{"id":9265,"date":"2014-01-01T01:10:06","date_gmt":"2014-01-01T06:10:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/paganpages.org\/content\/?p=9578"},"modified":"2013-12-30T21:03:37","modified_gmt":"2013-12-31T02:03:37","slug":"the-lady-and-the-elemental-powers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/paganpages.org\/emagazine\/2014\/01\/01\/the-lady-and-the-elemental-powers\/","title":{"rendered":"The Lady and the Elemental Powers"},"content":{"rendered":"

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

 <\/p>\n

As pagans, we are aware of being children of Mother Earth.\u00a0 She carries us with her from life to life as she evolves at the slow pace of goddesses; for, as a good Mother, she wants to take all of her children with her in her evolutionary journey.<\/p>\n

Pagans are therefore in no hurry but, as a courtesy, should wish to develop their awareness to the next level, so as not to be a burden to their Mother but rather help her along.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Life thus is school for the children of Earth, and for those who wish to evolve more swiftly, becoming prefects, as it were, in her school, special schools called mystery schools are provided in each age.\u00a0 The Craft of the Wise is one such mystery school.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

A mystery school is so called precisely because its teaching and discipline are designed to effect an evolutionary leap for its successful pupils, who therefore progress towards a consummation which cannot be conceived at the beginning of their studies. This evolutionary leap is called the transmutation in the Craft, and it will occur in some future life, whether during a gross material incarnation here in Middle-Earth, or while in the \u00e6theric body in the Summerland, during the sojourn between lives.\u00a0 Until then, witches will probably still need to be reborn, but the number of reincarnations will be fewer.\u00a0 Along the way in the Craft there are anticipations of the eventual transmutation in the form of initiations.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Awareness or consciousness is held to consist of four principal powers plus a fifth, which must be cultivated together in a balanced fashion for awareness to develop.\u00a0 These are the power to know, to will, to dare, and to keep silence or still.\u00a0 When these are cultivated together for a sufficient time, with the help of the Lady and the demigod known as the Lord or Lad, a fifth power, the power to go (that is, to go on \u00e6theric journeys), is the result.\u00a0 These five powers are the inner elemental powers of the classical elements of Air, Fire, Water, Earth and \u00c6ther, respectively.\u00a0 Each forms a body within the gross material body of the witch, and each is nourished by its appropriate food.\u00a0 Air is nourished by proper breathing, Fire by proper perception, Water by proper drinking, Earth by proper nourishment of solid food, and \u00c6ther by proper awareness.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Our Western tradition of the Craft comes from the last mystery schools of Egypt, which were still extant in the late Saitic period just preceding the Persian conquest. \u00a0Some of them, along with schools in Babylon, lasted until the time of Alexander the Great.\u00a0 The Egyptian wisdom was taught to the sage Pythagoras, who brought it to southern Italy, where for some time the Etruscan aristocracy patronized the Pythagorean communities there, and it found further development in the teachings of the sage and wizard Empedocles, who taught the doctrine of the elemental powers. [1]<\/a> The mystery teachings of Babylon were brought west by the philosopher-sage Poseidonius, [2]<\/a> and the schools of Italy were revived by the wisdom brought all the way from India in the first century C.E. by the sage and wonder-worker Apollonius of Tyana.\u00a0 It is likely that he was the one who brought the teachings of the Grigori, the Watchers of the four quarters, from the school of the Medes in Babylon, where they were called the Iygges. [3]<\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

The mystery schools of Italy survived the catholic persecution into the Dark Ages, with branches in the Basque country, whence they crossed the Bay of Biscay (which means Basque) to Devonshire and Cornwall.\u00a0 This is only one strand of historical development which led to the secret cult of Witchcraft in medieval Britain.\u00a0 The Bacchic Mysteries entered into the Craft as well.\u00a0 Some of the arcana, such as the teaching of the Watchers, were preserved in ceremonial magic, as taught for instance in the school of Toledo. [4]<\/a> Later there was a confluence of this teaching with that of folk magic.\u00a0 Gerald Gardner depicted this process of amalgamation of the two traditions fictionally in his novel High Magic\u2019s Aid<\/span>. [5]<\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

The Lady of Witchcraft has three aspects: Maiden, Mother and Crone.\u00a0 While she favors different times of the year, day and the lunar month with these aspects, she is also \u201cold or young as she wishes.\u201d [6]<\/a> This means that she can manifest as Maiden, Mother or Crone on any occasion, and exhibits her influence in ways not dependent on the time of day, lunar month or year.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

The Maiden governs purification, the Mother consecration, and the Crone charging or transmutation.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Purification involves the clearing out of stale energy, to make room for fresh.\u00a0 Stale energy was referred to by the ancients as \u2018miasma,\u2019 and was regarded as poisonous.\u00a0 Spring cleaning is an age-old method of purification, traditionally carried out in February, when the Maiden returns.\u00a0 The name \u2018February\u2019 refers to purification.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

The office of the Maiden is evident in the fact that if we want some new thing to come into our lives, we must relinquish some old thing.\u00a0 Some New Age writers like to suggest that we can immediately access abundance.\u00a0 They fail to recognize the fact that our hands are never empty.\u00a0 Thus, we always already have abundance, though it may include elements we would rather go without.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

