Urania, Ceremonial Magic of the Goddess
Fellowship of Isis Liturgy by Olivia Robertson
Part I. Cosmic Magic
Space Magic
Ritual no. 1
ORACLE OF THE GODDESS INANNA
Priestess: (Invocation) Divine Inanna, Queen of Heaven, Celestial Mother, aid us to follow Thy Path of Love. We would tread in Thy footsteps, and descend into the Depths to save others, as Thou didst:
"The Goddess left Earth and Heaven.
And went down into the pit.
She took the Signs in Her hands,
Put the sandals on Her feet.
The seven insignia She set on Her head,
The sugurru Crown.
She held in Her hand the measuring rod,
And round Her neck She bound
Small lapis lazuli gems.
Two stones, perfect ovals, lay on Her breast.
The pectoral gems that dazzle men
Were bound to Her breast."
Lady of Heaven, Inspire us to follow Thy Path of Truth. We would tread in Thy footsteps, and ascend into Heaven, that we may learn Wisdom from the Deities.
"She is rising, She is rising
From the pit.
Come, we will go to Inanna,
We will sit in the lap so holy,
Inanna is ascending,
Inanna is ascending
From the pit."
Oracle: None may ascend to My High Place of the Eight-fold Wisdom unless they first descend into the abyss of My Sister, the Goddess Ereshkigal. For from the Passions of the Pit come Love; and from the plethora of fantasies may be drawn the Truth. Each Sphere is a reflection of a greater Sphere. The reflection presents the seeker with symbols of Reality, and is a veil to protect the uninstructed from too great a power. And the symbols seen in a reflection draw the soul safely to greater consciousness; for the Real is mirrored forth through all planes of being. There is not the humblest piece of earth that holds not within it a microcosm of the Cosmos.
There are those who Would follow the Path of Greatness: who aspire to supreme spiritual Truth. The danger of this Path of Ascent comes from Pride. A deluded soul, believing itself to be the All, loses knowledge of other beings. There are others who abase themselves that they may love all My existences. The danger of the Path of Descent is in sleep, which brings forgetfulness of the Divine Purpose. Whether you travel the Path of Ascent and experience the Cosmos within yourself: or follow the Path of Descent and feel the love of every creature and every clod of earth - remember, your place corresponds to what you are: And what you are depends upon the practice of the Virtues.
The Altar is in the centre of a shrine or temple. On it let there be an empty glass jar with a narrow opening, a magnet, three iron nails, and three black candles. Three Enchantresses wear silver crowns and black robes with silver ‘diamonds.‘ Eight Practitioners wear silver head circlets, black robes and silver eight-pointed stars. Enchantresses and Magicians carry black wands entwined with silver cords. Incense burns on the altar. Candles are at the quarters of the temple. All candles are unlighted.
1st Magician: Companions, we are assembled together that we may experience the Magic of Space. Know that a change of consciousness effects a change of place. Inner Source is the cause: Outer Place is the effect. Symbols of Association transform closed circles into spirals through which we may travel. May the Three Enchantresses invoke the Three Cosmic Goddesses.
1st Enchantress: (lights 1st candle on altar and offers incense) I invoke the Goddess Anat of Babylon. Celestial Anat, who caused An, Heaven, to come into being, Who caused light to be separated from darkness: Goddess of Space from whom Star Deities come and to Whom They return, hear our prayer. Let our small consciousness know more of Thy Great Being, that we may wonder at the glory of Thy Cosmos! That so we, being aware of the Greater, may understand and cherish the lesser.
2nd Enchantress: (lights 2nd candle on altar and offers incense) I invoke the Goddess Nuit of Egypt. Mighty Goddess of the Milky Way, whose starry body arches over the heavens, enfolding our little earth, bring us Thy Truth! We would adore Thy Beauty and gaze upon Thy many-coloured constellations. We would know Thee within ourselves.
3rd Enchantress: (lights 3rd candle on altar and offers incense) I invoke the Goddess Hera. Queen of Heaven, who rules our sun and moon and encircling planets, and yet also guardeth our homes, marriage and our livelihood, and who doth succour the lonely and the despised, may we aid Thee in Thy Ministry for all creatures and existences! Show us the place where we too may serve and where we are needed.
1st Enchantress: May the Four Magicians invoke the Four Space Gods.
1st Magician: (East, lights the 1st candle. With wand he makes the Jupiter sign) In the quarter of the East I invoke the God Zeus Son of Rhea! We honour Zeus, Chief among the Gods and the Greatest of the Olympians: all-seeing, the Lord of all men, the fulfiller who bears words of wisdom whispered to him by Themis as She sits leaning towards Him. Be gracious, all-seeing Son of Cronos, Most excellent and great! Bring us, we pray Thee, the freedom and glory of the skies.
