Various Occult, Tribal & Celtic Images

Turtle WorldsAlthough the Norse imagined the worlds being

supported by a great tree, many tribes thought of theland as being carried on the back of a giant turtleswimming through an infinite sea. This is why NorthAmerica is sometimes referred to as “Great TurtleIsland.” In India, the disc of the Earth was thought tobe supported on the backs of four colossal elephants,and they, in turn, stood on the shell of a mighty turtle,swimming eternally through space. Terry Pratchett haswritten dozens of delightful satirical novels set on sucha world, called the “Discworld.” These books arefavorites among magickal people (they feature somememorable Wizards and Witches), and a couple havebeen made into animated films.

TheDiscworld

by Oberon

Chakra

Egyptian Deities

Sekhmet, Anubis, Horus, ThothHorus and Thoth binding together

the thrones of Isis, Osiris, and Nepthys

Creation of the cosmos

Manjet and Mesektet

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NORTH (Green) EAST (Yellow)

SOUTH (Red) WEST (Blue)

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A Few Common North American Animal Tracks

F

ox,

C

at

O

tter

P

orcu

pine

S

kunk

R

acoon

Squirre

l

Rabbit

Coyote

REAR FRONT WALKING RUNNING

Talisman forSuccess inGaming.(Le Petit

Albert, 1722)

Talisman forDiscoveringTreasures.

(Grimoire du

Honorius,1629)

NanotubeBuckyballCarbon 70

Taurus

Canis Major(big dog)

(littledog)

CanisMinor

Crion(the hunter)

Lepus(the hare)

Scorpio(the scorpion)

Ophiuchus(the serpent-

handler)

(thearcher)

Sagit-tarius

Octa-hedron

Dodeca-hedron

Icosa-hedron

CubeTetra-hedron

Octa-hedron

Dodeca-hedron

Icosa-hedron

CubeTetra-hedron

Aspidodelone—A sea monster like agiant whale or turtle, so immensethat when it is basking on thesurface sailors mistake its backfor an island and land on it. Whenthey build a fire, however, the

living “island” plunges into the depths, dragging theship and crew to a watery doom.

Basilisk/Cockatrice—Half snakeand half rooster; so poisonous that itsvery glance or breath paralyses. Thebasilisk is shown as a monstrous ser-pent crowned with a dramatic frill orcrest. The cockatrice is depicted as a

rooster with a dragon’s tailand bat-like wings. Its en-

emy is the weasel or mon-goose. In actuality, both de-

rive from the Egyptian spitting co-bra, which sprays poison from its

fangs with great accuracy into the eyes of its victims.

Catoblepas (or Gorgon)—A bull-like creature ofEthiopia covered with scales like

a dragon, tusks like a boar, andno hair except on its head. Itis probably based on the gnu.The “Gorgon” name bears norelation to the Gorgons of an-

cient Greece, such as Medusa.

Centaur—Half man and halfhorse. Most were savage andlustful, frequently carrying offhuman women. But the cen-taur Chiron was a wise teacherwho tutored many Greek heroes.

Cerberus—Guardian of the Greek Underworld; a

great three-headed dog with thetail of a dragon. It was broughtout of Hades’s realm by Heracles,who apparently lost it in a bet toRubeus Hagrid, who installed it atHogwarts to guard the Philosopher’s Stone.…

Chimera—A composite monster withthe body of a goat, the headof a lion, and the tail of adragon. There was only one,

slain by Bellerophon from the backof Pegasus, the flying horse.

Dragon—A giant reptile, often possessing bat-likewings and fiery breath. There are many varieties, liv-

ing in all the Elements: Earth, Water,Fire, and Air. Wingless ones are

called orms or worms. Easterndragons are wise and benevolent

creatures of clouds, rain, and bodiesof water. Western dragons are morelikely to be crafty and evil, and many

were slain by various heroes and knights.

Gryphon (or Griffin)—Depicted withthe hind body and tail of a lion and thehead, wings, and foreclaws of an eagle, inactuality, it is the vulture-eagle, or lam-mergeier (“lamb-stealer”). A “mane”of long ragged feathers around itshead and neck has given it the nameof “lion eagle” or “bearded vul-ture.” The largest and most powerful of all raptors, it isthe eagle of Zeus.

