Category Archives: Supernatural

Including references to the Supernatural, Praeternatural, Paranormal, Occult, and magick generally.

October 7, 2014 · 10:01 am

How To Incorporate Tarot with Past-Life Therapy

Tarot

You have the power to discover the secrets of your past-lives – using the Tarot! The following method is not a Tarot spread per se, but a way of using Tarot imagery in conjunction with one’s clairvoyant and intuitive abilities. To wit:

The whole point of past-life therapy – discovering one’s previous incarnations, etc – is not to aggrandise oneself by deluding oneself that one was someone really important; nor is it to go on an astral junket; instead it is to discover one’s “Karma,” and to work out how it is relevant to one’s current incarnation.

Now in the Tarot, Karmic-forces are represented by the twenty-two tarot trumps. It therefore stands to reason that they key to discovering your own Karma, and by implication your past-lives, lies within at least one of those twenty-two cards.

I have therefore devised a method by which this can be put into practice, which uses a pendulum as well as the cards. Take your favourite Tarot deck, and extract the Trumps therefrom, laying them out before you with The Fool at the very top, then trumps 1 to 7 in one row, 8 to 14 in the next, and 15 to 21 in the third.

Now, prepare as you would for a divination by banishing all unwanted influences and opening up psychically. Take your pendulum, and spend some time establishing your “Yes” and “No” signals. Now ask your pendulum the following questions:

“I intend to find out which tarot card holds the key to knowledge of my past lives. Can I do this?”
“May I do this?”
“Should I do this?”

If you get at least one “No,” then unfortunately the time is not yet right for you to be discovering your past-lives, so stop there.

If, however, you get three “Yes” signals, continue by asking:

“Which tarot card holds the key to my knowledge of my past lives? Is it The Fool?” (WAIT FOR SIGNAL)
“Is it The Magician?” (WAIT FOR SIGNAL)
“Is it The High Priestess?” Etc etc etc

I.e. go through the trumps one by one. Once you get your first “Yes,” do not just stop but ask “Are any other cards relevant as well?” If you get a “Yes,” continue checking the other tarot trumps, otherwise finish there.

If you do end up with more than one Tarot trump, use the pendulum to go through them sorting them into order of importance.

In all cases one should finish by expressing gratitude for the help you have received, and by closing down psychically.

Now that you have at least one Tarot trump, you can discover exactly how this relates to your Karma by clairvoyance, e.g. by treating it as an astral doorway and then going through it, as one would a tattva-card: or by using your knowledge of the card’s qabalistic / astrological / etc symbolic associations, you can devise an appropriate magical ceremony to make contact with a corresponding spirit guide who can explain what it all means in detail.

When I first tried this method on myself, I came up with one particular tarot trump which, as it turned out, happened to represent a good summary of the successes in my life. This I took as meaning that they were successful because I was making use of my Karmic strengths, which helped me make sense of a lot of things. Different people may come up with different tarot trumps by this method – YMMV.

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Tagged as Past Life Regression, Pendulum, Tarot

September 14, 2014 · 12:03 pm

The Difference Between Lucid Dreaming and Sleep Paralysis Explained

On Twitter there appear to be a large number of people who do not know the difference between Lucid Dreaming and Sleep Paralysis – so much so, that when they experience the latter they think it is the former, and consequently do not want ever to attempt to lucid dream again. Now I want you to understand the following:

LUCID DREAMING AND SLEEP PARALYSIS COULD NOT BE MORE DIFFERENT!

Lucid Dreaming is when you are asleep, dreaming, and aware that you are dreaming whilst doing so.

Sleep paralysis is a natural phenomenon which prevents your physical body responding automatically to the thoughts in your mind when you sleep. Everyone experiences this when they go to sleep and it is perfectly natural – unless you happen to have a sleep disorder like somnambulism (sleep walking). What seems to confuse people on social media is that sometimes it is possible to wake up mentally, and yet find that they are still experiencing Sleep Paralysis, which is what unnerves them. Occultists have claimed in the past that it was due to the astral body not being completely aligned with the physical body. However, it is not the same as Lucid Dreaming, because you are neither Asleep at that point, nor indeed Dreaming.

