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  • Bored Magi

    I have come to believe that there is nothing more dangerous than a bored magician.

    Some people get bored and torture their victims, like a cat toying with a mouse that was unlucky enough to catch its mercurial attention. Some people sit back and mock others. Some people take their boredom and invest it in whatever madness they’ve been keeping on the back burner for just such an occasion.

    On the whole, I’d say those who toy with others are probably the safest of the bunch. I’m in the camp of “let’s make things interesting,” and that usually means conjuring something I haven’t before, or making some magical craft in the Lab. The gold-painted Sculpey Seal of Bune was probably the least dangerous, and most amusing.


    The Crystal Skull was less amusing, but more interesting. The Spirit Pot has been the most profitable and has provided the most long-term fun.

    I also use this forum to discuss things that are on my mind, like Bored Magi. 

    I’m not saying I don’t toy with people on message boards when I’m bored, or that I don’t mock people. I’m probably the worst offender when it comes to that.

    That’s dangerous though. I’ve been reading Patrick Dunn’s latest book, and I’m only on the intro where he talks about the possible etymology of the word “ABRACADABRA.” One possible original meaning is “I create as I speak.” This is the epitome of what I practice as a magician. Made in the image of God who created through Logos, the Word, and created to continue this Work in the world around me.

    When we speak, as magicians, we are changing the world. Everyone does it, but I think magicians have a little more power behind their words as a result of their closer-ness to the Source of our being. Watching what we say is important. I called someone an “unmedicated bipolar” person on a list today. I don’t know if that’s what they are or not, but I wouldn’t be surprised to find out later that I was right. Did I seal it into being by saying it, or was I just commenting on what was apparent already? Does it matter?

    I don’t know. On the one hand there’s the real possibility of megalomania. On the other, there’s the real possibility that everything we speak into being does come into being. Maybe not EVERYTHING, but … still. Better safe than sorry, I suppose.

    So my advice to anyone else and especially myself is to think before you speak, and speak proactively. Have a list of good things to say, not like affirmations, but as alternate text to put forward when confronted with a situation that you could make worse.

    I’ll get started on mine.

  • New blog to add to my list of faves


    Jason Miller, author of Protection and Reversal Magick, has a new blog that specifically deals with magic and the practice thereof. Titled “Strategic Sorcery,” this promises to be one of the kinds of blogs that I love.

    Jason has spent time in Nepal training in Tantric Magic. He’s also a rootworker from Cat Yronwoode’s tradition, and a traditional ceremonial magician who works magic from the pages of Agrippa, Trithemius, and several popular grimoires I’m sure. The dude is pretty awesome.

    He’s one of those online treasures that get really emotionally and spiritually appreciated by millions of people who never think to thank him by giving him a couple bucks each.

    I believe he’s also teaching a series of workshops on Strategic Sorcery as well. I don’t have all the details, but I’m sure he’d be willing to pass them on to you at his earliest convenience, if you’re near enough to benefit.

  • Bored Magi

    I have come to believe that there is nothing more dangerous than a bored magician.

    Some people get bored and torture their victims, like a cat toying with a mouse that was unlucky enough to catch its mercurial attention. Some people sit back and mock others. Some people take their boredom and invest it in whatever madness they’ve been keeping on the back burner for just such an occasion.

    On the whole, I’d say those who toy with others are probably the safest of the bunch. I’m in the camp of “let’s make things interesting,” and that usually means conjuring something I haven’t before, or making some magical craft in the Lab. The gold-painted Sculpey Seal of Bune was probably the least dangerous, and most amusing.


    The Crystal Skull was less amusing, but more interesting. The Spirit Pot has been the most profitable and has provided the most long-term fun.

    I also use this forum to discuss things that are on my mind, like Bored Magi. 

    I’m not saying I don’t toy with people on message boards when I’m bored, or that I don’t mock people. I’m probably the worst offender when it comes to that.

    That’s dangerous though. I’ve been reading Patrick Dunn’s latest book, and I’m only on the intro where he talks about the possible etymology of the word “ABRACADABRA.” One possible original meaning is “I create as I speak.” This is the epitome of what I practice as a magician. Made in the image of God who created through Logos, the Word, and created to continue this Work in the world around me.

