Head For the Red

Yahoo...

2009-12-10T13:07:00.000-05:00

Yahoo needs to start propitiating the spirits of Mercury already. They've got terrible communications problems.

Yahoo execs: I suggest the virgin daughter of your CEO offered to the Kraken.

(Yes, I am looking forward to the release of Clash of the Titans, why do you ask?)

Because I'm an American, that's Why!

2009-12-10T12:16:00.000-05:00

A title like that could be applied to any number of topics, and some of them could be really fun.

But for now I'm talking about religion. Have you noticed I'm a Christian, but the things I believe would have gotten me burned as a heretic in the age of the grimoires I cherish so much? I mean honestly, my ass would be on the stake faster than a witch's because I believe my Christianity is the real deal, and it happens to clash somewhat with popular hermeneutics, theology, and doctrine from any of the Renaissance (and modern) self-proclaimed keepers of the faith.

I figured it was because I'm smarter than most people, but shockingly, I was wrong. Come to find out, it's popular to be like me, looking at God first, then picking and choosing aspects of how God manifests himself in different cultures that resonate most with my own experiences. According to this article, nearly a third of us Americans are hip enough to mix and match from the belief buffet to come up with something that aligns with what we actually experience.

There's a danger of only picking the things you want to be true, and ignoring the things that are inconvenient. Americans aren't well known for taking on uncomfortable realities, after all. The Transcendental Meditation (TM) movement's popularity here is a good example. They teach all happiness and bliss if you chant their mantra, but they don't teach that the path to the happiness and bliss goes through the stages of pain many of the people in the Supernatural Assistance class are going through as I type. When the troubles that arise with initiation come, many people drop TM like a hot potato. A few even SUED TM for failing to deliver the promised benefits of mantra-chanting.

Whatever. TANSTAAFL.

But anyway, I'm NORMAL. I believe a lot of freaky stuff from different cultures, but so do a lot of other people. America's a melting pot for religions, and we're pretty famous for taking things and making something individual out of it. It's kind of weird that I consider myself a traditionalist, since most of what I do is adapted. But I suppose there's room for cognitive dissonance too.

Reminder

2009-12-09T18:02:00.000-05:00

Tomorrow is the day I do a ritual to help the jobless. I spent the summer unemployed, and I'm digging my way out, and it fucking sucks. I'd like to do my part to help anyone in a similar situation. Unemployment is right around 10%, and I heard the "real" value is closer to 17% on NPR last night. That's almost 2 out of every 10 people you know.

I've had two people ask to be mentioned in the rite. Either you don't think it's going to help, or everyone who reads my blog is employed and is only friends with employed people. I know it's not going to hurt to be mentioned, Bune's really good at getting people jobs that pay a decent amount. I landed this job two weeks after conjuring Bune.

Email me your name or anyone you know who needs the help, it's totally free.

I Really LOVE it.

2009-12-08T21:51:00.000-05:00

Have I ever mentioned how much I love being a magician? I've talked about it, I'm sure. I don't know. It's a freakin' blast. It's a fabulous trip.

Ideally, one day, this is all I'll do for a living. I mean, I'll have made enough to live without having to work all the time, and I'll be able to just do magic all the time. I really like writing about magic too, because to do the research, I have to do magic. It's awesome stuff.

Last weekend, I started playing with directing specific forces through the different spirits. I usually ask God to grant Michael power to accomplish the task at hand, for example, but this weekend, the task at hand was empowering Bune to take care of some things for me. The idea to do weekly "riches maintenance" rites came shortly after doing that.

This Thursday's rite is going to be the Power of God flowing into Sachiel, and then flowing into Bune on behalf of the jobless. I suppose eventually I'll start including the different Archangels of the constellations too. God-Constellation-Planet-Terrestrial Spirit. Makes sense, follows that whole chain of manifestation I'm always going on about.

It's good strong magic, too. Come to think of it, I've been getting a pretty strong buzz off my rites for the last few weeks. Ever since I started the daily prayers and the ... oh. Yeah.

I've been doing the Supernatural Assistant Course along with my students. I guess that would explain it.

Table of Practice Sold and Other Business

2009-12-08T17:19:00.000-05:00

That was quick.

If anyone has a desire for such handcrafted items to go along with the courses, I'm open for taking commissions. Next year I may start offering a Modern Angelic Grimoire Kit, if there's any interest. Those Tables of Practice are fun to make.

In other news, I'll be doing a Bune ritual Thursday and Friday. Thursday's ritual is for anyone who is unemployed to get a job. I'll be conjuring Sachiel of Jupiter to empower Bune to bring a job that pays all the bills "plus some left over" as Moloch says. If you or anyone you know is currently unemployed, email me their name, and I'll mention them during the rite.

