“Atavistic resurgence, a primal urge toward union with the Divine by returning to the common source of all, is indicated by the backward symbolism peculiar to all Sabbatic ceremonies, as also of many ideas connected with witchcraft, sorcery and magic. Whether it be the symbol of the Moon presiding over nocturnal ecstasies; the words of power chanted backwards; the back-to-back dance performed in opposition to the Sun’s course; the devil’s tail – all are instances of reversal and symbolic of Will and Desire turning within and down to subconscious regions, to the remote past, there to surprise the required atavism or energy for purposes of transformation, healing, initiation, construction or destruction. This is the inner meaning of symbolic reversal, of depth instead of height, of the left (subconsciousness), instead of the right (empirical or waking consciousness), of female instead of male, lunar instead of solar. The cat, as a denizen of night, and associated with the Moon, became a type which – in medieval times – was confused with the actual animal itself. Likewise the vampire bat, because of its highly specialized mechanism for absorbing blood, and its obvious affinity with the night, became an important type in the Sabbatic mysteries. But the priests of ancient times, in Egypt and elsewhere, did not wear animal masks because they were pretending to be these animals, or because they were playing some ludicrous charade that some later epoch could deride and denigrate; they assumed thereby the powers which these beasts concentrated within themselves and which their outer forms merely betrayed, for all form bears direct relation to the energy which it limits and defines.” -Kenneth Grant
Algiz Rune by GAR
Odal Rune by GAR
Whispers in the Depths (redux) by GAR