The Equinox, Serpents and Saint Patrick

As we approach the cusp of the Vernal Equinox, I’m reminded of the promise that the sun brings to different facets of nature and the individual during this time. It may be difficult for some of us to relate to the agricultural aspects of the season, considering that many of us do not live on farms or agricultural communities. However it would behoove us to THINK GREEN during this time of the year. It tunes us into creative birth, fertility, warmth of body and soul, and sunlight on the mind (as opposed to the wintry effects of depression, fatigue, seasonal affective disorder, etc.).

Ancient civilizations like the Babylonians, and many others, viewed Spring as a time of renewal, and the re-establishment of order. Babylonian Springtime celebrations often commemorate the season by re-tellings of the Enuma Elish and make references to Marduk in ritual poetry, calling to him to cast darkness and chaos from civilized land. I have never been much of a fan of Marduk, myself. I am still convinced that Tiamat’s role was more in depth than what we know of ancient history lets on. Not only in the ancient near east, but all over the world we discover a plethora of serpentine folklore. In many cultures serpents were worshipped out of fears of pestilence, disease, disorder, and death. But serpents were also entreated as the bringers of fertility, growth, abundance. Even Hindu belief of the chakras stem from a coiled serpent in the seat of the soul – kundalini. Fires, passion, lust. Even if one were to peer into the modern day garden, snakes are attracted to tall grasses and slightly overgrown regions, but also remove smaller pests from doing damage to the plot, thus promoting the growth and abundance of the plot. Serpentine folklore is a multifaceted subject that can no longer be summized by empty assumptions of a simplified dualistic worldview.

I recently read excerpts from a book on Serpent Worship, which focused primarily on the snake-like processions of worship among Celtic druids. This time of year is also commonly famous for Saint Patrick and his donations to Irish Christianity. I remember hearing from some members of a meetup a year ago that they had plans to silently protest St. Patrick’s Day by donning green pins in the shape of snakes upon their garments. They believed that Saint Patrick’s driving of the snakes from Ireland was an allegory to the conversion of medieval Irish Paganism to Catholicism. I’ve never actually studied it, myself, but find the serpent references awfully intriguing. The shame surrounding modern day celebrations of Saint Patrick’s Day is that many people seem to be clueless as to what they’re celebrating if you take away the shamrocks, pro-Irish sentiments and the green beer. I look at these subjects with a critical eye because I want to get at the heart of why we are still honoring celebrations which began long before any of us were ever a seed of thought glimmering in our ancestors’ eyes.

Death Makes Frequent Stops in Sunny Florida

I have not had much time in the past couple months for a whole lot of reflection on much other than the subject of Death. My family has suffered a good deal of loss in these two months. I’ve written previous entries about the wintry months as seasons of loss. In the wintry months the animals scurry for warmth, trees grow into cold bare limbs. Where I live it tends to get cold. This winter however, was extraordinary in its waves of ice and snow storms stretching from Texas to Maine. It is one matter entirely to talk about the philosophical aspects of death and loss, and another entirely, to put into practice elements of one’s faith in order to deal with it. Loved ones with cancer may have more time to prepare for the end than those who suddenly fall ill, or collapse and wind up in the hospital. It can be their time all day long, but the moment we perceive it as a loss it becomes personal to us. It pains us as people to lose those we love so dearly. I used to say to myself that I knew that my parents wouldn’t live forever, but deep down inside I had hoped they would crack the code to immortality.

I spent two weeks in Florida, albeit a break from the winter, but not one from the inevitable. With my father in dire straits in the hospital, I visited everyday, not sure that there was anything that I could do but be there for him, and for my brothers. We took every step imaginable in the span of two weeks, in the hopes that he would show signs of recovery, but deep down inside I knew this would not be possible. When I went to Florida in January I had a very good feeling that my father’s condition would not change much. I made a promise to myself that if he was in this situation for too long, and nothing could be done to help him through these dark times, I would be willing to give him his final wish – a DNR order. They cleared up the infection, but he still wasn’t breathing on his own.  He spent too long on the ventilator, and the doctor’s suggested a tracheostomy. After that was done, his breathing improved, and within two days took a turn for the worst. Inevitability stung hard. We eventually agreed on the removal of the ventilator, but that did not last long.

