Rufus Opus

Category: Blogspot Archive

Category: Blogspot Archive

  • The Spirit Pot Operation

    I’ve recently created my first, and possibly last Spirit Pot. “Spirit Pot” is a term I picked up from reading a very little bit on hoodoo and root work. It basically presents a dwelling place for a particular spirit to live in.

    I first thought of this while reading an excellent article by Aaron Leitch in the Journal of the Western Mystery Tradition. In it he discusses the links between the Solomonic tradition and Folk Magick. He pointed out that there is a brass vessel discussed in the Lemegetton that has similarities to the Spirit Pot of hoodoo traditions, and I set about creating a spirit pot for one of the entities from the Goetia.

    I selected Bune/Bime as the spirit I wished to have in my pot. He is the 26th spirit of the Goetia, and has two seals that can be used to get in touch with him. I went to 777 to see what types of things to include in the pot. Bune is associated with key-scale 24, if I remember right, and I found that the plant for this key is rush, a type of grass, and the incense was lignum aloes. The magickal weapon is the arrow, and the astrological sign is Sagitarius.

    I purchased a length of woven rush grass and wound it around the base of my spirit pot. I included dates and raisins, some incense containing lignum aloes and sandalwood, and carved a small arrow out of cedar, using the needles of the branch as the fletching. I drew up a Seal of Solomon from the Goetia, and set it in the lid of the pot. I drew one seal by hand, and included another seal I had printed off the internet. As I drew the seal, I felt the spirit’s presence begin to build up in the area. I created a triangle of manifestation, placed the seals in the pot, and the pot in the triangle of manifestation. I then began lighting blue tea lite candles for about a week, which burn for about five hours as offerings to get the spirit’s attention.

    On a Sunday night when the moon was right, I performed the conjuration. I did it rather simply, and made very quick contact with Bune. I spoke to him about why I wanted to work with him, showed him the pot, and asked if he would live in it. He was VERY agreeable.

    Since then I have begun to experiment with the Spirit Pot. I chose Bune because he is allegedly related to my sun sign in my natal chart and because one of his abilities is to bring treasure, and I very much desire to be wealthy.

    I have also included the hebrew words found on the sides of the brass vessel in the Goetia, written in Celestial script from Agrippa’s third book of Occult Philosophy.

    I’ve had some interesting conversations with members of the Ritual Magic yahoo group, and I hope to provide an interview with one of the members in an upcoming post regarding his views of the Spirit Pot as a spiritual condenser.

    [Edit 6-27-06]

    I finally got my camera up and running, so I’m posting a picture of my Spirit Pot at long last.

  • Opening Portals to Commune with Specific Spirits

    For the purposes of this post, a “Portal” is defined as a gateway through which communications with non-corporeal entities can be established.

    All magickal acts consist of working with non-corporeal entities, whether they are gods, demons, angels, egregores, eidolons, or servitors. I prefer the term “Spirits” to non-corporeal entities. It’s more personal. The entities we work with are generally self aware to some degree, and thinking of them as cold constructs with no will of their own can lead to all kinds of problems later in your experiences with the spirit realm.

    To get the spirits’ attention, we have to open a portal between our normal reality and the realms they exist in. There are many ways of accomplishing this, but all seem to include intoning specific god-names. The Druids are recorded as calling out their curses on the Romans, and throughout the Eastern mystical paths mantras are intoned to bring about access to higher states of consciousness. I don’t know what the mechanism is, but vibrating aural tones creates changes in the environment.

    Once the environment has been changed through the intonation of the “words of power,” it is necessary to get the specific Spirit’s attention. This is done by having an image of the spirit on hand. There are catalogues of the symbols and seals of the spirits we have made contact with as magicians over the centuries contained in grimoires and described in sacred texts.

    Having the symbol or talisman of the spirit we wish to contact, we call the spirit by its name(s) and ask/order it to appear by the “power” of various associated god names. I believe that vibrating these god-names further tunes the portal that is opened at the beginning of the rite to the specific energies that are compatible with the desired spirit, and incompatible with any other spirit. When the environment is sufficiently tuned, the spirit can appear, and communications can commence.

    In the Lemmegetton, there are records of the spirits appearing at first in forms that are horrible to look at, and acompanied by noxious fumes and gases. To eliminate this, you are instructed to hold a ring in front of your face inscribed with specific names of God, and to order the spirit to appear in a particular form by the power of specific god names. I think that what might be happening is that the connection of a partially tuned portal must be more finely tuned once the spirit begins to appear. After this has been accomplished, the spirit is comfortable and can communicate quite well.

