Altar Show and Tell

  So I’ve been re-arranging my altars a bit recently trying to find a configuration that works for me. I’ve pretty much settled on the follow for my full altar set up. I found this set of tables at an amazing price at the local antique store. I was going got leave and think about them, but I physically could not leave until they were mine! I also found an assortment of other items there, such as the antlers, incense burner, and various other stuff (which resulted in the shop owner questioning me on why I needed all these items. I half considered rolling up my sleeve to show my rather large Horned God tattoo and telling them that I’m a sorcerer, that’s why, but I refrained).

Anyway, this provoked a full on altar rearrangement! It’s divided into two sections, the upper for Hekate and the bottom for Old Horney, my respective patrons. Inside the drawers are all my incenses, oils, lamens, metal talismans, and stones.

Below are close up of each half. Here is Hekate’s shrine. The photo above is Hellfurians Hekate print from The Voodoo Store. She is surrounded by vessels for Earth, Sea, and Sky. The skulls are a swine skull, 2 coyotes, and my raccoon familiar. There is also a snake bell, a brass offering cup, and the disks on either side are two of Jason Millers Hekate’s wheels from Protection and Reversal Magic, which I charged this past dark moon (another post on that later). The lamp is a sacred flame that is on whenever I am in the temple area.

Hekates Shrine

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Below that is the Old Horney shrine. It’s um… pretty much self explanatory. Statue, antlers, and skull for the Him, another brass offering glass, a skull for my ancestors, my ovate stone, an Awen disk and my ritual dagger.

 

 

 

 

 

Lets not forget my Hermetic Conjuration Station, surrounded by candles for the 4 elemental angels. I’m going to be making a new one soon. I find it’s just too big. I’m going to reduce the size to a smaller box and just have an array of switches inside to change the color of the light as needed. That’s my project for next year though. In front are pewter and tin talismans I made for Elubatel and Nitika. Oh and to the right is my stang and cauldron. So that’s the current set up, and I love it. Sometimes I go spend time in this area, not the do any magic, but to just spend time with the spirits who reside here. It’s very much a place of peace for me.

 

A Mages Life is the Life for Me: Whats been going on with me (April 2012 edition)

In the lack of anything interesting or important to write I figured I’d do a general “whats been going on with me” post.I’ve been a busy mage… I’m not sure when I started using that word. It was never a conscious decision, it just snuck into my vocabulary when referring to myself.  However, it seems to fit better than anything else right now.  It feels… Right. Now you can call yourself anything you like. The question is can you bring the goods? Well lets just say, I’m working on it.

As mentioned in the past few posts I’ve been working on RO’s, The Black Work course. I’ve been busy making my planetary talismans, but also doing a lot of evocation work. I’ve been undergoing initiation into the 4 elemental spheres, working with the 4 archangels and the 4 princes of the elements. I’ve had some “wow” evocation moments, and a lot of subdued non-spectacular but none the less equally powerful results too. What I did notice was how my life reflected these initiation periods during their proceedings.

My plans are to continue on with this. Here’s what I have planned in the near future:

• I finally figured out my good and evil genius names. First I plan to make contact with my good Genius (hopefully this week).
• Then I plan to bind my Evil Genius and the 4 princes hostile to the elements in lead. First I need some steel to engrave their names on though.
• I want to forge a greater connection to Kammeal and the sphere of Mars, my ruling sphere.
• I want to summon each elemental archangel again and request elemental familiars.
• I plan to summon each planetary angel in turn on the appropriate day/hour to ask them to formally concencrate my talismans.
• I have a major “campaign” I’m working on magically that I plan to kick off on the upcoming new moon, using a strategic sorcery approach. I’ve also made a sigil shoal I plan to charge then all at once. I’ll be asking Elubatel for help again on this front since it’s a large, life direction type of goal. One of my sigils already manifested this weekend before even charging, so I’m taking that as a good sign.
• I plan to start on the White Work and begin Liber Semekh to attain K&C with my HGA after all this is done. Or maybe during. I’ll see what my Good Genius says Why wait, ya know?

So I’ve got tons to work on magically coming up to keep me busy-busy. I’m also continuing my exploration of the NAP, and am taking Jason Millers new Strategic Self course. I’m only 2 lessons in but I’m finding it very challenging so far

Now I’ve been enjoying the hell out of Hermetic magic. It’s really been quelling that itch for me. I think much of my past struggling was due to my longing for initiation. I don’t mean initiation into a group, but initiation from the spirits. This is very much filling the bill.I’m not sure if it’s Hermetics itself, or finally undergoing these initiations, having direction, or doing the work that it doing it for me. I assume that Hermetics will become a part of my path for a long time to come.

