kalagni

26
Oct
2018

Starry Path: Zoriyah, and Star Fire

The first of the children of Cosmos and Star Goddess I want to introduce is Zoriyah. He is not necessarily the most important or the most powerful among them, but he is the Steward of the Star Fire, and as such is the initiator of the Path and the transmitter of the power.

Zoriyah is the Steward of the Star Fire. He rejoices in bringing the Fires of Heaven to those below, but he is not interested in challenging journeys. He enjoys introducing magick, but not the long process of teaching. After lighting the Fire of Passion he often moves on. He plays other roles as the Steward, but this is the main one we need to focus on for now.

Zoriyah (צריעיה) appears as a tall lean man of African descent, but his dark skin glows with a soft golden sheen from within. He wears flowing robes and scarves of bright white with faint blue tips, they always seem to drift around him, as if they weigh almost nothing and are dancing on a gentle breeze. Star Fire is one of the most basic and versatile magickal energies on the Starry Path. As a simple and powerful energy it is something Zoriyah enjoys, for it is easy to teach enough for someone to feel magick, and then he can move on.

((To clarify, I included the name spelt in Hebrew not because these spirits are Hebrew/Jewish/Middle Eastern in any way, but as someone with a ceremonial background I do find Hebrew useful.))

Star Fire is a type of energy, a specific frequency, that is used on the Starry Path, one of several. Star Fire represents, not surprisingly, the fire of stars, which on the Starry Path is also the fire of the very spirits we work with, even if they are now (mostly) earthbound. It is also the most general or neutral of the energies on the Path, which is why it’s a great place to start. The introduction to Star Fire is also connected to the creation of the Salt of Star Fire, one of the most commonly used materia on the Starry Path.

Salt of Star Fire is an important ingredient to a lot of Starry Path work, but just as important is the process of connecting to the Star Fire. Salt of Star Fire is an Earthing of this Energy, grounding it into the physical realm. As you call it into the physical realm you experience the feel of Star Fire. The colours, the bright white yellows and wispy blue curls, the swirling flutter of movement, the gentle hiss and pop of the fire. In this process you connect with the Star Fire, which will allow you to call upon it without the use of salt or flame. I will include a working in the next post that is another way to connect to Star Fire if you feel that you need a separate refresher or a deeper connection.

Follow the ingredients as they are here, Zoriyah was adamant about natron, and a drinkable alcohol. The rest of the ingredients are more flexible. For instance if you don’t have cedar, another sweet wood works.

Below is the ritual for both connecting to Star Fire and creating Salt of Star Fire

 

Calling Zoriyah and Star Fire

Required:

  • Metal fireproof bowl with trivet (if performed inside)
  • Glass fireproof bowl (blue glass is preferred)
  • Candles (1 black Star Goddess candle, 5 white tealights)
  • Natron* (See how to make below the required materials)
  • Vodka (or another high alcoholic content drinkable alcohol)
  • Matchs (Either long matches or a pair of tongs is required)
  • Self-igniting Charcoal for incense
  • Incense holder
  • Incense (1 part myrrh, 1 part red sanders, 1 part cedar, 1 part mastic)

*Natron is a naturally forming salt mixture on the shores of saline bodies of water. It is easy enough to make your own, and I don’t know of any spirit who complains about homemade natron. Mix 1 part table salt with 1 part baking soda. Mix this up, and then add in water until you get a thick paste you can spread. (Some instructions say to boil the mixture, I’ve tried both ways and found little to no difference) Spread the mixture on a cookie sheet and put in the oven at 150C (300F) to dry it out. Once the water is evaporated you’re left with sheets of natron, you can then crumble it up and store it in containers until you need it.

The glass fireproof bowl should be small enough to fit in the metal fireproof bowl. If performed inside using both bowls and small amounts make it relatively safe (but always act with caution if working with fire indoors), if performed outside the outer metal bowl isn’t required and you can use larger amounts, just make sure you the fire isn’t near anything that could catch fire.

