Year 2024 In Review

Wow, it has been amazing year for me. So much has happened to me, both as a writer and a Witch and Magician that is seems difficult to unravel it all. Yet the year started off with a bang, and had many exciting developments. It also had one powerful disappointment, and that, of course, was the election results. I will briefly say a few words about that event, but mostly, I want to outline the amazing things that happened in the course of the year. Life has been good to me, and there is much to be grateful about, and people to be thankful for helping make this an amazing year for me.

I have been writing all year long, and what I have produced has been truly prodigious. During the year I wrote three books and submitted them to my publisher. These books will be coming out in the next two years. Titles for these books are Abramelin Lunar Ordeal (02/2025), The Magical Notary Art (04/2025), and Liber Artis Archaeomancy (Winter 2026). The manuscript for Liber Artis Archaeomancy turned out to have 217K words, so it will be a large and comprehensive work. Additionally, I have edited and revised Disciples Guide to Ritual Magick (08/2024), Mastering the Art of Ritual Magick (12/2024), and Practical Qabalah for Occultists (previously, Magical Qabalah for Beginners), which is likely to appear in print some time in Spring, 2026. I have completed six literary projects for the year.

However, during the year, I have seen six books printed and released, and these were in the following consecutive order, Sacramental Theurgy for Witches, Transformative Initiation for Witches, Mastering the Art of Witchcraft, Disciple’s Guide to Ritual Magick, Liber Nephilim, and Mastering the Art of Ritual Magick. My total output for the year 2024 has been ten books, written and edited both last year and this year. That is quite an amazing output. I am thankful that at present, there are no outstanding book projects awaiting me. I have completely cleared my occult book work-desk of all projects, so for the Yule period, I have been writing blog articles and working on the planing stages for next set of books. I have three books projects for 2025, although I will take my time planning, assembling, writing and producing these manuscripts, and then getting contracts and readying the documents for submission. Here is a list of three projects that I have planned for next year - they won’t be released until late 2026 and 2027.

The Gnostic Tetra-Sacramentary: Liturgies and Sacred Rites of the Magician Priestcraft

Since the system of magic that I espouse uses the Mass rite, Benediction, and other sacramental rites, I believe that producing a ritual workbook of the entire collection of rituals that I have used or planned to write should be developed as a manuscript and then published. The four Gnostic theurgical systems in the Order of the Gnostic Star, consisting of Thelema, Agape, Thanatos and Eros, each has a Mass rite, a Benediction rite variation, and other sacramental rites, such as the Rite of Naming, Gnostic Wedding, Exorcism, Excommunication, Requiem and the Holy Orders of Deacon and Pontifex ordination would be a part of this liturgical lore. Other ancillary rites would be included, such as the Gnostic Book of Seasons, Mass of the Great Goddess (full version), and the Rite of Beatification, and a Benediction rite to Santa Muerta. A full background to this Gnostic Sacramentary, and the use and obligations of rites of Priestcraft would be fully covered. This manuscript would likely be the first task that I would undertake for 2025 and would likely not be completed until autumn.

Ordeal XV: Rites of Luciferian Ascension

My previous book, Liber Artis Archaeomancy, focused mainly on the Angelic hierarchy and the magic associated with their invocation. However, a ritual magician must also traverse the paths of darkness and undergo the ordeals, and the challenges associated with the Devil in order to be truly and wholly spiritually evolved. One cannot avoid the darkness, especially the darkness of one’s own soul and being. Those who espouse the ways of light and who have not undergone and achieved victory and accommodation with their dark side can never be trusted not to unconsciously exhibit their negative ethos in a subtle and opaque manner. A true initiate must master both the Light and the Darkness to know and master themselves. Ordeal XV divides the darkness into the Gnostic Tetra-Sacramentary of Thelema, Agape, Thanatos and Eros, to develop the ordeals associated with the Involution Avatars Aiwaz/Astoreth, Lucifer/Promethius, Azrael/Samael, and Baalzebul/Pan Priappus. The fifth in this series is Sothis-Set, who are joined together with the four Involution Avatars to produce a tabernacle of darkness where the soul meets its ultimate challenges. This book contains all of the evocation rites and the Five-Fold Inverted Vortex, which is the heart of the chamber of trials. Included are the mystery rites of the Tabernacle of Sothis-Set and the associated Black Rites of expiation, purification, and release. The ordeals are introduced with a full set of background articles and analyses that explain in detail the nature of this ordeal, its purpose and ultimate conclusion. I will be assembling the material and writing this book from late 2025 to Spring of 2026.

