Midsummer & the Darkness

I hope you had a great Midsummer Sabbat. Mine was very pleasant. I celebrated it with my coven and some friends at our covenstead. It was a small, intimate gathering and the ritual focus was on using the sun's light to reveal things about ourselves that we want others to see. My brilliant High Priest lit our coven's power candle from the sun's rays using a magnifying glass and we all lit ourvotives from it. I dedicated my candle to my Georgian training. I'm working on my second degree and that brings new duties that are more public. This level of Wiccan training is beyond being your own priest/ess and becomes about serving the community more. Before I can receive my second degree, I will be required to teach a class or workshop and lead a community ritual. I've done both already, but now there's an officialness to it I guess. I actually feel a little nervous. I have no problem working with people I consider my peers, but performing before my elders is another thing altogether. They're all very supportive and I am my own worst critic. So I dedicated my summer solstice candle to that work so that I might reveal to myself and others that I can do it and do it well.

I've spent the days since Midsummer thinking about how I want to spend the rest of year magickally. Even though it was 96 degrees yesterday (and felt like 104 degrees, no exaggeration), the sun is already starting to wane and we are entering the dark half of the year. I've already started thinking about my ancestors again. Partly that's because I'm already making plans for Samhain. I've registered to attend Florida Pagan Gathering and I'm brainstorming ideas for my coven's Samhain celebration, which may be the community ritual I lead. I've planned my coven's Samhain the last three years (since I've been a member) and I like to mix it up and am searching for fresh ideas.

I have no doubt that Lucumi is also influencing my early thoughts about the ancestors. Most people think of the Orishas when they think about Lucumi, but that path works very heavily with eggun (the dead, spirits, ancestors). I think the idea goes that where the Orishas are unpredictable, impossible to control, and have their own ideas about how things should run, your spirit guides and ancestors generally want to help you and want to be helped by you so developing a relationship with them is very important. It's thought that they are more helpful in practical ways on a day to day basis. It's common for Santeros to have a bóveda, an eggun altar, which I don't have, but should. The problem is that I live with my mother and she's not to keen on having altars all over the house. Finding the right spot can be tricky.

I'm debating whether I should receive Ilekes, the sacred necklaces, this year. Normally it's the first initiation followed by the Warriors, but I skipped it because in my consultation I wasn't told to receive them. I was advised to receive the Warriors and Olokun, but I can't receive Olokun or anything else now until I receive the necklaces. I wanted to know which Orisha crowned my head first so I could receive that necklace as well and now I know. It's a matter of drawing up the courage to go through with it, but I'm no hurry either. Right now I want to continue basking in the knowledge that Ogun rules my head, develop a relationship with him, and continue strengthening my relationship with the Warriors in general.

I've been thinking about whether there have been signs that it might have been Ogun. After the reading I remembered a tambor (a ritual drumming party) about two years ago where Ogun came down. At one point he reached over some people to me, handed me a dollar, held my hand a moment, and spoke to me, but I didn't understand what he said. And my friend Quaaa recently reminded me that I'd told him about a dream a couple months ago. I was sitting on a bench talking with large, beautiful, very dark-skinned black man dressed in red. I had been confused at the time because red is associated with Eleggua, but I was sure it was Ogun at the time. Quaaa said it was possible and now it appears I was right after all. I wish I could remember the details of that dream. I really should be better at keeping notes about such things.

The Bajada

Looking at my notes, it's been just over a year since I had the registro with Eleggua. Last night, I had the bajada. Also called el angel de la guardia (guardian angel), it is the reading where you discover which Orisha rules your crown.

I went to my padrino's (my godfather in the religion) for the reading. The Oba Oriate (the high priest of Santeria), a priest of Eleggua, showed up shortly after. I'd heard of this man, but he didn't look at all the way I expected him to. I really liked him though. There was something very familiar about him and he was very patient and friendly. I just got a good vibe from him.

The setup was basically the same as with the registro. A square of clean, white cloth was laid on the floor. The Oba sat on a pillow. There were a couple of white plates, the obi (the divining coconut), and the diloggun (the divining cowrie shells). I sat on a little stool in front of the Oba. Padrino sat behind me and his brother/godchild, my friend P, sat nearby taking notes. After some prayers, we began with the coconut divination which is conducted with four rinds tossed and read depending on how they fall. I got itagua twice (three white sides up, one brown side down), which indicates a positive response. Then the Oba put those aside and picked up the diloggun.

