The Fire Brand and the Silver Thread:
A Discourse on Initiation in Traditional Craft and Claims of Lineage


Copyright © 2007 By Robin Artisson
All Rights Reserved.



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I thought I might take some time out today to write a short discourse regarding the nature of "Initiation" in Traditional Craft currents and recensions.

A very astute modern occultist that I had the pleasure of corresponding with once described the act of initiating another person through formal rite as "Passing the Fire Brand of Tubal Cain" or "Passing the Fire Brand of Tubalo-Lucifer".

These are powerful words, for they sum up an important and essential strand buried in lineal initiation- passing power from one person to another. This "power" is the fire or force of the primordial awakening of mankind to its magical and mystical self-awareness, the "Great Inheritance" given by the Witch-Sire.

It is poetically referred to as a "brand" or a "flaming brand", and these are powerful metaphors- for it was a gift of fire, so goes the common mythological account, that the Great Teacher of mankind bestowed upon mankind, for good and for ill. Fire becomes the symbol for Spirit's presence in humans, just as it is a common worldwide symbol for the presence of a God or Divinity upon an altar or in a sanctuary. The "flaming brand" or the "flaming torch" is an emblem for the fiery quality of spirit, embodied in a tangible yet subtle power-presence that lives in the members of any legitimate tradition.



The Gift of the Witch-Sire

The true "home" of this power is of course nowhere and everywhere; it is a power that fills the weave of Fate, and it finds ports of more specific expression in the awakened minds and bodies of people who participate in "tradition"- so long as they are exposed to it, usually via ritual initiation. This "gift of the Gods" was taken from "heaven"- or from the Shining Realms above, before it made its descent into the earth of human existence. All of matter was "consecrated" by it, including proto-humanity.

As I have long maintained, this story of "consecration" can be taken on several levels- for humans, the inner truth of this consecration deals more with a dawning awareness on their part that Spirit is a reality within themselves and all things, not so much a "gift from the outside" which became bestowed on dull, spiritless matter.

All the same, the subjective experience of the awakening to Spirit does include, to the mind that beholds it with wonder, a feeling of something very powerful coming from "outside"- though this is only a matter of perception. The Witch-Sire awakened man and woman to a force that was always present- but at this primordial awakening, more than just mental changes occurred- all things changed. The reality of the human world changed; blood and body changed. Inner changes are followed closely on the outside by outer changes, and we are dealing with a unified reality, in which mind is far more a part of what we describe as "outer" or "empirical" than almost anyone realizes.

The Master or Witch-Sire who bestowed this splendid and precious "seal" or Gift upon mankind is named Tubal-Cain or Tubalo-Lucifer by some- Naturally, Tubal Cain is not only the first blacksmith from the Old Testament, but the name for an eastern cultural divinity of Smithcraft. He is a hypostasis of the "crafting spirit" of common human mystical experience- named Vulcan and Tubalo by others, Wayland and Azazel in other places. Azazel or Azael is important in this talk, because in Semitic daimonology, he was the "Goat Lord" who not only led the hosts of the "Watchers" or the "Sons of God" down to the Earth to mingle their undying spirit-seeds with the "daughters of men", but Azael, in the Book of Enoch, teaches mankind the art of smithing. He is a "Luciferian" hero, of the Prometheus type. He is also (as both Azael and Lucifer) a common figure in Traditional Craft circles and traditions.



The Ages of the World and the Secret Flame

It seems like the ages of the world pass, and things gradually become dull, and fall apart. All ancient Indo-European and Aryan wisdom traditions agree to this; the Golden Age of the beginning gives way to lesser ages, finally arriving at last to the terminal age of any universe-cycle, wherein humans will be short-lived, weak, unable to perform the miracles and mystical feats that were so common in earlier ages, and the world, eaten apart by strife, will finally fall apart, to return to the "Night of the Gods" or the Sleep of the Cosmos, awaiting regeneration.

