By Land, Sky & Sea (14 page)

In the same breath, trance is also a powerful medium through which to commune with the spirit world, facilitate drawing down/possession, and make real the mantle of the oracle. Trance is both an altered state of consciousness (a state of being and of perception) and a method through which to attain such states. Trance is an incredible and vast powerhouse, and if approached with respect and integrity, one can awaken the mysteries and draw near the threshold of initiation. Trance propels seekers into the otherworlds. Seek and dare.

I will end this chapter by relaying the last official aspirant training session I facilitated with a beloved friend who is now an initiated priestess of the Coven of the WildWood.

Becky and I met in the city and followed tradition by indulging in blessed bubble tea, followed by delicious sushi. I will preface the rest of this brief foray into the training and teaching world of WildWood by explaining that Becky herself was an interesting case, in terms of aspiration and as a student of the Craft. Becky had been initiated as a first-degree priestess of a Celtic-Avalonian tradition several years before she decided to aspire to WildWood. Becky lives her Craft and is a very experienced and profoundly insightful Witch—in a nutshell, she’s good at what she does. Thus, her aspirant training was an interesting case in point. Many times we simply had what we in priesthood training call “fat (phat) chats,” in which we simply divulge our opinions, feelings, experiences, and insights about ________ (insert aspect of Craft/Pagan spirituality here).

Becky and I were walking through the shoe section of Myer fat-chatting about trance and what it means. We spoke of trance as a means to attain other states of consciousness, or being, which can help facilitate:

• Spirit flight and journeying into other realms
  
• Drawing down (or in) gods and other appropriate spiritual beings
  
• Channeling information and wisdom from various sources (mediumship or oracular work)
  

The “lesson,” in contrast with the previous sessions, however, was decidedly more lax, and I found myself dissatisfied. On the bus home after finishing up in the city, I realised that we had definitely covered the practical aspects and exercises associated with trance throughout her four months of weekly training. I had helped Becky to successfully draw down our Crescent-Crowned Goddess, fly to and through other realms, and transport her consciousness to become one with the ever-spiralling mythos of the WildWood. Leaving the city that afternoon was rather emotional for me, as Becky and I had grown so close and developed such a strong friendship during that time that we both agreed we would continue with our weekly one-on-one get-togethers, despite the “official” completion of her aspirant training (and we still call it aspirant training, just for fun). I decided it was right and fitting that I send her a message to express my feelings and also to conclude the lesson on trance:

Thank you so much for the friendship that has grown between us through this whole process. I absolutely love you, and if you decide to dedicate, it will affirm to me that you have been, are, and always will be my sister. In my mind, you are already so much a part of it…Trance is the way we feel when we have become intoxicated with life’s essence, when we have dissolved the boundaries between the conscious and the unconscious, and are at one with the All-Self, which is at the core of our being. Thou art Goddess!

That afternoon, I decided that trance leads to the gnosis of self through awareness of the All-Self. The barriers that we perceive to exist between what is considered “self” and what is seen to be “not-self” dissolve in the face of the being that has, in the very Islamic sense of the word, surrendered to the All. Muslims might contextualise this philosophy as one of complete surrender to Allah, the merciful creator, sustainer, and cherisher of the worlds. A Pagan might simply say, “Go with the flow.”

Trance leads to altered states of consciousness that facilitate an awakening of the true, essential self that exists at our deepest layer. In my humble twenty-one years in this incarnation, I have experienced trance states while dancing in clubs, making love, walking, riding the bus, and certainly while meditating in circle. Trance is that paradoxical process and entirely human force that simultaneously elevates, contracts, tears apart, and expands. It is that primal cauldron (symbol of the mystery) in which Dionysos was boiled and eventually restored by the ancient Earth Mother herself to greater glory. Dionysos awakens to his true self and finds that “self” is in all things—as above, so below; as within, so without. All is a mirror! All is one!

12

As she and several other medicine people had emphasized to me, the quest was not primarily about deprivation but about seeking insight for oneself and others.

—Marie Herbert,
Healing Quest

In various shamanic traditions the world over, themes of oracular vision journeys crop up time and time again. In fact, these spirit journeys often parallel modern occult preambles concerning astral travel or projection. This chapter will not discuss astral journeying, as it has been covered already (see chapter 8, “To Fly in Spirit”); however, the deepening of awareness and the vision-journey techniques of ages and cultures past will be regarded in detail.

Gaia, Freya, and Apollon—Oh My!

