Tuesday, June 12, 2007

Helping Others in the Great Work


I hope this blog has helped others in their pursuit of the Great Work. I've sold a couple books here and there, done some attunements on people, and have provided a lot of the information that has helped me. I hope reading it was as fun as learning about it.

But this post isn't about helping people like that. This post is about helping people along in their Work because you can't stand how they behave.

Surely you know the types. You love them, they're sweet, but there's just something about them that you can't stand, and it keeps you from being able to enjoy the fullness of your relationship. You see their character flaws clearly, and so does everyone else, but there's no way that they ever acknowledge that you're right in your assessment of their behavior.

Fortunately, you've done the ritual Work required to attain Adepthood, and you've been through the wringer yourself so many times with dealing with similar issues that you know exactly which spheres trigger the results you want to see in the other person's sphere.

I don't know how ethical this is, by the way. It's magick for the Great Work, and it might just backfire on you (or me) when you (or I) try to do it. Time will tell, though, time will tell.

Say someone is, oh, I don't know, hardhearted, jealous, and prideful, and because of this, they can't seem to see you for who you really are. What do you do?

Well, the Sun is the Sphere of revelation, and enlightenment, and that always leads to compassion. When you can't seem to get someone to see your point, a solar working makes sense.

Michael the Archangel of the Sun is who I'm planning on conjuring. This Archangel is good for almost everything, from wealth to exorcisms to initiations. It's hard to beat Michael in terms of being there for you when you need him.

Ok, so you've got the Spirit, go to the Magical Calendar and get the seal for Michael. (I believe the Magical Calendar places Michael in Mercury and Raphael in the Sun, but that's not "right" for me. You still use the seal of Michael, and disregard the placement in the Magical Calendar.) Next you create a little shrine to Michael. A statue of Michael slaying the Dragon would be great for this, but I'm buying a house, and can't afford to purchase statuary at the moment, so I'm going to make a lamen with his name and seal in it. Around the outside, I'll write the Name of God that corresponds to the Sun (Eloah va-Da'at) and the symbol of the Sun (circle with a dot in the middle). I'll include the names of the angels associated with the Sun (Melakim) and the name of the Sphere in the KBL (Tiphareth) Then I'll include the Planetary Sigil from the Magical Calendar.

In the center of the circle of the names and symbols, I'll draw a Star of David, and in the center of that the Name Michael in English with his Seal below that. Above the Star of David I'll write out his name (MKAL) in Celestial script, and around the Star of David I'll draw four pentagrams, with the names of the Four Elemental Kings inside (Michael, Uriel, Raphael, and Gabriel Clockwise, beginning in the East). I'll draw all this out in gold ink from an 18 carrot gold leaf pen on a Sunday in the Hour of the Sun. I'll mount the lamen on an ease-type thing I make out of dowel rods or something, so that the Lamen is mostly vertical. I could put it on a mantle or create a shelf on the wall for it too. Then I'll place a picture of the people I'm wnating to change in front of the lamen, with the changes I want to see written on the picture in gold ink, like "compassion, enlightenment, caring." Then I'll conjure Michael in his appropriate hour, and ask for him to do what I desire. Assuming he complies, I'll then light gold or white candles in front of the shrine, and burn Frankincense sticks until the change is complete.

I'm pretty sure there's no harm in this kind of magick, but you never know what kind of gross stuff comes out of a person when they begin to integrate the energies of the Sun into their sphere, eh?

Monday, June 11, 2007

What Happened to Evil?


In  recent conversation at Spiritus Mundi, during a conversation about Mercury going retrograde June 15th, the subject of good and evil in modern context came up. Chris Warnock pointed out that Mercury Retrograde has become a major catastrophe in modern astrology, and its influence, while still being negative, has been blown way out of proportion. He believes this is because modern astrologers have set about removing anything evil or negative from astrology in general, and have basically sugar-coated every malefic force in astrological readings, turning everything fluffy and light. Mercury retro is hard to make look pretty, so it's sort of picked up all the negative baggage of everything malefic, making it look much worse than it really is.

This series of posts got me thinking about evil in general in the modern age. Everywhere I can think of, the things that were seen to be evil in the past has been presented and turned into opportunities for growth in the present. Demons aren't demons serving Satan, they're gods from pagan pantheons that got a bad rap under Christianity. Gods of the underworld aren't evil, they're benevolent. Death isn't evil, it's an opportunity for change and metamorphosis. Every negative manifestation in our lives that would have been understood as an evil influence in the dark ages has been turned into an opportunity for growth. Everybody's looking on the bright side of things, no matter how calamitous.

I may or may not have ranted on the existence of evil here on my blog before, I don't remember. It really gets on my nerves when people refuse to acknowledge evil.

But I've been thinking. How bad is it that people don't see evil as evil anymore? How wrong is it to approach evil things as challenges instead of something to avoid at all costs? The result of our approach to evil changing is that we deal with it, seek solutions to problems instead of just saying "That's just evil," and walking away. We face the sources of evil more often now. We aren't afraid of evil the way we used to be, and that's a good thing. The Super Heroes of old would protect the helpless from the villains. Today we're all Heroes on the sacred quest, thanks to Joe Campbell and George Lucas.

I still think relativistic ethical stances, moral ambiguity, and saying "There's no such thing as evil!" is stupid and dangerous. Evil does definitely exist.

But I'm glad we're working on getting rid of the pesky thing now.

Friday, June 08, 2007

Really Interesting Blog

For those who are interested in some really neat magickal stuff that is straight from the heart of Agrippa's teacher Trithemius, or at least looks like it, check out this blog:

http://blog.abrahadabramelin.org/?p=86

Dude did an incredible job. I understand little of what I'm seeing so far, but I have a good feeling about this one.

-R.O.