Tags
Barnes and Noble closed way down today, so water.
Tomorrow – predictions. WHAT WILL HAPPEN? Tune in next week when I am disappointed in myself.
15 Friday Mar 2013
Posted Magic
inTags
Barnes and Noble closed way down today, so water.
Tomorrow – predictions. WHAT WILL HAPPEN? Tune in next week when I am disappointed in myself.
14 Thursday Mar 2013
Barnes and noble closed up – so wood.
However as an aside, yesterday night I went home early from work and today I called in sick as a dog. A quick look at the chart shows saturn in scorpio but otherwise nothing really offensive. Then again I’m not particularly good at star charts. I’m really hoping this isn’t a sign of some sort. (My sun sign is scorpio).
The normal stuff I chug when I get sick didn’t work. Or maybe it did, but it wasn’t enough. I still have a bizarre problem where when I get sick, my magic sucks.
Physician – heal thyself.
Bardon couldn’t do it either.
12 Tuesday Mar 2013
Posted Howto
inBarnes and Noble stock closed below it’s opening price today. Yesterday it did well, today it tanked. Meditate on water.
12 Tuesday Mar 2013
Posted Books, Magic, Naval Gazing, Notes, Philosophy
inI have to make a judgement call here – I suspect the people on Ghost Hunters and Paranormal State at one point were legitimate ghost hunting groups. Previously I thought the first season of Ghost Hunters was about the only good season and statistically accurate – they had one good case and 11 more episodes of meh. However as all magical experience is subjective and rarely objective, it doesn’t make for good television. At one point Paranormal State recorded the one chick (they labeled as a “witch” whatever that means) doing the KC. Maybe she’s third degree wiccan and she knows the LBRP from the back of the Buckland Book, or maybe she’s actually a ceremonialist. People don’t just “oops” into the LBRP, it’s complicated and it requires visualizations and it tends to work poorly for people until they learn the SRP and then take the shortcut LRP back.
Why should I think that all magical experience is subjective? All of manifest reality is subjective. The entire human experience is subjective. I am limited in my perceptions of the world not only by how my brain assembles my senses, but by what senses I’m equipped with. Furthermore when we get down to observing things we cannot perceive directly, as people, we add one more layer of perceptual abstraction to the mix. All of science depends on such ideas, a person could no more know about the Higgs Boson with a Victorian microscope then they could know about the sun by staring directly into it’s blinding light. For this reason alone, I think it’s important I develop my skrying ability, but this also means that there is a sensory proxy between occult investigators and the phenomena they observe. To further the point, there’s cultural proxies as well. I would not expect to be successful in observing an EVP – in Japan. Then there’s the whole technological point as above, but EVPs after the fact don’t conduct themselves well for spiritual conversations.
The more I roll it around in my head the more I think there’s process and procedural problems in working with spirits from unknown spheres. To further advance things, I think it would be profitable to normalize proxies of senses. Internally that comes from hanging out with people. People in two very disparate groups have to interact to get on the same page of expression. Similarly if we all think spirits are one thing or another, that doesn’t particularly work well either. The magician should be able to change his or her model of the universe based on information he or she receives over the course of practice and reading. Some other people may not. Some people may have many classes of spirits, some people may not. So long as people can at least draw lines between these, this is OK. I think its a good idea to interact with people outside our immediate circles just for the sake of mixing up our perceptions and provide innovation to our philosophy and practice. One of the ghost hunters had a miligauss meter, or it was a stud finder. Apparently this thing is a K2 meter and I need to watch less children’s programming.
Out of curiosity I queried the facebook group I hang out in. Occultists are like cats, or programmers, or engineers. Ask them a question, give them limited options, and you’ll get far more responses telling you why you’re wrong than you will if you give them carte blanche to vote on whatever. I pitched the idea as “shades”, “spirits of the dead”, or “other” for “what are ghosts”. The choices are “traditional answer”, “new age answer”, “actual opinion” (I should have posted “demons” to kick the beehive – ah well). Turns out other occultists, the few who responded, do actually believe in ghosts. So far no-one has really written anything in depth on their opinion, which is a sad side effect of facebook, but this is a distinct break from the norm. Occultists (myself included) tend to think the dead returned to the godhead because the godhead’s purpose behind creation is to experience itself subjectively. This also nicely sidesteps the reincarnation discussion. A topic to explore on Saturnday perhaps. My personal experience, limited as it is, ends at the high level angels. I haven’t figured out what’s past there. (Weirdly enough there’s a grove of trees there in the distance… maybe one of the kabalah guys can chime in).
