Norwich Independent Spiritual Congregation

Who is Lucifer and What is the Devil really doing?

The Devil card has a lesson for us all. When you look at the card closely you see a man and woman nude, and shackled by a chain attached to a collar around their necks. The Devil, represented as Baphomet, sits on a stony throne lording over the situation.

But look closely at the collar. It is ridiculously loose. The man and woman need only lift the collar off of their heads and behold, they are free. The choice is theirs entirely.

The Luciferian archetype is that of a fallen angel. Someone who comes down from high to walk among the lowly to teach them enlightment. The child who points out that the King is not wearing any clothes is an example of this archetype. Enlightenment is nothing more than a realization that the limitations we are taught to accept are not necessarily real. Enlightenment is the cultivation of true faith. Not faith like the modern Christians teach which would have you think that merely saying “I Believe” is faith. But rather faith is a careful dicipline of the will that can take a lifetime of dilligent work for some to develop while others simply realize it by accident.

Real faith is the power to cause changes, often seemingly miraculous changes, through manifestation of pure will. The bible has a saying, faith without works is dead. There is a secret in that statement. Faith is knowing that you can cause change, but it is also mindful of the accepted order of the Universe. If you want to move a mountain through faith then it is entirely possible that you could develop faith strong enough to do so simply by a look. But, are there more efficient ways to get the mountain moved? Why are you trying to move the mountain in the first place? Is it to get to the other side, or simply to show off? Is it possible that your true desire (or will) could be achieved more economically? How much do you really need to have that mountain moved? What are the consequences to others if you move it? Will you place the mountain in some farmer’s field thus destroying his livelihood?

Every action that we take is governed by a set of consequences. Lucifer is here to teach us that we have all of the power in the universe at our disposal to use for our own benefit or the benefit of all. The Devil stands in opposition telling us we aren’t good enough to drive fast and take chances, and that we are better off accepting the false illusion of the limits we accept.

Are we ready to take responsibility for wielding that power? Perhaps it is better, until we are sufficiently wise, to accept the yoke of this world until we can learn to wield that power in a manner that will not bring about consequences contrary to our ultimate desires.

But herin lies the rub. You will never grow wise unless you have the courage to make mistakes. The dog is kept safely on the leash and never knows the thrill of the wild hunt. The stag roams free through the wood, but is sometimes struck down by the wolf, or these days, a passing motorist.

If you want to taste freedom you must learn to accept the consequences of your actions. As Tupac Shakur was once quoted as saying

“You can spend minutes, hours, days, weeks or even months over-analying a situation; trying to put the pieces together, justifying what could’ve, would’ve happened … or you can just leave the pieces on the floor and just move the fuck on.”

Or as many children are taught in kindergarden:

Humpty dumpty sat on a wall, humpty dumpty had a great fall. All the kings horses and all the kings men, couldn’t put humpty together again.

“You can’t make an omelette without breaking eggs”

This is the Luciferian paradox. You cannot obtain wisdom without first knowing foolishness. Like the hanged man who smiles on the tree, accept your fate for what it is. Most important, revel in your mistakes and your scars for they are your greatest teachers. Never fear death, there are things much worse than death, such as a life received but never lived.

When the wolf gets caught robbing the hen house and the farmer places an ounce of lead in his hide, the wolf does not lay there bleating for help, he runs away as best he can and licks his wounds till he either heals or dies. Next time he tries to be more careful.

As Janis Joplin used to sing:

“Freedom is just another word for nothing left to loose”

Freedom requires giving up our attachments, driving fast and taking chances. But only if you really know what you are doing. Wisdom, is learning to know when to push the pedal to the floor and when to set your cruise control for 15 MPH.

Baphomet, is a Hebrew epigram of Sophia, which represents wisdom. The Lucifer brings us the fire, but it is entirely up to us to decide whether we use the fire to cook our dinner, or to burn down the house.

Just remember, your limits are superficial, and you can lift off the yoke any time you choose. But be forewarned, with freedom comes responsibility. Freedom is not for cattle and lambs, it was always meant for wolves and rams.

Today I was asked by a dear friend of mine who is a long practicing Witch whether or not I followed the Rede as espoused by Gerald Gardner. For those of you who are unfamiliar with the Rede, it is simply this: “An it harm none do what ye will” which in contemporary English simply means: “Do what you will, so long as it harms none”

While this is a very pleasant and wonderously idealistic notion, any thoughtful person will soon realize that there really isn’t much at all that a person can do without harming something somewhere. Harm is a very personal thing. The cockroach in the kitchen will feel harm if the cook in the kitchen takes steps to sanitize he kitchen. Likewise if the cook considers the cockroaches feelings, then something else must in turn be harmed.

