Hey Frater T, all you have been doing is talking about
ancestors. What about spirits of place? What about spirits of plants, and all
those other cool spirits more commonly associated with Animism? We’ll get to
them, don’t worry. Mind you, those are the types of spirits I have the least
experience with. But that’s okay. One of the themes of this blog is getting
back to the bottom. Going back and improving the foundation of my spiritual
practice. Which is why I have to start with ancestors.
I have never been one to tell someone how they should
practice magick. Magick is inherently dangerous, no matter how careful you
think you are. If you want to just dive into the deep end and start with hard
core goetic demon evocation, I’m not gonna stop you. Fuck it. Do it. I did a
lot of dumb shit that I was not prepared for and failing is part of the
learning process. I’m lucky that I had people supporting me. I have a few
scars, but my only real regrets are that I wasted a lot of time doing bad
magick that didn’t get me very far.
Emergent Magick (EMK) often uses the metaphor, “Citadel of
Belief.” This is one of the key differences between Chaos Magick and EMK. In
EMK you constantly build upon the knowledge you have received. Chaos Magick
tells you to chuck a belief when it becomes inconvenient. I’m not saying all
chaos magicians do this, and none of them build upon their previous work
(although in a technical sense those magicians that do may be doing EMK and not
realize it.) I’m also not saying that holding on to a belief structure doesn’t
have its drawbacks. You certainly run the risk of dogmatism. But that’s why it’s
essential to work with a tribe whose members have differing paradigms.
But a Citadel of Emergent Animism is more than that. More
than just knowledge. It’s building up a coterie of spirits that you work with
on an ongoing basis. These are the spirits that populate your Citadel. They
guard it against hostile spirits. They clean the place up. They are your
advisers.
This all takes time, a lot of time. I’m talking years. And
the work never stops. You must constantly maintain those relationships. Just
like your human friends you gotta hang out with them on a regular basis and
truly get to know them. You have to be there when they need you, then they will
be there when you need them. Yes, spirits need things. Mostly they need contact
with the world so they can keep learning and growing. The work doesn’t stop
when you’re dead. It just changes. And all those offerings and attention are currency
for them. It gives them the ability to do more.
You could just keep Pokemoning daemons, summoning them up
one-by-one off a list and coerce or trade with them for favors. But if you’re
going to treat them like something you just toss out when you need something,
they are going to treat you the same way.
Since you have now learned I’m a big geek, let’s use another
geek reference. I’m a huge fan of the game Mage:
The Awakening, for obvious reasons. In Mage,
if a character specializes in spirit magick they eventually end up creating
what’s called a Spirit Court. A group of spirits they either created or
summoned that they trust and work with regularly. So fuck it, let’s just steal
that term. What you need to be doing is building your own Spirit Court.
As I’ve said more than a couple of times now, ancestors are
the best place to start because they almost always have your best interests in
mind. Working with local spirits of place wouldn’t be a bad option either,
because most of them want the beings that live within or near them to thrive. Also,
I’m not saying that if you already have a relationship with a god or other
alien spirit that you should quit that. Keep it up, but also start working with
spirits that are closer and have a more relatable perspective.
Working with more relatable spirits also gives you practice
dealing with other spiritual entities. You learn how to listen to them. What
signs they may use. How they often use symbolism to convey complex ideas that
can’t always be put into words. You learn about their feelings and how they
change over time. You learn how to gauge their opinion of you and use that to change
your practice in ways that are more pleasing to them. Or you may learn they
aren’t the type of spirit you want to be dealing with.
Remember that your ancestor lineage goes way beyond the
people you knew or those you have learned about directly. Everyone’s family
tree goes back to Africa. Ask the spirits you know to introduce you to the ones
you don’t. You do this by learning about where your family came from. If your
family came from Poland, collect Polish things, learn Polish history. But do
more than learn important dates and people, learn how those people lived. Find
things that may be familiar to them and use those to attract those spirits. You
don’t have to go out and find expensive art pieces and artifacts, though that’s
fine if you do. You can make traditional dishes and use them as food offerings.
You can simply use pictures of your native land. This is why pre-historic,
hunter-gatherer societies fascinate me. Know how they lived and what was important
to them and you will have better communication with those spirits.
So the next time some rando spirit asks, “Who the fuck are
you?” You too can answer, “Ego sum Legio.” I am Legion, for my ancestors stand
with me.
In my last post, I said something that should have given you
pause. When describing spirits of the dead, I said, “They can even be exploited
if a magus is so inclined. If they can’t learn to chill even after they’re
dead, fuck ‘em.”
No one told you that being a magus makes you a nice person,
right? There are reasons why necromancy is reviled by many cultures. Most of
those reasons are bullshit based on fear and control. But being a necromancer
does sometimes mean blurring some lines. If you as a magus decide you may need
a weapon at your disposal, even just for self-defense… well weapons come at a
price. A weapon is not an innocent thing, despite what the NRA wants you to
believe. A weapon always requires you to compromise your innocence. A weapon
symbolizes you are willing to do harm. A spiritual weapon can be a costly thing
indeed.
The most powerful weapon in my spiritual arsenal? Without a
doubt – Deadwater. What is Deadwater you ask? Lucky for you folks I know the
leading expert. The number one source. I turn you over to the words of my beloved
brother, Frater Yaramarud, the man who provided me with this amazing substance.
“My first encounter with Deadwater came nearly a decade ago.
