Online Meditation Timers

This is freaking AWSOME!

AN ONLINE MEDITATION TIMER!!!

Beats the shit out of a kitchen timer bell, or spending 99 bucks on a digital meditation timer.

ANNOUNCEMENT

Today is Michaelmas, the feast of the Taxiarch Michael, He who is like God, the Archangel of Sol.

Because of the nature of my first book, many people have contacted me requesting protection rituals from both psychic and physical dangers. I will still be available for hire to work on specific cases when needed, but I wanted to be able to offer something powerful as a service to anyone that needs help.

I have been for a few months now been secretly consecrating a safebox physically and psychically lined with seals and spells of Michael and topped with a consecrated statue of the Angel. Going forward, unless I am traveling, I will be doing a weekly invocation over the box invoking the angels protection of all who have a magickal link and petition inside the box.

To send me a link and petition, address it to:
Jason Miller, C/O Michael,
P.O. Box 40
Barnegat, NJ 08005

The service is free. If you wish to make an offering in thanks to the help received please find a charity that offers protection to the helpless, such as a shelter for battered women or children, and make your offering there.

Do not send anything that you want to receive back. The petition should be handwritten and state any specific needs for protection if you should have them. You can send petitions just for general protection if you like. If you want to send an additional link besides the petition, a lock of hair or fingernail will suffice. Please no large objects. Petitions made for other people are allowed.

Unless otherwise instructed I will be reading your name and part of your petition as part of the invocation the first week that I receive it. If you do not want me to read your petition, simply fold it closed and tape it shut. The issue will than be between you and the Archangel only.

Necromancy

The Myth of Guilt

If you look over to the side bar (on the blogpot page only, not on LJ) you will see that several other of my Blog-buddies have the same subject line as I do today. My Gal suggested it as a topic, and I agreed to write about it today along with the other. Thing is, until I looked over at the side bar I completely forgot about it.

But I don’t feel the slightest bit guilty about it.

This blog at the moment is really here for me to make quickie posts when I get blocked on writing my book after all; thus the poorly edited, typo-riddled, half-understandable posts that have become the normal fare here. Most of my posts take less than 15 minutes to write. So its no big deal than just to crank out an off-the-top-of-my-head rant on the idea of a myth of guilt.

Last year at around this time I gave an interview to a Princeton Local TV Station where I spoke about magick, both practical and esoteric. When I talked about enlightenment, transcendence, self-actualization and such, the interviewer responded: that is what religion is supposed to be for. I surprised her when I said it wasn’t at all what religion was for. At least not mainly.

Religion really serves two purposes: Translation and Transcendence. Most people are ONLY concerned with translation, thus the bulk of religious practice and service is devoted to it. Religion translates the mysteries of the universe into easily understood axioms and directives. What happens when I die? Why am I here? Why is there evil? How can I be a good person?

The translation settles the essential questions enough that you can go to your job, shag the wife, pop out some kids, and keep society rolling without causing much of a fuss.

Transcendence is almost the polar opposite of this. Rather than explaining the world, transcendent spirituality or mysticism questions it constantly. Rather than relying on faith in an answer provided by text or tradition, the mystic relies upon knowledge that is gleamed from his questioning. The first role of religion re-enforces the norms, the second questions them. The direct perception of the deeper layers of reality reveal a lot of what society considers valid to be nothing more than myth. No wonder that the mystics of any faith, often come into conflict with the priesthood.

Religion is there to translate the world just enough so that people can get on with their day. Guilt is a part of that translation. When you break the rules of what is “good” they tell you to feel guilty. It’s a control mechanism. People that have traveled in Asia have often commented about the difference between the “guilt culture” of the west and the “shame culture” of the east, but that’s perhaps a bit too much for this post. Either way, the myth of guilt and shame is a method of societal control.

Many modern occultists are concerned with fighting the myth of guilt and see it as an inherently bad thing to be undone in every man, woman, and child. I however am HAPPY about the myth of guilt.

Many mystics and magicians, achieving even the slightest Gnosis, begin preaching on the evils of faith and the freedom of transcendence. Sayings like “Nothing is True, Everything is Permitted” get bandied about and documents like Liber Oz get posted detailing the rights of a man freed from the myth of Guilt and Sin. But here’s the rub: not everyone wants to do the great work. Not everyone wants to blow their mind. Not everyone wants to cut through their habitual patterns. Not everyone wants transcendence. When you start shoving gnosis and transcendence and freedom down peoples throats, your just another Jehovah’s Witness telling people what to do.

Most people on this earth are worried about feeding their family, keeping their kids safe, eeking out a comfortable existence, and maybe finding time to engage a hobby or two. They are not worried about bursting the bubble of false reality. They are not worried about enlightenment or transcendence. They have every right not to be.

