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Belated: Happy Imbolc

Posted in Folk Belief, Luciferianism, Other, Paganism, The Path of Flames with tags Belial, Hecate, Horned God, Imbolc, Lucifer, Pagan, Paganism, Religion and Spirituality, Wheel of the Year on February 2, 2014 by Sypheara

To everyone reading this, firstly I’d like to wish you happy Imbolc! Sorry the post is a bit late, but I got caught up in my own workings.

Imbolc marks the beginning of spring, when the solar fires once again begin to return and winters grip begins to loosen. It certainly hasn’t felt that way in England as of yet! A mild but constantly rainy weather pattern seen this be a very strange January, and I can only hope that going forward it will calm down allowing for more workings outside to be performed. Although it can’t be said to be unwelcome, keeping everywhere around here relatively warm.

The cross quarter sabbats, are for me, emphasised more than the solstices. The liminality, the crossing points, are for me the times were I seem to combine solitary work with celebrating the event with the wider pagan community. This is something, as a solitary practitioner, I seldom do but feel is essential to prevent myself from falling into a disconnected state.

I often get asked if there is a reason behind this, in an objective fashion, but it simply more of a personal preference that for me. The answer I often give is simple. The solstices and equinoxes become more of a personal experience for me, simply due to practicality. Not as a rule but as a guide, using the cross quarter days for communal and introspective work, and the quarter days for more workings with an objective, it allows for multiple expressions of my practice where the staggering of priorities encourages me to take part in all of the Sabbats on some level. Not out of only a sense of duty, but missing out! Of course this isn’t roughly stuck to – if I feel prodded in a certain direction, I roll with it and do workings or rituals or whatever as required.

I participated in an interesting ritual the night before Imbolc which revolved around the Goddess Brighid and the Spirit of the Swan. This involved a guided meditation of a journey to a lake, where upon the Swan would be met, and a message potentially received.

For me it was rather interesting, and played out far differently that I could have expected. I entered a forest from the minds eye that was filled with silver light. The trees and the land itself seem infused with silver, and I felt of reduced weight. It wasn’t long before I reached a lake – the lake was a deep, sapphire blue, in vivid contrast to that of the surrounding land. On it, a swan swam, xrayed, it’s skeleton viewable through its skin. It flickered between this and a more solid corporeal appearance, as it swam towards me.

When it got close, I felt it an aura extend from it to myself. Quite quickly this enveloped me, surrounding me in a deep sapphire light. At this point, I entirely lost any sense of being connected within anyone else present. I felt the bones push out from my skin and reach down into the ground, piercing into the roots of a great tree. My minds eye was dominated by a giant, white and blue searing eye, and a voice spoke through the swan delivering its message. The energy felt not too dissimilar from that of Belial’s, and completely overtook my body. Eventually once the message was delivered, the experience slowly became less intense, before finally my bones retracted back towards my body, and the swan began to swim away. Even as it did so, it felt like the scene and my own aura was collapsing inwards, and soon i was surrounded by a pitch blackness.

Imbolc celebration in Marsden

In the distance, I could see an orange light so I stumbled towards it. As i got closer, I could see a skeletal figure, which looked like a ram or goat, except it possessed human hands and stood upright on it’s hindquarters. Like the swan, it flickered between this skeletal visage and a solid form. In this case, the solid form was of a creature covered in black deep fur, with bone bleached antlers. I could see it stirring a dark, black cauldron, in which a clear, warm liquid that had the consistency of treacle circled, vortex like. As I came closer, the figure reached up, and tore off its own head, to reveal an angelic male figure underneath. This figure glowed like white hot metal, and long flowing blonde hair descended around the narrow face like streams of plasma .There was a feeling that the air around him (for the figure felt distinctly male) was electrified. The skin of the goat fell away entirely , and the figure walked over to me and extended out his right hand, and placed it on my head. There was no feeling of heat, but instead I felt an immense jolt of energy, and suddenly became aware of my own physicality. At that point, I slowly came to, and opened my eyes..

All in all it was a very rewarding and interesting journey, although far different and expanded than what I expected or the goal of the working itself. It was interesting that I experienced no feelings from Hecate or any other feminine energies.

After everything was over, the person who was leading the ritual also gave to me and other participants a wonderful present: a hand sewn Imbolc bracelet, made out of a white material that also bore a small charm. As someone who works with knots, knows how much concentration to create it would have taken and appreciates how much intense focus can create a powerful object, it was a very, very nice gift. It was taken home and placed on the altar immediately, and I intend to wear it close to the body between now and Beltane.

On the Sabbat night I prepared the offerings, tying them with red and white string. This included several apples, an alcoholic libation, and some walnuts. One of these walnuts was opened, and filled with the ashes from burnt incense and a small piece of coloured quartz, one I have had since being a small child. As such, i felt it would make an ideal gift. Associations were not thought of here in any large amount – just the desire to return something to the spirits for their continued presence and as a thank you for the previous experience.

On Monday, I plan to take these offerings to an appropriate place, somewhere secluded where they are unlikely to be bothered. I hope you have all had a similarly interesting few days.

~S~

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Ritual Write-Up: Spirit Box Creation

Posted in Luciferianism, Necromancy, Occultism, Paganism, The Path of Flames, Traditional Witchcraft with tags Belial, Hecate, Lucifer, Necromancy, Pagan, Religion and Spirituality, Ritual, Samhain, Witchcraft on January 17, 2014 by Sypheara

After a long and hard write-up, the Spirit Box Creation PDF is finally complete, and now available in the resources section! Although seemingly taking forever, I can honestly say that I am very pleased with the results. Writing in-depth with others in mind, deciding what is appropriate and not to include, in such a document is a far call from writing up it my own journal!

What spurred me to write the document is the powerful amount of information gained through it’s construction by the spirits contacted through it. Made to help give me a more concrete, physical link to the mighty dead, the spirit box which resulted from this process has gone on to be an invaluable tool, and has pride of place on my personal altar whenever possible. As such, for those who feel comfortable, want to attempt it, and feel ready to do so, I can say I have learned and gained a lot from it, and it is worth an attempt if you feel drawn to it.

Clocking in at around 20 odd A4 pages, it must be said that this is definitely NOT the lightest of documents I have ever produced. However, it contains pretty much every aspect of the ritual I used to empowering my spirit box. Details on method and ingredients are all listed, along with relevant sigils, and the file also contains images. These I took at relevant and appropriate times during the ritual before the box was ensouled and the invocations began.

Without further ado, the quick link is below:

Spirit Box Creation

Lastly, I would like to thank those who have read over my work and have given their feedback to it. It is much appreciated that people would be interested and give their time to look over it for me. I’d also especially like to thank Mark Alan Smith, who has gracefully given permission for several of the sigils revealed and channeled through his work with Hecate and subsequently published in the Queen of Hell to be used in this document.

Thank you for reading as always,

~S~

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Ritual Write-Up: The Trident

Posted in Occultism, Paganism, The Path of Flames with tags Belial, Esoteric and Occult, Hecate, Lucifer, Magick, Religion and Spirituality on December 8, 2013 by Sypheara

Continuing on with the theme of the day, I have finished the blog reshuffle I have been intending to do for some time now. The resources page has become the links page, and has been replaced with an resources page of my own work. This will hopefully allow me to distribute some of my own work in PDF format, which will make it easier to read, easier for people to get hold of a hard copy, and reduce the amount of articles needing to be split into multiple posts.

The first of the uploaded files relates to a working which I took part in earlier this year, which was run by the Temple of the Ascending Flame. With the material aligning with my own work, I thought it would be an excellent opportunity to give back some time and energy in participating in group work. This is not something I usually do, but it turned out to be a highly rewarding experience. The supplied and uploaded file has only been slightly modified – outside of that, it is identical to the one I sent after the workings were completed.

Seal of Belial

The working itself deals with contacting Hecate, Lucifer, and Belial, over the course of several nights utilising sigils, blood magick, and meditation and visualisation techniques. The results were very interesting, and really helped move my personal practice forward on a theoretically, practically, and spiritual level. At the time, it was the longest ritual I had performed and the first to utilise blood magick, where beforehand only the breath had been primarily utilised.

