Eleventh Lunation: Waxing Moon Cycle
Days 1–15
Day of Silence
The contemplation for the day, as you go through it observing silence, is regarding the quality of each moment you’re experiencing. You and I are living out our own unique circumstances. If you are able to step out of your opinions regarding the circumstances, even for a moment, you suddenly arrive in a new world. It is a world fresh, alive, and electrically full of potential and magic.
There is only one life you can live: it’s the one you are in right now. That insight is not meant to negate past or future lives. I say it to draw your attention to the fact that the only life you are capable of living is the one right before you, revealing itself moment by moment.
There is only one life to live. And the only time that you have is right now. You’re only able to live in the “right now” throughout the entire span of your life. And each “right now” is a brilliant, complex, unrepeatable event. It is truly an act of magic that you exist at all in this universe, is it not?
Are you living your life with appreciation, with a sense of urgency in understanding this unrepeatable magic? If you awaken to this reality of the “unrepeatable moment,” if you take time to fully absorb the magnitude of this realization, the question you inevitably encounter is: how might you actualize this realization right now?
Autumn Equinox Revised
Magical Purpose: Reimagining this sabbat.
Continuing with the previous day’s workings, today we will work on reimagining the Autumn Equinox ceremony, keeping in mind all of the mythic stages.
• What does the ordinary world look like?
• How do we know there is a departure?
• What will the crossing of the threshold look like?
• What is the ordeal at Autumn Equinox?
• What is the boon, treasure, or healing that can take place as a result of the rite (representing the return)?
While you are thinking about these questions and planning the mystery play, consider adding the following short list of themes and magical elements that Witches typically incorporate into their Autumn Equinox celebrations:
Themes/Symbols: The gods Bacchus and Dionysus, bread, the goddess Persephone, balance between light and darkness (with an emphasis on the darkness), the waning light, the ending of the year, the last harvest of the season, cornucopias, wine, gourds, acorns, seeds, seed pods, grains, corn, hay, pomegranates, wind, prosperity, luck, wishes, fortune
Colors: Red, yellow, brown, ochre, deep blue
Herbs: Acorn, allspice, benzoin, cloves, cinnamon, ferns, honeysuckle, marigold, milkweed, myrrh, most woods, oakmoss, passionflower, rose, sage, sandalwood, Solomon’s seal, thistle, tobacco
Fourth Immutable Axiom
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Direction: |
Northwest |
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Power: |
The power of impermanence |
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Season: |
Mid-fall |
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Festival: |
Samhain |
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Theme: |
Death as advisor |
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Date: |
October 31 |
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Axiom: |
A practitioner of the Old Ways |
Samhain occurs at the conclusion of the Celtic agricultural cycle and marks the new year. Tied as the Celts were to their lore of reincarnation, they knew that the end of the life-giving season of summer symbolized a period of death (winter) that was followed by the renewal of life (spring). But the Celts did not satisfy themselves with whitewashing death, passing it by, or sanitizing it in any way (as we might do today). Death and the dead were intimate and inevitable parts of living.
The events of life and death were seemingly impermanent for our pagan ancestors, which differs wildly from our typical Western views on the Great Matter. In fact, in the West we pay special attention to the day we were born and celebrate it every year. And when someone dies, we try to hurry through the circumstances, sanitize the situation as best as possible, and move on with our lives. This serves no one, including those who survive the lost loved one.
This “bum’s rush” that the dead and their families get in the modern Western world would be absolute sacrilege to our ancient pagan ancestors. The act of ignoring or desecrating rites intended to celebrate, respect, sanctify, or remember the life of a person who has died was feared in the ancient world. To do so would surely result in hauntings and malefic forces hanging over the life of one who would dare ignore the turnings of the Mighty Dead.
As opposed to our contemporary sensibilities about birthdays, in Ancient Europe there is little evidence that one’s birth was celebrated or even mentioned again after it occurred. But one’s death was thought to be momentous, and there exist treasure troves of funeral artifacts for the ancients who celebrated one’s death day at least annually. Deceased family ancestors often had their own shrines either in the home or nearby, and Samhain was a time to consult with them and to seek their wisdom.
Our pagan European ancestors clearly had much more fluid ideas about death and life than we do today. In the ancient mind, the two states intermingled freely and frequently. Samhain was a specific time during the year when the “veil” between the words of the living and the dead was particularly thin and vaporous. Thus, it was easy for the dead to join the living for feasting and consulting.
Samhain was also a time when the herds were thinned through ritualized slaughter. This was done to spare the weak from a cruel death due to the harsh winter climes of Northern Europe. It also served to provide stores of food for families and communities.
Witches traditionally associate the feast of Samhain with two specific aspects of deity: the Crone and the Lord of Death (who is also the Lord of the Underworld). Each of these aspects of deity represent the wisdom that comes with age and the knowledge of what lies just beyond that which can be seen with human eyes.
The next several days will focus on these mysteries, to bring these energies back into the mix of our lives, to challenge unhealthy notions about death, and to learn how to seek counsel from the lengthening shadow of our own death, which looms noticeably year after year.
Power of Impermanence Incense and Oil
Magical Purpose: Making magical herbal aids to invoke the energies of impermanence.
