Ann Moura - Mansions of the Moon for the Green Witch: A Complete Book of Lunar Magic

About the Author

Born in 1947 and raised in a family tradition of Green Witchcraft learned from her mother and maternal grandmother, Ann Moura wrote down her heritage to preserve it and pass it on to others after her mother passed away. She has regularly conducted open circle Esbats and Sabbats, and teaches about her Craft in workshops and seminars at Pagan gatherings and her own store, Luna Sol Esoterica in Sanford, Florida. She holds both Bachelor of Arts and Master of Arts degrees in History and writes from the perspective of her family training and personal experience. Besides writing, she enjoys painting and creating her own magical arts and crafts.

Llewellyn Publications

Woodbury, Minnesota

Mansions of the Moon for the Green Witch: A Complete Book of Lunar Magic 2010 by Ann Moura.

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First e-book edition 2010

E-book ISBN: 9780738728261

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Cover design by Ellen Lawson

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Contents

of Correspondences

IntroductIon

This book is for the more advanced magic worker, so I will not go into such matters as circle casting, and calling the quarters, or presenting Esbat rituals for the various phases of the Moon. These elements may come from your own tradition and practice, or you may adapt to your use the basic rituals I offer in my books Green Witchcraft: Folk Magic, Fairy Lore, and Herb Craft and Grimoire for the Green Witch: A Complete Book of Shadows . My perspective is obviously that of the Craft, so while magic may be described as a matter of moving energy through the blending and utilizing of available energies to accomplish a goal, it is paramount that the practitioner adhere to an ethical standard such as the Witches Rede of Harm none or my family code of Do not use the Power to hurt another, for what is sent comes back.

orIgIns of the mansIons of the moon

The tradition of the twenty-eight Mansions of the Moon is found in China and in Hellenic Greece in the system of Dorotheus Sidonia (circa 100 CE), and India in 1000 BCE, (using twenty-seven mansions called nakshatras). The mansions are thought to date back to the Sumerians of 3000 BCE, but it is believed that the mansions were unknown in Europe until the Muslims brought the system into Andalusia when they occupied southern Spain. The Complete Book on the Judgment of the Stars was written in Tunisia in 1000 CE by the Arab astrologer Abenragel with the Hellenic and Indian perspective on the mansions translated into Old Spanish in 1254 Spain, then into Latin in 1485 in Italy. The Picatrix: Gayat al-Hakim ( The Aim of the Sage) contains another version of the Mansions of the Moon, written in Arabic in Moorish Spain during the eleventh century CE and translated into Latin two centuries later. Fascination with the occult texts of the East throughout the medieval period of Europe saw the creation of grimoires (instruction manuals) written and published by philosophers and magicians. Most occultists based their magical principles on the Jewish Kabbala augmented with a great amount of Christian terminology, prayers, and invocations, but being associated with this material was still dangerous and some were persecuted as heretics and even burned at the stake.

The mansions spread throughout Europe with publications of The Picatrix in Venice in 1503) and more notably in Book II, part 4 of the Three Books of Occult Philosophy by Henry Cornelius Agrippa (1531) and The Magus: A Complete System of Occult Philosophy by Francis Barrett (1801). The grimoires included instructions for using the mansions in magic for both beneficial and destructive purposes, mainly through the creation of talismans.

the mansIons of the moon In wItchcraft

While the mansion meanings from the medieval grimoires form the foundation of the magical works in this book, the works are based in witchcraft and as such, the mansion energies are approached in conjunction with the lunar phase and zodiac energies. Pulling these correlations together and combining them with additional magical correspondences for aromas, colors, magical alphabets, astrological symbolisms, and the plants and stones of nature provides a powerful boost to the working. This is not a book of nineteenth-century ceremonialism, nor one of medieval magic, but one that incorporates elements of each into a uniquely harmonious practice of modern witchcraft.