Category: Blogspot Archive

Category: Blogspot Archive

  • The Weirdest Bune Thing Yet

    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.

  • Really Interesting Blog

    For those who are interested in some really neat magickal stuff that is straight from the heart of Agrippa’s teacher Trithemius, or at least looks like it, check out this blog:

    http://blog.abrahadabramelin.org/?p=86

    Dude did an incredible job. I understand little of what I’m seeing so far, but I have a good feeling about this one.

    -R.O.

  • The Weirdest Bune

    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.

  • No One Understands Me…

    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.

  • No One Understands Me…

    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.

  • From the Sun to Saturn, and Back to the Sun

    I have a nemesis. Maybe that’s stretching it a bit, but there’s this guy on a couple of message boards that I belong to, and we tend to disagree. He’s an Aries, I’m a Taurus, and we fight. Many of the readers here who also read through the Yahoo occult groups will be familiar with this guy. His name is Logan.

    Anyone who has endured the misfortune of witnessing a “debate” between myself and Logan on any of the message boards we share deserves an apology. We can get boring, sarcastic, and we tend to use each other to demonstrate what we consider our own wit and brilliance. It usually lasts about as long as it takes for me to get disgusted and start calling him foul names. Every few months or so, I’ll forget why I can’t stand him, and enter into a conversation that rapidly becomes a debate, and then turns into a name-calling match. I’ve been better lately, but he still gets on my nerves.

    What bothers me most is that the smug self-righteous British bastard has helped me out a lot in my pursuit of the Grail, the Great Work. He helped me appreciate Plato, and destroyed my confidence in the GD Tree of Life by demonstrating its shaky foundations. This lead me to fully embrace the Neo-Platonic realm of Agrippa, and to understand something Patrick Dunn is always going on about regarding the arbitrariness of semiotic webs.

    So anyway, Logan told me months ago that I needed to read Eliphas Levi. He had quoted something about how Levi said “Magick is not a vocation” in response to my selling Conversation with the HGA through the conjuration of the Genius (See the Products and Services link at www.rufusopus.com). I have never read Levi, and with Logan as his sponsor in my current magical environment, I was set against it. Until earlier today.

    First off, Levi may have said Magick is not a vocation, but if he did (I haven’t gotten that far yet), he said it after saying the Magician is a Priest and King. Both Priests and Kings collect Tithes and Taxes, so the whole argument against taking money for magickal services is undermined right there, wha-bam!

    Ok, that said, Levi is really good reading. The guy presents magick with no holds barred. He tells it like it is, presents the Great Work more impressively than anything I’ve seen in a long time (outside my own writing, of course). It’s WORK. It’s hard. It’s even “dangerous” in that if you give up after starting, you’ll be worse off than if you’d never started at all. Not that you can quit once you’ve begun anyway, but at least he tells you you’ll end up a Monarch or a Madman at the start. Good stuff.

    What inspired this particular blog post though was the following:

    “there is no point in infinite extension which may not be regarded as the centre of a circle having an expanding circumference receding indefinitely into space”
    (Page 6 at http://www.hermetic.com/browe-archive/pdf/DogmaEtRituel%20Part%201.pdf)

    Think about that for a moment. We are such points, beginning in our Work at the center of a circle with a somewhat fixed circumference. As we progress, we expand the circumference, becoming aware of all the things within the circumference of that circle, learning to integrate the “energies” of the things we find into our own spheres as the limits of our spheres expand. The limits of the spheres expand as the Light from the center of the sphere increases its radiation, exposing more of what can be found within the darkness at the edges of our sphere of awareness.

    In Crowley’s popular magickal system, we find the Holy Guardian Angel (HGA) in Tiphareth, the Sephira that corresponds to the Sphere of the Sun. When the magician establishes Knowledge and Conversation with their HGA, they undergo a Solar Initiation. The hidden corners of their personal sphere are exposed to the light, and the magician is forced to confront and deal with those parts of themselves they hide in the darkness. Each character flaw, each untamed passion, every sin or self-destructive tendency comes to the fore and must be corrected, tamed, repented from, or channeled into proactive directions with the help of your HGA. The Point gets enflamed with the Light of the Sun, and as the Sun reveals more, the boundaries of the sphere of the magician are expanded.