Light the charcoal puck, it will take some time to heat up all the way through. Have the matches on hand and know roughly where the black Star Goddess candle is. If you’re inside turn off all the lights you can, if outside this is best performed at night, even better at the New Moon and never on the Full Moon.

In darkness pray to the Star Goddess, and light the black candle. Pray for Their guidance and Their presence, pray adoration for Their Beauty, the Majesty of all reality.

Pray to the Star Goddess who birthed all, then pray to the first of Their children, the early stars. Pray for their light, their guidance and presence. Light a tealight from the Star Goddess candle. Pray to solar systems in the same way and light another tealight from the last one. Pray to galaxies in the same way and light another tealight from the last one. Pray to galactic clusters in the same way and light another tealight from the last one. Pray out to all the Cosmos and light the last tea light.

(Praying to solar systems, galaxies, and clusters might seem unusual but understand that these spirits literally identify themselves with stars, so you’re praying to spirits and legions and groups of them)

Put the incense on the charcoal. “From Resinous Earth, to Watery Melt, to Fiery Force, and Smoke filled Air, drift into the Aethyr and call down the Spirits, the first ones, the shining ones, those who descended from the heights to teach humanity.

Put two parts natron inside the glass container, add one part vodka, and mix.

Slowly chant Zoriyah’s name, calling him down. See his Seal over the container of natron. As you chant his name, see a thin tendril of white fire from the heavens flow into the container of natron. “Zoriyah, Steward of Star Fire. He who lights the fires of humanity. Torch bearer. Come here and bless this vessel with your Star Fire.”

Place one hand over the natron container, see the Seal going through the natron and your hand, and guide him to place one hand into the natron, the other reaching up towards the stars. White fire tendrils from the heavens wrapping around Zoriyah’s form down his arm into the container through your hand. As his fire begins to enter the container remove your hand, light a match and light the natron on fire. Natron, alcohol, flame, and scent or earth, water, fire, air. Pray to Zoriyah, pray that the Star Fire and alcohol fire are one, that the fire purifies the natron. This physical fire becomes the embodiment of the magickal Star Fire. The Natron is the Earthing of Star Fire, the physical receptical. As such it lies between the worlds, and can be used to open the ways.

When the fire goes out mix up the natron again, and try lighting on fire, there is usually a little more alcohol to burn. Feel the sensation of Star Fire flowing through Zoriyah, feel the Fire in the container. Learn the feel of this fire, the sights and smells, and sounds and sensations. Using these you can now call on the Star Fire yourself when needed. It might not be as physically oriented as the Salt will be, but it will be a powerful and dynamic energy to work with.

When the fire goes out thank Zoriyah for giving you the Salt of Star Fire. You can use this for a variety of things on the Starry Path, but the first and perhaps most important is the Star Water, used for protection, cleaning, and most crucially spiritual sight and flight. I’ll discuss the Star Water in another post soon.

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
17
Oct
2018

Past Lives: Confirmation and Cryptomnesia

I recently shared a piece on past life memories, and how they are prone to distortion if not outright fabrication. Now I want to look at what can be done about it.

Also I will restate because it is hilarious and frustrating how many people misunderstand what I’m saying: Distortions and fabrications of memories aren’t intentional, they aren’t your conscious fault. When I say something will taint your memory by including new information, I’m not saying you do it on purpose, I’m saying that’s just the way our brains work. If I see memories are fabricated I’m not saying you’re lying, I’m saying your brain created the memories. Memories are really sketchy things, even just from this life. Look it up if you’re curious, there are dozens, if not hundreds, of experiments that show how false memories are made, or how unreliable memories are.

I have one piece of foundational advice regarding past life memories: Record everything, research nothing

Basically all my advice will stem from this.

Record everything. I know I’ve talked about the importance of magickal diaries before, and here it is no different. Record everything. I mean everything, every little meaningless piece of data in a memory, try to record it. As much as we want to focus on the narrative of the past life memory, the details are generally more important for verification.

