Friday, April 29, 2011

Anna Riva (Dorothy Spencer) Books

Highly Recommended Reading:
Art of Divination (1995)

Candle Burning Magic (1980)

Devotions to the Saints (1982)

Golden Secrets of Mystic Oils (1990)

How to Conduct a Séance (1997)

Magic with Incense and Powders (1985)

Modern Witchcraft Spellbook (1973)

Powers of the Psalms (1982)

Prayer Book (1984)

Secrets of Magical Seals (1975)

Six Lessons in Crystal Gazing (1993)

Spellcraft, Hexcraft and Witchcraft (1977)

The Modern Herbal Spellbook (1974)

Voodoo Handbook of Cult Secrets (1974)

Voodoo Handbook of Cult Secrets (1996)

Your Lucky Numbers Forever (1992)

Wednesday, April 20, 2011

Amen: One Definition

This word or phrase, "amen" or "Amen", is generally an expression of agreement, ratification, and confirmation utilized during spiritual worship and/or religious services by the Greek, Jewish, Nordic, Gnostic, Christian, Muslim, Ancient Egyptian papyri, and more as well as having been introduced into spells of "Anathema". Note that all spells and spell casting are not performed for negative or evil intent or results; spells are also cast for purposes of spiritual benefaction via the elementals of Mother Nature (i.e., earth, air, fire, water, and ether or spirit) for positive results.

This word derives from an etymological, Semitic (Hebrew) root word meaning "fixed" or "sure” with many different pantheistic (i.e., the worship or divination of all goddesses and gods along all lines of creeds) scriptural references. Another etymological note, regarding the word "Semitic", and according to the Merriam-Webster definition:
"…of, relating to, or constituting a subfamily of the Afro-Asiatic language family that includes Hebrew, Aramaic, Arabic, and Amharic…"

To continue, this word, "Amen", is generally capitalized in many circles. "Amen" is also considered to be a form interjection—spoken and grammatically. "Amen" is also a word that is sung (found in secular music such as in a hymn) and used as a form of salutation. "Amen" has been expressed by many people, in the United States, during the 1960's and 1970's as a form of agreement such as, "Amen brother or Amen sister"; similar to the expression "Right On!" which is just as spiritual in many communities, cultural, and non-secular circles. The Greek version of the Old Testament (or "diatheke") often scripturally translates "Amen" as meaning "so be it" which is quite similar in connotation to the phrase, "So mote it be", found in many metaphysical spellwork and rituals of the Old Religion (i.e., Witchcraft) and Neo-Pagan Wicca. The word "mote" derives from the archaic--meaning "may or might".

Around the 2nd century C.E., the Christian faith had assimilated the word "amen" into its doxology (i.e., as a liturgical expression of praise to their god) along with and in reference to its monotheistic premises and evangelical regime vehemently (i.e., "by any means necessary") attempting to force everyone into its belief system as unfortunately being witnessed in the United States of today; and as historically noted from the earlier Christian twelve centuries of suppression of heresy, holy inquisition, and the Burning Times.

In the final analysis, this word "amen or Amen" has often been interpreted as a spiritually, solemn assertion or approval of one’s faith.

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Copyright © 2005 Temple of Kemetic Wicca

Saturday, April 16, 2011

Pagan Christs

PAGAN CHRISTS
STUDIES IN COMPARATIVE HIEROLOGY

JOHN M. ROBERTSON

SECOND EDITION, REVISED AND EXPANDED


[ISSUED FOR THE RATIONALIST PRESS ASSOCIATION, LIMITED]

LONDON:

WATTS & CO.,

17 JOHNSON'S COURT, FLEET STREET, E.C.

[1911]


Scanned, proofed and formatted by John Bruno Hare at sacred-texts.com, Sept-Oct 2007. This book is in the public domain in the US because it was published prior to 1923.


Pagan Christs, by John M. Robertson, [1911], at sacred-texts.com

[p. 1]

PART I.

THE RATIONALE OF RELIGION


CHAPTER I.


THE NATURALNESS OF ALL BELIEF

section 1.

