Friday, July 30, 2010

HEKATE CLASS AND RITUAL

WITH JASON MILLER
Hekate Course
Teacher: Jason Miller
2 Tuesdays
August 3rd & 10th
7pm - 9pm
$60 for both classes
Reserve your seat now (seating is limited)
Must be prepaid by July 28th



The first part of this class is a crash course in Hekate's development, moving from her early illumination oriented role, through her Chthonic Dark Goddess stage, into her role as a Cosmic Goddess in the Chaldean Oracles. Spells from the Papyri Greacae Magicae, Defixiones tablets, and other traditional sources will be presented. Finally Jason will talk about his own work with Hekate and teh arcana of unique teachings that he has received over the last decade. The second half of the class is an empowerment of Hekate - an initiation into a powerful ritual that can be used for either illuminative or practical magic.

Jason Miller (Inominandum) has devoted the last 20 years to studying magick in its many forms. He has traveled to New Orleans to study Hoodoo, Europe to study Witchcraft and Ceremonial Magick, and Nepal to study Tantra. Miller is a member of the Chthonic Ouranian Temple and the Sangreal Sodality, as well as an initiated Tantrika in the Nyingma and Bon lineages of Tibet. He is the author of Protection & Reversal Magick: A Witch's Defense Manual and The Sorcerer's Secrets, Strategies in Practical Magic.

Thursday, July 29, 2010

Opere Ex Operato Baby

There are a lot of you out there who are deeplyy concerned with whether your magic and spirituality is a good fit for you personally. You want a symbol to excite and tickle you just in the right ways before you use it. You want the lessons to conform to your beliefs and expectations. You want spiritual teachings that make sense to your views of the world and you want your magic to be done in ways that you are comfortable with. You want to be told that while there are all these traditions, lineages, practices, materia, rules, and procedures that ultimately what feels right to you, is what is best. Want the path that is just right, for you.

Get over yourself Goldilocks .

Ultimately you need to make choice in how to persue spirituality and magic. You can make your path conform to your beliefs and ideas OR you can let your beliefs and ideas grow through working your path. Option one is a door to comfortable stagnation. Option two is hard because sometimes you will be doing things that you do not immediately click with, things that seem counter-intuitive, and sometimes even things that you do not believe in at all.

Here is the thing though, belief is over rated, that includes belief in the magic that you are doing.

I know, I know. This runs counter to everything that you have been told in the past about how your belief is what makes the magic work. The truth is though that while some magic (the weak watered down stuff :-) may depend upon your person belief in it, most of it does not.

When I write about Hekate I tell people that you no more have to actively believe in her to get her to answer your call than you need to actively believe in your car to get it to start. When a student asked Dr Kioni once whether it was ok to call upon Jesus even though he was'nt Christian, Dr Kioni said, it doesnt matter what you believe, that name has power because it has power and meaning way beyond what you could ever give it.

A few months ago someone in my course mentioned that they felt no "click" or attraction to the planetary sigils, but that they would use them anyway. They came back and admitted that they worked like a charm. This same person did not like my the Song of the Serpent, some of my invocations, and my approach to zone rites. They worked with all of these and have now made them part of their regular practice.

The term Opere Ex Operato is an ecclesiastic term that translates as "it works because of the working". It arose as a church doctrine as a response to competition between priests claiming to give more effective sacraments than other priests because of their proper view and purity. The doctrine basically states that if you have the magic Jesus Juice (is Holy Orders through proper succession), and perform the rituals in the right way, that the Priest is just a medium - his personal purity and views have no effect. Even a person who leaves the church and starts doing their own thing is giving Sacraments that are Valid but Illicit (they work, but are unsactioned by the Holy See). The same is true of good magic - there is more to it than just how you feel about it.

For lent this year my Bishop asked me to do an accumulation of the Prayer of the Heart (Jesus Christ, Son of God, Have Mercy Upon Me a Sinner) that is linked with the breath. This was a major issue for me because while I do consider myself a Christian (among other things), I was not in the habit of begging for mercy and not all that hung up on the concept of sin. I did it anyway. I did it because a teacher I respected asked me to and because if we only do things that are comfortable we never grow. It turned out to yield amazing and potent fruit which furthered my evolution as a mystic and a magician.

Now, does this mean that every spiritual practice is for everyone? No.

Just as the student I mentioned above put aside his personal inclinations to find that some sigils and rites actually worked whether he liked them or not, another student attempted some rituals earnestly and found that they did not work for her well. This happens. Not everyone is served well by every practice.

My point is simply that your immediate attraction or rejection of an idea should not be the test of whether something works, nor should whether it fits your current world view and idea. In the spiritual world, it is often exactly what turns us off that is exactly what we need. I sometimes wish I could gather up those that love dork paganism (oops... I mean dark paganism) and enroll them into a white light crystal waving school.

Your belief doesnt matter as much as you think it does.
Your intent doesnt matter as much as you think it does.
How you feel doesnt matter as much as you think it does.
Sometimes it works because of the work,

Suck it up. Do the work and find out.

Monday, July 26, 2010

STRATEGIC SORCERY TRAINING COURSE CYCLE 3

Strategic Sorcery Training:
New Cycle Starting on AUGUST 1st!

THE STRATEGIC SORCERY TRAINING COURSE
A ONE YEAR BOOT CAMP IN PRACTICAL MAGIC

If you are looking for measurable success with through magic, and not just fantasy attainments...

If you want to not only improve your spiritual life, but your financial and love life as well...

If you want real magic that works in the real world, than this may be the training for you.

Before I even wrote my first book, people have been asking me to present a complete and graduated system of magic as I practice it. At the end of last year I did just that and presented the Strategic Sorcery Training Course.

