A Conjuror without HGA

Ever wonder what a person attempting to call a sub-lunar spirit (like from the Goetia) should feel like if they haven't done the extremely easy and basic work of getting in touch with their HGA?

Courting Heaven's Messengers

Frater Ararita418 (whose Public Identity has yet to be established) is the friend I mentioned in last night's post. He has provided a web page with a link to his discussion on Angel Magic, titled "Courting Heaven's Messengers." He's a well-spoken, refined brother. I am highly respectful of his scholarship, knowledge, and understanding of angelic magical systems. While listening, I'd find a thing he said that I'd disagree with, and then later he'd go over it in more detail, and I'd realize he agreed with my experience after all. It's interesting to hear other people's interpretations of things that confirm in odd ways what you've experienced.

So, click here and have a listen:

http://www.geocities.com/ararita418/angelclass.html

For some personal background, I met Ararita418 around the time I made contact with my HGA. He witnessed the changes I went through, and has been able to provide me with insights into what I'm going through as I go through it over the past three or four years. He's a Merkavah fiend, and has developed several lessons that he teaches on Angel magic. I can't wait for him to get into the demons, but he's being wise and waiting for K&C.

He talks in this piece about the grimoire The Sword of Moses, and it reminded me of Fr. POS's dream of receiving a Sword after doing the Enochian magic with EXARP. I'd like to see those two get their heads together and compare notes some time.

Enochian: EHNB

Last week sometime, I began my Enochian Experiment. I conjured up EHNB.

For those who aren't in the know, the name of the Enochian Angel EHNB is derived from the "Tablet of Union." I'm pretty sure the Tablet of Union is primarily from the Golden Dawn, from what I've seen on traditionalist Enochian sites. Dee had drawn the Table of Union in the margins of his diary, but had not apparently received it as a specific separate Table to be made as part of your tools. There's not even any indication that the Great Table was to be literally created. Regardless, the Table of Union, as it has come to be known, is still useful. This is a table that has five columns and four rows. The four names of from the central cross of the Great Table are arranged thusly:

	Spirit	Air	Water	Earth	Fire
Air	E	X	A	R	P
Water	H	C	O	M	A
Earth	N	A	N	T	A
Fire	B	I	T	O	M

The elemental attributes are derived from context clues in the writings. According to DuQuette, EHNB is the Archangel of the the other four Archangels. Within the E of EHNB, Exarp dwells, and within the H of EHNB, HCOMA dwells, and so forth.

When I conjured EHNB, I didn't have much happen. I didn't feel a great presence fill the room. For one thing, you have to read the First and Second Calls in Enochian, and for flip's sake, I might as well have been reading Russian. I had no idea what I was saying, or how to say it right. It was unpleasant. Most of the time when I say my prayers before a ritual, I say them in straght-talk. I don't do too many thees and thous, except when I'm lighting the candle that represents the light of the First Father that contracted to form the void into which the Word went to work creating....

Anyway, point is, I usually keep it simple and straightforward. I was listening tonight to a talk given by a friend on Angel Magic. I'd post a link, but I don't know if it's ready for public consumption. (update: click the link to the left/above.) He talks about how Trithemian magic, which he attributes Enochian magic to as well, is so much easier than Solomonic magic. I started with the Trithemian system, and then applied the lessons learned there to the Solomonic traditions, and had a lot of success. If Michael shows up on a Sunday dawn with "Lord, send Michael to commune with me in this crystal," then the demons had damned well better hop to at a few words as well. And they do.

So Enochian is definitely different. The First and Second Calls were terrible. I almost laughed at how badly I was pronouncing the words, it was so bad. When EHNB didn't show up in any discernable way, I wasn't much surprised. But I listened anyway.

There was a darkness, a void, sort of, but it wasn't empty. I sensed it above the middle of the SDA. I didn't know if it was there because the angels that are inscribed on the SDA were empowering it, or if EHNB was there. I figured I'd trust my magic, and with a quick word to my HGA asking for the presence of EHNB, I went ahead with the conversation.

Duquette recommends asking the spirit what it's scent is, what it's color is, what its role is, and so on and so forth. I hadn't paid enough attention to it before preparing to remember all the questions, so I went ahead with my standard Angel thing. "EHNB, reveal to me what Enochian magic will do to draw me closer to God, how I will find a practical application for it as a magician, a child of God made in his image, and reveal the role Enochian magic will have for me." It's a lot like what I ask for when working with the archangels of the planets, "Attune my sphere and tell me what I need to know."

I heard a voice, or many voices speaking in unison, but extremely quietly. The conversation was nothing great or prolonged. It was free of the haughty tones the archangels have with a lot of magicians. There were no scriptural-sounding proclamations or anything. Just a quiet, still small voice having a straightforward conversation. I can't remember any details, per se; in fact, I'd forgotten the conversation entirely until Fr. POS reminded me of it yesterday.

Because I'm so far behind Fr. POS and Sr. Gimel, I conjured all four of the other spirits that make up EHNB at the same time. I didn't get much out of each individual, nothing more really than I got from EHNB. I figured Enochian wasn't that big of a deal after all, and closed out the rite, asking the angels to reveal to me in dreams the roles theyplayed in more detail.

Ever since, I've had really incredibly vivid dreams about how everything is united and how time is kept for each thing you do. It's been really detailed and lucid in the dreams, but the "lessons" weren't new. I felt sort of ripped off. I went to all that trouble, and all I got was a Vision of Yesod, the mechanical nature of the universe.

Then it all culminated while I was lying down on the couch with my two sick kids last week. I figured I should do something magical for them, because I want them healed, I'm a magician, and I would totally trash any magician who didn't try to help their kids when they were sick, you know?

I started with a simple chakra visualization I've used for years. Green heart-chakra "energy" expanding from my chest and encircling the kids as they laid beside me watching TV. Your basic stuff.

Then WHABAM! Everything made sense. I had a flash of EHNB, Exarp, Hcoma, Nanta, and Bitom encircling me, fillign me, being at one with my will and the will of God and how they were busily doing their jobs maintaining everything (EVERY THING), and yet at the same time waiting for me. I saw everything was made of cubes. It was like pixelation. Each cube was elemental in nature. They all worked together in harmony to make up experiential reality. And then I saw I had a way to move the blocks around.

I "saw" my kids' hearts, their bloodstreams, their mucous systems, the fluids and blood cells fighting the disease, and I saw the diseases as well, little black cubes in the pixelated world. The immune systems of the kids were working on cleaning out the kids' bodies. I started helping out the immune systems, getting everything that was already doing its work tuned up and working in better harmony, because it was tired. then I got this nudge, or inspiration, and just started pointing at the cubes of disease and removing them. "Be not."

The next day, the kids were noticeably better. My daughter had an ear infection one day, and it was at its worst, and then the next day it was just gone. My son is still draining some mucous, but his sore throat's gone. Neither have any trace of a fever.

So not only is Enochian magic a sweet system, it's actually useful. My doubts that it would be all vision magic(k) and nothing practical are allayed.

Political Magic

I mentioned back around election time that I may revisit what I did related to the election.

I removed the hexes against McCain placed by some Nigerians. And others. My goal was to just keep things fair. Plus he's old, poor fellow.

And for all of you worried about Palin and thinking she's insane, here she is standing up for a constitutional right to bear arms, and pursuing her hunting hobby. Life, liberty, pursuit of happiness. So people, chill out! What could possibly go wrong?

[Edit: I rejected a comment from someone expressing their very serious concerns about Palin. I guess the picture isn't obvious enough. I'll try to make it larger so you can SEE the name plate under the reindeer with the GLOWING RED NOSE. Because the humor is not coming through.]

Happy Holidays

Happy Holy Days, whether they are special to you because the stars have aligned just right or because they are days, and that's beautiful.

As a Christian Magician, you may expect a reminder that the holiday we celebrate on the 25th has been Officially Taken Over by the Church to celebrate the moment that the Logos stepped down through the spheres and into a mortal coil so that once and for all, creation could celebrate without shame or excuse that we are made in the image of God, by God and for God.

