Rufus Opus

Tag: RO’s Musings

Tag: RO’s Musings

  • In case you’re wonderng…

    If you’re wondering why the posts have died down for the last couple weeks, it’s because of the waning moon. During this phase, there’s not much point in doing magick. Some people use it as a time for curses or bindings, but I’m not into all that. I mean, sometimes I am, but not this time.

    I like the way it’s all set up. Two weeks of sending energies out, two weeks for drawing energies in. Sometimes I get annoyed that I have to wait for the moon phase to turn, but usually I find that whatever I was anxious to get done wasn’t that important anyway.

  • The Power Within

    Once upon a time, deep within the sea, The Flying Dutchman, ghost extraordinaire, believed he had lost his ability to scare people. He grew extremely clinically depressed, and was finally brought around by a friendly sea-sponge, who showed him this inspirational video:

    That’s the inspiration for this post. For those of you “too enlightened” for Spongebob, I pity you. But bear in mind, I have kids, and we spend a lot of time talking about things with Spongebob on in the background. And I personally love the show, except when his voice is done by that annoying fellow.

    The Power Within. In the video, there’s not much more than that phrase repeated. Oddly enough, I’ve seen inspirational videos that are just like that. It doesn’t really say anything, but somehow manages to inspire you. Like Poke Runyon’s conjuration of Vassago that’s on YouTube somewhere. I’d never do that kind of hodge-podge ritual, but seeing him do it made me want to do other things.

    So, following up on the Invisible College post, this is about finding your own Power Within. You can’t very well be the master of your sphere of influence without having some form of Power source.

    The trick to finding it is not about growing it, or implanting it. I have an acquaintence who reads the blog steadily. He’ll know I’m talking about him. He and a friend designed a ritual that was, from my understanding, designed to turn he and his friend into Moon Children. Like the one Aleister Crowley wrote about, and the one Parsons and L. Ron Hubbard tried to make (Babalon). He was planning on conjuring the Enochian Entities on one side, and the Goetic entities on the other side, and he and his friend would be in the center, receiving the forces radiated by both camps, hoping to somehow create within themselves a new being comprised of the powers of the Angels and the Demons.

    Ok, now lets not get hasty. We all know, have met, or once were people like him. When it was me, I was doing a chaos magick rite that was based on the Malkavian Clan of Vampires from the White Wolf role playing game “Vampire: The Masquerade.” It involved a hand mirror, a camp fire somewhere between Colorado and Texas, and a dedication to infectious madness for the purpose of enlightenment.

    It didn’t work. I stayed sane, couldn’t lose control the way I wanted to. Shrooms, LSD, and massive amounts of pot wouldn’t do it either. The closest I came was a brief addiction to cocaine. It wasn’t until years later that I discovered to my horror that alcohol was the only thing that could really get me to lose all rational control and operate solely from the Insane Nephesh. But that really wasn’t the goal. I was looking to operate from the hyper-sane Neschemah, even though I had no idea what either the Nephesh or the Neschemah were at the time.

    I wanted to touch and channel the Divine Madness.

    I think that’s what the mage mentioned above is going for in his magical work at the moment. I don’t think he performed said rite with Enochian and Goetic entities, fortunately enough. He’s already obsessed with numbers, like in the movie The Number 23. I can’t remember what his numbers are, at least they aren’t (obviously) 23. I’m sure it could be turned into 23 with a little imagination.

    Anyway, if you’re not there yet, you probably will be some day, at least for a while. People do some crazy shit to get the Power Within.

    Crowley called it the “True Will.” At least he had the wisdom to know that it’s not something that needs to be implanted. He taught that it had to be discovered, and proposed the method to be a system of initiations that removed veils until you get to the point where you see and understand that your True Will was there all along. He had you develop prana energy flows as you went along too.

    I follow a similar regimen. For me, the “Power Within” is a part of every man, woman, and child. It’s part of being “Human.” We were made in God’s image, and were made to be the tenders of the Garden, co-creators with God. We were his reflection, in a way. Our race is divine. We are manifestations of God-ness.