    When we speak, as magicians, we are changing the world. Everyone does it, but I think magicians have a little more power behind their words as a result of their closer-ness to the Source of our being. Watching what we say is important. I called someone an “unmedicated bipolar” person on a list today. I don’t know if that’s what they are or not, but I wouldn’t be surprised to find out later that I was right. Did I seal it into being by saying it, or was I just commenting on what was apparent already? Does it matter?

    I don’t know. On the one hand there’s the real possibility of megalomania. On the other, there’s the real possibility that everything we speak into being does come into being. Maybe not EVERYTHING, but … still. Better safe than sorry, I suppose.

    So my advice to anyone else and especially myself is to think before you speak, and speak proactively. Have a list of good things to say, not like affirmations, but as alternate text to put forward when confronted with a situation that you could make worse.

    I’ll get started on mine.

  • Witchdoctor Joe and St. Faust

    I had the fortune of meeting Witchdoctor Joe on a Fresno Magical list run by Frater Bone Head, also known as Fr. POS, who authors the “Doing Magic” blog. Joe’s a former Native American pipe carrier, a Wiccan-ish guy, and he’s got an interest in the occult in general. He’s been blogging about the tarot lately, and I love his style. Some people write information using words, and others tell stories. Joe is definitely a story teller.

    For those interested, his blog is here:

    http://witchdoctorjoe.blogspot.com/

    St. Faust is a peculiar breed of magician, the likes of which I’ve never run into before. His primary focus was chaos magic for a while, but it seems not to have driven him completely mad. He’s the one who tipped me off to the Coyote aspects of Tezcatlipoca. I find his perspective on things to be very interesting.

    For those interested, his blog is here:

    http://vonfaustus.blogspot.com/

  • Witchdoctor Joe and St. Faust

    I had the fortune of meeting Witchdoctor Joe on a Fresno Magical list run by Frater Bone Head, also known as Fr. POS, who authors the “Doing Magic” blog. Joe’s a former Native American pipe carrier, a Wiccan-ish guy, and he’s got an interest in the occult in general. He’s been blogging about the tarot lately, and I love his style. Some people write information using words, and others tell stories. Joe is definitely a story teller.

    For those interested, his blog is here:

    http://witchdoctorjoe.blogspot.com/

    St. Faust is a peculiar breed of magician, the likes of which I’ve never run into before. His primary focus was chaos magic for a while, but it seems not to have driven him completely mad. He’s the one who tipped me off to the Coyote aspects of Tezcatlipoca. I find his perspective on things to be very interesting.

    For those interested, his blog is here:

    http://vonfaustus.blogspot.com/

  • The Puppet Masters

    Fellow blogger and general gadabout E. Keith Boyne tipped me off to this cool service called “WOWIO.” You may have already known about it, but it’s free books, legally. You can read them with a web browser. I read The Puppet Masters by Heinlein the other day. Today I’m going to delve into something about the relationship with my HGA, and I’ll be using that story to illustrate my points. Click the title to read the story if you want more context for the post. It’s relatively short, and Heinlein writes easy.

    Ok, so the story line is this: aliens invade and take over people, riding them like mules, only without consent. Being a Heinlein novel, it’s fairly sexist, but with an eye towards radical femininism (no, not feminism; there’s a difference). He’s always got the hero metamorphisizing from an observant, pragmatic, but weak underling into a Juggernaut of right action. There’s always a Father Figure who oversees the initiations and development of the hero, and when the metamorphosis occurs, it is the Father Fgure usually who identifies it and acknowledges it. In this story, it takes the Father Figure to point out to the Hero that the metamorphosis had even occurred.

    Metamorphosis. It’s one of the first five-dollar words they teach kids. They come home and carefully pronounce it and tell you about pupa (poo-pa-… and much giggling ensues), and crsya-crysa-chrysalises. Their eager faces are thrilled, and they can hardly belive what they learned themselves. And they crown it off with the shining medallion, “That’s Me-ta-mor-pho-sis.”

    How important is progressive metamorphosis to us as spiritual beings if even the secular atheist scientists that design the school curriculum insist on teaching that big old word so young? They don’t teach a-biogenesis first, even though you’d think that was more important since life supposedly sprang from not-life. No, they start with metamorphosis. It’s something the kids understand and have experienced, and it sets the scene for what’s to come. It’s also the fundamental process of Natural Law.

