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If anyone happens to own this book and would be willing to answer a few questions and possibly share a particular ritual I am looking for from that book, please contact me.
Thank you.
Alchemy at it’s simplest.
I have started draining my tinctures and burning the herbs. Boy, those suckers are harder to burn down than I figured. I’ve had to introduce high grade alcohol to get them to continue burning. The 500 degree oven doesn’t seem to do much either, 3 hours later the ashes still aren’t quite white like I think they are supposed to get.
I did find that after burning down most of the way, if I ground the “chunks” of carbon down it did go faster. I’m still not at the white phase though. Grrrrr. Anyone have any advice?
I also wonder if I’ve made a faux pas in the burning. I strained the herbs using a coffee filter, not a metal strainer as advised but then (not thinking) I put them in my cauldron to burn them safely. The cauldron is metal. I’ve read burn them in a glass baking dish but I’m pretty leary about that. I’ve had glass pans shatter on me before and am much more comfortable with the blaze in a metal container.
[rant alert]
Ok, I bet this post is NOT what you think from the title. You will not find a discussion of wands, pentacles, daggers or chalices here. You can’t find THIS definition of tool in Merriam-Webster but it is a common slang term.
The kinds of tools I’m talking about are similar to the kind featured in VH1’s show “Tool Academy” only these tools are magicians. Maybe there should be an academy for inflated egos and magicians who look down on anyone who they don’t feel is on their level. Over and over I have run into this kind of practitioner.
Example one: Fairly new book published by Tool #1, so far some good things said online about it. Well questions arose over the curriculum and Tool #1 was messaged about it. Best to go to the source, right? This guy must want to help people learn since he wrote a “how to” book. I mean, he wants to make money off his book, and I’m a customer, right?
Tool#1 basically states that if you want to not follow HIS way and not follow what path he [claims] is the only serious and worth while one, that maybe one might want to look into something like Wicca or “The Secret” that treats practical magick as a “simple, easy affair”. He goes on to say one should “not participate in the New Age fluff that friends are involved in”.
I mean how condescending can you get? Does he know those friends? Maybe the goal wasn’t completely the intended one of his book topic but he has good information and before running off half cocked one wanted some clarification/advice/whatever from the author? He knows no one’s destiny, maybe it is to go quicker than others before. Maybe one has had other training before and is not a “fluff”. I found his response rude and judgmental. He’s lucky I don’t spread the word of his cocky attitude across the inter-web and impact his book sales. (Well, at least by not naming him I am already showing better character.)
I have found that many magicians who claim to seek the great work have HUGELY inflated egos and a lack of decorum. There is no way that one’s true will means stepping on those who haven’t learned as much as you, because that would indicate a conflict and either the neophyte or the experienced mage would have dropped the golden thread for that to occur. Maybe the great work is about becoming a tool, since so many to have accomplished crossing the abyss have fire wands up their arses. If that’s the case I’d rather find my own way blind.
{edit}
I wanted to add, after reading this, that I have met and conversed with some WONDERFUL people who really knew their stuff and were helpful and friendly. These practitioners ranged from Thelemites to Druids. I have even e-mailed Lon Milo Duquette who is a well known author, Taylor Ellwood of “Creating Magickal Entities” fame, and a hopeful future author in S.M. Stenwick whom I will advise others to read when the time comes. All these people responded in kind and had better manners than Tool #1.
Tonight it was brought to my attention that there are colleges that have free online course information. By information, I mean the assignments and readings that someone who took the course had.
Browsing around the Massachusetts Institute of Technology site, I came across a course in the Anthropology Dept that was taught in the Fall of 2003.
“Magic, Witchcraft, and the Spirit World” shows a complete reading list and assignments. More info can be found by clicking on the bar on the left of that site. For an interesting historical trip into the study of possession, snake handlers, witch hunts and more, take a look and maybe embark on your own personal independant study class.
