THIS BLOG HAS A NEW HOME.

Yes, it was time to relocate indeed...

www.myoccultcircle.com/blog

Actually the trigger to move didn't come from this place - but from my webpage on www.myoccultcircle.com. Both, the webpage and this blog are now available under one URL - allowing much easier navigation and lot's of space for expansion in the future.

A bit of background... During recent months I just struggled making the growing amount of online content available on myoccultcircle.com in a way that was still structured and simple enough to allow for easy navigation. Unfortunately the software platform I was based on didn't provide the necessary features. Without drop down menus and sidebars it just became cumbersome and confusing to explore new and existing content... 

Thus I decided to find a more scalable solution. After some soul-searching about my lack of CSS skills and the very limited time budget I am running all my magical and web presence activities on I settled with squarespace.com. --- Fast forward one week of vacation, a unhealthy doses of shoulder-pain, coffee and square eyes - and ready is the new home.

Well, but just like with all real moves excitement and stress are keeping a fine balance still. So please take my apologies in advance for all links I couldn't fix yet or any other hiccups that still hide on the new pages... It is still a place for slow and organic growth just like it used to be before. 

Finally, many of you had provided feedback that while black and grey are nice colors they don't make for a very good online reading experience? I heard you. Thus 'white' has turned into the new 'black' and the new webpage should be as bright and reader-friendly as it gets. - Please keep your constructive feedback coming!

Now, with all the technical work of the relocation done and dusted I can return to the actual point of being here - i.e. to do real magic and share experience, setbacks and learnings. So here is a preview at the stuff that I will tackle to get online over the forthcoming weeks...

• The first chapter of my study on the Holy Guardian Angel in various cultures is finally finished. The initial chapter will examine the Chaldeans and what they thought about spirit guardians and personal demons...
• After sharing the book review of Josephine's Magical Knowledge I I started to explore and practice the actual techniques from the book in more detail. While some of the experiences made are too personal for sharing publicly, I am still set to follow up with another post on Opening the Contacts in the Four Quarters as well as the presence of the Underworld Goddess.
• Finally, coming back from a short vacation last week I had the chance to meet some more of my ancestors in the Inner Realms - quite unexpectedly actually. This time I had a chat with a very old Celtic statue and the spirit that still resides in it. Fascinating to say the least! 

So, I hope to see you all soon on the other side of the web. For now this will be the last post shared here on blogspot.com.

LVX,

Frater Acher

Demon Drones - on the mediums of the Magical Current of Nazism - part 2

In the first post of this series we spoke about connecting the dots between the knowledge gained in the Inner Library and historical facts and events. Both sides of the mirror - inner and outer realms - hold one half of the truth. Only if we join them together can we understand how a current of energy unfolds all the way from Kether to Malkuth.

We then turned to look at two principle catalysts of the magical current of Nazism who are still little known outside of rightwing esoteric or runic circles today, Guido von List and Adolf Lanz. While their work and lives had major influences on the later mythology of Nazism I am convinced that they - like many others who followed - were much more instruments than active protagonists in the magical events that unfolded from 1933 onwards...

In order to conclude this highly abbreviated list of 'gates' for this destructive current to come through let's take a look at two further people...

• Karl Maria Wiligut (1866-1946): Wiligut has been dubbed as the 'Rasputin of Himmler' - a rather lurid title that still paints a fair impression of the strong and continuos influence he had on Himmler. Interestingly by the time Wiligut was introduced to Himmler in 1933 he had already completed most of his working life. At this point Wiligut was 67 of age and had been retired from a highly decorated military career in Austria for 14 years. It was only after his retirement that he intensified his occult studies and became a member of Lanz' previously mentioned 'Ordo Novi Templi'. The interesting aspect about Wiligut - or 'Weisthor' as was his chosen name once he joined the SS - is that he claimed to have direct access to the ancestral memories of his ancient family, the Wiligotis. Thus Weisthor didn't had the need to research any of his claims about primeval events on the Germanic land but directly accessed them in trance via his blood-memory. Well, luckily Wiligut - because such a feature comes handy if no scientific proves at all can be found for your claims: e.g. that Germans didn't descend from apes but from ethereal spiritual beings that descended upon Earth high in the North, that natural disasters led to a destruction of their ancient civilization which in turn forced these pure 'Ur-Race' to migrate South and East where they helped to create the civilizations of Ancient India, Egypt, the Greek and later on the Roman empire... Really? However, marking Wiligut as a complete fraud would oversimplify things and not do justice to the records we can still access today about his activities. E.g. we know about an event when he fell into trance sitting in the back of an SS-car right next to Heinrich Himmler. The car was forced to stop at roadside and Wiligut jumped out still deep in trace. He ran off into the fields, Himmler and the other SS-men right behind him. At a remote point in the middle of nowhere he stopped and started to dig up the ground with his hands. An archeological dig was ordered at this point and indeed relicts of an ancient settlement were found underground... It were events like these that gained Wiligut significant influence over Himmler and made him the person to not only be allowed to design the death-head-ring of the SS but also to be closely linked to the annexation and rebuilding of the Wewelsburg into a formal education and ritual castle of the black SS order. Until today Wiligut remains one of the most arcane persons that deeply influenced the mythology of Nazism. Facts like his committal and incapacitation into an Austrian mental home for several years in Austria stand in stark contrast to the significant role he played in later years as Himmler's personal consultant and a high ranking SS officer.      

