#occultic

Scarabs are engraved stones representing the Scarab beetle (Scarabaeus sacer), which rolls each of its eggs in a ball of mud and may be seen on sandy slopes in the hot sunshine of Egypt; rounding the pellet by pushing it backwards uphill with its hind legs, and allowing it to roll down again. The ancient Egyptian compared this living germ to the sun, which brings matter into life, and the Scarab became the symbol of creation, and sacred to their Sun-god, Khepera. It was their custom as far back as 4,600 years B.C. to bury these engraved Scarabs with their dead, and frequently one was placed in the heart itself. It was an emblem of re-creation, and symbolized this evolution of the soul through eternity.

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.

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.

Hyssop

Purging; purification; an apotropiac. In Christianity, it signifies penitence; humility; its purgative properties depict innocence regained, hence baptism.

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]

“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.”

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]

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]

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]

Jaguar

Aztec: The powers of darkness in conflict with the solar eagle.

Mexican: The messenger of forest spirits.

Shamanistic: The jaguar is sometimes a familiar spirit of, or a form taken by, the Shaman.

[Source: An Illustrated Encyclopedia of Traditional Symbols by J.C. Cooper]

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]

Plants

Like trees and flowers, plants symbolize death and resurrection; the life-force; the cycle of life.

Plant and flower symbolism is closely connected with the Great Mother, goddess of the earth, of fertility and vegetation; it is also associated with the fertility of the life-giving waters; the sap-filled plant is motherhood.

Plants and trees are often regarded as mythical ancestors and usually associated with the moon cult.

Plants or flowers which grow from the spilled blood of a god or hero represent the mystic union between man and plant and the birth of life from death, life flowing from one state to another, e.g. violets grew from the blood of Attis; wheat and herbs grew from the body of Osiris; and pomegranate from the blood of Dionysus, anemones from the blood of Adonis and red roses from the blood of Christ.

In Chinese symbolism the plant Polyporus lucidus is the plant of immortality and is the food of the Taoist genii or immortals.

[Source: An Illustrated Encyclopedia of Traditional Symbols by J.C. Cooper]

Obelisk

Phallic; male generative power; fertility; regeneration; stabilizing force.

It is also an axis mundi and the Tree of Life, a ritual world center, a ‘finger of the sun’.

In Egypt it denotes Ra; the ray of the sun; solar generative power.

[Source: An Illustrated Encyclopedia of Traditional Symbols by J.C. Cooper]

Cat

Its eyes being variable, the cat symbolizes the varying power of the sun and the waxing and waning of the moon and the splendour of the night; it also denotes stealth; desire; liberty.

As black it is lunar, evil and death; it is only in modern times that a black cat has been taken to signify good luck.

Amerindian: The wild cat portrays stealth.

Celtic: Chthonic powers; funerary.

Chinese: A yin animal as nocturnal; powers of evil; powers of transformation. A strange cat is unfavourable change; a black cat, misfortune, illness.

Christian: Satan; darkness; lust; laziness.

Egyptian: Lunar, sacred to Set as darkness; as lunar the cat can also be an attribute of Isis and of Bast, the moon; it represents pregnant women as the moon makes the seed grow in the womb.

Graeco-Roman: Attribute of the lunar Diana. The goddess of liberty has a cat at her feet.

Japanese: Powers of transformation; peaceful repose.

Scandanavian: Attribute of Freyja, whose chariot is drawn by cats.

Witchcraft: A familiar and disguise of witches; the black cat as the witches’ familiar is evil and ill luck. Cats and dogs as witches’ familiars are rain-makers.

[Source: An Illustrated Encyclopedia of Traditional Symbols by J.C. Cooper]

Seraphim

Divine love; divine heat; the fervour of devotion, ‘the fire of charity’ (Dante).

In Isaiah it is stated: 'Each had six wings, with twain he covered his face, with twain he covered his feet and with twain he did fly.’

In Heraldry, a seraph’s head is depicted as that of a child, as purity, with three pairs of wins.

The highest of the nine orders of angels.

[Source: An Illustrated Encyclopedia of Traditional Symbols by J.C. Cooper]

Death will be fed by all… but not all will feed those who remain with the essence, scent, & beauty of who they were ⟠ Like the flowers that bloomed, withered, & have been dried… Their presence is still present.

Do you preserve flowers after they have taken on their new Journey? ☠︎ If so, reblog this with your favorites