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Palm Sunday

Today is Palm Sunday, and the beginning of Holy Week. This is the day of Christ's entry in triumph into Jerusalem.


The best-known tradition associated with Palm Sunday is, of course, the blessing of palms. In many a Catholic household one can see palm branches, distributed during today's mass, twined behind the crucifix. The palm branches commemorate the branches which were laid before Our Lord by the crowd.

Now, this custom originated in the Middle East, where palm or olive branches are widely available. As it spread to northern parts of the world, it became common to use local trees. In this age of global trade networks, palm branches are widely used, but we should consider the opportunity provided by the older custom. The palm branches, once consecrated, become magical talismans which are able to ward off evil spirits and devices of hostile magicians. At one time it was common to burn the consecrated palm fronds in order to ward off natural, and in fact this use was wisespread enough that the Modernist church felt the need to condemn it; we may therefore be assured of its usefulness. Many trees have natural magical properties which can strengthen the protective effect of the blessing, and some are far better than the palm. Most evergreens are good, and cedar and juniper in particular have been used throughout the world to clear negative energy and repel hostile magic, I strongly recommend them.

A Ceremony for the Blessing of Branches

By this point in our journey, you know how this goes. Set up your altar in the usual way, and place the branches you intend to consecrate upon it. After the usual preparatory work, call down the energy of the Holy Spirit, and say the following words of consecration over the branches:

They are now a consecrated sacramental, and you may use them for whatever purpose you like. Traditionally, they are interlaced behind the corpus on your home crucifix, and they may be burned throughout the year for purposes of spiritual protection and energetic purification.

Devotional Practice for Palm Sunday

Palm Sunday is a day at once joyful and sorrowful. A century ago, the liturgy consisted of two parts: In the first, palms were blessed and distributed to the faithful in a ceremony that more-or-less exactly mirrored the sacrament of Communion, and this fact shows us something about the nature of the Communion rite and its inner structure. The second part was the mass itself. In the first ceremony, the Gospel reading commemorated Christ's triumphant entry into Jerusalem. The Gospel reading for the mass was the Agony in the Garden:

A good devotional practice for today might begin with the blessing of the Palms, and continue with a deep meditation on the Gospel passage above. We have, here, two parts of the three-part journey which recurs again and again in the spiritual life. First the Joy of the entrance into Jerusalem; then the Sorrow of Christ's betrayal. In Sorrow we must now abide for a time, but in a week, that Sorrow gives way to a Glory surpassing all earthly Joy.

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 The Gospel of Matthew, Chapter 12, Verses 1-14 reads: 


The Machine Stopped, But No One Noticed

Imagine a town built around a nuclear power plant. Every household has at least one family member employed at the plant. At work, the employees wear personal protective equipment: hard hats, safety goggles, gloves, steel-toed boots. Over time, the culture of this community becomes thoroughly built around the power plant-- weddings, birthdays, even funerals, all take place at the plant. Everyone wants to work at the nuclear plant, and so even those who don't work at the plant go about in hardhats and safety goggles and so on.  

After a while, the plant itself ceases to function. Funny enough, though, no one realizes this. After long centuries, the cultural activities centered around the plant have become the point. Engineers go to work and oversee machines that no longer function. Welders and machinists repair pipes through which nothing passes. Reactor operators press buttons in prescribed sequences handed down from long ago, totally unaware that nothing at all is happening. And everyone dresses in hardhats and safety gloves and goggles and steel-toed boots, despite the lack of anything very much to be protected from. Indeed, the dress code is enforced all the more rigidly, now that it is an end unto itself, rather than a means. 

This is what superstition is: the continued use of spiritual practice-- or, far more commonly, fragments of spiritual practices-- whose meaning and purpose is no longer understood. Very often, the practices are in fact useless, because the Power which animated them has departed. 

In Jesus's time, many of the practices of the Jews have degenerated into superstition. Moreover, it's quite likely that the Power of YHVH had indeed departed Jerusalem, as demonstrated by the temple's destruction just a few decades later. 

The Man Came Around

Let's go back to the defunct nuclear power plant.

Suppose that, one day, a man turns up who claims to be the plant's owner. Along with a trusted crew of engineers and workmen, he manages to restore power here and there and get parts of the plant up and working again. 

He quickly becomes quite popular. One day, he and his engineers are sitting around the plant's cafeteria, eating lunch. Because they're in the cafeteria, they have their gloves and hardhats off, and they don't bother with goggles. 

The Board of Safety that runs the plant are upset. They're used to screaming at people to put their hat and gloves on, even if they're at lunch, or in the bathroom, or outside smoking a cigarette. And here's this jerk that claims to be the plant owner, sitting around eating a sandwich with his bare hands! When they ask him just what he thinks he's up to, he calmly replies that gloves were made for man, and not man for gloves, and in any case this is his plant and he'll do whatever he darn well pleases. 

The Board of Safety are not pleased.

The Trouble With Abraham

If I didn't have a deep and abiding love for the Christian religion, I wouldn't be writing these posts. That much should be obvious. That said, Christianity has a problem, and it's one that it shares with the other Abrahamic faiths, for the most part. To understand that problem, let's go back to the nuclear power plant. 

Suppose that when the plant was built, the Board of Safety demanded that the town use it as its only source of energy. When some people refused, the employees went out and destroyed every coal-fired power plant, every hydroelectric plant, every windmill and solar panel they could get their hands on. After that, the Board of Safety insisted that nuclear was the only possible source of energy, that no other energy source existed, and that any claims by anyone to have produced energy from any source other than nuclear was a lie. Several other nuclear plants were built, but after a few centuries, rivalries grew up between the different Board of Safety. So that now, each Board of Safety insists not only that nuclear is the only possible source of energy, but that its own plant is the only possible source of nuclear energy. Other nuclear plants are schismatic frauds, which only seem to produce energy to the foolish or malicious. 

