Get into the Divine Groove... But first...

In today's post, I'd like to talk about how to accomplish the goal of attainment in hermetics as I understand it, but also (and perhaps more importantly) what has to happen first.

Ideal City by Piero Della Francesca

The goal of Hermetics is to bring you to full consciousness of your innate divine nature and how that divine spirit manifests through your material body to create and experience the world. The system, as I understand it, is not that complicated. I use the Trivium model of classical education, loosely, as my model for teaching all this stuff, when you're ready to start learning. 

The Trivium were the three phases of education given to free citizens. They were the following:

• Grammar: The introduction of the pieces and parts of the systems you are studying. When you learn to read and write a language, the first thing you must learn is the letters, the smallest unit that is used to make the larger units. You learn how they come together to make the sounds used when speaking the words of the language. You learn basic vocabularies, and the rules of spelling these words. You learn the basics of conjugation on these small vocabularies, and you learn the basic rules of how sentences are formed.
• Logic: Once you've learned the basics and have a decent vocabulary, you begin to learn the logic behind the rules. You begin to learn nuance by studying the things others have written, more complicated dissertations and studies. You learn greater vocabularies, and you study not only the basic techniques of communication, but the methods of expressing meaning and information in style.
• Rhetoric: When you have mastered the grammar and logic phases, you are ready to enter the rhetoric stage, where you take what you've learned and apply it. You are no longer reading the arguments of others, you are using the skills you've learned to craft your own arguments, to write your own poems, to sway audiences with your persuasive writing skills, to demonstrate the fallacies of competing ideas and the strengths of your own. You are no longer only using the language for basic communication, you are a master, using it to change the world around you.

Now, in every phase, you are learning to create and express ideas. What you learn as you progress is nuance, skill, complexity, and grace. A child in the grammar phase can express that they are hungry. An adolescent in the logic phase can express several types of food they are interested in consuming, and make compelling arguments for eating what they want. A master in the rhetoric stage can speak of the succulent aromas, textures, and flavors of foods, while weaving the ambiance of good friends celebrating life together over a bountiful meal in a way that leaves his audience drooling, and eager to be a member of the party that eats at the master's table, perhaps even being lucky enough to buy the master his meal.

That's the goal of the Red Work courses. The Black Work provides the grammar phase of instruction, the White and Green provide the Logic phase, and the experiences you gain in these come together to create the Master Hermeticist.

This is great for folks who are ready to start learning, who have time to go to god school, time to sit and do introspective contemplation, to understand who they are in relation to the temporal and eternal realms, and become divine gods in the flesh creating their world for their enjoyment as they see fit...

But fuck, man, sometimes life's more like ...

Learning all the stuff, integrating the forces, experimenting, developing skills, that stuff is the ideal goal, but when your shit's on fire, you don't go to class. You put out the freaking fire.

And if you can't put out the fire, you call a fireman.

Or a friendly neighborhood Hermeticist. I really like the Caduceus image, because it's used by medics. Triage, emergency work, putting out the fire, stopping the bleeding, fixing the leak before you start mopping, pick whatever analogy you like. If your life is going to hell, you aren't going to be able to take the time to learn anything. Once you've got things on track though, you'll be able to absorb that stuff like a sponge.

This is why I offer the products and services, as well as the Magus Factory stuff. I REALLY want everyone to be magicians, because that's ideal. But before you can learn that, you need to be able to focus. Not enough money is the biggest problem most folks have, and the easiest one I know of to fix with magic. Get a wealth talisman. Jupiter's the best for rapid expansion, if you know for sure Jupiter isn't afflicted in your natal. If Jupiter is afflicted in your natal, there's a Venus talisman that works similarly to the Jupiter talisman. If you're not sure if Jupiter's afflicted in your natal chart, check online for free, or have me (or an actual astrologer) do it for you. No matter what your situation is, though, there are rites or talismans that can be used to bring opportunities into your life.

