Artwork © the author 2011
For those who prefer to do all their shopping via Amazon, my new short story “The Demon Detective
The Demon Detective – now available via Amazon as well
Filed under Books, The Demon Detective
The Demon Detective – New Short Story
Cover artwork © the author, 2011.
You now have the opportunity to read “The Demon Detective” – the first new material I have released since “The Magus Trilogy.” This is a Dark Fantasy short story set in and around contemporary London, and is a tale of murder and demonolatry, featuring new character Guy Shepardson.
This is only available as an ebook. It can be downloaded from SmashWords for only $0.99 in all popular formats.
Filed under Books, The Demon Detective
101 Magical Uses For A Pendulum – Part One
A Pendulum. Probably more ostentatious than is strictly necessary but hey, I’m superficial like that!
Hey you sass that hoopy Alex Sumner? He’s a frood who really knows where his Pendulum’s at.
1. As A Radionics Machine
Radionics started out from the principle that a physician named Albert Abrams alleged he could diagnose a patient not by examining the patient’s own body, but by examining a proxy to whom the patient was connected with wires. It then progressed to the idea that one did not need wires, nor indeed another human to act as proxy, but a “Witness” (a lock of hair or other tissue sample from the patient), on the basis that the original patient was somehow mysteriously connected to the Witness by some sort of subtle energy connection. This in turn led to the development of so-called Radionics machines, which are not in fact machines at all in the sense usually understood but work by Cryptesthesia, i.e. the operator knows when the knobs and dials are set in the right place when he or she experiences a kind of sticking sensation when running his thumb over a rubber disc.
NB: The knobs etc are not actually connected in the form of an electric circuit. Indeed, Radionics practitioners have themselves admitted that a Radionics machine does not so much transmit energy but bolster the belief of the operator.
A Radionics machine is thus a glorified Talisman made out of electronic components. The idea that Radionics can be used for healing is a difficult enough concept for skeptics, but what really gets me is the amount of money that such machines go for. A quick look on Google reveals that a typical gadget sells for $1750. That’s $1750 for a device that does not actually do anything!!!
It therefore occurred to your humble blogmaster that given that the underlying principle to Radionics was basically the same as dowsing or pendulum divination, why not get rid of the Radionics machine altogether and use a Pendulum instead? I imagine that it would go something like this: you ask the pendulum “What is the first digit – is it 0 … 1 … 2 … 3… ?” etc etc, and then repeating for as many digits as you dowse to be appropriate. This is essentially what a Radionics machine does, the difference being that you can make a Pendulum from materials costing pennies, instead of having to pay out thousands of dollars.
(The pendulum belonging to your humble blogmaster actually cost a few quid, but that was only because I wanted something that looked nice!)
2. As a Telepathy Device
In the book Pendulum Power
This is of course merely anecdotal, but it has given me the following idea…
3. For Cosmic Ordering
IMO the authors of Pendulum Power did not exploit the full potential of their discovery of a new use for the Pendulum. Instead of using it to send a simple message to one bloke, why not use it to send an Order to the Cosmos?
4. For Finding Ley Lines
I have written about this in my post The Ley of the Land.
5. For Contacting Dead People
INT. ENGLISH COUNTRY PUB. DAY.
In a busy pub, ALEX and his DRINKING COMPANION are amongst a party waiting for their food orders.
DRINKING COMPANION
Did you know that this is the most haunted pub in Britain?
ALEX
Really? Well let’s have a look.
Alex takes a pendulum out of his pocket.
ALEX
I intend to use the pendulum to contact any ghosts that may be
in this pub. Can I do this?
ANGLE on Pendulum: it’s rotating anti-clockwise.
ALEX (cont’d)
No? Oh well, that’s my career as a medium at an end – for this
afternoon at any rate.
Alex puts the pendulum away.
DRINKING COMPANION
I wonder why though it’s got the reputation for being haunted.
ALEX
Perhaps it’s because they serve Spirits at the bar?
To be continued…
Filed under Supernatural
QOTD: Israel Regardie
Israel Regardie
An Order is simply a temporary vehicle of transmission — a means whereby suitable individuals may be trained to awaken within their hearts the consciousness of the boundless Light. But sooner or later, it would appear that the initiates foster loyalty to the external husk, the shell, the organisation of grades at the expense of that dynamic spirit for which the shell was constructed. So often has it happened in the past. Every religion stands as eloquent witness to this fact. It is the fate which has overtaken the Golden Dawn. Practically the whole membership is fanatically attached to individuals conducting Temple work as well as to the mechanical system of grades of the Order. But when this piece of teaching and that document of importance is withdrawn from circulation, mutilated, and in some cases destroyed, none has come forward to register an objection.