• Heinrich Himmler (1900-1945): if we came close to the periphery of the occult centre of Nazism with exploring Weisthor we are entering its epicenter with the figure of Heinrich Himmler. In stark contrast to the other three 'gates of the current' we looked at before Himmler is one of the most well known figures to be responsible for designing, leading and implementing the horrors of the WWII. Holding the highest rank in the SS order as 'Reichsführer' Himmler was the most prominent Nazi leader next to Hitler and less than half a dozen other party executives. To give you somewhat of an understanding of the scope of his responsibility let's quote Wikipedia directly: "As overseer of the concentration camps, extermination camps, and Einsatzgruppen (literally: task forces, often used as killing squads), Himmler coordinated the killing of some six million Jews, between 200,000 and 500,000 Roma, many prisoners of war, and possibly another three to four million Poles, communists, or other groups whom the Nazis deemed unworthy to live, including homosexuals, people with physical and mental disabilities, Jehovah's Witnesses, and members of the Confessing Church. Shortly before the end of the war, he offered to surrender both Germany and himself to the Western Allies if he were spared prosecution. After being arrested by British forces on 22 May 1945, he committed suicide the following day before he could be questioned." However, Himmler not only was the engineer of the horrors of the Holocaust and concentration camps, he was also the central gate for all occult influences that fed the current of Nazism. The main medium to focus his efforts on and through which he aimed to 'transform' German society was his black order of the SS or Schutzstaffel. We know from historic evidence that Himmler saw much more in the SS than just a paramilitary organization. For him the SS was directly linked to the tradition of medieval orders of knights and warrior monks and its mission was deeply rooted in metaphysical grounds. Comparing the SS to Catharism - and following the leads of Otto Rahn in doing so - Himmler was convinced of the essential human-breeding ('menschenzüchterische') responsibility of his order and saw a strong requirement to train new members as thoroughly on metaphysics and ideology as on war tactics (Sünner, p.78). The central poles of Himmler's SS order were clan and ancestral cults as well as the pre-Christian world of the Northern Gods and runic lore. In order to mold these elements into a consistent ideology and doctrine Northern myths such as the Icelandic Sagas, the Edda, the story of King Arthur and the Nibelungs were ruthlessly exploited, intentionally simplified, bended and broken in order to fit the artificial ideology of occult Nazism. What is most startling about this, however, is Himmler's strangely complex character itself: The same man that visited a concentration camp to order execution of hundreds of captives in a single blow, that ordered that the campaign into the East to kill at least 30 million inhabitants, would sit down a few hours later to consider subtle details of the rituals and regalia of the SS order, write detailed letters about the design of the visitor centre for site of a Germanic worship or involve himself patiently into the preparation for sanctification games during Germanic holidays. I guess looking closely at Heinrich Himmler, his work and particular way of thinking teaches us one of the most scary insights to be understood: If our convictions are deeply rooted enough, if the needle of our faith is pointing into a single direction stable enough - we will turn blind to the gap between the real-life impact of our actions and the higher goals we pursue. Both deepest cruelty and sincerest love can co-exist, reside side by side in a heart that has turned black in the fires of faith. Belief is the most dangerous power we humans can harvest - or be harvested by. 

I titled this post series 'demon drones' - aiming at a better understanding of the demonic forces that drove the current of Nazism as well as the role some of the leading occult protagonists played in setting it free. In a hive a drone's main function is to be ready to fertilize a receptive queen. Maybe there is something we can learn from drones about the main function of the four people described above? Maybe their purpose was to fertilize a current that was ready to come through, to emerge from the inner realms and disrupt and destroy what had been established before. Maybe their individual actions were small to the extent of being meaningless - like burying bottles in the shape of a swastika in the ashes of a fire... Yet all of them had a place, a single mark to leave for others to follow - until the rivulet turned into a river and the river into a stream. Maybe they all added one drop of water but the stream buried 50 to 70 million people who all had their own dreams of marriage, of children and leading a happy life.

So let's not fool ourselves. Wether we add a single drop or unscrew a whole fire hoarse we all have a choice. Always. We know it from the bold people who resisted the Nazis, who died in revolt and Hitler's failed assassination attempts. It is what sets us apart from all other beings: we are given the power to believe and now we must struggle to control it. Himmler and his occult entourage followed their own faith - until it had completely swallowed them, eaten them alive and only left their walking bodies, their empty shells - unable to recognize the true impact of their actions, numbed icons of fascism.

So if we all have a drop of water to add - which current do we chose?

Demon Drones - on the mediums of the Magical Current of Nazism - part 1

Since I began to study the magical roots of the Nazis in the Inner Library a lot of understanding and insight has come through. Earlier I tried to summarize the essential flow and the unfolding of demonic energy from Malkuth to Kether in my report 'The Bridge'.

What I learned since then, however, is how to align this inner perspective with historical facts. Where the Inner Library holds the wisdom, the inner patterns or essence of history it is our job as humans to reconnect this inner wisdom with the actual events that took place on the material realm... In the inner realms we are given keys to doors that patiently wait for us on the outer realms. It is our job to bridge these worlds and bring both together again. Only then can we look into the mirror from both sides.

For the magical current of the Nazis that means identifying the actual people and places who acted as catalysts or mediums for the demonic energies to come through and materialize. Who was it that threw the first stone and started the (magical) avalanche whose path of destruction we still can see on the German lands today? Whose work provided the dry straw waiting silently for the first sparks to fall and let the world go up in flames?

Well, I guess we all will argue that unfolding an avalanche like WWII takes a lot of stones to be thrown - or a lot of preconditions to align. That is certainly true. There are many European currents of the 19th and even 18th century that lead up to the events emerging around 1900 in Austria and Germany: industrialization, urbanization, democratization and individualization to name just a few. The rise of science and the decline of the church, the emergence of political parties, the fear of communism and rulership of the mob amongst broad layers of society as well as the loss of collective myths, traditions and belief system in exchange for enlightenment, rationale insights and urban 'modern' lifestyles... 