Speaking of Venus talismans, the next biggest stressor people have in their lives keeping them from focusing on becoming magicians is der luuuuurve lives... relationships can be a major pain. Being in one is killing you, not being in one is killing you, breaking up is killing you, getting together is scaring the fuck out of you... Relationship issues are as stressful as money issues, honestly. Again, there are rites that can be performed, and talismans made to bring you peace of mind over your relationship situation. For the Love Magic stuff, I don't have a page up yet, but I'll be working on that soon. For now, email me and I'll talk to you about your situation and let you know what I can do.

And then there's the general anxiety default, where you might have enough money, and you might be fine regarding relationships, but you just can't seem to relax and you don't know what to do about it. For those situations, a general diagnosis can take a deep look at everything that's going on in your life to figure out where that sense of displacement and dis-ease might be coming from, as well as recommending the path to fix the issue. 

And if you just can't seem to get anywhere, and you're stuck, and you want someone who has been doing this stuff for a wile and has used it effectively in their own life and the lives of their clients and friends to step in and fix everything, there's the RO Personal Treatment. 

And folks, remember, I learned all this stuff for free, going through www.esotericarchives.com, and the sacred texts of the corpus Hermeticum. And you don't have to go through me, if something else is more your style. Jason Miller is offering his services full time now too, and I have root worker friends, astrologers both modern and renaissance, geomancers and demonolators who I'd recommend you to if that's your thing instead of Hermetics. Ask me, and I'll hook you up. Email address link is above. 

Whatever it takes, whatever path works for you, brothers and sisters, fix your lives, have a good time, get on with the enjoyment. Not sayin' it's all going to be easy, but it's certaily going to be more enjoyable overall.

Choices

Frater Ashen recently wrote a very thoughtful and introspective post about his experiences with magic and religion. In the comments, he voiced some harsh observations about people in various occult systems. He was commenting on how people will claim to have great occult power, incredible self will, and amazing abilities to interact with the forces of creation, yet they live at the poverty line, suffer from obesity-related health and untreated mental health issues, and generally live shitty lives.

What I think he's saying, as he often says, is that magic is awesome, but show me that it works, don't just tell me. He wants to see physical results in the material world. And I think that's totally fair. "I can control the powers of the winds!" Great, can you control the power of your fork? The power of your couch? The power of the porn? The power of your shower?

In other words, can you control your self?

That's hard, man. It's the actual point of magical systems, really. "Know thyself" and stuff. The point of Hermetics, the thing I try to teach in the Red Work series of courses, is how to learn who you are, what you're made of, how to control your own powers of creation. And that's all about learning to control your self.

It starts with choices. The key to your power is your choice. That's how you manifest your fate, that's how you control what you will experience: You make your choices based on what you have in front of you. Minute by minute, you are making decisions that alter your experienced reality. Magic provides you with different choices, it helps you manifest different circumstances, opportunities, people, relationships, different kinds of experiences, but all that stuff has to come into being through your choices.

Your.

Choices.

I'm not saying you choose what you want and everything you experience is all your fault. Shit happens that comes from other people's choices too. We share the world with everyone else. We are not the only creator gods on the planet. Magic will not eliminate the influence and experience of everyone else's joyful incarnations, not even the stupid ones.

But we can choose how we react to things, we can make strategic choices that lead to huge world changing events. Choose to go to the gym anyway, when you don't feel like it. Choose to eat 200 calories fewer a day for a couple weeks. Choose to take a six week ab challenge. Wow, four weeks later, you've lost 10 pounds, and you can see your stomach changing shape.

I'm talking about body stuff because, magician, you don't have a more obvious way to prove that your Will changes your reality than your body. It's awesome, it's responsive, it changes so quickly. Do 20 minutes of cardio three times, every other day, and by day three you will see something fucking amazing: in three sessions, you went from gasping and near death to it feeling, actually, pretty good. Three times. 60 freaking minutes.

And that's exactly analogous to magic. You spend thirty minutes preparing, and you can have one of the Seven Planetary Governors created to manifest reality at the beginning of time by our Source talking to you in a cup of water, tonight. Really? Really.

Do you have immediate power and control and live an awesome life automagically? Does anything work that way? No.

I mean ... well, technically, functionally, yes, but it's not that ... I mean. Hmm.

Here, think about this... you are totally capable right now of getting up and changing everything about your life in an instant: Walk out the door, and never come back.

