New Rituals

It isn't enough to talk about a new druidry, or a new druidic witchcraft, or even a new witchcraft. It must be constructed. In prayers and songs and thought and effort it must be constructed. Out of old Thelemic rituals I have made for myself, rites of initiation and consecration, and I know what I am using them for, but you can use them or adapt them to for whatever you wish. Or be inspired by them. Or ignore them. They are a sort of gift. Here is a beginning one, a rite for dedication when you are setting out upon a new Path or coming back to one that has been overgrown and abandoned.

THE RITE OF THE CATECHUMEN

Leave everything you were outside this door

Everything you are bring with you

In the name of the Lord of Initiation, Amen.

I fly and I alight as a hawk: bright are my mighty-sweeping wings.

I swoop down upon the black earth; and it gladdens into green at my coming.

Children of Earth! rejoice! rejoice exceedingly; for your salvation is at hand.

The end of sorrow is come; I will ravish you away into my unutterable joy.

I will kiss you, and bring you to the bridal chamber: I will spread a feast before you in the house of happiness.

I am not come to rebuke you, or to enslave you.

THIS IS THE SECRET of the Holy Graal, that is the sacred vessel of our Lady the Scarlet Woman, Babalon the Mother of Abominations, the bride of Chaos, that rides upon our Lord the Beast.
Drain out the blood that is your life into the golden cup of her fornication.

Mingle your life with the universal life. Keep not back one drop.

All your life shall go from thee; and thou shalt be cast out upon the midden, and the birds of the air shall feast upon your flesh, and your bones shall whiten in the sun.

Ye who take but one step on this path must continue to the end, for this path is beyond life or death.

Adapted Rite of Initiation

RITE OF INITIATION

In the name of the Lord of Initiation, Amen.I fly and I alight as a hawk: bright are my mighty-sweeping wings.

I swoop down upon the black earth; and it gladdens into green at my coming.

Children of Earth! rejoice! rejoice exceedingly; for your salvation is at hand.

The end of sorrow is come; I will ravish you away into my unutterable joy.

I will kiss you, and bring you to the bridal chamber: I will spread a feast before you in the house of happiness.

I am not come to rebuke you, or to enslave you.

I bid you not turn from your voluptuous ways, from your idleness, from your follies.

But I bring joy to your pleasure, peace to your languor, wisdom to your folly.

All that ye do is right, if so be that ye enjoy it.

I am come against sorrow, against weariness, against them that seek to enslave you.

I pour you lustral wine, that giveth you delight both at the sunset and the dawn.

Come with me, and I will give you all that is desirable upon the earth.

Because I give you that of which Earth and its joys are but as shadows.

They flee away, but my joy abideth even unto the end.

I have hidden myself beneath a mask: I am a black and terrible God.

With courage conquering fear shall ye approach me: ye shall lay down your heads upon mine altar, expecting the sweep of the sword.

But the first kiss of love shall be radiant on your lips; and all my darkness and terror shall turn to light and joy.

Only those who fear shall fail. Those who have bent their backs to the yoke of slavery until they can no longer stand upright; them will I despise.

But you who have defied the law; you who have conquered by subtlety or force; you will I take unto me, even I will take you unto me.

I ask you to sacrifice nothing at mine altar; I am the God who giveth all.

Light, Life, Love; Force, Fantasy, Fire; these do I bring you: mine hands are full of these.

There is joy in the setting-out; there is joy in the journey; there is joy in the goal.

Only if ye are sorrowful, or weary, or angry, or discomforted; then ye may know that ye have lost the golden thread, the thread wherewith I guide you to the heart of the groves of Eleusis.

My disciples are proud and beautiful; they are strong and swift; they rule their way like mighty conquerors.

The weak, the timid, the imperfect, the cowardly, the poor, the tearful --- these are mine enemies, and I am come to destroy them.

This also is compassion: an end to the sickness of earth. A rooting-out of the weeds: a watering of the flowers.

O my children, ye are more beautiful than the flowers: ye must not fade in your season.

I love you; I would sprinkle you with the divine dew of immortality.

