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Wicca | The-Complete-Uncut-Book-of-Shadows | 2,414 | The HIGH PRIEST, the Polyfather.
And POEE =POPE=.
POEE LEGIONNAIRE DISCIPLES are authorized to initiate others as
Discordian Society Legionnaires. PRIESTS appoint their own DEACONS. The
POLYFATHER ordains priests. I don't know about the =POPES=.
" This book is a mirror. When a monkey looks in, no apostle looks out."
-Lichtenberg
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Application For Membership
In the Erisian movement of the DISCORDIA SOCIETY
1. Today's date Yesterday's Date
2. Purpose of this application: --membership in : a. Legion of Dynamic
Discord
b. POEE c. Bavarian Illuminati d. All of the Above e. None of the
Above
f. Other-- BE SPECIFIC!
3. Name_________________________ Holy Name_____________
Address_____________________________________________________________
(If temporary, also give an address from which mail can be
forwarded)
4. Description: Born: []Yes []No Eyes:[]2 []other Height:
..... fl. oz. Last time you had a haircut: Reason:
Race: []horse []human I.Q.: 150-200 200-250 250-300 over 300
5. History: Education - highest grade completed 1 2 3 4 5 6 over 6th
Professional: On another ream of paper list every job since 1937 from
2927
which you have been fired. Medical: On a separate sheet labeled
"confidential" list all major psychic psychotic episodes experienced
within the last 24 hours
6. Sneaky Questions to establish personality traits
I would rather a. live in an outhouse b. play in a rock group c. eat
caterpillars. I wear obscene tattoos because ..........
I have ceased raping little children []yes []no -- reason ..........
7. Self Portrait
Rev. Mungo
For Office Use Only -- acc. rej. burned
LICK HERE!!!
*
(You may be one
of the lucky 25) |
Wicca | The-Complete-Uncut-Book-of-Shadows | 2,415 | ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
-><-
POEE & It's Priests
If you like Erisianism as it is presented according to Mal-2, then you
may wish to form your own POEE CABAL as a POEE PRIEST and you can go do
a bunch of POEE Priestly Things. A "POEE Cabal" is exactly what you
think it is.
The High Priest makes no demands on his Priests, though he does rather
expect good will of them. The Office of The Polyfather is point, not to
teach. Once in a while, he even listens.
Should you find that your own revelations of The Goddess become
substantially different that the revelations of Mal-2, then perhaps the
Goddess has plans for you as an Episkopos, and you might consider
creating your own sect from scratch, unhindered. Episkoposes are not
competing with each other, and they are all POEE priests anyway (as soon
as I locate them). The point is that Episkoposes are developing separate
paths to the Erisian mountain top. See the section "Discordian Society"
ORDINATION AS A POEE PRIEST
There are no particular qualifications for Ordination because if you
want to be a POEE Priest then you must undoubtedly qualify. Who could
possibly know better than you whether or not you should be Ordained?
An ORDAINED POEE PRIEST or PRIESTESS is defined as "one who holds an
Ordination Certificate from the Office of the Polyfather."
2928
Seek into the Chao if thou wouldst be wise
And find ye delight in Her Great Surprise!
Look into the Chao if thou wantest to know
What's in a Chao and why it ain't so!
(HBT; The Book of Advise, 1:1)
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
World Council of Churches Boutique
Note to POEE Priests:
The Polyfather wishes to remind all Erisians the POEE was conceived not
as a commercial enterprise, and that you are requested to keep your cool
when seeking funds for POEE Cabals or when spreading the POEE Word via
the market place.
The Hidden stone ripens fast,
then laid bare like a turnip
can easily be cut out at last
but even then the danger isn't past.
That man lives best who's fain
to live half mad, half sane.
-Flemish Poet Jan Van
Stijevoort, 1524.
The Erisian Affirmation |
Wicca | The-Complete-Uncut-Book-of-Shadows | 2,416 | BEFORE THE GODDESS ERIS, I (name or holyname), do herewith declare
myself a POEE BROTHER of THE LEGION OF DYNAMIC DISCORD.
HAIL HAIL HAIL HAIL HAIL ERIS ERIS ERIS ERIS ERIS ALL HAIL DISCORDIA!
the presiding POEE Official (if any) responds:
ALL HAIL DISCORDIA!
find the goddess Eris To Diverse Gods
Within your Pineal Gland Do Mortals bow;
POEE Holy Cow, and
Wholly Chao
-Rev. Dr. Grindlebone
Monroe Cabal
"common sense is what tells you that the world is flat."
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
This is St. Gulik. He is the Messenger of the Goddess. A different age
from ours called him Hermes. Many people called him by many names. He is
a Roach.
________________________________________________________________________
2929
Legion of Dynamic Discord
HARK
RECOGNIZE that the -- DISCORDIAN SOCIETY -- doth hereby certify
As a Legionnaire
Glory to We Children of
ERIS
Presented under the
auspices
of our Lady of
Discord, ERIS
by the House of the
Apostles
of ERIS.
-><-
________________________________________________________________________
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
HOW TO START A POEE CABAL
WITHOUT MESSING AROUND WITH THE POLYFATHER
If you can't find the Polyfather, or having found him, don't want
anything to do with him, you are still authorized to form your own POEE
CABAL and do Priestly Things, using the Principia Discordia as a guide.
Your Official Rank will be POEE CHAPLIN for the LEGION OF DYNAMIC
DISCORD, which is exactly the same as a POEE PRIEST except that you |
Wicca | The-Complete-Uncut-Book-of-Shadows | 2,417 | don't have an Ordination Certificate. The words you are now reading are
your ordination.
HOW TO BECOME A POEE CHAPLIN
1. Write the ERISIAN AFFIRMATION in five copies.
2. Sign and nose-print each copy.
3. Send one to the President of the United States.
4. Send one to
The California State Bureau of Furniture and Bedding
1021 'D' Street, Sacramento CA 94814
5. Nail one to a telephone pole. Hide one. And burn the other.
Then consult your pineal gland.
General License was Sgt. Pepper's Commander
~~ OLD POEE SLOGAN ~~
When in Doubt, Fuck it.
When not in Doubt... get in Doubt!
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Trip 5!
2930
= The POEE Baptismal Rite =
This Mysteree Rite is not required for initiation, but it is offered by
many POEE Priests to proselytes who desire a formal ceremony.
1) The Priests and four Brothers are arranged in a pentagon with the
Initiate in the center facing the Priests. If possible, the Brothers on
the immediate right and left of the Priest should be Deacons. The
Initiate must be totally naked, to demonstrate that he is truly a human
being and not something else in disguise like a cabbage or something.
2) All persons in the audience and the pentagon, excepting the Priest,
assume a squatting position and return to a standing position. This is
repeated four more times. This dance is symbolic of the humility of we
Erisians.
3) The Priest begins:
I, (complete Holy Name, with Mystical Titles, and degrees, designa-
tions, offices, &tc.), Ordained Priest of the Paratheo-anametamystikhood
of Eris Esoteric, with the Authority invested at me by the High Priest
of It, Office of the Polyfather, The House of the Rising Podge, POEE
Head Temple; Do herewith Require of Ye:
1) ARE YE A HUMAN BEING AND NOT A CABBAGE OR SOMETHING? The
Initiate answers YES.
2) THAT'S TOO BAD. DO YE WISH TO BETTER THYSELF? The Initiate
answers YES.
3) HOW STUPID. ARE YE WILLING TO BECOME PHILOSOPHICALLY
ILLUMINIZED? He answers YES.
4) VERY FUNNY. WILL YE DEDICATE YESELF TO THE HOLEY ERISIAN
MOVEMENT? The Initiate answers PROBABLY.
5) THEN SWEAR YE THE FOLLOWING AFTER ME:
(The Priest here leads the Initiate in a recital of THE ERISIAN
AFFIRMATION.)
The Priest continues: THEN I DO HERE PROCLAIM YE POEE DISCIPLE (name),
LEGIONNAIRE OF THE LEGION OF DYNAMIC DISCORD. HAIL ERIS! HAIL HAIL! HAIL
YES! |
Wicca | The-Complete-Uncut-Book-of-Shadows | 2,418 | 4) All present rejoice grandly. The new Brother opens a large jug of
wine and offers it to all who are present.
5) The Ceremony generally degenerates.
Mord says that Omar says that we are all unicorns anyway.
DO NOT PULL ON YELLOW TIP
3. And though Omar did bid of the Collector of Garbage, in words that
were both sweet and bitter, to surrender back the cigar box containing
the cards designated by the Angel as The Honest Book of Truth, the
Collector was to him as one who might be smitten deaf, saying only:
'Gainst the rules, y' know.
ÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍ
2931
HBT; The Book of Explanations, Chap 2
Answers:
1. Harry Houdini
2. Swing Music
3. Pretzels
4. 8 months
5. Testy Culbert
6. It protrudes.
7. No vocal cords
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
THE POEE MYSTEREE OATH G3400
50
The Initiate swears the following: DMTS
19
FLYING BABY SHIT!!!!!
(Brothers of the Ancient Illuminated Seers of Bavaria sect may wish to
substitute the German:
FLIEGENDE KINDERSCHEISSE!
or perhaps
WIECZNY KWIAT WTADZA!!!!!
which is Ewige Blumenkraft in Polish.)
THE RECENT EXPOSE THAT MR. MOMOMOTO, FAMOUS JAPANESE WHO CAN SWALLOW HIS
NOSE, CANNOT SWALLOW HIS NOSE BUT HIS BROTHER CAN, HAS BEEN EXPOSED! IT
IS MR. MOMOMOTO WHO CAN SWALLOW HIS NOSE. HE SWALLOWED HIS BROTHER IN
THE SUMMER OF '44.
Corrections to last week's copy: Johnny Sample is offensive cornerback
for the New York Jets, not fullback as stated. Bobby Tolan's name is not
Randy, but mud. All power to the people, and ban the fucking bomb.
"This statement is false"
(courtesy of POEE)
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
NO TWO EQUALS ARE THE SAME!
THE DISCORDIAN SOCIETY
The Discordian Society has no definition. |
Wicca | The-Complete-Uncut-Book-of-Shadows | 2,419 | I sometimes think of it as a disorganization of Eris Freaks. It has been
called a guerrilla mind theatre. Episkopos Randomfactor, Director of
Purges of Our People's Underworld Movement sect in Larchmont, prefers
"The World's Greatest Association of What-ever-it-is-that-we-are." Lady
Mal thinks of it as a RENAISSANCE THINK TANK. Fang the Unwashed, WKC,
won't say. You can think of it any way you like.
AN EPISKOPOS OF THE DISCORDIAN SOCIETY
is one who prefers total autonomy, and creates his own Discordian sect
as The Goddess directs him. He speaks for himself and for those that say
that they like what he says.
2932
THE LEGION OF DYNAMIC DISCORD:
A Discordian Society Legionnaire is one who prefers not to create his
own sect.
If you want in on the Discordian Society then declare yourself what you
wish do what you like and tell us about it or if you prefer don't.
There are no rules anywhere. Some Episkoposes
The Goddess Prevails. have a one-man cabal.
Some work together.
Some never do explain.
When I get to the bottom I go back to the top
of the slide where I stop and I turn and I go
for a ride, then I get to the bottom and I see
you again! Helter Skelter!
-John Lennon
"Everybody I know who is right always agrees with ME" -Rev Lady Mal
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
THE GOLDEN APPLE CORPS
The Golden Apple Corps* is an honorary position for the Keepers of The
Sacred Chao, so that they can put "KSC" after their names.
It says little,
does less,
means
nothing.
* Not to be confused with The Apple Corps Ltd. of those four singers. We
thought of it first.
- The Numeral V sign -
Used by Old Roman Discordians, Illuminatus Churchill, and innocent
Hippies everywhere.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
PERPETUAL DATE CONVERTER FROM GREGORIAN TO POEE CALENDAR
Seasons
1) Chaos - Patron Apostle Hung Mung
2) Discord - Patron Apostle Dr. Van Van Mojo
3) Confusion - Patron Apostle Sri Syadasti
4) Bureaucracy - Patron Apostle Zarathud
5) The Aftermath - Patron Apostle The Elder Malaclypse |
Wicca | The-Complete-Uncut-Book-of-Shadows | 2,420 | Days of the Week* * The DAYS OF THE WEEK
1) Sweetmorn are named from the five Basic
Elements:
2) Boomtime SWEET, BOOM, PUNGENT, PRICKLE, and ORANGE
3) Pungenday
4) Prickle-Prickle
5) Setting Orange
2933
HOLYDAYS
A) APOSTLE HOLYDAYS B) SEASON HOLYDAYS
1) Mungday 1) Chaoflux
2) Mojoday 2) Discoflux
3) Syaday 3) Confuflux
4) Zaraday 4) Bureflux
5) Maladay 5) Afflux
Each occurs on the 5th Each occurs on the 50th
day of the Season day of each Season
C) ST. TIB'S DAY - occurs once every 4 years (1+4=5) and is inserted
between the 59th and 60th days of the Season of Chaos
SM BT PD PP SO SM BT PD PP SO
-- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- --
Jan 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5 Chs Jul 5 6 7 8 9 40 41 42 43 44
Cfn
6 7 8 9 10 6 7 8 9 10 10 11 12 13 14 45 46 47 48 49
11 12 13 14 15 11 12 13 14 15 15 16 17 18 19 50 51 52 53 54
16 17 18 19 20 16 17 18 19 20 20 21 22 23 24 55 56 57 58 59
21 22 23 24 25 21 22 23 24 25 25 26 27 28 29 60 61 62 63 64
26 27 28 29 30 26 27 28 29 30 30 31 1 2 3 65 66 67 68 69
31 1 2 3 4 31 32 33 34 35 Aug 4 5 6 7 8 70 71 72 73 1
Bcy
Feb 5 6 7 8 9 36 37 38 39 40 9 10 11 12 13 2 3 4 5 6
10 11 12 13 14 41 42 43 44 45 14 15 16 17 18 7 8 9 10 11
15 16 17 18 19 46 47 48 49 50 19 20 21 22 23 12 13 14 15 16
20 21 22 23 24 51 52 53 54 55 24 25 26 27 28 17 18 19 20 21
25 26 27 28* 1 56 57 58 59 60 29 30 31 1 2 22 23 24 25 26
Mar 2 3 4 5 6 61 62 63 64 65 Sep 3 4 5 6 7 27 28 29 30 31
7 8 9 10 11 66 67 68 69 70 8 9 10 11 12 32 33 34 35 36
12 13 14 15 16 71 72 73 1 2 Dsc 13 14 15 16 17 37 38 39 40 41
17 18 19 20 21 3 4 5 6 7 18 19 20 21 22 42 43 44 45 46
22 23 24 25 26 8 9 10 11 12 23 24 25 26 27 47 48 49 50 51
27 28 29 30 31 13 14 15 16 17 28 29 30 1 2 52 53 54 55 56
ÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍ
2934 |
Wicca | The-Complete-Uncut-Book-of-Shadows | 2,421 | Apr 1 2 3 4 5 18 19 20 21 22 Oct 3 4 5 6 7 57 58 59 60 61
6 7 8 9 10 23 24 25 26 27 8 9 10 11 12 62 63 64 65 66
11 12 13 14 15 28 29 30 31 32 13 14 15 16 17 67 68 69 70 71
16 17 18 19 20 33 34 35 36 37 18 19 20 21 22 72 73 1 2 3
Afm
21 22 23 24 25 38 39 40 41 42 23 24 25 26 27 4 5 6 7 8
26 27 28 29 30 43 44 45 46 47 28 29 30 31 1 9 10 11 12 13
May 1 2 3 4 5 48 49 50 51 52 Nov 2 3 4 5 6 14 15 16 17 18
6 7 8 9 10 53 54 55 56 57 7 8 9 10 11 19 20 21 22 23
11 12 13 14 15 58 59 60 61 62 12 13 14 15 16 24 25 26 27 28
16 17 18 19 20 63 64 65 66 67 17 18 19 20 21 29 30 31 32 33
21 22 23 24 25 68 69 70 71 72 22 23 24 25 26 34 35 36 37 38
26 27 28 29 30 73 1 2 3 4 Cfn 27 28 29 30 1 39 40 41 42 43
31 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 Dec 2 3 4 5 6 44 45 46 47 48
Jun 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 7 8 9 10 11 49 50 51 52 53
10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 12 13 14 15 16 54 55 56 57 58
15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 17 18 19 20 21 59 60 61 62 63
20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 22 23 24 25 26 64 65 66 67 68
25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 27 28 29 30 31 69 70 71 72 73
30 1 2 3 4 35 36 37 38 39 [1991 = 3157][Next St. Tibs Day in
3158]
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
HOLY NAMES
Discordians have a tradition of assuming HOLY NAMES. This is not
unique to Erisianism, of course. I suppose that Pope Paul is the son
of Mr. and Mrs. VI?
Will whoever stole Brother Reverend Magoun's pornography please return
it.
ÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍ
2935
THE BEARER OF THIS CARD
IS A GENUINE AND AUTHORIZED
~ POPE ~
So please Treat Him Right
GOOD FOREVER
Genuine and authorized by The House of Apostles of ERIS |
Wicca | The-Complete-Uncut-Book-of-Shadows | 2,422 | -----------------------------------------------------------------------
Every man, woman and child on this Earth is a genuine and authorized
Pope Reproduce and distribute these cards freely- POEE Head Temple, San
Francisco
A =POPE= is someone who is not under the authority of the authorities.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
For Your Enlightenment
THE PARABLE OF THE BITTER TEA
by
Rev. Dr. Hypocrates Magoun, P.P.
POEE PRIEST, Okinawa Cabal
When Hypoc was through meditating with St. Gulik, he went there
into the kitchen where he busied himself with preparing the feast and in
his endeavor, he found that there was some old tea in a pan left
standing from the night before, when he had in his weakness forgot about
its making and had let it sit steeping for 24 hours. It was dark and
murky and it was Hypoc's intention to use this old tea by diluting it
with water. And again in his weakness, chose without further considera-
tion and plunged into the physical labor of the preparations. It was
then when deeply immersed in the pleasure of that trip, he had a sudden
loud clear voice in his head saying "it is bitter tea that involves you
so." Hypoc heard the voice, but the struggle inside intensified, and the
pattern, previously established with the physical laboring and the
muscle messages coordinated and unified or perhaps coded, continued to
exert their influence and Hypoc succummed to the pressure and he denied
the voice.
And again he plunged into the physical orgy and completed the
task, and Lo as the voice had predicted, the tea was bitter.
"The Five Laws have root in awareness."
--Che Fung (Ezra Pound, Canto
85)
The Hell Law says that Hell is reserved exclusively for them that
believe in it. Further, the lowest Rung in Hell is reserved for them
that believe in it on the supposition that they'll go there if they
don't.
HBT; The Gospel According to Fred, 3:1
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
A SERMON ON ETHICS AND LOVE
One day Mal-2 asked the messenger spirit Saint Gulik to approach
the Goddess and request Her presence for some desperate advice. Shortly
afterwards the radio came on by itself, and an ethereal female Voice
said YES?
2936
"O! Eris! Blessed Mother of Man! Queen of Chaos! Daughter of
Discord! Concubine of Confusion! O! Exquisite Lady, I beseech You to
lift a heavy burden from my heart!"
WHAT BOTHERS YOU, MAL? YOU DON'T SOUND WELL.
"I am filled with fear and tormented with terrible visions of
pain. Everywhere people are hurting one another, the planet is rampant
with injustices, whole societies plunder groups of their own people,
mothers imprison sons, children perish while brothers war. O, woe." |
Wicca | The-Complete-Uncut-Book-of-Shadows | 2,423 | WHAT IS THE MATTER WITH THAT, IF IT IS WHAT YOU WANT TO DO?
"But nobody Wants it! Everybody hates it."
OH. WELL, THEN STOP.
At which moment She turned herself into an aspirin commercial
and left The Polyfather stranded alone with his species.
SINISTER DEXTER HAS A BROKEN SPIROMETER.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
CHAPTER 5: THE PIONEERS
=THE FIVE APOSTLES OF ERIS & WHO THEY BE =
1. HUNG MUNG
A Sage of Ancient China and Official Discordian Missionary to the
Heathen Chinee. He who originally devised THE SACRED CHAO. Patron of the
Season of Chaos. Holyday: Jan 5.
2. DR. VAN VAN MOJO
A Head Doctor of Deep Africa and Maker of Fine Dolls. D.H.V., Doctor of
Hoodoo and Vexes, from The Greater Metropolitan Yorba Linda Jesus Will
Save Your Bod Home Study Bible School; and F.I.H.G.W.P., Fellow of the
Intergalactic Haitian Guerrillas for World Peace. Patron of The Season
of Discord. Holyday: Mar 19.
[NOTE: Erisians of The Laughing Christ sect are of the silly contention
that Dr. Mojo is an imposter and that PATAMUNZO LINGANANDA is the True
Second Apostle. Lord Omar claims that Dr. Mojo heaps hatred upon
Patamunzo, who sends only Love Vibrations in return. But we of the POEE
sect know that Patamunzo is the Real Imposter, and that those vibrations
of his are actually an attempt to subvert Dr. Mojo's rightful apostilic
authority by shaking him out of his wits.
3. SRI SYADASTI SYADAVAKTAVYA SYADASTI SYANNASTI SYADASTI CAVAKTAVYASCA
SYADASTI SYANNASTI SYADAVATAVYASCA SYADASTI SYANNASTI SYADAVAKTAVYASCA
commonly called just SRI SYADASTI
His name is Sanskrit, and means: All affirmations are true in some
sense, false in some sense, meaningless in some sense, true and false in
some sense, true and meaningless in some sense, false and meaningless in
some sense, and true and false and meaningless in some sense.
He is an Indian Pundit and Prince, born of the Peyotl Tribe, son of
Gentle Chief Sun Flower Seed and the squaw Merry Jane. Patron to
psychedelic type Discordians. Patron of the Season of Confusion.
Holyday: May 31. NOTE: Sri Syadasti should not be confused with BLESSED
ST. GULIK THE STONED, who is not the same person but is the same
2937
Apostle.
4. ZARATHUD THE INCORRIGIBLE, sometimes called ZARATHUD THE STAUNCH
A hard nosed Hermit of Medieval Europe and Chaosphe Bible Banger. Dubbed
"Offender of The Faith." Discovered the Five Commandments. Patron of the
Season of Bureaucracy. Holyday: Aug. 12
5. THE ELDER MALACLYPSE
A wandering Wiseman of Ancient Mediterrania ("Med-Terra" or middle
earth), who followed a 5-pointed Star through the alleys of Rome,
Damascus, Baghdad, Jerusalem, Mecca and Cairo, bearing a sign that
seemed to read "DOOM". (This is a misunderstanding. The sign actually
read "DUMB". Mal-1 is a Non-Prophet.) Patron and namesake of Mal-2.
Patron on The Season of The Aftermath. Holyday: Oct 24. |
Wicca | The-Complete-Uncut-Book-of-Shadows | 2,424 | All statements are true in some sense, false in some sense, meaningless
in some sense, true and false in some sense, true and meaningless in
some sense, false and meaningless in some sense, and true and false and
meaningless in some sense. A public service clarification by the Sri
Syadasti School of Spiritual Wisdom, Wilmette.
The teachings of the Sri Syadasti School of Spiritual School of
Spiritual Wisdom are true in some sense, false in some sense, meaning-
less in some sense, true and false in some sense, true and meaningless
in some sense, false and meaningless in some sense, and true and false
and meaningless in some sense.
Patamunzo Lingananda School of Higher Spiritual Wisdom, Skokie.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Hey Man...Great! I feel goofy, the way my old man looks when he's drunk.
THE HONEST BOOK OF TRUTH
being a BIBLE of The Erisian Movement
and How it was Revealed to
Episkopos LORD OMAR KHAYYAM RAVENHURST, KSC; Bull Goose
of Limbo; and Master Pastor of the Church Invisible of
the Laughing Christ, Hidden Temple of The Happy Jesus,
Laughing Buddha Jesus [LBJ] Ranch
From the Honest Book of Truth
THE BOOK OF EXPLANATIONS, Chapter 1
1. There came one day to Lord Omar, Bull Goose of Limbo, a Messenger
of Our Lady who told him of a Sacred Mound wherein was buried an
Honest Book.
2. And the Angel of Eris bade of the Lord: Go ye hence and dig the
Truth, that ye may come to know it and, knowing it, spread it and,
spreading it, wallow in it and, wallowing in it, lie in it and ,lying
in the Truth, become a Poet of the Word and a Sayer of Sayings -- an
Inspiration to all men and a Scribe to the Gods.
3. So Omar went forth to the Sacred Mound, which was to the East of
Mullah, and thereupon he worked digging in the sand for five days and
2938
five nights, but found no book.
4. At the end of five days and five nights of digging, it came to pass
that Omar was exhausted. So he put his shovel to one side and bedded
himself down on the sand, using as a pillow a Golden Chest he had
uncovered on the first day of his labors.
5. Omar slept.
6. On the fifth day of his sleeping, Lord Omar fell into a Trance, and
there came to him in the Trance a Dream, and there came to him in the
Dream a Messenger of Our Lady who told him of a Sacred Grove wherein
was hidden a Golden Chest.
7. And the Angel of Eris bade of the Lord: Go ye hence and lift the
Stash, that ye may come to own it and, owning it, share it and,
sharing it, love in it and, loving in it, dwell in it and, dwelling in
the Stash, become a Poet of the Word and a Sayer of Sayings - an
Inspiration to all men and a Scribe to the Gods. |
Wicca | The-Complete-Uncut-Book-of-Shadows | 2,425 | 8. But Omar lamented, saying unto the Angel: What is this shit,man?
What care I for the Word and Sayings? What care I for the Inspiration
of all men? Wherein does it profit a man to be a Scribe to the Gods
when the Scribes of the Governments do nothing, yet are paid better
wages?
9. And, lo, the Angel waxed in anger and Omar was stricken to the Ground
by an Invisible Hand and did not arise for five days and five nights.
10. And it came to pass that on the fifth night he dreampt, and in his
Dream he had a Vision, and in this Vision there came unto him a
Messenger of Our Lady who entrusted to him a Rigoletto cigar box
containing many filing cards, some of them in packs with rubber bands
around, and upon these cards were sometimes written verses, while upon
others nothing was written.
11. Thereupon the Angel Commanded to Lord: Take ye this Honest Book of
Truth to thine bosom and cherish it. Carry it forth into The Land and
Lay it before Kings of Nations and Collectors of Garbage. Preach from
it unto the Righteous, that they may renounce their ways and repent.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
CONVENTIONAL CHAOS
GREYFACE
In the year 1166 B.C., a malcontented hunchbrain by the name of
Greyface, got it into his head that the universe was as humorless as
he, and he began to teach that play was sinful because it contradicted
the ways of Serious Order. "Look at all the order around you," he
said. And from that, he deluded honest men to believe that reality was
a straightjacket affair and not the happy romance as men had known it.
It is not presently understood why men were so gullible at that
particular time, for absolutely no one thought to observe all the
disorder around them and conclude just the opposite. But anyway,
Greyface and his followers took the game of playing at life more
2939
seriously than they took life itself and were known even to destroy
other living beings whose ways of life differed from their own.
The unfortunate result of this is that mankind has since been
suffering from a psychological and spiritual imbalance. Imbalance causes
frustration, and frustration causes fear. And fear makes for a bad trip.
Man has been on a bad trip for a long time now.
It is called THE CURSE OF GREYFACE.
Bullshit makes the flowers
grow & that's beautiful.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Climb into the Chao with a friend or two
And follow the Way it carries you,
Adrift like a Lunatic Lifeboat Crew
Over the Waves in whatever you do.
(HBT; The Book of Advise, 1:3) |
Wicca | The-Complete-Uncut-Book-of-Shadows | 2,426 | [graphic deleted... if you wanna see it, READ THE BOOK]
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Meanwhile, at the Chinese laundromat...
DOGMA I - METAPHYSICS #2, "COSMOLOGY"*
THE BOOK OF UTERUS
from the Honest Book of Truth
revealed to Lord Omar
1. Before the beginning was the Nonexistent Chao, balanced in Oblivion
by the Perfect Counterpushpull of the Hodge and the Podge.
2. Whereupon, by an Act of Happenstance, the Hodge began gradually to
overpower the Podge -- and the Primal Chaos thereby came to be.
3. So in the beginning was the Primal Chaos, balanced on the Edge of
Oblivion by the Perfect Counterpullpush of the Podge and the Hodge.
4. Whereupon, by the Law of Negative Reversal,** the Podge swiftly
underpowered the Hodge and Everything broke loose.
5. And therein emerged the Active Force of Discord, the Subtle Manifes-
tation of the Nonexistent Chao, to guide Everything along the Path back
to Oblivion - that it might not become lost among Precepts of Order in
the Region of Thud.
6. Forasmuch as it was Active, the Force of Discord entered the State of
Confusion, wherein It copulated with the Queen and begat ERIS, Our Lady
of Discord and Gross Manifestation of the Nonexistent Chao.
7. And under Eris Confusion became established, and was hence called
Bureaucracy; while over Bureaucracy Eris became established, and was
2940
hence called Discordia.
8. By the by it came to pass that the Establishment of Bureaucracy
perished in a paper shortage.
9. Thus it was, in accord with the Law of Laws.
10. During and after the Fall of the Establishment of Bureaucracy was
the Aftermath, an Age of Disorder in which calculation, computations,
and reckonings were put away by the Children of Eris in Acceptance and
Preparation for the Return to Oblivion to be followed by a Repetition of
the Universal Absurdity. Moreover, of Itself the Coming of Aftermath
waseth a Resurrection of the Freedom-flowing Chaos. HAIL ERIS!
11. Herein was set into motion the Eristic Pattern, which would Repeat
Itself Five Times Over Seventy-three Times, after which nothing would
happen.
____________________________
* This doctrine should not be confused with DOGMA III - HISTORY #6,
"HISTORIC CYCLES," which states that social progress occurs in five
cycles, the first three ("The Tricycle") of which are THESIS, ANTITHESIS
and PARENTHESIS; and the last two ("the Bicycle") of which are CONSTER-
NATION and MORAL WARPTITUDE.
** The LAW OF NEGATIVE REVERSAL states that if something does not happen
then the exact opposite will happen, only in exactly the opposite manner
from that in which it did not happen. |
Wicca | The-Complete-Uncut-Book-of-Shadows | 2,427 | Dull but Sincere Filler
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"And, behold, thusly was the Law formulated: Imposition of Order =
escalation of Disorder!"
[H.B.T. ; The Gospel According to Fred, 1:6]
THE FIVE ORDERS OF DISCORDIA ("THEM")
Gen. Pandaemonium, Commanding
The seeds of the ORDERS OF DISCORDIA were planted by Greyface into his
early disciples. They form the skeleton of the Aneristic Movement, which
over emphasizes the Principle of Order and is antagonistic to the
necessary compliment, the Principle of Disorder. The Orders are composed
of persons all hung up on authority, security and control; i.e., they
are blinded by the Aneristic Illusion. They do not know that they belong
to Orders of Discordia. But we know.
1. The Military Order of THE KNIGHTS OF THE FIVE SIDED TEMPLE. This is
for all the soldiers and bureaucrats of the world.
2. The Political Order of THE PARTY FOR WAR ON EVIL. This is reserved
for lawmakers, censors, and like ilk.
