Rufus Opus

Blog

  • Conduct Unbecoming a Magician

    HERMES, the God who presides over language, was formerly very properly considered as common to all priests; and the power who presides over the true science concerning the Gods is one and the same in the whole of things. – Iamblichus, On the Mysteries

    I’m guilty of a terrible crime. If I belonged to an Order, a militaristic organization of magicians with a hierarchy of supervising rank and file to whom I would be accountable, I’m sure I’d frequently be demoted for Conduct Unbecoming a Magician.

    Fortunately, I belong to no such Order. There’s no person who has been through more initiations in charge of me. There is no committee of flesh and blood to which someone can report me. There is no chain of command that I must obey.

    There is no code of conduct.

    People have these rather stupid ideas of what someone who is “into magic” should look like. They have these ignorant expectations of how Adepts, Masters, and Illuminated Saints ought to behave. They think we should all be like Jesus, turning the other cheek, striving to be gentle and kind, never cursing, never harsh, never subject to raw emotion. As a result of the refinement of the process of the great Work, we’re supposed to be Heroes, with the powers of the Gods and the approachability of mortals.

    I’ve met some really powerful magicians, folks who are incredibly illuminated. You can feel the power of their spheres radiating outward from them into the universe around them. Talking to them leaves the weak-willed fawning and gibbering like tweens at a Jonas Brothers concert.

    They get angry, depressed, and violent like anyone else. When they do, the world has suddenly collapsed for these dweebs, and they’re left looking like the little girl dressed up like Princess Padme-Amidalla in the Natalie Portman interview video I posted a while back.

    Now don’t be all thinking I’m bitching about people that I think I’m better than. I’m not. I have these stupid pedestals in my heart and mind that I put people on too. I’m no better. I’ve learned to take it in stride when my heroes turn out to be human, though. I’ve lowered my expectations. I try to remember some basic things when I meet people I think are really cool:

    • Jesus took a shit. Daily. Even his digestive system was perfect.
    • Siddartha farted in his hand and sniffed it.
    • Penor Rinpoche declared Steven Seagal a tulku.

    These three little precious jewels serve to remind me not to set unrealistic expectations on people that they can’t live up to.

    WTF does any of this have to do with Iamblichus?

    It has a lot to do with the opening he made in his refutation to Porphyry: HERMES, the God who presides over language, was formerly very properly considered as common to all priests.

    Hermes, the god who presides over language. Patrick Dunn has provided a better explanation than I can about the role of language and symbol in magic in Magic, Power, Language, Symbol: A Magicians Exploration of Linguistics. If you haven’t read it, you should. We who are Hermetic Magicians are priests of the god of Language. As a Christian, a believer in the Word of God made flesh, I am even more aware of my role as priest to this god in my magical practice.*

    Language is symbolic of something else. There’s a difference between the words we use and the things we refer to, the meanings of the words. Different people have different meanings for the same words.

    It’s important that we understand that words and our interpretations of them are not the things they represent. Hierophants, for example, are simply “interpretors of the Mysteries.” They aren’t perfect ascended masters, wizened and ready to do everything perfectly in every interaction with every person. There is no job description for Hierophant that includes “having reached my idea of what a Hierophant should be.” Anyone who can interpret the mysteries in a way that provides initiation into the mystery to those seeking his or her advice is qualified. If you expect your Hierophant to be perfect, you’re in for a shock.

    The same is true for any spiritual mentor. If the person you’re learning from is in the flesh, they are capable of being wrong about things. Don’t deceive yourself, or you’ll be running head first, full speed towards disappointment. Keep your definitons real, your expectations managed, and at the same time strive for the ideal, knowing that the words, symbols, and entities we interact with are representative of the ideal, not the ideal itself.

    * No, I don’t have Hermes as a god before God. That’s against the Law.

  • A Call for Ethiopian Magicians

    I’ve recently started monitoring my blog stats, and there are hits coming in from all over the world, but not one from Africa. My favorite country in Africa is Ethiopia, and I’d damned well better start seeing some traffic from Addis. Ethiopians from the Ethiopian Orthodox Church would make ideal Neo-Platonic magicians, their history has perfectly attuned them for it. Plus they have a sense of humor that is sadly lacking in the modern Western Mystery Tradition.

