What Does "Drawing Down the Moon" Mean?

[Dez]

I know that this is also the title of a book, but I stumbled into this concept while reading about someone talking about channeling the Norse pantheon.

What does it mean? Do you believe it's possible to channel/embrace an altered state/be in touch with divine energy in that way?

Have you experienced this, or seen it done?

[Ophidia]

Re: What Does "Drawing Down the Moon" Mean?

Basically, in the Wiccan framework, Drawing Down the Moon (there's also a Drawing Down the Sun, involving the High Priest & the God) means the Priestess (usually with assistance from the High Priest) is invoking the Great Goddess into her physical body. Usually this is only done at Sabbat rituals or in times of great need - the energy cost for the Priestess is fairly heavy and it's not necessary to do every spell or working ritual while carrying around the Goddess.

In the Alexandrian group I was involved with, this was not a total possession where the High Priestess would lose touch with her own consciousness, but more like the Goddess overshadowed the Priestess and imbue her with the creative force of the Goddess. In this form, the Priestess would be praised and honored as the physical avatar of the Goddess, she would bestow blessings on those involved in the ritual and perform the Great Rite with the Priest. As we were a 'public' working/teaching/classroom group, the Great Rite pretty much involved the plunging of an athame (dagger) into a chalice, followed by booze & cookies. In a more private group, the Great Rite usually took the form of sex magic.

I have, as acting High Priestess, drawn down the Moon. I have to be very careful & very specific about it, and I can't be intoxicated or under the influence of any mind-altering substances, because... well, I work with the African Diaspora and am susceptible to full possession. The first time I was involved in it, the ritual was in a Norse-centric Wiccan group & we were invoking Frigga. I was subjected to a sort of half-possession, which was strange because I felt as though my brain had been shoved into half my head so I could watch what was going on, but the Goddess took over the business end of things & went around telling the circle enlightening things about themselves, their loved ones and the future. Only in my head, She was speaking a German dialect so I don't know exactly what She was saying, and everyone said I was staggering around like an old hunch-backed woman & poking people or shaking my finger at them while muttering loudly.

Good times, good times

[yukanaoe]

Re: What Does "Drawing Down the Moon" Mean?

^thats amazing!

[Dez]

Re: What Does "Drawing Down the Moon" Mean?

Wow, Perz, that is really interesting!

By African Diaspora you mean Voudon, Santeria, etc? Thal and I were talking earlier in the chat room about this, and I wondered whether it was similar to the possession that sometimes takes place in those belief systems. I find it very interesting that you're saying it doesn't have to be that total.

Is that where such concepts originated? Were they "borrowed" by Wicca?

Based on what you're saying, I'm assuming that this has the potential to be a very wonderful experience, but should only be done around others who can insure the safety of the person in question.

[Ophidia]

Re: What Does "Drawing Down the Moon" Mean?

By African Diaspora you mean Voudon, Santeria, etc? Thal and I were talking earlier in the chat room about this, and I wondered whether it was similar to the possession that sometimes takes place in those belief systems. I find it very interesting that you're saying it doesn't have to be that total.

Yes, Vodou & Santeria are included in the AD religions. In my experience, Wicca isn't really that charismatic of a religion. I don't know if it is just Gardnerian & Alexandrian Wicca or if it's most versions of it. Somehow, if the person is totally subsumed by a deity or entity, it's like it's hearkening back to a primitive, more 'savage' place & time that is inappropriate to the Wiccan ceremonial circles - and I got my share of ostracism from Wiccans & other neo-Pagans for even admitting to studying Vodou & Santeria. There may be more ecstatic branches of Wicca out there, maybe some that actively encourage possession, trances & otherworldly journeying, but I haven't really encountered any practitioners as such. In a way, just the use of the magic circle discourages the more shamanic technologies because the magic worker is cut off protected from outside entities and only deities and spirits that are invited are able to enter the ring.

Is that where such concepts originated? Were they "borrowed" by Wicca?

I think that Gerald Gardner gained his concept of Drawing Down the Moon partially from Charles Leland's Aradia (which Leland claimed to have gotten from a Tuscan witch) and partially from rituals used in the Golden Dawn & Freemasonry, along with lore & mythology. But the concept of a religious practitioner embodying their deities & spirits, by spontaneous or invited possession, probably has a place in almost every culture & tradition - except maybe Christianity/Judaism/Muslim, where stand-ins for Allah, God, Christ, the Saints, etc., are kind of frowned upon.

Based on what you're saying, I'm assuming that this has the potential to be a very wonderful experience, but should only be done around others who can insure the safety of the person in question.

For a typical Wiccan with no prior experience of possession, it's probably safe. The reason you want other people around for the ritual is because it is a ritual of blessing and praise for the Goddess (or God if it's Drawing Down the Sun). Drawing Down the Moon when you're alone & scared of street thugs (as suggested by a rather infamous Llewellyn author who shall remain nameless :devil is a little ridiculous, and probably insulting to the Goddess. If you do encounter a full possession, you'd want someone around to act as an interpreter, because many times the person being possessed won't remember or understand what happened. Aside from proper cause for it, and interpretation needs, Drawing Down the Moon in a ceremony full of friends and comfortable people in order to share the magnificent energy and love of the Great Mother Goddess... well, there's nothing more uplifting, enlightening, wholesome and spiritually healing as becoming one with Deity.

