Becoming a Daily Spiritual Practitioner

Becoming a Daily Spiritual Practitioner

Author: Silverwolf Sanctuary [a WitchVox Sponsor]
Posted: February 1st. 2009
Times Viewed: 221

For whatever reason, it appears that the numbers of non-practicing Pagans are growing at an exponential rate. ("Non-practicing Pagan" is defined here as persons that self-identify as Pagan but do not attend or perform rituals and have no regular routine of prayer or rites, be they group, solitary or any combination of the two.) In a recently observed conversation, a woman discovered that an acquaintance regularly panegyrizes the Divine and characterized the practice as surprisingly quaint! As if the idea of actually exercising some sort of Pagan liturgy was both amusingly antiquated and somewhat atypical.

In the matter of the practicing Pagans, very often it seems that we observe ritual a mere 8 times a year. When a Sabbat comes around, candles and incense are lit, circles are cast and chants are mumbled most austerely. The individual occurrence is joyful, devout and filled with compelling intent and mysticism, but once the candles are blown out, the mundane world comes crashing down and the Divine Mysteries are packed away, only to be dusted off again when the next Sabbat rolls around.

A smaller group of practitioners, often those who represent themselves as Wiccan, also turn out for Esbats, eulogizing Full Moons 13 times a year. A seemingly trivial number of frequently considered "die hards" attend/perform ritual on the 13 New Moons as well. This means that a considerable number of people are celebrating the Divine 8 or 21, or at best 34 times a year. At the most, this is less than 3 times a month, 33% less than the standard weekly worship traditional of Christians (not including those Christians who offer nightly prayers and meal rites) . This is absolutely not meant to validate one religious practice over another, but used merely as a numerical comparative.

Considering that the average Pagan in the United States comes originally from some denomination of a Christian home, it leads to logical conclusion that they often decrease their incidence of spiritual practice upon taking up a Pagan mantle. (Please note this is only a quantitative value, not in any way qualitative.)

This sporadic practice conveys an impression of vague inadequacy; it cannot be spiritually fulfilling to connect to the Earth, the God/dess, the Divine, or whatever your preferred nomenclature, only a handful of times a year. Belief dictates that there is Divinity in all things, that the Divine can be encountered every day, not just on Sabbats. It would be reasonable then to say that the quintessential goal is to find a way to commune with our sacred path on a daily basis, thus forging a more intimate and personal relationship with our spiritual beliefs, with Deity and with all the energies that we define as Divine.

There are legions of impediments that interfere with the cultivation of this individual, circadian pattern of sacrosanct observance. How exactly does one go about becoming a daily Pagan practitioner without creating some sort of every day devotional that runs the risk of becoming both routine and mundane?

The conduit to daily spirituality need not be full of complex mantras, smudging and energy intensive circle casting. The idea in and of itself is both daunting and exhausting. When recalling the amount of self, careful thought and deliberate energy that is put into merely preparing for Esbat or Sabbat rituals, it should be easy to recognize that it is preposterous to expect the same for a daily communion. (Not to mention the momentous amount of élan vital required in actually performing said ceremonies!)

Scheduling becomes another stumbling block to the daily practitioner. Modern life is hectic for almost everyone; between family activities, jobs, home and social obligations, squirreling away time to write and perform daily ritual can be nearly impossible. Who has excess hours for writing intricate, meaningful Quarter Calls and Invocations when there are carpools to catch, dinner to plan, laundry to fold and the boss on the answering machine wondering why you are late (again) to the monthly budget meeting?

Please read the full article HERE

Pagan Holidays

Samhain (Oíche Shamhna)

Imbolc (Lá Fhéile Bríde)

My orignal article on Lucifer. I plan to rewrite it one of these days!



