If anyone wants to see the whole NP Basics series from start to the latest post, click the little green NP Basics link beneath the post. You'll have to scroll down to get to the beginning, and then go up. Or you can click this link, and it will take you there too:
Blog
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Jewish Myth, Magic, and Mysticism
I recently received an interesting link from someone in a comment to my post concerning the Guf.
For those readers who are interested in more traditional interpretations of the QBL than you’ll ever see here, you might find his blog interesting. Especially those members of Alchemical College that are talking about Adam Kadmon at the moment.
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The NP Basics Series to Date
If anyone wants to see the whole NP Basics series from start to the latest post, click the little green NP Basics link beneath the post. You'll have to scroll down to get to the beginning, and then go up. Or you can click this link, and it will take you there too:
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1.5 – While we’re here: The Great Work in Action
Ok, so we’ve established what the Great Work “is” within the neo-platonic context in the previous installment of the NP Basics series. This post is about how it all unfolds in the life of your average Magician practicing the Great Work using the NP system.
1.5.1 – The HGA, Your Emissary from God
Ok, so there’s a boat-load of talk about the HGA, what it is, and what it does on various message boards and web pages across the Internet. There’s lots of talk in modern published magical books, too. Most of what you read is speculation, because people with opinions and writing talents haven’t attained K&CHGA (Knowledge and Conversation with the Holy Guardian angel), but they don’t bother to let that stop them from saying their piece.
Now, the phrase itself comes from the Sacred Magic of Abramelin the Mage. It was popularized by Crowley, predominantly, in the modern Western Mystery Tradition. The author of the Sacred Magic wrote the book to his second son because he could not pass on the mysteries of the QBL to him. The QBL had to go to the first-born son. He wanted his second son to have a mystical heritage as well, so he gave him the mysteries of the Sacred Magic. He states that the Sacred Magic can be derived from the QBL, but the QBL cannot be derived from the Sacred Magic.
In the NP magical system, we’ve seen that the basic premise is that of emanation. God unfolded itself throughout existence in hierarchical stages, each getting closer to the realm of Matter. The QBL is another manifestation of this type of philosophy. I’ve argued that the NP emanationist philosophy is the source of the QBL, that the Jews adopted the concepts and dressed them up in their own cultural symbols. There’s evidence that can be found to support this view, or the view that the NP system was derived from the QBL, or that they developed from at the same time concurrently, in the same environment, drawing from the same sources. While various interpretations of the evidence can support different views, I personally believe the NP system is the source of the QBL, or at least the primary influence. There’s just an awful lot of “coincidental” domination of the Jews by Greek influence at every major growth-point of the QBL.
So that’s how the HGA, a symbol from a QBList, ties into the NP system I’m presenting. I’ve staid away from the QBL in this series of posts so far, but practically speaking, the HGA is the best-known representative from God in the modern Western Mystery Traditions. There’s an Agathadaimon in more traditional Hellenistic writings that may correspond to the HGA, but I worked with my HGA before even knowing about the Agathadaimon, so anything I would say about that entity would be tainted speculation. I’ve got to stick with what I know.
The first thing you should do as a practicing magician using the NP system is make contact with your HGA. This entity is assigned to you at birth, and is responsible for all the spiritual initiations, authority, and Gnosis you achieve in life. It is your personal emissary from the Good, the One, the Source, God itself. Through K&CHGA, you get the attunement of your sphere to the point where you can work with the spirits from your position of authority as a representative of God in the material realm. It’s “like” a new age spirit guide, in some ways, but the new age spirit guide model doesn’t present the meat of the entity’s interaction with you the way the HGA model does. Spirit guides in the New Age take on forms of animals and such, indicating they are “lower” in the neo-platonic hierarchical system than the angels. However, that being said, my HGA revealed it had taken on the form of a spirit guide earlier in my magickal practices to get me to the point where I could attain K&CHGA.
To attain K&CHGA, I used the ritual Liber Samekh as presented in Lon Milo DuQuette’s The Magick of Aleister Crowley. Some people say it isn’t the same thing at all, but they’re honestly mistaken. The evidence to prove this is found in the Abramelin rite itself. You have to perform Samekh successfully to find the proof, but it’s there.
