Ok, home now, time to finish the post from earlier.

In each of the Gates, I give instructions on creating a talisman for the planet. They are each made from the herbs and minerals associated with the planets. They’re placed in a cloth bag, like a mojo bag, and the seals of the Intelligences and the Spirits are inscribed on the outside. When we consecrate them, we call on the spirits by name.

We create talismans of the planetary Intelligences and spirits to create a material link between them and us in our Kingdoms. This provides a focal point for the powers they represent to manifest in our lives more powerfully.

Although they are talismans of the planetary forces, they should not be confused with astrological talismans. They are talismans of the Intelligences and the Spirits of the planets, whose names are derived from the planetary tables provided in Agrippa’s Second Book of Occult Philosophy, chapter 22.

Donald Tyson provides an in depth discussion of these spirits and their seals in his translation of the Three Books of Occult Philosophy, and it’s thorough and complete, and kind of over my head. It’s all about the maths. The spirit names are derived from the summation of the numbers each letter represents in a way that results in the total value of each name having a numerical correlation to the planet itself.

“Study your math, kids, it’s the language of the universe” and shit. I appreciate that, even though I don’t really understand the technical details that go on behind the scenes. I couldn’t tell you the numbers associated with each planet if my kids’ lives depended on it.

The talismans are the receptacles of the forces that are ruled over by the Intelligences and manifest through the actions of the Spirits of the planets. In On the Mysteries, Iamblichus calls these talismans “Sunthemata.”  If I remember right, Iamblichus discusses three levels of Sunthemata, the Material, the Intermediate, and the Noetic. Material sunthemata are the phsical talismans that represent the planets. Intermediate sunthemata are the rites that tap into the powers of the gods, and the use of their Names. Noetic sunthemata were considered the highest form in Iamblichus opinion, and were concerned with the mathematics of the soul.

Now, these talismans in the Gates series are obviously Material sunthemata, because they are material objects, right? But during the consecration rite, we call upon the Intelligences and the Spirits through their Names, which makes them also Intermediate Sunthemata. We inscribe the Seals of the Intelligences of the spirits as well, which are based on the numeric values of their names from the Tables of the Planets, making them Noetic sunthemata as well.

Iamblichus warns against idolatry, making the material objects the focus of our interactions with the spiritual powers instead of the spirits and powers themselves. The purpose of all sunthemata is Theurgy, or as he lays it out, purification, (catharsis), liberation (apolusis), and salvation (soteria) of the soul. Basically the Hermetic Great Work I laid out before.

Now the focus of the Gates rites is our physical Kingdom here Below, and on becoming the Kings we’re supposed to be. This may seem like a rather thaumateurgical focus, being all material oriented. However, as I mentioned in recent posts, the process of becoming the Kings of our Kingdoms results in us ruling by Divine Right in harmony with the planetary spheres. The point of the exercise is to understand and integrate the forces of the planets as they manifest here below so we can work skillfully with them when we pass beyond and finally break free from the process of reincarnation. Passing through each of the Gates results in a degree of the Catharsis, Apolusis, and Soteria of the soul.

And the Talismans aid in that process. The presence of the divine powers we’re dealing with cleans us out and bring us into harmony with the spheres. In the Thomas Taylor translation of Iamblichus’ Theurgia (Section IV, Chapter II), we read:

In all theurgical operations the priest sustains a twofold character; one, indeed, as man, and which preserves the order possessed by our nature in the universe; but the other, which is corroborated by divine signs, and through these is conjoined to more excellent natures, and is elevated to their order by an elegant circumduction…

Ok, so you’ve bought all seven of the Planetary Gates files, and you’re all set to get started passing through the gates to get initiated and empowered so you can rule you Kingdom in Wisdom and in Grace. And wealth. Can’t forget that.

I meant for the Gates rites to be performed in the following order:

1. Jupiter – To receive the anointing as King of your Kingdom and to gain inspiration, health, and wealth
2. Mars – To gain discipline and to establish your Rulership of your Kingdom, and to gain protection
3. Sun – To shine the light on your Kingdom that it needs to grow and prosper so you can attain your ambitions, and to drive out any entities hanging around in the shadows
4. Venus – To clear out any productivity issues and to turn the inspiration of Jupiter into creativity and productivity
5. Mercury – To clear out the communications issues and to be able to diagnose and treat any issues in your Kingdom
6. Moon – To see the manifestation process within your Kingdom and to attain the ability to influence the final shape of things as they come into being
7. Saturn – When you have mastered your Kingdom within its current boundaries, pass through this Gate to expand the boundaries of your Kingdom

And repeat as necessary.

