FB Discussion Group for 7 Spheres

At Jason's suggestion, I created a group to discuss the results of the rites:

http://www.facebook.com/groups/218911701573258/

Please join if you're participating and want to share in the discussions.

After the First Rite...

Review of the Plan

Ok, so here's the plan...

Method

Non-RO Participants:

At some point during the day, you will perform the Gate Rite of the day. Today is Thursday, so you will do the Gate of Jupiter. You will perform this rite in ANY of the Jupiter hours available today. Check THIS WEBSITE to get your local planetary hours, or buy their Hours app from the app store on your phone. Worth the investment!

The default settings for their site is London. If you live anywhere else, click THIS LINK to change the settings. If your city isn't listed, pick a place that has the same sunrise as yours, or pretty close. If you want to add your own city, scroll down a bit and look for the Interactive Location Selector link. That lets you pick where you live using Google Maps.

Note on the Rites: Suits, Ties, Liquor and Cigars first thing in the morning is not for everyone. That part is a nicety, not a necessity. What matters is doing the rite. Use whatever you have available. Substitute as necessary. The closer to the original you can get, the better, but whatever.

The KEY pieces are the conjuration rite, the hymn, and meditation on the Seals of the Planets. Use the Seals on the right in the Meditational Contemplation section for this. That's what I'll be using to draw us together.

RO Participants

I'll be performing the rites at dawn. I'll be doing the same rites that you do, but I will be including a part where I specifically Work on getting the forces of the planets integrated into your spheres specifically to prepare you for the Eighth Sphere Work.

The Secret Purpose

It's not that secret. I'm doing this to bring some miracles to town. I did this for a week, and had my whole direction in life turned around. I did it for another week, and had my life strapped to a rocket and launched to the stars. I was reborn, remade, and revivified. I really want to tell you how amazing my life is, but I can't. So I'm just going to show you what can happen with a little magic, and brothers and sisters, this is a LITTLE magic. This is just aimed at making you a more complete person, that is, more able to do what you came here to do. Wait til you get to the part where you start using it to create your world.

My main intent though is to demonstrate how awesome magic is. To demonstrate the value of doing it daily, across the whole spectrum of the spheres, not just one or two throughout the week. I hope it inspires folks to do it again the next week. I'll be doing this again next week, by the way, so don't panic. One week of these rites changed me. Two weeks changed my entire world to ... utterly cool awesomeness.

I want that for you too. Understand that I'm taking you home, and showing you the places you used to play before you were a kid. I'm reminding you where you came from. I'm showing you your awesome family members, and how you're one of the spirits that create the world, not just the observer monkey trapped in circumstance.

In my experience, there will be a spectrum of results. Some people will have awesome coolness like I have, others will get jack shit. Most people will be somewhere in the middle, seeing things happen in their favor, but not necessarily a blatant miracle.

Wherever you fall on the spectrum, know this is a week long intensive, and it will be followed up by another week long intensive. Take it in stages.

OK, Jupiter hour. It's showtime. See you soon.

You are Cordially Invited to Participate in Seven Spheres in Seven Days: A Demonstration

Ladies and Gentlemen:

Rufus Opus

 is Happy to Announce 

the Commencement of 

A Seven Day Series of Planetary Magical Rites

involving the Daily Conjuration of 

The Intelligences and the Spirits 

of the 

Seven Spheres

Starting tomorrow at dawn in the Baltimore metro area of the Chesapeake Swamp, Rufus Opus shall begin the performance of Seven Days of Planetary Magic. He does this shit all the time, but is doing it up right on a massive scale. 

Just to prove a point. 

This is primarily aimed at bringing the Kingdom of the participating Magician into being. It's sort of a ... massive, global, group rite of empowerment and blessing. That lays the foundation for the manifestation of miraculous shit that no one will believe.

I'll be doing the Seven Gates Rites, using the seals of the Intelligences and the Spirits of the Planets to conjure the specfic aspects of the planetary forces to manifest the results through the spheres of the participants at dawn for a week. [Edit: forgot to tell you when you should do the rites: You will participate at any planetary hour of the planetary day.] As I perform the Rites, I'll be weaving us all together into a massive synergistic ball of awesomeness that spreads around the globe and transforms the world into a place of wonder and amazement. For those of us who participate, at any rate.

