Table Of ContentPriestesses Pythonesses Sibyls
The Sacred Voices of Women who speak with and for
the Gods
Edited by Sorita d’Este
Published by Avalonia
www.avaloniabooks.co.uk
Contributions by:
Andrea Salgado-Reyes, Bolina Oceanus, Caroline Tully,
Cathryn Orchard, Connia Silver, Diane Champigny, Emily
Ounsted, Galatea, Jacqui Woodward-Smith, Janet Farrar,
Katie Gerrard, Kay Gillard, Kim Huggens, Mariëlle Holman,
Naomi Ozaniec, Nina Falaise, Sophia Fisher, Sorrell Cochrane,
Vivienne O’Regan, Yvonne Aburrow
Cover Image by Nina Falaise
Additional artwork & photography as credited.
Published by Avalonia
BM Avalonia
London
WC1N 3XX
England, UK
www.avaloniabooks.co.uk
PRIESTESSES PYTHONESSES & SIBYLS
PRINT EDITION ISBN (13) 978-1-905297-21-4
First Edition, November 2008
Design by Satori
Copyright © Sorita d’Este 2008
Individual contributors retain copyright of their essays and
artwork.
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be
reproduced or utilized in any form or by any means, electronic
or mechanical, including photocopying, microfilm, recording, or
by any information storage and retrieval system, or used in
another book, without written permission from the authors.
Table Of Contents
Introducing The Priestesses Pythonesses & Sibyls
Preface By Sorita D’este
The Contributors
Mantic Voices
By Sorita D’este
The Pythia Of Apollo In Delphi
By Caroline Tully
Silent Priestesses
By Kim Huggens
The Mantle Of Isis
By Naomi Ozaniec
Priestess Of Avalon
By Jacqui Woodward-Smith
Waking The Gods:
By Janet Farrar
The Seer
By Katie Gerrard
Gnostic Priestess
By Cathryn Orchard
The Path Of A Priestess
By Vivienne O’regan
Possession & Dreamwork
By Sophia Fisher
Ogun’s Dance
By Andrea Salgado-Reyes
Seeing The Truth
By Kay Gillard
The Republic Of Heaven On Earth
By Yvonne Aburrow
Dreaming With The Gods
By Connia Silver
In The Moment
By Sorrell Cochrane
Dancing The Dream
By Mariëlle Holman
The Oracular Experience
By Emily Ounsted
Dancing Priestesses
By Nina Falaise
Drawing Down The Moon
By Galatea
Lifting The Veil
By Diane Champigny
For Lo! Apollo Is Within Me
By Bolina Oceanus
INTRODUCING THE PRIESTESSES PYTHONESSES &
SIBYLS
PREFACE
BY SORITA D’ESTE
“Seek not for wisdom in my words
Rather seek beauty
For I speak to the soul, not the mind,
Each utterance a seed to bring forth the fruits of your
labour”
Weyland’s Smithy, Oxfordshire, 2001
~~~
Dear Reader,
Priestess, Pythoness, Sibyl.
These are words which evoke images of strong magical
women, serving in temples, speaking the words of the deities,
living in caves and sacred glades. The enduring power of these
roles and the functions of spiritual service they perform have
survived from the mystery religions of the ancient world to
indigenous cultures around the world today and the modern
magical and pagan revival. These roles are all united in their
use of trance states, which may be achieved through a wide
variety of methods. It is these methods which permeate this
book, drawing together strands of experience and research
from a diverse range of spiritual traditions from all around the
world.
The Western Mystery Traditions often focus on the
priestess being the vessel for the feminine divine, and this
pattern is recorded in this anthology within a wide range of
experiences and techniques. Both Naomi Ozaniec and Vivienne
O’Regan explore the mysteries of the Egyptian Mother Goddess
of Magic, Isis, and their wealth of experience as priestesses
within a spectrum of different magical environments shines
through in their essays The Mantle of Isis and The Path of a
Priestess.
The Wiccan technique of Drawing Down the Moon is
amongst those discussed by Janet Farrar in her wide-ranging
essay Waking the Gods, and is also considered from different
experiential perspectives by Diane Champigny in Lifting the
Veil, Drawing Down the Moon by Galatea, The Oracular
Experience by Emily Ounsted and In the Moment by Sorrell
Cochrane. Moving to the Norse practice of Seidr, Katie Gerrard
presents an adapted version of the High Chair Rite in her essay
The Seer. A very different perspective showing the role of the
priestess in the Gnostic Mass, a ritual written by Aleister
Crowley, is unveiled by Cathryn Orchard in her contribution
Gnostic Priestess.
Dance and its use in achieving trance states is the subject
of Dancing the Dream by Mariëlle Holman and Dancing
Priestesses by Nina Falaise. Jacqui Woodward-Smith
expounds on her own experiences of how divine inspiration has
manifested through her poetry and ritual work in Priestess of
Avalon, and at the other end of the spectrum is Dreaming with
the Gods by Connia Silver, which discusses the use of dream
incubation to achieve divine communion. The significance of
dreams is also considered by Sophia Fisher in her essay
Possession & Dreamwork in Haitian Voudou. In Seeing the
Truth Kay Gillard describes her experiences of the
transformations of transfiguration during trance states.
The idea of the gender dynamic between the divine forces
and the priestess providing herself as their vessel is explored in
several of the essays within this work, in Yvonne Aburrow’s The
Republic of Heaven on Earth, Andrea Salgado-Reyes’ Ogun’s
Dance and Bolina Oceanus’ For Lo! Apollo is within me.
Between them, these essays explore very different perspectives
of priestesses channelling not the feminine but instead the
masculine divine, something which is rare in the modern Pagan
and magical movements.
