witchcraft – Page 2 – Between The Pillars

Making Real Fairy Salve

September 8, 2020October 16, 2020Posted in UncategorizedTagged alchemy, Angels, demons, elementals, fae, fae folk, fairy, fairy salve, herbology, hermeticism, kabbalah, magick, Occult, ointment, paganism, psychic, ritual, spirits, thelema, vision, witchcraft7 Comments

Hello, and welcome back.

First off, I want to make a quick announcement. Thank you to everyone who purchased The Tree of Life: A Beginner’s Guide. The sales have been good enough that there’s a good chance I will release another e-Grimoire before the end of the year.

I understand that these are difficult and confusing times for some, and as far as I’m concerned all this will continue for at least several more years. This first book was introductory, but from now on I shall focus more on practical magick that can be done to improve one’s life and find one’s path.

But let’s move to today’s topic: Fairy Salve, and how to make it for spiritual and occult purposes.

The Story of the Fairy Ointment

The idea of “Fairy Salve” or Fairy Ointment comes to us from English and Celtic folklore. It’s essentially a folktale.

Like many other stories of its kind, it was most likely the result of strange encounters with some kind of occult phenomena.

There are many variations of the story, but in general it goes like this:

A nurse/midwife is visited at midnight by a strange looking man at her doorstep. He tells her that his wife is too ill to give birth alone, and he needs her help. The midwife is suspicious, but goes along with him in his horse drawn carriage, to his home.

There, she helps deliver the child, and cares for it while the mother recovers. She is instructed by the mother to rub a certain ointment on the baby’s eyes when it wakes up.

In some versions of the tale, the baby is anointed all over its body. Anyway, the baby opens its eyes, and the midwife notices his pupils are large and oddly shaped, almost like slits. But does as she was told, rubbing its eyes with the ointment. Either by accident or out of curiosity, she rubs some of it on her right eye, and immediately her surroundings change.

The small cottage is transformed into an elaborate or luxurious castle. In some versions, it turns into a dank (haha) cave. The midwife sees the child and its mother have turned even more beautiful (or ugly, in the cave version). She sees the baby’s siblings, who also have a strange appearance, playing around and doing all kinds of mischief, and realises she is in the home of pixies.

She doesn’t say anything, and when the father returns she demands to be taken home immediately. She sees the horse that draws the carriage is now pitch black with burning eyes. Upon returning home she is given a large payment. Some days later, she is at the market and sees the strange man, tha father of the baby, at the market. He’s taking whatever he wants from various different stalls, though no one seems to notice.

She immediately calls him out on it for stealing, and he is surprised by this. He demands to know if she can see him, and she says yes (famous last words). In response, he accuses her of stealing as well, and getting involved in things that aren’t her business. Reaching out, he touches the affected eye, saying she wont be seeing fairies anymore. Her right eye is then permanently blinded.

Some versions of this story also involve the nurse being kept prisoner by the fairies until she is recused by her husband. In other versions, she finds the salve in the home of a suspected witch, and later finds the witch’s husband stealing at the market, who then blinds her.

The Fae and English/Irish Folklore

To make fairy salve, it’s important to understand the context of this story. The main takeaway is that the Fairy Salve was believed to be an ointment that helped you see spiritual or otherworldly creatures. From the story it seems even the creatures themselves needed to use it, which is interesting.

Generally speaking, you may be familiar with the friendly and helpful fairies that appear in Fairy Tales, such as those in Cinderella or Snow White. However, all of those stories are German. In this case, we are not referring to the Fairies from the German “Fairy” tales.

Then you might be thinking of the Elves, Dwarves, and other such mythical creatures, with pointed ears and a proud disposition. However, those are from Norse mythology, and this is not the place to get into those.

In Irish and English folklore, the word “Fairy” essentially referred to Spirits that lived alongside humans. This is not referring specifically to good or bad spirits, but rather a vast range of creatures. These are similar to what the Greeks called Nature spirits, or what the Japanese called Ayakashi, and in India they are called Yaksha. While the Norse use a different system of classification, some of their spirits are part of this category. The same can be said for the Arabic Djinn.

Put simply, these are not Gods, nor Demons, nor Angels. In Magick, they are often given the title of Elementals. The main thing to remember is that they live alongside humans in this material plane, not in some place beyond.

The idea of such things has been around ever since humanity started living together in settlements and communities, and staying separate from Nature. At the edge of Civilisation, where human life met the raw forces of Nature, people had strange experiences and thus the idea of the nature spirits came about. Many legends and folk tales refer to a time when these spirits lived with and mingled with humans, but then the two groups fell apart (referring to how humanity became separate from nature). In most cultures, this referred to the spirits of the trees, rocks, deserts, rivers and mountains. Some could be vast, dwelling in mountains, some small, dwelling in grains of rice.

This belief is called Animism, and was/is a part of ‘primitive’ cultures: the idea that everything has a spirit of it’s own. In other cultures, particularly after organised religion came about, people only began to think of these spirits as dwelling in wild places, such as deep in the desert or in unexplored parts of forests. Whether they are friendly depends on the culture, region and geography.

In almost all cases, animals themselves were also considered to be a part of this category. The most well known examples are Native American and Siberian shamanism, where animals are just as much spirits of nature as any mythical creature. To us in our modern societies, this may sound strange, because we have documented animals so well, and even tame and breed them regularly. But to our ancient ancestors, most animals were as strange and magical as any fairy or nymph, not to mention the large number of dangerous wild animals that could attack and kill humans.

Even now, look at the kinds of things we are discovering in the deep sea, which are completely strange and contrary to our expectations. Look at videos or pictures of these things, and see if you don’t feel a sense of mystery, wonder and even fear.

Various cultures then, established all sorts of rules and regulations about how to deal with Nature Spirits, and how to respect their boundaries. This was not mere superstition, but also served to protect people from wandering into the territory of bears, tigers or lions. It kept them safe from various natural phenomena they did not understand. For example, to keep people indoors after night, away from forests and lakes, or to have them stick to roads and not venture off course, to be wary of strangers, to avoid the spread of disease etc. In magick we understand that “as above so below”. Any event occurring on the material plane has a spiritual counterpart, and you will see that all these things that people were afraid of were indeed “Spirits of Nature” .

To those who like films, I highly suggest the 2004 film called The Village. Don’t read any reviews or summaries, just go and watch it. It may give you something to think about.

In England, Scotland and Ireland (and Wales), these were often called the ‘Fae’ (fair folk). “Fair” here means beautiful, not ‘pale’.

Some fae were helpful, some were malicious. The most common distinction I’ve found is between “Night” and “Day” Fae. The Fae/Faery played an important role in the daily lives of people (even more than Gods) and therefore having a good relationship with them was important, as well as keep them at a distance. While the Fae were helpful, they could also be mischievous. They are forces of Nature, and i’m sure I don’t need to tell you that Nature does not always act as humans would like it to.