I personally accept "every event as a direct dealing of God with my Soul”. I personally have found a state of awareness that I can rest in from time to time that is beyond attachment and clinging. I personally have no use for guilt in my life; its just blame aimed at the self and I have never had a use for blame. Will under Love is my Law. I personally feel the need to explore and attain. I personally know the joys of transcendent freedom; but to tell the truth to someone not ready to hear it is to tell a lie.

I can’t tell most people “Do what thou Wilt is the whole of the law", or that they should reject the myth of sin and guilt. Most people don’t even have basic politeness or civility down pat, I am certainly not going to repeal all the myths and laws that help keep them in line!

Psychopaths after all are just regular people with no sense of guilt.

Speaking at Crucible

I will be speaking at Crucible this year.

The Schedule is here.

And the Winner is...

And the winner is...

Al Billings, for his submission of Cantrip, which I am going to probably spell as Kantrip just to differentiate it a bit from those that know it from Dungeons and Dragons.

It has the exact meaning I was looking for: In Scotland it refers to a Witch's Trick or "little spell".

Thanks for everyones suggestions. Sigorum from Witch Doctor Joe was a close second.

Silver Star # 10

Silver Star 10 is up. As Harry Smith said about the Necronomicon:

"Its the kind of thing you'd love, if you love that kind of thing".

Check it out

Shugden

In my post yesterday entitled Demons with nothing to do I mentioned a bit about Dorje Shugden and the controversy that surrounds his practice.

I was contacted by someone that maintains a pro-Shugden blog in response. This person was extremely polite and has a very different view on the subject than I and most Buddhists do. In response to his or her politeness, a rarity on the internet when people of opposing views collide, I want to post two links for those that are actually interested in this somewhat arcane tale.

The first is the link to the Wisdom Buddha Dorje Shugden Blog, which is owned and maintained by the person that contacted me.

The second is to an article called Schisms, Murder, and Hungry Ghosts in Shangri-la, which is a fairly good assessment of the situation as I know it. There are a few details that Lamas have passed to me that aren't in the article, but this is pretty much the most comprehensive treatment I have found thus far.

Lastly, though I am mainly Nyingma and Bon, and support the Dalai Lama on the Shugden issue, I do wish to point out that Geshe Kelsangs books on Tantra are excellent. Whether you practice Shugden or not, his books are rich with details that are hard to find elsewhere.

Need YOUR Help

Ok, I have a collection of gazes, breaths, gestures, and postures that I am putting into a chapter in the book. These will be part of larger rituals in the book, or can be used solo.

I need a snappy name for the collection. I have merely been calling them "keys" for the last few years but I dont like that much.

Suggest a name for me, wont you?

If someone comes up with a good one you will get thanked by name in the book.

Auld Horney

Ah Autumn. As has been my fashion for a number of years now I am headed out to the barrens to run with Horned One.

I take a special incense blend and place it under my horned mask in the north. Breathe in the fumes through the mask and call him thusly:

Eko! Eko! Azarak!
Eko! Eko! Zomelak!
Zod-ru-kod e Zod-ru-koo
Zon-ru-koz e Goo-ru-mu!
Eo! Eo! Oo...Oo...Oo!


Wait for him to come and than we take off on the Via Nocturne.

The cool air and the half-moon light are perfect.

Take Back Your Mind

When I get finished writing this series of books for magicians, (two more after this one) I think I want to write a book on meditation specifically for non-magickal or spiritually oriented people. May even try to sell it to a more mainstream publisher.

I want to write the first in your face book on meditation. One that tells you to meditate not to find calm or attain enlightenment but because you are piss-ripping mad that you have so little control over your own mind!

Its one thing to tell people that they would be better off if they meditated, but if you can show that they have actually had something stolen from them, its a whole different ball of wax.

The goal is not calm, though that can be a side effect. The goal is not spiritual fulfillment, though that might occur as well. The goal is to take back what has been stolen from you: your attention span, your natural awareness, your ability to react the way you will yourself to rather than the way your monkey mind forces you to. Someone took your mind, should'nt you go kick the shit out of them and take it back?

There is no need to become an uber-calm, sandal wearing, wanna be zen monk who talks like Kane from kung-fu and is dead from the neck down. Fuck that shit! Meditate because you want to delve more fully into the fracas! Meditate because you want to feel and fuck and fight more and better than you are able to while being a slave to the mechanistic excuse for your mind right now.

The photo is of me meditating and making an offering to the spirits in the Queechee Gorge, taken without my knowing by my cousin-in law.

