Stuff I'm up to...

I've been working on a set of what I'm calling 'Druid Telesmata' - symbolic figures meant to be proper vehicles for the spiritual forces or processes they represent. Here's one:

The Mother of All, wrapped in life and bearing the fruits of the land, with the gate of the Mound behind her. The sigils in the bosses are for strength, abundance and sovereignty. I'm sorry I only saved this in b/w, though several of the elements were b/w already.

Imbolc post next...

Nine Moons study group

First I want to thank everyone who responded to the Very First edition of the Book of Nine Moons. The response was good, and I hope that readers can get a lot from the material, whether or not it is worked systematically. At very least it's a thick book of magic.

The Yahoo group for students of the Nine Moons program is up, and I've invited both the folks who wrote me and the local students to join. As you get your copies, if you decide that you'd like to work the program with support I hope you'll write me and join the group. For these early stages of the program, I will keep personal control of the list and membership, so that it can stay entirely relevant to the work.

I might suggest a possible start date of New Moon in March (approx 3/5 or 6 - I'll use 'New Moon' to refer to the first visible crescent...). That would take students through Full Moon of November for those who work the work straight through. It seems a good idea to be finishing the big rites of the work at Samhain season...

Soon back to material of general interest here on el bloggo...

Working Magic

Any magician will tell ya, it feels great to get back to doing magic! After some months of inaction over the past summer, L and I have been back at it full steam, working our way through the works of the Nine Moons. I mean, I’ve done all the works of that system over the years, some of them many times, and have been working with spirit allies since my days as a witch. Still, working through these new rites, and doing it in an intensive ‘retreat’-type format, is jazzing me up.

My trance-vision skills are sharpening right up. I’ve done a lot of visionary work over the years, some ‘guided’ but lots just free-form. I’ve been busily recording the scripts I’ve written for the system, and have been working them through. Those are almost all ‘launch-and-free-journey’ works, with plenty of time for free-form vision, though since they’re training exercises the free-form time is a little limited. It just points me at what I’d like to be doing once I have re-established myself at the end of the system.

The ritual magic system fits like a glove. No surprise – it’s firmly based on ADF’s Order of Ritual, which I’ve been working with for some 20 years. However, that has been almost exclusively religious work, using the skills to give to the Powers and get a good blessing in turn - all pretty safe, noon-tide sort of stuff, though really very fulfilling. The Nine Moons work, on the other hand, has been old-fashioned night-time magic, with a nicely occult feel to it. Pushes buttons I like having pushed…

The new shrine is working well. Here are pics – on the right of the set-up for the Two Powers healing rite. There are sets of the proper stones for both L and I, but only one blessing fire, which we both used to charge our wands for the Sky Power portion. On the left is the set-up for the Ancestral Ally rite – lotsa offerings! The firelit pic is the Shrine of the Dead with the offerings of apples, pork and ale before it.

The work has me growing much closer to my spirit allies – my Familiar and my Teacher. I’ve met a couple of additional spirits of the lesser, helper sort, who will now begin receiving direct offerings instead of just being part of the crowd at Kindred offerings. When I have finished this sequence, in two to three more months, itwill be spring and time to get some of this work out-of-doors to the backyard nemeton, rather than being limited to the home shrine. Can’t wait!

The Book of Nine Moons

Lessons in Celtic Sorcery

I’m pleased to make the first copies of the Book of Nine Moons available to members of ADF and to readers of this blog.

The Book is made up of nine monthly lessons in trance, divination, ritual engagement with the spirits and practical magical work. Each lesson consists of works for the First Crescent, Sixth Night and Full of the Moons, with the waning crescent for rest. These lessons are arranged progressively, to teach practical spiritual arts in a Druidic context; that is, Pagan magic. The publication of the book is accompanied by the first disk of audio support, covering the simple trance and meditation exercises of the first three Moons. Audio support for following Moons will be available soon.

