Got Dirt?

I need some dirt. I can get East Coast and DC dirt myself, but I need some dirt from across America for a project I've got going. I only need a tablespoon or so, and I'd be much obliged if you'd be willing to send me some.

I need some from Florida, Texas, California, Washington State, Montana or North Dakota, and Maine. And Nebraska. Preferably from banks or financial institutions. Hawaii, Alaska, and Puerto Rico too, if possible.

If you live in these states and would be willing to put a spoonful of dirt into a plastic baggie and send it to me, please email me at frredactumopus@gmail.com.

Reviewed!

I just read a review of my work that made me happy:

http://networkedblogs.com/h8I19

Gate of Mars

Well, I missed my goal of having the Gate of Mars booklet available for Tuesday in time for the Day of Mars and the Hour of Mars. Sorry about that. The best time to perform this rite is on a Tuesday in the hour of Mars. I did so last night, and it was every bit as powerful as the Jupiter rite. Even though the best time is on the day and hour of the planet, the hour of the planet on any other day works as well, so if you're in a hurry and don't want to wait until next week to take the next steps, find a convenient hour of Mars on whatever day you get this, and go for it.

This rite continues the process begun in the Gate of Jupiter, and aids in addressing the next phase after receiving the Anointing as King of your Kingdom in Jupiter. In this book, we look at the Martial qualities required in a ruler, and address the necessity of warfare. A simple method of protection for your kingdom's regularly scheduled issues is provided, as well as advice in getting and working with a specific spirit to aid in your defense. And offense, as necessary.

It's available now on my eBooks page for $11.95USD.

Kings and Kingdoms

Ok, so we went through the Gate of Jupiter, and what did we get? We got Anointed, anointed as Kings of our world. We receive, as part of the Jupiter blessings, the divine right and authority to Rule our kingdoms. We get inspired, we get resources, we get health, we get all kinds of good stuff. Beneficient stuff. It comes down on us in a cloud of empowerment that is beautiful to behold and to experience.

But that's not enough. If we don't take the next steps to channel and direct those blessings, they will simply hover around us and create good times sporadically at best, or simply dissipate at worst.

Once you've received your anointing, you're fit to rule your kingdom. Kings rule primarily through "rules." Shocking, I know.

Rulership. Law. That's why Mars is the progression of Jupiter. Grace and empowerment becomes Rules. But pure Mars can make us into tyrannical rulers, dictators, tyrants, or even worse, lawyers.* Healthy Mars will be a manifestation of Jupiter's Grace. The rules are set up to guide, not to command. They mark the boundaries, and serve as warnings. They aren't to be feared or resented, they are to be respected and used as the advice we use to get ahead and reap the rewards of the Jupiter blessing.

Rules are like guard rails on the side of the mountain highways, they don't really protect you from death if you hit them straight on, but they do wake you up if you're falling asleep. And they provide a good reference for your boundaries.

To figure out what kind of rules you need to make, you need to spend some time gathering information. You've been made King, so the first thing to do is get to know your kingdom. Who are your people, who do you impact with your decisions? How's their health and well being? What are your resources and your requirements? Is one greater than the other? How are your defenses? How is your offense? Could you go campaigning for Spring with your army in its current shape, or are you in need of more drilling and training, and can only hope that no one tries to pillage your kingdom because your defenses are crumbling? What do your people require? Have they got enough food, spiritual, intellectual and physical to grow and to thrive? What's your kingdom's economy look like?

Take stock and see what shape you're in. Next identify where you want to be. Set goals. Remember Jason's excellent observation on goal-setting, but it is a necessary first step. Prioirtize the list, and you've got a step-by-step plan all laid out. Then comes the establishment of "rules."

Analyze your goals, and figure out what you'll need to do to accomplish them. Specifically, check out the standards you'll have to live by, the routines you'll have to follow, the behaviors you'll have to be... having... uhm, how you'll have to act consistently. These are your rules. They are the guidelines for improving and maximizing your kingdom's potential.

I am by nature a scoff law. I have spent literally thousands of dollars in my life paying for all the times I haven't followed the rules. Simply following the rules will not only save you money, it will make you money. Sticking to the rules is a good thing, and it provides a strong framework for the blessings of Jupiter to manifest around. It takes discipline, strength, will power.

And at the same time, you have to watch for the pitfalls of Legalism. You don't get the benefits BECAUSE you follow the Law, the Law has no power to grant or deny benefits. The Law is not the source of your success, it is a means. The Law is simply a reminder, a warning. Putting the Law on a pedestal and saying, I will accomplish my goals by following the Law is idolatry. Your success, the benefits you seek come from Jupiter, not from Mars. Mars protects the benefits.

Rules and Law are the expression of the Rulership granted by the anointing of Jupiter, standards to keep, guidelines to stay within to accomplish the goals of the kingdom.They are not the kingdom.

So, next step is the Gate of Mars. I had planned on having something in place by Tuesday, but I had forgotten all about Easter. Heh. Woopsie! Hopefully something will be up in time for one of the Martial Hours by tomorrow, but no promises. If I don't get anything up, remember, Kamael is the Archangel of Mars, his seal can be found at this link in the Table of Angels, and he is conjured in the name of Elohim Gibor. Don't go through the Gate of Mars without having done some analysis of the needs of your Kingdom.

* Just kidding Mr. Warnock!

Updated my Site, and a Blessing

Ok, my eBooks page is now updated with the Gate of Jupiter and Talisman Maintenance and Operations Manual.

And I've gotten a nudge to take the next steps in manifesting the success and blessings received from Jupiter in the last couple of weeks. So much to do, but the rewards are huge. 

The first step is to pass on the Graces of Jupiter I've received to you. 

(Stop reading now if you do not want to receive whatever blessing I can pass on to you through blog conjure magic. Divination indicated this is a good thing to do for my readers, and that it would help in my personal accomplishment of the Great Work. However, I want you to at least have the option of not having magic used to manipulate your sphere, no matter how good for you I think it might be. Scroll down if you're interested, cause what I bless on Earth will be blessed in the Heavens. I've got it on Good Authority.)