In such a situation, it would become impossible to determine whether a plant was working or not, because it could no longer be tested. If Plant B seemed to be producing enough energy that people in the surrounding territory could turn the lights on in their homes, what of it? We already know that Plant B is a schismatic power plant, and Plant A is the only true nuclear power plant. So the idea that nuclear power allows people to turn lights on is merely a superstition. In fact, it's probably pure paganism, since those wicked people who make use of coal-fired power plants make similar claims. No, the proper way to judge a nuclear power plant is whether it adheres to the same Manual of Safety Procedures yours does-- or whether it's obedient to your Board of Safety-- anything else is mere superstition. 

The Circle is Unbroken

Much of CHristianity, then, is in a similar state to the Judaism of Jesus's day, with the added difficulty that many churches not only cannot judge the efficacy of their practices, they have in fact prohibited themselves from doing so! Indeed, much of Christianity largely consists of people going to the defunct nuclear power plant every Sunday to share coffee and sandwiches in the old cafeteria. 

This is why I say that we can always judge the conditions of our own souls, as the soul is the sum total of our thoughts, emotions, and actions. If we fail to do so, we wind up like Pharisees, performing actions we don't understand for reasons we've never known, or else we wind up treating spiritual practices as if they didn't matter at all. 
 

The Gospel of Matthew, Chapter 11, Verses 20-24 reads:  


As we've discussed many times before, none of our individual minds is an island to itself. It is, instead, a node in a larger network of minds-- or rather, many networks. Our souls themselves are parts of many larger, collective souls. We are part of the souls of our families, our towns, our states and our nations-- but also of all of the groups in which we participate. In Esoteric thought, these collective souls are called egregores. They form naturally whenever humans come together in a group. Relationships have egregores, and so do sports teams, subcultures, music fandoms, charitable organizations, occult societies and so on. There is nothing wrong with participating in an egregore and in fact you can't help but do so, many, many times over. 

The trouble is, an egregore can go toxic.

If you've ever seen a subculture destroy itself through in-fighting, purity spiraling, cultishness or abuse, you know what I'm talking about. Patterns of destructive behavior perpetuate themselves. Think of the viciousness, always internally directed, and the witch hunts that often consume left-wing internet forums. Similarly, in music scenes and youth subcultures that have gone toxic, it's common to hear established participants mourn for newcomers. "Somehow every new face, in every single case, in a year or two will be erased" went a popular punk song from my mis-spent youth. "Something breaks inside of you," another began, "The spectacle of all the shows, fifteen fights and your six bucks has gone up some promoter's nose." 

In my view, this is what Jesus is talking about here. The collective souls that animate the cities of Chorazin and Bethsaida and Capernaum have gone toxic. We know this, because they've rejected Jesus Himself, the visible image of the One God. 

The Day of Judgment

And so Jesus tells us in fairly plane words that these cities will be destroyed. "It shall be more tolerable for the land of Sodom in the day of judgment, than for thee." 

Alban Eiler


Sunday at 11:33AM Eastern Daylight Time was the Spring Equinox. As less than 48 hours have passed since then, the energies of the Equinox are still active, so let's have a post on it!

The name Alban Eiler, commonly used for the Spring Equinox by modern Druids, comes from the work of Iolo Morganwg. In the Barddas, his collection of Ancient Celtic Lore which emerged largely from his own extraordinary mind, Iolo writes about the "free days" associated with the Sun:  

Qi Nodes

In Chinese philosophy and traditional medical practice, the pattern of shifting energies through the seasons is called jia qi or "Calendar Energy." Moments when the energy shifts in a big way are called Qi Nodes. Traditional acupuncturists, qigong teachers, and the like, have an elaborate system of practices designed to attune the energy of the individual to that of the season. This includes particular foods which are especially beneficial, qigong and meditation exercises, and modes of conduct. In the West, a similar system existed, but it's in fragments now, and part of our work is to reconstruct it; we can look to the intact energetic systems to provide some clues as to how to do that, as well as to the fragments of our own holistic system.

The Ember Fast is one of the most survivals of the Western system of energetic medicine, as it relates to the jia qi. The purpose of the fast is to re-set our energetic system. The foods of Winter are purged from our bodies, and we experience a kind of stillness and freedom from movement, from which we can begin to move again, in harmony now with the Spring Energy, rather than the Winter Energy which is passed.

Additional associations of Spring include: The element of Air; the Zodiac sign of Aries; regeneration, renewal, and rebirth; the sin of Pride; joy, gaiety, lust, and starvation. Notice that some of the images associated with Spring are pleasant, some are joyful, some are painful. The nature of the element of Air, which dominates this season, is strongly dualistic; it has its positive and negative qualities, and both are often active at the same time. In the world of nature, the long cold of Winter is done and light is beginning to return, but Winter food stores are largely depleted, and new crops have not yet begun to grow. Historically, this is the time of starvation.

The dualistic nature of Spring is also reflected in the two sides of the Liturgical Year that share in it. Spring begins with Lent, in which we attune ourselves with the rhythm of the natural world by sharing in its time of hunger and restraint. Lent is followed by Easter, in which we participate in the rebirth of Christ and of the Sun by a long season of joyous celebration.

Suggestions for Practice

If you're reading this, there is a good chance that you already have a way of celebrating the Spring Equinox, and I'd like to encourage you to stick with it! For everyone else, as with the Winter Solstice, I'm just going to make a few suggestions for practices now. Eventually, we'll have a more elaborate ritual for each point on the calendar, but it's best not to rush these things; the energies moving at this time of year are powerful and shouldn't be treated lightly.

1. Continue the invocation of St. Raphael from the Spring Ember Days; we can even make the Equinox a kind of culmination of that practice, with the slog of Embertide as preparation. In meditation, you can imagine the Archangel extending a blessing which attunes you to the energy of the season.

2. A free day. As in the selection from the Barddas above, we can make this a kind of free day in our own homes. Children can be given lighter chores and freedom from other responsibilities. The idea of the "Free Day" can be tied in with the Ember Fast to create a kind of general Energetic Reset for Spring.  

