O My Stars: Oztrology Downunder

In a previous article (White Magic in Gondwana Land) I explained how the seasons of the year, around which the Wheel of the Year or Sabbats are based in Australia, are an aspect of an imported Neo-Paganism which originated in the Northern Hemisphere and do not fit here in Australia without modification. At the Winter Solstice in the Northern Hemisphere the Sun is 0 degrees Capricorn, the traditional sign of Midwinter, but here in Australia we are usually sweltering in the middle of high Summer. According to Astrology, Australians celebrate Litha around December 22nd in the sign of Capricorn, Lughnasad (Lammas) on February 2nd in the sign of Aquarius, Mabon around March 22nd in the sign of Aries, Samhain on the 30th of April in the sign of Taurus, Yule around 22nd June in the sign of Cancer, Brigid (Imbolc) on 1st August in the sign of Leo, Eostre (Ostara) around 22nd September in the sign of Libra, and Beltane on 31st October in the sign of Scorpio. These Sabbat-Zodiac Signs are the opposite of the Northern Hemisphere ones.

Australia still experiences the Sun travelling through the same Zodiac signs as the Northern Hemispher;, however, the Season in which this occurs is the opposite one to that occurring in the Northern Hemisphere. It is not that our Antipodean Seasons occur at the wrong time - it is that Astrology, a Northern Hemisphere art and science, does not fit with the Southern Hemisphere. The Zodiac constellations were originally named with regards to what was happening on Earth at the time that the Sun appeared in a particular sign (or was deduced to be in a particular sign as the Sun cannot be actually ‘seen’ in a sign in the daytime). For example, Aries, the sign of the Vernal Equinox in the Northern Hemisphere, contained the Sun at the time when animals were mating, plants were growing and the sap of trees was rising after the Winter dormancy and thus Aries’s attributes are vitality, virility, energy, the releasing of the life force, beginnings, initiation and Springtime.

In his book Astrological Signs: The Pulse of Life, Dane Rudhyar explains the origins of the Northern Hemisphere bias in this way: “The Zodiac is the symbolism of the cycle of the year. It is so essentially in the temperate regions of the Northern Hemisphere where Astrology was born. Zodiacal symbolism is the product of the experience of human races living in such regions: experience of the Seasons, of the activities of nature and of man through the changing panorama of vegetation - vegetation being the very foundation of animal and human life on Earth. As such races have been, during the last millennia, the active factor in the evolution of human consciousness, their experience has come to acquire a universal validity in the determination of cosmic meaning and human purpose. Civilisation as we know it today is therefore centred in a Northern Hemisphere and temperate kind of consciousness.”- So much for those of us who now live in the Southern Hemisphere!

I believe that Australia should adopt a different system for Astrology; the signs are there in the sky but the meanings, based on the Seasonal characteristics of the signs in the Northern Hemisphere, are six months out of date. Many (non-Pagan) Astrologers, unaware of the Seasonal characteristics of the Zodiac signs, do not understand the idea of tailoring Astrology to fit in better with Australian conditions. This would involve swapping the meanings of the signs with their opposites, or alternately moving the signs six months ahead - similar to how we have altered the Sabbats for the Southern Hemisphere. Also, if Australians had created Astrology, firstly we would have viewed the signs along the Ecliptic upside down and would not have seen them as a Ram, a Bull and so on but perhaps as a Kangaroo, or an Emu, a spotted Cuscus or a Blue-tongued Lizard; and secondly we would have been seeing the same actual constellation as the Northern Hemisphere but experienced it in the opposite Season and therefore named it something that related to the Season it was experienced in.

Australian celebrity Astrologer Milton Black has invented a “Dreamtime” Zodiac. He has retained the traditional twelve-fold form, however changed the names of the signs from the familiar Zodiac menagerie to Australian native animals. This part so far is fine, but Black has also dispensed with the actual Zodiac belt in the sky which runs along the Ecliptic and instead used completely different constellations, most of them of a more Northerly position. Black’s system is as follows:

 

Month	Animal	Constellation
January	Possum	Cassiopoeia - This constellation cannot even be seen from Australia
February	Bat	Pegasus - This can be seen from Australia.
March	Bilby	Andromeda - Visible from November in the Southern Hemisphere.
April	Dingo	Perseus - Hardly rises above horizon in Southern Hemisphere.
May	Wombat	Auriga - Almost circumpolar in North Hemisphere. Capella seen low on horizon in Jan in Southern Hem.
June	Platypus	Ursa Minor - Near North Pole star.
July	Koala	Ursa Major - Circumpolar the North Pole.
August	Crocodile	Draco - Coils around the North pole.
September	Lizard	Bootes - Hardly visible from the Southern Hem, but Arcturus can be seen on Northern horizon in June in the Southern Hem.
October	Emu	Hercules - Visible from May to August in the Southern Hem.
November	Echidna	Lyra - Summer triangle, brightest stars in the Northern Hem. Vega can be seen in Southern Hem in June.
December	Kangaroo	Cygnus - Cygnus can be seen in Southern Hem on the North horizon in September.