I call on Tzadqiel, Iophial, and Hismael to bear witness; by your names and your seals I call you, by the Grace of El I conjure you to empower this blessing:

May you who read this be blessed and benefit greatly from that which I have received. May it bring you the financial and spiritual blessings it's brought me. May the anointing of Jupiter flow to you as you read these words, may the Greater Benefic benefit you, bless your works, bring inspiration and joy, bring robust health and necessary wealth. May you see a Vision of your Kingdom Prospering, may the steps to get there be made clear, and may you be empowered to accomplish the goals you receive.

If the Seven Heavens were a Corporation

One of the things I teach my students in the Red Work series of courses is that the spheres all work together to manifest existence. There's a chain of manifestation from the Mind of God to the Material realm that has links in each Sphere. Everything we experience here Below has passed through and picked up some aspect of each of the spheres above.

I'm always looking for different ways to express the meanings of the Spheres. The greater our understanding, the better we can work with them. Earlier this week, I was kicking around the idea of the Spheres as the different departments within a corporation, and this is what I've come up with so far:

• Saturn - Represents your market share and the demographic that will purchase your product. There's only so many people interested in the things you produce. I think it's a percentage of the population that fluctuates as different forces mingle in our shared sphere of experience. Some decades will see a large percentage of the population interested in occult writings, for example, while other decades won't provide the pressures that lead people to seek answers in occult sciences.
  
• Jupiter - Represents your growth and opportunity for expansion. A company is always looking for new markets to tap, new audiences to reach, new sales to make. They do this through different ways, developing new product lines, or putting more marketing out to different demographics, but the core of the opportunity for growth comes from Jupiter.
  
• Mars - Represents your ability to compete with other companies. This includes protecting the value of your share price, defending from corporate takeover, and also all the little aspects of corporate security, like IT and Facilities security. It also represents your Legal department in a major way. Jupiter would represent the judge and his decision if you're in a court, but Mars represents the lawyers.
  
• The Sun - Represents your Management. The management in a company is divided into different levels, executives who make major decisions, and middle managers who make sure the executives know what they need to know to make major decisions, and to make sure the decisions made by the executives are taken care of by your employees. I put them in the Sun because the Sphere of the Sun is where Ideas from above take on an active force, and it's also the place from below where you attain K&CHGA. You hit the Sun on the way up, and your options and authority are increased by a whole lot.
  
• Venus - Represents two different aspects of business, new product development and your production line. Venus is the sphere of procreation, where the creative forces are expressed into the world. Prototypes of new products are very Venus, and can be very sexy when you think about it. It's also the production line where your standard products get put together from all the different parts. It's totally manufacturing too.
  
• Mercury - Represents quite a lot of a corporation, naturally. First, there's Research. Mercury isintellectual, studies hard, and is super intelligent. It paves the way for the Development team in Venus to put together prototypes. Mercury's also a fast talker, and represents Sales, the actual convincing of your demographic to buy your product. It also represents all your corporate documentation, and the carefully developed processes and quality management plans that are put in place to create a logically infallible system of operations that seems to always elude full manifestation the way liquid mercury eludes being picked up, no matter how big your pliers.
• The Moon - The Moon rules the final outward form and shape of things, and in a corporation would represent your brand or logo, and your marketing approach. It would also be the packaging department in the production line that puts the finished product in the final form the customer will see when it arrives in their home. It is also the sphere of Quality Assurance, where the products are put through different use case scenarios to see what it takes to break them.

We need to be initiated into all the spheres of the planets to be able to function as a cohesive whole unit. Each aspect rules specific influences and changes everything else. Being heavy in Jupiter can lead to unsustainable growth if the sales and marketing teams aren't being properly funded. Putting all your effort into developing a production line without having a working management structure to give clear direction is useless. Having an elite management structure won't make your production team function more efficiently if all they can talk about is management techniques. No increase in sales or marketing or market share will be sustained if your final product goes out looking like shit.

My focus on the different spheres shifts in response to the things going on in my life, just like a company will focus its attention on its weakest points when they have a chance to strengthen those points (or they have to because the weakest points broke and nothing else can happen til it's fixed), or on its strongest points when action is required.

The best way I've found to know what I need to focus on is divination, regular practice and proactive communications with the Intelligences of the spheres to get an idea of what I need to be Working on right now for a better tomorrow.

The second best way I've found is to just wait for shit to break down and then rush around like a mad man trying to fix the broken shit quick!

In practice, it seems like I do a lot of both, at the same time.

Jovial Blessings on You and Yours

I suspect this post by the Scribbler is going to be a good snapshot of a lot of people's lives in the coming days.

The Gate of Jupiter

Ok, I've finished The gate of Jupiter, a complete Jupiter ritual to harmonize your sphere with His, and to call down the forces of Jupiter's growth and expansion into your sphere. I'm quite pleased with how it turned out.

It includes some insights I've had, the conjuration ceremony, and the instructions for making a Jupiter Talisman.

I'm all tired now. Takes much longer to do shit than it seems, sometimes. Feels like I just sat down, but that was 7 hours ago. Damn.

Just for that, the book will cost a bajillion dollars!!!

Ok, maybe not.

[Edit: No longer available, Imma gonna publish it in a book.]

When Life Imitates Art

When Life imitates Art, it can be beautiful, quirky, or surreal.

At other times, it can just be stupid.

Thanks Scott!

Coming down from a Jupiter High

Whoa, man, last Thursday's Jupiter rite released a lot of stuff into my sphere, and I'm just coming down from the high. And I was high, honestly. I saw things, potentials and opportunities that left my head spinning. And my heart soaring. It was a beautiful thing. I cannot recommend enough that you regularly participate in Jupiter rites. They don't call him the Greater Benefic for nothin'.

I feel like I've gotten more done in the last few days than I have in the last few months, thanks to this influx of beneficial powers. I needed a boost up and out of my rut to see what opportunities lie ahead for me throughout the next few months and years. These are exciting times to be living in, my friends. Really good times for magicians.

The next thing you'll be seeing here should be another eBook, this one focusing on what exactly I did in my Jupiter rite, and instructions on making the Juptier Talisman I offered last weekend. Everyone can't afford the talismans, and honestly, I couldn't make one for all the people that show up here. Well. I could. Over time. If you're interested.

