Magic - Practicality, Speculation and Mysticism

 

A while back, Clifford Hartleigh Low published the following axiom on his Facebook page, which started up an interesting dialogue between various practitioners of ritual and ceremonial magic. I have a great deal of respect for Clifford and I have had the occasion of recently meeting and talking with him. He is a solid practitioner of magic, and I have no doubt about that, but he also loves to create controversies, and his statement on Facebook did instill quite a bit of back and forth discussions.

Here is what he said:

“Magic which has no practical aim is not actually mysticism, but performance art.”
Clifford Hartleigh Low - 8/27/2024

We should focus on the word “practical” since it is the key phrase that makes the whole sentence logical and sensible. I think examining the word in an online dictionary might be the place to start in attempting to carefully parse this statement. The reason I am recommending this approach is because there is a semantic trap placed into this sentence that makes it irrefutable.

Here is what the Merriam-Webster online diction has to say about the definition of the word “practical.” You can find it here.

Practical - of, relating to, or manifested in practice or action : not theoretical or ideal. Disposed to action as opposed to speculation or abstraction. Synonyms: useful - virtual - workable.

So the word “practical” is based on action that is useful, purposeful, and workable, as opposed to speculative, abstract or theoretical. We can assume that “practical aim” is anything that has a useful or workable purpose. Since any magic, even the most poorly contrived and badly performed, has some kind of aim or purpose, then it would fit the paradigm. By definition, any kind of magic or ceremony is performed with a purpose, focus, or aim in mind. So, is there such a thing as a magical ritual that has no practical aim? In order to understand this idea, we would need to find the antonym of practical and see how that would fit with the statement.

Antonyms of the word “practical” would be unrealistic, impractical, impracticable, useless, silly, idealistic, visionary, imprudent, and ridiculous. Looking at the antonyms gives us a better place to judge a magical working or ritual. If the aim is unrealistic, useless, silly, or even ridiculous, then it could be rejected as impractical. If someone were to perform magic whose aim was to be silly or even ridiculous then one could argue that it is not magic, but some kind of performance art that is being acted.

Somehow, I can’t imagine someone doing a parody of a magical rite, but then again, I have not seen everything that is being done out there in the world, and my public and online presence is rare these days. However, I have heard that YouTube and other online video shows contain some really idiotic and ridiculous performances that are supposedly being pawned off as legitimate magical workings. Yet I have so little time to go scouring the internet for false magic, and I would hope that a little bit of critical thinking can reveal when someone is selling something that is supposedly magical but actually is a delusion or a deceitful con.

This paradigm could be used as a weapon or tool to judge someone else’s magic as impractical, silly or even ridiculous. However, if the magic someone is performing actually works to any degree at all, then it meets the requirements of the paradigm. I have seen some of the most poorly done rituals and ceremonies, and somehow, they managed to work, although not always as advertised or planned. Magic is a peculiar phenomenon and it doesn’t function in a logical and linear fashion. So, someone can say that another magician’s magical rituals are just performance art and not real magic, but that doesn’t make it true. It is just another way of putting someone down at the expense of elevating oneself, and that kind of dick waving is just pathetic and boring.

The words “idealistic” and “visionary,” although impractical, might be something that we wouldn’t want to reject too quickly. However, the whole idea of the opposite of the word practical brings up the dichotomy of theory vs. practice, and this seems to be one of the conditions for the statement. Still, what we want to further examine are the concepts of ideation, vision, and theory as opposed to practice to fulfill the role of antithesis to the paradigm that Clifford said. I believe that we can dispense with discussing the parody of magic, even though sometimes it is important to laugh at ourselves and shake up our hubris and over-serious preoccupation with magic and the occult. Let us then examine the place that ideals, visions and theories pose in the working of magic, since I believe that this is the creative force that aids and directs what we develop and perform as a magical working.

I have often had dreams, visions or insights of the moment that lead to some really cutting edge breakthroughs in the development of my magical ritual lore. Additionally, I have done research, analyzing various topics in a purely speculative manner that has helped me to develop a new approach to ritual workings. Because I tend to work with themes in the rituals that I write, those characterizations of rituals are developed by doing research and examining hints and speculative insights that I might have at the time.

Categorizing ritual models, methodologies, and generalizing about certain classes of rituals can help me understand my direction, dimly illuminating the magical workings that I have performed in the past and how they impacted later workings, developing a kind of process time line. All of this is, of course, theory and speculation and it plays a critically important part in the building and developing magical systems. Is it part of the magic that I work? I believe that the answer has to be yes, it is a part of the magic that I work. However, this speculation and theorizing sometimes leads to dead-ends, but merely being able to analyze the magic that I develop and perform is important, even if it doesn’t directly lead to a new discovery or something of a practical value.

All of these activities are part of my initiatory process, and I would be narrow minded if I excluded them from my consideration about what is magic, and whether impractical or theoretical approaches are not also magical when in the context of my overall work. I can’t discriminate and judge some things to be inherently magical because they involve my practical work while other activity would be deemed either non-magical or perhaps even performance art? Am I doing this theoretical speculation just to amuse myself? This is where a practical application and a theoretical or speculative approach are both important to the practice of magic, and they cannot be separated. That would make Clifford’s paradigm to be more a kind of tautology than an accurate statement apprizing someone’s approach to magic as valid or invalid.

Mysticism, however, is another whole subject area unto itself, although magic and mysticism can merge in the areas of theurgy and the ultimate goal, which is union with the Godhead. Still, the methods and the approach are completely different. Qabalah in its purest form is a type of mysticism, but when merged with ritual or ceremonial magic, it becomes a very high form of theurgy, and in fact, that was likely the intent of the savants who developed the original Kabbalah in the middle ages. None of these methodologies lack purpose, direction, objectives or precise ritual steps; thus none of them would ever be considered performance art.

There is merit in Clifford’s paradigm, which is to separate the sublime from the ridiculous, and to filter out those who promote types of magic that are not magic at all but forms of entertainment. It is also rewarding to think about magic in different ways and to examine our work in a dialectic conversation. In our online media-saturated world, there are all kinds of posers and con artists, and some of them pretend to be Witches, Pagans, ceremonial or ritual magicians. However, anyone who is seriously seeking to discover the meaning and purpose of their lives in this world through the art and practice of magic, will likely perform rites and ceremonies that have a very sober purpose and an objective.

Frater Barrabbas

Sage vs Mage in Ritual Magic

In our imagination, we have two characters from our folklore, and these are the mage and the sage. A mage is, of course, a magician, with his tall cap, long white beard and staff, typically associated with Merlin or later, Gandalf. He is the great wizard who can summon angels, demons and demigods. A sage is more obscure, being a person who is wise, the counselor of great leaders and the author and exemplar of religious or philosophical movements. A sage can also be a holy man, or wise religious leader, representing the mystical side of the human experience. These two individuals as archetypes represent two different facets, one is the magician and the other is a religious leader. They would seem to represent diametrically opposed factions of magic and mysticism, and in medieval Christian Europe, this was a popular theme, although it was more complicated in reality than it was perceived in popular folklore. However, the sage and mage were seen as one and the same in the Greco-Roman world, since philosophers were often believed to have arcane powers and occult knowledge.

Magic and religion have always intertwined and intersected at various points, although it is religion, or in the guise of philosophy, that has appeared mostly dominant in that relationship. The archetypal magician that emerged in late middle ages seems to embody both a religious role and a strictly magical one. Grimoires from the past age contain ceremonies and tasks best performed by a cleric, or by a hired cleric for the use of a lay-person or secular ritualist. This is because the spirits that were the target of invocation or evocation were wrapped up in religious beliefs and liturgical lore, and Christianity blurred the boundary between what was supposedly secular philosophy and religious tenants, becoming what was considered then as the highest form of intellectual activity, which was theology. It was Christian theology that embodied both the religious ethos of the time and also, unwittingly, a magical ethos. Thus magic had to appear intermixed with religious rites to engage in a kind of sacred technology.