Obviously you can’t do them all in one week. I put together a schedule for one client who is working through all the Gates to attain kingship over his kingdom. It’s a process that takes a few weeks. You’ll start with the Jupiter rite on a Thursday. The following Tuesday, you should do the Mars rite. The following Sunday, you should do the Sun rite. the next Friday, the Venus Rite, and the next Wednesday the Mercury Rite. The next Monday, you should finish with the Lunar rite.

Altogether, it should take you five weeks to pass through all the Gates. Here’s a sample schedule, assuming you’re going to start this Thursday:

Thursday, June 16: Jupiter Gate
Tuesday, June 28: Mars Gate
Sunday, June 26: Solar Gate
Friday, July 1: Venus Gate
Wednesday, July 6: Mercury Gate
Monday, July 11: Lunar Gate

These rites are initiatory in nature, and are specifically designed to release the powers into your sphere that you need to attain a greater degree of mastery over your personal world, your kingdom. You’ll note I didn’t schedule the Saturn Gate. It takes a while for the forces released by this process to integrate. Also, you may find that you need more work in some spheres than others, and you’ll want to perform the Gate rite again for those spheres to attain mastery. It takes a while to get a handle on the things we have at hand, and you won’t need to perform the Saturn Gate rite until you’ve come to terms with being the King of what you already have to deal with.

These rites are intended to be general enough that they can be done regularly. I’ve performed the Jupiter Gate rite at least three times a month since April 14th, and the results have been very very good. I also do the Mars rite frequently because I have self-discipline issues, and because I’ve been known to piss off magicians, both socially and professionally. It’s a job hazard. The Solar Gate has been good for me too, though I haven’t performed it as regularly as I probably should. Venus, Mercury, and the Moon are spheres I travel frequently already, so regular performance of these sphere’s rites isn’t necessary. Nevertheless, I have performed each on schedule for the last few weeks, and I plan to continue to cycle through the Gates for a while. I keep finding more and different stuff each time I go through it.

I’ve found that regular practice of planetary magic fuels revelation across the spectrum of my life.

Woops, time to go home.

May the gates bring you the power and authority they’ve brought me.

Ok, the last of the Gates is available at my eBooks page, again for 11.95. This one integrates the forces of the Moon into your sphere, and brings understanding of the role of the Moon in your personal Kingdom.

Bwahahaha, I’m done, done! I finished that Jupiter-inspired project, and it’s been great. Now back to regularly scheduled writing projects, courses, and blog posts.

Whew! You can go to my site, or use the buy now buttons below.

Too much occult discussion is wasted on introspective application of magical rites. I don’t talk a lot about addressing your issues using magic because I know for a fact that if you start doing practical magic, you will have to face those issues anyway. Any magical act that puts you in contact with a higher power is going to stir up shit that needs to be burned away.

One of the things about Hermetics that I like is that it’s honest about your issues. You aren’t really expected to ever reach perfect perfection while you’re still alive. As long as you’re breathing and seeing, you’re in the flesh. Note that in the Hermetic progression through death, it’s not until after you’ve turned the body over to the Daimon to be transformed that you start getting rid of the negative aspects of each planetary sphere for good. As long as the flesh exists, we have the seven evils of the spheres within us.

I think that’s because in the flesh, the seven evils are necessary to survive. We need increase and diminishment, we need to plot ways to increase our supplies of water/food/shelter, we need to breed to continue the species and to get free labor on the farm, we need ambition, rash boldness that acts without regard to the risk, and there’s the ever present urge to amass riches in hopes that they would somehow rid us of all these other problems at once. And that seventh evil, the subtle falsehood always lying in wait is essential to all of us, to give meaning to our lives and our actions.

These are necessary to get out of bed in the morning, to have clothes, to go to work, to provide for our existence and to meet the responsibilities of our kingdom. It’s only “evil” because it’s necessary to maintain an existence that occasionally sucks. We’ve all suffered, we know that life is hard and painful sometimes. It’s just part of existence, and there are no satisfactory answers that really justify it, imo. Nevertheless, it’s what we have to work with.

So anyway, we’ve all got these seven evils inside us, and they’re going to come out in some degree while we’re alive, no matter what we do. That doesn’t mean we have to act on them, but if we fail to acknowledge their existence, we’re not getting anywhere. To be able to surrender this stuff when we die, we need to be aware that we have them, and be familiar enough with controlling them to be able to disengage ourselves from them when we’re moving up through the Spheres after death.

That’s where the Great Work comes in. As we travel through the spheres, conjuring spirits, crossing through Gates, we release the powers of each sphere into our kingdoms, our own spheres of influence and sensation here in the material realm. Our pesonal spheres are already processing the powers of all the seven planets at once. All the spheres must be present in every manifest thing in some degree for it to exist at all.

So right now, you’re channeling the powers of sexy sexy Venus in some way. It might be in a particularly ugly way if your Venus circuits are all corroded, or were wired wrong by circumstances of birth and development, but they are still being manifest through you into the material realm. Doing Venus magic, being in the presence of the entities of Venus, the Intelligences and the spirits cleans out the circuits, rewires you, clears out blocked pathways and allows the Venus powers to manifest more beautifully than before. Hanging out in the pure waters of each sphere cleans out that sphere’s channels and lets its forces flow more cleanly through you.

When this happens, the evil aspects of each planet will fade away from your manifestings. You’ll learn to overcome the need for increase of desired results in your own sphere through the diminishment of others’ spheres. You’ll find yourself planning and plotting ways to get ahead that result in positive gain for everyone involved. You’ll strive for good goals that make the world a better place. You’ll overcome rash decisions, and stop doing whatever it takes to get money, no matter who it hurts. The idea that your decisions originated with you won’t matter anymore.

You know. You’ll be nice. Healthy, creative, helpful, kind, and wise, as well as strong and intelligent.

Man, I have a ways to go. I still think people are assholes.

But most of what we consider problems in other people are the biggest problems we have ourselves. We hate nothing greater than seeing our own sins in action in the lives of others. In this way, we can use the things that offend us about others as an indicator of what we need to work on in our own spheres.

And since we’re going to be giving all these impulses up for good when we die anyway, we might as well get used to giving them up for as long as possible here in the flesh. Practice makes perfect.

When doing magic to advance through the spheres, you’re going to have shit stirred up. The urge to be a dick is going to loom large in whatever area of life is most affected by the planet you’re being initiated into. Take my advice: Don’t be a Dick.

Ok, one more Gate done, and one left to go. The Mad Pamphleteer has struck yet again!

This installment provides insight into the Sphere of Mercury, it’s flow, and its impact on your Kingdom. Included are the different pieces and parts of your life under the direct influence of Mercury, the full rite to open the Gate, and the instructions for yet another talisman. Eventually I’ll get around to talking about how these talismans are the epitome of Sunthemata, having aspects of the Material, Linguistic, and Mathematic realms all embodied in them at once, and how cool Iamblichus says that really is.

Passing through the Mercury Gate will clear out your communications issues, increase the flow of various powers and forces, and increase the flow of commerce in your kingdom. Once again, it’s 11.95.

And for those who like the old Google Checkout:

The ongoing Gates series. Sooooo tired. Can’t write.

Venus, beautiful Venus. Creation, procreation, uh, production, relationships, all that stuff. Venus stuff. And kingdom living.

Whew, need to get this stuff done sooner. Order at my ebooks page or from this blog post:

$11.95 (USD)

I just finished the Gate of Saturn. I had this feeling I needed to get it done before moving on to the rest.

I recommend completing the other Gates first, a full cycle of the other planets before moving on to Saturn.

It’s available on my eBooks page, or you can purchase it here. Same old price, $11.95 USD.

Ok, the next Gate ritual and talisman creation guide is available on my web site. It’s also available through this fabulous blog post at the end.

The Gate of the sun was a necessary thing for me to write up. I’ve been going through these Gate Ceremonies to integrate the forces released in our weekly Jupiter rites, and trying to get it grounded so it doesn’t dissipate. By traveling through the Gates of the planets, by conjuring the intelligences of each and working with them, I’m establishing a flow of the forces through all aspects of my manifest existence.

As the forces get integrated along the way, I’ve been going through growing pains. I had done a Saturn rite the week before, and then when I started doing the Jupiter rite, it quickly filled in the bandwidth I’d acquired. Still, it didn’t overwhelm me, so that’s a good thing. The Mars rite gave me discipline to follow through on the projects inspired by the Jupiter stuff, and it also got me through a lot of other things I didn’t know I’d needed to get through. Always an adventure, this process, let me tell you.

But today I was in dire need of the Sun. It had become imperative that I visit and get that force tempered a bit. In Mars it had taken on a fierceness, an intensity to win and do things well and do them right that surprised people who are used to my mild mannered alter ego, Josh. Not always in a good way, either.

It’s funny, I’m writing these things after doing the rite of the previous Gate, and I can see the previous sphere’s forces manifesting in the voice and tone I take as I write the next one. When I become an author instead of a writer, I’ll pay more attention to that kind of thing and aim for more consistency.

Anyway, the Gate of the Sun is available now for those playing along with me at home. Like the others, I talk about the King and Kingship theme and how it relates to the Sphere of the Sun, and also I provide some basic information about other aspects of Solar Magic that will apply beyond the context of Kingdom Ruling. It’s $11.95(USD).

