There’s quite a lot of information below: Some of it might be applicable to you, some might not. I’ve tried to cover this matter as comprehensively as I can; but if you do run up against problems and obstacles that aren’t covered herein; there are many more similar resources online which may or may not deal with your particular issue(s).

I’ve collected data on this subject from a number of leading online resources, as well as contributing to it myself from my own experience. I hope that this article has all the information that you’ll need contained within it. It was quite an effort to collate, write, adapt, and update all of the info from my sources, and I hope I’ve done the subject justice.

The physical act of installation in itself is actually quite easy. It’s the preparation and getting the thing ready for use that may take a little longer; particularly if it’s an IDE (PATA) drive.

If you’re installing an IDE (PATA) hard drive then you’ll first need to set the jumpers on the drive so that it works correctly with your current hardware. IDE hard drives have settings for master, slave and cable select. This is because of the multi-drive-connected ribbon-cable used: The drive has to tell the controller on the other end of the cable how it’s been connected; otherwise confusion will reign. For Serial ATA drives (SATA), you don’t need to worry about jumpers as there aren’t any: SATA drives have a single cable running to a single corresponding port for each drive cable. See your motherboard’s manual if you’re using SATA for more details on how the drives should be connected and if there is a particular special sequence of connections pertaining to certain drives. – More on IDE drives and their jumpers and connections below.

Next: -

Before you do anything else, take a look at the inside of the computer’s case and work out where you want the drive be positioned. If you’re using an IDE hard drive, it would be best to connect the drive on a different IDE channel than your DVD/CD drives if at all possible. Some (older) motherboards have two IDE channel connectors, but most modern motherboards have only one. If you can do so, it’s a better idea to connect your disc drives to IDE2, and connect your hard drives to IDE1.

SATA drives are totally different. Each SATA drive has it’s own channel. It’s usually fairly straightforward to work out the connections; but if in doubt check your motherboard’s manual. Now that SATA optical drives are fairly commonplace, you might not even require an IDE connector, even if your motherboard has one or maybe more: – Providing, of course, that it has SATA capability. If it doesn’t then it’s getting well past its prime anyway, to be perfectly frank, and you may consider changing it: This operation will probably entail, by necessity, also upgrading the RAM and processor too. – So if you do feel that you’d like to have a change of motherboard, then you might consider building or purchasing a new computer. If not; and you’re happy with your existing motherboard, then you’ll probably get anything between 5 minutes and 5 years of life from it yet. – Just don’t expect it to have the capabilities of more modern components.

Back to the subject at hand; and let’s take a look at the materials required: –

• You’ll obviously need a hard drive to fit to your machine.

• You might need a copy of the hard drive manual if you need to set jumpers on an IDE drive: This can be downloaded if your drive didn’t come with one or you’ve lost it.

• You might need a controller card if you’re fitting an IDE drive but don’t have a spare connector on the motherboard, or space on an existing ribbon cable to connect your drive to.  You can also purchase a SATA controller card if necessary. These controller cards will usually fit into a spare PCI slot; although you may find some that fit into a PCIe x 1 port.

• You’ll need a data cable for the drive; unless you’re installing an IDE drive as a slave-drive on an existing cable.

• You might also need a power cable Y-splitter if you don’t have a spare power connector. There are 2 types available; the 4-pin “Molex” connector, and also the standard SATA power connector. Which one you use will depend upon the type of power connector on the drive you’re installing. (If you only have 4-pin Molex connectors, but require a SATA power connector; you cab buy an adapter which is satisfactory for most cases.)

• Drive-cloning software for if you want to clone your old hard drive to your new one, or a recent drive backup of your old drive if you only want to copy some of the files off the old drive.

Whichever drive you’re replacing, if you are indeed replacing a drive, make sure that you back up any data you want to save before you start, or you could well be sorry at a later time. If you don’t want to have to go through the laborious process of reinstalling Windows, you can clone the contents of your old hard drive to your new one using the setup utilities that hard drive manufacturers provide, or you can use any of the specific cloning programs available online. If you intend to reinstall Windows; make sure you have discs for Windows, all your drivers, and all your programs. This will prevent frustrations at a later point in time.

