Invocation coincided with kala for Duti ( 5th lunar day) We prepared a potion of Salvia Divinorum from our garden. This we took after the following Invocation.
Bowl with hippopotami, Predynastic Period, Naqada I, 3850-3650 B.C. (pottery)
Ipet Invocation
Awake and embrace the void
Your heart strong enough for its joys
and its worries
Leave, and when you awake to life
You will feel young again on a new day
Rest, lie down assured of long good health.
“Good night,
the gods protect you,
their protection is before you each day
No bad thing approaches
The demon (Apep) is repelled from your bed chamber
Ipet the Great protects you in your long and powerful life.”
The day and night illumined,
You shine forth
For she guides your steps on the right path,
And you know what is needed,
The god Ptah provisions you,
filling your storeroom,
With food and drink aplenty,
and in good measure.
Your diary and records all in order
and well-composed.
The mistakes of the past are forgotten,
The staff in your hand is well-made and sustaining.
Break bread with the wise,
Your cares are all behind you.
The only reason lies before you,
The best is yet to come.
*
Praise be to TAWERET,
Bringing ‘perfection’ in her beautiful name.
I praise her to the limits of the sky,
I desire her Ka, calming day by day.
Be merciful to me,
May I behold your mercy,
You, of perfect mercy!
Extend your hand to me,
Giving me life,
And granting me offspring!
Do not reproach me for my errors
You, in perfect mercy!
Even if my helpers slip up,
My peers still reward me.
I desire your great strength,
None knows you as I do;
I will say to the children and children’s children:
Thee as guardian before her!
Joy my heart should seize,
Because on this day TAWERET is merciful,
My house prospers with her blessings.
May she give them day after day,
And I never say ‘Oh I have regrets!’
May she continue to give me health,
And my womb bears children safely,
[Or the future be secure].
My heart is glad every day, for sure
The good ones expel the evil,
And I am blessed.
Behold her people will live forever,
My enemies are fearful before you TAWARET!
Since your rage oppresses them
more than a mountain of iron,
Her mercy gives us life!
Soon after drinking the potion a door opened and I crossed over to a different dimension (or was it a different timezone?) I was delivered to a very large cave, I could see patterns in the air (or was it on the walls of the cave?) the patterns were like unfinished paisley shapes in very faint shades of pastels. The vision was clear but the colours and shapes were nothing like I’ve seen before on ayahuasca, mushrooms or LSD, somehow it all looked like a prehistoric type of art.
The vision ended. It didn’t take me long to realise that the Salvia visions are probably short so I took another dose and before I knew it I was surrounded by fireworks.
The next vision was more like a physical experience:
Something purple was trying to burst out of my head, or maybe a purple something was attaching itself to my head and trying to merge with it. I don’t know how to describe that feeling, or how long it took. Salvia time – if you can call it that, is measured in breaths. So, within a breath, the only ‘thing’ that was left of me, was only consciousness. Or was it the ‘purple something’ consciousness? Weightless and with no body, I was floating in the air above the sounds of music. I could hear the music filling the room but somehow I was high above it. And it was more like I can see it as the sounds vibrated under me and not through and around me as music usually experienced.
Was I initiated by the Salvia spirit? Did I become one with Salvia’s spirit for a few short (or long) breaths? I noticed that with every inhalation, shapes like entities(?) were formed around me but I could only see them on the exhale. they looked like they were made of clouds, mist or fog — of breath, my breath. The vision ended and I was left thinking that those entities are something to do with the ancient Egyptian god Shu.
Salvia spirit?
In the next vision, I played with the length of the exhalation, trying to see as many entities as I can and tried to touch them. When I put my hands over my eyes and I could see The Flower Of Life in bright electric blue forming in my hands.
The last vision: I went and sat by the altar, after all, tonight is all about IPET, the hippo goddess of ancient Egypt. So I knelt by the altar and meditate for a while. I don’t know how many breaths have passed, but it felt that I’d been sitting there for a while.
The vision came as I was looking at the flame of the candle. A gate has opened and turned into a 3D tunnel, from which glowing breath-like entities, went through back and forth. The vision was fading away but I felt like dancing to the beautiful Kali mantra that music was playing in the background, vibrating softly in the nearly dark room while the three of us danced around the fire, the wild dance of the fire goddess.