To order:

Or by Paypal:

Well, I missed my goal of having the Gate of Mars booklet available for Tuesday in time for the Day of Mars and the Hour of Mars. Sorry about that. The best time to perform this rite is on a Tuesday in the hour of Mars. I did so last night, and it was every bit as powerful as the Jupiter rite. Even though the best time is on the day and hour of the planet, the hour of the planet on any other day works as well, so if you’re in a hurry and don’t want to wait until next week to take the next steps, find a convenient hour of Mars on whatever day you get this, and go for it.

This rite continues the process begun in the Gate of Jupiter, and aids in addressing the next phase after receiving the Anointing as King of your Kingdom in Jupiter. In this book, we look at the Martial qualities required in a ruler, and address the necessity of warfare. A simple method of protection for your kingdom’s regularly scheduled issues is provided, as well as advice in getting and working with a specific spirit to aid in your defense. And offense, as necessary.

It’s available now on my eBooks page for $11.95USD.

Ok, so we went through the Gate of Jupiter, and what did we get? We got Anointed, anointed as Kings of our world. We receive, as part of the Jupiter blessings, the divine right and authority to Rule our kingdoms. We get inspired, we get resources, we get health, we get all kinds of good stuff. Beneficient stuff. It comes down on us in a cloud of empowerment that is beautiful to behold and to experience.

But that’s not enough. If we don’t take the next steps to channel and direct those blessings, they will simply hover around us and create good times sporadically at best, or simply dissipate at worst.

Once you’ve received your anointing, you’re fit to rule your kingdom. Kings rule primarily through “rules.” Shocking, I know.

Rulership. Law. That’s why Mars is the progression of Jupiter. Grace and empowerment becomes Rules. But pure Mars can make us into tyrannical rulers, dictators, tyrants, or even worse, lawyers.* Healthy Mars will be a manifestation of Jupiter’s Grace. The rules are set up to guide, not to command. They mark the boundaries, and serve as warnings. They aren’t to be feared or resented, they are to be respected and used as the advice we use to get ahead and reap the rewards of the Jupiter blessing.

Rules are like guard rails on the side of the mountain highways, they don’t really protect you from death if you hit them straight on, but they do wake you up if you’re falling asleep. And they provide a good reference for your boundaries.

To figure out what kind of rules you need to make, you need to spend some time gathering information. You’ve been made King, so the first thing to do is get to know your kingdom. Who are your people, who do you impact with your decisions? How’s their health and well being? What are your resources and your requirements? Is one greater than the other? How are your defenses? How is your offense? Could you go campaigning for Spring with your army in its current shape, or are you in need of more drilling and training, and can only hope that no one tries to pillage your kingdom because your defenses are crumbling? What do your people require? Have they got enough food, spiritual, intellectual and physical to grow and to thrive? What’s your kingdom’s economy look like?

Take stock and see what shape you’re in. Next identify where you want to be. Set goals. Remember Jason’s excellent observation on goal-setting, but it is a necessary first step. Prioirtize the list, and you’ve got a step-by-step plan all laid out. Then comes the establishment of “rules.”

Analyze your goals, and figure out what you’ll need to do to accomplish them. Specifically, check out the standards you’ll have to live by, the routines you’ll have to follow, the behaviors you’ll have to be… having… uhm, how you’ll have to act consistently. These are your rules. They are the guidelines for improving and maximizing your kingdom’s potential.

I am by nature a scoff law. I have spent literally thousands of dollars in my life paying for all the times I haven’t followed the rules. Simply following the rules will not only save you money, it will make you money. Sticking to the rules is a good thing, and it provides a strong framework for the blessings of Jupiter to manifest around. It takes discipline, strength, will power.

And at the same time, you have to watch for the pitfalls of Legalism. You don’t get the benefits BECAUSE you follow the Law, the Law has no power to grant or deny benefits. The Law is not the source of your success, it is a means. The Law is simply a reminder, a warning. Putting the Law on a pedestal and saying, I will accomplish my goals by following the Law is idolatry. Your success, the benefits you seek come from Jupiter, not from Mars. Mars protects the benefits.

Rules and Law are the expression of the Rulership granted by the anointing of Jupiter, standards to keep, guidelines to stay within to accomplish the goals of the kingdom.They are not the kingdom.

So, next step is the Gate of Mars. I had planned on having something in place by Tuesday, but I had forgotten all about Easter. Heh. Woopsie! Hopefully something will be up in time for one of the Martial Hours by tomorrow, but no promises. If I don’t get anything up, remember, Kamael is the Archangel of Mars, his seal can be found at this link in the Table of Angels, and he is conjured in the name of Elohim Gibor. Don’t go through the Gate of Mars without having done some analysis of the needs of your Kingdom.

* Just kidding Mr. Warnock!