While the work of the Nine Moons will be valuable to any intermediate practitioner, it is written for those working the Pagan Druidic ritual system of triadic symbolism and fire-sacrifice. The system is especially intended to provide a formal structure for those who are working ADF’s Initiate’s Path. The lessons will provide somewhere in the neighborhood of 70 – 80% of the required practicum, while providing a solid and organized basis in magic for further work.

The ethnic focus of the work is Gaelic, drawing on authentic Gaelic folk and literary material, though it could easily be adapted to other ethnicities. The work is focused on direct results for modern students, done within a symbol system that I hope might have been recognizable to the ancients.

If worked at the suggested pace, the Nine Moons are an intensive engagement with spiritual arts, that will combine vision, ritual and worship to allow the student to move forward in the work. Articles on ritual work, trance, spirit work, divination and spellbinding provide the theoretical background for a program focused on practice. Even outside of the formal order of the lessons, the book offers many new ritual scripts for spirit-arte and practical magic, set in the Pagan Druidic tradition.

The goals of the program include:
• The experience of the Sacred Cosmos, as a source of spiritual wisdom and strength.
• The creation and consecration of a Shrine and personal tools, beyond common household worship.
• The development of basic skill with a divinatory symbol system.
• Skill in trance-vision, and the development of an Inner Grove from which journeying and other Inner Work are done.
• A progressive approach to the Dead and the Landspirits, leading to effective personal alliance with the spirits.
• Practical magic experience, with the goal of increasing health wealth and wisdom for the student.

I may decide to offer formal instruction in this system within the coming year. Watch this space for any such announcement. In the meantime I will be creating a Yahoo group for those who have purchased the book and might wish to undertake the program in a mutual-support environment – that should be up this week. Just send me your Lulu order # if you like and I'll invite you to that list. Also possibly forthcoming is a publication of this material in a more topical arrangement, without the nine lessons, for a more general Pagan public. However this edition presents the material as it has been written, and as I hope will be valuable to anyone interested in a serious approach to Pagan spiritual arts.

This weekend Lulu.com has a nice sale on, as well – offering 20% off of any order, with the code ‘treasure’ at the bottom of the very last checkout window.

Woohoo! Here it really is!
Ian

Done!

After some two years of development and writing, the Book of Nine Moons is complete, at least in a first edition kind of way! I’ve very pleased with how it has come out, and think that it can truly do the job of helping students become competent and empowered Druidic magicians. For those new to el bloggo, I’ve been writing a system that amounts to a nine month long ‘retreat’ in which daily simple work and weekly exercises and ritual intend to empower and illuminate the student. See here for the goals and more…

So, I’ve finished! Eyes crossed and tees dotted. Typeset and ready to offer. Now… how to offer it?

I’m still all confused about how to offer this material. My interim answer is simply to offer it in a lump, as a new book, called the Book of Nine Moons. I should be announcing availability as soon as I work over a proof, probably a couple of weeks. I’m very pleased with how it has come out, and a small group of students is working through the material with good results.

There’s every possibility that I’m going to offer access to mentored work in the system as well. I have supplemental files, notes and support, which I am considering administering through a private e-list. I still see some conflict between offering the book publically and creating a workable product as a ‘course’ that students take over nine months.

The other stumbling block is the focus of the system on the Pagan Druidic ritual system, with its fairly unique triadic symbolism. When one moves a system entirely out of Neoplatonism, Renaissance Hermetics and the four-quartered circle one limits the ability of many Pagans to relate. While I have no aversion to seeing where I can make a couple of bucks on this, I wrote it as a system that I actually use, based in the symbolism I have come to understand over the past twenty years of Druidic work. So as it stands it is built within a pre-hermetic, Indo-European cosmology, with a ritual system that looks more like an eastern fire-sacrifice than like renaissance magic. Probably anyone from a reconstructionist Pagan system could make sense of it, but it could be fairly opaque to newer students who come out of more standard ‘western tradition’ training.

