The Next Two Weeks

Well, with the New Moon finally upon us, and Mercury Direct, though still getting back up to speed, I'm planning a lot of manifestation magic. Now's a good time to get in touch with me for things like Wealth and Prosperity rites, and "Good Luck on That" rites.

Also, I've had good reports coming in from the folks who purchased the Business Booster rites. I think they're ready to go live, full time. One client is looking at getting out from under a massive debt that's haunted his family for years, has had business rivals become partners, and has continued to expand his business opportunities globally. Another who started more recently made back the initial investment in windfalls within the first month, and has since seen a remarkable increase in new business.

As promised, the price has gone up. It's now $1,200 for Business Booster rites. The rite takes what you have and enlarges the base, strengthening the core structure of the business, and then starts adding to it. The people who are seeing the most success have a strong business model already in place. It takes five-figure a year revenues and pushes it to 6 figures, or six-figure revenues and pushes them to seven-figures. It's not always manifesting in 10-fold business growth immediately, but it does add a certain momentum to your existing business that continues to grow as you continue the rites.

The Theurgic effects of the rite are also something that a couple of my clients have mentioned. For example, one client writes:

I agree strongly with you that working on the spheres in general brings positive benefits throughout my whole life. I seem to get along with people better. People around me are more proactive at problem solving. In others its like all the right tracks have been greased a bit in my life. Its to such an extent that even if I didnt get any thaumaturgic results, the theurgic results are more than worth it.

I'm going to be working with one guinea pig clients on establishing new revenue streams, tweaking the initial Secret Rite I offer to be more specifically aimed at getting new businesses going. I have one client in the chute now, and I'd like to find a couple more. If you're interested in a Business Launching rite, a modified version of the Business Booster, I'll keep it at the $695 price tag for now.* It will include the same basic stuff as the Business Booster, but will also involve some specific Birthing rites of Venus, and will be adapted accordingly.

I'll have to update my products and services pages soon. For now, if you're interested in the higher-end services, please contact me via email.

* The higher rate separates the sheep from the goats, and time is precious these days.

The HGA(s) and Cosmological Principles

In a recent post on the HGA, Conjureman Ali addresses the idea of having multiple spirit Assistant/Guides, one for the Celestial realms (the traditional role of the HGA in modern interpretations of the Abramelin Rite), and one for the Chthonic. On Moloch's EvocationalMagics yahoo group, Aghor Pir, Aaron Leitch, and Conjureman Ali have discussed the topic a bit.

To summarize, we all agree the Abramelin HGA has a primarily Celestial role. Aghor discussed how his Genius from the natal chart (as in "Genius and Evil Daimon") seemed to be a Chthonic entity, and that the Supernatural Assistant he received using my course materials was of a mixed Celestial and Terrestrial nature. Aaron talked about how the combined nature of the Supernatural Assistant was split in the Abramelin rite, with the celestial roles going to the HGA and the terrestrial roles going to the demons. There wasn't any argument, which is nice. Lots of mutual respect.

My take on it is that all the spirits, the Supernatural Assistant, the HGA, the Angel of the Nativity, the Genius, Scirlin of the True Grimoire, they're all reflections of a single Idea in the mind of God. I think the "Helpful Spirit" is the Idea that manifests in different ways for different people in different cultures, and that there are many approaches to find the kind of spirit that will function best for your needs. You may find one spirit is of mixed nature and is more than sufficient, or you might find that your HGA name harmonizes with the celestial spheres, but a blood pact with Scirlin is more effective for working with chthonic entities.

A lot depends on your worldview, your cosmological view, your experiences and training, and the things you're here to do with your life. Your culture factors in, the religion you were raised in, the morals and values you absorbed and formed on your own.

I've been reading Geosophia and True Grimoire by Jake Stratton-Kent lately, glowing reviews to follow, and there's something he does in those works that is simply beautiful. He removes the false divide between the Chthonic and the Celestial. At least, he did for me. I don't know if he did it for everyone, but I suspect that was his chief aim in writing the books. He blew the lid off the Great Secret in ways that no one has done for me in a long time. Flipped my lid.

There is no heaven, there is no hell, no Celestial/Terrestrial divide. Those are descriptors of various points on the spectrum of experienced cosmos, but imperfect ones at best... and lies, damned lies at worst. There are demons who want to ascend and unite with the godhead, and there are angels that delight in war and murder. The heavens of Theurgists and the hells of the Goets were the same places in the old days. The forms evolved, but the essence, the stuff that really matters to magicians remained the same. Magic puts us back in conscious interaction with our fellow spirits who inhabit every plane, all at once, in various forms, each a manifestation of an Idea in the Mind of God just like us.