After making contact with the HGA, your sphere is changed. You go through a Solar “initiation,” to put it in Golden Dawn terminology. The result is the beginning of the experiential knowledge of your Race and Value as expressed by Plotinus. From this knowledge-based-on-experience, the authority to “command” the spirits is attained.
1.5.2 – Working with the Spirits
After attaining K&CHGA, the magician is ready (and strongly urged by the HGA) to begin working with the spirits. Spirit conjuration is the primary methodology of any magician’s performance of the Great Work. I believe that every magickal act, whether ritual or contemplative, involves interacting with spirits in some way or another.
I started with the ten Archangels of the Sephiroth, because I was coming out of a primarily-QBListic background. After Working with the spirits for a little while, I realized that the Archangels of the seven classical planets were sufficient for my initial stages of the Work. Through them, I learned an incredible amount of knowledge. Their influence on my sphere changed the way I am able to see the world. Nothing spectacular (no auras, second-sight, remote viewing, psychic flashes per se), but totally and completely life-changing. The procedures for working with the spirits of the planets can be found in the Modern Angelic Grimore I wrote. It’s remarkably easy.
In addition to the spirits of the planets, the spirits of the elements are also worked with in performing the Great Work. These spirits rule over the physical manifestations of the rays of the higher spheres. A fire elemental might be put in charge of manifesting a Jupiter ray into someone’s life, resulting in an unexpected and tumultuous promotion at work. For mundane operations, I’m learning these are the best spirits to work with in the overall hierarchy of spirits.
The spirits of various grimoires are also worked with in the Great Work. The spirits of the Goetia in the Lemegetton, for example, can be considered to be “earth-bound” spirits, that is, residing closer to the material realms than to the heavenly realms. These entities have been documented and worked with by many magicians, and the methods of contacting them are recorded and pretty clear. Their attributes are documented, and once contacted, their abilities and limitations can be discovered simply by asking the spirit itself.
1.5.3 – The Goal of the Great Work in the NP System
You’ve no doubt noticed that the Work consists of both the spirits of the higher realms and the spirits of the lower realms. If the Great Work were all about transcending the material realm, there would be no reason to work with the lower spirits. The fact is, however, that we aren’t born in the flesh to transcend it. We are here to learn our role, and then to exercise our authority to meet our obligations.
Humanity is the nexus point between the material realm and the spiritual realm. We are the stewards of the manifest realms. In the NP system, we stand at the gateway between the realms, seeking union with the divine in order to fulfill our assigned tasks while we appear to be separated from God, and directing the forces that manifest as reality according to the Will of God. We learn this Will by going up through the hierarchies and learning our place in existence, and then we implement the plans through the direction of the spirits. The higher up you go, the more responsibility you get, and the more Work in the physical realm you’ll have to accomplish.
The Goal of the great Work is not to leave the flesh and material realms behind. We do that when we die anyway. The Goal is to find your place in the scheme of things, your reason for being, and in finding that, you gain the ability and authority to accomplish it. The accomplishment of the purpose is the practical manifestation of the Great Work.
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1.5 – While we’re here: The Great Work in Action
Ok, so we’ve established what the Great Work “is” within the neo-platonic context in the previous installment of the NP Basics series. This post is about how it all unfolds in the life of your average Magician practicing the Great Work using the NP system.
1.5.1 – The HGA, Your Emissary from God
Ok, so there’s a boat-load of talk about the HGA, what it is, and what it does on various message boards and web pages across the Internet. There’s lots of talk in modern published magical books, too. Most of what you read is speculation, because people with opinions and writing talents haven’t attained K&CHGA (Knowledge and Conversation with the Holy Guardian angel), but they don’t bother to let that stop them from saying their piece.