    In 1918, Aleister Crowley performed the Amalantrah working in New York. During this ritual, he opened a portal to other dimensions, and called various entities through it to communicate with him. One of these entities was LAM, which resmebles what we now call “Greys,” those pesky aliens that are seen during what science calls sleep paralysis and occultists know as night hags. After he finished the Amalantrah working, he carefully closed up the portal he opened.

    Years later, in 1947, Jack Parsons and L. Ron Hubbard performed the Babalon rite. They were attempting to create a Moonchild, a human body that contained the spirit of Babalon from Revelations. It is postulated among many occultists that the rift they opened to draw down the star spirit was never properly closed, and this portal remains open to this day. 1947 marks the beginning of the UFO sightings that swept the world. Another connection between the interdimensional astronauts and the occult.

    As this example demonstrates, there is an important need to close a portal after you’ve communicated with a specific entity. This is done rather simply by performing an LBRP. Thank the GD for that contribution.

  • This Just In…

    A friend and magician is visiting pagans in jail and providing spiritual support for them. He’s one of 3 chaplains in all of (where else but) California that perform any kind of prison ministry for heathen pagans damned to burn in hell for all eternity. Can’t imagine why.

    But! I respect him for that. And he’s in need of fundage to cover the expenses of his efforts. He made these cool “Wonder Wands,” or “Tumblers” (he really needs to work on the name) to perform geomancy with. He’s selling them to raise money. He’s a smart feller.

    So if you’re a pagan and you want to support turning criminal pagans into reformed, spiritually seeking pagans with a good balanced perspective on magic and social obligations… It’s a good cause. Check out his site. I’m going to see if he wants me to set up a page over on RufusOpus.com where he can sell stuff to fund his ministry, if he doesn’t already have site set up.

    For more info, see his blog:

    http://witchdoctorjoe.blogspot.com/2008/08/sortior-virgae.html

  • An Astral Ritual

    So last Tuesday I was dealing with some annoying crap in my life. Finances were sucking. My job, my beautiful job, was in trouble. The gov’t contract has to be reviewed and funds reallocated at the end of each fiscal year. (That’s Sept. 30 for you civilians that don’t know.) My company subcontracted renegotiations out to the locals, and they totally dropped the ball. I should have known this would happen, but you know, I was distracted by other things.

    I got a call saying I would lose half my hours and all my benefits. Oh boy, was I thrilled.

    Since I had failed to proactively magick up a good contract ahead of time, as I should have, I ended up having to do damage control magic instead. Reactionary rather than Proactionary magic is not the preferred modus operendi, but it would have to do.

    Tuesday, what a wonderful day for doing wealth magic, eh? I checked my Current Astrological Weather, and found that Mercury was Cazimi (within 17 minutes of the Sun). Cazimi is supposed to be like plugging the planet into a tesla coil or something. According to some, and I believe it. I figured the Cazimi effect would overpower the retrograde sufficiently to get some clear communications with the spirit world, plus I needed help in business.

    The Moon was also right on Jupiter’s ass, in the Second House. I mean, they were overlapping one another. I found this gem on an astrology site about the Second House: “Specific possessions covered by the Second House include earned income and our ability to influence it.”

    The Moon is waxing, and I had been reading in Agrippa that day about how the Moon has power over all growth and decrease (Book 2, chapter something or other). Since Jupiter is health and prosperity, and I needed both of these things for various other reasons, I thought, hey, that’s great!

    The other issue was Saturn hanging out in Virgo. As you may know, this can bring strife and discomfort into the hearth and home. My spouse was ill and dealing with a great deal of pain since Saturn wandered into Virgo. She’s a Capricorn, so I suspect that wherever Saturn wanders, she gets hit especially hard in that aspect of her life. This job issue was affecting our house and home and family, and knowing what I know about Saturn, I figured out that I would need to include this planet in the rite to get the boundaries moved.

    Since I was going to be trying to move the boundaries, I knew I’d need to go through the Sun to get to the proper part of Saturn’s sphere. The Solar Gate to Saturn provides the best landing pads, in my opinion. The Mars Gate sucks.

    So if you’ve been keeping track, by this time I had figured out I needed to work with the Sun, Saturn, Mercury, Jupiter, and the Moon. And it was a Tuesday. I looked at what I was thinking about, and laughed. Five of the Seven Governors working together to get me out of a mess on a day that none of them ruled. So what the hell, says I, I’ll throw Mars in too. I should probably have included Venus anyway, but it didn’t seem to make sense at the time. Looking back, it could have helped with the Hearth/Home issues too.

