Project for October

So, I originally wanted to work on the compact chaos magick ritual, but lately I am more inclined to this idea of mine.

Some of you who have read Astro Magick Essentials know that I have presented a new way to calculate different set of planetary squares (well, not new, more like refreshed) and also how to calculate gematric values for latin alphabet.

While looking through Agrippa's work a little bit deeper for some unrelated stuff, I have discovered a system of numerology being very similar (he just omitted some letters that I still used). This has shown me that I could be on the right track so this October I want to try to use this system of numerology to extract formulas and spirit names from both traditional and "new" squares to see where it can push me.

Interesting telepathy suggestion

So, yesterday on my way home I had a very sore throat so when I was about 5 minutes from home I have sent a suggestion to my wife to make a drink by mixing water and a form of a fruit syrup (usual drink in my country) and to bring it to the garage (we usually meet in the garage and have a cup of coffee before going home, the reason is that we don't smoke in the house).

So I came home and a glass of a "pre-ordered" beverage was there waiting for me, plus another glass of 7UP. So I have asked my wife about that and found out that about 5 minutes ago she thought I would need a drink and went upstairs to make one, completely forgetting there was already 7UP in the garage.

Recent black mirror experience

On Saturday I had few drinks with my former apprentice and suddenly an idea came to the mind to relive some of the past. I took my old black mirror, wiped away a notable amount of dust, quickly recharged the mirror and we started the work that consistent of focusing on the center of the mirror while trying to have no thoughts.

In some cases we were completely in sync, our eyes started watering at the same time, we got numb at the same time, but it was also interesting how our internal symbolism changed during a time. For example when I have seen a very thick and oily black fluid nearly overflowing from the rim of the mirror, my "co-worker" had seen a giant eye coming out of the mirror. Yet things like speed, direction and sometimes even a color of things like swirls, orbs and flashes were the same for both us.

After the session I had a very long abstract dream with a great deal of detail so I have decided to continue with experimentation on Sunday and even when I was interrupted just 5 minutes after the beginning, yet another beautiful detailed dream emerged that night.

About the energy paradigm

In the energy paradigm there is a belief that everything consists of an energy coming from one universal source and if you are able to control that energy you can control reality.

The whole idea of the energy manipulation is very interesting, especially if you consider that it is hard to predict what will happen if you move energy from A to B. For that purpose the energy paradigm has to borrow from other models For example when you use affirmations during energy work you have fused energy paradigm with either psychology or information paradigm, if you have ever done LBPR, you were using combination of energy and spirit work (divine names used as words of power).

A brand on its own
It would be unfair if we spoke about energy work only in comboination with other models as there is one nice addition, being purely energetic in nature. There are various correspondences splitting the energy into different shades. You can then work with the shade closest to your desire. These shades can be divided into elements (Fire, Air, Water, Earth, Akasha), planetary energies (Sun, Moon, Mars, Mercury, Jupiter, Venus, Saturn), alchemy principles (Mercury, Sulphur, Salt), or simply dark and light.

A mistaken theory
As I have said before, every occultist at least once tried some of the versions of LBPR as can be found on the internet and to all of them it worked, sometimes better and sometimes worse. Because I currently have no clue how to proceed further in this article, I will just spill some secrets as I used to do in the Oath Breaker series (sorry for honesty).

Lesser Pentagram Rituals are intended for learning to control and feel elemental energies. People like to use banishing pentagrams in these rituals to banish "evil" energies, but that's not really how that ritual works. Yeeees, you can use LBPR to banish, but at the same time you are bringing attention with "look, something is happening here". The LPR rituals are more a preparation for Greater Pentagram Rituals that allow you to charge/discharge talismans/amulets with elemental power, same as Greater Hexagram Rituals do with planetary energies (that being said, Lesser Hexagram Rituals are a preparation for Greater Hexagram Rituals).

To truly banish for protection you need to do the counterpart of the Middle Pillar Rite, you have to do the Rose Cross Ritual, which is hard as hell and I never managed to learn that ritual completely, so let me present here a simple IAO ritual used by Fraternitas Saturni:
1. Stand straight with your hands directed up.
2. Imagine an infinitely long vertical circle going through the axis of your body, color of this circle is white.
3. Vibrate "Ee"
4. Move your hands side ways to the cross position.
5. Visualize a red infinite circle going through your hands, vibrate "Ah"
6. Cross your arms on your chest and visualize yourself being in an infinitely big blue orb.
7. Vibrate "Oh".

