Possession in History
and Literature
Modern Witches are not the first individuals to have face-to-face physical meetings with their gods. Experiences at least adjacent to drawing down the moon have been a part of history for thousands of years now and aren’t exclusive to the paganisms of our ancient ancestors either. Many of the world’s religious traditions have mechanisms in place that facilitate intense spiritual experiences similar to our own.
Ancient Greece and the Origins
of Drawing Down the Moon
The phrase drawing down the moon is an old one and actually dates back to ancient Greece. There it was most likely used in reference to eclipses and the proximity of the moon to the earth. Witches from the (Greek) region of Thessaly were often said to “draw down the moon” through spells in order to control the emotions and sexual passions of men.155 Even today the moon seems to affect our emotions, so the idea of Witches drawing the moon closer to the earth to influence people (or using math to figure out when an eclipse is going to occur) makes pretty good sense.156
The Greeks used the term drawing down the moon in one other way: to describe the reflection of the moon in a bowl or jug of water. In the book Satyricon written by Gaius Petronius (27–66 CE), the process is described as “the image of the moon descending, brought down by my incantations.” 157 The moon’s reflection in a mirror might also have been described as drawing down the moon.
It’s fitting that the Greeks used the term drawing down the moon because Gerald Gardner links the practice directly to them. In a sketch of an alleged Greek vase dating back to 200 BCE given to Doreen Valiente (see illustration), Gardner illustrates what he said was an ancient drawing down the moon ceremony.158 Variations of that illustration have shown up in several Witchcraft and Pagan books over the years, including Margot Adler’s seminal 1979 Drawing Down the Moon.159
The women in Gardner’s drawing could be participating in a spiritual activity or something else entirely. If that’s an athame in the hands of the woman on the left, then it’s one of the largest athames ever used in ritual. The woman on the right is holding either a stick or a wand, items not often used in drawing down ceremonies. Whatever is happening here is ultimately up to the opinion of the observer. If someone wants to find an ancient Greek drawing down ceremony, they probably can; if one isn’t looking for that, they’ll see something else.
Drawing Down the Moon Vase
Even if drawing down the moon as we know it today wasn’t practiced by the ancient Greeks, they did share the idea that deity can inhabit the body. The downside to this is that experience wasn’t always a positive one. The Green word entheos translates as “within is a god” but was often marked by baffling movements and unintelligible language by the possessed individual.160 Perhaps even worse is possession by the god Pan, panolepsy, which might have been used as a term for epileptic seizures and was sometimes marked by hysterical laughter.161
Perhaps even more shocking is sparagmos, a term that refers to the consumption of raw meat in honor of the god Dionysus. More of a literary invention than something practiced in actuality, sparagmos found the female followers of Dionysus (maenads) roaming the countryside killing animals and eating their raw flesh. In their ecstasy and madness, the maenads were said to become one with Dionysus.
Much less shocking was the Oracle of Apollo at the sanctuary of Delphi. There young women would be consumed by the power of Apollo and share prophetic words, though their pronouncements were often difficult to understand. The prophecies given by the Pythia (the name of the human oracle at Delphi) were most often ambiguous and had to be interpreted. Oracles were also said to be possessed by a “divine madness” and often swayed and moved in strange ways while engaged in “rapturous union” with Apollo.162 Even though hard to interpret, the Oracle had the power to depose Greek kings and determine the course of history.
All of the examples of possession in ancient Greece are radically different from that of drawing down the moon today. The visitations by deity in ancient Greece are brief and not very interactive. When the Goddess visits my circle, she is generally calm and self-possessed, and her presence is always welcome. She is often easy to understand, though not always so, which means she still possesses a bit of the Pythia found at Delphi.
Much more similar to drawing down the moon are the writings collectively known as the Greek Magical Papyri. The papyri are a hodgepodge of various pagan and sometimes monotheistic traditions dating from the second century BCE to the fifth century CE. Most of the papyri have been found in Egypt, but they are called the Greek Magical Papyri because they were written in Greek. The magickal formulas in the papyri vary, but for our purposes there are two things in them that are similar to today’s rite of drawing down the moon.
