Our Musings

THEY CALL ME THE HUNTER.

“the boar, the stag, the ram we become, the hunter and hunted are but one”

Even in our modern society good luck charms are surprisingly popular. For example, an old friend of mine is a sports fisherman and the lengths he goes to preparing for a tournament is quite fascinating. A complex procedure of actions, all to a strict order ensures a relaxed and easy match, and of course we must not forget ‘the’ lucky fishing rod. For myself, the only piece of fisherman’s equipment I have any affinity with is the idle back, but that is another story.

Still this all brings to mind how little has changed, I mean, really changed. As human beings, our basic needs are well, human. And so our ancestors also sought mastery in part at least of their environment. This becomes particularly important when we realise how the life and well being of their communities depended upon it. Hunting and fishing within these societies reflect cultural activities, often ritualised, that have distinguished humankind from the animal kingdom. And yet we retain an instinctive interconnectedness and relationship within both society and the natural world.

A certain dynamic tension exists between the need for a people’s survival and the ability of the hunters to meet it. So magic enabled those people to establish a link to an unknowable or uncontrollable object, to effect their control of that object they desired. Enacting a scenario that anticipates the successful intent of the hunt relies on a systematic and logically coherent set of ideas about the relations between the shaman and the subject pursued. Taboos are placed to minimise the possibility of failure. The shaman knows and accepts how all things have an unpredictable influence upon such matters. These things find their origin from within a mysterious realm beyond the kenning of human laws.

Each hunt is a rite of passage, one ventures out into a wilderness, beyond the known safety of the people towards a hostile environment and an uncertain outcome. In this place, nature alone is Mistress; here Her laws preside over the Hunt. The true hunter thus prepares himself fully, ritually, first in the act of separation, first in mind, then in body. In his mind he will immerse himself and become the prey, he envisions himself as the prey, to move look smell as the prey would, until their spirits link and they can move as one. At that point, he makes the switch. He becomes the hunter and makes his kill. A true hunter and man of the woods once told me how the last few moments are key to a successful quarry, and that under no circumstance to allow eye contact. Fail this one premise, and all is lost. That precious link, so artfully woven allows the prey to know the mind of the hunter and take flight as the hunter sees himself reflected in those mirrors that link their souls; in that brief pause, the prey seeks its freedom.

In hunter/gatherer societies the hunter had to go through a ritual to honour the prey on its final journey, its own rite of passage, if you like. It was revered in the initial rites of preparation, consciously respected in the hunt, and then dispatched without malice and finally prayed over in death. This was no blood sport, no pleasure shoot, but a simple matter of survival, one life for another. No savagery here.

This arcane and quite profound relationship between the hunter and the hunted links them essentially as one. Even clothing and weapons become imbued with the spirit presence of the animal and are thus assimilated one to another; no separation exists magically between the hunter, his tools and his prey. Where success is required, it is to magic they turn, utilising all available spells, charms and offerings to their totemic deity. Thus all magic becomes focused on the prey its self, to allow itself to be killed, or to be easy to find, to make the hunter invisible to it, and always to respect the spirit of the prey.

It was believed that the hair, meat and blood of wild prey had a dangerous potency, and had to be neutralised. The concept of the man/animal relationship underlying the practice of hunting magic is sophisticated and complex; the rituals maintain a managed symbiosis to increase all species through survival which depended on need, rather than greed. The First Nation Tribes Peoples of America are fine exemplars of this vital tenet, to take only what is needful, understanding that, if you take too much, the herd is depleted, and this means no food for future generations. Some hunter societies believed that all life is interlinked, such that if you engage in dishonourable hunts, the grim outcome decrees that it would be your soul hunted by the Lord of the Animals, taken to his cave and reincarnated as a hunted animal.

This idea that all animal spirits return to the Lord of the Animals in his cave is very interesting, especially with regard to the Craft concept of the cave as a womb. Many caves have been discovered adorned with sparse but graphic scenes of hunting. Animal’s bones and effigies are often found in heaps towards the back of the caves in middens. Others are found nearer the front, pierced with holes that suggest a different usage and significance. Some hunter societies share similar beliefs to certain craft practices of an animal duality, of an inner spirit – the primal totem self, which if properly understood and contextualised, will help and guide the individual.

It is also believed that to kill a persons spirit totem will affect the human person, that a family will recognise its own totem children and be able to repel any that is not its own. Thus on the other side of this bridge in life, the watcher will recognise his own by name and totem. The ‘hunter’ always remembers his ancestors; be, before, and beyond the hunt. Countless superstitions that require fore-knowledge in the victim that magic has been worked upon them, though undoubtedly successful present to my own understanding, a very different scenario lacking in a very real magical command of spirit, to the works of a true shaman where, like the hunter, they ‘create’ and manifest the reality of their magical will through wit and cunning rather than by psychological trickery.

The underlying purpose of hunting magic was and remains to maintain steady contact with their subject and afterwards to integrate the hunter safely into the community, as well as to promote the success of all ventures into the animal world. To that end, I wish to share a very fine and poignant tale that includes a genuine hunting spell from the myths of the Sami peoples, the oldest extant hunters who still have a deeply respected tradition of Shamen.

“I have a mind a thought occurs, a mind to go to my totem, to the foot of the tree, to the Ide of the forest girls, to the courtyard of the woodland maids, to drink the forest mead, to taste the honey of the woods in the shadow of my totem. By the watchful maidens I shall doff my tattered working clothes, dash down my working birch-bark shoes, put upon my hunting shoes, my stockings of darkest hue. I afterwards equip my limbs. My body I protect with a jacket shaggy at the edge, with a shirt of blue. I brush my head with twigs of fir. I comb it out with juniper, in order no scent escape, no human breath exhale. I put my bow in order and detach my honoured spear. I anoint with grease my shoes with the fat of swine, my feet have covered the snow, my feet have covered the heath. I carry my staff and move at a steady pace, I head towards the forests edge. And into the hazy wooded wilds, at the head of a copse I sing a song, into the inner depth of the forest-to amuse the forest girls, to delight the maiden of the wood. The old one has laid down fresh snow for me, fine snow does the old one send, as white as autumn ewe, as white as winter hare. I, leaving men, start forth to hunt, quit full grown men for outdoor work, on the old ones newly fallen snow, on the old ones snow without the footprint of a hare, unbroken by a foxes track.

First I make ready with my bow, unloose my spear, and address my snow skates with my lips; A skate is of the family of foot, a spear is of the axe`s race, a bow has kinship with the hand; grand is a bow of hardened yew, a spear-shaft made of a tree`s hard side, grand is one`s shoes that fits one well. I then when going to the woods, when I am leaving home, I have my guide`s, my three dogs, five dogs of mine with bushy tails, they guide me true. My dogs have eyes as large as a blessed oath ring, my dogs have ears as large as a water- lily on a lake, my dogs have teeth as sharp as a scythe.

What temper and what change has come o`er the delightful hunting-ground [name here inserted of tutelary god]. While trapping, a maiden made rich my tract of wood, she made my beat abound with game. To take and not respect, to not [forfeit but accept in] gyfu [only]my life, will tilt the millstone, unbalance the order, and all abound will be cast in chaos. In the maidens hold, I hold my weapon’s in truth I ask no more, so I with chosen words beseech. I do not hunt on holy days, others may take by knavery, will take by fraud, I would not take by knavery, nor will I take by fraud. I only take that I have earned, I take with the sweat of my brow, I bring the best offering, I sing the best songs, thou are my shield under thee I sing.

My power is insignificant, my walk on you is short, my guide provides me all I need. Bread and mead I share with thee, I have hunted in this forest long, three forts in the forest lay, the one of wood, the other of bone, the third was a fort of stone. I took a glance at them inside as I stood at the foot of the wall; there the givers of gifts abide, the maiden lived there in. As for the wooden fort, the forest lassies lived within, the maiden in the one of bone, but in the fort of stone the forest`s master dwelt himself. All sparkled in there gold attire, were swaying to and fro, on his head the sun`s-son had a hat, three branches were in that hat. The arms of the forest`s mistress, of the kindly mistress, had golden bracelets on, upon her fingers golden rings, on her head a crown of gold, in golden ringlets were her locks, gold pendants in her ears. Her skirt was hung in golden pleats, around her neck hung pearls. Oh kindly maid oh pleasant mistress of the woods, glance kindly to thy servant here, be well disposed to give thy gifts, be generous with thy largesse’s. Hold not thy gaze from thy Faithfull son, not let binding or hunger strike me, for in thy shadow I shall hold thy light, and take nobly all I am given. I leave it to you, in whose hands we are held, to bless the hel shoe I am given.”

The death runes and hel shoes were an integral little known part of early death rites, still used in certain Craft families. There is much Craft Law here written, and much of the Mystery Tradition’s teaching in this simple charm.

‘ROBIN THE DART. MAY THE WORD PROTECT YOU FROM THE LIE.’

 

image by wiki commons

 

Hel Shoe

The Wanderer Cometh.

Some time ago, certain recurring patterns initiated an occasional dalliance into obscure areas of research that yielded little by way of compensation for time given there. Progression was therefore slow. Eventually, as often happens, a gem is discovered whose astonishing brilliance provides the long awaited key to the golden box of mysteries. Finally, all the disparate facts, comments, suggestions and hints coalesced into a bizarre custom, long forgotten; a distant memory in folklore and myth. Consigned forever to the annals of anomalous lore, it was almost doomed to become forgotten there, almost.

Beginning first with one of many incongruous remarks interjected into conversation, my mentor, Evan John Jones drew me into the intriguing notion that aprons, rather than cloaks and robes were the traditional garb of any  ‘true ‘crafter. Of course this appears quite natural when considering the guilds of smiths and masons. But less obvious and far more fascinating were the guilds of butchers, tanners and shoemakers. Why these, I pondered and especially why shoe-makers? What possible causality links aprons and patron saints with these particular guildsmen? Folkloric legends were a viable resource from which to delve deeper into the broader aspects and areas of commonality. From these fruits, the seeds bore more fruit, ripening into a contemplative blend with much promise. Everything made sense. Later, other more diverse clues concerning various historical legends concerning Hermes in particular, demanded deeper enquiry.

Returning to the earliest references then, biblical folklore has woven the divine angelic beings known from a variety of early sources to present ‘Sandalphon’ as incarnate within the prophet [carrier of the word/divine messenger] Elijah prior to his configuration. Other sources (mainly from the Midrashic period) describe the personage of Sandalphon as the feminine twin of Metatron, and to whom legend ascribes a similar shared human incarnation as Enoch

The etymology of Sandalphon is rather vague but is commonly accepted as a derivative of the Greek prefix sym-/syn-, meaning ‘together’, and adelphos, meaning ‘brother.’ The implication of a ‘co-brother,’ is of itself significant within the guilds where respect for peers and social status awarded some measure of familiarity [synadelfos].  Aside from this familiarity and token affinity as a brotherhood, another suggestion presents a not mutually exclusive proposal relative to footwear – ‘sandalion.’

Specifically, it refers to the one who carries/wears the sandal before god. This personage is none others than the Wanderer, the mendicant messenger across the broad plains of this earth – of Malkuth, the realm of Sandalphon in all magical lore. Bringing the Word, through Law, Faith and Knowledge, the thrice greatest of all messengers in the arcane world was Hermes Trismegistus. His ability to traverse the realms and between them, is facilitated by his winged sandals and sometimes, though not always, a winged helmet.

Hermes/Mercury, through the auspices of the twin saints St Crispin and St Crispinian, becomes patron of cobblers, tanners, weavers and saddlers.  Though of Roman birth, they wandered across Europe during the third century expounding the ‘Word.’[i] Hermes is clearly aptly placed as wanderer and messenger through many similarly inspired prophets and speakers whose precedent in Thoth advances his attendant hermetic principle as Purveyor of the Word hosting the Law exacted.  Within Pharonic Egypt the appointment of  ‘Sandal Bearer’  commanded an enviable prestige. To walk behind one’s god on earth made manifest, holding aloft the symbol of his status in readiness for his afterlife, was the highest of all privileges.

