Wahya Circle
Thursday Thoughts
Comparative Practices 101
Crossroads
One of the things we did not discuss during Hekate week were “crossroads”. This is an element of Her Magick that many like to stay connected to. Crossroads are a heavily charged place of Magick as many Practitioners have Focused on them across the world for thousands of years. (Remember egregores?) It is a liminal space; an in-between; a place where the Veil is found to be naturally thin, and that is a lot of Focus to place on one concept.
The Dark Goddess of Witchcraft, Hekate, is also known as the Goddess of the Crossroads. It is believed that Hekate appears at crossroads on different clear nights, accompanied by Her various spirits and howling animals, primarily dogs. (Some believe these are jackals and not canines.) Throughout magickal history, offerings have been placed in these places to invoke Her and for Her divine intervention in many cases, which those of ancient times thought them to be caused by wayward souls.
In Ireland and Wales, it is a Samhain tradition to sit at a crossroad, listening for the howling of the wind as a Weather Prophecy for the year to come. A few hundred years ago a fable of sorcerers and witches is told of them frequenting crossroads to conjure Lucifer or his many demons … or to make sacrifices to them. Can you hear where those thoughts may have began?
Even further back, a play, Le Miracle de Théophile, was written where a character named Salatin would go to the crossroads to do his bidding.
Carl G. Jung spoke of a crossroad being a mother symbol; in that respect, it corresponds to the emphasis placed on the Mother Goddess in contemporary witchcraft. Jung could see the ancient symbol of a “+” being the crossroad, hence, Divine Feminine. As we have studied, it is representative of two forces uniting, yin and yang, in balance but of continuous flux and change.
CROSSROAD MAGICKS
Have you ever looked at a spell and it stated something like “leave the object at a crossroads”? Endless spells state this and for good reason. Leaving an item at a crossroads both magickally and energetically disperses the energy in all directions the roads point. This is good when you are leaving an offering for more than one spirit or entity. It is also good when you are casting a “non-targeted” spell and want to simply spread the energy around.
A crossed road can be perceived at various roads. Even roads that were once crossroads that are now “capped” or “T-stops”, continue to have energy flow in the direction it once traveled. Be mindful of that.
Leaving your Craft or Spell Work in locations like this are typically good in the sense you do not want it around your place of Craft or home sanctuary and are giving it back to the powers that be after the work is done.
Another example: Healing – you use a crystal corresponding to the matter at hand. That crystal which is believed to now hold the destructive or “sick” energy is best left at the crossroads.
Some witches leave things at the crossroads so others can pick it up and pass the constructive or destructive Magick to others. Hence, PROTECT YOURSELF. Any human can be destructive.
It has also been used historically to dispose of unwanted spirits, perceived ‘curses’ or unwanted materials of Magick or Medicine that you do not want near you or your home. You conjure the spirit into a totem, or carry the curse “Key” to the crossroads. (Like a Soul Gem.)
Crossroads are also a great place to perform a ritual to learn a new skill. There are specific Hoodoo rituals detailing this process, however, they usually include bringing the item you wish to master to the crossroads for three or nine specific nights/mornings. This is also in various forms of Voudou.
In both, it is said that The Black Man, or Papa Legba, will arrive on your last visit and ask for your item. Should you give it to Him he will show you how to properly use the item and when you get it back, you are gifted with talent and mastery of said item. Give gratitude. Give offering. Papa Legba is known to be present for all of you life once you make contact, and NOT always as a Patron Deity. Sometimes, He is just the one who can “get the Work done.”
HEDGE CRAFT
In Hedge Craft, the crossroads is utilized as a liminal space to travel to the Otherworld and communicate with spirits or other entities. It is a great place to work with local spirits, Fae, or to hedge ride between the worlds.
UNSPOKEN RULES, OR NOT
As we know, it is known as an intersection. Or, rather, a crossroad is where two or more streets intersect or cross one another. Properly, it should be any intersection where four streets meet and none of the roads are a dead end or cul-de-sac. However, train-tracks and roads, bridges, etcetera are also crossroads and can be used, even if they are literal streets. Some Practitioners will still use dead ends and cul-de-sac crossroads in their Magick, but heed the caution you feel you need. When you want to stop a/the Magick from another placed upon you, this place can be useful.
