Last week’s rite worked out great for me. I don’t know if anyone’s found a job yet that got mentioned during the rite (there were 32 people altogether), but I asked that Bune would assign one of his legion to each of the names, and specifically tasked them with getting people jobs. If you sent in any names late, don’t worry, I’m mentioning them tonight.

This is the kind of thing I want everyone to be able to do. I don’t expect everyone to actually do it, but if half the people on the blog’s Followers list were to start doing something like this, it certainly would help out a lot of people.

Quite a few people share Anuksunamun’s sentiments about wanting to see the spreadsheet, the fruit of many months of research and study. So I’ve made it available, but I’m charging for it.

Some people think I shouldn’t charge for this, but I’m a capitalist. If you want it for free, go to Agrippa’s Book 3, chapter xxvi, and Google can fill in the blanks he doesn’t provide.

The quicker and easier way is here:

http://www.rufusopus.com/products_and_services.htm

You get a blank Lamen, everything you need to do the conjuration, and the conjuration ritual for the Genius. You also get detailed steps to come up with the Genius name, including an example. And the Tables with the corresponding signs, degrees and letters of both the Genius and the Evil Daimon that everyone wants the most.

Enjoy!

Man, what a grueling season. It’s a good thing Christmas only comes once a year. Something happened somewhere along the line that made Christmas less fun than it used to be. I think it’s called “adulthood.” My parents aren’t footing the bill, and the bill can get pretty big. With the recession and having been unemployed, it’s a toned-down Christmas this year, but we’re all having a lot of fun anyway. Books are cheaper than video games, and the kids are finally old enough to prefer books to the electronic devices. I’m thrilled about that.

Since I’ve been back to work, I’ve had more crises than I had the whole time I was unemployed. I actually look back on that period now and wonder why I didn’t enjoy myself more. Probably the desperate terror of being homeless with my family. I’m just guessing.

But we’ve faced and made it through the worst. The mortgage is all caught up and modified to save us a couple hundred a month, the utilities are paid, and I don’t have to send my kids to my in-laws to keep them warm when the power gets cut off, because the power won’t be cut off. I did a Bune rite to take care of these things, and he did, by the skin of our collective teeth, and I’d just like to say THANKS BUNE.

The way he manifested the money was annoying. I ended up with a loan, from an in-law, and a pissed off one at that. That’s not what I had in mind when I showed him the bill and asked that he provide enough money by the turn off date to keep the power on. Once again I get to learn how NOT to ask for money. Sigh.

One big thing I’ve learned is that you can’t think straight under pressure. You need to be as prepared as possible, with as many options available to you that you can turn to when the emergencies come. Not if, but when. That’s the big lesson I’m walking away with from this series of unfortunate decisions and results. Have a lot of backup. Be proactive. Think ahead. Plan for the worst.

I think I’ll work an all-points plan of attack into the Hermetic Merkavah course, something that weaves together the different spirits and their legions to avoid the traps I fell into.

The biggest thing of all to remember is that you can’t get lazy, like I did, when your magic starts working. You can’t just sit back and drop all the magic and expect to keep what you’ve built with it. Magic is a way of life, and it takes maintenance work to keep things going well.

Just like everything else in life. SHOCKING!!!

Anyway, I’d like to close by giving POS a bit of shit about his post that he probably shouldn’t have posted:

Fuck you, man! Posting that crap just to get a rise out of me! (Because it is, really, it is all about me.) 😉

I’m not playing that game anymore. I’ve stopped the wheel of karma on that front.

For now. Next month may have different results. Depends on what I’m working through.

When I have the time for it, I’ve decided on the next book I’ll write. It won’t be occult-focused. Instead, it’s going to be about Christianity, and written for the Christian audience. They’re always buying “How to be a good christian man” books for each other, but they’re all written by pastors towing the fundy line.

I’m going to write one for the rest of us Christians. You Don’t Have to be a Dick to be a Christian is the working title for now. I think it will make a difference.

No, I’m not seeding the title of my blog post paranormal with keywords investigator. I wouldn’t ghost hunter do something that psychic research blatant haunted house.

Really.

But I was just watching Bourne Identity again, and there was a commercial on for some paranormal investigator show that’s going to where the Hindenberg crashed. They said something about standing on the site of one of the worst catastrophes in American history. Let’s see, thumbing through my handy wikipedia… that was 72 years ago. The average lifespan of a nephesh is about 6 weeks. If there’s some geomagnetic force, or if we postulate there was some massive psychic bio-power released at the site that stuck around to keep them “alive,” they might get a couple of nephesh voices. Maybe. But 72 years is a long time.