It is quite a long and serious bit of work. Many of the sigils I have still not been able to figure out the use or meaning to, but plan to when possible do a series of workings to investigate the main seals revealed. The quick link to the PDF is below.

https://theluciferianrevolution.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/12/toaf-2013-project-1-revised.pdf

Ave Hecate,

~S~

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On Reflection: Witchnames

Posted in Occultism, Paganism, The Path of Flames, Traditional Witchcraft with tags Astaroth, Magick, Moon, Names, Pagan, Religion and Spirituality, Samhain, Witchcraft on November 24, 2013 by Sypheara

The idea or concept of a Witchname has never been an appealing to me. However, recent events have forced me to re-evaluate my take on it, and I thought it would make for an interesting, small post. A quick and to the point explanation for those who have not come across the concept: A witchname is a name taken or given by a witch to describe their magickal self identity.

You can come across such a concept in in multiple places, and I was introduced myself to it through reading different source materials. It is often approached in several, widely differing ways across traditions, which vastly alters the meaning and reasons behind having having one. Again, to keep it short, I will describe both extremes of the spectrum, although it is to be reminded that most traditions and schools fall somewhere in between these two examples.

At the most extreme, a witchname is said to be the literal, true magickal name of the practioner. To know somethings true name, is said to have complete control over it, and examples of this type of approach can be found in several older demonological texts and other even older sources which predate industrial society. This is said to be a self awakening experience, said to give control over your own self in a much greater, more concious way, and be a secret to hold exceptionally guarded. A witchname is in this sense supposed to be given or otherwise discovered, and is not self given as its a property belonging to said practitioner beyond their control.

The Sigil of Astaroth. Sigils can also be seen as a form of true name in symbolic form.

At the most open, and at the opposite extreme, is where the witchname is self given, and acts as a simple pseudonym. This pseudonym is adopted often for many various reasons, usually to separate or abstract the persons magickal identity or activities away from their regular everyday self. This is said to elevate the magickal side of a person, whilst helping them separate from the mundane when carrying out workings so that they can be more effective. Often, this name is used for all activities, is not kept secret, and is often used in a public space. This can be seen in many online communities, where users often use their witchname, in this sense, as also their viewable username.

Although knowing of it, I have never been one for the concept of the witchname. Although holding some sympathy with the first concept, and believing it is technically possible, I have always regarded witchnames with suspicion. This has come from meeting other practitioners who are very vocal about their witchnames. Many of these people have left me with the impression that such a name was only adopted to fuel the ego – not due to some internal discovery, spirit or god given gift, or for practical application. Also, from a personal standpoint, I feel no need to outside of ritual to dramatise my belief, believing that this can often do great harm to the path by making it seem frivolous or pure self indulgence.

As such, the whole concept was although not forgotten, certainly not dwelt upon. After finishing my second journal, I was at a loss at how to start the other despite having plenty to actually write up. How would i begin? Locked in this thought pattern for several weeks, I finally had a break through of a sorts. On the night of the Frosty Moon, I was wide awake for the majority of the night time, unable to sleep in any way. Thus annoyed, I continued to try and sleep with little success, until I eventually passed out for a duration of perhaps 40 minutes sometime very late on in the morning as the sun was almost risen.

The Mighty Dead, artist unknown

I immediately found myself in a powerful dream, in which I was sucked through and into the spirit box I had constructed for Samhain. I followed this dark tunnel for awhile and found myself standing in a clearing amidst a dark wood, with a pale, sickly blue sky. In the centre, I could see a figure tied to a stone table that was inclined at a 45 degree angle. Looking closer, I could see that this figure was infact myself, or a form of myself that I often use whilst travelling. Briefly described this form is faun like with notable differences. It possesses horns similar to a gazelles, and large wings that are feathered, but bat like. Its skin is ivory white, contrasting against the black shadowlike fur and black veins and markings. This was the first time me seeing this body from an outside perspective, and I could see the serpent like eyes vacant – open, with the colours shifting within them dulled. I moved towards the shell and began to step into it, merging my form with it. Once this weird, but not unfamiliar process was mostly complete, I could see from my new eyes. Removing the bounds of the form that kept it tied to the table, I tried to move off.

Immediately, I could feel a cool rush of wind and black forms rose up from the base of the pedestal, with a hissing. These forms assumed the forms of shadow like figures, in the main appearing as vaguely female in shape. They surrounded me, touching me across the flesh, being at the same time warm and ice cold, leaving temporary marks across the flesh. Repeatedly, they whispered a name repeatedly into my ear. The word was clear and distinct, penetrating my being as it was spoken. This got louder, and more intense, with several of the forms passing in and through my own body. I was overcome with a feeling that they were calling to me, with a name that refered to me that I had never encountered. This persisted for what seemed like at least ten to fifteen minutes, before they grew quiet, their forms dissolved, and they sank back into the ground.

Shadow Person, artist unknown

With this, I attempted to stand from my stone support but felt incredibly drained, and fell to the ground. The impact startled me into actually waking back into normal awareness with a large jump. Analysing this experiment in context, much of my previous assumptions, perhaps unfair ones in light of this event, have been removed.

Having my own experience of what I believe to be the Mighty Dead speak to me what is effectively a kind of witchname has made me look upon the concept with renewed interest and as an avenue for future exploration. The inspiration from this experience cleared my ‘writers’ block, and I plan to make use of the revealed name in future magickal work starting with the beginning of my new journal.

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A Small Tarot Reading: The Scales and The Devil

Posted in Divination, Occultism, The Path of Flames with tags Divinatory esoteric and occult tarot, Future, Hecate, Judgement, Judgment, Major Arcana, Minor Arcana, Pentacle, Tarot, Ten of Pentacles, The Devil on September 2, 2013 by Sypheara

So following my successes with my first venture into the Tarot (described here https://theluciferianrevolution.wordpress.com/2013/07/14/my-experience-with-the-tarot/) I’ve always been meaning to write up about another one of my readings of the Tarot.

A recent reading came up that I though was very interesting, so I thought I would relay it as a smaller post preceding the larger book review im undertaking. As such, I’ll launch right into it.

Background

The previous night, I felt like again approaching Hecate and asking her for assistance in a Tarot reading, to determine what would be the major influence within the coming weeks. This came after several weeks of detachment from pursuing anything concrete in any fashion and indulging myself to recharge my psychological and physiological batteries, and after a period of break I decided to approach Hecate for help.

What happened I did not expect. After shuffling the cards in my usual manner calling on Hecate, I split the deck into three stacks in front of me and drew the middle first, followed by the left most card, followed by the right most card.

The middle card was asked to reveal the current and near future state and its dominating influence. The left most card was asked to reveal the past influences which have led to the current state. The right most card was asked to reveal the end result of the current and near future dominating influence, if it was left to run its natural course.

The cards I pulled from each stack were in no way expected, but I found them to be highly interesting. The leftmost card was The Devil, The middle card The Ten of Pentacles, and the rightmost card Justice. I will now provide my own small reading on them, for what I believe them to be indicating to me.

A picture taken from the reading itself.

Past Influence which has led to the current state : The Devil

The Devil as a Major Arcana card is the first Major Arcana card I have encountered within an actual reading. For me, this came as a shock at first, due to the cards overly negative connotations. However, when read with the middle card, and taking into account my recent past, I can see why it would play a role and appear in a reading.

The negative connotations of the Devil card are best summed up as a feeling of being in bondage or being otherwise restricted physically, emotionally and spiritually. It can also relate to remaining willfully ignorant, bound to material matters, or being self absorbed into a overly negative world view. It can also relate a feeling of intense hopelessness.

The Devil from the Tarot Of Trees.

As a whole, at first, none of these seem to overly relate. However, on deeper introspection and asking questions, I can see how the Devil card has arisen. In the last past period, I have definetly let go of pretty much every inhibition I held on some level. The last few weeks has been highly healing, hence I think leading to the Ten of Pentacles. This is the process with which I have broken the chains that were to some extent holding me down psychologically. I believe this is related to the stagnation I have finally broken out of in one area of my life and finding my centre again. I also believe it relates to my deteriorating financial state, and the binding issues that has placed upon me.

I believe that the card not only represents the old issues, but also the method through which inverted I used to overcome these problems tackling fire with fire. I also believe however it marks a warning, to ensure that I do not continue in this manner as a general rule, or end up being caught in a new problem of my own creation and immolating myself. Its position corroborates the fact it has been mostly moved away from, something I am thankful for!

The current and near future state : Ten of Pentacles

The Ten of Pentacles, although a Minor Arcana card, is a welcome one in this reading. Traditionally it deals with security and enjoying the fruits of ones labour and that things will finally come together. This coming together will yield a state that creates a long lasting foundation of some description for the future. It also usually depicts the need to share and spread this overabundance of stability through various manners. It usually deals with mainly physical matters, but can also relate to an abundance or knowledge or other revelations which brings about this state. This is usually a rational or methodic knowledge rather than spiritual.