That's a choice you always have. That is the power to change your world at your command all the time.

It's not ever a good idea, in my opinion (and hard-learned experiences), but it's always an option you have, right now.

Remember that, though, and think about how even the less dramatic choices you make right now, in five minutes, this afternoon, tonight, all those choices are having the same effect: every choice you make is changing your world.

All the time.

Taking conscious control over this stuff is hard, of course. It takes practice. Magic teaches us stuff about ourselves and our power, it brings wisdom and understanding, insight and awareness. It offers a wider selection of choices. It teaches us to be the "deciders" of our lives, to make decisions from higher perspectives that make more sweeping changes across the Heavens and the Aethyrs, upon the Earth and under the Earth, on dry land and in the water, of whirling air and of rushing fire, so that every spell and scourge of god are obedient unto us, which is awesome! Of course!

But it still is only ours to use as we choose.

Pimp my Friends: Robert Contri Deserves a Camera

TL/DR: CLICK THIS LINK and search for "Pie fights".

So a friend of mine who does film work entered a contest to make a film and possible win a camera. We have six days to vote for it, and at first I was going to be all, "Dude, check this out and vote for my friend cause he's my friend," and then I watched the video, and laughed my ass off.

We've all played that game. You know the one. I was crying by the end.

Anyway, go to THIS LINK AND SEARCH FOR "PIE FIGHTS" TO SEE THE VIDEO AND VOTE FOR IT IF YOU LAUGH.

There's no registration required at all. They need a couple hundred unique votes to get ahead of the top competition, and fuck it man, we can TOTALLY do this.

For more shits and giggles, friend Robert Contri on Facebook, and check his posts about filiming this video over the last week. "Pie fighting without a permit" is a thing.

Did I mention he did it in 6 days? THIS is what Hermeticists can manifest when they want shit done.

Awakenings

"Awakening"
by Nicole Lutz

It's warm under the covers, and it's kind of chilly outside. It's not winter-cold yet, it's still late autumn, and you know you'll only have to deal with the mild discomfort of losing that delicious warmth for a minute or two, and you know there's coffee waiting, all hot and fresh to perk your brain back to full consciousness, and you've even got a warm and fluffy robe hanging within easy reach of the bed, not two steps away... but it's warm where you are, and soft, and outside the bed are all the things you have to do. Rolling over, you find something you didn't expect, something wonderful... an even more comfortable position. Without even burning the energy it takes to make the decision consciously, you find yourself returning to the blissful state of sleep.

What wakes you up at the start of your day? An alarm? A schedule? Responsibilities, goals, ambitions? Is it pleasant, or is it painful? 

Personally, I get a mix of different kinds of awakenings throughout the week. Sometimes I have the beautiful stress-free blissed out weekend where I have nothing planned and nothing to do, and other times I wake up at 12:30 a.m. thinking about all the things I have to do, and can't get back to sleep until I've get up and do something, anything that I can actually cross off the list. Sometimes my muscles are sore from working out and I can't get comfortable, or my allergies are kickin', or I've got the flu. Sometimes it's other people driving by honking horns, or neighbors crashing home drunk slamming doors while trying to be drunkenly silent (you know, not silent at all and laughing loudly while shushing themselves; hilarious when you're not trying to sleep, I'm sure). Sometimes I just really have to pee, like immediately.

Spiritual awakenings come in the same variety of ways. Sometimes it's a blissful experience of warmth, love, and joy, a feeling that comes with a sense of acceptance and peace, a feeling of everything coming together and fitting perfectly, a sense of awareness that just makes sense of everything you've seen and experienced, all at once. 

But most of the time, not like that.

No, most of the time it comes like every other kind of waking. Blaring noises that jar us from our slumber. Growing discomfort and irritation. Other people being all loud with their spiritual dysfunctions, getting their spiritual excretions all over us. Feelings that something isn't right, and we just can't figure out what it is. A sense of knowing there's something we're supposed to be doing. A feeling like we've forgotten something important. A dis-ease, a discomfort, an ache, a pain, a sense of longing, a fundamental inability to find even one position that's even just a little bit comfortable enough.

