In my magical youth I was taught to call the quarters by element: Fire and Water, Earth and Air. There was some … disagreement as to which came from which direction. I quickly learned that, though some people would protest when you didn’t do it their way, every element would answer from every direction. I even learned – for the joy of argument – to invent a rationale for every possible attribution.
As my magical education improved, I learned that before modern witches called elements to watch the edges of their circles, others had called upon archangels. There was not much better agreement of which archangel ruled each direction than there was which element, but one could see certain similarities between the two, and how the one had clearly grown out of the other.
And then I learned that before certain magicians, too “pure” (or too afraid) to sully their circles with anything less, called angels to watch over their rites, their predecessors had called upon four demon kings. And these kings had no elemental associations – though that did come later. No, they were rulers of the sublunary world, each believed to have dominion over certain regions of the earth. One – Oriens – did not even have a proper name, just a foreign word for “East”.
From there, it seems clear to me how the evolution had happened: how we came from demon-kings to elemental gates. And, at every step of the path, it all worked. And, because it all works, tracing the lineages is a matter of academic passion, and I will leave you to do so if and only if it amuses you.
Today, I still sometimes call upon the elements for certain rituals. For others, I call upon certain stars which relate to the directions relative to where I stand. But, for the most part, I simply call upon those who keep the quarters without names:
“Hail unto you, O you keepers of the quarters and dwellers on the threshold.”
I cannot tell you who it is that rules the quarters in the part of the world (both physical or magical) where I have erected my temple. I have, once or twice, called upon them to reveal themselves to me. I have seen hints of faces – human, animal, other – but nothing clear. Not yet. Some day soon, it will be time to call upon them one by one, learn their names and their seals.
The dwellers on the threshold are more mysterious. It was a Theosophist who first wrote of the Guardian of the Threshold. I think that I read of it – of them – in some work of the Golden Dawn.
They are best known for hovering at the edge of the circle, and for looming in the face of the practitioner as they prepare to step into the unknown. They are the spiritual embodiment of the question, “Are you ready?” And when you tell them, “yes, I am ready”, and they believe you, they step aside.
There are those who say that the question they pose is, “Are you afraid?” And to the fearful and unready, those questions are the same. But fear can be rational. Fear can by holy. You can be ready and still be afraid.
I call on these powers at the start of each day because I … feel that it is appropriate.
I do not know, precisely, who they are. I know that I have had visions in which Lucifer has claimed the title of Dweller on the Threshold (the image of which I have included above). But I suspect that he is not the only one to bear that title.
Beyond Lucifer, himself, I have as yet made no effort to contact these powers more directly. Perhaps I will, some day, but – for the moment, at least – that does not seem to be their role. For now, I acknowledge their place and their power: the edge of the circle, keeping me from stepping out into unknowns for which I, on some level, know that I am not ready.
Thank you for reading Journey Through the Obsidian Dream.
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