Incidentally, there is a very simple and easy way to overcome Sleep paralysis, and that is to just relax completely and wait for it to wear off of its own accord. I realised this as a small child, so the idea that Sleep Paralysis was anything of which to be frightened has never occurred to me.

How To Create Your Own Tarot Deck

Recently I have been taking time to colour the BOTA Tarot deck – which is famously left black & white for students to fill in as their appreciation of the esoteric significance of colour develops. However, instead of trying to colour in the actual cards, I thought it would be far easier for me – in terms of detail and control of colour – if I scanned them, printed them out A4 size, and then painted them. I used acrylic paints, simply because that is what I had to hand.

Before…

It soon occurred to me, would I be able to convert these pictures I was making back into tarot cards? Or in other words, create my own deck based on the BOTA cards. After doing some research I found that the answer was theoretically yes – and surprisingly easier than one might think. But first a caveat. The BOTA deck, I am guessing, is still in copyright, so obviously one cannot create one’s own commercial deck this way. It would have to be a deck for private use only. If I have come up with 100% original designs, that would have been a different situation entirely. However, the fact of the matter is that there are companies – on the internet, even – that if you provide them with a full set of PNG files according to their specifications, they will print them and turn them into a Tarot deck on your behalf. Usually they do this as part of a wider scheme of creating customised playing card decks generally. Apparently quite a few professional Tarot readers do have their own personalised Tarot decks printed up to impress their clients when giving readings. Typical size for each image is 3″*5″ @ 300dpi, or 900*1500 pixels. Note that 1/8th of an inch is routinely shaved off each edge as the bleed area, leaving the printed product 2.75″ * 4.75″, which appears to be an industry standard. Clearly, a graphics program more sophisticated than MS Paint is required! I personally have an old version of Photoshop. I believe there is a freeware program called “GIMP,” although I didn’t particularly like it when I gave it a try. The typical cost for such a deck starts from about $15 for one deck – although if you want your tarot deck to come in a box, you are going to have to pay considerably more, e.g. $26. By way of comparison, the Rider Waite is currently retailing on Amazon for $11, the Crowley Thoth for $21 and Tarot of Marseille for around $16 (all boxed). The only way you would be able to compete with these big boys if you actually went and tried to come up with a proper commercial deck and market it as such. To compete with the Rider Waite, for example, you would only begin to break even by selling out a run of at least 250 decks. However this does not take into account either costs run up in the creation of the deck, or actual profit (is there such a thing???), which if you are going to be working on a professional basis will be considerable. Harry Wendrich, creator of the Golden Dawn Temple Tarot, once told me that he simply employed local people to sit for him as models for the characters he depicted in his cards, which is an excellent strategy for a professional artist, although some of them look particularly shady.

See: MakePlayingCards.com
Custom Tarot Card Decks

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July 21, 2014 · 11:14 am

“What if after I successfully did astral projection, and I can’t return to my body back? Am I considered dead?”

Astral Projection

This is a query that has been raised by more than one newcomer to astral projection, so I thought I would address it in a blog post. The answer is surprisingly optimistic:

As long as nothing physically happens to your body whilst you are “out,” this is guaranteed never to happen!

The fact is that there is no evidence whatsoever that getting trapped outside your physical body whilst astrally projecting has ever occurred, nor that anyone has died as a result thereof. And before you say, “well there wouldn’t be,” there isn’t any evidence of known astral projectors mysteriously dying for no apparent reason either, which is what you would expect if this phenomena occurred.

The only conceivable way that you could get trapped outside your body whilst astrally projecting, is if your physical body died in the meanwhile. And then, being trapped outside your body is the least of your problems!

So in other words, the simplest way to avoid this is the same way you would avoid dying generally – live a healthy lifestyle, and avoid doing anything unhealthy or dangerous.

Hug A Freemason Day

Marie Onette

Marie Onette, Alex’ Director of Communications, writes:

Hi, Alex has gone off to London and left me in charge of his Wizard’s tower for the day. After clearing up from last night’s magical ritual, and taking all the empties down to the bottle-bank, that has left me with enough time to compose today’s blog-post: Hug A Freemason Day.

