Showing all posts in witchcraft

In witchcraft

Calling the Great Bear

Author Satyr MagosPosted on
Calling the Great Bear

Aradia and I rolled into Dead Horse Point State Park in the late in the afternoon, mid-June of 2019. The winds were high and the sun was setting fast as we unloaded the car. It was full dark by the time we finished setting up the tent. The moon was full and bright. The winds were high and loud. The RVs in the neighboring camp sites did not really respect the quiet hours when it came to running their air conditioners.

I lay awake in my tent, listening to the wind. I stared out the window, and I could see the Great Bear hanging low in the sky.

In the morning, I realized three things: there is no window in that corner of the tent; even if there had been a window, the juniper trees between my camp site and the next would have obscured any view of the sky; even if there had been a view to see, I had not been wearing my glasses.

It was not the first time the Bear had caught my attention: it had also featured prominently in our skywalk at Beltane. Nor was it the last: it seemed to hover over every camp site after. So, for that matter, did the ravens. If there had been any doubt that the vision of the Bear was Not Just A Dream, the omnipresent raven omens would have put that to bed.

I stewed on that vision for weeks. I consulted what lore I could find, little though it was. I couldn’t figure out what to do with that experience.

Then, in the preparation for one of our Lunar Shenanigans esbats, Aradia and Alvianna and I got to talking. The Great Bear includes the fixed star Polaris, and would be a powerful engine for fate-changing magic. The Sun would only be a few degrees past Polaris, so that full moon would be as good a time as any to do work with that constellation. Alvianna took that inspiration and ran; all credit for the ritual I am about to describe belongs to her.

We began by calling upon the four nearest constellations as our quarters: Bootes, Leo, Auriga, Draco. We called upon the Great Bear, herself, to watch over the rite. We called upon the stars within ourselves, as above so below, to mirror the stars in the sky.

In the presence of the stars, we gathered around our altar and meditated. What did we desire? What would we call upon the Great Bear to manifest for us? How could we rectify our fates?

We crushed beries and mixed honey and earth to make crude ink, which we used to paint our desires on our bodies.

Then we called down the Great Bear again, one star at a time: Dubhe, Merak, Phad, Megrez, Alioth, Mizar, Alcor, Alkaid. Her power filled us, spilled out over us. It changed us, changed our relationships, changed our kingdoms, changed our fates.

In witchcraft

PGM Shenanigans: Pray to the Moon

Author Satyr MagosPosted on

This past Sunday, Aradia and I took one of the rituals from the class we’re taking on the Greek Magical Papyri and adapted it into an esbat rite for our Lunar Shenanigans crew. The results were very well received, and good times were had by all, so I thought I’d share it here.

The core conceit, of course, is the prayer PGM VII 756-94, which is presented essentially without context. To this we added an anointing oil, such as seen in the Helios ritual we had also done as a part of Jack Grayle’s PGM Praxis course. To maximize the benefits of the oil, we mixed it by a consensus process: several Shenanigans members bringing oils and maeteria to contribute to my and Aradia’s collection, and deciding in the moment which to add and which to not, and then blessing the oil and the altar with the Orphic Hymn to Selene. We used the Thomas Taylor translation of the Hymn, presented below with a few alterations, because I did not have time to transcribe the Dunn or Athanassakis translations, which I would otherwise prefer, and because Taylor is in the public domain.

Looking at the PGM prayer, itself, you will see that I have broken the barbarous words / magical names / Vocces Magicae out into single-sound chunks. That’s because they’re the hardest VM I have ever tried to pronounce, and I wasn’t going to send my friends in without preparation.

Reports from within my inner circle so far, particularly those of us in the PGM class, have found that the ritual produces increased energy, sometimes insomnia, immediately, followed by a surprising amount of pep come dawn for the next several days.

Outline

  1. Preparation
    1. Erect a temple space, ideally before your group arrives, with an inner and outer portion
    2. In the outer temple space, set up options for purification. Possible options include
      1. Fumigation (sage, sulfer, storax, whatever)
      2. Wash hands and face in lustral waters (my blend is salt, Florida water, and tap water)
      3. Dust hands with cinnamon (as described in Hekataeon and elsewhere)
    3. Process into the empty temple space
  2. Consecrate Temple and Tools
    1. As a group, build or rebuild the altar for the Lunar powers you will invoke, including candles for each of your Lunar gods (in our case, Selene and Hekate
    2. Set up a scrying medium
    3. Blend your anointing oil as a group
    4. Pour wine offering to Moon
    5. Bless oil and candles with Orphic Hymn to Selene (and/or Hekate to taste)
  3. Adapted and Expanded PGM VII 756-94
    1. Pour wine offering
    2. Light candles
    3. Suffumigations of myrrh (and other lunar incense?)
    4. Anoint hands, face, head with lunar oil
    5. Chant prayer
    6. Repeat 4, 5 twice (three times total)
    7. Final anointing with lunar oil
    8. Water scrying
    9. Thank goddess(es) for their attendance
    10. Final wine offering
  4. Poscript
    1. Drink copious amounts of wine
    2. Tarot & other divination for yourself and your friends