Why is it that we fall asleep, in the first place? What is it about incarnation that leaves us so out of it spiritually that we find sleep and awakening to be such a great analogy? Why can some folks drown out that discomfort so easily by turning on the television, catching up on Doctor Who episodes, having a smokey scotch, or getting themselves the latest Coach bags, Hugo Boss jackets, or Minkoff shoes?

Well, that's easy, says Plotinus, in the First Tractate of the Fifth Ennead: 

A child wrenched young from home and brought up during many years at a distance will fail in knowledge of its father and of itself: the souls, in the same way, no longer discern either the divinity or their own nature; ignorance of their rank brings self-depreciation; they misplace their respect, honouring everything more than themselves; all their awe and admiration is for the alien, and, clinging to this, they have broken apart, as far as a soul may, and they make light of what they have deserted; their regard for the mundane and their disregard of themselves bring about their utter ignoring of the divine. 

We get born in the material world, we think this stuff is what it's all about, and we try really hard to be happy with it. But ... it just doesn't cut it, for most of us. I mean, sure, there are some folks who can drown out that discomfort, most of the time, with stuff. 

But even the guy at the bar last week who admired my star sapphire ring, who noticed that it had a symbol of Jupiter engraved in it, with his college-football-Bud Light-pickup-truck-salt-life-sticker-rod and reel lifestyle, even he had a spiritual story to share with me when he caught the scent of my HGA coming through, finding himself explaining that he thought maybe we were actually "angels," or "aliens," some spirit from beyond the world we know and experience who manifest in the body somehow, maybe because we crashed or fell or something, unconsciously parallelling the teachings of Plato, the Neoplatonists, and Dionysius the Areopigate.

We may be strangers in a strange land, and we may try to blend in, but even at our best, most blended-in moments, we still have that awareness, that suspicion, that we're something else, something more, and that we'd know it and do it and be it, if we just woke up.

Plotinus has two methods he recommended for waking up. 

A double discipline must be applied if human beings in this pass are to be reclaimed, and brought back to their origins, lifted once more towards the Supreme and One and First. 
There is the method, which we amply exhibit elsewhere, declaring the dishonour of the objects which the Soul holds here in honour; the second teaches or recalls to the soul its race and worth; this latter is the leading truth, and, clearly brought out, is the evidence of the other. 

I'm not into the first much. I think we can wake up and enjoy the stuff of this world, once we can appreciate that it isn't the truth that brings joy. But I'm all about the second method, teaching and recalling to the soul its race and worth:

You're a manifestation of the image of god; you're a child of god; your dad is the source of the universe, your mom is the material world, so you're both mortal and immortal, a god in the flesh; you are a divine mortal creator god living out your life, with access to amazing potential, you just have to remember, reclaim, renew your connections, and get busy enjoying it.

Cause that's what's waiting for us outside the bed. Out from under the covers. Past the momentary chill, as we wrap ourselves in our fluffy warm robes, dissolving the dregs of sleep in the caffeinated alchemical elixir of blessed coffee. We come to, and take a look around at the things we have to do, the things we have to work with, the things we want to accomplish today, tomorrow, next week, next year, and before we die.

Before I wrap it up, there's one more thing I'd like to point out...

There's always more. As long as you're alive in the flesh, as long as you breathe, as long as you fall asleep and awake each day, there will still be new awakenings. I mean, think about it, what happens to a person when they stop waking up? 

I'm not dead yet. I'm still waking up to new layers of existence, new awareness, new realities about who I am, how I relate to the Source, what I can do in the flesh, and what I'm really here to get done before I bail. It never stops, that I can see, nor would I ever want it to. There's something special about the beginnings of things, the potentials, the unmanifest mysteries that we're about to experience and bring into being.

Through our awakenings.

ROpocalypse Now!

Yesterday was the first episode of my ROpocalypse broadcast, tentatively called ROpocalypse Now!* First broadcast covers initial aims and goals, and stuff. I'm using Google Hangouts live broadcast, and will be letting people know in the future ahead of time when they will be going on. For the first one, I wanted to be able to record it and delete it if it sucked without too many people seeing it. This was take two, and I decided it's good enough, and not to worry too much about being perfect. This is just the start. I'll be smoothing out some of the rough edges as we go along.

