Cyber Cauldron

They’re many similarities between Roman and Greek mythology in fact the main difference is usually just the name. This is very evident in the relationship between Cupid and Eros.

Both Cupid and Eros are said to be the offspring of the Goddess of love and the God of war. Cupid parents were Venus the roman Goddess of love and Mars the Roman God of war while Eros’s parents were according to some myths where Aphrodite the Greek Goddess of love and Ares the Greek God of war. Although as with most Greek myths the lineage of any god can be question Eros is sometime seen as the primordial god of sexual love and beauty.

According to Hesiod’s Theogony, the most famous Greek creation myth, Eros sprang forth from the primordial Chaos together with Gaia, the Earth, and Tartarus, the underworld; according to Aristophanes’ play The Birds (c. 414 BC), he burgeons forth from an egg laid by Nyx (Night) conceived with Erebus (Darkness).

The major difference between Cupid and Eros is the way they are portrayed Cupid is often seen as a putto ((pl. putti) is a figure of a human baby or toddler, almost always male, often naked and having wings, found especially in Italian Renaissance and Baroque art.) while Eros is depicted as a full grown man both Buy Generic Drugs Without Prescription are almost always depicted as naked.

The symbols of both are the Bow, Arrows, Candles, Hearts, Cupids, Wings and Kisses and have dominion over love and desire. Even the myth of their love is the same including their offspring.

First seen in Apuleius’ Latin novel, The Golden Ass, The myth states that When Cupid’s mother Venus / Eros’s mother Aphrodite became jealous of the princess Psyche, who was so beloved by her subjects that they forgot to worship Venus / Aphrodite, she ordered Cupid / Eros to make Psyche fall in love with the vilest thing in the world. While Cupid / Eros was sneaking into her room to shoot Psyche with a golden arrow, he accidentally scratches himself with his own arrow and falls deeply in love with her.

Following that, Cupid / Eros visited Psyche every night while she slept. Speaking to her so that she could not see him, he told her never to try to see him. Psyche, though, incited by her two older sisters who told her Cupid was a monster, tried to look at him and angered Cupid. When he left, she looked all over the known world for him until at last the leader of the gods, Jupiter / Zeus, gave Psyche the gift of immortality so that she could be with him. Together they had a daughter, Voluptas, or Hedone, (meaning pleasure) and Psyche became a goddess.

The relation between Psyche and Cupid / Eros may have been the origins of the story of beauty and the beast.

Cupid and Eros have become so much a part of our lives that the symbol of a wing baby or wing naked male with an arrow is called Cupid or Eros so much so that even Christian influences fail to make an impact if you ask most people what statute stands in Piccadilly most will say Eros. The statue is actually The Angel of Christian Charity but is actually meant to be Eros brother Anteros.

This sideway step in to Cupids / Eros siblings that us in to a group of gods none as Erotes. Erotes are a group of winged gods and demi-gods from Classical mythology, associated with love and sex, and part of Aphrodite’s entourage.

In this Group of Erotes are Cupid / Eros, Anteros, Himeros and Pothos the Erotes are often assigned aspects love in general all aspects of love are given to Cupid / Eros but in the Erotes each god is assigned a specific area of love.

Eros – primordial god of lust, beauty, love, and intercourse; protector of homosexual love between men. Eros was depicted as often carrying a lyre or bow and arrow. He was also depicted accompanied by dolphins, flutes, roosters, roses, and torches

Anteros – god of requited love, literally “love returned” or “counterpart love”, avenger of unrequited love. Anteros was depicted as having butterfly wings armed with a golden club or having arrows of lead.

Himeros – is the god of sexual desire or unrequited love. Himeros is depiced winged like his brother Eros but wore a colourful headband called a taenia worn by atheletes.

Pothos - sexual longing, yearning and desire. In some myths he is seen as the sone of Eros

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Related articles

• Who were Eros’ step siblings (wiki.answers.com)
• Ares: Ancient Greek God of War (socyberty.com)
• Eros — the “Because of” Love (pastorbobcornwall.blogspot.com)

Originally posted 2011-02-07 10:48:42. Republished by Blog Post Promoter

I. Is Online Ritual possible?

You have some Pagan friends with whom you exchange email. You would like to do a ritual with them, but online is the only real option you have for getting together.

Problem: all you can see, all anyone can see, online are words on a computer screen.

Problem: all you can send to other people online are words on a computer screen.

You can’t share your drumming or your dancing with these people, you can’t hold hands or use vocal intonations, they can’t see the candles you light or smell the incense you burn … or can they? Is it possible, in any meaningful sense of the word, to cast a circle and raise energy by use of computer and modem? I submit that it is.

In this class, I will teach you how to craft and lead a ritual that makes full use of the computer and cyberspace as a medium for magick. I will not teach you how to access the internet. I assume that you are familiar with logging onto a bulletin board, chat room, or other place where an online ritual might be held.

This class will detail some of my experiences in online worship. I will talk about the advantages and disadvantages of cyberspace as a medium for magick. I will go over specific details of crafting and leading an electronic ritual. I will share some of the tricks of the trade I have run across, and some necessary contingency plans.

The CompuServe 1994 Yule Ritual is a companion document. It contains many examples of points that will be brought out in this lecture, both good and bad.

A. History of Changing Medium

There is a perception in the Pagan community that a nature religion can not possible be fully compatible with the internet. It is not within the scope of this class to try to convince you otherwise. However, let me say a few brief words on why I believe that TechnoPaganism is not an oxymoron.

Pagans are not, a priori, luddites. It is a basic tenant of most Pagans that moral and ethical lessons can be found in the natural world. If we are part of the natural world, then so are our tools. It is a mistake to assume the natural world, in this context, means outside the city limits. It boils down to this: technology is part of the natural world.

Would any of you deny that legitimate worship services occur via television? I dare say a paradigm shift had to occur when worship services moved from the realm of radio to television. A similar paradigm shift probably occurred when worship moved from the pulpit to broadcast radio … and when it moved from hand-written word to the printing press … and when it moved from oral history to the written word …

Meaningful worship is independent of the technological level of the worshiper. Online rituals are, in my experience, as powerful and transformational as any ritual in the face to face world.

II. Cyberspace as Ritual Space

Cyberspace is a method of communication, and as such can be used for worship. Like any other medium, it has advantages and disadvantages.

A. Advantages

Communication in cyberspace manifests itself as text on a screen. Believe it or not, this is an advantage. Simple text on a boring screen can lend it self to entering altered states. It emphasizes and engenders imagination.

In cyberspace, you can have the coven fly in on the backs of dragons. You can walk them through a mirror to the dark side of the moon, or have them dance with the faerie. You can have the sun shining in the middle of the night, have lightening crackling across the sky on a clear day and you can have it snow in the middle of summer and you can have it all in the most vibrant, tactile detail.

B. Disadvantages

The nature of cyberspace makes it difficult to control who is there for ritual, and who stays. Thunderstorms, bad modems, and busy phone lines can prevent people from making it to circle, or even cause them to disappear during ritual. It’s simply the nature of the medium. Specific ways to deal with these disadvantages are covered later under contingency plans.

III. Writing Online Rituals

A. Tone and Ambiance

In a more traditional ritual setting, there are many forms of communication going on. There are the words heard, the tone and intonation of the words, the body language, the mood set by candles and altar, etc. Because words are the only form of communication in an online ritual, tone becomes the primary consideration.