IT seems probable, despite theological cavils, that Petronius was right in his signal saying, Fear first made the Gods. In the words of a recent hierologist, "we may be sure that primitive man took to himself the credit of his successful attempts to work the mechanism of nature for his own advantage, but when the machinery did not work he ascribed the fault to some over-ruling supernatural power.....It was the violation of [previously exploited] sequences, and the frustration of his expectations, by which the belief in supernatural power was, not created, but first called forth." [*1]

The fact that this writer proceeds to repudiate his own doctrine [*2] is no reason why we should, save to the extent of noting the temerity of his use of the term "supernatural." There are some very strong reasons, apart from the a priori one cited above, for thinking that the earliest human notions of superhuman beings were framed in terms of fear. Perhaps the strongest of all is the fact that savages and barbarians in nearly all parts of the world appear to regard disease and death as invariably due to purposive hostile action, whether normal, magical, or "spiritual." [*3] Not even old age is for

[p. 2]

many of these primitive thinkers a probable natural cause of death. [*1] If then the life of early man was not much less troublous than that of contemporary primitives, he is likely to have been moved as much as they to conceive of the unseen powers as malevolent. "On the Gold Coast," says a close student, "the majority of these spirits are malignant......I believe that originally all were conceived as malignant." [*2]

And how, indeed, could it be otherwise? Those who will not assent have forgotten, as indeed most anthropologists strangely forget when they are discussing the beginnings of religion, that man as we know him is descended from something less human, more brute, something nearer the predatory beast life of fear and foray.

[p. 3]

[paragraph continues] When in the period of upward movement which we term civilisation, as distinct from animal savagery, there could arise thrills of yearning or gratitude towards unknown powers, we are aeons off from the stage of subterhuman growth in which the germs of conceptual religion must have stirred. If the argument is to be that there is no religion until man loves his Gods, let it be plainly put, and let not a verbal definition become a petitio principii. If, again, no numina are to be termed Gods but those who are loved, let that proposition too be put as a simple definition of term. But if we are to look for the beginnings of the human notion of numina, of unseen spirits who operate in Nature and interfere with man, let it be as plainly put that they presumably occurred when fear of the unknown was normal, and gratitude to an Unknown impossible.

But in saying that fear first made the Gods, or made the first Gods, we imply that other God-making forces came into play later; and no dispute arises when this is affirmed of the process of making the Gods of the higher religions, in their later forms. Even here, at the outset, the play of gratitude is no such ennobling exercise as to involve much lifting of the moral standpoint; and even in the higher religions gratitude to the God is often correlative with fear of the evil spirits whom he wards off. This factor is constantly present in the gospels and in the polemic of the early Fathers; [*1] and has never disappeared from religious life. The pietist who in our own day pours out thanks to "Providence" for saving him in the earthquake in which myriads have perished is no more ethically attractive than philosophically persuasive; and the gratitude of savages and barbarians for favours received and expected can hardly have been more refined. It might even be said that a cruder egoism presides over the making of Good Gods than over the birth of the Gods of Fear; [*2] the former having their probable origin in an individualistic as against a tribal instinct. But it may be granted that the God who ostensibly begins as a private guardian angel or family spirit may become the germ of a more ethical cultus than that of the God generically feared. And the process chronically recurs. There is, indeed, no generic severance between the Gods of fear and the Gods of love, most deities of the more advanced races having both aspects: nevertheless, certain specified deities are so largely shaped by men's affections that they might recognisably be termed the Beloved Gods.

[p. 4]

It will on the whole be helpful to an understanding of the subject if we name such Gods, in terms of current conceptions, the Christs of the world's pantheon. That title, indeed, no less fitly includes figures which do not strictly rank as Gods; but in thus widely relating it we shall be rather elucidating than obscuring religious history. Only by some such collocation of ideas can the inquirer surmount his presuppositions and take the decisive step towards seeing the religions of mankind as alike man-made. On the other hand, he is not thereby committed to any one view in the field of history proper; he is left free to argue for a historical Christ as for a historical Buddha.