Due to the overwhelming response I am re-starting the class for a new cycle of students. This new cycle will start on August 1st and will consist of 52 lessons, which will arrive via e-mail each week. There will be one homework assignment per month, but no time limit on when those need to be completed – you work at your own pace.

This course jumps off from where my book, "The Sorcerer's Secrets" leaves off, and teaches very detailed steps for attaining just about any goal. Though the first cycle of students are only a little more than halfway through through the course, people are already getting great results.

The following are some comments from students on the material thus far:

"The exercises set are easy to follow yet produce results remarkably quickly. From the beginning initiation ritual I have experienced more results than on any other course... its like I’ve been super-charged. My channeling is coming through thick and fast, my healing abilities have increased and, in life in general, I feel more centered, balanced and content with life."
- Sue


"Through the Strategic Sorcery course, I have learned to change the way I do certain things and feel that now I am finally walking the magickal path that I was meant to be on."
- Rev. Jay K.

"Though we haven't even gotten very far in the course, I have already used material from the course in workings that have increased my income. After 12 years doing other types of magic, Strategic Sorcery has been a revelation! "
-Linda

"The meditations, especially the Pillar and Spheres, has brought me back into being in synch with time. Not rushing ahead or lagging behind, but being right there in the moment. And that is a Really Big Deal to me. I have gained---I kid you not----three to four hours a day. That's exactly what it feels like. I am getting things done like you wouldn't believe. I feel like I'm coming back home to my Self. "
- Susan

The Lesson on Thought Management alone was enough for me to overcome my fear of rejection and ask out the girl I have been obsessing over for months. We have been going out for three weeks now. This course is making a big difference in my life. "
- Thomas

"Honestly, I wish it had been around when I was a baby Mage. Jason's books, lectures, and course have something that a lot of other magical practices lack: Common Sense. If you are working Magic for cash and prizes then it is results that matter here. Results that don't bite you in the ass. Most practitioners get bit not from some Faustian pact, or constant barrages of magical attack, but because they don't know how to follow through. Jason interweaves a good dose of life skills in with his magical practice, and the common sense that you have to WORK for what you want to accomplish! "
- Joseph Scangarella

"I’ve been work the personal alchemy aspect of ceremonial magick for twenty years, Jason’s course has grounded my ethereal dreams into solid practical workings.
You won’t complete Jason’s class wondering if you’ve done real magick. You won’t leave asking, “Did I really feel that?” You will know that you have done something extraordinary . "
-Robert Hager

Ceremonial Magician and Blogger of Doing Magick

The only requirements for the course are that you be over 18 years of age, have access to e-mail, and a copy of “The Sorcerer’s Secrets, Strategies in Practical Magick”. There will be many other books that are recommended throughout the course, but this will be the only one that is required. Those that complete the class and the homework will be eligible for special classes and activities to take place in the future.

The cost for the course is $150 for all 52 Lessons. That is less than 3 dollars a lesson!


When the first cycle of students complete the class, the cost will be going up, so sign up now to get in on this price!

To sign up for the class write me at inominandum@gmail.com and put STRATEGIC SORCERY COURSE as the subject line. You will then be given a student number and further instructions.

Payment can be made through PayPal to inominandum@gmail.com or sent via check or money order to:
Jason Miller
PO BOX 36
Barnegat, NJ 08005

If you have been looking for a way to improve your life both your inner life and outer circumstance, than I hope to hear from you soon.

Oppression of Christians from inside the faith.

I meant to do my last few postings on Christianity yesterday, but I ended up[ staying at a BBQ yesterday for a lot longer than I thought I would, and than had to do a series of conjurations for a client late into the night. So, just pretend today is Sunday.

Over on Levanah's journal a guy named Harold Roth made a few posts that made a couple good points. You can go read the entire thread here, but I wanted to deal with two of his points in posts of my own.

The first one is one that I more or less agree with him on: the supposed "oppression of Christians" in the occult community.

I for one have never (I think) claimed any kind of Christian Oppression from non-Christians. There is a lot of misunderstanding and stereo-typing, but not any kind of oppression. As Harold states:

Try being kept out a college for being Christian. Try not being allowed to hold public office for being Christian. Try not being allowed to stay in a hotel or motel for not being Christian. Try being kept out of particular neighborhoods for being Christian. Try being turned into soap for being Christian. Try that, and then maybe you will have something to complain about, but until then, please, have one single speck of humility and shut the fuck up about your oppressionl.


He is quite right about that. It is something for other faiths to keep in mind as well. I have known Pagans who have had their houses broken into by "prayer groups" looking for the sacrificed remains of children and animals. I have known Pagans that have lost their jobs because of coming out of the broom closet. This is oppression. Someone I read recently complained that they felt oppressed because when they buy a Yule tree people assume it is a Christmas tree. That is not oppression. That is someone looking for crap to whine about.

Anyway, most of what Christian occultsists complain about as oppression (which to be honest I don't see phrased that way very often) is mis-understanding. They tell people they are Christian and despite the fact that they are occultists themselves, people automatically project the beliefs of a fundamentalist conservative on them. This is mis-understanding, not oppression. The worst part is, like the Christmas vs Yule Tree, it is a reasonable mis-understanding.

The reason that it is a reasonable mis-understanding is that fundamentalists, at least in America, are the loudest and most prolific voice of Christianity. If there is any oppression faced by Christian Mystics, Christian Magicians, Liberal Christians, or Emerging Chruch Christians it is the oppression brought on by these nutty windbags that dominate the airways. It is the oppression of not being able to proudly proclaim that you are a Christian without people thinking that you: are anti-science, anti-gay, anti-abortion, and think everyone on the planet that doesnt think like you is going to hell for eternity. It is this oppression that other Christians, the majority, must fight against, thus the reason that I posted the Father Mattew Video. He is attempting to do just that.

