Picture me pacing again, because I am. I think I've got it.
Ok then, here goes...
Sex. Sex is beautiful, amazing, incredible. It is a worthy goal to pursue, as any artist pursues perfection in their craft or skill. With the flesh as your medium, you can create exquisite masterpieces in the flushed hues of your lover's skin, their dilating pupils, their gasps and moans a symphony of pleasure, an orchestra in flames.
And that's just the fun kind.
But there's another layer to sex that kicks things up a notch. It's common occult knowledge, if you look in the fun places from the right angle. Italian occultists used a version of it (see this link, page 455) to perform some rites that some believe are pretty black at the core.
The sphere of the woman is heated through certain rites, preparing her to become the source of heat for the man's transformation. She is spiritually designed to be the energetic source of the Alchemical Fire he needs to become purified. Their rites do not involve the release of his semen at climax, but there are plenty of orgasms to go around.
What bothers people about this rite is that there's a lot of mind control aspects, and the woman is basically treated as a sex slave, her spiritual pursuits are sidelined while he gets to be released from the flesh and have the soul of an Ascended Master take over his flesh.
I don't think the system is entirely accurately depicted in the referenced book, nor do I think the critics understand the system. While it's true, the woman is open to the mental manipulation of the man during their sexual rites, and he can totally dominate her and abuse her, so also is he open to her manipulations and can likewise be manipulated and abused... and that's precisely the point.
The two magi are entwined and Working together to accomplish the transformation of the self. They are open to the psychic manipulation of one another. They are joined, conjoined, they are the Holy Hermaphrodite seen in the Art card, in Temperance, the temper-ation of the material, the annealing process that takes place in the heat of the Solar Sun.
This rite requires a level of trust that is seldom attained between two people in the flesh. "In perfect love and perfect trust." It's that level of love and trust we're talking about. It's got to go deeper than anything married couples feel for one another. It's deeper than a contract, deeper than either person's gender roles.
Finding that person... well, I don't think you can just conjure that into being. Maybe you can, I don't know. It seems like a pretty bad idea to try to force this kind of thing. It would be too easy to do the conjuration rite, and then take the first redhead that comes along thinking that's your Scarlet Woman, only to find out later you made a terrible mistake in your overeagerness.
I guarantee I was not interested in anything like that manifesting in my life. I didn't ask for a Scarlet Woman. I didn't want any kind of relationship stuff, I just aimed for the Work, doing rites to increase the Heat of the Seven Flames of the Throne of God. The point was to unify them, to create a Uniflame* that would incinerate the dross and complete the calcinato of the events of the last 12 years of my life, freeing me to launch the ROpocalypse.
The results... Well. The results. You saw them unfolding in real time, sort of, here on the blog. First Eris popped up and gave me a good old fashioned brainwashing with a Muse, and consequently I awoke from a Bad Trip. Two messages were received, "nothing is real, all is permitted" and "do what thou will is the whole of the law." This was a very important part of the process. Without that freedom of mind, I wouldn't have been able to accept what happened next.
And what happened next was something really cool. It started with a mutual friend recommending we talk about some occult subjects, and then there was rum, and pirate talk, a spark and a flame, and a week later I was booking a flight, and a week after that I was enjoying the company of the most remarkable woman I've ever met.
And that wasn't even the freaking POINT of the magic I was doing. That's why I don't think it's a good idea to conjure a Scarlet Woman or a Sex Magic Partner. If you want to get laid, get laid, don't whore out your magic. Don't pretend to do magic for spiritual enlightenment if you're really just looking for an orgasm. This stuff is not about orgasm at all. Orgasm is a side effect, a distraction from the point, and the actual release of the semen is the death of the rite.
It only looks like sex on the outside. It's all about a transformation that takes place during the rite. The heat, the passion, the intent, the sweat, the fluids, the emotions, the will, the flesh are all mingled and focused (focus is the word of the day) on one thing, not a seal or sigil or sign or symbol, but an awareness, a state of observation and articulation. It is gnosis, it is completely empowered and completely empty of power. It is author-ity, and sub-mission, all at once. It is the place where dualism disintegrates revealing the Union of the Participants, on every level.
There are physical exercises to do. There are muscles in the sacral area that need to be carefully flexed and controlled for long periods of time. There are techniques in Taoist Alchemy that are important to integrate into your practices.
And another thing, health matters. I've lost a lot of weight on this Babalon diet. I'm enjoying exercise again, for the first time in 20 years. Food tastes better, and I'm eating better foods. The Scarlet Woman turned me onto this veggie, bean, and meat diet six days a week, and a blow out carb day once a week. I love the effect. No sugar, low low fat, and I can eat all the healthy stuff I want all day. Grape tomatoes with cucumbers and hummus, sliced rib eye, grilled chicken, fish, scallops, oysters, eggs and spinach or broccoli, zucchini with salsa on top, black beans, lentils, black eyed peas...
