In recent conversations with Fr. POS and Optimystic, the subject of where in the cosmology the Arbatel spirits belong has come up. They both place the spirits in the celestial or super-celestial realms. Personally, I think they’re more like the Spirits of the planetary tables, that is, terrestrial reflections of the celestial governors.

Opti pointed out the Arbatel says: “They are called Olympick spirits, which do inhabit in the firmament, and in the stars of the firmament…” (from aphorism 15). He also pointed to Aphorism 16, which says:

There are seven different governments of the Spirits of Olympus, by whom God hath appointed the whole frame and universe of this world to be governed: and their visible stars are ARATRON, BETHOR, PHALEG, OCH, HAGITH, OPHIEL, PHUL, after the Olympick speech. Every one of these hath under him a mighty Militia in the firmament.
   
[…]

So that there are 186 [196]7 Olympick Provinces in the whole Universe. wherein the seven Governours do exercise their power: all which are elegantly set forth in Astronomy.

(From Joe Peterson’s Twilit Grotto, The Arbatel.)

So the question remaining to my mind is “What is the Firmament?” Aphorism fifteen identifies their inhabitation as being both in the firmament and in the stars of the firmament. Why do both have to be mentioned? Opti interprets it as the super-celestial heavens. He could be right. He provided a dictionary definition that seemed to say the heavens. In Old Astronomy, the term meant “The orb of the fixed stars; the most remote of the celestial spheres.”(1)  That would place these spirits clearly in the super celestial realm, thus ending the debate.

I’m stubbon though. I looked up the meaning of the word in more detail, and found from Easton’s Bible dictionary this(2):

from the Vulgate firmamentum, which is used as the translation of the Hebrew _raki’a_. This word means simply “expansion.” It denotes the space or expanse like an arch appearing immediately above us. They who rendered _raki’a_ by firmamentum regarded it as a solid body. The language of Scripture is not scientific but popular, and hence we read of the sun rising and setting, and also here the use of this particular word. It is plain that it was used to denote solidity as well as expansion. It formed a division between the waters above and the waters below (Gen. 1:7). The _raki’a_ supported the upper reservoir (Ps. 148:4). It was the support also of the heavenly bodies (Gen. 1:14), and is spoken of as having “windows” and “doors” (Gen. 7:11; Isa. 24:18; Mal. 3:10) through which the rain and snow might descend.

Based on this, and the very Biblical tone of the Arbatel, I believed the Arbatel spirits are within the realm of matter primarily. The physical planets and sphere of the physical stars is certainly not what is referenced by the spiritual spheres of the neoplatonists. If we travel to Mars for colonization, the martian settlers won’t be considered to be in the sphere of the wandering stars, will they? All matter is within the sublunar realms, and the planets and stars serve as signifiers of their relative positionings in the divine or ideal realm. The actual spheres of the planets and fixed stars do not manifest physically.

Knowing I could be wrong, I performed some divinations that indicated I was partially right and partially wrong. The Arbatel spirits have qualities that make them both Super-Celestial entities, and terrestrial entities. They seem to be, based on divination, a combination of the Spirits and the Intelligences from the Kameas of the Planets in Agrippa’s Three Books of Occult Philosophy.

So, based on the research, conversation, divination and meditation, I’ve decided I won’t be ordering the spirits of the Arbatel around like servants. Instead, I’ll keep my approach formal, as if  it were one Vice-President speaking to another within a corporation. By divine right, magicians are granted the abiltity to petition the spirits of the Arbatel, but there’s no real authority over them provided in the grimoire. Instead, the only authority they are answerable to is God himself.

This rather helps explain why so much of the Arbatel focuses on your behavior. As a Christian saved by Grace, this behavioral thou-shaltism smacks of righteousness by works rather than by grace. That is, you do nice things and you get rewarded. I’m in Martin Luther’s camp, that salvation is by grace through faith alone. Works, good deeds, being nice to animals and not splashing panhandlers in the rain while cackling gleefully at their misfortune… that’s not going to get you anywhere with God, who says the righteousness of man is as menstrual rags before him. (mmmm, tasty.)

