Mmmm, hummus and pita, so good…

Ok, so I got a comment on the last post on Facebook. Roughly speaking, it was “so Enochian’s all bullshit then?” I don’t think it’s that simple, honestly. Too many magicians have had too many good and relatively powerful experiences with Enochian to write it off as a bunch of bullshit. Fraters POS and AIT come to mind. I felt a lot of power flowing from the Enochian Work I did myself, limited though it was.

No, it’s certainly not bullshit. The author of the piece I linked to belongs to the Enochian Yahoo group, and if you’re a member, you can see his thoughts on the subject. They are interesting indeed. He doesn’t invalidate the results people get, but he doesn’t buy into the system at face value either. I think that’s the best approach.

I know a lot of chaos magicians, and most of them have at some point done some magic that involved Cthulhu. It’s just fun and mad, things that appeal to ChMs everywhere. I’ve heard enough stories to believe they really do tap into something when they do their rites, and having studied the development of grimoires, religions, and cults in general, I think the way Lovecraft received his fictional work is a lot like the way other systems are revealed to humankind.

The Simononomicon is a fiction. I’ve talked to people who were there when it was written, and it’s just plain old made up fiction. I’ve corresponded with the dude that drew the sigils, and he says he made them up. Yet people have results using the system.

Kerry Thornley, a.k.a. Omar Khayyam Ravenhurst, was oneof the founders of Discordia. He contributed a great deal to the Principia Discordia, and in the 1990s he said, “If I knew this would all turn out to be real, I would have picked Venus instead of Eris.” Or something like that.

The point is, systems, beliefs, and magical practices that are based on fictional or fantastical revelations generally “work” anyway. Just because the Enochian system is based on what looks to modern critical minds like an elaborate, unintentional hoax, that doesn’t mean there isn’t something there anyway.

As a Hermetic Magician, I believe there’s enough material in Agrippa to explain why this happens. It is the intent of the magician that determines the spirit we receive. When a magician begins conjuring, all the spirits in his area with an affinity for his intent can respond. I suspect that Enochian magic attracts a variety of spirits, sometimes nephesh remnants, elemental spirits, or even more powerful Genii Loci who are fine working through whatever form we depict them in. That would explain why some Enochian magicians get really powerful experiences and others get less impressive results.

The Sigilum Dei Amyth is itself an awesome magical tool. It predates the Enochian system, and within the Enochian system, I suspect it is a method of contacting the Seven Planetary Workers that were created to Work with Man when he incarnated in the Divine Pymander of the Corpus Hermeticum.

Oh, I just read the comments on yesterday’s post, and I think Argent’s is a great take on things. If you’re reading this, Argent, I’ll gladly post your comment in full as a separate blog post, giving you full credit of course.

I was in a hurry when I posted yesterday, and picking the urban legend myths of Enochian meltdowns was convenient, but not the best possible choice on my part. My own experience with Enochian is very limited. I made the tools from DuQuette’s Enochian Vision Magick, and it was fun and all, but I only ever conjured a couple of the spirits before moving on to systems that resonated more fully with my own practices. The techniques I learned from those conjurations work really well.

Have you ever noticed that the things experienced with the Enochian angels are a lot different than any other angelic system? For those who have conjured the Enochians and the traditional Celestial Intelligences, you’ve noticed how different they are, right? I figured the Enochians were at best sub-lunar spirits based on my very limited experiences with them.

The way they adapt and meld to every belief system, and eventually begin playing and preying on the ego of the human doing the Work with them, all these things always struck me as weird. They behaved like Nepheshim, or “lower astral” spirits, not like any particularly ancient and powerful spirits of the apocryphal Book of Enoch would act.

Check out this link. I think this explains why Enochian Magic and Lovecraft Entity based Magic always seem so similar, always seem to match up so nicely with the expectations of the magician doing the Work.

Into each life, a little rain must fall. As Kenaz points out in his Hagalaz post,* sometimes it’s frozen, weighs a couple of pounds and hits you in the head at terminal velocity.