But that would be redundant at this point.

So Merry Christmas to all my brothers and sisters, and Happy Yule, Solstice, Chanukkah, Kwanzaa, and for those lighting Dipa for Dupali... What the hell is Dupali?

Happy holidays from Frater R.O., and may you meet some cool Christians.

To all my geek friends

From http://blogs.techrepublic.com.com/project-management/?p=277&tag=nl.e101:

‘Twas the night before Christmas (or “holiday break”)
But I was still working — I kicked off a rake.
Secure shells were placed on my desktop with care,
So no one could sniff what I typed away there.
My clients’ hot issues were all put to bed,
But what those had preempted still caused me to dread.
So I in my bathrobe (’twas cold in that room)
Had just settled down for a long game of Doom.
When out on the WAN there arose such a mess
I thought that it must be a DDoS!
Away to the firewall I flew like Jet Li
Denied all incoming, even SMTP.
But as I more closely inspected each packet,
I realized with awe what was causing the racket:
A download! What format? I couldn’t have known it
But I found it included a textual component:
“Now JavaScript! Perl! Now Python and Ruby!
On Haskell! on Clojure! on Scala and Groovy!
To the Web-facing site, to the edge firewall,
Now bash away, bash away, bash away all!”
The download completed, though I tried to abort,
And a little man popped out a USB port!
His glasses — how thick! His gut — a real softy!
And his beard was all stained with cold pizza and coffee.
He was nerdy and plump, a right jolly old geek,
Though he smelled like he hadn’t had a bath in a week.
He spoke not a word, but went right ahead
He wiped off all Windows, installed *nix instead
The software I’d need, he downloaded it all
(Still using less space than a fresh Win install).
In the USB port he inserted his thumb
And vanished right into it the way he had come
But I heard him exclaim, ere I even had missed ‘im
Happy Christmas to all, and to all a good system!

The Things Shed as we Rise

I found a neat part of the Divine Pymander I'd either forgotten about or just took for granted. It tells you which parts of the self you are to overcome, or surrender, in each sphere to attain the next highest level.

As you ascend through the spheres, whether you're using the method I outlined in the kinetic meditation post, or via some other means, I think the following information is useful.

The first stage is the dissolution of the body. Whether that means death or not, I don't claim to know. Personally, I interpret it as being able to leave the body to perform spiritual Work in the different spheres.

I had wanted to detail each stage, but I just don't have the time anymore to devote to lengthy blog posts. Until I get more time, the posts will likely be shorter; I can hear you weeping now. But seriously, meditate on the following excerpt (copy-pasted from http://www.hermetic.com/ under their Classical texts section, if I remember right). Starting at the Moon, begin to give up the desires listed as you Work your way up. It's what I'm focussing on at the moment in my meditation time.

And thus it is that man doth speed his way thereafter upwards through the Harmony.

To the first zone he gives the Energy of Growth and Waning; unto the second [zone], Device of Evils [now] de-energized; unto the third, the Guile of the Desires de-energized; unto the fourth, his Domineering Arrogance, [also] de-energized; unto the fifth, unholy Daring and the Rashness of Audacity, de-energized; unto the sixth, Striving for Wealth by evil means, deprived of its aggrandizement; and to the seventh zone, Ensnaring Falsehood, de-energized.

Book Review: Pushing Ultimates

Today I received an email advertising Pushing Ulltimates, by "Lew Paz." I don't know why they sent me this email, but I wasn't thrilled.

However, to give it a fair shake, I went to the web site and looked at the publishing house's credentials. They have only Lew's book to their credit. Lew designed the publishing house's trademark. I think they might be rather friendly with old Lew, personally. You know. Friendly.

So I went through the excerpts they had on their site. The book purports to be a modern philosopher's foray into the mind and self awareness. I think. It was confusing. The excerpts show that most of this book is made up of quotes that illustrate the author's point. He uses really big words too.

Here's a sample from the Excerpts page:

From the works of numerous scholars of varied fields, it is clear that a vast proportion of the population is alienated from authentic self-awareness. This alienation has been described as a psychological/spiritual stultification of the evolution of consciousness, brought about by mass subservience toward external socially oriented goals, which disregard knowledge of human spiritual essence. As the great Hindu sage Sri Aurobindo maintained, authentic knowledge begins when we probe beyond appearances, beyond ossified traditional belief systems and sterile scientism. The quality of knowledge this book is concerned with is, as the scholar Henri Corbin wrote, “knowledge that changes and transforms the knowing subject.”

For serious.

Ok, now as a writer, I know how much effort went into this book. I know he thinks it's important. He spent all that time writing, editing, and then promoting his book. Designing the web site probably took an hour or two in itself. And registering the domain must be costing him at least $15. So it's not only time and effort, it's real capital he's invested into this work.

And it might actually help someone. Somewhere. With a large vocabulary. Who is easily impressed by proof-text quotes from alleged spiritual masters they've never heard of.

Me, I wasn't too impressed. But since they took the time to send me an email, I decided to take the time and give it a review based on what they have publicly available.

I think it sucks. I would rather see people go out and do magic than waste a dime or an iota of time reading this kind of self-serving new age crap. Magic is free, the knowledge you need is free, and this dude's insights... Well, let's just say that it's easy to find other people to quote who agree with the author becuase these aren't exactly original.

It's repackaged, sure, and seriously, the guy spent a long time writing it, and that's worthy of respect, but there's a lot of dreck that takes a long time to write available. So hats off for finishing a manuscript, Lew Paz, but next time make it more approachable, drop the quotes, and tell us what you really experienced and think about it.

The Secret to Power

Activation of the power of the grimoires to their fullest comes from two things. First you need to understand the context of the grimoires by studying a wide variety of approaches that were contemporary to one another. You need to read the Keys of Solomon, all the parts of the Lemegeton, the 6th and 7th Books of Moses, Liber Juratus, the Grimorium Verum, and most importantly perhaps, the Heptameron. You need to know the world view they are representative of by learning about neo-platonism, cosmic hierarchies, and Hermeticism. You need to know the politics of the time, and the doctrines of the Churches that were being tossed about.

Learning all that stuff doesn't take that long, really. I read like a fish breathes water. A couple of months on Joe Peterson's Esoteric Archive is enough to get your feet wet.

There's still another piece to activating the full power of the grimoires, in my opinion and experience, though that must be taken. Think of it as an initiation. You've got to be baptized in the Holy Spirit.

On a list I belong to comprised primarily of pagans who also happen to perform ceremonial magic(k), a recent post was about the Right Path. I explained in my best possible non-judgmental, non-proselytizing way that there are lots of different individual paths, but they all end up at the same place, eventually. I also included that you know you're on the right path when you get a vision of the universe and your personal place in it.

That's exactly what you need to really activate the grimoires. Knowing about the hierarchies is great, but until you not only know where your place in them is, but also know that you are in that place because you've been spiritually transformed, you don't get to really get the full benefits.

My transformation came from church. I got a spiritual baptism that changed me at the core. I accepted what Christ did on the cross on my behalf. I saw that he made right what had been wrong for so long. I felt the cleansing of my sphere. It was a truly powerful experience that literally changed my life.

THEN I made contact with my Holy Guardian Angel. The spiritual transformation was given an applicable framework. Specific tasks were given, training programs were enacted, and at each stage progressively my sphere was sanctified, purified, and reconciled more to the place where I could operate from in power.

It was like being trained to use the equipment in an Air Traffic Control Tower. I learned to read the weather (astrological conditions), the radar (astral viewing/scrying), the codes to give the airplanes (seals, sigils, names), and the most efficient ways to direct landings and take-offs so that the operations were strategically coordinated (the frameworks of the grimoires). I learned disaster recovery techniques (sell the crystal skull and set wards against Tezcatlipoca), and emergency situation protocols (how to use the lead Seal of Solomon from the Goetia). I learned the ins and outs of the job, and then I got to work at the controls myself with the trainer right behind and slightly above me making sure everything went smoothly. We started at a small airport with a few airplanes (the Art of Drawing Spirits into Crystals attributed to Trithemius), and worked my way up to more advanced Work involving a lot more craft (Enochian now, sheesh).

