Altar Show and Tell

  So I’ve been re-arranging my altars a bit recently trying to find a configuration that works for me. I’ve pretty much settled on the follow for my full altar set up. I found this set of tables at an amazing price at the local antique store. I was going got leave and think about them, but I physically could not leave until they were mine! I also found an assortment of other items there, such as the antlers, incense burner, and various other stuff (which resulted in the shop owner questioning me on why I needed all these items. I half considered rolling up my sleeve to show my rather large Horned God tattoo and telling them that I’m a sorcerer, that’s why, but I refrained).

Anyway, this provoked a full on altar rearrangement! It’s divided into two sections, the upper for Hekate and the bottom for Old Horney, my respective patrons. Inside the drawers are all my incenses, oils, lamens, metal talismans, and stones.

Below are close up of each half. Here is Hekate’s shrine. The photo above is Hellfurians Hekate print from The Voodoo Store. She is surrounded by vessels for Earth, Sea, and Sky. The skulls are a swine skull, 2 coyotes, and my raccoon familiar. There is also a snake bell, a brass offering cup, and the disks on either side are two of Jason Millers Hekate’s wheels from Protection and Reversal Magic, which I charged this past dark moon (another post on that later). The lamp is a sacred flame that is on whenever I am in the temple area.

Hekates Shrine

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Below that is the Old Horney shrine. It’s um… pretty much self explanatory. Statue, antlers, and skull for the Him, another brass offering glass, a skull for my ancestors, my ovate stone, an Awen disk and my ritual dagger.

 

 

 

 

 

Lets not forget my Hermetic Conjuration Station, surrounded by candles for the 4 elemental angels. I’m going to be making a new one soon. I find it’s just too big. I’m going to reduce the size to a smaller box and just have an array of switches inside to change the color of the light as needed. That’s my project for next year though. In front are pewter and tin talismans I made for Elubatel and Nitika. Oh and to the right is my stang and cauldron. So that’s the current set up, and I love it. Sometimes I go spend time in this area, not the do any magic, but to just spend time with the spirits who reside here. It’s very much a place of peace for me.

 

Technomagic: The Conjuration Station

The finished version, with Cassiel’s lead talisman bringing forth Saturn’s light.

So as I mentioned in a previous post, I’ve been experimenting with a concept Frater R.O. came up with in this blog post here. Basically the concept is to run an electric current through a metal talisman which has been dedicated/consecrated to an entity (in this case an angelic spirit)  and use that current to light up an LED under the scrying crystal, thereby bringing the essence of the entity into the crystal and lighting it up with spirit-tastic goodness for scrying, and consecration of ritual items, communions, etc. (I do NOT take credit for this concept, that belongs to R.O solely. This is my own visualization of it using his concept.)

I tried this using some loose wire and and LED a few times for “proof of principle” with great results. Then one day while meditating I had a “vision” of my own version of the The Box. This vision would not let me rest. I felt it almost violently clawing it’s way out of my brain and into manifestation, if that makes any sense. Like it was using me as a conduit to come into existence. So I made my own version with some modifications, the finished product is shown to the left, with Cassiel’s (Archangel of Saturn) lead talisman triggering the Saturnian light under the crystal.

Basically I started out using an old antique flatware case I dug up at the antique shop for next to nothing. I then engraved a modified version of the Table of Practice on it, and the 7 seals of the planets from Agrippa.The idea was to have it be a one-stop conjuration table/ToP, that I could place my incense burner and candle holders on too.  Kind of like a conjuration center piece. I call it the Conjuration Station (geeky I know, but I like this kind of stuff).

The etching before painting.

For this I used the engraving head of the dremel tool. I find it MUCH easier to work with than a wood burner (albeit louder). There is also an 8th circle for “miscellaneous” spirits that are not planetary in nature. Then I painted it and added the electronics. Basically I drilled 8 holes in the triangle of the table of practice and fit through them 8 LED lights of different colors, each one representing one of the planets. A blacklight for Saturn, blue for Jupiter, Red for Mars, Yellow for the Sun, Green for Venus, Orange for Mercury, and cool white for the moon. I added a warm white light for the “misc” category.