Now, the phrase itself comes from the Sacred Magic of Abramelin the Mage. It was popularized by Crowley, predominantly, in the modern Western Mystery Tradition. The author of the Sacred Magic wrote the book to his second son because he could not pass on the mysteries of the QBL to him. The QBL had to go to the first-born son. He wanted his second son to have a mystical heritage as well, so he gave him the mysteries of the Sacred Magic. He states that the Sacred Magic can be derived from the QBL, but the QBL cannot be derived from the Sacred Magic.
In the NP magical system, we’ve seen that the basic premise is that of emanation. God unfolded itself throughout existence in hierarchical stages, each getting closer to the realm of Matter. The QBL is another manifestation of this type of philosophy. I’ve argued that the NP emanationist philosophy is the source of the QBL, that the Jews adopted the concepts and dressed them up in their own cultural symbols. There’s evidence that can be found to support this view, or the view that the NP system was derived from the QBL, or that they developed from at the same time concurrently, in the same environment, drawing from the same sources. While various interpretations of the evidence can support different views, I personally believe the NP system is the source of the QBL, or at least the primary influence. There’s just an awful lot of “coincidental” domination of the Jews by Greek influence at every major growth-point of the QBL.
So that’s how the HGA, a symbol from a QBList, ties into the NP system I’m presenting. I’ve staid away from the QBL in this series of posts so far, but practically speaking, the HGA is the best-known representative from God in the modern Western Mystery Traditions. There’s an Agathadaimon in more traditional Hellenistic writings that may correspond to the HGA, but I worked with my HGA before even knowing about the Agathadaimon, so anything I would say about that entity would be tainted speculation. I’ve got to stick with what I know.
The first thing you should do as a practicing magician using the NP system is make contact with your HGA. This entity is assigned to you at birth, and is responsible for all the spiritual initiations, authority, and Gnosis you achieve in life. It is your personal emissary from the Good, the One, the Source, God itself. Through K&CHGA, you get the attunement of your sphere to the point where you can work with the spirits from your position of authority as a representative of God in the material realm. It’s “like” a new age spirit guide, in some ways, but the new age spirit guide model doesn’t present the meat of the entity’s interaction with you the way the HGA model does. Spirit guides in the New Age take on forms of animals and such, indicating they are “lower” in the neo-platonic hierarchical system than the angels. However, that being said, my HGA revealed it had taken on the form of a spirit guide earlier in my magickal practices to get me to the point where I could attain K&CHGA.
To attain K&CHGA, I used the ritual Liber Samekh as presented in Lon Milo DuQuette’s The Magick of Aleister Crowley. Some people say it isn’t the same thing at all, but they’re honestly mistaken. The evidence to prove this is found in the Abramelin rite itself. You have to perform Samekh successfully to find the proof, but it’s there.
After making contact with the HGA, your sphere is changed. You go through a Solar “initiation,” to put it in Golden Dawn terminology. The result is the beginning of the experiential knowledge of your Race and Value as expressed by Plotinus. From this knowledge-based-on-experience, the authority to “command” the spirits is attained.
1.5.2 – Working with the Spirits
After attaining K&CHGA, the magician is ready (and strongly urged by the HGA) to begin working with the spirits. Spirit conjuration is the primary methodology of any magician’s performance of the Great Work. I believe that every magickal act, whether ritual or contemplative, involves interacting with spirits in some way or another.
I started with the ten Archangels of the Sephiroth, because I was coming out of a primarily-QBListic background. After Working with the spirits for a little while, I realized that the Archangels of the seven classical planets were sufficient for my initial stages of the Work. Through them, I learned an incredible amount of knowledge. Their influence on my sphere changed the way I am able to see the world. Nothing spectacular (no auras, second-sight, remote viewing, psychic flashes per se), but totally and completely life-changing. The procedures for working with the spirits of the planets can be found in the Modern Angelic Grimore I wrote. It’s remarkably easy.
In addition to the spirits of the planets, the spirits of the elements are also worked with in performing the Great Work. These spirits rule over the physical manifestations of the rays of the higher spheres. A fire elemental might be put in charge of manifesting a Jupiter ray into someone’s life, resulting in an unexpected and tumultuous promotion at work. For mundane operations, I’m learning these are the best spirits to work with in the overall hierarchy of spirits.