Every step of the way, the transformation I experienced in church during a praise and worship service has been added to, magnified, and made more meaningful. I no longer attend church regularly. I relate to God through my magic, my meditation, my contemplation, and even in the back-aching inscription of alternate alphabets into wood, stone, and metals. I pray a lot more and talk a lot less. All the knowledge and conversation with my HGA, all the learning from books, all the conjuring of Angels and Demons, it's meaningless without that initial transformation.

Do you have to be a Hermetic Christian with Gnostic tendencies to get the most out of the Grimoires? I can't say you must, because I never got jack shit out of them before I was one. I don't have anything to compare it to. But I can tell you that based on my experiences, it certainly does help.

Enochian Tools Draft Complete

I finished the first set of Enochian tools. Pics are below. I'll be making more as time goes by, more authentic, but I'm kinda eager to get started.

 

  

  

  

 

Barbatos in 2009

Well, ladies and gents, I've got some plans warming.

The Invisible College is a thing I've spoken of before. I'm going to start using a blog I set up before to track how I use magic to influence my world. I'd like to invite anyone interested in writing posts for the blog to contact me, and I'll add you to the list of authorized writers. I ask that only those who are comfortable talking about how they practically use magic to control their world contact me.

The rest of this post is an example of what I would expect to see at the Invisible College Blog, only better written, more creative, and less rambling. I do tend to ramble.

Barbatos in 2009

I was looking through the Goetia descriptions today, and found this description of Barbatos:

Makes you Dr. Doolittle, opens treasures sealed by magicians, divination, reconciles friends and those in power

I know, where did I ever find such an awesome and detailed description of the spirit? From my spreadshet. One of the columns I have for the Goets is a quick-reference guide to their abilities.

No, you can't have it.

Reconciles Friends and Those in Power

Hey, that sounds like the kind of help a leader of the US might need after taking over from a bumbling Texan with more financial backers than brains who single-handedly pissed off most of the countries of the world over the last eight years. That's also the kind of help I'd like to see get to work in Iraq's Parliament, the Palestine-Israel situation, and Russia-Georgia.

So, rather than experiment on my own country's leadership, I'm going to start in the backwater nations. A quick Google news search tells me that there are ample opportunities for Reconciliations between those in Power in many parts of the world. How wonderful for me!

I'm going to start with Somalia. The following dudes are having issues:

President Abdullahi Yusuf Ahmed & Prime Minister Nur Hassan Hussein

Granted, I don't have a large amount of info on the background of their problems, but I don't want to have to know. I want to gauge the effectiveness of Barbatos in bringing reconciliation between two political leaders. These dudes are the first target. I'll find some others later to get a wider sampling. If it looks like Barbatos is good at bringing reconciliation without any major catastrophes as a result, then I'll help Obama out in his efforts with Iran, Russia, and France. I'll also target the GOP and the Democrats, see if we can get a little peace in congress so we can make some progress.

Hmmm. Maybe I'll look for a spirit that makes Wall Street people SMART for a change. :-D

New job, less blog time...

Well, thanks to Bune, Och, and any other spirits that have worked on it, I've been enjoying a great new job. It's only been three days, but they've been grueling. Getting used to waking up and going to a job again, every day, has been quite an adjustment. I've gone from shower-optional to business-formal. I have to buy some ties. I got a haircut. I even brushed my teeth (my breath TOTALLY stank).

So I haven't had much energy for blogging. I've been coming home, spending time with the kids, and then passing out when they go to bed. Last night I woke up at 11 and was up until around 2:00 a.m. catching up with online friends and working on my Enochian Table.

I've made some progress towards finishing the Table for Enochian Work. I'm wood-burning the design into the top. I fucked up a bit, here and there, but following in Soror Gimel's(1) Piscean ways, I'm considering it a "prototype."

If it looks too bad when complete, I will likely stain the whole thing ebony, and then use gold leaf for the letters. I think that would be totally beautiful when finished.

The picture above is of the table earlier last night. The photo below shows where it's at now.

Now, for the feet... Well, I'll make another post about that tomorrow. I'm tired.

(1) The author of the My Gal blog; also known as the Grand Gardener of Gribbit Grove

Enochian Magic(k)

When we heard DuQuette's Enochian Vision Magick was out, Fr. POS and I decided to work on it at the same time, so we could compare notes. He and his gal have done some neat work on the Tablet of Nalvage. I mean, really neat. The letters are all carved by hand. Look at them. That's really good work.

So now I have to catch up. I got started on the Ring of of Solomon yesterday. Soror Gal gave me some pointers on how she made her rings out of Sculpey. I followed most of her advice, but I made my ring in two parts, and then when it was finished baking, I filed one side down of the ring part until it was flat. After gold-leafing it (and gluing the ring part back together where it broke because I was using "Ultra Light" Sculpey), I glued the square to the ring using wood glue.

It's not the most sturdy thing, but it will do until the paychecks start rolling in and I can buy some real equipment for making magical talismans out of the proper ingredients. I may not be Wade Coleman, or at least not for a while, but I'll be getting the stuff to do the work he does. Maybe "Ugly Works" won't have to be my motto for much longer.

Anyway, I've got two pounds of beeswax and a nine-inch pie pan. I'm going to see how thick one pound is, and I hope I'll have enough for both the Tablet of Nalvage and the Sigilum Dei Aemyth (SDA). Or however you spell it. I'm thinking of making the Tablet of Nalvage smaller if necessary. Nine inches of wax is cool for the SDA, but I'm only making a 12"X12" table, I hope.

While I really love DuQuette's book, I'd rather use an SDA from an older manuscript. They're much easier to draw. I don't think Fr. POS would let me get away with that though. It would throw off our ability to compare notes as we go along.

One nice thing about doing Work with other magicians is that you are kept to a particular standard. He and Soror Gal have set the standard pretty high with their meticulous recreation of the Tablet of Nalvage. I don't want to learn the Enochian Alphabet. It's graceful, and I can barely print legibly. But I will, for the sake of SCIENCE!!! Or at least for the sake of having something comparable to their excellent work.

To god and His Spirits, I give thanks

Goetic Magic rocks.

Yesterday I got the final confirmation (a formality, really) that I will be starting a new job on Monday making a huge butt-load of cash. I've broken six figures now. So, thanks to Bune, thanks to my HGA, and thanks to God for revealing the path to financial well-being in spite of the economic down-turn.

And Och has kept me in cash since I've engraved that seal on my ring. Like literally, my wallet hasnt been empty since engraving the seal. Partially because I don't spend it all at once.

So, yeah, money magic. Give a donation here, carve a seal on a gold band there, and burn candles to a Goetic spirit on occassion. And be patient. I was freakin' out for a while there, but it didn't help.

Once again, I have found that you burn a candle to Bune and you get what you're looking for within a couple of weeks. Maybe having the spirit pot for him to hang out in helps, I dunno. Whatever. I'm doing pretty well. Thanks.

Why is a Christian helping a Pagan anyway?

Couple people have asked, so I'll tell you.

Joe doesn't tell you what you have to believe. He just helps. Like Mother Theresa.

Joe's been treated badly by Christians, personally. So have most Pagans. That's bullshit. Jesus wasn't like that. I want to remind Pagans of the message of Christ, that God loves you no matter what. No matter what.The Bible says God revealed himself to Pagans through their poetry and their philosophy (Acts 17:22-28). The Bible says Melchizedek was the forerunner of Jesus Christ, and guess what folks, Melchizedek wasn't Hebrew, didn't worship JHVH, and never heard of Jesus. He just worshipped "The Most High God" (Hebrews 7). It also says Christianity is for Christians and that only God (the holy spirit) can convert anyone. Our job is to love our neighbors as ourselves. That's it.

So in part, I'm trying to make up for my ignorant brothers. (Paul calls a lot of people "ignorant brothers" in the Bible. They've been around as long as Christ.)

