I seriously dislike flying. Sekhmet was burning away a phobia of flying, but I was still suffering from air pressure changes, and usually staggered off the plane with blinding headaches and a runny nose. This time I had to be delightfully pleasant and charming as one of our VPs was on the same flight and graciously chauffeured me over to the Raleigh office. Last thing you want to do on a business trip is puke all over the shoes of senior management, so I managed not to.
Fortunately we didn’t sit together, so I was able to distract myself somewhat by reading, without having to explain that I was reading the biography of the woman who was married to the King of the Witches of the Alexandrian line, in England.
At the suggestion of the WC1 class instructor, I was now reading Maxine Sander’s biography, Firechild. I didn’t think I’d enjoy it all that much, but it turns out I did, because she describes initiation and instruction that is exactly what I think it should be … and not the twinkie nonsense women are spewing out ad nauseum in their frustratingly inaccurate and nonsensical Tinkerbelle wiccan books (“Clap your hands if you BELIEVE, boys & girls!”) every time I turn around. She both received and then delivered serious initiation training that was, in turn, amazingly intense, enormously valuable and sometimes almost cruel.
Still, those are the events that were real learning events, the ones that stuck with you. They taught her things she could use. They let her pick the wrong herbs out in the wild and watched dispassionately as she retched them all back up again. They left her in a trance in the woods all night – alone. The hard housekeeping work – brass polishing, robe laundering, cleaning floors, walls, altars ... each act done with focused intent and enormous concentration. I was finding myself more and more inspired and despairing of ever finding initiation instruction here in the USA like that. (Actually, the first WCI instructor did initially strike me as a bit of a slave driver, but then she also told me a lie about Charles Leland which irked me a bit. Okay, it irked me a lot. She’s going to really work hard to get past that lie.)
But back to Maxine. On the negative side, a lot of her talents seemed to be inherited … for example, astral projection came really easily to her from a very early age, while others of us need to struggle with simple things like basic meditation and feeling energy between the palms of our hands. Her mother wavered between the occult and the rigidity of the catholic church ... which had to make for an odd upbringing. And lastly, the book devolves into being insufferably British now and again, obsessed with “knowing your place” and dubbing people “royalty” within the occult world. I find that difficult to get past ... especially when women here in the U.S. demand you call them “Lady Such and Such”, which generates in me a raised eyebrow of disdain, mainly because it makes women sound like they never grew up past their fairy tale-believing days when they really wanted to be a “princess”.
Be that as it may, so far it’s fascinating.
I had raised the spectre of sex magick again last entry, and came across the three spirits Sitri, Beleth and Zepar, three of the so-called “demons” that the Judeo-Christian Solomon controlled. And you know how defiant I am about taking a definition (i.e., “demon”) from the judeo-christian-islamic world without first doing my due diligence on their personality and what they do. The majority of them, (so far anyway) seem to be completely – or mostly – free of malice or anger or hatred or any other personality trait that would earn them the title we now know as “demon”.I am of the belief that those of us in this generation need to be the ones who research these beings and systematically strip the title of “demon” from them. Until proven otherwise, they will be “spirits”. So, here are three conjurable “spirits” I found:
“The 12th spirit is Sitri, he is a great prince & appeareth at first with a Leopards face, and wings as a griffin. But afterwards at ye command of ye exorcist, he putteth on a humane shape very Beautifull, Inflaming Men with womens Love, and women with mens love, and causeth them to shew themselves Naked, if he [it] be desired, &c. he governeth 60 Legions of spirits, and his seal to be worne is this.”
http://www.esotericarchives.com/solomon/goetia.htm
Original Purpose: Sitri is a lust spirit and causes men and women to be passionate and get naked around one another.
Author’s Notes: Invoke Sitri for seduction rituals (become Incubi or Succubae). Invoke Sitri during sex magick to boost the energy raised. Sitri can also be called up when you seek to infuse any creative project with passion. (Connolly, S. (2010-09-02). Daemonolatry Goetia (p. 60). DB Publishing. Kindle Edition.)
Then there is Beleth:
He can breathe fire. He can shape shift, and can manage about three shifts in a day before he wears out. Human (winged or not) is his favorite and most-seen form; his true form is slightly beyond human comprehension and for the sake of interaction is not used often.He can transport himself and other people between summoning circles, even if it means crossing between dimensions. Beleth is capable of moving between a highly technological location to a magical location and back again, though this requires a great deal of energy and leaves him exhausted afterwards.
If someone successfully makes a contract with Beleth (which not only requires the agreement of Beleth and the character involved in the contract but the agreement of the players of any third parties), he can do more. His specialty is that he “causeth all the love that may be, both of Men and of Women, until the conjuror hath had his desire fulfilled” (LKS).Finally, Zepar:
Zepar is a Great Duke, who tries to seduce women, and if requested by them, he can change his shape into that of their beloved man, but makes them sterile. He has twenty-six legions of spirits under his command. Other sources say that he makes women love men and brings them together in love. He is depicted as a soldier with red clothes and armour.
Now comes the fun part - learning how to invoke .... and not forgetting the controlling and banishing part ... one of the three of them. More later.
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