San Damiano Cross

Monsignor Rassbach asked me to upload an image of the cross Inominandum gave me to commemorate our meeting, so here it is. It's the San Damiano cross. The history is interesting and fitting. St. Francis was meditating on this cross when he received Christ's instruction to rebuild the Church.

I don't know how much Jason intended it this way, but I consider myself part of the movement that is rebuilding the Western occult mystery tradition. It is a very fitting symbol of our meeting. Jason is also rebuilding the tradition, taking the older systems and demonstrating that they are alive and well.

The other day, Mike Rock [edited 2/19] on the Grimoirium Verum yahoo group mentioned that astrology was basically a dead science from the 18th century through to the late 20th century. I don't know that it was dead, but it definitely was out of practice. Today we have people like Christopher Warnock revitalizing the traditional Renaissance astrological techniques. We have people like Jake breathing new life into the Goetic traditions. We have people like Aaron Leitch publishing Secrets of the Solomonic Grimoires. We have people like Fr. Ararita turning the Merkavah into a working system of attainment. And we have people like myself turning one-page essays on spirit conjuration into working systems of angelic magic.

The "church" is not made up of rocks and mortar, as St. Francis discovered; it is made up of people. In the esoteric meaning of the word, the Church is the Bride of Christ, and in biblical terms that means the Bride is flesh of one flesh, bone of one bone. As Adam's rib was removed to form Eve, so are we also an extension of Christ, the Logos, the Word of God that is God. Light in Extension, as another once phrased it.

So the cross was an extremely fitting gift.