At the time, I saw it purely as a novelty and not something with the nearly
boundless potential that I know today. Traveling down the road with my good
friend Frater Dreadnaught, and an ex-partner of mine, the three of us had made
a late night decision to stop at the next cemetery we found in order to waste
time in a way that people in their early twenties are wont to do. When we
finally found one and had parked the car, a light in the center of the cemetery
had drawn our attention to a pump well gently illuminated beneath it. My
initial thought was one of curiosity and bewilderment. What reason could there
possibly be for there to be a well here? With this question unanswered, it
dawned on me that the corpses surrounding us had, beyond any doubt, decayed and
seeped into the table from which this well drew.
“All you can really do is be kind to your loved-ones and be kind to your friends. That is what truly changes the world. The legacy of those acts of kindness.
Of course, you must oppose tyranny and hate. But that is the work. That is your job. Do a good job and put the work in, but when the work day is done, forget about it.
Think instead on perpetrating those acts of kindness. Think about spreading joy.
One of things I want to do with this blog is talk directly
about my ancestors and tell their stories. I think with all the shit going on
in the world, and the stark divisions in the U.S. coming to a head this
election day, it is the perfect time to talk about Cousin Max.
Old Frater T has been having a shitty week and I’m glad I
wrote out a few of these blog posts in advance. But I’ve run out of backlog,
and this one is coming to you raw. I wish I had time to go into the Cult of the
Saints as the continuation of ancestor veneration in Europe, and the nuances of
working with spirits of a faith that I have all but completely relinquished.
But I don’t have time for that. Let’s just talk about Max.
That’s Saint Maximillian Kolbe, my fourth cousin, the first
saint canonized by John Paul II, another fellow Polack. I don’t know what made
my grandmother happier, having a Polish pope in her lifetime, or having that
pope declare a member of our ancestry a saint. Her love of JP II was so intense
she would take pictures of the TV whenever he was on it.
I’m talking about Max today because Max fought Nazis. He was
by no means a perfect man, and his hate-on for the freemasons is upsetting. His
utter devotion to Mary was inspiring, but we disagree heartily on my view of
Mary as vestigial goddess worship. I have been known to stop at shrines to Mary
and say prayers to Babalon (I can feel Max cringing right now.) The links are
there if you look deep enough. While Mary has been seen as a virgin since the
earliest days of the Church, not all early Christians agreed with that
perspective. Many Christian gnostics saw her as a representation of Sophia. I’ll
let you do that research yourself.
Max and I agree on two important things. If you can help
relieve suffering in the world, do it. Also, fuck Nazis. I am proud to share
with you the story of Max’s martyrdom taken from his biography at the Jewish
Virtual Library.
“During the Second World War he (Maximillian Kolbe) provided
shelter to refugees from Greater Poland, including 2,000 Jews whom he hid from
Nazi persecution in his friary in Niepokalanów. He was also active as a radio
amateur, with Polish call letters SP3RN, vilifying Nazi activities through his
reports.
On February 17, 1941 he was arrested by the German Gestapo
and imprisoned in the Pawiak prison, and on May 25 was transferred to Auschwitz
I as prisoner #16670.
In July 1941 a man from Kolbe’s barracks vanished, prompting
SS-Hauptsturmführer Karl Fritzsch, the deputy camp commander, to pick 10 men
from the same barracks to be starved to death in Block 13 (notorious for
torture), in order to deter further escape attempts. (The man who had
disappeared was later found drowned in the camp latrine.) One of the selected
men, Franciszek Gajowniczek, cried out, lamenting his family, and Kolbe
volunteered to take his place.
During the time in the cell he led the men in songs and
prayer. After three weeks of dehydration and starvation, only Kolbe and three
others were still alive. Finally he was murdered with an injection of carbolic
acid.”
Probably part of the reason I am social worker today is my
family’s belief in helping others. Even if Max and I argue about just about
everything else, we agree that if you are honestly devoting your life to easing
the suffering of others, you’re okay in our book, no matter what gods you are
calling on.
And fuck Nazis.
Max has become the patriarch of my family’s ancestor
spirits. They often, but not always, defer to him, and trust his judgement when
representing my family in this world and across the veil. It is always Max I
bring with me when I leave home to represent for my ancestor spirits.
One of my fondest memories is visiting his shrine here in the
U.S. in Marytown, IL. I wandered the beautiful church and grounds, inspired by
the spiritual presence there, lighting candles and watching the monks’ afternoon
prayer service. I took the ancestor flag I made for him and touched it to the
vessel containing some of his remains, hair and fingernail clippings said to be
kept by the camp barber at Auschwitz. Yes folks, Frater T is in possession of a
bona fide third-degree relic of the Catholic Church.
I can’t seem to make peace with my living relatives. But at
least I can make peace with my dead ones. I just have some hard-lines I will
not cross. Like tolerating Nazis.
I hope this can be an inspiration to those who look back at
their ancestors and think they can never work with them because of spiritual
differences. If you can find just two things to agree on, the rest can be
negotiated.
@mikaelthearchangel It’s been a while since I have gotten this question, I used to get people asking all the time. I am always happy to oblige, but it’s a bit difficult to go into using the tumblr reply function, so I decided to do it as a separate post.
First, I absolutely, 100% recommend The Red Goddess by Peter Grey. It is the best complete source on the Red Goddess.
As far as my own personal take. The short form can be found on my original Scroll of Thoth Blog.
There is also the much lengthier Babalon Current in Modern Magick, which you can listen to as a podcast. Or download the text version here.
Also, a search for Babalon (not Babylon) will bring up innumerable sources.
Sorry to just give you a bunch of links. I will probably write more about her someday. But there has been so much ink spilled on Her, that I would really have to come up with some new perspectives.
