Liber Artis Archaeomancy - Two Volumes

This was my thirteenth book project, which I started and finished writing last year. It was the largest book that I had ever written so far, being in excess of 217K words. My publisher decided to break this book into two volumes, and since there are two different systems of magic associated with the term and concept of Archaeomancy, I felt that this was a good idea. When this book is released, it will be in two volumes, even though they won’t be released simultaneously. Still, they will be part of Cross Crow Books adjoining catalogues of new releases, and this will happen in 2026. Editing on the first volume wont start until December of this year, and this pause in my publishing regimen has given me time to relocate to a new home and endure all of the disruption that has entailed. I will also have plenty of time to finish my latest book project, titled “The Gnostic Tetrasacramentary,” which would have been my fourteenth book project, but it is now my fifteenth.

I have written a previous article on Archaeomancy, and you can find it here.

Archaeomancy is a system of magic that I started developing in the 1980's, but continued to develop through the 2010's. I have been working with this system of magic for forty years, refining and perfecting it until it has become a comprehensive system of magic for invoking all classes of angels and attributes of the Deity, and traveling into the Qabalistic Dimensions. This system of magic relies heavily on the modern Qabalah, using the structures of the Four Qabalistic Worlds and the Tree of Life to define two modes of magic. The first one is a regimen of invocation using the ritual mechanism of the Archetypal Gate, with the implication that the magician enters into the various predefined forty domains where the angelic hosts reside. I call this the Archaeomancy of the Forty Worlds, since it is ordered by the domains of Atziluth, Briah, Yetzirah and Assiah through the ten Sephiroth, dividing each world into forty distinct cells. 

The second system of Archaeomancy is the methodology of entering into the Qabalistic domains of the Tree of Life which I call the Dimensions using the artifice of the Transdimensional Vortex Gate. These eighteen domains are the prismatic triangular shapes established by the combined attributes of Sephiroth, Pathways, and the angular vectors associated with the Paths. This system of magic was given to me through my discourse with the Nephilim. They also gave me a rudimentary system of the Enochian Qabalah, since the structure of this system of magic required a more nuanced and complicated structure of the Tree of Life. I have named this system of magic Spiritual Archaeomancy, since it requires the magician to become a psychonaut and to travel into the fabric of the Dimension itself and join with the core of the spiritual Tree of Life, there to briefly experience the enlightenment gained through assumption and personification of the Godhead Avatar of that specific Dimension.

These two ritualized mechanisms, the Archetypal Gate and the Transdimensional Vortex Gate, represent elegant ritual solutions to complex operations. The Archetypal Gate ritual is a modular ritual structure that is meant to be used with little modification to invoke any of the four major classes of angelic spirits associated with the Four Qabalistic Worlds and the ten Sephiroth of the Tree of Life. While the Transdimensional Vortex Gate ritual is a highly customized rite that is used to enter into one of the eighteen Qabalistic Dimensions, it also uses a modular ritual structure so that magicians can use it to enter any of the dimensions, using only some custom attributes but maintaining the same overall ritual structure. 

An overview of the ritual pattern for the Archetypal gate reveals that the staff, acting as a pylon between the base magic circle and the zenith of the heavens, allows for the inner eastern gateway to open itself into the domain of the Qabalistic World and allow the mind and soul of the magician to enter therein and commune with the target angelic entity within its own place of residence. Here is a quote that I used to describe the ritual structure of the Archetypal Gate magical working in my book.

“[T]he basic ritual pattern is to establish a powerful invoking vortex, and upon that foundation, erect an archetypal gateway aligned to the East. The staff is used as a pylon lintel tool to establish the archetypal hierarchy once the gateway is entered, and through the conduit of the charged and empowered staff, to invoke the target angel through that gateway using a specially written Enochian invocation.”

Similarly, the Transdimensional Vortex Gate ritual uses the power of the trapezoid to establish an entrance into the Qabalistic Dimension. The foundation for this work is the prior invocations of the Sephiroth and Pathways that border the Dimension. The three Aethyrs, positioned at the angular vectors of the Pathways, are each summoned in sequence, from lowest to highest, in association with the Dimension, and their unified expression and character becomes the symbolic key that is used to open that domain to the mind and spirit of the magician. Yet it is the four Emissaries who ward the Dimension who must be summed in that trapezoidal gateway structure, and through them, the magician meets and assumes the persona of the empowered Avatar of that Dimension. It is through this assumption that the magician gains the enlightened visionary wisdom of that domain, and momentarily touches the absolute spirit of the One, gaining the illumination of all eighteen Dimensions in a single moment of realization. Here is a quote that I used to describe the ritual structure of the Transdimensional Vortex Gate working in my second book in the Archaeomancy system of magic.

“To emulate the attributes of the dimension, the operator will erect a trapezoidal ritual structure that will use the three angles of the Northeast, Southeast, Southwest angles and the Western watchtower. At each of these four points the operator will draw a trapezoidal cross, intone a formula letter, verbalize a short invocation using a verba ignota from Liber Juratus, and invoke one of the four emissaries that make up the spirit of the Avatar of the Dimension. Once the invocation is done, the operator draws an invoking spiral to summon the spirit of the emissary. These four trapezoidal points are then drawn up to the Ultrapoint in a deosil circuit, beginning in the northeast and ending in the west. What this ritual pattern represents is a grand trapezohedron structure, which formulates the transdimensional vortex and generates a non-Euclidean space-time continuum completely separate from our own.”

These are the tools that I have developed and placed into these two ritual systems of Archaeomancy, which is the Archetypal Gate and the Transdimensional Vortex Gate, and they are, in their uniqueness, revelatory of my approach to working these kinds of magic. Whether the magician seeks to invoke any of the attributes of the Elemental Godhead, or the various classes of Archangels and Angels, or to enter into the very fabric of the Tree of Life to gain the wisdom of the Avatar of the Dimension, these two books thoroughly outline and discuss the process as well as providing the actual rituals to perform these operations. Thus, these two books are part of my legacy to the practicing ritual magicians who aspire, through the Qabalah of the 40 Worlds and the Dimensional Tree of Life, to seek to achieve enlightenment through the successful completion of the ordeals outlined therein.

Here is the advertisement for the first book.

“Archaeomancy of the Four Qabalistic Worlds is a complete system of magic that can be used to invoke angels of all classes and types. Archaeomancy is an obscure term that represents a new perspective in the practice of angelic invocation magic. It is defined as the primordial magic, or the magic of the source. It is also a methodology for traveling into the forty worlds that are revealed as the combination of the ten Sephiroth of the Tree of Life and the four Qabalistic Worlds, which is one of the definitions of the Inner Planes. Archaeomancy is the magical technology that is used to not only invoke angelic beings, but also to generate the domain in which they reside, where the magician enters into their world to meet the them face to face. Frater Barrabbas has defined this system of magic as the principal mechanism for an immersion within the Inner Planes, thus promoting the ritual magician as a spirit traveler entering into the World of Spirit to achieve a perfect dialogue with the spirits in that place.

This is a comprehensive work that will assist the intermediate ritual magician in being able to invoke and engage with the entire collective of angels as defined in the Western Mystery Tradition. While there are many books on the topic of angel magic, there has never been a book that addressed the invocation of all classes of angels. Whether a magician seeks to invoke the archangels, the Seraphim and Cherubim, the angels of the Shemhemphorash, or the ruling angles of the decans, or even the lesser servitors or messenger angels, this book, titled “Liber Artis Archaeomancy – Mastering the Angels of the Four Worlds” contains the rituals used to invoke them. Through the methodology of immersion that Frater Barrabbas has expounded on within this new book, there is far more to a magical invocation than just summoning a spirit.

Archaeomancy is an exciting and compelling system of magic, and Frater Barrabbas, in this his 13th book, explains thoroughly how to completely master this new system of magic.”

And, to complete this essay, here is the advertisement for the second book.

“This is Frater Barrabbas’ second book in the series on Archaeomancy, titled “Liber Artis Archaeomancy – Mastering the Qabalistic Dimensions.” It is devoted to revealing the Qabalah of the 18 Dimensions, which are those triangular shapes within the Tree of Life that are delimited by Sephiroth, Pathways, and the angular pathways, revealed as the ubiquitous Enochian Aethyrs. Frater Barrabbas has developed a system of magic that enables the spiritual traveler or “psychonaut” to pass through the structure of the Tree of Life to enter into one of those powerful domains, called the Qabalistic Dimensions.

Since the dawn of human consciousness, people have sought to enter into the inner domains of the Spirit World to engage and commune directly with their ancestors, spirit guides, avatars and deities. Premier amongst these travelers of the domain of spirit were the shamans, those spiritual healers and cultural revealers representing their tribes and nations. Every religion since has emulated the shamans and advocated singular individuals who had made the passage from the world of the living and the reality of light into the domain of the dead and darkness to merge with the very core of spirituality itself, that which is known as the One. Whether it was Orpheus, Odysseus, Heracles, Theseus, or Psyche for the Greeks, or Aeneas of the Romans, or Enoch, Ezekiel, Jonah or Isiah of the Jews, or Dante for the Medieval Italians, all sought to enter into the underworld and to return, renewed and enlightened. Now, in the modern world, Frater Barrabbas has assembled a system of magic using the structure of the Qabalistic Tree of Life to enter into the dimensional inner worlds of the Spiritual Qabalah to achieve temporary glimpses of the glory of the Deity and to obtain enlightenment and spiritual renewal.

Through the use of rituals that invoke the Qabalistic Sephiroth, the Pathways between them, and the Aethyrs at the angles, and through the artifice of the Transdimensional Vortex Gate, a magician, using the rites in this book, will enter into a domain of wonder and profound truth.”

While the schedule for the publishing of these two books has not been officially established, the first one should be available around June 2026. The second book will likely be available after that time, perhaps six months later, or December 2026. When these dates are fully established, I will happily let you know. I believe that these two books will add considerably to the knowledge base of the practicing ritual magician.

Frater Barrabbas

Portae Lucis Working Completed - Part 2

This is part two of a two part series written about the Portae Lucis working and the ancillary rites associated with the last four days of this ordeal.

June 18 - 19 Ritualized Path Working

Monday dawned and I began the work to prepare for the ritualized Path Working session that I would perform that evening. I looked over the Eneagram and the Double Tetrahedral Gate rituals and found that if I had to serially go through these two rites for each Sephirah and Pathway, the overall working would take hours to complete. I really didn’t want to spend that much time and energy engaged in what would be a supporting working. Therefore, I began to really scrutinize the ritual patterns for these two rituals, and I found that some of the ritual actions would be redundant if they were performed over and over again. So I broke each of the rituals into three sections: one would contain the preliminary actions that needed to be performed to set up the environment for invoking both the Sephiroth and the Pathways; then the actual invocations that were needed for each Qabalistic element; finally, the closing actions needed to complete the overall process. In performing this exercise, I was able to condense the two rituals down to one small ritual without any redundant steps. The preliminary actions would be done just once, then the invocations for each of the Sephirah and Pathway, and then the closing actions. This seemed to be the most efficient method of concurrently performing these rituals, so I set about to pulling all of these combined steps into a new condensed ritual, which I have entitled the "Archeomantic Path Working Rite." I am very certain that it will feature prominently in future ordeals.

In order for me to get a really good idea about the transit path that the Portae Lucis follows, I carefully examined my deluxe illustration of the Enochian Tree of Life, which I had designed and executed some years ago. While I was tracing this transit path, it dawned on me that I was following a line that functioned as the border for all of the Dimensions from the bottom two (XVIII and XVII), to the very edge of Dimension IV, which was one of two trapezoidal shaped dimensions, before ending at Binah. I suddenly realized that the transit path of the Portae Lucis would, when it was successfully completed, open up an opportunity for me to complete the Archeomantic ordeal. The transit path of the Portae Lucis functions as the strategic bridge between the lowest dimensions (two of which I had already full entered and explored) and the trapezoidal shaped dimensions that were the keys to the entire dimensional array. It was like a light went off in my mind. I immediately saw the possibilities and also how important and critical the Portae Lucis working was in the overall scheme of the battery of Order ritual ordeals. If I include the Enochian Qabalah (which is still waiting for me fully write it up from my notes) and the Archeomantic considerations in the transit line of the Portae Lucis working, I would come up with the following detailed information. I found this information to be fascinating, but in case you aren’t quite as much of an occult nerd or Qabalah wonk as I am, you can skip two paragraphs down.

As I have pointed out previously, the Portae Lucis path working would begin at Malkuth, and I would qualify that Sephirah with my Mercury talisman, since it represents me at my mundane level of conscious development. Since we all have bodies, there is a part of us that is rooted in Malkuth, whether we associate our spiritual achievements to a higher Sephirah or not. Then this transit line would travel up the 32nd Path (Tau - Atu XXI), which borders the lowest two dimensions (XVIII and XVII), to the Sephirah Yesod (associated with the Moon talisman). Then from Yesod, the transit line would travel up the 25th Path (Samek - Atu XIV) to the Sephirah Tiphareth (associated with the Sun talisman). However, this path is actually broken into two Paths because it is bisected by the 27th Path (Peh - Atu XVI), so at that point, there resides the secret Enochian Element Sephirah of NANTA (Earth - Sacramental Life) and the extended Enochian Path of the Arabic numeral for 9 (Philosophia). This broken Pathway follows the borders of the Dimension XV and XVI pair, as well as the Dimension XIII and XIV pair.

Finally, from Tiphareth, the trace line travels diagonally (to the left) through the 17th Path (Zain - Atu VI) to the Sephirah Binah (associated with the Saturn talisman), the lowest and most accessible of the Supernal Triad. Because this Path is also broken into two pathways because the 19th Path (Tet - Atu XI) bisects it, there is at that point the secret Enochian Element Sephirah of HCOMA (Water - Spiritual Love) and the extended Enochian Path of of the Arabic numeral for 4 (Hierogamos). This trace line also follows the borders of the Dimension VII and VIII pair, and the Dimension III and IV pair (unlike the other pairs, these two dimensions are both female). I should also note that Dimension IV is the left sided trapezoidal shaped dimension (the other is Dimension V), and is an important key to any further Archeomantic workings.

I started this working at around 9:10 pm, shortly after sunset, and then performed the condensed version of this ritual working, which lasted until around 11:10 pm (close to two hours). Like the previous working on Saturday, I didn’t use any planetary hours to set the time of this working. During the entire period of this working, I saw no visions nor did I have any specific insights while performing it. However, during the entire period when I was serially invoking the Sephiroth and Pathways, I felt a tingling at the back of my neck. This meant that I was physically sensing that there were a lot of forces and spiritual attributes being invoked and released through this ritualized Path Working. I had the four planetary talismans arrayed on the four sides of the centrally placed Eneagram trigon. The whole working was very intense and quite powerful, yet I performed it with few breaks or pauses. I felt completely full (of all of the Qabalistic correspondences) and I felt that I had thoroughly visualized and, thereby, realized the entire transit path up the Tree of Life for the Portae Lucis working.     

When I retired after completing this working, I fell immediately into a deep and dreamless sleep the moment my head touched the pillow. You could say that I had been thoroughly exhausted by this working, and I welcomed sleep like a long lost lover. I awoke the next morning feeling completely refreshed and I sensed a great joy, a kind of exaltation and a feeling of perfect contentedness, which had lingered from the previous night. I realized that such feelings are fleeting and temporary, but I hadn’t felt anything this powerful or intense since I performed the Abramelin Lunar Ordeal.

June 19 - 20 Portae Lucis Working

As the saying goes, all plans are subject to revision the moment they are executed. This certainly happened on the very night that I was supposed to start the final working of the Portae Lucis. I had planned on performing the Mass of the Goddess well before I was to actually start the final working, but that plan was changed by circumstance.

According to my working schedule, the final ritual of this ordeal was to be started sometime during the hour of True Midnight. I discovered that this time was determined by dividing the duration of the night by two and adding the result to the time of sunset. Since the duration of the night during the Summer Solstice was only around 8.5 hours, I determined that True Midnight would be around 1:05 AM Wednesday morning. After I divided the day and night into planetary hours, I found that the hour of Saturn occupied the point of True Midnight. All I had to do in order to lock in the planetary hour and True Midnight was to consecrate the magick circle during that planetary hour. So, I had quite a long period of time before I need to actually begin the work.

In order to be fully rested and ready to perform this working so late in the evening, I decided that I should take a nap late in the afternoon, and wake up around 8:30 pm. Once I was awake and ready, I would say the Mass of the Goddess to add a potent spiritual energy to the overall working. However, no matter what I did, I couldn’t fall asleep. My mind was too excited and worked up, even though I did feel somewhat tired. Finally, near the time when I was supposed to wake up, I fell asleep, and didn’t wake up until around 10:55 pm. Since I had planned on starting this working in roughly an hour and a half, I realized that I had actually run out of time to say the Mass. 

I decided then and there to skip performing that rite, and start getting things ready for the final working instead. I guess you could say that I was at a bit of a loss for having to make this change of plans. Yet I realized that if I had said the Mass, I would have had to say another Mass the following day, since I wanted to perform some kind of Thanksgiving for successfully completing this ordeal. I also felt that saying the Mass that evening wasn’t a critical part of the working since the atmosphere of the temple was more than enough charged from the previous evening’s work. So decided that I would wait in the temple until the time was right and while away the extra minutes with a long meditation session. Once I made this decision, I realized that it was important that I should be as undistracted as possible between the previous night’s working and what I had to do this night.

My mediation period was very peaceful, fulfilling and I felt full of power and energy. I was rested, ready and eagerly looking forward to the working. Yet I also felt at peace, as if I were in no hurry whatsoever. The hour might be late, but the two hour nap had done its work, and I felt in proper form to work magick. So once the half hour past midnight had tolled on my mantle clock (in the living room), I broke out of my meditation and proceeded to consecrate the magick circle. The planetary hour was Saturn and it was also the hour of the True Midnight. The Moon was in Cancer (having achieved the New Moon phase by conjuncting the Sun in Gemini earlier in the day), and all was still and ready to begin the working.

I began to perform the adapted ritual called the Triple Tetrahedral Gate, which is a Double Gateway (West - Underworld, East, Ascension) with a great triangular Ascension Gate placed in the underworld center of the working. I had originally written this working as one of the key rites performed for the Abramelin Lunar ordeal, but it seemed perfect for what I needed to accomplish in the Portae Lucis working. Each of the three points of the Ascension Gate (located in the North, Ultra-point, and South) would be bound and directly connected to the planetary talismans arrayed on my Quintedecim Complex trigon (i.e., Latin for the number 15, a Septagram within an Octagon). Although this ritual is not particularly long, I made certain that my pacing in performing it was slow and deliberate, since I had wanted to relish and fully immerse myself in each ritual action. I also assumed my special ring and summoned my HGA, and I also called on Hermes Thoth to aid me in this working.

What I experienced from performing this rite was that the detailed and careful path working that I had done the previous night perfectly segued into this final working. All of the elements associated with the Qabalistic correspondences were very much alive and fully engaged in this working. All I had to do was perform an unsealing spiral for all of the circle points just before commencing with the Triple Tetrahedral Gate ritual. I couldn’t have asked for a more perfect and flowing working if I had tried, and each step was executed with a new perspective and appreciation for the ritual actions and the accompanied verbiage. Even my voice deepened, and I was more perfectly articulating the associated ritual words, whether they were magical words of power or philosophical intentions.

When I got to the point of assembling the central Ascension Gate, I actually was able to fully visualize that geometric shape in a way that I have never seen any prismatic energy shape before. I saw what appeared to be like a plate of glass shaped like an equilateral triangle, whose ends touched the Southern and Northern Watchtowers and whose apex reached the ultra-point in the center of the circle. Light seemed to reflect off it (as if it were some kind of polarized glass) and I saw vistas of refracted light and rainbows reflecting on its surface. These lights then materialized so that I briefly saw what looked like a distant mountainous desert landscape, with clouds quickly flitting across an azure sky. I could also see lines of force connecting this triangular gate to the talismans arrayed on the central altar. Each line of force had a different color, representing the different planetary energies. The Mercury talisman seemed to be connected to the crown of my head. I found this vista to be incredible and completely unexpected.  

After I had set the Ascension Gate, I entered into it, and I felt so ecstatic that I wanted to stay in that place forever. So I naturally extended the time period for observing and experiencing the phenomena emanating from that gateway. What was communicated to me, though, could be encapsulated completely by the words Simple, Direct, Practical, Earth-centered, Pragmatic, and Balanced. (Sounds a lot like Binah and Saturn, doesn’t it.) I felt that the most important communication given to me that evening was that I should keep myself in perspective at all times. A large unchecked ego is a sign of imbalance and instability, which must be avoided at all costs when one is engaging with the Supernal Triad. I sensed that the mythic archetype of the flights of Icharus and his father, Daedelus, were a case in point to what was being communicated to me. If I flew too high, I would experience a corresponding great fall, so it is prudent to fly low when your “wings” are glued to your arms with beeswax.  

I also experienced a great deal of joy, happiness and even a profound sense of exaltation, but it was also tempered with a kind of potent grounding that was also quite pleasant. I sat in that circle for what seemed like a long time, and never once did I feel any fatigue or aching joints. I felt that I could have remained in that place forever, and not felt any need to change my posture or attend to any bodily needs. I also imagined at that moment that a part of myself remained in that idyllic state even after I had quit the ritual and sealed up the circle points. (Perhaps I am still there in that circle, communing with the highest and most balanced energy and intelligence that I have ever encountered in all the years of my magickal workings.) 

Yet finally, I decided that I had been there long enough. I vaguely remember hearing the clock strike two, but I didn’t manage to disengage from this rite until nearly half past that hour. I performed the double Eastern Gates of Ascension (from out of the underworld) and I felt as if I had participated in a new dawning of myself and the world. I barely remember much after the ritual had ended, but when I finally got into bed (probably around 3 am), I had trouble getting asleep. My tired body was wracked by at least a couple more hours of dreams and visions before I became completely unconscious. I woke some hours later still feeling a bit tired, but I was fully aware and I understood what I had accomplished the night before.

That was the day of the Solstice, and I felt brilliantly happy, relieved and also very content with what the overall experience of this ordeal had produced. While I was feeling proud of what I had done, I also noticed that it was a rainy, lousy, wet and stormy day, and that I wouldn’t have too much opportunity to go outside and celebrate the Summer Solstice in my outdoor grove. Nor would I be able to light a fire, or pretty much do anything that I had imagined myself doing. It was great weather if were a duck, toad or a tortoise - not being any of these, I was somewhat let down. I also felt a bit fatigued from the four days of active ritual work, so I resigned myself to cooking a simple feast and then afterwards, before the sunset, to say the Mass of the Goddess. I managed to complete all of these objectives and then fell asleep sometime before 9 pm, even before the sun had managed to set. I blissfully snored away until the wee hours of the morning when I found that I couldn’t sleep any longer. I suppose that’s what I get for going to bed so early, and found that I had awakened just an hour before sunrise. 

Now that I have fully undergone this ordeal, I couldn’t but recommend it to anyone who would like to perform some version of it. The Portae Lucis working does indeed do what its supposed to do, perhaps even more than my initial expectations would have indicated, and I have merely assembled and performed a talismanic version of it. I suspect that the spagyric version would be just as powerful and as intense.

You can be certain that this working will now become a standard ordeal for the Order. Since I had found quite a number of interesting connections that would link this ordeal with all of the others that are deployed in the Order, particularly the ordeal of Spiritual Archeomancy, it would seem that it is perfectly made for our Order’s work. So the Portae Lucis working is now an important part of the ritual regimen of the second order of Adepts. In fact, one segues perfectly into the other, making it part of the whole structure of degree based transformative ordeals. My only regret is that it took nearly 15 years for me to discover that connection, and had it not been for a couple of my outstanding friends (you know who you are!), I would have never known about this obscure working. Let that be a lesson about humility and the importance of having a magical peer group.

Frater Barrabbas

Portae Lucis Working Completed - Part 1

Now that the Summer Solstice has come (and gone), and I can begin to assemble from my notes what actually happened to me when I performed the last three rites of this talismanic Portae Lucis ordeal. What I can say without any embellishments is that it was a smashing success, and that I experienced both an exalted sense of being as well as a down-to-earth centeredness. The Portae Lucis has now been inaugurated within my soul as an ongoing and evolving process, and I truly experienced far more than just a mere brush with the Supernal Triad of the Tree of Life. I have been told by Hermes Thoth that this process will continue to expand and evolve over time, reaching a very powerful crescendo at the Winter Solstice, but continuing on even beyond that date. I am looking forward to experiencing this evolving process, since at this time, I don’t at all feel either out-of-sorts or overwhelmed by what I have experienced and seen so far. In fact, I haven’t felt this solid and alive in quite some time.

One thing that this whole ordeal has taught me is that the rule proposed by some proponents of the “Grimoire Only” crowd, which is that magicians must follow a formula, working or spell from any original source to the letter, neither deviating nor using substitutions, is dead wrong. Supposedly, substitutions are not allowed and will, in fact, cause the operation to fail. Since I took the formula and working for the original Portae Lucis operation and radically changed it from a spagyric alchemical and passive astrological working to one that uses four-fold elemental planetary talismans and a very active ritual magical agenda, and the fact that this new ordeal works quite well, is proof enough that substitutions and reworking won’t cause an operation to fail. (There are plenty of other and more fundamental issues that can cause a magical operation to fail.)

So the new rule is that magicians don’t need to follow the directions, and in fact, they can completely rewrite or rework an operation to fit their tastes and needs, producing something that is both new and successful. I think that I have pretty much proven this to be true, and perhaps now we can bury this supposed iron-clad rule with the rest of the unproven urban myths and misinformation about magick. If you choose to follow the old grimoires and work them exactly as they were written, then that is an esthetic choice that has nothing to do with success or failure. All esthetic choices are affectations that dress up (or down) any magical operation, and as long as they aren’t too cumbersome or impossible to employ, then they won’t interfere with the flow and occurrence of the magick, and the overall ritual objective. This is why I believe that magick is much more an art than a science.

Anyway, I approached the coming weekend prior to the final three steps of this operation with diligence and a readiness to change or adapt whatever I was going to do, just in case some inspiration or insight caused me to do something else than what I had planned. I wasn’t locked into any specific schedule, other than the specific timing of the event. I knew that I had to complete everything by June 19 so that I could perform the final ritual working during the true midnight of what was to be the longest day of the year (June 20 - Summer Solstice). That date and time was set, of course, but the rest was to be more fully determined as the dates for those workings approached.

I had fully resolved to perform a short-hand invocation of my mentor, Hermes Thoth Trimagistus, on Saturday evening, June 16. I then had sketched out some extensive Path Working trance and mediation sessions for either Sunday or Monday, or both days. I had taken the three days from June 18th through the 20th as vacation days from work so I wouldn’t have anything pressing to interfere with what I was planning to do. Of course, as it turned out, I had to attend business conference calls and do some other related work all through the three week days that I was supposed to be off. It would seem that I am engaged in a very important business project, and that I wasn’t able to get completely away from the responsibilities associated with my job. These required intrusions into the world of work were neither taxing nor distracting, so I was able to complete them without detracting from the magical work that I had been contemplating.

As the weekend progressed, I discovered some truly amazing connections between the Portae Lucis ordeal and the ordeals of Spiritual Archeomancy that I had undergone back in the mid 90's. I have written up a couple of biographical articles that you can read over if you aren’t familiar with what I did and how I did it back then. You can find these articles here, and here. Spiritual Archeomancy concerns itself with magically defining and entering into one of the eighteen Qabalistic Dimensions. These dimensions are the triangular shapes that make up the lattice of the Tree of Life, more easily seen if the Sephiroth and Paths are removed to show just the lines and vectors that make up the geometry produced by the Pathways.

Enochian Qabalah would focus on this geometry, and it would stipulate additional hidden Sephiroth as well, since from the standpoint of that geometry, wherever two paths cross, there can be found a nexus point that defines a Sephirah. These triangles, taken from the shapes that the Pathways make as they cross each other, are the Qabalistic Dimensions, and they are supposedly the most exalted of the Inner Plane domains. You can imagine that gaining entry into one of the Dimensions would be a very powerful experience, and in fact, when I successfully entered the bottom two dimensions back in the 90's, it was a completely mind-blowing experience. However, once I had gained entry into those two domains, I never progressed beyond that point, and by the year 2000, I had more or less abandoned that series of ordeals even though I had only entered two out of a total of eighteen.

More compelling to me was the fact that there are two Dimensions that are trapezoidal shaped instead of triangular, and I have long believed that these two domains are the most important and the keys to the whole array of dimensions. Both of these trapezoidal shaped dimensions lie above the 19th Path, so they are directly associated with the Greater Abyss, and unless I was willing to make that crossing, these dimensions would be, for the most part, out of my reach. So, like a fox staring at the luscious grapes hanging on the vine well out of reach, I abandoned this quest for other more pressing concerns.

The reason why these previous workings that I performed over 15 years ago were on my mind is that I was editing my magical journals and writing them into my book entitled “Sepher ha-Nephilim." I had just completed the third volume in that series, so my mind was full of thoughts about what I did back then and what happened to me as a result of doing those workings. Little did I realize that the current ordeal was not only analogous to those previous ordeals, but that it represented a critical continuation of those ordeals. In fact, what I learned was that this ordeal of the Portae Lucis was the missing piece that I would have needed back then in order to progress further. Although I didn’t realize that until I started planning for the second working of the final three for this present ordeal. I found it all to be quite ironic when I realized it, since the Archeomantic ordeals had last been worked in the winter of 1998, when I was living in Santa Fe. The period of time that had elapsed since then was more than fourteen years ago, and only now had I discovered the next important piece! Such amazing continuity always makes me feel as if I were following a very distinct path through all of the years of my magical career, even though when I was living through it, I didn’t seem to either notice or realize this fact. This because the life of a magician can seem to be fairly chaotic or even sporadic (like any artist chasing the latest inspiration).

What this means (and I apologize for the digression) is that the Portae Lucis, as I had changed and reworked it, now fit perfectly into the progression of lore that would be included as the system of magical Archeomancy. I hadn’t planned that in advance, but it would seem that this new ordeal is an important and strategic part of the overall magical lore of the Order. Anyway, allow me to continue presenting what actually happened during those three singular working events. 

June 16 - 17 Invocation of Hermes Thoth

I began the final days of the Portae Lucis ordeal with an invocation of Hermes Thoth. I had wanted to perform this working because I felt that he would be able to guide and assist me in successfully performing this ordeal. Coincidentally, I had originally performed this invocation back in 1997 to seek the aid of Hermes when I sought to enter the XVII Dimension. Even so, I wanted this invocation to be associated specifically with my Portae Lucis working. (I still hadn’t figured on the connection or synchronicity that was operating here.) The invocation proceeded without any issues and was a great success. 

That night, I used the shorthand ritual version to invoke Hermes Thoth because I already had previously invoked him and still had his sigil in my Liber Spiritum. I did manage to supercharge that invoking sigil with my Mercury talisman, and it made the operation even more powerful than what I had experienced previously. I placed that re-charged sigil before a large statue that I had of the Egyptian God Thoth, both of which were sitting on the central altar with my Mercury talisman. Needless to say, the results were nearly ecstatic for me. I felt exalted and fully empowered. I got lots of new ideas and insights imparted to me by Hermes Thoth, as well as some practical and personal advise. Here’s a few of the things that Hermes Thoth shared with me that weren't of a personal nature.

Since I had been editing my journals and inserting them into my Nephilim book series, it seems that Hermes Thoth had some sage advise about those ordeals that I performed years ago. The Greater Enochian Ordeal that I had performed when I lived in Tallahassee was missing the rituals associated with the patriarch Enoch. I had completed and performed the corresponding rituals for Lilith, but I had omitted the ones for Enoch. This meant that I had not actually completed that ordeal, and that I needed to complete these rituals and then perform them in the next couple of years. In that way I would fully complete that ordeal and also make it available to the Order, otherwise, it was glaringly incomplete, much to my chagrin. I also hadn’t completed the Archeomantic ordeal either, since I still hadn’t entered into the trapezoidal shaped dimensions and thereby acquired the keys to the whole array of dimensions. (I couldn’t figure out why this point was being made just yet, since in order to complete that working I would have to cross the Greater Abyss.)

Hermes Thoth also pointed out to me that where the pair of rites for Lilith had been completed, and the ones for Enoch had been omitted, he also declared that the 7th Degree Order workings would include the same pair of rituals for Hermes Thoth, making him the highest egregore of the Inner Order. I saw the logic of all of these comments, but knew that what was being proposed to me consisted of quite a lot of work, both in regards to designing and writing new rituals, and then at some point, performing them. It was sort of like being told that on top of everything else I was doing, I had to move a couple of mountains and build a city or two. I was wondering if Hermes Thoth had ever been a college professor, since that’s the kind of thing that a college professor would ask of his students.

I started the working at around 10 pm and it ended just around midnight, but I couldn't get to sleep until 2 am the next morning. It was sort of like having a party in your head - all these impressions, insights and ideas just dancing around and raising hell. I wanted to sleep, but I just couldn’t get the party in my head to subside until a couple of hours after the working was completed. I was quite exhausted when I woke up on the next day (Sunday), so I decided that I would celebrate the beginning of the working with a feast. (I was going to start a partial fast on the following day, so this seemed like a good idea.) Because I was so tired, I knew that I wouldn’t have the energy to accomplish much of anything, anyway. While I had originally planned to do some path working sessions on the Portae Lucis Qabalistic transit for Sunday, being overly tired made me change that plan. I knew before starting this working that I had to flexible, but I had no idea just how flexible I had to be.

Perhaps the most amazing information that Hermes Thoth imparted to me was that the Portae Lucis working was a continuation of the Archeomantic ordeal that I had performed in the 1990's. Instead of just performing a meditative and trance based methodology, I should instead opt to make it into a ritual magick regimen. I was therefore directed by Hermes Thoth to look over the rituals that I had used as part of the phase 2 of that previous working, and incorporate them into the Monday night working.

The two rituals that he had pointed out were the Eneagram ritual, which is used to invoke one of the Ten Sephiroth of the Tree of Life, and the Double Tetrahedral Gate ritual, which is used to invoke the Pathways of the Tree of life. I should also consider using the ritual Qabalistic Pyramid of Power to set the Qabalistic World to Atziluth. Since the Qabalistic transit for the Portae Lucis starts in Malkuth, and then proceeds to Yesod via the Path depicted as the Tarot card of the Universe XXI, and from Yesod to Tiphareth via the Path, Art XIV, and finally, from Tiphareth to Binah via the Path, the Lovers VI. I was going to do a series of Path Workings to capture this transit, but I decided instead to perform these rituals. I would also incorporate binding the four Sephiroth in this ritualized working to the four talismans.

So with that injunction from Hermes Thoth, I would look into the feasibility of performing these rituals on Monday, and see what I could do to condense that overall process. I was aware of the fact that when I would perform the second phase of the Archeomantic working, that it typically took around three to four hours to complete. I wasn’t looking forward to spending that much in ritual on the night before the most important working in this ordeal.

Sunday came and went quietly, since it had become a day of reflection, where I could follow up on all of the insights that Hermes Thoth had given me. Many pieces of my personal magical puzzle had come together over the last two days, and I could easily suspect with the looming Portae Lucis talismanic working, that a lot more could be expected to happen between now and then.

Anyway, after this working, and even the following day, I felt really good about what I was planning to do.  Even though I was tired on Sunday, I felt resolved, charged and completely at peace.

(Continued..)

Frater Barrabbas

My Santa Fe Adventure - Part 3

Further Archeomantic Ordeal Workings

Having a smaller apartment did make my life more attenuated and crowded, but as far as my magick temple was concerned, I still had plenty of room. This allowed me to continue the work that I had developed in Tallahassee. I had brought my magickal work to the zenith of my ability through the entrance and immersion of the first and lowest of the Qabbalistic dimensions (Dimension XVIII). I had repeated that working a couple of times, exposing others to its wonders and ensuring that it was something that was real and objective. The Santa Fe temple seemed like the perfect place to expand on this knowledge, so I prepared and performed an entrance into the next dimension in sequence (XVII), and then later on, performed a ritual that joined the two dimensions together into a singularity. These workings proved to be astonishingly remarkable, and performing rituals at a higher elevation had its interesting effects as well. I found that working magick within the Santa Fe environment compounded and amplified what was done to a much greater degree than anything that I had experienced previously. This might have had something to do with the thin atmosphere, the ambience of the location, the magical qualities of the land or because of the dust in the air. It might have been a combination of all of these qualities, but I did notice how much more potent the magick seemed when performed in the Land of Enchantment.

As I have stated previously, the triangular shapes found within the lattice structure of the paths of the Tree of Life are defined as Qabbalistic Dimensions. There are exactly 18 of these dimensions, and all of them are triangular with exception to the 4th and 5th dimensions, which are trapezoids. A Qabbalistic Dimension represents the synergetic union of the three Pathways, Sephiroth and Angular Vectors, which are said to be the Enochian Aethyrs. Thus, a Dimension is the veritable spiritual flesh and internal organs of the body of the Godhead, but it functions as a powerful unified being whose very nature is completely paradoxical and transcends all mental structures and considerations. When I have entered into one of these dimensions, I have found that they appear to operate wholly within the Causal Level of Consciousness, and seem to function as an unknown Godhead beyond any known occult definition. Accessing one seems to resolve itself into the activated field where all eighteen are realized as a holistic meta Godhead. When I have encountered one of these massive entities, it’s almost as if my entire mind is wiped clean and all that remains is an overpowering sense of bliss, unity, and a faint sound of celestial music. All other senses are null and void, and even thinking or conceptualizing is impossible. 

I continued to perform these so-called Transdimensional workings that I had started in Tallahassee, seeking to fulfill and complete the workings associated with the XVIII dimension (whose spirit was called Autogenes), and then performing the entrance into the XVII dimension (whose spirit is Sophia Charisima). Where the XVIII dimension was located on the masculine side, the XVII dimension was on the feminine side of the Tree of Life. The numbering of the dimensions was based on a logical premise that what is more accessible and closer to the magician (i.e., the actualized masculine pillar) received a higher number and sequence, and represented where the counting begins (bottom right to left, then higher right, left, etc.). However, the sequential numbering of the dimensions doesn’t indicate any kind of ranking, since the dimensions are seen as operating as pairs of opposites all the way up the Tree of Life.

Gaining entrance into one of these qabbalistic dimensions requires a complete magickal exegesis of the three Sephiroth, Pathways and Aethyrs, which function as the components of this kind of working. All of these elements are pulled together into a synthetic structure grounded on a cross-roads vortex, and upon that structure is erected a grand gateway, which helps to fuse all of the components into a unified expression. Entering into that grand gateway is the way that the magician enters into the dimension, causing a complete immersion into the phenomenon of the transdimensional vortex. Having experienced this process a number of times, I have encountered all sorts of peculiar phenomena, such as extreme time dilation, full visual revelations of other worlds and domains, some of them completely alien to our own world, and visions of futureevents, some near and others far. Yet all of these phenomena only occur immediately before and after full immersion into the dimension. Full immersion produces the overpowering experience of being in a reality that is completely void of thought or any kind of intellection. Through the years 1994 through 1997, and the first quarter of 1998, I performed various workings engaging this very high form of ritual magick. I also exposed others to it and received complete corroboration from those who experienced it.

Although the initial ordeal working was quite elaborate and lengthy, taking a couple of months to complete, and the actual final ritual working took three consecutive days, there was a macro ritual that could be performed to regain access to the dimension whenever desired. This macro rite used the already previously established ritual structures to generate the transdimensional vortex, and all that was required to gain access was to perform the associated mystery rite and erect and enter the grand threshold gate. Using the macro ritual allowed me to re-enter and re-experience the already fully invoked dimension several times. This re-entry allowed me to more fully examine the phenomenon of the dimension, and also, to exhibit and share its power and qualities with a few others. At the time, I believed that I had discovered the most powerful and profound magickal ordeal that one could possibly experience. So I was quite fixated on this methodology for the next several years. I still believe today that it is one of the most powerful systems of magick, but it is only one of several that I now have in my repertoire.

In the autumn of 1994, I performed a final re-entry into the XVIII dimension and then sought to shift my focus to the next working. Yet on November 23, I performed a ritual working that attempted to exteriorize the dimension as an evoked spirit (in this case, Autogenes). I used the Gate of Revealing and Iron Cross rituals, which are expressly used to exteriorize a spirit into the mundane world, to coalesce s the spirit of the dimension into this world. The results of that working were quite remarkable, but I decided that such a working wasn’t really necessary, since it didn’t seem to actually make too much difference to my overall magickal and spiritual process. I also developed and performed a new version of the Bornless One Invocation rite that had as its foundation the completely exteriorized Four Qabbalistic Worlds, acting as a kind of tiered temple with four steps to the summit. I accomplished this ordeal on February 11, 1995, just before beginning a new cycle of workings. This new development was both relevant and critically important, as I later found out when seeking to do the Abramelin Lunar Ordeal.

From that date, and through the rest of the year and into the autumn of 1996, I performed a number of minor invocations and other workings, developing and refining the system of theurgy that I had first presented to the Order back in the late 1980's. I was also performing the final edits and revisions to my three volume book, and seeking to get it ready for publication in the near future. In 1997, I sent out samples, cover letters and a table of contents to a least a dozen publishers, and then waited for some positive response. Of course, all of these submissions received rejections over the next year and a half. Even so, I made copies of this book and shared them with my friends. At over 550 total pages, the book was quite voluminous. I later would find it to be poorly written and overly redundant when I re-wrote it as the “Mastering the Art of Ritual Magick” series.

In the autumn of 1996 I began the working that would help me gain entry into the XVII dimension. In October, I separately invoked the three great Aethyrs of ZAA, DES and VTI. These workings turned out to be quite powerful and amazing all by themselves. They also caused some interesting phenomenon to occur in my mundane life, which seemed to parallel the symbolic revelations of these three Aethyrs. Pulling some interesting text from my own magickal diary, the following was written up by me during that period.     

“The three invocations had a powerful effect on the outward experiences of my life, each seemingly having a direct impact upon me after their invocation. It was amazing to see these interesting and unusual (but also subtle) things happen. The first invocation produced an effect the day after it was completed. I received an unexpected call from an older woman (Gabriel) who was looking to put together a musical group to accompany the selected reading of Persian and Indian mystic poets, such as Rumi, Hafiz, Kabir, Mirabai and Lalla. These poets exemplified the qualities of the aethyr ZAA, and so I accepted [the offer] to join three other musicians on very short notice to perform a concert consisting of sketchy themes and ideas for accompanying the most excellent of poetry. The concert was performed on October 17th at 7:00 PM. It was a great success at moments, and a bit long over-all. However, the poetry perfectly meshed with the message of ZAA, that I must submit to the love and will of the Deity in order to master myself and my destiny. This message I received and understood. The second and third aethyr did not produce such dramatic and immediate results, but they joined to establish the mood of the time, and colored the mundane occurrences of my life in later October and November.

I attended an interesting Halloween party and performed some amazing tarot card readings. I found out that evening that my friend Shann had breast cancer and was likely going to die from it. (Without any medical benefits, she had been unable or unwilling to see a doctor about her condition until the cancer was well advanced.) I saw her attempt to live, and her struggle seemed futile even at that time, then much more so a little later on. I brought her to the Halloween party, where she attempted and succeeded in dancing for a short time. Three weeks later she was admitted to a Nursing facility where she died only a few days later, just barely 44 years old, even though her wasted body looked like someone forty years older. As her designated Wiccan friend (I owed her some consideration for introducing me to all her friends), I had sponsored a Phowa ritual in Albuquerque on November 23rd with the assistance of Sandy Bryon and OZ. Shann was too sick to attend, and so I video taped it for her, and she at least got to see it a couple of days before she passed. It had snowed the night of the Halloween party, and soon afterwards, winter held the mountainous realms of Northern New Mexico in its icy grip.”  

Winter had come to Santa Fe, and it was probably one of the more snowy and colder winters that I had experienced there. On November 9, I performed a newly developed and written invocation of Hermes Thoth Trismagistus, and through that working I discovered that he was my mysterious magickal mentor, guide, teacher and the inspirer of my magickal work. Thus my secret mentor was Hermes Thoth, so I received some very critical insights, lore and creative ideas from him through that invocation. Here is what I wrote in my magickal diary about that momentous event.

“This was a very intense working, and it was a kind of home-coming for me. For many years I had pondered the source of my inspiration in the fashioning of a new methodology of ritual magick. I had made amazing progress over the years, and at each loggerhead I received inspirations and insights that guided me to new vistas of understanding. When I succeeded in conjuring Hermes Thoth, he revealed himself to me in an effulgence of light and glory, telling me that he was my guide and muse in the arts of magick. The source of this new methodology of ritual magick was inspired by the spirit of Hermes Thoth, who proclaimed me as one of his emissaries in this world given the task to modernize a venerable spiritual tradition fallen upon hard times. I was to invigorate the arguments for ritual magick as the preeminent yoga of the Western Mystery tradition.

The spirit of Hermes Thoth pervaded the magick of the temple and assisted in making the magickal invocations of the three aethyrs even more potently realized within it. His power and inspiration helped me not to lose hope during the dark and cold month of November. I felt a powerful optimism emanate from him. He told me not to forsake my path because of apparent setbacks or the slow pace of the realization of my aspirations. All things would come to pass, and he was acting as my guide and muse, thus I was well protected and directed. I was amazed that yet another piece of my inner puzzle was revealed, and that the source and inspiration of my magickal ideas came ultimately from Hermes Thoth. It made obvious sense to me, but I had certainly pondered over it for many years, never suspecting such an obvious source. This connection does not negate my own true will nor my creativity, for these are important to my inner nature and they allow the free flow of intuitive occult speculations. Hermes Thoth acts as an intimate source and background for my occult studies and inventions, therefore, I am well integrated into the modern expression of Hermetic Philosophy and the Western Mystery tradition.”

Then on the long weekend of January 17 - 19, I performed the transdimensional vortex gate working to enter into the XVII dimension. This ordeal had to be performed by myself alone, since I didn’t have anyone to assist me as I had previously in Tallahassee. The three day ordeal was therefore much more arduous than the previous ordeal of 1994, but it was no less profound and mind blowing than what I had experienced previously. Here are a few diary entries that encapsulate what I experienced during that wondrous event.

“Without the aid of an assistant, the three night ordeal was very difficult but allowed me to exceed all expectations of endurance and perseverance. I relished the difficulty of the second evening and without much pause or rest, proceeded through all the rituals, establishing the three paths and Sephiroth associated with the XVIIth dimension. All throughout the ordeal, a myriad of reflections and insights occurred to me, all of which were of an extremely personal nature. I felt a profound degree of clarity in regards to the strange path I have been treading all these many years. My unusual relationships with women made perfect sense to me, and that society’s expectation that single people should find someone (just anyone!) to get married to is not relevant to one who is as deep a seeker of occult wisdom as myself, one who requires a partner who is willing to enter this World of Spirit and therein bond. I must determine for myself what is important in life and try to ignore or deeply understand the prodding and propaganda of our culture. Because I have abrogated the determination of personal meaning and truth, I must question the relevancy of all these urges, even those rooted in the core of my physical being.

Another insight that was revealed to me through this ordeal was that I must soon change the emphasis of my occult studies from being a solitary practitioner to a teacher among the peerage of magickal practitioners. I felt that this might also include a change of residence in the next two to three years, but there was not the powerful visionary mandate that was felt three years ago when I entered the XVIIIth dimension. But I felt that a change in my spiritual path would occur in due course.”

And this diary entry into the dimension recalls what entering it was like for me, and similarly, for others.

“The resultant impact of the egress into the XVIIth dimension was so great and so intense that it seemed as if my mental capacities were completely eclipsed. I was not able to think analytically, and all that was left of my conscious mind was an openness to the experience, an unresistant flowing with the currents of the greater power of the entity of the dimension, Sophia Charisima. Thus I saw no visions but only heard her voice in my mind, and felt the great power of her presence. I sensed profound changes occurring deep within me, but I could neither articulate nor even visualize them. Whatever was occurring, I could not even grasp it except in a deeply intuitive fashion. This was the most profound magickal experience that I have ever undergone, and in fact its effects still profoundly haunt me even several months later. It is a process that is still unfolding in me, as it involves the most personal and intimate aspects of my being. Through this process I am understanding my own complex sexual nature, and the peculiar relationships that I have with women - as their initiator and priest of the hidden genius (Goddess) within them. The question seems to be whether or not I can take this role with many women and still be devoted to a single woman.”

Even though I had been shown through my experience with the XVII dimension that my spiritual and magickal path would be changing in the near future, that change didn’t occur until another year had passed. During the interval, I re-entered the XVII dimension four times, in February, September, November and finally, January 1998. I felt that I had exhausted the transdimensional vortex system, but during that time I had also come up with another mechanism. I decided that I would attempt to perform a re-entry of both the XVIII and XVII dimensions simultaneously, thus uniting them into single meta-dimension. I know for a fact that I performed this working because I have the time table of planetary hours written up for that specific date, but the diary entry was likely written on some loose pieces of paper and are hidden somewhere amongst the mass of papers and folders in my black filing cabinet. The impact of that working was likely quite remarkable and represented the final apex of that series, but as I had been informed, my spiritual process was starting to change, and this final working would be the last of that type that I would work for many years.

Here is some text that I wrote up prior to performing this working that explains why I thought it would be significant to join the two transdimensional vortex gates into a fused union. I wanted to attempt to experience the dimensions unified into a single expression, so it seemed natural to join the masculine and feminine dimensions together.

“After having entered and experienced all the phenomenon associated with the two lowest but still potent Qabbalistic dimensions, I had pondered producing an expression representing their union. It is part of my methodology to seek a shortcut in order to gain egress to all dimensions without the arduous performance of all the ritual steps - the full three phases. However, such a complicated and intensive working as the trans-dimensional gate could not be expressed in a simpler fashion than through the synthesis of its component parts - namely the aethyrs, paths and sephiroth. Therefore, it seemed that in order to continue to benefit from the transforming powers of the Qabbalistic dimensions, I would have to continue to invoke them through the large array of the trans-dimensional vortex gate pattern one by one. I sensed that because there was a common thread to the experience of a dimension that it must represent a common space and state of consciousness, only marginally defined by the nature and quality of the ‘being’ of the dimension. Each entrance into a specific dimension represents the opening of a door into a common reality wherein the magician and “being” of the dimension enter into a profound union of consciousness. It should be possible for the magician to enter into that field of consciousness itself and seek communion with any or all of the dimensional ‘beings’.”

“An examination of the dimensional structures of the Tree of Life revealed a double anomaly, that is, there are two dimensions that contain four sides instead of the customary three. The two dimensions indicated also have two dimensions on either side, thus causing them to be closer to the center than if they occupied either side of the middle pillar alone. There is a corresponding pattern if the two trapezoidal dimensions are joined to form a variant octagram that is analogous to joining two trans-dimensional vortex gate ritual patterns. Thus the trapezoidal octagram represents the key to all dimensions.

There are two methods of accessing the key to the dimensions. First, one may select any two opposing dimensions and perform their corresponding trans-dimensional vortex gate rituals together, forming an overlaying trapezoidal octagram. Second, one may perform the complete trans-dimensional workings to gain egress to the two trapezoidal shaped dimensions (dimensions IV and V) and then perform the Double Trans-dimensional vortex ritual and fuse them into the key. The first method will expose the magician to the power of the key and reveal its essence, the second method will assist the magician to master the key, thus allowing for subsequent macro-ritual workings to reveal the nature of all eighteen dimensions.”

So I managed to perform what I called the Double Transdimensional Vortex Gate ritual, but I never went any further with this methodology. What remains is for me to pick up this thread sometime in the future so I might complete this series of working. I suspect that such a task will include entering into the two higher dimensions that are trapezoids instead of triangles. It would also appear that the trapezoid is a special to key to the completion of this process, and one that I have yet to fully develop. Yet in the year 1998, I had exhausted all of my creative ideas about this methodology, and it was obviously time to focus on other tasks.

At times when we are deeply engaged in a highly self-absorbed process of high magickal theurgy, it becomes necessary to return to earth. This is part of the overall cyclic process, and one that I seem to always experience. After performing all of these workings it was time to return to earth and to ground myself in what was for me a foundational earth-based paganism. I had gotten very far removed from that spiritual perspective, and whether I realized it or not, I needed to get back to my basic spiritual beliefs and practices and re-constitute them. This began to happen when I was teaching and initiating my girlfriend into Alexandrian witchcraft, and it continued to build as I reconnected with my pagan friends and began to get involved in the pagan and witchcraft community again - although that was not to happen in Santa Fe. My relationship with my girlfriend was stagnant (she would never seek to make me her primary lover even after she was completely single), my work situation was stagnant, and so were my spiritual and magickal processes. I needed a complete change of venue, so in 1999 I began to seek one out, having decided to pull up stakes and leave town permanently.

After five years of living in the odd town of Santa Fe, I felt that I needed a change, so I sought and got a promotion with the company that I worked, which assisted me to move to yet another town. This time, I moved to the Twin Cities of Minnesota and left behind the wonderful (but desiccated) southwest. I took on a new job that gave me far more opportunities, and I also felt that I needed to move to a place that would accommodate my reintroduction into the pagan community. The Twin Cities are called Paganistan by the witches and pagans who live there, and for good reason. I would also become involved with the local body of the OTO in that town, but that, of course, is another story altogether - one that I will relish telling some day in the future. 

Frater Barrabbas

Ordeals of High Magick in Tallahassee

So what were those three ordeals that I was able to perform while living in Tallahassee? My home at that time was the perfect place to perform elaborate rituals that required multiple days to complete. I had no nosey or loud neighbors to contend with, and once I was sequestered in my apartment with the phone unplugged, I was free to perform rituals for hours, and I did. Every year, starting in late October and running through early March I would perform a major ordeal. The first ordeal was performed in the winter of 1990 - 1991 (First Enochian Ordeal), the second ordeal was broken into two parts: the winter of 1991 - 1992 (Heptarchia Mystica) was part one, and the second part was performed during the winter of 1992 - 1993 (Greater Enochian Ordeal). In the winter of 1993 - 1994, I performed the third and final ordeal, which was the Ordeal of Spiritual Archeomancy.


First Enochian Ordeal

Here are some quoted text taken from the Book of the Nephilim, part 1, which defines the specific nature of the first Enochian ordeal. This is an unpublished book from the Order’s lore that is still undergoing editing and refining. I thought that this text would explain the nature of the ordeal in greater detail than what I am able to relate off of the top of my head.

“The First Enochian Ordeal is divided into seven distinct tasks. The first four concern themselves with the Invocation of the Four Archangels [Michael, Gabriel, Raphael and Uriel]. Each Archangel has been mythically given a role in the act of sealing the Enochian Mysteries from the profane. They therefore act as Guardians as well as Guides to the information being sought. The justification for applying to the Archangels for this knowledge, besides the fact that one knows enough to ask, is the proof of the Deity's favor as established by the successful manifestation of the spirit through the ritualized activation of the Eneagrammic Gate. This sacred domain of the spirits serves as the key for allowing the whole process to proceed, without it, the petition for the wisdom of Enoch would fail.

[The Eneagrammic Gate is a ritual construct consisting of three different personal aspects of the Deity, three animated statues orientated to three different gate structures. The combination of the three gateways and godheads produces a potent personal spiritual domain through which the first ordeal is performed.]

Each Archangel that is invoked is asked to reveal the special knowledge through which the Nephilim may be directly contacted. There are four principle knowledge base tools through which this contact may be established, and these are:

• Opening and Closing the Threshold Gate to the Inner Planes;
• Revelation of the Mysteries of Shemiezez, his magick current of Ceremonial Archeomancy and his special cult;
• Transformation pattern [initiations] of the Chenoch and the preparation that is done before the threshold of the Inner Planes;
• Revelation of the Mysteries of Azazel, his magickal current of the Magician Warrior and his special cult.

The Archangels will facilitate the revelation and organization of these four knowledge base tools prior to contacting the Nephilim. The Archangels will also act as advisors and wardens for the celebrant, and thereby protect one from all potential harm.

The Fifth Task represents the invocation of the Archangel of Spirit (Ratziel) and through its sovereignty summon the Primary Agency of the Enochian current, Naluage. Also, the magick Tablet of the Mystery of the Seven Rays is charged with the Talismanic Elemental of Mercury of Fire, thus establishing the connection with the Spirits of Light who are called to assist the future tasks of the working. While the traditional Enochian system has the fifth archangel listed as Annael or Aniel (Glory of God), I have chosen Ratziel (Mystery of God), since that entity is more involved in the actual myth of Enoch, and Aniel is just another way of spelling Haniel, the archangel of the planet Venus. The fifth task is broken up into two ritual workings, the one that will invoke the talismanic elemental and charge the Tablet of Mystery, and the other one is for the invocation of the archangel Ratziel.

The Sixth and Seventh tasks are the Invocation of Spirits of Shemiezez and Azazel. In these actions the celebrant will use the Gate of Revealing to establish a full Invocation of their Spiritual Intelligences. Subsequent skying sessions will reveal more of the material of the Enochian System of Magick, which will assist in its full re-immersion. Also, the ritual of the Enochian Mystery Vortex is used to establish the foundation of the Enochian system of magick that uses the Nephilim as its source.”

In my opinion, the Nephilim represent the “Briatic” source of the Enochian system, but the alignments that Dr. John Dee established in his skrying sessions were also not ignored. Particularly, the five Archangelic Intelligences who acted as the wardens and sponsors of this occult knowledge and are an important link, as well as the Primary Enochian Agent, Naluage. Also included are the Spirits of Light, and the Tablet of Planetary Intelligences, of which the Mercurial Daughter of Light known as Madimi is of special consideration. This represents the complete repertoire of the first Enochian ordeal.


Heptarchia Mystica - Part One of the Second Ordeal

The first part of the second Enochian ordeal was a system of magick that could invoke and evoke one of the 49 Bonarum, or Good Spirits. I had previously determined that these spirits were actually binary planetary intelligences. As simple spirits consisting of two planets active within their combined intelligence, they represented a polarized planetary force that seemed much more like a psychic artifact or mental complex than any other type of planetary spirit.

You can easily imagine the kind of quality one of the spirits would possess if it consisted of the planets of Venus and the Sun. If the Sun were the base and Venus the qualifier, then one particular quality would be evident, and if Venus were the base and the Sun was the qualifier, then another quality would be evident. For instance, from the Heptarchia Mystica Concourse of Forces, the following qualities are associated with the two binary planetary intelligences of the Sun and Venus.

Sol/Venus  -  The sharing of esthetic values for beauty and culturally significant artistic expressions. Sun base represents the expression of the Arts, Venus base represents their enjoyment and critique.  (Bornogo, Bagnole)

Then there is this definition of the spirits of the Heptarchia Mystica, which I will quote here from the specific concourse of forces document in the Order’s library.

“The hierarchy of the Heptarchate consists of seven dignitaries under the leadership of one of the seven Principles. The stations of the dignitaries are represented by seven royal titles of the monarchical system of mediaeval Europe.

The first and highest is the King, followed by the Prince, the Duke, the Baron, the Count, the Earl and finally the Knight. The monarchical quality of the spirits of the Heptarchate was described partially by Dr. John Dee, and thus followed a natural progression upon which to build. Dee only described the first two positions of nobility within the Heptarchate, but it seemed reasonable to apply the rest as they are currently known.

[One of the assumptions of this system was that the planetary archetypes were also represented by the seven Sephiroth of the Tree of Life, from Yesod to Binah. If one were to unify this system, then the next higher sephirah would be selected, namely Chokmah.] 

The Principles ruled the Kings who ruled the rest of the nobles within the planetary dominion. However, there was also a ruler who joined the seven Principles to a single will, and that ruler represented the sephirah of Chokmah. The prime ruler was called Carmara, and it ruled the seven Kings and Princes Heptarchical. The spirit called Hagonel ruled the Sons and Daughters of the Spirits of Light (Talismantic Elementals), and the 42 Ministers who govern the powers of the Green Ray of consciousness. Correspondingly, the other six Principles also have 42 minsters who govern their associated Rays. The ministers appear in the form of a talismanic tablet that is a matrix of letters seven across by six down; thereby enclosing the names of the associated six Heptarchical Spirits.

The combination of the seven stations of nobility under direction of the seven Principles constitutes the matrix of 49 binary planetary intelligences. These spirits are the intelligences of the Heptarchate and emanate from the 7-fold spiritual archetypes. These seven archetypes are resolved in an eighth, which represents their union. These seven also represent the mediation between Atziluth and Assiah through the world of Yetzirah; and the product of this mediation is the spiritual hierarchy of the Sons and Daughters of the Spirits of Light, (7 × 4).”

An ordeal that could be used to fully engage this system of magick would consist of invoking seven of these Bonarum spirits, with the base being represented by the seven different planets (the qualifiers could be any of the seven planets). Thus all seven of the Heptarchate spirits would be summoned and fully experienced, each performed every weekend, for seven continuous weeks. The eighth and final working would consist of invoking the eighth spirit, Carmara, and to configure the already invoked Heptarchate spirits into a septagramic gate structure. The combination of all eight spirits would simultaneously produce the vortex structure that would completely reveal the holistic Enochian system of magick. I performed this working in 1992, and it was so successful that I am still seeking to digest all of the material which I was able to reveal. I hope to have a completed system written up sometime in the not too distant future.


Greater Enochian Ordeal - Part Two of the Second Ordeal

Since I had identified that the Nephilim were the spirits who had supplied the bulk of the Enochian wisdom and whose heretical teachings consisted of an entire system of magick, it became imperative that I invoke all four of the chiefs of these spirits. Therefore, I performed a long series of rituals to specifically invoke these demigods and their associated demi-goddesses, the daughters of Lilith. Since there were 20 chiefs of the Nephilim, and also 20 daughters of Lilith, I found that this was no coincidence. Therefore, I proceeded to invoke another two of these chiefs of the Nephilim (Turiel and Ramatael), and then invoked the spirits of Enoch, Lilith and finally, Seth.

A final point of consideration concerns the lineage of the Enoch (or Chenoch) as an initiated body of adepts who have mastered the methodology of Inner Plane workings. The actual techniques that they used have been lost, so they exist only as fragments in the Western Mystery Tradition. It is the primary goal of this working to reestablish these techniques and to reorganize them into a complete system of modern theurgy. 

From these entities I was given parts of a new system of magick. In fact, from the invocation of Lilith, I received a completely unique system of performing an invocation. Instead of building a custom invocation rite for each spirit, I instead was shown a way of performing an invocation through a matrix of symbolic correspondences. If I could find corresponding symbols and other occult qualifiers (including attributes of deities), then I could use those correspondences to perform a modular invocation rite.

This magickal technology was revealed to me from the invoked spirit of Lilith. From the spirits of the Nephilim, I was able to build up an Enochian Qabbalah and an integrated system that included specific godnames and archangels. It was a radical departure from the traditional Enochian system, and one that I am still working on today.


Ordeal of Spiritual Archeomancy

As if these two ordeals of Enochian magick weren’t enough to keep me occupied, I also received a completely new magickal technique from these workings. I called this technique “Spiritual Archeomancy,” and the advanced workings that this new methodology helped to explore literally blew me completely away when I later performed them. Not only was this an unprecedented magickal system, but it was also intelligible to others. I shared these workings with Trevor, and then later, with a few other members of the Order, and everyone who experienced them was profoundly impacted.

I had previously devised a system of Archeomancy that invoked through the matrix of the Qabbalah of the 40 Worlds, which is represented by the Tree of Life as projected through the Four Qabbalistic Worlds. The 40 cards of the Lesser Arcana of the Tarot (Naibs and Aces) could also be used to represent the matrix of spirits that could be invoked through this Inner Plane domain.

Through my workings I had discovered another new system of Archeomancy that was based on the Aethyrs and the geometry of the back side of the Tree of Life. In this methodology, the angles (vectors) of the triangular structures of the Tree of Life lattice (skeleton of the pathways without the ten Sephiroth) were directly attributable to the Aethyrs, and that there were 56 of these entities instead of just 30. This information had been imparted to me from the Nephilim, Lilith, Enoch and Seth through the various Enochian magickal invocation ordeals that I had previously performed. Since this methodology was not associated with any kind of traditional Enochian lore, it put me into a place of completely stepping outside of what Dr. Dee had written and presented in his diaries. I was, in a word, in completely undiscovered country.

Spiritual Archeomancy has its own special purpose, since it gives the operator complete access to the triangular dimensions found in the Tree of Life. If you count these triangles, there are a total of 18. However, two of the shapes (above or at the Abysmal gateway of Da’ath) are actually trapezoids, making this system asymmetrical and much more interesting. In an unpublished document that discussed the magickal system of Archeomancy, the functional parts of this new methodology were thoroughly discussed. I shall quote a few paragraphs here to more succinctly define this system of magick.

“The domains that are defined in Spiritual Archeomancy are based upon the triangular shapes that are found in the structure of the Tree of Life and are bounded by the twenty-two paths and ten Sephiroth. These triangular structures have not been named nor defined in the traditional Qabbalah. However, by the very nature of the discipline of the Qabbalah that states that all structures in the Tree of Life must be considered significant and in some manner, accounted for, we must seek to define them. The space surrounding the Tree of Life has been defined as the Three Negative Veils, and the reverse side of the paths and Sephiroth have been defined as the Qliphoth (shells). The triangular shapes between the paths and Sephiroth have not been defined, and I have discovered that they also have an important significance. According to traditional Qabbalists, there are two Qabbalahs, the revealed Qabbalistic lore that we possess in written and oral tradition, and there is an unwritten Qabbalah, which is called the Spiritual Qabbalah. I believe that the undocumented triangular shapes have something to do with this unknown and secret doctrine.

I propose that the key to the Spiritual Qabbalah is revealed in the definition and revelation of those domains consisting of triangular shapes found in the Tree of Life, and I have deemed to call these shapes the Qabbalistic Dimensions. There are eighteen Qabbalistic Dimensions in the Tree of Life, and two of these dimensions actually have a trapezoidal shape instead of a triangular shape. Thus compounding the mystery of these eighteen dimensions are two that defy the patterns of the other sixteen, and are therefore of even greater significance. Herein are great mysteries for the boldest and most imaginative of occultists into which to delve, discovering for themselves the key to the unwritten and apparently unknown Qabbalah.

The Qabbalistic Dimensions have as their qualifiers the paths and Sephiroth that reside on their boundaries. However, there is also another qualifier that consists of the vector or angle where two paths and a Sephirah are joined. If one counts all the angles that are found in the structure of the Tree of Life, then fifty-six will be counted and identified. These angular vectors of the paths represent a spiritual process active in the Tree of Life. I have chosen to associate these spiritual processes with  those mysterious Aethyrs that John Dee had listed in his Enochian magickal diaries. However, John Dee identified only thirty of these Aethyrs. Yet if one counts the angles from the bottom right dimension, then proceeding to the left dimension, and then crossing up to the next dimension on the right, and he/she continues counting in this manner until all thirty Aethyrs are so placed, then the approximate boundary of the Greater Abyss will be revealed.

Those additional twenty-six Aethyrs could be said to exist above the Abyss, and so would not have been visible to John Dee, since he did not realize the Qabbalistic implications of the Aehtyrs nor their place in the Tree of Life. And perhaps Edward Kelly was himself too awestruck to attempt to pierce the veil. Other magicians have used the thirty Aethyrs in their magickal workings, most notably Aleister Crowley, and have assumed that they spanned the Tree of Life in some fashion, where the final and the highest Aethyr was associated with the Supernal Triad above the Abyss. Because they believed this was the truth, their experiences were shaped by that truth. However, until now, no one has adequately placed the Aethyrs in the scheme of the Tree of Life, where they should be an integral part. The Aethyrs have found their place as the determining quality in the definition of the Qabbalistic Dimensions.

The Qabbalistic Dimensions are defined by a combination of path, Sephirah and Aethyr; they collectively represent the facets of the teleological process of the Deity and the destiny of its associated individual sentient souls. To unlock the mystery of a dimension is to reveal a part of the Divine Plan, and also the individual’s association with the fulfillment of that plan, however great or small.”

Beginning in the year 1993, I tested this newly derived system of magick, and the results were spectacular. Trevor and I both performed the working, which took the entire weekend to complete. The final results were mind blowing. Prior to that long weekend, I had also invoked each of the three Aethyrs that were associated with the lowest dimension, which incorporated the Sephiroth of Malkuth, Yesod and Hod, and their associated pathways. The resultant egress into the 18th and lowest dimension had far ranging effects, and in fact, I was still processing that experience a year after it was performed. In performing this magick, I had approached the Tree of Life as a veritable map of the Inner Planes, and had entered what would seem to be completely new spiritual universe.

Two years later I had managed to enter into the 17th Qabbalistic dimension and experience even greater revelations and empowerment. After another year, I then joined both dimensions into a fused Qabbalistic structure that revealed still more lore and a greater degree of empowerment. In all, these three workings represented a methodology and ritual technique that had no previous representation in any magickal tradition that I was aware of. It was a new system based on some very cutting edge Qabbalistic and Enochian speculation.

I have not performed any further workings, but I am planning on picking this operation up again in the future, and I will seek to gain entrance into the two trapezoidal shaped dimension situated just below the Supernal Triad. I have all of the materials that I need to perform these new workings, all I need is the time and the commitment. Other projects have intervened, but I am hoping to continue with this technique of Spiritual Archeomancy in the next few years. 

Once I had accomplished these three ordeals, it became obvious to me that I had gone far beyond what the functioning temple in Kansas City was able to either perform or even digest without my direct intervention. In 1991 the temple had split into two groups, with one group abrogating the work that I had set forth, and the remainder of the primary group continuing with the workings. This smaller group only managed to perform part of the first Enochian ordeal, and the rest of it was either beyond their abilities, resources or just wasn’t as relevant.

After a couple more years, the last functioning temple group had broken up, but my own work continued with renewed vigor and at an accelerated pace. I did share the Spiritual Archeomancy working a couple of years later with Frater Arjuna, but no one else in the Kansas City group was either interested or capable of engaging with this work. Knowing its importance, I have proceeded to refine and document this system of magick. Even so, the documentation is not yet complete, and there are piles of notes, diaries and other materials that await the time when I will draw them together into a completed series of books, which I have called the “Sepher ha-Nephilim.”

Anyway, I lived in Tallahassee for over four years, and then, as predicted by a few of the powerful spirits that I had conversed with, I was promoted and sent to Santa Fe, New Mexico by the company for whom I worked. The next important part of my life adventure had begun, and by the summer of 1994, I had relocated to that small strange town in the middle of the old west. But that is another tale which I will relate to you at another time. The time that I spent in Tallahassee was highly valuable, both from the standpoint of the occult, ritual magick and also my career. I had progressed to new levels in all these arenas. I had also avoided having to deal with the cold and snow of winter for a period of five years.

Even though I had traveled yearly for a while to Kansas City for the annual Heartland Pagan Festival, most of what I had worked to establish in that town was sadly diminished. So I looked forward to my new adventures in Santa Fe, even though that meant that I would have to endure the snow and ice of a mountainous western town, known for its enchanting vistas, unique architecture and Spanish Colonial and Pueblo Indian cultures.

Frater Barrabbas