A few people have doubted me when I say that the majority of Christianity is not fundamentalist. Here is a little thought experiment for you: think of the typical evangelical fundie Jesus freak. Think of how separated from most people at work and life that person is. They usually pride themselves on how they are not like the majority of "secular" society. Got that image in your mind? Good.

Now here are the numbers:

76% of Americans identify themselves as Christian. Are 76 Percent of the people you know and bump into every day like that? No? Well there ya go.

Do you run the other way when someone that is "Born Again" is trying to witness to you? So do most Christians.

You will find that while the Catholic and Eastern Orthodox Churches are themselves fairly conservative (though not anti-science like fundie's) their congregations are not that conservative and in general more likely to hold personal views that are different than their church (note the many Liberal Democratic Catholic politicians). Episcopaleans and Quakers are probably the liberal extreme as far as mainstream denominations go, here the congregation is probably a little less liberal than the clergy, but still not anything like a fundamentalist. Methodists and some Lutherans are also fairly liberal, much to the consternation of Fundamentalists within those denominations.

When i was a teenager I started going to Methodist Church, my minister there who gave me a test to see what scripture books different quotes came from. We all thought he meant books of the bible, but at the end of the test he revealed that amongst the Bible quotes were quotes from books of other religions. The idea of the exercise was to show how there are many paths to god. Sound a bit different than what you think of when you hear about Christians evangelizing?

Again, I understand the misunderstanding. It is a reasonable misunderstanding because the Majority has not done enough to be as vocal as the intolerant minority. That is our problem, and thus the need for good evangelists.

Saturday, July 24, 2010

200 Followers

This blog has reached 200 followers!

Thank you all for your support.

I shall keep it rolling through thick and thin.

It would be cooler if this was a cult and you were all brainwashed followers who would act on my every whim... but I will settle for interested readers.

As if by magic, Anamchara posted a quote today that is relevant to our community here:


Listen to the prophets, not to some adolescent boy.
The foundation and the walls of the spiritual life
are made of self-denials and disciplines.


Stay with friends who support you in these.
Talk with them about sacred texts,
and how you’re doing, and how they’re doing,
and keep your practices together.

— Rumi, translated by Coleman Barks with John Moyne,
from The Essential Rumi

Readers, and most especially fellow bloggers, you help from exactly the kind of spiritual community that Rumi is speaking of. I thank you.

Friday, July 23, 2010

Daniel Schorr

Danielle Schorr, heres hoping I am as sharp and as up to date as you were at 93. If they did not talk about your age 2 years ago on your birthday I would never have guessed. I will miss your commentary.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/07/23/daniel-schorr-dead-npr-cb_n_657314.html

Thursday, July 22, 2010

On Emerging Christianity

I guess this is just gonna be Christian week here at Strategic Sorcery because I keep coming accross things related to the tempest in a communion cup that I stirred up a couple days ago.

This is for those who think that Christianity must be about knowing that you are right and everyone else is wrong. It is a quote from Franciscan Fr Richard Rohr taken from a conference about the emerging church. Fr Rohr is one of my hero's.

“I hope whatever emerging Christianity is,” said Franciscan Fr. Richard Rohr, a featured speaker at the conference, “it’s going to be much more practice-based than doctrine-based. Where has this obsession with believing correct doctrines gotten us? The Roman church is right back into it, although maybe that’s why God is humiliating us, to say: ‘This obsession with being right and having the whole truth, look where it’s gotten you, Roman church,’ ” he said in a not-so-thinly veiled reference to the then-breaking story that the shadow of the clergy sex abuse scandal had darkened the door of the papal palace. “It might well be in the great scheme of God’s grace the only way to bring us to humility, to balancing all of our absolutely certain knowing with a necessary unknowing.”

You can read the whole article here.

Thanks to Carl McColeman for pointing this article out on The Website of Unknowing.

Incidentally, if you were wondering is the Jason that asked the question he posted about yesterday yesterday was me, yes it was.

Mary Mary

Since Christianity seems to be the theme of the week, I thought I might post a reminder that today is the feast of Mary Magdalene.

I am unconvinced that she was the wife of Christ and not convinced at all of her bearing the Christs or other Dan Brown type nonsense.

I am however convinced that she was probably the closest of the disciples, and know for a fact that she is herself a powerful force for both raising the mind towards union and for interceding on our behalf.

I post here the collect for the day taken from the Daily Office of the Anglican Church followed by a prayer for Haiti that the Church is recommending to people today. 

Lastly, a reading from Thunder, the Perfect Mind, which is all about the divine feminine.


Collect of the Day: Mary Magdalene


Almighty God, whose blessed Son restored Mary Magdalene to health of body and of mind, and called her to be a witness of his resurrection: Mercifully grant that by your grace we may be healed from all our infirmities and know you in the power of his unending life; who with you and the Holy Spirit lives and reigns, on God, now and for ever. Amen.




A Prayer for Haiti

by Josh Thomas


O Father of the poor and Mother of the oppressed: Enfold in your arms the suffering people of Haiti. Comfort those in mourning; relieve those in pain; give shelter to the homeless and hope to those in despair. Feed your people, O God, with bread both earthly and divine, and give them your water and wine. Help them bury the dead, nurse the sick and wounded, and raise their faith and dignity, for they are some of your dearest children. Proclaim your truth that this vibrant, creative nation still shines as a beacon of freedom throughout the Americas. And help the people of Haiti, with the nations of the world, to rebuild their colorful land in the image of your Son Jesus Christ, who knows our suffering because he took our mortal pain into his body on the Cross, then rose again to live and reign with you and the Holy Comforter. Amen.]


