Rufus Opus

Category: Blogspot Archive

Category: Blogspot Archive

  • Pallas Renatus’ GtFO Potion

    “Heh. Heh-heh. Bwahahaha!”

    That was the sound coming from my cube this morning here at work as I read this post by Pallas Renatus. It wasn’t just that it was funny, it was seeing myself in it. “Oh yeah,” I thought as I read along, “yep, that too. Uh-huh. Heh, yeah.” I especially loved the part where he boiled the tobacco, and nonchalantly offered alternative methods of extracting the tobacco essence later to avoid the smell, without mentioning the gagging, retching, and dry heaves that come from smelling boiling chewing tobacco.

    I can’t post comments from work because they blocked blogger because SOMEONE here was posting a lot and they caught on. Can’t imagine who that was, but someone in Florida who logs in remotely ALSO complained about blogger being blocked, so it’s not just me. So to Pallas, I say, be careful. This psychotic Irish-Native American Asatru friend of mine once told me I could kill someone with the refined and extracted amount of pure nicotine from a single cigarette. I don’t know if it’s true or not, but you know, don’t drink the tobacco-camphor-ammonia tea you made, even if it does smell sooooo good.

    But man, another thing reading through his post reminded me of was how messy I let things get in my life. While my office doesn’t give me a viral infection and it’s not infested with spiders (ok, not very many spiders), it could use some tidying. See, I’m a busy man, so I spend large chunks of time working on the things I have backed up, and I put off the little things for when I have more time, like filing paperwork, dusting, vacuuming, cleaning the incense ash off the desk, and throwing out the hundreds of stubs from the stick incense I use in every rite. My wife says if I spent the two to five minutes it takes to clean up after my projects, I wouldn’t have to take two hours on a Saturday to clean everything up at once, and she could be right. So there’s physical stuff to clean up.

    I also do a lot of magic. I would say on a slow week, I’ll go maybe 18 hours straight without doing something that involves conjuring a spirit into my crystal ball for something. I like to think the steady traffic tends to keep things pretty clear. I also recently did the Mercury Gate rite, and that’s cleaned out a lot of crap that was stagnating. But regular cleansings of my house are on my list of things to do that I rarely get around to doing.

    And another thing, I think that because I do magic of a certain variety, it takes care of everything spiritually that my family needs. The truth is, there are psychic cobwebs that build up around the house that my regular angel magic just doesn’t affect, at least, not without making a specific request. The thing about angels is that they aren’t nannies. They’re co-workers, highly advanced, further up the ladder than you co-workers, with more experience and more power. You wouldn’t invite the CEO and all the Vice Presidents of a Universal Corporation over and expect them to pick up a feather duster and put on an apron and go around cleaning your house for you after the business meeting is over, would you? Naw, didn’t think so.

    I’ve noticed some patterns of behavior that are being expressed in my family that indicate it’s time to clean out the psychic air. In the Home Pwnership post, I talked about how when people live too close together, their shit gets on each others’ nerves. The same is true in a family, though it’s strongly mitigated by the love we have for each other. Still, when you hear the bickerings of the kids and the mutterings of the spouse (and yourself) begin to consistently contain the phrase “always*” in a negative context, it’s a good indication that it’s time to do some psychic cleaning in the home space in addition to checking behavior patterns, and maybe reminding people that we all have personal responsibility to make our collective experiences positive by taking ownership of our own messes.

    So it’s time to break out the aspergillum and sprinkle copious amounts of Holy Water about the house. I don’t think I’m in need of the full PRGTFO potion he created, but a good psychic cleansing is definitely in order.

    And yeah, getting down on the old hands and knees and scrub the base boards too.

    * As in, “You always break my stuff,” or “I’m always the one who has to clean up the bathroom,” or “You always say you’ll get to it Saturday.” Patterns of behavior that need to be addressed in multiple levels.

