Hey, take some time today and read Six Short Chapters of the Sacred Text. It’s all in one blog post. Won’t take you too long.
It’s important.
Blog
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Hermes Dancing
This morning as the Mercury hour of the Merury day rolled around, I tuned my awareness to our favorite Uncle Hermes to salute him with an improv hymn followed by a more formal conjuration and an Orphic Hymn. I got as far as looing up towards his sphere and saying, “Hail to thee, oh Hermes…” when I saw him dancing.
Like this:
See that grin? He’s having fun, yo. This pic doesn’t show it, but he’s strumming a lyre with one set of hands, conducting the elements with another pair, revealing and writing, and laughing, and dancing. Dude’s a happy guy.My life is a lot more fluid and flexible these days than it has been … uh, well, ever. It’s less a choreographed symphonic production with a start, middle, and end than it is an ongoing wave. It flows in harmony with my desires, ambitions, and passions. It feeds them and grows from them.I saw it in a dream, it was epic. It ran parallel to the beach, and everyone else there was waiting for the ripples of its passage to ride in to shore on their little surf boards and boogie boards. They were safe there. But I paddled out hard to catch it full, and it took me up and carried me, and I found myself dancing to its tune as I woke, still tasting the salt air, glowing with the thrill of riding that wave.This morning, Hermes showed up dancing, and smiling, and looking me straight in the eye, sharing the joke, sharing the joy and mirth with that thrilled expression, the cosmic, “I know, right!?” I looked back at myself and saw that yeah, I’m like that too. Hermes dancing, flowing, moving from one state to another, connecting, touching, interacting, plugging in. Never stopping, never losing step, always moving in time to the rhythm.Hermes, draw near, and to my pray’r incline, angel of Jove [Zeus], and Maia’s son divine;
Studious of contests, ruler of mankind, with heart almighty, and a prudent mind.
Celestial messenger, of various skill, whose pow’rful arts could watchful Argus kill:
With winged feet, ’tis thine thro’ air to course, O friend of man, and prophet of discourse:
Great life-supporter, to rejoice is thine, in arts gymnastic, and in fraud divine:
With pow’r endu’d all language to explain, of care the loos’ner, and the source of gain.
Whose hand contains of blameless peace the rod, Corucian, blessed, profitable God;
Of various speech, whose aid in works we find, and in necessities to mortals kind:
Dire weapon of the tongue, which men revere, be present, Hermes, and thy suppliant hear;
Assist my works, conclude my life with peace, give graceful speech, and me memory’s increase. -
The Beast and the Harlot and You
Oh, there are so many things I could say about this one. Almost half of them are uninformed opinions that shouldn’t be spoken in public yet, if ever, and the other half are none of your business…
I mean, they’re Mysteries. Mysteries that you should totally go explore for yourself, at your earliest opportunity.
But there’s one thing I can tell you about the two, the Beast and the Harlot… They are not just a couple of entities, and they are not just forces that manifest between two humans. They are these things, but they are also more, an image, an aspect, an avatar of you. And me.
The Beast, your flesh and bone, the Harlot, your spirit and mind, together taking in everything they can as they rumble through life, creating and destroying the world as they see fit in a bacchanalian frenzy of sensational experiences. They are the unkempt Holy Hermaphrodite, Hermes-Aphrodite conjoined in an eternal glorious fuck, an orgasmic unification that creates the current that runs the world. She rides him as he bounds about, and though she holds the bridle, it is often loose, and no one can tell who leads, who might be in control, or if either of them are even interested in the idea of control, or the idea of arriving at a destination at all.
That’s you, brothers and sisters. That’s me. On the inside.That’s us when we resort to magic, every time. That’s us crossing that threshold between us the experiencers and Us the Creators, that mad cackle of glee that almost-but-not-quite manages to escape as we feel the powers flow through us and the magic takes effect. It’s wrapped in intent, and sheathed in desires, filtered through attachment, but at essence most raw it is the urge to have fun.