Greek lore and Vedic/Hindu lore both have detailed descriptions of the various "ages" of man, and the waning of the world. In fact, the Hindu belief is that we are currently in the "Kali-Yuga", the age of strife where the Dark Goddess is preparing to devour and destroy the world; for them, these are the "last days". The christian belief in the impending apocalypse comes directly from this common Indo-European pagan belief, which is as old as the hills- even the Norse believed that the Age of Ragnarok would be known by a time where families turned against each other, and killed one another, and social ties (and the traditional ties of their kin-based society) would break down. They called it the "Wolf Age", referring to the mighty Fenris who would herald the coming of the final world-doom. They also called it a "Wind Age" and a "Sword Age" to refer to the worldwide violence that would be common.

A fine North American example of this common ancient wisdom is found among the Lakota Sioux, who believe that a Buffalo stands "far to the west", and holds back the waters that will one day overwhelm the world. They believe that as the ages of the world pass, he loses hair, teeth, and even body parts, and one day he will die, and the waters will overwhelm all. This will of course be the end of all, and it will set the stage for the rebirth of all, for the Sioux believe, in common with almost all ancient human cultures, that the world emerged from a primordial ocean. It should be noted that according to the Sioux, the Buffalo currently has no hair, only one tooth, and balances precariously on only one leg, having lost the other three to the ravages of time.

In a time of increasing violence, dullness, materiality, and loss of wisdom, the primordial gift of the Witch-Sire becomes eroded. The Fire once lit in mankind becomes dim, and very few are those who still possess it enough to feel its power, or to use this power to creatively interact with the world- to influence the world towards wise ends, or to simply realize the light of truth in a darkening world.

Witch-Traditions and other mystical traditions, currents, and recensions, especially those that deal with the "passing of the brand" are attempting, through mytho-poetic power and actual spiritual experience/questing, to keep the "flame" alive in a world that is making it harder and harder to burn. The artists, the mystics, the poets, they have (and always have had) the "fire"- once, if we are to believe, that fire burned brightly in many, and true kingships and rulership was based on it. Wisdom traditions today only maintain dim hints and remains of what was once a cohesive and universal understanding of the mystery of Spirit.

Of course, as the ages of the world come and go, and we move closer to the final darkness that awaits, even the poets and artists and mystics have a harder and harder time accessing the gift that calls to them so much- Sioux shamans in North America talk about a former age when shamans needed no drums nor sacred hallucinogenic plants to achieve trance states and visions, a time when they came with total ease and with great power.

Legitimate "witch" traditions, in common with all genuine transmissions of the pneumatic/psychosomatic Mystical Flame-Numina of the Primordial Firebringer or Lightbringer, are all "survivals", into the modern day, of an ancient theme, and an ancient mytho-poetic reality: a reality that manifests itself as creativity, true imagination, and inspiration- these things are all "messengers", manifestations of the undying and the Spiritual, the immortal, the divine. These things have been the driving force behind human progress and insight. They have changed our world, and we have used them to create the world in our own image, as much creators of our world as they say the Gods created us.

Do not ever forget that the underlying force behind creativity, imagination, and inspiration is the very essential reality of the Gods- the Fiery Brand is pure spirit, the "highest good", the stone of the philosophers. It is the goal of all mystical endeavor and that to which all human spiritual questing inclines. It is a gift that dwells at the very dimmest levels now inside of all mankind, and the "traditions" who "pass this power" to members in its lineage are passing a power that "raises" the fire in the recipient, making them more spiritually aware, making them more aware of the undying within themselves and all things, and making them more capable of acts of creativity and imagination- the most extreme of which are called "magic".

Those who are already naturally inspired, capable of feats of true artistry and divine imagination are already members of the "House of Cain" and already bear his refulgent mark; this is a common belief among many practitioners of Traditional Craft.



Initiation and the Hidden Roots

Where do the traditions that exist today come from? Where do they "get" a tiny bit of fire from that brand, before preserving it, enshrining it, protecting it, and attempting to pass it along to others?