(At least one leading online publication recommends using the “Ultimate Boot CD”in this process. I don’t personally recommend using this, as I’ve had some bad experience with it. (Neither am I going to link to it.) – However if you want to use it then go right ahead. – That’s your prerogative.)

If you’re simply installing a secondary hard drive for storage then there’s no need to make any changes to the configuration of your current hard drive. If, however, you’re installing a second IDE drive, it is possible that you will need to alter the jumper configuration of your primary hard drive. If your current hard drive is set as “Cable Select” (meaning it is the only drive on the channel), then you may need to change it to “Master” which will allow you to add the second hard drive as a slave (see below).

Setting the Jumpers on IDE Drives (if using IDE)

IDE can accommodate two drives per channel. Some computers may have two channels available on the motherboard; but most modern boards will have only one. The primary drive on a single channel is called the Master, and the secondary one is called the Slave. If there are 2 IDE channels on your motherboard, then they’re labelled as Primary (or IDE1) and Secondary (or IDE2). The hard drive that the system boots from is usually the primary master. Generally, if you’re adding a second hard drive you’d set it up as the primary slave. (The secondary master and slave are usually used for optical drives, although they can accommodate hard drives if needed.)

Most IDE drives arrive pre-set to be used as masters: If you want to use one as a slave, you’ll have to change the jumpers, which are located between the power connector and the IDE connector. Each manufacturer has different jumper settings, so you’ll either have to read the diagram on the top of the drive telling you how to set the jumpers, or the instructions in your hard drive’s manual – Which you can download from the manufacturer’s website if your hard drive didn’t come with one.

If you have an 80-conductor ribbon cable, you can use Cable Select as a jumper-setting:  With both drives set to Cable Select, the computer will recognize the drive hooked up to the black end connector as the master and the one hooked up to the middle gray connector as the slave. – Just be sure that the drives are connected to the right connectors if you use this setting.

…And now – having done all the preliminary checks and adjustments; let’s get into actually physically fitting the thing: Here we go: -

Turn the computer off and switch off the power supply’s switch. You might not want to unplug it if you are using a 3-pin plug to plug it in to the AC household electrical supply: Why not? Because the case is earthed properly if you leave the 3-pin plug plugged in to the household supply power socket. – You might want to use the earthed case to discharge any static electricity in your body from time to time, and/or you might want to wear an antistatic wrist strap just to be on the safe side, (*Technician’s Tip: It’s always a good idea to wear an antistatic wrist strap whenever you do anything inside a computer. There are some companies that will sack people for failing to do so.) which you can connect to the computer’s earthed case or its chassis.  Now remove the side-panel and any other panels that you wish to remove. (It might be an idea to take digital photographs of everything inside before you start; especially if you’re new to this. If anything goes wrong at any stage or you forget what goes where, you can refer to these photographs for guidance.)

If you’re replacing an old hard drive, unplug all the cables from the old drive. You will see either a ribbon cable and a small (white) Molex power plug, or a small data connector and a larger power connector in the case of a SATA drive Do not force their plugs out: The ribbon cable connector on an IDE drive is usually fairly easy to remove, as are all connectors on a SATA drive. Sometimes the Molex power connector on an IDE drive (Occasionally on a SATA drive.) can seem hard to budge. Just rock it back and forth (Lengthwise, along the narrow side of the drive), taking care not to rip the connector off the drive (Which can happen.).

Once all the cables are disconnected, remove the mounting screws that hold the drive to the case frame. You might find that you need to tip the case or get into some strange positions to reach all the screws. You may find that the hard drive is mounted in a cage that you’ll be able to take out. Now remove the old drive from the case.

If you’re replacing the old drive, slide the new drive in the slot from where the old one came out. If you’re adding a second drive then just pick an empty drive bay, but remember that hard-drives produce heat; so try not to mount them too close together with other drives if at all possible. If you’re installing an IDE drive than a slot a bit below the current drive might work best, because it will make it easier to route cables. If you’re installing a 3.5″ drive into a 5.25″ drive bay, you may need to add an adaptor or a mounting bracket to make it fit. Screw the drive into place, making sure the screws aren’t going in crooked and cross-threading as a result.

