Godhead Assumption and Sacramental Magic

 

As Witches and Pagans, our beliefs and practices have established a practical theology that proposes an immanent and intimate encounter and engagement with Deity. While monotheistic traditions had adopted a theology that proposed that Deity was both transcendental and immanent, in practice they established a Deity that was purely transcendental. This is why Islam and Judaism held forth sanctified individuals who acted as intermediaries for their Godhead (i.e., prophets, high priests or sheikhs), and why Christianity established a Son of God that was both flesh and blood, mortal and also one with the transcendental Deity. A transcendental Godhead is remote, segregated from material life and outside of creation altogether. This, of course, is a fundamental difference between modern Witchcraft and Paganism and monotheistic faiths, since our deities are a part of creation and also participate in the material world and our mortality. Witchcraft and Pagan Deities are accessible, immanent, and intimate to us as we worship them. Therefore, we have a right and a privilege to access them, and to engage, and assume, briefly, their god-like nature into our humanity.

I know that in my past years of functioning as a Witch that the tradition has reserved the godhead assumption to that elect group of initiates known as high priestesses and high priests. However, we should understand that there is no barrier between even the least experienced of us and the Goddesses and Gods that we worship. The role of vested and permanent intermediary in our faith is one that is false and borrowed from Christian sacerdotalism, so it must be stated that the titles of high priestess and high priest are both somewhat arrogant and likely misleading. In point of fact, we are all priestesses and priests of the Deities that we worship.

We don’t need unelected leaders and intermediaries in our faith and religious practices to block us from the true relationship between our Deities and ourselves, since we are gifted and privileged with direct access to our Goddesses and Gods. If someone leads a ritual, performs an exclusive drawing down, or lives their life as one who personifies and functions as a terrestrial representative of the Gods, then they do so with our affirmation, honor, and engagement. We know that such roles are assumed by us to worship and honor the Gods and they are not done for selfish and egotistic reasons. Some of us are gifted as role-playing leaders in our ceremonial rites, and some of us have mastered the art of godhead assumption or live as mortal representatives of the Gods, but only in service to the Deities, and such roles are brief or limited by human weakness and mortality.

There should never be any kind of assumption of personal power or assumed authority when it comes to acting as an intermediary for the Gods by an individual. This is why I believe that functioning as a group leader and also exclusively acting as an spiritual intermediary is a potential problem, and therefore, I don’t allow it for myself and I hope that it will evolve out of our praxis. Acting as an intermediary should always be a temporary role within the religious practices of a Witch or Neopagan group, and it should be separated from any kind of position of leadership.

Sacraments

Now that I have laid down the foundation of my thoughts on godhead assumption, I would like to progress to another associated concept and that it the generation and use of sacraments. Anything that is blessed by the Deity is considered a sacrament, particularly if it is blessed by someone acting through a godhead assumption. They will take the object in their hands, blow their breath upon it (pneuma - spirit), make a sign upon it, say words to the effect that it is now blessed, and that object is now and forever changed, becoming a sacrament associated with that Deity. Typically, sacraments consist of food and drink or lustral water, but they can also be amulets or tokens, oils or balms, perfumes, potions and medicinal concoctions.

These sacraments represent what is returned from the Deity to the worshipers, in contradistinction to the votive offerings and prayers made to it. There is a complete cycle of offerings made to the Deity by us and sacraments returned from it to us. The whole basis of generating sacraments is that it is a medium through which pagans and witches establish communion with their Deity, and in this fashion, they are continuing a methodology and practice that was found in Roman Catholic rites until recently. The difference is that pagans and witches deal directly with their Deities and experience them in a tangible and material fashion, unlike the Eucharistic rites of Catholic and Orthodox Christians, who make due with a surrogate officiant. A pious Catholic would never say that their priest had assumed the godhead of Christ, but they would say that he was acting as a mere representative for the miraculous transubstantiation ordained by their God. A godhead assumption does not even conceivably play a part in that rite, but it is a core practice in the rites of modern Paganism and Witchcraft.

