magic’s (still imperfect) reliability or effectiveness.

A Book of Spells

 

In the many modern efforts to revive polytheistic religion and reconstruct support and structure the topic of the place of ‘magic’ comes up often. I have written about the relationship between magic and Pagan religion quite a bit, here and here and throughout the blog in various ways.

Some branches and thinkers in the effort to restore traditional-style ethnic or post-ethnic Pagan work have chosen to side with certain ancient Greek philosophers in denouncing practical magic as ‘impious’ – that is as disrespectful to the gods and improper for a true worshiper. This late-classical attitude was also present in Roman culture, and was inherited by Roman institutional Christianity despite the strong element of ritual magic, healing and exorcism in early Christianity.

However my own observation of both historical and living polytheisms is that the skills and methods that have come to be identified as ‘magical’ or ‘occult’ are usually an integral part of traditional spiritual practice. Ritual invocation or ‘summoning’ of both deities and of non-deity spirits for practical goals; making of talismans and consecrated blessing and power objects; divination and astrology; mystery initiation; all these things are present in the polytheism of modern Asia and Africa. It was equally present in the spiritual practices of what we know of pre-Christian Europe. It was precisely this category of esoteric (i.e. likely to be used by the few, comparatively) spirit-based, ritual and occult practice that became forbidden to lay people by the ruling Church, designated as ‘Magic’ or ‘sorcery’, and especially associated with the heresy that became thought of as “devil worship”. In many cases the earthy, elemental, and Underworld spirits often called on for practical magic became ‘demons’ in the Christian re-arrangement of traditional magic.

These practices inside traditional Pagan religions can fairly be called “occult”. They are ‘hidden’, often enough, from public sight by the requirements of specialized spiritual work. They also can be said to deal with ‘hidden’ forces and powers of nature and spirit, from herbs and stones to the conjuring of spirits. It is also true to say that these practices are ‘esoteric’. They are ‘for the few’ – usually those who conceive a hobbyist’s level of enthusiasm for them, though the occasions of life might lead any Pagan person to seek help in these ‘magical’ techniques. Even then they might consult a more skilled practitioner – one whose enthusiasm has made them familiar with what amount to ‘spells’ and arcane works. Simply put, traditions of occult and esoteric spiritual practice (i.e. ‘magic’) are integral to a fully-expressed polytheism.

I have always made spellcraft and practical applications a part of my own spiritual practice and of my teaching. To me one of the blessings of modern Paganism is that it grants the individual spiritual agency, and gives us specific technical tools by which we can use spiritual methods to influence and improve our common lives. At the most ‘religious’ end the methods of traditional theurgy allow us to bring the power of the divine into our temples and lives in and as a god or goddess. Those who enjoy surrender mysticism can simply accept the Blessing of the Powers and proceed in hope of good fortune.

Those more inclined to tinker can employ divination and foresight to decide what they want, and then employ the Powers and Spirits to shape fate. This is not as easy to do as to say – like managing the flow of water down a hill, or the course of a wildfire. Clear observation, clever planning and skilled application of tools are the rules whether in land-shaping or planning a spell-working. Nevertheless our custom and tradition provides a wealth of traditional spellcraft forms that can be adapted to modern use.

And so TA-DA! - my little book of spells. This item came to mind after those posts on spirit-arte last month, and the back portion of the book is about spirit-summoning in a Pagan fashion. The other major themes are ‘enchantment’ – the consecration and empowerment of objects and places; ‘invocation’ – with a limited list of deity images and invocations; and some mixed charms and spells. A little of the content is reprint, but most is new or heavily rewritten content for this small edition.

Those who have read my previous work will find this short, streamlined, and utterly focused on practical outcomes. There is attention payed to the work of building power and authority for the magician, but it is always directed to practical goals.

I feel confident in claiming that this work has been made almost entirely distinct from post-Wiccan ritual and the Hermetic cosmos. It is constructed in a ‘Triadic’ cosmos that should be comfortable for many Euro-style reconstructionists. Ritual forms are based around Ritual Fire and Water, and around Offering to the Spirits, both gods and non-deities. I have attempted to render the ritual texts in a simple, ‘folkloric’ style, often using rhyme, that allows rites to be set-up and established quickly and with little ‘high-temple’ furniture or complication. Nevertheless the more developed end of the rites – the formal summonings – use a solid and more detailed outline of technique. The whole style would be most at home in a well-developed home-shrine.

