Tag: RO’s Musings

Tag: RO’s Musings

  • Bored Magi

    I have come to believe that there is nothing more dangerous than a bored magician.

    Some people get bored and torture their victims, like a cat toying with a mouse that was unlucky enough to catch its mercurial attention. Some people sit back and mock others. Some people take their boredom and invest it in whatever madness they’ve been keeping on the back burner for just such an occasion.

    On the whole, I’d say those who toy with others are probably the safest of the bunch. I’m in the camp of “let’s make things interesting,” and that usually means conjuring something I haven’t before, or making some magical craft in the Lab. The gold-painted Sculpey Seal of Bune was probably the least dangerous, and most amusing.


    The Crystal Skull was less amusing, but more interesting. The Spirit Pot has been the most profitable and has provided the most long-term fun.

    I also use this forum to discuss things that are on my mind, like Bored Magi. 

    I’m not saying I don’t toy with people on message boards when I’m bored, or that I don’t mock people. I’m probably the worst offender when it comes to that.

    That’s dangerous though. I’ve been reading Patrick Dunn’s latest book, and I’m only on the intro where he talks about the possible etymology of the word “ABRACADABRA.” One possible original meaning is “I create as I speak.” This is the epitome of what I practice as a magician. Made in the image of God who created through Logos, the Word, and created to continue this Work in the world around me.

    When we speak, as magicians, we are changing the world. Everyone does it, but I think magicians have a little more power behind their words as a result of their closer-ness to the Source of our being. Watching what we say is important. I called someone an “unmedicated bipolar” person on a list today. I don’t know if that’s what they are or not, but I wouldn’t be surprised to find out later that I was right. Did I seal it into being by saying it, or was I just commenting on what was apparent already? Does it matter?

    I don’t know. On the one hand there’s the real possibility of megalomania. On the other, there’s the real possibility that everything we speak into being does come into being. Maybe not EVERYTHING, but … still. Better safe than sorry, I suppose.

    So my advice to anyone else and especially myself is to think before you speak, and speak proactively. Have a list of good things to say, not like affirmations, but as alternate text to put forward when confronted with a situation that you could make worse.

    I’ll get started on mine.

  • Bored Magi

    I have come to believe that there is nothing more dangerous than a bored magician.

    Some people get bored and torture their victims, like a cat toying with a mouse that was unlucky enough to catch its mercurial attention. Some people sit back and mock others. Some people take their boredom and invest it in whatever madness they’ve been keeping on the back burner for just such an occasion.

    On the whole, I’d say those who toy with others are probably the safest of the bunch. I’m in the camp of “let’s make things interesting,” and that usually means conjuring something I haven’t before, or making some magical craft in the Lab. The gold-painted Sculpey Seal of Bune was probably the least dangerous, and most amusing.


    The Crystal Skull was less amusing, but more interesting. The Spirit Pot has been the most profitable and has provided the most long-term fun.

    I also use this forum to discuss things that are on my mind, like Bored Magi. 

    I’m not saying I don’t toy with people on message boards when I’m bored, or that I don’t mock people. I’m probably the worst offender when it comes to that.

    That’s dangerous though. I’ve been reading Patrick Dunn’s latest book, and I’m only on the intro where he talks about the possible etymology of the word “ABRACADABRA.” One possible original meaning is “I create as I speak.” This is the epitome of what I practice as a magician. Made in the image of God who created through Logos, the Word, and created to continue this Work in the world around me.

    When we speak, as magicians, we are changing the world. Everyone does it, but I think magicians have a little more power behind their words as a result of their closer-ness to the Source of our being. Watching what we say is important. I called someone an “unmedicated bipolar” person on a list today. I don’t know if that’s what they are or not, but I wouldn’t be surprised to find out later that I was right. Did I seal it into being by saying it, or was I just commenting on what was apparent already? Does it matter?

