I am passionately involved in four traditions of Witchcraft – WildWood, Reclaiming, Anderean and Feri; I am an initiate of two (WildWood and Anderean Old Craft); a teacher of two (WildWood and Reclaiming); and a student of all four. I have been formally training in the Anderson Faery tradition of contemporary Witchcraft for two and a half years as of the closing of this month. I met my teacher in the Bay Area during my first US trip/tour over ten weeks in 2010 (from September-December). I made the choice to formally train in Faery because of a powerful spirit-flight/trance experience I had the night after meeting Storm Faerywolf – originator of the BlueRose Line of Faery, which I study in.

It is captured in essence, and little to no usage of ‘metaphor’ as commonly understood, in this short poem I wrote today for Victor Anderson, the original Grandmaster of the Faery Tradition as we know it today:

To Victor on your birthday,

Fiode (Gede Parma)

On that plane, beside the bay,
swept open, vast, beside the Tree,

the Faerie-Gate a’blazing bright,
In Darkness, blue, opened for Me.

From my body, Temple of Flesh,
seduced by Spirits and drawn by Daemon
to twisted tree worshipping Stars;
and Quaking of the Abyss was Mine.

She came down, Virgin of the Outer Dark,
and with Hir Blue Fire ablaze with Power,
into Mine Own Heart she placed the Flame,
Initiated, in that Hour.

I knew then – this Road meant for me,
this road with passion you declared;
I knew then that Cora’s buttered tea,
to you I would offer to be savoured.

Great and Mighty Dead, O Cunning Priest;
Swearer of Oaths and at the Gods;
O Blessed Way-Farer and Cora’s Prince,
Bless you Victor, and bless your God~

Apart from the specific assignments I am given by my Faery mentor there really is no real distinction between my Faery Craft practice and my other threads; of course they are distinct and distinguishable and completely in and of themselves, but the underlying and deeply resonant commonalities are far too profound for me to overlook. Where Feri begins and ends is no longer a question for me (not when I am alone with the Goddess); where WildWood ends and begins is an equally or even more so ludicrous question to me, a fun and also meaningful one perhaps! The dark fermentation, transmutation and alchemy of the entwining of these threads in and through me is the significant and soulful convergence. I have said it before, but I doubt that on my deathbed I will ‘identify’ as this or that; as Faery, WildWood, Reclaiming, Traditional, Witch, Pagan, Hindu, Spirit-Worker, Sorcerer, Mystic, Feminist, Queer, Vegan…I’m not sure, but I have a faint feeling that as I embark on ‘the next great adventure’ I will reflect on the simple things; on the love I felt surge and seethe between people and that I am privy to, on those delicious fragrant notes of dark, dark chocolate, the grind of especially delicious coffee, and the zest of summer white wine shared with dear beloveds. I imagine reflections on my mother, on my sister, on my father, on Bali, on Ireland, on California, on cats, on children, on precious love-making and the bizarre things too. Before I could be accused of indulging in some premature death-analysis, or morbidity, I bring this up because something a friend of mine (also a Faery student, and an initiated Witch and Ifa priest) said hit home for me on a profound level – rippled my Deep Well, as I am fond of saying.

My friend said to me that at the heart of the Craft is a simple prayer, is a simple undertaking – a potent and practised endeavour of bare-naked humility and the highest honour. He told me that everyday Cora Anderson, of beloved memory, and surely one of the Mighty Dead, prayed for the Black Heart of Innocence. I have often found Cora’s written word soothing, and at other times absurdly hilarious! I would love to have been in her breath-to-flesh presence while she, as Cora, was still present on this planet with us; however, that opportunity has passed. Cora wrote and believed that there are no secrets in Faery; though some would contest this and on the surface-level that may be factual truth. Various lines in fact hold different material in the Faery corpus to be secret and therefore to be withheld from initiates. For instance when I published my Gods of the Lemniscate hymn (not a teaching or theological understanding of all lines of Faery) on YouTube I was e-mailed by one woman, presumably a Faery initiate, who asked me why I would share that information publicly. In the line that I am working within, such Names are not considered secret and therefore there is no disrespect in my singing of Their Names and posting it publicly on YouTube. I was rightly reassured by my teacher, and I was aware of the much-publicised Faery split/divergence that was being propounded or reasserted at that time.

At the Heart of Faery for me lies the Kiss of the Goddess, and the Promise of Hir Law of Love – and that the Law is Mine too. This is the greatest responsibility and I wholeheartedly commit to it. I think about it, feel into it, am challenged by it and cherish it every day. I may be a skilled sorcerer; I may be a talented seer; I may be a terrible mathematician and a struggling fiction writer; and yet, at the Black Heart of My Innocence is the Perilous Quest of and for Love. Here at the Scorpion Gates of Black and Gold I can hear the sistrum shake in the desert and the night-jasmine bloom in seduction. Here at the Edge of Paradise, I can smell the honey-woven bee madness that intoxicates my soul! *For those who are wondering where this particular poetry emerges from, it is actually from WildWood lore, though EXTREMELY parallel with Faery I feel* This is the sweet soul of seduction that is a risk-filled bornless promise. Will I remember? Will I press into the Death-Door? Will I die before I die? I have, and have no doubt I will do so again. Will Memory tease me into a Sovereign Wholeness of Self-Possession? Will I arise and transform and dance through the Veil of Beloved Maya into an Embrace of the Virgin of the Outer Dark that knows no End.

Today is Victor’s birthday – the 21st of May – and though I am not formally, ritualistically initiated into Faery, I have felt like a Faery Witch since that moment by the Bay when Quakoralina ‘came down’ from the Bright and Dark Heavens and brought with Hir Blue Fire to place inside My Heart. I felt the Current pass at this moment, and yet I still wish for the potential of Faery Initiation in the future. I know that Victor cites one of his strongest, and perhaps one of his most formative, experiences to be the initiation he received/experienced in the woods in Oregon as a young boy. Today, many Faery Witches will be honouring your beloved and mighty memory Victor – bless us as we bless you~

The initial response I have to the question is another question – Is my Theology essentially or specifically Pagan? 

Drawing from earlier etymological derivations (i.e. Gr. pagus meaning ‘region/area’) than usually explored (i.e. Latin paganus referring to a ‘rustic’ or ‘country-dweller’), I obtain a definition of contemporary Pagan sensibilities as being Place-centred and aligned. This is necessarily far more important to me as the essence of a definition than referring to the non-Abrahamic traditions or qualifying contemporary (and past) Paganisms as drawing upon the inspirational and historical influence of Europe and the Near East and these diasporas, culturally (e.g. literature, mythology, etc.) and ethnically (groups of people migrating). Is my Pagan Theology Place-centred? This brings me to one of the overarching elements of my theological understandings and perspectives – Story.

One of the most wounded parts of the Western collective psyche is the place where Story used to thrive and flourish – where it used to be revered and honoured. What I mean by Story (and I intend the capitalisation) is the narratives (which are fluid and fixed simultaneously) which infuse raw relationships. Indeed to ‘re-Story’ our cultures is, ideally, not to impose something alien on to something innate and happening, but to draw out from the raw immediacy of Being a potent and living Story (equally, infinite Stories) which is the original wellspring from which we arrive. When we possess Story, and are moved by Story, and are given to Story, theological nuances and particularities are secondary to profound presence, engagement with the Mysterious/Divine/Numinous/Sacred, and the synergy of relationships. In fact, the concept of ‘the Sacred’ as something which draws out from ‘the rest’ and is exalted above all becomes an estranging concept – all is the Sacred, the word, the concept, is not needed. Theology refers to Deity, to these beings that human cultures refer to as ‘Gods and Goddesses’. Indeed it (the term) presupposes quite a lot about the human condition and its invested interests.

If we study the historical and continuing mythologies of the diversity of human cultures we begin to discover a telling pattern. Those ‘Great Spirits’ referred to as something more important, significant, and pronounced in the anchoring/qualifying cosmologies are often Spirits who ennoble human cultures. What I mean by this is that they are bringers of cultural ingenuity to the human race. Indeed this makes it quite understandable why we might consider such beings to be deified ancestors who have been naturally or magically syncretised with a powerful Spirit of Place, and perhaps also a titanic/giant force, to become the convergence of Story-Power necessarily required to take on the mantle of and manifest as a God/dess. (I will now use the gender-neutral or gender-full term ‘God’ for the rest of this essay)

It may be quite obvious that I feel, or am of the opinion, that there are beings/spirits identifiable as Gods that do in fact exist in the Eternal Cosmos. This would be an accurate interpretation of the subtext to what I have written. However, if the question is, do I believe in the existence of Gods, I would respond that it doesn’t matter whether I do or not, I will engage with Them anyway. This engagement with Them presupposes that I experience Them in my life – this is true. I also engage with, interact, and have encounters with spirits and beings not classed as deity by human cultures or condition(s).