 

As can be seen from the above descriptions of the positions of these constellations, most of them cannot even be seen from the Southern Hemisphere. To then call this arrangement a “Dreamtime” Zodiac is preposterous as firstly, the Australian Aboriginals did not use a twelve-fold Zodiac system and secondly, they certainly would not recognise constellations which they could not even see from Australia. It is baffling as to why Black decided to construct his “Dreamtime” Zodiac in this manner as he could have done the same thing but used Southern constellations instead. So the potential merit of this system is ruined by the use of Northern constellations.

Another solution, proposed by Australian Astrologer Craig McIntosh, involves adapting the signs to the Southern Hemisphere without changing the familiar names or positions of those signs. He says “This (the Southern Hemisphere question) is an area where we have remained rigidly traditional. The Northern Hemisphere Seasonal symbolism has acquired an authority which it does not deserve. After all, it is only a symbol used to describe the signs; a convenient tool. But some people have assumed it to be the definitive delineation of the Sun signs and believe that to challenge and change it affects Astrology’s fundamental integrity.” McIntosh suggests the following Seasonal symbolism for the Southern Hemisphere:

Autumn

Aries - The energy to shed the leaves of the old cycle to allow the new to begin.

Taurus - The process of acquisition and accumulation in the home and land for the Winter ahead.

Gemini - A time to be given over to mental persuits and the development of ideas as we move inside.


Winter

Cancer - The expressed need to gather and store food for the family for the Winter.

Leo - The fire, warmth and focus to take us through the cold.

Virgo - The meticulous austerity of Winter, the virgin with the promise of fertility.


Spring

Libra - Coming out and greeting the world with the charm and ambience of Spring.

Scorpio - The intense energy of the bud bursting forth with the sexuality of Spring.

Sagittarius - The verve of Spring leaping into Summer.


Summer

Capricorn - A time when the growth of Spring has crystallised and new growth is restricted.

Aquarius - The sudden electric occurrence of bushfires radically changing the environment.

Pisces - A time of penultimate growth and preparation for the renewal of growth through the shedding of the season.

This system has its good points too, but why not move the actual sign names six months ahead, as is done with the Southern Hemisphere Sabbats, rather than changing their descriptions but leaving them where they are? Then we could keep both the twelve signs and their descriptions, and they would actually be describing the right thing ie/ the Seasons. The Northern Hemisphere form of Zodiac symbolism has become the pervading notion worldwide, despite the obvious incongruity for half the world. The average Astrologer either does not address this problem, or defers to the basic ‘European-ness’ of the Astrological world and dismisses it as a minor point if challenged. It is Pagans, with their familiarity with the idea of the Wheel of the Year, who are more likely to see the merits in adjusting the Zodiac to fit Antipodean conditions. I personally can hardly take Astrology seriously without making allowances for the Southern Hemisphere question.

 

White Magick in Gondwana Land

 

Neo-Paganism is a popular and rapidly growing alternative religious practice in Australia today as witnessed by the hoards of enthusiasts attending gatherings all over the country and the many magazines dedicated to furthering informed discussion and opinion on Paganism and Witchcraft in general.

Being an imported religion originating in the Northern Hemisphere, many aspects of Witchcraft, such as its reliance on the Seasonal calendar or Sabbats, are topsy-turvy when applied to Southern Hemisphere conditions. Most Occultism, including Astrology, originated in the Northern Hemisphere and the majority of books on the subject of Witchcraft and Neo-Paganism are written by authors from the UK and the USA. Australian Witches have to juggle the dates, directions and symbolism prescribed in these books to fit them into Antipodean conditions which, judging by the ongoing queries appearing in local Neo-Pagan journals, is often a confusing process.