But then we get to the complicated parts. There are parts of the spectrum that are best described as celestial, and parts that are best described as chthonic. Goetic magic is not celestial magic, and the HGA is not the Supernatural Assistant, is not the Genius, is not Michael, is not the Hagios Pneumatos, is not Scirlin. Different systems give us different results, and I think it is wrong to say the Genius of your Natal Chart is the SAME SPIRIT as the HGA. They aren't. They feel different, they are reached differently. But the practical application of their role in your life sure seems to be the same for all the magicians I talk to. They teach, empower, and connect you to other spirits as needed. They protect and attack for you, or at least coordinate attacks for you. They can be faithful lieutenants or generals, depending on the role you're best suited to taking in your situations.

I think the most important thing to remember in these discussions is that they are discussions. Conversations, words that point to ideas, but remain approximations only. They can guide our actions, but I think the most important thing we do with the results of our conversations on the subject is the part where we actually take action. Whatever "Helpful Spirit" model or models work best for you is fine with me, I'm much more interested in talking about what you do with the relationship with the spirit you have than anything else.

War Wood

This morning I went for a drive to survey the damage from the hurricane. Whatsername. Ilene, Irene, I can't remember which is the song and which is the storm right now.
I'm writing from my phone because the power's out. They won't start fixing that until the winds die down. So I was awake, the family were asleep, my phone was dying and I needed to charge it in the car anyway, so I went for a drive.
I took a lot of pictures as I went. Lots of downed trees, a couple of closed roads, but overall not too bad. Except one person in town was killed by a falling tree.
I was  driving by an old lutheran graveyard when I saw this tree had split and fallen. I parked and collected a bunch of the wood for magical purposes. "War wood."
I'm doing some work on it  with saturn and mars, and the elements. I can think of a few ways to use it. I gave lots of little slivers that will fit nicely into a mojo bag. I gathered the wood, bark, leaves, and branches. Some of it has mud on it from where it struck the earth.
One chunk is the perfect size to make an elemental blasting rod. That's going to be fun to make.

Getting the Million Dollar Idea

Jason Miller posted a field report yesterday, and the client who wrote it closed with "I haven’t gotten the million dollar idea yet or won the lottery, but these developements are all welcome."

The million dollar idea. 

I have a million dollar aspiration, but I don't have the capital to execute a million dollar idea yet. I will, soon enough though, because I'm not hung up on waiting for the million dollar idea.* I've got a few thousand dollar ideas I'm working on. Over time, they'll be the framework for the million dollar ideas, and those in turn will lead to the billion dollar ideas, if necessary. I think I'll quit around $5 million. That really should be enough and then some.

Thousand dollar ideas are great though. Gordon's recent post about how he shouldn't have gotten a degree in film got me thinking about it. He uses the phrase "Everyone can make an extra $1k" and links to a web site I haven't checked out in detail, but I think the phrase itself is one of the most valuable things I've seen stated in black and white, clear as day, in a long long time.

Anyone can make an extra $1k. I made $3,200 between October and January delivering pizzas three nights a week and all day Sunday. It took about five and a half weeks to make a thousand dollars. It wasn't "an extra" thousand because I took the job to work off a specific debt, but it was something anyone can do, even if they already have a day job. And it doesn't take long, five weeks is nothing.

A thousand dollars is huge. With a thousand dollars, you can open five one-hundred-dollar businesses and have enough left over to put into advertising the ones that get the most interest. Start those revenue streams, and pretty soon you'll have enough coming in to be able to make your million dollar idea a reality.

The most important thing to remember is that you can always get started on the path to the million dollar reality wherever you're at right now. You don't have to wait. If a million dollar goal is out of your reach, build yourself a thousand dollar ladder. Make it a small goal, see how easy it is to accomplish it, and then you'll know you can get to the million dollar mark just as easily. 

Magic-ing up a Million Dollar Idea

People who have million dollar ideas are geniuses. Ok, that's probably arguable. A lot of them are really smart fellows, but they're also lucky, connected, and have access to funding that most people don't have. Steve Jobs got invested in early. So did Zuckerberg, and Gates. But you've got better connections iwth the spirits, and we'll talk about that later.

I'm not a genius. In a few years, people will say I am because I'm going to be really wealthy and I'll carry myself as if I were a genius, and they'll let me because they're sycophants, and in fact their job security will likely be directly tied to whether or not they play along with it, but the fact is this: I'm subgenius. I have test scores to prove it. Tickle test scores, even, so you know it's for reals.

Still, I'm not worried about getting that million dollar idea. I don't have to be a genius, I already have a Genius.

I get a lot of questions about how to Work with the Genius of the Nativity. I don't answer them often, because they're just hard to talk about. I've sat down to write up an advanced ebook on the subject a couple of times, and it just doesn't happen. The time is not yet, I figure, and focus on what I can write instead. It's kind of how I deal with things.

But for million dollar ideas and "Strokes of Genius," there's no better spirit than your natal Genius. This is the spirit whose role and function in classical Greece was the basis for what we use the word for now. They are the muse, the spirit of inspiration that we honor in people who we say are geniuses.