I prefer to mention people to spirits during rituals using their name and their mother's maiden name, as in "David Thomas, son of Maria Angelos" the way the Sefer Raziel recommends. The Sefer Raziel does it this way (I suspect) because you always know who a person's mother is, even when you can't be sure of their paternal ancestry. You might think your dad is your real dad, but secretly be the son of an affair with the mail man. The mother, on the other hand, is harder to be wrong about. I understand in this day and age that people would be hesitant to give out their mother's maiden name to a complete stranger, so I'll settle for the full name of the person. This is free for the unemployed.

Friday's ritual will be a "riches maintenance" rite. I've found that Bune, being what he is, will gladly bless me with riches, usually within two weeks after conjuring for it. Unfortunately, being what I am, I will do a ritual, get some riches, spend them, then when I'm flat broke do another ritual and have to wait two weeks for the windfall. To be a bit more proactive, I'm going to begin performing a weekly riches maintenance rite that keeps the money coming in. I don't know what the results will be, but it's going to be a fun experiment.

If you want me to mention you during this rite, click the "Mention me to Bune" buy now button over on the right on the blog under the "RO Miscellany" category. I'll be charging $26 (because Bune's the 26th Spirit of the Lemegeton's Goetia) for this piece of the scheduled rite. This is what you'd click if you're already employed and want a better job.

And remember, all monies earned between now and December 25th go directly to the "MERRY CHRISTMAS, RUFUS OPUS" fund, which will be spent on making this a Merry Christmas for me and my family. It's totally going for a good cause.*

*Not tax deductible.

Acquiring a Supernatural Assistant:

2009-12-07T20:44:00.000-05:00

Registration for the next Acquiring a Supernatural Assistant Course is now open. The next course will begin January 4, 2010. Registration is open for this course from now until Dec. 31, 2009. That will give me plenty of time to put together everyone's Genius names and to generate the natal charts and stuff. Each session will have its own yahoo group set up for it.

Note: If anyone's buying courses for someone else as a gift, please make sure they have email and internet access.

See a lot of stuff going up for sale on the RO blog lately? And right before Christmas?

That's called "coincidence." ;-)

Red Work Course 2: Hermetic Merkavah

2009-12-06T10:39:00.001-05:00

The Acquiring the Supernatural Assistant Course is coming along nicely, and I'm very happy with the results many of the members are seeing. And so far there hasn't been much of the shit storm I was concerned about. Of course, this is still pretty preliminary, but I've found that the majority of the students have been called to the course at a time in their life where this kind of ritual would be most effective. Many have already been through the Dark Night of the Soul, faced their Gethsemene, and are ready to receive the Solar Helper.

But it's time to start taking orders for the next course in the series, Hermetic Merkavah. Where Course 1 takes the student through the Alchemical Black Phase of the Work and the White Phase, the Hermetic Merkavah Course begins the Green.

In this course, we'll be focusing on both the macrocosmic initiations and the physical manifestations associated with each of the Archangels of the Planets and their legions of Spirits.

We will be using the Modern Angelic Grimoire as the primary text book, and we will progress upwards through the spheres based on Ptolemy's model of the cosmos. I'm thinking we'll spend about two weeks on each planet, receiving the initiations into the sphere, receiving attunements and instruction in accessing the powers of the spheres in our daily lives, and actually getting stuff from each planet in our physical lives.

The course will include anecdotal insights I've gained about creating talismans, and I'll detail the steps I take to create the planetary talismans in the appropriate metals, or their equivalents. Heat, beat, repeat, and engrave sums it up nicely, but I'll go into more detail in the course.

Looks like it will be a 17-week course, altogether. The Lesson Plan is as follows:

Lesson 1: Hermetic Merkavah - The path of the Hermetic Magician's ascent through the spheres is described in the Emerald Tablet of Hermes, and detailed in the Corpus Hermeticum. The system I'm calling Hermetic Merkavah utilizes a relatively simple system of conjuration, initiation, and contemplation to accomplish the Hermetic Great Work. This lesson provides a detailed overview of the Great Work within the Hermetic discipline, and the functional tools necessary to accomplish it using the techniques of the Modern Angelic Grimoire.

Lessons 2-8: The Planetary Spheres - One lesson for each of the seven spheres of the planets. These will include a conjuration ritual for each Archangel of the Planet, a sample oration, and tips and tricks on receiving initiations into the spheres. These lessons will include personal experiences with the entities, the skill sets I've seen improved by working with the specific entities, and suggestions of manifest things to ask for from these spirits. Each lesson will have an initiatory piece and a practical piece.

