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Muninn's Kiss

"You will die many times to be reborn in this religion, and each little death is the resurrection of new hope and spirit." ~Robert Cochrane

Nov 28

Let Us Give Thanks

Published in Untagged by muninnskiss |

On this day that people in the United States celebrate Thanksgiving, it's a day with a lot of energy, both of thankfulness and of hearth and home, larder and abundance, of friends and family.

It's a day associated with the harvest, like many other days between the Summer and Winter Solstices, though probably the latest harvest festival of the Gregorian year. It is a day that's the height of increase. It's interesting that this year it falls so close to the New Moon, at a place of decrease, and also that it falls when Mercury is retrograde, a time often associated with things going backwards. Appropriate since there is a general spiritual climate with the current economy, with the unemployment, with the recent protests, of lack, not abundance.

With the importance of family on this day for most Americans, it begs the question, who are you thankful to? Is it to the Divine or land spirits, those that bring abundance? Is it to your living family and friends, those that are part of your life in the now, the present, and all the blessings they give you. Is it to your ancestors, recent or ancient, blood or spirit, the ones that helped you get where you are today? I think it's as important to know who you're thankful to as what you're thankful for, for this tells a lot about you.

When you hear the word "ancestor", what do you think of? You grandfather that died a year or two ago? Your father that died? Those who you're descended from who made the crossing to the New World? Someone sitting in a grass hut in pre-history? Or do you think of the Might Dead, of the dead of your spiritual line, those who mentored you, who mentored them? Those form part of the current you ride in your journey? If you believe in reincarnation, do you only think of the ancestors of this life, or of all lives?

Memory is passed in the blood and is stored in the bones. Not the memories like what I had for dinner last night, but the ancient memories. Who we really are, where we really came from. As the baby grows in the mother, their blood mixes. Her blood flows through her bones, picking up the memories. Her blood flows down the umbilical cord, mixing with the baby's, and passes, along with the oxygen and nutrients, the memories in her bones of what came before. And the baby's blood circulates through his body and those memories join others in his bones.

And other memories come also, memories from the Neshamah, who has lived many lives before. She passes these memories along the cord, very much like the physical umbilical cord, that connects her to the newly developing Nefesh. These memories are carried within her in the Threads of Wyrd, of Fate, that lie at her core. They are passed down that cord to Nefesh. And Nefesh is closely tied with the blood and the bones, and takes these memories and stores them in the bones to join the others in the baby's bones.

These memories are what ties us to both our physical ancestors and our spiritual ancestors. And the new born baby knows all things that came before, but can't communicate them, being without words. But with the coming of words comes restriction of memories, for the memories that he can't put into words no longer hold meaning and are forgotten. With language comes ignorance and forgetfulness. And we spend the rest of our lives re-learning, re-discovering, re-remembering. But the memories are still in our bones, as they are still in the wind that blows across our skin. So close, yet so far. Right there, yet they might as well be in the stars. And they are.

Magic and the craft is in our blood and our bones, for those who aren't clayborn. It's tied up in those memories. Call it Witchblood, call it the Witch's Mark, call it whatever you like, but it's there, waiting for use to find it. As it was in our parents, whether physical or spiritual, and in theirs, all the way back. And where do we go, looking back? How far and to whom?

There's a story common in the Craft, and elsewhere, both esoteric and exoteric, both legend and myth, The story tells of beings descending, seeing the beauty of the Daughters of Man, and having children of them, and teaching them all things, all crafts, all sciences, all arts, all magic. Some call them Watchers, some call them Guardians, some call the Gods, some call them the Sons of God. There are different counts of them, seven, eight, twelve, 200, other counts as well. In many traditions, those with the Witchblood or Mark are those descended from these beings. The things they taught aren't just passed down from teacher to student, master to apprentice. They are in those memories, in our blood and our bones. If we're not taught, still we can learn. If we just listen to our bones, listen to our blood, listen to the wind.

If we are descended, both physically and spiritually from the Watchers, from the Guardians, they aren't guides or teachers or protectors. They are our flesh and blood, some of our most ancient ancestors. They are family. When we encounter them in the Circle or Compass, or at Dawn or Dusk, yes, they are distant and removed, the ultimate reaches, the stars in the sky. But they are also family, also our ancestors, the most ancient of the Mighty Dead. They are distant, but they are also close, in our very blood and bones, just as we were in their loins and seed. The connection is more than just a teacher and a student, or a protector and witness to our Arte. They are one with us and us with them. One blood, one body, one soul.