3. The Academic Order of THE HEMLOCK FELLOWSHIP. They commonly inhabit
schools and universities, and dominate many of them.
4. The Social Order of THE CITIZENS COMMITTEE FOR CONCERNED CITIZENS.
This is mostly a grass-roots version of the more professional military,
political, academic and sacred Orders.
2941
5. The Sacred Order of THE DEFAMATION LEAGUE. Not much is known about
the D.L., but they are very ancient and quite possibly were founded by
Greyface himself. It is known that they now have absolute domination
over all organized churches in the world. It is also believed that they
have been costuming cabbages and passing them off as human beings.
A person belonging to one or more Order is just as likely to carry a
flag of the counter-establishment as the flag of the establishment--
just as long as it is a flag.
Don't let THEM immanentize the Eschaton.
HIP-2-3-4, HIP-2-3-4
Go To Your Left-Right....
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
THE FOLLOWING IS QUOTED FROM BERGAN EVANS
ON NORBERT WEINER, NUCLEAR PHYSICIST
The second concept Wiener has to establish is that of entropy.
Probability is a mathematical concept, coming from statistics. Entropy
comes from physics. It is the assertion-- established logically and
experimentally-- that the universe, by its nature, is "running down",
moving toward a state of inert uniformity devoid of form, matter,
hierarchy or differentiation.
That is, in any given situation, less organization, more chaos,
is overwhelmingly more probable than tighter organization or more order.
The tendency for entropy to increase in isolated systems is |
Wicca | The-Complete-Uncut-Book-of-Shadows | 2,428 | expressed in the second law of thermodynamics-- perhaps the most
pessimistic and amoral formulation in all human thought.
It applies however, to a closed system, to something that is an
isolated whole, not just a part. Within such systems there may be parts,
which draw their energy from the whole, that are moving at least
temporarily, in the opposite direction; in them order is increasing and
chaos is diminishing.
The whirlpools that swirl in a direction opposed to the main
current are called "enclaves". And one of them is life, especially human
life, which in a universe moving inexorably towards chaos moves towards
increased order.
IF THE TELEPHONE RINGS TODAY..... WATER IT!
-Rev. Thomas, Gnostic
N.Y.C. Cabal
Personal
PLANETARY Pi, which I discovered, is 61. It's a Time-Energy relationship
existing between sun and inner plants and I use it in arriving at many
facts unknown to science. For example, multiply nude earth's circum-
ference 24,902.20656 by 61 and you get the distance of moon's orbit
around the earth. This is slightly less than the actual distance
because we have not yet considered earth's atmosphere. So be it.
2942
Christopher Garth, Evanston
"I should have been a plumber."
--Albert Einstein
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"Grasshopper always wrong in argument with chicken"
-Book of Chan compiled by O.P.U. sect
= ZARATHUD'S ENLIGHTENMENT =
Before he became a hermit, Zarathud was a young Priest, and took
great delight in making fools of his opponents in front of his fol-
lowers.
One day Zarathud took his students to a pleasant pasture and
there he confronted The Sacred Chao while She was contentedly grazing.
"Tell me, you dumb beast." demanded the Priest in his commanding
voice, "why don't you do something worthwhile. What is your Purpose in
Life, anyway?"
Munching the tasty grass, The Sacred Chao replied "MU".*
Upon hearing this, absolutely nobody was enlightened. Primarily
because nobody could understand Chinese.
* "MU" is the Chinese ideogram for NO-THING
TAO FA TSU-DAN FIND PEACE WITH A
CONTENTED CHAO
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ |
Wicca | The-Complete-Uncut-Book-of-Shadows | 2,429 | THE SACRED CHAO
THE SACRED CHAO is the key to illumination. Devised by the Apostle Hung
Mung in ancient China, it was modified and popularized by the Taoists
and is sometimes called the YIN-YANG. The Sacred Chao is not the
Yin-Yang of the Taoists. It is the HODGE-PODGE of the Erisians. And,
instead of a Podge spot on the Hodge side, it has a PENTAGON which
symbolizes the ANERISTIC PRINCIPLE, and instead of a Hodge spot on the
Podge side, it depicts the GOLDEN APPLE OF DISCORDIA to symbolize the
ERISTIC PRINCIPLE.
The Sacred Chao symbolizes absolutely everything anyone need ever know
about absolutely anything, and more! It even symbolizes everything not
worth knowing, depicted by the empty space surrounding the Hodge-Podge.
HERE FOLLOWS SOME PSYCHO-METAPHYSICS.
If you are not hot for philosophy, best just to skip it.
The Aneristic Principle is that of APPARENT ORDER; the Eristic
Principle is that of APPARENT DISORDER. Both order and disorder are man
made concepts and are artificial divisions of PURE CHAOS, which is a
level deeper that is the level of distinction making.
2943
With our concept making apparatus called "mind" we look at
reality through the ideas-about-reality which our cultures give us. The
ideas-about-reality are mistakenly labeled "reality" and unenlightened
people are forever perplexed by the fact that other people, especially
other cultures, see "reality" differently. It is only the ideas-about-
-reality which differ. Real (capital-T True) reality is a level deeper
that is the level of concept.
We look at the world through windows on which have been drawn
grids (concepts). Different philosophies use different grids. A culture
is a group of people with rather similar grids. Through a window we view
chaos, and relate it to the points on our grid, and thereby understand
it. The ORDER is in the GRID. That is the Aneristic Principle.
Western philosophy is traditionally concerned with contrasting
one grid with another grid, and amending grids in hopes of finding a
perfect one that will account for all reality and will, hence, (say
unenlightened westerners) be True. This is illusory; it is what we
Erisians call the ANERISTIC ILLUSION. Some grids can be more useful than
others, some more beautiful than others, some more pleasant than others,
etc., but none can be more True than any other.
DISORDER is simply unrelated information viewed through some
particular grid. But, like "relation", no-relation is a concept. Male,
like female, is an idea about sex. To say that male-ness is "absence of
female-ness", or vice versa, is a matter of definition and metaphysical-
ly arbitrary. The artificial concept of no-relation is the ERISTIC
PRINCIPLE.
The belief that "order is true" and disorder is false or somehow
wrong, is the Aneristic Illusion. To say the same of disorder, is the
ERISTIC ILLUSION.
The point is that (little-t) truth is a matter of definition
relative to the grid one is using at the moment, and that (capital-T)
Truth, metaphysical reality, is irrelevant to grids entirely. Pick a
grid, and through it some chaos appears ordered and some appears
disordered. Pick another grid, and the same chaos will appear dif-
ferently ordered and disordered. |
Wicca | The-Complete-Uncut-Book-of-Shadows | 2,430 | Reality is the original Rorschach.
Verily! So much for all that.
The words of the Foolish and those of the Wise
Are not far apart in Discordian Eyes.
(HBT; The Book of Advise, 2:1)
The PODGE of the Sacred Chao is symbolized as The Golden Apple of
Discordia, which represents the Eristic Principle of Disorder. The
writing on it, "KALLISTI" is Greek for "TO THE PRETTIEST ONE" and refers
to an old myth about The Goddess. But the Greeks had only a limited
understanding of Disorder, and thought it to be a negative principle.
The Pentagon represents the Aneristic Principle of Order and symbolizes
the HODGE. The Pentagon has several references; for one,, it can be
taken to represent geometry, one of the earliest studies of formal order
to reach elaborate development;* for another, it specifically accords
2944
with THE LAW OF FIVES.
THE TRUTH IS FIVE BUT MEN HAVE ONLY ONE NAME FOR IT.
-Patamunzo Lingananda
It is also the shape of the United States Military Headquarters, the
Pentagon Building, a most pregnant manifestation of straightjacket order
resting on a firm foundation of chaos and constantly erupting into
dazzling disorder; and this building is one of our more cherished
Erisian Shrines. Also it so happens that in times of medieval magic, the
pentagon was the generic symbol for werewolves, but this reference is
not particularly intended and it should be noted that the Erisian
Movement does not discriminate against werewolves-- our membership
roster is open to persons of all races, national origins and
hobbies.
____________________________________
* The Greek geometrician PYTHAGORAS, however, was not a typical
aneristic personality. He was what we call an EXPLODED ANERISTIC and an
AVATAR. We call him Archangle Pythagoras.
[diagram of HODGE/PODGE TRANSFORMER deleted... DtC]
5. Hung Mung slapped his buttocks, hopped about, and shook his head,
saying "I do not know! I do not know!"
HBT; The Book of Gooks, Chap. 1
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
BRUNSWICK SHRINE
In the Los Angeles suburb of Whittier there lives a bowling alley, and
within this very place, in the Year of Our Lady of Discord 3125 (1959*),
Eris revealed Herself to The Golden Apple Corps for the first time.
In honor of this Incredible Event, this Holy Place is revered as a
Shrine by all Erisians. Once every five years, the Golden Apple Corps
plans a Pilgrimage to Brunswick Shrine as an act of Devotion, and
therein to partake of No Hot Dog Buns, and ruminate a bit about It All.
It is written that when The Corps returns to The Shrine for the fifth
time five times over, than shall the world come to an end:
IMPENDING DOOM
HAS ARRIVED |
Wicca | The-Complete-Uncut-Book-of-Shadows | 2,431 | And Five Days Prior to This Occasion The Apostle The Elder
Malaclypse Shall Walk the Streets of Whittier Bearing a Sign
for All Literates to Read thereof: "DOOM", as a Warning of
Forthcoming Doom to All Men Impending. And He Shall Signal
This Event by Seeking the Poor and Distributing to Them Precious
MAO BUTTONS and Whittier Shall be Known as The Region of Thud
for These Five Days.
As a public service to all mankind and civilization in general, and to
us in particular, the Golden Apple Corps has concluded that planning
such a Pilgrimage is sufficient and that it is prudent to never get
around to actually going.
___________________________________
* Or maybe it was 1958, I forget.
2945
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
STARBUCK'S PEBBLES Which
Is
Real?
*
* *
* *
Do these 5 pebbles [note: they were pebbles,originally..try doing
ASCII pebbles -DtC] REALLY form a pentagon?
Those biased by the Aneristic Illusion would say yes.
Those biased by the Eristic Illusion would say no. Criss-cross them and
it is a star.
An Illuminated Mind can see all of these, yet he does not insist that
any one is really true, or that none at all is true. Stars, and
pentagons, and disorder are all his creations and he may do with them as
he wishes. Indeed, even so the concept of number 5.
The real reality is there, but everything you KNOW about "it" is in your
mind and yours to do with as you like. Conceptualization is art, and YOU
ARE THE ARTIST.
Convictions cause convicts.
Can you chart the COURSE
to Captain Valentine's SWEETHEART?
Hemlock? I never touch the stuff!
When I was 8 or 9 years old, I acquired
a split beaver magazine. You can imagine
my disappointment when,upon examination
of the photos with a microscope, I found
that all I could see was dots.
7. Never write in pencil unless you are on a train or sick in bed.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ |
Wicca | The-Complete-Uncut-Book-of-Shadows | 2,432 | ÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍ
2946
ERIS CONTEMPLATES FOR 3125 YEARS
------------------------------------Pun-jab is Sikh, Sikh, Sikh!--------
THE PARATHEO-ANAMETAMYSTIKHOOD OF ERIS ESOTERIC (POEE)
A Non-prophet Irreligious Disorganization
MALACLYPSE THE YOUNGER, KSC
Omnibenevolent Polyfather of Virginity in Gold
HIGH PRIEST
THE ERISIAN MOVEMENT HOUSE OF APOSTLES
OF ERIS
(X) Official Business ( )Surreptitious Business page 1 of
1 pages
Official Discordian Document Number (if applicable): n/a
( ) the Golden Apple Corps (X)House of Disciples of Discordia
The Bureaucracy, Bureau of: DOGMAS
( ) Council of Episkoposes: Office of High Priesthood, Sect of the POEE
( ) Drawer o
________________________________________________________________________
Today's DATE: day of the Carrot yesterday's DATE: Yes
-><-
Originating Cabal: Joshua Norton Cabal - San Francisco
TO: REV. RAMPANT PANCREAS, tRRoCR(a)pttM; Colorado Encrustation
Brother Ram,
Your acute observation that ERIS spelled backwards is SIRE, and your
inference to the effect that there is sexual symbolism here, have
brought me to some observations of my own,
ERIS spelled fore-part-aft-wards is RISE. And spelled inside out is
REIS, which is a unit of money, albeit Portugese-Brazilian and no longer
in use. >From this it may be concluded that Eris has usurped Eros (god
of erotic love) in the eyes of those who read backwards; which obviously
made Eros sorE. Then She apparently embezzeled the Olympian Treasury and
went to Brazil; whereupon She opened a chain of whorehouses (which
certainly would get a rise from the male population). I figure it to be
this in particular because MADAM reads the same forwards and backwards.
And further, it is a term of great respect, similar to SIRE.
And so thank you for your insight, it may well be the clue to the
mystery of just where Eris has been fucking around for 3125.
FIVE TONS OF FLAX!
-><- Mal-2
Not for Circulation!
KALLISTI HAIL ERIS ALL HAIL DISCORDIA
safeguard this letter, it may be an important document
Form No.: O.D.D. IIb/ii.1-37D.VVM:3134
2947
DOGMA III - HISTORY #2, "COSMOGONY" |
Wicca | The-Complete-Uncut-Book-of-Shadows | 2,433 | which is not the same as DOGMA I - METAPHYSICS #2, "COSMOLOGY" (Book of
Uterus)
In the beginning there was VOID, who had two daughters; one (the
smaller) was that of BEING, named ERIS, and one (the larger) was of
NON-BEING, named ANERIS. (To this day, the fundamental truth that Aneris
is the larger is apparent to all who compare the great number of things
that do not exist with the comparatively small number of things that do
exist.)
Eris had been born pregnant, and after 55 years (Goddesses have
an unusually long gestation period-- longer even than elephants), Her
pregnancy bore the fruits of many things. These things were composed of
the Five Basic Elements, SWEET, BOOM, PUNGENT, PRICKLE, and ORANGE.
Aneris, however, had been created sterile. When she saw Eris enjoying
Herself so greatly with all of the existent things She had borne, Aneris
became jealous and finally one day she stole some existent things and
changed them into non-existent things and claimed them as her own
children. This deeply hurt Eris, who felt that Her sister was unjust
(being so much larger anyway) to deny Her her small joy. And so She made
herself swell again to bear more things. And She swore that no matter
how many of her begotten that Aneris would steal, She would beget more.
And, in return, Aneris swore that no matter how many existent things
Eris brought forth, she would eventually find them and turn them into
non-existent things for her own. (And to this day, things appear and
disappear in this very manner.)
At first, the things brought forth by Eris were in a state of
chaos and went in every which way, but by the by She began playing with
them andordered some of them just to see what would happen. Some pretty
things arosefrom this play and for the next five zillion years She
amused Herself bycreating order. And so She grouped some things with
others and some groups with others, and big groups with little groups,
and all combinations until She had many grand schemes which delighted
Her.
Engrossed in establishing order, She finally one day noticed
disorder (previously not apparent because everything was chaos). There
were many ways in which chaos was ordered and many ways in which it was
not.
"Hah," She thought, "Here shall be a new game."
And She taught order and disorder to play with each other in
contest games, and to take turns amusing each other. She named the side
of disorder after Herself, "ERISTIC" because Being is anarchic. And
then, in a mood of sympathy for Her lonely sister, She named the other
side "ANERISTIC" which flattered Aneris and smoothed the friction a
little that was between them.
Now all of this time, Void was somewhat disturbed. He felt
unsatisfied for he had created only physical existence and physical
non-existence, and had neglected the spiritual. As he contemplated this,
a great Quiet was caused and he went into a state of Deep Sleep which
lasted for 5 eras. At the end of this ordeal, he begat a brother to Eris
and Aneris, that of SPIRITUALITY, who had no name at all.
2948
When the sisters heard this, they both confronted Void and
pleaded that he not forget them, his First Born. And so Void decreed
thus:
That this brother, having no form, was to reside with Aneris in |
Wicca | The-Complete-Uncut-Book-of-Shadows | 2,434 | Non-Being and then to leave her and, so that he might play with order
and disorder, reside with Eris in Being. But Eris became filled with
sorrow when She heard this and then began to weep.
"Why are you despondent?" demanded Void, "Your new brother will
have his share with you." "But Father, Aneris and I have been arguing,
and she will take him from me when she discovers him, and cause him to
return to Non-Being." "I see,"replied Void, "Then I decree the follow-
ing:
"When your brother leaves the residence of Being, he shall not
reside again in Non-Being, but shall return to Me, Void, from whence he
came. You girls may bicker as you wish, but My son is your Brother and
We are all of Myself."
And so it is that we, as men, do not exist until we do; and then it is
that we play with our world of existent things, and order and disorder
them, and so it shall be that non-existence shall take us back from
existence and that nameless spirituality shall return to Void, like a
tired child home from a very wild circus.
"Everything is true - Everything is permissible!"
-><-
-Hassan i Sabbah
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
There is serenity in Chaos.
Seek ye the Eye of the Hurricane.
A POEE MYSTEREE RITE - THE SRI SYADASTIAN CHANT
Written, in some sense, by Mal-2
Unlike a song, chants are not sung but chanted. This particular one is
much enhanced by the use of a Leader to chant the Sanskrit alone, with
all participants chanting the English. it also behooves one to be in a
quiet frame of mind and to be sitting in a still position, perhaps The
Buttercup Position. It also helps if one is absolutely zonked out of his
gourd.
RUB-A-DUB-DUB
O! Hail Eris. Blessed St. Hung Mung.
SYA-DASTI
O! Hail Eris. Blessed St. Mo-jo.
SYA-DAVAK-TAVYA
O! Hail Eris. Blessed St. Zara-thud.
SYA-DASTI SYA-NASTI
O! Hail Eris. Blessed St. Elder Mal.
SYA-DASTI KAVAK-TAV-YASKA
O! Hail Eris. Blessed St. Gu-lik.
SYA-DASTI, SYA-NASTI, SYA-DAVAK-TAV-YASKA
O! Hail Eris. All Hail Dis-cord-ia.
RUB-A-DUB-DUB
2949
It is then repeated indefinitely, or for the first two thousand miles,
which ever comes first.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The Classification of Saints
1. SAINT SECOND CLASS
To be reserved for all human beings deserving of Sainthood. Example: |
Wicca | The-Complete-Uncut-Book-of-Shadows | 2,435 | St.Norton the First, Emperor of the United States and Protector of
Mexico (his grave near San Francisco is an official POEE shrine.)
THE FOLLOWING FOUR CATAGORIES ARE RESERVED FOR FICTIONAL BEINGS WHO, NOT
BEING ACTUAL, ARE MORE CAPABLE OF PERFECTION.
2. LANCE SAINT
Good Saint material and definitely inspiring.
Example: St. Yossarian (Catch 22, Heller)
3. LIEUTENANT SAINT
Excellent Goddess-Saturated Saint.
Example: St. Quixote (Don Quixote, Cervantes)
4. BRIGADIER SAINT
Comparable to Lt/Saint but has an established following (fictional or
factual). Example: St. Bokonon (Cat's Cradle, Vonnegut)
5. FIVE STAR SAINT
The Five Apostles of Eris.
Note: It is an Old Erisian Tradition to never agree with each other
about Saints.
Everybody understands Mickey Mouse. Few understand Herman Hesse. Only a
hand full understood Albert Einstein. And nobody understood Emperor
Norton.
-Slogan of NORTON CABAL - S.F.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
TESTS BY DOCTORS PROVE IT POSSIBLE TO SHRINK
=ON OCCULTISM=
Magicians, especially since the Gnostic and the Quabala influences, have
sought higher consciousness through assimilation and control of
universal opposites-- good/evil, positive/negative, male/female, etc.
But due to the steadfast pomposity of ritualism inherited from the
ancient methods of the shaman, occultists have been blinded to what is
perhaps the two most important pairs of apparent or earth-plane
opposites: ORDER/DISORDER and SERIOUS/HUMOROUS.
Magicians, and progeny the scientists, have always taken themselves and
their subject in an orderly and sober manner, thereby disregarding an
2950
essential metaphysical balance. when magicians learn to approach
philosophy as a malleable art instead of an immutable Truth, and learn
to appreciate the absurdity of man's endeavours, then they will be able
to pursue their art with a lighter heart, and perhaps gain a clearer
understanding of it, and therefore gain more effective magic. CHAOS IS
ENERGY.
This is an essential challenge to the basic concepts of all western
occult thought, and POEE is humbly pleased to offer the first break-
through in occultism since Solomon.
"Study Demonology with an Enemy This Sunday" |
Wicca | The-Complete-Uncut-Book-of-Shadows | 2,436 | sez Thom,Gnos
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
POEE ASTROLOGICAL SYSTEM
1) Om your next birthday, return to the place of your birth and, at
precisely midnight, noting your birth time and date of observation,
count all visible stars.
2) When you have done this, write to me and I'll tell you what to do
next.
The Eminent 16th Century Mathemetician Cardan so detested Luther that he
altered Luther's birthdate to give him an unfavorable horoscope.
The theorem to be proved is that if any even number of people take seats
at random around a circular table bearing place cards with their names,
it is always possible to rotate the table until at least two people are
opposite their cards. Assume the contrary. Let N be the even number of
persons, and let their names be replaced by the integers 0 to N-1 "in
such a way that the place cards are numbered in sequence around the
table. If a delegate D originally sits down to a place card P, then the
table must be rotated R steps before he is correctly seated, where
R=P-D, unless this is negative, in which case R=P-D+N. The collection of
values of D (and of P) for all delegates is clearly the integers 0 to
N-1,each taken once, but so also is the collection of values of R, or
else two delegates would be correctly seated at the same time. Summing
the above equations, one for each delegate, gives S-S+NK, where K is an
integer and S=N(N-1)/2, the sum of the integers from 0 to N-1. It
follows that N=2K+1, an odd number." This contradicts the original
assumption.
"I actually solved this problem some years ago," Rybicki writes,
"for a different but completely equivalent problem, a generalization of
the nonattacking 'eight queens' problem for a cylindrical chessboard
where diagonal attack is restricted to diagonals slanting in one
direction only.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
THE CURSE OF GREYFACE AND THE
INTRODUCTION OF NEGATIVISM
To choose order over disorder, or disorder over order, is to
accept a trip composed of both the creative and the destructive. But to
choose the creative over the destructive is an all-creative trip
composed of both order and disorder. To accomplish this, one need only
2951
accept creative disorder along with, and equal to, creative order, and
also willing to reject destructive order as an undesirable equal to
destructive disorder.
The Curse of Greyface included the division of life into
order/disorder as the essential positive/negative polarity, instead of
building a game foundation with creative/destructive as the essential
positive/negative. He has thereby caused man to endure the destructive
aspects of order and has prevented man from effectively participating in
the creative uses of disorder. Civilization reflects this unfortunate
division.
POEE proclaims that the other division is preferable, and we
work toward the proposition that creative disorder, like creative order,
is possible and desirable; and that destructive order, like destructive
disorder, is unnecessary and undesirable. |
Wicca | The-Complete-Uncut-Book-of-Shadows | 2,437 | Seek the Sacred Chao - therein you will find the foolishness of
all ORDER/DISORDER. They are the same!
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
ERISIAN MAGIC RITUAL - THE TURKEY CURSE
Revealed by the Apostle Dr. Van Van Mojo as a specific counter to the
evil Curse of Greyface, THE TURKEY CURSE is here passed on to Erisians
everywhere for their just protection.
The Turkey Curse works. It is firmly grounded on the fact that Greyface
and his followers absolutely require an aneristic setting to function
and that a timely introduction of eristic vibrations will neutralize
their foundation. The Turkey Curse is designed solely to counteract
negative aneristic vibes and if introduced into a neutral or positive
aneristic setting (like a poet working out word rhythms) it will prove
harmless, or at worst, simply annoying. It is not designed for use
against negative eristic vibes, although it can be used as an eristic
vehicle to introduce positive vibes into a misguided eristic setting. In
this instance, it would be the responsibility of the Erisian Magician to
manufacture the positive vibrations if results are to be achieved.
CAUTION- all magic is powerful and requires courage and integrity on the
part of the magician. This ritual, if misused, can backfire. Positive
motivation is essential for self-protection.
TO PERFORM THE TURKEY CURSE:
Take a foot stance as if you were John L. Sullivan preparing for fis-
ticuffs. Face the particular greyfaced you wish to short-circuit, or
towards the direction of the negative aneristic vibration that you wish
to neutralize. Begin waving your arms in any elaborate manner and make
motions with your hands as though you were Mandrake feeling up a sexy
giantess. Chant, loudly and clearly:
GOBBLE, GOBBLE, GOBBLE, GOBBLE, GOBBLE!
The results will be instantly apparent.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
2952
A PRIMER FOR ERISIAN EVANGELISTS by Lord Omar
The SOCRATIC APPROACH is most successful when confronting the
ignorant. The "socratic approach" is what you call starting an argument
by asking questions. You approach the innocent and simply ask "Did you
know that God's name is ERIS, and that He is a girl?" If he should
answer "Yes." then he probably is a fellow Erisian and so you can forget
it. If he says "No." then quickly proceed to:
THE BLIND ASSERTION and say "Well, He Is a girl, and His name is
ERIS!" Shrewedly observe if the subject is convinced. If he is, swear
him into the Legion of Dynamic Discord before he changes his mind. If he
does not appear convinced, then proceed to:
THE FAITH BIT: "But you must have Faith! All is lost without
Faith! I sure feel sorry for you if you don't have Faith." And then add:
THE ARGUMENT BY FEAR and in an ominous voice ask "Do you know
what happens to those who deny Goddess?" If he hesitates, don't tell him
that he will surely be reincarnated as a precious Mao Button and
distributed to the poor in the Region of Thud (which would be a mean
thing to say), just shake your head sadly and, while wiping a tear from
your eye, go to:
THE FIRST CLAUSE PLOY wherein you point to all of the discord |
Wicca | The-Complete-Uncut-Book-of-Shadows | 2,438 | and confusion in the world and exclaim "Well who the hell do you think
did all of this, wise guy?" If he says, "Nobody, just impersonal
forces." then quickly respond with:
THE ARGUMENT BY SEMANTICAL GYMNASTICS and say that he is
absolutely right, and that those impersonal forces are female and that
Her name is ERIS. If he, wonder of wonders, still remains obstinate,
then finally resort to:
THE FIGURATIVE SYMBOLISM DODGE and confide that sophisticated
people like himself recognize that Eris is a Figurative Symbol for an
Ineffable Metaphysical Reality and that The Erisian Movement is really
more like a poem than like a science and that he is liable to be turned
into a Precious Mao Button and Distributed to The Poor in The Region of
Thud if he does not get hip. Then put him on your mailing list.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
SINK
A GAME
by Ala Hera, E.L., N.S.; RAYVILLE APPLE PANTHERS
SINK is played by Discordians and people of much ilk.
PURPOSE: To sink object or an object or a thing...
in water or mud or anything you; can sink something in.
RULES: Sinking is allowd in any manner. To date, ten pound chunks of mud
were used to sink a tobacco can. It is preferable to have a pit of water
or a hole to drop things in. But rivers - bays - gulfs - I dare say even
oceans can be used.
TURNS are taken thusly: who somever gets the junk up and in the air
first.
DUTY: It shall be the duty of all persons playing "SINK" to help find
more objects to sink, once; one object is sunk.
2953
UPON SINKING: The sinked shall yell "I sank it!" or something equally as
thoughtful.
NAMING OF OBJECTS is some times desirable. The object is named by the
finder of such object and whoever sinks it can say for instance, "I sunk
Columbus, Ohio!"
"In a way, we're a kind of Peace Corps."
- Maj. A. Lincoln German, Training Director of the
Green Beret Special Warfare School, Ft. Bragg, N.C.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
A Joint Effort of the Discordian Society
POST OFFICE LIBERATION FRONT
Export License Not Required
THIS IS A CHAIN LETTER.
WITHIN THE NEXT FIFTY-FIVE DAYS YOU WILL RECEIVE THIRTY-ELEVEN HUNDRED
POUNDS OF CHAINS!
In the meantime - plant your seeds. |
Wicca | The-Complete-Uncut-Book-of-Shadows | 2,439 | If a lot of people who receive this letter plant a few seeds and a lot
of people receive this letter, then a lot of seeds will get planted.
Plant your seeds.
In parks. On lots. Public flower beds. In remote places. At City Hall.
Wherever. Whenever. Or start a plantation in your closet (but read up on
it first for that). For casual planting, its best to soak them in water
for a day and plant in a bunch of about 5, about half an inch deep.
Don't worry much about the weather, they know when the weather is wrong
and will try to wait for nature. Don't soak them if its wintertime.
Seeds are a very hearty life form and strongly desire to grow and
flourish. But some of them need people's help to get started. Plant your
seeds.
Make a few copies of this letter (5 would be nice) and send them to
friends of yours. Try to mail to different cities and states, even
different countries. If you would rather not, then please pass this
copy on to someone and perhaps they would like to.
THERE IS NO TRUTH to the legend that if you throw away a chain letter
then all sorts of catastrophic, abominable, and outrageous disasters
will happen. Except, of course, from your seed's point of view.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Q. "How come a woodpecker doesn't bash its brains out?" A. Nobody has
ever explained that.
Mary Jane says "Plant Your Seeds. Keep Prices Down."
"And God said, behold, I have given you every herb bearing seed, which
is upon the face of the earth... to you it shall be for meat."
-Genesis 1:29
2954
Questions
Have a friendly class talk. Permit each child to tell any part of the
unit on "Courtesy in the Corridors and on the Stairs" that he enjoyed.
Name some causes of disturbance in your school.
Chapter 1, THE EPISTLE TO THE PARANOIDS
--Lord Omar
1. Ye have locked yerselves up in cages of fear--and, behold, do ye now
complain that ye lack FREEDOM!
2. Ye have cast out yer brothers for devils and now complain ye,
lamenting, that ye've been left to fight alone.
3. All Chaos was once yer kingdom; verily, held ye dominion over the
entire Pentaverse, but today ye was sore afraid in dark corners, nooks,
and sink holes.
4. O how the darknesses do crowd up, one against the other, in ye
hearts! What fear ye more that what ye have wroughten?
5. Verily, verily I say unto you, not all the Sinister Ministers of the
Bavarian Illuminati, working together in multitudes, could so entwine
the land with tribulation as have yer baseless warnings.
DESPITE strong evidence to the contrary, persistant rumor has it that it |
Wicca | The-Complete-Uncut-Book-of-Shadows | 2,440 | was Mr. Momomoto's brother who swallowed Mr. Momomoto in the summer of
'44.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
ÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍ
2955
BAVARIAN ILLUMINATI
Founded by Hassan i Sabbah, 1090 A.D. (5090 A.L., 4850 A.M.)
Reformed by Adam Weishaupt, 1776 A.D. (5776 A.L., 5536 A.M.)
THE ANCIENT ILLUMINATED SEERS OF BAVARIA
invite YOU to join
The World's Oldest and Most Successful Conspiracy
Have you ever SECRETLY WONDERED WHY IS there an ESOTERIC ALLEGORY con-
The GREAT PYRAMID has FIVE sides cealed in the apparently innocent
(counting the bottom)? legend of Snow White and The Seven
Dwarfs?
WHAT IS the TRUE secret SINISTER WHY do scholarly anthropologists
REALITY lying behind the ANCIENT TURN PALE with terror at the
Aztec Legend of QUETZLCOATL? very MENTION of the FORBIDDEN
name YOG-SOTHOTH?
