F is for the First Labor

The title of my second book is The Five Labors of Witchcraft, and is thus explained as a "system of Witchcraft." The Augurium ritual is the center piece of our tradition in which 13 acts of magic are performed. Each act is composed of an operative (physical) action, a speculative (verbal) declaration, and is symbolized by a ritual tool. These thirteen acts are divided into five categories, or Labors.

Purification
Adoration
Observation
Divination
Incantation

The Bell, Candle, Besom, Censer, Aspergillum, and Athame are used in the first labor; and although we consider all five labors to be equally significant in their own way, we emphasize the first labor of purification to be a fundamental practice, with many levels. There are the simple practices like the Lustavi which I consider daily spiritual hygiene and maintenance, I usually equate it to brushing my teeth because I do it when I get up in the morning and just before bed at night.

Then there is what I consider a more "deep cleaning;" this is where we work on clearing emotional baggage. I one saw one of those picture/signs on face book which said that the next time you clean up your space, start with the things that are useless like regrets, shame and anger. I love that mentality, and I focus the majority of my personal Craftwork on my own personal issues. I work on clearing out the older stuff first, and then focus on keeping new things from forming. The last few years have been dedicated to working through combat related PTSD, in fact that's kinda how this blog got started in the first place.

The third level is Vacare Deo, which is what I consider a most extreme form of purification, as the purpose is to be "empty or available for god." I equate this with assumption, Drawing Down or other form of divine embodiment and categorize this it as third degree work, which is best attempted after having spent a very long time working through the first two levels.

My Mom got me this Besom when her and my sister went to Salem, I have a collection of besoms but this one is by far my favorite. It hangs on the wall next to my bed, it's a talisman for protection and serves as a reminder to sweep away the negative debris of life on a regular basis, to keep my temple clean , and to fly high, have fun and enjoy life for what it is.

Thank you Lord and Lady for all the cleaning supplies. Blessed Be.

E is for Ex Diris

In recent postings I have begun sharing bits and pieces from my tradition as they have been applicable to the topic, or have been the topic and I have received messages of both approval and interest in those bits and pieces. So I find myself encouraged to share more.

Quite often I am questioned online and in person regarding the "source" of our system. In my last post I mentioned that some of that information was the product of an Eluvies, and some of it was obtained the hard way, by doing the work.

Someone once told me that working with the source of the Eluvies, also very much counts as work on my part. I like that.

The divination system I have been working on is based on the ancient Roman Auspices. When one takes into consideration that our "Veritas Wicca" comes from Veritas Pro Re Natura or truth through nature and that this motto alludes to our concept of the "Gospel of Nature," then one finds Auspicia quite appropriate.

But we're not really appropriating much of the past, we are utilizing the theme of the old Roman ways of which I personally am a big fan. But everything we've done, everything we do and even how we do it is EX DIRIS.

Within the original system of auspices there are five main categories:

• Ex Caelo: involved thunder, lighting, storms or "stuff in the sky."
• Ex Avibus: this is "bird stuff."
• Ex Tripadiis: this is about "chickens eating stuff."
• Ex Quadrupedus: this is "four legged animal stuff."
• Ex Diris: the is "all other stuff."

Ex Diris is everything that doesn't fall into any other category. Granted there's not much written about these first four, but even less can be found in reference to the last. So there's plenty of room for growth and development, and we've put significant work into this area.

While everything in the existing system can be placed into these two categories:

• Oblative: stuff that was requested or sought out.
• Impetrative: stuff that was offered without request or not sought out.

We have also developed two additional categories:

• Conspexi: those that are experienced through five physical senses.
  
• Perspexi: those that are experienced through five metaphysical senses.

Following this train of thought, our entire Tradition of Witchcraft is Ex Diris. We have taken something old and we are expanding the open areas, building new schools of thought with the old tools of the trade. This are exciting times. How auspicious.

Thank you Lord and Lady, for all the signs.

Blessed Be.