The Ten of Pentacles from the Tarot Of Trees.

In relation to myself, I have interpreted this is many ways. In my life, I have recently been offered a job interview that, if I am successful at, will eleviate my current financial situation and give me a new level of freedom. I believe that pulling this card signifies that all current indicators point to that I will be successful in this, and that has been corroborated with other signs from the company themselves and the arrangement process.

However, Hecate doesn’t often only send me signs about mundane matters, so I also believe this also has a hidden meaning that is not entirely been revealed to me. This could be in relation to coming into possession of knowledge that must be continued to be shared when possible in regards to methodology, and that this card could be a reminder of my duties in that regard.

Regardless, the fact that some material foundation or settlement is occuring or will soon begin to occur is a welcome one, and one that I will hope to seize full advantage of it if presented. However, with the appearance of the following card, I hold that view with a degree of caution.

The result arising from this state: Justice

Another interesting card to pull, Justice is another Major Arcana card and the second I have ever pulled in a reading. The way I have seen this card in my studies and and looking at it has been one of it representing Karma. In this way, Justice is a card I see representing this force, of causation and reaction. I use the word force here on purpose – in the card that I possess, the figures eyes are blindfolded. This to me indicates that it isnt the figures emotional reaction or judging of a situation, but simply the cold logic of the outcome of the scales being held.

As such, I see this card as a double edged blade – it is one that could have positive or negative consequences, and shows that some causal action in the past is going to cause a large reaction in the immediate future. As a Major Arcana card, I therefore also believe this indicates such a reaction will have an impact on a wide level for the person involved including Physical, Mental and Spiritual Elements. The old adage you reap what you sow does indeed apply here.

Justice from the Tarot Of Trees.

Applying this to myself is therefore also done in a double edged fashion, because nobody can escape the laws of cause and effect when bound to our current universe. As such, I believe it offers both a promise and a warning, especially paired with the previous two cards.

In a positive light, the Justice card could potentially mean that, after a period of having to be exceptionally careful with money and my mundane life balance, i will finally receive the payoff i’ve been searching for in regards to it. This would allow me more freedom to pursue my spiritual path, having been freed of living in an environment hostile to my practice. This would be a sign similar to my previous reading – instead of enjoying the bounties of my spiritual fufilments, now I may also be in the position to see my mundane life move forward as well.

However, I also see it as a warning in that if the opportunity is not seized, then I will miss out and lose the bounty offered up by the Ten of Pentacles as cause and effect takes precedent.

In addition, I also believe this carries a further warning: the method and influence of the The Devil card still leaves a mark and is not entirely discarded, and it could also relate to an action or actions I took in that period coming back to have an unseen effect, limiting the effectiveness of the Ten of Pentacles or causing a new, unforeseen problem to arise.

This has in a way already come to pass, and I am therefore wary of the negative side that the Justice card can bring. As such, I also see it as a warning indicating that I must be wary of falling into its influence again at least for the immediate future or risk what i might be able to obtain.

In actuality, I expect that a combination of both positive and negative outcomes will occur resulting in a more balanced outcome than suggested by the Ten of Pentacles on its own. I admit I am in no way perfect, so the the outcome of the cause and effect principle will not be entirely what I seek and I expect surprises in the future due to the manifestation of this cards influence in the reading.

Conclusion and Follow-Up

With such an interesting array of cards, I feel that it will be necessary to carefully observe the next few weeks and how it develops. Seeing the results will reveal to me hopefully the meaning within the reading, helping me gauge what was successfully read, and what wasnt. Either will be interesting to note, and will hopefully shed more light on the cards and the reason they were presented by Hecate. As such, I hope to write another small follow up if possible detailing the outcomes.

I hope this has again been interesting. I have begun work on the review of Apocalyptic Witchcraft, and hope to release it in two parts as it has grown outside of the original scope I had planned for it. That should be released later this week at some point.

Thanks as always for reading,

~S~

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A Small Ritual for Connecting with the Gods

Posted in Occultism, Paganism, The Path of Flames with tags Athame, Communion, Hecate, Possession, Ritual, Sabbat, Wicca, Witchcraft on August 11, 2013 by Sypheara

So it’s been awhile since the last post, and the book review for Apocalyptic Witchcraft still isn’t ready to go. As such, I’ve decided to post a small ritual write up in the meantime, that some may find useful or insightful. For those of you who are sorely tempted, I can say its definetly worth picking up, so don’t wait around and grab it whilst you can. On to the topic at hand however.

Recently, it was the time of of Lammas/Lughnasadh, an important Sabbat in the Wheel of the Year adopted by several neopagan groups. For the non-witches, it is the first of the Autumnal Sabbats which revolve around the Harvest. As someone who mostly observes the cross quarter days rather than the equinoxes, being away from home, and being the poor individual that I am, meant that I had to celebrate it in a relatively low key way using a ritual I’ve come to incorporate into my regular practice after utilising it on several occasions.

For me the Sabbats, regardless of their seasonal component, the most important part for them to me, is communing with the Gods. This small ritual is designed to allow that, and is one that can be varied to what works for the practioner. It is a ritual that facilitates a growing connection with the God or Spirit in question, and can also be used as a tool for both communication and the giving of offering. It can be relatively extravegant, or startlingly simple. I will include the more complicated and simple variants together. Note that, the optional parts, although optional, will greatly assist in obtaining concrete results. It is best done on a night, so the method will assume this is the case.

It is to be noted the following is what works for me, from personal experience.Although it contains elements from Path of Flames teaching, it also incorporates elements from other sources, and of my own creation. As such, it contains my own experiences and inferences, which will contain some non-objective observations although I’ve tried to keep them at a minimum. Feel free to experiment and modify it to something which gives you the most consistent results, but please do so with caution and within reason.

NOTE: The following does use blood. Its not massively vital, but I highly recommend it as it will help empower the work and act as a potent offering.

Materials

You will need only the basics for this ritual, but the more you add to it, the more you will get out of it. The following are the basics.

– Paper or equivalent for drawing on. Should be burnable.

– Ink suitable for use on the Paper/Parchment.

– Drawing implement or small paintbrush (for drawing with the ink).

– Pen/Pencil (if above two not used, otherwise not needed).

– Glass of Water (if using blood).

– Salt (if using blood).

– Relatively Sharp Knife (if using blood). This does not have to be dedicated in anyway to this purpose, as long as its cleaned. If you are of Wiccan background or otherwise use an Athame or anything of the sort , it is probably not good to use it for multiple practical and occult reasons to draw blood. Use a seperate blade instead.

– Three candles (optional, again as an offering and practically so if done in a dark, quiet room you can see without bright distracting artificial light)

– Relevent incense blend (optional) . Can substitute with tobacco or similar.

– Relevent libation (optional).

Preparation

Optional prestep: If you wish, you can consecrate the inks / use magickal inks of your own formula and also consecrate / prepare the parchment if you so choose. I mostly just use a consecrated standard ink, although I wish to make my own in the future that should be much more potent. I usually use paper that has been coated with coffee as a form of ‘pre’ libation . If you can’t do these steps, again it should be ok, just the link will be weaker.

Not-so-optional pre-step: Wash the knife, preferably with something antibiotic. If you are really paranoid, or your immune system is weak and you are prone to infections, boil it in a pan for five minutes before draining and retrieving the knife. Dry with paper towels.

+ Prepare the area in which you work to be a space in which you feel comfortable, and relaxed. Set all the tools out somewhere easily reachable, in front of the three candles. If you have any other suitable images or icons / fetishes of the spirit/god/goddess in question, these may also be laid out in a manner you deem fit.

+ Draw the sigil of the God / Spirit you wish to contact upon the paper, using the brush/pen/pencil you are using. Once done, light the candles in the name of the God/Spirit you wish to contact and turn off any sources of artificial light.

+ Add the salt to the water, and stir. Place the knife into the water. This will have the affect of helping to purify the blade of any residual spiritual energies within it. This can also be dedicated if you wish, but it is really not essential in my experience and just adds additional complexity.

Optional Step: Clearing the mind utilising meditation upon the breath

Before you begin, you may wish to attempt to clear the mind of the daily background noise and thoughts which could cause distraction going into the working. This doesn’t have to be a prolonged or powerful meditative stage / phase, and is not a strictly necessary component. However I found it can help.