    I don’t know. On the one hand there’s the real possibility of megalomania. On the other, there’s the real possibility that everything we speak into being does come into being. Maybe not EVERYTHING, but … still. Better safe than sorry, I suppose.

    So my advice to anyone else and especially myself is to think before you speak, and speak proactively. Have a list of good things to say, not like affirmations, but as alternate text to put forward when confronted with a situation that you could make worse.

    I’ll get started on mine.

  • The Puppet Masters

    Fellow blogger and general gadabout E. Keith Boyne tipped me off to this cool service called “WOWIO.” You may have already known about it, but it’s free books, legally. You can read them with a web browser. I read The Puppet Masters by Heinlein the other day. Today I’m going to delve into something about the relationship with my HGA, and I’ll be using that story to illustrate my points. Click the title to read the story if you want more context for the post. It’s relatively short, and Heinlein writes easy.

    Ok, so the story line is this: aliens invade and take over people, riding them like mules, only without consent. Being a Heinlein novel, it’s fairly sexist, but with an eye towards radical femininism (no, not feminism; there’s a difference). He’s always got the hero metamorphisizing from an observant, pragmatic, but weak underling into a Juggernaut of right action. There’s always a Father Figure who oversees the initiations and development of the hero, and when the metamorphosis occurs, it is the Father Fgure usually who identifies it and acknowledges it. In this story, it takes the Father Figure to point out to the Hero that the metamorphosis had even occurred.

    Metamorphosis. It’s one of the first five-dollar words they teach kids. They come home and carefully pronounce it and tell you about pupa (poo-pa-… and much giggling ensues), and crsya-crysa-chrysalises. Their eager faces are thrilled, and they can hardly belive what they learned themselves. And they crown it off with the shining medallion, “That’s Me-ta-mor-pho-sis.”

    How important is progressive metamorphosis to us as spiritual beings if even the secular atheist scientists that design the school curriculum insist on teaching that big old word so young? They don’t teach a-biogenesis first, even though you’d think that was more important since life supposedly sprang from not-life. No, they start with metamorphosis. It’s something the kids understand and have experienced, and it sets the scene for what’s to come. It’s also the fundamental process of Natural Law.

    In our relationships with our HGA, a spiritual metamorphosis is going on. We start out like the main character in the Puppet Masters. He’s a servant of a shadowy intelligence gathering organization that reports directly to the President. An agent. He takes orders and does his job. The details of his life are foggy, as he shifts from identity to identity with each passing job. He can’t even remember what he originally looked like. He goes by Sam, the name his boss gives him for most of the book. Much later we learn his name was “really” Elihu, although he ultimately becomes Sam.

    As we get to know our HGA, we go through some shit. Not pleasant and happy shit. In the story, the shit was the aliens. They were basically a goo that attached to the back of a human and took over through the nervous system. They made the host totally submissive, and thoughts from the entities seemed like their own thoughts, and were obeyed without question.

    That’s us. We’re ridden by our nepheshim. It’s the Master that must be obeyed, no matter what. The HGA comes along and tells us that we’re slaves, and we can be reborn as free men, if we’re willing to overthrow the Master and take control ourselves. And he helps us get there.

    Fast forward over a lot of important stuff, and you’ve recognized the problem, and learned a lot about the enemy, and you’ve got some good ideas about fixing it. The people around you are jabbering away about shit, and not doing what has become obvious to you as a result of your experiences with the HGA. You stand up in a moment of frustration and say the obvious, and all eyes turn to you. You’ve solved the problem, and not only that, something else has changed.

    In the story line, the Hero hits this point and the Old Man steps aside, and hands the mantle of authority to the younger man. He recognizes that he has been replaced in the leadership role of the battle when Sam comes up with a brilliant solution to the problem while he stood there unable to do it himself.

    Sam had no clue, and didn’t want the responsibility, but at that point it was too late. The Old Man knows when the time has come to pass on the crown, as it were.