Lesson 9: On the 8th and the 9th Spheres - This lesson addresses the Sphere of the Zodiac, and the Sphere of the Prime Mover.

Making Planetary Talismans - An eBook summarizing my experiences in creating talismans in the appropriate planetary metals or other materials. Most of my techniques are crude and primitive, but there will be no sculpey. If you want to use plastic clay, go ahead, the spirits don't care, but lately I've come to hate the stuff.

The Course launch date is tentatively set for December 15, 2009, depending on the response I get. Being the holiday season, I know there's a lot going on for many of us, and starting a course when most sane institutions of learning are going on vacation or break is maybe a little bit unrealistic. It will start no later than January 1, 2010. I can't think of a better way to kick off the new year.

I will create a Yahoo Group for this course as well, but it will be mainly for questions and answers, and a forum to discuss our results.

This course will provide all the initiations I advocate in the Modern Goetic Grimoire. I expect to launch the Modern Goetic Grimoire course in January, if not sooner as well. If you have already received initiation into the spheres represented in the Magic Circle, you're already ready to begin the Goetic Work. However, taking this course will provide you with practical experience that will aid you immensely in Working with the more materialistic aspects of the spirits of Goety. Working with the Angels gave me the skills and talents that I needed to efectively Work the "demons" of the Lemegeton's Goetia, and provided instruction and guidance in contacting and working with spirits of the dead and spirits of location.

Due to the amount of work involved, the duration of the course, and the overall potential for results received, the course will be $65 for each student. Graduates of this course will receive a discount on Course 3: Goety. None of the courses are prerequisites for the next, because I simply don't know what you've been through in your path and can't say that you haven't attained the initiations to be successful in the next course. However, I can use monetary incentives to guide you to the initiations I've been through that I credit with my success.

Students currently in the Supernatural Assistant Course should abstain from this round of the Hermetic Merkavah Course, as you should be conjuring the SA nightly right about now, and not worrying much about any other spirit than Michael or your Genius. And of course, the students of the Supernatural Assistant Course receive a discount on the Hermetic Merkavah Course. It'll be here when you're finished with your current Work.

Hermetic Merkavah Update

2009-12-07T09:35:00.001-05:00

After talking it over a bit, I've changed the price of the Hermetic Merkavah course to $65. I was thinking that after 12 weeks, I'd be wishing I'd charged more when I priced it at $85, but in retrospect, it was probably just greed. Refunds will be issued to anyone who already purchased the course at the higher price. Sorry for any inconvenience.

The "Buy Now" button on the right of the blog under "RO Courses" has been updated and will now charge the appropriate amount.

Lesson 1 is about ready to go, and I'm really itching to get started on the course as soon as possible. This one is going to be a lot of fun. We'll be fleshing out the process I covered in the Modern Goetic Grimoire of receiving the initiations into each of the planetary spheres represented in the Magic Circle of the Lemegeton's Goetia.

MAG Table of Practice and Scrying Stone Stand

2009-12-07T20:22:00.000-05:00

A while ago, I burned a Table of Practice into a piece of craft wood and stained it a nice pale oak color. It turned out nice, but I never got around to actually using it. I tend to use The Box mostly these days. Seems a waste to just keep it around, so it's up for sale if you'd like to have it. Some of you may recognize it from the pictures in the Modern Goetic Grimoire.

It would come in handy for the Hermetic Merkavah course too.

It measures 5.5 or 6 inches across, I can't remember and the ruler is ALL THE WAY in the other room. I'm including the crystal ball stand I made with it, but you'll have to supply your own spherical stone to put on it. The pic below shows MY stone on it, and you totally can't have it.

$45 buys this Table of Practice and scrying stone stand for your very own. If you're interested, drop me a line. I've only got one, so it's first come, first served.

There's a Star of David with a Yod in it, a Pentagram, a Maltese Cross, and IHVH inside the stand, and the names of the four Archangels around the outside in Celestial Script.

(Coca-Cola, protractor, and keyboard not included.)

On "Stupid Shit"

2009-12-07T06:00:00.001-05:00

Is there, when you really think about it, any other kind?

After due consideration, it is with a heavy heart...

2009-12-06T09:52:00.001-05:00

After due consideration, it is with a heavy heart that we must come to the inevitable conclusion. While they have provided a level of amusement, and potentially furthered some few of our overall goals, we must weigh their meager contributions against the fundamental discord brought by their practices.