  • 3.0 – The Glyph

    Long ago, and far away, I began this series on the Neo-Platonic system. It began because I wanted to share the background that had lead up to the satori experience I had while studying Agrippa’s table on the Scale of the Number 4 (Book 2, Chapter 7 ). Everything I had been studying all came together in that moment, and the result was a compelling urge to map out what I was seeing on paper. Working into the wee hours of the morning with a compass and some folded paper to serve as a straight edge (the kids had broken my ruler), I ended up with a Glyph. This Glyph embodies the Great Work of the Magician, the realms of the spirits we work with in the material realm, the spirits of the seven planetary realms, and the role of the magician balanced in between the Above and the Below.

    Pretty neat, in my opinion. Not long after receiving it, I posted the information everywhere I could. I thought that just looking at the Glyph would bring instant Illumination to everyone who saw it. When people looked at it and said, yeah, ok, neat, and went on with their lives and Work, I thought they just didn’t have the background to see the awesome impact this Glyph can have on Ceremonial Magicians. Taking what it represents, taking the keys that are summarized in its concentric circles and the perspective of the layout, and putting it into practical use results in complete and total control of all things material and spiritual, from an enlightened and beneficent place of authority in the cosmos.

    So I labored on the different sections of this work with the goal of bringing everyone this power, illumination, and understanding of Life, the Universe, and Everything.

    Since the time that I got this Glyph, I’ve been using it to great effect in my Work. It really does do everything I thought it would do. But I’ve realized that it’s not going to be for everyone.

    Understanding now that this is a personal revelation, I’ve been putting off wrapping up the series. I intended it to be a climactic culmination that brought everything else together and sparked a mass enlightenment experience that spread like wildfire through my audience that has grown to a global scale. I no longer expect that to happen, but nevertheless, I hope this serves to at least inspire some of you on to your own Glyphs, your own empowerment, and your own harmony.

  • 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 wealt

  • Note to self…

    Well, I just finished watching the Grudge 2.

    Remind me never to take the evil spirits from people and feed them to my daughter, ok?

    It always turns out bad in the end.

  • Note to self…

    Well, I just finished watching the Grudge 2.

    Remind me never to take the evil spirits from people and feed them to my daughter, ok?

    It always turns out bad in the end.

  • The Genius and Evil Daimon Spreadsheets…

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

  • Note to self…

    Well, I just finished watching the Grudge 2.

    Remind me never to take the evil spirits from people and feed them to my daughter, ok?

    It always turns out bad in the end.

  • Helping Others in the Great Work

    I hope this blog has helped others in their pursuit of the Great Work. I’ve sold a couple books here and there, done some attunements on people, and have provided a lot of the information that has helped me. I hope reading it was as fun as learning about it.

    But this post isn’t about helping people like that. This post is about helping people along in their Work because you can’t stand how they behave.

    Surely you know the types. You love them, they’re sweet, but there’s just something about them that you can’t stand, and it keeps you from being able to enjoy the fullness of your relationship. You see their character flaws clearly, and so does everyone else, but there’s no way that they ever acknowledge that you’re right in your assessment of their behavior.

    Fortunately, you’ve done the ritual Work required to attain Adepthood, and you’ve been through the wringer yourself so many times with dealing with similar issues that you know exactly which spheres trigger the results you want to see in the other person’s sphere.

    I don’t know how ethical this is, by the way. It’s magick for the Great Work, and it might just backfire on you (or me) when you (or I) try to do it. Time will tell, though, time will tell.

    Say someone is, oh, I don’t know, hardhearted, jealous, and prideful, and because of this, they can’t seem to see you for who you really are. What do you do?

    Well, the Sun is the Sphere of revelation, and enlightenment, and that always leads to compassion. When you can’t seem to get someone to see your point, a solar working makes sense.

    Michael the Archangel of the Sun is who I’m planning on conjuring. This Archangel is good for almost everything, from wealth to exorcisms to initiations. It’s hard to beat Michael in terms of being there for you when you need him.