This got posted to my Facebook Page yesterday afternoon. Please sign up there for early announcements, special offers, and so forth. It will make things easier for us all.

* Title subject to change if it gets too annoying, I'm already getting tired of typing it.

Nothing but AN EYE...

Ok, the presentation I intended to give at Crucible is now available online. It ended up being a couple hours long, and it took several hours to get this final form put together. It's not nearly the same thing presenting a presentation live as it is presenting it alone in an empty office, except for a cat who insists on meowing when you're recording.

Fortunately, I'm done. I'm not sure if I will be doing many more of these online presentations, they are kind of a pain in the ass. Hopefully in the future I'll find a way to do them on G+ to a live audience so it will just automagically go to youtube. That would rock.

RO at Crucible 2013

I wanted to share the information in these presentations because they are paret and parcel of what I think the point of the ROpocalypse is all about. In part 2, especially, I get into some heady mystical stuff that reveals the core of what I believe we are here to do, why we're here, what it's all about, and why it's all about that kind of thing. It speaks to the degree of freedom, happiness, and above all, the joy we can feel while we're here being awesom magi.

At Crucible, Harper and I wrapped up my presenation with a conjuration of Hermes Chthonios. We used trance/induction to createthe altered state, and then conjured H.'.C.'. to reveal his ecstatic mysteries. That isn't included in these presentations, but if you're interested, she and I are recording an MP3 of the induction and conjuration. I'll let you know when it's available.

Part the First: 

In which are covered the basics of "Ecstatic Hermetics."

Nothing but AN EYE_Part1

More PowerPoint presentations from Rufus

Part the Second:

In which an analysis of Chapter 70 of The Book of Lies reveals the kind of Mystery one can unwrap using Ecstatic Hermetics.

For this presentation, it will help to have the following available:

• Liber 333 The Book of Lies (Falsely So-Called) (PDF)
• Liber B Vel Magi sub figura I (Web Page)

Nothing but AN EYE_Part2

More PowerPoint presentations from Rufus

Responsibility and False Obligation

When I defined the ROpocalypse the other day, I had said something about how people don't have to be stuck in the pain of fulfilling their responsibilities, and that statement had Jason asking for clarification. 

When I looked at what I'd said, I understood why he was concerned, so I changed "responsibilities" to "false obligations," which is more accurate, but less how it feels when you're dealing with it in real life.

See, there's a pile of bullshit surrounding the idea of "responsibility." I was married and had three kids who called me dad, two of which were my own offspring. My relationship was toxic, and my life was hell. My spouse was abusive, and blamed me for all the problems she faced in life. She convinced me that I owed her a living because we had kids. She played on social standards, on my pride and sense of what makes a human male valuable as "a man." She played me like a violin.

What happened was I fell for an exagerrated sense of responsibility. Yes, I was responsible for my kids. Yes, to a degree, I was responsible for providing for our family. But I was not the sole party responsible for that provision because... 

I was not the only adult in the relationship. 

I took on more than my share of the responsibility, and I took the abuse and the manipulations and the constant blows to my sense of worth because I felt like it was my responsibility. I didn't pursue my joy because I felt obligated to suffer because I'd had kids with a poisonous woman.

But guess what? I was wrong. 

I am responsible for providing two things for my offspring: financial support to cover food, clothing. and shelter, and a role model of male humanity to base their expectations on. Money and a social example. That's what I'm responsible for. And that's it.

My ex is responsible for her choices, and her decisions. It took a lawyer to really explain that to me, and a therapist, and today in conversation, I realized I'm still working through some of this stuff. Humans are responsible for their offspring up to a point, and then they are responsible for themselves. That's what being an adult is all about, being responsible for yourself. 

Yes, we can get ourselves in bad situations that we are responsible for. We have to dig ourselves out. But we aren't responsible for other adults who are not helping. It's ok to say, "Hey, I'm doing my part, will you do yours?" and if they refuse, to leave. There is a limit to what you are expected to do in a relationship. It's a partnership, and neither adult partner has to change to suit the other if they don't want to. You can leave at any time.

