Wednesday, September 21, 2011

Novena to Holy Wisdom, Day 9

Meditation: Atu VIII

Prayer: i can't even finish a novena properly on time, but i hope that the Subject takes pity on the Object despite the intermediary's failings...

Monday, September 19, 2011

A Novena to Holy Wisdom, Day 8

Meditation: Atu VI

Thoughts: Why is it that so late one finally encounters the Other?  Without the horizontal Other, the vertical would have been only the self-image.  Hand in hand, walking toward the darkness together, you will see one day that everything in me not of the gods will have been stripped away.

Sunday, September 18, 2011

A Novena to Holy Wisdom, Day 7

Meditation: Atu XIV

Reading: John 1:29-33

Prayer: May blessings descend like dew upon you, you who taught me the art of transmutation.  i pray this in the Name of the Prime Transmuter, the First and Last Priest, Amen.

Saturday, September 17, 2011

A Novena to Holy Wisdom, Day 6

Meditation: Atu XXI

Readings: The Apocalypse of John, 21:1-7.  "... the new Jerusalem, coming down from God like a bride adorned for her husband."
.. magnus ab integro saeclorum nascitur ordo.
Iam redit et Virgo, redeunt Saturnia regna;
iam nova progenies caelo demittitur alto.
-- Virgil, Eclogues 4

Prayer: You have said, "Behold, I make all things new."  May Your will be done now to the Microcosm as it will be done to the Macrocosm.  Let Your Presence settle upon your Image, restore her glory, and make her one with her Higher Nature.  This i ask in the Name of the One who stands to receive the souls of the faithful, Amen.

Intercede for us, Queen of the heavenly hosts!

Friday, September 16, 2011

A Novena to Holy Wisdom: Day 5

Meditation: Atu XVII

Reading: Novalis' Hymnen an die Nacht 3.  Also recommended: Charles Williams' "The Death of Palomides," in Taliessin Through Logres.

Prayer: "Netzach is the name of the Victory in the Blessing: / For the Lord created all things by means of his Blessing."  As you have blessed me once before, come forth and bless me yet again.  Yet i will always sing to your praises.

Thursday, September 15, 2011

A Novena to Holy Wisdom: Day 4

Meditation: Atu X

Reading: Ecclesiastes 3:1-8.

Prayer: Recordare Virgo Mater Dei.

Notes: Waite cites the permutation "Rota Taro Orat Tora Ator."  i have a hard time believing that.  All i see when i gaze on this card is dukkha.  Similarly, i have a hard time imagining today's god, a god of thunder, a male god with bare arm and lightning spear, as "merciful."  On such a day i see only the weeping Mother.  (Today is her day, the Day of her Seven Sorrows.)  She alone does not grovel, because she has no need.  The rest of us grovel before Fortune, before Time, before the manly bare-armed god.  Her God is no god at all, or only an upside-down god.

Wednesday, September 14, 2011

A Novena to Holy Wisdom: Day 3

Meditation: Atu IX

Reading: Rúnatal Óðins (Hávamál 138-145)

Reflection: The Traveler's look conceals the journey's length.

Prayer: O Hertýr, Rune-Smith, take our fear of that dreadful suspension. Instruct us in the courage of the whet-stone, that Wisdom known only through sacrifice. If we must war against ourselves, then let us take up arms with you at our head, the heavenly host among us. When you ask, "Do you know how to sacrifice?", let our answer always be Yes. This i ask in the Name of the Consummation of the Pattern. Amen.

Notes: i can't help but associate the Hermit with Odin the Wanderer. The title "Hertýr" means Elohim Tzabaoth; other Names of Odin might be illuminating.  i prefer the association of the Hermit with Virgo, rather than Scorpio.

Tuesday, September 13, 2011

A Novena to Holy Wisdom: Day 2

Meditation: Atu XII

Reading: T. S. Eliot's "The Waste Land," lines 37-41

Reflection: Helplessness

Prayer: The last few lines of Eliot's "Ash Wednesday":

Blessed sister, holy mother, spirit of the fountain, spirit of the garden,
Suffer us not to mock ourselves with falsehood
Teach us to care and not to care
Teach us to sit still
Even among these rocks,
Our peace in His will
And even among these rocks
Sister, mother
And spirit of the river, spirit of the sea,
Suffer me not to be separated

And let my cry come unto thee.

Monday, September 12, 2011

A Novena to Holy Wisdom: Day 1

Timing:  Coincidence times the start of this Novena with the Mid-Autumn Moon Festival and therefore the full moon.  The traditional associations make this appropriate.  While one should need no reason to seek Wisdom, i have a particular cause for this invocation.

Preparation: A walking Rosary, preferably outdoors, in sight of the full Moon.

Meditation: Atu II.

Reading: Proverbs 2:13-20.

Prayer: O Holy Wisdom, long have i sought You, in things material and spiritual.  You are indeed a Tree of Life to those who grasp You.  Look now with mercy upon your projection on earth, the one who first taught me the path of the Open Hand and the Inner Book, from whose face i first learned to turn my gaze upwards.  Show your daughter the means to cross the inner desert.  Bearer of the Secret Name, bless her with open hand.  This i ask in the Name of the Eternal End, Amen.