The Symposium

It all began with a discussion among some friends about Plato.  We were talking about our favorite books, and it turned out that we all really loved the Symposium.  (Yes, my friends and I are all dorks.  You know you're jealous!)  And so, by the end of the evening, the invitations went out:

"In the 4th century BC, Plato wrote one of the most influential works of all time: the Symposium. A series of speeches to Eros, god of Erotic Love, this work has shaped, if not directly influences, almost all of what we westerners think about love and romance.

But times are a-changin', and we're no longer in the world of ancient Athenian (oligarchical, patriarchal) aristocrats. Since love is a fixture of the human experience, why not update this work? Moreover, why not update this work *by actually holding a symposium of our own*?

So let's dedicate a night to Modern-day Eros, get boozed up, and hold a symposium of our own? On February 9th, we'll gather at Witch House with good food, the intoxicants of your choice, and a prepared speech, poem, or other presentation on the nature of love as an offering to Eros.  Wear red."

The evening went better (and worse) than I think any of us expected.  It turned out to be an exceptionally powerful, healing, contentious, fun ritual.  I strongly recommend you to try it with your own circle.  Not everyone at the table has to be a magician, but I'd recommend at least 2 solid magician who can maintain the energy and flow.  We had several spontaneous possessions (mostly by Eros himself, but Alcibiades, the drunken student of Socrates and military genius also showed up).

We began with pasta primavera, wine, liquor, brownies, and music while we waited for some late people, who arrived just in time for the hour of Venus.  We made opening invocations and offerings, which you can find below.  The three hymns to the gods are my own adaptations of the Orphic hymns to Protogonos (#5), Aphrodite (#54), and Eros (#57). You may substitute other offerings.

START IN THE HOUR OF VENUS

Open Space/Time in your usual fashion. Aspirgate with basil.

Player One: Light Eros incense (buy that here or make your own)

(myrrh, roses, erontas, cinnamon, honey, and amanita mushrooms)

Player One: Offer Honey & Light Gold Candle

O Eros Protogonos , we ask you heed our prayer!  

Twofold, Egg-born, and Wandering through the air;

The roarer who glories is fine golden wings,

from whom the race of mortals springs.

Erikapaios, you celebrated power,

ineffable, occult, all-shining flower.

From your darksome swirling mists to the purest sight

All-spreading splendour, pure and holy light,

Hence, Phanes, called the glory of the Sky,

On wavering pinions through the world you fly.

Priapus, dark-eyed splendour, to you we sing,

Genial, all-prudent, ever blessed king:

Look with joyful aspect upon these rites divine,

And give your holy consecration and your all-propitious shine!

Player Two: Offer Brownie and Light Green Candle

Ourania, beloved, laughter-loving Aphrodite,

Sea-born, birth giver, night festival queen,

Crafty mother of needs, you make mortals to mate,

Fruitful mother of the world, you cause the Kosmos to procreate.

You are the sovereign of the three worlds and the origin of everything,

The Heavens, the Earth, the Ocean: from you they spring.

Holy companion of beloved Bacchus,

You delight in festivity, mother of Erontes,

Seductive Beauty, who loves to make love

Joy-giver, Secret Aristocrat and Hidden Dove,

Romantic companion at the table of the gods,

You are love’s true sire, bearing reel and rods,

You give us our children, our loves, and all loving actions,

Desirable one, life-giver, you couple up mortals in unbridled passion.

Every wild beast is frenzied in your arms,

Heavenly daughter of Cypress, lend us your charms,

We behold you, royal Goddess, splendid of countenance,

On your Syrian throne, redolent of frankincense,

Or riding the plains in your iridescent chariot,

Flanked by your priests in the bathtubs of Egypt

Riding swan-driven carriage upon the waves of the Sea,

Delighting sea-creatures as they dance in your breeze.

You bring joy to the Nymphs of the Earth and the Forest,

And those who leap lightly to the song of your sea-foamy chorus.

When seated in Cyprus, oh Queen Most Divine,

where your blessings are spoken by maidens most fine.

They sing for you, blessed one, and immortal Adonis,

He the grain god, and you the Green Goddess.

We summon you now with fine words and pure souls,

Hear our words, drink our wine, and smoke of our bowls!