So, it would seem that the central tenant in the modern practice of Paganism and Witchcraft is the ritual of godhead assumption, performed as not only a sacred communion rite, but where the practicing medium becomes for a short time the actual personification of that Deity. There is not only transubstantiation involved in the communion rite, but there is also a powerful transformation of the elected officiant who directly assumes the target covenstead Deity. However, that ritual practice and the role of priestess or priest is not delegated to a single specialized individual, but it is available to all participants. Additionally, the items that are consecrated and sacralized in the communion process can be used as magical tools and devices imbued as they are with the essence of the Deity. Not only can sacraments be used to charge and sanctify other objects, they can be used to project the power and authority of the Deity into the material world. Using sacraments in magical workings in this manner is what I call sacramental theurgy.

Individual Godhead Assumption

Godhead assumption is not limited to the drawing down rites of the covenstead Goddess or God, but a singular version of it can be used to assume a godhead for any practical and magical working. Witches can observe and experience strong and deep trance alignments with the Deity, or weaker and more conscious focused assumptions. The effect of the godhead assumption can be made more intense and deep or less intense and more conscious by establishing the baseline trance as either deep or shallow. In either situation, the connection between the Deity and practitioner is strong enough to impact the communion rite at its deepest level, or any other magical ritual working while assuming a state that allows for conscious actions and individual awareness. When I consider the methodologies that I use to perform my ritual workings, everything that I do while performing rituals is through the guise of a weak but effective godhead assumption. In this manner, all the magic that I am performing is a form of theurgy, because the gods are engaged and aligned with the ritual work that I am doing, and they are guiding and adding their power and authority to assist my goals. What that means is that my magic is, at its core, not will-based magic, since I am incorporating the Deity whose persona I have assumed and through that guise I will perform my magical working. When I work magic, then, it is the “will of the Gods” through whom I am seeking a material or spiritual objective.

While the Drawing Down rite for a goddess assumption is publicly available as is the drawing down of the god, the more basic and simpler version of this more elaborate rite is what is used by individuals to perform the godhead assumption rite. I have covered this ritual extensively in my book “Spirit Conjuring for Witches”, but I will briefly discuss it here as the nine steps for individual godhead assumption. It is assumed that the operator will have previously performed votive offerings, prayers, hymns of praise and adulation, and other liturgical tasks associated with the worship of this Deity before attempting to perform the godhead assumption. (We will cover that in the next section.)

Rite of Godhead Assumption

1. Begin with a preliminary period of meditation and trance induction. The trance state can be deep or shallow, depending on the type of godhead assumption to be worked. Once the meditation is completed, then stand fully erect, aware and awake.

2. First self-centering and ascending wave of energy. Visualize and draw the energy up from the soles of one’s feet, through the body positions, of feet, knees, crotch, heart, lips and crown and beyond in an ascending wave. Lift the arms up and look to the zenith point and beyond. Feel the body open up to the greater spiritual influences. The ascending wave is marked by a slow inhalation and body stretch from feet to crown.

3. Primary invocation to a specific Deity. Call to a specific Deity, request it to descend down into oneself. Build an image or imago of the Deity, and establish an emotional yearning and passion for union. The calling and summoning can be memorized or it can be extemporaneous, or a combination of both.

4. Second self-centering and descending wave of energy. Visualize and draw the energy down from above the crown of the head, to the crown, lips, heart, crotch, knees and feet in a descending wave. Start with the arms up raised and then draw the energy down into oneself, where the arms are swept down to one’s side and head down and looking at the feet. Feel the spiritual light enter into the body and flow down from the crown to the feet, while performing a slow exhalation.

5. Mantle of Glory - draw a cross on the body, connecting the head to the crotch, right shoulder to the left shoulder with the right hand. Place the hands palms together before the chest and feel the energy of the cross radiating on one’s body and centering in the heart.

6. Heart Gateway - with the right hand, draw a triangle on one’s body, with the points of the right breast, left breast, and the crotch. Place the hands palms together before the chest and feel one’s heart opening and filled with love. Then perform a second invocation, calling the Deity to enter into the gateway of the heart and to join with the operator. This invocative becomes more like a chant, where the operator says, over and over, “come into me, join with me, let us be one.”

