Today, one of my Facebook friends was rather annoyed that someone called her a lazy magician because she was using substitutions. From the sounds of it, the person saying this either did not understand the system in question, or they never worked a spell in their entire life. My money is on both options. My friend is a working magician actually doing the work.
I wonder what their accuser would say about the substitution that I use all the time: Magical (Mystic) East.
For those who do not work lodge, which is probably most people, Magical East is used when you are using a meeting room that is just not oriented right for ritual purposes. Like for instance, the current ritual space that the Golden Dawn lodge I belong to uses. It is shorter on the east/west axis than it is on the north/south axis. The east/west axis of the room is so short that I cannot imagine doing a Zelator (1=10) initiation in the room without using Magical East.
(Pop quiz: Did you notice when I spelled the directions with lower case letters as opposed to upper case?)
Most people in Golden Dawn know the concept of Magical East (if they know it at all) from the works of Pat Zalewski. In particular, one of his Z-5 books. From that one could argue that it is not traditionally Golden Dawn, but rather something that came out of Whare Ra.
That conclusion would be so wrong. One of the things I discovered from doing research in lodgekit, Freemasonry, and the various other Orders around the turn of the twentieth century is that the concept of Magical East (or Mystical East as it is generally called outside of Golden Dawn) is that it was part of standard lodgekit among the various Orders.
For most Orders, Mystic East is merely a symbolic thing. In Golden Dawn, it is something more.
According to Pat Zalewski, at the start of a lodge meeting where Magical East is being used, the Hierophant says the following prayer:
Creator of the Universe, Lord of the Visible World, who hast by Thy Supreme Will set limits to its magnitude and conferred special attributes on its boundaries, we invoke Thee to grant that whatever hidden and mystic virtue resides in the radiant East---dayspring of Light---the orgin of Life---may in answer to this our prayer be this day conferred upon the Throne of the Hierophant of this Temple, who is the emblem of the Dawning of that Golden light which shall illuminate the Path of the Unknown and shall guide us at length to the attainment of the Quintessance, the Stone of the Wise, True Wisdom and Perfect Happiness.
There is a disadvantage to using Magical East for years and years; after awhile, that direction is the direction that you point to first when someone asks what direction east is in...if you treat East as a secret, you will actually not open your mouth until you actually figure out where you are, allowing you to point in the right direction.
There is also an advantage to using Magical East for years and years; when people start talking about certain rituals being elemental and directional in nature, you can spot the flaw in their logic---after all, your rituals work just fine and you are not doing it perfectly by the book. This insight carries over to allowing you to question some of the other requirements that some people claim spells and rituals need. It also allows you to see that maps do not automatically have north at the top of the page.
And if you feel like accusing me of the heresy of being lazy, you know where the comment section is.
Tuesday, March 23, 2010
Monday, March 22, 2010
Hebrew letters look like this
According to The Chicken Qabalah of Rabbi Lamed Ben Clifford (Lon Milo DuQuette), the Hebrew letters look like this:
Aleph doesn't look like any other Hebrew letter and is therefore easy to recognize. It has one long diagonal bar that looks like a banana separating two small Yods. Thw Yod at the top right is connected to the banana at the midpoint by a thin line (a Yod on a stick). The Yod at the bottom left is flattened at the bottom like a foot and is connected to the banana underneath its left shoulder.
Teth looks like the profile of a duck swimming on the water looking back at a big Yod that's stuck to the tip of its tail.
Yod is a flame.
Lamed looks like a snake that has swallowed a brick and is now having second thoughts.
Mem---if we are still looking at a duck swimming on the water, the duck has reached back with its bill and has pulled its tail completely off.
Nun Final looks like that little mirror on a stick that the dentist sticks in your mouth.
Ayin is very distinctive. It is built upon a bold right-leaning diagonal banana. There is one Yod connected to the top of the banana, and a Zain [sword] stabs the banana's top mid-section. It looks very much like an English lower case "y."
Peh is exactly like a Kaph, only it sports a distinctive tongue that dangles from the roof of its mouth.
Tzaddi looks like a man with a huge pompadour haircut kneeling forward. He has just been stabbed in the back with a Yod on a stick.