    Boundaries… yes, the realm of Saturn, the furthest planet observable by the naked eye. The first sphere of Form in the Kircher Tree of Life (Binah). The layer of emanation where ideas take form, where the limits are set, where the Lord tells the Sea, you may come this far and no further. These are the properties of Saturn.

    Knowing this, you can see that the act of spiritual advancement is the interplay of the Sun and Saturn. As the Light of the Sun increases, the limits set by Saturn are made mutable, and they move further out. As we explore our new boundaries, integrating the things that were hidden in shadow before, learning to function within the newly expanded sphere, we grow, gain insights, authority, and responsibility. With each new attribute of ourselves that we integrate, the understanding of the things we learned in our previous stages of advancement are enhanced. The responsibilities we had earlier change form, and we end up traveling back towards the Sun at the center of our sphere to reintegrate all the things we knew with the things we’ve learned. When we return to the sun at the center of our microcosm, we hit the next level, and the Light increases, and our boundaries expand, and we begin to explore the furthest reaches of the Light yet again.

    From the Sun to Saturn and Back again. The path of the Labyrinth. (Which is not to be confused with a maze; a Labyrinth has one entrance and one exit side by side, travels only to the center and back to the beginning. A Magician travels to the center and returns to the beginning, carrying with him the treasure held within and sharing that with the realm outside.)

    All this theory and stuff is great and fun and all, but I’m still a Taurus. It’s meaningless without application, in my humble opinion.

    Where are you at? Have you plateaued in your Work? Are you stuck at a level of attainment, and you need to expand your boundaries? The answer is Working the Sun and Saturn. Conjure up the Archangels Tzaphqiel and Michael. Are you feeling like you’re stumbling around in the dark? Work with Michael of the Sun to bring the hidden things to light. Have you worked through everything you can think of, and still feel stuck in a rut? Conjure Tzaphqiel and Work with him to move the boundaries of your sphere. Head between the Sun and Saturn, make that your path, and you won’t get stuck.

    Sorrow turns to Joy in the light of the Sun, and unfocused rays become lasers when their boundaries are properly aligned.

    Grace and Peace!

  • No One Understands Me…

    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.

  • Sleep Paralysys, Night Hags, and the Work

    A friend asked me if I thought Sleep Paralysis or the Night Hag experience was greater or worse for people doing the Great Work.

    Starting with the basic cosmology, I believe the world as we know it is filled with spirits that we can’t see. Angels, fallen angels, elementals, and all the spirits of the dead that stick around this side of heaven, you know the drill.

    When we have strong emotions, we put off a certain kind of “energy” that can be sensed in a room or even a house. Some of the spirits we wade through every day can absorb nutrition from these strong emotions, the kind usually triggered by the amygdala.

    In order for the hags to be ble to feed off someone, they’ve got to be going through some kind of emotional duress or stress that has their amygdala working over time. Whatever the clonazepam does in the brain seems to patch this leak up in most people.

    The wandering hag spirit gets the scent of the leak and goes in for a free meal. Like a lamprey, the spirit attaches itself to the leak, and I believe it has something like the anesthetic saliva of a mosquito. this triggers that “I can’t move” effect in the brain, and if we wake up during the attack, we can’t do anything about it.

    As a magician pursues the Work, they’re patching up the holes, and learning new ways to deal with life that slowly eliminate the creation of any new leaks. So there’s less to feed on. We aren’t putting out a banquet every night for every wandering spirit.

    However, in the early stages, and especially during a Tiphareth Initiation, there’s usually a lot of pain involved. The “Gethsemane” experience, I like to call it. Crowley talks about the pain of a Tiphareth initiation in Liber XCV, “The Wake World.”