But we aren’t talking about salvation, atonement or being in a right relationship with God. We’re talking about magic petitions to spirits for direct intervention. Maybe you do have to be all righteous and pure to get anything out of the Arbatel spirits, and they don’t see the Cross when they’re measuring up whether you deserve their blessings or not.

hmmm. Well, it’s something to think about, anyway. But like I said, I’ll stick with the Goetic spirits for now. They recognize your position with God via the sacrifice of Christ readily enough.

Notes:
1. “firmament.” Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary. MICRA, Inc. 29 Oct. 2008. http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/firmament>.
2. “firmament.” Easton’s 1897 Bible Dictionary. 29 Oct. 2008. http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/firmament>.

In recent conversations with Fr. POS and Optimystic, the subject of where in the cosmology the Arbatel spirits belong has come up. They both place the spirits in the celestial or super-celestial realms. Personally, I think they’re more like the Spirits of the planetary tables, that is, terrestrial reflections of the celestial governors.

Opti pointed out the Arbatel says: “They are called Olympick spirits, which do inhabit in the firmament, and in the stars of the firmament…” (from aphorism 15). He also pointed to Aphorism 16, which says:

There are seven different governments of the Spirits of Olympus, by whom God hath appointed the whole frame and universe of this world to be governed: and their visible stars are ARATRON, BETHOR, PHALEG, OCH, HAGITH, OPHIEL, PHUL, after the Olympick speech. Every one of these hath under him a mighty Militia in the firmament.
   
[…]

So that there are 186 [196]7 Olympick Provinces in the whole Universe. wherein the seven Governours do exercise their power: all which are elegantly set forth in Astronomy.

(From Joe Peterson’s Twilit Grotto, The Arbatel.)

So the question remaining to my mind is “What is the Firmament?” Aphorism fifteen identifies their inhabitation as being both in the firmament and in the stars of the firmament. Why do both have to be mentioned? Opti interprets it as the super-celestial heavens. He could be right. He provided a dictionary definition that seemed to say the heavens. In Old Astronomy, the term meant “The orb of the fixed stars; the most remote of the celestial spheres.”(1)  That would place these spirits clearly in the super celestial realm, thus ending the debate.

I’m stubbon though. I looked up the meaning of the word in more detail, and found from Easton’s Bible dictionary this(2):

from the Vulgate firmamentum, which is used as the translation of the Hebrew _raki’a_. This word means simply “expansion.” It denotes the space or expanse like an arch appearing immediately above us. They who rendered _raki’a_ by firmamentum regarded it as a solid body. The language of Scripture is not scientific but popular, and hence we read of the sun rising and setting, and also here the use of this particular word. It is plain that it was used to denote solidity as well as expansion. It formed a division between the waters above and the waters below (Gen. 1:7). The _raki’a_ supported the upper reservoir (Ps. 148:4). It was the support also of the heavenly bodies (Gen. 1:14), and is spoken of as having “windows” and “doors” (Gen. 7:11; Isa. 24:18; Mal. 3:10) through which the rain and snow might descend.

Based on this, and the very Biblical tone of the Arbatel, I believed the Arbatel spirits are within the realm of matter primarily. The physical planets and sphere of the physical stars is certainly not what is referenced by the spiritual spheres of the neoplatonists. If we travel to Mars for colonization, the martian settlers won’t be considered to be in the sphere of the wandering stars, will they? All matter is within the sublunar realms, and the planets and stars serve as signifiers of their relative positionings in the divine or ideal realm. The actual spheres of the planets and fixed stars do not manifest physically.

Knowing I could be wrong, I performed some divinations that indicated I was partially right and partially wrong. The Arbatel spirits have qualities that make them both Super-Celestial entities, and terrestrial entities. They seem to be, based on divination, a combination of the Spirits and the Intelligences from the Kameas of the Planets in Agrippa’s Three Books of Occult Philosophy.

So, based on the research, conversation, divination and meditation, I’ve decided I won’t be ordering the spirits of the Arbatel around like servants. Instead, I’ll keep my approach formal, as if  it were one Vice-President speaking to another within a corporation. By divine right, magicians are granted the abiltity to petition the spirits of the Arbatel, but there’s no real authority over them provided in the grimoire. Instead, the only authority they are answerable to is God himself.

