I’m
finding it an odd experience being an essential worker during the
Covid-19 crisis. In many ways the world is a much quieter place, it
takes less than half the time for me to drive to work than usual and
the streets are deserted. In my life however there is a higher degree
of activity than usual as my place of work responds to the crisis, I
am busier than ever. I exist in this strange place amid this duality
of activity and inactivity- in Isa my life is the swirling
undercurrent of activity while all on the surface is still. The birds
sound much louder than they used to.
I
find myself on occasion feeling somewhat envious of my magical
friends who are utilising the freed up time for a magical retreat.
Then at other times I remember the people who have lost loved ones,
the people who have lost their jobs and income as a result of the
crisis, people who are vulnerable — and then I am grateful for my
own situation. The truth is while part of me would like to retreat
and isolate I would not do that. If I was not working I’d be
volunteering.
I
find myself in a position of solidarity with other essential workers;
the people who clean the hospitals and shops, shop workers, factory
workers, care workers, steel workers, police and the postal services
and the many many others who do jobs that run so smoothly we are not
aware of their essential work. The unknown heroes of the crisis. It
seems that some of our most essential people are the lowest paid,
putting themselves at risk every working day for a pittance. I find
myself grateful for the locksmiths – it’s a bit challenging
having a lock down when one is locked out, as I found out! I am
grateful to the magicians who are on retreat doing their magick to
eliminate the virus. Julian
Vayne’s work on ‘Hearty’ is something that I found very
inspirational.
sigil of Hearty
I
worry about my friends doing the front line work in the hospitals but
I get the vocational drive behind why they have to do what they do. I
worry about the people who are street homeless and hope that they
have found shelter and that the people helping them are OK.
A
great deal of my magical work over the last year has been about space
clearing and protection and I wonder if a part of me knew that there
was something coming that I would need protection from. Reflecting on
2019 I did feel a sense that change was on its way leading to my huge
space clearing and decluttering project where even my paperclips were
cleaned with Florida water and prayed over. I developed a fondness
for Psalm 121 which in the context of Covid-19 feels very relevant
and I find myself saying the psalm before I enter the workplace:
Back
in 1993, my IOT group made a healing servitor. I imagine most readers
of this blog will be familiar with the idea of a servitor, but just
in case, it’s a helper spirit, generally one you put together
earlier, that does something specific for you. This entity was more
than the usual small servitor right from its inception. We gave it
more pure chaos, so that it has more degrees of freedom, is capable
of making more elaborate decisions. Thus it belongs to that curious
class of entities that is more than a servitor but not as complex and
autonomous as a god/dess. I’ll just refer to it as a spirit.
Such
spirits are formed from group magic – in other words, they are
egregore spirits. We have a few examples of such spirits in the IOT,
most of which have been, or will be, loosed on the wider world at
some stage. One such is IZAWA – a spirit whose remit is to support
the psychedelic gnosis. This has been brought gradually into the
wider world via the Breaking Convention conference and other non-IOT
events.
The
healing spirit has been through a number of changes. When we first
made it, it didn’t even have a name and sigil, but it always had
the added chaos. It was made to be capable of healing at any level,
because it’s equipped with heuristic ‘expert software’
concerning human existence, so it evaluates what you need and then
turns itself into whatever will provide that.
It
was made collectively in 1993, and had already created another
dimension to itself by 1994, as I learned when I scried it that year.
It had acquired a home, a pyramid of green laser light at the bottom
of an ocean trench. It had generated for itself a massive and ancient
prehistory, upping its dramatic glamour considerably, and this is
always a good thing with spirits. I was not the only member who
detected its new form – I had a report from someone a long way away
who saw much the same as I did.
In
1995, it was named, by another group. Around a large octagonal altar,
we called it and scried for its name and sigil. It is called KAWA
POHR.
It
was definitely evolving now. On more than one occasion, non-members
have detected its presence, quite often behind some degree of
disguise, which the spirit judged would appeal to the recipient and
make the healing work better.
In 1997 it was released to the wider magical world, in the course of a series of intense workings against the HIV virus. A group called Temple T, led by Peter Mastin, installed a huge industrial sized version of KAWA POHR under the dance floor at a London venue called Turnmills. This was the home of Warriors, a gay dance club. The idea was to use the intense collective energy of the music, dancing, chemognoses and sexual energy that pervaded the dancefloor. Temple T had a trigger track of the KAWA POHR mantra embedded in the playlist at some point in the evening and sigils in some lights. Before the club opened, we would perform a ritual on the dancefloor, then reappear at the end of the night in robes to complete the working. So involvement with the club was quite extensive and depended on the cooperation of the club promoters. A significant number of deep remissions were reported, including massive increases in T-lymphocyte levels, and a remission of Kaposi’s Sarcoma (For some more on Temple T see this interview with Peter Mastin in Fortean Times).
Sigil of KAWA POHR
The
pathworking instructions for the original servitor are in my book
Chaotopia!, but here is the full ‘suite’ of pathworkings.
Part
2: The Pathworkings
Version
1: For work on yourself and your group
Close
your eyes. Consider what you need from this session.
It
is twilight. You are on a beach, whipped by a wind of spray, with the
sea crashing nearby. The light is fading rapidly.
You become aware of a slow throb, a heartbeat pulse of infrasound. The heartbeat still sounds in your mind … Gradually, you begin to make out syllables, dim echoes of a word … Begin to vibrate this heartbeat sound out loud “… munumm munumm …” the sound builds to a mantra “… munumm munumm munumm munumm munumm …”
As
you look out to sea, you detect a faint shimmering light under the
surface of the water.
The light brightens, flashing with faint colours. A circle of flickering lights plays over the sea, like a slice of an aurora. Call the servitor’s name: “KAWA POHR, KAWA POHR …”
Suddenly
a massive wobbly sphere bursts out of the sea and hovers in the air.
It is milky-white, with flashes of octarine, yellow, green and pink.
It heads straight for you, and envelops you. You sink into it, until
you are completely enclosed in it. Around you writhe sentient swathes
of coloured lights, harmonizing and strengthening.
This
may be as far as you need to go…
Version
2: A deeper healing experience
You
find yourself borne aloft in the sphere, over the ocean. The servitor
sinks into the water, taking you with it. Down, down you dive, the
waters darker and darker, into the dark heart of the ocean, into the
depths. There is no light down here, only the light from the servitor
itself.
Let your vision penetrate the sea … down, down into oceanic silence … down, down into a dark stillness where distant light flickers and throbs. As you continue to sink, you see a faint light … there is something down here, and you are heading straight for it. A greenish glow fills your vision, and suddenly the object becomes clear: a trapezoid, a truncated pyramid, made of solid ocean-green light edged with metallic purple. This is another phase of KAWA POHR, this is its home, this is the place you come to for deep healing. The sphere enters the trapezoid, and you see the interior, a maze of shifting green light, shimmering underwater radiance, that penetrates you cells and revitalises you, teaches you how to heal yourself.
Version
3: Sending KAWA POHR to someone far away
Work
Version 1 up to where the sphere appears above the sea.
Tell
KAWA POHR whom you are sending it to, and what needs doing.
Now prepare to launch the servitor into the aethers. If you are in a group, join hands in a circle. We will launch the servitor up and out of our auric space at the end of the countdown, with a great outbreath, a surge of voice. Resume the mantra, feeding power to the servitor “… munumm munumm munumm …”
Dave Lee is the author of several books, including Chaotopia, Bright From the Well and Life Force: Sensed Energy in Breathwork, Psychedelia and Chaos Magick. Visit his website and sign up for his newsletter.
Evocation of Kawa Pohr from the Illuminates of Thanateros