You might also be interested in the “Myth, Ritual, and Symbolism” information.
Following the new moon, I am working on qabalistic planetary tinctures.
I am gathering the corresponding number of herbs and/or stones that I might have on hand for each sephera and creating on the correct hour and day. According to my research, they have to sit for a minimum of 2 weeks. I’m playing around with the idea of somehow working more correspondance in there somehow but I might just stick with 28 days-the moon cycle for all of them.
Most tinctures, according to information that I am getting from others, are usually one herb and made to consume in water or wine. Mine (at least these I’m currently working on) will NOT be able to be ingested. Having to work with what I have on hand, not all the herbs I’m adding are non-toxic so these tinctures will be used in anointing objects, creating magickal inks, and any other way I can figure out to boost workings and meditations.
Now that I have begun and put more thought into it, I will start a few consumable ones. I’ll use those as I do personal work through the Qabalistic spheres, attuning vibrationally to each planet and seeing how each affects my work. I KNOW I’m going to start with a solar one.
I have noticed, in my study of all things magickal, that there is more to this “circle” thing. What I mean is that I’ll find a topic/subject/resource that either doesn’t really interest me, or that I just don’t get and so I move past it and on to other things. I always find that whatever trail I end up taking, it brings me back around to those topics/subjects/resources that I avoided before.
A perfect example is the QBLH. Although I have picked up some general knowledge here and there, the depths were just to deep to fathom and I swam on. Now, a wall I face in progressing and better understanding the Ceremonial Work I want to do is a lack of knowing the QBLH. So, Back to some basics I go, to reinforce things I learned but lackadaisically performed and to learn and understand better, deeper, more fully the nature of the universe and my place in it.
As many Pagans do, I belong to a couple of internet groups to learn, teach, share and socialize with others. In one of these Yahoo groups the opportunity came up for me to ask about the belief that you should not “send energy” to someone when they themselves have not asked for it.
I had heard about the oath of some traditions where it is unethical and I wondered how strict is this taken by most. I would consider someone telling me “so and so’s mother fell down the stairs” and my reply being “Oh, no, I hope she is alright and gets better soon” as sending out that positive energy (even if not “officially” or ritually). Was it perceived differently by those traditions and if so, how? I personally didn’t see harm in sending positive energy and best wishes to someone, in that capacity anyway, since I’m not really into seriously projecting “healing” energies out to strangers. I’ve wondered about this for a while.
I fully expected very little in response, however, “Gaia” surprised me with an answer that spoke to my own thoughts and LHP beliefs. With permission I post the wonderful insightful response:
I am an initiate of a Gardnerian-lineaged path, and I take the ethics very seriously; in fact I think ethics are perhaps the most (or one of the most) important aspects of the religion of Wicca.
It may seem to be a bit silly or even obnoxious to withhold such
good wishes or help to someone who appears in need, but there really are some good reasons.One of the those is because we can never know what challenges, trials, etc others may have set or created for themselves in life (before entering this life) to learn various lessons, fulfill certain Karma, or whatever –so sending them any “energy” to heal, solve, correct, or make easier those challenges, WITHOUT their permission, may just disrupt whatever they intended those experiences to do for them, in the long run.
I consider that very important. So even though we may have tremendous compassion and the very best “wishes” for someone, we may be loathe to disrupt or interfere with whatever challenges they have set for themselves — at least without their direct permission.
I hope that helps explain, a little –
Blessings –
~Gaia
That, I suppose like many moral ideals by people from all faiths, must be a hard line to stick to sometimes. I don’t know how I could refuse something for a sick child or general wishes for the best in a situation causing someone I know anguish. Example: John Travolta’s tragic loss of his son. My heart is torn apart over situations like that and maybe despite lessons or reasons I send my best to the family.
Although I don’t personally agree totally with those ideas and ethics of some traditions, I give credit to those who can stick to and abide by it, holding true to themselves.
