Libra Elixir Rite for 2020

Here is the video of last night's Via Solis Libra Elixir Rite.

Libra rules "Works of Justice and Equilibrium," so it is a good general power for all sorts of operations. With everything going on in the world right now my intent focused on the social and political spheres, but as "equilibrium is the basis of the work" there are many other possible applications of this power for practicing magicians.

Enjoy!

Via Solis Libra Elixir Rite - Year Four (Streaming)

Today's Magick Monday post is a full script for the Libra Elixir Rite that we will be performing tomorrow, September 29th. Like the last few elixir rites, it will be streamed on Facebook Live at the Leaping Laughter OTO page. The page can be found here. I will be starting around 8 PM CDT, but barring any technical difficulties I will archive the video after the ritual so you can view it whenever you have time if you miss it live.

0. The Temple

The ritual space is set up with an altar table in the center. The bell chime, banishing dagger, and invoking wand are placed on the altar. In the center of the altar is placed a cup of wine for creating the elixir, within the Table of Art corresponding to Libra. The sign Libra is attributed to "Works of Justice and Equilibrium." So those sorts of intents are most appropriate, and as this is a general and highly adaptable power, it can be used for many different purposes, from obtaining justice in the external world to balancing your internal magical energies and/or spiritual perceptions. This ritual may be performed with one, two, or three officers, who may alternate taking the Officiant role and divide up the reading from Liber 963. The Via Solis Elixir Rites were written by Michele Montserrat in 2010 for the Comselh Ananael magical working group.

I. Opening

All stand surrounding the altar. Officiant inhales fully, placing the banishing dagger at his or her lips. The air is then expelled as the dagger is swept backwards.

Officiant: Bahlasti! Ompehda!

Officiant then performs the Lesser Banishing Ritual of the Pentagram. All rotate accordingly.

Officiant: We take refuge in Nuit, the blue-lidded daughter of sunset, the naked brilliance of the voluptuous night sky, as we issue the call to the awakened nature of all beings, for every man and every woman is a star.

All: MAKAShANaH

Officiant: We take refuge in Hadit, the secret flame that burns in every heart of man and in the core of every star, as we issue the call to our own awakened natures, arousing the coiled serpent about to spring.

All: ABRAHADABRA

Officiant: We take refuge in Heru-Ra-Ha, who wields the wand of double power, the wand of the force of Coph Nia, but whose left hand is empty for he has crushed an universe and naught remains, as we unite our awakened natures with those of all beings everywhere and everywhen, dissolving all obstacles and healing all suffering.

All: AUMGN

Officiant: For pure will, unassuaged of purpose, delivered from the lust of result, is every way perfect.

All: All is pure and present are and has always been so, for existence is pure joy; all the sorrows are but as shadows; they pass and done; but there is that which remains. To this realization we commit ourselves – pure and total presence. So mote it be.

Bell chime.

Jesus Arrested in Russia

Here's a question for everyone worried about the current state of the world, political and otherwise. Lots of people online have noted that there are at least an unusual number of similarities between Donald Trump and the description of The Beast from the Book of Revelation. Yeah, I know, 666 is Kaiser Nero and all that, so it likely refers to events that happened two thousand years ago.

But stay with me here. What if this guy really is Jesus?

Russian authorities mounted a special operation to arrest a former traffic police officer who claims to be the reincarnation of Jesus and has run a cult based in the depths of Siberia for the past three decades.

Helicopters and armed officers stormed communities run by Sergei Torop, known to his followers as Vissarion, and arrested him and two of his aides. Russia’s investigative committee said it would charge him with organising an illegal religious organisation, alleging that the cult extorted money from followers and subjected them to emotional abuse.

Torop, 59, with long grey hair and a beard, was led by masked troops to a helicopter. The operation involved agents from Russia’s FSB security service as well as police and other agencies. Vadim Redkin, a former drummer in a Soviet-era boyband who is known as Vissarion’s right-hand man, was also arrested, along with another aide, Vladimir Vedernikov.

Torop, who lost his job as a traffic officer in 1989, claimed he experienced an “awakening” as the Soviet regime began to collapse. In 1991 he founded a movement now known as the Church of the Last Testament. Several thousand followers live in a series of remote hamlets in the Krasnoyarsk region in Siberia. Converts to the cult have included professionals from across Russia as well as pilgrims from abroad.