And this immortality is no vain hope beyond the grave: I offer you the certain consciousness of bliss.

I offer it at once, on earth; before an hour hath struck upon the bell, ye shall be with Me in the Abodes that are beyond Decay.

Also I give you power earthly and joy earthly; wealth, and health, and length of days. Adoration and love shall cling to your feet, and twine around your heart.

Only your mouths shall drink of a delicious wine --- the wine of Iacchus; they shall reach ever to the heavenly kiss of the Beautiful God.

I reveal unto you a great mystery. Ye stand between the abyss of height and the abyss of depth.

In either awaits you a Companion; and that Companion is Yourself.

Ye who take but one step on this path must continue to the end, for this path is beyond life or death.

A Thelemic Ritual of Initiation

LIBER TZADDI

vel

HAMVS HERMETICVS

SVB FIGVRA

XC

A.'. A.'.

Publication in Class A.

Imprimatur:

N. Fra A.'. A.'.

0. In the name of the Lord of Initiation, Amen.
1. I fly and I alight as an hawk: of mother-of-emerald are my mighty-sweeping wings.

2. I swoop down upon the black earth; and it gladdens into green at my coming.

3. Children of Earth! rejoice! rejoice exceedingly; for your salvation is at hand.

4. The end of sorrow is come; I will ravish you away into mine unutterable joy.

5. I will kiss you, and bring you to the bridal: I will spread a feast before you in the house of happiness.

6. I am not come to rebuke you, or to enslave you.

7. I bid you not turn from your voluptuous ways, from your idleness, from your follies.

8. But I bring you joy to your pleasure, peace to your languor, wisdom to your folly.

9. All that ye do is right, if so be that ye enjoy it.

10. I am come against sorrow, against weariness, against them that seek to enslave you.

11. I pour you lustral wine, that giveth you delight both at the sunset and the dawn.

12. Come with me, and I will give you all that is desirable upon the earth.

13. Because I give you that of which Earth and its joys are but as shadows.

14. They flee away, but my joy abideth even unto the end.

15. I have hidden myself beneath a mask: I am a black and terrible God.

16. With courage conquering fear shall ye approach me: ye shall lay down your heads upon mine altar, expecting the sweep of the sword.

17. But the first kiss of love shall be radiant on your lips; and all my darkness and terror shall turn to light and joy.

18. Only those who fear shall fail. Those who have bent their backs to the yoke of slavery until they can no longer stand upright; them will I despise.

19. But you who have defied the law; you who have conquered by subtlety or force; you will I take unto me, even I will take you unto me.

20. I ask you to sacrifice nothing at mine altar; I am the God who giveth all.

21. Light, Life, Love; Force, Fantasy, Fire; these do I bring you: mine hands are full of these.

22. There is joy in the setting-out; there is joy in the journey; there is joy in the goal.

23. Only if ye are sorrowful, or weary, or angry, or discomforted; then ye may know that ye have lost the golden thread, the thread wherewith I guide you to the heart of the groves of Eleusis.

24. My disciples are proud and beautiful; they are strong and swift; they rule their way like mighty conquerors.

25. The weak, the timid, the imperfect, the cowardly, the poor, the tearful --- these are mine enemies, and I am come to destroy them.

26. This also is compassion: an end to the sickness of earth. A rooting-out of the weeds: a watering of the flowers.

27. O my children, ye are more beautiful than the flowers: ye must not fade in your season.

28. I love you; I would sprinkle you with the divine dew of immortality.

29. This immortality is no vain hope beyond the grave: I offer you the certain consciousness of bliss.

30. I offer it at once, on earth; before an hour hath struck upon the bell, ye shall be with Me in the Abodes that are beyond Decay.

31. Also I give you power earthly and joy earthly; wealth, and health, and length of days. Adoration and love shall cling to your feet, and twine around your heart.

32. Only your mouths shall drink of a delicious wine --- the wine of Iacchus; they shall reach ever to the heavenly kiss of the Beautiful God.