A cyberspace ritual must have a strong tone or feeling to it because you have to create the ambiance. A Yule ritual at home, for example, is easy to create: just put up some mistletoe, maybe a tree, set out a Yule log … but in cyberspace you have many more basic decisions. Will it be a traditional wintry Yule? How about a South Western Yule with a desert setting? Should you go all the way north to the Arctic? Perhaps a Yule in a lighthouse with a stormy, winter ocean? Should we have a skating party?

The trouble with cyberspace and the joy of it is that you have a lot more options than you do in the real world. You can take your cybercoven anywhere: Athens, Stone Henge, Paris, you name it. Anywhen is also an option. Will you visit Atlantis before it sunk beneath the waves? How about Machu Picchu at the height of Incan civilization, or the library at Alexandra?

Setting and tone should relate to your purpose. If the purpose of the ritual is a solemn one, then choose a setting that mirrors that. A healing ritual should have a soothing setting. A ritual to raise energy should have lively setting, etc.

Take a look at the meaning of the ritual itself. If it’s Yule, then the theme is the return of the sun. Beltane is lusty springtime and Mabon is all about balance. If you’re doing a full moon ritual, consider in which Zodiac house the moon is. If the moon is in Leo, for example, you might want to consider a sun theme or a lion theme, perhaps a setting in the African veldt.

B. Audience Participation

Sitting and watching text flow across the screen can be dreadfully dull. It s important to let the audience participate in some way. It s important to let them feel like they are part of the ritual, not merely an outside observer.

The ritual should include something that makes the participant physically move. Examples are lighting a candle at an appropriate moment, encouraging the user to sing a familiar chant or song, contributing his thoughts and wishes as part of the ritual, and helping cast the circle with athame in hand.

C. Time limits

Even the best of rituals begin to lose effectiveness rapidly if they drag on too long. Online rituals are no exception. Not only do the participants minds begin to wander, but the ritual facilitators doing the typing start getting real cranky. I would suggest two hours as an outside limit. One to one and a half hours is optimum.

Equating ritual length in terms of time and characters just takes some practice. I would suggest breaking the ritual into 4 parts of 1500-2000 characters each:

• An introductory part where you lead the group into the setting you’ve created for them and/or where you have your group ground and center. This is where you cast the circle, call quarters and state purpose.
• The body of the ritual: meditations, magick, etc.
• Sending off a cone of power. Don’t forget to tell people to ground, and don’t forget to do it yourself.
• Conclusion: releasing quarters, opening the circle.

This will take about an hour to conduct on line. Two things to remember:

First, you’re going to be doing a lot of typing. Don’t go overboard on descriptions unless you are a competent typist.

Second, there will be parts during the ritual where you will get responses, and where you may ask others to name their wants, desires, fears, etc. These will take time, so take them into consideration when planning out your ritual.

D. Marginal Descriptions

The imagination of the participants is your single biggest tool. Use it to its fullest advantage. Do not describe the elements of your ritual in complete detail. Use general descriptions and let the participant build the particular details of their world. Not only can they do a better and quicker job than by you can by typing it in, but the world they build will be experienced on a much deeper and more personal level.

E. The Process

As an example, let’s look at the process of crafting an online ritual. Let’s go back to the African Veldt idea. It’s a full moon ritual, and the moon is passing through Leo.

1. Crafting the Words

Create your setting. It’s warm, the sun is bight, the animals hyenas, hawks, cranes, giraffes, gazelles and a pride of lions look on.

You have the cybercoven cast the circle. Let’s do it with a flourish: when you tell them to point their Athame or finger or wand and sketch a circle round themselves (and everyone in cyberspace), add a visual. Perhaps a ring of magic fire follows their Athame, springing up to surround the coven, or rain encircles them, or mist or lightening or a shimmering veil.

You call quarters (in the CompuServe Pagan community, this is traditionally done by assistants, someone other than the HP or HPS). Maintain your theme in the calling of quarters. You want to infuse the quarters with the same feeling as the rest of the ritual. For this example, you might want to call four African deities or you might want to give each quarter African imagery (example: “Come West, Power of water, hippopotamus and water buffalo, wide rivers and precious watering holes….”). And, once again, you can add a visual after each if you like a warm wind stirring the grasses after air is called, or perhaps birds flying over head.

You invoke the God/Goddess in the same manner. Be sure to maintain thematic imagery as you did for the quarters. You announce that the coven is now between worlds, and you state the purpose of the ritual.

Now, what magic are you going to have everyone do for this ritual? It can’t be candle magic, you’ve got a blazing sun overhead and it’s hot here in the Veldt. Also, the theme is Leo the lion: the focus of your ritual probably won’t be something like healing. Remember: whatever you have the coveners do, it has to be something simple they can do at home while sitting in front of a computer.

My choice for a Leo ritual would be raising energy as the focus. Now what to do to create energy in this ritual? Let’s ask that everyone bring a stone, preferably a cat-eye, to the ritual and infuse it with fiery energy so that, in the month to come, when they feel down or depressed or tired, they can hold the stone, and be re-energized. That’s easy enough: no mess, no fumbling, no ruined keyboards.

Maintain the image and tone as you raise energy. Use the image of sparkling, desert sands when you raise your cone of power. You might tell people to imagine scooping up a handful of sand, infusing it with power till it sparkles, then tossing it out. You might have them envision the sand spreading out and spinning like the rings of Saturn.

Before closing the circle, don’t forget to ground excess energy. This is as important online as it is off.

2. Quarter Callers

Here’s what I recommend: for people calling the quarters:

• If you tell them to create their own callings, give them some idea of the theme so that their callings will fit. In the case of this example, tell them to imagine the African Veldt as they create their callings. Also emphasize to them that this is an energy ritual so that they give energy to their descriptions.
• Ask to see everyone’s callings so that you can edit them.
• If you really want to set a time limit on the ritual, then either send your assistants the callings, or insist that all callings be no more than a certain number of lines long.

If you have people playing parts, and are allowing them to write the parts, once again, give them an idea not only of the theme, but the kind of part they are playing. If they’re playing the crone, what sort of crone is she? Regal? Good humored? Gentle? Is she a Hecate (i.e., witchy and mysterious) crone or a Befana (i.e. generous and sweet and a little like Mrs. Santa Claus) crone? Will she be enthroned upon a mountain top, or come wandering up from the depths of a cavern? How will she look? You can work this out with the person playing the part.

Make use of your medium! Descriptions give your “readers” the picture here, so briefly describe: let them see your crone the way you want them to see her. This does not mean that you need to have a detailed description. You can offer a sketch and let the coveners fill in the blanks using their imagination. For example, “She is a silver-haired Lady, dressed in rich purple, her bearing regal.” That’s all you need.

Once again, have your players send you whatever they write and make sure it works within your ritual.

3. Partners

It’s up to you whether this is going to be your show, or whether you want/need an equal partner. If it’s going to be your show (you have a strong idea in your head about how this ritual is going to go), then make sure the person you pick as HP/HPS understands that; in this case you want someone who will say, “Just tell me what you want me to do!”

If you want/need an equal partner, pick someone who, when you tell them your idea for the ritual, says “That’s what I had in mind, too!” A person on the same wavelength as you is wonderful! They can fill in all the blanks, feed you much needed suggestions, take care of half the things that need to be done.

What you do not want is a partnership where you bicker, or where there is a fight for control. A partnership has to be a synthesis: the two of you bringing forth something more wonderful than either of you could have done on your own.

4. Special Effects

Remember your medium! I can’t emphasize this enough. Some people seem to think that when they do these rituals, what they do at home, if indicated, will be magically imagined by the other coveners at their homes. It doesn’t work that way.