Record the memory in a narrative form, this is what I remember and then I did this and then that happened. Note details, I often like recording them separate from the narrative, or in both sections, but the details are what I will come back to in order to verify. Sometimes with a past life memory there is a knowing that comes with it, you might not know enough about European cultures in history, but for some reason you know that this memory is in France, record those details. What senses did the memory come through? Record that. What sensations accompanied them memory here and now? Did your neck burn when you had the memory flash, did you get dizzy, did you blank out or did the memory run in the back of your head? Record that. Personally, the most important factor to me, but not everyone has the same strengths in memories, is try to pull out some words or names. If you can pull out words and names for languages/cultures you’re not familiar with that’s a great piece of data to verify.

Now that you’ve recorded everything, it’s time for step two: research nothing

Our first impulse is often to research the past life, to find evidence for or against it. Do not do that.

How much did you remember? Did you get an entire lifetime and all the associated information? I’ll go ahead and say no you didn’t. There is so much more to remember, and the moment you start to research it, you’ve tainted your memories, set yourself up for cryptomnesia, and made your memories harder to trust. You’re pretty sure that memory was middle ages in Ethiopia, but the moment you research it, even if you just want to verify one detail, anything else you read gets tucked into your brain and can get called out (falsely) with the next memory. You might have wanted to verify the buildings looked like you remembered, but you might have seen fashion, or read about a great building that was completed in that time, something. Something will get in and corrupt your memories. If you ever want to truly trust your memories, I repeat, research nothing.

I personally have past life memories around specific lives that I’ve been recording for a few years, and I haven’t researched yet. In fact in one of my more recent cases, I was watching an episode of X-Files, and their monster of the week came from the same time and culture I was remembering, so I turned it off. Yes it’s a fun fiction, and yes X-Files doesn’t have a good history of getting things right, but nonetheless I didn’t want that information getting wrapped up with my own.

The different elements of your memory that you record will help you verify your memories in different ways.

The narrative is what most people think of, but ironically it generally won’t be enough. You could have lived in Italy at the height of the Renaissance, but despite the way history romantically paints it, the Renaissance only really impacted the elite, less than one percent of the population was directly impacted by it. The life of an Italian cobbler at the height of the Renaissance would be nearly identical to the life of a cobbler a hundred years before. Unless your life was impacted by a major event, you probably won’t have enough to verify your life. Despite not being American, I’ll use an American example. All of us, American or otherwise, remember 9/11. An event like 9/11 would be past life gold, it’s a clear, hard to mistake, important event. If your four year old talks about being up high in a building and a plane coming, and the other building on fire…well…they might be onto something. The trouble is, as important as 9/11 was culturally, honestly it only directly impacted a very very small group of people: Those who saw it, those who lived it, those who died in it, maybe those who helped in the aftermath cleanup, and maybe people who lived nearby, even if they didn’t witness it, and maybe those who lost someone close. For the rest of us, it’s not really a memory we actually have, just what we know of. We might be affected by the aftermath, but not the event, so it’s unlikely we’d remember it next life around. It’s a great event for verification, but it honestly impacts so few people. That’s why we need to rely on more than just the narrative for information. Also the farther we go back, the less records there are. So you may very well have been the daughter of a wealthy Persian spice merchant, and you might have traveled the Silk Road having adventures, but chances are little to none of your history was recorded.

Get all the details you can.

Along with research nothing, another related piece of advice, is don’t reread your records. This might seem odd. These are your memories after all. Well…maybe… If you remember something false or wrong (by which I mean totally false, or a memory that you misunderstood), then if you reread your records you’re reintroducing that errant memory, reinforcing it, whereas if it was wrong in some way there is a chance that over time that memory will drop off, or be contradicted by a later memory. Also humans are storytellers, if you reread the memory of being a Greek sailor, the back of your brain might wonder what sailing adventures you had, and then the back of your brain starts storytelling to itself, grabbing appropriate stories you might have seen or read, and later on pulling up as memory. It seems unusual, but we can be the source of our own corruption to memory.

Where do you go from research nothing?