The 8 LEDs nested in the triangle, under the crystal.

I then connected 8 batteries (I’ll explain why I used 8 rather than just one later) to each light and ran the negative electrodes through each of the planetary symbols on the box.

So whenever you place one of the metal talismans I made earlier on it’s matching planetary symbol, it completes the circuit and the crystal lights up with the correct color to be used in evocation. It works pretty much perfect. It’s not going to be “truly” done for about another 7-12 months though.

Finished, with burner, candle holders, and Abramelin oil

I plan on empowering each battery separately with planetary essence to make it well.. a battery of planetary power.  Each battery is going to wrapped in steel wool + lambs wool along with the appropriate metal and soaked in the appropriate oil, and left to sit for a full moon cycle on a small planetary “altar”, of which I am making 7 right now (another vision induced idea).

That way when you place a talisman on it, the battery it activates will have pure planetary “juice” running through it, up into the crystal. Also, I have about 10 ounces of pewter left, so I can easily make and engrave a metal talisman for pretty much any spirit I want to work with in about 30 mins for use with this box. I’m also thinking about adding Celestial and Cthonic circles on it (maybe burying the Cthonic battery in a cemetery for a month?). I don’t know, all I know is it’s not finished yet and I’ve just begin to scratch what I think I can do with it. The other night I had a dream about using a crystal skull with the Saturnian light instead of a spherical crystal for Necromantic work (Now I need a damn crystal skull!).

Is something like this necessary to to conjurations? Hell no, it’s total extravagance and I fully recognize that. However doing interesting stuff (well to me anyway) like this is part of the reason I like being a magician, so it makes me happy.

Here’s a gallery of the crystal lit up with each color. Click on each pic or a larger version.

Black/Violet light for Saturn

Blue for Jupiter

Red for Mars

Yellow for the Sun

Green for Venus

Orange for Mercury

Cool White for the Moon

Warm White for “Misc”.

Solar Initiation

Obligatory Disclaimer: I debated long and hard if I should write about this stuff. I always try to stick close to the concept of honesty on this blog and really just speak from the source. I’m not out to make this a blog about any one particular path or impress anyone or make myself out to be anything other than I am (i.e. often confused and feeling around in the dark). I really blog for two reasons: Write about stuff I’m passionate about (ie magic) and document all the many twists and turns on my own path, of which there have been many!

So I’m not sure if this whole working towards the Supernatural Assistant goal is considered “too personal” to write about because I don’t see much written about it from a personal perspective, but I’ve learned so much by reading others general experiences, and I kind of wish I could find more accounts of this kind of thing to read about, so I’m going to write about my experience unapologetically. Too personal be damned. So there. <nod>.

The Solar Initiation

I spent the month preparing, praying to the First Father daily to fortify myself. For two weeks before the rite I began courting Michael by setting aside some time daily during the hour of the sun to say the Prayer of St.Michael and meditate on his seal and sigil.

Saint Michael the Archangel,
defend us in battle;
be our protection against the wickedness and snares of the devil.
May God rebuke him, we humbly pray:
and do thou, O Prince of the heavenly host,
by the power of God,
thrust into hell Satan and all the evil spirits
who prowl about the world seeking the ruin of souls.
Amen.

I began the preparation an hour early. I started out with various prayers to the First Father followed by a prayer and offering to my good Genius, who’s candle was burning throughout the ritual.

I did a meditation of where I’ve been magically and spiritually. I saw myself as a child just staring out, and all the various paths I’ve explored in my life thus far, both light and dark. I thought about my recent work in Hermetics and what it took to get to this point. I contemplated what exactly it I was that I was about to do, and felt that I had earned the right to be here.

