Putting Things in the Right Place

 

It is a commonplace among the fluffy bunnies and the white light crowd that you can't possibly engage in baneful magic because that disturbs the balance of the universe. I am probably caricaturing them rather but I understand this to be a misunderstanding of the idea of balance often found in martial arts. Morihei Ueshiba, the founder of Aikido put it as

合気道は天地人和合の道と理なり。
“Aikido is the Way and Principle of harmonizing Heaven, Earth and Man.”

 Source where you can read more of these ideas.

We also know that in magic thoughts are things and that things impact on each other in rather unexpected ways. What if the reality is that much of the energetic stuff we come across on a daily basis is in fact because of an imbalance? For example, if a work colleague is jealous of you, even if they don't say anything that would significantly impact on you. 

My suggestion would be that diagnosing and correcting these imbalances would be a major part of the witch's role. We are also of course priests and priestesses and so we have a role in divine correction of the universe's imbalances.

I suspect the fear of baneful magic, apart from being a doomed public relations exercise, comes from a worry about getting things wrong. That's easily dealt with - if you send something back where it comes from you'll see the correct source. If we don't put things in what I am calling the 'right' place it means someone whose business it isn't, carrying this weight, which is itself an imbalance.

Of course usually sending these things back doesn't involve drama. The event which prompted this post was that I bought an item of clothing from EBay (I do wear clothes sometimes). It took forever to arrive and was not as described when it came and I left feedback accordingly. The next day I got this message from the seller:

Mate.... 

Honestly be a human. The hoodie was fine mate. If your not happy send me a message rather than negative feedback and I’ll refund you rather than you paying for a broken hoodie? 

Let us know pal

Do I strike you as someone who might be his pal?! The simple fact is if you do what he did you expect the feedback he got - I suspect when a seller gets negative feedback eBay sends them a message saying (in Gordon Ramsay's voice), 'What the fuck do you think you're doing, you've upset the Hound'. And hesh now trying to get out of the consequences of his actions, so I know the energetic thing has gone back where it belongs. Going to the post office and sending back for a refund just feels too much like having the piss taken out of me by someone who can't be arsed.

Now you may say he won't learn his lesson and will just set up a new vendor account to start with no bad reviews, and of course he may do that. But I would put money on the same thing happening again if he does...

Ueshiba again:

「合気というものは、初め円を描く。円を描くこと、つまり対象力。相手に指一本ふれないでも相手は跳んでしまう。この一つのものをつくりあげるにも十年ぐらいはかかる。これからは大飛躍をしよう。」

“In this thing called Aiki, first describe (draw) a circle. Drawing a circle is, in other words, opposing powers. Without touching with even one finger your opponent will be sent flying. Just to be able to do this one thing takes about 10 years. Let’s try to advance quickly.”

Tarot: Modifying Decks

I can't claim to be an expert on modifying decks. I have done a couple of borderectomies in the past, with great success. This is the pocket size Rider Waite and I felt it wanted something done to its edges so I got a permanent marker and this is the result.

I looked at tutorials first - the only warning is you have to do one card at a time because if you try to do more the ink gets sucked between the cards and makes a mess. I am very pleased with this result and it seems to make the images jump out more.

Reading the Signs

One of the most ancient magical arts, and which has therefore been absorbed into the modern Craft is that of divination by signs and omens. Robert Cochrane gave crossing the Lethe, the mythological river of death, as another one and since it's the Christians' Good Friday I want to connect divining and endings or death.

Years ago a nun told me that Easter presents a problem in its celebration because we humans are not otherwise used to celebrating resurrections! I have no idea how the devotees of the many other gods who came back from the dead, celebrated this in the ancient world but it seems to me to present a real problem for most humans.

It is the exact problem that people have with the Death tarot card. It gets redefined to the point where it is hardly about death at all, but what is death but an inescapable ending? We cope with our fear of endings by tending to put them off or deny it completely. A good example would be the way half the world's population denies any forthcoming climate disaster and the other half are busy trying to put it off.

My own opinion is that it is very obvious that life on this planet will end at some point, even if we have to wait till the sun burns out. Of course it's quite likely we'll do it ourselves before then! My prediction is that if we don't end the world before the millenial generation get in control, it will then go better environmentally. I love the millenial generation for their strong sense of what is right and taking action.

The ability to face the omen rather than deny it may even be the difference between the witch figure and muggles.

This post was prompted in my mind by this article about a dead man who started breathing just as his organs were going to be harvested. I can't begin to think how difficult the situation must be for his family.

The Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Bill

What reaction did the government expect to a bill aiming to criminalise protest?

Just one word of advice to the protestors from a witch used to crossroads and graveyards on cold nights without the benefit of a burning police van to keep warm by - There's a plague out there so wear a mask. And leave your phone at home.

Guest Post: The Wickedest Street in Britain

Regular readers will know that I do these guest posts when we pass some significant or round figure in total page hits. 162,330 is not perhaps round or significant but it's certainly satisfying so the time is here. 

This is about the history of a road in Balsall Heath. The subsequent clear up of the area is a total other history and the city's red light district subsequently moved to Edgbaston before moving onto the internet and any odd corner. The Hound thinks licensing sex work is the way ahead, but nobody listens to me.

The piece is called Revisiting the Wickedest Road in Britain and is by Professor Val Williams. It is about the photographer Janet Mendelssohn.