The fundamental thing to understand is that the Fae weren’t ‘good’ or ‘bad’, but that each things had its own purpose, and acted according to its nature. That is perhaps the greatest difference between modern and ancient humanity. Our ancestors lacked the means to control their lives and environment the way we can. As a result, they were not so arrogant and proud. They understood that Nature had its rules, and they had to live according to it. Things like fire were helpful, but if used incorrectly, they would burn you. Things like controlled gas stoves (and now electric ones) have been around for a century or so, but humanity have walked the Earth for over 200,000 years in its present form. When people were blessed with good fortunes or wealth, or when they had a good harvest, it was because they had been blessed by fairies. But when children went missing, when people died of disease or got lost in the woods, it was also fairies.

After the advent of Christianity, the Church struggled to reconcile these beings with their Scripture. It is well known that while several regions of Western Europe embraced the Chruch, the Irish stubbornly insisted on bringing along their pagan legends and folk traditions (ironically, hundreds of years later it would be the opposite, and the Irish would be hated for refusing to leave the Church and join the protestant cause. Ah..the joys organised religion).

The best answer the the Priests could give was that the Fae were somehow “fallen” creatures, similar to fallen angels, and that they must be feared.

Now, it must be clear why the Fairy Salve story has different versions. The version where the pixies are beautiful and live in a castle is probably the original, while the one where they are ugly and live in a hovel is post-Christian.

We could go on and on, but this is a very extensive topic. So I’ll cut it short with some thoughts on a certain famous occultist you’ve probably heard of: William Shaksepeare.

Yes, Shaksepeare was a magus. He was also associated with John Dee (yes, THAT John Dee, noted astrologer and alchemist, who created the Enochian language and tablets along with Edward Kelly, and who served as a spy for Queen Elizabeth).

You see, Shaksepeare was quite a radical individual for his time (like all Occultists). Though today we think of him as ‘sophisticated’ and his works are considered ‘classics’, they weren’t so when he was alive. The language he uses, which now is seen as posh, was actually a bit crude for his time. While he wrote a lot of historical plays, he also threw in spirits, ghosts and other random shit. He was like a 14th century Kurt Cobain. Naturally, it was this radical spirit that made so many love and appreciate his work. Contrary to what some may tell you, society does value and respect free thinkers, especially those who produce creative works.

To anyone who’s read his work, you can see the very clear presence of fairies. The most notable is probably The Tempest, which straight up has a sorcerer who has bound an elemental spirit to him. It is strange to say, but we don’t actually have many written records of what medieval British and Irish people thought of Fairies. Our modern perception of the Fair folk is greatly influenced by people like Shakespeare. This includes the notion of Titania and Oberon being the King and Queen of Fairies, of their general humanoid appearance and attitude.

Honestly, to make a full and complete deconstruction of the exact sources of modern fairy lore would be quite difficult, to put it lightly, so let’s cut it here.

Creating Fairy Salve

I have created this substance only twice. The first was by a pagan method (I was still new to magick and very experimental), the second by a kabbalistic. Both worked extremely well, and I shall outline them roughly.

What is the purpose? Well, it is both a ‘offering’ to be made to elemental spirits, as well as an anointing oil that can aid psychic perception during ritual. Simply put, it will help you sense spiritual phenomena during any sort of spiritual working. This idea is neither new nor limited to the British Isles, and there are several medieval grimoires that call for anointing the temples and eyes before a magick ritual (most commonly the Oil of Jerusalem, which is a certain type of enchanted lamp oil).

The Pagan Method

The pagan method will appeal more to neo-pagans, shamans, witches and the like. It takes longer, and can be easily personalised.

The basic idea is to saturate an oil with herbs, and bless it with the forces of nature. Since elementals/Fae are meant to live alongside humans, this recipe calls for herbs that have been collected from one’s own garden. It doesn’t matter which herbs you pick, but ideally it should be something you grow. Maybe choose the oldest plants you have, or those that appear to have a magical connection. You may also look into the folklore of your region, to see if any herbs or plants stand out as being associated with nature spirits.

You need to pick a time for this, and I would suggest the full moon. Or just the early morning of an auspicious day. Select a certain number of herbs. Perhaps 7 different varieties, and 3 of each?

Next, you must choose the oil. Since we are trying to make a ‘salve’, it’s a good idea to choose something that is more like a paste rather than a complete liquid. Coconut oil or ghee (clarified butter) are good, because they harden when cold. If you plan to burn it as an offering, make sure it’s flammable. If you cannot get these, you can use any normal oil. However, I do suggest going to the effort of procuring these, because this and the herbs are the only two ingredients needed, the rest is magick!

You may, if you want, add some salt. An enchanted salt, or mineral salt is good. Salt is used by many neo-pagans for protection from negative influence.

Put the chosen oil in a steel container, and then put it in a larger container filled with water. This is just a general guideline for heating any kind of oil. If we put the the container with the oil directly on the fire/stove, it will ‘cook’ the oil. In some cases, it may even vaporize the oil. Therefore, we use a water bath, to avoid burning/cooking our ingredients, and also maintain the temperature at 100 degrees Celsius.

Fun fact: This set-up, though very common in modern kitchens, is said to have been discovered by an alchemist. It was a Jewish adept from Alexandria called Mari the Prophetess (1st-3rd Century C.E.). Hence, this set up is known in alchemy as the balneum-Mariae (Bath of Mari).

Bring the water to a boil and allow the oil to heat up. As it heats, you add your herbs, either grown up or just broken up by hand. You can say a prayer at this point to any Gods of your choosing. When I first made it, I had prayed to Diana, a form of Venus and a prominent pagan goddess, and Pan, an important pagan deity for all works concerning nature and the wild. Diana is also considered to be the Goddess that is worshiped by the fair folk themselves. I do not remember exactly why this is, but I think we have Shakespeare to thank for this as well. Use a wooden stirring rod for mixing (never use iron. Steel is acceptable, but not ideal). Mix slowly, on a low heat.

Finally, when you feel the herbs have been fully saturated with the oil (10-15 minutes of heat), take it off the heat and leave it to cool. Do not cover it until it is cool. You may cover it with a cloth, if you have to.

The first process is done. The mixture has been prepared using the four elements (herbs picked from the earth, heated with fire and water, and cooled by air).

The elements are done, and we move on to Darkness. Put the mixture in a closed, opaque contained, and leave it sitting in a cool place where it will not be disturbed or be exposed to the light. Since this is a pagan method, you can also thrown in any consecrated crystals or other objects into this.

