“It requires no stretch of the imagination to conclude that the current helmet craze is likely to have been propagated by the Government, possibly with the involvement of the FCC. We hope this report will encourage the paranoid community to develop improved helmet designs to avoid falling prey to these shortcomings.”
http://people.csail.mit.edu/rahimi/helmet/
The other day, I was reading Ouspensky’s “The Symbolism of the Tarot” over at the Sacred Texts web site (www.sacred-texts.com). In the section “What is the Tarot”, he used the word “problem” in a sentence that shed new light on an old question of mine.
Regarding the study of IHVH, he said “The study of this Name (or the four-lettered word, tetragrammaton, in Greek) and the finding of it in everything constitutes the main problem of Kabalistic philosophy.”
He wrote in 1913, and his use of the language is different from my own. When I say I have a problem, I don’t usually think about it as a good thing, or as a subject of research. I think of “Problem” as something that’s bad, negative, something that is impeding my ability to enjoy life. In Ouspensky’s mind though, a problem is the central core of a philosophy.
It got me thinking about how philosophy is a solution to a problem. When you have a problem, you try to solve it, and that got me thinking about the old alchemical axiom, Solve et Coagula.
I’ve tended to think about the process of Solve et Coagula as the process of breaking apart a conglomeration into its individual parts, refining it, and bringing the parts back together as a new and better whole. That’s how the Great Work has manifested for me. But to the Solve stage, you must first recognize on some level that there is a problem that needs to be solved. What’s my problem? What is it that I’m trying to solve?
The goal of “reuniting with God” is the solution to being separated from God. I’ve understood for a long time that the separation is only one level of existence, and that ultimately no one is separated from God. Through the Logos, the way back to Union and communion with the Divine was paved. So my problem isn’t that I’m not united with God.
I perform the Great Work because I want to be a better person. I want a stronger character, I want to pass on a legacy of doing the right thing for my fellow incarnate beings to my children and grand children. I want to help people, and not be a selfish, lazy, ungrateful man. My problem is that I do the wrong thing instead of the right thing.
At any given moment, I have a pool of energy I can draw on to do something. I can go for a walk, give money to the poor, or insult some moron who cut me off in traffic. The potential for whatever I do is always there.
How that energy manifests is determined by what I decide to do. My decisions are influenced by my impulses towards selfishness, and how I’m going to make myself happy in the next moments. I’m a conglomeration of parts, some parts of me want to do the right thing, others jsut want to do the lazy thing. The way I make my decisions is heavily influenced by these component parts. The parts of myself that have control over my energy resources, my potential determine what I’m going to decide to do with my potential in any given moment, in any situation.
The solve process is where the component parts are melted down, and the imputities are taken away. The Great Work is to get rid of the negative components, and allow the positive components to dominate the decisions, to control the manifestation of the potential I carry.
So what is the Great Work? At this point, it’s a series of little problems that need to be Solved and Coagulated. Each of my “High Magic” rituals need to be focused on resolving the problems in my character that I’m made aware of through the Conversations with my HGA. There are areas of ignorance about the roles of the archangels I need to Solve. There are problems of the heart, mind, and spirit, each of which will need to be addressed, and in the process, perhaps the greater Work will be accomplished.
Magicians. We’re all seeking the powers of the universe, changing ourselves into something greater than we started out as, or at least more pure so we can participate with God in the CREATION of the UNIVERSE. Okay, well, maybe just managing and maintaining the manifestation as it occurs, but being consciously aware of the fact during the planning and processing stages of the project at hand.
But here I am reading John Dee this week, and come to find out, one of the “greater” magicians of recorded history was fumbling in just as much dark as me. He spent all that time with Kelley developing (or receiving, if you will) what amounts to a system of planetary magic. He conjured and cajoled, enticed and entreated God to send him these spirits that revealed a system of magic that he never even used.
Heading back to Agrippa, the man was a brilliant librarian, researcher, and reporter. But for all his knowledge, he was just like us too. A man who had to keep his public and private beliefs strictly regimented. The only evidence we have that Agrippa actually performed magic is his obvious “insider’s” understanding of the material he recorded. That inference can’t even be made objectively. We have to experience the results of the operations he describes to realize what he is recording between the lines. Based on that experience, we can begin to understand the deeper implications of his writing.