I’ve been experimenting with Frater R.O’s concept of “The Box“. I don’t have one actually built yet (though I have plan in my head for building my own version soon) but I did hook my Michael Sun talisman up to an electrode  on top of a Square of the Sun, with a loose wired LED propped up under the crystal just as “proof of principle”. This was my first experiment using a lighted scrying crystal. I found the experience all the more intensified. I took about a half hour to bask in the (literal) light of Michael while chanting the above Prayer of St.Michael over and over during the duration of this time until his presence was palpable. At this point the conjuration was only a formality. SO I conjured him as described in The White Work.

Michael appeared in the lighted crystal very strongly. This was an interesting and new experience with the lighted crystal. Michael always lets me know he is there by sucking the light out of the room. The candle flames are still physically visible, it just looks like they cast no light for a time. This only happens with Michael. I’ve kind of taken it as his signal.

What I did not expect is he did not come alone. There was another presence in the room, one from my past whom I thought I was pretty much done with, that being of course the Morning Star. I didn’t expect him to be here too. I asked Michael about it and got the equivalent of “just go with it”. So I did. I asked for the initiation into the sphere of the sun.

I was bathed with Sun Fire from both sources, Michael and Lucifer together. I was invigorated. After this I was given a vision of my sphere completely clear like shining glass or crystal, with various sigils burned into it, and at least one magic square, black in color, almost calligraphic. Michael told me these are designed to bring me into contact with my SA.

Wasting no time I used my handy-dandy astral vortex talisman (sorry I’ve been exposed to too much Blues-Clues) to open a gate to the sphere of the moon and entered my astral temple. It didn’t feel right to continue in my normal chamber, so I asked the spirit who’s been assigned there by Gabriel as custodian to prepare for me a suitable chamber, specifically to continue this work in for the duration. He did, and lead me to it. It was beautiful and solar. I began the Headless One invocation, which immediately triggered my Strategic Sorcery Joy body form, much to my own surprise yet again. I finished by leaving the temple and closing the gate to the Sphere of the Moon.

Notice how all the various paths I’ve studies recently are weaving together here? I think this is important. It indicated wholeness and integration. Everything coming together. No longer it is a matter of following this path or that path and compartmentalizing, just a magician using what he’s learned for the greater goal at hand.

That night

That night I had a dream that I was being re-made by Michael and Lucifer together. It wasn’t a lucid dream, it had some regular dream-like story elements to it too. They took me out of my body, took me apart,  re-made me, and put me stuffed me back in my body with the help of what I’ve come to know as a tribe of lunar spirits. Then in the dream I felt weird and uncomfortable as a human again, and was told that from that point on I was more a spiritual being than a physical one, thus the weirdness.

The next day

Since then I’ve felt much like I did after my Fire Initiation ritual. Totally fiery, passionate. So many dots are being connected that I never saw the correlations between now. Whats more is The Trident has been very close to me. Let’s just say we’ve had some chats, and I’ve also asked for advice from other humans .

This is totally unexpected. I had not planned on doing much more with the Primal Craft when I started on the Hermetic path.

Now I see the the capacity for balance however. I always talk about balance and how I need both celestial and chthonic.  I see how I can make both work together. There is no dark and light, angels and demons are much the same thing. There simply is.  One side need not be shunned for the other.

I’m not trying to say I have the one true way, it’s just I personally need both, YMMV. Thus while I continue to work on Hermetics, I’m also going to be returning to my Primal Craft studies with enthusiasm as well.

All of this happened and made total sense to me following this ritual. I think it totally worked . Damn, something certainly happened!

I continue to do the Headless One rite daily (It’s only been 3 days!) and have not had any palpable experiences with S.A. as of yet. If I do I’ll write abut it here (eventually).