I'm also going to try to write up some of the more mystical things I've seen pouring out of the sphere of Jove since doing the rite, and offer some RO advice on the integration and application of the forces of Jupiter into your life. Take that with a grain of salt.

Talisman Maintenance and Operations Manual

In recent months, clients have been asking for methods of maintaining and strengthening their talismans. I put together a "Maintenance and Operations Manual" for talismans as a result. It will be delivered free with all talismans, but it's generic enough to be a useful guide on its own.

It's short, I think 8 pages including the cover. If you're looking for a user's manual that provides general best practice instructions for keeping your talisman fed and growing its power and efficacy, this will cover it. There's also info on decommissioning talismans once they've served their purpose. 

Some people may also have made a talisman with an idea of how it would manifest, but then after they made the talisman it turned out that, while technically it met the statement of intent's criteria, and it might have been a sound freakin' theory, it generally turned out to be a bad idea in practice. Decommissioning is useful then. For those people.

I strongly advise, however, if you've got a good talisman all set up, you stick with the info in the "Putting Talismans on Vacation" section if it's something you may want to use again in the future. No point in ending a relationship that has been beneficial.

It's $4.95(USD) and available on my eBooks page. Under the Modern Angelic Grimoire.

Or you could buy it here if the button code works on Blogger for once (Paypal or Google Checkout, whichever you prefer, but not both.):

Greek Magic Papyri in Practice

Michael Cecchetelli, author of Scarlet Imprint's Crossed Keys, wrote a blog piece on adapting a Greek Magic Papyri rite to modern usage today that I thought was flippin' sweet. It's exactly the kind of thing I try to do with magic, find something that does what I want in the older traditional stuff, and then figure out what it does, how it does it, and do it now for me.

The Greek Magical Papyri are such a rich resource for awesome material that fits right into Hermetic practice. Betz's book is great reading material when you're feeling lost about what you should be doing magically. Seeing what the Hermeticists of their time were up to can inspire and direct us in our own practice. And we get to say fun Barbarous Words.

Michael has a way with making something ancient applicable in modern times. Good stuff, definitely worth checking out:

http://thelionsdens.blogspot.com/2011/04/ongoing-quest-for-ancient-power-rite.html

I'm going to be watching this blog with interest.

Getting crowded in here...

I stay up too late, and so I'm tired at work a lot. And sometimes, when I'm working on really boring projects, I fall asleep a ltitle bit in my chair in my cube, and drift into the dream.

And sometimes I see spirits there.

And today, it happened that way, and I saw an old man come into my cube, trying to get past me to get to a printer so he could do his work. On coming to, I realized there is no printer in my cube, and the old man was probably Jupiter, or one of his spirits, and the printer was the manifestation of things of Jupiter in my life, and me being in his way is ... me being in his way.

At least in the dream, he just sort of sighed and pushed me out of his way in my chair. Hope that's all that has to happen in real life too. Hate to be standing in the way of my own blessings. Will do some divination work on that later.

The Transmutation of Privilege into Opportunity

Ok, so we look around the world and it's falling apart economically and politically. Resources are tapped out, the privileged few are sitting fat and getting fatter on all the wealth, and we're heading for the first 21st century equivalent of the French and American Revolutions on a global scale. What's it going to look like? I suspect it's going to be beautiful and terrible, all at once. I'm feeling pretty lucky to be alive. This is some good shit.

In the last Aeon, rulership of the land (and all the benefit that comes from this) was passed down generationally to an elite and wealthy Oligarchy. The outer order of faces that ruled countries and had political power morphed, but in general the wealthy power-dealers have maintained their status and power regardless of whether their country went fascist, communist, or democratic. Privilege was inherited.

Does everyone remember Hagbard Celine's lesson on Privilege? A quick refresher, "privilege" is latin for "Private Law." The people of society with privilege are not answerable to the same laws as the common man or woman. We see examples of this most clearly in celebrity gossip here in the US. If I destroyed a posh hotel room, held a woman hostage, and confessed to doing it all while high on over 7 grams of crack cocaine, I wouldn't have a national tour where I went around bragging about it. I'd be in jail. Serving time. And I wouldn't even be getting as harsh of a sentence as those of a different cultural demographic would. There are degrees of privilege. Everyone in America does NOT get held to the same standards of accountability as everyone else.

But like I said, we're living in exciting times of revolution. Privilege is directly impacted by wealth. The more wealth you have, the greater the privilege. We have the internet. The internet is a license to print currency. It is a gold. mine. Through it, we have access to more wealth than anyone has ever had at their beck and call in the history of mankind. Global markets, the power to reach everyone through Android apps.

If only one person in 10,000 likes your product, you can still reach 36,098 people through the internet. How much a month would you need to make off 36,098 people to live the lifestyle of privilege reserved for the wealthy elite in previous eras? Even if every one of them were so poor they could only afford to spend $5 a year on your product, that's $180k a year. That's enough to start a minor fiefdom if you live somewhere with a low cost of living.

One of the Revelations of Jupiter I've had explained it to me this way: What once was Privilege is being alchemically transmuted in this day and age into Opportunity. Anyone can do anything. It takes work, but there is also grace.

And Magicians get to tap right into that. It's right there on the other side of the Gate of Jupiter. Walk on through and enjoy the show. Open up the taps and let the prosperity flow. El/Jove, Iophial, Hasmodai. Just waiting. For you. To call.

Will it all be easy? Course not. Fuck you if you're lazy, and fuck you if you're greedy too, it doesn't work that way. You get your resources for ruling your world based on your needs. Do you need to be wealthy and powerful to accomplish your goals? No? Maybe you need to AIM HIGHER then, because if you really wanted what you can have from Hermetic Magic, then your goals should require wealth and power, imho.

In this age, that which has been Privilege before has been transmuted into Opportunity. It's at your fingertips, waiting for you to seize it. Seize it!

Jupiter Talismans Gone

They're gone. 

If you missed this opportunity and would like something similar, let me know. I can whip something up custom. Select the Wealth, Riches, and Prosperity Consult from my Applied Hermetics page to put in a request.

Jupiter Talismans update

There's only one left as of 10:00 AM Eastern.

And it was sold by 10:30.

