Rufus Opus

Tag: RufusAstraCheck

Tag: RufusAstraCheck

  • The Great Work in Theory and Practice

    Well, today the Great Work died.

    Not the real Great Work, I’m talking about the Yahoo group. It’s been on its death bed for a while, but it was fun, nevertheless, to visit. Sometimes it would sit up in its hospice bed and talk about magic, or the “good old days,” or have pieces of wisdom to pass on.

    Today I woke up and went over recent messages from the group, and as usual there was little to do with the Great Work. There was an interesting thread on politics though. Obama and McCain. Both of the Moderators are Obama supporters, but one of them, “ILV” is a little more … bombastic and caustic in his support of Obama.

    Someone stated her reasons for supporting McCain after ILV asked, and like a rabid dog, ILV attacked her mercilessly, claiming she had no ethics, was racist, and so forth and so on. The last thing he had to say about the subject was an insult to her, saying he should know better than to engage in a battle of wits with the unarmed. That kind of arrogance was completely uncalled for and way over the top.

    I know the woman he attacked. Not personally or anything, but from other groups. She’s not as eloquent and trained in classical rhetoric as ILV is, but she’s a damned fine magician whose wit is proved in her Work, not her Words. Her ethnic heritage is racially diverse, to say the least. She’s had a shitty life. She’s had a run of really bad luck. Yet she still takes care of the oppressed. She’s a New Age spiritual healer and teacher, and she travels around the world performing exorcisms for people. She doesn’t get paid much for her services, and she’s downright poor. She really does it to help people. I don’t think she’s got everything 100% correct in her spiritual cosmology, but I know I don’t know everything either. It’s her heart for people that I admire. That’s the fruit of the seeds of the Great Work in action. You can visit her web site at www.astralhealer.com.

    She’s not a Christian, as far as I know. This isn’t solidarity with Christians or anything like that. And it’s not worldly politics either. I don’t like what McCain has become this year. It’s like he gave up the straight talk and hard-line moderate-centrist stance he had in 2000 just so he can win. ILV pointed that out, and he’s right about that. If I bother to vote (I agree with the global view that the puppet on the left and the puppet on the right are on different hands of the same puppeteer), then it will be for McCain in hopes that after he gets in office, he’ll go back to being the maverick he was before. But that’s if I bother, and that’s not likely. If I really cared about politics, I’d go to the spirits that run the world, like John Dee did.

    I left the group today because its leadership, the co-moderator ILV, acted like an asshole. I’ve talked with him off-list, and he’s a good person at heart. He’s a trained magician, and has a great deal of information to provide. He’s really smart too. But in his interactions yesterday with list members, he demonstrated a lack of objectivity, tolerance, and respect that is required to be a leader of diverse people.

    Obama spent twenty years in a church that taught hatred. He voted with his presence and his finances in support of that church, and as a Senator, he sanctioned the teachings of his preacher by belonging to the church. He should have, as a responsible leader, recognized that the hatred being taught was unacceptable from any race. The fact that he didn’t until it threatened his ambitions is sufficient for me to realize his “hope” and “change” rhetoric is only skin deep, but his ambition goes all the way to the bone.

    Me, I don’t sanction the leadership of the “Great Work” group anymore. Scarlet, the list owner, is too busy to monitor it herself. She’s not to blame here, except in her support of ILV as a co-moderator. I left another group she started and co-mods with ILV as well, Spirit_Summoning. Mostly for dramatic effect, as he didn’t have much to say there, but also for the principle. She killed the thread and the topic as soon as she became aware of it. She’s a good moderator, and this isn’t about her at all, beyond the fact that she kept ILV as co-moderator.

    Part of it is for the current drama, to have a chance to make a stand that is somewhat meaningful. Part of it is old-fashioned revenge. I was co-moderator of the Great Work list for a while, but then I went off on a caustic and vitriolic attack on ILV when he started acting like the veteran of Golden Dawn egroups that he is. I got reprimanded, demoted, and put on probation. I deserved it. I wasn’t living up to the responsibilities of being a moderator for a diverse group of people. I didn’t behave the way a moderator ought to. Now ILV has fallen into the same trap I did, and I get to raise a stink over it. Yay for me!

    The truth though, if I’m being really honest, is that I’ve lost interest in the droning of magicians who treat magic like a religion, with doctrines and dogma, but don’t use it in their lives. The Great Work list was intended to be a place where pursuants of the Work could discuss the Work. It’s become a place where believers in magic talk about stuff. That’s fine if that’s what you want, but it used to be the place I learned some very basic key concepts about the Great Work that lead me to where I’m at today. That group died to me today. (“You’re dead to me! Dead!”)