We already contain within ourselves all the magical energy or personal power we need to develop, but much of our energy is locked up in habits which squander it without giving us a profitable return on our efforts.\u00a0 These include nervous movements, expressions of negative emotion, and inner conversations and imagination.\u00a0 In order to develop as witches, we must free our energies from these energy knots, and we do so by engaging our efforts with the offices of the Maiden.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Air, the Power to Know<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Knowledge, like air, seeks to penetrate everywhere, and all living beings share it among them.\u00a0 Different creatures have different capacities for using air and knowledge, and we see this variation even among members of the same species.\u00a0 Humans differ in how they make use of air and knowledge, according to whether or not they engage with the energy of the Maiden.\u00a0 Some people know a lot of information, but they typically pigeonhole anything new in terms of the old, saying \u201cthat sounds like\u2026\u201d Academics in particular are subject to this gradual ossification of their understanding.\u00a0 Past a certain age, they settle down in their opinions and appear incapable of learning anything really new.\u00a0 Their knowledge is often very intricate, but its subtle interconnectedness actually serves to exclude new, fresh knowledge, such as that which they started with in youth and which guided them in laying the foundations of their future prison.\u00a0 In this they are like people who almost never take full breaths of air, starting with a full exhalation.\u00a0 A full exhalation exhibits the Maiden\u2019s power as manifested in breathing.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

So far we are speaking of knowledge in general, but in this paper we are concerned with that special knowledge which advances us in the Craft.\u00a0 In order to receive new understanding from the Watcher of the East, we must make room for it by hearing new knowledge as new, as if we had never encountered anything like it before.\u00a0 This is how we took in knowledge in youth, when it excited us and began building the foundation of our inner home.\u00a0 If we take in a teaching as mere information, as being on the same level as a novel or academic textbook, it will pass through us like sands in an hourglass; we shall retain nothing energizing from it.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

The Mother governs consecration.\u00a0 Consecration inaugurates a path which we follow throughout life, and which involves a deep sense of commitment on the part of the learner.\u00a0 The new knowledge freed from miasma by the Maiden is brought into focus by the Mother and lives within the witch like an unborn child. The same process takes place with the magical purpose. \u00a0It is divined through the offices of the Maiden, but conceived within witch or wizard by the fructifying power of the Mother.\u00a0 Thereafter, as long as we keep it alive and nourish it, the Mother will cause it to grow within us, until when we are ready to cast the spell, when we shall be pregnant with it, and \u2018heavy with child.\u2019<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

The Crone governs charging or transmutation.\u00a0 Her touch is the touch of initiation, of change of consciousness.\u00a0 She is not gentle like the Mother, but cataclysmic.\u00a0 The casting of a spell is like giving birth, which (if I as a male may presume to say so) is far from easy.\u00a0 At any rate, this is the closest a male witch, a wizard, can come to the ordeal of childbirth endured by women.\u00a0 Whether casting a spell or undergoing initiation into one of the degrees of the Craft, one must engage one\u2019s efforts and focused energy with the transforming power of the Crone.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Fire, the Power to Will<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

The very name of the Craft tells us that it is something done and not merely a body of knowledge.\u00a0 It involves skilled making, both of external things and of things internal to the witch, his or her inner home.<\/p>\n

Learning itself is of course something done, and if we learn in the right way, we will prepare ourself for many other forms of doing and making.\u00a0 J\u00f1ana Yoga, the yoga of knowledge, teaches us that we can learn something from every experience.\u00a0 Even if we encounter ignorant or obnoxious people, they teach us by negative example if nothing else, and there may be a small light of understanding flickering somewhere in their murky darkness, which we will only see later on reflection.\u00a0 So instead of arguing with such people, much less insulting them, we should take in the lesson they present, wittingly or unwittingly.\u00a0 Note that word \u2018should\u2019; except for the Rede, there are no oughts in the Craft, so when we say \u2018should,\u2019 we mean that it will be better for our energy, our personal power, if instead of squandering it in anger or frustration we use it to open the wings of understanding and take in the lesson in front of us.\u00a0 Whoever teaches us, especially in a positive sense, deserves our thanks, and these people are often astonished at our gratitude, and this in turn helps to open their own minds a little more.<\/p>\n

As the Maiden helps us to make room for new knowledge, she engages her office of purification with the element of Fire as well as that of Air.\u00a0 Fire\u2019s inner power is will, and will is inseparable from action.\u00a0 In setting aside old assumptions, we will probably feel some resistance and irritation, as old habits do not go willingly.\u00a0 At this point we must make an effort to avail ourselves of the Maiden\u2019s power to help us let go of stale energy in order to make room for something fresh to enter.\u00a0 The effort creates friction; there is a sort of argument inside us between something saying \u2018yes\u2019 and something else saying \u2018no\u2019.\u00a0 It is this friction which throws off sparks, creating the inner heat the Hindus call tapas, the power of self-discipline.\u00a0 This tapas is simply another name for the elemental power of fire, the power to will.<\/p>\n