To perform it, in its basic fashion, is simple. Sit in a comfortable manner, in a position where you can maintain your balance without issue. You don’t need to unnecessarily force yourself into a straight uncomfortable position, but you should avoid leaning forward, back, left or right. Close your eyes, and visualise the thoughts slowly dissipating. There are numerous visualisations you can do to achieve this – one is to concentrate on the darkness, and imagine the thoughts melting into it and disappearing. Another, is to see a white light filling up your vision and pushing them from your mind. Experiment with what works for youself, as this is highly individual.

Once you have cleared your head of the majority of thoughts and feel relaxed, bring your attention away from this visualisation and to the sensation of your breathing. Don’t try and force the breath in an unnatural manner, but instead just concentrate on the feeling. Focus on a spot in the body where the breathing is easy to notice and fixate on the sensation.

Note its natural for the mind to wander. If it wanders off the sensation of the breath simply bring it back. Let your sensations such as thoughts, emotions and physical feelings all flow over you in the background of concentrating on the breath. When ready, you can move onto the next phase with a clearer mind.

Step One: Preparation for Visualisation and Charging the Sigil

+ Make your intent known. This is simply using your voice to call to the spirit. This should first address it by name, followed by giving praise to it, and then asking for its assistance in the visualisation/opening the veils between you and its nature. It is important it is actually spoken however, and not just thought.

+ Optional: If you have incense, burn it, and pass the paper over and through it several times (a number associated with the spirit in question in some manner can assist).

+ Optional: If you have a libation, this should be added to the sigil. It can be added in several ways. One, several drops can be spattered onto the sigil, again respecting a number associated with said spirit or god/goddess, if it is applicable. Second, an equidistant cross can be drawn across the it, in a top to bottom, right to left manner. This further represents charging and unlocking the non mundane within the Sigil.

+ Optional: If you are using blood, it can now be drawn. It is drawn by cutting open or pinpricking the Index, Middle, or Ring finger of the non dominant hand (the left is prefered). THIS DOES NOT HAVE TO BE A DEEP CUT. Several drops of blood is all that is required, take great care in this. The blood is smeared onto the sigil. As with the libation, depending on the amount, this can be set amount of drops/smears, or done in a equidistant cross fashion.

Primary Sigil of Hecate, given to her practioners for those who walk the Path of Flames

Step Two: Visualisation

Sit comfortably in a similar position as the one you held for the breathing meditation. Focus your attention entirely upon the sigil, and the marks of the libations and blood if you have used them. Watch as the lines of the sigil become charged by not only the material elements, but also your concious will. Visualise the sigil glowing and flashing with light.

This light will often appear in a colour unique to the spirit and God/Goddess you are working with, and will not necessarily remain fixed. This can be due to the entity itself, or you mind settling in to the process before the primary type is fixated upom. For example. Hecates energy usually manifests as an emerald colour, but others can arise, such as a golden white light or a combination of both. Keep gazing at the sigil until the shape seems burned into your eyes and mind.

Once you have reached this stage, close your eyes and fix your mind onto the shape. Watch as the colours of the lines of the sigil flow like it is alive in front of your eyes. Meditate upon the sigil in a similar way to the breathing exercise, but instead with the sigil as a point of focus. Let the sigil change, take on new forms, and bring up images and memories rather than attempt to fight the process.

It is this process through which the gates and veils between yourself and the spirit in question will to some extent be opened. This in turn will allow messages to filter through to you and vice versa. It is both an active, and passive process, and one that has to be understood through practice. It is possible to experience dreamlike, lucid and visionary experiences from this alone.

If you feel yourself becoming less alert, bring your mind back to the sigillic shape. In case you lose the clear shape of the sigil, slowly open your eyes, reconcentrate on the sigil, and repeat the process.

Continue this cyclical process until it is time to stop. That will be an individual signal or feeling to the practioner. This could be a sign to stop entirely, or an invitation to continue, depending on the images/messages recieved. Again, this is down to your own experience.

Step Three: Invocation

This next step is Optional, due to the inherent risks which can be associated with Invocation. Unlike evocation, with invocation the practioner becomes a medium for the spirit/god/goddess. This force will enter your body, and mind from within, and become one with you. For numerous reasons, this should be only attempted with spirits/gods/goddesses you have already had contact with and ascertained are suitable for working with in this manner. I have found this step will greatly enhance anything felt / encountered in the first section, and serves to turn the small dedicatory contact ritual into something quite powerful. I present it here as a step to be done after the previous one, but it can actually be done at any point after the initial sigil work, and a connection made, even as its own seperate ritual. However, using it together with step two immediately after or on the following night has led to create good results for me.

I personally would only currently conduct this with the known spiritual teachers of the Path of Flames, and only generally after contact has been made through a successful evocation. I primarily show it here for those people who may have contacted a spirit/god/goddess they are comfortable with, and with to attempt it. I would only recommend it be done with Hecate to start with, but that is my own biases showing through.

The methodolgy listed is not entirely complete or comprehensive, but is still effective. To begin with, ensure a relaxed position. When ready, begin by stating outloud a prayer of Invocation. Usually this begins by calling to the spirit/god/goddess, giving it respect / praise, and then inviting it into ones body to energise and communicate with you. This call is not listed, as it will be specific to each individual spirit you wish to Invoke. This can be an individual one written, which is what I would recommend, unless you are following a particular current or tradition. In this case, it would be acceptable and appropriate to use that traditions formula of calling. Do not use a formula of calling of a tradition you do not belong to – usually these having specific uses, and can cause issues if you do use them.

Once the invocation has been made, close your eyes and visualise the spirit/god/goddess or its primary sigil/specific sigil. At this point, begin vibrating the name of the spirit/god/goddess you are invoking. To vibrate a word is something that has to be practiced and ‘felt’ to be effective. The basic method is to take a deep, prolonged breath, and then on exhalation, perform a prolonged chant of each syllable. Each syllable should have upwards of several seconds devoted to stressig it. This is repeated alongside the visualisation. Ideally, for me, I find producing the chant from the abdomen and lower throat seems more effective, as I concentrate on building up each inhale to forcibly build the vibration on the exhale. The ideal, most resonant tone will be unique to the individual practitioner, and can also be different depending on the spirit/god/goddess you are working with. Slowly you should be able to feel the spirits presence growing.

The following effects can vary dramatically, and it must be remembered that we are not working within a circle to ensure reliable ensorcell/mediate but are instead working in direct contact. The possession can therefore range from mild to total. The beginning physical effects, for me when working with Hecate, is I feel a definite presence move from the top of the head along the spine, resulting in a pleasant, energising, and tingling sensation of the spinal nerves. This can get to the level of causing the spine to contract powerfully. This is accompanied with visions of Hecate, often to the point of near waking dreams. Communication can then be commenced, in multiple fashion, based on the intensity of the possession. Often this takes place within the vision, and is usually conducted in an externally or internally spoken manner. This is difficult to relate, and will only be really understood upon attemping it. At this point, if an additional offering is wanted to be made, or communion with the spirit/god/goddess driven to higher levels, sexual magickal union with the spirit can be attempted.

Eventually, after a period of time, the possessing force should of its own violition leave your body. If you wish to end the possesion early, the possessing force can be thanked for its presence and asked to leave. Once it has departed, the actual associated physical effects can take several hours to dissipate. In my case, the sensation of the spine being energised can be highly distracting, due to being on the border of both pleasurable and uncomfortable. When this physical effect occurs in myself, it can take up to 6 hours to disperse and to return to pre invocation levels.

Final Stage: Closing the Work

There is no need to officially close the work, as no circle or other working was performed that really needs to be closed, considering that the spirit/god/goddess in possession of your body will most likely have ‘left’ at the end of the preceeding phase. In addition, many of the spirits/gods/goddesses are invoked specifically to allow parts of themselves to remain within ourselves, increasing our connection to them and strengthening our subtle bodies.

This however, is the reason I warned against invoking potentially harmful spirits, as I have yet to come across any surefire way to remove this influence in my practices that would work for others. The best I could suggest were such a case was to arise, would be to do a full invocation of Hecate asking for its removal combined with some other folk magickal techniques.

It is important to ground yourself afterwards, in order to bring your mind back to Earth and ensure that everything settles. I find this is best performed by eating and / or drinking something, which has the additional benefit of helping top up physical energy reserves which can be depleted during any work with the spirits/gods/goddesses which you could contact.

The candles themselves are offerings, so should be left to burn down entirely, and should not be extinguished early and/or removed.

The final step is to dispose of the sigil. This should be done with care and respect, as it is technically still activated and will possess an actual power until it is uncreated, despite weakening over time if not repeatedly strengthend. This can cause it to have continuing effects, until the work is fully complete.

