Lunar Mysteries and the Art of Moon Magick - Part 4

Greater Wheel of Fortune

All of these factors regarding basic astrology seem to ignore one important consideration, and that is the personal cycle or wheel of fortune of the magician performing the magick. Even the most optimal and auspicious signs and portends will avail the magicians naught if they ignore important factors about their own waxing and waning material fortunes. Magick done during a weak trough in the personal fortune of the magician will produce nothing, or it might even cause losses and misfortune. Perhaps the most important knowledge that magicians can possess that will enable them to work magick on their own personal material circumstance is self knowledge, and knowing their own personal timing.

In the many years that I have worked magick I have discovered by accident and trial that certain times of the year are better for material based magick than others, and that there is a pattern to this cyclic process. What I discovered is that there is a personal wheel of fortune that systematically turns, so that half of the year has the potential for material increase and the other half is better suited for planing and positioning oneself for more optimal times, when action is met with results. The year is cut in half, and one half fosters increase, and the other, decrease.

It may not be true that the poorer half of the year actually experiences losses or setbacks, although this certainly can occur; rather the richer half of the year seems to effortlessly assist one in the pursuit of material gain and personal advancement.

The simplest way to determine this wheel of fortune is take one’s birthday and add to it exactly six months. So if you were born on January 5, (as I was), then your halfway date is July 5. So for me, the two most important dates are my natal return (birthday), and six months later in the year, which would be a point where the sun would be 180 degrees from its natal position. I am a Capricorn according to my natal sun sign position, and my annual halfway point is under the sign of Cancer. I have found that for me, the time of increase begins at the halfway point in the year, and proceeds to a climax at my birthday, and then declines until the halfway point is again achieved. For me, the best time to plan and reorganize is during the winter, after the holidays and before summer. After the summer vacation period, I am ready to start putting into action everything that I have learned and determined in the previous six months. 

First thing that you must do if you are calculating your greater fortune is to find that halfway point in your yearly cycle and note it down. Then look at the past several years and see if you can see a pattern as to when important material advancements occurred for you. It won’t be perfect, but I think that you will find that one of those half year cycles was more auspicious for you than the other, which is better for planning and regrouping.

A good way to highlight this analysis of the cycle of the greater fortune is to astrologically examine the transit sun to natal chart sun positions and what they mean. Looking over a book with these aspects defined will demonstrate just how important these two points in the solar cycle of any given individual. I have distilled the aspect definitions for these two points as they are defined in the book “Planets in Transit: Life Cycles for Living” by Robert Hand, p. 55 & p. 58.

Transit Sun conjunct Natal Sun aspect: This is the Solar Return, when the Sun returns to the position that it had when one was born. This aspect represents new beginnings, the ability to perceive the whole year ahead as if one were standing upon some metaphorical ascent and looking across time at the events for the coming year. Therefore, a birthday is an important point in anyone’s life, and it is a time of fruition and renewal.

Transit Sun opposition Natal Sun aspect: This aspect represents energies in life reaching a culmination, events cause realizations, revealing a critical point of success or failure. Situations judged to fail now appear to fail. The way to success opens up and is revealed.

So as you can see, the halfway point for the year is a kind of judgement point, a time and place where one thoroughly examines all of life’s activities, especially those that bear upon one’s fortune. Those objectives that are shown to be failing should be either adjusted or ended, and those efforts that appear to be gathering momentum for success should be steadfastly continued. New opportunities may also arise that will need to be judged as to their worthiness and a change in course may be called for to take advantage of them.

Lesser Wheel of Fortune

Correspondingly, there is also a lesser wheel of fortune that involves the Moon, and so this lesser cycle is more characterized by the emotions than by material gain, although it is true that if the emotions are not aligned with one’s greater material purpose, then all one’s endeavors will ultimately fail. This lesser wheel of fortune has the same basic components as the greater wheel. The natal chart lunar position is extracted, and the halfway point in this cycle is determined by plotting a position that is exactly 6 zodiacal signs ahead of the natal Moon position. Just break natal Lunar cycle from the point at the date of birth to a point 14 days later; this is the Lunar midpoint. So there are two halves to the month. One is auspicious for emotional expression, the other for generally for emotional internalization.

