Seeking A Familiar: A Festival Summoning Rite, 8/2018

This August, at the 20^th annual Summerland Gathering in SE Ohio I led an operation to allow the

participants to make a personal spirit alliance. I framed this alliance as seeking “a familiar” – that key individual ally that magicians work with to gain wider entrée among the spirits, and direct aid in practical magic. It was an interesting and, I think, productive effort overall, and I’ve made some choices of direction as a result, for further workings of the rite.

Summerland is primarily a gathering of Druidic Pagans working in ADF and is held in a 4H camp with good facilities. With chancy weather on the day of the rite we chose to use the small hearth in the large, covered pavilion for the rite. This may have reduced the romantic-setting factor, compared to an outdoor firepit, but the mechanics of making rather a lot of offerings were probably improved.

The rite itself is a fairly complex thing, as modern rites go. It is based on my understanding of the patterns of grimoire spirit-arte, adapted for group work. It relies on entrancement and vision to provide the ‘appearance’ of the spirits, but treats them as real and specific entities, whose alliance we intend to make. Let me give a summary outline, in lieu of the full script:
• Preliminary entrancement and centering
• Blessing of the ritual space
• Establishment of ‘the Gate’, and invocation of a gatekeeper God to ward the Gate and the work.

• Preliminary offering to All Spirits, as the Three Kindreds of Gods, Dead, and Landspirits.
• Invocation of the God of the Rite – In this case Dagda Mor, as God of Magic, and especially his person of Ruad Rofessa
• Receiving the Blessing of the Gods – in this case as an anointing of the eyes with blessed water, to induce spirit-sight.
• Convoking the ‘Court of the Willing’ – all those spirits who are inclined to gather at our Fire

• Oath and Binding of the Convoked spirits: Very gently done.

• Individual calling: a litany during which each participant called to an individual spirit, if one would come
• Treating with the spirit: time of silence for individuals to speak or experience the result.

• The License to Depart, and closings as usual.
Once participant described the rite as having ‘quite a few moving parts’, but it took about an hour including the periods of silence and vision.

The work went smoothly, from my side of the fire, with L and I doing a pretty tight job with the multi-stage ritual. Though we worked in a large ‘hangar’ of a room with merchants etc, the ambient noise was both quieted and nicely vanished behind the trance-work, I thought. There’s nothing like live fire and regular oil-offerings to help concentrate attention.

The new and chancy portion of the outline is the transition from the presence of the Host of those who arrive, and accept the Oath (see my other articles onthis method) to the individual alliances, done personally, by each committed participant. I devised a repetitious litany of calling to lead into the trance silence, and recited a quiet charm about alliance while they worked. There was the common wait for the last members to open their eyes and make contact to signal that they had finished, but no specific rescues were needed.

The ideal model for a festival-working like this would be to have briefings both before and following the ritual itself. It can be an imposition in an event’s busy schedule to take that much space, and so I had no de-briefing round-robin of responses from the company. I did have conversations with a number of them, and responses ranged from “I saw the crowd of spirits’ among those less experienced to what seem significant personal alliances. In a festival setting I am always pleased if even a core number of folks really get their button pushed by the work. I will call this a reasonable win on points.

First Steps with a New Ally
In Lieu of a chance for instructions and further work I’ll include some notes here.

• Your memories and impressions of the contact may vary in the hours and days following. Your final impressions should be balanced against your first impressions, as you get to know the spirit.

• Represent the spirit at your home shrine. You may have a sense of the form, or proper image – cards from oracle decks, nature-images, etc may provide options. Relatedly:
• Consider deriving a sigil, if you have not been shown one. Sigils are derived by various occult methods from the letters of the spirit’s name. The sigil can be combined with an image to good effect as a real-world anchor for the spirit.

• Develop a simple yes/no/maybe divination tool, and begin using it to converse with and confirm messages with the spirit. I have used plain and fancy two-sided coins, sets of three dice, short packs of red and black playing cards. Get used to actually abiding by the omens of such conversations, even while you open yourself to direct conversation.

• Instruct the Familiar. Bring them to your shoulder explain to them important things in your life. Do not assume a spirit understands material life the same way you do. This can also be done, together, in vision.