ORPHIC HYMN TO SELENE

Hear, goddess queen, diffusing silver light,

Bull-horned and wandering through the gloom of night. 

With stars surrounded, and with circuit wide

Night’s torch extending, through the heavens you ride:

Female and male with borrowed rays you shine,

And now full-orbed, now tending to decline.

Mother of ages, fruit-producing moon,

Whose amber orb makes night’s reflected noon:

Lover of horses, splendid, queen of night,

All-seeing power bedecked with starry light.

Lover of vigilance, the foe of strife,

In peace rejoicing, and a prudent life:

Fair lamp of night, its ornament and friend,

Who gives to nature’s works their destined end.

Queen of the stars, all-wise Artemis hail!

Decked with a graceful robe and shining veil;

Come, blessed goddess, prudent, starry, bright,

Come luner lamp with chaste and splendid light,

Shine on these sacred rites with prosperous rays,

And please accept your suppliant’s mystic praise.

PGM VII 756-94

I call upon you, who have all forms and many names, double-horned goddess MENE, whose form no one knows

(except him who made the entire world, IAO The one who shaped you into the twenty-eight shapes of the world So that you might complete every figure and distribute breath to every animal and plant, That it might flourish);

you who wax from obscurity into light, and wane from light into darkness.

And the first companion of your name is silence,

The second a popping sound,

The third a groaning,

The fourth hissing,

The fifth a cry of joy,

The sixth moaning,

The seventh barking,

The eight bellowing,

The ninth neighing,

The tenth a musical sound,

The eleventh a sounding wind,

The twelfth a wind-creating sound,

The thirteenth a coercive sound,

The fourteenth a coercive emanation from perfection.

Ox! Vulture! Bull! Beetle! Falcon! Crab! Dog! Wolf! Serpent! Horse! She-Goat!

Asp! He-Goat! Baboon! Cat! Lion! Leopard! Fieldmouse! Deer!

Multiform, virgin, torch, lightning, garland, a herald’s wand, child, key:

I have said your signs and symbols of your name so that you might hear me,

Because I pray to you, Mistress of the whole world.

Hear me, you, the Stable One, the Mighty One:

APH-EI-BO-E-O MIN-TER OKHA-O PI-ZEPH-Y-DOR KHAN-THAR KHA-DER-OZO

MOKH-THI-ON E-OT-NEU PHER-ZON A-IN-DES LAKH-AB-O-O PIT-TO RIPH-THA-MER

ZMO-MOKH-OL-EI-E TI-ED-RAN-TEI-A O-I-SO-ZO-KHA-BE-DOR-PHRA

In scholarship, witchcraft

Invoking PGM Powers I: Aphrodite, Helios, Selene

Author Satyr MagosPosted on

As I mentioned recently, I’m taking Jack Grayle’s PGM Praxix: 50 Rites for 50 Nights. Our first two weeks actually covered three rituals: a spell “to win a beautiful woman” by invoking a secret name of Aphrodite; an invocation of Helios for a variety of boons and to “accomplish the matter I want”; and, finally, a prayer to draw the attention of the Moon by names and symbols of both Selene and Hekate

Love Spell: PGM IV 1265-74

Aphrodite’s name which becomes known to no one quickly is NEPHERIERI – this is the name. If you wish to win a woman who is beautiful, be pure for 3 days, make an offering of frankincense, and call upon this name over it. You approach the woman and say it seven times in your soul as you gaze at her, and in this way it will succecd. But do this for 7 days.

Betz 1986, p.62

Not gonna lie: this opening spell gave me pause. Not just because “love spell, what the fuck?” but because the spell calls for the sorcerer to “be pure” for three days and I have strong fucking feelings about purity. But I’m taking a class, and following a system, and that means playing by the rules as written. In addition to eschewing the “obvious” sources of miasma — sex, death, animals, &c. — Jack recommended that we fast. To that end, I reluctantly chose a meatless diet and gave up candy for good measure.