So what does all this have to do with my practical application? I was thinking about Low Magick, and in the book DuQuette is trying to find the Name of the spirit in Our Lady of Sorrows. The spirit appears to Lon as a Pie. However, first Lon has to get the Name. He grabs his pendulum, and a set of scrabble tiles, and he lays them out face down and then selects them one by one and tests them with the pendulum. It doesn’t have to be letter tiles, it could be snack crackers, fridge magnets, whatever. Or, I got thinking, it could be runes. There’s no reason why, if I had detected spiritual presence, I couldn’t use scrabble tiles as runes. Toss them, find out what names or words come out, and go from there. It would be better than one hand ouija, which is what I was reduced to in the crawlspace since my wife wouldn’t enter.
Anyway, turns out all this was for naught since there was no spiritual presence in the crawlspace. Still, I should develop this out. I wonder what the graveyard is up to these days…
11 Monday Mar 2013
Posted Books, Evocation and Invocation, Magic
inYeah there was nothing there tonight. I grabbed the LKoStK and a consecrated candle. My wife didn’t really want to go in, so I grabbed the Ouija board and the sage. Threw some really good KC, LBRP, LBRH, KC and jumped in.
The crawl space was dead. Sat around for a good 15 minutes trying to draw a spirit in, had my hands on the planchette, off the planchette, moved the candle onto the board, off the board, invited the spirit to touch the candle, got nothing.
Normally the crawl space has a bit of a draft, didn’t have that either.
In the license to depart, I took out everything about being an obedient spirit and forbid the spirit from being on the property. I don’t really care where he goes, but I don’t want him/her/it here. Still, it was really quiet in the crawl space. Left sage and the consecrated candle burning in there. The sage was lit off the candle, thus linking them magically. I don’t forsee any problems in the crawlspace, I think when we did the last banishing and sealing we probably took care of it.
EDIT – my wife took some pictures. I have no idea…. The bottom right is the candle in the holder, and the sage in it’s own little shell.
Edit edit: The mysterious thing is the bottom of the hanging lamp. Nothing paranormal here folks.
11 Monday Mar 2013
Posted Notes
in10 Sunday Mar 2013
Posted After Action Review, Evocation and Invocation, Magic, Philosophy
inMy wife’s friend was moving about 400 miles away so they were hanging out and having a going away party at their old place. I couldn’t attend because have two birds, two cats, and four dogs. I get an hour of burn time over there before my allergy medicine is overcome and that’s the end of it. Apparently while they were hanging out my wife talked to someone who was a self styled paranormal investigator.
Now I’m completely open about the occult with a limited amount of people in real life who I think are respectful and interested in honest discussion. Even with those people, I usually keep it tamped down pretty hard since I get worried about the walls having ears. My wife apparently sold him on the idea that there’s a ghost cat (there is) and at least two people died on the property if not more given our location near a historic battlefield. The ghost cat is a pretty constant companion, even people who don’t really think about the occult have asked us when we got another cat. It’s also not uncommon at all to hear the thing banging around the house when we know our cat is in the bedroom with us. Even before we had kids, the cat toys would migrate through walls, into the locked basement, into the crawlspace, wherever. The two people who passed were the grandfather of the original owner and the original owners wife.
Anyway so these guys show up, and I decide to grab a cigar and my tablet and take the kids to the local shopping center. My wife, her friend and the team stayed behind. The shopping center has a play place so it’ll be good for 6pm to 9pm when it closes. We’re there hanging out and I distinctly feel a disturbance in the force. I text my wife “Oh so if they’re going in the ritual room, I’ll shut down the computer”. “Oh, that would be good!”
AAAAAAAARRRRRRRRGGGGGGHHHHHH.
