Frustrediting

I am going through the final proof and pulling up typos galore.

I hate reading my own writing.

Someone wanna do this for me? Please?

No?

Ok.

Short form and Long form

One of the teachings that really ingrained itself in my psyche from my Tibetan training, is how to determine the essentials of a practice, and choose between elaborate, unelaborate, and extremely simple forms of practice based upon needs at the time. For instance, the main Kilaya sadhana that I do takes about 30-40 minutes. I could however do a much shorter sadhana that takes 10-15, and even a bare practice taht could be done is 5-10. On the longer side, there are Kilaya sadhanas that could take me all day long, and one that takes three days to perform.

When I was first learning this practice I quickly memorized all the seed syllable utterances, mantras, and visualizations. I asked Lobsang Samten if the sadhana could be done with just these, and he replied of course, in fact I should make sure that I could do it that way, so that if I ever got thrown in prison I could still keep my commitment. Later teachers taught me how in older days the Siddhas did not even use Sadhanas, but only the memorized visualizations and mantras. The lengthy practices came about largely as a result of the blending of Tantric practice with monasticism that happened in Northern India in the 6th century and was continued in earnest in Tibet. As Glenn Mullen once said: "Sometimes you just have to keep the monks busy, especially the young ones. Lot's of them come from bandit families and such, and if they don't have 100,000 prostrations and hours of recitation to do, they will start knifing each other in the yard."

Some people think that the longer a practice takes, the higher it is. Not so. They each have their place. This goes not only for Buddhist sadhanas of course, but all ritual magic.

Take something like the daily practice recommended by Kraig in Modern Magick (not because I think its great just because most of you have read it and worked it to some degree or other). When learning it, you should take your time and linger over each element. Take time to build those visualizations, take time to let the middle pillar energy circulate, etc. In time though it should move quicker. Some, usually those that are not sensative to energy, mistake this for sloppy ritual. It can be but it's usually not. Once the ritual gets ingrained in the physical, aethyric, and causal bodies it will flow automatically. Thought moves faster than energy, energy moves faster than body. By doing it quickly you can actually generate more power because you are tightening the lag between levels, letting the body catch up with the mind.

Eventually, you learn what is truly essential about the ritual and can than cut the physical script because the various parts are inherent in other parts. I have occasionally asked students that have done the LBRP for many years, to try to do it in one breath. Inhale a deep vase breath, and call the Quabalistic cross mentally on the inbreath. Vibrate the word AMEN with the exhale and let the pentagrams and angels unfurl spontaneously outward. Let that one holy word stand in for all the others. You can do the BRH with the word IAO or ARARITA. You can do the Middle Pillar with EHEIYEH and let the light flow through all the spheres.

This approach is also inherent in the Grimoire traditions. Most of the Grammers stress the long evocations as sort of formal meet and greets. After contacting a spirit, you make arrangements to meet on less formal terms. Eventually you need only to trace the sigil and call the name, or perhaps not even that.

Of course it is nice to do the long form of things as well. I do a very short form of offering to various spirits every day, but I try to do a full Riwo Sang Cho, and maybe even a Naga and Shidak Sang on Sunday or Monday. The long form is not better necessarily, just more enjoyable and an excuse to linger with the spirits. It also re-enforces the patterns for the short form. Long form tends to be better for group practice because everyone is on the same page. It is also an excuse to examine indivisual parts of the ritual as a ritual unto themselves. It is at this level that you learn how each individual part of a ritual can be used alone or in co-operation with other elements like a Martial Artist who learns to use the individual moves of a Kata in an actual fight.

I once did a 6 hour long version of Regardies Opening and Closing by Watchtower. I spent about an hour on each watchtower, pore breathing the element, and calling the various powers of that tower from the three benner names down to the indivual angels. At the end I spent an hour in meditation when all the powers were swirled together and the veil opened. I could literally see how those four powers are the basis for all manifestation.

So your mission, should you choose to accept it, is to examine your practice and develop different forms for it. Think about how you would accomplish it if you were in prison and had to do it in secret because your captors would not allow overt ritual magick. What about a slightly more visible version that still requires no tools and only a few minutes. Devise ways to accomplish the practice within 15 minutes if you were running late for something important but did not want to break your commitment. Think next about how to take advantage of extra time, how could you drag your practice out over an entire day as an act of dedication. Howabout a weekend retreat version?

This is all part of really mastering a practice.

Indian Vampire Worship.

I can see the end of the Bollywood movie now: old Granpa settles down and says "Thing I never could get used to about Pune, all the damn Vampires."

Of course Vetal the Vampire is a good guy who worships Shiva and bestows boons to his own worshipers. A 400 year old text has just been discovered that details the worship of Vetal.

See here for details.

Thanks to Tau Nemesius for the link.

Funny about money

Coyote: Clarity is the path to inner peace.