Much of the pain I am dealing with, is surrounded by the idea that we can possess a level of foresight from days to months in advance of a scenario, and not be capable of doing anything to interfere with fate’s divine plan. Then the question arises, “what good is this ability if we cannot use it to change the world?” Maybe the point is that people gifted with these skills are, despite their own selfish desires to change dire situations, meant to steer clear of fate’s hallowed hand, and use these skills to try to understand what is happening and to learn from them. I’m no reverend, nor am I an expert in the supernatural. But the answer I propose is the only one I have at this juncture.  Other people cry for mercy way too late and make deals with God that cannot be met, because for whatever reason they are incapable of dealing with life and death on the terms dealt by fate. For whatever reason their answer is anguish and despair. I hope that gets them through the process of mourning, but highly doubt it.

In Search of Old Key West

Reconstructionists and historians are acutely aware of the importance of studying the past in an effort to understand the present and create a series of traditions for the future. No matter how much theory or research, it is often difficult to understand a people and an environment without visiting a site, for one’s self. Heritage and environment are two major factors which contribute to a spiritual or religious identity. Discovering the source from which these influences originate may assist in understanding more about ourselves. With that very thesis in mind, several years ago I embarked on an ancestral journey to Key West, the land of my father’s ancestors.

Cayo Hueso was originally translated as ‘bone key’, for the fact that it had been a giant Indian burial ground. English translators interpreted it as ‘weso’, and named it for its westernmost location among the islands within its vicinity. Beyond the long drive across the only road that connects the island to the mainland lies more than just a change in latitude, but also changes in everyday life. Highlighted outlines of reefs under the crystal sea-green waters were clearly visible from the stretch of highway.  Today Key West is prized for the famous authors and philanthropists who once lived on the island, and every corner is cluttered with tourist paraphernalia, but the island had, at one time been a very distinct entity. A once giant swamp, it was its own primeval ecosystem. Some of the banyan trees remain, gracing the yards of old stately homes-turned museums.

The purpose was the study of genealogical information pertaining to Caribbean and Cuban ancestry. Old records paint a picture of an island where yellow fever kills very easily. Pestilence and destruction abound, not unlike the studies of ancient civilizations from more than 4000 years ago. The sight and sounds of roosters on the streets was a familiar feeling that evoked memories of my childhood from Miami. An easy-going feeling permeated the atmosphere. As I proceeded towards the cemetery, more roosters scurried around, pecking at the bone white ground.

The entrance was not gated as many cemeteries are on the mainland. The entrance was a mix of sand, limestone and concrete. It was like walking into an archaeological excavation. The tombs were double-stacked above ground. There was a mix of religious customs on the island. Symbols of religious preference and religious orders marking the stones provided a glimpse of the profound variety found here.

The smell of the salt in the air electrified and energized the powerful feelings that the ocean had evoked within me. Offerings were left on the old gravestones. Many of which were silk floral arrangements. I brought my own. After deciphering the old etchings nearly rubbed clean by the flow of time and the erosion of the ocean, I made some notes about the headstones I had found, and provided offerings of incense and a beaded rosary of copper and gemstones. I had never known these people but felt that I should pay my respects just the same. These were the people from whom my love for the ocean had come.

My father had told me many stories about his lineage and of his childhood spent on the island. As I approached one of the banyan trees which stood in the outdoor perimeter of the Key West lighthouse museum, I felt a strange sense of home, tracing with my eyes the branches that grew both upward and threaded themselves back into the ground. An energy that had not yet finished transforming itself from one shape into another before being cast in stone. But there was nothing cold or lifeless about the banyan tree. The branches themselves evoked a strong sense of awe that had emerged from the spiritual significance of ‘the many that lead to one’.