    Ok, so you’ve got the Spirit, go to the Magical Calendar and get the seal for Michael. (I believe the Magical Calendar places Michael in Mercury and Raphael in the Sun, but that’s not "right" for me. You still use the seal of Michael, and disregard the placement in the Magical Calendar.) Next you create a little shrine to Michael. A statue of Michael slaying the Dragon would be great for this, but I’m buying a house, and can’t afford to purchase statuary at the moment, so I’m going to make a lamen with his name and seal in it. Around the outside, I’ll write the Name of God that corresponds to the Sun (Eloah va-Da’at) and the symbol of the Sun (circle with a dot in the middle). I’ll include the names of the angels associated with the Sun (Melakim) and the name of the Sphere in the KBL (Tiphareth) Then I’ll include the Planetary Sigil from the Magical Calendar.

    In the center of the circle of the names and symbols, I’ll draw a Star of David, and in the center of that the Name Michael in English with his Seal below that. Above the Star of David I’ll write out his name (MKAL) in Celestial script, and around the Star of David I’ll draw four pentagrams, with the names of the Four Elemental Kings inside (Michael, Uriel, Raphael, and Gabriel Clockwise, beginning in the East). I’ll draw all this out in gold ink from an 18 carrot gold leaf pen on a Sunday in the Hour of the Sun. I’ll mount the lamen on an ease-type thing I make out of dowel rods or something, so that the Lamen is mostly vertical. I could put it on a mantle or create a shelf on the wall for it too. Then I’ll place a picture of the people I’m wnating to change in front of the lamen, with the changes I want to see written on the picture in gold ink, like "compassion, enlightenment, caring." Then I’ll conjure Michael in his appropriate hour, and ask for him to do what I desire. Assuming he complies, I’ll then light gold or white candles in front of the shrine, and burn Frankincense sticks until the change is complete.

    I’m pretty sure there’s no harm in this kind of magick, but you never know what kind of gross stuff comes out of a person when they begin to integrate the energies of the Sun into their sphere, eh?

  • It’s on, like Donkey Kong!

    AIT, myself, Jason, Jack, and now Balthazar are in the thick of it now!

    It’s like WWE on blogs.

    Ok, so in this episode, RO addresses syncretism, and some other stuff.

    AIT, Jack, and Jason are in the more radical syncretism camp, and Balthazar and I are in the more purist camp when it comes to mixing traditions. The spectrum (in my opinion) goes something like this:

    AIT posted that we should read the Western texts right alongside the Eastern texts to interpret one another, basically to “fill in the gaps of the Western Tradition.” I’m paraphrasing. Jack uses Mudras from Franz Bardon when he reads the tarot (and you should also read the comments on Jack’s post). Jason argues that we should drop the East West divide and say it’s all magic, and embrace radical rational syncretism.* Balthazar calls him out on it and levels the charge of cultural appropriation. Then Gordon comes in swinging a folding steel chair! Oh wait, not yet. I’m getting ahead of the story.

    Now I know these fellows, and I’m basing my placement of us on the scale on the things we’ve written over the years. Jack’s the most chaos mage of all of us and would be further out than Jason towards the chaos end of the spectrum if I didn’t also know he’s a Traditional Witch too, and has written with respect for traditions’ traditions. AIT would fall further on the purist side if he weren’t Golden Dawn, and Jason would be further towards the Purist side if I only looked at his experiences with hands on transmission of spiritual empowerments. I would have thought Balthazar would fall more towards the chaos side of the spectrum because root doctoring itself is a syncretic system that took the things that worked from multiple systems and put them together as a complete thing.

    As for me, I think I’m dead center, and in my ideal head, I might really be that way. But in my mind and heart, I lean towards traditionalism, getting everything out of a system from that system and don’t dilute the potential by blending it all together.

    The irony is that my system is pure Hermetics, ideally sucking the marrow from the 1st through 3rd century materials, but using the techniques of the Renaissance magicians who honed it and left us more detailed materials.

