Modern Knighthood: Unleashing Your Inner Power to Master Yourself and the World. 2nd Edition

By Kerr Cuhulain

Modern Knighthood completes the cycle begun with Kerr’s earlier books on Warrior philosophy. It is about personal empowerment and self mastery. Modern Knighthood brings all of the philosophy of the warrior together, showing the reader the cycles of training that interlock with the cycles of the seasons that lead the student through initiatory experiences resulting in self mastery.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Kerr Cuhulain
• Release date: Dec 27, 2010
• ISBN: 9781458074959

Kerr Cuhulain

Kerr Cuhulain is a retired police officer/dispatcher who has been a Wiccan for 47 years and was involved in anti-defamation activism and hate crimes investigation for the Pagan community for decades. Kerr was awarded the Shield of Valour by the Witches League for Public Awareness. Kerr is the author of the Law Enforcement Guide to Wicca, Witch Hunts,, Wiccan Warrior, Full Contact Magick, Magickal Self Defense, Pagan Religions: A Handbook for Diversity Training, Modern Knighthood, How to Be Glorious: Step by Step Empowerment, Stand Like a Tree: Mastering the Movement of Energy, and The Wizard: The Story of the First Wiccan Cop to go Public About His Pagan Beliefs. Kerr is the co author of a safety book for social workers and nurses: Safe Approach. Kerr is also the author of Ancient Recipes for Modern Kitchens, a cookbook of ancient recipes. He writes sword and sorcery fantasy fiction as C.A. Ennis and paranormal romance as Carrie Bryce. He is the host/writer of an Eastlink/Coast Cable community TV show on astronomy called Night Lights, has appeared on APTN’s “Coyote Science” TV show for First Nations youth, and is writer/host of a BravoFACTUAl documentary, “Starry Nights”, directed by Wiccan priestess Dodie Graham-McKay. Kerr is the former Preceptor General of Officers of Avalon, an organization representing Neo-Pagan professionals in the emergency services (police, firefighters, emergency medical technicians). Kerr is the Grand Master and founder of a Wiccan order of Knighthood called the Order of Paladins. In December 2014 Kerr was accepted at a faculty member of Amber K’s Ardantane School of Magick. Kerr is currently the National Secretary of the Royal Astronomical Society of Canada as well as the President of the Sunshine Coast Centre of the RASC. The RASC has just published his book Building a Small Observatory.

Book preview

Modern Knighthood

Unleashing Your Inner Power to Master Yourself and the World

2nd Edition

Kerr Cuhulain

Published by Kerr Cuhulain at Smashwords

Copyright 2013 Kerr Cuhulain

Discover other titles by Kerr Cuhulain at http://www.kerrcuhulain.com

Smashwords Edition, License Notes

This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return to Smashwords.com and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

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Dedication and Acknowledgment:

This book is dedicated to the founding members of the Order of Paladins: Glenwaerd, Zeta, Iska, and Sorayah. Thanks to you all for your dedication in making this book happen.

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Table of Contents

Introduction

Part One: The Order of Paladins

Chapter 1: Warriors

Chapter 2: Knighthood

Chapter 3: The Rule

Chapter 4: Know Thyself

Chapter 5: Nurturing the Ability to See the Truth in All Matters

Chapter 6: You Create Your Own Reality

Chapter 7: Developing a Sense of Right Action

Chapter 8: Do Not be Negligent, Even in Trifling Matters

Chapter 9: Your Body is Your Temple.

Chapter 10: Minimal Appearance, Maximum Content

Chapter 11: Perceiving That Which Cannot be Seen With the Eye.

Chapter 12: Power With

Chapter 13: Who Dares, Wins.

Chapter 14: The Gods Cannot Help Those Who Will Not Help Themselves

Chapter 15: Be Creative

Chapter 16: Do Not Engage in Useless Activity

Chapter 17: Chivalry

Part Two: Cycles

Chapter 18: The Hero’s Journey

Chapter 19: Sabbats, Esbats and the Four Warrior Seasons

Chapter 20: Circle Casting and Encampment Rituals

Chapter 21: Acceptance and the Armoring

Chapter 22: The Arming: Achieving Knighthood

Chapter 23: The Mastering: Achieving Mastery

Chapter 24: Dedication: Becoming a Paladin

Part Three: Seasons and Sabbats

Chapter 25: Samhain

Chapter 26: Yule

Chapter 27: Imbolc

Chapter 28: Eostre

Chapter 29: Beltaine

Chapter 30: Litha

Chapter 31: Lughnasad

Chapter 32: Mabon

Conclusion: Mastery

Bibliography

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Introduction to the 2nd Edition:

"People will not look forward to posterity who never look backward to their ancestors."