Here, the substance is blessed by the forces of darkness, whose blessing is essential so that obstacles and challenges are not faced in the future. Ideally, this should can sit for at least a week, but probably for longer. You’re waiting for the full moon. However, let it be no longer than a month, to avoid rotting or decay.

On the day of the full moon, you shall filter out the herbal components, and put the oil in a clear glass jar (plastic works too). These are no longer needed and can be discarded (ideally thrown back into the soil to decompose). Be sure to remove any stones, crystals or object you’ve put in.

Now begins the consecration by the four elements and Light (both of the Sun and the Moon). On the night of the full moon, put this jar in a container of water, and leave it outside or by a window. The water should ideally be from a natural source, such as a spring, river or from rain. When I was doing it, I did a ritual to make it rain, which worked (this was the very first time my magick had worked on such a grand level, and the single most important event that cemented by spiritual faith permanently). If not, then get some drinking water (do not get water from the bathroom sink). If you have enough, this water can also be used for the initial water bath.

It’s good if it’s directly exposed to the moon all night. But, since this is difficult for many people, it’s okay as long as it is outside or by an open window, where it can be hit by the wind. Say a prayer to the Moon if you want, and to the Fae of the Night to bless it.

Here, the salve is being consecrated once again by Air and Water, as well the Moon. Leave this overnight, from Sunrise to Sunset.

The next Day, at Sunrise, take this jar out of the water and put it in the ground. Do not bury it completely, and make sure the top is sticking out. You can also use a planting pot, or just a container with dirt in it. You also need some incense. The way I did it, is half buried the jar in an empty pot, then covered it with a larger plastic container with a incense cone next to it. This ensured that the smoke actually touched jar instead of just blowing away. Leave this in the sunlight until sunset. Call on the Sun and to the Day Faeries for blessing it.

The salve is now being consecrated by the Sun, by Fire (incense) and Earth.

When I first made this, I was lucky enough that the Full Moon was on a Monday, and immediately following a Summer solstice on Sunday. The second part of the consecration was on Tuesday. Don’t obsess over timing, but it’s good if you happen upon such an auspicious time.

Now, at sunset you take your jar, draw upon it a sigil that represents spiritual sight, or something else that is relevant. You’re free to create this sigil however you want, or choose a symbol that already exists and is important to you. You may even use the symbols of any Gods you worship.

At night you will conduct a ritual where you shall call upon the power of the forces of nature to bless and complete the Fairy Salve. A good set of deities is Diana, Pan, Titania and Oberon, and maybe even Gaia, the Earth Mother. Titania and Oberon may be seen as essential, since the substance is made by their authority. It’s a good idea to give some offering as well (candles, milk/honey, fruits etc). State the purpose of the Fairy Salve, and you’re pretty much good. When the ritual is done, thank the forces involved and clear your space. Your Fairy Salve is done. Use it as an offering, and anoint your temples and eye lids before a ritual.

As we discussed before, a good way to offer it is to burn it in a traditional oil lamp.

The Kabbalistic Method

For this method we are going to follow a similar, yet different approach. It is better for those who want to make the Salve more quickly, but don’t mind putting in more work. Ideal for kabbalists, thelemites, rosicrucians and hermeticists.

The Pagan method has relatively simple instructions, because much of the work is begin done by the spiritual forces of nature over a longer period of time. Here, the work is done mainly the the magician him/herself.

Once again, we begin by collecting the herbs. Once again, it is good to collect garden herbs, or herbs in your kitchen. We shall select 7 different varieties of herbs, once for each planet.

For this you must do your own research, and see which herbs are more commonly available in your region. I could give you an arbitrary list, but it would be better to make your own list. You can easily find the planetary rulers of most common herbs online. Ideally, pick herbs which has some association with psychic senses, nature spirits or magick. The variety of herbs needed for fairy salve are what make it more complex than your usual magick oils for things like prosperity or love, which usually only need a few herbs of any single planets.

Let’s say this is too daunting a task. In that case, you may select only herbs associated with the Moon, since the Moon rules psychic powers and visions. You also need Frankincense (or some other sweet smelling resin that can be melted). Just look for powdered frankincense, which should be easy to find, as it is commonly used as incense. If you can’t, do magick to get it.

Next, we pick a base again (ideally coconut oil or ghee, or something similar, which hardens when cold. This is not compulsory, but these are easier to rub on your eyes. Whatever you pick, ensure it smells nice and is pleasant. After all, why would you offer something repulsive to the fair folk? So no, don’t go busting out the mustard oil). We do this on Monday, in the hour of the Moon, during the waxing phase.f.

We now prepare it again, as we did before, in a water bath, adding in our broken up ingredients into the heating oil. As we stir it, we visualise white light comic from above and saturating the mixture.

We once again let it cool uncovered. The mixture has once again been blessed by the four elements, and you must offer a silent prayer and thanks, for these four elements make up the mechanistic Universe as we know it.

You shall take the mixture and pour it into an opaque container, so that no light may touch it. Having done so, draw upon it the symbol of Saturn, the bringer of Death, the collector of Dues. Place it in a cool dark place, and visualized a deep and complete darkness surrounding it, purging all that is unneeded.

Planetary symbols for your reference. These will be used throughout the Kabbalistic method. Beginning from the top left, the symbol of: Sun, Mercury, Venus, Moon, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune, Pluto

The mixture shall now be left untouched over night, where the herbs shall give up the last of their essence. The next morning, awaken at sunrise and thank the lord Saturn. Erase the symbol from the container, and open it. With a solemn and serious heart, filter out the herbs. Heat the mixture again in a bath, and now add it your frankincense. Let it remain in heat for as long as it takes the powder to melt dissolve. Do not add large pieces of frankincense, as these will never dissolve. Everything must be finely powdered. When it is done, take it off the heat and pour the mixture into a clear glass jar and seal it shut. This shall serve as the philosophic egg, where the mixture shall hibernate. Be sure not to add the mixture if it is too hot and the glass is too cold, since the glass may crack.

Take the mixture outside and lay it to rest in Earth. Do no bury it completely, and let it’s top stick out, so that it may breathe the life giving Air, and lay before the radiant light of its father (Sun). In the soil around it, trace an upward pointing triangle (Fire) and draw on each point, the symbol of the Sun, Venus and Jupiter. Pray that, by their benevolence, they may awaken the spirit within. Now you shall mourn it’s passing, and offer a silent plea to the Spirits of the Day, to impart their blessing on it.

At sunset, you shall go again to the place of the burial, and erase the planetary symbols. Now trace a downward triangle (Water) around it, and draw the symbols of Moon, Mercury and Mars around it. Pray that they, by their harshness, by invigorate the spirit within the salve, and purge it of all impurities. Offer a silent plea to the spirits of the Night, that they may remove any obstacles in the working to be done. The ointment is in darkness again, but this time it has the guiding light of its Mother (Moon). Now leave with a hopeful heart, praying for the success of your working.