Also, Jesus said that when you visit people in prison, you're visiting him. I don't do that. I don't have time, or even the inclination. But I have money, thanks to God's revelations about working with Goetic spirits throughout my life. That's something I can send out.

Another thing is compassion. I am an asshole, as many of my readers know. I don't like people in general. As individuals, most people are alright, and have some redeeming qualities. As a whole, we're an evil lot. I think prisoners are mostly there for good reason, and probably deserve worse. But I've been in jail a couple times. It sucks. I deserved it, and probably worse. I had a mommy and daddy to bail me out. They knew me better than the judge or cops did. They knew more about me than just the crimes I had committed. They saw past the criminal to the human underneath.

The key to the Great Work is found in "Knowing yourself." As a result, we tend to spend a lot of time being pretty self-centered. But the thing about the Great Work is that what we learn about ourselves is applicable to other humans too. It's a Solar understanding, or was for me. Some folks get it at Venus.

Regardless of where we learn it, we learn to see past the crime to the man who committed it, just as we learn to see past the our focus on Growth and Diminishment, the Devices of Evil, the Guiles of Desires, Domineering Arrogance, Daring and Rashness of Audacity, Striving for Wealth by evil means, and the Ensnaring Falsehoods of the realms of form as we ascend through the Spheres and Work with the Celestial Intelligences. I'll go into detail about those in the future,they're from the Divine Pymander, sections 24-26 if you're curious.

But the point is, as we perform the Great Work, ascending and descending in power as outlined in the Emerald Tablet, it's supposed to change us. It changes me. I don't just see criminals who deserve their punishment, I see myself and all the times I fucked up. I see in Joe all the people, my mommy and daddy, my kids, my online friends and father-in-law, all the folks who are there for me in spite of my bullshit, who give and help and guide and teach and show the way when I'm lost and miserable.

Does it matter that he's a pagan? No, it doesn't. He's someone I was lucky to meet through Fr. Bonehead's friendship. Since I know him, and I know he's doing something worthwhile, I'll spend some money on that. It's no big deal, really. I give to other charities too. Cops who get shot, Firemen who get burned, Vets missing limbs, Breast Cancer (the boobies you save may be the ones you love!),  and my Mom's fundy Christian ministry that focuses on getting abused women from Islamic countries to America where they can't have their noses cut off for burning dinner. Sure, they preach the love of Christ a lot as they're helping these women, but honestly, that's not so bad. A loving God is what they need to know about most, imho; Mom's got her issues, but she knows how to teach about the Love of God.

I hope it's coming across clearly. It's a mixture of love, respect, thanksgiving, compassion, and a degree or two of guilt. Joe doesn't guilt anyone. He was born and raised pagan, and he doesn't use the kind of Christian guilt tactics that I used in my previous post. That's great for him, but I'm not above motivating people to give out of guilt for being an asshole. Even a shitty thing like guilt can be turned around and used for good. That's the main lesson of the Great Work anyway. Turn the shit into something useful.

Some lame-ass bullsh**

For serious. Joe thanked me on his blog. I sent him less than 3% of what I make in a week, and he's the one that has to go to prison to help people.

I don't care what you people believe, whether you're Christian, Pagan, Atheist, or Buddhist. You're a human, and so are they. Help. Contact Joe to get info on helping his prison ministry a bit. Do something for someone else.

Joe says I gave him the most he's gotten from outside the ministry.
That's some sorry-ass bullshit. Take a buck or five out and mail it to Joe.

This is like the most basic money magic on the planet. You want to make some quick money? Give a little away to a good cause. It ain't rocket science. You plant a seed, it grows the fruit it came from. The basic formula of magic, take a symbol and do something symbolic with it. Fuckin' shit, man. Give some money away, and wow, it comes right back to you with interest.

I get a couple hundred people a day through here. Most of you are rich Americans. (No, not me, you say. I've got car payments, or tuition, or books to buy. Bullshit, you've got more money in your COUCH than some of the folks that email me from Brazil. Hell, you have a couch!)

Each of you take a sec and go through your change cup. You've got enough in your car to make a donation that would get those prisoners a smoke, a book, or something that reminds them that they are human and that there are other humans who give a shit about them just because they're human. You don't have to pay for everything Joe does alone. Send a little. Someone else will send a little too. But if you send NOTHING, you're an asshole. A cheap asshole. You spent more on your wand/crystal ball/latest Llewellyn Book than you've given to charity this year.

So many of you are so thrilled that you helped get a black man elected, oh yay for you; you voted. You want to talk HOPE? In prison, the hope is that you get out with your ass in tact, with as many teeth as you came in with, and hell, alive would be nice. 

Think about being a pagan in prison, where murderers with one tooth and nazi tattoos are the only people who've heard of FUTHARK, and you really don't want to talk to them about the Goddess, because it gives them a bulge in their pants. Think about a Wiccan priest coming to visit you in that hell, to talk, to teach, to listen, to give you care packages, to bring books on your faith. THINK about it. Use those visualization skills you've honed saying "AGLAH" a thousand times while drawing invisible blue pentagrams. Do something useful with it. Put yourself in another's shoes for a sec.

Picture it.

And then GIVE JOE SOME MONEY. Hell, he takes donations online at this site:

http://veritaswicca.com/CarcerVia.html

You can get the address by dropping him a line at that link, and you can mail him some money if you don't have a credit card. Take six quarters and an envelope to the grocery store, buy a stamp and get the cashier to give you a dollar for the quarters. Send him a buck and a note telling him your sorry for not helping more, because you damned well should.

And Christians: He's doing what Jesus told YOU (and me) to do. We ain't doing it. Least we can do is support him.

Things Wot Need to be Mentioned

There are over 10,000 Hells, it seems. The Mantises (Manti?) are restless. And the Hyenas are stalking. Fortunately, they're scavengers, so most of what they stalk is safe as long as it isn't dead.

You aren't dead, are you?

EDIT: On Kinetic Meditation

In the post from 10-30-08, I suggested using the concentric circles I posted and the names of God, Archangels, Seals, etc. of each of the sphere's aspects to perform a Kinetic Meditation.

In retrospect, I should have checked the graphics better. For one thing, there are too many circles. For another, the Names of God are wrong. :sigh:

Anyway, this is the corrected version. I corrected it in the other post, so there's no real evidence that I was ever wrong, but for those who tried it and ended up getting nothing, or something just not... quite... right (sorry about your finger exploding, not my fault, you should double check this stuff yourself!), here's the corrected graphic:

On free will and determinism

I now have conclusive proof that all things are predestinated, at least through July of 2038.

As we know, the present is what it is. Whatever happened before definitely did happen, and it caused what we are currently experiencing. If anything was different in the past, now wouldn't be what it is. Therefore everything that has happened must have happened for this to be what it is.

If Free Will were more than an illusion bred from ignorance and fear of the future, then the future could not exist until all things that we are still in the process of choosing had already been chosen. If anything came to us from the future, that would be conclusive proof that the future did indeed exist, and therefore the present potentials have already been reached.

I have in my inbox proof that there is a future. I have received emails from July of 2038. Apparently, some time in the next thirty years, they will not only master sending messages through time, but they will also cure erectile dysfunction and perfect genetic manipulation of male genitalia, leaving them with a surplus of viagra, cialis, and herbal supplements to enlarge a specific part of the male anatomy. They are selling them to us in their past to still be able to turn a profit.

Reminder: Today is Really Samhain

Last Friday was Halloween, but as Lavanah reminded (or in my case, "taught") us, today is the day that Samhain should be falling on.

ERGO! Re-review last Friday's blog post and see how that works out for you on a day when the sun is cross-quartered; if you didn't see the spirit you were looking for, try it again today when the veils between the worlds is truly thinnest.

And really, shouldn't we go trick-or-treating all over again? And light the candles in the gourds?

Not me, I'm a Christian... but we're not THAT far removed from you heathens. Scrape a little of the Holy Roman Patina off, and voila!

Anyway, I should get candy. That's all I'm sayin'.

In answer to the Star Wars Post at Strategic Sorcery...