Liber Nephilim Additum: Additional Rites of the Enochian Ordeal

While the book Liber Nephilim covered the basic rites needed to evoke the first two chiefs of the Nephilim angels, and also included the evocation of Lilith and other ancillary rites, other components of that working were excluded due to the limitations of the book size and length. There were quite a number of rituals and lore left behind. This book seeks to gather together all of the additional material that was not included in the original book. This book is broken into three parts, representing the topical areas that contained important but excluded ritual workings. The first part will contain the rituals for invoking the Enochian Bonarum, which I called the Binary Planetary Intelligences. I invoked seven consecutively to form a powerful planetary ordeal, with the eight workings invoking the ruling spirit Camara. Included would be diary entries of that ordeal. The second part would be the instructions and rites involved in the Enneagrammic Goddess Gateway working, representing the gate structure used in the Enochian Ordeals. The third part of the book would contain the additional rituals for the evocation of Turiel, Ramat’el, and Samael, the invocations of Seth and Enoch, the Enochian Mystery Vortex Rite, and the Convocation rites of Lilith and Enoch. The diaries for some of the workings would also be included. I may also consider including evocation rites for Lilith’s sisters and demonic queens, although there would not be associated diaries for those spirits. I would not begin to assemble, edit and write this manuscript until after Spring 2026.

***

So, those three project will take me into the middle of 2026, not including the final editing passes and other pre-production tasks. Much of this lore is already written, but other parts will need to written and everything will have to be revised and edited before it is ready for submission. We are looking at a lot of work that will need to be accomplished, and that will also depend on how things are going with me in terms of my health, day-job demands, and the likely relocation that will happen sometime in late 2025 or early 2026.

As for traveling and teaching this year, I attended the ConVocation convention last February and taught two classes. I taught a six-week series at Mama Luna’s occult book store in Richmond, based on the book Mastering the Art of Witchcraft beginning in April and extending into May. I attended and was the headliner at the Swamp Mystics mini convention in Tallahassee, FL. I also had a book tour in New Orleans in early November that was modestly successful, and I got to meet some exceptional folks who live there. I had wanted to revisit NOLA when I had first went down there in November 2023, and coincidentally, I was able to visit again almost a year later. I had promised myself to return, and that happened, thanks to the folks at Cross Crow Books.

For the coming year, I may teach my six-week class again, and visit a few more local occult book stores, I will certainly be returning to ConVocation this coming February, but I don’t have much plans beyond those events. The coming year will be one where I focus on the home front, since my wife is working out of town during the week days, and only is able to come home on the weekends. Because we have six cats and a dog, and my wife is absent during the week, it makes things more difficult for me to be away from home. That will change after we relocate, of course.

I will be relocating to a new home, and a priority for me will be getting a room for a permanent temple, and having a private outdoor location to host a grove would be a nice touch. I have been living in a small house since May 2018, and I have not been able to establish a place to work ordeal magic. I am planning on changing that situation, but the details of how that will happen, when and where, will have to be determined. There is a lot of magical work that I have left unfinished, so I would like to have the opportunity to finish these magical projects and formulate some a new ordeals. While I still have my health, I want to explore and experiment with new magical lore and additional magical ordeals. Of course, all of this work will feed into additional books, so that work will likely keep going until I can no longer write or have anything to write about.

All of these writing projects, relocating, getting temple space to work ritual magic, are quite exciting and makes me very happy and optimistic about my future. I have a great paying job, my wife is fully employed, and the future is looking to be very exciting. There is also the possibility of travel to Europe and Asia, and maybe even turning my literary talents to writing fiction once I finally retire. I hope to live many years yet to come, and there are still many adventures awaiting me. In January 2025, I will turn 70 years old, but I still feel pretty good for my age, and there may be many possibilities if I can manage to keep my health.

I am not happy or optimistic about the fate of our nation, since the election appeared to be about overcoming the status quo and exercising anger at the state of economy and at the sequestering that occurred due to the Covid19 pandemic at the ballot box. Since Democrats were nominally in charge during that period, especially the POTUS, people foolishly decided to punish them in the election. Over the last four years we have had a very competent presidential administration and until the mid-term elections, we have had reasonably good government. Now that a majority of the American people have voted to elect Donald J. Trump to another four year term, that period of seemingly good governance will evaporate. I am beside myself with concern and worry because despite all of the facts known about Trump, people still voted for him, somehow thinking that he will make things better, particularly with the state of the economy. As it will likely turn out, they will be proven wrong with a vengeance. Trump doesn’t represent either the middle class nor the down-trodden people who feel that the nation is no longer concerned with their difficulties, whether economic or social. Trump is a transactional politician who truly represents the oligarchic class, and it is they who impacted the election and ensured that he would be re-elected POTUS.   

While some will blame the Democratic Party for completely misunderstanding and misrepresenting the will of the people, there were many who did vote against Trump and the Republican Party. There was also a significant group of people who could have voted but didn’t vote for various reasons. Would they have made a difference? Possibly, but we will never really know. People were angry about inflation, which was caused by a post-pandemic economic recovery and also corporate greed. People were also angry about being forced to wear masks and about the confusion associated with the nature of Covid19, that it was a new kind of virus and not enough was initially known about it. Of course, when Trump was president, he allowed, through his inactivity and lack of planning, over one million to die, and also helped to spread misinformation about various cures and that masks were ineffective. Biden’s administration pushed forward the actual plan that not only helped to reduce the effect of Covid19, but also ensured that the economy was able to recover with less troubles than other countries in the world. The fact of the matter is that president Biden got little positive press for cleaning up the mess that Trump left behind, and spent two years undoing what Trump had done in his four years as president.