For Druids, ADFers and newer Pagans looking for a practical magical craft that fits with their practice, I hope this book will push the button. For those looking for a modern, polytheist-and-animist approach to both spellcraft and building relationship with the spirits this book may be a key. For those looking for practical magic they can apply to their lives right now, I hope this book can be a blessing.

Here’s the sales-text from the catalog page:

A Book of Pagan Magic; which is to say works and means of Occult Spiritual Practice employing the Hidden Powers and Ancient Spirits of the Worlds Arranged especially for the use of modern polytheists and animists who might be otherwise untrained in the work of Magic Art. A modern spellbook, based on Pagan roots without reference to Wiccan or Hermetic models; it should be useful to anyone working an ethnic Pagan system.

• Basics and Simple Charms

• Enchantment of Talismans and objects

• Five Gods of Magic & their Invocations

• Summoning Daemons in a Pagan context

Concise, meaty and thoroughly practical, The Book of Pagan Spells is an open door to powerful magic. 

... And the link to purchase. 

P.S. I have also re-issued my old monograph called Beginning Practical Magic at a lower price. That text has a lot of the theory that isn’t in the spellbook – developing intent, targeting, the magical link, materia and correspondences, and is still speaking to the Wiccan and Hermetic cosmos.

Book Review: The Practical Art of Divine Magic - Patrick Dunn

The Practical Art of Divine Magic: 

Contemporary & Ancient Techniques of Theurgy – 2015 by Patrick Dunn

Let me begin by saying that I have enjoyed all of Patrick Dunn’s previous works on magic (he consistently drops the modern ’k’ from the spelling). In “Magic, Power, Language, Symbol” he brings a linguistic and semiotic approach to magic, and in “Postmodern Magic” he introduces the ‘information model’ of magic, to stand next to the ‘energy’ and ‘spirit’ models. All of this is informed by a thorough understanding of modern and traditional magic, clearly supported by personal practice.

In this book Dunn turns his sharp mind to one of the most well-documented systems of ancient magic – divine theurgy. ‘Theurgy’ roughly means ‘divine work’, and it grew from the late-Pagan need to take the worship of the gods out of the temples and into private chapels, living-rooms and gardens. This makes it well-suited for those same spaces in our Pagan revival. Dunn breaks a complex, multi-century tradition into usable bites and explains each sufficiently for a beginner audience.

In this he begins with Neoplatonism, giving a good simple summary of both Plato himself (and his cave of shadows) and the Neoplatonist mages such as Iamblicus. His understanding is based on Neoplatonic hierarchy – not of archangels and angels, but of Numen-logos, and the layers of manifestation and symbolism that lead spirit into manifestation in matter. His explanation of how all this produces the classic ritual forms of things done, things said and things thought is both simple and elegant.

By going back to the roots, Dunn is able to explain several classic ‘occult’ ideas in their directly theistic Pagan origins. The discussion of the nature of the gods, and of their manifestations and extensions into manifestation, and of sub-deific spirits, runs as a thread through several chapters. He attempts to discuss the gods both as cosmic principles and as their multiple manifestations in symbol and form, both in mental  realms as stories, songs, etc and into the ritual realm in idols and images, and into the natural realms as the ‘correspondences’ of herbs, stones, colors, sounds, etc. The explanations of ‘correspondence’ take a fresh and inspiring direction that reminds me of things I have heard from non-European polytheisms.

The book is complete with a set of exercises that lead from basic trance to full simple rites of offering and blessing. Tools, framing ritual forms, purification are explained and lightly-scripted. The work of the invocation of deity is dealt with in detail, from an intellectual familiarity with a god through formal ritual invitation and reception of power, to the consecration of talismanic idols for longer-term personal cult. Methods of divination are discussed; the method he most thoroughly teaches is the seeking of omens in the natural (and/or urban) world. In a culture of cards and dice it is good to see the basics of intuition emphasized.

His chapter on Daimonology – the lore of the sub-deity spirits that serve both the gods and magicians – concludes with a full rite for meeting one’s ‘personal daimon’ or ‘supernatural assistant’. His spends some time parsing the nature of such a being, without prescribing any conclusion. The rite is based on a famous falcon-rite from the Graeco-Egyptian papyri, well-adapted for a modern altar-top. It is the most fully-developed rite of ‘ritual magic’ (as vaguely distinct from Pagan religious rites) in the book, the culmination of the several small rites and forms that have been previously taught.

The chapter on thaumaturgy (spell work) focuses on written invocations and inscribed tablets, but also provides a good basic rite for consecrating a talisman for any purpose, under the proper deity. Dunn explains that the book isn’t focused on practical magic, but the material here compliments the system taught very nicely.

