In the Enochian diaries of Dr. John Dee, the Angels revealed the secret “True Name” of Satan, uttered only among their ranks: CORONZOM.  (Later corrupted as “Coronzon” or even “Choronzon”.)  As a name for “The Devil”, this cosmic being is as complex and misunderstood as any figure of Satan!  In this video, I reveal some little-known facts about Coronzom, where in history he comes from,  explore the etymology of his Angelical name, and – most importantly – decipher exactly “which Satan” the Angels were talking about.

When [the Magi] had heard the king, they departed; and, lo, the star, which they saw in the east, went before them, till it came and stood over where the young child was. – Matthew 2:9

Gnosticism doesn’t put much emphasis on the birth of Joshua ben Joseph (aka Jesus); instead focusing upon his baptism and the descent of the Christos upon him – making him properly Jesus Christ. But, as a magician, I just can’t help it – the appearance of a group of literal Magi in the Gospels has to hold a special place in my heart. 😉

I’m sure you know the story: Three Magi (often mistaken as “Kings”) witness a star rising in the East, which they follow to the birthplace of Jesus. Upon arrival, they present the newborn Messiah with rare and expensive (for the time) gifts and declare him the true Son of God.

There’s actually a bit more to the story, of course – it remains one of my favorite tales in the Bible. You see, the Magi didn’t just follow a star that was hovering over a manger. They actually went directly to King Herod, assuming the newborn king was surely his son. They were actually shocked when the king’s response to their congratulations was, “What son??” The Magi watched in horror as Herod ordered his men to scour Bethlehem for every single newborn boy and put them all to death. So, under the cover of darkness, the Magi snuck out of the palace and made a time’s-running-out mad dash to get to Mary and Joseph before Herod’s men found them. It’s like a cloak-and-dagger thriller! I just can’t help but imagine an ending where two of the Magi switch clothing with Mary and Joseph, and then stay behind while the third Magi leads the family away under the noses of the arriving soldiers. 🙂 🙂

As exciting as this VERY brief tale in the Bible may be, there’s actually a lot more going on between the lines than you might suspect. And, to get into that, I want to share with you a riddle I post (almost) every year on my Facebook page:

The Three Magi were from Chaldea – which is far east of Jerusalem. To get there, you have to travel westward across either the Fertile Crescent or directly across the Arabian Desert. It’s even in the Christmas song “We Three Kings”: “Westward leading, still proceeding…” So the riddle is: How did they follow a star in the east to get from Chaldea to Jerusalem? How did an Eastern Star lead them westward?

And the answer to that riddle involves all the “unwritten” stuff that is going on in the story of the Three Magi. First and foremost, the Magi were indeed from Chaldea. The word “Mage” (lit. “Wise One”) was the term for a Zoroastrian Priest. It is very important to note, for this discussion, that the Zoroastrian faith was the Western world’s dominant religion at the time Jesus was born. And it is of equal importance to note that Zoroastrian Magi were quite famous for their astrology. Just as the Egyptians’ obsession with tombs and talismans gave them a reputation for being wizards, the Zoroastrians’ expertise in astrology gave them the same occult mystique. (So much so, this is where we get our modern words “mage”, “magic/magick”, “magician”, and terms related to these.)

This may lead you to ask several further questions: Why would three priests from a religion other than Judaism show up at the birth of the Jewish Messiah? Why not three Priests from the Holy Temple right there in Jerusalem? And why would those three non-Jewish priests declare the Jewish Messiah the true Son of God??

However, keep in mind the full Biblical story! The Magi didn’t head directly to Bethlehem to worship at the manger – they went instead to Herod’s court, fully believing they were on a routine diplomatic mission to congratulate a neighboring king on the birth of a new son. You see, the Magi would have been casting astrological charts for the coming new year*, for both their own empire and the kingdoms surrounding them. When they cast their chart for Judea, they would have seen a Star rising in the ascendant – the eastern horizon – indicating a new king was about to be born there. (There have been many theories on exactly what the Magi saw in the ascendant, and I think it very likely to have been Regulus – the brightest star in Leo.) And this answers how the Magi “followed a Star in the East” in order to reach Jerusalem westward from their home. The Star was simply in the east, or ascendant, of their charts.

