Happy Feast of St. George the Dragonsayer and St. Mark’s Eve! Today we commemorate the Warrior Saint who defeated a wicked Dragon to save the People of the land. Modern Christians say the Dragon is just symbolism for the Devil. I leave you to make your own conclusions. St. Mark the Evangelist is one of the Apostles of Jesus Christ. And like George who is shown with a Dragon, he’s shown with a Lion.
This is connected to the story that John Mark was traveling with his Father and two Lions had found them. The Father begged his son to go save himself. He was prepared to die for his son. But Mark told him Christ would save them. He prayed and both Lions fell dead in front of them.
What’s interesting is that he is linked with Pagan iconography where the Lion has wings (a Sphinx). Others say the Winged Lion motif looks a lot like the Shedu or Guardian Spirits from Babylon. The prevailing Christian argument is that it’s an Angel with the head of a Lion. And yes there are Angels like that. But they also seem to be related to these entities.
Now I could go in and make a longer history. But that’s not what I want to talk about now. The best time to do magic of any kind, positive or negative alike is on the Eve of a Saint’s Day. St. George and St. Mark’s Eve are prime examples of that. And all sorts of weird folklore is associated with these days.
For example Werewolves on St. George’s Eve. Or Divination done to know the future on both George and Marks’s Eve. The Eve of John the Baptist is said to be when Werewolves in Louisiana congregate and have a ball on the Bayou. So I am announcing that for those interested I am doing a divination today and tommorow. I will be channeling the awesome powers of these days to divine things even from the past.
The Eve of St. George is said to be a scary time. It’s a time when evil spirits seem to be ready to come out of the woodwork to terrify humanity. Even Bram Stoker, in his novel Dracula, had mentioned it. People also used it to divine. They would venture out at night, knowing the risk of the wicked spirits coming at them to find treasures.
It was believed that Will-O’-the-wisps would appear and hover above lost treasures buried deep within forests and lands. Some say those are the Ghosts themselves of those who buried the riches. Others don’t know what’s going on. My belief is the Veil becomes thin during this time time as it does on Halloween. Which makes it perfect to see things that normally are hidden. That’s why I focus on Divination.
Others talk about St. Mark’s Eve being even stronger. In the old days, people would hold a Vigil for St. Mark’s Eve. And those who were brave enough, would venture to a Catholic Church and see the Ghosts of people who hadn’t died yet. People who would die before or by the end of the year. There are still Paranormal Groups who do this to try and get evidence.
Technically, St. Mark’s Eve won’t start until the stroke of Midnight on Friday. But, today is the day after the New Moon. This is the original Astrological Nones of this Month. The Nones in Ancient Rome were originally calculated like that rather than having set days. The Nones are considered bad luck because as with other cultures, the New Moon is the time of the dead.
And wicked or dark spirits can be out to play in our world. What makes it worse is that the Nones were not ruled over by any Heavenly Deities. Unlike the Ides and the Kalends of the month. So we have a strong Cthonic Pulse from which to draw from if you know Necromancy. To make it even Stronger, St. George’s Eve was yesterday.
And Saturday which comes right after, is a day ruled by the Dead and Gods of the Dead. There are lots of possibilities for magic here. So for those who wish, I’ll divine for you. In the meantime, please enjoy these links!
Pretty much everything in the title describes what is happening Saturday. And I haven’t even finished mentioning the other holidays. And it’s Shani Pradosha in the Hindu Calender for Shiva. Which means we have a massive holiday and feast this Saturday. The Sky Goddess Nwt (Nut) of Ancient Egypt is celebrating her birthday tomorrow.
Briganti (Brighid) the Goddess of Fire, Poetry, Healing, and so much more is being celebrated on Imbolc. This is the second year that the Astronomical feast of Imbolc falls on the same day as Candlemas. Originally, Feb 2nd was turned into Candlemas because that was the day Imbolc was celebrated that one year. But the Catholics either didn’t realize or didn’t care, that some Pagan holidays change with the seasons. So they kept celebrating the Christian version of Imbolc on the same day.
While the actual day kept changing days every year. Whenever Imbolc and Candlemas coincide, I notice an alignment of energy between the Christian and Pagan faiths. All that faith concentrated on one day. Imbolc begins at Sunset tomorrow and ends Sunset on Sunday. If the weather is bad, that means the Winter will end soon and Spring will come faster.
