feri

01
May
2020

How She Came to the Earth, and Returned to the Darkness

Otherwise known as ‘The Story of Star Goddess and Star Dragon.’
 
 

Star Goddess. 2020.
Original photography by @n8rayfield
Photo manipulation by Kalagni

 

She was first, first created before all creation; within her illimitable being were all things. From out of herself, the first darkness, she divided herself, into darkness and light she was divided for love’s sake. Luciferrus, her brother, her son, herself, and her other half, was the light of the worlds.

 
All things were made by her, and of her; the great spirits of the stars, humans upon the earth, giants which were of old, and they who dwelt in the dark of the below.
 
She longed for the return of the light, but Luciferrus fled from her. He was the light that flies into the farthest reaches of the heavens.
 
She went to the Patres Principis, the Matres Aeternitatis, and the Filii Deorum, she lamented her separation from Luciferrus, wanting the darkness to swallow up the light. These great spirits praised her and told her that to rise she must fall; to become the great goddess of her nature, to obtain the light, she must become a mortal.
 
And it came to pass when the world was formed, she went on the earth, as did her brother, her son, her other half, the light. She taught sorcery upon the earth and came to know her brother, her son, her other half. Her sorcery spun the lives of all humanity, all things were spun from the wheel of her being. Luciferrus turned the wheel. She was crowned Queen of the Witches by all the folk who were other.
 
She was divided, and she was united, and she birthed herself as a great daughter upon the earth. The great year of existences turned, and it came time for her to become herself once more. To shed her mortality and limitations, and to ascend back to the first darkness.
 
In the great year, the shapes of the earth had changed, the stars had drifted, and the way to the heavens was lost to her. She searched upon the mountain tops, but could not find a way to the heavens. She searched within the earth, finding stars reflected in the darkness beneath, but not a way to the heavens. The gates had been closed. She travelled to the witches, who knew not yet the way to the heavens. She sought out the Patres Principis, the Matres Aeternitatis, and the Filii Deorum, but these great spirits too were barred from the heavens and knew not the way.
 
She went to the desert place, riding a humble beast of burden. She petitioned the stars to welcome her home but heard only her echo. She called her mount to her side and sang enchantments. As she sang the beasts of the wild came to prey upon her mount. The mount cried out, others of their kind came and surrounded them; watching and guarding against the beasts of the wild.
 
She reached into the heavens and plucked a handful of stars. One by one she blessed the stars. One by one she placed the blessed stars upon her mount. Fourteen stars beyond, shining in the heavens, fourteen stars within, reflected in her mount. The tongue, the eyes, the skull, the horns, the spine, the claws, the wings, the feet, and the tail. Fourteen stars above, fourteen stars below, but only fourteen stars, for whether above or below, beyond or within, they were the same stars. From her mount, she forged the dragon of the starry abyss, the ageless serpent of the star-jewelled cleft, seen in the sky-mirror of eternity.
 
The light of the star-forged dragon terrified the beasts of the wild, who struck out in fear and confusion. They killed the beasts of burden protecting the dragon, and in the birth pangs of the stellar serpent they struck a mortal wound to the unarmoured heart of the dragon, before being consumed by the starlight.
 
The light of the star-forged dragon shone across the world, the Patres Principis, the Matres Aeternitatis, the Filii Deorum, the folks who were other, and all the witches saw in the brilliance of the stars, the original glory of she who taught them.
 
The stars within and the stars beyond, the single flame of union. The light of the star-forged dragon, the light of the fourteen blessed stars illuminated the vault of the heavens, tracing the borders of eternity and infinity. The fourteen blessed stars within and beyond revealed the gates of the heavens.
 
She mounted the wounded dragon, the great beast of darkness and stars. With wings of fire-feathered starlight and wings of mist-feathered infernal light, the dragon mount carried them skyward. As they rose heaven-bound her wounded mount bled, leaving behind paths of blood and starlight, paths only the wise ones could perceive, and traverse.
 
The ways of the stars and the gates of the heavens laid open before them. They reached the farthest reaches of the night sky. With her blessing, she let her faithful mount reside in the heavens, made immortal by becoming the fourteen stars. Residing in the heavens to watch over the earth and the ways of the stars.
 
From the farthest reaches of the night sky, the edge of eternity and infinity, she could remember herself once more and stepped into the first darkness to become the nothing she always was.
 