Our main stream press is owned and operated by the donor class, and after just a few months, they had basically written off Biden and his presidency, and proceeded to ignore all of the good that he was doing in favor of pointless criticisms and blame for whatever was not immediately fixed and made efficient once again. They created a hostile environment that helped to tank Biden’s favorability while white-washing and sane-washing Donald Trump. The press is mostly responsible for Biden’s poor popularity, since they focused on what was not working or wrong and seldom mentioned all of the things that he and his administration had accomplished, which was probably more than what any recent president had achieved.

Whatever troubles happened domestically, Biden and the Democrats had mostly fixed. International crises, such as the invasion of Ukraine and the war in Gaza and Lebanon, were more difficult to manage, as foreign policy typically is to any administration. The crisis in the Middle East showed that the government of Israel was not interested in working with the Biden administration, even though they had the complete support of the U.S. I abhor Hamas, Hezbolah, and the Houthis for their terrorist activities and starting and intensifying the conflict with Israel, but I also abhor the government of Israel, who have become terrorists in their own way. It is a no win scenario, and I cannot blame Biden too much for supporting Israel, since not to support them would have been political suicide during an election year.

However, as it turned out, the donor class and the oligarches did not want either Biden or any Democratic candidate to win in 2024, since they believed that a more friendly and transactional Trump would be a better replacement. I believe that the only thing that I am critical of regarding Biden is that he shouldn’t have sought a second term and thereby allowed a younger and more energized political group of Democrats to be weeded out and ultimately selected through the primary process. Having a democratic process occur during the year 2023 and 2024 for the Democratic Party might have eclipsed the effect that Trump was having on the electorate with help from the media moguls. Whether that would have been sufficient to defeat Trump at the polls is debatable, yet considering that Harris came close to defeating Trump with only 100 days to campaign indicates that it could have happened that way. Still, thinking about the possibilities doesn’t change the reality that in January we will be getting a second dose of Trump and his MAGA miscreants.

For some reason people have written off the dangers of having someone like Trump in charge of our nation for another four years. I am thankful that he can’t run again, and that many who came out to vote for him this time might not have voted at all if it was someone else running without his celebrity status. However, I believe that he will cause a lot of damage to our nation and the world at large based on his various statements about domestic and foreign policy. Additionally, it seems that Trump’s choices for cabinet members and close advisors represent a wealthy group of oligarches whose role in government will represent a massive conflict of interest. Trump is very transactional, and for his wealthy supporters, the pay-off will be their ability to grift the nation and make it all legal and acceptable. We, the people, are in for a rough four years, all because of a large number of ill-informed and misguided individual voters.

A Canadian journalist has pretty much defined our moment with the following quotation.

“There is no sense in understating the depth of the disaster. This is a crisis like no other in our lifetimes. The government of the United States has been delivered into the hands of a gangster, whose sole purpose in running, besides staying out of jail, is to seek revenge on his enemies. The damage Donald Trump and his nihilist cronies can do – to America, but also to its democratic allies, and to the peace and security of the world – is incalculable. We are living in the time of Nero.” Written by Andrew Coyne

While I have a certain amount of excitement for my own personal future, I am quite aware that many others will not be doing so well. It is my hope that the incoming administration and the trifecta of their control of the government shows them as over-reaching, overly ambitious, incompetent and overall, a failure to make any significant changes. That is my hope for my nation in the coming years. I also hope that a lot of people think about what they have done to vote for Trump and the Republican Party, knowing that these people care nothing for those who aren’t wealthy or members of the oligarchy. Maybe having some painful experiences will be a good lesson in how to use their vote to help their own interests instead of listening to pundits and politicians who lie, cheat, steal and who pretend to be compassionate to the powerless and the advocate of the under-represented. Republicans, as a rule, represent a status quo that is all about the donor class, and no one else.

Frater Barrabbas

 

 

 

 

 

 

Traditional Witchcraft Covens - Still A Good Idea?

 

My path in Witchcraft has been a decidedly crooked one, and it has been one that would seem to paint traditional initiations and traditional covens as a questionable source for one’s engagement and advancement in its practice. I had a four year tenure in the archetypal “Coven from Hell” back in the late 1970's, where I witnessed my High Priestess and High Priest go over the deep end and assume tyrannical powers over their coven members. I saw two large and well attended covens get whittled down to just a small single coven, and from there, a complete collapse. My former HP and HPs left Witchcraft and became fundamentalist Protestant Christians, and my former HP wrote an infamous book titled “Wicca: Satan’s Little White Lie,” which I have fully debunked in previous blog postings. If anything, my first coven experience was a lesson in occult despotism and the fallacy of self-elected leadership in BTW covens. You can find the first in the series of threads about my experiences here.