    In our relationships with our HGA, a spiritual metamorphosis is going on. We start out like the main character in the Puppet Masters. He’s a servant of a shadowy intelligence gathering organization that reports directly to the President. An agent. He takes orders and does his job. The details of his life are foggy, as he shifts from identity to identity with each passing job. He can’t even remember what he originally looked like. He goes by Sam, the name his boss gives him for most of the book. Much later we learn his name was “really” Elihu, although he ultimately becomes Sam.

    As we get to know our HGA, we go through some shit. Not pleasant and happy shit. In the story, the shit was the aliens. They were basically a goo that attached to the back of a human and took over through the nervous system. They made the host totally submissive, and thoughts from the entities seemed like their own thoughts, and were obeyed without question.

    That’s us. We’re ridden by our nepheshim. It’s the Master that must be obeyed, no matter what. The HGA comes along and tells us that we’re slaves, and we can be reborn as free men, if we’re willing to overthrow the Master and take control ourselves. And he helps us get there.

    Fast forward over a lot of important stuff, and you’ve recognized the problem, and learned a lot about the enemy, and you’ve got some good ideas about fixing it. The people around you are jabbering away about shit, and not doing what has become obvious to you as a result of your experiences with the HGA. You stand up in a moment of frustration and say the obvious, and all eyes turn to you. You’ve solved the problem, and not only that, something else has changed.

    In the story line, the Hero hits this point and the Old Man steps aside, and hands the mantle of authority to the younger man. He recognizes that he has been replaced in the leadership role of the battle when Sam comes up with a brilliant solution to the problem while he stood there unable to do it himself.

    Sam had no clue, and didn’t want the responsibility, but at that point it was too late. The Old Man knows when the time has come to pass on the crown, as it were.

    In our relationship with the HGA, I think we go through similar stages. In the beginning, we get awoken by the HGA. We’re basically trying our best to stumble around after its voice, like walking in someone else’s house at night trying to find the bathroom. Eventually we learn to see, and can guide ourselves without bashing our shins on the coffee tables. The HGA teaches us, trains us, and tunes us to the frequencies of the higher spheres. It paves the way upwards, gets you in good with the other angels, and even watches your ass when the demons come prowling.

    Then, when you’re ready, it steps out of the way and demonstrates that you’re the one who is the Man, made in God’s Image to be a cohort and friend.

    Metamorphosis. Progressive sanctification. Transformation. Trans-Abyssal Technologies. Living in the knowledge of who you are and what you are. Contemplating your (divine) Race and (eternal) Value.

    And then Returning to the Earth in Great Power, as the Emerald Tablet says. Me, I try to exist at the fulcrum between the macrocosm and the microcosm, and then go to whichever end of the “lever” I need to at the moment. I suspect a Buddhist may posit that there is no fulcrum, no lever, and no macro to this micro -cosm.

    Which is one of the many reasons I’m not a Buddhist. I’ve seen behind the illusions, yet the illusions remain… AS IF THEY SERVED A PURPOSE. And me, I’ve found that purpose through my Work with my HGA. It’s still being refined, metamorphing into what it will become, and that’s alright with me.

  • Everyone’s Tired of Bune…

    I mentioned that I was engraving a quartz crystal with Bune’s sigil to a friend, and he was like, “Bune, again!?” He suggested that I might need to be careful about obsessing over one particular spirit, and mentioned that the Goetic spirits have a reputation for getting magicians obsessed.

    I mentioned to my spouse what I was doing, and she said something like, “Bune Bune Bune, all you work with is Bune.”

    I guess that’s the image I have because I write so much about him. I’ve been in a relationship with this spirit for almost two years, and I’m very happy with his work in my life. He’s the only spirit of the Goetia that I have a long-term relationship with, via the Spirit Pot. So I talk to him a lot, and I talk to you about him a lot.

    However, he is not the only spirit I work with. I’m working on Belial’s seal, as well as the other 8 Kings of the Goetia. I’ve worked 18 of the 72 Spirits altogether from that particular grimoire, but mostly it’s been one-time rites, or simple conversations. I’m also working with the Archangels of the seven heavens on my spiritual alchemy. They get a lot more face time with me than Bune or any other Goetic spirits. I have a personal relationship with God. We hang out and have fun together.