It's so delicious. On the carb day, I have to force myself to partake of the kinds of food I used to eat on a daily basis. I had a piece of pizza Saturday, and it was like, ew... carb high... bleah. But it's important to snap your body out of starvation mode. I don't really understand the details, but it works really well.
So that's the Sex and Health bit, and throughout I think I've covered the topic of the magics, the eternally significant parts. It's transformative. The results aren't aimed at physical reality, but they impact physical reality. It's the creation of the world, but not by creating the world. By knowing and being in a state of ecstasy.
Next we get back to Goetia.
* Yes I did that on purpose, because I love you.
Were you pointed to The Four Hour Body by Tim Ferriss? That diet you mentioned is sometimes known as the Slow Carb diet. Totally agree that it rocks.
ReplyDelete"Finding that person... well, I don't think you can just conjure that into being. Maybe you can, I don't know. It seems like a pretty bad idea to try to force this kind of thing. It would be too easy to do the conjuration rite, and then take the first redhead that comes along thinking that's your Scarlet Woman, only to find out later you made a terrible mistake in your overeagerness." Is this what happened to Jack Parsons? Was he punished so to speak for hubris and it literally blew up in his face or was it a necessary sacrifice in that time and place to usher in Babalon to the modern era? I've read a lot of speculation regarding that, was wondering what your take on it is.
ReplyDeleteIt's the first time i hear Giuliano Kremmerz quoted by a non-Italian occultist. It'd be very nice if its opus was known outside of his country as well and to hear modern magicians' opinions about it.
ReplyDeleteJust for info, his Miriam brotherhood had above all therapeutic goals (i'm studying some of his books in these days).
Great post as always, by the way.
@Unlikely, Possibly, I dunno. Slow carb sounds familiar. She sent me a link and I never got around to clicking it.
ReplyDelete@Wicklow, I don't know enough to have a valid opinion on Jack Parsons. I like what I do know about him. I don't believe people are punished by the gods or anything, I think it's mostly us punishing ourselves. I could be wrong though.
Le Fol, I really like what I saw so far, it's a very interesting system.
Thank you for pointing out the problematic vag aspect of the Traditional Great Rite. I've been thinking about it and I don't think I could do it, to be a vessel like that, it just gives me the skeeve. But two occultists + sexxors = potential for everyone
ReplyDeleteJack Parsons is a super cool guy but he is also a cautionary tale for this kind of work. This is a good book if you want to delve further: http://www.amazon.com/Strange-Angel-Otherworldly-Scientist-Whiteside/dp/0156031795/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1348681647&sr=8-1&keywords=jack+parsons
I have this congratulatory thing I want to say: Congratulations! I've learned a lot from your Red Work class, and I've had very pleasing results from the work I did through the auspices of your teaching.
ReplyDeleteI have this unnerved thing I want to say, too. Ummm? I'm not at all sure what to make of this very sudden appearance of (admittedly glorious) results. I usually find stuff works much more slowly for me, and rarely so ...hmmm. explosively? Except that's sort of the point, right? It's NOT explosive, at least for us...
Lots to think about.
@Andrew! Yes! Yes, yes, yes. Exactly.
ReplyDeleteThat's the thing, innit. Explosive results, unintended happiness as a consequence of pursuing the Kingdom. Getting what you were sure you did NOT want, and finding out it's the best thing on the planet, ever, and makes incarnation worthwhile after all...
You've hit the nail on the head. That's the elephant in the room. I didn't plan this shit at all. Nothing like this EVER fucking happens to me. At least, not so far.
Someone asked me how to get this kind of result in their lives, and my response was, "First get married to a woman who makes you miserable and have two kids with her. Then arrange for her to leave you and your 6-figure income for a maintenance man at an apartment complex. Then do some really basic planetary magic to get your head on straight, and see what the fuck happens."
This is unreproducible shit. totally unscientific. Babalon, for fuck's sake? Really? I mocked the OTO with excellent reason for YEARS.
Really... All this shit is HIGHLY UNLIKELY. Totally weird.
Which is why it was necessary for Eris to make an appearance when she did, to remind me that this shit isn't really real. It's a metaphor for something Greater. Something Bigger. Something Beautiful. The Most Desirable Thing Ever.
And then finding out that the most desirable thing ever was perfectly crafted for you.
A lot of times when you remove a major blockage, the build up behind it explodes through. How you direct that explosion determines how it affects you. Sounds like you directed it towards good things.
ReplyDeleteI feel happy for you. Congrats!
ReplyDelete*brofist*