Three hippos dancing around the fire the wild dance of the beast.
The vision has gone, but the hippos were still dancing around the fire
Three Fire-Hippos dancing
.
Was Ipet / Tawaret a fire goddess?
Well yes, “Hathor of the West” is sometimes depicted as a hippo. The four torch goddesses who light the way for the deceased & keep enemies away are connected with her. (See Naos of decades & Gutbub 1965: 45)
Hathor Hippos is indeed a name of personifications of four crucibles of fire, shown in the Naos (the inner chamber or sanctuary of an ancient temple, a tabernacle), a dynamic act of protection, in which one’s enemies are thrown back and burned in the fires. In the end, what remains is submerged in cow’s milk.
Horus’s protection is that of Him in the Sun-Disk, who lights the Two Lands with the light of his eyes-
and the protection of the afflicted as well.
Horus’s protection is that of Nut’s oldest son, who regulates the conduct of what is and what isn’t-
and the protection of the afflicted as well.
Horus’s protection is that of that great Traveller, who goes around the Two Lands at twilight-
and the protection of the afflicted as well.
Horus’s protection is that of the Lion in the night, who sails at the front of the sunset mountain-
and the protection of the afflicted as well.
Horus’s protection is that of the great hidden Ram, who goes around through his sacred eyes-
and the protection of the afflicted as well.
Horus’s protection is that of the great Falcon, who hovers in the sky, earth, and the Netherworld-
and the protection of the afflicted as well.
Horus’s protection is that of the great worthy Scarab, who flies in Nut-
and the protection of the afflicted as well.
Horus’s protection is that of the secret Corpse in his shape of one who is in his sarcophagus-
and the protection of the afflicted as well.
Horus’s protection is that of the Netherworlder of the Two Lands, who goes around in the above, with secret features-and the protection of the afflicted as well.
Horus’s protection is that of the divine Phoenix, who climbs through his sacred eyes-
and the protection of the afflicted as well.
Horus’s protection is that of his own body, with the magic of his mother Isis protecting it-
(and the protection of the afflicted as well).
Horus’s protection is that of the identities of his father in his cult in the nomes-
and the protection of the afflicted as well.
Horus’s protection is that of the mourning of his mother and the cries of his brother-
and the protection of the afflicted as well.
Horus’s protection is that of his own identity, which the gods serve by helping him-
and the protection of the afflicted as well.
“Awaken, Horus! Your protection is established. You should make the heart of your mother happy. Horus’s voice will lift up hearts when he has calmed her who was worried. Let your hearts be glad, you who are in Nut (the sky), for Horus has avenged his father.
Translated from Metternich Stela by A H Allen
Originally uttered as the protection spell for Horus among the crocodiles, makes a good invocation of the power of Horus in any appropriate context
Awake and embrace the void
Your heart strong enough for its joys
and its worries Leave,
and when you awake to life
You will feel young again on the new day Rest,
lie down assured of long good health.
“Good night,
the gods protect you,
their protection is before you each day
No bad thing approaches
The demon (Apep) is repelled from your bed chamber
Ipet the Great protects you in your long and powerful life.”
The day and night illumined,
You shine forth
For she guides your steps on the right path,
And you know what is needed,
The god Ptah provisions you,
filling your storeroom,
With food and drink aplenty,
and in good measure.
Your diary and records all in order
and well-composed.
The mistakes of the past forgotten,
The staff in your hand well made and sustaining.
Break bread with the wise,
Your cares all behind you.
Only reason lies before you,
The best is yet to come.
*
Praise be to TAWERET,
Bringing ‘perfection’ in her beautiful name.
I praise her to the limits of the sky,
I desire her Ka, calming day by day.
Be merciful to me,
May I behold your mercy,
You, of perfect mercy!
Extend your hand to me,
Giving me life,
And granting me offspring!
Do not reproach me for my errors
You, in perfect mercy!
Even if my helpers slip up,
My peers still reward me.
I desire your great strength,
None knows you as I do;
I will say to the children and children’s children:
Thee as guardian before her!