It’s also plainly intermediate work. There’s no extra fifty pages up front to explain the cosmology and core ritual work. In many ways the Nine Moons is a sequel to my book Sacred Fire, Holy Well, where that whole system is explained. Of course the very best preparation for this new system is the ADF Dedicant’s Path (that article is a bit old), where the symbolism and practice is taught in some detail. However I’d sure like to offer this stuff outside the realm of the couple of hundred Dedicant Druids…

Ah well, blog readers and ADF members will get the first chance to buy the version I’ve just finished. Will it take me another year to figure out what else to do with it? No, sez I!

Spiritual Symbolism in Druidic Rites

This article is an abridgement of one of the very last articles in the Nine Moons system. I'll have an update on that work and some news very soon. This article is framed as advice to those who are completing the program, and hints for possible future work.

The same work that allows the practice of religion and sorcery can lead into a vital spiritual and mystical path. The term ‘mystical’ carries a heavy load of cultural freight. We’ll use it in a fairly specific meaning: “The relationship between the common self and the divine.” In magic we are often acting according to the will of that version of the self which we call ‘me’. We use our personal will to determine what should occur, and our personal power to make it happen. Mysticism is rather the other side of the coin. We open our personal spirit to the influence of the Gods and Spirits, and we seek to join our personal mind and will with the patterns of the cosmos.
These two ways – the sorcerous and the mystical – make fine companions on a personal spiritual journey. Together they bring the Druid’s goals of Wisdom, Love and Power, in proper measure as each person might need them. So we encourage you to attend to both in your ongoing Druid’s path.

Meditation and Ritual
Meditation is core to mystical work. It is the primary means by which we adjust our consciousness toward the goal states of awareness of the work. The basic skills of open meditation and contemplation will be used constantly, and your skills at concentration and visualization should be strong and well-practiced.
Ritual also brings spiritual expression to the personal soul, and helps to link the manifest self with the many expressions of the divine. From simple devotions to rites of offering and blessing to meditative rites of union, ritual can be a central part of a mystical practice. Skill at contemplation allows you to be present in and as the symbols of the rite even as you pursue the intention.
Forgive me for reminding you again. Please do not neglect regular open meditation, with no intention except to relax and refresh your spirit. The sages recommend a minimum of a half-hour of meditation daily, but even half that, perhaps broken into morning and evening sessions, is useful. When you are off-center or confused by your life, choices or circumstances, open meditation will help you arrive at the cool moonlight mind that can best solve problems.

Cosmos Meditation
In Cosmos meditation you create the vision of yourself as present both in and as the sacred pattern of existence. The ‘mandala’ (i.e. symbolic arrangement of icons or images) of the worlds and beings is arrayed around you. Into this mandala you seek to expand your spirit, to widen your awareness beyond the boundaries of your individual self into the greater worlds.
That work can be supported and enhanced with preliminary meditations on the Horizontal and Vertical Axes. Trances to explore the Three Realms and the Three Worlds can naturally follow from the Inner Grove vision work, and all this can be assembled as a single vision.
Of course every full sacrifice worked in our Druidic Order of Ritual contains a cosmos meditation. To begin with the Mother and establish again the Three Realms and the Three Worlds, is to be, yourself, the Creator of Worlds. You can always take those chances to contemplate the Cosmos, to share your own duile – your components – with those of the greater world, bone to stone, breath to wind.

The Da Fein
We have been referring to your Personal Inner Divinity, the God-of-Yourself, as the Da Fein. Of all the work you have done, this is the most intimate and personal, and the least amenable to instruction. Your visions, your intuition, will lead you toward greater communion with the Da Fein as you continue to meditate upon it.
One approach is to set up an active shrine to your Da Fein. It may seem ironic to attempt to make an exterior shrine or to offer I-and-Thou worship to that which is the very center of the self. However, ritual, representation and symbolism satisfy and focus the common conscious mind, and with the mind calmed and focused, you can more clearly hear the voice of the God of You.
The choice of an icon to express the presence of the Da Fein is itself an exercise. Some have chosen an ‘angelic’ style of depiction, and another approach is to choose an entirely non-human, even non-living, representation. From the perspective of Celtic lore, no more proper symbol occurs to me than the Vessel of Wonder. The Cauldron or Dish is one of the complexes that feed the medieval ‘Holy Graal’ stories. The Cauldron was the object of quests and raids often held deep in the Underworld or Otherworld. But, again, you must choose the depiction of the Da Fein, if any, as you are led by your own learning and intuition.