Homer Simpson: Well, what should I do? Should I meditate? Should I get rid of all my possessions?

Coyote: [snorts] Are you kidding? If anything, you should get *more* possessions. You don't even have a computer.

When I gave my class in financial magick this month at New Hope, a student asked the following during the Q&A: "So, if I do magick just for what I need, that isnt bad magick right?"

I don't quite know how I lost her, but clearly I did. Though I did point out in the lecture, as I always do, that we need perspective about how wealthy we already are, anyone making over 20g a year is in the top 10%, anyone over 47g is in the top 1% income earners on the planetr, I also made a point of saying that wealth is not a zero sum game, and that there is nothing wrong with wanting more.

Yet I find this attitude amongst a lot of pagan and magick folks. Material wealth = evil or at least bad. Is it a holdover from Christian teaching? Is it hippy ethic? Is it just fear of being judged for still living in your moms basement because you spend more time playing world of warcraft than building wealth or doing magick (loser!)? Maybe its all of these. I will never forget when Al over at Open Buddha was asked how he could reconcile being a magician with making lots of money at Microsoft? I was taken aback. What did this person think one had to do with the other?

Here is the deal folks. There are spiritual paths that are built around poverty and non-materialism. They are wonderful paths, but if you are going to do it, than really frigging do it! Join a monestary, become a wandering yogi that lives on alms, make a meager living doing nothing but divination or whatever your practice is. It is a valid path with hige spiritual benefits.

However, if you are not going to join a monestary, establish some spiritual occupation, or go homeless than STFU about it and get in the game. Non-materialism is not your practice, embrace that. Than find the amount of wealth that you think you want and go for it. If like me you want a more or less normal middle class life, with little stress from work, than make that. If however you want the million dollar chateau in wine country, than go for that. Balance it against your spiritual needs, but dont pretend that you are on some non-materialistic spiritual path while you sip your americano. Its just a lie.

If you are not on a path of renunciation, than you are on a path of tranformation or acceptance. Realize that money plays a role in your life. You cannot avoid it. Truth be told even as a monk or renunciate you cannot really avoid it, but thats another issue. If you deal with money, than DEAL with it. Realize its importance and do good with it. Transoform the poisons that can arise from money into blessings. Master Mammon or he will master you.

Hoodoo Intensive with Your's Truly

Hoodoo Intensive September 27th at Soul Journey

Spirit Speak: Knowing and Understanding Spirit Guides, Ancestors, Ghosts, Angels, and the Divine.

Book Review:

Spirit Speak: Knowing and Understanding Spirit Guides, Ancestors, Ghosts, Angels, and the Divine.

By Ivo Dominguez Jr.

Living in and around Philadelphia, I had heard a lot about Ivo Dominguez over the years, but never got to meet him personally until just recently. I ran in Buddhist and Ceremonial Magick circles, he ran more with the Pagan crowd. There was a lot of overelap, and people kept telling me that we should meet, but it just never happened. When I saw that my publisher, New Page Books, had picked up Ivo’s book Spirit Speak, I figured this would be a good chance to see what this guy is all about. If I had only known how good he really was, I would have made a special effort to meet him years ago.

Spirit Speak is exactly what it says it is and more. Many books like this tend to try to make encyclopedic lists of spirits and mythical creatures that stem from different cultures the world over. These occult taxonomies are interesting to read but have little to offer in the way of practical information. Dominguez avoids this pitfall by dealing with large general groups of spirits that the practitioner is likely to encounter, and than makes subdivisions within each category. Rather than rely exclusively upon tradition for these divisions, the author parses on the basis of the observable qualities of the beings. In so doing he provides a genuinely useful taxonomy of the occult that describes the nature, behaviors, and ways in which we can communicate with the spirits.

But the book offers more than just information on spirits. In the first four chapters he presents his vision of the subtle body, examples of various levels of spirit contact, common impediments to communication, and exercises for facilitating contact and for dealing with problems that can arise from spirit contact. These potent exercises are original and won’t be found anywhere else. The emerald heart technique alone is worth the price of admission. These exercises and rituals are fleshed out further in the appendixes of the book.

The book is not written in the voice of a Witch or Ceremonial Magician, though it is clear Dominguez has a profound understanding of both. This book is written simply from the perspective of one who knows. Spirits are spirits after all, and tech is tech no matter what tradition of magick or witchcraft you approach from. Not to be smug, but after twnty plus years of intense study and practice, there are few occult books that I learn a lot from anymore. I learned quite a bit from this book, which is the highest recommendation that I can give.

Jason Miller,

Summer Solstice 2009

New Blog

I started a new blog today.

Its called Take Back Your Mind and will be updated about once a week with thoughts on meditation and mindful living.

This will still be my main blog, but I needed to separate that stuff out from here.