Banner Year 2024 for Frater Barrabbas

The Winter Solstice is here, and as we celebrate the various holidays associated with this time of year, I often pause to reflect on what I have accomplished over the year and what I can look forward to in the coming year. Yet this coming year is very different for me than any previous year in the last decade or so. I have been working very hard with my new publisher, Cross Crow Books, since I was let go by Llewellyn, and by the end of year in 2024, I will have ten books in print with another one forthcoming early in the following year. That is, in my opinion, quite an accomplishment.

I am quite pleased with my work so far, and I am also pleased with the response that I have gotten from my publisher. It is quite a contrast from where I was with Llewellyn a year ago. Then, I had signed a contract for “Sacramental Theurgy for Witches,” but there was no sign of when or how that book project would get to the first stage, which was the ‘vision’ marketing meaning. It was then, in March that I received notice that Llewellyn had rejected my book and broke their contract with me. I was able to get another contract from Crossed Crow Books in a matter of days, and I have decided to work with them on my book projects. They treated me in an exceptional and courteous manner, which included face to face Zoom meetings to discuss strategies and approaches to marketing and promoting my books. They signed on to complete the five volume “For Witches” series, to republish my first two books, “Disciple’s Guide” and “Mastering the Art of Ritual Magick” after some revitalizing editing, a beginner’s book on Witchcraft named “Mastering the Art of Witchcraft” and two new books, “Liber Nephilim” and “Abramelin Lunar Ordeal.” I have signed contracts for all of these book projects, and I am about to get the first of these books in the next couple of weeks.

Additionally, the eight projects that I discussed in a recent blog and possibly whatever else I come up in the years ahead will likely be published by them. I have a home for my books, or at least as long as CCB continues to be in the publishing business. My publisher also have a contract with Weiser to distribute their entire catalog of books along with their own, so I will get the same distribution or more if I had continued being a Llewellyn author. That’s great news for me to enjoy and be thankful for in the coming year. Never even in my imagination would I have thought that I would get to see eleven of my books in print. What this means is that my long ambition to get my ritual tech out there in the English reading public’s hands has now come to fruition, and there will be more of these book in the next five years, if my health can continue to be as sturdy as it has been so far.

So, what is coming out into print and what are the dates that these books will be released in 2024? Let me look at the calendar and mark those dates when these six book projects will be available for purchase. As I said, it will be a banner year for the author Frater Barrabbas.

Here is the schedule, although it may be subject to minor changes. Rest assured that the books will out in print, although there could always be slight delays depending on the stages of type-setting, page layout, printing and binding.

“Sacramental Theurgy for Witches” - scheduled release date is February 6, 2025. I should be getting pre-release copies in the next week or two. This book is the one that I felt was the most important of the five books in the “For Witches” series. It was the book rejected by Llewellyn as unmarketable, so we shall see if their assumption was correct through the next couple of years. I seriously doubt that this book will do poorly in the occult book marketplace, especially since it is distributed by Weiser and it has three other books in the series to bolster it. I am probably biased about this book, yet only time will tell.

“Mastering the Art of Witchcraft” - scheduled release date is July 16, 2024. I had said often enough that I would never write a beginner’s book on Witchcraft, and here it is. There must be some irony here, as in you should never say “never” when considering some project. However, this book is radically different than any previous or near future book written on the subject, and it does honor to Paul Huson and his book, “Mastering Witchcraft” published in the early 1970's. That was an important book for me when it came out, and I am hoping that my book will be as influential as that book has been.

“Transformative Initiation for Witches” - scheduled release date is August 20, 2024. This is the last book in the “For Witches” series, and it adds additional initiatory lore to the practicing Witch and the Witchcraft community. The full set of five books covers the spectrum of ritual magic, liturgical and initiatory rites that are above and beyond the traditional Book of Shadows. I believe that armed with these five books and the base-line Witchcraft tradition that a Witch or Pagan will be able to master the art of ritual magic in a manner that I believe would make ceremonial magicians envious. Once that set of magical and liturgical lore is mastered, a Witch would be able to stand eye to eye with any person trained in a ceremonial magical tradition in the Western Mystery Tradition. I am also hoping to convince the Malliway Brother’s store to produce a slip case for all five books in the series, with some nice promotional eye-candy graphically printed on it for their store.

Summer ends and blends into autumn, and there will be three more books released during that period for the year 2024. At this point in the year, I will have published everything that I sought to publish on the art of ritual magic as practiced in Witchcraft. However, that perspective was not how I started out as an author, and additionally there is an accumulation of 30 years of lore that I have only just begun to write up and get published into books. The magical order that I helped to found back in the 1980's was the mechanism where I was able to funnel what I had ordinally developed in the 1970's, and since those strategic years, I had continued my work and developed ever more advanced and sophisticated ritual magical lore. Only this year have I started to assemble manuscripts that will contain the more advanced lore that I developed in the 1990's, 2000's and 2010's. As I said, I have been busy over the last 30 years, and the books that I will produce will contain the bulk of that lore.

“Disciple’s Guide to Ritual Magick” - scheduled release date is September, 2024. This is the first book that I wrote back in 2006, and it represents my attempt to distill in a simplistic manner the kind of ritual tech that I was performing at that time. I have talked about my very first book that I wrote, named “Pyramid of Powers” that was never actually published. This book was a simplified and condensed version of that work, and it had the benefit of offering to the student a set of basic rituals to be used, based on a kind of paganized Christian Grail mythos. While I had moved on from this work and the second one in that series, other occultists have told me that it was a valuable book and should be kept available. It is a beginner’s book for magical practitioners, so I felt that it would be useful to republish it after some extensive editing, and my publisher happily agreed with me. So, in September, this book will become available again in a newly revised edition with a new cover. Like my other books, it will be distributed much more widely and likely gain a greater share of readers.

“Liber Nephilim” - scheduled to be released in October, 2024. This is the first book in a new series of books that I will be publishing that contains the more advanced lore that I had developed previously but had never made available to my reading public. I had proposed that the source of the Enochian system of magic was originally from the fallen angels known variously as the Watchers, Sons of God or the Nephilim. I have had a long and fruitful relationship with these angelic spirits, and they had urged me to write up their lore and their revelations for the occult reading public to examine. It is a task that I had put on the back-burner for decades, but finally I had the time and opportunity to pull together all of the materials and rituals that I had and to produce a manuscript that could be published. I think that this book will be quite controversial, but it will help to promote the lore and reveal the identities of the Nephilim to the occult community. This book, unlike any of my previous books, will be sold in soft and hard cover editions. There will also be a custom hand bound collector’s edition produced in the following year.

“Mastering the Art of Ritual Magick” - scheduled to be released in December, 2024. This was my second book published, and it was a repackaging, revising and rewriting of my original book “Pyramid of Powers.” When it was originally released, it consisted of three separate books, and then a few years later, it was pulled together into a single volume, which turned out to be the most satisfactory approach to publishing it. It became known as the omnibus edition, and unknown to me, it had quite a small and loyal following. I have, over the recent past, received some praise and accolades for publishing this book, although like the first book, I had passed it by to publish a book on the Qabalah and then a book on conjuring spirits using a familiar spirit for the Witchcraft community. That was the first book in the “For Witches” series. This book will be edited and printed with a new cover in December and then more heavily distributed. Hopefully, more readers will be able to acquire this book and perhaps build their own base-line magical and religious tradition, since that is the stated purpose of this book.

I am already working on the book “Abramelin Lunar Ordeal” and I should have that book edited, with citations, graphic insertions, bibliography and an index list in the next three weeks. I have already talked about that book recently in my blog, so I don’t need to say anything more about it here. While I cannot know for certain when this book will be released, I suspect that it will likely be released either February or March, 2025. I will have celebrated my 70th birthday by then, but I will still have at least six or seven book projects that I will be working on. This book will be my eleventh book published since the first one appeared in print in 2007. It will be the second of my high ritual magic series of books, and it, too, will be available in soft and hard cover editions as well as a hand bound collector’s edition. I am looking forward to when it is finally in print.

This schedule of events represents for me the release of six books, seven if you count the Abramelin Lunar Ordeal, to occur over the course of a single year. That is quite an accomplishment, and one that I am happy to report to you. My hope is that I will be able to hear from my readers over the next few years, letting me know how they have used this material that I have written and published, and what kind of experiences they got when employing it. That could almost be enough folks some day to have a one time convention of interested parties to discuss and present this lore as one of the viable paths for Witches and Pagans practicing ritual magic.

Frater Barrabbas

Writing Abramelin Lunar Ordeal

 

Recently, like over the Thanksgiving holidays, while I have been struggling to recover from a low grade diagnosis of pneumonia, I started writing and assembling the book “Abramelin Lunar Ordeal,” which is the eleventh book that I written since 2006. Like Liber Nephilim, there was a lot of material that had already been written, and I had sorted that material out so I could pull it into my manuscript. Therefore, it only took me around two weeks to complete the manuscript, but now I will need to fully edit it, insert footnotes and citations, insert the proposed artwork and diagrams, produce the bibliography and the index list. I have also signed a contract with Crossed Crow Books to publish this book, and I will need to submit the manuscript before March 1, 2024. Of course, I will be able to complete all of this work well before the due date. While I was able to use a lot of material that I already had, I also added a lot of new text and completely revised the rituals. This will be another book available in soft and hard covers, as well as a deluxe hand bound collector’s edition.

What I needed to write up that was missing in my blog posts or documentation was the background and motivation for developing an alternative method for manifesting ones Holy Guardian Angel, also known as the person’s Atman, or Godhead. I refer to this entity also as the Higher Self, agreeing with the Theosophists, who also saw this as the inner deity, but contradicting Crowley and other magicians who saw the HGA as separate and independent of the person. I don’t agree with that perspective, and because as a Witch I am intimately familiar with my own internal godhead and its ultimate nondual link to the Unity of All Being, known to the Neoplatonists as the One, I believe that everyone has within them a deity. Most of us are unconscious of this being, and some of us make contact with such a being nearly impossible (those who might be considered as soulless). There are many names for this entity, but it is the God of our head, as the African Traditional Religions call it.