If the weather is good and sunny, we’re in for a long Winter. For nature’s sake I hope that Persephone can leave with Hekate early from the Underworld so that she can become Kore the Maidan Goddess of Spring again. The polar vortex has already killed too many people. And the animals are afraid. They need the seasons to become normal again.
Sadly, for that to happen we need politicians to stop denying Global Warming. We need real action. Yemaya also has one celebration tomorrow (dates vary). And it’s Inventor’s Day and National Hedgehog Day in the US! Yay! No matter what feast you choose to celebrate, make sure you do offerings for spring to hurry the Hell up and get here already. I will be performing a special forecast on events for you tomorrow. Doing all the proper Divinations and services and letting you know what turns up.
I did a divination with the Gods yesterday after beginning my road opener rituals with Elegua. I also honored other Gods and spirits of the crossroads. I honored the Inari (or fox) spirits that guard the temples in Japan. I celebrated the birth of Aion and I also recreated as best as I could, the original Greek Haloa festival at sunset. I gave offerings of the first fruits to Demeter, Kore, and to Poseidon Phytalmios (Poseidon as the God of plants and fresh water).
When I celebrate holidays I tend to tap into energy that lets me see the past, present, and future. I left my offerings when I noticed the corpse of a large predatory bird. It had been flattened by a car. Now normally this is nothing out of the ordinary. Birds and other animals die that way all the time; but never a bird of that size. It was odd because the way it was flattened left me with the impression that it was trying to take flight the moment it died. Maybe it was wounded and couldn’t escape. I poured a libation to that poor animal, praying for that poor creature to cross over.
I went to get some more offerings for my home but then I kept finding more dead animals in higher numbers. Everything from a bird, to an animal so degraded that it couldn’t be identified, and a large rodent. It was odd. I was reminded of an old story about how the Gods Gwydion and Math saw corruption falling from the trees, and knew something terrible had happened. Later they found Lleu Llaw Gyffes wounded in bird form; his own wife had sent her lover to kill him.
I felt that same sense of foreboding here. That sense that everything was not okay. I just couldn’t figure out what. Animals don’t normally die here in such a high number and so close together. But whenever I see such a higher than normal mortality among animals, I know something’s wrong. If you know your land well, you can just tell. What other people view as mere coincidence, you can recognize as a pattern of omens. I wasn’t the only person who had noticed it either. My mentor Roberto had noticed it too. When he returned New Year’s Day, he spoke to me about it.
“You’ve seen the letter of the year right?” was the first thing that came out of his mouth rather than hello. I told him that I had, and that I had never seen such a shitty letter of the year either. “When I was in Cuba, the celebrations died down two hours after midnight.” I told him the same thing had happened here, which I also thought was weird because New Year’s in any part of Florida usually lasts at least until 3am. I thought it was just us. “Cuba is a country that parties all of the time. You go out at any time, day or night and you won’t see one moment pass without people on street corners. Without dancing or food or conversation. None of that happened this time. Not even with the whole ‘Triumph of the Revolution’ parties they do on New Year’s. Absolutely nothing,”
“It couldn’t have been that bad,” I said. “There must have at least been a few drunks falling over into the street or something,” “Cuba looked desolate. Like a ghost town. Never in my whole life, before or after the Revolution saw this. This is a first, and it gave me a chill… a bad feeling… as if the end of the world was coming. I prayed a few Our Father’s to drive away that feeling of impending doom. Hours later, at 5am when my ride was ready to take me to the airport, it was the same shit.”
That conversation haunted me yesterday. After I did all of my celebrations, I focused only on my road opener. I began to divine using the Bible. I asked what was going on. The Bibliomancy gave me Job 30:28-31
28 “I go about blackened, but not by the sun; I stand up in the assembly and cry for help. 29 I have become a brother of jackals, a companion of owls. 30 My skin grows black and peels; my body burns with fever. 31 My lyre is tuned to mourning, and my pipe to the sound of wailing,”
I asked what was going on and recieved the 2 Samuel 24. This portion of 2 Samuel is probably as bad or even worse than the book of Job. Because ancient Israel (or Palestine) was being smot by a plague that God spread all over the country. He sent an Angel to spread it with an Angelic sword. And he did it to punish King David.
This story is often called “The Fall of David” and it has to do with David’s hubris. The plague killed thousands of people. It would have wiped out all of the Kingdom if God hadn’t felt pity for them.