I’ve Got 99 Problems but a Demon Ain’t One of ‘Em

 So the other day I had a demon hit list on my desk, as I researched how to write the Hebrew names of all the demons I was gunning for…

I feel like I’ve been doing a ton of magical work lately, but not doing any outcomes based magic. It’s all been spiritual advancement and initiation type of stuff.  This is joyous work in it’s own right honestly but I’m itching to get to some outcome based stuff and get back my daily observances which I haven’t had time for and kind of miss. It’s been kind of busy around here. Part of the reason for this is right now we’re at what I like to think of as the planetary hours sweet spot, where the planetary hour and day line up around 9:30 (By Mid-summer it will move to around 10-ish). That’s when it’s most convenient for me to do magic ‘stuff, after the kids are in bed, the house is clean and re-set for the next day, quality spent time with my wife, etc. so I’m taking advantage of it! So for now I’m in groundwork laying mode, getting done what I think needs to be done.

So I’ve done the elemental initiations and have been consecrating my talismans one at a time at the proper hour and time. I’ve been conjuring daily. Even though I haven’t been doing outcomes based magic though I’ve noticed a significant difference. Work and relationships have been going much smoother. I even got a rather large raise, 1 year retroactively  at work. Given the fact that their is an indefinite pay freeze going on right now, this is a pretty damn miraculous event in it’s own right. Also, people just seem kinder to me and react to me better. I kind of attribute this effect to just changes brought about by daily work with the spirits just bringing their influence into my sphere. Although, I do think it helps that I’ve taken Jason’s advice and stated wearing a tie to work, even though it’s not required. Whatever it is, right now, life is pretty damn good.

Anyway!

I’ve finally conjured my good genius! I finally was able to make all of the calculation methods match up, so I was confident that I had the right name of the good and evil genius’s names.  This could take a post in and of itself but it’s pretty personal so I’ll not. One thing though, I felt like the Evil Genius did everything in it’s power to delay me on the day I had it scheduled (Sunday in the hour of the Sun). I almost didn’t make the ritual hour on time, and even when I did I had problems ranging from dropping my note cards, to spilling the incense, to the twins waking up crying. This stuff never happens. I did eventually make contact though.

One of the things the Good Genius told me to do was bind the evil genius and 4 demons hostile to the elements. It gave me a two week deadline to see this done, after which I can begin trying to contact my HGA in earnest. It said that now that we had contact the demons would kick things up a notch and make my life difficult. It was in my best interest to see this done as quickly as possible. It did not lie, for the days after that saw an increase in difficulty and chaos, in stark contrast to how things had been going . It also gave me some specific instructions on how to bind them for my personal use. Again, I’m just going to give the 10 miles up view here and not get into specifics.

So the first thing the Good Genius had me do was take a night off and clean my ritual area. I re-did and cleaned all the altars, cleaned up my project area and did a basic psychic cleansing as well as cleansing my own sphere. I was going to to a conjuration that night, but it said not to, just take a night and focus on this alone.

So then at the proper time I formally set out to bind my demons. While at the store buying fishing weights for lead I noticed these little steel fishing weights. They are cylindrical with a smooth surface, perfect for engraving the demons names around the circumference in Hebrew. So I bought them and, researched how to write the names in Hebrew (ie: the demon hit list) and engraved them on.

A dangerous looking crew, don’t you think?

On the night I decided to do it I spent some time meditating and praying to the First Father in front of my altar while I waited for the correct planetary hour to come. I then lit an offering candle and some incense to my Good Genius to partake of while I did the deed, asking for it’s help. Leaving the candle and incense burning in my temple room, I took my talismans and tools up to the garage and began.

First I called for some help binding the demons into the weights. Then I encased them into lead. Again, a graphite crucible comes in handy here. This time I used a cylindrical one that I happened to buy at the same time I bought the one for my talismans with this purpose in mind. It worked perfectly… well mostly perfectly.  After cooling the lead slipped right out (Tip: Don’t put super heated graphite into the freezer until it’s cooled down just a bit. It will melt whatever surface you put it on. Yeah, don’t ask).

