Nine weeks of readings from the Atu descriptions in Crowley’s Book of Thoth and essays from Don Webb’s “Grand Initiation” in chapter three of Uncle Setnakt’s Essential Guide to LHP. Keep a Journal. Set 1: Apostacy Week 1: The Thoth Juggler and Priestess; Webb’s words on Chaos Ritual: Put on favorite outfit of identity; remove, wash, and store for nine weeks. Sit sky clad. Sigil suggestions: ouroboros, reversed pentagram Card reading: do an intuitive three card spread on your identity, its release, and other wisdom. Week 2: The Thoth Hierophant and Lovers; Webb’s essay on Order Ritual: burn phrases and/or symbols of old identity Sigil suggestions: Baphomet, Samael, Lilith Card reading: Intuitive five-card spread on false purposes, desires, relationships, goals, ideas. Week 3: The Thoth Devil and Tower; Webb’s essay on Clarity Ritual: break, destroy, or trash a symbol of false purpose. Sigil suggestions: broken or reversed symbols of the mainstream mindset Card reading: Two central cards and added clarifiers for needed transgression + destruction Set 2: Transmutation Week 4: The Thoth Wheel, Hanged Man, and Death; Webb’s essay on Life Ritual: Cut apple slices from core and eat; save 7 seeds; hide core in nature to decompose. Sigil suggestions: star of Babalon, wheel of the year or of Buddhism Card reading: Daily draws and reflections on life changes. What am I becoming? Week 5: The Thoth Hermit and Star; Webb essay on Creation Ritual: create intuitive, runic, or A.E. Spare-style sigil on a dawning intention Sigil suggestions: rune Gebo, railroad crossing and crossroads sign Card reading: What are my primal desires? What is my true will? Week 6: The Thoth Tarot Lust and Moon cards; Watch television shows or movie (Incubation) Set 3: Apotheosis Week 7: The Thoth Chariot and Art; Webb’s essay on Birth Ritual: cast apple seeds into nature and release saved sigil (from weeks 4 and 5) Sigil suggestions: 8 arrows of chaos magic, hieroglyphic monad Card reading: What is my temporary anchor or foundation? How is it/is it not stable? Week 8: The Thoth Sun and Aeon; Webb’s essay on Re-creation Ritual: in/evocation of deity (Hecate? Santa Muerte? Lucifer and Lilith?) Sigil suggestions: rune Dagaz, rising sun, butterfly, lemniscate Card reading: How do I flow one day at a time? How is my ascent unending? Week 9: The Thoth World and Fool; Webb’s essay on Victory; Review journal Ritual: Black Mass (black candles, music, invocation, communion with Self) Sigil: combination of runes Gebo and Dagaz plus triangle of mountain in circle
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I recently had the ill-advised urge to dedicate my pentagram ring to a magickal but platonic friendship in my life. Not only was this a case of stereotypical male stupidity—in the repurposing of an item of jewelry—but it was a spiritual error as well as I was confusing an interpersonal situation with something sacramental or incarnational. My adoration of the Goddess, who can sometimes shine through archetype or synchronicity, sometimes even channel through priestess or medium, was misplaced as a liminal space devolved into idolatry, quite an embarrassing error to admit.
Some years ago, I had felt called by the Morrigan through a series of signs: a five-pointed star on a truck, a pentagram on some chimes, the pentacle in a tarot reading, and so forth. My self-initiation culminated in wearing the aforementioned ring. Additionally, after joining the coven, one of two tattoos included the pentagram with the ouroboros replacing the usual circle. In rededicating my tattoo and ring recently and doing some self-searching, I have been reflecting on the power of the pentagram. One of my first leads to the power of the pentagram comes from its appearance in various systems, including tarot. In ceremonial magic and the Magician’s tools of the Rider-Waite-Smith deck, the elements are revealed through the wand of fire, staff of air, and cup of water; however, the pentacle (like Earth) reflect all the elements in its five points: sun and moon, sky and land, all beneath the 5th-point of Spirit. In the familiar inversion on the Devil card, the material elements take the lead in Dionysian ecstasy or primal creativity. In the Thoth system, the Princess of Disks—the earthy part of Earth, lowest of the court cards—carries all the energy of the tarot, completes the Tree of Life and starts the cycle afresh. Like the pentagram, Earth is said to contain all of the other elements as a portal to Spirit. The disk carried by the Thoth Princess has the yin and yang symbol at center, a balance also suggestive of the power of the pentagram in certain magickal systems. When the pentagram points upwards, an inverted pentagon is seen at center; however, when the pentagram is reversed as on the Devil card, the central pentagon points upwards. This harmony of reversals might support the notion that every person and aspect of life—like every tarot card—contains both sun and shadow, that no one is true angel or demon, that nothing is purely light or dark. Spirit effectively descends into the material as well as arising from it in this cosmology. The pentagram will be familiar for its symbolic power. In ceremonial magic, the Lesser Banishing Ritual of the Pentagram can be used for daily protection, and even in witchcraft and altar work the pentagram may be invoked. Like the Christian cross, the pentagram is a universally recognized symbol with a variety of interpretations, in fact, once used by Christians to represent the five wounds of Christ. With magickal associations it is used in Celtic practice, Wicca, and even heavy-metal and goth rock album covers. As a sigil, the pentagram evokes energy as certainly as a QR code. Although the terms are often used interchangeably, some will note that “pentagram” refers to the five-pointed star proper and that “pentacle” refers to the star within a circle. The alchemy of the Renaissance would see the neo-platonic elements represented as transcendental romantics might find supernatural power displayed by the pentagram. Many modern pagans find the pentagram to be a satisfying symbol of earth-based spirituality, nature religion, or animism. The pentagram is a symbol and sigil of vibrant energy. Applying various perspectives from classic Greek and Roman, through the medieval and the modern, might lead us to fit the pentagram into a personal paradigm in powerful ways. However, I will close with a reminder from Neuro-linguistic Programing (NLP): “The map is not the territory.” These models and systems are merely ways of accessing a living, breathing magick, a fragile communion, or a sacred connection that can wax or wane like phases of the moon. |
Alan>Performing magician, >English teacher, Archives
March 2021
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