Namaste 🙂
People of India, rejoice! Whereas before you had to buy your Amazon Kindle books from the US Version of the site, you now have the opportunity to do so from your own version, www.amazon.in
My books can be found by clicking this link.
Om Tat Sat
🙂
Filed under Books
Simon Singh claims he will give £10k to charity if any newspaper astrologer can acquit him / herself in his rigorous tests… but he doesn’t say what the astrologer has to donate if the astrologer doesn’t make it.
Is this Simon Singh guy a raving loony or what? Come on guys,this is a quick way to raise ten big ones for charity, at no cost to yourselves!
And before you say “what about my reputation?” – hey, I’d do it, I’ve done silly stuff for Comic Relief before, so I wouldn’t be losing anything that I haven’t lost already. 😉
Filed under Comment, Supernatural
© Alex Sumner 2013
This post has come about due to a Facebook conversation about what Divination I tend to do before Magick. Actually I found this so inspiring that instead of just another FB reply I thought i would devote a whole blog post to the subject.
My favourite method remains the one I outlined in the blog-post How to Use Horary Astrology With Tarot, i.e. cast a Horary figure for the question and to use that to cross-check a Tarot divination for the same question. My Tarot spread of preference is a 15 card spread which I believe was created by Robert Wang in connection with the Golden Dawn Tarot
Recently, however, I have been trying to get to grips with infamous Opening of the Key method, as outlined in the original Golden Dawn papers. I say infamous because it appears at first sight to be extremely long. Wang himself said it “could take hours for a complete reading,” which corresponds pretty much with my own early experiments with the method. Nick Farrell, in the FB conversation to which I referred above was even more vociferous, saying “it takes days” and “I still do not know what Westcott was smoking…”
Westcott might have been smoking anything he liked – I was always under the impression that Mathers wrote that particular manuscript!
Anyway, the actual authorship of the method is a side-issue. People with whom I have spoken privately consistently concur with the above sentiments, by complaining about its overlong nature. However, I think I have found a solution! The breakthrough, for me, was realising that it is only overlong if it is done by the book in the style of the book.
Here instead is my suggestion. When you come to a card – or in the pairing off part which ends each section, a pair of cards – think up a single word which sums its meaning. At most, two or three words to make it fit into context, but preferably aiming for a single word wherever possible. Then connect them so they make a coherent narrative – that is the operation done.
Done this way, it reduces the duration of the Opening of the Key from a matter of hours – or, if you are Nick Farrell, days 😉 – to a far more reasonable half an hour at most. What is more, this is a perfectly valid cartomantic practice: at least, that is the impression I get from the accounts of Tarot readers who have never been exposed to Golden Dawn methods.
Where Mathers / Westcott went wrong was that they took each card to be a complete sentence or couple of sentences – instead of words within a sentence. By changing ones point of view regarding the style of card-interpretation to something like I suggest, one can still use the actual Opening of the Key method but in a way which is ultimately more satisfying.
Filed under Supernatural
Re-blogged from Aaron Leitch’s site, on the occasion of the publication of Commentaries on the Golden Dawn Flying Rolls.
Greetings Faithful Readers!
Nick Farrell recently posted a blog about the upcoming Commentaries on the Golden Dawn Flying Rolls anthology. He called the post Flying Rolls Book Reveals Golden Dawn Community Secret. The big secret he believes has been revealed can be summed up in this quote from the post:
Wading through [the list of contributors to the anthology] and the wide range of Golden Dawn groups that these people belong you start to realise that the level of cooperation that exists between these different orders must be considerably higher than many would have you believe.
If you’ve been around the various communities of the Western Mystery Tradition for the last 20 years, then you likely know what Nick is talking about. I am sad to say that all too many people outside of the Golden Dawn have the impression that our Tradition is overflowing with arrogant jerks who…
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I have a great Money-making secret, which just about no other magician is willing to admit either in public – or to themselves. Want to know what it is? I’ve written it in plain language down towards the bottom of this very article. So read on and you’ll eventually get to it. Anyway: it’s that time of year again – just after the beginning of the financial year, and just before tax-freedom day, when the spiritual forces of the universe draw the minds of various magicians to talking about money. (See, e.g. here and here). Specifically – can one use magick to make money? And: should one use magick to make money?
As regards the former: I have already mentioned some of my experiments in this regard, in a piece I wrote several years ago for the Journal of the Western Mystery Tradition, entitled “Money Spe££s – An Audit.” The gist of the article is basically that the first time I cast a really successful money spell was also the first time I made a conscious effort to improve my skills as a magician. Hence, if the story has a moral, it is that one should concentrate on self-improvement first, and thaumaturgic ability arises as a side-effect.
In the ten years that have passed since I wrote that, I have given further consideration to the whole notion of using magick to make money. It so happened that I was having a good-natured discussion with fellow members of the Illuminati in a pub about whether it was possible to use our combined magickal skills to collectively win the Lottery. Or more to the point, the other people at the table were having a discussion, whilst I was trying to eat my dinner.