(* – By the way, the new year for Chaldeans was the spring equinox, when the Sun passes from Pisces back into Aries. This is one of the bits of evidence the Bible provides that Jesus was born in the spring, not the winter solstice.)

Ok, so the Magi cast some charts, and the one for Judea made them think Herod was about to have a new son. They headed over to make nice, which was likely routine diplomacy. But, then, they realized they had screwed up royally after learning Herod had no son on the way, and seeing the petty little creep have a panic attack that led him to order a small-scale genocide. So they quickly headed out to the manger…

Wait – how in the world did they find Mary and Joseph?? Isn’t there a plot hole here? You’ll note, at the beginning of this blog, I quoted Matthew 2:9 – where it appears the Magi really did follow a Star hovering in the East that led them directly to the manger, and – viola!- millions of Nativity Dioramas were destined to decorate lawns for Christmas forevermore! (LOL) Many traditions hold that the Eastern Star was actually an Angel, intervening to help the Magi beat Herod’s men to the manger. And, it is true the word “Star” is often used in the Bible interchangeably with “Angel.” However… let me quote the previous two lines from Matthew for you:

Then Herod, when he had privily called the [Magi], enquired of them diligently what time the star appeared. And he sent them to Bethlehem, and said, Go and search diligently for the young child; and when ye have found him, bring me word again, that I may come and worship him also. – Matthew 2:7-8

Note very carefully, the king asked the Magi exactly what time the Star appeared, and somehow this enabled the Magi to find the birthplace of Jesus – after going out on a diligent search, of course. What time? Not what location? This would sound odd if we didn’t already know the Magi were expert astrologers. Herod was making a direct reference to the chart they had cast – which would have been very precise about both its location and its time. It would have indicated exactly what time the new child was supposed to be born – thereby narrowing down the search. More than likely, the Magi performed further calculations to narrow down the possible birthplace (figuring out it was somewhere in Bethlehem), and then the king – the sniveling coward – duped them into going out and searching for it house to house. (I’m sure he provided them with some manpower to accomplish this.)

Most importantly, what we learn from these two passages is the Magi had already found Joseph and Mary before Matthew 2:9 takes place. When they snuck out of the palace to warn the young family, it was really just a mad dash directly there. The lines about the Star – or Angel – guiding them was more of a poetic flourish that the Gospel itself isn’t trying to hide.

In fact, I would dare say everything that happens in this tale from 2:9 onward is more properly mythology. That is to say, it moves out of the realm of mere legend at this point, because here we reach the entire reason the story exists – both spiritually and politically. Here is the point where the Three Magi bring their gifts, originally intended for Herod, and give them instead to this poor family of carpenters. They kneel down, and declare baby Joshua the true Son of God. Why?

Because the author of the Gospel was trying to illustrate that three Priests from the world’s most dominant religion were willing to kneel down before the Jewish/Christian Messiah. This was the young, and still struggling, Christian Faith declaring that it should have a seat at the adults’ table of world religions. In fact, it’s more than that – because it dares to suggest the Magi would (eventually) bow down to the Christian God! I can imagine Zoroastrian Priests of the day were unamused by such literature. Or, perhaps, it did amuse them to see this young start-up religion shit-posting about them thousands of miles away – who knows?

So now you know what was really going on in that beloved Christmas tale: who the Three Magi were, why they made the trip to Judea in the first place, and why they thought the birth of a poor carpenter’s son in Bethlehem was so important. Plus, of course, how in the world they got to Judea by following a “Star in the East.”

There are tons of things I could cover about the traditions that grew up around the Magi over the centuries since – but I think that info is easy enough to find. You’ll discover that some countries replaced Santa Claus with the “Three Kings” – who bring gifts on Epiphany instead of Winter Solstice You’ll learn they’ve been given many names over the years – I’d say the most common, or popular, are Caspar, Melchior, and Balthazar. And, of course, there are Epiphany traditions surrounding these guys that we follow in our home. Maybe I’ll do a post about all of that next year…?

For now, I hope each of you have a wonderful Holiday Season, and an awesome Christmahanakwanzika to all! (And, Festivus, for the rest of’yas.)

