Heavens Within Earth

Ave, The recent death of my beloved and revered Grandmother (may her soul rest in much deserved peace) sent my thoughts toward my ancestors and the Gods of my greatfathers. I decided it was time to establish a deeper connection with my ancestral spirits and Gods. To see their faces.  I made a simple altar, with a large decorated candle to light in honor of my ancestors, a large decorated candle to light in honor of the old Gods, a plain large white candle for honoring the Lord of the Universe, and a rosary to use in prayerful invocation of all of the above. (This rosary was left to me by my grandmother, and so feels and responds like a charged magical item for me.)  I have a sandstone bowl my sister brought for me from a recent trip to Ethiopia (another family-gifted item, which gave it an air of appropriateness for the intended work) which I filled with big sea salt crystals, a lunar tincture I made and consecrated a while back (which turned the sea salt crystals a lovely p...

Ave Fraters et Sorors, I've been given the nod to go ahead and test for Philosophus (4=7), which means I've been studying my ass off the last couple of days. It's interesting-I spend so much time in each grade (pretty close to a year for each one) that by the time I test, much of the general curriculum stuff related to papers and flying rolls is hard to recall. The practical bits-godnames, correspondences, that sort of thing-are easy as pie, because you use them. Remembering references to what a certain Sphinx may or may not have said during an initiatory ritual is just not my forte. I have yet to pass a test on the first go....not a single-bleeding-one. Now, the practical knowledge and the understandings required for advancement I've had no issues with, which is nice. I still end up feeling a simpleton when I inevitably fail the written test the first time. Every time I fail I get to thinking "What is the point of this foolishness, anyway? I can command the ...