This rather helps explain why so much of the Arbatel focuses on your behavior. As a Christian saved by Grace, this behavioral thou-shaltism smacks of righteousness by works rather than by grace. That is, you do nice things and you get rewarded. I’m in Martin Luther’s camp, that salvation is by grace through faith alone. Works, good deeds, being nice to animals and not splashing panhandlers in the rain while cackling gleefully at their misfortune… that’s not going to get you anywhere with God, who says the righteousness of man is as menstrual rags before him. (mmmm, tasty.)

But we aren’t talking about salvation, atonement or being in a right relationship with God. We’re talking about magic petitions to spirits for direct intervention. Maybe you do have to be all righteous and pure to get anything out of the Arbatel spirits, and they don’t see the Cross when they’re measuring up whether you deserve their blessings or not.

hmmm. Well, it’s something to think about, anyway. But like I said, I’ll stick with the Goetic spirits for now. They recognize your position with God via the sacrifice of Christ readily enough.

Notes:
1. “firmament.” Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary. MICRA, Inc. 29 Oct. 2008. http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/firmament>.
2. “firmament.” Easton’s 1897 Bible Dictionary. 29 Oct. 2008. http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/firmament>.

Nothing interesting popped up in the Mercury work yesterday. I didn’t get around to it. :sigh: Excrement occurs.

We’re living in strange days, friends and compatriots. I went off on Dude that wanted to do the apocalypse rite, and I think he’s plannig on doing it this Saturday from the posts he’s made since then. Or he’s going to off himself. He’s been vague enough to let it be interpreted either way.

To him, I say: Don’t kill yourself, you’ve got a lot of potential, and you’ll be wasting it by offing yourself. Prove you’re an Adept by facing life on its own terms from a position of authority, not as a victim. Don’t be a bitch.

Now, assuming he’s going to go through with the Enochian-Goetic working to bring about Revelations’ series of events… Time to come clean. Years ago, I wrote my own Enochian Apocalypse ritual. I didn’t know shit about Enochian or Apocalypse at the time. It looked pretty bad ass though. I tried to get other people to do it, just in case it worked, but no one was interested. Years later, I know what would have happened if I’d gone through with it: I would have gone through my own apocalypse. The rest of the world would be fine.

I know I’m not the only magician to go through that phase. It seems to hit when you’re around 25-27, coinciding with the Saturn Return, when Saturn returns to the same place in the heavens that it was when you were born. Your old boundaries of life are shaken away, and you set the stage for the next 25 years or so of your life. It can be emotionally violent. It’s a death and rebirth of sorts, but in a spiritual way.

You realize that mommy and daddy, or whoever raised you, aren’t going to be there for you forever, and you have to face the fact that your life, for the rest of your life, is what you make of it. All you can control is your own actions, and how you react to others. Faced with this awareness of our own relative powerlessness, some folks decide to end the world as we know it. Kinda selfish, in my opinion, but I was there.

It doesn’t work. Most folks who do this have nothing happen. Some folks go insane, I’ve been told. I don’t know anyone personally that went over the edge, but people I trust assure me that they know folks who ended up in the looney bin after this kind of thing. I’m sure a bit of googlemancy could turn up a couple hundred examples of people who are convinced they’ve ended the world, started the apocalypse, or done some kind of insane crap. One guy on OccultForums was convinced he was literally killing the archangels of the spheres of the Sephiroth, and literally destroying the “real” Tree of Life.

Anyway, what’s likely going to happen to Dude is he’s going to instigate more fallout from his Saturn Return, and will end up going through his own personal apocalypse. Which might be good for him, I don’t know. I know the introduction to the HGA can be a lot like that, so maybe his HGA is getting him ready for the next level.

Regardless, if he kills himself, I WILL bind his spirit into a little pot (shown right; your spirit’s home for at least the rest of my life, and I’ll likely pass you on to some other magician when I die too) and roast it slowly over coals for not listening to me. And then I’ll use him as a spirit bitch and force him to do really nasty stuff, like clean out Cthulhu’s fat rolls.

