Before I can exorcise all the gook in my head that created this thesis, I have to define the Western Religious Tradition (WRT). To be simplistic, it is all of Christianity, Judaism and Islam.
But the definition actually goes more deeply than that, because these faiths occupy a dominant position in the West. They influence the greater morality of our western society in a way that is largely unseen, or at least not very obvious.
They all originated from the same concept that God made the material universe because he is a mega-powerful spirit-being. The material universe, as a creation, is separate from that which is spiritual. It is a difficult place we have to experience for a short time so that we can get the heck out of here - to a paradise - which is better than this material world here.
This kind of eschatology spread throughout the Ancient Near East. Once a part of the faiths that originated there, it became incorporated into our deeper morality and eventually our legal systems.
At its core are two ideas. The first is that something greater than this material creation, which is the spiritual being that is God, existed first. The second is that God is supremely powerful.
Extending from these ideas are deeper principles: only God has the power to create reality, creating the need for appeals to God for changes to the material world in our favor, the need for a mediator between us an God (the priesthood), that the power of God requires that we subjugate ourselves to his supremacy and lastly, that we should all be trying to get back to that spiritual thing and away from the material, because the spiritual is good and the material is bad.
For many who convert from one of the Abrahamic faiths to Witchcraft, the former principles hang on, preventing the expression of their true power. We can see this in the way Wiccan books are written. The whispers of the Western Religious Tradition infiltrates even those who claim to be pagan.
These ideas have been so pervasive in the morality of the West that most people who are non-religious agnostics will concede that most of them sound true. I have even witnessed self-proclaimed atheists operating as if these principles about the universe were true.
But what if they are not?
True witchcraft views the universe from a very different point of view. Let's take each idea one at a time and examine how witches do it.
The first is that only God has the power to create reality. The witch believes that all human beings contain within them the creative power of the gods. To put it simply, if they can do it, why can't we do it? This doesn't mean we can create planets and stars and galaxies, but we can generate influence on the events of this world so that natural cause and effect will bring about certain results in line with our desires. We can essentially create happenings that the WRT calls "mind over matter" or also "miracles." This process requires both symbolic and veridical actions. The symbolic is done in ritual (casting a spell) while the veridical is done in the material world, appearing as modified behavior. These are viewed as two necessary steps to causing the desired change. First, one casts one's desires out into the universe as a kind of energetic wave. Then, one acts as if the desire has already been attained. The energy that was released will tip the balance of cause and effect events so that the desired result actually happens.
Any witch who casts spells but is unwilling to modify behavior, and in turn act upon the real world to support one's spell, isn't casting spells. They are simply doing a complex ceremony to express their wishful thinking or longing.
As a result, witches do not need to appeal to any deity to get their reality changed. Witches believe in their own creative power; belief is important to actually having that ability. Witches will request or even make deals with forces they call gods to help with the influence. But no witch who is worth his sacred salt believes that such appeals are required to cast spells. Working with pagan gods is simply a way for witches to build relationships with the natural forces of the universe. It also creates mental focus because each deity has a correspondence. Using the right deity helps the mind to feel more invested in the working. Below, I'll discuss in more detail the power of the mind.
Because of the belief in one's own power, witches do not need a priesthood. We believe that our inner power allows us to relate to deity directly; every witch is capable of being his own priest. So why do witches have "high priests?" When several witches develop a personal bond with each other and want to do spell work together, the high priest acts as the director of the play. He ensures that any accepted traditions are observed. He keeps everyone on the same page, creating ritual consistency. Otherwise, every witch would be trying to do a very creative, but utterly chaotic ritual. The high priest is the primary chef in the ritual kitchen.
A high priest also teaches the tradition to those who are less in-the-know. However, since paganism is an orthoprax ("right action") religion, rather than an orthodox ("right belief"), every witch is allowed to believe whatever he wants about the universe and the way it works, so long as his practice permits the uniform operation of the tradition. Despite the general uniformity of belief discussed here, no high priest is correct to tell his coven what to believe or not believe, but he can tell them "how it's done."
Obviously, without the belief that only God has power, witches do not feel the need to subjugate ourselves to any deity. We do fear the unpredictable power of the universe's forces, most of which are the representations of pagan gods, but we will try to influence those forces. The idea that we must bow down to anything is repugnant to most witches. Witchcraft is a self-empowering practice.
Finally, let's address the idea that the spiritual is more important than the material. This is a common idea in the New Age movement as well as the WRT because both claim that our purpose for being on Earth is to spiritually evolve. Aside from the philosophical comfort that people derive from believing in some insoluble part of us that won't ever stop being us ("the soul"), most people experience the world on a daily basis and find it all very common and predictable. Only the spiritual seems evocatively different from all that. Surely, the goal of the enlightened must be to become free from the mundane. Or is it?
If the material is so unimportant, why do so many witches keep bothering to interact with it through spells? Why don't they all just kill themselves to hasten their transition into the spiritual world? If the material is so awful, why are we here experiencing it at all? The witch will tell you that the material is actually a dream of experiences that we are supposed to have. Being a dream doesn't mean it's unimportant or of low value. Indeed, it is incredibly valuable because it is the dream we have made to drive our own spiritual evolution. Most have been exposed to the quote, "We are not material beings having a spiritual experience; we are spiritual beings having a material experience." Similar is the shaman's idea that we are simply spirits, collectively dreaming this world into being in every moment. To the witch, we are experiencing exactly what is most appropriate for us to evolve. This material world is an important tool that we learn to manipulate by exercising our "god-powers."
Now let's bring this topic full circle. Above, I mentioned the power of the mind in relation to appealing to spell-appropriate deities. This kind of appeal is only a manipulative tool. Similarly, incense in ritual, repetitive action, the use of certain symbols or altar tools, even the utterance of certain sounds, all help to modify the creative power that flows from the unconscious mind to increase the success of the desired change. It's important to remember that the witch is the source of the power. All these material tools have an affect on our minds by teasing and activating our senses. Certain combinations of sensory input can greatly augment the power of the mind and its success. It can cause it to fail completely, or function contrary to what it wants (i.e. curses). The ritual drama, which is simply an act of manipulating the material plane, trains the mind to perform the creative acts increasingly better. Spell craft is nothing more than self-hypnosis and behavior modification (plus a spiritual belief).
Eventually, the tools are no longer needed to generate success. Even the ritual itself stops being necessary. It is a truly adept witch who can sit quietly in a chair and achieve the same success as someone who needs a full ritual experience.
Now you know why Witchcraft is so often misunderstood and demonized. It has fundamentally contrary beliefs from the WRT and just doesn't work well in that sandbox. But more so, it empowers the religious congregation so that there is no need for a group of elevated holy men who maintain power and freely get shelter and food at the expense of the community. There are no pagan gold cathedrals and no religious city with its own army. Paganism takes spiritual and material power away from the greedy organized religions of the WRT and places them back in the hands of the common man. What could be more threatening than that?
Showing posts with label spells. Show all posts
Showing posts with label spells. Show all posts
Wednesday, January 24, 2018
Wednesday, November 15, 2017
Planetary Rulers of the Hours, from Scratch
As part of the Grimoiric Magical Tradition of the Middle
Ages, wisdom from more ancient cultures contributed to the development of a
complex magical theory. Alchemy, astrology, and mediumship all helped to shape
the traditions that made up a complex ceremonial magical system, parts of which have survived
to today. Within the realm of medieval astrology is a system of determining the most auspicious times for magical workings, which is still used by witches today.
In the expanse of the sky above us, float the stars and
planets. Their movement has influenced the magical schools that have developed
around the globe since humans had the capacity to look up. Planets got their
name from the fact that they were a special kind of star that wandered through
the fixed stars (planētai means “wanderers”).
There were 5 planets visible with the naked eye to the first civilizations.
Highly accomplished astronomers, the Babylonians had a
complex theology surrounding these planets, believing that the planets were
deities, each one governing the universe from a transparent sphere, called a
“heaven,” that revolved around the Earth. Each sphere was larger than the last
and enveloped the smaller spheres, much like layers of an onion, with the Earth
at the center.
Ptolemy organized the 5 planets, along with the Sun and the
Moon, based on their speed, so 7 heavens encased the Earth with the Moon being
the fastest and closest to Earth, then Mercury, Venus, the Sun, Mars, Jupiter
and finally Saturn, which was the slowest.
The sphere outside of Saturn was the heaven that held the
field of immovable stars, including the Zodiac. Outside of that were the divine
spheres. Before birth and after death, every soul had to come or go from Earth
by passing through the heavens. As we passed through these levels, our spirits
would pick up personal qualities - affected by being exposed to the powerful vibration of these
spheres.
This was the origin of what we now know as Astrology,
because it was postulated that the spheres would influence behavior. These
heavenly spheres were viewed as endowing their power, not just on the spirits of people, but
also on the moments of the day and on the days of the week. The priests of each
deity would calculate the most auspicious times in every day to work with their
patrons.
It’s a common practice today to reference a table of the rulers of the planetary hours before casting a spell. This gives us the chance to do our spell work during a time of day that vibrates with the most appropriate magical “frequency” for the intended purpose. There are many good online calculators that can provide you
with a very quick and accurate table of hourly rulers. But what if you can’t
use an online tool? What if you’re doing your spells in a cabin in the woods
with no internet access? Every witch should have the ability to
chart the rulers of the hours.