• Assign your familiar simple tasks after explaining the elements and target clearly. Consider using divination to see whether the task is doable.

• A Simple Charm To call the New Ally to You

• Arrange the spirit’s sigil, or contact-item, and have the proper offering, according to the pact.

• Hallow the space with a simple blessing unless a more formal offering is required.

• Speak the Spirit’s name and call it to you in simple words, then recite the central part of the Charm of the Pact. I provide the whole text, as in the rite:

• The Charm of the Pact

So this we swear, we two, and make our pact,

Between my mortal spirit and your own

By my eyes’ light and blood within in my veins,

By flesh and breath, and by ancestor’s bone.

Our troth we give, together, you and I

You by your power, me with offerings true

Come when I call, and aid me as I will

And all due honor I will give to you

If ever I should fail to keep the pact,

Or you should fail to come when I do call

Then null shall be our bargain, done and done

      And each depart, with harm to none at all.

• Greet the spirit and make the offering. Converse as you may.

• Charge the spirit as you will.

• End the session with a polite send-off.

I just posted a longer rite that employs the Familiar for a specific practicalmagic goals by sending it as a herald. That can be a next-step, and a way to work with your ally for more distant goals.

To Ask the Familiar For An Agent.

This is imported from my small, practical book "Pagan Spells", which also contains a rite for making alliance with a Familiar Spirit.

In many cases, when you have a specific need for magic, it can be answered by asking your allies for aid. The Ancestral Teacher can convey many things to and for you, and the Familiar can be your herald or your guardian. But no spirit has every power. If your Familiar should be of the Wise, then martial tasks are not best suited to it, if it is of stone then it might not work the weather. Yet the Familiar is a spirit, free in the realm of spirits, and it can be asked to find a proper agent among the spirits to do as you wish.

            For those with a developed relationship with their allies this can be as simple as an inner conversation, the spirit called by will alone. In moments of immediate need, the simple charms in the calling section of this work can bring the Familiar quickly, without formal ritual. For newer students, it is well to set this request into a ritual format. Even for the experienced, we find that our calling and speaking with spirits takes on a repetitive, ritualized tone. In my opinion that is simply the spirits’ way of communicating with mortals.

            In this simple charm you will need only a simple fire-offering for the Kindreds, and whatever offering has been customary between you and your Familiar. If you are regularly offering to your allies at your shrine, you can simply ask them for aid in honor of your relationship. If you have something more serious or unusual a special offering is best. When in doubt, make the offering.

           

The Work:

• Find your basic trance, and attune to the Two Powers

• Offer to the Fire, Well & Tree, saying:

Mother of All, Let this Well be blessed.

First Father, kindle magic in this Fire.

Let this Tree be the Crossroads of All Worlds,

That the Sacred Grove may be established.

• Sprinkle all from the Well, and cense from the Fire, saying:

By the might of the Waters

and the Light of the Fire,

this Grove is made whole and holy.

• Make an offering into the Fire, and say:

Keeper of Gates, aid me to open the Ways.

• With your work hand, make a welcoming triskel (in to out, deisil) over the Fire, saying:

By Land, Sky and Sea;

By Gods, Dead & Sidhe;

By Fire, Well & Tree;

Let the Gate be open!

• Turn once deasil, saying:

So the Way is opened and this place is claimed. Let no ill or harm come to me and mine, and Wisdom, Love and Power flow to me through this gate. So be it!

• A short invocation to the Kindreds, with a simple offering, can be done if this is being done formally at the shrine:

Gods and Dead and Mighty Sidhe

Powers of Land and Sky and Sea

A gift I give, from me to thee

Come and lend your aid to me.

• Prepare the Offering and envision the Familiar, calling to it both with your voice, if possible, and aloud in your mind, saying perhaps:

O spirit (spirit’s name) O Noble One

I call to you by Well and Fire and Tree

Draw near, and come in peace, I bid you now,

Take you this gift, O (spirit) come to me!

• When you feel the presence of the spirit, greet it with a flow of love and welcome in your heart, asking it your boon, saying perhaps:

Welcome (spirit), to my fire in peace. I would ask a boon.

Can you send a spirit, O (spirit)

Can you send a spirit?

