About the Autumn Equinox

What is the autumn equinox

The autumn equinox is the precise moment when the Sun crosses directly above Earth’s equator, marking the astronomical start of autumn. Equinox comes from Latin, meaning “equal night” as day and night are roughly 12 hours long worldwide. In the Northern Hemisphere, it happens in September, usually around 21st-23rd. In the Southern Hemisphere, it happens in March.

Autumn equinox in Neopagan religions

The celebration is called Mabon. It honors the equal length of the light and dark before the nights grow longer. People give thanks to the earth’s abundance and the autumn harvest.

It is a time to slow down, reflect, and prepare for the cold winter months.

Autumn equinox in Mesopotamia

In Mesopotamia, the autumn equinox was the time of sowing; there was a festival dedicated to the moon god Nanna (or Sin) to bless the newly planted seeds. It was the turning point signaling the transition from the scorching dry summer (Emesh) to the cooler planting months (Enten). It was also a time to honor the major deities, like Anu, Enlil, and Enki.

Simple ritual for the autumn equinox

Ingredients

    • A white candle.

    • A black candle.

    • A brown or deep orange candle (or any autumn-related color, or use white as a universal color).

    • A needle, or some tool to carve into the Autumn candle.

    • A vegetable oil.

Preparation of the Autumn candle

Carve the following symbol into the candle:

As you do so, recite the following: “May the arms of Chaos reach down and embed this candle with the powers of Autumn. May you bless me with the rejuvenation before the longest night comes.”

After this is done, rub a vegetable oil on the candle; while doing so, recite the following: “I bless you with the power to grow what is planted deep within.”

Do what is described above either one day before the autumn equinox, or on the same day as the ritual.

The Autumn Ritual

Place the 3 candles on your altar in a triangular pattern. The triangle should point at you, with the Autumn candle being right in front of you. The black candle should go to the left far corner and the white candle at the right far corner. If you want to use any incense, put it at the center of the triangle, if the space permits.

    1. Close your eyes and take a couple of deep breaths.

    2. Say: “As above, so below.”

    3. Light the black candle.

    4. Say: “As within.”

    5. Light the white candle.

    6. Say: “So without.”

    7. Stay silent for a while to get a feeling for the moment.

    8. Say: “With the power of the second breath!”

    9. Light the Autumn candle.

    10. Say “May my power flourish just like Nature flourishes before the long night!”

    11. Close your eyes.

    12. Say: “Bless what is seeded within as it may grow unhindered!”

    13. Open your eyes and say “As above, so below.”

    14. Take the black candle with your left hand; as you blow it, say “As within,” but keep holding it.

    15. Take the white candle from the right side with your right hand; as you blow it, say “As without,” but keep holding it.

    16. Say: “As below, so above.” Now you can put the candles aside.

    17. You can let the Autumn candle lit, or you can blow it out and store it for the next year; this concludes the Autumn ritual.

About the Summer Solstice

What is the summer solstice

The summer solstice is the time of the year when the day is the longest and the night is the shortest. It’s the beginning of the astronomical summer. Usually happens between June 20th and 22nd on Northern Hemisphere and between December 20th and 23rd on Southern Hemisphere.

Summer solstice in Neopagan religions

Litha is a modern Pagan and Wiccan holiday that celebrates the summer solstice. It is also known as Midsummer. Many traditions greet the rising sun: Wake up with the sunrise and soak the sun in.

Other celebrations include dancing around large bonfires, singing songs, telling stories, writing down on a piece of paper what’s bothering you, and surrendering it to the flames.

Summer solstice in Mesopotamia

Mesopotamians didn’t celebrate the light and fertility at midsummer. Instead, they dreaded the solstice as it brought extreme heat, droughts, and possibly famine. They associated the peak of the sun’s power with Nergal, the fierce solar deity of the netherworld, war, and pestilence. During this time, people held six- or seven-day funerals for Tammuz (Dumuzi), the god of food and vegetation, as they believed he dies each year as the summer heat killed the crops. During this funeral, they placed a statue of Tammuz on a funeral bier, while women mourners and goddesses like Ishtar (Inanna) wailed, sobbed, and sang lamentation hymns.

Simple ritual for the summer solstice

Ingredients

    • White candle

    • Black candle

    • An orange or yellow (or any summer-related color, or use white as a universal color)

    • A needle, or some tool to carve into the Summer candle

    • A vegetable oil

Preparation of the Summer candle:

Carve the following symbol into the candle:

As you do so, recite the following: “May the arms of Chaos reach down and embed this candle with the powers of Summer. May you burn with the power of the Sun”.

After that is done, rub vegetable oil on the candle; while doing so, recite the following: “I bless you with power to illuminate the way and to burn what is hostile.”

