Blood of the Pure - Chapter Nine - The Chalice

The Chalice

The Chalice has always been a symbol of all things involving healing, fertility, death or immortality.

In Christianity is seen as the symbol to the cup of the Last Supper, through which Jesus offered his blood or Spirit as a sacrifice for humanity’s benefit. Later it became an object of spiritual quest, in the form of the Holy Grail. Nowadays the ritual chalice used in the Catholic Mass is a ritualistic object where wine is symbolically transformed into the "blood" of thye God. This in turn is drawn from the older Hebrew tradition of the Kiddush ir Bride's Cup, which represents the presence of God during the Sabbath and at Passover.

In the Sufi tradition, the chalice symbolizes the vessel that contains.

Its esoteric symbol is associated with purification and transformation, life and healing, energy and manifestation. The chalice has the purpose “to keep life alive until the world is awake.” 

The Chalice is also used in Wiccan and Ritual Magick ceremonies, representing the element of water, receptivity, feminine energy, and form. It represents the Goddess of feminine principal in a number of rituals.

It is also related to the suite of cups in the Tarot deck, and the watery signs of the Zodiac.

Blood of the Pure - Chapter Eight - Dreamcatcher

Dream Catcher

 -Dream-net or Sacred Hoop -

The folk-charm we know today as the ubiquitous "dreamcatcher" was originally a very small charm, a tiny hoop, usually of willow-wood, filled in with an interlaced webbing of sinew or plant fibers to resemble a spider's web.

 The first dreamcatchers were crafted by the Ojibwa people (Chippewa) and were probably derived from or inspired by snowshoe designs.

Most dream catchers were used as protective charms for infants. The "spiderweb" would trap negative spirits that cause disease, nightmares, etc., and protect the child. The negativity caught in the web would be destroyed by the rising sun. According to most sources, the original dreamcatchers were made in honor of Asibikaasi, or Spider-woman, whose magical webs even had the power to trap the sun.

Over time, these charms were adapted by other bands, each of whom developed their own methods, materials, and origin stories.

There is some argument over whyat constitutes a 'genuine' dreamcatcher. The monster-sized, ornate leather wrapped dreamcatcher with large feather dangles, stones, and beads is largely a product of the modern resurgence of interest in native cultures that occurred in the sixties and seventies and do not represent any actual ancient traditions. Likewise, even though many modern tribes have adopted and modified the design, they are not traditional in the strict sense, and neither are many of the 'ancient legends' associated with them.

Blood of the Pure - Chapter Seven - The Eye of Horus

 Eye of Horus

Eye of Ra

(Udjat, Wedjat)

It represents the sun, and isassociated with the Sun God Ra (Re).

The mirror image, or left eye, represented the moon, and the God Tehuti (Thoth). (A very similar concept of the sun and moon as eyes appears in many religious traditions)

According to legend, the left eye was torn from Horus by his murderous brother Seth, and magically restored by Thoth, the God of magick. After the restoration, some stories state, Horus made a gift of the eye to Osiris, which allowed this solar deity to rule the underworld. The story of this injury is probably an allusion to the phases of the moon as the eye which is "torn out" every month.

Together, the eyes represent the whole of the universe, a concept similar to that of the Taoist Yin-yang symbol. Spiritually, the right eye reflects solar, masculine energy, as well as reason and mathematics. The left eye reflects fluid, feminine, lunar energy, and rules intuition and magick. Together, they represent the combined, transcendent power of Horus.

The Eye of Horus was believed to have healing and protective power, and it was used as a protective amulet, and as a medical measuring device, using the mathematical proportions of the eye to determine the proportions of ingredients in medical preparations) to prepare medications.

The Masonic all seeing eye, the Eye of Providence symbol found on American money, and modern Rx pharmaceutical symbol are all descended from the Eye of Horus.