Rufus Opus

Tag: RufusAstraCheck

Tag: RufusAstraCheck

  • It’s on, like Donkey Kong!

    AIT, myself, Jason, Jack, and now Balthazar are in the thick of it now!

    It’s like WWE on blogs.

    Ok, so in this episode, RO addresses syncretism, and some other stuff.

    AIT, Jack, and Jason are in the more radical syncretism camp, and Balthazar and I are in the more purist camp when it comes to mixing traditions. The spectrum (in my opinion) goes something like this:

    AIT posted that we should read the Western texts right alongside the Eastern texts to interpret one another, basically to “fill in the gaps of the Western Tradition.” I’m paraphrasing. Jack uses Mudras from Franz Bardon when he reads the tarot (and you should also read the comments on Jack’s post). Jason argues that we should drop the East West divide and say it’s all magic, and embrace radical rational syncretism.* Balthazar calls him out on it and levels the charge of cultural appropriation. Then Gordon comes in swinging a folding steel chair! Oh wait, not yet. I’m getting ahead of the story.

    Now I know these fellows, and I’m basing my placement of us on the scale on the things we’ve written over the years. Jack’s the most chaos mage of all of us and would be further out than Jason towards the chaos end of the spectrum if I didn’t also know he’s a Traditional Witch too, and has written with respect for traditions’ traditions. AIT would fall further on the purist side if he weren’t Golden Dawn, and Jason would be further towards the Purist side if I only looked at his experiences with hands on transmission of spiritual empowerments. I would have thought Balthazar would fall more towards the chaos side of the spectrum because root doctoring itself is a syncretic system that took the things that worked from multiple systems and put them together as a complete thing.

    As for me, I think I’m dead center, and in my ideal head, I might really be that way. But in my mind and heart, I lean towards traditionalism, getting everything out of a system from that system and don’t dilute the potential by blending it all together.

    The irony is that my system is pure Hermetics, ideally sucking the marrow from the 1st through 3rd century materials, but using the techniques of the Renaissance magicians who honed it and left us more detailed materials.

    But what were those Hermetic materials that were honed? Greek, Hebrew, Persian, Egyptian, Christian, Gnostic, Neo-Platonic, Pagan… All crammed together in one empire that had magicians travelling, studying, and exchanging information in their version of the internet! It was a hotbed of syncretism. I’ll do rites that include names of spirits from three or four cultures that can be interpreted in six completely different ways depending on which mystery cult you’re coming from. My traditional tradition is a complete syncretic work. People like me from back then and there would have been horrified! Yet here I am arguing that it’s a tradition of its own that should be adhered to…

    Heh. I’m well aware of my hypocrisy.

    I don’t, however, feel it needs to be corrected. See, I think the 1st-3rd century stuff is the raw ore, and the Renaissance work was a refinement of that ore, and that there’s a ton of shit to be gathered from the system as it is, if only it was more cohesively presented. I acknowledge the inputs from the East and Near East over the centuries, and I’m grateful for them. I believe, however, that it’s at a point where the things that needed to be imported were imported, and it doesn’t need anything else at this point. I’m fine with the neoplatonic hermetic tradition and all it has to offer me. I think it’s a complete system. It tells a whole story of the advancement through ritual and initiation. It has a beginning, a middle, and an end. If you do specific work, you get specific results, which enable further work, and that in turn provides specific other results, which enables further work, and so on up the chain of manifestation. It’s like you mine the ore, smelt the pellets, purify it into steel, shape it into the tool, and then use the tool. Each phase has specific operations that get done to the material so it can become its final product.

    I love the Hermetic path, and I’ve found that everything offered in other systems has a correlary in this system, it just has to be found and recognized. Everything your system can do, mine can do too, in other words. Nyah nyah.

    But it’s not about that. It’s about getting to the goal. AIT calls it becoming an immortal, and I share the goal. I like it. I embrace it. All the steps are laid out here in the Hermetic stuff I do, where I’m at, and the addition of other things is, to me, a distraction. I’d rather specialize than generalize. Other systems with similar goals may help me understand the subject, if needed, but it wouldn’t replace the methods I have at my disposal from my own tradition because I appreciate the harmony of what I’ve built so far, and I don’t want to fuck it up. By keeping to the same bucket of practices that are labeled Hermetic, I’ve built up a momentum that I don’t want to lose by including stuff I don’t understand that requires something I might not have to get to a goal I might not share.