Merry Christmas

Fr. Aaron

Originally posted to Facebook on July 17th, 2023:

I know the “Biblically-accurate Angel” thing is popular right now, and it’s hilarious. But, I’ll just say this because someone needs to:

NO, those images are NOT “Biblically accurate.” The descriptions of Angels in the OT are poetic descriptions, not literal. For example, let’s take for example the Vision of Ezekiel (chapter 1):

4 And I looked, and, behold, a whirlwind came out of the north, a great cloud, and a fire infolding itself, and a brightness was about it, and out of the midst thereof as the colour of amber, out of the midst of the fire.

5 Also out of the midst thereof came the likeness of four living creatures. And this was their appearance; they had the likeness of a man.

6 And every one had four faces, and every one had four wings.

7 And their feet were straight feet; and the sole of their feet was like the sole of a calf’s foot: and they sparkled like the colour of burnished brass.

8 And they had the hands of a man under their wings on their four sides; and they four had their faces and their wings.

9 Their wings were joined one to another; they turned not when they went; they went every one straight forward.

10 As for the likeness of their faces, they four had the face of a man, and the face of a lion, on the right side: and they four had the face of an ox on the left side; they four also had the face of an eagle.

11 Thus were their faces: and their wings were stretched upward; two wings of every one were joined one to another, and two covered their bodies.

12 And they went every one straight forward: whither the spirit was to go, they went; and they turned not when they went.

13 As for the likeness of the living creatures, their appearance was like burning coals of fire, and like the appearance of lamps: it went up and down among the living creatures; and the fire was bright, and out of the fire went forth lightning.

14 And the living creatures ran and returned as the appearance of a flash of lightning.

15 Now as I beheld the living creatures, behold one wheel upon the earth by the living creatures, with his four faces.

16 The appearance of the wheels and their work was like unto the colour of a beryl: and they four had one likeness: and their appearance and their work was as it were a wheel in the middle of a wheel.

17 When they went, they went upon their four sides: and they turned not when they went.

18 As for their rings, they were so high that they were dreadful; and their rings were full of eyes round about them four.

19 And when the living creatures went, the wheels went by them: and when the living creatures were lifted up from the earth, the wheels were lifted up.

20 Whithersoever the spirit was to go, they went, thither was their spirit to go; and the wheels were lifted up over against them: for the spirit of the living creature was in the wheels.

21 When those went, these went; and when those stood, these stood; and when those were lifted up from the earth, the wheels were lifted up over against them: for the spirit of the living creature was in the wheels.

22 And the likeness of the firmament upon the heads of the living creature was as the colour of the terrible crystal, stretched forth over their heads above.

23 And under the firmament were their wings straight, the one toward the other: every one had two, which covered on this side, and every one had two, which covered on that side, their bodies.

24 And when they went, I heard the noise of their wings, like the noise of great waters, as the voice of the Almighty, the voice of speech, as the noise of an host: when they stood, they let down their wings.

25 And there was a voice from the firmament that was over their heads, when they stood, and had let down their wings.

26 And above the firmament that was over their heads was the likeness of a throne, as the appearance of a sapphire stone: and upon the likeness of the throne was the likeness as the appearance of a man above upon it.

27 And I saw as the colour of amber, as the appearance of fire round about within it, from the appearance of his loins even upward, and from the appearance of his loins even downward, I saw as it were the appearance of fire, and it had brightness round about.

28 As the appearance of the bow that is in the cloud in the day of rain, so was the appearance of the brightness round about. This was the appearance of the likeness of the glory of the Lord. And when I saw it, I fell upon my face, and I heard a voice of one that spake.

In this vision, Ezekiel is not describing Angels with four animal faces or Angels shaped like literal wheels. He is describing the sky as it appears at night:

-The four Faces – Lion, Eagle, Man, and Bull – are the four constellations that contain the four Royal Stars (Regulus, Antares, Aldebaran, and Fomalhaut. These appear in Leo, Scorpius, Pisces Australis*, and Taurus respectively. (* – The “Southern Fish”, not to be confused with Pisces. Because this is not one of the four Fixed Signs, the honor of this Kherubic Face was shifted to Aquarius instead.)

-The “Wheel within a Wheel” that is so tall its “height is dreadful” is literally the sky (the ecliptic nested within the horizon).

-The term “eye”, in this sense in the Bible, meant “point of light.” He was saying the Angels’ wings were “full of stars”.