However, I’m not keen to leave Hekate behind or my chthonic roots. Hermetics is filling the solar side I need, but without my grounding in the “earthier” lunar Witchcrafty side I know I won’t be happy for long. I need both. I also plan to continue my explorations of the PGM and Chaldean oracles. I know it all connects together eventually. The Chaldean Oracles is considered a Neo-Platonic document which of course leads right into Hermetics.

Eventually all roads lead to and from Hekate (I have this image of her as the anthropomorphic representation of Steven Kings Dark Tower).

It’s all too much to do at once however. Maybe I’ll give The Unlikely Mage’s approach a try?

This past week has also found me longing for the old Chaos Magic days, again. I would still love to have one banner under which to fit all this into. I said in that old article the following:

Some times, when I’m struggling the most with whatever system I’m working in I secretly wonder if inside I’m just an old chaos mage who got so immersed in a particular paradigm that he simply forgot he was chaos mage.

I still wonder that. There are things that I greatly miss about Chaos Magic. There are things that I don’t miss too. There has to be a reason my mind keeps periodically going back to it though, with increasing frequency. Every once in awhile I take out all my old materials and sigh wistfully, clearly longing to re-connect with something somewhere there, and also repelled at the same time.

One positive strength I believe the CM approach has ingrained in me is suspicion of any formal cosmology. I can interact with all the gods and spirits, and I believe they are real, something external to my own mind.  However whenever I see a cosmology that says “this is the way it is” it feels confining and I always think “no it’s really not”. I think models are great to have but are ultimately limiting. This is why I stopped calling myself a Pagan. I just could not fit within the cosmology anymore (even though I still firmly believe in all of the gods). Whatever great universal truth is out there I think is far beyond our comprehension, and one of the strengths of CM, that draws me still, is maintaining that sense of wonder in the face of unknowable. Not random belief, but flexibility of belief, for me is the key.

Last week I had a dream I was reading a (fictitious dream created) book called “New Millennium Chaos Magic“. It had two halves. The first half was written in red ink and detailed the primal, shamanic magics. The second half was written in blue ink and detailed high magic and celestial initiations (I’d really love to read this book by the way)! It struck me very much as a symbolic book of my own magical practice.

I was very please to see Jason Millers start on a series of post-chaos magic articles. Let’s just say, if there’s going to be a post-chaos magic renaissance going on, I want in on it. I really hope this kind of thinking takes off. I really hope this becomes a “thing”. If there are mages out there working to bring this fruit to bear, I want to be a part of it.

A is for Axis Mundi

“She is a tree of life . . . ” — Proverbs 3:18

I’ve come to the realization, that my supreme deity is the world tree. The honoring of trees and tree lore is a central component of Druidry and Witchcraft, and I see all trees as being a reflection of that magnificent tree. Yup that’s right, I worship the world tree.

I can hear you saying “But, I though Hekate was your supreme deity”. Yup that’s right, there is no conflict, because you see for me, Hekate is the world tree.

This is an idea I first encountered in Jacob Rabinowitz’s book “The Rotting Goddess“. It’s actually a somewhat controversial book that has not been very highly thought of I’m given to understand (I personally enjoyed it). I however thought much of what he said rings true to me.

“Pre-Christian, pre-Olympian, pre-Titanic Hecate

world-tree planted in Asia Minor,

gate-guard of the worlds,

keyholder to the three realms,

gross seated Mother, lions at your sides,

fostering nurse of all that’s young,

female heap of big fat attributes,

cruel, non-rational mistress

of slain corn-kings, sacrificed children,

castrated temple-males;“

–Rabinowitz

Some of the theories that he gives are that Hekate was the original “Great Goddess” of pre-history and eventually developed the attributes we know as Hekate. He also states that one of there earliest images was a wooden pole with 4 masks attached at cross roads, which is true.

This rings very true to me with her role in the Chaldean Oracles as the world soul, the primal soul from which all others are generated. In addition, she has both empyrean AND chthonic attributes, just as the world tree which stretches to the heavens, yet has roots deeps in the underworld (indeed some even say there are two world trees, one upper and one lower). Hekate is also a “gate keeper” deity, which would make sense if she herself was gate!