The next morning, awaken when you may with a happy and joyous heart. Wash your body and go to the place of burial. Remove any remaining symbols and offer heartfelt gratitude. Take the jar and clean it by submerging it in water (making sure no water gets in), and then cleanse it with incense, thus removing both physical and spiritual impurities.

Draw upon it the following symbols: Around the circumference, you shall draw the symbols of the four elements. At the bottom, draw the planetary hexagram, and on top of the lid, draw a pentagram. On either side of it, the symbols of Uranus and Neptune, and the symbol of Pluto at the bottom. Reflect for a moment, on a purpose of this ointment.

Now do a ritual of consecration. Begin with the lesser banishing ritual of the pentagram, and the banishing ritual of the hexagram. As you say the last words, IAO, visualized brilliant white light streaming from the heavens into the jar, and saturating the mixture within. You may also use any other rituals that are used in your own tradition. These are simply the ones I use.

Close your eyes and meditate with the jar in hand, and make a prayer to the Elementals of the four quarters. Pray to the the elementals of Fire and their Ruler, and trace the Invoking pentagram of Fire with your finger on the jar. Do the same for Water, Air and Earth. The spirits and Kings are named thus:

Element	Name of Elementals	Name of Ruler
Fire	Salamandars	Djinn
Water	Undynes	Nycksa
Air	Sylphs	Paralda
Earth	Gnomes	Ghob

For example, “I call upon thee, oh great Paralda, to bless this jar of ointment. I call upon thy kin, the Sylphs, to lend me their power!” Then trace the Pentagram.

The Pentagrams traced should be visualised as red, blue, yellow and green respectively. When you feel the ritual is done, give thanks and welcome the elementals into your life. As them for their favour, and give offerings often. Warn them regarding mischief or harm towards any living thing.

Now give your heartfelt thanks, perform the Lesser Banishing again and you’re done.

Now you may make a small offering of thanks that very night. You can leave some food or drink outside in your garden and balcony, and call on the Faeries/Elementals to partake. Leave it overnight, throw it out the next day. To test the efficacy of your Ointment, apply some on your temples and eyelids. You should feel its power immediately, and enter into a light trance. If you do not feel it, then it is possible the mixture is not charged enough. It can be charged by leaving it on an altar or meditating on it. Remember, if your psychic senses are not fully developed, you may not immediately see spirits. However, this will strengthen your psychic sense greatly. Do not obsess over being able to physically see the spiritual beings you are invoking. If it has to happen, it will happen in time, when you are ready.

In Conclusion

I know, the rituals seem extensive, but they’re actually a lot quicker to do. It actually takes longer to describe them than do them. You’re free to omit any parts you feel like, or add any of your own, or mix and match as you please. It can be as simple, or as elaborate as you want.

I mean, you could simply take some random oil, dissolve some moon herbs in it, bless it and call it a day. But the amount of energy put into magick determines its result. If you can muster up all the energy needed with a simple prayer, go right ahead. But most will require rituals to build up the same energy. Like everything on this blog, the process if described to be extremely friendly to people who are new to magick. Those who are more proficient are free to use what they need and discard what they don’t (although going through the whole process will only generate more energy).

I mean, the second time I made the ointment, I did not do any prayers or mourning, nor did I trace the triangles. That’s because when I buried my jar, I was able to mentally call on the aid of the planets. But for many others, the visual aid will help greatly. Some people may even go a step further, and place objects associated with the planets around the jar.

It is up to you when you make offerings to the Elementals. You can use the Fairy Ointment during any sort of ritual where you need to invoke them or their rulers. It may be a good idea to make an offering of this ointment every Solstice and Equinox. At least on the both Solstices.

So there you have it, I have finally answered what is probably the very first question I was ever asked by a reader all those years ago.

Until Next Time
~White Raven

New Book Release | The Tree of Life: A Beginners Guide

July 22, 2020July 28, 2020Posted in UncategorizedTagged ceremonial magick, ebook, golden dawn, grimoire, guide, hermeticism, high magick, introduction, kabbalah, lurianic, magic, magick, Occult, paths, qlipphoth, sephiroth, spirituality, witchcraft7 Comments

Hello, and welcome back.

I’m very pleased to announce the release of my first book on Magick. I present to you The Tree of Life: A Beginner’s Guide.

It contains a wealth of information regarding the Sephiroth, Kabbalah, the Tree of Life, Astrology, Sacred Geometry, the Qliphoth and much more.

Let me start at the beginning. I am a Hermetic Kabbalist, and have been practicing Magick for several years. I’ve been sharing my thoughts and experiences here since 2015.

Over the years, lots of people have asked me various questions, the most common being how to get started with magick and spiritual work.

For those who want a start, this book is the prefect thing for you. It will familiarise you with the basics of High Magick, and in particular the Tree of Life and the philosophy of Kabbalah.

So, I bring you some of my best work yet. This book has gone through various iterations, as I’ve compiled all my knowledge regarding Kabbalah, and the Tree of Life in particular, and tied it all up in a articulate fashion.

What’s the point if you have to spend decades pouring over books just to get started? And let’s be honest, not everyone speaks English as their first language, and even those who do may find the writings of eccentric English noblemen to be difficult. Don’t get me wrong, these writers were brilliant. Some of the most important people who lived in the last century. But, it is time to make the knowledge more open. The Age of Aquarius demands it.

Kabbalah is a beautiful and sacred art, and has usually been kept hidden. In this book, I have explained all the details and symbolism in plain and clear language. I wanted to write something that anyone, even a complete novice to Magick, could read and understand. It will provide a clear and complete understanding of the Sephiroth, and exactly what they are, outside the usual framework of religious dogma. I have tried to cover all the bases, and touched on astrology, alchemy, and sacred geometry as well, and how they relate to the Sephiroth. As far as I’m concerned, understanding the Sephiroth is the key to all practical magick, as well as life in general.

It is my great hope that this book will answer many, many questions that people have, and especially help those who want to practice ceremonial magick and have a thirst for information that is not designed to mislead them.

I have also put in high resolution diagrams, as well as two different versions of the Tree of Life that can be easily printed on an A4 paper without loosing quality. I’ve made sure of this.

For the time being, I have decided to use Gumroad to release this book. If all goes well, you can look forward to more books on a variety of other topics. I am working on a conclusive method for Invocation and Evocation as well. That one might take me the longest time, but there is plenty more to Magick 😀

Head over to:

https://gumroad.com/betweenthepillars

You can also click this link here and go directly to the product page.

How does it work? You purchase it on Gumroad and then you get a PDF version of the book. If you experience any issues with the purchase, send me an email. As of now, it’s going to be an E-Book (maybe some day I’ll be fancy enough to sell physical books. But then again, I dislike being fancy).