The cowrie shells are the mouths of the Orishas. I wish I could better explain how this works, but it's a complicated numerical system that I don't really understand. One of the first things that is determined is whether the cowrie shells come with ire (good luck, positive, etc.) or osobo. Mine came with ire, but Oshun did have a few things to say.

Because Padrino is a son of Oshun, his cowrie shells are used and she speaks. She was gentle and kind, which was a relief. She advised me to take it easy at work, be patient, and control my attitude as I'm the one who stands to lose. She also warned me about my father's health, about his heart, that he needs to take better care of himself. She said I could take better care of myself as well.

Then it was time to ask the Orishas about my crown. The Oba threw the cowrie shells and some number came out (I think it was three, but I'm not sure). A limited number of Orishas speak through that number so he asked those first. Obatala? No. Chango? No. Yemaya? No. Oshun? No. There was some surprise and confusion at this point. The Oba said it was time to start at the beginning. In the hierarchy, that's with the Warriors. Eleggua? No. Ogun? Yes! In a house full of children of Oshun and Yemaya, Padrino said it was a refreshing change.

That was pretty much the conclusion of the reading. There was something about Olokun, an offering I need to make. I'll be receiving the notes from the reading and an explanation at a later time. I was relieved that there were no bad news nor pressure to initiate. For now, I have a lot of learning to do. Even though I received my Warriors in July 2008, I know next to nothing about Ogun.

Some quick reading in a few books I have reveal Ogun is the divine iron worker who rules over work and human effort. He's a tireless worker, rules all metals, and is associated with civilization, technology, and the heart. He's also a violent, destructive figure. P compared him to Ares and Hephaestus rolled into one. He added that whereas Chango is the pretty boy warrior, Ogun is the blood-covered warrior. You don't get more masculine than those two, he said. P also said Ogun loves his daughters and that his initiation ceremony is beautiful and very complicated. His colors are black and green, the machete is one of his tools, and he often wears a grass skirt to show his association with the forest. He is received in a cauldron rather than a sopera (soup tureen) and his daughters wear the male initiatory costume, a regal suit instead of a dress and with a hat rather than a crown.

I'm really happy with the results. I have a lot to learn about Ogun, but it's cool to have an unusual head and I'm loving what I've started reading about him. A quick search in Google yielded some cool images:

Pink

Last night I had a great dinner with my Black sisters. I think it was supposed to be a sort of business dinner to discuss the Black Hat Society, but we never got around to it. Instead we spent about three hours talking about the local community and our experiences with deity, ritual, and magick over pomegranate mojitos, taquitos, buffalo chicken, and cheesecake. Good stuff.

After dinner, we stepped outside to sit on some benches and continued chatting. The restaurant was good, but very loud and I'm discovering that I'm growing increasingly intolerant of noise. My work environment is loud. School is loud. Traffic is loud. When I come home, the TV is off, the radio is off, and I enjoy the silence. But back to last night.

There was a chill in the air and not a lot of people around. We'd been sitting outside talking for about an hour when I noticed a figure shrouded in pink walk by. I think it was a woman, but I couldn't really tell. She wore long, knitted, pink sweater with a hoodie that covered her head. She walked slowly and sat at a bench nearby. And she remained there, motionless, for over an hour. She didn't shift her weight or stretch or turn her head. It was unsettling and when I pointed her out to the Black sisters, they turned their heads to look at the thing that had been sending shivers up and down their spins for a good hour now. We remained for a while and I kept looking at her, looking for some sign of life, but it never came. Eventually, a little unnerved, we said decided to call it a night and the Black sisters walked me to my car. We walked slowly and tried to get a good look at the eerie figure, but it was the weirdest thing of all. We couldn't make out her face. It was just a flesh colored blur. We were less than 50 feet away and we couldn't see her face. I got into my car and decided to circle round and try to get a better look at the figure, but it was useless. She continued to sit there motionless and I was not able to see her face. It was very bizarre.

New & Shiny

Check out this lovely statue I bought yesterday for just eleven bucks at JoAnn Fabrics. She was screaming at me as I walked by. Brigid. We will both be much happier when I clip her wings.

Brigid came into my life a few years ago when I put a call out for help getting in touch with my creative side. I mean creative with my hands as in crafting art as opposed to my writing, which I don't really think of creative anyway. Brigid answered that call, but I realize now that she was already around. I walked right onto her turf when I joined my coven and she's been mostly a quiet presence since then.