According to the Collins English Dictionary, the word Austral means “coming from the South.” The word Australia comes from the Latin Australis deriving from Auster, the South wind. Rather than only reversing the Northern Hemisphere Sabbats to fit the Australian calendar, Australians need to look at the Indigenous Seasons, Southern Hemisphere Astrology, the Sacred Directions and different Latitudes within Australia, all of which affect the practice of Witchcraft in this unique part of the world. Being an Earth-based religion, with a calendar that aligns to both Earthly and Celestial events such as the local Seasons and the Lunar cycle, Witchcraft’s festival year is a reflection of its environment - that environment being Australian, not British or American.

In the Northern Hemisphere, where the Western Magickal tradition originated, generally East is ruled by Air, North is ruled by Earth, West by Water and South by Fire. Australian Witches, practicing Magick in the Southern Hemisphere encounter various differences when applying a Magickal theory that originated in the Northern Hemisphere. In the Northern Hemisphere, East is the direction of birth, beginnings and initiation, South is the direction of victory, adulthood and community involvement, West is the direction of old age, death and transformation and North is the direction of the abode of the Gods. These Elemental attribution’s of the directions are based on the movement of the Sun through the Northern Hemisphere’s sky, for example; when facing East in the Northern Hemisphere, the Sun rises and travels through the sky slightly to the right of someone standing there watching. It reaches its zenith in the Southern part of the sky before sinking in the West and therefore, in the Northern Hemisphere, South is considered the Direction of Fire.

In the Southern Hemisphere, the Sun rises in the East but then travels to the left of the observer achieving its zenith in the Northern part of the sky. Australians therefore attribute Fire to the North and Earth to the South, South being the cold area where the Sun does not venture. East and West are generally kept the same as the Northern Hemisphere, being the areas of Air and Water. Thus we end up with our North and South Elemental attribution reversed; South ruling Earth, East ruling Air, North ruling Fire and West ruling Water. Some Witches localise their Directions even more, for example on the East Coast of Australia many attribute East to Water, because the Pacific Ocean is at their East, West to Earth, as the whole remainder of the continent is in the West, North to Fire, for the reasons explained above, which leaves South ruling Air. West Coast Witches usually do not reverse East and West as the Indian Ocean lies to their West and they tend to leave East to Air, although theoretically they could attribute East to Earth as the rest of the continent spreads out towards their East. Like the Magickal Circle, Horoscope charts as maps of the heavens calculated for the Southern Hemisphere, should really have the Ascendant position, which represents East, on the right of the Zodiac wheel rather than the left where it usually is because if the Midheaven of the chart represents midday and North in an Australian chart, then the right side of the chart is where the Sun rises, not the left.

The movements within the Circle to the left or the right, Deosil and Widdershins, are also reversed in the Southern Hemisphere. Deosil means “with the Sun” and Widdershins means “against the Sun.” If we are going to follow the Sun to move Deosil in Australia we will move to the left, not to the right as in the Northern Hemisphere. Invoking, represented by Deosil movement and Banishing represented by Widdershins therefore change directions compared with the Northern Hemisphere. The words “clockwise” and “anticlockwise” are irrelevant for Circle Casting in the Southern Hemisphere as clocks were invented in the Northern Hemisphere and the movement of a clock’s hands in a “clockwise” direction are modelled on the movement of the Sun in the Northern Hemisphere sky. If clock makers in Australia were aware of the reason for the direction of the movement of the clock’s hands, I would like to think they would make a Southern Hemisphere clock! Another example of Northern centrism are the words Sinister and Dexter which are the Anglicised version of the Latin words for the directions left and right. Sinister has connotations of evil and Dexter has connotations of good, witness the reputations of “The Left Hand Path” and “The Right hand Path.” To get more technical, if Sinister is associated with “leftness” and Dexter is associated with “rightness” then we Australians are all travelling on the Left Hand Path and obviously something very sinister is going on!

The Seasons of the year, around which the Wheel of the Year or Sabbats are based in Australia, is another aspect of an imported Neo-Paganism that originated in the Northern Hemisphere and just does not fit here in Australia without modification. Thankfully the Seasons are rather obvious and most Pagans get the idea that following the Northern Hemisphere dates does not work here. At the Winter Solstice in the Northern Hemisphere the Sun is 0 degrees Capricorn, the traditional sign of Midwinter, but here in Australia, we are usually sweltering in the middle of high Summer. Australian Christians usually spray fake snow on their windows while sweating over their hot Xmas turkey, just not understanding the nature of worshipping a SOLAR god born on the Winter Solstice. Pagans know better and we ‘flip’ the Wheel of the Year to coincide with the Seasons as they occur in Australia. Thus both the Greater and Lesser Sabbats occur with a six month difference between here and the Northern Hemisphere.