7. After pausing for a short period, perform the third centering and ascending energy wave. Visualize and draw the energy up from the soles of one’s feet, through the body positions, of feet, knees, crotch, heart, lips and crown and beyond in an ascending wave. Lift the arms up and look to the zenith point and beyond. Feel the body with its assumed Deity riding up into the heavens. The ascending wave is marked by a slow inhalation and body stretch from feet to crown.

8. Connect with assumed Deity and feel the merging of both strands of consciousness into a single strand. Stand for a period until the state of mind feels stable and fully established. Once this is done, then one can perform any tasks in the guise of the Deity, especially the blessing, charging and consecrating of sacraments.

9. Once the work is completed, stand silently for a moment, and thank the Deity for its appearance, feel love and gratitude for it, and then release it from oneself. After a short period of sitting meditation, perform a ground exercise to unburden the body of excess energies and to return to fully normal consciousness.

One thing that I will make apparent to my readers is that the above ritual has an implicit pattern of invocation, constraining, binding and releasing within it. These are the hallmarks of Witchcraft magic, except that the receptacle of this work is oneself.

Votive Offerings and Deity Worship

In order to assume the godhead of a Deity, it is important to give offerings and worship to it before ever approaching the godhead assumption rite. Regarding the cycle of Deity reciprocity, it is important to begin that cycle with the offerings and worship of a votive offering. I have discussed this in previous articles, the books “Spirit Conjuring for Witches” and my latest book, “Mastering the Art of Witchcraft,” so here is what that formal liturgical pattern would look like. You will need to have written up special invocations, worshipful hymns, and have at hand the offering of candles, incense, food and drink. Focusing on one special Deity is also a good idea as long as the other Deities in the pantheon are not omitted from the general offering. If this votive offering is being made to seek a favor from the Gods, then that will be part of what is stated when the working is performed.

This rite is performed in sacred space, so the circle will be consecrated before this work commences. In addition to the prayer hymns, the officiant will also use the image descriptions and the invocation calls to each Deity, asking them to descend and bless the temple. When this rite is performed as part of a full moon esbat or solar sabbat, the officiant will present to the Deities token offerings of food and drink. Here is the pattern for this rite.

1. Perform the circle consecration and any preparation steps required for a full temple operation. Liturgical rites are best performed in sacred space.

2. Stand before a shrine or altar decorated for one’s pantheon, and light some candles. Then using the censor, incense the whole area of the altar or shrine. Then bow low before it and back away, facing the altar or shrine from a comfortable distance.

3. With arms and hands extended in the form of an entreaty, recite a memorized short hymn or prayer to each of the Deities in the pantheon. (These can be extemporized as well.)

4. Kneel and bow before the shrine or altar briefly touching the head to floor, and then rise and recite the memorized invocation for each of the Deities, including the short description to formulate an image of each one.

5. If this is a monthly full moon or a solar sabbat, then the officiant will rise and get the food and drink offering and place it on the shrine or altar. Officiant bows low before the shrine and says: I offer unto you a more fitting sacrifice of food and drink, given to you as a sign of my care, devotion, and alliance. May this offering please you and be acceptable.

6. Sit before the shrine or altar and perform the meditation session for around fifteen minutes.

7. Stand up, bow before the shrine, and address each Deity and thank them for attending your prayer session.
   
Meditation and prayer in the temple should be a daily practice, and votive offerings of incense and candle light can be part of a weekly practice. You can also add offerings of food and drink at least once a month or whenever a magical working is planned.

The cycle of reciprocity with the Deity will help to empower your magical workings and bring you closer to your pantheon. It consists of votive offerings, godhead assumption and sacramental communion. The rite of godhead assumption and communion can be performed once a month when the moon is full, or whenever you have need. A regular liturgical practice such as this should function as the foundation of your religious and magical endeavors. It will also ensure that you are in proper alignment with your pantheon, and with that special godhead to whom you are performing the assumption rite.

Intimate Deities and Magic

This brings us to our conclusion, and that is to discuss pulling together all of these practices to ensure that the operator is fully empowered, sacramentally aligned and capable of working magic in the guise of their Deity. What this does to the operator is to mask their individual will with that of the Gods, so that the magic that is performed is represented as the work in the material world of the Deity. Working magic while under the powerful influence of the godhead assumption will give greater power and authority to whatever magical objective one seeks to achieve.