It seems like there’s something going around these days where people are dealing with their fears, insecurities, and other general anxieties more than usual. It’s like there’s been a hail storm going through some people’s spheres of influence that leaves them wounded and wondering why.

My personal method of dealing with these kinds of issues is “Suck it up.” I tried to explore my own issues in a sensitive and compassionate way for a while, and I quickly realized that life sucks as much for honest pussies as it does for braggadocios. All that introspection and looking for rational support for my momentary anxieties just left me with more resentment towards my parents than they objectively deserved.

These days when the hail comes I deal with things like a man: I mask my fear in anger, and then when no one’s looking I go to the bathroom and cry like a baby.

Once that’s out of the way, I start trying to put things into perspective. Clearing out my mind of the momentary wash of emotion and illogic helps get me to a point where I can start planning my way out of the situation using magical or mundane means as necessary. Getting to that point is the hard part.

The following techniques help me out a lot.

Know what you Fear – The root of all fear, I think, is “ignorance of outcome.” When I get scared, I try to remember that I’ve been through shit before, and I’ll have shit to go through again. It might be miserable while I deal with whatever’s going on, but then it will pass and I’ll have some breathing room before the next shit storm cometh. The worst thing that could happen probably will, and I’ll probably get through that too. I have so far, anyway. No reason to expect it to be any different this time. If I do die, get fired, get beat up, or even worse, get publicly humiliated, in eternity I really won’t be bothered by it anymore, so sooner or later… This too shall pass.

Compassion – When dealing with those who have wronged us, it’s easy to look at their actions and pretend they’re completely and totally as evil as they must be to do whatever they did to us. I try to take a step back, and remember they’re an extension of the same Source that I am. Yeah, they may be fucked up to fuck with me, but I’m damaged too. For them to be so hurtful, they must have either misunderstood me, or they’re just mean because their lives suck. This understanding eventually leads to forgiveness. Most of the time.

Compartmentalize – One of the nice things about being a magician is that I can take a look at things and figure out what planetary or elemental sphere they are exhibiting most at any given moment. The process of analyzing a thing or a situation, putting it into little boxes with neat little names reminds me that things are all working together according to a system with rules and behaviors that I have studied and am familiar with. As a result, I can get a better perspective.

Detach – Once things are compartmentalized, I like to see how I’m attached to them, and if it ain’t right, cut that bitch off. Detachment isn’t a negative trait, it’s a really good one when applied properly. Some people think the result of detaching from desires in your life results in apathy, and that’s not true at all. That’s just an illusion that keeps you trapped in your desires. Look at what’s making you scared, or angry, be brutally honest with yourself. It’s always something that you WANT that you aren’t getting. (Like, to LIVE when you’re getting beaten to death, yous selfish bastard.)

Detach from the WANT. Accept that things are going to be exactly what they are (I promise you they will be regardless), and that even if you don’t think you WANT them to be what they are, there will be something about the real life reality of what you GET that is enjoyable, unless you’re all attached to what you wanted it to be instead.

I’ve been accused recently of not really caring about people and things in my life because I don’t get all worked up about most of it. What people fail to see is that I have detached from the desires for things to be other than they are, and as a result I can fully enjoy what I have for what it is.

You can’t be stupid though, and believe me, I’ve been stupid before, it sucks. Not being attached to a desire for things to be different is not the same as not wanting to improve things to have them reach their full potential. You just have to make sure that you understand what a thing is, and what its true potential is. You can’t lie to yourself or cling to hope that an El Camino can become as cool as a Stingray if you paint it smoke gray and tint the windows. It just ain’t gonna happen. But you can take your El Camino and fix the engine, change the fluids, repair the radiator, throw in some shag carpet and dangle balls, chop it down, throw in some custom hydraulics, paint it white and have a custom big ol’ picture of the Sacred Heart of Christ painted on the hood and roll out on a Saturday night having a good time with your cholos.

You know, keep it real.

Detach from the lies of your WANT, and you’re free to address what you have.

