Here is part two of the "Mounds and Deo Pavo Work"

( Read more and see pictures beneath the cut... )

Part one is linked here.... Part three coming soon).

This is the first of three posts about a recent spirit working. Much of my magic nowadays is very intuitive and is prompted by the relationships I have with Ancestors, Allies and Gods. My methods use the rational mind, but the work itself is something different. I feel that such work works on me and on the world. Altars are immanent, resonant, willful prayers and draw Spirit into our ken and into expression.

This prayer/spell started with a request for an all-white altar with an offering of flour and egg, worked its way into the building of a small outdoor mound intended to be a first step in the mysteries of practical earthworks as well as a spell/prayer for the protection of the Appalachian mountains and the restoration of the American Chestnut tree. There were also some vague dreams about Mounds and about my past visits--they were more promptings than sources of information. Deo Pavo/Peacock Angel took over, weaving in my Wyrd allies, especially Meher Baba, and fire worship, and reached a stage of completion concurrent with Iranian elections and subsequent unrest (a surprise resonance that didn't factor into my timing, but which probably isn't utterly irrelevant given the political foci and the Irani connections in my background).

So the energies that emerged in this working started with a Damballah/Paga Legba flavor, threaded through contemplation of the ancient Appalachian mounds I've made pilgrimage to in the past (including two in West Virginia and the Great Serpent Mound in Ohio) and moved into the court of Deo Pavo, who manifested with a very Irani/Zoroastrian flavor and brought Meher Baba and other Allies along with Him (adding some clarity to that nexus of spirit energies and refining my sense of what's going on with them). So the effect is to honor and grow closer to Spirits, though the intention remains connected to the spirit of place and the need to protect our mountains and restore the nearly extinct Chestnut.

After some interest in mounds and making a mound emerged in discussion on Facebook, I also started a group there called "Appalachian Earthworks". Below are some links to historic mounds in the Appalachian region; on the Facebook page, I'm also posting links to folks using earthwork sculpture as art or ritual.

I am partly exploring it as a parallel to the "Dragon's Nest" (a ring of organic material) as an organic ritual form, one perhaps well suited to work with spirits of place, the ancestors, and spells to stop mountain top removal.

Here are pictures of outdoor phase 1, begun last Dark Moon.

( Ritual Description, Photos and Mound Links )

Part Two coming soon.

I'll post more soon about the new shrine to Isis-Fortuna and Serapis-Aion (it's still in development), but as a belated Solstice & New Year's greeting here are some shots from the past week.

Here we have Aion (as Sky Father) and Fortuna in their new wall shrine.  The new Lares, my Solstice gift to self, have been silver-leafed and placed up high.  The second photo is the Solstice Child flying toward Capricorn.  The third is a Mithraic cock atop a corinthian column (the Solstice decoration I liked most this  year).  Then we have an Aion image I made in 2008, together with the Yule child (now standing in for New Year).  The final one is Melek Taus/Deo Pavo.

...Is a pair of Lares for a new shrine set-up to Isis-Fortuna and Sky Father.  I've wanted these for a while... Sacred Source used to carry them and then  stopped listing them... now they're back again.  For  some reason I never made my own.  This will also diversify ancestral representation... if you looked at my ancestor shrine, you'd think there was nothing between Britain and Africa.  And I like that they're androgynous twins.

And I love this lararium from Pompei.  Would be nice to approximate that someday.


(They also echo the forms of Gaura-Nitai and probably satisfy some deep Krishna imprint)

Cross-posted to copperstewart & pimp my altar... maybe later to Manifold Oneness

On Summer Solstice I acknowledge Creation/Zep Tepi, the accession of Isis to the Hidden Name of Re, and the sovereignty of Osiris and Horus. On Dea Fortuna's Wheel, it is the station of Exaltation.

To mark the day, I'd like to share a couple glimpses of our "High Altar" -- the main one in the temple room dedicated to Isis-Urania and Osiris Pantocrator. This room is set apart for the Gods, spiritual Work, and healing.

( See the Shrine of Isis... )
( See the Shrine of Osiris... )
( See the Solstice Eve Rainbow ... )

x-posted to pimp_my_altar 

( Imperatrix/tor Isis-Fortuna-Serapis-Aion Darshan Pic... )

It rained today and the past few, and has been chilly, so I'm indoors--had planned to do more gardening and less posting on LJ.  Here are photos I took of the sunlight on the Dragons Nest today.

Someday I shall have a whole book of Fey pictures, if they allow such things to stay a while.  The first two are worth clicking to see larger...  the two closeups won't get larger.  How many Faeries can you see?

For folks on my friends list--especially gardeners--who aren't in pimp_my_altar, I wanted to share a link to my recent post of pictures and descriptions of my OUTDOOR spirit shrines.  There's also a Green Dragon bit fellow Reclaimers may like.

See my outdoor shrines...

We have had a blizzard, so I haven't made it down to the river.  I did get to build the altar and go into contemplative space.  Some oceany hymns and music put me in a trancey state, and when one long, very celebratory song for Yemaya came on, my guide Abutah made a strong appearance, and in a more youthful form than she's presented before.  She's the being I referred to in a recent post as resembling Mahalia Jackson.  We danced ecstatically and she rode me.  Cleaned my energy right up and made me fit for the Navigium.  So she got a special offering, and will get some more.  This is the first time I've shared her name so publicly; she indicated it's time to speak more freely of her. 

I came out of it with a formula for the "Offering in Running Water" of Isidis Navigium.


A Packet for the Offering in Running Water

1 organic bead
3 shark's teeth
5 kinds of grain (1 must be barley, 1 a pulse, 1 a living seed)
7 cowrie shells with eyes opened
9 rose petals of two colors

And if there is a boat, it shall be of rice paper or husks of maize or kindred, and you shall write upon it with spirit and with coal, and what you shall write is this: FOR ISIS PANTHEA AND ALL WHO HOLD THE HIDDEN NAME.  And you shall touch it to the Earth and you shall exalt it before the North, and then you shall commend it to running water and recite 12 times "Ay-ye Ay-ye Magna Mater Dea Isis Panthea Goddess Isis Anima Mundi Sol Sol Negra Stella Maris" and I will receive your gift and amplify it according to my taste and whim, for by reciprocity you shall know that I am and that I am Queen Isis.

I continue with the work of the 7 Star Alignment (don't think I've abandoned it--it's the very productive locus of my current work, truly a gift from the Gods for me).  As part of that, I'm doing work with Agatha Sophia.  Unless its a celebratory sabbat or similar occasion, I save altar pictures until after the main work is done... then share freely, cause I think they're beautiful and carry baraka (think Egypt: ba+ra+ka).  About a week ago, I did some intense work with Agatha Sophia and built an altar.  She gave me a powerful way of chanting Her name and feeling Her descend, and a dance that's basically an "infinity sign waltz," the important part of which is ending on point.  It works kala or enthuses prana or some such energy-transforming thing.

Beneath the cut, there are pictures of the Agatha altar, Abutah's space on the kitchen Fortuna altar, another one of the Navigium altar, and a couple renderings of my standing Deo Pavo altar in the Upper Temple.  It's worth clicking to see the larger versions of the renderings.  Photoshop can do some neat things with peacock feathers!