3. Spring Fires. If you saved your Christmas Tree, it's probably thoroughly dried out by this point. (Mine was! The Spring Equinox is a great time to burn it. The fire signifies the transformation of Earth to Air, as the incense of the needles rises into the sky. Let the kids roast marshmallows over the fire and make smores. Have fun.

Spring conduct in general should be light. Eat greens, herbs and sprouts; listen to music in the car, instead of lectures; read a novel. And you might even consider using the promo code PRIMAVERA to get 30% off any item at my Etsy shop over the next two weeks, if you were so inclined.  

Happy Alban Eiler, everybody!




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Saint Patrick's Day

Happy Saint Patrick's Day! Saint Patrick is one of the patrons of Ireland, as you probably already know.

History of Saint Patrick's Day

In 1780, George Washington gave his troops a day off. He had been encamped through the winter at Morristown, New Jersey. It was a long, bleak winter, and the army had been hit by no fewer than 28 snow storms and, well, no one was in a very good mood at this point. Now it happened that about a quarter of Washington's army was of Irish descent, despite the Irish composing less than a tenth of the American population at the time, and a dozen of his commanders had been either born in Ireland or born in America to Irish parents. And so it occurred to him that Saint Patrick's Day would make a fine occasion for a holiday. His order reads:


And so the first Saint Patrick's Day was celebrated without the least rioting, disorder, or mingling between officers and men.

That is the history of Saint Patrick's Day in America. His feast in Ireland is, of course, much, much older.

The Irish in America, The Power of Saint Patrick

In the United States, Saint Patrick's Day seems to grow in popularity every year. And this despite the fact that Americans of Irish descent are still less than 10% of the population. Moreover, the "Irish" of America include a very large percentage of Ulster Scots, whose forebears are rooted ultimately in the Scottish borderlands. These borderers were first expelled from Scotland to Northern Ireland as part of the British colonization of that country, and then from Ireland made their way to America. Today-- in America, at least-- they're usually just called "Irish," and that's how they see themselves. It's possible to be cynical or dismissive about the Irish-Americans, and this dismissiveness is quite popular in certain circles. Among the inhabitants of Ireland themselves, well, I've read that they see St. Patrick's Day as largely an occasion to evacuate their major cities, as these will be quickly overwhelmed by drunk Americans. Still, I think that something interesting is going on here.

The earliest Saint Patrick's Day celebration in the American colonies took place in 1737, in Boston. A group of Irish residents held a celebration in honor of Saint Patrick, and formed the Charitable Irish Society, in order to help their struggling co-ethnics in the city. Note that at this time nearly all of these "Irish" were Presbyterians who had emigrated from Northern Ireland, rather than Irish Catholics; more on that later.

On March 17, 1776, the Continental Army captured the city of Boston. Legend has it that the password for American soldiers entering the city that day was "Boston," to which the reply was, "Saint Patrick." Today, "Evacuation Day" is celebrated alongside Saint Patrick's Day in Boston. And Boston is the center of Irish culture in America.

Remember that two things are never connected by accident or happentance. If Boston was taken on Saint Patrick's Day, we should see this as the intervention by the saint on behalf of a city which was placed under his patronage 40 years earlier. If Boston has become the center of Irish or "Irish" culture in America, this is no accident either. There are no accidents, but the physical world is under the government of the spiritual world. On the magical worldview, cultural currents, fads, and enthusiasms are the outward manifestation of currents of force in the Astral Plane, and the Astral is under the government of higher planes still. If people around the world, especially but not only in America and other countries with a large Irish diaspora population, find themselves swept up in a notion of Irish identity on the feast of Saint Patrick, we should see this as the activity of the saint himself.

Saint Patrick was the patron saint of Ireland. Now, in addition, he is the patron saint of the Irish in America, and insists on including under that heading nearly anyone who is willing to wear green on March 17th.

Celtic Spirituality

Over the course of the last two centuries, the ideas both of Celtic identity and of a distinctly Celtic spirituality have spread throughout the world, wherever people of Celtic descent are found, and even where they are not. I think that you see the earliest version of it not in Ireland, in fact, but in Wales, with the Druid Revival and the work of Iolo Morganwg. Later, romanticized accounts of highland Scots history became very popular, starting with the work of Sir Walter Scott in the 1800s. And then there was William Butler Yeats, of which there is too much to say to be contained in a short blog post, except that, in more a more civilized era, sacrifices would be made to his spirit every year on the occasion of his Liberation from the flesh.

In any case, we've now had a fairly complete Celtic revival, which only grows in strength year by year. Celtic Spirituality takes Christian and Pagan forms, sometimes hostile toward one another, but often coexisting quite amicably. In either pagan or Christian form, Celtic spiritualities tend to share the following themes, among others:

• Respect and reverence for the natural world and the cycles of nature
• A focus on monasticism rather than a clerical hierarchy
• A balanced relationship between men and women
• A love of art, music, and poetry
• An awareness of the nearness of the Otherworld, and of the beings which inhabit it
• A celebration specifically of the landscapes, languages, and legends of the Celtic countries of Ireland, Scotland, Wales, Cornwall and Brittany

I'd like to suggest that Saint Patrick can be seen as one of the patron saints of Celtic spirituality and the Celtic revival generally. I'd also like to suggest that, to the list of traditional Celtic countries in Europe, we ought to add those regions of the United States and other countries which received large numbers of Irish, Scots and other Celtic immigrants, and in which Celtic culture has become rooted in the land. This would include much of the Northeast-- New England, of course, but Appalachia all the more so, as much of the region's culture was laid down by Scots immigrants, and large parts of New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and Maryland. The Celts weren't always in Ireland, and they have been many other places besides. I'd like to think that historians in a thousand years will talk about "the traditional Celtic lands of Eastern North America."