    Then there’s my HGA, with whom I’ve been exploring the Seven Heavens, and working with to understand his role in a magician’s life better. He’s not only a Guru to bring you to the edge of the alleged Abyss between the Supernal Triad of the Tree of Life. He’s also a familiar spirit that has authority over the Sub-Lunar spirits. He can directly bring riches, love, peace, joy, happiness, prosperity, and everything else material you need to perform the Great Work in comfort and style. He can help you perform what Psychics call “Remote Viewing,” and he can help heal people who are ill. Dude’s pretty cool.

    So as you can see, I do a lot more Work with other spirits than Bune. I talk about Bune the most because he’s usually the one I turn to for money, and the fact is, money is always needed for something when you’re raising three kids. Even when my income covers bills, mortgage, and consumables, there’s college funds, trust funds, and our own retirement funds that need cash to grow. And the Lab needs equipment.

    Which brings me to the crystal I engraved with Bune’s seal. After the Crystal Skull experience, I decided to stick with just a Bune Legionairre in the stone, totally focused on bringing the owner of the stone riches. It’s not finished yet. So far, I’ve got the crystal roughly shaped the way I want it, and the sigil in the stone.

    There are two Seals for Bune in the Lemegeton’s Goetia. It says in the grimoire that the first (top over on the left) is not as effective as the second (bottom over on the left), but I believe this is only a reference to its effectiveness in contacting the spirit the first time. After that, the first Seal is as effective for marking things as “Belonging to Bune” as the second. The first seal is also much easier to carve into things, like wood, metal, or stone. The second is easier to draw than to engrave or carve. Since the crystal is so brittle, I picked the first seal to engrave in the stone. It’s got more straight lines, and less detail to try to capture.

    Like I said, it’s not finished yet. I need to sand it again to get a better polish on it. I need to flatten the base a bit. I tried to make an ink to darken the engraved seal so it stood out more when you look at the stone. I made the ink by grinding up some venus herbs, then roasting the ground herbs on a metal sheet over a candle flame. As it blackened, I stirred it, reground it, and roasted it again until all the herb mass was charred. Then I mixed it with olive oil, and tried to put it into the engraved seal, and it sort of worked. It’s not really an ink though. More of an oily mass of ground charred herbs. Imagine that.

    The stone’s got a spirit in it though, a spirit working for me. Last week, I got $750 in incorrect bank fees returned to me, stretching back to May of the previous year. Job offers abound. If enough people want inexpensive plaster seals of the Goetic Spirits, I might be able to pay for an unplanned vacation. Life, as they say, is good.

  • Crystal Skull 1 – Roughly Finished


    Behold the BLURRY CRYSTAL SKULL OF DOOOOOOOM!!!

    The best camera in the house is my daughter’s cell phone camera at 2.0 megapix. And she’s twelve. But hey, I gots pictures! I ain’t complaining!

    For size comparison, that is a twelve-year-old girl’s hand holding the crystal above a hardwood floor. The wood planks are about two inches wide, if that helps. It’s rather … smallish.

    My spouse said it was “cute.”

    Nevertheless!!! It’s awesome. I had worked after conjuring my Agatha Daimon and the Goetic spirit Bune. I was tingling from the whole experience, physically, and spiritually.

    Quartz has some pretty cool occult properties on its own. Carving quartz is delicate work, it cracks and shatters. That’s partially why it turned out so small. It’s my first effort, and I learned a lot.

    The heat from grinding it down was all focused at the tip of the crystal point, while it had one. I also dowsed it using a pendulum before carving it, and I’ll be dowsing it when it’s all the way finished too. It still needs more polishing, and the “mask” needs more work.

    The mask, by the way, is a reference to the Aztec God of Sorcerors, Tezcatlipoca. I remember it by repeating Tez-Cat-Lip-Polka. His name translates as “Smoking Mirror,” and he was the god they would work with to perform scrying acts in their obsidian mirrors. The god was often depicted either wearing the mirror, or having it for a foot. He had lost the foot luring the crocodile from the waters that he and Qetzelcoatl made the land out of in some of the Aztec creation myths.