Harpies—Foul and hid-eous creatures with thegnarled faces and witheredbreasts of old hags, and the wings,bodies and talons of vultures. Jasonand the Argonauts encountered theseon the quest for the Golden Fleece.

Hippocampus—An aquatic mon-ster or sea horse, it has the head

and forelegs of a horse withthe body and tail of a fish.

Its equine forefeet terminate in fin-like flippers rather than hooves.

Hippogriff—Similar to a gryphon,but with the hind parts of a horseinstead of a lion. Harry Potter’sfriend Sirius Black has one called

“Buckbeak.”

Kraken/Hydra—A hugemulti-tentacled sea monster.Heracles killed one whose

Fabulous Beasts

“heads,” on long tentacle-necks,grew back two for every one thatwas severed. Scylla was such amonster who snatched sailors fromthe deck of Odysseus’s ship. Vi-kings reported encounteringsquirming tentacles over acres ofsea. This is actually the giantsquid, of which the largest speci-

men recovered (April 2003) would have had an adultbody bigger than a city bus! It was named Mesonycho-teuthis, or “colossal squid.” No giant squids haveever been captured alive, but a number of deadones have washed up on beaches.

Lamia—A scale-coveredquadruped of Libya with awoman’s head and breasts. Shehas hooves, a horse’s tail, and catlike forelegs.

Makara—A monstrous “elephant-fish” of India.From its depictions, it may be the same creature as

the Loch Ness Monster. Theelephant-like “trunk” could bea long neck and small head.

Manticora—A red lion-like creature of India withthe head of a man, mane of a lion, tail of a scorpion,three rows of iron teeth, and abeautiful musical voice like atrumpet or flute. It is usuallythought to be a tiger, but Ibelieve it is actually thehamadryad baboon.

Mermaid/Merman—From the waist up, they arelike humans, but their lower body is like afish; tales say they longed for a soul. In

actuality, the legends are based on thedugong, an oceanic mammal of

Indonesia, which has a long sleekbody, a large whale-like tail, andbreasts (on the females) exactly

like those of women.

Minotaur—A ferocious beast with thebody of a powerful man and the head of acarnivorous bull. There was only one, themonstrous offspring of Crete’s Queen

Pasiphae and a beautiful white bull.King Minos kept it in the labyrinthand fed it on human prisoners.It was killed by Theseus.

Naga (male)/Nagini (female)—Serpent-people of India. They look human fromthe waist up, but are giant snakes fromthe waist down.

Pegasus—The magnificent winged white horse who

sprang from the neck of theGorgon Medusa when Perseus

beheaded her. The only onewho ever tamed and rode himwas Bellerophon. See him in

the movie Clash of the Titans (1981).

Phoenix—Sometimes called thefirebird, she looks like a flame-colored crossbetween a peacock and a pheasant (thoughthe name means “reddish-purple one”).Every 500 years, she lays a single egg in anest of incense cedar, which bursts intoflame, consuming her. When the egghatches, warmed by the embers, sheis reborn from the ashes. AlbusDumble-dore has one called “Faux.”

Ruhk (or Roc)—A gigantic bird ofMadagascar made famous in the stories of

Sinbad and the journals of MarcoPolo, said to be large enough to carryoff elephants. In reality, it was thehuge flightless “elephant bird” orvouron patra (Aepyornis maximus),which reached 11 feet in height and

weighed 1,100 pounds! Its 3’-circumference eggs,bigger than any dinosaur eggs, were the largest singlecells to have ever existed on Earth. It was exterminatedby sailors in the 16th century.

Salamandra—Named forFire Elementals, these arebrilliantly colored lizards orsmall dragons that can live inflames. Erroneously believed to be poisonous, theywill actually put out fire. Fireproof asbestos fibers weresaid to be “salamander wool.” The small colorfulamphibians we call salamanders hibernate in deadwood, and often end up in the fireplace as they crawlout of the logs, awakened by heat. When frightened,they exude a harmless milky fluid that can extinguish aweak fire.

Sea Serpents—Any of awide variety of huge serpentinesea-monsters that have been re-ported over the centuries by sea-farers. Some appear to be giantsnakes, huge eels, immense seaslugs, or even prehistoric crea-tures. Some may be based on seeing tentacles of giantsquids. Although there have been many documentedsightings, no specimens have ever been retrieved.