E is for Eluvies

One of my favorite fellow Bloggers is Christopher DeGraffenreid at Sorcery & Spirit. As always, I relate to the topic of his posts and today was no different, except to say I seemed to relate a bit more than usual to the topic of his writing, in this latest post about Traditionalism Vs. Eclecticism, or as he humorously recapitulates it:

traditionalism vs. those of “making things up”

Robert at Doing Magick and I go back a few years now, and it's no secret that we have had our fair share of differences. But in many ways that's one of the things we enjoyed the most. One of our first Magic(k) dinner conversations was about our differences; his CM work and my "do it yourself" work. While I agree with Christopher and many others about the inherent tension of these two camps, Robert and I managed to come to an agreement:

"It's okay to make shit up, as long as you do it right."

Say what you will about that statement, as subjective as a may be, we felt very comfortable with it and I know I still do. Don't ask me to define what "right" is, I cannot. It's like that quote regarding pornography: "I cant define it, but I know it when I see it."

On multiple occasions I have in the past been invited to join Ceremonial Magician community Yahoo groups and even a few Orders. And I have always taken this as a very large compliment as I do not identify or offer myself as a CM. But while working or interacting with them I have found or felt that many of them are not open to new work, and I've also seen what Christopher identified as a mixture of rejection and envy.

It was within one such CM Order that I actually committed to the system in order better integrate my work with theirs. So I did my work on the appropriate planetary days and hours. I started by meditating during those times, focused on opening myself to the target of influence and establishing a resonance. I did this for weeks before I actually did anything I would call CraftWork.

As a result of this I experienced what we call within our tradition, an Eluvies (Ee-loo-vee-iss). Which has been difficult to properly express or explain. A few weeks ago I wrote in a past post about the Susurri (whisper), and how we named something we experience, but don't quite perfectly understand. Well the Eluvies is another one of those Mysteries of our Tradition, in fact they are part of our divination system. The character above is "Veritas Theban" or our fancy cursive version of the Witches Alphabet/Theban; in which each character also has a magical value and is used within a system of divination. (There will be a book someday!)

So the Eluvies is Latin for "flood." The simple image of the concept is an overflowing chalice; your cup run-ith-ing over. You being the Cup and an external spiritual entity being the source of water. There are so many paradigms from which approach this topic, such as Mediumship, Channeling, Aspecting, Assumption and "Drawing Down." You can lump it together or pic it apart in a system subject to gradation, whatever.

The simple point is that we act as a threshold and physical vessel, wherein a spiritual signal in essence is "transmitted" into you from one plane and manifests through you, into this plane, and flows out. Apparently there are rules such as; the expression of the essence (words) is limited to the capacity (vocabulary) of the vessel (you). So when I did my work with the CM group, meditating in the planetary hours and days, and received an Eluvies, it came out of me in a Geomantic language. And it was Awesome!

With the exception of a good friend who really seemed to like it, I was otherwise snubbed. So I went back to doing my own thing of "making things up." It's so funny to think that everything that everyone has been doing for a hundred years was five minutes old at some point, and someone "made it up."

I prefer to describe it as a process of development over a very long period of work and refinement. I never arm-chaired anything, ever. That being said, a very large portion of my work is not "mine." It is the product of an Eluvies, I have a very long close personal working history with a source, who will not be identified, ever, because that is part of the deal. Something to the effect of "don't give out my name or number, I don't want strangers calling me in the middle of the night."

I am allowed to take credit, especially under the circumstances, but I prefer to use ambiguous implications like "our work is original," and I am a "co-founder." But I would ask you dear reader, what would you judge as more validating;

A. I made it all up.
B. I did the research, development and hard ass work.
C. It was "revealed" to me through spiritual means.
D. I donno, but that's how we've been doing it for a few hundred years now.

Don't worry there's no right or wrong answer, because it doesn't really matter. The ONLY thing that matters at all is if you are benefiting from it or not (are you?). The bottom line here is does it work? Because regardless of whether The Inner Gate ritual is a product of my imagination, my invention, or my intuition, the simple profound truth is, it really actually works!

When initiates begin the process, the side effects manifest. Every time. And we've only been in business six years, imagine what our descendants will be doing.

Lord & Lady, thanks for the refill, cheers!

D is for a Completely Different Subject!

So in my last post I finally broke my silence on controversial Pagan issues. I have made great efforts to avoid the Drama and conflict that accompanies these issues, for my own personal benefit. But because of my experiences at PantheaCon this year, I couldn't avoid commenting. But neither can anyone else on the planet and there is now hate speech about hate speech, sigh.