Power must be passed in a formal Craft initiation, or there is no initiation to speak of. All currents of Magistry or Mastery, all currents of occult understanding, all mystical currents or "threads of Fate" that serve the unfolding of spiritual awareness in man, and which manifest in the familiar forms of religion, cult, or tradition, had to "come from somewhere", in the sense that all have to have a "genesis" point here in serial time, in linear history.

This discourse intends to focus on the feature of "passing power" or "passing the fire-brand" in certain initiations. Of course, initiation itself is a very broad subject, but it comes down to one central core- the entry of a person into a mystery, and the reciprocal entry of that mystery into the person, who then becomes an initiate.

There is a mystery of fire, a mystery of Spirit, which we have been discussing- and that can be "passed into a person" through a legitimate initiation, whereby the person then unavoidably "passes into the mystery"; this reciprocity must occur, for there are no one-sided coins! When two things meet, they experience each other, they change each other.

The Fire Brand changes the person, and the person changes it- each person who enters into a tradition and partakes of its mystery changes the expression of that mystery, mingling their own personal insights, ideas, thoughts, dreams, and other fateful individual qualities. Traditions change over time through the inclusion of new members and the Fated tides of events that affect them. The immortal fire remains within, however, perpetually illuminating the changeful tides of time and person, always the same, yet always changing- a true divine paradox. This is captured in an ancient prayer directed to the Witch-sire which goes:

"Hail, Earendel, brightest of beings thou, sent to men upon this earth! Thou art the true refulgence of the sun, radiant above the stars, and you illuminate forever all the tides of time."


But now back to my question- where do traditions "get" the power they pass? The people involved in most modern "traditions" want to say the obvious answer- that they derive their fire-gnosis or spiritual "descent" from an unbroken chain of persons from the past, stretching back to the primordial divine descent of light and spirit into mankind. Some DO make this claim, but without a touch more elucidation of the importance of mytho-poetics, we may never understand why they do.



Mythical History and Mytho-Poetics

A tradition is the manifestation of a spiritual current; it is a formal practice, engaging in some form of rote action, understanding, or working that preserves the message or spirit of a current. Civic customs and traditions like Christmas, complete with its decorated Christmas trees and gift-giving, are good surface-level examples.

Few families practice identical Christmas traditions or customs; everyone has their own manner of celebrating Christmas. But there are common themes to all- candles, Christmas trees, Christmas Eve vigils, Christmas carols, a shared meal or Christmas Dinner, presents, and the like. These "themes" are rote- they are done every year at the same time by the family. All of these practices are manifestations of the underlying spirit of Christmas- renewing family ties, sharing, mirth and plenty, putting aside differences, and the rebirth of a new time, a new year, a new cheer, embodied in the birth of the miraculous Christ-child.

These are all very old impulses- both the German and Celtic pagans had festivals for the darkest depths of winter that dealt with re-fixing the bonds of kinship and community, and celebrating the time when the powers of summer or light would begin to gradually return to the world, a triumph, even in darkness, of life. Historians and modern pagans have beaten to death the idea that many European pagan cultural gods of light were born on or about the Winter Solstice, December 20-25th; there is no reason to go into that here.

A mystical tradition is just like what was described above, in many respects. The underlying spirit or current of the tradition is manifested in practices that are shared on some level by the people who maintain the tradition, who act as its messengers and tide-bearers. After a long time, and the spread of a tradition to many, many people, not all members of a tradition may do things precisely alike, but all follow roughly the same pattern, and the current is maintained.

Part of any mystical or religious tradition is the presence of mytho-poetic history. This is a very poorly understood thing in the modern world, and less so in the modern mystical world, filled as it is by pretenders who are always making ostentatious and absurd claims to follow an "unbroken" spiritual tradition that is "from the priests and priestesses of Atlantis" and the like.

What few people understand- even those who tend to make these claims- is that mythical history is crucial to a spiritual tradition. Mythical or poetic history does not need to be physically, historically "true" for it to be effective to the members of a tradition. No one alive on the planet today can claim to belong to an unbroken transmission of the "Fire" that goes back ALL the way, from one person to the next, to the dawn of time, to the very moment when the Witch-Sire bestowed his divine gift on man.