While European ceremonial magic in its early period (11th - 14th century) was nominally a system of angel magic, functioning as an adjunct practice of trained clerics or monks associated with their sacred duties and almost sacramental in their practice, all of this changed in the early Renaissance. It was at that point when religious practices and the practice of magic began to diverge, and also when the trafficking with demons began to take prominence in the various grimoires and manuscripts on magic at that time. While the Christian Church divorced itself from the practice of even positive and constructive forms of magic, the emerging lay population of academics and their student followers began to engage in these discarded methodologies, and sought to capitalize on the powers and abilities associated with goetic demons despite the proscriptions of the Church.

The practice of engaging with negative or hostile spirits was not new to the traditions of magic, since it had its sources in antiquity with the practices of the goetic shamans who intervened in ghostly hauntings and served chthonic deities, it was redefined as demonology by a Christianized culture. Still, from the 16th to through the 17th century, which was the golden age of grimoires, the magician was required to curry the favor of God and to assume a level of spiritual purification before being granted the authority and power over neutral or demonic spirits. Magic still had a very religious foundation, and those who wished to evoke and coerce demons to satisfy their material-based ambitions had to assume a level of spiritual superiority over the spirits that they commanded. One can see this everywhere in the grimoires of the previous age, as the invocations to the Deity, the prayers, the assumed piety, the expiation and a strict requirement for a degree of spiritual purity still was considered essential to the practice of sorcery. This is because it was believed that only by the mercy and power of God could a magician be warded and escape the wily onslaughts, deceit and cunning of demons.

After the 16th century, magic started to become religiously agnostic and morally ambivalent, as it was practiced by individuals who had little relationship to religious practices other than being a lay person attendant at religious observances. They did not need to engage in an authoritative manner with the Deity, since vesting themselves in the superficial accouterments of their faith seemed adequate to deal with wayward demons. The church had lost its precedence over the practice of magic, and even the presumption of holiness was replaced by a nominal faith and belief in the process, but with the self-serving aim of personal enrichment, or the enrichment of clients who were willing to pay dearly for this service.

Parallel to the practice of ceremonial magic in the 17th century were the practices of alchemy and astrology. Additionally, there began to be an interest in hidden or occultic knowledge, and the fraternal organizations that began to be seen in Europe were first associated with the Rosicrucian movement begun in the early part of century, and then through the decades became a real underground movement that involved the study of the Jewish Kabbalah, alchemy, astrology, and also, to a lesser extent, ceremonial magic. In the 18th century, these secret societies were popularized by Masonry and various Masonic offshoots. The Illuminati had their origin at this time, and there were also the practices of Egyptian Masonry, and many other similar secret organizations. Still, it would seem that the Masonic movement, the Protestant Reformation, and the various secret brotherhoods had pushed the practice of ceremonial magic into a more secular and non-religious environment, where the individual through their piety and personal fortitude, could command spirits and demons to do their will. However, magic had already seen its popularity begin to fade, and the social myth of the magician was seen as an erroneous or fraudulent path to wisdom and power.

By the time of the end of the 18th century and the beginning of the 19th century, ceremonial magic became the proclivity of the eccentric, the occultist, the madman or the charlatan. The magician seemed like the antithesis to the religious leader, or sage, both great and small; but was also at odds with the ascending scientism of the academics. Magic was an unsanctioned, underground practice of dubious individuals, since it had been drained of most of its religiosity, and infused with a materialistic and cynical ambition to manipulate the world against the rational prejudice and derision of science. As magic became degraded, the image of the magician appeared to be consigned to the ash heap of history, and the mythic image and folklore seemed to show that any attempt to acquire power, material gain, and unsanctioned wisdom by making a pact with Satan always ended badly. This was when the myth of Faustus seemed to cast magic in a dark light, even though the myth of Faust had ironically started an occult magical movement in Germany. Thus, magic became the interesting topic of the collectors and copyists of obscure manuscripts of the previous age, but serious engagement seemed lacking. The Magus was published around this time, but it was likely the last gasp of a dying tradition. Some occultists continued to examine and study magic, such as Eliphas Levi, who sought to revitalize the practice, but who actually was never a practitioner himself. It remained the proclivity of the few, and was fading into complete obscurity as the 19th century and its emphasis on the material sciences gained precedence.

In the late nineteenth century, with the advent of the Theosophical Society and various occult groups such as the Golden Dawn, ceremonial magic was rehabilitated. Yet its more religious attributes were no longer represented in the 19th century Victorian culture. Therefore, it continued to be treated and engaged with in a more secular manner than what would have been considered a proper mental condition for working these rites in the previous age. The Golden Dawn brought to its members and later the world, a whole new style of working magic that merged occult concepts, various Qabalistic tables of correspondences and rituals to engage with various kinds of spirits into the purview of the magical practitioner. The pentagram became the tool for engaging with the elementals, and the hexagram, the tool of planetary and talismanic magic. Angels were incorporated into rites of warding and protection, but a ritual used to invoke an angel or evoke a demon into manifestation was not part of this corpus.

However, the basic ritual practices, such as the watchtower rituals, the banishing and invoking rites of the pentagram and hexagram, gave the adept practitioner the basic lore needed to engage with the old grimoires. Without the archaic religious praxis, the old grimoires were likely not very accessible to the modern public, so the Golden Dawn provided a body of rituals that would establish a surrogate or replacement methodology that made these magical books accessible. Grimoires from the previous age were starting to become available, first in manuscript form in the GD, and then in published books. Those individuals who had mastered the basic ritual workings of the Golden Dawn could then apply this knowledge to unlocking the grimoires, and this what they did. It began a kind of accelerated process that is still going on today, with more and more of these magic books being published and made available.

With all of the new magical tech that the Golden Dawn invented and disseminated to its membership, probably the most important practice was godhead assumption. There was also a kind of sympathy for the polytheism of antiquity, that was taken to a greater level of engagement by Mathers, Brodie, Crowley, Fortune, and others. The early twentieth century saw the beginnings of a pagan religious movement, which was an alternative to Christianity. Margarete Murray published books on the Witchcraft cult of the previous age, and this was the beginning of a movement of popular and romantic thought that would culminate in the birth of modern Witchcraft. These new fledgling religions saw themselves as the repository of both a modern polytheistic religious practice and the engagement and practice of modern occultism. Nearly all of the founders for the various pagan and wiccan groups were also practicing occultists, and so much of that lore found its way into these groups, along with both modern religious perspectives (post-Christian) as well as fragments of ancient lore, but also, the practice of magic. Murray had made magic central to the Witch cult of the previous age, and this notion was fully captured in these new groups.

While Crowley was instrumental in bringing the practice of magic into the 20th century, his invention of a new religion seemed to be a requirement for participation in this system of magic that he brought to his Thelemic followers. Crowley’s religion, Thelema, was actually the first of the polytheistic pagan traditions that would be come abundant in the later part of the 20th century. Crowley also made magic the central tenant of his religion, and this was also a model for the other and later organizations. Despite the fact that Thelema was such a new and compelling religious perspective, along with the required practice of magic, his organization of the Ordo Templi Orientis nearly ceased to exist after his death. The post world-war period of the 1950's was more about reconstruction and finding balance in the Cold War era than engaging in various forms of occultism. Still, this profound phenomenon of religious, occultic, and magical development went into a kind of stasis after the Second World War. It was only in the 1960's that this modern engagement with magic returned along with many other alternative spiritual and occultic perspectives that were part of the counter cultural youth movement.