I have long held to the notion that the Crowley rede was much more workable:
Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law - Love is the Law, love under Will

It is likely that Crowley derived this rede from the writings of Francois Rabelais who in 1534 wrote:

DO AS THOU WILT because men that are free, of gentle birth, well bred and at home in civilized company possess a natural instinct that inclines them to virtue and saves them from vice. This instinct they name their honor

John Stuart Mill advocated that “the sole purpose of law should be to stop people from harming others and that should people want to participate in victimless crimes, crimes with no complaining witness, such as gambling, drug usage, engaging in prostitution, then they should not be encroached in doing so.”

In chaper 1 of his treatise “On Liberty” he defines the harm principle as follows:

The object of this Essay is to assert one very simple principle, as entitled to govern absolutely the dealings of society with the individual in the way of compulsion and control, whether the means used be physical force in the form of legal penalties, or the moral coercion of public opinion. That principle is, that the sole end for which mankind are warranted, individually or collectively, in interfering with the liberty of action of any of their number, is self-protection. That the only purpose for which power can be rightfully exercised over any member of a civilized community, against his will, is to prevent harm to others. His own good, either physical or moral, is not sufficient warrant. He cannot rightfully be compelled to do or forbear because it will be better for him to do so, because it will make him happier, because, in the opinion of others, to do so would be wise, or even right… The only part of the conduct of anyone, for which he is amenable to society, is that which concerns others. In the part which merely concerns himself, his independence is, of right, absolute. Over himself, over his own body and mind, the individual is sovereign.

The foundation of the Constitution is built on this very principle, that all men are created equal and are entitled to certain basic freedoms. However our constitution doesn’t seem to go so far as Mr. Mill.

In recent years we have seen an increasing amount of legislation passed to prevent people from doing things like using drugs, or prostitution on the premise that these actions harm others. My thinking on this of course is that the motive behind most of this legislation is twofold: 1. Accumulation of power by corporate interests, 2. Pandering to fundamentilists of one flavor or another in order to further the aims of number 1.

An analysis of the structure and method of enforcement of such legislation will quickly reveal that it is largely ineffective in promoting the greater good of the members of society and therefore it is unlikely that more compassionate motives are behind it.

But getting back to harm and law. The Gardnerian Charge of the Goddes contains the following:

“Keep pure your highest ideal, strive ever towards it; let naught stop you or turn you aside, for mine is the secret door which opens upon the door of youth”

This is supposed to serve as a guide in dealing with ethical dilemas and in truth it is a pretty good one. However it doesn’t assure that great harm will not be done. Adolf Hitlers higest ideal was to promote the “Creative” races and to eliminate the dissolution that mixing with the “Emulating” or “Destructive” races caused to civilization so that once and for all a civilization could be built that would stand the tests of the ages because there would be nothing to dilute the purity of the blood of the “Creative” race.

Now I sincerely believe that Hitler stuck to his highest ideal. None the less, a great many people were harmed. As it turns out, the so called “Emulating” and “Destructive” races had more creativity than he anticipated and they kicked his behind in WWII. Lucky for anyone who was not of “pure” blood.

I love taking walks in the Woods. Nature has a beauty that is un paralelled in any human art. But how is this beauty created? What makes a tree so beautiful? Does it strive to be beautiful? I don’t think that it strives for anything but what it needs. A tree strives to fulfil it’s own needs and to make itself as healthy as it can be by reaching for the sun, and digging deep into the earth for nourishment. In so doing it creates a structure upon which we gaze and percieve beauty.

Does a tree do no harm? Of course it does harm. Other light craving plants that are unable to reach as high or as quickly as the tree, will die in it’s shadow. Yet, there are other plants that depend upon the tree’s shadow for protection from full sunlight. These latter types of plants grow up around the tree. Nature and it’s beauty come from the interplay of forces each of which seeks to fulfil it’s own ends without regard to the other beings of nature. These forces are self serving, but not intrusive. A blade of grass does not try to pass legislation against purple flowers simply because purple is a lewd and offensive color.

Each being in nature tries to meet it’s own needs and other than that, adopts a live and let live philosophy. Some of nature’s beings have learned to work together for the collective good of the group.

Mankind, took this principle much further and over the course of ages achieved a critical mass in which man was able to create a separate ecology that emulates nature while at the same time being separate from it. This ecology is referred to as civilization. While the ecology of civilization is separate from nature, individual men (and women) cannot be separated from nature and survive. We still depend upon nature to obtain that which we need for our bodies to survive. Without the bodies, the minds would loose their place in the material world, and this separate ecology called civilization would vanish into thin air.