A lesson taken from Thunder, the Perfect Mind:

I was sent by the Power and came to those who thought of me. I was found by those who sought me. Behold me, ye who thought of me. And ye who wanted to hear me, listen to me. And ye who expected me, accept me. And do not drive me away from before your eyes. And let not your voice or your ear hate me. Do not ignore me anywhere or at any time. Be careful, do not ignore me, for I am the first and the last. I am the honored one and the despised one. I am the harlot and I am the saint. I am the woman and I am the virgin. I am the mother and I am the daughter. I am barren and I have many children. I have many husbands and I am unmarried. I am the physician who heals and I am the one who wounds. I am the bride and I am the bridegroom. I am the mother of my husband and my husband is my father. I am the daughter of my husband, and my husband is my son. I am the sister of my husband and my husband is my brother. I am the slave of my father and I am the mistress of my son. 

Wednesday, July 21, 2010

Yet more thoughts on Evangelizing

Ok there are a couple more things that I have to say on the subject.

The first is that after watching this video a number of times now, mostly to try and figure out how people were conflating it with what it is exactly against, I feel pretty safe in stating that the primary target for Evangelizing in the video are actually other Christians. There are a lot of people who look to follow Christ but cannot find their way out of the loud and noise mess that is fundamentalism. They want a Christianity that does not rely upon the bible being inerrant, and they want a Christianity that is inclusive and loving of their neighbors who walk different paths. These folks are the main target for Episcopal and Progressive Christian evangelizing. After them would come people who are nominally Christian but not really practicing. If you meet someone who is having tough issues and they celebrate Christmas and Easter, but do little else ( a Chreaster), is it really so wrong to offer up the idea that prayer and contemplation of the faith that they nominally belong to might be helpful?

Lastly, I wanted to point out that by synchronicity or dare I suggest the working of the Holy Spirit, there is an article today in the Huffington Post about Progressive Christianity.

Tuesday, July 20, 2010

My own thoughts on Evangelizing

Wow. I posted a video yesterday that I thought was going to just be a throw away post. I wanted to show a Priest from a mainstream church who is specifically calling out against aggressive Christian tactics and actually calls them a jerks.

The big problem for Episcopalians as well as other Christians who are not fundamentalist nut jobs that think the world is only 6000 years old, is that they mostly mind their own business and do their own thing. Because of this their religion, and mine, is being usurped by hateful, anti-science, neo-conservative wind bags who actually know nothing of the Bible or Theology.

In the video he specifically calls for:

  • Not simply relying upon the clout of the church to transmit the message. 
  • Not being a jerk, Don't argue or fight with people
  • Show that you can be Christian and still be smart, non-judgemental, and not have hissyfits when people hold different view. 
  • Not tear people down in order to build yourself up
  • Let sharing your religion come out in a natural way
  • Most importantly, love the people you are sharing with
  • Continue to grow in the faith yourself. 
  • Make the church more hospitable to different types of people and different cultures by transforming the institutions. 
All this sounded pretty good to me.

Most commenter's felt differently. Some responses seemed to completely ignore the video and spirit of the post and just react to other types of Evangelizing (proselytizing really) that they are used to and which this video is in fact a rejection of. Others posted that evangelism is fine, but their automatic response is to ignore it completely or  play into it for a gas. 

My own feeling has always been that I appreciate it. Even the fundie, "do this or go to hell", types of Evangelizing. . I appreciate that someone, however misguided, is trying to do what they think is right and helpful. When I end with a polite rejection, or perhaps a counter point that they cannot answer and they reply "I will pray for you", I thank them. I mean it too. They are taking the time to pray for me, why would I be offended?

Also I have never felt that my own view is so perfect that I should ignore what other people are saying out of hand. I appreciate the education, even if it is just an education in the particular manner that you are wacky and intolerant.  Here is the interesting thing about tolerence: If you are only tolerant of those that are tolerant of you, than you are not tolerant at all. Know where I learned that? Sunday school. 

I want to thank people right now that have Evangelized to me. They took the time to talk to me about Buddhism, Thelema, Christianity, Gnosticism, Taoism, Ekankar, Anthroposophy, Vodou, Vortex Healing, Wicca, and a whole host of other things. You felt that your lives were being enriched by something that you knew about and I didn't and you wanted to share it with me. You shared your good news. I listened and perhaps I experimented with what you told me, and perhaps I didn't. Regardless of what i ended up doing with it, I appreciate you sharing the good news.

Monday, July 19, 2010

Why I love the Episcopal Church

Certainly among non-Christians, there is nothing that makes them less comfortable than the idea of Evangelism. The fact is though that it is a duty of Christians to evangelize.

This is why I love the Episcopal Church Listen to Father Mattew address a conference of young Christians on the topic. He pulls no punches about how most American Christians approach this. I love Father Matthew.





Don't worry, there will be more Sorcery and occult stuff later in the week. I just thought  that this was worth spreading.

Wednesday, July 14, 2010

Three Rules of Self Improvement in Magic

Over here, Robert wrote a bit about issues that he has been Struggling with relating to different facets of his personality. In his post he mentions some advice that I gave him regarding not wasting all ones efforts on improving the outer personality. I thought I might take the opportunity to talk a little bit about that here.

There are really three things that people try to do with magic:
1. Change outer circumstance
2. Make self improvements
3. Attain Enlightenment, Gnosis, Union with the Divine or whatever you want to call moving towards ultimate truth.

All of these can be perused at the exclusion of all else, but in a well rounded Sorcerer all three are seen as interdependent. A lot of magicians and spiritual people do not see the difference between number two and number three. It is this connection that I want to speak about in this post.