I took time to allow the holy spirit to guide me. After carefully reading this text, I interpreted this to mean, that because of our current rulers, a wave of wrath comes our way. This means that everything from disease to extreme violence is coming.
We were warned already. But it would seem that it’s even worse than I thought. The arrogance the rulers across the planet has offended the Gods. In France, the people have formed the French Free Army or Yellow Vest Movement against Emmanuel Macron and his neoliberal policies. We just had a coup in Gabon a few days ago, where rebel soldiers in the military deposed dictator Ali Bongo from power. Of course the US and France already have their hands in the new government and several rebels were captured at the airport, something which is already angering Africans both in and out of the continent.
In India, 200 Million union workers are on strike because India’s autocratic leader Narendra Modi, has plunged the country into despotism and poverty. More people are unemployed under his rule than before and the prices for everything have risen at the same time. The Indian police are cracking skulls even at peaceful protests. Now he’s attempting to pass a law to further limit workers and union rights. This led to the current unrest in the country.
Then we have the coups in both Honduras and Brazil. The Honduras coup is what created the refugee crisis in the first place. Honduran dictator Juan Orlando Hernandez wants to give himself unlimited terms, something that he criticised the elected President Zelaya for, and Brazil’s leading far right populist Jair Bolsonaro is getting ready to steam roll the Amazon for profits. We have the war in Donbass as rebels fight the far right regime in Ukraine.
Despite American and European attempts to make the Ukrainian government look like “the good guys” and the rebels as “pro Russian separatists” finally, here at home in the US, things are reaching a fever pitch. Trump has forced this country into a stalemate.
He announced last night that he refuses to lift the government shutdown; not until the Democrats vote for funding of this foolish, racist, wall of his. For now they claim until he lifts the shut down, they won’t discuss anything. So we’re caught in world wide struggles that will be felt everywhere. The Gods who have been observing this have finally had their fill. They’re putting their collective feet down.
“Enough,” they say. “We will tolerate this no more,” and so, they are sending us “plagues”. Not necessarily diseases (although some of what will come our way is that), but afflictions to punish the human nations. All of this is part of the reaping, and part of Ogun’s execution of justice against the corrupt. But because the wicked have power, whatever effects them will spread to the rest of us because they’re in charge.
I asked them, “Why us? Why are we being punished along with the wicked?” I didn’t have to turn any pages because the Gods answered me through Claircognizance. I felt them say, “We’re not punishing you. We’re punishing them. But they are the rulers of this world, and to save themselves they will try to sacrifice as many of you as possible. They will tear apart their own infrastructures to do it. But this does not mean the end of the world. Just hard times. We do it to put an end to their rule, and because humanity has grown far too complacent. You all need a wake up call.”
So yes, dark times are coming, and no it isn’t Armageddon. It is a universal wake up call. It is obstacles put in our path to wake us up, because they have tried being gentle and nurturing to us, and it isn’t working. Humanity has grown spoiled, and it needs to change. They’re like parents watching a kid enter a life of crime. They’re shaking us all up the only way they know how. So, without further interruptions, these are the New Year’s Recommendations they gave me.
Tai Sui of 2019, Xie Tai:
“Be honest and kind in all things, especially to yourself. Lying to yourself now will set you up for years of pain later. Total honesty is needed. That doesn’t mean it has to be done in an aggressive manner but it needs to be done. Learn to love your fellow citizens and help them. But he who practices deceit shall meet the sword,”
The sword here doesn’t mean death. It means punishment.
Oshun:
“Don’t just meditate on nature, help it. Get involved with nature conservation projects. Aid in clean ups in your neighborhood. If you see filth on the floor, even if you didn’t litter, pick it up anyways. It won’t kill you to do something nice for the forces that keep you alive.”
“Do rituals for all warrior Gods and Goddesses and especially Messiahs, Demi Gods, and culture heroes. Call on them to lead the ancestral dead to battle against the darker forces which threaten you. Also give offerings to Gods of the dead for the crossing or purification of the dead.” In addition to this, I also did a divination invoking Jesus since he’s a Messiah as well as Princess Ponompuan who is a female redeemer figure in the old religion of Kadazandusun. She sacrificed her life to save humanity from a horrible famine. Her flesh and her blood became the red rice paddies that feed people in that part of the world today. I asked what they had said to do, and they showed me a vision of me, feeding all of my altars outside with fresh food, asking the Gods and the spirits who inhabit these places of worship, to reinforce the land for these tough times. This will reinforce it for the rest of the year. It may be a good idea also to cleanse and bless our homes. Ward them nice and good for all the spiritual darkness still headed our way. I remind you now that I am not a Babalawo or any person of import in any religion or group of people.