The spirits of various grimoires are also worked with in the Great Work. The spirits of the Goetia in the Lemegetton, for example, can be considered to be “earth-bound” spirits, that is, residing closer to the material realms than to the heavenly realms. These entities have been documented and worked with by many magicians, and the methods of contacting them are recorded and pretty clear. Their attributes are documented, and once contacted, their abilities and limitations can be discovered simply by asking the spirit itself.
1.5.3 – The Goal of the Great Work in the NP System
You’ve no doubt noticed that the Work consists of both the spirits of the higher realms and the spirits of the lower realms. If the Great Work were all about transcending the material realm, there would be no reason to work with the lower spirits. The fact is, however, that we aren’t born in the flesh to transcend it. We are here to learn our role, and then to exercise our authority to meet our obligations.
Humanity is the nexus point between the material realm and the spiritual realm. We are the stewards of the manifest realms. In the NP system, we stand at the gateway between the realms, seeking union with the divine in order to fulfill our assigned tasks while we appear to be separated from God, and directing the forces that manifest as reality according to the Will of God. We learn this Will by going up through the hierarchies and learning our place in existence, and then we implement the plans through the direction of the spirits. The higher up you go, the more responsibility you get, and the more Work in the physical realm you’ll have to accomplish.
The Goal of the great Work is not to leave the flesh and material realms behind. We do that when we die anyway. The Goal is to find your place in the scheme of things, your reason for being, and in finding that, you gain the ability and authority to accomplish it. The accomplishment of the purpose is the practical manifestation of the Great Work.
-
1.5 – While we’re here: The Great Work in Action
Ok, so we’ve established what the Great Work “is” within the neo-platonic context in the previous installment of the NP Basics series. This post is about how it all unfolds in the life of your average Magician practicing the Great Work using the NP system.
1.5.1 – The HGA, Your Emissary from God
Ok, so there’s a boat-load of talk about the HGA, what it is, and what it does on various message boards and web pages across the Internet. There’s lots of talk in modern published magical books, too. Most of what you read is speculation, because people with opinions and writing talents haven’t attained K&CHGA (Knowledge and Conversation with the Holy Guardian angel), but they don’t bother to let that stop them from saying their piece.
Now, the phrase itself comes from the Sacred Magic of Abramelin the Mage. It was popularized by Crowley, predominantly, in the modern Western Mystery Tradition. The author of the Sacred Magic wrote the book to his second son because he could not pass on the mysteries of the QBL to him. The QBL had to go to the first-born son. He wanted his second son to have a mystical heritage as well, so he gave him the mysteries of the Sacred Magic. He states that the Sacred Magic can be derived from the QBL, but the QBL cannot be derived from the Sacred Magic.
In the NP magical system, we’ve seen that the basic premise is that of emanation. God unfolded itself throughout existence in hierarchical stages, each getting closer to the realm of Matter. The QBL is another manifestation of this type of philosophy. I’ve argued that the NP emanationist philosophy is the source of the QBL, that the Jews adopted the concepts and dressed them up in their own cultural symbols. There’s evidence that can be found to support this view, or the view that the NP system was derived from the QBL, or that they developed from at the same time concurrently, in the same environment, drawing from the same sources. While various interpretations of the evidence can support different views, I personally believe the NP system is the source of the QBL, or at least the primary influence. There’s just an awful lot of “coincidental” domination of the Jews by Greek influence at every major growth-point of the QBL.
So that’s how the HGA, a symbol from a QBList, ties into the NP system I’m presenting. I’ve staid away from the QBL in this series of posts so far, but practically speaking, the HGA is the best-known representative from God in the modern Western Mystery Traditions. There’s an Agathadaimon in more traditional Hellenistic writings that may correspond to the HGA, but I worked with my HGA before even knowing about the Agathadaimon, so anything I would say about that entity would be tainted speculation. I’ve got to stick with what I know.