The information available on Brigid is convoluted and it's difficult to sort the goddess from the saint, but my experience with her has been quiet, reserved. I feel like she's slowly revealing herself and will demand more attention as time goes by. We'll see.

Happy Monday

I'm taking a class called Psychology of Personal Effectiveness. Some of the things the class and textbook stress are the interconnectedness of everything and the importance of being a global citizen. In one chapter, the authors discussed Lovelock and the Gaia hypothesis. Cool huh. I love this class. Anyway, in a recent chapter, the authors talked about Rupert Sheldrake. In his 1981 book called A New Science of Life, he explored the notion of morphic resonance. In a nutshell, it implies that all matter and living things are connected and affected by fields that influence not only their structure but also their behaviors.

It has been observed, for instance, in a particular species of monkey that when a new behavior has emerged and has been adopted by a certain number of monkeys, then all the monkeys acquire this behavior. This occurs even when they have been isolated on another island from the monkeys who originally expressed the new behavior. Thus there seems to be an interconnection that cannot be explained by traditional science. Sheldrake suggests that these fields function at every level of organization of matter, plants, and societies.

The point the book is trying to make is that when enough people begin to believe something new, then that idea or possibility becomes a new reality for all people and that while no one knows what the tipping point may be, each person who develops their consciousness as a global citizen is helping to move all humanity towards that consciousness.

Animal Workings

I marked the full moon last night with my coven. It was a formal circle as one of our goals this year as a group is to helps some of us polish our tech and really drill the liturgy into our heads. The work of the ritual was shamanic in nature, which I love, love, love. Another of our coven goals is to work with and introduce each other to our spirit animal companions. Last night's journey was about getting in touch with our power animals.

My HPS led a journey to our coven's astral temple. Then using Michael Harner's techniques, she led us to a great tree. Together, we entered at the great oak at the base, traveled down a tunnel, and then emerged into a forest. It was here that we separated so we could meet our spirit animals. I know three of mine are the turtle, snake, and hart. I was expecting to encounter these, and I did, but I also met a new one.

By the way, I use the phrase "astral temple" out of convenience, but I don't want you to imagine some abstract, celestial place of light. What I'm actually talking about here is the Otherworld. Once we arrived, I was immediately greeted by a fawn. In the past, my encounters have been with a mature, white hart, so this was in an interesting change. The deer is not a personal power animal that belongs to me. In all my encounters with it, it has served to lead me somewhere, and sure enough, it led me (or accompanied me) to the oak, through the tunnel, and the forest.

When I emerged from the tunnel, there was an animal waiting there for me. At first, my response was, really? seriously? A badger? We often want out power animals to be something really cool like a fox, coyote, or eagle. A badger? Yah, a badger. The persistent little bugger wanted me to follow it. As I followed it down the path, I passed my other animals, the snake to one side of me and a large, old tortoise on the other side. The badger led me to a river, where I simply sat quietly for a while, listening until it was time to return.

I don't know anything about badgers so I'm going to have to do some research. I had planned to introduce my coven the snake energy that I work with, but now I'm looking forward to exploring this badger energy. We'll see where it goes.

Archaeology Update

Archaeology Magazine is always an interesting read. This month's issue features two stories that may be of particular interest to Pagans and Witches who have an interest in ancient ways.

In A Mummy's Life, Eti Bonn-Muller reports on the journey to get to know an Egyptian priestess.

Around 800 B.C., a wealthy Egyptian priestess named Meresamun served the god Amun in the monumental Temple of Karnak at Thebes. Her primary duties were to play percussion, string, and wind instruments that pleased and soothed him, and to sing hymns that praised his name. When she died, her body was mummified and sealed in a skintight coffin of cartonnage (layers of linen and plaster), which had been lavishly painted with her idealized likeness and images to ensure a successful journey to the afterlife.

The fragile coffin was never opened and the body never unwrapped because generations of curious curators couldn't bring themselves to destroy the beautiful decorations. But recent analysis on a state-of-the-art Philips 256-slice iCT scanner is now allowing experts to examine Meresamun as never before. The results of the study, along with ground-breaking research on the role of priestess-musicians in the temple and at home, are the subjects of the museum's current exhibition, The Life of Meresamun: A Temple Singer in Ancient Egypt.

In Grave of the Middle East's Oldest Witch, Mati Milstein reports on what some believe is the burial site of a pre-Neolithic female shaman.