There are some spiritual paths that rely upon self improvement as the primary means of spiritual development. You route out your flaws, you cultivate your virtues, and eventually you move further and further towards the sublime. This is a valid path. It is a very safe path. It is not a very straight path and also takes a long long time. You can spend lifetimes tweaking the personality and becoming "pure".

The ultimate truth does not require this. You are in fact not very far from it right now, no matter what state of mind or stage of development you are in. This is the operative concept behind Tantra - that you can through skillful transmutation of energies and manipulation of primordial experiences propel yourself into the experience. This is also one of the mysteries in Christianity, that you do not need to fulfill all the laws of Leviticus, you simply need to open up to the experience of Gods Love. This is why Aliester Crowley wrote that anyone at any grade   could cross the abyss and become 8=3. This is why most people who get a taste of the high spiritual states, and even manage to establish themselves in the high spiritual stages, say that the great secret is that you are already there.

We all have things that we are good at and things that we are bad at. We all have hang-ups and things that we struggle with. Realization of higher states does put this in a different perspective, but it does not eliminate flaws automatically nor does it create virtues.

You may look upon the face of god. You may experience union with the cosmos. You may experience the symbol-less Gnosis. You may experience the non-dual state. You may do all this and still get angry at your spouse over stupid crap, be selfish and uncharitable, be bad with money, and still not be able to stop smoking.

So how much should I worry about Self Improvement? Here are three rules that I use as guidelines:

RULE 1:  is to let go of the idea of being a fully actualized perfected persona. Unless you solve the problem of physical immortality, you will NOT perfect your egoistic personality. You cannot be all Myers Briggs personality types rolled into one. There will always be things that you are better at than others and there will always be things that you are just not good with at all. Get over it.

RULE 2: is to figure out which weaknesses are simply things you are bad with and which weaknesses are actually causing you problems. For instance, I can anger pretty quickly. If I angered to the point where I became abusive to people or found myself having violent episodes this would be something that I need to work on. As it is, I can control my anger pretty well and transform its energy constructively so it is not a priority to work on. I am also a fast food addict. This was in fact causing me physical harm as well as hampering certain dimensions of spiritual growth, so this was an area of self improvement that was vital to work on.

RULE 3: is to work more on enhancing your strengths than fixing all your weaknesses. If you run a business and you are great at the marketing end of things, but not so good with the accounting end of things your time will be much better spent focusing on marketing than accounting. Focusing on accounting may appeal to the part of you that wants to be all things to all people, but you need to remember Rule 1: you can't. Go hire an accountant. Now, if you are so terrible at accounting that as the owner you cannot understand what your accountant tells you, or even have a clue as to whether your costs are more than your income, this brings in Rule 2 - you need to work on your accounting skills. Only just enough to be competent though. You are not looking to master accounting, just the 20% or so that will get you able to communicate with the experts.

Using the example of someone looking for a lover I use these three when advising people. Some guys get so into the self-improvement that they never move on to actually asking women out on a date. If you remember rule 1, you will know that  while our features make us attractive, our flaws actually make us lovable. Being too perfect is not attractive.   If however you are so bad in certain areas that it makes you repugnant to the opposite sex (hint: "I want to cum on your tits" is not a phrase to utter within an hour of meeting someone) than you need to remember rule 2 and go ahead and work on that. If however you are an insightful person, you can use Rule 3 and offer a quick tarot reading or even a cold reading (all is fair in flirting) to build some value for yourself.

Now lets turn our attention back to ultimate truth. It is true that you can access the enlightened or gnostic state no matter what personality issues you have. These states, being by nature transpersonal, are not blocked by our petty issues. To take that temporary spiritual state and integrate that awareness into your living levels of consciousness and action however is a whole other story. To take the state and make it your next stage, usually take a bit of work on the personality. You still do not have to become perfect (Rule 1). You just have to work on those issues that present themselves as obstacles to achieving that state (Rule 2). You will then reflect that state outwardly through your strengths (Rule 3) which is why different enlightened beings manifest in different aspects. 


Thus endeth the lesson.

Sunday, July 11, 2010

Clarifications on What If

Ok, I feel the need to `clarify a few points about the last post.

The first clarification is: It was supposed to be kind of a light musing on things, and perhaps some side experimentation. It was not a very serious doctrine that I am now espousing as the new and better way. I think a few people may have taken it that way.

Second clarification: It was definitely not meant as an accusation that Hermetic magic is wrong, doesn't work, or is fundamentally flawed. It was simply a post pondering if the system would have looked the same if we had always known about the Heliocentric universe. I don't think it would have looked the same, others suppose that it might. The point is that they did'nt know and it is set up that way and it has worked for many. Despite the nagging feeling with the symbol set, it worked for me. It still works for me when working with other people and we all need to get on the same page.

Thinking of things in different ways does not necessitate abandoning old ways. In Kabbala for instance different Rabbi's and different texts have attributed the planets in different order. Even in the same text this sometimes happens (Sepher Ratziel). Each arrangement is not an argument against another one, simply a different approach, sometimes yielding a different result.

Another example of an approach you could do using modern methods is to take the planets as they are typically arranged on a Septagram like this:

But instead connect them using an obtuse heptagram like this:


The planets automatically fall into the order of their atomic weights, which might be an interesting order to work them in if you were alchemicaly inclined. It looks like this:

Mars rules iron .. .. .. .. atomic weight 56
Venus rules copper .. .. .. .. atomic weight 63
Moon rules silver .. .. .. .. atomic weight 108
Jupiter rules tin .. .. .. .. atomic weight 118
Sun rules gold .. .. .. .. atomic weight 196
Mercury rules mercury .. .. .. .. atomic weight 200
Saturn rules lead .. .. .. .. atomic weight 207

Third clarification: This one is the MOST IMPORTANT. There tends to be a little confusion about the difference between the physical planets as psycospiritual batteries of power and the planets as symbols of the levels between material manifestation and subtler more ultimate layers of reality. I want to be clear that I was speaking about the latter, not the former.