To this end, the sigil is offered to the spirit, god, or goddess you are working with by name, whereupon it is set alight. This is ideally done sometime before the following sunrise. I personally do this in front of a Holly Bush, and use the ashes to help fertilise the tree.

Conclusion

I hope this is a good introduction to some of the methodology I use within work. It’s what i’ve tried, and adapted, that seems to work for me, and with luck maybe someone else will be able to take something away from it and add it to their own practice.

If you have any questions, don’t hesistate to comment and I’ll try and answer to the best of my ability.

-S-

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My Experience With The Tarot

Posted in Divination, Occultism, The Path of Flames with tags Cartomancy, Divination, Eight of Cups, Five of Swords, Playing card, Religion and Spirituality, Tarot on July 14, 2013 by Sypheara

So as promised, here is the first in the next few entries, this particular one focusing on the Tarot. This will include some personal reflection. I’ll try to keep it it to as a minimum as its supposed to be detailing my experience with the Tarot, not the personal issues involved.

Introduction

I’ve always been interested in the concept of the Tarot, ever since being sixteen years of age, predating what I would consider to be my own spiritual awakening. Something about them has always had me enamoured – I think now looking back it was the ‘mysterious’ story surrounding them and my interests in different ways of divination in a psychological and artistic sense at the time.

When I actually underwent the spiritual change from my past to current self, some of that was invariably lost. In looking for deeper meaning within myself, and at other more ‘serious’ gnostic and witchcraft works, I began harboring the notion that Tarot, longed used by TV psychics and other charlatans, was a tool in self deception. Not surprising considering my sudden shift in mental patterns, I was still trying to make sense of things from my old, over critical mindset.

Sparking my Interest

After recently taking my witchmark, I decided that it was time to try out the Tarot for myself. The thought behind this was simple. I had been exposed to many things by that point which had shaken my previous convictions and made me a lot more open minded. Due to that, I believed that I needed to begin the search for tools which could aid in Magickal workings and Communication with the Divine, and that when found these needed to be tried out and experimented with, to see what would work for me as an individual.

Due to the abilities heightened and unlocked by the Witchmark and my completed self initiation, I felt like it was a good time to rekindle my interest in the Tarot. The logic was that, even if it had been used by charlatans and its origins over exaggerated and lied about, at the end of the day it was only a channel or conduit, not a source of action itself. On this basis, I decided that exploration in a creative manner would net me interesting results.. and so it did.

For a few weeks I investigated the traditional meanings of the cards, and picked out a deck that I felt attracted to for purely aesthetic reasons. I didn’t get too hung up on the meanings of the cards, but instead enjoyed researching hem, especially the major arcana, as Jungian Archetypes. Some very good information was found online once heavily sifted through. Eventually, relatively comfortable with the basic concepts, I decided to a very simple, one card reading.

One Card Reading

My first experiment was simple. I would do a small meditation and visualisation of Hecates sigil, ask a basic question asking her to answer it, whilst shuffling the deck. Taking one card out at random, when it felt ‘right’, yielded the Eight of Cups.

Eight of Cups from the Tarot Of Trees.

(Note: This was not the deck used, but I lacked a picture of this reading

and this Deck caught my eye)

This was pretty interesting to see, especially considering it’s the card I was expecting to come up! At that point in my Life when this card was pulled, I had felt that all my efforts outside of exploring my spiritually had been destroyed and smashed. I had also been attempting, and still attempting, to repair to me an important relationship that had ended in bewildering circumstances leading to feelings of loss, regret, sorrow and confusion. This had been leaving me feeling drained and lacking hope, with the feeling that I wanted to grow out of those circumstances into something that was more meaningful and become more effective as a person without knowing how or if I had the potential to do so.

This threw me for a bit, despite my attempts to rationalise it as confirmation bias, so I didn’t attempt the next reading until several weeks later.

Three Card Reading

Feeling emboldened by the previous reading, despite its confirmation of my negative state at the time, I decided to try a slightly more complex reading. This time, I did the same whilst shuffling the deck as the first instead this time concentrating on asking Hecate about my present course on the path of flames, and where it could lead if i continued in the same vein. Splitting the deck into three, I then revealed the top three cards in left to right fashion on the stacks and laid them down in front of me.

Actual picture of the reading, revealing the

King of Pentacles, Five of Swords, and Ten of Cups.

This was another interesting result. The King of Pentacles traditionally represents an solid foundation in material wealth, that can mean alot of wealth or quality of life and wealth. However, in regards to this reading and seeing the full picture, it instead spoke to me of my distant past as someone rooted in a safe upbringing with very athiestic, earthly tendencies, and accepting the prefered worldview.

The Five of Swords was a very interesting card to get, and one that resonated with me alot. This card represents a difficult conflict in progress, that can have either a negative or positive effect, either way with some negative consequences. Due to the final card, I dismissed several interpretations which did not make sense in light of it, and instead settled on my own personal meaning. This was that the difficult battle would be a testing time, pitting my will and direction with others and not everything will go my way. However I saw this as a positive sign in that although their would be a price to pay, and it would be an emotionally and spiritually testing one, that it would likely develop into the final card.

The final card is the Ten of Cups, which represents spiritual and emotional fufilment and balance. To me this was a joyous card to receive from Hecate – whilst it doesnt mean permanance or assurance, I couldn’t have asked for a better result to the challenge of The Five of Swords. It’s good message, I was happy to receive in relation to my question to her.

When compared with the other cards, this indeed showed a tradeoff and a dying of an old self to attain something new, through the process of a difficult, conflict and not entirely scarless transformation. This I took as a good sign,despite there being a warning buried within it I needed to heed.

Full Reading

So following on from these readings, after another several days, I felt like it was time to try a much more complex reading. The issue surrounding and pushing through on the first rading was the fallout from a long lasting, doomed relationship. The issue about this I wanted to resolve was what to do with the remaining friendship, due to it causing lingering problems. I wanted to ask Hecate for help in that manner, as it was becoming obstructive to my path and to moving forward in any manner. With this in mind, I used a simplish spread that I found admittedly online and gave it a shot.

Actual picture of the reading, revealing the

layout of the spread.

I’ll detail the cards in position, thier meaning and then wrap up with a conclusion to the reading and post.

Distant Past : King of Pentacles

Interesting that the King of Pentacles would show up again in this reading, in the distant past section. Considering my previous stable life, and admittedly lucky circumstances, this card made perfect sense in a more materialistic, straightforward way in this position outside of needing comparison with the second reading. For this reason, I didn’t dwell on this card, which I saw as just confirming what had already been revealed to some extent in the last reading.

Recent Past: Five of Cups

This card also made alot of sense in this position. The Five of Cups indicates feelings of loss and regret in the recent past. Considering the nature of the question and the surrounding situation, this perfectly described the recent past in black and white terms. It also to me additionally indicated the suddeness of the change, and the shock associated with it, in addition to the actual lingering consequences.

Present: Ace of Pentacles

This was an interesting card to get, and one that revealed a good foundation around which to base any decision. It also revealed what present weakness was also furthering the problem, rather than contributing to it being fixed. This was revealed by the other cards, and that error and issue was placing too much trust into the current state of affairs.

Future Influences: Four of Pentacles

The Four of Pentacles was also a very powerful card in this reading, and I read it as a warning for the future that was walking into, and one that I wanted to avoid if at all possible. This card indicates hoarding, the need to possess, maintain control, and keep the status quo. Due to my prior influences and the situation at hand, I could see how walking into such a mentally and spiritually confining place could be very easy to do. As such, I took this card as a serious warning.

External Influences: King of Wands

The card of this position indicates an external influence, I took the presence of the King of Wards indicated an actual person other than myself who was . This was another major card for me. I had recently been talking to another person in my life who I regard as being a definite King of Wands, who had been helping me in alot of different matters. This fire and energy had been transfered to me, and given me the strength needed
to continue growing in my magickal work. This had had an affect on all matters in my life, especially when it all had culminated in me acquiring my witchmark. It had been this energy which had revitalised me and spurred me on to challenge this issue head on. As such, I saw this external influence as being the pushing point to initiation the reading, and change within me.

My Mental Attitude: Page of Cups

The appearance of the Page of Cups indicated that my mindset up until the reading and decision to push forward had been one revolving around still around intimacy, loving and caring indicating to me the mental reasons that had been contributing to me continue down the current path. Whilst revealing nothing new to me, seeing this card in this position helped confirm that I had read the initial situation correctly.

