Heavens Within Earth

Nsala malongo, So.....powers. They exist. You work your alchemy, and they start popping up. It isn't what you expect. It's not like the comics. Subtle things happen. You get a little something here, a big something there. Some of them appear useless at first. Some years ago, after work in the upper cinnabar field, I gained the dubiously awesome ability to see a sort of spirit double floating around people. At first I was BEYOND stoked, and thought I was well on my way toward ascension from my normal state into a vicious and powerful spiritual overlord, as was foretold. By me. When I was like, fourteen. Then, after the wonder wore off, I realized that this was absolutely useless. The double gave me no information about the person, no power to manipulate myself or the other. It was just there. So. Countless hours of heat and concentration, and the end result was this? Of course it *was* useful in the long-run, as a mark of my developing spiritual s...

Sala Malongo, Man, y'all. I find that I now spend the vaaaaast majority of my sorcerous/meditative time doing work for others. Which is awesome in many ways, as I've gotten very skilled at what I do. I've got no time for the experimentation, though. No time just fooling about. Sometimes I'm tempted to just say fuck it, and return to just doing things for myself....but I'm a priest, a Tata Nkisi. So I have duties beyond entertainment, and beyond my own development. Gotta balance this stage in the life as well. It's interesting, at the very least. I would have been overjoyed when I was a young aspiring wizard in my 20's to have this kind of problem, haha. Now I look back wistfully at the days when I could meditate for 4 hours straight--or at all-without scheduling a meeting with myself on Google Calendar. Many of the folks who are clients become good friends, some become students, others end up becoming sorcerer/priests themselves. And they are a bless...

Sala malongo, So. The writer states (in summary) quite early in the book that his aim is to revitalize alchemy in the UK. I don't know why he's leaving it at just the UK. This book has the potential, assuming you all aren't a bunch of lazy gits, to revitalize modern alchemy *period*. I've been an alchemist for some time. Well past the decade mark. I legit spent the first half of that in a state of near perfect confusion. No two books were alike, no meanings the same, progress was near glacial. I grew in understanding in the way a paleontologist does, slowly brushing off old bones in hopes of revelation, unable to move quickly for fear of screwing up the whole mess. I had to learn the hard way, to study spagery in Orders and then of course the laboratory. I worked Junius, I studied Philalethes. From the Golden Chain on down to modern works. Spent roughly eleventy-billion dollars on glassware. What you end up with is an understanding that there are a thousand me...

Working the Dead Sala Malongo, Working spirit for a student / client this weekend, and a few thoughts came to mind. One in particular was about the nature of bone, spirit, and pact as it has moved through time....and how Cuban Palo's history has manifested itself in American Palo. There were many Chinese in Cuba working during the slave times, and the societies of Cuba, the Munanso, the cabildo, etc often contained members who were of partial or full Chinese Ancestry. Many of us, Mayemberos and Brillumberos alike, count Tata ndi bilongo "Chino" Arriete as an ancestor. There is an old line of co-working and powerful Cuban spirits of Chinese ancestry in the current of Palo. Their influence flows in interesting ways though practice.  As I'm working with the remains of an individual to bring forth his spirit from the un-manifest and pregnant darkness, we begin to connect. His identity starts to press against reality, like a finger pushing against wa...

Sala maleco, Medicine is messy. Sorcery is messy. Lot of times you see folks posting images of pristine altars where they have their work's going, and that's cool. However,  I can't help but notice that these altars are regularly almost purely about symbol, with little in the way of materia. *Warning: There will be ranting. Feel free to disagree....just don't share your opinion if you cannot handle debate.* This can work, and often does. Nothing wrong with it. It is, in my opinion, lacking depth. Working spirit without Materia, in my experience, just plain doesn't get the same result as working with the virtue of natural, fully-manifested substances. Now, there is plenty (-endless reams-) of textual evidence for materia's ascendancy in practical work in near every text written about actual practical sorcerous work. See *all* of your grimoires nearly, see Picatrix, Alexander's Treasure, Agrippa, etc etc etc.  This isn't a Black-African sorc...

Hey y'all, We're having ourselves a cocktail party which is ostensibly about Jupiter....but really seems to be about power. Jupiter being a particular manifestation of that principle has been seen and experienced as vicious, benevolent, cruel, graceful, jealous, magnanimous, but always Powerful. All these other qualities have more, from what I've seen, to do with the perspective of a person at one end or the other of the power wielded. I don't think Jupiter is a person . The image is a stand in for ease of connection. Jupiter is a conscious force of nature . Jupiter does not have feelings. It's beyond human experience.  A bolt of lightning contains no sentiment, and neither does the electricity that powers a home. Power has no sentiment. Wealth is a stand-in for power, and cares not who possesses it. It cares not if it is used benevolently or otherwise, only that it is used and expressed. Make your offerings, and make your virtue like that of Jupiter's. As y...