We have seven days of the week and each day belongs to one of the planetary rulers to be the primary ruler of the whole day. Sunday ("Sun-day") is the most obvious example and the primary ruler is the Sun. Monday and Saturday are ruled over by the Moon (“Moon-day”) and Saturn ("Saturn's-day"), respectively. The remaining days of the week are based on their association with Norse deities. Tuesday is ruled by Týr ("Týr's-day"), Norse god of law and heroism, who corresponds to the Roman god, Mars. Wednesday is ruled by Woden ("Woden's-day") who corresponds to the Roman god Mercury; both are gods of travelers, magic and learning. Thursday is ruled by the Norse god of thunder ("Thor's-day") and corresponds to the Roman god, Jupiter. Venus, goddess of love, who is seen in the Norse pantheon as Freya ("Freya's-day") rules Friday.
A ruler of a day governs the first hour, which begins at dawn. The rulers of each of the subsequent hours are laid out in a specific order that forever repeats throughout the 24 hours of each of the seven days of the week. Let’s start with an example day – Monday – which is ruled by the Moon. This means that the Moon will always be the ruler of the first hour on Mondays. Each daily period following the Moon’s governance will be ruled by one of the remaining six planets, but always in the same sequence. To find this sequence, write out a repeating sequence of the planets in order from slowest to fastest. We know the Moon is ruler of the first hour on Mondays and it is the fastest planet, so it is the last planet in the speed sequence; we must return to the slowest planet and begin the sequence again. The second hour will be Saturn, the third will be Jupiter, then Mars, the Sun, Venus, Mercury and lastly, the Moon again. Continue to repeat that sequence until there are 24 rulers on your list. You have listed the sequence of the rulers of all the hours from sunrise on any Monday, through the night time, to sunrise on the following Tuesday morning.
If you continued the sequence into Tuesday and the remaining hours of the week, you would create a chart like the one below. Notice how the sequence for all the hours of the week flows from day into night, then into the next day, then continues without change through all the hours of each day and night for the rest of the week. The sequence determines which day of the week has arrived because of the particular ruler of the first hour. Hour 1 of the daytime always begins with sunrise. Hour 1 of the night time (or hour 13 in some tables) always begins with sunset.
In the contemporary age, the period of the day that we call
an “hour” is a specific length – always 60 minutes, each made up of 60 seconds.
But the hours ruled over by each of the planetary rulers are not always 60
minutes long. This is because the Babylonians reckoned their hour, not as a set length as we do, but as one-twelfth of the total amount of daylight time or darkness. That is, both the day time
and the night time, separately, were divided into twelve equal periods based on
sunrise and sunset. Starting on the Equinoxes, the amount of daylight we
experience between sunrise and sunset is more than 12 hours in spring and
summer and less than 12 hours in autumn and winter. So if we are in spring or
summer, when the day time totals more than 12 hours, each one-twelfth period of
that time is going to last greater than 60 minutes. In autumn or winter, each
one-twelfth period will be less than 60 minutes. Clearly, continuing to call these periods "hours" is confusing, so I will only call them periods from this point onward.
To determine the length of each period, you will first need
to know the times of sunrise and sunset. The times of sunrise and sunset are
actually calculated by astronomers based on your location on the globe and the
date of interest. They will be different for each latitude because of the
curvature of the Earth, the tilt of its axis and the date. These times are
commonly published in local newspapers and almanacs, as well as pagan calendars,
but are also readily available online through reliable sites like NOAA. For the
sake of this exercise, let’s assume that we looked in our almanac to find that our
sunrise time will be 6:42 AM, our sunset time will be 7:32 PM and we decided
that the best period for our spell will be the hour of Mars.
Step 1: Convert the sunset time into the 24-hour
clock.
Simply add 12 to any time between 1:00 PM and 11:59 PM. For example, a sunset of 7:32 PM will become 19:32.
Simply add 12 to any time between 1:00 PM and 11:59 PM. For example, a sunset of 7:32 PM will become 19:32.
Step 2: Convert clock
times into decimal hours.
This allows us to use standard math until the very end. The arithmetic of decimals works easily on a calculator, while arithmetic of clock time does not. Doing these calculations on paper is even worse! You can convert clock times into decimal hours by dividing just the minutes by 60. So our sunrise time of 6:42 AM will become 6.78 (42 ÷ 60 = 0.78). Our sunset time of 19:32 will become 19.53 (32 ÷ 60 = 0.53).
This allows us to use standard math until the very end. The arithmetic of decimals works easily on a calculator, while arithmetic of clock time does not. Doing these calculations on paper is even worse! You can convert clock times into decimal hours by dividing just the minutes by 60. So our sunrise time of 6:42 AM will become 6.78 (42 ÷ 60 = 0.78). Our sunset time of 19:32 will become 19.53 (32 ÷ 60 = 0.53).
Step 3: Subtract the smaller clock time from the larger.
19.53 – 6.78 = 12.75 hours
This result is the amount total of daylight time that will shine on our Monday; there are 12.75 hours of daylight between sunrise and sunset.
19.53 – 6.78 = 12.75 hours
This result is the amount total of daylight time that will shine on our Monday; there are 12.75 hours of daylight between sunrise and sunset.
Step 4: Divide this total time by 12.
12.75 hours ÷ 12 periods = 1.06 hours/period
This means that every period ruled by each planet, beginning with the Moon, will be 1.06 hours long.
12.75 hours ÷ 12 periods = 1.06 hours/period
This means that every period ruled by each planet, beginning with the Moon, will be 1.06 hours long.
Step 5: Find the start and end of the period of interest.
Remember that our period of interest is ruled by Mars. If we refer to our list of the rulers of Monday, we find that Mars rules the 4th period. Multiply the length of the periods, which we found to be 1.06 hours/period, by the number of the period for Mars on our day, which is 4. This gives us a result of 4.24 (1.06 hours/period x 4 periods = 4.24 hours). The Mars period will end when the next period begins, so we can multiply by 5 to find the end time: 5.30 (1.06 hours/period x 5 periods = 5.30 hours).
Step 6: Add the period start and end times to the decimal time of sunrise.
Remember that our period of interest is ruled by Mars. If we refer to our list of the rulers of Monday, we find that Mars rules the 4th period. Multiply the length of the periods, which we found to be 1.06 hours/period, by the number of the period for Mars on our day, which is 4. This gives us a result of 4.24 (1.06 hours/period x 4 periods = 4.24 hours). The Mars period will end when the next period begins, so we can multiply by 5 to find the end time: 5.30 (1.06 hours/period x 5 periods = 5.30 hours).
Step 6: Add the period start and end times to the decimal time of sunrise.
Period of Mars, starts: 6.78 (sunrise) + 4.24
hours = 11.02
Period of Mars, ends: 6.78 (sunrise) + 5.30 hours = 12.08
Step 7: Convert both of the times back to clock time.
Simply multiply only the minutes by 60.
Simply multiply only the minutes by 60.
Period of Mars, starts: 11.02 becomes 11:01 AM
(.02 x 60 = 1.2 minutes, rounded to 1).
Period of Mars, ends: 12.08 becomes 12:05 PM (.08 x 60 = 4.8
minutes, rounded to 5).
Step 8: Convert any result that is 24-hour
time back to 12-hour time.
Subtract 12 from any clock times from 13 to 24.
Subtract 12 from any clock times from 13 to 24.
As witches, we do most of our spells after sunset, when the
darkness provides us with protection and secrecy and helps to generate the appropriate head-space. Finding
the correct period after dark often produces more difficulty because of the
transition from PM to AM at midnight. However, a simple reversal can resolve
all difficulty, though the process seems unconventional. I find that the best
way to handle the difficulty is to treat the night as if it was the day, then
work all the steps normally.
Your periods will start with sunset and will end with the
sunrise on the following date. Convert the AM times to 24-hour time, instead of
the PM times. Complete all calculations the same. At the very end, convert any
time between 13:00 and 23:59 back to 12-hour time as AM, instead of as PM.
I recommend keeping all values rounded to two decimal places
until step 7. This minimizes any distortion of the period start times. I
also find it helpful to ensure that my spell work happens at least 5 minutes
past the chosen period start time, just to be sure I’m well past any minutes
affected by rounding, putting me solidly into the correct period before I
begin.
Whenever possible, I advocate using a reliable planetary
rulers calculator, but if you can’t get to one, you should have this
technique tucked in your book of shadows as a back-up plan.
Monday, July 24, 2017
Writing Your own Magickal Chants
Magical chants
work very much like mantras. They provide for us a device that helps to focus
our mind on the single task at hand – raising power. Just as a burning feeling
builds in a muscle when it is repeatedly used, so the energy of the witch
builds when one uses a chant. When writing magical chants, there are a
few principles to keep in mind to write the kind of chant to which generations
after you will gravitate.
Rhythm
The process of
thinking is a taxing one. The mind puts incredible energy into organizing all
of the many thoughts that it processes. It is designed to seek out order, even
to the point of creating patterns when none exist. This is a by-product of our
mind clinging to the principle of cause and effect. “This happened because that
happened first, right? Doesn’t everything happen for a reason?”
Because the
mind loves patterns, rhythm, which is simply a pattern of sounds and silences,
activates the storage ability of the mind very easily. Adding rhythm to chants
makes them memorable, but it also makes them fun to speak, much like singing a
song or humming a tune.
Rhyme, which
is a manifestation of pattern, isn’t necessary to put in chants, but it does
help the mind to more smoothly experience the patterns that it craves.
There are many
rhythms already present in the world today. In both poetry and music, rhythm is
typically called “beat.” Both poems and songs can provide you with some
interesting rhythms to borrow when building a new chant. Remember how
attractive – almost addictive to the ear –is the rhythm and rhyme in
Poe’s The Raven? There is no reason to reinvent the beat in your
chant from scratch.
Metaphor
Adding
metaphor to chants is a great way of expanding your options when trying to
compose a chant. To create metaphors, you look for associations between
concepts that may be somewhat similar. For example, if someone is a coat-tail
rider, you may also metaphorically refer to them as a flea on a dog. Fire is
symbolic of passion, because the feeling acts as quickly and completely as does
a burning flame. You can make connections between any of the properties or
characteristics of two things to establish some kind of symbolism.