Selchies—Seal-people of Scotland. They can takeoff their sealskins and seemto be normal people, butthey are really seals at heart.

Sirens—These are depictedvariously as part woman and

part bird, part woman and partfish, or a composite of woman’s body,fish’s tail, and bird’s feet. Their haunt-

ing voices lure sailors to their doom.Odysseus survived these by plugging his crew’s earswith wax. It is believed that the song of the sirens isactually that of the nightingale bird,heard from the sea along the shore.

Sphinx— She had a lion’s bodyand paws, and the head, breasts,and arms of a beautiful woman.The Greek Sphinx also had eaglewings, but the Egyptian ver-sion was wingless. She is fa-mous for posing the following riddle to travelers:“What goes on four legs in the morning, two legs inthe afternoon, and three legs in the evening?” If theyanswered correctly, they could pass; but if they failed,she would devour them. (Figure it out.…)

Unicorn—A lovely, white, clo-ven-hoofed animal with a singlestraight or spiral horn growing

perpendicularly from the center ofits forehead. There were several dif-ferent “species” at different times andperiods in history. The best knownis the caprine (“goatlike”) unicorn

depicted in a number of famous Renaissance tapestries.In actuality, these were real animals whose proto-hornbuds were brought into fusion by a secretprocess that I rediscovered in 1976.

Wyvern—A kind of flying dragonwith bat-like wings and two hindlegs; basically, a large pterodac-

tyl, like Quetzelcoatlus.

Brought to Light”

Back in 1975, Morning Glory and I began researchingthe truth behind the legends of fabulous beasties. Weintended to write a book, to be called Creatures ofNight, Brought to Light (a line from Peter Beagle’swonderful novel, The Last Unicorn). But when wediscovered the long-lost secret of the unicorn, we gaveup on the book idea and set out on a magickal quest tobring real-life unicorns back into the world. It wasthrough that work that I first became a true Wizard.Nonetheless, we have continued to gather lore, so hereare a few more extensive entries on some of my favor-ite magickal beasties; I have sculpted images of eachof these.

DragonsThe dragon is the primordial and archetypal mon-

ster of Western mythology. Dragons dominate eachof the four Elements: There are wingless cave drag-ons, flying dragons, sea dragons, and fire-breathingdragons. Males are called “drakes” and females are“queens.” All have been depicted in occidental legendas ancient, ferocious, and terrifying reptiles—symbolicof the raw, untamable, and even hostile power of Na-ture. Dragons are intelligent, crafty, cruel, and greedy.They have a passion for collecting vast hoards of trea-sure: gold, jewels, arms, and fabulous relics. Thesethey pile together and sleep upon,guarding them jealously.

Dragons know the speech of all living creatures,and a drop of dragon’s blood tasted by the Teutonichero Siegfried enabled him to understand the languageof birds and animals. Possessing strong individual per-sonalities, dragons have distinctive and magickal namesthat give power to those who learn them. Such namesas Vermithrax, Draco, Kalessin, and Smaug have beengiven in stories. But Velociraptor, Tyrannosaurus rex,Carnotaurus, Deinonychus, and Spinosaurus are otherdragon names in the Old Speech.

Winged dragons are of two basic types: the four-legged variety, with additional wings like those of batsor fins supported on extended ribs, and the two-leggedwyvern, whose bat-like wings are formed of its fore-limbs. These appear so much like prehistoric ptero-dactyls as to invite speculation as to the survivalof such creatures into historic times.

There is a little 10”-longgliding lizard of the MalayPeninsula called Dracovolens (“flying dragon”),which has fin-like rib-wings. Mummified bodies ofthese were taken to Europe and exhibited as “babydragons”—proof positive of real flying dragons!

Although the biological basis of dragon legendsno doubt include giant lizards, crocodiles, and fossilremains, I believe that the apparently authentic recordsof living dragons in medieval Europe derive from suchinvertebrate creatures as the Loch Ness Monster. Atleast this explanation would fit all those accounts inwhich the dragon is called a worm or orm. However,there is also Mokele-mbembe in Africa, which may bea genuine reptilian dragon!

But these are only poor vestiges of a once-mighty

Dracovolens

Tatzel-wurmof the

GermanAlps, by E.

