The Angel of Death

Art is 'The Angel of Death' Evelyn De Morgan, 1881

Being a witch does not preclude enchantment by the beautiful fables, tenets and architecture of other religious paths. If anything it has connected me to them, echoes blessing my crooked path with their particular magic. And this week and its first full moon after the equinox is fairly crammed with them.

Tales of protection and betrayal, crucifixion and resurrection are more than stories from old books. Like the very best fables, their resonance echoes in us and offers a vast humanist learning. We too can feel unheard or misunderstood. Persecuted or betrayed or abandoned for holding fast to that which we have faith in, as the baying masses spectate and hunger for blood. And even if we just gobble eggs and act like dumb bunnies on a four day weekend bender, we are still observing a change in season and the rites of Spring. Which is weirder still in Autumn, but then no one credits colonisation with smarts that ever translated.

In the Jewish faith, today passover begins. In the Christian faith, the Easter sequence of life, death and rebirth arrives with public holidays and chocolate this weekend. Both conjure the angel of death and remind us of the permanent shadow of this spectre over our lives, an intelligence beyond our human understanding whose role is well documented.

Known throughout time and cultures by so many names. In our Coven Electric this eve I mused about the sigils we might paint on our own doors by the light of the full moon. And I wrote long about Azrael, the archangel who delivers ultimate transformation to our front step unbidden. His name in Islam translates to helper, bringing all else that comes with death and follows after too.

Whatever you light candles for, pray to or ritualise this week, I hope you connect to deeper peace and even greater magic.
So may it be, darkling.


Words c. Kerrie Basha 2023