Evil Genius bound in a prison of lead. Just try getting out of that.

The Evil Genius was bound no problem, It went down without a fight with not even a hint of the weight poking through. It came out encased in lead perfectly formed, and I finished by engraving the seal of the angel who’s aid I used on it and together we laid the smack down on it. It felt powerful. It felt good. I thought this was going to be a piece of cake.

The elemental demons were, lets say, more problematic. No matter how I tried, the weights kept poking through the lead. Sometime the lead would break apart completely revealing the steel weight inside. Plus, I had completely ran out of lead! So I worked late into the night, melting and re-melting the lead cylinders and scavenging any rouge pieces of lead I could find to apply patches and cover holes.  After awhile i got kind of desperate and all thoughts of making it nice and pretty went out the window. I just wanted the damn things covered and bound! I literally felt like the demons were battling me and resisting their internment, tooth and nail. I won eventually.

The resulting pieces were not pretty, not as perfect as the Evil Genius prison was. their pretty ugly actually. Their big chunks of lead drops that look like tumor all over them. They are functional though, and the demon-weights were bound completely in lead. I finished by engraving the seal of their respective overseeing elemental king on them.

Ugly, Scared, Demon prisons

I then took them all and placed them in a box. On the boxes lid I wood burned a seal on the top of the box and all around the box I burned in the sigils of the angels who’s help I had. On the inside of the lid I burned Cassiel’s seal. I then glued it up right tight with a super-epoxy glue and stained the box with a woodstain mixed with protection, banishing, and Abramelin oils. I will further consecrate the box under Cassiel this Saturday. I think their bound up pretty tight now.

My Hermetic altar has two levels, so the box fits perfectly under the main altar as seen below.

I did not feel much, besides frustration, during the binding process that could be considered “magical”. Then next day however, on the way to work I received a vision snapshot of five demons bound by chains of light in a 5 spot pattern (the 4 elemental ones on the outside, with the evil genius in the center). Also, the next day was pretty damn sweet. Let’s just say it started out really well and I felt vibrant and full of life all day.

Into the box you go! With Cassiel to bind you.

The Finished box. Locked up tight.

Hermetic Altar with the box below.

Now with this out of the way I’m turning my attention to beginning the process of achieving  K&C with the HGA and finishing up the talisman consecrations. Also, even though my wand is made of ebony, it’s a Harry Potter style kinda thing. I’m wanting something a bit more traditional, even though it still does the job just fine. I’ve finally located a source of decent ebony wood and have ordered some. I’m hoping to make a real ebony conjuration wand like in Trithemius. Let’s hope I don’t ruin it.

A Mages Life is the Life for Me: Whats been going on with me (April 2012 edition)

In the lack of anything interesting or important to write I figured I’d do a general “whats been going on with me” post.I’ve been a busy mage… I’m not sure when I started using that word. It was never a conscious decision, it just snuck into my vocabulary when referring to myself.  However, it seems to fit better than anything else right now.  It feels… Right. Now you can call yourself anything you like. The question is can you bring the goods? Well lets just say, I’m working on it.

As mentioned in the past few posts I’ve been working on RO’s, The Black Work course. I’ve been busy making my planetary talismans, but also doing a lot of evocation work. I’ve been undergoing initiation into the 4 elemental spheres, working with the 4 archangels and the 4 princes of the elements. I’ve had some “wow” evocation moments, and a lot of subdued non-spectacular but none the less equally powerful results too. What I did notice was how my life reflected these initiation periods during their proceedings.