How to Celebrate

The traditional American form of celebrating Sant Patrick's Day involves wearing green, drinking beer (preferably Guinness or a lager died green with food coloring), reminiscing about ancestors driven from Ireland by the machinations of one Englishman or another, and listening to Celtic music. (Here is a personal favorite of mine.) There's nothing wrong with any of this and you won't hear me speak a word against it.

But I think that we can, and should, incorporate the deeper aspects of Celtic spirituality into our Saint Patrick's Day celebrations. At minimum, this is a fine day to recite the Lorica of Saint Patrick:
This is a powerful prayer of protection, as it invokes the entirety of God's creation, starting from the Trinity and extending downward through the ranks of angels and saints and into the elements of the material creation, and binds the one who prays to all of these. It can be recited in honor of Saint Patrick, with a prayer that his blessing be extended to all the peoples of the Celtic diasporas, everywhere in the world, and that the Celtic spirit continue to awaken, expand, and grow.

Happy Saint Patrick's Day!

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Spring Ember Days

The Ember Days of Spring fall on March 9th, 11th, and 12th this year.

If you aren't familiar with her Days or don't remember the details, refer back to my post on the topic back during the Winter Embertide.

Spring Ember Days: The Element of Air

In Esoteric thought-- and in the ordinary way of thinking, for people on earlier eras-- the Springtime is linked to the element of Air. Air is understood as heat and moisture. Air also has the following associations:

Among times, the Dawn; infancy in a lifetime; the mind in man; atmosphere, weather and wind in nature; the flower in plants, and seeds born on the wind, and also all such plants as dwell in the air; among herbs, all those hot and moist by temperament; among animals, birds and all flying creatures; among professions, those related to the Air, including pilots, astronomers, meteorologists, and all those who work with their minds, or who make their living by communication; in society, it is the economy and all means of transportation, production, and exchange; among planets, it is Jupiter and Mercury, though others say the Sun; among numbers, the number 2 and all its permutations; among solids, the octahedron.

Every element is ruled by an archangel. It's worth taking a moment to consider the meaning of the word "angel." The word means "messenger." Augustine tells us that "angels" is their title; their nature is spirit. In the Christian tradition, mainstream as well as esoteric, they are given the government of the physical world and human society. At the same times, they are called "messengers." This is a bit of a paradox-- you wouldn't give the president of a country the title of "chief mailman." So what is going on here?

The resolution of the paradox is this: The angels govern the elements of the material world and the universe as a whole as an expression of the divine will. In earlier times, it was said that the whole of Nature was one of two books written by the Holy Ghost; as such, all of creation is a kind of message from God. And the angels that govern creation are the message-bearers.

The Ember Fast

This week, extend whatever fasting commitment you've made to Wednesday, Friday, and Saturday. In addition, make at least one additional effort towards lightening your impact on the Earth. You might make an effort to reduce your own contribution to air pollution. As Air rules the system of economic exchange in society, you might keep a closer watch on your spending this week, and try to support local businesses and those which follow sound environmental practices. On at least one of these days, spend some additional time in Nature. Allow yourself to be aware of the Air element as it manifests in the wind and the atmosphere and in everything that is in motion, as well as those creatures that are specifically governed by it. You might also consider donating to an Air-oriented charity, such as an organization dedicated to helping children learn to read or speak, or any organization dedicated to bird conservation.

Prayer and Meditation

At least once, and preferably during all three days, practice a meditation like the following:

1. Make the Sign of the Cross

2. Say the Our Father, 3 Hail Marys, and Glory Be.

2. Perform the asperges with holy water and the censing with incense, using the prayers previously given. In a pinch, you can use ordinary water into which a little bit of salt has been added. Before using it, make the sign of the cross over it and ask God for his blessing.

3. Pray the prayer of the Holy Spirit:

Come, Holy Spirit, fill the hearts of Thy faithful and enkindle in them the fire of Thy love.

Send forth Thy Spirit and they shall be created, and Thou shalt renew the face of the earth.

Let us pray.

O God, Who didst instruct the hearts of the faithful by the light of the Holy Spirit,
grant us in the same Spirit to be truly wise, and ever to rejoice in His consolation,
through Christ, our Lord. Amen.

4. Kneeling or seated, take a few moments to relax your body and clear your mind with rhythmic breathing. Then call to mind the Air element and the Spring season, and everything pertaining to them. Offer a prayer, such as the following:

Oh God, I thank thee for all the gifts of the element of Air. For movement and change, the lengthening days and the Spring rains, and all the gifts of the air and the mental world world. And I pray that thou wilt send thy holy archangel Raphael, who governs the element of Air, to be with us at this time. Holy Saint Raphael, archangel who governs the element of Air, grant that the gifts and virtues of Air, willingness and wisdom, honesty and lightness of spirit may be manifest in our lives. And grant, too, that the unbalanced manifestations of Air, including concupiscence, dishonesty and unreliability, may be kept far from us. Through Jesus Christ our Lord, amen.

5. Take a moment to visualize the gifts and virtues of Air manifesting in your life. Then close your meditation with more rhythmic breathing.

6. If you like, you can repeat the asperges and the censing.

7. Close with a suitable prayer or prayers, followed by the sign of the cross. The Fatima Prayer is a good option:

O my Jesus, forgive us our sins, save us from the fires of hell. Lead all souls to Heaven, especially those in most need of thy mercy. Amen.

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Meménto, homo, quia pulvis es, et in púlverem revertéris.

Ash Wednesday

Ash Wednesday marks the official beginning of Lent. The great tradition of Ash Wednesday is, of course, its namesake, the ashes placed on either the crown or the forehead. 

In the traditional rite, the ashes are blessed by a series of 5 prayers. The first reads as follows: 

The prayers conclude:
Ashes are then placed on the forehead or on the crown, with the words: 


or
Lenten Magic

What we have is a magic ritual of some power. First, ashes are prepared, and these are made from the palm fronds blessed on the previous palm Sunday. Thus the years are linked to one another, and the triumph that will come at Palm Sunday linked to the crucifixion that will follow it. The priest summons an angel to bless the ashes, turning them into remedies for both body and soul. The faithful are blessed by the ashes with a prayer that they specifically be given the power of self-denial in order to combat evil spirits. They are reminded that they are dust and to dust they will return.