CLOSER TO HOME, CORPSE PATH
Practitioners have also been known to make a boundary in their neighborhood, or around it, with different types of crossroad. Similarly, a corpse road is one that traditionally refers to the pathways or roads the dead are carried on from the church to the graveyards.
For Reverend Richoz, she has done Work many times on the infamous corpse road, Bonaventure Road, in Savannah, Georgia as that is the area where a branch of her family tree settled and built houses along that road. She has family there to this day.
In history, some corpse roads were separate paths with gateways because of fear that the dead linger on such roads. You can still see this is some older towns, especially in coastal cities. Now-a-days, any road can be used to carry the dead from one place to another.
However, if you do not regularly work with spirits, perhaps selecting crossroads that are not corpse roads is more beneficial to your Magick. Weigh your choices carefully. There are extra energies one must be aware of to venture into such a space for Craft.
SYMBOLOGY
As stated above, Jung could see the “+” for the Divine Feminine in using a crossroad, calling upon a Mother, or Mother Goddess.
The Complete Dictionary of Symbols edited by Jack Tressider (pg 128-129) states:
“The unknown – hazard, choice, destiny, supernatural powers. The important attached to intersecting ways in most ancient cultures is remarkable. The fact that they were natural stops for wayfarers only partially accounts for the number of shrines, altars, standing stones, chapels, or Cavalries sited there.
In Peru and elsewhere pyramids were sometimes built up over years by travelers adding votive stones as they passed through crossroads. Spirits were thought to haunt them, hence they were sites for divination and sacrifice – and, by extension, places of the execution or burial for people or things of which society wished to be rid.
Many African tribes dumped rubbish things there so that any residual harm might be adsorbed by the “filth eater”, Hekate, who is also a Death Goddess.
Roman crossroads in the time of Augustus were protected by two lares campitales (tutelary deities of place). Offerings were made to them or to the god Janus and other protective divinities, who could look in all directions, such as Hermes, to whom three-headed statues were placed at Greek crossroads.
A more sinister presence to many here, is the supreme Toltec god, Tezcatlipoca, who challenged warriors at crossroads. Some version of the Oedipus myth placed his faithful encounters with his unknown father, and the Sphinx at crossroads – an analogy for destiny. “
Please note:
Some of these “rules” listed below are statements collected over the time of written human history and has had many motivators. Always consider your source, or who wrote the “rule”.
USE A DIFFERENT ROUTE HOME
This means if you came up a road from the East, you should then use the West, South, or North route home. (This ties into which Element is stronger in Protection for you. This active ability is directly tied to your state of Consciousness of your surroundings.) It is thought that because a spirit or energy could follow you home through the circuit you have already made, you change directions to return home. This also allows you to invoke things like Fox Medicine to aid you. Take a different way home, which spiritually or energetically hides your travel route.
WEIGH RESPONSE TO VOICES
Sometimes, you are at a crossroads and you may hear people talking. Logically, this is because crossroads tend to be open spaces and voices travel. However, it may also be spirits or the Fae, or Beings from the past, present, or future. In any case, unless you are prepared, it is not recommended that you interact or respond without Protections or Wards. It is advised for you to do your Magick and be off.
DEAL, OR NO DEAL?
This follows the above rule a bit further. It really all depends on why you are there. Typically, if you go to the crossroads and see another person there, then keep on going. Some say to not stop and talk with them, do not even stop to do your Work. This one suggests further that you do not turn around and DO NOT meet their eyes. (For Practitioners who believe in Evil Eye.)
There is great superstition with meeting Fae, spirits, or darker entities. Again, this all depends on who you ask. Whatever energy is at a crossroads can be found anywhere in the cosmos, so, consider your source.
BE MINDFUL OF LINKED ITEMS
This is not only for spiritual safety, but your physical safety, too. Someone could simply Google you and cause all sorts of problems. Spiritually, offering your real name to spirits, other Practitioners, etc is often questionable when they do not know you well. Your name is a piece of you. Guard it.