Qoph is quite unique. It is very similar to an English capital P with none of its components touching. It also looks like a left-facing profile of Elvis Presley with really long eyebrows drooping down past his chin.
Tau [Tav] looks like a Resh holding a dead dolphin by the tail.
If you do not believe the Rabbi, pull out your Hebrew alphabet cheat sheet and look again.
Aleph doesn't look like any other Hebrew letter and is therefore easy to recognize. It has one long diagonal bar that looks like a banana separating two small Yods. Thw Yod at the top right is connected to the banana at the midpoint by a thin line (a Yod on a stick). The Yod at the bottom left is flattened at the bottom like a foot and is connected to the banana underneath its left shoulder.
Teth looks like the profile of a duck swimming on the water looking back at a big Yod that's stuck to the tip of its tail.
Yod is a flame.
Lamed looks like a snake that has swallowed a brick and is now having second thoughts.
Mem---if we are still looking at a duck swimming on the water, the duck has reached back with its bill and has pulled its tail completely off.
Nun Final looks like that little mirror on a stick that the dentist sticks in your mouth.
Ayin is very distinctive. It is built upon a bold right-leaning diagonal banana. There is one Yod connected to the top of the banana, and a Zain [sword] stabs the banana's top mid-section. It looks very much like an English lower case "y."
Peh is exactly like a Kaph, only it sports a distinctive tongue that dangles from the roof of its mouth.
Tzaddi looks like a man with a huge pompadour haircut kneeling forward. He has just been stabbed in the back with a Yod on a stick.
Qoph is quite unique. It is very similar to an English capital P with none of its components touching. It also looks like a left-facing profile of Elvis Presley with really long eyebrows drooping down past his chin.
Tau [Tav] looks like a Resh holding a dead dolphin by the tail.
If you do not believe the Rabbi, pull out your Hebrew alphabet cheat sheet and look again.
Saturday, March 20, 2010
Hearthstone Community Church OFM newsletter articles by Me!
Today, I had someone else inquire if the articles that I have been writing for the Hearthstone newsletter were online. This has been a regular occurrence since I started writing articles for the newsletter starting in January. It has been a slight dilemma for me...mainly because I am a working writer.
My original plan for the series of articles that I am writing was to bundle them together at the end of this year into a single pdf, and use them as part of my advertising kit next year. This idea came out of the pro-blogging community. Basically, you take some of your best posts and articles, lace them with links leading back to your site, and let it free out into the internet. I thought it was a good idea for helping build a following for my own writing...someday, I would like to make a living wage as a writer.
Because of this, I was caught off guard by the first request for the articles to be posted online. It happened on one of the Yahoo groups. Basically, I dropped back behind the "I am not sure if shameless self-promotion is allowed on this group" defense. That was partially the truth...I am still not sure if it is completely legit or not.
Since then, the dilemma has been nipping at the edges of my consciousness. Today, when yet another friend asked if the newsletter was online, I had a few minutes to think about it and actual time to follow though once I decided what to do.
One idea was to simply put them up on Associated Content. That is what I am doing with the astrology articles (and anything else) that I am writing for Campus Connection, the student newspaper of the Community College of Denver. Unfortunately, with the new format that AC recently put into play, putting up a set of related articles requires some twiddling around as the newer ones are finished; it is either twindle ar hope that the readers can figure out the search function to find the rest of the set.
And this is definitely a set of related articles, the first three all have something to do with positive affirmations in a ritual and day-to-day life. The second article also has something to do with the practical uses of secrecy, which is going to tie into the next set. All this is leading up to what I am doing at the June Open Full Moon Ritual.
In the end, I decided to do a temporary archive of the articles that I am writing on the Bast Temple website. It will make it easier for people to find the articles in the same set; it will help the lodge's page ranking (or I hope it will); and make sure that I am updating the website at least once a month.
Of course, the term "temporary" is a relative term. I decided that I am going to leave up the January 2010 article up until February 2011, when it will be replaced with the article from the January 2011 newsletter. The same pattern will apply to the rest of the months. At the moment, I only have January and February 2010 articles up. I do not plan to put up March's article until I am approaching the deadline for April's newsletter. This is how I am doing it with Campus Connection; when the new issue goes live (hits the stands), I invoke my reprint rights.