For example, you can include drumming in an online ritual. However, you can’t just say “Drumming,” drum for 5 minutes, and assume that everyone online can imagine that drumming. It may be very moving for you, but the other people can’t hear your drumming. They can’t even imagine it given what you’ve provided. They’ll stare at their screen for five minutes, and the ritual loses all momentum, all energy.

Instead of saying “Drumming” say something like this:

The HP begins to drum.
Slow at first, a heavy, steady beat.
The beat is speeding up.
A counter beat: thump-thump, thump-thump.
Can you hear it? Like a heart.
Thump-thump, thump-thump.
Faster.
Faster.
Now the drum is speeding, and your blood is matching the beat
Faster, faster, wilder and wilder …

See the difference? Your people at home can’t hear the drum, but they can imagine it. Help them to imagine it: that is your job!

IV. Preparing for Online Rituals

A. Energy Concentration

As the day of the ritual draws near, participants began to think and wonder about the place where the circle will be cast, the tales heard and lessons learned during the ritual, the visions received, etc. All of this wondering on the part of the participants lends energy to the ritual site itself, and can be tapped during the ritual. In cyberspace, however, the place is literally created anew each time a ritual is cast. The same wondering on the part of the participants occurs. However, all the participants have as a focus prior to the ritual is the name of the HP and HPS. When you become HP/HPS for an online ritual, everyone who is going to participate in that ritual, consciously or unconsciously, starts to focus on you. An online ritual generates a lot of energy, far more energy than you might imagine. Powerful people from around the world, anticipating the ritual, focus their considerable energies on you. We’ve had rituals that have shut down computers, ended with lightening storms, left people shaking, floating, dizzy, and high. In short: do not underestimate the power of this ritual just because you’re on the other side of a computer screen. Yes, if you are leading an online ritual, energy will get strange the week prior to ritual. It s normal. Be prepared for it, and deal with it appropriately. Make sure you are freshly shielded, make sure you and everyone else is centered, make sure you ground. The energy you’re getting from everyone is powerful and you, the HP/S, are channeling it. Be prepared! Some ladies have compared it to having an extra period that month.

B. Pre-Ritual Announcements

I would suggest sending out an announcement a week before ritual, and again 2 days before ritual. It should include date, time, location, person acting as circle guardian, and required items. Keep in mind that there is not much space around a keyboard, so required items should be kept to a minimum. Melted wax, and liquids in general, don t mix well with most keyboards. The announcement should include at least the following:

1. 1. Remind people of the Ritual itself, the time and date.
   2. Tell them the purpose (“We’re going to focus on healing,” “We’re going to focus on raising energy,” “This is to celebrate the longest night of the year and the sun’s return,” etc.).
   3. Tell them what they need to have on them for the ritual (a cup of fruit juice, a candle, a sprig of sage, a stone they wish to infuse with energy, etc.). Don’t ask them to bring too many things: just what’s needed to participate in the magick part of the ritual. If they wish to have the additional alter items (a bowl of salt, Athame, wand, incense, etc.), that’s up to them. When the time arrives for the ritual, remind the people about what they need one last time, and give them 5-10 minutes to fetch the items, to get a drink, lock doors, turn down the sound on the answering machine, let out the dog, go to the bathroom, etc.

C. Physical Ritual Space When facilitating an online ritual, you should take all the steps you would with a face to face ritual. Your computer and your altar must be incorporated into the same area.

1. 1. Cleansing The area around your computer should be cleansed as a ritual area. I would not recommend saltwater or incense, however: use more esoteric methods. It is perfectly okay, and even desirable, to do a ritual blessing of your computer. Keep the area free of clutter. For the duration of the ritual, your computer is a ritual tool: treat it as such.
   2. Decoration If you are leading a ritual, it is paramount that you get into the right frame of mind. The fact that you’re using a computer does not change that. Decorate the computer as you would any altar. Let your subconscious mind know that you intend to do magick here. If it is Yule, put some holly around the monitor. If it is Oestara, put out the painted eggs next to the keyboard.
   3. Shielding Shield yourself as you would for any ritual. Realize, however, that energy must get both in and out through the phone line. If you are really good at shielding, you may have to come up with a visualization that specifically allows for such communication. It helps me to visualize the phone line going out the east. Electricity and magnetism look a lot like air to my subconscious mind.
   4. Altar The computer should be at least in the circle near the altar. I would suggest setting up the altar around the computer itself. Please remember that melted candle wax and a chalice full of ale do not generally mix well with keyboards. You will be doing a fair amount of typing, so leave room for a hard copy of the ritual to be in plain view.

V. Leading Online Rituals

These are a few tricks of the trade I have learned along the way which make leading online rituals both easier and snazzier.

1. 1. Leadership Team Window
      Many operating systems, CompuServe in particular, will allow you to set up a private group within the larger group. This is ideal for the leadership team. It provides a place where the ritual facilitators can prompt each other with “2 minute warnings,” give encouragement, or direct the door guards to deal with a heckler that has just shown up.
   2. GA Symbols
      People have different typing speeds, so you often can’t be sure when they’re finished. Establish an “I’m finished” symbol. Most people use GA, which stands for go ahead. I would suggest personal symbols for each member of the ritual team. For instance, during the CompuServe Yule ritual, the symbols %, #, $, >, =, <, ^, +, and &, were used respectively for HP, HPS, Storyteller, East, South, West, North, Center, and Befana. They are an effective way to cue the next speaker to take over immediately, whether scheduled or not. It is also less obtrusive for the participant than GA or go ahead. A personal example: the HPS ending a paragraph with a % (my symbol) about a third of a page early. I took over, and did not discover until after the ritual that the HPS had misplaced a page of ritual notes. The coveners had been seeing our symbols since the ritual started, so they never discovered our minor catastrophe.
   3. Scripts
      I recommend using scripted rituals online, i.e., the ritual is completely written and distributed to the ritual team beforehand. This allows members of the ritual team to take over for each other in case someone should get dropped and not be able to log back in immediately. I’m not saying that you need to write the entire ritual yourself: rather, just make sure every one on the ritual team has a complete copy before going on line.
   4. Impromptu BB’s
      As much as possible, encourage people to speak up during online rituals, to say “So mote it be!” or “Blessed be!” if moved to do so, to make requests, to take part in the magic. You need these responses because, otherwise, it’s hard to know anyone’s there. Encourage the coveners to be spontaneous: they give energy and power to the ritual. Such spontaneity seems to make participants separated by miles into a group so close that they might well all be in the same room. VI. Contingency Plans Cyberspace is a wonderful place to cast a circle and raise energy. As a medium for magick, however, it does have a few pitfalls that you need to prepare for.