If you need a separate controller card, install it now into a spare motherboard PCI or PCIe slot. You probably won’t need to worry about this; It’s usually only necessary to add a controller card if you want to add more IDE or SATA drives than your computer’s motherboard will support with it’s existing ports. If you are using SATA, your motherboard will probably have enough SATA ports, unless you’re running some huge RAID configuration. If there aren’t enough ports available, however, you should fit a controller card.

Attach the cable plugs to the hard drive, as well as to the motherboard and/or controller card if necessary. There are two cables: There’s the ribbon cable if the drive is IDE, or SATA data cable if the drive is SATA, and the power cable. The ribbon cable goes from the controller to the drive. Most cables are keyed to the connector so they only go in one way; if the cable isn’t going in, try flipping it over. The SATA data cable’s plug also only connects one way round, as does a SATA power plug and a Molex power plug. – Whether or not it appears to be going in – don’t force anything, or you’ll possibly end up in tears.

If you’re adding a second IDE drive, simply choose an unused connector on the same ribbon cable. Most IDE ribbon cables come with three connectors: one on the end (usually black) and one mid-way (usually gray), then one further away on the other end which connects to the motherboard (usually blue, green, or red). In general, the master drive should use the black connector on the end and the slave should use the gray connector in the middle, but if each drive is set either as master or slave, the position is not as important. (With SATA you have only 1 choice: Plug a new cable into a socket on the SATA controller on the motherboard and plug the other end into the SATA data socket on the drive.)

Now check that everything is as it should be, switch the switch on the power supply at the back of the computer on, and power up. It’s best to leave the case cover off for now in case you need to fiddle with something or troubleshoot the installation.

Your new drive may be instantly recognised by the system; but if not try the following: If you didn’t use a controller card, enter the BIOS (usually by pressing the F1, F2, F10, F12, or Delete key when you see the Power-On Self-Test or the manufacturer logo). Check the BIOS to make sure that the drives are all being recognized. If you installed a drive on an IDE connector that was not in use, you may have to set the corresponding drive to “Auto.” If your BIOS has an auto-detect feature, you can use that as well. If you did use a controller card, it will pop up a screen showing the name of the card and any drives it has detected.

If the drives are not being recognized, check that both power and data cables are in tightly (including the motherboard end for the data cables), and that the jumpers are set correctly. Windows may be able to see the drive but may need some help to display it. A reboot may be needed after Windows finds and installs drivers, or if that doesn’t work a little software coaxing may help – But some of that’s beyond the scope of this article.

If everything looks right and is working properly then proceed>.

Finally…

Now that your new drive is installed you can add data to it. If you’re replacing your current drive and cloning it to your new drive, you’ll need to connect both drives. If you’re using IDE drives only, change any necessary jumpers (see above) so that both drives as well as a CD drive are recognized. At this stage it is not important to screw in your old drive; you can just rest it somewhere convenient, but it’s not advisable to leave it hanging in mid-air. Now clone your old drive to the new one and disconnect the old one, reset the jumpers as appropriate if you’re using IDE drives.

If you’re replacing your current primary drive but you’ve no intention of cloning its contents to the new drive, put your operating system’s CD in the drive and boot from it. You’ll be prompted during the first part of setup to partition and format your drive. If you’re installing Windows XP,Vista, or 7; make sure to use the NTFS file system: it’ll make life so much easier for you as compared to FAT32.

If you’re installing a secondary drive for storage purposes, your operating system won’t see your new drive until you format it. To format the drive in Windows XP, right-click on My Computer and go to “Manage”. In the window that comes up, click Disk Management in the left pane. Once it loads, you should see an “Initialize Disk” wizard pop up. Partition and format the disk to your liking, but make sure not to convert it to a dynamic disk, as doing so will probably end in tears eventually.

Other operating systems may vary, but I can’t cover every possible operating system in this article.

That’s about it for this article: You now have a new working hard drive installed. Please see my other articles for more advice on what you can do next. You’ll find a chronological listing of articles on the page called “Blog Contents”, which you can access from the menu at the top of every page and post on this blog. In the same menu you’ll also find “Posts Listing: Computer Hardware” and “Posts Listing: Computer Software Help”; both of which could have an article or two listed on them with regards to what to do next, if you’re looking for ideas.

For more tips, tricks, products, and new content updates, please request to join the mailing list by entering your email address into the appropriate box. – You’ll then be eligible for regular content updates as well as my free members-only updates and newsletters.