Wearing sandals or shoes also suggests being fleet of foot being the archetypal virtue of all messengers. Every guild has for many centuries held dear its own patron saint as intercessor. The following list indicates a generalised overview of medieval correlations held between the guildsmen and their variant function as applied to the round of life through the mystery of creation itself.^[ii]

• Barkers (Tanners) – The Creation, and the Fall of Lucifer
• Plasterers – The Creation Myth – up to the Fifth Day
• Cardmakers – Creation of Adam and Eve
• Fullers (preparers of woollen cloth) – Adam and Eve in Eden
• Coopers (makers of wooden casks) – The fall of Man
• Armourers – Expulsion from Eden
• Glovers – Sacrifice of Cain and Abel
• Fishermen and Mariners – Noah and his Wife
• Hosiers –  The Exodus. The vows and pilgrimage home of an exiled People.
• Spicers – Annunciation and Visitation
• Masons – Visitation and adoration by the Thee Magi
• Barbers – Baptism of Christos
• Smithcraft – Temptation
• Skinners – Journey into Jerusalem
• Bakers – Last Supper
• Cordwainers (Shoemakers) – Agony
• Bowyers and Fletchers - Denial/betrayal/purchase of the field of blood
• Tailors – Ascension.

From within the numerous faith and cultures of the arcane world, the ‘shoe’ has been a consistent idiosyncratic oddity. More than an enduring testament to the symbolism inherent within the function of the sandal, it signifies the role of the one who bears it.  For historical pagans of the east, the middle east and more northerly territories, even into early Christianity, the sandal/shoe was deemed requisite to face ones creator to hear pronouncement of the ‘Final Judgement,’ meted according to the life lived.

Shoes were a symbol of an individual’s worthiness to receive grace, to be accepted home again at the hearth of one’s ancestors where one is deemed a ‘true’ and vessel for the divinely vital essence within the gift of life. If not thus ‘shod,’ one’s soul is voided, the life deemed of no worth. This indicates a clear reference again to concepts of civilisation whereby the stability of sedentary life is in contra-distinction to that of the outcast – the eternal wandering of the traveller in exile.  A profound mystery is here suggested; the wanderer is the one deemed worthy of entrance into the ancestral halls.

They alone have fulfilled a life of service, of pushing boundaries to complete and fulfil the work, both for themselves and as inspiration to those who follow afterwards. The wanderer then, wears the shoe essentially as a ‘gift’ to aid his trials. Those rulers who develop these ideals and tenets of faith the wanderer reveals to them remain ‘unshod,’ giving freely of their devotions in true humility.  Such leaders imbued with the authority of the maintenance of the ‘Word’ must hold the sandal as the sacred symbol of their transient status, for as a ‘wanderer’ within the spirit of the word, they may not wear that which violates the sacred relationship between the Gods, the messengers and those who represent them.

In his profound explorations into the symbolism of all things relative to culture and environment, the great mystic, Emmanuel Swedenborg expressed his view of the wanderlust nature of the shoe as indicative of humility and liberty. Barefoot, unshod, the slave’s all too visible shackle declared even to the gods of a life of poverty in which the ‘choice’ of mendicant is denied. The sandal therefore denoted authority, the choice of wearing it as the ‘wanderer,’ serving duty in that manner, or wearing it as owner and ruler of slaves, without humility. To appease the gods, the pious ruler would go barefoot, his sandal bearer walking behind, carrying aloft the footwear that asserted the authority yet also the humility of this ruler in serving truly his people.

A typical folk custom, less common now than decades past, witnessed the tying of shoes to the car bumper of newly-weds. This declares to all witnesses a pious vow of surrender between bride and groom of all authority in absolute humility to each other for the duration of their life-long journey together. Similarly, the removal of shoes before stepping onto sacred ground denotes a similar reverence. More importantly, it presents the self in deference to one’s god/s; to wear shoes in the ‘presence’ of one’s god/s is considered supreme arrogance in the extreme.

The truly poor had their own gods, of simpler forms who were petitioned for relief in this life for their unfortunate plight. In Europe the blacksmith, respected for his ability to wield fire, was looked upon as an almost mystical figure. As master and tamer of this ruthless element of creation, his abode and place of work was viewed coterminous to the mounds beneath the earth, the hollow hills of germanic myth, where dwarves forged and cast the treasures and riches of the earth. Thus he bridged the worlds in liminal existence as a demi-god. Not all villages had their own church, and the priestly function of the smith was given further credence in his smithy, where the anvil served as the altar before god for cases of wedlock and general meetings for worship.

Although later canonised, Brigit the fiery goddess of the emerald isles remains the patron and protector to all blacksmiths and brigands. One of the more colourful origins of naming customs may reside with St. Bride for her role in the marriage ceremony, invoked to bless with wealth, joy and fecundity through both ‘Bride’ and ‘Groom.’ Some extant customs demand a horse be shod as part of the ‘binding’ together as one, by the joyous couple in the local forge.^[iii]

In Ancient Rome, rank among soldiers could easily be checked by the type of sandals worn. Sandals were presented to the Pope in Medieval Europe to signify an amicable relationship void of conflict, where state actively supports the Church. At the court of King Louis the XIV of France, aristocracy were required to reveal their titled wealth by wearing blatantly opulent red shoes. Bridegroom’s during Anglo-Saxon marriages would touch the forehead of his lady love with a shoe belonging to her given to him by the bride -to-be’s father. This signified that she now belonged to him, and was no longer her father’s responsibility.

Fearing Ragnarok, Heathens describe the violence and upheaval all doom serves in its Wake of Chaos, Order fails and the spiral of existence spins until righted once more. Events describe the breakdown of society and culture due to a failure in morality where the ideal of virtue becomes abandoned, possibly further exacerbated by the horrors of catastrophes both natural and man-made. Skaldic poetry weaves such concepts into the allegorical epics we recognise today as the Heroic period of recorded literary styles.

Horrific events forecast the stars dissolving from our sight, how Fenrir’s son Skoll will ‘swallow the Sun even as his other son Hati Hrodvitnisson will swallow the Moon.’ The earth will shake violently, trees will be uprooted, mountains will fall, and all bindings will shatter! – Fenrisúlfr will be free to go forth, jaw gaping wide towards the heavens and the bowels of the earth; flames pouring forth in fearsome manner from his eyes and nostrils. Plans are given for the final battle that is expected to consume Odhin.

 

What follows this encapsulates the vital tenet regarding a most remarkable tale. Odhin’s son Vidar will avenge his father’s death with one forceful sweep of his foot, kicking the jaw of the mighty wolf into oblivion. That foot is shod with the shoe of ‘legend,’ [that is, of memory and thought] stitched by the shoemakers from the materials collected across time. In other words, the authority of time manifest within eternity as the law, counters chaos, the unmanifest element of eternity, bringing balance to all things.

 

 

Finally, in summary, this then is the true purpose of the ‘shod’ stang. It is not to contain ‘power’ nor prevent its ‘leaking.’ The reason is far more magically profound than that and concerns the shift into Her realms by permission of this rather conspicuous key. Presented quite literally as the ‘authority’ given in the shoe afoot the ‘horse’ forged in the iron nail of the horse shoe, it is the nightmare, the symbol of the soul in flight – of transvection.  And so, this symbolic tool associated with the horse as liminal vehicle of the divine messenger is the reason the Stang is named for Hermes with whom you ‘ride’. Without that shoe, your stang is just a stick and you are without a valid key into Her realms………….

 

In concluding this short foray into the purpose attributed to footwear in times past, it is in the ‘final things’ that we may bring these ideas together. Greek society held that death induced a separation of the courser elements of our natural being, a sloughing away of the debris of life, refined to the soul. The soul has an unseen ‘form’ of sorts, a sheath lit with an ethereal inner glow that descends into Hades to dwell for all time. But first the soul must traverse a river and sharp spiny thorn-fields that tear at the feet until they bleed. Cain, the first Wanderer now resides in the Moon as Guardian to Her adamantine realms and mirrored hand glass to the earth and the starry heavens. Ceaselessly he carries the bundles of thorns and staves across the landscape surrounding Her dominion as the bearer of all suffering due to those who follow his path, that is unless they heed the ‘Word’ he brought to them.

Curiously, our Scandinavian ancestors beheld a very similar view, except that before traversing the thorn-fields, Hel, mistress of all shades who traverse Her liminal regions into the Mound , would judge the lustre of all souls awaiting passage. Swans swim in this gloomy liminality awaiting Her judgment here in the Sacred ‘Thingstead ‘of Hel. Blessings though are gifted automatically to all children, abandoned women and to the fallen. All others must pass through Her Hel Grinde [gate] where she awaits them. Her face half in shadow, half in light haunts us as the Seen and the Unseen. She is the final judge of all in life and death.

Casting Her bright eye upon your soul She considers – if bright and shining, aglow with the ‘litr goda’ shadow soul of the divine – [Anima Mundi] She is satisfied the person has lived a ‘good’ life, honourable and true. Such virtue is reciprocated in gyfu in form of ‘the Hel’ shoe, a gift to protect the feet as it crosses those treacherous thorn littered fields of the Lunar Mound that lacerate the feet of those She deems unworthy of Her compassion. Later still, it fell to the godi, who would, for the right prayer, stand by an ash tree before the water’s edge, reach up and take a ‘Hel’ shoe – a gift exchanged for ease of transit upon death’s final wanderings.

‘God’s speed’!

…………………………………………………………………………..

Sympathy for the Devil: A Clan by any other Name?

“Please allow me to introduce myself,

I’m a man of wealth and taste,

Iv’e been around for a long, long year,

Stole many a man’s soul and faith.….pleased to meet you!

Hope you catch my name!!!….”

 

‘John of Monmouth’s recent book; ‘Genuine Witchcraft Explained’ reveals the unfurling development of a group of people around Robert Cochrane [known better as Roy Bowers] and his wife into the Thames Valley Coven, each of whom brought their own traditions to pool a vibrant synergy; this collective is recorded there as being the Clan of Tubal Cain. This Clan, of which Roy was Magister and his Wife – Maid, continued after Roy’s death, passing later to Evan John Jones to hold until another Maid could advance it further. This task was laid upon the present Maid, Shani Oates and Magister of the Clan, Robin-the-dart!

That tradition is the Clan of Tubal Cain. Not the Royal Windsor Coven. Not the Thames Valley Coven. Not The Regency, and not any of the numerous working groups and solitaries inspired by the works of Roy Bowers, aka Robert Cochrane, known and captioned by others as ‘Cochranite,’ all of whom remain EXTERNAL to the Clan. And despite certain ill-founded though quickly repeated rumours, we remain very much –“The People of Goda, of the Clan of Tubal Cain. In fact, before anyone else adopts for us this ‘new name’ that never was ours, perhaps reading the following may just help you re-consider.

John of Monmouth is an honourable man and is to be much admired. The Clan, in recognising kin, hold him in high regard and tremendously respect his principles and stoic nature, especially with regard to this work. In publishing the work of his former mentors, Ronald White and George Winter [Stannard] a promise was thus discharged.  He has forged a niche of remembrance that began with his mentors, both of whom had formerly belonged to the Thames Valley Coven – ‘the’ coven that developed into the Clan of Tubal Cain.

Nonetheless, to give this necessary context, it needs to be asserted that our mentor E. J. Jones was the closest friend of Roy Bowers and later became Magister to follow him.  Evan John Jones, the only one to stand by the name of his dear friend in the wake of his death. Evan John Jones who WAS there from the onset in a working group through and beyond the death of his friend and companion in arte.  However, John of Monmouth came much later onto the scene around the very end of the sixties when he joined The Regency that formed after Roy’s death. Though their perspectives are markedly distinct, JoM comments clearly that:

“By the time I joined the Regency in 1969, all that remained of the original organisation of the celebrations was the guidance of Ron White’s ‘The Reading of the Festivals of the Year’, its ten annual meetings and the presence of the Magister, Maid and Summoner (which had been part of the ‘Cochrane Coven’), who now existed in role, rather than title. This ‘stripped down’ version of the Regency was essential to its aim.”                             John of Monmouth

http://ronaldchalkywhite.org.uk/articles/the-regency-the-cochrane-coven-by-john-of-monmouth/

Some time later, JoM was presented with a bunch of typed and dated letters, some of which has been written between the early sixties while Roy was still alive and up until his death in 1966. Others were written  afterwards by members of the Regency. Many of these typed letters are peppered with undated amendments in pencil or biro. Of course, it is sensible to remind ourselves that none of the letters written before Roy’s death make any reference to anything other than: ‘The People of Goda, the Clan of Tubal Cain’ and the ‘Thames Valley Coven.’

