I was thinking about rising through the Spheres of the Planets tonight, and the image of a spark came to mind.

You know, bonfires, they shoot out sparks. The sparks rise up high into heavens before they burn out. A little tiny ash floats back down to the earth. Every bit of it that could burn is consumed.

So we’ve got seven planetary heavens, right? And under the lowest, the Lunar sphere, hanging off the lowest edge of heaven is the Elemental sphere of Fire, the highest and purest form of matter. Below that is Air, and below that Water. At the bottom is good old solid Earth, the most material of material realms.

And here’s this spark. It’s sunshine and minerals from the earth consumed in the release of all that energy it absorbed while it was alive. As it goes through its final transformation, it shoots up through the aethers aiming for heaven, using the heat of its own combustion to get higher, and leaving behind a husk of itself to drift back down to earth, empty of all the power and effort that went into creating it in the first place.

So, neat stuff. I don’t like ham handed mataphors, but I do seem to have a habit of using them myself.

I was thinking about rising through the Spheres of the Planets tonight, and the image of a spark came to mind.

You know, bonfires, they shoot out sparks. The sparks rise up high into heavens before they burn out. A little tiny ash floats back down to the earth. Every bit of it that could burn is consumed.

So we’ve got seven planetary heavens, right? And under the lowest, the Lunar sphere, hanging off the lowest edge of heaven is the Elemental sphere of Fire, the highest and purest form of matter. Below that is Air, and below that Water. At the bottom is good old solid Earth, the most material of material realms.

And here’s this spark. It’s sunshine and minerals from the earth consumed in the release of all that energy it absorbed while it was alive. As it goes through its final transformation, it shoots up through the aethers aiming for heaven, using the heat of its own combustion to get higher, and leaving behind a husk of itself to drift back down to earth, empty of all the power and effort that went into creating it in the first place.

So, neat stuff. I don’t like ham handed mataphors, but I do seem to have a habit of using them myself.

I was thinking about rising through the Spheres of the Planets tonight, and the image of a spark came to mind.

You know, bonfires, they shoot out sparks. The sparks rise up high into heavens before they burn out. A little tiny ash floats back down to the earth. Every bit of it that could burn is consumed.

So we’ve got seven planetary heavens, right? And under the lowest, the Lunar sphere, hanging off the lowest edge of heaven is the Elemental sphere of Fire, the highest and purest form of matter. Below that is Air, and below that Water. At the bottom is good old solid Earth, the most material of material realms.

And here’s this spark. It’s sunshine and minerals from the earth consumed in the release of all that energy it absorbed while it was alive. As it goes through its final transformation, it shoots up through the aethers aiming for heaven, using the heat of its own combustion to get higher, and leaving behind a husk of itself to drift back down to earth, empty of all the power and effort that went into creating it in the first place.

So, neat stuff. I don’t like ham handed mataphors, but I do seem to have a habit of using them myself.

Bela Bartok: Tapping into the Power of the Early 20th Century

This morning, on my way to stinking work, I had the good fortune to hear a story on NPR about Bela Bartok. He was a Modernist composer who wrote some lovely dark-themed music based on the cultures of Eastern Europe, and it totally reflects the post-industrial Modernist influence of the late early 20th century.

Who cares? Magicians care. We have to. So many of our modern occult influences condensed in the Modernist period. Crowley, Mathers, Fortune, and even the Chronicler Regardie were products of the illuminated age brought about by the wealth of the industrial revolution and the excesses of colonialism. The culture of their time influenced their writings, and to understand their legacy, we need to be able to tap into the gestalt of their period. It provides a frame of reference from which we can understand why they said things the way they did.

Bela Bartok captures in his music the dark side of the struggles of the post industrial age. Society had changed, and people were glorifying things that they took for granted twenty years earlier. People were adapting to the automated production of basic goods and services, they were adopting the most efficient methods to achieve their goals. Increased wealth and leisure created a culture of opulence for many, but at the same time revealed in stark contrast the darkness of the soul. Man’s eternal struggle with himself entered a new stage of understanding.

The industrial revolution hit the realm of the occult, and a new system of initiation emerged. The Golden Dawn took your average Anglo and fed them the pablum of the esoteric in the early degrees, progressively building up the framework of the system until the finished product could be taken off the assembly line and put into the Inner Order. Like the rest of society, the members of the occult had to adapt to the industrialization of their processes. The writings of Crowley take on a new meaning when you can see behind his words both the glorification of traditional craftsmanship and the child-like wonder of the shiny new method to produce attainment. His cynicism becomes warm and friendly when placed in the context of his day.