(The only exceptation I might make is the article for June, which will be heavily related to the OFM ritual that I am leading.)
Webmasters will spot the advantage to archiving it by the month, rather than by the month and the year...yes, I am lazy and am going to recycle the page addresses as I go along. Plus, by rotating the content (and limiting the amount of duplication), I am hoping to recieve some of that Google Love.
Anyways, if you are curious to read the first article in the set, it is The Use of Positive Statements in Ritual. The link for the second article is hopefully findable in the sidebar...if I am wrong about how easy it is to find the second link, please feel free to complain in the comment section.
My original plan for the series of articles that I am writing was to bundle them together at the end of this year into a single pdf, and use them as part of my advertising kit next year. This idea came out of the pro-blogging community. Basically, you take some of your best posts and articles, lace them with links leading back to your site, and let it free out into the internet. I thought it was a good idea for helping build a following for my own writing...someday, I would like to make a living wage as a writer.
Because of this, I was caught off guard by the first request for the articles to be posted online. It happened on one of the Yahoo groups. Basically, I dropped back behind the "I am not sure if shameless self-promotion is allowed on this group" defense. That was partially the truth...I am still not sure if it is completely legit or not.
Since then, the dilemma has been nipping at the edges of my consciousness. Today, when yet another friend asked if the newsletter was online, I had a few minutes to think about it and actual time to follow though once I decided what to do.
One idea was to simply put them up on Associated Content. That is what I am doing with the astrology articles (and anything else) that I am writing for Campus Connection, the student newspaper of the Community College of Denver. Unfortunately, with the new format that AC recently put into play, putting up a set of related articles requires some twiddling around as the newer ones are finished; it is either twindle ar hope that the readers can figure out the search function to find the rest of the set.
And this is definitely a set of related articles, the first three all have something to do with positive affirmations in a ritual and day-to-day life. The second article also has something to do with the practical uses of secrecy, which is going to tie into the next set. All this is leading up to what I am doing at the June Open Full Moon Ritual.
In the end, I decided to do a temporary archive of the articles that I am writing on the Bast Temple website. It will make it easier for people to find the articles in the same set; it will help the lodge's page ranking (or I hope it will); and make sure that I am updating the website at least once a month.
Of course, the term "temporary" is a relative term. I decided that I am going to leave up the January 2010 article up until February 2011, when it will be replaced with the article from the January 2011 newsletter. The same pattern will apply to the rest of the months. At the moment, I only have January and February 2010 articles up. I do not plan to put up March's article until I am approaching the deadline for April's newsletter. This is how I am doing it with Campus Connection; when the new issue goes live (hits the stands), I invoke my reprint rights.
(The only exceptation I might make is the article for June, which will be heavily related to the OFM ritual that I am leading.)
Webmasters will spot the advantage to archiving it by the month, rather than by the month and the year...yes, I am lazy and am going to recycle the page addresses as I go along. Plus, by rotating the content (and limiting the amount of duplication), I am hoping to recieve some of that Google Love.
Anyways, if you are curious to read the first article in the set, it is The Use of Positive Statements in Ritual. The link for the second article is hopefully findable in the sidebar...if I am wrong about how easy it is to find the second link, please feel free to complain in the comment section.
Hearthstone Community Church Open Full Moons
Hearthstone Community Church
Open Full Moon Dates
for 2010
March 26
April 23
May 21
June 25
July 23
August 20
September 17
October 22
November 19
December 17
Meets at the First Unitarian Church
at 14th and Lafayette, Denver Colorado
Doors open at 7 pm.
Ritual starts at 7:30 pm.
Tuesday, March 16, 2010
Fencesitting on Lineage
I am a fencesitter. Often, I can see both sides of an issue, and honestly could care less if one side earns a victory over another. One of the issues that I am a fencesitter about is the subject of lineage and how important it is. This annoys a lot of people.
It does not help that the first question out of my mouth when the subject comes up is: What type of lineage? For some reason, people get annoyed when they are asked to define how they are using the term. My bad childhood and Order background automatically makes me suspect that their definition is a fuzzy one designed to change as rapidly as necessary to defeat all attempts to prove their arguments wrong.