So on a Completely Different PantheaCon related Topic, I wrote an editorial for the Pagan Newswire Collectives Bay Area Bureau, Many people involved in the controversy are beginning to focus on the PantheaCon event staff and their role in this whole thing, and I wanted to offer my personal experience as a positive counterbalance.

Blessed Be!

D is for Diversity

So this years theme for PantheaCon was "Unity in Diversity," which I confess was a theme I had considered for our own organization in the past.

One of the reasons for that consideration was because our organization and our tradition offers itself as a secondary tradition, internally among our initiated members as well as externally toward the Pagan community we serve. Our initiated members are not required to hold the same system of practice, system of belief, worship the same God(s) or even hold the same understanding or view of divinity. You don't even have to be Wiccan. We honor our diversity within and without, and employ our tradition as an interfaith utility. You can take it or leave it.

That being said; we have had some challenging individuals attend our community rituals and have had to politely pull people aside and ask them to govern themselves a bit more accordingly and with respect for our religious service. And on a very rare occasion invite someone to leave, but these have always been done gently and as a last resort, for the benefit of the group.

But, within the privacy of our initiated Coven we reserve the right to deny entrance to petitioners, without explanation. I will say that our reasons are not based on race, gender, social, economic or religious background. Although we have learned what to look for and what to watch out for, our reasons are simply based on the individual and on a case by case basis. We have the right as a private group to do that, and I would argue that we also have a right to place any requirement or restrictions we see fit on our community rituals as well.

A huge conflict erupted last year when Transgender women were excluded from attending a women's only ritual at PantheaCon, which is a public event. I remained silent on the issue because although I do have friends involved and do have an opinion which I feel passionately about, I really didn't feel it was my place to interject.

Much like the "Who is or isn't Pagan" and my favorite "Who is and isn't Wiccan," I have become very conservative with my personal energies, and just do what I do, say what I say, call myself what I want and not worry so much about everyone else who is arguing about it. And I have been very happy with the results.

But last years issues have surfaced during this years PantheaCon, or after it. My former editor Steve Provost chimed in on the topic over at The Provocation with a piece titled "Dear PantheaCon: Bigotry in the Name of Diversity is NOT Ok."

And Star Foster has also written in regard to their interactions and the topic in which they disagree at the PANTHEON; Should There Be Freedom of Religion Within Paganism?

I read the word tolerance used in these blogs and immediately thought of Devin Hunter's So[u]lutions Blog entry "Tolerating Men and Transgender Individuals in Goddess Spirituality"
Which I thought was a great piece of work. I related to it as a white guy who was in a black fraternity. It was while deployed to Korea that I first joined the Freemasons, the Prince Hall Freemasons. And while I acknowledge there was perhaps one or two brothers who "tolerated" my presence, I was accepted by the Lodge and a large group of men who call me brother despite our differences. I was never made to feel out of place or discriminated against, in fact I served as the Senior Deacon before my time in country came to an end.

I confess that my time and money at this years event was very well spent and that I was completely ignorant to any tension to such issues. I saw old friends and made new ones. I saw people I don't care for much and I heard things I disagreed with or didn't like, but I after examining my feelings I don't feel as through I "tolerated" those words or people I didn't agree with, and I didn't feel as though my presence or words were "tolerated." We were all there for the same reasons, despite our differences, that IS unity in diversity and I was happy to be apart of it.

I may disagree with Z. but she has a right to her opinion. I may not agree with the exclusive context of her rituals, but she also has that right. I may not feel that a public event like PantheaCon is the best place for her "exclusive" ritual, but I understand that the women who may benefit from it, may not be able to attend otherwise. As much as they may hate me for having a penis, I would not prohibit their presence, their freedom of speech, their freedom to exercise their particular brand of religion.

I would not stop them, even if I had the power to do so.

I served my country for ten years. I support your rights and freedoms. Even if your rights and freedoms are aimed at stopping mine, that's not tolerance, that is unity in diversity.

Take it or leave it.

Thank you Lord & Lady for making us all different, Blessed Be.

C is for Change,org

In the past I have written quite a bit about being Pagan in the Military, from my Dog Tags to the Order of the Pentacle and the Pentacle Quest. I've written about Pagan Prison Chaplaincy and other experiences where being Pagan has been challenging. As Pagans we often face persecution and discrimination from our government, our communities and even our families.