The first is that some of the texts call for deity to be drawn directly into the body of a living person, most often a young boy. Deity would be summoned by the magician leading the operation, and once it had entered its human vessel the deity would either be asked questions or allowed to make pronouncements.163 The young people involved in such situations may not always have been willing participants, something unheard of in Witch circles.
Much more common in the Greek Magical Papyri are long invocations and formulas that find the magician stepping into the role of deity. But instead of the magician being inhabited physically by a goddess or god, it’s probably more accurate to think of the magician in such rituals as “assuming the power” of the deity they are referencing. Many of these texts are written in the first person (“I, Horus, command you”), with the magician speaking with the power and authority of a specific deity. It has never seemed to me as if the deities being referenced were actually inhabiting the body of the magician.
Possession in Other Religious Traditions
I think there’s a tendency among many Modern Witches and Pagans to just assume that experiences like drawing down the moon are common in a whole host of religious traditions, both ancient and modern. I don’t think that’s the case, but that doesn’t mean practitioners of other traditions and faiths don’t commune with the divine; they just do so differently. For believers in deity, reaching out to a god or gods is an essential part of spirituality.
Many Modern Witches come from monotheistic religious traditions such as Christianity, Judaism, or Islam. For many of us, those religions lacked an essential spiritual component of some sort. I found the Methodism of my youth rather boring and clinical, but not all Christianity is necessarily like that.
One of the closest parallels to drawing down the moon is the Christian practice of speaking in tongues. When someone speaks in tongues, they are literally possessed by the Christian Holy Spirit, which is in turn a part of the Trinity, meaning it’s like being possessed by Yahweh or at least a part of him. What makes speaking in tongues markedly different from drawing down the moon is its brevity and its use of an angelic language that has to be translated.
While Greek gods are a common presence in my circle, they almost always speak English so that we are able to understand them. When someone speaks in tongues, they speak in an angelic language that must then be translated by someone else (and the person doing the translating is often said to be touched by the Holy Spirit too). Instances of speaking in tongues are also generally quick and might constitute just a sentence or two and be sandwiched between regular communication. My gods tend to show up for longer periods than what’s observed when someone speaks in tongues, and the gods also tend to interact with the coven.
Though the Christian stigmata is not possession in the sense that a deity takes over a mortal’s mental function, the deity (in this case Jesus) does force his bodily wounds upon his followers. Those who are blessed with (or suffer from?) stigmata generally replicate on their bodies the wounds that Jesus experienced while on the cross, meaning nail wounds on the palms (or sometimes wrists) and ankles, along with a spear wound in the abdomen. These wounds might then bleed continuously or heal miraculously. Many stigmatics feel closer to their god as a result of their wounds. (And if you were wondering, most cases of stigmata are fraudulent, but I’m sure the sincerity of some stigmatics is real at least.)
Most Islamic practices have never felt particularly ecstatic to me, with the exception of those practiced by Sufis. While Sufis engage in most of Islam’s standard observances, their practice is also syncretic and often focused inward. Sufis don’t just want to know their god; they are actively searching for unity with the divine.164 While this is a bit removed from what most Witches do, it’s still a direct communion with deity, though I don’t think any Sufis are ever bodily possessed by Allah.
Sufism was at least indirectly influenced by shamanism,165 just like the Norse traditions of Scandinavia were.166 Modern-day practitioners of Heathen traditions (such as Asatru) often employ the magickal practice of seiðr in order to commune with the gods. (Seiðr can be spelled in a variety of ways, and often is. Other common spellings include sied, seidh, seidhr, seithr, and seidr.) Often this results in ceremonies similar to drawing down the moon.
