Hel and Kali

 

 

There is a tendency in occult circles to take an English word and change it's spelling, in order to communicate a conceptually related but different concept. The most famous is probably "Magick," where the "K" adds either respectability, or pretentiousness, in its ability to communicate that we are not talking about Sigfreid and Roy.

The Temple uses the spelling "Lylyth," for example, to distinguish the concept of Indwelling “Goddessness” (Shekhina) from the concept of an individual human being (Lilith of the apocrypha).

I'd like to introduce another concept: Hel.

We all know what “Hell” is. Hell is fire, endless torment, a Bosch painting given horrid reality, the ultimate punishment, and - in Dante's cosmology – the prison of Satan.

Hel”, historically, is a bit different. It is an afterlife and a deity, much like Hades in Greek myth is both the god of the underworld and the underworld itself, (although the Greek afterlife has many other names, and many divisions). Hel is the Norse version of this concept.

"Wait," you might say, "I thought that was Valhalla?"

Not quite. Valhalla is the place where those who die gloriously in battle go. (“Gloriously” implying not just those who were slaughtered by invading armies, or who died from the effects of war other then being slain by a man holding a weapon). As war is primarily a male domain, Valhalla is primarily a man's afterlife - that's why they have Valkyries to make up for the lack of human women, I imagine.

Hel is the People's afterlife. It is the place where artisans and craftsmen, farmers and mothers, poets and sages go when their time on earth is through. And in that place of peace, we have no need for warriors. Hel is quite different, in Norse mythology, from the Gehenna of the Christians.  Christianity is a mid-east religion, and the afterlife reflects the environmental danger of the desert - HEAT. Hel, being more Scandinavian, is a cold and foggy place, reflecting the fear of hypothermia. Hel is not an unworthy place to end up, unless you consider every profession other than the slaughter of human beings to be unworthy.

The reconstructed version, used by the Temple as a verbal symbol, is a merger of the idea behind the metaphor of Hel, with the fiery imagery of Gehenna. The reason for this merger, other than the fact that someone took the Gehenna and renamed it "Hell" long before the Temple ever came alone, is the very concept of the Black Flame. You are your flame. In Christian terms, the Black Flame is your soul.

There is a Wiccan chant that goes, "We all come from the Goddess, and to her we will return, like a drop of rain, flowing to the Ocean." Hel, as the necromantic aspect of Lylyth (The "fourth face," of the three-fold Maiden-Mother-Crone goddess, represented by the New Moon), is the Goddess that we come from, and flow to.

By now, if you don't yet see what I'm getting at, let me state it clearly. If you are a flame, then the "lake of fire" must be Hel - the dwelling place of the Eternal aspect of yourself, the source and the destination of the divine within you.

When we summon the powers of Hel within the context of spellcasting, we are opening ourselves up to the infinite. Fire may seem like a constantly moving, yet ultimately stable, thing. Yet, the continuity of a flame is an illusion - it is simply that aspect of the burning material that is currently burning. The Black Flame inside of you is never in stasis - it is the life-process of the Infinite Darkness flowing THROUGH you. When one opens the Gate of Hel, one taps upon an infinite source of power.

This is why we call our magic Theurgy. In Lylythian Theurgy, the source of the spell is your own Soul - but when you tap into the Infinite you are tapping into the soul of Hel, of Lylyth, of Satan... OF GOD. It is more than the simple realization that these souls are one in the same, it is the actualization of it. In this, Theurgy is truly "miracle working," for what is a miracle if not an act of God(dess)?

 

If everyone had a normal flow of Kundalini, from the Boundless Darkness, to the individual, and back to the Boundless Darkness, the essay would be over.  Not everyone has a normal flow.  When the flow becomes blocked, a state of spiritual sickness settles over the person.  This state is called Akatharsis.  For more information, see Akathartic and Ophionic States.  The problem with Akatharsis is that it cannot last.  The Light that comes from Darkness, the Black Flame, must return to its source.  And that is where Kali comes in.

 

In discussing Lylyth with others more versed in the historical aspects of Her, it turns out the Temple has almost completely inverted the current representations of Lylyth and Kali.  We have done this for a number of reasons.  The first is the familierarity of the archetypes.  While most people are not familier with the Lilith legends, those who are do understand it as part of the larger mythological context of the dominant American religion.  This myth is not so much “real” as the mythology surrounding Abraham Lincoln, for example, (most of Lincoln’s mythology is probably true, making him one of the most facinating Americans who ever lived), but because it does exist within the context that most people accept as true.  This is not because “believing makes it so.”   Believing doesn’t make anything so.  However, believing does make things believable.

 

Lylyth is more “real” to native speakers of English than other goddess figures, with the possible exception of Mary.  Have you ever noticed that Wiccans never say, “I don’t believe in the Amida Buddha,” yet they are quick to point out that they don’t believe in any aspect of Christian mythology?  Strange, considering that Buddhism is far more removed from Paganism than Christianity.  While it is difficult to ascribe motive, my theory is that they are expressing an active antibelief.  That is, they have an emotional attachment to the religion they profess to be not part of.  In The White Goddess, Robert Graves makes a convincing argument that the actual folk beliefs that modern Wicca springs from were in fact syncretisms of the older beliefs with Christianity.  In fact, modern Christianity contains many pagan customs, such as Easter eggs (a Lithuanian pagan tradition).

 

This should not be taken as an attack on Wicca or Wiccans, but rather an acknowledgement that the beliefs of our childhood, no matter how absurd, have a lasting effect on our religious personalities.  The Temple of Lylyth uses the archetype of Lylyth because it has an emotional appeal, much stronger than the Norse Hel or Hindu Kali.

 

What is Kali?  Historically, Kali is a demonic and terrible Mother Goddess.  Those that do worship her see her more as a cosmic version of John Water’s “Serial Mom.  Essential, Kali is portrayed as a loving mother to her own children, and a murdering fiend of her children’s enemies.  In the Hebrew tradition, Lylyth is seen a murderer of children.  One could point out that it is the children of Adam and Eve that she murders, rather than her own children.  It would appear that Judaic God (or one of his angelic employees) takes the responsibility for murdering Lylyth’s children.  In other words, Lylyth is no more a “baby killer” than Jehovah, and one cannot condemn Her actions any more than one can condemn His.

 

In Pythagorean terms, Lylyth as Hel would be “Cthonie” and Lylyth as Kali would be “Ophion.”

 

There is a natural flow of energy from the Boundless Darkness, to an individual, and back to the Boundless Darkness.  When this flow is interrupted by the individual, that’s when Kali comes.  Kali (Ophion) is the spiritual equivalent of Drano, and about as dangerous to have inside your body.  The purpose of Kali is to unblock your charkas, and get your Black Flame to flow normally.  Her only purpose is a dedication to the Rising of the Light.  It is not that it makes you a better person to have a healthy flame; Kali is unconcerned with human happiness.

 

Mythologically, the Black Flame is a part of Lylyth, in her Hel aspect, that she gives to you, but it is your obligation to return it.  When you do not return it, she sends her Kali aspect to get it back.  Like a Mafia collector, she does not care how she takes it from you.  She will take it.

 

I hope that Kali is an aspect of Lylyth you never have to encounter.

 

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