Goodrick-Clarke's 'The Occult Roots of Nazism' paints the full picture of the time and trends that laid the fundament for the Nazis to emerge and build on it. Overflowing with details and quotes I can only recommend his book to anyone interested - as well as Rüdiger Sünner's 'Schwarze Sonne' for all German speakers which is slightly more accessible.    

However, even with all these broad currents carrying entire nations towards WWI and WWII a few people stand out from a magical perspective. Interestingly enough these people tend to be relatively unknown still. Even many Germans - who all spend several years in history classes during elementary school and college to go through the horrors of the Nazi regime repeatedly - wouldn't know these names. And if the occult roots of Nazism have been kept under a blanket of silence for many decades we will understand why once we took a closer look at them: It is so much easier to perceive Nazis as merciless monsters that emerged from the dark of time and were thrown back into it after 1945 than to perceive them as human beings with hearts and minds and hopes like all of us, but who were completely led astray by something much bigger and more concealed than all their magical efforts.

If anything these people acted as 'demon drones' - thinking of themselves as protagonists in a giant play to unfold - where in reality the currents they released was riptides carrying others and themselves like leaves and out into the open sea...

• Guido von List (1848–1919): From what I know it's Guido von List and his works where we first come across the living pulse of what should turn into the mythology of Nazism during later years. What is most interesting is that von List's occult studies all started with a deep appreciation and passion for remote nature: What was supposed to lay the fundament for the mass destruction of entire nations and cities was first encountered in the open forests and fields of Austria... Far from civilization and cities, irrespective of sunshine or rain, snow or storm, on every occasion von List is roaming through the deep forests of Austria in search of forgotten cult places, ancient ruins and mystical contact with his supposedly Germanic ancestors. It's only over time that his remote excursions extend into ritual gatherings joined by friends and like-minded. During a rite at the pagan ruins of Carnuntum wine bottles are buried in the form of a swastika below the ashes of a fire - evoking the 'fire curl' of the god Mundelföri. And von List summons the old gods to return from Valhalla once new wars are raising against the abhorred Romans... It is von List who also publishes the book 'Secret of the Runes' that should become a highly influential source of so called runic and Germanic lore. Just shortly before his death von List frighteningly augurs a new leader to arise even before 1932: "The powerful one from above (...), a divine-mental power source whose onset will be like a spring storm after all the horrors of the present day which we have to experience and which will chase away all the bleak demonic clouds of winter."  (Sünner, p.16, transl. by Acher)

• Adolf Lanz (1874-1954): A friend of Guido von List and equally convinced about a so called 'Aryan-Germanic' reincarnation the Austrian mystic Adolf Lanz plays another key role in contributing both to the body of thought as well as the emerging organization of Aryan occult and racist currents in Austria and Germany. After a short stint as a monk he starts publishing as a freelance 'Mythenforscher' (myth researcher) under the name of Jörg Lanz von Liebenfels. Just like with von List we find a stark tendency in his writings to reduce multidimensional, complex mythical narrations to a superficial yet artificially clear meaning. Deep fractures towards historic as well as scientific facts are naively neglected and overlooked in order to force a molding of ideas, pseudo-historic events and painfully reduced mythical structures to comply and support a preconceived vision of Aryan domination in ancient times. And just as von List's later works Lanz' writings are quickly moving from a resurgence of ancient Germanic gods towards a call to war against the perceived enemies that are blamed to have deformed and ultimately buried the old traditions in the first place. What started as an evocation of gods long asleep increasingly turns into a cry of war - for hate and rage seem to be the seals of the currents awoken... In 1907 Lanz purchases a castle at the river Donau and founds the 'Orden des Neuen Tempel' (order of the new temple). The central theme around which this newly founded temple revolves is the one of King Arthur and the search for the holy grail. And it's here on castle Werfenstein that in a specially prepared temple room self-written rituals are performed, formulas of conjuration are recited and the old gods are invoked in order to wipe out all inferior peoples and enemies... And even though WWII and the founding of the Nazi party is still years away in Lanz' writings form his magazine 'Ostara' we can already find frightening details about how this 'divine wipe out' should best happen: the reader comes across suggestions for forced deportations, castrations, sterilizations, incinerations as well as 'Zuchtmutterklöster' (breeding-mother-monasteries') - all of which should be turned into deadly reality by the Nazis two decades later.   

:: continue with part 2 ::

Book Review - Josephine McCarthy: Magical Knowledge I, Foundations

There is a significant difference between ritual and visionary magic. Unfortunately it is so significant, so essential in nature that for people who have practiced ritual magic for years it's quite hard to get their heads around it. It's actually not unlike trying to solve a creative thinking puzzle. It bends your brain until it hurts - or someone shows you the solution (at least in my case that is).

To fully understand the impact Josephine McCarthy's Magical Knowledge I can make on traditional ritual magic it is important to better understand this puzzle first. Well, here is my take on it in a nutshell... 

In ritual magic the essential goal is to summon spirits. In most cases they are either summoned into a triangle or a black mirror. And in most cases it is their voices heard by the magician that are proof of their presence. In rare cases success might go beyond this and the spirits appear visibly on a surface or in a fleeting body made of shadows or smoke. The one stable condition in all these cases is that the spirit is summoned to the place where the magician resides. And as this place is always somewhere on the material realm ritual magic forces spirits to come through in a realm that is different to the one they naturally dwell in. So far so good.

The only problem is that the spirits actually very rarely 'come through' fully. Most magical rituals work much more like a phone call. The carefully created sigil together with the name of the spirit work as the telephone number, the circle, altar and paraphernalia make up the telephone booth and by use of evocations, suffumigations and barbarous names we hook ourselves into the power network...  