However, there is a wrinkle to this approach to magic, and that is knowing the will of the Gods. When approaching the Deity for a favor or securing a material objective, it is important to know that such a goal is within the provenance of the Deity. Individual Deities have individualized personalities and motives, and they can be capricious and changeable. Yet, even Gods cannot make the impossible into an achievable objective, unless conditions for a “black swan” incident are met. Asking for the impossible may also be deemed impertinent, and asking for a favor that is outside the purview of their powers and qualities will meet with little success. Thus, it is always wise to divine the will of the Gods for any spiritual or magical endeavor. The use of dice or knucklebones is probably the easiest way to ask if the Gods are aligned to a specific objective, and through offerings and worship, a negative response can possibly be made into a positive one.

If an operator performs the cycle of devotion and assumption for a long enough period of time, then it is likely that they will begin to intuitively know the will of the Gods without having to perform divination. Still, it is a good idea to always to check, and so there is always a role for divination to know, at that moment, what the Gods ordain.

Frater Barrabbas
 
 

Changing Fortunes and Beginners Book

 

The month of March certainly was a wild ride for me. Paganicon was a great experience and also one that was personally very meaningful to me. While I was exposed to a very hostile winter like Spring, I enjoyed the warmth of meeting old friends and making new ones. I met a few people who would play a key roles in my changing fortunes as a writer. Things that I had thought were reliably set turned out to be capriciously overturned. It seemed that I had been inspired while at the convention to try to write a beginner’s book on Witchcraft magic, but I had doubts that Llewellyn would want to publish such a book.

I returned to Richmond resolved to get my fourth book in the “For Witches” series, “Sacramental Theurgy for Witches” into the production with Llewellyn and fulfill my contractual obligations. Folks at the Llewellyn HQ seemed to love the print out copies of the illustrations, so I thought that everything was all set. I just needed to hear back from my acquisitions editor about any revisions or fixes that would be required for the manuscript. Little did I realize that things were about to abruptly change.

Ten days after I had returned home from the convention, and still touched by the glow of what had happened to me there, I received notification from my Llewellyn acquisitions editor that Llewellyn staff  had met in their vision meeting and decided that they didn’t want to publish my book “Sacramental Theurgy for Witches.”  They got the impression that I was trying to urge the Witchcraft community to adopt my own idiosyncratic practices and drop their tried and true ones, and I was trying to sell revised practices that they already had been using. In their opinion, this was very different from the previous three books, and they just couldn’t see any profit in publishing this book.

While it is true that I had sought to reform the basic traditional coven practice where the High Priestess ran the coven and also channeled the covenstead Deity, because I saw it as a conflict of interests and a means of giving too much power to her over the other members of the coven, the rest of the book contained nothing but new practices, many of them cutting edge for the Witchcraft community. It almost seemed as if the staff at Llewellyn was talking about another book than the one I had written. It was a surprising superficial judgement on a book that I had felt the Gods and my spirit muse inspired me to write. Llewellyn, therefore canceled my contract, which also halted the publication of any of the other books in that series.

Needless to say, I was devastated. Not only had I written that book, but another one had not even been pitched yet because I was ordered to slow-go presenting new manuscripts to Llewellyn. I would not likely be able to pitch the last book in the series, which was titled “Transformative Initiation for Witches.” Now, I had talked about these two manuscripts with friends and interested parties at the convention, and they were keen on seeing them in print. Same is true with my fan base on Face Book. Many people were looking forward to seeing these two books published. I was briefly at a loss about what course of action I should take to continue to move forward.

One thing that I want to point out is that Llewellyn is in the business of publishing books and making a profit. They have been publishing occult books for a very long time, and they are successful enough to have their own building and adjoining warehouse, and a large staff of editors, marketing folk, artists, clerks, and warehouse workers. They are a friendly group of people and I liked everyone that I met at the HQ meeting in March. Still, they are a business, and in canceling my contract, they made a business decision. I had been one of their authors for over ten years, so that is a long time for a business relationship to last. Publishing companies typically drop and add new authors at a frightening frequency, so my relationship was unique in that regard. While my acquisitions editor may have rejected my current selection of books to publish, she did not close the door on our relationship. The fact that I don’t agree with the marketing decision that Llewellyn made in regards to the books I wanted to publish doesn’t mean that I am at crossed purposes with them. It’s just business as usual. Who knows, maybe they are correct about my books, but I kind of doubt it. Only time will tell who is correct.