When they first appeared on the scene with their "chaos magick," they presented themselves as an enemy of the conformist traditional approaches to the occult that most of us represent. Over the years they tried to gain respectability, and have come to be almost accepted, or at least tolerated as co-representatives of the Great Work by most of us. However, the inherent cognitive dissonance demanded by their approach to occult manipulation of events has always left them weakened in actual practice. Their internal schisms have left them splintered. Their comparatively weak results have left many of their own adherents disillusioned. The Ice Magic wars and the split between RAW/Timothy Leary Immortalists and the IOT/Peter Carroll Pact over the "immortality pill" has left them without even a cohesive front. There isn't even a single figurehead bearing their standard.

These so-called "Justified Ancients of Mumu" were brought into the fold in hopes that they would reach the conclusion that their approach is juvenile and ineffective. I believe that those who will learn from their mistakes have, and the remaining adherents have already attained the degree of wisdom and insight that they are capable of attaining. It is time for those who have moved beyond the limits of belief system shuffling and have found the true power of magic in their personal Work to join the traditionalists among us and leave behind forever their affiliation with these miscreants.

I accept the "Information Model" as a valid representation of "Truth," and hereby move that adherents to that approach be exempt from the disaffiliation.

For the rest of them, there is little hope of transcendence. Their crippled spheres of influence are too small to be of much use to us overall. In recent months, I've personally spent as much time breaking false programming resulting from their influence as I have furthering the transcendent enlightenment of humankind. I find that more and more students have come to me using the vocabulary of egregore and servitor, and have even found their viral memes retroactively manifesting in traditional tomes. John Greer, who has done us all a great service in translating the Picatrix with Christopher Warnock, recently demonstrated the degree of infection they have brought by weaving their philosophical tenets into his dissemination of the Alternate View we have crafted. His reference to "Hagbard's Law" will, unfortunately, lead more people to read the diseased harmonic tome they used to infiltrate our culture. Another crop of magicians will inevitably be infected by their crude and ignorant approach to the forces of chaos and order, resulting in more loud-mouthed inexperienced chaoates muddying the streams and causing more distraction.

It is a dangerous weakening of the potent forces we represent in this plane.

Continued sanction of their practices by traditionalists will result in a repeat of the 1990s. Do any of us want to face that mindset at this stage of our Work? We know the 30-year cycle is repeating, as it always does, and the 1980s have about run their course. We can't afford to have that degree of potential Workers distracted by the infectious madness of Discordia. While it is inevitable that the repetitious cycle will result in some renewed interest, we must make a concentrated effort to limit this madness.

While they claim to not want to upset the apple cart, and while they pretend not to want to cause any harm, they are clear in their actions that if one doesn't like what they're going to do, one had better watch out because they are coming through. We are left with but one option.

It's time to kick out the JAMs.

Political Post

2009-12-04T15:02:00.001-05:00

You were warned, it totally says "Political Post" right up there.

Why would an anti-war president, one whose personal convictions lead him to want to end the war entirely, today, send more troops to Afghanistan in a near mirror-image of the surge policy used by his predecessor, who everyone hated?

Because he's GOT TO.

Conjure up Michael and the Prince of Persia, if you don't believe me. They'll tell you.

Is Obama an idiot, or a highly intelligent man? Based on what I know about him, he's not an idiot. If he's reaching the same conclusions Bush reached about fighting wars over there, then there's probably a reason for it.

That said, I still think he should start bringing the troops back home now. Doesn't anyone else remember the role Afghanistan played in bringing down the USSR? It's a death trap, a money pit. Fuck that shit.

[Edit: Ok, so he was for the war in Afghanistan. I hope he wants out now.]

"Raising Energy"

2009-12-01T22:43:00.000-05:00

Ack! Even typing it makes my fingers curl into claws in search of a neck to throttle.

"Energy" is a quick and easy term to use on the fly to talk about some of the things we experience as magicians, but it just drives me nuts. It's sloppy, inaccurate, and leads to erroneous conclusions. I hate the term "energy."

Am I a semantic nazi about this? Jason and Fr. POS used the term recently on their blogs. I know Jason uses it in his book, too. I even use it on occasion, but only when I'm being lazy. Today on Augoeides, it got mentioned yet again.

Let me explain what I mean, and you can decide if I'm just being a dick about this.

First, here's the definition of Energy from Wikipedia:

In physics, energy (from the Greek ἐνέργεια - energeia, "activity, operation", from ἐνεργός - energos, "active, working"[1]) is a scalar physical quantity that describes the amount of work that can be performed by a force, an attribute of objects and systems that is subject to a conservation law. Different forms of energy include kinetic, potential, thermal, gravitational, sound, light, elastic, and electromagnetic energy. The forms of energy are often named after a related force.

Any form of energy can be transformed into another form, but the total energy always remains the same. This principle, the conservation of energy, was first postulated in the early 19th century, and applies to any isolated system. According to Noether's theorem, the conservation of energy is a consequence of the fact that the laws of physics do not change over time.[2]

Although the total energy of a system does not change with time, its value may depend on the frame of reference. For example, a seated passenger in a moving airplane has zero kinetic energy relative to the airplane, but non-zero kinetic energy relative to the Earth.

