Extra services (?)

I received an email today from someone asking me if I perform magical services other than doing rituals for clients. They asked if I also make talismans as well as all sorts of other magical items. 

The short answer is no.

The longer answer is no because:

Godhead assumption through the Middle Pillar

                                                    Photo from here

I wrote the following article three years ago and it was published online by Spiral Nature Magazine. Their website has stopped working for some time and, since they published nothing for more than a couple of years, I'm thinking they must've closed up shop. Because of this, anything posted there is in danger of being lost, sadly. Not just my stuff would be lost as a result, but many other articles that have helped me over time. Unfortunately, I cannot salvage anything that was not written by me...

Here is the article itself and I will try to edit it to make sense because it's being copied from a pdf file that was formatted much differently than a standard word doc. The article itself was edited by a staff member of Spiral Nature - Steve, if I can remember correctly.

Romanian New Year kinks

For the last post of the year I will add an article about various Romanian traditions, charms and practices of a superstitious nature relating to the New Year, along with a few superstitions relating to this time. Although some of those practices can come across as simple superstitions, they stem from beliefs that span back into the midst of time. They are part of the popular, agrarian calendar that in many cases overlaps with the religious one. This increases the diversity of the customs and their symbolism.

Some of those beliefs were identical to or at least similar to some degree to those of other cultures regardless of geographical location. Others still, are unique to these lands and in many cases they are unique not only between different historical provinces, but also between various regions that compose each province. Therefore, I can only write down but a few of them. You'll have to excuse me for switching between tenses and all the grammar quirks, since it's been cumbersome to flip through several exhaustive sources over a very short period and to translate from them at the same time.

Spiritual authority

One of the major underlying themes in my Magic Words addresses spiritual authority, or the magician's ability to command spirits. The book also discusses offerings by providing more science-like details with respect to how they work, among other things. 

For some time now I've been paying more attention to Romanian folklore and I began to recall the old stories my grandma used to tell me. This made me broaden my search and I started to look up various customs and habits, as well as mythological entities from this neck of the woods. It just so happens I've come across rather detailed references to the Mother of the Woods as she's widely known around here, although she is also known by other names depending on region. How does this fit with my book? Stick around and I will tell you.

Lunar call

And since there's a Full Moon today, I guess it's a good time to add the lunar call from The Anthology of Romanian Popular Charms I mentioned in the previous article. Again, Im not able to translate in rhymes...

Documented by S. F. Marian - Spells, from Mitrocul Dragomirnei - Suceava

"Moon, Moon / Vârgomoon! You are proud and fair / You are night's queen / Horse you have / Reins you lack / Here, take my waist* / And make reins [of it] / For your horse / So you may go after the one that's destined for me / Should he (or she) be here in the village / Should he (or she) be from the next village / Should he (or she) be from the third village / Or from the ninth village / Give them no respite / Nor comfort / May he (or she) not sleep / [May he (or she)] not rest / Until such time they come to me!"

Obviously, this call is for a love goal. The term "vârgomoon" is an associations of the words "virgin" and "moon" and alludes to the goddess Diana.

*The waist is a traditional belt-like clothing accessory worn by both men and women. In some regions it was made of leather.

Hate on, dum-dums!

The Great Gazoo

Solar calls

At the end of yesterday's article I mentioned a charm for love from The Anthology of Romanian Popular Charms, compiled and edited by Radu Răutu. Besides charms for specific goals, the book also contains a few prayer-like structures referred to as calls. Specifically, there are a few solar calls, one lunar call and quite a few stellar calls. 

Since Solstice is upon us, it came to me I should translate the solar calls and add them here. The calls themselves are a form of prayers that call on the magical aspects of the Sun - I usually write Sun and Moon with capital letters whenever I'm referring to the divine consciousness behind them, while I use lowercase letters whenever I'm referring to the physical cosmic objects; in this case I will refer to the Sun by writing it beginning with capital S, despite the text also referencing attributes of the physical sun. Unfortunately, I'm unable to translate them in rhyme as its their original structure. I would have to make certain modifications to the text to preserve the essence of its meaning though.

Old Romanian charms

Now that my Magic Words is out I figured I'd share some old charms from my neck of the woods. They are mostly spoken formulae although various tools and ingredients are also used depending on the goal they are used for. Talk about protocol, huh? 

Similar charms are found in various cultures around the world. During my time in the occult I came across somewhat similar ones in sources like the Egyptian Secrets, The Grimoire of Arthur Gauntlet, or Ancient Christian Magic so it's not like these are their own trend or something. What makes them special to me is simply that they come from around here. 

Such magical workings were usually performed by old women known by a term that would be the equivalent of both old woman and hag in English. Whereas the stereotypical image of a witch in the western world is a woman with a pointy hat, the hags from around here usually looked like the old woman depicted in the above image. While some men also performed this role, women were predominant in this field. These people were often both feared and respected in their community and people took great care not to cross them. It was not uncommon for priests to send sickly people to the hags whenever their religious work could not provide relief from suffering.