Leap ahead a couple years to Crowley. A great magician, an eager and prolific promoter of occult philosophy, Crowley stands out in history for his intelligence, wit, and most offensively to some, his self-confidence. Yet read through Soror Achitha’s Vision of the Amalantrah Working, and you see that Crowley in his magickal practice was a sulky, petulant, ignorant man. Not ignorant in terms of knowledge, learning, or experience, but ignorant of what is to come. He worries about money, and worries about plans to go to Cairo. He is revealed to be a whiner to the spirits, much like Dee and Kelley both. He shows a deep concern for his safety and well-being that speaks volumes, at least to me, of his lack of faith that “existence is pure joy.”
Across history to the present day, magicians are fumbling in the dark, trying to figure out what the HELL is going on, and trying to influence things to work out in their favor. Their private diaries reveal them to be very small and very dependent upon the forces they work with for their mental well-being. Their greatest contributions to their fellow occultists are little more than sign posts and travel commentaries about the realms they visit.
It’s baffling.
From my own limited experience in the occult, in conjuring the spirits, in speaking with the intelligences of the spheres, in traversing the heavens that lie between us and God Almighty, I have seen things that make my toes curl in wonder and awe. I have done things that are miraculous in every sense of the word. In my conversations with the spirits of the realms, I’m no whining supplicant, begging for scraps of answers or a pittance to get to Egypt in the spring. I’m not demanding answers about God or the heavens, or secrets of the cosmos. I’m a traveler in the macrocosmic realms, a co-worker with the spirits in the microcosmic realms. There is no thing or state of existence beyond my ability to access and manifest through ritual activities. There are no limits beyond the practical.
So just what the HELL is going on here? Am I the only magician that uses magic to rise above the problems of mundane existence? By no means is my life, or my skill in the Art of magic perfect and complete. My recent escapades with Bune seem to be unprecedented among my fellow magicians for example, although they have confirmed in one way or another through their own magical works that the source of the problem was related to the way I had approached the idea of being a Hierophant.
The point is, when I found out what was going on, the first thing I did was fix it. Using magic. That’s my general approach to everything. It works really well. I use Magic to get ideas about what I should be doing in my mundane life. I use it to get ideas about what spiritual activities I should be pursuing. I use it for food, health, safety, and travel. With the knowledge I get reading and meditating, I create and perform rituals that bring about what I want to happen in my life and my world.
I know I’m not the only one that does this. I talk to many magicians on the internet across the world who are doing the same thing. What I don’t understand is why it’s so relatively rare. The number of magicians in control of their lives is staggeringly low. Most people interested in the occult are interested in the power to control their worlds, but compared to the number of people interested, the number of people doing the Work, doing the magic that transforms their existence is less than half of one percent.
Magic. It’s what a magician does. It’s not a last resort, it’s a first resort. The lungs breathe, the liver filters, the brain processes. The magician does magic. The magician is in control of their world, not isolated from other influences, but in a position of authority in determining which of the opportunities life will present, and how those opportunities will come about.
There’s too much slap-dash going on. People slap together a quick one-time rite, and dash off to the next thing, which is usually something they are reacting to. There’s little or no actual proactive planning and implementation of their lives. They’re content to sit back and follow the script they’ve been given for the most part, with a little dabbling here and there.
I’m not advocating any “Left Hand Path” philosophy here, but I do want to point out that YOU are not a passive part of existence. You have choices to make that affect many others. If you choose not to choose, you still have made a choice, to quote Rush. You’re an active part of existence, and magic gives you the keys to the Kingdom. You’ve got at your beck and call the very spirits that make up the world. Why on earth would you not choose to use them?
Why didn’t Dee use the Angelic system of magic he received? Why didn’t Agrippa put his skills in the occult arts to use to keep from having to recant his writings? Why didn’t Crowley just manifest the cash to go to Cairo if he was that worried about it?
Was it a lack of faith in their magic? Was it that they, like so many magicians today, believed that magic is interesting and neat, but when the rubber meets the road, you have to deal with life from the mundane? I don’t know. It doesn’t make sense to me.
I understand that things won’t always work out the way you expect, and that’s fine, but one thing I’ve learned in this Great Work is that I am in control of what I experience in life. There is nothing beyond my ability to research, conjure, and influence. Sometimes the influence will be on my own expectations, changing what I want as I learn why things are the way they are. But there’s nothing my Daimon and I can’t handle, manipulate, and shape into what ought to be.
