Greeting the Altar...
A ritual only matters if it has meaning. Without the meaning, what's the point? Robert Cochrane repeatedly says that nothing in witchcraft is as it appears. I think the symbolic meaning of approaching or greeting the altar is this very fact. If an altar is the thing you are seeking, it is interesting that you don't approach the altar straight on. Instead, Cochrane says to circle it, then end facing away and look back over your shoulder. You aren't looking at it straight on. You aren't looking at it the normal way. In witchcraft, you have to learn to look at something in a different way. Assume it isn't what it appears.
You see a man begging. Most people look at it two ways. Either he is faking it, or he needs the money. Either you can ignore him, or give it to him. But which is the answer? If he's faking it, you don't help him either way. ignoring him doesn't change anything, and giving money to him encourages him. Same if he needs it. Withholding means nothing changes; he's still hungry. Giving it to him might mean one more meal, then he's back to being hungry, but with the memory of the meal, making it harder. Neither approach changes Fate, changes Mazal. So the answer is to look at it from a different direction. Instead of should I give it to him or not, ask the question, what can I do to change Fate? In this lies an answer that will make a difference.
Third Letter:Obviously you wish to know how one asks correctly - This is known as 'Approaching or Greeting the Altar'. There are many altars, one is raised to every aspect you can think upon, but there is only one way to approach an altar or Godstone. There is a practice in the East known as "Kundalini", or shifting the sexual power from its basic source to the spine and then to the mind.
Cattle use this principle extensively, as you will note if you creep silently up to a deer or a cow - since there is always one beast that will turn its back to you, and then twist its neck until it regards you out of its left or right eye alone. It is interpreting you by what is laughingly known as 'psi' power and that is how an altar is used - with your back to it, and head turned right or left to regard the cross of the Elements and Tripod that are as sacred to the People as the Crucifix is to the Christians.
Before you do this however, it is necessary to offer your devotions and prayers by bowing three times to the Altar, with arms crossed upon your chest and then turn about the Altar (which for normal purposes should be round, hence King Arthur) the number of the Deity you are invoking or praying to. The Maid is usually three times three - the Mother six times three, the Hag (which is anything but the true title), nine times three. Upon the last turn stop with your back to the Altar, and there begin your great chant. With a group one works in absolute silence, but by yourself it is easier to utter your prayer and meditation aloud until you begin to speak as one possessed'.
Upon this point you will feel as if you are near a great bell that has begun to toll - this is the point of mysticism and magic - then you can achieve what you desire - do not be afraid, since it will feel as if you are in a boat on a stormy sea, and your body and spirit will part company, so that you will feel sensations of being in two different places at once. then you may journey to them and they will answer you when you are ready - but not before - so there is a long path of work, experience and failure ahead of you.
First Letter to Norman Gills:Firstly then we must begin with the fundamental practice of the Faith - the correct way to approach an altar.
Have you ever watched cattle? The way one cow will always turn her back upon you and regard you over her shoulder? This then is the correct way to approach an altar. The cow is using 'kundalini' to analyse you, to sense out what you are, and whether you are dangerous, and she uses her spinal column as a sensory device - in much the same way as water diviners use a wand to sense water. Now the practice of kundalini, is as you know, the transmutation of sexual energy. So this is where the broom comes in - in the sense that this transmutes the energy of the sexual impulse into the higher grade energy of sensation, feeling and thought. Physically one perambulates a given number of times around the seven sided ring such as seven to call upon the seven stars. One stops in the exact center of the ring, and has the back to the altar, balancing upon the right foot, with the left foot pointing out, and looking over your shoulder at the altar - so that the spinal column forms a spiral - which incidentally you have already performed in your turning about the ring. At this point of balance - one begins the first principle of the broom - which equates to that of the Qabalistic Malkuth. Before the altar is greeted though, one prepares the ring by imagining a bright star very far away, and above your head. From this star should fall waves of light, and one should imagine that it is getting nearer - or rather you are getting nearer to it. The light should enter your body through the right shoulder, and work in a spiral downwards, and emit through the left foot upon stopping to greet the altar. As such the ring, which has been censed and purged by whatever method you use, is charged, and this in its turn becomes a well of wisdom - of the water of life. You like the trout spiral in this pool, and then by sheer poetry which should be spontaneous and inspired - take your body in an anti-clockwise spiral until it reaches the base of the spine - Malkuth - which is earth, and corresponds to the anus and the genital area surrounding it. This is the foundation, and the seat of all transmutation, since the area of skin between the anus and the sexual organs is that which holds the super-physical power. Hence broom stick riding, since in the past they rode a staff in order to activate that small area of sensation - and then transmuted it by mental power to the ascending snake. The broomstick was anointed with the flying ointment. I will demonstrate the techniques of the broom when we meet - and if you can get Jill and her mother along since I have a distinct respect for Jill's psychism - I will show you how to approach the Holy Ones - that is the Deities who rule us. In this exercise, and once it is fully carried out and understood - the final stages is that when a sensation of being near a great bell is felt, and your mind and body appears to tremble with the vibrations. It is at this point that you utter the prayer for whatever you are requiring - but always remember Norman - no man has power within himself, we are all but expressions of Godhead. This belief that tricks, or techniques bring power is a blasphemy since the magician is nothing but a channel for the forces he raises by prayer - and prayer and faith are the greatest secrets of them all. To be a channel of the force of Godhead is all we can ever hope to attain. obviously you are well aware of this - but having told others - I always add this as a precaution, since some people think that power comes from within.