Am I hard polytheist or a soft polytheist? This question also has little relevance to me these days. I am a Mystic, Sorcerer and Priest – I am a Shaman and Witch. What does that mean for my relationships with the Spirits? It means, in my experience, that theological understandings and debates are of little relevance to these relationships. Philosophical debate and discussion can lead to profound insight and hilarity, and yet it rests on an assumption (for many) that the philosophical process or even interrogation ultimately represents the whole picture (trademarking may be involved), when in fact, it is an unfolding process which does not end in absolutes (I know I am philosophising). Do I prefer the ‘aims’  of philosophy over theology? Potentially. Probably.

Am I an atheist? It would be hard to reconcile this term with how I interact with the infinite Spirits/Forces/Beings/Powers in the Eternal Cosmos. God is a place-holder word for me to refer to any and all experience of intimacy with ‘the Divine’. When I use the word ‘Divine’ I am placing an emphasis on the nature of Being and my reflections of and engagement with the Expressions of Being as innately and verifiably sacred, and therefore of meaning beyond measure and value beyond commodity.

Am I a pantheist? I take that term quite literally – YES! All is God, and the All is populated by/with Gods and Spirits, etc.

Am I an animist? YES! All possesses Vital Force whose quality is consciousness. Consciousness to me is Mysterious, and I will not attempt to define it beyond that.

Am I a panentheist? I find this a distracting and unnecessary theological term. I dislike and sometimes abhor the dichotomy of immanence and transcendence that some theology plays with. If the Here and Now is the Divine (immanent) then where and when is not the Here and Now? If I use the term ‘transcendent’ I wonder “transcending what?” and I might also qualify this by saying, “transcending into further immanence.”

What of Archetypes? Grand, universal patterns/motifs (possessing great power) which stimulate or lay within the collective human consciousness and enrich our experience of Being. Surely the Powers and Spirits may ride these avenues as access-ways to the human spirit and condition. Potentially they are all extensions or manifestations of each other. Generally-speaking, I feel it is true to say that human beings are predisposed to wondering about the Divine and being receptive to engagement with Deity and the Spirits. Perhaps what Jungian psychologists and many in the contemporary Pagan movement have called ‘archetypes’ are in fact places of great convergence and resonance in the breadth and depth of Story and Narrative. Perhaps these are the ‘Houses’ I refer to at times with Poetry. Perhaps Aphrodite, Ishtar, Kama and Freyja all live in the ‘House of (Planetary) Venus’; perhaps They all have Their Own chambers in which Their cults thrive and in which we ‘arrive at’ through invocation? What if I invoked the whole House for a sorcerous working? Hm…

What of the nature of the Gods themselves, other than in relationship to humans and ennobling our cultures like Athene with the olive tree to the then Athenians, or Lugh, the multi-talented one, who brought skill and honour to the People of Eriu/Ireland?

I have found spirit-work and my relationships with and indeed devotion, dedication and priesthood with and to certain deities, to be filled with mystery and challenge. I have discovered that sometimes what I have found to be the pattern in my observance of a God’s nature completely contradicts itself and the self-aware consciousness of the being reasserts its Sovereignty/Authority with me in a completely different way than previously experienced. I have had experiences in which for many years I had interacted with a specific deity in ways that presumed the anchored essence of identity to be sure and certain, and then discovered that the deity is indeed that deity over there, at least right now, or maybe something else of its deep nature is being revealed. I find that I encounter infinitely-deepening layers of reality when it comes to the Mysterious Ones. (http://wearewalkinginbeauty.org/Walking_in_Beauty/A_Few_Working_Definitions.html)

What I ask of myself in all of this engaged exploration is humility and honour. I’d love to discover or coin a term that possessed the qualities and also synergy of ‘humility’ and ‘honour’ so that I could adequately express what I mean by this. Am I monist? Do I experience that the All is ‘All is God’ and God is the immutable, all-pervasive Spirit which dwells in All Things? Again, the assertion that philosophically there is a distinction between ‘the Spirit that dwells in All Things’ and ‘All Things possess a Spirit’ does not bear water for me. I sometimes name God Hirself as Grandmother Weaver, as in my WildWood and Anderean Traditions. I sometimes find it important to politically and socially propound feminine pronouns in order to confuse, disorient and shock the massively patriarchal over-culture into remembering and revisioning what the Infinity of God has been, can be and could be. Do I believe anything so powerfully that it is unshakeable. No, I do not. Or maybe not? I value my experiences and my presence in them. I value the Immense Love I feel which is the taste of Mystery in my Life. Let us talk about (and hopefully with!) the Gods and Spirits, yes; I also like dancing and drinking with Them!

So, is my Theology Pagan? Is it Place-centred? I am Here and I am Now, and there are intense peculiarities in the Place I am in, as I am sure is true of the Place You are in. I start Here and Now in every reflection of consciousness, in every shift of awareness. We are all arriving, all the time. The Altar is Here. The Circle is Ever. The Gods who are with me are with me. We wander and wonder and the Story weaves on.

God/s Bless You.

*http://wildhunt.org/2013/04/crowdsourcing-pagan-theology.html (the original Wild Hunt entry by Teo Bishop).

The Gifts of Ignorance, Question and Questing

Recently I had an experience, though not a marked or distinct event, in which I woke up one morning and it gradually dawned on me throughout the day that I had lost understanding of or attachment to personal identity and also the substance of that momentum inside of me. I do not feel divorced from it, I do not feel fragmented, or cut apart – and I have been there, several times – I feel as if I have come up from the Deep Well of my Mystery, and my head has come through the surface of the water, with my eyes blinking in the cool, fresh air. I feel innocent again in a fully-fleshed way – open to wonder, wander.

I strongly experience Life as an Eternal Mystery sewn into the Fabric of Chaos; this is language that I use to poetically evoke expressions and responses, but please know that I do not consider any of these ‘things’ I am mentioning to be mechanisms coming together into a previously-ordained design, but as (un)knowing dynamic process ever unfolding. In the ‘Fabric of Chaos’, all is as it is, ever as it will be, ever as it wells up from the momentum of Mystery and the grace of legacy in infinite relationships. Patterns coalesce and congeal inside Raw Chaos and just as powerfully they dissolve, decay and rot. There is a kind of alchemical fermentation process involved in this which is true of my own ‘part’ and ‘thread’ in Infinite Creativity. Initiation is happening all the time, to everybody, it is natural and intended – my question is: from the Seat of my Sovereignty, which is the Holy Centre in all Places of Mine, do I intend to step over the threshold of these initiations? I can never ‘just be’ an initiate and feel as if this marks me as something apart from or over or higher or deeper than anyone – it means I have made a deep commitment and impassioned vow to always begin, again and again. To well up from my Mystery and to re-discover myself again and again.

This morning I had coffee and breakfast with two friends. We were discussing ‘ignorance’, and how to consciously be aware that something is ignorant (divorced from communion with the underlying Divinity/Radiance/Mystery) and to choose and commit to it in a bid to move far from that communion is a pathway that can lead to drowning in delusion. To use my words, and I am, delusion is different and distinct from illusion, which in some Eastern traditions is called ‘Maya’. Maya is not evil, Maya is not wrong, Maya is not apart from the Mystery, Maya can be a Veil that distorts our experiences of full communion with the Divine if we refuse to dance with Her, and instead detest Her and fight against Her which ultimately has us wrapped up and entangled in a very sticky substance. Illusion can become the pathway to liberation if we practice the igniting of awareness, and become conscious of our consciousness as a choice-working, as a Sovereign declaration of Will to be and do this thing. What of ignorance itself? What does that mean? Aren’t we all ignorant?

Inside, around and under ignorance is Question. If there is ignorance, then there is the possibility for Question. To question is to quest for…the answer? An answer? Several answers? I’m not so sure – the most illuminating and resonantly-striking conversations and experiences I have often leave me with more questions, however I know a ‘trick’ which I am happy to share with you.

