Who Do You Call On When The Plane Shakes?
by Gordon • • Magic • 20 Comments
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The most recent trip to Hamburg at the beginning of the month coincided with some serious gales across Europe.
I was flying Lufthansa which means they are very German about delays. Once we were all boarded, the very German pilot spoke over the loudspeaker, explaining in detail that the delay was due to the weather holding up getting the plane out of the hangar in Cologne.
Then he said, cheekily, “but don’t worry. I know a few shortcuts.”
The passengers chuckled.
I recall speaking to a low cost airline pilot a few years ago. Firstly, he confirmed that all those crazy things like engines falling off and wheels not retracting really do happen all the time. Those are the things he was concerned with. Weather wasn’t at all a problem… if anything it made it interesting. Commercial air travel is so automated now that it otherwise gets really boring for those in the cockpits.
Hopefully, this was the source of the German pilot’s cheekiness. Today he would actually get to fly a plane. Because it was going to be a very bouncy ride. (You can tell how bumpy by how much the pilot is willing to crack jokes.)
New Zealand is an absurd place for aircraft. It’s basically just a bunch of mountains that catch the weather on some narrow bits of land out in the middle of the ocean. The capital city apparently has the second-shortest international runway in the world. To land in Wellington to pretty much drop out of the sky and slam on the brakes.
Once, on a ski trip when I was a child, the turbulence was so bad that a hardcover, A4 book flung out of my hands and hit the ceiling. We had to land in a field (complete with sheep because this is New Zealand) mid-way down to Queenstown so that the pilot could get out and check the wings. Then we had to follow the river between the mountains to the airport because the fog was too thick to see anything.
So I knew the Hamburg flight was going to be rough. And it was.
The entire craft was tossed sideways multiple times as if batted by some giant, invisible cat. The wings were flapping away as if this was the only thing keeping us airborne.
In my mind’s eye, the pilot morphed into some kind of Red Baron stereotype. Each violent shake of the plane would cause him to cackle maniacally and grip the controls ever tighter. (This actually gave me some comfort.)
Anyway, somewhere over Holland, I recalled a conversation Jason and I had had in New Jersey last year.
Who do you call on when the plane shakes?
I don’t mean Mild turbulence. That’s actually rather fun. It affords me an opportunity to fantasise about being on Serenity or Galactica. No, I mean giant invisible cat turbulence.
When there’s no time for ritual, no time to select the right little spirit or being from your preferred pantheon, when it’s just the visceral terror and the extreme desire to be saved.
Because that tells you something profound about your actual cosmology, not just your working one.
From memory, Jason’s was Tara. (Actually, I don’t think it was. It was some other Buddhist thing that I mentally replaced with Tara because I had no idea what he was talking about.)
Mine was less cool. Far, far, less cool.
Mine was just about the most white light, vanilla, paperback wiccanish, unnamed Divine Mother/Great Goddess you could think about. IF it formed into a personality it most closely resembled a beneficent aspect of Isis. (I can’t actually get shot of Isis for reasons I should probably look further into.)
This is probably quite telling on a number of levels.
- Firstly, there’s the obvious psychological one. I am literally saying “mommy, mommy, save me!” which shouldn’t be surprising if you’ve read almost any of my previous posts.
- Secondly, whilst I have never and would never impune wicca because I actually quite like it, my time identifying as wiccan as an adolescent clearly had a more transformative effect on me than would be immediately obvious.
- Thirdly, I have an instinctive class-based reaction to all forms of worship: I don’t see why ‘they’ need it and the whole thing makes me suspicious. An unnamed ‘Divine Mother’ is effectively just rolling up my quantum panpsychic universe into a play-doh ball and sticking two little goggle eyes on it. We might consider this quite a lazy attempt at deification but actually, that’s probably as far as I’m prepared to go before my mind says “oh fuck it. There’s an afterlife, anyway. Besides, no one’s taking your calls after all these goddamn years. Just put your life jacket on and be ready to trip up some old people.”
Because that’s the thing about terror. However much there is a part of my mind that goes on pretending to read my kindle, unphased, while the aircraft suffers meteorological epilepsy, an older part is still extremely disturbed.
And actually, those so-called statistics about the safety of air travel are also an article of faith. Their math is… well, if it’s not dubious it is at least selective. Air travel is far safer than road travel when measured in terms of miles travelled, sure. But measured in terms of time spent travelleing and the odds quickly readjust.
So even atheists call upon a manifestation of supreme illogic when the trolley dollies suspend the drink service and return to their seats.