Topsell, 1607

“Creatures of Night

Konrad Gesner, 1551

order: the dinosaurs, or Archosauria (“ruling reptiles”).For 150 million years these true dragons ruled theEarth, in every size and form imaginable—until theirreign came to an abrupt end with the impact of a giantasteroid. But such powerful spirits and intelligencesthat had existed for so long are not simply exterminatedovernight. Just as the long-gone elves and little peoplelive on as spirit beings of Faerie, so the souls of dragonscontinue their ancient lineage in the Dragonlands ofThe Dreaming, holding sway in our collective memoriesover the entire span of mammalian existence.

GryphonThe mythological history of the gryphon goes back

more than 5,000 years. The word gryphon in every lan-guage (French griffon, Italian grifo, German greyff, andEnglish griffin) derives from the Greek grypos—“hooked”—because of its large predatory beak.

The gryphon figures prominently in the art andlegends of the ancient Sumerians, Assyrians,Babylonians, Chaldeans, Egyptians, Mycenaeans, Indo-Iranians, Syrians, Scythians, and Greeks. In medievalEuropean heraldry, gryphons are frequently repre-sented as a symbol of eternal vigilance, and in ancientastrology, they pulled the chariot of the Sun. Accord-ing to legend, gryphons lived in the country betweenthe Hyperboreans, the North-wind people ofMongolia, and the Arimaspians, the one-eyed tribe ofScythia. The favorite prey of the gryphon was horses,and its greatest enemies were the Arimaspians, whowere continually trying to capture the vast hoard ofgold guarded by the gryphons.

Although the gryphon is usually described as hav-ing the wings, head, and claws of an eagle with thebody of a lion, it is actually based not on the eagle buton the lammergeier, gypaetus barbatus (“bearded vul-

ture”), which measures four feet inlength with a nine-foot wingspan. The

powerful but rarely seen lammergeier(whose German name means “lambstealer,” from its habit of carrying offlambs) inhabits high mountain ridgesin Southern Europe, Africa, and Asia.There is also a griffin vulture (Gyps

fulvus) found throughout SouthernAsia and South Africa.

The mythical sea-horse orhippocampus (meaning

“horselike water monster” in Greek) has the head andforequarters of a horse with fins instead of hooves,and the hindquarters of a fanciful fish. It is also knownas the water-horse or horse-eel, and was a favorite artsubject in Greco-Roman times, especially in Romanbaths, where it is frequently found depicted in mosaic.In Roman lore the hippocampus was said to be thefastest creature in the ocean and thus, the favoritesteed of Neptune, King of the Sea.

In Scotland the water-horse is called the kelpie.It haunts rivers and streams and, after letting unsus-pecting humans mount it, will dash into the water anddrown them. In Ireland the same creature is known asthe each-uisge (ek-OOSH-kee) or aughisky (og-ISS-kee), where it inhabits seas and lochs and is far moredangerous. After carrying its victims into the water, itwill devour them. If the aughisky is ridden inland, how-ever, it is quite safe; but the sight or smell of the seawill doom the rider.

The water-horse may possibly be identified withthe legendary Loch Ness Monster and its relatives,other lake monsters and sea serpents, which have beenreported in dozens of locations throughout theworld. The head and neck of these creaturesis commonly described as appearing horse-like in profile, and they are frequently actu-ally called “water-horses” by eyewitnesses.

Hippocampus is now the scientificname given to the curious little fish com-monly known as the seahorse, of which thelargest are no more than eight inches long.

MermaidThe mermaid—a beautiful girl to her waist but a

fish from the waist down—has always been a favoritecreature of legend and romance. There has never beena time or place in nautical history in which marinershave not told of mermaids they encountered. The folk-lore of merpeople is ancient and widespread, crossingcultures, continents, and centuries. They have beencalled by diverse names—sirens, selchies, tritons,undines, melusines, morgans, korrigans, lorelei,rusulki, nixies, nereids, naiads, and ningyos.

The mermaid of tradition is seductive anddangerous. She personifies the beauty and treacheryof the sea, especially of the shoals and rocks of thecoastline. Her long hair is said to be composed of

Hippocampus

MatthäusMerian,

1718

seaweed. For a sailor to see a mermaid is almost alwaysa portent of disaster—storm, shipwreck, or drowning.Merfolk live in a kingdom on the bottom of the sea,ruled by Neptune, and they entice sailors to leap intothe water with singing and lovely music.

