Friday, November 27, 2009
Tuesday, November 24, 2009
Evocation
Ever tried to tie a piece of wood to something heavy and then chuck it into the water, hoping that your method of binding would be sufficient to demonstrate your control over the natural forces of this universe, and thus, prove that anything is possible? Such as make that which floats also sink?
The mentality presented in the above example is an idea that is linked to the method of conjuring and binding a Demon to your will, to serve you or suffer your judgement and thus do your bidding, instead of you theirs.
This type of ritual, like what I've mentioned in my first blog entry is one for an initiated student of strict morals, and sound thinking, not a ego-filled bubble head looking to prove something to the universe. If you're of the latter and not the former, do me a favor, and not give me a hug when you see me. Especially after you go ahead anyways and ignore me.
The mentality presented in the above example is an idea that is linked to the method of conjuring and binding a Demon to your will, to serve you or suffer your judgement and thus do your bidding, instead of you theirs.
This type of ritual, like what I've mentioned in my first blog entry is one for an initiated student of strict morals, and sound thinking, not a ego-filled bubble head looking to prove something to the universe. If you're of the latter and not the former, do me a favor, and not give me a hug when you see me. Especially after you go ahead anyways and ignore me.
On to the ideas themselves though. Evocation is precisely described as a ritual to bind and employ the services of an entity of a non-physical nature by the command and power of the Lord of the Universe. The reason behind such a procedure is to exercise your right as a Magician to employ the malevolent forces of the universe under your command to serve you and thus righteously behave to the betterment of others instead of their instinctive wickedness. However from a psychological perspective, its a form of Yogic Mental Therapy, which puts you in a position to overcome previous weaknesses and rule your own mind, not be ruled by your impulses, which ultimately lead you to anguish and suffering.
Its always your call how you want to "look" at magic, especially magic that deals with entities such as Angels, Demons, spirits, faeries and so on. Are they metaphors to describe our mental universe or real creatures that exist on Planes or Aethyr's of the Universe separate from the one we're living in, influencing our world, as we in turn, influence theirs. "For that which is above, is also below..."
(side note: A philosophical question that's been drifting around in my head for sometime now is along the lines that, if we as practical magicians have the power to, through the will of the Lord of the Universe and our own Higher Selves bind, control, and manipulate the entities of a lesser nature on another plane from ours, whats stopping Entities of a more powerful nature than Us, reaching out from their planes, and quite simply harnessing us to do their bidding, in a manner (assuming they're cleverer than we are) that we don't know? This of course is a ridiculous theory if you assume we as Humans are literally the single most intelligent beings in the universe and such a question is preposterous because God gave "Souls" unto humans alone. )
Anyways,
Evocation is a method that employs a technique of magic that requires a Magician to call the Entity in question to be brought forth "through" the magician, unlike with Invocation where you call the Entity "to" you. The differences being, if its not already apparent, that with Evocation the forces you call upon take on a identification with you, and your own universe. Another way of looking at it is that to command a Entity, it must understand that you're stronger that it, and therefore should be listened to, and heeded, instead of ignored. One never demands, beckons or commands a Angel to "serve." One merely asks, or requests.
The strength of character and force of personal bearing takes account on both cases, but on the hand of Evocation your bearing decides whether the entity arrives humble and willing to serve, or angry and volatile. As with an Angel, your bearing allows the Angel to decide if you're worthy. So, in light of this, humility and reason will go a long way with a Angel of the Lord, whereas conviction, daring, and Total union with your Higher Divine Will shall serve you better with a Demon. One simply doesn't just expect a Demon to do their bidding simply cause you mutter some Latin, shake a sword at triangle and "pop!" you have a servant for life....if you think that...good luck to you.
