Myths evolve and change over time. Stories grow, with the teller taking the most popular bits and cutting out the parts that had no appeal. By the time that legend reaches us millennia and centuries later, the hero and the adventure bear very little resemblance to the original.
Humans love stories. The Bible contains teaching parables. Myths tell of the great Gods who, despite their divinity, make their share of mistakes. Heroes must overcome lessons and learn in order to progress toward their goals.
We teach with our stories. We learn from our myths. No matter the culture, the time, or the place, one of the things that we humans share is our desire to craft stories.
The modern age is no different. Authors create entire worlds for their characters. The human brain spins out incredible tales, encompassing new multiverses that grow and expand at the speed of imagination.
Human minds are complex. We possess the id, the ego, the superego, the unconscious, the subconscious, the conscious, the Critical Voices, and the Inner Child. Our minds create complex and impossible imagery while we sleep. Our dreams are stories that our unconscious longs to tell us but can't seem to send to us directly. Our brains are always learning. They are always interpreting stories, trying to find the meaning behind it all.
Millennia ago, the great-grandfather of Noah, wrote the Book of Enoch. This testament told the tales of demons, the Nephilim, the inevitable fall of Angels of Heaven, and the reason why the Flood came to be. Some scholars chose to remove the Book of Enoch from the Biblical canon, but other branches of Christianity accepted the validity of these tales.
Who were these Nephilim? Who were the Watchers? Who were these Fallen Angels? The Book of Enoch told us some of their stories, but most remained hidden in the shadows.
Magicians of the Middle Ages began to craft stories and rituals about these unknown beings. They named these thousands of demons and Fallen Angels. They bestowed purpose and order to that which had been left unknown. These magicians advanced and evolved the myths as they imagined them in their fertile minds. They named these Fallen Angels. They constructed their ranks and their powers. They created form from the chaos of the shadow realms.
The Fallen Angels and the Demons of these grimoires from the Middle Ages could be good, evil, or merely ambivalent. These were not the simple tales of modern horror. The Magician didn't sign a paper in blood and sell their soul for some boon.
These Magicians approached ritual work with a great deal of seriousness. They fasted. They cleansed. They purified themselves. They learned ancient languages and studied the creation of magical symbols and sigils. They crafted elaborate spaces with drawn circles and special incenses in preparation for the summoning. For the magicians, speaking with an otherworldly entity necessitated sacrifice. They earned their time with the supernatural.
The Fallen Angels of New Orleans Oracle Deck promises to be a deck of shadow work, of spending time looking into the depths of your own soul.
None of this is a journey to be taken lightly. Artwork must be created. Meditation must be spent, trying to connect with the purpose of each card, with each angel, with really understanding why any specific card calls to you.
Time to look deeply into that inner darkness, to draw out our Inner Child and let them play in the light; time to look at that which we have hidden because we feared or it because we were ashamed of it. Time to open the door into the shadows of our minds.
Shall we look into the abyss and see what stares back?