All the same, there are people who make just that claim. One group is very well known for their version of it- the Catholic church. The Catholic church insists on its own myth that its priests have all been given "holy orders" or initiation into the priesthood by bishops who themselves were made bishops by men who had received authority directly from other men who had an unbroken "apostolic lineage" back to the apostles of Christ, who had received their authority straight from Jesus, and therefore from God himself.

The Mormon church makes similar claims- not only are the founders of their church said to have received "keys" or authority directly from the original apostles (via an angel that appeared to them in the late 1800's) but they regularly claim that members of their church can genealogically trace their family lines directly back to Adam and Eve, and therefore to God.

Why do people do this? For a very important reason- because doing so internally and spiritually "situates" them in the mythical reality that they believe in, and are trying to actualize within themselves; a mythical reality that they are trying to express in "outward" time and in manifestation.

"Situating" themselves in this way makes them deeply receptive to the spirit or divine reality that they most firmly believe in. Of course, in the case of monolithic organizations such as the Catholic church, which has centuries of political darkness and manipulation behind it, such mytho-poetic stories- which were presented as straight historical fact- were used to give them an unquestionable authority in the eyes of the common people.

This is the key to the whole matter- there is no wrong in a group or a person or a tradition that makes fabulous claims of spiritual descent- the wrong begins when these people present the mythical history and the "outward" history as being one and the same. For too long, this has been done to gain a "legitimacy" that was used to manipulate people. True "legitimacy" comes FROM the inner level or from spirit; it needs no "outward" truth or linear fact of history to justify it.

History is nine parts fiction, to begin with- it is very vulnerable to the manipulations and "accommodations" of powerful people. History is not the "hard and true" science that most people try to make it into, or dearly want to believe it is; history is all interpretive and very much up for question.

What is not up for question, however, is the internal experience and life of a person, or even the inner life of a legitimate tradition; these things are experiential only, and they have the possibility of representing a truth which is atemporal and ever-present. Initiation gives the possibility of "bringing" outsiders into the mythical dimension as embodied by whatever tradition is in question.

All occult traditions from history tend to have "mythical history" that they induct their members into- the Masons are a fine example. Though Masonry only physically and historically had its beginning in the 17th century (according to most), Masons are initiated and taught that their tradition goes back to the time of the building of Solomon's Temple, and that the first masons were the builders of that temple. Some take this esoteric lineage back further, even to the time of the legendary Hermes Trismegistus and the Emerald Tablet.

There is no foul here- such mytho-poetics are central and important to the current embodied by Masonry. The initiates have to "put themselves in" the mythical time of the mythical founders, have to assume the role of martyred Hiram Abiff, the legendary first Mason, and live the spiritual power of this myth. This is central to their mystical understanding and their initiation. But it is not meant to be taken as a literal historical truth, even if it may have elements of historical truth. The historical aspects of the myth are secondary to the experience, on the inner level, of what truth the Myth contains.

Mature occultists, as well as genuine members of legitimate traditions, will understand all that I have said here, and though they may firmly believe in their mythical history, they will not conflate the myth with the dull, spiritless fiction of linear time and serial history. There is simply no need to do so- and those who do it tend to be motivated by very dark reasons indeed. Most of the time they wish to lay claim to some "authority" which exists only in their own minds and the minds of the gullible that may be ensnared by whatever glamour they command. This spurious "authority" they may eke from the praises or weak wills of others is only dust, from the perspective of the authentic and the timeless.

A celebrated occultist and traditional practitioner from Britain, with whom I corresponded, summed all this up best when he wrote:

"I think the tales told about "Traditional Witchcraft" 'lineages' and 'covens'... from the viewpoint of historical fact, are very palpable fictions, but regarded with the eye of imagination and vision they are 'accommodations of desire', repositories of magical Faith and therefore a vital means of 'enlinkment' with the noetic realities such symbols shadow...sometimes truth comes to us in the form of an illusion... the legerdemains and sleight-of-perception characteristic of our Master (the Witch God)."



