FEELING ANXIOUS Altar cloths Purple Deities Demeter, Tara, Artemis, or Ganesh Candles Light blue Flowers Violets or anemones Stones Amethyst Scents Lavender, Eyebright, Sage Other Potted flowers, Drink chamomile mint tea
FEELING BLUE Altar cloths Pale pink Deities Brighid, or Mary Candles Yellow Flowers Violets Stones Rose quartz Scents Violet, Pine, Borage Other Sea shells
FEELING FEARFUL Altar cloths Light Blue Deities Artemis or Kali, Dancing Shiva or Pan Candles Yellow Flowers Chrysanthemum Stones Black hematite- no crystals! Scents Snapdragon, Eyebright, Basil Other Big pine cones
FEELING DESPAIRING Altar cloths Bright red Deities Kwan Yin, Mary, or Yemaya Candles White Flowers Tiger lilies Stones Pearl Scents Lavender, Rosemary, Mint, Borage Other River stones
FEELING STUCK Altar cloths Bright green Deities Dancing Shiva, Kali, Danu, or Brighid Candles Red Flowers Cuttings of green branches or flowering fruit trees Stones Quartz crystal Scents Motherwort, Mint, Mandrake, Basil, Anise Other Red ribbons on your athame
FEELING STRESSED Altar cloths Purple Deities Matron God/dess, Voluptus, or Lalita Candles Ivory pillar candles Flowers Pastel colours and green leaves Stones Hematite or amber Scents Vervaine, Thyme, Lavender Other Eat cucumbers
FEELING IRRITABLE Altar cloths Pale pink Deities Kuan Yin, Green Tara Candles Sky blue Flowers Narcissus or Daffodils Stones Moonstone Scents Tarragon, Passion Flower Other Drink Chamomile Tea
FEELING POOR Altar cloths Gold Deities Lakshmi, Gaia, or Moon Mother Candles Silver Flowers Lush garden roses or large bouquets, Hollyhocks Stones Rose quartz and pearl Scents Rowan, Alfalfa Other Fruits, nuts, bread pentacles
FEELING SPIRITUAL APATHY Altar cloths Black with stars (silver or gold) Deities Matron God/dess, or Tara Candles Silver, Gold, or Sky blue Flowers Yellow and pink roses Stones Turquoise Scents Sandalwood, Myrrh Other Decorate your chalice with flowers, colours, shiny things
FEELING A CREATIVE SLUMP Altar cloths Orange Deities Brighid, Saraswati Candles Turquoise (if you can stand it) or red Flowers Lotus, Water lilies, Orchids, Jasmine Stones Lapis Lazuli or Herkimer diamond Scents Vervaine, Mandrake, Jasmine Other Decorate with Stars
FEELING UNGROUNDED Altar cloths Brown Deities Gaia, Artemis/Diana, Green Man Candles Brown or Black Flowers Geraniums Stones Hematite Scents Wisteria Other Potted plants
NEEDING HEALING Altar cloths Spring Green Deities Green Tara, Hari, Medicine Buddha Candles Yellow Flowers Jasmine Stones Amethyst Scents Rosemary, Pine, Juniper, Jasmine, Hyssop, Ginger
WANTING LOVE Altar cloths Dusty rose Deities Aphrodite, Venus Candles Red Flowers Irises, Plush roses (red, peach, or pink) Stones Moonstone Scents Lovage, Rose, Vervaine, Rose Geranium, Periwinkle
It's like being adopted in a way. If you were an orphan or abandoned on the streets of Sao Paolo or Madras, or on the streets of where ever there are little kids running around, you would be "free". You could go through life listening to no one and exercising unrestricted free will, free instinctive will.
If you had a developed intellect, then you could exercise an intellectual will. You could do anything that you wanted to do, absolutely anything. Of course you would find that as you attempted to fulfill your desires, you were limited, sometimes prevented, by the natural forces within and without. But you could attempt anything.
If you were fortunate enough, foster parents might come along to help you. They would adopt you and take you into their home. Your new mother would begin to lovingly guide and direct your life. She would tell you, "You can play as you like in this room, but not in the others." She is a wise mother and knows that you are accustomed to having your own way, so she lets you play freely within the confines of your own room.