Player Three: Offer Wine and Light Red Candle

I Call now great Cupid, source of sweetest delight,

Holy and pure, and most lovely to our sight;

Darting, and winged, impetuous fearsome desire,

You play with both gods and us mortals like wand'ring fire:

Cautious, and dual-natured, you’re the keeper of keys

Of heaven and earth, of the air, and the seas;

Of all that Demeters fertile realms can contains,

whence the Great Mother Goddess all life sustains,

And all whom dismal Tartarus is doomed to keep,

The chthonic expanse of the wide-sounding, deep;

Your commands, all Nature's various realms must obey,

You alone rule the heart, with universal sway.

Come, blessed power, regard our magical fires,

And help keep away the most maddening desires.

Player Four: Offer Water and Light white candle

We call the great philosopher heros to us, to join us in our Symposium:

Plato, Great Teacher, be with us now! May your Wisdom be a Blessing!

Phaedrus, Beloved of Jupiter, may your Wisdom be a Blessing!

Pausanias, Beloved of Mercury, may your Wisdom be a Blessing!

Eryximachus,  Beloved of the Sun, may your Wisdom be a Blessing!
Aristophanes, Beloved of Venus, may your Wisdom be a Blessing!

Agathon, beloved of the Moon, may your Wisdom be a Blessing!
Socrates, Great Teacher of Teachers, Beloved of Saturn, may your Wisdom be a Blessing!

Alcibiades, Beloved of Mars, may your Wisdom be a Blessing!

Diotima, Great Teacher of Teachers, Beloved of Jupiter, may your Wisdom be a Blessing!

Hypatia, Blessed of Mercury, may your Wisdom be a Blessing!

Medea, Beloved of Sun, may your Wisdom be a Blessing!

Helen, Beloved of Venus, may your Wisdom be a Blessing!

Sappho, Beloved of Saturn, may your Wisdom be a Blessing!

Hypolita, Beloved of Mars, may your Wisdom be a Blessing! Next, we each made our presentations/speeches. Our circle happens to be composed primarily of writers, so there was a lot of poetry, but you could also give speeches, sing songs, preform dances, or whatever feels right. The important thing is for each person to try to evoke their own personal Eros. Mine, an original hymn to Eros Protogonos (Firstborn Eros, or Primordial Eros) is below:

Hymn for Eros Protogonos

Hesiod tells us, as only he can

That long before begetting began,

Long before the birth of the Earth,

In the beginning, “Xaos came first”.

In a sinuous spasm of shuddering, shivering,

Shimmering, jiggling, quickening, quivering,

As a voluptuous void of thick viscous mist,

Howling and moaning, Xaos came to exist.

Xir ragged breath shaking in gasps and in grunts,

Xe ejaculates seed from Xir infinite cunts,

Crystalline crumbs of uncut actuality,

Coalescing, condensing, into our reality.

Great Mother Matter whom Hesiod called,

“wide-bosomed Gaia, firm foundation of all.”

Next, we are told, by our Muse-tutored rhapsode,

“Eros shone forth”, from his cosmic abode,

“The fairest of all of the immortal gods,

Who unnerves the limbs and sets minds all at odds,

Eros shuns reason, refusing wise counsel”,

He makes sinners behave, turns saints into scoundrels.

Eros, Sex-Love, third-born from the Dark,

the gravitational force that draws quark close to quark,

His shuddering orgasm was that very Big Bang,

Mathematical symphony the first angels sang,

He gave passionate atoms their nuclear fire.

Eros, the Lucifer, god of Naked Desire,

Lit the spark of the stars and warmed the cold Night,

Giving heat to the universe, he let there be light.

Then Eros awakened the womb of the Earth,

And out flowed the Sky, the very first birth.

Gaia and Ouranos, united in love,

The Earth’s firm foundation, the Heavens above,

Their waters were joined, the primordial soup,

their commingled essence, that amino-laced goop,

The  roiling ocean from which all life springs,

Eros instigator of the Ten Thousand Things.

Evolution went slowly, in those early days,

Until Eros taught Life His creative ways,

Igniting the yearning for recombination,

Eros taught us the arts of sex and flirtation,

Dividing the genders, as woman and man,

beginning begetting from whence you began.