Jupiter Talismans

Last Thursday, I had the good fortune of participating with a group of magicians around the world in some Jupiter magic. We all put on our most formal attire, quaffed our finest preferred beverage (ranging from coffee for connoisseurs of the black blood of the Earth to fine single malts as appropriate), smoked fine cigars, and conjured up the Intelligence of Jupiter. The rite on my end included a conjuration, the Orphic Hymn of Jupiter, a statement of intent, followed by a period of meditation/contemplation as I harmonized with the Sphere of Jupiter. I'm left in a position to pass on some useful talismans as a result.

The material results of the rite among the members manifested incredibly quickly for some of us. I managed to go from owing [up to] $75,000 to the IRS to getting a few grand back due to forgiven penalties (GRACE, a key word of Jupiter) and corrected forms. Another participant got a couple grand in extra unexpected work, and a third received a job offer that they couldn't take due to location constraints. In general, the group* has received a considerable amount of grace and fortune in the three days since performing the rite.

The more rewarding aspect for me has been Jovian instruction in regards to what I'm calling "Right Rulership" in my own personal contemplations. While Jupiter does provide wealth and prosperity, and expansion in general, there's an aspect to it that I never really understood. It's still unfolding, and I'm excited about where it's going. Expect a write up to follow, this is really powerful stuff that explains how the Prosperity of Jupiter works.

I also saved part of the cigar I smoked (a Montecristo, Reserva Negra, my fave) to use in future talismans. Which brings me to the point of this particular blog post: I've Jupiter Talismans available to share in the results of the rite. These results include financial blessings, though that's not the main point. You'll find yourself making the right choices to expand your general wealth and prosperity, and receive a closer connection to the forces of Jupiter itself. Placing the sachet on your altar will draw these forces down, and they'll come with instructions for bringing yourself into attunement with the forces of Jupiter in general. Other effects will include good health, prosperity, jovial happiness, and an improved taste in the finer things in life. Along with this finer taste will come the means to procure the things you desire, fortunately enough.

On the right are pictures of the ingredients and prototype. Just putting it together has given me a buzz. I haven't even consecrated it yet, and it's filling the office with Jupiterian Goodness. Hoo-ha. I'm totally digging this, if you can't tell. Have I ever mentioned how much I LOVE my job?

These are herbal talismans, primarily, and will come in one of those little cloth bags they make mojo bags out of. Each of the ingredients is individually consecrated to Jupiter prior to being put into the bag.

Inside the bag are minerals of Jupiter, Lapis Lazuli and Amethyst. There are also the herbs of Jupiter, Hyssop, High John the Conqueror root, tobacco from the cigar, and a touch of nutmeg. I'm also including a clear quartz point, because I like how quartz empowers things like this.

On one side is the astrological symbol of Jupiter, and the Seal of Jupiter from Agrippa's Table of the Planets. On the other side are the seals of Iophiel and Hismael, the Intelligence and Spirit of the planet respectively.

Each will be consecrated on your behalf. The consecration will be performed at the appropriate time, and will consist of the conjuration of the Intelligence and Spirit of the Planet, the recitation of the Orphic Hymn to Jupiter*, and a charge to the entities to empower the talisman on your behalf specifically.

I only had enough ingredients to make four of these, so it's limited to the first four people who contact me for them. [As of April 17 at 10:30AM EST, all sold.] The price is US$125, plus shipping. Email me at frredactumopus@gmail.com if you're interested, with JUPITER TALISMAN in the subject line. The first four emails I receive will get them, and I'll update the post when they are no longer available.

*The way it came together was pretty fortuitous too, and it looks like it's turning into a right proper Mystery Cult dedicated to Jupiter. Check out www.gentlemenforjupiter.com for more info.

** Orphic Hymn to Jupiter:

O Jove, much-honour'd, Jove supremely great,To thee our holy rites we consecrate,Our pray'rs and expiations, king divine,For all things to produce with ease thro' mind is thine.Hence mother Earth and mountains swelling highProceed from thee, the deep and all within the sky.Saturnian king, descending from above,Magnanimous, commanding, sceptred Jove;All-parent, principle and end of all,Whose pow'r almighty shakes this earthly ball;Ev'n Nature trembles at thy mighty nod,Loud-sounding, arm'd with light'ning, thund'ring God.Source of abundance, purifying king,O various-form'd, from whom all natures spring;Propitious hear my pray'r, give blameless health,With peace divine, and necessary wealth.

Jordanian Lead Codices Probably Fake

Scott Stenwick posted some interesting research today about those lead codices that have been making the rounds. He also mentioned that there was one blogger who expressed fear that some dark Christian curse would be unleashed by breaking the seals on the book, bringing about the Eschaton seen in the Apocalypse of St. John, a.k.a. Revelations...

I was shocked, absolutely shocked.

People still believe in Revelations? Like, literally?

I've had enough

I am so ANGRY.

Over POLITICS!!! I haven't been this angry in years, and certainly not over something as stupid as politics. But I can’t take it any more. Some dude said we have to keep giving tax breaks to the richest Americans so they’ll create jobs. Geithner or some shit.

We’ve been giving them tax breaks for 11 years! And unemployment is higher than ever!

I say give them one more year, and if they don’t give us back the jobs that paid middle class salaries, AND NOT THAT BULLSHIT MCDONALDS SHIT, then we raise their taxes. Companies have been getting tax cuts and incentives to hire, and they've been recovering from the recession nicely for the last three years while the rest of us are fucked, UP THE ASS with minimum wage jobs? Yeah... fuck you.

Hey Tea Party, you've been lied to, cheated, manipulated, used to give corporate America a blowjob while they sell your kids into slavery at best, war overseas at worst.

Here's an idea to save some motherfucking money: Get out of Iraq and Afghanistan and Pakistan (where the people we're fighting for are sick of us anyway), take HALF the money we spend on the wars and put it into fixing the veterans that are all fucked up now thanks to us, and spend the other half on real job creation. We've got levies to build, nuclear power plants to inspect, mine safety to regulate, green energy to research and develop, and more than one Wall Street company to audit.

50,000 McDonalds jobs. Can't raise taxes on "Job Creators."

Gah. Gak!

WHERE IS MY MOTHERFUCKING DEATH RAY!?!?!?