When someone seems ignorant to you, for a moment step ‘into’ yourself and study your own ignorance. One glaring ignorance in all cases will be the ignorance of this person’s background, experience, what they know they know, and their ever-evolving (or not so) sense of identity. Sometimes people will admit an ignorance to you in a conversation with something like:

“I know this is a stupid question, but…?”

This is an opportunity for sharing sacred space and time together in communion with each other’s dynamic Mysteries (Question has been Quested) and offering, from the place of experience, perspective and willingness to engage, to be in the Chaos of Ignorance together. There is nothing more ignorant than denying ignorance. Be in the Chaos and the Confession and study at each others’ feet. Sometimes the things we know we know become suddenly engaged in very different ways by the thing others know they know, until we cross over into that uncomfortable territory of the things we know nothing about in any sense at all. In the discomfort we know there is opportunity for growth and transformation. This is an opportunity welling up from the Mystery to learn more of the ever-evolving nature of the Infinite – to choose to stem and stop that is the pathway that leads to the false delusion that we are separate and that there is some design of implicit hierarchy of values, rather than a complex of intricately-interwoven relationships which support, nourish, challenge and initiate each other.

In my practice and process of magic I control nothing, I can only choose to navigate Raw Chaos and flourish as a part of it. The power in this is that I am afforded (it is revealed to me) limitless possibility. There may seem to be immovable obstructions to fulfilling our desires and meeting our needs in life, until we realise that the nature of Desire never stems or stops itself, it may seem to slow and still and then spiral downwards, or flow out into tributaries, but ultimately all Rivers flow from the Well, and all Rivers return to the Well. The Well is not a Place, it is a Mystery, and it is all-pervasive. The River never left you, and it never returns, it is endless, deep, and all the resonances which create the vibrations that cause the wonder-change of a Reality, neither fixed, nor feral, is afforded the name ‘Magic’, which is a process of engaging with the nature of Creative Change in vital and conscious ways*. What creates the resonance for you? How do you engage with ‘the resonating’ to seize the implicit and innate Sovereign power of being an agent of Creative Change.

There is a Question, you are the Quester. Bless your way.

*Among other things.

What is Reclaiming? And how am I involved with it?

Reclaiming is a tradition of Witchcraft, and some would state equally passionately and more broadly (or specifically) that it is a tradition of Paganism and style, attitude and approach of magic. I am someone who enjoys the anchors of definitions, and attempts to ensure that these definitions remain open, inviting more than themselves, whilst qualifying essential and core characteristics. There are several words that need defining in the first sentence of this paragraph; I will attempt to do so.

Witchcraft is a phenomenon of human activity and mode of consciousness (in a way) that I have been significantly involved with for nearly 13 years. I am actively-engaged in four threads/traditions of Witchcraft, an initiate of one, a teacher of two, and a student of all four. I have generally defined Witchcraft as Ecstasy-driven, Earth-based, Mystery Tradition(s). In translation this, to me, is an individual whose vocation and innate (and constantly refining) capacity it is to go to the (h)edge of the human community and communicate directly and intimately with the Spirits. In this transmission much is learned, passed and gained – and the Witch returns with insights, knowledge and the wisdom to apply it. The Witch is able to both harm and heal – a Witch is completely human – though the smell of the Otherworld is on hir.

Paganism, for me, is Place-aligned and aware sensibility (including spirituality) befit with idiosyncratic cosmologies and mythographies stemming from relationship with Place(s) and ancestral (in-process) connection, lore and legacy. In the modern revival and now contemporary reality, upper-case Paganism is an umbrella for a host of religious, philosophical, ecological, spiritual and magical traditions and disciplines that are connected with and draw inspiration from Western (European and Egyptian) and Near-Eastern pre-Abrahamic cultures.

Tradition, in the contemporary Pagan lexicon, refers to a style, a sect, a differentiated grouping of people, who by choice and calling, adhere to and celebrate a core kinship which could relate to cosmology, theology, mythology, magical technique, philosophy, and many other strains. Tradition is something which is passed on; that which is passed on is the core kinship relating to any or all of the above and this can be extremely diverse.

Reclaiming, for me, inhabits all of these paradigms and phenomena. Reclaiming is most certainly a contemporary form of Paganism; many potential Paganisms in fact. Reclaiming is also completely a form of Witchcraft in almost everything it does as a tradition.

How did I come to be involved with this tradition of the Craft?

I can not remember how old I was, or what year it was, when I first read a book by Starhawk. I know that it was before 2004 – and in fact, I believe the first book I flicked through by Starhawk was Truth and Dare. I recall a sense of trembling, of a ‘dangerous’ sort of power which could unlock heavy doors. I feel at this point, I need to explain why I am referring to Starhawk almost out-of-the-blue here.

Starhawk, in 1979, published a book called The Spiral Dance: A Rebirth of the Ancient Religion of the Great Goddess. This book revolutionised the modern Pagan movement in the United States and has generally affected most forms of contemporary Western Paganism. While this book comes from a personal place of insight, reflection and integration, Starhawk actually based a substantial amount of the material of this book on the Anderson Faery Tradition (see www.feritradition.org) and also on what she learnt from and experienced with the Dianic Witches of Z. Budapest’s line (see http://dianic-wicca.com/dianic-wicca-tradition.html). In the late 70s and early 80s the Reclaiming Collective developed through the offering of what would become one of the Core Classes of Reclaiming (Elements of Magic) by Starhawk and Diane Baker and an organised action (including a Spiral Dance) at the Diablo Canyon Nuclear Facility blockade in 1982. Starhawk, who was initiated by Victor and Cora Anderson into the Faery Tradition (also called Vicia, and simply Witchcraft or the Craft), was instrumental in the development of this Collective, as were many others, and has remained a key thealogian (with an ‘a’ to stress the ‘Goddess’ in ‘Goddess tradition’) and prominent spokesperson in the public sphere. It has often been said, and I would agree through observation, that Starhawk’s work in writing books, has often come out of the inspiring cauldron of the community of Reclaiming. Many thousands of people have come to Reclaiming, and Witchcraft in general, through Starhawk’s prolific writings and political activism.

This brings me to what my friend Gwydion – a Reclaiming and Feri priest – sometimes calls the ‘four pillars’ of Reclaiming. These are what I think of as the foundation of Reclaiming – what the tradition has grown out of and still maintains in ever-evolving ways.

1. Anderson Faery/Feri Tradition (as mentioned above). This can be seen in that two of the Core Classes of Reclaiming are Iron and Pearl Pentacle, drawn straight from the Feri corpus. The Three Souls are spoken of, worked with and aligned in Reclaiming, as well as Feri, and threads of Feri theology are celebrated in Reclaiming including the Star Goddess. Reclaiming is sometimes referred to as being ‘Goddess tradition’ – theologically the Goddess, God Herself, is central to all Feri Witchcraft to this day. Both Victor and Cora espoused and propounded this over and over.

2. Anarcho-Politics. Reclaiming arises from ‘the fabric of chaos’ politically in such a way that at its core it is decentralised, pluralistic and often organises itself in manifold cells – all groups are autonomous and there is no central seat of authority or power. There is no one way to do this or that; there are no standards, other than agreeing (as a qualification of Reclaiming identity) to the Reclaiming Principles of Unity (http://www.reclaiming.org/about/directions/unity.html) created by consensus at a meeting of the then Reclaiming Collective in 1997 which at this point dissolved. I like to think of anarchistic responsibility (thanks to my dear friend and Reclaiming priestess Jane Meredith) as “I am only responsible for myself; but I am also responsible for how my actions affect those around me.” In Reclaiming we do this work in community, so awareness of how our actions are affecting each other is paramount! Sometimes I think of Reclaiming as ‘the Peoples’ Witchcraft’.

3. The Psychology Movement. I have been recently joking that Reclaiming magical and group process is highly ‘invasive’, perhaps ‘penetrating’ – two terms that I know would curl the toes of many in Reclaiming (it would excite just as many). What I mean however, is that the process of self-reflection, introspection, analysis, study, mirroring, shadow-work, journeying, goes deep in a very non-contrived and sometimes painful way. Reclaiming has a value on self-work for ongoing holistic integration.

4. Ecofeminism. A radical analysis of the current human power structures as systemically reflective of the human abuse, exploitation, domination and oppression of our environment as connected to the abuse and oppression of females in human societies. In this connection it is clear that the privileged elite numbering a distinct few are involved in upholding these systems and structures of control which are patently racist, colonial, industrially-capitalist, queerphobic and sex-negative.

