. . . how very old the Old Religion is. It is far older than the "religions of the Book." Far older than the concept of a devil or a personified evil. It is older than the Stone Circles of Europe. Older than Britain's rivers. Older than the Court of Don and the Children of Danu. Older than Hecate. Older than Isis and Osiris. Older than An and Ki. Older than the Vedas. Older, in fact, than the Great Flood told in stories around the whole world. Older than the last Ice Age. I am a Witch, so I mean these things in a religious, spiritual, symbolic sense, not in an academic or strictly historical sense. If you are seeking the Old Religion, it is helpful to get into the spirit of what I am trying to convey.

"The gods of the witches are the oldest gods of all. They are the same as those divinities that were real to the men of the Old Stone Age, who painted them upon the walls of their sacred caves. Churchmen and other writers who denounced witchcraft and the witches' heathenish practices, have described in their books two deities whom, they say, the witches worshipped in place of the Christian god. These are a horned figure, part human and part beast, who sat enthroned at the Sabbats, dimly lighted by the flames of the ritual bonfire, while the witches danced around him; also, by his side, a beautiful naked girl, who was regarded as the Queen of the Sabbat, probably because she represented and impersonated Diana, the goddess of the moon, or her daughter Aradia. Both of these central figures of the worship who were actually human beings, masked in the case of the horned god­ figure, sometimes led the wild and orgiastic dances at certain stated and traditional times of the year, seasonal festivals which were so old that no one could remember the beginning of them. Such are the central features of the witches' worship, attested to by in­numerable hostile witnesses. Both of these divinities, the horned god and the naked goddess, can be found among the cave paintings and carvings of our pre­historic ancestors in Western Europe."
-- Doreen Valiente, The Old Gods, Chapter 1, Witchcraft for Tomorrow

When the Masters of Wisdom gathered together to create the Tarot, it was easy to determine which symbols would represent the earliest human religious impulses. You can see it for yourself, if you know how to read the Tarot. The first two cards of the Major Arcana are, together, the Horned God. The next two cards of the Major Arcana are, together, the Great Goddess. It is only the fifth Major Arcana card, The Emperor, that begins the Zodiac cards, with Aries. Before we knew the patterns of the Heavens, we knew ourselves, and knew that we were shaped in the image of something greater.

*** Blessed be to those who serve the Great Mother and the Horned Father.

* Copyright to Coven Rochester

Very frequently when meeting a Seeker or a Cowan, the person will tell me that he or she has long been interested in magic, divination, nature, and so on. When "Nature" is mentioned, I've learned to hear "spending time outdoors" or "the natural environment." Rarely, someone will mean it to refer to "the Earth" or, even more rarely, "the Earth Mother" as a conscious entity. "Nature" proper is none of these things. The confusion probably started arising in the 1970s when we all started "fooling Mother Nature" with our delicious, chemical-filled Chiffon-brand fake-butter-magarine (Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ijVijP-CDVI or https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gDkiq5jD5Hc or https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LLrTPrp-fW8).

If you are priest or priestess of the Old Religion, your subtle experiences of the Unseen will have fitted you admirably to understand what I will explain here. If you are some kind of some self-declared Tik-Tok-er or IG-er outside of the structure and tutelage of the Wise Ones, good luck to you. You chose your bed.

Nature is more akin to the female side of the One-Most-High. Higher in vibration and reach than the Earth Mother, or the Triple Goddess of the Moon, or even the Great Queen of Heaven. Nature is a set of laws and conditions, of stressors and flexors (just as we all are) and Her signature in physical manifestation is the number 7. She creates nothing in physical manifestation with the number 7 itself. She *IS* the number 7, and when you see something organized along the lines of the number 7, She is there, but in the background. 7 colors. 7 whole tones. 7 directions. The 7 shapes of creation.

She is present by Her absence. Look at the triangle above. Isis was Nature amongst the Egyptians. Erase Her line. What do you see? (the two remaining lines form a 7). Therefore, I repeat: She is present by Her absence.

The Wise Ones, both ancient and modern, call Nature the Virgin, because 7 cannot be divided by any number within the first ten digits except itself (the number 1 does not count inasmuch as, technically, no division has occurred in the result). She also bears no children because she can produce no other digit by multiplication in the first ten digits.

In the Greek Mysteries, Athena was the figure of Nature. In Greek numerology, Her name added to the number 77. She was called Parthenos (the Virgin), which in Greek numerology added to 515. 51.5 degrees is the nearest approximation to each angle of a 7-sided Heptagon.