Nsala Malongo, Death and ritual sacrifice are very large components of my magical and religious practice, and I find that very seldom are they explored with any deep understanding of why they are useful and necessary for certain rites and practices. There is definitely a repugnance for the sacrifice for animals in the frankly White-er side of Western magical and religious practice. I've heard a number of persons rail against it as cruel and entirely unnecessary, that it is uncivilized and barbaric. Obviously I think these persons aren't examining their views deeply; rarely are these individuals persons who abstain from eating animals...they just don't get their hands "dirty". I never hear them complaining about how Jewish folk practice kosher religious slaughter, or even much about the Halal practices of some Muslim folks. Read a newspaper in any city with neighborhoods that have a  decent amount of ATR practicing folks and you'd think the death of a chicken...

Nsala malongo, Working with this book has been a pleasure; Mr.Cecchetelli--a brother and fellow Worker--has done it again. This book is full of useful and practical magic, with well-researched information paired with insightful commentary. It's immediately apparent that Mr.Cecchetelli has done the rites and works he's sharing, as his insights line right up with what one would expect as far as result goes. Physically it is gorgeous, with a rich brown leather and lovely endpapers...truly a pleasure to hold. The Coronastrum This is probably my favorite part of the book; I work extensively with mudra and can attest to the efficacy of this one. The layers of symbol when creating this symbol with one's own body are absolutely delicious. All my years of work and I'd never encountered it..... The Coronastrum is a mudra, a symbol that Mr.Cecchetelli's contacts gave him during his working. It's a beautiful and powerful symbol, and the Book of Abrasax gives you eno...

Ave, Alchemy is difficult, to work and to understand. Like most things that are of value, it takes work to suss it out, to reap the golden wheat of your planted effort. One of the things that makes alchemy so difficult is that it's obfuscated....by time, by the intention of different alchemists who hid their processes from the unlearned, and by needless complication. There are as many different alchemical methods--ways of processing the First Matter--as there are alchemists who write about it. That isn't to say that any method at all will do, only that true Alchemical processing requires one thing, and one thing only--Fire--and that all the stages and states described in between and established as levels are arbitrary and a matter of culture as opposed to need. In one method you'll find the process described in 5 "steps", in another 7, in yet another 12. This causes difficulty for the student of Alchemy studying the emblems and methods of our forebears; one want...

So. There is a particular breed of practitioner who, whilst appropriating the spiritual practices of another culture, fail so fundamentally to unify with the tradition that they insult it and it's initiates in jaw-droppingly offensive ways. One of these I've been disgusted with of late involves disrespectful manipulation of that tradition's imagery. I'm not saying that its not possible to Use said imagery in a respectful fashion, or that one should never engage directly with another traditions symbols. Not at all. The problem is when the user has no sense of the symbols as sacred. That's when they get themselves into trouble.....on the mildly offensive end you get syncretism of the inorganic variety. Not the gentle melding of traditions you get when cultures interact, but the jarring and unpleasant shoehorning of entities and forces into dissonant paradigms unnatural to them. People doing LBRP's with random Celtic gods they have no relationship with, that kind...

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...

Ave, I've been engaged in a deep study of Frater Nicholaj de Mattos Frisvold's work Palo Mayombe , and have been steadily amazed at the deep understandings within it. For a long time I've known some small measure of what Palo is--that it is a worship-centered religion, that it is necromantically powerful. I've also known what it isn't-- Palo is not just black magic, it isn't a club an African/Afro-Latino sorcerer wields to beat people over the head. That being said, engaging in metaphysical contests with it's practitioners is generally un-wise....they don't mess about. Palo Mayombe is a fierce religion, but it Is a religion. What I didn't know was the true depths of it's Wisdom and alchemical understanding. That's right, alchemical understanding . Palo Mayombe isn't a simple practice. It's a multi-layered and living religious and alchemical practice, and it's grasp of the forces of life are unparalleled. It's spir...

Been working much on the Enochian rites, and today went "live" with a new approach (for me at least, don't know if anyone else is approaching it this way) that is centered primarily on treating the calls themselves as the Book of Logoaeth and as the primary ritual tool. No pentagrams or hexagrams, no speeches about Watchtowers, no SDA yet. No wand. Just a censer on the altar, with the tablet of Nalvage, and my tablet. Was a bit, uh, concerned going in. Attempted to memorize the calls, but even reading them in my mind dials the phone, as it were. Discovered that any one call on it's own--depending upon the nature of the call--can be powerfully unbalancing. Each call contacts a certain series of entities according to their nature, and the First 8 calls in particular, in my opinion, hold efficacy in creating a balanced and powerful state, with the Quarters called and the Angels that guard against the "stooping dragons" invoked. Kept it simple; called the First...

Ave, There was some discussion recently on the fora about the nature of Alchemy, and whether our alchemical forbears were referring to internal substances or primarily to external substances. One of the gentlemen involved is a well known external alchemist, with a tremendous amount of scholarship under his belt. While I respect his contribution, the idea that there is any such thing as purely external alchemy is entirely incorrect. ***added for clarity. Thank you Mr.Faust! The gist of the argument being made was that there was no evidence/truth to traditional Alchemy being "internal" in Nature, and that the Basil Valentines, Flamels, and Philalethes' of our tradition where speaking to purely physical processes. Which I, uh, completely disagree with.  Yup. There is no such thing as strictly "external" Alchemy. If an alchemical process doesn't reflect into the Body, it isn't alchemy. Archemy, yes, and sometimes Spagery, but not Alchemy. ...