Joy my heart should seize,
Because on this day TAWERET is merciful,
My house prospers with her blessings.
May she give them day after day,
And I never say ‘Oh I have regrets!’
May she continue to give me health,
And my womb bear children safely,
[Or the future be secure].
My heart is glad every day, for sure
The good ones expel the evil,
And I am blessed.
Behold her people will live forever,
My enemies are fearful before you TAWARET!
Since your rage oppresses them
more than a mountain of iron,
Her mercy gives us life!
In NakedTantra, we documented the first ritual to Ipet the Hippo Goddess.
The insight we got was that Ipet helps one through the trauma of transitions.
Set kills his brother Osiris, with whom he has a secret bond, but they are part of each other. Now he has to deal with the fallout. Ipet is there to hold Set, or you, in place, to help you check your emotions, if you break the ties that bind you to her, you will lose control.
In Ritual year 2 ( work in progress) we had the insight that Set is not at all bind to Ipet but chose to stay contained within her center out of his own free will.
The Eye of The Storm
On the sandbanks of the river
I am the Hippo out of the water
Walking on dry soft-land.
Making patterns in the sand
Four pillars around the eye
One for the north, one for the west,
One for the south, and one for the east
The four guardians of the centre
Of the goddess within
In the centre of her heart
An eye, like a black hole, a vortex
Spinning nearly out of control
Thunder roar
The binds are gone
If you look into her eye
You will see from all directions
His reflection in her eye
Typhon spin with a mighty will
In the centre of our heart
Free
I wonder what insight will have after this year’s ritual…
There are many books on how to do magick, but not so many with stories about actually doing it and what happens. NakedTantra lays bare the inner states of the two brave souls involved in this extended magical work.
An experiment, two people, two countries, one mind, experimenting in tantra meta-magick, cosmic astral travel to the land of no boundaries, looking for the doors of perception.
Of necessity the contents of this grimoire might be considered erotic. And, with that thought in mind, it might also be that the reader is occasionally aroused by our story as it progresses. Some might find this an unwanted intrusion, into what is otherwise an exploration of a magical world. Others we surmise, will take this in good part, accepting that, a spoonful of sugar helps the medicine go down. To those who do not share these sensibilities, and are unmoved by what you are about to read, we offer our sincerest apologies.
Mogg Morgan talks to MIRYAMDEVI & MINANATH, pseudonymous authors of NAKEDTANTRA
About The Authors
MinanathMiryamdevi
These are not their real-world names but neither are they false, they emerged in the dialogue. In real life, they both have experience in eastern and western magical styles.
You obviously have chosen to write under names other than those of your birth, which is not uncommon in magical publishing. The story of how you came by your writerly names is told in the book so I won’t spoil the surprise now. Even so, can you introduce yourself and say a little about what you do, your aims and objectives with your writing?
Minanath: When I first met Miryamdevi she called herself a simple “cowgirl”, which immediately brought to mind the Gopi-maidens who trail after Krishna. But then I discovered she really likes Tom Robbins who wrote Even Cowgirls get the Blues. So there’s something in that, but also, what she says about growing up on a farm; she has a certain earthiness and salt of the earth strength.
Another thing that came up when we got into working with the archetype Babalon – who we, or could be Miryamdevi, worked out, is not some rare breed but is in every woman, Miryamdevi is in a very real sense: “Everywoman”.
My name Minanath literally means (lord of) fish, and it seemed appropriate somehow. It is the name of a Hindu magician/mystic from old times. Also known as Matsyendra, Macchendra, and others. His biography can be seen as mythic or real, depending on who you read. I like the version that he worked in the sea, probably as a fisherman, a fairly taboo or lowly profession in India. But somehow he had a revelation and put together much of the spiritual system we know as Tantra. Perhaps it was because of his humble status people applied the story of his getting the wisdom from a secret scroll, written by the god Shiva, and hidden in the belly of one of the fish he caught. Sometimes it is he who ends up in the fish. But sometimes I just think he learned stuff from people he met on the harbour, maybe mariners from distant lands, like Egypt and Greece.
