Enlightenment Bombing

Wow, I didn't expect to stir up any trouble with my last posts. Apparently I've left some Golden Dawn initiates all concerned though. Fr. Sincerus Renatus expresses his respectful opinion here. Morgan Drake Eckstein follows up here.

I think I addressed the concerns they express in the Follow up post, specifically in the last few paragraphs. The idea of enlightenment bombing your enemies is a very tricky ethical issue. It's thorny. That statement I made about being a Christian and doing this kind of magic for their own good was drippingly sardonic on purpose. I don't know if that came through strongly enough. My ironic wit perhaps doesn't translate well across borders.

The warnings at the end are all about the consequences you face when you take it on yourself to "make someone better." If you're going to play god, you'd damned well better be at least a lower-case god, or it's going to hurt.

It's approaching hubris to think you're at a point where you can determine where someone else is at in their path and what they need to do next, right?

Well...

You know those Hermetic Diagnoses I provide? It's part of my job to know where people are at in their path as it relates to the planetary spheres. I'm a professional, and my clients tell me I'm damned good at it. I know where people are at, if I check, and I happen to have a lot of faith in my divination talents when it comes to this arena.

So yeah, as a matter of fact, I can tell where people are at and where they need to go. But that's not all I did that got people upset. I had the audacity to send a punishing spirit, AND to then dare to put someone in the Alembic and start the fires below. How dare I take it on myself to mess with their spiritual destiny, their fate...

Well...

Fate. See, I'm in the flesh as I type this. I'm not just a spirit floating around with highly developed telekinesis powers that let me type without a body. I'm really human, ten fingers, ten toes, one nose. As a result of being in the flesh, the experienced Hermeticist will understand that I must have passed through the sphere of Saturn on my way down to the material realm. Consequently, I TOO am subject to Fate. I'm part of it, in fact. An agent of Fate. It's my fate to suffer the shit talkers in life, but it's also their fate to be in my kingdom, and to become the subjects of my god-practicing sessions.

Which brings us to another point. Do I think I'm God? Long time readers know I do not think I'm God. I've argued against that a lot. I'm part of the sum total that is God, but I am not all of it. I'm just part. I'm an individuated consciousness, I have a divine spark, but as long as I experience my existence from my point of view, I know I'm not God.

I am, however, made in his image. God made us, in my opinion, to experience his creation, and also to keep him company. We are like God. We are the answer to the question that is "Michael." We're little-g gods, made to participate in the creation and maintenance of the world the same way God did it, as outlined on the emerald Tablet. We take ideas, we speak them into being, we pass them through the Spheres and we create the world. We Work with our brothers and sisters in the cosmic hierarchy in maintaining and ruling our kingdoms. We are equipped through occult practice to meet the responsibilities of running our world as we see fit, in power.

The initiations we go through bring us wisdom as well as power. The wisdom keeps us from using the power wrong. The wisdom also comes from using the power wrong. Those warnings at the end about how much hypocrisy the universe will put up with? Yeah, that's called "experience." Painful experience that I wouldn't trade for a life of luxury and wealth.

The nice thing about this kind of rite, this enlightenment bombing, is that it cannot succeed if it is outside of God's will. Or the True Will of the person, or their Destiny or Fate or Karma or whatever. It is the kind of thing that if you try to do it and you ought not to, you will personally reap the rewards of the attempt instead of your intended victim.

And that's a really good thing. I'm a "MOVE, or move me" kind of guy when it comes to obstacles. I've been around the block enough to know that I am not perfect. I know when I meet an obstacle or an ordeal that resorting to magic will help me, no matter what, because it will either move the obstacle, or it will teach me how to move around or even to use the obstacle to my advantage.

It might hurt. Initiations usually do, and it hurts like building muscles hurts. Painful, terrible to endure, it really sucks in the moment, but when the pain is gone you're left with two things, power and the wisdom to use it.

I've been around the block a few times. I don't think I'm a 9=2, or at Jesus' level of ascended master. I don't think that's really necessary to accomplish my purpose here on Earth. I do know that if it is necessary, my life will unfold in a way that makes it inevitable. I'm not holding my breath though.

I do think I'm at Jesus' level in some ways, but mostly in the ways he said I would be. "These miracles are nothing compared to the shit you're going to be doing!" he said. Sort of. "Have I not said you're a god?" He said that too. He also said we're all children of God. Just like he is. He's our brother, our big brother, the eldest, the First, but still an emanation of God, just like us. We have the same Dad, and Dad loves us all the same. We're all as necessary as Christ. We all have just as important fates to fulfill. And we're given the powers we need to accomplish our goals.

And the powers we receive are guides, too. You don't get to conjure evil daimons if you're not supposed to ever conjure them. That power exists for a reason. So far, I've found it exists primarily to cast evil spirits out of other people's lives. It brings healing and peace of mind. But I also find in the Divine Pymander that the evil daimon is sent to the impious to afflict them until they return to the pursuit of their Source. And that's all I did with my issue. I sent a spirit to afflict them in a minor way, and then I did what I could to bring them back to pursuing their Source.

It occurred to me to do this because it's my fate that it would occur to me. I perform microcosmically the same functions God performs macrocosmically because I'm his microcosmic image. I take all this stuff we're learning and studying and practicing seriously. I believe it. It has strong explanatory force. It makes sense.

And if I'm wrong, I'll get slapped down, and I'll emerge a better man for it. And that's alright by me.

Pneuma Alalon Follow Up

Ok, a few good questions came up in the comments on yesterday's post.

The first said:

Now THIS is a series of rites I would love to have. Everyone has people who talk bad about them, and it'd be nice to make them stop, transcend themselves, and just worry about their own stuff.

Ok, first you get a Supernatural Assistant. Then you say his name and he appears in front of you. Then you say, "[Spirit Name], go forth and search through the Aires and return to me with a Pneuma Alalon that I may direct towards mine own ends. Bring it here before me to appear within this crystal ball, and to communicate with me through the images that shall appear within."

When he returns with the Pneuma Alalon spirit, ask its name, explain what you want done, and give it the specific statement of intent, "Go now to [Shit talker's Name] daughter of [Shit talker's mama]. Let no word that will cause strife for me or my immediate family pass her lips, and let her be deaf to any words that might cause her to react."

Then start praying for [Shit Talker] to get over her shit already, for Christ's sake; amen!

I pray that a lot for people.

Pallas Renatus said:

Hah! Stealth-bombing with wisdom and enlightenment, I love it. Actually, this is an excellent example of an alternative to monkey curses.
Any good references on the Pneuma Alalon? Definitely something I want to check out.

Yeah, I'm really into making the world better in general, and my personal world specifically. I want my experiences to be richer and more meaningful overall than your average mundane life. I want more money, better cars, and nicer homes across the country. I want to be as free as possible, and enjoy my life as I go through it. You can't have that shit if you're surrounded by a bunch of fucking monkeys throwing shit at each other. "Evolve, bitches, I got work to do." That was one of my first proclamations as King of my Kingdom.

I found the Pneuma Alalon while researching Pneuma on Wikipedia. I worked my way down all the links on that page to get a multifaceted view and understanding of what Pneuma means, and how it applies to what I've been learning in the Eighth Sphere about how stuff works. It's a piece I've been missing. It's good to have a vocabulary that fits into the experiences and the Hermetics I've been processing. The Pneuma Alalon is discussed in the Unclean Spirit link. There's a lot of gold to be found sifting through the links that pop up in those articles.

Marcus says:

That rite is a gold of mine, really, do you have any idea to how many people we can send those spirits and do a favor to the world?
Really, hope you share the ritual or at least where to fin more info about the Spirit.

Thanks for the compliments, and I totally agree.

And John says:

Now I'm curious as how you'd go about doing malefic magic to people who talk shit about you RO.

In love and concern for their immortal souls, John. Of course. I'm a Christian.