My plans are to continue on with this. Here’s what I have planned in the near future:

• I finally figured out my good and evil genius names. First I plan to make contact with my good Genius (hopefully this week).
• Then I plan to bind my Evil Genius and the 4 princes hostile to the elements in lead. First I need some steel to engrave their names on though.
• I want to forge a greater connection to Kammeal and the sphere of Mars, my ruling sphere.
• I want to summon each elemental archangel again and request elemental familiars.
• I plan to summon each planetary angel in turn on the appropriate day/hour to ask them to formally concencrate my talismans.
• I have a major “campaign” I’m working on magically that I plan to kick off on the upcoming new moon, using a strategic sorcery approach. I’ve also made a sigil shoal I plan to charge then all at once. I’ll be asking Elubatel for help again on this front since it’s a large, life direction type of goal. One of my sigils already manifested this weekend before even charging, so I’m taking that as a good sign.
• I plan to start on the White Work and begin Liber Semekh to attain K&C with my HGA after all this is done. Or maybe during. I’ll see what my Good Genius says Why wait, ya know?

So I’ve got tons to work on magically coming up to keep me busy-busy. I’m also continuing my exploration of the NAP, and am taking Jason Millers new Strategic Self course. I’m only 2 lessons in but I’m finding it very challenging so far

Now I’ve been enjoying the hell out of Hermetic magic. It’s really been quelling that itch for me. I think much of my past struggling was due to my longing for initiation. I don’t mean initiation into a group, but initiation from the spirits. This is very much filling the bill.I’m not sure if it’s Hermetics itself, or finally undergoing these initiations, having direction, or doing the work that it doing it for me. I assume that Hermetics will become a part of my path for a long time to come.

However, I’m not keen to leave Hekate behind or my chthonic roots. Hermetics is filling the solar side I need, but without my grounding in the “earthier” lunar Witchcrafty side I know I won’t be happy for long. I need both. I also plan to continue my explorations of the PGM and Chaldean oracles. I know it all connects together eventually. The Chaldean Oracles is considered a Neo-Platonic document which of course leads right into Hermetics.

Eventually all roads lead to and from Hekate (I have this image of her as the anthropomorphic representation of Steven Kings Dark Tower).

It’s all too much to do at once however. Maybe I’ll give The Unlikely Mage’s approach a try?

This past week has also found me longing for the old Chaos Magic days, again. I would still love to have one banner under which to fit all this into. I said in that old article the following:

Some times, when I’m struggling the most with whatever system I’m working in I secretly wonder if inside I’m just an old chaos mage who got so immersed in a particular paradigm that he simply forgot he was chaos mage.

I still wonder that. There are things that I greatly miss about Chaos Magic. There are things that I don’t miss too. There has to be a reason my mind keeps periodically going back to it though, with increasing frequency. Every once in awhile I take out all my old materials and sigh wistfully, clearly longing to re-connect with something somewhere there, and also repelled at the same time.

One positive strength I believe the CM approach has ingrained in me is suspicion of any formal cosmology. I can interact with all the gods and spirits, and I believe they are real, something external to my own mind.  However whenever I see a cosmology that says “this is the way it is” it feels confining and I always think “no it’s really not”. I think models are great to have but are ultimately limiting. This is why I stopped calling myself a Pagan. I just could not fit within the cosmology anymore (even though I still firmly believe in all of the gods). Whatever great universal truth is out there I think is far beyond our comprehension, and one of the strengths of CM, that draws me still, is maintaining that sense of wonder in the face of unknowable. Not random belief, but flexibility of belief, for me is the key.

Last week I had a dream I was reading a (fictitious dream created) book called “New Millennium Chaos Magic“. It had two halves. The first half was written in red ink and detailed the primal, shamanic magics. The second half was written in blue ink and detailed high magic and celestial initiations (I’d really love to read this book by the way)! It struck me very much as a symbolic book of my own magical practice.

I was very please to see Jason Millers start on a series of post-chaos magic articles. Let’s just say, if there’s going to be a post-chaos magic renaissance going on, I want in on it. I really hope this kind of thinking takes off. I really hope this becomes a “thing”. If there are mages out there working to bring this fruit to bear, I want to be a part of it.