Helpful Energies: Three of Pentacles

This card, appearing in this position, was another interesting card. From its position and my reading, it refered in my mind more to help and support I have been getting from others, rather than the person in question. These people have been supporting me through dealing with the issue, unknown to them really, and had been keeping it from escalating into a problem up until this point.

Main Problem: Two of Cups

The Two of Cups represents lovers, or a relationship. Due to this being in the problem position, I interpreted this a blunt way – that the person is question was developing a relationship with another. When read with the other cards, I saw this as being an unsurmountable problem – as such, rather than resist it in any fashion mentally, direct my efforts elsewhere.

Hope and Fears: Four of Cups

Another card that pinpointed something I had alreaady to an extent encountered, making an existing thought be able to be seen more clearly. The Four of Cups indicates withdrawal from the world and self absorption. In the position of Hopes and Fears, I interpreted this as my fear that, if this situation continued, it would cause me me to stagnate in the worst way possible to the point of becoming reclusive.

Final Result: Eight of Swords

The Eight of Swords was the final nail in the coffin. The Eight of Swords indicates the feeling of being bound, with no way out. It indicates that a person feels like whatever decision they take, they will be gravely injured. This was well represented on the card itself – one move would cause the guillotine to fall severing the head.

However, the card also shows that this is also caused by a certain amount of self delusion caused by the situation, and that other options exist that will result in a positive payoff if only they are looked for an explored.

With this being the final result, I decided that looking for those options in the present before the situation got too bad was the most wise course of action.

Conclusion of Final Reading

With the overall reading being dominated by feelings of lethargy and entrapment, I decided that action was necessary to prevent such a situation from arising. As such, I set about first to see if the actual situation matched that of the cards in regards to the other person. It turned out that, unfortunately, the reading was entirely correct.

I would find out, through pursuing the matter further, that the reading has accurately assessed the situation down to the exact details. It did turn out that this person had been using me as an emotional crutch, all the while beginning a new relationship with another. They finally explained to me first hand that they were unable to tell me for multiple reasons, and were pursuing this new relationship to to avoid with dealing with existing issues as some sort of panacea.

As such I took the stark warning in the cards seriously, and severed any relationship with this individual in the kindest way possible. Since then, things have drastically improved. I no longer feel mentally shackled or bound, and have been able to move on in both my magickal and mundane projects, and my personal relations with others have improved.

Conclusion

I can honestly say that using the Tarot as a divinatory and decision making tool has so far yielded exceptional results.

Using only a very basic method, I have been able to achieve consistent results outside of even needing to consecrate them as tools. I have been quite surprised at this, as I fully expected them to be a very hit and miss, without much practical application.

With them turning out to be the opposite, I will definetly be using them in future workings to ascertain just how useful they can actually be. This will inevitably be expanded as I learn more about them, and how they can be applied to my own Path and in Divinatory use. As always, if anything interesting I can share surfaces, I will gladly share them here.

Thanks for taking the time to read this as always.

~S~

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The Lines of Power: Part Two

Posted in Folk Belief, Occultism, Paganism, The Path of Flames with tags Belial, Biomagnetism, Dreamtime, Earth, Earth's magnetic field, Energy, Ley-Line, Magnetic field, Solar Wind, Sun on June 15, 2013 by Sypheara

So here it finally is, the second part of the Lines of Power post I’ve been meaning to. This is going to be another long post, due to covering several topics, so grab yourself a coffee – you might need it to make it through!

Addendum: Leylines – Astrological Significance

Firstly, I’d like to quicly and briefly summarise that, outside of the original post’s conclusion, I do believe that SOME ley lines lie along paths of astrological significance. It is now widely accepted by the mainstream that these sites were often made specifically to identify, track, and even measure the cycles of the celestial planets. As such, it would of course make sense that certain sites are aligned along paths which facilitate this. These lines would be the exception to the examples talked about in the prior posting – these sites would necessarily have to be located along the same line, marking a real, tangible line of influence. With that said, this wasn’t the point of part two, so I’ll leave that for other people to discuss/research and keep this as a small sidenote.

Earth’s Magnetic Field

The most easily observable Lines of Power I will mention here is arguably those of Earth’s magnetic field. I have included it here to ground the other topics and to illustrate the great physical influence these have on human life and the biosphere.

Magnetic fields are produced by the motion of electrical charge. This can be seen in a humble bar magnet, where the magnetic field results from negatively charged electrons moving from one pole to another. The Earth similarly has a magnetic field. Whilst its origins are poorly understood, it is believed that the electrical currents are produced by convectice effects and rotation in the liquid, metallic outer core which is comprised of iron and nickel.

This field is constantly present but can vary considerably with time. Rocks such as basalt that are formed from a molten state preserve indicators of the magnetic field when they eventually solidify. This allows geologists to observe how the magnetic field has changed over time. These indicators show that the flow of the field is not constant, varies in strength, and has gone through several cycles of reversing the direction of its flow.

The actual poles of the field do not correspond to true north and true south, and the poles are known to wander, presumed considerably so before a reversal. This causes a declination in the magnetic field lines, which can be measured to be significant over a few hundred years.

Earth’s magnetic field is vital to life. Our sun produces larges amount of radiation, in the form of Solar Wind. Solar Wind is not wind at all, but instead a powerful stream of of charged particles consisting of electrons and protons. These are released from the upper atmosphere of the Sun, and can be exceptionally damaging especially during intense periods of solar flare activity. Thankfully the presence of Earth’s magnetic field prevents the atmosphere from being stripped away into space, and the surface from being heavilly irradiated. Even so, the harsh battering the planet receives is enough to distort the magnetosphere significantly, as shown in the image below.

This is not the only effect the magnetosphere has however. It is known that many organisms on Earth make use of the magnetic field for numerous purposes, in what is known as Biomagnetism. Biomagnetism plays an important role in the lives of many species.

A powerful example of how it affects organisms would be in a class of bacteria known as magnetotactic bacteria. These organisms demonstrate a behaviour in which they orientate themselves and migrate along the Earths magnetic field lines. These bacteria are said to be permanantly sensitive to the fields, due to them containing magnetosomes which act as a magnetic dipole, preserving the crystalline structure of cells.

Other examples can be seen in even more complex animals, including various mammal and bird species. In these cases, the magnetic field of the earth is used as a natural inbuilt compass, to help guide the animal in some manner, as either a map, a compass, or a compass calibrator.

In addition, there are several studies that show that the Earths magnetic field can have influence upon the human brain. Studies on the possibility of a human magnetic sense being present has been conducted, with mixed results. It is known however that humans possess magnetic bones in the human nose, and another recent study showed that low-frequency magnetic fields can produce an evoked response in human subjects.

It is interesting to note that strong magnetic fields can cause hallucinations, such as the feeling of being watched, and are in some cases are seen by some to play a part in several hauntings. It does therefore not seem too far fetched to believe that magnetosphere has some kind of psychological influence. I will leave that topic for further exploration another day however.

Song Lines/Dream Lines

In Aboriginal Australian belief, there exists a concept of the Song Lines or Dream Lines. These lines, also known as Dreaming Tracks, are paths across the land and sky which mark the route followed by localised creator spirits, during the Dream Time. The Dream Time was a sacred era in which it is believed that the ancestral totemic spirit beings created the world, making these lines actual lines of spiritual power.

These paths are recorded through traditional songs, stories, dance and paintings. By recalling these paths in song or through other methods, the indigenous people could navigate vast physical distances, travelling often through the harsh deserts that make up the centre of Australia. The continent is said to contain an extensive system of Song Lines. Some of these are only a few kilometres long, whilst others are travel hundreds of kilometres, crossing several different territories owned by differing indigneous tribes.

Someone who is knowledgeable of the lines and able to recall them in this manner is able to see the marks of the Spirits. Repeating phrases and words in song that describe of the location of landmarks such as waterholes and other natural phenomena enables them to follow the Song Line. In many cases it is said that the paths of the creator spirits is obvious from their marks on the land, such as large depressions or other signs which are said to be of their footprints, body marks or other indicators of their physical presence.

Some Song Lines have strict taboos or rules surrounding them that are observed religiously. For example, some Song Lines are thought to have a particular direction, and walking the reverse way along such a Song Line is seen as a sacrilegious act. This is difficult to at first appreciate the severity of, but when one investigates how Traditional Aboriginal people regard their land sacred, and them as guardians it begins to make much more sense. The Aboriginal people believe that the songs must be continually song of the lines to keep the land alive, and working against and damaging the Song Lines is obviously seen in a bad light.

