Archive for the ‘students’ Tag
Greetings Spirit-Workers!
Ritual Offerings Webinar
S.O.M.A – November 2nd
3:30-5pm CST (4:30-6pm EST)
The Society of Magical Artists is hosting a webinar for the upcoming Nephilim Press book
Ritual Offerings: Feeding Your Spirits, Empowering Your Magick.
This will be a panel with me and several other authors from the book: Jason Miller, Frater Rufus Opus, Gilberto Strapazon and (just possibly!) Denise Alvarado as well. We WILL be taking questions from the audience! 🙂
Here is the Facebook Event Page – where you can keep up with announcements.
And here is the log-in link for the webinar when the day arrives. 🙂
I also hear that S.O.M.A is hosting two other webinars on the same day: featuring Jake Stratton-Kent and Brother Moloch. So, plan on an awesome day of webinars to get November started off right! 🙂 🙂 🙂
Great News, Students!
My Ceremonial Magick 101 classes are taking off! Carrie and I continue to offer them about twice a year here in the Tampa, FL area, and now we are making the same classes available in other areas of the country.
As we get the program under way, we are only allowing adepts of the Ciceros’ Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn to teach the classes. (Whether we expand this to teachers from other GD orders will depend on how things develop.) This assures that your instructors will be highly educated and trained in the material. They will be using the exact same curriculum myself and Carrie teach here, including tons of useful handouts. At the end of the class, you will even receive a certificate signed by myself and Carrie, as well as your instructors, to show you have graduated this specific course.
First up are Adepts Dave W and Andrea L in New York. They are personal friends besides being respected teachers in our Order, and I am fully confident in their ability to teach these classes. So if you are in the NY/Long Island area and have been wanting a chance to attend my classes, this is it! See below for details, and make sure to grab a seat while space remains!
Aaron Leitch’s Ceremonial Magick 101
At Silver Broom Ministries, New York
November 2 – December 7, 2014
Ceremonial Magick uses ritual and invocation to move closer to the Divine. Come learn the basics of Ceremonial Magick from Dave W and Andrea L-adepts of the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn! Dave and Andrea will be presenting the very classes given by Aaron Leitch and Carrie Mikell in Tampa earlier this year! If you want to experience Ceremonial (or “high”) Magick and learn from two initiated ceremonial magicians this class is for you! Course Topics include the following:
•Class 1: Basic Terms of Ceremonial Magick – Diagrams & the Qabalistic Cross
•Class 2: Basic Rituals & Correspondences
•Class 3: Pentagrams & the four Philosophical Elements
•Class 4: Hexagrams & the seven Planets
•Class 5: Talisman Creation & Consecration
•Class 6: An Angel Evocation
Class starts Sunday November 2nd and continues over five Sundays consecutive weeks, 1:30pm-3:30pm.
Cost is $15 per class
Silver Broom Ministries
46 Railroad Ave.
Sayville, NY 11782
(631) 760-5633
Please email maatsophia23@gmail.com to register. Class limited to 15 students.
NOTE: I know many of you will ask about online classes. Yes, those are still in the plans. But those plans are on hold while we establish these in-person classes first. My course is better when it is face-to-face and hands-on. The online classes will have to take a new format – still to be determined. So stay tuned for more on that!
Greetings Enochian and Angelical Students!
I recently stumbled upon this gem, and thought I would share it with you folks:
The Angelical Language Wiki
It is a Wiki dedicated to Dee’s Angelical Language, and it uses my own work among its primary source material. (Including my Angelical Language books, my online Angelical pronunciation guide, and more..) 🙂 It also includes Donald Laycock’s work, material directly from Dee’s journals, the Book of Loagaeth, etc, etc, etc.
This is exactly the kind of thing I hoped my work would inspire, and I can’t wait to see how the wiki grows over time. 🙂
Zorge
Aaron
Greetings Faithful Followers!
The time is drawing near for the Florida Pagan Gathering Samhain Festival! And I have once again been offered the honor of attending as a “headliner.” That means I’ll be hosting three lectures/workshops over the course of the festival – in between sessions of drumming and generally cavorting like a heathen. 🙂
My last experience at the FPG turned out to be a deeply moving spiritual experience that took me back to my Neopagan roots – besides being one helluva lot of fun. My fellow headliners were some of the top names in their various fields and practices, and I made more than one new lifelong friend while I was there. I expect this trip to be no different.