During the late 1960's and into the decades following, the modern Pagan and Witchcraft movements, along with the OTO, and many other newly founded traditions, proposed a religious system that combined the practice of religion and magic as a single praxis. In the Pagan and Witchcraft traditions, the central liturgical rite was a form of godhead assumption that had been taken and modified from the Golden Dawn tradition, and this brought a dimension of immanent spirituality into the group practices that had no precedence in Western European religions since antiquity. It allowed for individuals to impersonate and assume the characteristics and qualities of the pagan Deities that they were worshiping to the intimate contact and communion with their group. This is a clear case of channeling the Deity, and this would have a profound effect on the one personifying the Deity and the group who functioned as the witnesses and benefactors of that spiritual outpouring.

Since magic was considered a central tenant of this new religious movement, then godhead assumption would therefore become a part of the magic that was also performed. The liturgical rites would blend into the magical, since there was nothing to really distinguish them. It is this very consideration that I followed in developing my own system of magic based on the central liturgical practices of modern Witchcraft, but I am certain that I am not alone in this practice. However, what I was not aware of at the time was that this approach of merging religious liturgy and magic together had a truly ancient precedence that echoed from the Greco-Roman world of the philosophers and their practices, to the monks and clerics practicing angel magic, to Witches and Pagans practicing both religious rites and magic together. This is where the Sage and the Mage become fully united once again in the practice of Western religion and magic. While Catholicism had stripped itself of all ceremonial magic associated with the rites of the Mass and its ancillary practices especially in Vatican II, modern Paganism and Witchcraft had restored them, and in fact, made them even greater. Magic practiced in the guise of religion has also another provenance, which is theurgy, the methods of magic used by the philosophers of antiquity.

As a Witch Elder and Ritual Magician of the post modern age, I see myself as both a sage and a mage, embodying both perspectives as a single system of magical practice and religious engagement with the inner and outer worlds of spirit, mind and body. I see these two practices of religion and magic in perfect balance with each other, and I am engaging in developing a magical practice that can elevate the operator to the highest states of enlightened being, merging also magic and mysticism together. If there is a unitary function in the modern Pagan and Witchcraft religions, then this holistic practice represents the both the foundation and the zenith of our aspirations.

Frater Barrabbas

I am NOT a Ceremonial Magician

It still keeps happening. People refer to my writings as “ceremonial magic” and to me as a ceremonial magician. In some cases, it is used as a pejorative, as if being a ceremonial magician means that I am not really a Witch, Pagan, or a self-made magical user. Of course, I clearly am all of those, but I am not a ceremonial magician, and what I promote as a system of magic is not ceremonial magic. I have written about this issue before, but because it still occurs, even innocently by people who either don’t know much about magic, or by those who should actually know better, I feel the need to restate it here in this article.

Ironically, ceremonial magicians have unequivocally stated that the magic I promote is not ceremonial magic, and that makes me not one of them. If ceremonial magicians don’t think that I am a ceremonial magician, then I must not be a ceremonial magician. That is quite logical. After all, they should know their own kind. In fact, one Thelemite ceremonial magician years ago said that my magic “stinks of Witchcraft,” which is an impolite way of saying that there are strong and obvious traces of my Witchcraft roots in the magic that I perform and promote in my books. There are also some traces of the magical ritual system of the Golden Dawn, but the base and foundation of the magic that I work is completely founded on the rituals of Gardnerian-Alexandrian Witchcraft. I use a consecrated magic circle to start all of my ritual workings, and I don’t use the LBRP or the LIRP (lesser pentagram banishing and invoking rituals) to begin my workings. That fact, right away, should distinguish me from a ceremonial magician. I also don’t rely on the writings of any grimoires, modern or ancient, so overall, that would make my rituals to not be a part of the corpus of ceremonial magic, and thus, I am not a ceremonial magician.

So what exactly is ceremonial magic? Some have said that it is specifically Golden Dawn magic, but that would only cover elemental and talismanic magical workings. To invoke angels or demons, a magician would have to employ other magical tech, and this is where the old grimoires of the previous age have their value. The author Joseph Liziewski promoted a grimoire only and spirit model only methodology of magic that appeared to give precedence to the grimoires from the Renaissance over any modern system of magic. While his methodologies have been seriously questioned, the movement that he created established a theme and definition for ceremonial magic. It became associated with a combination of Golden Dawn magic along with the older grimoires, and the four books of Occult Philosophy variously written by Agrippa that also became available to the reading public. Throw in the writings of Paracelsus and the Hermetic corpus and you have the defined discipline of ceremonial magic. It is a hybrid of old and new tech, but it relies on the themes and methodologies established in the previous age and reinterpreted to fit into the practices and beliefs of the post-modern world. While Liziewski promoted regaining a kind of orthodox religious approach, such as Catholicism or Calvinistic Protestant Christianity, others have either approached this kind of magical working with either a Thelemic, archaic Christian, or even a kind of religious agnosticism. There was an important reason that Liziewski promoted regaining an orthodox faith, as we shall see.

The big question is where do I fit in within this collection of old and new magical methodologies? And the answer is, I don’t fit in. While it is true that I have purloined and appropriated various lore, barbarous words of evocation, sigils, seals and notae into my magical practice, the entire methodology of how I work magic and my perspective on magical tech is quite different than what ceremonial magicians are using in their work. We are both engaging in a practice that is part of the occulture of the post modern age, and our activities are performed in a modern world ruled by science.

Ceremonial magic is a hybrid of new and old practices, particularly since the religious and spiritual perspectives of the 16th and 17th century are no longer either relevant or even in evidence today. That mind-set has to be recreated within a modern intellectual context, and with the social and cultural influences of academia and science, it is all too obviously contrived and fantasized, becoming part of the “As If” function of the psychological model of magic. This fact doesn’t either diminish nor falsify the practice of ceremonial magic. It is an component that all practitioners use to break out of the imposed rationality of the scientific and secular social perspective in which we live. It’s just that where I have no problem admitting this fact, other practitioners, especially ceremonial magicians, seem to deny that it is a critical factor in their magical work. It would also nullify the belief that ceremonial magicians use only the spirit model in their magic, but that is a topic for another article.

Principally, what distinguishes the magic that I work is that every magical working that I perform begins with a godhead assumption and has, therefore, a component of liturgical obligations and practices that are an integral part of my magic. This methodology was developed in the Golden Dawn, but it became a central liturgical event in modern Witchcraft and Paganism. It was not used as a mask to empower the magician, as it was used in the Golden Dawn, but more as a means to directly contact, engage and embody Pagan Deities for an intimate communion. Since modern Witchcraft and Paganism does not make a distinction between religion and magic, liturgical practices are also considered magical practices, and this makes the kind of magic performed by these adherents more like a form of theurgy than a form of ceremonial magic. The fact that a Witch or Pagan is performing magic in the guise and impersonation of a godhead makes that magic quite different than what a ceremonial magician would perform.

While a religious engagement is not specifically required in the modern practice of ceremonial magic, it still has a part to play in the invocation/evocation of angels and demons. The first stage in summoning a spirit is purification, and that might include a more rigorous alignment of the magician to either an orthodox religious practice or one that is aligned to modern faiths, such as Thelema. The old grimoires are filled with prayers and exhortations to a monotheistic Godhead, so one would think that the magician would have to have some kind of psychological alignment to that Deity in order to make such words of power effective and potent. There is also an element of self-abasement and expiation that goes with the purification process. While a magician could lightly skip through this first step for evocation, it would make the overall magical approach weakened and less significantly meaningful. This is the reason why Lisiewski proposed that ceremonial magicians adopt some kind of orthodox religious engagement so that the context of the prayers, invocations and exhortations in the old grimoires would be more personally meaningful and psychologically potent.

