Rufus Opus

Category: Blogspot Archive

Category: Blogspot Archive

  • The Fourth Pentacle of Jupiter from the Key of Solomon

    I’ve decided to make a talisman of the fourth pentacle of Jupiter from the Key of Solomon. The timing is all wrong, at the moment, and it would be a while if I waited until the stars were aligned right. So this post is about how to make the best of a bad astrological timing through the conjuration of spirits.

    Mathers‘ edition of the Key of Solomon has the following to say about the Fourth Pentacle of Jupiter:

    The fourth pentacle of Jupiter.– It serveth to acquire riches and honor, and to possess much wealth. Its angel is Bariel. It should be engraved upon silver in the day and hour of Jupiter when he is in the sign Cancer.

    Being the erudite occultist that you are, you are no doubt aware that Jupiter is not in Cancer. Nor will he be until June 25, 2013, five years and three months from now. How do we make an effective talisman for a spirit that is specifically supposed to be made at a time that’s beyond our reach? No matter what we try to do now, when Jupiter is in Capricorn, we aren’t going to be able to have it be as propitious as it would be if the timing were absolutely right. But we can try to come close.

    The first thing we’re going to need to do is create the same kind of astrological influences as we would have if the timing were right. We’ll need something to bring in the forces of Cancer to create a backdrop, and then something to bring in the forces of Jupiter to focus those forces through his lens. Since I work so much with the angels of the spheres, I elected to use Muriel, the Angel of Cancer, and Tzadqiel, the Archangel of Jupiter to bring their influences to bear upon this talisman.

    Considering that I’m trying to replicate the sphere of the constellations being in a particular relationship to the sphere of Jupiter, I thought it would be a good idea to draw out the talisman with an additional two spheres represented.

    When I look at any seal that is made of circles, in my mind’s eye I see it as a cross-section of a sphere. The center circle represents the core of what you’re trying to manifest in the mundane realm. Around that is usually some specific manifestation of God or his representatives. Each space between concentric circles represents a particular sphere, and within that sphere you write the symbolic representations of the forces of the higher sphere that you are depending on to make what you want in the center sphere manifest.

    So in the center sphere of the Fourth Pentacle of Jupiter, there’s the Name ADNI on one side of the seal, and the Name Bariel written on the other side. Within the center is the figure that represents what it is we want to manifest, riches, honor, and much wealth. I personally feel it is a derivative of the geomantic symbol “Joy, Laughing, Healthy, Bearded.” It’s in Agrippa’s Three books of Occult Philosopy, Book II, chapter xlviii. Page 398 for those with Llewellyn’s Tyson translation, or here for people looking for a link.

    In the table of geomantic figures, the figure is listed as corresponding to the planet Jupiter and the constellation Taurus. That makes sense. Because the intent of this talisman is to pull down not only the wealth and riches that a luxury-loving Taurus would desire, it is inscribed in silver when Jupiter is in Cancer to include the manifestation of honors and glory that come with Jupiter in Cancer.

    Around this inner circle is inscribed a star of David and Psalms 112:3 “Wealth and riches are in his house, and his righteousness endureth for ever.” The Star of David represents the “as above, so below” principle of the Emerald Tablet, and the Psalm describes what part of the above should be made to manifest below, specifically wealth and riches.

    Now, since I’m not in the mood to wait five years for this ritual, I created another circle around this inscription. Within this sphere, I wrote out the name and seal of Tzadqiel and the planetary images of Jupiter. These are all available within Agrippa’s Three Books, and I’m not looking up the reference for it right now. It’s where I found them though.

    Around this circle, I drew yet another circle and inscribed the name of Muriel, the Angel of Cancer along with its seal from The Magical Calendar. The end result is a talisman with four concentric spheres (fitting for Jupiter), with the Seal, the Versicle, Tzadqiel-Jupiter, and Muriel-Cancer represented.

    While drawing out the seal, I definitely felt the presence of Bariel, or at the least the forces represented by the seal manifesting. As I wrote out the versicle, the feeling of the presence became even greater. I felt a tingling in my forehead, which was not anointed with Abramelin oil or any other substance that might have made it feel odd. This spread around my head, and I felt quite stoned by the time I was finished with that part of the talisman.

    I finished the other parts of the talisman another day, in the hour of Jupiter. Before beginning, I conjured my HGA, and then I conjured Tzadqiel to bring the forces of Jupiter to bear and Muriel to bring the forces of Cancer to bear. Within their presence, I wrote out their seals on the talisman. Later tonight, since this is the Jupiter Day, I will be performing a full consecration as I paint the image. I don’t have the tools to inscribe a finely detailed silver talisman at the moment, and to make it big enough to capture all the details, I would need quite a bit more silver than I have on hand. As a result, I’m sticking with Virgin Parchment and paint in the appropriate colors from Agrippa.

