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I managed to free up some major bandwidth the other day. For the last three years I’ve been a member of a yahoo group called “RealMagick”. For the last year or so, I’ve moderated it at the request of the owner. Last week, a couple of trolls popped up and I handled them, but then the list devolved into a long series of character assasinations and other stupidity.

I realized that I’m spending no time developing the things I want to develop, and still spending time trying to get people who have little interest in learning true magic stay on topic. So I quit. It’s been amazing how much bandwidth that freed up. I was getting between 20-80 inane emails a day, worrying about people’s mutual respect, and trying to get the topic of conversation to somehow be related to magic.

The final strawwas when the people that consistently posted on topic had their characters assasinated by the people who don’t. I figured out that the real problem was that people who know about magic aren’t really liked by the people who pretend to want to know about magic. They pretend to respect us, they pretend to have an interest in what we’re saying, but when it comes to questions like, “Have yuo started performing Samekh yet?” the answer is always “No, because…” Likewise, “Have you conjured ANY spirits yet?” or “Have you read that chapter of Agrippa I referenced that is the source for the book you’re talking about?” or “Did you follow up on the tips so and so gave you?”

Fools. Most of my angst with the magical community comes from being surrounded by fools. I had hoped to teach them bout magic, had hoped to at least provide a forum where they could express their thoughts and questions about magic, but primarily they are only interested in yelling at one another and playing “My dick’s bigger than yours.” And that’s a game women play as readily  as men on the message boards, believe you me.

So enough with the groups. There are a couple I will maintain a membership in, those that discuss magic, or at least consist of my social network of magicians, but all the large groups can bite my ass. Much more time for blogging and book writing now. And course REDEVELOPMENT because I STILL haven’t found my motherfucking thumb drive. I’m annoyed about that.

A reader sent me the following link to a bit more of the story of what happens to Randolph Carter. It’s a jointly-written extrapolation of the original story by Lovecraft and an “E Hoffman Price.” I don’t know who Price is, but the expanded story, while interesting, I think somehow loses something in the rewrite. At the same time, it provides more of what I wanted to talk about. The Opening of the Gates.

In the original Silver Key, we read about the slow wearing-away of Randolph’s abiltiy to Dream, and the misery and detachmnent, the apathy with the things of the world that came about as a result. In reading this part of the story, I couldn’t help but find parallels in my own spiritual growth. I’ve also been hearing “Wish you were here” by Pink Floyd a lot lately. The lyrics, “Did they get you to trade, your heroes for ghosts, hot ashes for trees, hot air for a cool breeze…” keep popping up in my mind lately. I feel a certain peculiar resonance with the almost neo-Modernist pathos expressed.

One of the things I’ve learned about this particular feeling is that it means there’s something going on spiritually that I need to address. It comes along with a certain inertia that is difficult to overcome, and a frustration, an unfocused angst that doesn’t have any real reason for existing.

Personally, I know that I’m feeling this way because I have not been making time for either a relationship with God or my magical practice, two things I consider separate aspects of a healthy spiritual life. I have been doing some Work with Iophial, and Rising through the Spheres at night before I go to bed, but I haven’t had the time to really finish the projects I really wanted to pursue lately, that is, finishing up the Hermetic Course curriculum (which is stored on a thumb drive that has annoyingly disappeared) and the new and improved Tepaphone.

I haven’t gotten to it because my job is very busy right now. I’m happy with it, but it is sapping my brain power. It’s getting interesting though. I get to do things in a leadership role now that I haven’t before, and it’s rather exciting. Good for my resume, and stuff. I’m also taking training for a certification that will increase my earning potential by leaps and bounds. It’s not BAD work, it’s just time consuming, and like a teen that would rather be getting everything they want RIGHT NOW, I’m all angsty.

So when I read The Silver Key again, it resonated in my sphere. It brought about a reminder of things I know, things I’ve been telling people in instant messages, and in my blog for years. It reminded me that the things that wear us down only have power over us as long as we are trapped by our inability to dream, to travel through the spheres, to open the Gates and pass through them into time and space.

The expanded story gets into some very interesting Gates and heady philosophy that is usually missing in as much detail in Lovecraft’s other work. I’m thinkng Price must have at least studied a bit about traveling through the planes, merkavah and hekalot, possibly the Kabbalah, or been a member of one or another esoteric society. There’s just too many things that are right out of the meditative and contemplative experiences I’ve had Working with the spirits, especially of Saturn, in that particular work of fiction for it to be a coincidence.

I didn’t turn into something clawed and monstrous though. That part was totally made up. Honest. Typing with scaly claws wouldn’t be too likely.

At any rate, we cannot forget that our paths are going to be muddled and distant from our long-term goals, on occassion, and when we do find ourselves in the valleys where we can no longer see the peaks, it is imperative that we stop in the midst of whatever is going on, and return to the Dream-realms to remember, to reclaim what we are.

I do this in acts of contemplation, because frankly, I don’t have time to conjure right now. I can throw a talisman on the Box at will, but when I try to scry lately, I see my boss and the deliverables I’m tracking peeking out at me.

I took a moment the other night, when I normally meditate on the Seals of the Archangels of the Spheres, and I focused as I went up through the spheres not on just getting up and back down before I fell asleep, but on listening, seeing, feeling the radiance of each sphere. I let my own sphere relax in the presence of the Archangels, instead of keeping it all business and messaging, and I just enjoyed their presence. I think I ended up leaving behind some of the crap of each sphere that I’m supposed to. It helped.

This morning in church, I took time during the worship service to pursue the silent hymns of the 8th Sphere. Doing so in the midst of vocal hymns was interesting, and I highly recommend anyone working with Iophial or the Archangels of the Zodiac to take the time on a Sunday morning to go to a church that sings. It doesn’t matter if it’s contemporary or traditional, but if you’ve forgotten the essence of what a hymn to the highest is all about, then you won’t have the context to understand what they can teach. If you’re a pagan, review the Orphic hymns, I’m pretty sure they’re around somewhere. The point is to worship, which is not a debasing or limiting thing at all. IT is freeing, and you can’t begin to understand the image you were made in until you are able to understand what you’re an image of. If that makes sense. My fingers are typing the wrong words lately.

Back to the Silver Key, in conclusion, I’d like to remind you of what it was that brought the Dream back to Randolph when he had lost it. He redressed his house the way it looked when he was a child and was still able to Dream. When he did, his dreams returned, and he learned from his ancestor of the Key, and how to open the First Gate to the realms of the Dream (Luna, Yesod anyone?). In the expanded story, he then learned the way to the Ultimate Gate.

So if you find yourself wondering when you exchanged hot ashes for trees, go back to the beginning. Recreate through similitude your surroundings from the time they were still trees, and see if that doesn’t jog your memory, or bring back to your mind the conversations with the mentors, elders, or ancestors that were also the keepers of your destiny.

For those who haven’t.

The Silver Key, by H. P. Lovecraft.

Soon you can expect a post on this. It’s a short read, worth the 15-minutes it took me.

And those already taking it…

I have received your requests and expressions of interest, and I am not ignoring you. I have been moderately overwhelmed lately, but I hope to get my shit together this weekend.

For those looking for pictures of the Cthulhu plushie, please see the Artist’s Blog Post where she talks about it. She’s got awesome sketches she’s done there too. Everyone should visit her sites and enjoy the mystical and magical Work she does.

To get pics off my camera, I have to plug it into a wall outlet, then plug it into the PC, then find the files, then copy-paste them, then upload them, blah blah blah. And my office is thoroughly trashed at the moment. Cthulhu fits right into the chaos. I’m still unpacking from the move a month or two ago. And seriously, as annoying as it is to read my whining about the work that goes into getting pics off my camera, that’s how annoying it is to have to do it. The cords are packed away, and I’m out of outlets near my PC. The camera cord has a huge transformer on it that takes up all the plug space on the thing (with the thing).

Susanne’s got the pics already up.

I am the proud owner of a hand-made Susanne Illes original piece of signed art. The Cthulhu Plushie! She also sent me a bunch of other awesome stuff that arrived last Saturday. It is SO cool. The kids want to play with it, but I’m sorry, it’s MY stuffie. Besides, they’ll bend it and ruin the signature, and that thing’s going to be worth beaucoup bucks some day. They have to keep their grimy little paws off it.

So the subject comes up on a list today, you can make planetary tinctures using radionics. I’ve actually been working on something like that using the Initiation into Hermetics technique of quenching red-hot gold in holy water to create a fluid condenser, then placing that over the LED in The Box with the appropriate spirit conjured and their Seal on the ‘trodes.

But what good is this planetary-charged fluid condenser? I mean, I can get some powerful vibes off the charged water using this technique, but… so what? I mean, I can put a vial of Venus water in Bune’s Spirit Pot. I can baptise candles for planetary magic. I can anoint my forehead for explorative mediations in the Seven Heavens. I can use it to Lube the Merkavah Chariot, or at least water the horses…

But big deal, you know? I already have seven planetary talismans that knock your socks off on my altar. It’s not like I make a lot of hocus-pocus stuff for people to use in their every day life. I have a planetary power generator, and it seems like it would be just AWESOME… if I could only think of something to use it for.

Anyone wanna buy some Planetary Tinctures? Low low rates. 😀

Or if you have any ideas for how this kind of thing might be used that I haven’t thought of, let me know. I’m thinking I could put them in mojo bags (I can put the charged water in these little brown glass vials), but again, what good would that do? I really don’t want a ton of mojo bags in my house.

Ok folks, I’m reorganizing the focus of the Invisible College. It is now a teaching organization, an International School of Hermetic Studies. If you’re interested in taking classes on your basics of true Hermetic magic, not the stuff that is based on Levi, Bardon, Theosophy, or the Golden Dawn, please feel free to contact me. The courses are outlined, and by the time you get to the lessons that haven’t been written, they will be available.

The class will consist of correspondence courses, primarily, and remote initiations. These initiations will consist of me conjuring an archangel to guide you into a a particular sphere’s influence. I’ll set up your picture over the Box during an appropriate astrological hour, and do that magic that I do so well. It won’t do diddly squat for you if you’re not doing the Work, but hey, them’s the breaks. Check out my products and services page as they become available. Each course will have prerequisites, because the intent is not to demonstrate that you’ve studied magic, it’s to make you a WORKING magician. there will be tests, grades, and the whole lot. Don’t waste my time if you’re not serious.

You will be doing magic using this course, early and often. You will not be performing LBRPs or Middle Pillars or other ritualized forms of the relationships you should be building. You will be doing the transformative Work that makes you a better person. It will hurt, sometimes, but you will emerge a more powerful, equipped magician in control of your life. Or at least in tune with the forces that are in control of your life to the point where it will appear to you and everyone else like everything that happens to you does so on purpose, and really, what more could you ask for?

You will also be conjuring spirits. You will develop the senses to see and hear them. You will have wealth, power, prosperity, love, joy, and true authority in all the things you do as a result of this course work. Whether you accept the responsibility to take on that authority is entirely up to you.

The Tepaphone!

Yes, I read about in Jason’s Blog. It’s a device used by a black lodge to kill people no matter where they are. It was described in a Bardon work of fiction. Can’t remember the name right now, the Magician Something That Starts With an F. Frabato! (I looked it up.) It’s a … well, it’s … Ok, it sucked, Bardon was ashamed of having written it, it reads a LOT like Crowley’s Simon Iff mysteries…

But that’s not the point!

The POINT is that he describes a nifty fluid condenser in the story. There are a lot of descriptions on the internet of what it is, but you can’t trust the internet descriptions. Some folks say it had a current going through it, others say it has copper coils, others say it definitely had a lens. Crap, now I can’t remember whether it had a lens or not. I have a copy though, and it starts being described on page 34.

It was the lodge’s most strictly guarded secret: a magical vibratory instrument which could emit fatal vibrations across any distance and constituted the deadliest weapon in the arsenal of the lodge.

If the picture or mumia of any human being or animal were placed at the focal point of the tepaphone’s vibrations, both the astral and physical bodies of that entity would be affected. Substances of any kind could be destroyed by this instrument from any distance. Furthermore, it served as a wireless transmitter of energy – something modern science could only dream about.Any kind of thought could be transmitted by the tepaphone as well. Finally, the device made it possible to cause nervous diseases and poisonings which puzzled the medical establishment. Typically, a picture or personal object was sufficient to establish contact with the intended victim – And remember, distance was of no consequence.

[… snip …]

The Grand Master now secured Frabato’s photo to the focal point of the tepaphone’s ray and ignited the fuel, a specially prepared mixture of high-percentage alcohol. At the same time, the other brethren formed a magic circle around the apparatus to begin combat telepathy by condensing the element of fire to the physical plane.

After this, Fabrato experiences the attack. He gets supernaturally heated, and is about to be cooked when he calls out to The Good and gets a messsage to avert with Water. He lives.

Again, not the point. From the description, there are no mentions of copper tubes, wires, electricity, or lenses. It is merely a device that includes a fuel source, and a focal point for the “vibrations” that could hold some form of sympathetic link to the victim. Later in the story, we learn that the tepaphone always worked because of a pact made with the King of Hell, no entity less than SATAN!!! (Duhn duhn duhn!)

So anyway, the tepaphone is your basic radionics box. I built The Box based on a vision I’d had of the Goetic seals being something like circuits, and the knowledge that spirits feed on electro-magnetic forces of some kind. Haunted places often exhibit geo-magnetic anomalies, and the things that would feed spirits who cause discomfort in their victims are usually triggered by the electromagnetic fluctuations of the amygdala. At least, these were the things that fed into the theory at the time. A conversation with an engineer friend confirmed my suspicions, and from there I built The Box.

Rather than having a group of magicians channeling the element of fire into the device, I use a metal seal, through which passes a small current on its way to light up a little LED. Rather than making a pact with the KING OF HELL (Duhn Duhn DUHN!), I just use the seals of the angels or goetic spirits, placing them across the electrodes and letting them temporarily power the LED. The LED projects upwards through a Magic Circle burned into the cover, in which I usually have my Crystal Ball. The other day I used it for other purposes.

I have a mini-cabal of would-be magicians I work with. Some are learning the basics of Hermetic occultism (Pre-Golden Dawn), others I’m initiating using Goetic entities (think of it as the Saturn initiation between Malkuth and Yesod on the Kircher tree). This second group was meeting and requested some magical support for an operation they were working on, but they were doing it well after I planned on being asleep. I set up The Box with an appropriate spirit, the Archangel of the Sun for this rite, placed a photo of the guy that was leading the rites over the LED, and left it there. Reports from the rites were very positive.

Overall after reading up on the Tepaphone and understanding what it is that it’s designed to do, I think my Box is at least in keeping with the spirit of the device. Space doesn’t seem to be an issue. In a way, passing the current through the seal is sort of like the pact between the Grand Master of the black Lodge and Satan in the story.

I’m thinking of a new version of the Box. I’m thinking of creating a copper coil that the current would pass through, and have the magnetic field going up through the focus point, and the light down below passing up through a lens to the subject plate. Any item could be placed on the plate to be “charged” with the “fluid” of the spirit. For the Venusian Spirit Bottles, I’m “charging” the herbs using Haniel of Venus. Then when we place them in the spirit bottle assigned to the Goetic Duke, they have an added incentive to work with the magician.

Time to wrap this rambling thing up. I’ve been writing it off and on throughout the afternoon, and it’s headin’ home time.