The Lady turns the Sun-Wheel, and the Sun-Wheel is an ancient symbol which describes not only the round of the seasons, but also the elemental powers.\u00a0 The circle of the Sun-Wheel has handles extending from the cusps of the circle, that is, from the transition points between the four elemental quarters, the northeast, southeast, southwest and northwest points.\u00a0 The handles extend backward counter-clockwise, forming the sacred symbol known as the svastika.\u00a0 Some svastikas show little handles extending counter-clockwise from all eight points.\u00a0 Whether there are four or eight handles, the Lady grasps them in order to twirl the Sun-Wheel sunwise or clockwise.\u00a0 Handles extending the other way are for twirling the Sun-Wheel tuathal or anti-clockwise.\u00a0 Both symbols are found in ancient cultures worldwide.\u00a0 The tuathal svastika, long before it was tarnished by the Nazis, was employed in ancient Britain by the Fomorians, who were oriented to the Dark Moon cycle.\u00a0 Subsequent Celtic Craft traditions favor the deosil or sunwise svastika.<\/p>\n

The svastika is a fire-drill as seen from above. [7]<\/sup><\/sup><\/a> The World Pillar runs through its center down to each witch\u2019s \u2018Deep,\u2019 where the Lady turns it among the flints of the witch\u2019s habits and predilections.\u00a0 She will do this in proportion to our own efforts, and if we call on her aid, she will remind us at various times to carry on the argument within between the \u2018yes\u2019 of new energy and the \u2018no\u2019 of stale miasma.\u00a0 The same process takes place on a larger scale in the coven celebrating the Wheel of the Year and circling the Witches\u2019 Rune to raise the Cone of Power.<\/p>\n

Taking it in perhaps its simplest form, struggle against a nervous or compulsive habit, one examines the habit as a chain of events and actions.\u00a0 Perhaps we fidget when we sit for a long time in a chair and are trying to read.\u00a0 The event immediately preceding the nervous fidgeting (or whatever it is) is called the trigger.\u00a0 The trigger may be taking up a book, or sitting a certain way, say with the legs crossed. The moment before the trigger is generally free of compulsion , and if it can be caught by awareness, one can make oneself get out of the chair at that point and, say, walk to the kitchen.\u00a0 I am taking personal examples, but something analogous must occur for everyone with this problem.\u00a0 If I succeed in breaking the chain by getting up at that point, I feel a little grain of strength, of resistance in me that wasn\u2019t there before.\u00a0 The events of my day from that point on will have a different quality and may well take a different course.\u00a0 It\u2019s amazing how little changes of this sort can give one more energy and snowball into bigger changes.\u00a0 And this is a good example of working with the power of fire, for one always starts with little things.<\/p>\n

So now we have a little extra energy we usually fritter away in the fidgets; but the next minute we squander it, by yelling at someone (or worse, at no one \u2013 the computer), or by mentally repeating a conversation we had with someone earlier and arguing with him or her; or by worrying about this or that which may or may not happen in the future.\u00a0 There are many ways to waste our energy, our personal power.<\/p>\n

Laurel and Hardy once made a film where they bought an old fishing boat and poured water in it to find where the hull leaked.\u00a0 That is the next step after stopping a habit; we must observe and see where we leak and lose the extra energy we just gained.\u00a0 Then we find the leaks and begin to plug them.\u00a0 That is the preliminary work of fire, and we carry it out with the help of the Maiden.<\/p>\n

When we have plugged some of our leaks, we can direct the energy saved to a project. Perhaps we have dedicated to the Craft, so that in addition to continuing general study of lore and skills, we decide on a particular skill for which we feel an affinity.\u00a0 If another coven member has practiced that skill for some time, we may decide to work with him or her as an apprentice in herblore and craft, in traditional handicrafts (particularly those connected with pre-christian culture), in divination or spellcraft, and so forth.\u00a0 This is work on the second line, work with others.\u00a0 One is helped by a senior member and later pays forward by helping another member in turn.<\/p>\n

Finding room for the Craft in our typically busy schedules involves invoking help from the Maiden to find the right activity to sacrifice, or spend less time at, in order to make room for Craft activity.\u00a0 For instance, you may feel it necessary to take a little time early in the morning for meditation.\u00a0 There is no specific form of meditation practiced by witches; rather, each witch meditates \u2018after her (or his) ways.\u2019\u00a0 But the way once taken should be adhered to regularly, and at a regular time of day or night.\u00a0 If you try to set aside a meditation period and encounter conflict with other interests, these are perhaps the leaks in your boat which need to be patched.\u00a0 At any rate, the Maiden is pointing out to you a possible sacrifice.<\/p>\n

Fire\u2019s quarter is in the South, which was the direction of sacrifice in PIE (proto-Indo-European) rituals.\u00a0 The sacrificial fire was at the southern end of the ritual area, which was rectangular in PIE times.\u00a0 The ancestors were in the South, and prayers and sacrifices were made to them in the sacrificial fire-pit. [8]<\/a><\/p>\n

When we have established a period of meditation, and\/or a period of study or perhaps handiwork connected with a Craft skill, we will come to feel a new fullness within and a feeling of dedication to our new work with Fire.\u00a0 The Mother is blessing our work with her power of consecration.\u00a0 Provided we continue with our practice, we shall reinforce this feeling in us; we shall feel that we are getting somewhere.\u00a0 If we are not attempting too much to begin with, we should be able to continue our work. Consecration lends an activity a place in one\u2019s ongoing life story, just as an unborn child involves the life of its parents from the moment they know it is there and growing.\u00a0 It is not a mere hobby like stamp-collecting, which we can take up and put down at whim.\u00a0 The Craft itself often begins as a sort of hobby, but once the Mother has consecrated it, it acquires more weight.<\/p>\n