    Note that for the conjuration I will be using the modified formal conjuration I discuss in my ebook A Modern Angelic Grimoire, available for purchase from my web site.

  • The Same and Different

    If you’ve become spiritually and or magically aware enough to have had the passing thought that, yes, that motherfucker who just cut you off in traffic, that lazy bitch at the MVA, and even that oh-so-irritating n00b magician on the Great Work list is in real reality some manifestation of yourself because God is All in All, or It’s all One, or All that is is Light, Light in Extension, then you know that everything is the same.

    One God, One Monad, but at the exact same time, in the exact same space, it’s also multiple emanations manifesting as different individual, unique combinations of the elements, planetary and astrological influences. Proportionally, things manifest differently. there’s no thing in this world that is separate from any other thing, it’s true, but don’t forget, things are different at the same time. Unique. Like the old saying goes, you can never cross the same river twice. You’re different, or the water’s different. Not the same.

    Things are different for a reason. The Monad emanated on purpose. It wasn’t some cosmic acident. Everything between hell and heaven has a divine purpose, an assigned trait, a role and a responsibility that it must fulfill. When I hear modern magical mofos going on about how it’s all One, or how the HGA is the Atman, or that Krishna is Christ, or that Ashtaroth the Daimon is Asherah the Goddess, I want to rip their faces off. They obviously don’t appreciate having a unique face through which to interact with the rest of existence after all.

    Look, yeah, every god, goddess, daimon, angel, spirit, man, woman, child, rock, tree, and shrubbery is an extension of the same God. But it’s extended itself in its own way for a reason. Things are the same in higher levels, but those levels are so much higher that we can’t access them, not from where we are, and not without giving up that which makes us uniquely us.

    So the next time someone tells you that the HGA is the higher self, do me a favor and give them a good solid bitchslap. Tell them it’s from me. After all, we’re all extensions of God, right? So obviously, that makes you and everyone else… Me.

    All your base are belong to us.

  • The Same and Different

    If you’ve become spiritually and or magically aware enough to have had the passing thought that, yes, that motherfucker who just cut you off in traffic, that lazy bitch at the MVA, and even that oh-so-irritating n00b magician on the Great Work list is in real reality some manifestation of yourself because God is All in All, or It’s all One, or All that is is Light, Light in Extension, then you know that everything is the same.

    One God, One Monad, but at the exact same time, in the exact same space, it’s also multiple emanations manifesting as different individual, unique combinations of the elements, planetary and astrological influences. Proportionally, things manifest differently. there’s no thing in this world that is separate from any other thing, it’s true, but don’t forget, things are different at the same time. Unique. Like the old saying goes, you can never cross the same river twice. You’re different, or the water’s different. Not the same.

    Things are different for a reason. The Monad emanated on purpose. It wasn’t some cosmic acident. Everything between hell and heaven has a divine purpose, an assigned trait, a role and a responsibility that it must fulfill. When I hear modern magical mofos going on about how it’s all One, or how the HGA is the Atman, or that Krishna is Christ, or that Ashtaroth the Daimon is Asherah the Goddess, I want to rip their faces off. They obviously don’t appreciate having a unique face through which to interact with the rest of existence after all.

    Look, yeah, every god, goddess, daimon, angel, spirit, man, woman, child, rock, tree, and shrubbery is an extension of the same God. But it’s extended itself in its own way for a reason. Things are the same in higher levels, but those levels are so much higher that we can’t access them, not from where we are, and not without giving up that which makes us uniquely us.

    So the next time someone tells you that the HGA is the higher self, do me a favor and give them a good solid bitchslap. Tell them it’s from me. After all, we’re all extensions of God, right? So obviously, that makes you and everyone else… Me.

    All your base are belong to us.

  • 3.2 – Using the Glyph in Practice

    Once the Altar was laid out appropriately, methods of using the Glyph in practice came naturally.

    The binding of the Demonic Kings immediately cut off a great deal of mischief in my life. People at work that were obstacles to accomplishing my work suddenly became too distracted doing their work to give me grief, and began giving me the information I needed to do my job quickly to get rid of me. The kids behaved better. My spouse and I understood one another better. I quit running over curbs. (This is a big deal. For some reason, I’ve been running over curbs a lot in the last few years. It twisted the frame of one van, and popped the tire of another.)

