O - Ouija and Witch Boards #paganblogproject

I love the Ouija board. I really do. Natalie (Glaux) and I offer several forms of psychic or intuitive readings in the shop, but this is by far my favorite form of spirit communication and otherworldly guidance.

Divination and oracle by means of pre-printed letters, words and symbols which are then pointed to by a spirit have been known since the ancient Egyptians and Greeks. Automatic writing, the pre-cursor of the board -- has been in use since ancient China. The Ouija (TM) board was named, trade-marked and mass-produced relatively recently, but the concept of the talking board is literally ancient.

Ouija gets a bad reputation from folks who don't know how to properly protect themselves while using it. Natalie and I ALWAYS work within a circle with their OUIJA (the favorite board for both them and the spirits of the several boards in their home). Our circle (compass and caim) is actually   triple-cast, making it an extremely safe space within which to call up spirits. Furthermore, when we're calling on a spirit whose motivations and personality are known to be dubious, we create a triangle around the board. The magician's triangle is a time-honored method of confining a spirit to a specific place.

We've designed our board, based on the circle and triangle, but it isn't ready to be produced for sale yet. We have one proto-type which is still under construction.

I've also received a board as a gift from a Blade & Broom client. The make of the board was very pleased with the reading she received from me (a combo of Dark Mirror and Ouija), and she made the board as a custom tool for me.

N - Necromancy #paganblogproject

Among the many labels that I give myself, "necromancer" is probably the most surprising for those who don't know my magic very, very well.

Merriam-Webster Online defines necromancy as the "conjuration of the spirits of the dead for purposes of magically revealing the future or influencing the course of events." It is also more generally defined as "magic, sorcery." This latter definition gets translated as "black magic" quite frequently, and a quick look at the etymology of the words in question might clear up why this is.


"Necro" comes from the Greek νεκρός (nekrós), meaning "dead body."
"Mancy" comes from the Greek μαντεία (manteía), "prophecy or divination."
The term νεκρομαντεία (nekromanteía) was first used by Origen of Alexandria in the 3rd century CE.

"nigro-," however, is Latin and means "black," and the term nigromancie was the more common term used in the Middle Ages to denote all of the forbidden magical arts, including the conjuration of spirits.

Glaux and I quite strongly believe that among the work of Witches is the communicating with the Unseen Forces -- the Dead and those Unseen Ones who never lived. I've written a little here about daemons, and I take great comfort, inspiration, knowledge, and wisdom from the Dead and the Daemons with whom I've worked. In the sense that Glaux and I conjure and request magical aid from both sorts of spirits, I suppose we fit both descriptions of necromancers -- conjurers of the Dead and black magicians.

In the same way that Glaux and I each have a couple of Daemons with whom we are particularly familiar (Samagina for me, and Issachar for her), we also have a single Ancestor with whom we work who acts as a tutelary spirit for our coven. She prefers that we call her Zeta, though she had another name in life, and she came to us at Samhain 2011 via the Ouija board. (We LOVE using the talking board as a method of spirit contact.)

As it turns out, in some parts of the UK, it has long been common practice for covens to be in contact with a departed Witch -- someone who acts as a guide and friend, a mentor if you will, ... or more poetically, as an Ancestor to the coven and its individual members. The skull that sits at the base of the stang (or on it) is thought to house this spirit, and sometimes the coven fashions a doll in the likeness of the Witch.

I'll be covering Zeta in a little more detail when we get to the end of the PBP. She is a fascinating spirit, and she has been extraordinarily helpful and sweet.

So, why did I say it is surprising for folks that I am a necromancer? My Goddess is a giver of Life. She is the embodiment of it. She is fertility and virility, Springtime, hope, and Love. I wear pink and aqua and flowers in my hair. My familiar is a rabbit, the symbol of fecundity and an icon of cuteness. But let's not forget that the rabbit is prey, and she knows of sacrifice and death. My Lady dances across the ocean, in the groves, and amongst the stars; but she also knows the Mysteries of the Underworld. She is the secret initiator, the bright gate-keeper, while her Dark Sister is the Queen of the Dead.