Figuring out the name is the hardest part. Actually, getting the prenatal syzygy is the hardest part, but once that's done you're all set. When you have the name, you write it on a lamen from the Modern Angelic Grimoire and conjure it using the rites of Trithemius. And then you ask it for inspirational ideas to make money.

And don't get hung up on the million dollar idea. Go with what they give you. Trust that it will at least pave the way for the million dollar idea if it's a thousand dollar idea to start with.

Magic-ing up Success

Once you've got your business structure in place, a web site, products to sell, paypal or google checkout buttons set up to process credit cards, once all that mundane stuff is in place, it's time to play the trump card.

Bless the fuck out of your business. Put your logo on your cash box. Use the Gates Rites**  to supercharge your business, balance your life, and master your Kingdom. Hire me to do it for you if you don't feel comfortable doing it yourself, I'm really good at money magic for people. It's the easiest kind of magic to do and track, imo.

But you aren't stuck with me. Jason's got Dzambhala/White Mahakla talismans available right now. Chris Warnock sells astrological wealth talismans. Michael Cecchetelli can probably be talked into making you a Jupiter Talisman using his latest Marduk experiments to strong effect. Dhr. Balthazar and Fr. AIT and Mr. Valentine are available for the hoodoo.

Or do it yourself. Every planetary Intelligence can help you get money, whether it's plutonic wealth of Saturn to finding hidden treasure on the Astral planes of the Moon. You've got a Threefold Keeper, according to Agrippa, and the Genius is a third of it. Another third of it is the Daimon of Profession who has all kinds of good information to provide you. You conjure the Genius and ask to speak to your personal Daimon of Profession. It's that simple. Every elemental spirit can help get you money. Your ancestor spirits can bring in cash. Hell, you probably have enough wandering ghosts in your house right now that you don't even know about who could be tapped and asked for help. Your local Genius Loci*** know more ways to profit in your neighborhood than you ever will on your own.

Put these spirit resources to work bringing your business success. My favorite method is a Jupiter-Mercury rite, but the most effective thing I've seen is the whole Gates series, it builds up the momentum nicely.

Seriously, just try it. Get a job somewhere for a week delivering pizzas or waiting tables, and take the couple hundred dollars you make and start a business and do some magic.

* Neither is the field reporter, that's obvious, but I just want to make sure I acknowledge that before any wires get crossed. Mercury goes direct tomorrow.

** The complete set comes to $83.65, a relatively modest investment, and you can buy it incrementally as you need it.

*** By the way, I consider the Fae to be specific classes of Genius Loci, and I honor them in my local area all the time. That last post was a total joke, an offering to Mercury in gratitude for getting me through the Rx in style.

Recipes for the Fey

Knowing how to prepare for dinner with the fey can be very difficult. There simply aren't a lot of surviving cookbooks that address the finer points of fey-cuisine.

Fortunately, they're a versatile bunch, and seem to go well with just about any combination of flavors. Mexican spices are as pleasing as lemon pepper, or garlic and shallots with a light sherry sauce. My favorite is butter and garlic with tarragon, liberally applied.

Personally, when cooking with the fey, I've found that just about any recipe for shrimp works really well. Beginning at 2:25:

I was originally concerned about their bones, and perhaps the scarcity of meat, but the bones seem to soften right up. You must be careful though, overcooking your fairies turns them tough and rubbery. I prefer them with the wings removed. Some have suggested setting the wings aside and using them as garnish, but they look too much like cecaida wings to me, and they put me right off my appetite.

"Gosh, honey, Daddy sure HOPES
the tooth fairy comes tonight!"

Once you get the hang of it, you'll find the hardest part is catching them in the first place. Word of your taste will soon spread throughout their realm, and they'll rarely come within reach. Clever strategies can be devised, however, that play on their overriding instincts.

Oil of Abramelin Instructions (with Pictures)

Aaron Letich has provided an excellent post on methods of making your own Oil of Abramelin.

I use this oil in just about every single rite I do. It has consecrated all my tools, the candles I use to represent the Light of God, and myself. I bought mine from Soma Luna years ago. I got two ounces, and I don't think I've used a single ounce yet. A little goes a LONG way.

Bikes with High Handlebars

At some point in my blogging career, I must have mentioned something about "bikes with high handlebars." Because people are finding my blog through Google using that particular phrase. I put it in Google to see where I turned up, but I didn't see me there. It doesn't make sense.

So in honor of those people who find this blog through weird ways, here's a special video, just for you.

Items in a Field Kit

Ok, so someone asked for a better picture, and I can't do it. Blogger has this thing they do with photos, and I could go through a process to get a clearer pic published, but it takes a while, and there's enough detail to get the gist.