Dub Step

I never heard about this stuff before my daughter put it on in the car off her ipod. Good writing stuff. I prefer the stuff that sounds more like autobots with bad gas, but I found this music for free, and it's good. A bit of reggae and electronica, but I still prefer the stuff with a heavier bass line. But you gotta admit, the album cover is awesome as shit.

Super Moon Water

So last Full Moon was a Super Moon, and while there's nothing particularly extra magical about it according to Renaissance astrology, I and the kids made a couple liters of Super Moon Water. We got some water, consecrated it to the Moon with prayers to Mary, called on the Archangel Gabriel of the Moon to bless it, and instill the powers of the Moon into the water, and we left it out in the Moonlight overnight. After the moon set, and before the sun rose, we brought it in and kept it in a dark spot.

What I'm going to use it for, I have no idea. But 2 liters of Super Moon Juice is pretty awesome. Probably going to use it in manifestation rites, since the Moon rules the outermost shape of things and is the last sphere that an Idea goes through before it gets turned over to the Elementals to take on a physical form.

The Curious Curandera has some good ideas for it on her blog post today. Think I'll take her up on some of those suggestions.

More on that Saturn Magic Thing

I think Jason recently recommended a Christian book called the Prayer of Jabez. It's based on an obscure scripture reference in the Bible, and it's a good example of the kind of result I was talking about in that post. Here's the scripture:

Jabez called on the God of Israel, saying, Oh that you would bless me indeed, and enlarge my border, and that your hand might be with me, and that you would keep me from evil, that it not be to my sorrow! God granted him that which he requested. - 1 Chronicles 4:9-10

See that "enlarge my border" part? That's what I'm talking about, but in terms of ... well, it's not about time management, necessarily. That's a side effect, a secondary result of what we're doing primarily. I know I said it was a result, but it misrepresents what is going on.

Taking this rite as a method of simply increasing a skill you already have, "time management," is off a bit, and it's my fault for rushing through that part of the post. That's still working within the same borders, the same limits. If you look at time management, it's still sacrificing something to be able to do more with the same limitations. This is about moving the boundaries of your limitations, and the result is what looks like better time management.

It's about having the capacity to do more. The overwhelming stress comes from having as much or more to do as you possibly can. You're maxed out. Enlarging the borders doesn't change the amount of things you have to do, it just lessens the degree of impact. If you're running at 110% of your capacity, you're going to blow out the systems. If you upgrade the system, the same amount of work or responsibility goes down from 110% to maybe 85% or 60% of your total capacity.

It's leveling up. In video games or role playing games, you might start out with a character who has 50 health points. An enemy doing 25 points of damage can hit you twice and you die. You upgrade the character a few times, and your total health points go up to 200. Now the percentage of damage that same enemy can do to you has shrunk from 50% of your total health to 12.5%. It's doing the same damage, but you can take more.

As Simon Tomasi says, this happens incrementally as people adapt in normal situations. Game functionality is modeled on real life, after all. The Saturn/Venus rite is like finding a health capacity upgrade in a video game that you don't have to spend any experience points on.

Only you are spending experience points, it's just magic experience instead of mundane experience. You're taking advantage of the short cuts we have access to as magicians.

Regrettable Rites

Better were the days when mastery of seas came not from bargains struck with eldritch creatures... but from the sweat of a man's brow and the strength of his back alone. You all know this to be true! -Hector Barbossa, Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End

Ever feel that way? I have. Especially after a spirit burned down my house to get me $4k. Totally not worth a year of recovery for a quick four grand.

But better were the days when I made $10 an hour as a bar/grill kitchen manager? Better were the days when I was an Admin Assistant at a non profit making $12 an hour? Fuck no! Barbossa's off his rocker. Better are the days when I'm making four times that income as a result of my ongoing interactions with the spirits, can I get an AMEN!?

Damn straight I can.*

But that house fire thing wasn't the first time I fucked up in magic. Not the first time bargains struck with eldritch beings came back to bite me in the ass. And I regret every single one of those rites, in a way. Not in a particularly remorseful way, but more in a damn, I wish that rite had worked out as planned kind of way. 

Ok, now that I think about it for a second or two, I don't regret all my failed rites, of course. If all my rites worked... well, let's just say I wouldn't have made nearly as many friends in California over the last few years. And there'd be werewolves stalking the shores of Nevada. If they had survived the meteor apocalypse. So, I mean, the world's probably in better shape because I don't always succeed, even if it is pretty boring to a nineteen year old version of myself.

Who should have been punched in the face at least once.

But I tell you this, my brothers and sisters, I appreciate every rite I've done, failed or successful. Those that failed have taught me something, no matter how cliche. Those that have succeeded even more. The power at our disposal is something that would be truly sobering if we stopped and thought about it for a bit. Something we should not scoff at, nor let slip too far from our awareness. 

See, I'm guilty of that, I forget who I am, and my potential all too easily. There's so much that I could be doing that I'm not. I forget, and I feel bad about it. 

Fortunately, I am a benevolent soul, and I forgive me.

* I think, sometimes, I would make an awesome preacher, except for the foul language. 

Saturn Magic for a Better Life

In today's post, Jow talks about something I recently went through as well. I conjured for more income, more business, more more more. Surrender the Booty, says I.

And the universe did, bless her heart. Like Jow, I was busier than a one legged man in an ass-kicking contest. It didn't take me long to get overwhelmed to the point of inaction. You know, when you have so much to do you can't do anything. That's where the Do One Thing post I wrote last week came from.

Crap, the Druid just posted something similar. He's got too many patients to care for at the level of care he wants to give. Is it going around? I feel worse for him than I do for me. I got bummed because I just had too much stuff to do. He's bummed cause he can't provide the quality of life he feels his patients deserve. Maybe this can help him too. Hope so.

Anyway, we get overwhelmed when we try to cram too much stuff into the space we have available. You can't grow more corn than you can fit in your field. If you play Farmville, you've probably reached the point where you've got more stuff on your farm than you have squares to put it in. You start sacrificing your productive land to fit in all the animals or planes or balloons or golden gnomes or topiary gardens or Japanese barns or whatever. (I don't play it, my spouse does. I quit years ago. It got silly.)

