The best encapsulation of the neo-platonic creation story that I’ve found is in the second book of The Divine Pymander by Hermes Trismegistus. (Check wikipedia for his story.) It’s simple and to the point. Christians like myself can identify enough parallels to feel at ease in it, and pagans can find enough other gods that they feel at home too. It’s a good little catch-all, and that makes sense when you study its history. Which I won’t get into here. Lots of debate around that, and I’d rather get to the point.

My understanding of the Creation is summarized below. There’s a lot I’m omitting for the sake of brevity, but I’m trying to include the required pieces to to lay the foundation.

In the beginning was essential God-the-Progenitor, dwelling in perfect darkness. In that perfect darkness, God still and always resides. By its nature, it radiates infinite pure light. In The Divine Pymander, Hermes Trismegistus is given a vision of the creation of the material realm. Within the infinite light appeared a great darkness, smoking as if it were on fire. Out of the infinite Light leaped a “certain holy Word” and that Word joined itself to the dark mass of Matter that came into being. When this holy Word entered the darkness, it separated into four realms. Fire leaped up highest to be closest to the infinite light, followed by Air, which seemed to hang between the Fire and Earth-Water below.

Next, God created a Workman. This guy created seven governors, each with their own sphere, surrounding the realm of Matter. When he did, the Word leaped up and cohabited with the Workman. This being then set the spheres in motion, and the natural world began creating animals and plants.

Meanwhile, God made Man in Its image. Man was the honored and beloved “brother” of the family. Eventually, after a lot went down (!), Man entered the physical realm, containing a spark of infinite God within, and yet also loving and being loved by Nature. We’re of two natures, mortal and immortal.

The Spark of the Divine within is what gives us “authority” overt the elements, and the seven governors. We’re coworkers though, not masters and slaves.

Ptolemy laid out the basic cosmology of the NP system. the center sphere is the sphere of Earth, surrounded by the sphere of Water, then Air, then Fire. Then there are the seven Spheres of the Governors. Each of these spheres is associated with one of the seven planets of classical astrology, the Moon, Mercury, Venus, the Sun, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn. Around these are the “fixt stars,” whose influence is primarily felt through the planetary governors. Beyond the stars is the realm of eternal light, and sitting in eternal divine darkness, radiating the light outwards and willing existence is the Primum Mobile, God.

The following image displays the basic cosmology of the NP system:

As you can see, there’s a hierarchy involved. Each successive sphere heading “outward” brings you further from the realm of matter and closer to the realm of God. This is the structure brought to Creation by Logos, the “holy Word” created or uttered by God-the-Progenitor.

So Cthulhu was reading the comments on my blog today, and he saw Wind’s comment “it makes me wonder… you attained your HGA some time ago and you’re just figuring out that you want to serve mankind now? Maybe the path ain’t what I thought it was.”

“Mlaroeognhchth!”

“Yeah,” I said, “I get that all the time.”

“Granachlethtulku?”

“Nah, I’ll just write a blog post.”

“Ng yalthkaz ruek.”

“Heh, yeah, I know, right? But I’ll just put it in English my way. It’s not so messy.”

This is one of the reasons I started writing the blog and eventually got around to starting the Supernatural Assistant course. The fact is, the path isn’t what a lot of people think it is. The HGA isn’t instant enlightenment. It isn’t a path to becoming compassionate and wise and everything you think a spiritual guru or enlightened Master is supposed to be. It’s nothing like the point of Eastern Mysticism at all.

The HGA is primarily a spiritual assistant. It’s got the powers of a lot of the entities from the Lemegeton, entities largely considered “demonic.” It also has the power to bring you entities often considered Demonic. It’s also a straight and direct line of communion with your Source. It’s also a powerful motivator and Teacher, a Guide that can direct you to spiritual wisdom and the whole guru thing. It can help you attain compassion and service to others, if that’s your purpose in life.

But it’s not a given. Just because you can talk to your HGA doesn’t mean you will. Just because you can have it make troops appear to frighten off your King’s enemies doesn’t mean you’ll ever be in a position to need that.

The primary goal of the HGA is to help you do more magic. More magic causes spiritual transformations that may lead to compassion, or it may lead to wisdom, or it may lead to wealth, or something like that. But there’s no guarantee, and above all, it’s not a process that happens over night.

I started out an asshole who literally hated people. Misanthropist barely describes the hate I felt for “other people.” After years of doing magic with my HGA, I have changed. I generally get mildly annoyed by people now, and even then I recognize that whatever’s annoying me is only temporary, and does not mean I need to write off that person entirely because one area of their life is annoying to me. I’ve learned that I don’t need to curse people, because their lives are usually pretty shitty, and that’s why they’re acting so annoying. I’ve learned I don’t have to be a dick, all the time.