In the course of time, our practice matures to the point where we develop a personal style, and feel increasingly energized by it.\u00a0 The Crone takes our inner heat, our tapas, and uses it to ignite our awareness.\u00a0 We feel that in divining, or making, or whatever we are doing, we are gaining insight into truths.\u00a0 These truths are known through our own personal Craft \u2013 our knack, as it is called.\u00a0 The knack is celebrated and symbolized in the Craft by the sacred loaf baked on Lammas Eve.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Water, the Power to Dare<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

If, in a given situation, I ask myself not merely what should I do, but what would a witch do, then I am exercising the power to know, the power of Air, in conjunction with the consecration of the Mother; for it is the Mother who consecrates us to witchcraft so that we feel personally involved in the Hidden Path.<\/p>\n

On the other hand, the reason we were looking for something and happened on this path is due to the elemental power of Water, which makes us discontented with our present state and urges us to seek the unknown, to find something new and more satisfying to our nature.\u00a0 Water\u2019s inner power is called the power to dare, and it is not for timid souls content to live out their lives within familiar limits.\u00a0 If we observe a waterfall we can see how impetuously water throws itself off the edge of a cliff, seeking wherever it happens to land, and then flowing on.<\/p>\n

Wherever it is, water seeks the lowest point, searching out the deep and secret places of the world instead of aspiring to the obvious heights.\u00a0 The Maiden therefore helps us to let go of the security of the familiar so we can flow freely into the realms of the unfamiliar.<\/p>\n

When water encounters an obstacle, it goes around it by taking on its form.\u00a0 Thus, in grief, we must take on the form of life without the beloved, and then we shall flow around the grief and out into new channels.\u00a0 Water, seemingly one of the weakest things, is in fact irresistible in its force.<\/p>\n

The unknown can be sought lightly, as in taking a different route to work, or changing our morning or evening routines.\u00a0 As with the work of Fire, it is best to start with small things and then we will go on to greater changes.\u00a0 The greater changes could include seeking initiation.<\/p>\n

The deep and secret things of the world are not far to seek.\u00a0 They are close at hand, though not in front of our eyes.\u00a0 They are secret because we are in the habit of ignoring them.\u00a0 When we turn our attention to things we don\u2019t usually notice, we loosen the hold of certain mental habits which are connected to the ways we use our attention.\u00a0 These habits could be called energy knots, because they lock up some of our energies, preventing them from flowing freely.<\/p>\n

They manifest in dreams as a sort of synopsis explaining the situation to the dreamer and prescribing his or her actions.\u00a0 For instance, we may find ourselves roaming endlessly through a large house, and occasionally coming out into the front or living room, but then going back into the halls and other interior rooms instead of going outside through a door which is obviously an exit.\u00a0 If our dream begins to be more lucid, allowing us to see that we have choices, we may decide to leave the house through the exit door.\u00a0 When we do that, we find ourselves outside.\u00a0 Perhaps it is a crystal-clear night, and we can feel the cold air as we become much more lucid.\u00a0 Now we know we are dreaming, and we have considerably more freedom of choice and movement than before.\u00a0 We have managed to unravel an energy knot in our dream.<\/p>\n

The same thing can happen in the waking state, as we turn our attention to background sounds, things seen out of the corners of the eyes, our own apparent headlessness (when we are not looking in a reflecting surface),[9]<\/sup><\/sup><\/a> the play of shadows, and a number of other sensations usually ignored. [10]<\/sup><\/sup><\/a> We soon begin to feel freer within, and the longer we can keep at it, the freer we shall feel. We begin to feel a cooling wind blowing through our bodies, and it blows us through our memories.<\/p>\n

This is where the Mother manifests in the power of Water.\u00a0 She does so in two ways: as a feeling of joy in the journey we are taking, and in the form of older energy knots from long ago, which may include childhood enthusiasms or even lifelong predilections.\u00a0 Witches, unlike mystics, are not concerned to unravel every energy knot they come across.\u00a0 An early love of music, an attraction to the ancient Gods, a certain sense of humor may remain with the witch as he or she ascends back to everyday life in Middle-earth.\u00a0 These are brought back and replace or supplement some of our current synopses or energy knots.\u00a0 At the same time, the witch\u2019s journey has unraveled several energy knots which were constraining his or her choices, leaving a spacious sense of freedom of inner and outer movement.<\/p>\n

After a number of these journeys, once we have decided on which knots we want to keep, at least for now, the Crone appears and her touch fuses our revised collection of concerns and perspectives into a new, magical personality.\u00a0 This personality contains nothing that has not been part of the witch at one time or another, including far memories from previous lives; nevertheless, the combination that now appears is entirely new.\u00a0 I the witch am much more myself than before, yet I am also most truly the person I have always been.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Earth, the Power to Keep Still<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

The Lady lives in the Earth and is the Earth.\u00a0 The Earth is her gross material body.\u00a0 Therefore North, the quarter of Earth, is called the place of power, and stillness, the elemental power of Earth, is the master power.<\/p>\n

Science knows now that nothing in the universe is still; everything is constantly moving, and what we call stillness is simply the motion of two or more bodies synchronously with each other.\u00a0 To achieve the elemental power of Earth and keep stillness, then, is to cease motions peculiar to ourselves and to move synchronously with the Earth, with the Lady.\u00a0 When we become still without and within (including silent), we shall feel the Earth\u2019s movement, spinning on her axis and traveling round the Sun.\u00a0 This feeling is subtle but definite.<\/p>\n