Thus, when I invoke Hekate, in my mind I know I am connecting with the world tree, the source of all. When I travel the world tree, I know I am in fact traveling with She who’s mysteries I would learn. I am a student of the world tree first and foremost.

I would even go out on a ledge and say that, just as my UPG with the Horned god is that he was once a mortal beast, that somehow Hekate is synonymous with the great “Witchmother” who is indeed, the world tree in disguise. This is one of the reasons I am so passionately devoted to her. She represents the very central pillar of my faith and worldview, both literally and figuratively.

 This idea was actually confirmed to me by Odin. Last year I was considering working with him more closely and asked if he “knew” Hekate and how it would work with them together. “Know her”, he said. “I hung on her for nine nights!”.

Hail to the Queen

For the past few weeks I’ve tried to settle in to opening myself up to other deity relationships. The truth is, I haven’t been feeling Hekate lately. I pray to her and I get crickets. I sit in front of her altar and nothing comes, no sense of presence, no visions, my attempts at communication through divination just nonsense. I thought that perhaps she had left me and it was time to give The Morrigan a chance. Which I did. I really really tried, but no matter how hard I tried, my heart still longed for Hekate, crickets and all. Somehow she found herself from the small shrine I had erected for her, back onto the main spot on my altar.

My mind goes to one of the quotes from one of the lessons of Jason Millers Strategic Sorcery course  (which he said we could quote brief sections from, so I hope this counts as a brief section!).

The Strategic Sorcerer knows that in his practice there will be long periods of dullness. He will meditate and have no insights or moments of illumination. He will invoke the presence of his angel and no conversation will be had. He will call upon the presence of the highest and feel no light. He will make offerings and sense no-one at his feast.

The Strategic Sorcerer persists in his work. He knows that these periods are the result of the newness of whatever state he has been enjoying wearing off. He knows that if he ceases his work, or takes up a new practice in an effort to recapture the excitement of newness, that he has failed the test. If he persists in his work it will not be long before the sorcerer experiences deeper insights than ever before, clearer communication with his angel, and a warmer and more powerful light than he ever imagined.

-Jason Miller Strategic Sorcery Lesson #52

Have I fallen into this trap? By giving up so easily, have I not failed this test? I know that for the past few weeks, without having Hekate in my life (crickets and all), I have felt spiritually desiccated. I haven’t wanted to come to my altar. The thought of doing any spiritual work seemed more like a chore than the joy it usually is. I realize, from these weeks without her, just how central to my spiritual practice she has become. She’s the glue that holds it all together. Sure I could rebuild, turn my back on her, start again, but why? Would I be any happier on that new route?

I part of me so badly wanted to make the Druid thing work this time that I felt the need to squish myself into a Celtic shaped hole to make it do so, even though deep down in my heart I know I just still don’t do Celtic (Don’t worry, I’m not leaving Druidry again. I’m fine with being a non-Celtic Druid these days).

I know that I would rather sweat bullets trying to connect to Hekate than give up. I know this is only a dry spell. I’ve heard people very often recently commenting on the same pattern, her leaving. Perhaps she leaves to see if we will come back? Perhaps she thinks we can stand on our own? Or perhaps the illusion that is put out there is one that spiritual work is all fire works and visions and supping nightly with the gods, all the while wrapped in ecstasy (not that this doesn’t happen, it does. Just not all the time). That tends to be the fun stuff to write about.

But what about the dryness in between? The struggling to connect, the persistence? Yes I fell into the trap. I know in my heart that with Hekate is where I belong. A part of me still often comes back to the idea of worshipping her exclusively. Giving her my full attention and just plunging myself in her mysteries.  I always come just the precipice of this decision and always turn back. Could I give up the Horned god (who I really see more and the Horned Spirit. My gnosis combined with Scylla’s is really how I see him. More of an ancestor really). Would I have even to? As it stands She is the only being I really Worship. The horned god I treat more like a spirit relationship (with great respect of course).

How would such an arrangement work? Is part of the problem of dryness I’m having just me holding back?

Yes, giving up the others gods would be a sacrifice, but isn’t that the whole meaning of sacrifice? Isn’t there sort of a leap of faith there? Jump, take the plunge and see if she catches me. I always say this isn’t being asked of me, but what good is such a commitment if it has to be asked for? If she demanded it of me, I would say yes and it would be easy, only the choice to say yes or no… but to offer of my own free will, is that not somehow more?

I always ask Hekate for a divination at these times I contemplate it, and I ask

“Should I give up all others to follow you?”

