Ritual Night Talk for January 26th

Here is the video of last night's Ritual Night Talk on Secrecy and Magick. The donation link is here.

Esotericism and occultism are terms that literally refer that which is hidden or secret. But secrecy in magick has prevented a great deal of progress over the centuries. The physical sciences embraced the openness of the scientific method, while the spiritual sciences remained hidden away in the teaching of magical orders and other exclusive organizations.

Secrecy has its place in magick, and in this talk I discuss some specific applications of "keeping silence" and why it is important in those contexts. At the same time, I advocate for greater openness, experimentation, and peer review among magical practitioners.

Enjoy!

Against Gay Eggs

It's true - one of the reasons I'm covering this story is that you don't get a lot of opportunities to use headlines that involve anything as ridiculous as gay eggs. But this also is an article about evangelical censorship advocacy group One Million Moms, an organization that I've covered before that is better described as "A Couple Thousand Crazy People."

Groups like One Million Moms are basically the tip of the spear (so to speak) for those Poor Oppressed Christians who are "oppressed" by the mere existence of gay people, trans people, atheists, non-Christians, and even Christians from denominations other than their own. There's no compromising with them because they can't possibly be expected to coexist with even a single opinion, belief, or identity dissenting from their own.

The latest dumb outrage from the group is over a commercial for Cadbury Creme Eggs that briefly shows a gay couple. As the article points out, the commercial in question only airs on British television and One Million Moms is an American group. So the only way for their members to see it and be offended by it is for other members of the group to send it to them along with breathless condemnations of how awful it is.

The ad shows people eating the chocolate Easter candy in various ways. But the gay couple who appear in the commercial for six seconds, they say, are “graphic and disturbing.” Real-life couple Callum Sterling and Dale Moran went viral this month after they were featured in a Cadbury Cream Egg commercial. The two men share one of the chocolate treats as other people demonstrate other ways to eat the confection.

Monica Cole, the perpetually perturbed head of the group, sent a breathless email alert to her decidedly-less-than a million followers alerting them of the chocolate commercial that describes the men as “disgusting” and “gross.” The group uses the words by attributing them to random “Christians and non-Christians” who have commented on the internet. The alert also quotes a far-right columnist who compares the men to dogs.

Hunting Bigfoot?

It's been a long time since I put up a cryptozoology post here, and this announcement from Oklahoma isn't something you see every day. Proposed legislation will create a "hunting season" for Bigfoot - or Sasquatch, or whatever term you prefer for the mysterious apelike creature that people keep spotting.

Personally I'm open-minded to the idea that something similar could exist, but there could also be more normal explanations for many of those reports. For example, if you superimpose two maps over the United States, one with the range of black bears and the other with locations of Bigfoot sightings, they line up very closely.

D.W. Lee of the Mid-America Bigfoot Research Center doesn’t use the name Bigfoot. He prefers “the creature.” Lee has been studying and hunting the creature for decades. "A mix between an orangutan and a human,” he said. “I’ve had 26 encounters that I can say was actually a Bigfoot.”

But when Lee heard about state Rep. Justin Humphrey’s bill to create an official Bigfoot hunting season, he was anything but thrilled. "The efforts of the people out there actually being serious about this – it really hampers us,” Lee said.

In a press release announcing the bill filing, Humphrey said his intent is to bring more tourism to the state. "Establishing an actual hunting season and issuing licenses for people who want to hunt Bigfoot will just draw more people to our already beautiful part of the state,” according to the release.

"We use science-driven research, and we don't recognize Bigfoot in the state of Oklahoma,” Micah Holmes of the Oklahoma Department of Wildlife Conservation said. The wildlife department noted that the bill would create a whole new season and license – all for something they don’t believe in. “Uh, surprised we haven’t heard that proposal before,” Holmes said.

Humprey doesn’t intend for people to kill Bigfoot. Instead, his bill proposes to offer a bounty of $25,000 to anyone who captures the creature.

Sheeple Are Waking Up

Here's a welcoming development from batshit crazy conspiracy world. Donald Trump's presidency ended Wednesday with the inauguration of Joe Biden as our 46th president. Meanwhile, many followers of the QAnon conspiracy now don't know where to turn.

The whole point of the conspiracy was that events surrounding the former president were not as they seemed, and that they were a ruse to take down alleged satanic pedophile occultists running the government. Arrests of said satanic pedophile occultists were supposed to be imminent - several years ago. It was alleged that once those arrests happened, Trump's true role would be revealed and he would stay in power. Only it wasn't, and he didn't.

Trump's role as president has been so central to the belief system that his leaving could create some genuinely jarring cognitive dissonance for true believers. Travis View, who hosts a podcast about the conspiracy theory called QAnon Anonymous, shared a video of one woman who is struggling to cope with the realization that the whole story behind QAnon is collapsing.

"So, who else is feeling just a little silly?" she asked. "Just a little... went too far down the rabbit hole, and now I'm back out again. And if nothing happens on the 20th, how many of you are going to feel stupid as hell? I can't do it anymore!" She shifted to talking about Q, the pseudonymous writer behind the cryptic posts that have fueled the QAnon conspiracists. Q's predictions have repeatedly proven false.

"And who the fuck is Q? Who is he? Who is this person?" she asked. "Cause none of it has come true! And I was just thinking — what if this person knows that none of this stuff is true? And they're just messing with people? Like, getting inside their heads? I thought something would happen today, in Trump's speech. Nothing!"

I've been pointing out for a long time that none of Q's predictions ever come true. Remember Calm Before The Stupid from 2018? Yeah, "The Storm" was the conspiracy theory that eventually morphed into QAnon. It was named based on a tweet from Trump about "the calm before the storm" - which is a figure of speech that could have meant anything, especially given the vague language found in some of the former president's tweets.

Ritual Night Talk for January 19th

Here is the video of last night's Ritual Night Talk with more on Scientific Illuminism. The donation link is here.

Continuing the discussion of Scientific Illuminism from last week, I go into more detail about chaos theory and its role in magical success, the importance of journaling to track your results, and empirical testing of rituals. I also cover a couple of pitfalls to avoid in the course of pursuing the magical and mystical path.

Enjoy!

Ritual Night Talk for January 12th

Here is the video of last night's Ritual Night Talk on Scientific Illuminism. The donation link is here.

I cover the idea of Scientific Illuminism in magick here and there, and this talk goes into more detail on what that means. I include some practical examples of how to apply scientific ideas to testing rituals and the like. This is difficult in magick because consciousness plays a significant role in how operations work, but at the same time we can do our best to apply the scientific method to ritual forms and techniques.

Enjoy!

"Q-Shaman" is a Thing?

They say that you eventually become what you hate. So I suppose it was inevitable that followers of the QAnon conspiracy, who hate occultists, would eventually develop their own school of magick. Or not so much a school, really, as an incoherent collection of paranormal beliefs drawn from various fringe figures from popular culture. The dude behind it is apparently Jake Angeli, who was seen storming the Capitol on Wednesday in a ridiculous getup.

One of the most visually striking of the angry thugs was the shirtless “Viking” dressed in war paint with a Viking-style horned headdress and tattoos associated with neo-paganism and white nationalism. The so-called “Q-Shaman” has been a regular fixture at pro-Trump rallies across the country, a longtime “Q-influencer,” and yesterday the man news organizations identified as Jake Angeli, 32, seized the dais in the Senate chamber in the name of Donald Trump. He is also a believer in wild conspiracies that are ripped straight out of Ancient Aliens and other similar cable TV programs.

I want to point out here that my Scandinavian ancestors would have had nothing to do with this douchenozzle. He's certainly no Viking. I doubt anybody from Finland is happy with him appropriating "Shaman" either.

Angeli appears to be the same man who operates a YouTube channel (which I will not link to here) that has posted a series of conspiratorial videos since the November election. The man in the videos has the same look and build and the same set of distinctive tattoos. He also identifies himself by the same name. In the videos, Angeli presents the standard QAnon belief system, including pedophile rings, a “cabal” of evil liberals and globalists, and a quasi-religious infatuation with Donald Trump—many of which were ideas that emerged from the 1980s satanic panic and were packaged as a right-wing mystery religion by Ancient Aliens star David Wilcock and other conspiracy mongers in the months before QAnon adopted them wholesale.

Capricorn Elixir Rite for 2021

Here is the video of Tuesday's Capricorn Elixir Rite. The donation link is here.

The sign Capricorn is attributed to the Devil card in the Tarot, and is attributed to "The Witches' Sabbath so-called" and "The Evil Eye" in Liber 777. The first is another of Crowley's glosses for sex magick in general, as seen most clearly in Liber A'ash vel Capricorni Pneumatici.

The second is a general form of cursing that was believed to be cast by gaze. It was thought to be common in the ancient world, and we find many objects and practices from history designed to ward it off. Remember that Capricorn rules this type of curse, so in addition to cursing it can also provide protection against it.

Enjoy!

Via Solis Capricorn Elixir Rite - Year Four (Streaming)

Today's Magick Monday post is a full script for the Capricorn Elixir Rite that we will be performing tomorrow, January 5th. 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 Capricorn.

The sign Capricorn is attributed to the powers of "The Witches' Sabbath so-called" and "the Evil Eye." The latter is a general form of cursing cast by line of sight, but keep in mind that as Capricorn rules the Evil Eye, this sign can be employed both to cast such curses and protect you from them. Seeing as the "Witches' Sabbath" is not a real magical operation, but rather an invention of Medieval witch hunters (as the "so-called" likely acknowledges) it requires some explanation.

According to the imagination of witch hunters, the Witches' Sabbath was a ritual in which witches copulated with the Devil in order to obtain magical powers. So in the context of real magical operations we are talking about sex magick in various forms, whether symbolic or actual. Liber A'ash vel Capricorni Pneumatici, for example, is attributed to this sign and describes in (only slightly) veiled symbolic language a sex magick technique similar to Spare's well-known sigilization method. The Great Rite in the Wiccan tradition would be another example.

In addition, one of the magical weapons attributed to Capricorn is "the secret force" which is a reference to internal energies such as kundalini, whether employed in sex magick operations or otherwise. So another application for Capricorn would be to develop and/or strengthen those energies by magical means. It is important to keep in mind that "sex magick" such does not necessarily involve having sex, but rather working with the union of energetic polarities - which can be accomplished by many different means.

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.