According to Northern Hemisphere Astrology, Australians have Litha around December 22nd in the sign of Capricorn, Lughnasad on Februrary 2nd in the sign of Aquarius, Mabon around March 22nd in the sign of Aries, Samhain on the 30th of April in the sign of Taurus, Yule around 22nd June in the sign of Cancer, Brigid on 1st August in the sign of Leo, Eostre around 22nd September in the sign of Libra and Beltane on 31st October in the sign of Scorpio. Again, it is not that our Seasons occur at the wrong time, it is Astrology, a Northern Hemisphere art and science that does not fit with the Southern Hemisphere Seasons. In my opinion, the Zodiac constellations were named with regards to what was happening on Earth at the time that the Sun appeared in a particular sign (or was deduced to be in a particular sign as the Sun cannot be actually ‘seen’ in a sign in the daytime), for example Aries, the sign of the Vernal Equinox contained the Sun at the time that animals were mating, plants were growing and the sap of trees was rising after the Winter dormancy and thus Aries’ attributes are vitality, virility, energy, the releasing of the life force, beginnings, initiation and Springtime.

Australia still experiences the Sun travelling through the same Zodiac signs as the Northern Hemisphere, however the Season in which this occours is the opposite one to that occurring in the Northern Hemisphere. In regards to the Astrological attributes and yearly placements of the Sabbats, we know that many Pagan traditions encompass the symbolism of the Goddess-Cancer-Moon ruling the Summer months between the Vernal and Autumnal Equinoxes and the God-Capricorn-Saturn ruling the Winter months from the Autumnal to the Vernal Equinoxes. In Australia this too is usually swapped around, the Goddess being aligned with Capricorn and the God with Cancer as these are the signs associated with our Summer and Winter. Depending where in Australia the observer is living, sometimes the Goddess is associated with Winter, as Summer is way too dry and barren, or the Summer Goddess will be a Crone rather than a fertile Mother to reflect the appearance of that locality.

I believe that Australia should adopt a different system for Astrology; the signs are there but the meanings, based partly on the Seasonal characteristics of the signs in the Northern Hemisphere are six months out of date. Many Astrologers, unaware of the Seasonal characteristics of the Zodiac signs do not understand the idea of tailoring Astrology to fit in better with Australian conditions which would involve swapping the meanings of the signs with their opposites. If Australians had created Astrology, firstly we would have viewed the signs along the Ecliptic upside down and would not have seen them as a Ram, a Bull and so on but perhaps as a Kangaroo, or an Emu, a spotted Cuscus or a Blue-tongued Lizard and secondly we would have been seeing the same actual constellation as the Northern Hemisphere but experienced it in the opposite Season and therefore named it something that related to the Season it was experienced in.

It will take a determined effort for Australian Witches and Pagans to create a real link with this part of the world. Some Australians even insist on sticking completely to the Northern Hemisphere method, Compass attributes, Deosil and Widdershins AND even the Sabbats! Their justification is that rituals occur on the Astral Plane and so it does not really matter what direction you use or on what date the Seasons fall in the real world. Basically the Paganism which we practice in Australia IS British and many people recognise a race-bloodline affinity with their Northern Gods, however, when we create the Circle, salute the Earth and place our hands upon Mother Earth’s body, we must take into account her Gondwanan heritage.

Artists Residency with the Monica Sjöö Curatorial Collective

I’m doing an artist residency with the Monica Sjöö Curatorial Collective in February 2025. The purpose of the residency is to explore themes that feminist Swedish artist Monica Sjöö was interested in, such as women, goddesses, sacred landscape, and peace, and to promote Sjöö's work and legacy to a wider audience. I don’t know exactly what I’m going to do for the residency, probably some sort of weaving, but I have not decided on the topic yet.

The above image is Monica Sjöö’s painting “Cosmos Within Her Womb” (1971).

 

Against Nature: Tree-Shaking Action in Minoan Glyptic Art as Agonistic Behaviour

 

I’m very pleased that my chapter, “Against Nature: Tree-Shaking Action in Minoan Glyptic Art as Agonistic Behaviour” has been published in the conference proceedings of the Aegean Gestures conference. Gesture, Stance, and Movement: Communicating Bodies in the Aegean Bronze Age. Acts of the International Conference at the University of Heidelberg, 11–13 November 2021, edited by Ute Günkel-Maschek, Céline Murphy, Fritz Blakolmer, and Diamantis Panagiotopoulos.

