I saw a present from the kids marked, “To Dad, From Sanety Klos.” I thought it was funny, and then I thought maybe the universe was trying to tell me something. Fortunately, I never took that Oath.

But this time of year, who couldn’t use a visit from Sane-ty Klos, come to spread some Sanity to stressed out moms, dads, and kids (of all ages) all over the world?

And honestly, it’s not just at Christmas. All year long, the pressures of life are pushing people beyond the boundaries of sanity and into the realms of being out of control. There’s only so much stress the mind can take before it begins to fracture, and when it finally cracks, the Ruach and Neschemah influence is gone, and we’re all in the power of the Nephesh and the Guf. By the time we get back to being a mostly unified being, we’ve said shit, done shit, and generally made a mess of our lives.

So, I propose a contract modification to the Universe. I think we incarnate humans should have the right to invoke the Sanity Clause at any point in time when the pressures of existence have fractured our sanity. When things start getting bad, we should be able to say, “I invoke the Sanity Clause” and have a brief respite from the stresses of the moment. Or a reset moment.

While the Contract Specialists in Jupiter work out all the legal details with Mercury and such, all we can do in the mean time is continue the Work.

In the Solstice Lunar Eclipse Stuff post, I passed on some astrological information about the Eclipse, and Patrick Dunn brought up some really interesting points in response.

Astrology is the art and science of reading the relative positions of the stars and planets to determine what forces are at play in general, and specifically at any given place and time on the Earth. It’s a method of reading the signs so you know where you’re at.

For Hermetic Magicians, astrology is a way for us to look around at the tools we have to work with at any given time to accomplish our magical aims. A chart of a given place and time will tell the trained eye which influences are strongest and which are weakest. Historic observations can tell us what kinds of things generally manifest when the planets are arranged in similar patterns. It lets us know what the tendency of things that manifest under these conditions has been according to astrologers who were paying attention throughout history.

When Patrick did his ritual, he did it exactly the way a Hermetic Magician should do it.

The first point Patrick makes in his post is that he conjured intelligences and didn’t just make a talisman. His point that they might be in a certain mood because of the weather is insightful and true. When working with the intelligences, you’re moving beyond the forces of manifestation and into the pre-manifest realms, sort of. And he did it the right way, asking questions and seeking a favor. He didn’t say, “Take now thy powers manifesting in the Earth and direct them to manifest my desires, forsooth!” By performing his magic the way he did, he became a co-creator, a worker with the forces. He did it exactly the way a Hermetic Magician is supposed to, and mitigated any deleterious effects.

I agree with his point two, that no chart is an unmitigated disaster, and I have no comment on his point three. Ice cream comes in chocolate and vanilla flavors because people have different tastes.

In point four, he brings up some awesomeness. “Those who have attained any degree of Henosis are free of the “twelve governors of fate” described in the Hermetica.” It is the manifest realm that lies under the governors of fate, and as Patrick says, we are free from that realm when we go into their spheres and talk to them. When the favors he’s requested come down to the material realm to manifest, they are going to be subject to the forces of the Fates that rule the material realm, just like any other Idea that gets projected into space-time, but he’s gone to the Intelligence and focused the way the forces will manifest as they come down relative to his intent. He’s right, the Henosis-endowed magician is not subject to the tides and forces of the fates, he is the co-worker with the fates.

I was disappointed with Patrick’s point five, that he’s unimpressed by magic that tells us to sit still. I completely agree with him, but my last paragraph of the previous post was supposed to address that. I take my goal, look at what’s going on astrologically, and see how I can tweak the general forces to work towards my specific goal. Health is obviously Mercury and Jupiter, but it’s also Venus, and also Luna, and the Sun, and Mars can be used, and so can Saturn. Finding one of the planets that is powerful in the current astrological weather is easy enough, you just have to be creative, tweak your approach.