So I am inviting each and every one of you to come and join me for this awesome event! You can attend my workshops, ask me questions and then we can hang out in the various campsites and around the bonfire late into the night. I dare say we will not be disappointed by the experience!
Here is the info on the Festival:
Samhain 2012 – Out of the Darkness
Oct 31- Nov 4, Camp Ocala, Altoona, Florida
Welcome to the Forest! Set up camp, commune with nature, relax, visit the vendors, attend workshops, and evening events.
Headliners
Musical Headliners
This is a full-fledged festival – with an entry fee – so make sure you contact them to register today! Then get your camping gear together and enjoy a few days out in nature away from the modern world. Or, just come by for a day of lectures, food, shopping and fun!
Here is the info on the workshops I will be hosting. Right now I don’t know exactly when these workshops will take place, but I’ll update this post as soon as I find out:
Working with Spirits and Ancestors
Working with lesser spirits (jinn, demons, familiars, etc) and the spirits of our ancestors are two of the most ancient forms of witchcraft. (Properly called “goetia” – but not to be confused with the medieval grimoire of the same name!) However, the practice fell into disrepute after the rise of the urban “city-state” in the Classical era – and was outlawed entirely after the rise of mainstream Christianity. This resulted in a cultural break in our mystical Western heritage that has remained with us to this very day. Even in Wicca and other Neopagan traditions, spirit-work is often frowned upon, and ancestors are merely recognized at specific times of the year.
However, that doesn’t mean the practice was lost to history! Folk magickal traditions around the world have preserved these mysteries, and an ever-growing number of today’s Pagans and occultists are reviving these ancient and often misunderstood practices in our modern systems.
This workshop will focus upon *what* spirit- and ancestor-work really is, and *how* to go about doing it yourself to empower your spells and your spiritual path. We will cover the benefits and the dangers, how to erect altars, build spirit pots, invoke the spirits, make offerings and more.
This will be an open discussion workshop, so bring your own ideas and opinions and be ready to share them with us!
Magickal Offerings
One of the foundational practices of the most ancient forms of magick was the Ritual Offering. While this included the sacrifice of animals (and in some cases humans!) that certainly isn’t the whole story. Offerings were made in many fashions – from food to toys to tools and weapons, to incense and fire and much more. Such offerings were made to feed and empower the spirits and, in many cases, to provide the spirits with necessary tools to accomplish the magickal goals of the shamans who provided them.
Sadly, the art of the Ritual Offering was all but lost in the West after the rise of Judeo-Christiainity. Sacrifice and offerings were declared a form of devil-worship, and misrepresented as a method of “appeasing” angry and vengeful spirits who would otherwise harm the humans who invoked them. Even today’s modern occultists often hold to this erroneous idea.
This workshop will bust the myths about Ritual Offering, and explain its true meaning of magickal empowerment. We will cover how to properly make offerings to various classes of spirits and gods, along with the “do-nots” and “why?” behind the practice.
This will be an open discussion workshop, so bring your own ideas and opinions and be ready to share them with us!
Making and Enlivening Talismans
Quite often, when a modern occultist says the word “talisman”, he or she is talking about a piece of paper with symbols drawn upon it. But the art of Talismanic Magick is much broader than that! And the power of a talisman goes far beyond the inscription of the right names, properly colored inks and the recitation of the right prayers.
In the Old Magick, talismans were living beings in their own right. They were physical houses for spiritual entities who actively participated in the rituals with the magician. And they weren’t just jewelery or inscribed disks or scrolls – they were also the magickal tools, the robes and regalia, the furnishings of the temple and more. A true magician’s sacred working space is a thriving environment of spirits, angels and even gods who each play a vital role in the magick worked therein.
Likewise, magickal tools and furnishings are not merely “props” or objects we find convenient to use. Each and every physical object utilized by the magician is a living symbol of something greater – either a reflection of something in the outer universe that the magician wishes to “draw down” into his or her temple, or an embodiment of something deeply personal and powerful to the magician – or both.
In this workshop, we will discuss these aspects of talismanic magick. Plus, we will cover how to find and/or create your own talismans and “bring them to life” to work for you.