For malefic magic, I work with the malefic planetary entities. I don't do a lot of that these days. There's a time and place for it, but I'm not often in that part of the universe anymore.

I think theurgic rites against another person are the truest form of black magic. You not only take away their bad behavior, you also take away their ability to enjoy that bad behavior. You alter their existence against their will, and you do it for their own good. 

And you just happen to reap the benefits.

Anyway, the rite consists of baptizing something to represent the person, and then putting it through initiations into the spheres, focusing on the particular character traits you want to affect. You put that on the Table of Practice and conjure the seven Archangels of the spheres into it. Or near it, anyway. You ask them to all work together to eliminate the negative trait, and to heal it at the root. Negative traits are usually twisted versions of a positive quality. The ability to speak great evil into being is also the ability to speak great good into being. It just got twisted somehow, damaged. Make the correction, heal the wound. Then ask them to make it retroactive so the effects begin manifesting immediately. Shift time and space itself to get this person into something useful.

This isn't nice magic. Growing up spiritually is always the most painful of processes. The most rewarding by far, but really shitty to endure during the initial stages.

And it's not always successful. Sometimes people's shit is just their own shit, and your opinion on it doesn't really matter. 

And it can be dangerous to you too. There's only so much hypocrisy the universe will take out of a magician, and you'll get your own ass slapped if you go too far. It shouldn't be one of the first times you've conjured the Archangels of the Planets, if you know what I mean. 

You'll note how little shit talking I do these days. 

Pneuma Alalon

Shit talkers. I hates 'em. I mean don't get me wrong, brotherhood of man and all that shit, compassion, yeah I got some for them too, but I hate dealing with the shit the shit talkers start.

I'm talking specifically about rumor-mongering drama queens who start trouble by running their mouths, expressing opinions on subjects that are beyond the scope of their responsibility, and spreading talk that causes strife.

I hate when they sneak up on me. See, if I sense that a person is a shit talker, I can usually deal with it proactively. I identify them, and start a series of rites to help them transcend that aspect of their character, transmuting them from a base state to a more refined state, weaving in the wisdom of knowing when to keep silent, and the compassion to be helpful when they do speak. It takes a while to get through that, and it's a long-term solution, but definitely the method of dealing with shit talkers I prefer.

Recently an extended family member reverted to being a shit talker. She had been on her best behavior for a few years, ever since she pulled some ignorant stunts that hurt a lot of people and herself most of all. She had crawled back with her tail between her legs, and became a very valued caregiver for a couple members of the family. I thought she had changed her ways for good, that her humbling experience had taught her some basic lessons. I was so wrong.

She called up last week starting shit with my family. Same crap she's been pulling for over 20 years, except for the last five or so. I'm guessing she's stressed out and going back to the old ways, and I'm really hoping it's a temporary reversion, but regardless, I had to act quickly.

I had recently been studying the pneuma when this happened, and in my research I discovered the "Pneuma Alalon," a spirit that makes a person mute, and in some cases deaf. I pulled a fast conjure, obtained the services of a member of this spirit class, and assigned it specifically to render her deaf and mute in regards to shit talking. See, she gets all worked up in a war of words with her victims, and will escalate it and force people to "choose sides." When she's like that, anything she hears will be twisted into a poisoned barb that she then speaks against her victim. So I told the spirit, "Let no word that will cause strife for me or my immediate family pass her lips, and let her be deaf to any words that might cause her to react."

Our family hasn't heard a peep out of her since that day she started all this stuff. Immediately the shit-storm she had brewing dissipated and blew away, leaving me plenty of time to get that transformative rite in place for her.

This was a weird case for me because I personally value the service she provides the extended family members. No one else can be a full time care giver, and the people she helps are very particular about who they let take care of them. In addition, when she's not starting shit, she's really a nice person. It's just when she gets a hair up her ass that she turns all uber-bitch. I figure she's just under stress and needed to vent a little. You don't bind someone in Saturn and run them out of the Kingdom on the Martial rail just because they have a bad day, you know? My rite just made sure that if she vents, it's not in a way that impacts me personally.

Business Booster Rite

Ok, so since I started writing the Gates series, I've been working with one of my regular clients. He's from the Philippines, and runs a family business. He's been successful at maintaining a steady income, but he's been blocked by some spiritual and mundane factors that were limiting his potential and keeping him from achieving his goals.

He first contacted me about making him a talisman for success in his business. A Wealth and Prosperity talisman incorporating Jupiter and Mercury spirits, specifically. I made that for him, and he saw immediate results. Next he wanted something to help bring him victory in various struggles, and we came up with another talisman for that. Again he was very pleased with the results.

Then he came to me with a problem that had been afflicting his family for a while, a spiritual issue involving a Chinese Sorcerer, the details of which I can't share. We'll just say the sorcerer had rigged the results in their own favor, and my client wanted a way out.

Around this time, I was writing up the Gates series of rites. High on Jupiter's powers (a great high to be on, by the way), I saw an opportunity for us to work together. He agreed to be my test case, and I gave him a discount on the whole deal. If it worked as great as I foresaw it would, I'd turn it into a product/service and offer it on my site.

It involved a rite I did for him and his business followed by the performance of the Gates and some work with the Talismans I had made for him. I was eager to see what effect we could have on an established business that was already breaking even. Usually by the time people contact me, they're in bankruptcy or the equivalent, and it takes a great deal of magical assistance just to get them up to subsistence-level living.

He was also an ideal client for this because he was familiar with the basics of occult practice. He had worked with the Lemegeton's Goetia before on his own, with the usual results (technical success, but in the same or worse condition he started in). He was ready to listen to me when I advised the Gates series of rites under the auspices of the rite I put together for him.

When he began the Gates Series, he and I had a breakdown in communications. He was doing a rite every day of the week. When I posted the suggested schedule a couple weeks ago, he wrote to tell me he had been doing them much more often, and I suggested he back off on trying to do all the rites every week, and stick to the schedule I discussed before, one planet each week, but the Jupiter Gate weekly if possible.

He did the magic, stuck to the regimen I prescribed, and the results are in. He agreed to let me publish his results, and I'm sharing them below. I've taken out some of the more personal aspects and some of the specific details of his case that are none of your business, but suffice it to say there are more benefits to our work together than are listed here. My comments are in [brackets] below.

• Managed not to become manic and kill everyone in sight because of doing Planetary Ritual everyday in a row. [Even though the powers he was tapping into were accumulating in his sphere, the work with the Intelligences kept the integration process from burning him out or manifesting in destructive ways.]
• Though the effect is snowballing since 3 weeks, the effects are already felt after doing my first Jupiter Ritual.  That would be after you did the Ritual for me.  It is like something is being cook up and I don't know how it will turn out. [I did the framework rite that focused the powers released by his performance of the Gates rites specifically into his business first, and then he started with the Jupiter Gate rite. He felt the impact of the Jupiter Gate rite immediately, but it started manifesting in his life over the next three weeks.]
• The effects would be getting job orders from clients in every directions and given orders not seen since before recession.  After development of the design is approved and ready for production, another tens of designs are pushed in our hands.  I think this is the time to do 80/20 rule.
• I can finally understand and work your Talismans effectively. [After I sent him the Talisman Maintenance and Operations Manual, which I wrote mainly for him personally, and then passed on to everyone else. I snipped some personal details he provided that I don't think should be public knowledge.]
• I worked the Silver Talisman with same intent to apply it in business.  [This was a mild domination talisman designed to bring him victory in all situations, originally.] Back then, I couldn't gain the attention of 3 clients because of a competitor.  This competitor was our employee back then, she got ambitious and go freelance.  She got our contacts and know-how and price and work for a richer company using these.  2 things I won't tolerate and would go ballistic are stealing what's mine and besmirching my name.  I can now work without concentrating much on the enemies since [the spirits of the talisman] are the ones who had their sights on my enemies.  Love working with those 2, they are automatic and stoke my inner mean streak.  Oh, and I got those 3 clients back.
• Compared to doing it the way I did and doing it your way:  The way I did it back then, I became manic, like the way I felt when working with Goetia.  At least it did not become uncontrollable like Goetia.  Now, I feel normal with some wisdom on dealing things in life.  I'm not saying that I'm enlightened and I feel compassion for mankind, its just that I accept and come to terms with all things happening to the world.  I became poised, graceful yet grumpy to filter in people who would approach me. [This is why he mentioned that even though he did the Gates rites much more often than necessary at first, he didn't get all manic up top. The rites  of Goetia he had used before had left him obsessed.]
• I'm expecting all these work could cover expenses for months to come and [deal with some other issues that are personal].  When Christmas season is near, I'll go crazy and maintain those wealth/opportunity/money rituals to generate lots of probabilities to earn more money.
• Your rituals are successful, as long as the caster is diligent and neutral in expectation (Process may become unexpected and different from the plan but the result will be same). 