    The mirror used by John Dee was one of these Aztec Mirrors made out of Obsidian and brought from the New World. Chances are pretty good that it was at one time used by someone of high importance under the auspices of Tezcatlipoca.

    So, we’ve got a nod to the god of scrying from the Aztec cosmology. Why? Because. The Google expedition on crystal skulls in general lead me to very specific skulls that were masks of Tezcatlipoca. I also got engrossed in Aztec creation myths, and I read most of the Popul Vu codex. Comparative theology never ceases to entertain me.

    Since beginning to carve the skull, it has appeared unasked for in a visit to my astral temple, sort of like Bune was just there one day after I put my spirit pot together for him. I’m not surprised, as Bune has worked on this skull with me, laying down a communications network for the spirits of the dead. My Agatha Daimon was also on hand to imbue it with pure Divine Light, so it’s more likely to draw whomever uses it towards God rather than away.

    I’m going to keep this for a while and play with it, see what comes out of my Work with it. I performed some basic psychometry on the crystals before choosing them, and found the ones that would be the best candidates based on their “vibe.” I’ll be testing them again, and maybe even writing up some of the Great Work lessons I learned from grinding the skull itself. Shaping a brittle crystalline matrix using a rotary tool and diamond bits requires a finesse and a strength combined that is hard to explain off the top of my head.

    Sorry if I’m all over the map on this post, I’m kind of excited.

  • Everyone’s Tired of Bune…

    I mentioned that I was engraving a quartz crystal with Bune’s sigil to a friend, and he was like, “Bune, again!?” He suggested that I might need to be careful about obsessing over one particular spirit, and mentioned that the Goetic spirits have a reputation for getting magicians obsessed.

    I mentioned to my spouse what I was doing, and she said something like, “Bune Bune Bune, all you work with is Bune.”

    I guess that’s the image I have because I write so much about him. I’ve been in a relationship with this spirit for almost two years, and I’m very happy with his work in my life. He’s the only spirit of the Goetia that I have a long-term relationship with, via the Spirit Pot. So I talk to him a lot, and I talk to you about him a lot.

    However, he is not the only spirit I work with. I’m working on Belial’s seal, as well as the other 8 Kings of the Goetia. I’ve worked 18 of the 72 Spirits altogether from that particular grimoire, but mostly it’s been one-time rites, or simple conversations. I’m also working with the Archangels of the seven heavens on my spiritual alchemy. They get a lot more face time with me than Bune or any other Goetic spirits. I have a personal relationship with God. We hang out and have fun together.

    Then there’s my HGA, with whom I’ve been exploring the Seven Heavens, and working with to understand his role in a magician’s life better. He’s not only a Guru to bring you to the edge of the alleged Abyss between the Supernal Triad of the Tree of Life. He’s also a familiar spirit that has authority over the Sub-Lunar spirits. He can directly bring riches, love, peace, joy, happiness, prosperity, and everything else material you need to perform the Great Work in comfort and style. He can help you perform what Psychics call “Remote Viewing,” and he can help heal people who are ill. Dude’s pretty cool.

    So as you can see, I do a lot more Work with other spirits than Bune. I talk about Bune the most because he’s usually the one I turn to for money, and the fact is, money is always needed for something when you’re raising three kids. Even when my income covers bills, mortgage, and consumables, there’s college funds, trust funds, and our own retirement funds that need cash to grow. And the Lab needs equipment.

    Which brings me to the crystal I engraved with Bune’s seal. After the Crystal Skull experience, I decided to stick with just a Bune Legionairre in the stone, totally focused on bringing the owner of the stone riches. It’s not finished yet. So far, I’ve got the crystal roughly shaped the way I want it, and the sigil in the stone.

    There are two Seals for Bune in the Lemegeton’s Goetia. It says in the grimoire that the first (top over on the left) is not as effective as the second (bottom over on the left), but I believe this is only a reference to its effectiveness in contacting the spirit the first time. After that, the first Seal is as effective for marking things as “Belonging to Bune” as the second. The first seal is also much easier to carve into things, like wood, metal, or stone. The second is easier to draw than to engrave or carve. Since the crystal is so brittle, I picked the first seal to engrave in the stone. It’s got more straight lines, and less detail to try to capture.