Most of my audience already has the Gates Rites. You guys are awesome, by the way, thanks for that. This rite has a several core basic purposes. To bless you and to keep you, to reveal the light of the face of god shining upon you and through you into your world. To make you happy. To release some extra powerful juju. For the joy of doing it on a massive scale.

And for a secret purpose related to tricking you into doing the Great Work and becoming the god of your personal world on purpose.

We'll be beginning at DAWN tomorrow. Sorry for the short notice, but oh well. It is what it is. Can't wait, people's lives are at stake. We can't wait for it to be convenient for you. We'll do it again, real soon. No worries.

[Edit: Again, you'll be performing the rite during ANY PLANETARY HOUR OF THE PLANETARY DAY. We're starting in Jupiter because it's Thursday, and I like Jupiter. Use this link, edit the location, and get the hours if you don't have it already.]

What do I look like?

Go Fuck Yourself

So I've noticed a trend recently. People are asking me what I think they should do. Moral questions of potentially significant impact. As if I were Jiminy fucking Cricket.

Of course I want to give really bad advice.

• Yes, you should totally marry her, you got her pregnant after all.
• Yes, I would TOTALLY conjure a demon for that. What could go wrong?
• No, she won't mind.
• Ooooh, Use your Saturn Talisman to capture one of the ghosts on the ghost tour in that crystal ball and take 'em home for experiments! That'll be SO FUCKING COOL!

And on a couple of occasions, I actually did give that really bad advice. Yeah... Sorry about that. I was, uh, just kidding!

And I laughed when I saw you actually did it, and then felt bad, and the follow up advice I gave to fix everything was totally sound and I'm glad it worked out for you bro!

But here's a clue: I am not the best person to ask about moral questions. I said it at Crucible, I strongly believe moral questions of right and wrong, shoulds, shalts, and shalt nots do not apply to magicians because we are beyond Good and Evil.

Magicians spend a long ass time going through the process of transformation. We reclaim our divine heritage, we become consciously aware that we are the images of God, the Creators of our World. We travel the heavens, talk to angels, demons, and gods alike. We look good, we feel good, and we know mysterious shit.

We see the consequences of actions better than other people. I think we have a different perspective of "now" than other people, once we've been through the Seven planetary spheres and integrated the forces of each. We see further, or maybe we just see the interconnectedness of the information-manifestation exchange system more clearly. I don't know.

But whatever it is, Good and Evil are never really either good nor evil, and are always without fail both at the same time. Magicians get this, intimately. Morality is relativistic, not absolute, just like everything else. It depends. Travelling through the Spheres and doing the Great Work teaches you the Dependencies that matter. It teaches you things about "Good" and "Evil" that make them laughable expressions of dualistic wordplay that does nothing to anything that matters.

Changing your opinion of a thing changes your experience of that thing, to a degree, but it does not change the thing itself. Change the thing itself, magician. That's what we do. We don't worry about how it's perceived, because we realize that's going to depend on a lot of factors. What matters to us is whether or not we are creating the world we want to experience. What we want.

The bottom line for anyone when it comes to moral decisions is whatever they want the most when they are put to the test. We pick the thing that we believe will bring us the most satisfaction. What we want the most. That's what we do.*

Now most of the time, when we figure out what we really want, why we really went through all the work of dividing and manifesting as if we weren't one big thing, we learn some really fundamental aspects to the idea of power, and how it is intimately connected to compassion. We aren't dicks about things we don't like. We might do things other people think are good or evil, but these interpretations are no part of our calculations or criteria for doing what we do.

We are solely focused on doing our will, fulfilling our fate, to love and laugh and create and enjoy.

So really, don't ask me about whether a thing is good or evil, or if it's right or wrong to do something. You can't trust me to have your best interests at heart. Because I have my best interests at heart.

