Six Ways – a review

Ritual Magic, by David Conway, was one of the first occult texts I came across when I was beginning my study of the Arcane Arts. It was a small book which contained the basic framework and tool kit for ritual in the Kabbalistic and Egyptian traditions, with exemplar rites, tables of correspondence, talismanic sigils, magical alphabets, pronunciation keys, most everything one would require to embark on the path of the western ceremonial magician.

That was nearly forty years ago.

Now, Aiden Wachter has published a primer describing the approach and practice of his brand of sorcery, one which draws on many sources within the Western folk magic tradition, but one that is not bound to a particular school, lineage or cultural tradition.
Six Ways – Approaches & Entries For Practical Magic, is a foundational text providing a basic tool kit for the practice of dirt sorcery, a form of shamanry rooted in the magician’s locus, rather than an imported cultural heritage. The six ways are the compass points, plus above and below, oriented from where one stands and practices. From this foundation, one develops and makes use of relations with the spirits one encounters in that place, rather than evoking the named spirits of any specific cultural lineage, or invoking the gods of an established pantheon or mythology.
Wachter draws on folk sorcery traditions of Europe and the Americas, the inspiration and practices of AOS, and elements of chaos magick to produce a sorcery devoted to the practice of magical reification, of making spirit physical where one lives and stands.

Aiden Wachter is well know as a talented talismanic jeweller, a reputation earned through his dedication to excellence and the superior quality of his physical work. He is an acknowledged expert in the fields of sigil and talisman, inspired by AOS. His many years of effort are condensed into a valuable chapter on sigil work, which he describes clearly and simply, and with the apparent ease of the greatly talented and practiced, creates an example of a sigil which is potent with symbolic power as well as artistic expression. An example I was not able to approach, even with a month of effort and permutation.

The foundations of the Six Ways include meditation instruction, step by step tranceworking, as well as the philosophical underpinnings which bind the system into a coherent whole. His is one of the best descriptions of the Magical Will that I have encountered, which I paraphrase here:
Do not do something because it is traditional, or appropriate, or praiseworthy, or has been shown to be effective, or because you think it will get you what you want, or because there is data and theory to support it, or because you were inspired or told to do it,
DO IT BECAUSE YOU FUCKING DECIDED TO DO IT.
Brilliant. Concise. Accurate.

There are several sections of the book that are dealt with in only a page or two, and that I would love to read about further. These I hope may be subjects for future chapters in upcoming books. Among them is a brief discussion of Fear. Sacred fear, fear arisen from the exploration of and interaction with the Other which has rarely been mentioned in published grimoires but is known to many established lineages.

I heartily recommend Six Ways, as a welcome respite from the weight of exotic traditions and lineages which have too long dominated the Western Magical Tradition; as a deep outbreathing of modern sorcerous practice; and as a practical and accessible recension of AOS’s potent system of sigillic magick. It offers much to the beginner, and yet still contains valuable gems to be mined by more experienced practitioners.

Helrunar

My personal rune set is also the first one I ever made: small tiles of green granite, cut, polished and carved over thirty years ago. I’ve carved many sets since then, in different materials; my favourites have been on slates gathered from a beach at the Calf of Mann, and quartz pebbles from the seam of that white stone that stretches the length of the Isle from the Calf to the Point of Ayre.

All the runes I’ve carved since that first set have been gifted to others.

In recent years I’ve had the urge to carve a new set for myself, in bone. Specifically rib bones, the rib cage being that vault protecting and containing the beating heart, and making possible each life-sustaining breath.
A few years ago I obtained some rib bones, and in recent months I began their transformation into a set of rune staves.
Once cut to length, I began working on caps for the cut ends. These I carved from ash wood, to link these runes physically to the World Tree, as the ribs themselves are joined to the spinal column of the body. This may become more significant in the future, as we lose the ash trees in Europe and now in North America, due to a combination of disease and foreign insect depredation. We may live to see a time when Yggdrasil as ash tree will exist in memory and historical record alone and future generations may not know it as a living presence in the world.
Bone will connect with the otherworldly powers of one who has passed through the gates of Death, crossed the bridge to the Other Side, and will function as eidolon to bring insight and information from that realm to back into this world.
It was the Gallows God who brought the runes out of the darkness through self-sacrifice, and these runes are intended to invoke that power and wisdom.

