star goddess

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
07
Dec
2018

Starry Path: Tzotzora, Salt of Red Fire, Watcher of the Ways

[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.

Posted by kalagni in blueflamemagick
21
Oct
2018

Starry Path: Cosmos, and Star Goddess

There is a lot to explore on the Starry Path, but it’s hard to know where to start. I will start with some basic introductions to two figures of the Path, and then shift into some actual work next time.

The Starry Path is either pantheistic, or panentheistic, that has not been made clear to me yet but on a practical level it does not matter, and it is polytheistic. While it has its own “gods” the focus is far more on the intermediary spirits, their children. There are two main deities, Cosmos and the Star Goddess. These are not new deities or anything like that. They’re universal concepts, universal beings, appearing in mythology from all over the world in archetypal forms. Cosmos and the Star Goddess are not new, but they are an exploration of those forces removed from the cultural contexts of the older myths. So far they have had no names revealed to me, several of the spirits have not provided names, they prefer expressive titles of who and what they are, rather than a name. So while They might have a name, They might have many names, the Star Goddess just wants to be known as the Star Goddess because of the image that conjures, it establishes who They are.

If the Path had a primary deity, it would probably be Cosmos. To quote St. Carl of Sagan “The Cosmos is all that is, or ever was, or ever will be.” Cosmos is an impersonal deity. They are beyond all conception and relation. Cosmos is everything, everywhere, everytime. Cosmos is the basis of all reality, inseparable from all things and no thing. As such they are an impersonal deity, which means they cannot be approached as a person or entity, they just are, they’re only really approached in a sense of reverence and communion.

The other main deity is the Star Goddess. In general I’m not a fan of the idea that all the gods are the same gods in different masks, for a variety of reasons. The Star Goddess is one of the few places where I think the idea is totally valid. There is a certain feel, almost a spiritual cadence to deities of the night and the stars, some of them touching on something primordial. Asteria, Nut, Nuit (Thelemic), the Black God, Nyx, Erebus, Ratri, Citlālicue, Sah, Hine-nui-te-pō, the Star Goddess of Feri, dozens of others, they have a feel a sense to them of commonality. If any deity would appear to humanity in many guises, it would be the primordial god of stars and the night. Regardless of Their identity, if any, in other traditions They are god/dess, beyond notions of masculine or feminine, yet often appears in a more femme-leaning form. Most often They appears as a figure of purest pitch black, but within Their form you have slowly shifting stars and nebulae.

While Cosmos is everything, the Star Goddess made everything. Cosmos is the Ground of Being, the Eternal Source of All, but Cosmos is made manifest through the Star Goddess. It is They that brought the universe into being. They were born at the moment of Creation, and have always been. The two of them are a paradox. Both eternal and beyond time, but Cosmos was made manifest when the Star Goddess was born. Cosmos is all things, but it is the Star Goddess that made all things.

The Star Goddess is somewhere between an impersonal and personal deity. They do respond to petitions, but not as easily or freely as the spirits below Them. Like Cosmos most of the time They are included as a figure of reverence and communion, but by calling upon Them you call upon Their authority as well as the spirits beneath Them, mainly everyone. You can pray to Them, and They may send to you an appropriate spirit, but the Path already has a set of spirits, and most will introduce you to other spirits that you require, and that is often easier and faster than going directly through Them

The Star Goddess is the ancestor of all beings, but They are closest to Astral spirits, in the classic sense, spirits of stars and space. The higher spirits of the Starry Path are Their children, they are embodiments of stars and stellar phenomena. A lot of the work on the Starry Path deals with these spirits, or with their children.

Their children hold many roles, and many secrets, and can be called upon for their aid. Most of them are very easy to call too, the standard summoning ritual on the Path is very minimalist. Over the next while I’ll introduce some of these spirits, and what we can learn from them and do with them.

Posted by kalagni in blueflamemagick