This will be an open discussion workshop, so bring your own ideas and opinions and be ready to share them with us!
I hope to see you there!
Zorge,
Aaron
Greetings Theurgists! (That is, Invokers of Angels and Gods)
I’m back from my trip to North Carolina, and getting caught up on my email, forums, blogs, etc, etc. During the catch-up process, I found that someone had posted an interesting question to my Solomonic forum. You can read it below, but in short it asks if there is really a difference between Pagan Gods and Angels, and how the answer to that might impact how one works with either. I felt you guys might find my answer of interest:
— In solomonic@yahoogroups.com, “Priest of Iset” wrote:
I was just re-reading “Secrets of the Magickal Grimoires” to brush up on some basic skills and came across a statement in the book that I didn’t really pay attention to during my first reading and I was wondering if someone could elaborate a little more on this. Here is the page number and chapter. Ch.8 pg.241. It says, quote: “Theurgy literally means to ‘work with gods’, who are technically one and the same with angels.”
Upon reading this I was a little confused; does this mean that angels and gods are in the same hierarchy or does it mean that their functions and offices are the same. If either is correct, does this mean that you can build relationships with gods and goddesses in place of angels and get the same benefit? I am very open to opinions and interpretations.
Greetings!
Yes, Angels and Gods are essentially the same species of creature. “Angel” simply means “Messenger”, and they represent the same class of beings that were messengers, servitors, viziers, etc to ruling Gods in pagan pantheons. [I also should have added: Even in the Old Testament the angels were referred to as the “Sons of God”, which mirrors other groups of Pagan Gods who were considered the “Sons of” or “Children of” a particular ruling Deity.]
Historically, many Angels descend directly from Gods. Michael (or more archaically: Mikhal) was an epithet of the Canaanite God of War and Plague Reshef. Reshef, in turn, migrated to Palestine from Mesopotamia, where we find him named Nergal – Lord of the Underworld and God of War and Plague.
Raphael has close connections to Hermes and Mercury. In their most ancient forms, Hermes and Mercury were closely associated with the underworld and sickness – and were therefore appealed to for healing. The occult symbolism of Raphael is undoubtedly Mercurial, but he is in fact the Healer of God.
In the Celtic lands, where the old Catholic Church was relatively “kinder and gentler” than it was in Europe, a great number of local Pagan deities became Saints and Archangels. Often, churches were built right on top of existing holy sites, and folks just went right on worshiping the God or Goddess (now called “Saint Whoever”) connected to that site.
Grab a copy of Gustav Davidson’s “A Dictionary of Angels” and read through the entries. You will quickly see how many Angels can be traced to older pagan deities.
Also, in practice, the methods of working with an Angel are no different than those for working with a God. Enter any Catholic or Orthodox Church in the world, and you will see several beautiful examples of altars to Saints (who include such as St. Michael, St. Raphael, St. Gabriel, etc). Those altars – that is the manner of making them – date back to altars for such deities as Zeus, Hermes, Aphrodite, Isis, Osiris, Ammon, etc, etc, etc.
Likewise, the folk methods by which families set up household shrines to Saints and Archangels date right back to ancient methods by which household shrines were established for local Gods.
Along those same lines, the methods of working with Angels in the Solomonic tradition can be traced back (in part) to the methods used by the ancient Sabians to invoke Gods like Marduk, Sin, Ishtar, Nebo, Shamash, etc. Their methods were the basis of the Arabic Picatrix, which in turn became foundational to the European grimoire tradition.
And speaking of foundations of the grimoire tradition, the Greek Magical Papyri are another great example. Those spells are chock full of invocations to various Egyptian Gods, whose format were then adopted by the Solomonic mages to invoke their Angels and Archangels.
In the Medieval and Renaissance times, it was not uncommon for magickal literature to mention “the God Michael” or “the God Gabriel” right along side of “the God Hermes” and “the God Helios”, etc. I believe you can read more about this (with quoted examples, of course) in “The Golden Dawn Journal: Book II.” I’ll have to find the name of the exact essay.
