I just finished reading an article on the Four Powers of the Sphinx by Patrick Dunn in the latest edition of Rending the Veil. I liked it, a lot. I usually get annoyed when the subject of the Four Powers of the Sphinx comes up. I’m not silent about my Work, I talk about it all the time. I’m not convinced that the “Will” has ever been properly identified in a magickal context. Daring and Knowledge didn’t strike me much as being more than a passing Captain Obvious reference. (As in, way to go, Captain Obvious!)

But Patrick Dunn’s article treats the subject in a way I’ve never seen presented before. I’m no postmodernist, but I still could grasp what he was saying and see how it made the Powers of the Sphinx into something useful, instead of being a puss-filled boil on magic’s backside.

The full article is located via this link. Click the underlined part, dude, or the Title of this post. It’s well worth the read.

I’m experimenting with different ways to use my spirit pot. From what I can find on the internet about spirit pots in hoodoo and the spirit cauldron in Palo, offerings to the spirit are made by placing the offering in the general vicinity of the pot. So far my offerings have consisted of lit candles.

The reason I chose Bune, as I said in an earlier post, was because one of his powers is to bring riches unto a man. (From the Crowley-Mathers edition of the Goetia.) I am a Taurus, and while I have learned to be content in all things, whether poor or rich, I still prefer riches and oppulence to being consistently overdrawn in my bank accounts.

One of the things I learned early in my magickal career is to always be very specific in what you want when doing magick, and even then, don’t expect the outcome to be exactly what you intended. At best it will be exactly what you asked for.

With this in mind, I sat down one afternoon and figured out exactly how much money I would need to have the lifestyle I desire. I want a nice-sized house in a good area, to pay for the vehicles our family requires, and enough residual income to make around $100,000 a year. I also specifically want this money all at once, not just an opportunity to make the money over 16 years of labor. Knowing that I would be paying axes on a lump sum, I added that to the initial amount, and came up with a figure of $7,142,857.14.

Last night I created a talisman that included the exact dollar amount, my intent, and the names of God used in evoking Goetic entities, crowned with ADNI MLK, because the intent is to have this manifest in the realm of Assiah. I placed this talisman in the spirit pot and lit three candles around the pot, and anointed the pot itself with the Oil of Abramelin. Anointing things with oil and waters seem to be a big deal in hoodoo, and the Oil of Abramelin is a very potent thinner of the veils.

Rest assured, I will post the results. Any suggestions from more advanced users of the spirit pot are welcome. Comment below.

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.

Ok, now I’ve been posting my Bune rites and rituals here along with results for over a year. Spirit pot, sigils, copper medallions, Jupiter-Sagittarius-OK-only-Venus, blah blah blah. From wealth to exorcisms, I’ve talked about the things this spirit can do and has done in my life on this blog.

But this one takes the cake. It’s totally beyond anything I’ve experienced with Bune, and if anyone told me the following anecdote and the role Bune played in it, I’d tell them that based on my experience to date with Bune (up until yesterday), they were frankly completely full of shit. Just goes to show there’s always another wrinkle up the sleeve.

Ok, so I’ve been sick. Really sick. For a few weeks. Bad. Fever, coughing, all the flu symptoms, the common cold symptoms, and sinusitis symptoms you can imagine. A sore throat, multi-hued phlegm, and my coughing muscles were literally sore from the non-stop coughing that had been going on. The doctors told me it was a virus, and that they couldn’t do anything but treat the symptoms. I got a $200+ bill for an inhaler (I’m not asthmatic), some prednisone, and a tiny little bottle of cough syrup that had morphine in it. Knocked me on my ass last weekend, from Friday afternoon when I got it until Monday morning when I had to quit taking it to be able to work. All I did was sleep and sweat and hallucinate from the fever. And cough.

Ok, enough background. I was really sick. I was complaining to a friend in email who unfortunately asked how I was doing. I told them in such detail that they couldn’t finish their banana bread. I mentioned I was going to do a divination to see if someone was spiritually attacking me or if there were some crossed condition, as soon as I felt up to it.

Whipping out their favorite oracle, a flippin‘ coin (get it, flippin‘!?) , they performed a quick divination and sent me the results. They said that a student had performed some healing rite using the techniques I’d taught them, but they had used a Bune spirit for some ignorant fucking reason. As a result of some stupid spiritual connection to me(!), their stupid failed rite ended up with me getting into a crossed condition, and that I could appeal to “my” Bune spirit in my spirit pot and get it to set things right.

Ok, that sounded like horse shit to me. I don’t believe in that kind of backlash on teachers, first of all. Second, I’m no one’s fucking teacher. I had a guy I was teaching Samekh to, and my particular brand of Christian Magick, but he just sort of vanished in an electronic poof after doing Samekh for a few weeks. And I never had him doing anything with Bune, that I can remember, and I’m sure he’s bright enough not to try to use a WEALTH and EXORCISM spirit of the UNDERWORLD to do a stupid ass HEALING ritual.

So if it wasn’t him, chances are it was the one complete fucking MORON that reads my work online (the rest of you are, of course, geniuses). MORON, however, was thinking about ME during their fucking ritual with BUNE and ended up fucking up my life.

Look, I shouldn’t have to say this, but when you’re doing a ritual, THINK ABOUT THE RITUAL YOU’RE DOING!!! Not me, or whoever mentioned the techniques you’re using. If you do any magick based on something you read here, motherfucking don’t do it while thinking about me. All you need to be thinking about is your ritual, listening for the voice of the spirit, and maybe contemplating your role in the cosmic hierarchy in the midst of the Heavens emanating from the Source. Got it? Good.