    Like I said, it’s not finished yet. I need to sand it again to get a better polish on it. I need to flatten the base a bit. I tried to make an ink to darken the engraved seal so it stood out more when you look at the stone. I made the ink by grinding up some venus herbs, then roasting the ground herbs on a metal sheet over a candle flame. As it blackened, I stirred it, reground it, and roasted it again until all the herb mass was charred. Then I mixed it with olive oil, and tried to put it into the engraved seal, and it sort of worked. It’s not really an ink though. More of an oily mass of ground charred herbs. Imagine that.

    The stone’s got a spirit in it though, a spirit working for me. Last week, I got $750 in incorrect bank fees returned to me, stretching back to May of the previous year. Job offers abound. If enough people want inexpensive plaster seals of the Goetic Spirits, I might be able to pay for an unplanned vacation. Life, as they say, is good.

  • Belial’s Gold Leaf Seal

    I’m working on a new method for making the golden seals for the Kings of the Goetia. New for me, anyway. I don’t know, maybe other magicians have been doing this for years. As far as I know, it’s all my creation though, so I’m taking credit for it.

    I carved Belial’s seal into an ordinary two-inch wooden disk, the kind you get from a craft store. I used the smallest little round carving ball dremel attachment I could find in my box. It may even have been intended for this.

    Oh, diamond grinding bits are great for quartz, not wood.

    So after carving the seal, I mushed it into Sculpey, some plasticene clay you can buy. You bake it at 275 (F) for fifteen minutes, and it turns to this weird harder-plastic that doesn’t bend or mush anymore. I pulled the wooden disk out, and had a nice little mold.

    I baked the mold for about an hour. I should have put it on a baking pan, but being the lazy magi that I am, I threw it on a piece of parchment paper (the baking kind) laying on the oven rack. Then I took it out and let it cool. Then I mixed up some plaster, and poured it in the mold, and let it set for a while.

    Sculpey has to be sealed with something water proof to make it water proof. Like paint or something. I didn’t do this, so all the water in the plaster just seeped out through the bottom of the Sculpey mold. I think it helped. I was able to pop out the plaster seal in an hour or so. One thing I noticed was that while baking, the Sculpey was still slightly malleable. Because this is the largest piece of Sculpey I’ve ever baked, it sort of drooped while it was baking, slightly misshaping the mold. So there’s a slight warp to the seal.

    I let it sit over night, and then I cleaned it up with a sanding bit for the dremel, drilled a hole in the top, and proceeded to attempt to leaf the damn thing in gold.

    With varying degrees of success. I bought this foil leafing kit that has a bottle of glue (they call it “size” but I swear it’s glue), a roll of foil, and some other stuff that doesn’t come into play right now. You put down the glue, wait for it to dry “clear” and then put the foil over it. You peel back the foil, and this plastic tape stuff comes away, and the foil is supposed to stick to the glue. Plaster, as you may know is white. It’s not easy to tell when a white glue has dried “clear” on white plaster. As you can see, it sort of almost worked.

    Also, the gold leaf is supposed to get into all the carved out cracks, right? But the foil stuck to the flat bits. So I used the handy 18 kt gold leafing pen. It turned out alright. Not great, but alright. I like the shininess of the leaf foil over the paint pen, but the paint pen has some real gold in it, while the leaf foil doesn’t.

    I really need to get a doggone working digital camera. I’ve been using my cell phone camera for this stuff, and it just doesn’t provide the clarity I want. It’s on my list of things to buy, as soon as the kids have all their back to school stuff, and things have quieted down on the home front.

    So, I will be trying again. There are some inherent caveats in this. It’s not all gold, for one thing, and that makes me less than happy. It’s plaster. It weighs hardly anything, and I’m afraid it’s going to break if I drop it, or chip, or something. It’s convenient for a one or two-time use, I suspect, but for a long-term relationship with this spirit, I’d probably suggest something a little more durable. Even gold-leafing the wooden disk would probably make for a sturdier talisman…

    Duh! I should have done that instead. Huh.

    Oh well. If I wanted to mass produce these things, I have the means, at least. Anyone want to buy some gold-painted plaster seals for the Kings of the Goetia?