(Note, I got that badass picture up there from this web site: http://civilizer.wordpress.com/2007/11/26/yet-another-award-for-bill-belichick/)

Words words words. I just deleted a huge old long post about how I’ve slipped in my Work, and replaced the Great Work with Working for money. After a lengthy discussion on sin, repentance, and how that works as a magician, after detailing out plans to get right with God through magic and balancing out my spheres with rituals, I had to face something uncomfortable. The only reason I wanted to get right with God was still so that I could get the money.

What a pain in the ass.

How do you kill the Golden Calf? How do you stop lusting for results, if you’re only trying to stop lusting for results to get the results you lust after?

It’s totally absurd. I can’t stop wanting money. It’s good stuff. It buys good stuff. It solves a myraid of problems. Instead of turning away from wanting money, I’ve got to find a way to focus instead on the Great Work and getting money. I have to get in harmony. Integrate the passions for payola with the passions for God. To celebrate God in money, because it is, after all, an emanation from him as much as anything else is. It is what it is.

So, fuck it. Back to Bune. He’s always pulled my fat out of the fire. I’ll let him take care of the money, and I’ll just go back to focusing on the Great Work. I’ll just quit spending the money I get from my magic on stupid shit. Be fiscally responsible. I’ll Work with Tzadqiel on that aspect of my spheres, because as long as I’m being irresponsible, no amount of funding that irresponsibility will result in Wealth. But I still need the money to get out of the hole I’m in. Ignoring that would be pretty stupid. Sure, I’ll start by cutting back expenses, going through the steps that all the financial gurus say to do (which is basically spend less than you earn, frickin’ duh), but when it comes to generating the wealth, I’m still going to stick with the spirits.

I swear to god, I’m sick of the ones that are convinced that they are ready, able, and willing to do the Work, but on their terms.

IF you are redefining a system of Conjuration revealed to magicians in the 15th century, AND IF you have NEVER conjured any of the spirits from said system using the system as defined, not even to the best of your abilities:

Your Work is a Work of PRIDE. You’re off your rocker. Get a clue.

IF you are redefining a system of Initation and Attainment developed in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, yet have NEVER been initiated into either the line you’re “reforming” or its offshoot that rhymes with BoTeeOh, THEN you too are full of shit.

If in order for you to begin to explain the merits of your system, you must first make up lies about initiations into ceremonies that you have not participated in, your system is worthless.

But not only that, you fucking idiot, you’ve put yourself in the running with people who actually know what they’re doing. You think Crowley’s sitting in the City of Pyramids next to Christ and Buddha, and now all of a sudden he’s beyond sending the Spirit of the Planet Mercury to confound and conflagrat you? Bullshit! He’s got a better line with him.

If any of this shit above describes you, you’re nothing but a bald monkey jumping in the middle of a stampede. And I’d like to take a moment to remind bald monkeys what the fuck happens when you fucking jump in the middle of a fucking stampede. See below. And if you’re interrupting magicians that have a couple tons of momentum behind them barreling their way towards a goal you can’t imagine, expect at LEAST what this guy got as you’re tossed to the side.

Oh, for Christ’s sake.

Remember dude I mentioned that wanted to be a Moonchild? I got that all wrong. He corrected me. Seems they weren’t trying to be Moonchildren at all. Oh no, nothing so puerile, he assured me. No, these two geniuses were trying to start the Apocalypse!!! The end of the WORLD!!! For Serious.

Because, you know, they were bored.

Wait for it…

Wait for it….

Give me a fucking break! “I’m bored, let’s end the world.” Where’s my clue by four? Of all the spoiled, self-centered, obnoxious, stupid, conceited, childish… no, not even childish, just damned bratty things I’ve ever seen… This takes the fucking cake. Hell, it takes the whole party.

We were talking on a list about how omnipotence would lead to boredom. I mentioned that when I get bored, I meditate on the axiom “Only boring people get bored.” I also mentioned that any being that didn’t have the power to have entertain themselves wasn’t omnipotent.

This is a beautiful world, full of beautiful things and beautiful people, and it’s a great awesome expanse of things to do. The world is your oyster. There’s nothing you can imagine that you can’t accomplish.

Want to throw fireballs? Kathy, physics major, wastewater engineer, and author of the “My Gal” blog has the trick. It involves explosives, spark plugs, and pumpkins. Cheating? Yeah, that’s what I said, but frickin’ fun.