But if she catches you playing in another room, she might say firmly, "You may play in your room, not here in this room." You have lost your "free will" in being adopted by a mother and father, you are a part of their family now, and your well-being, your education, your training all now come under their will, to which you must adjust yourself and obey. They will watch over you and discipline you morning and night. They will protect you from getting into trouble with your "free will".
It is the same when you evolve a relationship, a personal relationship with the Deity Lord Ganesha. He will not allow you to use your free will to get into difficulties. Guiding your carefully and protecting you along your way in your natural "karma" through life is His concern.
Little by little, slowly, imperceptibly a relationship evolves, a very personal, loving relationship, between the devotee and the elephant-faced God. Psychic protection is granted, physical protection, mental and emotional protection are all granted as boons by Him.
He will not allow His devotees to use their free, instinctive willfulness to make more "kukarma" by getting into difficulties. Rather, he will guide them carefully, protecting them every moment along the way so that their natural birth karmas may be worked through and "sukarma" created by right living. This is His main concern. Lord Ganesha loves and cares for His devotees. Once the devotee is connected to Him through the awakening of the "muladhara chakra", loneliness is never experienced.
Ganesha is a truly wonderful, loving God. He has an extraordinary knack for unweaving complicated situations and making them simple. He can unweave his devotees from their karma, simplifying and purifying their lives. But this only happens after they have established a personal relationship with Him. Soon thereafter, changes begin to happen in their lives; and when they go through difficult times, they no longer become angry or live in fear or worry.
When difficult times come, they know it is because they are being unwound from accumulated and congested, difficult karmas or being turned in a new direction altogether. They know that at such a time they have to consciously surrender their free, instinctive willfulness and not fight the divine happenings, but allow the God's divine will to guide their life. Such is the spiritual path of total surrender, know as "prapatti."
"from "Loving Ganesa"
by Satguru Sivaya Subramuniyaswami
The Devil corresponds to the sign of Capricorn as is indicated by the goat's hindquarters of the demon, making the card a symbol of the animal or carnal side of earthly life. The Hebrew letter attributed to this card is Ayin, an eye, and represents the path that joins the solar Tiphareth with the mercurial Hod, implying that the Devil's power lies in creating an awareness of intelligence, hinting also at the original sin of becoming aware of good and evil.
Although this card is often misinterpreted as indicating sin and evil, its true meaning indicates ambition, drive, passions and essential life forces. Poorly dignified in a spread it may also be interpreted as temptations, distraction in physical desires and even obsession or, in extreme instances, possession by adverse or harmful forces. Its most esoteric meaning indicates the influence of a secret or essential force in the question.
It would seem that one of the divergent capabilities of mastering the discipline of theurgia would be the animation of a statue with a spirit. I say divergent because the aforementioned book doesn't present this capability as either an important or a critical point in the overall exposition. I would assume that the author in antiquity, briefly referring to this magickal effect, was stating what could be possible when pursuing the really important task of spiritual ascension and union with the One. I will quote the requisite passage to reveal that although mentioned, the what, where and how is mysteriously omitted.
"I mean statues, but statues living and conscious, filled with the breath of life, and doing many mighty works.."
The Church condemned this belief as a form of idolatry and saw it as the obvious worship of demons, even though many church statues were considered icons that had the power to bestow blessings and miraculous healing. The church would perform a kind of consecration, where a newly erected statue of a saint or an apostle would be blessed with holy water and incense during a votive mass, but it was the unquestioning faith of the people who saw these statues as emblems of divine power and grace that made them truly holy relics. Renaissance magicians, however, had no problem using unsanctioned statues and other devices for their reconstitution of Hermetic magick, but few had ever really written down (as far as I am aware) directions that would show how to make such a thing.
Years ago, as a ritual magician of no small ability, I decided to see if I could figure out how to do this operation within the context of my own system of magick. Not only was I intrigued by the Hermetic legend, but I also was exposed to the "statue as god" practices from a friend who was deeply involved in Voudoun and Santeria. I was also exposed to Michael Bertiaux and some of his heterodoxical voudoun and European magick. Still, I needed to develop a methodology that would work within my own personal system.