Demons with nothing to do...

I love it when other people and I are on the same page. My blog-brother Frater R.O. just wrote a piece on having to put the 9 Goetic Kings to work because through engraving their sigils, he evoked them somewhat, and since they had noting to do, they indulged their lower natures and did what demons do - muck shit up.

A couple days earlier, in his post on Artificial Elementals, Von Faustus quoted Stephen Mace saying: "to call up 10,000 devils and set them onto your boss is to create a universe where 10,000 devils live, and they all have your address" Thats a great quote and I was going to write a blog post about that exact thing. Frater R.O. writing about essentially the same thing on the same morning is just a bonus.

Lower, more materially connected spirits are quicker to get material things done than higher angelic spirits. They are also more apt to give you exactly what you WANT rather than what they in their angelic wisdom think you "need" in that sort of karmic type of way. Thus, demonic or sub-lunar spirits are favorites for magicians to call upon to get stuff done that they want done.

There are downsides however. One is that they are not really apt to grant what you want, but exactly what you ask for. Everyone knows the stories of wishes gone wrong and fables of spirits delivering requests to the letter of the word rather the intent. Midas comes to mind. I ran into this problem myself once in a love conjuration. I summoned a demon and presented it with a very specific list of qualities that I desired in a mate; everything from hair length to particular kinks was delivered right into my hands. The problem was that those kinks ran way deeper than I would ever want to play, and came with a whole lot of baggage that I wasn't ready to deal with.

Many years later, I summoned Ezili Freda, who I would count as a sort of "higher sub-lunar power", meaning she is wise and loving of humanity, connected to the divine, but still works mainly in the earth realm. I simply asked her to just find me a good mate for me. We have been together for 12 years now, and have a ironwork veve of Ezili from Haiti hanging over the bed in honor of her.

The other problem with working with lower spirits is that they can hang around afterwards with nothing to do. The more wrathful the spirit, the bigger the problem. Speaking of Vodou, this remains a huge problem in Haiti. In order for Haiti to pull off the only successful Slave revolt in the western hemisphere, they created a new Nation of Loa called Petro. The Petro sort of evolved out of the Kongo nation of Loa, which were already fairly fierce spirits. They were joined by the spirits of slave revolt leaders such as Marinette Bwa Chech, or Marinette of the Dry Arms. She is belived to be the Mambo who sacrificed the black pig at the culmination of the start of the first Haitian Revolution. I have heard of rites to her that involve the sacfice of black hens that have been plucked while alive, and black pigs thrown onto a fire with gunpowder.

Loa like this were able to defeat the French, but when the revolution ended they still linger and need to be handled. Over the years other nations of loa, that are even more violent connected with secret societies have arisen to deal with crimes.

Problems like this are not limited to Haiti or ATR magick. Dudjom Rinpoche wrote an article called "On the bad luck of the Nyingmapa" which basically tells a similar tale. When Padmasambhava constrained the Yul-lha and Men-mo (mountain gods and lake goddesses) into being Dharmapalas so that Buddhism could come to Tibet, he bound many spirits that could be difficult to control into the national fabric. When I was taught to work with Dharmapalas I was taught to always generate myself as a wrathful Yidam first because even "enlightened" beings like Ekajati have dren-pa (unrult spiirts) in their retinue that can cause problems.

In the Gelugpa school has an even more high-profile problem with Dorje Shugden, the spirit of a very sectarian lama that was killed by the attendants of the 5th Dalai Lama, and whose mother prayed would be reborn as a Gyalpo or wrathful king to get revenge. The 5th bound him up in a vessel, but he was later released and made a Dharmapala of the Gelug school that was popular until very recently for the advice that he gave and the quickness that he could achieve material tasks. He is the spirit that advised the current Dalai Lama on how to escape Tibet. The problem is that the spirit is still a sectarian and attacks those that take initiation into multiple schools, especially the Nyingma and Kagyu. The current Dalai Lama asks people not to propitiate Shugden, which has caused much fighting and splinter groups. Several people have even been murdered over the issue.

Heading west again, there is no shortage of Faustian tales of sorcerers getting more than they bargained for. Do not call up that which you cannot put down as the saying goes. Magicians that dont understand why people would mess with folk magick spells, energy manipulation, or even artificial spirits to get things done when they could just summon up a demon to do the deed need only think about the above to find good reason. Thats not to say that summoning demons isn't useful or worth it. It is. I do it a lot. I just did it this week. But you have to take precautions and you have to know the issues that can pop up because of it.

Oh yeah, and you should probably get some Hyssop soap.


(The picture above is of a Kimbanda altar to Exu. I didn't mention Exu above but the same hold true.)