33. I reveal unto you a great mystery. Ye stand between the abyss of height and the abyss of depth.

34. In either awaits you a Companion; and that Companion is Yourself.

35. Ye can have no other Companion.

36. Many have arisen, being wise. They have said "Seek out the glittering Image in the place ever golden, and unite yourselves with It."

37. Many have arisen, being foolish. They have said, "Stoop down unto the darkly splendid world, and be wedded to that Blind Creature of the Slime."

38. I who am beyond Wisdom and Folly, arise and say unto you: achieve both weddings! Unite yourselves with both!

39. Beware, beware, I say, lest ye seek after the one and lose the other!

40. My adepts stand upright; their head above the heavens, their feet below the hells.

41. But since one is naturally attracted to the Angel, another to the Demon, let the first strengthen the lower link, the last attach more firmly to the higher.

42. Thus shall equilibrium become perfect. I will aid my disciples; as fast as they acquire this balanced power and joy so faster will I push them.

43. They shall in their turn speak from this Invisible Throne; their words shall illumine the worlds.

44. They shall be masters of majesty and might; they shall be beautiful and joyous; they shall be clothed with victory and splendour; they shall stand upon the firm foundation; the kingdom shall be theirs; yea, the kingdom shall be theirs.

In the name of the Lord of Initiation. Amen.

Ritual of Initiation for the Consecration to the Holy Graal

THIS IS THE SECRET of the Holy Graal, that is the sacred vessel of our Lady the Scarlet Woman, Babalon the Mother of Abominations, the bride of Chaos, that rides upon our Lord the Beast.
Drain out the blood that is your life into the golden cup of her fornication.

Mingle your life with the universal life. Keep not back one drop.

All your life shall go from thee; and thou shalt be cast out upon the midden, and the birds of the air shall feast upon your flesh, and your bones shall whiten in the sun.

Now achieve this ritual of the Holy Graal, divest thyself of all your goods. Thou hast wealth; give it unto them that have need thereof, yet no desire toward it.

Thou hast health; slay thyself in the fervor of thine abandonment unto Our Lady.

Thou hast love; make an offering of it. Attain to the Sacrament of the Graal in the Chapel of Abominations.

Verily, verily this is the Truth, this is the Truth, this is the Truth. Unto thee shall be granted joy and health and wealth and wisdom when thou art no longer thou.

Then shall every gain be a new sacrament, and it shall not defile thee; thou shalt revel with the wanton in the market-place, and the virgins shall fling roses upon thee, and the merchants bend their knees and bring thee gold and spices. Also young boys shall pour wonderful wines for thee, and the singers and the dancers shall sing and dance for thee.

From the dust shall a white ash be prepared by Hermes the Invisible.

And this is the wrath of God, that these things should be thus.

And this is the grace of God, that these things should be thus.

Wherefore I charge you that ye come unto me in the Beginning; for if ye take but one step in this Path, ye must arrive inevitably at the end thereof.

Ye who take but one step on this path must continue to the end, for this path is beyond life or death.

Thelemic Ritual of the Graal

LIBER CHETH
VEL
VALLVM ABIEGNI
SVB FIGVRA
CLVI

A.'. A.'.
Publication in Class A.
Imprimatur:
N. Fra A.'. A.'.