"But RO," you may say, "that's Energy in physics, not Energy in metaphysics! I'm not talking about that."

Yeah, I know. That's my point. The idea of energy as it gets used in metaphysical discussions is based on a misunderstanding of what energy is in physics.

It's a measure of potential work or force. It's like volume, or length, or depth. It's a quality of an equation. It's not real until it acts, and when it acts, it becomes a force, or power. Would you say you were "raising depth" or "raising volume" when you did something magical? Of course not.

In metaphysics, people talk about energy flowing. Energy doesn't flow, it is transferred by becoming a force. They talk about it as if it were an invisible astral liquid that somehow powers things, in a way, like electricity, sorta, but without any measurable particles moving. But electricity is the movement of electrons, it is work being performed. What is moving in trance states? No one knows. Calling it "energy" works, but it doesn't really say anything about anything.

If you can create a force, the energy was already there, you just hadn't done the math. If you're talking about the exchange of energy between two interacting systems, you're talking about power and force. Energy only "exists" on paper, it's a measurement, a pattern that is useful for predicting results.

And that's my biggest beef with the use of the term Energy in magical operations. It implies that there is somehow less or more available to you after you've done something magical. It simply isn't true. You have the same amount of "energy" to tap into and channel wherever you go. It is neither created nor destroyed, it simply changes form. Trance states of consciousness may aid in the ability to turn that energy into a power or force that can be felt and experienced, but it doesn't add to or take away from the resting amount of potential Work that can be performed.

Personally, I advocate the use of "power" or "force," or especially "current." Like for the Druid that POS mentioned, when he says he raised Telluric Energy from the Earth, I'd say he channeled the telluric current from the Earth to whatever he aimed it at. When POS talks about raising energy by entering ecstatic states, I'd say he was altering his awareness so that he could consciously channel the forces harmonious to the type of ecstatic state he is entering. (Although grimoire magic ritual is not ecstatic, I don't care what he says.) When Jason says he mixes blue and white energy at a ratio of 80-20%, I'd say he ...

Well, honestly, I have no clue how I'd say that. Is he just thinking blue and white thoughts while he holds his hands over someone? Is he visualizing a force generated in his throat and crown mingling proportionally and then extending through his palms?

I dunno.

Still, he's activating a power, or channeling a current, or directing a force. The Energy to do so is everywhere, everywhen, but his magical activation and utilization of that energy is what matters (or what affects matter, anyway). There's got to be a better way to say it.*

*I just told my wife what I was writing about and she called me an "Energy-Power Snob." Jason totally called me a dick too. Maybe I am a vocabulary czar about this. Maybe I am the premier of patois. Maybe I am the Imperator of Idiom, or the Emperor of Elocution.

Maybe I am a dick about it.

Fine, then. I mean, I don't care, be sloppy, use the word wrong. I won't keep going on about it anymore. You can misrepresent a concept with the wrong symbol. I'll just sit here and watch the disharmonic resonance spread through your sphere, and I won't say a word, oh no, I'll just sit here not being a Sultan of Semantics, and your whole entire approach to manipulating reality using magic can be fundamentally flawed because you use the word wrong for all I care. Spend yet another incarnation missing out on Enlightenment by || this much, all because you use "Energy" wrong, I mean, really, it's your life and your choice of symbol sets, and the universe has plenty of room for everything, and you can relax, I won't be writing long-winded over-adjectived hyperbolic threats of eternal damnation because using "Energy" the way you do is REALLY the unpardonable sin that even Christ's blood can't atone for or anything like that here on this blog.**

** Honest. No, REALLY. I won't even mention that spiders will eat your brains if you use "Energy" wrong. Won't breathe a whisper about how everyone who ever died of cancer also happened to use the word wrong. Nope. I'm not going to tell you about the Illuminati cabal that powers their curses using the forces released when people use the word "Energy" wrong in metaphysical discussions, either, because you probably wouldn't believe it. There's little point in any such revelations coming into your sphere, since it's all twisted and warped because you used it wrong. So I won't bother.***

*** But don't come crawling to me when you're dead by dawn.

Happy Thanksgiving!

2009-11-26T23:19:00.000-05:00

I am thankful for a lot of things, but at the top of the list where the blog is concerned are my readers and the personal friends I've made through this medium and other online forums. You guys are a constant source of inspiration in my life. Thanks for everything.