Microcosm and Macrocosm
A constant in Indo-European religions is the principle of reflection and mutual influence between the worlds. This was expressed in late Pagan times in the famous verse: “That which is below is as that which is above, and that which is above is as that which is below, to accomplish the Mysteries of the One.” So we begin with the idea that whatever beings exist in the spiritual worlds – the Gods and Spirits – may each have a reflection in an individual’s soul. When we invite the Kindreds to our Fire their presence is reflected in us in turn.

The Kindreds as Mystery
Most ritual worship workings are intended to announce yourself to the spirits and gain their good will. This presents the chance to seek their power in your own psyche, in the cosmos-in-you. While there are many sorts of exercise to enter that awareness, it can be enough to remember that you stand as a mirror to the spirits, and they to you, even as you work ritual.
• The Dead
Every human being draws life from the lines of blood, of womb and seed. When we mirror the Dead in our spirit we open ourselves to the great line of memory. In the voices of the Ancient Wise we hope to hear the echoes of the work of ancient Paganism.
On a personal level the presence and power of the Dead awakens the very blood and seed of the divine-in-us. In time we, ourselves will join the Ancestors, and receive the offerings of the living, offering our potent blessings in turn.
• The Nobles
As mortal folk we dwell in the Middle Realm, which is also the home of the Other Clans, the Good Neighbors. The blessing of the Sidhe is the core of the luck of the world, and the wise seek to keep their goodwill. When we mirror the Host of the Sidhe in our spirit we may glimpse the stealth of the night-runner, or the vision of the eagle, or the warm deep of borrow or the high perspective of mountain winds and moonlight.
On the personal level work with the Noble Ones can awaken affinities and related powers in the magician. The Wights are often called upon in magical arts, and we can learn secrets that we can turn to our advantage, even as the Nobles learn by dealing more closely with a mortal.
• The Gods
The Shining Beings we call the gods and goddesses are the Eldest and Mightiest, those who in the first days helped to shape cosmos and set life in it, and who still live eternal. The Gods are the very persons of the divine, in its brightest and deepest sense. In the presence of a god, especially, we may be carried out of our common self into a greater perspective
On a personal level, you may find your relationship with the Earth Mother and the Gatekeeper to be sufficient for your work. However it is common for other gods to become a part of your personal spirituality, and you should be aware of their voices when they call to you.

• Sacrifice and Blessing
Druidic spirituality is based in reciprocity – in the proper exchange of good for good between mortals and the spirits. The symbol of sacrifice and blessing, when we seek its deeper meaning, reminds of the eternal link between the individual and the great pattern of existence – between the dancer and the Dance.
In the drinking of the Blessing (or even in the working of a spell, in a practical rite) we become ready to focus directly on the reflection between the invited beings and our own spirit. We have that moment that is called by words meaning ‘audience’ – when the divine beholds us, and we behold the divine. Such are the moments that fill our inner cauldrons, granting us health, wealth and wisdom.

• A Mystical Practice
Even if you feel more drawn to sorcery and practical magic than to the search for spiritual awareness it is worth your while to remember these things. As you work your rites remember these other meanings, these deeper mysteries, behind the symbols of your working shrine. To advance this kind of awareness can only increase your wisdom, and thus your power.
Whatever your inclination, may you walk your path in the Druid’s Peace, with a clear heart and a steady hand, and wisdom in your brow.