The discussion was getting quite heated between one person who insisted that we try it, and just about all the rest who were saying “No, it’s not possible,” etc. I finally finished off my food. “I have made a study of people who have cast successful money spells,” I said.
The Lottery-enthusiast was arguing so enthusiastically that it was several seconds before someone realised that I had said something interesting. “Go on, Alex! What is the result of your study?” they said.
“Well,” I said, as everyone became silent, “I’ve collected examples of people who have successfully used magic to make money. They include:
“In short: none of these people invoked Money itself, they invoked a Money-making opportunity. The point being that when the said Money-making opportunity appeared seemingly miraculously in their lives, they converted it into actual money in a conventional manner, to wit: hard work. This, incidentally, is why there are so many ‘arty’ people in the Occult or people with artistic flair – painters, writers, musicians, self-employed professionals, and so forth – because magick is all about drawing upon ones inner creativity.
“The one thing I have never heard of is people using magick to win the lottery. Therefore, if we were to use our magick skills to think up a money-making scheme, I’m certain that we would actually succeed! Whether we would be able to put the scheme into practice, however, would be another matter entirely. So my best advice would be to concentrate on the opportunity first, and forget the Lottery altogether.”
“But playing the Lottery is a money-making opportunity!” the gambling addict cried. At this point the argument erupted again. I immediately got the impression that no further good would come from trying to press my point, so I just let them get on with it.
“Sometimes a bowel movement is just a bowel movement.”
Now the question of “Should one try to use magick to make money?” is a more delicate subject. My personal opinion is that, subject to the caveats I outline above, if you get the opportunity (heh!) then go for it. However the real problem about attempting to use magick to make money – and this is the big secret to which I alluded at the top of this article – is that when you do so you are confronting all the neuroses in your psyche relating to the Anal Stage of your psychosexual development.
I shit ye not! To coin a phrase. (See what I did there? )
Seriously: Sigmund Freud once claimed that when we dream of gold, we are actually unconsciously thinking of our own feces. This may sound revolting, but think about it. How many times have you thought of money as somehow “dirty?” How many times have you come across other people who think that way? How many times have either you or someone else referred to the process of getting a job and working for a living as “it’s a dirty job, but someone’s got to do it?” The “dirt” you associate with money is the “dirty” feeling you unconsciously associate with the recent contents of your lower intestine.
Thus, as a magician you have to face the fact that your revulsion or acceptance of using magic to make money is basically an extension of your anxieties about childhood toilet training. If you invent reasons in your own mind why it is a bad thing, then you are anally-fixated! If you shamelessly attempt to make money to the exclusion of everything else, then you ought to be sending your mother flowers and chocolates for all the extra washing of your underwear she had to do when you were younger.
Before you say – that’s just Freud, he’s been discredited – I was reading Jodorowsky the other day, and he had found that by taking the gold = feces metaphor seriously he had found success for people who came to him complaining of financial difficulties. A healthy attitude to money is as important as a healthy digestive system. If we aspire to hoard money but not spend it, then we are constipated. If we throw money away needlessly, we have diarrhoea. If however we aspire to keep money circulating in regular movements, not by saving but by spending it wisely, then it can become the manure which fertilises our growth as individuals.
So, magicians – stop worrying about money, and get your shit together! 😉
For those who feel the need to get rid of all the crap from your life, I, Alex Sumner, volunteer to take all the shit that you may be pleased to hand out! Simply donate to the Alex Sumner Appreciation Fund the link to which is located in the navigation bar (on the right if you’re looking at this on your computer). I promise not to be offended by the scatological implications of your actions! 🙂
Filed under Supernatural
In which I review Psychomagic: The Transformative Power of Shamanic Psychotherapy
Today is World Tarot Day, and so I thought I (as a Tarot reader myself) would contribute by reviewing my own favourite Tarot decks.
Golden Dawn Deck – artwork by Robert Wang
Crowley-Thoth deck. Designed by Aleister Crowley, illustrated by Lady Frieda Harris.
Golden Dawn Enochian Skrying Tarot
This has given me an idea – about how an Adept might incorporate this into ceremonial magick. When performing a divination with this deck, typically there will be one card which points to the solution of a given problem. Because each card represents a portion of the Enochian Watchtowers, the “solution-card” will therefore represent a particular Enochian angel – a being who can be evoked by constructing a magical ceremony with the appropriate symbolism.
Rider Waite – designed by A E Waite, illustrated by Pamela Coleman Smith
The Mythic Tarot
The BOTA deck.
So I cheated.
The unfortunate fact, I am ashamed to say, is that a full set of scans of the entire BOTA deck is available via bit-torrent and certain P2P clients. So whilst I have never purchased a BOTA deck, I am nevertheless using my Adobe Photoshop skills to illustrate it anyway. 😉
The Black Tarot – illustrated by Luis Royo
I first acquired this when a dear friend of mine was getting rid of her spare tarot decks, so I just happened to pick this up. Ironically, the same friend later received a present – another copy of the Black Tarot. Hmm seems to me this must be more than coincidence – perhaps the universe is trying to tell her something???