    I’m considering starting a list for people to talk about doing magic(k). Something interesting to me, something that can challenge me to do more and be more. Something like Agrippa’s Magic in a Modern Age, or Traditional Techniques for Modern Magicians. Somewhere to talk about how we apply the teachings from the old grimoires in a modern context, without worrying so much about trying to pretend like we live in the 15th century. If I do, I’ll announce it here.

    Oh, and tomorrow, look for the “how to get rich using magic” post. Or Thursday, if I don’t finish writing it today.

    Hope all my American readers had a great Labor Day yesterday. Mine rocked.

  • My Man Sense is Tingling

    Cool pic, eh? Any mechanical engineers reading this spot the problem with any gear set up like this?

    I was just thinking about how sometimes a woman will make a suggestion about something that a man would never even consider. It happens a lot in my work. the Department Heads are mostly white males. They can’t do anything but guide others in their work. Literally, they can’t. They can barely work their email and blackberries most of the time. Most of them have assistants that schedule all their meetings.

    It’s the mid-level management that is chock fulll of women. They have this intuitive grasp of how things need to work. In my career, I’ve found that there were many times that I wouldn’t know the details of a situation, but I had a pretty good grasp of the situation in hand. I made some decisions, set the ball in motion, and then talked to a woman about it. “But isn’t this, this, and this true?” she would say. “Hmmm…. yes….” I would reply, realizing that I had just screwed up.

    The simple fact is that women have this ability to know things. They don’t communicate it well to men, usually because men and women have different ways of looking at things. That is the main problem between the sexes. Clear communication.

    But I’ve developed this sense about things. There are times now in my life where a woman will be telling me that I’m wrong about something, and they’ll have all these reasons to prove their point, but they just don’t add up to me. It’s like they’re using words I use in completely sideways ways.

    But there’s this feeling I get around my right shoulder blade. Sort of an extension of the heart chakra, or maybe (this just occurred to me) it’s where God took the rib. I call it my Man Sense. It gets warm when a woman is correcting me, and I don’t know why she’s right, but she is anyway. I’ve learned to trust this feeling. It guides me, and it improves my performance.

    Men and women are complimentary. We are different in design, function, interpretation, and approach. These differences have caused countless clashes, but they are supposed to be there so we can understand this world we live in better, and do our jobs right while we’re here.

    Men, learn to use your man sense. Next time you’re frustrated with a woman who’s babbling on about why you’re an idiot, instead of arguing check your man sense. Is she right? If so just accept it and move on. You don’t have to understand why she’s right. You possibly never will. Even if you do, it won’t change the fact that you’ll be doing the same thing regardless of your understanding. If you want to bend your brain into feminine angles, go ahead, by all means. But me, I just trust the man sense.

  • Calculating Goet

    Bokonon23 left a comment that he wanted to know more about calculating the correct correspondences for Goetic entities, so here’s a little more detail on the subject.

    I used 777, the correspondence chart developed by Aleister Crowley (from Alan Bennet’s notes, probably) when he was still a member in good standing in the Golden Dawn. This correspondence chart was published in 1909, and reflects the Golden Dawn attributions to magickal subjects.

    To use 777 effectively, you must understand how information is presented in a spreadsheet or table. “Columns” are the vertical data sets, and “Rows” are the horizontal data sets. The first column is the “key scale,” the number that will provide the common reference point for all other columns of data in the table. There are 35 rows of data, and 183 columns of corresponding attributes, items, angels, god names, goetic entities, plants, perfumes, etc. This compendium of information is extremely useful to magicians of all types.

    To find the correspondences of a particular Goetic entity, first find the entity in the columns of goetic spirits (Columns CLV-CLXV, or pages 27-28 [printed page numbers] / 36-37 [pdf page numbers]). Bune/Bime is found to correspond to Key Scale 25.

    Knowing the spirit is associated with Key Scale 25, I then went through the other columns in the table to get an idea of what correspondences related to Bune. All the information in the row labeled 25 had some relation to Bune. Since I was making a physical pot, I paid special attention to the physical items associated with Key Scale 25, the plants, the incenses, and the magickal weapon. I also checked the color charts for selecting the appropriate colored candles to use as offerings for the spirit. Since I am primarily interested in physical results, I used the color charts associated with the material realm, Assiah, which is called the Empress Scale in the Golden Dawn.