I would work my will, whether you are sent or you can send a spirit.

To: (state intention clearly and specifically)

Do this for me and I will give to you due offering.

This can be repeated, often three times. After each repetition, open your Inner Eye to the Familiar, and seek a response, conversing as is useful. Can the Familiar find an agent? What are your specific needs? – include a time-based deadline if you need to. If you like, use a simple divination to see whether your visions are true. After three repetitions, you may spend some time communing with the Familiar, perhaps meeting the agent that is found for the task, perhaps not.

• When you know that the work will be done, thank the Familiar, saying something like:

Depart now, my friend, O (spirit’s name), and remember your oath, complete the charge I have given you, with harm to none, and come again at the proper time, or whenever I might call you, and I will make to you due offering.

• A Short Closing

Let bound be bound and wound be wound;

Thus all is done, and done, and well done,

And thus I end what was begun.

Make a banishing spiral (out to in, tuathal) over the Fire, saying:

The sacred center has held well,

Now, by Tree and Fire and Well,

Let this gate be closed!

To the Three Holy Kindreds I give my thanks.

To the Keeper of Gates I give my thanks.

To the Mother of All I give my thanks.

Let wisdom, love and power kindle in all beings

The rite is ended!

A Druidic Cosmos Sigil

This sigil has begun to appear more often both in-house in ADF, and randomly out in Pagandom. I was asked for a more complete discussion of the origin and meaning of this fairly complex symbol. I invented this design in the 1990s, some time, as part of an effort to create some evocative line-art sigils to be used in our growing Druidic Occultism. The family of sigils from that effort includes simple signs for the Three Kindreds of Gods, Dead, and Landspirits, and various gates, triskels etc. Out of all of those, the Cosmos Sigil seems to ‘have legs’, as they probably used to say – I don’t keep up.

ADF published some of those sigils in an article, and the Cosmos sigil seems to have begun to appear in google searches for things like ‘Druid Symbols’. It had caught on in ADF to a degree, most commonly used as a symbol of the World Tree. As a result, I think, of Google placement it has begun to appear randomly on handcrafted Etsy items, and most recently in lovely metal tokens from some trans-pacific tokener. Mainly I have refrained from protest or efforts to Get Money – I’ll take my smug pleasure in seeing my work’s influence for reward. 

Slavic and Euro Tree motifs

It brings together a number of influences, along with my personal aesthetic sense about cool occult sigils. One primary influence in the overall structure of the piece is the so-called ‘Tree of Life’ motif common in folk patterns, embroidery and crafts. It is fair to call the symbol a Tree of Life, adapted to our threefold cosmology. I began with a simple stylized tree, with a Druidical three roots reaching down and three branches reaching up. Looking for a way to more directly depict the Underworld and Heavens concepts I placed a display-circle in the center branch, and curved the other two branches in cool pointy crescent. Note the extending center branch or root past the circle.

In the upper circle is the eight-spoked wheel that stands for the turning order of the Heavenly Lights – sun, moon and stars. In the lower circle is the spiral that stands for the swirling Underworld Waters, the wells and springs of the deep. I simple graphic element divides each from the center, because I liked it.

The square, nine-chambered figure in the center represents the manifest world, arising in the tension between depth and height. The figure is a European folk-motif with many meanings – for instance it is the playing-board for the game of Nine-man Morris. In my mind it is specifically the so-called Nine-Chambered Hall of Tara, as sort-of described in the cryptic Irish tale “TheSettling of the Manor of Tara”. So the King is seated in the center, and the Four Kings seated around him, and the Nobles of each king around them.

 

So, I mean the Cosmos sigil to represent eh whole of what Our Druidry sometimes calls the ‘Vertical Axis’ – the root and crown that reaches from the Underworld Wells to the Center of the Sky, with our whole turning world in the midst. Thus is it both an affirmation of place and power for those who bear, wear or show it, and even a protective symbol, in that it affirms the Way of Things against chaos and ill-turning. May my work have value to The Work.