ZAZAS ZAZAS NASATANADA ZAZAS

Interesting question about the blog came in private e-mail from someone who wishes to remain nameless.

"You state that a lot of people have had the abyss experience. Does this mean that you think lots of people have attained K&C of their HGA as well? It stands to reason, that an experience that happens in Tiphareth would have to occur before an experience in Daath"

My answer is no. I do not think as many people have attained the K&C of the HGA as have "crossed the abyss". Just for clarification I do not people that have stabilized their trans-abyssal consciousness. I mean merely those that have had the experience itself. Sort of like visiting Spain, but not moving there.

One is not dependent upon the other. The K&C of the HGA is very specific to certain systems of magick. The "abyss experience" is a lot more universal to mystics and magicians the world over. In my own experience the HGA is harder to attain, but easier to stabilize. The Abyss is easier to attain, but much harder to stabilize.

Note that Crowley seems to have picked up on this stating that one could take the Oath of the Abyss even as a beginner.

If you are following a graduated system based upon the tree like that of the GD and AA than yes you should attain the K&C of the HGA first, but that doesnt mean that it must be done that way in all cases.

Don't forget that the menu is not the meal.

NJ when it Sizzles

I have officially one month to finish my manuscript.

I feel a bit like William Holden in Paris When it Sizzles, only I don't have Audrey Hepburn as a scribe.

Sorry folks. Part 2 of Magickal Links will have to wait until tomorrow.

Personal Links

Since this blog is named Strategic Sorcery, it’s probably about time that I actually wrote a bit about practical Sorcery strategic or otherwise. Tonight the topic is the magickal link.

When people, especially neo-pagans, tell me about spells that didn’t work out for them, it’s very often the lack of a good magickal link that is to blame. When I work with clients, this is also one of the hardest things to get people to understand, especially my Caucasian clients, even the ones that are themselves magicians. Go figure.

Basically a magickal link can be divided up into two categories:
1. links from a target that are brought to a spell
2. link from a spell that are brought to a target

This post will focus on the first category. Tomorrow I will write about the second category.

The important thing to remember is that it’s not about whether a link works or not, but how well it works. Generally speaking I rate links in two categories: how personal a link is, and how related to the working it is.

The first think that everyone thinks of is a picture, partly because they can be sent via e-mail, which is how I do most business with people, but also because so much modern magick is focused on visualization at the expense of more traditional elements. Pictures are great as a secondary link, but suck as a primary link. If you know the person well, they work ok because they stimulate the energetic link between you, which is a link in and of itself, but if you don’t, than they suck. If you have nothing but a picture, you can sometimes make it work with their name and birthdate, or their name and their parents names, but in general its not such a hot thing. There are after all, a lot of people that look like that.

I tell people to “think bloodhound”. If the link is something that you could give to a bloodhound, than it’s probably a good link. The more personal an item is the better. The classical hair and fingernails are great. Bits of clothing are good. If they are unwashed it’s even better. Underclothes are better than outer clothes. Unwashed underwear with visible bodily fluid stains are like hitting the magickal link jackpot!

In African magick the feet are said to be especially susceptible to magick. While most magick that is done this way falls into the “spell brought to the target” category, shoes and foot-tracks make really good links if you can get your hands on them, especially for spells that drive traffic to business or get someone to move. I once instructed a client to walk across the company lawn while having a business related talk with a target so that he could later turn around and dig up a foot track that he would mark with a dropped coin. Almost every New Orleans spell to drive trade to a whore house, be it a wash, bath, powder or Gris Gris bag, seems to involve the ashes from a burnt mans left shoe. In this case, its not just to get him back, but to get more like him – another good use of magickal links!

Moving downwards, personal belongings are pretty good, again, the more personal the better. If you are shy about petty larceny (pussy) than papers that the target has signed are good. In fact, even photocopies of signatures seem to work better than pictures; the magick of names I guess. I was able to summon the famous Dr John of New Orleans using just the copy of his signature from his mortgage deed. Business cards are a last resort and are not even as good as pictures.

The quality of a link changes if it is directly related to the type of spell you are doing. Someone’s checking account statement is not that great of a link, but if you are trying to effect their prosperity, for good or ill, it goes up a notch. Fecal matter, and yes there are ways of getting it, are good for curses. Hair from a head is good for influencing decisions. For sex spells you might want to aim for hair a bit lower down.