    In our relationship with the HGA, I think we go through similar stages. In the beginning, we get awoken by the HGA. We’re basically trying our best to stumble around after its voice, like walking in someone else’s house at night trying to find the bathroom. Eventually we learn to see, and can guide ourselves without bashing our shins on the coffee tables. The HGA teaches us, trains us, and tunes us to the frequencies of the higher spheres. It paves the way upwards, gets you in good with the other angels, and even watches your ass when the demons come prowling.

    Then, when you’re ready, it steps out of the way and demonstrates that you’re the one who is the Man, made in God’s Image to be a cohort and friend.

    Metamorphosis. Progressive sanctification. Transformation. Trans-Abyssal Technologies. Living in the knowledge of who you are and what you are. Contemplating your (divine) Race and (eternal) Value.

    And then Returning to the Earth in Great Power, as the Emerald Tablet says. Me, I try to exist at the fulcrum between the macrocosm and the microcosm, and then go to whichever end of the “lever” I need to at the moment. I suspect a Buddhist may posit that there is no fulcrum, no lever, and no macro to this micro -cosm.

    Which is one of the many reasons I’m not a Buddhist. I’ve seen behind the illusions, yet the illusions remain… AS IF THEY SERVED A PURPOSE. And me, I’ve found that purpose through my Work with my HGA. It’s still being refined, metamorphing into what it will become, and that’s alright with me.

  • Witchdoctor Joe and St. Faust

    I had the fortune of meeting Witchdoctor Joe on a Fresno Magical list run by Frater Bone Head, also known as Fr. POS, who authors the “Doing Magic” blog. Joe’s a former Native American pipe carrier, a Wiccan-ish guy, and he’s got an interest in the occult in general. He’s been blogging about the tarot lately, and I love his style. Some people write information using words, and others tell stories. Joe is definitely a story teller.

    For those interested, his blog is here:

    http://witchdoctorjoe.blogspot.com/

    St. Faust is a peculiar breed of magician, the likes of which I’ve never run into before. His primary focus was chaos magic for a while, but it seems not to have driven him completely mad. He’s the one who tipped me off to the Coyote aspects of Tezcatlipoca. I find his perspective on things to be very interesting.

    For those interested, his blog is here:

    http://vonfaustus.blogspot.com/

  • Witchdoctor Joe and St. Faust

    I had the fortune of meeting Witchdoctor Joe on a Fresno Magical list run by Frater Bone Head, also known as Fr. POS, who authors the “Doing Magic” blog. Joe’s a former Native American pipe carrier, a Wiccan-ish guy, and he’s got an interest in the occult in general. He’s been blogging about the tarot lately, and I love his style. Some people write information using words, and others tell stories. Joe is definitely a story teller.

    For those interested, his blog is here:

    http://witchdoctorjoe.blogspot.com/

    St. Faust is a peculiar breed of magician, the likes of which I’ve never run into before. His primary focus was chaos magic for a while, but it seems not to have driven him completely mad. He’s the one who tipped me off to the Coyote aspects of Tezcatlipoca. I find his perspective on things to be very interesting.

    For those interested, his blog is here:

    http://vonfaustus.blogspot.com/

  • And he will not let any word fall to the ground…

    In keeping with the theme from yesterday, I’d like to talk about one of the things I muse about. Why my magic is more successful than other people’s.

    I know, it sounds damned conceited. It’s not my fault. Everything I’ve tried to do with magic has had some kind of result. I read on message boards that people have done magic and had “no result,” and either I’m special, or they’re doing something differently. (“Differently” is a nice way for me to say they’re doing it wrong, but I’m really trying to be nice because I pissed people off with the Fuck George Carlin post. Those sensitive little [expletives deleted] mean a lot to me.)

    Please note, I’m NOT referencing Jason’s blog or experiences any more in this post. He just got this thought train aimed in the direction it’s going in. I’m not saying my magic is better than Jason’s, and I want to make sure that’s not how this comes across. He’s got a lot more experience and successes under his belt than I do, and I’ve got nothing but respect for him.