So let’s all kick it up a notch or two. No whining, no fear. Let honest curiosity and righteous indignation fuel our endeavors. If money is a problem, conjure cash and multiple streams of income. If health is a problem, conjure healing and aid. If something is broken, fix it. If you don’t know how to fix it, find out how to fix it. You’re one meditation away from the brightest intelligences in the universe, literally.
And trust the things you’re studying and learning in the occult. It really is real. And there’s nothing to be afraid of. You’ll be just fine.
Magicians. We’re all seeking the powers of the universe, changing ourselves into something greater than we started out as, or at least more pure so we can participate with God in the CREATION of the UNIVERSE. Okay, well, maybe just managing and maintaining the manifestation as it occurs, but being consciously aware of the fact during the planning and processing stages of the project at hand.
But here I am reading John Dee this week, and come to find out, one of the “greater” magicians of recorded history was fumbling in just as much dark as me. He spent all that time with Kelley developing (or receiving, if you will) what amounts to a system of planetary magic. He conjured and cajoled, enticed and entreated God to send him these spirits that revealed a system of magic that he never even used.
Heading back to Agrippa, the man was a brilliant librarian, researcher, and reporter. But for all his knowledge, he was just like us too. A man who had to keep his public and private beliefs strictly regimented. The only evidence we have that Agrippa actually performed magic is his obvious “insider’s” understanding of the material he recorded. That inference can’t even be made objectively. We have to experience the results of the operations he describes to realize what he is recording between the lines. Based on that experience, we can begin to understand the deeper implications of his writing.
Leap ahead a couple years to Crowley. A great magician, an eager and prolific promoter of occult philosophy, Crowley stands out in history for his intelligence, wit, and most offensively to some, his self-confidence. Yet read through Soror Achitha’s Vision of the Amalantrah Working, and you see that Crowley in his magickal practice was a sulky, petulant, ignorant man. Not ignorant in terms of knowledge, learning, or experience, but ignorant of what is to come. He worries about money, and worries about plans to go to Cairo. He is revealed to be a whiner to the spirits, much like Dee and Kelley both. He shows a deep concern for his safety and well-being that speaks volumes, at least to me, of his lack of faith that “existence is pure joy.”
Across history to the present day, magicians are fumbling in the dark, trying to figure out what the HELL is going on, and trying to influence things to work out in their favor. Their private diaries reveal them to be very small and very dependent upon the forces they work with for their mental well-being. Their greatest contributions to their fellow occultists are little more than sign posts and travel commentaries about the realms they visit.
It’s baffling.
From my own limited experience in the occult, in conjuring the spirits, in speaking with the intelligences of the spheres, in traversing the heavens that lie between us and God Almighty, I have seen things that make my toes curl in wonder and awe. I have done things that are miraculous in every sense of the word. In my conversations with the spirits of the realms, I’m no whining supplicant, begging for scraps of answers or a pittance to get to Egypt in the spring. I’m not demanding answers about God or the heavens, or secrets of the cosmos. I’m a traveler in the macrocosmic realms, a co-worker with the spirits in the microcosmic realms. There is no thing or state of existence beyond my ability to access and manifest through ritual activities. There are no limits beyond the practical.
So just what the HELL is going on here? Am I the only magician that uses magic to rise above the problems of mundane existence? By no means is my life, or my skill in the Art of magic perfect and complete. My recent escapades with Bune seem to be unprecedented among my fellow magicians for example, although they have confirmed in one way or another through their own magical works that the source of the problem was related to the way I had approached the idea of being a Hierophant.
The point is, when I found out what was going on, the first thing I did was fix it. Using magic. That’s my general approach to everything. It works really well. I use Magic to get ideas about what I should be doing in my mundane life. I use it to get ideas about what spiritual activities I should be pursuing. I use it for food, health, safety, and travel. With the knowledge I get reading and meditating, I create and perform rituals that bring about what I want to happen in my life and my world.
I know I’m not the only one that does this. I talk to many magicians on the internet across the world who are doing the same thing. What I don’t understand is why it’s so relatively rare. The number of magicians in control of their lives is staggeringly low. Most people interested in the occult are interested in the power to control their worlds, but compared to the number of people interested, the number of people doing the Work, doing the magic that transforms their existence is less than half of one percent.