For our execution of the spell, Aradia and I chose the Night and Hour of Venus. We erected a Venus altar, set a playlist, bathed, dressed in white, and dusted ourselves with cinnamon. After doing some divination, we went into the spell with little preamble: burning frankincense and chanting the name over and over and over for about twenty minutes. I got high as hell, and promptly used the whammy on my own damn self, which I repeated over the next days leading up to a photoshoot I had had planned.

That shit more than tingled.

Jack’s research indicates that the name Nepherieri is probably an Egyptian phrase meaning “The Eye of Beauty”, and in addition to trying to counter some of the self-hate one inevitably picks up as a queerdo living among the normies, I used the power of the Eye to fuel a photoshoot that I had scheduled for the following Sunday. It was only my second shoot working with multiple models and I had not worked with either woman before, and I was somewhat nervous. Owing at least in part to the magic, the images we made turned out astoundingly well.

Prayer to Helios: PGM XXVI 211-30

Prayer to Helios: A charm to restrain anger and for victory and for securing favor (none is greater): Say to the sun (Helios) [the prayer] 7 times, and anoint your band with oil and wipe it on your head and face. Now [the prayer] is: “Rejoice with me, you who are set over the cast wind and the world, for whom all the gods serve as bodyguards at your good hour and on your good day, you who are the Good Daimon of the world, the crown of the inhabited world, you who rise from the abyss, you who each day rise a young man and Set an old man, HARPENKNOUPHI BRINTANTENOPHRI BRISSKYLMAS / AROURZORBOROBA MESINTRIPHI NIPTOUMI CHMOUMMAOPHI. I beg you, lord, do not allow me to be overthrown, to be plotted against, to receive dangerous drugs, to go
into exile, to fall upon hard times. Rather, I ask to obtain and receive from you life, health, reputation, wealth, influence, strength, success, charm, favor with all men and all women, victory over all men and all women. Yes, lord, ABLANATHANALBA AKKAMMACHAMARI PEPHNA PHOZA PHNEBENNOUNI NAACHTHIP . . . OUNORBA. Accomplish the matter which I want, by means of your power.”

Ibid. p.274

The solar rite was a return to more familiar territory. My relationship with Solar powers aren’t quite as good as my relationship with Venusian forces, but it’s close, and the prayer had a lot in common with the Picatrix rites that I’ve been fucking with in my spare time.

We had hoped to perform the rite on the Day and Hour of the Sun, but Sunday and Monday were both overcast. Tuesday, however, came through: the skies were clear and provided an Hour of the Sun not long after dawn, before either of us had to go to work. We sat outside in our yard where we could face the sun rising in the east, lit a stick of frankincense, poured a cup of olive oil to use for the anointing, and set forth. We anointed ourselves with oil before every repetition and after the seventh.

I did not get much effect immediately, besides the hypnotic effects of repetition. Within the hour, though, the power began to build, and I went in to Tuesday’s photoshoot full of Authority and produced another round of really solid images.

Prayer to Selene: VII 756-94

Prayer: I call upon you who have all forms and many names, double-horned goddess, Mene, whose form no one knows except him who made the entire world, IAO, the one who shaped [you] into the twenty-eight shapes of the world so that they might complete every figure and distribute breath to every animal and plant, that it might flourish, you who grow from obscurity into light and leave light for darkness” (beginning to leave by waning). And the first companion of your name is silence, the second a popping sound, the third groaning, the fourth hissing, the fifth a cry of joy, the sixth moaning, the seventh barking, the eighth bellowing, the ninth neighing, I the tenth a musical sound, the eleventh a sounding wind, the twelfth a wind-creating sound, the thirteenth a coercive sound, the fourteenth a coercive emanation from perfection. Ox, vulture, bull, beetle, falcon, crab, dog, wolf, serpent, horse, she-goat, asp, goat, he-goat, baboon, cat, lion, leopard, fieldmouse, deer, multiform, virgin, torch, lightning, garland, a herald’s wand, child, key. I have said your signs and symbols of your name so that you might hear me, because I pray to you, mistress of the whole world. Hear me, you, the stable one, the mighty one, APHEIHOEO MINTER OCHAO PIZEPHYDOR CHANTHAK CIiADE ROZO MOCWTHION EOTNEU PHERZON AINDES LACHABOO PITTO RIPHTHAMER ZMOMOCHOLEIE TIEDRANTEIA OISOZOCHAHEDOPHRA” (add the usual).