Now, unlike Frater R.O. in his post here, I do actually use the planets as batteries of power. In this I follow a long tradition established in China, India, and several other places. One can draw upon the energies of the actual planets through the body, as well as certain stars and even groups of stars. One can also travel to these places in the Astral Body (indeed that is why the astral body is called the Astral or Star Body). You can zip off to the physical sun and other stars, and even the center of the galaxy. I can say from experience that  it is worthwhile doing so. You are however simply traveling to a place in the lower astral that relates to the spacial coordinates of the physical location. You are not shifting your awareness to a higher sphere. Doing so from those coordinates can yield very interesting results, but that is perhaps best left for another day.

The type of work that Heremetic magic, Khabbalah, and other similar systems describe is NOT about traveling to the physical place. It is about travel to a higher vibrational sphere from material to subtle reality. I tend to describe this as Vertical rather than Horizontal travel.

The planets in this case are simply convenient symbols for dividing up the experience into manageable levels, which is exactly what R.O. states in the post liked to above. Indians and some Greeks divided the experience up using the elements. Golden Dawn took the Enochian Athyrs and used it in the same way.

My post was geared around setting up a system of experiencing this journey but which deliberately shifts consciousness away from being rooted in the earth. It is important to note that to the Gnostics the entire point was that the Earth was a trap and the planets, far from being helping stepping stones to the stars, were barriers ruled by Archons that essentially kept mankind imprisoned in earth consciousness.

The system that I mused about in the last post, was all about re-rooting in the sun, than re-approaching the lower spheres, the earth itself, and than the higher spheres from that anchor point. In the traditional system the stage of the Sun was thought to be particularly important, the system I put forth recognizes this by having you turn around after you have reached the center and than going to the outer reaches. This is also a good representation of the forumla IAO which uses the vowels associated with Luna, Sol, and Saturn respectively.

The thought of re-anchoring in the galactic center as a symbol of layers of consciousness beyond the ninth sphere was an extrapolation. In my experience, a black hole would be a pretty good symbol for the gnosis of these layers, represented by Causal Layers in my system and by the Veils of Unmanifest Existence.

Thursday, July 8, 2010

What If?

What if the Heliocentric view of the solar system was popular when the Hermetic, Chaldean, and other schools that teach that sort of climbing the planetary ladder of lights were invented. Would it change anything? I myself do not use that system of division anymore, but when I did, it was always a nagging feeling that this set up reflects a bad view of reality. Today I tend to not view the spheres recognized in the Hermetic set up as having anything at all to do with the actual planets. They are just a convenient metaphor.

If I was doing planetary initiations from a modern perspective though, perhaps it would look like this:

Aspirant moves to the Lunar Sphere, than to Venus, than to Mercury, than to the Sun. Note that this order reverses Venus and Mercury to set them how they actually are in space in relation to the Earth and the Sun.

After receiving the Solar consciousness the work of the aspirant is than to move outward and re-experience Mercury, Venus, and Earth through the lens of the Solar Consciousness Perspective. Note that on this outward journey you ignore the moon because, from the perspective of the sun, it is no more important than any other planets moon.

Interesting questions arise. Who would be the archangel for earth? Sandalphon? Lumiel? What about the Kamea, Intelligence, and Spirit? You might have to re-investigate the whole scheme and let new symbols surface.

Only after re-experiencing earth through the lens of Solar Consciousness would one then be fit to travel to Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn.

Now, since we are doing this based on modern understanding of the Solar System, it seems only natural to include the planets that we now know are there: Uranus and Neptune. Pluto too if you consider it a planet (Yuggoth!). It is sort of amazing that Hermes 8th and 9th and also Kether and Chokma work so nicely if you attribute them to these planets which were unknown at the time. It certainly makes more sense than jumping to fixed stars or the zodiac.

Anyway, this too brings up some interesting questions.

All the classical planets through Saturn were named by people with Astrology and Magic in mind. Not so for Uranus, Neptune, and Pluto, all named by scientists that had no real interest in the metaphysical aspects. Are those good attributions or are there better ones? What symbols work for these planets or are they best worked without the use of symbols (my own view). What do they govern? What Metals to use? Uranium?

After completing the journey through the Solar System, what next? Perhaps since we traveled in spirit from having an earth-centric perspective to a solar centric perspective, the next logical step would be to plunge ourselves astrally into the center of the Milky Way and seek to re-frame our consciousness from that perspective.

Again, more questions: Do we jump straight there from the outermost planet or do we jump star to star?  It is looking increasingly like there is a super-massive black hole at the center of the Milky Way, so what sort of awareness shift would result?

Of course the Galaxies themselves are circling around each other in groups, which could lead to yet another perspective shift. If we started jumping planet to planet, than moved from jumping star to star, do we jump black hole to black hole? To get to where? Maybe we go THROUGH the hole....

At what point though do you loose contact with earth though? How "far out" can you be and still be effective in life. There are lots of mind-states that are powerful and reality shattering, but unless they can be aligned with our living levels of awareness they dont serve much purpose, at least in this life.

Whew. Sound like a lot of work. Glad I don't do that kind of thing ;-)

Tuesday, July 6, 2010

New Age and Occult

I used to joke that when New Agers progress after years and years they would find themselves reaching the stages that a serious magician begins at.

Based on some of the weird crap that happened to me on retreat I am starting to wonder if it is the other way around.

Morality and Magic part 2

I should also mention that there are certain traditions where Morality is integral to the system itself. These are traditions that draw upon lineages, dimensions, or egregores set up by great sages who deliberately set up their systems to be used in certain ways.

