Will-Based Magic vs Theurgy

 

 

Goddess of Witchcraft

A while back I attended a class presented by Taylor Elwood, who has been a mentor and friend to me for many years. He was there to help me in the first stage of my literary pursuits. Taylor is also an amazingly brilliant and creative man, and has many books and other media available for those who might be interested in a very fresh and modern approach to magic. We do have in common a disdain for traditionalists and grimoire purists, and we approach magic in a creative and experimental manner. Anyway, in his class, Taylor said that will-based magic has many limitations, and by itself, can often fail more often than succeed. He discussed his own history to emphasize his point that human-centric magic is not the optimal approach to working magic. I heartily agree with this perspective, and I consider it one of the rules of magic.

However, after pondering his words, I was unable to find a time in my life except when I was a teenager just starting out in magic where this kind of rule reduced my expected outcome for any and all magic that I worked. The only successful workings that I managed to perform were with the aid and alignment to my personal Goddess, whom I saw as the Goddess of Witchcraft. I also suspect that beginners fail more often than succeed simply because they are learning about what works for them, and what doesn’t work. It is a continual sorting process that shapes all magical development, from the beginning and throughout one’s magical career.

Still, once I was initiated into Witchcraft proper back in 1976, it profoundly changed both the scope and the rate of success of my magic. It was no longer a matter of hit or miss for me, but it became apparent to me that knowing where to apply my magic and exactly when, and ensuring that I had multiple plans and did the mundane work, was I was able to achieve whatever I set out to do. The only thing that evaded me was finding a mate, but for that situation I had a profound blockage and an inability to clearly see what was internally blocking me. The spirits that I had engaged with over time continually told me what the problem was and how to resolve it, but I was unable to really comprehend and take action to make myself successful in that pursuit as well. Thus, most of my magical workings were successful except in the matter of love, and I have not had any situation where I experienced a complete failure or breakdown regarding my magic and its outcome. (Ultimately, even that issue was resolved over time.)

Listening to Taylor’s short biography and how he had to make a major paradigm shift in his magical thinking, thereby realigning his magical work to ensure a more successful outcome was fascinating, and the contrast between our two paths couldn’t be more stark. However, what Taylor talked about is something that other magicians have related during all too brief moments of personal revelation. If you are a magician, you will likely talk about your successes and achievements and omit any discussion about your failures, and for anyone practicing magic, the failures will outnumber the successes, especially in the beginning. It would appear the Thelemic creed that our true will is indomitable is an erroneous assumption, particularly if we forget that our supposed True Will might be something that is beyond or even contrary to our personal ambitions at the moment. It would seem that our True Will is more bound to our higher selves than to our petty egos. At any rate, the True Will is a misnomer that I don’t consider in any of my magical workings, as we shall see.

All of these thoughts and considerations had me pondering, since I saw a contrast between the experiences and history of what Taylor underwent and what I have experienced. What is the difference between our two paths that might make a difference between what we both experienced over the years? Additionally, we will need to differentiate between the kinds of the magic where the will would play a greater part in magical workings, and where either spirits or planetary archetypes play a greater role. Depending on the type of magic worked, the role of the magician’s will is quite different, so it cannot be either a consideration nor a stumbling block for some kinds of magic. There is also a specific kind of magic where the individual will plays no part at all, but we will get to that consideration in this discussion as well.

If I were to choose forms of magic where the magician’s will plays a critical role then I would pick the energy and information models of magic. Magical energy needs to be visualized in some manner so that it can be generated, but essentially breath and bodily movement are the drivers for that kind of magic. What is required of the magician is where they will imprint the collected and compressed energy field with their desire and then exteriorize it. Information model forms of magic are where symbols and language are manipulated, but it is the will that projects and sets the magical objective in motion. These two models rely heavily on the use of the magician’s will to set the outcome.