    The placement of the elemental Kings in their appropriate locations (that is, not the traditional GD quadrants) brought me into harmony with the tiny parts that go into the moments I experience. The first few days, I had supra-luminescent vision, that transcendentalist-painting-vision, where the underlying divinity of all things is bursting through the edges of the forms they’re wearing to manifest in. I performed (successfully) workings within the elemental kingdoms for the first time in my magical career since leaving behind the 21 Lessons of Merlin. (Don’t read it.)

    My elemental weapons have gained a “shine” to them that wasn’t there previously. I don’t feel at all silly using the wand or dagger like I used to. They’ve become a natural extension of my Work. The Elemental realms themselves appear at the edges of my Altar space in the astral temple I use. My favorite is Raphael standing on the windswept mountains of the West. Reminds me of Colorado.

    The Planetary Talismans… Well, let’s just say things are going as well there as they are everywhere else in my Work. I’ve been doing a lot more Work with Michael in the Sun for others as part of the Solar Attunements included with the Genius rites I have performed for people, and it’s been… wonderful. I can’t recommend highly enough the importance of having a talisman for each planet on your altar arranged in the right place. Wonderful.

    Enough of the Bliss. It’s good, trust me. But the practical benefits are awesome too. Having the Talismans in their appropriate place in the physical representation of my magickal sphere has resulted in the effects of those planets integrating in ways I didn’t expect. I can be fifty miles away from home at work, and feel a planetary influence, conjure the archangel or one of their legions, and receive something I need right then and there. The communications are bi-directional, and the results are cumulative.

  • What the HELL is going on here?

    Magicians. We’re all seeking the powers of the universe, changing ourselves into something greater than we started out as, or at least more pure so we can participate with God in the CREATION of the UNIVERSE. Okay, well, maybe just managing and maintaining the manifestation as it occurs, but being consciously aware of the fact during the planning and processing stages of the project at hand.

    But here I am reading John Dee this week, and come to find out, one of the “greater” magicians of recorded history was fumbling in just as much dark as me. He spent all that time with Kelley developing (or receiving, if you will) what amounts to a system of planetary magic. He conjured and cajoled, enticed and entreated God to send him these spirits that revealed a system of magic that he never even used.

    Heading back to Agrippa, the man was a brilliant librarian, researcher, and reporter. But for all his knowledge, he was just like us too. A man who had to keep his public and private beliefs strictly regimented. The only evidence we have that Agrippa actually performed magic is his obvious “insider’s” understanding of the material he recorded. That inference can’t even be made objectively. We have to experience the results of the operations he describes to realize what he is recording between the lines. Based on that experience, we can begin to understand the deeper implications of his writing.

    Leap ahead a couple years to Crowley. A great magician, an eager and prolific promoter of occult philosophy, Crowley stands out in history for his intelligence, wit, and most offensively to some, his self-confidence. Yet read through Soror Achitha’s Vision of the Amalantrah Working, and you see that Crowley in his magickal practice was a sulky, petulant, ignorant man. Not ignorant in terms of knowledge, learning, or experience, but ignorant of what is to come. He worries about money, and worries about plans to go to Cairo. He is revealed to be a whiner to the spirits, much like Dee and Kelley both. He shows a deep concern for his safety and well-being that speaks volumes, at least to me, of his lack of faith that “existence is pure joy.”

    Across history to the present day, magicians are fumbling in the dark, trying to figure out what the HELL is going on, and trying to influence things to work out in their favor. Their private diaries reveal them to be very small and very dependent upon the forces they work with for their mental well-being. Their greatest contributions to their fellow occultists are little more than sign posts and travel commentaries about the realms they visit.

    It’s baffling.

    From my own limited experience in the occult, in conjuring the spirits, in speaking with the intelligences of the spheres, in traversing the heavens that lie between us and God Almighty, I have seen things that make my toes curl in wonder and awe. I have done things that are miraculous in every sense of the word. In my conversations with the spirits of the realms, I’m no whining supplicant, begging for scraps of answers or a pittance to get to Egypt in the spring. I’m not demanding answers about God or the heavens, or secrets of the cosmos. I’m a traveler in the macrocosmic realms, a co-worker with the spirits in the microcosmic realms. There is no thing or state of existence beyond my ability to access and manifest through ritual activities. There are no limits beyond the practical.

    So just what the HELL is going on here? Am I the only magician that uses magic to rise above the problems of mundane existence? By no means is my life, or my skill in the Art of magic perfect and complete. My recent escapades with Bune seem to be unprecedented among my fellow magicians for example, although they have confirmed in one way or another through their own magical works that the source of the problem was related to the way I had approached the idea of being a Hierophant.