In his first post on the eclipse magic, Patrick points out that he’s used eclipses to burn through obstacles. This is a perfect example of what I’m talking about. Eclipses are bad news. The light is obscured, both physically and spiritually. Yet he directed the forces of the eclipse, the negative bad news towards burning through the obstacles. His statement of intent, “I will that America and its people immediately develop greater freedom and prosperity,” is great. Using the eclipse’s negative forces to burn through obstacles that keep people from freedom and prosperity is exactly the kind of thing I was talking about.

Add to that that he went Above and talked directly to the Intelligences, and you’ve got a perfect example of how to incorporate astrological weather into a rite. Patrick said he’s gotten positive indications through his divinations on the results, and I personally think he’s going to have great results.

But for folks who just wanted to absorb the forces that were manifesting and point them towards good things without going up to the highest heavens, without working in harmony with the forces, there’s going to be shit to clean up. Just because a moment is full of power doesn’t mean that power is going to automatically translate into what you want. It takes effort and insight.

The blogosphere’s been abuzz with things to do on eclipse-solstice night, but I didn’t do anything special with it. I don’t understand astrology well enough to know what the effects will be, and I’ve learned not to work from a position of ignorance and assumption when doing magic, it can have really bad effects.

On the Spiritus Mundi list, the topic came up, and John Michael Greer pointed out a couple of interesting things:

1. The eclipse is not on the solstice. It finishes more than 15 hours before the solstice, so it’s just an eclipse near the solstice.
2. Greer quoted William Ramesey’s Astrolgia Restaurata, and then made some analysis of the actual chart as it is, not as it seems to folks not familiar with astrology. See the group for more information, but he summarizes thus: Political troubles, poor public health, and a bad vegetable crop.

This matters because hen we’re talking astrological magic, we’re talking about the specific forces that are affecting a particular moment. As soon as you start conjuring up the forces of the heavens that are being projected through the Earth, you’re taking a snapshot of the moment and saying to the universe, “I want the forces represented right here, right now to apply to the following things,” and then you list the targets of the forces available, i.e. political troubles, poor public health, or bad vegetable crops.

So any magic you may have done to channel these forces will succeed, but maybe not the way you wanted them to.

Now, I wish I had time to read the posts before the eclipse, but I didn’t. I wish I’d posted a warning ahead of time, because this kind of magic is tricky, and can lead to bad things if you don’t know what you’re doing, but I didn’t. An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure, and I missed the chance to give an ounce of prevention. Sorry about that.

But at least you can take into account the traditional meaning of the eclipse near the winter solstice and maybe make some adjustments to any rites you’ve done if necessary, or have a clue to figure out the source of any political, health, or … uh … vegetable crop issues you may have if you’ve done some Work on the occasion in hopes of getting something good. You’ll have to find a way to turn that into a pound of cure, if anything bad surfaces.

And remember, when you do astrological magic, you’re taking your idea of what you want to the tool shed, and then seeing what tools and materials you have to work with. At that point, you have to figure out how you can build your desired intent with the tools at hand. Based on your personal ingenuity, you can usually find a way to structure a rite that will get you what you want with the forces and materials available. It takes thought, planning, and understanding of the forces at work to be successful at this kind of thing. And ingenuity.

Pallas Renatus, frequent commenter and interesting blogger who should post more, mentioned on my last post, “Oh dear, it must be Mercury Retrograde again.”

And then I felt all Satanic.

Which is because I’d been reading Wake World again, and was reading the entrance to the Sun via a Gate from Mercury, which is Ain on the Kircher Tree, the path between Hod and Tiphareth, the Devil card of the Tarot:

“But in the first we came to a mighty throne of gray     granite, shaped like the sweetest pussy cat you ever saw, and set up on a desolate heath. It was midnight, and the Devil came down and sat in the midst; but my Fairy Prince whispered: “Hush! it is a great secret, but his name is Yeheswah, and he is the Saviour of the World.” And that was very funny, because the girl next me thought it was Jesus Christ, till another Fairy Prince (my Prince’s brother) whispered as he kissed her: “Hush, tell nobody ever, that is Satan, and he is the Saviour of the World.”

We were a very great company, and I can’t tell you of all the strange things we did and said, or of the song we sang as we danced face out-wards in a great circle ever closing in on the Devil on the throne. But whenever I saw a toad or a bat, or some horrid insect, my Fairy Prince always whispered: “It is the Saviour of the world” and I saw that it was so. We did all the most beautiful wicked things you can imagine, and yet all the time we knew they were good and right, and must he done if ever we were to get to the House of Gold. So we enjoyed ourselves very much and ate the most extraordinary supper you can think of. There were babies roasted whole and stuffed with pork sausages and olives; and some of the girls cut off chops and steaks from their own bodies, and gave them to a beautiful white cook at a silver grill, that was lighted with the gas of dead bodies and marshes; and he cooked them splendidly, and we all enjoyed it immensely. Then there was a tame goat with a gold collar, that went about laughing with every one; and he was all shaved in patches like a poodle We kissed him and petted him, and it was lovely. You must remember that I never let go of my Fairy Prince for a single instant, or of course I should have been turned into a horrid black toad.”

Good times! And then after she goes through the other two paths to the Sun, via Luna and Venus, she says,

“We came by and by to the Sixth House. I forgot to say that all those three paths were really one, because they all meant that things were different inside to outside, and so people couldn’t judge. It was fearfully interesting; but mind you don’t go in those passages without the Fairy Prince. “

They all meant that things were different inside to outside, and so people couldn’t judge. Not shouldn’t, but couldn’t. Because what things look like is not what they are. The things in the path of AIN are gross and disgusting, but they are also holy and divine. They are gates to illumination, even though they are debaucherous. There’s a danger, of course, for those who let go of their HGA for even a second on this path. People can turn into horrid black toads if they are pursuing Illumination through depravity, but there is a way through it that makes even the most depraved act holy if it’s done for the right reasons, and you never lose sight of the goal. The Cainite Gnostics come to mind. So easy to slip into utter oblivion on that path, but still a viable method of attainment if you can hold onto the Guide, and not lose sight of the Goal.

The depraved acts are, in truth, Evil. The depraved acts, done in innocence and without malice are, in truth, Good. It’s dualism at its finest, really. Truly evil and truly good. But there’s more to it than the apparent evil and the occult good. Thesis, Antithesis, and Synthesis. The Third Truth is that you cannot judge them to be either good nor evil, whether by merit of their appearance or the result. The real truth is that there is no good or evil other than your likes or dislikes.

This third truth is essential to the accomplishment of the Art/Temperance tarot card that represents the path of SAMEKH between the Moon and the Sun. You cannot make the Philosopher’s Stone unless you have rectified the Red Lion and the White Eagle, if you haven’t found them in a pit of nasty filth where they were savage, if you haven’t raised them to be faithful and good by always treating them kindly. You have to see beyond the apparent filth and savagery to get to the point where you have the refined faithful companions, the refined pure ingredients to create the Stone. You have to reach the third truth, that appearance and essence are often at apparent opposite ends of the spectrum, but their utility is only attained by balancing both.

The third truth is essential to passing the Third Path as well, the Path of NUN, the Death card of the Tarot. All who incarnate will walk down this path, and only one will emerge from the end, and yet the One and the Many are again the Outer Appearance and the Inner Truth, and again they are both illusions, references to the thing and not the thing itself.

So when Pallas Renatus said, “Oh my, Mercury must be retrograde” in response to the previous post, I realized that I’d better make some things clear, just in case. The apparent hubris of the post is the outer truth, the message it contains is the inner truth, but its true purpose was simply to entertain.

Jow’s observation on the self-centered nature of ceremonialists got me thinking. Ceremonial Magicians have earned a certain degree of contempt from the pagan and occult community at large because we do tend to be dicks, or haughty bitches on occasion. We spend all this time learning ancient forms of astronomy and correspondence tables, and we take the time to study the writings of magicians and mystics that can be difficult to understand, and some of us, at times, can get kind of arrogant.

But sometimes we just seem that way. When you’ve taken the time to actually read the source material Crowley references in his Book IV for example, you learn to understand a great deal more of what the man was saying. The jokes become apparent, and then when you point it out to people they get all offended because they don’t get the joke.

And on top of that, you’re a social retard who spent a lot of your time in books and communing with spirits, and most humans don’t understand what you’re trying to do. You finally meet some occult-people who seem to have an interest in what you’ve already done, and you try to talk to them, and then you figure out they’re just starting out, and you want to help, but you don’t know what they know, and you don’t want to offend them by patronizing them, but you’re excited to tell them something that would really help them, and so you try to make it sound like it’s something they might already know, you refer to it at a high level so it just reminds them what you’re talking about if they already know it, but if not leaves you open to go into more detail, and then they just look at you, and you try not to burn out their eyeballs with the glittering brilliance of your sphere as they gaze upon you with their stupefied inbred deer in the headlights look, and later on you learn they thought you were just being an asshole when you were trying to do a good thing. They aren’t capable of understanding it, let alone appreciating it or participating in the real good times, and they walk away thinking YOU’RE the dick.

Fellow alchemists and other magicians seeking the opportunity to get state funding for your alchemical experiments, please note that Kazakhstan is the place to be.

Sure, it’s a little unstable, but if you believe all the hype, the US will be in just as bad of shape shortly. The UK too, I’m sure. So you know, ex-pat seekers, throw together an Elixir of Life formula that looks plausible, and you’ve got a free ticket for as long as it lasts.

Note the fate of those who failed Rudolph though. Things to remember.

Please, oh hacktivists, tell me you’re smarter than this.

You know why Hagbard Celine says, “I steam-shovel when it’s steam-shovel time”? Because the Steam-Shovel was invented in about three different places at the same time by three different parties who were not working together. It was the next step in Engineering, and as the environments and education allowed for it, it emerged around the world because it was time.

First assumption then: That when something happens like that, it’s happening for a reason. The convergence of technology and innovation and necessity, plus experience and education ensure that somewhere, the steam-shovel will be invented. It happened simultaneously because it was just time for it to happen, and nothing could prevent its manifestation.

But Hagbard takes it a step further, doesn’t he? “I steam-shovel…” He makes it personal. The statement changes a phenomenon of technological development and turns it into a universal principle that has personal applications. It was destiny that the steam shovel manifest, he says, and if there is a destiny for that huge innovation that leveled mountains and paved the way for global communications and the exchange of information across time and space, by god, there’s a destiny for all things, even me. As a result, what I do matters and has global implications on par with the coming of the steam shovel.

It’s a leap of logic that can get kind of difficult to support if you spend too much time thinking about it. He is an Erisian, after all. But it’s a statement that has stuck with me over the years.

I’ve been playing with Luck lately. I’ve been exploring the paths or tunnels between Saturn and Mercury and the Moon. Very fun and interesting stuff. There’s a simple way to screw up really badly looking for Luck and good Fortune in the sphere of the Greater Malefic, and avoiding that particular trap has taken a lot of focused intent. It’s like a gravitational constant that tries to wrap you up in the decaying orbit that leads to the Terminus. Lots of adjustments need to be made, and you really have to watch the proportions of the mingled forces.

But what I’ve found is that when you’ve got it right, you become the driving forces of Fate itself. It’s a matter of getting your mind in harmony with the forces of Fate. There are Seven forces of Fate, the Governors of the Planets. Getting the initiations into the Seven Spheres is imperative, I think, and I wouldn’t have been able to integrate those forces without my SA* to guide the process. But when I’ve been “on,” and in harmony, I can feel myself changing the warp and weave of existence in every action. I can feel the extended efffects of my moions and mutterings in my basement affecting the mechanisms of the whole around the universe. I can feel the forces moving me right along, and I am as much the Mover as the Moved. It’s an at-one consciousness thing with some Right Action thrown in to boot.

And it’s not like I’m just doing what I’m told, I’m doing what I want. And yeah, “what I want” is the result of coming to terms with why I’m here, and it’s not what I wanted in terms of selfish want, but it’s what I WANT from an eternal perspective, and it’s even better than the lower-case want I thought I wanted when I started out.

There’s a power that is both giddiness-inducing, and humbling at the same time. To be the hand of fate, to Steam-Shovel when it’s Steam-Shovel time is to become the creator of the universe for as long as you can hold onto it.

And I think we’re all there at some level, but we’re not fully aware of it except when we’re at-one-ing. The rest of the time we’re as much pawns as we are hidden chess masters, and it’s not the same thing as conjuring spirits, or meditation, nor is it the same thing as producing whatever it is we produce to earn our paychecks in the mundane world.

But you’ve got to go through at least an intro level into each of the Planetary Spheres, get familiar with those forces and get them in their proper positions relative to one another in your sphere. I know it doesn’t make a lot of sense, so let’s use the Microcosm in the Macrocosm example that summarizes things for me best: The Altar Glyph.

Ok, see how everything is laid out in relation to the four corners of the World? The glyph represents how you would see the world if you were looking out from Agrippa’s Scale of the Number 4, from Book 2, chapter vii of the Three Books of Occult Philosophy. Because the Altar is always in the physical realm, you lay out your representation of the things Above as if you were seeing them from here Below.

Now we know this isn’t “really” how things are. It’s a representation of everything as seen from one point of view. The planetary groupings in the Elemental kingdoms follow Agrippa’s elemental attributes from Book 1, chapters xxiii-xxix. It doesn’t follow the normal elemental attributes assigned by the planetary rulerships of the Signs, and it threw me for a while, until I realized Agrippa is using this to explain how the forces of the Planets primarily manifest in the physical realm. (shit, just hit cntrl-P which apparently publishes the post. woopsie! someone’s reading a draft right now. Come back later and see what I meant it to look like if you’re reading this before I repost it. And no, I don’t know how you’re supposed to know that. I guess just look and see if there’s more below this point besides the asterisked footnote.)

Ok, so the image is a representation of the relative locations of the planets and elements to one another in the physical sphere based on how the forces of the Planets primarily manifest. The process of initiation into all the spheres builds in a kind of Altar Glyph into your own sphere. The forces are all integrated relative to one another, and you’re able to tap into them more directly and clearly, and consciously as you go along in the Work. The forces are purified, strengthened, and you gain knowledge and skill in applying them as needed.

Once they’re integrated and you’ve got a frame of reference for each of the forces, you can start to catch the waves of their mingling and manifesting consciously. It’s a lot like surfing. You’ve got to be aware of where you are in relation to the wave, you have to estimate where it’s going to break, position yourself in the right place, and then stand up at the right moment and let the wave take you, guiding it, riding it, moving with it and being at one with the most powerful forces of existence.

But the surfer is passive, sort of. The feeling of being at-one and directing the integrated forces of Fate is much more active. It’s easier to start out with one type of force at a time and then start playing with the others as you progress.

Ok, back to the Luck thing. Notice that Saturn and Mercury are both in the same quadrant as Water in the Altar Glyph? Weird, huh. I mean, most GD Hermeticists will tell you Saturn is of the element Earth, right? And they are right too. Agrippa says Saturn is Water and Earth. But he lumps Saturn in the quadrant of Water in the Scale of the Number 4 because that’s how it begins to manifest, like fluid flowing down, and it’s as resistable as the tide.