The Germanic
peoples were particularly accomplished at a kind of metaphor called “kenning.”
A kenning is a metaphor in which the description for one well-known thing is
used to create the metaphorical name of something else. For example, if I had a
particular dog that became somewhat famous for chasing the rabbits in the yard,
I might metaphorically refer to all dogs in general as “bunny bullies,” which
is simply a kenning for the word “dog.”
Atmosphere
Many witches
discount a chant’s atmosphere in an effort to score on rhythm and rhyme. Though
you may have a very rhythmic and memorable chant, filled with all kinds of
symbolism, you may still have a chant that doesn’t feel right when the circle
is cast. Atmosphere is the overall feeling that a chant conveys. It creates a
flavor, through the connotations built into the words of our cultures and
languages, helping to paint a thorough picture of the scene in which a chant is
most appropriate to use.
Many nursery
rhymes feel childlike, because they were written to convey an atmosphere that
was appropriate for children. Here is the earliest printed example (1881) of
what we know today as “Ring around the Rosie.”
Ring-a-ring-a roses
A pocket full of posies;
Ashes, Ashes,
We all fall down!
Though this
the rhyme’s connection to the Black Plague is highly contested, it could still
make an excellent representation, through each line, of the symptoms, a
possible ward, more symptoms and then the deadly result of the Plague. Yet its
atmosphere is decidedly childlike.
To change the
atmosphere of this rhyme, one could consult a thesaurus to find words with
similar meaning, but darker connotations. I decided to consider each line and
rewrite the same message using darker verbiage. Here’s how a darker rhyme about
the Plague might look.
Big ole’ blackened bubo,
Posy hurled high and low;
Cinders, cinders
No one sees the dawn.
Though the
atmosphere might still feel a bit childlike, perhaps because most of us cannot
help but hear the original words in our minds when we hear that particular
rhythm, the new rhythm is decidedly darker.
Creating a
darker atmosphere is particularly important for chants that ward or curse, as
these actions require a seriousness in our moods that help to keep us focused
on the particular intent. Here’s a chant I wrote to disturb the thoughts of
anyone who may be opposing you. It isn’t necessarily for cursing, but it can
create a kerfuffle in the mind of someone competing for the same job as you.
Stones and sticks and broken bits,
Wreck and ruin rival wits.
Theme
By leveraging
metaphor and atmosphere together, you ensure that the chant represents the
appropriate theme for your spell. Your spell’s intent should have a picture – a
kind of mental snapshot representing in one mental image everything for which
the spell is cast. That picture should be well represented by your chant.
Certainly, there are chants that are good for general use, because they
represent general pagan concepts or have very little connotations attached to
the words that comprise them. But most chants need to be thematically related
to the spell being cast. For example, the previous chant would not be
appropriate to use as a healing chant.
A witch’s
spell written by children’s book writer, Mary Norton in 1943 and represented in
the Disney film, Bed Knobs and Broomsticks, shows lots of rhythm
and the atmosphere is just right. It is a spell for turning any creature into a
white rabbit.
Filigree, Apogee, Pedigree, Perigee
What makes it
thematically correct is that it uses some higher level vocabulary including two
from science (apogee and perigee) and a word relating to animals (pedigree),
yet the words are relatively obscure for common speech, almost to the point of
being esoteric. So the mind could perfectly agree that this chant could be a
valid spell for turning a human into an animal. The key here is that
the mind can agree with the appropriateness of the chant. Since most
people’s minds are a bit flexible, one doesn’t have to be literal, but one
shouldn’t wander too far off target either.
Simplicity
The last
quality that is important in a chant is maintaining some degree of simplicity.
Despite that the mind remembers things rather well when it has the help of
rhythm, chants need to do more than simply stick in the mind. They also need to
be spoken with ease. Unfortunately, our minds move more quickly than do our
mouths.
The sounds we
speak are made by the muscular flexibility and quickness of a variety of
structures, including lips, tongue, jaw, vocal cords and diaphragm. We use all
of these harmoniously, or else we wouldn’t speak with very much precision. We
tend to worry about speaking with precision because no one wants their
communication to be constantly misunderstood. But when we put together sounds
at which we aren’t very practiced at making repeatedly, our bodies can’t move
quickly or precisely enough to form them precisely.
As a witch
gets further into the ecstatic moment – closer to the moment of release - this
precision may become so unimportant that one may be simply muttering nonsense
(rhythmically). But at the start of a chant, we need to minimize the
difficulty. Too much oral difficulty steals focus. We begin to worry, even
unconsciously, that we aren’t speaking correctly. Our brain starts putting more
and more of its focus into the acrobatics of the mouth, which means we are not
giving that focus to the intent of our spell.
Some poetic
devices can be useful for creating the sought-after chant simply, but those
same devices can also work against you. Alliteration puts the same sound at the
beginning of concurrent beats. As in our previous example, “stones and sticks and broken bits,” there are two alliterative
phrases (a repeating “s,” followed by a repeating “b”) that flow easily off the
tongue. But be wary that too many repeating sounds may be too difficult to
speak. A chant should not be a tongue twister. Unfortunately, there are no
rules that apply. You will simply have to try the chant aloud to discover if it
trips up your mouth.
A great chant will check all
the boxes. It will be memorable, easy to speak without tying up the tongue,
metaphorically describe the theme of the spell and convey the atmosphere of the
theme. Often you will unconsciously know that it is a good chant because you
will find that you, as well as others who may use it, will gravitate back to
that chant over again. Well-made chants will seem to take on a life of their
own, making themselves a part of your magickal tradition.
Wednesday, January 18, 2017
What Makes a Witch Powerful?
Power. I can't begin to unpack all of the sludge that human beings pack into the connotations of this word. Instead, I'd like to direct this topic to what really matters as we consider the concept of power particularly as witches.
As always, the following is my opinion and speculation. It is bound to bend the point on some witches' hats, so if you don't like it, you can leave a comment below. Remember though that I retain the ability to delete you if you write disrespectfully. How's that for power?
Most of us probably have the idea that a witch's power is like the energy bar of a magical character in a video game. Really "powerful" witches have a larger power bar than weaker ones. Spell casting uses up this power so that weaker witches can't cast as much or use powerful spells the same way really powerful witches can.
Hogwash. Power is not quite like the gasoline that fills up a fuel tank. There are times when it can seem this way, because your spell work can influence your stamina. Your stamina rests completely in the body, which uses energy that can become used up. But that's not what most witches are talking about when they talk of powerful witches. More so, I think they mean that a powerful witch is one who can get things done and, when they receive their intended result, they receive it in spades. Anyone can do this, so if you think because of the circumstances of your life, you will never be one of those powerful witches, you are wrong about yourself.
When it comes to spell work, there is only one thing that matters: the spell succeeds. Even if one has very little stamina, or if a witch is new to spell working, success can be frequent. Does this mean that the newbie witch is inherently powerful? It does not.
Let's review what makes a spell succeed. You may find it helpful to review the entry on the Witch's Pyramid.
1. Intent. You know what you want and you can clearly and accurately visualize it being in your life.
2. Concentration. You are able to retain that vision in your mind's eye without it wavering.
3. Ecstasy. You are able to reach an emotional/ecstatic high to force the intent to radiate outward.
4. Confidence. You have no doubts that your spell will succeed.
If you can do all of these things, a spell will succeed. You don't even have to be a witch to do it. I have experienced non-witches who have these abilities as a result of some other profession - being an actor, for example - who have reported to me that they have suspicions that if they want something badly, it will come into their lives. They didn't realize they were doing spell work. Spell work is an occult practice, which only means that it's a practice that not many people know about. But that doesn't mean it doesn't happen all the time. The hatching of butterflies is also occult - not many people witness it - but it happens all the time.
What all this means is that what really makes a witch "powerful" is actually skill, because each of the abilities listed above can be developed, through practice, by anyone. I'm not at all suggesting that these abilities are easy to learn. They each contain within them lessons that are difficult and confusing. The witch's work is to walk whatever path is required to learn those four abilities. Most likely, one will have to deal with one's own internal ego to master them. So rather than say that a witch who is good at spell work is powerful, it may be more correct to say that the witch is skillful or practiced. Even if your stamina fails and you are a puddle on the floor, you can still cast spells quietly inside your mind.
You may still be asking, "But what about the raw energy that witches use to make spells happen?" If you think that you, or any witch, is restricted by a font of power that can run dry when it is tapped too heavily, you are still in the video game mindset. If you ever find that your spell work fails, this is likely the cause, because you believe that your power can be all used up, so your spell no longer has the confidence to continue and will dissipate before it causes real change.
Instead, consider the infinite and divine web to which we are all connected. The planet on which we walk, the air we breathe, the sun, moon and stars that shine light on us, and the innumerable deities to whom we can appeal, are all a part of the natural web that connects us. If you can use up all the power residing in the earth, then you will deplete the power for spell working. If you can use up all the power of the sun, then you will deplete it. If you can use up all the power of every star in the sky, then you can deplete it. Why would you ever think that the fountain of power could ever run dry? The aether - that stuff from which all spells originate - is limitless.
As always, the following is my opinion and speculation. It is bound to bend the point on some witches' hats, so if you don't like it, you can leave a comment below. Remember though that I retain the ability to delete you if you write disrespectfully. How's that for power?
Most of us probably have the idea that a witch's power is like the energy bar of a magical character in a video game. Really "powerful" witches have a larger power bar than weaker ones. Spell casting uses up this power so that weaker witches can't cast as much or use powerful spells the same way really powerful witches can.
