The Watchers, the Fey, and the Witch: A Study of Blood

Let's consider for a moment several bits of myth and several bits of lore, and how mythic history interweaves with how things work in the craft.

The general starting point is the often misunderstood or misrepresented concept of witch-blood.  I'm going to start from a mythic understanding here, with the warning that confusing myth and science can be damaging to one's mental processes.  Work with me here.

Starting with the premise that all who work the craft have witch-blood, that all witches are of the blood, you might say.  Now, those with witch-blood have the Sight.  The Sight, as folktales and folklore and myth and lore will tell you, is the ability to see what's truly there, to see through glamour and see the true form of those who have assumed another shape, shapeshifters if you will, and other such things where the average observer doesn't see what's really there.  People tend to see what they expect to see.  The Sight shows otherwise.

Now there's lore, a myth, of the Founders.  I won't go into it here, but the witch-blood comes from the Founders, and to them from the Daughters, and to them from the Watchers.  And through the Ninth Mother to those with that witch-blood.  So that's the start of it.

So, the Sight, True Sight, being that which, in Celtic folktales, allows those with it to see through the glamour of the Fey.  Now, if the witch-blood gives the Sight, and that blood comes from the Blood of the Watchers, the Sight comes from their blood.  Now if the Sight is the seeing through the glamour of the Fey, it has power over their glamour.  It would make sense that that which is greater trumps that which is lesser, so the witch-blood must be greater than the glamour of the Fey.

Now, consider the connection of the Fey to burial mounds and corpse roads, and other bits and pieces, and what this and other things imply.  Now one group of the Fey are of interest here, at least in Ireland, which is the location I want to focus on here, the Sidhe.

Now Sidhe did not indicate a people originally, it means mound, as in a burial mound.  And the stories are of them living in Hollow Hills. I'll leave the connection between the two to you.

Now it was Manannán, son of Lir, that great sorcerer and shapeshifter, who was powerful in glamour among many other things, raised the Veil that separated Ireland into that above and that below, and the Tuatha De Danann went into the Hollow Hills.  This was when it became obvious the Milesians, who myth says became the later Irish, would defeat the Tuatha.  It's not a huge leap to consider the possibility that the Tuatha are the Sidhe.

Note Manannán's shapeshifting and glamour, and other abilities, this might be important.

Now, the Tuatha De Danann are often described as very tall, giants if you will, as were the Fir Bolg.  The Fir Bolg were the people who living in Ireland when the Tuatha invaded, and the two fought for some time until the Tuatha ended up victors.   Some descriptions, however, show the De Danann being a sect or offshoot of the Fir Bolg.

Consider, then, the Nephilim. "There were giants in the earth in those days; and also after that, when the sons of God came in unto the daughters of men, and they bare children to them, the same became mighty men which were of old, men of renown." Or, "The Nephilim were on the earth in those days, and also afterward, when the sons of God came in to the daughters of men, and they bore children to them. These were the mighty men that were of old, the men of renown."  It is not a stretch to link the descriptions of the Nephilim, the children of the Watchers and the Daughters, with the Fir Bold and De Danann.  Other tales around the world similarly fit this parallel.

Now if Manannán's powers, most of which are later seen in witch trial accounts and folktales of witches, and in various cultures around the world including modern trad craft, came from his bloodline, and his people, his blood, comes from the Nephilim, and hence from the Watchers, and if those are the same powers that witches possess, consider again the Sight, and who the Fey are.

Is it impossible that the Fey, especially the Sidhe, are the Mighty Dead, those of Watcher descent, of the witch-blood, who have passed beyond the Veil?  And this Veil being the same that separates the two Irelands in the story of the descent of the Tuatha De Danann into the Hollow Hills?

Now, those living can see through the glamour of those who have passed if this is the case, and the blood is the source of Sight as we said, and also of the glamour and shapeshifting and other abilities the tales ascribe to Manannán and later the Fey and to witches.

Now blood is iron and blood is life.  The dead have no blood, as we all know, as they have died, hence they have in much of the lore an aversion to iron, which is, as we said, of the blood.  This is the reason it runs red.

So the power of the Fey is the result of blood no longer there, but for the power of a witch, the blood is still there.  So the blood has power over the dead who have no blood, as the Sight of the witch overcomes the glamour of the Fey.

So the blood is the difference.  The witch-blood.  If you get my meaning.

FFF,
~Lorekeeper/Muninn's Kiss

On Veils and Webs and Hedges...

Much folklore, tradition, and mythology talk of a boundary, an edge, a division between worlds. Why this is common should be fairly evident. If there is an Otherworld, Underworld, any type of world beyond ours, if there was no separation, there would be no other world, the two would be one. For the two to be distinct, or function as distinct, something must divide them.

There are different words in different languages and cultures, different meanings, different methods to cross this boundary. But the boundary is constant, because it has to be. If there's another world, there is a boundary making these worlds distinct.

One common word used in English is the Veil. This is the term I most commonly use. As do many others.

The term brings to mind for some the veils of nuns or brides, the veils of mourners, the veils of Islamic women. For others, it brings to mind the veils of belly dancers, or harems, or erotic chambers. For others still, it brings to mind the curtain between the Holy Place and the Holy of Holies in the temple in Jerusalem, and of the verse in the New Testament of that veil torn in two from top to bottom.

These imaginings of the Veil are useful, of course they are. But how accurate are they? Why do we use the term, and do our images match the reality the term is trying to describe.

Lets start with the meaning of Veil, and it's origins.

veil (n.)
c.1200, "nun's head covering," from Anglo-French and Old North French veil (12c., Modern French voile) "a head-covering," also "a sail, a curtain," from Latin vela, plural of velum "sail, curtain, covering," from PIE root *weg- (1) "to weave a web." Vela was mistaken in Vulgar Latin for a feminine singular noun. To take the veil "become a nun" is attested from early 14c.
(http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?term=veil)

The beginning of this description of course is some of the uses we described above, a head covering, a curtain. But note first the Latin vela, velum. Despite it's use as singular, vela is plural, and that is the word we get veil from, not the singular. Of interest, though, is that the Latin velum also becomes the English velum, which is the soft palate, the roof of the mouth. A veil is thin and covers, but it isn't necessarily cloth or fragile.

Of more interest is the fact that Velum comes the reconstructed *weg- meaning "to weave a web". It is the image of a spider's web across a surface or over an opening. Have you ever walked into a room or cave or cavern or between trees and walked right into a spider web at face level? That is a veil.

Web comes from the same word and so does weave. These two retained that meaning well. Most of the words coming from this root mean something along the lines of entwined, interlaced, woven.

But, as words do change meaning over time, do these meanings hold relevance to our Veil, the way we use it in the context of this discussion?

Consider for a moment, the idea of the endless Web of Fate I have described elsewhere.  Each being, human or not, has a knot of Threads at their core, that tie them to everything else.  These Threads interconnect with other Threads of those we encounter and interact with, and to our ancestors by blood, lore, or past lives.  These form a multidimensional Web, woven by the one who weaves.  I describe the web like this:

"Picture a spider web, a huge orb web, threads of web radiating out in all directions on a plane from a central point. Picture those threads connected to other threads between them, forming circles, spirals, curves around that centre. Picture the log thread stretching from the central point out to infinity in all directions, an infinite web. Picture the way the light shines through and across those threads, sometimes making them shine like glass, sometimes hiding them from view. Sometimes you see one thread, or three, or ten, sometimes just the part of the web near you. Lift your head, change the angle. You see the whole web sprawling out to eternity in the direction you are looking."

What if this Web I describe is the boundary between worlds?  What if it is our woven interconnectedness throughout Time and Space that separates us from that which is outside our Time and Space?  If this is the case, the Web that binds us together holds us in what we think is reality.  This would make crossing over that boundary very difficult, because we ourselves become the sentilils and guards, the Guardians of the Gate if you will.  All our experiences and pasts and futures and interactions in this world tie us deeper into the Web and more to what we think is reality.  People tend to see what they expect to see.

But, then, crossing that boundary also would mean being disentangled from it.  Not necessarily cut free (after the one who cuts cuts our Thread, we cross the Gates of Life and Death; completely cut free of the Web is freedom from this world and our bodies, for the Threads are what knits flesh and spirit, spirit and flesh) but loosed.  So, to cross over, the knots that hold us to what we know and expect of reality must be loosened and the Threads allowed to bend. The Threads of Fate but be bent, Fate must be bent.

Consider for a moment the word "warp".  In most common usages in Modern English, it is to "to bend, twist, distort".   This word is believed to come from the reconstructed Proto-Indoeuropian *werp- meaning "to turn or bend".  In weaving, it is used in contrast to "woof", the woof being the set threads in the loom, the warp twisting and turning through the woof, bending it, to create a fabric.  "Woof" comes from *webh- meaning "to weave", which is the source of both our English weave, web, and wave.

If the Web of Fate is the boundary between worlds, and the All as a loom, and we see it as the woof in that loom, the threads that aren't connected to the woof that twist and turn between them and bend them become the warp.  The warp bends the woof, the weave, the Web.  Without a warp in a loom, there is no fabric.  Cut the ends and the woof is a pile of strings.  But with the warp wove through the woof, a fabric forms.  The warp hold the woof in place, and of course gives it colour and pattern.  The woof is the foundation, but the warp defines its form.

Some Celtic sources describe the worlds as the Endless Knot, two separate lines interwoven but never connecting.  The is of course the two worlds, the world we know, and the Otherworld.  The two are seen as being tied together in certain places, and the Veil being thinnest there.  Places meaning points on the earth, spatial places, and points in time, temporal places.  At certain locations, the Veil is very thin because the worlds are so close.  At certain times, liminal times, the worlds draw close, and the Veil thins.  This idea of two interwoven worlds fits well the idea of the fabric of the Veil being the interweaving of the woof, our world, and the Threads that connect us, and the warp, the Otherworld and the Threads that connect those that live beyond the Veil, beyond the Gloom out in the endless Gleam.

Then, expanding the metaphor, and the reality it describes, crossing over is a matter of being tied to that other Web, that is the warp, which would mean that those who cross over are tied to both webs, that the Threads at their core run both out into the Woof Web of Fate and the Warp Web of Fate.  They span the worlds, are the Gates, and guardians thereof, they are of both worlds, so not fully of either.

It's by no accident that one of the folk etymologies for "witch" is that it came from a word meaning "to bend or turn".  Especially when we consider that the English "weird", from the Germanic "wyrd", urdr, ultimately meaning Fate, and is the name of one of the three Norns in Norse myth, comes from *wert-, from *wer-, the origin of *werp- we discussed above, "to bend or turn".  The warp of the loom, the wyrd, the fate, the Norns who decide the fate of all beings, the Spinner who spins the Thread, the Weaver who weaves it into the Webs, and the Cutter who cuts to on the Black Altar.  The Grimr.

Moving on from weaving and webs and veils, let's consider another common term for the boundary between worlds, the Hedge.

