Why Shadow Work Fails

I have posted multiple articles here on Augoeides discussing errors in the psychoanalytic model that have been revealed by modern neuroscience research. It should come as no surprise that a model of the mind from a century ago would turn out to be incorrect and superceded by newer and better science. Nonetheless, in the magical community a lot of writing about psychology seems to be stuck at some point around the 1920's. This is especially true of Thelema, in which the use of Jungian psychology is practically a cliche. Some examples of this are David Shoemaker's Living Thelema, which devotes a full third of the book to Jungian principles. As a personal example, at the last NOTOCON I attended a presentation on alchemy that sounded fascinating from the description of the talk, but basically turned out to be a walk-through of Jung's Psychology and Alchemy, which I read back in college when working on my psychology degree. It was published in 1944.

One area in which I will give Carl Jung credit is that he took Freud's psychoanalytic model about as far as anyone ever could. The problem is that the Jungian version preserves all of Freud's original errors and tries to build its foundation on top of them. I should point out that prior to neuroscience findings on the nature of memory, I considered myself an enthusiastic Jungian. This thesis that I wrote back in 1991 considers the idea of using chaos theory to model Jungian personality structures in order to generate a functional and predictive model of the mind. The central idea is a logical conclusion that can be drawn from the self-similar nature of Jungian complexes, but falls apart when we realize that the Jungian complex does not exist in any real sense. It is an abstraction that rests on the incorrect notion of conflating the brain's conditioning and cognitive systems.

According to the Jungian model, the mind consists of complexes all the way down. A complex is defined as collection of impressions, memories, ideas, and so forth linked together into a unified structure according to similar feeling-tone. Feeling-tone is a term that describes the subjective experience of an emotion connected with an impression, memory, or idea. Jung considered the Freudian ego as a sort of "master complex" united by the feeling-tone of self-identification. In other words, all of the impressions, memories, and ideas surrounding our sense of self combine to create the sense of self-awareness and subjective consciousness. This implies that complexes gain self-awareness once they reach a critical mass of elements, and that implication is a key aspect of the Jungian model not found in Freud or Adler or any of the other psychoanalytic systems that preceded it. In Jungian psychology, the actions of non-ego (and therefore unconscious) complexes play an important role in producing mental illness symptoms.

What we actually know now from brain research is that the phenomena Jung attributed to the actions of unconscious, autonomous complexes actually arises in the conditioning system, a portion of the brain that is present in virtually all animals, from human beings to the Aplysia sea slug that has only twenty thousand total neurons. This system is in many ways a marvel of evolution in terms of simplicity and efficiency. It runs on a small rule set and implements "conditioning loops" that prompt the repetition of behaviors that have been reinforced and the avoidance of behaviors that have been punished or resulted in negative reinforcement. It essentially builds up a "database" of these behaviors, their results, and the situation in which they occurred. It does not think, it does not reason, and it does not "want" anything. None of its processing remotely resembles conscious cognition, and in fact that processing is done by a completely different part of the brain from that employed by the thinking and feeling systems.

Via Solis Leo Elixir Rite - Year Ten

Today's post is a full script for the Leo Elixir Rite that we will be performing tomorrow, Tuesday August 11th, at the Ritual Workshop. We will be starting around 8 PM.

0. The Temple

The ritual space is set up with an altar table in the center. The 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 Leo. The sign Leo is attributed to "The power of training wild beasts." As I interpret it, this power is related to working with conditioning of whatever sort, yours or that of others, in accordance with your will. 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

Book and Media Store Updates

Earlier this week I took a look at the Books and Media page here on Augoeides and realized I had not updated it in 7-8 years. The last book I had listed was Trump Card, so Ipswich, Written in Blood, and Mastering the Thirty Aires were nowhere to be found. I also had not added anthology contributions or reviews since then either. Obviously I needed to correct that, so I've spent the last few days working on the page. I renamed it "Book and Media Store" since that was the original intent, to serve as a catalog for my books and a central page for all my reviews.

I also went ahead and added a link for the Enochian Master Class, and I am planning on eventually creating more classes and adding them there. To round it all out, I embedded my various YouTube videos at the bottom of the page when you keep scrolling down. All those videos can be found individually here on Augoeides, but the page provides a single location where you can peruse them. If you are a beginning I recommend watching them in order, but if you are more experienced feel free to just watch the ones that interest you.

