I typically start my first yearly blog after a couple months have passed because I am often very busy with my day job and other concerns have my full attention. The holidays have passed, mostly uneventfully, and I have set my literary goals for the year. Except, this year is somewhat different. I sent in my manuscript for “Sacramental Theurgy for Witches” to Llewellyn last week after a final once look over and editing, and I also completed my manuscript for the final book in the “For Witches” series, which is entitled “Transformative Initiation for Witches,” which will be submitted some time in the next few months. My artist friend is working on the illustrations for the “Sacramental Theurgy” book, and I will need him to work on the diagrams and illustrations for the final book probably later this year. My objective is to hopefully have all five books in print by the end of 2024.
I got my first look at my third book in the For Witches series, “Talismanic Magic for Witches,” and I was pleased with the results. I had issued quite a number of galley corrections to my contact at Llewellyn and all of them were incorporated, so the book is as good as I was able to make it. I now have a box full of these books in which to use for promotions or selling, as needed. I am very happy to have three books in the series in print, and I am calling it my trifecta of Witchcraft magic, or at least until the next two books get released in their printed editions. What I have done is to cover the entire spectrum of magic that I developed based off of my Witchcraft magical roots.
This year I will be attending the Paganicon convention in Minneapolis from March 17 - 20, although it will be a somewhat expensive endeavor. I no longer live in the Minneapolis area, so attending the event will require me to fly to the Twin Cities, rent a car, stay in a hotel and eat in affordable restaurants. I have one lecture on the Temporal Model of Magic and a book signing, both are scheduled at less than optimal times, so I am not expecting much of a crowd at these events. I will have to make it into as good an opportunity to meet and greet as I can. However, since I lived in the Twin Cities for 13 years, I made a lot of friends, and many of them will be present at the convention.
When I relocated to Richmond in May 2018, my boss at the time gave me so little time to make that trip that I didn’t have much time to say goodbye to my many friends, so I am hoping that for this trip, I will be able to give that honor and care to friends so they will know that I loved them and that I miss them. It was just the situation imposed on me that forced me to leave without much notice, and I do regret that occurrence.
So, that will take me through the Spring and then to tax time and the advent of what appears to be an early than usual Spring. What will I do with the rest of the year? That’s a good question, and one that I have been pondering for a few months. I have no agenda for any further writings, at least for a while, although I do have some plans for the coming year that I will seek to research and develop. That will, at least, allow me to write more articles to my blog, but it might also allow me to do something that I have failed to do over the past three years due to my caution regarding the pandemic of Covid 19.
I live in a town where there is quite a large population of folks engaged in Witchcraft and magic (there are three major universities in the area) that I have not met. There are seven New Age and occult book stores in my area, although there are only two in Richmond proper. I am planning to contact these book stores and to see if I might be able to schedule some book signings, maybe a class or two, and also visit at least three more stores that are in Maryland and around DC (Alexandria). So, there are ten book stores, and I am willing to bet that some of them might be interested in me doing a bit more than just doing a book signing. I need to reach out and discover the Witchcraft community in my neighborhood, and now that Covid is in transition from a pandemic to being endemic, I think that I can venture out into public without too many concerns.
I am hoping to have some wonderful adventures in Virginia, meeting the Witchcraft community and making some important connections with like-minded folks. Certainly, with five books in the “For Witches” series, I believe that I have something to offer those local Witches who are practicing their Craft. I also believe that they will have something to offer me besides friendship and comradery, since I always seem to learn something from whoever I meet, regardless of their level of knowledge or expertise. I have learned to listen to others as well as talk and present my ideas.
You might be asking about my future projects regarding my writing, and I can tell you that my literary tour is not over yet. Over the years I have developed and performed a number of major magical ordeals, and I think that it would be a good idea to not only present these ordeals and what I experienced, but to also include the rituals that I used to perform them in published books.
One of my first projects that I want to develop is to write a grimoire based on the spirits of the Nephilim, focusing particularly on the 20 chiefs. I had discovered that these spirits, whose stories are to be found in the Book of Enoch and whose names are revealed in the fragments of the Book of Noah, were the foundational spirits of the Enochian system of magic. Of course, no one else has bought into that theory, but that is what they told me when I first invoked them so many years ago, back in the early 1990's. I have everything I need to assemble a grimoire that would include the seals, sigils, corrected spirit list and characterizations, and the magical technology to invoke and commune with them. I have included in this blog some of my experiences with these spirits when I first invoked them, but what I never included was the extensive material that they passed on to me, as well as the rituals used to invoke them into manifestation. I believe that will be a major writing task for me, and it won’t get into print until sometime in the next few years. I have doubts that Llewellyn will be interested in publishing this book, but you never know. My fantasy is to have Nephilim Press publish it, but Llewellyn would get the first shot at it.
For those who are fans of my blog and have read deeply of the many articles that I have posted over the last 15 years or so, you will know that I had posted parts of my magical diary where I developed and performed a lunar version of the Abramelin ordeal (back in 2009) and later, I developed a talismanic version of the famed yet obscure Portae Lucis woking (2010). Both of these two ordeal produced some of the most incredible magical, visionary and transformative effects of any other magic that I have previously worked. It was a kind of climatic apex of my research, development and magical performances at that time. I believe that it would be a good idea for each of these two ordeals to encapsulated into two books, to give to the occult posterity what can be done with creative flexibility and a good imagination. So much is possible if we only allow ourselves the freedom to create new lore from existing lore. I got a lot of angry responses when I posted the parts of my magical diaries that described what I experienced when I performed these ordeals, and others wanted to have the rituals so that they could experience and judge whether what I had done was legitimate. Still, that magical technology should be shared with the occult and magical community, simply to show what can be done and to loosen up the stodgy hold that a number of grimoire purists have on the magic of Solomon, Abramelin and even Jean Dubuis to essentially exclude anyone from borrowing that tech for their own magical workings.
While I do respect the past and all of the individuals over the ages who have developed their magical tech, often in either complete secrecy or obscurity, I don’t consider their work to be some kind of sacred writ. I honor them greatly, but when it comes down to my own magical tech, I am an artist and a thief of various occult lore. I will appropriate whatever I feel will make my own magical systems more effective and esthetically pleasing. I believe that anyone practicing magic today should take this kind of attitude when they approach their own magic. I believe that if you are working someone else’s system of magic without making it your own personal magical system then you are not really developing either your own abilities nor are you able to fully experience the spiritual revelations of your own magical process.
That’s just my opinion, of course, but it is contrary to anyone who dictates that all magic must be drawn from traditional sources and worked in the traditional manner. I have more in common with Chaos magicians than ceremonial magicians who espouse adhering to the grimoire methodologies of magic. Grimoire purists and I have had some bitter exchanges in the past, and I believe that their approach, and the sanctimoniousness of their stated objectives are filled with hubris and erroneous considerations. Magic, whether performed expertly by some Solomonic ceremonialist, or performed inexpertly by some rank beginner is really all the same. The esthetics are different, no doubt, but the end results, even if it works but not as planned, are legitimate and effective.
Frater Barrabbas