Do what is described above either one day before the summer solstice or on the same day as the ritual.

The Summer ritual

Place the 3 candles on your altar in a triangular pattern. The triangle should point at you, with the Summer candle being right in front of you. The black candle should go to the left far corner and the white candle at the right far corner. If you want to use any incense, put it at the center of the triangle, if the space permits.

    1. Close your eyes and take a couple of deep breaths.

    2. Say: “As above, so below”.

    3. Light the black candle.

    4. Say: “As within”.

    5. Light the white candle.

    6. Say: “So without”.

    7. Stay silent for a while to get a feeling for the moment.

    8. Say: “With the power of the ever-burning Fire!”

    9. Light the Summer candle.

    10. Say: “May Nature be protected from the heat”

    11. Close your eyes.

    12. Say: “But may the emanating heat of the Sun scorch my enemies”.

    13. Open your eyes and say “As above, so below”

    14. Take the black candle with your left hand; as you blow it, say “As within,” but keep holding it.

    15. Take the white candle from the right side with your right hand; as you blow it, say “As without”, but keep holding it.

    16. Say: “As below, so above.” Now you can put the candles aside.

    17. You can let the Summer candle be lit, or you can blow it out and store it for the next year. This concludes the Summer ritual.

About the Spring Equinox

What is the Spring Equinox

The spring equinox in the Northern Hemisphere is the time when the sun’s subsolar point is leaving the Southern Hemisphere and reaches the equator. At this point, the day and night are about the same length – Equilux actually usually comes a few days earlier, depending on the latitude. This time is commonly associated with Easter, eggs, bunnies, fertility, growth, nature waking up, etc. It usually happens around 20-21st March in the Northern Hemisphere.

Spring Equinox in Neo-pagan religions

Spring equinox is usually celebrated as the Ostara holiday in Neo-pagan religions. Ostara should be derived from the Germanic dawn and fertility goddess, Ëostre. Ostara is celebrated with traditional gemstones, incense, and colorful flowers. An Ostara ceremony includes the cleansing and decorating of homes, meditations on the message of renewal, and an appreciation for the days getting longer after the winter.

Spring Equinox in Mesopotamia

In Mesopotamia, the Spring Equinox was associated with the return of Inanna from the underworld. With her, Inanna brings warmth and fertility. It coincides with the spring harvest and the annual flooding of the Tigris and Euphrates rivers. Spring Equinox was also associated with the triumph of the gods over the primordial chaos and the creation of the universe.

Simple ritual for the Spring Equinox

Ingredients

    • White candle

    • Black candle

    • A pink candle (or any spring-related color, or use white as a universal color)

    • A needle, or some tool to carve into the Spring candle

    • A vegetable oil

Preparation of the Spring candle

Carve the following symbol into the candle:

As you do so, recite the following:

“May the arms of Chaos reach down and embed this candle with the powers of Spring. May you wake up as Nature wakes up”.

After that is done, rub vegetable oil on the candle. As you do so, recite the following:

“I bless you with the power to wake up what is sleeping, to strengthen what is weak, to manifest what is unspoken”.

Do what was described above either one day before the Spring Equinox, or on the same day as the ritual.

The Spring ritual

Place the 3 candles on your altar in a triangular pattern. The triangle should point at you, with the Spring candle being right in front of you. The black candle should go to the left far corner and the white candle at the right far corner. If you want to use any incense, put it at the center of the triangle, if the space permits.

    1. Close your eyes and take a couple of deep breaths.

    2. Say: “As above, so below”.

    3. Light the black candle.

    4. Say: “As within”.

    5. Light the white candle.

    6. Say: “So without”.

    7. Stay silent for a while to get a feeling for the moment.

    8. Say: “Just like Inanna returned from the underworld, and just like life returns to Nature”

    9. Light the Spring candle.

    10. Say: “May my powers grow and mature. May be visible what is hidden and may be reachable what is beyond”.

    11. Close your eyes.

    12. Say: “May the star of Chaos bless me with powers beyond the natural”.

    13. Open your eyes and say “As above, so below”

    14. Take the black candle with your left hand; as you blow it, say “As within," but keep holding it.

    15. Take the white candle from the right side with your right hand; as you blow it, say "As without," but keep holding it.

    16. Say: “As below, so above”; now you can put the candles aside.

    17. You can let the Spring candle be lit, or you can blow it out and store it for the next year; this concludes the Spring ritual.

Project: Working with elements - Days 32 through 35

Well, thank heavens this is over. Taking a greater oath right after a hiatus was definitely exhausting, yet very refreshing. With this project over, the fasting associated with Akasha is over as well, but it was a very interesting side effect.