Yes! Freemasonry is an important part of the Western Mystery Tradition. In a perfect world, both masons and non-masons have much to contribute to magick and should be able to meet together without divisions caused by sectarian dogma! If you do not like having Masons in your temple, that makes you a racist!

“90% of the quotes about me on the internet are just made up.” – the Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr.

Here are some reasons why you should hug a Freemason:

Inside A Magical Lodge by John Michael Greer

Magical temples run smoother with when Masonic-style organisation is used. The best illustration of this is Inside a Magical Lodge by John Michael Greer.
Two of the most influential magical systems – the Golden Dawn and the Elus Cohens – were originally founded by Masons using the lodge structure. In fact the Masonic-style was considered the de rigeur model upon which to found any kind of secret society back in the 18th / 19th centuries, whether esoteric or not.
Whilst regular Freemasonry may consist of a bunch of old men who would not recognise anything esoteric even if it danced naked in front of them shouting “Hi, I’m something esoteric!” – not all Freemasonry is regular. For example, there is Memphis Misraim, Pansophic Freemasonry, and Co-Masonry. The latter uses a ritual written by Annie Beasant which contains enough mystical inner workings to rival those of the rituals of the Golden Dawn! Incidentally, it is within Alex’ personal knowledge – or so he was telling me between glasses of Merlot last night – that there used to be at least two Lodges warranted by UGLE that actually worked this Beasant-ritual in Lodge… until UGLE found out what they were up to, and banned them from practising it.

In relation to the last point, there have been criticisms voiced by certain people on the internet that Freemasonry is not by its nature esoteric. However this displays great Anglocentric bigotry. On the continent of Europe, it is considered quite usual within regular Freemasonry for each initiate to present a short paper in Lodge demonstrating what they have learnt whilst in that degree – they cannot advance to the next degree without doing so. For example: if an English Mason wanted to join the CBCS in Belgium (which a lot of them have done, as it happens), he would expect to have to write and present a paper on the subject of what spiritual integration means to him, before ever hoping to progress to the highest degree. In this way the continental CBCS manages to preserve some of the proto-Martinist ideals of its founder, Jean-Baptiste Willermoz.

Indeed, Alex has heard from his contacts within the illuminati that many continental Masons are surprised that this does not happen in England!

For those who are concerned about admitting into their order the wrong sort of Mason – otherwise known as the “Joiner” or “Knife-and-Fork-Mason” – here is a really simple test to set candidates for initiation. Ask them the magic question: “How many Masonic Units do you belong to?”

If he answers any number, not realising it’s a trick question, get rid of him straightaway.

If, however, he says something like: “I don’t belong to any ‘Masonic Units,’ they’re all valid orders in their own right,” then he is worthy of further consideration. The key to understanding this is that “Masonic Unit” is a ghastly term used by owners of masonic venues who treat the orders that meet there as nothing more than commodities. Doesn’t matter if your order is a noble brotherhood with a long and honourable tradition, if you hire a masonic hall and then dine afterwards, you are just a “Masonic Unit” in their eyes. Most worrying though is the number of Freemasons who use the term themselves without any sense of irony!

So go out today and hug a Freemason! They are a friendly bunch, both the male and the female kind, and it’s surprisingly easy to join them! So easy, in fact, that only a complete idiot who gets into silly arguments with other people easily would fail to find a home there!

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June 26, 2014 · 3:07 pm

Invoke the Highest First

Often I find that, when I am facing a new challenge, perhaps one that I find daunting for some reason, the simplest solution is to apply basic principles. This is especially true in magick. In the Golden Dawn the most important rule of thumb is referred to as “invoke the highest first,” which is a reference to one of the clauses of the Adeptus Minor obligation: “I furthermore solemnly pledge myself never to work at any important symbol without first invocating the highest Divine Names connected therewith.”

The Highest First Principle ensures that no real magick – certainly no real GD magick – can be performed without first aligning one’s will and intentions to God. Even if the spirit that is ultimately low-down on the hierarchy of such things – a supposed “goetic” (with a small “g”) spirit, the Highest First principle – invoking first the God-name qabalistically associated with such a demon – ensures that such an operation still fits in elegantly with the transcendentalist paradigm.

