{"id":5834,"date":"2011-10-01T01:10:51","date_gmt":"2011-10-01T06:10:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/paganpages.org\/content\/?p=5972"},"modified":"2011-09-26T04:26:44","modified_gmt":"2011-09-26T09:26:44","slug":"prunings-from-the-old-prune","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/paganpages.org\/emagazine\/2011\/10\/01\/prunings-from-the-old-prune\/","title":{"rendered":"Prunings from the Hedge"},"content":{"rendered":"

Inner Witchcraft<\/strong><\/p>\n

<\/strong><\/p>\n

Working with Elementals<\/strong><\/p>\n

\n

Introduction<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

These chapters were originally presented as information supplementary to that provided by the High Priestess of a coven I was advising over in Colorado.\u00a0 Since I could not be physically present among them, I provided more private aspects of my practice, some part of which would surface at times were I with them.\u00a0 My contention throughout has been that most magical energy is locked up within the human body and therefore preparation for witchcraft must attempt to remove some of these blocks so one can experience and make use of one\u2019s native magical energy.\u00a0 By \u2018magical\u2019 I mean here \u2018capable of producing unexpected effects.\u2019\u00a0 This loosening up of energy locked within the body is presented here as preparation for spell work, but, as with all work on the Sun-wheel, one must go round multiple times.\u00a0 As it is a circle, the Sun-wheel has no beginning or end.<\/p>\n

I\u00a0 begin with an attempt to describe the main types of knowledge as touching the Craft.\u00a0 The East is associated with discursive knowledge, knowledge involving symbolic systems, whether linguistic or arithmetical, knowledge of an object separate from the knower.<\/p>\n

The quarter of fire involves personal knowledge, in which the knower and known meet in a link of mutual understanding in which both are subject and object of shared knowledge. It is in this sort of knowledge that one contacts the gods and demigods in prayer, and has an ongoing partnership with each of the four personal elementals.<\/p>\n

The quarter of water \/ west is ruled by the Crone, and this is where we contact and make use of her shadow-knowledge, which reveals hitherto overlooked features of the world and can lead to altered modes of awareness.<\/p>\n

The quarter of earth \/ north is the quarter of stillness, where work with elementals both begins and ends, and where the spell is earthed after release of the cone of power.\u00a0 Its essence is inner and outer stillness.<\/p>\n

The partnership with elementals is a focusing device that fixes the witch\u2019s attention on the functions they represent.\u00a0 Work within the eastern quarter of discursive knowledge makes no further requirement.\u00a0 Work within the southern quarter of will involves personal knowledge, so that the practitioner takes up the resident magical weapon of the elemental and tries to visualize its form within the weapon.\u00a0 The witch acts towards the elemental as if<\/em> it were a real person.\u00a0 Nothing further is required.\u00a0 This is part of \u2018the theatre of witchcraft.\u2019\u00a0 The energy exchanges between paired opposite elementals are necessary for the completion of work within those quarters.<\/p>\n

Work begins in the northern quarter of keeping still.\u00a0 The witch meditates to quiet the mind, and then slips into the silence between successive thoughts, descending to the level of inner whisperings.\u00a0 On this level a compulsive habit can be dismantled by removing one of its weak links.\u00a0 The witch begins with very small habits controlling various nervous movements or tensions in the body.\u00a0 Overcoming one of these habit-cycles releases the energy that was used to run the habit.\u00a0 This is made available to the salamander, who is ready to do inventory.<\/p>\n

Inventory is work in the southern quarter of will.\u00a0 It involves, initially, going through all the clutter in the house and putting things in better order, throwing out whatever is no longer needed.\u00a0 If an object or document, et al., is connected with an old unfinished project, the witch decides then and there whether it needs to be completed.\u00a0 If not, the project and its artifacts are abandoned; otherwise the project is scheduled for immediate attention.\u00a0 In this way, past commitments (which do not go away when we put them \u2018on the shelf\u2019) can be cleared away, making mental space available for commitment to a new project, such as,\u00a0 in time, some spellwork.\u00a0 This is done by the witch and the salamander together, the latter making use of energy freed by the witch and\u00a0 the gnome in the northern quarter.\u00a0 The offering of mental space from completed or canceled projects is the salamander\u2019s requital of the gnome for the latter\u2019s gift of free energy.\u00a0 The primary motivation of elementals in offering the witch initiate their services is to effect this energy exchange with their elemental opposite ( gnome \u2013 salamander; sylph \u2013 undine).\u00a0 They also share in the balancing of elements the witch is achieving.<\/p>\n

Under the guidance of the High Priestess, first degree initiates are taken into the western quarter of daring, where they enter a state of altered awareness in which to practice raising the cone of power together, subsequently earthing the spell in the quarter of the north.\u00a0 Witches are cautioned to stay out of the west \/ water \/ daring when on their own, until passing the second degree initiation.\u00a0 Some information is given on initiations at this point and the nature of the second degree in particular.\u00a0 But all this is more properly the High Priestess\u2019s province, so I pass from it to the quarter of daring as subject.\u00a0 In all quarter work, my aim has been to show how to free up energy and mental space, then uses of elemental work in ordinary life, and finally, their application to the Circle and spellcraft.<\/p>\n