The Red Snake and the Red Thread

In a certain stream of Buckinghamshire Craft, a term is used to refer to the blood-lineage of persons who are initiated- "The Red Snake". This "Red Snake" also refers to the whole of the tradition, along with its methods and ritual practices. This term is believed by me to be related to the notion of the "Red Thread", but with some differences.

"The Red Thread" refers to a "Thread" of Fate itself, spun or woven by the Fate-Mother who stands behind all occurrences and all reality. This "red" Thread is the mystical thread, woven through reality, which manifests itself in all times and places in mystical activity, religion, and magic. Any spiritually active "group" or tradition is already a part of the "Red Thread" in the broadest sense. However, the "Red Thread" can also refer to the thread of blood, a genetic thread that goes back to the Bloodmother or Witchmother herself, a sort of feminine parallel to the "Fire Brand" or spiritual line that goes back to the Witch-Sire. This "Fire" and "Blood-thread" are two crucial factors that link us directly to the Gods, making us their children on every level.

In some cases, as with the "Red Snake", the Red Thread refers to the blood-lineage of people who have lineal initiation from a certain craft-tradition. These different understandings of the "red line" are important before we continue on to the idea of the "Silver Thread".



The Silver Thread

Not all initiations occur at the hands of other human beings. Since time immemorial, mystically aware people have recognized that the spirits or Gods themselves can effectively initiate people, via otherworldly or Innerworldly experiences. Some traditional crafters refer to this form of initiation as "Midnight's Lightning" or the "Lightning at Midnight"- a sudden emergence of spirit into the night of time, or into the mortal life of the initiate.

Ancient Greece gives us one of the first recorded mentions of a person who underwent an initiation at the hands of the Gods. A man had a dream that he was being initiated into the famous Eleusinian mysteries, whose content was a highly guarded secret. Any initiate at Eleusis who revealed the secret of the initiation could be executed or exiled by civil law. The man who had the dream wanted to verify whether or not he had truly seen the secret of the initiation, so he asked an initiate, who only nodded "yes" to him, to verify the dream.

The man who nodded "yes" was (amazingly) put on trial for revealing the secret, simply through verifying it to the man who asked- but he was saved from death or penalty when his defender pointed out that the Gods themselves had initiated the man who had asked the question; they (the Gods) had acted as torch-bearers and as the hierophant in his dream, or there would have been no way he could have known the secret. The Athenian judging panel agreed.

As I said above, the "lightning bolt at midnight", or a vision, can act as a portal for initiation- and lineages are sometimes formed from these "unique transmissions", as long as the transmission of power/insight from the otherworldly beings to the person hit by their lightning is strong enough (and as long as it is Fatefully intended) to move from the person who was initiated in vision, onto others. The "thread" of such a "lineage" is called by some a "Silver Thread".

A Traditional Witch from England included this statement, in a letter he wrote to me:

"The Unique Transmission is Old Fate’s blessing... it is a secret rapport between the Gods and the Soul; no other may tell of it. Its outward signs are inspiration and knowing, married in an indefinable state whereby a man becomes Mage."

Another term used by some Traditionals- "The Lonely Road"- refers to the path walked by those who have received an individual or unique "initiation" from the great powers, and who belong to a "tradition" of one person- themselves. If this initiation is in fact a new dispensation of power from the Unseen world, then that person can rightly be referred to as a "Master of the Lonely Road", and can empower others in the name of that vision, passing the power on just as mentioned before. But there are two very important points that have to be made here.

The first point is that the "experience" and essence of the initiation bestowed by an operating tradition is similar, but NOT the same as the essence of a "Midnight Lightning" initiation.

The same Traditional Craft teacher mentioned before also stated, in an attachment to a letter he sent me:

"It (the Lightning initiation) does not comport the same empowerment as that of formal ritual induction, but then neither does a formal rite carry the same power as a dream wherein one meets with the Gods face-to-face."