In addition to the experiential works, the first section of the
book “Ecstatic Histories” contains three historical essays which
explore the major oracles of the ancient world. The first of
these is my own Mantic Voices which provides an overview,
looking at priestesses fulfilling the role of oracles from the
ancient world through to the modern day resurgence of the
priestess in western magical culture. This is complimented by
two fascinating scholarly essays exploring themes regarding
early oracles, Caroline Tully’s The Pythia of Apollo, which
provides an in-depth look at the Oracle of Apollo, the God of
prophecy in ancient Delphi and Kim Huggens’ Silent Priestesses
which explores the role of women in the early Church as
priestesses and prophetesses.
These essays bring together a wealth of traditions and
experiences, with the knowledge, wisdom and understanding of
these women shining through, each as unique as the lady who
wrote it. The knowledge and experience brought together here
in this way makes Priestesses Pythonesses Sibyls an inimitable
work which will benefit the new generation of Priestesses
emerging into the world today, as well as those already
practising. It is my hope that this will also be an invaluable
guide for those who always wished they had someone to ask
and discuss these practices with.
From the first to the last word, this anthology provides an
exceptional and matchless collection of perspectives from the
modern sisterhood of priestesses, diverse in their beliefs but
united in their roles, offered in honour both of the deities they
serve and the traditions they represent. I am truly honoured to
have been the nexus for this project and to have been able to
bring the voices of these remarkable women together for you
the reader.
I would like to express special thanks to all the women who
contributed to this anthology, all those already mentioned for
their written contributions; but also a special thanks to Jenny
Sumaya for permission to use two of her portraits, Susan
Falcon-Hargraves for permission to reproduce her painting of
Selene and Endymion; and Nina Falaise for all the
consideration she put into designing and painting the image
which graces the cover of this work. Thank you also to all
those who believed in this project and through whose
enthusiasm this project took flight. Thank you to Jill Lake for
her creative flair in the design of the chapter illustrations.
Lastly, I would like to also thank my wonderful husband David
Rankine for his ongoing support, love and help with this and
other projects.
Blessings for your path through the Mysteries,
Sorita d’Este
Monmouthshire, November 2008
THE CONTRIBUTORS
Yvonne Aburrow
Yvonne has been a Pagan since 1985, a Wiccan since 1991
and a Unitarian since 2007. She is generally fascinated by
religion and spirituality, and is currently studying for an MA in
Contemporary Religions and Spiritualities from Bath Spa
University. She is the editor of the Pagan Theologies Wiki, the
founder of Pagans for Archaeology, and a co-editor of
MetaPagan. She contributed a chapter comparing Pagan and
Christian LGBT spirituality to a forthcoming book on LGBT
spirituality (S. Hunt (ed), Contemporary Christianity and LGBT
Sexualities, Ashgate, 2009), and an article on Queer Wicca to
the GLBTQ Encyclopaedia. See:
http://yaburrow.googlepages.com
Diane M. Champigny (Thea)
Diane M. Champigny (Thea) is a 3rd Degree High Priestess
and Lineage Elder of the Alexandrian Tradition of Witchcraft.
She is an active member of the Society of Elder Faiths and is
currently serving as a Ritualist and Workshop Facilitator for
the Wiccan Educational Society, an international Pagan
community. Diane is currently in the process of forming an
Alexandrian-based coven. Inquiries may be directed to
[email protected] or for more detailed information
about Diane and her work see
www.myspace.com/PriestessThea
Sorrell Cochrane
Sorrell Cochrane is a High Priestess, with a talent for
divination and second sight. Reclusive by nature, she likes to
keep a low profile and let her partner and High Priest take the
limelight. Mother to a fey baby born on the solstice, she
divides her time between music, magic and motherhood. She
has seen and experienced too many strange things to consider
anything impossible and bounds from one adventure to
another, never needing to worry where life and the Gods will
take her next.
Sorita d’Este
Author and esoteric researcher Sorita d’Este describes
herself as a student of life’s little mysteries. She is passionate
about the western esoteric traditions of magic and mysticism,
her interests and work span a wide range of subjects including
the Celtic, Greek and Egyptian traditions, medieval and
renaissance grimoires and palmistry. To date more than 18 of
her books have been published, many co-authored with David
Rankine. These include include Hekate Liminal Rites, The Isles
of the Many Gods, Practical Elemental Magick, Practical
Planetary Magick and Wicca Magickal Beginnings. Sorita has
lectured extensively on folklore, mythology and magic around
the UK and Europe. She currently lives in Monmouthshire,
Wales (UK) with David and their young son. www.sorita.co.uk
Nina Falaise
Nina Falaise is an artist and teacher of sacred dance. She
presents dance as an alternative way to self-development and
to liberating creativity on all levels. Nina has worked with
experienced teachers of the Western Mystery Tradition since
the 80’s, such as Naomi Ozaniec, Marian Green, and Tony
Willis. Of sacred dance Nina says, “As the dance moves,
vibrating to the sounds of music, she creates a visual image of
the unseen. Her body is the poetic voice of the unspoken.” For
those who are interested in the arts and sacred dance, please
contact: [email protected]
Janet Farrar
Janet Farrar is better known as an authority on Wicca and
has been a practising Seeress, Medium and Priestess since
1970. With her late husband Stewart, she has written
several of the defining books on modern witchcraft including A
Witches Bible, and The Witches Goddess. She was joined by
Gavin Bone, an initiate of Seax Wicca and the Dorset Tradition
who was also trained in Seidr, as her working partner in 1993.
Together they have written The Pagan Path (1995), The Healing
Craft (1999) and Progressive Witchcraft (2004), in which they
