The Arte Of Witchcraft Part 4 - The Magickal Link

The Arte Of Witchcraft BLOG Part 4 : The Magickal Link

The Arte Of Witchcraft Part 4 : The Magickal Link.... A blog from 40 years’ witchcraft experience…

It’s early… Before coming in to run our witchcraft supplies store today, I took Goosifer (Top witchcraft hound of Hecate and official witchcraft supplies store greeter of Artes And Craft) for a 5 mile walk at sunrise in the orchards near our home in South West Michigan. She loves a walk, and I love spending the time with her. We enjoyed the near sensory overload of the peach and cherry trees in full blossom, with the scent of the flowers and miles of endless blossoms of pink, purple and white. I meditated on the jobs I need to do today… Putting some new witchcraft amulets and talismans on our witchcraft supplies online store that I forged last week… New design solid brass witchcraft devotional jewelry for Hecate… And also gave some thought to this blog and what I might write on our popular witchcraft blog for our pagan store online this month… I almost forgot that I previously wrote about the statement of intent in a witchcraft practice and was going to write on a theme of “intention in witchcraft is everything”… I think in part this was due to a social media post I read from a well known expert of the old Grimoires… The Black Books of ceremonial high occult and which also had a profound influence on old school pre-wicca traditional witchcraft. In the social media post the author was claiming that “intentionality” is a modern affectation in modern witchcraft and wicca… That “charging” candles and sigils with intent was NOT part of old grimoire based magick… I disagree as I believe very much in what Aleister Crowley famously said…. “Every willed act is an act of magick”… After all… If somebody back in the day picked up a black book of summoning spirits and demons, specifically to obtain money, or favor, or knowledge, or sex…. Then how is that NOT an intentional act.. Especially considering those old grimoires have VERY specific requirements special ritual “bling” and “tools” that are essential… And the need to perform the ritual at a special specific date or time according to the movement of planets an stars or the gods and goddesses that “rule” certain days or hours…

And so, as I breathed in the heady air redolent with blossom and fresh morning air… Inspiration struck and I decided we would today talk about “correspondences” and “the magickal link”.

So what is this magickal link and correspondences in pagan ritual magick??? Why is it so important to traditional witchcraft? Wicca? Ceremonial magick? Chaos Magick? And probably found in most other paths of pagan ritual magick also…

I shall defer again to Aleister Crowley… Some love him, others loathe him… But the man was extremely and undeniably important and influential on the modern occult and indeed witchcraft and wicca… Crowley was a prolific writer and thankfully committed a vast amount of occult and witchcraft knowledge to paper… Back in Victorian times, long before the internet, beginning a witchcraft or occult practice was extremely hard… If you did not have access to one of the very small number of specialist occult and witchcraft bookstores then you were kinda screwed… Gerald Gardner (founder of modern Wicca) and Cecil Williamson (founder of the famous Witchcraft Museum), as I remember, met Crowley via the famous Atlantis Bookstore on Museum Street in central London. If you wanted secrets of magick, witchcraft and the occult then you had to join one of the Victorian Mystery Schools… And again finding those meant visiting one of the few specialist witchcraft bookstores. If you were able to do so and join an organization such as Crowley’s Ordo Templi Orentis or Argenteum Astrum, then the VERY FIRST instructional book you would be given to study was LIBER O…

Liber O is a very short work, more of an instructional pamphlet on basic occult and witchcraft instruction than a book… But right in the front – first section – in the first paragraphs are some of the most important witchcraft secrets of all time… In all the classes we give at our witchcraft supplies store we ALWAYS drive home these simple fundamental witchcraft truths….

“In this book it is spoken of the Sephiroth and the Paths; of Spirits and Conjurations; of Gods, Spheres, Planes, and many other things which may or may not exist. It is immaterial whether these exist or not. By doing certain things certain results will follow; students are most earnestly warned against attributing objective reality or philosophic validity to any of them.”

And also – a few lines further down where he discusses the IMPORTANCE of a GOOD BOOK OF WITCHRAFT RITUAL CORRESPONDENCES…. And gives an example of casting a spell for improving communication skills… Therefore requiring the god of communication … Mercury…

“you will find that the Planet corresponding is Mercury, its number eight, its lineal figures the octagon and octagram. The God who rules that planet Thoth, or in Hebrew symbolism Tetragrammaton Adonai and Elohim Tzabaoth, its Archangel Raphael, its Choir of Angels Beni Elohim, its Intelligence Tiriel, its Spirit Taphtatharath, its colours Orange (for Mercury is the Sphere of the Sephira Hod; its Magical Weapon the Wand or Caduceus, its Perfumes Mastic Gum and others, its sacred plants Vervain and others, its jewel the Opal or Agate; its sacred animal the Snake, and so on… You would then prepare your Place of Working accordingly. In an orange circle you would draw an eight-pointed star at whose points you would place eight lamps. And so on. We cannot here enter at length into all the necessary preparations; and the student will find them fully set forth in the proper books. These rituals need not be slavishly imitated; on the contrary the student should do nothing the object of which he does not understand; also, if he have any capacity whatever, he will find his own crude rituals more effective than the highly polished ones of other people.

