Vendredi: KIng of Clubs

Hail to the King! It seems fitting that, on this last day of 2010, we come to the end of our discussion on the suit of Clubs.

The King of Clubs is generally indicative of a mature man, as apposed to the young person indicated by the Jack or Knave card. This does not mean he is middle aged; he may be in his late 20’s. It means that he speaks and behaves maturely. He’s a steady individual with a good outlook and a handle on life. By no means does he have all the answers, but he’s working on it with purpose.

This man is honest and generally sincere. Unless the cards around the King of Clubs are horribly unfavorable, this is a man your querent should get to know. For single ladies, this guy would make a tremendous love interest if not husband.

Should no man be indicated (and remember our discussion of the Queen of Clubs; make sure your querent isn’t protesting too much), then there may be a lady in question. If so, she is laconic hard case. She’s seen the worst of the world and knows how to deal with it. A soft heart she may have, but you’ll need a pick axe to get to it.

Have a safe and happy New Years Eve; bon fete!

Header: King of Clubs via Macedonia on the Web

Jeudi: Root Work

Personal hygiene has crossed the line into metaphysical cleansing in almost all cultures, ancient and modern. From the Ancient Hebrew right of Tahara, purification, wherein a person completely immersed their body in a well of water known as a mikva to modern Hindus ritually cleansing themselves in the Ganges, the list is endless. In both the religion of Voudon and the workings of hoodoo, bathing is an integral part of keeping the body, mind and soul in tune.

The number of magickal baths in the lexicon of root work could certainly fill a heavy tome. There are baths for drawing love, jinxing a rival, bringing in cash, gambling luck, uncrossing and healing. These have ingredients as diverse as seemingly harsh cleaners like ammonia and bluing to obviously harmless ones like lemon juice and olive oil. It’s a powerful process, and all you need is a place to bathe, water, a few ingredients and your own intention.

With the New Year only two days away, I want to share the ritual bath most important to me at this time of year: the bath to banish negativity. For me personally, the end of the year is a time when I cling to the past. The recent past has been full of holiday cheer and the rest of the passing year looks a little brighter than it probably was. The detritus of all the negativity that is now fading from memory is cloying around me, wanting to stay and pull me into a deceptive, self-serving funk that is only enhanced by the dark, cold January ahead. I don’t know about you, but that’s just no way to start the New Year.

My favorite New Years bath involves beer which, with its effervescence, hops and barely, has the added bonus of alleviating mild depression. You should cleanse first – take a quick shower and then scrub out your tub if you don’t have the good fortune to have a separate one – and then proceed.

Fill your tub with warm water. Add to this 12 ounces of beer (I find dark beer is especially helpful for breaking up negative energy but whatever you have will work just fine), the juice of one lemon (to deflect evil and cleanse unwanted ties to the past) and 1 tablespoon of salt (for grounding and confidence). Stir the water clockwise with your dominant hand until the ingredients are well mixed. Use intention while you do this; concentrate on starting the New Year fresh and full of energy.

While continuing to concentrate, climb into the tub and immerse yourself completely in the water – tip to toe, hair to sole – nine times. Now sit in the water for nine more minutes while continuing to envision your bright future. I’ll admit, I set a timer before I dunk myself the last time. When the nine minutes are up, climb out of the bath and wring out your hair because everything has to dry naturally. Toweling off or wrapping your hair up will negate the benefits of the bath. Lock the bedroom door and relax for a while; it’s totally worth it.

If you are unable to work with beer for any reason, substitute 1 cup of apple cider vinegar for a result that is just as powerful. The added bonus to both beer and vinegar: they make your hair soft and shiny.

If you don’t have access to a tub, the alternative is to mix the ingredients in a bucket full of water and pour the bath over yourself nine times. This is awkward but effective. Just make sure the bucket is large enough to dissolve the ingredients, which means you may want to use a cup or mug to dish out the bath rather than pouring directly from the bucket.

So tomorrow, before the champagne pops and supper hits the table, I’ll take a bit of time for myself and cleanse the old year off with a bath. Some jazz and a few scented candles won’t hurt either. Bénédictions lumineuses ~

Header: Blue Tone Bathing Girl by Edgar Degas

Mardi: Herbal-Wise

The New Year is almost upon us and, for those of us with Southern roots, that means its time to shop for those good luck foods and herbs that will bring prosperity, success and peace into our homes in the coming year.

Of course the favorite food for all around good fortune is the black eyed pea. These are actually a form of bean, vigna sinensis, and they are generally white or cream colored with a black spot. Sometimes referred to as cow peas, particularly in the Northern U.S. and the U.K., they are the primary “good luck bean” of the New Year.

There are lots of ways to eat black eyed peas and really they can be used in most bean dishes. Often, they are cooked for New Years with molasses and brown sugar, making them akin to the northern baked beans of Boston fame. This dish will be served for luck with cornbread (to bring coin into the house) and dark greens like collard or kale (to bring paper money). The like-makes-like magick of the side dishes is obvious, but the beans are not so telling. From what I know, they are simply considered “lucky” and especially good for relationships – such as a family household. Black eyed peas are added to mojo bags focused on marriage.