Each time my answer is complete gibberish, which I interpret as “Figure it out yourself”. Last night I turned the question around and asked:

“If I were to of my own free give you my sole worship, would you accept”.

The answer was clear and concise. Yes.

Is this where I go next?

Altar Egos

So I’ve been in a mad frenzy to re-arange my altars recently. They are always in a constant state of flux to begin with, but I’ve split them off into 3 seperate ones. i used to have one big altar which had every thing on it. This has the advantage of one-stop shopping. All your spiritual stuff is there. The disadvantage is that for those of us who walk multiple paths things tend to collide a bit. So I’m experimenting with having a Horned God/Druid Altar and a Hekate/Witchcraft altar. I’ll see how it works.

Horned God/Druid Altar. Click to enlarge.

Here’s there Horned God/Druid altar:

I wanted it to have a more “primitive” feeling, thus the skulls and stag horns. If my relationship with the Morrigan takes off she’ll probably get a place of honor on this altar too, sharing it with Old Horney. This is where I do most of my Druid work.

This is a the current (unfinished) layout for the Hekate/Witchcraft Altar:

For some reason I couldn’t get a glare free photo, sorry. It’s still not “right”. A bit too cluttered perhaps? It needs work. This is also where my necromancy and spirit work takes place. While I like the aesthetics of having two altars, The disadvantage of this however is the whole “which altar do I work with tonight” feeling. I may end up combing again yet. There are really pros and cons to each set up.

Finally is the Ancestral altar.

It sits atop one of my father tables, which makes it even more suited for being an ancestral altar.Since ancestral work is important in every aspect of my practice this altar is usually lit and active no matter what I’m doing to invite the ancestors into that work and my life.

I happen to really enjoy altar making. I have a few more planned with the limited space I have above a book case . I want to make a prosperity altar eventually for money work in a hoodoo style, and I shortly want to try to forge a connection with St.Cyprian of Antioch so he’ll be getting one as well.

The Phantom Queen

So awhile back I posted about my dream regarding The Morrigan. Despite advice to go for it, for the most part I had convinced myself that I really don’t want to, which for the most part is true. You see, I’m pretty much a Hekate man. I’m comfortable with Hekate. I’ve devoted a lot of time into my devotion to Hekate. I’ve collected numerous Hekaten rituals which I’ve painstakingly memorized, I work with numerous spirits which are all dedicated to her service, I’m a member of the Covenant of Hekate, which provides me with the first time in years fellow travelers on the path to talk with and befriend. I likebeing a Hekate devotee, she gives me everything I spiritually need. What do I need another goddess in the mix for?

So I tucked the experience away and tried really hard not to think about it. I mean it’s been 4 months since I had the dream. I’ve always known in the back of my mind however, that come Samhain time I’d have to revisit her. She’s been in the back of my mind lately, a nagging little presence (“when are going to face me”?). To which I plug up my ears and say “I don’t do Irish gods, I can’t hear you! LaLaLa!”. Then last night I had the dream again. I don’t remember much of it this time, but I woke up remembering that I just had the same dream and telling myself I have to do something about it this time.

It’s not that I dislike The Morrigan, its just that I’m afraid of where this might take me. Away from Hekate? I know people will say ‘you can have both’ but I tend to be a one goddess kind of guy. I like to give my all and quite frankly don’t have time to have multiple deity relationships. Plus like I said, my practice now is mostly memorized and comfortable. I’d have to research a whole new set of rituals and invocations, see which ones I like, which ones work and don’t, memorize them, etc. Not the mention the whole monumental task of getting to know a new diety. The thought makes me tired. I don’t want to go back to that whole awkward phase I just got out of!

But she won’t relent, so I’ve decided to let her in, give it a try and see where things take me.I keep seeing Hekate sitting there quietly and unmoving in the dream, clearly giving her consent. What do they know that I don’t? Perhaps this could lead me someplace where I’m even happier eventually? It would certainly help me make peace with my Druid practice (I have trouble relating Hekate into my Druid practice and always have had). I have to at least face her and see where it goes. How can I say my practice has any integrity if I don’t?

Tonight is the full moon, and I usually spend these nights with Hekate. Although the Morrigan is not a moon goddess it somehow feel right to devote tonight to her instead. I happened to find this book on Amazon, which luckily is available for kindle so I downloaded it. It seems to have the most info on her in one place than I’ve seen yet. I might try one of the rituals in the book just to get my feet wet.

This is totally uncharted territory for me, but you can’t discover anything new if you don’t leave sight of the shores.