Description

Gestures, posture and facial expressions are central to conveying meaning through action and physical communication. In works of art, they represent active or communicative aspects of the figures and relate them to one another in coherent narratives. This is particularly important for understanding ancient contexts of meaning, especially in the study of societies with a limited corpus of deciphered texts, such as those of the Aegean from the Neolithic to the Late Bronze Age. The volume, which emerged from a conference in Heidelberg in 2021, deals in 29 contributions with old hypotheses and new approaches to interpreting 'body language' in Minoan Crete and Mycenaean Greece.

The whole book is open access. See the complete Table of Contents and download the book for free from Propylaeum Ebooks

 

 

Three new chapters

 

I am very pleased to have three chapters in this new book:

5. What is the Relationship Between Ancient and Contemporary Paganism?

16. Can a Pagan Follow More Than One Path or Tradition?

43. Is There A Difference Between Magic and Magick?

See the full Table of Contents and buy the book here at Equinox Publishing.

Description

Pagan Religions in Five Minutes provides an accessible set of essays on questions relating to Pagan identities and practices, both historically and in contemporary societies as well as informative essays on different Pagan groups, such as Druidry, Wicca, Heathenry and others. The book includes answers to a range of questions such as: How many Pagans are there? What do Pagans believe? Is Paganism a real religion or is it just made-up? Is Satanism a type of Paganism? Do all Pagans celebrate the solstices? Why is it written “Pagan” and other times “pagan”? Do they have sacred texts? Is Druidry the indigenous religion of Europe? What does the pentagram symbol mean? Can anyone be a witch? Are Pagans anti-Christian? The book also covers issues with terminology, including the labelling of ancient, non-Western and indigenous groups as ‘pagan’, common assumptions and misconceptions about Pagans, and more.

Each essay is by a leading scholar in the field, offering clear and concise answers along with suggestions for further reading. The book is ideal for both the curious and as an entry book for classroom use and studying Paganism.

Because each chapter can be read in about five minutes, the books offer ideal supplementary resources in classrooms or an engaging read for those curious about the world around them.

Another New Book - Plague in Antiquity

This volume came about based on the recognition that the rise and spread of Covid-19 has led contemporary scholarship to consider the possibility that there will be an increasing acceleration of new and highly transmissible plagues, viruses and other diseases linked to the mass travel and trade that characterizes hyper-globalisation. As historians and archaeologists studying the civilisations of the most distant past, we felt that we had something to contribute to this conversation through providing a historical perspective, with the twin goals of relieving the social anxiety caused by pandemics and taking advantage of our present experiences to see how we might view our own research in a fresh, new light. Archaeologists and scholars of ancient history know that epidemic plagues and other environmental catastrophes are nothing new: disease and illness are clearly represented in the archaeological and historical record. The chapters in this volume focus on plague in antiquity, centred primarily on the ancient Near East. Chronologically, they span the Bronze Age to Late Antiquity, and regionally they cover Mesopotamia, Egypt, the Levant, Cyprus, Anatolia and the Indus valley. The contributors discuss a range of topics related to plague—its causes and transmission, environmental factors, responses and treatments, disruptions and social effects—drawing on ancient texts, modern sociology, archaeological evidence and cultural material remains. The variety of contributions demonstrates that rather than being anomalous, various forms of illness were normal, recurring and prevalent within the ancient world. The authors refer to the current Covid-19 pandemic, which was also inspiration in producing this work. This volume contributes to the contextualisation of plague, pestilence, disease and disability within wider and deeper human history. See the Table of Contents and buy the book here at Peeters Publishers. 

 

New book! A Century of James Frazer’s The Golden Bough

I’m really excited that A Century of James Frazer’s The Golden Bough: Shaking the Tree, Breaking the Bough, edited by Stephanie Lynn Budin and Caroline J. Tully is now available forpre-order. This is the book that was produced from the online conference “Shaking the Tree, Breaking the Bough: Frazer’s Golden Bough at 100”.

This multidisciplinary volume examines the ongoing effects of James G. Frazer’s The Golden Bough in modern Humanities and its wide-ranging influence across studies of ancient religions, literature, historiography and reception studies.

It begins by exploring the life and times of Frazer himself and the writing of The Golden Bough in its cultural milieu. The volume then goes on to cover a wide range of topics, including: ancient Near Eastern religion and culture; Minoan religion and in particular the origins of notions of Minoan matriarchy; Frazer’s influence on the study of Graeco-Roman religion and magic; Frazer’s influence on modern Pagan religions; and the effects of Frazer’s works in modern culture and scholarship generally. Chapters examine how modern academia – and beyond – continues to be influenced by the otherwise discredited theories in The Golden Bough, ideas such as Sacred Marriage and the incessant Fertility of Everything. The book demonstrates how scholarship within the Humanities as well as practitioners of alternative religions and the common public remain under the thrall of Frazer over one hundred years since the publication of the abridged edition of The Golden Bough, and what we must do to shake off that influence.