    The point is, when I found out what was going on, the first thing I did was fix it. Using magic. That’s my general approach to everything. It works really well. I use Magic to get ideas about what I should be doing in my mundane life. I use it to get ideas about what spiritual activities I should be pursuing. I use it for food, health, safety, and travel. With the knowledge I get reading and meditating, I create and perform rituals that bring about what I want to happen in my life and my world.

    I know I’m not the only one that does this. I talk to many magicians on the internet across the world who are doing the same thing. What I don’t understand is why it’s so relatively rare. The number of magicians in control of their lives is staggeringly low. Most people interested in the occult are interested in the power to control their worlds, but compared to the number of people interested, the number of people doing the Work, doing the magic that transforms their existence is less than half of one percent.

    Magic. It’s what a magician does. It’s not a last resort, it’s a first resort. The lungs breathe, the liver filters, the brain processes. The magician does magic. The magician is in control of their world, not isolated from other influences, but in a position of authority in determining which of the opportunities life will present, and how those opportunities will come about.

    There’s too much slap-dash going on. People slap together a quick one-time rite, and dash off to the next thing, which is usually something they are reacting to. There’s little or no actual proactive planning and implementation of their lives. They’re content to sit back and follow the script they’ve been given for the most part, with a little dabbling here and there.

    I’m not advocating any “Left Hand Path” philosophy here, but I do want to point out that YOU are not a passive part of existence. You have choices to make that affect many others. If you choose not to choose, you still have made a choice, to quote Rush. You’re an active part of existence, and magic gives you the keys to the Kingdom. You’ve got at your beck and call the very spirits that make up the world. Why on earth would you not choose to use them?

    Why didn’t Dee use the Angelic system of magic he received? Why didn’t Agrippa put his skills in the occult arts to use to keep from having to recant his writings? Why didn’t Crowley just manifest the cash to go to Cairo if he was that worried about it?

    Was it a lack of faith in their magic? Was it that they, like so many magicians today, believed that magic is interesting and neat, but when the rubber meets the road, you have to deal with life from the mundane? I don’t know. It doesn’t make sense to me.

    I understand that things won’t always work out the way you expect, and that’s fine, but one thing I’ve learned in this Great Work is that I am in control of what I experience in life. There is nothing beyond my ability to research, conjure, and influence. Sometimes the influence will be on my own expectations, changing what I want as I learn why things are the way they are. But there’s nothing my Daimon and I can’t handle, manipulate, and shape into what ought to be.

    So let’s all kick it up a notch or two. No whining, no fear. Let honest curiosity and righteous indignation fuel our endeavors. If money is a problem, conjure cash and multiple streams of income. If health is a problem, conjure healing and aid. If something is broken, fix it. If you don’t know how to fix it, find out how to fix it. You’re one meditation away from the brightest intelligences in the universe, literally.

    And trust the things you’re studying and learning in the occult. It really is real. And there’s nothing to be afraid of. You’ll be just fine.

  • Meditation on a Spark

    I was thinking about rising through the Spheres of the Planets tonight, and the image of a spark came to mind.

    You know, bonfires, they shoot out sparks. The sparks rise up high into heavens before they burn out. A little tiny ash floats back down to the earth. Every bit of it that could burn is consumed.

    So we’ve got seven planetary heavens, right? And under the lowest, the Lunar sphere, hanging off the lowest edge of heaven is the Elemental sphere of Fire, the highest and purest form of matter. Below that is Air, and below that Water. At the bottom is good old solid Earth, the most material of material realms.

    And here’s this spark. It’s sunshine and minerals from the earth consumed in the release of all that energy it absorbed while it was alive. As it goes through its final transformation, it shoots up through the aethers aiming for heaven, using the heat of its own combustion to get higher, and leaving behind a husk of itself to drift back down to earth, empty of all the power and effort that went into creating it in the first place.

    So, neat stuff. I don’t like ham handed mataphors, but I do seem to have a habit of using them myself.

  • The Hermit’s Lantern

    If you haven’t yet, check out Fr. SEA’s blog, The Hermit’s Lantern. It’s one of my favorites. He and I go way back, and we’ve been working together now for years. We started out in a mentor-student relationship, and have since become good friends. His endurance and survival of my early attempts at helping someone through the early phases of the Great Work are to be admired. He’s a good writer, too.