* Kenaz’ posts on the runes are awesome. I love the treatment he gives each one, and even though I don’t use Runes, I actually wanted to start after reading his posts. He understands that each is not a symbol of an impersonal force, but an actual spirit who can be conjured. Realizing this about the Aleph-Bet revealed a lot to me a few years ago, and in his treatment of the runes, Kenaz provides a wealth of information that can be gleaned no matter what tradition you operate from.

There’s been a lot of talk on the blagosphere about racism. Are we not Magicians? Fuck it, man, let’s do some magic.

I’ll be Working with Michael on bringing More Light! to the racist masses this Sunday in a Solar hour. Something that raises up the tincture of their spheres in this area.

Whatever your path, whatever your tradition, let’s join together in doing something magical about this problem. We don’t all have to do it at the same time, and everyone doesn’t have to have the same intent. I’ll be saying something along the lines of, “Michael, I conjure you to bring illumination to the ignorant trapped in darkness that they may see through their prejudice to the shared humanity of all cultures, regardless of skin color, culture, or creed. Bind those who spread hate, and free those oppressed by the transgressions of the racists.”

I’ve recently caught an inkling of the potential of a mass of little sparks of light all gathered, aimed, and released at a common goal can be, and it’s pretty incredible. Even if all you feel comfortable doing is lifting up a heartfelt plea for resolution of the racial conflict and the tearing down of racial divides to the Source of all that is, that will help. Aim it at your local areas and the nation at large, and all humanity while you’re at it.

If we all stand together Above, the manifestation Below will be pretty damned incredible.

And before anyone says “Yeah, do the magic, but make sure you do the mundane work too…” No shit! If you’re a racist, fucking quit it. Stand up to your racist friends, stop participating or accepting it wherever you are if you do. Quit letting it slide. That SHOULD go without saying, but I know how people are.

That’s important, but do the magic. Do it.

Dude, all those rituals for wealth and success and riches? They fucking worked!

Global Rich List

Check out THAT link. I’m in the richest 0.85% of the global population. I’m number 51,263,593 in the world. That only leaves 51,263,592 people to beat for the win!

I’m sure that’s not the point of the link, but it’s nice to know what my rank is, my standings, and have some idea of how many people there are to take out before I’m number 1.

Actually, the link isn’t as accurate as I’d like. It tops out at the top 0.001%. Still, it’s a useful guideline.

Thanks to Lavanah for the link.

An absolutely fabulous presentation of SteamPunking modification skills can be found at this site. A most awesome amplifier to go with a most awesome steel guitar, this guy is damned incredible. The craftsmanship rocks. And his shit’s for sale!

That’s the Amp he modded out over on the right. He calls it the Advanced Resonant Sound Transducer. It doesn’t get much better than this. there are more images on his website.

What, you may ask, does this have to do with Magic?

If you have to ask, you haven’t tried building a Table of Practice, Seven Planetary Sigils, or the Seals of the Spirits. That shit takes crafty skills, and watching artistic guys like this put their shit together teaches many useful talents.

And Steampunk is the coolest geek chic evar.

Check out the steel guitar image on the left. Tell me it gets better than this. And he named it “The Artful Dodger!” AND IT’S FOR SALE!! And he’s making a case for it now. Dude! How cool is that? I want it. I don’t know how to play it, and I don’t care, I want it anyway. It’s beautiful. But I’ll let someone buy it who can do it justice by actually knowing how to play.

Thanks to Susanne Iles for tweeting the link to this blog. It’s in my favorites now. The guy does custom work for people too, in case you have a project you’d like to have done that you can’t do yourself.

One day I’ll have the complete SteamPunk Hermetic Altar. The wand will have a couple of big brass steam chambers to hold crystals or herbs, and I’ll call them its Big Brass Balls. The Pantacle will have brass gears set into it, the dagger hilt will too. don’t know how I’ll do the chalice. Someone will inspire me, I’m sure. I know the Planetary Archangels dig steampunk the most; they’ll love their seals all tricked out.

It’s been an long week here. Lots of mundane work going on, and some magical type research that’s looking promising. I’ve also had two requests for my services that came in on the same day from different continents. One I passed on to others with more experience, the other is something I’ll be taking care of on principle.