A Century of James Frazer’s The Golden Bough is of interest to scholars and students from a wide range of disciplines, including Ancient History, History of Religion, Comparative Religion, Classical Studies, Archaeology, Historiography, Anthropology, Folklore, and Reception Studies.

Table of Contents

Preliminaries

1. The Golden Bough: setting the scene – Tim Parkin

2. Sir James Frazer and The Golden Bough – Ronald Hutton

3. “Off With His Head!”: Wilhelm Mannhardt’s Wald- und Feldkulte at the Roots of The Golden Bough - Frederico Delgado Rosa

4. The Golden Bough and the Press – Julia Phillips

5. Hypothesis as Theory: The Golden Bough and the Obstinate Nostrums in Religious Studies and the Humanities – Ryan C. Chester

Ancient Near East

6. Ištar’s Sexual Agency in Akkadian Love Literature – Martti Nissinen

7. Dying and Rising Gods in Ancient Mesopotamian Religion and the Frazerian Paradigm of Fertility Religion – JoAnn Scurlock

8. The Fads that Drive Us: From Frazer, Freud, and Foucault to Butler and Connell – Stephanie Lynn Budin

9. The Hebrew Bible Scapegoat: Complicating a Frazerian Typology – Caroline Ward-Smith

Aegean and Classical

10. Embracing the Goddess: Evans and the Minoan feminine divine – Christine Morris

11. Guess Who’s Back, Back Again? Graeber and Wengrow’s Resurrection of Minoan Matriarchy in ‘The Dawn of Everything’ – Stephen O’Brien

12. Same same, but different: Frazer’s Sympathetic Law of Similarity and the study of Greco-Roman defixiones – Saskia Moorrees

13. Reading about Nymphs and Roman Soldiers with and without Frazer – Isabel Köster

Pagan Studies

14. Surviving Frazerisms: twenty-first century Witchcraft and the eternal return – Helen Cornish

15. Moon and Huntress: Frazer’s Arician Diana in Italian-American Witchcraft – Caroline J. Tully

16. Lilith from Demoness to Mother Goddess: a Frazerian legacy in French Luciferian Wicca? – Vanessa Toupin-Lavallée

17. Contemporary Tree Lore and the Ancient Worship of Trees: The Contributions of James Frazer in the Contemporary Study of Religion and Ecology – Ive Brissman

The Modern World

18. Derivative and Associative Popular Frazerism: A Cultural Complex at Work in Late Modern Europe – Alessandro Testa

19. Frazer and the Magical Oath – Fritz Lampe

Coda

20. Diana’s Mirror: The Reflective Surface of Frazer’s The Golden Bough – Robert Fraser 

Back to Italy for an Artist Residency

I've recently returned from Italy where I was attending a conference on shamanism and exploring the archaeological site of the sanctuary of the Roman goddess Diana, as well as looking at all the archaeological and historical museums in Rome. And I'm going back again in October! I'm super excited that I have been selected to participate in the artist residency at DOMUS in the town of Galatina, southern Italy. My artistic project is titled “The Theatre of Spirits: Trance Performances and Séance Phenomena in the Australian Spiritualist Movement, 1870 – 1950.” I will also be researching folkloric and environmental aspects of the Salento region such as the Tarantism phenomenon in which (mainly) women were allegedly bitten by the tarantula and became possessed; and the ecological problem of the death of olive trees affected by rapid desiccation, CoDiRo, due to the proliferation of the Xylella Fastidiosa bacterium which started to afflict the trees in 2013. THis is going to be great!

 

Aqua Profonda: Water and the Tarot of the Drowning World

This is the text of a presentation I did on Kahn and Selesnick's Tarot of the Drowning World, which was hosted by Morbid Anatomy on the 10 September 2023. For the complete PowerPoint with all images, see my academia page.

I’m very excited to be able to talk about the Tarot of the Drowning World. Of all the tarot decks on the market today that I am aware of, it is only the Tarot of the Drowning World and the Carnival at the End of the World tarot decks that I feel motivated to make the effort to learn, and this is because of (along with the excellent artwork) their contemporary relevance. These two decks are, let’s say, “up to date” with what is happening in the – or on the – world today.