Oxaguiã as well as Dionysus:
I am a soothsayer. I interpret omens and dreams and do divinations. I’m not the only one out there. You’ll find many people like me across traditions. That said, this is my very first time doing a New Year’s reading of any sort and because of that, take what I say with a grain of salt. Because I am a man not a divine being. Still, I know what I’ll be up to these next few days. The only other thing to point out is that the Brazilians are saying that this year will be ruled by Neptune and Mars, Fire and Water.
Conflicts are on the rise. I get the feeling that it will start really getting bad in mid February. But that’s just a guess. How will you tread this year?
M
PS : All of us have always been instructed to make good Talismans with offerings to both spirits and Gods to keep us safe this year. So divine with your own guides and get to work my friends. If not, set up a session with me and I will divine it for you.
So yesterday, began the three day feast of Diana also known as Artemis. Specifically, Diana Nemorensis (Diana of Nemi). She rules over a lake with a sacred grove near the lazio region of the south of Rome. The lake is also known as “Diana’s Mirror”. On this feast, her spirits, the Querquetulanae (oak nymphs) prepare to welcome any human worshippers while celebrating the Deity herself.
Also known as the festival of torches, no one is allowed to hunt and kill animals at this time. Celebrants go to the grove of Nemi carrying torches with small parchments of paper with written requests for her. They tie them in string and leave them near sacred trees at the grove. Others will actually leave statuettes of her or clay formations of body parts that need healing. Or at least this was how it was done in Roman times.Offerings were also made to Hekate. For some reason the Romans seemed to have believed she and Trivia (Hekate) were the same person. This is because Diana had three aspects. In modern times, many Neo Pagan groups have used this day specifically for Hekate.
The Nemoralia was celebrated both from August 13-15 and also on the full moon of August.It depends on where your sources lie. Of course the accounts say the torch light mingled with the moonlight in Nemi’s waters. So it may have been celebrated twice. It is also the feast of Pomona and Vertumnus, the Roman Goddess of fruit and vegetation. And the Roman God of Seasons and Change as well as vegetation.While it was still daylight, I honored them using my Hellenic altar. I gave them the first fruits of the land. Not every Hellenic, or Roman Pagan agrees with these Gods being the same. I’m one of the few that do believe in at least some of them being the same. It makes sense that beings as powerful as Gods or Goddesses would have been known back then to more than one culture.
And they may have even have been given different names. The Yoruba practitioners in North America for instance, have told me they believed Amphitrite is the same as Yemaya.
Who knows? I’m no one to contradict either group. Now, on the offerings to both Pomona and her husband. What the apartment complex has is what Cubans call Cundeamor. In English, it’s called Bitter Mellon.
A small orange fruit that grows on the vines that grow on fences. It has both medical and magical properties. It’s sacred to Oshun in Santeria as it has properties in love and healing. I’ve used it to make Lustral Waters. The water turns cherry red when I strain the fruit inside it.
Very beautiful. It has a faint nature smell to it I like and you only need to strain one. It makes me think of cleansing. Purification. It is a natural anti inflammatory. And it is a natural cure to potions and powders left behind by witches to curse their enemies.
My Godfather taught me that when strained in water it could be used to heal a person who stepped on the powder or potion. Cundeamor would be strained in water. Once the feet were washed with the Cundeamor water, the person was healed of the black magic. That is a perfect offering to Lady Pomona. Legend has it, that she was originally a wood nymph so beautiful, that woodland Gods had tried to court her.
She told them all where they could go. It was finally the God Vertumnus who tricked her into marriage. He shape shifted into an old woman and talked her into marriage with him. Marrying a God can make a person become a God. So her marriage to him caused her to be deified.
Vertumnus, as an old woman, told her the story of Iphis and Anaxarete. Stressing how it was dangerous to turn down suitors coming to court her. Then later he appeared in his form to offer her marriage. I’m guessing you can figure out the rest from there? I try not to laugh too hard at this because my Lady gets upset. But she knows I love her very much.