Each component of this rite would yield a great deal to meditation. 

Let's talk a bit about dust. 

Genesis 2:7 tells us:

The Lord God formed man from the dust of the earth. He blew into his nostrils the breath of life, and man became a living being.

In these two sentences we see the whole anatomy of the human being. 

We start with God, who, as we know, is Being Itself; the first term is existence.

Next comes the form, which God holds in his mind.

The form is impressed onto the dust.

And the breath enters in from God himself, bringing life.

God is being; the form is spirit; the breath is soul; the dust is matter.

Matter itself is without form and without life. Moreover, the lowest parts of us, the passions that we share with all animal life, arise from the body, and are thus closest to matter and entangle us with matter, which is merely dust. By remembering that we are dust, we remember three things:

First, our bodies are dust, and the cravings, attachments, pains, pleasures and everything we seem to "need" which arise from them are also mere dust.

Second, the dust itself, utterly formless, is still sustained in its very being by God, as is everything in the universe; underneath the dust, as it were, is God-- and so God is at the root of our being. Too often we confuse our innermost nature, seeing dust where we should see divinity; let us look past the dust to That which is beyond. In doing so, we gain the ability to do battle with the evil spirits, who use our lower nature to delude us, but have no power over higher things.

Third, even as dust, the lowliest thing, is not deprived of the presence of God; even as, remembering that we are dust, we remember that we are of God; so may we remember that by humility we will triumph, whereas by Pride we will be cast down. For
A blessed Lent to one and all.

[This post has been updated.]

Basic Principles of Magic

Most of you will have noticed that the Christian Wheel of the Year series is effectively an initiation-- or, rather, a series of initiations-- into a system of Christian magic. Of course, it doesn't have to be practiced that way-- You can use it simply as a guide to traditional customs that you might use to enhance your spiritual practice and your family life. But for those who want to make the deep-dive into traditional magic practice, I want to do a series of posts introducing and laying out the basic principles of the system of Christian magic we'll be discussing and practicing here. For many of you this will be review; for some it will be new material. 

To start, let's answer the question:

What is magic?

Magic Defined

Magic is defined as:

I've capitalized all of the important words.

Most of the readers here will already be familiar with this definition. If not, read it, read it again, and then read it a third time; it's subtler than it might appear at first. We're going to call this Definition 1. When we talk about magic here, we always mean "the art and science of causing changes in consciousness in accordance with will."

Alternate Definitions of Magic

Now, this isn't the only definition of magic. It's important to be aware of some of these other definitions-- especially if you belong to a religion that condemns magic, or have to deal with people who do. You'll usually find that when people condemn magic in general, they're using a definition other than the one quoted above, and condemning things that you haven't actually done and wouldn't do.

Catholic theology defines magic as:


Let's call this Definition 2. The first thing to note about Definition 2 is just how slippery it is. Is electricity a power other than the Divine? How about x-rays? What about the blind psychological forces used to manipulate people by advertisers? Is it "divine power" that produces life-saving medicines for humans by vivisecting live animals? The Catholic Church permits its followers to make use of all of the foregoing-- but it condemns spiritual healing practices like reiki as "sinful."

Earlier generations of Catholic writers on this topic were far more careful in their thinking than present-day ones. Leaving the ambiguity aside, though, we understand what Definition 2 is getting at-- "Magic" is here defined as seeking the aid of demons. It is condemned on that basis. It hardly needs to be said that the sort of magic we're working with here has nothing to do with demons, and so is not illicit according to Catholic theology (if that's important to you). In fact, because it doesn't involve the evocation of demons or other evil spirits or powers, it isn't actually magic according to Catholic theology!

Definition 3. In ordinary speech, "magic" or "magical" is often used to mean "wonderful and exciting," with a hint of "beyond the ordinary." Under this definition, the magic that we practice is usually magical, but sometimes it isn't! Modern ceremonial magic is based around the performance of a daily ritual intended to invoke the divine, raise the consciousness of the operator, and chase of evil and unbalancing spirits and forces. The wonder of performing a daily ritual often wears off after a few weeks-- and that's when it's most important to keep doing it. So you might say that magic is sometimes magical, and sometimes it isn't-- and the most important part of practicing magic is to keep going once the magic stops being magical!

Definition 4. Magic is
This is how Heinrich Cornelius Agrippa defines magic in his Three Books of Occult Philosophy, written in the early 16 century. You'll find similar definitions in many of the old magic books or grimoires. The old definitions are worth careful consideration, as they often dovetail with, contradict, and inform the modern definition in interesting ways.

Definition 5. Magic is a set of tricks or illusions, performed for entertainment.

As I wrote above, Definition 1 is the way we'll be defining magic on this blog. Definition 2 refers to practices in which we will never engage and which we condemn. Our magic will sometimes be magic according to Definition 3, and sometimes it won't be. Definition 4 is a helpful supplement. The type of magic described in Definition 5 is beyond the scope of this blog.

Some Implications of Definition 1

Let's conclude by talking about some of the implications of defining magic in the way that we have.

Reversibility of the Terms

The first thing to note about the definition of magic is that the terms are reversible. To practice magic is to cause or attempt to cause changes in consciousness in accordance with will. Also-- any attempt to cause changes in consciousness in accordance with will is magic.

This is of critical importance, because it means that, according to the terms we are using here, magic is being practiced all around us, all the time. And, the great majority of the time, that magic is targeting us. That is to say: It is our consciousness that is being changed, according to someone else's will.

Example 1

Some years ago-- around 2006, I guess-- I read about a study in which subjects were gathered in a room and given a questionnaire about their political views. In one of the rooms used for the study, there was an American flag; the other had no flag. It was found that subjects in the same room as the American flag were more likely to express right-wing political opinions.