    His latest experiments in home alchemy have been fascinating, and the results are incredible. I’m honored to have played a role in his early development, and I’m really glad we’re friends. He’s the epitome of what I wanted when I started writing this blog, someone who has done the same work I have to discuss results and progress with, but at the same time he’s got his own interests and take on things that gives me a different perspective on my own experiences that provides useful meaning.

  • Meditation on a Spark

    I was thinking about rising through the Spheres of the Planets tonight, and the image of a spark came to mind.

    You know, bonfires, they shoot out sparks. The sparks rise up high into heavens before they burn out. A little tiny ash floats back down to the earth. Every bit of it that could burn is consumed.

    So we’ve got seven planetary heavens, right? And under the lowest, the Lunar sphere, hanging off the lowest edge of heaven is the Elemental sphere of Fire, the highest and purest form of matter. Below that is Air, and below that Water. At the bottom is good old solid Earth, the most material of material realms.

    And here’s this spark. It’s sunshine and minerals from the earth consumed in the release of all that energy it absorbed while it was alive. As it goes through its final transformation, it shoots up through the aethers aiming for heaven, using the heat of its own combustion to get higher, and leaving behind a husk of itself to drift back down to earth, empty of all the power and effort that went into creating it in the first place.

    So, neat stuff. I don’t like ham handed mataphors, but I do seem to have a habit of using them myself.

  • Meditation on a Spark

    I was thinking about rising through the Spheres of the Planets tonight, and the image of a spark came to mind.

    You know, bonfires, they shoot out sparks. The sparks rise up high into heavens before they burn out. A little tiny ash floats back down to the earth. Every bit of it that could burn is consumed.

    So we’ve got seven planetary heavens, right? And under the lowest, the Lunar sphere, hanging off the lowest edge of heaven is the Elemental sphere of Fire, the highest and purest form of matter. Below that is Air, and below that Water. At the bottom is good old solid Earth, the most material of material realms.

    And here’s this spark. It’s sunshine and minerals from the earth consumed in the release of all that energy it absorbed while it was alive. As it goes through its final transformation, it shoots up through the aethers aiming for heaven, using the heat of its own combustion to get higher, and leaving behind a husk of itself to drift back down to earth, empty of all the power and effort that went into creating it in the first place.

    So, neat stuff. I don’t like ham handed mataphors, but I do seem to have a habit of using them myself.

  • Bela Bartok: Tapping into the Power of the Early 20th Century

    This morning, on my way to stinking work, I had the good fortune to hear a story on NPR about Bela Bartok. He was a Modernist composer who wrote some lovely dark-themed music based on the cultures of Eastern Europe, and it totally reflects the post-industrial Modernist influence of the late early 20th century.

    Who cares? Magicians care. We have to. So many of our modern occult influences condensed in the Modernist period. Crowley, Mathers, Fortune, and even the Chronicler Regardie were products of the illuminated age brought about by the wealth of the industrial revolution and the excesses of colonialism. The culture of their time influenced their writings, and to understand their legacy, we need to be able to tap into the gestalt of their period. It provides a frame of reference from which we can understand why they said things the way they did.

    Bela Bartok captures in his music the dark side of the struggles of the post industrial age. Society had changed, and people were glorifying things that they took for granted twenty years earlier. People were adapting to the automated production of basic goods and services, they were adopting the most efficient methods to achieve their goals. Increased wealth and leisure created a culture of opulence for many, but at the same time revealed in stark contrast the darkness of the soul. Man’s eternal struggle with himself entered a new stage of understanding.

    The industrial revolution hit the realm of the occult, and a new system of initiation emerged. The Golden Dawn took your average Anglo and fed them the pablum of the esoteric in the early degrees, progressively building up the framework of the system until the finished product could be taken off the assembly line and put into the Inner Order. Like the rest of society, the members of the occult had to adapt to the industrialization of their processes. The writings of Crowley take on a new meaning when you can see behind his words both the glorification of traditional craftsmanship and the child-like wonder of the shiny new method to produce attainment. His cynicism becomes warm and friendly when placed in the context of his day.

    To get a feeling for what I’m talking about, try listening to some of Bartok’s music. NPR has some available here:

    http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=14416746

    While you’re listening to this music, read some of the poetry that reflects the Modernist literary current. The Wasteland by T. S. Eliot is incredibly good to read while listening to Bartok, in my humble opinion. It can be found online here:

    http://www.bartleby.com/201/1.html

    After you’ve read The Wasteland while listening to the profound music of Bela Bartok, go back and re-read Crowley’s Notes section on Liber Samekh. It explains a great deal of what was going on in the background that influenced the publication of this work.

    http://www.hermetic.com/crowley/libers/lib800.html