Two New Books (Sort-of) part 1

A Guide to Pagan Worship

People who watch me on FB have seen this, but I want to archive it here, as I play bloggo catch-up

The catalog blurb:

“A non-Wiccan traditional ritual style for modern Pagans! Pagan Ways - based in the reality of nature and the visions of ancient wisdom, offer a platform for many people to seek their own spiritual fulfillment and growth. If you seek a personal Pagan practice, the blessings of the Gods, the Ancestors and the Sacred Land, this small manual offers clear instructions and easy-to-begin methods. Arranged for modern living but rooted firmly in tradition and scholarship.

• Easy Prayers and Simple Offerings

• Simple methods for meditation and divination

• Making and Using a Pagan Home Shrine

• Building Your Own Pagan Practice

• Formal Invocations and Seasonal Rites

 For those seeking the ways of ancient cultures, this book offers a simple ritual format that is in accord with the basics of traditional Paganism. For anyone who wishes to grow closer to the spirit and spirits in the Holy World, it offers a door, and the first steps of a path.”

Buy the paperback here.
If you like, buy a hardback here.

Weekly in internet chat and Pagan discussion we see newcomers asking the basic question - "how do I get started?" This small book is meant to directly answer that question.

Beginning with a short generic (i.e. non-ethnic-specific) discussion of the Gods and Spirits, and the mythic and symbolic cosmos as understood in traditional Euro-Paganisms, the book begins by guiding students through beginning simple prayers, offerings and exercises, doable even without a home altar. Such simple methods can be started with little more prep than the purchase of some incense, and can offer a practical approach even to those leading busy modern lives. The next step for many the establishment of a shrine in one’s home. I provide clear, adaptable instruction in to how to establish a home-shrine and begin basic simple rites of offering-and-blessing.

While this is not a book about meditation, I provide basic exercises for meditation and mental focus that can help enliven devotion. Likewise simple methods of divination are offered, to help students communicate with the gods and spirits.

Finally I discuss more full-scale ritual for invocation and communion with Gods and Spirits. One of the most common questions I hear is how to decide which of the multitude of Gods and Spirits to actually approach. I offer guidance in choosing beings and symbols for individual work. Another common question is “How do I begin a relationship with a deity?” Drawing on the traditions of theurgy and ritual magic the book offers an instruction in how to make the first formal invocation of a deity, and the follow-up of establishing home cult.  It also discusses the creation of home and family seasonal rites and customs, and the development of ‘magical’ rites and requests for specific boons.

The book is divided into a front section of theory and some of the very basic practice, and then a presentation of all the prayer and ritual work in a spellbook format for easy use. The style of ritual presented is non-wiccan, grown mainly in Neopagan Druidry. It is devotional and invocational, based on ancient models and traditions of fire-ritual and offering. It approaches the Gods and Spirits as living beings, and intends to help students to develop their own personal Pagan religion – i.e. their own relationships with those Powers. It is likely to be useful to anyone seeking to work with the gods and spirits of the peoples of pre-Christian Europe, and quite possibly to a much wider audience.

All of this is presented in 140 pages of concise teaching and practice, with a minimum of padding. The clear and practical instruction takes a student directly into real practice. More good news... I've kept the price at under $10. (Please take note – there are two paperback and one hardback edition in my catalog. The higher-priced paperback exists only to get the book into wider distribution channels – please by the lower-priced edition, as linked.) Presently one can get 10% off that price, plus free shipping (actually a nice deal) with the checkout code BOOKSHIP18 (case sensitive).

Meditation, Trance, and Vision

 An Introduction

(By Holy Wisdom's comfort, I hope I don't have to write one of these again...)

In the wisdom traditions of world Paganism and polytheism the work of ritual worship and devotion is almost always accompanied by the practice of mental training and meditation. Practices of ritual invocation and devotion are perhaps more common in the religious life of regular people. The work of training the mind, and using it in a focused way to support spiritual practice is more often the work of priests, monks and those with a formal dedication to their path. In modern practice it is my advice that all those who seek the blessings of the Old Ways will practice at least a measure of these traditional mental and spiritual skills.

There are many benefits to be gained from meditation and mental training practices. Leaving aside the mythic and ritual considerations that are the focus of this work, we can mention the psychological and emotional benefits that modern science clearly says can be gained from meditation. Relaxation, stress reduction and relief, and improved cognitive function are all results well-supported by research. In the whole realm of religion, magic and spiritual practice if you do nothing than to learn and practice meditation regularly and skillfully you will have done yourself a great service.