Hogwash. Power is not quite like the gasoline that fills up a fuel tank. There are times when it can seem this way, because your spell work can influence your stamina. Your stamina rests completely in the body, which uses energy that can become used up. But that's not what most witches are talking about when they talk of powerful witches. More so, I think they mean that a powerful witch is one who can get things done and, when they receive their intended result, they receive it in spades. Anyone can do this, so if you think because of the circumstances of your life, you will never be one of those powerful witches, you are wrong about yourself.
When it comes to spell work, there is only one thing that matters: the spell succeeds. Even if one has very little stamina, or if a witch is new to spell working, success can be frequent. Does this mean that the newbie witch is inherently powerful? It does not.
Let's review what makes a spell succeed. You may find it helpful to review the entry on the Witch's Pyramid.
1. Intent. You know what you want and you can clearly and accurately visualize it being in your life.
2. Concentration. You are able to retain that vision in your mind's eye without it wavering.
3. Ecstasy. You are able to reach an emotional/ecstatic high to force the intent to radiate outward.
4. Confidence. You have no doubts that your spell will succeed.
If you can do all of these things, a spell will succeed. You don't even have to be a witch to do it. I have experienced non-witches who have these abilities as a result of some other profession - being an actor, for example - who have reported to me that they have suspicions that if they want something badly, it will come into their lives. They didn't realize they were doing spell work. Spell work is an occult practice, which only means that it's a practice that not many people know about. But that doesn't mean it doesn't happen all the time. The hatching of butterflies is also occult - not many people witness it - but it happens all the time.
What all this means is that what really makes a witch "powerful" is actually skill, because each of the abilities listed above can be developed, through practice, by anyone. I'm not at all suggesting that these abilities are easy to learn. They each contain within them lessons that are difficult and confusing. The witch's work is to walk whatever path is required to learn those four abilities. Most likely, one will have to deal with one's own internal ego to master them. So rather than say that a witch who is good at spell work is powerful, it may be more correct to say that the witch is skillful or practiced. Even if your stamina fails and you are a puddle on the floor, you can still cast spells quietly inside your mind.
You may still be asking, "But what about the raw energy that witches use to make spells happen?" If you think that you, or any witch, is restricted by a font of power that can run dry when it is tapped too heavily, you are still in the video game mindset. If you ever find that your spell work fails, this is likely the cause, because you believe that your power can be all used up, so your spell no longer has the confidence to continue and will dissipate before it causes real change.
Instead, consider the infinite and divine web to which we are all connected. The planet on which we walk, the air we breathe, the sun, moon and stars that shine light on us, and the innumerable deities to whom we can appeal, are all a part of the natural web that connects us. If you can use up all the power residing in the earth, then you will deplete the power for spell working. If you can use up all the power of the sun, then you will deplete it. If you can use up all the power of every star in the sky, then you can deplete it. Why would you ever think that the fountain of power could ever run dry? The aether - that stuff from which all spells originate - is limitless.
Sunday, November 18, 2012
Alraun the Spirit Root
An alraun is a magickal charm composed of a plant part, typically a root and traditionally the root of the mandrake plant, that is used as a corporeal domicile by a helping familiar spirit.
Because of the connection between them, any reading or research about the alraun invariably forces one to research the mandrake. But during my study, I have come to question a couple of connections that are unclear. I have therefore come to these conclusions, which I will discuss:
In contemporary usage, the german word for the mandrake plant is “alraune.” All of the living Germanic languages have a similar word. None of these words directly refer to any plant except for the mandrake plant. This poses a serious problem since the mandrake plant grows only around the Mediterranean, having a distribution no further north than the mountains of Italy.
The lore of the mandrake plant may originate in the 3rd c. BC, when Appollonius of Rhodes, who wrote the story of Jason and the Argonauts, revealed a plant that sprang up from the ground where the juices of the damaged liver of Prometheus dripped onto the ground.
Based on the description above, this is a plant known by the ancient Greeks to be an anesthetic against “blazing fire.” It required a ceremonial sacrifice and when picked would cause the earth to shake and Prometheus to groan. Lee claimed that the plant has been identified as the Corycian crocus (281), but its description also matches the plant called the male mandrake by Pedanius Dioscorides (Book IV, 76). Interestingly, Hecate was often associated with dogs, an animal we shall soon see is strongly associated with mandrakes during harvest.
Dioscorides, in his famous materia medica of the 1st c. describes the highly anesthetic qualities of the plant, stating that it is used useful during surgery by causing a “dead sleep.” In fact, the use of mandrake as an anesthetic continued until the eventual adoption of anesthetic ether as late as the mid 1800’s.
The Bible reveals the most famous quality of the mandrake: how to collect it using an animal tied to its roots. In Genesis (largely accepted as being written in the 6th or 5th c. BCE) we learn that whoever uproots the mandrake must die (Frazer, 393). Josephus ties this tale to the description of the herb he calls Baaras, which has been identified by many scholars as the mandrake, by stating that the animal to uproot the herb should be a dog. Neither source states exactly what particular action actually kills the animal. Frazer's suggestion that the action is a kind of "charge" (395) sounds both mysterious and divine.
The mandrake is simply a plant with a vaguely humanoid shape, but coupled with the ability of the plant to bring about sleep, the herb gained significant magical associations (Carter, 144). Also known throughout the Ancient Near East as a powerful aphrodisiac, it produces small fruits known as love apples. The many folk names for the mandrake all express the sentiment that the root housed spirits, though more commonly evil ones. Incidentally, I wouldn't be surprised if the mandrake was actually the plant referenced in the Biblical story of the fall in the Garden of Eden, but that is an examination for a Biblical exegesis. M.R. Lee’s paper expertly outlines how the idea of spirits in a plant root as well as the ceremonies surrounding how the alraun came to be.
In Armenia and other parts of Europe, where the mandrake does not grow, lore exists that the fleshy, humanoid shape of the bryony root was substituted for the mandrake (Frazer, 395).
Cultural transmission may explain how the Germanic people came to believe in a root in which a spirit lives, and even the ceremonies surrounding the use of the plant as a spirit poppet, though the deeply animistic characteristics of celto-Germanic spirituality does not need cultural transmission to inspire such a concept. Nonetheless, it does not explain why the Germanic people have their own linguistic family of names for the plant.
The connection could possibly be related to beer, or rather brewing. History shows that Mandrake was used as an additive in beer and wine to produce an anesthetic drink. The Greeks used the mandrake to produce a wine designed to bring about an easy, aphrodisiac effect as well as complete unconsciousness. With the dosage correctly measured, the brew could produce a semi-lucid trance state not unlike a shamanic trance used by holy men and seers to gain knowledge. The mandrake herb, after being passed from the Romans to the Germanic tribes in the first century, could have been renamed by the Germans as an herb for brewing an insightful shamans brew. The reader should recall that the mandrake was an herb of the goddess Hecate, who was associated with magic at crossroads. The German word “alraun” could come from the word “alruna” after the Valkyrie, Alruna, who is associated with crossroads, or from the words “ale rune” (Simek). Shamanic practices in Celto-Germanic culture are linked to crossroads because they are places of transition, where the edges of different worlds meet.
Primarily in Germany (Lee, 281) the herb is also known as the “gallows man.” Dr. William Turner cites in 1568 that a doctor in Cologne taught his students that the mandrake only grew under the gallows as a result of the emissions of the dead that hung there (Carter, 146). In folklore, those who die on the gallows are buried at crossroads. These are interesting ideas considering that the runes themselves were inspired when Odin (patron of crossroads and travelers) hung himself on the world tree and become inspired to discover the runes - an experience believed by many scholars to be a description of a shamanic trance. Could there have been an earlier herb used by the Germanic peoples to enter trance, whose name was later applied to the mandrake as the herb and its powers culturally migrated northward from the Mediterranean? This idea is likely, thought what the original herb might have been is no longer known.
Scopolamine, the psychotropic chemical found in the mandrake is found in other plants of the Solanaceae family, namely Belladonna, Nightshade, Datura, Henbane and other ingredients typically used in recipes for witch's flying ointments. However, the depressive nature of scopolamine alone is more likely to produce unconsciousness than hallucinations, unless another chemical modified the mixture, and with it, the response of the body.
The lore that surrounds the mandrake has become linked to the alraun as a general principle, so there is no way of knowing which elements of the original alraun ceremony (if there was one) correctly belong to the Germanic alraun, and which belong to the use of the mandrake root, specifically. In my study of alrauns (and mandrakes by default) I have run across an exhausting list of rules that must be followed when gathering and using mandrake and alrauns. Here are some of them.
The alraun itself is no longer an idea tied only to the mandrake root. Any root can be used to host a spirit if the proper processes are followed. But an alraun is not a host for just any spirit you can call upon. You should consider these points before beginning. The smartest advice I've found when beginning such a process are these three points from a local witch, Nalaya Oddly.
The occupied alraun is different than a spirit occupying an object through direct spirit possession. During possession, the spirit must expel significant energy to remain attached to something material. As a consequence, this attachment does not last very long. The ceremony of creating the alraun is not only an invitation to the spirit to use the body of the plant root, it is also a vow from you that you will feed the spirit with your own energy. You do this by honoring the spirit through repetitious ritual.
Because the spirit is invited to occupy the alraun, it gains a stronger link to it such that it can feel more corporeal, pleasing the spirit, which longs for a proper corporeal life. By giving the spirit a body in which to occasionally reside and receive your adoration, it becomes more powerful and thus a more effective agent for getting things done for you. A similar practice is used in hoodoo magick known as a “spirit box.”
The alraun ritual accomplishes two things. First, it creates a contract between you and the spirit in which you promise to honor and feed it, while it promises to act for you in the aetheric world. Second, it creates a corporeal body protected by you and your magic that no other spirit can occupy. You magically “lock” the root against all spirits except the one you name.