The traditional Abramelin ordeal, as encapsulated in Mather’s French translation, outlined a preparatory phase required to obtain the ultimate objective of knowledge and conversation with one’s Holy Guardian Angel. That period of preparation was focused on the extreme piety of prayer, meditation, fasting, purification, total abasement, and atonement covering a period not less than six months, where the final month was spent in complete sequestration. In other words, the preparation was wholly religious and mystical and lacked any kind of magical operations. The environment and one’s person were to be kept clean and ordered, the prayer room or tabernacle needed to have eastern and western windows and a floor covered by sand, with a small altar. This period of absolute concentration on the objective could not be interrupted and then restarted. It had to be a continuous period of religious and liturgical obligations that intensified as the final period of sequestration occurred. Many have attempted this working, and some have succeeded and others have failed, and some who have succeeded have made it a point of pride and accomplishment.

However, this is not the only ordeal that can assist the operator in achieving the K and C of the HGA, and in fact, there are many other operations available to magicians to use, either from the older grimoires or from new approaches (such as the Beatification rite found in Sworn Book). Additionally, this six month working was not the final word, since an older and more complete version was recently translated and published from an original German manuscript. This version proposed a working lasting 18 months, and consisting of a solar cycle with the Passover and Feast of the Tabernacles as the pivot points. The older manuscript appeared to be more Jewish in its cultural perspective, and I believe that it represents the more accurate rendition of this important preparatory working. This new version doesn’t contradict anyone having used the older and shorter version, but I would imagine that the longer version of the working would be even more effective in helping the operator achieve their objective. It also demonstrated that the cycles imbedded into the working consisting of three six months periods of the solar calendric cycle of Jewish holy days. When I read that and understood what it implied, I believed that it was quite a revealing discovery, making the overall working more meaningful.

While I had admired the Abramelin working, I knew early on that I would never have the resources or opportunity to perform it. Once out of college, I became a working stiff, and I never had the luxury of being able to take an entire month off from work, not to mention equip, pay bills and feed myself. This working was always beyond my means, so I could read and study it, but I couldn’t actually try to perform it. I knew that starting something like this would require me to complete it, so I declined to figure that out and instead sought out other methodologies for obtaining a kind of magical enlightenment. When the new version came out and showed that the working should actually last 18 months with three months of sequestration, I felt that it was even more completely out of my reach. However, the pattern of three six month periods using a solar calendar cycle gave me some ideas for developing an alternative approach.

As anyone who knows me or has read my writings will tell you, I am not someone who believes in following the stricture of any tradition. Years ago I had developed my own tradition and it had served me so well that I was able to pass it on to others. That was the magical lore of the Order of the Gnostic Star that I had helped to found back in the 1980's. This has allowed me the freedom to develop my own mysteries, ordeals and magical workings, building a path that one could follow and undergo conscious and spiritual evolution through the methods of ritual magic. I am not the only one who has developed their own magical system, since in order to perform ritual magic in the modern age I believe it requires one to build a system that is personally meaningful and that has a practical and relevant basis in the current times. Therefore, I have always felt it to be my prerogative to adopt and adapt magical lore from the past into my personal magical system when such lore is needed, but mostly avoid engaging with it.

So, when I discovered that the Abramelin working consisted of three six month periods, spanning a year and six months based on the solar calendar, I wondered if this same ordeal could be adapted to work within a lunar period of one and a half cycles, or around 40 days. Since the moon was much more important to me than the sun, due to my Witchy bias, I saw this as a possible replacement. The shorter duration would need to be filled with a more intensive regimen of ritual work, because the period of sequestration would only be three days. What I had to do was to fill that period with the most powerful workings I could develop that would lead operator to undergo a full conscious transformation and personal transfiguration.

What I needed was an environment that contained a holy tabernacle (similar to the sandy floored temple in the traditional working), and I came up with the idea of invoking all of the angels of the Seraphim and Cherubim in a four week period, which I had previously determined to be four angels for each group, and fuse them into an octagon vortex to br joined with the elected Element Godhead, which would generate a highly charged and sacralized environment. I added to that a three-part gateway that included the western and eastern gateways (double gateway of initiation) and a crossing gateway using the northern and southern nodes and the ultra-point for the gateway of ascension, opening up the operator to the absolute spiritual plane.

Upon that foundation, I decided to use my revised version of the Bornless or Headless One invocation rite that had an ascent up the pyramidal steps of the four Qabalistic Worlds to a fifth temple at the top of the pyramid structure where the Bornless One invocation was to be performed. Since I had determined that the Bornless One invocation was a surrogate rite to acquire the K and C of the HGA (according to Crowley and others), I felt that the combination of ritual layers would lead the operator to experience a powerful transformation. I also incorporated other rites, both from the PGM and the Chemical Wedding of Christian Rosenkruetz, to assist in the merging the expanded conscious state of the HGA into the mind of the operator. I had developed all of this lore and decided to test it out during the holiday season of 2009.

What I discovered when I performed this ordeal, from November 2009 through January 2010, was that it not only produced the expected results, it had a profound and permanent effect on my life. From that moment forward I was no longer the same person. The ordeal worked as I had envisioned it, and I also posted edited versions of my diary entries to this blog. There were complexities to my experience with this ordeal, and in fact there was an important ritual that was missing, which I was able to add and perform in 2011 to complete it. I now had a variation of the Abramelin working that was lunar based and that would produce, if faithfully deployed, a similar kind of transfiguration including the revelation of the HGA. I made these rituals and writings available to my brothers and sisters in the Order of the Gnostic Star, but none in the Order attempted to perform this ordeal.

Many years have passed since that tremendous occurrence, and the effects of that ordeal still are having an impact on me. After I completed that working, I came up with new and creative ideas, and my writing efforts were and are stimulated and guided by my Higher Self, or HGA. I may not have conscious contact with this Godhead at all times, but it is there when I focus on it or when I need help. I owe it most of the creative work that I have achieved in the years since, and this contact has allowed me to more accurately look into my spiritual foundation and my past steps and to judge what I have done and where I must go, so that I might know my future path as it leads me to the end of life and beyond.

So, we come to my recent work, and I can say that the ordeal that I have prized above all of my previous workings will now appear in a comprehensive book. The documentation that I wrote years ago for members of my Order has been revised along with the rituals that I performed. The blog posting of my diaries will be gone over and synchronized where appropriate with my actual diary entries, and the book will aid anyone who wants to test my hypothesis that there is a viable and practical alternative to the traditional Abramelin working.

My book will have the title: “Abramelin Lunar Ordeal: An Alternative Magical Journey” and it will likely be released sometime in March 2025. It will represent my last book for the time being, but I will have eleven books in print by then, and it will be sufficient until such a time as I am able to rewrite and package the other books that I have planed in the future.
 
Here is the book synopsis that will be used to market the book.

Over a hundred years ago MacGregor Mathers published a book that introduced to the magicians of the 20th century the magical ordeal penned by an obscure German Jewish occultist. That book was called “Book of Abramelin the Sage” and contained an arduous preparation practice that lasted six months manifesting the Holy Guardian Angel that would instruct and guide the adherent. The book contained many magical squares of notorious potency. To use them, the magician had to undergo many months of prayer, meditation, fasting, purification, abasement, and a period of complete sequestration. Another version of this working, recently published, had the working last for eighteen months with three months of sequestration.

Many magicians attempted this arduous task, some succeeded and some failed. This working was typically beyond the means and resources of your average magician. This was the challenge to achieve the knowledge and conversation with their Holy Guardian Angel. However, Frater Barrabbas took this challenge and used it to forge a whole new magical ordeal. He decided to base it on a lunar cycle instead of a solar cycle, crafting an ordeal that could be accomplished in seven weeks with three days of sequestration, thus making its performance more practical.

Frater Barrabbas sought to create a powerful series of magical workings that would produce the promised state of transfiguration and manifest one’s Holy Guardian Angel. He used invocations of the four Seraphim and Cherubim in a four-week period, along with the Element Godhead, to produce a holy tabernacle of godhead and angelic intelligence. He chose a revised version of the Bornless or Headless One invocation rite of GD fame as the apex. He plumbed the PGM to extract three more rituals to add to Bornless rite. These rituals and more he has written into a book, including the diaries entries where he performed this working back in 2009 to validate it. All of this lore and instruction are encapsulated in the book “Abramelin Lunar Ordeal,” a unique and profound contribution to the art of ritual magic. Now, the Sacred Magic of Abramelin is available using a new, condensed paradigm.

If you want a taste of what this book might contain, you can examine these past blog postings that I put into a single web page. These are my thoughts, comments and my highly edited diaries associated with the working when I performed it back in 2009. There are no rituals nor any background documentation, so that will be reserved for the book itself. Also, the book will contain the mostly unedited diaries from my Liber Spiritus.

Here is the blog link to all of the earlier postings. You can find it here.

Frater Barrabbas

Path of Future Literary Works

 

This year, 2023, has been a banner year for me regarding writing and publishing books. By next August all five books of the “For Witches” series will be in print, and I will also have a beginner’s book published as well (“Mastering the Art of Witchcraft”). Additionally, my publisher has signed contracts with me to republish my first two books, “Disciple’s Guide to Ritual Magic” and “Mastering the Art of Ritual Magic” and these will be back in print sometime next year. I also submitted the manuscript for my first grimoire, entitled “Liber Nephilim” and that book will begin the editing process next month. I expect that book to be in print before the year is out for 2024. In the list of these books is also one my crowning achievements, the Llewellyn title “Magical Qabalah for Beginners” - a book that is not really for beginners. By the time of the Winter Solstice, I will have ten books in print, four with Llewellyn, and six with Crossed Crows Books. That is an accomplishment that I thought would never occur, but it will soon be a reality. I also realize that what I have accomplished took a lot of time, research, writing, editing, revisions, and a lot of effort. I started writing my books in 2006, so that is an investment of 17 years.