Magic. It’s what a magician does. It’s not a last resort, it’s a first resort. The lungs breathe, the liver filters, the brain processes. The magician does magic. The magician is in control of their world, not isolated from other influences, but in a position of authority in determining which of the opportunities life will present, and how those opportunities will come about.
There’s too much slap-dash going on. People slap together a quick one-time rite, and dash off to the next thing, which is usually something they are reacting to. There’s little or no actual proactive planning and implementation of their lives. They’re content to sit back and follow the script they’ve been given for the most part, with a little dabbling here and there.
I’m not advocating any “Left Hand Path” philosophy here, but I do want to point out that YOU are not a passive part of existence. You have choices to make that affect many others. If you choose not to choose, you still have made a choice, to quote Rush. You’re an active part of existence, and magic gives you the keys to the Kingdom. You’ve got at your beck and call the very spirits that make up the world. Why on earth would you not choose to use them?
Why didn’t Dee use the Angelic system of magic he received? Why didn’t Agrippa put his skills in the occult arts to use to keep from having to recant his writings? Why didn’t Crowley just manifest the cash to go to Cairo if he was that worried about it?
Was it a lack of faith in their magic? Was it that they, like so many magicians today, believed that magic is interesting and neat, but when the rubber meets the road, you have to deal with life from the mundane? I don’t know. It doesn’t make sense to me.
I understand that things won’t always work out the way you expect, and that’s fine, but one thing I’ve learned in this Great Work is that I am in control of what I experience in life. There is nothing beyond my ability to research, conjure, and influence. Sometimes the influence will be on my own expectations, changing what I want as I learn why things are the way they are. But there’s nothing my Daimon and I can’t handle, manipulate, and shape into what ought to be.
So let’s all kick it up a notch or two. No whining, no fear. Let honest curiosity and righteous indignation fuel our endeavors. If money is a problem, conjure cash and multiple streams of income. If health is a problem, conjure healing and aid. If something is broken, fix it. If you don’t know how to fix it, find out how to fix it. You’re one meditation away from the brightest intelligences in the universe, literally.
And trust the things you’re studying and learning in the occult. It really is real. And there’s nothing to be afraid of. You’ll be just fine.
I explained how I look at my role as a magician to someone the other day, and they said they had never seen a magician with the same perspective I have on time. I thought I was on the same page as every other magician.
Where does our authority as magicians come from? Have you ever wondered?
I’ve been saying for years that I am a manifestation of the LOGOS, and as such, have a place of authority over the spirits of the physical and spiritual planes. I was wrong.
In the Corpus Hermeticum, in the Divine Pymander chapter, Man is not the Logos. Man is created by the First Father, the Prime Mover, completely like itself. Man meets and is loved by all the seven planetary governors, and breaks through into the manifest realm to see what’s going on there. He sees his own reflection, and falls in love with it. He enters a form shaped by Nature out of love for Man, and is therefore of two natures, immortal and mortal for the sake of Love.
So Man isn’t the Logos. He’s just the image and companion of the First Father. Interesting! Man still has the love and authority of the seven governors, and the Logos, but it’s because we are the image of the First Father that we have any authority over the spirits.
It doesn’t change anything functionally, but it does open new doors for exploration.
So my authority over spirits as a magician comes directly from my original creation and the relationship formed between myself and the Seven Governors, the Logos, and all their minions at the dawn of time. I was created to be a companion to God, to be his reflection, and I’m only here in this realm of Nature out of love, because I see my Father in his Works.
Where does yours come from? I know not everyone operates on the Christian Neo-platonic scale, but isn’t your basis for being able to perform magic grounded in eternity? Is my time line so different than everyone else’s?
I’m going to be asking my postmodernist friends about their perspectives on this, to see if it helps me understand something I’m missing.
I was thinking about rising through the Spheres of the Planets tonight, and the image of a spark came to mind.
You know, bonfires, they shoot out sparks. The sparks rise up high into heavens before they burn out. A little tiny ash floats back down to the earth. Every bit of it that could burn is consumed.
So we’ve got seven planetary heavens, right? And under the lowest, the Lunar sphere, hanging off the lowest edge of heaven is the Elemental sphere of Fire, the highest and purest form of matter. Below that is Air, and below that Water. At the bottom is good old solid Earth, the most material of material realms.
And here’s this spark. It’s sunshine and minerals from the earth consumed in the release of all that energy it absorbed while it was alive. As it goes through its final transformation, it shoots up through the aethers aiming for heaven, using the heat of its own combustion to get higher, and leaving behind a husk of itself to drift back down to earth, empty of all the power and effort that went into creating it in the first place.