The image here is English style hedgerows of the type that separate fields or surround a residence.  These form a living, wild boundary between two fields, or between what is inside and what is outside.  For metaphoric purposes, we can use the image of a hedge around a residence, separating the inside and the outside.

Taking this idea back, and looking at the residence with a hedge around as an extension of the hill fort with a baracade or the castle or city with a wall, the inside becomes "us" and the outside "them", the hedge as protection from the Other beyond it.  Inside, we cultivate and control, we build and grow crops, we live life in relative safety.  Outside, there's uncertainty, danger, the settled, civilized farming settlement with the dangerous dark wood beyond, the image of the shift from nomadic to settled life.

The hedge is a wild and dangerous place, but intentionally so.  There's a reason two of the most common hedge trees are the whitethorn (hawthorn) and blackthorn (sloethorn).  While pretty trees, and both producing fruit (the haws and sloes) that provide food for those within and without alike, and to birds and rodents and other animals, the thorns are the important part.  These are thicket forming trees with long, dangerous thorns.  The blackthorn's thorns will cause nasty infections, and both are long and very sharp.  You can't cross the hedge without a lot of pain and threat to your body.  Among the thorns creatures live and other plants, including other trees, grow intermixed.  The result is a very dense wild boundary almost impossible to cross.

The hedge, though, being a wild space, also becomes a space where many herbs and other plants grow, giving rise to one of the two major modern usages of the term "hedgewitch".  The second meaning relates more to the hedge metaphor I'm going toward than the mundane hedgerows.

Often stiles are built where passage is needed.  Stairs up one side and down the other, these triangular constructions allow passage over the hedge, the only safe passage.  And these often can be gated at the top, and also mean limited known ingress and egress points.

Our hedge is like that, a wild space that both keeps us in, we that live in the Dreaming, the reserve if you will, and keeps the Other out, the deadly things that roam the Gleam, dangerous things our hedge protects us from.  The hedge itself is dangerous to both, but limited and defined, a wild place that keeps the inward inward and outward outward.

The thin spots we talked about above function similar to stiles, but it should be remembered that what allows one to go outside the hedge also allows one to come inside the hedge.  The stiles both allow passage out into the Gleam through the Gloom and become a dangerous gateway for things to possibly come into the Dreaming.

Just like with the mundane hedgerow, there are things in this hedge that can provide healing and nourishment, and things that are poisonous or deadly.  Those who enter the hedge can gain much for it, but also must be cautious.  And those that cross completely through or over the hedge instead of riding it must be very careful, because there's a reason we live inside the hedge.  The risk can definitely be worth it, though.

FFF,
~Lorekeeper, Muninn's Kiss

Dance Under Starless Skies, Fair King of the Pictish Witches

As more and more of a generation crosses the Veil, those of us left, both those of the generation that brought us to were where are and those of us that inherit their legacy and lore, contemplate mortality in ways that weren’t as literal not long ago.  I could talk of many of the elders in our traditions and stream who have passed over the years and especially in recent years, but I’ll take the liberty of talking of one in particular.

On the Dark of the Moon this last Friday, Tony Spurlock, Brian DRGN, King of the Picts in Exile (no longer), and the founder and High Mojomuck of The First Church of The Doors, passed from the land of the living, leaving those of us remaining to mourn our loss and celebrate his gain.  As has been noted, the King of Dead, long Live the King.

The timing saddens me, as I was possibly going to be in San Francisco later this month and was hoping to finally meet him in person, but it’s too late now.  May he dance under starless skies. I would not be where I am or who I am if it was not for him, great soul.  I will miss him greatly, and I know many others will.  The Mighty and Blessed Dead embrace him, as he joins the Dragons who went before.

I have known DRGN only a short time, all said.  Many who grieve have known him longer.  I met him online five years ago, in 2009, on the 1734 list he had just joined, which I had been a member of for some time.  At the time, I asked if he would be willing to teach me Anderson craft.  He declined, not out of unwillingness, but because he felt he could not well teach it remotely.  Over the years since, we shared much conversation, and I think I can honestly say that even though he wasn’t teaching me, per se, I learned more of my craft from him than any other, and wouldn’t be who I am or what I am today without him.  And, though he felt in exile at times from the tradition, I think I can say the tradition would not be what it is today without him.  And I’m talking the Heart of the tradition, that which will sustain and survive any tribulations the tradition may suffer, that which is true Feri by whatever name, that which is Anderson Craft.

It was with a heavy heart that I heard of his passing, and I do truly mourn, as do many.  I truly wish I had met him in the flesh, and hope to meet him in spirit.  I will always cherish the lore and insights and knowledge and understanding and wisdom he shared with me, and friendship and connection we shared.

Hold your head high, DRGN, King of the Pictish Witches!  Dance, dance for joy, dance for sorrow, dance for all that was and is and will ever be.

"Forget the night.
Live with us in forests of azure.
Out here on the perimeter there are no stars
Out here we is stoned - immaculate.”

"For seven years, I dwelt
In the loose palace of exile
Playing strange games with the girls of the island
Now, I have come again
To the land of the fair, and the strong, and the wise
Brothers and sisters of the pale forest
Children of night
Who among you will run with the hunt?
Now night arrives with her purple legion
Retire now to your tents and to your dreams
Tomorrow we enter the town of my birth
I want to be ready.”

FFF,
~Muninn’s Kiss/Lorekeeper

An Abstract on Abstraction

The focus on the abstract and the symbolic in many modern traditions is a bit odd in my opinion.  Not that the abstract and symbolic don't have a place or value, of course.  As a born mystic, these things have always intrigued and interested me.  It's the amount of focus and the importance placed that I think is a harmful thing for really growing and practicing.

As a specific example, my main objection to the Classic elements in folk magic is the lack of practical application to the real work.  I can't hold elemental Fire or Water or Earth or Air in my hands, I can't mix them and make something out of them.  But I can take the soil of the land and mix it with water from creek or pond or river or lake, to make mud, and form it into a figure of someone or something or a tablet or a disc for an amulet, and can sit it out for the wind and sun to dry.

You won't hear a farmer use a blessing like, "may you have water and air and earth."  That is too abstract to be meaningful.  You would hear something closer to, "may you have rain or irrigation water to water the crops, may you have fresh air to breathe and wind to blow away harmful insects, may your land be fertile and rich and produce."  Or something more along those more practical lines.

This holds true in many areas.  What good does a symbol do if it isn't applicable in a material or at least methodical way?  The Work is about doing the work, not about symbols that can be meditated on but have no pragmatic purpose.

The toad bone was not obtained by some because it symbolized all the things it can be seen to symbolize.  These symbols aren't of no importance, nor are they not real, but they aren't the point.  The toad bone was obtained for very specific purposes, to control animals, to have power over people, and others.  Read Andrew Chumbley's The Leaper Between, and you will see the application is the major focus, not the symbolism, though that exists as well.

I come from simple people, even if I work in an industry far from that, and move at times in higher society.  My ancestors on both sides were mostly farms, and when not farmers, still working class people.  Salt of the earth, honest folk.  This is why my grandpa lost everything twice, as to him, a handshake was a deal.  This is why my father always felt more comfortable out with his drilling team in the forest pulling up rock core samples than in the office with those who were more concerned with politics than the work.  My father tastes dirt to know what it is made of.  My grandpa on my mother’s side worked the ground most of his life, as his father did, and his, all the way back to Germany and Prussia.  I come from simple, working class, people, not academics or philosophers, not politicians or old money.  And when you live that life, or come from that seed, or do that work, you do what needs to be done, rather than worrying what it means.

Both my father and my mother’s father were water witchers, and could find whatever they were looking for beneath the ground with their skill. It didn’t mater what the meaning of anything was, it mattered that it worked and they could find what they needed.  My father used that skill with the drilling team, and they always hit the vein they were trying for when he told them where to drill.  There was no symbolism, no hidden meaning, just a skill others couldn’t use that was accurate and got the job done.

Except among philosophers and theologians, symbols and meanings are secondary to what you can use the thing for.  The Classical elements are great for discussion and even as symbols in ritual, but, as Bearwalker would say, you can you grow corn in them?  The abstraction from the physical things that we interact with when we get our hands dirty to the philosophers’ symbols and metaphors is often a distraction from the work, work that only truly gets done when we get our hands dirty and do the work.

FFF,
~Muninn’s Kiss

The Narrative of What is Taught

One thing I see a lot that I think is detrimental to the passing of what we know and learn, the lore the spirits have given us, and the lore our teachers, both formal and informal, have given us is entitlement.

I'm talking about the entitlement that because someone knows something or can teach you something, they should and that what they know should not be kept to themselves, that all information should be free and accessible.

This is kind of a general war cry in our time, from the call for all software to be open source and license free, to the idea that all government records should be available to the public, to the idea that if something is published on the Internet, it is automatically public domain and can be used without citing or credit, to the idea that copyrights on music and patents on things developed by corporations are automatically an attack on the people.  While there might be legitimacy in several, maybe all, of these in some cases, the general idea that all things should be free and available, when we want it and how we want it actually does us all a disservice.  We are all singing with Queen, "Here’s to the future, hear the cry of youth, I want it all, I want it all, I want it all, and I want it now.”  But if we’re going to live a Rock and Roll slogan, maybe we need to hear the Rolling Stones singing, “No, you don’t always get what you want, no, you don’t always get what you want, no, you don’t always get what you want, but if you try sometime, you might find, you get what you need."

I'd like to quote one of the tenets of Toteg Tribe in regard to this, as I think it expresses well what I'm referring to.

"We listen with consideration to those who choose to share their wisdom with us, and respect their rights to do so in their own way, in their own time." 

The thing is, the process of learning from someone, whether they are formally teaching you or not, whether they are human or not, is not a dump of information like you can get by using Google or Wikipedia to find answers fast. The narrative, the context, and the story that goes along with the teaching is just as important, and stories don't live in the "I want it all and I want it now" range. The story gets lost there, and the information loses its meaning.

It's in the narrative between teacher/master and student/apprentice that the craft is taught, not in the facts and information.  Facts and information might help you learn dogma, but the craft isn’t about dogma.  Facts and information might help you learn a liturgy of lore, but that liturgy is of no use in the craft if it’s just that, just words repeated like the catechism of the Catholic Church.  Facts and information might, maybe, point you in a direction where you might be able to apply them and make contact with spirits, and learn on your own, but why do you need a teacher if that is your course?  It’s the narrative between the teacher and student, master and apprentice, where any craft is taught, and our craft even more so.  You don’t learn enough to start a business in smithing after a weekend course.  You don’t learn enough to wire a house after a weekend course with an electrician.  You can’t build quality, beautiful cabinets or build a house after a weekend course in carpentry.  You can’t build a cathedral after a weekend course in masonry.  If you could do any of these, the requirements for a license would be to watch Youtube videos.  No, it takes time to learn these crafts, training with a master, and it’s the stories and tales of their experiences that you learn more from than lessons in the simple skills or a dump of information.  Why would our craft be different from that?