And that's exactly where things have gone wrong in ritual magic - at least for the last three centuries. Most of us - speaking as ritual magician myself - have adopted exactly this concept at the core of our practice: these days our 'Arte' revolves around trying to make the best phone calls. We treat the process of reading out telephone numbers like arcane secrets and apply anal rigor and discipline in learning international, country and local area codes by heart - just to dial into spirit country and waiting for someone on the other line to pick up the receiver... Funny enough, more often than not it seems to work.

A set of great telephone
numbers from Horst's 7 volume
'Zauberbibliothek'

Yet, if you approach things thoroughly learning how to make your first proper phone call will take years. It requires studying ancient magical telephone books (i.e. Grimoires), redialing dead numbers that worked a hundred years ago as tenants have long moved, as well as learning the traditional ways of touching the dial plate - right index finger only! - and learning welcome and goodbye messages from the Middle Ages by heart...

And while we are all so incredibly busy with reading, interpreting, re-enacting the modes of telephone rituals, we have forgotten one truly essential thing. And that is to put down the receiver, to unplug the phone, to get our valleys out of the cupboard, pocket a loaf of bread, some cheese and a knife, put a note on the fridge - and leave the damn house.

And that's the difference between ritual and visionary magic. In visionary magic the practitioner of the Arte is taught how to travel where the spirits reside. Instead of dialing them up, you go out and explore the land, the living energies and currents, the pathways and temples of the spirits themselves. 

Now, Magical Knowledge I is not a textbook on visionary magic. It actually goes well beyond that. It's goal - in my eyes - is to help us bringing these two worlds back together again. In its core it is a book that teaches how to create and open doors between the spirit and the material realms. In order to do so it strips down the ritual magical process to its bare bones: a room, a candle, a bowl of water or a stone and complete silence. From there onwards it's all about the magician traveling out into the realms of the spirit and bringing back contacts, their influence and presence into the material realm. Essential, raw, hard and beautiful work.

So instead of summoning gatekeepers this book teaches you how to become one. The most essential ingredients on this journey, however, aren't the magical skills you are taught in most occult orders or training books. Your ability to create, open and watch these doors between realms depends on very different things - and certainly not on a lionskin-belt or a carved ivory wand. What will define, cripple or expand your skills and works as a magician are the natural interfaces through which we all continuously communicate with the spirit realm - without training or telephone calls that is. These interfaces are your true intent, your heart's emotions as well as your everyday state of mind. 

The book is the first in a trilogy and its subtitle is called 'foundations'. I guess, that's a pretty accurate description of the point one should have reached on their magical and general life's path to start the type of work laid out in it... Before any foundations can be build a single fixed point is needed. The very first step in building any temple of the ancients was to find the place where it should come through. Often this place was shown to the priests by the gods. In our case it won't be that easy. We need to find out ourselves if and when we are ready to commit, to lay the first stone of our own foundation in working with the inner contacts. 

Each door opened, each ritual conducted in a contacted way comes with no uncertain level of personal responsibility. It's the responsibility for one's own intent, for one's body and mind that will be affected in no ambiguous terms, but also for the contacts we work with and the land and the others we affect in this work. The time has to be right for you to embark on this journey.

Personally I have made telephone calls for the last 15 years. I am still continuing to do so in my Arbatel Experience. It's a wonderful way of learning and exploring. And most of the time it is done by listening to what the spirits on the other end of the line actually have to tell me. Many magicians have come a long way using this approach. Just look at the impressive results a liminal magician like Jake Stratton-Kent is able to produce with his classic approach based on the old Grimoires - yet not abused as telephone books but brought back to life again through the spirits that once helped to write them. 

Magical Knowledge I is essentially different from this in two important ways. As discussed above it stops performing magic form telephone booths - but rather teaches how to cut a door into the wall for the magician to step through into the inner realms and encounter the spirits face to face. Yet, it also lays the foundation for a completely different level of magical work. One where the focus of the work isn't on the wishes and desires of the mage, one where magic isn't used as a delivery service for the magician's needs. But one where the magician steps back into the ancient chain of beings - connecting spirits, demons, angels and humans alike - and starts to work unconditionally in supporting not his work but the work that has to be done.

So this book will be a precious gift to you if you are ready to let go of your own magical agenda. If you are ready to ultimately turn into a magical tool on the altar of some larger beings than we can image, if you are ready to trust. If you aren't ready, however, take your time. 'Cause otherwise its techniques could give you a smooth ride on a road along the coast of the spirit realms - that leads right down to self-ruin.

::

I am well aware that I haven't spoken in detail about the actual content, chapters and exercises shared in the book. For this review I felt it was more important to look at the place of this important publication in light of the modern Grimoire Revival as well as the classic approaches to teaching ritual magic in the West. 

Now that we know where this road will take us it's time to kick into action. So for a closer look at the actual exercises of the book I invite you to join me on future posts to come - where we will take some of the exercises from theory into action and look at the results they yield in practice. Quite astonishing results that is as I can tell from the practice I conducted so far. Yet as this type of magical work falls under the category of 'magic with gloves off' we better brace ourselves - and chose if we are ready to pay the full price before we make the first step.  

Abusing Saturn - A Study on the Magical Current of the Nazis

Recently I shared some thoughts about the disproportionally strong Saturnian influence on German Magic over the last century. In particular I stumbled across the realization how severely the Second WorldWar and the Nazi philosophy had influenced not only the German approach to magic but also the German land itself. 

In essence it was a single thought that continuously came back to me...