It was one Ebony Wand based on Trithemius made for me by Fr. Ashen, one old quartz point I got for a dollar fifty at the local occult supply shop a few years ago, the seven* Planetary Talismans, Holy Water, and Oil of Abramelin. In my garage already are several types of incense and a charcoal incense burner.**

When I bring a field kit with me in general, I don't bother with the wand. It's just too long to carry conveniently. Everything else can be easily stashed in a pocket if necessary, though it looks kinda funny.***

I was heading out to put an Evil Demon in some lead for a client. I brought the crystal to use on the side for communications with Cassiel, who I would be working with primarily, but also for my HGA and Kammael if necessary. I ended up not having to use it, the spirits and I have strong relationships and we were able to talk without the crystal. Still, I like to have a crystal on hand for viewing purposes.

So I went to the garage and cleansed and banished with Holy water, consecrated the ground for our defense with the wand, fired up some incense and conjured my HGA. When he was present, I cleansed my self with Holy Water, saying:

Asperges me, Domine, hyssopo et mundabor, Lavabis me, et super nivem dealbabor. Miserere mei, Deus, secundum magnam misericordiam tuam. Gloria Patri et Filio et Spiritui Sancto, Sicut erat in principio, et nunc, et semper, et in saecula saeculorum. Amen.****

As I said the Father-Son-Holy Ghost part, I crossed my forehead, mouth, and heart respectively. I conjured up Cassiel and Kammael, and was all set to bind the demon into the steel and lead when I remembered a Table of Practice might be useful. So I sketched one out on a pad of paper I had on hand, and went to town. With Cassiel, Kammael, and my HGA, we got the client's Evil Daimon bound, and then I sealed it up, waited for the wood glue to dry, and then wood-burned in the Seal and stained it a purty color. I like mahogany.

Now it's curing in the garage. It's taking longer than it ought to because we've been rained on all weekend. I hoped to get it in the mail today, but that didn't happen. (Sorry, R.!) I checked it this morning and it's still leaving streaks when you touch it. I could bake it in the oven for a while on low heat, but the family doesn't like their meatloaf tasting like wood stain. Picky picky.


* Venus was on top one of the others, so it looks like there's only six in the picture. Of course it was Venus. I'm pretty sure she was on Michael.

** The family has agreed the self-lighting charcoal smells like burning tires, and have formally requested that I stick to stick incense in the house.

*** "No, it's a crystal point I use to conjure spirits in my pocket. I've never been that happy to see anyone."

**** You will sprinkle me, O Lord, with hyssop and I shall be cleansed You will wash me, and I shall be washed whiter than snow. Have mercy on me, O God, according to Your great mercy. Glory to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit. As it was in the beginning, is now, and always shall be in ages of ages. Amen.

Portal.

Portal is cool.

It's also good practice for astral gymnastics.

Political Magic

In this post today, Scott discusses the Demon-cratic party, because the Democrats are ruled by demons according to a fundie Christian. I love Scott's posts. He's consistently informative, and the things he posts are usually relevant in some aspect in my daily life, or at least tangentially. I like his Mercurial approach to things too.

In the last two paragraphs, he closes out saying as a sorcerer it would be great if the political parties were really controlled by demons because he could conjure them and fix everything, but sadly this isn't the case.

Au contraire, mon Frater! It is exactly the case! Sort of.

One of the things John Dee gathered from the Angelic Spirits he contacted in what became known as Enochian Magic was the list of names of the spirits that governed the 91 Parts of Earth. Each spirit could be conjured and worked with, ideally, to make the world a perfect, prosperous, peaceful place. You could get information about WTF is going on, information that could help you in your political interactions and economic negotiations. You had the perfect spies. Also, you could totally smite your enemies without having to go to war.

Agrippa mentions this too, in Book 1, Chapter 31 of his Three Books of Occult Philosophy. He says:

But he which knows how to compare these divisions of Provinces according to the divisions of the Stars, with the Ministry of the ruling Intelligences, and blessings of the Tribes of Israel, the lots of the Apostles, and typical seals of the sacred Scripture, shall be able to obtain great and prophetical oracles concerning every Region, of things to come.

 And in the Bible, it talks about the Prince of Persia wrestling with Michael in Daniel chapter 10, and in Ephesians 6:12  it says "For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the powers, against the world forces of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places." From my fundy days, I know these are the main Biblical sources of the element that tries to cast down the demons of institutions like the Democratic Party.

In Agrippa we learn to get the names of the Genius and Evil Daimon of any event if we have the time and place that it first began manifesting in the physical realm. The initiation point, the moment in space and time when the first action was taken to manifest an Idea. So if you had the time and date and location the Democrativ Party was formally launched, you could get the name of the Genius and Evil Daimon. You could conjure the Genius for divinatory purposes, and the Evil Daimon to cause it all kinds of problems.