I had this image from somewhere on the 'net, and I've been meaning to post about it, but didn't have the context. Thanks to brother Inominandum's Star Wars-themed post at Strategic Sorcery, I have an excuse!

The piece is based on the OBEY art project's nationally famous Obama poster. It's pretty unrelated to magic, unless you understand the Gra'al quest is epitomized in Episodes 4-6, AND you equate that to the Great Work, AND you think that we are performing our own Gra'al Quest as we ritually conjure the experiences in life that result in the esoteric manifestations of the Alchemical Processes that create the Stone...

Hey, it's on topic after all, with very little stretching of the imagination. Thanks to Susanne and Stalking Hyena for the comments on the Animal Stone mentioned in the Ode to a Weasle post yesterday. That's why I was back at the Alchemy Web Site and could fit it into today's post.

Ode to a Weasle

"Rosco P. Coltrane" was the name to you we gave,
soon to be written in childe's scrawl above your garden grave.
"Pets die more oft' than people do," I told her as she cried,
it didn't help because to her more than a weasle died.
A friend, a toy, a pet, a joy, the girl had lost too much.
I held her as she sobbed and shook, and blubbered on, and such.

I do not understand, I'm sure, the pleasure she had found
in that smelly, creepy-looking thing that recently had drown'd.
So my silence I shall keep on this, I will not bitch or moan
or mention that we have a chance to make the Animal Stone.
For now, Rosco, I bid adieu, and hope the childe can bear it,
this grief your passing brought to us, so long you smelly ferret.

(C) 2008, Rufus Opus

Admin note: Comments

Comments were acting weird today. I had switched the format a few weeks ago, and there were no problems, but today it went ker-put. I've changed the entry format, and it seems to be working now. If you had comments to make, feel free to make them now.

Why do we vote on Tuesdays?

Because it's War!

Voting is a Martial act. A revolutionary act. Every Vote we make as an American (or other) citizen is a declaration of War on tyranny. Regardless of the candidate elected, democracy wins against authoritarian regimes, monarchies, despotism, fascism, communism, oligarchies, and dictatorships.

You can see it at the voting booths. Doubt about the outcome, desire to be on the winning team, consternation about the lack of decent choices, hope that whatever happens, they'll be alright...

It's not the same as facing bullets, but the war rages on.

Now, what about other countries? What day do they vote on, and what does that tell us about how they perceive voting? Is it just America that has a Martial attitude about everything governmental? Are there any countries that vote on Fridays?

I voted!

For myself, of course. If you didn't click the AARP link the other day, you missed a campaign message from Yours Truly.

Rufus Opus in '08!

Now that this election business is about wrapped up, maybe we can get back to magic. In a few weeks, or months, I'll discuss some of the magic I performed in this year's election. Maybe. I kept silent about it because advertising your Work is just asking for some meat head who doesn't agree with you to come along and Work against you. With all the awareness of retroactive magic going on, it may be more prudent to just keep mum about it in general.

Heading out to vote

Ah! Blessed Libertas! Hail to thee, and all thy Works that have freed me from Evil Tyrrany! If it weren't for Lady Libertas, we'd still be frickin' Brittish. :shudder:

Liberty, folks. Americans have bled and died for the right to vote. Support our troops, your bumper sticker reads? Get out and VOTE! Have an opinon on the candidates? Make it mean something, get out and VOTE! Earn a right to your opinion: Get the fuck out and VOTE!

I don't give two shits in a hat who you vote for. I mean, I have MY PREFERENCES, but you know, it's the VOTE that makes being an American meaningful.

For years I didn't vote because I believed it didn't matter. Either way, the corporations/special interests win. While that's true to a degree, it's just a cop out. I pontificated about my political stance and did NOTHING to make a difference. Voting might be the least effective thing you can do to champion your personal cause(s) in government, but it's a hell of a lot more than I was doing. I don't organize activist meetings, I don't contribute to my favored candidates, I don't even use my blog (much) to influence others to my perspective. I like to think Magic(k) transcends politics.

But the least I can do is VOTE. So regardless of whether you're a McSamite or Obamatic, get out and VOTE.

FYI: I have very little control over what ads appear on my site. Fr. BH mentioned that an ad for a proposition that I don't support popped up on his version of my page. I have since blocked that domain from advertising here, but God knows they're pumping their money into Google's adsense to influence folks. If you see ads for stuff that you don't like, it's not my fault. If you really want to hurt the people that are advertising things you don't want to see, one sneaky method would be to click their links. Each click costs them money; the more they bid to get their ad displayed, the more it costs per click they get. When they run out of money, their ads won't pop up anywhere. I'm sure they've got millions, so to implement this kind of strategy, one would need to click the ads a few hundred times.

Just remember, I only display ads to make money. I don't necessarily support, condone, or stand in opposition to the services, beliefs, or goals of those that pay to advertise here. If you see an ad that you don't think belongs here, let me know and if I agree with you, I'll block their domain.

If you use Google ads to monetize your site: To filter ads, go to Google Adsense, Adsense Setup, and then click "Competitive Ad Filter." Type the domain of the advertiser you don't want to have access to your site in the big old text box in the middle of the page. There's online help if that doesn't give you enough detail.

Before you vote, please consider...

I really wasn't going to make my personal candidate the focus of the blog at all. I figured God wouldn't let that other idiot win.

But things just aren't looking that good for my candidate. So please, if you've ever thought I had anything decent to say, or if you've ever gotten a chuckle at some observation I've made, please, take the time to look at this AARP video, and just be open as you watch the video. Think about the message. I just hope some part of you is still able to respond to it before it's too late and that pinhead gets elected.

http://aarpvote08.com/?d=UnVmdXMgT3B1cw== 

Happy Halloween!

Here's the actual Post. Those who subscribe to my blog got the title in an RSS feed with no post because I hit Enter after typing the title instead of Tab. Blogger happily published the post. Title. I hadn't even started writing yet. Sorry.

Now, for today's post:

Hopefully you finished yesterday's exercise. If not, do so before performing any of the following operations. It doesn't replace K&CHGA, but it at least prepares you for what's coming.

This being Halloween, the day of the year when the veil between the worlds is thinnest, it's a great day for Necromancy.

I'm going to be conjuring Bune to make spirits appear on their sepulchres. I have a favorite graveyard where I'd like to perform the rite, but it's out in the country, way the hell away from here. I'll likely settle on building an astral image of a spooky old graveyard and performing most of the communications with him there... Although, it might be fun to have a spirit pop up on Poe's grave while they're doing Pennies for Poe here in Baltimore. Hmmmmmm....

No, no, I'll keep it serious.

Ok, so here's the deal:

In the Lemegeton's Goetia, you're given the seals, circles, pentagrams, hexagrams, etc. that you need to perform the conjuration. The bad news is, you won't have time to make them if you don't have them. The good news is that you won't be needing them to conjure Bune.

Instead, you'll need to perform the exercise from yesterday. When you're done, read the descriptions of Bune from the Lemegeton's Goetia AND from the Pseudomonarchia. Meditate on it for a while, imagine how he might look as described in the grimoire. Next, draw out Bune's Seal.

When you're done, go back and read his description again. Draw the seal a couple more times. This time intone and vibrate his Name as you're drawing it. When you've got it down nicely (it took me a couple of tries to figure out how to draw it properly proportioned), get a fresh, clean, never-used piece of paper, and draw it again. Write his name above it, intoning and vibrating it.

On the opposite side, draw out the Pentagonal Seal of Solomon. Again, vibrate and intone the words as you write them in the corners of the pentagon, and as you draw the little seals. I start with "Abdia" and work around, then finish with "Soluzen" in the center. The last thing I do is write the Te-Tra-Gram-Ma-Ton around the Pentacle. I've speculated in the past that every time you see "Tetragramaton" in a ritual or on a seal, you should replace it with the actual "IHVH." This isn't possible for the Pentagonal Figure of Solomon. You need the Four-Lettered Name represented in Five syllables. It's an important key to the system, this Four-in-Five (imho). You might be able to use YHShVH as effectively, but I've never tried it.

