Bonjour! Aujourd’hui je suis heureux, parce-que j’ai decouvert qu’on peut acheter mon roman, “The Magus” (i.e. Le Magus) en France, Belgie, et tous les pays Francophones. Mais pas Canada (c’est triste, ça). Là, on doit l’acheter d’Amazon.com.
Je suis desolé mais on ne peut que l’acheter en Anglais: il n’est pas traduit en Français, parce-que je n’ai que le compétence des lingues d’Eddie Izzard.
Oh Frabjous Day! Calloo, Callay! My latest spell to get lulu.com to buck their ideas up has obviously worked as my debut novel, The Magus, is now available in the United Kingdom from Amazon.co.uk. 🙂 🙂 🙂
March 21st is the Vernal Equinox in those parts of the Northern Hemisphere which lie above the tropical zone – so I shall spend some time analysing how various occult traditions treat this seasonal event.
In Wicca, the Vernal Equinox is celebration of Light. The central part of the ceremonial consists of the following invocation, which the High Priestess recites before a bonfire is lit.
We kindle this fire today
In the presence of the Holy Ones,
Without malice, without jealousy, without envy,
But the High Gods
Thee we invoke, O Light o fLife;
Be thous a bright flame before us,
Be thous a guiding star above us;
Kindle thou within our hearts
A flame of love for our neighbours,
To our foes, to our friends, to our kindred all,
To all men on the broad earth;
O merciful Son of Cerridwen,
From the lowliest thing that liveth
To the Name which is highest of all.
(Source: “What Witches Do,” by Stewart Farrar).
In the Golden Dawn, the Equinox is the time when the old Hierophant steps down, and the new Hierophant is installed. It is also the time when the pass-word for the Equinox has changed. The choice of pass-word is significant, for it represents a Magical Affirmation to inspire and guide the Order for the next six-months. The Equinox ceremony of the Golden Dawn when worked with all the inner magical working, is in fact a magical ceremony to put that Magical affirmation into effect.
It was for this reason that Crowley referred to the reception of the Book of the Law as “the Equinox of the Gods” – because he saw it as a cosmic Equinox ceremony to give effect to the new Word, not of the next six-months, but of the new Aeon, i.e. “Thelema.”
Those of us who are not so much interested in becoming the Magus of a new Aeon as using the Equinox formula in our own workings, may find an insightful analysis of the ceremony in Circles of Power by John Michael Greer.
The final equinox working to which I will briefly refer is that of the Elus Cohens. This was a theurgic order founded by one Martinez De Pasqually in the eighteenth century. It ceased working in the late 18th / early 19th century, but was revived in modern times by Robert Ambelain. Ambelain’s own group was allegedly closed sometime in the late 20th century, although it is within the author’s personal knowledge that the Elu Cohen rituals are still being worked by various people to this day.
The essence of the Elu Cohen Equinox ritual is that it is a great Exorcism rite, designed to banish all evil spirits from this planet. It is in fact quite intense, as it takes five days to complete (i.e. it was worked on five successive nights).
Filed under Supernatural
The final – for now – entry in this series is taken from the Greek Magical Papyri. Appended to this invocation is the note: “It loosens shackles, makes invisible, sends dreams; it is a spell for gaining favour. (Add the usual for what you want).”
As usual, words in BOLD CAPITALS should be vibrated.
I call upon you who created Earth and bones and all flesh and all spirit and who established the sea and suspended the heavens, who separated the light from the darkness, the Supreme Intelligence who lawfully administrates all things.
Eternal Eye, Dæmon of dæmons, god of gods, the lord of the spirits, the invariable AION IAO OYEI, hear my voice.
I call upon you, master of the gods, high thundering Zeus, sovereign Zeus, ADONAI, lord IAO OYEE;
I am he who calls upon you, great god, in Syrian: ZAALAERIPHPHOU, and you must not Ignore my voice, in Hebrew: ABLANATHANALBA ABRASILOA;
For I am SILTHACHOOUCH LAILAM BLASALOTH
IAO IEO BEBOUTH SABIOTH ARBOTH
ARBATHIAO IAOTH SABOATH PA TOURE
ZAGOURE BAROUCH ADONAI ELOAI ABRAAM
BARBARAUO NAUSIPH,
High-minded one, immortal, who possesses the crown of the whole world,
SIEPE SAKTIETE
BIOU BIOU SPHE SPHE
NOUSI NOUSI SIETHO SIETHO
CHTHETHONI RIGCH
EIA E EOA AOE IAO
ASIAL SARAPI OLSO
ETHMOURESINI SEM LAU LOU LOURIGCH.
Filed under Supernatural
Another invocation taken from the Greek Magical Papyri, specifically to Hermes. As before, the words in BOLD CAPITALS should be vibrated.
Hermes, lord of the world, who’re in the heart,
O Circle of Selene, spherical
And square, the founder of the words of speech,
With golden sandals, turning airy course
Beneath earth’s depth, who hold the spirit’s reins,
The sun’s and who with lamps of gods immortal
Give joy to those beneath earth’s depts, to mortals
Who’ve finished life. The Moirai’s fatal thread
And Dream divine you’re said to be, who send
Forth Oracles by day and night, you cure
Pains of all mortals with your healing cares.
Hither, O blessed one, O mighty son
Of the goddess who brings full mental powers,
By your own form and gracious mind. And to
Me, NN, a pious man, reveal a sign
And send him your true skill of prophecy.
