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"Even though modern culture has done it's best to corrupt art into a celebrity production machine, simply another form of entertainment, designed specifically as an opiate to the downtrodden, gluttonous, and vapid, it fails because the artist knows better. Art is magic. Art is one of the rawest shamanistic forms of connection with the universal source of everything, but only if the artist is brave enough to give the audience what it needs rather than what it thinks, or has been told, it wants." --Peter Beckley

The past few weeks have found me focused on a personal project of connecting to the lunar energies.  As a practicing witch I have worked with the lunar energies regularly for many years.  I have worked ritual, written poetry and offered up praise to Her in all of her phases.  So, it would seem that my connection is very deep already.  The beauty of this Path, however, is that there is always something more that can be learned.  Something new that can be experienced and a deeper level of knowing that can be brought into your work.  

I have been on a mission to fully experience the energies of the Moon in all of her cycles and through the lunation of travel through the Zodiacal Wheel.  Having a good working knowledge of astrology and planetary magick helps this journey, but the intent of connection to the phases of cycle is not dependent on it.  I am also an Air sun sign, so analysis comes more readily than the emotional and feeling nature.  This is precisely why I felt this work would be very productive. 

Of course this post comes with a disclaimer. Before starting any weight loss program please consult your physician.

There’s a magickal disclaimer as well. Remember that when you do magick it is best to support your magick with appropriate mundane activities. As above, so below.

One of the most powerful aspects of ritual work is invocation. To invoke an element, a spirit or a deity is to bring their energy to your circle, and to bring their healing magickal power to yourself.

Many Pagans use statues, images and altar tools to help with the process of invocation. To have the image of a deity on your altar not only honors the deity, it assists in invoking the energy of that deity.

As I see it, there are three pillars of the Kemetic religion(s), in all its (or their) many forms. These pillars are:  The gods, the practices, and the concept of ma'at. It is this third, ma'at, that I will be discussing in this particular post.

Ma'at is often translated as Truth, Justice, Good, Order, or Cosmic Order. It is all of those things at once, in a way that can't be adequately conveyed with any one of the above English words or phrases.  For the Egyptians, the stability of the cosmos was not a fundamentally different thing from a king ruling justly. They were both manifestations of ma'at, and the lack thereof (an unstable cosmos, an unjust king, with the resulting disorder in the land) would be considered a lack of ma'at, and signs of  its opposite, isfet (often translated as "evil" or "disorder".)

The Ace of Swords is such a powerful card. Those who love Arthurian legend enjoy the fact that the Ace of Swords is archetypally Excalibur.

Another confession:  Instead of attacking De Occulta Philosophia, I'm going for the throat on Marsilio Ficino. 

A few years ago, I came across a book called "Music in Renaissance Magic" by Gary Tomlinson.  He focuses on the magic of a man named Marsilio Ficino, who was a priest and the doctor of Lorenzo de Medici.  Ficino is somewhat contemporary to Agrippa in the way that they both translated documents from Greek into Latin, and then proceeded to create their own synthesis of learning from those experiences. 

Ficino stood out to Tomlinson because he wrote magical music.  None of that music exists; it has all been lost to time, as Ficino's De vita libri tres has been out of my reach through library (another long story) and is too expensive to purchase. Until now.