Seership in the ancient oracular sense was revered by the Old Ones. It manifested under various guises in different cultures globally; however, it all seems to stem from the same understanding of the cosmos and the same human yearning to have insight into the “wyrding web,” or the tide of fate.

In ancient Greece, the most famous oracular tradition was that of the Delphic oracle. Delphi was believed in ancient times to be the
omphalos
, or the navel/centre of the world itself. The mytho-history of the Delphic oracle is rather obscure and possibly skewed by an Indo-European/Kurgan invasion, which eventually led to the supplantation of the goddesses as the prime catalysts in myth and religion. The gods seized absolute power, a patriarchal goal. The myth of Delphi itself—and thus the oracle—is rather telling.

There are various legendary accounts that describe Delphi and its oracular powers. One myth in particular, however, has been upheld by Pagan and goddess-worshipping feminists to illustrate and support the historical theories of Marija Gimbutas, the late and notorious Lithuanian feminist historian and archaeologist who created the Kurgan hypothesis. The site of Delphi was once known as Pytho, which comes from a Greek root meaning “to rot,” referring to the decomposition of the titanic bodies of Gaia’s guardian serpents who dwelt there (Gaia being the Earth Mother from whom we all come and who was born from Kaos/Chaos). The decomposition of the serpents was inferred by Apollon, the new lord of prophecy, who slew the “monstrous” creature and claimed the oracular seat of power for himself. In other myths, it is said that Delphi and its powers were in the hands of the goddesses Themis and Phoebe, who at the coming of Apollon to Delphi wilfully handed the reigns of power to the god. Whatever the truth of the matter (though myth is never an objective thing), Delphi has been known for millennia to be the holy seat of oracular power—the centre of the world.

The Pythia—the oracle herself—and her wisdom (the words of the gods, Apollon, Gaia, or whomever) were the focus and the pinnacle of any visit to Delphi. Her words and oracles have been recorded through the sands of time by countless literary greats, including Herodotus, Euripides, Aristotle, and Plato, though the authenticity of the psychic nature or divine origins of the channelings have often been scrutinised.

It has been hypothesised that the tripod the Pythia sat on when giving oracles stood over a fissure in the rocks through which gaseous fumes emanated, which possibly helped to induce the Pythia’s deeply abiding trance. However, the attendant priests, who were entirely conscious during the proceedings, were the ones who “translated” the divine tongue (“gibberish”) and framed the oracles for the seekers. Once again, this can be viewed as patriarchal providence, as it was the priests who delivered the divine ordains despite the actual oracles spouting from the lips of a female priestess. In fact, historically and in classical Greece, the position of the Delphic oracle was perhaps the single most significant and powerful role a woman could aspire towards. Originally, the oracle was said to be a young virgin; however, the law/lore changed to allow elderly women (even if married) to take on the mantle of Pythia, though upon becoming the Pythia, one had to renounce all family ties and dissolve personal identity.

Interestingly, the role of seer, at least in Europe, was often equated with mysterious feminine powers. In northern Europe and among the Nordic tribes, the oracular arts were entirely women’s business. In
Northern Mysteries & Magick
(Llewellyn, 1998), Freya Aswynn states matter-of-factly that “in Old Norse, the name for a female magician was
volva
, which means ‘sibyl’ or ‘prophetess.’ Her main function was to practice divination.” In Norse and other Germanic traditions, vision journeying is called spae-craft or seidr, which can generally be translated as meaning Witchcraft. Several Pagan reconstructionist groups in the Northern Hemisphere have re-created the old tribal ceremonies that enabled the seer/priestess/volva to enter trance and commune with the spirit world. The patron deity of this art is Freya—the Norse
vanir
(earth) goddess of sorcery/seidr, sexuality, love, and fertility.

Seidr magick works on the premise that the seidr worker “seeks to sink into the realm of the unknown and unconscious, to become woven into it.”
[1]
In becoming “woven into” the web of Wyrd (the fabric of the cosmos and the reason for it), the mundane space-time continuum dissipates, and time instead becomes a river that flows, of course, to the sea, or the matrix. In this state of enhanced awareness (All-Self), one can pierce the veil of illusion and perceive truth. Through the facilitation of trance states, a practitioner of seidr magick is able to speak with the spirits, who are beings of raw potency and great wisdom, and learn of things long lost to the past, the hidden realties of the present, and those things that are still to come. This is possible because all time is time, and there is only what is now—now and now again.