When we say we're thankful on this day, yes, let us look to the spirits and the Divine, yes, let us look to our friends and families, yes, let us look to our ancestors. But let us look to all our ancestors, recent and ancient, physical and spiritual, human and stellar. We are made of stardust, and we also carry it in our blood and bones, in our Nefesh, our Ruach, and our Neshamah, in the very strands of Wyrd that connect us to the past, the present, the future, all that was, all that is, all that will be, all space, all time, all earths, all heavens, the mundane and the sacred, the human and the divine.

"Let us give thanks..."

FFF,

~Muninn's Kiss

Nov 05

The Seed of Inspiration

Published in Untagged by muninnskiss |

In Kabbalah, there are four worlds, the World of Emanations, the World of Creation, the World of Forms (if you know Plato, you'll get that one), and the World of Action. We live in the World of Action, which is the world change occurs in, and those changes ripple back up to the higher worlds. Everything in our world begins in the the World of Emanations as seeds of an idea. You can see these as pre-thoughts, pre-ideas. This is the Yod floating in the Zoid that will become creation. In that Yod are all the letters. It is the seed from which everything comes, the DNA of the universe, if you will. From the seed of an idea in the World of Emanations grows an idea fully formed. This idea is in the World of Creation. This idea grows into a plan, in the World of Forms. The World of Forms, or Plato's World of the From, is the blueprint for what's in our world. And the plan is put into action in the World of Action. All Hebrew roots are verbs, not nouns.

The Gather has spent generations gathering berries, gathering nuts, gathering herbs. She (or he) has seen that the seed falls to the ground, and that from it grows a new plant. This is the seed (ha!) of an idea, the World of Emanations. It dawns on her one day, after all those generations, that maybe the seeds she gathers can be grown, so she doesn't have to worry about where to find them. This is the idea, the World of Creation. She decides to try it, decides which seed to try, where to plant them. This is the plan, the World of Forms (I typed World of Farms; lol). She gathers them and plants them and they grow. The action in the World Of Action. Previous generations might have had the seed, but never had the idea. They might have had the idea but never formed the plan. They might have made a plan but never put it into action.

Sep 02

Awaken, Oh Sleeper!

Published in Traditionalist Witchcraft by muninnskiss |

Are the Christian End Times coming soon, with the Tribulation, the pouring out of the Vials of Wrath? Is the Norse Ragnarok coming soon, with an endless winter and a war like no one has seen before? Is there a great catastrophe Apkallu? Will the US economy collapse soon? Will the world end on December 21, 2012?

Will the Age of Aquarius start this year? Will there be world peace? One stable world government?

Jun 22

Summary of my Craft and Arte

Published in Untagged by muninnskiss |

Mythos

The Great Orgasm of God Herself, the birth of the Divine Twins, the Twins' interaction which is our world.

Jun 05

Time Marches On: A Look at Witchcraft and the Modern World

Published in Untagged by muninnskiss |

Time marches on, time marches on.

South moves north, North moves south

Apr 21

In Response to Rethinking the Watchtowers...

Published in Wicca, Traditionalist Witchcraft, Myth by muninnskiss |

This was a reply to an email on a list, though I've removed the parts that are relevant only to the message I was replying to. I liked how I said what I said and figured I'd share it with anyone who wants to read it.

This is in regards the the article Rethinking the Watchtowers by Mike Nichols. It is from a Wicca perspective. The email discussion about it was in a Feri context. The original site is no longer up, but it can be read here:

Apr 09

Romulus and Remus: Establishment and Witch - Part 2

Published in Untagged by muninnskiss |

Okay, back to Romulus and Remus. I'd first like to quote from the Wikipedia article about them, since I think it gives a pretty good summary. The think to remember is that there are many versions of the myth. This doesn't reflect all of them.

Romulus and Remus are Rome's twin founders in its traditional foundation myth, although the former is sometimes said to be the sole founder. Their maternal grandfather was Numitor, rightful king of Alba Longa, a descendant of the Trojan prince, Aeneas and father to Rhea Silvia (also known as Ilia). Before their conception, Numitor's brother Amulius deposed his brother, killed his sons and forced Rhea to become a Vestal Virgin, intending to deprive Numitor of lawful heirs and thus secure his own position; but Rhea conceived Romulus and Remus by either the god Mars or the demi-god Hercules. When the twins were born, Amulius left them to die but they were saved by a series of miraculous interventions. A she-wolf found them and suckled them. A shepherd and his wife then fostered them and raised them to manhood as shepherds. The twins proved to be natural leaders and acquire many followers. When told their true identities, they killed Amulius, restored Numitor to the throne of Alba Longa and decided to found a new city for themselves.