Its Chiefs have developed the tyranny of sacerdotalism. They have a perverse inclination towards priestcraft, and secrecy has ever been the forcing ground in which such corruption may prosper. Obligations to personal allegiance whether tacit or avowed, is the ideal method of enhancing
the personal reputation of those who for many years have sat resolutely and persistently upon the pastos of the hidden knowledge. If by any chance the hidden knowledge were removed from their custody, their power would be gone. For in most cases their dominion does not consist in the gravitational attraction of spiritual attainment or even ordinary erudition. Their power is vested solely in the one fact, that they happen to be in possession of the private documents for distribution to those to whom they personally wish to bestow a favour as a mark of their
esteem.Israel Regardie, What You Should Know About the Golden Dawn
Filed under Supernatural
The Ley of the Land (slight return)
Yesterday’s post about Avebury garnered some very interesting comments (thanks to all concerned). I would like to share one further factoid which an astrologer friend first told me, which I could have mentioned yesterday but it slipped my mind at the time. It is this: Avebury’s latitude is 51º 25′ 43″ N – which is the same number of degrees as the seventh part of a circle.
Immediately the Sumner Family Brain Cell prompted me to say: “Aha! So Avebury’s position must be based on astrology!” My reasoning being that back in ancient times astrology and astronomy were the same thing. The ancients would have measured Latitude by comparing the angle between a true vertical (e.g. a plumb line) and the Pole Star. Hence it is entirely possible that the ancient builders of Avebury deliberately chose that site because of the particular angle.
This is of course speculation, but we should remember that the builders of Avebury did know their Geometry, so it would have been a simple matter for them to turn their attention Vertically to the Heavens, as well as Horizontally to the land.
This actually gives me a brilliant idea for further investigation. As I stated yesterday, Avebury is on at least one major Ley Line which passes through not just nearby Silbury Hill, but (thanks to correspondents pointing it out) places further afield, including even Carnac in Brittany. Hence, if my theory that astrological considerations played a part in choosing Avebury’s location is correct, we should expect to find sacred sites where major Ley Lines hit latitudes of (e.g.) 72º, 60º, 513/7º, 45º, etc.
Filed under Supernatural
The Ley of the Land
One of many standing stones at Avebury in Wiltshire, England.
Recently I had the opportunity to go hunting for Ley Lines out in the field, when I visited Avebury in Wiltshire, England. I only stopped there briefly one afternoon, so at some point in the future I would like to go back and make a more thorough investigation. I shall give my impressions of the place for those who have not already visited it. It is the most extensive site of standing stones of which I know. The stones at Stonehenge may be larger, but the architects of megalithic Avebury located theirs over a wider area, delineating a vast complex. The stones vary in height but are typically about 10′ (3 metres) in height (see right for example).
Modern Avebury is a small village, right in the middle of standing stones on all sides. There are so many that it is possible to walk in any direction from the local pub (which does nice food by the way!) and find an abundance of them. On a sunny afternoon Avebury is popular with hippies and pagan-types and others who appreciate Earth mysteries.
So, there I was, in a field just a short walk from the village centre, with lines of stones in front and behind me. I attempted some dowsing. I did not have any L-rods, but I did have a pendulum, so I went about it in the following manner. Concentrating on the first stone I could see, I asked the pendulum: “is there a ley-line in this direction?” The pendulum at first said no. I then turned to the second stone and asked: “is there a ley-line in this direction?” I kept asking this until I was finally facing one particular stone, and the pendulum gave me a Yes-signal. Just to be sure I checked out the remaining stones, but I did not get any further Yes-signals.
The horizon was obscured by a low-hill. I asked a companion who knew more about the area if anything interesting lay in that direction. His reply was “Yes its Silbury Hill.”
Silbury Hill (bottom left) through Avebury.
I was quite excited by this, not least because I honestly did not know Silbury Hill was in that particular direction. As to why this particular ley-line is significant I do not know. I note that Silbury Hill is a 4,750 year old artificially constructed earth-mound, but the actual reason for its existence baffles the scholars. Clearly this requires further investigation on my part, although the fact that these Earth-energies are detectable by dowsing at all is remarkable in itself.
