Tomorrow is May First, which makes it calendrical Beltane. Since it's a Wednesday, I think we'll wait a few days to when the sun is half-way between the equinox and the solstice to celebrate. Besides, it will probably be raining. Even if Mark won't countenance a bonfire, we can light a bunch of candles in our fire place.
Onto the back-log of unfinished and stalled manuscripts!
“Psychic Witch” is not a book about starting or working within a group or coven. There are references to Wicca, other Neopaganisms, and ceremonial magick, but the author’s witchcraft is more centered on solitary trance work and folk magic. While the author identifies as a gay man, the subject matter is aimed at a general audience (sorry, no Sex Rituals of Gay Pagan Men here; this isn't a work by Storm Faerywolf).
Books like “Psychic Witch” are often compared to Dion Fortune’s “Mystical Qabbalah,” which is grounded in early 20th century British magical theory and colonialism, or Starhawk’s early works, which are grounded in Goddess-centered alternatives to the patriarchy (and Ronald Reagan). My impression of “Psychic Witch” is that it is an introductory text drawing mostly from later Neopagan (and New Age) authors, such as Raven Silverwolf and Christopher Penczak.
The book’s chapters have a web article feel. Some chants and spells have awkward scansion; but not as egregious as other recent Llewellyn books I’ve read, and at least there’s an attempt at more complex meter. I’m sorry to say that the binding of the softbound Llewellyn edition I purchased was of poor quality and the book began shedding pages after five days of a first reading.
The opening chapters introduce the reader to Auryn’s cosmology. He makes a distinction between psychics who perceive spiritual energy (e.g. through clairvoyance) from the higher self, witches who affect subtle energy (e.g. through casting a spell) via the lower self, and psychic witches who do both (this implies mundanes do neither). There’s a few passages which hand-wave about “discernment” and “energy,” with statements about reality being energy and subtle energy being information. There is also some light review of brainwaves and the pineal gland which make the science fiction writer within me wince. The end thesis is the pineal gland is a psychic Witch Eye which is a key organ for working with and powering magical operations—this is a more focused version of the theory that the chakras are magical energy centers centered over or connected with various endocrine system glands.
Auryn writes, “Magick is the manipulation of subtle energies in a specific manner to influence a desired result.” Although it’s a modern rewording of “actions performed within the astral plane have their effects upon the material plane,” it seems more physics-justified than Aleister Crowley’s definition, “Magick is the Science and Art of causing Change to occur in conformity with Will;” Dion Fortune’s, “Magic is the art of causing changes to occur in consciousness, in conformity with will;” or Starhawk’s combination of “Magic is the art of changing consciousness at will,” and “A spell is a symbolic act done in an altered state of consciousness, in order to cause a desired change.”
While there are some other science and technology references to “downloading (spiritual/psychic) information” elsewhere, for the most part this feels less an attempt to give his system a science pedigree and more an attempt to offer physical, physiological, or cognitive behavioral explanations for why meditation and concentration are foundation skills to build upon. My only critique of using Science Says arguments is that Auryn writes that the subtle energies used in magick cannot be physically measured—which means Science can say nothing about them. Dion Fortune gets around studying the unmeasurable by making a distinction between natural science and occult science. To his merit, Auryn doesn’t use the words quantum or entanglement; although he does use the word fractal in some explainations.
Early chapters focus on various mediation, concentration, affirmation, and visualization techniques. These are used to perform standard grounding and centering exercises from the Western European twentieth century magical tradition. Extrasensory perception is explored with suggestions for seeing auras or hearing spirit allies. Standard purification and shielding techniques are built on top of the development of subtle perception.
Auryn introduces the concept of the triple souls in chapter 6. Drawing from the Irish poem, “The Cauldron of Poesy,” he builds an integrated world and body view. A person has a Higher, Middle, and Lower Self; these in turn are connected to a corresponding Higher, Middle, and Lower (or Under-) Realm. The selves and realms form the underpinning of an introductory text on standard 20th century reincarnation belief. This belief is that the higher self in the higher realm (possibly the astral plane), connects with a lower self (your shadow self or “Sticky self”) from the underworld (with references to Jung, the collective unconscious, “earth energy”, and ancestral memory), to create a temporary physical body, the middle self.