If possible, you go to a friend. A friend can do all the research they want, and unless they say too much, they won’t corrupt your memories. (Excluding something telepathic, but let’s keep this simple) Give them the names and words, the stories and the details, and send them off to the library or internet, and see what they can find.

Now it is up to you, you can either ask for no input, or maybe general verification, but don’t ask for details.

With one of my more recently emerging memories I toss details to a friend of mine on occasion. She has never given me more information than what I gave her, but she has told me when stuff seems to match. Yes, that’s a real name. Yes, something like that event happened. Yes, this makes sense. She hasn’t said “Yes, that’s a real name, turns out Jameel Singh was a farmer in…” No, she has just said “Yes, that’s a name.” Or in one case the “name” I gave her turned out to be a description or nickname, but that the nickname made sense for my memories.

This has been invaluable to me, it allows me to continue to let memories surface without worrying that they are being influenced, I can trust my memories are “clean” of outside influences. But it also lets me know there is something too these memories, that I’m not just storytelling to myself.

The reason I ask for yes/no verification is it helps me fine tune my memories. Remember above I said to record how you remember, and what happens? These meta-experiences of the memory can be helpful in vetting your memories. If every memory that has been verified has been accompanied by dry itchy eyes, then that implies that if you have that response it’s more likely to be a real memory than not. If all your memories come in the form of visual memories and are verified, but the memories which are more sound or knowledge base are discredited or can’t be confirmed, you know you’re better off trusting memories that are visual. We all have some quirk in the way we remember, both the way the memory is perceived, as well as our responses to it. By knowing what quirks are correlated with verified memories we learn where we can focus our attention and be more likely to get results.

Next I’ll talk about verifying memories that can’t be supported, dealing with memories that are both wrong and right and sorting that out, and other considerations.

Posted by kalagni
07
Oct
2018

Treading the Starry Path

The Starry Path is the system of magick or spiritual path I’ve been walking for several years. The earliest mention of it in this blog was six years ago, but I know it was a part of my life well before then, but I’d have to dig out old magickal diaries to be more specific. That will have to wait though, this is my time of year for rereading my Abramelin journals, though the visionary experiences during my Abramelin period are definitely part of the Starry Path.

The Starry Path is a system of magick that grows out of several different practices but has become its own path. It is a gnostic tradition in the sense that it relies on personal gnosis as much as it does on outside factors. It is an ecstatic path as it takes the ecstasy born from gnosis to transcend normal consciousness or reality. A path meant to open the mind to the unconstrained abstraction that is reality. That is such an awkward phrasing for something that seems impossible to put into words without experience. Opening the mind to an abstract shifting world of multiplicities and paradox, the strata of the world we know. That is of course more of the advanced goal and practice.

It is a path of gnosis and ecstasy, of the experiences and the ephemeral. That means that the path has the goal of mystical visions, but also a goal of removing the mental constraints we put upon our perception that limit our ability to understand and interact with reality.

The Starry Path has connections and resonances with Sabbatic Witchcraft, Feri Witchcraft, TradCraft, Qabalah, Vajrayana, Ezidi beliefs, Ceremonial magick, and Enochic magick. (Not Enochian, Enochic) But the Starry Path isn’t part of these paths, nor would it be correct to say it grew from them, or was based on them. The Path is not a combination of disparate practices, but a method of gnosis, a system of arcana that grew from their moments of clarity. But there are similarities and connections, resonances and echoes with these traditions, and others, these are just the ones I am most familiar with. I’m torn between saying it’s another facet of these currents or convergent evolution. In reality, it’s probably both, neither, and so much more. (This is where you get into the unconstrained abstractions I mentioned above)

I think that Andrew Chumbley said it well:

All currents of Magick flow from a single fountain…all currents are adapted by the channel through which they pass and my work has been influenced by many traditions and authorities of occultism, but nonetheless, in articulating such Magick as I have dreamt of, I am manifesting its Indivisible Unity as best as I am presently able.

ix, Azoetia: The Sethos Edition, 1992,2002

As a system of arcana that is being revealed to me over the years, I’ve often been reluctant to talk about it publicly. Over the years I’ve worked with and taught other people I know and trust about the path, but never anything public really. It feels egotistical in some ways to talk about a “new” system of magick you’re “creating.” Even if it is not new, nor is it being created, just revealed and codified. I’ve also been concerned about releasing things half-baked and half-understood, for fear of misleading others who look into it. The witchy urban legends of someone screwing up their life by using a bad translation, or an incomplete text, or whatever is really just a story, I know that, but yet I did worry about people using an incomplete path I showed them and stumbling.