Instead of asking me what I think, figure out what the fuck YOU think. You're the one who has to experience the consequences of your actions. Go out and do the Work. If you want to take the trip I took, take my courses. If that's too expensive, figure it out from the Neoplatonic Basics. The e-books have the methods. Use the Genius and Evil Daimon book to get your Genius Name, use the Modern Angelic Grimoire and the Seven Gates Rites to go up and down through the spheres integrating the forces, read your Agrippa. There's even demon magic available.

If that's not your thing, find your thing and do the Work however you're supposed to. The way that gets it done. The way that is necessary for you. Whatever. Do the Work. So many of us are, and we want you with us too. Come on! It's fun ... having fun!

* That's a good technique to use to figure out what you want, by the way, in case you haven't figured it out clearly yet. Take a look at what you do. Those are huge clues right there about what you want out of life.

Dreamers, Romantics, Artists, Magicians...

Hey, take some time today and read Six Short Chapters of the Sacred Text. It's all in one blog post. Won't take you too long.

It's important.

Hermes Dancing

This morning as the Mercury hour of the Merury day rolled around, I tuned my awareness to our favorite Uncle Hermes to salute him with an improv hymn followed by a more formal conjuration and an Orphic Hymn. I got as far as looing up towards his sphere and saying, "Hail to thee, oh Hermes..." when I saw him dancing.

Like this:

See that grin? He's having fun, yo. This pic doesn't show it, but he's strumming a lyre with one set of hands, conducting the elements with another pair, revealing and writing, and laughing, and dancing. Dude's a happy guy.

My life is a lot more fluid and flexible these days than it has been ... uh, well, ever. It's less a choreographed symphonic production with a start, middle, and end than it is an ongoing wave. It flows in harmony with my desires, ambitions, and passions. It feeds them and grows from them. 

I saw it in a dream, it was epic. It ran parallel to the beach, and everyone else there was waiting for the ripples of its passage to ride in to shore on their little surf boards and boogie boards. They were safe there. But I paddled out hard to catch it full, and it took me up and carried me, and I found myself dancing to its tune as I woke, still tasting the salt air, glowing with the thrill of riding that wave.

This morning, Hermes showed up dancing, and smiling, and looking me straight in the eye, sharing the joke, sharing the joy and mirth with that thrilled expression, the cosmic, "I know, right!?" I looked back at myself and saw that yeah, I'm like that too. Hermes dancing, flowing, moving from one state to another, connecting, touching, interacting, plugging in. Never stopping, never losing step, always moving in time to the rhythm.

Hermes, draw near, and to my pray'r incline, angel of Jove [Zeus], and Maia's son divine;
Studious of contests, ruler of mankind, with heart almighty, and a prudent mind.
Celestial messenger, of various skill, whose pow'rful arts could watchful Argus kill:
With winged feet, 'tis thine thro' air to course, O friend of man, and prophet of discourse:
Great life-supporter, to rejoice is thine, in arts gymnastic, and in fraud divine:
With pow'r endu'd all language to explain, of care the loos'ner, and the source of gain.
Whose hand contains of blameless peace the rod, Corucian, blessed, profitable God;
Of various speech, whose aid in works we find, and in necessities to mortals kind:
Dire weapon of the tongue, which men revere, be present, Hermes, and thy suppliant hear;
Assist my works, conclude my life with peace, give graceful speech, and me memory's increase.

The Beast and the Harlot and You

Oh, there are so many things I could say about this one. Almost half of them are uninformed opinions that shouldn't be spoken in public yet, if ever, and the other half are none of your business...

I mean, they're Mysteries. Mysteries that you should totally go explore for yourself, at your earliest opportunity.

But there's one thing I can tell you about the two, the Beast and the Harlot... They are not just a couple of entities, and they are not just forces that manifest between two humans. They are these things, but they are also more, an image, an aspect, an avatar of you. And me.

The Beast, your flesh and bone, the Harlot, your spirit and mind, together taking in everything they can as they rumble through life, creating and destroying the world as they see fit in a bacchanalian frenzy of sensational experiences. They are the unkempt Holy Hermaphrodite, Hermes-Aphrodite conjoined in an eternal glorious fuck, an orgasmic unification that creates the current that runs the world. She rides him as he bounds about, and though she holds the bridle, it is often loose, and no one can tell who leads, who might be in control, or if either of them are even interested in the idea of control, or the idea of arriving at a destination at all.