Meanwhile, those who have been reading my blog for the last several years know that I have a lot more ritual lore and material than what I have written to date, and it will be at last time to begin to assemble that material into manuscripts, and from there, hopefully, into published books. I suspect that my current publisher will want to publish some of these ideas, but others I may have to self-publish, and I will do that so that all of this lore is made available to my reading public.

Since I have covered all of the lore, rituals and ceremonies associated with the basic and intermediate stages of the development of a pagan or witch who also is a practicing ritual magician that part of my work is completed. All of these books, except Liber Nephilim, represent what I believe someone needs to know in order to function as an intermediate to advanced ritual magician. Liber Nephilim is the first step of what I consider to be my more advanced ritual and magical lore. It is the first of its kind from my hand, but it represents only the first of nine additional books that I can assemble and write into publishable manuscripts. I have been practicing magic since I was a teenager, and the period of the 1980's through 2012, a period of over thirty years, was spent developing several advanced systems of ritual magic. Now that I am getting old and in the autumn years of my life, it becomes important for me to be able to publish the rest of this material so that others can possess and make use of it. It will be my legacy to the Wiccan and Pagan ritual magicians of my day, and perhaps it might find utility with others over the decades past the time when I am just an obscure footnote in history.

What I would like to do is to outline these future books so that you might apprise them and perhaps even make your opinion known to me through a message or an email. I haven’t actually decided on the order of the book projects, so you could also tell me your preference, and if enough people want a certain book project to be published sooner than later, I will take that under advisement.

Here is my list of eight projects that I would like to develop and publish as books for my magical colleagues to ponder and consider. I will seek to get them into manuscript form in the next three years or so and seek to have them published. I am hoping that by 2027, all of these books will be in print and available to whoever wants them. I am also hoping that this ambition on my part will at least get my ritual magician colleagues to examine and perhaps even attempt to adapt and perform some of these more advanced ordeals. That is my hope, but just helping to advance the ritual technology of western magic would be most satisfying.  

Abramelin Lunar Ordeal - I have always admired the Abramelin Ordeal, which is a severe meditative and liturgical based working that lasts from either one year or 18 months, depending on the version followed. It requires complete sequestration for a period of either one to three months, and that means that the adherent must retire from the world for that period of time. The ordeal consists of long periods of prayer and meditation, and requires a prepared room with a sand floor, casement windows, and other strict practices. All of these practices are performed with the singular purpose to invoke and manifest one’s Holy Guardian Angel. While I was intrigued with the outcome, the process seemed nearly impossible for me to consider because I had to work a regular job and couldn’t take the time off to properly perform it.

However, as a Witch and one who is more oriented to the moon, I was able to develop a lunar-based ordeal that lasted only 1.5 lunar cycles or around 40 days. Because the period was so abbreviated, I had determined that the time allotment needed to be filled with intense magical activity. So, the first four weekends were spent fully invoking the four Seraphim and the four Cherubim combined, which I considered to be super-archangels. Then, merging these eight powerful angels into a matrix, I summoned their godhead equivalents for each of the four elements, and fused them together into a powerful vortex with a triple tetrahedral gate structure. Upon this magical edifice, I performed the Bornless or Headless rite, revised with the four Qabalistic Worlds arranged as a step pyramid, where a revised invocation of my personal godhead was performed.

I had gone back to the PGM and extracted additional magical workings to go with the Bornless or Headless invocation rite, and added a magical ring consecration rite, assumption of great powers and an envisioning rite. The final working was the Alchemical Hierogamy Rite of Union, a magical rite based on the Rosicrucian alchemical wedding of Christian Rosencruetz.  All of these rituals were assembled to be part of what I have named the Abramelin Lunar Ordeal, and I performed them in 2009. It was an amazing ordeal, and it unlocked for me the mysterious magic squares found in the Book of Abramelin the Mage. While this ordeal can be worked in place of the traditional ordeal, it will undoubtedly produce different results, although the overall purpose and outcome are similar. I have articles, diary entries and the rituals already assembled into a folder. All I need to do is to pull it together into a manuscript with revisions, annotations and explanations. I believe that I could put together a manuscript in a couple of months, since most of the work is already done.

Liber Nephilim Additum - I have already submitted the manuscript for Liber Nephilim, but in writing this book, I left a lot of ritual lore out of this edition because it would have made the book too large and unwieldy. What was left out was the Enochian Ordeal of the 49 Bonarum, where I invoked seven of the Bonarum and pulled them together into a vortex to invoke the 8th, which was Camara, in a ritual named the Septagramic Vortex Gate ritual. That whole part of the Enochian ordeal was not included in the first book. Then there is the Enochian Mystery Vortex, mentioned several times but excluded from the first book. Additionally, there were the invocations of Seth and Enoch, the evocations of Ramat’el, Turiel, and Samael as Shaitan, and their associated diaries. This book would provide all of the material that was developed, used, and explored in the overall Nephilim working. I believe that providing this additional set of ritual lore and discussions about the Bonarum as the binary planetary intelligences, and how to invoke them and their overall psychological impact. Assembling and writing this manuscript would take only around three months, so it would also represent a task of refining and revising the ritual lore omitted from the first book. Both books together would supply the complete set of ritual lore to perform and replicate the Nephilim working.

These two books would represent my submissions for 2024, although there a more possibilities sitting around on my hard drive from workings that I have done previously.  

Talismanic Portae Lucis working: After developing and performing the Abramelin Lunar Ordeal, I became acquainted with a magical ordeal and process that quite intrigued me. I am referring, of course, to the writings and teaching of the late Jean Dubuis, who was a French occultist, alchemist and magician. His system of magic combined spagyric forms of alchemy with astrological magic and the Qabalah. A central magical operation within Mr. Dubuis’ occult system was a process whereby a person could achieve a direct connection and report with powers and intelligences of the Supernal Triad. He called this the Experience of Eternity, and it was a necessary step for a magician to achieve the proper connection and linkage with his or her higher self. It seemed like a logical step from gaining the knowledge and conversation with one’s Holy Guardian Angel.

I studied his ordeal named “Portae Lucis” and discovered that I could replicate this ordeal using revised lore for working talismanic magic that I already possessed. His various practices and the use of spagyric alchemy seemed of lesser importance when compared to the crafting of powerful talismans that would represent the charged empowered representations of the Qabalistic Sephiroth of Yesod (Moon), Tiphareth (Sun) and Binah (Saturn) representing the pathway of the gateway of light to the supernal triad. What I proposed to do instead of the passive talismanic workings and the various ancillary practices, including the creation of spygyric alchemical medicines, was to forge these talismans with each of the four element configurations of a specific planetary talismanic elemental spirit, using a metallic talisman associated with the planet. Each planetary talisman would thus contain each of the four elements of four specific talismanic elementals, thereby supercharging them as tools in building the gateway of light. In addition, I also generated a fourth talisman of Mercury to represent myself and the magical (Hermetic) process that I was seeking to manifest.

After generating these four super-charged talismans, according to the rites and time-line of the lunar mansions, I was prepared to perform the final working on the auspicious hour of the sun on the day of the Summer Solstice, when the light had achieved its maximum power. The working produced extraordinary results, and it was very successful, showing that a magical idea or ordeal concept can be developed in a number of different ways. It was an amazing ordeal, and one that I documented in my magical diaries. While some in the occult community were surprised and pleased with my approach, the traditionalists fiercely condemned and discounted the working. Later on, I managed to generate the three remaining super-charged metallic talismans and then built a magical machine that could produce any amount of material manifestations for me, and it has served me quite well during the years since I produced them.

All of the ritual lore, documentation and diaries for this working, and the extended workings covering the three additional talismans, and the creation of a magical machine would be part of this book. It would require me to assemble this material, revising and editing it, and produce a manuscript, but I believe that it would take only four months to complete this book project. I think that the occult community would find my approach to this working to be clear, modern and succinct. I would stipulate that it would not produced the exact results that the original ordeal would produce, but it would still be representative because it seeks to achieve the same results overall.

Other book projects that I am contemplating would represent workings that I developed and performed decades ago. They are still quite relevant today, and they represent the advanced workings and lore of the magical order that I helped to found. The advanced workings were completely my invention, and they were brought into the workings of the order because they had been developed in the 1980's and 1990's, and into the early 2000's.

Ordeal XV - the workings of the Gnostic Tetrasacramentary, consisting of the liturgical and magical workings of Thelema, Agape, Eros and Thanatos. These rites would include the specific Gnostic Mass with Benediction exerps, a Gnostic seasonal calendar, evocation rites of the specific Gnostic Avatar, and then the set of four rites of the Tabernacle of Sothis and the associated Black Rite. Other rites of sacramentation would include baptism, marriage, requiem, confirmation and holy orders. These rites would represent the complete set of workings associated with the four different Gnostic systems of religious magic.  This Ordeal is thus named because of the joining of the octagram and the septagram to generate a spiritual being able to represent a system of Gnosis, thereby becoming its avatar. It is also the number of the tarot card The Devil, which represents the powers associated with initiation. A performance all four of these sets of workings would fully activate their own gnostic magical powers to manifest these philosophies and their visionary impact into the material world. These are the liturgical and magical workings of a true Gnostic Priest or Priestess.

Art and Practice of Archaeomancy - this is a system that I developed over twenty years ago, but it represents the very cutting edge of magical workings.

The word Archaeomancy is one that I coined in the obscure magickal fellowship of the Order of the Gnostic Star and means the “magick of the source” (ἀρχή - arche - principle, origin; and - μαντεία - manteia - prophetic power). The art of Archeomancy is defined as the magical ritual method of exploring the Qabalist Inner Planes. These Inner Planes have many various definitions. Because of this difference, there are two methodologies that I developed. The first is the Archaeomancy of the 40 Qabalistic Worlds, where the inner planes are defined as the ten Sephiroth of the Qabalah, as superimposed through the four Qabalistic worlds. The combination of the Qabalistic Pyramid of Power and Enneagram Invocation rite combined with a double gateway would allow one to freely pass into the Qabalistic Inner Plane domain to gain visions, insights and to accrue and manifest its powers into the material world.