This is a very important thing to remember. Both kinds of initiations have their own place, but both are aiming at the same goal- the opening of the "strong eyes" or the inner eyes by which the face of the mystery can be gazed upon. The mortal eyes in the head cannot do this to the same effect. We are dealing with the dualistic-seeming conflict of the "eyes of fire" and the "eyes of clay", but to the person who has "seen" the mystery, there is no longer a conflict.

The second point is that a transmission from the Unseen world to a person is via the unbreakable Silver Thread of dream and vision- but when its power is "passed" to another, it becomes "red". The power takes up residence in the mind and blood of the person it was passed to, and if that person were to pass it on in turn, a blood lineage of transmission is formed. As I discussed above, "Red Thread" has several meanings, and this is one of them. All traditions and lineages of cunning art, craft, power, sorcery or mysticism all have their "beginning" in historical time, in the minds and hands of a person who lived a mortal life.



The Birth of Spiritual Lineage

By arriving here, I have answered the question that the latter half of this essay was intended to answer- where does it all come from? We know the mythical history- "it", the spiritual power of Tradition, comes from the Witch-Gods or the Spirits; it comes from the Firebringer/Lucifer who bestowed primal gnosis on infant mankind; it comes from the Witchmother who used her seductive power to bring people to the deeps of her womb, into her shadowy kingdom, and into the blood-filled skull cups or cauldrons of initiation to find true wisdom.

But eventually, at some historical point, humans who were able, on some level, to contact the ever-living presence of mythical reality "channeled" or mediated that force into historical time, via their own vision-won knowledge, and passed this mediated power to others.

When and where these various "historical genesis points" occurred is always up for debate, but I am so bold as to say it now- all "Red Thread" traditions began in the subtle light of the silver thread; they all began in the darkest night when the lightning bolt of vision shattered the mortal illusions of some mystically awakened person or persons, and seeded the world with a dispensation of much power and transformation.

From that point, a lineage can easily form- and some can be VERY long. The lineages that make the claims of longest "unbroken" chain tend to be unwilling to provide any evidence for their claim, but at final analysis, such claims are secondary to the underlying spiritual reality that empowers any authentic transmission of power.

Sometimes, a current or traditional expression of spiritual force that entered the world in times before can be "lost" or broken up in serial time, in historical time, but "re-emerge" or undergo a recension through a mysterious process that is completely akin to the "lightning bolt" concept.

This is, in fact, the notion of spiritual recension- all traditions that have passed into the Innerworlds leave behind certain "remains". Mystically-rooted traditions leave mythological, folkloric, and even archeological clues behind, testifying to their original presence on earth, and when the proper spiritual insight is coupled with an inspired appraisal of those "remains", the current can "revivify" itself, through the person or persons responsible, a true act of traditional "necromancy", or summoning the Ancestors- calling forth the poetic and impulse-remains of the dead, and putting "red on the bones" so that their ancient wisdom can speak again, in some fashion.

Such "recensions" or inspired recoveries of lore and traditions from the past make up the bulk of "Reconstructionist" pagan religions- but a word of caution is needed here.

Without an implicit trust in the uncanny and unexplainable phenomenon of Spirit, no true recension or spiritually legitimate reconstruction is possible. Many modern Reconstructionists like to play with words and scholarship, but end up isolating themselves from the spirit and meaning that they truly seek. Their focus on historical realities tends to become an over-focus, and they choke out whatever spiritual fertility that these original traditions once enjoyed, in favor of calcified notions. Forgetting that ancient cultures were themselves living and vital, changeful and protean, open to influences that surrounded them, many Reconstructionist efforts become bulwarks of cultish group identity and elitist fantasies. These very same people also tend to accept a very surface-level appraisal of symbolism and the meanings inherent in many historically preserved customs and lore.