The mandrake is the most traditionally used root, because its lore is both old and related to spirit possession and its root is often bifurcated, making it resemble human legs. Another common root is bryony, used more often than the mandrake by those in central and northern Europe. Roots used in America can be any that are large and fleshy, but that will dry without rotting. Some commonly used have been American Ginseng (Panax quinquefolius), carrots, parsnips, parsley root, mature Queen Anne’s Lace, and the dandelion (particularly appropriate because the herb belongs to the goddess, Hecate).
To maintain the alraun, you must provide it with three things.
1. The alraun requires a box to act as its resting place. Like any human being when it is no longer alive, the body resides in a coffin, which is more than just a holding place for the body after the spirit leaves, it is a special container expressing your honor of the ancestor and acting as a sacred doorway to the otherworld. In the case of the alraun, the spirit comes and goes from the plant root as it journeys to complete what you ask of it. The alraun coffin does not have to be an actual coffin; it can be any box into which the alraun fits, but it must be ornately decorated by you. These decorations are usually those that are appropriate funerary motifs, because the box should have the feel of being a coffin. The more honor you represent in the decoration of the coffin, the more honor you pay to the spirit of the alraun, and thus the deeper will be your bond with the spirit.
Along with a coffin, the dead should have a funerary shroud. The shroud is simply a red, white or black cloth made from a high quality fabric like silk or linen. This shroud must be periodically changed as it ages, just as you would change an ancestor's funeral shroud. The funeral “shirt” can be very simply made by stitching together the parallel edges of a strip of cloth to make a tube long enough to completely contain the alraun.
2. The alraun requires regular feeding. By feeding the alraun regularly, you honor the cyclical nature of pagan time. You echo the regular visits to a dead ancestor's grave site. You set aside mundane time to augment the magickal working. Just as people need three meals per day, so spirits need regular "meals" of energy to keep working. Feeding can consist of a ceremony to honor it or providing the favorite food of the spirit, if is has one (wine is a standard substitute). The goal is to make the alraun spirit powerful enough to execute the tasks you request of it. The repeated attention is actually reinforced intention. It flatters the spirit and provides it energy to get work done. The best schedule is one that uses your tables of correspondence. Honor it on the day of the deity that it feels most like. If it has an astrological connection, use that day of the week. If you want to use a particular phase of the moon, or other astrological event, that works well also. The goal-schedule is that you should do something to honor it at least once monthly.
3. Because the alraun is not a pet, you should have clear expectations of it. It should be a resource to which you can turn when you want a spiritual helper to do magical work. If you keep it constantly locked in it's box, the alraun spirit will grow bored and will wander away in search of someone more willing to honor it regularly.
So now that you know all about working with the alraun, how do you actually get the spirit into the plant root? There is no specific ceremony I could find. However, there are patterns in the folklore that can reveal how one can work with this particular magickal power. Here are some suggestions if you are going to write your own alraun invocation ritual.
1. The moment you decide you are going to create an alraun is the moment you begin to rouse nearby spirits. They will feel your intent to create a corporeal body. If you are particularly intuitive, you may notice an increase in spiritual presences in your vicinity. This should subside when the chosen spirit is finally fixed to the root. You should have at least a visiting relationship with the spirit you will ask into the alraun and you should know its name. That means you have spent time with your spirit in dreams, journeys, meditations, or other trance states. The name can be one that you have invented, but it must be one that encompasses the essence of a single spirit in your mind. You must know the spirit to gain a successful invocation.
2. Decide "the what" and "the how" of the root you will use. This will employ your knowledge, or research of magickal herbalism. You might choose a root associated with a particular astrological purpose or deity. It is possible to have alrauns that function as magickal specialists, each with their own working purpose, but maintaining that can be tiresome; a generalist alruan is most common. You should also set up a process for gathering this root by employing electional astrology so that the plant is collected or purchased at the most auspicious time for the end result.
3. When you know how big the root will be, you should design the "coffin" to hold it. This can be a wooden cigar box that you paint, or a box you make yourself. Many craft stores sell small pre-made boxes in the shape of a coffin for Halloween. The symbols you use should be symbols of honor and respect, symbols of your patron gods, and symbols of death or transition such as skulls, spirals, portals. You can paint them or draw them with markers, or even decoupage images clipped from magazines. The interior should look comfortable and restful. The point is to make it look reverent and special to you. Remember that it is your energy that feeds the alraun, so you must enjoy and appreciate all of the details of the experience.
4. Decide where the coffin will reside. You don't put all of your energy into a magickal tool only to store it with the dust bunnies under your bed. It should have a place of reverence, but not a place that it will be unnecessarily disturbed by pets, children or curious house guests.
5. Create the invocation ritual. This should ideally be executed inside a protective circle to reinforce that only the particular spirit you invite will be the one that takes up residence in the alraun. Once the circle is cast, you should conduct the ceremony much like a funeral. Ask the spirit into the circle with you and take time to speak directly to the spirit. Talk openly about the qualities of the spirit as you know them. Use the spirit's name often to reinforce in your intent exactly which essence you are letting into the alraun. Let it know that you have honored it by spending time crafting its body and coffin. Pledge that you will honor and feed it with regular acts of reverence. The root should be carved or marked with symbol(s) that are for the target spirit. These can be a bindrune of the spirit's name, or a symbol that has been revealed during your workings with the spirit. Most spirits have a sigil. Tell the spirit that this root is for it alone, to act as its body - as its home. Create the image of an open door in your mind and raise power. Tell the spirit you will help it into its new home, which is where you wish it to reside until you call upon it for help. At the moment you are about to release your power, tell the spirit to pass through the door, then release your power into the alraun. The ceremony is done. Close the box and the circle. Ground and center.
6. Don't forget to honor the alraun regularly. I find that once per week is sufficient. I like to annoint the alruan and give a short prayer of honor. I have made up my own herbal oil blend that I use only for this. You can make your own also, so long as the blend feels appropriate for you.
References
Apollonius Rhodius. Argonautica. Book III, 828. Translated by Seaton, R. C. Loeb Classical Library Volume 001. London, William Heinemann Ltd, 1912.
Carter, AJ. "Myths and mandrakes." Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine. 2003; 96:144-147.
Dioscorides. Materia Madeica. First Century. Book IV, 76.
Frazer, James George. "Jacob and the Mandrakes." Folklore in the Old Testament, 1919. Volume 2, p. 372.
Josephus. Wars of the Jews, Book VII, Chapter VI, 3
Lee, MR. "The Solanaceae II: The mandrake (Mandragora officinarum); in league with the Devil." Journal of the Royal College Physicians, Edinburgh. 2006; 36: 278-285.
Oddly, Nalaya. "Working with Alrauns." Something Oddly. website composed April 12, 2011. at: http://somethingoddly.blogspot.com/2011/04/working-with-alrauns.html
Simek, Rudolf. Dictionary of Northern Mythology. Brewer, 2008.
Other Sources
Huson, Paul. Mastering Witchcraft: A Practical Guide for Witches, Warlocks, and Covens. New York: G.P. Putnam’s Sons, 1970.
Pennick, Nigel. Practical Magic in the Northern Tradition. Leicestershire, UK: Thoth Publications, 2002.
Thompson, C.J.S. The Mystic Mandrake. London: Rider, 1934.
Leland, Charles Godfrey. Gypsy Sorcery and Fortune Telling, chapter 10.
"The Sacred Flora." Harper's New Monthy Magazine. Vol 42 (June-Nov, 1870), 731.
Grimm, Jacob. "Alraun." Deutsche Mythologie. Vol II, p. 1154.
Silberer, H. "The Homonculus." The Psychoanalytic Review. 1919. Volume 6, pg. 206
Newman, William R. Promethean Ambitions: Alchemy and the Quest to Perfect Nature, pg. 208.
Heiser, Charles B. “Nightshades, The Paradoxical Plant“, (131-136). W. H. Freeman & Co.
Christian, Paul. “The History and Practice of Magic” (402-403). Kessinger Publishing.
Illes, Judika. "Mandrake." The Element Encyclopedia of Witchcraft.
Larson, Gerald James, C. Scott Littleton, and Jaan Puhvel. Myth in Indo-European Antiquity. p. 157
Simoons, Frederick J. "Mandrake, a Root in Human Form." Plants of Life, Plants of Death. 1998. p. 127
Because of the connection between them, any reading or research about the alraun invariably forces one to research the mandrake. But during my study, I have come to question a couple of connections that are unclear. I have therefore come to these conclusions, which I will discuss:
- The alraun has a uniquely Germanic name despite that the traditional alraun plant - the mandrake - does not grow in any Germanic area, signaling possible confusion between the mandrake and another plant more common to Germanic latitudes.
- The lore of the mandrake has become so notorious that any original alraun lore has become potentially obscured through cultural marriage with the mandrake. Consequently, exposure of unadulterated alraun lore has become impossible.
In contemporary usage, the german word for the mandrake plant is “alraune.” All of the living Germanic languages have a similar word. None of these words directly refer to any plant except for the mandrake plant. This poses a serious problem since the mandrake plant grows only around the Mediterranean, having a distribution no further north than the mountains of Italy.
The lore of the mandrake plant may originate in the 3rd c. BC, when Appollonius of Rhodes, who wrote the story of Jason and the Argonauts, revealed a plant that sprang up from the ground where the juices of the damaged liver of Prometheus dripped onto the ground.