I sit in the basement office with no windows, often not even aware of whether it's day or night, especially since daylight savings time changed. It's usually while the kids are asleep or are playing with friends, and I'm relatively free of interruptions. I sit in here reading magical tomes, reading blogs and emails, doing magic, and writing out my thoughts and experiences as I go along performing the Great Work.

Yet I'm not alone; I have a plurality, a social network of magicians also performing the Work a few keystrokes away. I understand about us being a family unit, brothers and sisters spread throughout every continent on the planet, except Antarctica. No one practices magic in Antarctica. It's too freakin' cold. Seriously.

So, it's to readers, writers, and to all my brothers and sisters of the Work that I offer my thanks. May your days be as fulfilled as you make mine.

What you should do about it...

2009-11-25T13:44:00.000-05:00

Martialis asked what we should do about the Christian extremists like the ones praying death on Obama...

Magic. We should do magic.

Gaap to release the spirits they've bound to their missions, Michael to enlighten them with the true message of Christ and to defend their victims, Cassiel to bind the bastards, Sammael to strengthen the warriors on the front line and to bring swift and just victory, Raphael to heal and to confuse their minds, to disrupt their communication network, and to bring a permanent Merc. Retro effect into their lives so they're too busy trying to figure out why nothing works right to pray, Anael to keep their prayers from reaching fruition, Gabriel to enshroud them in harmless fantasies.

Conjure Purson to reveal any local hotspots of prayer warriors, conjure Paimon, Aimon, Oriens, and Egyn to confound their lives, call upon their daimons to drive them into the true presence of God where they will see their actions for what they really are.

Ideally you'll be healing them so they not only stop what they're doing, but begin to help instead. Ideally you'll be in a position to love them completely and take responsibility for aiding in their enlightenment.

But it's better to do something than nothing, so just do something.

Thanks, Ron!

2009-11-25T13:17:00.000-05:00

There are 100 people following the blog now. Woohoo! That's only counting the people with Google accounts.

Whether you "follow" or not, may your holidays be blessed with peace, enlightenment, and joy. And no stupid relatives making inappropriate conversation at the dinner table.

Oh, and may Bune bring you many riches, plus some left over! I'll light a candle this weekend for you.

Thanks!

Quis custodiet ipsos custodes?

2009-11-25T13:08:00.000-05:00

Today's blog title comes from the Roman poet Juvenal, who, bemoaning an unfaithful wife, said:

audio quid ueteres olim moneatis amici,
"pone seram, cohibe." sed quis custodiet ipsos—
custodes? cauta est et ab illis incipit uxor.

I hear always the admonishment of my friends:
"Bolt her in, constrain her!" But who will guard
the guardians? The wife plans ahead and begins with them!

Wikipedia has an interesting entry on the phrase. You should totally read it when you get a chance. It presents the more common translation in English, "Who watches the watchmen?"

The magical implications of this question are multifaceted, multi-layered, and as deep as any question we can ask ourselves. While reading Heart Drops of Dharmakaya, I was impressed with the Dzogchen practice of observation during meditation. I'm no Dzogchen adept, I'm a bumbler who read a book about some aspects of it while researching something else entirely, so don't think I'm trying to teach something about a system I don't understand. This is just what I took away from it.

Instead of meditating, you watch yourself without judgment. You observe your thoughts, and where they are coming "from." Fear, hunger, desire, what is the source of the thought? What triggered the thought? Is it coming from your own head, or is it a whispering spirit?

You observe, you don't try to influence or control the mind. You see what you're thinking, and simply practice awareness.

Then, after you've done that for a while, you turn your attention to the observer. Who is it that observes? What is it that is watching?

Remember the words of Perdurabo in the Book of Lies (Falsely Called So):

But FRATER PERDURABO is nothing but AN
EYE; what eye none knoweth.

Enochians

2009-11-18T01:21:00.000-05:00

Fr. AIT over at Heavens Within Earth recently posted the question, Is Enochian Theurgic? I'm interested in whatever follow-up he may have to post about it.

In the Corpus Hermeticum, when Man came to Earth, seven Governors were made in the image of the seven celestial Intelligences. Eventually they became the Urges in later gnostic interpreatations, but originally they weren't considered evil by any means.

Sometimes I think the seven Terrestrial Governors and their legions are the Spirits of the Lemegeton's Goetia. Other times, I think they're the Seven Winds that make an appearance in the Picatrix.

Right now, I suspect they're the seven "Angels" on the SDA. I think it would explain the elemental attributes of the Enochian spirits, as well as the whole "I'm the savior of the WORLD" trip that the Enochians seem to pull on people, or at least, that people seem to pull on themselves after Working the EE's for a while.

I was just talking about this to a friend and student from the course earlier this week, and lo and behold Fr. AIT posts his corroborative hunches. I'm sure it's all a coincidence.