The mystery that She is both present and absent at the same time is shown in Her mathematics.

When She is present, we cannot see Her:
1 x 2 x 3 x 4 x 5 x 6 x 7 = 5040
7 x 8 x 9 x 10 = 5040

When She is absent, we know by Her absence that She must be there somehow, even if invisible:
1 x 2 x 3 x 4 x 5 x 6 = 720
8 x 9 x 10 = 720

NO OTHER DIGIT BUT 7 WILL DO THIS. This is precisely why veils are used in the celebration of the Mysteries of the Goddess, and why OMMA THEIS EISO PEPLON means both "look beneath My veil" (see me, I am here) and "hide your eyes within your cloak" (do not look at me, I am not here).

She is Athena Parthenos. The Heavenly Venus of the Alchemists. Aseh-Neeta of Sais in Egypt. The Elohim of Netzach. The Hecate of the Chaldean Oracles. The High Priestess of Tarot. She is the link between the most subtle rates of vibration and the most dense rates of vibration.

Nature is like an ocean wave. The water is not the wave, but the water tells us that the wave is passing by. Nature is just like that. She is like Rilke's lover whom he could never catch. He could smell Her perfume on the balcony, but She was not there herself. He entered a street just as She turned the corner at the other end. In an antique store, an old mirror was still dizzy with the reflection of Her presence, although She had left the shop.

Rilke, however, was not a Witch. If you have been lucky enough to be blessed with inherited or learned skill, I will state that it is possible for a human being to perceive this "Nature-wave" by the inner senses. In other words, we are not engaged merely in theory and number-juggling here. Witches have the power to perceive this in reality. Never heard of all this before? Wash your nose of its ink-spots, and go find a Witch.

Are you interested in numerology? You need to know these doctrines of cosmology and number. Do you read the Tarot or playing cards? If your meanings of the 7s do not comprehend the above doctrines, you will never be a great seer or seeress for the Gods. You must learn the Universe's language. It cannot be compelled to learn yours. This goes not just for 7s, but for all the numbers.

*** Blessed be to those who serve the Great Mother and the Horned Father.

* Copyright to Coven Rochester

The God of the Witches

This is likely as excellent a statue of the God of the Witches as one is may find without having it specifically commissioned. There are symbols of his Starry, Solar, and Earthy forms.

His face bears the symbol of the upward arrow -- long a symbol of the Pole Star and, thus, He is the King of Stars, around which all stars revolve (from the perspective of Earth). In that form, He watches over the destiny of long-range things on Earth, like empires, dynasties, and countries.

His chest is adorned with the solar disc and, thus, he is the Lord of the Sun. He powers all Life and Vitality on Earth, including yours. How much of His vital force is in you can be determined from your astrological natal chart.

At the top of his head are Horns, a symbol of integrating His animal nature into His human nature in such a way that He has become divine. He is half-animal, half-man, but all God. He is the Lord and Protector of Animals.

At the bottom of his feet is vegetation and, thus, He is also Lord of the Vegetable Kingdom. His Solar form descends into the vegetation of Earth, to be used by both animal and man. This is one of the great teachings of Lammas, a Greater Sabbat.

His Horns are not only a symbol of divinity but, being also in lunar-form, a symbol of receptivity. Even *He* is filled with something higher. People call that Higher Power by various names. I like The-One-Most-High. Others say Light or Consciousness or The One. Alchemists say "the Mercury." All of us are correct.

This particular statue is from Slavic artist, and it is supposed to represent Veles, the Slavic god of magic, the underworld, earth, cattle, wealth, and the harvest.

But, it does not matter. He's our guy: the God of the Witches. Our Horned Father is completely natural -- Stars, Sun, Earth, Plant, Animal, Man. The God of the Witches is very old. He is on the walls of caves around the world, 13,000 years old and even older. He is the Natural Lord and also the Natural Law.

Don't be fooled by deceptive frauds and oath-mocking warlocks who point to Judeo-Christian entities and symbols like Lilith, Baphomet, an Intersexed Androgyne, the Goat of Mendes, Samael/Satan, Cain, and so on as divinities of the Witches. Nothing doing! Those things are no older than the Sumerians, 6,000 BCE (and that is being very charitable in timing), and some of them are even as young as the 1890's, not even 150 years ago.