I like that last point a lot. He wasn't my only test case, I am also working with another client on the same process. The other client didn't start doing the rites regularly until a couple weeks ago, and he's already seeing the results come in much better. Still, he's about a month behind the other guy. At least he has something to look forward to.

Now I'm ready to start offering this service to others. It works best if you've already got a business in place that's making money. It would be equally effective for businesses that are in the red, but when you start out in the negative, a lot of the power will go just to getting your business to break even.

It's not for the average American worker bee. It's for entrepreneurs and professionals with good business sense and a healthy amount of ambition to achieve. Lazy slacker reactionary pussies need not bother, it's a waste of your money and my time.

This is best suited for those with self discipline and a decent understanding of the process of manifestation. If you've really understood the Neoplatonic Basics, you should be ok with the Gates rites you'll be performing. They're simple enough and require very little in the way of materials. Most of it you can make yourself. the thing is, you have to DO THE MAGIC to make this work. I'm setting up the framework, giving you some boosts, but you' are applying the power to the engine of manifestation. You gotta do the rites. Once a week, maybe twice, for at least five weeks.

Can you handle it?

It's a package deal that includes the following:

• 1 Business Talisman to expand existing business, increase transactions, and to draw new opportunities.
• 1 Victory Talisman aimed at giving you an advantage against your competition. Also will provide the spirits he mentions that keep an eye on his enemies. 
• 1 Secret Magical Rite I perform on your behalf that provides the framework for the Gates to specifically manifest in your business life.
• All Seven Planetary Gates Rites
• Talisman Maintenance and Operations Manual

The results are only limited by your own dedication and adherence. As you read through the Gates Rites, you'll see a lot of advice on getting your kingdom's shit together. You'll need to apply that to your business. After you pass through each Gate, see what application you need to make from the books to your business. The spirits will guide you to apply it in the most beneficial ways.

Now for the price:

One MILLION Dollars!

Ok, not One MILLION Dollars.

Some day, though, oh yes, SOME day!

Today, however, it's $695 for the first three customers, with the stipulation that you MUST agree to provide me with weekly reports that I can use as testimonials for the service in the future.

I won't be offering this service again until these three clients have been through a complete cycle, which should be some time in August, unless the results are truly amazing. And August will be the right time to start preparing for the Christmas sales season. When I offer this service again, it will cost at least $1,200. Maybe more. One client so far is on track to break a million dollars in revenue this fiscal year after performing the rite. $1,200 is cheap for that kind of reward. If it manifests the same for these three clients, it's going to cost twice that. This offering is to see what kind of consistency the rite shows in practice.

I'm not targeting this at individuals with jobs, this is for business owners who can afford the investment. I can come up with something similar for individuals for less, but this package is designed for taking an already in place operation and ramping it up to total domination of its target market.

If you fit my target demographic, you have a business already in place that you want to see take off and fly this summer, and you can commit about an hour or so a week for five weeks to see your profits go through the roof, please contact me by email, and I'll discuss the arrangements with you.

Prepared for Death

THIS. 

This is what it's all about. The epitome of why we do all this stuff.

The Most Important Tool

The most important tool in the magician's box. It all starts manifesting right here.

The GD Returning to its Hermetic Roots?

Holy Crap! It's totally working!

The Golden Dawn is getting its shit together. It's returning to its Hermetic roots. Halleluiah!

Or at least, someone there finally got around to reading the Divine Pymander. 'bout friggin' time.

Getting Started in Hermetics

Well, when I wrote the Looking Forward... and Preparing for Death posts a couple weeks ago, I thought they kind of sucked. When I reread them, I thought it was like reading squashed roaches. Piles of words smeared across the point that barely communicated much of anything.

But they've generated a lot of email for me. Quite a few people have been asking about how to get started in this path. Sometimes I forget that I keep getting new readers, and that not everyone's read every post I've ever written. So it's time to point out a few key resources for this stuff I do.

For starters, read the Neo-Platonic Basics. It's available for free on my main site. It's also available for a nominal fee in a complete PDF file if you want to see it as an eBook through my eBooks page. This was a series of posts documenting my early experiences and understandings of the traditional Hermetic Path, and I recently re-read it. I thought I'd have to go through and update everything because I've grown as a magician, but it didn't need a lot of changes. I found myself saying oh, yeah, that's why this stuff happens. I wondered where I got that from.* This booklet/series of posts provides you with the basic map of the Hermetic Territories.

From there, I'd get the Modern Angelic Grimoire. It's basically a rewrite of the Art of Drawing Spirits into Crystals, attributed to Trithemius, and it's the best method of conjuring spirits quickly and efficiently I've found. It's completely harmonious with the core Hermetic Texts. You can start conjuring the spirits in one evening, and it whets your appetite, makes you hungry for more.

From there you can simply go exploring through the heavens and the grimoires. I think the best thing you can do, honestly, is to go out and adventure through the spirit realms. Once you have a basic map, and a basic understanding of the methodology, there's nothing you can't learn. Conjure the spirits, and they'll guide your steps. They initiate, they teach, they guide. They're much better at it than any human I've met. As you go along, you'll find yourself learning all the correspondences of the planets, methods of attaining a Supernatural Assistant, sub-lunar spirit conjuration, followed up closely with lessons on fixing magic gone awry.

It won't kill you, probably, and it's not very likely to make you any more insane than you already are. Usually. What it does result in is getting initiated and empowered and discovering that while you may not be able to control every aspect of your life, there is no thing of the Firmament or of the Ether, upon the Earth or under the Earth, on dry land or in the water, of Whirling Air, or of rushing Fire, or any Spell or Scourge of God that cannot be influenced through your magic.

It's pretty potent stuff. Good times, my friends, gooooood times.

Now, some people have an adventurous spirit, but they want more detailed, more structured and organized training. I offer that through the "Red Work Series of Courses." It's a detailed set of instructions for accomplishing the Hermetic Great Work as laid out in the Corpus Hermeticum, the Emerald Tablet, and woven all through the Three Books of Occult Philosophy by Agrippa. Some people have told me the courses have turned out to be a practical magician's guide to the Three Books of Occult Philosophy. One of these days, I might even publish something like that in condensed form. The courses, however, go into a great deal of detail, and would be as long as the Three Books. It's probably never going to be published in entirety, there's just too much.

So that's about it. The best thing you can do is get a basic understanding, and then start filling in the blanks through experimentation, study, and guidance from the spirits. The second best thing is to go through my courses, if you really feel called to doing things the way I've been called to it.

The worst thing you can do is nothing at all, though. Time is just ticking the fuck away. Get busy, do something.

* I have the shittiest memory on the planet for details. I remember things, I know them, but I forget why they're true, or where I learned them. I'm trying to get through the Art of Memory, but I've been distracted.

Magic: The Great Savior! Part 2

You know all that stuff in the last post I wrote? It's all true.