Lust. Passion. The frictional catalysis of the Work..
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What the HELL is going on here?
Magicians. We’re all seeking the powers of the universe, changing ourselves into something greater than we started out as, or at least more pure so we can participate with God in the CREATION of the UNIVERSE. Okay, well, maybe just managing and maintaining the manifestation as it occurs, but being consciously aware of the fact during the planning and processing stages of the project at hand.
But here I am reading John Dee this week, and come to find out, one of the “greater” magicians of recorded history was fumbling in just as much dark as me. He spent all that time with Kelley developing (or receiving, if you will) what amounts to a system of planetary magic. He conjured and cajoled, enticed and entreated God to send him these spirits that revealed a system of magic that he never even used.
Heading back to Agrippa, the man was a brilliant librarian, researcher, and reporter. But for all his knowledge, he was just like us too. A man who had to keep his public and private beliefs strictly regimented. The only evidence we have that Agrippa actually performed magic is his obvious “insider’s” understanding of the material he recorded. That inference can’t even be made objectively. We have to experience the results of the operations he describes to realize what he is recording between the lines. Based on that experience, we can begin to understand the deeper implications of his writing.
Leap ahead a couple years to Crowley. A great magician, an eager and prolific promoter of occult philosophy, Crowley stands out in history for his intelligence, wit, and most offensively to some, his self-confidence. Yet read through Soror Achitha’s Vision of the Amalantrah Working, and you see that Crowley in his magickal practice was a sulky, petulant, ignorant man. Not ignorant in terms of knowledge, learning, or experience, but ignorant of what is to come. He worries about money, and worries about plans to go to Cairo. He is revealed to be a whiner to the spirits, much like Dee and Kelley both. He shows a deep concern for his safety and well-being that speaks volumes, at least to me, of his lack of faith that “existence is pure joy.”
Across history to the present day, magicians are fumbling in the dark, trying to figure out what the HELL is going on, and trying to influence things to work out in their favor. Their private diaries reveal them to be very small and very dependent upon the forces they work with for their mental well-being. Their greatest contributions to their fellow occultists are little more than sign posts and travel commentaries about the realms they visit.
It’s baffling.
From my own limited experience in the occult, in conjuring the spirits, in speaking with the intelligences of the spheres, in traversing the heavens that lie between us and God Almighty, I have seen things that make my toes curl in wonder and awe. I have done things that are miraculous in every sense of the word. In my conversations with the spirits of the realms, I’m no whining supplicant, begging for scraps of answers or a pittance to get to Egypt in the spring. I’m not demanding answers about God or the heavens, or secrets of the cosmos. I’m a traveler in the macrocosmic realms, a co-worker with the spirits in the microcosmic realms. There is no thing or state of existence beyond my ability to access and manifest through ritual activities. There are no limits beyond the practical.
So just what the HELL is going on here? Am I the only magician that uses magic to rise above the problems of mundane existence? By no means is my life, or my skill in the Art of magic perfect and complete. My recent escapades with Bune seem to be unprecedented among my fellow magicians for example, although they have confirmed in one way or another through their own magical works that the source of the problem was related to the way I had approached the idea of being a Hierophant.
The point is, when I found out what was going on, the first thing I did was fix it. Using magic. That’s my general approach to everything. It works really well. I use Magic to get ideas about what I should be doing in my mundane life. I use it to get ideas about what spiritual activities I should be pursuing. I use it for food, health, safety, and travel. With the knowledge I get reading and meditating, I create and perform rituals that bring about what I want to happen in my life and my world.
I know I’m not the only one that does this. I talk to many magicians on the internet across the world who are doing the same thing. What I don’t understand is why it’s so relatively rare. The number of magicians in control of their lives is staggeringly low. Most people interested in the occult are interested in the power to control their worlds, but compared to the number of people interested, the number of people doing the Work, doing the magic that transforms their existence is less than half of one percent.
