#metaphysical sciences
Saturnalia
The sinister aspect of Saturn; the winter solstice; the death of the old year and birth of the new, dies natalis solis invicti, the birthday of the unconquerable sun; the passage from chaos to cosmos; the suspension of time.
The dead return during the twelve nights of the duration of Saturnalia.
It is also the time of the sacrifice of the old king, or his scapegoat, as waning fertility, and instigating the enthronement of the new king as virility.
The twelve days of chaos symbolize the patter of the coming months of the year.
The period of chaos is governed by the Lord of Misrule, or the King of the Bean and the Queen of the Pea.
Transvestism is a feature of the time of chaos in Saturnalia, orgies carnivals, etc. and signifies a form of return to chaos.
Babylon held the twelve days of duel between Chaos and Cosmos; in Christianity these are the Twelve Days of Christmas.
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Satyr
Male spirits of profane nature; followers of the nature gods Silvanus, Faunus, Pan, Dionysus/Bacchus.
They represent untamed nature, licence and lust, and have human heads with horns and goat beard, human hands and arms, but goats’ bodies from the waist downwards.
They may wear the crowns of ivy of Dionysus and can carry his thyros; other attributes are bunches of grapes, baskets of fruit, pitchers of wine, the cornucopia and the snake; their female counterparts in the Bacchanalia were the Maenads.
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Hyssop
Purging; purification; an apotropiac. In Christianity, it signifies penitence; humility; its purgative properties depict innocence regained, hence baptism.
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Ashlar
Egyptian: The material to be worked upon to achieve perfection through creative activity; the rough ashlar is unregenerate man, the perfect ashlar is the spiritual and perfected man.
[Source: An Illustrated Encyclopedia of Traditional Symbols by J.C. Cooper]
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“Occult literature and teachers of the Lesser Mysteries often terrify the audiences with the horrors of the abyss, the void.
They talk of extinction and nonexistence.
And it is true that the abyss terrifies those who are still attached to individuality.
That is why it is the true function of the Mysteries is to prepare the mind for the plunge into the Divine Depths.”
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LEAD
Energy: Receptive
Planet: Saturn
Element: Earth
Associated Herbs: Rose, Nettle, Rue, Cumin
Powers: Divination, Protection, Defensive Magic
Magical/Ritual Lore:
Lead has long been used in magic. In ancient Greek times tablets of this metal were ritually charged and inscribed with ‘words of power’. These tablets were generally used in negative spells because the lead ensured the spell’s long continuance.
In India during the 11th century, charms and figures designed to cause conception or to increase the fertility of gardens and orchards were engraved on lead tablets.
Magical Uses:
Lead is a heavy metal which causes death when it’s absorbed by the body. The ancient Romans discovered this by using lead dishes and cooking utensils.
A curious divination, recorded in the 1800’s in Italy by Charles Godfrey Leland, uses lead. Take three rose seeds (remove them from the “hip” that forms after a rose has lost its petals), three nettle leaves, two rue leaves and three cumin seeds. Put these on a metal plate along with a small quantity of lead.
At midnight, while clearing your mind of needless mental clutter, burn two yellow candles and light a fire. Place the metal plate over the fire. Then fill a large basin with water. Once the lead has melted, pour it, along with the herb ashes, into the water.
When the lead nodule has cooled, remove it from the water and gaze at its shape. The ritual and the lead itself should allow access to your psychic mind. If nothing comes to you, place the nodule beneath your pillow and let your dreams guide you.
Lead is worn or used in protective spells and also plays its part in defensive magic. It can be placed near the entrance of the house to prevent negativity from gaining access.
[Source: Cunningham’s Encyclopedia of Crystal, Gem, & Metal Magic by Scott Cunningham]
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Sphinx
The mysterious; the enigmatic; power; Ra, god of the rising sun; wisdom; royal dignity; vigilance; strength.
With the head of a man, or woman, body of a bull, feet of a lion and wings of an eagle, it represents the four elements and combination of physical and intellectual power, the natural and the spiritual power incarnate in the Pharaoh.
The androsphinx is human-headed and represents the union of intellectual and physical powers; the criosphinx has a ram’s head and depicts silence; the hieracosphinx is falcon-headed and is solar; an all-lion-bodied sphinx, without wings, signifies power.
The Theban sphinx is funerary, a protector of graves and denotes wanton destruction and is an enemy of mankind.
The Greek sphinx is female-headed; the Minoan sphinx wears the ‘lily crown’.