The second is the Archaeomancy of the eighteen Qabalistic Dimensions. The dimensions are the triangular shapes that exist in the Tree of Life structure that are outlined by the Sephiroth and the pathways. In addition, the Enochian ordeal workings defined the angular vectors of the paths and Sephirah as being the locations where the Aethyrs resided, where instead of 30, there were 56. These triangular dimensions were interior spaces in the Tree of Life that held profound transformative powers. I managed to develop the ritual lore to enter into two of the lowest of these dimensions, and my experiences were extremely profound. The inner and most secret teachings of the spiritual Qabalah are to be found in the dimensions, and entering one of them allows the wisdom of them all to be revealed. What I experienced so inexplicable that I can hardly describe them here, but for a Qabalistic magician, these workings represent the very height of what might be realized.

Both systems of magic were described and developed from the Enochian ordeals that I performed in the early 1990's associated with my Nephilim workings. I have diary notes and details to back up the event of these workings. All of this lore, documentation and some diary entries would be included in the manuscript that I would pull together.

Two other ordeals that I developed and performed during the late 1980's and then the late 1990's were the Ordeal of the Four Gnostic Temples, and the Ordeal of the Stellar Seven-Rayed Gnosis. These ordeals represent the ritualized challenges of self-initiation by ordeal of the Sixth and Seventh Degrees, respectively.

The Four Temples, or Tessarenoi, were performed to generate a living particle from the four-fold vortex spinning black-hole gateway opening into four different universes based on the tetrasacramentary in Ordeal XV. Each of these particles represented a living sacramental attribute of the godhead of a Gnostic sacramental system or universe, and could be used to powerfully sacralize material objects, and to act as a manifested source of godhead in the material world. I experienced them as alchemical stones that produce intense transmutations.

The Stellar Seven-Rayed Ordeal is the means to establishing a conduit of the fifth Gnostic sacramental system, which is symbolized by the Star, or more specifically, the Gnostic Septagram of the Seven Qabalistic Rays. Performing this rite would give the operator the ability to channel the seven sacramental virtues into the material world, transforming that individual into a fully empowered hierophant, a master of the spiritual and material worlds. These two ordeals, Four Temples and Seven-Rayed Star could also be assembled and made into manuscript books, to be published, depending on the need and desires of my reading public.

Rites and Ceremonies of the Order of the Gnostic Star - If I actually managed to get into print all of the above books, which would be a total of seven books, then I should also assemble all of the rest of the lore of the magical Order of the Gnostic Star, and publish it as well. What that would do is place into the hands of any knowledgeable and experienced occultist the ability to form their own magical lodge based on the rites and Gnostic liturgies of my magical order, without having to consult with me or anyone else. The material would be out there for anyone to use, and if someone really wanted to formally assemble a group then they could write me and get my imprimatur and recognition. Otherwise, they would be free to use this material in whatever manner they might wish, forming a group or working solitary. This lore would contain the initiations, the seasonal and lodge based ceremonies, the workings of elemental and talismanic magic, the Grail mysteries and their associated rites and ceremonies, and the overall philosophical perspective of a pagan-based Gnosis that is world affirming and nature oriented, instead of the antinomian tendencies of Gnosis in antiquity and in some circles in the present times.

A final literary endeavor would be to write up my biography. I have been writing this text for some time, but I am behind and need to catch up to the present. I am not done with my magical research and practices, so there would be more to add to it before it would be printed (I hope). I also have a biographical piece about my experiences with the Coven from Hell, or my four formative years with the Schnoebelens, who abandoned Wicca and the practice of high magic to become fundamentalist preachers. My four years in that group is an eye opener, for certain, and it was written as a response to Bill’s book “Wicca: Satan’s Little White Lie”, which I found to be full of falsehoods and misrepresentations, although also revealing things about Wicca that made it seem diabolical. I posted this work in five parts on my blog, but I would like to eventually publish it.

So, that is the full set of writing and publishing that I would like to do in the next few years. I am not certain if my current publisher would be on board with all of these projects, so I might have to self-publish some of them. I feel that this work is important and should be shared with the greater occult community, so I will work towards getting it in print in some manner for the sake of posterity, and to ensure that this lore is not lost when I finally depart this world forever.

Frater Barrabbas

Happy Winter Solstice 2011

It is the time of the Winter Solstice and I am on an extended vacation for the next three weeks. I want to first wish everyone a very pleasant and happy holiday season. Be safe, be warm, have a feast, and give a tribute to the Sun God (in whatever form you might perceive him), whose life is renewed this day for another year. I have always loved this season, no matter where I have lived or under what religious regimen I was subjected.

Growing up, I never really got too deeply into the Christian aspects of this holiday, since the wintry weather, the spirit of the changing year and diminishing light had its own magick for me. While I might find myself dragged into a church on Christmas Eve or Day, the whole religious aspect of this holiday was always quite unreal to me. I found the images of Santa Claus, his elves, the reindeer and the sleigh, and the giving and receiving of gifts, along with the colored lights, decorations, songs and the ubiquitous Christmas tree and wreath to be quite magical and wonderful - and I might add, tangibly real. Although I didn’t believe in the customary religious considerations of Christmas, the magic of the season was something that truly inspired me! However rotten things had become in my dysfunctional family life, all of that seemed to be forgotten for the weeks between Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Years. After that, things went back to being grey, colorless, boring and at times, frightful and abusive. (No wonder I found such a haven in the study and practice of magick!)

Much of that magic has disappeared now that I am middle aged, but I find that it’s still there, under the surface, waiting to come out. As a pagan, I can easily relate to the various secular tropes of the season, but the whole ‘birth of the savior’ theme is quite alien to me. Rather, I see it as the rebirth of the Sun God, but I suppose that the Christian theme is analogous to the pagan one. Every year during the holiday season I find myself looking for something special, miraculous and amazing. I guess that’s where the giving and receiving of gifts comes into the traditions of this time, and it’s something that I still very much practice. You give gifts to those that you love and care about in the hopes that it might touch them in some special manner. Conversely, you hope to receive something very special and meaningful from someone that you love - something that you will remember for many years. It is the magick of that moment which makes everything that happens during this holiday season so much more significant and special, even if nothing special is externally received from anyone. I suspect that the real true meaning of this mystery is to be found deep within oneself, and also deep within the mystery of the season itself. This year I am going to be seeking out something special for myself. It won’t a present or a gift received from someone, but instead it will be some undefined quality that will give me a special and meaningful joy.

Also, this season is the second anniversary for the Abramelin Lunar Ordeal that I performed two years ago. It was in December of 2009 that I performed the core of this ordeal, and it was a year later that I determined what I needed to do to complete it. I will certainly be taking up my specially consecrated ring and going into the magick circle, saying a Mass, and calling my HGA to commune with me. I will seek to be grateful for all of the good things that have come my way, and the fact that I am still employed and employable, and that there is plenty of food and drink, good cheer and friends to share it all with. I will be thinking about all of the Solstices of the past (and there are many to think about), and I will also be thinking about what I should do in the future. It would seem that in terms of my magickal and spiritual development, I am at a very pivotal point in my life. I have accomplished much, but there is so much more to develop and complete in the days and years ahead. Since I am no longer young, I don’t feel as though I have an unlimited amount of time to complete my life’s objectives. Anyway, I will be taking some time out to commune with the ghosts of my past and future as the holiday season expands and wanes, to become only a fading memory in the hearts of most, but not all.

Thankfully, the winter has come upon the Twin Cities in the gentlest of ways, softly announcing that winter is here, even though there has been very little snow and most of the ground is bare. November had some warm days, and even now in December, it isn’t too cold yet. I hope that this mildness continues, even though I know it won’t. There will be snowy and cold days yet to come, until late April of next year ushers in the transitional (and brief) time of Spring. I will be waiting for that change with an open heart and pining soul, since three weeks of my last summer were stolen with a terrible cold. I intend on reclaiming those days by getting outside and communing with nature more intensely this coming year, when the sun returns and the warms breezes of May arrive.

May you all have a blessed holiday experience, and may your cookie jar be filled with the cookies of your choice, of course!

(And don’t forget to love your kitties, if you have any.)

Frater Barrabbas

Abramelin Lunar Ordeal - All Previous Posts

I have decided to post an article that has all of the Abramelin Lunar Ordeal posts in chronological order, so that you can examine them, from first to last. Attempting to do this from the index entry will produce a list in descending order, so this one will more readily assist any of my readers to see these article postings in the order that they were originally made.

There are a total of seventeen articles (not including this one) that mentioned the Abramelin Lunar Ordeal. Here they are in the sequential order by date.  Enjoy.

1.  Beginning of the Ordeal
2.  Ritual Pattern of the Archetypal Gate
3.  First Weekend.
4.  Second Weekend.
5.  Third Weekend.
6.  Fourth Weekend.
7.  Ogdoadic Godhead Element.
8.  Final Three Days.
9.  Summary and Conclusion.
10. Additional Thoughts.
11. Mid-Year Considerations.
12. Going Forward Into the New Year.
13. Anniversary.
14. Final and New Ritual.
15. Spring Workings
16. Phase One of Final Working.
17. Phase Two of Final Working.


Frater Barrabbas

Phase Two of Final Abramelin Lunar Ordeal Working

The strenuous labor and long period of discovery for this ordeal is now over, and I can begin to relate my final experiences of the last two evenings and Sunday morning. On Friday, May 13, I performed the Bornless One Envisioning Rite in its entirety, even though the directions specified a three day period of meditating before completion. I felt that having undergone this process for over eighteen months, I didn’t need to wait any further to complete this ordeal. Within myself, I felt as if everything was completely in order and in readiness. So, I followed my intuition as is my rule in the art of magick, and was not disappointed with the results. It was wholly and completely mind blowing, and I am still reeling from its effects.

My dreams leading up to this event have been quite vivid and instructive, and they gave me a strong sense of completion and fullness. I was more than ready to begin this working, and therefore more than prepared to undergo whatever impact it was to have on me. I am delighted to state that I found the Bornless One Envisioning ritual itself to be highly effective and more intense and powerful than anything that I have previously experienced. I had no difficulties in performing it, and was able to get everything worked out, particularly the substitutions that needed to be incorporated.