1. This is the secret of the Holy Graal, that is the sacred vessel of our Lady the Scarlet Woman, Babalon the Mother of Abominations, the bride of Chaos, that rideth upon our Lord the Beast.
2. Thou shalt drain out thy blood that is thy life into the golden cup of her fornication.
3. Thou shalt mingle thy life with the universal life. Thou shalt keep not back one drop.
4. Then shall thy brain be dumb, and thy heart beat no more, and all thy life shall go from thee; and thou shalt be cast out upon the midden, and the birds of the air shall feast upon thy flesh, and thy bones shall whiten in the sun.
5. Then shall the winds gather themselves together, and bear thee up as it were a little heap of dust in a sheet that hath four corners, and they shall give it unto the guardians of the abyss.
6. And because there is no life therein, the guardians of the abyss shall bid the angels of the winds pass by. And the angels shall lay thy dust in the City of the Pyramids, and the name thereof shall be no more. {25}
7. Now therefore that thou mayest achieve this ritual of the Holy Graal, do thou divest thyself of all thy goods.
8. Thou hast wealth; give it unto them that have need thereof, yet no desire toward it.
9. Thou hast health; slay thyself in the fervour of thine abandonment unto Our Lady. Let thy flesh hang loose upon thy bones, and thine eyes glare with thy quenchless lust unto the Infinite, with thy passion for the Unknown, for Her that is beyond Knowledge the accursed one.
10. Thou hast love; tear thy mother from thine heart, and spit in the face of thy father. Let thy foot trample the belly of thy wife, and let the babe at her breast be the prey of dogs and vultures.
11. For if thou dost not this with thy will, then shall We do this despite thy will. So that thou attain to the Sacrament of the Graal in the Chapel of Abominations.
12. And behold! if by stealth thou keep unto thyself one thought of thine, then shalt thou be cast out into the abyss for ever; and thou shalt be the lonely one, the eater of dung, the afflicted in the Day of Be-with-Us.
13. Yea! verily this is the Truth, this is the Truth, this is the Truth. Unto thee shall be granted joy and health and wealth and wisdom when thou art no longer thou.
14. Then shall every gain be a new sacrament, and it shall not defile thee; thou shalt revel with the wanton in the market-place, and the virgins shall fling roses upon thee, and the merchants bend their knees and bring thee gold and spices. Also young boys shall pour wonderful wines for thee, and the singers and the dancers shall sing and dance for thee. {26}
15. Yet shalt thou not be therein, for thou shalt be forgotten, dust lost in dust.
16. Nor shall the aeon itself avail thee in this; for from the dust shall a white ash be prepared by Hermes the Invisible.
17. And this is the wrath of God, that these things should be thus.
18. And this is the grace of God, that these things should be thus.
19. Wherefore I charge you that ye come unto me in the Beginning; for if ye take but one step in this Path, ye must arrive inevitably at the end thereof.
20. This Path is beyond Life and Death; it is also beyond Love; but that ye know not, for ye know not Love.
21. And the end thereof is known not even unto Our Lady or to the Beast whereon She rideth; nor unto the Virgin her daughter nor unto Chaos her lawful Lord; but unto the Crowned Child is it known? It is not known if it be known.
22. Therefore unto Hadit and unto Nuit be the glory in the End and the Beginning; yea, in the End and the Beginning.

Toward an Actual Druidry: Mythos

We need to talk about the religious system most schools of new druidry work under and why, if there is to be a real and deep druidry, this has to be reexamined. Traditionally there has been one source of myth and tradition for modern druids and that is the Irish cycle. This is the only cycle where the word druid is used as well. If we stretch our minds then every wizard in the Mabinogion ought to be translated as drui or derwydd. But it is only the Irish tales they are strictly called druids.

As discussed, modern druidry lives on being an eighteenth century English invention based on a Roman idea of what druids actually were that is given a Celtic twist with Celtic being defined as Irish. Next the definition of Irish is Irish through the eyes of the late 1800s and the revival of Irish myth aka Lady Augusta Gregory and William Butler Yeats, two Protestant Ulsterman who were certainly more English than Celtic.