    With that in mind, I’m writing this blog post as a magickal act. 🙂

    Agrippa places Ethiopia under the influence of Saturn. Therefore:

    Thou Spirits of I conjure thee, in the name of Jehovah Elohim, by the Powers of the Thrones, to send forth in overwhelming flame thy Angels, Intelligences, and Spirits to bring to this blog my brothers from Addis.

    Tzaphkiel, I conjure thee by Jehovah Elohim. My simple request is more Ethiopians, please.

    Thou Spirits of Saturn, by thy Table I conjure thee:

    By thy Seal I conjure thee:

    Thou Intelligence of Saturn Agiel, I conjure thee by thy Seal:

    that thou wouldst direct thy Legions and Guide the Forces of the Spirit Zazel to break down every barrier to the Magi of Ethiopia that would stand against their participation with me through this blog.

    Thou Spirit Zazel, I conjure thee by thy Seal:

    that thou wouldst destroy any plan, plot or action of any man or force of nature within this realm that would stop the Magi of Ethiopia from joining me through this Blog.

    Jehovah Elohim, by the powers of thy host, let this Work bear the fruit Thou intend.

    Amen.

  • A Call for Ethiopian Magicians

    I’ve recently started monitoring my blog stats, and there are hits coming in from all over the world, but not one from Africa. My favorite country in Africa is Ethiopia, and I’d damned well better start seeing some traffic from Addis. Ethiopians from the Ethiopian Orthodox Church would make ideal Neo-Platonic magicians, their history has perfectly attuned them for it. Plus they have a sense of humor that is sadly lacking in the modern Western Mystery Tradition.

    With that in mind, I’m writing this blog post as a magickal act. 🙂

    Agrippa places Ethiopia under the influence of Saturn. Therefore:

    Thou Spirits of I conjure thee, in the name of Jehovah Elohim, by the Powers of the Thrones, to send forth in overwhelming flame thy Angels, Intelligences, and Spirits to bring to this blog my brothers from Addis.

    Tzaphkiel, I conjure thee by Jehovah Elohim. My simple request is more Ethiopians, please.

    Thou Spirits of Saturn, by thy Table I conjure thee:

    By thy Seal I conjure thee:

    Thou Intelligence of Saturn Agiel, I conjure thee by thy Seal:

    that thou wouldst direct thy Legions and Guide the Forces of the Spirit Zazel to break down every barrier to the Magi of Ethiopia that would stand against their participation with me through this blog.

    Thou Spirit Zazel, I conjure thee by thy Seal:

    that thou wouldst destroy any plan, plot or action of any man or force of nature within this realm that would stop the Magi of Ethiopia from joining me through this Blog.

    Jehovah Elohim, by the powers of thy host, let this Work bear the fruit Thou intend.

    Amen.

  • Free Modern Angelic Grimoire Offer has Ended

    The last of the free versions of the Modern Angelic Grimoire went out last night. Thanks for the many responses, and those who received the drafts, I ask that you send any feedback on errors, grammar, content, or usability after you've read it. Any questions about specific aspects, or requests for more detail will likely make it into future revisions.

    So far the best editorial critique I've received has come from Fr. Servitor Lucem, a wascawy wabbit who really DOES magick. (Shocking, I know!)

    Kathy McDonald (whose outstanding Work has been documented on the Solomonic and Ritual MAgic yahoo groups if you havent' read them) made some excellent comments as well, and that lead to correcting the spelling of the Tzadkiel lamen in the final version (It's a Qoph, not a Kaph).

    Their critiques made Version 0.3 the best of the lot. I can't thank them enough.

    I'm probably going to work with Moloch and his publishing outfit to get some hard copies available, eventually. For now though, if anyone wants an electronic draft, you can have a PDF emailed to you for a donation (minimum of $7.95, USD).

    By the way, I accept donations through paypal at my blog site now for anyone who wants to make me rich. It's that little button on the right up in the corner.

    Feel free to give me your tithe. I promise to make sure it goes to the Lord's work. 🙂

  • Free Modern Angelic Grimoire Offer has Ended

    The last of the free versions of the Modern Angelic Grimoire went out last night. Thanks for the many responses, and those who received the drafts, I ask that you send any feedback on errors, grammar, content, or usability after you've read it. Any questions about specific aspects, or requests for more detail will likely make it into future revisions.