Additionally, a ceremonial magician would rely on the themes, structures, guidelines, and translated verbiage of the grimoire text, treating it as the final authority. They must adhere faithfully to the testaments of the old grimoire and only make substitutions where otherwise absolutely required to complete the working. What that means is that the grimoire is the primary ruling guide for the working, and mistakes, deviations, and unwarranted substitutions could cause the working to fail. Because our minds are shaped by our culture and the prevalence of science and secular government, a ceremonial magician must spend a great deal of time erasing that mind-set and imbuing it with a spiritual perspective that would allow for the practice of invocative magic. That process, then, becomes the focus and principal foundation for learning to master the magic of the old grimoires, which means that a faithful adherence to the rites and practices, and the archaic religious immersion, becomes the ruling methodology for a successful ceremonial magician. A mistake in performing a ritual could require the magician to banish and later have to redo it since some degree of perfection is required. As you can see, the whole discipline of ceremonial magic, especially when using the old grimoires, is a rigorous and strict methodology, which is similar to what Lisiewski was originally promoting in his books. One has to replace the missing cultural and religious key-stone that was a part of the practice of magic in the previous age to effectively use the old grimoires in the current age.

Working magic through a Pagan or Witchcraft religious praxis, even with the rites of spirit conjuring, is completely different than what is done in ceremonial magic. This is why I refer to the kind of magic performed by Pagans and Witches as ritual magic as opposed to ceremonial magic. I would include some Thelemites in this group, and I believe that most of them perform magic using the pagan model established by Crowley. Thelema has similarities to modern Witchcraft and Paganism. In many cases, Thelemic religious practices are more like their Witchcraft and Pagan cousins, and it some ways, they are almost identical. This is because Thelema was the first and earliest magical practice to depart from the monotheistic faiths that have dominated the practice of ceremonial magic in the West. As long as one engages in the core rite of godhead assumption and connects that to a Pagan liturgical practice, then a Thelemite would be considered a ritual magician instead of a ceremonial magician, although I have met many who prefer to be considered ceremonial magicians.

One very important factor in the practice of ritual magic as opposed to ceremonial magic is the use of the godhead assumption rite, and that core liturgy trumps any other external religious or magical process. What that means is that the ritual magician is free to incorporate whatever materials that they find are useful, esthetically pleasing or empowering from a myriad of modern occult or antique sources, and thereby build up their own personal magical practice. The Godhead that they worship, embody and personify, gives them the authority to do whatever is required to make their magic effective and empowering. That means that performing a ritual can allow for a greater degree of flexibility, allowing the ritual magician to make inspired changes to the ritual working as it is being performed. I have experienced this kind of phenomenon myself, and it always leads to a more interesting and empowering outcome. The will of the practitioner is aligned with the will of the chosen godhead, and invariably, as ritual magicians become more accomplished and linked to that godhead, the more the magic that they perform becomes a form of theurgy, or god-based work. I have found that Theurgy is the most effective form of magic, outside of talismanic magic, and it is baked into the practices of ritual magic,

Another significant factor in the magic that I work is that the magic circle that I employ is a boundary between the sacred and the profane worlds, representing a demarcation that divides the world into a sacred precinct enclosed within the circle, and the profane, mundane world external to it. The circle is not a protection from spiritual contagion, since everything that a Witch or Pagan would conjure, summon, invoke or generate occurs within the circle. Unlike the circle used in a ceremonial magical rite, there is no external gateway or magic triangle where the conjured spirit might appear, constrained and controlled. A ceremonial magician uses an empowered magic circle to protect them from the spirits that they invoke. A Witch or Pagan performs all of their magic within their magic circle, and the spirit appears within that domain, so the operator must have assumed a powerful godhead to protect and authorize them to command spirits and to diplomatically treat with them as allies, with agreements and offerings. In a Witchcraft circle, one does not peer into the spirit world with a magic mirror or shew stone since the spirit world is all around those who are within the magic circle. While a scrying device can be used to receive portents, prophecies and visions, within the sacred space of a magic circle, any form of divination becomes a sacred rite of revelation. Thus, a Witch or Pagan performs ritual magic and experiences a full immersion into the domain of the summoned or conjured spirit.

As you can see, the practice of ceremonial magic and ritual magic are fundamentally different, and a ritual magician requires a very different approach to their magic than what a ceremonial magician would require. Gaining a strong alignment with a personal aspect of their chosen Deity is of paramount importance to the practicing ritual magician, and they begin this work as a Witch or a Pagan learning to perform their basic liturgical exercises, gradually becoming more experienced, aligned and then linked to that Deity over time. When they have matured in this liturgical work then they are ready to begin to practice more advanced forms of magic, functioning as a ritual magician within their Witchcraft or Pagan praxis.

This represents the path that I have followed since the early 1970's, and I have grown and matured following it, inventing a complete system and methodology of magic during my journey. I consider myself a self-made ritual magician through and through. While I may distinguish myself and what I do regarding my practice of magic, I also respect all other methods and techniques of magic, both modern and antique. My respect, however, doesn’t stop me from appropriating lore from the magic of the previous age, but then I am merely following the guidance and precepts as inspired by my Deities, so I don’t incur any blame or fault for taking this kind of cavalier approach. I believe that magicians in previous ages followed this practice, acquiring religious and ritual lore from numerous source and using that to build up their lore and repertoire of spells and rites.

Therefore, now that I have spent some time writing this article to explain why I do not practice ceremonial magic and that I am not a ceremonial magician, it is my hope that folks will fully realize that I am quite serious when I make this distinction. What I am is a Witch and a ritual magician, and I am proud to make that claim.

Frater Barrabbas

A Tale of Two Nations or One Nation Divided

Election day has passed, and the results are as fearful and ignominious as the political pundits predicted it would be if Trump were reelected. While I was surprised at the results, I wasn’t really shocked. I had already written an article recently about how we live in a world of stupid people. My opinion was corroborated by an interesting exit poll that was performed during the election. The results are quite easy to understand.

“According to the final NBC News poll of the 2024 race, 76% of registered voters said they follow public affairs and politics closely. The poll showed Harris winning among that group by 5 points over Donald Trump, 52%-47%.

But among the remaining quarter of voters who said they don’t follow politics closely, Trump was ahead by a much greater margin — 14 points, 54%-40%.”

What this exit poll indicates is that those who were engaged and followed public affairs voted to elect Harris as president, and not Donald Trump. While this an aggregate poll, it is likely to have helped Harris to win the battle-ground states and to be the president-elect. The other group couldn’t be bothered to pay attention to what was happening, and they didn’t seem to be disturbed by Trump and the fact that he was a convicted felon, attributed rapist, twice impeached, and attempted to overthrow the last election, as well as held and misused classified documents, jeopardizing our national security. This is a candidate who declared that he would order to set up detention camps for illegal aliens, sneered at the idea of upholding the constitution, and promised to function as a dictator on the first day of his presidency if elected. All of these items would have killed anyone else’s candidacy, and even the factor that he will soon be 80 years old and is obviously suffering from the beginnings of dementia did nothing to deter these low information voters from voting for him. The fact that Biden was pressured to drop out because of his age demonstrates how Trump always gets a pass for his speeches and weird behavior.

