The Faith of the Wise

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I wanted my next post to be about my experiences of sight and sound; having recently undergone LASIK surgery a whole new world was for a time tantalisingly dangled in front and yet hidden from me but persistance showed the way and experiences I had never dreamed of came shining through; but something else happened, or maybe it happened as a result I am not sure which; during the many quiet hours I’ve had away from the computer and reading and for a short while even light many things from my past came swimming to the fore and I laughed at the irony of it as a friend had asked me just a mere few days before if I ever just sat and did nothing, my reply was, well not very satisfactory.

But this time of “altered” sight which was physically neither clear nor perfect showed me in great detail things I had not seen before; some of which is still happily swimming round and bopping me on the nose days and weeks later.

I’m not a newbie to the craft and the world of the Occult, but I wouldn’t call myself a learned master either, I’ve been on this road only slightly over a decade there are many twists and turns left to explore, I travelled for a while alone, but something made me seek out others to learn from them and thier experiences. A determined soul I searched and found, in fact I keep searching and I keep finding; the point is I found what I was looking for and needed then!

I remember somebody telling me I was an “old crafter” and the sooner I got comfortable with that the better but I had to go away and look to find out what that meant, the closest thing I could find to define this concept of “old craft” was the concepts of Gwyddon, Coven of the Scales and The Clan of Tubal Cain; none of which have a huge public presence that is for sure. I picked up the Bob Clay Edgerton Book published by Ignotus Press, and I picked up The Robert Cochrane Letters and The Roebuck in the Thicket by Capall Bann. I’ve picked up many other books along the way too, thousands of pounds worth actually on just about every subject imaginable, to the point we are seriously considering cataloging my books within the household insurance as we are not sure they would be covered under the general contents.

Yet despite all these wonderful tomes, these 3 little books not one of them priced above £12.99 are the most loved, treasured and refered to books in my collection; sorry things they are, backs all broken and torn, pages filled with highlighter pen and post it notes, pages all sellotaped together, and still they endure and call to me, perhaps less now than before, but even now 10yrs later I would say there is less than 6 months goes by without me referring to these books or working from them in some way.

A chance conversation happened this evening a fellow insomniac was bemoaning thier fate and I told them to take up spinning as it was very relaxing and was capable or putting any person into an alpha state within minutes with the right practise, I quipped that as a result of my spinning addiction I was more qualified to sign off FFF&F than many I know that have used it. And that took me aback because for many years I refused to use that as a sign off on my correspondence, to me, it should be used by only those who understood the concept of each and every one of those “F’s”.

And it got me thinking again, as a non pagan friend asked me a month or so back if I was a witch and I said categorically that no I really wasn’t one, well not in the way she was thinking anyway. But there it was shouting at me in the back of my head, The Ritual of the Castle, was I really one of the quick and the dead and maybe sadly or maybe other wise the answer was no I wasn’t. I am other, I am what Cochrane defines as witch. I personally think it is an entirely human condition and far from supernatural, its rather mundane actually when you get to the bare bones of it, but to be a member of her darling crew isn’t so much a doing but a being and I think this is where people who want lables fall down drastically.

Ghosts in the Machine?

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Whilst reading an article provided by a Facebook friend about an evangelical sect in Brazil who have purportedly banned the use of USB technology because it bears the mark of Satan, (see here), I followed another link, the content of which made me giggle, but not for the reason you might think (and here).

In this article it clearly states amongst other things, that “Any PC built after 1985 has the storage capacity to house an evil spirit”.

I do like the fact that they have decided that a memory capacity is required to store said demons, which I think is a little silly but, theoretically, they may be correct. Across the world there is a long history of humanity constructing poppets, fetishes and spirits house within which demonic, familiar and ancestral spirits can reside.

I spent sometime debating the possibility of these entities residing within an electronic environment and how that might be achieved, sigilisation of circuit boards seemed to be the most obvious way in which to do this, however the contruction of servitors and even possibly egregores purely electronically or through the medium of branding could be achieved with a view to them performing a specific function. Accidental creation is also not beyond the realms of possibility either, I already joke, that when I need to know something, I go and worship the great god google!

I read of interesting experiments online to create electronic guardians of websites, Barbelith was one particular site that sprang to mind, some 5 or 6 yrs ago if I recall correctly their servitor achieved egregore status and promptly locked some of the admins out of the site, if reports are to be believed.

I even spent sometime sporting an avatar which was a photo of a spirit house containing a thoughtform, with the intention to give it access to the electronic realms, the results of those experiements weren’t particularly successful, but that may have had something to do with the thoughtform itself rather than the manner in which it was given access (it was a singularly useless thoughtform and I breathed a sigh of relief after it was returned to the person to constructed it).