She reached out to me back when I had no idea who she was. I had no clue why a nature deity would care if I worshipped her or not. It turns out, just because I don’t know how to garden doesn’t mean I can’t be close to nature. I believed that you had to be good at that because that’s what my ex made me believe. My knowledge of nature was colored with her lense of what it was or wasn’t.
As a necromancer, I find dead animals and give them proper burials. I ask whoever I feel is their God to take them. I also help protect the plants and animals where I live. I feed and water them. The animals feast on the offerings of my outside nature Altars.
And I even have groves around my complex that I use to honor the Gods on special occasions. I also found that I like Vertumnus a lot. He really is a trickster. He always makes her and me feel happy and lightens the mood. She does love him.
She gets angry but not in an actual anger sort of way. She tries to get mad at him whenever I read the story of how he courted her. But she bursts out laughing every time. Her laughter is so strong that at times I feel it on the wind outside. She is one of my favorite Godly relatives.
And my Lady Hekate, was ready for her offerings as well. I gave her a proper feast on the crossroads before going to the river behind my home. It has a Grove of it’s own for Diana of Nemi. Instead of an actual torch I am going to use a flashlight. I debated whether to use my electric lantern or not.
But there are other apartments back there and I really don’t want to attract any attention. I brought offerings for the Native spirits here in Florida as well as offerings for the Querquetulanae. But first, offerings to Hekate. As I mentioned yesterday in my post on Ghost Month, there seems to be many parallels happening all at once. Because now I will be giving offerings to Hekate as well as Diana of Nemi for three straight days.
Feasts of Hekate are always so that the dark dead can move on in peace. Hekate is the Goddess of the triple crossroads. She is a master of witchery in all it’s forms and a guide or psychopomp, to the dead. She’s worshipped not just by Hellenic Pagans but also by Wiccans. Especially Wiccans with a Celtic influence.
They believe that she and the Morrigan are like sisters. Not literal sisters, but friends. They both share the Crossroads. Hekate has many powerful functions in both religions and in magic. Idols of Hekate can be placed outside the home to ward off evil spirits.
And at least once a month, she destroys negative energy and takes away all the nasty ghosts in the area with her. For this reason, I called on Hekate to help me bless the food for the Hungry Ghosts. The reason for this is because the Ullambana Sutra is long as Hell, pun intended. Reading some of the sacred scriptures in all religions is similar to reading the Bible. Long and takes a lot of time.
And as much as I wish I had the time to pray over food with a gigantic sutra three times, I don’t. With Hekate I do a simple prayer. Then in Latin I do a benediction so that the spirits who eat the food are crossed over. I was doing it long before I ever heard of the Hungry Ghost festival. I noticed that crime and bad things in general actually decreased everytime I did this ritual on Hekate’s Deipnon (feast).
This is done once a month. So Hekate is a tried and true ally in not only neutralizing the bad spirits, but crossing them over. I have never met the same bad spirit twice. Eventually, she started bringing new bad spirits to my crossroads shrine to be crossed. The most issues we have here believe it or not actually come from cops.
Usually trying to over-exercise their authority and give out tickets for literally anything and everything. That includes “driving too slow”. But in terms of actual crimes, the one thing that happened was a guy who got drunk once four years ago and had to be arrested. The Catholics often talk about how Mexico is plagued by bad spirits and this is the reason for all the crime there. They have even attempted mass exorcisms to drive away the demons they think are over there.
Sadly, crooked governments don’t need spirits to be crooked. However, I can say that based on my little experiment, negative entities can and do make things worse. So, since either way we need Hekate for her own feast plus the Nemoralia, I called on her to care for the Hungry Ghosts at my Crossroads shrine. There, they are neutralized. Her spirits, the Empusae handle them well.
They take on the form of donkey headed men and women, and keep them in check. None of the entities have caused trouble. I first called on Elegua for help and he and his Eshu spirits on the Crossroads have also helped by protecting us specifically. Her spirits are the most aggressive hands on people here. They even force some of the Hungry Ghosts to come to eat.
They make sure they get booted off. My work on the Crossroads yields great rests. The ever expanding relationship I have with it and it’s spirits turned out to be more practical than I had ever imagined. So now I have other prayers to make for the hungry ghosts. That’s it for now everyone. – M
Adventures of A Mage In Miami 