The Abramelin Lunar Ordeal, now a completed suite of rituals and workings, is not only highly effective, but is even more resplendent in its overall effects for the adherent than what I had originally thought. I can’t but recommend this new method to others who are interested in experiencing a pathway to personal illumination through the art of ritual magick. With respect to those who have faithfully followed the traditional Abramelin ordeal, I believe that I have developed a suitable alternative that others, who do not have the privilege of devoting from six to eighteen months exclusively to this working, may follow and achieve a similar end. That is, of course, my opinion, and those who might be critical of my efforts will have to at least judge it by performing the rituals and experiencing them for themselves. Needless to say, I should report what I experienced as part of my final engagement with this ordeal, since nothing more afterwards will need to be said.

I have completed this long struggle and I am so very glad that it is finally done - but what an amazing journey it has been! The total irony of this working is that it took me exactly, to the day, eighteen months to complete, which is the same amount of time specified for the German version of the traditional Abramelin ordeal. It has been something of wild ride at times, where I seemed to be floating a foot or two off the ground, so intense was the overall impact and its affect on me. Presently, I feel quite grounded and completely sober, which is so unlike what I felt over a year ago. Then, I needed to process everything that hadn’t been processed in my past, and I needed to figure out the final and most important ritual in the working, which was the Alchemical Hierogamy Rite of Union, based on the Chemical Wedding of Christian Rosencruetz.

Determining and developing that last rite took me over a year, but once I was able to deploy it, the other pieces all fell into place. I would assume that anyone else who would perform this ordeal,  now that the complete suite of rituals has been written up, would take them around seven weekends to complete. Then, of course, the envisioning rite would be performed at the next available full moon. Still, that final working shouldn’t be performed until the magician’s internal state is fully resolved and all issues, past and present, have been adequately processed.

For those who might not fully understand the functionality of this rite, the Bornless One Envisioning is used to both realize and project into the future the full nature of one’s True Will, incorporating a charged and consecrated black mirror for this purpose. This ritual was distilled and developed from a group of rituals in the PGM (Greek Magical Papyrus in Translation) used for performing divination by skrying into a pool of ink. I had adapted these rituals into one monumental working that would divine through the HGA the nature of the magician’s past, present identity and future destiny. The divination rite is therefore split into three parts, representing the necessity for the magician to know his past, know who he is, and know what his future will be. Some of these questions can be answered by the magician, others require the intermediation of the HGA. This rite incorporates a two way methodology in regards to divination - passive perception and active projection. The objective of this rite is to project the magician’s desired and realized destiny into the future, thereby making it fully capable of being realized in the present.

Let me now relate all that happened to me on that last set of days when I performed the final ritual working in the Abramelin Lunar Ordeal.

Envisioning Rite - First Evening - Friday, May 13, 2011 (from 9:45 pm to around 12:45 am)

As I have stated previously, I decided to do the entire ritual the first night of the working. I would follow it up with smaller workings on Saturday evening and Sunday morning. On Saturday, I would just say the Mass of the Goddess and intone the Hidden Stele and the Death Delivering Stele. On Sunday, I would just intone the two Stele to complete the working. I would perform an impromptu skrying session on Saturday evening after the Mass, but only briefly connect with the black mirror on Sunday morning. Two other substitutions were also decided on for the working. I would forgo wearing a crown of ivy (because the season is still so early) and I would bless my cincture instead of using a strip of linen with words written on it, functioning as a kind of phylactery.

These are the order of ritual actions to be performed the first evening before performing the Envisioning rite:

1. Perform ablutions and then set a consecrated magick circle.
2. Bless the cincture before saying Mass, intoning the invocation instead of wearing it around my waist as a phylactery. This was well received, so I then completed the vesting for the Mass.
3. Perform the Mass of the Great Goddess up to the point of performing communion, then perform the following operations while there is still sacrament available.

• Intone the invocations of the Hidden Stele and Death Delivering Stele
• Bless the magick ring for a second time (the ring is the link to the HGA). I put on the ring, said the activating word and then summoned the HGA. The result of these operations produced a highly enhanced sensation of the HGA, and the ring was tingling with magick power.
• Consecrate the magick squares from the Book of Abramelin (selected squares printed on parchment) with sacral wine and charge with the directed power of the HGA.

I then completed the magickal Mass and proceeded with the Envisioning rite.

The intoned invocations from the Hidden Stele and the Death Delivering Stele (both of which are from the PGM) produced an incredible intensity of magickal power. I felt myself briefly enter into a trance state where I saw points of light form various kinds of star formulations and even heard some kind of celestial tinkling, like some vast, distant glass wind chime. I felt intoxicated, and a rush of euphoria filled my heart. I had to rest momentarily while I processed these experiences. I thought to myself that this is certainly quite an auspicious occurrence for the beginning of this working.

Bornless One Envisioning Rite: I wrote this ritual more than eighteen months ago, but it has never been performed by me until now. I was amazed at how well it flowed and appeared to build up the power. The invocations taken from the PGM were astonishingly powerful. I could not believe how potent these incantations were, and their overall magickal effect was completely amazing. I doubt that some of these incantations have been used in magick for nearly a couple of millennia, but they had lost nothing in the passage of time. I performed the macro-rite to summon the HGA, but of course, it was already very much present. Still, I sensed it joyously respond to the remedial summoning, making me feel as though I were enclosed in golden column of light. I then set the inverted Rose Ankh device to each of the four Angles and the center of the circle, and the accompanied incantations taken from the PGM made the performance vastly more intense and powerful. At this point in the ritual, the combined devices generated a kind of network of manifesting and empowering forces that seemed to transform the temple into some kind of royal emplacement. I almost expected to see a throne room and the royal chambers of some magnificent palace. The vortex had generated through its fused energies a kind of royal domain with the black mirror set at its core.

These final actions brought me to the place where the black mirror was ensconced, and as I sat before it I made invoking spirals over it with my transmutar wand. As I did this, while intoning additional PGM incantations, the black mirror began to glow and pulsate, going from an obsidian black to a silver white orb at intervals. I felt myself pulled into this pulsating orb, and it opened up, becoming like a vast tunnel or worm-hole between worlds, revealing itself as a kind of silver lattice structure surrounded by inky blackness. I found myself drawn deep into it, and it was as if I was within a tunnel, but it also seemed like it was within me, simultaneously. When I got to the point in the incantation where I was supposed to utter a series of magickal words like an Egyptian Baboon, the illusion ceased for a moment (due to my mirth), but then quickly reasserted itself. I then proceeded to contemplate upon the vastness of the black mirror, performing first an inquiry and projection for my past, present self-definition, and then my life’s destiny. These were the three Eyes (or I’s) in the Triangle - and I made this sign into the black mirror before starting each period of contemplation.

Contemplation on where I have been: I saw so many images of my past consisting of all of the most important and strategic moments, all of which led me to become who I am today. I saw these as a very rapid progression from the earliest memories to the present moment, yet each scene evolved slowly and fully, while my mind’s eye had already gone on to the next event. After a short while it seemed that all of these memories were unfolding simultaneously, creating a vast illusion of time and events occurring all at once. It was an amazing thing to behold, and I imagined that one perceives this when death is fully realized. At that moment, I felt a powerful thought overwhelm me that “I must fully accept everything that has happened to me as a product of my True Will and the power of fate and necessity.” I bowed to this wisdom, and felt all of these memories coalesce into a single point of light, and then enter deep into my soul. The black mirror became dark again, but only for a moment.

Contemplation on who I am - my true identity: The mirror blazed forth again, but this time I saw and felt the full force of my HGA, it entered into my being and filled me with joy, happiness, wholeness and an intoxicating euphoria. Because I had wed my HGA with the Element Godhead, it appeared to have a greater power and affinity for me, unlike at any previous time when I had performed the Bornless One invocation. Through the HGA I received a powerful and total sense of who I am, where I have been and what I must do to complete my life. I was told by it that the key to my future spiritual enfoldment was to cultivate spiritual love, bliss and ecstasy, and to realize this when summoning my higher self. Through this agency, I will experience the continual spiritual evolution that leads to mastery. Then the mirror went dark for the second time.

Contemplation on my ultimate destiny: I have accepted that I am now gone deep into middle age, and that I am passing into my final years of life. I have accomplished much, but so much yet remains to be done. My inner fear is that I will not have time to complete everything that I want to complete, in order to leave behind an effective legacy - a true measure of immortality. Yet what I have seen is that the most interesting and amazing events of my life have not yet occurred, and that I must learn to live at a far greater level than what I have been doing lately. I asked for the time and longevity to complete my work, and saw that indeed I could very well be long lived, if I work at ensuring that my gift of life is not squandered. I must work at being more healthy, and I can’t take anything for granted. The future is indeterminate, so what I have left of my years of productive life may be a decade, two or even three, but I can, by my actions, extend my life.

Yet death comes to all living beings, and I am no exception. Nothing is granted or pre-ordained to me or anyone, everything must be earned by steadfast commitments and hard, tireless work. I sensed that a number of procrastinating issues and tasks for me had been overturned, and I was now free to complete a number of outstanding tasks. I felt blessed, protected, loved and wisely guided by the HGA that was now fully activated and enshrouding me like a luminous golden cloud. Yet this great spirit was also inside of me, looking at the world through my eyes, and feeling the joy of life through my heart.

Once these events had transpired, the black mirror seemed to turn silvery white, and felt my will come from within me and project into the future that has not yet been determined. I sought to know in the remaining years of my life a profound stable simplicity, to be divested of all of the clutter and chaos of competing desires and ambitions, and to be refined and honed to one single aspiration. This aspiration was to be one with my HGA, and to waken from death seeing through its eyes and thinking and feeling with its mind. More of this incredible phenomena I can’t relate, but it went on for seemingly forever, extending from my mere physical form into the infinity of the Godhead itself, where the boundaries of time and space melted away to nothing, revealing a single blazing supernova that filled my eyes and mind with dazzling and brilliant light. I sensed during this extended moment that the HGA was with me and in me, my eternal companion in all things.

