Happy Thanksgiving!

I am thankful for a lot of things, but at the top of the list where the blog is concerned are my readers and the personal friends I've made through this medium and other online forums. You guys are a constant source of inspiration in my life. Thanks for everything.

I sit in the basement office with no windows, often not even aware of whether it's day or night, especially since daylight savings time changed. It's usually while the kids are asleep or are playing with friends, and I'm relatively free of interruptions. I sit in here reading magical tomes, reading blogs and emails, doing magic, and writing out my thoughts and experiences as I go along performing the Great Work.

Yet I'm not alone; I have a plurality, a social network of magicians also performing the Work a few keystrokes away. I understand about us being a family unit, brothers and sisters spread throughout every continent on the planet, except Antarctica. No one practices magic in Antarctica. It's too freakin' cold. Seriously.

So, it's to readers, writers, and to all my brothers and sisters of the Work that I offer my thanks. May your days be as fulfilled as you make mine.

What you should do about it...

Martialis asked what we should do about the Christian extremists like the ones praying death on Obama...

Magic. We should do magic.

Gaap to release the spirits they've bound to their missions, Michael to enlighten them with the true message of Christ and to defend their victims, Cassiel to bind the bastards, Sammael to strengthen the warriors on the front line and to bring swift and just victory, Raphael to heal and to confuse their minds, to disrupt their communication network, and to bring a permanent Merc. Retro effect into their lives so they're too busy trying to figure out why nothing works right to pray, Anael to keep their prayers from reaching fruition, Gabriel to enshroud them in harmless fantasies.

Conjure Purson to reveal any local hotspots of prayer warriors, conjure Paimon, Aimon, Oriens, and Egyn to confound their lives, call upon their daimons to drive them into the true presence of God where they will see their actions for what they really are.

Ideally you'll be healing them so they not only stop what they're doing, but begin to help instead. Ideally you'll be in a position to love them completely and take responsibility for aiding in their enlightenment.

But it's better to do something than nothing, so just do something.

Thanks, Ron!

There are 100 people following the blog now. Woohoo! That's only counting the people with Google accounts.

Whether you "follow" or not, may your holidays be blessed with peace, enlightenment, and joy. And no stupid relatives making inappropriate conversation at the dinner table.

Oh, and may Bune bring you many riches, plus some left over! I'll light a candle this weekend for you.

Thanks!

Quis custodiet ipsos custodes?

Today's blog title comes from the Roman poet Juvenal, who, bemoaning an unfaithful wife, said:

audio quid ueteres olim moneatis amici,
"pone seram, cohibe." sed quis custodiet ipsos—
custodes? cauta est et ab illis incipit uxor.
  
I hear always the admonishment of my friends:
"Bolt her in, constrain her!" But who will guard
the guardians? The wife plans ahead and begins with them!

Wikipedia has an interesting entry on the phrase. You should totally read it when you get a chance. It presents the more common translation in English, "Who watches the watchmen?"

The magical implications of this question are multifaceted, multi-layered, and as deep as any question we can ask ourselves. While reading Heart Drops of Dharmakaya, I was impressed with the Dzogchen practice of observation during meditation. I'm no Dzogchen adept, I'm a bumbler who read a book about some aspects of it while researching something else entirely, so don't think I'm trying to teach something about a system I don't understand. This is just what I took away from it.

Instead of meditating, you watch yourself without judgment. You observe your thoughts, and where they are coming "from." Fear, hunger, desire, what is the source of the thought? What triggered the thought? Is it coming from your own head, or is it a whispering spirit?

You observe, you don't try to influence or control the mind. You see what you're thinking, and simply practice awareness.

Then, after you've done that for a while, you turn your attention to the observer. Who is it that observes? What is it that is watching?

Remember the words of Perdurabo in the Book of Lies (Falsely Called So):

But FRATER PERDURABO is nothing but AN
EYE; what eye none knoweth.

Palin's Power

Have I mentioned my fundy background? I just learned on a pagan site that I'm part of the "3rd Wave of the Holy Spirit", loosely. See, I attained K&CHGA after being born again while immersed in the outpouring of the Spirit that was popping up here and there around the country in 2003.

So Jason mentions Palin today on FB, and I ended up at the Wild Hunt blog through Joe's blog, and there's another article on Palin, this one pointing out her affiliation with a group of Christians who used "imprecatory prayer" to allegedly give a witch cancer and drive her out of Alaska.

Now, on the one hand, I personally write Palin off out of hand. She's a gimmick, and she's distracting America from the next real Republican candidate. And that shit about her receiving the mantle of the presidency that's been prophesied over her... who really believes any of that shit? Like Christians have any access to divination, or the power to set destiny through concentrated prayer...

Right. Which brings us back to the Wiccan who went bline in her left eye, was diagnosed with cancer, and fled Alaske while this coven of Christian busybodies "prayed against the spirit of witchcraft in Alaska."

Am I the only person who has seen the power of Charismatic Christian Magic? Come on! There's more healing going on in the name of Christ than you can shake a stick at. Prayed for rye grew taller than not-prayed for rye. Prayer affects bacteria. Whatever model of magic you adhere to, the results are the proof.

I know these people. I know what they're capable of, and what their ambitions are. In many ways I agree with the Ideal they strive for. I don't trust them an inch to be able to accomplish their goals when faced with the temptations that come with power.

Palin's Power base is an effective team of experienced "prayer warriors" who are not above praying down fire and brimstone, locusts and plague, and cancer and blindness. There are even teams of these people working on killing Obama. It's easy to sit in liberal educated armchairs and laugh at the imaginary threat of the ignorant Christian True Believers, writing them off as "nut-jobs" and staying hidden, safe, watching Oprah alone in your little apartment when Palin's at the local Barnes and Noble signing her book.

But don't get so wrapped up in your comfy blanket of smug dismissal that you can't get unglued long enough to trace out a circle and mutter a few eldritch phrases from musty old tomes you've tracked down on the Internet. Rest assured there are ladies on arthritic knees sequestered amongst their pleather shoes in their closets, calling on God to empower Palin and anoint her in the mantle of the Presidency. Whether it's God or whatever spirits they've got at their beck and call, bet your ass that something is doing everything in its power to make sure Palin gets elected.

What are you going to do about it?

Here's a clue for would be spiritual warriors: expect a lot of the spirits around her to be Nepheshim, the hungry ghosts of the dead. These and similar spirits are the most abundant resources that respond to prolonged prayer. Check the Greater Key for sample Solomonic rites that require nine days of careful prayer to gather the spirits local. These are the kinds of spirits you'll be facing.

Bring a brass pot, or the equivalent. No point in letting the little buggers go to waste.

(Picturing a Hermetic Exorcism of Palin at a book signing; dude in robes reciting the Headless rite over her. As amusing as it may be, he'd have an interesting discussion waiting for him with the Secret service after pulling that stunt. The Black and Tans wear shiny black shoes.)