As noted previously, I've been working on integrating the energies of the planets to balance out my hyper focus on the energies of Jupiter. My work with Binah/Saturn more than a week ago continues to ripple through my sphere.
I think I commented before that the energies of Saturn left me depressed, and that the operation I did most recently was completely different. Instead of feeling depressed, I find myself encouraged by the boundaries I face in life, and aware that they are not set firmly in place, but serve as placeholders to support the unfolding of my life. Like pylons on a bridge, the energies of Binah serve to support the weight of our endeavors.
There's a scripture in the Bible that talks about people moving out their tent pegs. It means that the lord will bless them, and they need to prepare by making more room for the blessings to fit in their lives. It's old testament speak for thinking outside the box.
The power of Saturn in the magician's sphere manifests as the power to set, or reset the boundaries of our empire. Knowing yourself leads to knowing your limitations, but knowing Binah leads to knowing how to move your limitations out a bit at a time. Bigger vaults means more room for the energies of Jupiter to fill with the treasures you seek in money rituals. Raising your expectations provides more room for opportunities. Raising your standards results in higher quality of character. Moving the boundaries of your mind releases you from the prison of your fear. Tearing down the walls of your heart makes room for love to flow into and out of your experience.
The power of Binah is infinite because it is the power of making things finite. Looking back now, I see that the depression I felt came from the powerlessness I felt when I surveyed the boundaries of my life. These boundaries are firmly ensconced only by my attachment to them, which helps explain what the Buddha meant when he said attachment is the source of all sorrow.
Barriers, walls, limitations... these things can seem to be negative, if your desires are beyond their limits. But at the same time, the walls support the roof, the dam stores the water, and the bones provide the support that lets us live as more than amorphous blobs. The skin limits us, keeps us from spilling out in a pile of goo, protects us from the intrusions of the malefic forces of nature.
Yet Saturn is cast as a malefic. Its role of death and binding are detrimental when passive. If we don't expand the boundaries, we outgrow them, and feel like we're wearing a suit two sizes too small. But when activated through magick, when approached through the heightened awareness of the metaprogramming magickal consciousness, Binah is a beautiful friend, a mother full of love, a helper and a guide, a focuser of the forces that follow in her footsteps.
With these revelations, I have found myself falling in love with Binah.
Head for the Red: The ongoing adventures and insights of a magician's attempts to accomplish the Great Work.
Friday, August 11, 2006
Friday, August 04, 2006
7 Planetary Spirits in a Week
I've failed in this particular endeavor. I was attempting to work with one archangel of the planets (as listed in Trithemius and Heidrick's resources) each day this week. I made it as far as Michael on Sunday. (Note: Michael is associated with the sun in Trithemius notes instead of Raphael. My own work with Raphael supports the Trithemius correspondences that put Michael in Tiphareth/Sun and Raphael in Hod/Mercury.)
By Monday, I was exhausted. I was working with the archangels of the planets in the planetary hours of the planetary days. Due to my work schedule, I was waiting until 3:38 or 3:39 a.m. each night. The day time hours fell when I was at work, and the earlier night time hours coincided with the time I spent with my family.
The results of my Saturday working with Tzaphkiel of Saturn were very pleasant. Previous expereinces with Saturn had been unpleasant, and depressing. For this operation, I started with the LBRP, went on through Liber Samekh to invoke my HGA, and then performed the evocation of Tzaphkiel. The results were immediate.
Tzaphkiel appeared in the shewstone, and I stated my intention, to integrate the energies of saturn into my magickal sphere. Tzaphkiel agreed to help with this, and I felt the saturnine energies flowing into me, pooling in my fore-arms (of all places), like a weight was applied directly to my muscles and bones. Tzaphkiel explained the use of that energy as part of the operation.
Sunday I worked with Michael, following the same pattern. I got a false spirit the first time who wouldn't enter the consecrated shewstone. I banished and conjured Michael again, this time with the desired result. I asked for him to help integrate the energies of the sun into my sphere, and he agreed. The feeling was again physical as the solar essence entered my sphere. This time I felt it in the base of my lungs, and Michael explained that the key to accessing solar energies was in the breath. The four-fold breath excites solar energies (inhale for four seconds, press the breath down in your lungs for four seconds, exhale for four seconds, wait four seconds, and repeat) in your sphere.
Monday I made a half-hearted attempt to contact Gabriel, but I fell asleep. Tuesday I was going to work with Gabriel and Kammael to "catch up," but I figured it was a bad idea, and chose to stop the operation there for now.