We do the same things with our lives. We live at a certain level of responsibility, and we get used to having X hours of work, and X hours of everything else. We cram more and more into the schedule, and pretty soon we're sacrificing in the give and take, blossom and decay of our efforts. It drives us nuts for a while until we adapt.

How do we adapt? We sacrifice. We get rid of something to make room for the stuff we want to keep. We get rid of the shit we don't need anymore, eliminate the things that are taking up space or time that don't give us a big enough return on our investment of time or effort. Non-productive time in front of a monitor is the first thing that goes for me. Video games, episodes of Torchwood and Doctor Who, even time spent reading other people's blogs. At work, the administrative tasks that I can catch up later get sacrificed so I can work on putting out whatever project fire has my boss calling me into her office. Sacrifice is the instinctive reaction.

It can be good. You prune a tree, and you get a lot more fruit. The resources that went to maintaining all those extra branches and leaves get channeled into bigger, juicier, more abundant fruit. Good stuff.

Pruning, cutting back on things, sacrifice... It's Saturn and Mars. Saturn because the things we're sacrificing are coming to an end, but Mars because we're cutting things out. When we sacrifice things like this, we're working within a closed system. There's only so much space available, only so much time, only so many productive hours in a day that we can work. There's only so much our minds can handle at once. Limits. Boundaries. Closed circles. Saturn.

But there's another option.

You ever meet those people who have twice as much to be responsible for than you do, but they're sitting there all relaxed enjoying a cold beer on a weekend because they just finished mowing their perfectly manicured lawn and they aren't all behind on everything trying to catch up? I always used to assume they were just rich enough not to have debt eating their pea brains the way I do. Or they hired other people to take care of their kids or something. But that's not it.

See, people can handle more shit than we think we can. We think we're in a closed circle with limited resources, but we aren't. The human brain can handle a lot more shit than we give it credit for. We think we're in a closed loop with limited resources within the defined boundaries we're already aware of, but the truth is those boundaries are flexible.

In Farmville, you go up a level, and you can expand your farm. Presto, more squares to use for stuff. You don't have to get rid of all that shit you thought you'd have to get rid of. In real life, farmers buy more land when they've maxed out the profitability of what they've already got.

But the things we're talking about here are mostly time constraints, and there's no way to expand the day, right? Well yeah. But we're magicians! We have access to the sphere of Saturn, where boundaries are set. We have access to Chronos himself! TIME constraints? Fuck time constraints. I didn't go through these initiations to get ass-fucked by time constraints.

Now, when we're talking about cutting back and sacrificing, it's Saturn and Mars, right? Well, when we talk about expanding our limits so we can create more, do more, grow more, have more, we're talking about Saturn and Venus. Primarily. There's plenty of room for the Moon too, and you'd time it to occur during a waxing Moon. Which is, you know, NOW. But a Saturn/Venus rite is what is called for.

Me, I just conjured up Cassiel and Anael. I used those seals from the Magical Calendar, and the Modern Angelic Grimoire, and my conjure box, and I called up Cassiel first, and then Anael, and when they were present and accounted for, I explained the situation. "I got too much to do, and not enough time or attention or brain power to get it done. I need the boundaries of my sphere expanded, upgraded, I need my resources to deal with everything grown. I need to be able to take care of things in the time I have available, and the bandwidth left over to enjoy my life. Grant me the expanded sphere of influence, the wisdom to manage my time wisely without sacrificing the things I need to keep. Generate more space, and let it be fruitful."

The result was better time management skills, though I didn't notice it at first. Things were getting done that were slipping through the cracks before. I was able to sleep soundly, at a decent hour, without my brain running a million miles an hour going over all the things I didn't quite have time for. I've been able to blog more consistently. Above all else, I've been able to think more clearly.

Now, don't get me wrong. I'm not saying sacrificing things is a bad thing. We're all little hoarders of bullshit, and we accumulate habits and patterns that need to be shaken up. We need to prune from time to time, and we need to "sacrifice" things that aren't helping. We need to be Martial with ourselves once in a while. It's a damned good thing to do.

But when the quality of your work is getting sacrificed, when you're falling behind on the things you really have to get done no matter what and the make-up time just never gets there, and people are counting on you, it's time to consider that you need to expand your sphere, upgrade your farm, get a little more room. There's an adjustment phase, and like all magic that affects your sphere directly, it's not always comfortable. But the benefits are worth it.

Surrender the Booty!!!

Arrrr! There do be something akin between ye pirates and ye magicians. I've been trying to put it together, and all I've come up with so far is this:

Pirates are looking for a way to tap into the wealth and prosperity of global commerce despite a lack of social standing or the specialized skill sets required to participate within the constraints of legal authority. They don't stay in their assigned social class. They are outlaws, and they put their lives on the line to accomplish their goals. Their motto can be summed up in the phrase "Surrender the Booty!" Surrender because they are taking it whether you want them to or not, demanding that you give it up or perish.

They also drink a lot, and have sex with anyone they can.

Magicians are looking for a way to tap directly into the engines of manifestation and the hierarchies of ascension in order to accomplish their spiritual and physical goals.  Magicians don't stay within the social constraints to get their desires. If we're working on Theurgy, we don't stay within the lay community of whatever religion dominates the land. We look for the hidden, occult means to accomplish our aims. We look to ascend on our own, without any intermediary telling us what God said, and what he really meant. We go outside the social norms to get what we want on our own. If we're working on getting ahead financially, we don't rely only on our training, education, and experience. We take a shortcut. We're after the booty. +

And we share the penchant for mind altering chemicals and sex.

The similarities are fairly apparent. Outlaws seeking the treasure in spite of our social standing. The Lemegeton's Goetia, if you look closely at it, provides an interesting social commentary. The main things the spirits provide are the education you'd receive in a Liberal Arts school in the Renaissance. The term "Liberal" in liberal arts refers to the fact that it was an education reserved for the free citizens, not to be had by the slaves or the serfs or the non-noble classes. Only nobility and clergy received a formal education in theology, the maths and sciences, and the emerging middle class had no recourse to the training. They couldn't be officers, couldn't command troops. So they went to the spirits to learn the nature of things, to get aid in commerce, to have access to troops for defending their cities.