P.S. for the Practitioner whose “stuff” you may find at a crossroad, you can assist the Divine in the Transformation or Transmutation of said object by burning, burying, dissolving, whatever you find. You can do this WITHOUT even touching their item. Lighting a stick to light the item, pouring your water bottle on it, etc. (Calling Element Water) You can call any Element to assist the traveler that came before you.
You do not have to, but it is a nice gesture in the energy of the Universe, especially if you are seeking a return yourself.
BE ENVIRONMENTALLY AWARE
Again, you do not have to, but this is not a rule in most Practitioner’s playbooks. Regardless, give it some thought.
We only have this ONE planet for our Works of Matter at this time. If we muck it up, we will not have it long. Anyway, we sometimes leave leftovers from Craft, or Work, and other things at the crossroads. Typically speaking, it gets cleaned up when the city comes by or neighbors pick it up. But sometimes, animals and the less fortunate also use or consume what they find at the crossroads.
So, if you are going to leave an item that is not fit for consumption (like sugary bread baked with glass for a curse) then bury it at least six inches at the crossroads. You may need to search for a crossroads that you can discreetly dig at, but it is worth the extra work to keep that stray pissed spirit from seeking you out and peeing in your special garden and killing your plants.
Beginning Practicum
Spell Craft
EXPLORE YOUR KNOWLEDGE
Below is a spell proposal lined out for the FINAL REQUIRED WORK for your Heka Certificate of Completion. Utilize the next week to answer what Correspondence could be accessed for each piece. There is no “right way” or “wrong way” – but simply giving this the due time and thought will allow room for the ability to push energy towards more Medicinal and Magickal practices for our final spell going into the next year.
Take notes. What we feel we may need Magickally or in Medicine RIGHT NOW may not be what we desire come January. Spend some time with this as this is the FINAL.
Answers can be made with one “ingredient” or correspondence for the spell, or the answer can be with three! Just remember, “less” is often “more” and using too much can negate the effects of others. For example, cooking (Fire) vodka removes alcohol (Spirit) of potato or rice, or what Plant Ally was present for the creation of the libation.
Now, sometimes that works because we need Fire to reduce said item to a base component, like the potato in the vodka. Potato having the metaphysical property of the nightshade family is good for Healing Medicine and Poppet Magick. Or, Fire reducing the wood to ash, Earth, for Protection/Banishment. (Path dependent)
If need is felt, an explanation may be made for the choices, but it is not required. We are all lighting our candles together and saying some words together but the bulk of the work will be YOUR MAGICK OR MEDICINE.
Let us Work some Magick and Medicine!
Feel free to choose the theme that best suits your Intent for the new year.
Theme: (EXAMPLE: Self Love) Choose an Intent and keep everything for this Spell aligned with that theme of Intent.
Moon phase:
Zodiac for moon:
Magickal Day of week:
Planet:
Energy:
Deity:
Color:
Crystal:
Herb/plant:
Incense:
Incantation/Invocation/Words for Spell:
All of these have been presented during the walk with our walk in Wahya Circle for our First Degree. We will continue to present similar concepts. Simply utilize what we have learned OR utilize personal correspondences OR yutilize the Interwebz, just try to verify the sources with someone reliable.
Think About It
Look back over the last seven months of your time walking with Wahya Circle for your First Degree.
What do you see?
Look back over your personal life.
What does, or did, Divinity tell you that you needed to take from this class and integrate or let go? What Wisdom struck you? What pearl? Did you find it? How has your Medicine or Magick changed or improved?
How about your other personal practices? Have you rededicated some time to Self, growth and exploration? Have you made Ego or Shadow discoveries that you are actively working on?
Now is the time to examine where we are as individuals. The next major step you take, COUNTS. And remember, Three Circles Medicine & Magick™ is not asking you to perform Magick or Medicine for anyone but YOU.
Thursday WN1
General - Journal - Book of Shadows
SUBMISSION: NONE
Please read over and spend time
with today’s Lessons, keeping in mind the statements below.
1. Begin planning the Work for your last spell. Consider what you will ask of the Universe
as we go into our next year.
Begin preparing this Magick and Medicine.
The FINAL required Spell
will be assigned in January.
2. Spend some time with Contemplations 101. Journal about it in your BoS or Journal. These thoughts will guide you towards the Magick or Medicine that will carry you significantly through our next year.
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