However, in my experience, when one door closes another always opens. In fact, I had met two really amazing men at the convention who had their own publishing company. They were at the convention to help promote one of their authors (Alaric Albertsson), and I happened to meet them just before my book signing was to start. They knew about my work and they were impressed enough to tell me that if I ever wanted to publish a book, they would be happy to talk to me about it. At the time, I felt I had obligations as an author to Llewellyn, and I was expecting to write a few more books for them in the future. Still, I chatted with them for a bit, got their business cards and said that we might consider doing business in the near future. They discussed with me the possibility of picking up the book Mastering the Art of Ritual Magic from Immanion Press and adding it to their publishing company catalog. These two gentlemen were Blake and Wycke Malliway, and their publishing company was Crossed Crow Books. I liked them a lot, but I never thought that I would be doing business with them so soon.

My shock and sadness at Llewellyn canceling my book contract was only a brief ordeal, since I reached out the very next day to Blake and asked him if he would be interested in picking up the rest of the “For Witches” series, since Llewellyn had already rejected the latest one in that series. To my surprise, Blake was immediately interested, but wanted to know why Llewellyn had canceled my contract. After reviewing the brief email that my acquisitions editor had sent me explaining the reason for the rejection, and meeting with Blake and his acquisitions editor Becca, they decided to not only pick up the last two books in the “For Witches” series, but also wanted me to write a beginner’s book as well. Just a mere five days after receiving the cancellation from Llewellyn, I had signed a contract with Crossed Crow Books to write and publish three books. So, I was quite amazed and happy with the results.

Now, as you know, I never wanted to write a beginner’s book on Witchcraft. I felt that there were a large volume of media available to the public in the form of books, web pages, YouTube lectures, ritual presentations, and a plethora of people wanting to sell tools, robes, candles, incense, perfumes, witchy garb, talismans and amulets, and other materials too numerous to mention. Yet when I perused many of these offerings in my researches, I saw that nearly all of the educational offerings were limited or incomplete in one manner or another. None of these books, lectures or presentations would prepare someone to be able to pick up my five-book series unless or until they had spent years going over this material and experimenting with it, or by chance, if they got initiated by a coven and spent a few years in that traditional organization. Indeed, there wasn’t a convenient bridge to the “For Witches” series for a beginner to cross.

So, the question proposed to me at the convention by more than a couple of individuals was if I wrote a beginners book, what should I write into a book that would get someone efficiently to the point where they could start working with the “For Witches” series of books. That was the challenge presented to me, and when I got home from the convention and was diddling around with ideas for this book, the entire table of contents for it seemed to manifest out of thin air. My muse was once again active! This occurrence happened before my contract with Llewellyn was canceled, so I was seeking a way to pitch this book to them until I had the rug pulled out from under my feet. The Malliway brothers helped me to solve this conundrum, and that is when the book “Mastering the Art of Witchcraft” or MAW for short, was born.

It seemed as if I was destined to write this book. What I wanted to do was to present both the liturgical and magical sides of Witchcraft for someone who was practicing as a solitary practitioner. That is the path that I presented in my “For Witches” series, which are magical practices that should be done by the independent Witch, whether in a coven or functioning as a solitary Witch. I also wanted to establish the basic practices, tools, meditation techniques and promote to the beginner the idea of building their own lunar and solar calendar, mapping out the full moon esbats and eight sabbats. As for the magic, a simplistic version of the energy model of magic was a good place to start, and I also threw in simple negative and positive vortex ritual patterns to use along with a slightly more complex cone of power. I also added in the basic binding rite, poppet magic rite and the rite to evoke the four elements combined within the flesh, blood and bones of the operator for an enhanced ritual of self-empowerment. These three rites had been in my Book of Shadows for decades, although they were not oath-bound material.