If your computer won’t power up when you press the power button, the fault is probably one of three things:-

1) The power button itself is faulty.

2) The motherboard is faulty.

Or, more than likely;

3) The power supply unit ( PSU ) has failed.

Did you notice a burning smell last time you powered up your computer? Did you see smoke and/or flames at the back of it?

If so it’s likely that your PSU has burned out.

Is the power supply’s fan still working?

If not then it’s most likely that your PSU has burned out.

If this is the situation with your computer, then I’ll be 100% honest with you from square 1: Your computer may or may not be seriously damaged.

The PSU supplies power to each component part of your computer. Most of those component parts are very sensitive. There is a chance that a high-voltage spike from the PSU as it died has fried something critical inside your computer: The CPU, for example, or the RAM. Maybe the graphics processor on the graphics card.

- So it’s always a good idea, if you have definite suspicions that your power supply unit is playing up, to replace it, in order to prevent this situation from happening. Normally if you catch and replace a PSU before it fails there is a lot less chance of it damaging other components.

*I have to say it just to cover all the bases: -

If your computer appears dead; check the following before you do anything else: -

*Is the power cable plugged into both the wall socket and the power supply?

*Is the fuse in the UK 13 amp plug (BS1363) (If you’re in the UK.) working? 

*If you’re using a power strip or surge protector, is it turned on and working?

*Is the on/off switch on the rear of the power supply switched on?

*Is the 110/220 Volt switch set to the correct setting? In Europe it should always be set to 220 volts. If it’s set to 110 volts in Europe it’ll destroy your PSU and probably fry most of the other circuitry too in the process. In the USA, it should be set at the 110 volt setting. This is due to the Americans using 110 volt AC mains voltage; whereas most of the rest of the world uses approximately 220 volts AC.

What to look out for

Is the CPU fan extremely dusty/dirty/manked out with dust and/or making unusual noises? If so then, whilst it’s possible to remove the PSU, open it up, and clean it out + lubricate/replace the fan; I don’t recommend this for anyone not familiar with the innards of a PSU. Why? Because there are high voltages inside the PSU, even when it’s switched off and disconnected after operating. These charges are stored in the capacitors inside the unit, and can, in some instances, take days to discharge. Also it’s very fiddly precision work that could take up a lot of time. It’s always a better idea to replace the PSU completely.

If the fan fails to turn properly the PSU can and will eventually overheat and burn out. This could be anything between the same day and possibly next year; but you can rest assured that it’ll happen, and probably at the most inconvenient time.

Does your computer shut down unexpectedly at times? If so then there may be any of a number of issues affecting it. First check that the issue isn’t software-oriented: A file-system error may be the cause, or possibly data corruption, even a malware issue perhaps? (See this article for details of how to fix file system and data corruption issues.) If it’s not a software issue then quite probably the cheapest one of the hardware issues to rectify will be the PSU. Even if replacing it doesn’t solve the problem, at least you know that you now have a brand new PSU installed. If it does solve the problem then it probably cost you less than replacing the RAM and/or the motherboard would have done; which would have been the next steps.

How do I replace a PSU?

Fortunately doing so is not as difficult as you may imagine: Just be sure that the unit you replace it with is as good or better quality than the unit you replaced. Some cheap and nasty power supplies are not what they seem. See this article. I suggest that before you replace a PSU that appears to have already burned out, you check its output first, before replacing it, as the reason that your machine appears dead my not always mean that the PSU is the faulty component part.

You can see where the PSU sits inside the case before you open it: Look on the back of the case and you’ll see the electricity mains power input and the opening for the power supply fan in close proximity. Now open up the case and identify the PSU: – A metal box with coloured wires that connect to the motherboard and other components. Make a note of where each one is connected: It’ll make it easier to reconnect then efficiently later, when you’ve replaced the PSU unit.

Ensuring that the computer is disconnected from the mains electricity, remove all the plugs on the ends of the bunches of wires that issue from the PSU from their sockets on the computer’s components. Be gentle and don’t force anything: if it wont budge then there’s probably a clip holding it in, or it might need a bit of gentle coaxing. (It would be a good idea to connect your body to electrical earth with an antistatic earthed wrist strap before starting this entire operation; just to be on the safe side.)