Also, during the final days of the project, I've come up with one more greater oath, this time associated with planets. It would start on Monday and go till the next Monday for working with the Moon energies; then it would go from Tuesday until the next Tuesday for Mars, Wednesday till Wednesday for Mercury, etc. This way, you would start with the loving mother Luna, go through the war and struggle of early life, mature and get better at communicating, until, finally, you would acquire the respect of the father, Sol.

I am definitely not going to do it right away; this will require some planning. I was thinking of creating 7 distinct servitors to help initiate you into the energies of each celestial object. I will also require some more glyphs for my alphabet of desire, and I will have to modify the Gnostic pentagram ritual to work with hexagrams.

Project: Working with elements - Days 30 and 31

Partial fast still continues. I started eating just once a day, and only a little bit to keep my stomach happy. The interesting part is that my family also started eating less; it seems the residue from working with Akasha does have some effect on those around me.

Project: Working with elements - Days 25 through 29

Days 25 up to 28 were stable, to say the least. Nothing extreme happened with the Earth element, but I did have some lapses.

At the beginning of this project, I decided to do just the work related to the elements and nothing else. But during the week of the Earth element, I started working on my new atavistic alphabet (alphabet of desire). The new consonantal alphabet I've shared previously has proven very useful in creating the glyphs.

I had also temporarily invoked the Water element on Friday to increase my empathy, and I invoked the Fire element on Sunday to dry faster since I hadn't checked the towel situation before taking a shower.

Day 29

This brings me to the first day of working with Akasha. Today I didn't expect much. Akasha is the subtlest of elements and cannot be accumulated or released. This, and the fact that I've started working with Akasha right after working with Earth, the least subtle element, kept my hopes really low.

But lo and behold, for some reason I haven't felt hungry today, so I have skipped my lunch. Normally this would cause some issues later in the day, but today everything was fine. This became really curious during the evening, so I researched it a bit. Fasting is actually associated with Akasha. Fasting is done to cleanse the inner space and free yourself from gross physical processes. Fasting is really used to amplify Akasha!

During the final trataka of the day, the symbol of tattva also seemed to be three-dimensional, as an actual egg would. And speaking of the tattva, here is the one I use:

Project: Working with elements - Days 23 and 24

I think the negative aspect of the Earth element manifested, flegmatism. Generally, I think the Earth element is very good at grounding, but there were several instances in the past two days when I just couldn't give a damn. While the Air element is good for thinking and observing a problem from a distance, the Earth element can lead to fully letting problems pass by, observed but unbothered.

Project: Working with elements - Days 20 through 22

Day 20 has probably been the best day so far. I would say the Water element corresponds with empathy; on Saturday, I feel I did everything right. I grew closer with a very good friend and also introduced her to the world of the occult. Compared to that, the next day was kinda tame and way more grounded.

This brings me to today, day 22. The first day of the Earth element. It's also the element missing a posism in Lasenic's work, which means I have to work with it the originally intended way. When accumulating the element, I focus on the feeling of heaviness and visualize my body turning into granite (not sure why I picked this distinct imagination, but it seems to be working), sturdy, heavy, stable. It feels like this method is good for grounding, and I haven't noticed any negative aspects yet.

Anyway, here is the Prithvi tattva I use for trataka this week:

While focusing on this tattva during the day, I have started imagining it in three main energy centers (the third eye, the solar plexus, and the lower abdomen. I am not sure exactly why I came up with this, but it will prove very useful for the final week, as Akasha cannot be directly accumulated as far as I know.

Project: Working with elements - Days 18 and 19

Well, it seems the cooling ability of the Water element has a limit. And that limit is a heatwave during a train ride; in the train with a broken A/C, nonetheless. 

The last two days have been a bit challenging for this project. It feels better to work with the elements if the conditions are right. A colder or cooler environment is better for feeling and working with the Water element. Heat makes it easier to work with the Fire element. Air element is easier to work with when it's windy outside.

I wonder how it will be with the Earth element, which is coming up next week. The week after that will be even harder, considering you cannot really draw in Akasha.

Project: Working with elements - Day 17

Today was interesting to say the least. First, the good news. While focusing on drawing in the Water element, the Apas tattva appears automatically in my mind's eye. That is good.

Unfortunately, during today's mental chatter, I have thought about doing the posism for the Fire element, and the Fire element automatically appeared, at first in my forearms and then spread throughout my body. No matter how much I tried to dispel it and accumulate the Water element again, it kept being there. This situation took around an hour.

It also seems that the Water element is good for handling heat, as well; together with Fire and Air makes a third element that can be used so far. The Fire element lets you adapt to the heat. Air element sort of blocks the feeling of heat from you, and the Water element keeps you cool; it at least feels that way.