    But we forgot, and get distracted by the bright and shiny things of this world. It happens. The point of the Great Work is to return to our status as co-creators with God. (Note: not to unify with God; we weren’t created to be part of God, we were emmanated to be a companion to him. Important difference.)

    To function effectively, we have to begin by understanding what it is about ourselves that gives us the Power Within. I found that by studying the Neo-Platonic philosophies. I think you can get it that way too, if you haven’t gotten it yet by some other means. Start with the Timaeus dialogue by Plato. Go on to the Corpus Hermeticum, look for Divine Pymander. That gives you the cosmology to understand that you already have the Power Within. Then you can start developing it.

    To develop it, you have to remove the things that block its flow from the Divine realm we are from to the material realm we live in. Do this in two ways. First get in touch with your HGA. It’s not as hard as people make it out to be in the modern occult realm. I think it needed that much heaviness and emphasis to get it through people’s thick skulls that it’s important and that you can’t really do much without it, but some folks think that’s all there is to magic(k). Truth is, that’s just the first step, and it doesn’t ahve to take long.

    At the same time, or soon after, you start cleansing your own sphere. You do this by conjuring the Intelligences of the planetary spheres. Just being in their presence creates a harmonious vibe in your own sphere, and as that happens, your sphere gets more pure. You, just like the earth you live on, are the center of planetary spheres. To get the divine Power Within through you have to get rid of the corrosion on the shells of your spheres.

    It’s like in electronics. Before you solder two wires together, you have to make sure the copper at the end of the wires is nice and clean. You can either use steel wool to rub it clean, or a sulfuric acid. either way, you get the corrosion off the tips so the electrons flow smoothly. On the Box I made, I have to use sand paper on occasion to clean the electrodes or the backs of the seals so that the light will come on.

    Working with the Archangels or Intelligences of the planets has a similar effect on your spheres. Their presence cleanses your sphere and brings peace where there is conflict in your manifestation of “planetary” forces. Like if you have anger management issues, Working with Kammael, archangel of the sphere of Mars can help. It can also push you over the edge if you’re trying to hold on to the anger.

    The only way to be sure that you won’t get pushed over the edge is to work with or through your HGA. The trouble is, when you get in contact with your HGA it can be a bit of an uncomfortable experience. It makes you better, but you have to face some aspects of yourself that you might think are just fine, but are secretly totally fucked up.

    As you work with your HGA and the Planetary Archangels, you’ll have visions and wonders and miracles begin. After a while, they sort of fade away into the background of your life. This is normal. At this stage, you’re supposed to start doing stuff on your own. Your HGA will let you know when it’s time, and what to do if things seem to be stagnating.

    But remember, the Power Within… the Power Within… The Power Within!!!

  • Spirit Pot Manual

    I’ve begun the somewhat painstaking process of writing out the events that lead to the creation of my spirit pot, the details of making it, and the results. Maybe it’ll turn into an actual published manuscript. Time will tell.

  • Spirit Pot Manual

    I’ve begun the somewhat painstaking process of writing out the events that lead to the creation of my spirit pot, the details of making it, and the results. Maybe it’ll turn into an actual published manuscript. Time will tell.

  • Spirit Pot Manual

    I’ve begun the somewhat painstaking process of writing out the events that lead to the creation of my spirit pot, the details of making it, and the results. Maybe it’ll turn into an actual published manuscript. Time will tell.

  • Something For God To Do – Prayer Wheels & Petition Boxes

    Recently, Jason Miller posted that he has a petition box that he will place people’s needs in. I’m not going to repeat his whole post, so just click on this link for more information.

    Today I got one of those emails that people forward around to their friends. Chances are you’ve gotten it. It’s the “Memo from God” that says:

    “This is God.  Today I will be handling All of your problems for you.  I do Not need your help.  So, have a nice day.”