WHO IS the MAN in ZURICH WHAT REALLY DID HAPPEN
that some SWEAR is LEE TO AMBROSE BIERCE?
HARVEY OSWALD?
If your I.Q. is over 150, and you have $3,125.00 (plus handling), you might
be eligible for a trial membership in the A.I.S.B. If you think you qualify,
put the money in a cigar box and bury it in your backyard. One of our
Underground Agents will contact you shortly.
I DARE YOU!
TELL NO ONE! ACCIDENTS HAVE A STRANGE WAY OF HAPPENING TO PEOPLE WHO TALK TOO
MUCH ABOUT THE BAVARIAN ILLUMINATI
May we warn you against imitations! Ours is the original and genuine
"Nothing is true. Everything is Permissible"
- Hassan i Sabbah
NIL
CARBORUNDUM
ILLEGITIMO
_________________________________________________________________________
"Illuminate the Opposition!"
-- Adam Weishaupt,
Grand Primus Illuminatus
Official
Bavarian Illuminati
"Ewige Blumenkraft!"
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
ÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍ |
Wicca | The-Complete-Uncut-Book-of-Shadows | 2,441 | 2956
INTER-OFFICE WIRE SENT
THE ANCIENT ILLUMINATED SEERS OF BAVARIA - VIGILANCE LODGE
Mad Malik, Hauptscheissmeister; Resident for Norton Cabal
DISCORDIAN SOCIETY SUPER SECRET CRYPTOGRAPHIC CYPHER CODE
Of possible interest to all Discordians, this information is herewith
released
from the vaults of A.I.S.B., under the auspices of Episkopos Dr. Mordecai
Malignatius, KNS.
SAMPLE MESSAGE: ("HAIL ERIS")
CONVERSATION:
A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26
STEP 1. Write out the message (HAIL ERIS) and put all the vowels at the end
(HLRSAIEI)
STEP 2. Reverse order (IEIASRLH)
STEP 3. Convert to numbers (9-5-9-1-19-18-12-8)
STEP 4. Put into numerical order (1-5-8-9-9-12-18-19)
STEP 5. Convert back to letters (AEHIILRS)
This cryptographic cypher code is GUARANTEED TO BE 100% UNBREAKABLE.
BEWARE! THE PARANOIDS ARE WATCHING YOU!
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Here is a letter from A.I.S.B. to POEE:
________________________________________________________________________
The World's Oldest And Most Successful Conspiracy
BAVARIAN ILLUMINATI
Founded by Hassan i Sabbah, 1090 A.D. (5090 A.L., 4850 A.M.)
Reformed by Adam Weishaupt, 1776 A.D. (5776 A.L., 5536 A.M.)
( )Official Business (X) Surreptitious Business
From: MAD MALIK Hauptscheissmeister
Dear Brother Mal-2,
In response to your request for unclassified agitprop to be inserted
in the new edition of PRINCIPIA, hope the following will be of use. And
please
stop bothering us with your incessant letters!
Episkopos Mordecai, Keeper of the Notary Sojac, informs me that you
are welcome to reveal that our oldest extant records show us to have been
fully established in Atlantis, circa 18,000 B.C., under Kull, the galley
slave who ascended to the Throne of Valusia. Revived by Pelias of Koth, circa
10,000 B.C. Possibly it was he who taught the inner-teachings to Conan of
Cimmeria after Conan became King of Aquilonia. First brought to the western
hemisphere by Conan and taught to Mayan priesthood (Conan is Quetzlcoatl).
That was 4 Ahua, 8 Cumhu, Mayan date. Revived by Abdul Alhazred in his
infamous Al Azif, circa 800 A.D. (Al Azif translated into Latin by Olaus
2957
Wormius, 1132 A.D., as The Necronomicon.) In 1090 A.D. was the founding of
The Ismaelian Sect (Hashishim) by Hassan i Sabbah, with secret teachings |
Wicca | The-Complete-Uncut-Book-of-Shadows | 2,442 | based on Alhazred, Pelias and Kull. Founding of the Illuminated Ones of
Bavaria, by Adam Weishaupt, on May 1, 1776. He based it on the others.
Weishaupt brought it to the United States during the period that he was
impersonating George Washington; and it was he who was the Man in Black who
gave the design for The Great Seal to Jefferson in the garden that night. The
Illuminated tradition is now, of course, in the hands of The Ancient
Illuminated Seers of Bavaria (A.I.S.B.), headquartered here in the United
States.
Our teachings are not, need I remind you, available for publication.
No harm, though, in admitting that some of them can be found disguised in
Joyce's Finnegan's Wake, Burroughs Nova Express, the King James translation
of the Holy Bible (though not the Latin or Hebrew), and The Blue Book. Not to
speak of Ben Franklin's private papers (!), but we are still suppressing
those.
Considering current developments--you know the ones I speak of--it
has been decided to reveal a few more of our front organizations. Your
publication is timely, so mention that in addition to the old fronts like the
Masons, the Rothchild Banks, and the Federal Reserve System, we now have
significant control of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (since Hoover died
last year, but that is still secret), the Students for a Democratic Society,
the Communist Party USA, the American Anarchist Assn., the Junior Chamber of
Commerce, the Black Lotus Society, the Republican Party, the John Dillinger
Die For You Society, and the Camp Fire Girls. It is still useful to continue
the sham of the Birchers that we are seeking world domination; so do not
reveal that political and economic control was generally complete several
generations ago and that we are just playing with the world for a while until
civilization advances sufficiently for phase five.
In fact you might still push Vennard's The Federal Reserve Hoax:
"Since the Babylonian Captivity there has existed a determined,
behind-the-scenes under-the-table, atheistic, satanic, anti-Christian
force--worshipers of Mamon--whose undying purpose is world control through
the control of Money. July 1, 1776 (correct that to May 1st, Vennard can't
get anything right) the Serpent raised its head in the under-ground secret
society known as the Illuminati, founded by Adam Weishaupt. There is con-
siderable documentary evidence to prove all revolutions, wars, depressions,
strikes and chaos stem from this source." Etc., etc., you know the stuff.
The general location of our US HQ, incidentally, has been nearly
exposed; and so we will be moving for the first time this century (what a
drag!). If you want, you can reveal that it is located deep in the labyrinth
of sewers beneath Dealy Plaza in Dallas, and is presided over by The Dealy
Lama. Inclosed are some plans for several new potential locations. Please
review and add any comments you feel pertinent, especially regarding the
Eristic propensity of the Pentagon site.
Oh, and we have some good news for you, Brother Mal! You know that
Zambian cybernetics genius who joined us? Well, he has secretly co-ordinated
the FBI computers with the Zurich System and our theoriticians are in ecstasy
over the new information coming out. Look, if you people out there can keep
from blowing yourselves up for only two more generations, then we will
finally
have it. After 20,000 years, Kull's dream will be realized! We can hardly
believe it. But the outcome is certain, given the time. Our grandchildren,
2958
Mal! If civilization makes it through this crises, our grandchildren will
live in a world of authentic freedom and authentic harmony and authentic
satisfaction. I hope I'm alive to see it, Mal, success is in our grasp.
Twenty thousand years....!
Ah, I get spaced just thinking about it. Good luck on the Principia. |
Wicca | The-Complete-Uncut-Book-of-Shadows | 2,443 | Ewige Blumenkraft! HAIL ERIS.
Love,
MAD MALIK
PS: PRIVATE - Not for publication in The Principia.
We are returning to the two Zwack Cyphers for classified communications.
Herewith your copy. DO NOT DIVULGE THIS INFORMATION - SECURITY E-5.
[note: Graphic Cypher deleted DtC]
________________________________________________________________________
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Part Five The Golden Secret
NONSENSE AS SALVATION
The human race will begin solving it's problems on the day that it ceases
taking itself so seriously.
To that end, POEE proposes the countergame of NONSENSE AS SALVATION.
Salvation from an ugly and barbarous existence that is the result of taking
order so seriously and so seriously fearing contrary orders and disorder,
that GAMES are taken as more important than LIFE; rather than taking LIFE AS
THE ART OF PLAYING GAMES.
To this end, we propose that man develop his innate love for disorder, and
play with The Goddess Eris. And know that it is a joyful play, and that
thereby CAN BE REVOKED THE CURSE OF GREYFACE.
If you can master nonsense as well as you have already learned to master
sense, then each will expose the other for what it is: absurdity. From that
moment of illumination, a man begins to be free regardless of his
surroundings. He becomes free to play order games and change them at will. He
becomes free to play disorder games just for the hell of it. He becomes free
to play neither or both. And as the master of his own games, he plays without
fear, and therefore without frustration, and therefore with good will in his
soul and love in his being.
And when men become free then mankind will be free.
May you be free of The Curse of Greyface.
May the Goddess put twinkles in your eyes.
May you have the knowledge of a sage,
and the wisdom of a child.
Hail Eris.
2959
T'AI
___ ___
___ ___
___ ___
_________
_________
_________
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
THUS ENDS PRINCIPIA DISCORDIA |
Wicca | The-Complete-Uncut-Book-of-Shadows | 2,444 | This being the 4th Edition, March 1970, San Francisco; a revision of
the 3rd Edition of 500 copies, whomped together in Tampa 1969; which revised
the 2nd Edition of 100 copies from Los Angeles 1969; which was a revision of
"PRINCIPIA DISCORDIA or HOW THE WEST WAS LOST" published in New Orleans in
1965 in five copies, which were mostly lost.
If you think the PRINCIPIA is just a ha-ha, then go read it again.
(K) ALL RIGHTS REVERSED - Reprint what you like
Published by POEE Head Temple - San Francisco
" On The Future Site of Beautiful
San Andreas Canyon"
Office of My High Reverence
Malaclypse the Younger KSC
OPOVIG HIGH PRIEST POEE
KALLISTI
THE LAST WORD
The foregoing document was revealed to Mal-2 by the Goddess Herself through
many consultations with Her within his Pineal Gland. It is guaranteed to be
the Word of Goddess. However, it is only fair to state that Goddess doesn't
always say the same thing to each listener, and that other Episkoposes are
sometimes told quite different things in their Revelations, which are also
the Word of Goddess. Consequently, if you prefer a Discordian Sect other than
POEE, then none of these Truths are binding, and it is a rotten shame that
you have read all the way down to the very last word.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
DISCORDIAN SOCIETY
Dedicated to an Advanced
Understanding of the Paraphysical
Manifestations of Everyday Chaos
DID YOU KNOW THAT YOU HAVE A LOPSIDED PINEAL GLAND?
Well, probably you do have one, and it's unfortunate because lopsided Pineal
Glands have perverted the Free Spirit of Man, and subverted Life into a
frustrating, unhappy and hopeless mess.
Fortunately, you have before you a handbook that will show you how to
discover
your salvation through ERIS, THE GODDESS OF CONFUSION.
It will advise you how to balance your Pineal Gland and reach spiritual
Illumination. And it will teach you how to turn your miserable mess into a
2960
beautiful, joyful, and splendid one.
POEE is a bridge from
PISCES to AQUARIUS
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
the Words of the Illuminated Rated X... NATURALLY
Why are we Here ? SUPPRESSED KNOWLEDGE
Have you ever secretly HYGIENE
wondered why the Great The Lord promised: "Therefore,
Pyramid has five sides? - behold, I will bring evil upon
counting the bottom? the house of Jeroboam and will |
Wicca | The-Complete-Uncut-Book-of-Shadows | 2,445 | cut off from Jeroboam him that
GRAND OPERA pisseth against the wall..."
"Wherefore my bowels shall sound -I Kings 14:10 (This
like a harp for Moab, and mine unsanitary practice caused
inner parts for Kirharesh." serious erosion of the mud
-Isaiah 16:11 walls)
Face to fact with the mighty forces and elements of nature, the thoughtful
man fearlessly contemplates his place in the great cosmic scheme.
-><- POEE -><-
YES, I'd like to know the Five Simple Actions that will turn Me into a
"Mental Wizard" in a Single Weekend.
Warning!
Prolonged use in a darkened room may induce hallucinations or trigger
undesired side effects. Should not be used in the presence of persons subject
to epilepsy.
THIS MAY BE THE MOST IMPORTANT GUIDE IN YOUR LIFE!
-THE GODDESS ERIS PREVAILS-
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
SPECIAL AFTERWORD
to the Loompanics Edition of PRINCIPIA DISCORDIA
G.H. Hill, San Francisco, 1979
All Rites Reversed (K) Reprint What You Like
ÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍ
2961
INTERVIEW WITH NORTON CABAL
by Gypsie Skripto, Special Correspondent
It has been ten years since I net the mysterious Malaclypse the
Younger. I was free lancing for the underground papers and went to POEE Hear
Temple at 555 Battery Street to try for an interview.
I found him in the Temple PO Box busy wrapping up the new Fourth
Edition of PRINCIPIA. He seemed impatient with me, insisting that he didn't
have the time or inclination for foolish questions from reporters. Undaunted,
I burst out with questions like whether he preferred Panama Red or Acapulco
Gold and how the fuck did we manage to fit inside of a tiny post office box
and other things apropos a naive young semiliterate dropout hippy writer. He
asked me if I wanted to drop mescaline and fuck all night and said he knew
how to turn himself into a unicorn and there might be room for a tiny
interview on the cover of the PRINCIPIA if I wanted to work for the GREATER
POOP so I said sure, OK, I've never dropped mescaline in a post office box
before.
It turned out I was among the last to see Malaclypse. As subsequent
issues of GREATER POOP revealed, he was to disappear and POEE business was to
be assumed by his students at Norton Cabal. Professor Ignotum P. Ignotius,
Department of Comparative Realities, was assigned the Trust of the POEE
Scruple and Rev. Dr. Occupant became Keeper of the Box. The newly published
copies of PRINCIPIA were distributed by Mad Malik, Block Disorganizer, who
had distribution contacts with the Aluminum Bavariati. Practical relations
remained in the hands of concept artist G. Hill. |
Wicca | The-Complete-Uncut-Book-of-Shadows | 2,446 | When the 1000 PRINCIPIAS were gone the GREATER POOP stopped
publishing, Head Temple closed down and the Cabal just seemed to evaporate.
Finally even the box was closed. But over the years I noticed that copies
were still circulating, and that independent Discordian Cabal would oc-
casionally pop out of nowhere (and still do ). And I would wonder what ever
happened to Malaclypse.
When I read the ILLUMINATUS trilogy I resolved to again find and
interview the denizens of Joshua Norton Cabal of the Discordian Society.
* * *
As I cabled over Nob to San Francisco's Station 'O' Post Office I
couldn't help but wonder at Goddess' hand in assigning street addresses to
Her outposts. Mal2 had told me that Good Lord Omar always filed everything
under "O" for OUT OF FILE.
"Maya is marvelous" I was thinking when I rapped on the little metal
door and was greeted warmly by a huge beard who introduced himself as
Professor Ignotius. He ushered me into a spacious wood paneled and tapestry
hung parlor where three others were laughing and passing around a wine jug.
The sunny one in a tunic was the Reverend Doctor Occupant, the trim khaki and
jeans was Mad Malik and the wine jug claimed to be Hill. I got the recorder
on....
GYPSIE SKRIPTO [in response to a question]: ...1969 but only briefly. I guess
I missed you guys.
MAD MALIK: No wonder, he was pretty much a one man show then. We were just
2962
his students and were usually off on errands. You worked for the POOP?
Gypsie: Well, for one night anyway. The interview is in the PRINCIPIA.
REV. DR. OCCUPANT: Malik was the only one he would ever let write for the
POOP or get on the letterhead.
Gypsie: Did you [Malik] have higher authority than the others?
Malik: No, [but I was allowed to speak in the POOP] because [Malaclypse the
Younger] hated politics. He was infuriated with Johnson and nixon over Viet
Nam because it was turning the renaissance into a political revolution and
was stealing his sacred thunder. So he trained me in Zenarchy, which he
learned from Omar, and I was the official anarcho-pacifist for the Cabal.
Also I was liaison to The Ancient Illuminated Seers of Bavaria, the Chicago
Discordians. Later Omar activated the Hung Mung Cong Tong and ELF, on
zenarchist principles, and also Operation Mindfuck. I was also into those.
Though at the time I was masquerading in GREATER POOP as a created cabbage to
throw off the FBI.
Gypsie [to Hill]: Since you wrote it, I take it you are an anarchist?
G.H. Hill: Since then I have given up anarchy. Too many rules-- hating the
government and all that stuff.
IGNOTUM PER IGNOTIUS: It's like hating your own fantasies.
Malik: [Anarchy] is also standing up and proceeding forward, fantasy rule or
not. The condition is the same.
Occupant: Brother needs some wine!
Malik: We have had this argument before, Reverend Doctor Brother. But wine |
Wicca | The-Complete-Uncut-Book-of-Shadows | 2,447 | before platitudes, fill it up.
Gypsie [to Hill]: And pacifism?
Hill: I'm not sure I ever was one. Mal2 was not, Malik was. Personally I
accepted self defense yet I could never reconcile that with the ideal. I
finally gave up on that one too. Actually I just gave up on idealism.
Ignotius: Idealism lives with rules. Realism lives with rocks.
Hill: Yeah. I get along better with rocks.
Malik: Mal2 once told me that pacifism was a dilemma. If everybody was a
pacifist then everything would be perfect. But nobody is going to be a
pacifist unless I am first. But if I am and somebody else is not, then I get
screwed. He said that there were five choices under that circumstance. The
first was napalming farmers and the second was executing your parents. The
third was hypocrisy, the fourth was cowardice, and the fifth was to swallow
the dilemma. Zenarchists are trained in dilemma swallowing.
Occupant: So are other Erisians, like POEE.
Ignotius: That is characteristic of the Discordian perspective.
Hill: But of course training contradicts Discordian principles.
2963
Malik: Oh so what. Contradictions are nothing to Discordians.
Occupant: Dilemma, Schilmemma. [to Gypsie]: What do you think of this, pretty
ma'am? We don't get to hear your thoughts.
Gypsie: I'm reporting now, you talk.
Occupant: Later then?
Gypsie: Perhaps. Later.
Occupant: You are smiling.
Gypsie: Hey, guy, later. [to Hill]: Doesn't this leave you a little schizy?
Hill: It's OK, I'm half Gemini.
Gypsie: What's the other half?
Hill: Taurus. That makes me a stubborn schizy.
Ignotius: I'm a Whale.
Occupant: I choose Satyr.
Malik: Spirits don't have signs.
Hill: A character can have a sign if I want it so.
Occupant: Well I can have a sign if I want to and screw both of you.
Malik: Come on Greg, you just think that we are your characters....
Occupant: You were inhabited by Malaclypse the Younger. He caused you to
create roles and those roles are being performed by us spirits.
Ignotius: A perfectly normal pagan relationship. |
Wicca | The-Complete-Uncut-Book-of-Shadows | 2,448 | Hill: Well you can look at it like that if you want to, but I created Mal2 to
my specifications just as I conceived all the rest of you.
Occupant: You didn't invent Eris. She caused you to think you created the
spirit of Malaclypse.
Hill: Oh bull! Besides, I changed her so much the Greeks would never
recognize her.
Occupant: That's what She wanted!
Ignotius: Deities change things around all the time.
Malik: What you don't realize is that a spirit has a self identity.
Hill: Nope. A spirit is a product of definition and the one who is doing the
defining around here is me. Your identity is what I say it is. Just to prove
it, I'm going to change your name.
SINISTER DEXTER: It's OK with me. Fate is fate. I never much liked "Mad
2964
Malik" anyway.
Ignotius: Besides people confused him with Joe Malik in ILLUMINATUS.
Dexter: I sort of enjoyed the confusion part.
Occupant: Doesn't prove anything anyway.
Gypsie: That name sounds familiar. Where is it from?
Hill: Its a name I came up with in the old days and never used it much. Its
on page 38 of the PRINCIPIA referring to Vice President Spiro Agnew. I always
thought I invented it but now it sounds like a Stan Freberg name now that I
think about it. It may have stuck in my preconscious memory from early TV.
Gypsie: Can you use it without his permission?
Hill: If it is his? I don't know. I hope so. it means "left right" in Latin
and is a perfect name for a libertarian anarchist. Actually in my kind of art
the question of what can I use freely and what can I not is a very tricky
problem.
Gypsie: How do you mean?
Hill: Well, take a collage for example. Like the early one on page 36 of the
PRINCIPIA. Each little piece was extracted from some larger work created by
some other artist and published and maybe copyrighted. I find them in
newspapers and magazines mostly. Often from ads. With a collage you select
and extract from your environment and then assemble into an original
relationship.
The PRINCIPIA itself is a collage. A conceptual collage. All of it happens
simultaneously. But visually it is a montage, passing through time, like a
book does.
There is a lot of pirated stuff in the PRINCIPIA, especially in the margins.
But also I sympathize with artists who must own and sell their works to earn
a living. Art, like knowledge, should be free fodder for everyone. But it
isn't It is perplexing.
Gypsie: Where did all the things in PRINCIPIA come from? |
Wicca | The-Complete-Uncut-Book-of-Shadows | 2,449 | Hill: Well, a full answer would take another book in itself. Most of the
writing credited to a name is a true person and almost always a different
name means a different person. Most of the non-credited, you know, Malaclyps-
e, text is mine although some things credited to either Mal2 or Omar were
actually co-written and passed back and forth and rewritten by each of us.
The marginalia, dingbats, and pasted in titles and heads and things came from
wherever I found them--some of which is original but uncredited Discordian
output, like the page head on 12 and other pages which is from a series of
satiric memo pads from Our Peoples Underworld Cabal. All page layout is mine
and some whole graphics like the Sacred Chao and the Hodge Podge Transformer
are mine but mostly I just found stuff and integrated it. Mostly I did
concept, say 50% of the writing, 10% of the graphics, all of the layout.
Gypsie: Specifically, what are some of the sources?
Hill: Weel, the poem on the front cover is by Walt Kelly and was spoken by
2965
one of his characters in Pogo. The government seals starting from page 1 are
from a book of sample seals from the U.S. Government Printing Office. Western
Union on page 6 got into the act because I used to be a teletype operator and
had access to blank forms. Rubber stamps came from all over the place and
some, like the apple on page 27, I carved myself. A few I ordered to my
specification, like on page 1. The quote on the top of page 8 might be from
Barnum, I'm not sure. The jumping man on page 12 is from an advertisement. I
recognize the style--a popular commercial artist-- but I don't know his name.
The Chinese on the page is a grocery ad, I think. The Norton money on page 14
is historic,plus my little additions. The apple on page 17,as well as the
triangle on 23 and the Sacred Chao on 50 are, believe it or not, pasteups of
mimeographs, from Seattle Cabal. That group produced the best damn mimeog-
raphy I've ever seen. The Lick Here Box on page 23 is one of many tidbits
making the rounds in alternative/underground newspapers in those days. Trip
5 page header on 29 was a chapter title in one of Tim Leary's books. The
Knight on the bull with the TV antenna on his helmet on page 46 came from a
very artistic magazine called Horseshit and put out by two brothers from Long
Beach. I don't remember their names. Wonderful magazine.
Occupant: Eris told Mal2 what to use and where to find it.
Hill: Yeah, in a way that is right. That is why my name does not appear
anywhere on the PRINCIPIA and why it was published with a broken
copyright--Reprint What You Like. I knew I was taking liberties and didn't
want my intentions to be misunderstood. It was an experiment and was intended
to be an underground work and that involves a different set of ethics than
commercial work.
Gypsie: There are no real names at all?
Hall: Oh, some. Camden Benares is a real name because he legally changed his
original name to his Holy Name. Also, instead of using Mordecai Malignatus I
used Bob Wilson's real name on page 12 because Werewolf Bridge was a work
before Discordianism. And of course real people like Neils Bohr crop up in
quotes.
Gypsie: What do you think about the PRINCIPIA now? Would you want to change
it?
Hill: I consider it a successful work and I wouldn't want to change it. In
some ways it is immature and I am not the same person I was 10 years ago, but
it accomplished the objectives I set for myself and it has the effect I
wanted it to have. There are a few errors though.
Gypsie: Like what? |
Wicca | The-Complete-Uncut-Book-of-Shadows | 2,450 | Hill: Oh, I changed a quote from Tom Gnostic on page 61 and I don't think he
ever did forgive me for it. He's right. Starbuck's Pebbles should have been
preceded by the Myth of Starbuck which was being saved for something else and
never got used. I should have used it when I had the chance. And then Eris
did a neat little trick on me by having IBM make the Greek selectric
typewriter element not coincide with all the characters on their keyboard. So
the little "kallisti" that appears on the title page and lastly on the back
cover came out "kallixti" and I was too dumb to know the difference.
Gypsie: Will there ever be a Fifth Edition?
Hill: There already is a Fifth Edition, by Mal2. It is a one page telegram
2966
that reduces everything to an infinite aum. I found it at Western Union where
a machine got stuck and kicked out hundreds of pages of nothing but m's. He
made it the Fifth Edition and then left.
Principia/Malaclypse was a very personal work for me and actually took 10
years to culminate. it was one single statement that included my adolescence
in the 50's and my young adulthood in the 60's. When I finally had the
paste-ups done I knew that I had finished it. That is why, quote, Malaclypse
left. I knew it was finished. I didn't know exactly what it was, but it was
done.
Occupant: See?
Gypsie: Earlier you said that you met your objectives. Just what were those
objectives?
Hill: Well, that's hard to answer because it kept refining itself over the
years. In 1969 I mainly though of myself as a cosmic clown and I set out to
prove, by demonstration, that a deity can be anything at all.
In other words, people invent gods and not the other way around. Later I
decided that I was doing some kind of conceptual art.
In the 50's my culture taught me that I was created by and for a deity, a
specific male deity, and that all other deities are FALSE. Yet my growing
experience showed me that any deity is true in some sense and false in some
other sense. So I set out to do what my society told me is impossible--make
a real religion from a patently absurd deity.
In the 50's a female deity was blasphemy. In the 70's a humorous deity is
still considered impossible, ridiculous, and blasphemous. As far as I'm
concerned, I have proven my point. Eris is a real deity and even though I
don't promote Erisianism as a serious religion....
Occupant: I do!
Dexter: You speak for yourself.
Ignotius: Here, here.
Hill: ...I do point out that it makes just as much sense from its own
perspective as all the others do from each of their own perspectives.
Occupant: I think paganism is a valid spiritual path. I encourage Erisianism
because it makes fun of itself. i think this is healthy.
Ignotius: If you can live rewardingly with Goddess Eris you can live with any
deity, including none at all. |
Wicca | The-Complete-Uncut-Book-of-Shadows | 2,451 | Dexter: I don't much go for the worship business but I argee with Occupant
about the spirit of the thing. We live in a time of turmoil, the whole planet
is in a state of change. If we, as a species, cower from the confusion then
we die with the dying. This is revolution.
Ignotius: I am an athiest myself. There is no Greg Hill.
[laughter]
2967
Gypsie [to Hill] : What do you think of ILLUMINATUS?
Hill: Oh, I love it. I was finishing PRINCIPIA when Shea and Wilson were
working on ILLUMINATUS. It took Dell five years to publish it...maybe that is
significant. The 1969 Discordian Society was a mail network between
independent writers of various kinds. Norton Cabal was just me and my
characters and I used the other Cabals as sort of a laboratory. In return
other Discordians would bounce their stuff off of me. We would toss in ideas
and anybody could take anything out. It was a concept stew. The exchanging of
ideas and techniques broadened and encouraged all of us.
I like ILLUMINATUS for the surrealism. A very effective method of writing.
Ignotius: I got misquoted. Worse, I wasn't even in that scene and if I had
been then I would have said something else.
Dexter [to Ignotius]: That was me in that scene.
Ignotius: Oh, is that what that was?
Dexter: He got our names mixed up.
Hill: He got mixed up about me too, in COSMIC TRIGGER. Bob says that when
Oswald was buying the assassination rifle, my girlfriend was printing the
first edition of PRINCIPIA on Jim Garrison's Xerox. It wasn't my girlfriend,
it was Kerry's; it wasn't the FIRST ED PRINCIPIA, it was some earlier
Discordian thought; it wasn't Garrison's Xerox, it was his mimeograph; and it
wasn't just before Kennedy was shot but a couple of years before that.*
The FIRST ED PRINCIPIA, by the way, was reproduced at Xerox Corp when
xerography was a new technology Gypsie. Which was my second New Orleans trip
in 1965. I worked for a guy on Bourbon Street who was a Xerox salesman by
day.
Dexter: I think that George Dorn took too much guff from Hagbard. If someone
pulls a weapon on me, I'm more inclined to either leave or kill the
sonofabitch.
Occupant: You are supposed to be a pacifist.
Dexter: I'm speaking figuratively of course. I'll tell you more tomorrow.
Gypsie [to Hill]: Did you really translate erotic Etruscan poetry?
Hill: Sure, but I used a pen name. I signed it "Robert Anton Wilson".
[A quick rap is heard on the door]
Gypsie: I have only one question left...
Dexter: I'll get it.
Gypsie: ...what I really want to know is how can we all fit inside of a tiny |
Wicca | The-Complete-Uncut-Book-of-Shadows | 2,452 | little post office box?
Dexter[to Gypsie]:It's a telegram for you, from Mal2.
Gypsie: To me?
2968
[Paper tearing]
Gypsie [reading]: "If I told everybody how they could live inside of a post
office box then everybody would stop paying landlords and go live inside
their post office boxes. It would collapse the building! Can you imagine,
post offices collapsing all over the country, the hemisphere, the PLANET! The
whole world's communication system would be destroyed. No,no, I must not say.
I dare not!
-------------
* I checked this further with Mr. Thornley. He says that the woman in
question was not his girlfriend, she was just a friend, and it wasn't a
couple of years before Kennedy was shot but had to be a couple of years after
(but before Garrison investigated Thornley). --GS
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
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2969
RITE OF HANDFASTING
Joy and Tom Williams
April 16, 1994 ce
MUSIC :
Beltane Wedding Dance by Gwidion. -- While Circle forms, those entering
are smudged by ASSISTANTS standing on both sides of SOUTH side of circle.
HP and/or HPS:
explain for non-Pagans the idea of Handfasting, why a circle
instead of pews, etc.
CIRCLE CASTING (HPS casts circle followed by FLOWER MAIDEN strewing
petals):
We cast the circle of ancient lore;
Waves upon a timeless shore.
With no begninning, nor an end;
It always knows a foe from friend.
Oroboros, of legends old;
Rings of power, forged in gold.
Circle of Life, ring of stones;
Cycle of creation, birth to bones.
A ring around the silv'ry Moon;
We cast you now, o ancient rune!
QUARTERS:
(CRYSTAL BEARER takes crystal from altar and gives it to the EAST quarter
caller. Caller invokes power holding up CRYSTAL. When done, the caller
hands CRYSTAL back to bearer who takes it to the next quarter. After
NORTH, bearer places CRYSTAL back on altar.)
EAST:
I call the Eastern powers of air,
You whose breath of life we share,
Bring understanding, kindness, care,
And loving words, both clear and fair,
Come bless this day our rite of love, |
Wicca | The-Complete-Uncut-Book-of-Shadows | 2,453 | As below then so above.
SOUTH:
I call the Southern powers of fire,
Whose light doth stir the poet's lyre,
With love's bright spark our hearts inspire,
Bring passion's flame, bring sweet desire,
Come bless this day our rite of love,
As below then so above.