What I had determined is that if someone were to take this book, copy and embellish the rituals and practices written in it, and then armed with the lunar and solar calendar, practice these for a two year period, then that person would be prepared to study and use the “For Witches” series of books. In the final chapter, I included a list of books and topical areas of study that a person would need to round out and deepen their abilities and understanding. Everything that I wanted to say in this book just fell together, and writing it was almost effortless. I completed writing the book in around three weeks. That has to be a record for the amount of time it took for me to write a book, and the whole process was very inspired and magical. At 44K words, it is not a large book, but it is, in my opinion, substantive.

I also had a meeting with Crossed Crow Books staff and my manuscript “Sacrmental Theurgy for Witches” should be in print and available in February 2024. The other two books will follow, and hopefully, by the late autumn next year, all three will be in print. With the five books in the “For Witches” series in print, and this new book “Mastering the Art of Witchcraft” I will have the means of training a Witch and a practicing ritual magician from the perspective of a beginner to acclaimed mastery. I think, although I might be wrong, that no other author can make such a claim to fame. What I will need to do is put together a series of classes and maybe record them and put them on a YouTube channel. However, I also have other book writing projects that I would like to explore, such as my ideas for the book “Liber Nephilim,” which I will likely explore either later this year or early next year. I will definitely keep you posted.

Frater Barrabbas

Frater Barrabbas Author Literary Tour - Part 8 - Sacramental Theurgy For Witches

 

This book, unlike the previous, is still in manuscript form and hasn’t been submitted to Llewellyn for publication. I am pretty certain that they will want to publish once they get it, since it fits into a set of books that are good sellers. (Note: I am signing a contract to publish this book soon.) It makes good business sense to continue a series if it is popular and people are buying the books. Still, I am not in the literary business to make money as much as I am writing books to ensure that my legacy of knowledge and practical experience is shared with a large audience. Perhaps I can even imagine that these books might be getting used and thus changing the way that Witches and Pagans practice their magic. I can only hope that such a process is underway.

I wrote this book last summer and it only took me two months to complete it. A lot of the material used in the book I already had on hand, and I was very keen on sharing that material with my community. Still, one might ask what could sacramental theurgy possibly have to do with Witches and Pagans. The title sounds kind of pretentious and very high-brow, sort of like some book on philosophical magic or some trendy breed of ceremonial magic. Of course, I don’t write high-brow books on Witchcraft magic. I leave that to the academics, whose works on the history of magic and witchcraft are now becoming more numerous and quite fascinating. This book is purely about a kind of Witchcraft praxis that is advanced, but it is actually quite obvious and deals with something that is fundamental to Witchcraft religious magic.

Here is the advertisement that I have written to be used with this book when it is published.

Theurgy is defined as a magical operation that induces the Deity to perform a paranormal operation to benefit an individual or a group or to refrain or block an occurrence that would cause harm. The Greek word ‘theurgy’ is interpreted to mean, “God Work”, so it is a form of high magic that directs the supernatural powers of the Deity to either make something materialize or to block something from happening. A theurgist is someone who has the ability to directly converse with the Gods and Goddesses and to either urge them to act or to abrogate their powers and assume their identity and then perform the desired work.

While this kind of religious magic was considered the ultimate mastery possessed by Neoplatonic philosophers of late antiquity, such a practice and its associated perspective is very relevant today for modern Pagans and Witches. It is, in fact, the natural evolution of our practices of liturgy and magic that the two approaches should become united into an advanced formulation of magic, a kind of Witchcraft Theurgy. This evolution is already occurring today, and in fact it represents the cutting edge of Witchcraft practices that certain select senior members of our community are developing and practicing in private gatherings, covens and groves.
 
Witchcraft Theurgy can be divided into two basic categories: sacramental magic and the mysteries of transformation. In both of these categories the Deities are engaged and their impact enlarged so that the magic performed is done explicitly through them. This would require not only defining the Deities in greater intimate detail than what is typical in a coven or group, but it would also require expanding the scope of Deities so that the world surrounding these Witches would be filled with Deities representing the cosmic, regional and local geographic domain of the covenstead.