My bad childhood and Order background also kicks in because often people who argue about its importance (or lack thereof) are trying to prove one of two things. Either they are trying to prove that their lineage is better than mine (and that I should listen and obey them without thinking) or they are trying to prove that lineage is completely unimportant and that their brand of wacky is Golden Dawn (and that I should listen and obey them without thinking). Both situations bring out the evil in me---typically in the form of insubordinate laughter.
At this point, both sides of the lineage argument are going to toss bricks at me. Hopefully they are gold bricks with a lemon peel wrapped around them.
So why is it that someone with my experience can still sit on the fence on the importance of lineage? Simple, I do not think that either side has proven their case.
On the lineage is everything side (slight poofing of the stance), one of their claims is that lineage produces better lodges and Orders. This case falls apart when I think about the wreckage I have seen scattered in the wake of those who shouted that they should lead because their lineage was the best. Lineage often is nothing more than an excuse to abuse the members of an Order. And curiously enough, there are times when the person who did the damage had a better lineage than I did.
On the lineage is nothing side (slight poofing of the stance), one of their claims is that having a lineage teaches you nothing about running a lodge, and that any set of symbols used in conjunction with lodgekit can produce an usable esoteric lodge. Furthermore, they claim that in the case of Golden Dawn, the backbone of lineage was broken years ago and is often just a tool for abusing the members of the system. Ironically, this side also has its fair share of wreckage. This side's argument falls apart whenever I notice the wacky ideas that they want me to swallow.
For the record, I have worked with groups with lineage and groups without lineage. And I have experienced rituals with power on both sides...and rituals that had no oomph on both sides.
Ultimately for myself, I know that lineage is not important for a new lodge or Order to form...I have worked with some groups which system was made up the day before they started working as a lodge. I also had the experience of having gone though a ritual and understanding things that I never understood before that were not touched upon during the ritual; but given the lineage claimed, made perfect sense that the initiatory lineage claimed would impart such knowledge (aka "healing a lineage"), along with the additional power my own rituals suddenly had.
Ultimately, I can sit on the fence on this issue because both sides are right, and both sides tend to misuse the argument for their own dubious purposes. Lineage is a tool, and not the end-all of esoteric Orders. Lineage is only important for the working magician if they know how to tap into its power; otherwise they are probably better off without any (this goes for all three types).
It does not help that the first question out of my mouth when the subject comes up is: What type of lineage? For some reason, people get annoyed when they are asked to define how they are using the term. My bad childhood and Order background automatically makes me suspect that their definition is a fuzzy one designed to change as rapidly as necessary to defeat all attempts to prove their arguments wrong.
My bad childhood and Order background also kicks in because often people who argue about its importance (or lack thereof) are trying to prove one of two things. Either they are trying to prove that their lineage is better than mine (and that I should listen and obey them without thinking) or they are trying to prove that lineage is completely unimportant and that their brand of wacky is Golden Dawn (and that I should listen and obey them without thinking). Both situations bring out the evil in me---typically in the form of insubordinate laughter.
At this point, both sides of the lineage argument are going to toss bricks at me. Hopefully they are gold bricks with a lemon peel wrapped around them.
So why is it that someone with my experience can still sit on the fence on the importance of lineage? Simple, I do not think that either side has proven their case.
On the lineage is everything side (slight poofing of the stance), one of their claims is that lineage produces better lodges and Orders. This case falls apart when I think about the wreckage I have seen scattered in the wake of those who shouted that they should lead because their lineage was the best. Lineage often is nothing more than an excuse to abuse the members of an Order. And curiously enough, there are times when the person who did the damage had a better lineage than I did.
On the lineage is nothing side (slight poofing of the stance), one of their claims is that having a lineage teaches you nothing about running a lodge, and that any set of symbols used in conjunction with lodgekit can produce an usable esoteric lodge. Furthermore, they claim that in the case of Golden Dawn, the backbone of lineage was broken years ago and is often just a tool for abusing the members of the system. Ironically, this side also has its fair share of wreckage. This side's argument falls apart whenever I notice the wacky ideas that they want me to swallow.
For the record, I have worked with groups with lineage and groups without lineage. And I have experienced rituals with power on both sides...and rituals that had no oomph on both sides.