The Scholar and the Dragon

A year ago I had drawn conclusions about the role of Tiamat in Babylonian myth, from two different sets of material; Samuel Noah Kramer’s The Sumerians, and Gerald Massey’s Natural Genesis. I’ve blogged previously about Gerald Massey’s work from more than a century ago wherein he draws similarities and conclusions of the mythologies of the Ancient Near East(ANE) based upon an Egyptological framework. Working with the similarities that he had drawn, and the supposition that Tiamat’s role must have existed in some form, for the inhabitants of pre-Babylonian, nay, pre-Sumerian Iraq, began drawing a few conclusions of my own regarding the mythological significance.

Despite the fact that I take issue with Egyptology, some of the writers on myth and symbols from a century ago were not just emphatic about the archaeological explosion in Egypt, but were Egyptological scholars in their own right. Authors such as Gerald Massey and Sir Wallis Budge do often draw interesting conclusions about mytholgical and symbolic parallels between civilizations in the ANE.

Much of the evidence that I have found as of late suggests that the Ubaid, preUbaid, Halaf and Samarran all converged upon the worship of a goddess, in some form or another. What is particularly intriguing regarding the pre-Ubaid, was the combination of feminine and serpentine attributes which many archaeological finds detail through a female body and a lizard-like head. Similarly both Nintu (Sumerian) and Isis (Egyptian) are also portrayed as half female and half serpent.

Its clear that from the importance of the serpent in the pre-Sumerian civilizations of the ANE, that serpentine attributes and symbolism predated Sumer and Egypt. What is also evident is the connection between the feminine role of creation and serpentine symbolism of fertility and abundance. I haven’t quite made the connection between the female force and destruction, except through the serpent. Serpents were probably perceived as a threat to civilization in Sumer.  A study such as this is important to me from a practical perspective since there is little to no appearance of Tiamat worship in Babylonian archaeology. Its difficult to consider Babylonian reconstructionist worship of a deity for whom there is relatively little to no supporting evidence. So the search continues.

Honesty in the Seasons

For a while I wasn’t feeling very well, and was even less motivated to get online. I don’t always have something pressing on my mind that’s worth posting, and instead of posting the equivalent of “erm rocks?!?”, choose not to post any drivel at all. But I was reading an article today that made the neuro-hamster wheel start to turn.

I was reading the article When Sabbats Attack, from the PaganNews.com website, by Julie Cox. She paints those of us who can’t keep up with holidays as practitioners of ‘Lazy Paganism’. Now it isn’t that I loathe the idea of thinking about my craft, let alone the holidays. On the contrary there’s nothing I love more in this world than engaging in contemplation of the seasons, of nature and the divine. But unlike the many authors of Pagan articles who are always on the ball, and have articles ready for publication up to 3 seasons ahead of event horizon. I can’t function that way. A week after Mabon, while some practitioners were already thinking about Imbolc, I haven’t even successfully worked my way through Mabon.

But I don’t believe that the problem is motivation or indecision. Its timing. At least in my own experience, I often don’t know how I will celebrate a holiday until it is upon me. Sometimes we find different symbolism and meanings from the seasons, themselves. It could very easily strike the practitioner differently than it might have done the previous year. I think it is a much more honest approach to try to listen to nature and the seasons than what other people might publish on the subject.

Readings and True Learning

Its been a while since my last post, and I haven’t really been as engaged in online discussions as I used to be. In fact, quite the opposite. I’ve been a real recluse lately, and drawn closer to reading. Apparently we had a copy of The Jesus Mysteries in one of our surplus piles of books and I decided to read it. It was somekind of amazing to see the similarities between Christ, Mithras, Osiris-Dionysus; and at the same time many of those ideas were not so amazing.

It shouldn’t surprise us that Classical Pagans were both very scientific-minded individuals, as well as very devout religious minds. The same standard appears in the best Western scientists and poet-philosophers up through the 19th century. It makes one wonder how we wound up living in a world where the biggest lie centers on the myth that the two are wholly incongruous. We really need to move back into the frame of mind that accepts this kind of functionality not as a duality but as two parts of the whole; the individual.

