Holding a firm opinion is not at all the sign of an educated mind. In fact, mostly it is the reverse: Only once we have delved deep enough into a subject we begin to see its paradoxes, entanglements, and inconsistencies. But there is no way to ‘delve deep’ into any subject unless we proactively loosen our mind’s ties to what we think we know already.
Read More[…] After all, the biggest obstacle to becoming the kind of grown-up, who isn’t a constant burden on others, is to responsibly satisfy our own needs whenever it is time to do so. In approaching every day in such a manner, we can become quite okay with the simple but harsh truth that life really owes us nothing.
Read MoreHere is a humble gift in a year in which we all deserve some good news: In honouring All Hallows 2020, the one night when even the Christian tradition remembers its goêtic roots and communes with the dead, Erzebet and I are sharing the Introduction of my upcoming book Clavis Goêtica (Hadean Preass, 2021).
Read More[…] Speaking of Rosicrucian Magic is a folly for many good reasons. It’s best to be avoided to be honest. Most people – scholars and practitioners alike – quickly came to substitute it with terms such as Theosophy, Pansophy, Astronomia Olympi more rarely, or simply adepta philosophia. So if we dare to use these two often romanticised and rarely understood terms here bound into one – Rosicrucian and Magic – it is for one reason alone. Because, if properly understood, nothing describes the essence of the work better than this simple term. The four arms of the cross span the world, they uphold its necessary tides and tensions; the rose is our work.
Read MoreI am currently busy writing a longer essay on an inofficial magus-degree ritual that emerged from the margins of the Order of the Gold- and Rosy Cross in the late 18th century. Central to this text, published in the spirit of the original Rosicrucians, is the motto ‘The True and the Good’ [Das Wahre und Gute].
Read MoreEach being, may it be angelic, human or otherwise, is defined by its encounter with the world. Without it, we are nothing but potential enshrined. The world is the divination bowl, filled with black waters, into which the gods stare, and see us.
Read MoreIt is through the lens of the alleged Majorcan hermit Pelagius that we unlock the door - and gain access to Trithemius’ personal view and direct experiences of a magic filled with mystical integrity and angelic presence. Furthermore, we begin to see that without the writings of Trithemius-Pelagius - that is without the genuine impact of an imagined figure - our entire modern tradition of Western Magic would not be the same.
Read MoreThe heart is the medicine, the real-world Mohlomi wisely said. Two hundred years after his death, through Mignola’s inspired vision, this medicine took on the form of a small liturgic bell, passed on from beyond death by an ancestral spirit to an antihero from hell. Even more than a tool of protection, Mohlomi’s bell is a tool that offers restoration of the heart.
Read MoreFor centuries Western Magic has turned into the spiritual equivalent of the Crusades or the Spanish Reconquista: man’s feeble attempt to take back a realm they believed to be their birth right. Failing to realise that what lies behind such spiritual warfare is one’s own deep ignorance, the essential inability to understand and appreciate otherness. The ability - for some time at least - to walk through life, with both of one’s hands open.
Read MoreWether we like it or not, it is the mess emerging from the periphery, slowly but surely leaning against our human will, that keeps us from becoming rigid. That keep us human. For what looks like chaos on the outside, is a melody from within. It is an essential part of our forestedness.
Read MoreIn ancient Islamic societies the animal realm was closely connected to the realm of the jinn. Julius Wellhausen in his widely published ‘Remains of Arabic Paganism’ (Reste Arabischen Heidentums, 1897) asserted that Islamic ‘zoology is at the same time demonology’; a notion that sounds rather familiar to the student of Ancient Egyptian magic.
Read MoreIn the seventh volume on Alchymica we find the magical script- and seal-generator, that very well might have inspired the Golden Dawn’s evolution of drawing seals from their version of the Rosy-Cross. The following images are taken from this manuscript: They show several of the double pages of the text, including the secret script, and then the circular master-key at its end.
Read MoreThe following short text is an excerpt from an upcoming book. It forms the introduction to a chapter on conjuring celestial spirits with nothing but the sound of your voice and a magical bell. The deceptive simplicity of the operation can make us fail to realise the complexity that underpins it. Often the simplest of rituals take the highest of skills to accomplish.
Read MoreNothing stops you short from growing beyond your own wildest dreams, like the desire to hold on to a clear identity. By definition, having a clear answer to the question who you are - both to yourself and the world - means you have stepped out of the process of becoming.
Read MoreThey say ‘common enemies unite’. In the same vein, a good enemy can make us grow quicker and taller than we would have ever attempted to do without them. So here is to all the things foreign and forbidding - and to us knowing how to treat them with respect.
Read MoreJust recently Josephine McCarthy rediscovered some of her archive treasures and made them available for free on the Quareia website. Amongst these texts, are four particular magical operations that focus on our relationship with and active support to the ecological environment we are an integral part of.
Read MoreAs a practicing magician, writing about Christianity is not only a difficult, but possibly a rather dangerous undertaking. At least that is what I am learning. Currently I am exploring aspects of the mystical tradition of the Christian path from 190 CE to 1900 CE for a future book.
Read MoreOne of them dove into the ocean of Oneness and said, 'I am Truth.' Another rode in a boat on the same ocean, and told of how far he was from the shore. One looks at the outside and talks of dry land, while gathering shells, and the other plunges into the ocean and gets the pearl.
Carl von Eckartshausen book ‘Prudence combined with Virtue’ from 1790 is a stark reminder of why turning into a wolf when living amongst wolves simply isn't good enough. Here we are exploring some of his key thoughts and provide an updated 2019 remix of the voluminous 400+ page tome.
Read MoreLet's start this journey at its end. Let's start with the moment you step into your grave. I want you to read this paragraph, and then close your eyes. Close your eyes and look at yourself as the person you have become in the last moments of your life. What do you see? Who do you see? Which qualities shine through? Which scars do you hold - and what have you made of them?
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