My negative experiences with hierarchical coven structures continued when I became a High Priest and elder of an Alexandrian coven in Minneapolis. While I had no interest in functioning as a tyrant in any way imaginable, my partner, Thea, had other ideas in mind. She ran the coven in a despotic manner and made my allegiance and deference to her as a means to bind me while she ran roughshod over the members of our coven. Finally, when the coven had enough of this kind of childish and tyrannical behavior, they had the audacity to confront her about it, with my support. That made her resign her position as leader and to break up with me for not supporting her, even though she was completely in the wrong about how she was treating people. She left the home that I had provided her and officially resigned as High Priestess, while heaping scorn and recriminations on us all. Within a week we had replaced both her and myself with new leaders, but even then, having the power to make unequivocal decisions with little or no input from the coven members, made the new order only slightly better than the old one. Within two years, the coven had disbanded and was no longer functioning.

What these experiences have taught me is that there are problems with the type of leadership that a traditional coven employs, and that it takes very mature and accessible leaders to successfully run a coven that is durable and self-sustaining over time. While such a coven structure can work and be maintained, it is too susceptible to abuse and forms of ego-driven despotism. There are no checks and balances in a hierarchical coven structure, and the High Priestess and her partner, the High Priest, are the sole authority figures in the group. The only recourse that a member has is to leave the coven and either practice alone or form another group. I have found that individuals who have had to leave a coven because of a clash with the leadership often form a new coven that has inherited the same problems as the old coven. They just seem to exchange the old tyrants for new ones, and little is actually learned.

Don’t get me wrong, because there are good covens out there in the various communities that have lasted a long time, but these, unfortunately, are the exception rather than the rule. A good and well functioning coven is hard to find, but they do exist, and I have met a number of fortunate individuals who were members of such groups. It would seem that human nature is such that there is a tendency of individuals who lack personal confidence and who have little power over their lives to seek out positions of power within a coven group and then to rule the members in a tyrannical manner. It is, unfortunately, a problem of structure and human social dynamics that make a traditional Witchcraft coven hierarchy into a microcosm study of human despotism. Wherever you have two unelected leaders assuming power and authority over a group of novices mixed in with very few initiates with no checks or balances on their rule, then the temptation to take advantage of this social situation will be great. If the leaders are emotionally mature and know themselves and their limitations, and have humility and compassion as their ruling principals, then the coven will be managed and guided with wisdom and equality, instead of deceit and delusion. That, of course, is the ideal, but considering human nature, it will fall short of the ideal, or completely miss it.

Democracy is the missing ingredient for coven management, at least in my opinion. It is what has made Blue Lodge Masonry build and maintain lodge organizations that have lasted for generations. Leadership is rotated and decisions for the lodge are made through the artifice of voting. There are, therefore, checks and balances built into the organization. Within a small group like a coven, democracy is established by group consensus, and leaders are rotated or even elected to assume temporary roles within the group. However, an elected leader assumes a role that has certain responsibilities, but the group is ruled by consensus. Leadership roles then have all of the responsibility and none of the power associated with traditional coven leadership roles.

While there are many definitions of consensus, I have found that the best approach for any group decision is that it has a majority of the members in favor with none opposed. That means the group will decide to undertake certain directives and employ individuals to help make them realized, whether formally or informally. A major directive requires a formal vote, and simple decisions can be implemented with an informal vote. Any disagreement would need to be resolved before the group could move forward, regardless of whether the decision was determined by a formal vote or just an informal agreement.

What I am describing here is what I have called a “Star Group,” and I feel that it is the only kind of organizational structure that a small group or coven could assume to ensure that everyone is treated equally and fairly, regardless of individual experience or level of achievement. Each member represents the facet of a group star, and that they come together to forge a unified group with a combined purpose and direction. No one is has any greater authority, value or role significance than anyone else in the group, even despite the differences in knowledge, experience, initiatory achievements or community status - all are equal in the eyes of the Gods. Leaders are chosen to manage and direct certain events and activities, but authority is vested in the group. Leadership roles can be designated and rotated annually, or they can be chosen for specific activities. Everyone participates and there are no divisions or barriers placed between individuals within the group. All decisions are determined by consensus, and everyone has a single equal vote.

Star Groups are the optimal group structures for any small organization that seeks to engage in specific activities in a completely fair, equal and democratic manner. They are not prone to despotic rulership or the exploitation of lesser experienced members by more senior members. They typically have a high rate of individual satisfaction, and they guarantee equal engagement privileges amongst the members of the group. Additionally, they have the ability to resolve differences, or if that becomes impossible, then to formulate new smaller groups out of the old group. A Star Group allows for separations and mergers without having to damage the group or make it ungovernable. It allows for the possibilities of a group to have amicable separations and for groups to continue to grow and evolve over time, something that a traditional coven is not likely to experience. I have found that a Star Group is the only kind of organization that I would join and happily participate in, and that I would avoid, at all costs, either joining or running a traditional coven. That is my predilection based on my personal experiences, and it shouldn’t keep anyone from joining a coven if they so wish.