She [Medea] spake, and brought a casket wherein lay many drugs, some for healing, others for killing . . . . and Medea meanwhile took from the hollow casket a charm which men say is called the charm of Prometheus. If a man should anoint his body therewithal, having first appeased the Maiden, the only-begotten [Hecate], with sacrifice by night, surely that man could not be wounded by the stroke of bronze nor would he flinch from blazing fire; but for that day he would prove superior both in prowess and in might. It shot up first- born when the ravening eagle on the rugged flanks of Caucasus let drip to the earth the blood-like ichor of tortured Prometheus. . . . And beneath, the dark earth shook and bellowed when the Titanian root was cut; and the son of Iapetus [Prometheus] himself groaned, his soul distraught with pain (Book III, 828).
Based on the description above, this is a plant known by the ancient Greeks to be an anesthetic against “blazing fire.” It required a ceremonial sacrifice and when picked would cause the earth to shake and Prometheus to groan. Lee claimed that the plant has been identified as the Corycian crocus (281), but its description also matches the plant called the male mandrake by Pedanius Dioscorides (Book IV, 76). Interestingly, Hecate was often associated with dogs, an animal we shall soon see is strongly associated with mandrakes during harvest.
Dioscorides, in his famous materia medica of the 1st c. describes the highly anesthetic qualities of the plant, stating that it is used useful during surgery by causing a “dead sleep.” In fact, the use of mandrake as an anesthetic continued until the eventual adoption of anesthetic ether as late as the mid 1800’s.
The Bible reveals the most famous quality of the mandrake: how to collect it using an animal tied to its roots. In Genesis (largely accepted as being written in the 6th or 5th c. BCE) we learn that whoever uproots the mandrake must die (Frazer, 393). Josephus ties this tale to the description of the herb he calls Baaras, which has been identified by many scholars as the mandrake, by stating that the animal to uproot the herb should be a dog. Neither source states exactly what particular action actually kills the animal. Frazer's suggestion that the action is a kind of "charge" (395) sounds both mysterious and divine.
The mandrake is simply a plant with a vaguely humanoid shape, but coupled with the ability of the plant to bring about sleep, the herb gained significant magical associations (Carter, 144). Also known throughout the Ancient Near East as a powerful aphrodisiac, it produces small fruits known as love apples. The many folk names for the mandrake all express the sentiment that the root housed spirits, though more commonly evil ones. Incidentally, I wouldn't be surprised if the mandrake was actually the plant referenced in the Biblical story of the fall in the Garden of Eden, but that is an examination for a Biblical exegesis. M.R. Lee’s paper expertly outlines how the idea of spirits in a plant root as well as the ceremonies surrounding how the alraun came to be.
In Armenia and other parts of Europe, where the mandrake does not grow, lore exists that the fleshy, humanoid shape of the bryony root was substituted for the mandrake (Frazer, 395).
Cultural transmission may explain how the Germanic people came to believe in a root in which a spirit lives, and even the ceremonies surrounding the use of the plant as a spirit poppet, though the deeply animistic characteristics of celto-Germanic spirituality does not need cultural transmission to inspire such a concept. Nonetheless, it does not explain why the Germanic people have their own linguistic family of names for the plant.
The connection could possibly be related to beer, or rather brewing. History shows that Mandrake was used as an additive in beer and wine to produce an anesthetic drink. The Greeks used the mandrake to produce a wine designed to bring about an easy, aphrodisiac effect as well as complete unconsciousness. With the dosage correctly measured, the brew could produce a semi-lucid trance state not unlike a shamanic trance used by holy men and seers to gain knowledge. The mandrake herb, after being passed from the Romans to the Germanic tribes in the first century, could have been renamed by the Germans as an herb for brewing an insightful shamans brew. The reader should recall that the mandrake was an herb of the goddess Hecate, who was associated with magic at crossroads. The German word “alraun” could come from the word “alruna” after the Valkyrie, Alruna, who is associated with crossroads, or from the words “ale rune” (Simek). Shamanic practices in Celto-Germanic culture are linked to crossroads because they are places of transition, where the edges of different worlds meet.
Primarily in Germany (Lee, 281) the herb is also known as the “gallows man.” Dr. William Turner cites in 1568 that a doctor in Cologne taught his students that the mandrake only grew under the gallows as a result of the emissions of the dead that hung there (Carter, 146). In folklore, those who die on the gallows are buried at crossroads. These are interesting ideas considering that the runes themselves were inspired when Odin (patron of crossroads and travelers) hung himself on the world tree and become inspired to discover the runes - an experience believed by many scholars to be a description of a shamanic trance. Could there have been an earlier herb used by the Germanic peoples to enter trance, whose name was later applied to the mandrake as the herb and its powers culturally migrated northward from the Mediterranean? This idea is likely, thought what the original herb might have been is no longer known.
Scopolamine, the psychotropic chemical found in the mandrake is found in other plants of the Solanaceae family, namely Belladonna, Nightshade, Datura, Henbane and other ingredients typically used in recipes for witch's flying ointments. However, the depressive nature of scopolamine alone is more likely to produce unconsciousness than hallucinations, unless another chemical modified the mixture, and with it, the response of the body.
The lore that surrounds the mandrake has become linked to the alraun as a general principle, so there is no way of knowing which elements of the original alraun ceremony (if there was one) correctly belong to the Germanic alraun, and which belong to the use of the mandrake root, specifically. In my study of alrauns (and mandrakes by default) I have run across an exhausting list of rules that must be followed when gathering and using mandrake and alrauns. Here are some of them.
- The root grows under gallows or over graves as a result of the excretions of the dead
- To gather the root, it must be at before dawn, or at least at night
- It must be a Friday
- It must be a new moon
- You must face west
- You must make a sign of the cross three times over the plant
- You must offer the plant some of your blood
- You must spill on the plant the urine of a woman or menstrual blood
- You must dig up most of the root by digging around it, but leave the very bottom root fibers attached
- You must stop up your ears before pulling it free to prevent its screams from killing you
- You must tie a dog to the root and force the dog to pull it out, sacrificing the dog.
- You must bathe the root in water and/or wine immediately
- You must keep the root in a box decorated to look like a coffin
- You must give the root a funerary shroud that is white and/or red
- You must bathe the root every Friday with water, wine, milk, honey, and/or the owner's blood
- You must give the root a new white shirt every first Friday (the day of Venus)
- You must bequeath the root to your youngest son
- To accept the root, your youngest son must bury his father with a loaf of white bread and a piece of money
- You can buy an alraun, but you must not sell it for less than you paid for it.
The alraun itself is no longer an idea tied only to the mandrake root. Any root can be used to host a spirit if the proper processes are followed. But an alraun is not a host for just any spirit you can call upon. You should consider these points before beginning. The smartest advice I've found when beginning such a process are these three points from a local witch, Nalaya Oddly.
1. Many spirit forms desire the experience of entering a physical body, having never done so before, and they will be rather sinister in their attempts to gain that access. As a result, the alraun should be opened as a host to only a particular spirit that you know well. (Therefore, this spirit must carry a name that you use to summon it. Since names are actually words of power bound to a being, using the spirit's name exerts your control over it's occupation of the root).
2. You should have a good working relationship with the spirit through trance work. It should be a spirit whose behavior you can safely control.
3. The inhabited alraun is not a pet. It requires a great deal of routine responsibility to keep it working positively for you. You must treat it with respect and honor it as its magic formulae require you to do. No spell works out well if you execute it halfheartedly.
The occupied alraun is different than a spirit occupying an object through direct spirit possession. During possession, the spirit must expel significant energy to remain attached to something material. As a consequence, this attachment does not last very long. The ceremony of creating the alraun is not only an invitation to the spirit to use the body of the plant root, it is also a vow from you that you will feed the spirit with your own energy. You do this by honoring the spirit through repetitious ritual.
Because the spirit is invited to occupy the alraun, it gains a stronger link to it such that it can feel more corporeal, pleasing the spirit, which longs for a proper corporeal life. By giving the spirit a body in which to occasionally reside and receive your adoration, it becomes more powerful and thus a more effective agent for getting things done for you. A similar practice is used in hoodoo magick known as a “spirit box.”
The alraun ritual accomplishes two things. First, it creates a contract between you and the spirit in which you promise to honor and feed it, while it promises to act for you in the aetheric world. Second, it creates a corporeal body protected by you and your magic that no other spirit can occupy. You magically “lock” the root against all spirits except the one you name.
The mandrake is the most traditionally used root, because its lore is both old and related to spirit possession and its root is often bifurcated, making it resemble human legs. Another common root is bryony, used more often than the mandrake by those in central and northern Europe. Roots used in America can be any that are large and fleshy, but that will dry without rotting. Some commonly used have been American Ginseng (Panax quinquefolius), carrots, parsnips, parsley root, mature Queen Anne’s Lace, and the dandelion (particularly appropriate because the herb belongs to the goddess, Hecate).
To maintain the alraun, you must provide it with three things.
1. The alraun requires a box to act as its resting place. Like any human being when it is no longer alive, the body resides in a coffin, which is more than just a holding place for the body after the spirit leaves, it is a special container expressing your honor of the ancestor and acting as a sacred doorway to the otherworld. In the case of the alraun, the spirit comes and goes from the plant root as it journeys to complete what you ask of it. The alraun coffin does not have to be an actual coffin; it can be any box into which the alraun fits, but it must be ornately decorated by you. These decorations are usually those that are appropriate funerary motifs, because the box should have the feel of being a coffin. The more honor you represent in the decoration of the coffin, the more honor you pay to the spirit of the alraun, and thus the deeper will be your bond with the spirit.
Along with a coffin, the dead should have a funerary shroud. The shroud is simply a red, white or black cloth made from a high quality fabric like silk or linen. This shroud must be periodically changed as it ages, just as you would change an ancestor's funeral shroud. The funeral “shirt” can be very simply made by stitching together the parallel edges of a strip of cloth to make a tube long enough to completely contain the alraun.
