Uncategorized | The Blog of Baphomet

Recently I was honoured to be asked to be part of performing a handfasting ceremony for a couple of friends. We used the elements to bless them. As I waved the candle around their joined hands, and said words of blessing, there was a pause, as something tried to come out of my mouth, an idea half-shaped; instead of appearing on the beach, it has taken a few more parts of time to emerge. Here it is, for my friends, and for anyone else that cares to read it.

Home is where the hearth is

Fire, the element of action; of motivation, the spark that lights our fuse, burns steady in our hearths and hearts, bringing light to our worlds, visibility to our lives. Fire needs feeding, and as we collect and prepare firewood for the home fire, we can see the work required to tend the fires of lives, of our relationships. Keeping an eye on when it needs poking, and when it ought to be left alone to burn low and give those gorgeous glowing embers from which we skry visions of other worlds. We roam about, finding suitable materials to carry home, to provoke our senses and enthusiasms, words pictures tales, acts which shape our bodies and minds, sticks that we like the look of.

These materials are raw, and often need trimming, refining, cutting to length, stacking up as a pile with which we can later build the flames of entertainment or warmth.

To ignite our fires, we need a spark, a match. Kindling, whether twigs or papers, to catch the first flare and carry it to larger things, breath to give live to the growing crackling entity we conjure to manifestation. Carefully we add to our fire, feeding it, as experience teaches us when to add more, when to wait developments.

‘Doing fire’ can be viewed as a process, from the decision to gather a bundle of fuel, to clearing away the ashes. The time of manifestation of that flame makes the process have a tangible result, which is Fire. Symbolically though we must remember to include the larger actions, fire representing actions, as well as using energy. (NB Food transformation also forms a large part of the firey lore, but you can hopefully extrapolate that for yourselves.)

Our relationships follow patterns we could relate to this process, the gathering of raw materials as fuel for presenting to each other, and tools (skills) to tend our interactions and conversations. An easy remark, to spark a conversation, a sharing of each to the both of us. Bringing our attention to our partners especially, as well as other relationships, we ought to remind ourselves of how much time and effort it takes to maintain the glow of loving kindness, and of how worthwhile that can be.

Light from these flames can illuminate our current behaviours, cast shadows upon our living room walls, flicker on loved faces as we share the contents of our times and heads.

[At this time of year (in this part of the world), outside hearths come into their own, whether in our gardens or in more transient settings; sitting around a fire with friends has to be, for me, the most convivial of all places. I should make an effort to do it far more often…]

Put your trust in Magick; but mind to keep your matches dry, and your kindling plentiful.

Once, while meditating upon my actions, a reverie occurred where I found myself wondering about whether I was the source of my movements, or the world around me was manipulating me into those movements.

From one perspective, I was deciding to move my arm, shift my centre of balance, place my gaze in a certain direction.

From another, my physiology was reacting entirely to external cues, both those present immediately in the environment around me, and those stored in my neurological patterning and muscle memory from previous situations.

So which of these was correct? To keep you reading this essay, I shall withhold the answer until a later point.

Talk with the animal

This meditation, wondering about where the causal motivation arises from in a situation, has become a habit for me since then. Spending time trying to attribute initiative frees one from other trains of thought, in itself an interesting output of this methodology. Other questions become apparent as one ponders: What do I understand as ‘external’? Do chance fluctuations in the biochemical electric soup that ‘is’ my mind affect my choices? Or that flicker in attention when the sunlight falling in the room alters, as the wind moves a branch outside the window; deos that make me think differently?

The old puzzle of (individual) free will vs (divinely ordained) destiny presents a similar thought process, though my version is more materialistically science based. But, they share the same base question of “Do I do this because I choose to or, because outside forces make me do it?”.

The answer of course lies firstly in considering where the border is between oneself and the outside. Once this has been identified, the scoresheet of factors originating in either domain can be drawn up.

My own conclusions to this part of the meditation are ongoing, my choosing of boundaries altering as I investigate further. Some days I can’t quite even believe there are any.

I have found my own satisfactory resolution to this, a kind of flow state where the push/pull are illusory perspectives meaningless in any context other than the human animal’s desire for narrative. Holding on to this perception for more than a short time proves tricky, and tbh I don’t know that it actually helps! Such is the way with enlightenment results/processes. They are, as my daughter would say, a thing.

And then I start to wonder, whether the urge to question this kind of thing; does it arise within me, or from external cues…?