From http://blogs.techrepublic.com.com/project-management/?p=277&tag=nl.e101:

‘Twas the night before Christmas (or “holiday break”)
But I was still working — I kicked off a rake.
Secure shells were placed on my desktop with care,
So no one could sniff what I typed away there.
My clients’ hot issues were all put to bed,
But what those had preempted still caused me to dread.
So I in my bathrobe (’twas cold in that room)
Had just settled down for a long game of Doom.
When out on the WAN there arose such a mess
I thought that it must be a DDoS!
Away to the firewall I flew like Jet Li
Denied all incoming, even SMTP.
But as I more closely inspected each packet,
I realized with awe what was causing the racket:
A download! What format? I couldn’t have known it
But I found it included a textual component:
“Now JavaScript! Perl! Now Python and Ruby!
On Haskell! on Clojure! on Scala and Groovy!
To the Web-facing site, to the edge firewall,
Now bash away, bash away, bash away all!”
The download completed, though I tried to abort,
And a little man popped out a USB port!
His glasses — how thick! His gut — a real softy!
And his beard was all stained with cold pizza and coffee.
He was nerdy and plump, a right jolly old geek,
Though he smelled like he hadn’t had a bath in a week.
He spoke not a word, but went right ahead
He wiped off all Windows, installed *nix instead
The software I’d need, he downloaded it all
(Still using less space than a fresh Win install).
In the USB port he inserted his thumb
And vanished right into it the way he had come
But I heard him exclaim, ere I even had missed ‘im
Happy Christmas to all, and to all a good system!

I found a neat part of the Divine Pymander I’d either forgotten about or just took for granted. It tells you which parts of the self you are to overcome, or surrender, in each sphere to attain the next highest level.

As you ascend through the spheres, whether you’re using the method I outlined in the kinetic meditation post, or via some other means, I think the following information is useful.

The first stage is the dissolution of the body. Whether that means death or not, I don’t claim to know. Personally, I interpret it as being able to leave the body to perform spiritual Work in the different spheres.

I had wanted to detail each stage, but I just don’t have the time anymore to devote to lengthy blog posts. Until I get more time, the posts will likely be shorter; I can hear you weeping now. But seriously, meditate on the following excerpt (copy-pasted from http://www.hermetic.com/ under their Classical texts section, if I remember right). Starting at the Moon, begin to give up the desires listed as you Work your way up. It’s what I’m focussing on at the moment in my meditation time.

And thus it is that man doth speed his way thereafter upwards through the Harmony.

To the first zone he gives the Energy of Growth and Waning; unto the second [zone], Device of Evils [now] de-energized; unto the third, the Guile of the Desires de-energized; unto the fourth, his Domineering Arrogance, [also] de-energized; unto the fifth, unholy Daring and the Rashness of Audacity, de-energized; unto the sixth, Striving for Wealth by evil means, deprived of its aggrandizement; and to the seventh zone, Ensnaring Falsehood, de-energized.

I had this image from somewhere on the ‘net, and I’ve been meaning to post about it, but didn’t have the context. Thanks to brother Inominandum’s Star Wars-themed post at Strategic Sorcery, I have an excuse!

The piece is based on the OBEY art project’s nationally famous Obama poster. It’s pretty unrelated to magic, unless you understand the Gra’al quest is epitomized in Episodes 4-6, AND you equate that to the Great Work, AND you think that we are performing our own Gra’al Quest as we ritually conjure the experiences in life that result in the esoteric manifestations of the Alchemical Processes that create the Stone…

Hey, it’s on topic after all, with very little stretching of the imagination. Thanks to Susanne and Stalking Hyena for the comments on the Animal Stone mentioned in the Ode to a Weasle post yesterday. That’s why I was back at the Alchemy Web Site and could fit it into today’s post.

I found a neat part of the Divine Pymander I’d either forgotten about or just took for granted. It tells you which parts of the self you are to overcome, or surrender, in each sphere to attain the next highest level.

As you ascend through the spheres, whether you’re using the method I outlined in the kinetic meditation post, or via some other means, I think the following information is useful.

The first stage is the dissolution of the body. Whether that means death or not, I don’t claim to know. Personally, I interpret it as being able to leave the body to perform spiritual Work in the different spheres.

I had wanted to detail each stage, but I just don’t have the time anymore to devote to lengthy blog posts. Until I get more time, the posts will likely be shorter; I can hear you weeping now. But seriously, meditate on the following excerpt (copy-pasted from http://www.hermetic.com/ under their Classical texts section, if I remember right). Starting at the Moon, begin to give up the desires listed as you Work your way up. It’s what I’m focussing on at the moment in my meditation time.

And thus it is that man doth speed his way thereafter upwards through the Harmony.

To the first zone he gives the Energy of Growth and Waning; unto the second [zone], Device of Evils [now] de-energized; unto the third, the Guile of the Desires de-energized; unto the fourth, his Domineering Arrogance, [also] de-energized; unto the fifth, unholy Daring and the Rashness of Audacity, de-energized; unto the sixth, Striving for Wealth by evil means, deprived of its aggrandizement; and to the seventh zone, Ensnaring Falsehood, de-energized.