Lucifer - The Morning Star

I have found no myth's that pertain strictly to Lucifer. He has some mention of being a bringer of knowledge and wisdom to mankind, a protector of humans and manifestation of divine ecstasy. He is mentioned as being a Roman God, Lucifer meaning Son of the Dawn, The "bearer of light" and God of the Morning and Evening Star. He was know as Phospheros to the Greeks, with his most common areas of worship being Italy and Western Europe. Lucifer's main reference is as the Brother of Diana and the Father of Aradia. He was the Light to Diana's Darkness, her other half and soul mate. She is his Mother, Sister, and Lover.

"Diana was the first created before all creation; in her were all things; out of herself, the first darkness, she divided herself; into darkness and light she was divided. Lucifer, her brother and son, herself and her other half, was the light.
And when Diana saw that the light was so beautiful, the light which was her other half, her brother Lucifer, she yearned for it with exceeding great desire. Wishing to receive the light again into her darkness, to swallow it up in rapture, in delight, she trembled with desire. This desire was the Dawn.
But Lucifer, the light, fled from her, and would not yield to her wishes; he was the light which files into the most distant parts of heaven, the mouse which flies before the cat.
Then Diana went to the fathers of the Beginning, to the mothers, the spirits who were before the first spirit, and lamented unto them that she could not prevail with Lucifer. And they praised her for her courage, they told her that to rise she must fall; to become the chief of goddesses she must become a mortal.
And in the ages, in the course of time, when the world was made, Diana went on earth, as did Lucifer, who had fallen, and Diana taught magic and sorcery, whence came witches and fairies and goblins--all that is like man, yet not mortal.
And it came thus that Diana took the form of a cat. Her brother had a cat whom he loved beyond all creatures, and it slept every night on his bed, a cat beautiful beyond all other creatures, a fairy: he did not know it.
Diana prevailed with the cat to change forms with her, so she lay with her brother, and in the darkness assumed her own form, and so by Lucifer became the mother of Aradia. But when in the morning he found that he lay by his sister, and that light had been conquered by darkness, Lucifer was extremely angry; but Diana sang to him a spell, a song of power, and he was silent, the song of the night which soothes to sleep; he could say nothing. So Diana with her wiles of witchcraft so charmed him that he yielded to her love. This was the first fascination, she hummed the song, it was as the buzzing of bees (or a top spinning round), a spinning-wheel spinning life. She spun the lives of all men; all things were spun from the wheel of Diana. Lucifer turned the wheel."
- Aradia or The Gospel of the Witches by Charles G. Leland

I also found this piece written by Eliphas Levi. I was quite intrigued by it. It does in a roundabout sort of way connect Lucifer with his Christian incarnation but I believe his words embody the sense of this God very well. It may not fit in exactly with the common perception of Lucifer as the Brother of Diana or of him as the Devil of The Bible, but I think it incorporates the theme and idea of both those archetypes very well.

"Lucifer, the Astral Light . . . . is an intermediate force existing in all creation, it serves to create and to destroy, and the Fall of Adam was an erotic intoxication which has rendered his generation a slave to this fatal light . . . every sexual passion that overpowers our senses is a whirlwind of that light which seeks to drag us towards the abyss of death, Folly. Hallucinations, visions, ecstasies are all forms of a very dangerous excitation due to this interior phosphorus (?). Thus light, finally, is of the nature of fire, the intelligent use of which warms and vivifies, and the excess of which, on the contrary, dissolves and annihilates. Thus man is called upon to assume a sovereign empire over that (astral) light and conquer thereby his immortality, and is threatened at the same time with being intoxicated, absorbed, and eternally destroyed by it. This light, therefore, inasmuch as it is devouring, revengeful, and fatal, would thus really be hell-fire, the serpent of the legend; the tormented errors of which it is full, the tears and the gnashing of teeth of the abortive beings it devours, the phantom of life that escapes them, and seems to mock and insult their agony, all this would be the devil or Satan indeed." (Histoire de la Magie, p. 197).......But in antiquity and reality, Lucifer, or Luciferus, is the name of the angelic Entity presiding over the light of truth as over the light of the day. In the great Valentinian gospel Pistis Sophia (§ 361) it is taught that of the three Powers emanating from the Holy names of the Three [[Tridunameis]], that of Sophia (the Holy Ghost according to these gnostics -- the most cultured of all), resides in the planet Venus or Lucifer.....There is no devil or the utterly depraved, as there are no Angels absolutely perfect, though there may be spirits of Light and of Darkness; thus LUCIFER -- the spirit of Intellectual Enlightenment and Freedom of Thought -- is metaphorically the guiding beacon, which helps man to find his way through the rocks and sandbanks of Life, for Lucifer is the LOGOS in his highest, and the "Adversary" in his lowest aspect -- both of which are reflected in our Ego. Lactantius, speaking of the Nature of Christ, makes the LOGOS, the Word, the first-born brother of Satan, the "first of all creatures." (Inst. div. Book II., c. viii., "Qabbalah," 116.)"
- Eliphas Levi( 1.)