The power supply is normally mounted in the case and secured with four screws on the back of the case. Remove the screws and gently urge the PSU out of the case, ensuring that any of the trailing coloured wires don’t catch on anything and damage it. You might in some cases find that the PSU’s removal is obstructed by (an)other component(s). if this is the case it may be necessary to remove those components also. Don’t freak here: if you don’t feel able to continue you’ll have to ask a geek for help. Don’t lose the screws; put them somewhere safe. (I have screws lurking in every corner of the room where I neglect to keep them safe at times.) Having got the old unit out, discard it. Recycle it if at all possible. (ROHS)

Most PSUs these days are ATX type. If you have an old AT type PSU fitted to your computer then I suggest that you simply bin the computer and get a new one due to its age, or you give or sell it to a museum if you can. (Remember to delete the data on the hard-drive first.)

You’ll need to buy a replacement PSU with identical or higher ratings than the old one. Higher ratings would be a good idea in case of future expansion. (Adding more components.) I suggest ordering online, as shops and department stores may add extra cost simply to help keep their plush showrooms running.

Installing the New PSU

Insert the new unit into the space from which the old unit came and screw it into place using the four screws you took from the old unit’s mountings. You’ll normally need a Phillips screwdriver to do this; just as you would have required to remove them in the first place.

Next; find the ATX (P1) power connector and firmly plug it into the motherboard’s ATX receptacle.

Plug the SATA or Molex power connectors into the hard drive, cdrom drive, and all other components, as appropriate, (See your notes that I advised you to take previously.) that were previously connected to the power supply’s outputs.

*If a component has both a SATA and a Molex power connector, only connect one or the other. Connecting both will destroy the component and probably your new PSU also when you power up.*

Make sure that there are no unused power connectors hanging around in the case where they could touching a fan or anything metal. Use twist-wires or cable-ties to secure any such connectors securely to the case without allowing them to electrically connect with the case. See this article.

Replace the case panel and reconnect the monitor, keyboard, mouse, speakers, etc.

Check the On/Off and 110/220 switches (if present) on the back of the power supply to make sure they are in the correct position – Remember: 220 volts in Europe; 110 if in the USA or anywhere else where the mains input voltage is 110 volts. *If in doubt; start with the switch set at 220 volts and if it doesn’t work, try 110 volts. – unless you’re in Europe, in which case something somewhere’s not connected if it doesn’t work. *I repeat: DO NOT attempt to set the switch to 110 volts in Europe. – Otherwise you will hear a bang and your computer will be toast.

Insert the power cable’s “kettle plug” into the socket on the back of the power supply, plug the other end into your wall socket or power strip, and power up as normal. Everything should work properly and your PSU is no longer dodgy.

Your comments are appreciated.

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As a Pagan I’d be failing if I didn’t mention Halloween; which is only a week away now. Basically all religions afford it some significance of a kind; particularly the mystic and Pagan religions.

I received the following video today from Lisa Jackson, a Pagan friend of mine, on the subject of-. Lisa always manages to combine the artistic with the informative. Her creativeness seems to be somewhat unbounded. I’ve even told her that she should be producing documentaries for the BBC in the past. I just know that she’s going to present the Pagan view of the festival so much better artistically than I ever could verbally.

Surprisingly she’s a You Tube artiste’; but unlike some of many she’s a real artist and a good one at that. I’ve featured her work on this blog more than once before – Not solely because I want to do her a favour but because I truly believe in her talents and abilities. There is no point in putting crap on this blog as a favour to someone unless I want to achieve audience figures of zero: If I didn’t truly think there was talent there I’d give it a miss.

Take a look at the latest Lisa production; even visit her You Tube page and view some of her other works why not?

This time of year is when the Celtic year draws to a close. Most Pagans see this as the ending of an old and beginning of a new cycle of nature’s wheel – Ever turning, repeating year in, year out. For there to be plenty there must be also depletion: That is the balance of nature. The winter is the time of lean; when the supplies no longer come in, and we live from what we have gleaned in the summer of plenty that has just gone by.

We live in the knowledge that the Sun god will be reborn on the Winter Solstice and will rise up in the sky day by day to warm the barren frozen wilderness that has transpired from the luscious fields of plenty. We live in the knowledge that the wheel will turn again and the lean will become the fill of the earth, the harvest, and then it turns again.

