It's a Miracle!

When I complain about faith healers here at Augoeides, it usually has to do with people who insist that faith healing cannot be done in conjunction with conventional medical treatment. Faith healing - that is, magical healing - can and does work, but just like with any other spell, the mundane steps that you take towards your goal such as conventional medical care help to bring the likelihood of a successful cure within the probability range that the spell can create. So with anything life-threatening, arguing that conventional care somehow undermines magical care is especially dangerous.

But this article is not one of those cases. Pastor Mboro of South Africa, a popular celebrity preacher who does faith healing, used his powers to cure a man's erectile dysfunction on his television program. The man and his wife immediately had sex, which prompted the television station to refuse to show the episode - even though the sex was blurred out. Mboro is planning a march on the station to protest the decision.

He told Sunday World: ‘Thabisile came to church a while ago and complained that although she was blessed with three children and recently got a promotion at work, she was sex-starved because her husband suffered from erectile dysfunction. I went there and entered their bedroom and asked them to put their hands on their private parts. After that I prayed for them and the husband immediately regained his erection.’

Grateful wife Thabisile said: ‘My husband got his erection back and when he came back from outside to call the crew to film our testimony, we were already busy having sex. We just couldn’t wait as it had been long since we had sex. I apologised to the pastor for doing that because that was embarrassing.’

Pastor Mboro has blurred out the sex for his TV show and claims the testimony of the couple is no more pornographic than other programs on the station. ‘Every weekend we watch movies which have episodes where people are shown having sex. Here there is no sex but they can’t show it. They have not shown two of my shows as a result of this dispute.’

Now you can point out that a lot of erectile dysfunction can be psychological, which makes it a prime target for faith healing, and I won't disagree with you. Just from this incident, it's hard to say (pun intended) whether Pastor Mboro really has highly effective paranormal healing powers. Mboro has come up on Augoeides before, and his previous statements make him sound like a complete fake, or at the very least highly prone to exaggeration.

But at the same time, my first rule of magick is that if it works it works, and that's apparently what happened here - to the chagrin of the television station in question. I also think that it's good to see a Christian pastor doing something that is basically sex-positive, as opposed to the anti-sex fire-and-brimstone stuff that usually makes the news, even if it is an over-the-top self-promoter like Mboro.

As far the television station goes, I don't know how explicit South African television is, and I'm sure that there probably are various standards that they try to adhere to with obscenity laws and so forth. I can see American authorities being squeamish about this sort of thing as well, even though it seems to me with the actual sex blurred out, there really isn't much to see compared with what is shown on a lot of other programs.

So I think the television station should go ahead and air the episode with the offending portion blurred out, as Mboro is demanding - that is, unless there's a compelling reason under South African law that prohibits them from doing it.

Via Solis Scorpio Elixir Rite

Today's Magick Monday post is a full script for the Scorpio Elixir Rite that we will be performing tomorrow, Tuesday November 7th, at Leaping Laughter Oasis, our local Twin Cities body of Ordo Templi Orientis. Going forward, we will be performing one of these per month, once for each of the twelve signs, in a ritual series called Via Solis (the way or path of the Sun). I will be posting the full scripts here on the preceding Mondays so people can take a look at them if they want to attend. Also, if you are in the Twin Cities (Minneapolis and Saint Paul, Minnesota) and would like to attend, let me or someone at the lodge know. This is a public ritual and all are welcome.

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 Scorpio. The sign Scorpio is attributed to the power of “Necromancy." Note that this refers to work with the spirits of the dead, including ancestors, rather than magick involving dead things such as body parts and so forth. 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.

A New Chamber in the Great Pyramid?

Scientists using a new form of imaging involving tiny particles called muons have reported the discovery of a new chamber inside the Great Pyramid of Giza. Originally the group set out to determine if muon imaging could detect two known rooms within the massive structure. The method worked perfectly for those two chambers, but to the surprise of the scientists involved it detected a third, unknown void above the space called the Grand Gallery.