Ibid, pp.139-40

Jack included this Lunar prayer in the second week because he felt it bore strong parallels to the Helios prayer, and I have to agree. Though the original text includes no ritual instructions, just the prayer, I very much have to agree.

We had been struggling to find a Lunar hour at which Aradia and I were available, so when my D&D game Wednesday night was unexpectedly cancelled, we leapt at the opportunity to do the ritual before midnight. I came home from delivering Alvianna her dinner (she hosts my game, a favor for which I sometimes repay her in food), and went about converting the Venus altar from Friday into a Lunar altar. When the appointed hour came, lit our charcoal, burned myrrh, and began. We recited the prayer three times, anointing ourselves before, between, and after with the Lunar oil that Alvianna (who is also in the class) had made during her own rendition.

The effects were powerful and immediate. I was afraid I wouldn’t be able to sleep. Sleep, I did: deeply if not long. I awoke early Thursday morning and got up immediately to write. And again Friday. And again Saturday.

Aradia and I like the ritual so much that we decided to share it with our pseudo-coven, the Lunar Shenanigans crew, despite the fact that these are the most difficult Vocces Magicae I have ever attempted to pronounce. To that end, I broke out the barbarous words for ease of pronunciation: APH-EI-BO-E-O MIN-TER OKHA-O PI-ZEPH-Y-DOR KHAN-THAR KHA-DER-OZO MOKH-THI-ON E-OT-NEU PHER-ZON A-IN-DES LAKH-AB-O-O PIT-TO RIPH-THA-MER ZMO-MOKH-OL-EI-E TI-ED-RAN-TEI-A O-I-SO-ZO-KHA-BE-DOR-PHRA. Somewhat to my amusement, however, they were more startled by, “the menagerie”.

The second round was, for lack of a better way to describe it, less like sorcery and more like religion. We made a more elaborate ritual of the prayer, which I will write up for a separate post in a bit. The sensations were lighter, cooler, clearer, deeper. We stayed up late talking and laughing, but then went to sleep with little trouble. We slept late but when we woke, got up swiftly.

Cumulation and Synthesis

Inevitably, doing these rituals so close together — Friday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Sunday — it is impossible to say, precisely, where the effect of one ends and the next begins. I had mostly come down from the Eye of Beauty when we invoked Helios, but I was still riding that high when we called upon the Moon. I didn’t come down from that until the following Sunday morning, when the combination of a bad day in retail and the archonic rite of Daylight Savings Time conspired to bring me back down to earth.

I am disappointed to report that neither the Aphrodite nor Helios invocations did shit to minimize my pre-photoshoot anxiety. Nor did reiterating the prayer to the Moon bring me back to the high that I had been enjoying before the crash, though I will say I feel very good as I finish this write-up the morning after.

I do believe that the rituals did a great deal to minimize my post-socialization anxiety. Episodes that usually last 30-90 minutes were reduced to 10 or 15. Since the Eye of Beauty invocation, I have felt better and more resilient overall, like there is more possibility and potential in the world. I have been both more sensitive to and less vulnerable to magical influences around me.

While I have felt better, and have gotten a lot of writing done, I will say that I have NOT been more focused, overall. Less, if we’re being honest. In particular, my ability to sit down and do my day job has been … hampered. I got a lot of housecleaning done yesterday before our esbat, but I was bouncing all around the house, picking things up, putting them down, moving far from efficiently.

Finally, my initial reaction to the rites was a feeling that they had a lot in common, energetically, with Rufus Opus’ Seven Spheres rites and, as I mentioned above, certain Picatrix prayers. I stand by that analysis. I believe that these prayers/rites/rituals would be good for both planetary initiations and for enchanting talismans. I will put the latter theory to the test as soon as I find a suitable election.

In scholarship, witchcraft

Invoking PGM Powers: Prologue

Author Satyr MagosPosted on

At the end of February, Aradia and I, along with the rest of the Kansas City Sorcerous Arts Collective, signed up for Jack Grayle’s year-long class on the Greek Magical Papyri: PGM Praxis: 50 Rites for 50 Nights, offered via the Blackthorne School. We, along with seventy-odd others, are following Jack down a rabbit hole I’ve been circling for a while, putting the fragmentary spells of the PGM into practice, and I’m very excited.

PGM Praxis: 50 Rites for 50 Nights | Jack Grayle | The Blackthorne School

It’s worth noting, here at the outset, that while I have been practicing magic since 1996, have attended lots of workshops and have studied a lot of systems, I have never before taken a long-form, externally-directed class. Intense study periods have often coincided with my best blogging periods. On the one hand, I imagine that will be true of this, as well; on the other, there are course materials that I cannot, in good faith, share to those not taking the class.