    So I had analyzed my situation and identified what some of the contributing factors were. I looked to the stars and found what was looking good and what wasn’t. I identified the key players, and figured out how each could be used magically to turn around my situation.

    So, in the hour of the Moon (because I was primarily trying to expand Jupiter’s influence to overcome the slow-but-steady aspect of financial growth that controls him while he’s in Capricorn), I conjured the following Archangels of the Planets:

    • Gabriel – Moon, to increase Jupiter’s influence
    • Tzadqiel – To increase Jupiter’s influence, bringing health and prosperity to the situation
    • Michael – To work with Tzaphqiel in a nice smooth manner to loosen bonds and move the boundaries that were constricting hearth and home, and to turn the boundaries from being walls of confinement into walls of protection
    • Tzaphqiel – To actually move the boundaries that were keeping our family poor and ill outwards, providing more space for the Jupiter-Moon effect to fill up the new gap, and to strengthen our defenses of our house and home
    • Raphael – To specifically aid in inter-communications between the other planetary governors, and to provide a focus on business to the rite
    • Kammael – Because it was Tuesday, at first, but as I was conjuring him I realized that he could add a certain “violence” to the rite, making its effects happen more quickly, and to turn it into a military campaign of sorts, like the Delta Force of Archangelic Powers

    I didn’t have time to set up a full ritual with all the incenses and lamens and seals and what have you. Astrologically, the clock was ticking, and I had about six minutes left in the Hour of the Moon, if I remember right. So I decided to go the Astral Temple route.

    I sat here in me leather chair before the computer monitor, closed me eyes and breathed. Focusing on the breath stills my mind, like the Qabalistic Cross used to back in the day when I practiced the GD-style magic. As my mind cleared, I began intoning the name of my HGA. At the same time, I visualized my Astral Temple around me. I basically placed myself at the center of the Altar setup I have, with the Four Angelic Kings surrounded by the Seven Planetary Seals. I felt my HGA’s presence in the room with me, and the golden light descended into my astral temple, bringing the seven planetary seals representing their spheres around me into sharp relief.

    As each of the Planetary Seals began to pulse with light and life, indicating to me that the Intelligences represented by each were at least listening, I began conjuring the Archangels. Each seemed to materialize around the seals that represented them, sort of. When I got to Raphael, the other Archangels seemed to clear up, and it was like putting on your glasses in the morning, or when the weather changes and a haze you didn’t realize was there just goes away.

    When I had all the Archangels present, I outlined why I had conjured them. I explained what had happened at work, and how it was affecting me. I then went through each of the Archangels mentioned above, and went over what it was I wanted them to do. I felt this warmth and this tingling in my body, which I had mostly forgotten about by then, and had to focus again on the temple. Can’t get distracted when the magic starts working.

    The Archangels all understood what it was I was trying to accomplish. Each agreed that they would do their part to make what I wanted manifest. It was a lot like a corporate meeting. they “talked” amongst themselves, and I sort of sensed what they were doing as different parts of my “Sphere” would resonate to each angel’s influence as they wove together the fabric of reality to accomplish what it was I was looking for.

    I thanked them, and my HGA, and God in Jesus name, and returned my awareness to my body. I felt completely different. Before beginning the rite, I was stressed, and felt a lot like a cornered, caged animal. The stress was like a heavy, humid heat wave on my soul. After the rite, it was jsut gone. Instead, I felt alive, healthy, and optimistic. That’s a big thing for me, because when I get going down the depression road that stess usually puts me on, optimism is the furthest thing from my mind.

    That day I got a call from the Vice President of the company I work for, and he went over everything that was going on with the contract in detail with me. He explained how things had happened, and what they were doing about it. He assured me that he would reissue a new contract that would work things out in my favor.

    My thoughts: “Yeah fucking right. You’ll say anything to keep me on your payroll, I’m making you money. No way I’m staying with a place that cut my paycheck in half and cut my benefits. Get fuct.”

    The next day, I got the contract. I got a raise, I got my benefits, and I was able to work out a 32-hour work schedule with the local sub-contractor that’s managing the project. I’m still losing money, but not half, and not the benefits. With a five-person family, you’ve got to hae benefits. That day, I also got multiple other job leads that would double my income for a couple of months, which was as long as the company expected me to be on reduced hours. I will be able to hold both jobs simultaneously by a stroke of luck.

    Now, ideally, I would have been performing divinations regularly enough to know what was coming. I would have seen this heading my way and done some proactive magic to eradicate the stress. I blame no one but myself. I’ve got to get a grasp on my life, and do all the things I mentioned in the Invisible College post so that I’m no longer left in a position of climbing back up the side of a cliff after I’ve run off like the Coyote chasing the Road Runner.