Today I received an email advertising Pushing Ulltimates, by “Lew Paz.” I don’t know why they sent me this email, but I wasn’t thrilled.

However, to give it a fair shake, I went to the web site and looked at the publishing house’s credentials. They have only Lew’s book to their credit. Lew designed the publishing house’s trademark. I think they might be rather friendly with old Lew, personally. You know. Friendly.

So I went through the excerpts they had on their site. The book purports to be a modern philosopher’s foray into the mind and self awareness. I think. It was confusing. The excerpts show that most of this book is made up of quotes that illustrate the author’s point. He uses really big words too.

Here’s a sample from the Excerpts page:

From the works of numerous scholars of varied fields, it is clear that a vast proportion of the population is alienated from authentic self-awareness. This alienation has been described as a psychological/spiritual stultification of the evolution of consciousness, brought about by mass subservience toward external socially oriented goals, which disregard knowledge of human spiritual essence. As the great Hindu sage Sri Aurobindo maintained, authentic knowledge begins when we probe beyond appearances, beyond ossified traditional belief systems and sterile scientism. The quality of knowledge this book is concerned with is, as the scholar Henri Corbin wrote, “knowledge that changes and transforms the knowing subject.”

For serious.

Ok, now as a writer, I know how much effort went into this book. I know he thinks it’s important. He spent all that time writing, editing, and then promoting his book. Designing the web site probably took an hour or two in itself. And registering the domain must be costing him at least $15. So it’s not only time and effort, it’s real capital he’s invested into this work.

And it might actually help someone. Somewhere. With a large vocabulary. Who is easily impressed by proof-text quotes from alleged spiritual masters they’ve never heard of.

Me, I wasn’t too impressed. But since they took the time to send me an email, I decided to take the time and give it a review based on what they have publicly available.

I think it sucks. I would rather see people go out and do magic than waste a dime or an iota of time reading this kind of self-serving new age crap. Magic is free, the knowledge you need is free, and this dude’s insights… Well, let’s just say that it’s easy to find other people to quote who agree with the author becuase these aren’t exactly original.

It’s repackaged, sure, and seriously, the guy spent a long time writing it, and that’s worthy of respect, but there’s a lot of dreck that takes a long time to write available. So hats off for finishing a manuscript, Lew Paz, but next time make it more approachable, drop the quotes, and tell us what you really experienced and think about it.

“Rosco P. Coltrane” was the name to you we gave,
soon to be written in childe’s scrawl above your garden grave.
“Pets die more oft’ than people do,” I told her as she cried,
it didn’t help because to her more than a weasle died.
A friend, a toy, a pet, a joy, the girl had lost too much.
I held her as she sobbed and shook, and blubbered on, and such.

I do not understand, I’m sure, the pleasure she had found
in that smelly, creepy-looking thing that recently had drown’d.
So my silence I shall keep on this, I will not bitch or moan
or mention that we have a chance to make the Animal Stone.
For now, Rosco, I bid adieu, and hope the childe can bear it,
this grief your passing brought to us, so long you smelly ferret.

(C) 2008, Rufus Opus

Activation of the power of the grimoires to their fullest comes from two things. First you need to understand the context of the grimoires by studying a wide variety of approaches that were contemporary to one another. You need to read the Keys of Solomon, all the parts of the Lemegeton, the 6th and 7th Books of Moses, Liber Juratus, the Grimorium Verum, and most importantly perhaps, the Heptameron. You need to know the world view they are representative of by learning about neo-platonism, cosmic hierarchies, and Hermeticism. You need to know the politics of the time, and the doctrines of the Churches that were being tossed about.

Learning all that stuff doesn’t take that long, really. I read like a fish breathes water. A couple of months on Joe Peterson’s Esoteric Archive is enough to get your feet wet.

There’s still another piece to activating the full power of the grimoires, in my opinion and experience, though that must be taken. Think of it as an initiation. You’ve got to be baptized in the Holy Spirit.

On a list I belong to comprised primarily of pagans who also happen to perform ceremonial magic(k), a recent post was about the Right Path. I explained in my best possible non-judgmental, non-proselytizing way that there are lots of different individual paths, but they all end up at the same place, eventually. I also included that you know you’re on the right path when you get a vision of the universe and your personal place in it.

That’s exactly what you need to really activate the grimoires. Knowing about the hierarchies is great, but until you not only know where your place in them is, but also know that you are in that place because you’ve been spiritually transformed, you don’t get to really get the full benefits.

My transformation came from church. I got a spiritual baptism that changed me at the core. I accepted what Christ did on the cross on my behalf. I saw that he made right what had been wrong for so long. I felt the cleansing of my sphere. It was a truly powerful experience that literally changed my life.

THEN I made contact with my Holy Guardian Angel. The spiritual transformation was given an applicable framework. Specific tasks were given, training programs were enacted, and at each stage progressively my sphere was sanctified, purified, and reconciled more to the place where I could operate from in power.