The inscribed runes that survive on the Isle of Mann show elements of both the Elder and Younger Futharks, in both ‘Long Twig’ and ‘Short Twig’ forms, though none remains extant as a complete set. At the time of Kermode’s writing in 1907, 15 runes were clearly identifiable, though he believed that others were also used on the Isle, and that the 15 we have today are merely what remain physically of all the rune carved stones on the Isle.

The runic sigils I have used reflect those found on Mann – some of the Younger Futhark and some of the Elder; as my intention is to use this set primarily for divinatory, in addition to specific magickal workings. What is of significance in divination are the ideas and influences represented by the runes, more than each physical shape, so I am comfortable with taking some artistic license in the style and shape of the runes in my personal set.
The dense bone of the ribs is too thin to allow carving of the rune symbols into their surface, so I have burned them into the bone, invoking fire as power to charge the runes as well as to define them, and referencing fire as the catalyst between different phases of being, facilitating the transformation of the material basis into its spiritual potential.

Once marked by fire, I rubrified the runes with heme iron in a protein based colloid suspension. Then sealed them with a blend of oils, beeswax  and resin.

Mindful of the divinatory aspect of these runes, the energies, purposes and associations therewith; and taking a page from Richard Gavin’s, Benighted Path, these runes, carved and consecrated shall never be profaned by exposure to the rude light of day. Their work will be dedicated to and accomplished in darkness, their illumination sidereal: the light of moon, dream, baalfire and candle glow. The sacred Void will be their womb, the darkness wherein all things become undifferentiated and returned to their unified source, to speak directly to the Night mind that precedes and subsumes again the diurnal conscious awareness.

To this end, I fashioned a bi-layered pouch in which a liner extends beyond the top of a deerskin sack, to ensure that even when open the runes would be protected from exposure, and that the rune reader must, as Glapsviðr did,  reach deep into Ginnungagap to extract the runes. This bag I bound with antique silk and metallic thread ribbon, and a working cord, both inherited from my Initiator into the Manx Tradition.

Once made, I assembled the runes into their cycle and found that again this time, as with the last set I carved, one rune had hidden itself through the process. It demanded to be completed on its own, with my focus solely on it. There are many steps involved in making and finishing the rune set, and many opportunities to discover a miscount or omission. Inasmuch as these omissions occur unasked for, and unintentionally, and elude discovery at multiple steps in the process, I consider them to be significant, an indicator of the guiding Spirit of the rune set as a whole. In this case, I also chose to make it of different materials than the others – antler rather than bone, with an end cap of yew wood, as befits this rune.

Reaping that which has been Sown

With Laa Luanys and a Blue Moon just behind us, there have been several projects concurrently in work:

This year’s corn dolly, (a basic five straw Nek made from wheat and barley); bottling of the braggot made a few weeks ago; and the working of a rite that has been repeated over the course of several nights, which I have marked by sacrificing another of the Mandrakes I have grown – a young Mandragora officinarum root which went dormant just before the onset of the ritual work. Each night I have taken a piece of the fresh root and carved from it a bead to mark the progression of the ritual. The largest of the beads is about two centimetres in diameter and they vary downward depending on the size of the piece of root I’m working with. I am carving as large a bead as is possible with each piece, and drilling all of them with an eighth inch hole for stringing them later. I prefer to do the rough shaping while the root is fresh. As they dry they will shrink and harden into something much more like wood, and I will sand them into their final shape and surface texture. The parings and drillings I have carefully collected and will dry to be infused into flying ointment, along with those parts of the root which were too small for carving.