That said, magic is our savior, and not just in the long term. It doesn't fix everything all at once, once and for all. It's cumulative and it can take a couple weeks or more to start seeing the effects, but still, if your life is ALL FUCKED UP, then honestly, you really do need to DO SOME MAGIC.

Contemplation of your source puts things into perspective. Once you've got that, turn your gaze to your life and all the shit and start fixing it. Come up with the plan, and put it into action. What powers of the spheres do you need? Get them! Get yourself a spirit from each and put them to work on your behalf! Do it! Do the Magic!

And you never know, sometimes you just might get an instant result that really does fix everything that's bugging the shit out of you. You're guaranteed not to get anything if you don't do something.

Magic: The Great Savior!

Or: Hermetic Soteriology

In the past week, I've had no less than five people approach me with the same basic complaint: My life is worse than ever, can you fix it!?!?!? I don't know what's going on in the world astrologically or what, but it's going around big time.

Most of these people are suffering the consequences of their actions, or worse, their lack of planned action. It happens to me more often than I like to admit, so I'm not judging them any harsher than I judge myself when I tell you truly: that shit is just plain old fashioned stupid. "Everything I've done has a consequence, and I don't like the consequence, make it all go away!" I've said that. In those words.

And the basic assumption is that there's nothing in life that's so bad that magic can't fix it immediately and relieve them from suffering instantaneously. That's "magic as my salvation."

Bad news folks, magic doesn't work that way. That's why I wrote yesterday's post about timing and planning your magic because what we're experiencing now is the result of what we did (or didn't do) a couple weeks ago. Or a month ago. Or five years ago. Or twenty. We basically reap what we sow. 

Soteriology is a fancy word for "salvation of the soul." Christians are the most famous for their Salvation beliefs because they start conversations with perfect strangers using the phrase, "Are you saved?" One famous Christian Bible teacher used to get so pissed about that. He got fed up one day and asked the person, "Saved from what?" The response was Hell, but he had to point out to the kid, no, not hell, God. Specifically the wrath of God. The wrath of God earned by your disobedience. I liked him, he was honest. Dead now. Good guy though, he grokked the Bible. Course, he read it. That helps.

Hermetics teaches salvation of the soul too. For us, it's most clearly detailed in Iamblichus' On the Mysteries. It pops up in the Divine Pymander too. Our salvation is a process of doing magic to gain initiation and insight so we can return to our rightful place as emanations of the First Father.* We aren't saved from an eternal torment in a literal flaming hell, but we are saved from a series of unfortunate events caused by our own ignorant action (or inaction) that makes our lives into a subjective hell. We can have a better life.

Not a perfect life. There's too much here that we experience that comes from actions made in ignorance, our own ignorance or others' ignorance. The law of unintended consequence sucks big time.

But we can have a better life by making the right choices that lead to our desired results, and by preparing to deal with the inevitable influx of shit that comes from the actions of others in our lives. We learn to make the right choices through the wisdom gained from our initiatory work. We learn what practical strategy to put into place with our thaumateurgical rites. We live a balanced life, sometimes focusing our attention Above, other times Below, following the reflected light of the Moon as she waxes and wanes.

True salvation from all our troubles isn't going to come until we return to our native lands, the place our spirits came from before we descended and became flesh. We get there when we learn who we are, where we came from, and the path back. We get there when we've learned to make this world and our daily experiences as good as possible through proactive magic and compassionate aid. We get there when we understand the image we are made in, and take on the responsibilities that come with being a child of God, made in his image.

And the best way to do that, in my experience, is to hang out with the First Father. Pymander talks about how he sends the evil daimon to torment the impious until they turn back to seeking him, seeking to become what they are supposed to be. If your life is bothering you to the point of rage, depression, and anxiety, it's because you've stopped seeking God. You've stopped trying to get home. 

When you're seeking God and trying to get Above, you get perspective on the temporary nature of this world and all its troubles. The same problems that drive you insane with suffering might be there when you're seeking God, but you can see from the higher point in the spheres what led to the problems, and also that they are temporary, already fading away into the unmanifest realm.

That doesn't mean that in a crisis, you shouldn't bother with magic. Magic is the tool we use to get to salvation, to reduce the suffering of our daily lives, and to learn to become what we were meant to be. Magic is good. Crisis is a great motivator. But aim it UP. 

Aim for perspective in times of crisis, and see what shakes out. When you've got a good perspective on your life from an eternal point of view, you'll see the things you have to do to get out of the situation you're in. You'll see your options, see the consequences of quick and easy fixes, and see the consequences of making small changes that have less impact and make things better over longer periods of time. You'll be able to come up with better strategies, plan better magic, and gain the peace and calm to get through the shit storm.

So this Father's Day, don't forget your First Father. He may be trying to get your attention. Give him a call, eh?

* That's really the point of Christianity too, but it got bogged down in politics and social rulership. Peter says in the new testament, "Work out your salvation in fear and trembling," and it's caused all kinds of hell in theological circles as they try to figure out how to fit "works" into "salvation" when in other places it's pretty clear that salvation is a function of grace, a gift received, not earned. They don't get that there's spiritual practices that come with the gift that let us have a better life by working towards the end state.

A Couple of Weeks

Ok, so the general rule I have for seeing magical results is that it takes a couple weeks. Average. Once in a while you get same day confirmations in manifestations that read like a row in a correspondence table. Like you do a Jupiter rite on a Thursday morning, and you get a call that afternoon in the Jupiter Hour from someone who found your resume on the internet and wants to bring you in for an interview, and the first available date they have is next Thursday. (Example based on a true story.) Or you do a Moon rite and you go to the mall and someone sprays you with Opium cologne. Something happens that is just obviously related to the magic you just did.

But that's not the result of your magic, not all the result. I mean, it fucking better not be. What good is a spritz of cologne or landing an interview if the real goal of the magic fails? Those mini manifestations are nice faith boosters and make for fun FaceBook updates, but they aren't the goal. They're the side effect. When I do Jupiter magic, I want:

1. HEALTH
2. WEALTH
3. EXPANSION

I don't want to get splashed by a blue luxury car with orange license plates. It's not the same thing.

(And fuck that, Mr. Universe, it's not funny.)

So yeah, I enjoy symbolism manifesting itself as a confirmation of my magical activities, but what I really want out of it is the actual intent of the rite. So that cool rite I did that left me on fire the other day is going to start manifesting materially in my life in a couple of weeks. 

What am I manifesting now?

I'm manifesting the magic I did a couple of weeks ago. Sometimes stuff from a month ago, sometimes stuff from last week, but generally, stuff I did a couple of weeks ago is taking center stage in my life today.

My problem is I'll do some magic for a couple of weeks, and then it starts to manifest, and I get all into the process of making it happen and enjoying the fruits of my labors, and I'm not doing anything to get any more magic going. So then the stuff I'm doing on purpose to make my life better hits its climax and starts to fade, and since I haven't planted any seeds to make more stuff come into being, the universe just takes whatever's lying around and brings about those consequences. And if I haven't been proactive, I end up being reactive.

So the struggle is to keep doing something to make improvements I want to be experiencing in a couple of weeks. That doesn't mean do magic every day to change the world, although that wouldn't be all bad. It's just not very realistic.

It does mean having a plan that has long term goals and things to do every week to keep the process going. The gates series provides a framework for that, a five-week process that is aimed at making your life better, and keeps you thinking about what you're doing. It's been good for me. 

Most magic I do lasts for about a full lunar cycle. It slowly creeps into being, it climaxes, and then it starts fading off to stage right. Sometimes it comes back, sometimes it's gone forever, but most of the time I'm focusing on everything else that's come up. Having an overarching set of goals with weekly checkpoints that actually do something to keep me moving forward has been great. I get to see the cumulative effects as I keep moving forward. It's generating new experiences, birthing new perspectives, and keeping me focused on accomplishments AND plans instead of just the fun stuff that I already did the work for. 