In the practice of ritual worship and the building of relationship with the Powers the ability to calm the emotions, focus attention and clearly visualize is vital to the generation of personal spiritual experience. It is common in modern thinking to dismiss religious ritual as ‘empty gesture’. This, I think, is largely due to the loss of these mental skills in western religious training. Literalist thinking is no more valuable to ritual than it is to scripture, and the expectation that spiritual ritual will simply “work like magic” can only result in disillusionment. Powerful, well-spoken words and meaningful, well-performed actions must be accompanied by focused, well-structured mental work for a ritual to be whole.

To be more metaphysical, it is the internal mental structures of ritual – the visualized energies and presences that form the bridge between the material symbols of the spiritual world that we use in ritual, and the Inner realities of spiritual persons and powers.  Through our well-structured mental participation the gods and spirits can step through, closer to our common lives. In the same way with our Inner Vision we can perceive and direct the ‘energies’ of Land and Sky, both in ourselves and in the outer world. Here we approach what might be called the ‘magical’ or ‘occult’ (i.e. hidden) aspect of spiritual practice. Even without such considerations the value of trance and meditative work is undeniable, and vital to ritual practice.

Spiritual teaching is full of discussion of the ‘real’ meaning of meditation and the place of ‘altered states’ or ‘trance’ in spiritual work. Sects have divided and many a scholastic duel been fought over the angels-on-pinhead minutia of these topics. I will present simple descriptions or definitions of several core terms, before we move on to practical method.

• Trance (or ‘altered states of awareness’) is the most general term. It refers to any deliberate effort to focus the mind away from the common stream of perception and mental chatter. It is characterized by the withdrawal of attention from immediate sensory environment, relaxation of the body, a strongly focused attention, and a sense of full and immediate involvement that quiets self-criticism. That is, basic trance is relaxation + concentration + non-judgement. It is possible to practice this state as a goal in itself, but basic trance is almost always the set-up for some further deliberate act of will.

• Meditation is the deliberate and maintained withdrawal of attention from the stream of chatter-thought. Meditation often employs basic trance by making that calm, mentally-motionless state the focus of concentration. Meditation of this type teaches us that our self-talk is separate from our essential self-awareness, and contributes to discernment and perspective. It helps us learn to step back from our immediate ‘programmed’ mental and emotional responses, a skill which can be valuable in dealing with the Powers. Many mystical systems have made variations of this kind of meditation one of their central practices or sacraments. To me it is one useful technique among many, but an important basis for further spiritual skills.

• Vision Pagan religion, mysticism and magic has almost always employed deliberately-constructed visualizations – the use of ‘imagination’  - to give access to deeper spiritual realities. This often involves a deeper or tighter level of focus – a ‘deeper trance’ in which envisioned scenes, images and forces mingle with sense perception. In full visionary ‘journeying’ the body may be still while the mind travels in vision. Such deeper trances are seldom part of ritual worship. However the use of conscious vision to enhance invocation, energy-work and ritual is an important part of effective practice.

• Energy-Work Modern Paganism has developed the “energy model” of magic to a fairly high degree. To a degree this is a special adaptation of Vision work, in that one is generating the sensory experiences of flowing energies, including visual models. In this notion the spiritual Powers are understood as impersonal ‘forces’ or ‘energies’ that can be manipulated by will and imagination. Many modern Pagans might describe their whole practice as about the ‘magical energies’ of the cosmos, even describing the gods as energies. While these ideas were never part of traditional ways there are several basic techniques that fit well with traditional symbols and forms. Especially ‘Grounding and Centering’, in which ‘spiritual energies’ are contacted and organized in the self, has value both as a follow-up to basic trance and as a self-healing technique.

It is sometimes argued that, in old times, community and home ritual did not include the deliberate induction of altered states of awareness. This true, and the use of scripted trance-induction in modern ritual is certainly an innovation. I argue that it is an extremely valuable one, which replaces a vital element that would otherwise be missing.