I have, of course, done some work with the Greek Magical Papyri before. I have been using the Stele of Jeu the Hieroglyphist (PGM V. 96-172) since Jack Faust introduced me to it back in 2012. I have made more than one pass through the book since, looking for either rites to experiment with (though I never had the nerve / inspiration to do any of the ones that caught my eye) and for inspiration for magical practices for characters in my novels.

But this is a guided tour. With homework. And technical support. And I am very, very excited.

We’re into the third week, now, as I type this. We have done our first three rituals (week two had a two-fer) and are winding up to do our fourth. I’ve spent most of the last two weeks on an escalating high of magical power, more optimistic and resilient than I have been in years. Only the one-two punch of a Bad Day in Retail and the Archonic vampirism of Daylight Savings Time has been able to blunt my ecstasy. There will be more about that in the next post.

My classmates — not just the KCSAC — are starting to open up about their adaptations and experiences, and it’s fucking fascinating. Unfortunately, that’s the last I’ll be able to say about that, though I hope to encourage the rest of the Collective to blog about their experiences, and will share the public posts of any of our classmates who want such attention.

It is, of course, possible that I will be less enthused about things at some point (or points) over the course of the remaining 47 weeks. That’s how things go, sometimes. But right now, I’m really, really stupid excited. And I’m going to hold on to that for as long as I can.

On a technical note: we are, of course, using the University of Chicago Press edition of The Greek Magical Papyri in Translation, Including the Demotic Spells, as edited by Hans Dieter Betz. We are at times augmenting this by use of the Orphic Hymns, for which I usually favor the Apostolos N. Athanassakis edition. I also happen to have a copy of Stephen Skinner’s Techniques of Graeco-Egyptian Magic, which may come in handy.

The Greek Magical Papyri in Translation, Including the Demotic Spells, Volume 1
In art, witchcraft

Occult Art: DIY Grimoire

Author Satyr MagosPosted on

I may or may not have mentioned here that I changed jobs a few years ago, upgrading from the one-hour jewelry repair joint in the mall to my city’s premiere occult store. So, yeah. That happened. It’s been fucking fantastic, except for the temptations.

For two and a half years, I managed to walk by these every day and keep my hands to myself. Early in December I finally caved.

Jeweler’s Bench For Scale

This is not the first hilariously expensive journal I’ve bought for myself. I swore that this time I would not let it languish. This time I had a plan. Inspired by some occult-adjacent artwork, I set out to make a magical book that would work as well in a circle as it would in a photoshoot.

I actually started almost immediately, transcribing the Stele of Jeu onto some of the first pages of the book.

The Stele of Jeu the Hieroglyphist

I can already report that the Stele of Jeu produces even stronger results this way than using my old “book of shadows”, comprised of computer-printed pages in a three-ring binder. (Which, to be clear, worked super well, both in private and in public. But it wasn’t #aesthetic enough for me at this stage in my life.)

Yesterday I spent a few hours playing with magic circles and orphic hymns.

For Conjuring Spirits of the Moon
For Conjuring Spirits of Venus

The hardest parts so far have been: A) recognizing that it is not going to end up being perfectly ordered; and, B) carpel tunnel makes hand-writing the text really, really hard (harder than the drawing, to my surprise). The first did not come as a surprise. My obsession with well-ordered books is part of how I resisted buying such a thing in the first place; convincing myself that the aesthetic was worth it was the first step in deciding to buy it. The second, though I should have known better, was very much a surprise.

Careful observers will note that, while the Stele of Jeu is at the very beginning, the conjuration circles are in the middle. No, I haven’t filled the space in between. I put the circles there because I intend to balance candles and crystals on the open pages, and I figure that will go better if it lies relatively flat.

For anyone who is curious, yes, those are the Athanassakis translations. The particular Triangle of Art is idiosyncratic, shown to me by the spirits of Saturn during my first run of Seven Spheres in Seven Days (which apparently I need to write a new post about, because the artwork on the first one did not survive migration to the new web host).

Future plans for the tome include adding the original Greek to the two Orphic hymns above, the healing prayer to St. Raphael that my crew and I have used to good effect on several occasions, and the most outrageous occult art illuminations that I can free hand under the influence of drugs and/or magic.