Now the above being said, Evocation is used to control a Demon, and have an Angel understand you better. There's a whole plethora of information on the why and hows of these matters, but I'll bore you to tears (if I haven't already) on explaining this. The formula of procedure is as important as drawing the circle. Lets just say that with Evocation that your little Chemistry experiment had better be done in the proper order, otherwise three different things may take place. One, nothing will happen, and you'll just stare at your Seal for all eternity wondering why people even humour studying this crap. Two, something will happen, but it will be the wrong something, and you've just volunteered to take a demon into bed with you. (enjoyed the barbed prick:) Three, the demon will show up, but nothing you'll do will control it, or worse yet, the wrong demon has shown up, will pretend to serve you, and make your like Hell for the fun of it.
All the more reason to make sure you've spent enough time studying the book being used enough so you don't make any mistakes.
Magical Intent, ladies and gentlemen, is as important during Evocation as the tools that you're using for thy will to be done. Make sure that your reasons for doing such work are valid reasons, and its not just a lab experiment for kicks and giggles. Your intent governs your nature, and your success in the operation of the work. Do not bind a demon simply for the sake of doing so.
Magical Equipment is important enough that you treat with delicate care. Your circle should be clearly drawn, words and symbols correct, and the ones you wear equally so. This in not magic with room for error. Try to be alchemically accurate with the materials as possible, but in the case of "Virgin calf skin" and " blackened soot from a farrier's cabin on the north Island of Skye in Scotland" well, use white paper and black ink. As long as you know its real, they'll think its real. Hence the word Evocation, not Invocation.
Practically speaking, the ceremony has five major parts:
1. The Opening Ceremony
2. The Invocation of the Angelic Hierarchy
3. The Conjuration of the Demonic Hierarchy
4. The Binding of the particular Demon*
5. The Closing Ceremony
6. The Banishing Ceremony
*(plus Curses and Exorcisms)
Its always your call how you want to "look" at magic, especially magic that deals with entities such as Angels, Demons, spirits, faeries and so on. Are they metaphors to describe our mental universe or real creatures that exist on Planes or Aethyr's of the Universe separate from the one we're living in, influencing our world, as we in turn, influence theirs. "For that which is above, is also below..."
(side note: A philosophical question that's been drifting around in my head for sometime now is along the lines that, if we as practical magicians have the power to, through the will of the Lord of the Universe and our own Higher Selves bind, control, and manipulate the entities of a lesser nature on another plane from ours, whats stopping Entities of a more powerful nature than Us, reaching out from their planes, and quite simply harnessing us to do their bidding, in a manner (assuming they're cleverer than we are) that we don't know? This of course is a ridiculous theory if you assume we as Humans are literally the single most intelligent beings in the universe and such a question is preposterous because God gave "Souls" unto humans alone. )
Anyways,
Evocation is a method that employs a technique of magic that requires a Magician to call the Entity in question to be brought forth "through" the magician, unlike with Invocation where you call the Entity "to" you. The differences being, if its not already apparent, that with Evocation the forces you call upon take on a identification with you, and your own universe. Another way of looking at it is that to command a Entity, it must understand that you're stronger that it, and therefore should be listened to, and heeded, instead of ignored. One never demands, beckons or commands a Angel to "serve." One merely asks, or requests.
The strength of character and force of personal bearing takes account on both cases, but on the hand of Evocation your bearing decides whether the entity arrives humble and willing to serve, or angry and volatile. As with an Angel, your bearing allows the Angel to decide if you're worthy. So, in light of this, humility and reason will go a long way with a Angel of the Lord, whereas conviction, daring, and Total union with your Higher Divine Will shall serve you better with a Demon. One simply doesn't just expect a Demon to do their bidding simply cause you mutter some Latin, shake a sword at triangle and "pop!" you have a servant for life....if you think that...good luck to you.
Now the above being said, Evocation is used to control a Demon, and have an Angel understand you better. There's a whole plethora of information on the why and hows of these matters, but I'll bore you to tears (if I haven't already) on explaining this. The formula of procedure is as important as drawing the circle. Lets just say that with Evocation that your little Chemistry experiment had better be done in the proper order, otherwise three different things may take place. One, nothing will happen, and you'll just stare at your Seal for all eternity wondering why people even humour studying this crap. Two, something will happen, but it will be the wrong something, and you've just volunteered to take a demon into bed with you. (enjoyed the barbed prick:) Three, the demon will show up, but nothing you'll do will control it, or worse yet, the wrong demon has shown up, will pretend to serve you, and make your like Hell for the fun of it.
