The LBRP is an important part of my Crafting and is something I do quite frequently. For those that have no clue what I am talking about, it is one of the foundational rites found within Ceremonial Magick (CM). If you would like to know more, go read DMK’s blog posts about it:
Alright, now that up to speed allow me to go a bit more down the rabbit hole confusing esoteric symbol sets and mashing the symbolic language thereof. Recently when I was transitioning between the opening Kab Cross into the first formulation I had a vision that will be very familiar to the practitioners of Tradition Witchcraft (TW). It should be understood that for several years my personal Craft was very much steeped in working such Crafting.
At first I saw my own interpretation of the image of our Lady and a large rose, this melted away to reveal a castle atop a rocky hill/very small mountain with a path leading up the slope, and with a river of blood passing by the front base. For those that are not aware of it, this is underworld symbolism. In Traditional Craft our Lady is often referred to as the Rose-Queen once she as descended into the Underworld to join Her consort; which interestingly enough happens to be the time of year we are in, the Rose-Queen sits upon Her throne. The castle is Her center and appropriately named the Rose Castle. Now the river of blood is a symbol of the blood of our ancestors as well as the river of time and the river Styx which must be crossed to in order to enter the Underworld.
What I find particularly interesting is that during a CM ritual, using CM symbols, I would invoke TW symbolism. To better understand why this is peculiar one needs to understand that different esoteric traditions make use of different key symbols that unlock certain meaning in their use and form a language for Younger Self to speak alongside Talking Self, allowing Higher Self an avenue by which to speak to them both. The language of CM and TW are very different. Yet here I was actively engaged in one twisted tongue (symbolic language) and it pulls up another, that in all honesty I have not used in about three years.
I believe that in the Crafting of the Kab Cross the light I pulled was, accidently, chthonic in nature and with my recent reflections upon our Lady as Queen of the Underworld, Younger Self turned to familiar, albeit old and unused, TW language by which to speak a message to me. That personal message aside, there is herein a greater lesson.
It is important when an individual is learning various symbols and engraining them into the language of Younger Self that they do so consistently. In my particular case there was no confusion as to the meaning of the different keys, but there could have been. Avoiding such confusion is important in the Craft, whether personal or group oriented. Imagine the problems that could arise if an individual was using both Native American symbols, this in itself is controversial, alongside European folk symbols; would a rabbit that appeared in a visionthen be for fertility or terror? To avoid this, be consistent.
Boidh se!
-Spanish Moss
“Lost in a thicket bare-footed upon a thorned path.”
3 comments:
I like using the circled cross as a way of creating a protective and empowering sphere around oneself. I have taken Crowley's Star Ruby and added other god,goddess and angelic names that work for me. Lady Phoebe taught us a simple circled cross using the names of our witch gods that works great, but then she probably got the idea from Dr Santee who was in the G.'.D.'.
There is certainly space for someone with a firm foundation in a working system and key language to add in other borrowed words, so long as they as I have said have a base tongue from which to work.
Hmmm. Not disagreeing with your post at all, because you are very right. But something nags that there might be something else....
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