[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]
.Yeats served in this position until1917, when he married his young secretary, Georgie, settled down finally tomarried life, and, under Georgie s influence, gave up the active magical workin order to concentrate on his poetry.The work Yeats produced during thelast two decades of his life is generally acknowledged to be among the greatestliterary work ever produced.With Yeats s departure, the Isis-Urania Temple was resurrected as theMerlin Temple of the Stella Matutina, which remained active into the 1940s.The temple then went into a decline after its secret rituals were published byIsrael Regardie, who had, at one time, been Aleister Crowley s secretary.However, it is interesting to note that Regardie did not publish any of theChristian magical materials used by the HOGD members.141 HERNE THE HUNTERThere do not seem to be any HOGD lodges in North America that werechartered directly by either the original Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawnor the Stella Matutina.Instead, the American lodges trace their lineage backto the OTO or have begun from scratch, working with the copious infor-mation that has been published in recent decades on exactly how the lodgesfunctioned at every level.See Also: Mathers; Samuel Liddell; Ordo Templi OrientisFurther ReadingColquhoun, Ithell.Sword of Wisdom: MacGregor Mathers and the Golden Dawn. New York: Putnam s, 1975.King, Francis.Ritual Magic in England, 1887 to the Present.London: Spearman, 1970.Mathers, S.L.MacGregor, ed.and trans.The Greater Key of Solomon.Chicago: DeLaurence, Scott, 1914.Moore, Virginia.The Unicorn: William Butler Yeats Search for Reality.New York:Macmillan, 1954.Regardie, Israel.The Golden Dawn: An Account of the Teachings, Rites, andCeremonies of the Order of the Golden Dawn, 1937 1940, 2d ed.River Falls, WI:Hazel Hills, 1969.Herne the HunterOf the many ways in which this character of the English tradition is por-trayed, Herne the Hunter is most associated with the dead and with night ac-tivities.He leads the mythological Wild Hunt wearing a horned headdress, afeature that associates him with other horned gods, such as Pan and Cernun-nos.Similar figures exist in the German and French traditions, and sightingsof Herne the Hunter are reported in English forests.See Also: Cernunnos; Horned GodFurther ReadingGordon, Stuart.The Encyclopedia of Myths and Legends.London: Headline, 1993.Leach, Maria.Standard Dictionary of Folklore, Mythology, and Legend.San Francisco,CA: HarperSan Francisco, 1984 [1949].HexHex refers to a spell laid through Witchcraft.It derives from a German wordadopted by the Pennsylvania Dutch.Although in common usage it is a closesynonym of curse, the Pennsylvania Dutch use it to designate good, as well asevil, spells.See Also: Curses; SpellsFurther ReadingGuiley, Rosemary.The Encyclopedia of Witches and Witchcraft.New York: Facts onFile, 1989.142 HIEROS GAMOSHex SignsThe long tradition of inscribing good-omen signs on houses and on toolsdates to the Bronze Age and has made its way through Europe to the Pennsyl-vania Dutch, who have used them throughout the nineteenth century.Hexsigns are usually of circular shape and represent flowers, stars, hearts,swastikas, wheels, and many other symbols.Each carries a specific meaningand provides a particular type of protection or enhancement of certain quali-ties.Some hex signs are designed and used to favor courage, fertility, or viril-ity.Others are placed on cradles, or on the doors of houses and stables to pre-vent bewitchment.See Also: Amulet; TalismansFurther ReadingValiente, Doreen.An ABC of Witchcraft: Past and Present.New York: St.Martin sPress, 1973.Hieros GamosThe Greek hieros gamos (meaning sacred marriage, sacred wedding feast, or sacred sexual intercourse ) refers to the mythical or ritual union betweena god and a goddess.It can also refer to the union of a deity with a humanbeing, particularly between a king and a goddess.More generally, the termcan represent the union of a set of opposites such as east and west, northand south, or sky and Earth expressed through the symbol of sexual union.In various myths, for example, Earth and sky are depicted as having been onein the beginning (as in a sexual embrace) and were separated during the actof creation.Agriculture and the ritual work on the land have been endowedwith sexual symbolism, since tilling the soil can be interpreted as a male actperformed on the female Earth.Thus, the work of the farmer can be depictedas a sexual ritual.During the ritual of agricultural work, the seasons acquire anew significance.As far back as the ancient Indus Valley civilization, goddesses seem tohave been associated with the expression of the power of vegetation on theEarth.The power of the goddess, the most striking theme in the mythologyand rituals of sacred marriage, is the ability to generate everything with asecondary, almost irrelevant participation of the male.This power was usuallyassociated with war and destructive anger, and with irresistible life and love.Various images of prehistoric, protohistoric, and traditional goddesses showthe ancient significance of nudity, symbolically associated with prosperity,abundance, and increased harvest.Sexual rituals associated with agricultural life have drawn the attentionof a number of scholars, not only to rites in ancient societies but also to con-tinuing folk customs.Such scholars as Wilhelm Mannhardt (1831 1880) andJames G.Frazer (1854 1941) recorded many instances in which the sex act143 HIGH PRIEST(ESS)was believed to have a magical effect to induce fertility in people, animals,and fields.Hieros gamos rituals were also associated with the creation of early city-states built on the wealth provided by agriculture.These rituals derivedfrom earlier symbolism, although in an expanded and stylized form.One ofthese was the hieros gamos rite celebrated in various cultic centers inMesopotamia during the New Year Festival
[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]
