Lunar Mystery Ritual Working

Since all of the elements that are required to build up a lunar mystery ritual working have already been covered in detail (in this blog), we can now show how they can be assembled to produce a ritual magickal system that can utilize the power and mystery of the moon to produce qualified changes in the magician’s material world. After all, this is one of the purposes of learning and mastering all of these elements - to become proficient in changing the material world through magick. As I have stated previously, the moon and its cycle is the key to making effective magickal changes in the material world. Certainly, you can work magick and ignore the moon altogether, since nothing should interfere with the ability to work magick whenever it’s needed. However, what I have found out over the many years of practicing magick is that focusing on the moon will insure that magickally established changes will be more profound and lasting when the phases of the moon are incorporated.

So, what are the elements that are needed to build a lunar mystery ritual working? I have said that we have already covered them in previous articles, but perhaps a review is in order so you can refresh your mind about what I have already covered. If we list the elements, it will become patently clear what those items are, and I can reference the appropriate links so you may revisit them if required. Coincidently, there are seven topical elements that are required to build a lunar mystery ritual working. These elements are:

• Sacred Space and Circle Consecration,
• Spiral Vortex - Power Base for the Lunar Mystery rite,
• Double Gateway (Western - Underworld Gate, and Eastern - Ascension Gate),
• Pyramid of Power - Power Base for Spell Casting via Sigil Magick,
• Forty Qualified Powers - Energy Signature selections for the Pyramid of Power,
• Sigil Magick is the method for deploying the Operant Link,
• Lunation Cycle and the Phases of the Moon.

These seven elements represent the essential components of the magick of the lunar mystery, although the real trick is to be able to weave them together into an elegant and concise ritual working. That, of course, is the subject of this article. Essentially, there are two aspects to this kind of working, that of the lunar mystery working, and that of a specific working to effect a change in the material world. These two workings are merged together to formulate a series of three ritual workings, to be performed between the advent of the New Moon and occurrence of the Full Moon. You could perceive these three workings as representing three different phases of a larger overall working consisting of 1.) setting the foundation, 2.) projecting the desire, and 3.) celebrating its climactic release. The three phases characterize the methodology of this kind of magickal working, and it is based on a more simpler pattern incorporated in some witchcraft traditions.

This kind of ritual working series would be impossible to perform without the innate qualities and capabilities of the spiral vortex. Unlike a simple working incorporating a cone of power, the vortex allows for the seamless re-entering of a magickal power structure so as to increase and amplify its influence. This kind of activity is incapable of being done except through the artifice of the spiral vortex, which allows for the sealing and unsealing of power structures, and to avoid the necessity of performing banishing rites and building up the magick from scratch. Instead, there is a certain continuity to the overall working, even though it is split into three separate working sessions. These separate working sessions incorporate the of Law of Three, which is the initial establishment of the power structure, the full empowerment and the final exteriorization. A full working of this type also incorporates the capabilities of sigil magick, where that sigil becomes the operant link for the overall working.

The environment for this overall working is the lunar mystery cycle, which has already been discussed. This environment is established by rituals that would normally be used to penetrate the lunar mystery, which is that constant monthly variable of light and darkness, and its association with all living things. To recap that ritual pattern, let me list the steps that would be used in performing a lunar mystery working.

1. Establishing Sacred Space.

2. Erecting a spiral vortex - the energy field that most “resembles” the sealed container of a telesterion is a vortex. The vortex has the properties of amplifying and isolated all energies and actions performed within it. This makes the perfect foundation for performing a mystery.

3. Underworld Gateway - a western aligned gateway establishes the internal transition of the isolated chamber of the mysteries, and draws it deeper into the spectral unconscious domain of the underworld.

4. Erect the cross-roads - a four or eight node cross-roads establish a powerful nexus point where all forces and aspects of Spirit may descend or ascend. The four or eight nodes can be qualified to represent the specific nature of the mystery, whether Lunar, Solar or Self.

5. Establish an inner circle - overlaying the cross-roads is an inner circle, representing the place of the interstice where Spirit resides and where one may actively engage with it. The inner circle is drawn and then opened like a gateway portal.

6. Introit of the Mystery - the preliminary rites that are performed just prior to the activation of the mystery rite are as follows:

Erection and veneration of the World Pole (Stang): The celebrant places a special sacral staff or Stang in the center of the circle, acting as a conduit between all worlds. The staff or Stang may be set up to stand by itself, or it may be held by the celebrant or an accomplice.

Godhead invocation, assumption and sacral consecration: This is where the celebrant summons the specific godhead associated with the mystery, then performs an assumption rite so the spirit of the godhead and the celebrant are merged. Yet the celebrant is still conscious and able to function (at least at this point in the working). Sacraments associated with the mystery are blessed and charged by the celebrant. (A more serious offering can be vowed at this point, with an initial partial payment showing that one’s intention is good.)

7. Mythic Theme - the mythic theme is presented as a narration, with symbols and fetishes used to emphasize the theme of the mystery. Once the theme has been fully presented and completely experienced, then the special sacramental food and drink are shared (this is the last thing that is done). Of course, in the case of a lunar mystery rite, the mythic theme would revolve around the eight point lunation cycle and the four lunar phases. Each of these points and phases would have a specific spiritual and magickal significance.

8.  Inner circle is closed, sealed, then the four or eight nodes of the crossroads are sealed with sealing spirals. Then an eastern gateway is opened and the Celebrant, along with accomplices, ascend out of the chamber of the mysteries and into a new dawn of rebirth and restoration, passing the eastern gateway much like the rising of the sun. (The western gateway points are sealed just before the eastern gateway is established.)- This is, of course, the double gateway representing the full cycle of descent and ascent.

9. An outer feast is assembled, where food and drink are blessed and shared. A portion of this feast is given as an offering to the godhead associated with the mystery. The rite is concluded.

***

Considering that this lunar mystery rite is rather long, and focused exclusively on the lunar mystery itself, variations on this pattern would have to be developed to incorporate a specific working to project a wave of change into the material world. That pattern would incorporate the pyramid of power rite, using one of the forty qualified powers and a sigilized link, and it would look like the following ritual structure. The only qualification that this ritual would have is that it would be performed within sacred space (i.e., a consecrated circle).

Ritual Pattern: (Consists of establishing the power base, summoning the qualified power, and releasing the qualified power.)   

Establishing the Power Base:

1. Statement of Purpose                                                    

2. Setting the Five points of the magick circle, in a deosil progression (Angles and Ultra-point) with the base element to the four Angles and Spirit Masculine to the Ultrapoint, using the invoking Pentagram device.

3. Drawing together the lines of force of the five points, using the sword to create the geometric pattern of the Pyramid.

Summoning the Qualified Power:

1. Circumambulation spiral deosil to the center of the magick circle, with three revolutions (walking the spiral), and resonance of the charged field.

2. Centering power through the Self (Mesopoint) with the power chant.

3. Charging the Magickal Link. Summoning the Qualified Power (qualifying the base energy).

Releasing the Qualified Power:

1. Exteriorization – circumambulate spiral three times widdershins, starting in the center and proceeding to the outer periphery of the circle, using extreme resonance with a releasing power chant.

***

These two patterns, the lunary mystery and the pyramid of power, can be used together to formulate the lunar mystery working in three parts. What this means is that the first and last part of the working will focus on the lunar mystery rite and the lunation types of the moon of the first crescent and the full, while the middle rite (occurring as the moon is waxing gibbous) would be focused on generating and projecting the energy of the spell. Positioning these three workings in this manner creates a kind of wrapper for the overall working, and ensures that the power of the moon is the foundation for the projected spell.

This second or middle working, then, would have a slightly different ritual pattern than the lunar mystery rite proper, incorporating in its core the pyramid of power ritual. How this is accomplished is to remove the typical focus of the ritual and replace it with the pyramid of power working. I would imagine this working to be succinctly shown in the following list of steps.

1. Perform the mystery working, from step 1 to step 5, where the inner circle is established within the cross-roads.

2. Declare the intention and unveil the sigil - then perform an intense focused meditation on the sigil. (The sigil is then charged with the operator’s breath, incense and making appropriate signs over it.)

3. Perform a brief (and shallow) godhead assumption. (All workings within ritual magick engage one’s personal deity, and through it, to perform the magickal operation.)