'Mendelsohn was a visiting scholar at the Centre for Contemporary Cultural Studies at Birmingham University   from 1967 to 1969. Having studied Social Relations at Harvard’s all-women Radcliffe College, Mendelsohn became interested in documentary photography; in Birmingham she decided to study social conditions in the inner city, and began to work in and around Varna Road in Balsall Heath.

Originally a sedate and elegant nineteenth century middle- class suburb, by the 1960s, Balsall Heath had become known as Birmingham’s major red light district and as a centre for migration from South Asia. The once-elegant houses fell into decay, and were subdivided into rooming houses and shabby flats. Corner shops, pubs and cafés formed the social hubs of the community, and life on the streets was hectic and crowded. The combination of vitality and cheapness meant that, for a time, Balsall Heath became a draw both for Birmingham’s artistic bohemia and for students, as well as a centre for prostitution. Balsall Heath was a highly visible example of British post-war society in transition, with a complex mix of groups, new populations engaging with the more traditional. Balsall Heath was about to  undergo a relentless process of slum clearance and Varna Road, along with many other streets in the area, would cease to exist.

Mendelsohn’s Varna Road photographs focussed on the life of ‘Kathleen’ – sex worker, mother and Balsall Heath resident. These remarkable photographs, are intimate and collaborative, as Mendelsohn observed  ‘Kathleen’ in her day-to-day life. At the heart of the project are Mendelsohn’s photographs of Kathleen and her family at home.  Though Kathleen’s life was a challenging one, and her circumstances extremely straitened, Mendelsohn’s photographs of her are rich and poetic. Intimate, collaborative. Shot in available light, the gloomy, dishevelled interiors of Kathleen’s rooms assume a kind of grandeur, as with Kathleen as a gaunt but sublime Madonna.  These are photographs full of warmth and compassion, photographs made by a woman about another woman’s life. No two people could have been further apart than the high achieving Radcliffe student and the impoverished Birmingham prostitute, but there is real connection here.

Outside, on the street, in the café, outside the pub, the photography changes and becomes much more of an observation of life in Balsall Heath as reflected through Kathleen and her circle. Mendelsohn accompanies Kathleen as she chats with friends on street corners, pushes her pram, and visits the launderette; she even photographed the broken down bed where Kathleen took her clients. She observes Kathleen with her children in photographs of great poignancy. This is a many-layered study, where empathy meets sheer inquisitiveness on a massive scale.

Source.

A picture gallery of 1960s Varna Road can be found here

Further insight as well as wonderful period shots of the Second City can be found in the film Prostitute.

Spirit of Place: the Birmingham Grand National

 

You may not believe it that the Grand National was held in Birmingham so it's lucky there is film evidence. You also get to see the horses come out of the previous Register Office (now demolished) and glimpses of the Central Library (ditto).

Who is the African Despot in Etteilla Tarot Decks?

I love the wildness and oddness of Etteilla style decks compared to newer ones. They carry the atmosphere of traditional fortune telling rather than the esoteric society vibes of both Waite and Crowley. One card which can give people difficulties is Le Despote Africain, number 21, because while it is obviously related to the Chariot it's well off the wall.

I have three in my collection. A standard Grimaud Grand Etteilla (centre), the Lo Scarabeo Book of Thoth Etteilla tarot (left) and the Lo Scarabeo Tarots Egyptiens from the Anima Antiqua series (right). I am not equipped to tell you clearly what order they were originally published in but can tell you for certainty that none of them was actually designed by Etteilla himself. I love tarot history, don't you?

My investigation is also solely based on the resources available to me - I find the French of Etteilla's own writing to be so old fashioned it is well beyond my schoolboy French. But let's start off anyway. I have three prime candidates to be the African Despot.

The text on the right hand deck identifies him as Busiris, who it turns out was a probably legendary founder of Egypt featuring in some Greek legend:

a son of Poseidon and Libya or Lysianassa,^[4]was the ancient founder of Egyptian civilization, with an imagined "model constitution" that Isocrates sets up as a parodic contrast to the Republic by Plato. Plutarch says that his mother is Anippe,^[5]daughter of the river-god Nilus.^[6] The monstrous Busiris sacrificed all visitors to his gods. Heracles defied him, broke his shackles at the last minute and killed Busiris.

In Diodorus Siculus, Busiris appears as the founder of the line of kings at Thebes, which historically would have been the 11th Dynasty.

According to Hyginus, Busiris was the father of Melite who became the mother of Metus by her grandfather Poseidon.^[7]

This part of the mythology concerning Herakles appears to have origins in a corruption of an Egyptian myth concerning Osiris' sacrifice by Set, and subsequent resurrection (see Legend of Osiris and Isis). Source

Theck does give mythological names to the various characters, which was very common at the time. Busiris has the advantage of being African and also connected to the notional Egyptian origin of the tarot.

The LWB of the central fecd identifies the despot clearly as Rehoboam. I would note that that deck tends to take a more biblical approach to the characters depicted, and sure enough Rehoboam was a rather hopeless king of Judah. You can read more about Rehoboam here. I personally don't think he comes across as that much of a despot - certainly not in the Mugabe mould.

So what I have actually found out is that there are two streams contributing to the modern 'Etteilla' decks, one more biblical and the other a mythological reading of Egypt through Greek eyes. Since Etteilla's main thing was that the tarot was supposed to be Egyptian I feel Busiris fits better with the myth.