This level of drama is, of course, not necessary for the practice of magic. Not even the magic I intend to use it for. But I fucking love the drama: how else would so much ceremonialism made its way into my witchcraft? So I make fine jewelry talismans for myself, my friends, and for profit. I make art exploring occult and magical themes and images. And I make magical tools that double as props for occult themed photoshoots.

And I’m here to say: if you, too, are an artist and occultist, you should, too.

Even if you Keep Silent, and no one but you is going to see it.

In witchcraft

Dream of a Coven

Author Satyr MagosPosted on

Since stepping into a leadership role in the Kansas City Pagan community, I have been asked one question more than any other. Though I have stepped back from that role, the question still follows me. It rings loud in every digital venue where Pagans gather.

“How do I join a coven?”

There are variations, of course: “Where do I find a coven?” “Are there any covens looking for new members?” “Where can I get an initiation?” “Will you initiate me?”

Responsible leaders always give the same answer: go to public gatherings and meet people. Go to New Age stores. Go to Meet-Ups. Go to classes and workshops. Go to festivals and Pagan Pride Days. Meet people. Make friends. Engage in the community at large. Wait for an invitation.

People don’t like this answer. Probably for a variety of reasons. And, to a point, I understand. I, too, once dreamed of joining a coven. Sometimes I still do.

The dream of a coven runs deep in modern neo-Pagan Witchcraft. It is, in fact, central to our founding mythology: Gerald Gardner, intrepid veteran and amateur archaeologist, initiated into New Forrest Coven by “Old Dorothy” and taught the old ways of magic and the Goddess. Gardner, in turn, recruited, initiated, and instructed his own students, and sent them out in the world to do the same. (1) Semi-public teaching covens tracing their lineage back to Gardner (and his rivals and imitators, such as Alex Sanders) then came to the United States to spread their traditions. (2)

From the very beginning there have been far more people who wanted to be in a coven then there have been covens for them to join. Books like Buckland’s Complete Book of Witchcraft and Ed Fitch’s Grimoire of Shadows (originally distributed as hand-typed and photocopied manuscripts) invented the notion of the Outer Court to bridge that gap. In many ways the entire movement of Pagan festivals exists for the same reason. (3) In the process, an idealized image of witchcraft came into being: a handful or a dozen of beautiful, naked people, dancing and feasting and fucking in the moonlight, high on magic and religious ecstasy. And the word for that image became “coven.”

Now, the thing of it is, most US Witches and Pagans come from Protestant backgrounds. Even those from other backgrounds — particularly Catholic — grew up saturated in Protestant culture. Half the time a Protestant says “religion” they really mean “denomination”, and don’t really have a concept of how different non-Christian religions are from the church they grew up in.

So, with that in mind, it is my observation that many Witches in the United States mistake a Tradition for a denomination and a coven for a church. They expect to find them in abundance, with neon signs and open doors and waiting arms. They expect initiation to come without effort or cost.

Now, to be clear, before we go any further: I am not Wiccan. I have never been initiated. I have never been a part of a coven. Nor am I speaking ill of either covens or the desire to be a part of one. What I am is a student of the history and culture of the modern neo-Pagan movement, its origins and its offshoots. What I am is a member of the community for more than long enough to have seen some shit go down. The disconnects between the above expectation and the reality I describe below are features not bugs.

A coven is not a church home. You don’t shop around, Sunday to Sunday, for one that you just kinda like better. Initiation into a Wiccan coven bears more resemblance to marriage than to baptism. Finding a good, strong, healthy coven is like finding four to twelve spouses. It is hard. It is messy. It is deeply relational. It requires growth and compromise and hard-won intimacy on the parts of everyone involved.

Teaching covens do exist, but you can’t just walk in and take a seat. They have class cycles, and applications, and fees. And when you’re done, they send you back out into the world on your own.

A coven which is truly open to all comers … Well, firstly, it’s not really a coven in the traditional sense of that word. More importantly, it’s going to be as sketchy as a non-denominational church in a strip mall. The turnover rate will probably be high. The leaders may be seducing or assaulting their students. There is even a chance that it will be an honest-to-goddess cult.

And if they’re willing to recruit you because you posted to a Facebook group about how you’re new to the area, or to witchcraft, and how lonely you are and how eager for validation and acceptance? Double the risks. There are predators in every community, and Paganism is no exception.

And so the mods of whatever group you’re in invite you to come out in public, to join the community.

Let me join the chorus: Come on out. Join the community. Take some classes. Make some friends. If you can’t find a coven, maybe you can find a family and make one of your own.

