What is Archaeomancy?

I have a system of magic which I developed back in the 1980's and worked on through the 1990's that I called “Archaeomancy.” I was not the first person to use this obscure term, since it was bandied about by Michael Bertiaux when I knew him back in the late 1970's. He never actually defined it, and as far as I know never developed a system of magic out of his word-play. It left quite an impression on me, and led me later on to develop my own system of magic based on that single but fascinating word. Bertiaux was something of a creative genius when it came to dreaming up new systems of magic, and some of these ended up being quite detailed, amazing, and imaginative; others were just ideas that he spawned in the moment and never did anything with them. As far as I know, this was one of them.

The word Archaeomancy, as a contrived word,  seems to borrow the first part of archaeology, the study of early human history, with the Latin/Greek ending “mancy” (Greek manteia) which means prophecy or magic. The part of the word “archaeo” is from the Greek “arkhaios”, which means ancient or primeval, and the source of that word is “arkhe”, which means beginning. I would translate the word “arkhaiomanteia” as the primordial magic, or the magic of the source.

As I puzzled over this word for some time after I had heard Bertiaux mention it in passing, a few years later, I managed to come up with an operational definition of this word and how it could be applied to the study and practice of magic. I guess you could say that the term fascinated me and stuck in my mind. My realization was one of those peculiar moments when I felt that the divine had passed to me a vision of new magical lore, a state that I have successfully cultivated in myself. It seemed, as I defined it, that Archaeomancy would concern itself with the original magic of creation, the very process of emanation that fashioned the mysterious interlocking worlds that we consciously engage with today. It is the totality of our reality, the One, but it is also that which is beyond our reality, i.e., the source of everything itself.

Emanation, as defined by the Neoplatonists, is the process that fostered the original creation, but it also represents our thread-like connection to the One. Emanations travel from the source and return to the source, and we are revitalized by it from microsecond to microsecond, and the whole universe of consciousness is also revitalized in that same instantaneous moment. It is like a divine heartbeat that reverberates through the web of conscious being that connects everything. We are mostly unaware of it, just as we are unaware of our connection to everything else, except at rare peak moments when our conscious mind momentarily transcends our individuality.

This constant cycle from the singular source to infinite diversity, and then returning from infinite diversity again to the source, passes through a series of gateways or striated planes of being, or like spheres or rings of the ascending and descending granularity of consciousness. This gradation of being, from the monadic source to various levels of conscious being, from the highest to the lowest, has been depicted in models since the beginning of human thought. It represents our human condition of attempting to intellectually grasp what cannot be grasped with the mind, and that is the dimension of higher consciousness that is beyond definition and individuation. When we experience this transcendental reality, it produces in us a paranormal perception. We see a world where everything is united into a single beingness. It causes us to feel connected with everyone and everything, and its essence is a transcendental feeling of love, wholeness and completeness.

However, that path, which leads to such a brief vista of enlightenment, holds within it the veil of darkness and horrors produced by fear, hatred, rejection, despair, aloneness and meaninglessness. That veil of darkness must be pierced to behold the shining unity beyond it. Yet even beyond that domain of conscious unity is the apprehension of an ultimate essence, which is emptiness, but a state that has no fear nor awareness of separation. It is the ultimate state of conscious reality, and it lies beyond the subtle and the causal levels of being. It consists of overlapping veils of subtle light within a stygian realm of empty darkness.  Yet those overlapping veils lead to a final gateway that opens up to the infinite nothingness beyond. That is how we could perceive the limitless source, the point where everything as one becomes an infinite expanse of emptiness. We can find this kind of model or descriptions in the writings on Buddhist psychology, Neoplatonism, and the Qabalah (the model of the Ain Soph Aur).

Human beings have traveled through these planes and explored these worlds, and the most profound scriptures and fundamental religious and spiritual beliefs are based on a translation of them. Whether it is Enoch’s voyage through the stages of the heavens, or Dante’s visionary tour of heaven and hell, the voyage beyond the world as we know it has captured the mind of humanity. It is a fundamental process that likely began with the journey of the Shaman into and out of the World of Spirit. The Shamanic journey represents the earliest known ascent and descent from the ultimate source, which was characterized as the domain of the honored dead ancestors, messengers, deities, and spirits, and that it was the earliest archetypal representation for the magical system of Archaeomancy. The symbolic representation of this journey was the ascent up and down the world-tree, the place or location where everything converges - the midpoint gateway to the planes of the universe of consciousness.