An initiation into a coven or group is little more than an acknowledgment that the individual who undergoes it is able to assume the obligations and responsibilities that the initiation grade entails. Traditional Witchcraft initiations are typically inner court ceremonies that empower and constrain an individual with oaths, allegiances and the assumption of a role and an identity within the group. Internal transformations can also occur simultaneously, but they are not guaranteed. It is only through an individual practice and discipline that a practitioner can achieve personal transformation and spiritual evolution. A coven cannot provide a member with this kind of achievement, but it can help one to develop a personal discipline and practice, and to guide and show by example what can be achieved through magic rituals and ceremonies. Transformative initiation is guided by both suffering and by ecstatic release, which are symbolized by the scourge and the kiss. Both scripted initiations and transformative initiations are an intimate encounter with the Deities and the individual, where the ordeal of psychic death and rebirth are fully enacted.

Since initiations are so profoundly personal and subjective, and they require a level of trust and intimacy that is beyond mere friendship, it must happen in an environment that is free of fear, coercion, and that can allow for the full empowerment and temporary ascendancy of the initiate. A badly run coven will likely be unable to provide this kind of environment to its members who undergo initiation, making the possibility for a true transformation impossible. Initiation ceremonies in such a group are performed not for the benefit of the member, but for the edification of the leaders, to enable them to assume greater power over the candidate. Therefore, real growth and transformation requires an equable social arrangement in the coven for it to occur, and lacking that will certainly make such an achievement much more difficult. If it happens at all it will be through the individual practice and discipline, and if that activity is prohibited by the coven leaders, then there would be little reason to persevere in such a group. 

I discuss scripted and transformative initiation in my book on the subject, and it goes into much greater detail. If you wish to investigate deeper into this subject, then I would recommend my book, "Transformative Initiation for Witches," and you can find it here.

My advice to anyone who wants to form a coven or who is seeking to join one is to always to get to know the individuals in the group before making a commitment to join. If someone wants to start a coven, then I would advise them to ensure that there is some kind of consensus and rotating leadership positions installed in the group instead of assuming the role of authority figures regardless of one’s level of maturity or motivations. I believe that a traditional coven structure is too easily abused, and it readily leads to tyranny, coercion, and the exploitation of its members. Not all traditional covens are so corrupt, but the only way to find out is to cautiously get to know the leaders and engage socially with the members. Beware of coven leaders who seek potential members to quickly decide on whether to join or not, or who have sequestered the members from engaging socially with a prospective entrant. There are no NDA legalities binding members from speaking to outsiders, and if such a rule is in place, then you would be well advised not to join that group.  

We all need to protect ourselves from exploitation and the social tyranny of bad groups and organizations. The only solution is group consensus and rotating leadership roles. Our path in the art of Witchcraft magic is difficult and arduous enough without having to deal with unelected authority figures and social exploitation within a magical or Witchcraft group. A badly run coven could potentially thwart a true seeker and push them back into a mainstream religious faction, or make them into cynical critic of all things pagan and magical. Those of us who are knowledgeable and are initiates have a responsibility to those who are just starting out to give them whatever aid and assistance we can and to also respect them as human beings with an equal right to be a seeker as anyone else. We should be open, accessible and willing to share with others who might find a great value in following the path of magic and paganism. Starting out on such a socially divergent path is a very difficult decision to make, so we who already know should do what we can to help make that decision both rewarding and fulfilling.

Magical and pagan seekers are rare, especially those who try to make it their life’s path, so the least we can do is to be encouraging, respectful and friendly to them.

Frater Barrabbas

 

 

 

 

Qabalah and Magic - When Combining them is Good

I have completed making edits and modifications to my book project, “Practical Qabalah for Occultists” and I have signed a contract with Crossed Crow Books and submitted the manuscript as part of the contractual obligation. This book is a republishing of the Llewellyn book “Magical Qabalah for Beginners,” which they decided not to republish and thus, returned the rights to me. I had the last manuscript version of the book in MS Word and also the galley PDF, and went through the manuscript and made updates to it so that it would more closely conform to the galley version, and also to make some additional changes, such as gender pronouns and other minor tasks, like capitalization consistency, etc.

What I found was that after all these years since 2012, I didn’t need to add or revise any of the content. Additionally, the text of the manuscript was written incredibly well, and in fact, it was probably some of the best writing that I have used in any of my books since that time. I guess it was a combination of passion and inspiration that made the writing of that book turn out so well. In some cases, I found the text to be almost lyrical, especially when describing the twenty-two paths. Going over the book with a fine eye for editing, I found that it was an excellently written book, and I was surprised that Llewellyn had made the decision to cease its publication. I am certain that CCB will be happy to take the revised edition and add it to their catalogue, perhaps sometime in late 2025 or early 2026.

Needless to say, this book represents a comprehensive background and practice of an occult version of the Qabalah, made relevant to Pagans and Witches and anyone else who is not of the Abrahamic religious faiths. What that means is that the book promotes a practice and methodology that doesn’t require anything additional. It is a complete and whole spiritual and mystical discipline by itself. There are magical aspects in the practices shown in this book, but they are more like theurgy than ceremonial magic. In fact, there really isn’t any ceremonial magical components in the book. The significance of this statement is that the Qabalah stands by itself, without any other practices or metaphysical attributes needed to make it a complete discipline.

Here is a quotation from my book, taken from the last chapter.

In the Book of Abramelin, the author, Abraham the Jew, tells his youngest son that he is giving him the wisdom of his knowledge of magic (in the book that he has written) because he must give the knowledge of the Qabalah to his eldest son. So it would seem that he has deemed to divide his wealth and wisdom between his two sons and the eldest receives, of course, the greater share. When I first read this passage, I was quite astounded, since it seemed to say that the knowledge of the Qabalah, in and of itself, was superior to the knowledge of magic. Here is the passage, found in the first book, chapter 9 (p. 34), where Abraham tells his son Lamech:

“The art of wisdom has its foundation in the secrets of the highest and in the holy Kabbalah, which belongs to your eldest brother Joseph, and not to you.”

 It would seem, then, that knowledge of the Qabalah is not only greater than the knowledge of magic, but that through it, one could gain everything that magic would give and more. According to the Book of Abramelin, a mastery of the Qabalah is superior to the knowledge and practice of magic, and between the two, it is the greater prize by far. This concept becomes even more amazing to us when we consider that the purpose of the Book of Abramelin was to successfully invoke and manifest one’s Holy Guardian Angel.

To complete a practice of the esoteric Qabalah, one only needs to engage deeply with one’s religious faith, whether that be Wicca or some form of modern Paganism, and to use the practices in my book to build a complete religious, mystical and theurgic discipline. Ostensibly, an occultist can use my book and not have to perform any other magical rites to project their theurgic magic into the world.

So, if this is true then how do we employ the Qabalah into our ritual or magical ceremonial practices. The actual truth of the matter is that high forms of magic typically rely on an intrusion of the Qabalah to be merged with it so that it might have a greater impact in both the material and spiritual worlds. These forms of magic need the Qabalah, but the Qabalah doesn’t need any forms of ritual or ceremonial magic to achieve its objectives. Additionally, I have written five books on advanced ritual magical practices that can used by Witches or Pagans that doesn’t incorporate the Qabalah. That means that a Witch or Pagan could perform rituals of invocation, evocation, elemental magic, talismanic magic and sacramental theurgy without having recourse to the Qabalah. What that demonstrates is that the Qabalah is a distinct discipline, and that a magician can employ the Qabalah into their magic, but that choice is completely optional - there is no requirement to do so.

If employing the Qabalah into the practice of ritual or ceremonial magic is completely optional, then when would it be useful or optimal to combine it with the practice of magic? One of my complaints, and the reason why I wrote the “For Witches” series of books without any recourse to the Qabalah, is that I find that it has been overused. Not every ritual has to include Qabalistic attributes. Even the Golden Dawn did not always flavor their rituals with the Qabalah, although they did more often than was necessary, in my opinion. Yet I find that the Qabalah is used in a lot of rituals these days, as if to give them the authenticity that they might lack without it. My approach is to use the Qabalah when it is appropriate to do so, and then only when the function of the Qabalah is critically important to the working. Overuse, in my opinion, makes the Qabalah redundant, and diminishes its importance and its potency. Let me define where using the Qabalah is appropriate, then we can focus on where it would be redundant.

Tree of Life and the Four Worlds as a Map

The Inner Planes, as the domain of the World of Spirit, is actually formless and cannot be mapped or understood by any kind of model or structure. Since everything is related to the One in that domain, when truly apprehended, it appears as a unity without any differentiation. It is beyond conscious apprehension, and it defies the rational logic of language or the structures of the mind. It is like a mirror, and it reflects back to us our beliefs, religious signs, symbols, and metaphors, and the logical structures that we use to help define what it is. Yet none of these artifices approximate the true nature that it expresses. It is the great singularity, and beyond it, is the greater emptiness. Even the Qabalah, with its ideas of Ain Soph Aur can only dimly approximate the true nature of this phenomenon. This is true with all of the various religious, esoteric or occultic approaches to understanding the One that is the source and the ultimate object of all conscious beings. However, the protean flexibility of the One allows us to use models and language to stimulate and engage with this Unity, and we can therefore use the models, symbols, constructs and various glyphs to emulate our experience of it. But, we must never fail to understand that the models and linguistic artifices that we might use will always fall short of truly defining it.

The Qabalistic Tree of Life represents a model of the emanations that generated the many lights of consciousness from the One through a mathematical sequence of the numbers 1 through 10. This model uses the Pythagorean base-10 approach to describing the waves of emanations, but certainly other systems of numeration could be used. While numbers represent the emanations that flowed from the One to the Many, there is also a circuitous pathway for the Many to return to the One, and that is represented by the 22 Pathways that connect the 10 numbered spheres or containers of the light of the One. These Pathways are given the attributes of the 22 letters of the Hebrew alphabet, symbolizing that the means to regaining the apprehension and absorption of the One is through the holy literature of the Tanakh, or the Hebrew Bible.