The term seiðr is used in a variety of different ways in Norse literature but almost always comes back to magick, especially divinatory magick. Seiðr was seen as a way to change the fate of a person or persons, with the end result being a healing, control of the weather, or the assurance of an abundant food supply. It could also be used maliciously to curse someone, raise the dead, or ruin another’s crops.167
Much like shamanism, seiðr served as a way of standing between the worlds of mortals and spirits. Practitioners were sometimes relaying knowledge directly from higher powers to their peers.168 These messages weren’t always necessarily from the gods, but they most certainly could have been.
Writing in the first century, the Roman historian Tacitus (56–120 CE) wrote that diviners were believed to have “something holy and provident about them,” and an oracle from that time among the Germanic people was said to be treated “as nearly a goddess.” 169 In another parallel to drawing down, those individuals who spoke with the spirits and practiced seiðr were nearly always women.
There are two nineteenth-century practices that might have had a direct influence on the practice of drawing down the moon. The first is Spiritualism, which was popular from 1850 until the early twentieth century. Spiritualists believed that the living could talk to the dead and have experiences with those who had passed on. Spiritualism was popularized by Kate and Maggie Fox, who began communicating with a “knocking sound” thought to be a spirit that their mother named Mr. Splitfoot in the winter of 1847–1848.
The rapping sounds soon became a phenomenon in rural Hydesville, New York, where the girls resided, and to escape the craziness that surrounded them they moved in with their sister Leah in nearby Rochester. It was Leah (several years older than her sisters) who is probably most important to our story. Sensing a money-making opportunity, she began to book public demonstrations of her sisters’ abilities and eventually became the first trance medium of the modern age. While Leah was in a trance, the voices of the dead would speak through her, and people would pay big bucks to listen in. Eventually other mediums came forward and Spiritualism became a full-fledged phenomenon.
Spiritualism directly influenced the woman who has been called the “founder of the New Age movement,” Russian psychic Helena Blavatsky (1831–1891). But instead of channeling spirits, Blavatsky channeled beings that she called her Mahatmas, or Secret Chiefs, who she claimed were enlightened humans who had moved beyond mortal existence. Most of her channelings were limited to spoken pronouncements and automatic writing, but Blavatsky, with the assistance of her Mahatmas, was said to be able to facilitate miraculous spiritual events. On several different occasions Blavatsky led individuals to seemingly undisturbed pieces of ground where wine glasses were found buried in the earth, the inference being that the wine glasses must have been buried using some sort of supernatural power.
Blavatsky’s Secret Chiefs would inspire other occult and esoteric orders, and such figures were said to be around at the birth of the Golden Dawn. Blavatsky’s teachings and beliefs led to the establishment of the Theosophical Society, a group that was directly responsible for injecting several “Eastern” religious ideas (such as reincarnation and karma) into the Western worldview. Neither the Theosophical Society nor those who practiced Spiritualism “drew down” higher powers in a way similar to Modern Witches, but their very existence was proof that such things were possible and might have served as a source of inspiration for those who eventually drew down the moon.
Voodoo and the Loa
The religious tradition with the most direct parallels to drawing down the moon is Vodou, or Voodoo, as it’s more commonly known in the United States. Voodoo is a tradition with African origins, originally practiced by the Fon people of West Africa. 170 The words Vodou and Voodoo have their origin in the Fon word Vodu (or Vodun), which was used to describe the spirits honored by the Fon people.171
While I’ve always believed that Gerald Gardner was initiated into some sort of coven in 1939, it seems likely that the Witchcraft he shared with the world in the early 1950s was shaped to some degree by his own experiences. Voodoo was never widely practiced in Gardner’s birth country, but he very well could have been exposed to it. In the winter of 1947–1948, Gerald and his wife, Donna, spent several months in Memphis, Tennessee, with Gerald’s brother Douglas.
There’s some confusion as to whether Gardner ever actually got to New Orleans during this trip, but Gardner was most certainly interested in Voodoo and would have sought it out in New Orleans or Memphis. Since he was in Memphis, a riverboat town also on the Mississippi River, Gardner wouldn’t have even had to travel all the way to New Orleans to meet a Voodoo practitioner in 1947.