And for those who have been asking for years now, don’t worry. The invocation of the Archangel Michael and the recipe for making Fairy Salve are going to be my next posts. I’ll touch upon how to cast a circle as well.

That’s all for now. Thank you for all your support and generosity over the years 🙂

Until Next Time.
~White Raven

The Most Powerful Occult Ritual I’ve Ever Done

June 9, 2020Posted in UncategorizedTagged alchemy, astrology, ceremonial magick, demons, Egyptian gods, evocation, gods, golden dawn, heirarchy, hermeticism, invocation, kabbalah, magic, magick, new age, paganism, ritual, Talisman, witchcraft3 Comments

First off, I want to announce that I’ve made an Instagram account. I basically dislike most social media, especially Twitter and Facebook. However, some people have asked for a better communication methods than back and forth emails, so Instagram it is. I’m not even sure what I’ll put there, but we’ll see.

So anyway, I’ve been engaged in High Magick for years now, and I subscribe to a specific tradition of ceremonial magick called Hermetic Kabbalah. In particular, the types of rituals practiced by the early 20th century group called the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn (to whom almost ALL modern spiritual movements can be directly or indirectly traced).

I‘ve done all sorts of rituals over the years, and tried out different variations. Sometimes I go with what an old grimoire is saying, sometimes I stick to the traditions of one or more Occult groups, sometimes I use a modern, minimalist method and sometimes I create my own. Some rituals work better than others.

I’ve never had a definitive ritual structure that I used for everything, because I wanted to learn and explore first. Most magickians are expected to develop one over time. Trust me, learning from personal experiences is much better than dogmatically adhering to some premade system (that’s called religion).

Recently, I started doing some rituals that are largely derivative of the Golden Dawn method. I just want to share how I do them, and my thought process behind a recent Invocation I did. The reason is so that people can see how Magickians design rituals and ceremonies seemingly from scratch, and completely on their own without having to rely on a grimoire. It’s something anyone can, and should work towards.

It may work better for some people than others. I may share how to actually do the ritual on the blog at some point.

The Magickal Heirarchy

An important thing to understand about ceremonial magick is its hierarchical nature. Essentially, it’s a soft polytheistic idea that when you call upon spiritual forces, you start from the ‘top’ and then work your way down. This is similar to Hinduism in some sense, in which all Gods, Demons, Humans etc. are ultimately manifestations of a single Divine Force, which fragments into small forces, which further fragment into further forces (or avatars).

The Western ceremonial tradition handles this as an almost social hierarchy, instead of using ‘avatars’. You’ve probably seen it in books like the Ars Goetia, where we have Kings, which then rule over Princes, which are then rule over Dukes, then Earls and so on.

The Golden Dawn tradition intertwines Abrahamic and Egyptian hierarchies, and these can be as fluid as one needs. At the top you have the Divine, invoked through Godnames, and beneath that are the Holy Living Ones, each ruling an alchemical element. Then Archangels, Angels, Planets, Elemental Kings and their kin, Spirits and Intelligences etc.

Intertwined into this are the Infernal hierarchies, with Archdemons on top, then Demons, Dark Planets, King of the Quarters and their kin.

Additionally, they try to include the various Gods and Goddesses of Egypt. These forces are are generally parallel to the Angelic hierarchies.

Almost all members of the Golden Dawn were strongly rooted in the Rosicrucian tradition. They constantly struggled with classifying the Egyptian and Demonic forces, and when they did, they made it so needlessly complicated that I genuinely struggle to understand their descriptions in some places. It’s a thing I’ve always seen monotheistic occultists struggle with, when it’s really not so complicated.

There’s also the Enochian system, but that’s for another time (and oh boy won’t that be fun).

A lot of witches and pagans today have a strong dislike of ceremonial magick, because they consider it rigid and narrow. They think it doesn’t allow for individualism or personal interpretation. However, this is untrue. Most of the time it only seems to be rigid, but in truth it’s still extremely fluid and open, and many systems have been combined to create it, which are far form cohesive.

The ritual I designed relied on my own interpretation of the hierarchy. I begin with preliminary banishing and meditations. Then, I call upon the Most High, which is completely personal.

After that, I invoke the God that I feel should preside over the ritual, and the entire ritual derives it’s power from this God.

Next, the Holy Livings Ones. These are neither fully Abrahamic nor Pagan. The GD corelated them to each of the letters of the 4 lettered name: YHVH.

However, their forms are derived from the Sphinxes found in both Egypt and Sumeria. They are: The Lion (Y), The Eagle (H), The Man (V) and the Bull (H). They each represent an Alchemical element: Fire (Y), Water (H), Air (V) and Earth (H).

From there, I invoke an Archangel, the Planet/s whose energy is used in the ritual (and if needed, the Olympic Spirit under them). Then come the Elementals (and their King), and then the Angel and Intelligence (Archon) of the Element.

Now, on some occasions, I will invoke an Archdemon or King of the Quarter at this point. Remember, technically the Archdemons and Kings are equal to the Archangels and Elemental Kings, and not ‘under’ the planets, Angels or Intelligences. However, it is generally a good idea to Invoke them after the Celestial and Planetary forces have been called. And only then, should you consider calling on Demons and Spirits. In fact, if the ritual does not require calling upon any infernal forces, it should be avoided altogether.

Obviously, most rituals do not require going through the entire chain of command. It all depends on the ritual, and I’m simply giving the whole thing to explain the logic of it all.

True and powerful magick could be performed by simply uttering one’s intent. There’s nothing to stop this. Just saying something puts your energy into it. However, that’s not always enough and not everyone can do that. Hence we have ceremonies and rituals and spells. The Invocations simply give it more power, and the hierarchies are more to help us put our magick in a logical framework, rather than representative of the actual state of affairs regarding these spiritual forces. Ultimately, we are the ones doing magick, and these forces simply help us connect to various parts of our own Soul.

Different people may have different hierarchies. Someone may consider Christ to be the Highest Force, while another may call on Krishna. One person may think Lucifer to be a God, while to another he could be an Archdemon. Ultimately, the ‘ranks’ you ascribe to these spirits are components of your own Psyche.

The spiritual forces are the same, and what symbols you use to approach them do not matter. However, it is more likely than not, that our mythologies and stories are at least rooted in some reality.

The Invocation of Air

The ritual in question was an Invocation of the element of Air itself. The purpose was to consecrate a talisman for certain purposes. The talisman, which in this case was a Ring, would be blessed and consecrated with various energies from the dominion of Air.