The singular reference to the Royal Windsor Coven, a title it never held in Roy’s life, is scribbled in blue biro over a clearly typed  header in black ink -‘Thames Valley Coven ‘ that heads an official in-house document establishing the tenets of the group itself, which is also signed by all its then members.  Obviously when this was signed, it was done so as the TVC and not the RWC. So even as an in-house, private document, circulated amongst themselves only with strict instructions to destroy it, it is still entitled ‘The Thames Valley Coven!!! ‘Moreover, another Typed Title for TVC remains at the bottom of the page, a survival placed directly above the signatures of its members at that time; and they are all signed in black ink. Other signatures from members not of the Clan, but who later joined the Regency have added theirs to the august list of the original few from Roy’s Clan. Some of these are signed in blue.

Monmouth uses this one unconvincing ‘blue biro’ amendment to establish a backwards link for the name [RWC] he became familiar with only after Roy’s death. In addition, E.J. Jones insisted to ourselves and to many others, these alterations to original documents occurred only after Roy’s death. In fact this highly suspicious rumour remains un-validated to date, and denied emphatically by E.J. Jones and two other members of the Clan of Tubal Cain that I have had the pleasure of knowing. And he ardently insisted until his own death that The Coven he joined prior to it becoming a Clan was always known as the Thames Valley Coven.

Once it became the Clan of Tubal Cain [ie a collective set of groups and traditions under the banner of the Clan] after sufficient and experienced members were drafted in who brought with them their own lore and traditions, then it was commonly referred to as the Clan and nothing else. This is easily attested by Roy’s own letters to others wherein mention is given only of CTC.

“What is the connection between the Regency and the ‘Cochrane Coven’ (the ‘Clan of Tubal Cain’ prior to 1967)? The answer is simple. The Regency was an evolution of the ‘Cochrane Coven’. Not only was the Regency founded by members of the coven and most of the members were, at least initially, members of the Regency, but the organisation, rites and beliefs of the Regency originated in the coven.”

http://clanoftubalcain.org.uk/blog/

Importantly then, it is noteworthy the remaining people living that had been in the Clan in Roy’s lifetime are able to confirm the comments by Roy in his own letters wherein he always refers to both coven and clan. In NONE of them does he ever refer to the RWC. THIS IS VERY IMPORTANT. After Roy’s tragic death the Clan broke up into its component parts, naturally and organically. Each segment following their initial and personal interests that best expressed their diverse beliefs and spiritualities.

“Over time many wide-ranging sources fed into and nourished the ‘Clan of Tubal Cain’ where its cumulative knowledge and extensive experience assisted its advancement exponentially from the Clan’s original foundation as the ‘Thames Valley Coven’. Evan John Jones gifted the basic structure of another exceedingly old rite, the ‘Chapel of the Rose Beyond’ along with other practical ritual frameworks garnered from a number of Craft  involvements including that of his old coven in Wycombe, Oxfordshire…… Much of their work involved masks, circumambulation, peripatetic gesticulation and absolute silence. Attested through ritual, this potent combination has long been included in our work, building through exploratory practice that which inclined the Clan’s former absorptions of these techniques. …….”

‘Genuine Witchcraft Explained’ – (E. J. Jones. Personal Correspondence, June 1997; September 1999 and April 2000) Shani Oates – chp 8

The ‘Virtue of the Clan itself of which Roy Bowers had been the Magister resided still with the Maid of the Clan, which came then, via E. J. Jones to where it resides today, with ourselves, its lineage holders and bearers of its legacy . This pathway exists because the traditions that E. J. Jones continued and passed on, were the very same traditions he’d brought into the Clan, adding substantially to those of Roy’s and Jane’s and the Thames Valley Coven.  Other legacies and traditions carried by Chalky and George fed into the foundation of the Regency; it was with their very markedly ‘pagan’ traditions and lore the RWC was founded and it is of this work that John of Monmouth speaks in this remarkable Book.

Careful study of available material will reveal significant differences in theology that remain between the Clan and the Regency. E. J. Jones once opined:

“The snag with the Regency will always be – ‘What are they working’? Chalky and George had their own system based on some of Roy’s material and teachings, so if one wanted to be pedantic about it, they could claim to be kindred to Clan. Chalky and George never claimed Clan status for the Regency and neither do the new Regency people as far as I know.”

Personal Correspondence. July 2003 from E. J. Jones to Shani Oates

The TVC ‘s very early works [given in the book’s appendices] upon examination, prove to include specific wiccan elements. Better still, in doing so, it will also be noted how drastically theses works took on a marked change and departed on a significant tangent only when Evan John Jones, [then again later when Bill Gray] joined.. these fertile influences were what profoundly inspired Roy to publically express his dissatisfaction and disaffection for aspects of the ‘Craft’ he deemed “outmoded, dated – as sacred cows that needed turning over”; and most importantly, of a return to the values of ‘spirituality’ and ‘faith.’

What is clear is that common sense is required in the study of these letters that JoM has kindly included in the appendices of his book. As to who exactly changed ‘Thames Valley Coven’ by scribbling it out out with blue biro on its printed typed sheet, and writing above it – Royal Windsor Coven, as all those in attendance are long dead and buried. Moreover, this was a document in which all members signed their acceptance of its tenets as laid out there. At the bottom of the page, Thames Valley Coven remains, right above these signatures. But to accept a name based in tenuous graffiti, is extremely naive and it clearly stands before a weighty charge to the contrary, both in terms of material that contradicts such a fragile assumption and in terms of those who were actually there denying that assumption unequivocally. Would anyone accept a Will, signed and dated, with scribble on it declaring the name of another beneficiary? We think not!

Looking then at those facts: Roy’s works changed dramatically from all previous works he’d shared and explored with Chalky and George before E. J. Jones investiture.  After Roy’s death, the works of E. J. ones and the Clan of Tubal Cain bear no resemblance to the works of the Regency and the RWC.  Moreover, the lore and praxis of our traditions [that is as the People of Goda, of the Clan of Tubal Cain] continue still all those later traditions for which Roy Bowers is known and followed.

 

“Roy Bowers said of himself: ‘I describe myself as a Pellar. The People are formed in clans or families and they describe themselves by the local name of the Deity. I am a member of the People of Goda – of the Clan of Tubal Cain. We were known locally as ‘witches’, the ‘Good People’ Green Gowns’ (females only) ‘Horsemen,’ and finally as ‘Wizards’.’

and

‘What do witches call themselves? They call themselves by the name of their Gods. I am Od’s man, since the spirit of Od lives in me.’

And, even more explicit, he expands upon that by saying:

‘Now, what do I call myself. I don’t. Witch is as good as any, failing that, ‘Fool’ might be a better word. I am a child of Tubal Cain, the Hairy One.’”

[The Robert Cochrane Letters’ E.J. Jones & Mike Howard [ed]2002, Capall Bann UK  p28]

It also needs asserting here that [as above confirms], Roy Bowers DID refer to the Clan and to the People of Goda as did E. J. Jones. In fact all works flow recognisably from one to the other, whether cross-referenced or referred back to. All legacies, no matter where or how they have grown and evolved, must bear easily discernible links to its origins. We have to state that reading the principles, the tenets and the profound spiritual expressions of ‘Faith’ in our own works are strikingly akin to Roy’s own articles in the Pentagram in 1965-6. Though in reading the remarkable and beautiful works within the ‘New Pagan’s Handbook’ it is undeniably and utterly different, sharing no point of reference whatsoever.

Nonetheless, as John of Monmouth explained to.. for them, the Regency thereafter became the outer court and the RWC the inner. So yes, it could be argued that the RWC has existed, but simply NOT in Roy’s time. A biro scribbled on a typed document cannot counter this title’s total absence from ALL of Roy’s letters and works.  Not to mention E. J. Jones own repudiation. RWC appears on Regency documents only.

Within Doreen Valiente’s notepads, she refers to the matter of the fallout after Roy’s death of everyone from within the Clan, and that neither E.J. Jones and his wife, nor Bill and Bobbie Gray wished to attend the Regency rites. This is why it is imperative to not lend credence to this nonsense and to assert instead the facts. We have the original document now that clearly uphold those facts.

Robert Cochrane’s widow soon after withdrew from all remaining members of the former Clan but remained close to John and his wife, and to Bill and Bobby Gray; and to Doreen Valiente. These few [minus RC’s widow] worked magically together regularly to a greater and lesser degree over the years that followed, until finally they all went their separate ways. The authority to continue as the Clan of Tubal Cain from those we consider our ‘fathers’, the giants in whose footsteps we gingerly and tentatively tread, in the fullest, with total and utter dedication to the sensitive , absolute devotion to their Craft. Our Craft.

The Covenant is the final declaration of this process as it binds in Troth the one appointed with authority to the Tutelary deity through Virtue of recognition [literally]. E, J. Jones in assuming this was widely known among the older and more genuine Crafters, saw no reason to explain what to him was obvious.

In summary then:

“And it is here written in the documents and letters included as appendices that The Clan of Tubal Cain existed before Robert Cochrane’s death. Certainly after he met Evan John Jones, things shifted significantly.  Others including Norman Gills and William Gray served as energetic and inspirational additions to The Clan of Tubal Cain – hence Cochrane and his Clan became from 1963 more salient as a disparate entity from the coven. So, basically, the Royal Windsor Coven that was established as an inner circle after Cochrane’s death held no bearing on Cochrane’s legacy and transmission in the form of The Clan of Tubal Cain.”

Nicholas de Mattos Frisvold

http://www.starrycave.com/2012/10/genuine-witchcraft-is-explained.html

“Since talking about the People (we describe ourselves as such) …… The religion is even more mystical than most – so words are very poor approximations of what we actually discover or feel about our beliefs….. so we come to the heart of the People, a belief that is based upon eternity…..” Roy Bowers.

So yes we certainly need to promote the depth of the Craft above the popular image of it, and as a serious occultist working RC’s legacy, this is one of my objectives of that mission.concerned with wisdom, our true name then is the People and “wisdom is our aim.”

Final words in all good humour from ‘Himself’ in the song:  [tongue in cheek]  ;>

“So if you meet me
Have some courtesy
Have some sympathy, have some taste
Use all your well-learned politesse
Or I’ll lay your soul to waste, mmm yeah”

fff ;>

The Crossroads of Perception

 

“Every Microcosm, every inhabited region, has a Centre;

that is to say, a place that is sacred above all.”

Mircea Eliade

If we were to speak of the centre of the world in metaphysical terms, this may be expressed as ‘everywhere and nowhere.’ Though often couched enigmatically, the greatest mysteries are nonetheless almost always ‘hidden in plain sight’ indicating the essential and requisite shift in our general perspective; that is to say from the profane to the sacred. To further demonstrate this vital and frequently overlooked key to our engagement with the quality we deem ‘sacred,’we must examine what usage we articulate by intent.
While many of us may consider how our prehistoric ancestors viewed the numinous realms, beyond conjecture, we remain uncertain. In contra-distinction to this, the later classical world has gifted us a rich legacy of philosophy and experience in that regard. To them it seems, the word ‘sacred,’ rooted in the Latin ‘sacrum’ referred to the gods and all things associated with them, be they animal, mineral or vegetable. Architecture in particular, if dedicated to the gods was described as a ‘sanctum’ – meaning that which is not profane, set apart,’ including
a personage of ‘awesome’ (in the correct sense of the word) distinction, in whom the numina of deity resonates.