Check out the newly updated Book and Media Store page today. If you have been thinking about buying a book, now is the perfect time to order and help to support Augoeides.

The Parents Television Council is No More

This article is from back in October, but I smiled when I recently came across it. The Parents Television Council, a Christian organization founded to promote censorship of television programs such as South Park and Family Guy, filed for bankruptcy late last year. And as far as I'm concerned, good riddance to them.

Christian media censorship has always confused me. Having read the Bible multiple times, I can say with some certainty that there's nothing in scripture that prohibits media of any kind. Sometimes people try to argue that "taking the name of the Lord in vain" prohibits exclamations like "Jesus Christ!" or "God damn it!" but that's not at all what it means. It means swearing to do something in the name of God and then not doing it. So integrity, not family-friendly language.

The PTC hated South Park and Family Guy more than either of them could ever hate each other, and, for years, the Christian censorship organization regularly denounced the shows while orchestrating write-in campaigns urging the FCC to take action against them. Unfortunately for the perpetually triggered parents of the PTC, this week, the once-feared organization filed for bankruptcy amidst mounting debt and following a steep, decades-long decline in their political influence. The ancient and common enemy of crass cartoon comedy seems to be defeated — the PTC might even have to sell all those pearls they’ve been clutching.

Conservative political activist Leo Brent Bozell III founded the PTC in 1995 to combat what he perceived to be a decline in “decency” in mass media. Officially, the PTC advocated for “responsible, family-friendly content across all media platforms,” but, in practice, that meant using public shaming and the mass filing of FCC complaints to pressure networks into censoring or pre-empting any material that didn’t align with the PTC’s socially conservative politics. While the PTC was most famous for lambasting networks whenever a performer in a live broadcast would slip in a swear word (or, in Janet Jackson’s case, slip a nip), the group was also accused of being a deeply homophobic organization that fought against the rise of gay representation in television that coincided with their own cultural ascent.

What the fundies never seem to understand is that their religion doesn't prohibit me from doing anything. I don't follow their strict interpretation of Christianity - and as a matter of fact, a lot of Christians don't either. So if we non-fundies want to watch comedy show with adult themes, that should be none of their business. I get that they don't want their kids watching, but you deal with that issue by actually being an attentive parent and knowing what your kids are doing. You don't deal with it by policing everyone else unless you're an asshole.

Christian censorship is especially annoying because it doesn't just target obvious obscenity. It targets any mention of the fact that gay people exist. It targets any mention of pagan religious beliefs. It targets anything remotely related to sexuality, even educational programming. It's basically the media arm of the Poor Oppressed Christian movement, since as far as I can tell they consider themselves oppressed by the mere existence of a lot of things that are just part of the modern world.

These folks really should abandon this idea that the world needs to be sanitized to their idea of "family friendly" and instead pay attention to their own families. They may not believe it, but the rest of us are perfectly content to leave them alone with their regressive beliefs.

More Kim Davis Drama

Here I thought we were all done with Poor Oppressed Christian icon Kim Davis after she officially lost her lawsuit forever. Unfortunately, she has a real talent for getting herself in the news. Davis is being sued again for hiding assets from an inheritance to avoid paying the judgement in her original case.

Combined with attorney fees, Davis owes more than $560,000 under the civil rights judgment. The lawsuit also claims Davis has yet to pay any of the amount ordered. Attorneys for Ermold and Moore say that after Davis’ mother died in 2025, Davis inherited land and transferred the deeds of that property to other family members. The lawsuit claims the transfers were made to conceal her assets.

Attorney Michael J. Gartland said there are three parcels of land in question. Deed certificates list the total value of those parcels at more than $400,000. Gartland cited a fraudulent conveyance statute, which prohibits transferring property to avoid paying existing claims against you. He said the transfers took place before the couple won the judgment.

“Now we only found out about it in December of 2025 — Kim Davis answered sworn statement interrogatory written questions — we asked her to identify all transfers in the last five years that were worth more than two thousand dollars and she wrote none — that turned out to be a false statement because we have copies of the deeds by which she conveyed these properties just eight or nine months earlier,” Gartland said.

