Quotes from Sorita d'Este

I am the mother and the daughter. I am the bride and the bridegroom, and it is my husband who begot me. I am the silence that is incomprehensible and the idea whose remembrance is frequent. I am the voice whose sound is manifold and the word whose appearance is multiple. I am the utterance of my name.

Magick has been famously described, as "the art and science of causing change to occur in conformity with will

Our view agrees with K.F. Smith, who in his article Hekate's Suppers[162] suggested that it may have been on the first night that the moon was visible again, signifying a possible connection with Hekate as a lunar goddess, rising, like the moon, from the underworld on the night of the new moon.

I am she that is the natural mother of all things, mistress and governess of all the Elements, the initial progeny of worlds, chief of powers divine, Queen of heaven! the principal of the Gods celestial, the light of the goddesses: at my will the planets of the air, the wholesome winds of the Seas, and the silences of hell be disposed; my name, my divinity is adored throughout all the world in divers manners, in variable customs and in many names

it is better to study a tradition as near to its roots as possible in order to gain a competent and confident understanding of its practices.

Lions were also frequently associated with Asherah, she was often depicted standing on the back of a lion, or seated on a lion throne. This was common for a number of Middle Eastern goddesses of the time, including Inanna, Astarte and Qudshu. Indeed there is "a mass of inscriptional evidence from the Levantine Iron Age showing that a frequent epithet of the goddess Asherah was 'the Lion Lady'.

Hope deferred makes the heart sick, but a desire fulfilled is a tree of life." ~ Proverbs 13:12, C3rd BCE

In the stories of the founding of Mecca, the patriarch Abraham was guided on his journey by the Shekinah, who directed him where to build. Significantly the Shekinah was said to have marked the spot for Abraham by curling up like a serpent.[191] The serpent imagery here is reminiscent of the Egyptian Goddess Qudshu, the Gnostic Edem as well as the serpent of wisdom or temptation in the Garden of Eden.

We have found literary references in records from the last two centuries which seem to substantiate the idea of a Cailleach priestess cult of wise women. However, as is often the case these hints ask more questions than they answer, leaving the reader to make up their own mind.

Commenting on the propitiatory nature of the relationship between the Scots and the gods of the forces of nature, he observed, "The gods and goddesses were never worshipped in the sense that the term worship is understood by us. If they were not given offerings, they were charmed away by the performance of magical ceremonies.

None of our sources explain what it was supposed to accomplish, but if it took its name from a key that was carried, then that key must have been of central importance - it must have been used to lock or unlock something significant." [lxxxix]

Determined now her tomb to build, Her ample skirt with stones she filled, And dropped a heap on Carron-more; Then stepped one thousand yards to Loar, And dropped another goodly heap; And then with one prodigious leap, Gained carrion-beg; and on its height Displayed the wonders of her might.

This supernatural disappearance, the stick gathering, the hill-top and the time of her appearances being the dark half of the year all hint at a Cailleach connection. Additionally we may note here the meaning of the name of the Welsh Gwrach-y-Rhybin, who shares some characteristics with the Cailleach, is hag of the mist.

This is an age greedy for instant solutions and rapid results but temple skills are not grown overnight nor produced at a weekend workshop, but slowly and incrementally gained as a tree maturing with time and season.