    But what were those Hermetic materials that were honed? Greek, Hebrew, Persian, Egyptian, Christian, Gnostic, Neo-Platonic, Pagan… All crammed together in one empire that had magicians travelling, studying, and exchanging information in their version of the internet! It was a hotbed of syncretism. I’ll do rites that include names of spirits from three or four cultures that can be interpreted in six completely different ways depending on which mystery cult you’re coming from. My traditional tradition is a complete syncretic work. People like me from back then and there would have been horrified! Yet here I am arguing that it’s a tradition of its own that should be adhered to…

    Heh. I’m well aware of my hypocrisy.

    I don’t, however, feel it needs to be corrected. See, I think the 1st-3rd century stuff is the raw ore, and the Renaissance work was a refinement of that ore, and that there’s a ton of shit to be gathered from the system as it is, if only it was more cohesively presented. I acknowledge the inputs from the East and Near East over the centuries, and I’m grateful for them. I believe, however, that it’s at a point where the things that needed to be imported were imported, and it doesn’t need anything else at this point. I’m fine with the neoplatonic hermetic tradition and all it has to offer me. I think it’s a complete system. It tells a whole story of the advancement through ritual and initiation. It has a beginning, a middle, and an end. If you do specific work, you get specific results, which enable further work, and that in turn provides specific other results, which enables further work, and so on up the chain of manifestation. It’s like you mine the ore, smelt the pellets, purify it into steel, shape it into the tool, and then use the tool. Each phase has specific operations that get done to the material so it can become its final product.

    I love the Hermetic path, and I’ve found that everything offered in other systems has a correlary in this system, it just has to be found and recognized. Everything your system can do, mine can do too, in other words. Nyah nyah.

    But it’s not about that. It’s about getting to the goal. AIT calls it becoming an immortal, and I share the goal. I like it. I embrace it. All the steps are laid out here in the Hermetic stuff I do, where I’m at, and the addition of other things is, to me, a distraction. I’d rather specialize than generalize. Other systems with similar goals may help me understand the subject, if needed, but it wouldn’t replace the methods I have at my disposal from my own tradition because I appreciate the harmony of what I’ve built so far, and I don’t want to fuck it up. By keeping to the same bucket of practices that are labeled Hermetic, I’ve built up a momentum that I don’t want to lose by including stuff I don’t understand that requires something I might not have to get to a goal I might not share.

    Now, Balthazar has implied that cultural appropriation and a sense of entitlement is a bad thing. I don’t agree with him in this regard. I think we really are entitled to pursue our spiritual paths, that we are free to answer God’s call on our life in whatever language or symbol set he calls to us from. No one has the right to stop another person from pursuing God as they feel called. We’re all free to make commentary and air our opinions, but what’s between you and God is between you and God. That’s sacred. My opinion on your relationship with god matters not shit at all.**

    That said, I’m strongly opposed to being rude and insensitive in your syncretization. You’re royalty in the kingdom of God, but you don’t have to act like a brat prince/princess. Jason appropriates tech from different systems with respect and sensitivity. He doesn’t make any claims about his interpretation or use being better than the source he borrows from. He integrates and syncretizes rationally. He puts things together that match and align in harmony, not in a way that brings insult, or disharmony to himself or his students. He’s careful about it.

    Balthazar himself does much the same. After all, his blog name is Gnostic Conjure. It’s syncretization at its finest, and I don’t think he would object to Jason’s actual practice of syncretization in the slightest, even though they may seem at odds this morning.

    So for me the bottom line is if you want to syncretize, by all means do so, I recognize that it’s perhaps the TRUEST traditional tradition there ever was. Personally, I’m fine for now with exploring where the Hermetic System takes me, and I don’t need all that mudra mantra yantra stuff. So far I’ve found the spirits leading me to things that are similar enough in result and even the look/feel of other people’s systems, but really it doesn’t matter to me what your system does.

    *By Rational syncretism, I mean to acknowledge that he’s not a fucking idiot, and knows you don’t put shit together that doesn’t belong together in ignorance just because it looks cool.

    ** With the understanding that if you infringe upon my divine rights in the name of your relationship with God, I will kick your ass.