Speaking of the Tide, the tide is ruled by the Moon, right? And the Moon is in the element of the Earth in the glyph. Why? Because in the chain of manifestation, the outward form of all Ideas that are manifesting from the Ideal REalm into the Physical is determined and ruled by the Moon. The Moon is the definer of the final shape and outermost form of all ideas as they come into being. So the Earth and the Moon are one in the glyph to represent this aspect of the process.

So my luck experiments consist of taking small amounts of Saturn, large amounts of Mercury, charging the Watery manifestation point, and pouring it out into the Earth through the Moon. When I’m consciously riding the Luck Wave, I can feel the surges from the other spheres I’ve been initiated into, like hearing the communications between the other governors, but most of my attention is focused into the manifestation of the luck-fate current.

And when it all clicks, and I’m doing here below what I’m doing up above, the feeling is incredible. It is the steam-shovel, it is the creation of the lucky series of events that lead to moments of joy and relaxed reaping of rewards.

And here’s the thing: When you’re doing it, it’s faith. You just know what to do, you believe it, because you’re doing it. Like riding a wave, you know you can because you are, and the longer you can do it, the more you know you can do it longer next time. “If you have faith the size of a mustard seed,” the old saying goes, “you can move mountinas.” But this faith is a gift, as well as a thing earned. It allows the conscious control of Fate, but at the same time demands the conscious acquiescence that the controller of Fate is more than just the part of the Whole Thing that is temporarily manifesting as you or me. It’s believing on purpose in what is really true, in spite of the symbolic nature of the things we’re using to represent it all.

*SA is the Supernatural Assistant. It is the entity that became, in later revelations, the Holy Guardian Angel. It’s purpose, at least, one of its purposes, is to “embalm you as befits a God” when you die. I’ve mentioned before that this is a reference to the transformation process between a human and a Power of the 8th and 9th spheres. Gods don’t need to be embalmed. I see this as a process of aiding in the integration of the purified forces of the spheres into the sphere of the magician, an integration that transforms the whole of the individual being into the next level of incarnation, if they are on the path that leads to through this particular gate. Different strokes for different folks, and all, but for Hermetic magi, the goal is to become a Power.

Ok, so I had this fast track to taking over the world and making it dance to my mad piping. It ran into some snarls along the way and was temporarily derailed by a momentary concern that should have been dealt with in better ways. My bad. Ooops and shit. Now that that’s taken care of, we’ll just be moving right along.

Things are… mmmm, Good. Beard stroking, warm beside the fire as the cold winds blow outside, enjoying a quality cigar and pondering the future as I listen pyromantically to the whispers of the flames as they dance across the embers. That kind of Good.

My Elemental Spheres have been balanced by some recent Work, and I’ve relearned some things about manifestation that I had forgotten lately. I’ve reclaimed a great deal of the things I’d let slip away in the Distracted Time, and as my Above has gotten sorted out, my Below has been keeping steady pace. Assuming I haven’t fucked anything up, in a few short weeks, I’ll be back where I was before things got screwy, and I’ll be able to pick up where I left off and move right along to the next phase of my plans…

Gee, it’s almost as if I brought about a purifying fire refining me and purifying my essence to better accomplish the Work.

Fuck, I hate this process sometimes. As far as world-views go, perhaps a cosmology that requires calcination as a precursor to massive achievement and reward leaves something to be desired. I would much rather have discovered that the secret methods manifestation and empowerment came from eating Kit-Kats and drinking Monster on the beach in a land where it never gets fucking freezing outside. Is it asking too much that my personal pleasure and instant access to infinite resources at whim be the key to global human transcendence forever without any suffering on my part at all, ever? Apparently.

Whatever, I’ve been through the fire, damnit, and I’m ready to reap the rewards. There had better be a fucking Red stone that turns everything to fucking gold when this shit works out. Signs indicate this is indeed the outcome, but if not, I will be kicking some ass.

Uhm.

Things are indeed getting better though. Inventory updated, progress noted.