This central converging locus or gateway has been represented as a great primordial tree in many traditions, but it could also be depicted as a singular great mountain, the heavenly worlds with a pearly gate, a ladder of lights, an elevator, a spiral stairway, or even a giant beanstalk or a great enchanted rope. The means of conveyance could be a magic horse (hobby horse), broom stick, winged boots or helm, a magical boat (the Argo) or a canoe, a magic carpet, a giant bird, or any flying wondrous creature. There would also need to be a guide or many guides, particularly an emissary who knows all and has been to all the places, high and low, which could be achieved through this method of egress. The shamanic magician who ascends and descends these planes would be a specific kind of spiritual traveler, and one who would converse and acquire wisdom in the form of tribal mythology and ancestral messages through the various emissaries that they might meet. They are a peerless group of individuals who have the ability to enter into the realm of dreams and the spirits of the dead and then return to the world of the living.

Many shamanic traditions hold the belief that the origin of the physical world and all it contains came from this shadowy world that exists in dream time. Likewise, occultists call this world the Inner Planes, and speculate that all spirituality and materiality has its origin and continued existence through it. To the ritual magician, the world of dreams is the source of all consciousness and meaning, whereas the physical world is the source of life and material existence. These two worlds merge to fortify each other, giving meaning to existence. Yet in our high-tech Western culture we have devalued and then forgotten this important world, and we have correspondingly abandoned the key to revivifying our cultural symbols and institutions. Through the distractions of the media we lose our myths and beliefs by their incessant trivial repetition, although some would maintain that media actually elaborates and keeps alive these tribal myths.

Ritual magicians seek to enter into the world of visions and dreams just as the primitive shaman to find the source of their spiritual being and to gain from it a profound spiritual renewal. When magicians accomplish this task, they harnesses a boundless creative resource and experience transcendent visions and inspirations. This causes a flood of creative images, emerging into their mind as new insights, mythic symbols, prophetic meanings and a renewed life significance. Ritual magicians are the unwitting pioneers who have re-opened the world of dreams purely for personal reasons, even so our modern world may be saved from its shedding of meaningfulness.

When magicians are exposed through ritual magic to this mental deep-structure, subtle body or collective consciousness, they experience an exalted form of personal transformation, revealing the very super symbolic level of conscious being. The methodology of Archaeomancy is revealed as the highest form of ritual magick that a magician can hope to experience, and the most effective in terms of transforming the reality of the magician. Ye it is also the most basic, fundamental, and simplistic mind state in regards to the essential formulations of individual being. Through this practice of Archaeomancy, our high-tech Western world can have an opportunity to be transformed and reborn into a new renaissance, if the techniques of Archaeomancy as practiced by ritual magicians become spiritually vogue.

The world of dreams and visions, also called the Inner Planes by occultists, is divided up into different domains, each autonomous but also joined together to form a powerful collective. For the purpose of ritual practice, the magician perceives two sets of domains or worlds within this collective, and these are based upon Qabalistic and Tarot symbolic structures. In whatever fashion the world of dreams is sliced and diced, it is still a collective and functions seemingly as a holistic entity, a unified sentient being, individually  responding to each person’s beliefs and perspectives. The magician realizes through these workings that this immanent feature of the Deity is a mystery little known in today’s world.

The system of Archaeomancy that I had envisioned uses as its foundation the Qabalah, and so the world tree or ladder of lights would be the Tree of Life itself, and the mechanism of travel would be the trance states, the various magical tools, relics, and artifacts, advanced ritual structures, and the holy and sacralized temple of the magician traveler; the emissaries would be the various angelic beings associated with the emanating planes of consciousness. Since a consecrated magic circle denotes a sacred boundary, then the world that it defines is the bridge and gateway that opens up into the Inner Planes.

I have determined that there are two perspectives and processes that function together in the art of Archaeomancy as I have developed it. The first is the Qabalah of the four worlds and the ten Sephiroth producing forty worlds, and the second would be the Qabalah of the eighteen spiritual dimensions. This first perspective is based on the traditional Qabalistic speculation that the ten Sephiroth are filtered through the Four Worlds of Atziluth, Briah, Yetzirah and Assiah, producing the emanations of the forty worlds that formulate the Inner Planes. The second perspective is based on the teachings that I had received from the chiefs of the Nephilim, formulating a Tree of life that consists of the triangular shapes, which the paths produce when the Sephiroth are removed the diagram. The skeleton lattice structure of the Tree of Life reveals the eighteen dimensions that represent the mysterious essence and hidden source of the Qabalah, where all of its individuated powers, intelligences and directives converge to produce a single ultimate spiritual body of light and darkness.