I became involved in Reclaiming because I became aware of the Principles of Unity, which I agreed with, though with some reservation. My reservation was apparently not my own, because at the intra-Reclaiming Dandelion meeting in early August in Oregon in 2012 (at which I was present), a BIRCH* meeting about the very sentence which I feel could not represent me occurred and the wording was changed. This was the culmination of several years of gender and theology salons, and community-conversation, etc. Transparently, not everyone is happy with these changes – part of the process of consensus means “we can live with it” not that we are all completely ecstatic. I personally feel that the original ‘God and Goddess’ theology resting on binary gender-polarity (which is deeply important to some) is not sacrificed in the 2012 Dandelion/BIRCH amendment, which is the following:

“Our diverse practices and experiences of the divine weave a tapestry of many different threads. We include those who honor Mysterious Ones, Goddesses, and Gods of myriad expressions, genders, and states of being, remembering that mystery goes beyond form.”

I feel we have better fulfilled one of our other stated values – which is inclusivity. The God and the Goddess in polarity are encompassed by the above statement.

But does identifying with and agreeing with the PoU alone make me a Reclaiming Witch…not necessarily. The only other qualification I have come across in the international Reclaiming community, and with which I agree is that a Reclaiming Witch practises Reclaiming-style magic. What on Holy Earth does that mean?

Does it mean that we have all taken the Core Classes and are now aware of collectively-shared language, technique, unfolding history and context? Does it mean we all invoke and adore the Four Elements (Earth, Air, Fire and Water) in a quartered Circle? Does it mean we all align our three souls, or ground and centre as the Tree of Life? Does it mean we all run the Iron and Pearl current everyday and are imbued with the confidence and skill to guide others into trance and into the Otherworld of Dreams? It could mean any and all of that – however Reclaiming-style magic for me has more to do with a feeling, a subtle mysterious quality, than any overt structure which could be seen as joining us in the lineage and legacy of passed oral tradition, which I also respect and feel a part of. My friend Lisa, a Canadian Reclaiming Witch currently living in Australia, said this to me concerning the above:

“To me, Reclaiming is more about the type and feel of the energy raised than the techniques used to raise it. It is something that needs to be experienced to understand.”

Perhaps there are specific shared techniques and teachings that have allowed the group who is raising the power in the magical operation to create that dynamic tension and momentum – and generally there are and have been – but I must also agree with Lisa that it is a kind of power that trembles the heart and awakens us to the Deep Erotic – to the Indwelling Consciousness of the Life-Force – the Mystery, the Goddess.

A famous chant written by Starhawk and sung in many Reclaiming rituals embodies this for me:

“We are the power in everyone,
We are the dance of the moon and the sun,
We are the hope that will never hide,
We are the turning of the tide.”

Reclaiming has an emphasis on discovering and working with the power-from-within (which I could call Iron Pentacle work in some cases) and then in community transforming this into shared power and power-with (which I could call Pearl Pentacle work). This is an analysis of power which looks incisively into the power-over (domination) structures and systems of control in place in the majority of human societies and seeks to transform these structures into those which foster power-from-within and inspire power-with. It is of course a much more complex conversation than this, but we have our lives to have those conversations.

In reality, Reclaiming-style magic is diverse, though it may have any and all of the following present:

*Acknowledgement, invocation and adoration of the Four Elements of the Goddess – Earth, Air, Fire and Water – and often, though not always, Spirit and Centre.
*The casting of Ritual Circles which can often make reference to not only four directions, but six (including Above and Below), and of course the Centre that is the Circumference which anchors them.
*The acknowledgement, invocation and adoration of Mysterious Ones, Goddesses and Gods. Depending on the Reclaiming Witch or group, there may be pronounced ‘Goddess’, ‘God’, or ‘Queer’ elements involved. Sometimes it is much more Place-aligned and we acknowledge and call to the Spirits of Place (human AND non-human), Faery and the Fey, and potentially also ancestrally or culturally-inclined beings.
*Strongly-thought-and-felt-through intentions which qualify our rituals and magic. These can represent the reason(s) we are converging – why we are doing what we are doing.
*Strong trance-journeying influence – into Dreams, into various Otherworlds, to our personal Places of Power, and anywhere and everywhere.
*The raising of power in some fashion to bring momentum, clarity, focus and strength to the manifestation of my/our will in the world(s). This is achieved through multiple means, including, but not limited to – dancing, drumming, singing and chanting, humming and toning, movement and stillness, concentrated thought, etc. The power raised may become a ‘Cone of Power’ (exactly what it sounds like), though there are many variations. Some I have experienced in Reclaiming ritual includes the double-cone, the downward-cone, the spiral-vortex, the deep bowl, and the ‘gloop’ (the last one I can’t explain eloquently).
*Power is earthed, we ground, we are nourished and we connect again through breath, touch, feasting, gentle singing and chanting, and personal and collective prayer.
*Sometimes the Mysterious Ones, Gods and Goddesses are interacted with in a practice known as ‘Aspecting’, which is close to and akin with that which in my WildWood Tradition I call possessory work. Aspecting is used minimally in Reclaiming group ritual (perhaps a little more in private coven-circle work) and it is VERY rare indeed for a Reclaiming Witch in a Reclaiming context (so to speak) to consciously-facilitate and negotiate for a full possession. My friend Ravyn would say that we only go down to 70%. Of course this is not arbitrary. While full possession is not a skill, and rather a convergence of necessary qualities (including timing, personal innate capacity, atmosphere and invocation), aspecting in its various forms is definitely a skill!
*Our charms, talismans, amulets, potions and spell-work is often very idiosyncratic, though there are Tables of Correspondences that exist in Reclaiming communities, likely based on Agrippa and traditional Feri material.

For me, one of the most important and meaningful points of Reclaiming magic is the ‘opening to Mystery’ facet that we all try to make room for. What my friend Lisa calls “then something will happen”. If a ritual is over-planned or contrived or forced in any way the manifestation of Mystery which we are inviting will be limited or fail entirely; or rather we might not notice it there. If however, in the midst of ritual, having perhaps ‘planned’ for a particular thing and ‘something else’ begins to happen, it is a good idea to get out of the way and surrender and trust in the magic. For me this is quintessentially Reclaiming. We do not bind our rituals to scripts or structures~, we open to the Mystery and Magic of spontaneous and ecstatic connection and communion with the Divine. For this we are personally and communally enriched. 

*BIRCH means Broad, Intra-Reclaimnig Council of Hubs - http://www.reclaiming.org/birch/

~Ravyn Stanfield, Reclaiming and Feri priestess, has said, “It is traditional in Reclaiming to do things out of order.” 

Two Ravens, again, and again, whirl, dance
as the Train takes me home;
literally, physically – no difference
to the ‘vibrating ethers of the trembling winds’.

The initiator becomes the initiated;
I am not exhausted,
but a well of water
has been struck deep within,
And that always means ‘without’ – opened.

Venus and Mars, like Freyja and Odin!
What is this raw conjunction that needles my flesh?
Lord, Adonai, Yahweh – who do You appeal to?
Lost God in the desert, worried one, ever concerned – do you still wage war?

Wotan redirects my barge, and the crescent-shaped barge
of heaven bows as I bend, swooping swans,
while fragrant violets come up to me,
offerings of my Divine Twin who smells of the Sea.
Gentleman.

Thoughts ceaseless flow as I wander
in the Wild
and gaze through the Mirror;
I am not afraid, or concerned, or worried,
I am engulfed by Fehu however, and I am a priest with the people.

Cattle lowing and apparitions of cows,
listening in, listening to,
Thoughtlessly does the Wyrd wind and weave,
Thought-full is the Cauldron brimming with bright salmon.

Down in the cave I am reshaped, reforged,
by hands of wonder in wonder.
I have laid down the Sword, only to study it once more;
An echo on a drum that is my Soul,
I come! I come! I come!

FIODE~

“What is the Mystery of this Union?
What fracture have We missed?
Should I not despise You?
Instead, I love You desperately.”