  • You can do magic

    Morning, folks. Just a reminder… this blog is for you to learn to accomplish the Great Work. I like to try to make money off it sometimes, because it’s fun. Money is a marker system, keeping track of time and worth and value and everything like that. It’s fun to use it as a mundane scorecard for my magical Work. Not that you have to be rich to be successful, I’m just saying. It’s fun. For me. When I’m winning. It sucks when I’ve let things slip, but it’s always recoverable. So far. Your mileage may vary.

    But what’s even more fun for me is when I get emails or comments about how people are using the experiences I’ve had to further their own Work. I’m trying to show people that magic is relatively easy. Any bumbling bafoon can do it. EVEN ME. You don’t have to be a highly skilled artist to do this stuff. Your Work can look ugly. Ugly works too.

    Looking at the requirements of making all the stuff you need to do magic “by the book” is intimidating. But if you’re willing to experiment, and keep some basic safety mechanisms in place, your experiments won’t be any more dangerous than any other mad scientist on your block. And you’ll have invisible forces helping you, grateful that you’re putting them to work.

    And let’s face it folks, the Spirits are a lot more forgiving and flexible than we like to pretend. If you don’t have silver, draw a Moon Talisman on a blank piece of paper. You can consecrate it to the Moon by drawing her planetary sigils around the border if you like. The spirits will work with that. Wands and Daggers and Cups and Disks are fun to collect. Planetary talismans are fun to make. But they aren’t the magic. They aren’t required to do the magic. What’s required ultimately from any magician is little more than a pen and paper and a whole lot of ambition. Aim for God, and if you only come close, hell, you’ve come a long way.

    The other day someone sent me an overview of what they’re working on, a bit of their setup, and they talked about a technique they’re developing to cast silver. It looks really interesting, and I can’t wait to see his work. Awesome stuff. Made me feel really good, because one of the reasons I talk so much about how to do stuff is to get people doing it. Finding other magical crafters is fun. So if anyone else has any special neat tricks they’re working on to produce some powerful artifacts, feel free to let me know. Heck, start a blog about it and email me a link. I’ll publicize you to the fullest extent of my abilities.

  • You can do magic

    Morning, folks. Just a reminder… this blog is for you to learn to accomplish the Great Work. I like to try to make money off it sometimes, because it’s fun. Money is a marker system, keeping track of time and worth and value and everything like that. It’s fun to use it as a mundane scorecard for my magical Work. Not that you have to be rich to be successful, I’m just saying. It’s fun. For me. When I’m winning. It sucks when I’ve let things slip, but it’s always recoverable. So far. Your mileage may vary.

    But what’s even more fun for me is when I get emails or comments about how people are using the experiences I’ve had to further their own Work. I’m trying to show people that magic is relatively easy. Any bumbling bafoon can do it. EVEN ME. You don’t have to be a highly skilled artist to do this stuff. Your Work can look ugly. Ugly works too.

    Looking at the requirements of making all the stuff you need to do magic “by the book” is intimidating. But if you’re willing to experiment, and keep some basic safety mechanisms in place, your experiments won’t be any more dangerous than any other mad scientist on your block. And you’ll have invisible forces helping you, grateful that you’re putting them to work.

    And let’s face it folks, the Spirits are a lot more forgiving and flexible than we like to pretend. If you don’t have silver, draw a Moon Talisman on a blank piece of paper. You can consecrate it to the Moon by drawing her planetary sigils around the border if you like. The spirits will work with that. Wands and Daggers and Cups and Disks are fun to collect. Planetary talismans are fun to make. But they aren’t the magic. They aren’t required to do the magic. What’s required ultimately from any magician is little more than a pen and paper and a whole lot of ambition. Aim for God, and if you only come close, hell, you’ve come a long way.

    The other day someone sent me an overview of what they’re working on, a bit of their setup, and they talked about a technique they’re developing to cast silver. It looks really interesting, and I can’t wait to see his work. Awesome stuff. Made me feel really good, because one of the reasons I talk so much about how to do stuff is to get people doing it. Finding other magical crafters is fun. So if anyone else has any special neat tricks they’re working on to produce some powerful artifacts, feel free to let me know. Heck, start a blog about it and email me a link. I’ll publicize you to the fullest extent of my abilities.

  • Using the Spirit Pot

    I’m experimenting with different ways to use my spirit pot. From what I can find on the internet about spirit pots in hoodoo and the spirit cauldron in Palo, offerings to the spirit are made by placing the offering in the general vicinity of the pot. So far my offerings have consisted of lit candles.