Thread this paper and wear it as a lamen, with Bune's seal facing your chest and the Pentagonal Figure facing outwards. I thought this was weird at first, but it works well, and you don't really internalize the spirit, not any more than you do any other spirit when you conjure it. Having performed the exercise from yesterday, your sphere's vibration will be humming along nicely, and the more materialistic vibe of Bune's sphere won't bring you down too much.

Finally, use the Oration from the Pseudomonarchia to conjure Bune. Go on, go read it. I'll wait. Hmmm, hmm-hmm-hmmmm. Ok done? Back already? Too Christian for ya? (Picture Fr. R.O. laughing his ass off.)

Ok, for serious, it's almost too Christian for me. I get serious chills reading it. It's like Lon Milo DuQuette's chanting ceremony in Enochian Vision Magic, a long series of prayer and God Names, but with a lot more begging God to grant you the authority to conjure the Spirit. I've only ever said it all the way through aloud once, Vibrating and intoning the God names as I went along, and man, by the time I was finished, the air was humming with power.

The trouble is, I don't agree with the doctrine it represents in the slightest. I think the parts where it says the spirits were "cast down" or "thrown out of heaven" are misrepresentations entirely. The Divine Pymander explains that the "Evil Daimon" is sent to the impious to lead them into temptation and distraction from God to punish them for forgetting their source by making them slaves to their possessions. (In writing, that's called a run-on paraphrase, I think). Point is, the spirits are here, within the terrestrial realm like we are. The "Fall" is simply a reference to gaining more spiritual density as they approached the sphere of the Earth.

Instead of going through all that, I suggest you perform yesterday's exercise, draw the seal and the Pentagonal Figure as noted above, and then close your eyes and imagine yourself in a very detailed graveyard, standing within a circle containing the names and symbols from the exercise. Picture yourself standing before the grave of the person you want to speak with. See their name engraved upon the stone in your mind's eye. See the inscription of the date of birth and death, if you have that information, or simply know you are standing before the grave of the person you seek to contact.

Say something along the lines of the following:

"Bune, thou spirit of the Lemegeton and the Pseudomonarchia, I [your name/motto here] conjure you to this land of the Dead by the most holy names inscribed within this circle. Come now from whatever part of the earth, under the earth, or upon whatever wind you ride to appear before me now. I conjure you here by the name Adonay, and by Hagios, O Theos, Iscyros, Athanatos; Paracletus, Alpha and Omega, and by these three secret names: Agla, On, Tetragrammaton, that you at once fulfill what I desire."(1)

In your mind's eye, you should see him appear. If he doesn't, then picture his seal (good thing you drew it so many times) beaming out from the lamen around your neck (you are picturing yourself wearing it, yes?). See the seal projected between yourself and the grave of the person you are seeking to communicate with. Vibrate and intone (or SING! - that's for Mike) his Name, and as you do, see his Name form in flaming letters around his Seal. Really pump the Seal full of the power that resonates with his Name. Then repeat the conjuration, picturing the Seal transforming into Bune.

I don't think you'll need that much, frankly. When I conjured him into the Spirit Pot, I just said, "Bune, are you here?" and heard a solid "Yes" in response, a thought that originated from outside my head, sort of from behind my ears on both sides. Like he communicates through the hippocampus part of the brain.

When he's present, say something along the lines of:

"Bune, I have conjured you here to cause the spirit of [person's name] to appear before me upon their sepulchre (that's a grave). Will you do this for me now?"

Bune will likely say he will, because he likes to do that kind of thing.

Let him sort of fade into the background scenery, and look up on top of the sepulchre you've imagined. I see a little candle flame that grows in brightness, hovering above the stone. When it's finished growing to whatever size it grows to, begin speaking to the spirit. "Are you [name]?" is a good place to start. If you're a Christian, have it say "Jesus is Lord" to affirm it is who it says it is. Thelemites have success making the spirits say something out of the Book of the Law; Jews may have success having it swear by Tetragrammaton that it is who it claims to be. You can try banishing pentagrams, but I think they're hokey, and you'd likely banish the spirit. Invoking pentagrams seems like a really seriously bad idea when working with the Spirits. I'm not GD, so I dunno what to tell you if that's your thing.

Assuming it passes the test, begin to talk to it about whatever it is you've conjured it for. Ask where that will was stashed, or who your real father was, you bastard.(2) Ask what he meant when he wrote that confusing chapter in the Three Books of Occult Philosophy, if you're conjuring Agrippa. Ask who shot him if it's JFK. Ask whatever you want to know, about the after life, the present, the future, whatever you think this spirit would be able to answer knowledgeably. I wouldn't ask Marie Antoinette the finer points of calculus, but I might ask Poe to recite some of his more recent poetry, or ask Einstein what he thinks of Hawking's theories about black holes. Not that I'd understand it very well, but still.

When you're finished, thank the Spirit for their time, and bid them to go in Peace. Thank Bune for his help, and bid him go in peace, bringing no harm to any you know or love, and remind him I still need that $7 million.(3)

After you've done all this, take some time to ground yourself out. Perform that exercise again, to cleanse any death-vibes from your sphere that might be hanging around. Place the lamen somewhere and light a votive or tea light candle as a gesture of thanks to Bune. Take a bath. Brush your teeth. Play with your hematite, iron pyrite, steel blade, jet, obsidion, or amethyst. Roll them around between the palms of your hands, extending your awareness into them, picturing yourelf floating in the center of whatever stone you have.(4)

Then come back and post your experiences in the comments below, or send me an email. If I include this post as a chapter in a book that ever gets published, I'll throw your experiences in the "Anecdotes" appendix, with permission, of course.

(1) Adapted from the Heptameron, see Joe Peterson's notes on the Oration and Conjuration sections of the Lemegeton's Goetia. Really, you should be familiar with how the orations go anyway.
(2) Just Kiddin'! I'm sure you're not a bastard. Not that there's anything wrong with that if you are (you bastard)
(3) Ibid. If you mention me during this rite, I'll personally hex you so bad you'll be dead by dawn. Then I'll eat your soul.
(4) If you're using a steel blade, don't roll it between your palms; that would be stupid. As in all magical rites, DON'T BE STUPID.

More on Kinetic Meditation

In a previous post, I talked about how important it is to draw the seals of the spirits, and about how as I carved the seals of the different spirits, I would feel their presence in the room or within my sphere of influence.

I've been reading Enochian Vision Magick by Lon Milo DuQuette. I hadn't read it before writing that post, and he couldn't have read my post and written about the same idea, but nevertheless, he talks about the same thing in the book regarding the Enochian Angels. He talks about how as you write out the Sigilum Dei Aemyth, you are building it into your sphere. He doesn't put it that way, but the same idea is reflected throughout the book. He talks about how making the tools of Enochian magic programs the magician, and prepares them to perform the magic. It's like an initiation into the system.(1)

But today I'd like to talk about the Magic Circle, specifically the names found in the one from the Lemegeton's Goetia.(2) It's possibly the most thorough protective circle I've ever seen. Understanding that circle is key to being able to work with the spirits of the Goetia. It builds around the magician a miniature representation of all the forces of all the spheres between here and the throne of God. It places the magician right smack dab in the center of the manifest and unmanifest universe. It represents the path of the Emerald Tablet of Hermes. It is key, in my opinion, to all the other forms of grimoire magic that are available.

The circle shown to the right is from Crowley-Mathers' The Goetia. I've made it as large as possible, but it's still hard to make out the details. Plus it's in Hebrew.

The names and planetary symbols in the outermost circle are taken from Agrippa's Scale of the Number Ten. Joe Peterson points this out in his notes on the Magic Circle. Prior to actually making a life-sized circle, I never bothered trying to read this information. I figured I had either read it before in Kraig's Modern Magic, or it wasn't that important. I assumed an LBRP would be fine for years. I had no idea what I was doing.