So lets break that all down… I have previously covered the power of belief in my blog about the Statement Of Intent… It is again fascinating to point out that as Crowley said “may or may not exist”… Whether gods, angles, spirits, demons, astral planes and so on exist or not is NOT important… What IS IMPORTANT is that YOU believe they DO…. WHEN you are performing the ritual… And that is the mind fuck of ritual witchcraft magick – the ability to believe fundamentally in YOUR skills and in the god/angel/demon/ancestor/whatever you have elected to work with to manifest your goals, regardless of whether you believe in these things outside the circle of practice.

Also of critical importance is the part about devising your own rituals… Rather than just use other peoples…. I personally cringe when folks solicit spells or rituals from others in facebook groups… It is NOT the spell or ritual that has the power… The power comes FROM YOU!!! Even if you are a beginner… Then writing your own simple ritual and casting your own simple self-penned spell is going to be vastly more effective than just repeating verbatim some spell or ritual someone else gave you… By UNDERSTANDING what you are doing… And especially if you have built your OWN spell or ritual based on YOUR understanding and knowledge, no matter how new and inexperienced you are, is always going to be better!

WHY?!?!?

Because of the magical link… Just like Crowley’s example… Let’s say I want to cast a spell to find love and a new partner… Then I “know” that I want to work with a love goddess such as Freya, Aphrodite, Venus, Oshun… Then I want to cast my spell on a FRIDAY (because that’s the day of the week assigned to the love goddesses) in latin languages such as Italian, Friday is “Venerdì” – literally the day of Venus... In Anglo Saxon and Norse countries it is the day of Freya or Frigga – which puts the “Fri” in Friday... The color pink for love.... 7 is the number of the love and sex goddesses... Her herbs are flowers and fruits such as rose, apples. Cherries.... BUT WHY? And how do I know this...

Well because its all based on an ancient system called “correspondences” – the ancient idea that everything is ruled by a different god or goddess.... So herbs, animals, parts of the body... Intentions... Everything... Some of these ideas go back 1000s of years... And can seem arbitrary... For example... All thorns are kinda phallic... SO thorny trees such as Hawthorn belong to MARS as the primal go of the masculine. Fruiting trees are sacred to Venus because they represent fertility and the female... Things that are hot and spicy are also MARS, and Mars rules the element of fire... So pepper and other “hot” herbs are sacred to Mars. Anything slow or heavy is sacred to Saturn... Especially poisons and metal such as lead. And so on and so on.

This comboined knowledge of 1000s of years are available in any good book of Correspondences... Literally = “Correspondences” means “things that correspond with other things”. Which is the “magical link” we are talking of... Crowley again... “the right force, at the right time, in the right way”... Or.... “Since the student is a man surrounded by material objects, if it be his wish to master one particular idea, he must make every material object about him directly suggest that idea. Thus in the ritual quoted, if his glance fall upon the lights, their number suggests Mercury; he smells the perfumes, and again Mercury is brought to his mind. In other words, the whole magical apparatus and ritual is a complex system of mnemonics.”...... That is the magickal link.... By composing YOUR ritual or spell... Building it from ancient building blocks of ideas that particular forces/gods rule rule... Then you are programing your mind/intent aka YOUR WILL with the desired outcome... This is why its so much more important to build your own rituals and spells, however simple, than just use someone else's without understanding WHY they built the spell or ritual as they did.

So if you are building a spell or ritual.... Start with the OUTCOME you want... The goal... And then figure out the right tools to use, the right crystals. Herbs... The right day of the week or the right moon phase.... By using a book of correspondences...

Books of witchcraft correspondences are often based on tables... So you can look up the intention you want... Or you can look up a particular goddess and see what she rules... Or a herb and see what god/dess rules the herb and its uses in magick...

Many folks record their favorite or most useful correspondences in their Book Of Shadows... It is also a good idea to write your spells and record your outcomes as

Here are some great witchcraft books and tools from our witchcraft supplies Online store…. With which you will be equipped and armed to cast your own spells and build your own magick ritual.

A highly recommended book on correspondences for witches… Llewelyn's Excellent Book Of Correspondences

Another for ceremonial high occult magick… Crowley's Book Of Witchcraft Correspondences

Now… Back to putting Hecate amulets up on our Witchcraft store online….

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