The occult methods provided a means to overcome the liabilities of our birth, and the whims of our fate. Like pirates, we go outside the prescribed constraints of our birth or training to reach heights that are denied us by our culture, our tribal custom.

Arr! We do be pirates, of a sort!

And yet there are differences too. Pirates accepted the risks they faced. Magicians tend to want the booty without risking their lives. We may joke about risking our sanity, but we usually think those who find madness in their occult pursuits brought it with them into the cave in the first place. Pirates will work their tails off to get their treasure. Pirate life is hard frickin' work. They earn their treasure by the sweat of their brow, the strength of their backs. Magicians can be a little less willing to do the mundane work that makes a way for the occult powers to manifest their desires in their lives.

We also approach the obtainment of our goals and desires with a bit less gusto. We can't very well conjure up the Intelligence of the Sun and demand it Surrender the Booty or Else! At best we'd be ignored, at worst fried in a solar flare. Pirates had swords and cannon, and their targets were vulnerable to swords. Our target is the Universe, and it's bigger and stronger than us. No amount of threats will work in most magical practice, and the few techniques that involve threatening our co-workers usually tender results that leave something to be desired.

Nevertheless, there's a passion in the demand of the Pirate that I think we need to incorporate into our Work. Will you accept less than the complete fulfillment of your ambition!? Will you take no for an answer? There are times when the answer from the spirits is "no," but we don't have to stop there. When we get a "No," press harder, ask like a child, "Why not!?" Maybe there's something we have to change about ourselves to accomplish our goal. Maybe there's something we have to learn that makes the thing we want moot. Maybe we already have it. But taking the "No" at face value is weak. What are we leaving on the table if we leave too soon?

I demand change, I demand the prize. Surrender the Booty, universe! Move, or move me! If I can't have what I want, then change me, teach me, school me so I know why I don't need it, or why I can't have it. Show me the way to what I want if I can't have it the way things are right now.

Or kill me dead, because if you won't give me what I want, or raise me to the level where I can see that I don't REALLY want it, then this is no world I want to live in.

Oh Lord, Bless this Food: Magical Cooking

With my wife dealing with chronic illness beyond the scope of my magical ability to heal, there are often times when I have to cook. I used to cook in a restaurant... Ok, it was a bar and grill, but it had delusions of grandeur. We had gourmet soups, the best prime rib on the planet, and we constantly went out of our way to make the dining experience shock the customers. So I'm a decent cook, and my kids rarely complain.

This isn't my chili, but it looked similar.

So last night was a night I had to cook. I decided on chili, because it's super easy. My recipe is pretty straight forward, a pound of ground beef, a whole sweet onion, one huge ass can (26 oz) of dark red kidney beans, two regular (I think 15 oz) cans of diced tomatos, one (15ish oz) can of sweet corn, drained, and a little can of tomato paste. And a tablespoon of minced garlic, or two cloves, salt and pepper to taste, a quarter teaspoon of cumin (I forgot it last night, but it adds a mild "dirt" flavor that seems to go well with chili), and the chili powder.

The chili powder was an issue. See, usually I get the most expensive seasoning possible, keep it for short periods of time so it tastes fresh, and ditch it when it starts to lose its aroma. Last time I bought chili powder, I was totally at Wal Mart. And money was tight, so I bought the generic. And you could totally tell when I made the chili. So last night, I cheated: I used magic.

I browned the ground beef with the chopped up onion and garlic, salt, and pepper. I love that smell. Then I got all the canned stuff together and the spices, saw the generic stuff, and remembered the generic flavor of the last chili I'd made. Remembering that the Supernatural Assistant (SA) is also supposed to be able to bring together an awesome dinner on command, I conjured him up and said, "Make this the best tasting chili in the world, improve the flavor of the ingredients that the end product is better than it should be by rights."

When the ground beef was done and the onions had started to turn translucent, just, I added all the canned goods. I added the chili powder, and again asked my SA to bless the seasoning and the end product with good flavor. I stirred it all up, and turned down the heat of the burner to simmer.

Then I made my mistake.

Thinking it needed to be brought up to a boil before turning it back down, I cranked the burner back up to about 6. I figured, less than high heat, shouldn't burn, but still hot enough to get it boiling. I'll be in the next room, I'll remember to come back and turn it down to simmer. No worries!

And I went off and played video games with my son and daughter. Pretty soon, the aroma of burned beans began to fill the house. With a loud "SHIT!" I ran to the kitchen as my kids made the, "oooo, you said the ess word" noises they always make when I cuss. It was too late though, the beans had burned on the bottom.

If you've ever burned beans in chili, you know the whole pot is ruined, right? The smoke flavor permeates the whole thing. I was pissed. I turned the whole thing off and made plans to run to KFC. Before heading out though, I had to at least taste it.

Best damned chili I ever made. Somehow, the smoke flavor wasn't total ass. Don't ask me how. It was great! I just had to be careful not to scrape the bottom when serving it. The kids loved it, and they're total chili snobs. My teen loved it.

It was a complete miracle.

The Grimoires and Modern Stuff

First, your return to shore was not part of our negotiations nor our agreement so I must do nothing. And secondly, you must be a pirate for the pirate's code to apply and you're not. And thirdly, the code is more what you'd call "guidelines" than actual rules. - Barbossa in Pirates of the Caribbean: the Curse of the Black Pearl

I'm not a traditional grimoire magician at all. I am a modern magician.

Traditional grimoire magicians who read the blog and my books are already aware of this fact, but I just wanted to make sure that's clear. To me, the grimoires are a source for really powerful magic, but they are not complete in and of themselves. They don't talk about initiations, they don't teach the hierarchical cosmology that makes it make sense. They don't explain much about the god names and words of power. They don't teach how to accomplish the Great Work.

They're cliff's notes. Reference guides. They're like the notes you make when you're going to give a presentation. Sometimes everything in the notes is covered, sometimes more is covered, sometimes less. I've written up rituals of my own in great detail, but when I do the rite, shit changes on the fly. If I had to stick to a script, I'd get nowhere fast.

I'm not a grimoire fundamentalist, but I do believe the grimoire magic is the most powerful I've used. Yet an argument can be made that I've never really used grimoire magic. So what does it mean when I say the system is more powerful (in my experience) than other systems? Only that the names of the spirits and their seals are really useful? No, because there's more to it. The structure they present is important to understand as well. The system is more than the pieces.