The core concept presented in this book is that when someone undergoes the ritualized process of godhead assumption, anything that they bless or imbue with their assumed powers becomes a sacred object, whatever its form. In traditional Witchcraft, the drawing down of the moon is followed with the rite of cakes and wine, which functions as a form of communion between the living Deity and the coven of Witches. It follows that anything else so blessed by that godhead, such as oils, balms, amulets, tools or even initiated members, becomes imbued with the powers and essence of that Deity. What is missing is, of course, the bloody sacrifice, but everything else is there to tie these modern practices to some of what was done in antiquity. This is, then, the basis for the generation of sacraments, and their use in Witchcraft or Pagan magic is a kind of magic defined as theurgy. It is also the foundation through which the mysteries are experienced and heightened. This is because it is through the Deities and our intimate contact with them that this kind of magic is possible.

When pagan religious cults were banned and disappeared in the Roman empire certain practices were absorbed into Christianity. While the obvious animal sacrifices were no longer practiced, other offerings were encouraged. Catholics had replaced the pagan bloody sacrifice with the consecration and offerings of wine and bread and brought into vogue the concept of transubstantiation to justify that such offerings were in reality the blood and body of Christ. Such a replacement in a religious context brought the ancient ideas of magic into the cultic practices of Christian liturgy. This is because the concept of transubstantiation is a magical one, and it has nothing to do with theology or sacred writings - it is a magical substitution.

Those magical ideas also caused the spread of ideas that other sacraments, such as baptism water, consecrated oils and balms, as well as relics, the blessings of bishops, prelates and even anointed kings carried the attributes of godhead within them and could be used to charge and bless both the community and individual possessions and undertakings. These were old magical ideas that had been a part of the religious practices of the pagan era, and now were brought into the religious practices of Christianity. It is ironic that a supposed monotheistic religion became so infused with idolatry and magical practices that both Islam and Judaism found the practices of Christianity liturgy offensive. It is also no wonder that such practices brought about the reformation in the 16th century. By the 20th century, the Catholic church had quietly shelved those ideas that were magical and pagan in origin, and even changed the mass to remove all such “superstitions” from their practices.

Yet to the late 20th century practicing Witches and Pagans, such ideas fit perfectly within their creeds and praxis, so some of those rites were reverse engineered into the rituals that adherents of these new religions practiced. What you had were practices of godhead assumption, as derived from both the Catholic mass rite and the practices of the Golden Dawn, and the rite of communion of cakes and wine consecrated by the hand and breath of the godhead. I saw that appropriation as the first step down a slippery slope, which led into the magical well of full and complete ownership of the magic that was once used by Christian Catholics. What was once used to bolster the faith within a population of recently converted pagans could now be used to enhance the religious magic of a modern Witchcraft and Paganism.

As I have stated, the core of the magical religious practices of these new faiths was the rite of drawing down a targeted Deity into the body and mind of a specialized and trained adherent. In the new faiths of Witchcraft and Paganism, it was not only conceivable that a person could masquerade and personify their chosen Deity, it was an expected part of the praxis. With such a ritual acting as the central feature of this new pagan faith, it would seem a natural evolution that all things that are holy and sacramental would come from this transformed individual through their blessings of touch, blowing of breath and kiss.

While this was something that ancient pagan cults would have allowed, it was not actually part of their regimen. They had beautiful temples, priests and priestesses and grand statues to represent their deities for the state religion, but a lot of religious activity went on in the private sphere, and this is where sacred persons could assume the mantle of a deity on a temporary basis and act as intermediaries for the personalized aspects of the Deities. What actually transpired in these private religious occurrences are not plainly known nor understood, but it is likely that they modeled what passes today as the practices of home-based worship, the giving of offerings and prayers and the making of sacrifices. These rites are practiced in some form in modern day India, and from them we can deduce the practices of ancient pagans in the Greco-Roman world.

Still, this practice of godhead assumption brought the numena of the Deity into the group so that the adherents could commune and worship that Deity directly and intimately. A human personifying a Deity could then also bless substances, such as cakes, wine, oils, anointments and jewelry (as amulets). There could also be requests for aid, healing, prophecy and guidance. This rite was where the worshipers and the godhead met to strengthen the spiritual bonds and empower the members. This practice became the center of cultic practices for both Witchcraft and modern Paganism.