4. Perform the Pyramid of Power working within the gateway, cross-roads and inner circle ritual structure. (This includes all of the steps associated with establishing the power base, summoning the Qualified Power, and then, releasing it through a process of exteriorization.

5. Close inner circle and Western gateway with sealing spirals.

6. Erect, open and enter the Eastern gateway (ascension) to fully realize the specific working.

So that is the ritual pattern for the middle working, where the actual empowered spell is released into the material world. However, that act of releasing is done as the moon is powerfully waxing, and when the full moon occurs, the empowered spell is fully realized, imprinted as it is with the temporal footprint of the lunar cycle and the season of the sun. These three rites focus and raise the inherent transformative powers of the moon, intertwining them with the empowered spell, and ensuring that what has been intended becomes imprinted into the material reality of the operator. 

In my opinion, there is no more potent combination of magickal workings than an empowered spell integrated into a focused realization of the waxing cycle of the moon. A magician could generate a talisman or even evoke a goetic demon, but that would be far more elaborate and involved than this simple methodology. It is made more complex by the fact that the lunar cycle is integrated into it, but that only assists it in becoming a manifested quality associated with the magician’s temporal domain.

As I have said previously, you don’t have to integrate your working with the lunar cycle, but doing so will produce a much more profound and long term effect.

Examples of these specific rituals can be found in either of my two books, “Disciple’s Guide to Ritual Magick,” or “Mastering the Art of Ritual Magick - Grimoire.” I not only discuss the mechanisms of these rituals, but give a very pertinent example of how they might look. In the “Mastering the Art of Ritual Magick” series, I present rituals that require customization, allowing the magician to formulate a body of rituals that represent his or her own personal system of ritual magick.

Frater Barrabbas

Lunar Mysteries and the Art of Moon Magick - Part 4

Greater Wheel of Fortune

All of these factors regarding basic astrology seem to ignore one important consideration, and that is the personal cycle or wheel of fortune of the magician performing the magick. Even the most optimal and auspicious signs and portends will avail the magicians naught if they ignore important factors about their own waxing and waning material fortunes. Magick done during a weak trough in the personal fortune of the magician will produce nothing, or it might even cause losses and misfortune. Perhaps the most important knowledge that magicians can possess that will enable them to work magick on their own personal material circumstance is self knowledge, and knowing their own personal timing.

In the many years that I have worked magick I have discovered by accident and trial that certain times of the year are better for material based magick than others, and that there is a pattern to this cyclic process. What I discovered is that there is a personal wheel of fortune that systematically turns, so that half of the year has the potential for material increase and the other half is better suited for planing and positioning oneself for more optimal times, when action is met with results. The year is cut in half, and one half fosters increase, and the other, decrease.

It may not be true that the poorer half of the year actually experiences losses or setbacks, although this certainly can occur; rather the richer half of the year seems to effortlessly assist one in the pursuit of material gain and personal advancement.

The simplest way to determine this wheel of fortune is take one’s birthday and add to it exactly six months. So if you were born on January 5, (as I was), then your halfway date is July 5. So for me, the two most important dates are my natal return (birthday), and six months later in the year, which would be a point where the sun would be 180 degrees from its natal position. I am a Capricorn according to my natal sun sign position, and my annual halfway point is under the sign of Cancer. I have found that for me, the time of increase begins at the halfway point in the year, and proceeds to a climax at my birthday, and then declines until the halfway point is again achieved. For me, the best time to plan and reorganize is during the winter, after the holidays and before summer. After the summer vacation period, I am ready to start putting into action everything that I have learned and determined in the previous six months. 

First thing that you must do if you are calculating your greater fortune is to find that halfway point in your yearly cycle and note it down. Then look at the past several years and see if you can see a pattern as to when important material advancements occurred for you. It won’t be perfect, but I think that you will find that one of those half year cycles was more auspicious for you than the other, which is better for planning and regrouping.

A good way to highlight this analysis of the cycle of the greater fortune is to astrologically examine the transit sun to natal chart sun positions and what they mean. Looking over a book with these aspects defined will demonstrate just how important these two points in the solar cycle of any given individual. I have distilled the aspect definitions for these two points as they are defined in the book “Planets in Transit: Life Cycles for Living” by Robert Hand, p. 55 & p. 58.

Transit Sun conjunct Natal Sun aspect: This is the Solar Return, when the Sun returns to the position that it had when one was born. This aspect represents new beginnings, the ability to perceive the whole year ahead as if one were standing upon some metaphorical ascent and looking across time at the events for the coming year. Therefore, a birthday is an important point in anyone’s life, and it is a time of fruition and renewal.

Transit Sun opposition Natal Sun aspect: This aspect represents energies in life reaching a culmination, events cause realizations, revealing a critical point of success or failure. Situations judged to fail now appear to fail. The way to success opens up and is revealed.

So as you can see, the halfway point for the year is a kind of judgement point, a time and place where one thoroughly examines all of life’s activities, especially those that bear upon one’s fortune. Those objectives that are shown to be failing should be either adjusted or ended, and those efforts that appear to be gathering momentum for success should be steadfastly continued. New opportunities may also arise that will need to be judged as to their worthiness and a change in course may be called for to take advantage of them.

Lesser Wheel of Fortune

Correspondingly, there is also a lesser wheel of fortune that involves the Moon, and so this lesser cycle is more characterized by the emotions than by material gain, although it is true that if the emotions are not aligned with one’s greater material purpose, then all one’s endeavors will ultimately fail. This lesser wheel of fortune has the same basic components as the greater wheel. The natal chart lunar position is extracted, and the halfway point in this cycle is determined by plotting a position that is exactly 6 zodiacal signs ahead of the natal Moon position. Just break natal Lunar cycle from the point at the date of birth to a point 14 days later; this is the Lunar midpoint. So there are two halves to the month. One is auspicious for emotional expression, the other for generally for emotional internalization.

The key to this emotional wheel of fortune is that it’s better to perform magickal workings so that they achieve their climax up to but not far beyond the full moon. The waning moon represents particularly difficult times for me, and it’s much better to use that time for reflection, divination and contemplation, allowing the unconscious mind to unload some of its internal pressures and negative or dark-self perceptions in a controlled environment. It’s also a good idea to synchronize the greater and lesser wheels of fortune so that magickal workings and mundane actions involving material advancement occur during the better half for both patterns.

We can also analyze the transit aspects of the Natal Moon with the Transiting Moon and get a very clear idea of the kind of forces that are active. Like the Sun, we can examine the aspect where the Transit Moon is in conjunction with the Natal Moon, and the aspect where the Transit Moon is in opposition to the Natal Moon.

Transit Moon conjunct Natal Moon: This is called the Lunar return, and it occurs once every month. It represents the beginning of an emotional cycle. It’s a time of emotional sensitivity and emotional intensity. It has a magnetic effect, and tends to attract external events and people to its emanating field.

Transit Moon opposition to Natal Moon: This aspect represents deepening moods and powerful emotions. One becomes self-absorbed and loses objectivity, which tends to create emotional oppositions with others. It’s definitely not a time to be dealing with relationship issues, business partnerships or emotional issues involving family or friends.

(See “Planets in Transit: Life Cycles for Living” by Robert Hand, p. 104 & p. 105.)  

Both the Greater Wheel of Fortune (external life events) and the Lesser Wheel of Fortune (internal emotional events) will affect the magick that is to be worked on a practical level. The Greater Wheel has precedence over the Lesser Wheel, but both should be considered for a given strategic magickal working.

Epilogue - Moon Magick

We have covered all of the relevant material on the Moon from a scientific and occult perspective, and we have seen that the Moon is very relevant to material based magickal workings. We have also covered the fact that effective magick requires some kind of temporal signature to act as a link between the forces generated and focused, and the time and place where they are needed. And we have also examined the factor of timing, both from the standpoint of the Sun and the Moon, but also from the perspective of the individual who is working magick.

The most important thing that we have learned in this article is that there is a complex interrelationship between the cycles of the sun, earth, moon and the internal cycles operating within the individual magician. Magicians who are contemplating earth-based magickal workings to effect their material situation need to determine their greater and lesser wheel of fortune so that they can know the best time to perform this magick. So it’s very important to have both the material factors and the emotions in as perfect alignment as possible to ensure a successful outcome.

A rule of thumb in determining the when and the how of lunar magick is that the need and the factor of necessity always trump timing. The nature of timing is always used for long term and strategic magickal workings, but not for emergencies or immediate needs. Still, lunar and solar considerations are always helpful, and it’s a good idea to use them wherever possible.