Filed under Supernatural
Looters spared by Void Of Course Moon
The seal of Andromalius.
So there I was, thinking, “What can I, Alex Sumner, the world’s greatest expert on the occult, do to help the people of London who have been affected by the riots recently? I know: I’ll evoke the demon Andromalius to get all the looters to return the property they have stolen!” So I decided to cast a Horary figure to see whether this was a good idea or not.
And what do you know? The Moon – which, in Horary astrology indicates the circumstances in which the question arises, would not form a major aspect with another planet until after it left the current sign (Capricorn). It would however form several minor aspects, i.e. be inconjunct to a retrograde Mercury, and semi-sextile to Neptune and Caput Draconis.
So here is my dilemma. According to one definition, if the Moon does not form a major aspect to another planet before it leaves the sign it is in, it is said to be “Void of Course” (VOC). If a Horary figure is drawn when the Moon is VOC, the only information it provides is that “Nothing will come of this question” (NB: not “the whole chart is meaningless” – the chart has a meaning, just not a very helpful one). So unless VOC is defined as “any aspect” instead of “any major aspect,” it would appear that the looters have been spared the wrath of Sumner by a Void of Course moon.
(If however the chart is not VOC, I would still be put off because the Lord of the Ascendant – Mercury is not only retrograde, but opposed to retrograde Neptune. Deceit, deception and illusion (retrograde Neptune) are likely to cause my project to go awry (retrograde Mercury)!)
More generally though, when looking at the chart for the day, one notices that there is a Grand Cross featuring four Malefic planets – Mars, Saturn, Pluto (r) and Uranus (r). At the height of the trouble several days ago, the Moon transitted retrograde Pluto!
This could of course be a coincidence … or it could mean that THERE WILL BE FRESH TROUBLE NEXT WEEK – when the Moon transits Uranus. There will also probably be a new development in the phone hacking scandal when it transits the Mercury-Neptune (both retrograde) opposition.
Horary figure for the question: "I intend to evoke Andromalius to cause all looters to return their stolen property. Is this a good idea?" Note also the current planetary positions.
Filed under Comment, Supernatural
Licence To Depart – listed on Amazon
People of America – good news! The print edition of Licence to Depart is finally available (sort of) on Amazon.com.
Ebook versions however are fully available – quick to download and v. good value for money! Plug plug. Please see either Amazon or Smashwords. 🙂
Filed under Books, Licence To Depart
Sol Ascendans - The Website of Alex Sumner 
Free Peter Aziz!
British-based Ayahuascero Peter Aziz
Disturbing news that a Shaman living in England has been convicted and imprisoned for supplying a class A drug. Peter Aziz is an Ayahuascero who has been conducting Ayahuasca healing-sessions in the West country for several years now. Ayahuasca – the Peruvian “Vine of Death” – is technically legal in the UK … but decocting it into an Ayahuasca Tea is not, as apparently this counts as supplying L-dimethyltryptamine (DMT), which in England is a banned substance.
This will come as disappointing news to Ayahuasca enthusiasts in this country, who will now have to travel abroad to Spain or Peru itself if they want to go on a healing session.
Your humble blogmaster whilst not a partaker himself is nevertheless acquainted with more than a few people who have gone on Ayahuasca retreats. The remarkable thing is that in most cases they have come back looking and acting healthier, and reporting beneficial changes, for example, resolution of various psychological issues, or being miraculously cured of long-standing illnesses such as allergies.
However, I have also heard of people who complained that some Ayahuasca sessions were run by people who did not know what they were doing, and hence the sessions did not go particularly well. Clearly, Ayahuasca should only be taken – if it is going to be taken at all – strictly under the supervision of someone who is thoroughly trained in it, e.g. by having studied extensively under Peruvian shamen. Which is ironic seeing as Aziz, who is one of the few British-based Ayahuasceros who is reputable in this respect, has just been banged-up in hokey.
Given that Ayahuasca apparently has therapeutic uses, we should be conducting scientific studies to see if it can be incorporated into mainstream medical practice, and establish a responsible methodology for its administration: not prosecuting Ayahuasceros who act in good-faith, such as Aziz. I do hope that Aziz gets out soon, preferably by having his conviction overturned.
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Tagged as Ayahuasca, British Law, DMT, Guardian, l-dimethyltryptamine, Peter Aziz