I’m not a perfectly compassionate, lay-down-my-life-for-a-friend kind of guy. I still want to do things for me, regardless of the impact it has on others. I have a hard time getting out of bed and doing a load of dishes or laundry when my wife’s sick. I’d rather play video games than mow the lawn. I’d rather have a ton of money than have to earn it. I still see people do stupid things and think, “God! How flippin’ STUPID!” and feel better about myself because I’m so not-STUPID.

I’m petty and mean, sometimes. There are days when I regret ever writing this blog, ever trying to help people, ever starting the path of the Great Work. There are days that I hate the responsibility that comes with it, and frankly, there are days when I ignore the responsibility that comes with it.

But I’ve progressed a great deal, in my own estimation, from where I used to be. I hear it from others as well, that I’ve shown growth in understanding aspects of the path I’m on that they thought I’d never achieve.

The bottom line is that the HGA doesn’t make you perfect, it makes it easier to approach perfection. But that’s not it’s primary function at all. It’s primarily there to aid you in performing magic, magic that is intended to create the world. There are things that need to be created on the planet that aren’t going to be fun for everyone that participate, things that will hurt, maim, and kill. Conjure a daimon to help your brother in a battle in Afghanistan, and you’re helping to kill Taliban-believing humans. For what? To protect your brother? What makes your brother special compared to the Taliban?

But that’s what the spirits are there for. We’re supposed to be concerned about this level of “petty” human interaction. Why would God create a spirit that causes pustules and death if there weren’t a time that pustules and death were necessary?

We don’t take on a flesh suit and manifest as human beings so that we can transcend being human, or so that we can attain an understanding that makes us more than human. We do it to be fully human. We aren’t supposed to be perfect. If we were supposed to be perfectly good and do only the “right” thing all the time, we wouldn’t have bothered being human in the first place.

Yeah, I found out I like helping people. The interesting part to me was that I enjoy it. I mean, I’m really fulfilled by doing it. I’ve helped people before, but in general I usually resent having to help people. I would rather help myself. I’ve never felt so happy about it, I’ve just sort of felt it was a necessary burden, an obligation to pass things on that I didn’t have a lot of choice in. I’ve always looked at the Hierophant thing as a burden, not a joy. I’ve said before, “I do it because I gots to, Mister!” It’s true, too, I do have to.

What’s surprising to me is that I’m enjoying it too. I’m actually having fun.

I’m in a bit of a quandary. I’ve been Working with this syncretic Judeo-Christian/Neo-Platonic system for a while now, based almost entirely on the the Three Books of Occult Philosophy by Agrippa. I’ve been reading Plato’s Timaeus, Plotinus’ Enneads, and Hermes Trismegistus’ s The Divine Pymander, and it’s all been percolating into a pretty strong brew within my sphere. When I hit the epiphany the other day, I was convinced it was a Universal Truth. I still think it is, but the general responses I’m getting are telling me that it’s not making the kind of impact it had on me. In general, I’ve gotten a “yeah, ok” response, when this is the Key to Everything! Well, at least I think it is. For me, definitely, and I don’t see anything that would indicate it wouldn’t be the Key to Life, the Universe and Everything in a much more more meaningful way than “42.”

So, with that in mind, I’m going to be posting a series of NP basics so the foundation of the system I’m working with is documented somewhere. I see another book in my future. Distant future. 🙂

So here’s the planned outline:

1.0 – Overview Sections:

• 1.1 – NP Cosmology: How it all started
• 1.2 – The Harmony of the Spheres
• 1.3 – Spirits: Why we Work with ’em, How we Work with ’em
• 1.4 – Why we’re here: The Great Work in a NP Magical System
• 1.5 – While we’re here: The Great Work in Action

2.0 – Practical Sections:

• 2.1 – The Lamp
• 2.2 – About those Planets…
• 2.3 – The Joys of Making Talismen
• 2.4 – Elemental Kings
• 2.5 – Spirit Pots
• 2.6 – Them pesky demons are at it again…
• 2.7 – The Genius and the Evil Daimon

3.0 – The Glyph

• 3.1 – Putting it all Together: The Altar Layout Revisited
• 3.2 – Using the Glyph in Practice

That should cover everything. Along the way, I’ll probably have other posts to make about some pet projects. I’ve started making my Genius/Evil Daimon… thing. Yeah, I’ll get to details on that later.

The first post of the Practical section is mercifully brief, but I think it’s important to include the Lamp in your list of required magickal tools. Its influence and usefulness will help with the application of the subjects that follow.

The Lamp is a tool I hadn’t really used much before getting the vision of that Glyph that started this series of posts on the NP basics. Usually, I would light some appropriately-colored candles in my Work, and either let them burn out as part of the ritual, or snuff them and relight them later.