When I finally made the circle, I began to understand why this thing is so important. As I painstakingly painted each name or office, I went further into a sort of trance-like state. Lon talks about how he gets into a trance state by tapping the letters of the Table of Practice in the Enochian book while chanting the names of the letters aloud. I understand; this is a powerful technique. I wasn't even chanting the names or offices, I would simply say them aloud to myself while I was painting them so I wouldn't forget them and have to go back to my notes. (They were all the way across the floor on the other side of the garage, after all.)

By the time I was finished, I was in a zone unlike any other I had been in before. I ended up screwing up some of the names, and had to re-prime the circle and start over again, and I haven't finished it yet, but that's beside the point. The point is, it's a form of kinetic meditation.

So let's go over the names in the circle. As noted by Joe, the names and offices of the circle are taken from Agrippa's Scale of the Number Ten. The names included are:

• The Ten Names of God
• The Ten Names of the Sephiroth
• The Ten Orders of the Blessed According to the Traditions of Men
• The Ten Angels Ruling
• The Ten Spheres of the World

Only nine of each are listed; the Lemegeton specifies that they begin at Eheyeh and end at Lavanah.

I don't use the Tree of Life as my primary working model. I prefer the Ptolemaic geocentric model of concentric spheres centered on the earth. It doesn't really matter though, because I still have ten spheres to work with that match up to the ten Sephiroth pretty well. When I wrote out my circle, I kept the ten names of God, but eliminated the names of the sephiroth. I wrote the Names of God in Celestial Script, my favorite version of the Hebrew Alephbet.

The names of the Ten Orders of the Blessed (this refers to the Ranks of the angels in each sphere) that are used in the Crowley-Mathers Goetia are the Hebrew names. I used the names from Dionysius. (These names appear in the same row of the table on Agrippa's Scale of the Number Ten.) Dionysius helped me understand a lot about the celestial spheres, and how to work with them as a Christian. I believe they are translations of the Hebrew names of angelic ranks or orders, but I don't know for sure. If you look through the descriptions of the spirits of the Goetia though, you'll find they are sometimes referred to as being of the order of Powers, or Thrones, for example. These are Dionysius' terms, not the Hebrew terms. It sort of seems to be more appropriate to stick with the Dionysian terminology, at least to me.

For the Ten Angels Ruling, I left Metatron and Iophiel as the angelic rulers of the spheres of the Primum Mobile and Fixed Stars, respectively. I haven't worked with either before, and have mostly kept to thespheres of the planets in my Work. The rest of the angel names were fine, except for Michael and Raphael. I still use the Trithemian attributions, with Michael in the Sun, and Raphael in Mercury.

Between each sphere, you place a cross, represented here with a + sign. When I was finished, I should have had:

+ AHYH Seraphim Metatron Sphere of the Primum Mobile + YHVH Cherubim Jophiel Sphere of the Fixed Stars + YHVH ALHYM Thrones Tzaphqiel [Planetary Symbol of Saturn] + AL Dominations Tzadqiel [Planetary Symbol of Jupiter] + ALHYM GYBR Powers Kammael [Planetary Symbol of Mars] + ALVH Virtues Michael [Planetary Symbol of the Sun] + YHVH TzBAVTh  Principalities Haniel [Planetary Symbol of Venus] + ALHYM TzBAVTh Archangels Raphael [Planetary Symbol of Mercury] + ShDY Angels Gabriel [Planetary Symbol of the Moon +

I don't remember exactly what I had messed up now. I think I had put the Principalities on twice and skipped the Virtues, or something like that. I had also run out of room, and my font size was rapidly shrinking. While it would have remained usable, I wanted it to look better than that, so I let it dry and then had the kids paint it white again.

Now, based on this exercise and the resulting state of mind (even typing it now, I've entered into a different perspective than I normally operate from), I've come up with the following exercise. It's fairly simple, and it results in a harmonizing effect within your sphere of influence.

You'll need a compass and a blank piece of paper to do this all yourself. I'll throw together an image you can print too.

You want to draw 11 concentric circles, each a half-inch wider than the previous.

You'll be writing out the names of God, the Orders of Angelic hosts, the Rulers of the Angelic hosts, and the symbol of the sphere in each circle, once from the center moving outward, and again moving downward.

In addition, as you write out the names of the Angelic Rulers, for a little added umph, you can include the sigils of each angel of the Planetary Spheres.

In the next image, I've got the names of God, the Orders of Angels, the sigils of the Planetary Angels where available from the Magical Calendar (reproduced in PowerPoint to avoid copyright issues), the Angels' names, and the Planetary symbols for each sphere.

In the center sphere, write out your name or Magical Motto. As you write it out, vibrate the name in a low chanting voice. In the circle above, write out the God Name for the Sphere of the Moon, vibrating the name as you write it and picturing the letters in your mind's eye at the same time. Write out the Order of Angelic host next, and again, vibrate the name. It feels a little silly vibrating "Angels," or at least it does to me. If you prefer the Hebrew names of the orders, they're in Agrippa's Second Book of Occult Philosophy, Chapter 13. Next draw the seal of the Angel of the Sphere and his (her, its) name, again vibrating the name as you do. Finally draw in the symbol of the planet, or Sphere of the Zodiac/Prime Mover while vibrating "The sphere of [insert appropriate planet/sphere here]."

Do this going up from your name through each Sphere. When you get to the top, go back down, this time drawing a cross at the front of each list of the sphere's attributes as you vibrate all the names again. When you get back to the center, you should be feeling something pretty groovy.

There are a host of other ways to do this. This particular exercise harmonizes your sphere, and prepares you to work with the grimoires of the Lemegeton in general, and specifically the Goetia. I'm interested in how others experience this, if anyone tries it. Feel free to leave comments about your experiences below, or email them to me directly if you want them kept private.

(1) I think we're working within the same current on this kind of thing, he and I. I'm sure he's much further along than I am, as well he should be after practicing as long as he has. While it's neat to find the ideas I'm having and the foundation of my own magical practices reflected in his work, you know, like a confirmation that I'm doing something right, it's also frustrating. Eventually I'd like to be a published occult author, but the way things are going, it'll look like I'm parroting his work. I'm totally not. I swear I didn't read about this before, it's based on my experiences. So is his stuff. I guess that magicians that do similar work have similar results, reach similar conclusions about how the seals and circles work within the magician. Shocking, I know.

(2) I'd like to take a minute to thank Joe Peterson for putting all these old manuscripts on his site. They have helped me incredibly over the past two years, and whatever blessing I have to give I give to him in thanks.

On Geomancy

You may remember the Geomantic Tumblers I recently purchased from Witchdoctor Joe (lord don't let the check bounce [Edit: too late. Sending cash.]). I've been using them as single-roll indicators. Ask a question, roll, check the meaning, and go with that as an answer. It has worked well enough (100% accuracy on things I can prove), but it's not that different from flipping a coin.

The other day, talking to Fr. S.L., a brilliant man, prone to long monologues on political topics, but otherwise a decent fellow (for a liberal), the subject of the geomantic tumblers came up. He said I needed to make four rolls, get the Mothers, then get from them the neices and nephews and uncles and step-cousines twice removed... I didn't know what he was talking about, if you can't tell.

It seems there's an actual divination method associated with Geomancy that I had no idea about! Checking Joe's instructions, I found that I was supposed to be looking for more details on geomancy from certain sources. Ignoring my arcane Googlemancy techniques, I decided to simply go to the web sites Joe suggested.

From one of them, I think it was Greer's site, I found a link that generates all the family members you need to do a reading (like Agrippa details in his On Geomancy book) based on the values of the four mothers you put into the program. You throw the tumblers four times while thinking of the question, recording the results of each throw. Put the values of each row into the sixteen blanks, and click "Generate Points" and wha bam! Instant results, witnesses and Judge included!

So, having learned this technique for getting more detailed readings, I have already employed it to my advantage. Asking questions about various topics covered lately, I found the Arbatel spirits are Celestial and Terrestrial combined, a bit of both; I found that today's job searches can generate new work in the price range I'm looking for, but it depends on meeting with the right people. (I did some Mercury Work with the Box to ensure I met the right people.)

