Rituals Under the Stars: December Witchcraft

December was an insanely busy month witchcraft-wise and rather than make a bunch of little posts I figured I’d just make one giant post.

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During my daily stellar devotions I inadvertently created a cut-up poem from an excerpt on Aldebaran in The Dragon Book of Essex

The constellation Taurus, Aldebaran is

the portal for the visionary powers

“The Maker of the Furrow of

the left horn of the Dragon” as the

interpreted as a bestial

Fire-horned God of the

Unridden Beast

the emanation of

the BHA rite, from the left

Witch-fathers

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Y’know, it’s funny. All these years as a practicing occultist (coming on 2 decades now jfc) and I only realize I don’t have a full moon rite when my covenmate asks if we have plans for the last full moon of the year. In my defense The Dragon Book of Essex consumes most of my practice and full moons just… aren’t that big of a deal. Sure, we do the full stellar assumption where we invoke all the stars of Draco on the full moon but this by it’s nature is a very stellar-oriented rite especially now that I’m focused on the Behenian fixed stars and have a handful of extras to contend with. On top of that DBoE has some taboos against exposing certain ritual items to moonlight and our central rite takes place on the dark moon not the full. As a result it’s dropped in priority over the years. My partner is not a DBoE practitioner and thus has none of these restrictions on his vessel so I set off to write a full moon rite for us. That’s a normal ass coven thing to do I’m pretty sure? We’re new at this.

Over the last few years I’ve used Azoetia’s ritual structure to craft DBoE rites with a lot of success (see: The Invocation of Yemeloi-Lucifera and ‘She whose hand carries the Sickle to harvest the Stars’ for admittedly vague examples). In a lot of ways DBoE rites are expansions of the Azoetic formula – compare DBoE’s Rite of the Draconian Oracle to Azoetia’s Ingress rite for the clearest example – making Azoetia the perfect skeleton for self-crafted rituals. Note that this was decidedly not a DBoE rite but one crafted for spirits I typically work with via DBoE. I will not post the ritual here but I will say the majority of the inspiration arose from Azoetia’s 3rd and 16th letters as well as one of The Dragon Book of Essex’s seasonal rites¹. I baked some rye bread, my partner brought wine and two bouquets of red and white roses (very fancy!), and together we foraged and a crown of greenery for the Witch Queen. Additional offerings of hagstones, sickles, apples, and feathers were arranged on the outdoor altar while the circle and Queen were adorned with roses and peacock feathers. Powders were prepared and enlivened in the manner of our tradition to draw the sigils of the Goddess(es) and the edge of the circle adorned with shooting star LEDs². While prepping the circle we learned that ritual fires are taboo for this rite. Damn things just keep piling up.

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On winter solstice the gang headed to the Anza-Borrego desert in search of a ritual site. This year I got a portable metal firepit so we could take advantage of dispersed camping rather than being restricted to a campsite. Instead of the traditional Red Meal-style offerings we decided on tamales and lemon poppy seed cookies – it’s Christmas so tamales are seasonal (and festive!) and lemon-poppy seed is a good combination of solar and chthonic ingredients. Because she’s such an incredibly good girl and we planned to camp near the road we brought my beloved malinois Betty which ended up being really lovely.

After a few hours of driving we found a nice flat area tucked away from the main road . With the help of a star map app we got the stang properly oriented with Draco, raised the skull of the Witch Queen, and set up our little camp.

A triangle of evocation was drawn around the stang and an altar of powders, food, wine, and items needing consecration placed on a goatskin. We watched the Ursid meteor shower for a few hours while waiting for the stars to move into position. The Ursids are a fairly weak shower so we only saw one meteor but it was a nice big fire ball which is more than enough.

When the owl called thrice the ritual fire was lit and the rite to honor the winter stars began. Orion, Ursa Major, and Draco were called via the Azoetic formulae. As we began we noticed a pair of green eyes glittering at the edge of the circle – a kit fox I’m pretty sure.

Hail! Hail to Thee! Ye Seven Stars of the Great Horn’d Hunter,
Ye Seven Stones which mark the Field of many Stars,
Ye Seven Guardians of Sahu-Uru-Anna,
Ye Seven Watchers before the Throne!
Unto my Voice rais’d as the Sword before Thee,
Unto my Voice rising upon the Storm’s Batde-Cry,
Unto the Words of the Charms of Calling – Hearken!
Send Thy Light swiftly to this Earthly Circle as a Sign of Thine Answer.

Hekas, Hekas Este Bebeloi! Hail! Hail to Thee!
O’ Ye Seven Stars of the Bear! Ye Seven Stars of the Bull’s Thigh!
Ye Seven Mourners about the Tomb; Ye Seven Watchers afore the Throne!
Unto my Voice rais’d in the Column of Eire before Thee,
Unto my Voice rising in the Serpents of Incense to adore Thee,
Unto my Words – the Thousand Charms of Calling – Hearken!
Send Thy Light swiftly into this Earthly Circle as a Sign of Thine Answer.

As we invoked and sacrificed an inhuman screams penetrated our orations. It sounded as if some sort of monster crawled out of the ground and started yelling but only once. My partner chuckled nervously and remarked that I’m very good at summoning terrifying noises. He’s not wrong – goetia is the howling art after all.³ Later at home I did some research and I am almost positive that the scream and green eyes were a kit fox. We were in their preferred habitat and December is breeding season making the typically elusive animals much more vocal and less risk adverse. Coyotes approach my circles sometimes but I’ve never had a fox before.

After our sacrifices we relinquished crooked coins and other small items to the fire to be consecrated in it’s holy flames. When it was time for the Red Meal Betty joined us at the fire and the three of us had a tamale and cookie with the spirits. I am always impressed with how magick savvy many intelligent dogs are and how directly they interact with evoked spirits. People always talk about cats being the witch’s assistant but you haven’t lived til you see your giant black German Shepherd tear into the room and perform a bark and hold on the spirit you just evoked while carefully dodging all the sigils on the floor. I haven’t taken Betty to rituals much since my GSD passed but she’s proven she can handle herself appropriately around both wildlife and spirits and should be included in the future. .

After the Red Meal we transvoked the stars and performed star snarings, exchanged gifts and other private rituals. It was a touching and emotional night, very different from my usual white knuckle DBoE rituals. Azoetic rites hit so differently than DBoE ones and it’s wild how much another person can change the ‘flavor’ of the ritual entirely. It’s definitely been a learning experience.

In the wee hours of the morning we trekked back to our home mountain and proceeded to sleep for ~15 hours straight.

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1 – I very strongly recommend you not fuck around with BHA. If you do DBoE shit out of order you’re gonna have a bad time.

2 – I know a lot of people don’t like electric lights in their rituals but they can have a really incredible effect on the ritual’s ambience. Stellar invocations hit a bit different when it looks like the stars are falling into your circle. Plus this is CA, fire risk is too high for real fires most of the year.

3 – My relationship between the grimoire tradition and sabbatic witchcraft is a long and complicated story but sufficed to say that working Grimoire Verum is how I became a DBoE practitioner. I generally refer to myself as a sabbatic witch these days in part because ‘goet’ usually requires more explanation.