Numbers, letters and words, waves of emanation and paths to unity, are the attributes of the Tree of Life. Yet there is also the finite structure of the Tree, and its placements of the ten emanations, and the relationships between them via the paths, that show its remarkable utility. These components can represent the structure of the Inner Planes, approached from the manifestation of individual consciousness and the ensouling of material beings from the unified and mysterious source. They are given various symbolic attributes, consisting of the four elements, the seven planets, the twelve signs of the zodiac, the thirty-six decans, the seventy-two quinians, the trumps of the Tarot, various Deities and metaphysical concepts of all religions throughout the world, and colors, perfumes, incense, gem stones, metals, minerals, herbal medicines, and every conceivable mental attribute and material element in the world of humanity. The Qabalah unites everything within its structure of emanations and paths.

Additionally, the Four Qabalistic Worlds also represent a map of the Inner Planes, since it is a four-fold definition of the Emanations and Pathways of the Tree of Life, collecting the myriad of attributes within the four worlds of the Absolute, Creation, Formation, and Manifestation, where the One became the consciousness of the Many. Organized within these four Worlds are the various residents, both of spirit and mind, which would represent the Godhead attributes, Super Archangels, Archangels, Angels and Demons, and the spirits of the Earth and the Underworld. These domains of consciousness are populated by various entities, as the emanations and paths are refracted through the Four Worlds, producing a more comprehensive spiritual map of what is largely a domain that is wholly and completely unified into a single expression of Being residing within infinite emptiness. The importance of the Qabalah is that is gives a structure and order to something that has no order or structure, but through the Tree and Worlds, we can apprehend in a small part of the truth, and thereby gain a significant spiritual perspective of the whole.

Another important factor is that the many different attributes of the 10 Sephiroth, 22 Pathways and the Four Worlds can be placed into tables of correspondence, thereby giving intrinsic meaning and comparative commonality to very different associated elements. Each Sephirah and Path has other attributes that help to give it meaning, such as the planets or signs of the zodiac, and to these are associated colors, gem stones, metals, plants and herbs, various Deities from other pantheons, and a host of other attributes. Singularly, they are not as meaningful except when combined and grouped together where they gain their greater importance.

For instance, a simple list of spirits in any order by itself is not as meaningful as when it is placed within a matrix associated with attributes of the Tree of Life, and fixed within one of the Four Worlds. Then each spirit in the list inherits a whole catalogue of attributes and a spiritual hierarchy to help qualify it, including a sigil to specifically identify it. When performing an invocation of a spirit and using this kind of table or matrix to characterize and qualify it, then that operation is what I call invoking through a grid or matrix, and it produces the best results because the spirit is fully defined before being summoned.

Therefore, the Tree of Life, the Four Worlds, and the tables of correspondences represent a significant methodology for defining the Inner Planes, characterizing various hierarchies of spirits and giving individual entities an identity, function and purpose. Defining the Inner Planes in this manner makes them accessible to the practicing magician, and gives a disciplined methodology to the mystic who seeks to regain that once state of One that is the source of all. The Qabalah functions as a universal repository of all religious and spiritual symbols, and embodies a spiritual discipline for both the mystic and the magician. It provides a roadmap through a world that has no distinctive geographic features, habitations, roads or pathways, milestones showing the distance traveled, nor does it contain any idea of a destination, since to enter that domain is to unwittingly and immediately arrive at one’s objective.

Arithmology - Number and Letter/Word Manipulation

Determining and defining the domain of the Inner Planes is one of the features of the Qabalah, however, it is not the only important and valuable technique. Since the Emanations are numbers and the Pathways are letters, then it would be obvious that mathematics and literature would be the products of these attributes. Although the Qabalah is limited regarding mathematics, it would be conceivable that any mystical system of numeration would be readily expandable to include geometry, algebra, trigonometry, differential and integral calculus, linear algebra, and beyond. However, the numbers are not only quantities, but they have an intrinsic esoteric value, so that working with them, and with alphabetic letters, which have their own intrinsic meanings, to form equations can be understood as having an occult value as well as a mathematical value. Still, this is beyond our consideration here, since we must limit our discussion to the traditional Qabalah and my profound lack of mathematical expertise.

Systems of arithmology in occult studies within the Qabalah include the practices of Geomancy, Notariqon and Temurah. Additionally, there are the tools of magic squares equating letters and numbers, the inherent numeric values associated with the letters of the alphabet, and the use of alphabet wheels that allow for the production of linear vectors representing the sigil of a name or phrase. Branching off of that methodology is the modern mechanism of generating sigil or glyphs from lettered names or phrases. Each of these techniques serve a magical and occult purpose, and they are used to expand the power of numbers, letters and words.

Gematria is a system of number substitution for letters, where the numeric values of the letters in a word are added together to get a total value. The value for specific words and phrases is then compared in a compilation called a Sepher Sephiroth, a book of numbers. The basic premise in Gematria is that words and phrases that have the same numeric value must be strongly related. This technique is most useful when the occultist has a body of written lore or holy scriptures upon which to apply, extracting occultic relationships between different words and phrases. It is less useful for someone who doesn’t have sacred writings, because then the words subjected to this kind of scrutiny do not have the context of holy writ to build meaning. I have found Gematria to be interesting, but I have found that some occultists overuse it, such as the manner that Kenneth Grant has employed it to announce as fact the most tenuous connections through Gematria. Without any critical alternative proof or corroboration, Gematria alone does not satisfy the need for deriving solid occult knowledge. This is, of course, my opinion.

Notariqon is the art of building and exploding acronyms. I have found this technique to be very useful, since I have used it to construct magical formulas where letters, words and declarations are expressed at certain ritual point intervals (like the four watchtowers or angles, or any combination), and then a combined formula word is derived when the letters and words are joined, causing the circle nodes that they represent to be unified. These formula words can be words unto themselves or they can have no meaning other than representing the holistic expression of the letters set to the circle points. All my advanced ritual workings use this mechanism so that the layers within a series of rituals are sealed and expressed in a unified manner, and the final expression of the working is where the first letters of each formula would be used to build a formula that would define the working as a unified structure.

While I use Notariqon to fashion and build acronyms and explode them as words that represent meaningful phrases, it is likely that a Qabalistic practice uses sacred writings would focus that methodology on deriving and building deeper meanings within the text of the scriptures. Since I don’t have that feature in my religion, I can use this technique in a more creative and free-flying manner. I still generate deeper meanings and themes when I employ it in my rituals, but it doesn’t tie back to any scriptures, which would give such constructs even more depth and meaning.

Temurah is a system of letter substitution, function primarily as a set of ciphers where the Hebrew alphabet is broken into two columns of 11 letters, and the association of one letter to its pair is the how letters are substituted. There are a total of 24 different ciphers that can be developed from this mechanism, where the alphabet is split in two and realigned to produce letter pairs. This technique can be used to uncover occult aspects of words or phrases, or it can be used to either disguise writings or to discover coded messages that used this technique to hide their true meaning from the profane.

Another technique of Temurah is used to substitute letters for numbers so they might be used to draw sigils and seals on magically numbered squares. This technique is called the Aiq Bkr or Qabalah of Nine Chambers, since it is a table of nine cells that contain like numbers distinguished by their factor of ten. Thus the first cell would contain the numbers 1,10,100, for the letters Aleph, Yod and Qoph, and if a Qabalist had to fit the letter Qoph into a magic square for Jupiter, whose max number is 16, then they would have to exchange it for a Yod to use the number 10 in the square.    

Aiq Bkr requires the use of what is known as magic squares, and these squares are associated with the seven planets, from Saturn (3), Jupiter (4), Mars (5), Sun (6), Venus (7), Mercury (8) and the Moon (9). Magic squares are used to create sigils and seals for spirit names that fit within the category of one of the planets. Magic squares, however, is a system unto itself, and represents both a Qabalistic discipline and a system of magic.

Since Temurah employs a system to derive sigils and seals for spirit names using magic squares, then any other methodology used to produce the same product could be loosely associated with this discipline. Thus, the use of alphabet wheels to draw sigils, and the system that Spare developed to produce sigils and glyphs would also be a part of this occult technology.

The systems of arithmology are important to the practice, research and determination of meaning in the study of the Qabalah, but they are also very important in the writing and development of magical rituals and ceremonies. Since I have applied this methodology to most of the magical rituals that I have devised, especially the advanced rites, then this is a technique that is most useful and universal to my approach to ritual magic. I don’t use Gematria, but forms of Notariqon and Temurah are ubiquitous in the magical technology that I employ.

When to Use the Qabalah

This brings us to our final considerations about when it is appropriate to employ the Qabalah in ritual magic. First of all, I use forms of Notariqon and Temurah in nearly all of the my magical rites. If we consider the use of occult acronyms, both their expression and exposition, and the use of various types of sigils, then I make use of these techniques everywhere, but they just aren’t obvious or deliberately Qabalistic.

Where I employ the Tree of Life and the Four Worlds is wherever I need to work with a map of the Inner Planes. There might be other approaches to determining these kind of structures and their seemingly limitless tables of correspondences, but when I am performing any kind of invocation, evocation or in some manner, traversing the Inner Planes through my magic, then I will employ the Qabalah directly in my rituals, and add significant details and depth to my working that it would otherwise not possess.

If I am working simple of forms of magic, such as elemental, basic spirit conjurations, simple forms of talismanic magic, sacramental theurgy, or initiation ordeals, then I don’t have to use the Qabalah. This is why I was able to write the five books in the “For Witches” series without any recourse to the Qabalah. However, any complex magic that is being worked through a symbolic grid or that requires a spiritual hierarchy, or is traversing the Inner Planes will use the Qabalah, and my more advanced magic, which employs these methodologies, does indeed make extensive use of it.

This is the rule that anyone who would use the Qabalah in rituals and ceremonies should apply to their work. I would recommend using the Qabalah only when you need it, otherwise, I would recommend sticking with simpler methodologies so as not to overuse it. Overusing the Qabalah is to make it less meaningful and significant in one’s magical work, and I would advise you, my reader, to avoid that pitfall.

Frater Barrabbas 

Magic - Practicality, Speculation and Mysticism

 

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

Here is what he said:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Frater Barrabbas