  • Just what are those spirits up to?

    Have you ever wondered why exactly the spirits are so helpful? For years I suspected there was some plot or conspiracy behind what was going on, from the GWB to the Illuminati. When I went through a fundy phase, I was convinced they were demons trying to lead me away from Christ (never mind that they all pointed me back to Christ anyway). In my secular human phase, I assumed the advanced technology of some members of society was being used to manipulate otherwise talented individuals to keep them from interfering with the plan for interdimensional control.

    I think I’ve finally got it figured out. It has to do with their intrinsic nature. Each of these spirits is a self-conscious non-corporeal intelligence. It was created (or emmanated) in order to direct a current that influences manifest reality. For instance, Jupiter is an aspect of God that is assigned to dignities, prosperity, and offices of authority. Venus is an aspect of God that has influence over the domain of the heart. They each have a set of skills and talents that they’re really good at.

    These spirits are helpful because that’s what they do. They want to spread love, or assign dignities. That’s what they exist for. While they have general work to do, every time a specific mage calls upon them or their representatives, they have the opportunity to work with another intelligent aspect of God that wants to communicate with them. It brings them joy.

  • Bored Magi

    I have come to believe that there is nothing more dangerous than a bored magician.

    Some people get bored and torture their victims, like a cat toying with a mouse that was unlucky enough to catch its mercurial attention. Some people sit back and mock others. Some people take their boredom and invest it in whatever madness they’ve been keeping on the back burner for just such an occasion.

    On the whole, I’d say those who toy with others are probably the safest of the bunch. I’m in the camp of “let’s make things interesting,” and that usually means conjuring something I haven’t before, or making some magical craft in the Lab. The gold-painted Sculpey Seal of Bune was probably the least dangerous, and most amusing.


    The Crystal Skull was less amusing, but more interesting. The Spirit Pot has been the most profitable and has provided the most long-term fun.

    I also use this forum to discuss things that are on my mind, like Bored Magi. 

    I’m not saying I don’t toy with people on message boards when I’m bored, or that I don’t mock people. I’m probably the worst offender when it comes to that.

    That’s dangerous though. I’ve been reading Patrick Dunn’s latest book, and I’m only on the intro where he talks about the possible etymology of the word “ABRACADABRA.” One possible original meaning is “I create as I speak.” This is the epitome of what I practice as a magician. Made in the image of God who created through Logos, the Word, and created to continue this Work in the world around me.

    When we speak, as magicians, we are changing the world. Everyone does it, but I think magicians have a little more power behind their words as a result of their closer-ness to the Source of our being. Watching what we say is important. I called someone an “unmedicated bipolar” person on a list today. I don’t know if that’s what they are or not, but I wouldn’t be surprised to find out later that I was right. Did I seal it into being by saying it, or was I just commenting on what was apparent already? Does it matter?

    I don’t know. On the one hand there’s the real possibility of megalomania. On the other, there’s the real possibility that everything we speak into being does come into being. Maybe not EVERYTHING, but … still. Better safe than sorry, I suppose.

    So my advice to anyone else and especially myself is to think before you speak, and speak proactively. Have a list of good things to say, not like affirmations, but as alternate text to put forward when confronted with a situation that you could make worse.

    I’ll get started on mine.

  • Learning Goetia the Easy Way – Kinetic Meditation

    I sold a set of the plaster seals of the nine Kings of the Lemegeton’s Goetia last week. The images in this post are scanned wooden blanks that I used to make the Sculpey molds for the plaster casts. I discovered some flaws in my process, but it all worked out in the end. I had to soak the wooden seals in oil to get them not to stick to the Sculpey. The “size” used to make the gold leaf stick to the seal gets rapidly absorbed into the plaster, so the leaf doesn’t stick to regular plaster, unless you use all the size, and then you can’t make out the engraved seals. I’m trying a polyurethane seal now. As soon as they dry, I’ll see if a couple coats of poly seals up the plaster enough for the glue to stay on the surface. (Edit: It worked!)

    But that’s not the point of the post. Just passing along information I’ve picked up. The point is this:

    I have learned SO MUCH about the personalities of the Kings of the Goetia by engraving their seals. I worked from the online version of the Goetia primarily to get the seals. I like some of Crowley/Mathers more stylized seals, but there’s something more authentic, more “down and dirty” to the seals on Joe Peterson’s site. They were carved into wood, I think, or were drawn by an unsteady hand. They look “lived in.” The seals in the Crowley/Mathers translation are too perfect to be made by the hands of any but the most practiced or naturally talented craftsmen. I’m neither.