Ultimately for myself, I know that lineage is not important for a new lodge or Order to form...I have worked with some groups which system was made up the day before they started working as a lodge. I also had the experience of having gone though a ritual and understanding things that I never understood before that were not touched upon during the ritual; but given the lineage claimed, made perfect sense that the initiatory lineage claimed would impart such knowledge (aka "healing a lineage"), along with the additional power my own rituals suddenly had.
Ultimately, I can sit on the fence on this issue because both sides are right, and both sides tend to misuse the argument for their own dubious purposes. Lineage is a tool, and not the end-all of esoteric Orders. Lineage is only important for the working magician if they know how to tap into its power; otherwise they are probably better off without any (this goes for all three types).
Monday, March 15, 2010
A blessing for a computer
Blessings on this fine machine,
May its data all be clean.
Let the files stay where they're put,
Away from disk drives keep all soot.
From its screen shall come no whines,
Let in no spikes on power lines.
As oaks were sacred to the Druids,
Let not the keyboard suffer fluids.
Disk Full shall be nor more than rarity,
The memory shall not miss its parity.
From the modem shall come wonders,
Without line noise making blunders.
May it never catch a virus,
And all its software stay desirous.
Oh let the printer never jam,
And turn my output into spam.
I ask of Eris, noble queen,
Keep Murphy far from this machine.
Zhahai Stewart, 1988
May its data all be clean.
Let the files stay where they're put,
Away from disk drives keep all soot.
From its screen shall come no whines,
Let in no spikes on power lines.
As oaks were sacred to the Druids,
Let not the keyboard suffer fluids.
Disk Full shall be nor more than rarity,
The memory shall not miss its parity.
From the modem shall come wonders,
Without line noise making blunders.
May it never catch a virus,
And all its software stay desirous.
Oh let the printer never jam,
And turn my output into spam.
I ask of Eris, noble queen,
Keep Murphy far from this machine.
Zhahai Stewart, 1988
Saturday, March 13, 2010
Were Mathers and Westcott initiates of the Golden Dawn?
Were Samuel Macgregor Mathers and William Wynn Westcott actually initiates of the Hermetic Golden Dawn? At first glance, this question seems clear cut, and perhaps a little stupid. But then again, I cruise in that back corner were the clearer a question appears, the more you need to reexamine the issue to figure out what it really going on.
This particular question came about because of VH Frater SR's comment to one of my previous blog posts where I was wondering exactly who was denying the connection between Golden Dawn and Freemasonry. Once I heard his response, I realized that I am one of the people he is talking about denying the connection.
Because I do not force people to join Freemasonry, and point out that they are two different Orders, I am helping deny the connection and worth of Freemasonry. *sigh* I should have known that I was one of the deniers.
For the record, I believe that Freemasonry is valuable resource for some people. But given the fact that most of the people I know only have time to be active in one Order, and they tend to be interested in the occult, I tend to emphasize Golden Dawn over Freemasonry. I also belong to an Order with female members, therefore emphasizing Freemasonry tends to put them in a bad position (almost a second-class position if you ask me).
Also because I consider Golden Dawn starting in 1888, and having no previous lineage that has the right of rulership over the modern Golden Dawn, I am helping deny the connection. *sigh* As I said, I should have realized that I was guilty.
For the record: Yes, Westcott and Mathers were Master Masons. In Westcott's case, he was a member of a lot of Orders (not as many as Waite, but close). Yes, we have to say that part of their personal lineage comes from Freemasonry. But I am not sure that we can claim that any of their authority to rule Golden Dawn came from that particular direction. Today, we tend to think of Freemasonry as the Mother of all Orders. Perhaps it is.
Then again, I am one of the orphans who have serious doubts about the worth of an unbroken lineage. Of course, that may just because I have encountered a few people who considered their lineage better than mine, therefore they thought that they were more fit to rule than the people I answered to. I have seen the utter messes that these lineage pounders have made of their groups. Extinct groups abound that were built on the claim of lineage.
Heck, if I wanted to play that game, I could claim that part of my lineage traces though the EOEW. I could claim that based on the symbolism of the "RED" degree that I have been exposed to the Adeptus Major Grade energies...but I don't. Why? Because they are different systems.