—

1 – This is absolutely mythology, not history, utterly unsubstantiated even by Gardner’s own accounts. Please consult Ronald Hutton’s Triumph of the Moon for an accurate origin story.

2 – Again, consult Hutton. See also Margot Adler’s Drawing Down the Moon.

3 – Margot Adler’s Drawing Down the Moon covers this very well.

In art, witchcraft

Maeteria Magica: Talismanic Images

Author Satyr MagosPosted on

I have received a number of messages asking if my talismans are consecrated or made according to astrological timing. Overwhelmingly, they are not. I am not an astrologer, nor do I have the resources at this time to keep one on staff. There are advantages to this: firstly, astrologically timed and consecrated jewelry costs hundreds of dollars more than what I am charging; secondly, it leaves the owner of the talisman free to put the images to whatever purpose they want, with no interference on my part.

My talismans draw their power from the materials and images from which they are made, and from the consecration which is your responsibility to provide.

The Power of Maeteria

You can make a talisman out of literally anything. I have made phenomenally powerful talismans out of printed note cards, herbs, glue, and wax. Most of the talismans available on the internet are made of stainless steel, pewter, or pot metal. These are good enough for huge swaths of the community. They are certainly more affordable. I am offering something else.

I am offering fine talismanic jewelry made from pure copper, sterling silver, and 14kt yellow gold. As the shop grows, I will also be offering talismans with precious and semi-precious stones; ancient coins, arrowheads, and glass; and occasionally high-art found-object materials. Precious metals and stones take and hold magical energy better than anything; they make the best homes for the spirits you call and awaken. They are also — and this is arguably most important — really, really cool.

The Power of Images

The majority of my talismanic jewelry draws its power from either the images or the materials employed.

My Apotropaioi line — the Attic Gorgon, Humbaba, the Eye — are ancient protective symbols with no astrological associations or requirements that I am aware of. While they could certainly benefit from electional magic, they do not require it. The images themselves are tied to deep currents going back millenia, and need only be awakened and attuned to the owner.

Now, many of the traditional talismanic images do have astrological associations. While these pieces would benefit immensely from being crafted and/or consecrated in accordance with evectional timing, the images themselves have a powerful current of their own, and I do my best to tie the talismans to that current when I make them. Experimentation has proved to my satisfaction that while these talismans are not as powerful as those made in accordance with electional astrology, they are more powerful than those made of inferior material and without the current of the traditional image. They also grow more powerful over time through use and (re)consecration as opportunities arise.

Regarding Consecration

Because I am not crafting my talismans in accordance with electional astrology, and because I do not know most of my customers personally, it is my policy to do only a minimal consecration. I attune each piece to the currents associated with the images and materials from which it is made, making each piece more vessel than spirit. It is then up to the owner of the talisman to consecrate their piece in accordance with their own traditions of timing and rite.

I am a professional witch. I can perform the consecration for you. That service starts at an additional $50.

Electional Timing

I have every respect for the traditions of electional talisman consecration, and have used them to fantastic effect on a number of occasions. If and when I am made aware of an astrological election in sufficient time to use it to empower talismans, I will absolutely do so. Those limited-run pieces will be labeled and priced accordingly. If you know of such an election and would like me to help you take advantage of it, please give me at least two weeks notice in order to properly design the images, develop prototypes, and/or arrange for assistance with the casting and/or consecration. This service starts at and additional $100.

In art, witchcraft

Grand Opening: the Sorcerer’s Workbench!

Author Satyr MagosPosted on

After more than a year of talking about it, and jokingly referring to my personal projects as having come “from the Sorcerer’s Workbench”, I soft-launched an etsy shop at the end of march. By the end of May, very much to my surprise, I had over $200 in sales. Clearly there is an interest in mid-range fine talismanic jewelry, and I am delighted to fill that niche.

Welcome, now, to the grand opening of the Sorcerer’s Workbench! I have a dozen designs already available for sale.

Some designs are based on traditional grimoires such as Agrippa, the Picatrix, and the Lesser Key of Solomon.

Others are inspired by modern grimoires such as the Hekataeon.

Still others are riffs on tradiditonal/folk/mythic images, or inspired by my own spirit contacts.

I also do custom work, designing images based on your needs and inspirations, and incorporating whatever gemstones and sigils you desire.

So, please: check out my shop, and hit me up if you have any questions or commissions!

In witchcraft

Hekate: An Unexpected Devotion

Author Satyr MagosPosted on 2 Comments

This week has marked an anniversary, half-forgotten in the madness of 2018. This time last year, my working group participated in the global Rite of Her Sacred Fires. It was not the first time I had invoked Hekate, but it was the most significant up to that point.