Things have shifted over the years, my misconceptions about parts of it have dropped away, other things were expanded, and I was worried about someone trying something before it’s “perfected.” I see now (thanks to repeated Clue-by-fours from the spirits of the Path) that it is a living breathing system, and in many ways, it will never be complete.

As such I will begin blogging more about the Starry Path, and I invite those interested to explore the path with me.

So what is the Starry Path?

In broad strokes the Starry Path is nothing that unusual, it seems to draw on familiar and almost universal mythological themes: Beings of the heavens, descending to earth, to teach, to love, to live, and over time losing their way. What I’ve found interesting in my exploration though is the heavy stellar influence on the Path, it is called the Starry Path after all. While other resonate paths may emphasize the stars this Path really seems to put them in the centre in many ways. The spirits of the Path have intimated, or even outright said, where their story lies in myths, what is right, and wrong, and too subtle to be either right or wrong. The spirits of the Path, specifically the Elder spirits are Promethean beings, bringing the Fire of the Heavens down to Earth and giving it to humanity. The Path contains both those large abstract and subtle magicks that have been with humanity since our beginning, but like humanity, it has evolved. It has grown with humanity to keep relevant and applicable to us.

Currently, I would divide information on the Starry Path into three forms.

Some of the information is relayed in this almost poetic spiritual form. It has similar mouthfeels and rhythms to spells, myths, and hymns.

You do not need to be able to see our star, you only need to know where in the sky it is. This is why we taught you so much on how the heavens move, so that we could be tracked, so that you could find us, so that we could communicate and come down to bring you our fire.

or

We breathed the Black, we with Stars in our veins still hold the Night in our Hearts. When we Fell Into this world we enlivened bodies of our Fallen Family, living in transmuted corpses. Listen well as we stare into our Hearts, Listen well as we stare into the Night, slowly careening overhead our Family Sings us Home.

There is my “translation” of that. Sometimes there is no need to put that in more day-to-day language, other times, specifically with instructions, I expand and give my commentary, giving something that is easier to read and reread to know what you’re doing.

My post on The Sorcerer’s Plant is a great example. I was given a more poetic explanation, but I “translated” it into something that was easier to share and discuss.

The last division would be stuff that is solely my writing. Sometimes information is sung at me and through me, but sometimes it’s just a download, so while the information comes from the spirits it forms is purely my own.

The Black Mountain of Fire falls in that category. No poetic or wordy explanation was given. Just a vision and download of information that I then wrote out on my own.

In the future, I plan to share some of the poetic descriptions of the spirits, from the spirits, and how they are connected to the path. I will talk of the role of salt, fire, and stars, and introduce the spirits on this path.

This post has been sitting in my draft folder since before I shifted to my own domain. A recent conversation with Polyphanes about the Stars of Ursa Major nudged me again to share this. Since there was a connection between what the spirits of the Path have told me, and what he has worked out from the PGM.

Going forward I will try to write more about the Starry Path. Now the fun part is deciding where to start.

Posted by kalagni in blueflamemagick
22
Sep
2018

Past Life Contamination and Cryptomnesia

The below is actually an old article I wrote. I can’t find the exact date, but I have another piece of writing referencing this nine years ago, so at least nine years old. It was written for a group I’m no longer a part of and used as an evaluation.

As much as I’ll tell people not to bother doing past life regressions, and to focus here and now, I can’t deny that past life memories are an important thing to me and my tradition. This was written to help address some of the common issues regarding the recall of past life memories.