That's you, brothers and sisters. That's me. On the inside.That's us when we resort to magic, every time. That's us crossing that threshold between us the experiencers and Us the Creators, that mad cackle of glee that almost-but-not-quite manages to escape as we feel the powers flow through us and the magic takes effect. It's wrapped in intent, and sheathed in desires, filtered through attachment, but at essence most raw it is the urge to have fun.

Lust. Passion. The frictional catalysis of the Work..

Really, Freakin' Delicious

Crucible Roundup

Whoa. What an excellent weekend. By far the best weekend of my life so far.

Crucible was amazing. Arthur continues to do a great job bringing together an interesting cross section of the occult community who are ready and able to present advanced topics in occult practice that you just don't see happening anywhere else.

It was brilliant. I got to be on a couple panels, which will be airing on Deeper Down the Rabbit Hole soon. The panels were myself, Omnimancers Arthur and Tony, Andrieh Vitimus, and Jason Miller. We had interesting discussions about magical mishaps in one panel, and polarities and balance in another. It was a fun conversation.

Then I was honored to witness some cool initiations, and it was the first time I got to see Mr. Miller do any serious ritual type magic. In addition to his sorcerous insights and spiritual skills, the man has amazing vocal talents. Fortunately for me, it wasn't the last time I got to see him do some cool magic that night.

Next we went to Jason's Financial Sorcery presentation. It was awesome. He presented the 16 lightning glyphs, and folks, there's a secret to those things that makes them powerful. Really super powerful. You should totally check into that, use them a lot, and see what happens. I promise you'll love the results. He closed out the presentation with a really cool rite. He had the people on the outer edge of the room chant one thing, the people inside the outer ring chant something else, and he performed an invocation of Jupiter. There were four Gentlemen for Jupiter present during the rite contributing out resonance with the current, and I loved feeling that current fall.

Then it was my turn. I headed across the hall to start setting up for the presentation, and the first thing I noticed was that there were a lot of people there. Last year I think I had four or maybe six people in my presentation. This year the place was packed. I remember every single seat in the house being filled, but there may have been a couple empty chairs here or there. The back wall was lined with people too.

I was a bit nervous at first. Pretty soon I found myself immersed in the presentation and the particular story I was there to tell, and it started to flow nicely. I had the best audience ever. The members of my course were in the front row on my right, looking sharp. Most of the people present were regular readers of my blog, and I felt somewhat comfortable skipping over the basic basics and getting to the fun stuff. Pretty soon I felt like we were all friends and we had a great time.

There are some rumors that I got a little Pentecostal Hermetic Preacher at some point. I won't deny it, the spirit was thick within me and wanted to get out. I found myself near tears at a couple points. At other times, I felt like all the people in the room and I were all one living organism, and that I was directing the flow of forces through the organism in time to the internal harmonies of my soul. I loved every minute of it.

The best moment of the presentation for me came when I got to the final section of the presentation, "The Key to Making all Hermetic Magic Work." I knew that the key was so simple and obvious, to have the impact necessary, I'd need to have everyone else jacked up to a certain state of awareness. If I'd woven the spell right leading up to this moment, it would be the brilliant moment of satori, and if not, it would just be a bunch of people looking at me like I was an idiot.

When I flipped to the section title slide, everyone in the room started applauding the subtitle, I knew I had 'em. I knew I had won, and ... oh, brothers and sisters, it was beautiful.

Afterwards, I was higher than fucking God. My lovely companion (who made a great weekend a truly perfect one instead) helped me keep my feet on the floor long enough to change clothes and unwind a bit. We ran into some members of the Red Work courses at the bar, and had a couple drinks before attending the last half of Andrieh's presentation. I honestly don't remember much of it. I kept thinking about the things that worked and the things that didn't work in my presentation, things to do differently the next time. My mind was racing. And I'd had some Polyphanic gin.

I got to meet and hang out briefly with a few of the Red Work Course members, including Tolderoll, Polyphanes, and Pallas Renatus for the first time, and Jessica, another of my students I had the pleasure of meeting last year at crucible.