Edmund Burke, Reflections on the Revolution in France 1790

This is a book of knighthood, which has been in the back of my mind ever since I wrote my first book on warrior philosophy, Wiccan Warrior. This book focuses on empowerment and self transformation through the principles and precepts of knighthood, the cycles of life of the knight, and about using your power in the world. This book is about meeting the world head on. This book deals with rituals of knighthood, which are about discovering who you are and where your power lies.

When I wrote Wiccan Warrior people within the Pagan community were seeking recognition for the Warrior path. Warriors were starting to discover their traditions and mythology. They were starting to come together at seasonal festivals, both lunar and solar, to practice together and to connect to rediscover our connections to our Pagan community.

Soon after my next book, Full Contact Magick, came out, I was contacted by many people asking if there was a specific warrior tradition that I could direct them to. Since at that time there wasn’t, I took it upon myself to create a place for warriors to study and work magick and ritual together: An order of knighthood. This experiment allowed us to test concepts, find out what worked, and what did not. Eventually this lead to the foundation of the Order of Paladins, which is now a registered society in the province of British Columbia. The Order is a major influence on this book.

In my earlier books I talked mostly about magick and energy and basic concepts of empowerment and only touched upon rituals other than initiations. This book is going to turn that around. This book presumes that the reader knows the basics of magick and energy work and how to use your psychic abilities. If you don’t have these basics, I recommend reading my earlier books to help you develop that foundation.

The rituals in this book are from the spiritual path followed by the knights of the Order of Paladins. They utilize songs and traditions that can be traced back into antiquity, honoring our warrior roots and our warrior ancestors. Modern Wicca, Ásatrú and Druidism are all mixtures of these old traditions with the new. In the Order of Paladins we try very hard to meld these ancient elements with new elements that help us to connect to the present, to the world that we live in. Being a Wiccan, I’m writing this book from a Wiccan perspective, but many of the elements within are common to all Pagan spiritual paths, and many members of the Order of Paladins follow paths other than the Wiccan one. My particular path is that of a warrior, and that is reflected in the rituals that are described in this book.

I encourage you to either take from this what you will to enhance your own practice of Wiccan religion or join our growing community.

Biodh Se!

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Part One: Knighthood

"All the principles of heaven and earth are living inside you. Life itself is truth, and this will never change. Everything in heaven and earth breathes. Breath is the thread that ties creation together."

Japanese sword master Morihei Ueshiba.

Modern Knighthood was born in November 2013 with the foundation of the Order of Paladins. This Order teaches the warrior philosophy outlined in my previous books. In this section I outline the thirteen precepts and Code of Chivalry of Modern Knighthood, as well as concepts of divinity, mastery, magickal energy and empowerment.

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Chapter 1: Warriors

"The Way of a Warrior is based on humanity, love, and sincerity;

The heart of martial valor is true bravery, wisdom, love, and friendship."

Morihei Ueshiba.

When I was a teenager, I found myself seeking for a religion other than the Abrahamic beliefs that were being shoved at me from all directions in school. I had discovered a keen interest in Greek and Roman mythology as a child, but even then I knew on some level that wasn’t quite what I was looking for. Eventually I discovered Sybil Leek’s book Diary of a Witch in my high school library and soon realized that I had found my spiritual path. The trouble was that back in the sixties there weren’t many books available on Wiccan religion and most had to be special ordered. Wiccan covens were even harder to come by, and tended to be very secretive. Of necessity I started off practicing solitary.

Years later I eventually found a coven and got initiated into two Brit Trads. I diligently copied my High Priestess’s Book of Shadows by hand. I remember that in my first degree initiation I was introduced to the magickal tools of the craft. I thought: Now we’re really getting somewhere. Now someone is going to teach me how to use these things.

I rapidly discovered that no further training was forthcoming: No one seemed to realize that any further training was necessary. It quickly became obvious that no one in these covens could offer me much beyond what was in their Book of Shadows, all of which were pretty basic and contained a minimum of information and ritual. It was not their fault: They hadn’t been taught anything else. The more that I practiced these Wiccan traditions, the more I realized that, for me, something was still missing. When you asked probing questions around the Wiccan community seeking answers, you frequently got the response: That’s a third degree mystery.

Third degree mystery indeed! The truth was that many of these people didn’t have a clue and weren’t about to admit this.

Meanwhile I was discovering that I was a lone Wiccan cop in a predominantly Christian police world. Of necessity I got actively involved in education and anti defamation work to defend myself from the misinformation that was everywhere around me. Pretty soon I was called upon to defend others within the Pagan community. In the process of doing over two decades of this anti defamation work, I made an unexpected discovery: Few people in the Pagan community seemed to know what to make of the Pagan cop either. You’re one of those warrior types, they would say, Cops hurt people.