    But to engrave a seal into wood, you have to know it pretty well. I drew each seal a couple of times, getting the feel of the proportions, learning how it was “supposed” to go. Then I had to scale it to two-inch disks. At first I tried doing it all technical using graph paper and rulers and protractors and compasses like I was some kind of master draftsman. Things kept turning out wrong. They looked straight, and the proportions were technically accurate, but they felt wrong. So I went back to free-hand drawing, and it worked much better.

    As I drew the seals, I found myself immersed in each one’s details. Little circles that might have marked the beginning or ending of their name on a Kamea, crosses and daggers, hearts, tridents, and classic demon tails with the pointy barbed tips. I saw how the seals were expressions of each spirit, direct revelations of themselves to people. I saw how tracing each seal was itself an act of conjuring the spirit. I understood Nazca Lines, Pictographs, and the development of writing from the moment we took on fleshly form through James Joyce.

    (It stopped at James Joyce because, frankly, NO ONE UNDERSTANDS JAMES JOYCE. That was the point of Ulysses, and all the Bloom freaks out there can’t prove anything. It was just bullshit.)

    But in tracing out the seals by hand, you are joining with the countless aeons of other people who have evoked this spirit, from the crazy drunk blonde in Australia getting revenge on some shiela to the African engineers of ethnic cleansing, to the Popes of France. I mean, you’re joining together with bastards and kings from across time to conjure up the spirits of hell to get what you want. You’re entering the myth, becoming the myth, and making it real. It’s some powerful stuff.

    I’ve come to understand why people think the Lem’s Goetic Spirits are manifestations of the human psyche. It’s more than “They don’t know what the fuck they’re talking about.” Honest. I can grow spiritual compassion.  Anyone can. If they want.

    It’s because they do the magic, and they feel parts of their brain warm up when they trace the seals. They feel the shift in the vibration of their spheres that comes when you start drawing out seals. They attribute it wrong, of course, but that’s fine.

    (Note: “Of Course” almost always denotes SARCASM, or that which should be mocked. And not just when I use it. That’s what it “really” means for everyone. Watch tomorrow, and every time someone says “of course,” you’ll see that whatever they’re referencing is completely worthy of endless ridicule. When I use “of course,” I do it on purpose. Unlike those dweebs you work with. They don’t know what they’re doing, they’re barely fucking human. Of course.)

    When you put that pen or pencil to the page, and move it along the ancient pathways, you immediately get the attention of the spirit you’re working with. It checks in on you and sees what’s going on. If you seem like you’ve got something interesting going on, it sticks around and helps you understand its seal a bit more. You feel where the guy recording the Seal was coming from. You get the feeling that you know where he messed up and had to leave it that way because it was close enough and he was out of parchment. You get the feeling you know how to extend something just right.

    So how do you know it’s “real”? I mean, how can you tell a spirit is influencing you, and it’s not “just” your ego thinking it knows better than the grimoires? Do it a lot, and you’ll get what I mean. Do it with different seals. Draw them out, and pay attention. Here’s what I mean:

    Balam. He’s got this three-humped B, an arrow, what looks like an IAO permutation, a trident and a spear-thing. Oh, and a pointy pointy tail. The three-humped B has these little squiggles coming of the top and bottom where the humps meet the vertical line. They could be artistic flourish, or they could be the remnants of the starting and stopping points of the spirit’s name on a Kamea, or Tablet of some kind like the Great Table of Enochian Magic, or the Tablets of the Planets in Agrippa. You can’t tell by looking at it, and it’s apparent that the one in the manuscript at Joe’s site is drawn freehand. The squiggles are disproportionate. You can’t tell if it was on purpose or not. I went with my intuition on this one, and made the squiggles more reflective of one another. It was that feeling I described above.

    Vine. The Peterson seal from the manuscript is just ugly. In trying to copy it out, I understood why. If the original dude recording the seal didn’t grok the spirit, then he would make the kinds of mistakes that were made. It’s got seven “humps,” and one in the manuscript is heinous. It has an out-of-center cross coming down, and you can tell it’s just not right. There’s little circles inside this one part that don’t line up with anything. I tried “fixing it” the same way I tried with Balam’s seal, and it just didn’t work. I stylized it, I made it my own, I tried rulers and measuring so each hump was equidistant, I tried everything I could think of to make it look right, and I still had this empty feeling, like a void where the “Eureka!” should have been.