I am not questioning the intelligence of those who voted for him, but I am calling to attention their obvious lack of civic responsibility. Some of them ardently belong to the Trump cult of personality, and some of them are hardened right-wing aficionados or Christian Nationalists, but that would be only be around 30% of the electorate, so the rest are just plain too busy living their lives to really engage with their civic duty to be informed. Yes, in a word, these people are ignorant, and they are selfishly motivated to be this way. I can only hope that they rue the day they voted for Trump as president, and then, maybe if it's not too late, get more involved in knowing what is really happening to their country.

We are all going to be victimized by an angry, aggrieved Trump and his cadre of lick-spittle lackeys, but as for those who unwittingly voted for Trump, they bought it and they now own it. Hopefully, they will actually realize their folly so that things can be rectified in the next two election cycles. I won’t hold my breath expecting that to happen anytime soon, but I can at least hope for the best and prepare for the worst.

As you can no doubt see, I belong to the first group of people who are engaged and follow public affairs and politics closely. I live in a media world where I get my information from a number of different news sources including ones from Europe. Yet it seems that I live in a different country and hold ideas and beliefs that represent a stark contrast to what the average American believes.

My fellow Americans have always lionized the country hick, the urban troglodyte, and the hosts of average although stupid people as the “common man” over the intellectual, the academic, or the expert. In American culture, common sense was always considered to be of greater value than what was believed or expressed by scientists, academics, and experts, who have been classified as elitists. Uneducated folks were seen to possess common sense in greater amounts than those who were highly educated, and that being average and ill informed was a badge of honor. I believe that it is now revealed as our Achilles heel, and being ill informed in the advent of the cyber age is likely suicidal.

Americans seem to mistrust mainstream news outlets, and although they are all biased to some degree, using critical thinking skills can extract the truth from the bias. News that is based on conspiracy theories, deliberate misinformation, inexpert opinions, hearsay or propaganda is not so easily parsed, especially if one possesses a woefully inadequate base of knowledge. In fact, it appears that most Americans are getting their news these days from news influencers instead of accredited news sources. Here is an interesting study of that phenomenon by Pew Research.

“A unique Pew Research Center study provides a deeper understanding of both the makeup of the news influencer universe and its audience. The project includes an in-depth examination of a sample of 500 popular news influencers and the content they produce, derived from a review of more than 28,000 social media accounts. We also conducted a nationally representative survey of Americans to better understand who regularly gets news from news influencers.

Key findings about news influencers

•    About one-in-five Americans – including a much higher share of adults under 30 (37%) – say they regularly get news from influencers on social media.
•    News influencers are most likely to be found on the social media site X, where 85% have a presence. But many also are on other social media sites, such as Instagram (where 50% have an account) and YouTube (44%).
•    Slightly more news influencers explicitly identify as Republican, conservative or pro-Donald Trump (27% of news influencers) than Democratic, liberal or pro-Kamala Harris (21%).
•    A clear majority of news influencers are men (63%).
•    Most (77%) have no affiliation or background with a news organization.”

I can tell you with all sincerity that I don’t trust news influencers, and in fact I use a factual and skeptical approach to viewing the news. Still, a large percentage of Americans get their news from You Tube, X, Instagram, Google News, Tiktok, or various other obviously tainted right-wing sources too numerous to list here. It has been suggested that reading and listening to news sources that are misleading or completely spurious can dumb-down a population. People who watch Fox News are so less informed than others who watch other networks and that they seem to be less intelligent over time. This kind of misinformation noise will make a national public less able to perform their civic duty, such as voting as a properly informed public, if one bothers to vote at all.

This is a calamity that is happening right now for all to see. And the biggest victims are young, single men, who are showing themselves as being the most gullible for hard right-wing propaganda. These are a group of people who over-all are less educated and underemployed, but who consume the internet media at a greater level than anyone else. They are also more likely to be single without much chance of finding a partner, and also having the means to buying their own home. What they have going for them is that they are W.A.S.P.s, and so there is a desperate need to maintain and expand their entitlement and white privilege, and Neo Nazi groups are happy to oblige and make them feel valued and important. They also get a nod from Donald Trump who they assume is like them. He has become a role model for what the underemployed white males see as the definition of a rich, entitled, and powerful man. Elon Musk is the same kind of role model for them, even though the very wealthy did not start out as poor folk. They had the benefits of being born into a position and were given financial help that greatly aided their pursuit of wealth and power.

All of these factors played a role in helping to elect Trump to a second term. Biden was poorly represented in the news, and his accomplishments and competent governance were fully ignored. Biden probably should have declared himself a one term president and then allowed the Democrats to vote for his replacement, instead of bowing out after undue pressure and giving his running mate only a hundred days to run for office. So some of the blame goes to Biden for making some poor choices and not promoting his accomplishments. The Democratic Party was also to blame for not promoting all of the things that they did during the last two terms to help the American people.

Exit polls showed that people had made up their mind much earlier about who they were going to vote for in the election, and that the electorate was angry about Covid19, the post pandemic inflation hike, the border crisis caused mostly by the instability in Venezuela and Haiti, and of course, the war in Gaza and Lebanon. It created a perfect storm of bad press for Biden, and dropped his approval levels to the high 30's. While Harris sought to overcome that headwind, she was not successful, largely due to a press that devalued her abilities and contributions. However, the greatest amount of blame goes to the low information and disengaged idiots who voted for Trump. Despite everything that went against Biden, and later Harris, Trump represented a far, far worse choice. And my stupid American brothers and sisters went ahead and voted for him because of various, unsupported and spurious reasons. They were angry, afraid, and blamed the incumbents, especially Democrats, and spitefully voted them out of office in sufficient numbers to give the Republicans a ruling trifecta. What awaits our nation will only truly benefit the oligarchy, the rest of us are going to be screwed royally.  

So why am I writing yet another politically inspired diatribe about the latest election that so dismayed me? Does it make any difference to the practice of magic, occultism, and being a Witch and a religiously polytheistic person? As a well-paid IT professional, will I feel the effects of four more years of the nihilistic wing of the Republican Party? The answer to all of those questions is a definitive yes! I am writing because I am concerned about our future nation, one which I love and respect, but also acknowledge as flawed and a work-in-progress. I believe that four years of Trump will be an even greater disaster than the first four years. My only hope is that his inherent incompetence and laziness, and the feckless stupidity of his minions, will attempt a grand scheme to make this country into a one party state, but who will fail in the end. I fervently hope that the incoming regime has only two years to do its worst before the midterms shut them down.

Those are my hopes, but my “hopium” has been severely challenged over the last ten years in a way that I never imagined it would. It is based on my optimistic belief in humanity and my fellow Americans. It is with this in mind that I face a future that is potentially darker and more desperate than I believed it would be, just because of one man and his sick, vindictive, and delusional pursuits, all in the name of making the world a better place just for him.

Still, millions of people voted for Trump and the Republican party, and the will of the people is now known. Many think that Trump is the lesser evil in our political civil war between the two parties. They see the Democrats as elitists and out of touch with the common folk, even though there are many of us, such as myself, who are not at all elitist who voted for them as the obvious choice. Trump has made his dystopian world view quite plain, and his plans for rectifying the ills of an imaginary failing country that doesn’t even exist will be far worse than the world we have at present. Many think that nothing really bad will happen, and that the Democrats have painted Trump as some kind of vicious and vile autocrat, when he is just an entertaining politician who likes to say crazy shit to shock the liberals. I disagree, it will be as bad or worse for the next two years, and maybe slightly better in the next two years, and maybe we will recover after the Trump presidency has finally ended. Democrats are always having to clean up the mess that Republicans make when attempting to govern. I hope that there is still be some semblance of a representational democracy in this nation when the Democrats get back into power.

So, just in case you still don’t believe that a Trump presidency will impact you and your family very much and you might be thinking that I am being too pessimistic about the future of our nation in the hands of Trump and his minions. Here is something to think about, and it’s coming to us all starting early next year.