 
All derivatives of ‘sacer’ imply a space denoted by a boundary surrounding a holy core, foci/altar. The priest in attendance here becomes the one imbued with that essence -‘sacer,’ enabled to fulfill his sacerdotal duties (hence sanctity and sanctuary).[1] As a heightened meta state it finds variant expression within other mystical traditions and praxes ranging from mana to haminja. Of course the generality here may be explained by cynics as the wish-fulfillment induced under impressionable circumstances. Implying wherever we might sense something other, even if entirely subjective, we will attempt to clothe it with the ‘supraenatural.’
The outcome of this occulturization is either fear through discomfort or elation through the sense of transport and acceptance. We therefore invest our experiences with the expectations of our cultural and spiritual desires. Numerous attempts have been made by theologists and anthropologists to validate this genre of experience in terms of a ‘hierophany,’ the transpersonal epiphany. This involution of spirit manifests itself within whatever is required of it, be that animal, vegetable or mineral, translating the metaphysical self or ‘other.’[2]

 

Cogently, it is noteworthy that several now common words (such as health and whole) derive from the 11^th Century Old English word ‘halig’ a derivative of ‘hal’ describing the finest of conditions or states, as in health, joy and thought. Holiness simply extends this to infer a state of perfection. [3] The Greek cognate term ‘Hieros,’ indicates all things ‘of’ the logos in terms of its virtue as emanations from it, or imbuement through it. [4] In ancient Greece, a sense of ‘place’ was expressed as either: a topos, meaning objective topography as in a physical or mundane location; or a chora, meaning a metaphysical, mnemonic, holistic dimension of mythopoetic sacred symbolism. Yet neither term should be understood as inferring a distinct polarization, as each effectively partakes of the other. Furthermore, the ‘Power of Place’ is not passive and is certainly instrumental in generating the somnambulistic waking dream where we may fuse our focus to cross the threshold in a lucid state of ‘gloaming.’[5]

 
Memories are stored as latent images within landscape features awaiting the ‘song’ that will animate their collective treasuries into being. Singing, unlike speech, is a right-brain activity, vitalizing cognitive anamnesis and creative inspiration that allows the chorister to weave both realities into an organic flow that becomes always relevant to the moment. Sustained as a living myth, such an accessible ‘Dreamtime’ preserves a cosmological landscape peopled by ancestral spirits, a consciousness outside linear time and space, maintained from one generation to the next. Topographical features fuse with song and dance in celebration of theirperennial at-one-ness with the Earth – the Great Mother as the absolute and inseparable Creatrix. Using similar sentiments, tribal boundary features imbue landscapes with a sense of the ‘sacred.’ Secured and hallowed, they offer security and continuity for its peoples, wherein they and the landscape synthesise as one sentience. Rupture from such a connection may even induce severe psychological trauma. Historical Celtic language peoples or tribal confederates invested their mythical worldview with such tribal boundaries, generated by sung or chanted narratives that bound the land and the people as one. Again, it is the right-hand brain mnemonics that infuse the landscape with trace patterns not discernable with the rationalist left-brain, trained instead to read, analyse and judge.

 
Our earth exudes endless streams of data that bypass our conscious mono-phasic state: the ‘reservoir’ of Jung’s collective unconscious (modern critics of Jung’s term consider his archetypes not to be truly ‘universal’ but typically ethno-centrist). Sensitive or empathic people may retrieve this information, recognising projected symbols, but they will be unavoidably interpreted through their respective cultural filters, according to their learned perceptions. Many ancient long barrows and mounds erected over blind springs are easily detected by man and beast alike. Temples, edifices, monoliths and phallic pillars mark these and other points of contact between earth and the heavens pertinent not only to the intrinsic power of place but also to some now forgotten astronomical wisdom. So in its narrowest and most literal definition, geomancy translates as ‘divination of the earth.’ In practise, this meaning is expanded to represent the perception of either the subtle or spiritual nature native to the physical environment, or the science of placing man in harmony with the character of his environment, both visible and invisible.
Temples and groves were and are chosen for their suggestibility within natural landscape features. Studies have revealed three recurrent elements of natural design that suggest sacred locations are far from random. These are: the enclosed valley (cleft); the mound (belly) and the twin mountains (breasts/paps). Seen from the correct perspective, in many examples, these features imply the prostate body of ‘Mother’ earth. It must be noted that some 4,000 years later, the sense of sacredness at these locations has determined a certain continuity of the spiritual psyche such that modern pagans, druids, wiccan, and some Traditional Craft groups may choose to use any one or more of the three sites, singularly or collectively for their reconstructed rites and celebrations.

Geomancy dictates that elements within the construction and design of buildings, including gardens, are in accord with the harmonious flow of ‘chi,’ often reflecting the natural topography that surrounds them. This aspect is crucial to understanding the mechanism for access to that perfect place, the intersection and conjunction where our awareness of matter and spirit fuse as one. Go against that flow, create friction or simply fail to sense the ‘nux’ of it and the moment passes in a meta-second. Grasping it cocoons us in the arms of eternity. Sensitive or empathic people will readily tune in to the genii loci that will work with or against them dependent upon approach and intent. Though it now refers to a location’s distinctive atmosphere, to our ancestors this spirit of place was deeded a sacred guardian spirit and in some cases even a tutelary deity.

A multi-verse of diverse energies or potentialities, not all of which are perceived by our material senses are currently under exploration by scientists and mystics, pushing the boundaries of our understanding regarding the enormity of an ‘ensouled’ Earth. Gaia is now widely accepted as a sentient, self-regulating organism that responds to electro-magnetic radiation received from the sun and other cosmic rays; from beyond these, the ionosphere acts as an electro-dynamic generator, dominating all above ground frequencies. Human beings will invariably  choose to align themselves in accord with the north/south axis of natural magnetic force circumnavigating the earth. Brain cells also produce a similar electromagnetic field around the brain due to the microscopic amounts of magnetite within them. More interesting still, is the brain’s own natural magnet – the ethymoid bone, close to the pineal and pituitary glands that are commonly associated with transcendental experiences and psychic activity.

 
Investigations have revealed that electro- magnetic fields overtly affect the temporal lobe and pineal gland, generating a sense of ‘elation’ often resulting in spiritual ‘experiences.’ Responsible for dreaming and memory, the temporal lobe is acutely sensitive to electro-magnetic stimuli. Research has confirmed how our perceptions of time and space are altered when this lobe is artificially stimulated to resonate around 8-10 Hz. This generates heightened visionary states in which people have expressed a sense of the presence of ‘god’. Yet the brain does not distinguish nor discriminate between natural and artificial stimuli; it simply reacts, believing it is in the presence of its creator, its consciousness merged with ultimate sentience. Folklore supports many eerie, otherworld experiences where geophysical phenomena typically generate flux as the body resonates with its environs. It is known that meditation and/or chanting et cetera can also reduce the mono-phasic ‘beta’ state (left-hand brain) to the ‘alpha’ state (right-hand brain), aligning our own vibratory brain patterning to match that of the earth – 7-10 Hz, inducing a feeling of transcendence or at-one-ness.

 
Of course our brains have evolved as mutual symbients of the earth, pulsing unconsciously, resonating sympathetically with the flux forces of the Earth adjunct to spiritual emissions known by all its variants as mentioned previously, all of which embody a sense of ‘being,’ a consciousness superseding the rather vague translation of them as ‘energy.’ Elementals may be observed only by their effects: wind bending trees, or cresting waves; others such as radiation or microwaves require specialist equipment to detect them. Sometimes the only proof we have of certain phenomena is our direct experience of them, leading to a belief in a things existence, which we then perceive to be true. In order to convince others of that truth we describe it in terms of metaphors, allowing them to share in our perceptions, though not the experience itself. The difference between our inner and outer realities is the difference between truth and belief.

 
This suggests that consciousness is a process rather than a product of mind, a state of being; more than an awareness, it is an understanding reached through experience, perceived wisdoms and subjective analysis. Subjectivity is crucial to our understanding of the complexity of consciousness, formulating the lens of perception that stands between us and what is objectively known to be. We create our own realities with every thought. Consciousness merges illusion and reality, and for each of us this reality is very different. Perhaps then, our perceptions establish the reality of our inner and outer worlds, the power of place and the power of mind. Many suppose the inner realms may be explored to reveal the mysteries of existence and the origins of the universe itself. Certainly, freedom from the five operative senses of the outer world engenders an entirely contrary view to that of the subjective ego. The body functions in time, but our consciousness may choose to leap through liminalities into eternity, from a reality to the Reality. Magic, religion, or science, it is all the same, ultimately.  Nevertheless, as yet, no-one has been able to satisfactorily define consciousness in absolute terms, nor prove its existence as separate. A fundamental premise of the Qabbalistic model of reality, for example, is that there is a pure, primal, and indefinable state of consciousness which manifests as an interaction between force and form. Consciousness exudes the potentialities of force (energy) and form (manifestation); it is the primary substance of the universe according to mystical traditions and quantum physics in which communication between variant stages of consciousness occurs instantaneously irrespective of distance in time and space. It has been said how the “physical world evolves in time; the psychological world rests in eternity.” This is profoundly true, especially when we recognize that it is Time that has separated science from spirituality.

 
Units of time and space are measured by chemical and electrical data organised by the brain into pre-conceived constructs pertinent to the external senses of the physical body. This means it is pre-conditioned to interpret automatically what it feels, into what it thinks it sees. What is particularly interesting about this is how it reveals the brains capacity to be programmed, to be fooled and better – to be overruled by right brain activity and its ability for relative assessment. This is why in dream and trance the laws of standard physics do not apply – here there are no absolutes. We must remember that our minds store data separately according to linear values of time. Each passing moment is stored as a memory, effectively in the past; the present remains our singular point of focus, whilst our hopes and expectations project our consciousness into the future. In reality, therefore, consciousness exists in all three time frames simultaneously. Moreover, when we achieve a trance or dream state via any method known to us, shifting from mono-phasic to universal consciousness, we acquire three distinct sensory transformations. In this state shamen are able to produce a chorographic map, of mood, character and memory to supplement the actual topography and geography of any given location synthesizing relative time with place, cognisizing a highly subjective reality.
Contemporary research opines a theory that three millennia ago, our nature and its responses were controlled by a bicameral brain, split with neither part self-aware, nor yet controlled by ego. Comprised of two parts, an executive part in the right hand brain known as the intuitive self, often perceived as the ‘god’ part, and the left hand analogue self, the part that acted automatically upon directives from the other side without the intervention of introspective thought. The command and action were not separated. Then, sometime during the second millennium (bce), material and linguistic obsessions distracted mankind long enough to erode his ability to ‘hear’ directly the voice of the ‘Gods’. By the first millennium (bce), this preserve had become the domain of prophets, poets and oracles. Time and civilisation marched on until only the poet’s lament recorded our loss for posterity.  Consciousness then, formerly described as a process, was acquired during the final stages of our evolution. In the drive to know the ‘self,’ we disassociated ourselves from the greater consciousness; the individual sacrificed his internal connection to a nebulous Source. Intuition, instinct and right-hand brain patterning had developed the false ego, the self, the power of the individual, now disconnected from that Source.