    So far the best editorial critique I've received has come from Fr. Servitor Lucem, a wascawy wabbit who really DOES magick. (Shocking, I know!)

    Kathy McDonald (whose outstanding Work has been documented on the Solomonic and Ritual MAgic yahoo groups if you havent' read them) made some excellent comments as well, and that lead to correcting the spelling of the Tzadkiel lamen in the final version (It's a Qoph, not a Kaph).

    Their critiques made Version 0.3 the best of the lot. I can't thank them enough.

    I'm probably going to work with Moloch and his publishing outfit to get some hard copies available, eventually. For now though, if anyone wants an electronic draft, you can have a PDF emailed to you for a donation (minimum of $7.95, USD).

    By the way, I accept donations through paypal at my blog site now for anyone who wants to make me rich. It's that little button on the right up in the corner.

    Feel free to give me your tithe. I promise to make sure it goes to the Lord's work. 🙂

  • Angelic Hierarchies

    To get anything of benefit from the hierarchical representations of God’s servants or ministers, we must first understand the foundational premise behind the formulation of a hierarchy in the first place, and also what an “angel” or minister of God is.

    The Premise of Hierarchies in the Western Magickal Tradition

    To the neo-platonists and their Christian successors, God was One. It’s a simple concept. Orpheus says:

    Pluto and Jupiter, and Phebus, are one;
    But why do we speak twice? Gods one alone. (From Agrippa’s Occult Philosophy, Book 3, chapter x)

    The sh’ma of Judaism puts it this way:

    “Hear o Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is One.”

    The One God is beyond understanding, and is described in terms of what it is not due to our lack of ability to comprehend the awesome unity of God. “Ineffable,” “Invisible,” and “Infinite” are terms that do not tell us what God is, but what it is not. The mystic (by virtue of their calling to be a mystic) understands inherently that God is super-essential.

    This super-essential Deity is constantly providing a stream of grace (or what we would likely call “energy” today) from itself into all that it created, in order that all of creation might participate with and know God intimately. This stream is called Providence by the Christian mystics, and is understood to be the mechanism by which Grace is delivered. When you see a mystic of neo-platonic christian heritage say that an event was “Providence,” they mean that a person achieved “a closer and fuller understanding of God” (or Grace) through a series of events that might not have seemed to be Grace bearing in the moment.

    Ok, so we have One super-essential God, sending Grace to creation by Providence. Since man is not capable of comprehending all of God at once in our standard mode, when God interacts with us directly, we interpret the aspect of God that we interact with as an entity, a messenger from God, or a representation of Deity, or a god in and of itself. The Goddess Venus, for instance, is that part of the One super-essential deity that represents the human understanding of “Love.” In other cultures, this aspect of God is interpreted as Haniel, the archangel of the sephiroth Netzach.

    To understand where this part of God “fits” in the whole process we interpret as Providence, we create models and hierarchies of correspondences so that we can present-progressively interact with that particular part of God as we perform our mundane activities. This touches on the practical purpose behind having a hierarchy in the first place.

    The Purpose of Hierarchies

    Having a model of Providence allows us to work towards obtaining unity with God. (Note: By unity I mean consciously working with God to accomplish God’s purpose, not the idea that we can somehow consciously become GOD.) When one understands the aspects of God that are functioning at various points in Providence, one can begin to consciously integrate these processes into their daily activities. For instance, knowing that Cherubim means the fullness of divine knowledge, and that the function of this manifestation of God is to illuminate the soul of a man with the divine knowledge of the immanence of deity in all things, one would begin to work with the Cherubim when one is seeking to understand how a situation is supposed to integrate with God’s plan.

    This is the Great Work of the Western Mystery Tradition, to be in union with God in all things while in the flesh.

    Having crudely put forth the foundational premise and purpose of hierarchies, we can look at what the various hierarchies are. For a better description, see The Celestial Hierarchies, by Pseudo-Dionysius the Areopogate, from which the above was distilled.

    Some Traditional Hierarchies

    The angelic orders of the “cabalists” are associated with the ten sephiroth. Following the lightning path, they are:

    Kether – Haioth Hacadosch
    Hochma – Ophanim
    Prina – Aralim
    Hesed – Hasmalim
    Geburach – Seraphim
    Tiphereth – Malachim
    Nezah – Elohim
    Hod – Ben Elohim
    Iesod – Cherubim
    Malchuth – Issim

    That’s straight from Agrippa, the original spelling from the English translation by “J.F.” in 1651 intact. If you look in Book 3, Chapter x, you’ll find much more additional information on these orders, such as the particular angel in charge, the planets associated with them, and the biblical personages and the angels that were assigned to them that correspond.