The Great Pyramid of Giza has been probed with the tools of modern particle physics by scientists who say they have discovered a huge, secret space hidden within its ancient walls. It is located above a tall, cathedral-like room known as the Grand Gallery, and this newly found space is comparable in size — about 100 feet long, according to a report in the journal Nature.

That makes it a major structure within this royal tomb, which was built around 2500 B.C. and is considered to be one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World. Yet until now, despite centuries of study, no one knew this space was there. "The romantic interpretation and what everyone wants to hear is that this is a hidden room and the king's body is inside or there's grave goods we didn't know about or we're going to learn more about history ... and none of that is responsible speculation at the moment," cautions Peter Der Manuelian, an Egyptologist at Harvard University who was not part of the research team.

"All we know is that we have a void, we have a cavity, and it's huge, which means possibly intentional and certainly worthy of further exploration," Manuelian says, noting that it's not yet clear whether it's a single chamber or more than one. "In that sense it's obviously frustrating," he says. "On the other hand, as an architectural discovery, something we didn't know about the interior of the Great Pyramid, it's absolutely big news." Indeed, the team that made the find reports that it is the first significant internal structure found within the Great Pyramid since the 19th century.

Archaeologists will have to verify that the new chamber exists, and then see if there is a good way to reach it without damaging the rest of the structure. It would be fascinating to find a cache of undisturbed burial goods in the new chamber, as that would be a discovery rivaling that of Tutankhamun's tomb in 1922. Tutankhamun was a minor Pharaoh who took the throne as a child and died at the age of eighteen, but his tomb was so significant because it was mostly intact and literally stuffed with artifacts from the time of his reign. One can only imagine what sorts of goods might have accompanied the burial of Khufu, the much more significant Pharaoh for whom the Great Pyramid is believed to have been built.

Still, I have to say, it's probably more likely that the new chamber is empty, just like all the others in the Great Pyramid. It's not clear that the place was ever filled with burial goods, or if it was the tomb was emptied long ago. The chambers inside the pyramid may perform some entirely different function that serving as a tomb, and if this new chamber does turn out to be empty, it will lend some credence to those ideas. I'm looking forward to hearing more about this, once archaeologists have worked out a way to find out what might be inside.

My Latest Ritual Template

One of the things I do here in the Twin Cities at my local OTO body is run a Ritual Night workshop class every Tuesday night. It gives me a chance to teach the rituals that I post about here on the blog, and also to experiment with various ideas that sometimes make it into articles (if they're any good) and sometimes don't (if, say, they don't work at all). So this is probably a little underwhelming for my Magick Monday fans after the Path of Initiation series that I just wrapped up, but it is a handy document for anyone looking to construct their own rituals from scratch.

Ritual Night attendees keep asking for all of this information, so I decided to write up this short outline that shows the full structure for ceremonial operations using Aleister Crowley's versions of the Golden Dawn and Thelemic ritual forms. That way, I can just refer them here. I also am putting together a handout with the same information to give out tomorrow night. Note that there are reasons for why each piece goes where it does, and sometimes those reasons are technical enough that they do not need to be fully understood in order to start working with practical magick. In my opinion, waiting until you completely understand everything that you're doing is just one more way to put off the work. You can get good results from these operations long before your comprehension of them is complete, and your understanding should continue to deepen as you work with them.

Practical Magic Was Cursed

Here's an interesting tidbit of Hollywood lore about the 1998 film Practical Magic. In a recent interview published by Vulture, director Griffin Dunne claimed that the film was cursed by a real witch. The film did poorly at the box office when it first came out and critics hated it, but it apparently has developed something of a cult following over the years. You know, just as if somebody threw a curse that waned over time. In the article, Dunne explains how it happened.

There’s something that I’ve never told anyone about before, it’s an interesting story and kind of scary too. I had a witch consultant on the movie. While I was developing it, I was never quite sure I had a real handle on the movie because, quite honestly, witches had no great interest to me. But I loved the book and I liked the setting and when I was working with this witch consultant, it occurred to me that I was making a movie about something I do know a lot about — strong women. I grew up in a house with a strong mother and my grandmother. These were formidable women. And my sister was no slouch.