The teacher that can and will teach you will do so in their own way and their own time. You're job is to be receptive and live the story they share.

FFF,
~Muninn’s Kiss

Thirteen Points of Advice for Those Starting on the Path

The following are thirteen points of advice and guidance I'd give to anyone starting out of the path.  They aren't exclusive, there are other things to know.  And they aren't original, they are drawn from many sources.  And they are from my point of view, so should not be taken as gospel.  I hope they help some who read them.  Before getting into them, four books I'd recommend before most others, and I have a very long recommended reading list, are the following:

• Visual Magick by Jan Fries (Paperback, Kindle)
• Drawing Down the Spirits by Kenaz Filan and Raven Kaldera (Paperback, Kindle)
• Mysticism: Initiation and Dream by Andrew D. Chumbley (J.D. Holmes - US, Three Hands Press - UK)
• The Robert Cochrane Letters by Robert Cochrane and Evan John Jones (Out of print but available through Amazon)

And that being said, here are the thirteen points of advice that are my intention if sharing this:

1. Mutual respect is essential. Respect the spirits, and expect respect in return. If you don't receive it, they're out, burnt, or cut off.
2. All things have a spirit, and that spirit can be worked with and learned from. Some work with them as servants, or worship them and become servants. I prefer to work with them as partners. There is an authority in knowing you are equal with all things.
3. People (and spirits) see what they expect to see. Open your eyes, then open them again. Observe. Perceive. Understand.
4. What conceals also reveals. Look beneath the surface, both in of what your senses (physical or otherwise) tell you and what teachings, lore, and myth tell you. What they hide is as important as what they say.
5. Learn to ask the right questions. Asking the wrong question will send you in the wrong direction. There are no bad questions, but often looking at the question in the right way opens doors. And always ask the next question, don't let the answer be the end of the question.
6. When all else fails, cheat. Don't assume that the traditional way to do something, the way everyone does it, or the way you've always done it is the only approach. If it doesn't work, do something else.
7. Divide and conquer. If something is baffling or seems to be concealing something you can't quite grasp or see, break it down, look at each part of it separately, determine where something is missing, concealed, or not working, and focus there.
8. Only you are responsible for your actions and words, no one else, and you aren't responsible for anyone else's. Do what is necessary, but accept the responsibility for it. Own what you say and what you do, regardless of the consequences or what you think of them later. Don't pass blame, and don't take it on.
9. Learn from all things. All beings, objects, persons, spirits, circumstances, lore, teachings, regardless of the source or pain or issues, contain beauty, knowledge, understanding, and wisdom, and can be learned from, if you ask the right questions, look beneath the surface, and separate what has value from what doesn't. There's a saying in Hawai'i that not all knowledge is found in one shed.
10. Be willing to consider any idea, no matter how different from your own. Examine it, understand it, but don't just accept it in you process. Hold on firmly to what you know, and only change it if there is good reason to do so.
11. Everybody lies, misrepresents, and hides things. This goes for spirits as well as living humans, and all things. Never assume you are being told the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth. We all speak through our filters, understand based on our experiences, hide what we don't want seen, and mislead when it will gain us something. Make no assumptions about the truth of, completeness of, or accuracy of anything you are told. This goes for what you tell yourself as well. Look deeper, examine. Observe. Perceive. Understand.
12. What is yours, you need to hold, protect, defend. As Cochrane said, "What I have--I hold!" You are guardian and keeper of what is yours. Find what that is, and keep it against the storm.
13. What you put in, you get out. As we say in computers, garbage in, garbage out. Only you control what you get from the path. No effort, no result. No danger, no gain. Victor Anderson said anything worth doing is dangerous, and Cochrane said take all you are given, give all of yourself. Huna teaches that where your attention goes, the mana goes, and Taoist thought teaches similar, where the mind goes, the chi follows. Where you focus, that's where your energy is, what you think about and contemplate, that is where you will learn. It's all about you. You hold the reins. Make the most of it.

Hope these are helpful for some.

FFF,

~Muninn's Kiss

Mistress Over the Dead: a look at the "Witch of Endor" and related myths

The subject has come up often lately in various places online of the "Witch of Endor".  This is said as if it was title, and I read a discussion one place that said, was there's only one witch in Endor, and was there never a witch there before or after?  The very question implies not understanding the passage, so thought I'd dig into it a bit.  'Eyn Do'r, or, technically, b'Eyn Do'r, "in 'Eyn Do'r".

First off, in case people are confused, we're not talking about the moon called Endor in Star Wars.  :-)  This is in 1 Samuel in the Jewish Tanakh and Cristian Old Testament.  Endor is the way it's typically rendered in English, but it's two words in the Hebrew text.

Here's the whole verse, from the Revised Standard Version:

Then Saul said to his servants, “Seek out for me a woman who is a medium, that I may go to her and inquire of her.” And his servants said to him, “Behold, there is a medium at Endor.” ~1 Samuel 28:7 RSV

And the Hebrew:

ז  וַיֹּאמֶר שָׁאוּל לַעֲבָדָיו בַּקְּשׁוּ-לִי אֵשֶׁת בַּעֲלַת-אוֹב, וְאֵלְכָה אֵלֶיהָ וְאֶדְרְשָׁה-בָּהּ; וַיֹּאמְרוּ עֲבָדָיו אֵלָיו הִנֵּה אֵשֶׁת בַּעֲלַת-אוֹב בְּעֵין דּוֹר

The phrase that matters here is:

Behold, there is a medium at Endor.
אֵשֶׁת בַּעֲלַת-אוֹב בְּעֵין דּוֹר

Breaking it down:

אִשָּׁה - 'ishshah - woman, wife, female

בַּעֲלָה - ba'alah - mistress, female owner, sorceress, necromancer  From בַּעַל:
בַּעַל - ba'al - owner, husband, citizens, inhabitants, rulers, lords, master of <>, lord.  From בָּעַל:
בָּעַל - ba'al - to marry, rule over, possess, own
אוֹב - 'owb - water skin bottle, necromancer, one who evokes the dead, ghost, spirit of a dead one, practice of necromancy, one that has a familiar spirit.  From אָב:
אָב - 'ab - father of an individual, God as father of his people, head or founder of a household, group, family, or clan, ancestor, originator of patron of a class, profession, or art, producer, generator, benevolence and protection, term of respect adn honour, ruler or chief.
בְּעֵין דּוֹר - b 'eyn do'r - in 'Eyn Do'r
עֵין־דוֹר - 'Eyn-Do'r - Endor, Fountain of Dor
עַיִן - 'ayin - eye, spring, fountain
דּוֹר - dowr - period, generation, habitation, dwelling.  From דּוּר:
דּוּר - duwr - to heap up, pile, to dwell, to remain, to delay, to inhabit, to go around.
דּוּר - duwr - ball, circle

My translation:  "There is a woman that is mistress over the dead at the eye of the circle."

So Saul disguised himself and put on other garments, and went, he and two men with him; and they came to the woman by night. And he said, “Divine for me by a spirit, and bring up for me whomever I shall name to you.” ~1 Samuel 28:8

ח  וַיִּתְחַפֵּשׂ שָׁאוּל וַיִּלְבַּשׁ בְּגָדִים אֲחֵרִים וַיֵּלֶךְ הוּא וּשְׁנֵי אֲנָשִׁים עִמּוֹ וַיָּבֹאוּ אֶל-הָאִשָּׁה לָיְלָה וַיֹּאמֶר קָסֳמִי-נָא לִי בָּאוֹב וְהַעֲלִי לִי, אֵת אֲשֶׁר-אֹמַר אֵלָיִך

Divine for me by a spirit
קָסֳמִי-נָא לִי בָּאוֹב

קָסַם - qacam - to practice divination, divine.
נָא - na - please, if you please
לִי - li - to, for (first person singular)
בָּאוֹב - conjure up, invoke, in/with + אוֹב (see above)

My translation:  "Please divine by conjuring for me."

The woman said to him, “Surely you know what Saul has done, how he has cut off the mediums and the wizards from the land. Why then are you laying a snare for my life to bring about my death?” ~1 Samuel 28:9

ט  וַתֹּאמֶר הָאִשָּׁה אֵלָיו הִנֵּה אַתָּה יָדַעְתָּ אֵת אֲשֶׁר-עָשָׂה שָׁאוּל אֲשֶׁר הִכְרִית אֶת-הָאֹבוֹת וְאֶת-הַיִּדְּעֹנִי מִן-הָאָרֶץ וְלָמָה אַתָּה מִתְנַקֵּשׁ בְּנַפְשִׁי לַהֲמִיתֵנִי

cut off the mediums and the wizards from the land
הִכְרִית אֶת-הָאֹבוֹת וְאֶת-הַיִּדְּעֹנִי מִן-הָאָרֶץ

הִכְרִית - hkarath - the + כָּרַת
כָּרַת - karath - to cut, cut off, eliminate, kill, cut a covenant, to hew, to be cut off, to be cut down, to be cut off, to be chewed, to fail, to destroy, to take away, to permit to perish.
אֶת - et - to, with
הָאֹבוֹת - havot - the + אֹבוֹת
אֹבוֹת - avot - plural of אֹב:
אֹב - av - father, male parent, ancestor, forefather, progenitor, originator, prototype
וְאֶת - 'owb - and + אוֹב (see above)
הַיִּדְּעֹנִי - hyidde'oni - the + יִּדְּעֹנִי
יִּדְּעֹנִי - yidde'oni - a knower, one who has a familiar spirit, soothsayer, necromancer.  From יָדַע:
יָדַע - yada' - to know, to perceive, to discriminate, to distinguish, to know by experience, to recognise, to consider, to be perceived, to be made known, to be revealed, to cause to know, to be known, to make oneself known, to declare, to reveal oneself.
מִן - men - from
הָאָרֶץ - haarets - the + אָרֶץ
אָרֶץ - erets - country, land, territory, district, earth, ground, soil

My translation:  "removed ancestors and spirit knowers from the ground"

The king said to her, “Have no fear; what do you see?” And the woman said to Saul, “I see a god coming up out of the earth.” ~1 Samuel 28:13

יג  וַיֹּאמֶר לָהּ הַמֶּלֶךְ אַל-תִּירְאִי כִּי מָה רָאִית וַתֹּאמֶר הָאִשָּׁה אֶל-שָׁאוּל אֱלֹהִים רָאִיתִי עֹלִים מִן-הָאָרֶץ

a god coming up out of the earth.
אֱלֹהִים רָאִיתִי עֹלִים מִן-הָאָרֶץ

אֱלֹהִים - 'elohiym - rulers, judges, divine ones, angels, gods, god/goddess, godlike one, works or special possessions of God, God
רָאִיתִי - raiti first person singular past tense of רָאָה:
רָאָה - raa - to see, to have vision, to observe, to look at
עֹלִים - 'alim - plural indefinite form of עָלֶה:
עָלֶה - 'alah - to go up, ascend, climb, meet, visit, follow, depart, retreat, spring up, grow, shoot forth, rise, excel, be superior to, be taken up, be brought up, be taken away, to take oneself away, to be exalted
מִן - men - (see above)
הָאָרֶץ - haarets - (see above)

My translation:  "a godlike one I See, rising up from the ground"

As Saul can't see the shade, raa here is vision, the Sight, not physical mundane sight.

