Via Solis Gemini Elixir Rite - Year Five (Streaming)

Today's Magick Monday post is a full script for the Gemini Elixir Rite that we will be performing tomorrow, Tuesday June 1st. Like the previous elixir rite, it will be streamed on the Leaping Laughter OTO YouTube channel. The channel can be found here. I will be starting around 8 PM CDT, but I barring any technical difficulties I will post the video here and on Facebook after the ritual so you can view it whenever you have time.

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 Gemini. The sign Gemini is attributed to "The power of being in two or more places at the same time, and of Prophecy." As I interpret it, the former is related to astral work and the latter is related to precognition in all its forms, the ability to see into the future. In a mystical sense, it also corresponds to prophetic consciousness in general. Therefore, these sorts of intents are most appropriate. 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 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.

Ritual Night Talk for May 25th

Here is the video of Tuesday's Ritual Night Talk, on Exotericism For Living Part 2. The donation link is here.

Practical magick is about solving problems. If we lived in a world where people employed exoteric magick as a matter of course, we would see practical spells added to any situation where the outcome depended in part on luck and chance. Nothing needs to be kept secret or out of peoples' hands in order to make that approach effective. The "sorting problem" idea also means that you don't necessarily keep your magick to yourself in order to maintain an advantage over people who don't use it - which is one reason I've heard suggested as to why magicians should maintain secrecy about their work.

Enjoy!

Ritual Night Talk for May 18th

Here is the video of yesterday's Ritual Night Talk, on Exotericism For Living. The Learning Daily Practices link is here and the donation link is here.

I am convinced that a world in which a significant percentage of people use magick just like they use any other technology as they go about their day-to-day lives is not only possible, but desirable. This goes beyond basic literacy about what magick can do and what it can't do, and into practical applications. Daily practice, as outlined in the linked article, is reasonably simple to learn and integrate into your life - though that doesn't mean it's always easy to stick with.

Enjoy!

Learning Daily Practices

This article is an expansion of a comment I wrote to a reader regarding some unexpected issues coming up while working on learning daily practices. I think much of what I'll be talking about here can be found elsewhere on the blog, but I wanted to put it all in one place.

The daily practice regimen that I usually recommend to students is:

1. Lesser Banishing Ritual of the Pentagram

2. Lesser Invoking Ritual of the Hexagram

3. Middle Pillar Ritual

4. Meditation

5. Qabalistic Cross

For Thelemites like me, the following is analogous:

1. Star Ruby

2. Star Sapphire

3. Elevenfold Seal (from Liber Regului)

4. Meditation

5. Qabalistic Cross (Star Ruby version)

In my personal work I usually employ a mix of those two sequences, opening with the Lesser Banishing Ritual of the Pentagram followed by the modified Comselh Ananael version of the Lesser Invoking Ritual of the Hexagram and then the Elevenfold Seal.

The function of each step is as follows:

1. A banishing lesser (or, more properly, general) ritual of the pentagram is a microcosmic ritual that "cleans up," aligns, and purifies your sphere of consciousness. Rituals of this sort do not affect anything beyond the bounds of your personal aura (or body of light or whatever other term you prefer) and act primarily upon you personally. Some people erroneously use these rituals to clear or banish ritual spaces, which doesn't actually work well. Yes, there is a connection between microcosm and macrocosm so you might be able to get a small or limited effect, but it's like blowing air at a heavy object in order to move it and not even remotely efficient.

Ritual Night Talk for May 11th

Here is the video of yesterday's Ritual Night Talk, Part Three of the Exotercism discussion. The Magical Instruction link is here, the We Must Say What We Mean link is here, and the donation link is here.

The idea of "Exotericism" is a powerful one. If we lived in a world where people had basic literacy about the magical arts, and understood that the various fictional and popular culture ideas about magick are entirely ridiculous and have nothing to do with real magical practice, I am convinced we would living in a far better world.

The ridiculousness that I'm talking about includes everything from movies about "devil worship" to misconceptions about foundational practices such as meditation. It also includes the secrecy that has hamstrung advances in magical technology for centuries, and the annoying elitism and gatekeeping that discourage people from learning what magick is all about for themselves.

Enjoy!

We Must Say What We Mean

Nick Farrell recently posted this article in which he unpacks some of the ways in which magicians all-too-often obfuscate the truth and sometimes outright lie. While this list, along with an earlier one that was specific to Golden Dawn, is presented in a tongue-in-cheek manner, many of the entries are also far too recognizable from my experiences in the larger occult community. I will say that both posts are amusing - go check them out and see how many of Nick's obfuscating statements you recognize. My guess is that it will be more than a few if you've spent time among fellow occultists.

I have stated repeatedly that one of my goals in writing about my work and my practice is to develop magick as a technology and improve it along similar lines to what we see in the physical sciences. I also have pointed out that secrecy and gatekeeping and the like has set us back centuries. While it is true that there are more issues involved in measuring a state of consciousness than in measuring how long it, say, takes an object dropped from a high tower to hit the ground, it also is true that modern science began to develop in the 1700's, and it wasn't until Aleister Crowley's Equinox in the early 1900s that "secret order teachings" were offered to the public in a comprehensive manner.

That the physical sciences had a head start of almost 200 years, meaning it's no surprise that magick today is about where the physical sciences were in the early-to-mid 1800's. Given the availability of information and speed of communication in the modern world, I think it is possible to catch up, at least to a degree. But when people misrepresent magick and what magick entails, when they misrepresent their results, and when they put out misleading information about their own practices to make themselves look better on social media or whatever, those people are doing a lot of harm to the cause of subjecting magick to meaningful scientific investigation.

The problem today is not too little information, but too much. Online, true and false information commonly mingle together, and to a degree this is unavoidable. But we do ourselves no favors as magicians by contributing to misinformation, or by refusing to accurately answer questions - at least according to our own experiences. We don't have anything like a generally accepted theory of magick at the moment, and more accurate data that can be subjected to peer review can only get us closer to how all this stuff really works. There will likely be false starts and proposed models that turn out to be at odds with the data, but testing to determine those is exactly how the scientific method is supposed to work.

And we all want better magick, don't we? Better probability shifts. More effective expansion and elevation of consciousness. A faster path to enlightenment, as it's commonly understood. I remain convinced that testing and compiling data can get us there - but only if the data we are working with is as accurate as it can possibly be.

Taurus Elixir Rite for 2021

Here is the video of last night's Taurus Elixir Rite, now hosted on our Leaping Laughter YouTube channel instead of on Facebook. YouTube streaming worked fine, with the only technical foible that I look weird in the screenshot because I wasn't ready for it and couldn't figure out how to change it. But that's a pretty minor problem all things considered, and I'll do it right next time.

The sign Taurus is attributed to "The Secret of Physical Strength" in Liber 777. So appropriate intents would be related to health, healing, wellness, fitness, and so forth. Also, keep in mind that those powers are descriptive rather than proscriptive, so intents related to any quality you might find listed in an astrology book under Taurus should likewise work fine.

Enjoy!

Via Solis Taurus Elixir Rite - Year Five (Streaming)

Tonight, Tuesday May 4th, I will be presenting Year Five of the Taurus Elixir Rite. I'll be trying something a little different this evening - streaming live from YouTube instead of Facebook. I'm hoping that by using a YouTube channel instead of Facebook Live we will see more stability in our video presentations. This isn't usually an issue, but we saw some catastrophic failures during the Office of the Readings that we all hope to avoid in the future.

Here is the link to the Leaping Laughter YouTube channel, which is currently empty but will be hosting tonight's live preentation at 8 PM. I will also post any relevant announcements and updates on the Leaping Laughter Facebook page here. YouTube Live should work just like the streaming we have been doing on Facebook Live, except on our YouTube channel rather than our Facebook page.

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 Taurus. The sign Taurus is attributed to "The Secret of Physical Strength," and therefore intents related to strength, healing, vitality, and so forth are most appropriate. The Via Solis Elixir Rites were written by Michele Montserrat in 2010 for the Comselh Ananael magical working group.

I. Opening

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.

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.