However, the reading of Paganism and Christianity in Late Antiquity made me consider what area I would like to focus my educational studies. This is that area. That period in the Classical world that focuses on Ancient Paganism, Pagan Mystery Religions, Zoroastrianism and Babylonian Astrology, Judaism, and Early Christianity.

What can Magic do for you?

There is so much on the internet these days about defining Paganism, how to understand it and practice it. There seems to be an equal amount of clutter about the practice of magic. Sites that provide information about which spells are successful and for what means. So few people seem to really trust themselves enough to make those decisions on their own.

I keep a garden at home. As I was walking through it earlier today, I reflected on how, over time, I began to figure out the purposes of specific plants and herbs. Similarly with practice and time, I also figured out what magic really meant to me, how I was meant to practice it, and its place in my spirituality.  Separately I still fiddle with mechanics in theory. Other times it dawns on me that researching ancient perspectives on magic help me to achieve a greater understanding of how it might have been applied. Its symbols are equally important, because it reveals psychological insight into ancient civilizations.

But let’s not stop there. That kind of research leads me to identify with more ancient than modern perspectives and has led me to look for more information on folk practices or natural magic. It also leads me to ask questions about the kind of understanding ancient peoples had regarding some of the hot occult topics of today (psychism, astral travel, past life memories), and the relationship they had with the divine, with the land, and with the otherworlds (upper, lower and otherwise).

Paleo-shamanism shows us that ancient peoples had a relationship with the land, and an understanding of some concepts we have difficulty with in our own modern world. As did paleo-paganism. And although most ancient pagan mythologies suggest a limited scope for the otherworlds, they don’t really address past life memories very often. A closer look at some of the ideologies held by the ancients and held by us may help to bridge the gap and address if we are tapping into the same “world of ideas” that they once had.

Is This Not the World We Once Knew?

I started thinking recently about the history of the world, and if we had the ability to travel back in time about 200,000 – 400,000 years, would we even recognize it, or mistake it for a foreign planet? There are many of us, who despite differences in spiritual belief, recognize some symbols inherent to the development of the Earth. Like dragons for instance. Dragons and faeries have long been very important symbols to me and have served as mythological reminders of beings that once lived beside humans on earth. If one were to delve far enough into Celtic/Irish history, they would discover that the Formorii and Tuatha de Danaan for instance were two races of what is often called ‘faerie’, who by the arrival of the Milesians or the sons of Mil , were driven down into the cthonic regions where the Sidhe roam.

Dragons have also had a long history on the Earth, and across the globe. Every culture has a myth about dragons. The closest evidence modern scholars have found regarding the dragon lies in its similarities with the prehistoric dinosaur. But then why does east asia refer to ley lines as ‘dragon lines’? This may suggest an inherent link between planetary energy currents and different types of entities reported in the folklore of ancient civilizations. Could they be more than mere allegories? Not all civilizations reported dragons as the bringers of ill will, but the most common perceptions of dragons from medieval european fairy tales portrays them as just that.

A fair share of writings have been published since the beginning of the feminist era, suggesting that matriarchies precluded our patriarchal society. Those same writings often paint these ancient societies as peaceful groups who did not war nor want for war – suggesting that brute force has always been a masculine trait. But can we honestly believe everything we read? Plenty of evidence explains the existence of amazonian tribes, in addition to myriad mythologies of ancient civilizations with goddesses of war and destruction.

We are now only beginning to understand civilizations dating back to 10,000 BC. We still can barely conceive of dates ranging from 100,000 – 400,000 BC. But given the cyclic nature of the rise and fall of civilizations that we have seen from 10,000 BC onwards, it shouldn’t be taboo to consider that the same things may have been happening going back at least half that far. Treating ancient civilizations as primitive societies is more damaging towards the treatment of these ancient mysteries. Archaeological discoveries such as Egyptian pyramids that generated electricity and the famed “Baghdad Battery” should be among the list of mysteries that lead to greater inquiry, and not the pushing aside of ‘anomalies’ that do not suit the purposes of specified beliefs about the ancient world.