Before I sign off, here is a list of books that can be used to further research about the moon and its various qualities. All you need to do is to acquire these books (or some suitable alternatives) and assemble the material into your own “Book of the Moon” for pagan liturgies and ritual magick. I would also recommend Christopher Warnock’s mini-course on the lunar mansions. You find all of his course material at the website at this site - the price of these courses is modest and well worth it.

• Alexander, Skye (1988) “Planets in Signs,” Whitford Press, West Chester, PA

• Filby, John & Peter (1984) “Astronomy for Astrologers,” The Aquarian Press, Wellingborough, Northhamptonshire, UK

• Hand, Robert (1976) “Planets In Transit: Life Cycles for Living,”  Para Research Inc., Gloucester, MA

• Jackson, Nigel (2003) “Celestial Magic - Principles and Practices of the Talismanic Art,” Capall Bahn Publishing Sommerset, UK

• Rudyar, Dane (1986) “The Lunation Cycle: A Key to the Understanding of Personality,” Aurora Press, New York, NY

• Warnock, Christopher (2006) “The Mansions of the Moon,” Renaissance Astrology, USA

Frater Barrabbas

Lunar Mysteries and the Art of Moon Magick - Part 3

Lunar Mansions

The Twenty-eight Lunar Mansions are used specifically for talismanic magick, and they represent some of the most effective magick that one might want to generate. The mansions are represented by specific planetary qualities associated with a segment of the zodiac that is exactly 12 degrees and 51 minutes. The method used for determining the lunar mansion is astrological, based on lunar positions calculated from an ephemeris. In order for a mansion to be active, the moon should be in that specific zodiacal sign and degree period when the magickal operation is to be performed. Waxing and waning moons have a specific effect on the quality of the lunar mansion. A waxing moon is where the outcome is typically positive or a blessing, while a waning moon outcome is generally negative, or considered a curse. The period for performing positive magick based on the lunar mansion is always when the moon is waxing, from the point immediately following the new moon to just prior to the full moon. 

First use of the lunar mansions for magickal purposes probably goes back to the ancient Egyptians and Chaldeans, whose cultures were both avid in their observation and tabulation of astronomical phenomena. This is also true of the Indian culture, so the possible sources for lunar mansion work can be found in all three of these ancient cultures. 

Western magickal use and qualifications of the lunar mansions are adapted from the grimoire entitled the “Picatrix,” which was a purported 11th century Arabic magickal book, likely distilled from lost or now unknown Greek magical books. The lunar mansions are used to charge and empower magickal talismans. A talisman is blessed and charged at some point during the period of the lunar mansion, thus allowing the mansion to passively influence and impact the talisman. Since the moon travels through the zodiac at 14 degrees per day, it will only reside in a specific Lunar Mansion for slightly less than a day. In order to take advantage of a lunar mansion, the moon should be waxing within the lunation cycle, so any lunation type, from crescent type to just before full moon, can be employed. This short period of less than two weeks will limit the number of possible elective lunar mansions that can be employed during a specific seasonal period of the year.

Here is a list of the 28 mansions of the moon, as distilled from the book, “Celestial Magic” written by Nigel Jackson. I have also included the quality of the talismanic elemental (planet and element) as well as the associated Enochian senior name. Notice that the cardinal signs of Aries, Cancer, Libra and Capricorn have three mansions, and the other signs, two.

• Mars of Fire: Senior: Aaetpio  Mansion: Al Sharatain (#1 Horns of Aries)  - 0̊ Aries
• Jupiter of Fire: Senior: Adoeoet  Mansion: Al Butain (#2 The Belly of Aries) - Aries 12̊ 51ʹ
• Venus of Fire: Senior:  Aapdoce  Mansion: Al Thurayya (#3 The Many Little Ones - Pleides) - Aries 25̊ 43ʹ

• Mars of Earth: Laidrom  Mansion: Al Dabaran (#4 Eye of Taurus, the Follower) Taurus 8̊ 34ʹ  
• Sun of Earth: Iczhhcal Mansion: Al Haqah (#5 The White Spot) Taurus 21̊ 26ʹ 

• Mars of Air: Habioro   Mansion: Al Hanah (#6 Brand or Mark, Little Star of Great Light) Gemini 4̊ 17ʹ
• Jupiter of Air: Aaoxaif   Mansion: Al Dhira (#7 The Force Arm of Gemini) Gemini 17̊ 9ʹ 

• Jupiter of Water: Saiinov   Mansion: Al Nathrah (#8 The Gap or Crib, Misty, Cloudy) Cancer 0̊
• Saturn of Water: Ligdisa  Mansion: Al Tarf (#9 Glance of the Lion’s Eye) Cancer 12̊ 51ʹ
• Sun of Water: Raagiosl  Mansion: Al Jabhah (#10 The Lion’s Forehead - the Brow of Leo) Cancer 25̊ 43ʹ

• Sun of Fire: Senior: Edelprna   Mansion: Al Zubrah (#11 The Lion’s Mane) Leo 8̊ 34ʹ
• Saturn of Fire: Senior: Arinnap Mansion: Al Sarfah (#12 The Lion’s Tail) - Leo 21̊ 26ʹ

• Venus of Earth: Alhctga  Mansion: Al Awwa (#13 Wings of Virgo, the Barker) Virgo 4̊ 17ʹ
• Moon of Earth: Lzinopo  Mansion: Al Simak (#14 Spike of Virgo, the Unarmed) Virgo 17̊ 9ʹ

• Venus of Air: Ahaozpi  Mansion: Al Ghafr (#15 The Covering) Libra 0̊
• Mercury of Air: Avtotar   Mansion: Al Jubana (#16 The Horns of the Scorpion) Libra 12̊ 51ʹ
• Saturn of Air: Hipotga  Mansion: Iklil Al Jabhah (#17 The Crown of the Scorpion) Libra 25̊ 43ʹ

• Venus of Water: Slgaiol  Mansion: Al Qalib (#18 The Heart of the Scorpion) Scorpio 8̊ 34ʹ  
• Moon of Water: Laoaxrp  Mansion: Al Shaula (#19 The Tail of the Scorpion, the Sting) Scorpio 21̊ 6ʹ

• Moon of Fire: Senior: Asndoad  Mansion: Al Nava’am (#20 The Beam, The Ostriches) Sagittarius 4̊ 17ʹ
• Mercury of Fire: Senior: Anodoin Mansion: Al Baldah (#21 The City or District) - Sagittarius 17̊ 9ʹ

• Mercury of Earth: Acmbicu  Mansion: Al Sad Al Dhabih (#22 Lucky One of the Slaughterers) Capricorn 0̊
• Saturn of Earth: Lhiansa  Mansion: Al Sad Al Bulah (#23 Good Fortune of the Swallower) Capricorn 12̊ 51ʹ
• Jupiter of Earth: Aczinor  Mansion: Al Sad Al Su’ud (#24 The Star of Fortune) Capricorn 25̊ 51ʹ

• Moon of Air: Htmorda   Mansion: Al Sad Al Ahbiya (#25 The Butterfly - Lucky Star of Hidden Things) Aquarius 8̊ 34ʹ
• Sun of Air: Bataivah  Mansion: Al Farch Al Mukdim (#26 Fore-spout, First Drawing) Aquarius 21̊ 43ʹ

• Mercury of Water: Soaixnt  Mansion: Al Faragh Al Thani (#27 Lower Spout, Second Drawing) Pisces 4̊ 17ʹ
• Mars of Water: Lsrahpm   Mansion: Al Batn Al Hut (#28 The Belly of the Fish) Pisces 17̊ 9ʹ

A good source for information regarding the Lunar Mansions can be found in the books “The Mansions of the Moon” by Christopher Warnock, and the “Picatrix” as translated by John Michael Greer & Christopher Warnock, and also the book “Celestial Magic” written by Nigel Jackson (which I mentioned above).

Important Solar & Lunar Interrelationships

Solar and lunar eclipses are the most auspicious times for working any kind of magick, and if magickal workings can be performed during those times, then they will be greatly enhanced and empowered.

Eclipses of the Sun and Moon occur when the Sun, Moon and Earth are in a specific and proper alignment. Not only are they auspicious, but are typically rare occurrences. This is especially true for solar eclipses, but not as much for lunar eclipses. 