    Then this warm inspiration hit to check the Crowley/Mathers seal. I did, and I saw how it had been presented, and what the “right” way was. I remembered something Belial had shown me about his seal, and it all clicked together. The seal is a picture of a crown, or a helmet, or a mask. As soon as I understood what it was, I was able to sketch out the seal just “right.” That feeling of correctness that flooded me left my arm hairs standing up.

    See how the techniques were different for different seals, and yet still informed by one another? That has become a hallmark of the spirits in my Work. In my day-to-day existence, I find a way to do something, and I use it from then on. Like in Microsoft’s Word, you can do the same thing like a bajillion different ways. Some are faster than others, some are actually logical, sort of. I’m using the techniques I developed in Word when its releases were still numbered. Even if I find a faster, easier way to do something, once I’ve learned how to do it I usually stick with it. That’s how I am in myself.

    When I’m being informed by the Spirits, I can feel them offering new ways to do things, and they appeal to me. It’s a very subtle thing about myself that I’ve noticed in my getting to know me, and I can tell when I’m not doing things the way I normally do. That’s why it’s so important to Know Yourself.

    Someone posted on the Solomonic group the other day that they wanted to learn the Goetia. Almost everyone on that list is an author or aspiring author, and they’re almost all interested in the Goetia. The archives are fabulous resources of excellent information. I can’t recommend enough that people interested in learning Goetia should go out and research other magicians that have worked with these spirits to familiarize yourself with their experiences. From Lisiewski and Konstantinos to Jake Stratton-Kent’s pact work to Moloch the Radionics Sorceror. From Poke Runyon to Lon DuQuette. From the liberal chaos magical blogs to the conservative reconstructionist traditionalists of the world. From Chris Warnock to Pat Zalewski. Crowley, Mathers, Agrippa, hell even Levi.

    But not Dion Fortune. Not ever her. And don’t read the Kyballion. I mean it. If you do, do not ever quote from it. Chances are very, very good that you’re misrepresenting it, and it’s misrepresented to start with.

    Read, read, read, and read between the lines, with one ear cocked and listening to the Voice of your HGA, Genius, or the Holy Ghost of your belief system. Listen from your spirit to the spirits of the authors, not their personalities, but their experiences that lie behind their words. Separate the message from the word the way you have learned to separate the voices of the spirits from the voice of your own mind. Study.

    But… A faster way is available. Draw the frickin’ seals! Read the description of the spirit. Draw it’s seal. Write out its description. Draw its seal. Draw its seal again. Draw it some more. Buy a dremel tool and some wooden blanks from Wal Mart. Make sure you’ve got a steel cutter tip of some kind, the smallest spherical ones work best for me. Wooden disks are in the craft department. They have squares, circles, triangles, and a ton of selection of just wood stuff for crafters. I bought a boat to paint for fun for a buck too. Pick up some of that. I don’t care what it’s made of, this is kinetic meditation we’re talking here. It’s not an actual conjuration and communication with the spirit. It’s a tactile communion with it instead.

    Anyway, once you’ve got the sketching of the spirit seal down to an art and science, then sketch it on the wood. Engrave it. Start by tracing over the design lightly with the tip of the tool. Focus on how the tool behaves as you work with the grain of the wood as opposed to how it behaves when you work against it, or worse, if you’re trying to engrave a curve diagonal to the grain…

    (If a dremel tool is out of your financial budget, get a wood burning tool. It’s like $12. Wood’s cheap. Scrap works for this. Go without lunch for three days, or dinner. Save $12 and buy a damn tool. It’s an investment, you cheap bastard. Some readers of this blog might not even make $12 a month, and that’s shitty… but I’ll bet you have SOMETHING you can engrave wood with. A knife. A nail. Be creative. Adapt. Or you’ll never be a decent magician. Nothing works exactly as described, ever. Get used to it and make do, or give up and go get a job. And a shower and a haircut, you hippy.)

    As you focus on the crafting of the seal, you’ll find your mind detaches itself from the process, but it remains silent. The process of engraving the Seal draws the attention of the Spirit it represents, and you become aware of its presence. Pay attention to information that comes to you at this point. The spirit is watching you engrave the seal, and talking to you as you make each part. A scene unfolds, or you hear a story about that part of the seal. You understand what each part of the seal represents within the textual description of the spirit. It becomes illustrated in a way that it wasn’t before.

    Now, when you’re ready to conjure the spirit, you know a bit about it. You’ve Worked with it a bit, and your sphere is being affected, adapting to the new vibrations. It is incorporating the harmonies of this new entity. You’re performing a part of the Great Work, adding a crescendo to the overall melodies of existence.