According to Gardner’s biography Gerald Gardner: Witch, Gerald did make some contacts in the Voodoo world and was at least able to talk shop with a few practitioners (and perhaps witness a ritual). We’ll never know just how much (or how little) exposure Gardner had to Voodoo during his brief trip to the US, but what we do know is that Voodoo’s possession rites and the ritual of drawing down the moon are extremely similar.
To understand possession in Voodoo, it’s first necessary to understand some of Voodoo’s cosmology. Voodoo practitioners believe that there is one supreme unknowable deity who created the universe. Because that figure is beyond the reach of humans, they direct their prayers toward the lwa (sometimes spelled loa). The lwa are the “deities,” or spirits, most of us associate with Voodoo today, figures such as Papa Lebat (or Legba), Baron Samedi, Maman Brigitte, Ogou, and countless others. And in Voodoo it’s possible to go from human to lwa; many people today honor Marie Laveau herself as one of the lwa.
It’s the lwa who inhabit the bodies of worshippers, and when I write worshippers that’s exactly what I mean. Unlike in Wiccan-Witchcraft, where deity is generally directed into the body of a specific person, in a Voodoo ritual the lwa might possibly possess more than just the mambo (Voodoo Priestess) or the houngan (Voodoo Priest). A ritual participant who is possessed by the lwa is called a horse, because the lwa are said to be “riding” the person whose body they are inhabiting.
Being ridden by the lwa is often called trance possession, but I think that term is inadequate to describe the range of activities often engaged in by the lwa while riding a horse. The word trance has always sounded rather serene and sleepy to me, and those in trancelike states are often thought to be docile or inactive. Possession in Voodoo is something else entirely and is often a very physical experience.
Voodoo practitioners sometimes appear to be in great pain when they are being mounted by the lwa, and might fall down to the ground or convulse as the spirit takes over their body. The first stage of spirit possession is known as the crisis, and it’s at this stage that the lwa begins to take over and the human soul is pushed out or shut down.172 Once the lwa is firmly in control of the body of its horse, it may do things that we often associate with drawing down the moon: offer advice, lead ritual, diagnose a problem, or perform some sort of initiation.
But the lwa also engage in activity that I’ve yet to see replicated in a Wiccan circle. They might smoke a cigar or drink a large amount of rum (I have never seen a goddess inhabiting the body of a High Priestess who lights up a cigarette) or perhaps chastise a practitioner for not being attentive enough. Horses are often capable of extraordinary physical feats while being ridden, with mambos suddenly possessing enough power to hold a grown man up over their heads! The lwa also enjoy dancing and engaging in activities that are pleasurable in the flesh. Possession in Voodoo has always come across as more “physical” to me than possession in a Wiccan circle.
But other than just how physical it is, possession in Voodoo is almost exactly the same as drawing down the moon. A horse who is being ridden is the lwa. They speak with the voice and authority of the lwa, just as a High Priestess speaks with the voice and authority of the Goddess during a drawing down. Voodoo practitioners who are ridden are doing it for the good of their community, not for personal glory, just like drawing down in Wicca.
There are a few other differences between Voodoo rituals and those of Witchcraft that are worth noting. Voodoo rituals are generally long affairs, often lasting from sunset to sunrise, and the lwa might ride a horse for much of the ritual. Drawing down the moon in a Witchcraft circle is usually something that lasts for only a handful of minutes instead of several hours. Possession in Voodoo can occur at any time during the ritual, and there’s not a set rite for bringing it about, which is why anyone at a Voodoo rite might be ridden (but the lwa are generally nice: they usually only ride those who honor them). And then there are times when the lwa don’t want to leave their horse and they have to be driven away by the mambo or houngan. (This is not common in Wicca, but I have been at a few rituals where Pan didn’t quite want to leave.)