I have obtained two pieces of apple wood for carving, pieces from ground level where the graft of the fruiting variety onto a hardier rootstock have developed into fantastic burl-like growths. One of these I will work into an altarpiece linking the Abysmal with the Chthonic; the liminal point between root and trunk as the nexus supporting the Other.
Apple is highly charged symbolically, with concepts of Soul and Other, knowledge and transgression, Ophidian wisdom, and the unsanctioned bringing of techniques and skills of magick from the heavenly to the earthly realm.

Hag Stone Necklace

I’ve collected Hag Stones for many years and have always wanted to make a necklace.  However, not just a necklace with a single stone, but a  magical necklace that would mark some kind of passage of time and vision.  Waiting for the right Holed Stones has taken years of collecting and though I’ve had plenty of stones for many years, none were the right feel and fit until now.

I’m recently vision impaired so tying a knot alone can be a real challenge for me.  Stringing a thread onto a wee beading needle is a lesson in patience for even those with 20×20 vision.  My ability to create now takes an incredible amount of time, but I’m still an artist and craftsperson and I won’t let that part of me go as it helps to feed my soul.

As I said, I wanted to make a Hag Stone necklace for many years and I’ve wanted it to mark a point in my life.  This is the first piece I’ve made since the loss of my vision and a great challenge for me.  It truly marks a pivitol point of my life, a rite of passage in my way of being and seeing in the world.

Thirteen holy Hag Stones, one for each of the full moons.  I will begin the consecrations of each stone on the full moon closest to the new year, in the dark half, Samhain.  So each full moon will be marked and the necklace will be fully charged in a full year’s cycle.

Twelve round pieces of Amber stone to mark the solar cycles of time and light.  The passage of the Twelve Houses of the Sun.  Amber is a stone symbolic of life, light and energy.  Amber, like Quartz, can hold an electric charge and be seen to glow as if from an internal light.  It also smells heavenly when warmed, heated or drilled.  It has been used in ancient medicines for many years and is said to hold healing properties, bearing the lamp of the sun.  Many priestesses wear Amber and Jet necklaces to symbolize the eternal cycles of life and death.

Rather than use Jet, I decided to go right to the source and I’ve used carved bone as the third bead.  There are Forty Bone Beads.  Bone is our mortality.  The stone of our bodies.  Our inner strength and our support.  It’s what holds up this bag of skin, sinew and cell.  It is white to remind us of the Light where we originated.

The circle of Hags, Amber and Bone is held together with silk thread and copper wire.  Copper for the Green Venusian Current, and Silk for its opulence and  strength.  Fine materials for a precious piece that I hope I will one day hand down to a Priestess of my lineage.

During the year’s cycle, I will make a pouch or box to hold the necklace.  Right now, I don’t know how it will look.  The dream hasn’t manifested and neither have the materials, but I’m sure that Providence will bring the right tools at the right time.  She always does.

The centrepiece stone was chosen because of the natural Runes, yods and crescents carved by Fortuna’s hands. It was also the latest of the Holy Stones to come in to my possession, being found just a few months ago.

The Hagg

By Robert Harrick (1591-1674)

The Hag is astride,
This night for to ride;
The Devill and shee together:
Through thick, and through thin,
Now out, and then in,
Though ne’r so foule be the weather.

A Thorn or a Burr
She takes for a Spurre:
With a lash of a Bramble she rides now,
Through Brakes and through Bryars,
O’re Ditches, and Mires,
She followes the Spirit that guides now.

No Beast, for his food,
Dares now range the wood;
But husht in his laire he lies lurking:
While mischeifs, by these,
On Land and on Seas,
At noone of Night are working,

The storme will arise,
And trouble the skies;
This night, and more for the wonder,
The ghost from the Tomb
Affrighted shall come,
Cal’d out by the clap of the Thunder.

The Witch’s Ride

The besom (broom), pole or stang are well known horses for the witch’s ride to the sabbat and otherworldly realms.  Possibly one of the earliest European depictions of a woman riding a pole or besom is in Le Champion de Dames (The Champion of Women) written by Martin le Franc in 1451 and illuminated by Peronet Lamey.