This is a new myth, but as Grograman says in The Neverending Story “A story can be new and yet tell about olden times. The past comes into existence with the story.” From the moment of creation, it has always existed. This is a new myth, based on old myths and modern recensions of old magick.

I had been undertaking a year-long magickal ordeal, but after eight months I felt as if I get very little from the practice. I’ve done big long intensive ordeals, ones that demand a lot more of my time, energy, and soul. I do some form of Buddhist retreat every year now, I’ve performed a pretty close-to-the-text Abramelin, I’ve made up and followed my own cycle of spells and growth. I don’t think it was an issue with performing such an ordeal, just this one wasn’t working for me, we didn’t click, the fire never caught, it was mostly routine. Divinations confirmed it wasn’t worth me continuing, but also said things didn’t look good if I stopped it either. Bored if I do, damned if I don’t.

My friend Sara gave me a reading. (As an aside if you’re looking for someone to get a reading from I can’t recommend Sara highly enough) She gave me a wonderful piece of advice that I would never have thought of. I can’t just switch from the current ritual ordeal to a new practice, I have obligations to the ordeal, and I need respectfully relieve myself of the obligations to direct that dedication into the new practice. The advice was that in order to make this transition, I had to come up with a story that illustrated this transition of practices and brought them together. I would have never thought of such a thing. I’ll confess whenever I work through a magickal book I almost never do the journalling exercises, I’ve never found them that useful. I wouldn’t have thought to make a story.

At first, I saw it just as an intellectual exercise to symbolically link the practices. But as I wrote I became, dare I say it, inspired? It stopped being me constructing a myth, and became a myth that seemed to pour forth from my mindstream.

This myth is heavily inspired by the myth of Diana from Leland’s Aradia: Gospel of the Witches, and ritual cycle from the Dragon-Book of Essex. Elements from both were woven together around a new myth. What I have to say surprised me was just how much magick there was in crafting this myth. As I said, I saw this just as an intellectual exercise but I found there is deep magick and wisdom in stories I had overlooked.

For the first time, I think I really grokked why in so many cultures the shamans and sorcerers are also the storytellers. There is magick in bringing a myth to exist. Writing this myth I felt the energies I had locked in the old routine releasing. Energy I was unaware of being held up in this magickal routine was released, and returned. But as my oaths were returned this energy shifted into my new practice. While I did the intellectual work of designing a ritual to shift between the old and the new practices, the deeper magick of that shift was bringing the myth to be.

In the end, I honestly feel as if the mythcrafting did more of the releasing and shifting of energy than the ritual that I had designed to do just that. I wouldn’t have expected that, but I see now perhaps I didn’t give enough credit to the power of poems and myths.

I want to thank Sara for literally being the inspiration for writing this, without your insight, I would have never thought to make a myth. So thank you to the great poet witch.

And a thank you to Polyphanes for putting up with my strange Latin questions.

As of today the Star Dragon has ascended into the Heavens to return the Star Goddess to her rightful place as Nothing.

Posted by kalagni in blueflamemagick
30
Aug
2018

Review: The Witch’s Book of Spirits, by Devin Hunter

The Witch’s Book of Spirits – Devin Hunter

Llewellyn, 2017, 9780738751948, 306pp

The Witch’s Book of Spirits is a refreshing book on spirit work and magick. Devin Hunter leads you through a theoretical tour of spirit realms, introduces you to spirits along the way, and teaches you how to work with them.

Spirit work is the cornerstone of most witchcraft traditions, but what Hunter presents is both applicable to most magickal traditions, but also distinct in and of itself. That’s one of the main things I appreciated, Hunter’s system is its own thing, it’s fresh and new, not a rehash of older grimoires or Books of Shadows.

The book starts with a look at the history of spirits and magick, the importance of spirit allies, and explaining the spirit realms. The book felt almost like a spiral, rather than a linear book. Instead of being a straight progression from topic to topic, it felt like topics were introduced, explored, and returned to a while later with greater understanding. From a teaching perspective this is a great way to keep the information fresh and relevant in the reader’s mind.

The book spirals out, looking at familiars, protections, spiritual flight, returning to the various spirit realms, and methods of conjurations. While I might disagree with some of Hunter’s delineations of spirits and realms, they do make a useful model to work from. If the worst thing I can say is that I disagree with some definitions, then I’d say that this makes this a fairly solid book on spirit work.