    The terms Seraphim, Cherubim, Thrones, Dominions, Virtues, Powers, Principalities, Archangels, and Angels were used by Pseudo-Dionysius the Areopagate, a Christian mystic who was not a cabalist. Agrippa also uses these, and relates them to the sephiroth, but makes it clear in the text that they are not the names of the hierarchies used by the Hebrews.

    Bill Heidrick has a couple of tables that present the names, correspondences to the sephiroth, and the descriptions and functions of these orders in his Magical Correspondences . Know going into it that Bill is the product of traditional Golden Dawn and Ordo Templi Orientis teachings. While his research and facts have been proven to be as accurate as possible, his interpretations are nevertheless influenced by the teaching he received.

    Practical Application

    To effectively utilize these hierarchies, the mystic or magician must first identify which order is appropriate to their need. Then one would research the names of some of the members of this order, and then contact the entity and request a personal representative from that order to work with for the duration of the operation.

    Understanding the premise behind a hierarchy, the procedures of the magickal operations of the Western Mystery Tradition make a lot more sense. Abramelin’s Sacred Magick is an excellent example, with the Holy Guardian Angel being a member of the Order of Powers assigned to you at birth, who “aids the human mind to break free of the forces that draw man to earthly thoughts.” The Goetia can be better understood when it is recognized as a hierarchy of spirits that are closest to the manifest realm, a sub-hierarchy that doesn’t quite extend beyond the realms of Earth, Water, and Air in the platonic model.

    Conclusion

    In conclusion, I would like to thank Richard Ryan for his Lamed towards presenting something of value and substance rather than simply critiquing someone else’s presentation. Putting this into words has helped me to better understand some of the issues I’ve been struggling with behind the scenes lately regarding cabalism vs. neo-platonic christian interpretations of the Great Work.

  • Free Modern Angelic Grimoire Offer has Ended

    The last of the free versions of the Modern Angelic Grimoire went out last night. Thanks for the many responses, and those who received the drafts, I ask that you send any feedback on errors, grammar, content, or usability after you've read it. Any questions about specific aspects, or requests for more detail will likely make it into future revisions.

    So far the best editorial critique I've received has come from Fr. Servitor Lucem, a wascawy wabbit who really DOES magick. (Shocking, I know!)

    Kathy McDonald (whose outstanding Work has been documented on the Solomonic and Ritual MAgic yahoo groups if you havent' read them) made some excellent comments as well, and that lead to correcting the spelling of the Tzadkiel lamen in the final version (It's a Qoph, not a Kaph).

    Their critiques made Version 0.3 the best of the lot. I can't thank them enough.

    I'm probably going to work with Moloch and his publishing outfit to get some hard copies available, eventually. For now though, if anyone wants an electronic draft, you can have a PDF emailed to you for a donation (minimum of $7.95, USD).

    By the way, I accept donations through paypal at my blog site now for anyone who wants to make me rich. It's that little button on the right up in the corner.

    Feel free to give me your tithe. I promise to make sure it goes to the Lord's work. 🙂

  • Snerk

    Ok, so the other day on Facebook, I took a quiz called “Are you on a Boat.” It turned out I was on a boat. I had no idea what the fuck it was about.

    Today I found out. Saturday Night Live has these little movies and I had no idea. Digital Shorts. Hulu, thanks for rotting my brain the rest of the way. If you get a chance, check out Dick in a Box with Justin Timberlake and Andy Samberg. And Motherlovers.

    But the most important thing you can watch today…

    Ok, not the MOST important. Watching other people perform isn’t that important, really. yOu should be all performing your duties as a magician, fulfilling your roles and responsibilities as the Image of God, you fuckin’ slacker…

    But in between conjuring angels and demons to rule the world, take a break and watch a day in the life of Natalie Portman. For all the fans of Star Wars, V for Vendetta, and … did she do anything else? Who knows. But this I like.