Some quick thoughts on things in general:

On Power and Duty*

POS wrote an interesting blog post on Power, and it resonated well with the kinds of things I’ve been dealing with in life lately. With power comes the responsibility to use it. If you don’t actively seek ways to use the stuff we learn and earn in our Work, the universe is happy to fill in the void left by our neglect. I’ve commented about this before, but it bears repeating.

On Research

Read the grimoires through a few times. I’m finding that I miss a lot on the first couple of read-throughs, even when I think I’m absorbing everything. Many of the gaps in my understanding have been filled by going back over sections while looking for something else. Most of the questions I have about grimoire magic are really addressed in the source grimoire. They aren’t as gappy, disjointed, or missing vital bits of information as I might think.

On Magic for Money

The more I look at other people’s reasons for doing money magic, the more I learn about my own efforts in that regard. Most money magic is done to achieve something other than obtaining money. People want money to get out of their country, or to get love, or to be free of debt, or to get a new car, or whatever. In every case, the thing actually desired isn’t money, the money is simply the means they see for acquiring what they want. We look at stuff and the currency cost associated with it because that’s how you get things in mundane reality. You want something, you buy it. But magic doesn’t work that way.

Instead of aiming for the means to get something using mundane means, the better approach is to aim for what you really want. There are spirits who get people out of their country, spirits that bring love, spirits that free people from obligations, spirits that provide transportation. The way the spirits bring things into manifestation is not by giving you the money to buy it. For example, you may want a new car, do a rite for a new car, and end up having a neighbor move to Ireland and have to get rid of his car. (See Gordon’s Black Swan post for more info on how magic works, excellent stuff.) Go for what you really want, not what you think the means to get it might be.

On Getting What You Want

Patience, man, patience. I’m beginning to see that patience is possibly the best magical virtue you can cultivate. Everything that was stressing me out a month ago (and I did do magic about it) is now working itself out. Everything I wanted to have a month ago I’m getting now. Magic works, but it takes a while to manifest. I know, that’s not news, but the application of that truth is pretty useful.

People talk about assuming the magic has already worked as if that sense of confidence is somehow a factor in getting it to work. I’m finding that it doesn’t matter whether you think the magic has worked or not, it usually does work. Sitting at rest in the comfort of knowing that your desired outcome is on the way is a lot more comfortable than stressing out over stuff, but I’m pretty sure that’s the only benefit.

I talk a lot about remembering that in eternity, everything we’re going through has already happened, and trying to achieve and maintain a certain degree of detachment from existence that leads to embracing the Now and living in the moment, but it doesn’t have to be eternity that we have to wait. Try to grab that assurance that things will work themselves out een before we die, even before next year, even before three months from now, and you’re free to enjoy the moments between now and when you get what you want. At least, as much as possible. It’s a lot easier to deal with the stress of temporarily being out of my permanent home than  it would be to deal with being a prisoner of war held by enemy combatants with a penchant for beheading captives and posting the videos online, for example.

On Money for Magic

I’m still open to getting paid to do magic for people, but I find I’m passing up opportunities to charge large sums for things I was actively looking for a month ago on principles. Principles! It seems I have them. Ethical considerations too.

It hasn’t escaped my notice that a certain lack of desperation has left me more ethical and scrupulous. I can afford to be ethical now; when I was looking into ways to charge large sums for magic of dubious integrity, I was broke and getting broker. Jason’s “emergency magic is always bad magic” rule seems to apply to more than just emergency rituals for cash.

* I have powerful duty. Yeah, I said it. 😀

I like to play with my consciousness. One of my favorite mind games is to move my point of awareness around my body. Most of the time I think of myself as sitting behind my eyes. That’s the place in my body where “I” am. But I can move that around, after some practice, and it’s fun to experience existence from my big toe, or hair follicles, or from my fingertips as I type. Our whole body is aware, but we tend to think of ourselves as “being” in the head. We’re in the whole body though, and it’s just a point of awareness that moves around.