I pulled myself away from looking into the black mirror and laid down to rest, to close my eyes so that they wouldn’t see anything more. But still I saw the brilliant light and felt the bliss and ecstatic happiness until I passed into unconsciousness for a time. Finally, I woke up, and the temple atmosphere was alive with tiny sparks of light barely perceived. I marveled at these for a moment, but then sealed the circle, covered up the black mirror and magickal tools, extinguished the lamps and candles and retired for the night. Yet I was given so little peace that evening afterwards, for the visions continued on in my head deep into the night.


Continuing the Working - Saturday, May 14, 2011 (from 9:55 pm to around 11:28 pm)

The second evening came, but I was exhausted and tired from the previous evening’s working. I stumbled through the days activities, but after a couple of naps and a good meal, I felt more refreshed and ready to start the next part of the working. But in truth, the greater part of the working was already completed, and it seemed that the next two incidents were just merely the final parts of an already magnicent conclusion.

I said the Mass, and then intoned the two Stele incantations, which were just as powerful as they were previously, and after the rites were completed, I unsealed the vortices and sat before the black mirror. I uncovered it, and expected that it would be dark and lusterless, but I was surprised that it was still luminescent, but not as startling as it was previously. However, what was imparted to me indicated that the greater manifestation had already occurred, but what remained was just as important.

I was told in some manner (perhaps in my head) that the past is now completed - there is no more to be extracted from it other than memories of what had once been. The future potential is there for me to harvest, since so much has already been established by years of practice, work and research. I have not been lax all of these years of my life. Yet the key to it all is the present moment - what I do here and now will give a final shape to my remaining years. There is so much to do before I finally experience an end to this life, and previously I had so much doubt and despair as to whether all of it could even be completed. Yet now I am not alone or without an important powerful spiritual ally. The HGA has now engaged itself to me in my quest for completion, and the addition of that magick should make the future to be quite interesting. Whatever my work brings to fruition, the greatest work is the simple process of bringing my higher self incrementally closer to me, until there is no difference. I have already begun this process, but its maintenance and continuation is both simple and succinct. It is wholly up to me to ensure that it is brought to complete manifestation and total realization. So what I felt from this revelation was the impending urge and need to get to work - there is so much to do, but the joy is in the doing!

That is all I received this night, and the next day, I just performed the intonation of the Hidden Stele and the Death Delivering Stele in the morning, and lit a stick of incense. I felt completely resolved. The working was completed, and so was the ordeal. I collected up all of the sigils that had been placed in the temple so many months ago, and now I could move on to other and newer challenges. I am grateful for what I have experienced, and I feel optimistic and blessed for what the rest of my life has in store for me.

Frater Barrabbas

Phase One of Final Abramelin Lunar Ordeal Working

Not everything turns out as you would like it to, but most often, it turns out as it needs to be. This is certainly true about the first phase of the two phase final part to the Abramelin Lunar Ordeal. As you may remember, I had scheduled to work magick for the weekend of April 16 and 17 during the full moon. I was going to re-establish contact with the previous structures of the Ordeal, which would include the Ogdoadic Godhead Vortex ritual, the Triple Tetrahedral Gate ritual, to be followed the next day with the Bornless One invocation (Stellar Gnosis version). Typically, if I schedule myself to work magick on a particular day, I will move heaven and earth to make certain that it gets done on that date. This is part of my magickal and spiritual discipline, and I am proud to say that most of the time, I adhere to this rule without prevarication. However, I found myself unprepared mentally and physically to do these rites for the scheduled weekend. Something seemed wrong about doing it then, and I also felt very much compelled to spend the time instead with my girlfriend, since she was leaving for nine days in the middle of the coming week. So I decided to perform the two day working on the following weekend, since I would be alone and able to better focus on my intention to do the work. It was also quite interesting that my plans intersected with the Christian observance of Easter and the Jewish observance of Passover.

Changing the date to the following weekend (April 22 & 23) seemed like a good idea to me. But then I started to think about what I was going to do and the sequence how I was going to do it. I had planned on doing the Alchemical Hierogamy Rite of Union during the next month as part of the second phase, but for some reason I felt driven to add it to the Friday working, so its effect would be in place before I performed the Bornless One invocation the next day. I could make this change because I had previously performed these rites back in December of 2009. I wanted to experience the joining of the Element Godhead with the HGA before I re-performed the Bornless One invocation. I felt obligated to do this, and so I listened to my intuition and decided to act on it. I am very glad that I listened, since the end results were quite splendid.

I now realize how important that ritual was, and how fortunate that I was able to figure it out and write it up. Had I managed to develop this ritual back in the autumn of 2009, I believe that the period of the overall ordeal would have been significantly shortened. At any rate, often the pioneer and trail blazer has to do things the hard way and experience the creative process of developing an ordeal with all of the half hazard, chaotic and serendipitous occurrences that happen along the way. Had I not delayed the working, then I might have done it the way that I originally planned. By letting the date slip a weekend, I came up with a different, and I think, better plan. We shall see over time how it works out, but so far I am very pleased with the results.

Additionally, I also decided to dispense with using the planetary hours for the two workings. Since most of the rites have been performed before as part of the original ordeal, I felt that it wasn’t necessary to enclose the working with planetary hours. I will, however, use planetary hours for the last working in May, because it has not yet been attempted. I also felt that the Benediction rite was unnecessary, since the temple was quite properly aligned and fully charged. Since I completed the first part of the ordeal back in December 2009, the sigils and other regalia for this working has been kept in the exact place where I left them. The forces and intelligences that were contacted back then are still quite active. I also felt that the auspiciousness of the dates precluded the need to somehow make the whole operation more sanctified and spiritually blessed than what it already was.  The important part of this working was to perform the Rite of Union, and to do it before the Bornless One invocation.

Needless to say, those (in the Order) who choose to undergo this ordeal as it has been established will perform it with the Rite of Union being done after the Bornless One invocation. I also will recommend that it be executed very quickly afterwards, perhaps the next day after the invocation. It was important for me to perform the Ogdoadic Godhead Vortex ritual and the Triple Tetrahedral Gate ritual in order to re-awaken and re-connect with the ordeal where I left it. Since the Rite of Union was supposed to be worked while the HGA and the Element Godhead were active, I felt that I needed to re-immerse myself in this work. So I assumed that the second time through these rituals wouldn’t really been very illuminating. The key, of course, was with the Rite of Union and the effect that it would have on the overall working. I was looking forward to that event with a great deal of anticipation.

Astrological considerations for the dates April 22 and April 23 were not particularly auspicious. The moon was in the sign Capricorn and it was five days from the full moon, or two days before the last quarter. Moon in Capricorn is not an emotionally effusive aspect - it is, in fact, cold and inhibited. However, the lunation cycle for the moon was at type 6, which was the disseminating type, useful for communication and guidance. I could expect a stable and placid, if not subdued, lunar impact, particularly with the sun recently entered into Taurus. Still, this was the date for Good Friday and Earth Day, with next day of Saturday (Holy Saturday) representing the transition from death to rebirth, at least in Christian practice.

In the tradition of the Roman Catholics, the church altar was stripped on Holy Thursday after the mass rite, and no mass was actually said after that event until Easter Sunday. Good Friday was a time of prayer, adoration of the cross, a procession of the Holy Eucharist and a mass of the pre-sanctified, using sacraments produced on Thursday. Holy Saturday continued the abstinence of saying mass, but consisted of the blessing of the fire, reading of the prophecies, blessing of the baptismal font (in preparation for a special baptism in the old rite), and at vespers, the first celebration of Christ’s resurrection. All of these rites commemorated the execution, death and rebirth of the founder and savior, Jesus Christ. So I was undergoing my personal rites of the Abramelin Lunar Ordeal when the rest of the Christian world, orthodox as well as the other denominations, was celebrating their holiest weekend of the year, next to Christmas. Therefore, the timing was particularly auspicious, if one considers the impact of performing personal magick during a religious holiday.

On Friday and Saturday (starting during the evening on Friday) the Passover Shabbat is celebrated, representing the most auspicious moment in the eight day celebration after the two Seder meals and before its final end, which is Tuesday. These are the fourth and fifth days of Passover, known as the Choi Hamoed, or intermediate days. The intermediate days represent the Hebrew’s deliverance from bondage in Egypt and their travels to the Red Sea. They are still in danger of being captured or killed by pharaoh’s soldiers, and it is the seventh day when the miracle of the Red Sea splitting is performed by Yahweh, allowing the Hebrews to cross over and safely begin their sojourn to the promised land.

Let me now relate what happened to me during these two events, since we have established the reasons and the context for their operation. I will write up edited notations from my journal, excluding only those entries that I consider too personal to relate here.

Friday, April 22: Began the working at approximately 8:30 pm. I completed setting the magick circle just after the clock signaled the half hour, so I was able to determine the start time. I performed the Mass of the Goddess to charge the temple, and the rite proceeded without any incident. I felt in high spirits for this work, and body was without fatigue or any pain - not at all like the last time I did this working. I performed the Ogdoadic Godhead Vortex ritual and found that the individual Seraphim and Cherubim had become completely fused into union. I received no sense of any individual messages or insights, instead they manifested as a powerful combination of force and intelligence, which was quite remarkable! I was nearly taken aback by the powers and the sense of the coalesced entities that I had awakened.

Once I had completed the invocation of the Element Godhead of Water, I did reconnect and re-encounter the Goddess aspect that I had encountered nearly sixteen months ago. I found myself returned to the peaceful misty beach, where I had met a youthful barefoot woman with a white lace shift, tanned body and face, blond hair in french braids, green eyes and a friendly smile. I could once again smell the sea salt and hear the gentle sound of the waves lapping against the shore. I also heard sea gulls in the background, but noticed that the sun was completely occluded by the enveloping mist. I communed with her a little while, and felt comforted and refreshed by her presence. I had a strong sense of well being and happiness, as if anticipating a time of joy. I now wonder if the Goddess was anticipating her wedding to the HGA, feeling the joy that one would expect to feel for such a glorious union.