Solar eclipses occur when the Moon is new, since it is then that the Moon is conjunct with the Sun.  If the altitude of the Moon to the ecliptic (celestial equator as seen from the Earth) matches so that the Moon appears to cover the Sun, then there is an observable eclipse somewhere on the earth. (Solar eclipses on average only last around 8 minutes if they are total eclipses, less so when they are only partial eclipses.)

Lunar eclipses always occur when the Moon is full and the Earth’s shadow falls upon the Moon. They are more common than Solar eclipses because the Earth’s shadow is much larger than the Moon’s shadow on the earth.

Moon’s altitude is the height that the Moon appears over the horizon. In the northern latitudes, the Moon is low when it’s near the southern part of the horizon, and high up when it’s near the center of the sky. (Of course, the reverse would occur when one is located in the southern latitudes.) When the Moon appears to be moving from the southern to the northern hemisphere, called the ascending node, and when appears to be moving from the northern to the southern hemisphere, called the descending node.

Points of intersection between the ecliptic and Moon’s altitude are the points where an eclipse can potentially occur. The inclination of the Moon towards the ecliptic is approximately 5 degrees and 8 minutes, so events where the Moon’s shadow would pass over the face of the Earth are rare, because they require an exact match between lunar altitude and the ecliptic.

A rule of thumb as to where the moon will appear in the sky during certain lunar phases and seasons is found the following table. The higher the northern latitude, the more pronounced is the position of the moon during a lunar phase. 

• Spring: Moon is high in the sky when in the first quarter, down low when in the last quarter.
• Summer: Moon is high in the sky during the new moon, down low when full.
• Autumn: Moon is high in the sky when in the last quarter, down low when in the first quarter.
• Winter” Moon is high in the sky during the full moon, down low when new.

(Of course, this is true only when the observer is in the northern hemisphere, and it would be the opposite if one were in the southern hemisphere.)

As far as the northern latitude is concerned, the most auspicious full moon is during the winter, and the most auspicious new moon and waxing moon phase is during the summer. During the spring, the full moon is part of the ascending node, and during the autumn, the full moon is part of the descending node. These two facts also have an impact on the magick, giving a greater impetus or slightly detracting from the magick that is worked during these two seasons respectively.

Additionally. In the northern latitudes, a Solar eclipse is most likely to occur during the summer, when the new moon is in alignment with the ecliptic, and a Lunar eclipse is more likely to occur in the winter. This is important to consider when seeking to incorporate either a solar or lunar eclipse into one’s magickal working.

(Continued...)

Frater Barrabbas

Lunar Mysteries and the Art of Moon Magick - Part 2

Phases of the Moon and the Lunation Cycle

Lunar cycles, that mark the changing phases of the Moon, occur over a period of twenty-eight days. So there are a consistent occurrence of lunar cycles that make up the solar year, representing the oscillation of light and darkness, diminishment and increase, which change the apparent shape of the moon and also the times when it is present in the sky. The moon passes through the entire zodiac in a single month and its synodic period lasts 29 days and 12 hours, which is pretty close to the thirty day average period for a calendric month.

The moon also changes its shape as it makes its passage across the celestial equator, and this is due to the constant changing angular relationships between the Sun, the Moon, and the Earth. Thus, the moon travels swiftly through the zodiacal signs, averaging around 14 degrees in a twenty-four hour period. The sidereal period of the Moon is 27 days, 7 hours and 43 minutes. What this means is that the moon makes a complete revolution from any given point back to that point during that period. The sidereal period is, therefore, more accurate and so it is used by astronomers. When we say that the Moon makes its cycle in 28 days, that is an average approximation of the synodic and sidereal periods.

A full moon occurs when the Moon is at a point opposite of the Sun in relation to the Earth. Therefore, a full moon always occupies the exact point opposite of the sun within the astrological zodiac. A new moon occurs when the Moon is conjunct with the Sun in relation to the Earth.  Therefore, the moon is in same exact zodiacal sign and degree as the Sun when it is in the phase called the new moon. A new moon symbolically represents the time of renewal and reinvigoration, when seeds are planted and ovulation ideally occurs. Full moon represents when these processes reach their maximum potential, and it is the ideal time for harvesting and also for the onset of menstruation. The quarter phases are where the Moon is waxing from new to full, or waning from full to new, representing when the Sun and Moon at right angles to the Earth. (I am not implying that a woman’s period is directly aligned with the phases of the moon, although there is an ideal association between the cycles of the mon and fertility cycle of women.)

Moon rises in the middle of the day when it is waxing and in the middle of the night when it's waning. The direction that the “horns” or tips of the crescent moon are facing indicates whether the Moon is waxing or waning. Horns pointing to the east indicates a waxing moon, and horns pointing to the west indicates a waning moon.

The cycle of the moon is called the “Lunation” cycle. It’s symbolized on a personal level as the struggle for conscious evolution, beginning first with awakening into individual self-consciousness and egoic awareness. Moon also has two qualities that are expressed by the lunation cycle. These two qualities are the zodiacal positions that it occupies as it moves across the celestial equator in a single month, and the four lunar phases that it makes as it crosses the path of the sun and the earth.

The elemental quality that the four phases of the moon has are:

• New Moon - Earth
• First Quarter - Air
• Full Moon - Fire
• Last Quarter - Water

Four phases of the moon are defined in astrology as the specific angular relationships that occur between the moon and the sun. These angular relationships are broken into 90 degree quadrants. The qualities of the phases are symbolized by the aspects of conjunction, ascending square, opposition, descending square, and arriving again at conjunction.

• New Moon to First Quarter (0̊ - 90̊) - individualism and impulsiveness
• First Quarter to Full Moon (90̊ - 180̊) - maturation and fulfillment
• Full Moon to Last Quarter (180̊ - 270̊) - formulation and objectification
• Last Quarter to New Moon (270̊ - 360̊) - fruition and also dissolution

Lunation cycle is actually an extension of the well known four phases of the Moon, producing eight types that characterize the lunar qualities. Each lunation type has its specific properties, and is extremely useful for working earth-based magick that affects the material based concerns and enterprises for humans, and even animals.

The lunation cycle of the moon is called the lesser cycle of transformation because it represents the variations of the reflected power of the sun and is far more mutable and subtle in regards to its affects on the life cycle of the individual human being when compared to the sun. While the solar cycle symbolizes the greater cycle of transformation, representing the seasonal milestones as well as the annual and multi-year achievements, the lunation cycle is critical to the resolution of deep and internal issues and complexes as the self strives to become individuated and self-illuminated.

In the lunation cycle, the four lunar phases are broken into eight divisions (types) consisting of 45 degree segments.  Each segmental division of the Lunation cycle lasts approximately 3.5 days (84 hours). Each of the phases and the types of the lunation cycle are useful for a different kind of magick. Therefore, they represent a different mystery in the process of individual development. Lunation types include two states of the balsalmic (healing) and two of the gibbous (swelling) moons, adding four more types to the regular four phases.

Balsalmic phases are defined as the ascending and descending lunar crescent, which occurs just before and soon after the new moon. Gibbous phases are defined as nearly full, which occur just before and soon after the full moon. The following table was distilled from Dane Rudyar’s book “Lunation Cycle: A Key to the Understanding of Personality” (see pp. 50 - 56).

• New Moon Type - 0̊ - 45̊- Emergence - Subjective, impulsive, novelty
• Crescent Type - 45̊ - 90̊ - Expansion - Self assertion, self confidence
• First Quarter Type - 90̊ - 135̊ - Action - Crisis in action, strong-willed
• Gibbous Moon Type - 135̊ - 180̊ - Overcoming - Clarification, revelation & illumination
• Full Moon Type - 180̊ - 225̊ - Fulfillment - Objectivity, formulation, manifestation
• Disseminating Type - 225̊ - 270̊ - Demonstration - Disseminator of ideas, populist, teacher
• Last Quarter Type - 270̊ - 315̊ - Re-orientation - Crisis in consciousness, inflexibility
• Balsamic Type - 315̊ - 360̊ - Release - Transition, seed-state, germination

Looking over the above table, one can get a pretty good idea how to use the Lunation Cycle in magick and as well as pagan liturgy.