Shortly after I read about this, every commentator on the right-wing Fox News channel, Republican members of Congress, and other public conservatives began wearing American flag pins on their lapels in public. Moreover, they started insisting that everyone else needed to wear  American flag pins on their shirts as well.

Like every act of magic, the American Flag Lapel Pin spell (as we might call it) was intended to produce a change in consciousness in accordance with will. The change in question was agreement with right-wing political opinions. The will was the will of the right-wing politicians in question, or, rather, their handlers; its intended goal was increased political power for the Republican Party. 



Magic is being used around you and against you all the time. And it doesn't matter if the people doing it know that it's magic
or not.

By the way-- that was nearly two decades ago. It wouldn't surprise me if the image of the American flag prompted very different political responses today, in 2022. I haven't seen any follow up study, but it's worth noting that American flag lapel pins are no longer worn. Images like the American flag are part of the Astral Plane in magical theory, which we'll be discussing later on. The constellation of images on the Astral Plane are never fixed, but always in flux.

Example 2

Another example.



Kind of awful, isn't it? I agree. And that's the first thing to notice about this one: It no longer works. That nauseated feeling you have? That's magical failure. But because it doesn't work, we can study it and see how it was intended to work.

Notice the components of the image:

The caption invokes the Family Doctor, a position of great authority. In the 1950s as well as today, for many people, the word "Doctor" produces roughly the same response that the word "priest" did for a medieval peasant. These are people who have access to secret knowledge and the means to personal salvation.

The picture shows a man leaving a woman and her daughter. The feelings invoked in a woman seeing an image like this are fear and heartache. In the era in which this image was produced, a woman on her own was in serious trouble. And notice: She's not by herself. She's with her child. The image thus invokes very deep emotions-- the protectiveness instinct of a mother toward her children. This is very common in advertising, which consists, as a whole, of low-grade sorcery of this sort. The human soul consists of multiple parts. Many of those parts are shared with other animals, the protective instinct of a mother toward her young very much included. These bestial parts of our soul are lower than the human parts, including the reason, but they are also older and much stronger. The purpose of an advertisement like this is essentially to invoke the beast within the target and lead it to overwhelm the human being. Why? Because, simply put, animals are much easier to control than people.

Finally, note the overall subject matter of the advertisement-- and my apologies for bringing this up. Simply put, it's intended to provoke anxiety in women over the state of their genitals. In other words, it draws attention to the reproductive organs, while at the same time provoking embarrassment and vulnerability. It is, in a real sense, a kind of visual rape. 

Notice that the bestial part of the soul is invoked at the exact same time as the authority of the doctor is invoked. The two work together to produce both irrationality and submissiveness on the part of the target. This is the change in consciousness. The will is the will of the advertiser, or, rather, the company who paid for the advertisement; its goal is to provoke women into purchasing unnecessary and dangerous products in order to enrich its manufacturers. 

It's easy to dismiss advertisements like this as products of a by-gone era, offensive or silly as one prefers to see them. Don't make that mistake. The science of advertising has only evolved since the 1950s. The dangerous advertisements aren't the ones that you can see through-- but the ones that you can't. Those are the magical workings that are still in operation.

Doesn't that mean magic is evil?

In each of the foregoing cases, the target of the magical operation is being influenced in such a way as to increase the power or the wealth of the operator-- the Republican Party and its donors in the first case, the Lysol corporation and its distributors in the second. These are works of evil magic, for two reasons. First, the change in consciousness being provoked degrades the target-- especially in the second case. As we will see later on, human consciousness consists of several different parts, which are arranged hierarchically. When we activate the higher parts of the consciousness, we are elevated to the level of the saints and angels; when the lower parts of ourselves are activated, we are degraded to the level of beasts. To deliberately lower the consciousness of another is to harm them, by removing them from the awareness of spiritual realities.

Second, the end goal of the magical act is not the good of the target, but the satisfaction of the appetites or desires of the operator. In the first case, the desire is for power; in the second, for money. To harm another for the sake of your own desires is more or less the definition of evil behavior. 

But does that mean there is no good magic? 

Of course not! 

Here is another magical image, one of my personal favorites:  


Take a moment to clear your mind, take a moment, and contemplate this image. What changes in consciousness does it provoke?

If you're in any way like me, it probably induces a sense of devotion to the Virgin Mary and a desire to be united with her and with Jesus. You might see the crown being placed on her head as a reminder of the crown of glory awaiting all Christians. You might feel something undescribable, a movement of an ineffable energy that brings tears to your eyes and stirs your soul with a longing for the presence of God. 

We can distinguish between good or "white" magic and evil or black magic quite simply: The aim of good magic is the good of the target, while the aim of evil magic is evil for the target. This is true whether the target is yourself, another person, or a larger system like a garden or a city. 

Of course, this raises the question: Exactly what is good? And what is evil? We'll get to that in due time.

(Dear Reader: You may have noticed that this post is a draft of the first chapter of a book. Of course, if you've been here for more than a week or so you already know how I define "good" and "evil.")

Consciousness and the Will

According to our definition, the component parts of magic are will and consciousness. As such, it will be helpful to define these terms as well.

For now, let's define will as the capacity to choose an action, and consciousness as the capacity for representation.

To choose an action means to act in a way that is unimpeded and uninfluenced by any outside force. It immediately follows that there are many forms of limitation on the will. The first limitation is simply that of capacity. I have a cat sitting here on my desk. I can write these words, but she can't. Nor can she think the thoughts that led to them, nor read them and understand them. My body and brain allow me to perform actions which are not available to her-- and never will be. On the other hand, there are certain things that she can do that I can't, like hunting mice or sleeping for 18 hours straight. The will is limited in other ways as well. My capacity to choose an action is constrained by my knowledge of the choices available, my knowledge of the consequences of my choices, and any prior knowledge that might in any way impact my choice.

Aristotle discussed the limitations that knowledge and compulsion place upon the will at some length in Book 3 of his Nichomachaean Ethics.