Lughnasadh & Reading Lists

As per Lughnasadh, for the last couple of days I have been thinking about skillsets and characteristics that not only guide me into my own, but that help to define the person that I am. Also after a lunch meeting with a friend and mutual former grad student, she reminded me that I was right when I said I really felt this gaping hole in my life without research. I know for a fact that I will be returning to school someday, but that maybe its time for me to finally devote some time to figuring out what it is I want to study. Independent study isn’t an impossibility at the present. Being out of work could potentially afford me a good opportunity to do quite a bit of reading and writing.

The last few days of surfing the net for the Pagan related content did enable me to come across some bibliography lists, and scholarly reading lists. One of the lists got my attention. Its listed at the end of the post. The reason why its so fascinating to me is because within the past year or so when I approach the subject of spellwork I find myself explaining to others its mechanics and theory. I have to admit, I do enjoy reading through spell encyclopedias and thinking critically about what is happening in spellwork when considering what is involved, with the region from which it hails. This is a new plateau. A place I am kind of surprised to find myself at, but shouldn’t be considering it speaks volumes to the amount of time and focus I’ve sacrificed to my own personal study and practice. Simultaneously, being a firm believer in a kind of natural magic that is innate to the individual  – a practice that is without structure or form necessarily; without restrictions – I tend to not view that practice in terms of mechanics and theory, even though I’m aware that theory applies to all forms, all spectrums of spellwork. My brain tells me that will interacts through substances, sound, visualization, etc. to evoke change in the manifest world we live in. And yet, my soul sees the ethereal visions of magic as energy. While I don’t think that my mind and soul are perceiving different realities, there is definitely a sense of disconnect between in-ritual perception, and the mechanized description of what we experience when we are in the ‘zone’ so to speak.

http://www.geocities.com/hearthstoneshaven/spellcraft.html

Janet and Stewart Farrar, Spells and How They Work

Most useful for:	Intermediate students and beyond
Content:	Discusses magical theory and ethics; discusses psychic self-defense; describes various magical methods, including sex magic, the Cabala, talismans, spells of different historical periods and lands, folk magic, and healing, love, problem-solving, weather, and binding spells; provides planetary squares and magical alphabets.
Commentary:	This book shares many of the same qualities of Valiente’s Natural Magic–a general discussion of magical theory, a wide range of examples of traditional forms of spellwork. I particularly liked the chapter on “Coming Unstuck,” full of examples of failed spells and the reasons they may have failed. Again, not a book for the beginner, but a potentially valuable one for someone seeking out somewhat more advanced information than is commonly found elsewhere.

Developing Psychism

On a road trip last week, had a unique discussion about those moments when we witness phenomena that overcome us and fill us with the certainty of events to come whether way in advance, or just moments away. The conversation addressed the feeling of dread or guilt that often comes when people feel or see something unfolding and then watch it unfold in realtime – wishing only later that they had warned someone or done something to prevent it. Why on earth would we be able to experience events like these if there is nothing we can do to prevent them? How do you warn people about impending doom or the grim if you will, when we live in a society that cares not about such things if they even believe in them at all? Is it possible that the precognition of such events could serve as a lesson to the gifted to trust their instincts?

The general consensus seems to conclude that people with such gifts are meant to share them with the population at large. This is a purpose they carry, in a sense. At the grassroots level, it is easier to approach one or two people to try to impart some helpful information, but when it happens on a national or global scale, it becomes much more difficult to make a positive impact without heavy scrutiny and disbelief. Many times I used to get flashes or senses that it was in my best interest to do something like put my pendant on the inside of my shirt. When I listened, I would do it and within moments would run into someone who could be very discriminative and intolerant towards me if I hadn’t put said pendant on the inside of my shirt. At those moments I realize that its important to listen to those impulses because although it is a seemingly miniscule incident, it is still a learning experience nonetheless.

This kind of daily experience is important to me because it is par the course of human development. My traveling companion is not Pagan, but is currently beginning to experience similar phenomena that he often does not feel comfortable discussing. My interest in the subject I think has made it easier for him to discuss the topic with me. His discussion of the subject I hope has made him feel a little better about a developing psychism, and the feelings that it evokes.