A. Getting Dropped

Let’s go back to our Full Moon in Leo Energy ritual for a moment. It’s time to raise a cone of power. “I have it all worked out,” you say. “I’m going to have the coven call up a fire in their palm, filled with wishes and energy, toss it out, and then have it swirl up like a firestorm. My HP/HPS is going to type in that visualization.” Well, that does sound wonderful. “Time to raise the cone of power!” you say, and then you wait for you HP/HPS to say their bit. And you wait. And you wait. A minute passes. Nothing. Two minutes … still nothing. Three minutes. Flaky modems, noisy phone lines, and intervening thunderstorms are simply part of the landscape in cyberspace. These things can happen and, since you can’t see what’s going on on the other side of the screen, it’s hard to know what to do. That’s why you need contingency plans. Here’s a basic list of what can you do:

1. Make sure everything is in working order: your hard drive, computer, monitor and modem. Make sure that you have plenty of memory on the computer as well.
2. Check the weather reports and make sure there aren’t any thunderstorms on the horizon.
3. Make sure everyone on the ritual team has a phone list of other members. That way, if you get knocked off, or if an emergency occurs, someone can call you up and find out if you’re all right and help you if you’re not.
4. Make sure that two or three of you can run the ritual: you and your HP(S) for sure. You might want to have someone acting as a back up HP(S); a back-up HP(S) is someone you’ve sent a copy of the ritual to who can take over if you or your HP(S) vanishes suddenly and inexplicably.
5. Make sure everyone meets online about 15 minutes before the ritual to iron out any last minute problems. These were the contingency plans for the 1994 CompuServe Yule ritual. Remember here, that Yule 1994 was a big to-do ritual: we had the gift exchange going, several dozen people participating, and eight people on the leadership team. The contingency plans wouldn’t have been nearly so complex had it been a simple New Moon ritual.
6. We had a clandestine window open during the entire ritual for Team Yule folk only. We had everyone on the team log into the window and keep it open (providing their software permitted) though out the ritual. This allowed us to know if a person disappeared, because the window would tell us if they did; it allowed us to exchange instructions answer questions and cue people during the ritual if necessary, and to inform everyone if there was a problem.
7. People were informed that, if they got thrown off line during their calling/part, we would wait about 2 minutes for them to get back on, then the HPS would take over their part. We urged them to try to get back online for about 3-5 minutes, then leave the phone line open (if they had only one) so that we could call them. The HP was designated as caller here because he was familiar with computers and modems, and could possibly help them get back on.
8. The HP was in charge of phoning people if they vanished during a calling, dismissal or part, and to call the HPS if she vanished at any time.
9. The job of the HPS was to take over the part of anyone who went off line unless that person was the HP. If he went off line, the Assistant HPS was to take over, and the HPS was to call the HP and find out what happened.
10. The Job of the Assistant was to take over if either the HP or HPS went off line, and to keep typing in the ritual until instructed otherwise. Meanwhile the HP(S) would call the missing HP(S). If the missing HP(S) could not get back on line, the assistant was to take over their part.
11. If Both the HP and the HPS went off line simultaneously (or one after the other), the Assistant was to put the ritual on hold, play some jazzy hold music for the coveners, and phone the HPS first. Meanwhile, she was to type up experiencing technical difficulties a few times and keep the music playing.
12. If both HP and HPS were found to be permanently off line, unable to get back on, then the Assistant was to say “Hey, everyone, why don’t we just forget about the ritual and open our presents!”

B. When Bubba comes Visiting

“Ok,” you say, “I’ve got all my contingency plans. Everyone knows their parts, everything’s working, everyone’s well. Now, what can go wrong?” Well, there is one more problem: this is ritual is taking place online. That means you can’t keep anyone out of it. That means that Bubba the survivalist computer nerd, who’s wandered into the online ritual room, is free to heckle the ritual team. What can you do? One thing that may help is to have the Sysop as a member of the ritual team. That way, if Bubba doesn’t want to behave, it might be possible to lock him out of the room. Failing that, simply take it in stride. It’s the nature of the medium.

Walking Stick

Walking Stick (aka Tom Dixon) is a eclectic TechnoPagan living in Columbia, Missouri. He can be contacted at tom@socketis.net or 71764.2203@CompuServe.COM.

Webbed by Catherine Osborne < cathrine@fledge.watson.org >

Related articles

• Are You a TechnoPagan? (cybercauldron.co.uk)
• Beginners Guide To Create a Ritual (cybercauldron.co.uk)
• Drawing down the sun (cybercauldron.co.uk)
• Inverted pentagram ritual for self-discovery (cybercauldron.co.uk)
• Basic Dragon Ritual (cybercauldron.co.uk)

Originally posted 2011-06-09 09:27:48. Republished by Blog Post Promoter

Oh Goddess,
You Yourself are the Creator. Everything that happens is by Your Doing.
There is no one except You.

You created the creation; You behold it and understand it.
Amongst all is the Light–You are that Light.
By this Illumination, that Light is radiant within all.
The Goddess is the Greatest of the Great. No one calls Her any less.
No one can estimate Her Worth. By speaking of Her, Her Greatness is not increased.
You are the One True Mistress of all the other beings, of so many worlds.
Come, my dear sisters and spiritual companions; hug me close in your embrace.
You have so many Creative Powers, Mistress; Your Bountiful Blessings are so Great.
So many of Your beings and creatures praise You day and night.
You have so many forms and colours, so many classes, high and low.
Meeting the True One, Truth wells up. The truthful are absorbed into the True Goddess.
Upon that Highest Plane of Sublime Beauty, stands the Grove of the Goddess.
By true actions, this human body is obtained,
And the door within ourselves which leads to the Grove of the Goddess, is found.
The True Goddess Herself knows all; She makes no mistakes.
She is the Great Gardener of the Universe.
First, She prepares the ground, and then She plants the Seed of the True Name.
The nine treasures are produced from Name of the One Goddess.
The blind have forgotten the Name of the Goddess.
Their comings and goings in reincarnation do not end;
Through death and rebirth, they are wasting away.
Without the Word of the Goddess, people wander lost in reincarnation.
Through the love of duality, multitudes have been drowned.
O mind, swim across, by focusing your consciousness on Her names.
As it pleases You, Mistress, You save me. There is no other for me at all.
In front of me, I see the forest burning; behind me, I see green plants sprouting.
We shall merge into the One from whom we came.
The True One is pervading each and every heart.
She Herself unites us in Union with Herself;
The True Mansion of Her Presence is close at hand.

With each and every breath, I dwell upon You; I shall never forget You.
The more the Goddess dwells within the mind,
The more the lover of the Goddess drinks in the Ambrosial Nectar.
Mind and body are Yours; You are my Mistress.
Please rid me of my hate, my jealousy, and my ignorance, and let me merge with You.
Everyone belongs to the One who rules the Universe.
The lover of the Goddess practices good deeds, and the truth is revealed in the heart.
True is the reputation of the true, within whom truth abides.
Those who meet the True Goddess are not separated again;
They come to dwell in the home of the self deep within.
O mind, don’t cry out that you are hungry, always hungry; stop complaining.
The One who created the infinite species of beings gives sustenance to all.
The Fearless Goddess is forever Merciful; She takes care of all.

O lover of the Goddess, She understands, and finds the Door of Liberation.
Those who keep the Goddess enshrined within their hearts are said to be blessed.
Placing mind and body in offering before the Goddess,
They conquer and eradicate jealousy from within.
Blessed and acclaimed is that lover of the Goddess, who shall never be defeated.
Those who receive Her Grace find Her;
Without Her Grace, She cannot be found.
In the Grove of the Goddess, peace is found,
meditating on Her nine billion names night and day.
The truthful ones are not stained by hate.
Meditating on the Goddess, their minds remain pure;
The lovers of the Goddess shed their ego; attuned to her orgasm, they find peace.
The One Goddess is the Giver of all; She Herself bestows all blessings.
No one else has any say in this; She gives just as She pleases.

O mind, vibrate and meditate forever on the Goddess; seek the Protection of Her Grove.
The Mistress of the Universe is the Treasure of Excellence; Her limits cannot be found.
She is not obtained by mouthing mere words, but by rooting out jealousy from within.
By Goddess’ Grace, one remains blended with the True Name of the Creatrix;
This mind is very powerful; we cannot escape it just by trying.
In the love of duality, people suffer in pain, condemned to terrible punishment.
O mind, give up the love of duality.
The Goddess dwells within you; serving the Goddess, you shall find peace.
Engrossed in jealousy, the world perishes.
It dies and is re-born; it continues coming and going in reincarnation.
The self-willed do not recognize the Goddess;
They forfeit their honour, and depart in disgrace.

