Heavens Within Earth

Ave, As alchemists, as magicians and conjurers, our relationship with Saturn and his entities is--in my extremely biased but relatively learned opinion--of the utmost importance, especially if we aim to complete the Great Work in this lifetime. It is by traveling through Saturn that we can become as demi-gods ourselves. We need only look to his most famous Son, the holy Hermes Trismegistus, for a fine example. See the Divine Pymander for this understanding, in which it is given that Hermes Thrice-Greatest--much like Jupiter and other august Gods--is a son of Saturn. The difference we see in the Thrice-Greatest is that he is also a Man. He is our template, the Great Example of what can be accomplished by men born of earth. Also, if you haven't read the Divine Pymander yet and you are a practicing Western magician...get on that shit. You need this like a Christian needs a bible. This applies to conjurers of the West as well. I was led toward Tartaros--a hell-ish Abyss-- by my H...

Just had to write some thoughts down... Old Man Saturn continues to work on me. I'm grateful for this, and I feel altered, expanded. Refined. Yesterday I worked my Saturnian rite, and asked for his continued blessing and favor. It was a successful rite, and I felt the power of Spirit. Today, during his hour, I found myself within the Nothingness that his meditative rites can engender. No stream of past or future played in my head, and I didn't live in that stream. I just existed. It was curious, because I'd never simply found myself in that state before--I had to create it through meditation. Ritual. This time, people spoke with me, and it didn't disappear. I noticed that standing from within that state I could consider things in a fashion different from when in normal states of consciousness. I could consider things without being prey to my usual personal preferences. Things that would normally necessitate a reaction left me absolutely unmoved . I could see how they ...

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...