"Just think of the photos from the bombed cities in Dresden, Munich, Berlin, etc. What if on a spiritual level the rebuilding has never been completed - and all the darkness of these years is still stuck within the land? How much further healing work will it take to restore this country back to the beauty it deserves? "

So over recent weeks I set out to learn more about the state of the German land from a magical perspective. While this work is still ongoing - and will be for a longer while - I also dug in to better understand what exactly had happened during WWII from a magical point of view...

With the kind help of Josephine's works I managed to study on the subject in the Inner Library. That was an intense experience, quite unexpected as so often when we travel outside of our own time and realm... On return I followed up with a Tarot reading and managed to understand the flow the actual energies at work took from from being an initial spark, a raw idea to becoming fully materialized in the horrors we all know about.

After some consideration I decided to make all the knowledge I received public. Of course it may very well be that it is of personal use to myself only - in which case I hope the account can still inspire your own magical investigations. At the same time, however, it might be that some of this information is relevant beyond my personal realm. In which case I hope it can help to deepen our joint understanding as magicians of the forces we can unleash - while miserably failing at understanding their true dynamic and nature.

I called this account 'The Bridge'. Because this is what the magical current of the Nazis essentially established. A bridge between two realms that just worked slightly different from what they had hoped for. As so often in life and magic - the devil is in the detail.

::

Note: as with all the new pages on myoccultcircle.com you can also download the article as a PDF for more convenient offline reading.

ARS LEGENDI - a few thoughts on the art of reading

Recently I received help to find access to the in the Inner Library. I can't share much about this work at this point. But I can share what happened afterwards. A few days later I was in deep meditation and in communion with my HGA. Without any context he suddenly said: 'Every book holds a light.' Like it does in rare moments of insights, my mind lit up like a firework when I heard his words. Let me try to explain...

The best point to start this possibly is the term of the 'armchair magician'. When most people use this term it is in a pretty derogative way. Derogative in a sense that the armchair magician doesn't seem to be 'in action' but simply sitting there, taking in information and showing very little output.

I guess it was mainly through magic I learned that observing without judgement comes as a handy skill. It is actually a skill without which very little will be achieved, both in magic and in life... So let's take a closer look at our magician, seemingly sitting passively in his armchair, reading and turning pages quietly. Let's zoom in and try to see the things actually going on in this very moment...

The original 1986 version of Frick's
'Das Reich Satans' - beautifully bound
in black clothwith golden spirit seals

The first thing that comes to my mind is that I realize there is physical contact between our mage and the book in his hands. The book can feel cheap and feeble or heavy, clothed in leather with a strong, solid spine. Or a million different feelings in between. It might be cold due to the long time it spend on the dark shelves or warm from his touch already. The way the book feels might not matter to the information contained on its pages, yet it matter to our hands. In fact its their very own way to 'read' this book... Blind as they are they learn about the book by way of its surface and skin. 

Consider this: When we stroke our child or lover at night how much of a difference does a bruise make on their skins? How many images and flashes of ideas come up once our fingers touch the bruise yet our eyes don't see...? 

Books aren't lovers. Or are they? The word 'erotic' stems from the Greek word 'eros' which can be translated as 'desire'. When we are with our lover our senses desire to touch, to smell, to create physical contact as closely as possible... It's our senses' desire that we realize in these moments - to feel more, to smell more, to taste more, to see more. And it's only our mind that distinguishes between a lover and a book. Our senses are blind to social norms and attributed functions; they involve themselves completely each time they reach out and take something in, each time they fill themselves with the touch of a surface, a smell, a look, a taste of a fruit. Our fingers don't see wether we stroke the skin of a lover or the skin of a book.

I guess our senses go blind and numb when we think of ebooks? Between a kindle epub and a hardback, fine leather-bound edition of Scarlet Imprint our senses can see worlds divided by oceans that will always remain unknown to our logical mind... It's our subconscious that opens different doors for the information searching for entrance behind our eyes, looking for a place to rest and to connect with - depending on what our other senses say about the nature of the book we are holding in our hands.

But there is more to be observed about our magician sitting in his armchair. 

... our fingers speak when reading
such books.

His fingers aren't holding dead skin, but a living one indeed. A Liber Spiritus is just one extremely powerful form of bringing texts and images to life. Each text printed is vibrant with force, some too subtle to feel, some so raw and imminent that humans decided to burn or hide them away. Each book is a living being, waiting to be released by our consciousness. And it's not one story waiting on their pages to be read but it is a thousand different stories, a new one for every single reader, for every different time its pages are picked up and opened again...

Each book holds a light. It is this light we are setting free, we are connecting with and bringing to shine on reading its pages. If every human being is a star, then every sleeping book is a spark. 

I look at my library with different eyes now. I look at the rows of books as sleeping friends. Spirits waiting on shelves to be brought to life. By my hand and their embrace, by my eyes and my breath descending on their pages for hours. Quite simply, by my desire.

What I have come to understand is that setting these lights free is a form of art in itself. It is a craft that has to be gained. Just like performing a ritual, like deep meditation, like communing with the spirits so is reading a magical book a form of art. Wether we write a poem or bring it to life again through reading, wether we create a spirit and put it to rest on pages of paper or wether we pull it out of its sleep and unite it with our mind and heart. Every touch is erotic.  

One of my managers once explained to me the 80/20 rule in a slightly different way... She said whenever making a decision one should ensure to pursue new information, new perspective and context for 80% of the time and then dedicate 20% of the time only for executing the actual decision. This boss took some of the finest, most counter-intuitive decisions I ever experienced in business. She is a genuine artist and would never think of herself as one. But what a wonderful rule of thumb: 80% assimilation, 20% action. What a powerful way to ensure we don't waste our lives in action?