The next ritual in the series for that evening was the Triple Tetrahedral Gate ritual. I found this rite to be easy to perform and did so without incident. There were no striking visitations or other magickal phenomena. I could feel the power of the ritual reach a kind of crescendo with the opening of the Great Gate, and I also sensed or even saw the Goddess and the HGA meeting each other on either side of the gateway. This rite set the stage for the next and final rite, having awakened and pulled together all of the elements from the last working. I was ready to proceed to the next level of the working.

Performing the rite of the Alchemical Hierogamy Rite of Union was effortless, flowing and nearly flawless. I marveled at how well the ritual worked, even though this was the first time that I had performed it. The first stage of the rite held an element of sadness, since that is where the young King and Queen are executed and drained of blood, preparing them for the alchemical resurrection. However, instead of sensing the Goddess and the HGA going through this process, I felt myself going through it instead. I could visualize myself progressing through the three steps of alchemical dissolution, where my sense of ego based selfhood was completely destroyed and made ready for distillation and regeneration. However, when I got to the central part of the rite, and began to perform the rites of Conjuction, where the Goddess and HGA were to be wed, I found that they had returned to my vision’s sight, and I drew them together through the wedding rite.

I then envisioned a scene right out of the Lovers Card in the Tarot, with me acting as the prelate who officially joins the two young lovers together. Once this act had reached it climax, I felt my heart filled with an indescribable joy and a blissful happiness. It was a powerful sense of ecstatic union, and I even saw in my mind’s eye where the two youthful lovers embraced and became as one great being of light and love. I had to stop the working at this point for a while as I fully processed these new sensations. I fully sensed and felt the mysterious “Lover Within” as I had never sensed it before.

The rest of ritual proceeded without any further interruption, but as in the first part, I saw myself being reconstructed and made alchemically whole, fulfilled, regenerated and renewed. The end of the rite had me feeling as if I were reborn and made completely new.

Once the final rite was finished, I had to sit and meditate for awhile. I felt that the Rite of Union was very likely the most magnificent ritual that I have ever experienced. I was so powerfully affected that I couldn’t go to asleep right way. The rite had been completed at around 11:30 pm, which was a three hour period of intense ritualizing, but I was not at all tired. Later that evening, my dreams were very vivid and active, and I felt a blissful kind of joy and happiness that I haven’t felt in some time, as if the weight of all my cares and troubles had been completely removed from my shoulders.

Saturday, April 23: This time there was a bit of a delay before I was able to begin the working. I had some tasks to complete for the day, and then afterwards, I wanted to take short nap to catch up on my sleep. Unfortunately, I slept for around two hours, which meant that the time at my waking was around 7 pm. It was still light out (because of daylight savings time and because the days get so much longer in Minnesota the closer one is to the solstice), so I was at first confused by the time. I hadn’t done the preparations for the Bornless One rite, so I had to focus on getting them completed before starting the work. I decided not to perform the Mass of the Goddess for this evening’s work, and instead, I would focus on just doing the Bornless One rite. I finally got everything ready, took a shower and properly anointed myself. The magick circle was fully erected at around 10:00 pm.

I then went through the five stages of the Bornless One invocation rite, where I set up the four Qabbalistic Worlds as the platform steps to a raised energy temple, with the fifth stage functioning as a trapezoidal prismatic temple at the very top. I was able to pace myself and make it through these five arduous stages without difficulty or fatigue slowing me down. I felt ebullient, inspired and fully empowered, so I managed to work through all of the operations until I got to the Bornless One invocation. I then went through this invocation and the final experience was far more powerful and remarkable than I have ever experienced it before. The ecstatic feeling from the previous evening was greatly amplified, and by the time I had completed the invocation, I felt a truly great joy and happiness overpower all of my senses. I felt that the HGA and it’s apparent manifestation was supremely energized by the Rite of Union of the previous evening. It was so apparent to my senses that I felt as if I were two individuals and not one. I could sense its thoughts and feelings as if they were my own. The union between us was neither complete or perfect, but it gave me a strange kind of doppelganger effect, where I moved and sensed myself in space and time in two places at once, even though both bodies were very close. It’s the oddest sensation that I have ever experienced, but it does represent to me that I am getting very close to my objective of being fully unified with the Higher Self.

Once the rite had achieved it’s climax, I found myself blissfully enclosed in a state that was absolutely wonderful. I saw the world through the HGA’s thoughts, and could even engage in an internal dialogue with my higher self, even anticipating the answers! I wanted to know my destiny, at least for the rest of my life, and I saw that there was still so much more to experience and learn, even though I have lived more than half of life so far. Could that mean that I have a long life ahead of me? I could interpret it that way, or it could just mean that my last days will be very busy, allowing me to complete my travels and studies in good order. I now realize that I have built a good solid foundation, and the HGA showed me this, and so much more.

After I sat in meditation for a while, the superimposition of the HGA and myself merged until I felt it in my body, or perhaps I was in its body - I couldn’t tell. He was talking to me inside my head as if it were just another facet of myself (or like to friends in a casual conversation), and I felt just blissful, whole and completely happy. Then when there was nothing more to say, we both became quiet but fully aware of and delighting in our merged beings. This state of mind continued as I completed the ritual and finally retired for bed. I felt like I was a container for this being, sharing the space of my thoughts, feelings and sensations with it. The whole thing was indescribable - and it is still very much active, even now, many hours after it was completed.

One thing that I did ask my HGA was to help me to determine a theme for the Theurgia-Goetia spirits. Looking at this problem through the eyes of my Higher Self, I found it to be all quite simple. The spirits of the Theurgia-Goetia are based on the sixteen directions of the winds, since they are winged air spirits who fly. Half of them are good, and the other half are demonic, so they would represent the spirits that ward the gateway of the Abyss - half of them are on this side, and the other half are in the night side of the abyss. They form a circle whose center is the abysmal gateway. I am sure that this will help me develop a magickal system to invoke and evoke those spirits, and I believe that more information will be forthcoming, but it was fascinating to ask this question and have it so easily answered.

The working was completed at around 1:15 am Sunday morning, and after shutting everything down, I tried to sleep. I have to admit that it was difficult to sleep, even though I was tired, because another part of me (the HGA?) was still awake and processing everything at light speed. I even had the odd thought of: “so this is what its like being in a body and seeking the succor of sleep - how interesting!”

On Sunday, which was Easter, I decided to rest somewhat, but I did feel moved to perform a Thanksgiving mass, which I did after completing my journal entries. I had woken late in the morning and still felt tired. I also felt like something was still moving around inside my head, inspiring me with all sorts of visions and insights. I said the Mass of the Goddess with all of the solemness and joy of the moment, but I also was very tired. I cooked for myself a wonderful feast and thoroughly enjoyed eating it, since my senses had been so much enhanced from my experience. I felt that I had successfully completed the first phase, and felt a great deal of wonder and amazement at the magickal process that produces these experiences. There was much to grateful about, and felt gratitude at the deepest levels.

I am looking forward to the next and final phase of this ordeal, which (unless something peculiar happens) will be Saturday, May 14. At that time, I will attempt to perform the Bornless One Envisioning rite. I will produced an edited version of my experience and also probably put together an epilogue for the whole ordeal. Stay tuned, because it only gets more interesting!

Frater Barrabbas

Spring Magickal Workings and Other Things

Conan the Barbarian fighting the Frost Giants

Ides of March have come, but outside the world is still locked in the frigid embrace of the frost giants, who have ruled this long winter with a cruel disdain for any human creature comforts. While the snows of December and January seemed proper and picturesque, they are unwelcome and tedious now in March. More snow is on the horizon, as we who live in the Northern Midwest continue to endure a very arduous ordeal of cold, ice, snow and a lack of the solar blessings of warm and balmy breezes. Yet, even as it seems like the middle of winter outside, I know that this time of darkness and frigid weather will pass, to be replaced by warmer weather, the melting of the snow and ice, and the return of leaves, flowers and all of the outdoor wildlife represented by the growing season. Each sunny day grows brighter and warmer, melting some of the ice and snow. Yet my soul will certainly rejoice when I hear the sweet sounds of the “Spring Peepers,” the first indication that life has returned to the barren winter landscape. They usually are heard in the second or third week of April, around the time that I will be starting to complete the Abramelin Lunar Ordeal.  

Now that I have gotten the last ritual in the Abramelin Lunar Ordeal completed, I can plan for the final set of workings that will aid me in finally completing this ordeal. I started this working in November 2009, and completed the first phase at the last days of December of that year. Throughout the year of 2010, I have experienced a series of remarkable events, all of which appear to have built up to this final magickal conclusion. How odd that I have worked this ordeal for many months and experienced all of its intense phenomena at various strategic times, and now in April and May of this year I will perform the final rites in this series. This mystical and magickal journey has taken me nearly eighteen months, from beginning to end, which ironically is the same duration of the German version of the original Abramelin ordeal.

As I think and meditate on what I have experienced during the last eighteen months, I am amazed at all that has occurred to me. Certainly, I have opened doors that were not even conceivable to me. For instance, I now know that I am not alone on my spiritual and magickal quest, having received more than qualitative hints that there are individuals who know vastly more about the occult and ritual magick than I. So amidst hints and dreams of the promise of the mysterious masters (those remarkable mortal men and women), the acquisition of new knowledge, and the materialization and revelation of new friends and important contacts, I have started this year with a tremendous amount of anticipation and excitement. There are many projects that I will seek to apply some final efforts so as to realize their total fruition, and I am looking forward to their completion.

Dates for the concluding Abramelin Lunar Ordeal have been set for the full moon of April (April 16th and 17th) and just before the full moon of May (May 14th and 15th). The weekend of the full moon in April will be when I’ll perform the Ogdoadic Godhead Vortex Ritual and the Triple Tetrahedral Gate Ritual, then the next day following with the Stellar Gnostic version of the Bornless One Invocation rite. That will re-active all of the components of this ordeal that have been previously established in the workings of December of 2009. The weekend of the near full moon in May will be where I will complete the Abramelin Lunar ordeal, first with the Alchemical Hierogamy Rite of Union, and then on the following evening, the Bornless One - Rite of Envisioning. The moon will be waxing, gibbous and will have entered into the sign of Scorpio by the last night, which will be a most auspicious sign for the final rite. That final rite has been delayed all of these months, but in May, it will be finally completed.