Apparently the opinion of people was that they weren’t getting ‘enough’ so my wife offered to let them into the ritual room, which she had opened with ‘a wiccan circle’ and ‘called up some spirits’. Fortunately they were literally familiar spirits being Agares and Bifrons, so I didn’t expect trouble and my wife apparently had no trouble calling them. Still, I imagine it went something like this…
OK it probably didn’t. My wife opened the circle, called in the spirits, lit some candles, and then opened the freaking door to the ritual room and told the spirits “go nuts”. Predictably, all hell broke loose. The ghost hunters reported, in the 15 minute span before I got home the fastest anyone has ever seen a minivan move, people got sick, the house rumbled, the lights in the basement started swinging, someone heard a wailing from the crawlspace… I wouldn’t say we live in a particularly magical or haunted house being built in 1962. On the other hand, actually opening the door and then letting the spirits “run wild”, not so hot. Finally one of the guys left a recorder on the altar which he said “recorded nothing but a high pitched noise”. Not in the triangle, mind you, they seem to have some sense about them. If you read that and said “oh Agares!” you’re right on the spot.
To their credit, I thought this was going to turn into one of two things – either the ghost hunters were going to be seriously disappointed in spending time in a place where people practice serious magic, or this would turn into “oh you can DO THAT? do it AGAIN!” They were actually respectful and let me bore them with magical history discussions, and weren’t bent out of shape about the occultism. It’s actually sort of nice to see a ghost hunting team which didn’t look down their nose at magic.
The cleanup was a bit of a mess. The ghost cat was still bombing around upstairs and it answers to no spiritual authority I know of. Seriously I swear they buried it in the walls or something. The cat was heard by our friend T who was hanging out tonight and helping with the kids, etc. The spirits were easy enough to dismiss with the license to depart, except for the crawlspace. The ghost hunters, rather than entering the crawlspace, opted to draw the spirit out. Their sensitive acknowledged the “barrier or blockage” in the door (me), then proceeded to open it. Doh. We decided to re-enforce the barriers in the crawlspace. After burning enough sage to stink up the house completely, we moved down to the crawlspace where I issued another chain curse to constrain the spirit to the location. My wife sprinkled exorcised water liberally, filled with seasalt. T was throwing more salt in the crawlspace when I saw a particularly large chunk go from the crawlspace right back into her face. She wears glasses, so I didn’t think much of it until I heard a blue streak of curses from her. Apparently not only did the salt get thrown back at her, but it managed to perfectly sail over her lens and under her brow to hit her in the eye. I’m reasonably convinced the crawlspace is re-exorcised. My wife tried to have a talking-to the spirit, who didn’t show up after all that.
If the videos are sufficiently anonymous, I’ll put up links to the footage. My current wondering is if the chain constraint is actually binding the spirit into the crawlspace rather than exorcising the spirit to the edge of the property. This requires guru meditation.
07 Thursday Mar 2013
Posted Arts and Crafts, Magic
inI was reading the latest Rune Soup, trying to figure out what practical (read: public) magic would be interesting to try. I think I should try fasting for the sake of getting in better shape, and also as ceremonial preparation. Being a go for the gold sort of fellow, fasting for a period will make fasting for three days a lot easier. However since it’s probably not terribly interesting for the readers to publish “MAGICAL ACT: DIDN’T EAT” for 30 days straight, something else is needed. I really thought the price of silver aside in there was neat. The UFO stuff less so, but it’s entertaining. Why would little green men not fixed in spacetime need a silver craft? It doesn’t really pass the common sense test. Try writing that with a straight face on a magic blog.
Of course, we’re well past the korean and vietnam wars, so the price of metals isn’t really subject to speculation. Gold is on the up and up, so that’s not going to be a terribly interesting thing to invest in. Also for all practical purposes, most of us can’t afford an ounce of gold. I know if I could, I should be putting that money into existing debts. What’s left? Stocks, I suppose.
Now, Amazon really pissed me off recently. For people who haven’t read the rant – the kindle version of a lot of the occult bookshelf classics (Agrippa) is the same version on esoteric texts. It’s not the tyson version even though it purports to be so. Not cool amazon. This got me thinking that Barnes and Noble could probably use some speculation. I’m really happy with the nook, for instance, but that’s only because I’m an engineer in real life so hardware I can gut and reload the software on is strangely appealing to me. The stock itself for the company hovers around $16, it’s not out of reach for practical application. More on the point, it jumps $1 periodically, so buying 10 shares should cover trade costs at many brokerages.
WARNING: I’m not a stockologist. I’m probably the least qualified person to ask about investing. I don’t even pretend to understand market forces and think most companies and governments are dishonest – so I won’t even take my own advice. You shouldn’t either.
Right? Right. So in my mind, the trick is to pick at least two different objects. They should be as far apart as they possibly can be. One should be round, the other should have corners. One is light, the other is heavy. One is filled, the other has water and air inside. One should be orange, and the other purple, or similar opposite colors. Really in my mind this should be a cube of wood painted a specific color and a flower vase or similar the opposite color. Trance out and then mentally vibrate a day (or planet) and then see which object comes. The vase would indicate a day the stock closes above opening, the block should indicate a day the stock closes below it’s opening.
For the first week, starting monday, it will not be a blind test. I’m going to see what the stock did yesterday and then carry around the item all day. Then, at the end of the week, I’m going to try to see if I can predict the coming week with the items. Now to find a vase…
07 Thursday Mar 2013
Posted After Action Review, Magic
inTags
There. That’s been the theme of the last few weeks.
What did you learn from your time in the solitary
Cell of your mind?
There was noises, distractions from anything good
And the old prison food
Color my life with the chaos of trouble…
I got it, ask for a solar initiation and to clean up my spiritual life and temptation and trouble comes up in spades. Unfortunately it seems to have stolen my writing voice, and for that I apologize.
The upside – I’m taking copious notes on my own personal experience. Really isn’t that the crux of the magical experience? The rituals, the dressings, the altars, the incense is really just window dressing.
We get under our own skin.
03 Sunday Mar 2013
Posted After Action Review, Arts and Crafts, Magic, Notes
inTags
Took a bit of time off to get my brain back in magical gear.
Opened by KC, LIRP, LIRH, KC.
At first got nothing.
In fact, I got nothing for a good 20 minutes. Screwed around with the candles quite a bit, finally just decided to blow them out.
Eventually I started to slowly get into the groove. My wife likes to use greek godnames, I can’t get anywhere with it. I hazarded a peek at my notes to confirm the name, and vibrated that instead. Eventually I saw a door with the sun sign on it, which tested well by sun signs (gee…) and I went into it. Inside the new realm I was greeted not by angels, or greek gods, but Enochian sorts of imagry. I’m not talking biblical stuff, I mean for me the Enochian angels tend to be represented as giant, huge tornados of power. This one was purple. I tested it by signs and it not only grew bigger, but there was the landscape around it which was the “bowl” of the sun temple space.
Eventually it resolves to other things – a ring of power orbits the angel and I see a mask, some armor, the parts of the statue, etc floating around. I eventually figured out I was being shown “time to put down the imaginary toys”. We’ll see if that keeps up.
Also I was shown the house per some of my wifes questions. It has a gauzy white sphere around it. Which I took to mean some sort of divine protection. Normally I see magic as red stuff, either smooth or thorny and it usually gives me clues about how it works from its shape. Magical links of groups is golden. The white is a new one to me but I suspect it’s Angelic. I tried to query more and I got nothing. The angel wasn’t particularly talkative but glad to show me around.
Other sort of interesting visionary notes – my wife is still on this Greek Ancestry kick and keeps asking the Angels for more information on the family (she’s sort of Greek or something). When she asked for where they came from, I got a map of Greece. Fair enough. When she asked what they did, I was watching people build a ship. However my spirit vision was particularly crappy tonight and I couldn’t see them building a whole ship, so I watched them build small part of a ship which frustrated me a bit. While the detail work is interesting, it was a good 15 minutes of scrying watching people work on… something before I figured out it was supposed to be a boat. It’s a neat idea though, someone builds the hull and then detail workers come in to finish it out.
No great revelations, but the astral tourism sure is fun.