    Now, Balthazar has implied that cultural appropriation and a sense of entitlement is a bad thing. I don’t agree with him in this regard. I think we really are entitled to pursue our spiritual paths, that we are free to answer God’s call on our life in whatever language or symbol set he calls to us from. No one has the right to stop another person from pursuing God as they feel called. We’re all free to make commentary and air our opinions, but what’s between you and God is between you and God. That’s sacred. My opinion on your relationship with god matters not shit at all.**

    That said, I’m strongly opposed to being rude and insensitive in your syncretization. You’re royalty in the kingdom of God, but you don’t have to act like a brat prince/princess. Jason appropriates tech from different systems with respect and sensitivity. He doesn’t make any claims about his interpretation or use being better than the source he borrows from. He integrates and syncretizes rationally. He puts things together that match and align in harmony, not in a way that brings insult, or disharmony to himself or his students. He’s careful about it.

    Balthazar himself does much the same. After all, his blog name is Gnostic Conjure. It’s syncretization at its finest, and I don’t think he would object to Jason’s actual practice of syncretization in the slightest, even though they may seem at odds this morning.

    So for me the bottom line is if you want to syncretize, by all means do so, I recognize that it’s perhaps the TRUEST traditional tradition there ever was. Personally, I’m fine for now with exploring where the Hermetic System takes me, and I don’t need all that mudra mantra yantra stuff. So far I’ve found the spirits leading me to things that are similar enough in result and even the look/feel of other people’s systems, but really it doesn’t matter to me what your system does.

    *By Rational syncretism, I mean to acknowledge that he’s not a fucking idiot, and knows you don’t put shit together that doesn’t belong together in ignorance just because it looks cool.

    ** With the understanding that if you infringe upon my divine rights in the name of your relationship with God, I will kick your ass.

  • 2.7 – The Genius and the Evil Daimon

    The Genius and the Evil Daimon are entities with a long history in the Western Mystery Tradition. The idea of the good and evil spirits assigned to people is so ingrained in the American culture that I grew up watching cartoons that frequently showed a character with a little angel with a harp on one shoulder and a little red devil with horns and a tail on the other, each giving the person advice. More often than not, the character would listen to the devil. How typical of mankind.

    2.7.1 – The Genius

    The term “Genius” as I’m using it in this post loosely comes from Agrippa’s Third Book of Occult Philosophy, chapter xxii. Technically, “Genius” is supposed to refer only to one part of the three-fold good Daimon that preserves the person it’s assigned to. The three parts are the Holy part, which is roughly speaking the Holy Guardian Angel (HGA) of the Abramelin ritual, the Genius or “Nativity Angel,” a Spirit whose nature is determined by the placement of the stars at birth, and the Daimon of your Profession, who influences how successful we are at our chosen line of work. Agrippa refers to all three parts singularly in the title of the chapter, “That there is a threefold keeper of man.” Since it’s a singular entity, and he only gives instructions on deducing the name of a Genius, and not the HGA or Professional Demon, I’m referring to all three parts of this one entity as the Genius.

    The earliest reference to the Genius that I’ve found so far is in the Corpus Hermeticum, written in Hellenized Egypt. In The Divine Pymander, it says:

    54. I (the LOGOS, Pymander, shepherd of Men) … come unto men that are holy and good, pure and merciful, and that live piously and religiously; and my presence is a help unto them. And forthwith they know all things, and lovingly they supplicate and propitiate the Father; and blessing him, they give him thanks, and sing hymns unto him, being ordered and directed by filial Affection and natural Love. And before they give up their bodies to the death of them, they hate their senses, knowing their Works and Operations.

    This is the Logos talking about how he works with those who are pious. While it might look like a bit of a stretch, the Logos and the HGA are of the same Spirit. In Agrippa’s record written roughly 1200 years later, this corresponds to the Holy part of the Genius. Agrippa frames it thus:

    The holy Demon is one, according to the Doctrine of the Egyptians, assigned to the rationall soul, not from the Stars or Planets, but from a supernaturall cause, from God himself, the president of Demons, being universall, above nature: This doth direct the life of the soul, & doth alwaies put good thoughts into the minde, being alwaies active in illuminating us, although we do not alwaies take notice of it; but when we are purified, and live peaceably, then it is perceived by us, then it doth as it were speak with us, and communicates its voyce [voice] to us, being before silent, and studyeth daily to bring us to a sacred perfection. Also by the ayd [aid] of this Demon we may avoid the malignity of a Fate…

    Agrippa says of the Genius specifically:

    …when the soul is coming down into the body, it doth out of the quire of the Demons naturally choose a preserver to it self, nor only choose this guide to it self, but hath that willing to defend it. This being the executor, and keeper of the life, doth help it to the body, and takes care of it, being Communicated to the body, and helps a man to that very office, to which the Celestials have deputed him, being born.

    In other words, the Genius is what can guide you to the roles and responsibilities you are incarnated to accomplish.

    In addition, being the only part of the threefold keeper of human beings that you can get the name of from your horoscope, the Genius can also be used to establish conversation with the rest of the threefold keeper, including the HGA and the Daimon of your Profession. By “used,” I mean you can converse with it through conjurations and establish a relationship, discovering the things that are needed to be done in your life to prepare you for the next step in your Work.

    As you Work with your Genius, a momentum builds up. You don’t have to choose to be a decent, pious person always choosing to do good and be kind to small furry animals, or help old ladies across the street. You don’t have to choose to be offended by injustice when you see it. You don’t have to try to find wisdom or insight in your studies. And you don’t have to make yourself seek your Race and Value in God.

    Instead, you find yourself naturally doing these things. You find character flaws revealed, and the means to change them. You find yourself naturally pursuing Virtue over Vice. You stop sabotaging your progress towards your goals, and you find yourself knowing and understanding things intuitively about yourself and others around you. Glimpses of the future come in sureties felt in evaluating potential outcomes of situations. Mysteries unravel before your very eyes.

    This spirit’s influence on your life can be enhanced through practical exaltation of the spirits name, which I’ll discuss below.

    2.7.2 – The Evil Daimon

    Heading back to The Divine Pymander, it goes on to say:

    56. But to the foolish, and evil, and wicked, and envious, and covetous, and murderous, and profane, I am far off, giving place to the revenging Demon, which applying unto him the sharpness of fire, tormenteth such a man sensible, and armeth him the more to all wickedness, that he may obtain the greater punishment.

    57. And such an one never ceaseth, having unfulfiled desires, and unsatisfiable concupiscences, and always fighting in darkness; for the Demon always afflicts and tormenteth him continually, and increaseth the fire upon him more and more.

    Here is the Evil Daimon, sent by God to punish the wicked with insatiable desires. My experience with this entity leads me to believe that this Demon drives you to the point where you have to turn to God to find relief from your passions, or die of despair or overdose. If you refuse to do so, when you die you return as a more brutish man, or an animal, or even a plant according to Plotinus. The further from God you turn in your life, the further from God you result in your next, each incarnation resulting in less and less opportunity to turn from God until you are a plant with no choice but to turn to the Sun to live.

    People always have some degree of a relationship with this spirit. Like the cartoon characters listening to the little red demon on their shoulder, we have spent our lives listening to and following the advice of the evil daimon. A momentum builds up with the Evil Daimon just like with the Genius, and soon you find yourself surrounded by chaos and madness, if you give too much into the temptations this spirit whispers to you.

    Like the demons discussed in Section 2.6, The effects of the Evil Daimon can be curbed.

    2.7.3 – Working With the Genius and the Evil Daimon

    To Work with these entities, the first thing you’ll need is their name. These are discovered through your horoscope, as discussed in Agrippa’s Three Books of Occult Philosophy, Book 3, at the end of chapter xxvi:

    There are also the Arabians, and many others, and some Hebrews, who finde out the name of a Genius by the places of the five Hylegians, and making projection alwayes from the beginning of Aries, and the letters being found out according to the order of Hylegians with the Astrologers, being reduced into a known order, and being joyned together, make the name of a good Genius: but they draw the name of an evil Genius from the opposite Hylegian places, projection being made from the last degree of Pisces against the order of signs.

    Ok, did you catch all that? No? Well, fortunately I’ve got a spreadsheet I use to make the process a little easier. I don’t know how the renaissance magicians managed without the power of modern technology.

    I’ve got all the Hebrew letters associated with the degrees for the Good Genius and the Evil Daimon lined up with their appropriate degrees. To determine the name, you get a horoscope of the your birth, and write down the degrees of the sun, moon, ascendant, and part of fortune. Then you find the syzygy, and that’s the fifth letter of the name. The syzygy is the location of the moon at the closest full or new moon to the date you’re charting. To find this, you get another horoscope of the time of the nearest full or new moon, and write down the degree the moon is in. Pretty simple, eh?

    No, not really. It’s a bit of a pain in the hindquarters, honestly. But this is worth it.

    Once you’ve got their names, you can conjure and commune with your Genius by creating a Lamen of the spirit. Spell out its name in Hebrew in a circle with the names of God written around the perimeter. I use the Celestial Script from Agrippa, and the Lamen looks like this (That’s YHVH in the script, you’d need to change the name to use it):


    Poke a little hole in the top, and you wear it during the ritual. Conjure the spirit in a crystal or other scrying medium and you’re all set.

    On the flip side, you’ve got the Evil Daimon’s name. I intend to bind mine in a lead-lined spirit pot.

    In fact, I’ve got this idea for a multi-purpose talisman. I’ve got a log that I’m carving to serve as a means to exalt the Genius and bind the Evil Daimon at the same time. I’ll be burning incense and candles in the top where the Genius name is inscribed in gold leaf, and the Evil Daimon will be bound in the hollowed-out, lead-lined base.

    It should look something like this when I’m done:

  • Helping Others in the Great Work

    I hope this blog has helped others in their pursuit of the Great Work. I’ve sold a couple books here and there, done some attunements on people, and have provided a lot of the information that has helped me. I hope reading it was as fun as learning about it.

    But this post isn’t about helping people like that. This post is about helping people along in their Work because you can’t stand how they behave.

    Surely you know the types. You love them, they’re sweet, but there’s just something about them that you can’t stand, and it keeps you from being able to enjoy the fullness of your relationship. You see their character flaws clearly, and so does everyone else, but there’s no way that they ever acknowledge that you’re right in your assessment of their behavior.

    Fortunately, you’ve done the ritual Work required to attain Adepthood, and you’ve been through the wringer yourself so many times with dealing with similar issues that you know exactly which spheres trigger the results you want to see in the other person’s sphere.

    I don’t know how ethical this is, by the way. It’s magick for the Great Work, and it might just backfire on you (or me) when you (or I) try to do it. Time will tell, though, time will tell.

    Say someone is, oh, I don’t know, hardhearted, jealous, and prideful, and because of this, they can’t seem to see you for who you really are. What do you do?

    Well, the Sun is the Sphere of revelation, and enlightenment, and that always leads to compassion. When you can’t seem to get someone to see your point, a solar working makes sense.

    Michael the Archangel of the Sun is who I’m planning on conjuring. This Archangel is good for almost everything, from wealth to exorcisms to initiations. It’s hard to beat Michael in terms of being there for you when you need him.

    Ok, so you’ve got the Spirit, go to the Magical Calendar and get the seal for Michael. (I believe the Magical Calendar places Michael in Mercury and Raphael in the Sun, but that’s not "right" for me. You still use the seal of Michael, and disregard the placement in the Magical Calendar.) Next you create a little shrine to Michael. A statue of Michael slaying the Dragon would be great for this, but I’m buying a house, and can’t afford to purchase statuary at the moment, so I’m going to make a lamen with his name and seal in it. Around the outside, I’ll write the Name of God that corresponds to the Sun (Eloah va-Da’at) and the symbol of the Sun (circle with a dot in the middle). I’ll include the names of the angels associated with the Sun (Melakim) and the name of the Sphere in the KBL (Tiphareth) Then I’ll include the Planetary Sigil from the Magical Calendar.