Our family tradition, which I learned from my father’s Aunt Bette, centered on a dish known as Hoppin’ John. This is a bit like the Creole red beans and rice and it makes a delightfully comforting meal to wind down the Holiday season. Here’s the recipe I use for your consideration:

2 15 oz cans black eyed peas (for luck)
8 slices of bacon cut in fourths
2 tbsps olive oil
1 cup finely chopped onions
1 cup finely chopped red bell pepper
1 cup finely chopped celery
2 garlic cloves, minced
¼ cup chicken stock or water
1/8 tsp cayenne pepper (to keep trouble away)
¼ tsp thyme (for peace of mind)
1/8 tsp rosemary (for luck)
1 bay leaf (for success)
Salt and pepper to taste

Fry the bacon in a heavy pot (like a Dutch oven) until crisp. Add olive oil and add onion, bell pepper, celery and garlic. Cook until onions are clarified. Add black eyed peas broth, spices and salt and pepper. Cover and cook about 15 minutes, testing beans for doneness (they should be soft, not mushy) thereafter.

Serve over white rice with grated cheese on top.

I will serve this with the traditional cornbread and a not-so-traditional dark green: broccoli. My family isn’t big on collards. Bonne Annee ~

Header: Anonymous Victorian imagining of a Medieval Family at Table

Dimanche: Swimming

The Swimming Hole by Eakins

Samedi: Great Spirits

In honor of the occasion, I would like to wish a happy birthday, in order of youngest to oldest, to the Great Spirits who inspired today’s holiday.

First, Jesus Christ, God of the Christians, shown with his mother Mary at the header.

Next, a god from Persia and Phrygia who introduced the Roman Legion to the concept of baptism and religious rebirth: Mithras. The god is shown performing the seminal act of his birth/death/rebirth cycle, the slaughtering of a bull in whose blood his worshipers were baptized in his name.

Finally, the original December 25th birthday boy, Horus the hawk-headed Egyptian god of sunrise and solar winds whose claim to the throne of Egypt finally put an end to the reign of his evil uncle, Set. Horus appears in this sculpture as an infant being nursed by his mother, Isis who was, by the date assigned to the birth of Christ, one of the most widely worshipped Goddesses in the world.

At one time in history Jesus, Mithras and Isis all had a shot at becoming the supreme deity of the Western world. At this time of year in particular, I like to imagine how different things might be if the conqueror had not been Christ. Joyeux Noel ~

Pictured: The Virgin and Child by Jan van Eyck c 1413
Mithras Slaying the Bull, Roman sculpture c 40 CE
Isis Nursing Horus, reproduction of an Egyptian sculpture c 1300 BCE

Vendredi: Queen of Clubs

The suit of clubs is winding down, which is appropriate given the time of year, and so we meet the Queen.

As with all the Queens, the person represented is a woman, not a girl. She may not be a crone or even a matron, but she has passed the age where one might refer to her as nubile.

The Queen of Clubs is usually thought of as an intelligent woman, someone who has probably had a number of years of higher education. She may very well come from privilege, although she is not apt to flash her background around. The lady is confident and comfortable in her own skin. Frequently, this individual is well versed in occult arts in one form or another. If your querent is seeking a teacher in the metaphysical, and the reading leans favorably toward this Queen, it may be that this woman can help.

If a woman is absolutely not indicated, then the card could represent a gentleman who is prone to certain eccentricities that will probably be indicated by the cards around him.

In almost all cases, the Queens represent a woman. Give a little push back if the person you’re reading for at first denies knowing any similar lady. If they protest too much, you may be able to get an excellent feeling for that particular querent without asking any more questions. Something to think about as you continue to study cartomancy. Bon chance ~

Header: Queen of Clubs by Katheairene via deviantART

Jeudi: Great Spirits

As the Nativity of the Christian God creeps ever closer, allow me to detour just a bit and discuss one of the very ancient players in the story of Jesus: the Archangel Gabriel.

Of course Gabriel is familiar as the winged trumpeter, announcer of not only the end of time but also the pregnancy of the Virgin Mary, in which case he is pictured holding a lily. But wait a minute. Did you say he?

In fact, if all the history and language are considered, little doubt can be left that Gabriel is the one and only female Archangel. She is the ruler of the Cherubim and the Governor of Eden, the angel most concerned with conception, birth and death. In the very early Christian texts as well as the Jewish texts which inspired them, she is herself the Angel of Death. It is she who snatches the protesting soul from Paradise, transports it to a woman’s womb and calms its anxiety until it is born nine months later, only to take it back home at the end of life.

Gabriel is best known as the Angel who appeared to Mary, announcing the birth of the Messiah. In this role as messenger she is often depicted carrying a lily which has been said to refer to the virgin conception. In fact, the lily was originally not Mary’s flower but Gabriel’s. It is through this connection that her original identity can be surmised.

The Semite word Gbri probably descended from the Sumerian word Ningbri which is now translated as Ninharsag, the goddess of birth, death and rebirth. The goddess’ vagina, which she gave to her husband each year that he might be reborn, became a goddess onto itself: Lilu. Lilu or Lilitu in turn became the servant of first Inanna and then the Babylonian Ishtar. She was the divine prostitute who brought men into the temple to share in the Love goddess’ favors. Lilu, the lily, became Lilith, the Canaanite first wife of Adam. As the story goes, Lilith rejected her husband and his God preferring equality in the desert to subjugation by men. First Gabriel and then Mary take up the lily and make it a symbol of the virginal aspect of the goddess. Mary is not frightened when she learns, through her offering of the lily, that Gabriel is a woman. As St. Jerome writes, Mary “… had never been greeted by a man before” and her fear of doing wrong is quelled by Gabriel’s chaste revelation.

Of course, no amount of scholarly discussion of ancient religions and their relationship to the modern Big Three will change the closed mind of a fundamentalist. But here, at my house, Gabriel holds a fleur-de-lis, symbol of the Maiden, the Mother and the Crone. Bénédictions lumineuses ~

Pictures: Archangel Gabriel from the Ghent Altarpiece by Jan van Eyck c 1432
Babylonian sculpture of Lilitu/Lilu