The first thing you should do as a practicing magician using the NP system is make contact with your HGA. This entity is assigned to you at birth, and is responsible for all the spiritual initiations, authority, and Gnosis you achieve in life. It is your personal emissary from the Good, the One, the Source, God itself. Through K&CHGA, you get the attunement of your sphere to the point where you can work with the spirits from your position of authority as a representative of God in the material realm. It’s “like” a new age spirit guide, in some ways, but the new age spirit guide model doesn’t present the meat of the entity’s interaction with you the way the HGA model does. Spirit guides in the New Age take on forms of animals and such, indicating they are “lower” in the neo-platonic hierarchical system than the angels. However, that being said, my HGA revealed it had taken on the form of a spirit guide earlier in my magickal practices to get me to the point where I could attain K&CHGA.
To attain K&CHGA, I used the ritual Liber Samekh as presented in Lon Milo DuQuette’s The Magick of Aleister Crowley. Some people say it isn’t the same thing at all, but they’re honestly mistaken. The evidence to prove this is found in the Abramelin rite itself. You have to perform Samekh successfully to find the proof, but it’s there.
After making contact with the HGA, your sphere is changed. You go through a Solar “initiation,” to put it in Golden Dawn terminology. The result is the beginning of the experiential knowledge of your Race and Value as expressed by Plotinus. From this knowledge-based-on-experience, the authority to “command” the spirits is attained.
1.5.2 – Working with the Spirits
After attaining K&CHGA, the magician is ready (and strongly urged by the HGA) to begin working with the spirits. Spirit conjuration is the primary methodology of any magician’s performance of the Great Work. I believe that every magickal act, whether ritual or contemplative, involves interacting with spirits in some way or another.
I started with the ten Archangels of the Sephiroth, because I was coming out of a primarily-QBListic background. After Working with the spirits for a little while, I realized that the Archangels of the seven classical planets were sufficient for my initial stages of the Work. Through them, I learned an incredible amount of knowledge. Their influence on my sphere changed the way I am able to see the world. Nothing spectacular (no auras, second-sight, remote viewing, psychic flashes per se), but totally and completely life-changing. The procedures for working with the spirits of the planets can be found in the Modern Angelic Grimore I wrote. It’s remarkably easy.
In addition to the spirits of the planets, the spirits of the elements are also worked with in performing the Great Work. These spirits rule over the physical manifestations of the rays of the higher spheres. A fire elemental might be put in charge of manifesting a Jupiter ray into someone’s life, resulting in an unexpected and tumultuous promotion at work. For mundane operations, I’m learning these are the best spirits to work with in the overall hierarchy of spirits.
The spirits of various grimoires are also worked with in the Great Work. The spirits of the Goetia in the Lemegetton, for example, can be considered to be “earth-bound” spirits, that is, residing closer to the material realms than to the heavenly realms. These entities have been documented and worked with by many magicians, and the methods of contacting them are recorded and pretty clear. Their attributes are documented, and once contacted, their abilities and limitations can be discovered simply by asking the spirit itself.
1.5.3 – The Goal of the Great Work in the NP System
You’ve no doubt noticed that the Work consists of both the spirits of the higher realms and the spirits of the lower realms. If the Great Work were all about transcending the material realm, there would be no reason to work with the lower spirits. The fact is, however, that we aren’t born in the flesh to transcend it. We are here to learn our role, and then to exercise our authority to meet our obligations.
Humanity is the nexus point between the material realm and the spiritual realm. We are the stewards of the manifest realms. In the NP system, we stand at the gateway between the realms, seeking union with the divine in order to fulfill our assigned tasks while we appear to be separated from God, and directing the forces that manifest as reality according to the Will of God. We learn this Will by going up through the hierarchies and learning our place in existence, and then we implement the plans through the direction of the spirits. The higher up you go, the more responsibility you get, and the more Work in the physical realm you’ll have to accomplish.
The Goal of the great Work is not to leave the flesh and material realms behind. We do that when we die anyway. The Goal is to find your place in the scheme of things, your reason for being, and in finding that, you gain the ability and authority to accomplish it. The accomplishment of the purpose is the practical manifestation of the Great Work.