Despite some differences between the two traditions, possession in Voodoo and Witchcraft share a lot of similarities. I think it’s the closest parallel to what we do in our circles, and having attended a few Voodoo rituals, I’ve generally felt at home during them because so much of what is happening is familiar. Hopefully the Voodoo and Witch communities will continue to grow closer over the coming years so we can explore this marvelous gift that exists in both of our communities.
Godform Assumption: The Golden Dawn
and Aleister Crowley
Another more contemporary influence on drawing down the moon can be found in the rituals of the Golden Dawn and the writings of English occultist Aleister Crowley. Though not quite drawing down as we understand it today, the process of godform assumption used in modern ceremonial magick is similar, and it’s also a process that can be used by Witches.
The Golden Dawn originally paid (at least) lip service to the idea of monotheism. In its first official document, the society stated: “Belief in One God necessary.” 173 Such prohibitions didn’t limit the Golden Dawn to a conventional Judeo-Christian worldview though, and those within the order used the names of various Pagan deities in their rites and its members experienced and communicated with “spiritual and invisible things.” 174
When calling upon traditional deities, the Golden Dawn was generally referring to archetypes in the sense of Carl Jung. An archetypal godform is a thought pattern that “manifests through the collective unconsciousness of humanity.” 175 For example the Egyptian god Thoth (he of the Ibis head) is the visual representation of humankind’s desire to learn and gain knowledge. The godform has purpose but exists only because humans wish to learn and grow. Utilizing the image of Thoth, humans can tap into that universal current of knowledge that already exists within them. This is different from believing that the gods are real and independent beings, though many in the Golden Dawn (then and now) refer to deities in a way that implies actual belief in them.
I feel like I should point out that the Golden Dawn at the end of the nineteenth century most likely had members who believed that the various gods and goddesses worshipped throughout history were independent beings. There are also modern practitioners of Golden Dawn–style magick and ritual who are committed polytheists. Despite the order’s origins and original ideas about the nature of deity and archetypes, it’s certainly possible to use the godform assumption technique to commune with a particular goddess or god.
Modern-day Golden Dawn practitioners and authors Chic and Sandra Tabatha Cicero define godform assumption as
a magical technique wherein the adept works with the energies of a particular deity by assuming its form. The archetypal image of the deity is created on the astral by focused visualization, vibration of the deity’s name, the tracing of its sigil, etc. The magician then steps into this astral image and wears it like a garment or mask, continuing to strengthen the image with focused concentration. This is performed in order to create a vehicle for that particular aspect of the divine that the magician is working with. The magician imitates but does not “channel” or identify him- or herself with the deity, although the adept may receive communication from the deity during the process.176
Godform assumption can be used for various purposes. It might be used by the individual magician to find a solution to a particularly vexing question or to harness the power and energy associated with a particular deity. If I was having trouble figuring out the answer to a question, I might “step into” the power of Thoth and use the energy that has accumulated around that archetype to find a solution. Godform assumption is sometimes used during the actual rites of the Golden Dawn as well, most likely to bring specific energies to the order’s proceedings.177
In his work Liber O (originally published in the second volume of The Equinox), 178 Aleister Crowley gives specific instructions on how to perform a godform assumption.179 Unlike most of Crowley’s work, his instructions in Liber O are very straightforward and clear and can easily be adapted by Modern Witches.
Crowley’s Ritual of Godform Assumption
(Adapted from Liber O)
1. The magician should highly familiarize themselves with the image of the deity they wish to call upon. They should commit the image of this deity to memory and be able to call upon it easily.
2. The magician should familiarize themselves with the posture of the deity desired. The magician should then practice assuming this posture until they’ve mastered it. Once the posture has been mastered, the magician should visualize the godform enveloping their physical body. When this has been achieved, the magician should feel the power and energy of the godform and be able to experience it.
3. The magician should next perform the Vibration of God-names. This requires saying the name of the godform being called to using a specific ritual process. Saying the god-name should help identify “the human consciousness with that pure portion of it which man calls by the name of some God.” 180
Sign of the Enterer (Horus)
4. (a) The magician should stand with arms outstretched.
