This is a mashup of a passage about the origins of sirens from the novel The Fallen Fairy, which tells the story of a woman who, being identified as the reincarnation of a mythical creature, becomes the object of interest among sorcerers from another dimension. References to alchemy, medieval occultism, steganography, and sex magic permeate the novel, which is the second in the Sorcerers and Magi series. Within the video above, Illustrations of Odysseus and the sirens by Waterhouse, Otto Greiner, and Herbert James Draper are paired with sketches of sirens by me.
Sirens were creatures that were half-bird,
half-woman. . . . . According to classical
myth, they lived on treacherously rocky isles off the coast of Sicily. They
wanted nothing more than to entice passing sailors. . . . these sailors. . . found themselves in listless,
dumbfounded stupors from which they languished and died.
It was portended that if a ship passed in
which the occupants were resistant to the sirens’ song, the sirens . . . would kill themselves. Thus, it is told in the Odyssey that these creatures leaped off cliffs when the epic’s
hero, Odysseus, and his crew sailed by.
The sirens descended to the Underworld where
they continued to sing, this time in mourning for the dead. Their imagery
became mixed with that of mermaids who themselves, were the
mystical remnants of disposed-of women, who taking vengeance on the violence
done to them, lured men to their deaths with . . . the
sweetness of their song.
It all meant
something metaphorical about men, women, ecstasy, sense control, and, of
course, sex and death . . . . 
Hi,
ReplyDeleteI am in France. I was reading your experience with the olympic spirits.
How did you make the symbols ? painting, shalk ink?
Sincerely
Hello.Thanks for visiting. Although I do paint, I made my own images of the sigils of the Olympic Spirits using basic illustration programs on my computer. It is all digital,
ReplyDeletehi Dee
ReplyDeleteI suppose you made this during the planetary hours then ?
Have you used planetary archangels and angels ?
Sincerely
Gil
I did not follow any of the rules or standards. I made images of the sigils of the Olympic Spirits for my own reference and performed meditations and evocations of them on the morning of their corresponding day. I have done some planetary magic work in keeping with planetary hours, but it does not seem to make a difference and, in fact, seems less efficient--but that's just me. While doing a group working that involved dream work, evocation of the Olympic Spirits was coordinated with the moon mansions. The group initially intended to go onto evocation of the angels but never progressed that far. I did go through a period while working with the Arbatel when certain archangels were presenting themselves to me by name but when I intentionally decided to evoke the archangels in a systematic way, I got meager results--but part of that was related to challenges with time resources.
DeleteHi Dee
DeleteThere very few time windows during the year to ask things to planetary archangels. The systematic practice at day and hour only keep someone in contact whit them. Maintaining the contact is also very important. Olympic spirits are in a way more avalaible for us. You can get help from an administrative every day but getting help from the president himself is a bit more tricky.
Sincerely
Gil
Thank you Gil. Again, I have not trained in formal ceremonial and evocation magic. I have an interest in it, including it the production of talisman, but my present schedule disallows it. I stumbled upon the Arbatel because of interests in Greco-Roman spirituality and preSocratic and Neoplatonic spirituality. I had some interesting experiences that led me to --I believe--decode some of the Arbatel and view the Seal of Secrets as, not only a mnemonic wheel related to the mansions of the moon but a cube of space . I came to interests in Western mysticism and occultism with a background in Advaita Vedanta, not a Judeo-Christian paradigm, and this is likely a reason why my experiences with evocation are qualitatively different from other practitioners. I will be giving a presentation on the Seal of Secrets as a Cube of Space or "yantra" this weekend actually and will likely post the presentation on this blog. Times resources have been tight for me and so my upkeep of this blog has been lacking, unfortunately, but just as time put me in this circumstance, it will eventually arrange for another one with new adventures. You are welcome to contact me and continue the conversation at sororzsd23@gmail.com
ReplyDelete