Working with each planet for as little as one day seems to give useful results, but not a lot of depth of understanding of each of the planetary powers. I started to understand the binding aspects of Saturn, and its application in assiah, but before I really integrated the energies, I was on to the Sun. In the future, I'll pick up with Luna, but spend more time than just one day integrating lunar energies, and so forth throughout the planets.
By Monday, I was exhausted. I was working with the archangels of the planets in the planetary hours of the planetary days. Due to my work schedule, I was waiting until 3:38 or 3:39 a.m. each night. The day time hours fell when I was at work, and the earlier night time hours coincided with the time I spent with my family.
The results of my Saturday working with Tzaphkiel of Saturn were very pleasant. Previous expereinces with Saturn had been unpleasant, and depressing. For this operation, I started with the LBRP, went on through Liber Samekh to invoke my HGA, and then performed the evocation of Tzaphkiel. The results were immediate.
Tzaphkiel appeared in the shewstone, and I stated my intention, to integrate the energies of saturn into my magickal sphere. Tzaphkiel agreed to help with this, and I felt the saturnine energies flowing into me, pooling in my fore-arms (of all places), like a weight was applied directly to my muscles and bones. Tzaphkiel explained the use of that energy as part of the operation.
Sunday I worked with Michael, following the same pattern. I got a false spirit the first time who wouldn't enter the consecrated shewstone. I banished and conjured Michael again, this time with the desired result. I asked for him to help integrate the energies of the sun into my sphere, and he agreed. The feeling was again physical as the solar essence entered my sphere. This time I felt it in the base of my lungs, and Michael explained that the key to accessing solar energies was in the breath. The four-fold breath excites solar energies (inhale for four seconds, press the breath down in your lungs for four seconds, exhale for four seconds, wait four seconds, and repeat) in your sphere.
Monday I made a half-hearted attempt to contact Gabriel, but I fell asleep. Tuesday I was going to work with Gabriel and Kammael to "catch up," but I figured it was a bad idea, and chose to stop the operation there for now.
Working with each planet for as little as one day seems to give useful results, but not a lot of depth of understanding of each of the planetary powers. I started to understand the binding aspects of Saturn, and its application in assiah, but before I really integrated the energies, I was on to the Sun. In the future, I'll pick up with Luna, but spend more time than just one day integrating lunar energies, and so forth throughout the planets.
Back to the Spirit Pot
I wasn't going to focus much on the Spirit Pot here anymore, but I'm finding out that the thing is incredibly useful and interesting. At the beginning of this moon-waxing phase, I lit a 7-day candle for the spirit pot, and the first interesting thing that happened was the candle only lasted three days. Bune really ate it up, in my humble opinion.
Another thing that happened that week was I got another job offer, this one for incredibly stupid amounts of money, a security clearance, and a means to acquire a certification that doubles my value in the market. I'll be making the same amount of money from one source working 40 hours a week that I would be making from the three different income streams I mentioned before. It keeps getting better and better. I'll be in a quasi-management position as well, where I'll be putting things into their appropriate places, which Bune revealed to me is the purpose of "causing his spirits to appear on sepulchres."
Yet another aspect of working with this spirit is that I've found my writing skills improving. I'm spending less time trying to think of the right word for an idea than I used to. The eloquence that Bune provides is very useful to magicians of the Judeo-Christian path because so much of our magickal activity involves selecting the right word or symbol to achieve the desired result.
Crowley once mentioned that the perfect symbols of the Magus are the pen, ink pot, paper, and a candle to light the writing area. One of his Magus card images in the Toth deck showed the Magician surrounded by the tools of a stenographer.
The point of this tangent is that the spirit you choose to work with continues to reveal new applications of its attributes as you work with it. Bune is much more than a cash source.
Another thing that happened that week was I got another job offer, this one for incredibly stupid amounts of money, a security clearance, and a means to acquire a certification that doubles my value in the market. I'll be making the same amount of money from one source working 40 hours a week that I would be making from the three different income streams I mentioned before. It keeps getting better and better. I'll be in a quasi-management position as well, where I'll be putting things into their appropriate places, which Bune revealed to me is the purpose of "causing his spirits to appear on sepulchres."
Yet another aspect of working with this spirit is that I've found my writing skills improving. I'm spending less time trying to think of the right word for an idea than I used to. The eloquence that Bune provides is very useful to magicians of the Judeo-Christian path because so much of our magickal activity involves selecting the right word or symbol to achieve the desired result.
Crowley once mentioned that the perfect symbols of the Magus are the pen, ink pot, paper, and a candle to light the writing area. One of his Magus card images in the Toth deck showed the Magician surrounded by the tools of a stenographer.
The point of this tangent is that the spirit you choose to work with continues to reveal new applications of its attributes as you work with it. Bune is much more than a cash source.