Symbol based systems
There exist energy systems based on symbolism. This symbolism is needed in both understanding and using the system. For example in case of GD rituals, you need to know something about planets, elements, pentagrams, hexagrams, holy names. In case of Reiki you need to know symbols, healing positions and how to cup the hands correctly.

You can of course use your sigils or alphabet of desire to create your very own system, whether in conjunction with other systems or not. For example you can use elemental orbs and in your imagination draw desired sigils with them just like with a paintbrush. You can also use e.g. a white orb as an erase of the symbols drawn in such a manner.

Biggest advantage
The biggest advantage of the energy paradigm is that it's the fun. With energy work you train both your will AND your imagination, plus you can have a lot of fun with different energy work techniques. Whether you focus on visualization, breathing, body movement, eye movement, adjusting or dispersing different energies, or you go full Bardon to draw Fire into your head, Air into your lungs and heart, Water into your belly and Earth into your legs to go full tetrapolar is strictly on you and your responsibility. Achieving the equillibrium of elements this way isn't as significant or stable as with introspection and strict lifestyle, but it is more fun.

There are different advantages and disadvantages for every and each paradigm. Use what suits you the best and remember: "Nothing is true, everything is permitted".

Czech Choral "Svaty Vaclave"

New amazing website

Don't know what to read? Are you bored? Are you looking for some universal source of information regarding occultism?

Check this site: http://www.occultresource.net/

About objectivity, reality and dogma in Magick

Well, this is going to be one of those weird articles about dogma I am used to write on a regular basis, but stay with me, ok? :-)

About truth
I think the truth is what we all seek, digging deep into the core of mystery, avoiding the sharp edges of disinformation, fighting the shark of dogmatism with our harpoon of logic to finally find that treasure chest on the bottom of the ocean (too much analogy?). I think this is an important topic everywhere, after all none of us wants to get stuck in a malfunctioning system full of weird beliefs, silly practices and brainwashed hierarchy. We want to avoid all that and get to the sweet bottom where the chest is hidden.

Few years ago I was arguing with psions about existence/non-existence of chakras. They claimed chakras don't exist and I claimed they bloody do. My argument was that I had already seen them, their claim was that you cannot see a chakra of a person that was never in contact with some "guru" teaching about chakras and therefore they are just invented constructs rather than natural occurence of the energy body.

Reality versus experience
Sure I was dogmatic regarding chakras at the time (same as they were dogmatic of their non-existence, duh), but I was also dogmatic much later with my "avoid dogma at all costs" approach. Dogmatic system still has some useful value to it which you wouldn't experience without going through the dogma, which I think is the main point of Chaos Magick and its paradigm shift. To really become the monk, to really become the shaman, to really become the trickster. Only through experience you can move forward.

Let's now check our chakra story. Question shouldn't be whether chakras are real or not. The question should be more like "Can I miss something by avoiding them?" The answer might not be so obvious i case of chakras, but what about elements? Do we really want to miss the experience just because we don't believe everything in this universe consists of 4 primary substances that came from the fifth primordial substance? Same goes for spirits and same also goes for travelling. Whether you believe or not believe in Astral shouldn't block you from Astral projection, because the whole experience of the projection is so beautiful and scary that you really don't want to miss it :-). The whole idea of separating your subtle self from a material body and travel on its own is more than just scary, especially during the first separation, as it equals to the blind jump into the abyss, an unknown place where anything can happen and you don't even know if you can breathe there or protect yourself (or return back, that's usually the major concern during the separation). Yet once you are there you find yourself speechless with the beauty. That's definitely not something to miss because of the dogma "to avoid all dogmas".

New mandala template

I have created a new mandala template. This one has a way more useful center.

Download: https://www.dropbox.com/s/bcevwfh4704j83o/mandalaTemplateNew.pdf?dl=0

Strange synchronicity

Yesterday my ex apprentice has offered me to get me to the office today as he had a drive by. Thanks to that I got to work 2 hours earlier than usually, coincidentally right on the meeting I completely forgot I had :D.

Squares away

How sad is that? Well, I was about to create new planetary squares for Uranus, Neptune and Pluto, thinking it's an easy deal. Unfortunately I just read in J. Vesely's book about this problem.

I originally thought that these planets will just continue in the Chaldean sequence, giving number 10 to Uranus, 11 to Neptune and 12 to Pluto. Unfortunately J. Vesely is right that the Chaldean sequence shows the planets in the order from the further to the closer (or as Chaldeans believed). That means the numbers should be 2,1,0 and you cannot make Magick squares from these numbers. J. Vesely describes a method how different numbers could be extracted but I have to research that one more before I will finally get myself some sweet new planetary squares.