2nd Magician: (South, with wand makes sign of Horus, the winged disc) In the quarter of the South I invoke the God Horus Son of Isis. Horus of the Horizon, whose many eyes of the Sky watch our doings, bring us knowledge of the Mysteries of Space. Thou has the All-Seeing Eye of the Goddess Uatchat. Lend us the Eye of Vision that we may too see far and wide. Thou art Orion that strideth across the Southern skies, who is known in Babylon as Dumuzi, the Son of life, and Tammuz, Lover of Ishtar who is bright Sirius: and in Egypt as the God Sahu and as Smati-Osiris, the Barley God. Give us, we pray Thee, the joys of many homes and many hearths and many lives! May we be giants, as Thou art, and may we too stride across the skies in our quest. ‘Through the aether to the lofty skies, Orion and Sirius dart from their eyes the flaming rays of fire.’
3rd Magician: (West, lights candle and makes the sign of Varuna, an “S” within a circle) I invoke the God Varuna, Son of Aditi, She of the infinitude of space. Varuna, Thou has stemmed asunder the wide firmaments. Thou hast stretched apart starry sky and the earth. Grant us Thy power to separate: give us Thy discrimination.
"He, the Upholder of Order,
Who knows the track of the wind,
Of the wise, the bright, the mighty:
He who knows those who live on high;
He, the Upholder of Order,
Varuna, may He protect us.
He, the wise, sits in the Great Place to govern
From thence, perceiving all wondrous things.
He sees what has been and what will be done.
May He, the wise Aditya, make our paths virtuous."
4th Magician: (North, lights candle and makes the sign of Odin, the eye) I invoke the God Odin. Odin, Who doth travel across the skies in Thy fiery chariot, bringing all creatures gifts from Asgard on high; bring us wisdom to enjoy the wonders bestowed upon us. Thou who searched wide and far for Wisdom, give us the courage to travel in place and mind for Truth: may we have success in our search. Thou, The Wanderer, found Wisdom in the depths of a Well guarded by the Ancient Norn. Thou didst give Thine Eye to Her in return for Wisdom. So now Thou hast one eye that doth see the universe: and an inner eye that through a black patch discerns the Truth. Help us also to know what is within.
1st Magician: About us are the Galaxies held within the darkness of Infinite Space. Let the Eight Daughters of Space be called upon, that we may reverence Them.
The eight Participants form an outer circle and with each invocation lift up both arms.
1st Participant: (West) I call upon Andromeda, daughter of Cassiopea. Thou who art set high for a star in heaven, a sign and hope for travellers, spreading Thy long white arms in the height-of aether, hear us! Thou who was bound and freed, bring us freedom! Within thy arms is our Sister Galaxy and thou dost cradle it as a child. Protect us in our Journeyings.
2nd Participant: (Southwest) I call upon Galaxaura, the Lovely One. Thou doth pick soft crocuses mingled with irises and hyacinths and rose blooms and lilies, in the wide plains of Space. Yet to us thy flowers are mighty stars. Banish our fears of the unknown. Bring us ease in all states of being.
3rd Participant: (South) I call upon Galatea. Milk-white Galatea, daughter of Oceanus, Thou who from Thy pitcher poureth forth the stream of Heaven, that is Eridanus, Water of Life, bring us Thy lovely place, where serene waters bring calm emotion.
4th Participant: (Southeast) I call upon Aditi, She who is Infinite Space. Mother of all beings, to Thee none are great, none small, all are beloved. Not a drop of water is lost to Thee; not a sunbeam. Help us to enjoy Thy everlasting love.
5th Participant: (East) I call upon the Goddess Hulda. Wise Hulda, make clear our, paths with Thy knowledge. Bright is Thy Path in the Heavens, leading from star to star, from place to place. Be Thou our Guide.
6th Participant: (Northeast) I call upon the Goddess Muth. Sky Goddess who doth protect Thy children as doth the Mother Vulture: bestow on us Thy tenderness. Thou who doth wear the wings of the vulture about Thy long black hair, bring us with Thee in soul flights, secure within Thy feathers. May we fly through the mysterious realms of Space.
7th Participant: (North) I call upon the Goddess Tiamat. Goddess of the Serpent Power, Lady of the Fiery-coiled Dragon of the North, imbue us with Thy Power, that we may have the strength for our flight.