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When dealing with the worlds of subtle perceptions, magick and the mind, a wise explorer seeks to be aware of the places where their results and perceptions can become contaminated. Memory, in several different ways, is one of the main culprits of contamination.

First off, there is the simple issue that despite what we’d like to believe, our memories are very flawed devices when it comes to the recall of our experiences. Anyone talking with a friend about the details of a specific event after the fact quickly becomes aware of it; different sentences were said, it was in a slightly different area, different people were also there, and a hundred other variations from what your memory says is correct.

This flaw in our memory applies as much to the subtle experiences as the “mundane” experiences, if not more. It is horribly easy, to talk to someone about an energy body reading a week later, and “remember” things that didn’t actually come up in the reading, but are now present. Someone mentions a stomach pain, and you “remember” getting a blip in the stomach, something that now relates to this new information. This isn’t a matter of being a liar, or easily mislead, but when you don’t have a concrete record, it is very easy for your mind to fill in the gaps with what you think should be there. Maybe you felt something over the stomach, just a flash, could have been a finger twitch, or a dozen little things, but it was so minor you ignored it. Now that someone mentions something important about the stomach your mind latches onto that almost nothing you sensed and builds on it.

A classic example of this flaw is to remember what you or someone else wore on your last birthday. You may not remember what you wore unless you have a reason to (someone making fun of it, spilling something on it and ruining it, etc.), but you know you wore something, so your mind will fill in the gaps through a complex process of memory and guesswork based on what your favourite outfits are, where you went to dinner, and many more variables. It isn’t your memory lying about what you wore, it is just supplying you with information that you ask for, even if it isn’t there or readily accessible.

The same thing goes for perceptions, hearing a piece of information after the fact, it is far too easy for the mind to fill it in for you. To prevent this, or minimize its effect, it is recommended that you use a journal for your experiences.

On a more complex level, there is cryptomnesia or misattribution. To put it bluntly and simply, the mind remembers information, but not necessarily the source of the information. Just as with the above memory issue, this isn’t a conscious or deliberate thing, it isn’t about lying to others or yourself, it is quite simply how the mind works. Everyone remembers things, but not always their source, how often have you said a quote, or a fact to a friend, only to blank on how you know it. Cryptomnesia (I’ll stick with referring to everything as cryptomnesia, even though it may occasionally be misattribution, strictly for ease of writing from this point on) takes this one step farther, as you search for the source of this knowledge, if it isn’t found your mind may generate the answer that it is self-generating. Put another way, if your mind can’t find the source of the knowledge you may attribute it to arising internally rather than learning it from outside.

If a parent was a war-buff and growing up you were constantly exposed, even in passing, to war movies, discussions of battles and weapons, all this information is potentially retained in your mind. Then at a later date when seeing a gun, or a battlefield you might remember the information from your childhood, but not the source. You might know what battle happened, maybe even see or hear flashes of it (from the movie), or know how to reload the gun, but you can’t say how you know. Since you know your parent has an interest in war, it is easy to trace that knowledge back to some vague point of your childhood, but what if it isn’t that easy?

Imagine now that as a kid you spent time in front of the TV, and in this case, perhaps you just wandered onto a station playing a war movie, or a documentary, and you watched it. In the same way, you can pick up the information, but lack the source, and you are far less likely to remember 10, 15, 20 years later that when you were 6 you watched a documentary on the Battle of Dieppe. In the future, whatever triggers the memory, another movie, a class in school, even just a sound, suddenly you’re remembering what happened at Dieppe, possibly in vivid movie-like detail. Now without knowing the source, you’re remembering the battle, on its own, it is possible that you would start to consider this flash a potential (or actual) past life memory.

Such a false memory can be triggered in the attempt to find a real memory as well. If you’re going through a past life regression, and for some reason, your mind latches onto the documentary, again you’ll pull up war images, assuming that you were there and that is the source of the memory.