Even on the ground of the concept of evolution, however, scientific agreement is still hindered by persistence in the old classifications. The trouble meets us on one line in arbitrary fundamental separations between mythology and religion, early religion and early ethics, religion and magic, genuine myths and non-genuine myths. [*1] On another line it meets us in the shape of a sudden and local reopening of the problem of theistic intervention in a quasi-philosophical form, or a wilful repudiation of naturalistic method when the inquiry reaches current beliefs. Thus results which were reached by disinterested scholarship a generation ago are sought to be subverted, not by a more thorough scholarship, but by keeping away from the scholarly problem and suggesting a new standard of values, open to no rational tests. It may be well, therefore, to clear the ground so far as may be of such dispute at the outset by stating and vindicating the naturalistic position in regard to it.

Read more...

Contents
Preface to the Second Edition
Introduction


Part I. The Rationale of Religion
Chapter I. The Naturalness of all Belief
§ 1. Origin of the Gods from Fear
§ 2. All Belief Results of Reasoning
§ 3. Dr. Jevons’ Theories of Religious Evolution
§ 4. Scientific View of the Religious Evolution
§ 5. Dr. Frazer's Definition
§ 6. The Scientific Induction
§ 7. Dr. Jevons’ Series of Self-Contradictions
§ 8. His Contradictory Doctrine of the Conditions of the Survival of Religion
§ 9. The Continuity of Religious Phenomena
§ 10. Dr. Frazer's Sociological Vindication of the Sorcerer
§ 11. The Beginning of the End of Religion
§ 12. Historic View of Ancestor Worship
§ 13. The Authoritarian Element a Mark of Religion
§ 14. Definition of Religion

Chapter II. Comparison and Appraisement of Religions
§ 1. Early Forces of Reform
§ 2. Reform as a Religious Process
§ 3. Polytheism and Monotheism
§ 4. Hebrews and Babylonians
§ 5. Forces of Religious Evolution
§ 6. The Hebrew Evolution
§ 7. Post-Exilic Phases
§ 8. Revival and Disintegration
§ 9. Conclusion

Part II. Secondary God-Making
Chapter I. The Sacrificed Saviour-God
§ 1. Totemism and Sacraments
§ 2. Theory and Ritual of Human Sacrifice
§ 3. The Christian Crucifixion
§ 4. Vogue of Human Sacrifice
§ 5. The Divinity of the Victim
§ 6. The Cannibal Sacrament
§ 7. The Semitic Antecedents
§ 8. The Judaic Evolution
§ 9. Specific Survivals in Judaism
§ 10. The Pre-Christian Jesus-God
§ 11. Private Jewish Eucharists
§ 12. The Eucharist in Orthodox Judaism
§ 13. Special Features of the Crucifixion Myth
§ 14. Possible Historical Elements
§ 15. The Gospel Mystery-Play
§ 16. The Mystery-Play and the Cultus
§ 17. Further Pagan Adaptations
§ 18. Synopsis and Conclusion: Genealogy of Human Sacrifice and Sacrament

Chapter II. The Teaching God
§ 1. Primary and Secondary Ideas
§ 2. The Logos
§ 3. Derivations of the Christian Logos
§ 4. The Search for a Historical Jesus
§ 5. The Critical Problem
§ 6. Collapse of the Constructive Case
§ 7. Parallel Problems
§ 8. The Problem of Buddhist Origins
§ 9. Buddhism and Buddhas
§ 10. The Buddhist Cruces
§ 11. Sociological Clues
§ 12. Buddhism and Asoka
§ 13. The Buddha Myth
§ 14. The Problem of Manichæus
§ 15. The Manichean Solution
§ 16. The Case of Apollonius of Tyana

Part III. Mithraism
§ 1. Introductory
§ 2. Beginnings of Cult
§ 3. Zoroastrianism
§ 4. Evolution of Mithra
§ 5. The Process of Syncretism
§ 6. Symbols of Mithra
§ 7. The Cultus
§ 8. The Creed
§ 9. Mithraism and Christianity
§ 10. Further Christian Parallels
§ 11. The Vogue of Mithraism
§ 12. Absorption in Christianity
§ 13. The Point of Junction

