Original Magic: The Rituals and Initiations of the Persian Magi - Michael M. Hughes 2018
Cease Fire Shrines: Invocation of EirEnE
The Magical Activist’s Spellbook
Create cease-fire shrines in your community. You can set these up around your community where people are suffering from crime (or fear of crime). Of course, exercise appropriate caution, and don’t create shrines in unfamiliar or potentially unwelcoming communities.
Eirēnē (pronounced “ay-RAY-nay”) is the Greek goddess of peace and the spring. She is also one of three keepers of the gate of heaven, along with her sisters Dike (Justice) and Eunomia (Good Order). She is frequently portrayed as a beautiful young woman with a cornucopia in her left hand and an olive branch or staff of Hermes in her right. As the goddess of peace, this spell calls on her to bring peace to troubled places and the souls of those who have suffered violence.
You can charge multiple candles and rose quartz crystals at the same time before creating altars in multiple locations.
Components
Rose quartz crystal
Fresh flowers (any kind)
White candle (glass prayer candle if possible)
Hyssop Oil
Piece of paper with CEASE FIRE written on it
Incense (frankincense, rose, cinnamon, or your favorite peace or healing incense)
Arrange the rose quartz, flowers, and white candle at the center of your altar. Place the CEASE FIRE paper with the words facing up beneath the white candle. Anoint the top (crown) of your head, your third eye, and the centers of both palms with a tiny bit of Hyssop Oil.
Light your incense and do the Centering Ritual to begin.
Light the white candle and say,
Oh great goddess, Eirēnē,
You who bring peace to the troubled
And abhor slaughter
Accept my offerings
Of flowers and sweet incense
And hear my prayer
Pick up the rose quartz and hold it between your palms. Bring your hands clasped together in front of your heart. Say,
Bless this stone, great goddess
May it carry your blessing of peace
May it end the slaughter
And the violence
And bring healing to my community
Close your eyes and feel the goddess’s energy surging from your heart, through your arms, into your hands, and into the rose quartz. Say,
May your peace grow
In the hearts and minds of all
Like green shoots from the earth
May your shrines
Sprout like flowers in the spring
So mote it be
Clap three times and blow out the candle. Ground.
Take the candle, the flowers, the rose quartz, and the CEASE FIRE paper and find a place in your community to set up a shrine to Eirēnē. Try to find a spot that won’t be molested, such as a nook in a wall, a quiet corner, or in the crook of a tree. You may also set up shrines at places where someone has been murdered or add them to the shrines already in place. Light the candle, say a quiet prayer to the goddess, and extinguish the flame before leaving.
If possible, check on your shrines occasionally, bring them new flowers and rose quartz, and pour a libation to the goddess.
31. Peter Grey, Apocalyptic Witchcraft (London: Scarlet Imprint, 2013), loc. 280 of 2906, Kindle.
32. Originally published on Medium as “Hex the NRA: A New Spell for the #MagicResistance,” February 15, 2018, https://medium.com/@michaelmhughes/hex-the-nra-a-new-spell-for-the-magicresistance-5be06f113c41.
33. Tom Dickinson, “How the NRA Paved the Way for Mass Shootings,” Rolling Stone, June 15, 2016, https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/how-the-nra-paved-the-way-for-the-orlando-shooting-20160615.
34. Dickinson, “How the NRA Paved the Way for Mass Shootings.”
35. Nancy Dillon, “Top 15 recipients of gun group campaign donations and their NRA grades as firearm bills keep getting shot down,” New York Daily News, December 10, 2017, http://www.nydailynews.com/news/politics/15-top-recipients-donations-gun-rights-groups-nra-grades-article-1.3687802.
36. John Wagner and Elise Viebeck, “’I am going to come through for you,’ Trump vows to NRA,” Washington Post, April 28, 2017, https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/i-am-going-to-come-through-for-you-trump-vows-to-nra/2017/04/28/3258b3e6-2c20-11e7-a616-d7c8a68c1a66_story.html.
37. Charles G. Leland, Aradia, or the Gospel of the Witches (London: David Nutt, 1899), 27—28.
38. Adapted from James 1:11.
39. Adapted from Proverbs 28:27.
40. Adapted from Psalm 12:5.