The Earth is part of the World Tree.\u00a0 Middle-earth is the trunk, the Underworld is the roots, the Upper world is the foliage of the tree.\u00a0 The World Tree is a map of consciousness.\u00a0 As we travel up and down the World Tree, we pass through different dimensions of awareness.\u00a0 Science examines the universe in one of these dimensions, but there are several, some below us, some above.\u00a0 Since there is no one way to depict these dimensions or worlds, pagans describe the whole as a great tree, a map of possible journeys.<\/p>\n

Each of us is a miniature replica of the World or local Cosmos, and our spine is our inner tree.\u00a0 The spine is made of both gross matter and astral or subtle matter.\u00a0 Hindu yoga describes three channels made of astral matter passing up the spine.\u00a0 The central channel is the sushumna.\u00a0 Round the sushumna spiral the ida and pingala.\u00a0 These cross each other and the sushumna at certain points called chakras, wheels or lotuses (as they variously appear to inner sight).\u00a0 These chakras are the worlds or dimensions already mentioned.\u00a0 India is not alone in describing the inner tree thus; many other cultures from different times and places describe it similarly, though they may differ slightly in the number of chakras or worlds ranged along it.\u00a0 These include the Hopi, [11]<\/a> the Tibetan, and the Norse; also the Greek, for the caduceus or staff of Hermes replicates the yogic model.<\/p>\n

Our home on the World Tree is halfway along it, in the lower trunk, a place called Middle-earth in this Craft tradition.\u00a0 Our inner consciousness has the fourth chakra, located in the solar plexus near the heart, as its center of gravity, although it ranges a little above and below it in certain experiences.<\/p>\n

When the witch cultivates inner and outer stillness, the inner or dream soul awakens and begins to travel along the trunk of the inner tree.\u00a0 It is called the dream soul because it is associated, in many pagan cultures, with dream or spirit journeys, but it can also travel while awake.\u00a0 It can go up or down the inner tree, though in witchcraft we are primarily concerned to travel down it, eventually reaching our root souls in the Summerland, a place in the Underworld.\u00a0 This will require many tentative journeys partway down, and at the conclusion of each, the inner or dream soul reascends to Middle-earth.\u00a0 So it is just as important to practice ascending as descending the inner tree.<\/p>\n

Preparation for the journey of inner stillness is made by cultivating outer stillness.\u00a0 The witch learns to sit still and refrain from fidgeting.\u00a0 It is also important to exercise regularly, through yoga or ch\u2019i kung or some other form of non-strenuous exercise.\u00a0 This should be done before attempting to sit still.\u00a0 Exercising the muscles and tendons helps them to let go afterward and relax more fully.<\/p>\n

Restraint of mental talk cultivates inner stillness.\u00a0 Thoughts are not blocked, but neither are they followed.\u00a0 The witch lets them fade out, like a sail observed on the horizon at sea.\u00a0 Meditation, sitting still, will involve this cultivation of separation from mental talk until a degree of inner quiet is reached.\u00a0 The Maiden aids the witch in letting go of mental chatter, and at a certain point she cuts us loose from our usual level along the inner trunk.\u00a0 We feel this as though we were in an elevator which has suddenly slipped its cable a few feet.\u00a0 There is a feeling of sudden descent into greater silence.<\/p>\n

In this silence there are no words spoken, but there are still whisperings, almost silent, going on.\u00a0 These are specimens of what has been called \u201cthe still, silent voice within.\u201d\u00a0 You might wonder how a voice can be silent; it is a question of degree, for the whispering is just above the threshold of inner awareness.\u00a0 At this point, the witch has not descended a chakra but is halfway down to the next one below, the one associated with the belly.<\/p>\n

When the next chakra is reached, the momentary peace felt beforehand is replaced by passions and colored obsessions, as it were.\u00a0 This is the place where we store drives and energy knots which are too volatile to be usually allowed up in the everyday life of Middle-earth.\u00a0 The experience of the third chakra can be quite disturbing, full of sexual urges, many of them strange and infantile.\u00a0 We need the help of the Maiden to separate from these denizens in our inner cellar.<\/p>\n

Beneath this third chakra we begin to experience poignance, beauty of a sad character.\u00a0 This is where we feel what Buddhists call \u2018the pity of things.\u2019\u00a0 The Mother unites the witch with some of these in turn, filling the inner soul with compassion.\u00a0 If the outer eyes are open during this part of the inner journey, we begin to see the people around us as suffering from various forms of sadness, grief, terror and anxiety.\u00a0 When the dead in ancient Baltic lands reached this part of the World Tree in their journey back to their root souls, they sent messages to their bereaved through priests and shamans, pleading with them \u201cdon\u2019t grieve so much!\u201d<\/p>\n

This writer cannot describe deeper levels of the inner journey.\u00a0 But when the inner soul reascends to Middle-earth, it brings back beauties and talents collected along the way.\u00a0 The Crone charges these with her uncanny energy, so that they unite with the everyday personality when the traveler returns.\u00a0 The deeper the descent, the more of this treasure is brought back.\u00a0 The shallow descents this writer has made have nevertheless enabled him to enrich his life here in Middle-earth with a few jewels delved from the depths.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u00c6ther, the Power to Go<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