If you cannot get a physical link at all, and cannot plant something on your target, you can exploit the energetic link. All beings are linked at a very subtle level. When you meet someone this link becomes more tangible and grows stronger the more personal you get with someone. Certain beings have a very strong link present from previous lives, but not often. If you can conjure that person sufficiently in the mind, than you can effect magick through this link. In a group ritual to affect a target, such as a distance healing circle, I always ask that just one person who is closest to the target conjure them in their mind, everyone else feeds that one person. Too many people focused on many images of the same person are not as clearly focused.

If you can actually enter the “astral vision” at a level where you can see the links between people, you can effect the line directly, like tapping into a call. This is actually a trick I learned using some of the night side tech that I wrote about in the last post. If you can lucid dream, another option is to seek the person out in the Onieros and use them in the spell. A student at my class on Dream sorcery last month told me that what was taught to do was approach the person from behind and enter their dream body like it’s a mask, than make them see whatever he wanted them to see. I like that one and will try it out as soon as I can.

Look for part 2 tomorrow.

Nightside of the Tree of Life

Frater B.H. requested that I do a post on the Nightside of the Tree of Life. So... here ya go. There was a time that I did a lot of work on this subject, but its been a long time. So, here goes a trip down memory lane...

Mostly my interest was sparked by a gift from my Mother. She got me Linda Falorio's original Shadow Tarot back in 1993 or so. These 22 images were actually photos (not mounted on cards mind you, but kodak paper) of paintings that Linda had done while traveling the nightside paths of the tree, otherwise known as the Tunnels of Set. Her basis for this were the 22 images of the Qlippoth taken from Crowleys Liber 231, and further commented upon by Kenneth Grant in Nightside of Eden.

The images of the major arcana were strikingly beautiful, and lent themselves to the shiny photo paper that they were sold on. Sadly, her release of the minor arcana 12 years later, consisting of goetic and other sigils photoshopped with cowrie shells and other crap, was such a crushing disappointment that I actually went through the trouble of returning it through Amazon.

The original 22 paintings however, as well as Mishlen Lindens Typhonian Teratomas which were meditations on the nightside paths, made for a lot of interesting and mind-bending experimentation. I remember one Halloween when I "cooked" a circle of the cards on the floor of my bedroom for 24 hours in darkness, fed with hourly chanting, drumming, hissing, and any other kind of insanity that came into my head. I invited members of Thelesis camp to meditate in the circle one at a time. One person walked out after 5 minutes, left the apartment and never contacted the camp again. Another who was doing heavy daily devotional work to Thoth at the time had a vision of Thoth decomposing than crumbling to dust that disturbed him so much he swore never to work with them again.

I have heard different peoples take on the nightside of the tree, some of which conflict with one another. My own take is not far off from one traditional view of Khabbalah towards the Qlippoth, that they represent the Tree out of balance or pushed to the extremes. Instead of the martial power of Geburah, you have the murder instinct. Instead of Venusian allure of Netzach, you have unbridled lust and obsession.

They also tie in to our deep reptilian brains and pre-linguistic nature, which is why some equate them with Lovecraft's "Great Old Ones". This aspect of them is especially rewarding to the shamanically inclined Sorcerer.

So, if they are the spheres out of balance, why would anyone want to screw around with them? What's the point?

Fair question.

Many people, Linda Falorio and Fred Fowler included, seem to like it because its "Dark Magick". This falls under that category of what Cliff, one of my Thelemic Initiators would call "Ookie Spooky Magick" and what Issac Bonowitz cleverly termed "Dork Paganism". With all due respect to Linda and Fred and their contributions to the craft, I find "Dark Paganism" and "Nightside Mages" to be no different that the White Light Fluffy Bunny's.

Beyond the aesthetic though is real work that can be done in assimilating some of our unconscious impulses into our conscious awareness. Think of it as having a card in your hand during a poker game instead of being buried in the deck where it can pop up without warning. It is dangerous work, and sometimes I still wonder if I didn't really screw up in one of the Tunnels, leaving a psychic scar that remains to this day. Apart from that, I learned a few sorcerous tricks of the trade in the Tunnels that I could not have learned any other way and which I still use to this day.

My recommendation, if people want to work with them, is to do so only after you have at least had the abyss experience of non-duality, as the tunnels are accessed through Daath, so to speak. If you cant get your hands on one of the original decks, than use just the sigils from Liber 231, and focus in on them. Call the name associated and than let your mind go. Do not use language. Drum, hiss, wail, get primative. Than delve in.

The best online pictures of the Shadow Tarot is not on Linda's site, but here.

Cthulhu Fucking Everywhere!