It's a tricky thig, "responsibility," it's valid at its core as a concept, but if you are trapped by your responsibilities, it is worth taking a serious look at whether or not you are actually trapped by actual responsibilities, or if you've taken on a false sense of obligation where another adult is concerned.

If you are fulfilling your responsibilities in a healthy way, you're going to feel good. If you're feeling shitty, worn down, unappreciated, if you're making excuses to others about the behavior of your spouse, or how they treat you, if you're constantly having to get through the day by reminding yourself that it's temporary and that "this too shall pass," then wake up and take stock. Life feels good when you're healthy. It's not always going to feel good, of course, and you'd have to be an idiot to think that you'll always be happy no matter what. I'm not saying that.

But it feels good when you're doing it right. Most of the time. And I'm sure I'll have a lot more to say about that.

WTF is a "ROpocalypse" anyway?

It's the end of your motherfucking world, bitches. That's what it is.

Boom, Motherfucker.
Boom.

I'm not even joking. Let me show you. 

First, you gotta understand what an "apocalypse" really is. Take a look at the definition from Wikipedia:

An apocalypse (Ancient Greek: ἀποκάλυψις apocálypsis, from ἀπό and καλύπτω meaning 'un-covering'), translated literally from Greek, is a disclosure of knowledge, i.e., a lifting of the veil or revelation, although this sense did not enter English until the 14th century. In religious contexts it is usually a disclosure of something hidden. 

An apocalypse is, at its core essence, a revelation of a hidden truth. It's a vision of a spiritual reality that can change the world. It changes your perspective on things, and makes what you do more meaningful. It shows you the real value of what you're doing with your personal time.

As I get this steam engine steaming and get things rolling, I'll be publishing a cohesive, ongoing revelation about the human condition based on my experiences in Hermetic Magic, the pursuit of the Great Work, the creation of the Philosopher's Stone, and the subsequent use each precious grain of its miraculous powder in changing the world.

So ... basically, everything I've been writing about for years, and applying directly for the last year or so. It will, hopefully, be as life changing for you as it has been for me. There are certain things about it that make this ... uh, experience we share into something freaking amazing.

It's not really new. It's not even all that profound, really. Apocalypses rarely are. It's stuff you should know, stuff I've even talked about before in these 1200 blog posts. Stuff that makes sense.

But it's stuff that changes the world.

The world I'm making is a lot like this one, but instead of a planet full of idiots that piss you the fuck off with their endless bullshit all the time, it's populated with awesome, beautiful, powerful creator gods who laugh and love and fuck and drink and laugh some more, people who aren't doing shit that sucks, people who find something awesome and share it with you so you can enjoy it to, people who see you take it and make it your own and are all, damn, that's sweet! Instead of people going to jobs that suck all the time, it's got people who are just laughing about how money keeps coming in from amazing sources without even hardly trying. Instead of people miserable in their relationships, it's got people posting romantic images and comments to each other, smiling and humming when they think of one another.

Basically, it's this world we're in right now, only instead of being stuck and putting up with the pain and suffering of meeting responsibilities false obligations, it's filled with fulfilled people pursuing their reason for existence, people creating fun and exciting lives for the joy of it.

The joy of it...

That's the ROpocalypse.

Hang on.

Venus Talisman for Prosperity

A pic of the 1st Pentacle of Venus I found on
the Internet. Wow. So power. Much Venus.

I like to make people happy. It's a True Will thing with me. Part of the whole "I made the Stone, so now imma heal the World" schtick.

As you know, I focus on Jupiter talismans a whole lot when it comes to wealth magic. It's part of the whole King and Kingdom thing, Jupiter is a major source of all things beneficial to humans in the flesh, including health, wealth, and peace.

But Jupiter talismans don't help everyone. There are various hypotheses about why a Jupiter talisman may bring wealth to one person, and a house flood to someone else. These range from afflicted Jupiter in the natal chart, which is something I only barely understand, to people having father-figure issues or deeply ingrained fear of capricious vindictive rapacious sky daddies with loaded lightning bolts and a penchant for really good bourbons.