In my limited experiences with them, I felt like they were terrestrial spirits, akin to the Goetia spirits I've worked with previously. I think it's odd that they express the kind of jealousy over the Goetia that they showed Kelley. It reminds me of stories of the Ghede and the Loa and other packs of spirits.

Goetic Blessings

2009-11-02T23:36:00.000-05:00

I recently saw a comment on one of the message boards mentioning that someone added themselves to my "followers" list on the right over there, and that they soon received an unexpected windfall. I'm assuming I also managed to get my 10%.

It's got me wondering about online magic in general. I'm by no means a "cyber magician" or anything like that, but, apparently, blessings online can be passed along with triggers using Goetic Magic, at least. Innn-terrresting.

Neo-Platonics Basics

2009-11-04T11:21:00.003-05:00

I've compiled the Neo-Platonics Basics series into yet another eBook available over on the right. The original blog posts are still available in the history, and on www.rufusopus.com, but for those who like eBooks to print out and have, it saves you some editing.

For those who have signed up for the course, DON'T BUY IT. You'll get a copy as part of the course.

Cthulhu Comments

2009-11-07T11:27:00.000-05:00

So Cthulhu was reading the comments on my blog today, and he saw Wind's comment "it makes me wonder... you attained your HGA some time ago and you're just figuring out that you want to serve mankind now? Maybe the path ain't what I thought it was."

"Mlaroeognhchth!"

"Yeah," I said, "I get that all the time."

"Granachlethtulku?"

"Nah, I'll just write a blog post."

"Ng yalthkaz ruek."

"Heh, yeah, I know, right? But I'll just put it in English my way. It's not so messy."

This is one of the reasons I started writing the blog and eventually got around to starting the Supernatural Assistant course. The fact is, the path isn't what a lot of people think it is. The HGA isn't instant enlightenment. It isn't a path to becoming compassionate and wise and everything you think a spiritual guru or enlightened Master is supposed to be. It's nothing like the point of Eastern Mysticism at all.

The HGA is primarily a spiritual assistant. It's got the powers of a lot of the entities from the Lemegeton, entities largely considered "demonic." It also has the power to bring you entities often considered Demonic. It's also a straight and direct line of communion with your Source. It's also a powerful motivator and Teacher, a Guide that can direct you to spiritual wisdom and the whole guru thing. It can help you attain compassion and service to others, if that's your purpose in life.

But it's not a given. Just because you can talk to your HGA doesn't mean you will. Just because you can have it make troops appear to frighten off your King's enemies doesn't mean you'll ever be in a position to need that.

The primary goal of the HGA is to help you do more magic. More magic causes spiritual transformations that may lead to compassion, or it may lead to wisdom, or it may lead to wealth, or something like that. But there's no guarantee, and above all, it's not a process that happens over night.

I started out an asshole who literally hated people. Misanthropist barely describes the hate I felt for "other people." After years of doing magic with my HGA, I have changed. I generally get mildly annoyed by people now, and even then I recognize that whatever's annoying me is only temporary, and does not mean I need to write off that person entirely because one area of their life is annoying to me. I've learned that I don't need to curse people, because their lives are usually pretty shitty, and that's why they're acting so annoying. I've learned I don't have to be a dick, all the time.

I'm not a perfectly compassionate, lay-down-my-life-for-a-friend kind of guy. I still want to do things for me, regardless of the impact it has on others. I have a hard time getting out of bed and doing a load of dishes or laundry when my wife's sick. I'd rather play video games than mow the lawn. I'd rather have a ton of money than have to earn it. I still see people do stupid things and think, "God! How flippin' STUPID!" and feel better about myself because I'm so not-STUPID.

I'm petty and mean, sometimes. There are days when I regret ever writing this blog, ever trying to help people, ever starting the path of the Great Work. There are days that I hate the responsibility that comes with it, and frankly, there are days when I ignore the responsibility that comes with it.

But I've progressed a great deal, in my own estimation, from where I used to be. I hear it from others as well, that I've shown growth in understanding aspects of the path I'm on that they thought I'd never achieve.

The bottom line is that the HGA doesn't make you perfect, it makes it easier to approach perfection. But that's not it's primary function at all. It's primarily there to aid you in performing magic, magic that is intended to create the world. There are things that need to be created on the planet that aren't going to be fun for everyone that participate, things that will hurt, maim, and kill. Conjure a daimon to help your brother in a battle in Afghanistan, and you're helping to kill Taliban-believing humans. For what? To protect your brother? What makes your brother special compared to the Taliban?

But that's what the spirits are there for. We're supposed to be concerned about this level of "petty" human interaction. Why would God create a spirit that causes pustules and death if there weren't a time that pustules and death were necessary?