It’s worth looking into this yourselves. What you find may surprise you.
When I was on my honeymoon (probably twenty one years to the day, I married on February 23th), one of the stops was on my family country house. We stayed there alone, and a at night the worst thunderstorm I ever saw fell upon us. The house had no lightning rod, and among the horrendous thunder arround us, we prayed a lot (to the Christ). I felt like a caveman. The next morning we saw that a lightning had felled a tree some hundred meters from our house…
For me it’s an embarrassing Goddess like you describe exactly only veering more towards Mary than Isis with a lot of Big Daddy Capital G God thrown in.
As Jow is v. fond of saying, “we are who we are!”
Deb´s last [type] ..[Manic Monday] Beautiful Creatures
For my milage it is totally Shiva. No matter what else I do, who else I work with, it is always Shiva. Which was a huge switch for me as before it was usually Jesus through Mary. No matter how pagan or crazy I got.. that was Divinity to me. When the chips are down, when I would fall apart, that is who I would call to.
When that changed it was totally a shock. A plane rattling event happened and immediately it was Shiva. The relationship model changed too. It wasn’t me calling out to some one to look after me. Someone who was responsible for me, because I couldn’t be trusted to be responsible for myself. No, it was my Beloved Friend.
It was a good change for me, but one I didnt expect on a gut level. After the situation calmed down I did a lot of pondering there.
Jow´s last [type] ..Book Review Monday: "The Arte of Glamour"
I like the ‘PlayDough with Goggle-Eyes’ thought.
When I am in a state of terror I am usually squeaking
desperately at a nameless, faceless all-pervasive being
that I hope likes to help squeakers like myself.
I believe King Pterry spoke of it as sending prayers
into the universe simply addressed to ‘The Occupier’.
*shrugs* … I aten’t dead yet …
Morgan´s last [type] .."State of Collapse"
For quite a while, it’s been my HGA. Before that, it was Ganesha, who always picked up the phone and came through for me.
Regarding devotional relationships (for some reason I dislike “worship”), I don’t think the primary benefit is to the Gods, but upon the devotee. Without delving too much into Theology, it seems that Gods bring Worlds into being to know Themselves. Participating in a cult grants varying levels of access to the God’s World depending on personal disposition, and the God’s gain from this being known in a particular way by a particular individual, a completely unique revelation of their Self. Just as some relationships in our lives are more fruitful than others, relationships with the Gods are the same.
The visceral/out-of-conscious embrace of contemporary myth regarding a “true” World seems to me to be the single largest stumbling block to engagement with the Gods and with magic in general.
@Morgan Ha. Love the logic.
This is a great thought exercise. I worship Dionysos exclusively, but I don’t count on Him to save my ass if it’s in danger. Frankly, He’s just not the saving type. He’s the “let’s watch the fun and see if you end up more liberated from the experience… remember, dead is just another experience” type. However, my daughter is a child of Bride (that is, Brigid) and She is the saving type. So like you, in duress I find myself calling on mommy. That’s not to say She cares about me personally, but She does care about my daughter (who’d be in duress if I got killed). I’m obviously a hard polytheist and YMMV.
Excellent post. I have never had the pleasure of having a plane swatted at by a cat but I have had a gun pointed at the back of my head once. I did not call upon anyone, I just got completely quiet in my mind and waited for the moment to take action (fortunately he decided not to pull the trigger). Another time, a crazed adolescent came at me with an axe. Again, my mind went quiet and I got ready for his swing. Fortunately, he decided to stop and run away. Now that I’m typing, I remember the same way of handling a really bad situations on several occasions. I guess I’m lucky I can go silent while under the gun. But being in an airplane where you can’t do anything is different. So, Tara would be good because she is a quick savior. There is an aspect of Ganesha, Kshipra Prasada, who acts immediately. And of course, Shiva and Isis just rocks. I have called upon Durga when I was under threat of being fired at work. I was not fired. I have also called upon a village protector called Karuppasamy for immediate assistance on several occasions and he has never failed me. I learned about him from Dr. Pillai, who is questionable as a legitimate guru but again, Karuppasamy has never let me down when I called upon him (I had to call upon him again today while at work). So I guess, Durga and/or Karuppasamy to deal with giant invisible cats.
That’s a good thought exercise. I happen to know who I think of when the shit hits the fan. Isis.
I’ve had a very long relationship with Isis. I tend towards the big universal power of magic in any way you can imagine Goddess Isis. She pulls no punches, and in outright Captain Jack style goes poisoning Ra so she can get his secret name to cure him. Gaining the secret name gains who know what kind of massive additional power.