Seidr, like all shamanic traditions, helps to alter consciousness and inspire ecstasy, propelling the self into the wonder of Wyrd. The intricate cosmology that informs and enlivens the rites and ceremonies of northern folk magicians helps to guide and align the modern-day seidr practitioner with the world tree—the joiner of all the worlds and thus the highway for vision journeying.

In spae-craft, the priestess is aided in her trance induction by her attendant seidr workers through the medium of song. The songs are sung as the volva eats a meal that was traditionally comprised of the hearts of wild creatures. She then climbs onto a platform and seats herself on a high chair; she is dressed in a feathered cloak and catskin gloves. These vestments are worn in honour of the goddess Freya, to whom these rites are dedicated. Once the trance state is attained, the priestess then begins to prophesy; her information comes directly from the spirit world in which she dwells for a time. The parallels between seidr and the Delphic oracle are obvious; however, the feminine expertise associated with visionary powers is highlighted in the northern example. Perhaps in the time that Delphi was considered Gaia’s sacred centre, the oracular rites were celebrated and directed by women.

The oracular deities share something subtle in common: their connection to the deeper chthonic mysteries. Gaia, whom Delphi was first dedicated to, contains within herself the various layers and realms of Hades, or the underworld. Freya, a Vanir goddess of fertility, forest, and field, is also the patron of seidr, which, according to Edred Thorsson, is a kind of “Northern shamanism.” Any deity associated with the fertility of the earth is automatically connected to the chthonic powers, as all fertility first begins in the dark, moist womb of the earth. Apollon bears no obvious or particular underworldly connections; however, many myths and writings concerning Delphi state that Dionysos was the reigning lord of the Delphic oracle for the winter months, and this deity’s strong chthonic aspects were highly honoured. Like the darkly nurtured seeds that become the summer’s heavy-laden harvest, so too is the wisdom of the spirits gathered and kept in the subterranean realms until the enlightenment (Apollon’s brilliant gold rays) of the mind strikes the fecund soil and draws them into the light of day. The journey to the underworld to retrieve and claim visions is an experience and technique of altering consciousness that I call “the journey across the sunless sea.”

Going Under:
Journeying across the Sunless Sea

Life and death were a continuous stream; the dead were buried as if sleeping in a womb, surrounded by their tools and ornaments, so that they might awaken to a new life.

—Starhawk,
The Spiral Dance

In vision journeying, one is required to disengage from the ego—from the independent, discrete identity—and dissolve into the oneness of the All-Self, which affirms the truths of interconnection, no-time, and no-space. Upon attaining such a state of consciousness, we are able to move freely between the worlds and access knowledge and wisdom from hidden realms.

Starhawk and the Reclaiming Collective of San Francisco use similar terminology when referring to the voyage of the souls of our beloved dead “beyond the sunless sea.” I use a similar reflection because it is only through awareness of the “temporary-eternally-shifting-changing” nature of things that one is able to break free from paradigms of (or desire for) unnatural, unchanging, bodily immortality, which engenders a fear and hatred for and of death.

In the Craft traditions, Death is the king who initiates our queen, the Goddess, into the mysteries of rebirth (more on this later). It is only through death that we become what we always were and are—eternity ever-evolving. We are the dance of the Horned One who lives, dies, and is reborn.

“Going under” further qualifies my allusion to the realms of death, the underworld, the cauldron of regeneration, and the Celtic sea; thus is this section so named. Here is a rich pathworking that will lead you into the crucible of change and bring you to the very edge of life itself.

Voyage Across the Sunless Sea:
Pathworking

Begin by grounding and centring yourself and creating sacred space in your own way. As trance/vision-journey incense, burn cypress, rosemary, and sage in equal parts on a charcoal disc.

Visualise yourself standing on the shoreline. Place yourself firmly in that reality of salty sea air, sea foam, sinking sand beneath your feet, and a lapping tide. Feel the foundation of the sand beneath you—this is the land. Feel the coolness of the water rushing around you—this is the sea. Look up into the heavens, and relax as the winds stir you—this is the sky. In this ’tween place, you are on holy ground, joined and blessed by the wholeness of the three realms. You are at one with the ancient trinity.

A mist gathers around you, and it feels as though a heavy grey cloak has settled over your shoulders. You breathe in and out, and the mist spirals and undulates, making strange, otherworldly patterns in the space before you. You feel the urge to step through the veil of mist, for there is a magnetic pull drawing you forward. Before you can take your first step into the unknown, the prow of a boat cuts out of the enfolding mist and a radiant, ethereal hand reaches out from beyond, coaxing you forward, onto the boat itself. Do you dare to travel across the sunless sea into the great beyond?