death

[I can’t believe it’s been a month since I posted. I held off posting this as Tzotzora was not happy with the post and needed to correct me, and as those on my twitter/facebook know my boyfriend just moved in so it’s been a hectic month. Without further ado here is the post, and Tzotzora hasn’t complained about this one, so hopefully I’ve made no mistakes.]

 

I realize looking at my notes, that I haven’t yet talked about the Twin of the Star Goddess. (My apologies, over the years this information has not necessarily come to me linear, so my notes or way of thinking about it may jump around.)

In a mild paradox the Star Goddess is Their own twin. This is nothing too unusual to anyone who has been on a mystical path for a while.

Twin Queen of the Underworld. Goddess of the Deep Below. Lady of the Great Earth. Mother of the Stars Within the Earth. While They have many names, no single name has rung as clear for Them as “Star Goddess” has for the other form. Personally though I’m partial to Mother of the Stars Within the Earth, unfortunately that is a bit wordy.

While the Star Goddess is represented by the starry night sky, Their twin form is the ultimate pitch of darkness. Space where no light is cast, deep beneath the earth and far above it. While the Star Goddess is the Creator of All, as Their twin They are the End of All. Star Goddess is the Womb, Goddess of the Deep Below is the Tomb.

You see more generative and peaceful Star/Dark/Night deities in a lot of mythology, but there are also the more destructive and forceful ones. In Greek mythology Zeus himself was afraid of Nyx. Hine-nui-te-pō is goddess of night and death. There are many cases of overlap of night/dark deities and death and destruction. Star Goddess is no different. They are all things, and thus They hold this paradox within Themselves. I think in this case the more I elaborate, the farther we go from the reality of the matter, that every description moves us farther from what is being described. Most people I believe have some intuitive understanding of this link and paradox, and working with such spirits it will become clearer. I had to introduce this aspect here, because the next spirit I’ll introduce, Tzotzora, has a connection to the Mother of the Stars Within the Earth, and working with him involves some work with Them in that form, albeit very basically.

Tzotzora seems to be the spirit of Algol and Red Fire, one of the variations on Star Fire, and a Triplet. At first I thought he was Zoriyah’s triplet, but I’ve been told that’s not the case. The Triplet nature has not yet been made clear to me, other than the fact that Algol is a trinary star system. There are three main aspects of Star Fire, I suspect each triplet is connected to one of them, but that’s just inference and theorizing, the spirits have not confirmed or denied this yet.

Tzotzora appears as an old man, so gaunt and pale that it is impossible to place a racial descent, he almost looks like he is on the verge of mummification. He wears grey robes, but they have the appearance of being white in the past, but time and dust have changed them. I will let Tzotzora explain who he is. What follows is an example of the more grimoire style of information from the Starry Path. When I first encountered Tzotzora I asked about who he was, and he dictated the following. (I often have an audio recorder running during spirit communication, so I can repeat what they’re saying so I can properly record it, and have a record of their actual words.)

 

When we Fell we were smothered by the weight of the world, the crushing air slowing our movement.

After taking our forms we learned that our bodies were mortal. Some of my siblings, when coming to understand their mortality, went mad and ran off into the night, lost to us. Some of my siblings, when coming to understand their mortality, went mad and fled into the day, lost to us. Some of my siblings, when coming to understand their mortality, threw themselves deeper into the flesh, to embrace the joys of the flesh to ignore the terror of mortality. Some of my siblings, when coming to understand their mortality, returned their gaze to the heavens from which we came and began to seek the spirit. Some of my siblings, when coming to understand our mortality, decided to accept mortality, and explore the unique world this opened.

Of all my siblings, I was the first to trace the paths of spirit. Age couldn’t claim us, but injury and magick could. I sat with the dying, seeking understanding of death, the experience, the process, and the result. I sat with the dying, watching their spirit pull away from the world. I sat with the dying, being shown the paths of spirit.

As they died I watched the spirits, freed from matter, flow out of their form. They opened cracks in the walls of the world. Rifts that they would step through, from this world to another, rifts that flitted close behind them like a sheer drape.

With each death I better learned the roads between here and Eternity, the ways of walking from the flesh into the spirit, the bridge of the worlds.