    Oh, before you do any of that, you should work with your HGA. I mean, do the same thing. Figure its Genius Name and write it a few times in every magical script you can find a reference to on the internet. Focus on Agrippa Book 3, chapters 29 and 30. As you do, you’ll get to know the spirit. Engrave its seal or Name in wood, or metal, or something. Make a talisman. This communion with the HGA is essential to your work with the Goetia, in my opinion. In my Work as a magician, I strive to be the fulcrum between the manifest and unmanifest. As you work with the goetic spirits, your sphere adapts. Keep Working celestial spirits to maintain your position relative to God. Don’t lose sight of the big picture and your place in it, or you’ll end up in a “wasted burned out nut job” phase of the work, and that’s no fun.

    (Kittens make terrible blog helpers. In case you were wondering.)

  • The Puppet Masters

    Contacting Spirits that move between the aetheric planes is a relatively simple process, I’ve found. Whether you’re looking to speak with an archangel of a sephiroth, an earth-bound (i.e. goetic) demon, or a planetary intelligence, they’re ready to talk and are just waiting to get in touch with you. The process is simple: draw the symbol that represents them, open a portal to their dimension, and then ask them to show up.

    But why would you want to meet them? For years in my occult practices, I truly believed I had no interest in working with them. I would do a Lesser Banishing Ritual of the Pentagram (LBRP), and sure, that involved calling the four archangels that surround the throne of God, but then I would go on to do whatever ritual I had in mind at the time. Usually, this was either financially related or emotionally related. Either I was trying to get more money by landing a better job, or I was trying to bring peace to an emotionally chaotic situation in my life or in someone else’s. Occassionally I would perform a healing ritual for my sick friends.

    What I’ve found out lately is that I’ve always worked with “spirits.” Whether they are gods of a pantheon, or a sigil I created in my harried Chaos Magick days, the fact is that I would summon intelligent autonomous entities to provide energies to create change according to my will. Since receiving this revelation, I’ve begun studying specific catalgues of spirits, and I’ve found an amazing set of well-defined, documented entities that have greatly expanded my ability to perform targeted magickal rituals.

    Whether I work from the Goetia of the Key of Solomon, the Archangels of the Sephiroth, or the Olympik Spirits of the Arbatel, I’ve found that they are incredibly responsive and willing to perform their assigned duties as quickly as possible. This knowledge has translated to incredible power. Not the “power-mad, dominate the entire universe and reap untold wealth and glory at the expense of all others kind of power,” the physics potential-energy power.

    So why would you want to contact spirits in your magickal path? Because that’s the way magick is done. All magick is based on contacting god in his infinite rays, or the representatives of his energies as they manifest in this world.

    Are you trying to raise the tincture of your sphere to become a better person and advance in the Great Work? Evoke the spirits that exist in the realm of Atziluth of the qabalah. Their very presence will begin to transform your own sphere, raising your tincture (tincture refers to the vibrational level, the intrinsic quality) of your sphere, your soul.

    Looking for ancient knowledge or hidden texts? The list of Goetic entities is replete with spirits capable of bringing you knowledge from the spheres. Entities from Briah and Yetzirah of the qabalah are also great at this. They bring books into your life related to the subjects you ask them about, or simply tell you what you need to know.

    How about getting prosperous or getting health? The spirits of Assiah of the qabalah work at the mundane, physical level. Being closely related to the material realm, they are wonderful resources for manifesting wealth, health and prosperity.

  • The Puppet Masters

    Fellow blogger and general gadabout E. Keith Boyne tipped me off to this cool service called “WOWIO.” You may have already known about it, but it’s free books, legally. You can read them with a web browser. I read The Puppet Masters by Heinlein the other day. Today I’m going to delve into something about the relationship with my HGA, and I’ll be using that story to illustrate my points. Click the title to read the story if you want more context for the post. It’s relatively short, and Heinlein writes easy.

    Ok, so the story line is this: aliens invade and take over people, riding them like mules, only without consent. Being a Heinlein novel, it’s fairly sexist, but with an eye towards radical femininism (no, not feminism; there’s a difference). He’s always got the hero metamorphisizing from an observant, pragmatic, but weak underling into a Juggernaut of right action. There’s always a Father Figure who oversees the initiations and development of the hero, and when the metamorphosis occurs, it is the Father Fgure usually who identifies it and acknowledges it. In this story, it takes the Father Figure to point out to the Hero that the metamorphosis had even occurred.