The image of the Flying Women are easily overlooked and appear in the margin of a single page in the text seen here.

The book itself is beautiful on an artistic level and chronicles the great women of history, folk lore and mythology.  As a precursor to the Enlightenment Period, Les Champions de Dames criticises French aristocracy and points to corruption in politics and government.

Nine Nights

Odin’s Initiation

Artist:  Adam Scott Miller http://adamscottmiller.com/

“I know that I hung on a windy tree,

nine long nights,

wounded with a spear,

dedicated to Odin,

Myself to Myself,

On that Tree of which no man knows

from where its roots run.”

From the Havamal: The Sayings of the High Ones.  The Poetic Edda

In Honour of Pi

The Magic Circle

By John William Waterhouse

The Mary-el Tarot

By Marie White
Schiffer Publishing Ltd.
ISBN: 9780764340611

I remember when I first saw an image of the Mary-el tarot cards; I was searching for an image of The Moon.  That particular evening I was blithely surfing along the web for something that would capture the essence of a feeling that I had associated with the iconic image.  At the same time I was completely, head bangingly bored of the usual twin pillars, dogs, woman’s profile, crayfish, road, drops of rain and blood of the Waite/Marceille variety.  Then, I saw the Mary-el Moon image and I was struck with that kind of joy found similarly when someone has a butterfly land to rest on their person.  A moment of awe and grace fluttered to my consciousness, having been touched by a transformative beauty.  To me, the image transcended stereotypes of tarot iconography and yet completely remained pure to the essence of the nature of the card.  My respect for Marie White’s artistry was deepened as I discovered that The Sun card was like a brother to the The Moon in imagery*.  One reflective of the other.

It was from then on, that I was enamoured of the Mary-El Tarot.

Time and life continued.  My encounter was easily 7 or more years ago.  After a while, I honestly forgot about it.  I carried on with my own work and art and life story when recently, a friend mentioned that the Mary-El Tarot was about to be published.  The name rang a bell, but I couldn’t pin it down so I did what we all do… I found her on the web and was reawakened to her tarot splendour after so many years. Very excited to see her complete deck, I pre-ordered one of her first decks for my collection.

Holding the long rectangular box itself was a delight.  Schiffer Publishing Ltd. has certainly proved that it cares about an exquisite presentation for such a monumental work of art.  And this is a work of art.  Marie White’s magnum opus.  Her spiritual journey through the Tree of Life.  The tarot archetypes, captured in the manner by which a soul can be captured… in art.

White’s images have taken over 15 long years to develop and process and the results are staggering.  The originals are 7” x 11. 5” and  executed in oils in a style called grisaille, which is where an under-painting is done in contrasting tones of black, greys and white.  Then one or more tones are added as a wash, and finally colours are applied in many thin and translucent layers.  This style adds to build the impression of depth in her work.

White’s own journey through the process of creating the deck is detailed in her personal blog which has been followed by countless tarot fans and friends over the years.  It is great reading for anyone interested in the process of art, the mind of the artist/mystic, and in the power of the Muse herself.

Accompanying the deck is White’s poetic book ‘Landscapes of the Abyss’.  It provides the reader with insight into White’s tremendous, experiential and historical knowledge of the cards.  She joins the ranks of many tarot historians who draw attention to the link between the tarot trumps and the medieval Dance Macabre, the Dance of Death who is the great equalizer of both beggar and king.  As well, she highlights the work of Etillia, the French master cartomancer and magician who first proposed the association of the cards to Egyptian mysteries and universal cosmologies.  She gives her impression of the categorization of the deck and then leads the reader to her “Perfect Ambiguity”, where she praises the synthesis of Three Pillars of Tarot (Waite/Marceilles/Crowley) for her inspiration and clearly states that the images are able to be understood in a multitude of dimensions.  This diversity of spiritual wisdom is reflective in the various artistic influences found in the Mary-el’s symbolic pictography; all of which are completly compatable within the deck and don’t appear to be in conflict from other images.  A clearly Japanese style, integrates well with a North American indigenous style and then a European faery tale…  It’s all within the psyche of the Mary-el deck and more.