~Muninn's Kiss
You see a man begging. Most people look at it two ways. Either he is faking it, or he needs the money. Either you can ignore him, or give it to him. But which is the answer? If he's faking it, you don't help him either way. ignoring him doesn't change anything, and giving money to him encourages him. Same if he needs it. Withholding means nothing changes; he's still hungry. Giving it to him might mean one more meal, then he's back to being hungry, but with the memory of the meal, making it harder. Neither approach changes Fate, changes Mazal. So the answer is to look at it from a different direction. Instead of should I give it to him or not, ask the question, what can I do to change Fate? In this lies an answer that will make a difference.
Third Letter:Obviously you wish to know how one asks correctly - This is known as 'Approaching or Greeting the Altar'. There are many altars, one is raised to every aspect you can think upon, but there is only one way to approach an altar or Godstone. There is a practice in the East known as "Kundalini", or shifting the sexual power from its basic source to the spine and then to the mind.
Cattle use this principle extensively, as you will note if you creep silently up to a deer or a cow - since there is always one beast that will turn its back to you, and then twist its neck until it regards you out of its left or right eye alone. It is interpreting you by what is laughingly known as 'psi' power and that is how an altar is used - with your back to it, and head turned right or left to regard the cross of the Elements and Tripod that are as sacred to the People as the Crucifix is to the Christians.
Before you do this however, it is necessary to offer your devotions and prayers by bowing three times to the Altar, with arms crossed upon your chest and then turn about the Altar (which for normal purposes should be round, hence King Arthur) the number of the Deity you are invoking or praying to. The Maid is usually three times three - the Mother six times three, the Hag (which is anything but the true title), nine times three. Upon the last turn stop with your back to the Altar, and there begin your great chant. With a group one works in absolute silence, but by yourself it is easier to utter your prayer and meditation aloud until you begin to speak as one possessed'.
Upon this point you will feel as if you are near a great bell that has begun to toll - this is the point of mysticism and magic - then you can achieve what you desire - do not be afraid, since it will feel as if you are in a boat on a stormy sea, and your body and spirit will part company, so that you will feel sensations of being in two different places at once. then you may journey to them and they will answer you when you are ready - but not before - so there is a long path of work, experience and failure ahead of you.
First Letter to Norman Gills:Firstly then we must begin with the fundamental practice of the Faith - the correct way to approach an altar.
Have you ever watched cattle? The way one cow will always turn her back upon you and regard you over her shoulder? This then is the correct way to approach an altar. The cow is using 'kundalini' to analyse you, to sense out what you are, and whether you are dangerous, and she uses her spinal column as a sensory device - in much the same way as water diviners use a wand to sense water. Now the practice of kundalini, is as you know, the transmutation of sexual energy. So this is where the broom comes in - in the sense that this transmutes the energy of the sexual impulse into the higher grade energy of sensation, feeling and thought. Physically one perambulates a given number of times around the seven sided ring such as seven to call upon the seven stars. One stops in the exact center of the ring, and has the back to the altar, balancing upon the right foot, with the left foot pointing out, and looking over your shoulder at the altar - so that the spinal column forms a spiral - which incidentally you have already performed in your turning about the ring. At this point of balance - one begins the first principle of the broom - which equates to that of the Qabalistic Malkuth. Before the altar is greeted though, one prepares the ring by imagining a bright star very far away, and above your head. From this star should fall waves of light, and one should imagine that it is getting nearer - or rather you are getting nearer to it. The light should enter your body through the right shoulder, and work in a spiral downwards, and emit through the left foot upon stopping to greet the altar. As such the ring, which has been censed and purged by whatever method you use, is charged, and this in its turn becomes a well of wisdom - of the water of life. You like the trout spiral in this pool, and then by sheer poetry which should be spontaneous and inspired - take your body in an anti-clockwise spiral until it reaches the base of the spine - Malkuth - which is earth, and corresponds to the anus and the genital area surrounding it. This is the foundation, and the seat of all transmutation, since the area of skin between the anus and the sexual organs is that which holds the super-physical power. Hence broom stick riding, since in the past they rode a staff in order to activate that small area of sensation - and then transmuted it by mental power to the ascending snake. The broomstick was anointed with the flying ointment. I will demonstrate the techniques of the broom when we meet - and if you can get Jill and her mother along since I have a distinct respect for Jill's psychism - I will show you how to approach the Holy Ones - that is the Deities who rule us. In this exercise, and once it is fully carried out and understood - the final stages is that when a sensation of being near a great bell is felt, and your mind and body appears to tremble with the vibrations. It is at this point that you utter the prayer for whatever you are requiring - but always remember Norman - no man has power within himself, we are all but expressions of Godhead. This belief that tricks, or techniques bring power is a blasphemy since the magician is nothing but a channel for the forces he raises by prayer - and prayer and faith are the greatest secrets of them all. To be a channel of the force of Godhead is all we can ever hope to attain. obviously you are well aware of this - but having told others - I always add this as a precaution, since some people think that power comes from within.
~Muninn's Kiss