[Another important point to add here: the Judeo-Christiain hierarchies of Angels include the “Elohim” or “Dominations” – who were regarded as composed of the National Gods of all nations – basically suggesting that *all* Pagan Gods were in fact Archangels and Angels all along. On the other side of the same coin, many branches of Christianity believe that all Pagan Gods were/are in fact fallen Angels. As an example of the latter, look at the Goetia. There we find 72 “fallen angels”, many of whom trace back to Pagan Gods.]
So, as you can see, there is a pretty smooth transition in history from “God” to “Angel” – but they are essentially the same creature. The concept that they are somehow different is attached entirely to the erroneous concept that Judeo-Christianity is somehow “original” and “different” from the religions that preceded them. It is equally attached to the fallacy that Judaism, Christianity and Islam are “monotheistic.” All complete bullocks, of course. 🙂
LVX
Aaron
Aug 19, 2010
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/solomonic/message/11777
— In solomonic@yahoogroups.com, “kathy” .. wrote:
> This distinctly reminds me of something I am sure Aaron has written
>somewhere but I cant seem to find it anywhere to quote (have looked
>a few times for it in the past) about “magic happens in the space
>between minds”.
I’ll have to look to be sure, but I’m nearly certain that is in chapter 3 of “Secrets…”
For those tuning in: This is based on the observation that personality is *not* something that resides within yourself. Instead, personality exists between yourself and someone else – literally within the matrix that forms between two minds when they interact. This is why you are a different “person” when talking to your boss than when talking to your kids, or talking to your wife, or talking to a friend, etc. (Daddy, Mr. Jones, Honey and Jonesy are all distinctly different people living in the same head. We all have multiple personalities. Someone with MPD simply has unnatrual breaks between each one.)
A second observation about human psychology is our natural tendancy to anthropomorphize nearly anything and everything. Cars, boats, buildings, appliances, toys, etc, etc, (even concepts) – we can assign a personality to anything at all. Everything has its own quirks and idiosyncrasies, which we humans recognize as personality. This leads us to interact with even inanimate objects as if they were alive- which also means we have distinct personalities even for interacting with objects/concepts.
I think these two things are what make magick possible – especially spirit communication. They say “every blade of grass has an Angel over it bidding it, ‘Grow.'” And it is our ability to interact with literally anything that allows us to communicate with those Angels (or spirits). We form that matrix between ourselves and another- animate or inanimate, incarnate or discarnate- and that allows us to interact with it on an extra-physical level.
LVX
Aaron
Mar 13, 2007
Greetings Students of Esoterica!
Over the years, and especially as an author myself, I’ve learned to recognize a particular pattern in some others’ writing that can serve as a “red flag” about what they have to say. I like to share this with students who feel overwhelmed by the masses of information (and misinformation) out there.
The pattern is pretty simple:
1) The author begins by alerting you to the fact that everyone else who publishes on the subject at hand is wrong.
2) The author then begins to explain *why* everyone but himself is wrong- more often than not having something to do with the personal character flaws of other authors, rather than the ideas they have actually published.
3) The author will then go on to explain exactly why he is correct, and why he is the *only* one who is correct. Most often, the author will portray the same character flaws in this section as he decried in section 2.
Sometimes the author might go on from there to provide something of value. Such as Lisiewski’s “Ceremonial Magic…” – which falls prey to the above pattern in the first half, but then provides a worthwhile outline of the Heptameron Rite in the second half. Most often, though, once you see an author resort to the above pattern, the likelihood of their presenting anything worthwhile drops dramatically.
Of course, I don’t mean that *every* author who complains about the bad scholarship in his field is a fraud! But, you can certainly look at the bulk of a person’s work and see if that pattern is a trend throughout. When I wrote my first essays, I began to fall prey to it myself! That is, until I realized that better authors didn’t waste precious word-space bitching about why everyone else is wrong. They just present their ideas and let them stand on their own. ( I believe my own writing improved a thousand percent after that realization.)
So, students, now you have that secret under your belt. 🙂 If you’re reading a book on occultism, or a website about the Golden Dawn, or even some wacky internet post, all you have to do is ask yourself: “Does this guy (or group, etc) believe his ideas can stand on their own? Or does he first have to try and knock everyone else down before he has the courage to present his own work?” The answer to that question can save you a LOT of wasted reading time… 🙂
LVX
Aaron
Ananael (The Secrets of Wisdom) 