For the last couple of months I have wondered why the Archangels do not come or answer when invoked while other witches are drumming. It was a curious bit of realization for me to notice; that no matter how you called them or what invocation you used, they did not manifest or make their presence known when folks were drumming. (I have witnessed this occurrence more than once)
I have clairvoyantly observed many elementals and fairies manifest themselves in the physical, as well as the tree spirits/dryads that have come out to see what is going on and dance and play when drums were sounded. The effects should not be mental as if some empty ritual, but the physical place, space and even lighting can be seen and felt physically when done properly; both with the angels and with the nature spirits. So why do the Angels seem to not manifest themselves when witches begin to sound their drums?
The first thing I should probably answer is, “how do angels manifest themselves?”
The angels do not usually manifest in full form or even out of the corner of the eye like the nature spirits and fairies do. This is because their bodies are made up of much finer materials and matter than the bodies of fairies, spirits and elementals that have astral bodies similar to humans. Typically, I will witness the angels manifest in a golden light that permeates a space or a room. This golden light is not the angel itself, but the matter that is needed so that the angels have the ability to manifest within and gently speak to us. (This may be why we probably have ages upon ages of drawings of angels with white billowy robes, golden crowns and golden/blonde hair?)
Because the angels are not terrestrial, we have to create a space in which they are able to manifest in. Fairies and nature spirits are of our terrestrial world and work within the astral matter – angels are not of a terrestrial nature. Because of this, there is only special ways you can call on them within the terrestrial sphere.
Within a selected and secluded space for ritual, the witch or theurgist can call the angels to manifest within that golden space of fine ethereal matter, which is produced by the body of a witch or theurgist that is capable of calling forth these particular particles of moving energy from out of their bodies. Not all witches have this particular ability, and in truth, more might have the ability if they work in a coven that develops this skill. To make a phone call, you need a phone. To speak with angels, you need to produce a space in which their presence can manifest within.
The space that seems to be best conducive to this type of working is a quiet, unfrequented place. This can be done in a number of ways, such as one way our coven uses in which the ritual area is sealed off ritually for twenty-four hours.
You would not want to call upon the angels in the busiest areas of your home – angels come in quietly, whispering their short messages to us for brief periods of time. In that space, they respond well to long taper candles – as the flame of a candle seems to be related to the particles that which makes up their bodies. Pleasing incense seems to be a big assistance to help with this work. The sorcerers of old would use fragrant woods within a thurible to make a thurible-fire that incense can be burned upon, but today, the self-igniting charcoals do the trick.
Now, let’s discuss why I decided to finally engage in these clairvoyant sessions of when the angels choose to manifest or not…
As I said, I noticed that the angels did not come when drumming was present, but other nature spirits did. Secondly, after witnessing this effect a number of times, I spoke about this topic with a couple of members of the coven at a birthday dinner. At our coven gather in the woods that we had this year in Maryland, we were talking about what classes, rituals or lectures we were going to present. One of the ladies of our coven, who is a wonderful drummer, said: “You guys don’t do any drumming do you?”
I responded with, “Correct, very little if any. In fact, most folks in our coven do not even own a drum. Even looking back on the generations of witches before me, they did not drum either!”
I also followed up with, “I’m not sure exactly why that is, but it would be a great thing for you to share – especially since it is something that most of the folks in the coven had not been attracted to or even interested in. We have witnessed witches having drum circles at other open pagan events, and even then, it seems like a far-out foreign concept to the methods of work that our coven is used to conducting. This class is definitely one that will introduce us to a possible new skill and tool!”
She agreed!
After this conversation, I knew that I had to think more critical of my observations about why the angels don’t respond to drumming and now add to that, why I find that I am not drawn to drumming. Why is most of our coven also not drawn to the practice of drumming?
The first thing we should always look to is the practical – firstly, it is not something that was part of our traditional Wicca line. We have no mention of drums and nothing our collected writings about drumming instruments either. Even without the presence of drumming, the magical hypnotic state occurs very quickly in our rituals in which an infusion of vitality bombards the vital body, which is of course wrapped and made up of astral matter.