But we're not alone, many others face the same issues for their faith. While serving in Iraq my team and I operated a forward observation post outside the relative safety of the base parameter.

We spend months camped out on the roof of a school building at the University of Al Anbar. During that time we came to know the local Muslim community very well. One of the local leaders was Mr. Naji, he and I spent much time together teaching each other our languages. What started out as "me Tarzan, you Jane" quickly evolved into fluent conversation. I would speak Arabic and he would speak English. We shared meals, and talked at length over his nice hot chai tea and my American cigarettes.

It turned out that he served as a Sergent Major when our counties fought in Operation Dessert Storm, and that he was imprisoned for three years once just for saying "Fuck Saddam." We each learned a great deal from each other, about our cultures, communities, families and our religions. We traded prayer beads and even prayed together. I learned a lot about the Islam and even learned the important prayers in Arabic. Later I became known as Joe Awad Saleh Al Rishawi, an honorary member of the Rishawi tribe. And when the Wahhabi insergents came, they warned us, advised us, and saved our lives.

When the reality show "Muslims in America" aired, I was of course a big fan of the show. I watched the persecution and discrimination they encountered here in America, and my empathy is two fold. We share so much, being hated, misunderstood, misrepresented and demonized.

Last week on Facebook, this Petition link came across my news feed, I perpetuated it to the best of my ability, and I take this opportunity to do it again here. I have seen a lot of changed in the climate towards Pagans, and I think its time to adjust the thermostat once again. I happen to know for a fact that there are some producers who are interested in such a show! So please sign this petition; recruit, proselytize, beg, borrow and steal to get as many people as you can to sign this petition! It only takes a single grain of rice to tip the scales, and you might just be the one.

Thank you Lord & Lady for all the Change, Blessed Be.

C is for Cingulum

Before I just into the topic of my post, I'd like to take a moment to mention Robert's "C" post over at Doing Magic. I always enjoy reading his blog as it offers an escape from my own paradigm.

He begins by plainly stating that he's blogging drunk. Which always promises to be interesting, no matter who it is. Robert and I go back a few years and in all that time I've only seen him mildly intoxicated once, but that was at Jason Mankey's Morrison Ritual at PantheaCon, and it's pretty much required etiquette.

Robert and I have always seemed to be on opposite ends of the Magical spectrum, and while we have had our differences, we've never fallen short of concurring opinions. In Vino Veritas "In wine [there is] truth" as the saying goes and I found his "C" post to be quite on point. In fact I didn't find anything I disagreed with at all. But I especially liked his closing assertion "Find the teacher that encourages you to find your own way." This really stuck out for me because as different as our paths may (or may not) be, when you enter into our tradition the first thing we do is give you a "Compass and a Flashlight." So I'd like to make a toast to common ground, cheers!

Ok, so my "C" post is on the Cingulum.

I wrote a bit about it a few years ago here in the Length of My Cable Tow, the gist of that post was related to the Masonic Cable Tow and those similar attributes within our Coven. When surfing the Internet on the topic I found it very popular for Wiccan traditions to color code their waist cords in accordance with their degree or grade system. But just like everything else in our tradition, we do that differently too.

While we do utilize a three degree system, that's not the main focus of our Craftwork. We offer ourselves as a secondary tradition, wherein the main purpose of the tradition is simply Fellowship and Celebration. It's more about getting together with like minded people and enjoying both ritual time and space, while celebrating the diversity of every individual. We literally require everyone to find their own way, hence the "Compass and a Flashlight."

But we do offer a structured system in which to function. We wear robes and cingulums too, but from the newly initiated Wayfarer to the third degree Grand Poobah, we all wear white cords. The reason is simple, it's not about rank, it's about commitment. The cingulum is your umbilical cord, your personal connection and tie to the Covenant. It's white to represent the purity of your connection and your obligation to the Covenant, and the purity of our love and trust, because that is the most potent ingredient you could ever hope to invest in your Craft.

There was a day when I would have rolled my eyes at the fluffy bunny rainbow and butterflies of Perfect Love and Perfect Trust, but having experienced the true power of this meme I now hold it as a most sacred aspect of the Craft and wear my cingulum with honor and pride.

Thank you Lord & Lady for all the rope, Blessed Be!