Ok, so like I said, horse shit. On a whim, I quick checked with my HGA, and got the go-ahead to do a divination on it. I whipped out my mini-Rider-Waite deck and shuffled and asked a specific question. Shockingly to me, it totally confirmed what my friend had said. I thought, no way, this isn’t how Bune works!

But I don’t ignore friends, divinations, and my HGA all at the same time. Most days. The tarot spread had filled in some gaps from the coin-flip divination, and I followed the advice that got me past the particular feedback I was getting on the spiritual wire. Then I went straight to my Bune spirit pot and spoke to Bune directly about the situation, got confirmation again from him that he would fix it, lit five candles as an offering in front of the Spirit Pot, and went to bed, still not entirely convinced.

And then I woke up this morning feeling a million times better. Lungs are still hurt, and I’m a little weak. Mildly dehydrated, but man, I felt good for the first time in literally weeks.

So there you have it. You go on your way now and think about it, because that’s certainly something I’m going to be doing.

In closing, if you learn any magick from me, you just remember I learned it for free on the internet, and from some spirits, and it’s got nothing to do with me except that I happened to write it down and post it here or something.

DON’T THINK IT HAS SHIT TO DO WITH ME, IT DOESN’T!!!!

It’s all about you, and God. Leave me out of it. Or I’ll kick your ass. I’ll curse the living SHIT out of you if you use my techniques and fuck things up in my life, even if you do it accidentally. Capiche?

Good night, and Good Magick.

Greetings faithful (and faithless hell-bound-heathen) readers! I should probably start a regular series of Captain Obvious posts. I do seem to make a lot of mistakes that in retrospect turn out to be pretty hard to have missed in the first place.

Today’s is a simple lesson I learned while Mercury was Retrograde.

I’ve had a rough Mercury Retrograde. It wasn’t too terribly bad with technological issues, but communications were sucky on many lists. And two or three times I got pissed at someone on a message board and wanted to curse them. :sigh:

After years of doing the Work now, at a pretty clipped pace, I’ve gotten to a point where I really take it for granted that I’m a sane, rational, and pretty emotionally well-balanced person. So when I found myself thoroughly ticked off at really stupid things, I was a little surprised. I conjured Kammael on a Tuesday to fix whatever was messed up in my Martial sphere, and things settled down quickly.

Anyway, I’ve learned a valuable lesson. I didn’t curse anyone, and instead behaved politely and respectfully, and apologized even, when I was wrong or at least rude about being right. And guess what? These people I wanted to “teach a lesson to” all turned out to be friendly when the dust settled.

Yes folks, that’s right! If you’re nice to people, they can be your friends!

Ok, so Captain Obvious gets a Sesame Street Lesson out of life. Only without the muppets.

Ok, well, I shouldn’t say “no one” understands me. The fact is that most folks seem content, at least, with the things I do, and seem to grasp that these posts I make here and on message boards are the records, thoughts, observations, and witticisms that come from my personal efforts to accomplish the Great Work.

There are some folks who don’t get it though, and I’m not so enlightened that I can just accept that some people won’t get it. I’ve got this overwhelming urge to explain myself to my detractors in the naive hope that they will understand what’s going on at Rufus Opus.

Why do I focus on Wealth and Prosperity primarily in my posts? Mainly because that’s something everyone I know can use help with, or could have used some help with at one point in their lives. I try to demonstrate that it’s not hard to make a talisman for great wealth and riches. I try to get people to do magick that serves them personally. I’m laying out bait, as it were, to get people doing magick.

When you do any ritual that involves conjuring the angels or archangels of the higher realms, they have an effect on the magician. Each interaction with a higher power results in that higher power rubbing off on the magician a little bit, getting them closer to accomplishing the Great Work. Every conjuration of a spirit transmutes the magician’s primal material just a little bit, refining it, making them a better person, making them more magickally aware, more accomplished, and better-balanced.

I could focus on all the philosophical implications of magick, and tell people how to do theurgical rites alone, but most folks will read it, think it’s a good idea, and then do nothing else. I know, I was there for years. But when I started doing the real stuff, I started growing spiritually as a side effect. The truths of the platonists and neoplatonists revealed themselves to me. I gained insight into the workings of the universe. I conquered character flaws, became more generous, and all the things that a spiritual person ought to experience.

So that’s why I teach people the basics of material-manipulation on this blog. That’s why I sell the Angel Conjuration Kits that appeal to the basic needs and desires of humanity. If someone buys the Love Angel conjuration Kit and does the Work to get themselves their soul mate, then they will be hobnobbing with the Archangel of Venus, who will naturally attune their spheres, cleansing out their own problems and burn off the things that hinder them in the process.

I didn’t think I needed to tell the more advanced adepts that this is why I do things, but a couple of people who should know better seem to think I’m in this for the money and that I think magick is all a scam, a way to pull a fast one.

It is, in a way, a shortcut to everything you could possibly desire. But at the same time, you will undergo the four stages of the Alchemical Great Work. You can’t have mastery of the universe without the transmutation of the soul. It’s nice how that works.

So for all of you who have thought that my magickal techniques were just for money, you’re wrong. I just don’t talk much about the spiritual aspects of the Work because really, you’ll need to experience them and interpret them within the context of your own life. The techniques I provide are a catalyst for the Great Work.

That should sum it up. If anyone still thinks I’m in it for the money… well, let’s just say I’m not getting rich off anything I do online. I cover my expenses for the web site, and make a little more on the side, about enough for a dinner at Bob Evans once or twice a month for me and my family.