I heartily recommend this book for Pagans and polytheists interested in adding depth and occult power to rites of worship. It is probably the best general book on Pagan occultism for those working modern polytheism that I have yet encountered. By ‘occultism’ I mean, here, the use of the hidden angles of influence, of invisible connections between material objects and spiritual principles to turn ritual from a heartfelt performance to a machine of blessing. I recommend The Practical Art of Divine Magic to ritual leaders and working clergy, and to those working alone who desire to become the priest/ess of their own temple.

Spirits and Energies

Lately I find myself hearing folks who want to describe the gods and spirits as ‘energies’. More and more, this bothers me. Obviously, people will have what opinions they will. However I think there are real problems in an ‘energy’ model of magic and spirit from a Pagan perspective.

We all know what we mean. Ever since the mid-20^th century, latest, occultism has attempted to reshape its metaphors to fit with modern science. Crystal broadcasting and receiving, telepathy-as-mental-radio, artificial spirits, ‘vortexes’; these are all metaphors of spirit that imitate material science as it has evolved in the 20^th c. Previous technological metaphors in magic include magnetism, the prediction of astronomical events and, well, fire. It is normal for magical methods to imitate scientific advances.

The modern mechanistic wave of this began, perhaps, with Mesmer who proposed that ‘magnetic’ energies could be manipulated both using actual magnets and by ‘passes’ of the hands. His successful trance inductions helped pave the way for modern hypnosis, in which the ‘magnetism’ metaphor has been discarded with no loss of efficacy. However the idea of ‘subtle transfer of energy’ (subtle meaning undetectable by instruments) became ingrained in modern occultism.

By the time I was learning invocation it was entirely normative to envision the target deity ‘shining’ or even ‘transmitting’ their power into or onto the ritual. In the same way we envisioned ‘beams’ or ‘waves’ of our intent, ‘conditioned’ by our words, chants and symbols. The whole body of technique around ‘power-raising’ grows from this model.

However, this is almost certainly not what an ancient magician, one operating in the days of European polytheism, would have visualized himself doing. The descriptions found in the PGM, as well as folkloric magic, suggests rather that the magician saw herself directing crowds of spirits. In traditional conurations for love, business success, gambling wins, etc the Gods are specifically asked to ‘send their daemons’ forth to do the mage’s bidding. The vision might have been of a rushing stream of un-named servants of the God hauling-tails away to bring that whatsis or whatever.

In ancient days if one desired a cooling breeze on a hot day one had to find a servant to command. Whatever relationship and deal one had with the servant allowed you to require them to fan you. In our time we build a mechanical device and plug it into an impersonal and commercial source of power. We can then generate a breeze at will or, as we say, ‘like magic’.

Magic has imitated that technical reality for some decades. The part that starts to bother me is when folks start to describe the spirits as ‘energies’ but not persons! To paraphrase; “The gods and spirits are not people living in some spiritual landscape, they are energies that we tap into in order to work our will. We do not worship them so much as respectfully use them.”

The problem I see with that model is the loss of relationship. Simply put, impersonal forces are understood by modern people as slaves. They are used at will, without a please or thank-you, as we go about our business. Now, this is not to say that living people weren’t treated that way back when slavery was one of the kinds of “relationship” that got you that fan-worker. However for me slavery is not an ancient custom that we wish to revive, and certainly not with those beings who join with us in worship.

Rather, I think, a modern Pagan sensibility seeks relationship with spirit(s) as persons, as beings with wills of their own. The work is then to remain in friendly relationship with those powers, through the traditional round of rites and customs. Certainly we do not approach the gods as equals, any more than we approach a river as equals. Each brings their special power and character to the relationship; mortals participate on a mortal level, spirits on a spiritual level. The point, to me, is that humans must maintain our part of the bargain in order to expect the cooperation of the divine.

It seems to me that the danger in imitating technology by thinking of the spirits as ‘energies’ is that we will imitate those things in western culture that we dislike – mechanization, impersonalization and loss of story. It seems to me a capitulation both to reductionism and to rationalism. There are those who dislike anthropomorphism; I’m not one of them. The spirits who like to work with humans like to appear as humans – makes perfect sense to me. Who am I to ask them to appear in some imagined “true” form. How well did that work for Semele?

So I’m just unwilling to agree that the gods and spirits are “really” energies, any more than my wife is “really” just a pattern of electrons in motion. I am in relationship with the spirits as persons, not plugging in to some cosmic generator.