WEST:
Oh powers of the Western sea,
Oh water's flowing unity,
Bring feeling, warmth and empathy,
That all our lives may blessed be,
Come bless this day our rite of love,
As below then so above.
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NORTH:
Oh Northern powers of living Earth,
Charge our souls from death to birth,
On solid ground of rock and loam,
Bring forth our food and build our home,
Come bless this day our rite of love,
As below then so above.
GODDESS INVOCATION (HP)
Laughter-loving Aphrodite!
Venus Amathusia!
Come to me with laughing breast,
Come on waves with golden crest,
Come with doves and golden light,
Drawn by swans and sparrows bright.
Alight! Alight!
I am thy man, I am thy mate!
Receive me til our storm abate!
Thy green glades echo with my calls,
Come to me from emerald halls,
Flanked by maidens winding there,
Rose and mytle in thy golden hair,
Come to me! to me! to me!
And mate with me upon the grass,
Laughing, lusty, oh ravishing lass!
Our bodies arch and strain and twine,
I am thine and thou art mine!
Come from heavens of azure hue,
Ocean born and ever new,
Pulsing, laughing, yearning straining,
Pleasure, lust, all life containing,
Race with me through glades of green,
Exalting, loving, oh rapturous queen!
To me! to me!
Oh come to me!
And enter, merge, enfold, unite!
Suffuse desire with golden light!
Never sated in eons of time,
I am thine and thou art mine!
GOD INVOCATION (HPS)
Oh horned one, goat-foot,
Great God Pan! |
Wicca | The-Complete-Uncut-Book-of-Shadows | 2,454 | Come to me with eyes of fire,
And with thy pipes awake desire,
Come with wild and lustful grin,
Herald of your flame within,
Io Pan! Io Pan!
Io Pan, Pan, Pan!
Shout to me from scented wood,
The call of all that's wild and good,
Come to me with shaggy thighs,
And let the hills return our cries,
Come with satyrs bearing wine,
I am thine and thou art mine!
Come with joyous lusty laugh,
Come with swollen ruddy staff,
Race with me thorugh halls of green,
Thou art my God and I your Queen,
2971
And spend with me a tender hour,
Making love within my bower,
To me! To me!
Oh come to me!
And come oh God of stream and wood,
Oh God of life and all that's good,
Never sated in eons of time,
I am thine and thou art mine!
HPS:
And by your rites of sacred marriage I inoke ye:
Shiva and Parvati
Jove and Juno
Dagda and Boyne
Odin and Freya
HP:
And by your sacred rites of marriage I invoke ye:
Persephone and Hades
Nuit and Geb
Rhiannon and Pwyll
Ishtar and Tammuz
HP & HPS: Blessed Be!
ALL: Blessed Be
HP:
Our work today is a happy one. We are gathered in the presence of
the deities of the fruitful trees, the flowing waters, the warming sun
and the
siging air, and in the sight of the Goddes of our Blessed Earth to celebrate
the joining of our two dear friends Joy and Tom, in union by the fasting of
their hands by ancient rite.
HPS (holding up CORD):
This is the cord of handfasting. It will tie Tom and Joy together with
bonds of love. For such bonds to be strong they need support -- the
support of the lovers themselves, the support of the Gods and the support
of a community of family and friends. we ask now that each of you give
your support, letting it flow as loving strength into the cord as it is
passed around the circle.
ALL SING:
Love is a River (as CORD is passed around circle)
HPs (to assistants): |
Wicca | The-Complete-Uncut-Book-of-Shadows | 2,455 | Now open the circle, cut wide the gate, for two are coming who would be
made one!
ASSISTANTS:
(Open gate at SOUTH and stand at each side as couple enters..They then
take BROOM from altar and lay it across the gate, remaining there with
the circle joined together again.)
(HP: Rings bell three times. Processional, Spring Strathsprey by Gwydion,
vocal)
(Couple walk hand-in-hand deosil around the inside of the circle. After a
2972
full turn around the circle, GROOM stops in the WEST while BRIDE
continues
on around to the EAST, at which point they both approach the altar from
opposite directions.)
(Music ends when all are in place, or the song is ended.)
HPS:
Brothers and sisters, the Bride comes from the heart of the dawn, and
the Bridegroom from the sunset. There is a wedding in the valley; a day
too
vast for recording! There is magic to be done here; the magic of Love!
HP:
You have come together in this sacred grove to stand in the presence
of our Lady of Love and our Lord of Lust, that they may bestow upon you
their bountiful blessings of everlasting love and devotion through the
sacred
rite of handfasting. This is a bond not to be entered into lightly, but
with
seriousness, reverence, and joy.
HPS:
Is it your intention, Tom, to be wed to Joy in the sight of the gods and
of these people? to be tied to her in giving, in dreams, and in
intentions, and
to vow to her your love and commitment?
GROOM: (answers)
HPS:
Have you considered the gavity of your commitment?
GROOM: (answers)
HPs:
Have you considered the levity of your commitment?
GROOM: (answers)
HP:
Is it your intention, Joy, to be wed to Tom in the sight of the Gods
and of these people? to be tied to him in giving, in dreams, and in
intentions, and to vow to her your love and commitment?
BRIDE: (answers)
HP:
Have you considered the gavity of your commitment?
BRIDE: (answers) |
Wicca | The-Complete-Uncut-Book-of-Shadows | 2,456 | HP:
Have you considered the levity of your commitment?
BRIDE: (answers)
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HPS (facing BRIDE and holding up PENTACLE):
Joy,
Thou shalt be the star that rises from the twilight sea
Thou shalt bring a man dreams to rule his destiny
Thou shalt bring the moon-tides to the soul of a man
The tides that flow and ebb, and flow again,
The magic that moves in the moon and the sea;
These are thy secret, and they belong to thee.
Thou art the Eternal Woman, thou art She,
The tides of all men's souls belong to thee.
Danu in heaven, on Earth, Persephone,
Diana of the Moon and Hecate,
Veiled Isis, Aphrodite from the sea,
All these thou art, and they are seen in thee.
HP (facing GROOM and holding WAND):
Tom,
All wild creatures hear thy call upon the haunted wind.
Within thy soul the Horned One returns to Earth again.
Together you shall manifest the magick of the man
And falcons soar from out the sky to perch upon thy hand.
The serpent's wisdom thou shalt learn from tip of forked tongue.
The fleetness of the white stag's flight in starlight or in sun.
Lord of Light and Lord of Shadow; keeper of the key
Which unlocks the door of dreams, whereby men come to thee.
Cernunnos, Tammuz, Horus, Pan; by name we set thee free!
0, Shepherd of the wild woodland, may thou be one with he!
(HP turns to HPS holding WAND. HPS picks up CHALICE and ATHAME;
anoints with water, touches to flower petals; censes; then places over
WAND. The HP & HPS hold WAND aloft between them.)
HPS:
Above you are the stars, below you are the stones.
As time passes, remember...
Like a star should your love be constant,
Like the earth should your love be firm.
Possess one another, yet be understanding.
Have patience each with the other,
For storms will come, but they will go quickly.
Be free in giving of affection and of warmth;
Make love often, and be sensuous to one another.
Have no fear, and let not the ways or words of the unenlightened give
you unease.
For the old gods are with you,
Now and always!
HP (holding wand):
Is it your wish, Joy, to become one with this man?
BRIDE: (answers)
HP:
Then give him your vow.
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2974 |
Wicca | The-Complete-Uncut-Book-of-Shadows | 2,457 | BRIDE:
I, Joy wed you, Tom and pledge to build with you a place of
love, nourishment and happiness within our hearts and within our home.
I pledge you love, honor and trust. love, both soft and tender
and love suffused with passion and playfulness; love which will honor your
inner deity, endure hardship and nurture honesty, trust and devotion.
I pledge to support and cherish your growth in the human
adventure; to explore with you the wonders of life; to hold you in my love
when you are ill or sad and to nurture your healing, growth, development and
actualization. As you evolve so shall I for we are as one and reflect one
another.
I promise to create a home with you that shall be a haven for us
both, a place of welcome for family, friends and lovers and a place of
comfort in times of sorrow. I promise to love, honor, protect and nourish
you as long as we both shall live
HPS:
Is it your wish, Tom, to become one with this woman?
GROOM: (answers)
HPS:
Then give her your vow.
GROOM
: I, Tom wed you, Joy and pledge to build with you a place of
love, nourishment and happiness within our hearts and within our home.
I pledge you love, honor and trust. love, both soft and tender
and
love suffused with passion and playfulness; love which will honor your inner
deity, endure hardship and nurture honesty, trust and devotion.
I pledge to support and cherish your growth in the human
adventure;
to explore with you the wonders of life; to hold you in my love when you
are ill or sad and to nurture your healing, growth, development and
actualization. As you evolve so shall I for we are as one and reflect one
another.
I promise to create a home with you that shall be a haven for us
both,
a place of welcome for family, friends and lovers, and a place of comfort in
times of
sorrow. I promise to love, honor, protect and nourish you as long as we
both shall live.
HP:
Does any say nay?
GROOM:
Then we are happy, but we would yet ask the blessing of the
May Queen on our union.
BRIDE:
2975
Oh Queen of the May, we ask your blessing on our union and
on our connection with this land which is our home upon the Earth. |
Wicca | The-Complete-Uncut-Book-of-Shadows | 2,458 | MAY QUEEN:
As you marry, take my blessing and the blessing of our Mother Earth that
you may live long within Her breast and flourish in Her abundance.
(Takes cord from the altar and hands it to HP and HPS) I bid you bind
them in love with my blessing,
HP & HPS (tying the hands of bride and groom together with the cord):
This day you marry your friend, the one you love, laugh with, live for,
dream with.
HP (handing ATHAME to GROOM):
This knife is for the troubles that lie ahead.
HPS (handing CHALICE to BRIDE):
This cup is for the love that conquers them.
GROOM (holding up ATHAME):
I bring the energy of yang, active, bright, logical and hard. I bid you
blend these energies with yours to make us whole and keep this token on
the altar of our love.
BRIDE (holding up CHALICE):
I bring the energy of yin, dark, intuitive, flowing and soft. I bid you
blend these energies with yours and make us whole and keep this token on
the altar of our love.
(GROOM dips ATHAME into CHALICE)
HP:
Yin and yang, male and female, light and dark. neither may stand
alone, but out of their eternal interplay the universe is born. So it is
above
and so it is here below.
HP:
Now share you the water of life, the blood of the sacred Goddess our
Mother Earth, water that binds us and all living things to her body.
(BRIDE and GROOM share water and kiss)
HP:
Out of the billions of the Earth, these two have come, have looked
into each other's eyes, and are now made one. Their ways have converged
and shall now be together. In our deepest being we hope that their path
may
be pleasant and the sky fair where they reside. But if trouble comes, as
it
can surely come to all, may the pressure of the trial only bring them
more
closely together. With clasped hands and united hearts, may they bear
life's
sorrows together and share life's joys together.
2976
(BRIDE pours libation and speaks however she is moved, then hands
CHALICE to GROOM, who sips, libates and passes cup to HPS, who sips,
libates and passes CHALICE to HP. COUPLE then moves around the circle
deosil greeting guests while chant is sung: I am the Heart and the Soul
of
Creation, then return to altar.) |
Wicca | The-Complete-Uncut-Book-of-Shadows | 2,459 | HPS (gives Navajo Wedding Blessing):
Now you will feel no rain, for each of you will be the shelter to the other.
Now you will feel no cold, for each of you shall be the warmth to the other.
Now there is no more loneliness for you.
Now there is no more loneliness.
Now you are two bodies, but there is only one life before you.
Go now to your dwelling place to enter into the days of your togetherness.
And may your days be good and long upon this Earth.
(GROOM thanks guests and invites them to the feast.)
(ASSISTANTS open the gate in SOUTH where the BROOM has been lying and
hold the broom a LITTLE off the ground. HP and HPS: lead the chant: JUMP
THE BROOM! as COUPLE runs around the circle and jumps the BROOM on the
way out.)
HP & HPS (Stand on opposite sides of altar, raising arms):
We thank you Gods and Goddesses of the Sacred Marriage for
attending and blessing this, our rite of life and love. We bid you now,
Hail
and Farewell!
ALL: Hail and Farewell!
HP:
Oh mighty Lord of life and death, whose hooves dance upon the altrar
of Time and whose pipes play the song of Never-Ending, we thank You for
Your blessing and bid You now Hail and Farewell!
ALL: Hail and Farewell!
HPS:
Oh gracious Goddess, Queen of love and birth whose body is the
green and flowering Earth and the dust at whose feet are the stars of
heaven, we thank You for Your blessing and bid You now Hail and Farewell!
QUARTER CALLERS:
We thank you now, oh powers of Earth (Water, Fire, Air)
HPS:
All from air into air, let the misty curtain part.
All is ended, all is done
What has been must now be gone!
What is done by ancient art
Must merry meet and merry part!
AND MERRY MEET AGAIN!
Well, there it is. It was beautiful. And so smooth. Hope you all
enjoyed it. Tom wrote the invocation to Pan and Aphrodite. If you want
2977
to use it though would expect people to ask permission to use it, since
it is copyright protected in the Green Egg.
Anyway, this is a guide, and it is OUR h-fasting. People can use it as a
guide, but it is much more magickal if you create your own.
Thou art Goddess!
Joy Williams
--
ÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍ |
Wicca | The-Complete-Uncut-Book-of-Shadows | 2,460 | 2978
SHADOW WEAVER GROVE ADF
BELTANE RITUAL 5/5/1990
This is a transcription of the original planned ritual for Beltane forthe
Shadow Weaver Grove, transcribed with permission by Joseph Tellerof the
Wonderland BBS 508-663-6220 WWIVNet Node 5803 for
distributionto the Pagan
Community at large. Shadow Weaver Grove can also bewritten to via Surface
mail at : PO Box 5451, Billerica MA 01821.Distribution for non-commercial use
of this document is granted, solong as the wording and information contained
herein remains unchangedin the process of distribution.
___________________________________________________________________________
I. Starting the Ritual
A) Processional : (starting Chant {Ku-Wa-Te})
To enter the circle each person must pass through four "gates"
representing each of the Three Worlds (Land, Sea & Sky) and Fire. Each person
steps to the first Gate Keeper and is asked: "What do you ask of the Gate of
Earth (Sea) (Air)?" AN answer is given or left unspoken, and the person is
marked by the Guardian (with mud, water and brush of a feather) and proceeds
to the next Gate and is questioned again. The Guardian of the last Gate,
Fire, smudges the person before they enter the circle. When everyone is in
the circle, the chant continues ("Ku-Wa-Te") as the Gatekeepers come into the
circle and prepare themselves.
B) Statement of Purpose :
We are here tonight to honor the Goddess Danu, called the Earth-mother
and to honor the God Belemos, Called the Sun King. We honor them and ask them
to bless us and rekindle the warmth of the world.
C) Centering Meditation:
Group meditation and collective consciousness: All present are brought
together with a group meditation, to form a "group-mind"; to help everyone
center and bring themselves together to work in accord.
D) Earth Mother Invocation :
Oh Earth-Mother
We praise thee
That seed springeth
That flower openeth
That grass groweth
We praise thee
For winds that whisper
Through the shining Birch
Through the lively Pines
Through the mighty Oak
We praise thee
For all things
Oh Earth-Mother who gives lifeII.
The Active Ritual
Invocation of Ogma the Gate Keeper or Mannanon in English:
(Visualization is a triangle shaped iris opening)
Gate Keeper of Fire:
O Ogma, Lord of the Gates, Lord of Knowledge, open the ways for us
O Mannanon, master of the realm beyond the seas, grant us passage to your
kingdom.
O great God of knowledge, we wish to walk your roads.
Reveal to us your teachings, reveal to us the safe path.
Come wash the nighttime clean;
Come Close the gap of darkness in between.
We praise you for the brightness of your power.
2979 |
Wicca | The-Complete-Uncut-Book-of-Shadows | 2,461 | We praise you for the gift of knowledge.
Guide us to the place we seek.
Walk with us Ogma!
Walk with us Mannanon!
CHANT: We invoke thee Ogma, opener of every Gate
We invoke Mannanon, opener of every Gate.
You shall reach us, You shall teach us and reveal our fate.
You shall reach us, You shall teach us and reveal our fate.
B) Consecration of the Waters:
[After each cup is consecrated it is passed around the members of
the circle so that each may drink from it. When the cup returns to the start
the remaining liquid is spilled unto the Earth or into the fire. Contents may
be spring water, or an alcholic brew if alcohol it is preferred to have been
brewed by a member of the Grove.]
Druid of the Gate of Land:
Spirits of nature, of the trees and rocks, of the animals and Earth,
give us your favor and your companionship, share with us the bond of spirit
and of life on Earth. Remember us and speak to us in our hearts. Give us your
teachings and laughter, become one amoung us here tonight, Consecrate these
waters. Behold the Waters of Life!
{All Chant "Fur and Feather"}
Druid of the Gate of Sea:
Ancestors of Long ago, be with us, give us your favor and your
wisdom, share with us the bond of kinship and of life upon Earth.
Remember us and speak to us in our hearts. Give us your knowledge and your
blessing, become one with us here tonight; Consecrate these waters.
Behold The Waters of Life! {All Chant "Blood of the Ancients")
Druid of the Gate of Sky:
Gods and Goddesses, be with us, give us your favor and blessings,
share with us the bonding essance and our existence upon your sphere of life.
Remember us and speak to us in our hearts. give us your strength and your
peace, become one amoung us here tonight. Consecrate these waters.
Behold the Waters of Life! {All Chant "Mother I feel you"}
C) Individual Offerings and prayers:
At this point, all present that wish to may make an offering or
offer prayers. If anyone has an offering or a prayer they would like to make
they step forward and do so, individual offerings to particular patrons or
spirit helpers are done at this time.
D) Sacrifice with the Willow Branch:
Gate keeper of fire makes a final offering of a willow branch, to send
the energy to the deities of the occasion. It is sacrificed into the central
bonfire.
Gate Keeper of Fire:
Our praise goes up with thee on the wings of eagles; our voices are
carried up to thee on the shoulders of the wonds. hear now O Belemos, O Danu,
we pray thee, as we offer up this sacrifice of life. Accept it we pray thee,
and cleanse our hearts, giving to us of your peace and life.
E) Divination :
A scrying is done with crystal/flame, to find if the gods have
accepted our prayers and will be with us. If the omen is bad, offerings are
made again. If they are rejected thrice, the circle is broken immediately and
the ritual ended.
F) The Fourth Consecration:
Here the wards are set to protect us during the magic working.
2980
Druid #1 (Fire):
We greet you, Brother Wabun, Golden Eagle of the East. We ask that you
watch over us this night, and share with us your wisdom, Let your keen vision |
Wicca | The-Complete-Uncut-Book-of-Shadows | 2,462 | guide us over the obstacles before us. We greet you, Brother Shawnodese,
Guardian of the South, great Coyote. We ask that you walk with us this night,
and guide us as we walk this path of learning. We greet you, Waboose, White
Buffalo Woman of the North, Grace us with your company, and walk with us
night as we seek the wisdom that surrounds us. We greet you, brother
Mudjekeewis, Great Bear of the West. Walk with us this night and aid us in
our journey to wisdom. At this time, would each of you please meditate on
your personal needs and desires.
G) Induction of Receptivity : (Litany of the Waters)
[D1 can be Guardian of Fire, D2 can be the Group response. If the group
doesn't know the responses one of the other guardians should lead them into
them]
D1: Of what does the Earth-Mother give, that we may know of the
continual flow and renewal of life?
D2: The waters of Life.
D1: From whence do these waters flow?
D2: From the bosom of the Earth-Mother,the ever changing All-Mother
D1: And how do we honor this gift that causes life?
D2: By partaking of the waters of life.
D1: Has the Earth-Mother given forth her bounty?
D2: She has
D1: Then give me the waters!
Final consecration and sharing: A fourth cup is consecrated.
O Belemos, O Danu, hear us and answer us! Hallow these waters! We
your children have praised you, and now we ask from you healing, blessing,
power and inspiration...Behold the waters of life!
{Passing chant: "Ku-Wa-Te"}
III. The Work of The Circle
A) The Magic Working:
Tonight we pray for the prosperity of all those here. May our fortunes
increase, may the Goddess and God smail on our endeavors and bring us good
luck in all that we do.
We ask that you bless these small tokens of our wishes, and grant us the
success that we ask for. {Here a small basket with a crystal and appropriate
symbols of general prosperity were passed around so that all might add
energy to it}
B) Affirmation of Success:
D1: Belemos and Danu have Blessed us!
D2: Every time we invoke them, they become stronger and more
alert to the needs of their people.
D1: With joy in our hearts let us return to the realm of mortals to do
the will of the Gods and our own.
D2: Yet, before we leave, we must give thanks to those whome we have
invited here today.
IV. Closing:
A) Thanking and closing of the Quaters:
We thank you, Brother Wabun, Golden Eagle of the East. You have watched
over us this night, and shared with us your wisdom, Your keen vision has
shown us the ostacles before us. We ask you, go in peace, as you came in
peace. So we may walk together again. We thank you, Brother Shawnodese,
Guardian of the South, great Coyote. Once again your lessons have helped us,
and shown us the truth in ourselves. We ask you, go in peace, as you came in
2981
peace, So we may walk together again. We thank you, Waboose, White Buffalo of
the North. You have graced us with your company, and walked with us this
night. You have helped us see the wisdom that surrounds us. We ask you, go
in peace, as you came in peace. So we may walk together again. We thank
you Brother Mudjekeewis, Great Bear of the West. You have shown us your power
and kept us safe in our journey to wisdom. We ask you, go in peace, as you
came in peace, so we may walk together again. |
Wicca | The-Complete-Uncut-Book-of-Shadows | 2,463 | B) Thanking of the Gods and Goddess:
Gods and Goddesses of the old times, spirits of the old times and
of this place, people of the old times and of our ancestors, our kindred we
thank you.
C) Closing the Gate:
Gate Keeper of Fire :
O Ogma, Lord of the Gates, Lord of KNowledge, we thank you. O Mhannon,
we thank you. Now let the Gates between the Worlds be closed!
D) Return from the group-mind, grounding and centering.
Reverse the Tree Meditation.
Relaxing of the Grove's Wards.
Libation:
D1: To thee we retrun this portion of thy bounty, O Danu our Mother,
even as we must someday return unto thee.
D2: We have finished this ceremony.
D1: So be it!
ALL: Biodh se!
___________________________________________________________________________
CHANTS USED DURING RITUAL:
{Ku-Wa-Te}
Ku-Wa-Te Lay-no Lay-no Ma-ho-teHi-ano, Hi-ano, Hi-anoKu-Wa-Te Lay-no
Ma-ho-teHi-ano, Hi-ano, Hi-ano We are one with the infinite sun Forever,
Forever, ForeverWe are one with the Infinite Sun Forever, Forever, Forever.
{Mother Nature Waits}
Mother Earth provides Mother Earth Provides Mother Earth Provides all for us
to surviveMother Earth Provides Mother Nature Waits Mother Nature Waits Beca-
use life never ends, she always begins again Mother Nature waits.
{Hoof and Horn}
Hoof and horn, Hoof and hornAll that dies shall be reborn.Corn and Grain,
corn and grainAll that falls shall rise again.
{Blood of the Ancients}
It's the blood of the AncientsThat runs through our veinsAnd the forms
pass,But the Circle of life remains.
{Fur and Feather}
Fur and Feather and scale and skin
Different without but the same within
Great of body but one of soul
Through all creatures are the Gods made Whole
{Mother I feel You}
Mother I feel you under my feet
Mother I feel your heart beat
Mother I feel your heart beat
Father I see you where the eagle flies
Spirit gonna carry me higher and higher
Spirit gonna carry me higher and higher
________________________________________________________________________
ÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍ
2982
BRIGIT OF THE CELTS
-------------------
Brigit was one of the great Triple Goddesses of the Celtic people.
She appeared as Brigit to the Irish, Brigantia in Northern England,
Bride in Scotland, and Brigandu in Brittany. Many legends are told
about Brigit. Some say that there are three Brigits : one sister in
charge of poetry and inspiration who invented the Ogham alphabet,
one in charge of healing and midwifery, and the third in charge of the
hearth fire, smithies and other crafts. This catually indicates the
seperate aspects of her Threefold nature and is a neat division of |
Wicca | The-Complete-Uncut-Book-of-Shadows | 2,464 | labor for a hard-working goddess.
Brigit was probably originally a Sun Goddess, and a charming story
of her birth is that she was born at sunrise and a tower of flame
burst from the forehead of the new born Goddess that reached from
Earth to Heaven. It was likely She who inspired the line in the famous
Song of Amergin: "I am a fire in the head." Her penchant for smithcraft
led to her association by the Romans with Minerva/Athena. As a warrior
Goddess, She favored the use of the spear or the arrow. Indeed, various
interpetations of her name exist including, "Bright Arrow," "The Bright
One," "the Powerful One" and "The High One," depending upon the region
and the dialect.
As a Goddess of herbalism, midwifery and healing She was in charge
of Water as well as Fire. I don't beleive that anyone has ever
counted all teh vast number of sacred wells and springs named after
or dedicated to this Goddess. A story is told of how two lepers came
to one of her sacred springs for healing and She instructed one Leper
to wash the other. The skin of the freshly bathed man was cleansed
of the disease and Brigit told the man who was healed to wash the man
who had bathed him so that both men would be whole. The man who was
healed was now too disgusted to touch the other Leper and would have
left him, but Brigit herself washed the leper and struck down the
other arrogant fellow with leperousy once more before he could leave.
Offerings to the watery Brigit were cast into the well in the form
of coins or, even more ancient, brass or gold rings. Other sacrifices
were offered where three streams came together. Her cauldron of
Inspiration connected her watery healing aspect with her fiery poetic
aspect.
Brigit is clearly the best example of the survival of a Goddess
into Christian times. She was cannonized by the Catholic church as
St. Brigit and various origins are given to this saint. The most
popular folktale is that She was midwife to the Virgin Mary, and thus
was always inviked by women in labor. The more official story was
that She was a Druid's daughter who predicted the coming of
Christianity and then was baptised by St. Patrick. She became a nun
and later an abbess who founded the Abbey at Kildare. The Christian
Brigit was said to have had the power to appoint the bishops of her
area, a strange role for an abbess, made stranger by her requirement
that her bishops also be practicing goldsmiths.
Actually, the Goddess Brigit had always kept a shrine at Kildare,
Ireland, with a perpetual flame tended by nineteen virgin priestesses
called Daughters of the Flame. No male was ever allowed to come near
it; nor did those women ever consort with men. Even their food and
other supplies were brought to them by women of the nearby village.
When Catholicism took over in Ireland, the shrine became a convent
and the priestesses became nuns but the same traditions were held
and the eternal flame was kept burning. Their tradition was that
each day a different priestess/nun was in charge of the sacred fire
and on the 20th day of each cycle, teh fire was miraculously tended
2983
by Brigit Herself. There into the 18th century, the ancient song
was sung to her : "Brigit, excellant woman, sudden flame, may the
bright fiery sun take us to the lasting kingdom."
For over a thousand years, the sacred flame was tended by nuns,
and no one knows how long before that it had been tended by the
priestesses. In 1220 CE, a Bishop became angered by the no-males
policy of the Abbey of St. Brigit of Kildare. He insisted that nuns
were subordinate to priests and therefore must open their abbey
and submit themselves to inspection by a priest. When they refused
and asked for another Abbess or other female official to perform
any inspections, the Bishop was incensed. He admonished them to
obediance and then decreed that teh keeping of the eternal flame
was a Pagan custom and 6rdered the sacred flame to be extinguished.
Even then, She remained the most poular Irish saint along with |
Wicca | The-Complete-Uncut-Book-of-Shadows | 2,465 | Patrick. In the 1960's, under Vatican II modernization, it was
declared that there was insufficient proof of Brigit's sanctity
or even of her historical existance, and so teh Church's gradual
pogrom against Brigit was successful at last and She was thus
decanonized. It is very difficult to obtain images or even holy
cards of ST. Brigit outside of Ireland anymore.
Her festival is held on Febuary 1st or 2nd. It corresponds to
the ancient Celtic fire festival of Imbolc or Oimelc which
celebrated the birthing and freshening of sheep and goats (it really
is a Feast of Milk). This festival was Christianized as Candlemas
or Lady Day and Her Feast day, La Feill Bhride, was attended by
tremendous local celebration and elaborate rituals. Her festival
is also called Brigit. Brigit (the Goddess and the Festival)
represents the stirring of life again after the dead months of the
winter, and her special blessings are called forth at this time.
Since She was booted out of teh Church for being Pagan, it is
incumbant upon us Pagans to restore Her worship to its former glory
especially those of us of Celtic ancestory. Here is an ancient rite
to invite Brigit into your home at the time of her Holiday:
Clean your hearth thoroughly in teh morning and lay a fire
without kindling it, then make yourself a "Bed for Brigid" and
place it near the hearth. The bed can be a small basket with covers
and tiny pillow added as plain or fancy as you like. If you have no
hearth, you can use the stove and put the bed behind it. Then at
sundown light a candle rubbed with rosemary oil and invite Brigit
into your home and into er bed; use the candle to kindle your
hearthfire if possible. Make your own poem to invite Her or use
the ancient song mentioned earlier. Let the candle burn at least
all night in a safe place. You might even want to begin the custom
of keeping the eternal flame; it is a popular custom in some
magickal and Wiccan traditions. AFter all, it's up to us now to
keep the spirit of Brigit alive and well for the next thousand
years at least!!!
Brigid is not really a Celtic Mother Goddess. She is generally
considered a Goddess of fire/smithcraft, of poetry and of healing. One
of her roles is as midwife, but although she has a son, she is not
usually seen as a mother.
I don't know any books that deal specifically with Brighidh, but please
look for a book called "Celtic Mythology" by Proinsias MacCana and for
"Gods and Heroes of the Celts" by Marie Lousie Sjoestadt for more
information about Celtic deities. They are both VERY good sources.
2984
Brighidh is a Goddess of healing, smithcraft and poetry, brewer of mead
and ale, a lawgiver, a midwife, supposedly daughter of the Daghda,
mother of the poet Cairbre, and of the Gods Brian, Iuchar and Iucharba.
She was transformed into a Christian Saint and became the foster mother
of Christ. Some sources say that the healer/smith/poet were embodied in
one Goddess, other sources claim that she was three sisters, all named
Brighidh.
Her holy day falls (on our calendar) on February 2nd (I wonder if She
likes groundhogs...) called Imbolc, Oimelc or Lady Day. Candles are
blessed that day in the Catholic churches.
By: Ido
To: Teakan
Re: Somethnig about Brighid:
Brigit/Brigid/Bride was the daughter of Dagda. She was the proctector of the
poets, the forge and the healing persons. Her son Ruadan, which she had with |
Wicca | The-Complete-Uncut-Book-of-Shadows | 2,466 | Bres, was killed by Goibnui. For her died son she sounds the first kenning of
Eireland. She also was put into the cult and the person of Brigit from
Kildare, which made the first female parish after Christianity falls into
Eireland. The convent of Kildare has had a neverending fire, which was
protected by the sisters of the parish. The saint Brigit is the second patron
saint of Eireland. within the scottish tradition Brigit belongs together
with the time of the year "Season of the lambs" and the comming of spring.