Are there any instruments that we use that are mentioned?
Yes, the shofar or horn…
We sound the shofar in our rituals and also bells are rung. These instruments, along with the sound of our voice, correctly applied to tonal calls and vibrations during invocations are part of the releasing of the power necessary for angels and spirits to have a space within the aether to manifest within. Also, I have noticed that fairies of the air element are closer to human intellect and one of the most common of nature spirits that we stereotypically think of when celebrating Beltane and such. They seem to respond very well to wind instruments and the shofar. I have also used a bull-roarer as well, made from apple-wood, to call up the fairies of the air. On top of that, angel magic is an important one to our coven, and these angels seem to respond very well to this.
Are there are any instruments that I have recently clairvoyantly observed will help with the manifestation of angels? I’ve found that most string instruments and wind instruments do the trick! (Come to think of it, maybe that is why we see cartoons with Angels playing a harp?)
(Angel with harp – La Sagrada Familia, Barcelona, Spain)
Instruments that rattle, shake and strike seems to attract water spirits and fairies. This is because of the sounds of rain and even crashing ocean waves as they beat down upon the shore.
The elementals of the earth – the earth fairies and gnomes – seem to be the most attracted by drumming. The rhythm of the thuds and beats are reminiscent of the work I have clairvoyantly seen them conduct in nature. The sound of hooves and walking, the sound of the heartbeat or pulse, the sound of deer in high speed or a slow and graceful walk all add to the heartbeat of nature.
What about the fire elementals? Well, they seem to not respond to any instrument in particular. This may be because of the special effect that fire has, being the only element that seems to always “rise up.” Heat ascends and takes condensation and vapour upward with it.
The one strange exception I have noticed with the earth elementals in the forest involves the tree spirits or dryads. These spirits are connected to the earth but have a unique spirit separate from the gnomes of the earth. The tree spirits also best respond to voice and wind instruments as they seem to love the breeze as it blows through their foliage. Drumming will also get the attention of tree spirits though, as they will step out to see what is going on. If you make friends with them through voice or wind instruments, you might be able to get the tree spirits to dance with you while drumming. Once you win over the appreciation of the tree spirits, they will show great affection to you!
In our coven lore, trees are highly important to us. We work with tree spirits, the dryads and all other sorts of trees. They have their own nature separate from earth spirits. It is also possible for tree spirits to take a disliking to certain people, so treat them kindly and as the friends they are – as they are dear friends of ours!
Lastly, I wanted to describe what I have noticed on the effects of drumming from an occult and clairvoyant perspective.
I have noticed clairvoyantly the effects of drumming on the astral matter that our astral bodies and vital bodies are cloaked in. Drumming seems to pull the energy down towards the earth. It roots us in the dirt, both wet and dry. That is probably why so many shamanic workers love the effect that drums have in their ceremonies – it is a tool that forces the descent within. It assists to bring on the descent down into the nether realms and probably why it is so valid in helping to recover what is called “soul pieces”, or the parts of ourselves in which the soul becomes fragmented through spiritual trauma. The stimulation of thuds and beats produced by drumming seems to push the consciousness within and makes the body feel heavy. You notice this in African drumming in which the shoulders, hips, legs and feet constantly make heavy, down-ward steps as if they are pushing towards the earth. Occasionally even, the spine is tilted downward in the dancers as they drive the pulse and rhythm earthwards. The movements almost strike the earth like a blacksmith pounding out iron on his anvil. Drumming of this sort is connected to earth magic and communication with our Mother Goddess.
