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The Power of the Cross

The use of the Cross as a protective symbol is well known and attested from the earliest days of Christianity.

Long ago there was a sorcerer named Cyprian who fell in love with a Christian woman, a virgin named Justina, and desired to possess her. Cyprian was a great wizard who had learned all the sorceries of the ancient world, and he cast a love spell on Justina. But Justina made the sign of the cross, and Cyprian's magic fell apart. Cyprian tried it again, and again, but every time Justina made the sign of the cross, and Cyprian's spells came to nothing. Ultimately, Cyprian gave up working with evil magic and became a Christian. Today the feast of Saints Cyprian and Justina is celebrated on the 26th of December.

Of course, the power of the cross to repel evil is well known from a thousand sources. In horror movies, it's common for a character to hold up a cross in order to repel a vampire, only for the vampire to laugh evilly and brush it aside with some line like "You expect your pitiful faith to save you? I am Filmstupidus, the hot movie vampire, and crosses do not scare me!"

Real life, of course, is quit different. We can use the sign of the cross exactly as Saint Justina did, as a protective ritual that can repel hostile magic, drive off evil spirits, and purify our auras of chaotic thoughts and energies, by putting us in touch with God and invoking His power into us, from the spiritual, through the noetic and the psychic, and down to the physical levels of being.

I suppose I should mention, in case anyone is unaware, that the term "aura" refers to a notional sphere about three feet in diameter that surrounds the human form. The aura is at once an organ of perception and of projection-- it is the "screen" on which your thoughts and emotions are projected, and the "window" through which you perceive spiritual realities. You'll sometimes find modern occultists claiming that it is a recent innovation, dreamed up perhaps by New Agers or Madame Blavatsky. But this is not so-- you can find discussions of the aura in Proclus's work from the Fifth Century. Some people have the ability to see auras naturally, and others find that it develops over time; others can "sense" them in a more abstract way, rather than perceiving them with their physical senses.

The Sign of the Cross as Banishing Ritual

In the Occult Tradition, a ritual that works as I described above-- that is to say, a protective ritual that can repel hostile magic, drive off evil spirits, and purify our auras of chaotic thoughts and energies-- is known as a banishing ritual. If you've been following along with the Christian magical practices I've been discussing here starting at the beginning of Advent, you already know how to use the Sign of the Cross for this purpose. During the Advent and Christmas workings, we began by making the Sign of the Cross in a manner familiar to ordinary Catholic, Orthodox and Anglican Christians, and slowly elaborated outward from there.

Today I want to give what I think of as the "full" Sign of the Cross, as a ritual by itself.

Step 1. Imagine a brilliant point of light located at an infinite distance above your head. Know that this light is not God the Father, but is, rather, the closest that a human mind can come to comprehending the power of God the Father.

Step 2. Now, imagine a column of light descending from that remote point down through the cosmos, finally coming to rest at the crown of your head. Reach up with your right hand, and draw the light to your forehead. Vibrate* the words "IN NOMINE PATRIS."

* To vibrate means to chant in such a way that your voice creates a noticeable buzzing in your body, or in the space around you. If you're working with a specific part of the body, as in the point of light at the forehead, you should feel the buzzing there. Some people find this very easy to do; others struggle. If you're of the latter persuasion, just sing or chant the words, and imagine you can feel the vibration in your body.

Step 3. Draw your hand to your heart. As you do, bow your head, and imagine the column of light descending down, through the centerline of your body, and all the way into the core of the Earth. Vibrate ET FILII.

Step 4. Draw your hand up and out to your left shoulder, and then your right shoulder. As you do so, visualize two lines of light extending outward to either direction in infinite space. Vibrate ET SPIRITU SANCTI.

Step 5. Bring both of your hands together at your heart. Imagine a sphere of golden light at your heart, which should be the very center of the cross that you have created. Vibrate the word AMEN. As you do so, imagine that sphere expanding outward in either direction, until it surrounds you on all sides. Know that you are surrounded and protected by the Light Divine.

Step 6. Say the Our Father, three Hail Marys, and Glory Be.

Step 7. After the prayers, make the sign of the cross again. This time, though, you can do so more quickly, closer the way that people ordinarily do-- though you should always pray with a reverent attitude. You will find, even if you rush through it, you will re-connect to the energy of the fuller ritual, so that any time you make the Sign of the Cross in daily life, it will have an added power and majesty.

Explanation, and a Few Notes

Readers who are familiar with contemporary occultism, will recognize this ritual as a variation of the Sphere of Protection, which is taught by John Michael Greer. But you will probably have noticed one oddity. The sphere of protection was originally itself based on the Sign of the Cross; the versions that JMG teaches were adapted by him for the needs of magical groups and practitioners rooted in Druid and pagan traditions, rather than Christianity. But in both the original version, and in JMG's version, there is a component that is not in the version I'm teaching. In the Sphere of Protection, one imagines a second column of light, rising from the Earth to join the first. When I use the Sign of the Cross, I don't do that. To the uninitiated this might seem very simple, but it's anything but.

According to the traditional teachings of Western Occultism, there are two currents of magical power in our world, called the Solar or Celestial and the Telluric. Now the Solar current descends from the heavens to the Earth, while the Telluric current rises from the Earth to the Heavens. Different magical systems work with one of these, or the other, or else they combine the two into a third current, sometimes called the Lunar.

It might be easier to understand the two currents if we look at their Chinese equivalents. In Chinese philosophy, and Chinese magic, the two great powers of the Cosmos are called Yin and Yang.

Here is the character for Yin: 陰

And here is the character for Yang: 陽

If you don't know your way around Hanzi, the Chinese writing system, it might not be obvious, but what is being depicted here are the sunny and cloudy sides of a hill or mountain. Yang is the sunny or south-facing side, Yin is the cloudy or north-facing side. In actual mountain ranges that are oriented this way-- so that the mountain range runs East to West, and the slopes face North and South-- the differences between the two faces are very clear. The sunny, south-facing Yang side of the mountain is typically a hot, bare stretch of rock, while the cloudy, north-facing yin-side is a damp, dark, cool and full of living things.

These are the two currents. The Solar current is like the light descending from the Sun. It is the source of life, and it has protective powers-- think of the way that the open sunlight drives away living creatures. The Telluric current is like the shady side of the mountain-- it's full of life, but it's also where you're most likely to encounter creatures that might cause harm.

Christianity in its nature is very much a religion of the Solar current. It has Telluric elements, to be sure-- it needs them, and its practitioners need to connect with them, in order to remain balanced. (In fact, it's the elimination of these from contemporary Christianity that has caused a number of the problems the established churches now face, as we'll discuss here eventually). Moreover, I have personally found that working directly with Telluric or "Lunar" energies can cause serious problems for my nervous system and my energetic body. This might not be the case for you, and so if you'd like to try the Sign of the Cross as though it were the Lunar-based Sphere of Protection, do so with my blessing. But if you haven't worked with it that way, or if you work with any other system of magic that is Solar in nature (especially the Golden Dawn!) please use the version I provided.

This is the foundational ritual for the system of Christian magic and mysticism we're discussing on this blog. It has the great advantage over many similar rituals that you can do it any time, any place, and no one will think you're anything other than an ordinary Catholic!

We're going to build from here, as we continue our journey through the Christian Wheel of the Year.