Romulus wished to build the new city on the Palatine Hill but Remus preferred the Aventine Hill. They agreed to determine the site through augury. Romulus appeared to receive the more favorable signs but each claimed the results in his favour. In the disputes that followed, Remus was murdered by Romulus. Ovid has Romulus invent the festival of Lemuria to appease Remus' resentful ghost. Romulus names the new city Rome after himself and goes on to create the Roman Legions and the Roman Senate. Rome's population is swelled by incomers, including landless refugees and outlaws; most are men. Romulus arranges the abduction of women from the neighboring Sabine tribes, which immediately leads to war but eventually results in the combination of Sabines and Romans as one Roman people. Rome rapidly expands to become a dominant force in central Italy, due to divine favour and the inspired administrative, military and political leadership of Romulus. In later life Romulus becomes increasingly autocratic, disappears in mysterious circumstances and is deified as the god Quirinus, the divine persona of the Roman people.

The image of the she-wolf suckling the divinely fathered twins became an iconic representation of the city and its founding legend, making Romulus and Remus preeminent among the feral children of ancient mythography. The legend as a whole encapsulates Rome's ideas of itself, its origins and moral values; for modern scholarship, it remains one of the most complex and problematic of all foundation myths, particularly in the matter and manner of Remus' death. Ancient historians had no doubt that Romulus gave his name to the city. Most modern historians believe his name a back-formation from the name Rome; the basis for Remus' name and role remain subjects of ancient and modern speculation. The myth was fully developed into something like an "official", chronological version in the Late Republican and early Imperial era. Roman historians dated the city's foundation from 758 to 728 BC. Plutarch says Romulus was fifty-three at his death; his reckoning gives the twins' birth year as c. 771 BC. Possible historical bases for the broad mythological narrative remain unclear and are much disputed. Very few scholars believe in the historicity of Romulus and Remus, but Andrea Carandini is one. He bases his belief on the 1988 discovery of an ancient wall which he names as the Murus Romuli on the north slope of the Palatine Hill in Rome, and dates to the mid 8th century BC.

In all versions of the myth, there are strong parallels between the birth of the twins and the birth of Moses in the Torah. Both were meant to die but were saved. Both were placed in baskets in a river, in this myth on the Tiber instead of the Nile. Both were saved from the river. Moses was found and raised by a princess, whereas Tiberinus, the river deity, directed the twins' basket to the reeds where they were rescued and suckled by a wolf. There are a lot of parallels between how the Jews view Moses and how Rome viewed Romulus, but I won't go there here.

Whether the myth is true or not, whether Romulus and Remus really lived, whether they really founded Rome, doesn't really matter, like it doesn't with most myths. The myth, Romulus, is Rome and Rome is Romulus. The myth shaped Rome and Rome shaped the myth. You can't have Rome as it was without Romulus. And you can't have the modern Western world without Rome, because it grew out of Rome. Most of Europe and the New World are the result of Rome. Basically what is identified as the Christian world is the modern Roman world. The West is Rome and Rome is Romulus. We, the modern world, are the results of this myth. Romulus formed the Roman Senate in the myth, and Western government, and also Western religious structures, come from the Senate. It is all the product of Romulus, Romulus the son of a god, Romulus raised by wolves, Romulus the shepherd, Romulus the warrior, Romulus the leader, Romulus the kinslayer.

But what of Remus? There is no Romulus without Remus. They are twins. The story of Romulus is the story of Remus. There's a reason why Remus, so mysterious to historians, is always part of the story. But all the stories are either about both doing something or about only Romulus. Who was this Remus? Why is he important?

Seeing Romulus as the leader and Remus as the follower is easy with the focus on Romulus. It's easy to think Remus just followed his brother's lead, never questioned, never argued, did whatever Romulus wanted. But is this true? The stories say they both proved to be excellent leaders and gained many followers. It wasn't just Romulus the leader and Remus the follower. This matches my dream with each of the twins leading a group. But what more do we know about Remus?

Some versions of the myth tell of a disagreement. The twins want to build a city, the city that would later be known as Rome. They disagree on which hill to build it one. They decide to use augury to decide. Remus sees six eagles (or vultures) and Romulus sees twelve. Remus claims it favoured him because he saw his six before Romulus saw any. Romulus claims it favoured him because he saw more. Romulus and his followers start building a wall (or a boundary, a trench, etc, depending on the version), while Remus watches, criticizing. I'll finish this story in a moment, but first, what do we see here? Is Remus just a follower? Obviously not. They disagreed, and Remus didn't just give in.