Today the term "egregore" has become pretty common among occultists to refer to the spirit of any group. The term tracks back to Pierre Mabille, a French artist and magician from the early twentieth century. It got really popular in the 1980s, and we've been using it comfortably ever since.* It's a concept we're familiar with that deals with the type of magic we're talking about.

So in theory, we can conjure the spirits that rule over our government. Getting in touch with them is actually fairly easy, in fact. The problem is getting them to do anything you want them to do.

I conjured up the Prince of Persia after 09/11, and discovered that me and he operate on completely different scales. His Sphere of Influence was much, much larger than mine, and the power he had at his disposal to accomplish his purpose in existence dwarfed mine by a great margin.

The encounter taught me a lot about global politics in general. There's a reason the things that happen in the world happen. The recent riots in London were planned before time began, for example. Events have the momentum of eternity behind them, and if it's not your Fate to alter the course of history, chances are pretty good you'll just get swept away. It's an intricate dance of forces manifesting to express specific Ideas according to a time table that's rooted in Saturn.

That's why Agrippa says these spirits can be conjured for oracles of things to come. They know the Fate of the region, and are the masters of its unfolding. They also knew you were going to conjure them, and exactly what you were going to ask for, and whether or not they would comply.

But here's the thing: the way you figure out your Fate is by trying to do stuff. If it works, it was your Fate. So if you feel called to set the world to rights through conjure magic, by all means go for it! The only way to know is to try. At the very least, you will understand what's going on and why, and you'll be able to adapt yourself to it.

And maybe you'll even get the entire nation whipped into shape in no time.


* Well, looks like it peaked in the 1990s, but whatever. You probably know what it means.

Field Kit

Here's a picture of the stuff I take to the garage when it's magic time. With this kit, i'm ready for anything. Petty much.

One Crossed Keys Talisman Left

Mr. Cecchetelli has let me know there is only one Crossed Keys talisman available. 

And it is gone.

Unique Opportunity

Because of your discerning taste in blogs, you're in a position to get something that very few others are going to have a chance to get.

Michael Cecchetelli, author of Crossed Keys is putting together something pretty cool.

He's a member of the Gentlemen for Jupiter, and for the last four months he's been working closely with the the forces of the sphere of Jupiter, and having really good results. He's written a few blog posts on his experiments, and I don't know how much he's made publicly available about his results, but from our conversations I can tell you he's doing very well integrating the forces of Jupiter. He's had increases in his income and windfalls of all sorts, with Jupiter making his ties to its manifestation apparent every step of the way.

One of the things that just happened to wander into his life lately was four (yeah, four, that's how subtle Jupiter's being with him) silver Jupiter Talismans made using the image from Francis Barrett's The Magus*. He's consecrating one for himself, but he's making the rest available to the public.

And he's using the rites of the Crossed Keys to consecrate them. He's using both the Black Dragon and Enchiridion of Pope Leo together to create Crossed Keys Jupiter Talismans.

I'll wait for a minute and let that sink in a bit.

The author of Crossed Keys, an awesome grimoire that you won't be able to buy pretty soon, who has spent four months steeped in Jupiter's forces, is using the grimoire he knows intimately to consecrate four Crossed Keys Jupiter Talismans he got from Jupiter.


He's only got three available at the moment. He's selling them for $225. If you're interested, email him directly at THIS LINK.

I'll update this post when they're no longer available. They're no longer available.

* That's the "Joseph Smith Jupiter Talisman," but done right, in case you're wondering.

Cherry Picking in the Apocalypse

Gordon's been writing about living in an apocalypse. I was skeptical for a while. I mean, yeah, we ARE living in an apocalypse, he's right about that, but we have been off and on since 1974. There were a couple of good years in there, but most of the time I've been alive we've been on the brink of some kind of apocalyptic calamity that could hit at any time. Nuclear holocaust, the Reagan recession of 82, Y2k, 9/11, the housing bubble, H1N1, the double dip recession... Our food is either poisoned or too expensive to buy regularly. We've had gang warfare and race riots, tornadoes and hurricanes and floods and fires, and one political clusterfuck after another my entire life. 

Everything fun gives you AIDS or cancer. 

As Furbish Lousewart explains so eloquently, you really are "unsafe wherever you go." The world could end at any moment. Calamity. Fear Fire Foes!

And yet, it never did. Life just sort of went on, and shit worked itself out. A few smart and/or brave people saved the world for the common man, who was able to keep calm and carry on. Work, stress, party, fuck, rinse, repeat. Basically what we've been doing for 10,000 years, as far as I can tell from the cynics of the past.* 

But this week the stock market crashed, again, and at first I was like, ok, whatever. Shit happens and we carry on. Then I read Gordon's post, and it really hit me, the reason I don't give a shit about the state of the world's economy is because I'm used to it.