But at the same time, we aren't the magicians who wrote the books. The "unknown unknowns" leave us unable to really do the magic the way they were doing it back then, if it was ever done that way at all. We're products of a different culture, living in a different time. Agrippa would have had an ipad, you know it. And spreadsheets.

Magic is living and breathing, it's not set in stone. Grimoire writers were compilers and syncretists. We are too. Adaptation is necessary to be able to do any of this. It's a given.

So my approach is to look at the grimoires as snapshots, references. I use the names and seals of the systems, and my rituals are something a Renaissance magician would recognize. I use the right god names and the right words of power from the scripts. I use the right incenses and metals, when possible. I do my best to keep it as close to the original as possible, but I do it the way it makes sense to me to do it using the technology I have at my disposal. I keep my adaptations traditional, if that makes sense.

And I experiment. I innovate. I work with the spirits to figure out the best way to work with the spirits. It's a philosophy as much as a set of techniques.

The grimoires, imo, are more what you'd call guidelines than actual rules.

Wealth/Prosperity/Money Magic

A potential client wrote me this morning asking for help getting rich. He's spent a lot on other practitioners trying to get rich, and it's failed. He wants to work with me, but he's been burned before and keeps getting deeper in debt. He's not looking to get megabillionaire rich, which is good, but he wants to get some money coming in fast. He asked for a guarantee of success.

So here's my response:

No, man, there are no guarantees in magic. Magic is a force you can apply to your life. It's one force. There are many other forces applying to your life too. Adding a force for getting you wealth is good, but it still has to compete with everything else affecting you.

Are you cursed with poverty? That could be a major factor. You need to get rid of any curses if they are there.

Are you destined to be poor? It's different from a curse, it's something that cannot be changed if it is your fate. You need to have a professional astrologer check your natal chart. Christopher Warnock at www.renaissanceastrology.com is good at that. If you are just destined to be poor, you have to learn to live with it. You can be poor and still be happy.

Were you taught poor financial skills? No magic can make you wealthy if you spend more money than you make. Magic cannot make you financially disciplined.

Are you aware of opportunities? Magic brings opportunity to make money, it doesn't bring money. You still have to do the work.

If you've done a lot of wealth magic and you're still poor, more wealth magic is not going to help. You need to figure out the reasons it's failing.

Testing a blogger app

Ok, here's RO testing a blogger app.

Quantifying Results and Expectation Management

RO, Flying & Invisible at the Same Time

So Jason says that grimoire magic is not the best magic in the world. He says it's not clearly superior until he sees people turn invisible and fly.

For the record, I turned invisible and flew. Swear to gosh. I even have a picture. That's me, invisible, flying over on the right.

Like most skeptics though, even this clear evidence won't be enough to sway him, I'm sure.

But anyway, I'd like to take a moment to address something he said for real. In talking about someone who expressed the following experience:

They were convinced that following these texts [The Grimoires] as close to the letter as possible was the key to real success, but after a few years of spending lots of time and money on doing just that, they were not getting any better results than anything else he tried. Even worse, when he really looked around at the reports from the people that are trumpeting this approach as the key to magic, they really are not reporting results that are markedly different than what anyone else reports. No one is turning actual lead to gold or learning chemistry directly from the mouths of spirits.

Jason goes on to say that all systems, if practiced diligently will tender the same results. I'm paraphrasing.

I've got mixed thoughts on the subject. On the one hand, like Jason, I went through the pop magical trends as they came up, though I was a few years behind him because I'm younger than a coprolite. My path was neopaganism, Ceremonial Magic ala Kraig's Golden Dawn stuff in Modern Magick, followed closely by Crowley's Magick in Theory and Practice, and then Chaos Magick. And to their credit, all this stuff worked. I got results. I could change the world, sort of, using the techniques of each system.

But then I got into the grimoires of the renaissance, and started using them, and fuck me, dude, the power was just incredible. I did the same kinds of things I did as a neopagan, ceremonial magickian, and chaos magickian in terms of goals aimed for and achieved, but the speed that the changes came internally, the speed that the changes came materially were just totally off the charts in comparison. The time to manifest went from three months to a couple of weeks. The time for the internal changes I sought through initiations and contemplation/vision questing (pathworking) went from months to weeks too. I went from thinking "it's all in my head" to talking with entities who knew more than I did, and could do a lot more than I can, and who were clearly not me. They were other.

But, as you know, no piles of gold showed up in my garage, no matter which spirits I Worked with, no matter how I treated them. I'm not bitter. Really.

Ok, maybe just a little.

So I managed my expectations a bit. I accepted that at my level of attainment and initiation, the way the spirits manifest stuff for me is the way they manifest everything else, through natural law. No such thing as supernatural or natural, let these two asses be set to grind corn and all that. Bending the laws of manifestation the way Reb Shimon did, piles of gold filling a valley to prove how little money mattered to a student of the KBL and such takes the kind of single minded and physically devoted focus that I just don't have time to do at this point in this incarnation.

Oh, but man, I catch glimpses. Eighth Sphere stuff, the reason I'm always on about it, it's the shit. It's the True Shit that blows everything else away. And ever since I had that sweet little taste, I haven't been able to do much exploring. What good is what I've got so far? Not much, except it manages my expectations. It teaches me what I need to know: It's possible, but not yet, for me, because I've made other choices.

Quantification. How do I tell you that Grimoire Magic is superior to everything else I've experienced when I can't Midas everything around me literally? How do I quantify the difference between the results I get form grimoire magic compared to chaos magic or GD magic or Thelemic Magic? All I can really do is point to the time differences I've found. Weeks instead of months. Great. Still not instant.

Do One Thing

You know how when you're all in a slump and can't get motivated to get anything done, doing one small thing completely, finishing one small task provides the motivation to go out and accomplish more stuff? It's true of magic too. I had a ton of stuff start piling up over the last couple of weeks, and every time I tried to get something started, something else would come up to distract me.

So I finally picked something small, did it start to finish in a few short minutes, and checked it off my mental list. Sure enough, the accomplishment gave me the momentum kick I needed to get just about everything done I had left to do.

And now I have a death ray! I love this stuff!