Morality and Magic

One of the trends of the last century is the de-linking of morality and magic. Crowley of course was the biggest and most viable leader in this, but there were many others from Spare to Dadaji as well as many others. This was a necessary phase for magic to undergo because by the turn of the century the concept of proper moral behavior was tied to many practices that were harmful (civilizing "savage" cultures, child labor, etc), hateful (racism, misogyny, homophobia, etc), and in some cases not really about ethics at all (Forced closures on Sunday etc.)

I mention all this because one of the formspring questions that I did not answer started out by praising me as someone who sees that there is no link between magic and morality, and for essentially being a "shoot first and ask questions later type of guy. Although this person was praising me, that is not praise that I want because nothing could be further from the truth.

It is true that when I teach protection magic or combat magic I do get into the subject of cursing. I even have my own ritual: "Inominandum's Shock and Awe Fuck Your Shit Up to Death Curse". I have not however actually used the ritual. I invented it as a teaching exercise. I feel that deliberately not covering cursing and harmful sorcery damages the tradition of magic overall and ill prepares people for what they may encounter in real life.

The part of the classes that everyone seems to miss however is when I say that there is almost always a better way. I try never to jump to harmful magic when I can avoid it. Even if someone or something is deliberately attacking me, I rarely attack back, preferring to let defense be my offense. In fact I usually try to make supplicating offerings on behalf of the person or spirit in question, that they let go of their anger. I also sometimes try to rein back some of the protectors that surround me because honestly, they can over react a little. I have regretted overzealous protection magic more than once.

I have used jinxes to confuse or dominate people in the course of business dealings where not doing so would cause greater harm. In a few cases I even did so just because I wanted my side to win and theirs to loose. These were not morally clean actions however and I would not pretend that they were.

The truth is that I do see a link between magic and morality. Compassion, truth, love, kindness, etc are all natural products of understanding and gnosis. Hatred, Violence, Lying, Theft, Selfishness, etc are products of ignorance. While in a state of pure contemplation it is true that actions have no Karma, however, most of us are not existing in that state all the time. One set of actions drives us towards realization, the other set away from it. I have seen this happen over and over.

Yes, you can draw power from negative emotions to fuel magic, but it is nothing compared to the power that you can effortlessly produce by cutting through those emotions and understanding the basis of reality itself.

Monday, July 5, 2010

Eastern Religion friendly to science

Number one reason that Athiest evangelists never say a word about Eastern religions,

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/philip-goldberg/are-eastern-religions-mor_b_628533.html

Of course if more people realized how similar many Priests view of western religions to Eastern Religions, a lot of peoples worlds would be rocked.

Sunday, July 4, 2010

Witchvox Article

Hey y'all.

Witchvox posted my article about The Nine Principals of Strategic Sorcery. 

Reading it today I was struck by how strange how work gets staggered. I am sending out things that I wrote a long time ago. I am currently writing things that I had thought about and sketched out the basics of around the time that I was writing the stuff I am sending out. I am now working with and fueled creatively by things that wont get written about for a long time, stuff that will form the base of the advanced classes and some side projects that are just to strange and laser focused to be part of anything else.

Thursday, July 1, 2010

Hermetic models say that Saturn or maybe the 8th and 9th spheres are the finishing point of reality. In your course you claim there are more layers beyond this. You also say that the planetary layers are all in the lower astral? What model do you use?

Short answer is: I do not use a firm model at all. I did, but eventually I pushed the boundaries of such models in so many directions that I found them all lacking,

Think about how big the planet earth is. You could spend the rest of your life wandering and not see every inch of it. Now think about how small earth is in the solar system. Now think of how small it is in the galaxy. In the Universe.

When you blow out your concept of reality to include other planes of existence accessed through different bodies and shifts in consciousness I just cannot accept a multi-verse that is explained completely. I think that these models are excellent as tools, and I have used them myself. If however they are treated as a finished product, they loose all meaning.

To twist a phrase that I heard from some astrophysicist whose name I cannot remember: Reality is not only more than we know, but more than we can know,

For the record, I do not treat the planetary levels as being in the lower astral. The spheres model used in Hermetics, is a type of vertical travel through planes of existence/consciousness. I do not see these as having anything to do with the literal planets and consider it a metaphor.

That said, the levels marked as planets exist in the astral levels. The lowest of them (luna) is above (more subtle than) the very low astral which more or less mirrors the physical world. To get past the Solar sphere your astral body undergoes a shift into what I call the Soul Body,. As you vibrate higher, you experience less ego clinging, more compassion and noble feelings. The reason for this is that consciousness itself is an integral part of all manifestation, and the further you get from the dense material world, the more this consciousness becomes refined. After Saturn is what can be called an Abyss, but not what I refer to as the abyss. It is however where you shift from the Soul Body (higher astral) into the mental body and enter the eighth and ninth spheres. This is roughly equivalent to the celestial triad on the tree of life.

The eighth and ninth spheres that Hermes Trismegistus wrote about in his discourse and which Frater RO is writing a lot about currently are in what I call the Mental Levels. You travel as consciousness only. You do however experience space and other beings at this level. Platonic forms and very subtle structures as well as beatific visions of angels and saints emanate from here. The Silent Hymns that Hermes wrote of are silent because they are the expressions of the Mind. In the Hermetic system you reveal the 9th sphere by singing these hyms. In the 9th sphere there is only you and God, or as I see it, you and everything else.

I know that some who like the Tree of Life model will disagree with this, but to me, the real Crossing of the Abyss happens after this point, not earlier.

Beyond this are what I call the Causal levels. These are areas of consciousness and awareness with no spatial dimensions or separation. Upper Causal Levels also have no meaningful dimension of time. Even here though there is room for movement in terms of experience of emptiness of form, experience of bliss, experience of light, experience of vastness, experience of fullness.