White’s deck heralds a new dawn in tarot art.  She has risen above the interjected rule that tarot art must contain an image of the numbered suit (wands, swords, cups, disks).  She has gone beyond this to touch the essence that the card itself conveys thereby giving the viewer another perspective into her insight of the “Perfect Ambiguity” and symmetry.  Like the name Mary-el, it is a conjunction of both the mortal and divine.  A walk through her deck is a microcosmic spiritual dance of the cosmos, where we are all the Fools in the comedy and tragedy of life.

For some people, the absence of Suits in the Minor Arcana may seem a struggle however; White has written a comprehensive guide to each card’s meaning, symbolism and interpretation therefore giving anyone, even the most insecure reader, an opportunity for understanding and reflection.  Beyond this, White concludes with what has always been the best advice for any tarot interpretation.

“There is no knowledge that can be found outside yourself that is better than what is inside yourself.  You have access to it all (as does every person) alone; you are enough.”

As far as I am concerned, Marie White joins the ranks of the historical visionary feminine artists who have profoundly influenced tarot deck art such as Pamela Coleman Smith and Lady Freida Harris.   I realize this is mighty praise and I feel that it is well deserved.  White’s process was not that of a graphic artist but as she says, an alchemist and her transformation of lead into gold can be found in walking the Landscape of the Abyss.

For those who are interested in discovering more of her tarot art, it can be found on her website at

http://www.mary-el.com

Marie White is also offering signed prints of her originals and signed copies of her deck from her website

*Note:  All images are copyright Marie White and were used on this review with her kind permission.

This review was written by the artist Jane Estelle Trombley of the Arto Tarot deck and JETArts.

http://www.jetarts.wordpress.com

Lignum Vitae

Many years ago, I was driving to a provincial park to spend a weekend hiking and camping. As my carload of companions and gear neared the entrance to the camping area a terrific thunder and lightning storm brewed up out of nowhere and assaulted the area with horizontal rain, spikes of lightning and deafening claps of thunder. One extraordinary lightning bolt struck a huge oak in the middle of the campground, shaking earth and air and sending a tingling thrill up the spine and out the divers hairs of head and body, and then the storm sped away as quickly as it had come.

On arriving at the campsite, we spoke to those who were already there and sought direction to the oak that had been touched by the gods. I made my way there to find the tree splintered and blasted to the top third of its height. A strip of wood two inches thick and five feet long had been blasted from the tree and had tangled itself in its lower branches. These I climbed to fetch the prize and after making offerings to the tree, I reverently took the plank back to our transport.

The original piece was about 4 inches wide so I cut it into several sections and shared them with folk of like mind, reserving one piece for myself; for the making of a wand of power.

Oak, with its great strength and course grain is not amenable to small scale detailed work, so I wanted simplicity and balance to dominate the design. I wanted a wand that would reflect the powers of sky and earth, and honour the axis that mediated between the two with its own body. A wand that would draw down power from the great above, and also to raise power from the great below, as the oak tree had.

A wand of quickening.

Wand of lightning-struck oak

I shaped the wand with hand tools and sandpaper over the course of the summer, staining half of it by taking advantage of the reaction that ammonia causes with the tannins of oakwood. I worked the centre of the wand to be its handle, so that it would balance in the hand, and the working point could be light or dark, horizontal or vertical according to need. I finished it with linseed oil and lac resin, then charmed and charged a red thread to circumscribe the life force of the tool at its centre.

This is one of several wands I have made and use for different purposes. I have another of rowanwood, also touched by lightning, and when time and the Genius of the Tree allow, I will make one of hazel. I have an elk antler and an extraordinary fossil waiting to be conjoined to made another. The wands I see and make these days tend to be of larger stature and more complex design than the old ones I have seen from the Isle; perhaps we witches these days are trying to over-compensate for something……