-
1.5 – While we’re here: The Great Work in Action
Ok, so we’ve established what the Great Work “is” within the neo-platonic context in the previous installment of the NP Basics series. This post is about how it all unfolds in the life of your average Magician practicing the Great Work using the NP system.
1.5.1 – The HGA, Your Emissary from God
Ok, so there’s a boat-load of talk about the HGA, what it is, and what it does on various message boards and web pages across the Internet. There’s lots of talk in modern published magical books, too. Most of what you read is speculation, because people with opinions and writing talents haven’t attained K&CHGA (Knowledge and Conversation with the Holy Guardian angel), but they don’t bother to let that stop them from saying their piece.
Now, the phrase itself comes from the Sacred Magic of Abramelin the Mage. It was popularized by Crowley, predominantly, in the modern Western Mystery Tradition. The author of the Sacred Magic wrote the book to his second son because he could not pass on the mysteries of the QBL to him. The QBL had to go to the first-born son. He wanted his second son to have a mystical heritage as well, so he gave him the mysteries of the Sacred Magic. He states that the Sacred Magic can be derived from the QBL, but the QBL cannot be derived from the Sacred Magic.
In the NP magical system, we’ve seen that the basic premise is that of emanation. God unfolded itself throughout existence in hierarchical stages, each getting closer to the realm of Matter. The QBL is another manifestation of this type of philosophy. I’ve argued that the NP emanationist philosophy is the source of the QBL, that the Jews adopted the concepts and dressed them up in their own cultural symbols. There’s evidence that can be found to support this view, or the view that the NP system was derived from the QBL, or that they developed from at the same time concurrently, in the same environment, drawing from the same sources. While various interpretations of the evidence can support different views, I personally believe the NP system is the source of the QBL, or at least the primary influence. There’s just an awful lot of “coincidental” domination of the Jews by Greek influence at every major growth-point of the QBL.
So that’s how the HGA, a symbol from a QBList, ties into the NP system I’m presenting. I’ve staid away from the QBL in this series of posts so far, but practically speaking, the HGA is the best-known representative from God in the modern Western Mystery Traditions. There’s an Agathadaimon in more traditional Hellenistic writings that may correspond to the HGA, but I worked with my HGA before even knowing about the Agathadaimon, so anything I would say about that entity would be tainted speculation. I’ve got to stick with what I know.
The first thing you should do as a practicing magician using the NP system is make contact with your HGA. This entity is assigned to you at birth, and is responsible for all the spiritual initiations, authority, and Gnosis you achieve in life. It is your personal emissary from the Good, the One, the Source, God itself. Through K&CHGA, you get the attunement of your sphere to the point where you can work with the spirits from your position of authority as a representative of God in the material realm. It’s “like” a new age spirit guide, in some ways, but the new age spirit guide model doesn’t present the meat of the entity’s interaction with you the way the HGA model does. Spirit guides in the New Age take on forms of animals and such, indicating they are “lower” in the neo-platonic hierarchical system than the angels. However, that being said, my HGA revealed it had taken on the form of a spirit guide earlier in my magickal practices to get me to the point where I could attain K&CHGA.
To attain K&CHGA, I used the ritual Liber Samekh as presented in Lon Milo DuQuette’s The Magick of Aleister Crowley. Some people say it isn’t the same thing at all, but they’re honestly mistaken. The evidence to prove this is found in the Abramelin rite itself. You have to perform Samekh successfully to find the proof, but it’s there.
After making contact with the HGA, your sphere is changed. You go through a Solar “initiation,” to put it in Golden Dawn terminology. The result is the beginning of the experiential knowledge of your Race and Value as expressed by Plotinus. From this knowledge-based-on-experience, the authority to “command” the spirits is attained.
1.5.2 – Working with the Spirits
After attaining K&CHGA, the magician is ready (and strongly urged by the HGA) to begin working with the spirits. Spirit conjuration is the primary methodology of any magician’s performance of the Great Work. I believe that every magickal act, whether ritual or contemplative, involves interacting with spirits in some way or another.