The Key of Solomon

The Lesser Key of Solomon

This incidentally is also how to tell, in grimoire magick, the difference in quality between grimoires. The Keys of Solomon both Lesser and Greater (for example) are both clear on the point that spirits are to be commanded only by first making invocations to the Almighty.

But I digress. In my experience (and this is what I mean by simple solutions) the mere act of aspiring to the Highest First is often enough to cure you of what ails you, even without having to go through the whole rigmarole of going through a full ceremonial magickal operation. For example, the Middle Pillar Ritual – especially when performed on the astral, where the currents of energy can be experienced immediately and directly. Invoking the Highest First is really an essential principle of spiritual and psychic integration in its own right.

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June 11, 2014 · 12:28 pm

It’s Friday 13th, a Full Moon AND Mercury is Retrograde. What could possibly go wrong?

Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen, born 1986, are celebrating their 28th birthdays on Friday 13th 2014. Oops 😦

First the good news. “Friday the 13th” as a superstition is actually a load of spurious nonsense. There are no historical indicators that people thought it superstitious before the late 19th century, and it only really took off just over a hundred years ago. The whole fuss of the Templars being arrested on Friday the 13th? A modern ret-con!

Insurance companies have found that often, Friday 13th is less unlucky than other days of the year – because people are going out of their way to be careful. So whilst 13 is allegedly an unlucky number generally speaking, I have argued on this blog that in Qabalistic terms, it is in fact quite the opposite.

That being said, however, I notice a lot of talk on social media that Friday 13th June 2014 (a date alleged to associated with bad luck) is occurring during a Mercury Retrograde (also alleged to be associated with bad luck) and on the same day as the Full Moon (associated with Witches etc). Speaking as an astrologer, I would say that the world is not going to end that day. However, the planets on that day do feature some “interesting” alignments (as in the old Chinese curse, “May you live interesting times.”)

Chart for 12 noon on Friday 13th June 2014, London, UK.

In the above chart, which shows the horoscope for Friday 13th June 2014, all of the red-lines denote relationships which are potentially problematic. There are three main sets to consider here:

The Sun + Mercury retrograde vs Moon opposition;
The Saturn retrograde vs Venus opposition; and
The Mars / Pluto / Uranus “T-formation.”

As regards the first: a retrograde is where the energies of a planet are directed inward rather than outward. Mercury, however, being a faster-moving planet, is never retrograde for too long (it is actually turning direct on 1st July). Hence, the period of a Mercury retrograde is an excellent time for planning what schemes you will commence next month – so long as you make sure you don’t actually commence them until next month.

Unfortunately, retrograde Mercury, the planet of communication breakdowns, is opposed by the Moon, the planet of how well we get on with other people. This combination presages arguments, quarrelling, misunderstandings, social awkwardness, and major faux pas! This will be especially the case in relation to self-esteem issues (i.e. the Sun’s influence).

As regards the second: miserable and overly-cautious Saturn is putting a serious damper on favourably placed Venus in Taurus. Marital upsets or frustration of marriage plans ahoy!

As for the T-formation, irritable and impulsive Mars is likely to fly off the handle at Uranus being an awkward sod. Meanwhile, devious Pluto is offended by Mars’ bolshiness and is secretly stirring up Uranus to be even more contrary – thus exacerbating the situation! This may sound like bad news: however, one may console oneself by noting that these three are relatively slow-moving planets, which means that this description applies to the times generally i.e. this Friday may be shit, but it will be no more shit in this regard than what has been occurring recently.

BUT… do you need to be worried about any of this?

Generally speaking, no – unless it happens to be your birthday that day. For most people, the energies of that day will pass with that day. Best to be overly cautious, like the drivers who manage to cause less accidents when it’s Friday the 13th! However, for those whose birthday is the 13th June, there is a theory in astrology that the position of the planets at the exact moment that the Sun returns to its position in one’s natal chart point out what you have to expect in the coming year. Thus the Moon/mercury, Saturn/Venus oppositions and the T-formation will conspire to leave a long shadow over the forthcoming twelve months.