These phony "Christians" are absolutely shameless. Isn't lying supposed to be a sin or something? I don't happen to follow her religion, but I'll always call out a hypocrite. If she had any integrity she would have answered that question honestly and faced the consequences. But these folks are literally as self-serving as everyone else, if not moreso in the current political climate.

These people need to face accountability across the board. Their religion doesn't grant them special rights, at least according to the United States Constitution. Whenever they try to force their beliefs on others, they should be sanctioned to the full extent of the law.

So Close, But Still So Far

Exotericism is my term for magick demystified. At some point here I am going to be doing some writing on that topic over on substack and adapting some of the material here from Augoeides for a different audience. That audience is made up of people who work with "manifesting" and other New Age techniques that have a lot in common with magical practice. In fact, I would say that they basically are the same thing as what we magicians do, just along more intuitive lines and with less formal structure.

I sometimes describe formally structured magick as a martial art for the mind and by extension psychic abilities. The advantage of a formal structure is that it lends itself to scientific investigation by empirical means, at least up to a point. It is also far more optimized than general intuitive fixing of thoughts. As a practitioner for many years, I am fully capable of shifting probabilities just by fixing a thought on my intent for about 20-30 seconds. While I see measurable results using that method, the probability shifts I can throw are a lot bigger with formal rituals.

I recently came across this video of one of these manifesting teachers talking about Aleister Crowley's Magick: Book Four in the context of the general New Age manifesting model. He gets some of the basic points right, but misses several key things that are essential to performing truly powerful magick. In fact, magical practice offers a remedy for the exact problem that he identifies, and this is a remedy that I know works from personal experience. However, because of some of his initial assumptions, he just does not see it.

New Age manifesting is mostly based on "New Thought," an incorrect model of the universe that presupposes the universe is actually mental and your thoughts deterministically produce your experiences. This idea shows up in Napoleon Hill's Think and Grow Rich, Christian Science, The Kybalion, Norman Vincent Peale's The Power of Positive Thinking, and most recently Rhonda Byrne's The Secret. The problem is that there are all sorts of goofy ramifications of this model that do not bear out in physical reality.

Via Solis Cancer Elixir Rite - Year Ten

Today's post is a full script for the Cancer Elixir Rite that we will be performing tomorrow, Tuesday July 21st, at the Ritual Workshop. Doors will open at 7:30 with the ritual to start around 8 PM.

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 Cancer. The sign Cancer is attributed to "The power of casting enchantments." As I interpret it, this is related to the ability to magnetize or draw things into your life in accordance with your will. So those 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 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.

Christian Nationalism a Theological Error

That was the determination made by the latest General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church in the United States. It's about time mainstream Christians started saying this out loud. There is literally no way to reconcile the Christian Nationalist project with the actual teachings attributed to Jesus Christ. I could go through a whole bunch of Bible citations to support that point, but let's just say I wholeheartedly agree with this determination.

Commissioners to the 227th General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) voted overwhelmingly to declare White Christian nationalism and similar ideologies “a theological error” incompatible with the teachings of Jesus Christ, advancing a proposed constitutional amendment that would add that language to the denomination’s Book of Order.

Erica Nelson speaks on behalf of the Advisory Committee on Social Witness Policy The Advisory Committee on Social Witness Policy (ACSWP). Photo by Jonathan Watson. The assembly also approved a denomination-wide policy statement condemning White Christian nationalism, directed church leaders to expand public opposition to the movement through ecumenical partnerships and public witness, and declined to commemorate Presbyterians’ role in the American Revolution, citing concerns that such a celebration could elevate nationalism over the church’s gospel witness.

By a vote of 458-18, commissioners approved RUS-01, which asks the denomination’s 164 presbyteries to ratify new Book of Order language affirming the church’s commitment to justice, peace, mercy and human dignity while rejecting “any ideology that seeks to establish Christianity as a privileged or dominant force through the power of the state, or that conflates religious identity with national, racial, or ethnic supremacy.”

The apparent lack of faith shown by Christian Nationalists is utterly bizarre to me. If you honestly and sincerely believe that everybody who disagrees with you will be tortured for all eternity, why do you care about making their brief time on Earth harder by weaponizing the legal system against them? The easiest answer I can think of is that maybe they don't have faith at all, so they're doing everything they can to punish their supposed enemies here and now.