In both these posts I have now covered several examples of different Lines of Power, I will now go onto detailing the teaching my own Path has on this, alongside my own personal interpretation which will hopefully wrap it all up in a cohesive way.

Path of Flames Teaching and My Interpretation

The Path of Flames has its own take on Lines of Power, in the form of the Dragon Lines. These Dragon Lines are in a way similar to the Lung Meis or Dragon Paths as seen within the Chinese belief of Feng Shui.

In the Path of Flames, Belial is the God associated with the material plane. The material plane itself is the actual body of the God, and the Dragon Lines in our tradition are the actual spiritual vessels for this Gods lifeforce, analogous in some ways to the blood vessels within our own body. It facilitates the travel of spirits and the transfer of spiritual power, and exists as a system connecting our world to the astral and the Gods. Without it, similar to the concept of the Dream Lines, we believe the world would begin to literally wither and die.

It is currently the task of those who follow Hecate and the Path of Ascending Flame to work with reinvigorating the Dragon Lines by earthing the currents found through spiritual practice. It is believed that by each individual in this manner bringing back more of the teachings and power, and feed them back into the Dragon Lines, that a much stronger spiritual age can be ushered in and humanity can reconnected with its spirits on a larger level.

Its name as the Dragon Lines is also apt, as the Dragon spirits of the path use it to travel and manifest. The Earth Dragon, Behemuth, draws alot of its power from the lines and travels along them as one of Belials most impressive and powerful servants, and is an entity that I look forward to personally working with in the future.

When this is viewed in the context of the Lines of Power revealed in my previous posts, I can now say my own view and theory on the subject. I believe that, whilst the Dragon Lines themselves exist as a spiritual (but physically existing) system, that some (if not all) of the Lines of Power mentioned also belong to this system as different manifestations of it. By this, I mean that I believe that each of these systems combines to make up the manifestations of the body of Belial, and in essence, are all differing types of Dragon Line.

In this way, I believe the nature of the system has untapped potential for exploration in much greater detail, and I’m looking forward to possibly uncovering more in the future through practical means. By investigating each set of Lines, I hope that in the future that how each Line operates, and interacts, with the others can be explained in greater detail. I hope this is done through respecting the complexity of the systems involved, rather than trying to merge through over syncretic action separate modes of action (such as how Ley-Lines became confused with the Dragon Line/Song Line concepts in New Age thought).

Hopefully this has been a little primer.. and revealed what directions my thoughts are going on it.

Thanks as always for reading.

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The Lines of Power: Part One

Posted in Necromancy, Occultism, The Path of Flames, Traditional Witchcraft with tags Alfred Watkins, Dion Fortune, Earth, Energy, Goat-Foot God, Ley-Line, Watkins on May 30, 2013 by Sypheara

Firstly, I’d like to apologise for not making an entry sooner. This week and last week have been exceptionally busy for me, in all ways! The lack of posts is definetly not due to lack of things to talk about.. just that my own practice coupled with keeping my own written records up to date has took its toll.

With that said, I’d like to move swiftly on to the topic at hand that I have chosen for this post. The title, ‘Lines of Power’, refers to the different lines and fields of energy that run through and around the Earth. This concept plays an important part within my own tradition in understanding certain phenomena and working with them, as its seen as the arteries of the planet, which to us is the physical body of one of our Gods. Unfortunately, this is often seen as a predominantly New Age Idea with little merit to it, due to the sometimes outlandish claims made involving all sorts of nebulous and undefined terms.

To make this core belief seem more plausible and ground it in some sense of reality, I am going to go over several concepts to hopefully show that the actual lines are infact several systems existing parallel to each other of a different nature, which all combine to make up the whole. More importantly, I hope to show that these conclusions are in some manner grounded in much older beliefs.

Ley – Lines Origin and Development

The most obvious and exoteric theory when talking about ‘lines of power’ is found in the concept of Ley-Lines and associated beliefs.These are very well known within New Age groups and in Popular culture as being magical lines through which ‘Earth energy’ or other such things flow. In this section I wish to show that the original concept, and the actual natures within the Ley Lines, has become confused with other ideas to be blended into a whole that does not work as an explanation and actually detracts from the original nature and understanding of the Leys. Hopefully this will demonstrate that its several existing systems that combine to make the whole picture rather than the Leys that encompass everything.

The Ley-Line theory was originally concieved by Alfred Watkins. Watkins, a self-taught amateur archaeologist and antiquarian, believed that in a flood of ancestral memory he had gained insight onto something whilst looking over a map of Herefordshire. He saw that various prehistoric sites, such as burial mounds and standing stones fell into straight lines for what appear to be miles in length across England. From this point on, Watkins spent many years studying such alignments in the field and on maps, taking photographs, and writing books and giving lectures on his theory.

For a few years in the 1920’s, Watkins referred to these alledged alignments as ‘leys’. This was derived from the Anglo-Saxon word meaning ‘meadows’ or ‘cleared ground’. Watkins explanation for the leys themselves were that they were old straight traders’ tracks laid down by surveyors in prehistory. He claimed that using surveying rods resulted in the roads being built in straight lines. His use of the term ‘ley’ was in regards to the clearings on either side of the road that he logically deduced would have had to be made, due to several of them cutting through dense forest or other problematic terrain. By 1929 however, he had discarded the term ‘ley’ and simply refered to them as ‘old straight tracks’

Additionally, Watkins believed that many of the key sighting points along these old tracks evolved into sacred sites of their own over time with use, resulting in standing stones and burial mounds. He also believed that in the historic, Christian era, some of the Pagan sites became Christianised, explaining why many ancient churchs appeared to stand along his alignments.

Watkins died in in 1935. A year after his death, the renowned occultist Dion Fortune wrote a novel, called The Goat-Foot God, in which she put forward the notion of ‘lines of force’ connecting megalithic sites such as Avebury and Stonehenge in Southern Endgland. Two years later, Arthur Lawton, a member of Wakings Straight Track Club, published a paper claiming that leys wern’t just trading roads after all, but lines of cosmic force which could be dowsed. He himself was a dowser, and had been impressed by the work done on Dowsing in both France and Germany which claimed that there were lines of force beneath standing stones and at other neolithic sites. Putting these together in his own head, he came up with his own theories about leys.

Over the next few years, this more occult theory became the one that was predominantly spread. Some of the ideas developed from it were interesting, however it soon became interspersed with some very up the air New Age claims, even including gaining an association with UFOs and Alien Channelling. To save another three paragraphs, needless to say that Watkins original idea was buried beneath this more popular conception which caught on in wider culture.

Ley – Lines : Shamanic paths and Death Roads

It has not been to relevently recently that the original ‘Ley Line’ theory has been taken more seriously. This has been spurred by finds in other countries which not only shed some interesting light on the original theory, but tie the original to more believable, real lines of psychological and spiritual power.

This revival has been spurred by the discovery of similar constructs in other parts of the world, such as the Americas. Here, straight roads can be found in relative abundance across certain areas of the landscape. Some of these roads are easily seen to be engineered features, with primary ones being 30 feet across. Even when changing direction, these roads do not bend, instead prefering to angle sharply maintain the road as straight as possible.

Several archaeological sites in Mexico contain very old straight road systems. Sometimes, altars exist on these causeways or they seem to lead to other sites of natural significance. Further south, the Maya built long straight roads, called sacbeob or ‘white ways’. These paths interconnect temples, plazaz, and Mayan cities. Now only existing in fragmentary sections. arches, ramps and other curious structures are related to the Sacbeob and according to local Mayan tradition, the physical network of the roads themselves are joined to non material, spiritual routes. Several of these are said to run underground or into the air itself.

When we examine the prevalence of these roads and neolithic artwork influenced by straight lines across many cultures, it doesn’t take a very large leap of faith to show something is occuring on mental and spiritual level across the human spectrum. Anthropologist Dobkin de Rios explained that she believed that they derived from entoptic patterning that occurs in the human cortex early in trance states. She explains that she believes these ‘within vision’ images are universal to every human, and adhere to a basic, specific range of constant geometrically shapes – grids, dots, spirals, lines and so on. These basic elements she explains makes up the basis of the vivid geometric patterns associated with psychoactive substances, and heightened trance states and therefore shamanic practice. As the trance gets deeper and intensifies, she explains how they can take on full fledged imagery.