    Yesterday I touched on one aspect of why I don’t consider a ritual complete until I’ve succeeded, and how that makes for fewer “failures,” per se, but today I’d like to point out something else that can make some folks uncomfortable. But don’t freak out.

    One of the things that makes my magic so effective, in my own most humble opinion, is that I am a Christian magician. Most of the Magic I do is based on some form of the Christian Neoplatonic systems that Agrippa recorded in his Three Books of Occult Philosophy. That makes it pretty easy. I also have several assurances from God, the ultimate creator of the physical and spiritual spheres, that I don’t have to worry about making my magic work; he does it for me.

    And the thing is, he does it for everyone, every human being made in his image, if that person wants him to. Just get to now God a bit, spend time in his presence. Feel him, know that you are his child, an emanation from him in his own image, created to spend eternity with. Remember your race and your value to God. It’s worth the time spent.

    And don’t worry about Christianity or Judaism, or Zen states, just pour your heart out into meeting your Source, your Creator, the Prime Mover, the All-Seeing eye, whatever. Get to know him, and let him guide you. He’ll guide you to your HGA, he’ll guide you to the things you have to do before you die. He’s totally cool to hang out with. He never eats all the Cheetos.

    And he won’t let any word fall to the ground without it bearing much fruit. He tells the seeds to bloom, sort of, indirectly, and he makes sure that your words will bear much fruit too.

    Oh yeah, He expects you to think before you say stupid shit.

  • A Week-Long Walk

    Ahh, the waxing moon. Maybe I’m just superstitious, I don’t know, but I certainly do feel better in general. With Mercury going Direct in the same week, I feel pretty good about things in general.

    This week, I plan to work with each of the archangels of the planets in their appropriate hour on their appropriate day. The goal is to achieve better balance and integration of the energies of the spheres. I’ve spent the last month or so obsessing with Jupiter and its denizens in the different worlds, and I got to a point where everything I saw was related to money. I’m pretty sure my pupils had become dollar signs.

    Many thanks to the people who have pointed this annoying trait out to me. The point of my work is to head towards the Red Work after all. So to get myself back on track, I’ve embarked on this particular course of action. I began Friday with a discussion with my HGA, and then last night worked with Tzaphkiel to integrate the energies of Saturn into my sphere. Later today I’ll be working with Michael to integrate the energies of the Sun.

    This week, expect to see posts of the results of my Works.

  • Ex Drama, Mortis


    Out of the Drama, Death.

    Ok, I’m not a Latin scholar. Canum Latinum, that’s the best I can do with my current skill sets. Maybe Ill get the Rosetta stone software for Latin. In the mean time…

    Out of Drama, Death.

    So I went from being bored with lists to starting shit on them. I got a moderator warning. And the mod totally likes me, too. She’s put up with my shit for years, and when I get a mod warning from her, I know it’s usually warranted. So I check myself.

    This time, I was already aware that something was off, but I hadn’t really done anything about it. Do you get like that? You know there’s something “off” in your sphere or alembic or whatever your metaphor for your spiritual existence, but you don’t bother with figuring out what it is right away because your really just don’t feel like it?

    That happens to me more often than I like. So what’s going on? I haven’t done anything lately that I don’t usually do. I’ve been slipping in my ascension through the spheres. There’s been nothing new to report in any of the spheres for months, it seems. Like I ask the archangel of the sphere if there’s anything I need to work on, and it’s like, no, and I’m all, thanks, please continue to integrate the forces of your sphere into mine, and he’s like, yeah ok, and I’m off to the next sphere. Same old same old.

    Plus there’s been a slew of 12-year-olds in the house for the last month as my daughter has started making friends around here after a year. They’re fun, alive, full of life and potential, and annoying as shit. AND they eat a lot. I can’t keep a bag of cheesy poofs around to save my life.

