Earth Religions such as Wicca share many outlooks and some vocabulary with
Ceremonial Magick, but also have some fundamental differences with it. Both
use magick (the controlled, focused use of energy, usually through ritual),
both acknowledge the 4 elements, both use similar magickal tools (chalice,
knife or sword, pentacle, wand, altar), both believe in personal
responsibility and karma for one's actions and both tend to have initiations
into deeper levels of practice and learning. EARTH RELIGIONS, however, see
the earth as sacred, all beings as part of the divine spark, usually have
personal deities - both male deities and female deities, don't believe in
evil as a deity or sometimes even as a concept; follow closely the cycles of
the moon as well as the seasons, see spirit and matter as being reflections
of one another and are not Christian based. Most Earth Religion
practitioners are also interested in herbs, incenses, spell work, astrology
and divination. Earth Religions are spiritual pathways of worshipping the
divine with a generous helping of magical practice; whereas CEREMONIAL
MAGICK is not a religion - it is a way of invoking and using energy or
forces to manifest one's desires. Although most ceremonial magickians have
a strong Christian or Jewish background, it is a magickal practice separate
from and not necessarily a part of their religious observances.
One of the most popular Earth traditions in the United States is Wicca, a
branch of Paganism (from the Roman paganus, meaning 'of the country').
Wicca has both groups (covens - from the same root word as convene and
convent) and solitaries. Most Wiccans worship The Goddess and The God; a
few only The Goddess. Most groups have 3 levels of initiation, the first
initiation happening after a year and a day of basic training, the second
after the practitioner has mastered some more advanced skills in things such
as divination, astrology, spell work, herbalogy and/ stone lore; and the
third degree initiation when the person seeks to teach and counsel others
and perhaps is planning to hive off into a group that they will lead. Some
branches of Wicca are Gardnerian (Gerald Gardner), Alexandrian (Alex and
Maxine Sanders, written about and practiced by Janet and Stewart Farrar) and
Eclectic (most American Witches).
The Druids are a more hierarchical Pagan branch with three initiations as
well - Bard, Ovate and Druid. The original Druids practiced in Gaul (The
British Isles and France) and were the teachers, poets, musicians,
philosophers, physicians, historians and lawmakers of the land. Druids
would be considered the Celtic equivalent of the Brahmin caste in India.
Asatru and Odinism are Teutonic or Germanic branches of the Earth religions
and are often confused with skinheads and such because the skinheads have
adopted some of the symbology and the Teutonic Gods.
Today many people have become "Goddess worshippers" - they don't
necessarily want to become Wiccan, but want to create their own brand of
spirituality from reading and experience focusing on deity as female. Works
by Barbara Walker, Patricia Monaghan and Riane Eisler would interest them.
Native American practices have many similarities to western Earth Religion,
but they don't consider themselves Pagan and would no doubt be insulted if
they were called such.
CEREMONIAL MAGICK is based on Christianity, Hermetics and Qabalah and tends
to see things in more dualistic or black/white terms. Most ceremonial
magickians believe in the concept of evil or even a devil - although they
are not worshipping or using these forces specifically. Ceremonial magick
has its roots in early Egyptian and 7th century b.c.e. Greek and Roman
magickal practices. Those cultures were influenced by Plato's ideas of
dualism and emanation of divine energy into matter, but with spirit being
superior to matter. During the Renaissance as philosophers, alchemists and
astrologers began to travel throughout Europe and the Middle East sharing
wisdom and trading techniques, ceremonial magick had a huge resurgence and
many of the grimoires (literally the word 'grimoire' translates as lesson
book - but grimoire has come to mean book of rituals, planetary
correspondences, etc) used today are reprints of ones written during that
time. Most ceremonial magickians are also interested in alchemy, Qabalah,
magickal alphabets, Golden Dawn, and pathworking (guided meditations
directed along one of the paths or links between the Sephiroth of the Tree
of Life)
The most popular branches in Ceremonial Magick are the Golden Dawn,
Thelema, Hermetics (Franz Bardon) and Alchemy:
Hermetics is Mystical wisdom which along with the Qabalah forms the basis
of Western Occultism. Based on the writings of Hermes Trimegistis (a
composite of Greek Hermes and Egyptian Thoth). Legend has it that core
writings were on papyrus and stored in Alexandria (but burned when Alexander
the Great invaded). Some Hermetic works are The Divine Pymander which tells
how divine wisdom was revealed to Hermes. The Vision is about Hermes'
mystical visions and cosmogony and the spiritual journey of the soul. The
Emerald Tablet is inscribed with the whole of Egyptian mystical wisdom and
includes the magickal secrets of the universe.
Alchemy is literally the art of transmutation (lead into gold) and is the
foundation of modern chemistry and metallurgy. Symbolically it is the
transformation of consciousness and the soul. It draws philosophically
from the Hermetic traditions and by the 12th century had spread throughout
Europe through the Muslim occupation of Spain (see books by Frater
Albertus).
Golden Dawn (Hermetic Order of the) arose in England in the late 19th
century and was founded by MacGregor Mathers. Other well-known members of
the Golden Dawn were AE Waite, WB Yeats, Dion Fortune, Israel Regardie and
Aleister Crowley. Golden Dawn practices and teachings were a mixture of
Hermetics, Egyptian magick and Rosicrucian ideas. Within the Golden Dawn
are 11 degrees based on the Sephiroth of the Qabalistic Tree of Life.
Thelema was founded by Aleister Crowley as a blend of Golden Dawn magickal
techniques, sex magick of the OTO (Ordo Templis Orientis, a German based
magickal fraternity of which he became the head in 1912) and yoga
techniques. The "bible" of Thelema is The Book of the Law. Born into a
fundamentalist Lutheran Brethren family, Crowley rebelled in every way he
could. Perhaps not very emotionally mature, he delighted in shocking
society - however, he was a brilliant compiler of information and wrote
exhaustively about magickal technique and correspondences. Two of his best
books are 777 and Magick in Theory and Practice.
Another member, Dion Fortune (Violet Firth) belonged to the Stella Matutina,
outer order of the Golden Dawn. Believing she had a past life in Atlantis
as a priestess, Dion channeled information regarding Atlantean teachings and
was an adept ritualist. She wrote some great books, among them The
Mystical Qabalah, Cosmic Doctrine, Sea Priestess and Moon Magic, Psychic
Self Defense.
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