So I had three generations of formidable women and when I got that into my head, I realized it’s not really about spells and spell books and all that — it’s about a legacy being passed from one generation to another. That helped me understand it, and that understanding came out of these conversations I had with this witch consultant. I thought she was a really intelligent person and I invited her to come to Los Angeles to observe the rehearsals with Sandy and Nicole. I had my producer make her a reservation at a nice hotel, and call her, and the witch goes, “You’re not going to buy me off with a hotel room. I want a percentage of the movie. I’m going to have my own Practical Magic cookbook.” She was paid quite well, and she says, “I want an additional $250,000 dollars.” The producer told her that’s just not possible. And she goes crazy and scares the shit out of the producer.

She says, “I’m going to put a curse on you. I’m putting a curse on this movie, and I’m putting a curse on Griffin.” So the producer comes back to my rehearsal, white as a ghost, and she tells me, “That call did not go well. She’s really really angry.” I had no idea quite what happened, so I get back to my office on the Warner Bros. lot and I listen to my voice-mail. [Drops voice to a growl.] “How dare you sic that shrew on me? You think you can buy me off, well let me tell you something? There is a land of curses!” And then she slips into tongues. It was terrifying. I listened to as much as I could and then I hung up. Within minutes, Warner’s been served with papers. She’s suing Warner Bros.

The movie flopped, Dunne never worked as a director again, and Warner Bros. would go on to settle the suit for an undisclosed sum. So there's really no way to say that the curse didn't work. The witch got everything she wanted. As for the cult status of the film, I've never seen so I have no idea if it's any good. But all curses wane over time, so if the film was good and its quality was at first being obscured by a curse - well, everything would work out pretty much as it has. I do find it bad form, though, to make threats if you're planning on cursing someone.

For one thing, threats render your results unscientific. If your target knows they're cursed they might change their behavior, and that means whatever happens won't necessarily be the result of paranormal action. So it makes your results hard to compare with those of other pure-probability spells that don't involve people. As I see it, a magician who threatens is doubting his or her ability to get the job done with magick alone. Magicians who are confident in their abilities simply curse, say nothing, and then sit back and observe the results.

In the interview, Dunne also mentions that in response to the curse he added the line to the film, “Curses only have power when you believe them.” That's a common New Age trope, but don't buy it for a second. It's true that a curse with no paranormal power, that works only by fear and suggestion rather than probability manipulation, won't work if you don't believe in it. But a real paranormal curse shifts probabilities around a target, so belief doesn't matter at all.

Vampires in Malawi

Vampires are on the loose in the African nation of Malawi. At least, that's what vigilantes who are running around killing these suspected blood-suckers believe. The government of Malawi is attempting to crack down on the vigilantes, since obviously they're just running around killing regular people rather than protecting their nation from the undead.

Vigilante killings started on 16 September when three people suspected of being blood suckers were killed by a mob. Traditional leaders in southern Malawi believe the vampire rumours started across the border in Mozambique where rumours of blood sucking have led to violence this week.

In Mozambique, protesters have targeted police because they believe they are protecting the supposed vampires, leading a northern town's administrator to flee the city. The villagers in these areas believe human blood sucking is a ritual practised by some to become rich. They also believe they are failing to catch the blood suckers because they use magical powers.

If these communities believe in "mysterious magical explanations for things, then people will tend to attribute their difficulty on what they call blood suckers," Dr Chioza Bandawe, a clinical psychologist at the University of Malawi, said. For some that represents "the life of the hope being sucked out of them," he said. But this has been "expressed on innocent people or on people who are different".

So basically, this is the same old witch-hunting hysteria that pops up in way too many parts of the world. The police are protecting these vampires because they are not really vampires, but simply innocent people who are disliked by their neighbors. And this whole thing is way too familiar - a fanciful rumor gets started, and anybody who's different pays the price.