So civilized man has a special problem that no other creature faces. He is part of 2 ecologies. The ecology of man, and the ecology of nature. To thrive he must thrive in both worlds. For 2000 years men have emphaisized the ecology of civilization, but now is the time to return our attention to the ecology of nature because we need both to survive.

What Hitler percieved to be the “Creative” races were those folks who tended to focus their attention to the ecology of civilization. Whereas those “Primitive” peoples whom he referred to as the “Destructive” races were frequently the same folks who remembered that they were part of the ecology of nature as much as the ecology of man. He was doomed to fail even if he had won the war and taken over the world because he would have tilted the balance too far in favor of civilization at the expense of the natural.

We need to be cognizant of the fact that harm is a natural part of the ecology of nature. The more dynamic a civil ecology becomes (sometimes an aspect of the civil ecology is referred to as economy, but that only describes a portion of he elephant), the more that it will emulate nature. This is because the two systems are isomorphic. Therefore as civilization progresses, it will look more and more like nature and natures law will prevail.

By Fionndamnh 

There are those within the NISC congregation who proudly bear the signification Witch; hence the URL norwitches.org.  But to understand what this means to us we should first consider the etymology of the word “witch”.

Theorists have come up with many viable origins for the word “witch”. The most popular of these are the Proto Indo-European Theories. They are weik, weik and weid.  Most English dictionaries will use one of these three sources to describe the origins of ‘witch’.

According to The American Heritage Dictionary of Indo-European Roots, weik actually has five distinct etymological branches but only the two are attributed to the supernatural. In contrast, the Concise Dictionary of English Etymology, proponent of the ‘weid’ premise, states that ‘witch’ primarily comes from the word ‘witan’ through a series of phonetic changes.By combining these 5 elements of the etymology we can begin to discern the true heart of a witch.  See: http://www.agnosticwitch.catcara.com/witch-etymology.htm

1. A witch is one who first and foremost desires to see and to know.  Witches typically set thier own moral compas and march to their own drum.  We are out of the box thinkers who strive to find that which is best for us and not to allow others to dictate the path that we follow.  We share knowledge responsibly but we do not try to force others to adopt our beliefs.

2. Secondly, a witch seeks to learn the ways by which they can bend or fold.  Sometimes this involves certain kinds of magical pracices whereby the odds of a certain event happening are “bent” in “favor” of the witches desire.  This sort of bending is often referred to as the Lesser Magick.

More importantly a witch seeks to bend and fold themselves like a fine sword until they become strong and flexible human beings capable of discernment and inspiration.  This personal growth strategy is often referred to as the Greater Magick.

3. Many (not all) witches feel that there are non corporeal intelligences which can be of benefit to the witch as they follow their path.  These “divine” intelligences are often referred to as Gods and Goddesses, or Angels, or Demons depending on the practicioner.  It is interesting to note that the word “divine” (e.g. “Supernatural” Intelligences) and “divination” (To discern the present and find guidance for future action) share a common root.

4. Witches sooner or later come round to the idea that their body is a temple and that by extension so is their life.  Thereby we often conclude that it is best to choose activities that are wholesome and build us up in a clean and pure way.  We frequently adopt the view that our wholesome choices not only serve us but by extension serve the universe at large.  Much the way that a tree grows straight and tall so that it can satisfy it’s hunger for sunlight, but by doing this it also provides benefit to the environment around it.

However witchtes being the independent creatures that we are learn for ourselves in our own way that which is right for us and that which is wrong.  A cactus will never thrive in a swamp, nor can a lillypad thrive in the desert.

5. Finally a witch practices magick, but what is magick?  To get a good grasp of what this word means to a true witch we can look at the very well spoken definition given by Alestair Crowley in his thesis “The Book of Thoth”:

“Magick is the science and art of causing change to occur in conformity with the Will.  In other words, it is Science, Pure and Applied.  This thesis has been worked out at great length by Dr. Sir J. G. Frazer.  But in common parlance the word Magic has been used to mean the kind of science which ordinary people do not understand.  It is in this restricted sense, for the most part, that the word be used ill this essay.

The business of Science is to explore nature.  It’s first questions are, What is this? How did it come to be?  What are its relations with any other object?  The knowledge acquired may then be used in Applied Science, whichs asks: How can we best employ such-and-such a thing or idea for the purpose that, to us, seems fit?”

So as witches we are first and foremost dedicated to the principle of independent exploration into the divine and the natural.  We dedicate our lives to the betterment of ourselves and the consequential betterment of the world around us.

Blessed Be