Basically, I concluded that the requirements for crafting a statue that housed an aspect of the Godhead would have the following requirements:
1. An appropriate statue of that deity or some other analogous form made out stone or metal,
2. To place an energy field into the statue that would be perpetual, self-regenerating and whose characteristics would be analogous to the aspect of Godhead,
3. Perform a Godhead invocation through a gateway structure that would draw that Godhead and powerfully associate it with the statue,
4. Engage the statue in a mystery working where that Godhead aspect can communicate, bless and empower me and whatever else I magickally seek to impact.
So the first task would be to find an appropriate statue made out a material that would be amendable to the working. That would eliminate anything that is made out plaster, plastic or cheap metal (aluminum). It would also make the statue more expensive and perhaps even something of an object d'art. I had three statues that were made out of pressed alabaster, and therefore, were perfect for this work. They could also be made out pressed resin as well, since a lot of beautiful museum replicas are made out that substance these days.
The second requirement was, at first, something of a conundrum. How would I apply a perpetual charge to the statue. I thought this over and came to the conclusion that I could charge the statue like it was a talisman, which in sense, it was. The best charging mechanism that I had in my repertoire was the generation of a talismanic elemental, which is the combination of a planetary intelligence fused within an element charge. A talismanic elemental can also be invoked as one of the Enochian Seniors, as well as one of the Lunar Mansions. I chose to work with this specific perpetual charge as both an energy and a spirit, thus embodying the statue with a base line energy field that would hold and contain the particular godhead that I sought to invoke into it. So for each of the three statues, I would choose a specific talismanic elemental charge. I had a total of twenty-eight different constructs from which to choose. Timing would be an important factor, which meant that I wouldn't be able to perform the invocation of the talismanic elementals whenever I chose, but it would have to be done when the Moon was waxing and when it entered into the targeted Lunar Mansion.
My three goddess statues provided me with the inspiration to choose the planet Venus for a talismanic elemental for each, so I chose Venus of Fire, Venus of Water and Venus of Air. Thus I had the charge determined for these three statues. The working called for a fourth talismanic elemental to be invoked and set to charge a special consecrated crystal - for that, I chose Venus of Earth. So all four element variations of Venus had been selected to be used in this working. Now on to the next step, where I would have to figure out how to do a Godhead invocation and somehow get it to materialize in the statue.
The key to getting an aspect of the Godhead to dwell in a statue was to be found in the ancillary rite used by the order to set a talismanic charge, called the Talismanic Elemental Application rite. This rite sets up a proper and powerful field in the target object that is to be charged. I will quote a section from that rite, which will establish the base for the applying of a charge, and help us visualize and determine the next step.
"The basic structure of this ritual consists of an Inverted Pentagram of Spirit Feminine that is set in the center of the circle, representing the Holy Feminine Spirit descending and bestowing its manifest blessings. This central power object is surrounded by a potent vortex that is generated with four hexagrams erected in the four Angles. The object to be charged is placed upon the sigil of the Talismanic Elemental in the center of the circle. The magician may use a central altar to perform this operation and focus the rite."
So an inverted pentagram of spirit feminine is set in the center of the circle in the ultra-point, symbolizing the descent of grace and spiritual power into a material frame work, which is the target object. There is also a vortex consisting of four unicursal hexagrams in the four angles, embedded in a crossroads energy structure with another unicursal hexagram set to the infra-point, energizing the nexus point where the crossroads meet. The hexagrams set in the four angles are drawn to invoke the planetary intelligence of the Sun, and the one in the center of the circle is set to the Moon - thus creating a powerful vortex polarity of Light and Darkness, Solar and Lunar aspects.
As a form of preparation, the statue is sprinkled with holy or lustral water and then anointed with holy oil. These sacraments have been prepared through a votive mass. Other sacraments, such as wine and a host, may be kept in reserve after the Mass to use in this working.
Using the powerful ritual structure that is already in place, the magician then performs a ritual to summon the Godhead, in this case, one of the three Goddesses that I sought to work with. I will quote from the directions in the ritual "Enneagramic Gate of the Goddess."