I've managed to avoid the two-week droughts of cool manifestations too. When I'd get all distracted and do nothing, I'd do magic one week, nothing for a couple weeks, and then as the bright shiny whatever-it-was I'd conjured passed away, I'd start getting upset that everything good was getting crowded out by all the shit I hadn't done anything about for the last three weeks.So I'd do magic, and it was another couple of weeks before it started to manifest. So there's about five weeks wasted. If I'm only working on manifesting my kingdom the way I want it to manifest once every five weeks, that's about ten rituals to improve my life per year instead of fifty-two. I could be making solid progress towards my goals five times faster by breaking the cycle, by recognizing the two-week manifestation delay, and incorporating that timing into my magical planning and execution.

Heh, just realized I'm manifesting the Mercury rite I did last Wednesday right now in this very post. The Idea is coming down, taking on form, and it's getting put into action too (I updated my to-do list this morning, and already finished four of my ten things for today). Planning, organizing, getting the lines of communication between my desires and my actions cleared out so the activities can support my goals instead of undermining them... Yeah, it's all working. It's working nicely.

On Fire

So last night I was doing my Jupiter rite, and I used the new ebony and gold leafed wand from Trithemius' Art of Drawing Spirits into Crystals. Can I just say I love that tool? Cause I do. It's really nice.

I broke out the Jupiter Gate document, and I went through it step by step. I usually take advantage of my established relationships with the archangels to skip a lot of the intro stuff and get right to having the spirit present, but I took the time to do it all proper because I wanted to use the wand. As soon as I picked it up, I felt a flow of power through my whole body. I had used it on Wednesday too, for the Mercury Gate, and when I did that one I felt an instant drop of power through the top of my head and out through the wand. It was cool and clear though, and quick flowing, down, in and out, right on through with little tingles up in my brain, in a good way.

When I did the Jupiter rite, it was much greater. The power drop hit the center of my being and radiated outward in all directions across all space and time, and I was totally ON. It hit as soon as I started the consecration of the crystal. It continued as I conjured the creature of fire, and by the time I started the conjuration of Tzadkiel, I had a significant buzz going. Then Tzadkiel appeared and it was like a switch was flipped, and the power within was harmonized to the sphere of Jupiter, and Tzadkiel was present. I kept it simple, read through the Orphic Hymn, and then spent a really brief amount of time in the meditation/contemplation part, focusing on the sigils I had prepared. Then I closed out the rite, and realized I was hot.

I mean, physically hot. Heat, upon heat, upon heat. Like I had just run a block.* I was sweating and breathing heavy. I was radiating heat from my core. It felt like I was on fire inside. I checked my sphere, and it was "ruddy." One of the descriptions of Jupiter includes his ruddy complexion, and it felt like I had that glow. I always thought he was described as a corpulent, bearded, jolly, late-40s Santa looking guy because he was rich and drunk. Red cheeks and nose from the alcohol consumption, you know? But it wasn't like that, it was more like the red glow of really hot embers.

I directed the heat along some channels that I learned about in the Eighth sphere work I did, towards the manifestation of more and greater expansion. It dissipated slowly, and I slept like a brick from the time I shut my eyes until the alarm went off this morning. If I dreamed, the visions were lost between snooze alarms.

Now, I regularly catch a buzz from my magical work. One of the reasons I really enjoy doing magical work for people, especially the Hermetic Diagnosis, is because it affords me an opportunity to get a little bit high. You might think that proactively influencing the manifestation of your sphere on a regular basis would take a lot of magic, but really, it doesn't. There's basically finances, home maintenance and defense, and research, and those things don't take long to address. And there's not as much buzz to a research conjuration, you know?

I think there's something to the wand itself, honestly. I don't know if it's the inscriptions, or the material, or if the guy who made it did anything to it while he was putting it together. I know he's done a lot of magical tool creation for the grimoires, and I'm thinking the potency of the results may be the result of his attention to detail and use of crafting tools that have been used for other magical projects. I've sent him a request for more information about how he put it together, and I'll share what I can when I get a response. I don't know if he considers what he does proprietary or anything.

* Yeah, I'm out of shape.

Wuh-oof.

So I just did the Mercury Gate rite, cause it's Wednesday, and it doesn't take long.

Just sayin', Mercury Rocks.

And Monster: I nominate Green Monster as the official drink of Mercury.

The Hermit's Lantern

If you haven't yet, check out Fr. SEA's blog, The Hermit's Lantern. It's one of my favorites. He and I go way back, and we've been working together now for years. We started out in a mentor-student relationship, and have since become good friends. His endurance and survival of my early attempts at helping someone through the early phases of the Great Work are to be admired. He's a good writer, too.

His latest experiments in home alchemy have been fascinating, and the results are incredible. I'm honored to have played a role in his early development, and I'm really glad we're friends. He's the epitome of what I wanted when I started writing this blog, someone who has done the same work I have to discuss results and progress with, but at the same time he's got his own interests and take on things that gives me a different perspective on my own experiences that provides useful meaning.

Wand from the Art of Drawing Spirits into Crystals

A friend and fellow magician has two make that ONE ebony wands available. He will engrave them and gold-leaf the letters to make it according to the specs in Trithemius' Art of Drawing Spirits into Crystals if you want him to for an extra charge, or you can (attempt to) do it yourself. If you're interested, let me know and I'll pass on your interest to him.

He made me one, and it's truly awesome. It's cut to the exact length of my forearm from the elbow to my fingertips. It's exactly the image from the Modern Angelic Grimoire. I'm in the process of consecrating it now. It's heavy! Feels like a metal rod more than wood. Very cool stuff here.

The guy making these is a traditional grimoirist. He has made everything in the Lemegeton's Goetia to spec, and has reported some very interesting results. His experience and craftsmanship are excellent. There's not enough light to take a decent picture, so I'm uploading one of his.

Update: The last one's gone, but he may take special orders. If you're interested, let me know and I'll pass it on.

About those Talismans from the Gates Series

Ok, home now, time to finish the post from earlier.

In each of the Gates, I give instructions on creating a talisman for the planet. They are each made from the herbs and minerals associated with the planets. They're placed in a cloth bag, like a mojo bag, and the seals of the Intelligences and the Spirits are inscribed on the outside. When we consecrate them, we call on the spirits by name.

We create talismans of the planetary Intelligences and spirits to create a material link between them and us in our Kingdoms. This provides a focal point for the powers they represent to manifest in our lives more powerfully.

Although they are talismans of the planetary forces, they should not be confused with astrological talismans. They are talismans of the Intelligences and the Spirits of the planets, whose names are derived from the planetary tables provided in Agrippa's Second Book of Occult Philosophy, chapter 22.

Donald Tyson provides an in depth discussion of these spirits and their seals in his translation of the Three Books of Occult Philosophy, and it's thorough and complete, and kind of over my head. It's all about the maths. The spirit names are derived from the summation of the numbers each letter represents in a way that results in the total value of each name having a numerical correlation to the planet itself.

"Study your math, kids, it's the language of the universe" and shit. I appreciate that, even though I don't really understand the technical details that go on behind the scenes. I couldn't tell you the numbers associated with each planet if my kids' lives depended on it.

The talismans are the receptacles of the forces that are ruled over by the Intelligences and manifest through the actions of the Spirits of the planets. In On the Mysteries, Iamblichus calls these talismans "Sunthemata."  If I remember right, Iamblichus discusses three levels of Sunthemata, the Material, the Intermediate, and the Noetic. Material sunthemata are the phsical talismans that represent the planets. Intermediate sunthemata are the rites that tap into the powers of the gods, and the use of their Names. Noetic sunthemata were considered the highest form in Iamblichus opinion, and were concerned with the mathematics of the soul.