Magic. It’s what a magician does. It’s not a last resort, it’s a first resort. The lungs breathe, the liver filters, the brain processes. The magician does magic. The magician is in control of their world, not isolated from other influences, but in a position of authority in determining which of the opportunities life will present, and how those opportunities will come about.
There’s too much slap-dash going on. People slap together a quick one-time rite, and dash off to the next thing, which is usually something they are reacting to. There’s little or no actual proactive planning and implementation of their lives. They’re content to sit back and follow the script they’ve been given for the most part, with a little dabbling here and there.
I’m not advocating any “Left Hand Path” philosophy here, but I do want to point out that YOU are not a passive part of existence. You have choices to make that affect many others. If you choose not to choose, you still have made a choice, to quote Rush. You’re an active part of existence, and magic gives you the keys to the Kingdom. You’ve got at your beck and call the very spirits that make up the world. Why on earth would you not choose to use them?
Why didn’t Dee use the Angelic system of magic he received? Why didn’t Agrippa put his skills in the occult arts to use to keep from having to recant his writings? Why didn’t Crowley just manifest the cash to go to Cairo if he was that worried about it?
Was it a lack of faith in their magic? Was it that they, like so many magicians today, believed that magic is interesting and neat, but when the rubber meets the road, you have to deal with life from the mundane? I don’t know. It doesn’t make sense to me.
I understand that things won’t always work out the way you expect, and that’s fine, but one thing I’ve learned in this Great Work is that I am in control of what I experience in life. There is nothing beyond my ability to research, conjure, and influence. Sometimes the influence will be on my own expectations, changing what I want as I learn why things are the way they are. But there’s nothing my Daimon and I can’t handle, manipulate, and shape into what ought to be.
So let’s all kick it up a notch or two. No whining, no fear. Let honest curiosity and righteous indignation fuel our endeavors. If money is a problem, conjure cash and multiple streams of income. If health is a problem, conjure healing and aid. If something is broken, fix it. If you don’t know how to fix it, find out how to fix it. You’re one meditation away from the brightest intelligences in the universe, literally.
And trust the things you’re studying and learning in the occult. It really is real. And there’s nothing to be afraid of. You’ll be just fine.
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Crucible Roundup
Whoa. What an excellent weekend. By far the best weekend of my life so far.
Crucible was amazing. Arthur continues to do a great job bringing together an interesting cross section of the occult community who are ready and able to present advanced topics in occult practice that you just don’t see happening anywhere else.
It was brilliant. I got to be on a couple panels, which will be airing on Deeper Down the Rabbit Hole soon. The panels were myself, Omnimancers Arthur and Tony, Andrieh Vitimus, and Jason Miller. We had interesting discussions about magical mishaps in one panel, and polarities and balance in another. It was a fun conversation.
Then I was honored to witness some cool initiations, and it was the first time I got to see Mr. Miller do any serious ritual type magic. In addition to his sorcerous insights and spiritual skills, the man has amazing vocal talents. Fortunately for me, it wasn’t the last time I got to see him do some cool magic that night.
Next we went to Jason’s Financial Sorcery presentation. It was awesome. He presented the 16 lightning glyphs, and folks, there’s a secret to those things that makes them powerful. Really super powerful. You should totally check into that, use them a lot, and see what happens. I promise you’ll love the results. He closed out the presentation with a really cool rite. He had the people on the outer edge of the room chant one thing, the people inside the outer ring chant something else, and he performed an invocation of Jupiter. There were four Gentlemen for Jupiter present during the rite contributing out resonance with the current, and I loved feeling that current fall.
Then it was my turn. I headed across the hall to start setting up for the presentation, and the first thing I noticed was that there were a lot of people there. Last year I think I had four or maybe six people in my presentation. This year the place was packed. I remember every single seat in the house being filled, but there may have been a couple empty chairs here or there. The back wall was lined with people too.
I was a bit nervous at first. Pretty soon I found myself immersed in the presentation and the particular story I was there to tell, and it started to flow nicely. I had the best audience ever. The members of my course were in the front row on my right, looking sharp. Most of the people present were regular readers of my blog, and I felt somewhat comfortable skipping over the basic basics and getting to the fun stuff. Pretty soon I felt like we were all friends and we had a great time.
There are some rumors that I got a little Pentecostal Hermetic Preacher at some point. I won’t deny it, the spirit was thick within me and wanted to get out. I found myself near tears at a couple points. At other times, I felt like all the people in the room and I were all one living organism, and that I was directing the flow of forces through the organism in time to the internal harmonies of my soul. I loved every minute of it.
The best moment of the presentation for me came when I got to the final section of the presentation, “The Key to Making all Hermetic Magic Work.” I knew that the key was so simple and obvious, to have the impact necessary, I’d need to have everyone else jacked up to a certain state of awareness. If I’d woven the spell right leading up to this moment, it would be the brilliant moment of satori, and if not, it would just be a bunch of people looking at me like I was an idiot.
When I flipped to the section title slide, everyone in the room started applauding the subtitle, I knew I had ’em. I knew I had won, and … oh, brothers and sisters, it was beautiful.
Afterwards, I was higher than fucking God. My lovely companion (who made a great weekend a truly perfect one instead) helped me keep my feet on the floor long enough to change clothes and unwind a bit. We ran into some members of the Red Work courses at the bar, and had a couple drinks before attending the last half of Andrieh’s presentation. I honestly don’t remember much of it. I kept thinking about the things that worked and the things that didn’t work in my presentation, things to do differently the next time. My mind was racing. And I’d had some Polyphanic gin.
I got to meet and hang out briefly with a few of the Red Work Course members, including Tolderoll, Polyphanes, and Pallas Renatus for the first time, and Jessica, another of my students I had the pleasure of meeting last year at crucible.
I noticed something right away about the Red Work Course members. They are, objectively speaking, very attractive men and women. They are intelligent, and able to carry on advanced conversations about occult subjects in meaningful ways. They dress well. They’re almost all taller than me. They have a tendency to cuss like sailors.
And they can all drink like fucking fish.
I felt like throwing my arms around them and saying, “My people, at last I’ve found you!” There was a strong sense of family between us. They are made of pure win. These are the next generation of expert occultists, ladies and gents, and I’m happy to say the future is in good hands.
I can’t wait to meet the rest of you as soon as possible.
I think the Red Work Course convention will need to be modeled on our special shared qualities. Maybe one or two presentations throughout the day, but otherwise a series of comfortable rooms well stocked with fine liquors, wines, and eccentric beers where we can hang out and talk. There were conversations to be had that I didn’t even have time to get started. Or maybe a set of presentations until like 7 or 8, dinner, and then after party. It will definitely more drinking and talking earlier in the night, for sure.
Anyway, all things to consider for the future.
This year’s presentation has been recorded. I’ll be getting a link to the electronic version soon. I’d love to turn it into a sellable product, but there are details to work out if I start making money on it. We’ll figure it out and make things available to people in different ways. I don’t think I’ll charge anyone who is a member of the Red Work series of courses. I might just keep it available only to the Red Work members. That would be a lot easier. Hm. Thoughts and thoughts.
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Red Work Course Members: Crucible Meetup?
One of the members of the Red Work Courses sent me an email the other day letting me know he’d be attending the Crucible Convention this weekend. He suggested that we have a meetup of course members in attendance at some point. I think that’s a pretty awesome idea.