Filed under Supernatural
This marriage would be illegal or at least frowned upon in the Star Wars universe, but could soon be legalised in the UK if the Daily Mail’s worst fears are realised.
In the most blatant piece of yellow journalism I have witnessed since… well… the last time I read the same newspaper, the Daily Mail has announced that due to what it perceives as a flaw in the new Equal Marriages bill, Pagan Weddings could be legalised in England and Wales. NB: in the mentality of the Daily Mail, this is supposedly a Bad Thing.
At the moment, if you want to have a Pagan wedding in England or Wales, you are obliged to come to an arrangement which is common on the continent of Europe, i.e. have two wedding ceremonies – the first being the kind that you would ideally want as a ceremony, but with a second which consists of a quick ten-minute jobbie down the Registrar’s office on Monday morning to actually make it legal. Now it so happens that Christian churches almost always have their own registrar to attend their marriages which is why a Christian couple only needs the one ceremony. Thus: if a Pagan religion were allowed to have the same arrangement, this would spare Pagan couples the extra expense and bureaucracy as well.
Needless to say, however, the true situation is far more complicated.
The unfortunate fact of the matter is that the amendment to the Equal Marriages bill which is the source of the controversy applies only to Humanists – not to other named groups. The Daily Mail therefore has conveniently pulled some “anonymous government sources” out of its arse to supposedly say that “ridiculous” (sic) sects like pagans and even Jedis could mount a legal challenge to the Act on the basis of some sort of human rights discrimination type bullshit and force the recognition of their own ceremonies as well.
“But what,” I hallucinate that I hear my many millions of pagan (and even Jedi) readers say, “would be wrong with that?”
As far as the Daily Mail is concerned, everything. As far as people whose opinions count, however, there is a more subtle objection. In an ideal world, members of any religion ought not to have to resort to litigation – which may prove costly, time-consuming and stressful – to vindicate their basic rights. Therefore the best solution is not to have to resort to a dodgy legal challenge, but to actually have the right to marriage written in the black and white of the statute.
So come on, Members of Parliament! And Peers as well! The bill is currently before Parliament and you have the power to propose a suitably worded amendment which would allow such groups to conduct proper ceremonies. Search your feelings – you know it to be true.
Filed under Comment
Sol Ascendans - The Website of Alex Sumner 
Happy St John’s Day! .’.
It is not the anniversary of Freemasonry in England, as Elias Ashmole claimed to have been made a mason during the era of the Civil War in the previous century. The first official Masonic publication, Anderson’s Constitutions (1720), claims that it thrived during the latter part of the 17th century (even including Sir Christopher Wren as one of its prominent members), suffered a lull roundabout the time of the first Jacobite rebellion (1715) – whereupon, the existing lodges in London decided to get their act together and formed a Grand Lodge.
Neither, for that matter, is it the anniversary of Freemasonry itself. There are lodges in Scotland which date back to the mid 16th century. Indeed I once met a Brother who said his mother lodge still had a minute book dating back to 1560 or thereabouts. Unfortunately he later said that his lodge had lent it out to someone who had not returned it. D’oh! 😦
Anywho, I have therefore decided to bring my astrological powers to bear by casting a chart for the “birth” of the Premier Grand Lodge.
Chart for the formation of the Premier Grand Lodge of England, 24th June 1717, London.
Time approximated to 6pm.
In the above chart I have estimated the time of “birth” to 6pm, given that the aforesaid Anderson’s Constitutions says that the four lodges which met at the Goose & Grid Iron that day were primarily meeting for dinner. I therefore opted for earlier in the evening, as any later a bunch of Freemasons in a pub would have been in no fit state to form anything. 😉
By looking at the chart we immediately notice that Premier Grand Lodge is Sun Cancer, Moon Capricorn – its first meeting was the very day after the full moon. Of this combination it is said:
Also:
And even:
By way of comparison, cool people born with this combination include scientists such as Rupert Sheldrake and Stanislav Grof, celebrities such as Julius Caesar, and world leaders such as Liv Tyler.
Liv Tyler. Yes this is relevant to this article!
Moving on, we also notice that there is a T formation in the chart, between a conjunction of Sun / Venus / Jupiter, Caput Draconis, and the Moon. This would be a grand cross if we counted the Cauda Draconis as well. This would indicate that Grand Lodge’s “destiny” is to seek to achieve the “love and harmony which should at all times characterise Freemasons” (Caput Draconis in Libra). However, its fall-back position to which it may feel tempted to revert is that of a brash, power-hungry mentality.
It feels under pressure to achieve this love and harmony by works which increase the self-esteem, pleasure and good fortune of its members. However it feels it needs to balance this against a sense of propriety. This prudishness causes it to act in an authoritarian manner at times, making it want to dictate the enjoyment experienced by it members on its own terms.
So I wish all Brethren well this day, and remember that it is our destiny to succeed in the noble ideals on which the Craft was founded.
In memoriam: Michael Baigent, 1948 – 2013, former editor of Freemasonry Today and tireless campaigner to uphold the traditional standards of Masonry.
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Tagged as freemasonry, Liv Tyler, Michael Baigent, Rupert Sheldrake, Stanislav Grof