Then Modrocus posted a couple of experiments he had been doing using the Papryi Graecae Magicae (PGM) at the ritual_magic yahoo group. This was about a day or two before I had a revelation about the Glyph and the altar setup it implies. When the revelation came, the role of the Lamp became pretty clear.

In the PGM, the Lamp is used as a means to commune with the spirits. In some rituals, when the spirit is present, the magician or skryer can see their presence as a quality of the light around the Lamp that isn’t there when the spirit isn’t present. In other rituals, the Lamp is like a transmitter, with the wick being made out of a cloth with the spell written on it and then burned. I thought that was pretty cool.

Then I had the revelation of the Glyph, and it became apparent to me that the Lamp plays another role as well. In order to be effective in this role, the Lamp must be positioned outside the circle of the planetary talismen, representing the realm of infinite light that surrounds the divine darkness in which the Good dwells. This minor little detail has made a big impact in my Work. I never grasped the far-reaching effects a properly laid-out altar can have on your personal and magickal life. The altar is the representation of the macrocosm and the implements at your disposal to function within that macrocosm as a magician. Just setting up your altar properly results in a fundamental change in your life.

My “Lamp” is a tall brass candle stand, about 18 inches high. I have a tea-lite candle holder on top of this, and I can drop in a tea-lite before the ritual begins, and it has a really neat effect on the rest of the altar layout. It provides just the right ambiance for scrying in a crystal, and as I go through the various stages of the Work, I can check the Lamp to see if I’m where I need to be. If the Spirit of God is present, it shows.

In addition, I can use the Lamp as a transmitter through the use of tea-lites appropriately inscribed and anointed, following the guidelines of the PGM.

So in addition to the “standard” elemental tools a magician in the NP system has on their altar, I strongly urge you to include a Lamp. It completes your altar in a way that can’t be easily described, but is almost instantly understood when implemented.

The first post of the Practical section is mercifully brief, but I think it’s important to include the Lamp in your list of required magickal tools. Its influence and usefulness will help with the application of the subjects that follow.

The Lamp is a tool I hadn’t really used much before getting the vision of that Glyph that started this series of posts on the NP basics. Usually, I would light some appropriately-colored candles in my Work, and either let them burn out as part of the ritual, or snuff them and relight them later.

Then Modrocus posted a couple of experiments he had been doing using the Papryi Graecae Magicae (PGM) at the ritual_magic yahoo group. This was about a day or two before I had a revelation about the Glyph and the altar setup it implies. When the revelation came, the role of the Lamp became pretty clear.

In the PGM, the Lamp is used as a means to commune with the spirits. In some rituals, when the spirit is present, the magician or skryer can see their presence as a quality of the light around the Lamp that isn’t there when the spirit isn’t present. In other rituals, the Lamp is like a transmitter, with the wick being made out of a cloth with the spell written on it and then burned. I thought that was pretty cool.

Then I had the revelation of the Glyph, and it became apparent to me that the Lamp plays another role as well. In order to be effective in this role, the Lamp must be positioned outside the circle of the planetary talismen, representing the realm of infinite light that surrounds the divine darkness in which the Good dwells. This minor little detail has made a big impact in my Work. I never grasped the far-reaching effects a properly laid-out altar can have on your personal and magickal life. The altar is the representation of the macrocosm and the implements at your disposal to function within that macrocosm as a magician. Just setting up your altar properly results in a fundamental change in your life.

My “Lamp” is a tall brass candle stand, about 18 inches high. I have a tea-lite candle holder on top of this, and I can drop in a tea-lite before the ritual begins, and it has a really neat effect on the rest of the altar layout. It provides just the right ambiance for scrying in a crystal, and as I go through the various stages of the Work, I can check the Lamp to see if I’m where I need to be. If the Spirit of God is present, it shows.

In addition, I can use the Lamp as a transmitter through the use of tea-lites appropriately inscribed and anointed, following the guidelines of the PGM.

So in addition to the “standard” elemental tools a magician in the NP system has on their altar, I strongly urge you to include a Lamp. It completes your altar in a way that can’t be easily described, but is almost instantly understood when implemented.

The first thing I did, being the pragmatic Tech-writing Taurus that I am, was to draw up the Glyph on my computer. It’s easier to do concentric circles and save them as images in Visio. What I ended up with is this:

As you can see, there aren’t seven circles for the spheres of the planets, or four for the elements as you might expect. I drew out all the spheres in earlier drawings, but they’re just too big. This suffices, and it has a circle for each of the primary items one works with as an incarnate magician.