Fortunately for folks with Jupiter issues, we know that magicians can work with different types of forces to get similar results. On the Kircher Tree of Life, the sphere of Venus lies below the Sphere of Jupiter, indicating the harmonic resonance of the two spheres. In my own work with Venus, I saw she expressed a similar kind of grace that also resulted in the good favor and blessinggs that come from the Jupiter force integration, and also the wealth that comes from being well liked by people in power. Also, she's freakin' Venus... womb of all that is pleasurable and luxurious, neh?

So I started poking around, and figured I'd start with the Pentacles of Venus from The Key of Solomon. I made my first prototype, a copper disk with the 1st Pentacle engraved on one side, and the 2nd engraved on the other. According to the manual, the first pentacle grants you the authority to control the spirits of Venus depicted on the other talismans, and the second is "proper for obtaining grace and honor, and for all things which belong unto Venus, and for accomplishing all thy desires herein."

Original Prototype on
Hand-made Copper Disk

In the consecration of this talisman, I got to meet the four spirits of the First Pentacle, Nogahiel, Acheliah, Socodiah and Nangariel. They are a rather dark lot, considering the things they represent. I blessed* the talisman itself so that the entities would work towards noble ends in the lives of those who use the talisman. It made a very noticeable difference right away in the quality of spiritual harmonics in the temple space.

I believe the four spirits of the 1st Pentacle of Venus are the ones who do all the works described in the other pentacles of the Venus. The system seems to be like a physical conjuration and statement of intent all at once. The 1st Pentacle is the conjuration of the spirits, and the rest of the pentacles of Venus are the statements of intent.

The process:

I made my copper disk in the hour of Venus on a Friday (to the annoyance of my neighbors, who don't seem to appreciate metallurgy on the porch of the condo when their soaps are on or something... sorry neighbor!). The talisman itself is roughly oval shaped, an inch and a half tall by an inch and three-quarters wide. It's slightly bowl-shaped, with Pentacle 1 on the convex side, and Pentacle 2 on the concave side. I did the engravings in the hour of Venus as well, if I remember right. I should really write this stuff down. I used my dremel tool with tungsten bits. The copper is harder to engrave than the silver, and much harder than the tin. Getting the technique down for the amount of pressure to use is an interesting experience.

Opposite Side of Prototype

The Second Pentagram includes a versicle in Latin around the outer edge of the pentacle. For the 4th Pentacles of Jupiter, I've been putting that on the back to avoid what happened with this Venus talisman: I ran out of room around the edge. Sigh.

I did what they did with the Magic Circle in the Lemegeton's Goetia, continued the versicle in a spiral moving inward. Then I engraved the circle and pentagram and seals within the room that was left, and really, I wish I'd made a larger disk so I could avoid this issue. A 2" by 2" disk would probably have solved the problem.

As it is, I managed to get the symbols into the seal, and it looks ... well, it looks okay, but it's not a piece of art. Fortunately, ugly talismans work. The power comes from the spirits and the symbols, not the aesthetics, thank god.

Mmmm, and speaking of which... I must say, I love this talisman's power. It is warm and inviting, it is gentle and potent. I can feel it moving through my sphere, making the Venus-related forces I've already worked with and integrated into my sphere tingly and warm, responding in awesome harmonies. I'm looking forward to playing with this one for a while.

If you're interested in making one of your own, the seals can be found at this link, and I recommend conjuring the spirits using a system like the one I describe in the Modern Angelic and Modern Goetic Grimoires during the consecration. If you're making it with paper, I'd use a really dark green ink for everything but the versicle, which should be in red.

Now More Beautiful

If you're interested in purchasing a Venus talisman, I've set up a link on my Talismans page. Also, in addition to the wealth and prosperity aspects, it's a super potent Venus talisman that, well, you know... It makes for the really good sexzor manifestations, and teh lurves! Everyone wants teh lurves!

These are now in production with much nicer copper disks from the Key of Solomon Pentacles page:

http://headforred.blogspot.com/p/key-of-solomon-talismans.html

Or free if you do it yourself.