The forty emanations correspond to the forty Pip cards of the Tarot and represent the structure of the Sephiroth within the four Archetypal Worlds. This is the quaternary structure of the Inner Planes, and is represented by the concept of forty worlds that are like topical places inhabited by various Gods, Angles, Daemons, spirits and symbolic beings. Each world is an enactment of the symbolic progression of spiritual transformation and physical manifestation. This means that each world imparts a separate mystery that tells the story (myth) of humanity's quest for spiritual realization and of the simultaneously occurring incarnation of Deity. Some of these myths are well represented by the Rider-Waite-Smith Tarot deck, where the Pip cards have pictures of archetypal scenes or vignettes as if from some mystery play.

The forty worlds represent the main concourse of the Inner Planes and so contain most of the correspondences associated with ceremonial magic. The root of this symbolic matrix consists of the four Worlds, and these are analogous to the four Elements, representing the whole of the symbolism of the Tetramorph. The Tetramorph is the Qabalistic God-name (YHVH) and is the essence of all four-fold symbolism. The Tetramorph can also represent four element attributes of the Deity, which emanate from the One, demonstrating the multiplying effect of the emanation process. While the forty worlds represent the multiplicity of manifested being, they are resolved into a singular expression of Deity; and this is the relationship that naturally occurs between the Qabalah of the Four Worlds, and the ultimate source, the Unity of Being.

The Archaeomancy of the Forty Elemental Worlds is principally concerned with the invocation and evocation of the Angelic Rulers of the Thirty-six decans, as performed through the domain of the astrological decan. The decan, which is represented as a ten degree segment of the Zodiac, is the base for the definition of the Qabalistic World. There are thirty-six decans, and these correspond to a specific Qabalistic World as well as one of the thirty-six Pip cards of the Lesser Arcana of the Tarot. There are numerous other correspondences to these thirty-six decans, including the hosts of the Shemhemphorash and the daemons of the Goetia. The four element archetypes represent the highest and the most material expression of the forty worlds, which are the Element Godhead and the Elemental Kings. These four added to the thirty-six make for the complete domain of archaeomantic magic.

Through the mythic and symbolic representation of the astrological decans, the map of the Inner Planes, as associated with the elemental correspondences of the Qabalah, are defined and made accessible to the ritual magician. The decans represent the personal destiny of the magician, who is born in a place and a time, and therefore, is subject to their influences. When a magician accesses any of the thirty-six decans, it becomes a principal factor in the magician’s unfolding psychological transformation, and it promotes their ultimate spiritual evolution. It is the objective of the Archaeomancy of the forty Elemental Worlds to assist magicians in their release from the restrictions of a material existence, so that they shall be truly free and become the author of their own personal destiny.   

In the discipline of Spiritual Archaeomancy, there are sixteen triangular shapes and two trapezoidal geometric shapes, which reside just above the greater abyss between the supernal triad, and these are the eighteen dimensions. They are defined by the Sephiroth and the pathways that surround them, and also by the angular vectors of two paths proceeding out from a Sephirah. These are the powers, intelligences and directives that define each of the dimensions of the Tree of Life. What is required is for the magician as traveler or “psychonaut” to penetrate the membrane that covers this lattice for a specific dimension and to gain access to it, thereby achieving the revelation of the unified source that resides at the core of the Tree of Life.

Where did I learn about this different approach and perspective on the Tree of Life? I was shown this lore when I conjured the chiefs of the Nephilim in the early 1990's. They revealed the naked skeleton of the Tree in a vision. Examining this lattice structure of the Tree of Life, I was taught by the Nephilim that where two paths cross each other is defined a Sephirah, and also when two pathways cross, they break up into separate pathways. Thus, there are fifteen Sephiroth and 32 pathways in this new Qabalistic Tree, and the 56 angular vectors are called the Aethyrs of the Enochian system of magic, which surpasses the 30 Aethyrs that John Dee designated in his Enochian magic. The Aethyrs are the guardians of the gateway that leads into the egress of the dimension. Once within the dimension, the magician is exposed to all eighteen dimensions at once, although entering into the left-hand and then the right-hand dimensions, and then pulling them together produces an even greater empowered manifestation of deity-based consciousness to be experienced by the magician.

