Heavens Within Earth

Nsala Malongo, Having received my copy of the book Crossroads, I had a very enjoyable day and a half reading and deeply connecting with some of the writing within. The first thing you notice is that the book is gorgeous! No big shocker there-- Scarlet Imprint is known for making beautiful tomes and this book is no exception. What is very interesting is that they gathered such a seemingly disparate group of nigromancers....and made it clear that they are not so disparate at all. That standing at the crossroads is something that is at its heart a matter of human spiritual work, the one thing that is consistent with all of human culture. We all dance with the dead, and then dance As the dead. This book altered my views on a few things, which is always a joy. My own Padrino is a skilled spiritualist, having worked Misa since he was a child....I've never truly given the depth of the connection between Kardec's work and the movement that grew from it justice and, now I ( and m...

Nsala malongo, I've been engaged in some intense practical work lately, which has re-affirmed an understanding gained over the course of my work in life; namely that we interact and commune with the world, with Spirit, through the manipulation of meaning . There is no action without doing this, meaning is the context, the rock we stand on when levering against obstacles.  Everything that is not ourselves also exists within our minds as a concentration of meaning. Everything--not just objects, people as well. Mystics speak of our senses as being illusory; that they lie to us. I used to agree...but now I know better. Saying this..and getting one to believe it...is a crippling measure, the old "blinds" people rant endlessly about in flashes of occult paranoia.  Our physical senses give us true information, a lever. They just don't give us Objective information. The senses give us absolutely perfect personal information, and therefore a tool with which meaning...

Ave, I've been trying my level best to not talk about this latest eruption of foolishness, but good folks are being dragged through the mud (on both sides), and I've grown weary. This whole thing is a steaming pile of bullshit. No one is trying to "destroy" the Golden Dawn, that's just silliness. No one is trying to become the only "legitimate" Golden Dawn order either. I'm sickened by this display. Argue in a scholarly fashion! When did this sniping nonsense become the norm? A debate between honorable and wise gents (both of whom I consider Brothers in the Work) like Fraters AM and SR about the Sabbatian Qabbalah would be wonderful, if we could cut all the bullshit out. Quality conversations, ya'll.  Skip the vitriol, the name calling and the idiotic marketing methods. Yes, it is idiocy. This "McGolden Dawn" nonsense is stupid.Ya'll. GROW THE FUCK UP. For the record, The A+O's transmissions are valid, they are real. T...

This is an article I wrote for the Lemba Congo American Society for the Preservation of Palo Mayombe (or simply the Society, as we call it, because that's a whole lot of name) that addresses heating and cooling spirits, and the links of tradition and approach between Hoodoo and Palo Mayombe.    There is a way of thinking about reality--and learning to interact with it--that empowers all of the Congo-rooted magical systems currently alive here in the West. Having years of experience as a conjurer in the Hoodoo tradition here in America, and learning from an experienced Tata the methods of Palo Mayombe as an Engueyo,  I continually am finding parallels between the two. There are two ideas in particular that stand out that I wanted to discuss. Heating and Cooling Spirits In Hoodoo, we "heat" a spirit to great activity using herbs and roots and powders, and "cool" a spirit using water and herbs and roots as well. The concept of heating and cooling a spirit...

Ave, The vast majority of my work of late--well, the entirety of it--has been in the Palo tradition. I took initiation into the tradition a little while ago, and have found it perfect for me as something I can live...my alchemical knowledge and hoodoo all mesh into existing understanding in Palo. Which makes sense; hoodoo is rooted in the Congo , and I've found that the wisdom of roots and herbs is applied in extremely similar fashion between the two traditions. Instead of a red flannel bag, we wrap our works in corn husk (which we have a tratado, a pact with). The importance of different earths and powders is the same, as is the relationship with Spirit. I feel that studying hoodoo is especially useful for American Paleros, as it adds wisdom about herbs and palos local to the land we currently live in, as opposed to Africa and Cuba. As for alchemy, I've already posted about the depths of the alchemical knowledge available in Palo here . Tremendously interesting stuff. I...

The Dead are everywhere. People say this but don't seem to delve much deeper into the meaning of it. They say that they work with "spirit", as if this is something that is not the dead. There is not a square inch of this planet that isn't permeated with the Dead. With Spirit. In Alchemy there is the concept of Azoth, the great sea of mind which exists as a reflection into creation of that Great Mind that is un-created and the source of existence. We find that man is a reflection of that same mind into physicality; it stands to reason that the dead are a reflection of that Mind into the world of spirit. The world of Spirit--the realm of the Dead--teems and boils and churns, and permeates all things. Where it coagulates into life we have matter, always pregnant with the Dead. Life is a coagulation, and death a Sublimation. There is only one thing, though. One thing upon which these changes take place. There are permutations of the dead that play varying roles ...

Ave, So, the work with the Enochian angels has been very interesting. I've stripped away everything but the calls for this particular operation (with a censer for incense, of course) and a bit of holy water I use for purification before. For this work I began by using the First 18 calls to imitate the Creation and call the Angels that put the wheels into motion. If you move through the temple with the calls --they give you specific direction with certain calls--you find that you are creating a Spiral of sorts, out from the center, like one of those Fibonacci deals. The first seven calls align you with the Creator, invoke the Archangels of the Seven and the Twelve, and then call the entities of the four Winds. The Eighth call invokes the entities that guard against the hard-boys of the Angelic world, who are great and terrible. They are, of course, invoked in the next whirl of Calls, rotating around the center again as they take up their position on the outer edges of the Spiral...