This mind game has some useful practical applications. I commented on Jow’s post (and Deb’s) about how I move my awareness to the center of my migraine pain for a couple of seconds, and the pain just… goes away. It feels like I have to walk through waves of nausea to get there, but the end result is worth it.

In the comments on Jason’s Why People Fail at Financial Magic, we got to talking about transcending the limits of practical magic. I agree with Jason that the type of stuff we were discussing is beyond the scope of “practical” magic, mainly because it’s totally impractical for most of us to devote the time and effort it would take to attain that level of Mastery.

Don’t get me wrong, I plan on getting there some day, sooner rather than later, and I plan to do it using Hermetic Conjure Magic. I expect the spirits to continue to teach me and transform the harmony of my sphere to the point where I can do the kinds of things Jesus and Rabbi Shimon did.*

One of the things Jason mentioned was:

It is really all based on consciousness itself being a basic building block of reality. When you get a glimpse “Beyond the Abyss” or at Rigpa, or a similar state of realization; the two points that I mentioned actually become seen as inseparable.

I think I get it. Reality and consciousness are inseparable at some levels of existence. I’ve caught that glimpse a time or two, from combined Solar-Saturn rites and while reading books like Heartdrops of Dharmakaya. It’s a sense of awareness that has some kind of connection to the mental game of moving your awareness around your body and experiencing existence from abnormal points of view. In those moments, I want to believe I could have manifested 55 pounds of gold by being aware of it in the right way. I don’t know if it’s true or not, but I like to think so.

However, I suspect the level of awareness required to do this kind of thing takes place at levels of consciousness that are too deep, or too high to be able to think in terms of 55 pounds of gold manifesting on your desk at your cube. Just moving my awareness to my toes takes effort, concentration, and a certain level of no-mindedness to overcome the habitual placement of “me” behind my eyes. I can’t maintain that awareness of the inseparability of matter and consciousness that I attain in rites and from magic books for longer than a few minutes during the reading or rite, and maybe a little while afterward. As soon as I start thinking about being aware of being in that state of mind, it’s gone.

As Jason says:

Unfortunately to really do the kinds of things that we are talking about, bending and breaking physical laws, you need more than a glimpse into this state of awareness, you need to integrate it into your living levels. This is what separates the true masters from the rest of us.

Integrating it into my living levels may take some time. I sat here for about twenty minutes today trying to maintain the image of a pound of gold (that’s a brick about 4cm wide x 4cm long x 1.5cm high, according to the web) while getting to that level of awareness at the same time, and I actually started sweating. And I started to get this weird warm feeling of rushing void in my chest while I was doing it, and that felt so cool and interesting that it distracted me from the goal completely.

And see, that’s the thing. The “place” where thoughts about the stuff around us and the “place” where we are aware of the wholeness of all things and the physical truth of the Hermetic axiom “As above, so below” are so far apart and cluttered in between with garbage that synchronizing the two, being whole is difficult.

But so is moving my awareness around my body and experiencing life from the perspective of the tip of my dick. I managed that one after a couple hours of practice. How hard could it be?

* Did you ever notice that all the miracles ascribed to Jesus happen to be the abilities of the spirits, like turning water into wine? I figure he either conjured the spirits to get them to do the miracles on his behalf, or he learned the manifestation tricks from them. OR it may have been something else entirely. But he was limited to the same means to accomplish things that we are, according to the “fully man” part of the doctrine of the trinity, and he himself said we would do greater things than those that he did. God I hate building theories from theories. Hurts my wee brain.

Come to find out, the Gordon who writes Rune Soup is not the same Gordon that I thought it was. He tells me my description of him is still oddly accurate. It’s a weird wide web we write on.

Rune Soup,* a chaos magic blog written by a certifiable lunatic with a good heart, has an interesting article on Wealth Magic today. I particularly like that he’s advancing Jason’s theories about wealth magic, which I’ve found helpful myself. 

Gordon hit on something that resonates with my own pet project regarding wealth magic for the last year. He says:

Move your focus from ‘money’ to ‘earning power’.