OIOSENMIGADON ORTHO BAUBO NIOERE
KODERETH DOSERE SYRE SUROE
SANKISTE DODEKAISTE AKROUROBORE
KODERE RINOTON KOUMETANA
ROUBITHA NOUMILA PERPHEROU AROUORER AROUER
Filed under Supernatural
An Orphic Hymn. In the rubric it gives the suffumigation as Frankincense, although in modern terms this would be Dragon’s Blood.
Magnanimous, unconquer’d, boistrous Mars,
In darts rejoicing, and in bloody wars
Fierce and untam’d, whose mighty pow’r can make
The strongest walls from their foundations shake:
Mortal destroying king, defil’d with gore,
Pleas’d with war’s dreadful and tumultuous roar:
Thee, human blood, and swords, and spears delight,
And the dire ruin of mad savage fight.
Stay, furious contests, and avenging strife,
Whose works with woe, embitter human life;
To lovely Venus, and to Bacchus yield,
To Ceres give the weapons of the field;
Encourage peace, to gentle works inclin’d,
And give abundance, with benignant mind.
Filed under Supernatural
This is a ritual drawn again from the Greek Magical Papyri. I often use this in the context of Dream Divination. The invocation is adapted from a spell to invoke the Moon for the purposes of Divination. The rubric of the spell says that this chant should be repeated “7 or 9 times” – although Qabalistically it makes sense to always chant it nine times. The repetition combined with the “barbarous names of evocation” creates a hypnotic or altered state of consciousness by itself.
As before, words in bold type should be “vibrated.”
Hail! SAX, AMUN, SAX, ABRAXAS;
For thou art the Moon, the chief of the stars,
He that did form them.
Listen to the things that I have said,
Follow the words of my mouth,
Reveal thyself to me,
THAN, THANA, THANATHA, THEI
This is my correct name.
Filed under Supernatural
I also source ancient magical texts from a miscellaneous variety of places. The following – a solar invocation – I discovered from reading a novel called Master of the Temple by Eric Ericson. Despite being a work of fiction, the author had obviously done his homework, as it contains a lot of authentic background information on Aleister Crowley, Sex Magick, contemporary occult orders – and ancient Babylonian invocations.
The following dates (according to Ericson) to around 2000BC. This was inscribed on a ceremonial pillar which depicts King Hammurabai receiving his authority from the Babylonian Sun-god, Shamash. Incidentally – note this – the name of the Babylonian Sun-god is the same word as the Hebrew word for the Sun – “Shemesh.” This leads me to suspect that prior to their return from captivity – if indeed they had ever been away in the first place – the Hebrew people were a lot more “pagan” than the Bible likes to admit.
I who am a perfect King
To the people entrusted to me by God;
I who am by God’s command their shepherd
Have never tarried, never rested.
I was called by the Great Gods,
Wherefore I became the good shepherd
Whose staff is straight and strong.
My shadow has stretched out across this city;
I have gathered my people into my arms
That they may thrive under my protection.
I shield them in my peace
And protect them in my wisdom.
Here in this city I have spoken my word
And have erected my image as King.
Filed under Supernatural
Saturn, being a defeated god, is not an easy deity for which to find suitable invocations. In The Greek Magical Papyri, the only mention of him (i.e. Kronos) was not an invocation but an evocation, in which the magician assumes the form of Zeus his conqueror.
Fortunately however, I have other sources apart from the Greek Magical Papyri. One of the most useful of these is The Orphic Hymns. The following Orphic text, despite the doggerel quality imbued by the translator, is more suitable to Saturn’s status as a deity to be worshipped per se.
Etherial father, mighty Titan, hear,
Great fire of Gods and men, whom all revere:
Endu’d with various council, pure and strong,
To whom perfection and decrease belong.
Consum’d by thee all forms that hourly die,
By thee restor’d, their former place supply;
The world immense in everlasting chains,
Strong and ineffable thy pow’r contains
Father of vast eternity, divine,
O mighty Saturn, various speech is thine:
Blossom of earth and of the starry skies,
Husband of Rhea, and Prometheus wise.
Obstetric Nature, venerable root,
From which the various forms of being shoot;
No parts peculiar can thy pow’r enclose,
Diffus’d thro’ all, from which the world arose,
O, best of beings, of a subtle mind,
Propitious hear to holy pray’rs inclin’d;
The sacred rites benevolent attend,
And grant a blameless life, a blessed end.
Filed under Supernatural
Sol Ascendans - The Website of Alex Sumner 
Yet Another Step Closer to Telepathy
Just a month ago I speculated that the use of an MRI scanner in the context of PVS research could point the way to machine-simulated telepathy. Now it transpires that more scientists are claiming that an MRI scanner can be used … to machine-simulate telepathy. I presume that they had already started their research before I went public with my big idea!
Apparently, different memories produce different signals when the MRI scanner is used to scan the hippocampus. By my reckoning this is one stage more advanced than the PVS research: the former only suggested the possibility of simple yes / no responses, but this suggests that a greater range may be detected.
However there is at least two fairly major drawbacks – the first is that the researchers managed to correctly identify thoughts “more than 50% of the time” – but less than 100%. Let’s face it, a telepathic message that is 49% garbled is going to be 100% useless – if you don’t know which bits are the garbled bits and which not. The second drawback is one of the same ones that I identified in regard to the PVS research. The MRI scanner can apparently identify brain activity associated with certain types of memory, but it does not identify the memories themselves. It is the alphabet, but not the language, of telepathy. Nevertheless, it does give hope that more may be achieved if further research is carried out.
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Tagged as pvs, TCUI, telepathy, Thought Controlled User Interface