All the more reason to make sure you've spent enough time studying the book being used enough so you don't make any mistakes.
Magical Intent, ladies and gentlemen, is as important during Evocation as the tools that you're using for thy will to be done. Make sure that your reasons for doing such work are valid reasons, and its not just a lab experiment for kicks and giggles. Your intent governs your nature, and your success in the operation of the work. Do not bind a demon simply for the sake of doing so.
Magical Equipment is important enough that you treat with delicate care. Your circle should be clearly drawn, words and symbols correct, and the ones you wear equally so. This in not magic with room for error. Try to be alchemically accurate with the materials as possible, but in the case of "Virgin calf skin" and " blackened soot from a farrier's cabin on the north Island of Skye in Scotland" well, use white paper and black ink. As long as you know its real, they'll think its real. Hence the word Evocation, not Invocation.
Practically speaking, the ceremony has five major parts:
1. The Opening Ceremony
2. The Invocation of the Angelic Hierarchy
3. The Conjuration of the Demonic Hierarchy
4. The Binding of the particular Demon*
5. The Closing Ceremony
6. The Banishing Ceremony
*(plus Curses and Exorcisms)
Each of these parts has its own sub-parts and sub-sections, but I'm not going to write a book on here as to the info contained within each of these ideas. Look for forthcoming publications under my name that properly address such topics other than my blog. if you really wish me to detail them, ask me, and perhaps I will.
Most important over all of what I've written though is that you treat this ceremony with the same caution as driving a car at top speed into oncoming traffic. If you're going to do so, be damn good at driving, know the road ahead of you, and pray you can predict what the other cars might do when you get closer to them. A mistake could cost you.
I'll post more on this topic at another time.
Regards,
Frater I.'.
Thursday, November 19, 2009
Between Time and Space
Welcome to the discussions and formulations of a Magician of the Magic of King Solomon and his heirs. This blog will be a place of philosophy, theory and practical magic. I'll be posting reviews of various magical grimoires I've personally worked, my journal entries, and personal discoveries therein. I hope the work that I post will be beneficiary to all serious students of the Occult, and enlighten those who, when they may, accept not Grace :)
The Magic of King Solomon traditionally is governed by the stories that Solomon of Israel, during his reign of power, called upon Elohim in Heaven to bequeath to him the necessary powers to drive all the malicious and malevolent spirits from his Kingdom so his subjects could live peacefully. The Lord gave to Solomon the Greater Key, a set of magical incantations that would allow him to draw upon is own personal angelic power, and command spirits of a lesser nature than is human, to do his bidding. Solomon used these incantations to round up all the lesser and malevolent spirits within his kingdom, and he bound them in a large Brass Vessel, which he adorned with various incantations that would prevent these spirits from ever escaping, and locked the Vessel in a crypt beneath his Palace. (anyone remember Arabian Nights?) For years he reigned prosperous and well. Upon his death, his various children, all greedy for their illustrious father's throne, and his unmistakable power, broke into his crypt and stole the manuscripts which documented the knowledge to command the spirits and reign without equal. They also found the Brass vessel. Ignorant, and unknowing, the sons of Solomon, opened the Vessel to the light of day. Screaming in anger the spirits, one by one escaped from the vessel before the sons could close the lid and keep them trapped. These spirits would later become known as the 72 spirits of the Goetia.
This "bedtime story" of King Solomons magical career has been beaten about the Occult communities for neigh on almost three centuries. Its been prodded, poked, and dismissed by some of the more prominent scholars of the Occult sciences, and also held in revered awe by other well known practising magicians. Aleister Crowley and Allan Bennett in particular, early in Crowley's Career when they were spending their evenings away from the Golden Dawn Temple in London, at their shared flat, cheerfully calling up the various spirits from the Greater Key of Solomon the King, held this view in a familiar regard. Whether they believed the story is irrelevant, and like so many stories about the orgins of such magic, their orgins have been lost to time. What was a story that became a tale, and grew to a Myth then became fabled as Legend is where we as Occult scholars of this very age look for "hidden mysteries" locked within the pages of the past.