(b) The magician should breathe deeply through the nose and not the mouth. As the magician breathes in, they should visualize the name of the deity desired coming into their body through their breath.
(c) The name of that deity should then descend through the body, moving from the lungs to the heart, the stomach, the abdomen, all the way down to the magician’s feet.
(d) When the name of the deity touches the feet, the magician should step forward about twelve inches, led by the left foot. As they step, they should throw the rest of their body forward, pushing their arms and hands outward like an arrow (see illustration). Crowley called this the position of the god Horus. As the magician pushes their body forward, they should visualize and feel the name of the deity desired rushing up through their body while breathing that very same name outward through the nose. This should “be done with all the force of which you are capable.” 181
(e) The left foot should then be withdrawn and the right index finger placed upon the lips of the magician. Crowley called this the position of the god Harpocrates (see illustration).182
Sign of Silence (Harpocrates)
5. The Vibration of the God-names is performed correctly when it completely exhausts the magician physically. Crowley said correct application of the technique will cause the body to grow warm and/or perspire violently. It might also make standing difficult.
6. Correct performance of this technique will also be confirmed if the magician hears the name of the desired godform loudly spoken at the end of the conjuration. The voice announcing the name of the godform should be heard from outside the body and should not be an inner voice. Crowley said it will roar forth loudly like “ten thousand thunders.”
This technique should be committed to memory, and when it is performed, all thoughts not pertaining to the godform should be extinguished. If the operation is a success, normal consciousness should be replaced by something greater. The longer normal consciousness takes to return, the more successful the ritual (at least according to Crowley).
The Priest as the Divine Incarnate:
Margaret Murray
Much of the focus in Margaret Murray’s works on Witchcraft is on the Horned God. (For more on Murray, head back to “A Ritual from Margaret Murray and the Witch-Cult” in chapter 3.) In Murray’s estimation, the Witches of the early modern period worshipped a corrupted version of a very ancient horned deity who had become mixed up with the Christian Devil. When Murray writes of “Devil worship,” she’s actually writing about worship of the Horned God, with the terms Horned God and the Devil acting like synonyms.
One of the more fascinating things about Murray’s Witches was that they interacted with the Devil much like Modern Witches interact with a High Priestess who has drawn down the moon. Murray’s “Devil” was not just an abstract figure worshipped by Witches, but a deity who physically interacted with his charges. Murray writes that “the so-called Devil was a human being, generally a man, occasionally a woman.” 183 The High Priests of Murray’s Witch-cult were powerful figures and adored by their charges.
Murray states that “this so-called Devil was God, manifest and incarnate; they adored him on their knees, they addressed their prayers to him, they offered thanks to him as the giver of food and the necessities of life, they dedicated their children to him, and there are indications, that, like many another god, he was sacrificed for the good of his people.” 184 What’s difficult about Murray is that she doesn’t really offer any explanation as to just how the Horned God/Devil came to reside in his priests, or if those priests even truly believed in his existence.
Quoting another scholar, Murray brings up the idea that her Witches “seem to have been undoubtedly the victims of unscrupulous and designing knaves, who personated Satan.” 185 Even if Murray did see the priests of the Witch-cult as hucksters, she saw the adoration given to him by Witches as a very central part of the cult.
Referencing an incident in France, Murray writes: “The mother took her young child to one of the great quarterly Sabbaths, and kneeling before the Incarnate God she said, ‘Great Lord, whom I worship, I bring thee a new servant who will be thy slave for ever.’ At a sign from the god she moved forward on her knees and laid the infant in the divine arms.” 186 While no Witches I know today would bring their child in front of the Goddess and proclaim that the child was a slave to the Lady, the rest of that passage is similar to what goes on in some circles.
When looking at the historical precedents of drawing down the moon, the works of Margaret Murray have to be included. Not only did she write the introduction to Gardner’s first book, but her own works have been mined by Witches for ideas and inspiration since they were originally published. If Murray thought that the leader of a Witch’s coven was sometimes worshipped as the divine incarnate, it makes sense that the earliest Modern Witches would have included such a figure.