It’s the last half of the book that really shines in my opinion. Hunter gives us nine “Keys of Hecate” which are a combination of sigils and energy work. These Keys are symbols of power, each one with a different purpose and method of use ranging from establishing authority and protection to helping spirits manifest on our level. I found these really interesting because while the origins and symbols are different, the underlying principle and method is very similar to work I’ve had revealed to me by my spirits, just as these Keys were revealed by Hunter’s work with Hecate.

Now that the reader is equipped with the Keys to handle spirits the book spirals back into a deeper look at the classification of spirits, from angels and demons to the dead and the fae. The book ends with a grimoire of 33 spirits, spirits of the Vexna-Kari. They’re an interesting mishmash of spirits of different types and different origins. Several apparently were spirit familiars to witches in the past, but for whatever reason even after their witch died the spirits remained, brought back into the fold by the Vexna-Kari. The abilities or domains of the spirits are the standard fair: help learning, drawing love, protection, financial aid and so on. The head of the spirits, the Vexna-Kari, are three spirits, progenitors of witchblood, angels who walked the Earth. This section, like the Keys, had a few eerie similarities to my own work, and considering much of that comes from spirits who also claim themselves as bloodline progenitors and angels on the Earth I think it’s good confirmation having similarities arise. I suspect those who follow paths connected to the Crooked Path, Sabbatic Craft, TradCraft will probably find Hunter’s work very resonant with their own.

While I would recommend the book in general, for anyone wanting to improve the connection and work with spirits, I will say it probably will have an extra “layer” to those who walk paths connected with Hecate, the Bene Ha Elohim, and TradCraft. Even if you’re fairly developed in your spirit work, I would recommend the book for the Keys of Hecate and the Vexna-Kari grimoire.

Posted by kalagni in blueflamemagick
22
Aug
2018

Wednesday Webshare: Tombs, Veils, and Peacock Angels


Welcome back to Wednesday Webshares! It’s been far too long since I’ve done these. If you come across great articles, new blogs, sites, reviews, projects, kickstarters, etc online that you think deserve to be included in the next WW just comment or tweet or whatever at me with the info.

The Island of Jersey fences off an ancient tomb, much to the displeasure of the local pagans. It is apparently being fenced off for preservation and restoration. I had no idea such things were on Jersey. It’s really interesting to me as the European side of my family is largely from Guernsey and Jersey.

A tumblr post that is resharing a twitter essay. The Veil between the Worlds is a really common (neo)pagan trope or expression, but it’s origins are very very modern. Make of that what you will, but the Veil was not part of an historical tradition.

I’m a fan of political magick, as well as practical and personal magick. Cat Vincent shares a piece of magick against facism and Brexit specifically. It’s also refreshing in these times where we see too often pagan groups and symbolism being coopted by bigoted fascist cranberry fucknuts to see someone turn their magick against that directly. If there is one thing I learned from Bedknobs and Broomsticks as a kid, it’s that magick is an acceptable weapon against Nazis and other bigots and fascists.

I am in love with Andrew’s newest project, a quilt inspired by Melek Taus, with whom many folks know I have a complicated relationship. Unfortunately owning said quilt is not in the (credit) cards for me.

Speaking of Melek Taus, here is a great interview by Mat Auryn with Storm Faerywolf about the Blue God of the Feri tradition and his connection to Melek Taus.

Spiral Nature releases its financial information for the month. It might not be the most riveting of topics, but it’s a good read. Spiral Nature is a great free online occult magazine that I’ve been reading for…longer than I’d like to admit, cause I think I might have readers who weren’t born yet (does that make you feel old too Psyche?)…and I’ve been writing for them for a decade. Unfortunately running an online magazine isn’t necessarily free, but the post talks about different ways you can help support the site. Even if you can’t support financially you can always provide feedback on what the magazine should contain to help us appeal to a larger audience, and sharing is always appreciated.

Frater S.C.F.V. wrote a great piece on the purpose, usage, and consecration of the Solomonic wand. Recommended reading for anyone with interests in the grimoire tradition.

I also want to redirect people to the post I put up about the 80 Goetia Coin kickstarter. I’m excited by this project and since I posted it four days ago it’s received another $22,000 of backing, which for a project that only requested $1,200 to be backed is pretty great. I have so many ideas running through my head for how to have fun with these coins.

 

Posted by kalagni in blueflamemagick