Heavens Within Earth

Ave, Awesome news--the fine folks over at Hadean Press (Erze and Dis) have accepted my manuscript for publication! They publish a variety of interesting occult material, and also make fine hand-bound editions of some of their works. Which is fantastic; it says a lot about their dedication to their Art. They've been instrumental in reviving the pamphlet in occulture, describing them as such on their website:   " Hadean Press adheres to the second idea of the radix of the word Pamphlet… that it takes its derivations from παν,  all , and φιλεω,  I love , signifying a thing beloved by all; for a pamphlet being of a small portable bulk, and of no great price, is adapted to every one’s understanding and reading. " Excellent stuff, ya'll. Go and check them out, if you haven't yet. There will be much additional content and expanded practical material in this edition; I'm pretty excited about it. It works, and it works well. We have a lot of w...

Ave, The day before my youngest son died, I was taking a short walk around the area where we live. Checking the mail, doing something simple.  It's California in summertime, so the day was gorgeous. A golden haze hung about everything, with the smell of pine and water. I came near the end of my walk, and was before the entrance to our home. I look up, and there are 5 crows sitting in a tree above me, on the lower branches. Crows are old man Saturn's birds. When I saw them, I felt a chill and a terrible sense of dread. They flew away after looking at me for a moment; and I did my damndest to stamp down my silly thoughts about this meaning literal death in my home. And  then I went about my day, shortly after which the world grew thin for me. I joined yet another semi-exclusive group; this one, unfortunately, is the one no one wants a part of, the fear of which dwells in the heart of every loving parent. I've spent the last five months working with Saturn at the subtle ...

If you do--at all--you should be reading the good Frater AM over at Light of a Golden Day . It's like a Master's course in Qabalistic theory and understanding. Go and read him. His level of understanding is very high, so it may be difficult for the beginner to grasp everything he's giving... but it's completely worth applying yourself and trying. Excellent blog.

So. There are God-Forms, and there are Gods. God-Forms bring the magician into sympathy with the current of the God, with it's nature. This is very useful in Ceremonial Magic.( See: the entire Golden Dawn system of Magic). It's a bit like clothing yourself in the God's nature, without fully invoking the God itself into your being. This can lead to an affinity with the God, and an understanding of how that God's virtue is manifest materially and immaterially...all to the good. Fantastic technique for magic, tremendously effective when one knows the deep nature of the Gods involved and has a genuine understanding of the goals of the ritual. You certainly don't want to go taking God-Forms on willy-nilly.Ha. Now, actual worship and communion with Gods is an entirely different deal. It isn't a part-time thing; you cannot be involved just for magical result. The Gods don't exist for our use .  Let's say, for instance, that you regularly invoke the Planet...

Ave, There doesn't seem to be much talk about how conjure was used most often in our recent past, and that was as a system of healing. Root doctors tend to be more affordable than Western doctors and are often willing to barter with the folk who live in their neighborhood with them, serving as a source for the healing of common ailments within the community. Especially before the advent of cheap mass-produced medicines like Aspirin. Nowadays it seems folk only talk about conjure for making hands and laying tricks; these are important aspects of the art, certainly, but they are not it's entirety. Not even it's main thrust! Folk would be far more likely to call upon the local conjurer for a cure for sore teeth, or an aid against the pain of kidney stones (or "gravel", as it used to be called) than for a hand to use against enemies, or a solution for a court-case problem. Well. That holds as long as we don't include work done for good luck in gambling. That Fiv...

Ave, Good Jupiter and his Archangel Tzadqiel have seen fit to bless me with some inspiration and direct knowledge....and have pointed me in the direction I need to finish the book I'm working on (which, of course, has material I've created myself and from public and published sources). Which is beyond cool. I've been working hard and doing a TON of research into the roots of Alchemy--learning different methods that have been used to complete the Great Work by Adepts of different cultures (David White's "The Alchemical Body" is an absolute must read, by the way. Thank you's to my dear brother VH Fra SR for the recommendation!), and trying to penetrate into the process behind all of the different practices. The fundamentals, the roots of the Work. I have been blessed with an excellent Alchemical Master, who instead of simply saying this=this, has given me small keys and nudges so that I'd discover as much as possible on my own. This has been invaluab...

Just a quick note. There are a ridiculous amount of Alchemical writings that are packed with nonsense. It's min-boggling. So.....I think we're duty-bound to share with each other the available and published texts that are clearly written by an initiate. The ones with proper understanding of the substance and the goal. The one's I've found to be particularly solid are Philalethes, Ripley (especially his 12 Gates), Paul Foster Case, and Basil Valentine. Lu-Yen's Secret of the Golden Flower pretty much nails it as well. This is from the perspective of one working Hermetic Internal Alchemy, and not external analogical Alchemy. Which is still awesome and still effective; just not as effective nor as powerful in the working as direct Internal Alchemy...from what I've surmised. My primary Alchemical mentor has experience with Spagery, Internal Mineral, and External Mineral alchemies, and seems to have found value in the lot.  For external alchemy, I can't imagine...