In a post apocalyptic world where zombies have killed almost everyone before they died off themselves and bands of urban foragers are scavenging the remains of our current civilization as they begin the return to global domination, It's all about finding opportunity. A hidden stash of army rations, a Brita filter warehouse, a book about rebuilding civilizations with blueprints for fixing the internet. And once in a while you stumble on a cherry tree that used to be for decoration bursting with ripe cherries and you can feast on fresh sweet deliciousness, and dry the rest. You find that shit and you're living large for a while.

That's how I live my life. The world is a difficult and dangerous place to live in. I'm always looking for opportunities, windfalls, stockpiles that haven't gone past their expiration date, methods and processes and information that will help me get the things I want out of life.

That's partially why I'm a magician. Reality hacking. Lookin' for a loophole, an opportunity. I'm an opportunist of the worst sort. If you can control the manifestation of opportunity, you're going to do better at being an opportunist. You can make that cherry tree discovery just sort of happen, as if by coincidence. How convenient is that?

For the last few years, I've focused a lot on money and wealth magic. I'm not wealthy, but I'm getting there. I've made a lot, and I plan to keep on making more. Lots more. No matter what the economy brings. I studied history, I know that in the worst of times, lots of people lose and suffer, and a few people somehow manage to get ahead. The ones who get ahead are the ones who do what Gordon's talking about. They have that mindset, the brain that perceives the world's struggles and misery as a backdrop, but are still doing what they do in good times, they keep moving forward. It's risky no matter if they try to survive or if the try to get ahead, so they might as well try to get ahead.

So read through those posts he's got tagged "Apocalypse." All the details of what he's talking about doing to get ahead may or may not apply to your personal situation and goals, but I guarantee the mindset, the approach that they are manifestations of will definitely apply to your life, no matter where you're at. You start living your life as if you're in an apocalypse, you start doing the things he's talking about, and you'll find yourself getting ahead in ways you can't begin to appreciate until they're moving.

Really good stuff.

Magical Assistance

Hearthwork and Homework

You need to eat, a place to live, and it needs to be peaceful so you can rest and have the energy it takes to seize opportunities when they appear. If you spent all night arguing with your wife because you don't have the money to pay the car payment and buy groceries too, you're not going to notice that your boss needs help with a side project that you've already done before. 

Spirits of Venus are great at helping you establish this kind of thing. They're where you go when you need to make changes to the core of your existence, your main sources of financial, emotional, and spiritual "income" that provide for your household and your daily living. They can make you happy, or at least content, and being happy and content changes your brain chemistry, and helps you see goodness where before you couldn't see it. Opportunities are a goodness. Asking to see the good in all things that bring happiness to your hearth and home is a powerful kind of Venus magic. 

Social Interactions

People who get ahead do good in social situations. They have extensive networks of people who know their value, and who provide value to them in return. They may be on varying degrees of friendship, but they have a lot of connections. They generally move up through the social classes, but they never necessarily cut their ties to the lower classes they pass through. Climbers.

It helps if you're socially gifted and are comfortable at parties, but that's not necessary. Look at people, assess their talents and skills, and let them know about your own. That's basically what you're aiming to do, and you can do it no matter how shy or socially awkward you may be. You never have to meet your social circles these days in the flesh. This isn't just advice for that world that exists when you're not at your computer, either. It's the same for online communities of friends and co-workers. They have value, and they value you.

Social stuff is mostly under Venus too, but there are things we can do to get ahead there too. Mercury can help you establish and maintain communication networks with other people. Lunar magic can be used to create a good image of yourself, attractive and intelligent looking. Solar magic can help people like you, and establish yourself as a recognized person in your community. Jupiter magic, especially, can get you the good favor of powerful people. It's good for your boss to like you. It's good to have friends think highly of you and respect you. 

And remember, working with these forces is not tricking anyone into thinking you're something you're not. Work with these spirits of the Moon and Venus and Jupiter to make your life better, and you'll find yourself changing, becoming the kind of person who people favor and value. It's not some gimmick, it's genuine. You get the positive benefits because you become the person that they belong to. People are attracted to you because you are attractive. People give you honor because you are honorable. People want you to lead them because you are a good leader.

Financial Opportunity

Chances are good that you know how to do financial magic of some sort to get a chance to get a lot of money. You know about money boxes for drawing wealth, you know about spirit pots for wealth spirits, you know about Jupiter talismans and rituals for luck. Jupiter is your best bet, followed closely by Mercury. But every planet is good for wealth, every single one.