Now, there are some things you have to be prepared for: First, we made a conscious choice to not invite couples, because we were afraid that their energy would create little mini-circles, and break the cohesiveness of the circle. Second, this perhaps should have been more obvious to us going in, but it turns out almost everyone has a lot of conflicted feelings, and a sizeable amount of anger, at Eros. Everyone is intoxicated, there's a lot of magic going down, and you're working with powerful, passionate, complicated forces that everyone yearns for, but whom everyone has been done wrong by at least once. Some of the speeches/poems were very personal, and some very political. Things got heated. There was yelling and crying and laughing. Someone stomped out. This isn't work to do with strangers. This is work to do with people you can fight with and still love the morning after. This is work for a real circle, done in perfect love and perfect trust.

A Spell to Acquire Books

I was going through some old files, and ran across this, which I thought might be of interest.  It's from a long time ago, before Amazon was really a thing.  Lancaster County, where I grew up, has HUGE libaray books sales; far bigger than any I've seen elsewhere.  The roller rink in FILLED with books, which sell for $1 per day on the last day of the sale.  The year we preformed this spell, I got a copy of a book on angelic magic by Peter Lamborn Wilson (which is a great book, even if the author is...of questionable ethics, let's say) and a copy of Dictionary of Deities and Demons in the Bible (a VERY useful text which is very expensive) and maybe some other stuff I don't remember.  Good luck with it!  It's written for a group, but it should be easy to adapt for independent use.  Please excuse the writing and pretension.  I mean...who wasn't a jerk when they were 23, right?

A Ritual to Acquire Excellent Books at a Library Sale

Instructions:

Each participant will require a square of paper, a copy of these instructions, and a pen. This ritual should be performed the night preceding the sale.

Each magician should develop a sigil or magical formula which represents, for them, the working at hand.

After lighting several candles, each magician should write a list of any particular types of books they seek. These should be placed in a bowl and burned.

While the lists burn, the group should repeat the evocation below several times, until a meter is established and the group agrees that the “vibe” has been established. It may be easiest if the lead magician reads it aloud first to help to establish the meter.

Each magician should copy the following magic square onto a square of paper. On the reverse side, each magician should draw their sigil, small. The papers should be passed around the circle, with each magician adding their sigil to each talisman. When every talisman has been inscribed with every sigil, each magician should anoint their talisman with ashes of the lists, while saying the evocation again.

The talismans should be carried in the left hand pocket while book searching.

Extra talismans may be made for magicians not present at the working.

Evocation (see note below):
Procol oh procol este profani. Barlasti ompala.

In the name of the Mighty and Terrible One, we evoke Tahuti, the Lord of Wisdom and of Utterance; Master Scribe, Inventor of Language.

Oh thou, majesty of the godhead, wisdom-crowned Tahuti, Lord of the gates of the universe. Thee, thee we evoke.

Oh thou of the ibis head. Thee, thee we evoke.

Thou who wieldest the wand of double power. Thee, thee we evoke.

Thou whose skin is a flaming orange as though it burned in a furnace. Thee, thee we evoke.

Thoth. Hermes. Mercury. 

By whatever name we call thee, thou art still nameless to eternity. Come thou forth we say, and aid us in this work of art.

Thou star of the east that didst conduct the magi. Come thou forth we say, come thou forth and make every spirit of the air aid us in our quest for Knowledge.

Thou Scribe Eternal, Thou Lord of Books. Bring forth books of magic, books to inspire and to enflame. Direct our eyes to those books we most desire; those books of rare value that we never dreamed to find.


REPEAT

The Magic Square:

S	E	A	R	A	H
E	L	L	O	P	A
A	L	A	T	I	M
R	O	T	A	R	A
A	P	I	R	A	C
H	A	M	A	C	S

Notes:

The Evocation is heavily modeled on the classic Golden Dawn Invocation of Thoth, widely believed to have been written, at least in part, by William Butler Yeats. The first lines are something of a mystery. ‘Procul, O procul este profani’ is taken from The Aeneid. It means literally, “keep distant, distant, unbelievers!” Virgil puts these words into the mouth of the Sybil of Cumae who is preparing to utter some hard-core prophecy and who with this speech shoos off the vulgar outsiders by saying, “Keep away, away, you trashy rabble.” I have no idea what “barlasti ompala” means.