Gede Parma Akheron

The Triple Soul gives itself to cosmology and ontology as much as it does to technique and discipline. I pass several techniques to both my Shamanic Craft students and WildWood aspirants deriving from how I was passed the Triple Soul from my Feri teacher and also, since that time, how I have worked in relationship with the basic concept. I have heard it said, not just by my Feri teacher, that if everyone in the world, or even a great majority, aligned their souls once a day the human world would be a much more conscious animal. The idea of aligning our three souls, our three parts, what I sometimes call the Spiral Soul, is based on recognising the essential realities of who we each are and then, with ignited awareness and sovereign will, calls them back into a ‘greater-than-the-sum-of-my-parts’ (underlying) wholeness which is their origin in the first place. I am not necessarily a broken or fragmented being wounded and in isolation – though I could argue that is somewhat true for many of us in the dominant culture today. I align my Souls every day, and have done so now for several years, because I wish to be, here and now, completely in synergy with the vastness and the complexity of who and what I am, and pare it down to the Essence of My Self.

This is not meant to be an essay on the basic concept of Triple Soul or even the technique of aligning the Souls. I will post several resources at the end of this essay for you to peruse at your leisure. Instead what I wish to share and extrapolate on is further insights into the Triple/Spiral Soul. Briefly however, the Three Souls are most commonly understood to be:

Talker/Namer/Ego Mind/Shining Body – The part of me which is able to draw boundaries around my experience of things to create comprehension, compartmentalisation and definition. I am able to speak, create poetry, write, think-in-words, have thoughts coalesce and conceptualise infinite reality.

“From the Seat of my Talking Soul I have Three Souls.”

Fetch/Animal-Primal-Beast/Younger Self/Shadow Soul – The part of me which feels, is instinctual, is driven by primal need, want of, and lust. The sticky soul (from the original Hawaiian – Unihipili) that, like an animal, intuitively understands how to flow through life and engage with the raw, unadulterated Life-Force. My hunger, my thirst, my yearnings, my endless desires, my lust for life in its myriad forms – these belong to my Fetch.

“From the Seat of my Shadow Soul my Three Souls bleed out and blur.”

GodSoul/Holy Daemon/Higher-Deeper Self/Holy Dove – The part of me which is intrinsically, infinitely, and innately connected to God Herself in All Things. The Star-Seed Origin out of the Darkness which makes me, as a being, potent, strong and vital enough to exist and flourish in Being.

“From the Seat of my GodSoul I am unfolding…”

In what I teach I also connect the Three Souls as companions – not as equivalents – with the Three Realms. This is one of the reasons, other than sheer resonance, that the Triple Soul was so organically integrated into my WildWood spirituality. It was as if a missing piece came home. Keep in mind, I speak of prominence below, and this does not mean the Souls are out-of-alignment in any way. It is simply another mind-map, construed by Talker, after some impetus from Fetch!

Land and Middleworld is journeyed most prominently by the Talking Soul.

Sky and Upperworld is explored most prominently by the GodSoul.

Sea and Underworld is explored most prominently by the Shadow/Sticky Soul.

Here is a technique of aligning the Three Souls that not only incorporates the Three Realms, but the Three Ancestors, of Land, Inspiration and the Craft (can be with the Upperworld) and Blood (can be with Sea and Underworld).

Find your Breath. Breathe deeply and rhythmically. Ground and Centre.

Breathe consciously through your Fetch – your Shadow Soul, red and sticky – seated perhaps between your sex and navel. Breathe with great, deep breaths and feel how the vital Force of Life flows in and out from this place. Begin to expand and contract and in the contractions store the Life-Force. Feel how you feel. Delve into your primal instincts right now. Surrender to your Animal Nature and bless this Soul with your Breath.

Take another deep breath to sink down into the Dark Underworld, and feel the pulse of the Dead. Feel the Beloved Dead, your Ancestors of Blood, stir and begin to call out your name. As you breathe, bless the Raging Sea and Underworld; take another breath – bless your Ancestors of Blood, known and unknown, named and unnamed.

Take the Breath up through Heart, Throat and Head. Perceive and behold a great golden cloak of Light here. Breathe with great, deep breaths and feel how the Life-Force moves up here to revivify and cleanse and clear the Talking Soul. Open your eyes now if they are closed, and casually look around and allow yourself to name all the things you see. Notice this power, this skill, this ability to separate, define and comprehend. Feel into the limits and the underlying direct transmission of information that occurs. Surrender to your Talking Nature and bless this Soul with your Breath.

Take another deep breath and expand outward into the Land of Middleworld, and realisation the synergy and connection you have with all the other beings. Drop a thigh-thick tap-root into the Earth and feel the nourishment; draw upon its succour. Observe the Spectres of the Ancestors of the Land, both Human and Non-Human and how they comprise the Land in ever-evolving ways. As you breathe, bless the Land; take another breath – bless the Ancestors of Land, known and unknown, named and unnamed.

Take the Breath up, down and all around, until directions dissolve and become meaningless. Behold the Bright-Blue, Blossoming Star of one’s own Godhood. Breathe with great, deep breaths and feel how you yearn for your Higher-Deeper Self, the Agency of Sovereignty, and wish to claim and marry Self to Self now! Breathe, and feel the Life-Force awaken and tremble!

Take another deep breath and expand through the Upperworld, which is no longer just ‘up’ but all-expansive and distilled as a Jewel – limitless and infinite within its own breadth and breathless space. The Great Spiral of Time fills it! All the Stars are Gods, and the Dark Spaces in between – Titans. All of this in the Being and Body of God Herself – Grandmother Weaver. Call out to the Ancestors of our Craft, of our Magic, who inspire us! Call out to the Mighty Dead. As you breathe, bless the Sky and Upperworld; take another breath – bless the Ancestors of the Craft, the Mighty Dead, known and unknown, named and unnamed.

Take a Deep Breath – feel and see your Talker shining, your Shadow-Fetch vibrating – and hold your head back and with all of this built up inside, release the exhalation ‘Ha’.

The Three Souls are as one in the Black Heart of Innocence. Breathe into this, perceiving perhaps three great rivers of red, yellow and blue converging and spilling into the Deep Well of Own Holy Self. The Black Heart opens the door to the Wild Heart of Paradise – the Flourishing of the Wild Witch.

Bless this Alignment with your Breath.

Part Two will examine the Triple-Soul Layering/Mirroring technique I co-developed with the Company of my Gods and how Herakles revealed to me the despair of man.

Resources:

http://www.feritradition.org/grimoire/practices/practices_threesouls.htm

http://www.thorncoyle.com/evolutionary-witchcraft-excerpt/

Etheric Anatomy by Victor and Cora Anderson (Acorn Guild Press, 2004)

The Spiral Dance (20^th Anniversary Edition) by Starhawk (HarperOne, 1999)

- Gede Parma Akheron

My beautiful friend Jacqui’s initiation is coming up. Literally a week away.

Every now and then this particular topic burgeons profoundly in my consciousness, flickering faintly at the periphery of my mind until, without my prescience, it is flaming upon the crest of my heart with such earnest endeavour that I gaze mesmerised, caught and hypnotised by its swelling of light and colour.

I have realised several things about initiation today that crystallised significant pieces of my soul-story for me, after a week of being rather ill and feeling rather despondent in general.

As Jacqui’s initiation approaches I (and I am sure Kate, too) am holding quite a lot of the ‘nervous energy’ that our coven, Jacqui’s immediate WildWood and Witchcraft community, is surging with. Jacqui may not even be aware of it, this state that I am in, moving at the edges of what is to be her own personal, intimate awakening to Self – the Mystery. In our tradition we do not pass a current of power through apostolic succession as may happen in other Craft traditions – there is no lineage traced back through humans. There is however a community of teachers, mentors and allies, some joined in coven, others not, who have been a Circle of Allies for the initiate in their journey to initiation. Yes, the priesthood casts the ritual Circle as the sun sets for the culminating piece of ceremony on the initiation day, and yes, there is one moment, one act that signifies the passing of a thread, of evolving legacy and deeply-shared love and trust. Ultimately, however, in that Circle, it is Jacqui, the Witch, who will call upon the Powers, the Spirits and Our Sacred Four, and by her Own Holy Self make marriage most magical. The Mystery will ignite if she takes the firebrand and sings with her Soul in Silence.