• Saturn - buried treasures, deep wisdom to bring insight, Fate to see what lies ahead, Plutonic wealthy wealthness. Jewels, precious metals. Literally, hidden treasures like salvageable ships in international waters with gold bars just sitting there waiting for you. Someone's buried jar of coins from 1890. Junk in your garage that's worth a fortune that you don't know about.
• Jupiter - Expansion, opportunity, wealth, riches. Kingship and Kingly living.
• Mars - Acquisition. Going out and taking it. Putting the competition out of business and buying their inventory at pennies on the dollar. Lowballing bids and ballooning overhead fees. 
• The Sun - It manifests gold, solid gold. And victory, and fame. You know famous people who are famous for being famous? They're also rich just because they're famous. Lindsey Lohan and Paris Hilton got millions of dollars just for showing up at night clubs. People paid them to come because their presence attracted a crowd. You can live on your laurels. And seriously, just gold. Solar rites get the money to be there when you need it somehow. It's just there.
• Venus - See the hearth and home stuff, word your requests towards that aspect of her, or for luxury, to treat your lover with the hedonism they so richly deserve, and Venus will make a way for that to happen. 
• Mercury - Business, of course, transactions, increasing the margin by higher traffic volume or new product lines, or both. Also a silver tongue, wit, and eloquence, all things that come in handy when you're selling something, and honestly, any time you're doing something for money, you're selling something.
• The Moon - Image magic, glamours of various sorts are good to change the shape of things, but there's also visions and seeing opportunities as they take form. Here you can receive the eyes to see the waxings and wanings of ideas as they manifest and return to the unknown. The play of the universe. seeing that gives you insight into the opportunities you'll be seizing.

Spiritual Growth

All this survival and getting ahead in an apocalypse shit is for something important: You. Who are you, and why do you want to get ahead? What are you getting ahead for? Who are you making happy here with all this shit you're doing? What's the point?

To really win this game, you've got to reach an understanding of who you are and why you're here. You've got something you're supposed to be doing with your life. There's one thing that when you start doing it, you'll know, this is what I'm here for, and you'll do it really well.

Magic makes that happen for you. It makes you the creator of the world. It teaches you how to create, and shows you how to make things happen that you want to happen. It gives you wisdom and insight to make things better for you and those who need it to be better. 

And you need to be getting better at magic. Conjure your HGA, conjure the intelligences of the planets, get some elemental familiars, learn the secrets of the universe. It's awesomeness. 

* All those cave drawings are one tired guy's record of all the shit he had to put up with just to bring home some mammoth to put on the table.

Secret Papers and other Bullshit

Ok, so the reason I wrote that article the other day was because I read a blog that I won't link to because the pinhead doesn't deserve the traffic. This idiot blogger basically said that anyone who researches anything occult on the internet or in any publicly available work is a delusional idiot if they think they can attain K&CHGA. For support he bashes Crowley, claiming to know more about Crowley and his spiritual state than Crowley did himself.

He claimed to have access to manuscripts that are a few hundred years old. He claimed that they were from the real A:.A:., which is allegedly a Memphis Misraim Rite. He said they only start teaching real mysteries after the 50th degree. He said available manuscripts don't have the keys to make them useful. And then he bags anyone, whether it's rootworkers, Hermeticists, or pagans who's going out on their own to study, experiment, and implement the occult traditions without going through the Masons and getting inducted into the A.: A.:. He closes claiming to know that the Abramelin rite was really based on secret papers that he implies he's seen.

It was only later, after posting my post and reading some comments by Morgan Drake Eckstein that I realized I'd just taken out the whole Golden Dawn-Thelemic/OTO tradition as well. Which wasn't my point at all. I don't mind taking out the Bozo Brigade led by delusional clowns who treat their tradition like a science fiction TV show or a cartoon, those buffoons suck donkey balls and they make a mockery of magic. Magic is serious business.

But there are a lot of GD folks who see the system as a valid and valued compilation of Hermetic, Alchemical, and Kabbalistic principles that can lead to understanding and advancement on the path of the Great Work. They ignore the obviously fake bullshit of the creation myth, and look at the material that was put together logically and cohesively to see how to make it work. They are mechanics, tinkerers who inherited a project car that needs a lot of love, but could run faster than greased lightning when it's finished if they ever get the time and funds necessary to finish restoring it.

Mr. Eckstein is one of these, as are Sam Webster of the Open Source Order of the GD, and Nick Farrell. Frater AIT and Frater VL belong to a branch of the GD that's infected by ludicrous leadership, in my opinion, but they are diligent workers who I respect a great deal. A well known author of instruction on traditional grimoire magic is one of the main leaders of another GD Order, and I have nothing but respect for him. The Soror who blogs as PhoenixAngel also has my respect for her efforts to attain spiritual insight and ability through the GD. Jason Miller is either an active or former member of several GD-based or Thelemic Orders with creation myths that run the gammut of believability, and you all know how much I respect his knowledge, understanding, and insight into the way the universe works.

These folks, and the thousands like them, are not the people I'm taking out. They all have a healthy skepticism in their approach to the systems they are working on. They're looking for useful truth in systems of attainment, and I support and encourage that in everyone's path.