Just pointing that out for folks who get their undies in a bunch at the idea that I'm charging for this stuff. I charge for my time, experience, and occult skills, but only after telling folks how to do it themselves, for free.

* Jason told me things would be different when I worked with angels and demons after receiving ordination, and he was totally right. Things are different for priests than they are for other people. I'm liking this "Direct the Light of God as you see fit" thing a lot.

Rufus Opus Professional Facebook Page!

Well, I created the RO Page at Facebook today. I was going to wait, but part of the Crucible 2013 lessons learned was that there's no point in waiting for stuff to be perfect before you do stuff you need to do. Eventually, I plan on having millions of global fans reading my stuff, learning about Hermetics, and using the techniques in their daily lives... And for that, I'll need the RO professional page rather than my personal person page. So please, if you're on my FB list of friends, head over and Like that page!

I've already posted Part One of the Crucible Presentation there. For now that's the only place you'll be able to find it until I get around to recording Part Two. Which could be tomorrow, or possibly, you know... not tomorrow.

Crucible! And Stuff!

Wow, I am in a super busy time of my life.

Crucible was October 26, and Harper and I had a blast! I got to hang out with a couple of my favorite Thelemites from Dove and Serpent in Atlanta Friday night, and then in the morning we got to meet Deb at brunch! Sister Deb is every single bit as graceful and charming in person as you would think from reading her blog and her book. Also in attendance were at the pre-Crucible brunch were Jason Miller and Jason Colwell, Andrieh Vitimus, Shawn and his lovely wife Liz.

Then ...

Heh heh heh...

Then after that, Harper and I were ordained as Priests. More on what that means to me, you, and the rest of the people on the planet later. Jason, Shawn, and Liz put together an awesome rite for Harper and I and it was beautiful and powerful. I left all a-buzz, and eager to inject the Light of God into anything that didn't move out of the way quickly enough.

I was on a couple of panels then, and they'll pop up on Deeper Down the Rabbit Hole. I got to see Maggi Setti speak on relationships, and Jason Miller speak on sex magic (of course), and Andrieh's intro to information-based magics.

And in the midst of that, I got to give my presentation on Ecstatic Hermetics. I confess, I was super disappointed in my presentation. I had some technical difficulties I couldn't quite shake, and I couldn't manage to tap into that ecstatic Hermetic current I was so full of the year before. I thought it would just come naturally, and be on when I wanted it, and it just... wasn't. It was not the Earth-shattering kaboom I had wanted it to be, for sure.

In part it was due to the technical issues, and in part due to Mercury retrograde. Mostly, though, I was nervous through the whole thing because I hadn't planned it very well. I had planned on candles and incense for the rite, which isn't allowed in the hotel. I had planned on using a projector for the presentation, and I couldn't find the right cable for the computer I had. I had planned on being slightly drunk for the drunken magus style presentation, but didn't have time to hit the bar because of technical difficulties. So I was a little disappointed through the whole thing.

The worst thing was that I was trying to put about two and a half hours worth of dense, advanced material into an hour-plus presentation while leaving enough room for the conjuration of Hermes Chthonios at the end. Poor planning, for sure. But I really wanted to give that presentation, so I'm breaking it into two parts and recording it now. Part One is now available on authorstream, and I'll make it available in a separate blog post.

And we had a conclave of Gents for Jupiter this year. Pretty much. There were about 8 of us at Crucible, and we had an amazing time! It was great to hang out with everyone in person. Sam and Justin, Jesse and Jessica, Harper, Jason, Andrieh, and myself... I think that was everyone that was there. It was heavy.

There are pictures of me at Crucible on my facebook page. I'd like to post pics of the Gents and the ordination, but there are folks who need to be discreet about their involvement in the occult in the photos. Let me just tell you it was amazing, and you'll have to take my word on it for now.

And it was a learning experience. I've been putting off launching the ROpocalypse in full because I wanted everything to be perfect. And I realized this year at Crucible that things don't have to be perfect to get going. They just have to get going to get going.

So that's what's going to be happening around here over the next few weeks. Things are already set in motion, and it may not be perfect right out of the gate, but it'll be movement towards the goal. And that will do nicely.