It is my assumption that with the conclusion of this ordeal, the various powers, authorities and prerogatives of the Bornless One will be completely mine to command. I will have envisioned my higher spiritual purpose and know the ultimate meaning of my life. The magickal squares that I have chosen from the Book of Abramelin will be fully charged and activated, and I will begin to wield specific magickal spells to achieve my long term goals.    

I am planning, after this month of March, to begin some other magickal workings, research and writing. The reason why I will be starting after March is because I will have to pull together two workshops that I will be giving at Pagancon in the Twin Cities. For those who might not know about it, Pagancon is going to be held on the weekend of March 24, 25 and 26th.  I suspect that the coordinators are attempting to create a convention that will become the Midwest version of Pantheacon. I plan on being there for most of that weekend, so if you happen to live in the area, please come by and be welcomed at my classes, and while you are there, join in the other venues. I will talk more about this event in the next week or so. Needless to say, I am looking forward to it.

Some other workings that I would like to attempt would be to perform some invocations and evocation of a selection of the angles of the Shem ha-Mephorash and Daemons of the Goetia, which I would see as tying into the completion of the Abramelin Lunar ordeal. I would also like to incorporate the spirits of the Goetia Theurgia into a comprehensive system of evocation magick. In order to do this, I will need to tap into the mythic themes and underlying symbolic attributes of these spirits, probably by invoking one of the hierarchical leaders or princes, who I would seek to aid me in this project. Building a system of accessing the spirits of the Goetia Theurgia would represent the final piece of my project to present a comprehensive system of invocation and evocation for the entire spectrum of angelic and daemonic spirits in the hierarchy as I have determined it. This would also include a completed system for the Grimoire of Armadel, which I would also seek to distribute in some fashion or another.

So there is a lot on my plate for this entire year, which also includes more mundane things such as my career, family, friends and my ever important relationship with my lady. I look forward to these tasks and events with a great degree of optimism and joy. I find that I truly relish my time spent with friends, since my social life has been highly attenuated by the fact that I live so far away from the city and have so much to accomplish every day.

On another note, my newly made friend Robert, of the blog Doing Magic fame, has responded to a conversation that I had with him at Pantheacon, where I questioned him about his reports and experiences with what he calls his “Helpful Deity.” You can find the link to his blog article here. Since his descriptions and interactions with the entity have been quite suitably vague, I decided that I would question him about this spirit, since we were socializing, and engaged in face to face communication. I started my questioning by asking him if the Helpful Deity was just an aspect of himself (higher self) or a distinct deity. Thus my question began by seeking some clarifying insight. I wanted to know if the HD was completely internal (part of himself) or external (a distinct deity).

This prompted Robert to write up a blog article posing whether the HD is internal or external and by expansion, the nature and experience of spirits as a whole, which wasn’t quite what I asked. He went on to say that in his experiences, spiritual entities are both internal (subjective) experiences as well as external phenomenon that can be (objectively) experienced by others. Of course I would have to agree with him, but unfortunately that wasn’t quite the point that I was trying to make when I was questioning him. Robert did indicate to me that the HD has a distinct and specific name, as well as a mythology and lots of known attributes, but that he had not wanted to share that name in his blog, so he called it the Helpful Deity. I now know the name of the entity, but I will be discreet and not reveal it to my readers. I figure that it’s none of my business, and if Robert wants to reveal that personal bit of lore to his readers, he can do so at a time of his own choosing.

A few other controversies are raging on the web world of blogs, and I would like to mention a few comments on each.

First, it appears that the members of the second (inner) order of Robert Zink’s Esoteric Order of the Golden Dawn have almost unanimously expelled him as their chief, posting a consensus based announcement as such in the blogosphere. This has been much discussed by various Golden Dawn factions, and it appears that Robert Zink has replied, although not very forcefully, saying essentially that as chief of his order, he can’t be expelled by subordinate members of that same order. Unfortunately, I would have to agree with him. The Golden Dawn, in most of its variations, is not a democratic institution, but a hierarchical organization where the top post is held by a chief (or chiefs), until he or she either retires, quits, or dies. It would be assumed in such a situation that a new chief would be named, often by the previous chief. The GD in most cases doesn’t either elicit or act on the advice of its members, even if the greater majority seek a certain direction or end, unless, of course, the actual leadership decides to do so.

Therefore, the second order members of Robert Zink’s EOGD can’t expel him or choose a new chief - it’s just not written into their bylaws, which all of them agreed to when they joined. All they can do is leave the EOGD and form a new organization, hopefully, one that won’t be modeled on any kind of autocracy. This kind of tragic situation can also be repeatedly found in pagan groups and Wiccan covens, where the leader or leaders hold a kind of absolute power over their members. In such a situation, the only recourse that a member has is to quit and found another group or work as a solitaire practitioner. None of these groups function as a democracy and they often eschew any kind of consensus. I also know that there are groups and organizations in the pagan and witchcraft world that don’t function in this manner, but the enlightenment of democracy is still spreading slowly to the rest.

What all of this brings to my mind is how important it is to establish groups and organizations based on democratic principles and consensus. We are mature adults living in the post modern era, so being a member of a group that functions as a rigorous hierarchical autocracy should probably be seen as a strange, insidious and anomalous atavism. I don’t know about you, but I, for one, wouldn’t ever join a group unless my opinions and thoughts about various internal issues were at the very least heard, if not brought into a consensus with the other members and the ruling polity. I really despise all forms of tyranny, especially those that are enforced within so-called occult spiritual and magickal organizations. The purpose of belonging to a magickal or spiritual group is mutual support, objectivity, peer review and the encouragement of transcendence and conscious evolution. So how can one engage in these activities if they are tyrannized and kept in ignorant bondage by some flawed and superficial leader? That’s the ten million dollar question!

A group that is democratic and ruled by consensus is, in my opinion, far more powerful and cohesive than one that is an autocracy, because everyone in the group feels empowered and an important part of the whole group. Such a group, as I have stated in this blog more than once, is called a Star Group, and it is much more representative of how a group should be organized and conducted in the 21st century. I believe that occult groups, temples and other organizations should be completely democratic, and if they are smaller intimate groups, they should also be egalitarian and ruled solely through consensus. Authority should be vested in the group and never in one single individual.

A Star Group avoids all of the terrible excesses of spiritual and magickal tyranny that seem to plague other types of groups or organizations. So, I guess that what is problematic about the EOGD, or other analogous groups, is that they are not run as democracies. Hierarchical organizations that are run by a single individual or an elite clique that doesn’t have any accountability, or checks or balances on that authority, are doomed to the natural corruption inherent in human nature. Even a supposed benign dictator in such a group is still a tyrant and will have to be overcome, often by one’s own feet through leaving that group, in order to facilitate actual spiritual and magickal growth.

I wish the second and inner order members of the EOGD, who have thus rebelled against their chief, good luck and good fortune as they seek to build a new consensus and a new organization. I hope that they have learned a valuable lesson from their experience and will decide to form a new organization that is democratic and ruled by consensus, instead of just choosing a new chief or a ruling clique, which will do nothing more than just start the whole mindless process all over again.

Another issue being hotly discussed in the blogosphere is the tragic event that happened at the recent Pantheacon, where some trans-gendered women were excluded from a women’s only mystery working involving the deity Lilith. There have been some rather passionate and hurtful arguments going around (and very some sober reevaluations), and the fact that I am a male might actually exclude me from even having an opinion. What I do feel is that a convention like Pantheacon should be open to all pagans and witches (or those who are sympathetic), and should exclude none. Is it a proper venue for an exclusive ritual, lecture or workshop? That question is for the Pantheacon staff to decide, who very likely seek to accommodate their fellow pagans, within reason, of course. However, to exclude trans-gendered women from a women-only rite is probably over the top, since the gathering is open to the public who are willing to pay the entry fee. If a mystery is to be presented that is so exclusive that it must exclude trans-gendered women because they are supposedly “not born women, but made so through surgery,” then I think another venue should be chosen for that same rite.

The purpose for Pantheacon is to bring all of the various pagans together into some kind of harmonious accord, not to create boundaries and exclude individuals. I can somewhat see the value of having mystery rites exclusive for certain groups, however, short of making individuals strip or somehow prove themselves as valid participants, I believe that by their will and mutual acceptance, they should be allowed to experience the mystery. Acceptance and inclusion overrules creating hurtful boundaries that cut across vague and shadowy demarcations of gender, sexual affiliation and ethnicity that affect us all, especially at a public venue like Pantheacon.

Finally, there is still more discussion going on over the great energy debate, and I think that both the Scribbler (at Magian Rumination) and Jason Miller (at Strategic Sorcery) have brought up very useful points in its defense. The first point is that the heart appears to be an incredible  source of quantifiable energy, and the second point has brought up eastern systems of healing where that healing methodology is explained by the occurrence of chi acting in the nervous system. I think that both of these articles are excellent, especially the one about the power of the heart, so I would highly recommend that you look them over here, and here. It would seem, based on these two articles, that there seems to be some kind of energy operating in these various healing techniques and the scientific examination of the greater function of the heart, and so maybe it’s not just a metaphor as some would think.

Still, it may also require a considerable advancement in science (quantum biology?) to pull all of these threads together and make overall sense of them. However, the power of the mind to conceptualize through models and function as if they were concrete facts (even when they are not) can’t be dismissed either. This brings us to the kind of vague and unsatisfying conclusion where the concept of “spiritual energy” must have a provisional definition of potentiality being a kind of energy not yet known or quantified by science, but it can also be seen as a metaphor for something that is either partially or wholly within the framework of the mind. Either perspective must also perceive the mind as being a far more powerful mechanism than previously thought.

We should also be reminded that there are two ways of looking at reality; using either the mind before matter model or the matter before mind model. Depending on which model is used will produce a very different perspective in regards to life and the boundaries of objective and subjective reality.     

Frater Barrabbas