Additionally, the magician must also perform various mundane steps to ensure that the outcome is inescapably set, or at least as much as possible. What I have found is that the magician must also work divination both before and after the working to make certain that they have not unwittingly erected any blockages or counter aspirations that might stop or degrade the outcome. As you can see, a will-based magical operation, in order to have a chance of success, must be reduced down to the simplest expression and thoroughly examined to determine that it is clear of any other internal or external impediments or distractions. Any other derivation may prove to be fatal to the outcome of a magical working. What that means is that a will-based working must focus on a single objective at a time so that the energy or manipulated symbols or sigils will apply a more concentrated  magical effect to the overall desired outcome. This is why complex or multiple outcome magical objectives will likely fail to produce results because the energy is dispersed or the symbology is too multifaceted and ambiguous.

The spirit model of magic is not as affected by the will of the magician to set the magical objective of a working. The magician’s will is focused on the task of successfully performing the evocation, and constraining and binding the spirit. If that process is successful, then the outcome will more likely be a success than a failure. However, there are other factors that make this kind of working fraught with failure, and that revolves around the nature and quality of the spirit and the relationship between the spirit and the human operator. Questions that need to be answered in this regard are whether the spirit is the proper agent and has the capability to meet the magician’s objective, and whether the spirit is amendable to doing the work for the magician. Is their relationship on a solid and cooperative foundation? As you can see, there are quite a number of variables involved, so even successfully conjuring a spirit will not necessarily mean that the magical objective will be fulfilled.

Perhaps the least will-based kind of magic is talismanic magic. Generating a talismanic field and charging a metallic talisman artifact during an auspicious moment, not to mention the preparations, research and development needed, requires a level of discipline and consistency that a honed and empowered will can greatly ensure a successful completion. A talisman is where the magician’s objective coincides with the astrological auspices and the combination of planetary archetype and element foundation to forge a charged artifact that will send out its magic continuously as long as the magician keeps a periodic conscious connection with it. A talisman can have its target altered but not its basic qualities, and it can be given to a client to aid and assist them. It is quite versatile, however, it is completely dependent on the combination of the talismanic field, the auspices active at the time of its creation, and the kind or quality of change that it can promote. Some talismanic fields are fast acting but limited in the duration or depth of the change, and others are slow but produce long-lasting changes. The greatest variables are to be found in the natal chart of the operator, since generating a talismanic field cannot overcome aspects and attributes found in the baseline of one’s personality, as determined by the natal chart. Overall, talismanic magic is least reliant on the magician’s will, but it has other, more complex, considerations that must be tackled to ensure success.

That leaves us with few other magical methodologies to consider, but one that has dominated my magical life is the question of the role that Deities, the Higher Self and one’s initiatory “process” plays in the working of magic. Since I was initiated a many years in the past, nearly 50 years ago, I have operated as a Witch under the alignment and in an intimate association with the Deities of my craft, most specifically, the Goddess of Witchcraft. However I have view her, she has been with me since even before I was initiated, but became dominant when I was initiated. That means that every magical working that I have performed since I was initiated was through and within her. She has been my most powerful authority, guide, teacher, law-giver, arbiter, and my principal intercession between the world of spirit and myself.

Additionally, there is my Higher Self, or the God Within, that I have invoked numerous times through the use of variations of the Bornless or Headless One Rite. Whenever I work magic, I do it under the godhead assumption of my internal Deity, so my magical workings are empowered by this singular connection. Since I was initiated many years ago, I have discovered that there is an interactive magical “process” that has been strategically engaged with me while I have endured the fortunes and failures of my mundane and magical life. That initiatory process has ensured that my life’s path has help and assistance so that I will ultimately achieve my overall purpose and directive in life. Sometimes that direction is a mystery to me, other times it is briefly revealed to me in a breath-taking manner. I have faith that my life’s path will not lead to disaster and that there is always a path that can help me mitigate any crisis that I have encountered.  The combination of my Higher Self God-Within and my initiatory process has kept me from encountering a disaster or experiencing complete failure.

How I would define this particular magical and spiritual path that I am progressing through is that it is based on theurgy, or God Work. I am never performing any kind of magic or liturgy without the engagement or intercession of my Deity, both within me and without me. While I may desire, seek and attempt to will something, my work will be for nought unless the Deity is brought into the working. Actually, I would never perform any working without that engagement and connection since it is part of my magical practice. As a Witch practicing theurgy, what I personally will in regards to magic has to be in alignment with my Deity or I won’t make the attempt. I determine the will of the Gods through a more sacred and formal practice of divination, where they are involved in the revelation of what is or what will be. I am also operating in my daily life with an array of talismanic artifacts with all 28 of the Talismanic Elementals actively set, so I can direct magical energy to given direction whenever I might need it. While I am not wealthy, I am comfortably well-off, and so far, my life has qualities that lend to my subjective definition as being ‘charmed.”

So, it would seem that of all of the systems of the magic, theurgy has very little will-based attributes, since the operator has, for the most part, surrendered themselves to the will of the Deity. There is no need to strictly control everything (and everyone), and there is a still-point when my mind and the Deity merge together briefly at the height of a godhead assumption. There is also the requirement for periodic and regular liturgical practices that ensure I am always engaged, aligned and connected to the Deity. This is not a process where the magic is performed once with the optimistic hope that it will produce the desired results. Like talismanic magic, it is a cyclic, periodic and continual process, and it fully objectifies the inward godhead connection into the outer material world. That is the premise of God Work, and it is a methodology that I have used for nearly my entire magical career. I am a Witch, ritual magician, and my magic is theurgic in nature. Since the Deity is involved in this work, the only will that is present is the will of that godhead, both within me and without me. My own will is merely aligned to that greater will, and my magic has been much more successful because of it.

I don’t know a lot about Taylor’s biography, or how other magicians have approached this issue, but I do know that the will of the individual has some severe limitations in regards to will-based magic. Perhaps initiation into a pagan magical tradition might help overcome that limitation, or individuals can learn to modify their approach, just as Taylor has done to create an entirely new paradigm for their magical work. However, I do know that my petty will was sacrificed to the Goddess decades ago, and whenever I have attempted to unwisely to resurrect and wield it, whatever I think I am doing has amounted to a lot of nothing. Fighting against the Gods when you are supposed to be their arbiter in this world is a fruitless exercise, and one that court trouble and spiritual disharmony. Divination is the key to knowing the Will of the Gods; it is to that process of divination and what it reveals to me that I adopt as my unerring directions and guidance in life. Of course, I also talk to the Gods and they talk back, but that is another topic for another time.

Frater Barrabbas

Frater Barrabbas Author Literary Tour - Part 2 - DGRM

The first book that I managed to get published was entitled “Disciple’s Guide to Ritual Magick” which was published in 2007. It took me around a seven months to write this book, so I had started in early 2006 to write this work. What I did was take a number of the chapters from the Pyramid of Powers manuscript and use that body of text to pull together this book. I also included additional texts and qualified the rituals with a pagan Arthurian-Grail theme. 

It was in early September 2006 that I got a referral from an online friend for a possible publisher for my newly written book. That referral was to Taylor Elwood, an accomplished author himself, who was embarking on a new publishing arm of an independent publisher named Immanion. This was the beginning of a long and very fruitful friendship, and Taylor was not only an inspiration to me but also a mentor who helped me navigate the complex world of internet media.

Here is the official plug for that book.

The Disciple's Guide to Ritual Magick is a book written for the beginning occult student who seeks the integral practice of a ritual magician. This book presents concepts and insights found in no other book on the subject. Frater Barrabbas believes that all magicians seek enlightenment and gnosis, whether they know it or not.

Since Magick is the Yoga of the West, then it follows that it should be as comprehensive and complete a spiritual discipline as the various practices of the Eastern traditions. This means that the practice of Magick must be expanded and broadened so that it is as much a full spiritual discipline and means to gaining Gnosis as any other spiritual system.

This book is an attempt at making magick a comprehensive discipline that affects all aspects of life. To aid this quest, Frater Barrabbas not only expounds upon the philosophy of magick that is a part of most occult teachings, but he also provides a grimoire of seven rituals that the student can use to build a complete magickal discipline.

The grimoire allows for the magickal operations of material acquisition and uses the Pyramidal Pylon and the Vortex as the sources of magickal power. The Lunar and Solar Mysteries chart the inner and outer spiritual worlds of the magician, and the Mystery of the Self is used as a mechanism of self-initiation. As Frater Barrabbas writes: “For it is my desire to make the student and reader of this book into an accomplished ritual magician and an initiate..”

One of the more intriguing aspects of the grimoire of seven rituals is that it is written with an occult context, and that is the Grail Mythos of the Western Mystery Tradition. Although everyone probably knows the stories about the Quest for the Holy Grail, King Arthur, Merlin, and the Knights of the Round Table, there are powerful allegorical undercurrents and occult threads in these tales, that when realized, can become translated into life changing experiences for the magician.

Frater Barrabbas has been working and teaching new forms of Magick for over 35 years, and assisted in starting a magickal lodge where this discipline was taught and practiced. The rituals in the grimoire are based on the rituals that were used by this order, whose lore is also modeled upon the Grail Mythos. These rites were tested by seasoned magicians and certified to produce the effects that they promise. Frater Barrabbas has written these rituals and the accompanying curriculum so that Magick might experience a renaissance in the new millennium.

We believe that you will find this book both compelling and challenging. It is the first foundation for the practicing ritual magician, and one that is necessary for the ultimate attainment of knowledge, fulfillment and wisdom through the revelation and gnosis of Magick. The second work in this series is a trilogy entitled Mastering the Art of Ritual Magick.

While it had taken me five years to write my first book, it only took me seven months to write my second book. This is because I had cannibalized the Pyramid of Powers to write that second book, so I had plenty of material to work with and to rewrite into a new approach for individuals who were interested in building their own system of magic. While I had used the Grail mythos to qualify the basic seven rituals included in the grimoire portion of the book, they were the basic seven presented in the Pyramid of Powers.

Those seven rituals consisted of the following rites, which I believe represent the basic set of rituals that anyone would need to build their own ritual magical practice.

1. Circle and temple consecration rite
2. Pyramidal Pentagram rite (pyramid of powers rite)
3. Rose Ankh vortex rite
3. Godhead Assumption rite
4. Lunar Mystery rite
5. Solar Mystery rite
6. Self Initiation rite
7. Magical Tool Consecration rite

What was missing was a stand-alone ritual for the western and eastern gateway rites, but these were included as a part of the lunar and solar mystery rites, so everything that was needed to put together a basic magical system was there in that book. However, since I had qualified the rituals with the Arthurian Grail mythos, with paganized Christian undertones, the book would have a limited audience. As a book, it was not a best seller, but it did help me realize the possibilities of writing non-fiction books. I did have help in putting this book together though, since the artwork was not my own but that which was provided by two good friends.

Perhaps one of the best chapters in the book, and the one that makes it a useful addition to your library, is where I used the writings of Ken Wilbur, particularly his book “Eye of Spirit” and the book “Atman Project” to build a chapter named “The Search for Spirit: An Exploration of the Higher Mind” (part 1, chapter 3). I not only defined the concepts of transformation, transcendence and teleology, I had also mapped the levels of higher consciousness, which would be far beyond the experience level of the basic forms of magic, as outlined in the rituals in the book. 

However, some of the more advanced magical workings that I had performed in the past produced these kind of conscious states, indicating to me that the more advanced forms of magic can cause one to experience transcendence, and ultimately over time, enlightenment. While this chapter might represent the results of a kind of magic that is far beyond the kind of workings this book espouses, that one chapter explains the whole process of being a spiritual seeker and how magical and spiritual work can culminate in a higher baseline of normal consciousness. That is something to contemplate as one begins and proceeds through the magical path of transformations and inspired illumination.

Anyway, each of my books has some real treasures and some actual wisdom to impart to the reader, even if the magical tech is not particularly impressive.   

Frater Barrabbas

A Literary Dream Come True

Mastering the Art of Ritual Magick - the Logo for this work is an Octagram with a sun and moon occupying the circular center. What this symbolizes is the overall magical discipline of the Lunar and Solar cycles, both of which are represented by the number eight. There are eight solar celebrations and there are eight nodes in the lunation cycle. The sun and moon (and their respective cycles) conjoined like the Yin and Yang is the key to forging a true magical discipline.

Twenty years ago this year, I embarked upon my career as an occult writer. I don’t exactly know when I started my first book project (1991?), but it was already in high gear by 1993. What pushed me to begin this writing project was a complaint informally delivered to me by two neophytes in our already formed Order of the Gnostic Star. It was, to use a paraphrase, that the lore we were using was too complex and difficult for a moderately experienced beginner to learn. We had nothing in print that could help the beginner other than our method of direct hands-on teaching.

Since these two students did not have access to me or other members of the group because they lived in Dallas (and we were in Tallahassee and Kansas City), they requested that I write up a manual for knowledgeable students. This wouldn’t be a manual for complete beginners who knew nothing, it would be just a primer for individuals who wanted some help mastering the lore of the Order.

I happily complied with their request since it seemed like a good idea, and instead of just writing up a simple manual, I decided to write up a book containing a comprehensive system of ritual magick that would function as an introduction to the lore of the Order. It would also serve Witches and Pagans to make that most difficult first step in their magical career, and that would be creating their own comprehensive magical system. Since I had done this myself more than a few times, helping others to formulate and build their own magical system seemed like a good idea for a book project. There certainly weren’t any other books already published that would fulfill this need, so I began to organize and outline what such a book might contain.

Anyway, this is how the book project, which I called the “Pyramid of Powers,” had its start. It was a giddy dream and a driving passion that I had discovered in myself, which led me to pursue my literary dream of being a published occult author. The literary bug had bitten me and there was no turning back now. I also erroneously thought that publishing a book could earn me some real money, too. Later on I discovered that idea to be quite a laughable fantasy, but the desire to be an author was realistic enough. It is amusing to note that previously I had been such a hard core, autistically focused ritual magician, and that magick had been more important than anything else. Now, I had a desire to share my knowledge with others, even with individuals who had never met me. That was quite a peculiar transformation.

Little did I realize that this project would consume around five years of my life, and it would challenge me to learn how to write in a clear and definitive manner. I didn’t have those kinds of writing skills back then, and often the first book project that an erstwhile writer attempts to write ends up in the rubbish bin. After quite a number of editing cycles that included hiring an editor, I had taken this project as far as I could take it without engaging a publisher. All three volumes were fully written, and the manuscript as a whole was well organized and structured, at least in my opinion. Even so, it was poorly written and executed and there was little that I could do to change that. Even my hired editor found the job of editing the manuscript quite onerous if not outright frustrating. I had even hired one of my friends, who was a professional artist, to produce a number of the diagrams, which I thought looked quite good.

Despite all that, I was so eager to move the project forward because I really believed that I had a good literary idea and dreamed of successfully publishing this book. So I put together a submission package and mailed it out to a dozen different occult publishers back in 1997, and then waited for some positive news. Months went by, and during that time all I got was a sequence of polite rejections. Well, some of them weren’t so polite, but I took them with a certain humble mind-set, believing that some publisher would be interested in my book. After waiting nearly 18 months, all of the publishing companies had finally replied to me, each one using the stamped and self-enclosed envelope that I had included in the package, and every one of them had declined to publish my book. After that, I managed to print up some copies of the book myself, hiring the skills of the local copying store to produce three ring-bound volumes. These I distributed to some of the members of my Order and a few friends. I gave up on the idea of ever publishing my book, the Pyramid of Powers, and felt that the personalized copies had satisfied my original intent, sans all of the glory of being a published writer. (Sigh.)

Some years later, I decided to try to publish another book. This one, I decided, would not be quite so ambitious, so I put together a scaled down version of the Pyramid of Powers. I even cannibalized some parts of the old book project to fill out the new, and in much less time, I had a completed a decent sized manuscript. By this time, several years had elapsed and I was much better at writing then compared to what I had been in the mid 90's.

I had just completed purchasing and assembling the artwork from another friend who was an artist (for the cover and other some other excellent illustration work) and I had crafted a proposal letter when a friend of mine named Nicholas suggested that I send my proposal to his friend who was opening an occult section for Immanion Publishing called “Megalithica Press.” That friend of his was, of course, Taylor Elwood, and he very quickly signed me on to publish my newest manuscript, to which I gave the title “Disciple’s Guide to Ritual Magick.” After what seemed like just a few months of work, in May 2007, the book was released into print. I was now a pusblished author! Hazah! What a joy and a pleasure it was to finally experience seeing my words in print. (I have always been grateful for the opportunity that Taylor Elwood afforded me in getting my first book into print.)

However, my friend Nicholas, who had promoted the idea of getting my first book published by Megalithica, told me that I should also seek to publish the Pyramid of Powers. At first I was quite dubious, but then decided to give it shot. However, I had determined that the old title desperately needed to be changed. I also had to rewrite and fill in a number of chapters that I had gutted from the old manuscript in order to complete the new edition of this book. So I started to work on this project, and I got Taylor to approve the publishing of a three book set called “Mastering the Art of Ritual Magick.”

This project took quite a lot more time to complete, since I had to rewrite whole new sections in the book, and the older text required some extensive editing in order to make it have the same readable quality as my previous book. It took me nearly three years to get all three volumes into print and my girlfriend Grace spent quite a bit of time going over and editing that work. I must confess that whole sections were eliminated and others were completely rewritten. In the end, the quality of writing in that book didn’t match the level that DGRM had established for me, but at least I had achieved the dream of publishing my very first book project.

As I have said, many writers are often forced to discard their first attempt, and some even have to discard their second and third attempts, so I considered myself quite lucky. The three volumes were a good addition to any comprehensive occult library, but the overall process had lost some of the original passion and luster that it had back in the 90's. The three books sold some copies here and there over the last few years, but bought together, they were indeed a bit pricey. Sales began to dwindle and I wondered if they would ever be even slightly popular with occultists.

Then, as fate would have it, something odd happened to breathe new life into this work. For some reason, two of the three volumes of MARM became unsearchable when searching the author’s name. Nothing that the staff at Megalithica or Immanion did could rectify this problem, and they did try to fix it. It was just really weird. Then late last year, Taylor Elwood recommended that perhaps the solution would be to pull the three volumes together into one large “omnibus” edition. He asked me if this would be OK, and I heartily approved. So after a few months of steadfast work, which was mostly done by Taylor Elwood, Storm Constantine (the owner of Immanion), and Andy Bigwood (the cover artist), a new version of the book came out in early April, and I got my first copies later that month.

Needless to say, I was really pleased by the look and feel of this book, and the layout was done quite well and cleanly, too. The cover art has a new illustration that incorporates the three previous covers of the old three volume set into one unified and colorful concept. I also really loved the matt finish of the book cover, and that appears to be a nice texture quality that is found in other books recently published. As I held the new omnibus edition in my sweaty hands, I felt a strange sensation occurring within me.

This book was once rejected by publishers and existed only in Xerox copied editions with ring binders. Then it was produced as three separate book volumes, which seemed to confuse a few of my critics who hadn’t bothered to read all three of them before commenting. But the new omnibus edition, which combined the Foundation, Grimoire and Greater Key into one large three-part volume seemed to make the MARM series reborn into a newer and better format. I was witnessing my book idea in its third incarnation, and the final version, at over 500 pages, seems much more like the comprehensive work that I had planned it to be all those years ago. Now the passion from the original work has been restored, and I am once again quite excited by it.

Anyway, many thanks to Taylor Elwood, Storm Constantine and Andy Bigwood for their excellent and good work. You can purchase a copy of this book at Amazon dot com at the following link. If you have waited until now to purchase this work, I can at last truly recommend it as a literary dream come true. I am quite pleased with this newly revised book, and I believe that you will find it very useful and economical as well.

Frater Barrabbas