Here's hoping that the government crackdown succeeds, and that this violence can be stopped in its tracks. One thing the world doesn't need is a whole crop of delusional vampire hunters.

The Path of Initiation - Conclusion

This article is Part Twenty of a series. Part One can be found here, Part Two can be found here, Part Three can be found here, Part Four can be found here, Part Five can be found here, Part Six can be found here, Part Seven can be found here, Part Eight can be found here, Part Nine can be found here, Part Ten can be found here, Part Eleven can be found here, Part Twelve can be found here, Part Thirteen can be found here, Part Fourteen can be found here, Part Fifteen can be found here, Part Sixteen can be found here, Part Seventeen can be found here, Part Eighteen can be found here, and Part Nineteen can be found here.

Over the course of the last nineteen articles in this series, I have tried to communicate my understanding of the path of initiation into Western Esotericism as it has worked for me, and as I expect it will work going forward based on my practice and study. In previous series I discussed the practical magical work of the elements, planets, and signs, and that was done for the specific reason that a focus on mysticism over magick seems to be the default approach of many teachers.

This is not to imply that I think practical work is necessarily more important than mysticism. Mystical practices like the path of initiation outlined here should elevate and illuminate your consciousness and also make you a more effective practical magician, while practical magical work should align your life in such a way that it becomes easier and more convenient to do those practices with greater regularity and focus.

So as you can see, engaging in both approaches at the same time results in each strengthening the other. This also suggests, for example, that a person who gets to some point in the path and decides they are "done" with practice, both mystical and practical, is making a big mistake. These practices should be ongoing and you should maintain them throughout your entire life. Much as a Buddhist who does no meditation is not much of a Buddhist, a magician who does no magick is to my way of thinking not much of a magician.

But let me clarify that a bit. I don't necessarily mean that a period of practice focused on mystical work is somehow inferior or lacking. If we define magick as Aleister Crowley did, as "the science and art of causing change in conformity with will," mystical operations are simply magical operations in which the target of your work is yourself - your own physical body, energetic body, and consciousness. There are points along the path where such a focus is highly appropriate.

That's Not How Any Of This Works

"Evil for evil's sake" has to be just about the dumbest human motivation ever proposed. What's even dumber is when religious people insist that "obviously" this is what motivates anyone they disagree with. Like, say, people who make movies - you know, good movies as opposed to the wretched genre of "Christian film." According to Rodney Howard-Browne, a pastor who was involved with other evangelical leaders in a "laying on of hands" prayer ceremony for President Donald Trump, had this to say about - I guess - the entire Hollywood film industry.

“These people are full of the devil. These people can’t even be reasoned with,” Rodney Howard-Browne said in a sermon over the weekend. “They have already given their soul to the devil. Are you with me? These people go through seances, these people drink blood, these people sacrifice children.” In a clip posted online by Right Wing Watch, Howard-Browne added:

“They sacrifice children at the highest levels in Hollywood. They drink blood of young kids. This is a fact. That’s why the next thing to be exposed will be all the pedophilia that is going to come out of Hollywood and come out of Washington, D.C. The human sacrifice and the cannibalism has been going on for years.”

When someone told Howard-Browne that “they don’t do that,” he insisted that “it’s worse than what you think.” Howard-Browne then described the supposed satanic rituals that go on in Hollywood. “Many of the Hollywood actors that you go see on a screen, what you don’t know, they bring a witch, they do a big seance right there on the set and they worship devils and they allow devils to come into them before they take the part of what they’re going to act,” he said. “It’s a fact what I am telling you.”

Let's go down the list. In real occultism, "the devil" doesn't want to buy your soul so obviously you can't sell it. Some California New Agers do seances, so you probably could find a lot of people in the film industry who have at least attended one. But blood-drinking and human sacrifice? Sorry. Those are from horror movies, not real life. They also are pretty pointless for casting actual spells - you know, like the what most occultists really do.