I must emphasize “up to that point”. Hekate began to appear more frequently on our docket, culminating in a devotional Samhain ritual in which I make made myself a vessel for her so that my compatriots could approach and petition her for aid. Three months after that, Jack Grayle’s Hekataeon went live. Aradia and I dove in head first. Our copy arrived just in time for Paganicon, and we started the work as soon a we got back.

I am 38 years old. I have been practicing magic since I was 16. But I was raised with the blandest (functionally atheist) sort of Protestantism, and I did not reach out to the gods until I was 28. Excepting my easy relationship with Dionysus, I did not manage to cultivate anything resembling a devotional practice until I was 30, and that was very much rooted in the particular circumstances of the Sunrise Temple. I have had relationships with a wild variety of spirits and an eclectic assortment of gods and powers, but little of it resembled anything akin to worship. And until a year ago, Hekate was never even on my radar.

I began to work the Hekataeon at the end of March, as I was coming out of a deep depression, a descent that began early in 2017 and bottomed out last Thanksgiving. The ascent has been steep but rocky, and it is difficult to say how much of my improvement is the native cycle of my fucked up brain and how much is as a result of the work. I could not have begun the work had I not begun to feel better at the first of the year. Any daily practice would certainly have improved my life. But also, the calming and cleansing of mania is a recurring theme in the Hekataeon.

Now, a year after that first significant contact, I have participated in the Rite of Her Sacred Fires for the second time. I had just completed the twenty-seven days of devotional meditation that comprised the second section of the Hekataeon, studying the facets of Hekate, and was about to make the transition from Devotee to Adept. By the time this post goes live, I will have completed that initiation.

Jack Grayle’s vision of Hekate is Gnostic, cosmic — the beginning and end of all. As I dig in to his ancient sources, and compare them to other modern visions, I find that he is not alone in this. I wish that I were in a financial position to take Jason Miller’s Hekate Sorcery course.

I am a sorcerer. A witch. A heretic. A Gnostic. I make handshake deals and back alley bargains with spirits. I treat with gods and demons and angels as equals. I seek ecstasy. Not Knowledge and Conversation of the Holy Guardian Angel, but rather Gnosis — knowledge of the divine power from which mortal and immortal life both spring, and which I cannot believe is a person of any kind, not even a god. I reject the capital G.

Though I have courted a few, with varying degrees of success — Apollo, Hephaestus, Aphrodite, Baphomet — Dionysus is the only god I have truly loved. I did not seek out Hekate, but rather met her through my friends. One thing led to another. And now … I have graduated from disinterested third party Reader to Devotee … and now to Adept. Degrees of priesthood follow, culminating in a binding contract that will last into future lives.

Devotion in this life I am prepared for. I do not know, however, that I am prepared to make any promises about the next.

For now, though, the road ahead of me is obscure. I do not know, precisely, what will be asked of me. The work may reject me before I am forced to reject it. Or the goddess and I may come to more complex and nuanced arrangements. Decision, after all, is her sacrament.

Until then, it seems, I am Devoted. Very much to my own surprise.

In witchcraft

Prosperity Mojo: Further Work with Bune

Author Satyr MagosPosted on

In early November, shortly after Jupiter entered Sagittarius, Aradia and I decided that the stars were reasonably well aligned for our working group to do some prosperity magic. But because our working group was getting a little burnt out on charging sigils with Orphic hymns, we decided to go in a slightly different direction: pulling out our collections of scrap fabrics, herbs, loose stones, oils, and whatnot, we decided to make mojo bags.

Having previously worked with Bune (October-November of 2018), I made the spontaneous decision to include the seal I had hand-engraved in brass in the otherwise conventionally Jupiterian prosperity talisman. It sits on my altar and I spritz it with prosperity spray every pay period.

But Bune likes public praise, and I’ve got to hand it to him: he’s delivering. Despite an otherwise slow holiday season at work, every pay check has been above average. My ebook sales bumped, and my Kindle Unlimited pageviews skyrocketed. It’s not a huge amount of money, but it’s workable and sustainable growth.

I keep hearing about how dangerous it is to work with Goetic spirits. How they’ll fuck up your brain and your life. And, don’t get me wrong, there’s some folks in the Lesser Key that I won’t touch with a ten foot pole. And it’s always possible that there’s something unique about my natal chart or my previous magical practice that makes my situation special. But so far, I’ve found Bune to be a reasonable and companionable partner in crime.