Now, this is not the usual way of consecrating talismans. In fact, you can read about the usual method here. However, this was not an ordinary talisman. Therefore, I was guided to create a ritual that would call upon the entire Air hierarchy. This was also for my own learning. While I asked each and every Force to bless the ritual and talisman, it can also be utilized for much simpler workings. Instead of asking every force to bless the ritual, you could simply just invoke them in the correct sequence, and that would make the ritual much more powerful. This rituals took about an hour, but technically much shorter versions could be performed based on requirement.

So, I spent about a week working out a hierarchy I was comfortable with. I performed a simple divination from time to time, asking the Archangels if what I was doing was correct. At times, I was asked to make corrections and changes were suggested.

this image is just a representation, not the fill actual hierarchy. It shows the Four Worlds of the Kabbalah, on which the Hierarchy is based.

I did the ritual on a Sunday, in the Waxing Moon. The entire day prior had been spent preparing for this ritual, and I think that certainly added to the power. I should mention, while I did use GD rituals and chants, all the prayers were written by me personally. I was told that prayers should always be written to any spiritual force by the individual (if s/he is able), because this is a much stronger expression of love and devotion than merely repeating what has been written before.

The ritual technically had to begin at sunrise, but I was more or less close enough to it. That is to say, I woke up at 6:00 AM, showered, had coffee and began getting things ready. I later realised that the reason this ritual was so powerful was because I had done nothing but work towards it from the moment of waking. On another day, I would do a similar Invocation of Fire, which was slightly weaker because it was at midday, and my mind had already been filled with other distractions.

I had an altar at the Eastern edge of the circle. At the center of it was the Armadel sigil for Raphael, with the Talisman on it. I had previously the area with water and incense. At the ‘top’ and ‘bottom’ of the altar were my dagger and wand, for banishing and invoking respectively.

Around the altar, was a cup of water (water), a stick of incense (fire), a small container with salt (earth) and a feather (air). Outside the circle, I had placed a covered cup with rum from a newly opened bottle, and a small lamp with my own personal blend of fairy salve, which I keep specially for offering to the Elementals.

I also had sigils to the Olympic spirits of the Sun and the Moon, called Och and Phul respectively. The Olympic spirits are often called for consecration of talismans.

The Sun and the Moon are the planets that rule Air (Jupiter and Mercury rule Air, Venus and Mars rule Fire, and Saturn rules Earth).

I started the ritual, with a Salutation to the God Ra. Ra rules the Sunrise (as Hathor, Tum and Khepra rule the midday, sunset and midnight respectively. They are different avatars of the god Amun-Ra, the Egyptian Sun God). After the salutation, I spent a few moments in meditation.

Then came the Lesser Banishing Ritual of the Pentagram (and a short prayer to the Tetragrammaton), and then the banishing Ritual of the Hexagram ritual, followed by the Middle Pillar ritual to ground myself. These three rituals are essential components to most ceremonial workings.

I spoke the Invocation of the Bornless One. This is a well known ritual in magick, and gives you the ‘authority’ to command the Temple and all Forces that appear within it. It is a Greco-Egyptian prayer that calls upon Lord Osiris, who rules the Element of Spirit. (Next post will be about that, since I’ve had enough people ask me about it over the years)

Now, I could begin the ritual itself. I remained facing East, because I was invoking Air.

First, a prayer to Thoth, the God who rules the element of Air. The elements of Fire, Water and Earth are ruled by Horus, Isis and Nepthys in the GD tradition. This was a prayer that I wrote. There some invocations out there that are very elaborate and long, but you really don’t need such long invocations. Although many magicians are uncomfortable with this, having the blessing and aid of Gods is extremely important for spiritual operations. Even medieval Christian occultists would make prayers to the Holy Trinity.

As I did the prayer, I saw Thoth appear, enormous and with an Ibis head, standing as they are depicted in ancient statues. He held up his hand and blessed the ritual. Next, I made a prayer to the Kerub of Air. The Kerub of Air appears as a Man, and I traced the Hebrew letter Vav in the East. I could feel energy flowing from the direction as the Kerub empowered the ritual.

I then did two pentagram rituals, invoking Spirit (Active) and the element of Air respectively.

The most important part of the Ritual came now. I was going to invoke the Archangel Raphael until I was effectively one with him. The remainder of the ritual and consecration of the Talisman would happen with me adopting the guise of Raphael. I had prepared a Greek Mantra.

Remember, to call on any entity, the chant “Agios [Entity]” works very well, and is used in several traditions. Thus, my complete chant for Raphael was:

Ela! (x5)
Agios Raphael! (x7)
Kalo Se Sena! (x10)

It translates to Come! Saint Raphael! Hail Unto Thee!

In fact, I have lately discovered that magical chants and mantras, especially those in ancient languages, should be sung, not just spoken. This empowers them significantly. As I repeated the chant, I slipped into a near complete trance. I saw the Archangel Raphael, with brilliant eyes shining yellow, with long black flowing hair. He often appears to be in yellow robes with purple triangles stitched onto it. He blessed me, then entered me. When I was done, the union was complete. I was me, but I was also Raphael. This is called complete invocation. Usually this takes longer, but with practice it came become quick. Also, the entire ritual done until now, along with the musical key and incense help greatly.

We held out our hand, and called into it the Cosmic kingdom of Air. I saw the entire Universe before us, and then I saw it in a purpulish hue. It was all the nebulae, clouds, dust, plasma, supernova, and everything that gave it beauty and sheen. I saw all the ‘Air’ in the Universe compress together until it was one ball of energy in my hand, bluish and purple. I pushed it into the talisman, and now it grew heavy and warm.

Then I did the Hexagram rituals to Invoke both the Sun and the Moon, for these are the planets that are under the element of Air, and opening both spheres give me the energy I needed. I uncovered the sigils of the Olympic Spirits, and asked each to bestow the planetary energies into the Talisman.

Now, I lit my lamp, and made a prayer to the Elemental ruler of Air, called Paralda, and his kin, who are the the Sylphs. You see, the Elementals co-exist with us on this material plane. This is why so much magick involves the four elements and quarters, because it is the Elementals who grant us the energy for the magickal working. If we were to use our energies, we would cause damage to ourselves, even die. The Elementals must be regarded with great respect, for they are more like us than anything else.

I welcomed them into the Circle and presented my offering. I thanked them for coming, and the Ruler Paralda blessed me in return. I could see little specs of light curling around my hands, giving me the energy I would need to do the consecration.

At this point I was totally in trance, and beginning to get tired. There was sweat dripping from my brow. But I continued intuitively. I made a prayer to the Angel of Air, called Chassam, and Archon of Air, Ariel. The angel empowered the ritual with the invigorating energy of Air, like a gentle breeze. The Archon bestowed upon it, the powerful winds that strip away ignorance and stagnation, and bring knowledge and liberty.

Now I sat silent, regarding all the energies I had invoked.