A powerful bell curve can be imagined when examining the key words used in this table. The latent powers of the unconscious mind emerge on or just after the New Moon, and then continue to grow as the moon waxes. From emergence, to expansion, to action, then to overcoming, the lunar energy reaches a climax with the Full Moon, whose forces are defined by the keywords: overcoming, clarification, revelation and inner illumination. Then the energy begins to wane, but a gibbous moon after full still has power and also an important role to play. So at this point, the lunation type becomes objectified and capable of communicating what has been precipitating within the unconscious mind. Then, there is a critical re-orientation or re-alignment, and finally, a release, where the energy fully submerges and all is once again outwardly quiet.

New magickal workings would typically start during or just after the New Moon phase, where a type of internalization is at its point of maximum effect. Then, one builds up the powers and magickal structures until on or just before the occurrence of the Full Moon, where the power is outwardly expressed as a climactic expression of force. Afterwards, the resolution that one is seeking through magick is either revealed or not. Then, with the exteriorization of all the energy, one seeks the solace of self-reflection, as the powers of the unconscious mind sink into its internal source. The waning moon, particularly at the point of the Balsamic type is useful for healing and for divination, so the entire lunation cycle is practical for the application of many kind of magickal operations.

Here are some key points about using the phases and types of the lunar cycle when you work magick. You should not only consider the astrological and astronomical environment (sun and moon signs), but also realize that magick is best served when performed at the most auspicious time. Therefore, timing is important!. The Sun and Moon are indicators of whether or not the time is right for a given magickal action. To unleash the most effective magick you must build up in a symbolic manner the “temporal snapshot” of your world, to establish the time and location where the magick is to be applied. This “temporal snapshot” is what I call the temporal link, and it’s amazing how many people don’t seem to realize how important making such a link is to the overall success of large-scale, magically assisted undertakings.

Small scale workings don’t really require a temporal link, but I have discovered, nearly by accident, that producing a temporal link for large scale workings helps to do two important things. These two things are:

• To establish a temporal signature that will be intelligible to spirits and magickal forces,
• To mark a spiritual mile-stone and to give it a focus in the present space-time continuum.

Establishing a temporal link can also be useful in establishing a time-limit for a given process to produce the results, even incrementally, that the magician is seeking.

The temporal link can consists of the following six elements (listed below). It should, at the very least, contain the combination of the seasonal, diurnal Solar aspects along with the phase/type for the Moon. These two elements will produce a symbolic expression of time. Additionally, the place (space or location) is defined as the exact point where the magick is projected into the earth (through the temple or grove).

The temporal symbolic link consists of:

• Solar Hour as Planetary Hour
• Sun in Zodiacal Sign - in relation to nearest Equinox or Solstice
• Moon in Zodiacal Sign - Seasonal Moon in relation to the four phases
• Lunation Type - 8 phases of the Moon
• Geological matrix - latitude, longitude and altitude
• Internal domain of the practitioner - natal zodiacal chart, progressed and transit chart.

Of these six items, the first four are most critical and used to determine the magickal equivalent of the temporal signature or link. In order to cause material manifestations and alterations one must first determine the temporal signature.

Moon in the 12 Zodiacal Signs and Full Moon Lore

As previously stated, the Full moon always occurs in the zodiacal sign opposite the Sun. It has specific astrological qualities, since the full moon represents a certain degree of fruition for spiritual and occult activities. The zodiacal sign that the full moon occupies is therefore quite significant, since it specifically qualifies it. There is also specific folklore that is associated with the full moon occurring during a month, and this folklore is often used to qualify any full moon working, whether liturgical or magickal.

First we will begin by examining the Moon in the twelve signs, so we can examine the qualities of those twelve aspects in greater detail. The moon signifies emotional energies and internal states of consciousness, and as it passes through the twelve signs, the qualities change and mutate according to the qualities of the astrological sign. (I have distilled these moon signs from the book, Planets in Signs, by Skye Alexander, pp. 71 - 96.)

Aries - boundless enthusiasm, assertive, emotional outbursts, highly energized, individualistic, impulsive, to live for the moment.

Taurus - easy going, placid, devoted friend and lover, simple and basic needs, emotionally centered and earthy, possessive, love of material things, luxuries, believes happiness can be bought, resistant to change.

Gemini - gregariousness, sociable, good communicator, restless, always seeking new stimulations, important of being unfettered, curious about everything.

   

Cancer - sensitive feelings, changeableness, emotionally expressive, heart rules head, strong empathy, maternal instincts, nurturing, protective of family and friends.

Leo - self confident, optimistic, cheerful, natural leader, always seeking attention, self centered, love of drama, creativity, strong willed.

Virgo - emotionally subdued, internalized, outwardly aloof, tight self-control, overly critical, self deprecating, helpful to others, service, selfless, concerned about the welfare of others.

Libra - emotional balance, need for harmonious interactions, displaced emotional expressions, sense of propriety, social tact and social awareness, compromising, indecisive, artistic, musical.

Scorpio - emotionally passionate, secretive, intensely sexual, seeks total union, jealous and possessive, can be vindictive, ruthless.

Sagittarius - happy go-lucky, optimistic, witty, affable, very sociable, loose emotional ties, importance of friendship, need to be free, disdainful of smothering and restrictive relationships.

Capricorn - emotionally internalized, unexpressive, deeply serious and sober, depressing, devalues self, fear of rejection, loyal, devoted to friends, family and lovers, reliable, practical, responsible.

Aquarius - unpredictable, explosive, sudden outbursts, strong sense of social justice, passionate about causes, rebellious, stubborn, willful, anti-authority, bohemian, radical, visionary.

Pisces - deep and intense emotions, secretive, introverted, psychic, empathic, compassionate, vivid imagination, reclusive, shy, seeks refuge, desires to be alone.

So the moon will acquire qualities depending on the sign that it is in as well as the sign that the Sun is occupying. Since the Sun changes its sign around the 20th of the month, the full moon will occur in the opposite sign. For each monthly full moon and its lore, we have two possible qualities for that full moon, depending on when in the month it occurs. Here is a list of three items to examine and research when planning on a full moon working:

• When seeking to qualify the full moon, combine the astrological qualities with the seasonal Full Moon folklore.

• Check almanacs and other sources of folklore to qualify the full moon for a given month.

• Build up a booklet of Seasonal Full Moon lore and astrological considerations (Moon in 12 Signs) to use for liturgy and magick.

Here’s an example of what you might assemble as information for the full moon in the month of June.

June - Strawberry Moon or Mead/Honey Moon

After the abundant flowers of the previous month have bloomed and passed away then the fruits begin to form, and strawberries are some of the first fruits to be harvested. Flowers also bring the bees which gather the pollen and produce honey, and from that is brewed the beverage called mead. June is also the time of the Summer Solstice, and the advent of the warm days of summer, and the planting of the rest of the crops in the more northern and less temperate lands. This month is partitioned by Gemini and Cancer.

• New Moon in Gemini - time for planning gatherings and celebrations
• New Moon in Cancer - protection against harm, nurturing and growing
• Full Moon in Sagittarius - happiness, fulfillment of pleasure, new liaisons
• Full Moon in Capricorn - material gain through hard work and organization

I assembled most of my full moon lore from, of all places, the Farmer’s Almanac. You can find that source in an online web-page here. There are also lots of other sources for lunar folklore as well, since most pagan publishers will have a book or two on lunar folklore.

(Continued...)

Frater Barrabbas

Lunar Mysteries and the Art of Moon Magick - Part 1

This is part one of a four part series on Lunar Mysteries and Moon Magick. I will be posting this series for the next four posting intervals. Moon magick and lunar mysteries are very important, so I think that these articles are timely and quite relevant.

Believe it or not, I once heard someone complain to a group of pagans that every full moon was practically the same, and that the monthly full moon rites that this person’s coven engaged in were boring and repetitious. When I heard this complaint, I was completely astonished! Obviously this person didn’t know very much about the moon, nor that each full moon that happens during the calendric year is unique and has a large body of folklore to go along with it. The moon is probably the most important celestial body in the sky, next to the sun, and certainly, it’s the most interesting. Yet hearing this complaint made me realize that the knowledge which I had acquired about the moon and lunar magick was not so common within the Pagan and Wiccan community. So for this reason, I decided that it would be prudent to put together an article on the lunar mysteries and the art of moon magick. If anyone is seeking to work magick that will affect their material aspirations, then knowing something about the moon is pretty important.