  • 1.2 – The Harmony of the Spheres

    Let me just say up front, I really hated writing that last post. There’s so much more than I can cram into a blog post, it’s unbelievable. There are competing doctrines of creation, details given in the Bible that complement the details given in Trismegistus, and Timaeus, the thing that started it all… Man. There’s a lot that was left out.

    But that’s yesterday. On to the Harmony of the Spheres!

    Ok, so there are spheres within spheres that make up the cosmos beneath the realm of God. There’s a sphere that has the constellations on it, a sphere for each of the planets, a sphere for each of the elements. That’s 12 spheres (hey, just like the number of astrological signs, and the number of tribes of Israel, and the number of apostles, and the hours in a day and in a night, what a freaking coincidence!).

    Now, there aren’t “really” 12 spheres. The realm of sensate matter is the lower four spheres, the Elemental spheres. This sphere includes all the physical planets, stars, galaxies, universes, etc. that we can and cannot see. Anything that can be sensed exists in the realm of the the elements, below the sphere of the Moon. So the elemental spheres, while separate and harmonious, blend together in to what we see. This is the sphere that can be sensed through our material bodies.

    This leaves us with nine spheres.

    The uppermost sphere, that of the constellations, can be viewed as an influencing sphere as opposed to a governing sphere. Agrippa talks a bit about this, and I won’t get too into details here, but suffice it to say that in my understanding of the NP cosmology, the sphere of the constellations is more like a barrier between the realms of the planetary governors (ending at the horizon of Saturn’s Sphere) and the unknowable Realm of God (Light-Divine Darkness-the One). The constellations can be viewed as pinpricks in this barrier through which the infinite light enters the realms of sensation, guiding or feeding as it were, the planetary governors.

    Now, what we’ve done here is divided the infinite universe into three parts. The material realm is composed of the four elemental spheres. The seven spheres of the planetary governors is the second part, ending at the barrier of the Sphere of the constellations. Then there’s the infinite realm of God, the third part.

    Only the realms of the Planetary Governors and the sphere of matter can be known and interacted with consciously. The higher realms may be experienced, but being before the utterance of the Word, they can’t really be put into words.

    The realms of the Planetary Governors exist as pure emanations of God. When viewing God they are passive, but when viewing the realm of Matter, they are active. Being pure in their essence, they are in perfect harmony with one another and with God.

    Now I’d like to introduce a concept I’ve used on the blog before (and I don’t claim to have created it), the Sphere of the Magician. Every one of us live in a bubble of perception. Lots of us have read various modern and classical interpretations of existence as being only that which can be sensed. Plato would have totally grokked Robert Anton Wilson, God rest his heathen soul. (I doubt Wilson could grok Plato though.)

    This bubble of perception is our sphere within the material realm. The Emerald Tablet of Hermes, an excellent model of magickal operation on its own, bears the famous inscription “that which is above is like that which is below.” Metaphysically speaking, we have a spiritual sphere of sensation as well as the physical sphere of sensation. They aren’t really separated, but it’s easier to think of them as parts than to try to understand the whole all at once. A seed in an orange doesn’t look like an orange, and neither does the peel by itself, but they’re still one thing.

    The basic intent of the magician is to get their “sphere” into harmony with the other spheres. Neo-platonic philosophers had various ways of achieving this. Plotinus taught that you could instantly “get it” by realizing your race and value. He talks about denigrating the things of matter and exalting the things of spirit. He, and Porphyry, his student and biographer, believed that the way to reclaim your race and value was through Philosophy, and various forms of Asceticism. Later, some Gnostics and others would take the idea to the extreme. They believed that because matter distracted you from your goal of reuniting with God, then all matter must be inherently evil. Some went so far as to claim that the God that created Matter must have been evil.

    Poppycock.

    Plotinus had another student that helped us out immensely as magicians who would rather do something more active than philosophize all day, and who wanted to participate in the matter-manifestation process in a more hands-on way. This guy was Iamblichus. He taught that theurgy, magickal arts and working with spirits were viable means of reuniting with the One, God. That’s the core of this system I’m presenting here. There are various other branches of neo-Platonism, and lots to discuss and argue about, but as magicians working with the NP magickal system, the point is to harmonize our sphere with the spheres above, and through this harmony to join with God, accomplishing what later became known as the Great Work.

  • New Web Page Launched!

    I’m very pleased to announce that I’ve got my web page up and running. There’s still room for improvement, but I think it’s a good start.

    www.rufusopus.com