 

A Jesuit palaeontologist has described the thinking layer of our existence as the ‘noosphere’, placing it alongside the lithosphere, the atmosphere and biosphere in terms of existence. Within this ‘noosphere’ of the earth each one of us is as a sub-atomic cell within our own brain, contributing to the whole, whilst remaining oblivious of it, at least consciously. Individual consciousness simply flows from the greater sea of consciousness of the source, each vibratory strand terminating in the ‘self’. In this sense we believe ourselves to be individuals, yet in reality we collectively form the Multi-Verse of Gaia, linked in symbiosis with all other living, forms of sentient force. She is the ‘Noosphere’, the Logos, the Spirit of Creation, the Universal spirit of Consciousness – Psyche. (Acceptance brings individuation)
Sacred sites therefore are those that evoke memory and inner vision, being most vitally and singularly intrinsic to our ability to experience that
interconnection. Often though not always, they have at some stage been used extensively for acts of prayer, devotion and ritual. When we engage the energies found at these interstitial places via the spectrum of trance induction, the observer, made up of billions of sub-atomic particles affects reciprocally the metaphysical integrity structure of not only the site, but all other observers present there. This interaction generates a mystical experience within the ‘Noosphere’[6] realm of consciousness; this trickles down into the ego, shifting its identity into one from archetypal myth. In this way we intuit gnosis from this theatre of the Mind, crucial to our evolution and well-being. Celestial nodes intersect geo-centric and andro-centric consciousness inducing spontaneous anamnesis. Hindus refer to this fording or ‘crossing’
as ‘tirthas,’ specifically, the leaping from reality to the ‘Inter-world’ of spirit.[7]

 
At such times we may enter the landscape of pre-history, accessing directly the world of tribal myth in poetry, dance, drama and ritual where the dominantmodern intellectual concepts of linear time and space have no power over our apprehension of their Truths. Myth celebrates cyclical time, against which annual celebrations of recurrence, suspended in the dreamtime of the eternal present, preserve indelibly the relationship between man, his environment, and the Universe. Against this symbiosis, the unconscious mind utilises specific symbols that alert the conscious mind of its origins and purpose within this eternal cycle of life and death. However, modern psychology may yet redeem the myth of the ancients, the hoary wisdom of the earth. By traversing the inner landscapes of the mind, we may come to understand the outer landscapes once again.

 
The cycle of transformation and renewal affects all nature and is the context of myth; its universal story is mankind’s story. The movement of the heavens reflect those upon the earth. In effect a macrocosm of the microcosm. Geomancy’s purpose then is to seek and preserve these sacred places that generate access to other worlds. Correct placement of a shrine, temple or baptistery is essential to ensure a beneficent fate or fortune, reflecting a harmonic accord with nature. Increased ionization after rainfall infuses and generates primary sites with superior sensitization; where placed on or near water sources, a similar effect may beobtained. Fire also amplifies ion activity. Ambient energies in the form of natural radiation (radon), magnetism and ionization cumulatively affect neural patterning of the body-brain complex.

 

 

Light trance states are further enhanced by serotonin released through mild euphoria or joy. The living landscape becomes transformed into a map of the Universe. These are the liminal places of psychic mass in which we can explore relationships with ourselves as living breathing entities and with the inner, psychic self, linking in turn to the greater consciousness of being. Our minds appear to possess an inherent organizing principle that constructs our perceptions of the world according to data received through the senses. Nonetheless, we are
capable of so much more than this egocentric view. It has been proposed how the sacred science of Geometry may represent the sacred myth
of Geomancy in the punning of Ge (Gaia/earth) – O (gateway/pineal gland) – metry (measure in rhythm and vibration). We are nourished in life by the soil to which we shall return in death. Contemplation of our earth through the medium of dreams and visions allows us living access to myths that reveal the mysteries of life and death exemplified best via the eternal union of male and female forces as both spiritual and manifest forms.

 
Windows to alternative realities open into a seemingly parallel universes, a state of being and knowing long understood and accepted by students of ‘Zen’ wherein the idea is expressed that ‘outside’ and ‘inside’ remain indistinct from each other. All is one, all is nothing: the greater the view inwards, the greater the revelation of the exterior fabric of the universe. Neither is the power of place passive; it interacts with our consciousness in a dynamic way. Memories, locked away within the genius loci, are experienced via the appropriate mentally receptive state.
A sense of the numinous alerts the conscious mind to subtle manifestations of the eeriness of primal space. So it is immediately clear how ritual and ceremony held at these foci of energy flux would secure them as sacred places.  Sonics, radiation and electro-magnetism all combine to accelerate and amplify the physical activities of all celebrants once they have ‘tuned’ in. Through the power of place, the human and heavenly
interact, harmonising a micro-macrocosm. High levels of attunement at sacred sites often accompany equal fatigue, irrespective of actual physical activity, no doubt induced by exposure to concentrated amounts of natural energy fields. This is particularly relevant when we remember the healing properties noted in folklore of certain megaliths to cure bone deficient diseases and of the historical use of healing cells within incubation temples at noted locations of phenomenal activity. Rivers, waterfalls, caves and mountains as natural places of great power became emulated as simulacra within temple constructions known as ‘abatons’ or nemetons for the purpose of ‘psychomanteia’ – sacred dream incubations. Here, vision questors sought solace, prophesy or divination.

 
Littered across the archaic world are gates, symbolic of the ‘crossing point’ between one reality and another. Guardians at these points denoted the engagement of Fate as a meaningful enterprise of choice. Such nodal reference points engender expansion of consciousness into transcendental states where we may once again experience divinity as directly as our bicameral ancestors once did. Temples and sacred shrines following these inherent harmonics of geomancy, when placed carefully within the landscape, serve to accent the numinous power of place denoting the expression of true deity within the topography of time and space.
Statues and icons placed within them represent those anthropomorphic deities as imagined by man. Whence removed, these icons retain the power to evoke memory in a way quite distinct from the ‘power of place’ to invoke anamnesis. The icon reminds us of the Temple, its place of origin; but only in that place of origin can we experience the full quota of history, within the ‘otherness’ of the space time continuum. Many believe these secrets have been encoded throughout the landscape in the distant past by priesthoods dedicated to the relationships between math, myth and magic, utilising the natural sciences of geometry and geomancy. From Druid priests, to Chaldean priests, and from Persian Magi to Indian Gymnosophists the sacred and tacit harmony of the world and our place within it was embraced unconditionally.
The divine proportions of sacred geometry as the ‘measure of the earth,’ inculcate the principles of quaternary, of stability and balance. From mandalas to holy cities, the four directions embrace cosmological harmony as celestial events are marked against the shift of relative time and space. But how many of us are in accord with these shifts? We are so disconnected from the source we are in danger of losing forever the neural points of ingress so automatic to our bicameral ancestors.

 

 

 

In the Sibylline Oracles, the name Adam is expressed as a notaricon composed of the initials of the four directions; anatole (east), dusis (west), arktos (north), and mesembria (south), linking again the principles of sacred geometry with anamnesis of ancestral origins and with the human body compass. Cathedrals too are laid out following a soma-centric cosmology reflected in cruciform designs where man is the microcosm of the celestial macrocosm – vitruvian or ‘perfect man.’ In the archaic Greek world, ‘nature’ represented a numinous principle of existence and power beyond the state of mundane creation; it was a sentient consciousness beyond form, in which each individual soul was perceived as part of the World Soul, the anima mundi. Communion at sacred sites is best prompted during the liminal periods of dawn and dusk, when the natural levels of solar radiation are at their most ambient, settling around 8-10 Hz – equivalent to the light alpha trance state. It is no coincidence that for many aeons these are the favoured times for prayer and worship, or for engaging Deity. Three elements will ensure success: a favourable underground force focussed within a sacred place or location; a favourable cosmic or celestial influence and an ‘open’ mind, free of ego-centrism.

 
To engage in this sacred dialogue, we have to re-enter paradise, the neural centre of the brain through the dreaming eye. Hypnogogic realms guide us into lucid dream worlds that challenge the warp and weft of accepted realities; in this gloaming we may perceive ourselves through a mirror darkly. Our ‘outer world’ physical or spatial boundaries reflect those of the ‘inner world,’ of the ego, whose existence depends upon separation from the Source. Boundaries assert liminalities, thresholds – the point of transition. Boundaries delineate both sacred and profane time, space and reality. To achieve non-spatial awareness we first need to develop the ability to plot the intersection of time and place in
order to make qualitative rather than quantitative space.[8]

 
“Where then is the true boundary? In the thought, the Mind, the expression, or the action of intent? And is it anchored to place or being?”
Aldous Huxley ardently promoted the concept of unity within consciousness. For him there were no boundaries other than the brain itself, which he believed reduced the Mind into manageable portions. We receive data in the form of signals which we then convert into mass and form; we (the ego) make the separation, we make the distinction. From this explanation, it becomes clear why so many diverse peoples have over time, considered their most holy places as the sacred centre of their universe. Some of these most hallowed sites around the world are undeniably some of the most aesthetically inspiring: Mount Kailash, the Ganges river; the Dome of the Rock, Stonehenge, Newgrange, Mecca, Delphi and St Peters, not to mention generic springs, waterfalls, moorland, wells, caves and temple remains.

 

All share the mind state of universal centrality, the axis around which numerous cosmologies revolve. From these points, the prayers of many millions of people have been given life, purpose and meaning. Towers and steeples rise upwards, ascending focus and attention to the heavenly hereafter. In Asia, minarets and stupas pierce the heavens, creating a divine intersection. Even temporary structures such as totem and may-poles offer this connection, at the conjunction of heaven and earth, where all elements combine, and where the twin involutionary and
evolutionary spirits rise and fall.  Hearths, altars and shrines all symbolize a position within, upon or around which the divine numinosity inhabits, transports or imbues itself. This geometric and geomantic centre corresponds to the heart, the fire altar of devotion and sacrifice, where the liminal shift occurs. [9] In fact, it has been justifiably claimed that:

 
“….the only logical direction perpendicular to three dimensional space is within”[10]

 
This cosmic union of celestial and terrestrial forces fructify within the yab-yum conjunction as we become aware of ourselves as the qutub or nodal the point betwixt the ever spinning nowl star above and the earth’s core beneath our feet. Composed of quadrennial directivity aligned to the cardinal winds, we may project ourselves into the orientation of choice, because as mobile bi-polar units of energy, we dissect the intersection of land, air or sea at any give vector of spatial radii. All celestial features are drawn to the horizon, effectively rooting myth to place and time. As the omphalos of our own universe, the dome of heaven arcs above, centering us within its distant rim. As we move, the focus of those events aligned to each strand of our geomantic compass move with us, animating the landscape around us. Static markers inhibit ingress and are contra to this synergistic process. Even so, sacredness does not emanate from the landscape alone; en-souling is the process of synthesis. Imbued with the soul of its people who over time have lived and died upon it, it sings its song to those with ears to hear it. Each generation engages this organic symbiosis reaching into the dreaming states of the ‘Inter-world’ – oneiric access to a parallel Universe. It is this all enveloping fabric that activates the necessary shift for many, facilitating the ‘crossing’ from the mundane into the
sacred in terms of both conditions of mind and of space.

 

Trance states allow us to forcibly eject the lurker on the threshold (of consciousness) that otherwise bar our way; this primal interloper is the
seasoned ego who serves to anchor us within one reality only. The resultant reverie induced by any combination of the various afore-mentioned trance-induction techniques, determines our approach to a given landscape and thus our expectation and experience of it. Using the visual features of a landscape to trigger anamnesis, Holy men and women access this dreaming state or transpersonal reality quite easily; the rest of us have to work a little harder. Ultimately we all mediate between the physical and the metaphysical realms where as the zero point hub our bodily sheaths resonate in tune with the event horizon – the liminal point of ‘crossing,’ from one reality to another. The landscape invites poetic dialogue and the sensitive mind reciprocates. Perception shifts us from the outer to the ‘Inter-world,’ where we clothe our impressions with a paradisial state, recreating Edin. This‘Pure Land,’ the state of mystical awareness describes the intersection between  the group soul of all humanity and the divine World Soul in the four squaregarden of the four-fold body, in the Sophianic Mysteries.

 
The yearning soul is readily seduced, embracing passively the construction of the inner temple or mystic rose. Nourished by numinous myth, the rose – the ‘Xvarenah’ and central locus, unfurls. Through the unveiling of ‘Haq’(Truth) we will understand where the soul realizes itself as a product of God. Only the inner dreaming eye is witness to this absorption of Geosophy (wisdom of the Earth) experienced in the sublime mysteries of Sophia. Effulgent visions of the symbolic inner earth, of ‘barzakh’ or cosmic centre, where no shadow is cast, are transmuted and transfigured by an act of alchemical mediation into the manifest plane of sensible form as light. [11]
Perhaps then, to reclaim paradise, all we need to do is learn again how to see.

[Copyright of Shani Oates. This article was originally written for the 'Wanton Green' Sacred Landsacpes Awareness Project published by Mandrake of Oxford. 2011]

 

 

 

 

The intention behind this three volume set of books is to open up for discussion a tradition much discussed already. But from the very specific information they expound, a greater clarification is offered from within and by the workers of that tradition. The first volume has already been widely received and very positively, for which I am absolutely thrilled. Nonetheless, it has been brought to my attention that several people are offended by the attached review.

Concern for the ‘Truth’ is the core principle of CTC and so in the interests of that principle and in support of the premise and purpose of the work undertaken in the publication of these three books, it is essential the issues flagged by this review be addressed here by ourselves. Clan members too agree and have therefore requested that it should be addressed in order to prevent further confusion on these matters where such things develop unduly in their repetition. Of course we respect utterly ‘free speech’ and applaud that principle. It is an ‘anonymous’ review extracted from ‘The Pagan Dawn’ and ‘The Pentacle’ expressing several points requiring correction.

As a rule of thumb, reviews should ideally follow these guidelines:

• Opinions both good and bad should strive to be constructive; these are not.
• Opinion should not be personal; these are.
• Facts must be supported; if not, they are mere conjecture at best and gossip at worst.
• Views from within a given ‘body’ may be challenged, but may not be contradicted by anyone not privy to or part of that ‘body’.

This review obfuscates known facts, querying matters of considerable importance, presented in an almost offhand and dismissively casual manner, ‘passive aggressive’ to use an apt term. The comment, thus spoken rests, a seed germinating doubt and uncertainty within those to whom this carefully constructed abstraction is targeted. To those who know better, this is not heeded. But to those who for whatever reason are either unsure, new, or bewildered then this [hopefully] serves to intrigue them further to pursue the truth of the matter; or cause them to reject utterly anything remotely connected to it.

The reviewer’s subtle predilection towards undermining the roots of this tradition ironically reveals their lack of knowledge with regard to the history of this Clan, its Mythos, its mode of Transmission, its own teachings and finally what constitutes a ‘Luciferian Tradition’. This last premise alone would fill a book; the spectrum for this is wide-ranging and escapes definition per se. Suffice to say it is as we understand it:

“the transmission of ‘gnosis revealing praxis’ for the individual and the collective, in a manner that evolves the seeker via Antinomian cognition, Promethean sacrifice, Cainite exile and Titanic endurance. This arcane stream immerses the seeker in its dark light, where ‘wisdom’ is sought and won by the fire of the soul, straining after the light of truth, itself revealed as divine.”

For others a different definition may apply. The principles of this are woven into the very foundation of every tenet expressed within this book. We do not believe it necessary to mention the Noun ‘Lucifer’ ceaselessly in order that the adjective ‘Luciferian’ be applied. Moreover, this ms was written decades ago and long before the term was admissible even within the periphery of the Craft and Occult circles. Subtlety and veiling are tools for the astute; another ‘Luciferian’ tenet.

The reviewer persists against all and oft repeated statements regarding the Tutelary deities of the Clan, subjecting all to their personal obsession, a singular choice advocated by none but themselves. Roy Bowers, Evan John Jones and myself have together clarified who and what Goda is and is not within the Clan of Tubal Cain, a facet of the Mythos central to who we are as the ‘People;’ a term coined by Roy himself. It is beyond absurd for this reviewer or any other person not involved within the Clan to assert their view over our own. They may object, disagree in principle, but not present their own idiosyncrasies as fact and our expressions as incorrect. Our gods are our own and even the ‘outer’ form may not necessarily express those actually used beyond that known public form.

In point of fact, Tubal Cain was not literally a blacksmith, that error and many others have been well researched and addressed to reveal that his three gifts were of the arts, as explained at length within this author’s books, should that reviewer care to read them, citing accessible sources for all who wish to follow these up.

The Preface does stress the origin of the ms, its intended publication and its eventual release in this form; thus there was no cause to infer otherwise at the beginning this review. The author’s work in this three volume series is considerable, consisting of organising, refining and editing the first volume and supplying a Preface, an Introduction and considerable supplementary material and analyses of and from an the correspondence between John and the author, inserted as notes. The whole second Volume was written by the author and the third, though yet to be completed, is a work in progress consisting of a revision of the letters of Roy Bowers, with annotations and notations providing explanations not covered previously, or presented incorrectly by the editor where his own opinion is presented preferentially to the author’s.

Finally, Roy Bowers DOES refer to his Clan as being of Tubal Cain, as all those who have and do continue to study his works may attest. He provides a context for this, and expresses quite freely his own views of who and what his Goddess is to him. We need not labour his repeated assertion of Fate, and Truth as ‘She’…a poem he penned to Her, included in Volume III.

John of Monmouth’s recent book; ‘Genuine Witchcraft Explained’ reveals the unfurling development of a group of people around Roy Bowers and his wife, into the Thames Valley Coven, each of whom brought their own traditions to pool a vibrant synergy; this collective is recorded there as being the Clan of Tubal Cain. This Clan, of which Roy’s wife was Maid, continued after Roy’s death, given later to E. J. Jones to hold until another Maid could advance it further. This task was laid upon the Maid of the Clan, Shani Oates. As to the reviewer’s accusative assertion that John was only ‘briefly’ in the ‘covine’ (sic), surely, it has to be remembered that Roy Bowers was himself, only Magister, but ‘briefly’ a mere year to 18 months before John entered! A little over five years was Roy a Magister before his death in 1966. John served alongside him for three and a half of those years. After Roy’s death, John held all for decades.

Sadly the reviewer has asserted only their lack of understanding of the Clan. They seem utterly ill-equipped to comment on matters totally beyond their remit.

Perhaps the reviewer is right about one thing, ‘The Roebuck in the Thicket’ and the ‘Star Crossed Serpent’ are NOT complimentary after all. The agenda of the former is rejected in the latter.

 

 ’Children of Cain’: A difference of opinion?

Comments upon a forum dedicated to Craft issues, drawn from and based within an Interent posting of an Interview with Mr Howard [with Three Hands Press] concerning his new book, has brought several emails to my attention expressing divided opinion on the matter.  Some approve a public response, others contest the subject as unfit for public consumption. And I agree with both for different reasons! 

To this I add that general public statements and comments can and should largely be ignored. But when someone makes a statements from an assumed position of authority, this demands a careful and considered response to counter those statements by someone in an actual position of authority.

 In point of fact, no-one may present themselves as having the definitive opinion on another’s tradition.

There is obviously a need for clarification on this matter once placed in the public domain. Without conclusion, all loose ends may at any time be rethreaded to generate misleading commentary, even if by others having no vested interest in the matter. In fact I agree wholeheartedly with Mr Howard  view regarding this response to his online Interview  that avidly promotes his forthcoming book – The Children of Cain’, when he said that there is wisdom in keeping these things private. Indeed! Would it had remained so. But as opinion was given by Mr Howard on points we know to be in errror, we seek to address them here.

It should be stressed that sometimes, just sometimes, there is a real need to make a stand for clarity and truth against anything that appears to undermine the integrity of one’s own purpose and work, even if no intentional malice or ill will was behind such acts. To ignore such erosions we invite doubt and cynicism to gnaw at the line of Virtue as if to sever it from its source. Those who would wish it cannot do this. We cannot do this. That is NOT our choice nor ability to manufacture.

With regard to the varied views and works of Robert Cochrane, other letters soon to be published in John of Monmouth’s forthcoming book will clarify much speculation there too. They reveal much that has been needful for some time.

So, in choosing to respectfully counter Mr Howard’s assertions within his Interview he holds on the Three Hands Press website,  I hope that perhaps all can be laid to rest and the real Mysteries can be pursued without distraction, which I might add, the Clan continue to do with impunity. Being front man, it is my role and mine alone, to tackle such matters as I feel is necessary.

We also accept that though fascinating, the negative attention these matters can inadvertantly attract are tiring. We therefore remind interested parties to accept that we did not incur them. We did not encourage them. We merely wish to provide this response for balance, having previously failed to conclude them privately. Others return them to the public eye for scrutiny. So we try again to quell speculation with fact.

Virtue. A weighty and complex subject. It has been picked over clean on this site and others. But not in context. No one view of this is correct for the whole, only where it touches them. Our Covenant holds it as countless other mystics have for hundreds of years. Others may see it differently.

John [E.J. Jones] once described it to us during a time we had difficulty ourselves in grasping the enormity of this esoteric facet of Craft and of the Mysteries. We failed for a while to fully assimilate its mystery and import, and try as we may, we floundered. John finally broke his normal ‘Socratic method’ and expressed it in simple terms that cannot be beaten.

No-one passes ‘Virtue’. No-one owns ‘Virtue’. No-one gains Virtue. Each person has their own which should never be confused with that carried by a line or stream of practise. Shani expressed this well in turn when she alluded to the Dalai Lama, and how after death, that spiritual force finds a new host.

This host is sought out, discovered, recognised and dutifully installed as ‘head’ and spiritual leader, the mediating link between his people, the spirits and their deities. E, J. Jones humorously noted it was his duty to appoint that which is already vested in another, never his to give. What is ‘passed’ is not Virtue per se. Authority certainly is though once the host is recognised.

That Shani acquired that Virtue, is all that matters. How and when is irrelevant to that fact.  Furthermore that same Virtue RC had guarded and shared through his wife and then Maid had in fact departed RC in his final weeks of life. This was his final despair. She also rejected it and so it found a new host.

But there is more. RC had in fact made E, J. Jones his spiritual heir long before his death, and his statement that he had died ‘without passing on his virtue’ refers in fact to his own, as a ‘witch/pellar’ that should have been gifted his physical heir, that is his son. This of course did not happen. This confused us as I said, so bear with me. John and his wife were the last people from the Clan to see Robert Cochrane before his death.

Robert Cochrane’s widow soon after withdrew from all remaining members of the former Clan but remained close to John and his wife, and to Bill and Bobby Gray. And to Doreen Valiente. These few [minus RC’s widow] worked magically together regularly to a greater and lesser degree over the years that followed, until finally they all went their separate ways.

The authority to continue as the Clan of Tubal Cain with all investiture and rights including all written works was then given by RC’s widow to John, appointing him as its Magister. E, J. Jones always considered himself the guardian and caretaker of that tradition and spent many years seeking the host where its Virtue resided. Mr Howard admitted himself that John’s own words described his elation when he ‘found’ that person in Shani, stating- ‘She is the one, the chosen one.’

The Covenant is the final declaration of this process as it binds in Troth the one appointed with authority to the tutelary deity through Virtue of recognition [literally]. E, J. Jones in assuming this was widely known among the older and more genuine Crafters, saw no reason to explain what to him was obvious.

In summary then:

RC’s personal virtue [the ‘fifth art’] *died with him.

RC’s spiritual virtue was gifted to John.

The Clan’s Virtue found its own new host.

John and others of the Clan DID continue the work, there was NO ‘break’ in continuity.

These facts have been stated many times by E, J.Jones and by ourselves, and I am very disapointed that Mr Howard has expressed a view contra to these facts, based entirely upon conjecture and personal opinion drawn in part, it seems, from the fact that John declined to share the then more discreet elements of Clan praxis with him. And why should he? It was his right to choose exactly what he did or did not say as he saw fit.

Again, as Mr Howard knows through private discussions between him and ourselves, John declined the same information to us, as he did almost all of the Clan’s teachings. It was his way. We had to find out those things ourselves through validating spirit contact through the egregore. When we did, he expanded upon each aspect. Mr Howard, being outside the Clan, was not engaged in that process. Thus the original Luciferian elements known to RC, and others, especially John, were discussed and explored under his tutelage and since, as is fitting for an evolving stream of gnosis.

A rolling stone gathers no moss!

Though lengthy, I sincerely hope this has more than clarified any confusion arising from various comments presented by  Mr Howard’s Interview.

*[there are five arts, gifted between an old magister and his successor, four involve certain rights held through the medium of the egregore to call upon various spiritual numina for specific causalities. the fifth art is the gift of blood heritage, a direct link through dna between members of a physical family. this adds to the spiritual heritage another dimension parallel to it.]

Robin-the-dart

MAY THE WORD PROTECT YOU FROM THE LIE!

Put Not Your Trust in Princes!

They say that whomever the ‘gods’ seek to destroy, they first make mad.

So as the worm turns and with it spins the wheel of fate, binding ever tighter all within Her silken snare. Chaos fans the tremors o’er the web of Wyrd; balking against change and innovation, all shudder in mute acknowledgment to Her seismic attraction. Her grip tightens further, breath is stifled; blind palsy atrophies those already sleeping, despair gnaws at the living. In stasis only do we consider the significance of portentous event as eyes drift, cast ever downwards vainly seeking the mechanics of cause and effect. Alighting upon some new ‘thing’, salacious ignition kick-starts their jaded cerebellums. In ironic paradox, this small glimmer remains unwelcome; twas ever thus. Pure naked Truth – poison! Uncompromising light pierces the glib morass of stagnancy, writhing under Her sting, one after another. Pure apotropaic poison, arcane magics of the darkest kind. Yet Her cure leaves the bitterest trace, a whisper of vegetal rot, the putrid decomposition of the Lie, uttered without guile from lips dry with rasping polemics, ministered in honey.

And so I say, Put Not Your Trust in ‘Princes’.

Those who foolishly know not Her measure, be warned! She has yours! Dancing fools bleat their ill s upon those whose purpose they crave, devolving into the hollow shells of shadows, of dank and musty places where wretchedness breeds freely the malcontent of self serving agendas, fit only for mocking those who shine with the ardour of the blessed. Tis the nature of the beast to covet all things it has no gift to hold; thus it torments the ‘other’ soul, nurturing it disingenuously, counting the days until the harvest is reaped , stealing all light and virtue from each hapless, trusting soul benign enough to share, foolish indeed to ‘give’ these creatures even a glimmer of the ‘Work’; for their desire increases beyond measure to take what cannot be given, to own what is free. Genius yields not to vice. Virtue may not be plundered thus. Such entanglements draw Her net ever tighter, until headlong they fall, fall…..down into the abyss of their greatest fears, the well of despair and deprivation. All opposition dispossessed, becomes prey to the wanton. Truth devolves into the Lie and Lie becomes ‘pseudo truth’ mocking, unwittingly, covert!

Again I say, Put Not Your Trust in Princes.

Shards of broken dreams fragment the glacial Mirror of Her Eye. Time alone reveals the arts of deceit, the mask fades, and the real demeanour, the facile veneer cracks open the prism of hypocrisy, now exposed to the distractions of the fetid ambitions of soulless eyes, of parched rasping lips, yes, the smiling viper is poised, eager now to strike – it has stalked its victim long enough. Hungry and impatient, it is merciless in it quarry. Yet sword in hand it deflects its purpose, concealed within the throes of defender, observed in choice moments of clever politicking. But always, in all things is agenda served. Only the angle of the blade, for those who notice their sleight of hand will see the falsity at play in this cruel game. Abjure at your peril.

So I beseech you; Put Not Your Trust in ‘Princes’.

Amazingly, as the dross is sloughed into the mire, gold resides in the keening of true blood; champions unknown, warriors of the just, rise to this foul gauntlet. Friends known too reserve arms to stem the flow of illicit slander, countering the steady drip, drip of poison – Hungry now, Nemesis rises, Her ravenous vengeance holds no bounds, and feed She shall upon the bones of those who betrayed Her chosen ones. Unsung heroes all, to whom life itself is owed. The ‘Word’ is buoyant against the ‘Lie’, strong against the vain fancies of the ‘great and the good’; strong against the shifting affectations of a foe known but unseen. Powerless are they to withstand Her wrath. Trial and Tribulation are given up to Nemesis, devourer and avenger of monstrous misdeeds, binding them to Her for all eternity.

So, heed me when I say, Put not Your Trust in ‘Princes’.

Fickle are they whose authority is self-imposed, whose hubris is boundless in the endless proclamation of the monosyllabic ‘I’ …Signs and sigils evoked for foul are awarded only in kind as the guardians of Tradition, the Shadow Company mark such deeds with vigour. Ivory Towers disconnect the omnipotent from all realities save their own avaricious objectives; riding on the grace and talents of others, they pitifully cleave ever deeper into the wanton dominion of time an tide, the leveller of all falsehoods and ignorance. Oh to be the movers and shakers of the age; Oh to be adored, nay hailed as Master of all Gnosis. If not by fair means then foul! Drip, drip, the poison continues to pollute the stream, ever into the well of memory, clouding the waters of perception, the lens, now distorted forges only confusion in the wake of their ignominy. First it is this, then not this, then not that! U-turns and somersaults the envy of the finest acrobats inculcate mental gymnastics worthy of better enterprise, where no ideal except anothers’ is adopted, wholesale in a trice. The tourniquet turns, tighter it pulls on them, as they diminish ever smaller. Her cold stare burns their flaccid virtue into toxic vapour, until finally as the death rattle rises choking them on their own bile, they hurtle into the bloated media bearing the ‘Trump Card ‘

The ignoble, poised with bated breath are thus revealed at last, they who’d watched as others made a play for Virtue, sought only to steal gnosis for themselves; and thus it continues:

And so I advise – Put not your Trust in Princes!

Memento Mori! Remember thine end!

 [images -  wickicommons]

The Five point Star of Love and Death

 

“Become
at one with truth and you must surely die. Take up the works of truth and you
are a condemned man, for the human race as a whole does not want truth, but the
comfort of illusion. We are still babies suckling at a breast whose milk is
poisonous, yet we think that we flourish upon poison. Truth, no matter how we
interpret it, feeds demons as well as saints.”

We are born, we emerge, we find love, acquire wisdom and then we die!
Between these five points our purpose is engineered by Fate, to which we either surrender or
resist. The friction between these opposing poles creates the dynamic of the
causality of our lives, specifically the people and events within it. Our ‘mark’
patterns this interweaving as the accord between the dictates of want and
desire, all those aspirations and disappointments we experience as we shift
from one stage of this cyclic rose, to another.
Just occasionally an exceptional person will enter our field of being and everything we thought
we knew, everything we thought we wanted dissolves into the extraordinary
gravitational pull that person exerts over our soul. Drawn inexorably within
their own patterning of fate, we are but a supporting role to the greater
picture, our own life a subtle cameo in the production of a universal vista, sensed
as being greater than the sum of its parts.
We have no choice.
Through chaos, and grief, upheaval and turmoil these remarkable individuals become immensely
influential catalysts for great paradigm shifts, sweeping away the dusty mores
of a stagnant era, breathing new life into the turgid mire of the arts and
sciences for which their gift of genius propels humankind into a higher level
of our universal evolution.

Such a person is often a hero. In this case such a person was an anti-hero.

Nonetheless, that warrior and priestly code was woven into the fabric of his life, expressed
through a sequence of oath, honour, justice and truth and finally courage in
the face of the awesome Word, his description of the Faith he followed, lived
and died for. In a world where demands are increasingly levied against all
claims for empirical provenances, there can be none greater than that ‘Word’
itself.

The genius of Roy Bowers then, was his ability to manifest his belief in waves that still
flow, impacting as the tsunami that emanated from the gentle fluttering of a
butterfly’s wing. Many have called to task not just his work, but how he
acquired it, from where, by whom; asking many questions regarding his choice of
tutelary deity whose name places him seemingly at odds with the Greek names of
the trinity central to the Clan. Yet by his own explanation he clarifies this
by expressing them as ‘mere approximations’ of those potencies known and understood
within his Clan dedicated to Tubal Cain, often described as  ‘the first smith’
recorded in the Old Testament.

This illustrates the gross misunderstanding of the esoteric virtue of these deities and of their
true and original function for and among humankind. It is said that each of us
aligns ourselves with, albeit often unwittingly,  a deity for whom we ‘feel’
a particular affinity. A ‘fatal’ attraction, if you will. Our aspirations are realised
through the kalas of these deific forms, and the purpose of our lives are given
in that assignation.

It was no accident that Roy Bowers chose Tubal Cain specifically, no oversight, no error;
where some have suggested that it would surely have been more appropriate given
his Anglo-Saxon heritage and claims for his lineage, that he would have chosen
Wayland. The Roman smith god Vulcan has also been suggested had Roy Bowers wanted
a compatible name for Hekate, Hermes and Saturn, the triad by which the Mythos
of the Clan is predicated. But he did not choose those other forms. And he did
this quite mindfully, marking his fate with the outcast, the wanderer, yet also
the innovator, the catalyst for growth and for expansion.

 

Cain, the all father, is given the great civilising force of the archaic world, the city
builder and architect, founder of stability and agriculture, the shift from
stone-age cultures to bronze-age culture, the innovator and generator of wealth
and society. Tubal Cain, far more than a mere forger of metals, extends those
gifts further in furnishing the world with the musical and poetic arts. Furthermore,
as the triune composite (the root of Jubal, Tubal and Jabal) he engenders the
basic structure of society along with his twin sister the beautiful Namaah, the
weaver of cloth. Immediately we can see the fundamental fourfold pattern, oft
quoted by Roy Bowers, his signature blessing of Flags, flax fodder and frigg: a
home and hearth, food, and clothing.

 

Most importantly, the abilities to express the joy of these gifts through song and ritual – the basic requisites of the Craft.
It is also no happy accident that the root of jubal, jabal and Tubal signifies
a watercourse, a ‘stream’ the craft term for lineage. And so we may conclude
without doubt, the true and undisputed genius of a man whose own round of life
and death changed forever the craft of his time. Like all true avatars, his
light illuminated a deeper purpose for us all. His promethean fire, the gift to
‘man’ alone (as in not beast)is exactly as he stated, the means by which we
come to know god. And all things are his, the star crossed serpent.

He knew exactly what course his life would take, aligned to such force, what it would exact of
him; but what it would bring through him was the ‘gyfu’ of his fate, bound upon
the five petalled rose, Her star of fate, the wheel of life and death. The
Craft world is much the richer for his gifts, and for his divine fire, the
inspiration of true genius, a gift from the gods.

And She has “gathered him up home again.”

 

Dedicated to Roy Bowers 1931-1966

 

 

 

A Midsummer Night’s dream: Dreaming the Dark!

 

“I know a bank whereon the wild thyme blows,

Where cowslips and the nodding violet grows.

Quite over-canopied with lush woodbine,

Where sweet musk-roses with eglantine;

There sleeps Titania sometime of the night,

Lull’d in these flowers with dances and delight”

 

[William Shakespeare: A Midsummer Night’s Dream]

 Across the ages, many plants have been ascribed special significance due to their propensity to induce spectacular, visionary and prophetic dreams. Particular plants have proved popular, cropping up in diverse locations and throughout many centuries with little fluctuation. Throughout the Old World, Mesoamerica, and Southern Continents, narcotic beverages have been administered to the ‘seers’ of a given tribe, culled from herbs sacred to them specifically, to ensure favourable results.

 Thiselton-Dyer cites [1] particular examples of visionary narcotics used extensively by Amazon tribes peoples and by the Californian Indians. Children subject to its hallucinatory effects were guided through prophetic visions to garner specific information about their enemies. Similarly, he proceeds to note how the Darien Indians used the seeds of the Datura sanguinca in children to exploit their delirium. Subsequent revelations allowed tribal elders to resolve  problems and assist them towards the acquisition of needful resources .

 Medicine-men of the Delaware  drank intoxicating decoctions to incur extraordinary vision-quests. Tobacco too was highly honoured by many of the North American tribes as a plant for stimulating a ‘supernatural ecstasy.’  In North Carolina, a common practice involved the removal of moss taken from the grave of a murder victim that is worn sported as an amorous amulet to beguile the attraction of a would-be lover. Held and inhaled while dreaming, it returns an errant stray lover home again.

 The medieval ‘Doctrine of Signatures’ expressed the essential ‘oneness’ of being, and was drafted into magic, medicine and astrology by physicians and researchers of all ‘Natural magics.’ Despite this, many superstitions pertaining to the dream-inducing effects of plants have survived within several common sources of modern European folk-lore. We hear of how a much treasured four-leaved clover, a mystical symbol also associated with prosperity, is placed under a pillow by a would be lover to dream of his lady-love;  daisy-roots and the rustic maiden serve a similar function.

 Further east, the ‘son-trava’ dream herb, now identified as ‘Pulsatilla patens,’blooms in April with the most stunning azure-coloured flower, and once placed under a pillow, all dreams thereafter are claimed to be fulfilled. Taking a shift from the ground to the heavenly canopy, the Elm tree,  known as the ‘tree of dreams’ was used by Virgil in his epic tale – Aeneid to forecast the oracle, an object of powerful prophecy.

 Other flowers indicate prosperity in life; among which the violet and the vine dominate history. The pregnant mother of Cyrus the Great was recorded as having dreamed of a glorious lush and prolific vine. Plants foretelling good fortune when seen in dreaming include the palm-tree, olive, jasmine, lily, laurel, thistle, thorn, wormwood, currant, pear, with the most fortuitous being the rose [though not white]. Longevity and prosperity are naturally supplied by the advantageous reverie of such obvious candidates as the oak, apricot, apple, box, grape, and fig.

 Yarrow or woundwort, named for Achilles [achillia millifolium] who was instructed by Chiron in the arts of herb-lore, is a much prized and versatile fragile looking herb with many interesting properties. Held over the eyes, it is said to bestow the ‘sight,’ yet is also advisedly strewn across the bedcovers on Midsummer’s Eve to avert the antics of the spiteful fey. It has acquired another more sinister use according to folk-lore, where love-sick maidens are instructed to seek out a young man’s grave, upon which this mystical plant grows freely.  Plucking the freshest leaves they must recite the following charm:

 “Yarrow, sweet yarrow, the first that I have found, In the name of Jesus

Christ I pluck it from the ground; As Jesus loved sweet Mary and took

her for His dear, So in a dream this night I hope my true love

will appear.”[2]

 

In truth, many plants fulfil the role of ‘love-divination,’ though none so popular as the rose. Within dream flora further popular plants that auger well for affairs of the heart are the raspberry, pomegranate, cucumber, currant, and box.

 Certain flowers though, remain fixed within the calendar itself, relating to particular seasonal customs. Various festivals generate a prolific interest and activity. For example, Midsummer’s Eve, is extremely popular for numerous flower charms. Another delightful example requires nine different kinds of bloom [preferably in a chaplet] again placed beneath the pillow or head of he/she to dream of their sweetheart to come.

 Mugwort and plantain have long associations with Midsummer, when young maids would search anxiously beneath the plants among their roots for a particular growth, a ‘coal’  [dark or wizened root]that when plucked on this eve only, would be placed beneath their pillows, securing prophetic dreams of husbands to be.

 Sage leaves, twelve in total, mindfully plucked, held up to one’s face and crushed at midnight on Midwinter’s Eve conjures the shade of one’shusband to be. Holly is another favourite used by lovers in various charms, particularly again at Midwinter and Midsummer, less so at All Hallows and Day of Janus. Here is a recipe and method for a typical folk-charm endorsed by many a young maid:

 “Before retiring to rest, place three pails full of water in her bedroom, and then pin to her night-dress three leaves of green holly opposite to her heart, after which she goes to sleep. Believing in the efficacy of the charm, she persuades herself that she will be roused from her first slumber by three yells, as if from the throats of three bears, succeeded by as many hoarse laughs. When these have died away, the form of her future husband will appear, who will show his attachment to her by changing the position of the water-pails, whereas if he have no particular affection he will disappear without even touching them.”[3]

 St John’s wort, the summer herb, sacred also to Balder is a potent herb for use in divination, though it must be gathered on Midsummer’s Eve. This is the trick, as it is said to carry off the picker on a fairy horse for a wild ride, only to be dropped hours later, miles from home. Sprigs of the evergreen Myrtle, sacred again to Aphrodite were kept under a bride’s pillow to ensure the constancy of her lover. Mattresses stuffed with the soft and fragrant new beech leaves whisper gently to all lovers asleep upon them, pervading their dreams with imaginative and complex tales and stories.

 St. Valentine’s Day is observed with various charms for would be lovers; one requires the pinning of bay leaves to each corner and centre of the sleeper’s pillow, again with the intention of inducing the image of one’s future husband. Another variation of this simple charm for inducing a prophetic dream involving bay leaves, takes two, freshly plucked, sprinkled with rose water, placed again upon the pillow beside the would be dreamer, reciting this charm, until they fell into sleep.

 ”Good Valentine, be kind to me,

In dream let me my true love see.”[4]

Another, more involved process almost guaranteed to produce successful results was performed on St. Luke’s Day, where the dreamer is instructed to:

 “Take marigold flowers, a sprig of marjoram, thyme, and a little wormwood; dry them before a fire, rub them to powder, then sift it through a fine piece of lawn; simmer these with a small quantity of virgin honey, in white vinegar, over a slow fire; with this anoint your stomach, breasts, and lips, lying down, and repeat these words thrice:–

 ‘St Luke, St. Luke, be kind to me,

In dream let me my true love see!’

 This said, hasten to sleep, and in the soft slumbers of night’s repose, the very man whom you shall marry shall appear before you.”[5]

 Dew collected from the Lady’s Mantle was allegedly used to seek and procure the famed philosophers stone, yet its crushed petals assisted in peaceful dreamless sleep. This is contra to the fragrant honeysuckle and hops that induce erotic dreams , featuring in many a lover’s summer bower. However, dreaming of fruit or flowers out of season is perceived as ill-omens of woe: “A bloom upon the apple-tree when the apples are ripe, Is a sure termination to somebody’s life.”

 And once more, according to an old Sussex adage–

 “Fruit out of season, Sounds out of reason.”[6]

 Mythical vines offer a sacred connection to the ‘other’ providing a medium of communication between the world of the living and the dead. But more intriguing is the fact that this ‘contact’ actually appears to the ‘spirit-worker as a two way ladder by which the ‘Ojibways’ traverse between earth and the opposing end they believe to be twined round a Star. Images drawn from this travelling are retained as pictograms, glyphs collected over time as the memory of the dreaming prophecies for these people. They provide a visual record of the power they wield as gifted workers in that field.

 Anthropologists, having studied such examples alongside other folk records are able to conclude that dreaming of white flowers invariably forecasts a death. Comparable to this is the superstition surrounding the sudden outburst of the blooms of the alba rose, taken as a sure sign of the imminent death to the dweller closest to it.

 In Scotch ballads the birch is ‘feminine’ presence again is long associated with the dead:

 “I dreamed a dreary dream last nicht;

God keep us a’ frae sorrow!

I dreamed I pu’d the birk sae green,

Wi’ my true love on Yarrow.

I’ll redde your dream, my sister dear,

I’ll tell you a’ your sorrow;

You pu’d the birk wi’ your true love;

He’s killed,–he’s killed on Yarrow.”

 Dreaming of the yew tree foretells the death of an older person whose wealth will provide a substantial legacy. Dreaming while subject to the soporific fumes of the yew tree signifies the alteration of the brain’s chemistry, resulting in chaotic imagery related to sex and death. This hypnotic perfume is a potent aphrodisiac, similar to the mandrake. Intriguingly both the yew and the mandrake are linked to chthonic deities, holding the virtues of love, death and sleep/dreams [Aphrodite, Hypnos and Thanatos], drawing them together as the ‘triple bane’under the auspices of the single and enchanting patroness of these not so subtle potencies.

 The fragrant and delicate meadowsweet or ‘queen of the meadows’ is another heavy soporific from whose influence the dreamer may never awaken. The fateful ‘atropa belladonna’ or beautiful fair [pale?] lady gifts the ‘sight’, but also madness and death. Used externally as bewitchments, it is worn as a chaplet across the temples and crown.

 Plants that are seen as those of ill omen denote misfortune: plum, cherry, withered roses, walnut, hemp, cypress, dandelion and garlic. Herb Robert, an invasive wild flower is cautioned against picking, as its nickname ‘death come quickly’ reveals; or ‘if ee pick’n someone’ll take ee.’[7]

 Beans, oddest of all, again associated with the Pale Leukothea, incur great terrors and grief in plenty-fold! Sleeping in a bean field is said to induce horrific nightmares and sometimes even death! Folkore gifts to them the anchor of the departed soul, haunting the earth, spiralling upwards, seeking new life. Thyme is another herb believed to attract and ‘hold’ the souls of the dead, through the punning of its name ‘time’, a quality given only to the living. It is therefore never included in funereal wreaths. On the other hand, rosemary sprigs under the bed avert the haunting of spirits and nightmare imagery, the pungent aroma keeping all ill at bay.

 Held as the definative sacred symbol of the Universal Goddess by many, the bramble vine of white flowers and black/red fruits plays a considerable divinatory role, as we should expect from this tenacious and glorious plant.  

 “To dream of passing through places covered with brambles portends troubles; if they prick you, secret enemies will do you an injury with your friends; if they draw blood, expect heavy losses in trade.” To dream of being pricked with briars, “shows that the person dreaming has an ardent desire to something, and that young folks dreaming thus are in love, who prick themselves in striving to gather their rose.”[8]

 And there ends and begins another tale, of distaff, needle, ladies fair and foul, all spirit wanderers in weal and woe..

[ Images: answers.com ; sealmaiden.tumblr.com ;epyle.blogspot.com ; celtic-twilight.com] 

TOMMOROWS DREAM

I Have been Pierced by the Arrow of Love

I have been pierced by the arrow of love,

 what shall I do ?

I can neither live, nor can I die.

Listen ye to my ceaseless outpourings,

I have peace neither by night, nor by day.

I cannot do without my Beloved even for a moment.

I have been pierced by the arrow of love,

what shall I do ?

The fire of separation is unceasing !

Let someone take care of my love.

How can I be saved without seeing him?

I have been pierced by the arrow of love,

what shall I do ?

 

 Bulleh Shah

                                 

 

In making a tribute to love, we are humbled by its witness. To be in the presence of a true love is awe inspiring. This emotive force is the real power of the Universe- the key that opens many doors. A magical grotto, a cavern of wonders was a credit to those gifted and generous enough to give willingly of their time to create an atmosphere that was inspirational. Blending into the inky darkness, I became absorbed within the sonics of this space made sacred by the intent of those present. Standing closely, it resonated as an intimate delight, a wellspring, a womb of creation.

Rising upon the sweet cadences, the poetic echoes of the ceremony, its poignant depths cascaded around me as the very streams of water poured into the vast cistern, central to this setting. A fiery ouroboros enveloped its rim, reminding me of the constant movement of life and time.  Two beautiful souls like the waters of the Great Ma became conjoined, linking their spark to the many streams that form the great cosmic ocean. It’s cool caress and ceaseless depth express an incredible power where all merged; two glowing sparks, absorbed only in that moment, proclaimed their oaths before their ‘Patrons’ and with great solemnity.

There I witnessed those two sparks blend as one, igniting a glow so intense that it drew all other sparks to it, thereto act as witness in that sublime union. It proved beyond any doubt, that love really does transcend all boundaries; it is beyond any and all externally imposed obstacles, asserting its own virtue as all such oppositions dissolve in the light of truth. Love burns away all doubt, for love is the weapon of truth and the ignorant are exposed by its searing brilliance. 

I extend a warm hand of friendship to those two souls, and thank them for inviting us to witness a rare and precious alchemy of spirit, a transformation of two through the act of union, where by the sharing of sacred bread and wine, a partaking of each other is given all blessings of and from the divine order, an invocation of a ‘good fate’ and blessings from the whole Clan are granted by their appreciation and awe.

May it become your reality too.

Robin-the-dart

MAY THE WORD PROTECT YOU FROM THE LIE!

images: blog.rats.at and unfoldingdestiny.com

poem: Translated by: J.R. Puri and T.R. Shangari Works and Poems of Bulleh Shah