Where do I begin on the greatest work of all time? To some, the great work involves K&C with the HGA. Perhaps I too shall one day meet mine, but not today. My great work involves a more left hand approach to my “salvation” and enlightenment.
I have come to the doorway of a great house. Once I step inside, I want to know which room to enter first. There are many and all need to be visited, from the dusty sun-striped attic to the dark, damp crevasses of the cellar. Each room holds a part of myself, good or bad, fearful or strong, a fun house where you never quite know what each step will bring to you. I am currently working on a map and a plan of action.
To know what rooms there are, I need to look deep into the mirror of my mind, heart and soul. I need to peek at just what it is that I’m afraid of and name each and every fear, weakness and folly, assigning them rooms of their own. I have to strain and glimpse those parts of me that are sitting in the dark, curled on the floor and hardly seen by the unaided eye. To these I will need to bring light and turn up the volume, no longer content to let them wither away in the corners, unseen and unheard.
During my visit I will laugh and dance, other times I will break down and cry but through it all my greatest hope is to feel. It is something I have hidden from and swallowed consciously and unconsciously for such a long time. I’m not cold, I’m not aloof, I’m afraid. So many things, so many times, so many people. It is time for me to be able to feel and do without being overwhelmed and overcome. It is time for me to know what pleasure is, it has been denied for far to long. It is time to know how to feel without it cutting like a knife. There is a balance I need to learn.
This is my new beginning… and ending. When I emerge, heck even as I navigate from room to room, I shall be forever changed.
A Taurean holy man seeking spiritual peace by connecting personally with his God (bringing the relationship to an earthly level) and directing one’s will as symbolized by the ecclesiastical sign made by the two pointing fingers on his right hand. He represents traditional values and spiritual need for expression.
He is the culmination of human development. He can also be stubborn and unbending in traditions at his worst.
We have the answer within us, the key to our transformation. Maybe we have gotten some bad advice but it can be rectified. It is time to make decisions or take advice from someone with more experience, even if it is something we don’t want to hear. There is no quick fix, but it is attainable, if we listen to our selves and wise people around us.
What is the Heirophant saying to me? Well, spiritually, I have been seeking ritual, something to connect me on a more regular basis. I’ve been thinking of creating a more personal space of worship, a proper altar for myself and my work. Could this be representative of this? I don’t know.
Having researched and read much lately on LHP, transformation is what I desire. I want to begin that “dangerous” great work that will put me in touch with my true inner self. Some of that will require the assistance and participation of others. The fear and “tradition” of keeping silent and to myself needs to be addressed. There is something great and powerful inside myself, I know it is there, the long hard road of breaking through that will soon begin. It has to. I’m beginning to get a clearer image of what I need to to and to be. I just need to get there.
I guess it will soon be my time for action, the work that will bring me that closer, more personal connection with myself and therefor my God(s).
In correspondence with others in the magick community I have come to categorize people into 4 groups:
1) Normal people who keep to themselves
2) Normal people who are open and share honestly to the best of their ability
3) Ego maniacs who know all and think they are god and everyone else is dirt
4) Ego maniacs who manipulate for their own twisted purpose.
Type one you don’t interact with for how would you even know they practice magick?
Type two has some wonderful people. (ehem, myself and my magickal friends would fall in here.) Even the “fluffies” would fall in here. Anyone who has talked with one knows they are more than willing to help bring you to the “light” and share little fluffy things they do. They mean well, just because they don’t know what Dittany of Crete is or would “never carry any books on Black Magic” in their shops, doesn’t make them bad people.
Type three are usually harmless but totally annoying in forums and in my personal observations usually ceremonial magicians. The members of a certain organization have given me lots of confirmation of this.
Type four are the dangerous ones. They usually are very knowledgeable in their craft which is part of their allure. Usually very dark but not all the time. Sometimes the Devil comes in the guise of an angel. These are the sexual predators, psychic vampires, and abusive personalities twisted and driven by power.
