Monthly Archives: July 2013

Summer Lightning

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Thunderstorms and lightning strikes are most likely in spring and summer storms.

Thunderstorms and lightning strikes are most likely in spring and summer storms.

The only law against magic made by Constantine in 321 AD exempts magical “steps taken in country districts, that there may be no apprehension of (heavy) rain when the grapes are ripe, or that they may not be dashed to pieces by the force of hailstorms.” (You can read more in  Witchcraft and Magic in Europe: Ancient Greece and Rome.)

There are references to weather magic as early as ancient Greece, as in this quote by Empedocles:

And you’ll stop the force of the tireless winds that chase over the earth
And destroy the fields with their gusts and blasts;
But then again, if you so wish, you’ll stir up winds as requital.
Out of a black rainstorm you’ll create a timely drought
For men, and out of a summer drought you’ll create
Tree-nurturing floods that will stream through the ether
And you will fetch back from Hades the life-force of a man who has died.

(see more in Ancient Philosophy, Mystery, and Magic: Empedocles and Pythagorean Tradition, with thanks to http://www.otherworld-apothecary.com)

In the Jewish practice, a blessing “…He who does acts of creation” is to be recited, upon sighting lightning. The Talmud refers to the Hebrew word for the sky, (“Shamaim“) – as built from fire and water (“Esh Umaim“), since the sky is the source of the inexplicable mixture of “fire” and water that come together, during rainstorms. This is mentioned in various prayers and discussed in writings of Kabbalah.

 Rune Thorn

The Norse rune known as “Thorn” is also associated with lightning for a variety of reasons. It is the rune of cutting, sharpness, and pain, as well as brute strength, the destructive power of chaos and ruin. It also stands in for death and regeneration, transformation and the breaking down barriers.  It can be used to bring on the energies of the berserker and energies this wild should only be used in war or attack. It can be used in magic to raise and guide thunderstorms and direct lightning. In many German fairy tales such as “Sleeping Beauty” the prick of a thorn, pin or spindle casts a spell upon the victim. The bloodstone has been used with this rune in the raising of thunderstorms.

Cancer, the Crab

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This depiction of the constellation Cancer (the Crab) is taken from the Celestial Atlas by Alexander Jamieson - 1822.

This depiction of the constellation Cancer (the Crab) is taken from the Celestial Atlas by Alexander Jamieson – 1822.

Although modern astrologers identify the sign of Cancer as a crab, it has been represented as various types of creatures, usually those living in the water, and always those with an exoskeleton.

The identification of Cancer as a crab is rooted in the Twelve Labors of Hercules tale. Hercules battled the multi-headed Lernaean Hydra and Hera had sent a large crab to distract Hercules and put him at a disadvantage during the battle. But Hercules quickly dispatched the creature by kicking it with such force that it was propelled into the sky. Other accounts say the crab grabbed onto Hercules’ toe with its claws, but Hercules simply crushed the crab underfoot. Hera, grateful for the creature’s heroic effort, gave it a place in the sky. (Some scholars have suggested that the crab was a late addition to the myth of Hercules in order to make the Twelve Labors correspond to the twelve signs of the Zodiac.)

In the Egyptian records of about 2000 BC, the Cancer sign was described as Scarabaeus (Scarab), the sacred emblem of immortality. In Babylonia the constellation was known by a name which can refer to both a crab and a snapping turtle. There also appears to be a strong connection between the Babylonian constellation and ideas of death and a passage to the underworld, which may be the origin of these ideas in much later Greek myths associated with Hercules and the Hydra. In the 12th century, an illustrated astronomical manuscript shows it as a water beetle. Albumasar writes of this sign in the work published in 1489 as a large crayfish. Jakob Bartsch and Stanislaus Lubienitzki, in the 17th century, described it as a lobster.

Those born during the Cancer period (June 22–July 22) are said to be emotional and intuitive but shrewd.

IF YOU LIKED THIS POST ABOUT THE FOLKLORE & OCCULT QUALITIES ASSOCIATED WITH CANCER THE CRAB, CLICK HERE TO SEE MY FANTASY NOVELS IN WHICH ALL THE MAGIC AND SUPERNATURAL EVENTS ARE BASED ON AUTHENTIC MEDIEVAL-RENAISSANCE OCCULT BELIEFS AND PRACTICES.