Through the cracks in the walls of the world I could hear the Song beyond. I sang in harmony with that Song, and sang the names of the dying and dead, thus I called them to stay in this world, and take up new flesh, for we could not leave. This migration of bodies fully completing the fall into matter.

I guard the gate of spirit, I watch the ways, I keep out those who would harm, invite those who would be allies, I open the path of spirit, the bridge of worlds.

 

Salt of Red Fire

Tzotzora is connected to Red Fire or Red Star Fire. Much like with Star Fire in general, this post includes how to connect to the energy, as well as how to Earth it into salt so you have it as a materia. Salt of Red Fire involves two main steps that can be done separately or together. One is embracing the Red Fire, the second is channeling the Red Fire into salt.

 

Required:

• Salt of Star Fire
• Black or red candle
• Mirror
• Charcoal
• Incense
  • Amber (1 part)
  • Cinnamon (1 part)
  • Myrrh (1 part)
  • Dragon’s Blood (2 part)
• Knowledge of Algol’s position in the sky (or an app which can locate it for you)

 

Light the charcoal and put the incense on it when ready, leave some incense unburnt for later.

Put the Salt of Star Fire between yourself and the mirror, where you can see your reflection. Light the candle and call to the Star Goddess to bless you with the fire of stars. Perform the four fold breath while filing yourself with the Star Fire until it fills you and dances across your skin. Look at your reflection, see the white flame around yourself mirrored in the candle.

Call to the Star Goddess. “Queen of Heaven, Twin Queen of the Underworld, may your light guide our paths.”

Looking at the fire and its reflection in the mirror, blow out the candle. In that moment of sudden darkness feel the fire around yourself turn black, subtle, and nearly impossible to see, then red. (It is like turning out a light in a room, there is momentary darkness, and then your eyes will pick up dim light, like the light on the power button of your tv) It will fade out quickly without the candle. With a deep breath and force of will breathe in the red fire, draw it into yourself before it can fade. Square breathe as you pull in the last of the Red Fire, then Square breathe like a bellows, fanning the red fire.

Red Fire does not exist in the same way as the red of a normal fire. It is a fire of transmutation. It exists in that brief moment right as a flame is extinguished. Red Fire is the transition of matter to spirit, whereas Star Fire is spirit descending into matter.

After building up sufficient Red Fire breathe it into the Salt of the Star Fire, still in the dark. See it burning the salt and changing the Star Fire, extinguishing it and seizing the Red Fire. Take some of the incense, the ash and the unburnt incense, and mix it in with the salt, just a pinch is needed, but you can add more.

Red Fire is useful as a transition. Casting it in circles around you allows it to bridge the subtle and the solid. Make the physical and spiritual levels of a place more connected.

 

The second part of this ritual requires the Salt of Red Fire you are working on, and a cemetery with two exits.

Walk into the cemetery, open yourself up, enter a light trance, whatever you do to prepare for magick. Half way through the cemetery begin to call on the Star Goddess in Their form as Their own twin, the Dark Goddess Below. As you walk talk to Them, tell Them you walk Their paths, the ways of spirit that run through matter, the egress of form. They open the path before you as you walk, inviting you deeper, out of this physical space, but into a spiritual place.

Then begin to call to Tzotzora, asking him to show you the ways of matter ascending to spirit, to show you the cracks in the world that open to the more subtle realms. He might answer your call indirectly, or he may even show up to walk and work with you.

Pinch some salt and throw it in a circle around you, swinging your arm over your head. Starting in the North and going counter clockwise (you can also orient the “North” as whatever direction is in front of you as you walk). See trails of red fire follow the salt, forming both a circle where you drew it stationary on the ground, and one that stays surrounding you even as you move, as you walk out of the circle that stays where it was cast you step deeper into spirit. Perform this salt circle twice more as you walk. Surrounded by the red fire breathe it in with a square breath, and then breathe it into the remaining salt, burning it red with flame wisps of blue and white.

Hold the salt towards the star Algol (there are many free smartphone apps that will help you locate specific stars, while Algol doesn’t need to be visible above the horizon, if possible I think that’s better), and thank the Guardian of the Gate for opening the way and blessing the salt.

Keep walking out of the cemetery. One you have left the cemetery you can let your focus on the red fire circles lift, and let the energies dissipate as you walk.