My initiation has seduced me into a narrative of Myth – in which my Soul-Story is an Epic, in which I am a Healer, a Sorcerer, a Singer of Spells, a Seer and Visionary, an Artist, and most pertinently in the traditions of the Living Craft, a Priest. It isn’t that my initiation automatically makes me a priest, or that I feel that initiatory experiences only happen when pointing to priesthood. Or maybe they all do? But then – what is priesthood? What is this priest creature? In my journeying with Love, Truth and Wisdom, and in my current Fetch-felt Mind-map, Truth is to be found in the Castle of the Black Rose where the Mystic is born; Wisdom in the Castle of the White Rose where Sorcery is the Key; and Love…Love is the Reddest Rose guarded by the Hum of Bees and the Sting of Scorpions, upon the Mount and Throne of the Whore of Paradise whose Name is Love. It is here a priestess is born, between the thighs that beckon Light. In the Land where People gather the Priestess arises and takes the firebrand and whispers the Words of the First Witch who tends the Garden of Black, White and Red and points the Path to the Golden Apple hanging from the Tree of Knowledge.

I feel voracious, almost ravenous, in my pursuit of knowledge, not for the sake of acquiring it and stashing it away in marked and neat categories on shelves that draw dust. My hunger is a pursuit of a fuller knowledge, a more profound revelation of the depth of my Mystery which enjoins me with God, which makes me a God in God. My initiation – and I am not just speaking of my WildWood initiation as a priest, though this does invite this conversation – opened the door for me to treasure an experience which I realise I can now have over and over, in new and different ways. In fact, I had several strong initiatory experiences before my WildWood initiation. I am keenly aware, somewhere inside, that I may have and treasure these experiences in endless manifestations and expressions. Initiation is a gift one self-fully passes to oneself and the Feri mantra and maxim “God is Self and Self is God and God is a Person like Myself” illuminates this Mystery for me.

To speak from another tradition of which I am a part:

In the Reclaiming Tradition when one seeks initiation it is not because it gifts something extra within the matrix of the Reclaiming community. We do not become more privileged or in access of something beyond others. Reclaiming tradition does not require anyone to become initiated formally to be able to participate in rituals, teaching classes, or anything, to any extent. Initiation is a personal choice which sews one into a living lineage of people who have consciously decided to become a part of a woven tapestry inviting particular self-full oriented depth-viewing and questing into mythic narratives as part of a greater Story.

I feel this echoes for me in the context of WildWood community – when one decides to become an initiated WildWood priestess it is to, as I say, court and be teased by the breathless edge of realising oneself as God and possessing the spark of the numinous Mystic. And it is also, and perhaps greatly more so, as initiations like the former may happen at any time in our lives, an attempt to fall in love with, surrender and become enmeshed in a Story that is greater than each of us could fathom. A Story which speaks of the more-than-human, of a sacred contract between who we think and feel we are, what we know is possible and the Kiss of the Limitless. It is as if the limits imposed upon us and accepted by us numbly or begrudgingly in our waking, human world fade into the Great Adventure of the Unknown – the Fool’s Ever-Leap.

Inside of this is the Mad Poetry that is the Gift of the Gods and the Trick of the Titans. It is both a Gift and a Curse. Will you live revelling in the joy of having received that gift and sharing it with others? Will you live knowing that you have accepted, embraced, a Curse? The Curse you have embraced? To look ever into the Darkness-that-Sweats-Stars and behold God’s Wonder. This is Wyrd and Wild – this is the Promise of Paradise that I have heard my brother call the Perilous Quest. It is Love.

Do you dare to fall in love with the Wholeness of All? Do you dare to realise your holiness and that you are Sovereign? Are you willing and prepared to have your Beauty sung out to the Outer Dark, to have the Stars sing stories of it, and most powerfully, to have your own Deep Soul rise up and sigh in awe of it?

Initiation has taught me to be ever humble in my pride of Self, and in my Power and Promise. It has taught me to be gentle and strong, and to dance in my discipline, and forgive my faults, to let my scars shine and speak their stories and to be in grief and terror. I am not saved from anything by my initiation, and I am opened to everything.

This IS a perilous quest – and do you dare?

Know that somewhere, between the Worlds, I will be keeping Vigil on the night you sleep and dream, before you wake to the rosy-fingered dawn. I will chant and sing and scry and see and hope that your journey is full and deep. I will remember and live it all again. And then you will take the firebrand and the flame we foster will grow brighter again. Nourish your Spirit beloved, for it keeps you in Endless Mystery.

Beware – Beyond is Beauty…

I have recently emerged from the wonder-voyage that is Woodford Folk Festival. Since an early age I accompanied my parents (my mother mostly) to the festival at the threshold of the Gregorian new year as they played in a Balinese Gamelan (musical orchestra). Later on I would join this gamelan and play as well. This year was my first Woodford in three years. We arrived on Christmas day and joined those amongst my Wildkin who had already arrived and set up a basic camp collective. We decided to walk into the festival, we peaked the familiar hill and a whole rush and onslaught of nostalgic feelings overwhelmed me. I knew then that this would be an intense and amazing Woodford Folk Festival – and I was not wrong. I was more than right.

On the night of the full moon, which fell on Friday the 28^th of January 2012, several of us gathered, Wild(Wood) Witches, to honour the high tide of the lunar cycle with ceremony, song and dance. We did this, in the way we often do, by simply coming together at an appointed time, and with no plan, listen to the soulful surges of Spirit and answer the Calls. After this gorgeous and simple lunar feast I answered a different call. A call from Freyja, who had spoken with me rather surprisingly at my coven’s last dark moon circle in trance when I was meant to be communicating with Our Sacred Four. She had assured me that if I did partake of one of her holy herbs, She would speak with me on matters of deep concern to the health and well-being of Our Home Planet, Earth.

One of my dearest friends had prepared this herb for me and made Freyja’s signs over it. Together, we imbibed, which is a true rarity for me, for many a reason, and I knew then, the moment the smoke slid down my throat, that the Goddess wished to walk into my Body Temple and make home for a time. I agreed to let Her in, I let my friend know, and then…

…

As so often is the case with individuals who are born with the soul-shapes that I name ‘vessel’, and others may identify as ‘horses’  (inspired by Vodou), not much could be recalled immediately or even still, a week later, at all. However, during the Kate Miller-Heidke concert I learnt more – and this is where my consciousness began to exert itself again – than I could possibly have in that short time-frame, and yet I was absorbed into the full expression of a Great Spirit, a Proud Power, a Goddess!

What I am about to write may seem strangely controversial, and even alarming to anthropocentric thought and philosophy, and I write this from the perspective of one sharing possession of my body-temple in a gradually more synergistic way with a Goddess over one night.

1.  Why, amongst the myriad species and life-forms on this planet did homo sapien sapiens become the subject of a kind of whimsical and debauched curiosity? The Gods wonder this. A lot. How did the Cunning Fire become imbued into our lineage? The Gods wonder at this. Some of Them celebrate it.

2. The Gods fear humans becoming like Them – they fear what might happen. Will the Gods, like the Giants, Titans and Timeless Powers of Serpent and Dragon, be usurped by Self-Actualised God-Humans who become self-aggrandised and wield the weapons of a humanity gone mad? This has already happened, and it hurt(s). The Gods fear this. The Gods also wish for it, perhaps without the self-aggrandisement and the weapons.

3. The Gods are sad about and for our disconnection from Divinity – they weep. Our rituals, our ceremony, and our music, dance and song, trick the Gods to come and witness and gather with us. This makes the Gods happy – to see us re-connecting with and re-enlivening our intrinsic and innate Divine Essence. The Gods indeed wish for us to know the Ecstasy that is Absorption into the Wholeness that is Endless Being and the Strangeness of Coalescing Individuality. The Gods are often sad – we can make them happy. Like a Mother who lost her child to war, slavery and poverty, we can come and speak with her, joke with her, put on shows for her, feed her, and She will smile, if but for a moment. Until such time as we all realise that we have found each other again and were only blind, and thus lost in the desert.

4. The Gods remember everything and when They remember that they do, They find it both amusing, titillating and wondrous.

5. The Gods are the Gods because They care. On some deep level even the remotest of Spirits, the most discarnate Force, drinks of the Well which is the Greatest Mystery of All and from this Place we are all “in it together”.

I remember, in a half-waking state, witnessing streaks of colour and light moving quickly, as fast as the blush of Desire, through and into the crowd of humans gathered in front of the Amphitheatre Stage watching and listening to the Gift of Music and Song that Kate Miller-Heidke possesses and channels with conscious intent and celebration. In the space of a heart-beat, or perhaps the breathless shimmering before the beat, I was cognisant of All the Company of Gods present witnessing the Strangeness of Humans and revelling in it with us.