He said to her, “What is his appearance?” And she said, “An old man is coming up; and he is wrapped in a robe.” And Saul knew that it was Samuel, and he bowed with his face to the ground, and did obeisance. ~1 Samuel 28:14

יד  וַיֹּאמֶר לָהּ מַה-תָּאֳרוֹ, וַתֹּאמֶר אִישׁ זָקֵן עֹלֶה וְהוּא עֹטֶה מְעִיל וַיֵּדַע שָׁאוּל כִּי-שְׁמוּאֵל הוּא, וַיִּקֹּד אַפַּיִם אַרְצָה וַיִּשְׁתָּחוּ

And she said, “An old man is coming up; and he is wrapped in a robe.” And Saul knew
וַתֹּאמֶר אִישׁ זָקֵן עֹלֶה וְהוּא עֹטֶה מְעִיל וַיֵּדַע

וַתֹּאמֶר - vatomar - and + תֹּאמֶר
תֹּאמֶר - tomar - third-person singular imperfect of אָמַר:
אָמַר - amar - to say, think, pronounce, intend
אִישׁ - 'ish - man, husband, adult male
זָקֵן - zaqen - old, elderly, aged
עֹלֶה - 'alah - (see above)
וְהוּא - vakharash - and + הוּא
הוּא - hi - he, it, he is, it is
עֹטֶה - atah - to wrap, cover, veil, clothe, roll, array, be clad, cover, fill, put on, turn aside
מְעִיל - m'il - robe or coat worn over a tunic by men of rank
וַיֵּדַע - vayeda - and + יֵּדַע (see above)

My translation:  And she pronounced, "And an elderly man rises and he is wrapped in a obe" And he knew

Interesting her is that "knew" is the same "knew" from which "knowers" above is derived.  He knew it was Saul when she spoke in the same way that those who had been removed knew spirits.  Insight, intuition, the beginning of Sight.  His eyes were opened, through her words. The story continues with him and Samuel taking directly.  He appears to now be able to both see and hear him.

Then Saul fell at once full length upon the ground, filled with fear because of the words of Samuel; and there was no strength in him, for he had eaten nothing all day and all night. ~1 Samuel 28:20

I won't worry about the Hebrew here, as it doesn't reveal anything interesting to the discussion.  I will note that "ground" here, "earth" from which Samuel arose, and "land" from which the ancestral spirits and spirit knowers were removed are all the same word.

In summary, Saul asked for a medium and was told there was a mistress over the dead in the eye of the circle.  He seeks her out, and asks her to divine for him by conjuring a shade.  She is fearful because the king (whom she doesn't yet know is him) had all ancestral spirits and spirit knowers removed from the land/ground/earth.  He reassures her and she calls forth the one he asks for (ingress).  She sees it is a holy man and gets an inkling what is happened, and tells him what she sees.  He asks what the shade looks like and she describes him, and in that description, he Sees and Hears and has congress with him.  After he is gone (egress), Saul falls to the ground, with no strength left. Afterwards she feeds him so he can renew his strength.

This conjuring brings to mind Odin conjuring the volva in Baldrs Draumar (Baldr's Dreams).  Henry Adams Bellows' translation (found at http://www.sacred-texts.com/neu/poe/poe13.htm) puts it thus:

1. Once were the gods | together met,
And the goddesses came | and council held,
And the far-famed ones | the truth would find,
Why baleful dreams | to Baldr had come.

2. Then Othin rose, | the enchanter old,
And the saddle he laid | on Sleipnir's back;
Thence rode he down | to Niflhel deep,
And the hound he met | that came from hell.

3. Bloody he was | on his breast before,
At the father of magic | he howled from afar;
Forward rode Othin, | the earth resounded
Till the house so high | of Hel he reached.

4. Then Othin rode | to the eastern door,
There, he knew well, | was the wise-woman's grave;
Magic he spoke | and mighty charms,
Till spell-bound she rose, | and in death she spoke:

5. "What is the man, | to me unknown,
That has made me travel | the troublous road?
I was snowed on with snow, | and smitten with rain,
And drenched with dew; | long was I dead."
Othin spake:

6. "Vegtam my name, | I am Valtam's son;
Speak thou of hell, | for of heaven I know:
For whom are the benches | bright with rings,
And the platforms gay | bedecked with gold?"
The Wise-Woman spake:

7. "Here for Baldr | the mead is brewed,
The shining drink, | and a shield lies o'er it;
But their hope is gone | from the mighty gods.
Unwilling I spake, | and now would be still."
Othin spake:

8. "Wise-woman, cease not! | I seek from thee
All to know | that I fain would ask:
Who shall the bane | of Baldr become,
And steal the life | from Othin's son?"
The Wise-Woman spake:

9. "Hoth thither bears | the far-famed branch,
He shall the bane | of Baldr become,
And steal the life | from Othin's son.
Unwilling I spake, | and now would be still."
Othin spake:

10. "Wise-woman, cease not! | I seek from thee
All to know | that I fain would ask:
Who shall vengeance win | for the evil work,
Or bring to the flames | the slayer of Baldr?"
The Wise-Woman spake:

11. "Rind bears Vali | in Vestrsalir,
And one night old | fights Othin's son;
His hands he shall wash not, | his hair he shall comb not,
Till the slayer of Baldr | he brings to the flames.
Unwilling I spake, | and now would be still."
Othin spake:

12. "Wise-woman, cease not! | I seek from thee
All to know | that I fain would ask:
What maidens are they | who then shall weep,
And toss to the sky | the yards of the sails?"
The Wise-Woman spake:

13. "Vegtam thou art not, | as erstwhile I thought;
Othin thou art, | the enchanter old."
Othin spake:
"No wise-woman art thou, | nor wisdom hast;
Of giants three | the mother art thou."
The Wise-Woman spake:

14. "Home ride, Othin, | be ever proud;
For no one of men | shall seek me more
Till Loki wanders | loose from his bonds,
And to the last strife | the destroyers come."

We don't see the weakness at the end, as it ends with her parting speech.  But there's a feel to the conjuring much similar, with the spirit rising up from the ground, the spirit none to happy to be called and having a threatening tone.  Neither rose willingly, and neither could resist the call.

There is another tale we have of summoning the dead, that of Odysseus in Homer's Odyssey.  Book Eleven says:

At the furthest edge of Ocean's stream is the land to which all journey when they die. Here their spirits endure a fleshless existence. They can't even talk unless re-animated with blood.

Accordingly, I did as Circe instructed, bleeding a sacrificed lamb into a pit. Tiresias, the blind prophet who had accompanied us to Troy, was the soul I had to talk to. So I held all the other shades at bay with my sword until he had drunk from the pit.

He gave me warnings about my journey home and told me what I must do to ensure a happy death when my time came. I met the shades of many famous women and heroes, including Achilles, best fighter of the Greeks at Troy
~Mythweb - http://www.mythweb.com/odyssey/Odyssey.pdf

While we don't have the patterns we saw before, no rising from the ground, no hostility, no weakness afterwards, there is a parallel with Odin's conjuring.  Odin road to just outside Hel to do the conjuring, the place of the dead.  Likewise Odysseus travels to the land of the dead before using blood to allow the dead to talk.

It is interesting to note that Odysseus' name comes from ὀδύσσομαι, "to be wroth against" or "hate", from μισώ.  The beginning of the name brings to mind Óð (as in Óðinn).  Many of Odin's names bring to mind hate or anger.  While it is unlikely there's a link between the two tales, it's interesting to entertain.

FFF,
~Muninn's Kiss

The Spider's Song: I Made an Offering of Wind...

I made an offering of wind upon the altar of dust.  ~Grimr

In the beginning was a song.  The song.  The only song there ever was, and ever will be.  It was a love song, and a song of loneliness.  It was a song of joy and sorrow, of love and loss, of peace and war, of life and death.  It was the song of creation, the song of all things.  It was the spider's song.

It began with one note, ringing out through the outer darkness, like a single bell rang in a place of silence, or a the first harp string plucked.  It was a pure note, perfect, the only note that could pierce that silence, the silence of the outer dark.  It was the voice of the Nagara, the single note that was all, the love song of the Nagara to the Nagara, deep calling out to deep.  And it hung there in the darkness like a spark of light, like a seed, like a single harp string, or a single thread.  It was the first thread of the web, a single thread in the abyss of the outer darkness, a note ringing for none to hear.

And it echoed.  That single note reflected back on itself, reflecting off that which is not, the dark curve of the darkness.  It echoed back and in doing so, it changed, not the same as it was going out.  It rang in harmony with itself, a perfect harmonic, a perfect fifth.  The danced, round and round, catalyst and nexus, nexus and catalyst.  And so, one note became two, one thread became two, both vibrating in the darkness of the abyss, in the outer darkness, the first two threads of the web.  Two notes, hearing each other, responding to each other, first in dissonance, then in consonance, the dance of the twins.

From their play a third note arose.  It vibrated between them, both notes moving the third, the perfect third, a chord in the silence of the dark.  Three notes ringing out, moving, shifting.  A perfect chord.  Three mothers, three weavers each moving each other.  Three threads hanging in the abyss, the first three threads of the web.

But the song wasn't finished.  The chord grew and the perfect seventh came forth, four notes, four threads, stretching out into the abyss in four directions, four winds.  And still the song grew, for where there's a first, a third, a fifth, a seventh, there, too, there's a second, a fourth, and a sixth.  Seven notes ringing out through the darkness, and a melody formed, the vibrations of the web.  Seven builders, seven keepers, seven guardians.

Breath.  What is breath?  Breath is life, for even many one celled life take in oxygen and need it to live.  Breath is wind, for it is the movement of gas, in or out.  There is no breath in a vacuum.

Breath.  What is breath?  Breath is the most basic of sounds.  From it comes the vowel sounds in all oral languages, the sounds made without obstruction, without build up.  Sound passing through only changed in sound by the narrowness or movement of the side it passes between.  It is outward moving air, unblocked, unfettered, unbound, loosed.

Breath, vowels, are the first notes of music, pure sound, untempered.  They are the notes of the sound of the music, of a song, the song, the first song.  They are the beginning.

Breath bound, tied, constrained, blocked, fettered, becomes consonants.  As the vowels are given form, as the tent pole is raised, the bound vowels becomes first Three Mothers, then Seven Doubles, then Twelve Singles.  22 consonants, 22 letter.  Two Dancers, Three Weavers, Seven Builders, twelve in all, twelve notes, twelve threads, Twelve Watchers.

