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Embracing Christian Spirits As A Witch

Embracing Christian Spirits As A Witch

rumpusgoat:

This is an interesting article I came across, offering a different perspective – someone coming from witchcraft and incorporating other elements in time. I explored and am exploring traditional witchcraft after working in ceremonial and hermetic practices first. Love seeing good discussion on these topics! 

Agreeing with the article, working with spirits in a cosmology does not necessitate belief in the exoteric religion of the cosmology. As is noted here, Saints usually are older than the Christian religion that stole them away- its an interface to that spirit, one of the benevolent dead that was able to a cohesive entity after death and who has been working with the living for potentially thousands of years.  Also, when working with spirits, in this case celestial and infernal, use the tool set and tech most applicable to the work. Find ways of communicating to ancestors in ceremonial language they understand.  See what comes with communication. If a practice is not to your liking, do not engage again but always respect the spirits involved. You can banish, admonish and dismiss them, yet be respectful. 

There are a few authors I would recommend to read if curious about medieval witchcraft and how it intersects at times with esoteric Christian belief and local pagan practices to evolve into the something new – sometimes by tradition and sometimes for survival.  From these anthropological books, we get access to primary text exploring these beliefs. Yes, they are colored from the bias of the writers, in this case Vatican Italian Inquisitors, but they do not harm these witches, usually only tell them to not accept payment for the work – something I found fascinating and totally divergent from what happened in Spain and later in the Americas. To learn more about the

Benandanti

, the Malandanti

, agrarian witchcraft cults of the alps, why the local goddesses were over written (terrible thing to lose to male priest writers) and just referred to “Diana”, being born with the Caul, souls leaving the body to fight demons for the crops on the ember days, astral warfare for the fate of crops by “good” witches and “bad” witches check out the following( all have reliable english translation when needed):


The Night Battles: Witchcraft and Agrarian Cults in the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries  – Carlo Ginzberg (Italian)


Ecstasies: Deciphering the Witches’ Sabbath  – Carlo Ginzberg (Italian) 


Between the Living and the Dead: A Perspective on Witches and Seers in the Early Modern Age – 
Éva Pócs (Hungarian)


The Witches’ Ointment: The Secret History of Psychedelic Magic – Thomas Hastis (American, expands on Ginzberg’s work in depth with more modern understanding of the practice)

This was a hard lesson for me but I eventually came to terms with it. Helps that I have a cousin who is a saint.

Building a Modern Eleusis – Reality Sandwich

Building a Modern Eleusis – Reality Sandwich

entheognosis:

The very fact that tryptamine psychedelics even work at all—that there are specialized molecules in trees, plants, and fungi whose shape is similar enough to that of serotonin (a brain hormone) that the sophisticated defense system of the human brain (the blood-brain barrier) is tricked into accepting them, and that these molecules 
(DMT, 5-MeO-DMT, LSD, and psilocybin) then fit into the same very specialized locks in the brain and dramatically modify human consciousness to a state outside of consensual reality—this is in itself a mystery that defies the human imagination and has kept me awake in wonder many a night.

Liber F.pdf

Liber F.pdf

Completing a course in
Liber F, and continuing to practice these exercises, helps protect the
individual from the perils of being a magus. Before you discount that statement
as hyperbole, we have already put
forth that taking mind altering substances can be a key to magick. Few would
argue that drugs don’t take a toll on the individual mentally and physically.
To believe you can do these things without any ill effects is the epitome of
hubris. Like much in this book, Liber F is simply our take on practices that
have been used for thousands of years and proven to work. Having the ability to
stick to a routine, calm your mind, and control impulsive thoughts goes a long
way in helping prevent addiction and other complications.

It may seem incredulous,
but doing magick can lead to bizarre and often self-destructive thought
patterns. To believe what the majority of society tells us simply does not
exist places stresses on the mind and tends to isolate an individual socially.
To be constantly contemplating spiritual questions, (Why are we here? What is
the nature of the universe? What is truth?) can lead to obsessive behaviors.

We do not take this
lightly because we have lost friends to mental illness. While no hard data
exists, those who practice magick have noted that magi do seem to suffer from
psychological conditions more frequently than the general population. Consider
Liber F to be a vaccination against those maladies. In fact, a magus should
make routine a priority in their day-to-day lives. So when you do occasionally
participate in activities far outside the norm, you can easily recover. This
will make it that much easier to hold down a job, provide for loved ones, and keep
social ties outside your magical circle.

Part of what sets Liber F
apart from other courses of this kind is that it encourages the magus to start
working with a group as soon as possible. Those who work in substance abuse
treatment have proposed that the opposite of addiction is not abstinence, but
connection. Those who have strong social bonds and favorable living conditions
are able to recover from addiction and are less likely to become addicted in
the first place. This applies to other mental compulsions as well. EMK favors
group magick not only to create better magick, but so that each magus has the support
network they need to prevent harm caused by the dangerous work of magick
itself.

THE ROAD TO ELEUSIS

THE ROAD TO ELEUSIS

We have had some debate recently on the spirit of various plant psychedelics compared to synthesized substances like LSD. I think the answer lies in perspective and may answer some nagging questions. The hole in Terrance McKenna’s “stoned ape” hypothesis has always been a lack of known psychedelics available to early man in certain regions. But I think we are once again discounting our ancestors’ ability and ingenuity. LSD is derived from ergot, a fungus that grows on rye. While direct consumption of ergot can cause hallucinations, and we have many historical examples of this, it is also poisonous. Yet, Albert Hofmann is quoted as saying, the ability to extract the psychedelic compounds from ergot were, “well within the range of possibilities open to Early Man.” So in essence, LSD is most likely a direct lineage of the shaman’s medicine as used in the West. Northern African and European prehistoric hunter-gatherers did have access to a psychedelic compound. This is another way in which EMK attempts to re-make the esoteric tradition of the West.