Subsequent chapters explore the lower and higher selves with an aim to connecting with and making conscious the shadow or id elements of the lower self, and with connecting with the true or divine will of the higher self. The ultimate goal is to bring the views of the lower, middle, and higher self into aligned focus and achieve a powerful altered state of conscious. In this exalted state a psychic witch can perform (healing) spells. Auryn pauses a moment to extol readers to act from a place of service and (Starhawkian) power-with instead of power-over.
Chapter ten explores the creation of sacred space, or the magic circle. Chapter eleven introduces the five Platonic elements earth, water, fire, air, and spirt/ether (which Auryn calls “quintessence”). Chapters twelve and thirteen revisit the realms in terms of subtle (unrecordable) energy, and launch into simple astrological meanings of classical planets—the Sun through Saturn. After an introduction to one’s body’s aura, chapter fourteen assembles the concepts of the previous chapters into a technique for mediation/spell casting which starts with a foundation of the physical and works to bring successive selves, bodies, and realms into focus on the same goal.
Chapter fifteen is a series of spells or “magic tricks.” This chapter comes close to “Prosperity Check” territory. While there isn’t a Spell To Get a Parking Spot, there is a “Money Magnet Multiplier” spell which involves drawing the glyph for Jupiter onto a dollar bill during a waxing moon (repeatedly, if necessary). I suppose that this isn’t all that different from complicated sixteenth century spells to summon beings of extraordinary knowledge and ask them, not what the true nature of solar fire (nuclear fusion) is, but rather where the nearest buried treasure lies—or even standard prayers for protection, health, love, and prosperity. While elsewhere Auryn mentions the practical aspect of spells needing the witch to work toward desired results (e.g. hitting the pavement and handing out resumes in addition to staring at a green candle for money), the wheedling charms in this concluding chapter leans toward the more superstitious and self-serving end of folk magic.
As an introductory text, Psychic Witch is a wide-ranging guide for secular-leaning, solitary practitioners new to spell-casting and folk magic (as opposed to, say, someone on the path of a priest or priestess of a Gardnerian Wiccan coven). Its strength is that it starts with basic foundational techniques and instructs the reader to practice, practice, practice.
Mark is a natural early riser. I pulled myself out of bed at 5 AM and we managed to leave the house a little before 6, just after sunrise. By pre-arrangement, Mark drove, and I napped a little.
I must have misread the tide tables, because at a quarter 'til 8 the tide was much, much higher than I thought it would have been. "You be sure to keep an eye on the ocean," Mark warned. "Don't think I didn't see you last month, standing on a rock, surrounded by water, with a funny look on your face." (Reader, I was in no danger of inundation, and the retreating flow of the ocean around the rock formed a natural deposit of agates and stones of interesting nature.)
When we got to the beach, there were only three or so other folks there, so we could let Aoife off leash while we threw her ball for her and hunted for agates. Sometimes she'll drop her ball on top of an agate, at least for Mark, but this time around we stumbled over two really large ones on our own.
Aoife came with us. We managed to actually leave before dawn and thus reached the Muriel O. Ponsler Beach about 8:30. This meant that there were virtually no other dogs there, and we could let Aoife be off-leash (there were also no birds or marine life, either). I had brought my camera, but was only slightly tempted to take Yet Another WPA Concrete Bridge In The Mist shot.
Mark is very good at finding all sorts of interesting and unusual rocks in the surf. This time around there was a lot of large, plain basalt; bright red jasper; banded rocks; quartz; and small-to-medium-sized agates. Mark did find a mouse-sized agate. At first I only found jasper, but later on I hung out at the end of a peninsula of basalt where the retreating tide would tumble all sorts of rocks and my agate count went up.
I'd forgotten the Chuck-It. Mark and I had to take turns throwing a ball for Aoife. For about two hours.
It seems like a lifetime ago.
The skies have cleared up around the 13th, just in time for a conjunction of the Moon with Jupiter, and then a very close pass of the Moon by the Pleiades the next day. "I thought you said they were going to be next to each other," Mark said Thursday night.
"Well, I thought they were," I said. "I guess Earthsky led me on. They're still about as close as they're going to be on this pass."