Check out Alex’ books on Amazon!

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Tagged as Ashley Olsen, astrology, Esbat, Friday the 13th, full moon, Mary Kate Olsen, Mercury retrograde, Olsen Twins, satanic orgy, Witches

June 5, 2014 · 2:07 pm

What is your strangest Glastonbury story?

St Michael’s Tower, Glastonbury Tor

You have the opportunity to help me out with a writing project, and it’s all to do with Glastonbury in Somerset, England. I am currently working on a hypothesis: that Glastonbury is a lot weirder (and consequently more wonderful) than most people appreciate – and by that I mean spiritual people as well.

Sure, everyone knows about Bligh-Bond, the Glastonbury Zodiac, Dion Fortune and all the rest: but what I’m mostly interested in is the really out-there stuff that seldom gets talked about. For example, the incidents which surprise even those that thought they had seen everything – or which just struck you as highly unusual at the time.

“Happy ending” stories and anecdotes most especially welcome! Please reply in the comment section below, or use the form on the Contact Alex page to message me privately.

Thanks!

Dark Dungeons

News this week that some guy has made a movie about kids playing Dungeons & Dragons, and being led into the occult. And you know what’s most appalling about it? The bloke has totally plagiarized my life-story without paying me a single cent for it!

Yes, some thirty years ago now, when I was a young lad at school, I went along to a lunch-time meeting of the Christian Union, in which a guest speaker, some priest or other, made the extraordinary claim that Dungeons & Dragons leads to devil worship. His argument was that D&D leads on to Ouija boards, then Ouija boards onto the occult in general, and thence onto Faustian pacts with the Prince of Darkness himself.

After leaving that meeting, I resolved to start playing Dungeons & Dragons as soon as possible.

A couple of years later, on my own initiative, I got into “Call of Cthulhu,” so I could be the gamesmaster (actually the “Keeper”) for a change. As it happens, this was how I really got into the occult, because it was through two Cthulhu supplements – Cthulhu By Gaslight and Green and Pleasant Land – that I first found detailed information about the Golden Dawn and Aleister Crowley.

I find it incredibly ironic that Kenneth Grant so admirably fitted the role of a mad cultist from Call of Cthulhu RPG. One only has to attempt to read “Nightside of Eden” to realise that Grant must have seriously failed his SAN roll on several occasions. Mind you, I seem to remember that The Book of the Sacred Magic of Abramelin the Mage – which I have read – was rated as a -1D3 SAN / +3% Mythos tome, so presumably even I haven’t escaped unscathed. (Grant’s books themselves are probably more potent).

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Tagged as Abramelin, Call of Cthulhu, Dungeons & Dragons, Kenneth Grant

May 21, 2014 · 11:34 am

What the Stars Have In Store for the Golden Dawn: “I Told You So” edition

Back at the beginning of the year I posted my predictions for the Golden Dawn based on transits made with a rectified birth chart I had made for it.

I noted:

Jupiter meanwhile, being square to the GD’s natal Uranus (exact on 25th December 2013 and 13th May 2014), indicates people feeling irritable and wanting to break free of past restrictions, and even causing rebellion.

(Emphasis added)

Now in retrospect we have the following scandals occurring on or around 13th May 2014:

GRIFFIN PURGES DEAD “BEST FRIEND” FROM WEB (13th May 2014)
NICK FARRELL THROWS TOYS OUT OF PRAM AFTER SOMA SURRENDERS TO GRIFFIN SOCK (14th May 2014)
GERMAN TEMPLE REVOLTS FROM DAVID GRIFFIN’S RULE (15th May 2014)
DAVID GRIFFIN’S DUBLIN TEMPLE PROTECTS CHILD PORNOGRAPHY COLLECTOR (20th May 2014)

Just remember kids! I also predicted fun and games for June 2014 (Jupiter square natal Mars); August 2014 (Jupiter square Midheaven); and November 2014 (Saturn opposite natal Neptune). You have been warned!

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Tagged as David Griffin, Golden Dawn, Nick Farrell, Rosicrucian Order of Alpha et Omega