    The reason I chose Bune, as I said in an earlier post, was because one of his powers is to bring riches unto a man. (From the Crowley-Mathers edition of the Goetia.) I am a Taurus, and while I have learned to be content in all things, whether poor or rich, I still prefer riches and oppulence to being consistently overdrawn in my bank accounts.

    One of the things I learned early in my magickal career is to always be very specific in what you want when doing magick, and even then, don’t expect the outcome to be exactly what you intended. At best it will be exactly what you asked for.

    With this in mind, I sat down one afternoon and figured out exactly how much money I would need to have the lifestyle I desire. I want a nice-sized house in a good area, to pay for the vehicles our family requires, and enough residual income to make around $100,000 a year. I also specifically want this money all at once, not just an opportunity to make the money over 16 years of labor. Knowing that I would be paying axes on a lump sum, I added that to the initial amount, and came up with a figure of $7,142,857.14.

    Last night I created a talisman that included the exact dollar amount, my intent, and the names of God used in evoking Goetic entities, crowned with ADNI MLK, because the intent is to have this manifest in the realm of Assiah. I placed this talisman in the spirit pot and lit three candles around the pot, and anointed the pot itself with the Oil of Abramelin. Anointing things with oil and waters seem to be a big deal in hoodoo, and the Oil of Abramelin is a very potent thinner of the veils.

    Rest assured, I will post the results. Any suggestions from more advanced users of the spirit pot are welcome. Comment below.

  • Holy Wealth

    Well, it looks like it’s finally happening. Everything is falling into place for me to be stupid stinking wealthy. How long ago was it that I explained to Bune what kind of wealth I wanted? Friday in the post about the statue of Cthulhu? Damn. That’s right, I knew I did something like that.

    And I was bragging about “learning how to talk to the spirits.” Ha!

    How freaking typical.

    Anyway, if this pans out, one of the things I’ll be doing shortly after quitting my job and taking a vacation is publishing how I did it. Scan ye olde archives well, for if I’ve figured out how to get $MILLION$ through the Goetic Spirits, you can be damned sure I’ll write a book about it. And all this public knowledge shall be deleted and only those who were faithful blog readers will have a chance to know it for free. And I’ll have a ghost writer turn my blog posts into a book. And I’ll have it printed and leather bound and only sell them in lots of 200 every five years. For like $200 each. But it will be worth EVERY PENNY.

  • Mess with the bull…

    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.

  • Goetic Kings

    As I commented before, I learned a lot about how engraving seals of spirits gets them into your sphere. What I didn’t realize at the time was that when you are dealing with Goetic spirits, you don’t leave them around with nothing to do. Because they will be themselves. It’s important to remember that “idle hands are the devil’s work shop.” Or however the cliche goes.

    So I made these 9 seals for someone. The seals turned out beautifully, and I wrote all about how wonderful it is to get to know the spirits by drawing their seals. Beautiful, useful, intelligent stuff, if I do say so myself. I wrote in detail about how when you draw the seal, you have begun to conjure the spirit. The spirit is there.

    But I didn’t think about what it means to have a Goetic King hanging around with nothing to do. They were themselves. The one that can bring a man all the love he desires until he’s had enough, Beleth, also happens to be adept at starting fights between lovers when she’s not busy. (Or he. I’m pretty sure it’s a she. I get this vision of a harpy, smirking to Herself, like a Sugmad bird.)

    So one day it hits me, there’s some serious shit going on in my life. I never have shit. Well, I actually have a lot of shit to deal with. Rather frequently; the unpleasant side effects of living in a physical body that happens to be run by a paranoid psychotic who lives only for the pleasure of the moment. I’m talking about the Nephesh, not “me” the Ruach. I’m pretty much perfect, it’s that crazy bastard under the hood that freaks me out.

    But there was more shit on the road than usual, and the nut driving wasn’t dealing with things very well. The Nephesh is lost in a fit of road rage that’s left him blind from the froth spattering his face as he swears incoherently at other drivers, it’s pouring down rain, and there are potholes the size of minivans in the road. While I’ve been sitting there in the back seat, carefully polishing these nifty talismans, finding a nice cigar box to ship them in, writing long emails of advice and warning to the buyer, I’m literally driving on the fucking railing, and did I mention there’s a thousand foot sheer drop just past the railing? All of a sudden, I wake up and smell the shit burning.

    So yeah, you betcha, I called my HGA. It hit me during of deep meditation. I was in one of my frequent moments of pure Zen, when I realized that I REALLY needed to talk to HGA. You know, deep in trance. My consciousness was in perfect equilibrium, not knowing, not thinking, just being. Finding Dhayana, achieving complete harmony with the celestial spheres…

    Ok, so I was playing Guitar Hero. It might at least have been Carry On My Wayward Son by Kansas, but I don’t really remember. Anyway, I sat up straight(er) and hit pause. (Didn’t want to ruin my 100% streak.) Closed my eyes to slits until just a touch of light filtered through. Took my consciousness through the back door escape hatch and entered the Astral Temple.