The mermaid was believed real by both naturalhistorians and explorers, who have reported manysightings and encounters over the centuries. Pliny theElder (23–79 CE) was the first naturalist to record her indetail, in his monumental Natural History. In the mid-19th century, stuffed “Mermaids” (monkey-fish com-posites created by Japanese taxidermists) became spec-tacles in Victorian London. Themost famous of thesecuriosities was the“Feejee Mermaid”brought to Broadwayby P.T. Barnum in 1842.

The universality and vitality of the mermaid leg-end suggests a substratum of fact: an actual animalthat may appear mermaid-like from a distance. Pos-sible candidates have included sirenians (manatees anddugongs) and pinnipeds (seals and sea lions). In theearly 1980s, off the coast of New Ireland, north ofNew Guinea, anthropologists reported seeing an un-

known sea mammal. The na-tives called it a ri or ilkai, de-scribing it as having a fishlike

lower body and a humanoid headand torso, with prominent breasts on thefemales. In other words, a mermaid! Thisidentification was reinforced by its Pid-

gin name: pishmeri (“fish-woman”).In March of 1985, I led an ERA/ISC div-

ing expedition to New Ireland to identify andvideo the ri. We discovered that thepishmeri was none other than the Indo-

Pacific dugong, a rare sirenian exhibitingbehavior unknown to marine biologists.

UnicornOut of the darkness of the Middle Ages, the legend

of the unicorn (“single-horn”) emerged as a bright andshining beacon, standing for beauty, strength, grace,and purity. The Physiologus describes him thus: “Heis a small animal, like a kid, but exceedingly fierce,with one horn in the middle of his head.…” He is

invariably represented in medieval tapestries andwoodcuts as being white in color, cloven-hoofed, witha high plumed tail and a goatee, flowing silken mane,and feathers of hair on the backs of his legs.

Because these characteristics are derived fromgoats, the medieval unicorn is also called the caprine(“goat-like”) unicorn, to distinguish him from the bull-like taurine unicorns of the Bronze Age, the ram-likearien unicorns of the Iron Age, or the imaginarymodern equine, or horse-like, unicorns.

An animal is onlycalled a unicorn when itssingle horngrows from thecenter of hisforehead. As itgrows, themedial hornalters theshape ofthe skull,enlargingthe brain case and affecting the pineal and pituitaryglands. The unicorn grows larger, more intelligent,more charismatic, and more capable of effectivedefense against predators. It becomes a superior herdleader and guardian. The unicorn thus became a symbolof royalty and eventually divinity; the Physiologusidentifies it allegorically with Christ.

Unicorn horn was greatly valued as an antidotefor poisons. Its medicinal values were vast, and a bitof powdered horn sprinkled upon suspect food or drinkwould counteract the effects of any poisons therein.One of the most famous legends of the unicorn is thatof “water conning,” whereby he purifies a polluted wellor spring by dipping his magickal horn into the water.

Though always rare, unicorns have existed formore than 4,000 years. They were produced accordingto a closely guarded secret formula known only to afew tribes in North Africa and the Middle East. Thissecret was lost forcenturies untilMorning Gloryand I rediscov-ered it in 1976, andwe produced sev-eral living uni-corns in the early80s. Lancelot, thefirst caprine uni-corn in more than400 years, wasborn at Ostara of1980 and later be-came the star ofthe Ringling Broth-ers/Barnum &Bailey Circus.

MatthäusMerian,

1718

Fiji Mermaid

Du

go

ng

Alb

ertu

s M

agnus,

1545

Lancelot ,the Living

Unicorn

Photo by RonKimball, 1981

Ankh = Udjat

eternal life (“Eye of Horus”)

= protection

Pythagorean

Pentagram Pentacle

Hexagram, or Septagram,Star of David or Elfstar

Golden Spiral

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Green Man

(North)

Sea

Goddess

(West)

Sun God

(South)

Bird

Goddess

(East)

Gestures to call the Quarters:

South:

East:

West:

North:

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Grounding:

Ariel,Ariel,Ariel,Ariel,The Bird Goddess

Mari,Mari,Mari,Mari,The Sea Goddess

Psyche,Spirit

Belenos,The Sun God

Jack,

Ariel,Ariel,Ariel,Psyche,Psyche,Psyche,

Belenos,Belenos,Belenos,

The Greenman