“Trump has named three deportation hardliners to key positions in his administration, including Stephen Miller as deputy chief of staff for policy, Kristi Noem for secretary of Homeland Security and Tom Homan as ‘border czar.’  

Miller is likely to be especially influential and especially brutal. [...]

...even ‘documented’ immigrants will not be safe, because Miller has declared that he will pursue the seldom-used process of ‘denaturalization’ to go after people who have been citizens for years or decades, based on suspicions about purported fraud on their naturalization applications. Individuals stripped of citizenship will then be subject to deportation along with Miller’s other targets.”

Everyone knows that immigrants and illegal aliens who work in this country take the jobs that nobody either wants or can manage on the very low wages that they are paid. Agriculture, construction, food processing, cleaning, janitorial and low-level maintenance, and many other jobs are performed by these people who faithfully perform these low paying jobs and don’t represent a threat to anyone. Take them out of the economy and you have some pretty steep inflation, when commodities, construction, cleaning and maintenance become too expensive or non-existent. Add tariffs into this toxic brew and you have a recipe for a very heavily impacted economy, certainly a recession, but maybe even a depression. Angry because of previous inflationary prices? A Trump economy might actually make prices drop after they go sky high, but by then no one will be able to afford the basics except for the rich.

This is just a preview of what is in store for us next year. Trump will have two years of unlimited power before the body politic realizes their mistake and punishes the Republican incumbents and possibly, changes the balance of power in Washington. A blue wave for the mid-terms would likely become a tsunami at the end of Trump’s final term in office. It is doubtful that anyone can replace him, and it is likely that the worst elements of our population will crawl back into the woodwork where they came. I can at least hope that is the outcome we will experience. Yet living with such stupid fellow Americans has taught me that the best possible outcome will likely be diluted or nonexistent as the siege of online disinformation continues without any kind of mitigation, and people become less curious and more ignorant.

Until that time of reckoning, I will live in one world, founded on facts, critical thinking, skepticism, and rational reasoning. It is a world of inclusion, love, unity, diversity, tolerance, and freedom; where my freedoms are guarded and guaranteed by government institutions and the fourth estate. My other fellow Americans will live in world founded on lies, epistemic closure, conspiracy beliefs, fear, loathing the “other,” exclusion, White Supremacy, bigotry, racism, misogyny, and unfounded hatred. It is a tale of two countries, divided by the ideals of light and darkness, compassion and anger. I believe that my concept of America will win over the other, darker and dystopian version; but what is left after four years of Trump, and how readily the damage will be fixed, is the great undecided question.

If this evil that “we the people” have evoked onto ourselves continues after Trump is gone, then those who are not white Christian Nationalists or their religious allies will find themselves in grave jeopardy and may have to either leave this once great country, or suffer unwarranted persecution, imprisonment and even execution. You’ve been warned, the outcome of our future is in the hands of stupid people, so let’s help them to understand that the future could be bright if we unite and give up fear and darkness and embrace the greater good.

Frater Barrabbas

Dreams and Mysterious Teachings

A couple of nights ago I had a strange dream that occurred during the morning before waking for the day. This is not unusual for me because I have been a lucid dreamer since I was a child. However, only rarely do I receive creditable magical lore during that period of lucid dreaming, and that morning I got something really quite interesting given to me by sources unknown. This might also have to do with the interaction that I have had with Lee, my acquisition’s editor at Cross Crow Books, who has guided me to add non-gendered roles and attributes to older rituals that did not previously have such considerations. The idea of non-gendered energy fields may have come from that interaction.

I dreamt that I was with some local Witches and Pagans, and they were obviously complex gendered, and I wanted to help them perform magic in an outdoor grove. And one of them asked me, “Can you work with non-gendered energy, because that is what we will be seeking to generate?” I had to pause because I have been a proponent of magical energies gendered as archetypal masculine and feminine, which I referred to in my writings as creative and receptive. However, after a moment’s hesitation, I replied, “I think that I can do that”, and joined them in generating power in a grove compass round. I modified my approach and successfully emulated what they were doing and worked with them to generate a field of energy in the grove. Then I began to wake up, and I heard a voice in my head tell me, “This is how you would do this kind of activity using a ritual structure in your system of magic.”

Then as I awoke, I saw a ritual structure appear in my mind, and I was quite amazed how simple and obvious it was, and that I had never thought about using such a ritual structure in any of my workings. It was a new kind of hybrid vortex that uses invoking pentagram devices set to the four angles, but set in such a way that they canceled each other out, producing a kind of void or neutral energy field. Needless to say, I was quite intrigued and excited by this revelation. I guess you could accurately define me as being a kind of occult nerd or witchy dude who gets excited by a newly discovered ritual pattern. Sort of like a butterfly or coin collector encountering a wholly new specimen. Because I use a methodology that allows for many different kinds of combinations of devices and patterns structured within an eight-point magic circle, there are likely many variations that I have not attempted or even imagined.

So, the ritual pattern outline that I dreamed up with would look a lot like this example.

1. Operator proceeds to the Southeast Angle and with the dagger, draws an obverse invoking pentagram of Air and projects into it a yellow energy.
2. Operator proceeds to the Southwest Angle and draws an obverse invoking pentagram of Fire and projects into it a red energy.
3. Operator proceeds to the Northwest Angle and draws an inverted invoking pentagram of Water and projects into it an indigo energy.
4. Operator proceeds to the Northeast Angle and draws an inverted invoking pentagram of Earth and projects into it a dark green energy.
5. Then the operator goes to the altar and replaces the dagger with the sword. They proceed to the Northeast Angle and draw a line of power from there to the center of the circle in the nadir. They proceed to Northwest Angle and do the same, then to the Southwest, and the Southeast, and do the same. Operator draws a Rose Ankh and projects it into the center of the circle. Operator returns to the altar and exchanges the sword for a staff.
6. Finally, the operator proceeds to the Northeast Angle and begins to circumambulate a spiral into the center of the circle, starting in the outer periphery of the circle proceeding widdershins inwardly, passing the Northeastern Angle three times and then standing in the center of the circle, where they place the staff fully erected in the center. They project an energy field from the tip of the staff down into the nadir of the circle. The subject of a healing or spirit extract would also stand in the center of the circle and place their hands on the staff, and then sink to a seated position, still holding onto the staff. They would remain in this position until they felt relieved of their burden.

Ending the rite would consist of performing sealing spirals to the four angles and the center of the circle to seal up the rite. Once sealed, the rite would never be recalled to ensure the finality of the working.

The resultant energy field generated by the empowered vortex is pulled down into nadir, and the polarity of elemental energies cancels each other out, producing a non-gendered and non-spirit based magical power. If you think about the flow of energy in this ritual structure, then you can see that the energy polarizes and cancels out in the center and is drawn down into the singularity of the vortex at the nadir. This structure is similar to having four mirrors directed at each other across a circle of light with a drain in the bottom. It is the perfect description of a spirit trap, where unwanted energies, entities or internal psychic disruptions are extracted and grounded into the earth. One could place a piece of black obsidian or an onyx stone in the center of the circle to act as a crystal-based collector.

So what would a practitioner do with such a ritual device? It would have many functional uses, and some of these would be an exorcism chamber, an uncrossing device, a curse extractor and a powerful calming and restoring energy field. I call it a spirit bottle, since an entity that is possessing a human body would be forced to remain in the circle when that body moved through the vortex, and the spirit would be pulled down into the singularity and deposited into the collector. The collector could be a crystal, but it could also be bottle containing a liquid fluid energy condenser, such as what Bardon, in his books, has formulated. The contents of the bottle could be periodically pored into the earth and then buried, and then the liquid fluid energy condenser would be refreshed.