In fact, the most important consideration for any large series of workings involving earth-based magick is to harness the mysterious cycle of the moon and its mythology and folklore. In order to accomplish this task, the occultist is obligated to sift through a lot of moon lore, both scientific, astrological and esoteric in order to truly understand the significance and use of the moon in the art of magick.

This article will attempt to perform that task for you and help you to examine all of the various elements required to become proficient at using the moon for both pagan liturgies and practical forms of magick. There’s a lot of material to cover, but I decided to pull together a selection of that specific lore that will help you to make this mastery a lot easier. I would advise you to acquire some books on astrology and also some books on the various folklore and myths associated with the moon. Having this knowledge at hand will certainly make your pagan full moon rites and practical lunar based magick much more effective and esthetically pleasing. Let us now move on to examine all of this material.

Occult Beliefs vs. Scientific Explanations

We live in age where everything is seemingly explained away by the prowess of science, where there are no unfathomable mysteries nor is anything capable of withstanding for long the inquiry of modern empirical minds. Everything is reduced to the objective eye of science, and yet, and still, the average person stands in awe of the  constant changing cycles of the moon. Science has debunked almost all of the myths about the moon, yet they persist in common discussion even amongst educated people. So it would seem that the moon still casts her spell on the minds of humanity, and the apparent lunar mysteries persist despite our scientific explanations and even our most adventurous explorations of her rocky crust.

There are good reasons why all the myths and folklore about the moon persist, and why they will probably continue to exert a powerful influence on the mind and soul of humanity until the end of time. As long as human beings live on this planet and experience the various phenomena of the moon, sun, planets and the stars, they will have a psychological impact on human sentiment - there’s no escaping this fact. We are complex psychological beings, and merely the apprehension of facts alone does not rule our life nor dispel superstition or emotional sentiment. We also need to consider that science alone does not have a monopoly on objective truth, and that dissenting opinions and the powerful influences of culture are just as compelling as the consensus of science and scientists. 

The moon changes its shape throughout the month, seemingly never to appear at the same place or in the same guise. As the moon transforms itself, the tides of the seas and oceans seem to obey its cyclic passages, and the darkness of night is turned into twilight, illuminating a spectral landscape. The basic nature of the lunar mystery is that the moon changes its shape and its brightness, seeming to follow an endless pattern of constant change. The moon appears during both the day and the night, but it’s at night time when the moon’s effect is most dramatic. The moon is a symbol of transformation and seems to represent all that is changeable and ephemeral in our world, including the life cycle of all things living and breathing on this planet. This mystery is the mystery of light and darkness, life and death, the changing seasons, which are seen in the apparent movements of the moon, sun and the earth, and their complex interrelationship.

Science has explained all of this phenomena in an undramatic manner, dispelling all of the myths and false assumptions made about the effects of the moon on the earth. We should examine these facts and then quickly pass over them because knowing what science has said about this topic does help to shape our opinions and clarify the occult beliefs and associated phenomena with the practice of ritual magick. We will not hold onto arbitrary beliefs and promote falsehoods in the guise of good occultism. Science has done an adequate job of explaining the objective and material universe that is both within and all around us, and we would be foolish to easily dismiss these carefully tested and empirically determined truths.

Still, science has nothing to say about the nature of the human soul, the nature of Spirit and the internal perceptions and sentiments associated with the human psyche. In fact science refuses to even examine a phenomenon unless it can be measured, and that measurement verified by repetition. Some might question the methods of measuring these phenomena and the theories that underlie them. These are topics that are outside of the supposed empirical universe, and therefore, are the topical areas most suited to the discourse of religious and occult philosophies.

Therefore, we shall refrain from stating that the moon’s gravitational effects or the effects of the light of the moon have any dramatic impact on individual human beings, animals or small inanimate objects. What is affected by the moon is the human mind, its perceptions, sentiments, and inner spiritual reflections, and these we will address in this article. Humanity has been staring into the night sky for untold millennia, and this fact alone has shaped human beliefs and opinions long before science was ever organized as an academic discipline.

We will focus on the folklore and psychological effects of the moon, sun and their apparent motion and alignments, and how these may be used to great effect in the practice of ritual magick. Therefore, we need to look at several items as we examine these interesting facts and their use in practical occultism. (Here is a list of seven items for us to consider.)

• Phases of the Moon - four quarters, lunation cycle - psychology and basic folklore as well as assumed physiological effects. Considerations about elemental magick as associated with the lunar phases should also be examined.

• Seasonal full moon folklore and astrological aspects of the full moon phenomenon. Each full moon has its own qualities and special characteristics, and these qualify the magic that is performed.

• Twenty-eight lunar mansions - planetary and talismanic considerations. The lunar mansions can be used to project beneficial as well as baleful magical powers.

• Solar and lunar interrelationships - eclipses both solar and lunar - cycle of light and darkness, life and death, as projected upon the wheel of the year. Also we should consider the tidal cycles such as spring, neap and proxigean spring tides.

• Greater and lesser wheel of fortune - solar and lunar wheels of fortune - personal cycle of material and emotional increase and decrease.

• Practical magic always has an element of timing in addition to initiative and action. Knowledge of one’s own personal wheel of fortune is a determinant of successful material based magic.

• Key to integrating the lunar and solar cycles into one’s magic is learning to incorporate a type of lunar telesterion (temple) into one’s magick. This temple is defined in ritual magick as an energy field consisting of a vortex encompassed with a double gateway, where the mysteries of the seasonal sun and lunar phase are declared and expressed as a symbolic link, which also acts as a temporal link.

These seven items are quite important for the occult considerations in working magic and causing an impact in one’s personal material world. They also don’t in any way violate the premises currently vogue in the scientific community, since they are concerned with a domain that science has either nothing to say about or is incapable of making any kind of determination or measurement. But first we should examine some of the objective facts about the moon.

Some of the factual points that science does make, which we would have to incorporate into our thinking consists of the following items. From a scientific perspective the Moon is: 

• A spherical rocky body that is the one and only satellite of the planet Earth,
• Nearly a third of the size of the Earth ,
• Distance from the Moon to the Earth is a mean distance of 238,600 miles,
• Moon has a complex elliptical orbit around the Earth,
• Equatorial radius is 1,080 miles,
• Lacks an active magnetic field, so it likely doesn’t have a molten core,
• Earth and Moon actually orbit each other, possessing a common center of mass that is not the center of the Earth, but only approximately 2,900 miles from the surface,
• Moon and Earth exert a powerful gravitation pull on each other,
• Moon pulls the oceans slightly out from the Earth as it passes closest to it. ( Actually, the Moon is pulling up on the oceans and the Earth is pulling down. The combination of these forces causes the tides.)

If the Moon did not exist, then the Sun would still cause diminished cyclic tides. Tides are the gravitational effect on large bodies of water - oceans, seas, large lakes, rivers, even the atmosphere and crust of the earth. (Large things are so affected, but not things that are relatively small.) The gravitation effect of tides is caused by a combination of the Sun, Moon and Earth. This interrelationship also causes solar and lunar eclipses and the lunar phases of full through new.

Moon’s gravitational force is only one ten-millionth of the Earth’s gravitational force, and the Sun’s is only 40% of the Moon’s force.  Therefore, the Moon’s gravitation effect has no discernable impact on animals or people. Lunar and planetary light is also insignificant, since it is merely reflected light whose origin is from the Sun. Sunlight, however, does indeed powerfully affect the Earth.

Some of the natural phenomenon associated with the period tides affecting large bodies of water has the following qualities:

“Because the earth rotates on its axis the moon completes one orbit in our sky every 25 hours (Not to be confused with moon's 27 day orbit around the earth), we get two tidal peaks as well as two tidal troughs.

These events are separated by about 12 hours. Offshore, in the deep ocean, the difference in tides is usually less than 1.6 feet. The surf grows when it approaches a beach, and the tide increases. In bays and estuaries, this effect is amplified. (Example: In the Bay of Fundy, tides have a range of 44.6 ft.).

Since the moon moves around the Earth, it is not always in the same place at the same time each day. So, each day, the times for high and low tides change by 50 minutes.” - (See the web page for the source of the above quotation.)

Spring tides are exceptionally strong tides that occur when the Sun, Moon and the Earth are in line, such as when the Moon appears to be full or new on the Earth. Neap tides occur when the Sun and Moon are at right angles to the Earth, canceling out their gravitational forces and producing a weaker variation of the high and low tides, such as when the Moon appears to be in either the first or last quarter.