I am currently reading Josephine McCarthy's Magical Knowledge I. This book holds a lot of lights indeed. Some I found already, others are still waiting for me. Yet, I cannot read faster than my slow senses allow... Because if I tried to I would lose all sense of touching, of hearing and smelling and seeing. I would go numb. And I would start processing information like a machine. Without desire.

::

Yesterday night, after I had finished this post I continued my research on the Crooked Path from the little literature I own about it. I ended up lying on the couch deep at night and reading - just like the armchair magician observed above. I read in Scarlet Imprint's wonderful 'Diabolical'. Almost at the very end it contains a short essay by Mark Smith. He went out into the woods at night and performed an incredible simple yet powerful rite of self-initiation into the Sabbatic Craft... just by reading out loud Chumbley's 72 verse poem Qutub against the light of a candle and his wandering shadow in the brush-woods. -- Every book holds a light. 

The Arbatel Experience - Ritual of PHALEG

Well, I guess some people simply are slower than others? In the same time it takes me to perform and go through the repercussions of a single rite I see other magicians working through an entire Grimoire, publishing a new book and engaging in countless discussions online...

Since I embarked on this journey it has taken me three months on average to plan for each rite, perform it and integrate its impact into my daily life. In doing so I always tried to follow through each step of the Spirit Contact Cycle as consciously as possible. Clearly that slows things down. Incredibly so.

Here is but one example: When I set out to perform the entire Arbatel cycle I stopped drinking alcohol, stopped smoking and became more strict on not eating any meat. All of this happened under the assumption I would be much quicker than it turns out I am. My somewhat naive assumption was I could perform all seven rites within four to six months maximum - and be back to my occasional fag and a glass of wine by spring 2011.

Well, clearly that wasn't quite the case. Here I am more than a year later completing the fifth of all seven rites. But boy, do I enjoy the journey! I know now it was one of the best decisions of my life to tackle this magic mountain... And so each time I am reminded of my slow pace of performing and integrating these rites I end up recalling that I will do each rite only once in a life-time. 

What I realize now is that the way I approached my 'Arbatel Experience' a year ago and still do today is exactly the same as I approached previous liminal experience and retreats. Never worry about time. There is more than enough of it. The really scarce good is mindfulness. 

So when I present the fifth ritual account of the Arbatel Experience - this time of the Olympic Spirit of PHALEG - it's still with the same intent as a year ago. To share the entire journey with you, from start to finish, from stepping out into the lunar realm until we reach the spheres of Saturn some day. Feel free to join me or drop out whenever you wish. I guess, one of the privileges of the lone practitioner is that you can do everything just in your very own time.

Lou Reed never gets tired to mention in interviews that his latest album is the best he ever released. You might disagree, but who knows his standards? What I know for the Arbatel rites is that same is true for me: When I look at the ritual communions I had the chance to experience thus far I am utterly humbled. 

When I was a young teenager and set out on my occult path I always hoped - but never dared to assume - I could encounter magical experiences like these. They might be small to the degree of irrelevance compared to other practitioner's achievements these days. That's okay; it doesn't actually matter. Because we all know what matters: It's never how we compare to others. But how we enrich our own lives and the ones of others through the magic we are given.

I hope you enjoy the read. Here is the full account of the fifth ritual of the Arbatel, Concerning the Magic of the Ancients, the rite for the Olympic Spirit of Phaleg.

Killing the ghosts - or smile while you can

Over the course of the last weeks a friend of mine lost their job and relationship on a single day, our best friend couple split up after six years living and building a life together and a distant friend of mine lost a baby in her family. 

This made think about all the things we take for granted - and all the time we waste? We carry life around like a spark in a lamp through the dark - and forget so easily that every moment is a blessing, every encounter is grace and every second can bring the end. 

I guess we all have been given the highest good - and now just need to use it: The ability to use our powers for giving instead of taking. To put all our strength to the test of how much good it can create over a lifetime - rather than how high it can elevate us above others.

I once learned there are four feedback filters built into all of our minds from birth or at least from very early days. Once we can open up these filters, stop them from narrowing our perception of reality life will change dramatically to the good. 

Killing the ghosts - of all the things
we try to be for others

These four feedback filters are that we all strive to...

• be right,
• be in control,
• look good and
• be liked.

Because here is the thing: How many new things can you learn if you always have to be right? How many surprises can you encounter when your priority is to control? How much fun can you experience if your hair always needs to look perfect? And how few true emotions will you be able to express if you always need to be liked?

Well, so how do we stop worrying about us and start to really engage with the people around us? Not sure I have the answer. But I guess it all starts by being okay with being naked.

Here is a wonderful image Martin Buber used to describe what happens if we continously shy away from being naked - or keep our feedback filters up and running:

"Imagine two people sitting next to each other and talking with each other. Let's call them Peter and Paul. And let's count the shapes that come to play in this conversation: First of all there are Peter how he would like to appear to Paul and Paul how he would like to appear to Peter. Thereafter there is Peter how he truly appears to Paul. That is Paul's image of Peter - which in most cases will not at all align to the one desired by Peter - and vice versa. In addition there is Peter how he appears to himself and Paul how he appears to himself. In the end there is the physical Peter and the physical Paul. Two physical beings and six ghostly deceptive figures who engage in their conversation in various ways... Where if any would there remain space for the authenticity of true contact? Whatever truth may mean in other fields of studies, in the field of interpersonal contact it means that people communicate to each other as for what they truly are."