This idea I've presented above is but one of many that regards where the flow of Solomonic Magic originates from. More close to home however, on the modern timeline and scale of recorded magic, after the dissolution of the Holy Inquisition, and also before, many "Men of Learning" studied the arcane and mysterious nature of our universe. Mathematicians, doctors, chemists, and many other learned scholars searching for different answers for phenomena outside the "grace of god's will" though Christian, experimented with the Occult sciences as a way of better understanding their own universes. Thankfully, to our benefit, most of their work was written down, and saved from the flames of the Churches' disapproval as heresy. Henry Cornelius Agrippa, who wrote the "Three Books of Occult Philosophy" is an example of such a man. Exiled from his own country of Birth, and hunted by the Inquisition to be burned at the stake for Heresy, in his lifetime he wrote many works pertaining to the study of Occultism. However like then, as now, the Occult was a quest for answers that could not be given in School, or by just any learned scholar. It was a quest to discover more diverse answers from the accepted ideas of those times. "God is the will and reason behind all that occurs." Men and Women searching for personal illumination, under the constant threat of persecution and death, looked for such answers where they could. Similar from today's standards as to whats acceptable publicly as a topic of conversation, over what is not. Not that we cannot, but the majority of the population cannot, or will not accept other answers than those just spoon fed to them from the Priests of the Modern Age. Their first thought even now when you mention the word "Occult" is: Devil Worship. To avoid such obviously circular arguments with the unenlightened we must agree that The Fourth Power of the Sphinx was just as Holy then, as it is now.
Solomonic Magic from today's perspective is a complex set of rituals deigned to put the prospective student in direct contact with the manifestation of his shadow self in a objective physical form. In the words of my close colleague Frater YshY.'. ,
" Its kinda like sorting your dirty laundry."
Our ability to feel and understand all the negative based emotions, instincts and lesser ideas governed by our senses and desires usually without the proper form of strict control can rule us into doing and performing all sorts of acts and deeds that lead to unhappiness, sloth behaviour, depression, anger, stress and a variety of other experiences none too welcome by anyone who cares about their own well being. A well balanced diet, regular exercise, and healthy lifestyle usually can keep most people out of mischief, and allow them to have a fairly stress free life. These are ideas we're all familiar with. When however, our regular routine isn't working and for a suspended period of time we cannot shake the depression, or stress or other negative vibes, there are a variety of ways to move beyond them. Some people prefer the company of friends, a break in routine like a vacation, or perhaps a new love interest to shake the accepted standard. Whatever you choose, I hope for your sake its lasting.
However, for some people these problems go deeper than what is felt by the average Joe. Nothing seems to work, the change in attitude doesn't help, sleep, food, love, sex, nothing seems to perk you into a better frame of thinking. Nothing seems to let you let off the steam, and live a stress free lifestyle. You envy your friends who can have fun, while you're always sad.
Enter the Dominion of your Shadow Self. As we all have a Higher Divine Self, a voice of Conscience (at least I hope we all do:) we also have the Voice of temptation, misery, and destruction. There is a whole philosophy of work written on the why's and how's behind these ideas which I'll get into on another post, but for now lets say the following.
Behind all the misery, shame, death and destruction there are forces at work to upkeep the balance with all the life-saving, miracles, births and breakthrough's which bring our universes to a proper equilibrium. Its possible, through a long and diverse series of ceremonial rituals to conjure and manifest these forces to a cohesive and intelligent spirit who, using more ritual and incantations, you can command to do your bidding.