In a traditional society the rites, customs, sacred places and symbols are a part of the cultural fabric of life. With an implicit acceptance of the reality of spirit forces and human ritual the sacred things become invested with an automatic ability to produce changes in consciousness. Simply to come into the Ring of Stones, or before the Ancient Fire, or, later, into the Grand Cathedral would have been to enter a new mental space, where gods and spirits might find entry.

Moderns have no such mechanism available for our efforts to make religion in our back-yards and living-rooms. We must, I think, replace that cultural entrancement with deliberate efforts to alter awareness. The addition of deliberate entrancement and mental focus exercises to ritual works can only provide a deeper and more complete spiritual experience.

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.

Conjure & Creation 2

So I've taken a little heat for my firm stand behind the 'spirit model' of magic in my previous post. As I said, my approach is a thought-experiment, a deliberate effort to think my way back into an animist mindset. As such I tend to speak affirmatively, even categorically. That's a rhetorical pose, and doesn't really reflect an opinion on my part that my ideas are 'more true' or 'better' than some other model.

Honestly I think myself mildly clever for devising a rationale that merges the modern notion of constructed entities with the notion of pre-existent spirits 'conjured' by a sorcerer. Like so many techniques the form of the work doesn't need to vary much per model. What we 'believe' about what is happening may be one of the least important parts of the business. Nevertheless I like to decorate the inside of my head with the ideas and mental postures of ancient magicians, and I'll take my best guess and apply it.

My intent in bringing up this topic was practical. I consider the 'servitor' technique one of the more valuable modern inventions, and it should/need not be abandoned by those attempting to work in the models of the ancient world. Jake Stratton-Kent is heard to say "Magic is practical eschatology". The merging of the spirits of the un-individuated Dead into that great continuum of shades, called "the Dead", roiling with the mixed passions of human memory becomes a kind of 'magical energy', able to respond to the will and word of magicians in much the same way as Levi's Astral Light might do, though perhaps with more volition.  It might even be, as some spirit-sects maintain, that the magical work of granting individual form and name to elements of this daemonic continuum is a service that living magicians do for the spirits - a fair exchange for their aid in our works.

Nevertheless, my intent here is practical, to provide this little set of suggestions as to what forms and symbols might be proper for what sort of spirits. I have ventured some ideas about classifying spirits according to an older set of 'elements'  and this list fits directly with those ideas. All questions of models aside there are so many creative and exciting ways to apply this sort of practical conjuring.

           

A Spell of the Spirits

I have an ongoing project to develop simple modern practical magic methods that employ the spirits, rather than working with "magical energies". It's been a while...

This charm is intended to be an easy spell for practical magic rites, usable especially by those who have developed alliance relationships with specific operative spirts among the Gods, Dead and Landwights. For newcomers it might serve as a general calling to willing spirits, but it is surely better used by those with a developed group of allies.

Arrange the materials for your spell within the form of the conjuring circle as given here. Many enjoy drawing or inscribing the form of the circle on the floor or ground, but it can simply be used as a schematic for altar-top arrangements. Also arrange a small fire, and a small black bowl of water in the center of the figure. In the three circles arrange three small offerings of incense (a single cone for each works well), ready to light. With everything ready, bless the Water and Fire, saying:

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!

Purify all, and perform any other preliminaries, then perform this preliminary convocation, lighting the three offerings for the Kindreds for the three verses . When concluded, proceed to work your spell, or even to simply describe your desires to the attendant spirits, closing with thanks.

So gather now, my spirits bright

Or shadowy, by day or night

By Fire’s light and Water’s dark

Come to me now – hear me, hark!

Come to my work, be by me seen

Up from earth and stone and green

Out from the cloud and wind and sea

Sun, moon and stars, all come down to me.

Come you forth from the House of Clay

From the Court of Death to the world of day

Mighty Dead, forebearers all

Heart and blood, come to my call

The Shining Ones, their power divine

I drink their blessing, make it mine

Strengthen my mind, my heart, my hand

In Sea or Sky, and on the Land

You who are my allies true

Come to me now, I call to you

Gods and Dead, and spirits all

Hear me, hark; come to my call

Magic I make now, three times three

Spirits I call you, come to me.

Beneath the Sky, on Land or Sea

Hear my spell, and make it be!