I noticed something right away about the Red Work Course members. They are, objectively speaking, very attractive men and women. They are intelligent, and able to carry on advanced conversations about occult subjects in meaningful ways. They dress well. They're almost all taller than me. They have a tendency to cuss like sailors.

And they can all drink like fucking fish.

I felt like throwing my arms around them and saying, "My people, at last I've found you!" There was a strong sense of family between us. They are made of pure win. These are the next generation of expert occultists, ladies and gents, and I'm happy to say the future is in good hands.

I can't wait to meet the rest of you as soon as possible.

I think the Red Work Course convention will need to be modeled on our special shared qualities. Maybe one or two presentations throughout the day, but otherwise a series of comfortable rooms well stocked with fine liquors, wines, and eccentric beers where we can hang out and talk. There were conversations to be had that I didn't even have time to get started. Or maybe a set of presentations until like 7 or 8, dinner, and then after party. It will definitely more drinking and talking earlier in the night, for sure.

Anyway, all things to consider for the future.

This year's presentation has been recorded. I'll be getting a link to the electronic version soon. I'd love to turn it into a sellable product, but there are details to work out if I start making money on it. We'll figure it out and make things available to people in different ways. I don't think I'll charge anyone who is a member of the Red Work series of courses. I might just keep it available only to the Red Work members. That would be a lot easier.  Hm. Thoughts and thoughts.

Red Work Course Members: Crucible Meetup?

One of the members of the Red Work Courses sent me an email the other day letting me know he'd be attending the Crucible Convention this weekend. He suggested that we have a meetup of course members in attendance at some point. I think that's a pretty awesome idea.

I was looking at the schedule of events and it looks like the Lunch block Saturday before registration would likely be the best time, or perhaps the Brunch block on Sunday. I don't know how many members will be in attendance, or when they're planning on being there. I know for sure two class members are attending.

So if you're a member of the Red Work series of courses in Hermetic Magic, and you WILL BE AT CRUCIBLE, please contact me and let me know when you'll be there. I'll coordinate something that at least lets me meet you personally while you're there, and if we can all be there at the same time, we'll schedule something for all of us together. Nothing huge, there are a LOT of other things going on at Crucible that I plan on participating in. It's not the International Centers for Applied Hermetics convention, after all. It's an Omnimancer event.

Course members who aren't going to be there, don't feel too bad. I'm going to be scheduling a series of workshops across the States, and hopefully Europe too over the next year or so. Applied Hermetics workshops are coming soon to conference centers near you.

If you're not currently a course member, I strongly encourage you to sign up. The things I teach in the courses are the practices that have turned out to work REALLY FUCKING GREAT. Courses can be purchased at this link.

Looking forward to seeing you all soon!

Siddhartha and the Considerate Cobra Vs. IO PAN PAN

Considerate Cobra is Considerate

Then a king cobra named Mucalinda, coiled around the Buddha seven times, to protect Him from wind and rain.

So I've been working on some inner alchemy for the last couple of weeks. I've mostly been working on retaining the forces of my sacral chakra, and then raising the pooled forces from my sacral chakra up to my throat, third eye, and crown chakras.

What I've found is that there's this electrical current that flows from my gonads to wherever I direct it. When I'm meditating, contemplating, when I'm investing my attention properly on the Work, I can feel it rise within, expand its hood, and cover me.

I read the story of Siddartha and the Considerate Cobra this morning. I've read it before, but I appreciated it more. From my Hermetic training, I read the wind as representative of the mind and its howlings, and the rain as representative of the emotions and their howlings. The unfocused Ruach and Nephesh respectively. Mucalinda's coils and expanded hood keep me protected from these things for sure. The flames are released in a beautiful, directed, controlled way that bring a sense of calm, peace, and power.

And then there's Pan.

Rushing fiery beast of passion and lust, he too can enflame and raise the forces that have been pooling in my sacral center for the last two weeks.

It's sublime, the way he starts making his presence known.

Into my loneliness comes -
The sound of a flute in dim groves that haunt the uttermost hills.
Even from the brave river they reach to the edge of the wilderness.
And I behold Pan.