So, neat stuff. I don’t like ham handed mataphors, but I do seem to have a habit of using them myself.
Someone mentioned on a list that “When you really know yourself, the Goetia is not needed any more.” Personally, I think that’s one of the more retarded, but also self-explanatory statements I’ve ever seen.
I use the Goetia style of magic because it is an effective means to accomplish mundane Work. There are things you need to have done, and you need to have them done by spirits who are closer to the material realm than the Angels and Intelligences of the celestial spheres. When you “know yourself” as a magician, you also know what your role is in the manifestation and maintenance of creation. If someone hasn’t figured out that their role as a magician is going to require them to perform Goetic magic on occassion, then, well, ok then. There you have it.
But why would someone think that? Once again, people have watered down Magic to include some really weak and stupid thoughts. If the nimrod that posted the above statement had spent more time studying where he came from and his celestial and material brothers and sisters, he’d know a lot more about himself than he does. But in “Knowing himself,” he hasn’t bothered to look beyond himself.
You CANNOT “Know Yourself” if you do not look BEYOND your SELF.
Bad news, narcisists, it’s not all about you.
4-11-06
Introduction
Welcome to the Head for the Red blog. The title comes from the four stages of the Alchemical Great Work, Black, White, Citrine and Red. In the Red Work, the final stage is reached, and the base elements are transformed into the Philosopher’s Stone.
That’s my goal, to reach the Red Work, and this blog is going to record my thoughts, ideas, and experiences along the way. I hope to play the Hierophant here, or at least to record the wanderings of one Hermit and his experiences. I figure I’m still at the Black stage, and I’ve got quite a ways to go before I get to Red, if I ever do, but I have no qualms in striving.
Fr. R. O.
I mentioned the Doing Magick blog my friend started in a previous post. In Paradigm Formations, he mentions the following:
So I spoke to one of the more famous goetic magicians around, Lon DuQuette. He gave me advice that both fit into my normal mode of working and blew me away. He said the trick to dealing with Goetic spirits involves worship. Not of them but of the ultimate — his term, the Goddess. He said that act is basically one of giving the goddess energy so She can raise you up. Inversely, the relationship with a demon should be accepting or ‘vouchsafing’ its energy so you can raise it up. By vouchsafing, I took his meaning to be that the energy so given, must be used is accordance with the cosmic flow in order to achieve full effect.
The way DuQuette uses “Vouchsafing” is what I wanted to talk about. In my recent posts about the Hierophant, this is the idea I was trying to get at. The Hierophant is vouchsafing the “energy” of those he’s teaching or guiding. I don’t think of myself as a teacher, although guide might be closer to what I imagine myself doing with these public discussions of magick.
The trouble I found myself in came, it seems, not only from the “student” performing a Bune rite, but also because I wasn’t performing any of the vouchsafing duties that come along with the role of Hierophant.
I don’t entirely agree with Fr. BH’s interpretation of vouchsafing. I don’t think it’s how you use the energy, I think it’s more about getting the energy that’s been vouchsafed to you where it needs to belong. At least as it pertains to this Hierophant thing I’ve got going on.
I see it as scarves or banners that go where they’re supposed to as you rise through the spheres. Sort of the collection plate you’ve passed in church. You’ve been vouchsafed the money because you’re representing the church, but you drop all the cash (well, most of it) in the total collection that goes to the back office where it’s made ready to deposit. You’ve been entrusted with something, and you’ve got the spiritual responsibility to see that you’re taking care of what you’ve been given.
Someday I’ll write a book about teaching, and base it on the Hierophant. Pay no attention to the fact that the only real classes I’ve ever taught were 4th-grade Sunday School, and I had a book to teach from.
A friend of mine, currently going by the nom de plum “Fr. Bone Head,” has started a new blog. He’s recording his own work, sort of as a public Magickal Diary, and he’s been brutally honest so far in his posts. I’ve known him for a while now, and I know his experience with the spirits is very strong.
He’ll be describing his work in detail at the blog so I’m going to let him tell his own stories. Suffice it to say, I wouldn’t recommend anyone that didn’t deserve it. This is a working magician, and well worth the read.
He’s been pretty prolific so far, so I suggest a subscription to his feed to keep up.
Click the title above, or visit from this link: