Saturday, March 22, 2008

Sleep Paralysys, Night Hags, and the Work

A friend asked me if I thought Sleep Paralysis or the Night Hag experience was greater or worse for people doing the Great Work.

Starting with the basic cosmology, I believe the world as we know it is filled with spirits that we can't see. Angels, fallen angels, elementals, and all the spirits of the dead that stick around this side of heaven, you know the drill.

When we have strong emotions, we put off a certain kind of "energy" that can be sensed in a room or even a house. Some of the spirits we wade through every day can absorb nutrition from these strong emotions, the kind usually triggered by the amygdala.

In order for the hags to be ble to feed off someone, they've got to be going through some kind of emotional duress or stress that has their amygdala working over time. Whatever the clonazepam does in the brain seems to patch this leak up in most people.

The wandering hag spirit gets the scent of the leak and goes in for a free meal. Like a lamprey, the spirit attaches itself to the leak, and I believe it has something like the anesthetic saliva of a mosquito. this triggers that "I can't move" effect in the brain, and if we wake up during the attack, we can't do anything about it.

As a magician pursues the Work, they're patching up the holes, and learning new ways to deal with life that slowly eliminate the creation of any new leaks. So there's less to feed on. We aren't putting out a banquet every night for every wandering spirit.

However, in the early stages, and especially during a Tiphareth Initiation, there's usually a lot of pain involved. The "Gethsemane" experience, I like to call it. Crowley talks about the pain of a Tiphareth initiation in Liber XCV, "The Wake World."

"This Sixth House is called the Treasure House of Gold; it's a most mysterious place as ever you were in. First there's a tiny, tiny, tiny doorway, you must crawl through on your hands and knees; and even then I scraped ever such a lot of skin off my back; then you have to be nailed on a red board with four arms, with a great gold circle in the middle, and that hurts you dreadfully. Then they make you swear the most solemn things you ever heard of, how you would be faithful to the Fairy Prince, and live for nothing but to know him better and better. So the nails stopped hurting, because, of course, I saw that I was really being married, and this was part of it, and I was as glad as glad;"

So until you get to the married part, if you haven't done the Work in the previous spheres, you may have more hag experiences as the skin is scraped on your back.

Also, as you progress in the Work, you begin to interact with the spirits more, and you get a few that hang around you. They tend to scare away the more aggressive spirits, wake you up before anything can happen, or just beat the shit out of the hungry ghosts that dare to infiltrate your sphere. Depends on the familiars you attract and work with.

Tuesday, March 11, 2008

4th Pentacle o' Jupiter

Ok, so now I've scanned the 4th Pentacle of Jupiter I made:



I also have a digital image I made in "PowerPoint" of all the stupid things. It's a rough approximation based on colors I have on my pc, fonts I have on my pc, and images I copy-pasted from Joe Peterson's web site.

The outermost circle has Muriel and its seal, then the next circle inwards has Jupiter, Tzadqiel, the characters of Jupiter, and the seal of the Archangel. The circle within has the gloria... psalm, and the innermost circle has the symbol from the Key of Solomon. The coloring below is allegedly based on the Picatrix, according to this site.


Saturday, March 08, 2008

Sitting wth the Elders

I sit with the elders of a generation this world has seldom seen.

If you pay attention, you’ll note that’s been added to my signature line on various message boards. Sure, it’s like the lyrics of the Led Zeppelin song. Sure, it seems a little pretentious. Nevertheless, it’s true.

I and my magical friends and nemeses are doing more meaningful magical acts today than I’ve ever been aware of in the occult realm. Pagans are paganing, CMs are returning to the grimoires in droves, magi are expecting magic to work, and demand explanations when it doesn’t.

People are reading my stuff, linking to my sites, reading my articles, and getting inspired to do more Work. That’s awesome. I feel privileged to be a part of this generation.

And my friends, they’re the most magically active members of the online community. We’re working on our own projects, comparing notes on different spirits we work with, and getting a lot done personally.

I’m honored to be among them. They’re the elders of this generation, not necessarily in years, but in experience. We are the Crowleys, Matherses, and Westcotts of our generation. We are the Agrippas and Brunos and Iamblichuses and Plutarchs of our time. We are the masters of the Emerald Tablet, ascending to the heavens, and returning to the earth in great power to create the universe.

It’s so easy, anyone can do it. If you want to do it, do it. You wouldn’t have a desire to do it if you weren’t capable. Do some magic. Talk to some spirits. Take the world by the balls and make it do your bidding. Heal the sick, empower the downtrodden, manipulate elections. Send evil upon your enemies and blessings upon your friends.

Be a magician, and join the Elders of this mighty generation.

Thursday, March 06, 2008

Fourth Pentacle of Jupiter Results

Well, that certainly didn't take long. In the first weekend after creating the talisman, I enjoyed a very pleasant inflow of cash, and multiple long-term opportunities for multiple revenue streams.

While I was hoping for a cash-cow, single-source bonanza of stupid-wealth, I never quite BOUGHT the lotto tickets, which pretty much ensures no winning there, eh?

Anyway, I'm very happy with the results. Here's a brief list:
  • Spouse landed a part-time job watching a friend's son before and after school, adding about $600 a month to our income; there's a chance another friend of hers is going back to work as well, and will need someone to watch her son too
  • Spouse had biggest weekend to date in Avon Sales after last week's Work
  • My "Products and Services" have sold more in the last week than they did in the last year
There were a few other things that happened rather positively in general. Respiratory infections we'd been fighting since October have left the house. It feels like a gentle "Happy Blanket" has descended on our house, for the most part, except for the ongoing low-grade warfare with my spouse. I scored a professional-grade laser printer-copier-scanner-fax for free. A bunch of other stuff that builds up wealth over time is coming into fruition at the same time.

Note that even though the Gematria of the figure could be Jupiter-Taurus, and the ritual itself is Jupiter-Cancer, the actual manifestations so far have been in keeping with Jupiter in Capricorn, slow steady, carefully measured growth.

Saturday, March 01, 2008

Angel Conjuration Kits

I'm selling more magickal stuff on my Products and Services page at my web site. This time I'm hoping to make some money off "Angel Conjuration Kits." Everything you need for Love, Wealth, Health, Career Advancement, or Psychic development. That's all I've got so far.

I'm debating putting up something to do with magickal protection from attack, an Angelic equivalent to an Uncrossing rite, but I haven't decided what would be safest for the most people in my audience. I'd use Saturn and Mars personally, but I don't know where you all are at with Mars or Saturn, and I wouldn't want to set off a series of unfortunate events in your life.

Oh, and for the record, the Wealth rite is based on my Fourth Pentacle of Jupiter from the Key of Solomon rites. They've gone really well so far. Two days into it, and we've already got an increase of income to show for it.