And consonants gather around vowels, the bound around the loosed, and words form.  Words, symbols of ideas.  And the complexity grows, the song grows.  Three Mothers, Seven Doubles, Twelve Singles, 22 consonants, 29 sounds, become 231 Gates, each gate a pair of consonants, the first and the fifth.  And the 231 Gates are joined by others, 20 consonants added to the beginning, to the middle, to the end, 13,860 roots if none repeat.  And roots combine to be words, and words combine to form sentences, and sentences combine to form paragraphs, and paragraphs combine to form chapters, and chapters combine to form books, and books combine to form sets and series, and sets and series combine to form shelves, and shelves combine to form racks, and racks combine to form rows, and rows combine to form stacks, and stacks combine to form floors, that the whole world is a library, the 10,000 things.

Every note holds power.  Every breath holds power.  Every vowel holds power.  Every sound holds power.  Every consonant holds power.  Every word holds power, every sentence, every paragraph.  And the longer they exist, the more they are used, the more their power grows.

Stand in a used bookstore or library.  Look at all those books.  How many are there?  How many words do they contain? How many letters do those words contain?  Each sound is a note in the song, the song of creation.  Each sound is a vibration in the web that is all, stretched across the face of the deep, the abyss, the outer darkness.  How much power is in those pages?  What secrets?  What notes?

Now think of the world.  How many books are in the world?  Right now.  And how many words in each one?

Now think of all time.  How many books have there been?  How many will there be?  And how many words in each one?

Now realize that books are just the ideas, the thoughts, the words that have been written down.  They are written language.  They have meaning because of the oral language that spawned them, the consonants with bound flow, the vowels with looses flow.  The power is in that oral language, the written is only that small piece that was written down, loosed power bound into a page.  How many words are spoken that are never recorded?  Each is a note in the song, the song of creation, the spider's song.

"In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.  Now the earth was unformed and void, and darkness was upon the face of the deep; and the spirit of God hovered over the face of the waters.  And God said: 'Let there be light.' And there was light." ~Genesis 1:1-3 JPS 1917 Edition of the Hebrew Bible in English

"darkness was upon the face of the deep" - וּ וְחֹשֶׁךְ עַל-פְּנֵי תְהוֹם - v choshek 'al-peniy tehowm

וּ - v - and
וְחֹשֶׁךְ - choshek - darkness, obscurity, secret place
עַל-פְּנֵי - 'al-peniy - the face, the presence, the person, the surface of, that which is in front of, before, toward
תְהוֹם - tehowm - deep, depths, deep places, abyss, sea, ocean, abyss, grave

"spirit of God" - וְרוּחַ אֱלֹהִים - Ruwach 'elohiym - Ruach Elohim

רוּחַ - Ruwach, Ruach - breath, wind, air, gas, spirit, vivacity, vigour, courage, temper, anger, desire, sorrow, will, energy of life
אֱלֹהִים - 'elohiym, Elohim - rulers, judges, divine ones, angels, gods, god, goddess, godlike one, G-d

"hovered over the face of the waters" - מְרַחֶפֶת עַל-פְּנֵי הַמָּיִם - mrachaphit 'al-peniy mayim

מְ - m - from
רַחֶפֶת - rachaphit - to grow soft, relax, to hover
עַל-פְּנֵי - 'al-peniy - the face, the presense, the person, the surface of, that which is in front of, before, toward
הַמָּיִם - mayim - water, waters, urine, springs, fountains, flood

So we could read is as:

"and the secret place was upon the surface of the ocean, and the breath of the rulers settled upon the surface of the water."

or:

"and that which hides the face of the abyss, the wind of the gods, from the face of the water."

or:

"and darkness was the presence of the grave, the temper of the gods toward the flood."

But, a bit of a tangent.

Ruach is breath, but also wind and life.  Ruach is also, in Kabbalah, part of the soul.  In this way, it is the emotions, will, and energy of life.

The Breath.  The Soul.  The Wind.  Life.  Ruach, hovering above the waters of the abyss, in the darkness, is the notes of the song, which are also the threads of the web.

In the beginning was a song.

The song.

The only song there ever was, and ever will be.

It was a love song, and a song of loneliness.

It was a song of joy and sorrow, of love and loss, of peace and war, of life and death.

It was the song of creation, the song of all things.

It was the spider's song.

I made an offering of wind upon the altar of dust.

FFF,
~Muninn's Kiss

A Graal, a Sword, and a Lance: second star to the right, and straight on till morning

I talking to a friend yesterday while we were hiking.  It was a four or five mile hike at 6000 feet above sea level in three or four inches of snow up and down steep climbs, my calves hurt, and my face is as red as a lobster from the sun off the snow, ouch!.

I made a joke that he didn't catch as a joke and responded to seriously, I forget what it was now.  My I cued him in on the joke, he replied that honour only works if the other person isn't stupid.  I said not stupid, it's a matter of thinking about something a different way.

I continued by explaining that it's the same with riddles, most riddles are obvious and don't take much to figure out, the secret is to look at it in a different way, that looking straight on you can't see it, but step to the side, it becomes clear and obvious.

This is of course that way with the Mysteries as well.  They aren't hard, but without looking from the right direction, they are hard to see.

Take for example Perceval in de Troyes' unfinished Graal story, the source for all other such tales. In summary:

Perceval is emphatically instructed by his teacher not to ask too many questions and to remain silent and listen as much as possible.  Good advise in spirit and in many circumstances, but he took it to heart as Law, as a black and white rule (the way I tend to take boundaries, not as changing with circumstance, so I relate well to the young knight).  When he comes to the castle of the Fisher King, he sees the procession of the Graal carrying the church wafer back and forth throughout the feast, the Sword, and the Lance that bleeds, the three elements of what can be called the Graal Mysteries.  He wants to ask about them but remembers his teacher's admonitions and remains silent, never asking the questions that burn on his mind.  The rest of the myth relates the consequences of not asking, of having Fate before him and not grasping a hold of her, of how wretched he is for not asking, of his five years of wasted life before he finds the Hermit King, of how his asking could have healed the Fisher King and healed the land, restoring the Wasteland to what it was before, and most of all, the revealing of who Perceval truly is, and who the Fisher and Hermit Kings are.

Consider these three elements the occur throughout the Graal myths and the Arthurian Legends and into modern fiction and modern traditions.  They change, but what they represent remains the same.  And it's that which the represent that are the Mysteries.  I will not explain the elements here, but will talk a bit about them.

First, we have the Graal, which became the focus of the Quests.  In this first tale, it is a serving dish, like one meat would be carried out on.  On it is one church wafer, the body of Christ.  In this first tale, it is carried back and forth many times, the wafer on it as it passes through the room, returning without it.  The question that wasn't asked is whom is this wafer served to?  The Graal at this point is the vessel, not the focus.  The wafer isn't even the focus, it's the person being served, the unseen person.  As it progressed in later tales, the focus changes to the dish, and it takes on the role of serving the feast hall with large fish.  And it changes again, taking on the guise we now see, a goblet or chalice, that will heal whomever drinks of it, and this becomes the Fisher King, or King Arthur, or both, depending on which story you look at.  But in the first tale, the person being served by the Grail ate from it repeatedly and was never healed, so drinking from it is obviously the wrong direction.  Healing is in the question.  How this works and the reason for it is of course the Mystery behind the myth.

Next, we have the Sword.  In this first tale, it is just mentioned when passing through in the procession, but appears again when it is brought to the King, who bestows it on the knight.  It is possibly two swords in this myth, as the sword is just mentioned as it is carried back and forth, but the sword presented is said to have just arrived.  Perceval is told the next morning to beware the sword for it will break in his time of greatest need in battle, but no more mention is made of the sword in de Troyes' tale, possibly because it was never finished.  In the first continuation, though, the author of that story brings it back in, showing it broken.  Worthiness for the Graal is shown by repairing it, a smith skill of course.  Gawain repairs it three times, breaking it in between.  The last time, he can't completely repair it, there's a nick in it.  This is said to mean he hasn't reached his full strength and isn't worthy yet.  He leaves and he healed the Wasteland but not the King.  This motif of repairing the broken sword continues in later myths until it merges with the story of Odin's sword Gram, which he drove into a tree and none could pull it out until Sigmund did, this became the sword in the stone, that pulling the sword out marked worthiness to be king, something Arthur of course did.  But the original myth talked of the importance of the Sword, and the warning of when it would break, not on the repair or retrieval of it.  Once again, we need to look at it from a different angle to see the Mystery behind the myth.

Finally, we have the bleeding Lance.  In this first tale, it carried at the back of the procession, then it is presented for the young knight to see.  It is a lance that blood continually drips from the tip of.  Nothing more is explained about the Lance, merely comment about how asking about it and the Graal would have healed the Fisher King and healed the Land and revealed who Perceval truly was.  In the first continuation, it appears hung on a wall with a silver basin collecting the blood, but nothing more was said.  Later it joins with the spear the Centenarian used pierce Christ's side, with Lugh's spear, and possibly Odin's spear.  Possibly this conflation occurred already.  It later became Rhongomyniad (meaning roughly Spear-Slayer or spear that slays, later Rhongomiant or Ron), but did not continue much in Arthurian Legend.  As the Spear of Destiny, it has continued in other genres, but the element of the bleeding tip has been lost, and is the place to focus to find the Mystery behind the myth.

It is interesting that the Spear of Destiny is seen as an instrument that when yielded allows you to change the destiny of the world, when you consider a quote concerning Fate and the Graal in Cochrane's second letter to Joe Wilson:

Some groups seek fulfilment in mystic experience - this is correct if one does not forget the duty of 'involvement' - the prime duty of the wise. It is not enough to see The Lady, it is better to serve Her and Her will by being involved in humanity, and the process of Fate (The single name of all God's is 'Fate'). In fate, and the overcoming of fate is the true Graal, for from this inspiration comes, and death is defeated. There is no fate so terrible that it cannot be overcome - whether by a literal victory gained by action and in time, or the deeper victory of spirit in the lonely battle of the self, Fate is the trial, the Castle Perilous in which we all meet to win or to die - Therefore, the People are concerned with Fate --for humanity is greater than the Gods', although not as great as the Goddess. When Man triumphs, fate stops and the Gods are defeated - so you understand the meaning of magic now. Magic and religion are aids to overcome Fate, and Fate is a cradle that rocks the infant spirit. (http://www.1734-witchcraft.org/lettertwo.html)

So, the Graal is the overcoming of Fate, or the Graal is in the overcoming of Fate.  And the Lance turns Destiny in the direction the wielder chooses.  And the Sword determines worthiness, points out Fate.  All interesting, but just sidelines of course.

But Cochrane brings us back to the original discussion of looking at humour or a riddle or the Mysteries from a different angle, in a different way.  In his third letter to Joe Wilson, Cochrane had the following to say:

Obviously you wish to know how one asks correctly - This is known as 'Approaching or Greeting the Altar'. There are many altars, one is raised to every aspect you can think upon, but there is only one way to approach an altar or Godstone. There is a practice in the East known as "Kundalini", or shifting the sexual power from its basic source to the spine and then to the mind.