The Square above is taken from the Book of Sacred Magic of Abramelin the Mage, Book Three, Chapter 11, Part B. Mathers notes “Many ancient Books of Magic, etc., have been lost or destroyed, in some cases by the wish of the Good Spirits, in others by the machinations of the Evil Spirits. By these Symbols you can have many supposed extinct works brought to you, Abraham states; but adds that he could never copy them, because the writing disappeared as fast as he wrote it; notwithstanding this he was permitted to read some of them.”

Cornish Adventure, Part Three: Bonus Round!

As I mentioned yesterday, the amazing Camelot Castle Hotel in Tintagel let me stay last night (Jan 1) for free as part of their "artist in residence" program.  Here is how that went:

After a fun afternoon at the Witchcraft Museum, I headed back to the castle.  I went up to my room, which is nice but nothing fancy, to write a little.


Very quickly, I got a headache and became tired, and laid down to take a nap.  I am not sure if I feel asleep or not.  I began to have an ache in my lower back.  A very bad backache.  Like PMS cramps gone crazy.  It hurt worse and worse.  I couldn't get out of the bed.  I began to cry. 

I was scared, and shaking a little.  I thought to myself "Oh god, oh god!  Sweet Jesus, help me!  Mother Mary, oh Mary!!  I'm miscarrying!"

And that's when I was like....wait, what?  As a pagan who grew up Jewish, I'm not given to calling out to Jesus and Mary.  But moreso, I'm not pregnant.  Like, I menstruated a week ago, and haven't gotten laid in some time.  For sure not pregnant.

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Tricksy ghosties!  Can't fool me.  I know the difference between my genius and a rando voice in my head.

I did a spot of banishing (IAO) and got off the bed.  I took a shower, and put on clean clothes.  And I read the Orphic Hymn to Hermes Chthonios off my phone, and walked a young woman named Maggie (or maybe Moggy?), who I think worked as a servant (slave?) here a long time ago, down the Long Road.

Cornish Adventure Part Two

After a very cold and rainy drive from Glastonbury, I finally arrived at the Penallick B&B in Tintagel (the boyhood home of King Arthur) last night around 1:30am.  Along the way, my sat nav (British for GPS) decided to take me along several semi-paved farmer's roads (in the pouring rain, in the pitch black), so that was fun. 

The B&B is lovely.  The proprietor, Paul, seems very nice.  I was given my choice of rooms, and chose the one with the bigger bed over the one with the sea view.  The view on this side is of farms, and is still quite pretty. 

I had the best English breakfast of all time (which is an amazing British thing combining everything I have ever wanted to eat for breakfast, and also some kind of usually baked beans?  This place had blackbeans in a vaguely Cuban style, which were great.), and then set off to do a little Sunday driving, while waiting for the Museum of Witchcraft and Magic to open at noon.  I'll write about the museum tonight, but I'm excited about it!

I didn't go down to Tintagel castle, because it's rather expensive, quite a hike, and I use a cane and only had 2 hours to kill until the museum opens.  I will go tomorrow.  Instead, I drove around and took some photos.  First, a few from "downtown" Tintagel, which looks fun, lots of cutesy touristy King Arthur themed and New Age stuff, but everything is closed Sunday morning.  Here is a photo of the lovely "Old Post Office", which is a medieval hall.  It's closed for the winter, but you can see some indoor photos at their website.

I drove around a bit, looking for a place where I could perhaps see Tintagal castle from above.  I found the most amazing place, called the Camelot Castle Hotel, which perches on a cliff overlooking the coast. 

Here are several photos from their "back yard".  Click to expand:

After taking photos, I went inside to their restaurant to have a hot cocoa and get out of the cold wind.  It was quite empty, although there were at least half a dozen waiters.  It's very lovely.  Like a Victorian castle (which I guess it basically is). 

AMAZING art, I think mostly from the same artist (ie, they all are similar in style a sort of slightly psychedelic impressionism similar to my grandmother's) . I got to speaking with the owner (who I'm like 60% convinced is actually Merlin).  Apparently, in the off seasons, they have an artist in residence program, and so they're letting me stay tonight for free!

I've now emptied my phone's memory, and am about to set off for the Witching Museum.  More this evening!  Love to you all!

Sara