Christian Day has written a book called The Witches' Book of the Dead. I highly recommend it for anyone who feels drawn to the path of the necromancer. It is a fine place to start. In it, he talks about embracing life and celebrating your non-conformity -- that the Dead are drawn to Life! So ... surprise! ... Love (ie, Life) and Death are two sides of the same coin, and work them both in my magic.

G is for Graveyard Rabbits #paganblogproject

In February, when I joined the Pagan Blog Project, I discovered another group -- the Association of Graveyard Rabbits. I found this group through one of the PBP bloggers -- Yeshe Rabbit, who is herself a member of both groups and maintains this blog about graveyard rabbiting.

The Association is, according to its own words, "dedicated to the academic promotion of the historical importance of cemeteries, grave markers, and the family history to be learned from a study of burial customs, burying grounds, and tombstones; and the social promotion of the study of cemeteries, the preservation of cemeteries, and the transcription of genealogical/historical information written in cemeteries."

In my last post, I wrote about familiars, mine being -- of course -- the hare. I've also mentioned on more than one occasion that I work quite a lot with the Mighty Dead, and I consider myself a necromancer. How excited was I, then, to discover a link between the rabbit and the grave?

And why not? Why shouldn't there be such a connection? The rabbit is a symbol of life and fecundity. In the great balance, it seems more than natural that she should also be linked to death.One, after all, invariably leads to the other.

Here is my own beginning of a blog in my work and research as an American Gypsy Graveyard Rabbit. I've just begun, so it's slim, but I'll be adding a lot in months and years to come.

The Graveyard Rabbit
by Frank Lebby Stanton

In the white moonlight, where the willow waves,
He halfway gallops among the graves—
A tiny ghost in the gloom and gleam,
Content to dwell where the dead men dream,

But wary still!        
For they plot him ill;
For the graveyard rabbit hath a charm
(May God defend us!) to shield from harm.

Over the shimmering slabs he goes—
Every grave in the dark he knows;        
But his nest is hidden from human eye
Where headstones broken on old graves lie.

Wary still!
For they plot him ill;
For the graveyard rabbit, though sceptics scoff,        
Charmeth the witch and the wizard off!

The black man creeps, when the night is dim,
Fearful, still, on the track of him;
Or fleetly follows the way he runs,
For he heals the hurts of the conjured ones.        

Wary still!
For they plot him ill;
The soul’s bewitched that would find release,—
To the graveyard rabbit go for peace!

He holds their secret—he brings a boon        
Where winds moan wild in the dark o’ the moon;
And gold shall glitter and love smile sweet
To whoever shall sever his furry feet!

Wary still!
For they plot him ill;        
For the graveyard rabbit hath a charm
(May God defend us!) to shield from harm. 


The Hare
by Walter de la Mare

In the black furrow of a field
I saw an old witch-hare this night;
And she cocked a lissome ear,
And she eyed the moon so bright,
And she nibbled of the green;
And I whispered "Wh-s-st! witch-hare,"
Away like a ghostie o'er the field
She fled, and left the moonlight there.

PBP: Epitymbia, or How Aphrodite is a Goddess of Necromancy

Inanna and her sister Ereshkigal (Queen of the Underworld)

Within every Black Goddess, there is a shimmer of Light; as within every White Goddess, there is the Shadow of Night. Life hints of death; Death promises Life.

Aphrodite, for all intents and purposes, is the very epitome of a White Goddess. She is a a beautiful enchantress, the bestower of love and fecundity. And, in keeping with the simple Mystery stated above, she has a dark shadow -- one that not all who look upon her see. I believe that the Ancients saw it, though, and the proof is in a few of  the epithets they gave her:

Epitymbia - She of the Tombs
Melaina, Skotia - Black One

I also think it is recounted in her mythos, though we need to pull back the layers just a little (and remember her connections to Inanna-Ishtar and Astarte) in order to discover Aphrodite's connection to the Dead and the Underworld.