Cattle use this principle extensively, as you will note if you creep silently up to a deer or a cow - since there is always one beast that will turn its back to you, and then twist its neck until it regards you out of its left or right eye alone. It is interpreting you by what is laughingly known as 'psi' power and that is how an altar is used - with your back to it, and head turned right or left to regard the cross of the Elements and Tripod that are as sacred to the People as the Crucifix is to the Christians.

Before you do this however, it is necessary to offer your devotions and prayers by bowing three times to the Altar, with arms crossed upon your chest and then turn about the Altar (which for normal purposes should be round, hence King Arthur) the number of the Deity you are invoking or praying to. The Maid is usually three times three - the Mother six times three, the Hag (which is anything but the true title), nine times three. Upon the last turn stop with your back to the Altar, and there begin your great chant. With a group one works in absolute silence, but by yourself it is easier to utter your prayer and meditation aloud until you begin to speak as one possessed'.

Upon this point you will feel as if you are near a great bell that has begun to toll - this is the point of mysticism and magic - then you can achieve what you desire - do not be afraid, since it will feel as if you are in a boat on a stormy sea, and your body and spirit will part company, so that you will feel sensations of being in two different places at once. then you may journey to them and they will answer you when you are ready - but not before - so there is a long path of work, experience and failure ahead of you. They will also teach you what you need to know - but never confuse what you want with what you need, or else they are loathe to help. It is better to find an old sacred place and work there - rather than attempt it in the places of man. There is sure to be one place within six miles of you - usually in your case an Indian burial ground or stone ring. (http://www.1734-witchcraft.org/letterthree.html)

This description, specifically the idea of facing away and looking back over the shoulder, describes in physical action what I'm describing in mental action.  You won't see the Mysteries looking at them straight on.  You will only see them when you change your perspective and look from a different angle, over your shoulder as it were.  And then you will see it, and wonder why you didn't before.  For it was right there in front of you.  Be it a joke, a riddle, or the deepest of all Mysteries.

FFF,
~Muninn's Kiss

On Planets and Wandering Stars...

There are few people today that don't know the planets are not stars, that they are solid or gas bodies  that circle the same star as we do, that their light is the reflection of the sun's light, not light of their own.  But in ancient times, this wasn't known.  They looked like very bright stars, but they didn't move like stars, they changed location against the backdrop over time, giving them the name planetes in Greek, Wanderers.

There were five Wanderers, Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn.  Neptune and Uranus and the other bodies beyond Saturn are not easy to find if you don't know they're there, as they move against the stars so slowly and are so dim.  The sky was populated by the myriad stars, the Five Wanderers, the Moon, and the Sun.  Seven bodies that wander against a backdrop of stars.

There is a god in Greek mythology worth noting here, Astraeus.  He is the Dusk, and his wife is Eos (or, Aurora), the Dawn.  Their children are what is to note here.  The stars, the Wanderers, and the Winds.  And Eos' brother, Helios, is the Sun, and sister, Selena, is the Moon.  The connection of the winds to the Wanderers and stars is significant, but I won't address that here.

Astraeus was a Titan, god of astronomy and all things in the sky.  His either sun of Krios (the Ram, Aries, and the Pillar of the South, Aries rising in the South in Summer, beginning of the Greek year) and Eurybia (mastery of the sea, sailing, navigation), or of Tartaros (underworld) and Gaea (earth), depending on the source.

The Wanderers are often used in magic and workings in many traditions.  Anyone who has studied anything about Western Astrology will find quickly that the location of the planets against the backdrop of the Zodiac is very important in Western Astrology, both their current position and their position at the time you were born.  Ceremonial magic and much of modern witchcraft (heavily influenced by ceremonial magic and by the grimoire tradition) work with not just the location against the stars and the time of rising and setting, but with the days and hours they are said to rule.  This is the main discussion I'd like to address in this article.

Now, Grimr is founded on personal observation more than anything, so the position against the stars, and the position in the sky and rising and setting are of importance to me, but the days and hours they rule less so.  I will come back to this after we look at the details of the ruling planet system below.  Do note this is a brief summary, not exhaustive, and that I don't necessary know all the details so may misrepresent or misstate details.  So, as always, do your own research if this speaks to you, figure it out yourself and how to use it, and experiment to see how it works for you.  The below is a summary of concepts, not a reference for workings.

As I discussed above, there are seven moving objects against the backdrop of the stars, the Wanderers, the Moon, and the Sun.

The sun and moon are often focused on when looking back at ancient religions and traditions.  We often look at them as Solar Cults or Lunar Cults, and talk of the struggle between matriarchal Lunar cults and patriarchal Solar cults.  This of course breaks down, as there are plenty of cultures with solar goddesses and lunar gods.  It also breaks down as you begin to analyze the stellar elements of the "Solar" and "Lunar" cults.  But we won't go there now.

The remaining five objects, the Wanderers, are of course our subject.  We have what are today named Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn.  These names are of course the Roman names, but the choices are a bit odd, as patterns between them are missing.  Saturn was the head of the Roman Titans, Kronos of the Greeks.  He was overthrown by the Olympians, led by Jupiter, Zeus of the Greeks.  But Venus and Mars, the goddess of beauty and love and the god of war are a different pattern from the first.  And finally, Mercury, Hermes of the Greeks, the messenger of the gods.

The above description of Saturn and Jupiter was translated onto the two from Greek myth.  Jupiter was Saturn's son, but the overthrow was missing in Etruscan and Roman myth before the bringing in of Greek myth.  There are two versions, one of Saturn ruling Rome or Italy and being overthrown by Janus, the other of Janus ruling and Saturn being overthrown by Jupiter in Greece and coming to Italy as a fugitive.  In the latter, he brought agriculture with him, introducing it to Italy.  He is a god of agriculture, and a law giver, bringing order to the fauns and nymphs of the hills of Italy.  Saturn had two consorts, Ops, Greek Rhea, goddess of wealth, abundance, and resources, and Lua, goddess of destruction, dissolution, and loosening.  These show Saturn's two sides, on one side, as god of agriculture, he creates and provides, on the other, he destroys.

Jupiter is also Jove.  He was the twin of Juno, his wife, Hera of the Greeks.  He was the god of the sky, or specifically of storms.  Numa Pompilius, born on the day of Rome's founding and elected King after Romulus' death, when bad weather threatened to ruin the harvest, got Picus and Faunus to assist him and evoked Jupiter.  He made a deal with Jupiter for a shield to protect from lightening, in exchange for sacrifices.  This is a basis for the sacrificial laws in Rome.  The Ides of each month, the midpoint, were sacred to him.  This is important, as the month was a lunar month originally, and the Ides are the Full Moons.  His consort, Juno, is protector and councilor of the Roman state.  The symbolism and a shield and of protector of Rome should not be ignored.

Mars, the god of war, does have a connection with Jupiter.  The earliest triad was Jupiter, Mars, and Quirinus, later changed to Jupiter, Juno, and Minerva.  Quirinus is the Wielder of the Spear, and was later used as an epithet for Janus.  Quirinus was probably the god of war of the Sabines, the people Numa was of, who joined with Romulus and Remes' people for the Roman state.  The month of March is named for Mars.  Minerva was born of Jupiter alone, from his forehead, but Mars was born of Juno alone, using a magic flower.  March was the first month in the Roman calendar, the the first of March, Mars' birthday, was the day for honouring childbirth.  Mars is not the destructive masculine force Ares is usually seen as, but a god of military strategy, of defending of agriculture, and of plant life.  Ares is said to be the father of Romulus and Remus.

Venus is not quite the same as Greek Aphrodite.  She is, as Aphrodite, the goddess of love, beauty, sex, and fertility, but also of prosperity and victory.  There's a martial aspect to her, as with all of the above.  The connection to Roman is interesting, as myth says her son was Aeneas, who survived the fall of Troy and came to Italy.  Romulus and Remus claim descent from him, through their human mother.  She was born of sea foam, so had no parents, unless you argue Neptune to be the sea itself. Her month is April, and her day is April 1.  She is a goddess of vegetation, also a common thread above, in relation to fertility.  In some myths, Ares is her consort, in others Vulcan.  But it's interesting to note that early myths describe the planet Venus, the Morning and Evening Star, as Lucifer and Vesper.  But Lucifer was said to be as beautiful as Venus, and later, Venus is used for the Wanderer.

Mercury, the messenger of the gods, the god of travelers, boundaries, commerce, financial gain, poetry, eloquence, communication, divination, luck, trickery, and thieves.  He is the son of Jupiter and Maia.  He was mediator between man and the gods.  His feast was May 15th, the Ides of May.  The progression of March for Mars, April for Venus, and Mercury's day in May is interesting. It's easy to see his importance in Roman, as mediator.

Most of the world has a seven day week.  This becomes fairly logical when you look at older cultures.  Each Moon cycle is about 28 days.  If you measure from the Dark Moon to the First Half Moon, from the Half to the Full Moon, from the Full to the Second Half Moon, and from the Half to the Dark Moon, you find four periods of approximately seven days.  Seven becomes a natural division point within each Moon, each Month, four seven-day weeks.  There's no proof this is the origin, but there's logic to it based on observation.  Other cultures used five-day and ten-day weeks, but these have faded from use in most places.  But Western Astrology, and most Western Mystery, Esoteric, and Occult traditions, and most Western religions (including Middle Eastern) grew up in or evolved into a seven day week.  The correspondences we are discussing are within that system.

The number seven for the number of days in the week and the number seven for the seven moving objects is an easy connection. Each day became dedicated to one of these, or more accurately, named for the god behind it.  Sunday is dies Solis, day of the Sun.  Monday is dies Lunae, day of the Moon.  Tuesday is dies Martis, day of Mars.  Wednesday is dies Mercurii, day of Mercury.  Thursday is dies Jovis, day of Jove, or day of Jupiter.  Friday is dies Veneris, day of Venus.  And Saturday is dies Saturni, day of Saturn.

But our English names are based on the Northern gods, not the Southern.  Sunday is Sunnandaeg, Sunna's Day.  Monday is Monandaeg, Mani's Day.  Tuesday is Tiwesdaeg, Tiw's Day, Tyr's Day.  Wednesday is Wodnesdaeg, Woden's Day, Odin's Day.  Thurday is Thunresdaeg, Thunos's Day, Thor's Day.  Friday is Frigedaeg, Frige's Day, Frigg's Day.  Saturday retains its Roman name.  It was Saeturnesdaeg to the Anglo-Saxons.  It was Laugardagr, washing-day.

The connection is quite obvious, as the Romans looked at all cultures around them and said, this god is this one, and this god is this one.  Helios is Sunna, the goddess who pulls the sun.  Selena is Mani, Sunna's brother who pulls the moon.  Mars is Tyr, who isn't necessarily the god of war, but was seen by the Romans as Mars.  Mercury is Odin, because Odin is a god of boundaries and crossroads and passing between, of wisdom and knowledge, of poetry and speech.  He's the closest parallel to Mercury.  Jupiter is Thor, because Jupiter is the sky and storm and the wielder of the thunderbolt, and Thor is the storm and thunder.  And Frigg, we have a direct connection to the planet, as Venus was Friggjarstjarna, Frigg's Star.