(Martin Buber, Elemente des Zwischenmenschlichen)

My friends, life is just so very short. And while we on our short path through it many bad things will happen. We will grow and evolve because of them, many scars will heal but their experience will be unpleasant still. So let's not add to them. Let's not make them more than they need to be anyway. Instead, let's give up give up on the three Evil C's... Let's give up on Comparing, on Competing and most of all on Conquering. 

Looking back into the last weeks I realized it's time to take off the clothes - just like we do in our magical circle - and to stand naked. Because how many moments do we have left to waste? 

Here is what I have been reminded of: Life needs to be stroked gently. Like the shell of an egg, like the fur of a cat, like the hair of a lover. Because all this power was given to us to learn how to stroke not to learn how to strike.

Saturnian vs. Venusian Magic

Looking back into 2011 there is a single unexpected realization that stands out for me. It is the stark contrast in most basic approaches to magic between German and British magic over the last century at least. 

Having been brought up in the tradition of German magic it took me more than a decade to realize this simple fact: Where much of British magic revolves around a central pole of workings on the inner realms and bringing through of inner contacts we almost find a complete absence of this concept in the German language tradition.

Let me illustrate this point more clearly: within the works of Dion Fortune, W.G. Gray, Gareth Knight, Dolores Ashcroft-Nowicki and certainly Josephine McCarthy we find a concentration on inner works that is nowhere to be encountered in German magic during the last 100 years. What represents at least one of the core elements in one culture's magical tradition is completely absent in the other. Where in British magic the actual physical ritual only seems to be an expression of inner magic which requires manifestation on the outer realms - it is the most basic physical building block in the world where I come from. 

Mistaking the physical ritual for the actual work you set out to do as a magician is no small mistake to make. And clearly German magicians didn't get caught in this trap entirely. Just like in the British magic literature from 1900 until today we also find in German books long and elaborated explanations of the physical, astral and mental realms (or whichever names the author chose to give them) and how the work of the mage can take effect on and influence all three levels.

However, traveling and working on the inner realms in the language of the inner realms is nothing I ever came across in German magic. Even Pathworking never really made it into the educational books of the tradition I come from. Instead building up your tratak skills, bending candle flames by willpower, torturing your eyes until you see a glimmering hint of an aura and spending countless hours painting pentagrams into the dark of a room with the brush of your index finger are the bricks and mortar laid by a solid German Zelator instead...   

Where is the magic - in controlling the solid
or evoking the subtle?

While all the latter exercises are great - and very common Golden Dawn related - training for an aspiring magician they run an essential risk if learned in isolation. And that is to mistake the tracks you are hunting for the actual animal. 

The risk is to become so self-obsessed with the actual training, with the skills you gain, the mental power they yield and the (self-)control you continuously expand that you start to mistake these powers for the goal of magic itself. The risk is to become so self-absorbed with these early yet important stages of magic that you never move on. Because at some point all the hours you sat quietly in your asana, all the magical techniques you taught yourself, all the mechanisms of astral control you perfected, they turn into metal plates on the armor you created for yourself - which now keep from interacting with the living. 

"The magician uses his faith like the surgeon his scalpel." Many German fellow magicians will have grown up with this (in)famous axiom just like yours truly. Positioning total conscious control as the ultimate goal of the magical process seemed like the only possible road ahead... However, this short saying speaks volumes about the technical approach German magic takes on working with spiritual beings still today. The inner or spiritual realm has been degraded to a hidden bypass for affecting changes on the material realm. It has lost any value or interest in itself, becoming nothing but a medium to change matter in accordance with one's will. 

To me - having been brought up in this tradition magically - there is no difference to the way the scientists treat a monkey in a box, molecules in matter or brain waves of a patient from the way such Saturnian mages treat beings on the inner realms. They thrive of and are driven by a scientific and highly analytical desire for knowledge and control over power. The danger, however, is that this type of magic easily turns into the equivalent of genetic engineering: Both spirits and matter lose their souls, their dignitiy as living beings and the basic right to self-determine their course of actions and way of lives. As magicians of this type we will constantly expand our knowledge and power, and yet always remain utterly isolated. (And no wonder we will need some proper sex magick in the higher degrees to come back to life...)

But let's return to the initial question. Why is it that the magic that emerged from the German circles of Mussallam, Quintscher, Bardon, Gregorius, Spießberger, Duval and ultimately Frater U.D. almost completely lost its inner sight and contact? Why exactly is it that the extensive corpus of German language magic - unpublished even in German still in large parts - is of such an extraordinary technical or Saturnian approach to ritual magic? 

Well, let's use our thinking like a scalpel - or sawed off shotgun to be more honest - and throw out a few hypothesis: 

• It's not only since Goethe that the story of Faust represents the archetype of any magician in German collective consciousness. The uncompromising, relentless strive for knowledge and insight stands as the central motive of the father figure of many German magicians who followed Faust.
• 1928 Eugen Grosche (Gregor A. Gregorius) founded the most influential German speaking magical lodge to this date, Fraternitas Saturnis. Still going mostly unrecognized and overshadowed by the O.T.O in English speaking countries this lodge became the home and breeding ground for most of the German magical literature to be published in the decades to come. As the name of the lodge indicates its members are united by a strictly Saturnian approach to magic (even though the planet Saturn finds its own interpretation and occult analysis in their works).
• Since the early late 19th century we can see an unbroken chain of important women in English magic. However, here is a distinct and embarrassing absence of woman in the German language magical tradition. In the entire era before the 1970s there is not a single native woman to be found who would have left a mark on magic in Germany, Austria or Switzerland.
• From a spiritual point of view the Second World War left Germany as destroyed and concaved on the inner realms as its bombed cities on the surface. Not only was the German Jewish tradition completely irrecoverably and utterly destroyed but so were most of the occult currents that had flown openly in the short period from the late 19th century to the 1930s. It's not unlikely that many inner contacts retreated from the land after this devastating experience. 