They should be going to the World Trade Center in New York. It’s politically charged, and socially unacceptable, but they’ll get better results if they’d go there.

Regarding the postulated bio-power release, I’ve been to Gettysberg, walked the fields where thousands died, and I know there’s a blanket of oppressive spiritual weight there. The air is heavy, the wind carries voices, and there’s a smell of old blood that coats your throat with a coppery brackishness that your bottled water doesn’t wash away. I expect there’s something similar in New York at ground zero. It’s been a little over 8 years, but I bet it’s still fresh enough to keep some nepheshim “alive.” And the emotions generated by the visitors, the power focused and released by the memorial are active sources of food. Hell, I bet they’ve attracted nephesh that weren’t even killed on 9/11.

I would expect there to be a strong opposition to such a thing being aired. Controversy. Still, for those who are into the paranormal and are looking for hot spots, that would be one. Locally, anywhere a murder or suicide, or even a natural death occurred in the last month and a half would be a better place to go than some place decades or centuries old.

I’m totally annoyed with myself. I hate the way I’ve been acting over this Lon thing. I hate it. Everything that stems from it has been discord and strife, warning signs that my sphere is out of harmony with existence. Painful it is to admit that. It will be addressed.

“The thing is people – we were fooled. We were led to believe that these degrees are highly elite and almost never attained by mere mortals. Its just not true.” – David Stolowitz, Jew in the Jungle (Here be Dragons)

David’s pointed out one of those secrets that needs to be trumpeted from the rooftops of every house in the occult community.

Some guy on youtube posted this video about how the OTO hasn’t produced any “Adeptus Exemptus” in 30 years and the leadership should step down already. I think he’s just another disillusioned seeker who believed the hype. The truth is, the OTO probably has produced them, but like David says, we were fooled, lead to believe these degrees are highly elite. The truth is a lot less exciting. Exempt Adepts still take shits in the morning that stink.

I met a guy who had attained K&CHGA in the OTO, and after some time at that stage, decided it was all self-delusion. I don’t know what it was that lead him to that conclusion, specifically, but I suspect it was the usual suff you go through when you reach certain levels within any organization and discover that people, regardless of their degrees, still make mistakes, say mean things, and are generally disappointingly human.

In Christianity it happens all the time. The church has failed its membership for too long to have any credibility by mingling in politics, by accepting the hatred of the Bible as Divinely Inspired when it’s really just justification for hatred of anything different, by using the sanctuary of the Church to protect pedophiles, murderers, and other criminals.

Disillusionment. I went through a period of that after getting K&CHGA too. I thought I’d be walking on water and turning water into wine. It didn’t happen. I was still addicted to nicotine and got headaches if I didn’t drink coffee every morning. I still overslept in the morning and was late to work where people were depending on me. I still got mad and took my anger out on my family. I wasn’t perfect.

But I could do a lot more things as a result. I still had to do a lot of work to overcome a lot of basic character flaws, but I had access to help in that regard. I had to reassess what K&C meant. I had it, by all the standards I could find. The smell alone proved it to me beyond a shadow of a doubt. If my experiences were legit by Abramelin’s standards, then I had to reassess what everyone else had written about K&C. I researched the hype, and discovered that most of it was from Crowley, who is never understood. I read his presentation of the HGA, and found that he told exactly the truth about what I experienced, yet in a way that could be misconstrued and misrepresented. I discovered that most of the people talking about how K&C was enlightenment and transcendence hadn’t done the rituals yet. It was all conjecture without experience.

It’s time to lift the veil and reveal that the Great and Powerful Oz is a little man behind a curtain susceptible to the same temptations as everyone else. The Adeptus Exemptus will still eat beans and fart.

“…you know what I’m craving? A little perspective. That’s it. I’d like some fresh, clear, well seasoned perspective. Can you suggest a good wine to go with that?” – Anton Ego, Ratatouille

For those of you who aren’t parents, Ratatouille is a Pixar film.You want quotes from Citizen Kane, read a blog by a guy with no kids.

The good witchdoctor advised me to quit whining. I deserved it. I had gotten a little emotional over the attack on Christianity by Lon. Joe pointed out a lot of shit he goes through, putting up with shit outta Christians, and basically said if I have to put up with this level of bullshit, you can handle Lon calling Christianity a few names.

I agree.