Taken together, "reconstructionists" who disparage the spiritual insights of others as so-called "unsubstantiated personal gnosis" fail not only to connect with the vital spirit- the longing for which unconsciously drives most of their own efforts- but they are driven to attack it when they sense it in others. Their sad games played with their preferred interpretations of history and their need to limit others to whatever selective, interpretive definition of "the way it was" that they accept as genuine, reveals the egotistical motivations that threaten even those energetic and scholarly branches of the modern pagan revival. The historical aspect of any tradition is, as I have said before, secondary to the spiritual reality, and those who forget this, always come to taste the dust of their efforts.

Many may wonder at the dangers involved in people having "ideas" or coming up with "teachings" themselves, and starting "lineages" to pass on their notions- some rightly complain about the uncertain nature of "personal gnosis", and the real and potential danger of a person's own "hang ups" and ego being involved in what they teach or preach- but never forget this: there is a world of difference between those who create fictions to salve their own egos, or who create flimsy, lifeless teachings, and those who experience a unique transmission of spiritual power or awakening from the Unseen depths of reality.

The only way the two can be told apart is through discrimination on the part of the beholder- the "proof of the pudding", as they say, "is in the eating". If you encounter people claiming to be of any "tradition" or "lineage", or a person claiming to be a guru or a teacher of any kind, you must engage the wits and awareness awakened in you by the ancient Fire-giver, and judge for yourself if what you see and hear bears the "hallmark" of the mystical. If you can be objective, and engage your own feelings and intuitions, you can see the underlying truth of any situation.

There are real lineages out there, functioning to mediate true spiritual power and transformation to people. Some are very old, others not so linearly old, but still possessing strong and authentic transformative ability. All "Traditions" will have equal parts lineage, mythical history, and, somewhere, (whether historically near or far) a Silver Thread that became Red. How honestly the members of the tradition express their understanding of these matters says much in the way of who and what they are, and what spiritual power or wisdom they have access to. What transformations they have brought about in themselves, and what transformations their own "current" can bring about in others also speaks to the legitimacy of the entire matter.



A Fateful Conclusion

As I pointed out above, "The Red Thread", in its broadest sense, encompasses all mystical occurrences, and occult activities, of any legitimate kind. It does not only refer to traditional lineage or blood, though it includes those as well. When you are dealing with the Red Thread in the greatest sense, you are dealing with a Fate-wide occurrence that includes all human endeavors, all human efforts throughout history, for it was a primal seed-working of true divine magic that made human beings what they are- creatures of fire and clay.

Even though the world-age is gradually coming to its Fateful conclusion, the living and immortal fire and the living blood binds us to the timeless ones, and there are those who will continue, through Fate's decree, to keep the flame of spirit alive. These people have no choice in the matter; they do not "do" this through choice as much as the choice to do this makes them what they are, and is a fulfillment of what they are- bearers of the secret fire.

Some people are born with innate understandings of the arcane and the mystical; the ghostly and immortal fire of Bel-Andras or Azael-Lucifer is believed by many to be re-emerging in the genetic and vital upsurge of these persons, born here in Fated time and on Fated threads. The naturally sensitive or mystical may never recognize it, but they are entwined in a thread of red awareness already, established from times long past. They find themselves able to "know without learning" the essence of occult matters, and they know it in such a way that few can understand.

In fairness, the sensitive folk of which I speak tend to understand these matters as little as the next person. The wordless insights that these people experience are common to the scattered members of the universal House of Cain, bearing his invisible mark, but lost in the countless strands of Fate and the tides of earth and time, a precious few diamond-like dust motes glittering among the morass of mud and brick. As the ages come and go, fewer and fewer of these isolated lights shine forth from the mass.

That some are born understanding, and others drawn to know and learn, and others gifted by "lightning from the gods", and others privileged with initiation, all of these Fated events go back to a central, primordial mystical theme, a mythical history whose golden age all living humans seek as their true home, even if most humans alive in this age of darkness will never be aware of it. Through the darkness of any era, a light beckons, and this inner light sustains us through every trial. From the dawn of time to the dusk of time, it is there, and it remains even when time has passed away.