A Storm for Melanie
More than one witch has expressed the idea that they find it distinctly empowering to work magick during thunderstorms. According to Christos Beest, whenever he would use his art to channel the demons of the Goetia, storms would accompany his channelings. The deliberate causation of storms (at the hands of the archfiends) implies a magickal efficacy which is inherent in storms.
The rain serves an obvious purpose, as running water is a magickally powerful thing. Fire is known to be a magickally powerful thing as well, so perhaps lightning serves a similar function. Here follow two excerpts from one of the allegories in the Deofel Quintet, the first of which is only one sentence long.
"The storm pleased Melanie and she danced naked in her garden while the rain washed her body as she sucked the storm's health in.
...The twilight of closing cloud and strong wind coloured the sky near the descending sun, and Melanie stood in the circle’s centre calling on the storms to break. Thunder cloud rushed toward her, killing the colour, as the wind graved strong and heavy around. There was no thunder, only a sudden and prolonged burst of rain, which Melanie laughing let soak through her thin dress to the warm flesh beneath. She became intoxicated by the power of wind and rain, and danced around the circle calling on the names of her gods... She felt her crystal, many miles distant, begin to respond and draw power from the Abyss beyond. The power came to her, slowly, through the gate in the fabric of space-time, a chaos of energies from the dimensions of darkness. Her consciousness was beginning to transcend to the acausal spaces where the Dark Gods waited and she sensed their longing to return, to fill again the spaces of her causal time. They were there, chattering in lipsed words she could not understand, roused from sleep by the power of her previous rites, ready to seep past the gate..." -Temple of Satan by Anton Long
Image Source: http://paranormalhorror.com/2016/09/08/compendium-demonology-magic-ca-1775/
There's also a long description of a thunderstorm in Breaking The Silence Down, the setting being The Long Mynd In Shropshire, England: {quote} "The thunder alarmed Rachael a little, and she threaded her fingers into Diane's as they passed almost four hundred feet below Devil's Mouth, its scree and frost broken boulders scattering the hill. The upward path of cracked, bare and brown earth led them past the growing ferns toward the greenish-gray siltstones of the Long Synalds heights. It was an isolated spot, well known to Diane, and overlooked the small, spreading valleys that fed the stream in Ashes Hollow. Behind them, the hill rose steadily until it became the levelled plateau of Mynd top.
ReplyDeleteThunder violet threatened them above as lightning forked, striking higher ground. Almost instantaneously the clap of thundering air, which shook them as they huddled close to the ground. The Mynd seemed to vibrate in response as Rachael screamed amid the large drops of rain. Another flash, nearer, as rain and thunder battered them and ozone seared the sky. The darkness of rain and closing cloud was ominous.
But Diane was a dark goddess; imbued with the storm's power and she laughed and beat her fists into the soaking earth. The storm was her storm and would not - could not - harm them. Its power was hers, but she let it break itself over the town and hills beyond. Then, both she and Rachael were laughing - a strange laugh, redolent of Dionysus, perhaps, or an ancient witches' meet. Rain soaked them, but they did not care. They alone were alive in a world of the dead. Slowly, their demonic life-enhancing ecstasy ebbed with the passing of the storm, and they were left to find their way down the hill while their bodies tingled and their sense of reality returned." {/quote}
It's probably just a coincidence but Myatt for many years lived in a house with a view of Devil's Mouth, which is situated on The Burway.
Thank you for posting this, as I have yet to finish the Deofel Quintet.
ReplyDeleteI have to say though that I found the novel 'Breaking the silence down' somewhat boring at least in the "restored" DM version that Mr Parker produced few years back. But that's just my taste - the 'quartet' is much better IMO. I can understand why the original 'Breaking' MS was added to by an unknown Sapphic nexion (according to Mr Parker) as it makes it more occult and suitable to make the quartet into a quintet of novels. Copies of the altered (119yf) version are still available on some sites on the net.
ReplyDeleteHave you read +o+'s allegories? Because I found them to be beautifully written.
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