So are these claims really so far fetched, recent joking discussion on my status have included a work of fiction in which the Lwa find the web, and what would happen when the goetics get email access, it gives a whole new meaning for “gmail” doesn’t it. Or are they and we already using an electronic medium to access the other worlds? I actually think so? Obviously I don’t percieve that these manifestations are as the result of Satan, and neither do I believe that as a result of being a computer buff I am going to go out and shoot a school full of innocent children, but I do sometimes wonder, if some days we are just singing to the same tune, just with different lyrics.

The True meaning of Human Sacrifice

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If you haven’t already read my post on Devotion, you might like to read it before continuing on DEVOTION.

I thought I might expand a little bit on the subject today as recently I’ve seen a lot of “want it quick, want it easy, want it now” attitude happening. I’d been advised that putting anything on my blog from my book before it was published was probably a little unwise, but I felt it necessary to make an exception in this case, here is a little of what I write about sacrifice in the ancient world.

in general it appears that even in ancient society there was worth in expensive or difficult to obtain items, a value that perhaps has been forgotten, sacrifice as a ritual device was not and should not necessarily be all about blood offerings and immolation, but about providing the Gods with items worthy of their notice and devotion over and above everyday religious activity. – From the forthcoming book Liber Hekate by Tara Sanchez

Devotion and sacrifice to what ever deity you venerate is not just about lighting candles, burning incense, doing ritual, reading holy books, even going to church or other sacred sanctuary; it is about sacrifice, real human sacrifice; and in our modern world where everything IS bigger, better, faster, more, what is more precious than our time and our effort.

My daily devotion currently consists of sitting at this computer, sometimes upwards of twelve hours a day, I write, I write about Hekate, agonising over the content and the details, hoping that what I provide is worthy of notice. And its not the first time my devotional work has been, to the outsider, apparently entirely mundane and time consuming, I’ve spent whole weekends up to my elbows in clay creating images, hours with superglue and hundreds of glass beads, creating, when I would rather have been out with my friends or family instead. And I’ve smashed those lovingly, hard worked for items, into a million smithereens, burnt them on open fires, gifted them to others, thrown things in running water, launched them into the sea. I think you get the idea, I made a sacrifce, just as I sacrificed my time, I sacrificed the item itself.

Oh I could have bought many of the items I have created from the shops or other artisans. Got them quick, got them easy; but that isn’t the point. I had to put the effort and energy and intent into it, if I hadn’t, then the sacrifice would have meant nothing to me, or her for that matter!

The Covenant of Hekate

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On this Halloween day, I sit here typing with a building sense of excitement, something special is about to happen, people across the globe are coming together as a community to work for a common purpose, regardless of background, tradition or religious persuasion.

The Covenant of Hekate (CoH) was born out of the desire to create a community and centre of study for those who share a passion for the history, mysteries and magic of the Goddess Hekate. This desire was dramatically demonstrated on 27th May 2010 when thousands of people worldwide performed the Rite of Her Sacred Fires ritual created by Sorita d’Este as an act of devotion to the goddess Hekate.

I am deeply honoured to announce that I have been invited to be one of the first Torchbearers, who can offer mentoring, teaching, workshops and help facilitate the running of this community. The applications for membership are open on the 1st of November; thats just a very few hours away. I look forward to meeting so many new people who dance in her flames.

Well Ive gone and done it now haven’t I?

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I know I’ve been quiet over the last few months, basically since the Hekate: Her Sacred Fires rite, but Hekate has been keeping me very busy, just when I think that I might get a break for a while something new comes up. You get the distinct impression sometimes that no matter how much you do the response is going to be like the proverbial school report of; bright girl but could try harder.

There are two reasons why Ive been so quiet, firstly, and I have alluded to it before, a writing project that has been in the works on and off for some time has been coming to fruition, but seeing as it is now in black and white on the Avalonia web-site under their forthcoming titles see here I cannot shy away from it any longer; this peice of work is a magickal obligation made several years ago, and I had rather hoped I had found a loop hole by contributing to Sacred Fires, but no, apparently I am not going to get away with it that easily, so “Liber Hekate” is currently undergoing severe labour pains. The end however is in sight so watch this space for more information.

Secondly, I’ve been in cahoots with the wonderful author and priestess Sorita d’Este, far too many late night discussions have ensued since the launch of Hekate: Her Sacred Fires, most of them revolving around how the ever growing community of priests, priestesses and devotees of Hekate can best be supported and served. Lovely lady that she is, she has spent many hours deliberating and I think has come up with a wonderful solution, needless to say I can only wholeheartedly support this venture in any way I can, especially as I suspect it is partially my fault anyway. It’s in its early infancy and membership applications will not be open for a few weeks yet, but go and have a look at Covenant of Hekate and have a read about it yourself.