This would result in straight lines, a common entropic pattern in the form of a tunnel constant, becoming associated with spirit flight and ‘crossing the hedge’ to the spirit world. It is unsurprising then that archaelogists have discovered alot of these paths are used as ‘death roads’, which some still today being used for carrying corpses to burial and material used in the construction of tombs and cemetery walls. While the evidence for such practice is more prevalent in new world locations such as Costa Rica, it’s not a large leap of faith to imagine that they were used in this capacity elsewhere. Infact, evidence continues to exist in folklore and spiritual belief for the connection between people and these death roads and other important landmarks.

It is common in areas of Oceanic and Southeast asia for houses to not be built directly infront or behind another house. This is said to be because spirits travel in straight lines, and when corpses are moved from the house for burial they must go straight out of the house.

The native americans have several interesting beliefs on this as well. Buryat tribes people bury their deceased shames in special places in the landscape, so that their spirits can act as a guardian in the afterlife over the location. In this way, they could be said to augmenting the Genius Loci of a place. These shamanic spirits are thought to travel along specified routes, called goidel. They envisage their territory being criss crossed with these invisible tracks along which the spirits of the dead shamans.

In europe, similar invisible spirit lines are thought to occur, with features like fairy passes in Ireland. These link prehistoric earthworks, upon which it was not permitted to build upon. Archaeologically, there are many strange physical linear features. These include the bronze age standing stones in Europe which pass through burial cairns, and have “blockings tones” at their ends. Even older then these are the avenue lines called “cursuses” in Britain which can be seen connecting neolithic burial mounds. In addition, in Britain ancient bog causeways exist constructed from timber – some of these straight tracks have been excavated, showing that at least one of the uses of these tracks was transporting the dead.

The folk beliefs surrounding straight versus crooked is highly interesting, especially when we consider Old Europe. Often spirit traps consisting of webs or nets of material woven over a frame or tangle threads residing in bottles were placed on paths leading to and from cemeteries, houses and at crossroads. These can still be found in use in parts of Europe today, in places such as Bavaria. The logic behind this idead was that since straight lines facilitate the travel of spirits, winding lines or other forms could confuse or perhaps ensnare them, keeping them at bay or confined. There are also some pieces of evidence that suggest that labyrinths of some kind, whether stone or hedge, were employed to similarly confuse, confine, or cause to get lost spirits that inadvertly travelled into them. The fact that similar elements appear in Feng-shui is highly interesting, showing that this belief was across cultures, bringing us back to our earlier findings.

In such a manner, I believe that some Ley-Lines do indeed serve a function for Spirits and their travelling. In this manner, the Ley-Lines are indeed lines of ‘spiritual energy’, but relate to the spirits and not some nebulous undefined earth energy. I think that ascribing such a blanket description to the Leys does nothing useful, and only serves to take away from their potential use as a spirit road and fails to account for the human element.

In part two, I hope to cover other fields, most importantly earths magnetic field, showing that it is infact several systems that make up the actual matrix of the different types of energy that are part of the body of our planet. I hope to finish by explaining how my own tradition sees it alongside analogues – hopefully this part will less dense and long!

Thank you for reading as always.

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The Witchmark and Blood Offering

Posted in Paganism, The Path of Flames with tags Hecate, New Age, Pagan, Religion and Spirituality, Sacrifice, Tattoo, Tradition, Wicca, Witchcraft, Witchmark on May 12, 2013 by Sypheara

This entry is going to be more personal than the previous, and due to it’s nature I can’t possibly put everything into this post in an objective manner.

Yesterday was a very special day for me, as it was the day that finally, after several years of research and practice I went ahead with a very important work, one which seals all my initiatory work up to this point and marks the beginning of a whole new phase for me.

This work I speak of was planned awhile ago, with not a small amount of trepidation involved. For three years up until that fateful point several months ago, I had approached the Gods and conducted several works with them, mini initiations which brought me closer to identifying their energies, and aligning myself to them as someone who felt called to interact with them.

As these initiations guided me to my current path, I slowly began to learn that a true sacrifice was necessary outside of these small dedicatory rituals. True initiation, one would say, into the path I was being called upon to practice.

It was then I came across the notion of the Witchmark within my own tradition. Whilst a quick google would probably indicate to the reader this ideacame from the idea of the ‘Devils Mark’, this is not the case. This ‘mark’ is a physical mark on the body which is believed causes a corresponding mark on the soul of the person who receives it, serving as a first true initiation. The mark itself takes the form of a sigil of some kind, usually a primary one, and it is usually tattooed or scarified into the skin. This is more akin to the beliefs held by many pagan people in the past, where marking the skin for similar purpose is shown to exist across many different cultures.

I’ll briefly divert to explain an important concept to be able to understand the importance of this as far as my own tradition goes, and it touches a subject again many don’t like to talk too openly about.

This subject is using blood offerings. It’s important to note that my own tradition sees the bodily fluids of the practitioner as being vessels for not only ones own essence, will and spirit but also that of any entities which are working through that person in possession at the time they are extracted. When coupled with my belief in the importance of personal sacrifice in works with the Gods and the concept of ‘you don’t get something for nothing’, i’ts easy to see why the necessity of using my own blood in ritual became obvious to me.

By using blood as both tool and offering, we give actual power through it into our workings. This is where my (albeit limited) knowledge and respect of folk magical traditions come to the fore and what it has to say on this matter; I do not believe that, as many modern day pagans and occultists do, that such components only have psychological value. I contend they have a very spiritual and physical effect from the workings I have done that makes it a vital component in the majority of workings. This view is relatively unpopular in many circles today (pardon the pun), but is one that makes any discussion on the Witchmark vital to understand from my own perspective, and thus unavoidable in this post.

Despite this, the the leap between using drops of my own blood in ritual up to this point and actually going as far as to take the plunge and have my own Witchmark, the primary sigil of Hecate, tattooed onto my body was a large one. With the sigil in place, it would be impossible to remove it – or at least physically difficult and spiritually permanently scarring. As such, I deliberated for awhile before deciding to ask Hecate directly for a response. The response to that half thought of a question that night was immediate, as I was surrounded and penetrated by a powerful, overwhelming force that seemed to permeate my entire body. Taking it as a sign, I finally came to my mind. I’d take the plunge and go through with it.

Using my intuition to guide me, I decided that the Witchmark would be placed over the sternum enabling two things. Firstly, that the Witchmark was placed as close to the centre of the chest as possible, over the region of the heart, seen in many cultures as a powerful energy centre of the body in some manner. Secondly, that the Witchmark would be out of sight, preserving it as a esoteric tool and mark in respect, not ‘displaying’ it in a show off my ego to the world.

So yesterday I found myself on ‘the day’ of getting it tattooed onto my body. At this point, before hand, I was glad I was fully prepared, mentally at least, to receive it. The actual process was more painful than initially expected due its location (I was actually encouraged to get it placed elsewhere first!), but in the end it was strangely enjoyable in its own fashion. I tried visualisation several times, with only a small amount of success due to the environment coupled with the distracting pain. I saw flashes of images and sigils, but nothing concrete that I could work with or record for long in memory during the procedure. I eventually gave up and just began repeating a small mantra to Hecate in my head whilst the ink was applied.

After it was successfully applied I got up legs shaking, feeling born anew. Although physically exhausted, both mentally and spiritually I felt indescribably heightened and sharpened. My body, mind and soul felt like they were screaming with vibrancy. A day later the effect still hasn’t worn off, and I still feel ecstatic, and have dreamed vividly.

I feel honoured to be able to receive this mark as a gift, and make that blood sacrifice in return as a sacred offering to Hecate which is the first step in a new direction on my journey. I hope to explore the paths unlocked by this sacred key, and share what I am able to.

With this being new territory to me, I thought it was more than worthy of a mention on the blog. I hope this post has been interesting and potentially shed some light on why it is seen as a necessary to my own path. I wish I could post more concretely about my own experience with it , but with it being such a new development I cannot really say much more as it would be a fabrication.

As a parting note, I’d like to say that I found an excellent post by another guy on his own similar experience which can be found at the following link, that shows anothers point of view on the subject. Whilst I don’t usually relate to many of the posts that go up on this site, this one definitely caught my eye.

http://www.witchvox.com/va/dt_va.html?a=usla&c=words&id=15349

Thank you as always for reading.

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The Luciferian Revolution

Archive for the The Path of Flames Category

Belated: Happy Imbolc

Ritual Write-Up: Spirit Box Creation

Ritual Write-Up: The Trident

On Reflection: Witchnames

A Small Tarot Reading: The Scales and The Devil

A Small Ritual for Connecting with the Gods

My Experience With The Tarot

The Lines of Power: Part Two

The Lines of Power: Part One

The Witchmark and Blood Offering

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