Consciousness is the capacity for representation. Here I'm borrowing an idea from Schopenhaeuer, not inappropriately, as his influence is very present in modern occultism. For now, though, all we mean by "representation" is the "ability to have an experience." And so "consciousness" doesn't refer to the complexity of an experience, or to modern ideas about "intelligence." The computer I'm using may be more complex than the brain of the cat sitting next to it, but it doesn't matter-- the cat is conscious, and so she can experience the simple passions of pain, hunger, thirst, and fear; higher emotions of love and loneliness; and thoughts which are rudimentary analogs of human thought. The computer does none of these things, and never will-- as far as we know.

From all of this, it follows that both the will and the consciousness admit of degrees of development. Every living being participates of will and consciousness to some degree, even if it's very simple. An ant can choose to go right or left around a rock or to crawl over the rock. It represents the rock to itself through its eyes and antennae. And that's about it. A cat's field of choices and its range of experiences are greater and more complex; those of a human being more complex still.

As magic is the art and science of causing changes in consciousness in accordance with the will, it follows that magical practice includes the expansion of the powers of both the will and the consciousness.

A being that had a totally free will with no limitations either of knowledge or power; and a capacity to represent all possible experiences in its consciousness at once, with no limitations, would be called omnipotent and omniscient. Or, to say it another way, God.

A Definition of Christian Magic

We've defined magic.We've defined will and consciousness, and we've defined good magic and evil magic.

But what about Christian magic? We should probably define it before we continue.

Christian magic is, quite simply, magic in service of Christianity. 

Or, to say it another way, a work of magic is Christian if the ultimate end of the change in consciousness it provokes is union with the Christian God, which is the ultimate end of Christianity. 

Every Christian denomination without exception practices magic, by the way. Yes, that includes Protestants of every sort. Some are better at it than others.

Note for Practice

Many of you already have a personal spiritual practice. But this series is intended a basic self-study in magical practice, and you're very welcome to follow along with that in mind. And so every one of these posts will have an assignment. For today, consider the following questions:

1. What would it mean to expand your own will and your own consciousness?

2. In what way is "expansion of the will and consciousness" identical to "union with God"? In what ways might it be different?

3. What magical workings are currently being used to influence your own consciousness, in accordance with another's will? What would it be like if you were free of them?

Let's leave it there for today. Next time we'll talk about the basic principles of magic, and then we'll go on to present a basic curriculum of Christian magic. That should take us to the beginning of Lent, when we'll put the ideas we've discussed into practice. 

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Saint Valentine

Today is Saint Valentine's Day, and that means that, if you're anything like me, you spent the last day or two scrambling about at the last minute
shopping for your wife.

Saint Valentine appears to have been a 3rd century Roman priest or Bishop, but he may have lived at Terni instead, or there may be two Valentines. Nor does the confusion end there, as there were a number of other ancient and medeival Valentines whose personal histories may have been rolled up into one saint.

Valentinus is also the name of a 2nd century bishop, who seems to have been removed by only two degrees of separation from Saint Paul. His teacher was Theudus, who was a student of Paul's-- this, at least, according to Clement of Alexandria. This is particularly interesting, as Valentinus was the founder of one of the great schools of Gnosticism. You can read about the Valentinian tradition, which I personally find more interesting than the other Gnostic schools, here.

Which Valentine is "really" being celebrated today? Or is the spirit of Saint Valentine's Day a composite being like Santa Claus, superintending a festival of romantic love?

Of course, Rome in its great and unceasing wisdom, removed liturgical celebrations of Saint Valentine in 1969, because they couldn't find historians who could prove its existence. This is how you know that modern Rome is not a Christian institution-- obedience to the opinions of college professors is a key component of the modern ideology of Managerialism, but is not part of historical Christianity.

A Meditation on Eros

Saint Valentine's Day-- or "Valentine's Day," as we know it in the still-Protestant United States-- has become our great celebration of romantic love, or, to say it another way, erotic love. And so we should talk about what Eros means from a spiritual and magical point of view.

By the way, if you're tempted to jump in and claim that Valentine's Day as a celebration of love is an invention of marketing companies, I'd advise you to resist the temptation, and consider what you're saying. Yes, every company in the Western world seeks to make money from Valentine's Day, and many do profit handsomely thereby. But to assume that they created the thing is to believe that marketers and merchants are the creators of reality. The magical worldview is the opposite of this-- If a festival has emerged into human culture, then it is because spiritual forces at a higher level of existence have brought it into being. If a major part of its celebration is commercial, that's because we live in a commercial society; future historians will define "America" as "the name of a large merchant state which ruled much of North America between 1776 and the middle of the 21st century."

Now, of course, it needs to be said that the Catholic Church has had a very fraught relationship with Eros throughout its history. Saint Augustine of Hippo identified sexual desire with original sin. Writing several hundred years later, Pope Gregory in his letter to the Anglo-Saxons considers sexual desire as-- as he puts it-- "somewhat defiling." Gregory is specifically addressing a question from another Augustine, Augustine of Canterbury, who had been sent as a missionary to the Anglo-Saxons. Augustine is wondering whether it's okay to receive communion after having sex. Gregory replies:
In other words-- it's okay to have sex with your own spouse, provided you don't do it to enjoy it, but only to beget children. If your purpose is pleasure, then "you have cause to lament your deed."

It's very tempting to dismiss this as just a bunch of puritanical nutjobbery. But didn't I just say that, when an idea manifests itself in human culture, it has a spiritual source? If we apply different standards to different cases we'll be hypocrites, and we won't discovery anything useful.

Sex, Magic, and Church

In my view, there are two different things going on with Gregory's attitude toward sex.

The first is an example of a very common problem in Catholic thinking-- the confusion of magical principles with moral laws. The fact is that sex is always a very powerful magical working. At the highest level, two spirits encounter one another, and join together. In that joining, a third thing is created, which is the union of the two. The union of two to produce three then creates the possibility for another spirit to descend downward, from the plane of Spirit, into manfiestation at the material level.

