Sunday, October 23, 2011

Tea: the elemental eucharist

The idea of an elemental Eucharist has been in many ways in the world of the occult.  In the golden dawn, the "mystic repast of the four elements", being a rose for air, a candle for fire,  a glass of wine for water, and bread and salt for earth searves as a type of eucharist.  In Thelema,  The gnostic mass takes the cakes of light and wine straight from the host and wine in catholic mass.  In the book "The Magicians Workbook" by Steve Savedow, a consecrated  egg is used (the book says that this is from crowley, but I have not read this any where else).  Personally, I think all of these are great, but perhaps something a bit more familiar  would also work?

A great tea mug I found on the interwebs
Tea is, in my opinion, one of the best examples of all of the elements combined in one consumable item. At first,  tea may appear to be completely of the element water.  Water is the first step of brewing tea.  Of course, this makes up most of the tea physically, but it is not at all the entirety of it esoterically. After water is collected, the next step is to boil it.  This is where the element of fire is incorporated.  Not only is the water being put on fire, but the fires heat stays with the water for a long time.  The third step in making tea is to add the boiling water to the tea leaves, which are the element of earth.  This is what makes it tea and not hot water.  The air portion it the vapor and sent which come from the tea.  Good tea should be aromatic and pleasant smelling.

In addition to it corresponding to the foul traditional elements, by choosing the correct tea leaves it can also represent the three Alchemical properties of Salt, Sulfur, and Mercury.  The best way to do this would be to buy pure black, pure green, and pure white tealeaves.  Black tealeaves are harvested when the leaves are old, Green when they are not too old and not too young, and White just after they have sprouted.  I am not sure which alchemical elements they each correspond to,  but if you have an Idea, please leave a comment.

Everything is somehow related to at least one of the elements, but tea seems to be a part of all.  This is a great eucharist for general magical workings.  Different types of teas cam be used for different rituals; a tea made with herbs corresponding to a certain sephera can be consumed as preparation for a specific planetary invocation.  I intend on writing some sort of ritual of consecration and consumption for tea.

93 93/93 and In LVX , Frater Rota in medio rotæ


Side note:  I have discovered the great use of reddit in studying the occult.  I suggest that you go on r/occult, r/thelema, r/magick, r/goldendawn, and r/esoterica if you already go on reddit.  Its really great, you should try it.  Also, I'm on facebook and would like to find more pages/friends in relation to the occult.  My facebook name is Rota-in Medio-rotae.  I'm sort of desperate now, because I only have one friend currently, and would truly appreciate more. But don't friend me if you don't want to.

1 comment:

  1. 93

    Wonderful post frater, and got me thinking about the whats and why of thelemic eucharist.

    It can be found at: http://fraterdocetumbra.blogspot.com/2011/12/this-bread-i-eat.html

    Hoping all is well in the quest for knowledge,

    93/93

    Frater Docet uUmbra
    http://fraterdocetumbra.blogspot.com

    ReplyDelete