Rufus Opus

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  • Astral Warriors!

    Ok, making fun of the bugfuck crazy is not only a privilege among the Ceremonial Magician crowd, it is a Sacred Duty. NO ONE is exempt from the condescending mockery, not even ourselves in our youth! I make fun of my delusion that I was the Black Dragon come to destroy the Wheel of Time and return the manifest realm to a Mythic Age frequently.

    That said, I have a soft spot in my heart for the Astral Warriors. How do we know, really, that they AREN’T the thin red line that keeps the rest of reality from collapsing, imploding, or from being overrun by highly evolved reptoids living in the center of the hollow Earth? Maybe if that dude hadn’t gone around dropping Orgone Energy devices in the Vortices at sea in the Bermuda Triangle, in the Pacific near where Pacifica fell in steam and fire, and at the dreaded Montauk AFB, the Greys and their Evil Masters would be eating the fluid released from the decomposition chambers which hold the decaying remains of my very own children.

    We may never know.

    Every once in a while, I run into Astral Warriors who just don’t deserve to be mocked. They may be clinically insane by society’s standards, but they’re damned sincere. I’m not talking about the folks living a fantasy novel existence because it’s really cool to be a vampire this week, a fairy next week, or an otherkin. I’m talking about the people who experience really Weird Shit that’s just totally unbelievable, and talk about it in the same ways they talk about their tires going flat on their cars. On those occasions, I try to extend to them the benefit of the doubt.

    One astral warrior friend of mine is waigng a war against a being she claims has found a means to draw “energy” from those who pray in the name of Jesus. Of 8 infected clients, 6 have been cured, and the other two are still exhibiting symptoms of obsession, if not outright possession. She gets mocked for this, and you can tell it hurts her feelings, but she knows her shit and puts up with the mockery because she gets results and the people she helps are happy.

    Giving the benefit of the doubt doesn’t hurt, so I offered my advice about how I would deal with it, and she was gracious and explained that she might go ahead with my suggestions, but that she already has plans in place.

    Out of curiosity, I went ahead and checked on this entity and her Astral Warfare. I asked Raphael and Michael about it. I wanted to know whether she was mad and counseling the mad with madness that was effective because they were mad, or if it was something serious. I got a picture of the entity she’s fighting, and saw that her efforts were effective, and that she is one person dealing with things that are part of a plan that doesn’t involve me and my friends at all, but that she isn’t working alone. I got the sense that what she’s doing is creating a path back to God for people who have forgotten that God is there, or never knew they didn’t know in the first place. By having a spiritual battle for their minds, souls, and actions in the material world, they are experiencing the fact that they are spirits in a physical world. What that triggers in their souls is an awakening to a hunger or thirst that they didn’t know they had, and that can only be fulfilled by God (however he reveals himself to them).

    So is it hokum? No, not at all. Are the planes in danger of being overrun by aliens or creatures from universes overlapping ours invisibly, taking power from people by sucking their “energy?” Yes, but no more than ever before, and chances are it will not affect you.

    But if it does, let me know and I’ll send you to someone who can help.

  • Protection and Reversal Magick

    Most of my faithful readers know about Inominandum (Jason Miller)’s book, Protection and Reversal Magick. Either you read his blog, have read the book yourself, or you remember me mentioning it a while ago.

    After speaking at Thelesis (an AWESOME experience that I’d GLADLY do again), I found myself suffering all the symptoms of being hexed. I don’t know if I offended an attendant, or if my Christian presentation upset the OTO Egregore (The Christians to the Lions! is a Crowleyism that runs deep in Thelema, from my own experience, although NOT at Thelesis, they were truly a great group of folks).

    I like to think it was an Ordeal. I took on the mantle of Hierophant in a more active way, and the Powers that Be saw fit to test my mettle to demonstrate to me that I need to be aware that if I’m going to teach things of a spiritual nature, I can expect a spiritual test to demonstrate I have the right to do so.

    However, the most probable cause was simply Mercury going retrograde the day after the Thelesis lecture.

    Anyway, whatever the cause, I ended up in exactly what Jason describes in his book as a “crossed condition.” It was relatively easy to fix, once I recognized the symptoms, and things immediately got better after a quick ritual. Having read his book gave me the ability to figure out that something wasn’t working right and a clue about what to do to fix it.

    If you haven’t already, you really should buy and read this book. It also provides some insights into a method he uses to work with Hekate that would be really useful to people looking for a way to use traditional grimoire magical techniques in a more pagan friendly way than is sometimes presented in the classical grimoires themselves.

  • My latest bit of bloggy goodness

    I collect awesome blogs to read. My latest addition is from a Brazilian Portuguese fellow who accidentally conjured (imo) Barbatos by doodling his seal.

    http://sheddingmoleskin.blogspot.com

  • On Matter and Spirit

    The division between matter and spirit is an interesting conundrum. In the Corpus Hermeticum, God contracts part of infinity leaving a sphere of smoking matter. In the contraction, he had to remove everything from that sphere *except* what would later become “matter.” So, it’s safe to believe that the stuff that became matter existed within God eternally “before” the contraction.

    Now, did *all* of the “stuff” that became matter that was in God before the contraction get dumped into that sphere? Or is there still the “stuff” of matter in the Ain Soph Aur-Pleroma-Infinite Light of God? If it all got dumped, we have a foundation for saying Spirit is separate from Matter. Both combined were the infinite Monad. (Oh, wait, that would mean that after the contraction, the Monad became somehow less than what it was before the contraction, and the pros and cons of this difference can be argued.) If God separated himself from matter, he would no longer be infinite.

    Since I’m not literally light floating in a sea of light, it’s safe to say the contraction occured. I don’t know what the ramifications of this contraction are.
    Based on my experience, there’s no “where” I can go without running into evidence of God. I tend to be more animistic lately, Working with the spirit of my laptop as I type, for instance, thanking it and treating it with respect. I believe all spirits are a manifestation of God, and the more I treat my “stuff” as if it a spirit indwelled it, the better things seem to work. So I guess I’m currently in the camp that God is in the earth and Matter, while separate from God, is indwelled nonehtless by God in some form.

    Hmmm. When speaking to the Athenians, Paul quoted a Greek poet who said, “In him we live and move and have our being.” As an apostle inspired by and given the Words by the Holy Spirit, his acknowledgement of that phrase as a manifestation of the truth og God’s being-ness would indicate that the World *is* God.

    So matter is God, but a dumped part of God, and is indwelled by manifestations of the Spirit of God. With the “ISes” used in the previous sentence indicating a logical map tht helps me understand where I’m coming from, not necessarily a declaration of truth.

  • To my blogging friends…

    Let us not forget to keep this in mind, hey what?

    http://site.despair.com/despairwear/yourblog/

    Keeps us humble. 😀

  • Lecture Results

    So I went up to Thelesis Lodge in PA yesterday and gave a course on The Modern Angelic Grimoire. It went AWESOME. To the people that were there: you were the best audience a person could hope for as a first-time lecturer.The people at Thelesis were warm, welcoming, and damn fine cooks.

    Seriously, damn fine cooks. Raymond made this chicken stuff, it was Indian and so delicious. The hoagies were great (thanks Persephone), the cookies (homemade by Steve) were just right, crispy at the edges, soft in the center, and the pie was outstanding (pretty sure that was Amy). I didn’t get to the salsa and pita-hummous, but I meant to. I was pretty stuffed. People paid me to talk. That was cool. After paying the babysitter (highway robbery it was) and tolls and gas (more highway robbery), I ended up losing $10 on the whole deal, but it was worth EVERY PENNY! And then some. Meeting magicians who understood the Christian aspects of my Work was fanulous.

    The folks were cool. They raised their hands and asked questions, they put up with me rambling, they interacted well. We conjured Haniel (the time was right, even if the day was wrong) and he popped up, almost everyone felt his presence, and it was just awesome. The folks all got to see how easy conjuring a spirit could be, and the flexibility of the grimoires. I think it was worth their time and money. I hope a few of them will be using the techniques in their work soon.

    I talked for like two hours almost. Maybe an hour and a half. My throat was a little sore, and I was standing the whole time. This fat magician isn’t used to that. My wife was able to attend (thanks to the baby-sitter who miraculously appeared last-minute), and she mentioned that I slouched the whole time. Today my back is killing me, so she’s probably right.

    All in all, I had a blast. The questions were excellent and thoughtful. There were people from Baltimore that drove up (and got pulled over on the way because they were running late), and I finally got to mee Fr. Ararita from Blake Lodge in DC-Baltimore. After years of correspondence online, he was awesome to meet in person.

    Yeah, I’m rambling now, but it was a great time. I didn’t need to be worried as much as I was. When I couldn’t think of a word, they usually knew what it was, between my wife, the linguist (Brian), Ararita, or someone there. It went well.

    And Tokyo is in Japan. Not China. You knew that. I knew that. I kinda forgot during the lecture, but I was thinking of other things and that part of my brain wasn’t working right. That’s my explanation.

  • Maryland Locals

    For those local to MD, I’m going to take a stab at keeping the Maryland Center for Occult Studies blog up and running. If anyone has any local events going on in the MD-Baltimore-PA-DC areas, let me know and I’ll update the blog.

  • My First Lecture

    This Saturday is my first public speaking engagement related to things of the occult nature. I’m going to be speaking at Thelesis Lodge in Philadelphia. The subject, fortunately for me, is the Modern Angelic Grimoire. It’s a topic I’ve covered on my blog for years now, and it’s the system I’ve worked with the most.

    Ararita418, whose voice and video page I linked to previously, is going to be there. He and I have been online friends for longer than I’ve worked the Angelic Grimoire. I heard him speak, and the man has polish. He’s OTO, and he’s all professional. The correspondence I’ve had with the leadership of the Thelesis Lodge has been very proper and correct as well. I don’t mind pretending to be polished and civilized at work, but the topics I’ll be covering are near and dear to my heart. As a result, there’s a lot more of “me” that will come through, and “me” drives a camaro, chews tobacco, and spent time in a trailer park in Oklahoma.

    I’m downright nervous.

    On the one hand, I’ll be talking to Thelemites who wear real robes during their rituals, who expect more from a ceremony than “Yo, Jesus, you ready? I’m set! Let’s go!” I conjure in jeans and t-shirts. I bathe before rituals… sometimes. My approach is much more earthy than intellectual. These people are paying me to present information that will help them in their Great Work. I don’t want to disappoint them.

    But on the other hand, I totally got the results I think they’re looking for. It’s an awesome system, perfect for anyone to attain the highest levels of the Great Work, if they use it. There’s no end to the stuff that can be done with it. I get excited thinking about how much I grew and developed as a man using this system. The insights, the attunements to the different spheres, the relationships I’ve developed with each of the Archangels over the years…

    I just don’t want “me” to make the system look bad.

    In the final analysis, I know everything came together for a reason. A series of fortunate events, synchronicities, cause and effects, all the earmarks of God’s plan unfolding indicate that I am the right man for the job. So I’ll just shelve the anxiety until I’m about to talk, and then get all aquiver until I get into it.

    And I’ll TRY not to come across like the pentecostal charismatic fire and brimstone preacher I’ve always secretly been at heart. Wouldn’t want Legion running screaming from the Lodge looking for a herd of pigs to drown, now would we?

    (Anyone interested in coming can contact me for more information. It’s 12-3 on Saturday the 10th in Philadelphia, PA. It’s $15 per person last I heard, prices are subject to change. Also, if you’re local to Baltimore, I’ll be presenting the Trithemian System locally soon too.)

  • My First Lecture

    This Saturday is my first public speaking engagement related to things of the occult nature. I’m going to be speaking at Thelesis Lodge in Philadelphia. The subject, fortunately for me, is the Modern Angelic Grimoire. It’s a topic I’ve covered on my blog for years now, and it’s the system I’ve worked with the most.

    Ararita418, whose voice and video page I linked to previously, is going to be there. He and I have been online friends for longer than I’ve worked the Angelic Grimoire. I heard him speak, and the man has polish. He’s OTO, and he’s all professional. The correspondence I’ve had with the leadership of the Thelesis Lodge has been very proper and correct as well. I don’t mind pretending to be polished and civilized at work, but the topics I’ll be covering are near and dear to my heart. As a result, there’s a lot more of “me” that will come through, and “me” drives a camaro, chews tobacco, and spent time in a trailer park in Oklahoma.

    I’m downright nervous.

    On the one hand, I’ll be talking to Thelemites who wear real robes during their rituals, who expect more from a ceremony than “Yo, Jesus, you ready? I’m set! Let’s go!” I conjure in jeans and t-shirts. I bathe before rituals… sometimes. My approach is much more earthy than intellectual. These people are paying me to present information that will help them in their Great Work. I don’t want to disappoint them.

    But on the other hand, I totally got the results I think they’re looking for. It’s an awesome system, perfect for anyone to attain the highest levels of the Great Work, if they use it. There’s no end to the stuff that can be done with it. I get excited thinking about how much I grew and developed as a man using this system. The insights, the attunements to the different spheres, the relationships I’ve developed with each of the Archangels over the years…

    I just don’t want “me” to make the system look bad.

    In the final analysis, I know everything came together for a reason. A series of fortunate events, synchronicities, cause and effects, all the earmarks of God’s plan unfolding indicate that I am the right man for the job. So I’ll just shelve the anxiety until I’m about to talk, and then get all aquiver until I get into it.

    And I’ll TRY not to come across like the pentecostal charismatic fire and brimstone preacher I’ve always secretly been at heart. Wouldn’t want Legion running screaming from the Lodge looking for a herd of pigs to drown, now would we?

    (Anyone interested in coming can contact me for more information. It’s 12-3 on Saturday the 10th in Philadelphia, PA. It’s $15 per person last I heard, prices are subject to change. Also, if you’re local to Baltimore, I’ll be presenting the Trithemian System locally soon too.)

  • Enochian Paranoia

    Are the Enochian Angels out to get us? Do they want to bring about another Apocalypse? Are they the evil Watchers, Grigori, pretending to be the good angels that taught Enoch their wisdom in order to lead us into bringing about the next recreation of the Earth?

    Donald Tyson seems to think so.

    For years I have thought that Tyson is a great researcher, but his apocalyptic theories were a bit over the top. I have a few of his books, including his translation of Agrippa’s Three Books of Occult Philosophy, Enochian Magic for Beginners, and The Power of the Word. Say what you like about Tyson and his theories, but you cannot condemn the man’s researching capabilities. The notes in Agrippa’s Three Books of Occult Philosophy are solid gold. And regardless of what he is writing, he always clearly indicates when he is reporting facts and when he is expressing his opinions. He never implies that his conclusions about the Enochian Apocalypse are based on information he has found in his research. It’s always expressed as an opinion.

    Although, he did write an essay called “The Truth About Enochian Magic” (linked above) wherein he details all his theories. Hmmm.

    Anyway, at least he is consistent. In all his books that I’ve read, he has stayed his ground regarding the Enochians. For years, as I said, I shrugged off his warnings as delusional paranoia. I recently chanced upon someone claiming intimate knowledge of Tyson’s personal beliefs. It seems he is at least allegedly a Gnostic Christian. The warnings of the apocalypse are not, in his world-view, a bad thing at all. It would return us to a right relationship with God.

    Now, Tyson’s theology is weird, based on what I’ve seen in his books. I don’t understand how he could have painstakingly worked his way through Agrippa and not have come away with a more cohesive stance on Christian beliefs, past and present. The “right relationship” with God is established through Christ’s sacrifice on the cross. Furthermore, Jesus says in his parable about the Good Shepherd:

    I have other sheep, which are not of this fold; I must bring them also, and they will hear My voice; and they will become one flock with one shepherd. (John 10:16)

    Most Christians say he’s talking about the Gentiles that will convert to Christianity. I personally think he’s talking about Pagans, Neoplatonic Philosophers, Buddhists, Hindus, Muslims, and anyone else that sees past their religion’s B.S. and gets into a direct relationship with God based on what God has revealed to them. Thelemites say it’s discovering their True Will and following the guidance of their HGA. To me, it’s all the same thing in different wrappers.

    What does that have to do with Enochian Apocalypses? God has a plan for everyone. Part of that plan includes Christians and Jews. They received the parts of God that were appropriate for them for God’s plan… for them. If you’re in another pen, you’ll hear the voice of your good shepherd calling you into a right relationship with God in your own language. If you’re stuck in the material realm and are unable to hear the voice over the cacophony of voices of the radio, television, media, internet, bloggers like myself… then you’re doomed. Doomed to go through your own apocalypse. And I’m sure the Enochian Spirits will happily oblige you.

    If you’re in a right relationship with God, even if He manifests to you as a bunch of Pagan deities or sprites and gnomes or whatever, then you’ll be able to hear the difference between the seductive distractions of the spirits that would take you away from this relationship.Furthermore, God (in whatever form) wouldn’t be tempting you away from himself. He’d be keeping you close. You just have to pay attention to Him (or Her) first and foremost.

    The Enochian Spirits are, in my current opinion, Terrestrial Spirits. They are not Celestial, designed to get you into a right relationship with God. Contrary to the assertion that Tyson begins his essay with, they are not particularly Theurgic spirits. In my visions, and in those of Fr. POS and Sr. Gimel, I see evidence that they are the spirits that manifest the physical realm. The visions we’ve had go back to the beginning of time, the big bang, but they remain within the confines of the earthly realm.

    I haven’t read Ben Rowe’s plethora of writings, but I started to once. From what I remember and what I’ve heard mentioned by others, his work with them extended into the Astral Realm. While this may appear to be at least within the realm of the Moon, which would be in keeping with Tyson’s declaration of their lunar nature, the Astral Realm is not, in my opinion, really beyond the realms of the Earth.

    The Realm of the “Earth” includes all of manifest reality, everything that can be said to be made up of the four elements, Earth, Air, Fire, and Water. This includes the physical planets. The Planet Mars is a rock. Mercury too. Their locations in the sky relative to the Earth and observed for astronomical purposes are signposts, indicating the spiritual forces that are affecting the manifest realm at any given moment. Astrology has been revealed and developed to help us in identifying what is going on (in general) at any given time. This is a hit-and-miss kind of thing, because there are variables that are still debated and misunderstood. We can see the signs, and can read some of their meanings, but we don’t understand what it all means and how it all fits together.

    But to think that the Archangel of Mars lives on the planet Mars and that their spiritual realm is maybe like Heinlein’s fantastical inhabitants of the planet is silliness. Would an asteroid from Mars be more potent as a Martial Talisman? Maybe. But if it’s made of iron, it’s made of iron. The four elements come together to form it into a matrix that is identical (pretty much) to what we find on Earth. So even the planets are Terrestrial, spiritually speaking.

    The Astral Realm seems to reside between the Lunar realm and the Earthly realm on  the cosmological scale. It’s sort of the borderlands between the Celestial realms and the realm of matter. Magicians have gotten lost exploring this realm at the guidance of odd spirits before. I’m not saying Rowe was mislead or anything, but I don’t think astral visions should ever be taken without some large nuggets of sodium chloride.

    I don’t know Rowe’s history, or whether he ever went through attaining Knowledge and Conversation with his Holy Guardian Angel. I don’t know if he ever had a spiritual experience with which to compare and test the results he received with the Enochian Entities. Regardless, I have both.

    These spirits I’ve worked with so far haven’t popped up large quantities of Gold. In case you were wondering. (Yes, it’s still on my list. I want at least ONE gold brick.)

    That said, of the spirits I’ve worked with so far, these seem to be the best suited for manifesting quantities of material objects. They seem to be directly on the bleeding edge of manifestation here in the physical realm. The Goetic entities I’ve worked with are removed from the actual processes of manifestation, but they can manipulate these processes through whatever authority they’ve been granted. The Angelic (Celestial) spirits I’ve worked with have been even further removed from manifestation, and by the time the orders trickle down through the ranks, it seems like they’ve either lost their punch, or were never really understood to mean what I thought I meant when I was talking to the Archangels.

    The healing technique I got from working with EHNB has yielded some promising results. I’m looking to expand on that type of technique, or find others, while working with the other spirits of the four Elemental Tables. I’d like to be able to build a brick of gold, one elemental block at a time. I’ve started experimenting, but so far everything I’ve made from scratch just falls apart when I try to make it manifest.

    For the record, I do not think the Enochian Angels are any more dangerous or out to deceive mankind than any other spirit. I think they understand what would distract us from seeking our Source, however it has revealed itself to us, better than some other spirits. I am thankful that I waited until now in my magical career to begin working with these entities. Having already experienced the Seven Governors of the Seven Heavens, and having already attained (at least began attaining, it’s nowhere near complete) Knowledge and Conversation with my HGA, I have other experiences with spirits that mean me well with which I can compare my Enochian experiences.