    “HGA?” sez I, conjuring him by Name.
    “Yo?” he answered in all his transcendental wisdom and resplendent Glory.
    “WTF!?” sez I.
    “Demons, fool!” He graciously aswered.

    Ok seriously, I conjured my HGA, and he showed me what was going on, showed me that I knew better, pointed out the damned blog post that I had said what was happening to me would happen to the careless magician and everything. He also showed me some pictures, and this is where it gets meaty.

    So I had these Nine Spirits hanging out. (Nazgul much? No thanks, I’m trying to quit.) They were bored, they reverted to their natural inclination. Driving people nuts with distractions from the world. HGA shows me how they’re these… blobs of undirected forces in my life. They were mushing me, prodding my sphere by their presence near me.

    And he sez, “Put them to Work.”

    Ok, sez I, I can do that. And I get this vision. I’m at the center. There’s this greenish background, like the color of a mini-golf green. Only it’s like it’s behind a sheet of smoked glass, or like some graphic artist had inserted a layer of barely opaque black over the top of it, and I was standing in the middle. Around me facing outwards were the Nine Kings of the Goetia. If you’ve see The Dark Crystal, it was like that. Me and HGA were in the center, and they were radiating outward.

    It was sort of like the picture above, looking down. It was more like the picture below, from a side view.

    So that’s what he was telling me to do. Put a circle of the Nine Goetic Kings around me. Then I got this other vision. Like the picture above, seen from the top down, but from each of the Kings extended their servants. Every spirit under their control was lined up, radiating outward. It was really cool.

    Ok, sez I, I’m not about to do a full conjuration of nine Goetic Kings, no friggin’ way. And certainly not all at once, that’s just plain stupid. I’ve got enough shit to deal with just from drawing their seals. Also, I’m right in the middle of this song, and my Ring of Solomon’s all the way in the other room with the silver pentagonal figure…

    “No. Now.”

    Clear and to the point, HGA doesn’t let me off the hook. “Ok,” I think at him, “but no way I’m doing this alone.”

    “Never; never have, never will.”

    So we conjured all nine Kings, gave each specific instructions, and lined them all up. It took a while. There was no stink, the Kings were amiable enough. They seemed to settle into the … right … places. Weird to explain. And everything has worked out perfectly since then, with no massive adaptation to having this kind of force around me all the time. Of Course.

    Now, for fun, superimpose a Tree of Life over that side-view image up there, with Tiphareth at the top of the column. The base of the column rests in Malkuth. The Nine Kings are nestled right at Yesod. Neat huh? That wasn’t even on purpose.

  • That thing I meant to finish…

    A year and a half ago, I posted about making this little mini-altar kind of thing for my Genius. The original post is at this link for your reference.

    Today, I finished it. I’ve learned a lot more about my Genius since then, so it turned out a little different than planned. It’s basically an elemental hierarchy tool now. It’s got my Genius at the top, exalted. The Name is in gold leaf. There’s the Four Kings of the Corners of the World under that, followed by the Four Rulers of the Elements, the Four Princes of spirits, upon the four angels [angles] of the world, and it’s got the Four Princes of Devils opposed in the elements sealed up in lead in the base. It’s also got my Evil Daimon’s name sealed up in lead in the base.

    The lettering on the top and outside of the thing is done in gold leaf. The demonic names I had to improvise. I started by consecrating a sheet of steel to Mars and Kammael by carving the symbol of Mars and the name of Kammael on one side. Then I conjured Kammael in the hour of Mars on the day of Saturn to seal the spirits named on the reverse side of the seal, preventing them from bringing evil into my life. Then I carved the names of the Four Princes of Devils and the name of my Evil Daimon in the steel.

    I melted a 4 ounce lead weight purchased from Walmart, and poured roughly half of it into the base of the thing. Then I placed the steel into the base, and covered that with more lead. The steel tried to float to the top of the lead. The lead literally pulled away from the steel to reveal the names of the demons. It was like they were trying to get out, or at least keep a toe hold in this world. I hit the lead in the wood base with a blow torch, and when it melted, I had to press it down into the lead until it was sealed in nice and tight. I finished by engraving the seal of Saturn into the Lead and conjuring Tzaphqiel to keep them bound in the lead as well.