The other thread of myth modern druidry had come to draw on is the Welsh cycle called the Mabinogion, but whether we are talking about Irish Cycle or the Welsh, there is a problem. Irish tales told by Anglo Irish people who are reinterpreting what was written down by centuries of Christian monks cannot count as “Irish myth”.  We have no real idea of what gods the Irish Celts worshipped or what their druids actually had to do with them. Unlike in Asatru where Heathens have confronted their dearth of knowledge about Norse worship and practice for the last forty years, druids and other pagans centered around Celtic revivalism have never faced this fact. When one turns to the Mabinogion, what it yields is the same problem but in thinner form There are comparatively fewer stories and a far weaker tradition that in the Irish Cycle. While the Irish myths are translate by Lady Gregory a self identified Irish woman, though certainly a virtually English one, Lady Charlotte Guest who gives us the Mabinogion, isn’t Welsh at all. Like Lady Gregory, she is taking her work from medieval monks and though both modern witches and druids have attempted to say the Mabinogion is a mythology and point out that many of its characters are Welsh gods the actual text does not support this. The Mabinogion gives us no real knowledge of Welsh gods, welsh religion or welsh druidry. In fact, since the people of Wales did not come together from scattered parts of Britain and acknowledge themselves as a people, there actually could not have been a Welsh mythology as Welsh people did not exist as a people until well after they were Christian. The Welsh myth was the same as the English myth or the French: Christianity.  The Celtic gods we do know of, Epono, Cernunnos, Taranis, Esus, and a few others make no appearance in either the Mabinogion of the Irish Cycle.  Nor is there any mention of the Wheel of the Year which even the NOD acknowledges is a late invention based, not in a Celtic paganism, but in a British Christian calendar. If we are to move to a real and effective druidry, then we must move away from accepting what has been set down and begin deeply researching, realizing we have far less knowledge of the past than we thought we did. But less is not nothing. We do have some knowledge, some seeds, and what is more, rather than an ancient body of knowledge and a book of modern Irish myths, we have several living myths. If  mall seeds, for certain, and beginning with these small seeds.

            If a druid is a practitioner of magic working in a Celtic mode, then the operative word is: IS. And that means it is not so much for us to ask what a Celt WAS, but what a Celt is, and not so much what was that spirituality then, but how do we live in it NOW? This means new interpretations of both Celt AND druid, and I will move toward those in future essays. My answers are SOME answers. They are MY answers. If you are concerned with the question, then the answers that matter most will be yours, but maybe mine can help.

Toward an Actual Druidry: Part One

Around the same time as my dedication, I began to look at druidry and even entered the New Druid Order. My stay was brief, and then, years later, when I finally took my first and second degrees in the Craft, I returned to that order. It seemed the most fair and transparent and useful of the orders, as well as the most economic, no bundled packages of CD correspondence lessons in how to be a druid—whatever that meant—and so I returned, doing the dull, dull course work that would take me through the three steps of druidry. This business last about two weeks before I left again. Now, as I have looked at the way I practice, especially in how my work as a poet and artist stems from the Work, is the most important part of the the Work,  it seems important to look to druidry again, and again I have been looking and again I get the same feeling I’ve always gotten, the feeling that turns me away, and yet I now know druidry, this path which weaves are and wisdom and magic and spirituality, must be part of my practice. So… what turns me away, and what is druidry?

One thing that has always turned me away is the perception—given by druid groves themselves—that druidry is a lamer/tamer version of the Craft. If it is magic, and it isn’t necessarily, then it is a lighter more acceptable magic. Druids are acceptable if quaint. They are not exactly a mystery tradition, for there is no mystery. There is no initiatory ceremony, though if you join an order you will likely pay money to progress to the highest degree. There are the three grades, bard and ovate and finally druid, in most orders, and even in the free orders like the NOD to which I still technically belong, there is no mystery but rather a set of courses, essays to be written until you pass from one phase to another. There is no system, no world view except that druids are outdoorsy and like Irish mythology, and may pray to Irish—or sometimes Welsh—gods. There is no real rousing message, indeed, unlike witches, druids don’t want to be roused too much. You want to be sensible. I spent two hours reading a The Path of Druidry by Penny Billington, that was written with the blessing of the head of the OBOD where the writer tranquilly said that druids should never call attention to themselves, blend into the every day world and not get involved in any heady business that would make them not fit in, not be able to make a normal living. It was, and this has probably always been irritating, a manifesto to sameness. Good druids make good citizens. Druidry assumes that you not only wish to be sensible and fit in, but that you are capable of doing these things. Her book was to the Dionysian wine of witchcraft, O’Douls. Modern Druidry does not let Dionysus in. Neo Druids are the province of Apollo—excuse me—Lugh.