-The Four Kherbus are described as holding up a “firmament” that looks like crystal – in other words, the airy sky. And the “Throne of God” is the Earth itself, if not the entire universe.

All of the same applies to other such descriptions, like the Vision of St. John. Even Jacob – who saw a “ladder” upon which the Angels ascend and descend – was talking about the Zodiac. And, no, this is not a “modern interpretation.” Each of these prophets were describing the majesty of the Created Universe, as embodied in Angelic figures. 

Be careful of conflating history with mythos. Academically, the Angelical Language of Dee and Kelley did not exist in any way before them. Hebrew could not have adopted anything from or been influenced by Angelical, because Angelical did not exist before 1581-2. In this light, Angelical would have to have Hebrew influence, not the other way around.

But the mythos – that is the “magical reality” – is different. For example, I was once told by my HGA that “Lapis Lazuli” has roots in Angelical. But I can’t make that claim on any kind of academic or historical or etymological basis. It’s no different than having Marduk, Ra, and Yahweh all claiming to have created the world single-handedly. Mythos isn’t literal history.

As for “Lapis Lazuli” (and I’m not even sure WHICH part of that is supposed to have Angelical roots!*) I would take this info as an invitation to incorporate aspects of one or both of those words into Angelical (like Dee did with Londoh and Madrid), rather than looking back in history for an Angelical basis for the mundane words.

* – As the Angelical for “stone/rock” is “-patralx” or “orri”, it seems unlikely “Lapis” has any link to those words. So perhaps “Lazuli” is where the Angelical is found – and a brief search suggests that word is of Arabic/Persian origin, and is simply the name of the place where the stone was mined. (Hence “Stone of Lazuli.”) So it at least has a mysterious origin to work with. 🙂

Get a signed copy of The Angelical Language (Vols I and II) and The Essential Enochian Grimoire at Doc Solomon’s Occult Curios.

I was recently asked if I know how astrology works.  That is, they wanted to know if I believed the Planets emit “beams” (aka Rays) that project to the Earth, or something of the sort.  (An idea borrowed heavily from Theosophy and poor books like the Kybalion, but not entirely absent from older astrology texts.)

To be certain, the history of astrology is no small study.  It was an ancient art even by the time Egyptians and Sumerians began to keep the first written records.  And, you’ll find countless theories (both modern and ancient) about how it all works.  I am in not here to settle the matter – just to share what I know (in general and briefly) about its history, and my idea of how astrology “works.”

To vastly oversimplify a complex subject: the earliest astrologies (like in Egypt) focused on the seasons.  It’s rather intuitive, frankly.  The ancient shamans knew the motions of the stars were cyclic (even if they were unaware it was because the Earth is a spinning globe), and quickly figured out you could reliably predict the changing seasons by keeping an eye on the heavens.  You knew the weather was going to get warmer when these stars appeared in the sky, and that it would start growing cold when those stars appeared, etc.  

This essentially simple concept grew over thousands of years into some pretty complex systems.  Various geo/celestial events (solstices and equinoxes, harvest seasons, lunar cycles, eclipses, etc, etc) were marked as “holy days” and became sacred to various gods and demons.  These, then, evolved into the vast networks of temples and festivals one could find, for example, all up and down the Nile or the Euphrates.  Over time, every single day became sacred to one deity or another!  (There was a point in Egypt’s history where you could, conceivably, have traveled up and down the Nile attending one agricultural festival after another and never work a day in your life.)

These sacred/festival days resulted in the very first “magical calendars” – lists of the sacred days, and even hours of the days; to which deities and demons these times were sacred; and what petitions you could put before them at those times.  These (with the inclusion of Babylonian star lore) then evolved into the systems of “decan magick” that would eventually form the basis of much of the Solomonic goetic tradition – where spirits assigned to different planets, stars, signs, decans, etc are conjured and petitioned for any conceivable purpose.  

Other traces of these old magical calendars remain, as well.  We can find, in texts like the Key of Solomon, obscure lists of names and magical functions for all 24 hours in a day.  However, their practical application must have already been on the decline, as such lists are usually provided without context and do not seem to impact the rituals outlined in the rest of the literature.  (Though we may see a version of this preserved in texts like the Hygromanteia and Heptameron, where much stress is put on assigning Names and entities to every day, hour, season, and even the Sun and Moon.)

We can also see reflections of this in other areas: such as Farmers’ Almanacs that still provide planting and harvesting instructions based on astrological folklore.  Or the massive calendars of feast days associated with Saints, and the proper timings for specific masses and other ceremonies, in Catholic and Orthodox Christianity.

But it all started NOT with some primitive assumption the stars were shooting out beams of energy that affect the Earth.  Instead, it began with a rather common-sense observation that the cycles of the stars and planets line up with the seasons here on Earth.

Astrology isn’t about “Rays”.  It’s about Time.  The hands of a clock do not “create” time, they merely indicate it.  Likewise, the heavenly bodies do not create or project upon us the energies of life.  (Well… the Sun does, and one can argue the Moon does as well, but I’m speaking mystically here!)  Instead, they merely indicate the ever-changing seasons and cyclic energies that are native right here to our little ball of mud spinning through space.  “As Above, So Below” still applies, but we are radiating the energies, not receiving them.

At least that’s how I see it.

Zorge,

Aaron

Greetings, Bibliophiles!

From the Llewellyn Magick Blog, Jan 15, 2018:

I would like to talk about grimoires. Not a specific grimoire, like the Key of Solomon, or Heptameron, or Lemegeton. This isn’t even about their contents, or their history. No, what I want to talk about are the actual physical grimoires – those dangerous things made of paper and cardboard, with arcane scribbles of ink on their pages. Books that at various time and places (including to this very day) could get you arrested and worse. That pretty thing you might like to display prominently on your bookshelf, or perhaps hide away from prying eyes. Most of what we know about the medieval and Renaissance Solomonic tradition comes from those books, and they continue to be a treasure trove of new insights (and magical formulas) as more and more texts are discovered and translated into English (or other modern tongues). They are truly the heart and soul of the modern Solomonic movement; the foundation upon which the tradition ultimately rests.

But the modern movement has lost something that was paramount to the old-world Solomonic tradition: the grimoires themselves. And, once again, I’m talking about the actual physical read-y things that require manual page-flipping to fast-forward or rewind them. You see, in the medieval era, it was believed that a book containing magical spells, names and descriptions of spirits, seals and characters was itself an object of magical power. There were even spells intended to empower and enliven your grimoire – as preserved in books like the Fourth Book of Occult Philosophy and the Key of Solomon. However, common thought at the time was that such a ritual was not necessary for a grimoire to be possessed by the spirits listed within it, or even a living demon in its own right. There are medieval records of public occult book-burnings, where witnesses swore they heard the screams of the spirits issuing from the flames as the books were consumed.

Read the Rest at:  https://www.llewellyn.com/blog/2018/01/grimoires-and-the-solomonic-tradition/

Greetings Gaiman-ites!  (Is that a thing by now?)

 

From the Llewellyn Magick Blog, June 28, 2017:

I’m willing to bet, if you are reading this blog, you have already watched every episode of the new hit TV series American Gods. Or, if you haven’t, you’ve probably heard a ton about it from your Paganfriends. And, seriously, *WHY* haven’t you watched it yet?? The first season is complete, and only eight episodes, so you can easily binge-watch the whole thing.

[…]

 

I strongly recommend both the book and the show. If you can read the novel first, and then watch the series, do so! However, this blog entry isn’t a review of either one. Instead, I want to delve into one specific aspect of the story’s underlying philosophy: where the Gods came from.

Read the Rest at:  https://www.llewellyn.com/blog/2017/06/american-gods-and-where-gods-come-from/

And it shall come to pass in the last days, saith God, I will pour out of my Spirit upon all flesh: and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, and your young men shall see visions, and your old men shall dream dreams:. – Acts 2:17

 

Nick Farrell has done it again.  Love him or hate him, you have to admit he knows how to stir things up from time to time.  😉  This time, it was with a blog post declaring the death of “public occultism.”  If I were to summarize his position, I would say he feels occult students have become millennial wannabes who believe magickal knowledge should simply be on tap.  You just turn on your computer, press a few buttons, and one of the various modern occult leaders will simply deliver their wisdom to your front door in a nice box with a smile printed on it.  You shouldn’t be expected to actually have to study, to practice or (Gods forbid!) actually get up and DO anything.  Nick tells us of one student who canceled their own initiation ceremony because they had to go pick up a new fridge.  He discusses how few people make it through the first lessons of his correspondence course – apparently because there is practical work (beginner stuff like sitting in meditation for half an hour each day) and the students just can’t hack it.

You can bet there have been reactions to Nick’s post from every point of the spectrum.  Some wholeheartedly agree that modern occult students have simply lost the path.  Others suggest there are issues, but that Nick is probably making more out of them than is necessary.  And yet others are downright angry at his implications – possibly because he hit a little too close to home for their comfort?  I don’t know…

I find myself somewhere in the middle.  On the one hand, I’ve actually seen much of this before.  I remember, during the 1990s, it really felt as if the above-quoted Biblical passage had come to pass.  Magick was no longer some dark and dirty underground secret – a taboo hobby which could cost you your job, your home, and your family.  No, magick was back!  Magick was mainstream!  “The Goddess is alive, and magick is afoot!” – so proclaimed T-shirts and bumper stickers.  You couldn’t throw a stick without striking an occultist or someone who personally knew one.  Covens and orders were proliferating.  That stupid movie The Craft happened, I guess.  (It wasn’t all bad.)  For a while there, magick and paganism had become an outright fad – and it wasn’t the first time.

In the history books, we see that occultism enjoyed a boom in popularity in Europe during the late 1800s and into the early 1900s.  However, two World Wars put an end to that.  It revived again in the 1970s and grew quite popular by the 1990s, and then the world went to hell and people found other things to talk about.  Then along came Harry Potter and Hurricane Katrina, and suddenly there was a fad for ATRs (African Traditional Religions) and old-school witchcraft and wizardry (like Goetia).  That latter fad, in fact, is still underway.

The point is that occultism, in one form or another, seems to swing in and out of popularity all the time.  The muggles find the subject either fascinating or terrifying (often both), and it makes great soil in which to plant your fantasy fiction.  Ever played Dungeons and Dragons?  Were/are you into comics?  Star Wars?  How about the works of Piers Anthony?  Or Terry Pratchett?  Lord of the Rings or (of course) the Boy Who Lived himself?  All of these and much more are examples of some point in history where magick grabbed a hold of the public fancy and thus enjoyed a bit of a golden age – just as it did in the late 1900s, and during the late 1800s, and during the 1600-1700s, and during the Renaissance before that.

So the “death of public occultism” is nothing new and shouldn’t really raise any alarms.  In fact, I dare say it is part of the natural order of things.  A fad comes along, during which large numbers of people enjoy exploring the occult sciences.  Then, as expected, the largest number of them move on to the next shiny thing and occultism is left with the very few who were truly called to the Path and have something to offer.  Those few then become the teachers of the next crop of aspirants – once the next Tolkien or Rowling comes along to get everyone excited again.

Some have suggested that it is not magick that is fading away, so much as popular interest in Golden Dawn-style ceremonial.  And that is true to a large extent. “Western Mystery” (read Ceremonial Magick) conferences hardly ever happen these days, and if they do they are small and informal.  (You may remember the SOMA conference in Texas that didn’t happen.)  My current Ceremonial Magick 101 class does not have a single ceremonial magician in it.  (Though that may be more due to the local market being tapped out – we’ve been holding the class in the same place for a few years now.)

But it’s not just the CM community that seems to be in a slump.  Attendance at Pagan Festivals has been down over the last couple of years.  And the class I hosted only a week ago on the subject of working with ancestors (using a boveda, something we learned from our ATR experiences) had a truly dismal turn-out.  Yet the same venue has no problem filling seats for New Age classes.  In fact, my wife and I have both noticed that the shop itself has, over the years, progressed from being an occult shop where Pagans hang out to a semi-Pagan/New Age shop where New Agers hang out.  And this has been in reaction to the market, not a decision made by the owner.  You see, the biggest and fastest-growing occult fads out there today are the New Age (yes, still) and Chaos Magick – both systems of E-Z Occultism that encourage you to just make it up as you go along.  No study.  No work.  No effort.  Just play.

These are the trends that I personally find worrisome.  It all seems to come down to the millennial mindset of on-tap information and instant-gratification.  The belief that anything worth having isn’t worth working or searching for.  And, my all-time favorite, the ridiculous jackassery that leads students to honestly believe they are there to teach the teacher rather than the other way around!  (At that link, the blogger states:  “A core tenet of the WMT is reincarnation therefore there may be some younger people who remember way more than their older counterparts.”  I assume he wrote that with a straight face, but I don’t see how.)  Many teachers are finding it necessary to either stop offering classes, or are dumbing them down and converting them to New Age nonsense in order to sell seats.

The fact is that occult information has become too easy to find.  Worse than that, occult leaders are too easy to contact.  There was a day – even as recently as my younger years – where an aspirant had to seek and quest for many years to find the occult.  The only popular literature out there was a Time-Life series called “Mysteries of the Unexplained” (hey look! you can still buy it!) – anything else had to be sought out one painstaking bit at a time.  And that was just the books!  The possibility of actually meeting or even conversing with one of the leaders of the occult underground was the stuff of fantasy.  And when you did meet one of them, you respected them.  You feared to annoy them with your puny little questions, and you took their answers seriously.

I can understand why students don’t want teachers who walk around like Ascended Masters and talk down to everyone around them.  That’s an extreme.  But the other extreme is to have easy access to nearly any occult leader you could want, where you can just drop them an instant message and have your questions instantly answered. No need to seek for the answer, or even just look it up in a book already on your shelf.  Hell, don’t even bother with Google!  Why should you when the current teachers are right there on demand?

In the early days of the Information Age, we teachers tried to step up and help everyone we could.  We had gone it alone, and we knew how that sucked.  We were in awe of the technology that allowed us to communicate with students like we had never done before, and we used that to help as many seekers as we could.  But what you, dear reader, likely don’t grasp is that this state of affairs just kept growing.  In the beginning, I helped every single person that wrote to me – both laypersons who needed magickal help and seekers asking for guidance.  I even guided a couple of people through their own attempts at the Abramelin Rite.  (And, O’boy, was that a bad idea!)  But, very quickly, I found myself overwhelmed.  Between email, internet forums, and social media sites like Facebook, I was receiving more requests than I could possibly answer.

Not only that, but I also discovered 99% of the people I was trying to help valued my teachings exactly as much as they had paid for them (in dollars or personal effort):  zero.  I was wasting my time and theirs.  In the end, I had to put up a price-wall to reduce the number of requests for help, and (for various reasons) I have completely ceased privately teaching magick to anyone online.  (And by the latter I don’t just mean that I don’t take online students – I’m talking about people who constantly write me with question after question, apparently hoping they can learn magick from me via attrition.)

None of this would be such a problem if occult leaders weren’t so easily accessible.  I believe that we have freely given of ourselves so much that we have inadvertently devalued both our art and our experience.  We have saturated our own markets with free goods (that being ourselves).

I think it is time for the serious occult teachers to consider reducing their availability.  I’m not suggesting we should disappear from the Internet entirely.  But we need to pull back.  We can write books, articles and blogs and even interact in online groups.  We can still give interviews and appear on podcasts.  We don’t have to vanish into obscurity.  But we seriously need to pull back a little, and stop trying to be occult white knights riding to everyone’s rescue.  Students should learn every scrap of magick they can from the written materials before they come to us.  Then they should feel fortunate when they can get a private word or two with us – because that is what makes them value what we have to say.

“Public” occultism is on the way out (at least until it rises again).  So we won’t have the luxury of hosting standing-room only lectures and conferences the way we could just a few years ago.  We aren’t going to get rich.  (Not that we ever were…)  And we will be dealing with smaller numbers of students – but with any luck that will also mean we will be getting higher quality students.

Let the tourists go find the next shiny thing.

Greetings Readers!