This is quite a powerful psychic healing ritual structure, but it could be integrated with other ritual structures and a spiritual theme to build a completed working. Still, a neutral energy field is not possible without using the polarities of the four elements combined, and spirit, as associated with the invoking pentagram has a creative and receptive quality to it, so it wouldn’t be neutral unless both were combined together.

However, spirit, undefined has no gender, and an undefined energy not associated with the four elements also would have no gender if it were conceptualized as such. The root mystery of a magical energy that has no gender defines the essential formlessness of emptiness, which is the ultimate transcendental quality of the ultimate causal condition, according to Buddhism.

Frater Barrabbas

Politics Influences Magical Practitioners

Once again we find ourselves participating in an election where the potential impact is existential to our republic. Yes, DJT has not disappeared after being fired by most of the American people almost four years ago. He has persisted simply because it is the most rewarding grift that he has been able to pull off. Why stop doing something that can make him so much money, and if he succeeds to regain the presidency, he could also eliminate most of his legal problems as well. It might even be possible that he could end our republic and replace it with an oligarchy governed authoritarian regime. While Trump himself is a cunning, unintelligent, and ruthless tyrant, he has individuals around him who more than make up for his errant stupidity. Still, at least 46% of the population will vote for him, and due to the electoral process, he might even win.

I have asked myself the question that is why do so many people like Donald Trump and would vote for him when he represents everything that is against the principals, norms and legal precepts of a representational democracy? He doesn’t care anything for those who are powerless and without material wealth, including his ardent followers. He is a typical rich asshole, and is only interested in those who could transactionally benefit him. He is the kind of lout that the fathers of our country worried about when they were formulating our republic and writing the constitution.

I have discovered for myself that the reason why some folks are MAGA adherents is because they find Trump and his over-the-top outrageous statements to be a great source of entertainment. They know that he isn’t a politician, but they identify with his grievances, paranoia, and fear, and they laugh at his crazy and deluded statements. He is a presidential version of the TV show “The Apprentice” and as long as the MAGA crowd is entertained, they will believe his lies, delusions and despicable racist and misogynist rantings. He is their mirror, and they see themselves in his beliefs and actions. He is also incredibly lucky and has been able to avoid self-destruction and incarceration through the most amazing occurrences and the help of various friends, allies and a system that favors the rich and famous.

However, I think that this time, Trump’s luck and being fortune’s favorite will fail to help him to regain his role as a world leader and banish the consequences of his illegal activities and felonious proclivities. I believe that Trump will fail to be elected president again, and he will then succumb to the various indictments that have been levied against him for his nefarious activities. Trump will fall, but he will also cause many others to fall with him. He may even bring down the entire Republican party. Of course, that is not a reason to be complacent, we need to ensure that this event does happen.

Meanwhile, between now and then, before that pivotal moment which I believe will trigger Trump’s fall, there is something of a concerning and nail-biting period of worry and insecurity. This is because, I, as a ritual magician and a practicing and even public Witch, have much to be deeply concerned and worried about a potential Trump electoral victory. Thinking about the nation remade by Trump’s minions is a fearful exercise, since I am one of the vulnerable populations living in our country. This change, and the institution of Project 2025, will profoundly affect many people, but occultists, pagans, witches and magicians will be especially vulnerable to a renewal of persecution and even forms of penal punishments. I suspect that those who are part of the various LGBTQ communities and other minorities will also suffer under a Trump regime. That is why we must as a group, vote against Trump and the entirety of the Republican Party and act as if each our votes are critically important, because truth be told, they are.

If you think that Trump’s rhetoric is just an empty threat, and that the Heritage Foundation’s Project 2025 has been disowned by him, you should seriously rethink your position. In 2016, after Trump won the election, the Heritage Foundation came out with a set of directives in a document named “2016 Mandate for Leadership” and Trump’s administration managed to institute over two thirds of those directives. It is inconceivable that Trump would ignore the directives of 2025, since they were developed by his former administration officials and were guided by Trumps beliefs and rhetoric. Project 2025 is a vision of a MAGA American where there is little or no room for those of us who do not represent the ultraconservative mainstream. Let me quote a paragraph written by Beau Breslin from the Boston Globe, who has pretty much defined what that remaking of a MAGA America would look like, influenced by Project 2025.

“If actualized, Project 2025 envisions a nation where abortion is universally outlawed, free exercise of religion is enjoyed only by certain worshippers [sic], procedural safeguards for the accused are relaxed, previously protected categories of speech are reconsidered, diversity initiatives are forbidden, environmentally conscious programs are shuttered, same-sex couples are threatened, drag shows are banned, and true stories of our racist past are ignored. It’s not a pretty place for the tens of millions of citizens whose identities are affected, or for the tens of millions more who align with these voiceless neighbors.”

Of course, I would consider myself amongst those ten of millions whose identities are affected and have been made voiceless by a vicious, ruthless, and aggressive ultraconservative minority. Anyone who espouses or practices an occult, pagan or witchcraft tradition would be highly vulnerable to this theocratic regime. It is like the book “Handmaid’s Tale” where a pluralistic nation becomes a theocratic religious tyranny. While that might be extreme, it is what the majority of the Supreme Court envisages for our nation, and it is what Project 2025 is vigorously seeking to promote, which is a unitarian president with the total powers of authoritarianism. Wittingly or unwittingly, they all seek the end of our democratic republic, because somehow, democracy is bad, especially when your party loses.

You might be asking yourself, why does Trump seek to undue the bonds of democracy and put into its place a religious autocracy? The strange truth is that Trump doesn’t care or even understand the nature of the job of a unitarian president. He is seeking the abrogation of his many indictments and his own enrichment. For Trump, it is personal and transactional. He will leave the hard part of governing and dismantling the laws and powers of the constitution of the United States to others simply because he wants to be kept an unaccountable, powerful and a wealthy oligarch. He has proven himself to be a failure at every business venture that he has undertaken except one, the grift and empowerment of a corrupt and power-hungry political minority that is the Republican Party. Trump has broken that political party, and he intends to break our democratic republic, all simply for the power to help himself to the wealth of this nation.

I know that some who call themselves Pagans, Witches, Magicians, Mystics, or Occultists find politics to be worldly and boring, that both parties seem to be the same and therefore, they do not engage and vote as a way of expressing their disdain for all forms of politics. However, the last three elections, including this one, have been quite different. Not voting, or voting for the Republicans and therefore, voting for Trump goes against our steadfast requirement for freedom of religion and the press, which would protect us from unwanted prosecution. If Trump gets reelected, you can be certain that those rights will disappear for anyone who is not the proper kind of religious adherent. It might even affect Jews, Mormons, Catholics, and anyone else who is not a member of a conservative Protestant Christian church. It will certainly impact those of us who are not members of that kind of ultraconservative Christian movement.

Then there is the positive messages of Harris and Waltz, with the hope and freedom that such an alternative choice offers us. The difference is quite stark! On one hand is a dystopian failed nation state full of grievances and the desire for racist redetermination and ethnic cleansing, and on the other hand, a nation that has a place for everyone, including immigrants, and treats everyone equally, allowing for diversity, freedom of speech and religious practice. The choice is really that simple. I am not saying that there are problems and issues both within our country and in how we deal with the world, but at least with Harris and Waltz, there will be the opportunity to make our nation and the world a better place. With Trump, that is not a possibility, as he has made abundantly clear in his various rally rants and word-salad speeches.

So, we need to step up and vote! I have already voted, but I would like my sisters and brothers to vote when they can and help move the nation past the dark vision and potential tyranny of Donald J. Trump. Never give in to complacency, cynicism, or disdain for politics, since our freedoms depend on being vigilant and active.