One of the issues that I have with this practice is that it can lead to abuse and coercion, particularly if the person personifying the godhead was also the leader of the group. I have presented suggestions that the rite of godhead assumption be performed by someone who has prepared themselves for this exclusive act, while the leadership of the group be performed by others who not so engaged in the process of godhead assumption. I feel that it is necessary that the leadership of covens should not also be engaged with performing the godhead assumption so that they are not empowered as to become unassailable autocrats of the coven. After all, who would argue with the powers and commandments of the coven Deities? Instead, temporal authority should not be mixed with temporary Deity based empowerment. I believe that the mixture is toxic to the proper governance of a coven or group.

Additionally, I believe that the coven or group should be able to judge the level of manifestation of the Deity that occurs during a godhead assumption. There should be built in mechanisms that can be used to judge the efficacy of the drawing down rite. I present 10 stages that a drawing down rite can be observed to achieve when the godhead manifests through the target medium. First, I believe that there should be three simple questions that are presented to the medium when the godhead is fully manifested. The first two are simply questions that request the godhead to define itself by name and quality, and to describe its nature and character. A third question is secretly determined by the group without the prior knowledge of the medium, and it is requested to the Deity to outline its purpose for that evening’s working. 

The coven, apart from the sequestered medium, has determined the purpose of the evening’s work, and if the medium is able to clairvoyantly and accurately describe that purpose, then the group can be certain that the manifestation of the Deity is truly a powerful one. Other phenomena can also occur when the divine is immanently and tangibly present, and these I outline in the description of the ten stages. I also briefly discuss what a regressive godhead assumption is, and that it should be gently stopped and aid given if the medium should show signs of a seizure or bodily stress. The coven should document each and every godhead assumption and give a grade, based on the ten stages of Deity manifesting.

There is, however, a practice that is above and beyond the coven drawing down rite, and that is the full godhead personification. This is lifetime practice, but it can be immediately approached through an ordeal of devotion and the single minded focus and immersion into the being and persona of a selected Deity. The true regimen is a three month ordeal that starts out in a regular devoted fashion and becomes more intensive and focused as the moon goes through three cycles. A lesser ordeal has only one lunar cycle, but this is the kind of ordeal where a person seeks to be fully engaged and immersed within the spiritual body of the Deity. Some individuals will make this kind of ordeal and work their life’s sole purpose, where all else in life is sacrificed so that the sage is free to occasionally act and function as a full personification of the godhead. What she or he does while in that state of personification becomes the Deity performing blessings, empowerment, generating sacraments and aiding in the magical endeavors of initiated members. This, too, is sacramental theurgy in its most intensive and impressive style.

Other ritual workings are discussed in this book, such as the triple consecration rite of specific cult objects, such as the Stang, Besom, Cauldron, various statues or busts of the Deity, and individual amulets. These are considered sacred place-markers or representations of the Goddesses and Gods and function as both sacred objects as well as magical tools. The rituals of the mass and the benediction, reverse engineered from their Catholic sources and rewritten to celebrate and worship the Deities of the coven or group are presented, with full examples of those rites. The mass generates sacraments in a similar manner to a drawing down rite, and the benediction is used to super-charge a magic temple using the sacraments from the mass rite. These two rites are used to sacralize any magical working so to manifest within such a working the aid and manifestation of the Deity. I also present the methods of consecration of amulets and relics, and even the animation of a statue, bust of picture of a Deity, representing the full spectrum of sacramental theurgy. Still, I also discuss the elements of sacred sexuality and how it can employed in the magical workings of Witches or Pagans.

In the final section of the book, I cover the temporal mysteries of the sun and the moon, and present magical rites to be used for lunar and solar mystery workings. Another important mechanism in this kind of magic is the sacred grove, and I not only define the grove and how it is to be developed and used for working sacramental magic outdoors in the awesome beauty of nature. This brings the reader to the final chapter where I discuss the elements and workings of a Grand Sabbat that bring all of the previously discussed tools, methods and practices together in a powerful that brings to life the material embodiment of the Goddesses and Gods through personification into a temporary sacred community of Witches and Pagans.

I believe that this book will bring together practices and approaches to Witchcraft from a liturgical and magical perspective together into a single powerful practice, where the Deity will be directly engaged and embodied to assist in the magical aspirations of the individual, the group and the greater community. This book will be the capstone to these kinds of practices, and make more obvious the sacramental theurgy that is a natural function of the modern Witchcraft and Pagan practices.

Frater Barrabbas