    I’ve gotten it before. Somewhere along the way though, someone added this neat little bit:

    “P.S.   And, remember… If life happens to de liver a situation to you that you cannot handle, do Not attempt to resolve it yourself!  Kindly put it in the SFGTD (something for God to do) box. I will get to it in MY TIME. All situations will be resolved, but in My time, not yours.”

    Now I don’t entirely agree with the whole “Let go and let God” philosophy this reflects. I mean, we’re HERE after all, and we can do stuff, so I think it’s safe to say that if we can, there’s a reason. We’re supposed to be doing stuff to affect our realm of influence.

    But I like the SFGTD box. It’s a modern cultural way to get back to petition boxes, like the one Jason made for Michael.

    I’m going to start using the Prayer Wheel part of The Box to write out things that I want God to do. Since he has this thing about graven images of himself, I’ll connect the ‘trodes with something other than an egraved seal. Maybe I’ll make a YHShVH or something out of copper wire.Oooh! One of those ubiquitous Jesus fishes might work, or just a simple cross. heh. I’m a friggin’ genius. Of course.

  • The Far-Reaching Aspects of Mars

    Earlier today I made a Mars talisman, and then did some work with my HGA and the Sun, and I’m still flying a bit. Post-coital bliss, in a way.

    But while it’s all still fresh, I want to share a bit on the aspects of Mars-in-Sagittarius.

    I had a long history of inappropriate displays of Martial energies. Especially when I got angry. I’m a Taurus, and all the stereotypical images that pop into mind when you think of a bull seeing red applied to me when I lost my temper. I’d snort, rant and rave, crush everything that stood in my way, and then when I calmed down, I was left to deal with the mess I’d made.

    As a result, I was a bit wary in working with Mars. I didn’t want to have any Martial energy coming into my sphere and triggering some kind of outburst. At the same time, I was eager to get that sphere integrated into my own, so it wouldn’t manifest destructively. The solution, of course, is to work with the powers of Mars through the auspices of the HGA. Which I did do today.

    I started with Kammael, archangel of Mars. I did a simple conjuration with my HGA and asked it to integrate the energies of Mars into my sphere. No problem, it said, and I began to behave more judiciously in my actions. That was neat. I also began to see conflict differently, whether in the wars in the middle east, or the politics in the workplace. I also began to stand up for things that I had earned, but in a diplomatic way.

    Today I made a talisman of mars to use in my Table of Practice. I carved the Table of Mars from Agrippa’s Book 3 on one side of a sheet of steel coated in tin. On the other side, I carved the symbol of Mars and the seals of the Intelligence and Spirit of Mars. It was similar to one I had made on paper a few months ago when Mars was in Scorpio. that talisman was made to use in vengeance-focused rituals. This one is designed to take advantage of Mars in Sagittarius, that is, using force, justice, and appropriate violence to make a better future. Mars is also well-aspected by Jupiter today, so there’s an aspect of using violence under authority to accomplish necessary actions to build a brighter future. Al in all, a very useful talisman.

    After making the talisman, I went on to make a talisman of the Sun, this one more of a lamen of Michael. While I was doing that, the powers of the sphere of Mars were still bouncing around in my sphere. My HGA and Michael used the time that I was focusing on drawing the seal to commune with me and reveal some aspects of the powers of Mars I hadn’t recognized before.

    Kammael, the archangel of Mars, is constantly monitoring me, directing the energies of Mars into my sphere at the levels that I require at any given time. Usually this is slight, but lately he’s been TRYING to get my attention. There’s been some spiritual business that I’ve been ignoring because it could easily reveal more character flaws in my self that I really would rather avoid dealing with.

    So I’ve been irritable, mean-spirited, and generally argumentative. I see attacks where there are none, and I feel under pressure. After working with the spirits today, I can see where I need to direct the martial force in my life, and I feel totally psyched about it. Instead of seeming like a bother or something to avoid, it seems like a challenge. The thrill of victory is right around the corner.

    That, I think, is the lesson I’m walking away with. There’s more going on than a lesson from the spirits, of course, but this is a blog, after all, and the words are all I have to put it into in this particular forum. The point I learned today about the powers of Mars is that they empower you to achieve victory in any circumstance, not just for violence or revenge, but for Success. All the things you read about successful business plans, successful family management, successful parenting, all these things are aspects of the powers of Mars. Victory.

  • Forgotten Things

    I was talking to a friend of mine, Frater Servitor Lucem, in IMs a few minutes ago. We got to talking about the coming Depression, the economy in general, and what to excpect. Along the way, he gave me a brief history of the things that have happened since the last Depression. These are important things to know. He lived through it, as his mother and grandmother immigrated to the US in the 1930’s and he grew up knowing what had happened. I’m younger than he is, and most of my friends have the same general understanding of history I do, I suspect. Chances are you know all this, but here is the brief overview of what happened that lead us where we are today.

    And this is important to you magicians that seek to become members of the Invisible College. Our role in this world is to take notice of these things. You may not feel called on to do anything about this with your spiritual resources, but I am.

    His comments begin below:

    See, when the Depression was underway, there were also Commies. The rich people were really afraid of the Commies, because the Commies had a nasty habit of killing the people they took over from.

    So, the New Deal came about. Not because the rich people were being so nice about things, but because they were afraid they might die. Communism was seen as a really serious threat. Nazism was, in part, a reaction against the Communist threat. Democracy was in some big trouble in the ’30’s. People seriously wondered whether it had a future.

    So, the New Deal made for some social re-engineering that helped people along, but mostly because people who have nothing to lose, and know it, are extremely dangerous.

    Enter the Second World War, and things really heat up.

    Democracy pretty much successfully defends itself against the Fascists, but only at the cost of allying with the dreaded Commies. Afterwards, the Cold War was the big showdown between Communism and Capitalism. Both systems are more or less bankrupt in many of the same areas, but capitalists have more wealth, and provide better incentives.

    Besides, what we had in the West wasn’t at all pure Capitalism, anyway. There was a strong Socialist streak left over from the New Deal. More equitable distribution of wealth led to enormous overall wealth in the West. So much so that we were able to bail Western Europe out of certain death by starvation.

    However, after a few decades, the rich, once again, became tired of sharing, and started to take back what the New Deal had given the rest of us. And when Communism finally gave up the ghost, they said, “Hey, don’t like what we’re about? Tough shit, where are you gonna go?” And they took away all the restrictions that had been put in place to prevent another depression.

    And they took back a lot of the social programs that came out of the New Deal, and bankrupted the rest (like Social Security).

    And here we are.

    Pretty much where we were in 1929.

  • How to be an Uber-cool Magician and Never Pay Taxes Again

    Ha! Yeah right.

    Anyway, here are some random thoughts about why I haven’t experienced the same level of creeping chaos in my life as I’ve been working with Goetic spirits.

    Generally, I think, people who have the creeping chaos had the seeds for it already there in their lives before beginning their Goetic Work.

    Most magical traditions in the West have a methodology of identifying the parts of the self that are out of harmony with the rest of the universe and bringing them into harmony. In the Golden Dawn, for instance, this can take the form of initiations. In Alchemy, there is the Black stage where the impurities of the base ingredients are brought to the surface, the White stage where the impurities are burned to ash, and the Red stage, when the essence of the original ingredients is purified and transformed into the Philosopher’s Stone.

    This purification process is essential, in my opinion. It happens as you do the Work. When you begin the Work, you’re supposed to start where you’re at, and then ascend through the heavens to your Source, and then return to the earth in great power. That’s the methodology laid out in the Emerald Tablet of Hermes. The human being descends from the heavens through the elements into the flesh of the Earth. Through theurgical rituals, we ascend through the spheres of the heavens. As we do, the impurities get burned away, and when we return to the earth, we do so in power, and from this process the universe is continuously created.

    I didn’t jump ahead in the process. I started with making contact with my HGA. Based on the translation of the Sacred Magic of Abramelin by Mathers, I thought that after I had made contact with my HGA I was required to conjure the Four Kings of Hell, and all their servants, and get four familiars. Since that translation didn’t have all the seals of the demons you’re supposed to work with, I thought I would substitute the Goetia, as it’s more complete. Or so I thought at the time.

