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.

Inept Flat-Earthers Fail Spectacularly

This is not really a paranormal or religious story, but since it has to do with the conspiracy theory that the Earth really is flat and this fact is being covered up by powerful forces, it came across my Augoeides radar. It also is pretty darn funny, which is always a good way to close out the year. Recently a flat-earther couple in Italy decided that it would be a good idea to sail to the edge of the world. Presumably without falling off.

Many flat-earthers believe that the edge of the world is Antarctica and that what every reasonable person calls Antarctic ice sheets are really a giant ice wall keeping everything from falling off the edge. At one point, I covered a proposed flat-earth reality tv show that would send people across Antarctica looking for the non-existent edge - which would be absolutely hilarious to watch.

But these folks apparently believed that the edge was near Sicily, which is kind of like me living in Minnesota and posting that the Earth is flat and the edge is "somewhere over in Wisconsin." What convinced them of this ridiculous idea is completely beyond me.

Despite Italy's lockdown, a couple from Venice recently set out to prove Earth's flatness once and for all by sailing to the edge of the world, which they believed to be somewhere near Sicily. It's amazing how people who live locally never visit famous tourist attractions, like the leaning tower of Piza or the edge of the Earth where the sea meets the infinite void.

"The two left the Veneto during the lockdown for Lampedusa, violating all restrictions," Salvatore Zichichi of the Maritime Health Office of the Ministry of Health told Italian newspaper La Stampa. "In Termini Imerese they sold their car and bought a boat. For them, Lampedusa [an island of the Italian Pelagie Islands in the Mediterranean Sea] was the end of the Earth."

The trip, always destined to end in disappointment, hit some snags immediately. Firstly, if you're planning on taking a trip to the very edge of the world, this year, when most of the world has been ordered by law to stay at home, perhaps wasn't the best one to choose.

Using a compass (a navigation system that relies on the principle that the Earth is not a pancake), the couple set off in their boat and attempted to navigate their way through the Pelagie Islands to reach Lampedusa, La Republica reports. You probably won't be surprised to learn that a couple that sold their car in order to reach the end of the world perhaps hadn't thought things through, however, and they soon found themselves lost, tired, and washed up on the island of Ustica instead.

Since the global pandemic is still on, the couple was placed in quarantine by health officials, but in their determination to find the edge they escaped and sailed away once more, possibly figuring the police's authority ends where the rim meets the vacuum of space. They were caught three hours later.

So no, they didn't find the edge. This shouldn't be even a little surprising as an enormous amount of global trade is conducted between nations on the Mediterranean Sea and places that are across oceans well beyond Sicily. How are all those ships supposed to cross the edge? Teleporters? And that doesn't even take into account planes. Pilots would surely at least see the edge, as the airspace over Europe and the Mediterranean is pretty busy.

But I suppose if the ridiculous amount of evidence proving that the world is round won't convince these folks, why shouldn't they think it would be near Sicily? If you're going to buy into a delusion, you might as well go all the way. "Hey, wanna know something? The Earth is flat. I can prove it, because the edge is in my closet. Take a look, it's right there. Don't fall off!"

Ritual Night Talk for December 29th

Here is the video of last night's Ritual Night Talk. This is my final Ritual Night Talk for 2020, closing out this unusual and difficult year. The donation link is here.

I titled this talk "Odds and Ends" because it covers bits and pieces of magical practice and a couple of specific questions on topics that I have previously addressed. Hopefully my comments on those topics are not too repetitive and offer some additional insights.

Enjoy!