I started with the ten Archangels of the Sephiroth, because I was coming out of a primarily-QBListic background. After Working with the spirits for a little while, I realized that the Archangels of the seven classical planets were sufficient for my initial stages of the Work. Through them, I learned an incredible amount of knowledge. Their influence on my sphere changed the way I am able to see the world. Nothing spectacular (no auras, second-sight, remote viewing, psychic flashes per se), but totally and completely life-changing. The procedures for working with the spirits of the planets can be found in the Modern Angelic Grimore I wrote. It’s remarkably easy.
In addition to the spirits of the planets, the spirits of the elements are also worked with in performing the Great Work. These spirits rule over the physical manifestations of the rays of the higher spheres. A fire elemental might be put in charge of manifesting a Jupiter ray into someone’s life, resulting in an unexpected and tumultuous promotion at work. For mundane operations, I’m learning these are the best spirits to work with in the overall hierarchy of spirits.
The spirits of various grimoires are also worked with in the Great Work. The spirits of the Goetia in the Lemegetton, for example, can be considered to be “earth-bound” spirits, that is, residing closer to the material realms than to the heavenly realms. These entities have been documented and worked with by many magicians, and the methods of contacting them are recorded and pretty clear. Their attributes are documented, and once contacted, their abilities and limitations can be discovered simply by asking the spirit itself.
1.5.3 – The Goal of the Great Work in the NP System
You’ve no doubt noticed that the Work consists of both the spirits of the higher realms and the spirits of the lower realms. If the Great Work were all about transcending the material realm, there would be no reason to work with the lower spirits. The fact is, however, that we aren’t born in the flesh to transcend it. We are here to learn our role, and then to exercise our authority to meet our obligations.
Humanity is the nexus point between the material realm and the spiritual realm. We are the stewards of the manifest realms. In the NP system, we stand at the gateway between the realms, seeking union with the divine in order to fulfill our assigned tasks while we appear to be separated from God, and directing the forces that manifest as reality according to the Will of God. We learn this Will by going up through the hierarchies and learning our place in existence, and then we implement the plans through the direction of the spirits. The higher up you go, the more responsibility you get, and the more Work in the physical realm you’ll have to accomplish.
The Goal of the great Work is not to leave the flesh and material realms behind. We do that when we die anyway. The Goal is to find your place in the scheme of things, your reason for being, and in finding that, you gain the ability and authority to accomplish it. The accomplishment of the purpose is the practical manifestation of the Great Work.
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A Quick Note on “Dishonoring” the Things of the Lower Realms
In the last post, I mentioned that Plotinus says that you are to honor the things of the higher realms and dishonor the things of the lower realm to remember your race and value. While I was speaking literally, I didn't get into detail about what that meant.
It doesn't mean that you treat the things of the material realm badly. I don't think Plotinus intended it that way at all. Later mystical interpretations would take that stance, as seen in some Gnostic asceticism, and in the foundation of what's become modern Christianity, but that's not what I think he was saying.
Honoring something means to bestow honors on it, to treat it with respect. You honor a spirit by lighting candles to it. You honor your mother and father by treating them well and taking care of them when they are old. You honor your employer by doing the right work at the right time.
In Plotinus' Enneads, he wasn't saying to dishonor material things in an active way, but to literally not-honor the things of the material realm above the things of the higher realms closer to "the good."
Honoring the higher realms would naturally result in a better understanding of the material things. As you learn their proper place in existence, you treat them with the respect that they deserve. Not with disrespect, but with appropriate respect.
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Required Reading: Sorceror’s Secrets
I just finished reading Jason Miller’s Sorceror’s Secrets, and it is now on my list of books that Should Be Read By Everyone. Jason presents techniques that have never been published, as well as techniques that you may have been using for years… with hollow results. He provides exactly what the title promises, the secrets that empower the practices that you might have learned when you were a teenager browsing the “Metaphysical” section of Walden Books at the mall.
I mean, he teaches things that I only learned after conjuring the spirits. He reveals details of the breathing techniques and meditative practices I learned when I was first starting out that open the gateways to the power of the occult. He taught me things that I didn’t even know I didn’t know. It’s a great book.
