-
Vivianne Crowley’s Wicca: A Comprehensive Guide to the Old Religion
Hi all,
I mentioned a few of these religion connections in the chat of the meeting, but as a fan of comparative religion, I found several more in Chapters 5 & 6. I’m not saying there are phylogenetic relationships, but just similarities.
1. What is above is like what is below, etc., Emerald Tablet of Hermeticism – said to have changed more to synchronicity in Wicca. 9th page of Ch 5
2. samadhi and the contemplative state, Hinduism; 7th page of Ch 5
3. poppets, Babylonia at least 1000 BCE; 8th page of Ch 5
4. dreamtime, I don’t know if Crowley is referring to the aboriginal Australian ancient dreamtime/dreaming concepts or just dreaming while you sleep.
5. Tibetan tulpa, “The objects that we use must be brought to
life and given a consciousness of their own.” 10th page of Ch 56. tarot, runes, I Ching, Astrology 11th page of Ch 5
7. “The dances
were led by a shaman priest” & “The dance is a feature of Dionysian religion” 13th page of Ch 58. When none of the Moon’s light is hidden: “Wiccan meetings usually take place near the full Moon is the long
held belief that the Moon affects our physical and etheric bodies and that
our psychic and magical abilities are greater at the full Moon.” Babylonia at least 1000 BCE. 14th page of Ch 5(more later)
-
5 Replies
-
9. “Earth and Water, Air and Fire.” Not sure…ancient Greek? The Witches’ Rune,
“Hornèd Hunter of the night” I’m pretty sure the horned god is from Greek Pan, but the Mesopotamian and Egyptian deities had horns back to 2700 BCE at least and some ancient Indo-European deities also had them. 18th page of Ch 5.
10. “Flesh to flesh and bone to bone, Sinew to sinew and vein to vein, And each one shall be whole again.” I’ve heard this in Indo-European, but I need to check it. 19th page of Ch 5.
11. “in becoming close to our animal selves we also find the source of our Divinity– which was the great insight of Dionysian Paganism.” Also in some ancient Animism/Shamanism-like practices. 19th page of Ch 5.
12. Initiatory traditions – old as dirt. 1st page of Ch 6
13. Divine spark – Gnosticism, Hermetism, Platonism 1st page of Ch 6
14. Egyptian ankh, 4th page of Ch 6
15. The Mysteries of Isis, Eleusis and Mithras. I’m not sure anyone today knows much of what they actually did. 5th page of Ch 6
16. “The neophyte stage is akin to the postulant in religious orders.” I’m not familiar with the postulant term. Sounds Catholic. 6th page of Ch 6.
17. The initiation ceremony is similar to Qabalistic and Masonic initiations. 8th page of Ch 6.
18. “By the Celts.” 8th page of Ch 6.
19. “To pass through the gateway of initiation, we have to be willing to cast aside our persona and to enter the circle as we first entered the world, naked, vulnerable and free of all pretence.” This is very similar to Inanna’s removing garments at each gate to the underworld, Kur, in the 2nd millennium BCE “Descent of Inanna.” 8th page of Ch 6.
20. “Fire is within you and fire is without you; f ire that does not burn because you yourself are fire.” Similar to the Hermetic body of flame the soul takes on after death. 14th page of Ch 6.
21. “Far below you, you can see the flaming orb of the sun; but leaving this behind, you turn and float away, leaving behind you all the Elements, and reaching Nothing. Be at peace now in the silence of the temple of the Gods.” Similar to Middle Platonist and Hermetic spheres of ascension to the Ogdoad. 14th page of Ch 6.
22. ” Perfect Love is a love that loves others because they carry a spark of the Divine within them;” – Hermetic and Neo-Platonic. 17th page of Ch 6
23. the Shadow, Ancient Doppelganger mytheme/archetype. 22nd page of Ch 6
24. “The initiate’s measure is then taken with a piece of cotton, wool or string.” The measure is likely a part of the ancient Mesopotamian Rod and Ring and also the Egyptian Shen Ring.
25. “The initiation ceremonies of our ancestors and of tribal peoples included physical ordeals. For these peoples physical endurance was very valuable.” Quests to the brink of death in First Nation, Shamanism and other initiations.
26. Several of the above came to Wicca by way of Aleister Crowley, Theosophy and Renaissance Esotericists.
-
#10. See “Second Merseburg Charm” 900s CE, Germany; “Codex Vatincanus 4395 bl. 83a” similar place and time;
-
Also, I forgot Cord Magic, which I was not familiar with, and Hindu Chakras on the 9th and 10th pages of Ch 5.
-
“4. dreamtime, I don’t know if Crowley is referring to the aboriginal Australian ancient dreamtime/dreaming concepts or just dreaming while you sleep.”
I was curious about this also. It reminds me of Dion Fortune’s “temple sleep” in the Sea Priestess which is essentially hypnagogic consciousness; the liminal space between sleeping and waking. Crowley mentions Fortune earlier in the book so there might be a connection.
-
I have to look into this from Fortune, but it sounds like it may be related to Theurgic incubation sleep in temples in ancient Hellenism, which has roots much farther back in very ancient Mesopotamia with divination during dreams facilitated by a priest magician with the dead giving messages in dreams (a form of necromancy).