8th Participant: (Northwest) I call upon Umm Al Sama, Arctic Mother of the Sky. Wherever we are, Great Mother, whether on the High Mountains of Spirit or in the Depths: though we move to different stars, or have great knowledge of many spheres: even if we reach the Five Pillars at the Edge of the Great Deep: yet are they verily but Thy four fingers and thumb. At the end of the Universe we are still in the palm of Thy Hand.
1st Magician: Companions, let us move with the Sphere, circle within circle.
Music, “Thus Spake Zarathustra,” Strauss, Holst’s “Planets,” Vaughan Williams’ “Antarctica” are appropriate. 3 Enchantresses hold hands facing altar and circle right to left, and feel power begin to flow. 4 Magicians lightly touch hands and then move to form a wider circle left to right and power is felt. 8 Participants touch hands and then move apart to form outer circle. Power circulates. The movements increase in speed as power builds up. When it is sufficiently intense for her to see it as swirling light, 1st Enchantress picks up her wand. All stop as she speaks.
1st Enchantress: Let us revere the Source of all Spheres.
All hold up palms of hands towards altar.
1st Enchantress: (makes the circle sign, right to left with wand over jar) In the Names of Anat, Nuit and Hera, may we discern the atoms within this empty jar. May we know its Space.
2nd Enchantress: (makes sign loop over magnet) In the Name of Arianrhod of the Silver Wheel and Cord, Who dwelleth within the White Castle of the North, may we discern the Force within this magnet. May we know its Space. She places three nails upon magnet.
1st Enchantress: Companions, let us be seated in a circle that we may behold the empty jar. Gaze within it. See, there is shadow there! Within the shadow there is steam, formed by shivering specks. They form eddies and swirl, and fade and return. Now a milky substance forms like changing clouds. Do you not see that the altar itself is now incandescent and that the candle flames glow with many colours? Hold out your hands. See, light streams from your fingers. You feel weightless. You feel the ground fall below you and your body rocks to and fro like a child in an old rocking cradle, creaking to an old nurse’s lullaby. The walls in this place are transparent and this little shrine falls away from you. And you grow greater than this house, and you rise above and look down and see the house below you, small, misty.
And as you rise you see many-coloured lands and coast lines and rivers and seas as in some old atlas known in the schoolroom. And still you soar. And you wrap the sky about you like azure wings and the night is in your hair and the stars glitter therein. And the earth is now but a speck among other circling specks, with its pretty toy, one moon. And you rush towards bright Taurus of the fiery eye and the necklace of the Hyades and you can hold those doves, the Pleiades in the palm of your hand. Even the tilting wheel of the Milky Way is now falling away from you as a spinning top. Other galaxies form one mighty spiral. You reach the ultimate, infinity: a shadowy shape encompasses all: and you behold the Ultimate. The Pleroma.
Yet look again! See that the outermost edge of the Cosmos is but the empty jar. And the mighty galaxies your greatness perceived are but the atoms in the jar!
2nd Enchantress: Comrades, let us gaze upon the magnet and the tree nails. See the space between the two ends of the magnet. Look upon the darkness. See the space is as the great darkness between the jaws of Seb, the crocodile of Amenti, The Underworld. Descend into the Abyss, the hell of Ereshkigal. All constellations, all stars, every planet, each creature is finally lost in the black depths of the Pit. The Ground gives way under you and you feel yourself falling into forgetfulness. You forget your name, your place and your speech. You forget everything except those you love. Yet you do not know their names nor their place. You are lost in long avenues of darkness, ever falling into greater oblivion. Each tunnel leads to another one through twists and turns so that you may never find the way of return.
At last you find the end because you surrender in faith. For though you know not of the Deities, for you know no Names, yet you love, though you know not whom you love. And you find yourself struggling to escape from the pit - and suddenly you are released by the love of the Great Mother - and you utter a great cry for you are newly born. Yet, companions, You sit and look upon a magnet with three nails upon it.
2nd Enchantress: (detaches nails from magnet) Let us free them, these three galaxies swallowed by a Black Hole . . . So! They are re-born.
1st Magician: Let us give thanks to the Cosmic Goddesses and Gods for our experience of the Magic of Space.
1st Enchantress: May all beings throughout the Spheres be blessed.
Sources: "Hesiod, the Homeric Hymns and Homerica", trans. Hugh G. Evelyn-White, William Heinemann Ltd., London. "The Vedas", (Sacred Books of the Far East Series), Max Fredrich Muller, Indological Book House, Motilal Banarsidas, New Delhi, India. "Star Names, Their Lore and Meaning", Richard Hinckley Allen, Dover. "The Goddesses of Chaldea, Syria and Egypt", Lawrence Durdin-Robertson, Cesara.
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