The journeys described in the last section, traveling down the inner tree, are already \u00e6theric or astral journeys. [12]<\/sup><\/sup><\/a>\u00a0 Nothing has been said yet about journeys up the inner tree to the chakras above our usual one in Middle-earth.\u00a0 The journey to the sky-world, called dau\u0161os in ancient Baltic religion, is undertaken by shamans, traveling the whole length of the World Tree.\u00a0 In our Craft tradition, this journey upward to the Sun is undertaken by the witch after he or she has been transmuted to an elemental being balanced in all four elemental powers, the powers of Air, Fire, Water and Earth.\u00a0 The transmutation generally takes place in the Summerland, though in the past, when esoteric teaching was more widespread, it could also take place while in the gross material body in Middle-earth.\u00a0 This was, reputedly, an excruciating experience and may have given rise to church tales of witches suddenly catching fire and burning from within.\u00a0 So perhaps it is just as well that it occurs very rarely while in this dimension.<\/p>\n

The journey to the Sun is described in the Prasna Upanishad as the journey of no return, and it is certainly true in the sense that the being transformed in the Sun into a body of light is not the same as the one who began the journey. [13]<\/a>\u00a0 Apollonius of Tyana was probably the one who brought back this teaching of the Upanishad to Italy, where it was handed down as part of the lore of stregheria or Italian witchcraft. [14]<\/a><\/p>\n

In all of this we are speculating on the basis of ancient teachings.\u00a0 All we can say further is that after being transformed in the Sun and given bodies of light, we will be given real work to do for the first time in our lives.\u00a0 We shall have grown to the stature of demigods and will take on some of the work of World-maintenance, possibly helping with relations with other cosmoi such as those circling the royal stars of the Medes, also called the Watchers: Aldebaran, Regulus, Antares and Fomalhaut.\u00a0 With the Lady we can only say that our relations will be different, as our relations with our mothers in Middle-earth were different after we grew up and left home.\u00a0 But here even my tentative lore fails me.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

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

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

GARDNER, Gerald B., \u2018Scire\u2019, High Magic\u2019s Aid<\/span>, New Bern, NC, Godolphin House,<\/p>\n

1996.\u00a0 Published originally in 1946.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

GRAVES, Robert, The White Goddess<\/span>, New York, Farrar, Strauss and Giroux, \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 1993.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

GRIMASSI, Raven, Italian Witchcraft; the Old Religion of Southern Europe<\/span>,<\/p>\n

St. Paul, MN, Llewellyn Publications, 2000.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

HARDING, D.G., On Having No Head; Zen and the Re-Discovery of the Obvious<\/span>,<\/p>\n

London and New York, Arkana, 1987.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

MEAD, G.R.S., Apollonius of Tyana<\/span>, New Hyde Park, NY, University Books, 1966.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

NAHM, Milton C., Selections from Early Greek Philosophy<\/span>, New York, Meredith,<\/p>\n

1964.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

NIKHILANANDA, Swami, transl., The Upanishads<\/span>, in four volumes, New York,<\/p>\n

Ramakrishna-Vivekananda Center, 1973.\u00a0 The Pra<\/span>\u0161<\/span>na Upanishad <\/span>is in<\/p>\n

volume 2.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Princeton University article on Posidonius: http:\/\/www.princeton.edu\/~achaney\/tmve\/wiki100k\/docs\/Posidonius.html<\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

SERITH, Ceisiwr, Deep Ancestors; Practicing the Religion of the Proto-Indo-<\/span><\/p>\n

Europeans<\/span>, Tucson, AZ, ADF Publishing, 2007.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Site on the Hindu religious symbol of the swastika:<\/p>\n

http:\/\/www.swastikaphobia.com\/indian.html<\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

TRINKUNAS, Jonas, ed., Of Gods and Holidays; the Baltic Heritage<\/span>, Lithuania,<\/p>\n

Tverm\u00e9, 1999.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

WATERS, Frank, Book of the Hopi<\/span>, New York, Penguin Books, 1963.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n


<\/p>\n
\n
\n

[1]<\/a> Nahm, Early Greek Philosophy<\/span>, p. 117.\u00a0 See Bibliography.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

[2]<\/a> See article on Posidonius in the Princeton University article, http:\/\/www.princeton.edu\/~achaney\/tmve\/wiki100k\/docs\/Posidonius.html<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

[3]<\/a> Mead, G.R.S., Apollonius of Tyana<\/span>, pp. 84-5.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

[4]<\/a> Gardner, Gerald B., High Magic\u2019s Aid, pp. 29, 51.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

[5]<\/a> Gardner, Gerald B.\u00a0 See Bibliography.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

[6]<\/a> Andro Man\u2019s confession, quoted in Graves, Robert, The White Goddess<\/span>, p. 432.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

[7]<\/a> See discussion at http:\/\/www.swastikaphobia.com\/indian.html.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

[8]<\/a> See Serith, Ceisiwr, Deep Ancestors<\/span>, pp. 114-120.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

[9]<\/a> See D.G. Harding, On Having No Head<\/span>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

[10]<\/a> The attention is extended to the side, not moved there.\u00a0 We still pay attention to things in front; otherwise we might trip over something or bump into a power pole.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

[11]<\/a> See Waters, Frank, Book of the Hopi<\/span>, p. 181n.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