While I appreciate many other decks, based on their theory or their art or both: (1) I simply don’t have time to master them all and; (2) the Kahn, Selesnick, and Falkner tarot decks are directly relevant to the environment – which should be a topic of major concern and interest to all humans and certainly is to me.

Today I want to focus on the presence and associations of Water in the Tarot of the Drowning World.

While thinking of a title for this presentation I remembered the term “Aqua Profonda”. This is a rather famous term in inner city Melbourne, Australia, where I live as it refers to a sign painted on a wall at the Fitzroy Pool, which is located just up the road, here, from me. The pool opened in 1908, but the sign was painted around 1953 or 54 at the initiative of the pool manager, James Murphy, because he found that he kept having to rescue Italian migrant children from the deep end of the pool. He asked an Italian friend what the words for “deep water” were in Italian and had them painted at the deep end of the pool.

“Aqua” here is actually misspelled; in Italian it has a “c” in it – as it is here, it’s the Latin. That reminds me of the Italian Acqua Alta, which in Latin is “deep water”, but in Italian is “high water”, evoking the Acqua Alta high water in Venice. Acqua Alta the name for the high tides that flood part of Venice (and some other places around the northern Adriatic) between autumn and spring, caused by a combination of the moon’s pull on the water and two winds, the sirocco and the bora, also Venice is sinking, very slowly, but I digress.

The Aqua Profonda sign is a big deal in Melbourne and it even has heritage listing so it can’t be destroyed. In addition to its association with the post-war migration program; it appeared in the 1982 film Monkey Grip – which is based on a 1977 novel by Australian writer Helen Garner, about living in share housing and experimental approaches to relationships in Fitzroy, which back then was considered a slum, although now it is extremely desirable and expensive. In the film Aqua Profonda serves as a metaphor for the tempestuous relationship of the main protagonists; and lastly, Aqua Profonda was the slogan of the Save Our Pool campaign in the mid 1990s when the council was considering closing the pool.

So, Aqua Profonda means Deep Water, but to me it also evokes, Profound Water – which seems pertinent to the Tarot of the Drowning World deck, because isn’t that what we want to access – or to be – as diviners? Profound!

Synonyms for “profound” include words like deep, thoughtful, reflective, philosophical, weighty and insightful. The dictionary definition includes: very great or intense; penetrating or entering deeply into subjects of thought or knowledge; and having deep insight or understanding. This is what the visual aspect of the Tarot of the Drowning World – with its water – evokes for me: this inundation, this potentially deep water, on top of which float human figures, objects, animals, plants, and all sorts of flotsam. Maybe they are arising from, or are buoyed up by, this Aqua Profonda. Maybe this Aqua Profonda is our deep dark subconscious mind from which float up images and insights…

Aiming for or claiming profundity can seem hubristic – but it’s surely no bolder than claiming the power or skill of divination itself.   

While I am very enthusiastic about the Tarot of the Drowning World, I have not yet mastered it to a sufficient degree to use in a professional setting. My tarot deck of choice since 1984 has been the Aleister Crowley and Lady Frieda Harris-designed Thoth deck – and I didn’t use that in a professional capacity until about 10 years after originally learning it.

As a Thelemite with a background in western ceremonial magick the theory behind this deck makes sense to me and I find the images very informative. This is the deck I use in both my personal and my professional tarot reading. I have many other tarot decks and a couple of oracle decks, but I always use the Thoth deck for professional reading and any serious reading I do for myself. I just find it the clearest and most informative deck to use. So, I’d have to have a good reason to consider making the effort to learn, and form a relationship with, another deck.

I have had two stints as a professional tarot reader; once for a period of time in the early 1990s at a shop called Mythical Moon and more recently since 2019 at a shop called Muses of Mystery, both located in Melbourne. It wasn’t until this second time around working as a tarot reader that I noticed that the cards of the Thoth deck did not cover some of the types of concerns relevant to humans today. Two obvious examples of this lack of contemporary coverage are that it is very gender binary and it does not address or incorporate the environmental crisis. While sure, you can make it cover those topics – you can extend certain cards’ meanings to include those issues – but it doesn’t really. It wasn’t designed that way.

Of course the Thoth deck was designed in the early 20^th century, and is based on what I’ll generalise as the “Western Mystery Tradition”, incorporating Egyptian, Greek and Roman mythology, the Qabalistic tree of life, alchemy, astrology, and the Empedoclean Four Elements – which I love, of course!