Then I got up, and performed an invocations of the Shadow side with a ritual I had very carefully prepared. I was told before hand that I did not need to call any of the Infernal hierarchies, except of course, the King of Air.

When I whispered the words to invoke the Shadow, I felt hot and there was a pressure building up. Just as with Raphael, I began to chant. I was still singing, but not vibrating, the name. King Amaymon was there even before I was finished chanting his enn.

I uncovered the alcohol, and welcomed King Amaymon. The Kings are only to be called on important occasions, and received very well. Amaymon is, in some ways, the Black Sun, and possibly an avatar of Lucifer.

He graciously accepted my offer. I saw nothing, though the image that comes to mind is a figure dressed in pitch black robes, so dark that no light reflects, with dark blueish eyes and hair, wearing a dark metallic crown.

If archangel Raphael represents the beauty of the Sun, then Amaymon rules over the Black Sun. Overcoming the Black Sun, and resisting it is integral for any Magician to truly reach adept-hood. The usual symbol of the Black Sun is the Sonnenrad. It is a Nazi symbol, not a pagan one as many New Agers claim. But this is no co-incidence, because they are an example of a group that was completely consumed by the Black Sun. The spirit of rebellion is a powerful force, but as Nietzsche once stated:

“Beware that, when fighting monsters, you yourself do not become a monster… for when you gaze long into the abyss. The abyss gazes also into you.”

I requested Amaymon to open the Eastern gate. This would let loose the “dark” side of Air, that needs to be tempered and integrated. If Air is the element of the mind, representing Liberty and Knowledge, then it’s dark side is Rebellion and Transgression. It can be a destructive force that levels civilisations, but when integrated and channeled to serve the Divine Will, it becomes the force that breaks the shackles of deception, ignorance and delusion. It breaks the chains of conformity that keep us bound. But anyone who doesn’t know what they are doing, should not invoke these energies, lest he become unbalanced and be consumed by his own Shadow. The Kings of the Quarters will open the gate if you ask them, without regard to how you will handle it. But a divination I had done before told me I was prepared.

I think Amaymon even asked “are you sure”, to which I said yes. I got the impression that the Gate was opened.

The moment this happened, I felt energies so strong, I suddenly had the thought that I may pass out. I hadn’t eaten anything, and suddenly got very dizzy. I felt my stomach drop, and I began to sway. The energy continued to build up, but I was being told to hold on, and to brace myself. So I did, for as long as I could. For a scary moment, I genuinely thought I would faint. You know that light headed feeling right before you loose consciousness? When your mind goes blank and all you want to do is lie down and close your eyes.

But then I recovered my composure. The energy swirled around me, I made a gesture as if breaking chains that were around me. I said a short prayer, and then pushed this intense energy into the talisman.

As is tradition, I used the salt, water, incense and feather to consecrate the Talisman in all 4 elements, and proclaimed it’s purpose. I used the Rose Cross, and the name YEHESHUAH YEHOVASHAH to seal it.

The Rosy Cross Sigil, for protection and sealing.

The Kings can open the Gates, but I needed to close the Eastern gate myself, using the Rose Cross again. Then, I began the various thanks and farewells to all the Gods I had called, and finished with banishing all the forces I had invoked and giving a license to depart to any lesser spirits.

I instinctively waved my hand about, as if dispersing energies, because I still felt a lot of stuff around. Finally, the ritual ended.

Sometimes, though rarely, I use a Tarot deck to gauge the relative ‘power’ of a ritual. This is a pretty crude method, and does not show the efficacy of the ritual, only how much energy was generated. But, I still asked the archangel Raphael to tell me how powerful the ritual was, on a scale of 1-10. Then I pulled out an 8. All in all, a pretty good ritual!

Now, ironically, the ring is way too narrow for my finger. Ha. Probably should have checked beforehand. But I can still slip it around the little finger, and it tingles where it touches the skin. It does work very well.

And that’s it for now. So remember to check out the new Instagram page (@whiteravenmagus). If you liked what you read, be sure to follow my blog, and share it with anyone who may enjoy it as well.

Until Next Time
~White Raven

What “Enlightenment” means within The Occult

May 18, 2020May 20, 2020Posted in UncategorizedTagged buddhism, ceremonial magick, enlightenment, hermeticism, hinduism, initiation, kabbalah, magic, magick, mysticism, new age, religion, satanism, shamanism, spirituality, witchcraft1 Comment

Greetings. I’m back.

Now I know what you’re thinking, “Raven, you said you’d write more regularly. It’s been nine months“

Well, I don’t have much to say. I have no excuses. Without going into too many details, my country was undergoing…economic turmoil. I was not in the best state of mind to write about spiritual matters, and sometimes it’s better to stay silent than say thing you don’t mean because of anger or frustration. I get a lot of emails from people who put a great deal of faith in what I say, and I don’t plan to give anyone bad or misleading information. By the way, I read all your messages and emails, although I cannot reply to all, and I’m thankful to everyone who writes in.

But anyway, here we are again.

Western, Eastern and Modern Ideas of Enlightenment

When I say the word “Enlightenment”, there’s one of three ideas that comes to your mind. First, the most common concept of ‘Nirvana’ that comes primarily from Buddhism, though it has merged to some degree with Hindu and Sikh asceticism. You may think of the myraid of ‘gurus’ parading around with long beards, decked out in orange or white clothing, and teaching really generic “spirituality” to the masses. Many of these dudes either run shady cults or international bodies that primarily attempt to hold political power (especially in the East). I’m not saying there’s nothing to be gained from them, but it’s simple spiritual practices that is packaged for mass consumption, without deviating too much from the standard norms for thinking.

There are of course, authentic mystics that are said to be enlightened, but they don’t normally have a public presence. Real ascetics, like the ones who live in Varanasi, are following a specific spiritual traditions, much like the rest of us. Many of them are also just weed smoking hippies.

Secondly, you may think of the Western televangelists. Generally, they are part of megachurches and to them “enlightenment” means some kind of experience with God, Christ, or an advanced knowledge of the Scripture. Unlike the ‘gurus’, these preachers make no attempt to sell “spirituality”. To them, ‘spirituality’ and ‘enlightenment’ fall entirely within the dogma of their specific sect. Here, we see “enlightenment” presented as a by-product of institutional power. This has lately been extended to Islamic clerics and certain Rabbis as well.

The Pope and Dalai Llama fall into this category. While I have nothing against them, you must realise that they are basically political leaders of different religions, and are said to be “enlightened” because of this authority, not because of anything they’ve done outside of the religion. According to them, to know scripture is to know God. This applies to Buddhism as much as it does to the Abrahamic religions. I would not call these people spiritual or ‘enlightened’, though maybe people find a sense of comfort in listening to them.