But I wasn’t hurting people. I didn’t know whether to scream or weep.

It became obvious that few people in the Pagan community comprehended the true meaning of the Warrior path. The few Pagan warriors that were out there either didn’t realize that they were on this path or, if they did, felt as isolated as I did. Many Pagans didn’t really know how to go about following this Warrior path. I saw some groups of guardians come into being that spent all of their time outside of the rituals, warding and guarding and serving the community. This is certainly one of the functions of the Warrior path that I now follow, and certainly an honorable one. However, I was concerned that I wasn’t seeing enough of these warriors inside the rituals. It seemed that some in the community preferred to keep us Warriors out beyond the periphery of the ritual, because they didn’t know what to make of us. As I mentioned a moment ago, some thought of us as being downright dangerous. The role of lovers, leaders and magicians seem to have been defined to one extent or other within the various Pagan communities, but until recently the archetype of the warrior had been neglected.

This is now changing. This book is about Circles of warriors; of knights in fact. There is a time and a place for those other three archetypes, and there are times when we warriors guard the perimeters, but sometimes everyone has a need to do warrior magick and warrior ritual.

Meanwhile, one of the most obvious changes that I noticed over the twenty nine years that I did police work as well as the years since that I’d spent as a police dispatcher afterwards was the rapid erosion of manners and courtesy in society. No one holds doors open for people any more. People j-walk whenever and wherever they feel like it, completely disregarding oncoming traffic. Fewer and fewer people signal lane changes and the speed limit seems to be when their gas pedal hits the floor boards. I found myself surrounded by people entirely wrapped up in themselves with no thought whatsoever for anyone else. Unfortunately some of these thoughtless people were Pagans. How did this come to be?

These things are what eventually caused me to abandon the Wiccan paths that I’d followed up until then and strike off in a new direction. This is what motivated me to write my earlier books: Wiccan Warrior, Full Contact Magick and Magickal Self Defense. In the course of developing and teaching warrior philosophies and magickal arts of the warrior to people across North America, other warriors started to contact me and gravitate towards these new concepts. Meanwhile, organizations like the Military Pagan Alliance, Officers of Avalon, and Pagan Alliance of Nurses sprang into being to give Pagans in the emergency services a place to network. I became a member of Officers of Avalon and eventually ended up leading that organization for a number of years. While serving in that leadership position, I found that I was regularly being approached by people who didn’t qualify as members of Officers of Avalon who wanted to be part of something like that. When I asked them why, they told me that they saw us as knights.

I decided that if something like that wasn’t out there, then I needed to create it myself. In October 2007 I founded an order of knighthood. In the beginning, the concept was simple. Everyday people wanted an opportunity to become recognized as knights, so give them that opportunity. Looking back, that concept has a flaw which I’ve actually spoken of many times in videos and lessons. Given the opportunity, some will actually take responsibility and live according to the precepts and a code of chivalry. Others, unfortunately, will claim the title after completing some lessons and go about trying to impress each other and the public with their new found status. I call this activity: Knights in shining armour. Knighthood isn't about appearance, but action, not about tinsel, but tenacity, not about glitter, but genius, not about fashion, but faculty.

This experiment did allow some people to transform themselves over the years. It did identify exceptional individuals who really committed themselves to the dream. It proved many aspects of the concept. It taught us what was possible and what wasn’t.

In November 2013 I founded the Order of Paladins, a modern day order of Knights that follows the warrior precepts that I first laid out in Full Contact Magick. The Order of Paladins teaches the philosophies of the warrior and is dedicated to a Code of Chivalry. I will come back to codes of chivalry and the precepts of knighthood later. Now I will set the stage by describing how knighthood compares to other Pagan philosophies.

Many people expected that the creation of the democratic ideal, the arrival of the age of machines, and the development of the scientific method would lead to the end of traditional religion. These advances were expected to cause the collapse of old mythic systems. Religions were expected to soon become a thing of the past. These advances did indeed shatter some things that needed to be. Not all of the changes that resulted were bad. However, a few changes were unexpected and, in many cases, in my humble opinion, unwelcome.

Society shifted from what Joseph Campbell called the religious hierarchical pantomime to a more or less secular state. In the process, this shift removed all manner of rites of passage from our lives, including those which marked the transition to adulthood. In my opinion, that’s why you see so many fifty five year olds running around these days behaving like irresponsible fifteen year olds. Nothing in their lives ever signaled to them that it was time to grow up.

This societal change also replaced the idea of being part of a group with a total focus on individuality. Behavioral focus changed from acting for the good of the tribe to every man for himself. Societal ideals shifted from a focus on religion to material supremacy; in other words, it became all about who has and who has not. Visible reminders of our connection to our world and our place in it were removed from everyday life. People tried to solve the mysteries of science and apply this scientific knowledge to controlling the earth while taking whatever they wanted with little or no regard for the consequences. As a result, man’s attempt to control the Earth has damaged it and pushed the Earth’s ecosystems seriously out of control.

Faced with this, people are starting to figure out that some sort of change is needed, but many are confused about what to do. Some are turning back to traditional established Western religions seeking comfort and reassurance. They try to cling to what they believe worked in the past, not realizing that what worked 2000 years ago no longer works in today’s world. The world’s great religions can no longer meet people’s needs. Joseph Campbell told us in his book The Hero with a Thousand Faces: [The world’s great religions] have become associated with the causes of the factions as instruments of propaganda and self congratulation.

You cannot make the required changes by turning away from progress. You can’t walk backwards into the future. Changes are indeed necessary, and it is this need for change that, in part, influences the modern knight’s approach to spirituality and magick. Campbell describes Man himself [as] the crucial mystery. It is time to re-establish the divine in everyday life. It is time to show the world that the divine is imminent in all of us and can be used to make us more powerful and more effective. It is time for us to awaken to our divinity and make it a part of our consciousness.

The modern knight’s first quest is to find himself, to find his soul and its connection to the myths that illuminate it. You can’t suppress myth. Like water, it will find its way out. Myth lives within us, and if we let it out, it can transform us. Knights allow themselves to fully experience mythology, to see how it works through them, inspiring, informing and empowering them to become greater than they were. The knight’s second quest is to take this information and go out into the world to create positive change.

As I have stated in my earlier books, being a warrior is not about combat. Every person has a peaceful warrior inside of them. It is a personal decision as to whether you utilize this archetype or not. Being a warrior isn’t about fighting, it is about mastery. If you can master yourself, you can master everything else. Once you discover the power within you, powerful things will happen in your life. The world we live in is a chaotic place. Knighthood is about mastering chaos. The knight is a chaos conductor. The future is not etched in stone: Rather, it is drawn in the sand. Knighthood is drawing without an eraser.

Knighthood focuses on empowering people to become all that they can be. This is because warriors and knights need to develop self knowledge: An intimate understanding of their personal characteristics. A warrior is a person that takes a fearless and objective inventory of their personal characteristics and then uses this information to take control of their life. This inward journey helps them to an understanding that will allow them to better use these attributes to take charge of their lives. What you master, you can use. Self awareness, coupled with a strong will, helps knights to achieve their goals, overcome weaknesses, conquer their fears and triumph over their limitations. Knights forge their reality using magick and discipline.

Knighthood is the Wiccan Rede in action. The Wiccan Rede which is the foundation of the Wiccan Warrior path reads: An it harm none, do what thou wilt. Most Wiccans seem to interpret this Rede to simply mean, Whatever you do, harm none. This is not wrong, it just is not a complete interpretation. Pagan knights certainly subscribe to this part of that ideal: The way of the warrior is a peaceful path. You don’t have to be in the military to be a warrior or a knight, though one certainly finds some warriors and knights there. You don’t have to be a martial artist, though many of us in the Order of Paladins are. The knight’s path is a peaceful one because he wills it to be so. It is not force, but understanding, that is the basis of the knight’s power.

One of the Magickal Weapons that I discussed in my previous books (and will further discuss later in this one) is the sword. Many people would consider the sword to be strictly an offensive weapon. If you’re a Pagan, you know that the sword and athame are symbols of the element of air, but you may be wondering why my Order of Paladins would put so much emphasis on an archaic weapon like the sword. Don’t we advertise our warrior path as a peaceful one?

The element of air and the sword that symbolizes it represent the will. To the samurai, the sword was a symbol of self-awareness, honor and dignity. In the training of the Order of Paladins, the sword is used as a focusing tool to send energy. What’s more, it is also a tool for receiving energy. Sword master Kohshyu Yoshida describes the sword as an antenna for clean energy. Practicing with the sword is an excellent way to stir up the chi to bring vitality to your life.

This relates to another samurai concept: Shi fuu. Shi fuu translates as the wind of the samurai. The idea is that as the earth generates wind to express its life, so too does the heart of the warrior generate energy so that others can sense the warrior’s life and power. There were three essences that made up shi fuu:

•Wisdom: One must sharpen their wisdom in order to see what needs to be done.

•Love: One