  • 2.7 – The Genius and the Evil Daimon

    The Genius and the Evil Daimon are entities with a long history in the Western Mystery Tradition. The idea of the good and evil spirits assigned to people is so ingrained in the American culture that I grew up watching cartoons that frequently showed a character with a little angel with a harp on one shoulder and a little red devil with horns and a tail on the other, each giving the person advice. More often than not, the character would listen to the devil. How typical of mankind.

    2.7.1 – The Genius

    The term “Genius” as I’m using it in this post loosely comes from Agrippa’s Third Book of Occult Philosophy, chapter xxii. Technically, “Genius” is supposed to refer only to one part of the three-fold good Daimon that preserves the person it’s assigned to. The three parts are the Holy part, which is roughly speaking the Holy Guardian Angel (HGA) of the Abramelin ritual, the Genius or “Nativity Angel,” a Spirit whose nature is determined by the placement of the stars at birth, and the Daimon of your Profession, who influences how successful we are at our chosen line of work. Agrippa refers to all three parts singularly in the title of the chapter, “That there is a threefold keeper of man.” Since it’s a singular entity, and he only gives instructions on deducing the name of a Genius, and not the HGA or Professional Demon, I’m referring to all three parts of this one entity as the Genius.

    The earliest reference to the Genius that I’ve found so far is in the Corpus Hermeticum, written in Hellenized Egypt. In The Divine Pymander, it says:

    54. I (the LOGOS, Pymander, shepherd of Men) … come unto men that are holy and good, pure and merciful, and that live piously and religiously; and my presence is a help unto them. And forthwith they know all things, and lovingly they supplicate and propitiate the Father; and blessing him, they give him thanks, and sing hymns unto him, being ordered and directed by filial Affection and natural Love. And before they give up their bodies to the death of them, they hate their senses, knowing their Works and Operations.

    This is the Logos talking about how he works with those who are pious. While it might look like a bit of a stretch, the Logos and the HGA are of the same Spirit. In Agrippa’s record written roughly 1200 years later, this corresponds to the Holy part of the Genius. Agrippa frames it thus:

    The holy Demon is one, according to the Doctrine of the Egyptians, assigned to the rationall soul, not from the Stars or Planets, but from a supernaturall cause, from God himself, the president of Demons, being universall, above nature: This doth direct the life of the soul, & doth alwaies put good thoughts into the minde, being alwaies active in illuminating us, although we do not alwaies take notice of it; but when we are purified, and live peaceably, then it is perceived by us, then it doth as it were speak with us, and communicates its voyce [voice] to us, being before silent, and studyeth daily to bring us to a sacred perfection. Also by the ayd [aid] of this Demon we may avoid the malignity of a Fate…

    Agrippa says of the Genius specifically:

    …when the soul is coming down into the body, it doth out of the quire of the Demons naturally choose a preserver to it self, nor only choose this guide to it self, but hath that willing to defend it. This being the executor, and keeper of the life, doth help it to the body, and takes care of it, being Communicated to the body, and helps a man to that very office, to which the Celestials have deputed him, being born.

    In other words, the Genius is what can guide you to the roles and responsibilities you are incarnated to accomplish.

    In addition, being the only part of the threefold keeper of human beings that you can get the name of from your horoscope, the Genius can also be used to establish conversation with the rest of the threefold keeper, including the HGA and the Daimon of your Profession. By “used,” I mean you can converse with it through conjurations and establish a relationship, discovering the things that are needed to be done in your life to prepare you for the next step in your Work.

    As you Work with your Genius, a momentum builds up. You don’t have to choose to be a decent, pious person always choosing to do good and be kind to small furry animals, or help old ladies across the street. You don’t have to choose to be offended by injustice when you see it. You don’t have to try to find wisdom or insight in your studies. And you don’t have to make yourself seek your Race and Value in God.

    Instead, you find yourself naturally doing these things. You find character flaws revealed, and the means to change them. You find yourself naturally pursuing Virtue over Vice. You stop sabotaging your progress towards your goals, and you find yourself knowing and understanding things intuitively about yourself and others around you. Glimpses of the future come in sureties felt in evaluating potential outcomes of situations. Mysteries unravel before your very eyes.