Beyond this are the perfection levels, that are pretty well meaningless to write about.

There may be things yet beyond that. I am only 37 after all.

All this however just speaks of VERTICAL travel from gross to subtle.

At each of these levels there is a, infinite plurality of experience. Those that experience the solar level for instance, have not experienced the entire level any more than you have experienced the entire earth. If you ask Michael to initiate you into the consciousness of the Solar sphere, you are going to get a very different experience than if you use the Necronomicon gate to walk the same levels. It is worth doing both.

It is in the Horizontal traveling that you can make a great deal of interesting discovery that is relevant to practical magic. There are for instance entire planes of specific types of force that have been set up by Wizards (a term I do not use lightly) that have stabilized awareness of the causal levels. Some of these are the Buddhist Pure lands designed to make tantric practice easier. Others are heavens set up to hold the consciousness of devotees of specific religions. Some are universe wide engines of healing force that can be tapped into. Others are places where ....

Well, you get the idea. The world is big, The universe is big, The multiverse is even bigger. The whole of reality is WAY to big to think that you have a firm grasp on.

Are there any special problems or considerations when reusing the same object as a link in successive spells?

I actually have never had a problem using the same link over and over.

At the moment I am taking no new questions.

Do you know of any occult techniques to cure social anxiety?

There are lots of types of energy healing that will assist in this. There are also distance methods that can work.

Invocations of Jupiterian energy or interacting with Jupiterian beings can help this immensely as well.

Make sure to follow up with theraputic techniques.

At the moment I am taking no new questions.

What mundane actions are needed to successfully use hoodoo compelling/domination formulas or is the point of the formula that it does the influencing for you, irrespective of your mundane efforts?

A traditional rootworker might say that magic is all that is needed. Though you might get a result without mundane effort, you will get a BETTER result with mundane actions. As to the specific actions, that depends upon who and what you are trying to influence.

Looking for a new Girlfriend of a One Night Stand, pick up a book like 'The Game" or "Let Her Chase You".

Looking for a new Job or to get promoted? Get a book on that.

There are too many variables to suggest specifics.

At the moment I am taking no new questions.

Any suggestions to do spell/ritual work in small space? I live in a very small studio apartment and feel that I couldn't even cast a circle or have enough space to do rituals or work with spirits.

Learn internal energy work, astral work, and cast spells without big rituals. I have my main Sorcery Altar in a closet. If I need to enclose it in a circle or sphere I do so letting it pass through walls and floors and such,

It is a myth of Wicca and Ceremonial Magic that you need circles, tools, or even rituals to do magic.

At the moment I am taking no new questions.

When talking about crossed conditions, can they manifest in extremely specific ways? For example, could a crossed condition affect one's luck with vehicles and affect nothing else in your life?

yes

At the moment I am taking no new questions.

with all the publishing chatter, I just have to ask: what operations would you recommend for a sorcerer/fiction writer trying to break through with agents and publishers using traditional query letters to pitch a finished novel?

A combination of information and influence magic. You can think of these in terms of mercury and venus if you are a planetary thinker.

At the moment I am taking no new questions.

As a practitioner of multiple faiths , will you raise your children in one of them or teach them to be eclectic right from the start?

I will try to raise them to know that Truth itself is pathless and that any faith traditions are merely pointing at something, not the thing in themselves. They will have a mix of Buddhist and Christian upbringing as their base.

At the moment I am taking no new questions.

Jason, you have recommended meditation as highly beneficial for the practice of sorcery. Would adding a healthy diet and getting good exercise significantly increase your proficiency with magick ?

Some types of magic, yes. Others no. For instance being healthy and fit will help you with longevity magic, love magic, job magic, strength magic, etc.

It is not a necessity mind you, it is just a help.

Other types of magic focusing on higher plane astral work, or meditation are probably uneffected. Quite a number of Tibetan Lamas that are known to be magical powerhouses are fat and have terrible diets.

At the moment I am taking no new questions.

do you think the direction of a magickal altar matters, not so in "traditional terms", but in regard to its energetic configuration, its function as an subconscious anchor and its representation of a sacred space? my altar right now:south-west-corner...

Only in relation to the position of the body, and only for accessing certain flows of power. Others are non effected,

At the moment I am taking no new questions.

Hello Jason, What are the contributions Nuns have made to Tibetan tradition? Do they have their own lineages? Have you heard their perspective on the work? In the Western Catholic church, the sisters in convents are heirs to rich mystical experience-AIT

To tell you the truth, I don't know.

I know a lot of the contributions that Female Yoginis have made to the Tantric tradition, but to be honest Ani's (nuns) get the shaft a bit in Tibetan Buddhism. Much more so than in Catholicism. Since I am not particularly interested in monasticism to begin with, I never investigated Nuns specifically.
My good friend Andre runs a charity to support the power place called Muktinath and the Nuns that live and practice there. I will ask next time we talk.

At the moment I am taking no new questions.

I've seen you mention Robert Bruce several times. I was wondering what your opinion was on his New Energy Ways system of energy work/development, and how it compares/contrasts with other systems you're familiar with. Thanks!

I have mixed feelings. On the one hand, he does some innovative things with it and has built an excellent method for shaking loose the astral body.

On the other hand, he went really far out of his way to deliberately ignore anything "eastern". His explanation of why he did this is unsatifactory, The idea that systems of energy work practiced in the modern day by people in the east is somehow less accessible than things done in Greece thousands of years ago is just silly. In deliberately ignoring eastern energy body work, he re-invents the wheel and while he does put together a good system for astral projection, there is so so so much more.

At the moment I am taking no new questions.