In the meantime I might post something about 3 philosophical principles, also known as the principles of alchemy (mercury, sulphur, salt) and their relation to the elements as it is something not so widely available on the internet.

Downfall of the psychology paradigm

What is the psychology paradigm
It is a concept in Magick that basically says everything in the occult is done via your own unconsciousness, but I have also met with other things like "telepathic fields" etc.

The psychology paradigm is generally dependent on the collective unconsciousness which is some mass form of unconsciousness independent of any individual mind. Users of this concept then believe that you can tap into the collective unconsciousness and via this action cause a change in the external reality. The thing is that such a modification is limited, you either unconsciously change your own behavior or a behavior of another person.

In this paradigm it is also possible to tap into the common behavioral patterns called archetypes (and forget anything you know about Jung's archetypes because this is simply a crazy way to say egregore).

Advantages of the psychology paradigm
This paradigm is great in explaining some simple concepts like how to limit your bad habits, what is a self-fulfilling prophecy or what are desires. Thanks to that the psychology paradigm is an amazing way how to explain what you do to a person not versed in the occult. You will be perceived as a weirdo, but not a complete nutjob...

Disadvantages
There are also disadvantages that become obvious once you try to explain things like telepathy for example. So, there is this independent collective unconsciousness we can tap into and therefore we can relay a message from one individual unconsciousness to another. That's sounds logical, reasonable and scientific, right? Except the thing that it doesn't actually explain anything.

Let me explain on the telepathy example. For us to be able to pass some information from point A to point B, we need a "route", in case of the psychology paradigm it should be the collective unconsciousness which would require us to have another route, route from us to the collective unconsciousness. Of course you could argue that our individual unconsciousnesses are already parts of the collective one, but I will explain why that is an unneeded overcomplication in a minute.

Back to the tradition
As we said, we need another routes between us and the collective unconsciousness (CU from now on) to work. What are these routes you ask? Well, let's take a look at the more traditional approach, Astral plane. Astral is our route from person A to person B, but how does the route work? Simply both person A and person B exist on both the physical (empirical) and astral (transempirical) planes. This gives us the ability to communicate on the astral plane while being physically distant to each other. Of course you could define CU in a similar manner which would then mean the same thing. But why to use a different version of definition of CU, therefore making a doubled meaning of the definition and troubles in communication when we can use a time-proven terminology we all know and understand?

CU also has another problem, unliving objects. In the case of Astral everything has its Astral representation and we can manipulate with it, but CU doesn't have such a thing as it requires a living organisms to communicate, therefore CU doesn't really explain the talismanic magick or weather control to give some examples.

Nothing is true
There is a million of different opinions about how Magick actually works, some better, some worse, but if you nitpick for a long enough, you will find some loophole. I think my long time readers already know that I am a big fan of the meta paradigm. The thing is that you can follow anything you want as long as you get results. What works for you, works for you. If you are okay with the psychology paradigm and sending "spells" to the CU, be my guest. What I see as a problem is when someone becomes a fanatic and starts pushing his way of thinking as the only possible truth. "Dude, psychology model is the real one, it makes so much sense". Well, if it makes sense to you and it works for you, I am happy for that, just keep in mind we are individuals and what works for one won't necessary work for another. That being said, keep it mind it is always better to inform other of various ways and let them choose what's best suited for them instead of trying to push your own ideal on them.

When it comes to the individual practice this includes the psychology model same as the meta model and just like any other thing you can imagine, including hermetic laws, including spirit work, including ancestor veneration. If it works for you, be happy, just don't get angry if someone questions you, it is only a natural outcome of being a bit too pushy. Just like you don't like when someone steps on your foot, others hate when you stomp on theirs.

"New" death posture

So, I recently finished reading a book by Kenneth Grant that I got from my mother-in-law last Christmas. I generally don't like Grant's writing style but I have to admit he certainly knew both Crowley and Spare. In the chapter about Spare I have actually found a description of one death posture that was used by Spare.

It was said that Spare used one hand to cover his mouth and nose (pinching the nose with the thumb) thus preventing the oxygen to come in or out while he was drawing the sigil with the other hand, focusing fully on each line of the sigil.

This find is very interesting, not only because usually during a posture you focus on a finished product, but also because my wife uses a similar method, she usually keeps redrawing the sigil over and over again (deepening those lines with each repetition) while chanting the sigil mantra prepared for that very sigil.