It was like being trained to use the equipment in an Air Traffic Control Tower. I learned to read the weather (astrological conditions), the radar (astral viewing/scrying), the codes to give the airplanes (seals, sigils, names), and the most efficient ways to direct landings and take-offs so that the operations were strategically coordinated (the frameworks of the grimoires). I learned disaster recovery techniques (sell the crystal skull and set wards against Tezcatlipoca), and emergency situation protocols (how to use the lead Seal of Solomon from the Goetia). I learned the ins and outs of the job, and then I got to work at the controls myself with the trainer right behind and slightly above me making sure everything went smoothly. We started at a small airport with a few airplanes (the Art of Drawing Spirits into Crystals attributed to Trithemius), and worked my way up to more advanced Work involving a lot more craft (Enochian now, sheesh).

Every step of the way, the transformation I experienced in church during a praise and worship service has been added to, magnified, and made more meaningful. I no longer attend church regularly. I relate to God through my magic, my meditation, my contemplation, and even in the back-aching inscription of alternate alphabets into wood, stone, and metals. I pray a lot more and talk a lot less. All the knowledge and conversation with my HGA, all the learning from books, all the conjuring of Angels and Demons, it’s meaningless without that initial transformation.

Do you have to be a Hermetic Christian with Gnostic tendencies to get the most out of the Grimoires? I can’t say you must, because I never got jack shit out of them before I was one. I don’t have anything to compare it to. But I can tell you that based on my experiences, it certainly does help.

Comments were acting weird today. I had switched the format a few weeks ago, and there were no problems, but today it went ker-put. I’ve changed the entry format, and it seems to be working now. If you had comments to make, feel free to make them now.

Activation of the power of the grimoires to their fullest comes from two things. First you need to understand the context of the grimoires by studying a wide variety of approaches that were contemporary to one another. You need to read the Keys of Solomon, all the parts of the Lemegeton, the 6th and 7th Books of Moses, Liber Juratus, the Grimorium Verum, and most importantly perhaps, the Heptameron. You need to know the world view they are representative of by learning about neo-platonism, cosmic hierarchies, and Hermeticism. You need to know the politics of the time, and the doctrines of the Churches that were being tossed about.

Learning all that stuff doesn’t take that long, really. I read like a fish breathes water. A couple of months on Joe Peterson’s Esoteric Archive is enough to get your feet wet.

There’s still another piece to activating the full power of the grimoires, in my opinion and experience, though that must be taken. Think of it as an initiation. You’ve got to be baptized in the Holy Spirit.

On a list I belong to comprised primarily of pagans who also happen to perform ceremonial magic(k), a recent post was about the Right Path. I explained in my best possible non-judgmental, non-proselytizing way that there are lots of different individual paths, but they all end up at the same place, eventually. I also included that you know you’re on the right path when you get a vision of the universe and your personal place in it.

That’s exactly what you need to really activate the grimoires. Knowing about the hierarchies is great, but until you not only know where your place in them is, but also know that you are in that place because you’ve been spiritually transformed, you don’t get to really get the full benefits.

My transformation came from church. I got a spiritual baptism that changed me at the core. I accepted what Christ did on the cross on my behalf. I saw that he made right what had been wrong for so long. I felt the cleansing of my sphere. It was a truly powerful experience that literally changed my life.

THEN I made contact with my Holy Guardian Angel. The spiritual transformation was given an applicable framework. Specific tasks were given, training programs were enacted, and at each stage progressively my sphere was sanctified, purified, and reconciled more to the place where I could operate from in power.

It was like being trained to use the equipment in an Air Traffic Control Tower. I learned to read the weather (astrological conditions), the radar (astral viewing/scrying), the codes to give the airplanes (seals, sigils, names), and the most efficient ways to direct landings and take-offs so that the operations were strategically coordinated (the frameworks of the grimoires). I learned disaster recovery techniques (sell the crystal skull and set wards against Tezcatlipoca), and emergency situation protocols (how to use the lead Seal of Solomon from the Goetia). I learned the ins and outs of the job, and then I got to work at the controls myself with the trainer right behind and slightly above me making sure everything went smoothly. We started at a small airport with a few airplanes (the Art of Drawing Spirits into Crystals attributed to Trithemius), and worked my way up to more advanced Work involving a lot more craft (Enochian now, sheesh).

Every step of the way, the transformation I experienced in church during a praise and worship service has been added to, magnified, and made more meaningful. I no longer attend church regularly. I relate to God through my magic, my meditation, my contemplation, and even in the back-aching inscription of alternate alphabets into wood, stone, and metals. I pray a lot more and talk a lot less. All the knowledge and conversation with my HGA, all the learning from books, all the conjuring of Angels and Demons, it’s meaningless without that initial transformation.

Do you have to be a Hermetic Christian with Gnostic tendencies to get the most out of the Grimoires? I can’t say you must, because I never got jack shit out of them before I was one. I don’t have anything to compare it to. But I can tell you that based on my experiences, it certainly does help.