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

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

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

There is no code of conduct.

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

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

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

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

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

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

WTF does any of this have to do with Iamblichus?

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

There is no code of conduct.

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

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

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

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

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

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

WTF does any of this have to do with Iamblichus?

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

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

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

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

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

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

Good news, everyone, I got it! I mean, I got it. I really got it.

I had an epiphany last night and early this morning. I’ll try not to
wax all mystical and ecstatic on it, but it was beautiful. It made
sense of everything. Literally, everything. Birth, life,m death, struggles, woe, time, death, eternity, bliss, joy, it all wrapped up together around 4:30 a.m. in the following. The glyph is the key, ultimately.

I’m not getting into the boring details at the moment, I’m just going to summarize. I posted this to Ritual Magick, so if you’ve been there, you’ll be wasting your time unless you want to hear me talk more about it. You should be working on this shit. I’ll be coming down with a minor messiah complex for a few days, but I DID do some conjuring in the name of Messiah at daybreak, so hey, what can you expect?

Anyway, the result of my moment is the following layout for the altar:

In the center, you place four sealed vessels that have the spirits
of the Four Kings of the elements bound within, each in their
appropriate quadrant:

• South – Mahazael, sealed with the name Uriel
• North – Azael, sealed with the name Gabriel
• West – Azazel, sealed with the name Raphael
• East – Samael, sealed with the name Michael

Make sure you seal these demons in using something that you can let
them out if you need them later in your existence, but you want them
sealed unless they are actively performing something you’ve told them
to do.

Around these four sealed vessels, you place the following talismen
in their appropriate quadrant:

• South – Uriel~Ariel Talisman
• North – Gabriel~Tharsis Talisman
• West – Raphael~Cherub Talisman
• East – Michael~Seraph Talisman

These talismen should NOT use the seals of the angels as attributed
in other grimoires. These are the four elemental Kings, not the
Archangels of the planetary spheres that share the same names. To
get the appropriate seal, conjure each of the Elemental Kings
separately.

Beside each of the Elemental Kings’ talismen, place the appropriate
elemental weapon. The wand in the East, the Cup in the North, the
Knife in the West, and in the South your own personal seal.

You now have two circles on your altar, the infernal circle in the
center, and the elemental circle around that. These two spheres
*are* the material realm, and at the exact same time they *are* your
personal Sphere as a magician.

Starting in the South, place 7 planetary Talisman in the following
order clockwise, 51.429 degrees apart (give or take a hundredth of a
degree):

• Moon
• Venus
• Jupiter
• Mercury
• Saturn
• Sun
• Mars

These are the seven spheres that surround the magician’s sphere.
These create the table of practice.

That’s the physical manifestation of the Key. The Lamp should be
placed outside this circle to the east. The Divine Darkness that
Dionysius the Areopogate is outside the light.

The altar is now complete.

This is what mine looks like:

As you can see, I’m using the four elemental kings of the Tarot as temporary placeholders for Michael, Uriel, Raphael, and Gabriel.

Good news, everyone, I got it! I mean, I got it. I really got it.

I had an epiphany last night and early this morning. I’ll try not to
wax all mystical and ecstatic on it, but it was beautiful. It made
sense of everything. Literally, everything. Birth, life,m death, struggles, woe, time, death, eternity, bliss, joy, it all wrapped up together around 4:30 a.m. in the following. The glyph is the key, ultimately.

I’m not getting into the boring details at the moment, I’m just going to summarize. I posted this to Ritual Magick, so if you’ve been there, you’ll be wasting your time unless you want to hear me talk more about it. You should be working on this shit. I’ll be coming down with a minor messiah complex for a few days, but I DID do some conjuring in the name of Messiah at daybreak, so hey, what can you expect?

Anyway, the result of my moment is the following layout for the altar:

In the center, you place four sealed vessels that have the spirits
of the Four Kings of the elements bound within, each in their
appropriate quadrant:

• South – Mahazael, sealed with the name Uriel
• North – Azael, sealed with the name Gabriel
• West – Azazel, sealed with the name Raphael
• East – Samael, sealed with the name Michael

Make sure you seal these demons in using something that you can let
them out if you need them later in your existence, but you want them
sealed unless they are actively performing something you’ve told them
to do.

Around these four sealed vessels, you place the following talismen
in their appropriate quadrant:

• South – Uriel~Ariel Talisman
• North – Gabriel~Tharsis Talisman
• West – Raphael~Cherub Talisman
• East – Michael~Seraph Talisman

These talismen should NOT use the seals of the angels as attributed
in other grimoires. These are the four elemental Kings, not the
Archangels of the planetary spheres that share the same names. To
get the appropriate seal, conjure each of the Elemental Kings
separately.

Beside each of the Elemental Kings’ talismen, place the appropriate
elemental weapon. The wand in the East, the Cup in the North, the
Knife in the West, and in the South your own personal seal.

You now have two circles on your altar, the infernal circle in the
center, and the elemental circle around that. These two spheres
*are* the material realm, and at the exact same time they *are* your
personal Sphere as a magician.

Starting in the South, place 7 planetary Talisman in the following
order clockwise, 51.429 degrees apart (give or take a hundredth of a
degree):

• Moon
• Venus
• Jupiter
• Mercury
• Saturn
• Sun
• Mars

These are the seven spheres that surround the magician’s sphere.
These create the table of practice.

That’s the physical manifestation of the Key. The Lamp should be
placed outside this circle to the east. The Divine Darkness that
Dionysius the Areopogate is outside the light.

The altar is now complete.

This is what mine looks like:

As you can see, I’m using the four elemental kings of the Tarot as temporary placeholders for Michael, Uriel, Raphael, and Gabriel.