    “This Sixth House is called the Treasure House of Gold; it’s a most mysterious place as ever you were in. First there’s a tiny, tiny, tiny doorway, you must crawl through on your hands and knees; and even then I scraped ever such a lot of skin off my back; then you have to be nailed on a red board with four arms, with a great gold circle in the middle, and that hurts you dreadfully. Then they make you swear the most solemn things you ever heard of, how you would be faithful to the Fairy Prince, and live for nothing but to know him better and better. So the nails stopped hurting, because, of course, I saw that I was really being married, and this was part of it, and I was as glad as glad;”

    So until you get to the married part, if you haven’t done the Work in the previous spheres, you may have more hag experiences as the skin is scraped on your back.

    Also, as you progress in the Work, you begin to interact with the spirits more, and you get a few that hang around you. They tend to scare away the more aggressive spirits, wake you up before anything can happen, or just beat the shit out of the hungry ghosts that dare to infiltrate your sphere. Depends on the familiars you attract and work with.

  • Sleep Paralysys, Night Hags, and the Work

    A friend asked me if I thought Sleep Paralysis or the Night Hag experience was greater or worse for people doing the Great Work.

    Starting with the basic cosmology, I believe the world as we know it is filled with spirits that we can’t see. Angels, fallen angels, elementals, and all the spirits of the dead that stick around this side of heaven, you know the drill.

    When we have strong emotions, we put off a certain kind of “energy” that can be sensed in a room or even a house. Some of the spirits we wade through every day can absorb nutrition from these strong emotions, the kind usually triggered by the amygdala.

    In order for the hags to be ble to feed off someone, they’ve got to be going through some kind of emotional duress or stress that has their amygdala working over time. Whatever the clonazepam does in the brain seems to patch this leak up in most people.

    The wandering hag spirit gets the scent of the leak and goes in for a free meal. Like a lamprey, the spirit attaches itself to the leak, and I believe it has something like the anesthetic saliva of a mosquito. this triggers that “I can’t move” effect in the brain, and if we wake up during the attack, we can’t do anything about it.

    As a magician pursues the Work, they’re patching up the holes, and learning new ways to deal with life that slowly eliminate the creation of any new leaks. So there’s less to feed on. We aren’t putting out a banquet every night for every wandering spirit.

    However, in the early stages, and especially during a Tiphareth Initiation, there’s usually a lot of pain involved. The “Gethsemane” experience, I like to call it. Crowley talks about the pain of a Tiphareth initiation in Liber XCV, “The Wake World.”

    “This Sixth House is called the Treasure House of Gold; it’s a most mysterious place as ever you were in. First there’s a tiny, tiny, tiny doorway, you must crawl through on your hands and knees; and even then I scraped ever such a lot of skin off my back; then you have to be nailed on a red board with four arms, with a great gold circle in the middle, and that hurts you dreadfully. Then they make you swear the most solemn things you ever heard of, how you would be faithful to the Fairy Prince, and live for nothing but to know him better and better. So the nails stopped hurting, because, of course, I saw that I was really being married, and this was part of it, and I was as glad as glad;”

    So until you get to the married part, if you haven’t done the Work in the previous spheres, you may have more hag experiences as the skin is scraped on your back.

    Also, as you progress in the Work, you begin to interact with the spirits more, and you get a few that hang around you. They tend to scare away the more aggressive spirits, wake you up before anything can happen, or just beat the shit out of the hungry ghosts that dare to infiltrate your sphere. Depends on the familiars you attract and work with.

  • Shem 2

    :sigh:

    Remember I thought I didn’t have to say the Shem angels were Zodiacal in nature?

    Reference this link:

    http://www.esotericarchives.com/agrippa/agripp3b.htm#chap25

    For this quote:

    "seventy two trissyllable names of angels, whereof every one carries the great name of God, as it is written: My Angel shall go before thee; observe him, for my name is in him. And these are those that are set over the seventy two Celestial quinaries"

    There it is. I seem to have missed that little bit at the end the first time I read through. I didn’t realize Agrippa had placed them in the zodiac too. I thought he had no Zodiacal relationship, so I could skip that part of the rituals. Perhaps I’ll have to revisit Ambelain’s and Leitch’s methodologies after all. Rather disappointing, I must say. I hate astrology.