Perigee points are defined as celestial events where the Moon is closest to the Earth, and the Earth is the closest to the Sun. These events occur, of course, during specific times of the year and during specific seasons. Lunar perigee occurs twice a year, in late December through January and late June through July, depending on the northern or southern latitude. Solar perigee occurs once a year, also in late December. 

Every 18 months an unusually high tide occurs, and this is called a Proxigean Spring Tide. It occurs when the Moon is at its closest point to the Earth (called the closest perigee, or proxigee) and is in the New Moon phase (meaning that the Moon is between the Earth and the Sun). These are significant events in the astrological calendar of the practicing occultist - there are bi-annual (Lunar), annual (Solar) and semi-annual cycles (Lunar and Solar) that effect the tides of the oceans on the earth, and by analogy, the fortunes of individual human beings. (This is, of course, a very important point.)

Lunar affects on human behavior, also called the “Transylvania effect” have been pretty conclusively demonstrated to be false. This was done through an effective analysis of whether the full or new moon have any affects on any specific behavior, maladies or social phenomena, such as alcoholism, mental attacks, menstruation, violence, murder rates, and even stock market variations. All of these correlations have been found to be statistically insignificant. What does seem to be operating are people’s beliefs, cultural myths, folklore and emotional sentiments. Science would judge such causes as not being statistically relevant, but they do seem to impact behavior, and in an almost predictable fashion.

Still, there are some hotly contested areas of dispute within the various disciplines of medicine and biological research. Medical research still shows correlations between medical phenomena and either full of new moon - however, that research is in dispute. The final verdict is as yet unknown. We, however, will not engage in this debate because our topic is not determined by objective empiricism, but rather by psychology and culture. 

(Continued..)

Frater Barrabbas

Pantheacon 2011 - Preparations and Research

 Pantheacon 2011

I have completed my class notes and handouts for the upcoming Pantheacon 2011, which is scheduled to occur next month, from Feb 18 through Feb 21. I have been slated to present two workshops at this gathering. This event is now less than a month away, and I have to say that I am really looking forward to it, particularly since the wintry weather here is getting a bit bleak and difficult to deal with. Sunny San Jose will be a welcome distraction to the cold tundra-like climate of the Twin Cities in the midst of deep winter.

Anyway, these two presentations are new to my slowly building collection of workshops and lectures. What I usually do for Pantheacon is to propose up to four workshops or lectures, all of them untried but based on previous articles and research. When one or more gets approved, then I will assemble my research and writings to build up the workshop or lecture. The two workshops that the Pantheacon staff selected were “Astrological Decans - Key to Evocation” and “Lunar Magick.” The first one is based on three or four articles that I have already written and researched, and despite that assembled information, I still found that I had some holes in my presentation that had to be researched and filled. The second one was based on a rather lengthy article that I have written but never published entitled “Lunar Mysteries and Moon Magick.” This article will be part of the book that I am assembling on Elemental and Talismanic Magick, using the lore of the Order of the Gnostic Star for that work.

If you have been faithfully reading my blog articles, you will note a recent article that I penned which dealt with the issues of the Goetic daemons and whether or not there were 72 daemons, 69 or perhaps even 73. You can find that article here, just in case you missed it. That was a bit of a hair pulling conundrum that I had to resolve before writing my presentation on the Astrological Decans. As I resolved that issue, I also wrote up an article to support that research, adding to the total articles needed to back up the presentation.

One issue was still outstanding, and I ran smack into it when I attempted to start pulling and assembling all of the writings and data that I had collected or written together. I discovered that there appears to be two schools of thought when it comes to assigning the spirits (both angels of the ha-Shem and the Goetic daemons) to the specific decans and their associated quinarians. This issue was discovered when I was working on retrieving the seals for the 72 angels of the ha-Shem and attempting to show how the decan could be more aptly used to define the qualities of the spirits. I wanted to see if other authors had given the decans that much power in defining the qualities of the associated spirits.

What I discovered is that the two schools seem to be the Golden Dawn and other European occultists, with Carroll “Poke” Runyan and his system giving weight to the European methodology. The whole issue revolves around where to start the decan and spirit association, in other words, which decan would be considered the first decan in this set, and this might also determine when in the season one could access that decan. The Golden Dawn system starts their decan list with first decan face of Leo, the other methodology starts in the most obvious place, in the first decan face of Aries. Starting in Aries would make sense if one were using Tropical Astrology, which is what I use in all my occult works. This is because it's considered the starting point for that system of astrology, which naturally starts at the Vernal Equinox (zero degrees Aries). The Golden Dawn preference for starting in Leo was both unexpected and also poorly documented. Very few authors have given any explanation as to why this choice was made, but many, including Thelemites like Lon Milo DuQuette (and Aleister Crowley) used this system, seemingly without question.

As you recall, we stated previously that each decan appears at the ascendent at dusk (or some say dawn) for approximately 10 days, which would leave five intercalated days. So if one has a methodology that determines the first decan and the start of the astrological wheel, it could also impact not only the spirits associated with quinarians, but also their qualities and astrologically based definitions. I decided that this issue warranted a massive search that would include the internet as well as any and all books in my library. I also consulted with a friend of mine (Ananael Qaa) who is probably a lot more knowledgeable about these obscure issues than me. What I uncovered was that other occultists had different opinions on how this should be resolved.

“Poke” Runyan decided that the traditional tropical astrological paradigm required that the first decan face in the set should be the first decan of Aries. Another individual, French occulitst Robert Ambelain, who wrote the book “La Kabbale Pratique,” also favored the Aries first solution. I found a translation of chapter five of his book on the Shemhamphorash in a PDF file associated with a certain Golden Dawn group. Still, despite all of that weighty evidence pointing to the starting point at the first decan of Aries, I was unfortunately wedded to the Golden Dawn version that proposed Leo as it’s starting point. The rational for this choice is explained in Book T with a rather terse and unhelpful explanation. I was vaguely informed by this brief explanation that the reason for this odd starting place has to do with determining that point using the star Cor Leonis (Heart of the Lion, also Regulus), which represents the beginning of the zodiacal sign of Leo. No reason for this choice is discussed or why it was used. This lack of explanation could be considered a small mystery, or just something that was assumed everyone would know.

Other authors have done little to illuminate this choice. Aleister Crowley accepted it without any comment, which was odd. If it were an arbitrary choice, then I am sure that Crowley would have researched it and replaced it with something more “Thelemic.” Even Lon Milo Duquette, in his book “Angels, Demons & Gods of the New Millennium” accepts this starting point. Lon explains it as having something to do with Chaldean astrology, but doesn’t go any deeper into the issue than that. He did produce a beautiful color table that shows how the spirits of the ha-Shem and the Goetic daemons fit together into a tight system, all associated with the decans and their associated Tarot cards, and all starting in the first decan face of Leo.

A comprehensive search of the internet turned up the interesting revelation that this issue has been discussed and pondered over by a number of individuals, and the various explanations for it were all very weak. No one seemed to know why this difference existed. And it got even more interesting when I attempted to compare either of these associations with what Dr. Rudd had done in his version of the Goetia. Dr. Rudd’s system was unique and appeared to use the sequence of spirits associated with the Goetia, where the first daemon in that work would be coupled with the first angel of the ha-Shem, needless to say, that made yet a third methodology that one could follow. I found Dr. Rudd’s version to be awkward and not very meaningful, but that could be easily explained by the fact that he lived in the first half of the 17th century when such a comprehensive system didn't yet exist.

Consulting the other experts in the Golden Dawn tradition didn’t yield any additional information. Pat Zelewski discusses the fact that there are other methodologies in his book “Kabbalah of the Golden Dawn.”  He doesn't explain why this is so, or why the Golden Dawn uses Leo first. He does refer the reader to Franz Bardon and his system. So I consulted  the material written by Franz Bardon, examining his book “Practice of Magical Evocation,” but Franz uses the Aries first sequence, so it was surprising that Pat Zelewski recommended that book to his readers.

Perhaps the only one who has actually managed to explain this issue in a manner that actually makes sense is David Griffin in his book “Ritual Magick Manual.” David talks about how the Golden Dawn, from Mather’s time, sought to use a system of astrology that was more based on Sidereal astrology than Tropical astrology. That would make a lot of sense, because the Golden Dawn Book T says that the choice for the decan starting point was to place it in the first decan of Leo, so as to be aligned with the star Regulus. This might seem to be still rather vague and inexplicable, and indeed it was, until I examined the mythology and background of the fixed stars, particularly Regulus.