And I'm not saying there's nothing to be found in Orders with hokey origins. I'm a Hermeticist, for Christ's sake (literally!). I get a lot out of the Corpus Hermeticum, and it's almost certainly 100% total bullshit in its origin myths. I don't take them literally, I take them as explanatory models. As an explanatory model, the Secret Chiefs of the Golden Dawn make sense. The myths present a metaphorical spiritual truth. Whether Mathers met or did not meet physical people who were or pretended to be the Secret Chiefs doesn't matter, there's something that began as an Idea in the Mind of God that manifested as the Golden Dawn, on purpose, to accomplish specific pieces of God's plan on Earth, regardless of my opinion on the details.

But the main point I'd like to make on all this is that regardless of the origin, or the paperwork, or the living-dead-revived-zombified status of a tradition, anyone can perform the Great Work and succeed, no matter what anyone says about it. God calls us to the Work, in my interpretation and preferred expression of the process of becoming a magician. He reveals what we need to know when we need to know it. He makes a way for us to reach him and to become what we are meant to be. He does so through whatever spiritual tech or belief system is available, and when you get past all the words and symbols, we all learn to do the same kinds of things in our esoteric pursuits, whether it's in a shamanic tribe, ATR diaspora, Lodge Hermeticism, Debutante Dilettante, or rogue Hermeticist with an internet connection and a few pages of spirit names and little common sense.

People are free to study, experiment, explore, record, and pass on their results to everyone else. There's no limit to what you can or cannot learn on your own or in a tradition that goes back a few thousand years. If you want to learn how to do magic, there's nothing that can stop you. Having secret papers may help you in your path if that's what you're called to, but secret papers don't give you the corner on the market, or invalidate anyone else's path.

Idiocy and the Secret Papers

Once upon a time, it was popular among certain groups of mystics to claim that they, and they alone, had all the secret papers that taught the One True Way to do Magic. They made up stories about meeting people who displayed fantastic powers, and used the fraudulent tricks of the Spiritualists that were popular at the same time to pretend to receive letters from invisible ascended masters.

When the various orders and traditions of these magicians inevitably imploded, the public at large jeered and happily went on with their lives. Mystics drawn to the promises of Secret Traditional Spiritual Wisdom were disappointed with yet another dead end, and went on their way looking to older materials for glimpses of the eternal light.

But some people, upon seeing the Temples and the Ordos implode, splinter, and implode again without ever producing any signs of ascended masters from their ranks, couldn't stand to give up their illusions. "The lies they told, I mean, the Myths they told were really TRUE, it was just that they were lying when they said THEY had the secrets!" they told themselves. "Someone somewhere MUST have the REAL secrets!" And so saying, they bounded off into the darkness holding fast to their beliefs in Secret Lodges of Western Magick with unbroken lineages dating back to Atlantis that held the true keys to the secrets of the ages.

A whole new batch of frauds and fakes, seeing a genre to be tapped, a profit of power, control, and manipulation (and money) to be made at someone else's expense, leaped at the chance to be the purveyors of the "authentic" secret papers and traditions. They built up new towers of falsehood for these eager-to-be-deceived fools to flock to. They produced manuscripts with older sources, for the archaeology they had at their disposal was much better than the archaeology available to their predecessors, and they found that the modern students were as eager to ignore the obvious fabrications just like they had been in the early 20th century. These truly Black Brothers tapped the will to believe the Masonic Myths, played on the eagerness to belong, to have the TRUE SECRET POWERS, and programmed their students to look down upon and mock those who saw through their lies as a defense mechanism, just like spiritual frauds and fakes have always done.

To this very day, there are those who espouse ludicrous, laughable and obviously made up bullshit as the truth because they really want to believe there's a lodge somewhere that wasn't just the Post-Victorian Imperialistic British playing dress up in what they thought Egyptian priests wore for a lark.

If you want to play those reindeer games, by all means feel free to do so. But don't try to tell me your personal fantasies are really the really real truth. There are no secret documents that weren't developed in the last century, there is no secret Order of initiates from Atlantis, there is no hidden group of ascending masters who will be able to teach you anything you can't find on the internet for free (www.esotericarchives.com, www.hermetic.com) or figure out on your own if you try hard and ask the right spirits for help.

Fuck the idiots and their stupid fairy tales who try to tell you different. Conjure the spirits and get to Work on your own.

Follow up to Crossed Keys Review

I can't believe I forgot to link to a purchase point in the review. You should buy your own copy:

Rouge edition ($24.95):
http://www.amazon.com/Crossed-Keys-Softcover-Michael-Cecchetelli/dp/095672034X/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1312487835&sr=8-1

Hardcover (only 1 new available for $75! damn! Selling out fast!):
http://www.amazon.com/Crossed-Chimeric-Binding-Dragon-Enchiridion/dp/B005E8187C/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1312487835&sr=8-2