Dion Fortune and The Sea Priestess
Dion Fortune (birth name Violet Mary Firth, 1890–1946) is one of the most important figures in Witchcraft’s rebirth during the twentieth century. Though she did not identify as a Witch (or even a Pagan), many of her ideas would become a part of Wiccan-Witchcraft, and her 1938 novel The Sea Priestess articulated Witch ritual long before it would be made public. A highly trained occult practitioner, Fortune was a member of the Alpha et Omega order, an offshoot of the original Golden Dawn. She would also go on to found the esoteric order the Fraternity of Inner Light, which has continued into the present day and is now known as the Society of the Inner Light.
For the most part, The Sea Priestess is a rather bland novel, complete with casual racism and several other uncomfortable bits. But its occult passages shine, and Fortune’s descriptions of ritual in her novel are nearly hypnotic. If I had to name just one source for the modern ritual of drawing down the moon, I would pick The Sea Priestess because it so perfectly captures the essence of just what a drawing down rite feels like.
Fortune’s ideas about invoking deity are based around the idea of male/female polarity. In Fortune’s mind, drawing down required two polar opposites, female and male. It’s easiest to think of this like a battery, with a positive and a negative side. In a battery the sparks between these two polarities conduct energy. Creating great magick and invoking the gods required something similar: friction between female and male energies. One of the great things about The Sea Priestess is that its magickal formulas are shared in long bits of exposition by the character Vivien Le Fay Morgan:
Do you not know that at the dawn of manifestation the gods wove the web of creation between the poles of the pairs of opposites, active and passive, positive and negative, and that all things are these two things in different ways and upon different levels, even priests and priestesses.187
The idea of male/female pairings in magick is a rather old concept and predates Modern Witchcraft (and Fortune’s occult work) by several centuries. During the early modern period, magickal charmers (individuals who practiced magick with a specific item or spoken charm) believed that their power could be passed on only when exchanged with a member of the opposite sex.188 To become a Witch in the American Ozarks required sexual initiation by a member of the opposite sex, at least according to popular tradition.189 The idea of male/female polarity to create a magickal current was a common one in Fortune’s time, and would later become an important idea in early Modern Witchcraft.
Fortune’s drawing down rite unfolds almost as if it were an initiation and offers further insight into the nature of opposites and their power in magick and the workings of the universe:
Learn now the mystery of the ebbing and flowing tides. That which is dynamic in the outer is latent in the inner, for that which is above is as that which is below, but after another manner.
Isis of Nature awaiteth the coming of her Lord the Sun. She calls him. She draws him from the place of the dead.190
In The Sea Priestess it’s readily apparent that Fortune’s Vivien Le Fay Morgan becomes someone (or perhaps something) else when channeling the goddess Isis. In one particularly striking passage, the book’s narrator and main protagonist remarks:
Then a voice spoke that was not Morgan’s voice, curiously inhuman and metallic.
“I am the Veiled Isis of the sanctuary. I am she that moveth as a shadow behind the tides of death and birth. I am she that cometh forth by night, and no man seeth my face. I am older than time and forgotten of the gods.” 191
As Fortune’s invocation ritual continues, Vivien Le Fay Morgan’s character begins to share bits of otherworldly poetry, with many of them sounding like an alternative version of the Charge of the Goddess (see Appendix Two):
I am the soundless bitter sea;
All things in the end shall come to me.
Mine is the kingdom of Persephone,
The inner earth, where lead the pathways three.
Who drinks the waters of the hidden well,
Shall see things whereof he dare not tell
Shall tread the shadowy path that leads to me
Diana of the Ways and Hecate,
Selene of the Moon, Persephone. 192
Passages such as this one also reveal another lasting legacy of Dion Fortune’s work: the idea that “all the gods are one god, and all the goddesses are one goddess, and there is one initiator.” 193 The idea of an all-encompassing Goddess whose various facets are reflected in all the goddesses of pagan antiquity is still a common one in many Witchcraft circles, and it’s an idea beautifully expressed by Fortune. By weaving together the ancient paganisms of Greece, Egypt, Mesopotamia, and Celtic Britain, she articulates a big and grand Paganism that can be drawn upon by magick practitioners.