Classic Astrology attributes certain aspects to the moving objects and the days they rule.

Mercury is easy.  Commerce and communication, thinking and reasoning, knowledge and wisdom.  As the god rules these things, so does the planet.  As the god moves swiftly, so does the planet.  And so Wednesday becomes the day for such activities, both in a mundane sense and a magical sense.  In relation to commerce, if we associate Wednesday with a vice, it would be Greed.

Venus is easy as well.  Love, sex, fertility, romance, relationships, beauty, pleasure.  Once again, as the goddess rules these things, so does the planet, and this translates in classic thought and much of Western magic to Friday.  Of the "Seven Vices", Friday is Lust in this way.

Mars is a bit less obvious.  It's seen as a day for force and protection, courage and aggression, productivity and determination, and the like.  The aspects related to war, not normally war itself.  The connection from god to planet to seeing Tuesday as this is obvious.  Tuesday is Wrath.

Jupiter diverges a more from what's seen as the realm of the god.  It is related to big undertakings.  Looking carefully, we can see this.  Jupiter never did anything half way.  He was showy and extravagant.  Any action was a big action.  The planet fits this well, being the largest planet.  Thursday is the day ascribed to this, and is Pride.

Saturn is seen as the start of slower, long-term things, things requiring patience and perseverance, things you can't rush.  From the planet, this is easy to see, as it is the slowest moving of the seven.  For the god, this is seen in imagery of him with his legs bound except during the festival of Saturnalia. He bides his time throughout the year until the time for his release.  We also see his consorts.  Ops, as the building of wealth takes time.  Lua, as time and waiting wears things down, leading to destruction. This is then ascribed to Saturday.  It's interesting that in much of the Western world, Saturday is a day of no work, and that it is the Sabbath in Jewish practice, a day of rest.  Saturday would be Sloth if it was one of the Seven Vices.

The Moon is seen in relation to emotions and dreams, female cycles and changes, and to domestic activities.  This is of course related to the tides that change with the moon, the change of the moon itself through its cycle, and the menstrual cycle, which is typically 28 days just as the moon's is.  This of course is the reason for the association of matriarchy and the feminine with lunar cults.  Because of the similar cycle, the association between the moon and these areas is common through much of the world.  Most moon goddesses have direct connection to these same areas, and Monday is seen as connected to them.

The Sun is seen as anything involving gaining influence over things.  The sun brings forth life from the ground in the form of plants, and is the main influence on life on earth.  Helios was very handsome and had a lot of influence on everyone because of his looks.  Sunday is seen as this day.  It's interesting to observe that Christianity sees Christ rising on Sunday, and that that is the day many dress up, as though they are attempting to impress God/Christ. I would associate it with envy, for it's a day to gain influence to get something we don't have.

I included the Seven Vices because they stuck out to me on several of the descriptions I was writing.  Moon and Gluttony are left, but I don't think they relate.  The Vices are a side point anyway.

The idea the planets could be associated with the seven days, gave rise to further division.  The day is seen as divided into two parts, the day and the night, Dawn to Dusk and Dusk to Dawn.  Remember that the planets are children of the Dusk and the Dawn.  The year is divided into twelve months (twelve moons, but the year is really closer to thirteen moons), relating to the twelve signs of the Zodiac.  Likewise the day and the night were divided into twelve hours.  The planets are mapped onto these, progressing from Saturn to Jupiter to Mars to the Sun to Venus to Mercury to the Moon.  This was seen as the distance from earth, with Saturn farthest and the Moon closest.  This rotates though, using the day as the first.  It could be seen in reverse, of the hours giving the order of the days.

So, Sunday starts at Dawn with the hour of the sun, progressing to the end of the hour of Saturn at Dusk, then the night starting with the hour of Jupiter and progressing to the hour of Mercury ending at Dawn.

Monday starts at Dawn with the hour of the moon, progressing to the end of the hour of the sun at Dusk, then the night starting with the hour of Venus and progressing to the hour of Jupiter ending at Dawn.

And so on.

These hours are seen as having the same aspects I described above for the days.  Each day (dawn to dusk) ends with the hour of the day before.

As I said, many people use these in magical workings, beginning workings or rituals or rites on an hour that relates to the purpose of the working, and on a day that relates.  These are combined when possible, either using the same planet's day and hour, or a different planet for the day and the year to combine the aspects.  This is likewise, when possible, combined with Zodiac signs, and the planets that rule them.

This has of course been used this way for a long time, and there is obviously power in it, or it would have been dropped.  Magic workers tend to be very pragmatic.  If it doesn't work, it doesn't survive.  Add to this that repetition adds power, so the more they are used, the more effective they will become.  The question, of course, is why were the days laid out in that order to begin with, an order that works perfectly with the progression of the hours.  The answer to that will give the origin of the power found in the practice.  I don't know the answer.

Back to Grimr, the main principle is observation.  I can observe that the system described above works, but I can't see the layout of it from observation at this point.  The planets don't rise and set based on that layout.  As such, I don't use this system in my practice.

But I can observe the visibility of the planets, and I've found that which planets are visible do change the flavour of the energy I work with.  Their effects are weaker than the sun and moon, and less constant than the stars.  They create tides, both physically due to gravity, and spiritually in the energies around us.  The Sun is large and pulls strong.  The Moon is close and has more direct effect.  But the Wanderers do pull, and they change the energy tides as they move.  They should not be ignored.  The stars are even weaker, but they are more constant, progressing slower, over millennia.

And these tides, the solar and lunar tides, the tides of the Wanderers, the stellar tides, all these tides and the Winds they bring, effect our lives in very real ways, they bind and loose the Threads of Fate, weaving as they go.  This can be used to create change, to step out of the direct effects of their tides.  The momentum they create can be used to strengthen and increase the effect of small changes we create. An object in motion tends to stay in motion unless acted upon by an outside force.  It's easier to create change if you work with the tides than against them.

This is a principle that can be observed.  And can be applied.

FFF,
~Muninn's Kiss

Hammer and Anvil: The Smith and the Craft

I've been thinking of Witch as Smith.  He (using male pronouns here but "she" is equally true and brings us to Brigid or Athena rather than Weyland or Hephaestus) is truly the master of all four classical elements (ignoring Spirit or Ether here, but if included, this would be the Smith himself).  Earth is the hammer and anvil, and the metal he works, but more elementally, earth is used in the annealing process to cool slowly verses water's fast cooling.  Air is the bellows, heating the fire hotter.  Fire is the heat, the shaper and temperer.  Water is the cooler and quencher, causing hardening.

The process of smithing shows a lot of things about the Smith and about the weapons and tools he makes.  It's interesting to see Witch as the Warrior (Hercules) that uses the weapons (Kornephoros, the Club Bearer) the Smith forges, the Hunter (Orion) using the weapons (ensis, the Sword, consisting of Theta Orionis C, Hatsya, and the Great Orion Nebula, and the Club, consisting on Betelgeuse [Orion's hand], Nu Orionis, Xi Orionis, Chi1 Orionis, and Chi2 Orionis) to hunt, and also the Ploughman (Bootes) using the plough (Ursa Major, the Big Bear, also called the Big Dipper, but in this context, the Plough pushed by Bootes).  Orion is significant to me this time around, because of an encounter during my recent bone rite, which I won't discuss here.  Bootes, the Ploughman, is significant, as several British traditions see him as Cain, who holds much significance in their mythos.  And Hercules is significant since a large portion of the constellations we have today are based on the myths relating to him.

So, what is a smith?  The English word smith comes from the Old English smið, meaning, not surprisingly, "one who works in metal".  This comes from the reconstructed Proto Germanic *smithaz, "skilled worker", from the reconstructed Proto Indo European *smei-, "to carve, cut".  So we could say a smith is one who carves or cuts to make something.  A stonemason could be called a stonesmith.  One who works with the Threads of Fate could be called a wyrdsmith or weirdsmith or fatesmith.  This is Witch.  Tin is white metal, so a tinsmith is a whitesmith.  Iron is black metal, so a ironsmith or steelsmith is a blacksmith.

Looking primarily with iron and steel smithing, blacksmithing, though much applies to other metals, here's a basic discussion of the stops.  A bit simplified, and written by myself who has never done any smithing, so don't use it as a guide.  This summary is for discussion sake.

First you take the iron or steel and heat it in fire and coals, using the bellows (Air) to raise the heat until the metal glows bright red.  Then you hammer the metal into the needed shape with the hammer on the anvil, heating it again periodically when it cools.  This is forging.

Next you anneal it, a process that decreases ductility, the compression of the metal under stress, and increase hardness, by aligning the metal.  This is done by burying the hot item in soil, in earth, until it cools slowly and naturally to a temperature that's cool to the touch.  This is repeated several times, heating the metal in a lower temperature fire than the forging process.

Third, you sharpen it if needed (some weapons and tools need sharpening, some don't), on a whetstone or file, or some other controlled grinding tool.

Once sharpening is done, it's time to demagnetize the item.  This keeps the filings from sharpening from sticking to the item, allowing the unneeded pieces to fall away instead of staying part of the item.  This is done by repeatedly heating the metal to an orange colour, then slowly heating it above red until a magnet won't stick to it.

The fifth part is quenching.  This is in water, oil, or brine, all Water for out purposes.  The item is quickly doused into the Water, cooling it rapidly.  It is left in the Water until it completely cools, resulting in through-hardening.

Next is tempering.  This is done by heating the item from the spine (the part away from the edge, the thickest part) until the spine glows yellow (so not as hot as the orange and a long way from the red).  This makes the item more flexible, so less brittle and less chance of it breaking.

Next you mount it if you need a handle or other wooden control piece.  This is typically done by heating the tang, the part the handle fits on, and using it to burn the hole needed into the wood.

The final step is polishing.  While this might seem needed for, say, a ploughhead, the purpose isn't purely ascetics.  This is the process of working out the imperfections and textures of the metal.  A rough plough will have more resistance in the soil and be harder to clean.  Basically, this is just sanding off the roughness, starting with course sandpaper or stone and working to finer and finer to make it as smooth as possible.

Let's look specifically at several of the Smith's tools.  Of note are the hammer and anvil, the forge and bellows, the whetstone and tongs, and the quencher and mound.  There are a number of other tools, and some of these are more representative than actual.  But they help in the current discussion.

And hammer and anvil tend to be the symbol most used for smithing.  Who doesn't think of them when they think of a smith?  The large man standing with a hammer in his hand, the metal on the anvil, striking it over and over.  The words of the English folksong, "Blacksmith", call out in the voice of Steeleye Span:

A blacksmith courted me
Nine months and better
He fairly won my heart
Wrote me a letter.
With his hammer in his hand
He looked so clever
And if I was with my love
I would live forever.