Anyway, my name Minanath is a reference to that guy who lived a long time ago, not thousands of years but long enough. I think magical tantra started or reemerged in India at the same time when things were getting difficult for magicians in Egypt, with the rise of Christianity. To put it romantically, when the light of knowledge was being extinguished in Egypt and the Near East, the torch passed over to India.
Miryamdevi: Miriam (מִרְיָם Mir-yām) is described in the Hebrew Bible as the daughter of Amram and Jochebed and the sister of Moses and Aaron. She was a prophetess and first appears in the Book of Exodus.
It is all in the name actually, the name Miryam suggest the strong connection she had with the sea and water (Yam in Hebrew means sea and the very obvious Mer-Mir). In the Jewish tradition and culture, The Tambourine is widely associated with Miryam and her love for music. Within the circle of Jewish midwifery especially the Israeli ones, Miryam and her mom Jochbed were the first midwives of the Israelites. I relate to all of this as I was born near the sea, I love music and I’m a doula.
The name Miryam is very popular in my family but although all the Miryams’ are very strong women, most of them had very difficult and unhappy lives. When Minanath said that I have to choose a magickal name it didn’t take long for me to understand that I have the chance to take the name Miryam and turn it into a healing name that will heal a long ancestral line of ‘broken Miryams’. Miryam became MiryamDevi and as soon as I started to use it I felt the healing has begun.
Without giving too much away, are you able to say a little more about your family background, ie past and current – ie are you married, children, work – people like a little bit of personal stuff if you ok to share?
Miryamdevi:
I was born in Israel and grew up on the family farm. My dad was a horse breeder so we had lots of horses, I love horses, I love all animals. In my early twenties, I moved to the UK. After my husband died I moved back to Israel. No children. When Mina and I met I was living in Israel. I’m an aromatherapist and a doula.
Minanath:
I always lived in the UK originally from Wales. Divorced with no children. I work in the world of books, selling and occasionally writing them.
Naked Tantra is rather a striking title – can you say that a bit more about that, what does it signify?
Miryamdevi:
The word Naked in this particular connotation – NakedTantra, signifies the naked truth of our practices. NakedTantra is a very intimate and personal book that reveals some secrets about ourselves and the way we do things. When Mina came out with the name NakedTantra I thought it is the perfect name for the book which reveals so much about us. It feels like we are standing naked in front of the reader.
Minanath:
Miryamdevi said it really, although of course, in the first part of the book there is an account of Miryamdevi’s initiation, which like mine a few years back, and like many initiations, requires some nudity as an act of love and trust. There is a fair amount of nakedness in our book. But mostly really it’s what for us is the naked truth – revealing things as we see them. It may not be true for everyone but it is true for us. Perhaps like those energy bars that have no additives, that’s us, pure and honest, as much as it is possible for anyone to remove the mask and record what they did.
Well, that’s the Naked aspect covered. Can you explain something about the Tantrik aspect of the story? Most of our readers will have a general idea of what it means but I think, as there are so many misconceptions, it would be good if you could say what exactly you mean in this context?
Miryamdevi:
Tantra, yes, a massive subject to talk about… The way I see it, it’s all about cycles within cycles, relationships, the balance between physicality and spirituality, SivaSakti and Lingam-Yoni, Yoni-Lingam, Lingam-Lingam, Yoni-Yoni, whatever.. you cannot do all this without some Serpent Power. I think Mina is the person to ask about Tantra for a clearer answer 🙂
Minanath:
What Miryam said is really good. Miryam always has a very down to earth way of expressing things, hopefully, you noticed that in the book. But technically, Tantra is a South Asian, Indian subcontinental esoteric tradition. Like the term Yoga, I think you could translate Tantra with the western term magic, but not everyone will agree and we probably need to argue that more.
In the book Naked Tantra, you list many songs and poems, some of which you wrote or translated yourselves. Are music and poetry very special to you, can you say a little bit about that, why it is so special?