To get a feeling for what I’m talking about, try listening to some of Bartok’s music. NPR has some available here:

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=14416746

While you’re listening to this music, read some of the poetry that reflects the Modernist literary current. The Wasteland by T. S. Eliot is incredibly good to read while listening to Bartok, in my humble opinion. It can be found online here:

http://www.bartleby.com/201/1.html

After you’ve read The Wasteland while listening to the profound music of Bela Bartok, go back and re-read Crowley’s Notes section on Liber Samekh. It explains a great deal of what was going on in the background that influenced the publication of this work.

http://www.hermetic.com/crowley/libers/lib800.html

Well, I just finished watching the Grudge 2.

Remind me never to take the evil spirits from people and feed them to my daughter, ok?

It always turns out bad in the end.

Well, I just finished watching the Grudge 2.

Remind me never to take the evil spirits from people and feed them to my daughter, ok?

It always turns out bad in the end.

I hope this blog has helped others in their pursuit of the Great Work. I’ve sold a couple books here and there, done some attunements on people, and have provided a lot of the information that has helped me. I hope reading it was as fun as learning about it.

But this post isn’t about helping people like that. This post is about helping people along in their Work because you can’t stand how they behave.

Surely you know the types. You love them, they’re sweet, but there’s just something about them that you can’t stand, and it keeps you from being able to enjoy the fullness of your relationship. You see their character flaws clearly, and so does everyone else, but there’s no way that they ever acknowledge that you’re right in your assessment of their behavior.

Fortunately, you’ve done the ritual Work required to attain Adepthood, and you’ve been through the wringer yourself so many times with dealing with similar issues that you know exactly which spheres trigger the results you want to see in the other person’s sphere.

I don’t know how ethical this is, by the way. It’s magick for the Great Work, and it might just backfire on you (or me) when you (or I) try to do it. Time will tell, though, time will tell.

Say someone is, oh, I don’t know, hardhearted, jealous, and prideful, and because of this, they can’t seem to see you for who you really are. What do you do?

Well, the Sun is the Sphere of revelation, and enlightenment, and that always leads to compassion. When you can’t seem to get someone to see your point, a solar working makes sense.

Michael the Archangel of the Sun is who I’m planning on conjuring. This Archangel is good for almost everything, from wealth to exorcisms to initiations. It’s hard to beat Michael in terms of being there for you when you need him.

Ok, so you’ve got the Spirit, go to the Magical Calendar and get the seal for Michael. (I believe the Magical Calendar places Michael in Mercury and Raphael in the Sun, but that’s not "right" for me. You still use the seal of Michael, and disregard the placement in the Magical Calendar.) Next you create a little shrine to Michael. A statue of Michael slaying the Dragon would be great for this, but I’m buying a house, and can’t afford to purchase statuary at the moment, so I’m going to make a lamen with his name and seal in it. Around the outside, I’ll write the Name of God that corresponds to the Sun (Eloah va-Da’at) and the symbol of the Sun (circle with a dot in the middle). I’ll include the names of the angels associated with the Sun (Melakim) and the name of the Sphere in the KBL (Tiphareth) Then I’ll include the Planetary Sigil from the Magical Calendar.

In the center of the circle of the names and symbols, I’ll draw a Star of David, and in the center of that the Name Michael in English with his Seal below that. Above the Star of David I’ll write out his name (MKAL) in Celestial script, and around the Star of David I’ll draw four pentagrams, with the names of the Four Elemental Kings inside (Michael, Uriel, Raphael, and Gabriel Clockwise, beginning in the East). I’ll draw all this out in gold ink from an 18 carrot gold leaf pen on a Sunday in the Hour of the Sun. I’ll mount the lamen on an ease-type thing I make out of dowel rods or something, so that the Lamen is mostly vertical. I could put it on a mantle or create a shelf on the wall for it too. Then I’ll place a picture of the people I’m wnating to change in front of the lamen, with the changes I want to see written on the picture in gold ink, like "compassion, enlightenment, caring." Then I’ll conjure Michael in his appropriate hour, and ask for him to do what I desire. Assuming he complies, I’ll then light gold or white candles in front of the shrine, and burn Frankincense sticks until the change is complete.

I’m pretty sure there’s no harm in this kind of magick, but you never know what kind of gross stuff comes out of a person when they begin to integrate the energies of the Sun into their sphere, eh?