[12]<\/a> \u00c6theric or subtle matter is also called astral because in antiquity it was thought that the stars were composed of it.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

[13]<\/a> Pra<\/span>\u0161na Upanishad<\/span> 9-10.\u00a0 See Nikhilananda.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

[14]<\/a> See Grimassi, Raven, Italian Witchcraft<\/span>, p. 263.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Introduction   As pagans, we are aware of being children of Mother Earth.\u00a0 She carries us with her from life to life as she evolves at the slow pace of goddesses; for, as a good Mother, she wants to take all of her children with her in her evolutionary journey. Pagans are therefore in no hurry but, as a courtesy, should wish to develop their awareness to the next level, so as not to be a burden to their Mother but rather help her along.   Life thus is school for the children of Earth, and for those who wish to evolve more swiftly, becoming prefects, as it were, in her school, special schools called mystery schools are provided in each age.\u00a0 The Craft of the Wise is one such mystery school.   A mystery school is so called precisely because its teaching and discipline are designed to effect an evolutionary leap for its successful pupils, who therefore progress towards a consummation which cannot be conceived at the beginning of their studies. This evolutionary leap is called the transmutation in the Craft, and it will occur in some future life, whether during a gross material incarnation here in Middle-Earth, or while in the \u00e6theric body in the Summerland, during the sojourn between lives.\u00a0 Until then, witches will probably still need to be reborn, but the number of reincarnations will be fewer.\u00a0 Along the way in the Craft there are anticipations of the eventual transmutation in the form of initiations.   Awareness or consciousness is held to consist of four principal powers plus a fifth, which must be cultivated together in a balanced fashion for awareness to develop.\u00a0 These are the power to know, to will, to dare, and to keep silence or still.\u00a0 When these are cultivated together for a sufficient time, with the help of the Lady and the demigod known as the Lord or Lad, a fifth power, the power to go (that is, to go on \u00e6theric journeys), is the result.\u00a0 These five powers are the inner elemental powers of the classical elements of Air, Fire, Water, Earth and \u00c6ther, respectively.\u00a0 Each forms a body within the gross material body of the witch, and each is nourished by its appropriate food.\u00a0 Air is nourished by proper breathing, Fire by proper perception, Water by proper drinking, Earth by proper nourishment of solid food, and \u00c6ther by proper awareness.   Our Western tradition of the Craft comes from the last mystery schools of Egypt, which were still extant in the late Saitic period just preceding the Persian conquest. \u00a0Some of them, along with schools in Babylon, lasted until the time of Alexander the Great.\u00a0 The Egyptian wisdom was taught to the sage Pythagoras, who brought it to southern Italy, where for some time the Etruscan aristocracy patronized the Pythagorean communities there, and it found further development in the teachings of the sage and wizard Empedocles, who taught the doctrine of the elemental powers. [1] The mystery teachings of Babylon were brought west by the philosopher-sage Poseidonius, [2] and the schools of Italy were revived by the wisdom brought all the way from India in the first century C.E. by the sage and wonder-worker Apollonius of Tyana.\u00a0 It is likely that he was the one who brought the teachings of the Grigori, the Watchers of the four quarters, from the school of the Medes in Babylon, where they were called the Iygges. [3]   The mystery schools of Italy survived the catholic persecution into the Dark Ages, with branches in the Basque country, whence they crossed the Bay of Biscay (which means Basque) to Devonshire and Cornwall.\u00a0 This is only one strand of historical development which led to the secret cult of Witchcraft in medieval Britain.\u00a0 The Bacchic Mysteries entered into the Craft as well.\u00a0 Some of the arcana, such as the teaching of the Watchers, were preserved in ceremonial magic, as taught for instance in the school of Toledo. [4] Later there was a confluence of this teaching with that of folk magic.\u00a0 Gerald Gardner depicted this process of amalgamation of the two traditions fictionally in his novel High Magic\u2019s Aid. [5]   The Lady of Witchcraft has three aspects: Maiden, Mother and Crone.\u00a0 While she favors different times of the year, day and the lunar month with these aspects, she is also \u201cold or young as she wishes.\u201d [6] This means that she can manifest as Maiden, Mother or Crone on any occasion, and exhibits her influence in ways not dependent on the time of day, lunar month or year.   The Maiden governs purification, the Mother consecration, and the Crone charging or transmutation.   Purification involves the clearing out of stale energy, to make room for fresh.\u00a0 Stale energy was referred to by the ancients as \u2018miasma,\u2019 and was regarded as poisonous.\u00a0 Spring cleaning is an age-old method of purification, traditionally carried out in February, when the Maiden returns.\u00a0 The name \u2018February\u2019 refers to purification.   The office of the Maiden is evident in the fact that if we want some new thing to come into our lives, we must relinquish some old thing.\u00a0 Some New Age writers like to suggest that we can immediately access abundance.\u00a0 They fail to recognize the fact that our hands are never empty.\u00a0 Thus, we always already have abundance, though it may include elements we would rather go without.   We already contain within ourselves all the magical energy or personal power we need to develop, but much of our energy is locked up in habits which squander it without giving us a profitable return on our efforts.\u00a0 These include nervous movements, expressions of negative emotion, and inner conversations and imagination.\u00a0 In order to develop as witches, we must free our energies from these energy knots, and we do so by engaging our efforts with the offices of the Maiden.   Air, the Power to Know   Knowledge, like air, seeks to penetrate everywhere, and all living beings share it among them.\u00a0 Different creatures have different capacities for using air and knowledge, and we see this variation even among members of the same species.\u00a0 Humans differ in how they make use of air and knowledge, according to whether or not they engage with the energy of the Maiden.