In the manner of a Lesser Spirit, you can, if you successfully maintain your mastery over the spirit's will, by proving your dominion of power and mind, control the spirit to doing whatever that particular spirit is capable of controlling. Such as removing your instinct to rise to anger at the drop of a hat, or your personal assumptions about the opinions of others which lead to shame, and despair. They can improve your powers of mind and craft, and illuminate your world in a way previously thought unattainable. In so many words, you gain control over the desires and emotions that prevent you from fullfilling your true potential. There are many books of magic written to allow the student to do just that. This control, though strictly regulated, and held in the highest degree of protocol as to use and function, is only maintained as long as your Will is strong enough to maintain it.
However, as a word of warning, I must add that this type of magic is not for the uninitiated. Only a student of progressed study and in direct contact with his Higher Divine Self, should attempt such magic. A thorough study of all systems of yoga, and western hermeticism should be undertaken first before one tries to wrestle the control of their instincts and desires away from the grasp of the Shadow Self. For if you're a person who throws caution to the wind, and believes you're already holy enough in your own conviction and do not need any training, you risk a terrible curse upon yourself. For in the failure of success to overcome the Will and Might of the Spirit, you shall become possesed by the will of the Entity. Thinking you've succeeded in your task, your dark illusion will lead you to ruin, and the spirit will live through you, bringing your world ever deeper into anguish. Be warned, and take this warning not lightly.
Frater I.'.
The Magic of King Solomon traditionally is governed by the stories that Solomon of Israel, during his reign of power, called upon Elohim in Heaven to bequeath to him the necessary powers to drive all the malicious and malevolent spirits from his Kingdom so his subjects could live peacefully. The Lord gave to Solomon the Greater Key, a set of magical incantations that would allow him to draw upon is own personal angelic power, and command spirits of a lesser nature than is human, to do his bidding. Solomon used these incantations to round up all the lesser and malevolent spirits within his kingdom, and he bound them in a large Brass Vessel, which he adorned with various incantations that would prevent these spirits from ever escaping, and locked the Vessel in a crypt beneath his Palace. (anyone remember Arabian Nights?) For years he reigned prosperous and well. Upon his death, his various children, all greedy for their illustrious father's throne, and his unmistakable power, broke into his crypt and stole the manuscripts which documented the knowledge to command the spirits and reign without equal. They also found the Brass vessel. Ignorant, and unknowing, the sons of Solomon, opened the Vessel to the light of day. Screaming in anger the spirits, one by one escaped from the vessel before the sons could close the lid and keep them trapped. These spirits would later become known as the 72 spirits of the Goetia.
This "bedtime story" of King Solomons magical career has been beaten about the Occult communities for neigh on almost three centuries. Its been prodded, poked, and dismissed by some of the more prominent scholars of the Occult sciences, and also held in revered awe by other well known practising magicians. Aleister Crowley and Allan Bennett in particular, early in Crowley's Career when they were spending their evenings away from the Golden Dawn Temple in London, at their shared flat, cheerfully calling up the various spirits from the Greater Key of Solomon the King, held this view in a familiar regard. Whether they believed the story is irrelevant, and like so many stories about the orgins of such magic, their orgins have been lost to time. What was a story that became a tale, and grew to a Myth then became fabled as Legend is where we as Occult scholars of this very age look for "hidden mysteries" locked within the pages of the past.
This idea I've presented above is but one of many that regards where the flow of Solomonic Magic originates from. More close to home however, on the modern timeline and scale of recorded magic, after the dissolution of the Holy Inquisition, and also before, many "Men of Learning" studied the arcane and mysterious nature of our universe. Mathematicians, doctors, chemists, and many other learned scholars searching for different answers for phenomena outside the "grace of god's will" though Christian, experimented with the Occult sciences as a way of better understanding their own universes. Thankfully, to our benefit, most of their work was written down, and saved from the flames of the Churches' disapproval as heresy. Henry Cornelius Agrippa, who wrote the "Three Books of Occult Philosophy" is an example of such a man. Exiled from his own country of Birth, and hunted by the Inquisition to be burned at the stake for Heresy, in his lifetime he wrote many works pertaining to the study of Occultism. However like then, as now, the Occult was a quest for answers that could not be given in School, or by just any learned scholar. It was a quest to discover more diverse answers from the accepted ideas of those times. "God is the will and reason behind all that occurs." Men and Women searching for personal illumination, under the constant threat of persecution and death, looked for such answers where they could. Similar from today's standards as to whats acceptable publicly as a topic of conversation, over what is not. Not that we cannot, but the majority of the population cannot, or will not accept other answers than those just spoon fed to them from the Priests of the Modern Age. Their first thought even now when you mention the word "Occult" is: Devil Worship. To avoid such obviously circular arguments with the unenlightened we must agree that The Fourth Power of the Sphinx was just as Holy then, as it is now.