Designing Your Personal Practice

The work on my forthcoming book (working title, presently: "Pagan Magic; Esoteric Spiritual Technique for Polytheists") continues, though not at the pace I might like. As a bit of proof-of-life I offer this chapter-section on developing a personal schedule of spiritual work.

The Order of Work

• Development of the hidden powers within Pagan spiritual practice requires diligent effort over an extended time. Of course some techniques can be tried immediately, and simple worship and meditation begin their effects immediately. More advanced techniques, like those of any discipline, require committed self-training and applied effort. The magician is a spiritual artisan, the shrine is the workshop, and magic is the product. Only practice, and learned skill carefully applied, can move the student from apprenticeship to journeywork to mastery.

• Many traditional polytheistic magical systems have been taught in controlled circumstances. This was often a ‘school’ of students surrounding a master, in which daily work and focus were maintained by a master-servant relationship. In more ‘civilized’ Pagan places monasteries grew up in which occult students could be supported in detailed temple ritual, long-term retreats and group ceremony. In either case the student of magic participated in a formal regimen of study and practice that led to both skill in spiritual arts and earned recognition of skill.

• One of the hallmarks of the medieval grimoire tradition of magic is its insistence on the development of spiritual power through basic ‘religious’ rites. Daily prayers, purifications, attendance at rites and the receiving of the church’s traditional blessings were all major sources of the magician’s power. Many ritual tools are made with the aid of priestly rites.

It seems to me that it would not have been different in Pagan days. Taking advantage of the spiritual power of local temples, the blessings of the public sacrifices, etc. would have been a basic part of the magician’s work. What can be difficult for modern practitioners to understand, perhaps, is that in both the medieval grimoirist’s work and the Pagan sorcerer’s magic was directly integrated into the religious work of their cultures. Certainly we may call the former ‘heretical’, and some Hellenes would have said the same of the latter, but both depended on the workings of their mainstream cults to empower magic.

• In our modern times, many Pagans seeking occult skills are simply unwilling to resort to the rites and customs of the Roman Church. “High Church” occult styles, such as the post-Masonic orders (three sash minimum…) are often bound around with oaths of secrecy, and also sometimes modeled on monotheistic and medieval theologies that deter Pagans. Public Pagan temple rites are difficult to find (though no longer impossible). A solitary modern student of magic must, essentially, devise and conduct their own personal temple, as well as a magic school or monastery. The invocations, offerings, power-exercises and spells that are part of the traditional arsenal of the Pagan magician must be derived from books, digested in thoughtful analysis, arranged (whether written-out or re-written) for practical performance, practiced until performance is competent and, finally, set into a daily, weekly, monthly and yearly cycle of magical and spiritual rites and practices. In short, the Pagan magician begins by functioning as the priest of their own temple.

• The Daily Sequence: Common modern life will prevent many from devoting more than a maintenance level of effort to daily offerings and works. If one chooses a simple morning prayer or invocation, supported with a simple offering and short moment of meditation, then that can be enough. It should be said that there can be a difference between common daily work and more specific preparations for major magical rites. The latter may be well-served by added invocations, offerings and trances proper to the intention at hand.

            A simple Daily Work routine might include simple morning salute/offerings, Ancestor prayer and meal offering, and bedtime prayer. Additional offerings for special principles could include special daily offerings to a god or spirit one means to invoke, as well as meditations or workings meant to reinforce the magician’s integrity and spiritual power. As a magician’s work advances they will almost certainly find themselves developing a personal ‘constellation’ of gods and spirits, unique to their own altar. Making the proper offerings to these in the proper times will become a part of daily work for many.

• Weekly or Monthly Sequence: Regular performance of more detailed ritual is valuable for the building of personal magical power. This provides a chance to build ritual skills, work useful spells for personal growth and gain and build relationship with the Gods and Spirits.

            Weekly work is a matter of personal choice. Those who must keep their daily schedule short and simple (usually in service of their work and family duties) may find a weekly hour (or day…) at the shrine a useful way to develop their work. For those working with family a weekly rite is a chance to involve the whole clan in one’s magic in a way that will simply become the ‘way we do things’ to the kids, and build powerful mental consensus in the mage. If family or those who are not actively training for magic are involved such rites can be kept simple, with the mage quietly working the Inner patterns to activate them for their goals.