\u00a0 Some people know a lot of information, but they typically pigeonhole anything new in terms of the old, saying \u201cthat sounds like\u2026\u201d Academics in particular are subject to this gradual ossification of their understanding.\u00a0 Past a certain age, they settle down in their opinions and appear incapable of learning anything really new.\u00a0 Their knowledge is often very intricate, but its subtle interconnectedness actually serves to exclude new, fresh knowledge, such as that which they started with in youth and which guided them in laying the foundations of their future prison.\u00a0 In this they are like people who almost never take full breaths of air, starting with a full exhalation.\u00a0 A full exhalation exhibits the Maiden\u2019s power as manifested in breathing.   So far we are speaking of knowledge in general, but in this paper we are concerned with that special knowledge which advances us in the Craft.\u00a0 In order to receive new understanding from the Watcher of the East, we must make room for it by hearing new knowledge as new, as if we had never encountered anything like it before.\u00a0 This is how we took in knowledge in youth, when it excited us and began building the foundation of our inner home.\u00a0 If we take in a teaching as mere information, as being on the same level as a novel or academic textbook, it will pass through us like sands in an hourglass; we shall retain nothing energizing from it.   The Mother governs consecration.\u00a0 Consecration inaugurates a path which we follow throughout life, and which involves a deep sense of commitment on the part of the learner.\u00a0 The new knowledge freed from miasma by the Maiden is brought into focus by the Mother and lives within the witch like an unborn child. The same process takes place with the magical purpose. \u00a0It is divined through the offices of the Maiden, but conceived within witch or wizard by the fructifying power of the Mother.\u00a0 Thereafter, as long as we keep it alive and nourish it, the Mother will cause it to grow within us, until when we are ready to cast the spell, when we shall be pregnant with it, and \u2018heavy with child.\u2019   The Crone governs charging or transmutation.\u00a0 Her touch is the touch of initiation, of change of consciousness.\u00a0 She is not gentle like the Mother, but cataclysmic.\u00a0 The casting of a spell is like giving birth, which (if I as a male may presume to say so) is far from easy.\u00a0 At any rate, this is the closest a male witch, a wizard, can come to the ordeal of childbirth endured by women.\u00a0 Whether casting a spell or undergoing initiation into one of the degrees of the Craft, one must engage one\u2019s efforts and focused energy with the transforming power of the Crone.   Fire, the Power to Will   The very name of the Craft tells us that it is something done and not merely a body of knowledge.\u00a0 It involves skilled making, both of external things and of things internal to the witch, his or her inner home. Learning itself is of course something done, and if we learn in the right way, we will prepare ourself for many other forms of doing and making.\u00a0 J\u00f1ana Yoga, the yoga of knowledge, teaches us that we can learn something from every experience.\u00a0 Even if we encounter ignorant or obnoxious people, they teach us by negative example if nothing else, and there may be a small light of understanding flickering somewhere in their murky darkness, which we will only see later on reflection.\u00a0 So instead of arguing with such people, much less insulting them, we should take in the lesson they present, wittingly or unwittingly.\u00a0 Note that word \u2018should\u2019; except for the Rede, there are no oughts in the Craft, so when we say \u2018should,\u2019 we mean that it will be better for our energy, our personal power, if instead of squandering it in anger or frustration we use it to open the wings of understanding and take in the lesson in front of us.\u00a0 Whoever teaches us, especially in a positive sense, deserves our thanks, and these people are often astonished at our gratitude, and this in turn helps to open their own minds a little more. As the Maiden helps us to make room for new knowledge, she engages her office of purification with the element of Fire as well as that of Air.\u00a0 Fire\u2019s inner power is will, and will is inseparable from action.\u00a0 In setting aside old assumptions, we will probably feel some resistance and irritation, as old habits do not go willingly.\u00a0 At this point we must make an effort to avail ourselves of the Maiden\u2019s power to help us let go of stale energy in order to make room for something fresh to enter.\u00a0 The effort creates friction; there is a sort of argument inside us between something saying \u2018yes\u2019 and something else saying \u2018no\u2019.\u00a0 It is this friction which throws off sparks, creating the inner heat the Hindus call tapas, the power of self-discipline.\u00a0 This tapas is simply another name for the elemental power of fire, the power to will. The Lady turns the Sun-Wheel, and the Sun-Wheel is an ancient symbol which describes not only the round of the seasons, but also the elemental powers.\u00a0 The circle of the Sun-Wheel has handles extending from the cusps of the circle, that is, from the transition points between the four elemental quarters, the northeast, southeast, southwest and northwest points.\u00a0 The handles extend backward counter-clockwise, forming the sacred symbol known as the svastika.\u00a0 Some svastikas show little handles extending counter-clockwise from all eight points.\u00a0 Whether there are four or eight handles, the Lady…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":105,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"iawp_total_views":1,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9265","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/paganpages.org\/emagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9265","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=9265"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/paganpages.org\/emagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9265\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/paganpages.org\/emagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9265"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/paganpages.org\/emagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9265"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/paganpages.org\/emagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9265"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}