Brigit overcomes the control of the Cailleach Bheur.
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THE FINER POINTS OF RITUAL:
A Comparative Approach to
Liturgical History, Theology and Design
=======================================
A Heartland Pagan Festival Keynote Address
by Mike Nichols
Participants: Morning Glory Zell
Otter Zell
Rhiannon Bennett
Carolyn Clark
Eldoreth Grey Squirrel
Anahita
Morwen
Chris
Dix
other audience members not identified
[NOTE: This transcription was made from an audio tape dub of a
videorecording of the event. The microphone placement made some
of the comments from the audience unintelligible, and those
sections were omitted. In some cases, the comments were picked
up but it was impossible to identify the speaker. Because of the
lack of visual cues, it is also possible that some of the
speakers are incorrectly identified. To improve readability,
some very minor editing was done.]
Rhiannon: I'd like to introduce someone whom we are really proud
to have in our community. He has been involved in Witchcraft --
in teaching free Witchcraft classes -- for over eighteen years
now. He is also a teacher of parapsychology at the University of
Missouri at Kansas City. He owns the Magick Lantern, which is
our occult bookstore here in town -- the ONLY occult bookstore we
actually have here in town. He's very instrumental in
introducing people to Wicca through his classes -- over 6,000
people! Granted all of them didn't decide to stay with us, which
is fine. But think how many myths that helped shatter, and
helped to make us a valid religion in some people's eyes. And a
lot of times, that's what we need. Every time I say something
about a particular speaker, people say "Well, what has he
written? What has she written?" Books are really wonderful but,
as I'm sure you've read, there are some good books, and there are
some mediocre books, and there are some that are pure trash out
there. Just because they say they're a Pagan writer doesn't mean
a thing. Sort through and pick out the good stuff. People like
Mike help us go through and figure out what's real and what's not
real. And then help you decide, even out of what's real, what's
real for you. So I'm really proud to have him in our community,
and I'd like to welcome him. |
Wicca | The-Complete-Uncut-Book-of-Shadows | 2,467 | (APPLAUSE)
Mike Nichols: I hope you don't mind if I do this sitting down.
I want to present it more like a workshop than a standard
lecture. First of all, I want to start out with a few thank
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you's. I just want to say a personal thank you to Rhiannon who
has acted as liaison between the Heartland Spiritual Alliance and
the Magick Lantern, which was sometimes a difficult and thankless
task, but she's done it well. When I saw her stand on the chair
in the hall last night and scream "TWO pieces of chicken! ONLY
two!", I thought I've never seen anyone look so much in their
element. (LAUGHTER) So thank you so much. And not only to
Rhiannon, but to the organizers of the Heartland Pagan Festival
all together. I think they've done a wonderful job. Let's give
them a hand.
(APPLAUSE)
What we're going to be doing in here is kind of an advanced
class on ritual design, what we sometimes like to call liturgics.
Before this is all over, we're going to be into such areas as
liturgical theology, liturgical history, and liturgical
aesthetics. For those of you who are local and who have taken my
class, or seen me do speeches at psychic fairs and such, you will
be happy to note that this is not recycled material. This is the
very first time I am presenting any of this material anywhere.
So I hope you enjoy it.
I'm starting from the premise that most people here are
already fairly well advanced in Paganism and have gotten to the
point where they already know about ritual and realize why it's
there, why there is a need for it, and are beginning to ask
other questions about ritual. What does it take to make a "good"
ritual? What kind of elements do you need to have, what kind of
order, what kind of structure does a ritual have to have to work?
Are there certain things a ritual needs to work? How can you
tell if a ritual has worked? And questions like that start
happening only after you've been into it a little while.
If you are new to this whole area, and really are not that
conversant with why ritual is used anyway, let me just gloss that
point by saying there are a couple of really good books that I
think give you a good understanding of that. One is "The Spiral
Dance" by Starhawk. Another is "Drawing Down the Moon" by Margot
Adler. I think either one of those would inform you as to why
Witches use ritual in the first place.
The need for ritual is sometimes one of the most difficult
things for newcomers in this area to understand because quite
often, if they've been brought up in a religious tradition that
downplays ritual, for example, (and many Protestant religious
traditions say that ritual is only so much gobbledy-gook, etc.,
that there's nothing to it), it's a real stumbling block for
people to understand why the ritual is there. I've noticed that
people with Roman Catholic backgrounds or a background in Judaism
seem to have a better grasp on what ritual is there for and what
it accomplishes.
When we get into this kind of work, let me just say that
much of my talk here today is going to be highly speculative,
highly theoretical, and please do not take it as a final position
paper on anything. It is at best a preliminary report on work in |
Wicca | The-Complete-Uncut-Book-of-Shadows | 2,468 | progress. We're going to do a lot of comparative liturgics as a
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way of understanding our own ritual development.
When it comes to ritual or liturgy -- whichever word you
want to use, and I'm going to be using them interchangeably -- it
has always seemed to me that liturgical theology should be on the
cutting edge of theological concerns in Paganism. There are many
religious writers who believe that religions basically have three
dimensions -- any religion. First of all, it's theology: what
are it's beliefs? Secondly, it's social structure: how does this
religion impact on the world around it? And thirdly, it's
ritual: what do the people do to express their religious values?
It has always seemed to me that within Paganism in general, and
Witchcraft certainly in particular, it is the liturgical
dimension that is the most often in focus.
Theology I think has been rather slow. It is developing,
Pagan theological concerns, but it's developing late. If you
read Starhawk and Adler and people like that, you're beginning to
see the beginnings of Pagan theology.
As far as the social dimension, there was a time of course
when Paganism had a social dimension, when most people were
Pagan. But for the last couple of thousand years we have been a
minority religion -- a very small minority in some cases. And I
think because of that we don't yet have a very strong
sociological impact. But that too may be changing, through
festivals like this, when Pagans start gathering in big enough
numbers to start talking about such things as social change. For
example, at one of the workshops we had the other day, somebody
suggested that one of the things Pagans could do to increase
their visibility and positive image in the community is to take
on community projects like answering telephones for the local
public TV telethons. Yes, this is our local Coven on the phone
lines! (LAUGHTER) Or this is the local Coven who have all
decided to go down and do a park clean-up on a particular day.
When we get enough people doing stuff like that, then Witchcraft
will have its social dimension.
In the meantime, the strongest dimension I think for most of
us is the ritual, is the liturgy. When you tell somebody you're
a Witch, the first thing they ask you is "What do you do?" -- not
"What do you believe?" or "What is your impact on society?" --
but "What do you do?" They want to hear about your rituals. I
think that's exactly why Stewart Farrar titled his first book on
Witchcraft "What Witches Do".
So we've got to start looking at what we do, in terms of
ritual and how ritual has developed. However, when it comes to
trying to study liturgy in modern Paganism, you are immediately
arrested by the fact that there is no coherent study of it. Yes,
there are books of rituals. Sure, you can buy a spellbook here,
a grimoire there. Marion Weinstein has published a Book of
Shadows. The last half of Doreen Valiente's book is a Book of
Shadows. Scott Cunningham's got books of spells, etc. But is
there any systematic study of all this stuff put together? No.
Not so far.
I think the reason is because development has been so rapid.
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All of this stuff has come along so fast that people have not had |
Wicca | The-Complete-Uncut-Book-of-Shadows | 2,469 | a chance to assess it and evaluate it, and ask significant
questions about it. Consequently, both the scholar and the lay
person really don't have very many places to go when it comes to
this.
There are a few things though that you can say about
religious ritual. First of all, religious ritual is a human
experience, a very universal human experience. It is as real as
fear, and as important as love. It has a meaning of its own. It
is not some sort of aberration or distortion of reality. It is
an injection of new meaning into the reality around you. There
is hardly a culture in the world that has not developed its
religious rituals. And sometimes by looking at religious rituals
of other cultures, we can begin understanding our own better.
That's one of things I'm gonna try to do here.
There's a strange continuity, a sameness when you start
looking at different rituals, that pervades all of them. We find
that rituals, for example, are transpersonal and transcultural.
People seem to experience the same types of things no matter
where you look all over the world.
In looking at liturgical theology, I have been doing an
awful lot of work in terms of comparative study. Because the
only group of people who have systematically writing about
liturgical theology for any length of time are the Christians.
Does this have anything to say to us as Pagans? Perhaps it does.
Reason: I think most Pagans are by now well aware of the fact
that the Christians have borrowed a heck of a lot from the old
Pagan religions. For example, it's commonly known that the old
Pagan holidays served as models for Christian holidays, so that
the modern Christian liturgical calendar is to a great extent
based on older Pagan themes. And ironically, sometimes you can
look at what Christians have written about these to find out
still more about the Pagan themes that underlie it.
A second area where this is true is what we call
hagiography, the study of saints. So many of the saints in the
rites of the Roman Catholic Church are in fact simply
Christianized forms of old Pagan gods and goddesses. So we read
about the legends of these saints, and we learn a little bit more
about the gods and goddesses underlying those legends. I think
Pagans generally realize both of these points. What Pagans do
not generally realize is that it is the same as far as liturgical
ceremonies go, too. When you get right down to it, Christianity
-- especially the way the Roman Catholic Church developed in the
early years of Christianity -- borrowed most of its liturgical
traditions from the Pagans.
I mean, if you ever stopped and thought about it... For
example, within the Roman Catholic Church, there are certain
rituals known as "sacraments", right? Do you realize that is a
Pagan word? Sacrament comes from the Latin "sacramentum" and was
an oath given by a Roman soldier to his gods. It was a ritual
setting. We might be well advised once again to reclaim the word
sacrament and use it as our own.
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According the Catholic Church, a sacrament is an "effective"
ritual, which means that it produces an objective effect. This
is not just a symbolic commemoration of something. This is
something that actually produces a change in reality. This
beginning to sound familiar? |
Wicca | The-Complete-Uncut-Book-of-Shadows | 2,470 | Other things which we have long considered primarily
Christian -- Again, I'm going to be drawing this almost
exclusively from the background of Roman Catholic liturgics,
which is one of the ones that is most developed. The High
Anglican would be another good source if you wanted to look into
this. The practice of "genuflection", of bowing on one knee,
originally a Pagan practice. The practice of kissing ritual
tools. If you were in a Catholic church, did you ever see a
priest pick up a Missal at Mass and kiss it, put it on the altar?
The same way a priestess will sometimes kiss her athame after
she's used it for an invocation? Yet another custom borrowed by
the Christians from the Pagans. So it seems real obvious to me
that we could look at the whole question of sacramental rites,
and ask what have the various Christian writers had to say about
them in terms of how they work, in order to find out what Pagans
probably also originally believed about rites and rituals.
Although at a later time the Catholic Church would limit the
number of official sacraments to be only seven in number, at an
earlier time this was not true. Anything could be seen as a
sacrament. A blessing was a sacrament. A holiday, a sacred
object, all of these things could be considered sacramental in
what they did. As a matter of fact, the first use of the word
"sacrament" within a Christian context was not until 210 C.E. and
it was by the Church writer Tertulian. He was the first one to
use that word in a Christian context, and when he did so,
ironically, he accused the Greek mystery religions of having
stolen that word from the Christians. Obviously, it was
precisely the other way around.
Although today the word sacrament refers primarily to only
seven ecclesial rituals within the Catholic Church, all of which
-- or at least six of which -- have parallels in Paganism, the
word "sacrament" is still used in comparative theology in a much
broader sense. Basically, it refers to any hidden reality, any
sign or symbol of a hidden reality that is mysterious and sacred.
I could be a person, a place, or a thing. Any of these things
could be considered sacramental.
From the point of view of Pagan theology, by the way, with
its strong emphasis on the theological perspective called
"immanence", the in-dwelling quality of the divine force in all
of nature, for a Pagan practically anything can become a
sacrament. Every rock, every tree, everything is alive with
magical and sacred powers which a Pagan can get in touch with and
from there connect with the entire universe. That's what a
sacrament is.
There have been, historically, at least two ways of viewing
rituals and sacraments. The first is the way as practiced by
social anthropologists. For example, one of the most famous of
these was proposed by Arnold van Gennep, who was the first to
2990
come up with the idea of rituals being, as he called them, "rites
of passage". He would point to something like a marriage rite,
and we can find rites like that in practically every society.
And he would say that the reason this ritual was important for
this society is that it marked a transition for one member of the
society from one social role to another. From the status of
being unmarried to the status of being married. In many
societies, kids when they hit the age of puberty go through a
rite of passage. This is an official recognition by the society |
Wicca | The-Complete-Uncut-Book-of-Shadows | 2,471 | as a whole that this person, who was once considered a child, is
now considered an adult and has adult responsibilities.
Van Gennep originally thought that practically all religious
rituals were rites of passage. Later social anthropologists have
pointed out there's at least one other major class or rituals.
And this is not a rite of passage but what we call a "rite of
celebration". Very distinct from a rite of passage. In a rite
of passage, we talk about a person's transition from one social
role to another. In a rite of celebration -- let's take for an
example a wedding anniversary -- nothing is changing here. We
are simply looking at something which has a permanent value and
belief structure, and we are celebrating it. We are focusing on
it. We are saying this is important to us. And we're going to
have this ritual to let everybody know how important it is to us.
A rite of passage is a rite of transition, but a rite of
celebration is a rite of intensification. It intensifies the
values and beliefs that are already present.
That was one of two ways of classifying religious rituals.
The other is the psychological approach. And probably the best
writer in this field is Mircea Eliade. He called sacramental
rituals -- he had a wonderful phrase for it -- he called them
"doors to the sacred". Every sacramental ritual, he said, is an
invitation to a religious or sacred experience. An invitation,
which you may accept or not. You can either let yourself become
a part of a ritual or not. You can make up your mind to distance
yourself from it. But its basic design, the basic reason for a
sacramental ritual is to give you an invitation to have an
experience of the sacred. Which Eliade calls a "hierophany", an
experience of the sacred.
Practically all of these experiences involve altered states
of perception, in terms of an altered sense of time and an
altered sense of space. And we all have these understandings.
For example, to most of us a tree is a tree. But what about the
tree that you had your treehouse in when you were a little kid?
That tree is special. There is no other tree like that tree
anywhere else in the world. It is sacred. A funeral home -- you
see them on every other street corner; they're just a building.
Except the funeral home that you attended your grandfather's
funeral in. You walk into that funeral home and space seems
different. It is charged with a meaning that normal space -- a
normal other funeral home -- does not have.
Time is the same way; the sense of time can change.
Anniversaries, celebrations of New Year's, celebrations like that
take us back to a time that's kind of outside of time, if you
will. And once again, charges that time with a special meaning.
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Time may even seem to pass differently. I think for me the best
expression of this has always been in fairy tales. When somebody
goes into the next world, the world of faery, and experiences the
passage of time differently.
So all of these -- what Mircea Eliade calls "hierophanies"
-- all of them have to do with altered states of perception,
which include both time and space. This is remarkably similar,
by the way, to Dion Fortune's famous definition of magick, the
"ability to alter consciousness at will". We're obviously
talking about the same kind of thing here.
Most hierophanies, the great majority of them, are |
Wicca | The-Complete-Uncut-Book-of-Shadows | 2,472 | individual. They are personal. Whether it's watching a sunset,
visiting a sacred place, walking up to Stonehenge and standing in
the center of it (and having the same feeling you had as you
stood in your last magic Circle), this is sacred space. This is
an individual and personal experience. But these religious
experiences can also be shared. It happens when we sing the
national anthem. It happens when we sing the old school song.
It happens when a group of us gets together to go see a dramatic
or theatrical presentation. In this case, we open ourselves
collectively to an experience of the sacred. Which again is what
a sacramental rite is all about.
One other interesting thing about these experiences is that
it is almost universally experienced that the high charge of
meaning that is found in the rite is experienced as "discovered"
or "encountered". It sort of dawns upon you. "Oh wow! That's
what this is all about! Yeah, I get it now!" It's not something
that is artificially enforced on the ritual from the outside. It
should grow organically from the ritual.
It's interesting to note that in Judeo-Christian tradition,
this sacredness is quite often found in history. In the
historical development of a God that interacts with a "chosen
people" throughout a period of history. Whereas in Pagan
theology, sacredness is most usually found not in history but in
nature. That every tree, every rock, everything is alive, that
you can get in touch with it, that it has a magical and sacred
essence and you can interact with that, and get in touch with the
Cosmos as a whole through that.
It's interesting to note, too, that because of this the
Judeo-Christian tradition places a very strong emphasis on sacred
writings, or scripture. Whereas many of the old Pagan religions
-- taking the old Druid religion as a fine example -- made it
forbidden to write down sacred material. Druids teach it, bards
sing it, dancers dance it -- but you don't write it. They
realized it was too sacred for that. So we have these very
definite distinctions in terms of how we've approached these
sorts of things.
Another way of looking at a ritual is this: Most of us are
familiar with the way a myth takes the values and beliefs of a
religion and embodies them in story form. A ritual takes the
values and beliefs of a religion and embodies them in actions.
That's why quite often a ritual is a myth enacted. Ritual drama,
2992
for example.
As I said at the beginning, I think many Pagans are aware of
how Christians have borrowed from us in terms of calendar
customs, and how they've borrowed our gods to use as their
saints. But we've seldom examined how the Christian religion has
borrowed our sacred rites. They have. The Catholic Church now
recognizes seven official sacraments. And virtually all of them
-- or at least six of them -- have Pagan origins.
First of all, the rite called "Baptism". That's the first
ecclesial ritual in the Roman Catholic Church. Or "Christening",
as it's sometimes called. It turns out once again that
practically every "primitive" culture has similar rites of
blessing of a child. In ancient, pre-Christian, Pagan Celtic
society, there was a similar rite. It had to do with sprinkling
a child with water, passing the child through the smoke of a |
Wicca | The-Complete-Uncut-Book-of-Shadows | 2,473 | fire, passing it through a hole in a stone or else touching it to
the earth (getting in all the elements here), and quite often
passing the child around a circle, handing the baby around so
that each person in the circle gets to hold it for a short time.
If you want descriptions of this taken from people who seem to
remember these pre-Christian ceremonies, look at the work of
folklorist Alexander Carmichael in the six-volume set, the
"Carmina Gaedelica". Some of these rites had been Christianized,
of course, even at the time Carmichael was taking them down. But
a lot of their Pagan origins are still very clear.
In Pagan Celtic society, by the way, this rite was called a
"seining". Which I would like to propose as a much better term
for this kind of rite in Paganism than the more recently coined
word "Wiccaning". I oppose that terminology for two reasons.
One, it's obviously a word that was coined recently to be a
counterpart to the term "Christening". So the word itself is not
historically attested. Secondly, think of what it implies! When
you "Christen" a child, you are introducing it into the body of
Christ, the Church. You are making it a Christian. I don't
think that any Witch thinks that "Wiccaning" a child is making
that child a Witch! I've never heard any Pagan put it that way.
At the very most, you are blessing the child, asking the gods'
protection for this child "so that no harm comes to the child, or
to anyone else through the child" (as it is commonly expressed)
until such a time as that child is able to choose its own
religion. We do not attempt to make that choice for the child.
It is simply a rite of blessing and protection. Strangely
enough, that is exactly what the word "seining" means. And
therefore I think it's much better than the alternative
"Wiccaning".
The Christian religion also has a sacrament called the
"Eucharist". By the way, if ever anybody challenges you that the
Christian religion doesn't employ magic, take a look at what the
Catholic Church has to say about the sacrament of the Eucharist,
or what they call "the blessed sacrament" -- THE blessed
sacrament. The official term for what happens is
"transubstantiation" -- that the priest actually has the power to
turn common bread and wine into the body and blood of Jesus! If
that isn't a magical act, I don't know what one is! Although the
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Church would be loath to use the word "magic" in this context.
But we certainly understand what it's all about.
The idea of blessing food and drink, however, once again
seems to be one of those universal rites. When people sit down
to a shared dinner, a common meal, it is a rite of inclusion.
Even in the early Christian Church, you were not allowed to
partake in the Eucharistic meal unless you were already a member
of that church. So the fact that in the Wiccan tradition you
share "cakes and ale" would imply an inclusion in the membership
of that group. And of course, there are all the symbolic
associations of food as sustenance.
We also have the sacrament of Confirmation in the Catholic
Church. Which always sounded strange to me when I was growing
up. You know, you're twelve years old now, and it's time for you
to be "confirmed". It's almost like up until then you were only
"tentative". (LAUGHTER) But now you're confirmed. What it
really meant, though, was the person was supposedly old enough by
now to make a free choice (cough) of which religion they wanted
to belong to. And the bishop -- You'll notice here, by the way, |
Wicca | The-Complete-Uncut-Book-of-Shadows | 2,474 | that the proper minister for this rite is the bishop, not the
priest. Although it is possible for a bishop to delegate the
power to a priest. But the bishop comes and confirms you into
this religion. Again, we have so many rites from so many Pagan
systems that this seems to based on that are usually referred to
as "initiation" ceremonies, or rites of passage, rites of
adulthood. When finally the child is brought fully into the
religious and social (in most primitive societies, they are the
same) structure of the society and is now seen to be a full
adult. So any first degree initiation could serve as a model for
what the Catholic Church came to call Confirmation.
Ordination. This is a right that ONLY a bishop can perform,
in the Catholic Church. Only a bishop can make a priest. You'll
notice that when we look at how initiation rites are
traditionally done in Wicca, any priest or priestess can make
another priest or priestess. And quite often, it looks like in
the oldest rites, it also involved a kind of "laying on of
hands". There was an imposition of hands that occurred in the
Catholic tradition, as well. And until that time, a novice
priest was actually told that it would be wrong or DANGEROUS for
him to perform some of the priestly functions unless he had been
made a priest!
And there were all sorts of stories in the old days that
only a priest could touch the consecrated elements. Only a
priest's hands -- only consecrated hands -- could touch the
vessels that held the consecrated elements: the chalice, the
monstrance, the ciborium, and so forth. This almost implies to
me, though it's never quite stated in this way, but it almost
seems like there is some sort of real, tangible, psychic energy
that is present.
I remember being regaled with stories when I was a little
kid going to a Catholic school where the nuns would tell these
wonderful stories about how some poor person was kneeling at the
altar rail waiting to receive Communion, and the priest comes
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along to administer Communion, and drops the Host. And the poor
person reaches out to try to catch it, and at the first touch of
this consecrated object, there is a tremendous flash of
lightning, and the person is now a little pile of ashes on the
altar carpet. (LAUGHTER)
I don't think it's quite like that. But what it may be
saying is that some of these powers, even within magical
traditions or Pagan traditions, are tangible and do carry some
sort of psychic clout. I don't think lightning is going to flash
out of the sky and reduce you to cinders. But what we're saying
is a metaphor, really, that there may be some kind of psychic
backlash if you attempt to wield these magical energies before
your training has been finished, before you're ready to handle
them, before you understand what you're doing. In the same way
that a good psychotherapy session, if it uncovers too much
garbage from your subconscious, can throw you backward if you're
not ready to deal with the stuff that's dredged up.
For those of you who believe there is some sort of validity
to the concept of "apostolic succession", the imposition of
hands, it also may imply that, when one priest or priestess makes
another priest or priestess, she is passing on a kind of MAGICAL
SHIELDING as well. A protection, so that you will be able to
handle these magical powers without any ill effect. For those of |
Wicca | The-Complete-Uncut-Book-of-Shadows | 2,475 | you who believe that the initiation tradition is valid. Again,
if you want to see Pagan examples of that, look at some of the
work done by Alexander Carmichael. There is a rite called a
"shielding" where one person kneels, while a second person puts
one hand under their knees and the other hand over their head and
says "Everything that is between my two hands is protected and
seined by the Mother". The Goddess has control of everything in
this sphere. It's a passing on of this shielding, that until you
have, it might be dangerous for you to experiment with these
powers. IF you believe that's a valid idea. (We'll get into
questions of validity in just a minute.)
The Christian tradition of marriage, of course... Well, in
every society that we know of, we have rituals that talk about
people getting together. However, ever since the Judeo-Christian
system has come along, we've been firmly locked into only one way
of viewing marriage -- a monogamous way of viewing marriage, for
one thing -- with very little latitude in terms of variability.
If you look at the Pagan idea of Handfasting, if you go back to
the Irish pre-Christian brehon laws, you will find that they talk
about at least ten different forms of what we today call
marriage. These forms include such things as marriage between
two people of the same gender, marriage of more than two people
(what today we would call a "group marriage"), marriages that
only last for a "year and a day" or some other specified time
(what today we might call a "trial marriage"), marriages that did
not demand sexual exclusivity (what today we would call "open
marriage"), "contract marriage", the woman keeping her own name,
pre-nuptial and post-nuptial property arrangements. (If you've
ever read about the great pillow-talk argument between Queen
Maeve and King Aillil about who had the most property, you know
what I'm talking about!)
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You know, it's fascinating to think that all of the
so-called marriage innovations that occurred in the 1960's, that
we thought were so mind-bogglingly new... nope! They were all
there in the old Pagan form of this rite. They were *standard*,
until the Christian form of marriage with its single theme, its
monogamous monotheistic vision, it's vision of the one right and
only way to do something, came along and knocked the older one
aside. But again, the Pagan origins are obvious.
The ecclesial sacrament called "Last Rites"... We have all
sorts of what we call "death blessings" in the Gaelic Pagan
traditions, to send the spirit on its way. For each person who
dies, there is one particular person assigned to be the leader of
these rites who from that time on is known as the dead person's
"soul friend". This is the one who will carry out the rituals,
remember them when Samhain comes around, set out the extra places
at the table, etc. We perhaps have less historical data on the
Last Rite theme than we have for certain other themes that we're
talking about here. But it is still there. And again a
reference to some of the early folklorists.
The one modern Christian sacrament that I cannot really find
an exact parallel for in terms of a pre-Christian precursor in
Paganism is the sacrament the Roman Catholic Church calls
"Penance", or "Confession". Isn't that interesting? The whole
sacrament has to do with confessing your sins to a priest, who
then absolves you of the sins. It is a whole thing of guilt, and
release from guilt. Yes? |
Wicca | The-Complete-Uncut-Book-of-Shadows | 2,476 | Morning Glory: There were blood guilt rituals, because if you
caused an accidental or even on-purpose death, you had to pay a
wyrguild to the family. In the New World, the Aztecs had a thing
where if you caused the death of someone, you became a surrogate
for that person. So there were things like that.
Mike Nichols: Okay, good point. I can think of an Irish example
of that, now that you mention it. The Chucullain legend is a
good example. Chucullain, who was originally Setanta,
accidentally on purpose kills this very ferocious dog, and walks
up to the gate-keeper and says, "I've killed your dog and I would
like to replace him." And the gate-keeper says "Fine, there go
some cats. Get busy." (LAUGHTER) I think that's where that
joke started.
Morning Glory: Samhain was also a time -- and Walpurgisnacht,
especially Walpurgisnacht -- was a time when you took stuff from
that year and purged it in the fire. And you would have to then
go and get it straight with any other people inside the Circle
that you shared.
Mike Nichols: I noticed that in a lot of the Pagan traditions,
the purging of one's "guilt" (and I think we're very misguided to
use the term "guilt" here)...
Morning Glory: Responsibility.
Mike Nichols: Responsibility, right -- is a matter of making
recompense to the person or persons who were wronged. It's not a
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matter of carrying around a guilt trip until somebody says "Okay,
if you'll go through this ritual, you will be absolved."
(unidentified): A couple of things I've run into recently, one
was in a work of fiction. These three young girls rob this woman
who later turns out to be a Witch. It's on this psychic journey
where they have the bodies of these 12th century people. And one
ends up a peasant. And he couldn't help but notice these weird
little Pagan things that kept cropping up that these people had
kept for centuries. And one of the things was that on the first
day of Spring, the village priest preached a sermon that "dancing
leads to damnation". Apparently, on the first day of Spring, all
the peasants would go out and dance everything out. And that
would really help them out. It got rid of all the pains of the
Winter, someone had been murdered, and a baby had died of
starvation.
Otter Zell: There was a common form that I can't identify
specifically, but it's a theme I've come across in a lot of
anthropological studies. But it's the basis of what we call, not
a "trial" really, but more like "mediation". If there's a
conflict between parties about something or if someone feels
they've been wronged by someone, then the parties would be
brought together within the community of people, and everybody
would have to tell their stories. Then they would ask them "What
do you think would be a fair settlement? What do you think would
be fair?" And this was just talked out in the context of the
community of people, until everything was worked out to
everyone's satisfaction. And we've used this ourselves in our
Circle under such situations, and it's been incredibly effective,
very powerful.
And the ultimate, if this could not be worked out, there |
Wicca | The-Complete-Uncut-Book-of-Shadows | 2,477 | were several ways of dealing with it. The heaviest one was
generally banishment, where the person would simply be sent away.
And the next heaviest one would probably be ostracism, where the
person would not be spoken to. He would be ignored, they'd
pretend he didn't exist for a period of time. Highly effective.
Of course, the more simple and basic ones would be working out
appropriate compensation that everyone would be satisfied with.
So there were these procedures, but it wasn't the same thing as
"guilt". The concept of "sin" and "guilt", and the idea that you
could go to a priest instead of the person you'd wronged, and
that the priest could absolve your soul of guilt. And we still
have that today, where you go to a trial, and the judge finds you
"guilty" and he fines you or sends you to jail, but the person
who's been fucked over is still fucked over. (LAUGHTER)
Morning Glory: They don't get their money back that you stole.
It goes to the State, for some odd reason.
Mike Nichols: Exactly. These are things that I think we all
ought to think about. What I'm trying to do in the first part of
this presentation is to focus your attention on how we might be
able to look at Christian liturgical rites to find information
about their predecessors as to how they might have been done in
Pagan societies. Because all of these things we've talked about,
the so-called "seven sacraments of the Catholic Church -- if you
2997
look for data that Jesus himself instituted these things, you
look practically in vain. Where in the world did the Church come
up with these things?
A great example of this, by the way (and it's an example I
use in my class quite often) is this. For a long time, after I
decided that I was going to be Pagan, I quit going to the
Catholic Church because it didn't interest me. It might have
been a mistake. One year while I was at college, I was home for
Spring break (it was Easter) and my mother dragged me along to a
service that happens on the Saturday night right before Easter,
"Holy Saturday" -- which has to be one of the most liturgically
rich occasions of the Church calendar. (If you want to see it
even richer, take a look at the Orthodox traditions, the Greek
and Russian Orthodox. They *really* know liturgics.) At any
rate...
I had forgotten how the Catholic Church blesses the holy
water that it's going to be using in the coming liturgical year.
But what happens, roughly, is this. The holy water font, which
is usually in the porch or vestibule of the church, is brought up
into the sanctuary and placed near the altar. And at one point
in this particular Mass, the priest walks over to this large
candle which is called the Pascal Candle. It is in place
throughout the Easter season. It has little herbs stuck in it
and so forth. He takes this candle out of its holder, walks over
to the holy water or Baptismal font (which looks, from my point
of view, remarkably like a large cauldron), and holds the candle
over the font, and starts doing *this* with it. (demonstrates by
plunging the vertical candle in and out of the holy water font)
(GASPS OF RECOGNITION AND LAUGHTER)
(unidentified): You're kidding!
Mike Nichols: I'm NOT kidding. And after having studied
Paganism, and I saw that, it was like I was seeing it for the
first time. And I looked to the right and to the left to see if |
Wicca | The-Complete-Uncut-Book-of-Shadows | 2,478 | anybody else, you know, realized what was going on. I mean, I
thought "Aren't there any *Freudians* in the audience?!?!"