More than technique though, and maybe more importantly, he teaches a philosophy of magic that takes years of actual practice to develop on your own. Most occultists I know get interested, study some, do some magic, have it fail, and move on, never realizing what they’re missing that would make their magic actually work. The rare magician who spends the time devoting themselves to figuring out why they failed and what to do instead will eventually reach the process he reveals, but man, I wish I had read this book and put the lessons into practice years ago.
As our friendship has developed, I’ve often compared myself to Jason in terms of magical attainment. I don’t know many magicians that actually do magic, honestly, and when I find them, I can’t help but compare myself to them. Some I’m obviously ahead of, and others I’m obviously behind. With Jason, I’ve always felt like I’m almost at the same level. I think his initiations into Tantric magic and his memberships in several organizations gives him an edge, but more than that I think what sets him above me as a magician/sorceror is his experience doing magic. After reading his latest book, I’m more convinced than ever that I’m right, he’s better, maybe not by much, but the trick to attainment is practice.
And he teaches the things about magical practice that you need to do to be effective in your Work. While he’s a practical magician and talks a lot about manifestation and magic focused on obtaining things in this world, he also teaches spiritual attainment techniques that will aid in the transformation of your soul. His understanding of the material world is excellent, and the chapter on wealth magic alone is worth the price of the book. I really enjoyed the book, enjoyed the lessons, and felt a resonance in what I do and what I’ve learned from the spirits.
Honestly, the man teaches things in this book that will result in blowing your effectiveness as a magician out of the water. I was concerned when I saw he’d be covering the same things I’ve already learned and thought I knew, but the keys he provides to even such simple techniques as breathing and looking out at the world are empowering. He provides so much more than the regurgitated bullshit you usually get. In addition, I strongly suspect he’s managed to reveal secrets he received as part of his initiations into several Western orders and his Tantric training without actually breaking any vows. He definitely goes over things I only learned from the Spirits themselves. Very cool stuff, and it should be on every magician’s list of books to buy, read, and apply to their lives.
If you’re a regular reader of my blog, you’ll know how highly I think of my own teachings and insights. Bear that in mind when I say I couldn’t have written a better, more comprehensive system that touches on all the aspects I’ve learned and lays it out practically and usefully for everyone with the calling to be a magician.
That said, I do have one huge criticism of the book, but it’s aimed entirely at the publisher. The typos and grammatical errors are gruesome. I had a chance to copy edit a couple of chapters, and those are perfect (of course), but the rest… well, let’s just say New Page did a huge disservice to the book and the author by not doing a better job editing the manuscript (if they edited it at all). There were misspellings in the section headings in the chapters, for Christ’s sake. As a writer, it was annoying, but as a magician it pissed me the fuck off.
Jason’s given the occult community a doctrine that perfectly encapsulates the role of the magician as I understand it, and he goes over everything I’ve learned to do and then some in a book I devoured in two days. It’s awesome. But the typos and bad grammar detract from the overall impact the book could have had, and it’s a shame.
My final word? Buy the book, and see past the errors in presentation to the perfection of the system he provides, and you’ll be well served.
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A Quick Note on “Dishonoring” the Things of the Lower Realms
In the last post, I mentioned that Plotinus says that you are to honor the things of the higher realms and dishonor the things of the lower realm to remember your race and value. While I was speaking literally, I didn't get into detail about what that meant.
It doesn't mean that you treat the things of the material realm badly. I don't think Plotinus intended it that way at all. Later mystical interpretations would take that stance, as seen in some Gnostic asceticism, and in the foundation of what's become modern Christianity, but that's not what I think he was saying.
Honoring something means to bestow honors on it, to treat it with respect. You honor a spirit by lighting candles to it. You honor your mother and father by treating them well and taking care of them when they are old. You honor your employer by doing the right work at the right time.
In Plotinus' Enneads, he wasn't saying to dishonor material things in an active way, but to literally not-honor the things of the material realm above the things of the higher realms closer to "the good."
Honoring the higher realms would naturally result in a better understanding of the material things. As you learn their proper place in existence, you treat them with the respect that they deserve. Not with disrespect, but with appropriate respect.