Wiccans and Pagans are among the targets of North Carolina Republican legislators’ bigoted House Bill 2. The law doesn’t just force everyone to use the restroom that matches the sex listed on their birth certificate — this sweeping attack on civil liberties also strips NC workers of the right to sue in state court an employer who discriminates against them based on their religion, race, or sex, and bans cities and counties from passing anti-discrimination policies.
We know what a gut-punch this is to workers in our state because we’ve aided innumerable employees illegally fired for such things as wearing a pentagram in an office full of cross-wearing coworkers.
We cast a spell to get all of this despicable law declared unconstitutional and void, and invite everyone to cast it, too, or take inspiration from it to cast a similar one. The talisman we designed for this purpose is a double-sided, folding paper “lamen” seal such as we illustrate in The Goodly Spellbook: Olde Spells for Modern Problems.
To make the “Repeal All HB2” talisman:
Fold the cut-out lamen on its hinge
Completed lamen, outside top
The PDF we’ve created will enable you to print this double-sided lamen on a both sides of a single sheet of paper. After opening the “Print” prompt, use “Page Setup”, “Properties”, or whatever your printer requires to instruct it to print on both sides of the paper. (If it offers options, set it to “flip on long edge.”) When printed, the two sides of the lamen will be aligned with each other when you hold the paper up to the light. (If they’re not, you may need to straighten up the paper stack in your printer and try again.) Cut out the unfolded lamen along the outer black line, being careful to keep the two halves connected by the middle strip, which acts as a hinge.
If your printer can only print single-sided sheets, just print both pages, cut out both sides of the lamen, and attach them back-to-back using paper glue or double-sided tape. Make sure to keep them both oriented right-side-up.
You can print just one talisman, or as many as you wish to make and use or share.
Now, fold the lamen along the middle of the connecting strip like a cosmetic compact or pocket-watch, so that one disc lies atop the other, with the State Seal on the outside top.
The four seals mean:
North Carolina’s state seal (outside top of folded lamen): As we explain in The Goodly Spellbook, official seals derive from magical seals whose design follow conventions as ancient as Egyptian hieroglyphic cartouches. Their spell intention is usually to depict and enshrine the official entity’s guiding ideals and responsibilities.
North Carolina’s state seal is a portrait of two Goddesses facing toward each other. Liberty stands at left, holding a scroll with the word “Constitution” on it in Her right hand; and in Her left, a staff topped by the liberty cap worn by freed slaves in ancient Rome. Plenty is seated at right, holding a sheaf of three wheat stalks in Her right hand; and in Her left, a cornucopia or “horn of plenty” spilling forth abundant produce. Behind Liberty, Western North Carolina’s mountains rise to shelter freethinkers, while behind Plenty, Eastern North Carolina’s coast beckons a clipper ship to port. Liberty and Plenty are sisters, and what harms one threatens the other.
The planetary seal of Mercury (inside top of folded lamen): In astrology, Mercury is the mutable “hermaphroditic” planet that transcends binary gender classifications. In Greek mythology, the God Mercury/Hermes was not the first messenger of the Gods; The Goddess Iris preceded Him in this role, communicating between the Gods and humanity at opposite ends of a rainbow bridge. The seal’s vibrant colors allude to Iris, and its overt message is one of inclusive diversity.
An all-genders restroom sign (inside bottom of folded lamen): The universal sign for “Restroom”, a white triangle on blue, featuring a popular unisex symbol that unites the arrow of Mars (= male), the mirror of Venus (= female), and both combined (= transgender, bisexual).
A spiral prayer inscription (outside bottom of folded lamen): “Libertas and Copia, repeal all HB2” is written twice in the Theban magical alphabet, spiraling deosil outward from the center of the disc to the hinge. Spiral-path spells are some of the oldest used by ancient Greeks, Romans, and Persians.
How to cast the spell to repeal all HB2
Consecrate the talisman prior to spell use by fumigating it in incense smoke. (A potent traditional way to do this is to burn on a charcoal an incense ruled by Mercury: rinds such as cinnamon bark, or sweet seeds such as fennel or caraway seeds.) If you’ve made multiple talismans, consecrate them all together.
Use the “Repeal All HB2” talisman as a ritual focus atop a paten on your altar; dance a Cone of Power around it; slip it behind a restroom sign; place it over our state capitol city Raleigh on a U.S. map; secrete it under a courthouse statue of Justicia, the Goddess of Justice; or use it in whatever magical way you wish. It calls on the two Goddesses on our state seal, Libertas (liberty) and Copia (copious plenty), to REPEAL ALL of HB2.
1876 depiction of NC State Seal as a coat of arms
Mentally empower the spell with such thought-forms as: HB2 is unconstitutional, and the lawmakers who devised it are guilty of mocking the Constitution the Goddess of freedom holds on the very seal they used to legitimize their oppression of citizens. They have no right to invade our bathrooms with their bigotry. Their action merits righteous indignation and divine wrath: Plenty is already reacting to their attack on equality and legal redress by withholding Her bounty in the form of the intensifying national economic boycott of our state. Legislators must repeal HB2 entire, and cease abusing their office by arrogating power and fomenting divisiveness — else be ejected from it in disgrace.