            This outline of Neo druids seem to be, is what I sort of hate, and this surely has to do with the roots of modern druids, in the patriarchal, fraternal society of the late 1700’s growing up along the lines of the Freemasons, the Golden Dawn and even the Mormons, it is of a piece with tame, malecentric orders which shun the dark, disdain the feminine, the juicy and the sexual and uphold the status quo. Made by the upper class and upper middle class, all of these secret semi spiritual groups upheld the boat rather than rocked it. Not rocking the boat and not challenging perceptions is as welcome among the light and the liberal as it is among conservations and one reason why modern druids fit in well enough with the hodgepodge of pastel neo paganism. From the three rayed awen symbol, to the word awen itself to the three successive divisions of bard, ovate, druid even until calling gatherings groves or nemetons, most druid orders are more or less the same. This tells us what neo druidry is, but it does not answer the question: what is a druid?

To answer what is, one must ask what was. This is a harder business for a few reasons. What we know about druids depends on what know about Celts and it turns out what we know is very little. The idea that Celtic=Irish and Irish=whatever it is imagined to be in a post late 19^th century romanticism is false. The next reason is because the information on actual druids is thin, and the information we think we have comes from the 1700s. The word druid itself is a Latin word for the third of the three classes of priest-minstrel-lawmakers of the Gauls as described by Julius Caesar. Tacitus later writes about them and how their stronghold of Mona was destroyed in the first century by the Romans, but accepting Roman descriptions of people they vanquished  and killed is like acception General Custer’s explanation of Native American culture, or the word of a white Southern slave owner about the spiritual lives of the people he kept in bondage. To know anything about what a druid is we must turn to actual Celtic sourses.

In Wales the word is derwydd, in Old Irish druí, In Old Cornish druw is the word and in Middle Welsh it is dryw . Most of these words translate our to sorcerer while the Welsh translates to “seer” and, probably “wren”. More on that later. The idea that druids were scientist, or that they were musicians and professors, or that there were three grades of them is not here. The idea that they may or may not have practiced a light form of magic is not here, either. From the actual Celtic sources what emerges is that Druid is the Celtic word which aligns with the English Saxon word we know as wicce: Witch.  

So, why in the world would Neo Druids take their lead from Julius Caesar, a conqueror looking from the outside in with no real reason to tell the truth and no archaeological skills as far as we know? Interestingly enough, the revival of modern druidry from which most druids take their cues was in England, a conquering country in an early empire just as Caesar was a conqueror in a new empire. Like Georgian England, Roman Britain was as was not ruled by, but ruling over actual Celtic people. Those first Neo druids were middle class and wealthy Englishmen, even when they happened to have Welsh blood, and they had no need or reason to question Caesar and so they didn’t, and yet the actual Celtic sources describe the druids by one word with many implications, sorcerer.

The Autumn Fast, or: Making Your Own Holy Days

This week we went through the Autumn Fast. The idea came to me not through some ancient tradition, but by watching the show the Path where they have a day of atonement in the autumn and, of course, their day of atonement is based in the actual day of atonement, Yom Kippur. When my day of Fasting would occur, I couldn’t say. Fascinated by Judaism again, I thought I might do my fast on Yom Kippur, definitely use some of the Jewish songs and rituals I used during my time in that faith. In the end, I did, but it wasn’t on Yom Kippur. I had decided this day must happen on its own and actually on the time when it could best happen. A fast that last longer than a day is something that is discombobulating to say the least, and so spring break was the best time, and now to find the best day and prepare.

            But I would never thought of this day if I had not listened to the Alexandrian witch Maxine Sanders talking about her preparation for her degrees back in the 1960’s and her preparation for magic now and how she and her witches would fast. “Not a complete fast, but you’ll be eating nuts, and berries, wild honey…” This idea completely excited me, and I hadn’t undergone such a fast since the day before I took my first and second degrees almost three years ago.