Clearly there are many more elements that could be called out here. Just think of the general reputation of Germans as engineers. Maybe we just carried on with what we knew best when entering the inner realms? 

May this as it be; it is the last of the bullet point above that gives me the creeps... Just think of the photos from the bombed cities in Dresden, Munich, Berlin, etc. What if on a spiritual level the rebuilding has never been completed - and all the darkness of these years is still stuck within the land? How much further healing work will it take to restore this country back to the beauty it deserves? 

Well, I always like to close on a positive note. So maybe a first small step away from an entirely Saturnian approach to magic could look like this? Each time we engage in magic we have a choice. We can continue to take a Saturnian approach - just like we might be used to as German magicians. Or we can do something new and chose its opposite; for lack of a better word let's call it Venusian. 

As so often in life it's the bridge between these two poles that will allow new and living forces to come through...

Simplify your Magic - or how to make dreams come true (part 2)

:: (Continued from part 1) ::

3) Clear out your altar. 

In magic every piece of natural substance is a vessel of spiritual force. In a world that delivers almost any spiritual artefact, substance or rare ingredient right in front of our doorsteps 24/7 our altars and homes can easily turn into Egyptian tombs filled with all sorts of dwellings of power... 

The difference though is that in Ancient Egypt every vessel was there for a reason, assigned to a specific deity, clearly confined in its dwelling and arranged in harmony with the objects around it. If you are skilled enough to achieve such a supreme level of inner consistency and spiritual harmony on your altar please disregard this tip. All others might want to consider to clear out their altars and homes of open and unguarded spirit vessels. Because if you don’t confine and assign them to specific beings they are an open invitation to whatever astral worms happen to crawl by looking for a place to feed of... 

Suggestion: In order to simplify your magic every object on your altar needs to be an expression of clear and present intend. Check your own skill level and determine how many vessels of present living force you can hold in your mind at the same time? Then get rid of all others. Bin them or wrap them in pure silk and store them away until it’s time for them to be filled and harvested.  

4) Allow time to work for you. 

In magic time can be perceived as a force that constantly creates patterns. These patterns can either be left to organize themselves or they can be leveraged as boundaries to our magical work. Time patterns are essentially cyclical. They tend to be organized around a central pole or theme. The season of the year revolve around the sun, the signs of the zodiac and the phases of the moon revolve around the earth and even a song revolves around a central theme... 

We can use these patterns of time to our advantage in magic. Our ancestors can teach us a lot about them... The first step, however, is to find out around which pole the patterns of your magical life revolve right now? 

Consciously leveraging cyclical patterns of time on your journey can be hugely beneficial: Significant power will flow from attuning your body and mind to a specific rhythm of actions. Perform a small devotional rite, a gesture or exercise each morning at the same time, then close the circle by repeating it at night. When successful, expand the rhythm to embrace a whole week. Open the week with one exercise and close it again seven days later. Then go on to embrace a month, a season and finally a year or whole period of your life.

Suggestion: In order to simplify your magic start working actively with the patterns of time. Establishing a central theme or pole around which a period of time can revolve around will allow nature to actively support your workings. Living in tune with the tides of time is both an act of passive devotion as well as of active engagement. Thus attuning your magic to a rhythm of cyclical works can become a significant catalyst to your work. 

5) Train your patience.

In magic we all remain students for a lifetime. That's why there is absolutely no need to rush through things. Remember the length of your journey as well as the fact that you encounter many experiences and rites only once on your path. 

How often is it that only looking backwards we realize how significant certain moments in the past were for who we became since then? Taking the time to be present and to allow the moment to last until it is truly over seems to have become a rare skill among adepts - myself included. Still, there is an intimate relationship between us and every moment of magic we experience. Someone once said to me: Maybe we are afraid to stay in the present moment because it would be both risky and erotic? If we only allowed it to it would capture all our senses like a lover and start engaging with us like a living being... 

One way of developing this crucial skill can be to keep a list of all the wonderful ideas, sparks and innovations about your magic to come. Yet not to allow them to distract yourself from the work you are already involved in. Some might capture such a list at the end of their magical diaries. Others might write each idea down, then put it in an envelope and send it to themselves in order to be stored away until the time is right.

Suggestion: in order to simplify your magic allow yourself to be patient with the work you are carrying out. In magic just in life things will go downhill once we try to speed up the harvest. Just look at all the chemical fertilizers that pollute our land... Considering the length of your lives journey the moments where it takes true powerful magic to be performed will be special and rare. Seed these moments with patience and care. Then wait for them to unfold and help the seedlings to turn into trees.

::

Well, I thought about one more thing for this post. Yet, rather than another way to simplify magic it seems to be more of an underlying principle that holds true for all 5 steps above?

If I had to give it a name I'd call it: Safe energy. Avoid standbys. Actually it is just the same principle we are already being told over and over again by the green eco-movement: When leaving the house ensure the heater is off, the radio is out, the lights are switched off and - most important of all - all electronic devices with a standby button are fully unplugged. 

Standby clearly is one of the most stupid ideas ever invented in technology - looking simple and clean on the surface yet swallowing huge amount of resources in the background. However, just as we often fail to recognize this when dealing with technical devices we often miss that the same principle doesn't get any better if we apply it to our everyday lives...

Once we have set a magical act into motion it deserves to be finished. At all costs. Every circle opened deserves to be closed. If we think we can put this process on standby we might be surprised to find that in magic things tend to take on a life of its own if left to themselves... In which case the line of a circle might become the beginning of a maze - or even worse - the strap around your neck.

May the serpent always bite its tail.