We also see Samhein (pronounced sow-een) as a time when the worlds collide; when just for a short time the realms of the three paths entwine: When the lair of the dead, the emptiness of the future unfulfilled; the unborn not yet conceived, joins with our world and becomes a part of our dimension just for that fleeting moment; those few precious hours.

We use this as a time to reflect upon the year that has been and to remember our departed ones: Ancestors we may have never known and loved ones that we still hold dear alike. We are ready to embrace the new year and plan for the times ahead. First we must let the world of those passed take the remains of the old year to its final resting so that we can move on unobstructed.

The great goddess is withering and in solitude from the loss of her lover. We bid the old cycle farewell and all must die to be reborn.

Enjoy the video:-

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The experts from the scientific institutions such as Oxford Uni and NASA recently convened a gathering aimed at devising ways to prevent information technologies threatening human dominance and possibly bringing about the end of civilisation as we know it.

(Personally I think it might be a good idea if done right – I mean look at planet Earth right now: Humans are trying to self-destruct as a species as it is by the looks of it. Maybe it’s time for a change brought about by the cyber-gods we create? Jobsweh and his ilk aren’t doing very well after all; Gates has retired; and a conflict between Redmond, Jobsweh, and “cyber-terrorists” from the open-source community – The dark side in jackets – appears to have kicked off in a small way anyway.)

Is the Matrix to become a reality? I suggest pre-empting it by rewriting Smith if so. Will we become slaves to vast armies of terminators following a nuclear war started by our computers? I think not – That scenario appears a bit too far-fetched to me; considering the fact that such a war would obliterate most of the worlds computers, internet communications, and server units, anyway.

The lightning pace of information technology may be of concern to some; but would it be so bad to be controlled to some extent by a higher, if non-human, intelligence? Once again I really don’t see what’s so terrible about that. Humans replaced Neanderthals because they were more adept at survival, so what if some technologically-enhanced race of humans superceded humans as we know them today?

OK ignoring thoughts of the Borg that are now running through the heads of Trekkies reading this blog – Forget the Borg collective consciousness and forget cruising the universe in a cube looking for vulnerable civilisations to turn into more of the collective – I really can’t see what’s so bad about having unobtrusive implants attached to increase the sensitivity of the human senses, in addition to being a replacement for worn out parts. OK maybe it might change humanity totally; but is that so bad after all? We already have the capability to self-annihilate within minutes and it only takes some set of power-crazy halfwits with access to the right button to make it happen: What if technology could prevent it from ever happening? What if some implant could correct the chemical imbalances in people’s deranged minds: No Hitlers, Stalins, no warmongering Bush hearing voices from “god” telling him to nuke his enemies.

The experts say that the reason humans are the dominant species on this planet is because of our intelligence – Pah! – What intelligence? – We’re just clever monkeys having bigger inter-tribal wars with each other and using rocket-propelled sticks and stones that explode and kill more of the enemy; otherwise we’re no better than Neanderthals as a whole, apart from being better suited to today’s environment physically. If technology threatens that position due to having greater intelligence then good: Isn’t evolution wonderful? Isn’t it just engineered evolution taking its natural course? – Or do we fight it and carry on blowing each other up until there’s nobody left to kill?

They think that they could create a super-computer with recursive artificial intelligence that could become more intelligent than humans. I say do it: You can’t get more stupid than some humans in some regards; and those stupid humans usually end up leading an army of followers…You know the story – Look at Osama Bin-Laden as one example.

“Anything that has more brains than us, can develop more technology, more quickly – including powerful weapons technologies. It could also come up with strategies and plots much more quickly and would therefore be extremely powerful.” said Bostrom; one of the so-called experts in question. If that were the case then surely it would soon see how the way humans have turned out is only going to lead to oblivion; therefore it might even ensure a future for humanity- rather than the 50/50 chance of self-elimination.