The inner three circles represent the sphere of the incarnate magician. They are divided into four quadrants, one for each of the cardinal points. In the innermost circle are the four Demonic Kings of the corners of the world. The brackets here represent their influence upon the magician being bound. Surrounding them are the Four Angelic Kings of the four corners of the World. These angels bind the influence of the Demonic Kings from the sphere of the magician. In the circle around the angles, I placed the elements as presented in Agrippa’s Scale of the Number Four.

In the outermost circle are the planets. The order is very specific. If you look at the table in Agrippa’s Book 2, Chapter vii, you’ll see why they are placed where they are placed.

The order of the planetary spheres as the spirit descends into matter is Saturn-Jupiter-Mars-Sun-Venus-Mercury-Moon. However, we’re already incarnated, and when we look up at the spheres from the world of manifestation, we’ll see them from the perspective of the material realm.

Placing the planets in their respective quadrants as seen from below represents understanding the place of the incarnated magician in the cosmos. We are spirits, sparks of the Logos, of the Race of Gods. Our origin is from beyond the stars and the planets they influence. Yet our home, our sphere of influence is the material realm. We transcend through the realms of the planets to return to God, yet we retain our places in the manifest world, anchors, as it were, for the power of God to return with us to this realm.

Not to get all loopy or anything. There’s only so much theory and metaphysics I can personally stand. It doesn’t mean anything if it doesn’t affect anything, in my opinion, and it was vitally important to get the harmony represented in the Glyph grounded in my sphere.

Where is the magician’s sphere represented physically? Their altar, of course. It holds their elemental tools, the symbols of their authority over the essences that Plato taught combined to form all things. It’s also the Table of Practice, the key to working with the spirits of each realm. It represents the access point for the Magician. It’s the pivotal point between the realms Above and the realms Below. It represents everything spiritual in the magicians manifest realm.

So I took the Key to Everything represented in the Glyph and put it in place on my altar. The first thing I did was bind the Demonic Kings in miniature Spirit Pots. Then I created miniature talismans of the Angels of the four corners of the Earth using the Kings of the elements in the Rider-Waite Tarot deck. Beside each of these cards on the Altar, I placed the Elemental weapons associated with the Corner. That was great for the physical sphere.

For the planets, I placed the seven talismans in the layout in the outermost circle of the glyph. Outside the circle of the planets, I placed my Lamp, to represent the Source of all, the True Father, the Speaker of the Word who dwells in perfect darkness within the source of the radiating Light.

Immediately I began to see the effects of cleaning up my altar space on my Work. The Spirits of the planets come more quickly, and every aspect of my life has been drawn into an increasing harmony. My credit has cleared up, my job has become more secure, communications that were blocked are open now. Questions I have are resolved quickly and “miraculously.”

Everything isn’t perfect, of course. We’re still in the manifest realm. But I do have an insight and a position of stability and authority from which to oversee the sources and interactions of the forces behind the scenes in my life.

Life is truly Good.

2.0 – Practical Sections

With the posting of Section 1.5, the basic philosophical foundations of the Neo-Platonic cosmology (as I understand them) have been laid out.

The next section of posts will be on the practical application of the system presented in the previous sections. In this next series, I’ll be looking at the practical applications of the following aspects in a bit more detail:

• 2.1 – The Lamp
• 2.2 – About those Planets…
• 2.3 – The Joys of Making Talismen
• 2.4 – Elemental Kings
• 2.5 – Spirit Pots

• 2.6 – Them pesky demons are at it again…
• 2.7 – The Genius and the Evil Daimon

These sections will present the methodologies and the tools used in the magickal application of the NP system.

2.0 – Practical Sections

With the posting of Section 1.5, the basic philosophical foundations of the Neo-Platonic cosmology (as I understand them) have been laid out.

The next section of posts will be on the practical application of the system presented in the previous sections. In this next series, I’ll be looking at the practical applications of the following aspects in a bit more detail:

• 2.1 – The Lamp
• 2.2 – About those Planets…
• 2.3 – The Joys of Making Talismen
• 2.4 – Elemental Kings
• 2.5 – Spirit Pots

• 2.6 – Them pesky demons are at it again…
• 2.7 – The Genius and the Evil Daimon

These sections will present the methodologies and the tools used in the magickal application of the NP system.

2.0 – Practical Sections

With the posting of Section 1.5, the basic philosophical foundations of the Neo-Platonic cosmology (as I understand them) have been laid out.

The next section of posts will be on the practical application of the system presented in the previous sections. In this next series, I’ll be looking at the practical applications of the following aspects in a bit more detail:

• 2.1 – The Lamp
• 2.2 – About those Planets…
• 2.3 – The Joys of Making Talismen
• 2.4 – Elemental Kings
• 2.5 – Spirit Pots

• 2.6 – Them pesky demons are at it again…
• 2.7 – The Genius and the Evil Daimon

These sections will present the methodologies and the tools used in the magickal application of the NP system.