Man I tell ya, every fall it seems like the Lovecraft/Cthulhu references start popping into my life in droves. Last Tuesday I had three in the same day, the last one was from one of my students asking if I was ever going to do my lecture on the Necronomicon. Given all the synchronicities I scheduled it for October at Mystical Tyme in New Hope. This is actually a two part lecture where I talk about the history of the Necronomicon phenomenon from the Lovecraft stories to the first publication of a Necronomicon out of Philadelphia from Owl Press, to the modern day and the scads of Necronomicons that have sprung up since. I also touch upon the "nightside of the tree" and how it is related. The second part of the lecture is actually a run down on Simons Necro and how to use it.

It hasnt stopped popping up though. Its suddenly dominating the discussion at Aaron Leitch's Solomonic list. Yesterday when I went into the temple, my 1st edition Simon Necronomicon was on my Hoodoo altar. I did not put it there, but I dawned on me that it would be perfect for a spell that I am starting tonight. I wonder if Don will remember me complaining that even back in high school, my cheap paperback Necronomicon would never stay where I put it. This happens a lot with that book, an with the Azoetia as well.

Just today a friend pointed this movie out. It apparently has Tori Spelling in it, who I have often suspected is actually a deep one. Its not even really a good disguise, you can practically see the gills and scales. I mean, even with her famous father, she would definately need the dark powers of the Necronomicon to keep getting work.

Cthulhu's problems

Kali - transcendent vs mythic

Another example of the Transcendent vs Mythic nature of deity popped into my head that makes a good story.

When I was living in Pharping I used to go to Dakshin Kali on Saturdays for the sacrifices. For those that don't know Dakshin Kali is a huge open air temple complex in the foothills of Kathmandu. Dozens, sometimes hundreds, of devotees line up in queues with animals that they bring to the temple. The head is removed usually with one blow and the idols are sprayed with the blood. The animal is than given back to the family and cooked. The blood on the floor of the place can get almost ankle deep.

I asked two separate Yogis there on two separate occasions about the need for the blood sacrifice.

The first yogi I asked explained Kali in transcendent terms. The physical blood is a reminder of impermanence and the destructive power in the universe. The sacrifice of the animal cultivates generosity and insured a higher rebirth for the animal.

The second yogi that I asked the following week had a much more down to earth answer: During the war between the Devas and Asuras the Gods sent Durga in to do battle. She would with her many arms be able to slay almost all the enemy. The problem was the more enemies sprang from the blood of the slain, doubling thier number. So Durga had to manifest as Kali who would not only slay the enemies but drink their blood.

Why the weekly blood sacrifices?

"She gets hungry"

Higher and Lower Dieties

A quick teaching on the nature of dieties. They come in two varieties transcendent and worldly. Many manifest as both.

For instance Shiva has a very transcendent nature that is understood by Kashmir Shaivites as being the whole of everything. I am Shiva, you are Shiva, your computer is Shiva, this post is shiva, and the act of you reading it is Shiva. To other people however Shiva manifests in a more mythological manner as a being that has likes, dislikes, gets into fights with other dieties etc.

Hekate is another good example. There are plenty of myths where she has conflicts with other dieties and takes sides in issues and so on. Yet in the Chaldean Oracles (and probably in her original Anatolian forms as well) she is a cosmic force that mediates between the first and second fathers and has the whole of nature suspended from her back and virtue springing from her thigh. In this form she is Heka of "beyond" the mythical forms.

Many have argued that the entire Priestly and Elohist narrative in the Pentatauch is an attempt by Jewish Priests to elevate YHVH, who in the J narrative manifests much more personally and mythically, into a transcendent and universal deity. Thus you have Genesis 1 which is based upon the Ennuma Elish and the creation of the whole universe added to the older Genesis 2 which tells only of the creation of the Garden. This struggle can be seen in Christian history between the idea of a personal God with likes and dislikes and the idea of God that is more akin to Platonic forms.

Anyway. It is important to know what you are dealing with when you are dealing with it. Many Pagans still retain a monothiestic filter when dealing with Pagan Gods and Goddesses and expect them to be very cosmic and transcendent beings with humanities best interests at heart. They sometimes get their hands burnt. In most ancient paganism the Gods sometimes had a very different relationship with mankind as well as with each other.

One occult scholar that I know has a theory that many of the problems of the original GD stemmed from them each taking on various egyptian god-forms in ritual. On the higher level they are a Pantheon of cosmic forces, but on the mythic level, they play out their conflicts throughout all time.

On the higher level, pantheons can represent Cosmic forces with transcendent natures. On another level they are the archetypal dis-functional family.

Just something to keep in mind.

Trans Abyssal Work - PART 2

Picking up where I left off: Western Ceremonial Magick is actually pretty bad at generating trans-abyssal experience.