Part IV. The Religions of Ancient America
§ 1. American Racial Origins
§ 2. Aztecs and Peruvians
§ 3. Primitive Religion and Human Sacrifice
§ 4. The Mexican Cultus
§ 5. Mexican Sacrifices and Cannibal Sacraments
§ 6. Mexican Ethics
§ 7. The Mexican White Christ
§ 8. The Fatality of the Priesthood
§ 9. The Religion of Peru
§ 10. Conclusion

Appendices
Appendix A. The Eating of the Crucified Human Sacrifice
Appendix B. Dramatic and Ritual Survivals
Appendix C. Replies to Criticisms
Index

Read more...

Friday, April 15, 2011

"GOTHIC MIST"

GOTHIC MIST

harlequin without his diamond pattern
stars in the eyes of cold columbine
pierrot and pierette waltzing together
they have their love now, but you aren't mine

even pooh has a teddy to sleep with
but it has gone from full to darkened moon,
and i will disappear into the background
if you don't come and love me soon

i hold velvet to my body, cry salt oceans
send shadows and fog to creep and mist,
sing chanting spells to call you to me...
i'd sell my blood to feel your kiss


© Copyright 1/10/08
Beth Clare Johnson
(Mystic Raven)

Saturday, April 9, 2011

Native Copper

Native Copper
Copper, іn іtѕ naturally occurring state, wаѕ probably thе first metal tο bе used bу humans during the Neolithic Age, Era, Period, or "New Stone Age". During the Ancient Roman empire, copper was mined primarily on the island of Cyprus. This time frame was a period in the development of human technology, beginning circa 9,500 B.C.E. in the Middle East. The Neolithic peoples were using copper аѕ a substitute fοr stone bу 8,000 B.C.E.

Native copper wаѕ first cast bу thе Ancient Egyptians around 4,000 B.C.E., аnd wаѕ alloyed wіth tin tο produce Bronze around 3,500 B.C.E. Copper wаѕ associated wіth thе Goddess Aphrodite (Venus) іn mythology аnd in ancient alchemy (or alchemical) practices. In Native American spirituality, the Copper Woman was the first mother for the people of the Pacific West Coast and is the Underwater Copper Goddess, while some researchers do not consider her to be a goddess at all.

Circa 5,000 B.C.E., metallurgy and smelting evolved and copper alloys such as bronze and brass were formed. All are highly able to conduct, transfer, and emit electrical charges / energy as well as having fantastic healing properties, easily fashioned into tools for cutting, and more. Archaeologists believe it may be the first metal ever used by man. More than 10,000 years ago, natural deposits of "native copper" were discovered on the surface of the Earth.

The Neolithic people of that time learned that this newfound material could be fashioned into knives, axes and other tools much easier than the tools they were making out of stone. For nearly five thousand years afterward, copper was the only metal known to primitive man. Pure copper is quite soft and malleable. A freshly exposed copper surface is generally reddish-orange in color.

Today, copper is used as an electrical and thermal conductor, as well as a building material, especially in the plumbing and electrical industries. In metaphysical practices, copper is used in divining or dowsing rods and pendulums due to its high conductive (of energy) and healing properties. As a mineral, copper has been used as a natural remedy for lethargy, passivity, restlessness, excitability, and the non-acceptance of oneself. 
 
According to the Powers That Be website, "This mineral can combat lethargy, passivity, restlessness, excitability and non-acceptance of oneself. It stimulates initiative, optimism, diplomacy and independence. It emits a philosophic energy, free of orthodoxy and bias. Copper provides a harmonic connection between the physical and astral bodies and aligns the subtle bodies. It has been used successfully to amplify and transmit thought. It is said to be a bestower of good, bringing benefit to its wearer. It opens an activates the base a sacral chakras, advancing and stabilizing the the energies of intuition, sexuality, desire and vitality. It allows one to recognize the barriers which are in the path of ones development."
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Copyright © 2005-2011 ILMJ