I\u00a0 end with an account of work in the western quarter.\u00a0 Further information on earthing spells is best left to coven work; and besides, we have already considered the general nature of work in the quarter of stillness.\u00a0 A possibility for future development is briefly mentioned in connection with dreams, namely, developing the ability to dream lucidly, in which the dreamer knows it is a dream.\u00a0 This is presented as a springboard towards astral journeys.\u00a0 Such can lead in time to a transcendent experience in the Summerland called \u2018the true Sabbat,\u2019 traditionally reigned over by either King Saturnus or by Bacchus and Ariadne.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Inner Witchcraft Working with Elementals Introduction These chapters were originally presented as information supplementary to that provided by the High Priestess of a coven I was advising over in Colorado.\u00a0 Since I could not be physically present among them, I provided more private aspects of my practice, some part of which would surface at times were I with them.\u00a0 My contention throughout has been that most magical energy is locked up within the human body and therefore preparation for witchcraft must attempt to remove some of these blocks so one can experience and make use of one\u2019s native magical energy.\u00a0 By \u2018magical\u2019 I mean here \u2018capable of producing unexpected effects.\u2019\u00a0 This loosening up of energy locked within the body is presented here as preparation for spell work, but, as with all work on the Sun-wheel, one must go round multiple times.\u00a0 As it is a circle, the Sun-wheel has no beginning or end. I\u00a0 begin with an attempt to describe the main types of knowledge as touching the Craft.\u00a0 The East is associated with discursive knowledge, knowledge involving symbolic systems, whether linguistic or arithmetical, knowledge of an object separate from the knower. The quarter of fire involves personal knowledge, in which the knower and known meet in a link of mutual understanding in which both are subject and object of shared knowledge. It is in this sort of knowledge that one contacts the gods and demigods in prayer, and has an ongoing partnership with each of the four personal elementals. The quarter of water \/ west is ruled by the Crone, and this is where we contact and make use of her shadow-knowledge, which reveals hitherto overlooked features of the world and can lead to altered modes of awareness. The quarter of earth \/ north is the quarter of stillness, where work with elementals both begins and ends, and where the spell is earthed after release of the cone of power.\u00a0 Its essence is inner and outer stillness. The partnership with elementals is a focusing device that fixes the witch\u2019s attention on the functions they represent.\u00a0 Work within the eastern quarter of discursive knowledge makes no further requirement.\u00a0 Work within the southern quarter of will involves personal knowledge, so that the practitioner takes up the resident magical weapon of the elemental and tries to visualize its form within the weapon.\u00a0 The witch acts towards the elemental as if it were a real person.\u00a0 Nothing further is required.\u00a0 This is part of \u2018the theatre of witchcraft.\u2019\u00a0 The energy exchanges between paired opposite elementals are necessary for the completion of work within those quarters. Work begins in the northern quarter of keeping still.\u00a0 The witch meditates to quiet the mind, and then slips into the silence between successive thoughts, descending to the level of inner whisperings.\u00a0 On this level a compulsive habit can be dismantled by removing one of its weak links.\u00a0 The witch begins with very small habits controlling various nervous movements or tensions in the body.\u00a0 Overcoming one of these habit-cycles releases the energy that was used to run the habit.\u00a0 This is made available to the salamander, who is ready to do inventory. Inventory is work in the southern quarter of will.\u00a0 It involves, initially, going through all the clutter in the house and putting things in better order, throwing out whatever is no longer needed.\u00a0 If an object or document, et al., is connected with an old unfinished project, the witch decides then and there whether it needs to be completed.\u00a0 If not, the project and its artifacts are abandoned; otherwise the project is scheduled for immediate attention.\u00a0 In this way, past commitments (which do not go away when we put them \u2018on the shelf\u2019) can be cleared away, making mental space available for commitment to a new project, such as,\u00a0 in time, some spellwork.\u00a0 This is done by the witch and the salamander together, the latter making use of energy freed by the witch and\u00a0 the gnome in the northern quarter.\u00a0 The offering of mental space from completed or canceled projects is the salamander\u2019s requital of the gnome for the latter\u2019s gift of free energy.\u00a0 The primary motivation of elementals in offering the witch initiate their services is to effect this energy exchange with their elemental opposite ( gnome \u2013 salamander; sylph \u2013 undine).\u00a0 They also share in the balancing of elements the witch is achieving. Under the guidance of the High Priestess, first degree initiates are taken into the western quarter of daring, where they enter a state of altered awareness in which to practice raising the cone of power together, subsequently earthing the spell in the quarter of the north.\u00a0 Witches are cautioned to stay out of the west \/ water \/ daring when on their own, until passing the second degree initiation.\u00a0 Some information is given on initiations at this point and the nature of the second degree in particular.\u00a0 But all this is more properly the High Priestess\u2019s province, so I pass from it to the quarter of daring as subject.\u00a0 In all quarter work, my aim has been to show how to free up energy and mental space, then uses of elemental work in ordinary life, and finally, their application to the Circle and spellcraft. I\u00a0 end with an account of work in the western quarter.\u00a0 Further information on earthing spells is best left to coven work; and besides, we have already considered the general nature of work in the quarter of stillness.\u00a0 A possibility for future development is briefly mentioned in connection with dreams, namely, developing the ability to dream lucidly, in which the dreamer knows it is a dream.\u00a0 This is presented as a springboard towards astral journeys.\u00a0 Such can lead in time to a transcendent experience in the Summerland called \u2018the true Sabbat,\u2019 traditionally reigned over by either King Saturnus or by Bacchus and Ariadne.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":105,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"iawp_total_views":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5834","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/paganpages.org\/emagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5834","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/paganpages.org\/emagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/paganpages.org\/emagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/paganpages.org\/emagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/105"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/paganpages.org\/emagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5834"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/paganpages.org\/emagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5834\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/paganpages.org\/emagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5834"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/paganpages.org\/emagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5834"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/paganpages.org\/emagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5834"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}