Yeah, I see her mother role too. I like that. You can feel comfortable in her wings. Isis has so many aspects that thieves and kings alike could turn to her. Isis was a beloved Goddess all over the ancient world. No borders could hold her.
Here’s a thought exercise for you, Gordon. Consider all that Isis encompasses. Now go have a look at the Cults of Isis in history. Compare notes with later Christianity. There are bigger mysteries there, brother.
I’m a Chaos Magician and Sorcerer first. I also identify as a Heathen, work with Runes, read Tarot, and traffic with various Occult ideas. When I think about what even the Gods might want for help, I think of Isis.
@Lonne: Exactly. All of it.
Gordon, I forgot to recommend that incredible book Isis In The Ancient World by R.E. Witt. I hope you read it.
When the plane shakes? Enlil.
Great post. As they say, there’s no atheists in the trenches!
Kali. I grew up Hindu and have on-again, off-again relationships with a lot of gods and goddesses. But once Kali got into my blood, She just…overwhelmed…everyone else. Mother, warrior, lover, friend, savior- all cloaked in bondage, leather, and blood. She’s saved my ass a couple of times that I’m aware of. And probably stuck me in the fire more times than that.
I intentionally cleanse from Her so I don’t get too intoxicated. She can be a real bitch sometimes. But if I’m in a bad, visceral, holy-fuck-am-I-screwed situation, there is no one better to reach out to than a black-as-night, vampire warrior-mother-lover who wears the skulls of her vanquished foes (and conquered situations!) as jewelry.
So yea, “mommy save me.”
What does it say about me that my first response in any immediately anxiety-producing situation isn’t to call upon something but instead to focus on my own soul and reach out with it to try to directly alleviate whatever is causing the anxiety using that? I’m not an atheist, I actively practice a variant hermetic theurgy and more and more the idea of the divine is important to my life and everything I seek, though my practice of this isn’t the first system I have done magically(that would actually be ‘intuitive’, ‘just do it’ stuff)… but when it comes down to it I turn inwards. The fact that I have actually had great success with direct magic/psionics type stuff might give me a certain tendency towards this but I have known others who have had a similar type of success who still turn to an external divine entity in such situations makes me believe this isn’t the whole explanation. Perhap I am a spiritual narcissist?
Excellent post.
Nevermind the turbulence. Just the thought of sitting in coach from JFK to Frankfurt has me calling on entire pantheons for divine intervention.
Shit, where has this blog been all my life?! Found you last night through random web surfing.
I had exactly this experience but over the north Pacific. Pretty much the only thing that scares me wore than a plane crash is a plane crash into icy Arctic seas. And they didn’t just put the drinks trolleys back, people were actually screaming and praying. Very unnerving.
But weirdly I don’t remember exactly whom I called on. My big epiphany was my initial reaction: “What?! I can’t die, I haven’t finished my Ph.D. yet!” As in, oh HELL no, I am not going to put in all that effort and time and not even get my fancy embossed piece of paper!
So my first revelation is that apparently I think the Powers That Be owe me a return on my investment (where did that come from?). I reflected on that with embarrassment. Then I thought a little about what people would say about me and my lack of socially-esteemed-accomplishments after I was dead, and that made me kind of laugh at myself. After that I meditated. I think I had some Buddhisty character in mind (Avalokiteshvara?). I probably also prayed to: Mary, St. Christopher, all my dead ancestors, and any guardian angels I might have without knowing about it (not necessarily in that order).
I find it very hard to connect to big, transcendental deity-concepts. My mind races from god to god without ever finding one that might take me seriously. So in the end I call on my ancestors and dead fiends, who I imagine have some stake in my well-being and maybe, just maybe, enough juju to save my ass.
* “dead fiends” was supposed to be “dead FRIENDS,” but I maybe like it better this way…
I just returned from a trip yesterday and I had an interesting somewhat related experience. It was on the way to Spain from Canada, being rather late for a flight in the Parisian airport. I was getting flustered, so I prayed to calm down. I’ve worked with the goddess Brighid in the past, but she was never somebody I thought I’d turn to in a situation like that. The weird thing was that I found myself calling her SAINT Brighid at that time! That kinda weirded me out a little bit, but i’ve always figured i’d make a damn good Catholic / East-Orthodox if God was pantheistic and not so much of a dick all the time.
Just as I was finding some comfort in this post,I see this story -
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2013-04-13/passenger-plane-crashes-into-sea-at-bali/4627396