Solomonic Magic from today's perspective is a complex set of rituals deigned to put the prospective student in direct contact with the manifestation of his shadow self in a objective physical form. In the words of my close colleague Frater YshY.'. ,
" Its kinda like sorting your dirty laundry."
Our ability to feel and understand all the negative based emotions, instincts and lesser ideas governed by our senses and desires usually without the proper form of strict control can rule us into doing and performing all sorts of acts and deeds that lead to unhappiness, sloth behaviour, depression, anger, stress and a variety of other experiences none too welcome by anyone who cares about their own well being. A well balanced diet, regular exercise, and healthy lifestyle usually can keep most people out of mischief, and allow them to have a fairly stress free life. These are ideas we're all familiar with. When however, our regular routine isn't working and for a suspended period of time we cannot shake the depression, or stress or other negative vibes, there are a variety of ways to move beyond them. Some people prefer the company of friends, a break in routine like a vacation, or perhaps a new love interest to shake the accepted standard. Whatever you choose, I hope for your sake its lasting.
However, for some people these problems go deeper than what is felt by the average Joe. Nothing seems to work, the change in attitude doesn't help, sleep, food, love, sex, nothing seems to perk you into a better frame of thinking. Nothing seems to let you let off the steam, and live a stress free lifestyle. You envy your friends who can have fun, while you're always sad.
Enter the Dominion of your Shadow Self. As we all have a Higher Divine Self, a voice of Conscience (at least I hope we all do:) we also have the Voice of temptation, misery, and destruction. There is a whole philosophy of work written on the why's and how's behind these ideas which I'll get into on another post, but for now lets say the following.
Behind all the misery, shame, death and destruction there are forces at work to upkeep the balance with all the life-saving, miracles, births and breakthrough's which bring our universes to a proper equilibrium. Its possible, through a long and diverse series of ceremonial rituals to conjure and manifest these forces to a cohesive and intelligent spirit who, using more ritual and incantations, you can command to do your bidding.
In the manner of a Lesser Spirit, you can, if you successfully maintain your mastery over the spirit's will, by proving your dominion of power and mind, control the spirit to doing whatever that particular spirit is capable of controlling. Such as removing your instinct to rise to anger at the drop of a hat, or your personal assumptions about the opinions of others which lead to shame, and despair. They can improve your powers of mind and craft, and illuminate your world in a way previously thought unattainable. In so many words, you gain control over the desires and emotions that prevent you from fullfilling your true potential. There are many books of magic written to allow the student to do just that. This control, though strictly regulated, and held in the highest degree of protocol as to use and function, is only maintained as long as your Will is strong enough to maintain it.
However, as a word of warning, I must add that this type of magic is not for the uninitiated. Only a student of progressed study and in direct contact with his Higher Divine Self, should attempt such magic. A thorough study of all systems of yoga, and western hermeticism should be undertaken first before one tries to wrestle the control of their instincts and desires away from the grasp of the Shadow Self. For if you're a person who throws caution to the wind, and believes you're already holy enough in your own conviction and do not need any training, you risk a terrible curse upon yourself. For in the failure of success to overcome the Will and Might of the Spirit, you shall become possesed by the will of the Entity. Thinking you've succeeded in your task, your dark illusion will lead you to ruin, and the spirit will live through you, bringing your world ever deeper into anguish. Be warned, and take this warning not lightly.
Frater I.'.
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