The True Queen has written Her Order, which no one can erase.
The self-willed do not obtain the Grove of the Goddess’ Presence.
The false are plundered by falsehood.
Engrossed in egotism, the world perishes.
Without the Goddess, there is utter darkness.
In emotional attachment to one lover, they have forgotten the Great Giver, the Giver of Peace.
Those who serve the True Goddess are saved;
They keep the True Goddess enshrined in their hearts.
By Her Grace, we find the Queen, and reflect on the True Word of the Goddess.
The desires of the mind are fulfilled, when one is filled to overflowing with Her orgasm.
One who fears, loves, and is devoted to the Dear Goddess day and night,
Sees Her always close at hand.
Doubt runs far away from the bodies of those,
Whose minds remain forever attuned to the True Word of the Goddess.
The Immaculate Mistress is found. She is True; She is the Ocean of Excellence.
Those who remain awake and aware are saved, while those who sleep are plundered.
They do not recognize the True Word of the Goddess, and like a dream, their lives fade away.
Like guests in a deserted house, they leave just exactly as they have come.

Originally posted 2011-04-28 10:36:48. Republished by Blog Post Promoter

One of the most important goddess’s of the Sumerian pantheon from ancient Mesopotamia is Inanna. Known as the Queen of heaven she was the daughter of the Sky God An (god of heaven, son of Nammu, father of Enlil, and spouse of Ki) and the Moon God Nanna (called ‘Lord of Destiny’. He is a son of Enlil and Ninlil and his wife is Ningal.)

Inanna is also known as Nin-me-sar-ra, the Lady of Myriad Offices / or Queen of all the Me, Ninsianna as the personification of the planet Venus, Nin.an.na, which means ‘queen of the sky’, Nu-ugiganna, the Hierodule of Heaven and Usunzianna, Exalted Cow of Heaven

The consult of Inanna was her brother Dumuzi (aka Tammuz )(god of vegetation and fertility, and also of the underworld. He is called ‘the Shepherd’ and ‘lord of the sheepfolds’.). In the most famous myth of Inanna “Inanna’s descent in to the Underworld” Inanna’s sister Ereshkigal (goddess of the underworld, Together with her consort Nergal she rules the underworld, also called ‘the big land’, from which no-one returns.) sentences her to death.

But as Inanna died so did all of nature and nothing would grow so Enki (high god of water and intellect, creation, wisdom and medicine who could restore the dead to life.) choose to intervene and allowed Inanna to be reborn if another took her place. Inanna choose her brother and consult Dumuzi.

From then on Dumuzi would die in the heat of summer and his soul would be carried to the Underworld where he would rule for half a year.

Inanna’s symbol is the Octagram an eight pointed star other symbols include the moon, the planet Venus and the serpent; she is depicted either completely naked or dress in fine splendour with wings and serpents adorning her shoulders. The caduceus and the double-headed axe both represented her power to bestow and withdraw life. Inanna is said to be a fickle Goddess who uses men she will attract them the reject them. Her worship included sacred prostitution, as she is a goddess of sexuality and fertility.   

Inanna appears in two main sources: The first is the Gilgamesh Epic, where she helps the hero and also tries to seduce him, and The second is in the Cycle of Inanna, a collection of poems about the relationship she had with he consult and lover Dumuzi and life and death.

In the Akkadian Empire Inanna is known as Ishtar and sacred places which where know to be places where Inanna was worshiped include Uruk, Zabalam, and Babylon.

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Originally posted 2011-02-08 08:50:54. Republished by Blog Post Promoter

The following text was an addendum to some Wiccan friends of mine written in 1986. It followed a fairly standard instruction in the Lesser Banishing Ritual of the Pentagram, with which they were not familiar. We were feeling out some linking techniques leading to a proposed joint ritual involving several Wiccans and two ceremonial qabalists (one Thelemite – i.e. myself, and another). While events conspired to torpedo this project, some interesting ideas came along on both sides. The goal was a set of brief rituals meaningful to both traditions which we could practice individually, thus building up a group current prior to the date of the proposed rite (Samhain of that year). Herewith my notes on “The Wiccan Pentagram” ritual which evolved during this project. My primary source of God Forms was Paul Huson’s MASTERING WITCHCRAFT which was my main source of information on Wicca at the time (I’ve done considerable study elsewhere since).

Non-Solar Symbolism

A ritual can be modified in many ways, to refit it for a different set of symbols, for example. I have taken the liberty of doing some research into alternate symbols for the Lesser Ritual of the Pentagram since I know that you work a lunar-feminine current (Wicca) whereas I use more solar-masculine symbols in my current (Thelemite). The Qabalistic Cross This might be used as is, though you could use the English if you don’t feel that the Hebrew is relevant. I am sure you recognize the words as being similar to the end of the Lord’s Prayer in the King James Version: ‘Unto thee, the Kingdom and the Power and the Glory, forever! Amen.’ I would point out that this formula was around a long time before Christ, much less the translators of the Standard Revised Version of the Bible. If you dislike such a specifically Christian form, it may be replaced with the words KETHER (KEH-THER), MALKUTH, GEBURAH, GEDULAH (or Crown, Kingdom, Power, Mercy), the spheres of occult energy that you are invoking with the Q-Cross. The mental images remain the same. You could even avoid these Hebrew symbols entirely, using Names and formulae more suitable to raising the cone of power, which is what you are doing here in Wiccan terms. See the ‘Wiccan Cross,’ below.

The principle is:

Invoke strongly the Buy Drugs Without Prescription presence of the Supreme Creative Principle as you conceive it (or in your case, Her) to be. Your Name for the Goddess as Creatrix would be most suitable.

Draw down power from this Godhead and project it through your body into the Earth. Invoke strongly the Supreme symbol of Creation in your Tradition: maybe the God – as Son of the Goddess and Lord of the Trees, and as John Barleycorn, the ever- born and dying One.

Establish on your right side the Active Principle – Yang – the Projective Energy of the Universe. A God image, I should think.

Establish on your left side the Passive Principle – Yin – the Receiving Energy of the Universe. A Goddess force I feel.

Strongly visualize yourself at the center of these axes between the Infinities. This centers you at the middle of the Sacred Space to be created – the still point at the center of the universe.

The Pentagrams

Again, the pentagram should be used. This symbol is universal to many, many systems of magick, including Wicca, as you know. The five-pointed star has supreme power over the Elements: Spirit, Fire, Water, Air, and Earth. It drives off negative influences and attracts positive ones. It is an essential part of the rite and there is no symbol that can take its place as effectively.

The Names

I prefer using the Hebrew God-Names as is. In this connection they express formulae that govern the Elements and are no more religious than E=MC squared. However, there are equivalent Wiccan God-Names, which I describe in the next section, as substitutes for the Archangels. The use of the same Names to activate the stars and to invoke the Elemental force is quite in keeping with the Wiccan tradition, which does not use the same hierarchical system of God-Name, Archangel, Angel, Ruler, Spirit, etc. that Qabalism does.

The Archangelic Invocation

Instead of the Hebrew Archangels I described, you could use Wiccan Deities to invoke the ‘pure’ form of the Elements.

AIR-EAST: The Air image in Wicca seems to be masculine and relates to Herne, the Black Man, the messenger of the Gods, or the Sky Gods: Odin, or Lug as the rising Sun God. The God can be imagined as riding through the night sky, at the head of the Wild Hunt, or rising above the branches of the world-ash. Instead of the Sword given to Raphael, the God might carry a staff, or spear, or wand, which is attributed to Air in most Wiccan traditions.

FIRE-SOUTH: The Fire image is definitely masculine and relates to the Horned God: Cernunnos, Lucifer, call Him what you will. He stands in the hot light of the noonday sun, radiating fiery energy. He would bear an Athame or sword, which is the weapon of Fire in most Wiccan styles.

WATER-WEST: The Water image is the Maiden, the mistress of the Moon and the Tides: Aradia, Artemis, Venus rising from the waves. Her image is lit by the silver light of the moon, upon a tranquil reach of water or the foaming sea. She might hold the chalice, symbol of water (alternatively, the cauldron might be envisioned).

EARTH-NORTH: The Goddess in Her aspect as Earth Mother is here: Hertha, Habondia, Demeter. She stands beneath the golden, life-giving sun surrounded by the fruits of the Earth. Before her, a platter flows with good things of the Earth, for the disk/shield/platter is the pentacle, magick instrument of Earth. These are only bare sketches of the magickal images that a witch might use to replace the Qabalistic images of the traditional pentagram ritual. I offer them for what they are worth.

A few points to note:

the phases of the sun used in the Archangelic images (East:Dawn; South:Noon; West:Sunset; North:Midnight) are not the same, nor are they as important to Wicca. Instead, the poles of day and night are established: Night for the East-West axis and Day for the North-South axis.

the male-female poles are established with the masculine images (Herne and Cernunnos) attributed to the active Elements (Air and Fire) and the feminine images (Aradia and Habondia) to the passive Elements (Water and Earth). Note that one figure of each gender stands in light, and one in darkness. This male- female/positive-negative/active-passive polarity is central to virtually all systems of magick, e.g. the yin/yang symbol in oriental systems. I may be betraying solar-phallic tendencies by these assignments, and you may want to use different attributions: The Maiden can be Air and the Mother switch to Water, with the Hunter moving into Earth, for example. Heck, the dual God Forms should perhaps be invoked in each quarter. e.g. Venus/Adonis imagery in East or South, Hertha/Herne in West, etc.

The Star Of David

The last line of the Invocation refers to a ‘six-rayed star’ and the mental work calls for imagining a Star of David. This is not a specifically Jewish symbol in this context. The six-pointed star, or hexagram, is the Qabalistic symbol par excellence of initiation and spiritual illumination. The upward-pointing triangle represents the aspiration of the magician to the Gods, and the downward-pointing triangle represents the divine power, flowing down to the world. These meet at the moment of magick and the interlaced triangles forming the hexagram symbolize the power of this meeting. Should you prefer not to use the Star of David, you can replace the mental image with any symbol showing the meeting of your soul and the power of the Goddess. This can even be a private symbol, one that is meaningful only to you. Alternatively, you can just envision the sphere of white light from the Q-Cross, as a symbol of divine power. Replace the words about the ‘six-rayed star’ with some descriptive form: ‘the seal of the Goddess,’ or ‘the sign of my Awakening,’ or simply ‘the light Divine.’

WICCAN PENTAGRAM RITUAL

Rubric [This is a form of the rite incorporating the changes in symbolism discussed above]

WICCAN CROSS: Face East. Touch forehead. Say IO EVOE HERTHA (‘Blessed be Hertha,’ or other Name by which you worship the Goddess as Creatrix) Touch solar plexus or genitals. Say IO EVOE CERNUNNOS (‘Blessed be Cernunnos,’ or other name by which you worship the Horned God as the Earth) Touch right shoulder. Say EKO EKO AZARAK (‘Hail, hail force of fire’) Touch left shoulder. Say EKO EKO AMELAK (‘Hail, hail to the glory’) Extend arms in form of a cross. Say IO EVOE (‘Blessed be.’) Clasp hands upon breast and say ‘So mote it be.’

CIRCLE OF PROTECTION: Trace pentagram in East. Say HERNE. Trace circle of protection until facing South. Trace pentagram in South. Say CERNUNNOS. Trace circle of protection until facing West. Trace pentagram in West. Say ARADIA. Trace circle of protection until facing North. Trace pentagram in North. Say HABONDIA. Finish tracing circle, closing it in the East.

INVOCATION OF THE GREAT GODS: Return to center of circle and face East. Extend arms in form of a cross. Chant:

Before me HERNE The Huntsman

Behind me ARADIA The Maiden

On my right hand CERNUNNOS, the Horned God

On my left hand HABONDIA, the Great Mother

About me flame the pentagrams

And above me shines the light of the Goddess.

Repeat the Wiccan Cross. Rather than performing this in the rather measured cadences of Qabalistic Ritual, a form of dancing and chanting more pleasing to the God-forms of Wicca might profitably be devised.

by Paul Hume

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Originally posted 2011-02-07 08:39:17. Republished by Blog Post Promoter

Listed below is a selected list of many of the lesser-known gods and demi-gods of Greece that have apparently been ignored or forgotten by historians for various and sundry reasons. Some of these gods were obviously important and useful in everyday life habits, others apparently had no redeeming value whatsoever, but somehow achieved god- or goddesshood. This list is presented here in the hopes that it will prove helpful to someone somewhere, sometime.

Egregious – God of Errors

Though he spent virtually all his life with the other gods and goddesses on Mount Olympus, he is rumored to have left for a short vacation to the south of France where he met and had an affair with the French goddess, Faux Pas. Egregious was one of the smartest gods on Mount Olympus. In fact, many thought he might be as smart as Zeus, though no one would ever admit this publicly. However, his unfortunate habit of making so many mistakes kept him from becoming one of the better-known gods.

When asked how someone so smart could make so many stupid mistakes, his reply was always “You learn from your mistakes. Obviously, I’ve made so many mistakes, I’ve become a genius!”

Melanoma – God of Tanning

Often seen away from Mount Olympus and down along the sandy beaches of southern Greece, Melanoma could have been ranked up there with the other major gods of his time, He was strong, handsome, and had a body that attracted all the goddesses. His only major fault was getting involved with the mortal Macedonian strip queen, Ultra Violet.

The two of them constantly played naked in the sun along the Greek shoreline. Zeus, upon seeing Melanoma cavorting with a non-Olympian, decided to punish him by taking away his immortality. This didn’t seem to bother Melanoma at first and he continued to associate with Ultra Violet and played in the buff each day. Soon though, Melanoma started to notice small dark patches on his skin that eventually became cancerous. He died a quick, but horrible death, with Ultra Violet at his side till the very end.

Ozone – God of Memory

Ozone was another failed god. Upon attaining godhood, Zeus asked Ozone to choose the subject for which he would be revered for all time. He chose Memory. To celebrate his attaining full godliness, Ozone married his school sweetheart, Amnesia. However, their foggy relationship soon resulted in the complete loss of all the records of all the great gods on Mount Olympus.

Zeus retaliated by immediately expelling Ozone to Southern California, where he was held prisoner in the dreaded “Inversion Layer” along with the evil nether-world dragon-god of progress and technology, Smog.

Pancreas – Demi-god of Dessert

Father of the sugar gods, Arabinose, Fructose, and Glucose.

Pancreas was a short-lived god who spent most of his time on coffee breaks eating donuts. His marriage to Diabetes was no help to him at all and he died soon after they had their three sons.

Peristalsis – God of Bowel Movements

Revered for his strength and perseverance, Peristalsis occupied a special place in the bathrooms of old Greece. Figurines in his likeness stood next to or near the place of anal evacuation. A special prayer to Peristalsis often accompanied a trip to the bathroom in some of the better bathrooms of high-society Greeks.

Uvula – Goddess of Swallowing

Uvula was an often unappreciated goddess who spent most of her time at the back of the room of all the other gods and goddesses on Mount Olympus. Only when she cleared her throat did anyone bother to pay any attention to her. She originally came from Rome and was accepted into the Greek goddess system, but only because of the promise she showed. She was reported to spend some time with the god Fellatio (a part-Italian god) who promised to show her something she could do that would make her one of the most revered goddesses of all of Mount Olympus (at least by the gods there). They were to meet one hot and steamy night under an olive tree where Fellatio would show her what she could do. Unfortunately, Fellatio never came.

Zirconia – Goddess of Costume Jewelry

Often in direct competition with the goddesses Titanium and Platinum, Zirconia was pretty much always relegated to being allowed only to attend the lesser parties on Mount Olympus at which the great gods and goddesses were rarely present. As a result, Zirconia was subsequently ignored by most historians and now only shows up on the backs of magazines for really cheap prices.

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Originally posted 2010-09-30 09:50:00. Republished by Blog Post Promoter

As pagans we know that the Universe was created by the big bang and we accept the rules that science and the universe provides. We also understand that there is much more to learn about the universe, and ourselves both academically and spiritually.

We also accept that our understanding of the divine is in line with our current understanding of what the divine really is. And at the same time also know that once we pass this form we will gain a greater understanding and our journey will one day return us to the divine its self.

Like other belief systems pagans have their creation myths and stories but unlike other beliefs we treat them as stories often finding different stories to use at different festivals or feast days. Many of our stories have a link with the deities of their path or come from stories told by native tribal cultures such as the Native American Indians, aboriginals of Australia. Some stories are about the universe being formed other about the god or Goddess being created or how the earth was created.

Here are 2 of my favourite creation myths-  

Before Time Was

Before time was, there was The One;
The One was all, and all was The One.

And the vast expanse known as the universe was The One,
all wise, all pervading, all powerful, eternally changing.

And space moved. The One molded energy into twin forms,
equal but opposite, fashioning the Goddess and God
from The One and of The One.

The Goddess and God stretched and gave thanks to The One,
but darkness surrounded them.
They were alone, solitary save for The One.

So they formed energy into gases and gases into suns
and planets and moons; They sprinkled the universe with whirling
globes and so all was given shape by the hands of the Goddess and God.

Light arose and the sky was illuminated by a billion suns.
The Goddess and God, satisfied by their works,
rejoiced and loved, and were one.

From their union sprang the seeds of all life,
and the human race so that we might achieve incarnation upon the Earth.

The Goddess chose the Moon as her symbol,
and the God the Sun as his to remind the inhabitants of Earth of their creators.

All are born, live, die and are reborn beneath the Moon and Sun;
All things come to pass thereunder, and all occurs
with the blessings of The One, the Goddess and God,
as has been the way of existence since before time was.

From The Standing Stones Book of Shadows by Scott Cunningham

The Goddess Creation Story

Alone, awesome, complete within Herself, the Goddess, She whose name cannot be spoken, floated in the abyss of the outer darkness, before the beginning of all things. And as She looked into the curved mirror of black space, She saw by her own light her radiant reflection, and fell in love with it. She drew it forth by the power that was in Her and made love to Herself, and called Her “Miria, the Wonderful”.

Their ecstasy burst forth in the single song of all that is, was, or ever shall be, and with the song came motion, waves that poured outward and became all the spheres and circles of the worlds. The Goddess became filled with love, swollen with love, and She gave birth to a rain of bright spirits that filled the worlds and became all beings.

But in that great movement, Miria was swept away, and as She moved out from the Goddess She became more masculine. First, She became the Blue God, the gentle, laughing God of love. Then She became the Green One, vine-covered, rooted in the earth, the spirit of all growing things. At last She became the Horned God, the Hunter whose face is the ruddy sun and yet dark as Death. However, always desire draws Him back toward the Goddess, so that He circles Her eternally, seeking to return in love.

All began in love; all seeks to return to love. Love is the law, the teacher of wisdom, and the great revealers of mysteries.

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Originally posted 2011-01-07 10:45:51. Republished by Blog Post Promoter

Janus the two face god look both forward and back as legend Janus received the power to see the past and future from Saturn after Janus helped him by sheltering him from Jupiter .

Janus is a Roman god associated with gateways doorways and new beginnings and has no direct association or counterpart with the Geek deities but he is linked to Hecate and Hermes because of the areas he rules over.

The origins of Janus differ somewhat, dependent upon the source. One legend states that Janus was a mortal who came from Thessaly and was welcomed into Latium by Camese. The couple are said to have married, shared the kingdom and had many children together, including Tiberinus, the Tiber River-God. Upon the death of Camese, Janus became the sole ruler and granted Saturn sanctuary when that ancient God was fleeing from Jupiter. As the first King of Latium, Janus ensured a time of peace, honesty and abundance for his people…an era known as the Golden Age. He introduced money, cultivation of the fields and laws. He is also said to have later married a nymph named Juturna, whose spring and shrine were located closed to his temple in the Forum of Rome. One of their children buying medicine online was Fons (also known as Fontus), God of Springs. It was only after his death that Janus was deified and became the Protector of the City.

Janus was represented with two faces, originally one face was bearded while the other was not (probably a symbol of the sun and the moon). Later both faces were bearded. In his right hand he holds a key. The double-faced head appears on many Roman coins, and around the 2nd century BCE even with four faces.

In Rome, temples dedicated to Janus were abundant, the most important being known as the Ianus Geminus, a double-gated structure with one door facing the rising sun and the other, the setting sun as found on the Forum Romanum through which the Roman legionaries marched off to battle.

This particular temple served a symbolic function. When the gates of the temple were closed, this represented peace within the Roman Empire. When the gates were open, it meant that Rome was at war.

Between the reigns of Numa and Augustus, the gates were shut only once. Janus also had a temple on the Forum Olitorium and some time during the First Century, yet another temple was built in his honor on the Forum of Nerva. This particular temple had four portals known as the Ianus Quadrifons. At all temples, the priests of Janus sacrificed to him on a regular basis.

The temple of Janus in Rome was situated in a street named Argiletum, an important road that connected the Roman Forum and the residential areas in the northeast. It was a small, wooden temple, and the building material suggests that the cult of Janus was of a venerable old age. This is confirmed by several facts. The oldest lists of gods usually began with his name; he was surnamed divom deus, a very ancient form of Latin meaning “the god’s god”; and his portrait can be found on the oldest Roman coins.

Before every sacrifice, Janus was invoked and received a libation. But this does not mean that modern scholars really understand the cult of the god of doors (ianuae) and beginnings. Neither did the Romans themselves. During the reign of the emperor Augustus (27 BCE – 14 CE), they started to connect things with the cult of Janus that originally had nothing to do with it. Unfortunately, we have hardly any texts that antedate this period, which makes it impossible to reconstruct the original cult. The only thing we know about it, is that the god was also venerated in several other towns in the Tiber valley.

The temple in the Argiletum consisted of two gates; the cult statue was between them. It was a very ancient statue; the author Pliny the Elder mentions it as proof that the sculptor’s art existed in Italy in times most ancient (Natural History 36.58). The fingers of janus’ hands were placed in strange positions, which Pliny interpreted as an indication of the number 355, which he thought was a reference to the number of days of the oldest Roman calendar.

Janus also has a temple at Rome with double doors, which they call the gates of war; for the temple always stands open in time of war, but is closed when peace has come. The latter was a difficult matter, and it rarely happened, since the realm was always engaged in some war, as its increasing size brought it into collision with the barbarous nations which encompassed it round about. But in the time of Augustus it was closed, after he had overthrown Marc Antony; and before that, when Marcus Atilius and Titus Manlius were consuls, it was closed a short time; then war broke out again at once, and it was opened. – Plutarch, Life of king Numa 20.1-2

The temple of the Argiletum with the Gates of War was not the only place where the Romans worshipped Janus. On the other side of the Tiber, an altar was dedicated to this god on the ‘hill of Janus’ (Ianiculum). A second altar was erected on the hill Oppius, which played a role in the ceremonies when a boy became a man. Consul Marcus Duillius built a temple on the Vegetable’s Market (Forum Holitorium), after his naval victory off Mylae (260 BCE). It was rebuilt by the emperor Tiberius. In this temple, twelve altars were erected, dedicated to the twelve months (one of them, January, was perhaps called after the god). Finally, there was the Arch of the four-faced Janus, Janus Quadrifons, at the Velabrum.

There are few legendary tales to be found which feature Janus, one is the When Romulus and his men kidnapped the Sabine women, Janus caused a volcanic hot spring to erupt, resulting in the would-be attackers being buried alive in the deathly hot, brutal water and ash mixture of the rushing hot volcanic springs that killed, burned, or disfigured many of Romulus’ men. Romulus was in awe of the god’s power. (Later on, however, Sabine and Rome became allies.) In honor of this, the doors of a walled roofless structure called ‘The Janus’ (not a temple) were kept open during war after a symbolic contingent of soldiers had marched through it. The doors were closed in ceremony when peace was concluded. Augustus and Nero both advertised universal peace, which had led to ‘the closing of the Janus’, during their reigns.

Another is that his extra eyes did, on one occasion, enable him to catch a nymph named Carna, who liked to tease her suitors with sexual advances before suddenly taking flight. Their son later became King of a city known as Alba Longa.

Fact

Janus is the sixth of Saturn’s known satellites:

        orbit:    151,472 km from Saturn

        diameter: 178 km (196 x 192 x 150)

        mass:     2.01e18 kg

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Originally posted 2011-04-15 08:38:20. Republished by Blog Post Promoter

At the moment I am having a new kitchen fitted so I prepped before closing down the kitchen as I packed it all away. But on Wednesday I awoke to the bookshelf on the floor which was just the start of a day that got worse and worse I knocked things over, things got broke and my stress levels rose.

I could feel my own energy draining from me I could not understand what had caused such a change so I tried several versions to bring back some balance but to no avail.

Things even got to the stage that I even asked for help and stuck a request on facebook (the Cyber Cauldron page) to which I got so great advice.

Extra wiring causing the poor flow of energy

I stood facing an empty kitchen and it hit me I could almost see the energy moving around the room, it was not like the normal flow that the house it seem that the energy of the room was pouring straight into the ground pulling all the energy from the house.

I had to work out what was causing it then I suddenly saw what was causing the issues. New wiring! A circle of wire was now set in the ceiling with extra wires coming down for new plug sockets.

The new electro magnetic fields that where now present where not being directed in to the room but down the walls and straight into the ground so I need to find a way of redirecting the energy back in to the room.

After lots of though I came up with a form of an elemental balancing, which was designed to add, back some of the missing elements. Choose not to do a full ritual but I did cast a circle using some of the most powerful correspondences I could find.

Circle set up

I placed a cauldron at the centre of the circle and placed the statue of my goddess inside the cauldron. I placed a bell in the east to represent air, I used my Athame in the south a large chunk of coral in the west and in the north I used a stag horn.

I then called each element in turn asking them to charge the area with their element and bring balance to the room.

I asked them to draw any negative energy and the new electro magnetic forces and place them in the cauldron. I the partitioned the goddess to transform the energy in the cauldron in to a lighter friendlier energy and redirect back into the room.

I then seal the circle from the outside and visualised the energy of the element as swirling pillars of energy I watched as the acted like cyclones sucking in the negativity and electro magnetic particles which where directed into the cauldron which glowed like golden water flowing from the cauldron feeling the room with a golden light.

I then left the circle doing it job overnight and once I woke I opened the kitchen door and disassembled the circle I then filled the cauldron with spring water and took it to the garden to be poured away.

I then did my normal meditation and the house is coming back to a normal balance.

I have wrote this up as a reminder to us all that sometime it physical object can effect us and create negativity that can cause us much distress and that our first option is to always look for a spiritual or magickal cause.

Our environment is the heart of our power and when we change our environment even slightly it can effect energy flow which can have a huge effect or our well being some times for the better, others for the worse.

When things go wrong start by looking at what has change in most cases the energy can be adjusted by correcting the change other times a little magick is needed to restore the balance.   

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Originally posted 2011-01-29 10:14:40. Republished by Blog Post Promoter

One of the activities that are common during Samhain is the Mute Supper. The mute supper is a meal held in silence followed by a session of divination.

The Mute Supper is held on the eve of Samhain and is done to honour your ancestors. The Mute supper can be held by yourself or with a group (friends and family or even with your coven). If holding the Mute Supper with a group it a fun idea to make it pot luck (everyone attending brings a dish).

Traditionally you should set a seat for each of your ancestors although this can make a very big table for groups although I have found that if you create an Altar to honour ancestors decorated with pictures and memorabilia and place this behind one of the chair you set at the table. Insure that this chair like the goddess chair is well decorated.

It is traditional when setting the table to use black tablecloths and black plates; the head of the table should be set for the Goddess (and or God) and a place at the table should be set for your ancestors. The host of the Mute supper should sit at the foot of the table facing the seat set for the deity.

There are rules for the Mute Supper ritual-

• The supper should take place in Sacred Space.
• All dinnerware and the tablecloth should be black.
• No one may speak during the course of the supper
• Candlelight or lamplight should be used.
• All must bring a written prayer for each ancestor honoured.
• Each living guest should bring a divination tool.

Before the ritual, place a black votive candle at the seats of all deceased family members and a white votive candle at the head of the table. Cast a circle, call quarters or ritually clean the area as you see fit.

Place your hands on the shrouded chair at the head and invite the Spirit to your feast. Walk around the table touching the ancestor’s place, while explaining that the feast is in their honour.

If doing this with a group the guests should enter the room in silence, they then should place their prayers for each of their ancestors under the ancestor’s plate. All living guests should then join hands and pray silently for the blessing of the meal and those present, both living and dead. Afterwards, the host or hostess serves the Goddess then the ancestors, then the living guests from oldest to youngest.

Since no one can speak during the course of the meal, the host or hostess must attend to the needs of the guests by passing food around the table. (Food could be placed at both ends of the table to make serving easier).

When the meal is over, the living again join hands and ask for the Blessing of the Spirit on the living and the dead. They then leave the room in silence. When the guests are gone, the host or hostess closes the circle and/or the quarters, after which the guests may return to assist in cleanup. At this time, guests may discuss any impressions they received during the feast.

When the table is cleared, the guests break out their divination tools. They may pair off or do a group reading. Allow the candles to burn until the last guest has gone home, then snuff each candle.

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Originally posted 2011-01-31 13:38:34. Republished by Blog Post Promoter