The human-headed sphinx is also suggested as human spirit overcoming animal instincts.
[Source: An Illustrated Encyclopedia of Traditional Symbols by J.C. Cooper]
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Night
Like darkness, the night signifies the pre-cosmogenic, pre-natal darkness preceding rebirth or initiation and illumination, but it is also chaos; death; madness; disintegration; reversion to the foetal state of the world.
Night is also, according to Hesiod, the ‘Mother of the Gods’, the enveloping, maternal aspect of the feminine power, usually symbolized by a female figure with a star-spangled veil, holding a child, one black (death) and one white (sleep), on either arm; or by the crescent moon, or poppies, or the owl, or black wings.
As all-devouring time, day and night can be depicted as a white and a black rat.
Going by night symbolism esotericism.
[Source: An Illustrated Encyclopedia of Traditional Symbols by J.C. Cooper]
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METEORITE
Folk Names: Aerolith, Aerolite
Energy: Projective
Planet: none, meteorites are associated with the Universe
Elements: Akasha, Fire
Deity: The Great Mother
Associated Stones: Peridot, Diamond
Powers: Protection, Astral Projection
Magical/Ritual Lore:
Meteorites have long been held in fascination by humans. They have been thought to be gifts from the gods and goddesses. Certain meteorites, such as the Kaaba stone in Mecca and a stone thought to represent the Great Mother Goddess of Phrygia, have been worshipped as symbols of divinity.
A four-ton stone has been revered in China as a holy object since the 1200’s. The stone, shaped like a crouching ox, resides in a Bhuddist shrine. Recently, however, a team of Chinese geologists studied
the stone and determined it to be a meteorite that landed about 1,300 years ago. The stone is no longer worshiped. In Babylon the meteorite was a powerful magical protectant. It was thought to remove all evils due to its strange appearance and the "roar of its awful might.“
Peridot is often found in meteorites. I held a small cut meteorite recently and studied the green peridot crystals that were packed inside it. The stone was worth about $3,000, so it didn’t go home with me. Recently, tiny diamonds were found inside meteorites that fell in Mexico in 1969-the first discovered that had formed off of our planet.
At one place or another on Earth, meteorites were used to explain the origin of life. If rocks fell to the earth from space, so too could plants, water, animals and people.
Symbolically, meteorites can be viewed as the spiritual penetrating the physical, as astral power, divine order or whim, though a friend of mine says they’re the melted remains of spaceships from distant galaxies!
Magical Uses:
Meteorites are unearthly things, literally. They possess the powers of intergalactic flight, of movement, of speed, and of energy unhindered by gravity.
Use them in rituals of protection. Place one on the altar near white candles; or carry in the hand.
They are also called upon to promote astral projection. A small meteorite or a fragment of one is placed beneath the pillow during attempts at conscious astral projection.
Yes, they are available for sale at reasonable prices. I visited the Reuben H. Fleet Space Theatre’s gift shop in San Diego a few days ago and found small meteorites for $3.00.
[Source: Cunningham’s Encyclopedia of Crystal, Gem, & Metal Magic by Scott Cunningham]
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Lily
Purity; peace; resurrection; royalty.
Sacred to all Virgin Goddesses, the Mother and Maid, the One and the Many.
The lily also represents the fertility of the Earth Goddess and later of the sky gods.
The lily in the West shares the symbolism of the lotus in the East.
A branch of lilies depicts virginity, also regeneration and immortality.
Alchemic: The white lily is the feminine principle
Christian: Purity; innocence; the Virgin Mary; its straight stalk is her godly mind, its pendant leaves her humility, its fragrance is divinity, its whiteness is purity; it is also a symbol of the Annunciation and of virgin saints, as chastity; it is the flower of Easter. Dante calls it the ‘lily of faith’. The lily among thorns depicts the Immaculate Conception as purity in the midst of sins of the world. In art a lily on one side and a sword on the other depict innocence and guilt.
Egyptian: Fruitfulness, but the lotus is more frequently used in Egyptian symbolism.
Graeco-Roman: Purity; it sprang from the milk of Hera and is an emblem of Hera/Juno and of Diana as chastity.
Hebrew: Trust in God; emblem of the tribe of Judah.
Islamic: Its symbolism can be taken by the hyacinth.
Minoan: Chief attribute of the goddess Britomartis.
Sumero-Semitic: Fruitfulness; fecundity.
[Source: An Illustrated Encyclopedia of Traditional Symbols by J.C. Cooper]
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