Now, these talismans in the Gates series are obviously Material sunthemata, because they are material objects, right? But during the consecration rite, we call upon the Intelligences and the Spirits through their Names, which makes them also Intermediate Sunthemata. We inscribe the Seals of the Intelligences of the spirits as well, which are based on the numeric values of their names from the Tables of the Planets, making them Noetic sunthemata as well.

Iamblichus warns against idolatry, making the material objects the focus of our interactions with the spiritual powers instead of the spirits and powers themselves. The purpose of all sunthemata is Theurgy, or as he lays it out, purification, (catharsis), liberation (apolusis), and salvation (soteria) of the soul. Basically the Hermetic Great Work I laid out before.

Now the focus of the Gates rites is our physical Kingdom here Below, and on becoming the Kings we're supposed to be. This may seem like a rather thaumateurgical focus, being all material oriented. However, as I mentioned in recent posts, the process of becoming the Kings of our Kingdoms results in us ruling by Divine Right in harmony with the planetary spheres. The point of the exercise is to understand and integrate the forces of the planets as they manifest here below so we can work skillfully with them when we pass beyond and finally break free from the process of reincarnation. Passing through each of the Gates results in a degree of the Catharsis, Apolusis, and Soteria of the soul.

And the Talismans aid in that process. The presence of the divine powers we're dealing with cleans us out and bring us into harmony with the spheres. In the Thomas Taylor translation of Iamblichus' Theurgia (Section IV, Chapter II), we read:

In all theurgical operations the priest sustains a twofold character; one, indeed, as man, and which preserves the order possessed by our nature in the universe; but the other, which is corroborated by divine signs, and through these is conjoined to more excellent natures, and is elevated to their order by an elegant circumduction...

In other words, when the spirits are near you, you are transformed and raised to a higher level of being. The talismans provide a material link to the spiritual realm, the powers we are calling on by name and by number to accomplish our transformation. They provide a means for us to interact with these powers to accomplish our aims.

So those talismans aren't just bags of herbs and rocks with scribbles on them, they are a means to keep the powers we are working with flowing through our kingdoms and making the changes we need to accomplish the Work. Pretty neat stuff.

Passing through the Gates to Rule your Kingdom

Ok, so you've bought all seven of the Planetary Gates files, and you're all set to get started passing through the gates to get initiated and empowered so you can rule you Kingdom in Wisdom and in Grace. And wealth. Can't forget that.

I meant for the Gates rites to be performed in the following order:

1. Jupiter - To receive the anointing as King of your Kingdom and to gain inspiration, health, and wealth
   
2. Mars - To gain discipline and to establish your Rulership of your Kingdom, and to gain protection
   
3. Sun - To shine the light on your Kingdom that it needs to grow and prosper so you can attain your ambitions, and to drive out any entities hanging around in the shadows
   
4. Venus - To clear out any productivity issues and to turn the inspiration of Jupiter into creativity and productivity
5. Mercury - To clear out the communications issues and to be able to diagnose and treat any issues in your Kingdom
6. Moon - To see the manifestation process within your Kingdom and to attain the ability to influence the final shape of things as they come into being
7. Saturn - When you have mastered your Kingdom within its current boundaries, pass through this Gate to expand the boundaries of your Kingdom

And repeat as necessary.

Obviously you can't do them all in one week. I put together a schedule for one client who is working through all the Gates to attain kingship over his kingdom. It's a process that takes a few weeks. You'll start with the Jupiter rite on a Thursday. The following Tuesday, you should do the Mars rite. The following Sunday, you should do the Sun rite. the next Friday, the Venus Rite, and the next Wednesday the Mercury Rite. The next Monday, you should finish with the Lunar rite.

Altogether, it should take you five weeks to pass through all the Gates. Here's a sample schedule, assuming you're going to start this Thursday:

Thursday, June 16: Jupiter Gate
Tuesday, June 28: Mars Gate
Sunday, June 26: Solar Gate
Friday, July 1: Venus Gate
Wednesday, July 6: Mercury Gate
Monday, July 11: Lunar Gate

These rites are initiatory in nature, and are specifically designed to release the powers into your sphere that you need to attain a greater degree of mastery over your personal world, your kingdom. You'll note I didn't schedule the Saturn Gate. It takes a while for the forces released by this process to integrate. Also, you may find that you need more work in some spheres than others, and you'll want to perform the Gate rite again for those spheres to attain mastery. It takes a while to get a handle on the things we have at hand, and you won't need to perform the Saturn Gate rite until you've come to terms with being the King of what you already have to deal with.

These rites are intended to be general enough that they can be done regularly. I've performed the Jupiter Gate rite at least three times a month since April 14th, and the results have been very very good. I also do the Mars rite frequently because I have self-discipline issues, and because I've been known to piss off magicians, both socially and professionally. It's a job hazard. The Solar Gate has been good for me too, though I haven't performed it as regularly as I probably should. Venus, Mercury, and the Moon are spheres I travel frequently already, so regular performance of these sphere's rites isn't necessary. Nevertheless, I have performed each on schedule for the last few weeks, and I plan to continue to cycle through the Gates for a while. I keep finding more and different stuff each time I go through it.

I've found that regular practice of planetary magic fuels revelation across the spectrum of my life.

Woops, time to go home.

May the gates bring you the power and authority they've brought me.

Gate of the Moon available

Ok, the last of the Gates is available at my eBooks page, again for 11.95. This one integrates the forces of the Moon into your sphere, and brings understanding of the role of the Moon in your personal Kingdom.

Bwahahaha, I'm done, done! I finished that Jupiter-inspired project, and it's been great. Now back to regularly scheduled writing projects, courses, and blog posts.

Whew! You can go to my site, or use the buy now buttons below.

Working on the Prime Materia

Too much occult discussion is wasted on introspective application of magical rites. I don't talk a lot about addressing your issues using magic because I know for a fact that if you start doing practical magic, you will have to face those issues anyway. Any magical act that puts you in contact with a higher power is going to stir up shit that needs to be burned away.

One of the things about Hermetics that I like is that it's honest about your issues. You aren't really expected to ever reach perfect perfection while you're still alive. As long as you're breathing and seeing, you're in the flesh. Note that in the Hermetic progression through death, it's not until after you've turned the body over to the Daimon to be transformed that you start getting rid of the negative aspects of each planetary sphere for good. As long as the flesh exists, we have the seven evils of the spheres within us.

I think that's because in the flesh, the seven evils are necessary to survive. We need increase and diminishment, we need to plot ways to increase our supplies of water/food/shelter, we need to breed to continue the species and to get free labor on the farm, we need ambition, rash boldness that acts without regard to the risk, and there's the ever present urge to amass riches in hopes that they would somehow rid us of all these other problems at once. And that seventh evil, the subtle falsehood always lying in wait is essential to all of us, to give meaning to our lives and our actions.

These are necessary to get out of bed in the morning, to have clothes, to go to work, to provide for our existence and to meet the responsibilities of our kingdom. It's only "evil" because it's necessary to maintain an existence that occasionally sucks. We've all suffered, we know that life is hard and painful sometimes. It's just part of existence, and there are no satisfactory answers that really justify it, imo. Nevertheless, it's what we have to work with.

So anyway, we've all got these seven evils inside us, and they're going to come out in some degree while we're alive, no matter what we do. That doesn't mean we have to act on them, but if we fail to acknowledge their existence, we're not getting anywhere. To be able to surrender this stuff when we die, we need to be aware that we have them, and be familiar enough with controlling them to be able to disengage ourselves from them when we're moving up through the Spheres after death.

That's where the Great Work comes in. As we travel through the spheres, conjuring spirits, crossing through Gates, we release the powers of each sphere into our kingdoms, our own spheres of influence and sensation here in the material realm. Our pesonal spheres are already processing the powers of all the seven planets at once. All the spheres must be present in every manifest thing in some degree for it to exist at all.