We don't take on a flesh suit and manifest as human beings so that we can transcend being human, or so that we can attain an understanding that makes us more than human. We do it to be fully human. We aren't supposed to be perfect. If we were supposed to be perfectly good and do only the "right" thing all the time, we wouldn't have bothered being human in the first place.

Yeah, I found out I like helping people. The interesting part to me was that I enjoy it. I mean, I'm really fulfilled by doing it. I've helped people before, but in general I usually resent having to help people. I would rather help myself. I've never felt so happy about it, I've just sort of felt it was a necessary burden, an obligation to pass things on that I didn't have a lot of choice in. I've always looked at the Hierophant thing as a burden, not a joy. I've said before, "I do it because I gots to, Mister!" It's true, too, I do have to.

What's surprising to me is that I'm enjoying it too. I'm actually having fun.

Ha! HA HA HA!!!!

2009-11-19T13:03:00.000-05:00

From the ritual magic yahoo group:

BTW Fr. Rufus Opus is Lon Duquette, who is chief adept of OTO's inner order.

Hee hee hee!

Yeah, that's why I publish my books as eBooks instead of going through CCC or Weiser. Because I'm SECRETLY a world-famous author and Thelemite high muckety muck.

snerk.

Ok, FOR THE RECORD:

I'm not Lon, I'm Josh. I live in Baltimore. He lives on the Left Coast with the rest of the hippies. I'm 35. He's ... not 35. I weigh 220 (and shrinking), he weighs more, or is shorter, I can't tell. My hair is still brown, with just a bit of gray in the goatee, and I like to think I look like Christian Slater from the Heathers years, but that's just not true anymore. His hair is white and he looks rather like Santa Clause.

I love that this Chico fellow thinks I'm Lon. I'm honored. But I'm not Lon.

Although, after this, I may start taking pot shots at Chico, just to keep him confused.

An interesting observation

2009-11-06T22:15:00.000-05:00

I realized something about myself today. I'm totally happy helping people. I mean, I'm actually fulfilled by this shit. I like teaching, I like it a lot. I like writing books that help people do magic. I like giving people access to the power to change the world. It makes me feel happy. It makes me feel good.

Helping people is fun; who knew?

Making Goals

2009-11-12T09:43:00.000-05:00

There are certain steps that must be done in any process. I pay attention to things going on around me, and I try to take action when I have an opportunity to advance my own secret goals.

Some days I get to take steps forward, other days I get to make new goals because I learned I'd been thinking too friggin' small. Today I got to make another goal. This one will take some doing. I need a little help, but I think I know who to ask.

Tis the Season

2009-11-23T20:12:00.000-05:00

The Flu Season. And there's H1N1 mania sweeping the nation on top of that!

So here's a little "get rid of the ick" technique that works really well for me.

Close your eyes, and listen to your heart beat. Visualize it pumping blood all over the body. Follow its paths in your mind's eye, seeing the blood flowing to the different regions of your physical shell. Now turn your awareness to areas of illness or pain. Look at it with your mind's eye, seeing the elemental building blocks that make up the frame. Earth and Fire, Water and Air, blended together in a myriad of proportions at the elemental (like atomic) level. Now see the ones that represent the illness turning black. To me they look like little cubes spinning in space in close proximity. The ones that are the illness turn black, and the one that aren't turn red and white.

Picture the black ones leaving your body. Move them along with the power of your Will. Keep them moving until they're all out, fading away into the background of existence, returning to their raw forms. A little heat applied to the stubborn ones, carefully so you don't hurt the good stuff, seems to work well in loosening up sinus infections.

And take vitamin C.

Some of you may recognize the technique as the result of my Work with EHNB a while ago. I was suffering in silence through a sinus infection last week when Frater POS (His motto is not "Piece of Shit," in case you were wondering) said it's too bad I don't know any magicians who could heal me. (He was home from work because his back was out again, and I magnanimously let that slide. The sinners mocked Jesus with "Healer, Heal thyself" too, after all.)

At the time I said I didn't do magic for sickness because a full ritual takes 2 weeks to manifest, and it doesn't seem worth it to deal with a three day cold. Mostly because I was embarrassed that I hadn't thought of it myself. Then he reminded me that we get to do some things instantly as magicians, and graciously changed the subject.

Of course later on I was thinking about it, and I remembered the Enochian technique that had worked so well last year. I fished it out of the memory banks and put it to use. The next morning I was significantly better.

So, since I had to have a reminder to jog the old memory banks that magicians can heal themselves (after all, I'm not Jesus*), I figured I'd pass it on. Healers, heal yourselves.

* Really. Neither Lon, nor Jesus Christ.