However… It’s still major fucking bullshit, whether they’re Christians attacking Joe and his family or Thelemites attacking Christians in song. The bullshit has to end. I see all the “Coexist” bumper stickers out there, and it wasn’t even a week ago that I posted an article that indicated a quarter to a third of Christians are incorporating beliefs and practices from other religions here in America. There are people out there, a lot of us, who are trying to change the world and make it better. Hate, from any source, just makes it worse.

My own heart is hate-filled. I have a deep and abiding hatred that evil should be done within the world, regardless of its source. I don’t hate the perpetrator, I hate the evil itself. I expect more from humanity than we usually give. I’m not perfect, I do things I later hate too. I apologize and try to make it right when I slip up and make the world a darker place instead of a lighter one.

Lon said on the page where the song can be purchased, “I hope no one is too offended. This is all in good fun.” I suppose I’m in the “too offended” crowd, and I don’t think lumping all of Christianity together based on the actions of some of its adherents is acceptable from someone who’s doing the Great Work. I don’t think that we who have been through the Black Phase of the Work should think this is “in good fun.” I have higher expectations from people who want to sell the world an 8-hour DVD series that will take them “Beyond the Secret” by teaching the Great Work.

I’ve got perspective on the scene. Lon’s hatred of Christianity is really a reflection of the hatred many Christians show Joe and many others by telling them they’re going to hell. It’s intolerance. It’s hate. It’s human. He doesn’t like that Christianity has been used to perpetuate hatred, yet he’s ok doing it himself.

Do I get as pissed about people who use Christianity to spread hatred? No, I do not. I get more pissed. They’re a fucking embarrassment. They inspire the kind of bullshit Lon posted. Christians like that are just asking to be taken out by their counterparts of other beliefs. Their counterparts are equally ignorant, unilluminated, spiritually dense humans who justify their hatred instead of seeking to expunge it from their hearts.

And I know I’m probably a hypocrite. I generally try to live up to my standards, but I fail like everyone else. That doesn’t mean the standards are wrong, it just means I failed to live up to them.

Today was interesting. I got all pissed at Lon for singing a song, I got all pissy with my friends over it, and then I went to a birthday party for my daughter at an indoor swim club. It was 25 degrees outside. The pool was 90 degrees. Freaking wonderful. I had to get in with her, at least one parent must and it was my duty. Lovely.

I relaxed a lot. Me and twenty of my 7-year-old daughter’s closest friends. They swam and played, I sat and soaked. So. Good. Mmm. Loved it. Highly recommend it to all my parent friends. Birthday party at the kids’ swim club in the winter. With pizza.

Anyway, when I got home I read some more comments, read my own rant about it, and then listened again to the song. Frankly, I’m ashamed of myself. One of these days, I’ll learn to shut up when I get pissed off.

In the mean time, thanks, for those who understood or didn’t, who agreed or didn’t. I learned a lot about myself today. I’m totally keeping all my Lon Milo DuQuette stuff. As POS said, “I do not dismiss a man for a single fault. There would be no one left.”

This morning, I woke up and saw the post Jason made about Lon DuQuette’s “If we believed” youtube video.As a Christian, I’m deeply offended. As a magician, I’m sorely disappointed. As a man, I’m incredibly pissed off.

But I get it. I understand why people like Lon have such a deep hatred for all things “Christian.” They’re spiritually retarded. They can’t help it. They see all the evils men have done in the name of Christianity, and ignoring the fact that man has done exactly the same in the name of pagan gods for millenia, they blame the belief system.

Sure, that would be the same as saying all Sufis are terrorists, all Runar folk are nazis, all Thelemites are woman-beating heroin addicts. But they don’t care. They’re so wrapped up in their disfunction that they can’t see it. Maybe some priest or pastor molested them or something. I don’t know. Whatever it is, I’m sick of it, disgusted by it, and generally displeased. Grow up already.

I’m getting rid of all my Lon Milo DuQuette stuff in protest of his public airing of hate-filled intolerance, his wanton attack on a belief system that is, if you really look at Thelema, the core of his own system. I forgive him, but I will not support him or any other person who perpetuates the inter-religious warfare that fuels ignorance and pushes people further apart.

I think it was Kenneth Grant who was walking beside Crowley one day and accosted a priest. Crowley berrated him, and was mortified when Grant took his writings seriously and actually attacked some guy in the street because of his beliefs. Crowely knew better.

Intolerant bigotry has no place in a magician’s world view. Christianity, Islam, Judaism, Paganism, and Zoroastrianism have all played active roles in forming the system of magic we use. Attacking one is retarded.