    I spent a couple of weeks fixing my spirit pot with Venus-based herbs. Bune’s been enjoying it, and I have an opportunity to double my income that manifested a couple days after adjusting the contents of the pot.

    I’ve also been developing an interest in crystal skulls. More on that in a bit.

    Let’s see, there’s been a horrible astrological conjunction for the last couple of weeks too. Saturn and Mars have been conjunct in Virgo for a while. That’s a lot of heavy, malefic energy pouring down on us. Venus and Mercury have been combust as well.

    So basically, I’m just hitting a “plateau.” You know, like a mountain, but with a flat top. It goes from a steep climb that takes a lot f focus to a flat, plain expanse that doesn’t take hardly any effort to traverse, and nothing really happens. You can see for miles if anything’s approaching, and… it can be rather boring if you’re more interested in climbing.

    The maintenance phase of the Work in between the times when you do something major are like plateaus. Lots of magicians stop at a plateau. The daily grind distracts them from the Work because nothing’s really going on, and they get frustrated, so they start making drama for themselves to have something interesting going on.

    And that’s what I’ve been doing. The way I see it, creating drama is a negative means of providing entertainment. It doesn’t get me closer to God. I don’t find myself sharing anything particularly useful to anyone by being a contentious bitch. I’m not putting my energies into purifying anything by starting shit on lists, that’s for sure.

    So after taking a quick inventory, I changed tactics. Instead of just starting shit, I decided to actually talk about things of substance. Instead of grumping around, I’ve found an interesting side project to occupy my time. It doesn’t take any specialized knowledge that I haven’t already got, it’s just putting the techniques I’ve developed to date into practice in another realm. I’m monitoring my internal feelings too, to see how I’m doing, and why I might be feeling pissy in each moment that I feel pissy. It’s been an interesting exercise so far, and I’ve only been doing it for a day.

    It boils down to reacting to how I feel vs. creating a scene that makes me feel a particular way. I don’t like being a bitchy magician. I don’t like it a bit. So I seek my pleasure, and that comes from being what I really am, a manifestation of God, taking part in the creation of the World. It’s a great attitude adjustment. Remembering your race and value, that you are of the divine Race (REGARDLESS OF SKIN COLOR), and your Value is determined by whether you’re actively participating in Creation or not.

    So out of Drama, Death. Death is change, mortification, decomposition, and breaking down the useless shells into something fecund, nutrient-rich, and pathogen free that will make the flowers grow. Or the Oak, or the corn, or whatever you plant in it. Even a Rose. The bitchy pissy magician must die, be digested, and refined for the next stage of the Work.

  • 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.

  • Sometimes the Magic Works…

    Jason Miller’s got a neat post about his recent experiences with St. Expedite. One of the things that caught my interest is that in his blog post, Jason mentions that he suspected the work was failing when it began to seem like he had been hit with a prosperity spell. He says:

    I had all the signs of a prosperity spell being cast on myself, which could mean one of two things:

    1. Just from working with that kind of mojo, I picked up some good juju.

    or, more likely…

    2. The Saint could not accomplish his task so all the energy was just zinging around like a stream of water hitting a wall.

    I haven’t had anything like that happen, and I’m jealous. I want a ritual to not work and result in me getting prosperity too! Is that so wrong?

    I don’t know of any rituals I’ve done that haven’t worked. Lots haven’t worked the way I expected at all, but I’ve always had some kind of result. Sometimes they try, but the spirits just aren’t of the proper type to address the problem you sent it to deal with. Some Venus spirits are great at delivering riches. Others are not. Haniel won’t necessarily make you rich, but if you try and it fails, you can ask him which Venus spirits would be better for this kind of thing.

    Maybe my problem is that I don’t think of that as a failed ritual. I consider it an incomplete ritual. Every rite I’ve done has lead me to new rites, and a single ritual rapidly becomes an ongoing project, like the Bune spirit pot thing.