So right now, you're channeling the powers of sexy sexy Venus in some way. It might be in a particularly ugly way if your Venus circuits are all corroded, or were wired wrong by circumstances of birth and development, but they are still being manifest through you into the material realm. Doing Venus magic, being in the presence of the entities of Venus, the Intelligences and the spirits cleans out the circuits, rewires you, clears out blocked pathways and allows the Venus powers to manifest more beautifully than before. Hanging out in the pure waters of each sphere cleans out that sphere's channels and lets its forces flow more cleanly through you.

When this happens, the evil aspects of each planet will fade away from your manifestings. You'll learn to overcome the need for increase of desired results in your own sphere through the diminishment of others' spheres. You'll find yourself planning and plotting ways to get ahead that result in positive gain for everyone involved. You'll strive for good goals that make the world a better place. You'll overcome rash decisions, and stop doing whatever it takes to get money, no matter who it hurts. The idea that your decisions originated with you won't matter anymore.

You know. You'll be nice. Healthy, creative, helpful, kind, and wise, as well as strong and intelligent.

Man, I have a ways to go. I still think people are assholes.

But most of what we consider problems in other people are the biggest problems we have ourselves. We hate nothing greater than seeing our own sins in action in the lives of others. In this way, we can use the things that offend us about others as an indicator of what we need to work on in our own spheres.

And since we're going to be giving all these impulses up for good when we die anyway, we might as well get used to giving them up for as long as possible here in the flesh. Practice makes perfect.

When doing magic to advance through the spheres, you're going to have shit stirred up. The urge to be a dick is going to loom large in whatever area of life is most affected by the planet you're being initiated into. Take my advice: Don't be a Dick.

Preparing for Death

Conjureman Ali made an interesting comment on the Looking Forward post the other day:

As to the purspose of doing all "this," Draja Mickaharic once indicated that magic's aim was to prepare one for death. Unlike other people magicians are startled by waking up and realizing they've passed on. They are the ones that are able to function in death, continuing their purpose and helping man, with the most skilled and powerful becoming guides for other magicians. The ATRs hold to this view as well.

That's exactly right, exactly the point of Hermetic Magic as I understand it. It's a Secret Chief factory. It's my intention to go directly into that phase of being after this. Can't say I'll make it, but that's the goal. The process fascinates me.

For example, take the first step of the Hermetic transformation through death in the Divine Pymander:

Man-Shepherd said: When the material body is to be dissolved, first thou surrenderest the body by itself unto the work of change, and thus the form thou hadst doth vanish, and thou surrenderest thy way of life, void of its energy, unto the Daimon. The body's senses next pass back into their sources, becoming separate, and resurrect as energies; and passion and desire withdraw unto that nature which is void of reason.

That's from the Hermetic.com translation by G. R. S. Mead. Check it out in John Everand's translation on the Sacred-texts.com site:

First of all, in the resolution of the material body, the Body itself is given up to alteration, and the form which it had becometh invisible; and the idle manners are permitted, and left to the Demon, and the senses of the body return into their Fountains, being parts, and again made up into Operations.

So the first thing it says is, "When you die..." right?

No, not at all. First it says when the material body is to be dissolved/resolved, you give it up. It's not a passive process. It's an active decision made by the magician. When it's time. The magician knows when it's time, apparently. It becomes obvious. I don't know if that means they sense death is coming, or simply that they have accomplished everything they need to take the next step, including meeting all obligations and responsibilities here in this material realm as it relates to their current incarnation. I don't see how it could be time to move on until all that stuff was taken care of. In Saturn, as you manifest, you acquire a debt to Fate, a list of things you've got to do before you can pass through this Gate again for a final time. When that debt is paid, you're free to go.

And there's the whole cycle of the Hermetic Alchemical Cycle that has to be gone through in its black, white, green, red, and projection phases. You'll have to finish all that first too.

But when you're ready and the time to dissolve/resolve the material body has come, you consciously turn the material body over to the process of transformation. It is transformed. It dissolves. It's a process that happens to it, and it seems like the process is just waiting to happen at that point. It's been waiting offstage for a while, or it's been knocking on the door waiting for you to give it the body so it can start its job. I think it'll be something like just saying, "Ok, I'm done, you can have it now" to the entity that transforms the body.

This entity is the "Daimon." Agrippa talks about the Daimon as being one of the Three-Fold Keepers of a Man. He gives a description of the three fold keeper, and then gives instructions in a later chapter for getting its name from your natal chart. The Genius spirit. Your Daimon.

And then the form it had vanishes, and the senses of the body are transformed into their essences. Can you imagine what that would look like? At first thought I picture Yoda or Ben Kenobi getting struck down and coming back from the Force as blue ghost versions of themselves.

I never would have considered this to be a literal transformation if it weren't for the Rainbow Body phenomenon in the tradition of Dzogchen. The best description of it I've seen is in Heartdrops of Dharmakaya. There are documented cases of a transformation after death that look like what Pymander says happens to those who are about to become Powers among the Powers. Could be a coincidence. I'd love to go out in a shower of colorful sparks as my body dwindles away.

See what I mean? Fascinating stuff.

The Mingling of Tears

     A voice hissed: "He sheds tears!"
     It was taken up around the ring. "Usul gives moisture to the dead!"
     He felt fingers touch his damp cheek, heard the awed whispers.
     Jessica, hearing the voices, felt the depth of the experience, realized what terrible inhibitions there must be against shedding tears. She focused on the words: "He gives moisture to the dead." It was a gift to the shadow world--tears. They would be sacred beyond a doubt.

today i learned a brother in my extended online hermetic family lost his son. sitting here in my cubicle at work, i was surprised by the tears rolling down my face. i barely know him, really. we've argued as often as we've talked. we've never met in the flesh. yet the pain i feel at the horror of his loss is no less real. my own world would become a desert wasteland if it happened to me. no man should have to face what he must now, and my words of condolence are so inept, inadequate. it is not fair. it is not right. i weep for his loss, for the pain his family must face.

but he does not face it alone. he and his wife will cry together. others in our extended family will shed tears with him as well. we weep together in sorrow at the passing of beauty and life, and perhaps there is comfort and strength to be found in the sacred offering to the shadow world of our mingled tears.

may grace and peace be with you and your family in this time of sorrow, my brother.

Looking Forward to... What, Exactly?

First, let's begin with a cool coolio, today's Google Doodle in honor of Les Paul. Right on, mang.

Now, on with Looking Forward to... what exactly?

subtitled: Why I Do All This Shit

Back in the day, my nemesis and I used to argue about charging money for magic. He would accuse me of only being in this for the money, and I would get all offended and defensive, and sooner or later I'd question his parentage. We had every argument about it you can imagine, and the same basic arguments still go on across the web.

These days I don't worry about it so much. If anyone thinks I'm only in this for the money, they're an idiot. The people who "would never charge for magical services" are generally folks who couldn't magic their way out of a wet paper bag anyway. Pagans with more opinions than experience are generally the ones with that attitude. Folks who do conjure magic are used to the transactional basis of the occult technologies we work with, and bringing that down to the mundane is natural to us*.

So if I'm not in this for the fat paychecks,** the question becomes what, exactly, are you doing all this magic for? What are you trying to accomplish, RO?

The glib answer is The Great Work. But what the hell does that mean? I can't turn an ounce of lead into an ounce of gold, I've tried. My life isn't perfect all the time. Arguably, I face more challenges now as an initiated magician with a hefty degree of spiritual authority and power to call on in times of need than I did before I started this process. As the worlds that I consciously interact with expanded from the material realm to the seven heavens and the Eighth Sphere, I ran into about seven or eight times the number of potential issues in any given day that I had before. Life isn't easier for an initiated magician, it's just more fun.

So what's the goal then? The ultimate goal is to return to the spheres we came from. I don't believe we reunify with the Source of All right away after we die. I think that may happen eventually, when time and space are rolled up like a scroll, but that's a long, long way off in the future. As far as I've looked into the mists of time, humanity exists in one form or another.