In practice, while that image does hold, it's simplistic.  First off, it was common to have a striker, who was an assistant, often an apprentice, who swung the sledge hammer when it was needed.  The smith, the master, would hold the metal in the tongs and direct the striker where it hit.  In addition to the sledge hammer, there were smaller hammers, which is where the image described above comes from.  There were often several for different jobs, and these were used along with many punches, used to create holes, chisels, used to chip at the metal, and other tools called swages, used to shape the metal.  There is also a hammer called a fuller or a creaser, a rounded hammer used to create grooves and to spread the metal.

An anvil is basically just a large, hard block of iron, tempered to handle the force of the shaping done against it.  It was primarily used during the forging process, when the metal is very hot and the force against it is hard.  Once the shaping began, the swage block was used instead.  A swage block is perforated and used for more fine work and finishing work.

Next we have the forge and the bellows, Fire and Air.  These are the heating part of the process.  The forge heats the metal, the bellows heat the fire, or more accurately, the bellows provide more oxygen to feed the fire of the forge, causing it to burn richer, and therefore hotter.  The forge is the heart of the smithy, and the bellows are it's lungs.  Without the forge, you can't smith.  Without the bellows, the forge can't be raised to the temperatures necessary for ironwork.  Another related craft to smithing is casting.  His also uses a forge, but requires much hotter temperatures, because instead of softening the iron or steel (or other metal), you need to completely melt it to pour it into a cast, giving its shape through fluid pouring then cooling instead of my solid pressure from the hammer.

The whetstone and the tongs aren't related in the way the hammer and anvil, and forge and bellows are, but they are two tools that are distinct from the others.

The tongs, obviously, are used to hold the hot metal.  You can't reach into the forge and pull out the metal with your hands, nor can you hold it in place when it's being hammered and worked while hot with your hands.  The tongs serve as an extension of your hand, fireproof and stable.

I use whetstone here to represent several different types of tools.  Not all smithies contain the same assortment, and different types of work require different assortments.  All are used for grinding and sharpening.  They are course, to different degrees, and all are used to remove, not to shape.  Shaping implies changing of what's there into a different form.  These tools remove excess to give a new form.  Chisels could be placed here as well by that description, but there's another characteristic of these tools: friction.  They are used to remove through rubbing, not chipping.  These tools include the literal whetstone, which is a piece of actual stone that's harder than iron and rough in texture, files, which are rough metal tools for grinding, sandpaper, which is paper with some type of grit on it to wear off the metal, and grinding machines, basically a stone wheel turned by a mechanism similar to a mill stone, which the metal is held against to grind.

Finally, the mound and the quencher, Earth and Water.  As the forge and bellows heat, the mound and quencher cool.

Mound I'm using symbolically; there isn't a mound of earth in most smithies.  I'm referring to process of burying the item to slow cool it in the anneal process.  Sometimes the heating during the anneal process is done in a separate fire outside the forge, then the whole fire buried in earth, other times, the forge or a secondary forge is used to heat it without using the bellows to raise the temperature, then the item is buried in a pit, or sometimes an actual mound.

The quencher is a barrel or trough or similar container filled with the oil or brine or water, used for, obviously, quenching.  The difference in fluid is due to the boiling points needed to effectively cool the metal quickly.  If the boiling point is too high, the metal will cool too quickly and likely crack.  Water has the lowest boiling point, so cools faster as the heat vaporizes it.  It is sometimes used for iron, but sometimes cools too fast.  When it does, brine is often used.  Brine is in effect salt water.  Adding the salt raises the boiling point.  Steel requires slower cooling than iron, so often requires oil, which has a much higher boiling point than water or brine.  For "oil" this varies from vegetable or animal fat oil to petroleum based fluids like transmission fluid or petroleum oil.  Of course, in the days before wide spread petroleum availability, plant or animal oils were primarily used.

Now that we've looked at the tools, let's look at the process from an esoteric viewpoint.  Here's the steps outlined above:

1) Forging
2) Annealing
3) Sharpening
4) Demagnetizing
5) Quenching
6) Tempering
7) Mounting
8) Polishing

Forging, as discussed, is the process of softening the metal and shaping it with tools.  It is fire of the forge, air of the bellows, and earth of the hammers, tongs, anvils, and related tools.  Fire, air, and earth.  Softening and shaping.  Think about these in your life.  What heats things up?  How does it soften you, making you malleable so you can be shaped?  What shapes you?  In what ways?  In the military, this is Basic Training, the initial training that shapes you into a soldier.  Looking deeper, think of the mysteries.  What stage is this?  This is the teaching phase, the prep work, the daily practice, the period of observation and learning.  It is the time of the student and teacher, the period where you get a taste of the tradition and that taste changes you.  This is Gwion stirring the Cauldron of Ceridwen and finally getting a drop in his mouth.  It is a time of hard work, of sweat and tears.

Annealing, that which makes the metal ductible, and hence unable (or as close as possible) to break under pressure.  This is the process after it is the right shape to avoid it losing that shape.  The setting of it in that shape.  This is, as stated, the process of burying to cool, heating, cooling, and so on.  Earth to cool, fire to heat.  Earth and fire.  Making ductible.  Think about this in your life.  The process of shaping you creates rapidity, afterward, you have to be made to handle pressure or you will crack.  You see this in the military, where the initial training hardens you and sets you in a certain shape.  Following that, the soldier responds by muscle memory and reflex, which is often necessary, but makes it harder to make a decision outside the training when needed.  The period afterwards requires adapting that training to an active process, if the soldier is to become an officer or any type of leader.  Otherwise, you will crack under pressure, because once you reach the end of what you were trained for, you have nothing left.  Looking deeper, think of the mysteries.  What stage is this?  Often the later period of training is different from the first, a period of testing where the teacher analyzes if the student is ready.  During this time, you are made to be able to handle the pressure that will come later.  In the tale of Taliesin, this is the period after Gwion drinks the drop.  Ceridwen is chasing him, trying to kill him.  He must change and adapt or die.  This is shown in the shapeshifting contest, Gwion changing into forms to get away, and Ceridwen changing into forms to catch him.

Sharpening, the grinding stone, where anything not needed is stripped away.  This is earth and only earth.  Forging starts with fire, air, and earth, air is removed for annealing, now fire is removed.  Earth.  Removing.  Think about this in your life.  Once you are able to handle pressure, unneeded things can be stripped away.  Before, the lose of them might break you.  In the military, this is your first battle or series of battles.  Once in the fight, your shape (training) and ductibility (ability to adapt) are tested and anything unneeded is stripped away.  At this point, either the the training and ability to adapt serve you well, or you die.  Looking deeper, think of the mysteries.  What stage is this?  This is initiation, in whatever form it takes.  In a very real way, that which isn't needed is stripped away in death, and what is needed emerges from the other side.  In the tale of Taliesin, this is Gwion becoming a grain, and Ceridwen into a hen and eating him.

Demagnetising, the reforming and realigning of the metal so it won't hold onto what was removed in sharpening.  This is done with fire and only fire.  The metal is heated, let to cool some, heated, let to cool some, and so on.  Fire.  Letting go of what was removed.  Think about this in your life.  After the unnecessary things are removed, how hard is it to really let go of them?  What has to happen to really move on?  I'll leave the soldier analogy behind at this point, as, never having been a soldier, I'm not sure how these steps apply at this point onward.  Digging deeper, think about the mysteries.  What stage is this?  After initiation, in the period following, many people feel lost, because they haven't let go of what was removed, but haven't come to terms with the changes that occurred.  It's a transitory time, a birthing you could say, with initiation being the time of conception.  And this parallels Taliesin's tale.  Ceridwen is pregnant after eating the grain, and gives birth to Taliesin nine months later, Gwion reborn.

Quenching, the hardening process, by which the metal is made to be strong enough to hold off any impact (or as close as possible).  This is a water only process, if you view water, brine, and oil all as water, which they have the characteristics of.  Water.  Hardening.  Think about this in your own life.  The point following the final letting go of the things you've lost tends to be an emotionally null time, a quenching of your emotions, a hardening of your spirit.  This is necessary to hold onto what is needed after losing what is not.  "What  have, I hold!" as Cochrane would say.  Which leads us into the mysteries.  What phase is this?  After we've come to terms with the changes, we have to apply them.  This requires determination and persistence, and force of will.  A quenching of our desire, so we can do what's necessary.  Not a period that lasts forever, but a necessary period.  In the tale of Taliesin, this is Ceridwen, who had intended to kill him when he was born, tying him in a bag and setting him adrift in the sea.  his period, floating on the sea, was a time of hardening, and directly visible as being quenched in water, since he was put in the sea.

Tempering, heating the blade once more to make it flexible.  This once again is fire only, but a lighter, milder fire, not heating as hot.  Fire.  Flexibility.  How does this apply to your life?  Hardening after loss tends to lead to rigidity, and while necessary for a time, this is bad in the long term.  Once that phase has passed, you need to regain flexibility so you can weather any future trouble.  Your heart has cooled in hardness, now it's time to warm it back up, not to the point of forging, but from where it is.  Looking deeper, how does this apply to the mysteries?  What phase is this?  That initial digging in and hardening must be followed by a more flexible time.  Hardening applies what you learn, growing flexible makes it yours, adapts it to you.  It's a period of renewed growth.  Growth doesn't end with initiation.  In Taliesin's tale, this is the period following him being found among the salmon as a child, during which he grew up.

Following tempering, is mounting, the putting of a handle or hilt on the metal.  This is often done, once more, with fire alone.  Fire.  Mounting.  How does this apply to your life?  A tool can't be used without a way to hold it or attach it.  The same is true of our lives.  There is always a bit more pain before we are ready for what is to come.  This is preparation.  Digging a bit deeper, how does this apply to the mysteries?  What phase does this represent?  In the Eleusinian Mysteries, this is the Greater Mysteries.  The initiate, after passing through the Lesser Mysteries which were initiation, then can enter the Greater Mysteries, a second initiation in some way, yet different from the first.  This is preparation for the real work, the first initiation and the period between the preparation for this.  This holds true for other types of initiation as well.  Initiation prepares you for the rest of the process, but there comes a time of change that prepares you for the actual work.  In the tale of Taliesin, this is his exploits in court, where he has to outsmart the others involved to save what is dear to him.

The final phase is polishing.  The metal at this point is perfectly formed, shaped, ductible, flexible, and strong, but it's rough.  The imperfections are removed by polishing it, giving it's final look.  This is a process of only earth, and is fine and careful work, persistence without a heavy hand.  How does this apply to your life?  The only thing left after you are prepared for what will follow a time of loss to to smooth out the rough edges so you don't get stuck on things that might hold you back.  The same is true in the mysteries.  The last stage is the years of polishing all your imperfections out, so you don't get caught up on things that might hold you back from the great work.  For Taliesin, this is his travels as a bard after the tale is done.  He's doing the work everything before has prepared him for, polishing his skills as he goes.

And so it goes, as with the Smith, so with the Witch, as with the craft, so with the Craft.  For, the Craft is the Craft of all Crafts.

FFF,

~Muninn's Kiss