"Well," I said, "it is. If you put your thumb over the Moon, you can see the Pleiades right over it." Mark likes to be a contrarian when I say that the Moon is next to Jupiter, and Thursday night we had a loud conversation on the deck about how apparently close planets and stars are to each other, how I think it's neat when celestial objects are in conjunction (because it looks cool and doesn't happen every day), and how Mark thinks this is like religion. I suppose on one level it is like religion, in that photographing the sky makes me feel like I'm participating in something larger than myself.
The other week I finished up an interweave pattern using the 9-6-9 star pattern from last month. It refreshing to work with stars using a pattern other than a ten-fold one. I held back on my urge to use strongly contrasting colors and managed to come up with a combination that's energetic, but not spastic.
On the dream front I've been having unpleasant dreams over the last week that have me examining issues of trust, duty, authority, power, and artifice. I'm not quite sure what children damaging a wooden play structure with dried out lion's fingers means, but I'm pretty sure that the army of assassin-geishas has something to do with my ambiguous feelings toward drag queens. At the very least, I suppose that it generates some interesting exchanges with ChatGPT.
Sigh. This is what happens when I focus on cool ideas and world-building. Back to the drawing board. I suppose that it counts as writing practice.
Slightly related, I rearranged the paperbacks in my library. I did find a few duplicates and also some hardbacks that I very likely will never read again. Dislodged from the paperbacks were the old blank notebooks I've been filling since 1995. There's fewer than one would think, as it usually takes me about three years to fill one completely. They're interesting as a record of story ideas or of questions I was working through, but I think I would have to index them or at least put their dates on their spines for them to be useful.
I guess I need to just force myself to write short stories based on a modular outline—what my friend Nina calls "roll-ups"—for the next few months just to get started and to have a story with an ending. I'll have to see if I can come up with something other than "quest" or "secret library" or "whiney hero" plots (or "eye-candy" non-plots).
Here; have a recent hummingbird photo.
Getting the stars down on the triangles was simple enough, but it took me a lot of wiggling to get the nine kite-shapes at the top and bottom of the design to look symmetric and not smooshed.
I'll have to see what sorts of patterns will result from right-triangles which form squares instead of hexagons.
Whats fun about this technique is that it allows one to break away from patterns that are hexagon- or square-based.
Probably the best way to describe the gatherings in full force is "a frat party with lots of theatre people." Or possibly a slightly grittier version of backstage at The Muppet Show.
Since there were so many relatives scheduled to attend the fancy birthday lunch, there was a raffle to "sit at the captain's table" with the birthday girl. Since the instructions didn't specify a limit, Mark proceeded to fill out multiple tickets with his name on them. This sparked a loud discussion among his sisters about the interpretation of the rules and whether Mark was stuffing the ballot or not. During this time, The Child (at least) wrote Mark's name on an extra ticket, and somebody else submitted a ticket labeled "Anyone BUT Mark."
When the tickets were drawn, Mark's name was drawn five times (six if you count "Anyone BUT Mark"), and after a consultation, Mark's Mother decreed Mark disqualified.
"I've been sent away!" said Mark, "Banished." Smeagol-like, at the fancy birthday lunch, he sat down at the captain's table and pretended to lick the forks.
The lunch was a hearty Italian meal, with several courses (I had salmon). The strangest aspect of the party was that it was the same venue as Mark's Mother's 70th birthday, but the room seemed smaller somehow. We couldn't figure out if the room had been painted a white back then and that the now red walls made the space seem closer, or if there had been some slight remodeling or additions.
Sunday started out typically. Mark and I had talked about getting up before dawn and going to Delta Ponds to try an spot some more beavers. I woke up around 6 AM, peered between the blinds at what I thought was an overcast morning, groaned, and burrowed further under the covers.
Around 7 AM I did toddle out of bed and found Mark in the living room. The sun painted high clouds magenta, and the waning full moon hid behind the two pines to the west. I realized I was a Bad Husband for keeping Mark from his early morning nature walk, and said that we should go—but Mark said we could go in the evening.
After breakfast, I thought I'd join a Zoom writing session of folks I know, but then I got a blind spot in my vision as I was trying to catch up on social media on my phone and the next thing I knew, there was a vibrating spiral of blue lightning in the middle of everything, which put the kibosh on reading or doing anything requiring sight.
I ended up napping outside all morning on our deck furniture. In the sunlight. It got up to 65F. This is two weeks after the snow and ice storm and about a week of temperatures in the mid-20s. I think I might have gotten a mild tan.