Project: Working with elements - Day 16

 Thinking back at the previous day regarding being stared at, I think that was a form of anxiety. The water element corresponds with emotion, and it seems that anxiety is the emotion of an uncontrolled Water element; in my case, it manifested as the spotlight effect.

Thankfully, today was better; no weird feelings appeared during the day. This day was marked by serenity, which was nice.

I keep thinking about the symbol of Apas tattva. It wiggles a little during the meditation; I think it represents the crescent of the Moon reflected on the surface of water.

Project: Working with elements - Days 15 - Water

 Today started interestingly with rain. Quite a welcome coincidence, because today was also the first day of working with the Water element. I was a bit worried whether I would be able to conjure the feeling of coldness and wetness, but the morning rain was a very welcome aid.

As for the day, I have caught people staring at me on many different occasions. It startled me at first, but over the course of the day I got used to it and stopped paying attention to the gazes. I am not entirely sure what the reason was behind it. Do people often stare and I don't notice, or was something different today?

Project: Working with elements - Days 12 through 14

 Nothing out of the ordinary happened during the last few days. Calling the element has become easier thanks to Lasenic's posism. Even a bit of warmth appeared while working with the element. I would compare the feeling to a light breeze on sunburnt skin.

The afterimage during the evening trataka stopped spinning, and I would say the distractibility was greatly reduced during the last two days.

Tomorrow, the practice with Apas (Water tattva) begins:

Magickal Alphabet

 I've decided to share my personal magickal alphabet. It is very lightly inspired by the Hebrew alphabet, so it uses mainly consonants; vowels are used only as marks.

https://www.scribd.com/document/1066228406/Magickal-Alphabet

Prejudice in occult practice

 This past week made me think a lot about my own prejudices. There are some practices I've been avoiding since I find them silly. A perfect example would be elemental posism from Pierre de Lasenic's Book of Works.

I never thought something like that would work. For me, the energy work is often synced with the breathing, and if there is any movement, it is repetitive and synced with the breath, as well. Something like Chi Kung makes sense to me. But just doing a single fluid movement and waiting? Never.

Yet, in this past week, the posism of the Air element has become a very useful addition to my repertoire.

Project: Working with elements - Day 11

 Today made me think about the positive and negative aspects of the elements.

Fire represents will and energy, as well as heat and getting things done. So, what is its negative aspect? It could probably be called choler, being quick to anger.

The air element represents communication, observation, intelligence, thinking, but also balancing of energies, and the vital force. And its negative aspect? Distractibility. The air element can get you scatterbrained.

Project: Working with elements - Day 10

 Oh boy, where to begin...

First, I am a bit frustrated with the traditional definition of the Air element as being hot and moist. For me is colder and definitely not moist, but light and moving, more windy than anything else.

Today I did some extra reading on the Air element, and interestingly, it is associated with Prana, as the breath of life. So from that perspective, Pranayama and Chi Kung work with the Air element.

Today I've also tried the Posism for the Air element based on Lasenic's work, and I have to say it works for me; the inside of the room immediately felt as if a light breeze was passing through.

Project: Working with elements - Day 9

 Nothing out of the ordinary happened today. The afterimage of the Air tattva was yellow both during the morning and evening trataka. However, only during the evening trataka was the image spinning.

What is interesting is that the afterimage's color matches the color of Earth's tattva. Maybe the water tattva should be the opposite of the Fire tattva; definitely gotta try to color match it before the new week begins.

Project: Working with elements - Day 8

 This was the first day of working with the Air element (Vayu). I have to say the weather today was pretty cold, and I missed the warm embrace of the Fire element. On the other hand, the windy weather was perfect for the accumulation of lightness in the body.

One weird experience during today's commute makes me think that the Air element has something to do with intuition, but I am not going to describe the event for privacy reasons.

It also felt that the time was sluggish today; it felt unnecessarily long to get through the day.

Another weird thing has happened during the evening trataka. The normally blue circle representing the Air tattva suddenly seemed purple for the gaze. The follow-up afterimage was yellow with jagged edges (sort of like flower petals), was spinning fast, and slowly getting smaller. I have no idea how this happened, but it was interesting nonetheless.

After the final release and banishment of the element, I realized my body suddenly felt heavy. I guess the Air element did bring some spring to my walk, and I got used to it during the day.

Project: Working with elements - Day 7

 The final day of the Fire element is behind me. Today I have used the symbol of Agni for trataka multiple times during the day, and yet again, only the final trataka has shown the symbol as orange.

And once again, it seemed that my body thermoregulates better when the Fire element is within. Heat seems natural, and cold just brushes off my skin. Let's hope that working with the Air element will be as illuminating.

For the next week, the tattva of Air (Vayu):