Anyway, it's a nifty addition to this magician's tool kit, and I can't thank Joe enough. Buy lots from him.

Arbatel Spirits

In recent conversations with Fr. POS and Optimystic, the subject of where in the cosmology the Arbatel spirits belong has come up. They both place the spirits in the celestial or super-celestial realms. Personally, I think they're more like the Spirits of the planetary tables, that is, terrestrial reflections of the celestial governors.

Opti pointed out the Arbatel says: "They are called Olympick spirits, which do inhabit in the firmament, and in the stars of the firmament..." (from aphorism 15). He also pointed to Aphorism 16, which says:

There are seven different governments of the Spirits of Olympus, by whom God hath appointed the whole frame and universe of this world to be governed: and their visible stars are ARATRON, BETHOR, PHALEG, OCH, HAGITH, OPHIEL, PHUL, after the Olympick speech. Every one of these hath under him a mighty Militia in the firmament.
   
[...]

So that there are 186 [196]7 Olympick Provinces in the whole Universe. wherein the seven Governours do exercise their power: all which are elegantly set forth in Astronomy.

(From Joe Peterson's Twilit Grotto, The Arbatel.)

So the question remaining to my mind is "What is the Firmament?" Aphorism fifteen identifies their inhabitation as being both in the firmament and in the stars of the firmament. Why do both have to be mentioned? Opti interprets it as the super-celestial heavens. He could be right. He provided a dictionary definition that seemed to say the heavens. In Old Astronomy, the term meant "The orb of the fixed stars; the most remote of the celestial spheres."(1)  That would place these spirits clearly in the super celestial realm, thus ending the debate.

I'm stubbon though. I looked up the meaning of the word in more detail, and found from Easton's Bible dictionary this(2):

from the Vulgate firmamentum, which is used as the translation of the Hebrew _raki'a_. This word means simply "expansion." It denotes the space or expanse like an arch appearing immediately above us. They who rendered _raki'a_ by firmamentum regarded it as a solid body. The language of Scripture is not scientific but popular, and hence we read of the sun rising and setting, and also here the use of this particular word. It is plain that it was used to denote solidity as well as expansion. It formed a division between the waters above and the waters below (Gen. 1:7). The _raki'a_ supported the upper reservoir (Ps. 148:4). It was the support also of the heavenly bodies (Gen. 1:14), and is spoken of as having "windows" and "doors" (Gen. 7:11; Isa. 24:18; Mal. 3:10) through which the rain and snow might descend.

Based on this, and the very Biblical tone of the Arbatel, I believed the Arbatel spirits are within the realm of matter primarily. The physical planets and sphere of the physical stars is certainly not what is referenced by the spiritual spheres of the neoplatonists. If we travel to Mars for colonization, the martian settlers won't be considered to be in the sphere of the wandering stars, will they? All matter is within the sublunar realms, and the planets and stars serve as signifiers of their relative positionings in the divine or ideal realm. The actual spheres of the planets and fixed stars do not manifest physically.

Knowing I could be wrong, I performed some divinations that indicated I was partially right and partially wrong. The Arbatel spirits have qualities that make them both Super-Celestial entities, and terrestrial entities. They seem to be, based on divination, a combination of the Spirits and the Intelligences from the Kameas of the Planets in Agrippa's Three Books of Occult Philosophy.

So, based on the research, conversation, divination and meditation, I've decided I won't be ordering the spirits of the Arbatel around like servants. Instead, I'll keep my approach formal, as if  it were one Vice-President speaking to another within a corporation. By divine right, magicians are granted the abiltity to petition the spirits of the Arbatel, but there's no real authority over them provided in the grimoire. Instead, the only authority they are answerable to is God himself.

This rather helps explain why so much of the Arbatel focuses on your behavior. As a Christian saved by Grace, this behavioral thou-shaltism smacks of righteousness by works rather than by grace. That is, you do nice things and you get rewarded. I'm in Martin Luther's camp, that salvation is by grace through faith alone. Works, good deeds, being nice to animals and not splashing panhandlers in the rain while cackling gleefully at their misfortune... that's not going to get you anywhere with God, who says the righteousness of man is as menstrual rags before him. (mmmm, tasty.)

But we aren't talking about salvation, atonement or being in a right relationship with God. We're talking about magic petitions to spirits for direct intervention. Maybe you do have to be all righteous and pure to get anything out of the Arbatel spirits, and they don't see the Cross when they're measuring up whether you deserve their blessings or not.

hmmm. Well, it's something to think about, anyway. But like I said, I'll stick with the Goetic spirits for now. They recognize your position with God via the sacrifice of Christ readily enough.

Notes:
1. "firmament." Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary. MICRA, Inc. 29 Oct. 2008. http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/firmament>.
2. "firmament." Easton's 1897 Bible Dictionary. 29 Oct. 2008. http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/firmament>.

Administrative stuff

See that Email the Author link below? If you've ever used it, please note that it hasn't worked the whole time it's been there until now. So if you sent me any emails, I wasn't ignoring you, or too busy. I never got them. Thanks to Fr. POS, I found this out and addressed the issue. Feel free to contact me about any posts, comments, or whatever. I made a couple of friends I IM with now through that very process.

Oh and another thing, if you leave a comment on my posts, chances are I'll answer them in the comments below. There's an option for you to subscribe to follow-up posts, so if you want to see my response, check that box. Otherwise you'll forget for months and when you get back to it, you'll want to carry on the conversation and I'll have no idea what you're talking about.

I think that's everything for now.

Happy camping.

Oh, P.S. I've been getting a lot of "I admire your work" emails. Please do not feed the ego. It's large and takes manly steps while walking already. The fact is most of my stuff is fun and utilitarian, but there are artists out there that deserve more credit.

Heading for the Red?

Words words words. I just deleted a huge old long post about how I've slipped in my Work, and replaced the Great Work with Working for money. After a lengthy discussion on sin, repentance, and how that works as a magician, after detailing out plans to get right with God through magic and balancing out my spheres with rituals, I had to face something uncomfortable. The only reason I wanted to get right with God was still so that I could get the money.

What a pain in the ass.

How do you kill the Golden Calf? How do you stop lusting for results, if you're only trying to stop lusting for results to get the results you lust after?

It's totally absurd. I can't stop wanting money. It's good stuff. It buys good stuff. It solves a myraid of problems. Instead of turning away from wanting money, I've got to find a way to focus instead on the Great Work and getting money. I have to get in harmony. Integrate the passions for payola with the passions for God. To celebrate God in money, because it is, after all, an emanation from him as much as anything else is. It is what it is.

So, fuck it. Back to Bune. He's always pulled my fat out of the fire. I'll let him take care of the money, and I'll just go back to focusing on the Great Work. I'll just quit spending the money I get from my magic on stupid shit. Be fiscally responsible. I'll Work with Tzadqiel on that aspect of my spheres, because as long as I'm being irresponsible, no amount of funding that irresponsibility will result in Wealth. But I still need the money to get out of the hole I'm in. Ignoring that would be pretty stupid. Sure, I'll start by cutting back expenses, going through the steps that all the financial gurus say to do (which is basically spend less than you earn, frickin' duh), but when it comes to generating the wealth, I'm still going to stick with the spirits.

Path of the Psychic

I got the most polite spam ever this morning. I moderate with Frater AVAD the yahoo group RealMagick. It's a slow list lately, but it's fun. The membership is broad, and topics include anything related to the practice of some form of magic, no matter what form that might be.

The email I got was polite and to the point. Guy said we might find his site interesting, so I checked it out. It's a basic introduction to being a psychic. The information is presented clearly and concisely. It's well written. It doesn't get too deep, but it covers things in a general way that give the readers what they need to do further research if interested. I haven't looked at all the pages, ut the ones I saw were impressive to me. Not that they were detailed, but that they were simple. It's a brilliant study in minimalism, in a way.

The link is here:

http://www.pathofthepsychic.com/

If you've ever wondered if you're a psychic, you might benefit from it. I'm definitely going to adopt some of the techniques he used to present the information. Speaking as a technical writer, this is how you should present introductory material.