    Since my HGA was the only spirit I’d ever conjured, I figured I’d get my feet wet by Working with the Archangels of the Sephiroth. I looked for a quick and easy conjuration method, and found Trithemius’ Art of Drawing Spirits into Crystals. This technique is pretty straightforward and readily adaptable. It also only focuses on the seven Planetary Archangels. I was learning more about neoplatonism at the time, and this fit my personal understanding of the universal cosmology and spiritual hierarchies anyway, so I went with it.

    As I conjured each of the Archangels, I asked them to “purify the tincture of my sphere.” I went through various issues as a result (although honestly, it wasn’t that hard to deal with). I also built up my own sphere by interacting with these beings over a period of about a year. By the time I got back to the Goetic entities, I had already performed the ascension part. I knew where I belonged in the cosmic hierarchy, understood my race and value from an eternal perspective, and was ready to assume my role as the administrator of my physically manifest realm. There was no room for the Goetic spirit to cause chaos. There was no reason for it to, either.

  • Opening Portals to Commune with Specific Spirits

    For the purposes of this post, a “Portal” is defined as a gateway through which communications with non-corporeal entities can be established.

    All magickal acts consist of working with non-corporeal entities, whether they are gods, demons, angels, egregores, eidolons, or servitors. I prefer the term “Spirits” to non-corporeal entities. It’s more personal. The entities we work with are generally self aware to some degree, and thinking of them as cold constructs with no will of their own can lead to all kinds of problems later in your experiences with the spirit realm.

    To get the spirits’ attention, we have to open a portal between our normal reality and the realms they exist in. There are many ways of accomplishing this, but all seem to include intoning specific god-names. The Druids are recorded as calling out their curses on the Romans, and throughout the Eastern mystical paths mantras are intoned to bring about access to higher states of consciousness. I don’t know what the mechanism is, but vibrating aural tones creates changes in the environment.

    Once the environment has been changed through the intonation of the “words of power,” it is necessary to get the specific Spirit’s attention. This is done by having an image of the spirit on hand. There are catalogues of the symbols and seals of the spirits we have made contact with as magicians over the centuries contained in grimoires and described in sacred texts.

    Having the symbol or talisman of the spirit we wish to contact, we call the spirit by its name(s) and ask/order it to appear by the “power” of various associated god names. I believe that vibrating these god-names further tunes the portal that is opened at the beginning of the rite to the specific energies that are compatible with the desired spirit, and incompatible with any other spirit. When the environment is sufficiently tuned, the spirit can appear, and communications can commence.

    In the Lemmegetton, there are records of the spirits appearing at first in forms that are horrible to look at, and acompanied by noxious fumes and gases. To eliminate this, you are instructed to hold a ring in front of your face inscribed with specific names of God, and to order the spirit to appear in a particular form by the power of specific god names. I think that what might be happening is that the connection of a partially tuned portal must be more finely tuned once the spirit begins to appear. After this has been accomplished, the spirit is comfortable and can communicate quite well.

    In 1918, Aleister Crowley performed the Amalantrah working in New York. During this ritual, he opened a portal to other dimensions, and called various entities through it to communicate with him. One of these entities was LAM, which resmebles what we now call “Greys,” those pesky aliens that are seen during what science calls sleep paralysis and occultists know as night hags. After he finished the Amalantrah working, he carefully closed up the portal he opened.

    Years later, in 1947, Jack Parsons and L. Ron Hubbard performed the Babalon rite. They were attempting to create a Moonchild, a human body that contained the spirit of Babalon from Revelations. It is postulated among many occultists that the rift they opened to draw down the star spirit was never properly closed, and this portal remains open to this day. 1947 marks the beginning of the UFO sightings that swept the world. Another connection between the interdimensional astronauts and the occult.

    As this example demonstrates, there is an important need to close a portal after you’ve communicated with a specific entity. This is done rather simply by performing an LBRP. Thank the GD for that contribution.