    In the center of the circle of the names and symbols, I’ll draw a Star of David, and in the center of that the Name Michael in English with his Seal below that. Above the Star of David I’ll write out his name (MKAL) in Celestial script, and around the Star of David I’ll draw four pentagrams, with the names of the Four Elemental Kings inside (Michael, Uriel, Raphael, and Gabriel Clockwise, beginning in the East). I’ll draw all this out in gold ink from an 18 carrot gold leaf pen on a Sunday in the Hour of the Sun. I’ll mount the lamen on an ease-type thing I make out of dowel rods or something, so that the Lamen is mostly vertical. I could put it on a mantle or create a shelf on the wall for it too. Then I’ll place a picture of the people I’m wnating to change in front of the lamen, with the changes I want to see written on the picture in gold ink, like "compassion, enlightenment, caring." Then I’ll conjure Michael in his appropriate hour, and ask for him to do what I desire. Assuming he complies, I’ll then light gold or white candles in front of the shrine, and burn Frankincense sticks until the change is complete.

    I’m pretty sure there’s no harm in this kind of magick, but you never know what kind of gross stuff comes out of a person when they begin to integrate the energies of the Sun into their sphere, eh?

  • What Happened to Evil?

    In  recent conversation at Spiritus Mundi, during a conversation about Mercury going retrograde June 15th, the subject of good and evil in modern context came up. Chris Warnock pointed out that Mercury Retrograde has become a major catastrophe in modern astrology, and its influence, while still being negative, has been blown way out of proportion. He believes this is because modern astrologers have set about removing anything evil or negative from astrology in general, and have basically sugar-coated every malefic force in astrological readings, turning everything fluffy and light. Mercury retro is hard to make look pretty, so it’s sort of picked up all the negative baggage of everything malefic, making it look much worse than it really is.

    This series of posts got me thinking about evil in general in the modern age. Everywhere I can think of, the things that were seen to be evil in the past has been presented and turned into opportunities for growth in the present. Demons aren’t demons serving Satan, they’re gods from pagan pantheons that got a bad rap under Christianity. Gods of the underworld aren’t evil, they’re benevolent. Death isn’t evil, it’s an opportunity for change and metamorphosis. Every negative manifestation in our lives that would have been understood as an evil influence in the dark ages has been turned into an opportunity for growth. Everybody’s looking on the bright side of things, no matter how calamitous.

    I may or may not have ranted on the existence of evil here on my blog before, I don’t remember. It really gets on my nerves when people refuse to acknowledge evil.

    But I’ve been thinking. How bad is it that people don’t see evil as evil anymore? How wrong is it to approach evil things as challenges instead of something to avoid at all costs? The result of our approach to evil changing is that we deal with it, seek solutions to problems instead of just saying "That’s just evil," and walking away. We face the sources of evil more often now. We aren’t afraid of evil the way we used to be, and that’s a good thing. The Super Heroes of old would protect the helpless from the villains. Today we’re all Heroes on the sacred quest, thanks to Joe Campbell and George Lucas.

    I still think relativistic ethical stances, moral ambiguity, and saying "There’s no such thing as evil!" is stupid and dangerous. Evil does definitely exist.

    But I’m glad we’re working on getting rid of the pesky thing now.

  • Sorcery’s a Dangerous Game

    You know, here in the United States where society officially treats sorcery as a harmless delusion (usually), we’ve got it pretty good. As frustrating as it is not to be able to talk to people at the office Christmas party about what you spend most of your personal time doing, it’s better than sorcerors have it in parts of the world where people actually believe in magic.

    I’ve been monitoring Google’s news stories lately for occult stories. The news occultists make globally is bad news for the sorceror. 45 people accused of using sorcery to spread cholera were lynched by mobs in Haiti. A guy was expelled from a country because the government suspected he was doing sorcery to aid his friend in an election. And he probably was, honestly, but getting him expelled from the country won’t likely lessen his meddling.

    Kinda sucks to be a sorceror, in most places, especially when shit goes wrong.

    Of course, that’s true in our private lives too, isn’t it? Even among pagans and magicians, if you’re going through troubles, don’t your friends or family assume it’s your fault, that you’ve done some magic that is having some kind of unexpected consequence? And it really doesn’t help that they’re right sometimes either.

    Still, at least I don’t get lynched and shit.

  • 2.6 – Them Pesky Demons are at it Again…

    In the Neo-Platonic tradition, in the grimoires that comprise it, in the writings of Hermes Trismegistus that frame it, and in the writings of Agrippa that provide the most comprehensive resource of the modern occult, there are mentions of demons, maleficent spirits that cause trouble. I would personally rather believe that all spirits are basically neutral, and they don’t have any ill will in and of themselves towards humanity. Unfortunately, the Neo-Platonic writings (and my experience) fail to support this belief.

    Going back thousands of years, mankind has known that there are spirits that are out to make life miserable for humans. It’s in the Bible, the Hesiod, and in the African Traditional Religions. From the steppes of Siberia to the Amazon rain forest, shamans deal with evil spirits every day. Modern cultures have lots of rational ways to explain away the existence of demons, from anti-Christian rhetoric that says the Church is to blame for misrepresenting gods of other cultures (which is true, to a degree), to psychological models that say they’re all in our heads (which is also true, from the perspective implied by the notariqon ARARITA). Regardless of the veracity of these explanations, the pragmatic truth is that if you are doing magick regularly, you will run into spirits that will behave as if they are Demons.

    2.6.1 The Role of Demons

    Fortunately, we have the benefit of thousands of years of occult research on our side. We know from sources like the Bible and the Divine Pymander that the evil spirits are under the authority of God. If you’re into paganism, you’ll find in the story of Pandora’s box that evil spirits contained in a divine spirit pot were sent to plague mankind by Zeus after Prometheus gave us fire. They’re serving god. In the Divine Pymander, Pymander tells Hermes that the Evil Daimon is sent to the impious to drive man further away from the Logos by filling the senses with desire for more sensations than can ever be appeased. In the Bible, evil spirits are sent to set up kings to fall, to reveal the glory of God.

    They are sent by God into the world to wreak havoc in the lives of those who are ignorant of God. Their primary victims are those who have grown ignorant of their Race and Value in God and instead of seeking their Source, people who seek satisfaction in the things of the material world. Demons serve as tempters, bringers of illness, and they serve to create situations that result in spiritual advancement. They perform evil acts, but they do them to draw people closer to God.

    2.6.2 How Demonic Influence Manifests

    In your life, you’re going through all kinds stress that I can’t begin to know about. Job insecurity, financial woes, emotional problems, and sickness plague us all. Most of the people reading this blog have it pretty good compared to poorest of the poor on the planet, but that doesn’t make the problems we face any easier to bear in the moment.

    I don’t believe every bad thing that happens is the result of a demon, but they do happen to be present every time bad things happen. I’m sure it’s a coincidence, really. They could just be attracted to bad things… sure… that could be it…

    Alright, I really do think all bad things that happen are the result of demonic activity. I’m a Christian, for Christ’s sake. “We wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against powers, principalities, and wickedness in high places.” It’s the simple truth.

    They set the stage for pain and suffering, they sit at the edges of our sphere whispering thoughts that sound a lot like our own, speaking fear and doubt and anger and anguish and despair into our minds. They entice our senses with lights and shining things. They use the people at work like pawns to challenge us, to bring us to the brink of catastrophe. They influence kings, presidents, princes, senators, congressmen and women, people in power across the lands of the earth to create a realm that will drive those with an understanding of their race and value closer and closer to the Logos within.

    Pretty nasty, really. And as annoying as hell.

    2.6.3 How to Deal with the Bastards

    Demons are under God’s authority. God’s within. We deal with spirits in every ritual. We have the names of the demonic princes from Agrippa’s Book 2, chapter 7. We know how to make talismans and spirit pots. They can only do what they’re allowed to, and God sets the boundaries.

    The fastest way to lessen the effects of the evil spirits is to put the Demonic Kings in spirit pots and bind them with melted lead sealed with the Names of the four Elemental Kings. I’ve got a makeshift version of this on my altar at the moment. It hasn’t completely eliminated bad things from happening, but it sure has cut down on the extremes of my emotional reactions to bad things when they come. That in itself robs the demons of their powers over us and our lives.

  • Daimon Brainstorming Sessions Part 1

    So in the post “The Weirdest Bune Thing Yet” covered my most recent joy-ride in the occult. I’d like to talk a bit about how my Daimon and I brainstormed a way to make sure it didn’t happen again.

    For starters, the first thing I did when I got the explanation of what was going on was to verify it with my Daimon. I simply cocked my head to where he usually resides, behind me and a little on the right, and asked him if this was legit. I got a nod from him, and I confirmed the next step was to do my own divination.

    So I shuffled my mini-Rider-Waite deck while specifically asking out loud “What is the source of my illness?” I use the 15-card layout that is suggested in the little book that comes with Crowley’s Thoth deck. It’s always worked well for me.

    Current circumstances indicated that the oracle was right. I had the Five of Wands in the center significator spot. Cards surrounding it indicated I was fighting the results of a smug person stealing knowledge, and a confirmation from my Daimon that the coin oracle had described what happened accurately. I then had two options to deal with the problem. Magickal counter-attack aimed at the person who had done it in the first place, or rising above it and putting the forces that were at work in my sphere into their proper place as the second option. I had been considering the first option, mainly, because I was pissed. however, the cards indicated I’d run into more fighting and eventual sorrow or regret at taking that path.

    The second option showed me how I could permanently conquer this kind of strife by putting things right that were wrong in the moment, and by behaving in a different way in my personal practices. These cards were the King of Wands on the right, the Hierophant in the center, and the six of wands on the left. The six of wands indicated peace and victory after putting down the current strife in the five of wands. From the King of Wands, I got the image of no longer having to fight because I had established the hierarchy in the realm of Wands one must in order to be the King.

    The Hierophant was the primary image of this grouping. It coalesced the other two cards, representing the path that I needed to take to achieve present victory (6 of wands) and lasting Lordship over this kind of strife (King of Wands). I have a long history of the Hierophant popping up representing me, in readings I perform for myself and readings performed by others. That and the much better results made it clear which option I should take.

    The next step was to plan out the actual ritual Work I would need to do in order to clear up the current mess and make sure it wouldn’t happen again. The coin oracle indicated that “my” Bune (the spirit in the Bune Spirit Pot I made) would be able to fix the current mess, so I confirmed that with my Daimon. He indicated that was the way to go.

    It’s in keeping with the role of the Hierophant to be the go-between with the spirits on behalf of people who have messed things up. The priest or shaman is called to perform the exorcism, the man or woman with the divine connections is there for the people. I think this is why the Rider-Waite Hierophant is pointing up with his projecting (right) hand and the receptive (left) hand is projecting over the monks in front of him, holding the symbol that represents (in my opinion) the Caduceus, or his ability to travel through the higher spheres, the heavens, or sephiroth, however you want to perceive it.

    So I went to my spirit pot and asked Bune to put any spirits that were causing me illness back into their proper place. This is one of his talents he revealed to me (it’s in the description in the Goetia, but I didn’t understand it). Bune agreed, and I lit five tea light candles in front of his Pot in thanks for his actions.

    I woke up healed the next morning, as stated in the earlier post. I still had to figure out how to overcome things like this happening again though, so I planned another Daimon brainstorming session for the next night. That will be Part 2.

  • Really Interesting Blog

    For those who are interested in some really neat magickal stuff that is straight from the heart of Agrippa’s teacher Trithemius, or at least looks like it, check out this blog:

    http://blog.abrahadabramelin.org/?p=86

    Dude did an incredible job. I understand little of what I’m seeing so far, but I have a good feeling about this one.

    -R.O.

  • Really Interesting Blog

    For those who are interested in some really neat magickal stuff that is straight from the heart of Agrippa’s teacher Trithemius, or at least looks like it, check out this blog:

    http://blog.abrahadabramelin.org/?p=86

    Dude did an incredible job. I understand little of what I’m seeing so far, but I have a good feeling about this one.

    -R.O.

  • Really Interesting Blog

    For those who are interested in some really neat magickal stuff that is straight from the heart of Agrippa’s teacher Trithemius, or at least looks like it, check out this blog:

    http://blog.abrahadabramelin.org/?p=86

    Dude did an incredible job. I understand little of what I’m seeing so far, but I have a good feeling about this one.

    -R.O.