The Dying Shepherd

The myth of the dying shepherd is the first that connects Aphrodite to the Underworld, its Queen, and to her Middle Eastern cognates. While the story of Adonis, Aphrodite and Persephone varies in cultural tone and flavor from its Middle Eastern predecessors, there's no denying that Aphrodite and Adonis are the Greek counterparts to Inanna & Damuzi or  Astarte and Tammuz. Indeed, the mourning ritual commenced for Adonis (the Adonia) by all the women of Greece is an exact parallel to the mourning undertaken by the women of Damuzi and Tammuz myths. Also paralleled in both sets of myths are the fact that "arrangements" are made in such a way that the Beloved Man returns to the Goddess for a portion of the year, thus making him a dying and resurrecting God of land.

In the Greek version, Persephone falls in love with the youth, as well -- emphasizing the connection between the Queen of the Underworld and the Starry Goddess. In Sumerian, Babylonian and Phoenician lore, you see, these two Goddesses were sisters. In a sense, they were the light and dark halves of the same coin. In Greek myth, though, this isn't the case. Yet the myths bear out their connection again and again.

Journey to the Underworld

In the Middle Eastern variants, The Starry Goddess makes an Underworld Journey to plead to her dark sister, Queen of the Underworld. It is an important exception to the Greek myths, I think, that this doesn't happen. What *does* happen, however, is that the two Goddesses work in concert on at least two occasions (for Adonis and Psyche) and that they share a number of common symbols and sacred places. Among them are the Cyprus and the pomegranate -- both of which are vastly important to both Goddesses.

But of course the Starry Goddess -- whose "star" (the planet Venus) is both the Evening Star (Hesperus) and the Morning Star (Eosphorus) -- would be connected to underworld journeys. She dips below the horizon, into the west -- always the place of the dead -- and rises again. And if not her, then her lover (Adonis) and her priestess (Psyche) -- those whom she guides.

Psyche's Test

I plan on devoting a whole entry to Psyche, soon. In fact, I plan on devoting a whole book to Psyche!

Psyche was a mortal who was said to be as beautiful as Aphrodite. She was "sacrificed" by her parents and carried on the wind to the palace Eros (Love),  Aphrodite's beloved son. She disobeyed the instruction not to look upon her husband, who then fled. Psyche then sought Aphrodite's help, and the Goddess gave her seemingly unconquerable tasks -- one of which involved an Underworld Journey to retrieve a cask of beauty potion which was kept in the care of Persephone!

I don't believe that Aphrodite was trying to thwart her daughter-in-law, as most people who relay and interpret this myth seem to indicate. I don't at all see Aphrodite as jealous of the girl's beauty or resentful of Psyche's love for Aphrodite's beloved son. On the contrary, I believe she set Psyche upon the Heroine's Journey. She was testing her -- initiating her. At the end of Psyche's tasks, she is made immortal; and I believe it was the worthiness of this immortality that Aphrodite was judging -- and also the worthiness of the girl for her son.

Psyche means "soul" in Greek, so in essence, Aphrodite sent the human spirit on a quest that proved its worthiness of the immortality of the Gods -- and of it's worthiness of all-encompassing Love.

(By the way, if this episode in mythology doesn't illustrate the profound importance of the Love Goddess, I don't know WHAT can!)



Love and Death

Amor Vincit Omnia. Love conquers all things. She is the subduer of war-like Ares, where all others fail. And what about Death? Is Death, whose realm we all must enter, powerful enough to undo the touch of Love? While these myths give us room to speculate -- and are designed to make us do so -- I know that I have my answer. (I bet you can guess what it is.)


Aphrodite Epitymbia and the Necromancer

I call upon my Beloved and Mighty Dead all the time, and Aphrodite Veiled, She of the Tombs, is my guiding star. I approach them in love, respectful of Death's Dark Queen. Aphrodite, her sister in myth and spirit, is a mediator and light. With her, I continue to seek the Light in the Shadows, the Dark in the Light.