Like old banana breath in the clip above, I feel like I’ve “reached the top and had to stop, and that’s what’s been bothering me.” I’ve got money magic down. I can conjure five-digit windfalls with the wave of a wand, or at least by lighting a candle and muttering under my breath near my favorite spirit pot.** That’s not bad, really, but I never seem to get enough all at once to make a useful fortune. In the time between windfalls, I rack up enough debt to eat away whatever I conjure for myself.***

A while ago, Fr. S.L. and I had a series of conversations about the nature of wealth and why money magic isn’t getting me where I want to be. He showed me the true definition of wealth, and that, along with Jason’s  theory (summarized on Gordon’s post) has reshaped the way I think about prosperity magic.

What do we really want when we ask for wealth or money? I propose that most of us really want power. We want the power to do what we want, whenever we want, without the stress of bills. We want to live off the interest of our total holdings, and live well. We don’t want our actions ruled by the bills.

The solution we see most obviously in our culture is more money, but maybe we’re aiming at the wrong target. When I read Gordon’s quote above about moving the focus to earning power, it was like hearing a bell chime in the distance. He’s talking about the power to earn more money, but it resonated with me as “doing the magic to acquire power.”

When I read through the descriptions of the spirits of the Lemegeton’s Goetia, I used to see the spirits that bestow temporal dignities as being for social climbers and politicians. But the more I think about it, while the wealthy do tend to have power, the powerful also tend to have a lot of wealth. The spirits are good at bestowing windfalls, but the size of the windfall I’d need to have the power to be free from the chains of my debts is much larger than I’ve seen the spirits deliver. And while they’re great at getting me more revenue streams and higher incomes, I don’t want to have to be more tied to a computer to maintain what I have. As many people teach, you’ve got to give the spirits a way to manifest the money. The common denominator I’ve seen in my wealth magic manifestation is work; TANSTAAFL.

As many of you know, I’m a bullshit artiste. One of my core tenets is that bullshit makes the flowers grow, and that’s beautiful. My bullshit isn’t false, it’s just fun. I try to use my gift of BSery to make the world a better place, inspire people to do more with what they have, to get over their hangups and achieve their highest potential. I believe magic is the best way to do that for magicians.****

Over the years, I’ve often dreamed of using the BS gift God gave me to get rich. I usually dream of being a Megachurch pastor who gets out before everything falls to shit, or by writing something like the Secret that gets wildly popular and makes me rich.  I’ve also considered politics, mostly for the health benefits for life that you get after serving two terms.

But lately I’ve been thinking that maybe the best way to use this gift is to provide a manifestation path for rites to get dignities, places, and favor of friends and foes, or in other words, to gain temporal power. Being subtle in the art of ass kissery in the workplace has already gotten me onto other projects and is getting the attention of the upper level executives at work. A well-timed rite might just give me the boost I need to land permanently in a position of power there.

With power comes wealth. The execs make a lot more than the cattle in the cube farms. It comes with more responsibility too, but they get more vacation time to compensate. I figure it’s at least worth a shot.

I still need to do a lot of Work on my spending habits, of course, and I plan to do so through the spirits of Jupiter. Tzadqiel tried to teach me to budget properly before, but would I listen? Of course not. Once I’ve mastered that, and at the same time earned more power, I figure the wealth will come naturally.

But I have a sneaking suspicion it’s still going to take a lot of work.

* I’ve known Gordo for years, intermittently, and he’s a good egg, but he used to be … unstable. But I’ll say this for him, he may be crazy sometimes, but he’s 100% sincere. And his madness could even be the divine kind, the kind that people get afflicted with on purpose for the greater good. Or he’s nuts. Definitely one of the two.

** I deposited a five-figure check into my account yesterday, in fact, and it’s pretty much spent before it posts. Spent on refurnishing the house that caught on fire to get me the money I conjured. Sigh.

*** That’s because I don’t  spend wisely. That’s all about to change because I plan to make money my slave, as Jason teaches in his prosperity intensive.

**** I am a member of the tautology club because I am a member of the tautology club.