{"id":104,"date":"2011-08-29T11:34:00","date_gmt":"2011-08-29T16:34:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/journeythroughtheobsidiandream.wordpress.com\/2011\/08\/29\/august-dark-moon-esbat"},"modified":"2011-08-29T11:34:00","modified_gmt":"2011-08-29T16:34:00","slug":"august-dark-moon-esbat","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/journeythroughtheobsidiandream.com\/index.php\/2011\/08\/29\/august-dark-moon-esbat\/","title":{"rendered":"August Dark Moon Esbat"},"content":{"rendered":"

Two weeks ago, Aradia and my mother helped me lay the foundations of my house-wards.\u00a0 Since then, though, my dreams have been more troubled than my waking life, alone, can account for.\u00a0 I\u2019m accustomed to living in a tightly Warded space, and although the neighborhood is quiet \u2026 it\u2019s not that<\/em> quiet.\u00a0 Besides, I\u2019ve been performing the Qabalistic cross daily for the entire interim: I was ready for a badass ritual, and I needed to prepare the space for rituals to come.<\/p>\n

I began with a shower \u2013 a ritual cleansing that I often forgo.\u00a0 I cleansed the space with a blend of sage, lavender, and kava \u2013 not my usual mix, but it was what I had on hand.\u00a0 I called up an elemental circle, asking the powers, creatures, and beings of the quarters to guard my space so long as I abide there.\u00a0 I charged a bottle of Dark Moon water to mix with my flying potion, and for whatever other uses I can find in the next month.\u00a0 I made sacrifices to my household gods and spirits \u2013 mead for Dionysos and for the Nameless Ones; absinthe for the Nameless Ones, my journey-mask, and Tsu.\u00a0 <\/p>\n

Drawing on the theories of Frater Barrabbas, I opened a vortex within my initial circle and raised a cone of power as well.\u00a0 With that power I turned to my oldest, but in some ways best, tricks: my Pentagram Ward, a structure upon which I will build more sophisticated wards and protection spells.\u00a0 My power raised and protections in place, I could do what I\u2019ve been putting off to long.\u00a0 Doning my mask and downing my flying potion, I returned to the Underworld.<\/p>\n

<\/a> <\/p>\n

The world tree took me down to my Inner Temple, where Tsu, one of the spirits I work, with was waiting.\u00a0 She pointed me toward a portal, and I followed.\u00a0 Interestingly, the portal led first to campus, where I found another portal that led me into a void where I found the Leopard of Dionysos.\u00a0 I was relieved to see her \u2013 I\u2019ve been lax in my practice for a while, and I was afraid my allies had deserted me \u2013 but she reassured me that he was unconcerned by my absence; Rhea, on the other hand, was waiting for me.<\/p>\n

I descended to a grassy plain I\u2019d seen before, and went deeper into the Underworld via the Temple of Rhea I had seen before, during my initiation.\u00a0 Dionysos appeared briefly \u2013 a translucent image, but still a presence \u2013 and I descended further.\u00a0 I found the Magna Mater in a vast cavern, gargantuan and reclining as before.\u00a0 I abased myself and apologized for not delivering Pasiphae to her before I left Kansas City.\u00a0 A realization came to me suddenly: \u201cThis is all for my benefit, isn\u2019t it?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cYes,\u201d she conceded, and pointed me to a tunnel leading down.<\/p>\n

That tunnel, in turn, led to oceanic depths I had encountered before, most recently while exploring the Elemental Realm of Water.\u00a0 It occurred to me that perhaps the Power I had encountered here had not been knocking me around for her own amusement, but that perhaps there had been a purpose.\u00a0 I swam in the direction she had thrown me and discovered a passage leading up.<\/p>\n

That passage led me to more familiar territories, the caverns beneath a ziggurat I had \u201cdiscovered\u201d in my earliest spirit-journeys.\u00a0 Reaching light at the top of the zigurat, I encountered a spirit I had almost forgotten \u2013 a winged stone serpent placed atop that temple, whose nature I have never determined.\u00a0 After a brief, silent communion with him, I was returned to the heart of my Inner Temple.<\/p>\n

I concluded my journey with a brief but fruitful conversation with Tsu, and returned to my body to put a lid on the vortex and close the circles.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Two weeks ago, Aradia and my mother helped me lay the foundations of my house-wards.\u00a0 Since then, though, my dreams have been more troubled than my waking life, alone, can account for.\u00a0 I\u2019m accustomed to living in a tightly Warded space, and although the neighborhood is quiet \u2026 it\u2019s not that quiet.\u00a0 Besides, I\u2019ve been … Read More<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[5],"tags":[61,94,124,127,166,265,284],"class_list":["post-104","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-witchcraft","tag-dark-moon","tag-gods","tag-inner-temple","tag-journeywork","tag-moon","tag-talking-to-spirits","tag-tsu"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p8kUcm-1G","jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/journeythroughtheobsidiandream.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/104","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/journeythroughtheobsidiandream.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/journeythroughtheobsidiandream.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/journeythroughtheobsidiandream.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/journeythroughtheobsidiandream.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=104"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/journeythroughtheobsidiandream.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/104\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/journeythroughtheobsidiandream.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=104"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/journeythroughtheobsidiandream.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=104"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/journeythroughtheobsidiandream.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=104"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}