You will not find Our Father amongst the Judeo-Christians or their writings. Nor in the trial records of poor men and women wrongly accused of being, then burned and hanged and tortured as, witches.

To find Him, you must explore Nature, and tread His books with your feet. He is explored from landscape to landscape, from horizon to horizon, from sod to star, and He has as many pages as there are lands and seas. This is the great practical and down-to-earth rule of His nature, and only in this way may His leaves be turned.

So mote it be.

*** Blessed be to those who serve the Great Mother and the Horned Father.

* Copyright to Coven Rochester

Trained occultists (and persons of that sort) will occasionally remember old snippets of dead languages.

Here is a proverb in Middle Egyptian. Egyptologists, who do not know how the language was pronounced, write it in this scholarly transliterated form:

Em mu, xa(r); em irpa, ab

But, as I say, some remember the pronunciation. And it is this:

em-MOO, KHA; em-YAR-va, AB

In water, you can see your face; in wine, you can see your heart.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------

A meditative mantra, you ask? In Egyptology Egyptian:

IND-HR-K,
NTR WR,
NB PT

Pronounced:

en-OOSH-ee-ahk,
nah-TAH-rah oo-AY-lay,
nayb VEET

Hail to thee, Great God, Lord of Heaven!

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

*** Blessed be to those who serve the Great Mother and the Horned Father.

* Copyright to Coven Rochester

I've done another chart like this before. I have been meeting many Seekers recently and one in particular struck me. And so I asked this question.





Lord 7, Saturn, is the person I am asking about.
Lord 9, Jupiter, is the Craft, as a religion.

There is good reception between the two planets already. Jupiter is in the triplicity of Saturn, and Saturn is in the sign of Jupiter.

Can we bring Lord 7 and Lord 9 together by a perfect aspect?

Initially, it looks like we cannot. The next thing that is coming to Saturn/Person is Mars. Mars would get to Saturn on his own, but the Moon is speeding along and going to translate light from Mars to Saturn.

Here's the wrinkle, though. Mars's last aspect was to Jupiter, a conjunction by antiscion. When that was occurring, the Moon was off in the distance behind. So, Mars in the chart is already carrying the light of Jupiter. The Moon will trine Mars, and then convey the light of Jupiter to Saturn. There we have the perfection. The Moon is me, the Querent. What role does Mars play? It is probably initiation into the Craft. The benefit of the Craft is its initiation and the transfer of power that comes with it, yes? The Craft is Lord 9. Its initiation is Lord 10, here Mars.

What we have here is a very elegant picture of the future. The Craft has sent forth the power of initiation toward the Person (Jupiter has sent forth Mars toward Saturn), as if the Craft has already marked the Person for the future. Then comes along the Moon (me) and will pick up the power of the Craft/initiation (Jupiter/Mars), and convey it to Saturn/Person.

Saturn in the 9th house just shows the person thinking about religious matters. Don't read into it anything more than that.

The antiscion of Saturn, however, is at 7 Libra 8, and is just about to make an opposition to Mercury Rx. What is Mercury in this chart? Lord 3, the Person's present religious/philosophical practice. The person will be mulling over matters, wondering how the Craft will fit into the former religious/philosophical practice, and whether one will have to be given up over the other. This is not unexpected. This is what happens when people are seeking. It's essentially what defines a Seeker.

The North Node is also in House 9.
The South Node is in House 3.

The chart could be read in another way: Mars conjoined Jupiter by antiscion, and is now carrying the light of Jupiter toward Saturn. Before that happens, the Moon hits Mars. A kind of prohibition. The Moon, however, is me, and so in this context, it does not make sense to read it as a prohibition. And note the strong and beautiful mutual reception by domicile between the Moon and Mars.

*** Blessed be to those who serve the Great Mother and the Horned Father.

* Copyright to Coven Rochester

This is the flyer for our next free community lecture.

Although we have had several practical, hands-on workdays making a variety of herbal medicines, this lecture will primarily be theory, based on the work of Wise Woman Elder and Priestess, Susun Weed.

There will be some practical information on nourishing herbal infusions, electuaries (medicinal preparations using honey or nut butters as a medium), and tinctures, but no hands-on work.