I am sorry, but I do not buy into the idea that because Westcott and Mathers were initiates of Freemasonry, or SRIA, or fill-in-the-blank Order that they were initiates of Golden Dawn. If it doesn't work for me to shore up my lineage, it should not work for them either.
As for them being physical initiates of Golden Dawn, my answer is: No, they were not. I do not buy into the theory that they were astral initates or self-initiates either. And ultimately, it does not matter that they were not.
Mathers and Westcott had gone though lodgekit bootcamp. They had a ton of lodge experience. They knew the symbolism contained in the Cipher Manuscript. And most importantly, Golden Dawn had no lineage predating 1888. Isis-Urania was the first Golden Dawn lodge. The Golden Dawn rituals were never worked before they started to work them.
Westcott, Mathers, and Woodman did not need a lineage to open up the energies of Golden Dawn. They were the elders of the tradition; they were the ones that laid the foundation of the system. They were the ones who built the door to the system and installed the locks. It is the rest of us that follow them that need a key to open the door to the system. Fortunately, for most of us, they were not the ones who drew up the initial blueprint of the Order (the Cipher Manuscript), otherwise most of us would be stuck outside freezing.
This particular question came about because of VH Frater SR's comment to one of my previous blog posts where I was wondering exactly who was denying the connection between Golden Dawn and Freemasonry. Once I heard his response, I realized that I am one of the people he is talking about denying the connection.
Because I do not force people to join Freemasonry, and point out that they are two different Orders, I am helping deny the connection and worth of Freemasonry. *sigh* I should have known that I was one of the deniers.
For the record, I believe that Freemasonry is valuable resource for some people. But given the fact that most of the people I know only have time to be active in one Order, and they tend to be interested in the occult, I tend to emphasize Golden Dawn over Freemasonry. I also belong to an Order with female members, therefore emphasizing Freemasonry tends to put them in a bad position (almost a second-class position if you ask me).
Also because I consider Golden Dawn starting in 1888, and having no previous lineage that has the right of rulership over the modern Golden Dawn, I am helping deny the connection. *sigh* As I said, I should have realized that I was guilty.
For the record: Yes, Westcott and Mathers were Master Masons. In Westcott's case, he was a member of a lot of Orders (not as many as Waite, but close). Yes, we have to say that part of their personal lineage comes from Freemasonry. But I am not sure that we can claim that any of their authority to rule Golden Dawn came from that particular direction. Today, we tend to think of Freemasonry as the Mother of all Orders. Perhaps it is.
Then again, I am one of the orphans who have serious doubts about the worth of an unbroken lineage. Of course, that may just because I have encountered a few people who considered their lineage better than mine, therefore they thought that they were more fit to rule than the people I answered to. I have seen the utter messes that these lineage pounders have made of their groups. Extinct groups abound that were built on the claim of lineage.
Heck, if I wanted to play that game, I could claim that part of my lineage traces though the EOEW. I could claim that based on the symbolism of the "RED" degree that I have been exposed to the Adeptus Major Grade energies...but I don't. Why? Because they are different systems.
I am sorry, but I do not buy into the idea that because Westcott and Mathers were initiates of Freemasonry, or SRIA, or fill-in-the-blank Order that they were initiates of Golden Dawn. If it doesn't work for me to shore up my lineage, it should not work for them either.
As for them being physical initiates of Golden Dawn, my answer is: No, they were not. I do not buy into the theory that they were astral initates or self-initiates either. And ultimately, it does not matter that they were not.
Mathers and Westcott had gone though lodgekit bootcamp. They had a ton of lodge experience. They knew the symbolism contained in the Cipher Manuscript. And most importantly, Golden Dawn had no lineage predating 1888. Isis-Urania was the first Golden Dawn lodge. The Golden Dawn rituals were never worked before they started to work them.
Westcott, Mathers, and Woodman did not need a lineage to open up the energies of Golden Dawn. They were the elders of the tradition; they were the ones that laid the foundation of the system. They were the ones who built the door to the system and installed the locks. It is the rest of us that follow them that need a key to open the door to the system. Fortunately, for most of us, they were not the ones who drew up the initial blueprint of the Order (the Cipher Manuscript), otherwise most of us would be stuck outside freezing.
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