Cryptomnesia applies to information, as well as events obviously, so you could remember a myth or a god, that you may have studied in elementary school, when you come across them in a dream, a vision or a book, and misunderstand your intuitive knowledge or resonance with them as something more meaningful than it is. Just as you might remember something and attribute it to a past life insight, when you remember something about a myth or deity you may attribute to having a connection to the deity, a good intuition, rather than a forgotten storybook from school.

You might remember the basics of the colonizing society of French Canada in the 18th Century from elementary school, but again, if drawn up from your memories without context, it isn’t impossible that your mind conscious or otherwise interprets it as a personal memory.

It is very difficult to rule out the possibility of cryptomnesia, but there are ways to try to prevent it which will be discussed in the next piece.

Posted by kalagni in blueflamemagick
04
Sep
2018

Revisiting Spirits of Place


 

This is my second last post reblogging of older popular posts.

This isn’t a single post, but a series I did. Local spirits are something I work with a lot, and find they’re overlooked too often. So I wrote up a series of five posts going from what are local spirits, what aren’t, and how to work with them.

Local Spirits: Categories and Classifications. Common types of spirits that get lumped as local spirits, but aren’t necessarily such in my understanding.

Local Spirits: Clarifying Sadak and Shidak Explanation of the sadak and shidak, and the nature of local spirits proper.

Local Spirits: Reasons of Engagement Why you should work with local spirits, what they can do for you.

Local Spirits: Offerings and Engagement How to make offerings and how to sense and work with the shidak.

Local Spirits: Sensing and Structures More on sensing shidak, as well as how they seem to be structured and operate.

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
20
Aug
2018

The Secrets of the Summoning Circle – Resurrected


 

This was my second most popular piece on my old site. Though it had barely more than half the views of Sex With Angels, which I think says a lot about the internet…

This is just an introduction to summoning circles in grimoiric magick, and an interpretation of them, rather than just “here draw this, it works.”

This article was originally written for a “flavour” article in a friend’s Dictionary of Demons book. The format of the book changed and my articles got cut, though some the information was still incorporated into the book. I’ve slightly edited it from the original format to be a bit more personal and experiential rather than just cold theory.

The Circle is probably one of the most important, and misunderstood tools in the arsenal of a magickian who works with Demons. Anyone who has flipped through a text on summoning Angels or Demons has come across a Summoning Circle, but probably with no more explanation than the method of drawing it, and that the circle is important to use.

Over the course of time the design of the circle has changed, and the importance of it has shifted. In modern magick, more than ever, the circle is being deemed unimportant, or simplistic. The Summoning Circle is being replaced by Psychic Shields, or ritual belts, or a simple visualized bubble. This shows, among other things, a tendency to interpret the Summoning Circle as merely a form of protection when dealing with Demons, when in fact it is far more than just that in some interpretations.

(Continued)

The rest of the article is available here

Posted by kalagni in blueflamemagick
18
Aug
2018

Kickstarter: 80 Solid Metal Goetia Coins


I wanted to share this right away. I’ve already backed it and I know a lot of you folks would be interested in it too.

There is a Kickstarter to produce a variety of Goetia themed products.  It’s already completely backed, the goal was $1,200 and at the time of me writing this the project has over $66,000 backed.

It started as a set of coins, each bearing the seal of one of the spirits of the Goetia, 80 coins in total, eight of the spirits having two somewhat different seals. My only gripe is that the seals used for this set are from the Sloane manuscript, whereas I prefer the seals from Harley 6483. (I did not realize I was a bit of a Solomonic snob until I voiced my preference for another manuscript) It also comes with a small booklet and pouch for carrying the coins.

Several great stretch goals have been hit, so now project includes a coin with Solomon’s Seal on it, a Solomonic Pentacle coin, a Solomonic Seal necklace, a Solomonic Pentacle necklace, a Solomonic disk, a ring with the Pentacle of Solomon on it, and the option for the coins to have blank backs or demon names on them.

I backed it as soon as I saw it, and I know a lot of folks reading this would probably want to support this project too, you have until September 5th to back this project.

Posted by kalagni in blueflamemagick