I remember watching Kate transcend into Her God and Become the Fullness of Her Divinity on stage and I remember Freyja’s awe at this. It was a visual feast for me and I could sense, for others. I felt it run like electricity and waves of pleasure through my own body and discovered then that the Gods are as mystified by Mystery as we all are.

I remember realising that Kate had become Miria (the Beautiful Reflection of the Star Goddess), and then the Crazed and Haunting Nimue who demanded to a Christ-like Luciferian Brother to be heard, seen and listened to. To dance the Chasm of Chaos with Her Brother and to Spin the Stars as She pleased with the Quake of Laughter that is Her Domain. Where have you gone Brother? Why have you deserted Me?

I remember Songs of the Devil and the Forgiveness of the Temptress unto Herself – that in the Ire and the Spite of what we in our own societies know to come forth from the idleness of wicked minds sowing wicked intentions – that there is no authority, no priesthood, who could possibly meet the Devil-Dame and ‘re-claim her for good’. The Devil-Dame, the Dance of the Star replete in Her Own Shining Divinity, and In Love With Her Image, must be able to laugh at this bullshit. There is a kind of Sorcery inside of this. I see the Witch here, in all Our Incarnations. How we are feared and laughed at. How we fear and laugh at ourselves. Recently I said to a group of Witches, “As a Witch I am sometimes awkward and uncomfortable in my own skin.” And to one of my teachers, “I will never be accepted or embraced by any human society that includes more than Witches – I am a Witch!” This is not a terrible thing.

I do not look for this ‘outcast-ness’ as a validation of some ancient Witch archetype, but I experience it as part of our Story and Narrative. I am endowed with, because I have tried and because I have won (sometimes through dropping the ball entirely), and because I meet with the Spirits and dare to, the Sorcery of Spirits. As a Witch amongst Humans, amongst Gods, I walk a terror-filled, but ever-joyous, terrain that blurs all and is at its most pure, Wild.

What I learnt from Freyja and Kate, and the Shining Star of My Own Holy Self, and the Blossoming God Within, is that I am as the Devil and the Redeemer. I am both, and neither, and all else. If I tempt myself, what am I tempting myself away from? If I redeem myself, to what standard am I requiring redemption or congruence? I fell down at Woodford. I did not fall away from my Divinity, or even break any oaths that I had forged by My Own Will in Dance with Deity. I did not break a vow, I made a choice. I became the Devil, not as an Advocate, but as Himself Fully, and I realised something in that moment – that Inside of Me is a Secret that I will never know and I can never hope to attain this Mystery for indeed it is at the End of Desire. Desire is Quick, it is the Flush of the Weaver’s Dreaming, and the Mirror that flashes My Image is one that can not be caught, ever at my Edge. I dance there, I am Its Keeper and I am ever-terrified and ever-joyous by Its Presence.

How will this help me bring down the Evils of Monsanto as was the original impetus for this conversation and union with Freyja? How will I be able to aid in and empower others to re-discover their own Divinity and dance with it? Well, I will keep dancing, I will keep slipping; I will keep flowing and then becoming still and silent, to awe at and with the Mystery that I have made intimacy with. I will listen to my Soul. And I will hear my Soul. And then I will act.

Part One – Gede Parma Akheron

I shivered; held, trapped, ensnared by the lucid, but maniacal force of the binding spirit – of an entity later identified as a demon written of in Hindu literature whose aim it was to corrupt the souls of priests. My memories are tainted by terror, torment and trepidation, fear of even falling asleep. Blood, scratches, spit across my face; my body bruised, battered – my spirit-force weak and completely wanting. I am blessed to have had five strong Witches and Wildkin surrounding me.

In 2011, on a workshop tour along the East Coast of Australia, I finally began to publicly speak about this experience of what could be classed as ‘demonic’ possession. I had feared speaking about this experience in case, from the pit of paranoia, the spirit (though locked away by Persephone in the Underworld, and witnessed by Aphrodite) heard and knew me and returned to assault and attack. At my Sydney workshop in September of that year after sharing this story as a cautionary tale, a woman experienced in the Craft reflected back to me that this sounded exactly like a true and timeless shamanic dismemberment-death-and-rebirth experience attested to by medicine-people across the globe. I realised in that moment that she was correct and that it made immediate contextual sense. I see this as the point when my shamanic charge as a Witch – in 2008 – was sealed.

Do I fear demons now? What is a demon? How do we identify them? Are they different or discernable from malevolent spirits in general? Are they synonymous? What is a Force of Chaos?

These are important and deeply meaningful questions for a spirit-worker, shaman and sorcerer (Witch) to posit and to explore into. Recent experiences, confusions, accusations and explorations in my immediate community of Witches (largely WildWood, though not exclusively) and an upcoming shamanic session with my Shamanic Craft Apprenticeship students has opened ample time and space for this to be considered personally. In these past two weeks I have reflected, grown and deepened in almost disproportionate ways. I have become more keenly aware of the risks and dangers of shamanic sorceries and spirit-working; however I never truly had illusions about the absence of such things in my Witchcraft. Please be aware that if you walk these paths you will need to become skilled and knowledgeable in these areas.

What is a demon? Firstly, I feel I must make the etymology and the history of the use of this term obvious. The ancient Greek philosophers and indeed the folk of the Aegean and the Near East, understood the word d(a)emon (Grk – daimon/daimonos) to refer to a spirit, any spirit. The original term did not possess moralistic qualification. Indeed many (Neo)Platonic theurgists and philosophers considered the holy daimon to be the higher consciousness of each individual, and the part of the soul complex that connected each of us to the over-arching, underlying Divine Spirit/Consciousness. This connects to many forms of Traditional and Old Craft which considers the Familiar Spirit, Fetch-Mate, or indeed Holy Daimon to be exactly as the ancient Greek philosophies posited. It was through the rise and intercession of the early Christian church(es) that the Greek ‘daimon’ became equivalent with ‘evil spirit’ simply because in the Christian mindset any other spirit not identified with Yahweh/Christ – God – (technically most, if not all, of them) is automatically associated with the Adversary, Satan, and as in the earlier Zoroastrian cosmologies, the Ultimately Good God is opposed to the Ultimately Evil God and both possess spirit armies who battle for the souls of each human being.  One metaphor used to explain this in Zoroastrian teaching is as if we walk upon a knife’s edge, ever-teetering and torn between the basic duality of good and evil. Will we continue the walk upon the knife’s edge and receive soulful salvation into the arms of the Good God? Or will we allow ourselves to fall to temptation and become tainted and tormented by the Evil God? Of course, this is not exactly the (early) Christian conceptualisation, though Zoroastrian thought did influence this dualistic battle-like scenario (think the film Constantine). On a purely historical level, and of interest to modern-day Pagans, is the etymological and cultural fact that a daimon/daemon is in fact simply a spirit, like any spirit, and is not immediately or qualitatively imbued with any particular character, beyond the infinite possibility of plural forms and forces. However, we can not ignore the stigma attached to the word ‘demon’ as it has passed through 2000 years of Christian influence in the West; though we have to consider this on par with the stigma attached to the words Faggot, Witch and Cunt – all words many people have reclaimed and embrace as spiritually and culturally powerful and relevant today. In fact I am a Faggot Witch and I come from a Cunt! On a metaphysical level this has contorted and convoluted our own lenses, on a broad and social scale, to interpret any non-theistic spirit, being or entity to enter even our vaguest periphery as a wholly demonic force at worst or at the least a chaotic or malevolent spirit who intends some form of harm or confusion.

