Grimoire for the Apprentice Wizard

Mushroom god

stones from

Columbia

Other animals

may experience

her in their own

unique percep-

tions, but human-

ity first began to

worship her

around the end of

the Paleolithic and

the beginning of

the Neolithic pe-

riod, from 12,000-

6,000 BCE. Possi-

bly this coincided

with the beginning

of agriculture and

animal domestica-

tion. She is known

in many forms to

many people in agricultural and hunter-gatherer cul-

tures around the world. Her names are legion: Artemis,

Diana, Epona, Bendis, Hathor, Despoina, Astarte,

Lakshmi, Ma Ku, White Buffalo Woman... She is usu-

ally pictured as a powerful (and often bare-breasted)

woman standing either between two animals or hold-

ing onto an animal in each hand. Sometimes she is

shown riding on an animal, such as a tiger.

Fauna’s rites are often associated with lunar wor-

ship and may seem somewhat contradictory on the

surface. She is the protector of young animals and

wild nature; but on the other hand she eats meat, and

blood is her sacrament. This is because she is the

Goddess of all the animals, both predator and prey.

Ancient hunters prayed to her for luck on the hunt,

and farmers prayed to her for increase of the flocks.

Maybe nowadays we should call on her to help us

save endangered species!

The Red Man (Faunus)

He shall wake the living dead—

Cloven hoof and hornéd head,

Human heart and human brain,

Pan the Goat-God comes again!

Half a beast and half a man—

Pan is all and all is Pan!

—Percy Bysshe Shelley,

“The Goat-Foot God”

Faunus is often called the

Horned One—Pan and

Cernunnos (which means

“horned one”) being his most

common names. He is the mascu-

line personification of the Spirit

of all animals, and thus he wears

their crown of horns.

Faunus is the god of fields, shepherds, and proph-

ecy. He is also the leader of the fauns, the Roman

branch of the Greek satyrs. Fauns and satyrs resemble

humans except for having goat’s feet, tails, pointed

ears, and short horns. In different places, the horns of

the Red Man would be those of whatever animals most

impressed the people: deer in Europe, buffalo in the

Americas, and Antelopes in Africa and Asia. The fa-

ther of the satyrs in Greece was Pan, whose name

means “all.” The ancient scholars of Alexandria be-

lieved that Pan personified the natural world, and the

word pantheism comes from this idea, that All is God

and God is All.

Pan’s positive side is the laughing, lusty lover

and musician; this aspect was called Pangenitor, the

“all-begetter.” But like all of Nature, Pan has a shadow

side as well. In this form he is called Panphage, the

“all-devourer,” and as such he is the fierce protector

of the wilderness. The word panic itself derives from

Pan, for in this form he causes irrational wild fear.

The Grey One (Micota)

Micota is the Latin name for the

Queendom of Fungi. The fungus group

includes mushrooms, molds, and slime

molds. The first fungi appeared on Earth

over a billion years ago. Unlike Flora,

Micota cannot make turn inorganic

substances into food, but can only

live off of other living

things—either as para-

sites (“one who eats

another’s food”) on the living,

or saprophytes (“growing from decay”)

on the dead. Mushrooms are only the

tiny fruits poking up from intricate

networks of fibers that spread un-

derground over huge areas. These

fibers are called mycelium, and they

very much resemble the nerve fibers in

the human brain. Some of these mycelia networks are

so huge that they are, in fact, the largest living things

on Earth. The Spirit of Micota is vast and deep!

Many fungi are intimately involved with human-

ity, and mushrooms especially have a long

history both as food and shamanic medi-

cines. Some people believe that humans

gained consciousness through eating

certain magick mushrooms that grew

on the dung of cattle and caribou

whose herds provided sustenance

for early nomadic tribes on every

continent. Throughout the world,

many Mystery rites and Initiations

have involved eating these mush-

rooms and journeying into other

Forest faun by Oberon worlds of The Dreaming.

Course Two: Nature 65

Corrected pages 3rd printing.1.p65 25 6/10/2004, 2:59 PM