Wednesday, October 27, 2021

Ritual Night Talk for October 26th

Here is the video of Tuesday's Ritual Night Talk, on offerings. The donation link is here.


Offerings are a good technique to employ when working with spirits, and can improve your magical results substantially. In this talk I go over the basics of working with offerings, how to use them in your rituals, and some of the misconceptions about them that I have come across.


Enjoy!


Thursday, October 21, 2021

Libra Elixir Rite for 2021

Here is the video of Tuesday's Libra Elixir Rite hosted on our Leaping Laughter YouTube channel. The donation link is here.


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.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 Libra should likewise work fine.


Enjoy!


Monday, October 18, 2021

Via Solis Libra Elixir Rite - Year Five (Streaming)

Today's Magick Monday post is a full script for the Libra Elixir Rite that we will be performing tomorrow, Tuesday October 19th. Like the last few elixir rites, it will be streamed on the Leaping Laughter YouTube channel. The channel can be found here. I will be starting around 8 PM CDT, but barring any technical difficulties the video will be archived 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. 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.


Friday, October 15, 2021

The Babble Hypothesis

You might think being acknowledged as a leader has to do with your intelligence or even your natural charisma. But a new study suggests otherwise. According to the study, quantity far outpaces quality when it comes to communication that convinces others that you are leadership material. Research has dubbed the findings the "babble hypothesis" of leadership, since it suggests that the key to being regarded as a leader is to talk a lot, regardless of whether anything you say is useful or even relevant.


If you want to become a leader, start yammering. It doesn’t even necessarily matter what you say. New research shows that groups without a leader can find one if somebody starts talking a lot. This phenomenon, described by the “babble hypothesis” of leadership, depends neither on group member intelligence nor personality. Leaders emerge based on the quantity of speaking, not quality.


Researcher Neil G. MacLaren, lead author of the study published in The Leadership Quarterly, believes his team’s work may improve how groups are organized and how individuals within them are trained and evaluated. “It turns out that early attempts to assess leadership quality were found to be highly confounded with a simple quantity: the amount of time that group members spoke during a discussion,” shared MacLaren, who is a research fellow at Binghamton University.


While we tend to think of leaders as people who share important ideas, leadership may boil down to whoever “babbles” the most. Understanding the connection between how much people speak and how they become perceived as leaders is key to growing our knowledge of group dynamics.


Reading this I can't help but think of what goes on in a lot of occult discussion groups online. People who post a lot and get into a lot of online arguments tend to develop followings, while those of us who avoid much of that often find our work ignored. To be clear, I'm not saying that the more vocal folks have nothing useful to share, but rather than they tend to attract people regardless of whether or not they really do.


So that at least bears pointing out - don't assume that because somebody has a big following their work must necessarily be good. It might be, but if they are also the sort of person who gets into it with everybody on social media and is always posting, they might only have a following because of that. As is usually the case with magick, always do your own experiments so can you know firsthand what works best.


Wednesday, October 13, 2021

Ritual Night Talk for October 12th

Here is the video of Tuesday's Ritual Night Talk, on intuitive magick. The donation link is here.


I use the term intuitive magick to refer to magick that is done without formal ceremony and for the most part without tools and implements. While from a probability shift standpoint this sort of magick is usually not as effective as a full ceremonial operation, it is very flexible and can be used as you go about your day. "Psychic powers" as generally understood in popular culture fall into this category, since magick is simply a more disciplined and efficient way of working with those abilities.


Enjoy!


Sunday, October 10, 2021

Promise?

If Jim Bakker doesn't get a million dollars, his show is going to be cancelled in a week. The televangelist recently made this announcement on his program. Given Bakker's history it's hard to say whether or not he's actually telling the truth, but we can hope. Bakker has been a wild-eyed conspiracy monger (and potato soup monger) for years, and his nonsense isn't helping anyone.


In a somewhat frantic tone on The Jim Bakker Show this week, televangelist Jim Bakker begged his followers for money, saying that if he didn’t pay his bills, his show would soon be taken off the air.


“I’ve been told that the network is gonna cancel our broadcast within another week,” Bakker said. “We’ve got to catch up on the bills, and that’s about a million dollars.”


“We’ve lost millions in finances due to the legal battles we’ve fought, losing our ability to receive donations by credit cards for over a year — has left us in a desperate state,” he continued. “But what the Devil has tried to do is silence our voice.”


So to translate - "I'm fiscally irresponsible, but you all have to bail me out because my irresponsibility is the Devil's fault." Anybody who remembers the 1980s shouldn't be even remotely surprised that Bakker is fiscally irresponsible. But I guess it must have been the Devil's fault back then too - or maybe it was witches. Whoever it was, "anybody but me" seems to be his general answer regarding who's responsible for his personal failings.


Some commenters on social media asked where they could send money to make sure Bakker's show was really cancelled - still no word on that. While there isn't necessarily anything wrong with religious programming, Bakker is a complete kook. He's peddled all sorts of conspiracy nonsense on his show, some of which has been covered here on Augoeides.


The misinformation Bakker spreads about all sorts of things, from magical practice to discredited COVID cures, is profoundly wrong and sometimes dangerous. And that doesn't even include his predictable ramblings about how the world is going to end any day now.


Wednesday, October 6, 2021

Ritual Night Talk for October 5th

Here is the video of Tuesday's Ritual Night Talk, on mythic magick. The operant equation link is here, the parting the Red Sea article is here, and the donation link is here.


Mythic magick is the kind of magick you hear about in mythology and religious stories from long ago. Usually those stories are exaggerated, but sometimes they are inspired by historical events. In this talk I discuss some of these stories and attempt to put them in proper context. I also discuss some ideas for increasing the probability shifts produced by your operations that might move results in at least the direction of mythic-level results.


Enjoy!