The Gods & Spirits

The topic of the 'Third Kindred' has been a lurking elephant in our big room since we took up the conventional 'Three Kindreds'. I think it is an unsolved problem of lore and even worship in our mix, and I am interested in how it goes when members take up actual efforts to include the Others in the work.

I think we come to our ideas of the Third Kin with a couple of half-formed notions from modern times that may hinder us from understanding what the ancients meant.
• The post-Theosphical idea of 'devas' as the spirits of plants, stones, etc is at least a step toward animism, and so perhaps in the right direction. The use of the term 'fairy' for the twee artistic constructions connected with such things has muddied the water badly, in my opinion. Even using 'deva' to mean small spirit instead of 'a god' has created confusion.

I couldn't prove that the ancients held this level of animism, viewing every individual plant and animal as a spirit. Though, customs such as leaving a coin in the hole or 'hunting' the plant do suggest concern about an individual spirit. I think it's safe to suggest that some degree of ground-level animism was part of the IE worldview.

But when we talk about the 'Nature Spirits' or 'Landwights' I think we may be limiting the category too strictly by focusing on this model. Let's look at the second problem notion:

• Popular ideas of 'Power Animals' and 'Totems' based in American and central Asian shamanic cultures have also been a gateway into animism for some folks. However some of the ideas that have built up around 'core shamanism' and its even-newer-age successors, as well as the fictions of Castaneda serve to limit our understanding of the Third Kin.

In IE tales we don’t very often see beasts speaking for themselves. We fairly often see various gods, heroes and other spirits choosing to assume animal forms (or having them imposed upon them). There is some notion of ‘clan animals’ in some Gaelic clans. Both Bear Warriors and Wolf Warriors may have existed in Celtic or Germanic societies, but we should be careful not to lump these into some vague idea of ‘totems’. It seems to me that in the tales the appearance of animals is more often a guise of some other sort of spirit than a visit from a ‘spirit animal’.

On the other hand, I think we can discern several things from ancient tales and lore that are important to an ancient understanding.
• First, there are whole categories, or races, or species of beings that are not the spirits 'of' material things, not are they Deities, in the sense of the Eldest and Mightiest, though the greatest of them may be 'shining ones' in fact. We hear of centaurs, and satyrs, of tree-nymphs and pool-nymphs, but also of Ghandarvas and the Dancer Women, and the Night-Hags. We have medieval legends of the Court Under the Hill, trooping and processing hosts, etc.
• Second, a great deal of medieval and even Pagan description of the 'wights' mixes the Dead with non-human kindreds freely, as if the Dead join the category. The Alfar of the Norse are often understood as Ancestors, but the Liosalfar (light-elves) are one of the 'races' of otherworld beings.

My continuing-to-evolve understanding of the Hellenic idea of daimones suggests that the category included both a variety of non-deific, non-human spiritual powers, and at least those we might call the Mighty Dead. We see a very simple, non-triple division of the Powers in Irish lore, when they refer to "De agus ande" - the Gods and the not-Gods.

So when we talk about mobile or immobile wights, we certainly have a wide variety of possible behaviors of the spirits. Some will have been stationary. Some will have been, or become, family allies and have come with the family to a new land. Who even knows what beings involve themselves in mercantile trade. Dreams alone would be enough to transfer a spirit from one land to another, in my opinion - they're tricky that way.

Our practice, then, can include efforts to approach any or all of these categories. I think lore makes it clear that to keep one's luck and weal one should be at peace with the spirits of the soil and green and local spirits. I think our offerings as we do them now are pretty well focused on that sort of work. In traditional lore there are also local cults of greater spirits – various local ‘gods’ of the forest or shrines to a specific non-deific, human-animal hybrid or spirit-tree beings. Many times these special shrines and rites are focused on magical goals – healing, fertility or wisdom. We’ve been nowhere near dealing with this sort of being yet, and I think there’s a lot to be gotten from the effort.

Well, this has been a ramble, but it's a complex topic...