    This spirit’s influence on your life can be enhanced through practical exaltation of the spirits name, which I’ll discuss below.

    2.7.2 – The Evil Daimon

    Heading back to The Divine Pymander, it goes on to say:

    56. But to the foolish, and evil, and wicked, and envious, and covetous, and murderous, and profane, I am far off, giving place to the revenging Demon, which applying unto him the sharpness of fire, tormenteth such a man sensible, and armeth him the more to all wickedness, that he may obtain the greater punishment.

    57. And such an one never ceaseth, having unfulfiled desires, and unsatisfiable concupiscences, and always fighting in darkness; for the Demon always afflicts and tormenteth him continually, and increaseth the fire upon him more and more.

    Here is the Evil Daimon, sent by God to punish the wicked with insatiable desires. My experience with this entity leads me to believe that this Demon drives you to the point where you have to turn to God to find relief from your passions, or die of despair or overdose. If you refuse to do so, when you die you return as a more brutish man, or an animal, or even a plant according to Plotinus. The further from God you turn in your life, the further from God you result in your next, each incarnation resulting in less and less opportunity to turn from God until you are a plant with no choice but to turn to the Sun to live.

    People always have some degree of a relationship with this spirit. Like the cartoon characters listening to the little red demon on their shoulder, we have spent our lives listening to and following the advice of the evil daimon. A momentum builds up with the Evil Daimon just like with the Genius, and soon you find yourself surrounded by chaos and madness, if you give too much into the temptations this spirit whispers to you.

    Like the demons discussed in Section 2.6, The effects of the Evil Daimon can be curbed.

    2.7.3 – Working With the Genius and the Evil Daimon

    To Work with these entities, the first thing you’ll need is their name. These are discovered through your horoscope, as discussed in Agrippa’s Three Books of Occult Philosophy, Book 3, at the end of chapter xxvi:

    There are also the Arabians, and many others, and some Hebrews, who finde out the name of a Genius by the places of the five Hylegians, and making projection alwayes from the beginning of Aries, and the letters being found out according to the order of Hylegians with the Astrologers, being reduced into a known order, and being joyned together, make the name of a good Genius: but they draw the name of an evil Genius from the opposite Hylegian places, projection being made from the last degree of Pisces against the order of signs.

    Ok, did you catch all that? No? Well, fortunately I’ve got a spreadsheet I use to make the process a little easier. I don’t know how the renaissance magicians managed without the power of modern technology.

    I’ve got all the Hebrew letters associated with the degrees for the Good Genius and the Evil Daimon lined up with their appropriate degrees. To determine the name, you get a horoscope of the your birth, and write down the degrees of the sun, moon, ascendant, and part of fortune. Then you find the syzygy, and that’s the fifth letter of the name. The syzygy is the location of the moon at the closest full or new moon to the date you’re charting. To find this, you get another horoscope of the time of the nearest full or new moon, and write down the degree the moon is in. Pretty simple, eh?

    No, not really. It’s a bit of a pain in the hindquarters, honestly. But this is worth it.

    Once you’ve got their names, you can conjure and commune with your Genius by creating a Lamen of the spirit. Spell out its name in Hebrew in a circle with the names of God written around the perimeter. I use the Celestial Script from Agrippa, and the Lamen looks like this (That’s YHVH in the script, you’d need to change the name to use it):


    Poke a little hole in the top, and you wear it during the ritual. Conjure the spirit in a crystal or other scrying medium and you’re all set.

    On the flip side, you’ve got the Evil Daimon’s name. I intend to bind mine in a lead-lined spirit pot.

    In fact, I’ve got this idea for a multi-purpose talisman. I’ve got a log that I’m carving to serve as a means to exalt the Genius and bind the Evil Daimon at the same time. I’ll be burning incense and candles in the top where the Genius name is inscribed in gold leaf, and the Evil Daimon will be bound in the hollowed-out, lead-lined base.

    It should look something like this when I’m done: