You would be amazed how often I am asked this question. Which technique is the most powerful? Which angel is more powerful? Can we create Talismans more powerful than those in the Key of Solomon? Which material for talismans is the most powerful? Even, which Psalm is the most powerful? And, every single time, my answer begins with the same words:
It’s not about “power.”
Now, to be clear, I’m not suggesting the concept of power has no relevance in magick! Or, to be honest, I think a better word would be “effectiveness” instead of “power.” For example, one can create perfectly workable talismans by observing only the Planetary day and hour. But a more effective technique is to observe a full astrological election. The latter could be called “more powerful”.
Another example might be the Angelical (often mis-termed “Enochian”) language, which I have found exceedingly effective in my angelic workings. So much so, I have in some cases(!) chosen to use it over Hebrew (following what I believe was Dee’s intention for the language). One could say I find the Angelical language (and many of the associated Enochian tools) to be “very powerful.”
Yet… would a Baal Shem agree with me about Dee’s Angelical? Would it be “more powerful” than Hebrew in the practice of Merkavah mysticism? Hardly. In fact, I would dare suggest the Angelical might be less effective than Hebrew in such cases. Because it’s not about which one is “more powerful” – but which one is most effective within its own context.
The same is true of materials – such as choosing metal, parchment, beeswax, or another material for your talismans. On one hand, using a proper material (like gold for Solar talismans) will be “more powerful” than using something unrelated (like a Solar Talisman inscribed on silver). But, choosing between something like metal, parchment, or beeswax is not about “power” – it’s about practicality and context. You don’t want to bury a parchment Talisman! You can bury a metal one – but it could rust. So beeswax is best for burial. But if you want to wear or carry the talisman around, metal is more durable and won’t break like wax or get creased or worn like parchment. (Unless you roll the parchment into something to protect it.) I could go on with examples, but I hope this makes my point: it’s about using what is needed in the context of your work. Not about “more power.”
(And, yes, parchment is MUCH “more powerful” than notebook paper! LOL)
Magick is not like a movie or video game, where you and another worker are going to “face off” and whoever has the most powerful magical weapons wins! Well… ok so maybe it CAN be that way, but the winner of that kind of battle will come down to who has the better-established relationships with their spirits, who has trained them better and for longer, and who has the most ashe‘ built up in both themselves and their tools.
A few weeks ago, I began an unusual process for a client: the consecration of a LARGE number of Planetary (and other) Talismans. These aren’t Talismans that either Carrie or Eli Cohen created, but I was hired to perform their consecrations.
It’s not unusual for me to consecrate objects for people – it’s a standard service we offer at Doc Sol’s. But it is very unusual for someone to invest in such a large number of consecrations! Thankfully, it was possible to do most of them in groups – so that all Jupiter Talismans were consecrated together, then all Venus Talismans were done together the next day, etc. Thus, in the end, the client was only paying for seven consecration rituals – rather than the nearly 20 for each individual Talisman!
So here I am, going back to work for the same client day after day for an entire week. (It’s nearly done as I type this, just before the Moon begins to wane again, but I still have a few to consecrate the next time the Moon waxes.) Each time, I have to read the rather lengthy list of Psalms over the Talismans – essentially performing a “service” over them, if you will. And this has led me to a brand new AHA! moment:
I decided to alter the Psalms I was praying to include the name of my client. More specifically, any time a Psalm spoke in the first person, I would change the pronouns to make it third-person (except, of course, where it’s God speaking!), and where appropriate I would change “I” to the name of the client.
Now, those of you who are my students, or members of my Solomonic Group on Facebook, have likely seen me talk about this very thing before. Altering the wording of a Psalm to make it more specific to your needs is a practice found in the grimoires – often done when adopting portions of Psalms into longer invocations. But, for some reason, I just never thought of doing it for the longer “service-like” lists of Psalms required for many Solomonic consecrations – and specifically when doing these for clients! (When doing them for yourself, all the first-person makes more sense.)
So, let’s just say Something “urged” me to make that very change this time. And it wasn’t easy! A big part of “ritual magick” is repetition – you establish “astral grooves” and settle into them, and that’s where the real magick happens. But, sometimes, your Familiars and/or Guardians will teach you, give you suggestions, tell you how to make things better. So, even though I struggled and stumbled over my words a few times, after a couple of days I was able to establish and settle into a whole new groove.
And, let me tell you, it was like flipping a switch! It instantly changed the entire ritual I was performing from a generalized church service to a very intimate ceremony dedicated to that one single person. The Psalms address every aspect of what the Talismans should do, the spiritual state of the person you’re praying for, and a whole lot more. It took everything those Psalms have ever meant to me and shot it out like a laser beam directly to the client! It has been a pretty mind-blowing experience.
And, now, I will be doing this every time I consecrate objects for others. 🙂
Magick Circle as described in the Grimorium Verum – hand-painted by Carrie Leitch
Over the years, I have found it somewhat difficult to explain to students the “mechanics” of how protective Magick Circles actually work. Thanks to popular fiction, and even descriptive terms in the grimoires (such as calling a Magick Circle a “fortress”), we tend to imagine the Circle as some kind of astral barrier through which hostile spirits cannot penetrate.
Now, this post isn’t a complete overview of Magic Circles – but I will briefly explain these figures aren’t really “fortresses” that manifest around you in the spirit world. No, these mandalas (yes, that’s where where they came from and that’s what they are) with their closed and repeating geometrical figures operate more like “spirit traps” than “buttresses.” Spirit traps – from spirit-bottles filled with broken mirror shards, to sprinkling seeds or sand across your window-sill – work by confusing and/or enthralling the trespassing spirit. These spirits do not have bodies and cannot be blocked by walls – nor by simple figures drawn on the ground. But they CAN be easily misdirected and confused. A circle (just by itself) could be enough to confuse a spirit who is trying to get across it to you.
And therein lies the rub. If the figures on the ground are not a barrier, then how does it divert or confuse the spirit? It would be like drawing a labyrinth on the ground – no walls – and expecting someone to be unable to find the center.
Today, I had an inspiration! A better way to explain exactly how this works from the spirit’s point of view. In order to understand how this works, we have to think of the astral/spiritual plane not as similar to the material world – but instead as similar to the aquatic world! (Not a leap at all, considering the astral plane has been related to Elemental Water for quite some time…)
Now imagine you want to work within this flowing river we call the astral plane. But you need to protect your working area from – let us say – piranha. To do this, we’ll imagine you possess a device that can create a whirlpool of water around you – leaving you dry and safe on the inside, and all the water swirling around you in a strong current. That water is not a wall. Another person could easily dive through that wall to either join you in the circle, or to escape from it. But the piranha? We’ll leave aside the real-world fact that one or two could conceivably work their way through the whirlpool and end up flopping around at your feet before dying – as this is just a thought experiment and spirits aren’t fish. LOL Instead, we’ll focus on the ones who can’t figure out why each time they try to swim near you, they suddenly get swept around and away from you.
We could easily move this same analogy onto land – switching out the fish for flies, and the swirling water for one of those air-blast units stores and warehouses install to keep the insects out. Again – you and I can easily step through, while the flies are utterly unable to fly through the downward current of air.
I could go on – but I’ll summarize all of this in the following way: Magick Circles are more about currents than they are about barriers.
This Easter holiday was a rare and unique opportunity for working with Venus energy. It happened, by chance, to fall on April 1st – and that is the traditional Roman feast day for the Goddess Venus. The date also fell just after Venus entered one of the two zodiacal signs she rules (Taurus, in this case) and fell just within the Moon’s full-phase. The convergence of Spring Equinox, Venusian, and Easter symbolism was too perfect to give a pass.
Working with Anael has been a surprising and deeply moving experience. For most of my occult career, I haven’t paid much attention to her in particular. My focus upon the Divine Feminine has been directed toward figures such as the Wiccan Goddess, Asherah, the Gnostic Sophia, etc. I knew that Venus had very intimate connections with the most ancient Goddess figures, such as Inanna, Ishtar, and Astarte. But there was very little information to be found about Anael herself, and nothing much had directed my attention toward her specifically. (I may be speaking on behalf of my wife here, as she had a similar experience in this regard.)
But all of that changed once we decided to erect an altar to her in our home. More than any similar altar we have ever erected, this one literally built itself! It turned out we had most of what she wanted on her altar already in the house, and more sacred objects and decorations began to arrive nearly of their own accord. (Literally! Many of them were gifts from friends who heard we were building a Venus altar.) That altar just exploded – and is now the largest and most elaborate one in the house. When we built it, we had assumed I would tend it like I do most (but not all) of the other Archangel altars. However, once it was established, it was apparent it belonged to my wife, Carrie, and she has tended it ever since.
The most striking thing about all of this is the energy that has come through Anael’s altar. Every single things we have ever done in relation to the Divine Feminine – from our original paths through Neopaganism, to my Gnostic priestly devotion to Sophia and Mary, to the mysteries of sacred sex – all of it now pours fourth from Anael’s altar. From the symbol of Venus encompassing the entire Tree of Life, to the Cycle of the Seasons, to the descent of Ishtar into the Underworld – it’s all right here in Anael’s charge.
Archangel Anael
Anael (also known as Hanael) – Joy of God, or Grace of God – is the Archangel of Venus and Friday, ruler of the third heaven, lady of passion (for both love or war), sex, inspiration, and the arts. As Hanael, she is also the Archangel of Capricorn. She appears very little in the midrashim (legends), but her nature and attributes are very clearly similar to Love Goddesses such as Venus and Aphrodite, as well as Mother Goddesses such as Inanna, Ishtar, Astarte, Asherah, and Isis. As a manifestation of the Mother Goddess current, she also has close relationships with figures such as Sophia, the Shekinah, and Mother Mary. And as a manifestation of the Goddess of Sex, she has close relationships with figures such as Anath, Hathor, and even Lilith. As the angel of the arts, she can be regarded as similar to the Greek Muses. For an angel who has remained largely obscure in the Western Mystery Tradition, her position and function is extremely exalted.
John Dee made contact with this Archangel in the early 1500s, as he had read in the Arbatel of Magic the Angel of Venus was the current supreme ruling angel of the cosmos. (Each of the seven angels rules in succession for 490 years. The rule of Venus was to last until 1900 CE, when the Angel of Mercury would take over.) Anael appeared to Dee’s then-skryer Barnabas Saul, and introduced Dee to the angelic intermediary Uriel. Anael never appeared to Dee again, but Uriel thenceforth directed the sessions that would come to be known as the Enochian workings.
Offering Ritual for Archangel Anael
It is best to choose a Friday when Venus is well aspected in the heavens, and she should be above the horizon at the time of working if possble. Dawn is best. The most powerful times of year to do this ritual are when Venus resides in either the sign of Taurus or Libra. The Moon should be in increase.
On Thursday evening, cover a table or altar with a green or white cloth. Place a talisman and/or image of Archangel Anael upon the altar. (If it is a talisman, place it in the center. If an image, set it toward the east facing westward.) You will need a censor and an incense of Venus:
I use three ingredients:
1 part Sanalwood
1 part Benzoin
1/2 part Red Rose Petals (some of which come from roses offered on Anael’s altar)
Also prepare all elements of the offering to Venus: Seven green candles, seven glasses of water, a glass of champagne, , a glass of half-and-half cream, seven pieces of bread covered with honey, fruit (in this case an apple cut into seven slices), and a mix of spring flowers and roses. And lots of candy! (Since this invocation was done on Easter, we took advantage and offered seven green jelly beans, seven gold-foil wrapped chocolate eggs, seven green Peeps, and seven dark-chocolate eggs wrapped in green and red foils, and a Dove chocolate bunny in gold foil. My wife and daughter also decorated seven real Easter eggs with red and green dyes, which we added to the altar. Plus a lot of Easter decorations.)
Finally, for her meat, we grilled seven pieces of halal goat meat – as goat is sacred to Venus, and was once sacrificed to Venus and Aphrodite at their Temples. (We cook it well done, of course – no blood! And we only offer meat once a year at this larger feeding rituals.) The meat should be grilled over myrtle – or hazel-tree wood. Otherwise grill it over natural wood or wood charcoal, and add sandalwood, benzoin, and rose petals to the fire. Season the meat with saffron.
On Friday just before sunrise, wash yourself and don a white or green robe. At sunrise, set the offering to Venus upon the table. Place six of the green candles around the edges, and one in the center – directly upon the talisman if there is one. Set a glass of water beside each candle. Around this arrange the food offerings. You may also add any gift offerings for Anael, or items you wish for her to touch – such as copper jewelry or trinkets, talismans, stones, oils, make-up, written prayers or petitions, etc.
Light the censor and candles with their proper exorcisms, and add fresh incense to the coal. Then exorcise and consecrate the offerings with holy water and the censor.
Then move to the eastern side of the working space, facing outward. If you have a consecrated bell or trumpet, sound it and recite the following call (or one similar to it):
In whatsoever place ye may be, ye spirit(s), who are invited to this feast, [NNN] come ye and be ready to receive our offerings, presents, and sacrifices!
Move to the south and repeat – first sounding the bell or trumpet, then the call. Do this again in the west and the north.
Finally, return to standing west of the altar facing eastward, and recite the following invocations:
Prayer to YHVH Zabaoth
YHVH Zabaoth, God of the Hosts of Heaven, Great Lord of the spirits of passion, the sphere of Victory and of the Lovely Venus, She who is Beautiful, Passionate, Pleasing, Powerful, Fruitful, the Queen of all Delights. Thou art fairer than the children of men: grace is poured into thy lips: therefore God hath blessed thee for ever. Gird thy sword upon thy thigh, O most mighty, with thy glory and thy majesty. And in thy majesty ride prosperously because of truth and meekness and righteousness. Thine arrows are sharp in the heart. Thy throne, O God, is for ever and ever. The sceptre of thy kingdom is a right sceptre. Thou lovest righteousness, and hatest wickedness: therefore God of Hosts, anoint us with the oil of gladness. The king’s daughter is all glorious within: her clothing is of wrought gold. She shall be brought unto the king in raiment of needlework: the virgins her companions that follow her shall be brought unto thee. With gladness and rejoicing shall they be brought: they shall enter into the king’s palace. YHVH Zabaoth, I ask in Thy Holy Name that you bless and sanctify this offering, that it may be pleasing unto You and Your Angels. Amen + Amen + Amen + Amen + Amen + Amen + Amen +
The Song of Songs
[Normally, I would have read seven Psalms or other verses related to Venus at this point. However, we instead chose to read the entire Song of Songs. It is eight chapters rather than seven, but the entire book is centered upon Venus. My wife and I read the Song together – me reading the male portions and her the female. It was a rather moving and intimate experience!]
Invitation to Anael
O’ Anael, bright morning and Evening Star! Lady of Beauty and Majesty, Passion and Strength!
Anael! Celestial Bride! Virgin and Whore! Mother and Daughter! Lucifera! Aphrodite!
Anael, Queen of Heaven and Mother of Mankind! Thou who art Sophia and Mary!
Anael, Great Goddess who smiles upon the Earth and vegetation springs forth, cattle increases, and men find love!
O’ Anael, you hide your face and the world sleeps!
Wondrous Anael, Archangel of Venus, bringer of inspiration, beauty, and art.
You have been with us from the very beginning, blessing the steps we have taken upon our path. You are the High Priestess through whom the Light of God has shone into our lives. You have been our comfort and our help. Come thou forth and partake of these offerings, which we have prepared in thy honour and to the glory of the God of the Heavenly Hosts! May you find them pleasing and empowering. We ask that you offer your blessings to our home and family, and bear our offerings and prayers of thanksgiving to the Divine Court. We petition thee for inspiration and beauty in all of our undertakings, to be beloved by our community, and that the light of thy wisdom should guide and keep us at all times. In the name of YHVH Zabaoth. Amen.
Repeat the Invitation seven times. Then, share in the feast you have offered to the Angel – taking bites of each food item, sips of the liquids. Leave the offerings in place until the green candles burn completely away (or no less than seven days). Place the remains in a natural place, into running water or at a crossroads.
– End –
Ritual of Anael Journal Entry
It would have been wonderful if this could have happened on a Friday – the day sacred to Venus. However, Easter can’t happen on a Friday – and this year neither did her established Feast Day. So we went with it, and performed our invocation ritual that Sunday on an hour of Venus. It has become our family tradition to give each of our seven resident Archangels (yes, we now have established altars to all seven planetary Archangels!) a very large annual feeding. This empowers them to work for us for the entire year, plus they get smaller candle/incense offerings and thanksgiving offerings as we regularly work with them.
We cleaned and prepared the Temple room, and gathered most of the ingredients the night before Easter, though we ran out of time to find the goat meat. Fortunately for us, Arabic butchers are open on Easter, so we were able to acquire that on the day of the ritual. The meat was even halal.
Given that this took place on Easter day, it wasn’t practical for me to fast. We went to a friend’s house and had a wonderful Easter dinner while the kids played together and hunted for eggs. It was a wonderful time, really – and even without fasting it felt quite appropriate. (“All acts of love and pleasure…”) When we got home I performed my evening Abramelin invocations, then set up the altar for the Anael invocation:
A green Venus altar cloth that was a gift from our friend Kathy at AzothArt.com, Anael’s statue, icon, censer, Agrippa Venus Incense from Doc Solomon’s (plus some special Anael incense of Carrie’s own creation), and several talismans and other objects directly from her established altar, the seven candles (one being a fixed Anael Novena) and glasses of water, plus the food offerings, candy, fresh flowers, and a few Easter decorations (including the real Easter eggs) to celebrate the season. We also had an impressively elaborate and beautiful Venus Wand to place on the altar for a client, so it would be blessed and empowered by Anael. And of course Carrie added all of her Anael and Love oils from Anubeion Creations, and her special jewelry. Once all the food, drink, and candy was added, the altar was literally overflowing!
We got the meat grilled just after the nighttime hour of Venus began (about 10:40pm), and began the invocations while the meat was still sizzling hot.
I followed the ritual as you see it above. I lit the candles and censor with the proper Solomonic exorcism and used the Agrippa incense and holy water to consecrate everything on the altar. I then made the calls in the four quarters, and performed the invocations (my wife joining me for the Song of Songs), burning the special incense my wife had made for Anael. We decided to share in the seven-fold recitation of the invitation to Anael – trading off so she recited it three times and myself four times.
Afterward we shared in the feast with Anael – sampling all the foods and liquids on the altar. (Carrie skipped the bread of course.) We invited our daughter in to do the same, and I anointed all three of us with Anael’s oil. (Our daughter may also share a special relationship with Anael. You would be amazed at the artistic streak she has manifested over her short life!)
The offerings will sit on the altar for seven days, or until the candles burn out. We will of course remove any food items that go bad in the meantime – though it is not usual to see that happen. (Except for milk items. We’ll remove the cream after a couple of days.) As things progress, and if there is anything of interest, I will update this entry.
I have seen it stated, as a cold hard fact, that spiritual possession (also referred to as being “mounted” or “ridden” by a spirit) is not a part of the Western tradition. This person even asserted that no true archangel would ever possess a person (that activity being strictly relegated to the demonic).
Yet, over the years of my occult practice, especially my Solomonic work, I have seen plenty of archangels (and deities) possess people.
Recently, a member of my ‘Solomonic’ Facebook group posed the question (and I paraphrase): Why would anyone want to work with spiritual beings who have, according to their own mythos, fallen out of favor with God? Is this done in protest of the divine judgement against such spirits, or in ignorance of it?
That’s a fair question, and not far from similar questions I have asked about occultism in general. For instance, why in the world would anyone, knowing the Lovecraft mythos, actually desire to make contact with a destructive chaotic force like Cthulhu? Why do some people choose to focus their studies and practices on infernal demons, fallen angels, the Qliphothic realms and even the dead? Frankly, there are plenty of very powerful spirits out there who actually like humans—or at least tolerate us for some reason—so why should you purposefully invoke the meanest, nastiest human-haters our mythologies have to offer?
All of this plays perfectly into a question I’ve long pondered about the Solomonic grimoires themselves: Why the hell do they even include Satan or demons at all? The texts arose from Christian tradition; in many cases written by clergy, or at least by very devout educated Christians (who received their education from clergy). What would possess these people to include spells for summoning Satan, Lucifer, Leviathan, Oriens, Paimon, Amaymon, Ariton, the 72 demons of the Goetia, etc, etc? Why should there exist a text called The Harrowing of Hell? Not only does this appear to run counter to the faith of the authors, but they were dong this in a time and place where they could be killed for far lesser religious infractions. Were these people secretly Satanists?
For some time now, I’ve been writing about the “Old Magick”—such as that found in the African Traditional Religions, the Solomonic grimoires, and indigenous folk traditions. I have described the spirit model of magick—which views the gods, angels, and spirits as objective beings—and I have compared it unfavorably with the psychological model, which views these same entities as mental constructs that exist only within the mind.
Of course, if you’ve been following my work, you’re well aware of that. However, over the past weeks it has become apparent that my dismissal of the psychological model of magick might be misinterpreted as a repudiation of the entire subject of psychology. Therefore, I would like to take this opportunity to set the record straight.
While I certainly do not view magick as merely an ancient form of psychology, it is important to remember that this does not rule out psychology in and of itself! The spirits may be real and objective, with their own personalities and agendas, but the human art that we call “magick” has a lot to do with the mind.
The right tools, the right rituals, and even a literal faith in the spirits’ objective reality isn’t quite enough. Your own psychology is vital. How the magick affects you, and how you (your mental state) affects it, is a huge chunk of the Mysteries.
As many of my readers know, I am a practitioner of the Old Magick. That means I have abandoned the “psychological model” of magick (the belief that magick is strictly an art of the mind, and that spiritual entities are simply parts of our own psyches) in favor of the “spirit model” of magick (the belief that spiritual entities are very real and objective beings).
What that means is that my magick includes protocols for approaching the angels and spirits, methods of making offerings and caring for them, building relationships with them and convincing them (via mutual respect) to work with and for me here in the physical. It is, primarily, a form of shamanism—drawing techniques from ancient cultures and indigenous folks magicks. If you want some good examples of how I work (including photographs of the offering altars), check out these links:
Not every occultist wishes to toss aside the psychological model and adopt the old ways. Even now, I hear from those who are uncomfortable with concepts like establishing altars and making food offerings to spiritual beings. For them, the very idea of a spirit model just sounds silly and primitive. It depends on a worldview they feel was rightfully overthrown by science and reason. Above all, they seek to distance themselves from anything they understand as “superstition.”
That word—superstition—appears a lot in Western occult literature. Even Agrippa discusses it in his Three Books of Occult Philosophy, so we know the argument has been going on since the Renaissance. Agrippa suggested that superstition can be helpful in magick, while other occultists of his time insisted superstition was the bane of magick and must be abandoned. What these people were actually talking about was indigenous folk magick—witchcraft, shamanism, etc. During their time, such practices were still illegal—punishable by arrest, forfeiture of assets, torture and/or execution. Therefore they had a vested interest in distancing themselves from the ancient pagan methods of magick—or “superstition.”
Because of this environment, the mysteries and philosophies of the Old Magick were lost in the West. The Renaissance gave way to the Age of Enlightenment (aka the Age of Reason) in the 17th century. Over the next several centuries, the study of psychology would rise to prominence in our culture, and most of our modern systems of occultism are based on the psychological model.
For occultists in such an environment, the protocols and actions that are vital to the Old Magick seem like barbarous nonsense.
Some of you may recognize Objectivism as the philosophy developed by author Ayn Rand in such books as The Fountainhead and Atlas Shrugged. And if you know anything about Ms. Rand and her writings, you also know Objectivism is pretty much the exact opposite of any spiritual or occult philosophy. Let me give you a short quote from the Wikipedia entry as an illustration:
“Objectivism’s central tenets are that reality exists independent of consciousness, that human beings have direct contact with reality through sense perception, that one can attain objective knowledge from perception through the process of concept formation and inductive logic…”
Really, it just gets worse from there. (We’ll talk about Rand’s sad position on human morality shortly.) However, the above is enough for any occultist to shake their head and look elsewhere for wisdom. It posits that consciousness has nothing to do with reality, and that we can always trust our senses to tell us the truth about the world around us. As occultists, we know better, don’t we?
And what about the Objectivist stance on morality? Well, Ms. Rand was born in Russia during a particularly difficult period of their history (this was during the fall of the Russian Empire and the rise of the Bolsheviks), and she doubtlessly suffered some deep traumas during her childhood. As an adult, she preached a philosophy of pure self-interest. The poor should be allowed to starve and die. The rich should be supported and given rule over the rest of us. Get what is yours while the getting is good, and give nothing to the weak. Here is another snippet from the Wikipedia article:
“…the proper moral purpose of one’s life is the pursuit of one’s own happiness (rational self-interest), that the only social system consistent with this morality is one that displays full respect for individual rights embodied in laissez-faire capitalism…”
A few of you may recognize this as foundational to such worldviews as American political conservatism as well as Anton LaVey’s Church of Satan. (The latter, by the way, are strict atheists.) Certainly this is the kind of philosophy that should be avoided by anyone with a spiritual worldview! Or anyone with an ounce of compassion or charity in their heart. Obviously I have some rants against Objectivism and Ayn Rand (who, by the way, lived out her elder years on the public assistance she would deny to others).
So, why is it that I constantly find myself identifying with fictional characters who embody the Objectivist philosophy?
As I’ve mentioned before, you have probably noticed my blog has been fairly quiet for some months now. Of course I still make event announcements here, but my usual thoughts and theories about magick and culture have been largely absent. The reason is because I’ve been writing blogs for Llewellyn lately. Back when Don Kraig got sick, they asked if I (along with a number of other accomplished magicians) would submit a few guest posts to keep Kraig’s Magick Blog up and running. Of course, once Don passed away, several of us just kept submitting blog posts – and the Magick Blog continues to this day.
Of course, I’m sure most of you already know all of this, and have likely read my posts over at Llewellyn. However, I’m also sure some number of you are subscribed here and not over there – which means you’ve been missing out unfairly. From the start, I should have cross-posted all of my Llewellyn blogs here – at least an excerpt with a link to the full post over on their site. And, that is what I will do from here on out.
But first, I will make up for my past oversights by cross-posting my older Llewellyn blogs here. If you keep up with me over there, then the next several posts will be repeats for you. Otherwise, I hope you enjoy the material you’ve been missing for the past year! 😉
Wait! Don’t surf away yet! I know this subject—the definition of magick—has been rehashed a billion times over the years. It has been the focus of heated debates and even flame wars—and never (not once!) has a consensus been reached.
Frankly, this debate has been going on for longer than you think. It was a question during the occult revival of the 19th century. It is even tackled by the authors of the medieval grimoires. Why, I would bet real money that Egyptian and Sumerian priests used to sit around in their temples and argue the same damn points.
But that is really the point of this blog. I’m not naive enough to think we’re going to reach a consensus here. However, I do think we can add something to the conversation—especially now that we have entered the 21st century, and our relationship to magick is changing drastically. As that relationship changes, so too does our understanding of magick and what it means in our culture.
In previous years, the debate was caught up in the occultism of the late 1800s. The Age of Enlightenment had dawned, the Industrial Revolution had… revolved?… and the discipline of Science (that is, as divorced from all mystical concerns) had risen to supremacy. Psychology was a new and developing study. And absolutely anything that struck the Western mind as “occult ooga-booga” (read: pretty much any form of indigenous folk magick, voodoo, hoodoo, etc.) was firmly shown the door.
Thus, the people who were raised in that environment sought an explanation for magick that fit into their paradigm. Hence was born the “psychological” definition of magick: it’s all just a form of primitive psychology. Magick is all in your head. The spirits and gods are mere “names and faces” that we have placed on our own instincts and mental complexes. Magickal tools and considerations are just “props” that help your mind engage the magick. Chaos magick arose in this environment, and it also gave us Aleister Crowley‘s often-quoted definition:
“Magick is the science and art of causing change in conformity with Will.”
Taken at face value, I find this definition to be pointless. If any change I make (on purpose) to the world around me is “magick,” then “magick” ceases to be a useful word. If I walk outside, am I performing magick because I opened a door and changed my location? Of course not! Yet, the way many students interpret the above definition, magick ceases to be a specific discipline or craft. Electricians are performing magick. Carpenters are performing magick. The ice cream man is performing magick (and he even brings smiles to the faces of children)!
Of course, Crowley added in that word “Will,” which means there is a lot more to his definition than most students realize. He means making changes in accordance with your True Will (your Fate or Karma), and his definition is saying that any action you take toward fulfilling your True Will is a magickal act. That’s better… but it still negates “magick” as a discipline unto itself. I’ve used a lot of magick in pursuit of my True Will, but I’ve also had to do a lot of mundane stuff, too.
Today, we are leaving behind the 19th century views on magick. While the psychological definition still has its adherents—some of them quite passionate in defense of their position—there is now a counter-movement of Old Magick practitioners who find that view unsatisfying. As the world we grew up in continues to break down, economies continue to collapse, medicine and other necessities become unavailable, and ill-defined wars continue to rage across the globe, people aren’t looking for “self help occultism” the way they were twenty years ago. They want the real deal: magick that can make real change in the real world. They want magick that can keep food in their families’ bellies, a roof over their heads, and everyone alive and healthy.
I fall into that category. We’re the guys who see spirits, gods, and angels as objectively real. We find the magickal tools and considerations to be important to the technology, not just a bunch of props that can be substituted or dispensed with entirely. And because of these, we see the magickal ceremonies as vital protocols when dealing with spirits, not outdated superstitions that should be simplified, reinterpreted, or left behind. And as for those indigenous forms of magick and witchcraft, rather than turning our noses up and thinking we are somehow better than all of that, we’re actually turning toward them and learning as much as we can.
So, how does this new movement define magick? Good question, and that’s why we are having this discussion now.
To get the ball rolling, I’ll share with you the definition by which I work. In fact, it is an older definition that existed for thousands of years before the modern world. The Solomonic grimoires (a specialty of mine) were written under this definition, and I think it is time we all took a fresh look at it.
Ritual of Anael Journal Entry
Given that this took place on Easter day, it wasn’t practical for me to fast. We went to a friend’s house and had a wonderful Easter dinner while the kids played together and hunted for eggs. It was a wonderful time, really – and even without fasting it felt quite appropriate. (“All acts of love and pleasure…”) When we got home I performed my evening Abramelin invocations, then set up the altar for the Anael invocation:
Ananael (The Secrets of Wisdom) 