And yeah, I also know there's no evidence that any of the many folks over the years who have claimed to be Jesus are the real thing. Torop's story doesn't sound very convincing either. But again, stay with me. If Trump is the Beast, and Torop is Jesus, then the way forward to fix the world is clear. All we need to do is drop Trump (The Beast) and Torop (Jesus) into an arena and have them fight.

When Jesus wins - which he should since Torop is more than a decade younger and appears to be in much better shape, and besides look at the size of those hands - all of the prophecies will be fulfilled and the world will go back to normal.

One can hope, right?

Seb-Hed Autumnal Equinox Ritual for 2020

Here is the video of last night's Seb-Hed Ritual.

We've been performing this ritual around the autumnal equinox for a number of years now, first with our magical working group and more recently under the auspices of Leaping Laughter OTO in Minneapolis, Minnesota. It is quite effective for setting intents for the upcoming year and for general self-empowerment through the invocation of Set and Horus.

Enjoy!

Seb-Hed Ritual for 2020 - Streaming

Today's Magick Monday post is the full script for the Seb-Hed Ritual that we will be performing tomorrow evening, September 22nd, for the Autumnal Equinox. This will be a streaming event hosted at 8 PM central at the Leaping Laughter OTO page on Facebook. This is taking place in the usual Ritual Night timeslot.

The Seb-Hed is inspired by a rite of renewal practiced for the pharaohs of ancient Egypt, updated with modern ritual forms and so forth. It invokes the balanced energies of Set and Horus, who in ancient times represented Upper and Lower Egypt. It will be performed as outlined below, with a few modifications to accomodate the streaming format.

0. The Temple

The Set altar is in the North, and Horus altar is in the South. The material basis is placed on each altar; red wine or juice for Set, white wine or juice for Horus. A statue of each deity is placed on the corresponding altar. A third larger altar with a chalice is placed between them and slightly to temple east. This allows the Officiant and other participants to stand directly between the Set and Horus altar during the ritual. The invoking wand and banishing dagger are placed on this central altar.

I. Opening

Officiant performs the Lesser Banishing Ritual of the Pentagram using the banishing dagger.

Officiant: We take refuge in Nuit, the blue-lidded daughter of sunset, the naked brilliance of the voluptuous night sky, as we issue the call to the awakened nature of all beings, for every man and every woman is a star.

All: AUMGN

Officiant: We take refuge in Set-An, the secret Black Flame that burns in every heart of man and in the core of every star, as we issue the call to our own awakened nature, arousing the coiled serpent about to spring.

All: XEPER (pronounced KEH-fer)

Officiant: We take refuge in Har-Wer, who wields the wand of double power, the wand of the force of Coph Nia, but whose left hand is empty for he has crushed an universe and naught remains, as we unite our awakened natures with those of all beings everywhere and everywhen, dissolving all obstacles and healing all suffering.

All: THELEMA.

Officiant: For pure will, unassuaged of purpose, delivered from the lust of result, is every way perfect.

All: All is pure and present and has always been so, for existence is pure joy; all the sorrows are but as shadows; they pass and are done; but there is that which remains. To this realization we commit ourselves – pure and total presence.

All: So mote it be.

Officiant performs the Lesser Invoking Ritual of the Hexagram (Comselh Ananael or standard version) using the invoking wand, replacing ARARITA with SOTHIS.

Ritual Night Talk for September 15

Here is the video of last night's Ritual Night Talk, covering containment and targeting.

I've had a couple of questions come up recently about containment structures and how they work, and adding in comments on magical links that can be used for targeting operations seems like a natural fit. Using both of these methods well can result in far more effective rituals in terms of practical results.

Enjoy!

Airbnb for Satan

A family renting an Airbnb unit in New York City got a surprise when they got there and found the place decorated with - well, basically a couple of animal skulls and some implements for casting spells. They freaked and reported being terrified by this display of "devil worship." I do understand that one of the unwritten rules about doing magick is that in general, when dealing with people who get their information from horror films and the like, you should do your best not to antagonize them. At the same time, though, their total over-reaction is kind of funny.

A family staying at an Airbnb property in New York state were frightened upon discovering animal skulls, ritualistic floor markings and “imagery, candles, books, etc for rituals and what looked like devil worship”.

Frederick Joseph, an author from New York City, had booked the house for two nights to spend time with his fiancée, his cousin and his eight-year-old brother, paying $1,150 for the privilege. But as soon as they arrived at the property, they became wary.

“When we walked up to the house we noticed an animal skull hanging on the outside of the house, so I went inside to check it out,” tweeted Joseph. “When I walked I went to the basement and found more animal skulls and ritualistic floor markings and then I went up to the rooms to find much more.

“As we walked through the two rooms we found a bunch of imagery, candles, books, etc for rituals and what looked like devil worship. My brother was terrified, as were we.”

Not a lot of people really engage in "devil worship," so probably the owner of this space is some flavor of Wiccan or Neo-Pagan, which are much larger traditions. Since most of my friends are at least peripherally involved in the occult community I've been in plenty of houses with this sort of decor. The idea that it's scary and dangerous is just silly, but people do have a right to their religious beliefs regardless of what people outside their traditions think of those beliefs.

Ritual Night Talk for September 8

Here is the video of last night's Ritual Night Talk, covering psychology and magick.

Many ideas from psychology found their way into discussions of magick over the course of the last century or so. Some of those ideas are accurate or at least useful, while others are less so based on the latest understanding of how cognition works. This is part one of what will be a series of at least a couple more talks since this is a reasonably large topic.

Enjoy!

Against MKUltra Umbrellas

Lately the QAnon conspiracy has been getting more time in mainstream news outlets, so that means it's not weird or fringey enough for "prophet" and Christian talk show host Mark Taylor. Taylor, as I have previously noted, has made exactly one accurate prophecy in his entire life. He predicted that Donald Trump would be elected president in 2016. According to Nick Silver, Trump had a 1 in 3 chance of winning a week before the election, so it was at least a little unlikely that he would win at the time.

Since then, though, Taylor has made all sorts of ridiculous predictions and just doubled-down on them when they didn't come true. That's the opposite of being a prophet. That's being a false prophet. In addition to making nonsensical false prophecies, he also passes along every weird bit of conspiracy crap that he can get his hands on. Recently, he explained the existential threat posed by MKUltra umbrellas. Oh, and also Hillary Clinton and the Queen of England. This one's a real doozy.

Relying on the claims of an outlandish conspiracy theorist named Gina Phillips who has appeared several times on Chris McDonald’s program (where Taylor is a regular guest) to spread outrageous tales of “Satanic ritual abuse” and the like, Taylor uncorked a bizarre explanation for the nation’s current civil unrest.

“All these kids we are seeing in the streets, the MK Ultra, it only takes like an hour,” Taylor said. “They have it down to an art. They have it down to a science. They will fragment your mind into a 100 pieces, and each piece is separated with a disassociated wall of amnesia so they can program each piece. The programming is in you.”

“When you see Hillary [Clinton] or the Queen wearing purple, that’s end of the world programming,” he continued. “If they’re wearing green, it means this. If they put out something verbatim like on Twitter, it activates the code, so maybe assassination codes, so maybe other codes. … All these teachers are doing it in daycare, they’re doing elementary, junior high, high school. Churches are doing it.”

“Now with all these guys in the streets, this is why they can’t be reasoned with,” Taylor added. “You can’t reason with someone that’s been mind controlled. Do you notice the guys in the streets with the umbrellas? Those are their handlers. That activates the programming. What that does, the umbrella reminds them and activates the violence programming, saying that, ‘If you don’t get violent, we will activate the tormenting spirits that we have placed in you to torment you until you do.'”

Ritual Night Talk for September 1

Here is the video of last night's Ritual Night Talk, covering more magical misconceptions.

In the my first magical misconceptions talk, I discussed some popular culture ideas about magick like the "Satanic panic" of the 1980s and the similar reptilian/illuminati/qanon nonsense of today. In this talk I focus more on what I consider technical misconceptions about magick itself, how it works, and how you should approach your practice.

Enjoy!