Category Archives: Magic and Occult

The Scales of Justice (September 23 — October 22)

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The infant Narcissus is presented to the aged prophet Tiresias. Tiresias the prophet was placed in the sky as the constellation Libra by Hera.

The scales of Libra are sometimes associated with Tiresias, the aged prophet — shown here being presented with the child Narcissus. Tiresias is presented as a complexly liminal figure, with a foot in each of many oppositions, mediating between the gods and mankind, male and female, blind and seeing, present and future, and this world and the Underworld.

Libra, the scales of justice, is the astrological sign that governs those born September 23 to October 22 each year.

It has been suggested that the scales are an allusion to the fact that when the sun enters this part of the ecliptic at the autumnal equinox, the days and nights are equal. In Roman mythology, Libra is considered to depict the scales held by Astraea (identified as Virgo, the previous sign of the zodiac), the goddess of justice. Because scales always seek balance, they are associated with oppositions: life/death, earth/otherworld, sight/blindness, ignorance/foreknowledge, male/female, humanity/divinity, and so on. Because the mythological prophet Tiresias was said to be both blind and foreknowing as well as having lived for 7 years as a woman who had 3 children (the result of a curse by Athena or Hera), he was also associated with these oppositions and balances.

In one version of the sex-change story, Tiresias sees 2 snakes copulating and he strikes them with his staff. For some reason, this offends Hera who punishes him by changing him into a woman. The association of his staff with the 2 snakes has also led to his association with the caduceus (the 2 snakes winding about a staff, a symbol of communication but often confused with the single-snaked symbol of healing).

Narcissus

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Echo and Narcissus (1903), a Pre-Raphaelite interpretation by John William Waterhouse

Echo and Narcissus (1903), a Pre-Raphaelite interpretation by John William Waterhouse

Despite there being no clear evidence that the flower’s name derives directly from the Greek myth of Narcissus, who drowned while gazing at his own reflection in the water, the two are firmly linked in popular culture and the flower taken as a symbol of vanity. Another Greek myth finds Persephone, daughter of the goddess Demeter, lured to her doom in the Underworld by the god Hades while picking a narcissus flower.

In ancient China, a legend about a poor but good man holds he was brought many cups of gold and wealth by this flower. Since the flower blooms in early spring, it has also become a symbol of Chinese New Year. Narcissus bulb carving and cultivation is even an art akin to Japanese bonsai. If the narcissus blooms on Chinese New Year, it is said to bring extra wealth and good fortune throughout the year. Its sweet fragrances are highly revered in Chinese culture.

In classical Persian literature, the narcissus is a symbol of beautiful eyes, together with other flowers that equal a beautiful face with a spring garden, such as roses for cheeks and violets for shining dark hair.

The narcissus, otherwise known as daffodil, is the national flower of Wales, where it is traditional to wear a daffodil or a leek on Saint David’s Day (March 1). In Welsh the daffodil is known as “Peter’s Leek”, cenhinen Bedr or cenin Pedr). You can read more about daffodil and spring here.

The Patriot Witch for July 4!

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Patriot WitchThe Traitor to the Crown series by C.C. Finlay opens in 1775. Proctor Brown is an ordinary young man working the family farm in New England, determined to defend the rights of the colonies as a member of the local militia. But magic is in his blood and a chance encounter with an arrogant British officer bearing magic of his own catapults Proctor into the adventure of a lifetime. The three books in the series (Patriot Witch, Spell for the Revolution, and Demon Redcoat) trace Proctor’s involvement with another young patriot Deborah Walcott with the gift of magic, George Washington, and a secret society of evil witches (the Covenant) that has been pulling the strings of European history for centuries. The battles of the American Revolution are the stage-dressing of a much more fundamental war between the witches of the Covenant and the witches of the colonies who are determined to wrest control from the hands of the Covenant and grant real freedom to the peoples of North America and Europe.

Real events in American and European history are incorporated into the series, making the novels a fascinating exploration of how those events might have influenced, or been influenced by, magic and witchcraft. (Proctor’s style of doing magic, drawing on verses of the Bible, is an intriguing exploration of the relationship between magic and religion.) I urge you to add these books to your “wish list!”