            Perhaps the most traditional clock for timing monthly work is the moon. Certainly Neopagan methods have tended to imitate the Wiccan pattern of meeting at the Full Moon – it is both the most obvious of the moon’s phases and often the best night to be outdoors. World polytheist systems have a variety of lore-sets about the moon’s phases and stories. For now I will talk about how I have used the moon to time magical and religious rites.

            The moon’s magical power is associated with its phase, and the amount of its light. The two primary phases of the moon are the Waxing (from the first visible crescent until the end of Full Moon) and the Waning (from the end of Full Moon through the Dark Moon days). In European lore these are universally understood to affect life, work and luck. The waxing moon stimulates growth and gain, while the waning moons retards it. On a far-too-simple level these are sometimes perceived as ‘positive and negative’ times, but this is so only in the most literal sense. Much good can be done under the waning moon, to retard the growth of disease or reduce the influence of an irritant. 

            Within the twenty-eight day turning of the moon are several moments of traditional magical power. Workings that hope to use the moons power to grow a result can choose the early phase of the waxing moon, when one has many days of waxing power to draw on. The very first visible crescent is good for this, but can be hard to spot. Druid tradition has emphasized the ‘sixth night’ of the waxing moon – roughly the end of the first quarter – as a night when the growth power of the waxing moon is both well-established and still growing, making it a good time for many kinds of magical working. Of course the full moon is the legendary height of magical power. As the crest of the moon’s growth, it is a time when one wishes to grasp and use the force of the wave’s top – to work for things that manifest immediately. I think it is for this reason that the full moon is the time of the Witch’s Sabbath – the summoning of gods and spirits is especially proper at that time. The Full Moon’s power of manifestation makes it a fine time to invoke and assemble the ‘constellation of worship’ of whatever is included in one’s home cult, maintain one’s offerings, and receive their conversation and blessing. This is essentially the ‘esbat’ of the witches.

            Finally, many cultural systems assign symbols or names to each of the  lunar months, and those can be of use in designing an annual ‘retreat’ of  rituals with specific focuses. Astrological symbols for the passages of the sun and moon can also provide symbols on which to focus a sequence of rites. This can allow a set of cultural symbols to be more completely expressed and understood, and provide a powerful set of blessings.

Seasonal or Annual Sequence: I have already written about the traditional Year-cult, and its eight-fold expression in Neopagan ways. Those working a specific ethnic reconstruction will choose how to adapt the seasonal and calendrical rites of the past to modern times. Such work is off-topic for this instruction in magic, and is yet another instance in which I must recommend detailed additional reading. Learning the lore of whatever cultural form you pursue can only deepen and clarify your magic.

            High Day rites (as we Druids have come to call the larger annual ritual occasions) present an opportunity to create and arrange ritual on a scale larger than home-shrine work. Attunement of the personal spirit to the tides of the great wheel of seasons, the Gods and Spirits who dance through them, and the Blessings conveyed by each are sources of personal magical authority and respect among the spirits. Incidentally, these notions apply whether one is working the Neopagan Eightfold Wheel, the seasonal cycle of ancient Athens (so different from the Anglo-German north), or the annual saints’-calendar of the Roman Church.

If one is able to present rites for friends or community then elements of theater, development of performance persona, etc can all be useful to practical magic. In a later chapter we will discuss using occult techniques to strengthen the effects of public seasonal rites, but the ritual skills developed for effective public ritual also strengthen one’s personal magical authority and power.

All of this structure can be allowed to develop organically inside a magician’s practice. For a certain sort of student (such as myself) the tendency to begin by getting a blank book and pre-writing the outline of such practices will be nearly irresistible. There is value in that work (and a version of my own version of the work is provided here in the Rituals section) but I advise you not to postpone beginning simple daily or weekly work until you have everything ‘just right’. Your understanding will grow with experimentation and work, and pre-writing may serve to constrain your choices. It is inevitable that you will outgrow your first efforts, and some students are hampered by a sense of loyalty to their own writing that restricts experimentation. I might humbly suggest beginning with another’s printed scripts and rites, such as those presented here. One need feel no special loyalty to those when the time comes to change or abandon them.