I'm a reincarnationist, like my Christian forefathers before me. I believe we pass from one incarnation to the next, fulfilling our destinies and continuing the process set in motion when we descended to the material plane in the first place, all those millenia ago. As we go through our incarnations, we gain experience and knowledge that prepares us for our return to our home in the heavens above. The point of the Hermetic path is to attain the power, authority, and wisdom necessary to head back up and stay there.

And that's my focus while I'm in the flesh. See, in each sphere we receive an empowerment and training about how things of that sphere manifest here below. We learn to see Saturn's influence on the world at large, and more immediately on our own lives. We see how the Solar forces drive ambition and bring glory. We see the passions of Venus and the flow of Mercury, and learn the waxing and waning ways of the Moon. We become aware of these powers, receive the power to direct these forces through ourselves into the material realm, and gain skill and talent in the process of creating the world of shared experience. We learn Who we are, and Where we came from. We learn to speak our native tongue, the language of creation itself.

And when we've managed to attain this degree of authority and empowerment, we break through to the Eighth Sphere, where we begin to work not only on the physical realm here below, but on developing the skills to be a Power in the afterlife instead of returning to the flesh for another ride in the rodeo.

And then when we die, we are ready to take the next steps. We leave behind the body. The Divine Pymander talks about what happens to the flesh when an advanced Hermeticist dies, and there are similarities to the Rainbow Body phenomenon. The desires that fuel our activities here below, the things that inspire us to create return to where they came from. The passions, anger, and lust that have fueled our lives go back to their raw state within the unconscious potential of existence. And then we ascend through the seven heavens, leaving behind the negative aspects of each that we carry with us here below.

In the sphere of the Moon, we leave behind the power of growth and waning. In Mercury, we leave behind the planning and the plotting that we have to go through to survive. In Venus we leave behind the lustful desire to create and produce new things. In the Sun we drop the desire to rule, and striving ambition. In Mars we leave rash boldness. In Jupiter we give up our desire for wealth by any means necessary. In Saturn we give up the final lie that is always lying in wait while we remain here below, which I suspect is the lie of free will.

When these are gone, we return to the state of being we were in before we descended through the spheres to become incarnate humans. We've given up the urge to make things happen on our behalf. We come to the Eighth Sphere in our true power, and we take our place as Powers among the Powers, singing "hymns of silence," directing and manifesting the powers of creation as pure spirits.

That's the long term goal for this life. Ascension. Attainment of Power-hood.

To get there, the first thing to do is to establish a firm foundation. You cannot reach the heavens while you're slipping around in a puddle of mud, dodging kicks and thrown projectiles from all around while scrambling for whatever food falls within your grasp that hasn't spoiled yet.

You have to build yourself a tower, or a chariot to reach the heavens. That's why I've been writing the Gates series of planetary magic guides. It's a series designed to put you in a position of authority over your world so that you can stand on firm footing as you reach up to the highest heights. In addition to having a smoothly running kingdom, you'll be gaining the skills and talents that you'll need later on in your incarnation.

* At the most basic level, when we make an offering to a spirit, we're creating a link between our sphere of experiential reality and the spirit's sphere of influence. It's like running a hard wire between two servers to create a network that exchanges information. The exchange of money in the mundane does the same thing. Clients without the initiation or experience to tap the powers of the Spheres on their own can hire someone who can. Purchasing the rituals from professionals is a ritual in and of itself, in a way.

** I figured out how much time I put into getting where I'm at today and figured out how much I've made on my occult business since starting it, and I make roughly $0.79 per hour.

Pallas Renatus' GtFO Potion

"Heh. Heh-heh. Bwahahaha!"

That was the sound coming from my cube this morning here at work as I read this post by Pallas Renatus. It wasn't just that it was funny, it was seeing myself in it. "Oh yeah," I thought as I read along, "yep, that too. Uh-huh. Heh, yeah." I especially loved the part where he boiled the tobacco, and nonchalantly offered alternative methods of extracting the tobacco essence later to avoid the smell, without mentioning the gagging, retching, and dry heaves that come from smelling boiling chewing tobacco.

I can't post comments from work because they blocked blogger because SOMEONE here was posting a lot and they caught on. Can't imagine who that was, but someone in Florida who logs in remotely ALSO complained about blogger being blocked, so it's not just me. So to Pallas, I say, be careful. This psychotic Irish-Native American Asatru friend of mine once told me I could kill someone with the refined and extracted amount of pure nicotine from a single cigarette. I don't know if it's true or not, but you know, don't drink the tobacco-camphor-ammonia tea you made, even if it does smell sooooo good.

But man, another thing reading through his post reminded me of was how messy I let things get in my life. While my office doesn't give me a viral infection and it's not infested with spiders (ok, not very many spiders), it could use some tidying. See, I'm a busy man, so I spend large chunks of time working on the things I have backed up, and I put off the little things for when I have more time, like filing paperwork, dusting, vacuuming, cleaning the incense ash off the desk, and throwing out the hundreds of stubs from the stick incense I use in every rite. My wife says if I spent the two to five minutes it takes to clean up after my projects, I wouldn't have to take two hours on a Saturday to clean everything up at once, and she could be right. So there's physical stuff to clean up.

I also do a lot of magic. I would say on a slow week, I'll go maybe 18 hours straight without doing something that involves conjuring a spirit into my crystal ball for something. I like to think the steady traffic tends to keep things pretty clear. I also recently did the Mercury Gate rite, and that's cleaned out a lot of crap that was stagnating. But regular cleansings of my house are on my list of things to do that I rarely get around to doing.

And another thing, I think that because I do magic of a certain variety, it takes care of everything spiritually that my family needs. The truth is, there are psychic cobwebs that build up around the house that my regular angel magic just doesn't affect, at least, not without making a specific request. The thing about angels is that they aren't nannies. They're co-workers, highly advanced, further up the ladder than you co-workers, with more experience and more power. You wouldn't invite the CEO and all the Vice Presidents of a Universal Corporation over and expect them to pick up a feather duster and put on an apron and go around cleaning your house for you after the business meeting is over, would you? Naw, didn't think so.

I've noticed some patterns of behavior that are being expressed in my family that indicate it's time to clean out the psychic air. In the Home Pwnership post, I talked about how when people live too close together, their shit gets on each others' nerves. The same is true in a family, though it's strongly mitigated by the love we have for each other. Still, when you hear the bickerings of the kids and the mutterings of the spouse (and yourself) begin to consistently contain the phrase "always*" in a negative context, it's a good indication that it's time to do some psychic cleaning in the home space in addition to checking behavior patterns, and maybe reminding people that we all have personal responsibility to make our collective experiences positive by taking ownership of our own messes.

So it's time to break out the aspergillum and sprinkle copious amounts of Holy Water about the house. I don't think I'm in need of the full PRGTFO potion he created, but a good psychic cleansing is definitely in order.

And yeah, getting down on the old hands and knees and scrub the base boards too.

* As in, "You always break my stuff," or "I'm always the one who has to clean up the bathroom," or "You always say you'll get to it Saturday." Patterns of behavior that need to be addressed in multiple levels.

Gate of Mercury Available

Ok, one more Gate done, and one left to go. The Mad Pamphleteer has struck yet again!

This installment provides insight into the Sphere of Mercury, it's flow, and its impact on your Kingdom. Included are the different pieces and parts of your life under the direct influence of Mercury, the full rite to open the Gate, and the instructions for yet another talisman. Eventually I'll get around to talking about how these talismans are the epitome of Sunthemata, having aspects of the Material, Linguistic, and Mathematic realms all embodied in them at once, and how cool Iamblichus says that really is.

Passing through the Mercury Gate will clear out your communications issues, increase the flow of various powers and forces, and increase the flow of commerce in your kingdom. Once again, it's 11.95.

And for those who like the old Google Checkout: