Liber III vel Jugorum and The Eight Fold Path

{ January 26, 2010 @ 1:17 am } · { Uncategorized }
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When I first encountered the figure, the infamous, Aleister Crowley,  I, like so many in my generation, was taken aback by a man who seemed to not only revel in his debauchery and depravities but seemed to encourage and find new ways to expand them. Crowley represented the dark side of magick to eyes accustomed to the feel-good, white light worship found in many new age sections of the local bookstore.

It’s no small surprise then that questions about his work to my peers were quickly silenced, lest I too fall into the darkness and elitism that is ceremonial magick, The O.T.O, The Golden Dawn and their ilk. Though all different sects in and of themselves, to people raised on the Neo-Wiccan movement of spirituality, rules, order, rank, and being a “novice” in and of itself was scary. With eclecticism there comes no right or wrong way to do something. There are no elders and no Heirophants.  Anyone with a mouse and a keyboard could become a Lord or Lady, High Priest or High Priestess.  Such was not the case with ceremonialists who insisted on titles and initiation.

My own studies however have brought me not only to Crowley’s door step, but to his parlor. It is from him and the instruction of the Buddhists that I am attempting to master myself  before I delve deeper into the hidden depths of ritual, magick, and what can be achieved with it. Magick is taking on a scientific bent in accompaniment with the sacred spirituality contained therein. While my mind itches to rush forward, my body accepts its limitations of shallow breath, a destructive diet, and a lack of discipline and instead forbids me from pushing headlong into my studies unprepared.

The pursuit of perfection in body is followed closely by my desire to cleanse my mind of distraction and this is where Liber III vel Jugorum and The Eight Fold Path come together in my psyche to create a system that will help hone my mental facilities for the interesting times ahead.

As of now, I focus primarily on bringing my life in equilibrium with The Noble Eightfold Path;

1. Right View

2. Right Intention

3. Right Speech

4. Right Action

5. Right Livelihood

6. Right Effort

7. Right Mindfulness

8. Right Concentration

All 8 principles create, to me, the perfect canvas of a neophyte while allowing maturation of the spiritual self beyond magical expectation. In short; these practices will help strengthen me beyond magick and lay the foundation for the change that will eventually come through intense practice.

The techniques taught by Crowley in the Jugorum are what I  choose to implement until which time my will is in accordance with that of my HGA.  This, coupled with daily meditation,  cleansing, and banishing should bring me into the proper vibration to continue my work until I feel ready to approach an order for initiation. I shall be using a separate journal to chronicle this journey in its entirety and look forward to sharing it with all of you.

Magick Vs. Psychism

{ January 6, 2010 @ 4:02 am } · { Hermetics, Observation, magick }
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One of the things I love about being a member of various esoteric/occult and religious studies groups are the plethora of questions put forth by dedicated members. One such question was “What is the difference between Magick and Psychism, if there is a difference at all.”

Considering I am no old school Hermetic, nor do I have any kind of exclusive training in High Ceremonial magick, I will attempt to answer this for myself in as best a way as my own limited knowledge can allow, while also taking account that which feels true to my higher self.  When I think about magick the words of Aleister Crowley are some of the first to come to mind, with the science and art of magick being the creation of change in conformity with will. Magick comes from within and is directed outwards.  Whether one is pulling energy into the body to be released into a stone, talisman, or gris-gris bag or building energy in trance, there is a storing of this force within all aspects of the body.

Magick depends on the release of said energy by the person creating the will or intention. Without this, it could not exist and would merely float along in the cosmos, until some other entity or the cosmos saw fit to use it for its own end. In this way, everything is made of “magick” in some way, with intent being something as simple as a wish and as grandiose as the creation of life itself.

Psychism differs, to me, in not only its creation but it’s application. It is the culmination of outside triggers and influences channeled inward with no need for it to be released. Psychism is the ability every human being possesses to asses hidden information and process it within the subconscious. This can occur against ones will (the bad feeling one wishes one wouldn’t get) or with it (during divination) but it’s not a release to create change but more a subliminal calculation to ascertain what change is taking place and why.