"The Celebrant then draws a great [Rose] Ankh in the Ultrapoint and seals it with a colored energy, depending on the nature of the Deity. The Celebrant then intones the Invocation of the Goddess and implores her to manifest and reside (in part) within the Eidolon - which the statue has now become.
When the above steps are completed for each of the Eidolons, the Celebrant shall light an offering of incense before it and then proceeds to anoint the statue a second time, thus sealing the power [and spirit of the godhead] into it."
In addition, the magician may also give or feed the statue an offering consisting of a consecrated host particle dipped in consecrated wine. The statue is now fully activated and has a resident aspect of the Godhead fully active within it. It will, of course, require periodic feeding and rites of devotion and adoration, but that is the responsibility of the magician as priest. It is an obligatory part of his or her personal magickal religious cult, and should never be neglected. What I have done at this point in the working is set up a shrine of the three goddesses, and decorated it with power objects, other god statues (to keep them company), and periodically gave them offerings of flowers, incense and devotions, and consecrated sacrament to feed and keep them active.
The Fourth and final step is engaging the living statue in some kind of powerful mystery rite, one where that Godhead can be deeply and magnificently integrated into the spiritual process of the magician. How this is done is to incorporate a gateway of the mysteries and build a kind of mystikon (telesterion) where the Deity may intimately commune with the magician. Because I chose three goddesses who had a special primacy in my personal pantheon, I used a triple gateway consisting of nine points, or an Enneagram to establish a mystikon for all three of them. What this structure looks like is quite simple. It consists of a Western Gateway, a Southern Gateway and a Northern Gateway. You can consider that the west is the gate of darkness, the south is the gate of the summer solstice (ascension of light), and the north, is the gate of the winter solstice (death and rebirth).
An enneagram gateway structure is erected only when all three of the statues have been completely animated with the charged aspect of the Godhead, so until that task is completed, the triple gateway mystery can't be done. Thus this rite of the triple gateway is performed with all three active goddess statues. Each gateway is erected and established for each of the three goddesses, starting with the north, then the west, and completing with the south. In this manner, an anticlockwise progression is established, producing a further vortex-like energy signature. The magician has now progressed through three gateways and is at the very center of the triple mysteries associated with the triple godhead. Achieving this point is quite a momentous and powerful magickal experience, but there is still more that needs to be done.
The magician then invokes the Talismantic Elemental of Venus of Earth and uses the Application Ritual to charge a specially selected crystal placed in the center of the circle. This can be done prior to the working, or it can be done in the very center of the working. I chose to make this talisman prior to the triple gateway, so instead of building up yet another structure in the center of the circle, I just brought out the crystal and set it up with the three statues of the goddess in their shrine, as mentioned previously.
Once this is done, then the magician takes the transmutar wand and draws all nine nodes of the gate structures together through the center of the circle in the ultra-point beginning with the Western Watchtower, and then ending after transiting the Northwest, North, Southeast, South, and Southwest. Now the enneagram is fully established and all four element aspects of the talismanic elemental of Venus are deployed.
When all three gateways are established, then the magician sets an inner circle in the center of the consecrated magick circle, proceeding in a sunwise direction. This inner circle has the quality of fusing all of the three gateways into a singularity, and the sunwise direction establishes a counter movement against the negative vortex, intensifying the energy at the center. An enneagramic trigon is placed in the center of the circle to establish the confluence of the nine points of the triple gateway.
Finally, the magician performs the opening of the portal gesture before the inner circle and steps into it. Then he or she declares the combined gateway keyword formula for all three gates and summons the combined power of the triple godhead. This completes the erection of the inner mystikon, and the magician then sits in the center of the circle and meditates in silence while communing with the combined godhead. He/She may place before that Deity composite shrine offerings and also sigils of his or her personal desires. When this communion is at an end, the magician backs out of the center of the circle and bows low before it. The three gateways are then sealed with sealing spirals, locking them for future use.
The final action is where the magician erects and projects an Eastern Gateway that represents an ascension into the light, as well as an exteriorization of all that was established in the mystikon. The ritual may be completed, but it can be revisited whenever the magician has need of communing with the triple powers of the combined Deity, through the artifice of three fully animated and empowered statues of the Godhead. To revisit, the magician performs a macro rite, that consists of the basic elements of the mystikon rite without all of the elaborate structures that were required to erect it the first time.
So that's my detailed solution to fully animating a statue with a summoned and invoked Godhead aspect. I have tested it and the methodology works quite well. What this does is add a potent dimension to the devotions and priest-like obligations of the magician, and it gives him or her the ability to go directly to the Godhead and request any kind of assistance, guidance, council or just reassurance. It also makes the temple environment much more sacred, holy and imbued with the active and dynamic powers of the Godhead, which seem to be alive and fully empowered within the boundaries of the shrine. Since I went through this process and I now have living statues enshrined in my temple complex, I can't imagine any other way of establishing a living connection with the Deity.
I hope this article has given you some ideas about how you might perform this working for yourself. Those who are members of the Order not only have the rituals to perform this working, but also some newly written documentation to walk them through it.
Frater Barrabbas
Baphomet & Opfer
From Opfer, Fenrir Vol. II, no 2
The word 'opfer' generally refers to the sacrifice that occurs - symbolic
or otherwise - during certain rituals. There are, generally, two types of
opfer: (1) associated with rites to open a nexion (or 'Star Gate'), between
Aeons - when such an opfer(s) is considered necessary in terms of the
'energy' required;(2) those associated with traditional beliefs regarding
the 'working of the cosmos'.
('Opfers' associated with death rituals form a third type.)
The second type, according to tradition, was chosen once every 17 years and
this sacrifice was regarded as necessary to retain 'the cosmic balance' -
in modern terms, keep a nexion open (and thus preserve the associated
higher civilization etc). The chosen one was made an honourary Priest (this
type of opfer was always male) and there was a joining between him and one
or more women, as Priestesses. This joining was a simple type of
'hierosgamos', and the offspring of the union(s) were given great honour.
At the ceremony itself, the head of the opfer was severed and displayed -
usually for a night and a day (although this period may have been longer in
the very distant past). The Rite was conducted outdoors in a 'sacred' place
- often a circle of stones or hill top.
The chosen one was able, because of the sacrifice, to partake of an acausal
existence - becoming thus an Immortal. Thus 'willing sacrifice' was
possible, although it is easy to imagine that in later times, the opfer was
not so willing.
Traditionally, this type goes back to Albion, and while originally the
ritual was probably a community affair, it became more secretive. What
survives to the present day (The Ceremony of Recalling with 'opfer' ending)
probably reflects the essence of this earlier tradition rather than the
detail (the words, chants etc). This essence may be apprehended in the role
of the Mistress of Earth - representative of Baphomet, the Dark Goddess. It
was to Baphomet that the sacrifice was made - hence a male opfer. Indeed,
the whole ceremony (of Recalling) can be seen as a celebration of the dark
goddess - the Earth Mistress/goddess in her darker/violent/sinister aspect.
The severed head was associated with the worship of Baphoment - the cult
deriving from Albion - hence the traditional representation of Baphomet.
The identification of Baphomet as the Bride of Lucifer/Satan probably dates
from around the 10th or 11th century, as does the use of the name
'Satan'/Satanas as the Earth-bound representative of the Dark Gods.
It is important to remember that in earlier times (eg. in Albion during the
Hyperborean aeon) there was no clear and/or moral distinction between the
'light' and the 'sinister': the two were seen as different aspects of the
same thing. Thus, what we know as the Mistress of Earth (the 'goddess') was
both what we now call Baphomet (the dark aspect) and Gaia (the Earth
Mother). Likewise with the male aspect - Satan and Lucifer - or
Dionysus/Kabeiroi and Apollo. We now understand all such symbols as
unconscious/conscious projections onto 'reality' (where 'reality' = the
region of causal/acausal mergence) - as 'gates'/nexions to the acausal
itself, with the seven spheres of the Tree of Wyrd being a 'map' of these
gates understandable by 'non-Adept' consciousness. Thus, the sphere of
Mercury re-presents Lucifer/Satan - Mercury, Mars and Sun being "male"
spheres, and moon, Venus, Jupiter the "female" ones (Saturn beyond such
opposites - Chaos itself).