Miryamdevi:
I love music. Music is a big part of my life and there’s always something playing in the background especially when I cook or clean the house, I’ll have the radio on and will sing along and dance to my favourite tunes. I also make lots of playlists. I have playlists that will suit any mood at any time and any day, I’ve got a good ear for mixing tunes and songs and fancy myself as a secret DJ. Music helps me write. It took me ages to write chapter one, I knew what I wanted to say but the words didn’t come out. One day I was listening to the Ganesha mantra and immediately I knew what to write, so I sat down and wrote chapter one. If you read that chapter you’ll see that there are few mantras which are linked to each other, each mantra was like a key that when played the words just came out flowingly without stopping. Poetry is also very special, when Mina and I met we were living in different countries and as we both like to write as much as we like to talk we found ourselves corresponding on a daily basis via emails. Sometimes situations in life can be very lyrical and when I sit down to write about it the words flow out of me in a lyrical rhythm, a poem of sorts some may say. Separation, longing and Karessa can turn one into an enthusiastic poet.
Minanath:
Miryamdevi is the DJ. I like her style. I think we are a little part of a long tradition of mystics such as the troubadours, the Tamil Siddhas, the Bauls etc. Sometimes called courtly love, where the frisson created between two lovers, who are often separated, either by societal rules or physical distance and then their inner fantasies, their emotional energy is sublimated and channelled into poetry and storytelling. So one way or another we did a lot of writing, we still do. We do our magic, as described in the book, and we dream and write, and write and dream. We just hope our readers will enjoy the things we say, be entertained. As they say, first entertain, then educate.
Is the journey in your book, the kind of rituals you describe, would that be for everyone, a beginner or is it only for the expert?
Miryamdevi:
The journey is for anyone that resonates with our story, and the way we practice and dream.
Minanath:
Aleister Crowley, who turned up in our narrative, wrote or channelled “The Law is for All.” So yes, it’s for all. His magick was quite complex but also simple. Some like to talk about elites and special secrets they have, but it’s all out there already really. If it was all so secret we wouldn’t be writing a book about it, and in the tradition, there are thousands of old tantric texts in libraries, why did they write them if not to be read? I suppose the only qualification is the ability to read, understand, dream, do, and become.
What do you think other explorers of this genre would make your work? There are a lot of books already out there, what is it you think you bring to the table that is new?
Miryamdevi:
As I said earlier, the book is about very personal and intimate work. Some might like it and some won’t. Some might say that we lifted the veil of Isis too far … for those, I’ll say “perhaps, but there again, she gives us life”.
Minanath:
Well, we’re not too sure about that. We hope they are entertained. I hope, if there is any shock, it will be of recognition. Some will perhaps question that what we have written, whether we are entitled to say it and whether what we experienced is appropriate. Almost every book these days seems to have to dismiss the connection between western sexual magick and the obscure secrets of real tantra, to dismiss other magicians’ ideas as new age. But then, in the end, these same people will carry on writing about tantra much as we do. So I think we are on the safe ground really, we can argue our corner. And in the end, does it matter? We are part of the same international community of magic that existed in India and Egypt in the past and is with us now. Mystical traditions cannot really be judged, or if they can, it is only by the results, ie pragmatically. Success is becoming.
Ps: I have to say that in the work, Miryamdevi really has, in my opinion, revealed some amazing insights into Jewish magick, something I’ve not seen anywhere before. Or put it this way, although Miryamdevi always denies any formal knowledge of Kabbalah, it just seems to be in her blood, to flow from her naturally. Which is what she says in the book at one moment – women just naturally receive and know these things. I don’t know if this is all women but definitely her.
That’s a lot of questions – can you try and summarise, in a nutshell, the enduring message of this book?
MiryamDevi:
Follow your dreams.
Minanath:
Magic is complex but also simple. It is sometimes said that the gods created the world as a game, remembering how to play, that’s the thing.
Naked Tantra ends on a bit of a cliff-edge – without giving too much away, can you say what happened next in terms of what you are working on now?
Minanath:
Well, it seemed like the right place to stop, although the narrative obviously continues somehow and there are obviously some difficult moments ahead. The story comes to a natural climax, in more ways than one, when we break through our self imposed purdah and come together at a place of obvious power. What happens on the other side of the cliff-edge, that’s in part down to the readers.
What are we doing now? More experiments in the hyperreal – a ritual year and surprise surprise, some angelic conversations, though something very common although at the same time, ignored. It’s the old old story, people look for complexity when what they really need is staring them in the face.