(LAUGHTER) There was not one flicker of recognition, not one
flutter of an eyelid! I could not believe it!
And I knew there and then that obviously the Catholic Church
had not picked this up from Jesus. Where had the Catholic Church
learned to bless water? From us. And where had the Catholic
Church learned to do a lot of other stuff? From us. So, I think
it is richly rewarding for us to take a look at what they have
done in terms of liturgics.
Eldoreth Grey Squirrel: "Pagans take back the rite!" (LAUGHTER)
Mike Nichols: Exactly!! Exactly. I like that! That'll be the
title of my new book! (LAUGHTER)
Morning Glory: There's another aspect of that, too, with the
Host, the idea of consuming the body of the God. Sacred
cannibalism was certainly a factor that this came from. The
eating of the pressed grains of Dammuzi or Tammuz, the Green Man,
2998
the vegetation god, and the eating of the body of the god, that's
definitely ours. Jesus was pretty much captured into the Tammuz
cycle, and much that we're working with is still in there.
Mike Nichols: I absolutely agree. And you'll notice that in all
this discussion we've only covered the seven basic ecclesial
rites of the Church. We're not even talking yet about all the
little incidental things the Church calls "sacramentals", like
the blessing of holy objects, the consecration of a church altar,
the consecration of the church building. Where did the
blueprint, where did the pattern for a lot of these rites come
from?
Morning Glory: Oh, on that note! The pattern of the church
building itself. The idea of having a temple where you did your
worshipping on the ground floor, and the basement is where you
bury your dead, that is a universal ancient custom. And it's the
same whether it's Chartres Cathedral or the so-called "palace of
Knosis", which is a necropolis, actually.
Otter Zell: You know, another thing that appears to me to be a
sacrament is the concept of purification. And somewhere during
the course of what you're saying, I was reminded of a custom of
the purification of people who had returned from a war in ancient
Pagan cultures. They basically had to pass through the holy
women who, by making love with them, would purify and renew them
and "take the war out of them". There have been some articles on
this recently.
Morning Glory: There is a great book out now called "The Woman
Who Slept with Men and Took the War Out of Them". It's by some
famous feminist that you've all heard of, and I can't remember
her name right now.
Mike Nichols: Sounds good! Okay, let's move on into the area of
liturgical theology. What we've been talking about so far is
liturgical history, the development of liturgical rites, and how
I believe we must focus more attention on that historical
development. But now let's take a look at liturgical theology,
where we can start splitting theological hairs -- which is always
so much fun! |
Wicca | The-Complete-Uncut-Book-of-Shadows | 2,479 | There are so many questions that have plagued Pagans for a
long time, and I was *delighted* to find that some of these same
questions had plagued the Christians down through the years. And
it was fascinating to see what they had to say about it. Some of
the greatest minds of the Catholic Church from St. Augustan to
Thomas Aquinas, whatever other horrible things they may have done
along the way, had some fascinating things to say about these
issues.
For example, why are some rituals done only once, like a
seining, whereas other rituals are repeated over and over again?
Take the Magic Circle itself, there doesn't seem to be any limit
on how many times you can do it. Let's look at one possible
answer. (But again, I'm gonna throw out more questions than
answers here.) But one possible answer is that certain rituals,
if properly done (whatever *that* means, and we'll get to that in
2999
a minute), have a *permanent* effect on the person who undergoes
them. A permanent effect, an "indelible mark" as the old
catechism says, that cannot be erased.
Now, the question of how a ritual is to be done. How do you
know if a ritual has been done properly? For example, does a
ritual have an effect if there are no outwardly observable signs?
Any of you who have ever performed an initiation rite, I think
this has occurred to you. What happens if the initiation is all
done, and the person sits there saying "I don't feel any
different. Am I supposed to? Has anything happened to me?" And
you will occasionally find people who have been High Priests and
High Priestesses for quite a few years, who will perhaps talk
more freely about it than others, and among themselves they will
talk about whether an initiation "took". Did it "take"? Some of
them will say that after an initiation has been completed, the
rite was performed, the energies are set in motion, but it may
not "take" until after another month, and so forth. That it may
eventually take, but not right when the initiation was done. But
the energies are there.
Would you believe the same questions have been wrestled with
by the Catholic Church? Especially in the early days of
Christianity when the rite of Baptism was an adult rite, and it
meant that the person was supposed to entirely change their
outward behavior, totally give up certain things, and start
believing certain things. What if a person went through a
Baptism, which is supposedly a magical rite-- In those days,
Baptism and Confirmation were virtually the same rite, and could
only be done once because it was supposed to be effective the
first time. Remember the whole question of the "heresy" of the
Re-Baptists was on this precise point. If a person was baptized,
that supposedly made them a Christian, which would supposedly end
their career of "sin", in the eyes of the Catholic Church. But
what if they went out and sinned again? What if they murdered
someone? Should they get re-baptized?
The Catholic Church said no, they should not be re-baptized
because one Baptism is sufficient. The energies are already in
place, but it didn't "take". But only one per customer for the
rite itself. Now, it may be that the person was not "spiritually
disposed" to receive the energies generated by the sacramental
rite. There was some blockage, something stopping them from
being receptive. We don't know what this is. That is perhaps
one of the reasons the ritual of Penance developed the way it |
Wicca | The-Complete-Uncut-Book-of-Shadows | 2,480 | did. Because what do you do with a person who has sinned and yet
wants to come back into the body of the Church? (By the way,
certain people like the Donatists thought once they've sinned,
they're *out*. We *don't* allow them back in.)
(unidentified): My background was Fundamentalist, so I was
baptized in the river at about 12. And every time I would leave
and come back for a visit, all these people would want me to re-
dedicate myself, come up and be re-baptized. Now, is that just a
variation of the tradition? I'm trying to figure this out.
Mike Nichols: Yes, it is a variation. When the Protestant
Reformation occurred, one of the things that was most held up to
3000
scrutiny, in fact, was the way the Catholic Church approached the
whole question of sacramental rites. One of the chief questions
(which we'll get to in a minute) is whether or not the
"worthiness" of the minister is an effective variable in the rite
itself. Does a priest in a state of sin-- What if a priest has
gone out and murdered somebody? He is in a state of mortal sin,
supposedly cut off from God and the Church. What if he then
baptizes somebody? Is that Baptism sacred? Is it valid? Or, as
a Pagan may put it, is the power in the person doing the ritual,
or is the power in the ritual? I think all of us have wondered
this, right?
I'll be talking about what some of the various Church
Councils have ruled on matters of liturgical theology in a
minute. But in this particular instance, the Catholic Church
decided that the power was in the rite, in the ritual itself. It
didn't matter whether or not the person conducting the ritual was
in a state of grace or a state of sin. This is one of the things
that Martin Luther took exception to. He felt that the spiritual
"health", if you will, of the person performing the ceremony was
a variable in how effective the ceremony was. And I'll show you
in a minute why the Catholic position disagreed with that.
Morning Glory: The thing about the Fundamentalist attitude about
Baptism, it's not a one per customer attitude. And a lot of that
has to do with the concept that's called "Baptism of the Holy
Ghost", which is an ecstatic experience that is repeatedly craved
and repeatedly done. It's like raising the power. So their
attitude about Baptism is not that this is a sacralizing agent as
much as it is an anointing for the purpose of raising power.
Mike Nichols: Let me ask you a question based on that. If a
person undergoes a rite of Baptism and doesn't experience this
influx of whatever, Holy Spirit, then is it assumed that they
were not baptized?
Morning Glory: Not by the Holy Ghost. If you don't speak in
tongues, then you didn't get the Holy Ghost. And that's the sign
of it. And they'll keep at it until you get it.
Mike Nichols: Ah! Okay, very good. The reason this ran into
problems in the Catholic Church was because of the many priests
who were declared to be heretical, in the Albigensens movement,
the Cathari movement, etc. What happens if a priest, an
*excommunicant* priest, performs a Baptism? Is that Baptism
valid?
The Catholic Church said yes, for a number of reasons.
First of all, they developed two concepts: validity as opposed to |
Wicca | The-Complete-Uncut-Book-of-Shadows | 2,481 | legality. The sacrament, or the rite itself, was considered
VALID in that it produced the desired effect on the person. Even
if a person came from a heretical sect into the Church, they were
not re-baptized. The Baptism only needed to occur once. It left
an indelible mark on that person's spirit or soul. It didn't
have to be re-done, right? However, that Baptism was ILLEGAL
from the point of view of Canon Law. The Canon lawyers, the
people who codified the ritual structure of the Catholic Church,
would say that this was a VALID but ILLEGAL (or illicit) rite.
3001
The priest had no legal right to perform that ceremony.
By the way, in the Catholic Church, under certain special
conditions, anybody can baptize, including (are you ready for
this?) a non-Christian! In cases of emergency.
Morning Glory: Oh, for Last Rites and stuff!
Eldoreth Grey Squirrel: Interestingly enough, in the house I
grew up in, the crucifix opened up, and it had all the
paraphernalia in it for Last Rites.
Mike Nichols: Which raises some interesting questions for
Pagans. You know, Whitley Streiber recently told that wonderful
story about how he was taken by this group of people to perform
some sort of "witchcraft" ceremony, and it turned out these
people were Fundamentalists in disguise who did something
horrible to a goat, sacrificed it or something, and went through
this whole thing... Let's say, for some reason, that some Fundie
took it upon herself to portray the role of a Pagan priestess and
took somebody through a Pagan initiation. Is it valid? What if
they copied the rites exactly out of whoever, Starhawk, Adler,
Farrar, Gardner, whoever?
(unidentified): "Valid but illegal". (LAUGHTER)
Mike Nichols: What if the person who undergoes the rite has a
wonderful experience? Let me suggest to you how the Catholic
Church responded to that. It is valid for the same reason that a
Baptism performed even by a non-Christian is valid because the
person who confers the effects of the rite is not the minister,
but God! So in this case, we could say it is the Goddess, or
Whoever, who bestows that feeling on the initiate of having been
initiated. And the minister's part was negligible.
But that leads us into other problems, doesn't it? That's
saying that the rite itself, not the minister performing the
rite, is what gets it done. In the case of the Catholic Church,
this concept was legally defined by the Latin phrase "ex opere
operato", "by the work worked". In other words, it is the rite
itself, the power was in the ritual, not in the person who
performed the ritual. Yes, Otter?
Otter Zell: Well, there's got to be criteria we're dealing with
here. I mean, the fact that the Church decides what makes it
valid, that seems to be beside the point. To me, the person who
has to decide is the person who experiences it. I mean, if you |
Wicca | The-Complete-Uncut-Book-of-Shadows | 2,482 | say "Okay, Domine Domine, you're all Catholics now" and somebody
says "Not me!", then they're *not*... aren't they? (LAUGHTER)
(unidentified): If it's the Middle Ages, they're *dead*.
(LAUGHTER)
Otter Zell: They used to do that. The Church would come and
they would just march an entire village through the ford, you
know, and they would say "Now you're all Christians." And the
people would say, "Wait a minute! I'm not a Christian. I'm
going to continue worshipping Thor or Odin or whatever" (because
3002
it was mostly Scandinavian countries they did this to). How can
you say they're Christians anyway, in spite of the fact they
don't want to be? I mean, aren't we missing something here?
Mike Nichols: I think you're right. And I think the whole focus
of this is to start people thinking on questions about validity,
and legality if it comes to that, in terms of Pagan rites. I am
not for a moment suggesting we follow the Christian precedent in
these matters. But they can indicate questions we need to think
about in terms of what *our* response to that, as Pagans, should
be.
Here's another example. If the rite *itself* is
effective... I bet any of you have gone through this. You have
a student and you're teaching the student to do a ritual, right?
How to cast a Circle for the first time. (Where's the sun?
Okay...) Start in the North, start with your Sword, and say
"Okay, student, now *do this*! 'Oh thou Circle, be thou a
meeting place--' And you walk the thing out for them. You come
back around to where you were and you say "Okay, did you see
that? That's how you cast a Circle." And then you go "Wait a
minute! Did I just cast a Circle?" We've all thought about
that. Morning Glory?
Morning Glory: Yes, but, yes, but when I have done this, or when
I do a demonstration at all, I don't put the power out. You can
even say the words, or you can walk it out, but you don't put the
astral fire down. You don't lay down the astral fire. Unless
you're showing someone how to lay the astral fire down, in which
case...
Mike Nichols: You're doing it. (LAUGHTER) Well, the same
question arose in the Catholic Church, and the answer is
remarkably similar. It came up this way. If a priest was
teaching a novice priest how to say Mass, how to perform the
Eucharist, and he actually pronounces the words of consecration,
and unbeknownst to him there is a small crumb of bread on the
table in front of him, is that now a holy crumb? Because the
Catholic Church had by now decided, remember, that the power was
in the ritual itself rather than in the person. So if the ritual
is done correctly, the proper words are said (and we'll get into
that in a minute, too: What are the proper words? What are the
proper gestures?), that crumb now is "the body and blood of
Christ", isn't it?
Again, this took a lot of quibbling, but before it was all
over the Catholic Church decided no, that crumb would NOT be the
body of Christ because of one little thing that was left out.
One thing that the minister does have to supply:
"intentionality". Intent! The person performing the rite has to
have the intent to be performing this sacred, magical rite. This |
Wicca | The-Complete-Uncut-Book-of-Shadows | 2,483 | was also true, by the way, of that non-Christian who was
baptizing somebody. If the non-Christian was doing it as a joke,
it would not be considered valid. However, if a non-Christian
sincerely wanted to baptize somebody else as a Christian, and had
that intent, and did the rite with all of its elements properly,
that person was, in the eyes of the Catholic Church, baptized.
Otter?
3003
Otter Zell: Now, here's a question that concerns a lot of us
Pagans directly. A lot of us, when we were newborn babies and
unable to speak in our own best interests, were baptized.
(LAUGHTER) So, now, theoretically, once you're baptized, you're
a Christian. Well, uh... How do you deal with that? I know I'm
not a Christian. I sure don't feel like a Christian.
Morning Glory: It's like getting a tattoo removed, or something.
(LAUGHTER)
Otter Zell: Is there any way to get un-baptized? I mean, what
do you do about that?
Dix: Even if you go through, as I did, a free-choice baptism,
when you weren't screaming and protesting, then later on you
decide that this is all bullshit, it doesn't exist, I don't
believe in this stuff any more. Now maybe you're still a
Christian in the eyes of the Church, but that doesn't matter any
difference, because I don't care about the Church.
(unidentified): Right, I was just wondering, is there some way
the Church could recognize an way of un-baptizing yourself?
(unidentified): There is. Sitting through their boring rituals.
(LAUGHTER)
Otter Zell: But if you're not a Christian anymore,... I mean,
there has to be some way of dealing with that.
(unidentified): Otter, in whose eyes are you not a Christian?
In your eyes or their eyes? And at what point do their eyes
start mattering to you? Whatever they consider has no bearing on
you.
Otter Zell: It's not a matter so much of whose eyes. I'm just
kind of wondering, from the point of view of magical stuff, you
know, how one would interpret this. I mean, I know I'm not a
Christian and I'll certainly be happy to argue the case with any
of you that might wish to do so. But from a purely magical,
ritual perspective, if this magical ritual is done that has this
effect-- *Does* it have this effect? Do all these people who
were baptized, does that make them Christian? Or is it just
bullshit?
Eldoreth Grey Squirrel: Look at it this way, Otter. They stole
almost everything from us anyway, so what difference does it
make? (LAUGHTER)
Mike Nichols: (laughing) What you are doing, and what we're all
doing here, is beginning to develop questions about Pagan
liturgical theology. We are breaking new ground here, is what I
think. Well, I hope the word structure, if it has to be used at
all, is used very advisedly. I think Otter has already suggested
one possible Pagan response to this question, and that is that
the validity depends to some extent on the person upon whom the |
Wicca | The-Complete-Uncut-Book-of-Shadows | 2,484 | rite is performed. That's one possibility. But what are all the
ramifications of this response, this theological stance? Okay,
there was somebody over here, yes?
3004
(unidentified): One point about what the Church was doing is
that they had no competition. People were not given a choice,
and the Church had the military to back them up. So that when
they said "This village is now Christian," they *knew* that that
village was not Christian. But they knew that, with no
information and no rituals allowed or anything, that the great-
grandkids would probably be Christian. Eventually they would be
assimilated into what they wanted, into the type of person they
wanted, because any radical would be killed.
(unidentified): I think you could make an analogy between
becoming un-Christian and getting a divorce. When I got my
divorce, I didn't have a special ritual for that, but I needed
that, that sense of closure, that sense of separation in a ritual
form. And I think that could be developed very easily. And I
think that also could apply to becoming un-baptized.
Mike Nichols: Good. This whole things raises a very important
question just from the psychological point of view for most
Pagans. Do we *need* an un-Christening rite?
(unidentified): From my viewpoint, when I was getting baptized,
for some reason I swear to God I thought he was going to drown
me, and I came up halfway through the "Father, Son, and Holy
Ghost" which he snarled at me later for. So I sorta screwed up
mine whether I knew it or not.
(unidentified): On the question of Baptism, in the Christian
church, in a metaphysical sense, Baptism is not all that's
required for salvation. It must still be worked out within the
Christian faith. If you do not work it out, then the Baptism is
a ritual that has not been fulfilled. It's the fulfillment that
makes you a Christian or not.
Mike Nichols: That's exactly right. Good point. Ellen?
Anahita: I have two things to say. One,
regarding my Baptism, I had the opposite experience. I mean, I
took swimming lessons, and they'd all prepared us, and I was
ready to go under and hold my breath and come out transformed.
And they did it so casually and so intellectually, it was like,
okay this is enough. And the tip of my nose didn't go under!
(laughing) My Achilles heel is the tip of my nose! So this is
where I got to be Pagan! (LAUGHTER AND APPLAUSE)
The other thing had to do with a Pagan ritual that we did
that might have some applications in this, where we just recently
formed a Circle from a Circle that had existed previously. And
we did a ritual to very gently and caringly disband the other
Circle in the best possible light and bring all the good things
in. I would hate to see a Pagan ritual that just cancelled
somebody's past, because however you come into Paganism is what
you were, in toto, including your Baptism. And what many of us
are mentioning, our religious experiences contribute to our
ability to relate to the Goddess as a Pagan, because that's who
you are. And if it was a fantastic Baptism, then so be it. I
mean, I've had screaming, crying, evangelical services, and
that's how I learned about spiritual ecstacy.
3005 |
Wicca | The-Complete-Uncut-Book-of-Shadows | 2,485 | Eldoreth Grey Squirrel: You know where they got that from. They
stole it from Voudoun, historically.
Anahita: They stole it from every place. But it
was a real experience, you know, and that's your basis for
comparison.
Mike Nichols: Let me comment on that point. One of the big
educational experiences I've had recently-- One of my dear
friends here in Kansas City is someone you've all seen here in
the last few days, Rhiannon, the one who stood on the chair--
She's a High Priestess that I respect with all my heart and love
very much as a good friend, but we had never actually worked
together until relatively recently. And I was astounded at the
difference in our approach. She, coming from a very Protestant
background, encourages you at every point in the ritual to speak
from your heart, practically never do anything the same way
twice. You know, you go to the Watchtower and invoke it using
words that come into your head at that moment, etc. Me, with my
stolidly Roman Catholic background, doing the same rituals and
the same repetitive patterns almost mantra-like time after time
and expecting the same results.
We'll get into, if we have time, the pros and cons of these
two approaches. Obviously, both of them valid approaches, right?
Both of them seem to work for each of us. Vastly different. And
obviously conditioned by our original religious upbringing. Yes?
Morning Glory: I want to bring up this question of validity
again. If you were initiated by a particular Alexandrian couple
who shall remain nameless, as many friends of mine were, and this
Alexandrian couple have repudiated their Craft credentials and
have become born-again Christians, and they're going around on
the circuit with their story of "I was a Pagan"-- All of the
people that those people initiated-- It would be like the
priests who went out and killed someone and then--
Mike Nichols: Or perhaps a better analogy, like the schismatic
bishops who split away from the Church and continue to ordain new
priests. Are those valid priests?
Morning Glory: Exactly. Yes. Well, that is an issue that we as
Pagans need to think about.
Mike Nichols: You know, in all of this discussion, I am working
from the premise that we are at too early a stage to formulate
answers. But I think it's high time we started articulating the
questions.
Anahita: Well, I can speak to that a little bit,
too. I just went to the 20th anniversary ritual for NROOD. And
I was amazed, because I had a lot of contact with them about 13
years ago when they were a seven year old religion. And the
*changes* that they have gone through in 20 years, I'm here to
tell you, are just really amazing! I mean, they were light and
free and it's so wonderful! Now, it's like, a lot of dogma. It
*was* a wonderful ritual and a wonderful time was had by all.
But they had changed some things in a very valid way, something
3006
that didn't work and was probably better this way. But 13 years
ago, it was "Oh, those! Name it: Alexandrians, Gardnerians,
Orthodox Druids, whatever! You just have to have enough stars in |
Wicca | The-Complete-Uncut-Book-of-Shadows | 2,486 | your hat to hang out with them." Well, now, guess what? You
have to have enough stars in your hat to hang out with NROOD!
(LAUGHTER) I mean, it's just really amazing. So, we can ask
questions till we're blue in the face, but the answers are gonna
be different in five years.
Mike Nichols: I hope that somebody chronicles those changes as
they go. They're going to be fascinating. Let me throw out
another important question of liturgical theology. Is there a
way to *botch* a Pagan ritual so that it is non-valid or non-
effective, so that it doesn't work or *worse*, causes some kind
of magical boomerang effect that causes some sort of detriment?
For example, what if you teach somebody how to invoke the
Watchtowers, and you only tell them about three of them? What's
gonna happen in the Circle when they only invoke three? Is
anything? Does it matter? Does anything matter? (LAUGHTER) I
mean, does it, are there certain things that have to be there?
Are there certain elements?
From the perspective of the Catholic Church, for example, a
Baptism had to have certain specific components to be valid. A
certain set of materials had to be present: the water, the salt
to put on the baby's tongue, etc.; a certain set of words had to
be present; the minister who performed it had to be a valid
minister (which, in the case of Baptism, could be anyone), and so
forth.
Let me give you a quick example. It's been quite a few
years ago, but in my own Coven we were training somebody who was
new as a priestess. She had actually been instructed correctly
in invoking all four of the Watchtowers but, as it happened, when
she took the four elements around, things were confused that
night. It was her first ritual. And, somehow, something got
left out. And a little bit later, during the Circle, we were
doing some divinatory work, with a Ouija board. And please! In
my tradition, we use a Ouija board for divinatory work. At any
rate, halfway through the ritual, there was some kind of
manifestation which at least a good portion of us saw. It looked
like a kind of cloudy, dark hand had reached over the planchette.
(I hate to be telling a bad Ouija board story because they're
maligned enough!) (LAUGHTER)
But this kind of cloudy-looking hand reached in over the
Ouija board. And everybody sort of jumped back like they were
shocked. And I think most people there were thinking, "What the
heck is that?" But my first thought (again, maybe because of my
religious upbringing) was "How did that thing get into a
carefully warded Circle?" There should not *be* any extra energy
or entity in here that we didn't call ourselves, or want! And I
started going back over the procedure and realized that (in our
system, it is the incense that represents the element of Air)
this particular priestess had not taken the incense around the
Circle at the time of the consecration of the Circle. So, from a
purely legalistic point or whatever, the Circle had not been
3007
consecrated by the element Air. Which theoretically would allow
some sort of sylph or air-related entity to get through. You
know, it wasn't properly warded by all four elements.
Can you screw up a rite? I mean, what things *have* to be
present in order for there to *be* a Circle? And what things can
be left out? What things can you change? What things can you |
Wicca | The-Complete-Uncut-Book-of-Shadows | 2,487 | *not* change? Yes, Carolyn?
Carolyn Clark: I have a story that relates to that. One day a
long, long time ago, when I was very, very new to the Craft, I
knew a girl named Michelle who liked to dabble in Ceremonial
Magick. And I knew a little bit about Ceremonial Magick.
(Famous words: "I knew a little bit about Ceremonial Magick.")
(LAUGHTER) So we did a Mars ritual. We did it on the right day,
Tuesday night. And it was a little bit out in the country
because Michelle was into cultivating certain controlled
substances. And, in the middle of the ritual, there were red
lights flashing in all the windows, and I thought "Oh, shit!
It's the fuzz!" So we hurried up and finished the ritual,
banished the Circle, looked out the window and... there weren't
any cops there. There was nobody there.
Mike Nichols: I think a very *common* experience of this sort,
which most of us probably have experienced in the course of our
magical training at one time or another, is how it feels to be
psychically kicked in the head when power is not correctly
grounded. (EXCLAMATIONS OF AGREEMENT) Right? How many can
relate to that? Otter?
Otter Zell: One that I've encountered a number of times in
rituals I've gone to over the years, in particular with a group I
prefer not to mention because Ellen has already done that
(LAUGHTER) is this sort of arbitrary choice of directions.
"Well, which way feels like East today?" And I've actually
attended these things where with great pomp and ceremony someone
will face the south and invoke the East. And then we'll maybe
turn to the west and invoke the South. You never know where
they're gonna go.
Mike Nichols: There are actually instructions like that in some
popular book on the Craft. Is it the Farrars? It actually says
in it that it doesn't matter where the directions are as long as
everyone agrees upon them.
Eldoreth Grey Squirrel: They call that "consensus reality".
(LAUGHTER AND APPLAUSE)
Chris: It also raises the question of basic styles, and various
traditions. I've been in this situation where I was doing some
chakra work, and this person I was working with just didn't
understand the symbolism. And I was in pain for days.
Mike Nichols: I think the best analogy here is "small child with
chemistry set". (LAUGHTER)
Morning Glory: "Talking Wicca Blues", I think, is the final word
on that. (LAUGHTER)
3008
Mike Nichols: Yes, yes! Okay, but see, all of these questions
all bear on the same point: What is really necessary for that
ritual to be done effectively (and *safely*, in many cases)?
What things about a ritual can you change without hurting the
nature of that ritual? What things can't you change? Morwen?
Morwen: I've seen a lot of recipe books and I've seen a lot of
possible recipes for the same dish. If you're going to be
attending a Circle where you invoke the four quarters, then you'd
better remember to do the correct things at each one, or you
could leave a gap. Just like if you're baking a cake, you'd |
Wicca | The-Complete-Uncut-Book-of-Shadows | 2,488 | better remember the baking soda, and remember to butter the pan.
But if you're going to do a Circle where you're not going to do
the quarters, you could invoke the magic Circle without even
thinking about the four directions. Because you're invoking a
magic Circle based on a different structure.
Eldoreth Grey Squirrel: There was a guy at Pagan Spirit
Gathering whose particular approach to Paganism was to get ideas
from the old Celtic traditions. And he says he can't find
anything that justifies the invocation of quarters, the quarter
points. He was convinced there was no such thing as quarter
points in the way the Celts practiced their religion.
Mike Nichols: I might argue with that, based on their stone
circles and such. But on the other hand, I'd be willing to bet
that the way quarter points got into modern Wicca was through
ceremonial magick. I don't think there's any doubt about that.
Morning Glory: But isn't it interesting that Native Americans
have the same thing in the Medicine Wheel? It may be that
there's a certain universality in the four quarter points.
Otter Zell: It also connects with the natural world. We're all
trained in levels of metaphor and the magic Circle itself is a
metaphor for so many different cycles. It's a metaphor for any
cycle, and cycles can be broken up in different ways. But
certainly the four-quarter system works awfully well on a planet
that rotates around its axis, which gives you four directions.
Mike Nichols: The basic question we're raising here is, can
somebody just create their own ritual system from scratch? Or
does it have to link up to the real world around us?
Otter Zell: I've seen certain systems that are just made up out
of whole cloth, and they're presented as valid traditions by the
people who just make them up, and they're just somehow cuckoo.
They don't feel right. Remember, there was this anti-astrologer
guy running around, Owen Rachel, and he was anti-magic, and
anti-Pagan and everything else. So then he came out with this
book of weird astrology, called "Sky Triangles" or something like
that, or "Sky Diamonds". And it was supposed to be his
astrological system, and it was supposed to be more valid. And
he just made up this weird bullshit, and none of it made any
sense, and none of it worked. But he sold a lot of books.
Anahita: But sometimes you can make up a system
and it *does* work. And I loved your answer, incidentally, Mike.
3009
I didn't have to ask my question because you answered it. The
way you were talking about it was, "In my tradition, it's
important to invoke the four quarters..." And I thought, "Aha!
But you can decide to have a Circle that doesn't use four
quarters."
Eldoreth Grey Squirrel: And even when you think you're making
something up from scratch, you find out later that somebody else
thought of it already. I created a magical ritual based on the
"Silmarilion", which Mike and I actually performed. And it had
six quarter points. And I found out later on that some Native
Americans in Oregon and Washington have six. It was exactly the
same thing that I did. I had up and down in mine. I had never
heard of that before. |
Wicca | The-Complete-Uncut-Book-of-Shadows | 2,489 | Otter Zell: If you understand the concept of how the energy
works, of how the elements of the thing work... It's like, you
can make up a recipe yourself if you understand how to cook, if
you understand how to season, and so on. You can get to where
you're making this stuff up and it'll work. But if you don't
understand the patterns and the elements that well...
Morning Glory: "Small child with chemistry set".
Eldoreth Grey Squirrel: It gives a whole new meaning to "Magic
Chef". (LAUGHTER)
Mike Nichols: Let me bring this back to something here... As
far as the final determination of the Catholic Church as to what
consists of a valid sacrament, they came up with these things.
And it might be interesting to at least note them, to see what we
would have to say about them from a Pagan perspective. But to be
a valid sacramental rite -- And again, this is magic in the views
of the Ca-- I mean, they don't call it magic, but a sacrament to
the Catholic Church is an "effective" ritual, meaning that it has
an actual objective effect. Magic, in other words.
So, a rite had to have what was called the proper "matter"
and "form", first of all. "Matter" pertains to the materials
used, as well as the gestures used. The "form" had to do with
the words that were spoken. In magical contexts, you might think
of this as the incantation, that part of the spell which is
spoken. It had to be performed by the proper minister. Now,
this could vary depending on the particular rite. Only a bishop
could ordain a priest, but anyone could perform a Baptism, even
non-Christians. And finally, it had to have intentionality on
the part of the performing minister. So, in the view of the
Catholic Church, it is impossible to accidentally, or
inadvertently, perform a sacramental rite. That is not possible,
from the point of view of Canon law.
Now, I'm not suggesting that Paganism take this same
approach. I'm just suggesting that we in the Pagan movement
think about it. Canon lawyers were then assigned the task of
codifying which things were needed for a particular rite. Think
of the way rites were elaborated. You know, a Baptismal rite, in
terms of Canon law, consisted of a very few things. Actually, it
didn't even include the salt. Just the pouring of the water, and
3010
the speaking of the words, "I baptize you in the name of the
Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit." That was sufficient for
the rite. Now, if you've ever actually gone to a Church Baptism,
you know that it is elaborated endlessly. This thing can be
carried out for hours if the minister wants to. But the only
thing that's really *necessary*, the bare minimum requirements
for a valid right, are just those words, and those elements,
performed by the right minister, with proper intention.