I was looking at the schedule of events and it looks like the Lunch block Saturday before registration would likely be the best time, or perhaps the Brunch block on Sunday. I don’t know how many members will be in attendance, or when they’re planning on being there. I know for sure two class members are attending.So if you’re a member of the Red Work series of courses in Hermetic Magic, and you WILL BE AT CRUCIBLE, please contact me and let me know when you’ll be there. I’ll coordinate something that at least lets me meet you personally while you’re there, and if we can all be there at the same time, we’ll schedule something for all of us together. Nothing huge, there are a LOT of other things going on at Crucible that I plan on participating in. It’s not the International Centers for Applied Hermetics convention, after all. It’s an Omnimancer event.Course members who aren’t going to be there, don’t feel too bad. I’m going to be scheduling a series of workshops across the States, and hopefully Europe too over the next year or so. Applied Hermetics workshops are coming soon to conference centers near you.If you’re not currently a course member, I strongly encourage you to sign up. The things I teach in the courses are the practices that have turned out to work REALLY FUCKING GREAT. Courses can be purchased at this link.Looking forward to seeing you all soon! -
Siddhartha and the Considerate Cobra Vs. IO PAN PAN
Considerate Cobra is Considerate Then a king cobra named Mucalinda, coiled around the Buddha seven times, to protect Him from wind and rain.
So I’ve been working on some inner alchemy for the last couple of weeks. I’ve mostly been working on retaining the forces of my sacral chakra, and then raising the pooled forces from my sacral chakra up to my throat, third eye, and crown chakras.What I’ve found is that there’s this electrical current that flows from my gonads to wherever I direct it. When I’m meditating, contemplating, when I’m investing my attention properly on the Work, I can feel it rise within, expand its hood, and cover me.
I read the story of Siddartha and the Considerate Cobra this morning. I’ve read it before, but I appreciated it more. From my Hermetic training, I read the wind as representative of the mind and its howlings, and the rain as representative of the emotions and their howlings. The unfocused Ruach and Nephesh respectively. Mucalinda’s coils and expanded hood keep me protected from these things for sure. The flames are released in a beautiful, directed, controlled way that bring a sense of calm, peace, and power.
And then there’s Pan.
Rushing fiery beast of passion and lust, he too can enflame and raise the forces that have been pooling in my sacral center for the last two weeks.
It’s sublime, the way he starts making his presence known.
Into my loneliness comes –
The sound of a flute in dim groves that haunt the uttermost hills.
Even from the brave river they reach to the edge of the wilderness.
And I behold Pan.Whispered notes of the flute, sounding like they are coming down the mountainside. Dulcet tones that remind me of the laugh of my lover, sounds that somehow bring the scent of her skin to my nose, the colors of her eyes to my mind.
And then, it burns. Heat… heat upon heat upon heat. I feel the god descending, and the flames within rising to meet him, to welcome him, combusting, expanding, a sustained explosion that does not stop. It grows, consuming me, releasing me, freeing me.
On all sides Pan to the eye, to the ear;
The perfume of Pan pervading, the taste of him utterly filling my mouth, so that the tongue breaks forth into a weird and monstrous speech.
The embrace of him intense on every centre of pain and pleasure.
The sixth interior sense aflame with the inmost self of Him,
Myself flung down the precipice of being
Even to the abyss, annihilation.
An end to loneliness, as to all.
Pan! Pan! Io Pan! Io Pan!I am not gone when Pan has come, I am Pan, I am his man, and he in me and I in him, and together we burn (he is burning).The fires released by the onslaught of Pan are raw and consuming, but they are alchemical in nature. They are ecstatic, and lusty and visceral, don’t get me wrong, they want to burst forth in glorious ejaculation, impregnating the universe with its seed. But by witholding that, conaining it within the madness, the heat is transformed into an alchemical inferno that raises your consciousness to amazing heights. Best drugs ever, and they’re all right there in your brain.Thrill with lissome lust of the light,
O man! My man!
Come careering out of the night
Of Pan! Io Pan!
Io Pan! Io Pan! Come over the sea
From Sicily and from Arcady!
Roaming as Bacchus, with fauns and pards
And nymphs and satyrs for thy guards,
On a milk-white ass, come over the sea
To me, to me,
Come with Apollo in bridal dress
(Shepherdess and pythoness)
Come with Artemis, silken shod,
And wash thy white thigh, beautiful God,
In the moon of the woods, on the marble mount,
The dimpled dawn of the amber fount!
Dip the purple of passionate prayer
In the crimson shrine, the scarlet snare,
The soul that startles in eyes of blue
To watch thy wantonness weeping through
The tangled grove, the gnarled bole
Of the living tree that is spirit and soul
And body and brain — come over the sea,
(Io Pan! Io Pan!)
Devil or god, to me, to me,
My man! my man!
Come with trumpets sounding shrill
Over the hill!
Come with drums low muttering
From the spring!
Come with flute and come with pipe!
Am I not ripe?
I, who wait and writhe and wrestle
With air that hath no boughs to nestle
My body, weary of empty clasp,
Strong as a lion and sharp as an asp —
Come, O come!
I am numb
With the lonely lust of devildom.
Thrust the sword through the galling fetter,
All-devourer, all-begetter;
Give me the sign of the Open Eye,
And the token erect of thorny thigh,
And the word of madness and mystery,
O Pan! Io Pan!
Io Pan! Io Pan Pan! Pan Pan! Pan,
I am a man:
Do as thou wilt, as a great god can,
O Pan! Io Pan!
Io Pan! Io Pan Pan! I am awake
In the grip of the snake.
The eagle slashes with beak and claw;
The gods withdraw:
The great beasts come, Io Pan! I am borne
To death on the horn
Of the Unicorn.
I am Pan! Io Pan! Io Pan Pan! Pan!
I am thy mate, I am thy man,
Goat of thy flock, I am gold, I am god,
Flesh to thy bone, flower to thy rod.
With hoofs of steel I race on the rocks
Through solstice stubborn to equinox.
And I rave; and I rape and I rip and I rend
Everlasting, world without end,
Mannikin, maiden, Maenad, man,
In the might of Pan.
Io Pan! Io Pan Pan! Pan! Io Pan! -
Happy Birthday Jack Parsons, and Happy Feastday of the Unnamed Angels
The title about says it all.Jack Parsons wikipedia entry.
Unnamed angels get a feastday? I wouldn’t have known if my Scarlet Woman hadn’t pointed it out. October 2nd in Catholic and Orthodox christian tribes.
Good day for a variety of Works. May they all be blessed.
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Pirates! Pirates Everywhere! Er…
Pirates are cool.They drink, they fight, they screw, they take what they want, and if you have a problem with that, you have every right to kill them, or die trying.Obese bespeckled faces rarely lit by more than the glow of a monitor are not the faces of pirates.Copyright infringement is not piracy. It’s petty theft.Ok, so maybe it’s worth millions, maybe, on a grand scale to huge publishing houses, but who cares? They weren’t spending that money on their authors, fer sure. They have been parasites feeding off the talent forever. No matter what arguments anyone makes about them, that’s all they are. Parasites.The publishing industry are leeches complaining that they’re being bitten by mosquitoes. The original host is so befuddled by the blood loss he finds himself defending the leeches from the mosquitoes.Fuckin’ insanity, man.I write because I have to. I charge because TANSTAAFL. You disagree, fine. I’m not here to argue, or to feed parasites, and I sure the fuck am not here in this beautiful material manifest world walking around with a cock and two hands so I can chase cash.I came to create, to shape, to mold an aesthetic I think is awesome. I came for the magic, and the sex. Hell, I might still have nerve endings I haven’t even stimulated yet. What a shame!I’m not wasting time on infringers who wish they were as cool as pirates, not unless there’s something of value to point out. -
“This is pretty much as badass as imaginable— “The…
Dude, hell the fuck yeah. Where the fuck is this in my neighborhood?