I must now admit my biases as the writer of this essay series. I am a Pagan. I am a Witch (see my Essay – http://www.gedeparma.com/?cat=3&paged=6). I am a Shamanic Witch, which to me is a way of communicating and expressing that I adhere to and practise older and timeless understandings of and forms of spirit-working, sorcery and shapeshifting. Essentially what has come down to us through European/Western lore, culture(s), myth and literature as Witchcraft can be called shamanism as easily as similar sorcerous and soul-exploring traditions of Siberia, North and South America, the Pacific Islands, Asia and Australia. Therefore, I am definitively not a dualist in any way. I do not conceive of or experience the Limitless Cosmos as comprising of ultimate sources and expressions of good and evil, nor do I conceive of a polarity between the Darkness and the Light necessarily; I understand the cosmological dance of Light from Primal Matter/Primordial Darkness to be a Graceful and Chaotic Unfolding of Consciousness into its Own Revelation – over and over again. I see a spirit-filled multiverse and a mysterious pregnant chasm overflowing with a bounty of Gods, infinite in quality and number. My own disciplines, services and way of life means that I consciously interact with Spirits everyday. This is true at the foundational level of my synergy with the Elements and therefore the Spirits that arise from these basic and formulating forces; I drink water, I breathe air, I am warmed and stimulated by the sun, and I stand upon the Earth and eat from Her. I also speak with, play with, debate with, and encounter human spirits of the corporeal nature everyday – I am one – and this also means that I pray to My God (the Endless Song and Deep Name of Me – My Holy Daimon) everyday and this forms the key part of my spiritual discipline and dance. From this Seat of Sovereignty (Self-Possession), which I return to consciously every day (how could I not?) I speak, play, debate with and encounter many non-human and other-than-human spirits of the ‘non-corporeal’ nature everyday. My practice is that when a spirit I do not know approaches me, I ward, protect and affirm my boundaries and ‘Edges of Self’ with Blue Faery Fire and re-align my three souls, pray to My God, and after this to my Soul-Goddess Persephone, and perhaps to the other eight Deities* I am priest to and lover with. I then ask the Spirit:

Who are you?

Where have you come from?

Why are you here?

If the Spirit answers to my satisfaction and my intuition, without paranoia (and I have to constantly check myself) I will then consult and speak with the Spirit – this may be through words spoken aloud on my part and received through clairaudience. I may also receive simple knowings, visions and/or sensations that communicate intent and quality back to me, etc. Often, as in my work strange spirits (like strange people) encounter me (and vice versa) most days, I will then politely disengage from the interaction and perhaps arrange another time to meet if I feel that it would be mutually beneficial or desired. All of this is rather literal, direct and practised interrelationship that I have been conscious of participating in, on the non-human level, for 12 or so years. It is my profession to teach and impart such skills in my writing and teaching as well.

It is very simple to identify when a spirit intends you harm; it is also relatively simple to then ward, dispel and banish the spirit far from you. In the next part of this essay series I will provide some tried-and-true methods. However, what I would like to suggest here is that even if a spirit intends you harm, if it is not a human spirit, then to fall into the trap of fear and absolutism concerning the moralistic or ethical nature of the spirit and its influence on human beings can be considered to be a problematic philosophical and metaphysical situation.

For instance, if the spirit is not human (alive or ‘dead’) and therefore capable of acts of ignorance concerning personal divine nature, and if I am not a carrier of dualistic notions of ‘good and evil’ or an adherent to absolutist ideologies of the nature of the Cosmos and its Parts, then I will act in a way that is clean and clear, but I will not ‘demonise’ the force or people who perhaps knowingly work with or interact with such forces. I don’t know or am skilled at everything, even remotely. After all, when a Siberian shaman is banishing the spirit of a debilitating illness or disease from a client’s infested body, the illness or disease is not evil, or intending to confuse or mislead, in fact it is carrying out its own vital and necessary purpose and function, which is to find a host body and then to preside within it. Of course, if the host body is one of our beloved, we are filled with anger, confusion, sorrow and sadness, and thus we take steps to remove the illness/spirit, clear and cleanse our beloved. The Spirit/Illness is known to and tasted by the shaman, in fact the shaman must have taken some of it in, in order to be able to understand how to remove and banish its presence. This is a daimon that is a spirit of chaos indeed, and this is the fabric of our Cosmos, born of Chaos and Darkness. All these jostling forces and beings disturb and unbalance each other in order to stimulate dynamic growth and momentum. This happens every day; it happens inside your own body! It is necessary, vital and demanded by the Consciousness of All, of which we partake and possess. Life is not safe and is full of risks. Witchcraft magnifies this because we are that much more conscious and practised in igniting awareness as discipline.

What of those non-human spirits that seem to possess human-like sentience and awareness and intend savage brutalisation of humans? Or at least confusion. Be wary of course; be as wary as you are in your day-to-day life of such human beings. I fear human beings more than I do the Spirits. We are capable of controlled and considered evil deriving from ignorance of our own divine nature and acting strategically against it and the responsibility and accountability involved. These are rare encounters (with similarly-malevolent non-human spirits) and constant paranoia or fear regarding such spirits is synonymous with such attitudes in human society. There may be harmful (to human) beings in the broader World of Spirits, but in my experience, most ‘evil intent and acts’ are contained to the World of Humans.

In the next part of this series I will explore Deities and God-Spirits who possess trickster aspects and who have been associated with Forces of Chaos throughout their known legacy and history in the human sphere. I will also touch on methods of banishing malevolent forces and attention if required.

For now, it is enough to know that in fact Shamans, Witches, Sorcerers and Shapeshifters know, interact with and in fact work with d(a)emons, and that this is another word for Spirits. This is risk-filled and dangerous work, as is crossing the road. I encourage awareness rather than wariness.

*A Deity (God/dess) is a Spirit that is so self-aware of Its Self-Caused Origins that It, like the First Mother/Great Goddess, is so intoxicated by Its own Image and Reflection caused by the Dance of Light (the Stuff of Stars) that the Phenomenal Edges of ‘Personhood’ dissolve and settle in such a way that the God becomes (Pro)Active Story; an Altar of Myth. All of this is Most Profoundly Real. (From my Essay ‘In the House of Spirits: Offering, Exchange and Sacrifice’ http://www.gedeparma.com/?p=268)

Hidden away in houses lit aflame by the oppressors of Arcane Rites,
The Black Stone in the fading embers of the dying hearth-fire,
Taken in and rescued, and kept, for you are alike to that
By now familiar Black Heart of All Innocence and I promise to this Lasciviousness.

I race upon Thy Train Lady with my Kin beside me, with Ash,
Upon the Ghost Winds, with the Pale-Faced and the Red-Hearted,
We soar in the tide of Chaos, for we are no longer separate from the Necessities of Nature,
We have learnt the fallacy and the folly of this – the arrogance. And so we fly.

Your priests challenge us at the Gateway to the Temple,
Restored by the Sign of Your Key – brandished to the Breathless;
Who are you Gods? In Whom Do You Abide?
For you are a Queen who wishes no Queendom over lowly serfs, other than With All Gods in Paradise in which we are Raised – in your wisdom are we humbled by one another.
We are each others’ Gods.

And so each step, followed by another, with pride in learning this,
By Way of Laying Aside, but knowing, what separates us from the Embrace of the Divine.
And so we unveil ourselves in the Light of the Soteira and remember the Black One too who was before the Birth of Light and the Line of the Sun.

And yet now I fear I have been wounded by a Spirit of Confusion,
A Calamity has arisen and the Demons and Shades of Locked and Stuck Fear are quaking at the feet,
Do the dogs bay here? Do the snakes hiss? What of thy toad and the golden jewel?
All is forlorn, and yet, the question is simple – is the demon the tiger that in the jungle stalks me as prey, and attacks and devours me without a thought of my story? Is the demon the Winds of the Hag-blown Ones, which bring the tempest to the fleets and sink the ships? What is a demon when from the True Seat of Sovereignty, beholding the Black Stone, and Great Eye opened, All is in the Lap of the Goddess? There can be no Evil here, for the Lady laughs and the Tormented Spirits are released and relieved in the Ecstasy. For She forgives, and She is the Forgiveness in Our Own Souls.

And what is this Face of this God here? Veiled and Unveiled? Beholden by the Light of a Firebrand lit by the chanting of Holy and Ancient Names.
Legacies of Power that can not be trespassed upon by any flight or folly of something which can only quake in fear at the mere quiver of Artemis’ bow.

I have been bruised in a battle I did not call for, and while I have wished to pick up the Sword, I will not profane it in any battle, in any war,
I have made oaths to the Knife and I will only wield it by the Law of the Cup…I will endure in Love as Love endures in Me.

The Sign of Love has been placed upon the Altar, our Spirits and Gods called and revelled with…

Yes we flew to the Witches’ Mountain;
Yes I cavorted with the Satyrs and the Nymphs by the Fires and under the Pine Tree;
Yes I met the Horned One, and yes I kissed him and laid with him.
I did this like the Witches before me. I did this with the Pale-Faced Hag of Night – I did this with the Two-Natured Queen of the Trivia.
I did these things, yes…

In the House of Hekate – Upon the Witches’ Mountain – and I am lit up in the Darkness and so I take the Firebrand and I dance with the Goddess.

- Gede Parma Akheron – 7th of December, 2012