Fortune’s ideas about invocation and the nature of deity were not limited to just the divine feminine either. She wrote about the god Pan in her book The Goat-Foot God (1936) and referred to his resurgence in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries as the return of “vitamin P.” 194 She believed that the male aspect of deity could be invoked just as powerfully as the feminine one, though she never articulated those rites with the poetic grace found in The Sea Priestess.
It’s unknown if Fortune ever crossed paths with the likes of Gerald Gardner or Doreen Valiente, but as esoteric circles in England were rather small, it’s possible. In the end though, it probably doesn’t matter. The power of her invocation rite most likely inspired similar rites among Witches, and rare indeed is the well-read Witch who doesn’t own a book by Dion Fortune.
155. d’Este and Rankine, Wicca, 126.
156. Mitchell, “Do Full Moons and Supermoons Really Influence People and Animals?” Yes, this is a weird source, but there are links to other things in the article.
157. d’Este and Rankine, Wicca, 130.
158. Valiente, The Rebirth of Witchcraft, image 15, immediately following page 128 in the text.
159. Adler, Drawing Down the Moon, ii.
160. Burkert, Greek Religion, 109.
161. Borgeaud, The Cult of Pan in Ancient Greece, 107–108.
162. Broad, The Oracle, 11.
163. Hutton, Witches, Druids, and King Arthur, 114.
164. Aslan, No god but God, 202.
165. Ibid., 199.
166. DuBois, Nordic Religions in the Viking Age, 131.
167. Ferguson, The Vikings, 33–34.
168. DuBois, Nordic Religions in the Viking Age, 128.
169. Ibid., 134.
170. There are several different spellings of Vodou, and they generally vary by region. Vodou is a Haitian spelling, while most practitioners in New Orleans use the familiar Voodoo. I’ve chosen to go with the New Orleans spelling because the practitioners I know from that region use that spelling.
171. Tann, Haitian Vodou, 13.
172. Tann, Haitian Vodou, 77.
173. Drury, Stealing Fire from Heaven: The Rise of Modern Western Magic, 43.
174. Regardie, What You Should Know About the Golden Dawn, 112.
175. Chic and Sandra Tabatha Cicero, The Essential Golden Dawn, 261.
176. Ibid., 270.
177. Ibid., 104. For the record the Ciceros don’t say exactly why godform assumption is used during ritual, but only that those doing it don’t “actively participate” in any physical duties during ritual.
178. The Equinox was the name of a journal published by A.·.A.·., Crowley’s magickal organization. It’s second issue was printed in the fall of 1909.
179. The printing I have of Liber O is a 1976 edition by Samuel Weiser and is more pamphlet than book. Instructions for godform assumption are given on pages 19–20.
180. Exact words from Crowley in Liber O.
181. Ibid.
182. Harpocrates was the Greco-Egyptian god of silence.
183. Murray, The Witch-Cult in Western Europe. Originally published by Oxford University Press in 1921, here I’m quoting from the Barnes and Noble edition published in 1996, page 31.
184. Ibid., 28.
185. Ibid., 33.
186. Murray, The God of the Witches, page 75, NuVision edition.
187. Fortune, The Sea Priestess, 172. The Sea Priestess entered the public domain in 2017.
188. Davies, Popular Magic, 83. Pretty much anything by Owen Davies is a must-read for people interested in magickal history.
189. Randolph, Ozark Magic and Folklore, 267.
190. Fortune, The Sea Priestess, 219.
191. Ibid., 220–221. Emphasis Mankey.
192. Fortune, The Sea Priestess, 221–222.
193. Ibid., 172.
194. Hutton, The Triumph of the Moon, 185.