At the lower levels, sex unleashes a torrent of energies. Some are refined, rarified, "astral"-- these are the higher emotions of love and union. Others are denser and etheric-- this is the all-consuming passion that Gregory terms "unlawful desire." At the physical level, sexual fluids are alive with the life-force at its most concentrated.

Now, the Eucharist is a great and powerful working of ceremonial magic. Ceremonial magic is itself a kind of spiritual technology, and, like all technologies, it has its requirements in order to function correctly. Your computer will not work if you don't plug it in, and you shouldn't set it outside in a rainstorm; if you plug it into a wall outlet that already has 25 chords running into it, you risk a short circuit or even a fire.

Ceremonial magic is similar. A ritual space needs, first, to be purified of outside influences-- this is why the mass traditionally began with incense and holy water (itself a mixture of water and salt). Sexual fluids are, as I said above, highly potent magical substances, and sexual passion is a powerful energetic influence. Thus, Gregory is being perfectly sensible when he suggests that one shouldn't enter a church without purification with water-- cold water removes etheric energies-- and allowing sufficient time to elapse-- to allow the energetic body to stabilize. These are good magical principles, and you'll see them in many other religious traditions also. But they aren't moral laws, any more than it's a moral law not to use your laptop in a rainstorm.

The second thing going on is that Gregory is echoing the terror of sexual pleasure found in teh writings of AUgustine of HIppo. Again, it's easy to dismiss this as puritanical nonsense, but then we have to ask ourselves why this sort of puritanism was allowed to be born into the world and endure for such a long time. Clearly the powers that govern the world had a good reason for it. But just as clearly, that time has come to an end. If you want to demonstrate that to yourself, try this. Read the short story The White People, by Arthur Machen. Written in the 1890s, it's essentially a dramatization of a girl's sexual awakening. And-- this is critical to understand-- it was written as a horror story, and received by its audience as a great work of horror. Read the story-- it's a good one-- and try to feel the least shred of the fear that Machen's audience felt. The fact that you can't shows you that the world has changed.

The Proper Role of Eros

Erotic love is the subject of one of Plato's great dialogues, The Symposium. In the dialogue, a group of dinner guests spend hours discussing the nature of Love, without coming to an understanding. Finally, Socrates shares the teaching he received from a woman named Diotima, who was, he tells us, his initiator into the mysteries of love.

Love, Diotima explains, is neither divine nor mortal, but a mediator between the two. Like mortality, Love partakes of lack and desire, while the Gods Themselves desire nothing. But like the divine, Love leads to fullness and union. Love is a desire for Beauty, and that very desire becomes a step-by-step initiation into divine mysteries. As Diotima explains:

For he who would proceed aright in this matter should begin in youth to visit beautiful forms; and first, if he be guided by his instructor aright, to love one such form only—out of that he should create fair thoughts; and soon he will of himself perceive that the beauty of one form is akin to the beauty of another; and then if beauty of form in general is his pursuit, how foolish would he be not to recognize that the beauty in every form is the same! And when he perceives this he will abate his violent love of the one, which he will despise and deem a small thing, and will become a lover of all beautiful forms; in the next stage he will consider that the beauty of the mind is more honourable than the beauty of the outward form. So that if a virtuous soul have but a little comeliness, he will be content to love and tend him, and will search out and bring to the birth thoughts which may improve the young, until he is compelled to contemplate and see the beauty of institutions and laws, and to understand that the beauty of them all is of one family, and that personal beauty is a trifle; and after laws and institutions he will go on to the sciences, that he may see their beauty, being not like a servant in love with the beauty of one youth or man or institution, himself a slave mean and narrow-minded, but drawing towards and contemplating the vast sea of beauty, he will create many fair and noble thoughts and notions in boundless love of wisdom; until on that shore he grows and waxes strong, and at last the vision is revealed to him of a single science, which is the science of beauty everywhere. To this I will proceed; please to give me your very best attention:

He who has been instructed thus far in the things of love, and who has learned to see the beautiful in due order and succession, when he comes toward the end will suddenly perceive a nature of wondrous beauty (and this, Socrates, is the final cause of all our former toils)—a nature which in the first place is everlasting, not growing and decaying, or waxing and waning; secondly, not fair in one point of view and foul in another, or at one time or in one relation or at one place fair, at another time or in another relation or at another place foul, as if fair to some and foul to others, or in the likeness of a face or hands or any other part of the bodily frame, or in any form of speech or knowledge, or existing in any other being, as for example, in an animal, or in heaven, or in earth, or in any other place; but beauty absolute, separate, simple, and everlasting, which without diminution and without increase, or any change, is imparted to the ever-growing and perishing beauties of all other things. He who from these ascending under the influence of true love, begins to perceive that beauty, is not far from the end. And the true order of going, or being led by another, to the things of love, is to begin from the beauties of earth and mount upwards for the sake of that other beauty, using these as steps only, and from one going on to two, and from two to all fair forms, and from fair forms to fair practices, and from fair practices to fair notions, until from fair notions he arrives at the notion of absolute beauty, and at last knows what the essence of beauty is.

That "vast sea of beauty" is the eternal Beauty, which is the source of all the beauty of the living world. True Beauty is the image of God, the Good. In our own lives, romantic love can be and is meant to be an initiation into the Higher Mysteries of beauty; by joining with the beautiful person which is our beloved, we transcend separation, we experience unity, and in doing so grow ever closer to the source of unity, which is the One itself, the Good-- God.

Prayer for Saint Valentine's Day

The only surviving hymn of Valentine, the Gnostic Bishop, reads thusly:
This is a vision of creation unfolding from the Highest and descending downward, to the child emerging from the womb. This is the process of Creation-- all creation, whether hte begetting of children, or the creation of works of art or poetry or even great works of the mind.

If you'd like something more orthodox, here's a prayer to Saint Valentine to bless your relationship:

Happy Valentine's Day!

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