Power of Impermanence Incense
What you’ll need:
• 3 tablespoons dried rosemary
• 3 tablespoons frankincense tears
• 3 tablespoons dried (and powdered)
mandrake root
• Optional: 1 crushed/powdered acorn (if you can find this)
• 6 drops myrrh essential oil
• 4 drops patchouli essential oil
• 1 ounce vegetable glycerin or other carrier oil
• An airtight container
Mix the dry ingredients first. Add the essential oils to the glycerin or carrier oil. Mix everything together until the dry ingredients take on the scents from the essential oils and the mixture looks fluffy. Keep the incense stored in an airtight container until you use it.
Power of Impermanence Oil
What you’ll need:
• 3 drops frankincense essential oil
• 3 drops myrrh oil
• 2 drops patchouli oil
• Pinch of mandrake root
• 1 ounce vegetable glycerin or other carrier oil
• An amber or dark-colored bottle with a tight lid
• 1 drop yellow food coloring (optional)
• 1 drop red food coloring (optional)
Mix the ingredients together and store in an amber or dark-colored bottle that has a tight lid to preserve the magical properties of the essential oils. You may add one drop of yellow and one drop of red food coloring if you’d like to add corresponding magical energy to this blend to help summon the ancestral spirits.
Impermanence as Advisor
Magical Purpose: Seeking wisdom from death.
What you’ll need:
• Power of Impermanence Oil
Impermanence. The very word can make our stomachs drop. The reality of the clock ticking down on our lives is always in the background somewhere, but when it comes to our attention, we hear it loud and clear.
How do we typically handle it when death comes to our attention? We look away, of course. We whistle a happy tune. We slap another coat of white light over it and make it seem pretty. We do anything we can to avoid it.
Most of us really don’t think much about death, unless it is shoved in our faces. Even then, when someone dies, we get tongue-tied around the deceased’s family and friends. What do I say to them? What do I do? Finally you let yourself off the hook by thinking that the grieving party probably just wants to be left alone.
But all of this avoiding has essentially robbed us of a core magical power, which is the power of wisdom that arises from lingering in impermanence. Bearing in mind that we are here for only a short while, and staying linked to that awareness without blinking or turning away, is a sure-fire recipe for strengthening our magical muscles.
Maintaining and even cultivating an awareness of death can cause us to loosen up about our lives right now. It helps us put everything into perspective. It helps us sort out what is really important from whatever it is that just seems important. It can light a fire under us, motivating us to take real and powerful action. It is magic in motion.
For the next couple of days, try to maintain an awareness of death at regular intervals throughout each day. One way to do this is to set a meditation timer. Set the timer to go off every hour, or every thirty minutes if you’re able to accommodate that in your schedule. Once you hear the bell ring, anoint yourself with the Power of Impermanence Oil, then ask yourself this simple question: If I had only this moment left to live, what choice would I make right now?
The advice that comes may surprise you. It may shock you. It may cause you to rethink many of your choices. That’s good. Magic is supposed to transform you.
Be sure to journal about your experiences at the end of the day.
A Word to the Wise: There are many meditation timers that are free to you as apps for your smart phone. For example the Insight Timer by Spotlight Six Software and the Zazen Meditation Timer by Stefan Gaffga both have thousands of users. At last count, I found over 250 different free meditation timers for smart phones.
Communicating with Ancestors
Magical Purpose: Seeking wisdom from the ancestors.
What you’ll need:
• Power of Impermanence Oil
• Power of Impermanence Incense
• Your magic mirror
• A black pillar candle (a pillar works best for your inscriptions)
• Your circle-casting tools, including the white-handled knife, thurible, and self-igniting charcoal
• Fourth Pentacle of the Sun
If you do not already have a magic mirror, you can simply use a deep bowl of water. But make sure that the surface inside the bowl is black.31
To begin, cast your circle in the hour of the Sun on the day of the Sun, if possible, to heighten the pentacle’s power (see the planetary hours charts in days 11–12 of the second lunation). Place the magic mirror before you on your altar. On the right side of the mirror, place your thurible with a hot coal in it. Sprinkle the Power of Impermanence Incense on it.
Use your white-handled knife to inscribe the seals of the Sun’s spirits on the black candle. Here are the seals: 32
Seals of the Sun
After inscribing the candle, consecrate it with your incense and smear it with the Power of Impermanence Oil. Place the black candle on the left side of the magic mirror and atop your (previously psychically charged) Fourth Pentacle of the Sun (from the fifth lunation).
Let your eyes fall on the mirror’s surface. Breathe deeply and slowly. Now allow your gaze to shift focus from the mirror’s surface to a point that seems somewhere in the distance in the mirror’s depths.
In your mind or aloud, call forth a beloved ancestor or friend. Continue doing this until a shape or an image appears. Once the ancestor has arrived, ask him/her questions about your life as it stands now. How should you live it more fully? What is the right path for you?
Listen and take heed.
Once the visions leave, extinguish the black candle and the incense. Celebrate with cakes and wine, then close your circle.
Full Moon Ceremony
For this lunation, please incorporate the following components into your ceremony:
• The Cabalistic Cross (which you should do before Drawing Down the Moon)
• Use of Supplication Incense and Oil prior to Drawing Down the Moon
• Drawing Down the Moon
• Aspecting the Goddess and speaking her words
• Reading the Charge of the Goddess
• Select a meditation as your main working. Alternatively, you can engage in a magical working that you inadvertently skipped or intentionally skipped so as to reserve it for the full moon.
31. For instructions on making your own magic mirror, please see Wicca: A Year and a Day.
32. See Henry Cornelius Agrippa, Three Books Of Occult Philosophy, Book II, Chap. XXII: “Of the tables of the planets, their virtues, forms, and what divine names, intelligences, and spirits are set over them.”