Western Ceremonial magick is very good at generating experiences of higher realities. We can get a feel for our astral bodies, energy that moves through it, and the subtle realities of the universe. We have visions of spirits. We see and commune with angels, even our own HGA which is connected to us, but is still experienced as a separate entity. In short it genetates lots of spiritual things for us to interact with and be effected by on one level or another.

Eastern yoga, meditation, and magick on the other hand is more focused on the experiencer than the experience. Just as Buddha recommended "if you see a Buddha on the road, kill him". we must be willing to tell the HGA to be quiet and forsake visions of dieties and angels if we are to cross the abyss.

Now, before people start thinking I am just being biased towards the eastern paths, let me state that I said western ceremonial magick was bad at trans-abyssal work, not all western spiritual tech in general. Western Mystecism handles this work pretty well, but is sadly mostly restricted to Jewish Khabblists, Catholic Monks, Muslim Sufis and so on. Thankfully these contemplative traditions are starting to branch out into the mainstream a bit. People like Molinos, Ekhart, John of the Cross, Theresa of Avila are becomming more well known in Christian mystic circles, and of course folks like Ibn Arabi, Rumi, and even Al-Hallaj are also gaining ground in the west. Still though, eastern traditions offer an easier access and more varied and complete methods of training - though the culture gap can be a bit rough.

Just as Crowey noted that anyone at any level of progression could take the oath of the abyss, one need not have done the whole HGA thing to cross the abyss. In factbecause of the increasing availability of these mystical and contemplative paths, as well as certain pharmaceutical sacraments that have been known to point the way for some, people are having the trans-abyssal experience. In fact, I would argue that its pretty easy to have the experience - just not easy to stabalize it and integrate it into your living levels of consciousness. Its not enough to day trip accross the abyss with either drugs or meditation. You need to move there permenantly. Thats were the real work of a magus is and in my mind what it really means to "delare ones word".

Now than, while I do quite a bit of outer work for people as a sorcerer, the work that I engage in overall is this stabalization of trans-abyssal or non-dual awareness. I do this primarily through Dzogchen, but also incorporate some other techniques I have learned along the way. A lot of of the practices that I use to this end I am oath-bound not to discuss, but Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche left a nice little public document that gives a simple public teaching called "Advice for Carrying the View".

Trans Abyssal Work - PART 1

So in my last post about the great work I talked about the three main stages of the work. The first being an introduction to the subtle realities and energies and spirits and such represented on the tree of life by Yesode, Hod, and Netzach. The second stage is where you find your HGA which Frater R.O. wrote about very capably here as well as some other places. This stage begins at Tiphareth when you attain the K&C of HGA, and moves to Geburah and Hesed. In Geburah the Mage sets out into the world with his Angel like a knight on a quest and effects the changes on the outer that he wishes to make. In Hesed the knight retires from his journeys and builds his stronghold, building strength for the next stage.

In Daath, the magician crosses the abyss and find himself in Binah where he is united with his angel in perfect non-duality with the all. The problem is that once he begins to realize this, he falls back down the tree to whatever sphere his work is most naturally aligned with. In Chokmah, according to Crowley, he utters his word. While there are some who interpret this literally, I tend to think of the work of this stage as stabalizing trans-abyssal consiousness so that you dont fall back down below the abyss. The final stage Ipsissimus is enlightenment, and I wont discuss it, especially on a blog.

Now get ready because I am about to do something I very rarely do: praise Aliester Crowley. Actually I like AC just fine, its his followers and the rediculously exalted position they place him in that I can't stand. I am a Thelemite, just not a Crowleyite.

Anyway. As Charles pointed out at his excellent lecture on Thelema two weeks ago at the DVPN Summer Social, Crowley felt that the GD was a bit to "arts and crafts" and that there was a lot of good work being done in the east that wasnt represented in the western ceremonial magick of his day. I think he was right about that. I think he did a good job of incorporating the two given the access to knowlege that he had.

That said, given the access to knowlege that we have today, if you hold Crowley as th ebest source on Yoga, Buddhist thought, Tantra, Meditation, Taoism or anything like that you need to pull your head out of your ass and go read books that have been printed on eastern magick or mystecism in the last 50 years. But still, he had the right general idea...

Why was this important? First, meditation will assist at all stages of the path of any kind of magick. If I had to trade ALL magickal and spiritual practices for just one, I would choose Dzogchen, which to me is the pinnacle of meditation methods the world over.

Second, and more important for this discussion, is because western ceremonial magick is actually pretty BAD at dealing with trans abyssal consciousness or even getting you there. This is why the GD for the most part viewed that third order as something unattainable while in a human body.

More on this in PART 2

Disappointed

I dunno why I am putting this in my magick blog.