The mind boggles! – Aided of course by the latest multi-cored processing technologies. If only…

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As far as I am aware this is the most part of one of many versions of the “original” Moon Goddess Incantation, allegedly taken from ancient Hebrew traditions and writings stretching way way back before Biblical times, before the Hebrew monotheistic culture, maybe even back before the formation of the Genesis myth itself; to a time when the original gods, the Elohim that the early untranslated writings of Genesis refer to, were worshipped: A time when the tree of life was held sacred and symbolised with its roots in the unfathomable soil of the past stretching from the beginnings of the universe and emerging at the wellhead of the spring of the waters of life in the Garden of Persephone’. This sacred tree was guarded by an immortal serpent who was later to become the symbol of the downfall of humanity in the later Hebrew mythologies; the personification of the root of evil; a fallen angel in the guise of a snake in a different garden – That of Eden.

The Hebrews bastardised their ancient legends at the uprising of monotheism and the exclusive worship of Yahweh, son of the Elohim; leading eventually to the formation of Christianity: Another bastardisation based upon an original bastardisation of ancient legend.

Here is the incantation of the Moon Goddess: She whom even the gods call beautiful:

I am She who ‘ere the earth was formed –

was Rhea, Binah, Ge,

I am that soundless boundless bitter sea

Out of whose deeps life wells eternally.

Astarte, Aphrodite, Ashtoreth –

Giver of life and bringer of death;

Hera in heaven, on earth Persephone’,

Diana of the ways, and Hecate.

All these am I, and they are seen in me,

The hour of the high full moon draws near;

I hear the invoking words, hear and appear

Shaddai El Chai and Rhea, Binah, Ge –

I come unto the priest who calleth me.

Oh Isis veiled and Rhea, Binah, Ge,

Lead us to the well of memory,

The well-head where the pale-white Cyprus grows,

By secret twilight paths that no-one knows.

Diana of the ways and Hecate,

Selene of the moon, Persephone’.

The high full moon in the mid-heavens shines clear,

Oh hear the invoking words, Hear and appear!

Shaddai El Chai and Rhea, Binah, Ge.

Sink down, sink down, sink deeper, and sink deep.

Into eternal and primordial sleep.

Sink down, forget, be still, and draw apart

Into the inner earth’s most sacred heart.

Drink of the waters of Persephone’,

The secret well beside the sacred tree.

I am that secret queen, persephone’,

All tides are mine, and answer unto me,

Tides of the airs, tides of the inner earth,

The secret silent tides of death and birth –

Tides of men’s souls, and dream, and destiny –

Isis veiled and Rhea, Binah, Ge.

I am the star that rises from the sea,

The twilight sea.

I bring men dreams that rule their destiny

I bring the moon tides to the souls of men,

The tides that flow and ebb and flow again

That flow and ebb and flow alternately.

These are my secret, these belong to me.

I am the eternal woman, I am she –

The tides of all men’s souls belong to me.

The tides that flow and ebb and flow again;

The secret silent tides that govern men;

These are my secret, they belong to me.

Out of my hands he takes his destiny;

Touch of my hands bestows serenity.

These are the moon tides, these belong to me.

Isis in heaven, on earth Persephone’;

Diana of the moon and Hecate’,

Veiled Isis, Aphrodite from the sea,

All these I am and they are seen in me.

The high full moon in the heavens shines clear,

I hear the invoking words, hear and appear –

Shaddai el Chai and Rhea, Binah, Ge,

I come unto the priest that calleth me.

Sink down, sink down, sink deeper and more deep.

Into eternal and primordial sleep.

Sink down, be still, forget, and draw apart

Sink into the inner earth’s most secret heart.

Drink the waters of persephone’.

The sacred well by the sacred tree.

Waters of life and strength and inner light –

Eternal joy drawn from the deeps of night.

Then rise, made strong, with life and hope renewed,

Reborn from darkness and from solitude,

Blessed with the blessing of Persephone’,

And the secret strength of Rhea, Binah, Ge.

—-

This has been further parodied and set to music thus:

“Thou art the soundless boundless bitter sea;

And all things in the end shall go to thee.

Thine is the kingdom of Persephone’;

The inner earth where leads the pathways three”

“Thou art the star that riseth from the sea;

In all things thou bringst men their destiny.

The tides that ebb and flow and ebb again;

These are thy secrets; they belong to thee.”

With the chorus line added:

“She who drinks the waters from that well;

She shall see things there she dare not tell:

‘Shall tread the shadow path that leads to thee;

Isis, Ictii, Persephone’.”