The Hag

The Hag is astride,

This night for to ride;

The Devil and she together:

Through thick, and through thin,

Now out, and then in,

Though ne'er so foul be the weather.

A Thorn or a Burr

She takes for a Spur

With a lash of a Bramble she rides now,

Through Brakes and through Briars,

O'er Ditches, and Mires,

She follows the Spirit that guides now.

No Beast, for his food,

Dares now range the wood;

But hush't in his lair he lies lurking:

While mischiefs, by these,

On Land and on Seas,

At noon of Night are a working.

The storm will arise,

And trouble the skies;

This night, and more for the wonder,

The ghost from the Tomb

Affrighted shall come,

Called out by the clap of the thunder.

By Robert Herrick ( 1591~1674)

The Prophecy of the True Horn

Across the Voids  of Time Did These words come to me.

Into darkness will I fade,

Into a night that Man has made,

But through that gloom shall gleam the Sun

When I am lost, and again am won.

Release! Release! I call to thee

In New Lands across the sea:

Let another, on narrow pathways, come to me

Further and Highest,

Yet not beyond reach.

Choose thou well a path that will teach

How the Sunken is raised

And Emptiness is filled

And a wandering heart

Can finally be stilled.

Seek the Great Stone!  Mark it well, with a sign,

That the one who shall follow

Shall see it is mine,

And, seeing, shall ponder and certainly know

As the Ancients have writ: "As Above, so Below."

And I shall guard the Source of Greatness;

Waiting by a teardrop

From neither joy nor sorrow born,

In silver bound, beneath the ground,

I am the Spiral Horn.

The Water ~ Mill

Listen to the water-mill;

Through the livelong day,

How the grinding of the wheel

Wears the hours away!

Languid, deep, and still;

Never coming back again

To that water-mill,

And the proverb haunts my mind

Like a spell that's cast:

"The mill will never grind

With the water that is past."

Take the lesson to yourselves,

Loving hearts and true;

Golden years are fleeting by;

Youth is fleeting too.

Learn to make the most of life,

Lose no honest way,

Time will never bring again

Chances swept away!

Leave no tender word unsaid,

Love while love shall last;

"The mill will never grind

With the water that is past."

Work while yet the daylight shines,

Man of strength and will!

Never does the streamlet glide

Useless by the mill;

Wait not till to-morrow's sun

Beams upon thy way,

All that thou canst call thine own

Lies in this ~ "Today";

Power, intellect, and strength,

May not ~ cannot last;

"The mill will never grind

With the water that is past."

O the wasted hours of life

That have drifted by!

O the good that might have been ~

Lost, without a sigh!

Love that we might once have save

By a single word,

Thoughts conceived, but never penned,

Perishing unheard;

Take the proverb to thy heart,

Take, ~ ay, hold it fast ~

"The mill will never grind

With the water that is past."

By Sarah Dowdney

Taken from an Old French Prose account of Alchemic Work

~ in allegoric language and myth ~

Within the golden portal

Of the garden of the wise,

Watching by the seven sprayed fountain,

The Hesperian Dragon lies.

Like the ever burning Branches

In the dream of holy seer;

Like the types of Asia's churches

Those glorious jets appear.

Three times the magic waters

Must the Winged Dragon drain

Then his scales shall burst asunder

And his Heart be rent in twain

Forth shall flow an emanation

Forth shall spring a shape divine,

And if Sol and Cynthia and thee

Shall the charmed Key be thine.

In the solemn groves of Wisdom

Where black pines their shadow fling

Near the haunted cell of Hermes,

Three lovely flowrets spring:

The Violet damask tinted

In scent all flowers above:

The milk white vestal Lily

And the purple flower of Love.

Red Sol a sign shall give thee

Where the Sapphire Violets gleam,

Watered by the rills that wander

From the viewless golden stream:

One Violet shalt thou gather ~

But ah ~ beware, beware! ~

The Lily and the Amaranth

Demand thy chiefest care.

With in the lake of crystal,

Roseate as Sol's first ray

With eyes of diamond lustre,

A thousand fishes play

A net within that water

A net with web of gold

If cast where air bills glitter

One shining fish shall hold.

Amid the oldest mountains

Whose tops are next the Sun,

The everlasting rivers

Through glowing channels run,

Those channels are of gold

And thence the countless treasures

Of the kings of earth are rolled.

But far ~ far must he wander

O'er realms and seas unknown

Who seeks the Ancient Mountains

Where shines the Wondrous Stone.

From 'Astral Projection,Ritual Magic, and Alchemy'

Queen, and huntress, chaste, and fair,

Now the sun is laid to sleep,

Seated, in thy silver chair,

State in wonted manner keep:

Hesperus, entreats thy light,

Goddess, excellently bright.

Earth, let not thy envious shade

Dare itself to interpose;

Cynthia's shining orb was made

Heaven to clear, when day did close:

Bless us then with wishe`d sight,

Goddess excellently bright.

Lay thy bow of pearl apart,

And thy crystal shining quiver;

Give unto the flying hart

Space to breathe, how short soever:

Thou that mak'st a day of night,

Goddess excellently bright.

By Ben Jonson

From Cynthia's Revels

Ariadne

In the deepening twilight

She stands

Just inside the entrance

To her cave,

Beckoning.

"Come," she softly calls

"Follow me."

"But I'm afraid," you tell her

"I fear I will be lost in there

"And they say that there are Minotaurs."

You peer into the labyrinth

Behind her

The twisting passages

Winding away

To nothing.......

Out here the familiar world

Crashes on

The Sea of Sexism,

The City of Doom.

She lifts her proud dark gaze in scorn

"Tis there one meets the Minotaur."

In the shadow gleams her crescent crown

A snake stirs in her breast

And in her hand she holds the Thread

Unravelling a strand

And offering.......

Will you come

Oh my sister

Will you come?

From Adriadne's Thread ~ A Workbook of Goddess Magic

The Inner  Witch

Does every wood and copse enchant you

And do hilltop bonfires remind you.......?

Do monoliths and stone circles solemnly beckon you?

Does rushing water thrill you

And do still pools reflect you?

Do sleek creatures catch your gaze

And does the call of the wild haunt you......?

Do flower meadows mean dancing feet?

Do green lanes and ancient trackways

Stir your deepest soul?

Does silence enthrall and enfold you

And does solitude mean freedom......?

Do stars whirl enchantment?

Does black night greet you, soft and reassuring?

Does the new moon restore hope

And does the full moon breath fulfillment......?

Do sunrise and sunset promise timeless rhythms?

Does the Hand of God move perpetually across the shy?

Does the Goddess flow endlessly beneath your feet

And do you ache to bridge that gap with your very being

......?

May you be blessed, may you create that bridge.

Does the wind whisper and coerce you?

Do Nature's cries provoke melancholy for lost arts?

May you be constantly threaded to your roots

And reminded of your destiny.

May you serve the Gods, may you walk

Always in their shadow.

May your silent acquiescence unite the worlds

And may your craft never die.

By Sage