Perhaps its because I am a member of the EOD. (Frater Dugpanath if you look for me)

But after eight months of waiting episode 9 of Calls for Cthulhu is finally out.

And it Sucks.

Boring. Not Funny.

If you havent seen it check out #1 and go till about #7 than just stop and remember it as it was.

Ah well.

The Great Work

Farter BH just wrote a post HERE where he ponders the balance between spiritual work and practical magcik. He poses the question to himself:

"Is having a spirit do something for you the Work?"

This is something that I used to struggle with quite a bit. I remember when i first started studying Tibetan Buddhism and got access to a shitload of practical magick tech through John Reynolds. I actually had Guru's visit me in dreams to warn me of forsaking the spiritual goals. Some of the magickal paths that I have studied are focused 90% on sorcery with very little in the way of mystical training or attainment, so for someone like me: drawn to sorcery but devoted to the spiritual quest, it can be a real trap.

One of the things that Crowley said in Liber Al that I do agree with is: For there are therein Three Grades, the Hermit, and the Lover, and the man of Earth. Elsewhere he refers to these as the Zelator, Adept, and Master of the Temple and refers to the respective grades on the central pillar of tree of life. In Yesod one begins to experience the astral realms and "magickal reality". In Tiphareth one attains the K&C of the HGA. While the Master of the Temple is associated with Binah, it is only through crossing the Abyss through Daath that you attain it.

In my own practice all three of these grades are represented in daily work. I start the day with Offerings, banishing, and the Breathing of the Elements into the body to represent the first stage. I do my personalized version of the Bornless ritual to connect with the Angel and the Decent of Divinity to connect with all the Angels overall. If I am doing Yidam work, I allow this to substitute the Descent of Divinity. This reflects the second stage. I than settle in for the main practice: Threkchod which is in western terms an attempt to stabalize the Gnosis gained upon crossing the Abyss.

I have very condensed versions of all of these that can be accomplished quickly in a pinch. The condensed versions are not necessarily as good, but keep the ball rolling and fulfill my vows. I do these every day except on special days where I do no spiritual or magickal work at all (Tibetan Calander thing...)

The important rule though is: the sorcery MUST NOT replace the spiritual work on any day.

I do Thaumaturgical work every day as well: working with the wealth altar, upkeeping various lights I have set for clients, and of course longer spells in both the field and temple. All of this however doesnt take as much time as you might think. All theugia and no thaumaturgy makes Jay a dull boy, but the theurgia must always be central. One practical magick at its best is a reflection of your gnosis, which means that the light of that gnosis must be kept alive and central.

Regina sine labe originali concepta

I havent had time to really write about it, but I had two run-ins with the Virgin Mary in the last two weeks. The first was last week when my angel whispered in my ear "psst, pull into this shop"

The shop was a Catholic gift shop and when i walked in there was a group of four old ladies chatting about how powerful something was. They recited incidents of healings, raises, and all sorts of blessings. My curiosity peaked I had to ask what they were talking about. They were talking about the Miraculous Medal which was spawned by a vision in 1830 by Sister, now Saint, Catherine Labour'e.

The front of the medal is pretty standard image of mary with the words Regina Sine Labe Originale Concepta Ora Pro Nobis on it. The back however has a cool sigil of an M and a Cross, both Sacred Hearts, and of course the twelve stars which bring to mind the Lady with the Moon at her feet in The Apocolypse of John.

I started wearing the medal and will complete the Novena tommorrow.

Yesterday I was at a customers home (day job customer, not occult visit) and noticed that while there were no other religious images, there were nearly a dozen images of Mary - all with a crown of twelve stars. I mentioned to her that though I am not Roman Catholic, I have a real affinity with Mary and loved her statues. Turns out she isn't Catholic either.

She had an experience at Medjugorje and has been devoted to Mary ever since. She is comfortable because according to the Medjugorje visions the "conversion" that Mary seeks people to have is not one to Roman Catholicism, but simply one to the spiritual life. She is actually leaving to go there again this weekend and to stay with one of the Seer's. We chatted a bit about it, and than she waled over to the largest Mary statue she has and took the rosarie froim her hand. She said:

"I want you to have this. Or rather, I think she wants you to have this. It was blessed in Medjugorje."

Now, when I see an image of Mary I see a lot in it. I see the Mother Mary, but I also see Magdaline the consort, I also see Sophia the "sister" of the Logos, and I see the Shekina, the wife of God. I even see Hekate Soteria, Hekate as she appears in the Chaldean Oracles as the fully transcendant wife of both the first and second fathers, so these two run-ins resulting in these two talismans have been quite powerful for me.

Planetary Hour Calculator

I have been looking for something like THIS forever.