Through recent studies I have found many links and insinuations that point at Lucifer being a demonized Goddess not a Fallen Angel, Angel, God, or otherwise. Quite a fascinating trail of facts and myths. There seems to be a lot of associations with the Goddess Diana Lucifera, which in turn leads to Hekate, Artemis, Luna, Selene, and Heket, as well as a few strictly magical associations.

I believe the following excerpt is more a selling tool for the book than anything else it still presents some fascinating ideas about Lucifer. Please read the COPYRIGHT! Everything from here down to the end belongs to this lovely lady!

All content © Lynn Picknett & Clive Prince 2006" (3.)
"The Secret History of Lucifer
‘Picknett's depth and range of knowledge is impressive... readers will encounter a thick, interesting and alternative view of an intriguing topic.’ Publishers Weekly
The sequel to Mary Magdalene: Christianity's Hidden Goddess, The Secret History of Lucifer (2005) traces the literal demonisation of the Great Goddess, once the consort of none other than Yahweh in one of her manifestations. As the patriarchal religions took hold, the ancient goddesses became hated and feared as demons that sucked the life from men, embodiments of all that is hellish.
Myths about the fall of Lucifer - once so intimately associated with the Morning/Evening Star, or Venus - permeated the thinking of medieval churchmen who were fanatically, even insanely, determined to root out what they perceived as female evil in the witchcraft hysteria.
A misogynist rout, the witch hunts also undermined the whole of society, for the ruthless undermining of the Feminine also impinges on society as a whole. And if there were few genuine witches at the beginning of the massacres, by the end there must have been many more - for even Hell and Satan himself could be no worse than the depredations of the Church.
Yet also underlying the Lucifer myth is the implicit psychopathy of Yahweh, a god so jealous and incapable of self control, so lacking in maturity that he could accept no challenge, and wreaked havoc on those who stood up to him. Is Lucifer the evil one - or Yahweh?
Lucifer, the 'Light-Bearer', the bright Morning Star - and not the hateful embodiment of evil, Satan - represents the eternally questing, challenging and evolving mind of humanity, the spirit of progress and equality. Gradually, as the Church began to lose its grip in the aptly named Age of Enlightenment, came the rise of science and esoteric groups such as the Freemasons (in the 18th century the two were inextricably entwined).
Freedom brings its own challenges, and a darker side emerged with the many quasi-satanic groups who enjoyed the thrills of black masses behind the lace curtains of suburbia. However, the 20th-century founder of the Church of Satan, Anton laVey, viewed the Christian Church in a markedly Luciferan way - although his practices were too strong for many tastes and his showmanship too brash.
Altogether more profound was occultist Aleister Crowley - also an exhibitionist given to outrageous acts - whose philosophy of 'Every man and Woman is a Star' arguably provides would-be Luciferans with the rules.
But as we enter a new millennium, the hard-won freedoms are being eroded in the west, and the bright light of Lucifer is being eclipsed...
LONG LIVE LUCIFER - BUT TO HELL WITH SATAN!
All content © Lynn Picknett & Clive Prince 2006" (3.)



Sources:
1.Sacred Texts
2.God Checker
3.The Secret History of Lucifer Review