Interestingly enough, when the Catholic Church started doing
this, it led to a kind of minimalist approach in terms of
rituals. The priests had been taught that the power of the rite
was in the rite itself. It only needed to have A, B, and C in
order to be effective or valid. Therefore, they only did A, B,
and C. And it didn't matter what kind of state of grace the
minister was in. So they started rushing them through pretty
quickly. This is one of the main things that Martin Luther took
exception to, and it gave birth to the Protestant Reformation.
Because priests had been performing these ceremonies almost by |
Wicca | The-Complete-Uncut-Book-of-Shadows | 2,490 | rote, with the bare minimum standards in terms of Canon law as to
what was required for an effective or valid sacrament.
Morning Glory: There was a lot of issue about that, especially
in regard to marriage, whether a marriage was valid or legal.
And whether the children of that union were legitimate or
illegitimate depended upon how it was done, and whether there
were elements that were missing. If somebody didn't say, or
refused to say, "I do", for instance. Because lots and lots of
women were married against their will. It's like in "The
Princess Bride": "Did you say 'I do'?" "No, I didn't." "Well,
in that case, you weren't." (LAUGHTER)
Dix: What you were saying about elaborating a ritual... That
brings up a question. When you are doing a rite, and you are
adding more stuff, can you detract from it? At what point do the
additions, the accretions that you keep adding on, where does it
begin to take away from the rite?
Mike Nichols: I know that certainly it can diminish the
psychological dimension of a rite. I've seen so many examples
where, say, you're doing an initiation tonight. Now that means,
to me, the whole thing should focus on this person's initiation.
It is *their* night. But somebody else over here has another
spell they want to do, and somebody over here has something they
want to do, and by the time the whole thing is done, it's this
incredible mish-mash with no central focus whatsoever. To me,
very bad in terms of liturgical design.
Morning Glory: It's aesthetically piss-poor. (LAUGHTER)
Mike Nichols: Right. I meant to conclude this whole workshop
(or whatever the heck it is) with a section on liturgical design
or aesthetics, which we're just beginning to touch on. It's
obvious that we won't be able to get into that too much, but I
think it's good that we bring up at least some points about
aesthetics. Yes?
(unidentified): Yeah, but what if you have the proper elements
3011
of the ritual, and you do things in the right order, and you
intend for it to be a magical ceremony, and it's just dead. No
one's excited, half the people can't remember their lines, or are
making them up on the spot without putting a lot of thought into
it. There's no spirit there.
Morning Glory: Their hearts are pure, but their theater is
lousy. (LAUGHTER)
Mike Nichols: Yes. Good intentions is not a valid excuse for
poor ritual. Absolutely. To me, well, I've often used a
communications model for rituals. To me, like language, rituals
have a certain grammar, a certain syntax that it needs to follow,
a certain order. For example, let's say you're doing a Circle
and it's a high holiday, so you're doing a typical holiday
celebration but, as a part of that, you're also doing an
initiation. When does the initiation come? Well, to me, it
seems obvious that the initiation should come during the early
part of the evening ceremonies so that, once that person is
initiated, they may now participate fully in the seasonal
celebration. Right? Rather that leaving them out for it, and
doing their initiation at the end. |
Wicca | The-Complete-Uncut-Book-of-Shadows | 2,491 | So, it seems to me that there is sort of a logic of rituals,
a grammar, a syntax, for doing ritual. Now, just because you
learn the rules of that grammar (and I suspect there are some
very definite rules that we could get into if I had the time),
but just because you know the rules of grammar doesn't make you a
great writer.
Morning Glory: Persistence is nine-tenths of any art, not that
it helps to be nine-tenths of an artist. (LAUGHTER) There's
another part of this, which is the problem of the hodge-podge
ritual. When you have conflicting elements. When somebody wants
to do a ritual to heal the earth. And someone else wants to do a
ritual to get prosperity for their Aunt Sadie. And someone else
wants to do something to get a new house. And some things are
really quite conflicting. One group wants to do a ritual to heal
the earth, and so they want to put this mellow energy out. But
someone else says, "Yeah, but we wanna stop those bulldozers that
are coming in, so we wanna get this martial energy to zap their
transmissions and make them fall out on the road!" And so then
there's this conflict on how to approach things, and things can
get really out of hand.
Carolyn Clark: Where we see that a lot is where somebody will
come to the Circle and say, "I really need to get in touch with
the Demetre part of me." Or, I really need to get in touch with
such-and-such god-form. And my response is, "Yes, you need to do
that. Then, do it. But not at this Circle."
Morning Glory: It's like chocolate icecream and limburger
cheese.
Mike Nichols: I find the same problem in combining elements from
different traditions. That's a problem for me. Now,
theologically, I might agree that all the names of the Goddess
are merely different aspects of the same Goddess. Fine. But I
3012
still have a problem thinking, how is the goddess Demetre going
to get along with the goddess Arianrhod or Cerridwen? (LAUGHTER)
They're very different forms, and to me, well, another analogy I
sometimes use is, let's say you're in a new home and you want one
room of this home to be a library. You know you want certain
things to be in that library, to make it a library. You're gonna
want shelves for the books. You're gonna want the books. You're
gonna want a comfy chair to sit in and read. You're gonna want a
reading lamp near it. You're gonna want a library table,
perhaps, or a writing desk. And so forth.
But let's say you go out and you buy early American
bookshelves. You buy an Edwardian writing desk. You buy
Victorian chairs. You buy modern chrome and glass lighting
fixtures. What you have is a library, granted, because all of
the elements are there. But nothing fits aesthetically. It's
like a ritual smorgasbord. To me, the elements have to fit
together aesthetically in order to work right.
(unidentified): I've tried to walk a fine line between Feminist
and Traditional Wicca, because I like both. But how does this
work for a solitary, or a person who has little access to a
Coven? I've had a very hard time designing my own rituals. I
found a little books that tells the elements on what goes in a
ritual, and I try to follow that. Even though I may take a
little bit from Doreen Valiente, because I like the way she says
this one thing. But then the Farrars have a lot. And then I'll |
Wicca | The-Complete-Uncut-Book-of-Shadows | 2,492 | stick in a little Starhawk. But the thing is, they're all geared
more to Covens. Now, does that make it invalid for a solitary?
Mike Nichols: I would-- Please! Don't start asking me what's
valid! (LAUGHTER) See, there's a danger in even discussing this
because there's always a danger of falling into that trap.
(unidentified): Is there a way to get in touch with other
Solitaries?
Morning Glory: There is a Solitary convention.
Chris: Single rooms everywhere! (LAUGHTER)
Mike Nichols: Scott Cunningham has a book coming out geared to
Solitary Craft work. Let me answer the first part of your
question first. I think it is possible to be eclectic and yet to
avoid eclecticism within one particular ritual. Do tonight's
ritual as a Celtic ritual, and next month's ritual as an Egyptian
ritual if you want to, but don't mix Celtic and Egyptian in the
same ritual. That's at least my point of view, my bias. I'm not
saying that's some sort of dogma or rule about liturgics. It's
my aesthetic, and I think aesthetics are important to ritual.
Carolyn Clark: When you're working on certain things, when
you're doing a very tight ritual-- For instance, if I'm doing a
ritual to get in touch with that part of the Mother and that part
of me which fructifies and causes creativity to flower, then I
would probably call on all the Goddess names, all the aspects of
the Goddess from all cultures, that do that one thing.
3013
Mike Nichols: Yes, I understand that completely. As a matter of
fact, one of the forms I most love that I learned from the Roman
Catholic tradition is that called a litany, a reading of a long
list of petitions or names of Goddesses and Gods. And that is so
effective in a Pagan ritual, especially if its done as a
responsorial. That can build power like you just wouldn't
believe! I use that quite a lot in my own rites.
Let me jump to another subject which was raised earlier: the
tension which exists between those things which are spontaneous
in a ritual, where you just think up something to say on the spur
of the moment, as the spirit moves you, as it were; or those
people who follow rites that are very patterned, very
repetitious, very rhythmic, if you will. Now, I was certainly
brought up in that school of thought. And one thing that I've
read recently, which I found to be a fascinating argument in
favor of that tradition -- not invalidating the other, but in
support of the repetitious tradition -- is that recent studies of
the left hemisphere / right hemisphere brain split have shown
something very interesting.
Language, as you know, is a very linear system. And
typically, that is a left hemisphere brain function. Anytime you
are composing a sentence -- what I'm doing up here right now --
is very left hemisphere. Whenever someone is confronted with
making up the invocation at each Watchtower, they are virtually
working entirely left hemisphere. Whenever you are working with
language, I was originally taught, you are working with left
hemisphere.
There is an interesting exception. Those things that are |
Wicca | The-Complete-Uncut-Book-of-Shadows | 2,493 | words that are commonly repetitious. When you sing a Christmas
carol year after year after year, to the point you don't even
have to think about the words as you sing it, your right brain
hemisphere is operating just about on a par with the left,
according to studies.
Carolyn Clark: I do that with chanting. While my left brain is
occupied with that, my right brain is free to do all kinds of
other things.
Mike Nichols: Right! It's sort of like a mantra. You know, for
people from Protestant backgrounds, it sometimes comes off like,
well, those Catholics just say their prayers by rote.
"HailMaryfullofgracetheLordiswiththee." They can toss those off
in no time at all. There's no power in it, there's no feeling in
it, there's no spirit in it. The other point of view, however,
is that the actual words themselves sort of take a back seat to
the meaning, which is superimposed on top of those. And I can
tell you from doing rituals in my life in the highly repetitive
way, I feel like you, that it has freed my mind to go to perhaps
deeper levels than if I had to do it differently every time.
And by the way, notice how that's true in group rituals,
too. If the High Priestess -- and I see a lot of this today --
she will not do the same ritual twice! And consequently, the
entire Coven is sort of sitting back watching the High Priestess,
saying, "Okay, what's she gonna do *this* time?" Never allowing
3014
them to really get into the ritual in a psychological way. When
you're already familiar with something, like that Christmas
carol, it enables everybody to participate fully, because they
know what's going to happen, they know what to expect. They're
not looking for changes in the script.
Another thing that's interesting about that kind of
repetitive work is that, when you do throw in a change, for a
particular seasonal variation or something, it stands out. It
stands out in contrast to the way you've always done it before.
At a Handfasting, when you invoke the blessing of the Lord and
Lady, instead of "onto ALL who stand before Thee", you say "onto
TWO who stand before Thee", the changing of the words immediately
focuses on the couple becoming handfasted. You hear that change;
it registers.
Anahita: But isn't that same thing true for an
aesthetic, well-worded, channelled experience, that a Priestess
may have?
Mike Nichols: Yeah, but it sorta does put everyone else in the
position of spectator. It becomes a spectator sport nine times
out of ten. Or else, you are actively, consciously, left-
hemispherically being involved in the production of this dramatic
play. You're not getting to relax and simply experience the
*known*, and the comfortable. And that's what I think we need to
have more of.
By the way, whenever you have repetition, you also have
rhythm. And this brings in a whole different dimension. The
drumming, the chanting, and everything else that goes with
repetition. I think good ritual pacing has a rhythm of its own.
Something else that we totally ignore these days in
liturgical design is the use of silence, which can be VERY |
Wicca | The-Complete-Uncut-Book-of-Shadows | 2,494 | powerful. You know how something happens which is really
meaningful and everyone's wowed by it, and somebody else just
goes right into the next thing. Doesn't let you have the chance
to absorb that at all. I'm not talking about that kind of deadly
silence where nothing is happening and no one knows what to do.
No. I'm talking about those quiet moments that really empower
what you've just experienced. Yes, Eldoreth?
Eldoreth Grey Squirrel: Well, as someone else who was "lowered"
Catholic (as opposed to "raised" Catholic), there is a problem
when you have something that is repetitious. Unless the person
really wants to be empowered by this, what their mind is most
likely to do is to think about anything BUT the ritual. At least
as a child, I found this true. "Okay, time to daydream. It's
the same old thing again."
Mike Nichols: I think a great deal of the blame there has to do
with the fact that as children, you were indoctrinated into this
before the time you were ready to think about it. You didn't
understand the rite. Nobody had explained it to you. You were
simply going through the motions. To me, that's not magic,
that's superstition. When you just go through the motions. It's
just mumbo-jumbo.
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I don't want to run overtime, and we already are a minute or
two. Let me just conclude by saying that what I feel we've been
doing here is ground-breaking work. I was *delighted* to have a
group of people already so involved and so experienced, to have
made such wonderful contributions. I'd like to welcome you all
as being, I think, some of the first Pagan liturgical theologians
around. (LAUGHTER) And I hope you'll continue working on it.
Thank you! (APPLAUSE)
Eldoreth Grey Squirrel: Mike, I have an alternate title for your
book.
Mike Nichols: What's that?
Eldoreth Grey Squirrel: "The Rite Stuff." (LAUGHTER AND GROANS
OF APPRECIATION)
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3016
Editorial: Web of Wyrd number 10
Julia Phillips
During the Middle Ages, a great many men and women were put to death on
charges of heresy. Nearly all of them were innocent of any crime; nearly
all of them were guilty of no more than being a scapegoat for someone
else's accusations and projected fears.
Fortunately, today we have grown beyond such barbaric inhumanity - or
have we? As a race, have we truly evolved, or is humanity still groping
around in a mire of discontent, seeking for victims on which to project
its fears and failures? If we consider the way in which the medieval
witch was hunted, accused and held up to public condemnation, and then
compare this process with the way in which modern society deals with its
victims, then I would say that the human race has not evolved in the
slightest.
Consider: often for no reason other than he or she offended someone, a
man or woman living in medieval Europe could be taken as a heretic, and
with evidence (sic) being no more than hearsay, tried and found guilty |
Wicca | The-Complete-Uncut-Book-of-Shadows | 2,495 | of charges of which they were mostly entirely innocent. Their accusers
were not interested in truth, but in judgement; and justice certainly
had no role in their scenario. To absolve themselves of any blame in
this autocratic process, the accusers made sure that public opinion was
swayed against the victim. How? By publishing details of the "crime"-
(sic), which were then distributed to as wide an audience as possible.
Students of English Literature will know of the enormous influence which
the humble pamphlet cast on the population - which, despite high
illiteracy, had sufficient numbers able to read aloud to a gathering in
a town square. We all know how quickly rumour and innuendo spreads - any
grapevine in any social group is proof positive of just how quickly
information can passed along; and sadly, we all know that there need be
no shred of truth in that information for it to be spoken about,
considered, and accepted as fact.
The medium of the pamphlet proved to be so efficient and effective that
it developed, and in time became the newspaper, newsletter, and
ultimately, the magazine. In all cases, the emphasis is upon the
distribution of information to as large a number of people as possible.
In all cases, those reading (or hearing) the information have a
predilection to believe what they read to be the truth. Modern print is
often no more truthful than that of a 16th century pamphlet, which might
describe how a witch succumbed to the charms of the Devil, flew to the
Sabbat riding on a goat, where she devoured unbaptised infants, and took
part in many lewd and disgusting practices. Unfortunately though, having
"read about it in the paper/magazine/leaflet..." most people assume that
they are reading the truth, and are often willing to believe the worst.
There are numerous examples of this process at work in modern society:
in some countries, information is manipulated deliberately by politic-
ians and journalists. In other countries - and I would include all of
western civilisation in this - the manipulation is as pervasive, but
less obvious. As the saying goes: "you can believe nothing you read in
the papers but the date, and they sometimes get that wrong".
Unfortunately though, people do believe what they read in the papers,
see on television, and hear on radio, just as our ancestors believed
3017
that the woman led screaming to her death was a concubine of the Devil,
a devourer of babies, and that she copulated regularly with her cat, or
other animals. We are quick to condemn the Christian Fundamentalist for
spreading lies and propaganda, but what about the lies and propaganda
spread by Pagans and occultists? It offends my intellect to read of
claims by self-professed witches of traditions handed down since time
immemorial, or of secret arcane traditions known only to an elect few,
but it offends my sensibility that these people, claiming to be
following a spiritual path, have such contempt for Truth.
We are no less human or fallible than our non-Pagan neighbour, but we
are engaged in a continual search for Truth: both within and without. We
are not perfect, but we do seek for our highest ideal, and we do strive
ever towards it, no matter what our particular path. Therefore to me it
seems a particularly unpleasant kind of action for a writer knowingly to
misrepresent his or her background and/or experience, simply to acquire
some spurious prestige.
The editor of a Pagan/occult newsletter or magazine has an even greater
responsibility, for rarely is the publication subject to professional
editorial control, and yet it is generally fairly widely distributed,
and its readers tend to believe what they see. As an example, we can
look at the sad death of Scott Cunningham; within hours of his death
being announced, the rumours that he died of AIDS were widespread. The |
Wicca | The-Complete-Uncut-Book-of-Shadows | 2,496 | fact that his family and his closest friends have stated any number of
times that he died of meningitis is neither here nor there: to a great
many people around the world, Scott Cunningham will have died of AIDS.
Why? Because it was reported in Pagan magazines, and they can't be wrong
- can they?
Not only can they be downright wrong, they can also be inaccurate or
misleading - sometimes deliberately so. I have seen newsletters recently
where a matter best dealt with quietly, between those concerned, has
been fought in the public arena using very much the same means as the
medieval inquisitor. Defamatory and highly emotional printed leaflets,
with scant attention to the truth, have been published and circulated
throughout the Pagan/occult communities in the USA, Britain and
Australia during the last year. Highly respected writers in Britain
have recently been subjected to threats, with accusations and counter-
accusations filling countless pages in pamphlets, newsletters, and
magazines.
What, you might wonder, has this to do with a personal quest for Truth?
Very little, in my opinion, hence my remarks above that the human race
appears to have made no progress at all in its essential characteristics
in hundreds of years. The only difference is that today, we have far
more efficient means of spreading the information to greater numbers of
people.
I have seen too many attempts at character assassination over the last
year or so to believe that it is an isolated incidence, perpetrated only
by one or two people. It has happened in Britain; in Australia; in the
USA. The modus operandi has been identical in every case: an untruthful
statement has been made about one or more individuals, sometimes
supported by evidence (sic) of a spurious nature; the accusations have
been published in print, or electronic media, and distributed to a wide
audience. Even where the statement is so absurd, that no-one knowing the
accused would believe it for a moment, those who do not know the accused
3018
are left wondering. This kind of trial by media is sick, and those who
perpetuate it - usually self-professed "Pagans" - are, quite frankly,
despicable.
If we, as a community, are to come of age, then we must rid ourselves of
these contemptible troublemakers. We can't stop them publishing their
pamphlets, or typing out their lies, but we can ignore them, and stop
giving credence to their venomous pens. As with the victims of the
Middle Ages, the victims within our own community are being used as
scapegoats for someone else's fears and guilt; the only way to fight
this particular plague is to ignore it. Deprived of an attentive
audience, the pamphlet bandits will soon give up and go away.
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3019
PR Flyer
By Raven
This may answer some of the questions being asked about Wicca on
PODSNet. If you print it up nice, it may also help in answering
questions OFF PODSNet.
Mind you, it is only ONE possible rendition; opinions are GUARANTEED to
vary.
About three years ago, I did a little PR flyer to hand out when Wiccans
were doing public events (for instance, Beltane Maypole dancing in the
local park) and curious passersby would ask just what the heck was going |
Wicca | The-Complete-Uncut-Book-of-Shadows | 2,497 | on. If you like the idea, use it -- and feel free to adapt it as
needed, for your own group.
Written 1991 by Raven. NO COPYRIGHT. This is placed into the public
domain.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
What You Wanted to Know about Witches *
* (but were afraid to ask)
Q. Do you worship the Devil (Satan)?
A. No, for three reasons.
First, we don't venerate evil in any form: our chosen religion is
a celebration and affirmation of life and living things, as opposed
to their destruction or harm. As we believe that good or evil done
will return upon the doer, this does not encourage doing evil.
Second, Satan is a figure in Judeo-Christian beliefs -- originally
not even an opponent of Yahweh, but more like his prosecuting
attorney (as in the Book of Job). Those who do worship Satan
actually accept the later Christian theology, with Satan as
Yahweh's opponent, but choose to support Satan's side of the
battle. We are not Christians or Satanists, and do not accept
their theology or worldview, so we would no more worship Satan
than, for instance, Christians would worship the Aztec God
Quetzalcoatl; he simply has no place in our beliefs. (We prefer
the figure of Pan, who does have horns but is a much nicer fellow.)
Third, we think history shows that, if you invest belief and
emotion in any idea or thought-form, you give it strength and power
in your own life -- it becomes more real TO YOU. We have no wish
to invite hostile entities into our lives and give them such power
over us, which is why we don't venerate any form we consider evil.
That's also why we're shocked to see how much energy some
Christians invest in Satan.
Q. Then why do I hear those things about you?
A. "Devil-worship", baby-killing, cannibalism and all that? These
are typical accusations made by one religion against another.
The Syrians accused the Jews of ritual murders long before Christ;
then the Romans accused the Christians (who at least claimed to be
eating someone's body and blood every week); then the Christians
3020
accused the Jews and Muslims and every other religion; today
different Christian denominations even accuse each other. Making
wild accusations not only sells newspapers, and books, and movies;
it helps drum up support for the Religion Of Your Choice. This is
a cynical use of hate, fear, and ignorance, but as long as it works,
it will be used. (And there will always be psychotics willing to
live up to the image -- then claim "the Devil made me do it.")
Q. If not Christian theology, what do you believe in?
A. Life. We see the entire Universe, all matter and energy, as
bursting with life, loving its own living parts -- including us --
and gathered in one eternal dance. We try to catch the tune and
dance to the beat.
Sometimes we call the leading dancers Light and Dark, or Sun and |
Wicca | The-Complete-Uncut-Book-of-Shadows | 2,498 | Moon, or the Lord and the Lady, Cernunnos and Ceridwen, Pan and
Diana, or by other names. These represent the duality in all
things -- male and female, yang and yin -- neither side of which
can be denied or ignored, even within ourselves.
(We hope this helps us avoid the error that some worshippers of a
single deity have made, such as thinking that "since God is all
good and God is male, therefore anything female or feminine is
evil.")
Our feeling about the Gods is that they are teachers, family
members, and fellow dancers: not some untouchable abstraction
infinitely distant, but an intimate part of our own lives. Our
feeling about other religions is that they, too, are part of the
universal dance: not enemies, but fellow strugglers seeking as we
do, to live and learn to keep time with the music.
Q. What is this ceremony you're doing?
A. It depends on the moment. You may be watching a circle dance, or a
Maypole dance, or a feast of "cakes and ale", or just a group hug.
(We like to have fun.) Possibly, since you were handed this, you're
watching us "cast a circle". That's one of our basic religious
ceremonies.
When we "cast a circle", we mark off a space as dedicated and protected
for our use, rather like Christians consecrating a church. (The
difference is, we don't need a building, and we let the space go back to
normal after we've used it.) Within this circle, we ask for the
protection of guardians -- call them the four elements of Air, Earth,
Fire, and Water, or the four archangels Gabriel, Michael, Raphael, and
Uriel -- again, the names may vary. Then we invite the Lord and the
Lady to be with us for a time. We have a nice visit, a little snack of
cookies and wine (or fruit juice), and then everyone goes home. It's
very friendly.
Along the way, sometimes we ask for help with our problems, such as
healing an injury or illness; if you believe in the power of prayer,
it's the same sort of thing -- but we try to put our own energies into
the task, rather than asking someone else to do all the work.
3021
Q. How will what you are doing affect me?
A. If you're not participating, then probably no more than any other
religious service you watch from outside. If you're shocked by other
religions, you might choose to be shocked by ours. (Ours is just out
where you can see it, instead of hidden by walls.) Or you might choose
to accept our part of the universal dance as valid if different from
your own. You might even choose to participate -- and people of good
will are generally welcome among us.
Even if you do participate, there's no reason to take any effect from
our services that you don't choose to accept. Since -- for our own
sakes -- we ask for nice things to happen, the biggest possible results
involve no danger. If we ask for more harmony in the world, and your
life becomes more harmonious, then you benefit from the same general
effect as if a church's prayer for world peace had worked. (After that,
if you don't like harmony, you could always work to make your own life
more discordant; whatever suits you.)
Q. Do all Witches practice the same way you do? |
Wicca | The-Complete-Uncut-Book-of-Shadows | 2,499 | A. There are about as many "denominations" of Witches as there are of
Christians, and since no-one is forced to keep One True Orthodox Way,
even a single group may do things differently from time to time. The
two mottoes that apply here are "If it works, use it" -- and "AN IT HARM
NONE, do as you will."
Q. How can I find out more about you?
A. Ask one of us. We're easy to talk with. Or read some books. Good
books include Vivianne Crowley's WICCA: the Old Religion in the New Age,
Margot Adler's Drawing Down the Moon, Starhawk's The Spiral Dance, and
Raymond Buckland's Complete Guide to Witchcraft.
There's also a lot of shocking nonsense and pulp fiction out there
-- notably in movies, paperback thrillers, and the sort of newspapers
sold at supermarket cash registers; we can only ask you to take anything
you find there with a skeptical pinch of salt.
(This was written in May 1991 as a general information handout for
the use of the CUUPS group of Milwaukee, Wisconsin.
Please feel free to copy and adapt this for use by your own group.)
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3022
The Coven
By: Julia Phillips
Wed 20 Apr 94 19:03
This article was written by me several years ago, but I thought it might
be of interest here, as it discusses several issues relevant to modern
Witches. Any thought or feedback most welcome! Please remember, that
although the historical stuff is pretty general, the other parts of the
article are my own ideas, and not necessarily applicable outside of my
own tradition :)
Covens and Witches
In 1662, Isobel Gowdie of Auldearne made four separate confessions of
being a Witch, and in the process, gave the word "Coven" to the world.
Although there is no other historical evidence for this word, it has
proven to be one of the most lasting facets of Witchcraft - ask anyone
today what Witches do, and the answer will almost certainly include the
fact that they meet in groups, called "Covens".
So given that a number of modern Witches do, in fact, either run, or
belong to, a Coven - just what is its purpose in 20th (and 21st) century
Western Civilisation? Why has this word of such dubious historical
veracity survived over three hundred years? Is there a place in our
modern world for a social group which, as far as we know, occurred only
in 17th century Scotland?
The very fact of its survival for over three hundred years argues that
there is a place for such a group. In my own case, I have been a member
of, and run, Covens of Witches for a number of years, and it is a social
model which fits extremely well within modern society.
The structure of a coven varies, but generally has one or two leaders,
and a number of members of varying levels of experience. In a sense, the
modern Coven has replaced the tribal family, and its members often |
Wicca | The-Complete-Uncut-Book-of-Shadows | 2,500 | fulfill familial roles, which are no longer available to them in the
family in which they were born.
Some researchers have commented that many modern Witches come from a
background which was disrupted; i.e., did not provide a safe family
environment during their formative years. As I know a great many Witches
for whom this was not the case, I think this is only a partial reason,
and only for some people.
Humanity itself seems to be inherently tribal; any common bond between
people will generally result in the creation cults or sub-cultures,
where those of a like-mind will bond together. They will evolve their
own social order (generally hierarchical), have their own common
language, and often are identifiable by their demeanour and appearance.
Witches gather together in Covens for very much the same sorts of
reasons; we are apart from general society by virtue of our beliefs and
practices. Meeting with others who think and feel similarly to ourselves
gives us the opportunity to share ideas and skills, as well as being
able to practise our Craft.
A modern Coven provides a family-style environment, where the "Elders"
can, by virtue of their experience, give encouragement, support, and
3023
advice to those seek to learn about Witchcraft. As with all families,
Covens have very unique and individual ways of approaching this. Just as
no two families are the same, neither are any two Covens.
Some Covens are run by people with an academic bent, and as would be the
case in any family, this characterises the way in which their "children"
are brought up. Other groups are oriented towards a more simple
approach, and the oral traditions play an important role in the way in
which the Coven is structured. Some combine the these two approaches,
and the variations upon the basic themes are endless.
For any "family" to exist harmoniously, everyone within the group must
feel a part of the group, and wish to learn and grow within that group
environment. With a path such as Witchcraft, with its emphasis upon
personal growth and development, it is likely that individuals who may
at one time have been happy within their family group, will change, and
wish to move away. This is a perfectly natural process, and the wise
coven leaders will send those people off with their love and blessing.
Trying to keep them would be like trying to keep your sons and daughters
tied to your apron strings forever!
Ultimately, and despite the popularity of the word "coven", I do believe
that most Witches are solitary in nature, and will generally spend at
least part of their lives without being a member of, or running, a
coven. I think the inward exploration during these periods is vital to
self-development, just as we believe it is important to encourage
social-awareness in children. However, I also believe that at some stage
it is important to learn the practices of Witchcraft from another
person; to be an apprentice, if you will; because the act of passing
knowledge from one person to another cannot be replicated by books,
correspondence courses, or be self-taught. This may seem an almost
impossible task to some people, but as all the magical traditions teach:
when the student is ready, the teacher will appear! What's more, it's
true!
B*B Julia
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3024 |
Wicca | The-Complete-Uncut-Book-of-Shadows | 2,501 | The Public Contents of the Book of Shadows
There is really no such thing as the text of the Book of Shadows,
because Gardner never bothered to word things the same way twice;
whenever he copied something, he simultaneously rewrote it. But this,
of course, is the way that an author treats his own original material;
it is not how anyone treats authoritative texts preserved from an
earlier generation. I have grouped the documents according to the dates
when they were written; these dates are accurate to within a year or so,
and the point to providing them, of course, is to emphasize that these
documents are modern creations, NOT anything preserved from ancient or
medieval tradition. Material or comments added to these documents later
on I have enclosed in square brackets [these things].
A.1. Casting the Circle (1949)
It is most convenient to mark the circle with chalk, paint or otherwise,
to show where it is; but marks on the carpet may be utilized. Furniture
may be placed to indicate the bounds. The only circle that matters is
the one drawn before every ceremony with either a duly consecrated Magic
Sword or an Athame. The circle is usually nine feet in diameter, unless
made for some very special purpose. There are two outer circles, each
six inches apart, so the third circle has a diameter of eleven feet.
[1] Having chosen a place proper, take the sickle or scimitar of Art or
a Witch's Athame, if thou mayest obtain it, and stick it into the
center, then take a cord, and 'twere well to use the Cable Tow for this,
and loop it over the Instrument, four and one half feet, and so trace
out the circumference of the circle, which must be traced either with
the Sword, or the knife with the black hilt, or it be of little avail,
but ever leave open a door towards the North. Make in all 3 circles,
one within the other , and write names of power between these.
[2] First draw circle with Magic Sword or Athame.
[3] Consecrate Salt and Water: Touch water with Athame, saying, "I
exorcise thee, O creature of Water, that thou cast out from Thee all the
impurities and uncleannesses of the Spirits of the World of Phantasm, so
they may harm me not, in the names of Aradia and Cernunnos."
[4] Touching Salt with Athame, say, "The Blessings of Aradia and
Cernunnos be upon this creature of Salt, and let all malignity and
hindrance be cast forth hencefrom, and let all good enter herein, for
without Thee man cannot live, wherefore I bless thee and invoke thee,
that thou mayest aid me."
[5] Then put the Salt into the water.
[6] Sprinkle with exorcised water.
[7] Light candles; say, "I exorcise thee, O Creature of Fire, that every
kind of Phantasm may retire from thee, and be unable to harm or deceive
in any way, in the names of Aradia and Cernunnos."