Whispered notes of the flute, sounding like they are coming down the mountainside. Dulcet tones that remind me of the laugh of my lover, sounds that somehow bring the scent of her skin to my nose, the colors of her eyes to my mind.

And then, it burns. Heat... heat upon heat upon heat. I feel the god descending, and the flames within rising to meet him, to welcome him, combusting, expanding, a sustained explosion that does not stop. It grows, consuming me, releasing me, freeing me.

On all sides Pan to the eye, to the ear;
The perfume of Pan pervading, the taste of him utterly filling my mouth, so that the tongue breaks forth into a weird and monstrous speech.
The embrace of him intense on every centre of pain and pleasure.
The sixth interior sense aflame with the inmost self of Him,
Myself flung down the precipice of being
Even to the abyss, annihilation.
An end to loneliness, as to all.
Pan! Pan! Io Pan! Io Pan!

I am not gone when Pan has come, I am Pan, I am his man, and he in me and I in him, and together we burn (he is burning). 

The fires released by the onslaught of Pan are raw and consuming, but they are alchemical in nature. They are ecstatic, and lusty and visceral, don't get me wrong, they want to burst forth in glorious ejaculation, impregnating the universe with its seed. But by witholding that, conaining it within the madness, the heat is transformed into an alchemical inferno that raises your consciousness to amazing heights. Best drugs ever, and they're all right there in your brain.

Thrill with lissome lust of the light,
O man! My man!
Come careering out of the night
Of Pan! Io Pan!
Io Pan! Io Pan! Come over the sea
From Sicily and from Arcady!
Roaming as Bacchus, with fauns and pards
And nymphs and satyrs for thy guards,
On a milk-white ass, come over the sea
To me, to me,
Come with Apollo in bridal dress
(Shepherdess and pythoness)
Come with Artemis, silken shod,
And wash thy white thigh, beautiful God,
In the moon of the woods, on the marble mount,
The dimpled dawn of the amber fount!
Dip the purple of passionate prayer
In the crimson shrine, the scarlet snare,
The soul that startles in eyes of blue
To watch thy wantonness weeping through
The tangled grove, the gnarled bole
Of the living tree that is spirit and soul
And body and brain — come over the sea,
(Io Pan! Io Pan!)
Devil or god, to me, to me,
My man! my man!
Come with trumpets sounding shrill
Over the hill!
Come with drums low muttering
From the spring!
Come with flute and come with pipe!
Am I not ripe?
I, who wait and writhe and wrestle
With air that hath no boughs to nestle
My body, weary of empty clasp,
Strong as a lion and sharp as an asp —
Come, O come!
I am numb
With the lonely lust of devildom.
Thrust the sword through the galling fetter,
All-devourer, all-begetter;
Give me the sign of the Open Eye,
And the token erect of thorny thigh,
And the word of madness and mystery,
O Pan! Io Pan!
Io Pan! Io Pan Pan! Pan Pan! Pan,
I am a man:
Do as thou wilt, as a great god can,
O Pan! Io Pan!
Io Pan! Io Pan Pan! I am awake
In the grip of the snake.
The eagle slashes with beak and claw;
The gods withdraw:
The great beasts come, Io Pan! I am borne
To death on the horn
Of the Unicorn.
I am Pan! Io Pan! Io Pan Pan! Pan!
I am thy mate, I am thy man,
Goat of thy flock, I am gold, I am god,
Flesh to thy bone, flower to thy rod.
With hoofs of steel I race on the rocks
Through solstice stubborn to equinox.
And I rave; and I rape and I rip and I rend
Everlasting, world without end,
Mannikin, maiden, Maenad, man,
In the might of Pan.
Io Pan! Io Pan Pan! Pan! Io Pan!

Happy Birthday Jack Parsons, and Happy Feastday of the Unnamed Angels

The title about says it all.

Jack Parsons wikipedia entry.

Unnamed angels get a feastday? I wouldn't have known if my Scarlet Woman hadn't pointed it out. October 2nd in Catholic and Orthodox christian tribes.

Good day for a variety of Works. May they all be blessed.