I consulted a favorite book of mine, entitled “The Fixed Stars and Constellations in Astrology” written by Vivian E. Robson, which is a veritable goldmine of interesting occult facts for the fixed stars, lunar mansions, nebulae, clusters and even how they are used in magick. I decided just for the sake of thoroughness, I would examine this book to see what it said about Regulus. Low and behold, I believe that I found the answer to the enigma, but it was not in any of the books about the Golden Dawn. Here’s what that book had to say about Regulus.

“A triple star, flushed white and ultramarine, situated on the body of the Lion. From Regulus, a Little King, and often called Cor Leonis, the Lion’s Heart, and symbolically the crushing Foot. It was one of the four Royal Stars of the Persians in 3,000 B.C., when, as Watcher of the North, it marked the summer solstice.”

We can throw away the reference to 3,000 BC (this book was first published in 1923 and has a decided Theosophical bias), but the rest is quite interesting.

If also consider that the helical rising of Sirius also occurred during the early part of Leo, and coincided with the ancient Egyptian new year, when the calendar changed over to the first month, then the choice for this starting point begins to make a lot of sense. It would seem that Mathers had some very good reasons for choosing the first decan of Leo as his starting point, based on a desire to determine it through a sidereal approach, and to begin this set with the annual cycle as the ancient Egyptians would have understood it. The argument for this approach is that the Egyptians used the decan system exclusively as their variation of astrology, calendric determination and even the means of telling the hour at night. How they used the decans would be an appropriate consideration for a magickal tradition and organization that saw the ancient Egyptians as their predecessors.

So I believe that the mystery is pretty well solved, although the devil is in the details, of course. Still, because I have invested so much already in the Golden Dawn variant, I think that I will keep using that version, not the least because I would then be able to continue to use Lon’s beautiful color table. Anyway, this bit of detective work ate up nearly four or five days of my spare time, but I think that it’s worth it. At least if anyone asks me why I have adopted this system I won’t just say because its part of the Golden Dawn tradition and not to be questioned. I now can give at least a sensible explanation as to why it’s different, and feel confident in using it. This is not to say that the Golden Dawn method is in any way superior; in fact, intuitively I would have chosen the Aries first method instead, and there seems to be little need to explain that approach.

One other little item I found out is that the proper spelling for the word Shemhamphorash is actually Shem ha-Mephorash. That little point was made known to me in my research, and I have adjusted my notes and handouts accordingly. 

The assembling of the Lunar Magick workshop was actually quite straightforward. In fact I had more material than I could conceivably present in a 90 minute maximum class time period. I will have to zip through the material I did include since there is so much of it, but I think that when I have gotten through it all, that the attendees will know the value of tying their magickal and liturgical work to the cycles of the moon. This is particularly important for important ro strategic magickal workings that seek to dramatically change one’s material situation. I will be posting some additional articles on that topic in this blog on or after the workshop has been presented - so stay tuned.

If you are thinking about attending Pantheacon 2011 this year, I would like to let you know that I will be there, too, and also to give you the times and locations of my two presentations. The program book has not yet been made available to the public, so the schedule at this point is tentative but fairly certain. Here’s some information about the two classes that you can use - but don’t forget to examine the program book to make certain nothing has been changed. I hope to see you there. I will be bringing my laptop with me, so I might even make a remark or two in my blog while I am attending. There are some very interesting programs and presentations being given during that period, so I am hoping to get to attend some of them. I will also get to see some really good friends that I haven't seen since the last time I was there. Hopefully, I will get to make some new ones, too, so if you are there, drop into my class or say hello if you happen to bump into me. I will have autographed copies of my books for sale, just in case you might be interested.

Here are the workshop classes and the times and locations where they will meet. You will notice that both of them are scheduled for Friday. Interestingly enough, the workshop on Lunar Magick will be held during the Full Moon for February. How cool is that occurrence?!   


Title: Astrological Decans - Key to Evocation

When & Where: Friday - 01:30 PM - Santa Clara

Description: This workshop will examine all of the elements, including correspondences and materials from other authors that will show how the astrological decans, also known as the Faces, are the key to categorizing and mastering the invocation of the Ha-Shem Angels, Goetic Demons and the Angelic Rulers.


Title: Lunar Magick

When & Where: Friday - 07:00 PM - Santa Clara

Description: This workshop examines how the cycle of the moon can be used to powerfully effect practical magick. We will examine the seasonal full moons, the eight phases of the lunation cycle and the 28 mansions of the moon.

Frater Barrabbas

Lesser Wheel of Fortune & Practical Magick

This is an article that appeared in Rending the Veil - Yule Edition. I thought that it would be good to place the raw article here for my readers to examine, since it is a continuation of my exposition of practical magick.

We have covered the greater wheel of fortune and how it’s associated with the solar return and the point 180 degrees from the solar return, or halfway in the annual cycle. This greater wheel of fortune is very important to know if one is going to work magick to change one’s material situation.

There is also a lesser wheel of fortune that involves the moon and this lesser cycle is more characterized by the emotions than by material gain. It is an important truth that if the emotions are not aligned with one’s greater material purpose, then one’s endeavors will ultimately fail.

This lesser wheel of fortune has the same basic components as the greater wheel. The natal chart lunar position is extracted and the halfway point in this cycle is determined by plotting a position that is exactly 6 zodiacal signs ahead of the natal Moon position. For instance, my Natal Moon is in Gemini when the moon was gibbous (just before full), so the halfway point would be the Moon in Sagittarius when it is balsamic. So I can use either the lunation types of gibbous and balsamic to represent the natal return and halfway point or I can use the signs of the Moon in Gemini and Sagittarius. Either set of points have their validity.

Now for me the emotional wheel of fortune works like this. When the Moon is gibbous or in the sign of Gemini, I am typically feeling very emotionally centered, grounded and fulfilled. When the halfway point is achieved, then my emotional state is decidedly muted and turned inward. It’s a time when I am not as certain of myself and feel compelled to question my motives and the things that I usually take for granted. The natal lunar point is an emotional high point and the halfway point is one of instability, where the unconscious mind is more able to affect me and my emotional sense of self.

The key to this emotional wheel of fortune is that it’s better to perform magickal workings so that they achieve their climax up to but not far beyond the full moon. The waning moon represents particularly difficult times for me and it’s much better to use that time for reflection, divination and contemplation, allowing the unconscious mind to unload some of its internal pressures and negative or dark-self perceptions in a controlled environment. It’s also a good idea to synchronize the greater and lesser wheels of fortune so that magickal workings and mundane actions involving material advancement occur during the better half for both patterns. For me, that would be the second half of my solar year when the Moon is gibbous. I would also be advised by these cycles to avoid taking risks during that same time when the Moon is waning and nearing the new moon phase.

We can also analyze the transit aspects of the Natal Moon with the Transiting Moon and get a very clear idea of the kind of forces that are active. Like the Sun, we can examine the aspect where the Transit Moon is in conjunction with the Natal Moon and the aspect where the Transit Moon is in opposition to the Natal Moon.

Transit Moon conjunct Natal Moon: This is called the Lunar return and it occurs once every month. It represents the beginning of an emotional cycle. It’s a time of emotional sensitivity and emotional intensity. It has a magnetic effect, and tends to attract external events and people to its emanating field. Another way of examining the Lunar return is to determine the precise lunation type found in the Natal chart. This represents the lunation type that one was born under, so it becomes a powerful emotional base for the individual.

Transit Moon opposition to Natal Moon: This aspect represents deepening moods and powerful emotions. One becomes self-absorbed and loses objectivity, which tends to create emotional oppositions with others. It’s definitely not a time to be dealing with relationship issues, business partnerships or emotional issues involving family or friends. It is a good time to go deep into the self and retrieve insights and directives from the deeper self.

So you can see, there is a Greater Wheel of Fortune involving the solar return, and a Lesser Wheel of Fortune that involves the lunar return. Both cycles need to be carefully examined, and dates where both cycles are at their optimum can be chosen for the working of material based magick.

Frater Barrabbas


Bibliography

Hand, Robert (1976) Planets In Transit: Life Cycles for Living  Para Research Inc., Gloucester, MA