2. The alraun requires regular feeding. By feeding the alraun regularly, you honor the cyclical nature of pagan time. You echo the regular visits to a dead ancestor's grave site. You set aside mundane time to augment the magickal working. Just as people need three meals per day, so spirits need regular "meals" of energy to keep working. Feeding can consist of a ceremony to honor it or providing the favorite food of the spirit, if is has one (wine is a standard substitute). The goal is to make the alraun spirit powerful enough to execute the tasks you request of it. The repeated attention is actually reinforced intention. It flatters the spirit and provides it energy to get work done. The best schedule is one that uses your tables of correspondence. Honor it on the day of the deity that it feels most like. If it has an astrological connection, use that day of the week. If you want to use a particular phase of the moon, or other astrological event, that works well also. The goal-schedule is that you should do something to honor it at least once monthly.
3. Because the alraun is not a pet, you should have clear expectations of it. It should be a resource to which you can turn when you want a spiritual helper to do magical work. If you keep it constantly locked in it's box, the alraun spirit will grow bored and will wander away in search of someone more willing to honor it regularly.
The Alraun Ritual
So now that you know all about working with the alraun, how do you actually get the spirit into the plant root? There is no specific ceremony I could find. However, there are patterns in the folklore that can reveal how one can work with this particular magickal power. Here are some suggestions if you are going to write your own alraun invocation ritual.
1. The moment you decide you are going to create an alraun is the moment you begin to rouse nearby spirits. They will feel your intent to create a corporeal body. If you are particularly intuitive, you may notice an increase in spiritual presences in your vicinity. This should subside when the chosen spirit is finally fixed to the root. You should have at least a visiting relationship with the spirit you will ask into the alraun and you should know its name. That means you have spent time with your spirit in dreams, journeys, meditations, or other trance states. The name can be one that you have invented, but it must be one that encompasses the essence of a single spirit in your mind. You must know the spirit to gain a successful invocation.
2. Decide "the what" and "the how" of the root you will use. This will employ your knowledge, or research of magickal herbalism. You might choose a root associated with a particular astrological purpose or deity. It is possible to have alrauns that function as magickal specialists, each with their own working purpose, but maintaining that can be tiresome; a generalist alruan is most common. You should also set up a process for gathering this root by employing electional astrology so that the plant is collected or purchased at the most auspicious time for the end result.
3. When you know how big the root will be, you should design the "coffin" to hold it. This can be a wooden cigar box that you paint, or a box you make yourself. Many craft stores sell small pre-made boxes in the shape of a coffin for Halloween. The symbols you use should be symbols of honor and respect, symbols of your patron gods, and symbols of death or transition such as skulls, spirals, portals. You can paint them or draw them with markers, or even decoupage images clipped from magazines. The interior should look comfortable and restful. The point is to make it look reverent and special to you. Remember that it is your energy that feeds the alraun, so you must enjoy and appreciate all of the details of the experience.
4. Decide where the coffin will reside. You don't put all of your energy into a magickal tool only to store it with the dust bunnies under your bed. It should have a place of reverence, but not a place that it will be unnecessarily disturbed by pets, children or curious house guests.
5. Create the invocation ritual. This should ideally be executed inside a protective circle to reinforce that only the particular spirit you invite will be the one that takes up residence in the alraun. Once the circle is cast, you should conduct the ceremony much like a funeral. Ask the spirit into the circle with you and take time to speak directly to the spirit. Talk openly about the qualities of the spirit as you know them. Use the spirit's name often to reinforce in your intent exactly which essence you are letting into the alraun. Let it know that you have honored it by spending time crafting its body and coffin. Pledge that you will honor and feed it with regular acts of reverence. The root should be carved or marked with symbol(s) that are for the target spirit. These can be a bindrune of the spirit's name, or a symbol that has been revealed during your workings with the spirit. Most spirits have a sigil. Tell the spirit that this root is for it alone, to act as its body - as its home. Create the image of an open door in your mind and raise power. Tell the spirit you will help it into its new home, which is where you wish it to reside until you call upon it for help. At the moment you are about to release your power, tell the spirit to pass through the door, then release your power into the alraun. The ceremony is done. Close the box and the circle. Ground and center.
6. Don't forget to honor the alraun regularly. I find that once per week is sufficient. I like to annoint the alruan and give a short prayer of honor. I have made up my own herbal oil blend that I use only for this. You can make your own also, so long as the blend feels appropriate for you.
References
Apollonius Rhodius. Argonautica. Book III, 828. Translated by Seaton, R. C. Loeb Classical Library Volume 001. London, William Heinemann Ltd, 1912.
Carter, AJ. "Myths and mandrakes." Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine. 2003; 96:144-147.
Dioscorides. Materia Madeica. First Century. Book IV, 76.
Frazer, James George. "Jacob and the Mandrakes." Folklore in the Old Testament, 1919. Volume 2, p. 372.
Josephus. Wars of the Jews, Book VII, Chapter VI, 3
Lee, MR. "The Solanaceae II: The mandrake (Mandragora officinarum); in league with the Devil." Journal of the Royal College Physicians, Edinburgh. 2006; 36: 278-285.
Oddly, Nalaya. "Working with Alrauns." Something Oddly. website composed April 12, 2011. at: http://somethingoddly.blogspot.com/2011/04/working-with-alrauns.html
Simek, Rudolf. Dictionary of Northern Mythology. Brewer, 2008.
Other Sources
Huson, Paul. Mastering Witchcraft: A Practical Guide for Witches, Warlocks, and Covens. New York: G.P. Putnam’s Sons, 1970.
Pennick, Nigel. Practical Magic in the Northern Tradition. Leicestershire, UK: Thoth Publications, 2002.
Thompson, C.J.S. The Mystic Mandrake. London: Rider, 1934.
Leland, Charles Godfrey. Gypsy Sorcery and Fortune Telling, chapter 10.
"The Sacred Flora." Harper's New Monthy Magazine. Vol 42 (June-Nov, 1870), 731.
Grimm, Jacob. "Alraun." Deutsche Mythologie. Vol II, p. 1154.
Silberer, H. "The Homonculus." The Psychoanalytic Review. 1919. Volume 6, pg. 206
Newman, William R. Promethean Ambitions: Alchemy and the Quest to Perfect Nature, pg. 208.
Heiser, Charles B. “Nightshades, The Paradoxical Plant“, (131-136). W. H. Freeman & Co.
Christian, Paul. “The History and Practice of Magic” (402-403). Kessinger Publishing.
Illes, Judika. "Mandrake." The Element Encyclopedia of Witchcraft.
Larson, Gerald James, C. Scott Littleton, and Jaan Puhvel. Myth in Indo-European Antiquity. p. 157
Simoons, Frederick J. "Mandrake, a Root in Human Form." Plants of Life, Plants of Death. 1998. p. 127
Sunday, October 14, 2012
Abracadabra
For years I have been fascinated
by the use of and power in magic words. Recently, my over-analytic brain has
fallen upon the old word “abracadabra” and wondered why it is what it is. I
have also wondered if it shouldn't be in greater use these days. Certainly, a
word with so much fame shouldn't be forgotten in the world of witchcraft.
The Online Etymology Dictionary tells
us that the word is a . . .
magical formula, 1690s, from Latin
(Q. Severus Sammonicus, 2c.), from Late Gk. Abraxas, cabalistic or gnostic
name for the supreme god, and thus a word of power. It was written out in a
triangle shape and worn around the neck to ward off sickness, etc. Another
magical word, from a mid-15c. writing, was ananizapta.
This is interesting, albeit
brief. It doesn’t really explain the use of the spell.
Wikipedia has this to say about the
word:
Abracadabra
Abracadabra is an incantation used as a magic word in stage magic tricks, and historically was believed to have healing powers when inscribed on an amulet. The word is thought to have its origin in the Aramaic language, but numerous, conflicting folk etymologies are associated with it.
Abracadabra is an incantation used as a magic word in stage magic tricks, and historically was believed to have healing powers when inscribed on an amulet. The word is thought to have its origin in the Aramaic language, but numerous, conflicting folk etymologies are associated with it.
History:
The first known mention of the word
was in the third century AD in a book called Liber
Medicinalis (sometimes
known as De Medicina Praecepta Saluberrima) by Quintus Serenus
Sammonicus,[1] physician to the Roman emperor Caracalla, who prescribed that malaria[2]sufferers wear an amulet containing
the word written in the form of a triangle:[3]
A -
B - R - A - C - A - D - A - B - R - A
A - B - R - A - C - A - D - A - B - R
A - B - R - A - C - A - D - A - B
A - B - R - A - C - A - D - A
A - B - R - A - C - A - D
A - B - R - A - C - A
A - B - R - A - C
A - B - R - A
A - B - R
A - B
A
A - B - R - A - C - A - D - A - B - R
A - B - R - A - C - A - D - A - B
A - B - R - A - C - A - D - A
A - B - R - A - C - A - D
A - B - R - A - C - A
A - B - R - A - C
A - B - R - A
A - B - R
A - B
A
This, he explained, diminishes the
hold over the patient of the spirit of the disease.[citation needed] Other Roman emperors, including Geta and Alexander Severus, were followers of the
medical teachings of Serenus Sammonicus and may have used the incantation as
well.[1][citation needed]
It was used as a magical formula by
the Gnostics of the sect of Basilides in invoking the aid of beneficent
spirits against disease and misfortune.[4] It is found on Abraxas stones which
were worn as amulets. Subsequently, its use spread beyond the Gnostics.