The key to this emotional wheel of fortune is that it’s better to perform magickal workings so that they achieve their climax up to but not far beyond the full moon. The waning moon represents particularly difficult times for me, and it’s much better to use that time for reflection, divination and contemplation, allowing the unconscious mind to unload some of its internal pressures and negative or dark-self perceptions in a controlled environment. It’s also a good idea to synchronize the greater and lesser wheels of fortune so that magickal workings and mundane actions involving material advancement occur during the better half for both patterns.

We can also analyze the transit aspects of the Natal Moon with the Transiting Moon and get a very clear idea of the kind of forces that are active. Like the Sun, we can examine the aspect where the Transit Moon is in conjunction with the Natal Moon, and the aspect where the Transit Moon is in opposition to the Natal Moon.

Transit Moon conjunct Natal Moon: This is called the Lunar return, and it occurs once every month. It represents the beginning of an emotional cycle. It’s a time of emotional sensitivity and emotional intensity. It has a magnetic effect, and tends to attract external events and people to its emanating field.

Transit Moon opposition to Natal Moon: This aspect represents deepening moods and powerful emotions. One becomes self-absorbed and loses objectivity, which tends to create emotional oppositions with others. It’s definitely not a time to be dealing with relationship issues, business partnerships or emotional issues involving family or friends.

(See “Planets in Transit: Life Cycles for Living” by Robert Hand, p. 104 & p. 105.)  

Both the Greater Wheel of Fortune (external life events) and the Lesser Wheel of Fortune (internal emotional events) will affect the magick that is to be worked on a practical level. The Greater Wheel has precedence over the Lesser Wheel, but both should be considered for a given strategic magickal working.

Epilogue - Moon Magick

We have covered all of the relevant material on the Moon from a scientific and occult perspective, and we have seen that the Moon is very relevant to material based magickal workings. We have also covered the fact that effective magick requires some kind of temporal signature to act as a link between the forces generated and focused, and the time and place where they are needed. And we have also examined the factor of timing, both from the standpoint of the Sun and the Moon, but also from the perspective of the individual who is working magick.

The most important thing that we have learned in this article is that there is a complex interrelationship between the cycles of the sun, earth, moon and the internal cycles operating within the individual magician. Magicians who are contemplating earth-based magickal workings to effect their material situation need to determine their greater and lesser wheel of fortune so that they can know the best time to perform this magick. So it’s very important to have both the material factors and the emotions in as perfect alignment as possible to ensure a successful outcome.

A rule of thumb in determining the when and the how of lunar magick is that the need and the factor of necessity always trump timing. The nature of timing is always used for long term and strategic magickal workings, but not for emergencies or immediate needs. Still, lunar and solar considerations are always helpful, and it’s a good idea to use them wherever possible.

Before I sign off, here is a list of books that can be used to further research about the moon and its various qualities. All you need to do is to acquire these books (or some suitable alternatives) and assemble the material into your own “Book of the Moon” for pagan liturgies and ritual magick. I would also recommend Christopher Warnock’s mini-course on the lunar mansions. You find all of his course material at the website at this site - the price of these courses is modest and well worth it.

• Alexander, Skye (1988) “Planets in Signs,” Whitford Press, West Chester, PA

• Filby, John & Peter (1984) “Astronomy for Astrologers,” The Aquarian Press, Wellingborough, Northhamptonshire, UK

• Hand, Robert (1976) “Planets In Transit: Life Cycles for Living,”  Para Research Inc., Gloucester, MA

• Jackson, Nigel (2003) “Celestial Magic - Principles and Practices of the Talismanic Art,” Capall Bahn Publishing Sommerset, UK

• Rudyar, Dane (1986) “The Lunation Cycle: A Key to the Understanding of Personality,” Aurora Press, New York, NY

• Warnock, Christopher (2006) “The Mansions of the Moon,” Renaissance Astrology, USA

Frater Barrabbas

Mid Year and Things are Beginning to Stir

This article is about the continuing saga of the Abramelin Lunar Ordeal and its overall effects on me as I progress through that spiritual and magickal process. As time passes on, I am more certain than ever that what I did last year was probably the most important magickal working that I have ever done. Yet still more has yet to manifest - of this I am certain.

The date July 5th passed without much fanfare, although I had felt that passage as an internal shift in my own spiritual process. Why is that date important to me? It’s the six month point in my personal cycle of the Greater Wheel of Fortune. For me, the second half of the year (starting on July 5) is where most of the action occurs. The first six months is where my life process undergoes a high degree of reflection, internal soul searching, the genesis of new prospects and possibilities, and the sorting out of expired opportunities, fruitless pursuits and dead-end pathways. So one would expect that during the six months since January, I would have begun to determine my spiritual path in a much more clarified manner due to the Abramelin working that was established in December. That assumption has been shown to be startlingly correct.

Many things have occurred over the last seven months since I completed the first phase of the Abramelin Lunar Ordeal, which was the larger part of that working. There are still a few other rituals that need to be done in order for the entire process to be completed. However, much has transpired during that interval, including potential prospects that may allow me to complete my spiritual and magickal journey and achieve a state of complete enlightenment. I feel quite buoyant and highly optimistic about the future now that events have overtaken me and are pointing the way forward in completely new directions.

It has been quite evident to me that even with all of the inspired information and insights that I have gained, not to mention breakthroughs for someone who is following this path while not being a member of any formal organization, whether of the OTO, the Golden Dawn or any other magickal order or lodge, that I will soon achieve the very limit of what I can accomplish on my own. While not belonging to an organization has freed me to investigate and experiment in any manner that I feel inspired to pursue, it has also isolated me and kept me from obtaining any kind of valuable peer review, not to mention important teachings necessary to obtain the highest levels that can be achieved. In word, within a few years, I would probably run out of new ideas and find myself at a dead-end unless something happens to change my current spiritual and magickal equation.

That something has happened to me recently, opening up a whole new vista of possibilities. In fact a series of events have happened to me over the past few months that may change the entire course of my studies and my magickal practice. It may sound rather dramatic, and it is, but the changes are subtle. They still will require me to take the initiative, so I will be making some important and profound decisions and transitions in the near future.

Would these changes have occurred if I hadn’t written up and performed my Abramelin Lunar Ordeal? Maybe, or maybe not. My intuition tells me that much of what has happened to me is due to what I did back in November and December of last year. All of the massive potential that I am now poised to realize was made possible by that work. It tested and challenged me in ways that I couldn’t begin to discuss or make any rational sense out of to outsiders. It also made me worthy of what I may yet receive, and for this I am both grateful and humbly receptive to all that will befall me. Life seems to be almost charmed, since every endeavor that happens to me lately seems to further my spiritual and magickal quest. Even the nearly moribund Order has shown signs of being regenerated, since a few individuals have been reaching out to me so that they might be able to receive and work with the magickal system that has so empowered and impacted me over the years. A new temple is being chartered and starting up in southeastern Massachusetts, and the old original temple in Kansas City is being reconstituted with some old members and some new.

Perhaps the most profound thing that has happened to me lately has the potential to lead me to the uncharted areas that are not documented in any books and are even beyond the scope of my internal spiritual contacts. I can’t talk directly about this potential, or even to name any names as of yet, since I am still examining what it all means, and I am obligated to protect the identities of those who might give me future direction. Suffice it to say that I have a group of individuals who are working within what might be called the Third Order, or those initiatory grades that are above the Greater Abyss on the Tree of Life. If everything turns out as I am assuming it will, then the pathways that are far beyond the level of adept that I currently possess will be revealed to me, both through my efforts and through teachings that would otherwise not be available to me.

Does this sound suitably vague, mysterious and compelling? I regret that I can’t at this time be more forthcoming with what I have discovered, the individuals who I have recently met and the potential that they may graciously offer me. However, I will certainly at some point in time be completely forthcoming in order to help propagate this arising organization and the nearly peerless high adepts who run it. I look forward to all of this becoming revealed, not only for myself, but for those who might also greatly profit from learning about the final steps to complete and total spiritual mastery. I will have to distill this knowledge and these practices through my own spiritual and magickal processes. Only then will I be able to make this knowledge available to others through my personal teachings and initiations - the only way to acquire and obtain this greater wisdom. Yet even as I would travel on that lofty path, I would always acknowledge the sources of that wisdom I have gained, and lionize the individuals who made it all possible.

The Full Moon arrives this Sunday, bringing with it the greater power of the ascending cycle of my personal Greater Wheel of Fortune. I felt the shift and the building of powers during the last full moon, so this time I will experience an even greater profound awakening and the beginning of a yet greater revelation. I will certainly report anything that happens which is not too personal (therefore obscure) and yet relevant to this continuing, ongoing and waxing process.   

For now, though, I am deeply grateful to the blessed HGA who has made these awesome connections possible and who has been the greatest spiritual and magickal advocate that I have ever experienced. May we all be blessed with the greater knowledge and wisdom of the Western Mystery Tradition in the present and the future.

Frater Barrabbas