Frater Barrabbas

Swamp Mystics Mini Con and Liber Nephilim

I was honored last week to attend the second annual Swamp Mystics mini convention in Tallahassee, FL. They asked me to be the headliner for the gathering, and I agreed. This was an event put on by my friends Erich and Alannah, who I have known for many years. I had initiated Erich into the Order of the Gnostic Star back in the early 1990's before I moved to Santa Fe, and I gave him the complete library of magical rituals and lore associated with that organization. I have periodically given him updates so that he has been one of the few individuals that has been privy to my work, both as a ritual magician and a founding member of the Order. Over the many years of our friendly exchange, Erich is one of the few individuals who has continued to develop his own techniques and methodologies based on the lore of the Order. In fact, of all the individuals who have been involved with the lore of the E.S.S.G., he is the only one who is currently active and using this lore in an adapted form.

While I had lived in Tallahassee from 1990 to 1994, I had performed nearly all of the workings associated with the conjuration of the Nephilim in my rented townhouse located on Keily Run, off of Old St. Augustine road on the southeast side of town. I met Eric during the last year of my residence in that town, and he was a most apt and precocious student. Since that time, Erich and his wife Alannah have formed the Temple of Limitless Light and brought the practice of ritual magic in vogue in the area of the panhandle of Florida. Swamp Mystics was an idea that they hatched a year previously, and it had been a very successful event, so they decided to promote a bigger venue this year. The event was located at a spacious Air B&B mansion that was generously sponsored by the owner, who was also deeply interested in magic and the occult. You can find the link for the event here, and see what was planned and the speakers who contributed to its success.

True to its theme and location, it rained off and on for the entire period of my visit to Tallahassee. My wife and I did not see the sun or blue skies until we were almost to the airport in Jacksonville on our return drive. We had opted to fly into Jacksonville and then rent a car to travel to Tallahassee, which was a lot cheaper than flying directly. The wet and the rain didn’t succeed in dampening the spirit of the occasion because there were several major speakers at the event, and we were buoyed by the exchange of ideas and by the demonstration of magic that occurred every day that we were there. We adapted to the rainy periods, and the beautiful mansion that where we stayed gave us refuge from the rain when it occurred.

This visit was kind of a home coming for me, although the folks that I met were not the same folks that I knew back when I lived in Tallahassee. Except for Erich and Alannah, everyone was someone new that I had not met before, but because of Eric, they knew about me. As the headliner with both a discussion/lecture and a ritual to perform, I was quite busily engaged and was only able to attend a few of the classes that were offered. However, on Friday night and Saturday night there were intense rituals performed, the first night by Erich, Alannah and the speakers, and the second night, I performed the Mass of the Great Goddess. On Friday night, a series of rituals were performed using the Archetypal Gate ritual to invoke the archangel Raziel, and this was performed outdoors in a covered stage that overlooked the pool in the gated back yard. The property was large, consisting of many acres that included a blue berry farm and many old oak trees covered in Spanish moss. In this beautiful and haunting space we shared our lore and performed magic to enrich the experience of the event.

When the invocation of Raziel was completed, I felt the presence of the archangel, who I had invoked many times in the past, particularly for the most powerful ordeals that I had performed in the previous years. He touched my mind and we shared some past experiences, and then he asked me in a kindly and humorous fashion, “What have you done, Barrabbas? What have you unleashed by publishing your works?” His question was not an interrogation, but a reminder that I had been challenged with the task years ago to present my methodologies and magical lore to the public, and I was now successfully completing that task. Liber Nephilim was now in print, and I had arranged for fifteen copies to be mailed to the event. In February, my book Abramelin Lunar Ordeal would be published, making that methodology available to my reading public for the first time. All of this lore was the most advanced magical techniques that I had developed, and much of it was developed in Tallahassee over 30 years ago. I was returning to the place where it all began, except that now I had revised the magical lore so that it could be performed by any experienced occultist or magician.

On Saturday evening I performed the Mass of the Great Goddess inside the mansion foyer and front room to a goodly sized crowd of attendees. I hadn’t said this Mass rite over seven years, and in fact, I was still in my wintering stage, so I had doubts about my ability to perform this ritual working. I even suggested that it be skipped to Alannah because the timing was running late and our bellies were full of good food. However, I was told that this ritual was a very important part of the event, so I had to persevere and perform it. By the time it started, I felt less full of food and able to perform this rite. Eric and Alannah, and the attendees performed the circle consecration and a Rose Ankh vortex rite, and then the focus shifted to me. I had set up a makeshift altar that was approximately the correct size, and I had variations on the standard mass kit to work with.

While I had doubted that I would have the stamina to perform this extended Mass rite, I surprised myself by performing it with more power and ability than I had assumed I possessed. I not only impressed my audience, but I impressed myself! The Mass was said with the greatest magical power and precision that I have ever performed it. I stumbled over a few of the barbarous words of evocation while saying the introit, but overall, it was a magnificent presentation, and I was in awe of what I had done. I had believed that due to age and lack of practice that I would perform this rite poorly, but as it turned out, I had so many years of magical practice in my past, and so much untapped energy that I was able to connect with the powers and inspiration that I had believed were long dormant. That event opened my eyes to the fact that I was not yet over the hill, and in time, I would have the opportunity to perform more workings and ordeals before the day when I would be truly retired, incapable or simply dead.

Swamp Mystics mini convention was only for one day, but I had another task on the following evening. I had discussed with Alannah the possibility of initiating her into the Alexandrian tradition of Witchcraft, giving her both first and second degree initiations in a hybrid of the traditional Lexie initiation that would allow her to assume the role of a priestess and be able to initiate men into the craft. When she would have elevated a male practitioner to the same degree as herself, she could perform the great rite and be a fully vested third-degree Witch. I left that task in her hands, but a second degree Witch priestess can be given full authority to initiate and run a coven. Additionally, I gave her the complete set of lineage documents for my Alexandrian line, which amounted to over 800 pages of written lore and history. I am handing my Witchcraft lineage off to women that I believe are worthy of this investiture so that it will continue on after I am no longer in this world. It is part of my task to distribute my legacy to worthy individuals, and I will continue to do this work while I still have the strength and stamina to do it.

Alannah’s initiation was performed in Eric’s small but efficient temple in the home they share, and we had the privilege to work this rite with two other people from New Orleans, Erich and my wife. The rite was performed effectively and even smoothly, and the end result produced a very charged and empowered Alannah. I had successfully passed my Witchcraft lineage to her, and now she can function as both a ritual magician of the Order of the Gnostic Star and also as an Alexandrian Witch Priestess. Giving this lineage to her was significant to me, because it was the one thing that I had not yet passed on to the town that I once called home, but now, all my magical and spiritual lore are fully grounded in the wonderful and mysterious location of Tallahassee. It is my hope that others in that community will be able to engage and share in the twin lineages that I have placed there. It is a legacy that will continue to bless and empower others as they further extend their magical and spiritual process.

Overall, I felt that the mini convention of Swamp Mystics was a great success. It was very magical, but the people were friendly and fun to be with. I also happened to sell a lot of my books, and Liber Nephilim was so successfully promoted that there was only one book left in that set of fifteen. I felt that the people in that location were ready to engage with my more advanced lore, and that the Temple of Limitless Light had done a lot of work to help folks get to that point of instruction. Returning to this place after so many years was an important stage in my own magical and spiritual process. I was reminded that after decades of magical work and study, I still have the capability to work powerful magical rituals and ceremonies, and that although I am no longer young or even middle aged, I remain a competent practitioner of the magical arts.

Frater Barrabbas