Want to own your own island? Get a job, save money, get your credit fixed, buy cheap properties in the slummy parts of town, rent them out, use the rental as income to qualify for more loans, get more properties, sit on them for a while, and then sell them when you’ve got them all paid half off or so. Move to Florida. There are Keys that no one lives on. Build a house. Include a Hurricane Shelter. Don’t forget a boat for supplies.

Want to be Donald Trump? Do what he did. Want to be a famous occult author like Jason Miller, Lon DuQuette, Sam Webster, or MacGregor Mathers? Do it. It’s your life. You get what you work for. You start where you’re at, you plan a path to what you want, and you do it. Fuck. It ain’t rocket science.

“I’m Bored.” Fuck you. Get some fucking balls. Grow the fuck up. The world ain’t going to sit around and come up with things to entertain you, you self-centered piece of shit. Get off your ass and do something. Get a fucking job already. And brush your god damned teeth. Your breath fucking stinks.

So tonight my son, who is turning seven next month, expressed his concern that in his school’s winter program, they are singing songs about Hanukkah, Kwanzaa, and some other stuff about winter, but there are no Christian or traditional Christmas songs celebrating Christmas specifically. I didn’t bring it up, his mother didn’t bring it up, he did. He figured it out on his own that his beliefs and experiences weren’t being represented. He feels cheated. He doesn’t want to participate.

He’s got a strong sense of justice and righteousness. He’s a Scorpio, and a little genius. He’s not opposed to singing the other songs, he just wants his beliefs represented too. He wants it to be fair.

As a Christian Magician, I know how he feels. Most of my friends and colleagues are pagan liberals. I’m a moderate Christian, with decidedly non-mainstream interpretations of what it means to be a Christian, but I get the blow-off from other magicians more frequently than I should. I understand why; Christianity has done wrongs in the name of Christ for thousands of years, and is chock full of disgusting loud-mouthed opinionated bigoted hypocrites. People have been hurt by people in the name of Christ, and it didn’t just happen hundreds of years ago, it’s happening right now as I type this, somewhere in the middle of America.

It’s not fair though. People desperately demanding equal rights don’t give them. People demanding “justice” don’t want the scales even, they want them in their favor. They don’t see their own hypocrisy. No one ever does.I want people to overlook the wrongs other people have done in the name of Christ and see what I’m saying and judge it on its own merits. I try to do that with others. I fail sometimes, but I at least try.

I want $7 Million Dollars, too.

I expect to get the money before I see non-Christians treat Christians with the respect they expect.

So my son wants to opt out of the Winter Holiday recital. We sent an email to the music teacher to get a list of the songs being sung, so that we can see if there’s something in there that represents his beliefs that he doesn’t recognize as traditionally Christian or Christmas-ey. We haven’t been to church in a year or so, he might just not recognize the songs as Christian. I’ll feel pretty lousy if that’s the case. I want him to participate with his friends and not to feel like an outcast because of his beliefs, if possible.

If the school is presenting religious songs and excluding Christianity, I’ll stamp my feet and raise a stink. If it’s a secular Program, then I’ll explain the separation of Church and State to my son as best I can, and see if he wants to participate. If he still feels morally, ethically, or just plain old conscientiously unable to perform in it, then I’ll support him in his determination. Hell, he’s so stubborn he’d probably go but just stand there and not sing if I tried to make him anyway. He’s nobody’s fool.

But I do expect to find out that Hanukkah and Kwanzaa are represented while Christianity is left out. I expect that all mention of the word “Christmas” will be verboten because it dares to have “Christ” in it. I expect my son to learn that his beliefs will, at times, leave him ostracized, pushed to the side, and treated disrespectfully. That saddens me, but I’m pragmatic and know he’ll learn it anyway.

But I am totally and completely proud that he is willing to take the ostracism and stand by his convictions. That rocks.

Mike Rock’s recent blog post is a must-see.

http://blog.mike-rock.com/2008/10/make-mine-freedom.html

Mike Rock’s recent blog post is a must-see.

http://blog.mike-rock.com/2008/10/make-mine-freedom.html