Psychism attempts to understand, while Magick attempts to undermine. While nothing in the world, especially magick, is that cut and dry; this is the best way that I could describe it in simple terms.

Reading Reversed

{ April 5, 2009 @ 5:47 pm } · { Observation }
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Reversals used to be the bane of my tarot existence. Just their positioning seemed foreboding, letting me know that something was “wrong” either with me or the person I was inquiring about. Fortunately The Complete Book of Tarot Reversals by Mary K Greer really helped change all that in my personal readings; from her examples I have found a couple ways of looking at them in a not so foreboding context.

One of the best exercises in creative will that I’ve discovered during my daily draws is to take a reversed card and utilize it’s upright energies as a way of “rectifying” the situation. If I receive an 8 of wands, for example, and it’s alerting me to the slowing down of financial opportunities, I might start applying for a second job or being more proactive at work to increase my energies of abundance. One thing Greer mentions in her book is examining the energy of the preceding card in the suit and attempting to harness the lessons of that  card.  Remembering the sequential energies of the tarot work wonderfully in “rectifying” reversals.

This doesn’t necessarily always work depending on the position of the card in a particular spread.  A court card in the position of “outside influence” may be something you’re not fully capable of altering,  but another card can be drawn in an “advice”  position to see how you should handle that particular influence.

Now that I have a better handle on reversals, they don’t see so daunting and in fact can be rather pleasurable as a sign of growth and change.

Dignified Response

{ March 29, 2009 @ 3:59 am } · { Experiments, Spreads }
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If there’s one thing I’m really trying to get the hang of it’s implementing the use of astrological and elemental dignities in my readings. Reversals work great at adding extra depth and I do fully intend to continue using them once I’ve mastered at least one system- but I feel as if there is yet more that I can add to my understanding of the tarot and how the cards relate to one another.

So far I’ve gotten the elemental aspects down for the pips, it’s the major arcana that is throwing me for a bit of a loop. Fortunately, I’ve just recently purchased and began reading a book called Tarot Decoded by Elizabeth Hazel that looks as if it will help me greatly in tagging the majors with not only their elements but their zodiac equivalents as well.

So here for your laughing and viewing pleasure, I’m going to include my first attempt at implementing elemental dignities in a 3 card spread, while asking about something kind of simple;

How are the American people as a whole responding to President Obama’s Economic Stimulus plan?

I constructed a spread especially for this question as I wanted a more concise answer:

Current Situation [1], Thoughts [2], Emotions [3]

obamaspread

Judging by the first position it appears as if the American people are needing to be nurtured and assured of their present and future. Now more and more people are turning inward and to their families for strength during such trying times. Queens are Water of Water, so this implies to me a very strong emotional outpouring from the American people- everyone is feeling something.

With the next position it appears as if people are not sure whether Obama has made the best decisions. Some may think he is spending too much and are worried about his ability to lead during this financial crisis. Kings are Fire of Earth- coupled with the Water of Water Queen, as Obama continues to make these kind of powerful broad sweeping moves, people will continue to clutch to those around them, hoping to ride out the waves. Earth and Water are “friendly” to each other-but perhaps this only amplifies the feelings of the people whom are dependent on this stimulus for help.

And finally the last card being the 9 of wands points to the American people feeling as if they need to “hunker down” and remain firm. This isn’t the time to make major decisions and it may be better to just ride out the storm (There goes that water reference again) and wait for better times. Fire and Earth are neutral to each other which almost makes me think that regardless of what Obama would have done, people would be feeling and thinking this way.

Now if you’ve been watching the news you’re probably wondering why I even needed to do a reading on this, the cards pretty much said what we already know. Never the less, I think this was a great exercise in attempting to use elemental dignities and stay tuned for more of my experiments and please feel free to comment or let me know how I can improve.

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