The Course Begins

I just sent off lesson zero for the course, with Lesson One to follow on Tuesday morning.

If you signed up for the class and did not receive your first post this morning, did not receive it at the right address, or do not know your student number, please write me and let me know asap so I can get it straightened out.

Thanks,

Jason

Regarding Recent Interviews

Some of the links that I have posted to recent interviews have been dodgy.

The first interview, I still cannot find online. Those listening live told me that the end of it got cut off so maybe he didn't post it.

The second interview with Marla at Stirring the Cauldron can be heard here

http://stirringthecauldron.podomatic.com//

or here

http://www.stirringthecauldron.planetparanormal.com

The interview with Thelema Now, will be posted somewhere around the 15th of November. Links will be posted.

The interview that I am most excited about is happening tomorrow night.

http://www.blogtalkradio.com/MonaMagick/2009/10/30/The-Sorcerers-Secrets

Thelema Now Podcast

I am going to be interviewed tonight for the OTO's official Podcast: Thelema Now.

6pm tonight. I dont know when it makes it onto the site.

http://oto-usa.org/podcast.html

One More Week to get in on the ground floor of the Course

The Strategic Sorcery Correspondence Course kicks off in just one more week, and I have been totally blown away by the response. We are now approaching 50 students and climbing.

Though you can sign up after it starts and receive all the back lessons, only those that sign up before Halloween will receive the personalized talisman.

For more information send me an e-mail at inominandum@gmail.com and put the words STRATEGIC SORCERY COURSE in the subject line.

Modern Goetic Grimoire - A Review

Often you expect something to be really good and it winds up sucking eggs. Sometimes you expect something to suck and it turns out better than expected. Occasionally you expect something to be really good and it actually meets those expectations. Rarely though, you expect something to be good and it completely beats the crap out of those expectations with a tire iron, leaving "good" in the dust and arriving at "Great".

I am happy to report that Frater Rufus Opus’s new Opus, The Modern Goetic Grimoire, is one of those rare times when great expectations were met and exceeded.

What I expected was basically what he delivered in the Modern Angelic Grimoire; a clear and concise guide to the classic ritual presented in the Grimoire, but given a modern spin and detailed info on how to pull off all the “arts and crafts” aspects of it. What I got was so much more.

The good Frater goes into deep territory here. Far from just a text about the part of the Lemegeton that is called Goetia, this book covers the art of Goety itself: not just demons, but spirits of the dead and spirits of place. He covers the essentials of the Lemegetons ritual, stresses the importance of the circle, and need for initiation, and than actually gives several techniques for using the spirits in magic, not just conjuring as per the evocation but using the seals in spells and exorcisms.

I think that the best part is that he re-drew everything for the book in his own hand, and rather than just re-post the descriptions of the spirits as given in the Grimoire, he summarizes them in his own words and shares his own insights and experiences. This kind of material is the stuff that makes a huge difference to the practicing mage.

If you have considered using the Goetia, are just curious, you need to make like Aaron Burr and drop a Hamilton over to Frater R.O. for this book.

Please keep your damn dieties out of my Tarot cards!

At my Necromancy class in New Hope this month, Eric, the owner of Mystical Tymes, gave me a copy of the Heindel tarot. I told him I always admired the art, but was always turned away by something. Now I know what. Its the use of Gods instead of Court Cards. For instance the Queen of Wands is Kali.

This turns me off big time. First because the deck flits between four mythologies for no compelling reason

. Why Hinduism, Native American, Egyptian, and Celtic? Why not Norse, Slavic, Shintoist, and Persian? I dunno.

The bigger issue though is that by using dieties to play th

e roles of the elemental court cards, you are downplaying the importance of the Major Arcana, who should be the stars of the show. The magnitude of say the Tower or Death is greatly diminished when Kali is sitting there as the Queen of Wands. Just doesnt work for me.

The shame of it is, that the Haindl isnt the only great looking deck to be ruined by this. One of my favorite decks of all time is the Barbara Walker Tarot. If you ever want to scare the bejeezus out of someone, give them a reading with the Barbara walker tarot

. Its very 70's dark-occult. Every card is people in dark robes stabbing things.

Sadly Walker also takes mythological figures and places them in court positions. Here is Kali again, this time as the queen of swords. She also does Atargatis with a vagina dentata, a really Satanic Baal and some others.

Anyway. My point is, if you are designing a tarot deck with awesome art, please please please. just dont make the court cards into random deities.

Real Magic Gets Wacky.

I have been having a number of discussions about the ways in which magic can, and often does, present itself in strange, even hokey ways.

Vortex Healing for instance is a cluster of bad New Age Clichés. Yet, the person I first learned about it from, a very serious occultist, was floored at its results. After checking it out I found other people who didnt buy into the whole new age history of "Merlins" and such, but who attested to its absolutely shocking effectiveness. After looking at some of the tech, a bit of it seems to mirror things I have been taught by angels (a new age cliché in itself). One of these days I will investigate further.

Another topic that has gotten a lot of attention recently in some quarters are old Parker Press books like The Miracle of New Avatar Power. These books are 25% tech and about 75% hokey testimonials like "How Charles F made $10,000 after performing the invocation to give secret knowlege". But heres the thing: the modern mages that are using this book and others like it, are reporting exactly that kind of success on their boards. They aren't selling the book. The tech is pretty simple, solid kabbalistic root - but just a bit different in terms of names and such. Different enough that those who cleave steadfastly to the standard will be turned off, but those that recognize how little actual instruction from angels and spirits actually sticks to those standard will see that it is a sign of validity rather than not.

Even some standard mages have made these changes. For instance William gray has most of the Sodalities invoking Jivroel instead of Gabriel because it tones down the martial elements of this angel, which was important in the days after the world war. Should we still be doing it that way? I suppose somebody should ask Gabriel or Jivroel, but instead we mostly just follow Grays lead so that we are all on the same page.

Anyway, as my own course in magic is about to start up, and is already approaching 40 students, I am becoming aware that a few of the things that iI will be teaching in later lessons, wont necessarily follow the standard because they have been taught to me by spirits or discovered through experimentation. I hope that they dont come off sounding like Vortex Healing does, but I am also proud that the material doesnt just fit snuggly into the mold.