*** Blessed be to those who serve the Great Mother and the Horned Father.

* Copyright to Coven Rochester

Coven Rochester will be hosting its next workday on October 20, 2024, from 2-5 pm. The topic will be The Varied Forms of Divination. I imagine the topics to be covered will be something like this:

By the Law of Correspondence:
-- Astrology (Horary, Natal, Electional, Mundane)
-- Palmistry (Cheiromancy and Cheirognomy)
-- Physiognomy, Phrenology, Feet, Eyes, Forehead
-- Numerology, Acrophonology
-- Geomancy
-- Signs and Omens: By Birds, Haruspicy
-- Graphology

Direct Psychic Perception:
-- Scrying: Crystal, Water, Fire, Mirror, Black Mirror
-- Psychometry
-- Telepathic Games of the Sangoma of Africa
-- Familiar or Ancestral Spirits, Sciomancy, Seances, the Dumb Supper
-- Precognitive Dreams and Dream Spells
-- Dreaming True Potions
-- Dream Interpretation
-- Pendulum/Dowsing Rods
-- Ouija Boards, Planchettes, Automatic Writing
-- Divine Inspiration: Oracles, Sibyls, and Prophets

Image-Finding:
-- Tea Leaves
-- Cloud Gazing
-- Fire Embers and Ashes
-- Smoke
-- Wax in Water (Ceromancy)

Sortilege
-- Cards: Tarot Cards, Playing Cards, Oracle Cards, Witch Cards
-- Nordic Futhark Runes
-- Celtic Ogham
-- Dice and Dominoes (Cleromancy)
-- Bones
-- Lithomancy: Witches' Runes or Precious Stones
-- Bibliomancy: The Bible, the Works of Homer, the Aeneid, the Dictionary
-- The Ifa of Africa, Kola Nuts
-- I Ching, Wen Wang Gua of China
-- Parlor Games, Tables of Fate

Once the participants have a broad grasp of the various forms of divination, we may have future workdays where I teach one specific form.

* Copyright to Coven Rochester
** Blessed be those who serve the Great Mother and the Horned Father

A mortar and pestle that I inherited from my mother's eldest sister.

I used it to pound fennel seeds (Foeniculum vulgare) for two preparations yesterday.

I was intent on checking a hand for travel and journeys when I immediately noticed that the hand had a somewhat uncommon diamond shape. I had seen it in textbooks, but I had never held one in real life. Where the quadrant of the hand for the Jupiter mount is raised up, and the quadrant of the hand for the Moon mount is sunk. It is very noticeable in person, and I hope I have captured it in the photograph and diagram. I lost my interest in the travel question at once, for here is a point where hand analysis can really help someone in life.

I told the woman that this shape of her hand indicated to me that she must always have a goal in mind, something to aim for, an ambition. "You probably hate the exercise where you have to think about where you will be in 1 year, 5 years, 10 years, etc., don't you?" She confirmed that she did. I told her it was absolutely essential for her to always to be aiming for something, even something minor or in the short-term because, when she did not, she would automatically sink into making irrational choices. These are the two balance pans in your hand, and you must do your best to keep yourself weighted here (pointing to Jupiter). You, more than most people, must keep in mind the quotation of Seneca the Younger: Ignoranti quem portum petat, nullus suus ventus est. "If you do not know the port to which you are sailing, no wind is favorable." Or, less literally, if you do not know where you are headed, all directions are wrong. This is not to say that she should never "cut loose" and enjoy herself. She should. But she should do it consciously, and not by default. It should be a break, a vacation, and not a lifestyle. I told her how marvelous it was that Nature had so shaped her hand, as a reminder to her to what she needed to do to be successful and happy.

What did she say? "What you have said . . . I have felt that way my entire life. When I am focused on getting something done, my life goes so smoothly. When I don't, I make bad decisions and everything falls apart. I feel like I've learned so much about myself in just the last five minutes."

It is important for each of us to have goals, naturally. But this hand shape goes beyond that generality. We all feel adrift, sometimes, without a goal or something to aim for, but we are not likely to drift into irrationality. This hand, however, will.

Another feature: it is a Water hand. Perhaps that can't be seen, exactly, in the photograph. I measured, though, so I am sure.

The Coven met this past weekend to celebrate Beltane. As part of our feast, we had Leek and Chicken Pie, Roasted Vegetables, and traditional Scottish oat bannocks, with butter, honey, and jam.

We worked with two new spirits as a matter of experimentation.

We also had time to "Read the Bones" for one of the Witches. Here's a former entry with greater detail about reading bones.

https://covenrochester.dreamwidth.org/45810.html

Today, two days later, one of the predictions from the bone reading has come true.