 

From the Llewellyn Magick Blog, July 7, 2015:

The Western Mystery Tradition is quite steeped in Biblical literature and imagery. Gnosticism, Hermeticism, Rosicrucianism, Masonry, the Golden Dawn, and Thelema have extremely close ties to the Christian spiritual tradition. (This is not to be confused with the political co-opting of Christianity from about the second century CE onward.) Not to mention my beloved Solomonic grimoires, which are most certainly an expression of medieval Christian mysticism. Even indigenous forms of witchcraft and folk magick around the world now bear the stamp of Christian influence (though these are cases where Christianity was merely adopted into an existing worldview, rather than overwhelming and replacing it). We can see this especially in places like Africa and South America, where Catholic forms of witchcraft are quite common.  The question of magick among these traditions arises every so often.  […]

You see, that Bible that so many of us like to use as a magick book in its own right (and, never doubt for one second that it *is* a magick book) actually tells us that magick is evil and must never be practiced. […]

 

Deuteronomy 18:9-12: When you come into the land that the Lord your God is giving you, you shall not learn to follow the abominable practices of those nations. There shall not be found among you anyone who burns his son or his daughter as an offering, anyone who practices divination or tells fortunes or interprets omens, or a sorcerer or a charmer or a medium or a necromancer or one who inquires of the dead, for whoever does these things is an abomination to the Lord. And because of these abominations the Lord your God is driving them out before you.

 

It looks like the Bible is exceedingly clear on this point, and believe me the above is only a scratch on the surface of Biblical admonitions against witchcraft, sorcery, divination, etc.  […]  Therefore, can we simply ignore the fact that the same book stresses, over and over again, that magick is an abomination to the same Divinity we invoke in the Psalms? Isn’t it highly likely that Divinity will be offended that we are calling it for something in which it has clearly stated it wants no part?

Read the Rest at:  http://www.llewellyn.com/blog/2015/07/does-the-bible-outlaw-magick/

Greetings fellow Wizard-Priests!

.
Years and years ago, back in my early days of study into Biblical history and the Qabalah, I gathered a set of awesome texts concerning Babylonian magick and religion.  (Sadly I did not own them, but had checked them out from the local library – remember those?)  Before I dove head-first into the Solomonic grimoires, I quite regularly invoked the Annunaki (Gods) of Sumeria and Babylon.  I got outstanding results though Them – and that was before I knew how to properly build altars or work with them in a more traditional Pagan manner.  (At the time, I was invoking them through a basic Qabalistic framework.)

In time, I left the Annunaki behind.  It was largely out of respect, as I discovered that I didn’t know how to work with Them properly and that I should probably be focused more on the “Gods” of my own time and culture – that is the Archangels and Angels found within the Qabalah and the Solomonic texts.

Yet, I don’t think I said goodbye to them forever.  Somewhere in the back of my mind, I know that I’ll return to Them again.  That point was driven home a few years ago when Tabatha Cicero created her own Babylonian Tarot (for which, I am proud to say, I handed over to her all of my own research on Sumer-Babylonian language, myth and magick).

Now, the Annunaki have reached out once more to remind me They are there, and that They haven’t forgotten about me (or – that they don’t want me to forget about Them, as if I could!).  Just recently, I stumbled across a website that offers many of the old books I used to create my own Babylonian practice – all of which remain to this very day some of the best books ever published on the subject.  They are in PDF format and you can download them for free.  I’ve created this blog post to archive the links for myself, as well as to share them with you.  🙂

Babylonian Magic and Sorcery: Being the Prayers of the ‘Lifting of the Hand’ – L.W. King:

(http://archive.org/details/babylonianmagics00kinguoft)

The Devils and Evil Spirits of Babylonia – R.C. Thompson

Vol 1:

(http://archive.org/details/devilsevilspirit01thomuoft)

Vol 2:

(http://archive.org/details/devilsevilspirit02thomuoft)

Also,  going beyond just Sumeria and Babylon, these are some of my favorite books on Middle-Eastern magic:

Semitic Magic – R.C. Thompson

(http://archive.org/details/semiticmagicitso00thomuoft)

The Early History of God: Yahweh and the Other Deities of Ancient Israel – Mark S. Smith

(http://books.google.com/books/about/The_Early_History_of_God.html?id=1yM3AuBh4AsC)

The Hebrew Goddess – Raphael Patai

(http://books.google.com/books?id=VfAX_wkMM4IC)

A History of God – Karen Armstrong

(http://books.google.com/books?id=7J_vp4X28JAC&dq=armstrong+the+history+of+god)

This list is by no means complete, but should be a great start for anyone interested in these subjects.  I’m sure I”ll be expanding this post over time.  So stay tuned!

In the Light of Shamash,

Aaron