[8] Caution initiate (if any); warn companions; enter circle and close
doors with 3 pentagrams.
[9] Proclaim object of working
3025
[10] Circumambulate 3 times or more before commencing work.
[11] Summon: "I summon, stir, and Call thee up, thou Mighty Ones of the
East, South, West, and North." Salute and draw pentacle with Magic |
Wicca | The-Complete-Uncut-Book-of-Shadows | 2,502 | Sword or Athame, the first stroke being from the top down to the left.
A.2. Drawing Down the Moon (1949)
High Priestess stands in front of Altar, assumes Goddess position (arms
crossed). Magus, kneeling in front of her, draws pentacle on her body
with Phallus-headed Wand, invokes, "I Invoke and beseech Thee, O mighty
Mother of all life and fertility. By seed and root, by stem and bud, by
leaf and flower and fruit, by Life and Love, do I invoke Thee to descend
into the body of thy servant and High Priestess [name]." The Moon having
been drawn down, i.e., link established, Magus and other men give
Fivefold Kiss:
(kissing feet) "Blessed be thy feet, that have brought thee in these
ways";
(kissing knees) "Blessed be thy knees, that shall kneel at the sacred
altar";
(kissing womb) "Blessed be thy womb, without which we would not be";
(kissing breasts) "Blessed be thy breasts, formed in beauty and in
strength";
(kissing lips) "Blessed be thy lips, that shall speak the sacred names."
Women all bow.
If there be an initiation, then at this time the Magus and the High
Priestess in Goddess position (Arms Crossed) says the Charge while the
Initiate stands outside the circle.
A.3. "Lift Up the Veil"
[The Charge] (1949) Magus: "Listen to the words of the Great mother, who
of old was also called among men Artemis, Astarte, Dione, Melusine,
Aphrodite, Cerridwen, Diana, Arianrhod, Bride, and by many other names."
High Priestess: "At mine Altars the youth of Lacedaemon in Sparta made
due sacrifice. Whenever ye have need of anything, once in the month,
and better it be when the moon is full, ye shall assemble in some secret
place and adore the spirit of Me who am Queen of all Witcheries and
magics. There ye shall assemble, ye who are fain to learn all sorcery,
yet have not won its deepest secrets. To these will I teach things
that are yet unknown. And ye shall be free from slavery, and as a sign
that ye be really free, ye shall be naked in your rites, both men and
women, and ye shall dance, sing, feast, make music, and love, all in my
praise. There is a Secret Door that I have made to establish the way to
taste even on earth the elixir of immortality. Say, `Let ecstasy be
mine, and joy on earth even to me, To Me,' For I am a gracious Goddess.
I give unimaginable joys on earth, certainty, not faith, while in life!
And upon death, peace unutterable, rest, and ecstasy, nor do I demand
aught in sacrifice."
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Magus: "Hear ye the words of the Star Goddess."
High Priestess: "I love you: I yearn for you: pale or purple, veiled or
voluptuous. I who am all pleasure, and purple and drunkenness of the
innermost senses, desire you. Put on the wings, arouse the coiled
splendor within you. Come unto me, for I am the flame that burns in the
heart of every man, and the core of every Star. Let it be your inmost
divine self who art lost in the constant rapture of infinite joy. Let |
Wicca | The-Complete-Uncut-Book-of-Shadows | 2,503 | the rituals be rightly performed with joy and beauty. Remember that all
acts of love and pleasure are my rituals. So let there be beauty and
strength, leaping laughter, force and fire by within you. And if thou
sayest, `I have journeyed unto thee, and it availed me not,' rather
shalt thou say, `I called upon thee, and I waited patiently, and Lo,
thou wast with me from the beginning,' for they that ever desired me
shall ever attain me, even to the end of all desire.
This much of the rites must ever be performed to prepare for any
initiation, whether of one degree or of all three.
A.4. The Initiation (1949)
[First Degree]
Magus leaves circle by the doorway, goes to Postulant, and says, "Since
there is no other brother here, I must be thy sponsor, as well as
priest. I am about to give you a warning. If you are still of the same
mind, answer it with these words: `Perfect Love and Perfect Trust.'"
Placing the point of the sword to the Postulant's breast, he says, "O
thou who standeth on the threshold between the pleasant world of men and
the domains of the Dread Lords of the Outer Spaces, hast thou the
courage to make the Assay? For I tell thee verily, it were better to
rush on my weapon and perish miserably than to make the attempt with
fear in thy heart." Postulant: "I have two Passwords: Perfect Love and
Perfect Trust." Magus drops the sword point, saying, "All who approach
with perfect love and perfect trust are doubly welcome." Going around
behind her, he blindfolds her, then putting his left arm around her
waist and his right arm around her neck, he pulls her head back, says,
"I give you the 3rd password, a Kiss to pass through this dread Door,"
and pushes her forward with his body, through the doorway and into the
circle. Once inside, he releases her saying, "This is the way all are
first brought into the circle." Magus closes the doorway by drawing the
point of the sword across it three times, joining all three circles,
saying, "Agla, Azoth, Adonai," then drawing three pentacles to seal it.
Magus guides Postulant to south of altar, and whispers, "Now there is
the Ordeal." Taking a short piece of cord from the altar, he ties it
around her right ankle, saying, "Feet neither bound nor free." Taking
a
longer cord, he ties her hands together behind her back, then pulls them
up, so that the arms form a triangle, and ties the cord around her neck,
leaving the end dangling down in front as a Cable Tow. With the Cable
Tow in his left hand and the sword in his right hand, the Magus leads
her sunwise around the circle to the east, where he salutes with the
sword and proclaims, "Take heed, O Lords of the Watchtowers of the East,
(name), properly prepared, will be made a Priestess and a Witch." Magus
leads her similarly to the south, west, and north, making the
proclamation at each quarter. Next, clasping Postulant around the waist
with his left arm, and holding the sword erect in his right hand, he
makes her circumambulate three times around the circle with a
3027
half-running, half-dancing step. He halts her at the south of the altar,
and strikes eleven knells on the bell. He then kneels at her feet,
saying, "In other religions the postulant kneels, as the Priests claim
supreme power, but in the Art Magical, we are taught to be humble, so we
kneel to welcome them and say:
"Blessed be thy feet that have brought thee in these ways." (He kisses
her feet.)
"Blessed be thy knees that shall kneel at the sacred altar." (He kisses
her knees.) |
Wicca | The-Complete-Uncut-Book-of-Shadows | 2,504 | "Blessed be thy womb, without which we would not be." (He kisses her
Organ of Generation.)
"Blessed by thy breasts, formed in beauty and in strength." (He kisses
her breasts.)
"Blessed be thy lips, which shall utter the sacred names." (He kisses
her lips.)
Take measure thus: height, around forehead, across the heart, and across
the genitals. Magus says, "Be pleased to kneel," and helps her kneel
before the altar. He ties the end of the Cable Tow to a ring in the
altar, so that the postulant is bent sharply forward, with her head
almost touching the floor. He also ties her feet together with the
short cord. Magus strikes three knells on the bell and says, "Art ready
to swear that thou wilt always be true to the Art?"
Witch: "I am."
Magus strikes seven knells on the bell and says, "Before ye are sworn,
art willing to pass the ordeal and be purified?"
Witch: "I am."
Magus strikes eleven knells on the bell, takes the scourge from the
altar, and gives a series of three, seven, nine, and 21 strokes with the
scourge across the postulant's buttocks. Magus says, "Ye have bravely
passed the test. Art always ready to help, protect, and defend thy
Brothers and Sisters of the Art?"
Witch: "I am."
Magus: "Art armed?"
Witch: "With a knife in my hair."
Magus: "Then on that knife wilt thou swear absolute secrecy?"
Witch: "I will."
Magus: "Then say after me. `I, (name), in the presence of the Mighty
Ones, do of my own will and accord, most solemnly swear that I will ever
keep secret and never reveal the secrets of the Art, except it be to a
proper person, properly prepared, within a circle such as I am now in.
All this I swear by my hopes of a future life, mindful that my measure
has been taken, and may my weapons turn against me if I break this my
3028
solemn oath.'"
Magus now unbinds her feet, unties the Cable Tow from the altar, removes
the blindfold, and helps her up to her feet.
Magus says, "I hereby sign thee with the triple sign.
"I consecrate thee with oil." (He anoints her with oil on the womb, the
right breast, the left breast, and the womb again.)
"I consecrate thee with wine." (He anoints her with wine in the same
pattern.)
"I consecrate thee with my lips" (he kisses her in the same pattern),
"Priestess and Witch." |
Wicca | The-Complete-Uncut-Book-of-Shadows | 2,505 | Magus now unbinds her hands and removes the last cord, saying, "Now I
Present to thee the Working Tools of a Witch. "First the Magic Sword.
With this, as with the Athame, thou canst form all Magic Circles,
dominate, subdue, and punish all rebellious Spirits and Demons, and even
persuade the Angels and Geniuses. With this in your hand you are the
ruler of the Circle. [Here "kiss" means that the initiate kisses the
tool, and the Magus then kisses the Witch being initiated.]
"Next I present the Athame. This is the true Witch's weapon and has all
the powers of the Magic Sword [kiss].
"Next I present the White-Handled Knife. Its use is to form all
instruments used in the Art. It can only be properly used within a
Magic Circle [Kiss].
"Next I present the Wand. Its use is to call up and control certain
Angels and geniuses, to whom it would not be mete to use the Magic Sword
[Kiss].
"Next I present the pentacles. These are for the purpose of calling up
appropriate Spirits [Kiss].
"Next I present the Censer of Incense. This is used to encourage and
welcome Good Spirits and to banish Evil Spirits.[kiss]
"Next I present the scourge. This is a sign of power and domination. It
is also to cause suffering and purification, for it is written, to learn
you must suffer and be purified. Art willing to suffer to learn?"
Witch: "I am."[Kiss]
Magus: "Next, and lastly I present the Cords. They are of use to bind
the sigils in the Art, the material basis, and to enforce thy will. Also
they are necessary in the oath. I Salute thee in the name of Aradia and
Cernunnos, Newly made Priestess and Witch." Magus strikes seven knells
on the bell and kisses Witch again, then circumambulates with her,
proclaiming to the four quarters, "Hear, ye Mighty Ones, (name) hath
been consecrated Priestess and Witch of the Gods." (Note, if ceremony
ends here, close circle with "I thank ye for attending, and I dismiss ye
to your pleasant abodes. Hail and farewell." If not, go to next
degree.)
3029
[Second Degree]
Magus binds Witch as before, but does not blindfold her, and
circumambulates with her, proclaims to the four quarters, "Hear, ye
Mighty Ones, (name), a duly consecrated Priestess and Witch, is now
properly prepared to be made a High Priestess and Witch Queen." Magus
now leads her thrice around the circle with the half-running,
half-dancing step, halts south of the altar, has the Witch kneel, and
ties her down to the altar as before.
Magus: "To attain this sublime degree, it is necessary to suffer and be
purified. Art ready to suffer to Learn?"
Priestess Witch: "I am."
Magus: "I prepare thee to take the great oath."
He strikes three knells on the bell, and again gives the series of
three, seven, nine, and 21 strokes with the scourge as before. |
Wicca | The-Complete-Uncut-Book-of-Shadows | 2,506 | Magus: "I now give thee a new name: _______. [kiss]
Magus: "Repeat thy new name after me, I, (name), swear upon my
mother's womb and by mine Honor among men and among my brothers and
sisters of the Art, that I will never reveal to any at all any of the
secrets of the Art, except it be to a worthy person, properly prepared,
in the center of a Magic Circle, such as I am now in. This I swear by
my hopes of Salvation, my past lives, and my hopes of future ones to
come, and I devote myself to utter destruction if I break this my solemn
oath."
Magus kneels, placing left hand under her knees and right hand on her
head, thus forming magic link.
Magus: "I hereby will all my power into you." Wills.
Magus now unties her feet, unties the Cable Tow from the altar, and
helps the Witch to her feet.
Magus: "I hereby sign and consecrate you with the great Magic Sign.
Remember how it is formed and you will always recognize it.
"I consecrate thee with oil." (He anoints her with oil on her womb,
right breast, left hip, right hip, left breast, and womb again, thus
tracing a point-down pentacle.)
"I consecrate thee with wine." (He anoints her with wine in the same
pattern.)
"I consecrate thee with my lips" (he kisses her in the same pattern),
"High Priestess and Witch Queen."
Magus now unbinds Witch's hands and removes the cord, saying, "Newly
made High Priestess and Witch Queen" [kiss] "you will now use the
working tools in turn.
First, the Magic Sword; with it you will scribe the Magic Circle [kiss]
3030
"Secondly, the Athame" (Form Circle) [kiss]
"Thirdly, the White Handled Knife" (use) [kiss]
"Fourthly, the Wand" (Wave to 4 Quarters) [kiss]
"Fifthly, the Pentacle" (Show to 4 Quarters) [kiss]
"Sixthly, the Censer of Incense" (Circle, cense) [kiss]
"Seventhly, the cords; bind me as I bound you." Witch binds Magus and
ties him to Altar.
Magus: "Learn, in Witchcraft, thou must ever return triple. As I
scourged thee, so thou must scourge me, but triple. So where you
received 3, return 9; where you received 7, return 21; where you
received 9, return 27; where you received 21, return 63." Witch scourges
Magus as instructed, 120 strokes total.
Magus: "Thou hast obeyed the Law. But mark well, when thou receivest
good, so equally art bound to return good threefold."
Witch now unbinds Magus and helps him to his feet. Magus, taking the new
Initiate by the hand and holding the Athame in the other, passes once |
Wicca | The-Complete-Uncut-Book-of-Shadows | 2,507 | round the Circle, proclaiming at the Four Quarters, "Hear, Ye Mighty
Ones, (name) hath been duly consecrated High Priestess and Witch Queen."
(Note, if ceremony ends here, close circle with "Hail and farewell." If
not go to next degree.)
[Third Degree]
Magus: "Ere we proceed with this sublime degree, I must beg
purification at thy hands."
High Priestess binds Magus and ties him down to the altar. She
circumambulates three times, and scourges Magus with three, seven, nine,
and 21 strokes. She then unbinds him and helps him to his feet. Magus
now binds the High Priestess and ties her down to the altar. He
circumambulates, proclaiming to the four quarters, "Hear, ye mighty
Ones, the twice consecrate and Holy (name), High Priestess and Witch
Queen, is properly prepared and will now proceed to erect the Sacred
Altar." Magus scourges High Priestess with three, seven, nine, and 21
strokes. Cakes and wine may now be taken [see section A.5].
Magus: "Now I must reveal to you a great Mystery." [kiss].
Note: if High Priestess has performed this rite before, omit these
words. High Priestess assumes Osiris position.
Magus: "Assist me to erect the Ancient Altar, at which in days past all
worshipped, the Great Altar of all things. For in the old times a woman
was the Altar. Thus was the altar made and so placed [Priestess lies
down in such a way that her vagina is approximately at the center of the
circle], and the sacred place was the point within the center of the
circle, as we of old times have been taught, that the point within the
center is the origin of all things. Therefore should we adore it."
[kiss]
3031
"Therefore, whom we adore, we also invoke, by the power of the lifted
lance." Invokes. "O circle of stars [kiss], whereof our Father is but
the younger brother [kiss], "Marvel beyond imagination, soul of infinite
space, before whom time is ashamed, the mind bewildered and
understanding dark, not unto thee may we attain unless thine image be of
love [kiss].
"Therefore, by seed and root, and stem and bud and leaf and flower and
fruit do we invoke thee, O, Queen of space, O dew of light, O continuous
one of the Heavens [kiss]. "Let it be ever thus, that men speak not of
Thee as one, but as none, and let them not speak of thee at all, since
thou art continuous, for thou art the point within the circle [kiss],
which we adore [kiss], the fount of life without which we would not be
[kiss]. "And in this way truly are erected the Holy Twin Pillars Boaz
and Jachin [kisses breasts]. In beauty and strength were they erected,
to the wonder and glory of all men."
(Eightfold Kiss: 3 points, Lips, 2 Breasts and back to lips; 5 points)
"O Secrets of secrets that art hidden in the being of all lives. Not
thee do we adore, for that which adoreth is also thou. Thou art that
and That am I [kiss].
"I am the flame that
burns in every man, and in the core of every star [kiss].
"I am Life and
the giver of Life, yet therefore is the knowledge of me the Knowledge of |
Wicca | The-Complete-Uncut-Book-of-Shadows | 2,508 | Death [kiss].
"I am alone, the Lord within ourselves whose name is
Mystery of Mysteries [kiss].
"Make open the path of intelligence between us. For these truly are the
5 points of fellowship [on the right appears an illuminated diagram of
the point-up triangle above the pentacle, the symbol for the third
degree], feet to feet, knee to knee, groin to groin, breast to breast,
arms around back, lips to lips, by the Great and Holy Names Abracadabra,
Aradia, and Cernunnos. Magus and High
Priestess: "Encourage our hearts, Let thy Light crystallize itself in
our blood, fulfilling us of Resurrection, for there is no part of us
that is not of the Gods."
(Exchange Names.)
Closing the Circle High Priestess Circumambulates, proclaiming, "The
twice consecrate High Priestess greets ye Mighty Ones, and dismisseth ye
to your pleasant abodes. Hail and Farewell."
She draws the banishing pentacle at each quarter.
A.5. Cakes and Wine (1949)
Magus kneels, fills Cup, offers to Witch [she is seated on the altar,
holding her athame; Priest kneels before her, holding up the cup].
Witch, holding Athame between palms, places point in cup.
3032
Magus: "As the Athame is the Male, so the Cup is the female; so,
conjoined, they bring blessedness."
Witch lays aside Athame, takes Cup in both hands, drinks and gives
drink. Magus Holds Paten to Witch, who blesses with Athame, then eats
and gives to Eat. It is said that in olden days ale or mead was often
used instead of wine. It is said that spirits or anything can be used so
long as it has life.
A.6. The Sabbat Rituals (1949)
November Eve Walk or slow dance, Magus leading High Priestess, both
carrying Phallic wand or broom, people with torches or candles.
Witch chant or song:
"Eko, eko, Azarak Eko, eko, Zomelak Bazabi lacha bachabe Lamac cahi
achababe Karrellyos Lamac lamac Bachalyas cabahagy sabalyos Baryolos
Lagoz atha cabyolas Samahac atha famolas Hurrahya!"
Form circle.
High Priestess assumes Goddess position.
Magus gives her Fivefold Kiss and is scourged.
All are purified [that is, bound and scourged with forty strokes, as in
the initiation rituals].
Magus assumes God position.
High Priestess invokes with Athame: "Dread Lord of the shadows, god of |
Wicca | The-Complete-Uncut-Book-of-Shadows | 2,509 | life and the giver of life. Yet is the knowledge of thee the knowledge
of death. Open wide, I pray thee, thy gates through which all must pass.
Let our dear ones who have gone before, return this night to make merry
with us. And when our time comes, as it must, O thou the comforter, the
consoler, the giver of peace and rest, we will enter thy realms gladly
and unafraid, for we know that when rested and refreshed among our dear
ones, w e shall be born again by thy grace and the grace of the Great
Mother. Let it be in the same place and the same time as our beloved
ones, and may we meet and know, and love them again. Descend, we pray
thee, upon thy servant and Priest (name)."
High Priestess gives Fivefold Kiss to Magus.
Initiations if any; all others are purified.
(Note: Couples may purify each other if they will.)
Cakes and Wine.
The Great Rite if possible, either in token or truly.
Dismiss [the guardians, and close down the magic circle; the people then
stay to] feast and dance.
February Eve
3033
After usual opening, all are doubly purified [that is, with eighty
strokes].
Dance round outside circle, High Priestess with sword girded on and
drawn, Phallic wand in left hand.
Enter circle.
Magus assumes God position.
High Priestess gives Fivefold Kiss, invokes: "Dread Lord of death and
Resurrection, life and the giver of life, Lord within ourselves, whose
name is Mystery of Mysteries, encourage our hearts. Let the light
crystalize in our blood, fulfilling us of resurrection, for there is no
part of us that is not of the gods. Descend, we pray thee, upon this thy
servant and Priest (name)."
All should be purified in sacrifice before him. He then purifies the
High Priestess with his own hands, and others if he will.
Cakes and wine.
Great Rite if possible, in token or real.
Games and dance as the people will.
Dismiss [the guardians, and close down the magic circle; the people then
stay to] feast and dance.
May Eve
If possible ride poles, brooms, etc. High Priestess leading, quick dance
step, singing
"O do not tell the priests of our arts.For they would call it sin, For
we will be in the woods all nightA conjuring summer in. |
Wicca | The-Complete-Uncut-Book-of-Shadows | 2,510 | And we bring you good news by word of mouth. For women, cattle, and
corn: The sun is coming up from the south,With oak and ash, and thorn."
Meeting dance if possible.
Form circle as usual, and purify.
High Priestess assumes Goddess position; officers all give her the
fivefold kiss.
She purifies all.
High Priestess again assumes Goddess position.
Magus invokes, draws down moon, "I invoke thee and call upon thee, O
mighty Mother of us all, bringer of all fruitfulness, By seed and root,
by stem and bud, by leaf and flower and fruit, by life and love, do we
invoke thee, to descend upon the body of thy servant and Priestess
here."
Magus gives Fivefold Kiss to High Priestess.
3034
All should be purified in sacrifice before her, and she should purify
Magus and some others with her own hands.
Cakes and wine.
Games.
Great Rite if possible, in token or truly.
Dismiss [the guardians, and close down the magic circle; the people then
stay to] feast and dance.
August Eve
If possible, ride poles, broomsticks, etc.
Meeting Dance if possible [the double-spiral dance described in
Witchcraft Today, p. 167].
Form circle.
Purify.
High Priestess stands in pentacle position.
Magus invokes her: "O mighty Mother of us all, Mother of all
fruitfulness, give us fruit and grain, flocks and herds and children to
the tribe that we be mighty, by thy rosy love, do thou descend upon thy
servant and Priestess (name) here."
Magus gives Fivefold Kiss to High Priestess.
Candle game: Seated, the men form a circle, passing a lighted candle
from hand to hand "deosil". The women form circle outside, trying to
blow it out over their shoulders. Whoever's hand it is in when it is
blown out is 3 times purified by whoever blew it out, giving fivefold
Kiss in return. This game may go on as long as the people like.
Cakes and wine, and any other games you like. |
Wicca | The-Complete-Uncut-Book-of-Shadows | 2,511 | Dismiss [the guardians, and close down the magic circle; the people then
stay to] feast and dance.
B.1. On Chants (1953)
Of old there were many chants and songs used especially in the Dances.
Many of these have been forgotten by us here, but we know that they used
cries of IAU which seems muchly like the cries EVO or EVOHE of the
ancients. Much dependeth on the pronunciation if this be so. In my
youth, when I heard IAU it seemed to be AEIOU, or rather, AAAEEIOOOOUU.
This may be but the natural way to prolong it to make it fit for a call,
but it suggests that these be possibly the initials of an invocation as
Agla is said to be, and of sooth 'tis said that the whole Hebrew
alphabet is said to be such, and for this reason is recited as a most
powerful charm, but at least this is certain, these cries during the
dances do have profound effect, as I myself have seen.
Other calls are IEHOUA and EHEIE; also Ho Ho Ho Ise Ise Ise.
3035
IEO VEO VEO VEO VEOV OROV OV OVOVO may be a spell but is more likely to
be a call. 'Tis like the EVOE EVOE of the Greeks and the "Heave ho!" of
sailors. "Emen hetan" and "Ab hur, ab hus" seem calls; as "Horse and
hattock, horse and go, horse and Pellatis, ho, ho, ho!"
"Thout, tout a tout tout, throughout and about" and "Rentum tormentum"
are probably mispronounced attempts at a forgotten formula, though they
may have been invented by some unfortunate being tortured, to evade
telling the real formula.
B.2. To Help the Sick (1953)
[1] Ever remember the promise of the goddess, "For ecstasy is mine and
joy on earth" so let there ever be joy in your heart. Greet people with
joy, be glad to see them. If times be hard, think, "It might have been
worse. I at least have known the joys of the Sabbath, and I will know
them again." Think of the grandeur, beauty, and Poetry of the rites, of
the loved ones you meet through them. If you dwell on this inner joy,
your health will be better. You must try to banish all fear, for it
will reall y touch you. It may hurt your body, but your soul is beyond
it all.
[2] And ever remember, that if you help others it makes you forget your
own woes. And if another be in pain, do what you may to distract his
attention from it. Do not say "You have no pain," but if you may,
administer the drugs which sooth as well as those that cure. But ever
strive to make them believe they are getting better. Install into them
happy thoughts. If you can only get this into his inner mind so that it
be always believed.
[3] To this end it is not wrong to let people think that we of the cult
have more power than we have. For the truth is that if they believe we
have more power than we really possess, we do really possess these
powers, insomuch we can do good to them.
[4] You must try to find out about people. If you tell a slightly sick
man, "You are looking better. You will soon be well," he will feel
better, but if he is really ill, or in pain, his Knowledge that he is in
pain will cause him to doubt your words in future. But if you give him
one of the drugs and then say, "The pain is growing less. Soon it will
be gone," because the pain goes, the next time you say, "The pain is
going," he will believe you and the pain will really get less. But you
must ever say so with conviction, and this conviction must come from
your believing it yourself, because you yourself know that if you can |
Wicca | The-Complete-Uncut-Book-of-Shadows | 2,512 | fix his mind so that he believes you, it is true.
[5] 'Tis often better to look exactly between their eyes, looking as if
your eyes pierced their heads, opening your eyes as wide as you may and
never blink. This continued gazing oft causes the patient to grow
sleepy. If they show signs of this, say "You are growing sleepy. You
will sleep, you are tired. Sleep. Your eyes grow tired. Sleep." If
they close their eyes, say "Your eyes close, you are tired, you cannot
open your eyes." If they cannot, say "Your arms are tired, you cannot
raise them." If they cannot, say "I am master of your mind. You must
ever believe what I tell you. When I look like this into your eyes you
will sleep and be subject to my will," then tell them they will sleep
and wake up refreshed, feeling better. Continue this with soothing and
healing drugs, and try to infuse into them the feeling of ecstasy that
3036
you feel at the Sabbath. They cannot feel it in full, but you can
command them to feel what is in your own mind, and try to concentrate on
this ecstasy. I f you may safely tell that you are of the Cult, your
task may be easier. And it were well to command them to know it only
with their sleeping mind, and forget it, or to be at least unable to
tell anyone about it when awake. A good way is to command them that, if
they are ever questioned about Witchcraft or Witches, to immediately
fall asleep.
[6] Ever remember if tempted to admit or boast of belonging to the cult
you be endangering your brothers, for though now the fires of
persecution may have died down, who knows when they may be revived?
Many priests have knowledge of our secrets, and they well know that,
though much religious bigotry has calmed down, many people would wish to
join our cult. And if the truth were known of its joys, the Churches
would lose power, so if we take many recruits, we may loose the fires of
persecution against us a gain. So ever keep the secrets.
[7] Think joy, think love, try to help others and bring joy into their
lives. Children are naturally easier to influence than grown people.
Ever strive to work through people's existing beliefs. For instance,
more than half of the world believe in amulets. An ordinary stone is
not an amulet but if it hath a natural hole in it, it must be something
unusual, so if the patient hath this belief give him one. But first
carry it next your skin for a few days, forcing your will into it, to
cure pain, to feel s afe, or against their particular fear, and this
amulet may keep imposing your will when you are absent. The masters of
talismans knew this full well when they say they must be made in a
circle, to avoid distraction, by someone whose mind is on the subject of
the work.
[8] But keep your own mind happy. Remember the Words of the Goddess: "I
give unimaginable joys on Earth, certainty, not faith, while in life,
and upon death, peace unutterable, rest, and ecstasy, and the promise
that you will return again." In the old days many of us went to the
flames laughing and singing, and so we may again. We may have joy in
life and beauty, and peace and Death and the promise of return.
[9] The Bible speaks sooth, "A merry heart doeth good like a medicine
but a broken spirit breaketh the bones." But you may not have a merry
heart. Perchance you were born under an evil star. I think that the
effects of the stars are overestimated, but you cannot make a merry
heart to order, you say. But you can, in the Cult; there be secret
processes by which your will and imagination may be influenced. This
process also affects the body, and brings it to joy. Your body is
happy, so your mind is happy . You are well because you are happy, and
you are happy because you are well. |
Wicca | The-Complete-Uncut-Book-of-Shadows | 2,513 | [10] Prayer may be used with good result if the patient believes it can
and will work. Many believe it can, but do not believe their God or
saint will help. Prayers to the Goddess help, especially the Amalthean
Horn Prayer, as it causes stimulation to the body as well as to the
mind.
B.3. The Scourge and the Kiss. (1953)
[1] Invocation
3037
(Feet, knees, and wrists should be tightly bound to retard blood.)
Scourge 40 or more, to make skin tingle, then say, invoking Goddess,
Hail, Aradia, from the Amalthean horn
Pour forth thy store of Love. I lowly bend
Before Thee! I invoke thee at the end
When other Gods are fallen and put to scorn.
Thy foot is to my lips! My sighs inborn
Rise, touch, curl about thy heart. Then spend,
Pitiful Love, loveliest Pity, descend
And bring me luck who am lonely and forlorn.
Ask the Goddess to help you to obtain your desires, then Scourge again
to bind the spell. This be powerful in ill luck and for sickness. It
must be said in a Circle, and you must be properly prepared and well
purified, both before and after saying, to bind the spell. Before
starting you must make a very clear picture in your mind of what you
wish. Make yourself see the wish obtained. Be sure in your own mind
exactly what it is and how it is to be fulfilled. This spell is the one
that was taught to me long ago and I have found it works, but I don't
think there is any special virtue in these words. Any others can be
substituted provided they ask the goddess's (or gods') help, and say
clearly what you wish and you form the clear mental image; and if it
doesn't work at first, keep on trying till it works. Your helper, who
wields the scourge, must know what you wish, and also form the mental
image. And at first at any rate, it will be better for you to work the
spell, then for the girl to take your place and work it also; you
scourge her. Don't try anything difficult at first, and do it at least
once a week till it works. You have to get into sympathy with each
other, before anything happens, and regular working helps this. Of
spells, the exact words matter little if the intent be clear and you
raise the true power, and sufficient thereof. Always in rhyme they are.
There is something queer about rhyme. I have tried, and the same seem
to lose their power if you miss the rhyme. Also in rhyme, the words
seem to say themselves. You do not have to pause and think: "What comes
next?" Doing this takes away much of your intent.
[2] Order and discipline must be kept. A High Priest or Priestess may
and should punish all faults to this end, and all of the Cult must
accept such corrections willingly. All are brothers and sisters, for
this reason: that even the High Priestess must submit to the scourge.
Each fault should be corrected separately. The Priest or Priestess
must be properly prepared and call the culprit to trial. They must be
prepared as for initiation and kneel, be told their fault and sentence
pronounced. Punishment should be the scourge, followed by a forfeit
such as several fivefold kisses or something of this nature. The
culprit must acknowledge the justice of the punishment by kissing hands
and scourge on receiving sentence and again when thanking for
punishment received.*
[3] The scourgings are 3, 7, 9 (thrice three), and 21 (thrice seven) 40
in all. It is not meet to make offerings [scourgings] of less than two |
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