The Puritan minister Increase Mather dismissed
the word as bereft of power. Daniel Defoe also wrote dismissively about Londoners
who posted the word on their doorways to ward off sickness during the Great Plague of
London.[5] But Aleister Crowley regarded
it as possessing great power; he said its true form is abrahadabra.[6]
The word is now commonly used as an incantation by stage magicians. It is also applied contemptuously to a
conception or hypothesis which purports to be a simple solution of apparently
insoluble phenomena.
Aleister Crowley replaced the C in Abracadabra with an H, which the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn in their Neophyte ritual linked with Breath and Life[2] as well as with the god Horus.[3] Aleister Crowley had taken the place of Horus or the Hierus officer[3] in the Golden Dawn's Neophyte ritual,[4] which means that he personally gave the response explaining the meaning of the letter H.
- Vollmer, Friedrich. Quinti Sereni Liber
Medicinalis.
- The Tenacious Buzz of Malaria". Wall Street
Journal. July 10, 2010.
- Bartleby
- "Abracadabra". Encyclopædia
Britannica (11th ed.). 1911.
- Daniel Defoe. A Journal of the Plague Year.
- Guiley, Rosemary
(2006). "Abracadabra". The Encyclopedia of
Magic and Alchemy. Visionary Living
Inc.. ISBN 0-8160-6048-7.
Aliester Crowley aside, nothing is stated
of the actual origin, though the note about its Aramaic origin has me curious.
The part about magicians is the most interesting part, however, because that is
how the word is used currently. I have my own memories of entertainers using the word
during the most mysterious part of a magic trick – the part just before the end
of the trick when there is supposed to be something mystical happening behind
the scenes to produce the desired operation. But why would a charm of destruction be used as an incantation for creation?
This is revealed by the Brit, Michael Quinion, who writes
about the word on his site World Wide Words:
What we know for sure is that it
was first recorded in a Latin medical poem, De
medicina praecepta, by the Roman physician Quintus Serenus
Sammonicus in the second century AD. It’s believed to have come into English
via French and Latin from a Greek word abrasadabra (the
change from s to c seems
to have been through a confused transliteration of the Greek). Serenus
Sammonicus said that to get well a sick person should wear an amulet around the
neck, a piece of parchment inscribed with a triangular formula derived from the
word, which acts like a funnel to drive the sickness out of the body:
A B
R A C A D A B R A
A B R A C A D A B R
A B R A C A D A B
A B R A C A D A
A B R A C A D
A B R A C A
A B R A C
A B R A
A B R
A B
A
A B R A C A D A B R
A B R A C A D A B
A B R A C A D A
A B R A C A D
A B R A C A
A B R A C
A B R A
A B R
A B
A
However, it seems likely that abracadabra is
older and that it derives from one of the Semitic languages, though nobody can
say for sure, because there is no written record before Serenus Sammonicus. For
what it’s worth, here are some theories:
1. It’s
from the Aramaic phrase avra
kehdabra, meaning “I will create as I speak”.
2. The
source is three Hebrew words, ab (father), ben (son), and ruach acadosch (holy
spirit).
3. It’s
from the Chaldean abbada ke dabra, meaning “perish like
the word”.
4. It
originated with a Gnostic sect in Alexandria
called the Basilidians and was probably based on Abrasax, the name of their supreme deity
(Abraxas in
Latin sources).
Here Mr. Quinion reveals the Aramaic origin phrase, which
makes perfect sense to use if one is engaged in creation, as in the case of the stage magician mentioned above. The Chaldean phrase
is an excellent phrase to use when destroying illness, or
anything else for that matter, as a kind of sympathetic magick. Could these be two distinct spells, possibly related, that became confused as one operation? In linguistic history, the language of the Chaldeans was gradually replaced by Aramaic. One need not strain to see that the older form of ke dabra evolved into kehdabra – the noun form of "word" evolved into the verb used to speak words. I think it likely that two phrases with similar
sounds have been confused – culturally combined – into one word that is used
for both creation and for destruction. Most witches realize that creation and
destruction are actually the same thing.
Lets review what makes this charm a kind of sympathetic magic. The wearer shows the fever how to leave by making the glyph
that represents it (the writing) systematically decrease on the paper. Here is
an obvious example:
FEVER
FEVE
FEV
FE
F
Names are important magical words because they unite the
identity of a person or thing, which is its very essence, into a symbol on a
page or a sound to be spoken. Many creation myths tell the story of deities
speaking things into being simply by naming them aloud. Eliphas Levi tells us that, “In
magic, to have said is to have done” (quoted in Cavendish, vol. 5, 1418.) In
ancient Egypt , Isis uses the name of Re to save him from a snake wound
before using the powerful name for herself (Budge, 124). (I reused these ideas from a paper I wrote back in college on incantations and names as words of power.)
Personally, using the power name of a revered deity as a charm of lessening is a little bit improper. If the pyramid were to be read from bottom to top however, the power of a protective deity would be invoked. I would not use the power name of a supreme deity as
an example for decrease unless the deity was known as a destroyer or Cthonic type. To the Chrisitans, Abrasax
may have been demonized into a malevolent spirit, so writing the name in a
lessening manner would have been representative of lessening an evil force. Ultimately,
all we can say with certainty is that the motivation behind the spell is not
obviously revealed through its design without more information about the spell
operations.
The 1911 version of the Encyclopedia Britannica gives more
specific uses for the lessening charm and reveals an alternative pattern that may
shed light more deeply into the spell working.
Abracadabra, a word
analogous to Abraxas (q.v.), used as a magical formula by the
Gnostics of the sect of Basilides in invoking the aid of beneficent spirits
against disease and misfortune. It is found on Abraxas stones which were worn
as amulets. Subsequently its use spread beyond the Gnostics, and in modern
times it is applied contemptuously (e.g. by
the early opponents of the evolution theory) to a conception or hypothesis
which purports to be a simple solution of apparently insoluble phenomena. The
Gnostic physician Serenus Sammonicus gave precise instructions as to its
mystical use in averting or curing agues and fevers generally. The paper on
which the word was written had to be folded in the form of a cross, suspended
from the neck by a strip of linen so as to rest on the pit of the stomach, worn
in this way for nine days, and then, before sunrise, cast behind the wearer
into a stream running to the east. The letters were usually arranged as a
triangle in one of the following ways:—
This is new information. The fact that the charm was found on Abraxas stones is significant because it places the charm in popular use among the Gnostics, which puts the height of use squarely in the first century AD. It also undeniably ties the charm (or a version of it) to that deity.
Notice how the design on the above right (fever-lessening) shows the word being reduced from both ends, rather than just one end, as is seen on the left. Doing so almost perfectly leaves the name of the god, Abrasax written twice down each side of the pattern, which is quite protective magically. The word glyph would then create a wedge-shaped protective shield using the name of the supreme deity. Because the word “abracadabra” is not quite palindromic, it misses naming the god and is not useful in that kind of charm.
If the Near Eastern spells of creation and destruction were confused with the name of the god, Abrasax because they used similar words, it would explain why there are two representations of this charm. The word pyramid on the above left uses the creation/destruction blended phrase, while the one on the above right uses the deity's name, and in both is the evolution of how these two separate concepts became confused. Cleaning up this confusion would mean understanding these are two separate kinds of charms and separating the two charms with unique words. The charm on the left would be a spell of increase or decrease, in which the power is inherent in the word (i.e. an incantation), while the one on the right would be a charm to invoke the protection of a specific deity. The charm for invocation would no longer be based on the Aramaic or Chaldean phrase. Instead, it would be based on a palindromic application of Abraxas (in Latin) to produce the name of the deity down both sides of the glyph. The invocation charm would then look like this:
Notice how the design on the above right (fever-lessening) shows the word being reduced from both ends, rather than just one end, as is seen on the left. Doing so almost perfectly leaves the name of the god, Abrasax written twice down each side of the pattern, which is quite protective magically. The word glyph would then create a wedge-shaped protective shield using the name of the supreme deity. Because the word “abracadabra” is not quite palindromic, it misses naming the god and is not useful in that kind of charm.
If the Near Eastern spells of creation and destruction were confused with the name of the god, Abrasax because they used similar words, it would explain why there are two representations of this charm. The word pyramid on the above left uses the creation/destruction blended phrase, while the one on the above right uses the deity's name, and in both is the evolution of how these two separate concepts became confused. Cleaning up this confusion would mean understanding these are two separate kinds of charms and separating the two charms with unique words. The charm on the left would be a spell of increase or decrease, in which the power is inherent in the word (i.e. an incantation), while the one on the right would be a charm to invoke the protection of a specific deity. The charm for invocation would no longer be based on the Aramaic or Chaldean phrase. Instead, it would be based on a palindromic application of Abraxas (in Latin) to produce the name of the deity down both sides of the glyph. The invocation charm would then look like this:
ABRAXAXARBA
BRAXAXARB
RAXAXAR
AXAXA
XAX
A
Using the same principle, a similar protective charm could be made by writing the name on paper of any protective deity of your choice. Folding some protective herbs inside the bundle and holding it on your person would be an excellent folk charm. However, not all names begin and end with the same letter, so a modification may need to be used. Here is a charm of protection to Achilles, who wards against ailments of the blood:
As a spell-worker, I wouldn't be opposed to separating these spells from each other, as I believe they began. Making them into separate spells for creation, destruction and the protection of Abraxas would be fine, but one would have to be sure to use the specific words of power for the correct purpose: the Aramaic phrase for creation, the Chaldean phrase for destruction and the name of Abraxas for that protective power.
References:
ACHILESELIHCA
CHILESELIHC
HILESELIH
ILESELI
LESEL
ESE
S
References:
Budge, E. A. Wallis, trans. The Book of the Dead. New York : Bell
Publishing Co., 1960.
Cavendish, Richard. “Incantation.” Vol. 5 of Man, Myth
& Magic. 1983 ed.
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