            So, as I entered into the Autumn Fast, my first feelings, and my dominate feels were joy and excitement. Let’s just state that. And I was grateful for the Jewish songs and prayers because one thing they made me conscious of, as using Christian hymns and services have too, is what my purpose was NOT and what my religion was NOT. I was here to start again, to get to some ground zero, to clean out unwanted and useless things and get ready to the change of a new year. I was even here to change my life. Eating very little does focus someone who loves junk food on what can be let go of. But I was NOT really here to be sorry, or to apologize to a father God. I was here to grow closer to my God and closer to my magic, to refine it with the sacrifice of hunger and time the same way the housle refines one by the sacrifice of bread and wine. Like Maxine Sanders, I was here to be cleansed for the new magic and new revelations, and here to deal with the discomforts which might occur within the twenty-five hours of fasting, here to meet the things I’d rather not meet which were sure to appear to me, as well as to be surprised by the joys I could not imagine.

            The end of a fast is a strange feeling because you have not really understood what you are doing or what you are… achieving. At the end of it, you are just coming into something, just beginning to almost understand, and now you are coming back into the real world. And, of course, just because you have taken food again, and formally closed out one day, does not mean what you undertook in your fast is over. The Fast is not on Yom Kippur or Good Friday at the end of a season. It is Ash Wednesday, and the beginning of things.

            Now the Autumn Fast is done ,and next year it will probably take place earlier, but we are only a few days, less than two weeks, from All Hallows and the entry into the Castle of the Utter West. What this Castle is I do not know, and what the journey will be like, I cannot say.

But One Step

"Ye who take but one step on this path must continue to the end, for this path is beyond life or death."

-Patricia Crowther

The Esbat begins tonight, probably the last one where i will walk without gloves or major clothes for several months. The moon is so full and white and it shines on the water, and I go from the river, to the steps of the Freemason Temple, to the Place of offerings. There is a tremendous sense of freedom and I think about all the times when I belonged to some church, som religion, some society, and I gave so much of my soul and my time to other people and other things. This day, no matter the loneliness or desolation of the path, it is the path that is set for me, and no matter how hard the work, this is my spiritual work. As we come closer to Samhain, I am full of gratitude for following this path so many years and it growing deeper and deeper, rich and richer. I look forward to All Hallows, when I consecrate myself to another year of this beauty, and await the gifts that will be given as I offer my life as a gift. One thing I know our gods are as harsh as our hearts. Have faith. Have love, have trust, and then perfect them. Do not throw away what it is not time to discard, but let go of that which must leave. Live again, love again, be open again. Be tender. Be resolved. Be dedicated.

At This Time of Year

These days there is more experiencing things that writing about them. After reading about journeying, I am finally journeying, traveling into the Perilous Castle, and that is more a matter of private experience than article writing. The autumn is a time of transition, and not transition into apparent and glorious green life, but transition from heat to cold, from green to brown, from leaves in bloom to leaves drying and dying. The grasses, browned by summer, have their flush of deep green again, but often the dying of the year looks like dying. What is ahead of us is the winter, and we are already dealing with the many hardships and disappointments of life. Autumn can be nearly as difficult as the winter.

As I write this it is Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement. When I was in a Jewish community, I experienced several Yom Kippurs. The Jewish calendar is a lunar one, and Yom Kippur takes place a set number of days after Rosh Hoshanah, the New Year, or rather the first New Moon of the New Year.  The autumn is a time of beginning again, because it is a time of ending. Biblical evidence, as well as the evidence of the Jewish calendar is that the year originally started in the spring with Passover, and Christianity even has a variation of the that tension, what with Advent in winter being the beginning of the Church year, but the candle which marks every Church year being lit on Easter several months later in the spring.

            So it’s not strange at all that the witchly life would be marked by something like this. At this time of year, personally, I feel the need for beginning again, or a sort of turning around, which is what repentance means. I do see the dual nature of beginning again. It was in high summer, many years ago, I was initiated, but it was at Samhain that I took the first of my degrees and resolutely set out on the path I have not turned from. This time of the year has meant so many things.  When I was younger it was a vague time to think about eery things and shiver. When I was older it was a time when I turned my mind to the magic I ignored most of the year. Later this was the time to seriously think about being initiated and taking up a different life and then later a time when I wondered if I was any good at it and could still do it. These days it is a time to return to the heart of things, dig down and get rid of what isn’t essential before dedicating for another year.