The cult of Baphomet was the worship of the dark aspect of the "female"
energies - where in this context, worship means a striving toward
understanding/conscious integration. Traces of the worship of the 'light'
aspect survive in the Septenary tradition in the name "Aktlal Maka" and the
natural form of the Nine Angles rite. The darker aspect survives, in
essence, in the Ceremony of Recalling and the traditions associated with
the Mistress of Earth and Baphomet. As to the original name of the goddess
in both her aspects, there is a tradition which gives 'Darkat' (early form
of Lilith) as the name used before Baphomet became the common usage.
However, 'Azanigin' has also been suggested - as has 'Aktlal Maka' for the
'light'/Gaia aspect, although both these are merely 20th century
suggestions, not based on any oral tradition. Some aspects of the cult of
the (dark) goddess are said to have survived into Greek times in the form
of the 'mystery cults' (qv Kabeiroi - and also Eleusis for the 'light'
aspect), this being an 'indirect survival', the 'modern' Septenary
tradition being a direct one, from Albion.
The use of the name 'Baphomet' probably derives from the 10th or 11th
century although the traditional pictorial representation of Baphomet is
undoubtedly much older. If there was an oral tradition connected with the
origin of the name Baphomet, it has been lost.
Thus, there are no indications as to the 'original' names of the 'light'
and 'sinister' elements on the 'male' side - known to us as 'Lucifer' and
'Satan'. These latter names probably also derive from around the 10th or
11th century - although 'Karu Samsu' (or something very similar) has been
suggested for the 'Lucifer' aspect and 'Sapanur' as the 'sinister' aspect.
The rites associated with the first type of opfer - such as 'The Sinister
Calling' - cannot be either dated with certainty or seen to be derived from
an earlier tradition. In all probability, they derive from the 12th or 13th
century, although it is quite possible that earlier versions/forms existed.
Some
have even considered The Sinister Calling as a later version of the
Ceremony of Recalling. Again, if there was an oral tradition, it has been
lost - all that remains are the rituals themselves.
The 'Black Mass' itself (and indeed most of the ceremonial rituals in The
Black Book of Satan) probably originated around the same time as the
Sinister Calling. The original Mass was said in Latin, although by the
middle of the 20th century a translated version had found its way into the
Black Book - of necessity, although some Latin chants remained.
NOTES: The significance of the 17 year cycle is unclear. In the past few
decades, some theories have been advanced, but they are unconvincing.
Aktlal Maka is a chant sometimes used in the natural Nine Angles Rite by
the Priestess if the glade has a spring of water. It means 'the flowing
waters of Earth' and is chanted in homage to Gaia since natural springs are
regarded as her children.
The 'mysteries of the Kabeiroi' (sometimes spelt Cabiri) is one of the
esoteric traditions associated with the Hellenic Aeon. In its original
form, 'the mysteries' concerned certain deities often represented in the
form of griffins and connected with the sea as well as Demeter - the
'mother Earth' or Gaia. According to esoteric tradition, the mysteries
concerned the Dark Gods - in various 'shapechanging' forms - and related
how Demeter gave the first Initiates of this tradition a crystal (later
venerated at a shrine near Thebes where a sacred grove to Demeter existed)
as well as showing how an individual, through various Rites which involved
Gaia, women, sacred marriage and so on, could be transformed to a different
realm of consciousness. This transformation, as in other Greek Mystery
Cults, was achieved mainly through personal involvement in
ritual/ceremonial action often of a mythological kind.
Later, this tradition became divided - Eleusis representing the
'Apollonian' element, the Kabeiroi the 'Dionysian' or darker aspects, for
it is said that all Initiates of the Cabiri had to have committed a crime
greater than common ones.
The mysteries of the Kabeiroi were often celebrated in mountain shrines
(certain combinations of rock and underground water being regarded as
sacred - that is, capable by their magickal power of transforming the
consciousness of individuals (cf. various sacred sites of the Yezidi who
upheld a more garbled version of Dark Gods tradition) and to reach these
shrines was considered part of the process of Initiation.
Greeks called the Kabeiroi the 'great gods'.
- Order of Nine Angles -
http://www.nasz-dom.net/
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