The Archaeomancy of the 18 Qabalistic Dimensions is the method of contacting, entering and assimilating the very facets of the teleological processes of the Deity, and so awakening the greater destiny of its associated individual sentient souls, i.e., magicians themselves. As a system of magic, it is used to assist magicians in determining their place in the greater destiny of the world, and by extension, within the cosmos of consciousness itself. While I had been developing the methods of Archaeomancy of the 40 Worlds during the 1980's, I did not add the second component, the Archaeomancy of the 18 Dimensions until the early 1990's, since it was taught to me through my dialogues with the four Chiefs of the Nephilim. I spent the whole of that period, from the early 1990's into the early 2000's working with this system of magic, seeking to enlarge and perfect it.

The profound transforming forces of the magical art of Archaeomancy affects two different yet vital areas in the development of the ritual magician. These are reflected in the personal destiny of the magician and their place in the scheme or design of the evolutionary pattern of the consciousness of the entire species. These two processes of Archaeomancy represent the microcosm and macrocosm of the ultimate effect and goal of ritual magic, that is, union with the Absolute Spirit in its form as the planetary Egregore. Archaeomancy is the ultimate discipline and practice of the high adept, particularly those who have conquered the lesser mysteries of the soul and have established the base of stability for the greater mysteries, which is the revelation of the Spirit of the Deity and its evolutionary process.

Thus, these two systems of magic, the Qabalah of the 40 Worlds and the Qabalah of the 18 Spiritual Dimensions represent the lore of Archaeomancy that I had developed and then used to work some truly profound ritual magical workings. Using the Qabalah of 40 Worlds, I was able to build a key of correspondences, which I called the Concourse of Powers and Intelligences that linked a host of angelic and demonic spirits together, and I was able to both conjure spirits, petition them for their wisdom, and enter into their domains to gain a powerful spiritual visionary kind of experience. Using the Qabalah of the 18 Spiritual Dimensions, I was able to enter into the domains that are at the core or the very source of  spiritual emanations, and traveled freely, guided by angelic emissaries, between the planes, like the heroes of old, and like Enoch, and later, Dante.

Since the magical system that I employ utilizes a form of energized immersion, where the gateways and the geometric prismatic energy structures are all internal to the magic circle, the magician is fully exposed to all that manifests and is realized in that symbolic domain. They are not outside looking in, as a person scrying would experience, but are actually inside looking deeper within. When an angel or demon is invoked, the magician is transported into their domain through the artifice of the magical ritual structures employed in this system of magic. Their only protection is their assumed godhead and spiritual alignment, because they are there, in that same archetypal spiritual world as the entity that they have summoned and invoked or evoked.

Because this system of magic uses an advanced energy system of magic to define and empower the ritual structures within the magic circle, what is conjured is also made fully manifest and tangible to the senses. This hybrid system of magic produces an experience of full immersion into the worlds or inner planes of both heaven and hell, the over planes and the underworld. Therefore, a series of magical structures layered one upon the other, to emulate the attribute of the lattice of a Qabalistic dimension, will actually expose the magician to the very essence of that domain once the rite has achieved its objective. Either technique of ritual magic will build energy structures and pass through gateways to enter into the world where resides either the spirit conjured or the dimension fully realized. Thus, these two magical systems are considerably more potent and profound in their operation and successful achievement than most other forms of magic.  

Both of these systems of magic are quite amazing, and the impact that they have on the magician traveler is to open up the domain of the spiritual source, and its associated states of enlightenment and perfect inspiration. Since I am a flawed mortal human, I could neither contain this heightened state of enlightenment permanently, nor translate its pristine wisdom into an accessible sacred writ. All I can do is to expound on the philosophical and metaphysical background to these systems of magic, and then reproduce the rituals that I used to achieve those results. I would then rely on others to perform these workings and to witness if they indeed produce the results that I claim they that they do. However, I am quite confident that these two systems of Archaeomancy will produce the results that I have stated, since I have exposed others to these workings and gained from their experience a high degree of objectivity.

This coming autumn, I will be writing up another book, and the subject matter is to be the two systems of Archaeomancy where I will compose a comprehensive background of information that helps to operationally define them, and then the ritual lore that is used to perform these two methodologies of magic. Most importantly, I will include a key of correspondences that will assist you in defining and categorizing the occult symbols and spirit lists needed to fully invest these systems of magic. Since this is a system that I still use today, I will present the latest versions of these rituals, thereby making them more relevant and up-to-date than they would be if I just used the lore that I had developed decades ago.

I will call this book “Liber Artis Archaeomancy” and I am really looking forward to writing this book in the autumn. When it is completed and finally in print, I think that you will find great use for this kind of magic in your collection of lore.

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