    Metamorphosis. It’s one of the first five-dollar words they teach kids. They come home and carefully pronounce it and tell you about pupa (poo-pa-… and much giggling ensues), and crsya-crysa-chrysalises. Their eager faces are thrilled, and they can hardly belive what they learned themselves. And they crown it off with the shining medallion, “That’s Me-ta-mor-pho-sis.”

    How important is progressive metamorphosis to us as spiritual beings if even the secular atheist scientists that design the school curriculum insist on teaching that big old word so young? They don’t teach a-biogenesis first, even though you’d think that was more important since life supposedly sprang from not-life. No, they start with metamorphosis. It’s something the kids understand and have experienced, and it sets the scene for what’s to come. It’s also the fundamental process of Natural Law.

    In our relationships with our HGA, a spiritual metamorphosis is going on. We start out like the main character in the Puppet Masters. He’s a servant of a shadowy intelligence gathering organization that reports directly to the President. An agent. He takes orders and does his job. The details of his life are foggy, as he shifts from identity to identity with each passing job. He can’t even remember what he originally looked like. He goes by Sam, the name his boss gives him for most of the book. Much later we learn his name was “really” Elihu, although he ultimately becomes Sam.

    As we get to know our HGA, we go through some shit. Not pleasant and happy shit. In the story, the shit was the aliens. They were basically a goo that attached to the back of a human and took over through the nervous system. They made the host totally submissive, and thoughts from the entities seemed like their own thoughts, and were obeyed without question.

    That’s us. We’re ridden by our nepheshim. It’s the Master that must be obeyed, no matter what. The HGA comes along and tells us that we’re slaves, and we can be reborn as free men, if we’re willing to overthrow the Master and take control ourselves. And he helps us get there.

    Fast forward over a lot of important stuff, and you’ve recognized the problem, and learned a lot about the enemy, and you’ve got some good ideas about fixing it. The people around you are jabbering away about shit, and not doing what has become obvious to you as a result of your experiences with the HGA. You stand up in a moment of frustration and say the obvious, and all eyes turn to you. You’ve solved the problem, and not only that, something else has changed.

    In the story line, the Hero hits this point and the Old Man steps aside, and hands the mantle of authority to the younger man. He recognizes that he has been replaced in the leadership role of the battle when Sam comes up with a brilliant solution to the problem while he stood there unable to do it himself.

    Sam had no clue, and didn’t want the responsibility, but at that point it was too late. The Old Man knows when the time has come to pass on the crown, as it were.

    In our relationship with the HGA, I think we go through similar stages. In the beginning, we get awoken by the HGA. We’re basically trying our best to stumble around after its voice, like walking in someone else’s house at night trying to find the bathroom. Eventually we learn to see, and can guide ourselves without bashing our shins on the coffee tables. The HGA teaches us, trains us, and tunes us to the frequencies of the higher spheres. It paves the way upwards, gets you in good with the other angels, and even watches your ass when the demons come prowling.

    Then, when you’re ready, it steps out of the way and demonstrates that you’re the one who is the Man, made in God’s Image to be a cohort and friend.

    Metamorphosis. Progressive sanctification. Transformation. Trans-Abyssal Technologies. Living in the knowledge of who you are and what you are. Contemplating your (divine) Race and (eternal) Value.

    And then Returning to the Earth in Great Power, as the Emerald Tablet says. Me, I try to exist at the fulcrum between the macrocosm and the microcosm, and then go to whichever end of the “lever” I need to at the moment. I suspect a Buddhist may posit that there is no fulcrum, no lever, and no macro to this micro -cosm.

    Which is one of the many reasons I’m not a Buddhist. I’ve seen behind the illusions, yet the illusions remain… AS IF THEY SERVED A PURPOSE. And me, I’ve found that purpose through my Work with my HGA. It’s still being refined, metamorphing into what it will become, and that’s alright with me.

  • A quick plug

    Mike Rock, familiar to many of my cohorts, but maybe not to all my readers, has started blogging. Again. Hopefully this time he will be more consistent, as he’s one of those pacticing magicians I consider to be in the Invisible College.

    His blog be here: http://blog.mike-rock.com

    Among the feathers in his cap is his ongoing translations of the Picatrix from French manuscripts. When I made the 4th Pentacle of upiter, I used the colors of the planets and signs from the Picatrix, and it was his site that provided the info, if I remember correctly.

    He’s also been known to put the Hymns of Orpheus to modern music. Musician magicians fascinate me. I know and understand the “harmony of the spheres,” but I’ve never heard it. I tried playing guitar for a while, and had to take a break (I gave my freaking guitar to the freaking Church in a fit of donative ecstasy; regret!).