[ChainLightning]

Re: What Does "Drawing Down the Moon" Mean?

Perze did her usual, excellent coverage but I wanted to mention another, less enigmatic or more mundane impression, DR. Just considering the energy, disregarding any deity connection, there's a concept of infusion, in drawing down the moon, to make use of lunar energies in spellwork, rites and ceremonies.

I would venture to guess that it's much less "mainstream" (if there IS such a thing) except among a certain breed of eclectics. Lunar and solar energy being applied to 'holy water', blessings, candles and what-have-you, have also adopted the phrase "drawing down the....".

[Dez]

Re: What Does "Drawing Down the Moon" Mean?

Ah, that makes sense, Chain!

[ChainLightning]

Re: What Does "Drawing Down the Moon" Mean?

Yeah, it does make sense, in an unusual, non-textbook/non-traditional but solely logical way. I've yet to actually find even some NOT-so-reputable author that describes such a use, for the phrase. It's just that I've met and talked to a handful of people (mostly pantheists) that have talked about drawing down the moon or sun, and it not being ANYTHING like the documented/historical rites or beliefs.

[thalassa]

Re: What Does "Drawing Down the Moon" Mean?

Interesting, I've never run across that sort of reference before, Chain...or maybe I have and just sort of shrugged it off as an error or difference in terminology and forgot about it. I have been (when I was flirting with the idea of coven-bound Wicca) at two rituals where DDTM was performed, and I will just say that one was fantastically powerful and excellent, and the other wasn't at all believable or realistic.

[B. de Corbin]

Re: What Does "Drawing Down the Moon" Mean?

...probably has a place in almost every culture & tradition - except maybe Christianity/Judaism/Muslim, where stand-ins for Allah, God, Christ, the Saints, etc., are kind of frowned upon.

It depends on how you look at it, and how different you are willing to let it be before you call it something different... The Catholic Mass is a ritualized. symbolic reenacting of the last supper, with the center being the sharing of bread & wine (communion). The bread and wine are supposed to be magically transformed into the body and blood of Jesus - a thing which the priest is actually incapable of doing. So, instead, what he does is to call down the "holy spirit" into himself, allowing him to perform the miracle.

Passing out the crackers for communion represents the sharing out of the holy spirit, so, in a sense, you could say that the Catholics (at least) do a sort of tame possession ritual in which the priest calls down a "power" into himself, and then passes it off to the congregation.




There's something similar to what Perzephone is describing in Alchemy. At certain times, the Alchemist finds his/herself possessed by the ruling spirit of the metal(s) being worked with. The most important work is the Grand Conjunction (the Marriage of the Sun and Moon). The Sun is gold, the Moon is silver, and the first work is to bring them together in a harmonious union. To do this requires a state of possession much like Perzehone has described, except that it is also important that the Alchemist keep his/her head throughout the whole process, which means that there end up being three separate entities rolling around in your head (self, sun, moon).

It's a pretty lively thing... I wouldn't want to do it more than once. However, it generates so much energy that once in your life is probably all you really need.

The Grand Conjunction is also symbolized through sex, incidentally, like the Great Rite.

[Ophidia]

Re: What Does "Drawing Down the Moon" Mean?

It depends on how you look at it, and how different you are willing to let it be before you call it something different... The Catholic Mass is a ritualized. symbolic reenacting of the last supper, with the center being the sharing of bread & wine (communion). The bread and wine are supposed to be magically transformed into the body and blood of Jesus - a thing which the priest is actually incapable of doing. So, instead, what he does is to call down the "holy spirit" into himself, allowing him to perform the miracle.

Passing out the crackers for communion represents the sharing out of the holy spirit, so, in a sense, you could say that the Catholics (at least) do a sort of tame possession ritual in which the priest calls down a "power" into himself, and then passes it off to the congregation.

The last time I asked a priest if he was possessed by God in order to turn the crackers & wine into the flesh of Jesus I was asked, not so politely, to leave the church & never, ever come back. Of course, that's happened to me more than once. Maybe it's just me... do I smell funny to Catholic priests or something?

[B. de Corbin]

Re: What Does "Drawing Down the Moon" Mean?

The last time I asked a priest if he was possessed by God in order to turn the crackers & wine into the flesh of Jesus I was asked, not so politely, to leave the church & never, ever come back. Of course, that's happened to me more than once. Maybe it's just me... do I smell funny to Catholic priests or something?

LOL - I dunno. But if you send me an article of clothing you've recently worn, I'll forward it to mine uncle, and see waht he has to say.

No, wait... uncle hasn't been a preist since he married the nun...



Next time, try asking a priest to "discuss the mystery of the transsubstantiation of the host." Sometimes you get a better response if you don't ask for the lowdown on Jesus crackers.