(Dancing at a drumcircle… )
Wind, string and air instruments (including our voices) most of the time seem to have the opposite effect on us by almost picking us up so that, when strong enough, it feels you will float in midair or at least pushed forward. It makes you feel light. These instruments draw you upwards toward the Supreme Being and the communication with the Father God and the divine messengers, the angels. These instruments have a celestial and stellar quality, while drumming has a terrestrial quality. You can even witness the movement of Middle-Eastern dance where the hips, naval arms, hands and neck are highly accentuated with most of the movement – a curling up like the smoke of incense. The spine many times is aligned straight or at times, tilted back some as if the upper body will pick up and float at any moment. The moments are air and water that bends smoothly. Depending on the instrument, it is air or water magic.
Both of the above methods are valid techniques. One method allows you to “find yourself” and travel within at times when in a spiritual crisis we feel fragmented and disconnected and the other method pulls us upward towards our celestial, heavenly home in space to our cosmic parents when we were first, as the late and great Carl Sagen would say, of star-stuff.
Overall, the knowledge of what I was able to clairvoyantly observe assists to aid in methods of invoking the correct division of celestial being (angel) or the correct division of terrestrial being (fairies and elementals). You will also note that different tones will evoke different angels and air spirits within the aether, while different drum patterns will invoke different classifications and divisions of terrestrial fairies. Put them all together – voice, string instrument, wind instrument, drum and rattles with the spiritual fire of the spirit or inner-monad in the centre of our own beings and it sounds like we have what you need to call any classification of spiritual intelligence that we like. We can then communicate our messages to them by concentrated thought, mimic sympathetic dance, contagion and mummial magic combined with sympathetic action. When the desire of our emotional involvement is applied to turn up the heat on our desire, we have one effective ritual in the creation of potent thought-forms, wrapped in the corresponding mental and astral matter and builds power by attracting additional like thought-forms and elementals to it within the astral light.
I thought this occult observation would be an interesting one to share as I have not seen anyone discuss before what instruments the angels, spiritual intelligences and the elementals respond to and potentially give an opinion why based on occult clairvoyant means.
I must end this article with the statement that these are only my own clairvoyant observations on how these beings respond. It is possible they could choose to communicate with you in a different way than they have chosen to communicate with our coven. I do personally look forward to expanding my own understanding as time progresses forward.
Blessed Be!
By Thorn NightWind, Wolfa Coven of the Horsa Tradition, Pennsylvania, USA
References
Shofar: http://www.shofar-store.com/Eva-Arbiv-Mishan-Decorated-Golden-Yemenite-Shofar_p_67.html
Angel with harp: https://dearart.net/sculpture/sculpture-clay/easy-clay-sculptures-0rpheus-a-harp-with-no-strings-la-sagrada-familia-nativity-fa/
Drum circle: https://neuroconscience.files.wordpress.com/2016/06/spoutwood-drum-circle_painting-queenblog.jpg?w=810
Appendix:
When checking this article I noticed the word ‘mummial’. I wasn’t sure what it meant so I wrote to ask Thorn NightWind for more background information. He wrote, ” I just realized when you said that, that most witches today probably haven’t heard of the term “Mummial Magic” before. (Sorry about that – We sometimes still use the old obscure occult words and spellings that no one else typically uses anymore) For us, basically, Mummial Magic is using “mummies” in spells – today, many practitioners in Hoodoo practice call these “tag-locks” – like a piece of hair, nail clippings that are used in an act of either contagion magic or sympathetic magic. I’m not sure what it would be called in witchcraft today, like I know some folks in Hoodoo call those items taglocks? (Maybe “relic” or shed cells that retain the DNA of the individual?)
There is a chapter in one of Sybil’s favorite grimoires – The Great Book of Magic Art (photos of the first page of chapter and cover). This Grimoire here, our copy here from the 1930s, was one of Sybil’s favorite grimoires! This is the section it goes on about witchcraft & sorceries as they knew it at the time. This could be why Sybil used the term Mummial possibly?
(Great Book of Magical Art, Hindu Magic and East Indian Occultism and the Book of Secret Hindu, Ceremonial, and Talismanic Magic, by L. W. de Laurence – originally published in 1915 )