The end of this version is interesting, and gets to the root of where I've been heading. Remus jumps over the wall as an insult to the defenses. Romulus gets mad and kills Remus and says, so will happen to anyone who jumps over the wall. This can, of course, be taken as talking about that anyone who tries to breach the defenses of Rome will be killed. And this understanding would have been the one Romans saw in the myth. And for a long time, anyone who went against Rome ended up losing. But is there another way to look at it?

The wall, the trench, the boundary. Liminal. Crossing over. Liminal space is important, because a boundary in the physical world reflects a boundary in the spiritual. Witch lives in the liminal, one foot in each world. Part of what makes Witch is the crossing over. Some use the term jumping the hedge. Is it a great stretch to compare this to jumping a wall? Can we see Remus as Witch?<

Romulus is the one building, he is the establishment. The government, the Church, order, the authorities. Remus is on the sidelines, the outcast, Other, Witch. Remus is a threat to Romulus, to what he is building, to his plans. Other is always a threat to the establishment, whether the establishment is Christian, Muslim, Jewish, pagan, heathen, atheist, whatever. Witch is always a threat. Because the establishment doesn't like change. Change can't be predicted, can't be controlled. But Witch is change. Change can't help but come.

So, we see Romulus as the establishment, and Remus as Witch. Romulus isn't evil, nor is Remus. But neither are good, either. The Church isn't evil, the government isn't evil, science isn't evil. Witchcraft isn't evil, either. There is no inherent good or evil in either. But both may do evil or do good, or more accurately do harm or help. Romulus kills Remus, not because Romulus is evil, and not because Remus is evil, but because Remus is a threat.

But what is Romulus without Remus? The important parts of the story are done with Remus' death. And what is Remus without Romulus? They are twins, they are one. Romulus is Remus' reflection, and Remus is Romulus' reflection. They are each others' soul. So too with the establishment and Witch. Without Witch, there is no change. The establishment becomes stagnant. And without the establishment, Witch becomes complacent. You see this in today's witchcraft. It has grown in numbers in the last sixty years, but so has the number of "witches" who aren't serious, who just think it's cool, who never dig deep. The establishment and Witch, like Romulus and Remus, are two sides of the same coin, the outside expression and the inside expression.

Okay, back to my dream. In my dream, both Romulus and Remus were obviously leaders as they each had large groups of people. I only one I actually encountered was Romulus. Was Remus already dead by then? I don't know. But as important as he is in myth, as important as he is in the discussion above, he must not have been important in the dream. It was our interaction with Romulus, with the establishment, that mattered.

Romulus was the large group, the majority, as the establishment always is. Or, I should say, followed by the majority. We were the small group, the minority. Romulus' people seemed like followers, lackeys. It was him and those who followed him. Our group felt like a team, one. There was a leader, the secular leader, the representative. And there was me, the priestess, the spiritual leader, the Bridge. But we weren't above the rest, superior to the rest. We were all equals even if we had different roles.

Romulus tries to force himself of the leader. She is the physical, I am the spiritual. She is this world, I am the Otherworld. She is human, i am divine, fey. Together, we are whole. Together, we are Witch. He forces himself on her, because he can touch the physical word. He can touch the body. But he can't touch the spiritual, he can't touch the soul. I aid her in trying to fight him back. We are one, so we fight together, the spiritual aiding the physical, the soul aiding the body. It's only together we can fight back.

There is a lot more in my dream, though some of it is personal. And there is a lot more to the story of Romulus and Remus. But I'll leave both be for now.

FFF,
~Muninn's Kiss

Apr 08

Romulus and Remus: Establishment and Witch

Published in Untagged by muninnskiss |

Back a while, I had a dream that I wrote about where there were four groups, two large, two small, and the two big groups were led by Romulus and Remus. Later dream, we (the group I was in, one of the small ones) met Romulus and a small group of his people. I don't remember them, but I remember a sense of his people (the small group of them, not all of them) behind him and our people (once again, not all of them) behind me and the leader of our group. I was a priestess in the dream, and the leader was also female. I think we were on a couch or something similar, and it seems like the encounter took place in a parking lot. Our leader was sitting on the right hand side of the couch and I was sitting on her left, pretty close to her. Romulus was standing, bent over her trying to sexually assault or maybe rape her. She had her knee up trying to push him away and I was grabbing at his arm, trying to stop him. He was dressed all in tight black leather that covered everything but his hands and head. I woke up in the middle of the struggle.

It had been a very long time since I did any reading on Romulus and Remus, so earlier this week, I read up on them to refresh my memory. The following are my thoughts on the story, some of the themes, how it relates to the craft, and some thoughts about the meaning of the part of my dream I expanded on above.