Seeing as this presentation focuses on Water in the Tarot of the Drowning World, let’s first look at how the Thoth deck conceptualises Water, and then I’ll look at how the Tarot of the Drowning World conceives of Water, in my opinion.

The Thoth tarot deck classifies Water as one of the Four Elements or the Classical Elements, a model proposed in the mid-fifth century BCE by the Pre-Socratic philosopher, Empedocles of Akragas in Sicily. Empedocles conceived the basis of existence as consisting of, or deriving from, four roots: Fire, Water, Air and Earth, moved by two opposing forces, Love and Strife. The model of the Four Elements was transmitted through the centuries, and found its way into the proto-tarot back when it was a game in 16^th century Florence.[1]

In the late nineteenth century the Four Elements system was an important component in the theory informing the magical rituals of the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn, the magical society Crowley was initiated into and which paved the way for the popularity of occultism today. The Four Elements consequently feature in Crowley’s Thoth (and many other subsequent) tarot decks. What is important to note in regard to this is that in the Thoth tarot the Four Elements are symbolic.  

As Crowley explains “One must constantly remember that the terms used by ancient and medieval philosophers do not mean at all what they mean nowadays. ‘Water’ does not mean to them the chemical compound H2O; it is an intensely abstract idea, and exists everywhere...The word ‘element’ does not mean a chemical element; it means a set of ideas; it summarises certain qualities or properties.”

In popular occultism water is characterised as passive, feminine, and emotional. In the Thoth deck “water” represents aspects of water such as (and I quote Crowly here) the “swift passionate attack of rain and springs… water’s power of solution…brilliance… its power of reception and reflection… purity and beauty… dreaminess, illusion and tranquility… transmission, refraction, distortion…elasticity, volatility, hydrostatic equilibrium… the catalytic faculty and the energy of steam… transmutation, stagnancy and putrefaction… and crystallisation.” Water is attributed to the Zodiac signs Cancer, Scorpio and Pisces, the suit of Cups, to the Queens in the Court Cards, and also to one of the Major Arcana, the Hanged Man, through the attribution to it of the Hebrew letter Mem, which means water. Crowley explains that “It would perhaps be better to say that it [in this card] represents the spiritual function of Water in the economy of initiation; it is a baptism which is also a death.” Again, here despites its many forms, Water is symbolic.

The Thoth tarot deck derives from the ceremonial magic classification system, devised back when we thought we humans could impose order on the visible and invisible worlds… before things started going out of control.

So how is the Tarot of the Drowning World different? What does it mean when the whole deck is “attributed” to water?

The Tarot of the Drowning World goes beyond the orderly control imposed on nature by the model of the Four Elements. It has re-tooled the tarot to meet up with the on-going transformations of our world and is based in physical reality. While the images may evoke the deep well of the unconscious, of profound water, profound wisdom, they also suggest a natural disaster. Almost all the trumps call to mind Millais’ drowned Ophelia – and is that us? Insane, suicidal? Or drowned in a tsunami, with our homes flooded by the sea because the ice caps are melting? Yes, according to Sarah Faulkner’s explanation of the deck. Water in the Tarot of the Drowning World seeps, wells up, or rushes in, overwhelming the world; apocalyptic water destroys, and washes away, not in a fiery Aeon of Horus, but drowning us, approaching inexorably while we had our backs tuned.

This is a tarot of the overwhelming of the psyche, of submersion in emotion and sensation, but it is in this devastating realisation of drowning that the mercurial spark ignites and urges us not to give in and sink, but to swim to the surface. We’re not dead yet. Grab onto something and kick your legs until you reach an island, or shore. The Tarot of the Drowning World points to a real, physical, climate emergency – one which we are in – but it says “don’t give up.” What is washed away makes room for regeneration.

Sarah asks, “Is the Drowned World a new world being born, arising out of a dark abyss or cosmic ocean? Yes…. Submerged and Resurgent.” Panic and victimhood turn into ingenuity and determination. Use an apocalypse to receive apokálypsis (or revelation). Stare into the cards and allow it to arise. Create the future.

So, like the Thoth and all good tarot decks, the Tarot of the Drowning World is more than just a divinatory system. It is a story, a world, a lesson, a source of knowledge, and of solutions. It is both literal and symbolic, both a vision of impending death and destruction, and of creation and regeneration. Most importantly, it situates humans within the world, on a horizontal plane in relationship with literal water – with rising seas, inundation of islands, flooding, sinking, drowning, tears, fluids, lakes, rivers, rain, puddles, and drinks – and encourages us to see renewal within devastation and to actively envision the future.

 

 

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[1] Minchiate