Finally, you may think of the word “enlightenment” in the context of the historical era we call the “Enlightenment”, which followed close at the heels of the French revolution, and was the result of the printing press and democratic attitudes spreading across Western Europe, North America and Japan. The spread of the scientific method, coupled with the liberalization of culture, the introduction of the Parliaments, the Age of Exploration and finally, the Industrial revolution and the subsequent end of Feudalism and Religious authority thrust us into what we now call “modernity”.

On one hand, this “Enlightenment” refers to “classical liberal” values, such as Secularism, Democracy, Equality, Liberty etc. Today we take these for granted, but just 150 years ago people would have told you that only “Enlightened” parts of the world followed this.

On the other hand, people who use this term today refer to scientific, materialistic determinism, often coupled with atheism or at least a rejection of traditional religion, with the statement that “subjective” cultural values like beauty, morality, virtue etc. do not really exist. Ironically, while it has improved our quality of life substantially, it has also made people nihilistic, and given rise to the belief that there is no purpose to life, good or justice in the world and a reason for living. After all, if everything is a man made creation that can be deconstructed, what is the point of anything at all? In the past few years there has been a resurgence of traditional dogma.

I’m not going to give an opinion on how “Enlightened” our current time is, because throughout all of history people have always considered their time to be “enlightened” and the past to be “dark”. 500 years from now, we’ll be the ones with crazy dogmas and “unenlightened” beliefs. And, if you’re even reading this blog, I think it’s safe to assume that you aren’t satisfied with being told you’re an insignificant speck of dust on a ball of rust, spiraling around a failing nuclear reactor that’s hurtling through a pointless abyss.

The Dual “Enlightenment”

Within the Occult, the term “enlightenment” often applies to two things.

First, the act of “being Initiated” is and has always been considered important in the Occult. In fact, various occult schools use the terms “Initiated” and “Uninitiated” to distinguish between magickains and non magickians. Some groups like the O9A took it rather far with the term “kindred” and “mundane”, even encouraging violence, deception and manipulation against the “mundane”. But, although I don’t condone treating anyone as lesser, I can see where the anger and frustration stems from.

Over the years, you’ve heard various terms like the “masses”, “NPCs”, “normies” or just “average people” thrown around, and not just by Occultists. This highlights an important point that this type of Enlightenment isn’t just about belonging to a specific magickal tradition or even being an occultist. But who exactly uses these terms? The Elite? Intellectuals? ‘Smart’ people? These are equally vague terms.

You might say perhaps this difference doesn’t even exist, but it does. And trust me, this isn’t an elitist statement, because I despise elitism.

In my opinion, the first thing that can be attained is “Initiation” or “Adepthood”, and is said to be accompanied by the religious experience. Organised religions try to replicate this through various initiation rituals that members are meant to go through either at birth, or adolescence, or whenever they join. Unfortunately, this means anyone who has undergone a certain ritual or been given a position by a tradition, claims superiority due to being an “Adept”.

Next, comes the state of Niravana or Salvation. In Hermetic Kabbalah, this is reached after an experience called ‘Crossing the Abyss’. People who reach this are often called by various names within religions, like Boddhissatvas, Rishis, Ascended Masters, Saints etc. Such people are often regarded with a near God like status. Many, many pretenders claim to be divine as well.

“Anyone who must say ‘I am King!’ is no true King”
~Tywin Lannister, Game of Thrones

The True Meaning of Initiation

From the point of view of any specific tradition, being Initiated, in my opinion, means that you can now teach that system without guidance.

So when a specific School of Magick insists on going through the process of Initiation, they say it primarily to help you understand and internalize the teachings of that system. You may already be an Adept, but you still need to learn the system.

For example, if reached Adepthood through pagan Witchcraft, you may be great magickian. But if you were to decide to learn ceremonial Magick, you can’t just start from it’s Adept rituals. After all, you need to understand the theory and symbols, and work with them so they actually mean something to you. In the most mundane sense, that it why Initiations exist.

People think becoming an Adept involves having special powers, being more knowledgeable than others, having had some kind of psychic vision, or even a Kundalini awakening. ALL of these may accompany Adepthood, but they aren’t what define it. After all, some people are simply psychically gifted since birth. Some people have early Kundalini awakenings. Some people simply are smarter or more creative than others.

Adepthood comes with independent and original thinking.

I know, sounds cliched, but hear me out. The fundamental difference that people see between Initiated and Uninitiated people is the lack of independent thinking. No one is born with this. In fact, each and every one of us is born into a culture and society that restrains and controls our thoughts and beliefs. Even if you ‘rebel’, as many do, you’re usually just abiding by an alternative and often ‘counter’ culture, which itself is most likely the norm for another culture.

Yes, it’s possible that certain social norms, belief systems and systems work better than others on a cultural level. But there is debate over this and people often become foot soldiers in this culture war, slowly giving over their agency either to their own culture or the new one they’ve adopted. It’s also possible that certain modes of thinking are better for an individual than others. For a highly artistic person, altruistic and liberal beliefs probably help him. For a soldier in the military, traditional notions of hierarchy and duty may be better. My point, it doesn’t matter what is better or worse, but your ability to think for yourself and decide this.

What are the ‘masses’. Put simply, people who do not think for themselves. This is most of the human population. Practically everyone sticks with inherited beliefs and social norms. People have a morality and values that are circumstantial, hence one moment you have people talking about unity and empathy, and the next they’re viciously attacking those who don’t think or look like them. I’ve personally seen people’s beliefs change based on what they saw on the News (but this post isn’t about that)

People repeat the ideas of others without ever challenging them. You may think you don’t, but at some point in your life you definitely have. It’s human nature to be tribal.

“Never underestimate the power of stupid people in large numbers”
~George Carlin
(Funnily, I’m sure people who opposed him thought the exact same thing)

Dr. Jordan Peterson once remarked that most people, were they living in Germany in 1933, would most likely be Nazis. Although many think they would fight against their own society and save the Jews, this is highly unlikely, even in brave and moral people. Like I said, this isn’t about having superior or inferior qualities, but the agency of thought.

Even when a truly transgressive movement emerges, over time it too develops a “group think” that it’s new members simply abide by. Think about Christianity. Think about Communism or Democracy. Each of these were highly radical for their time. Even the very philosophy of Individualism comes with a baggage.

I would like to go in details, but perhaps in a future post. This isn’t the place.

Thinking independently is not something that one is born with or gets by virtue of intellect, knowledge or maturity. It is something you strive for, and in my opinion this is the true meaning of spiritual growth. Everyone, as far as I’m concerned, is moving towards this over the course of their existence. Through the practice spirituality, you slowly begin to care less about what other people think or say, and become more content with yourself. This becomes most evident when you realise that you don’t care about debating with or correcting others, unless it has some real implication. Generally, all that will be achieved is sour the relationship or push the person further into their dogma.

aren’t we all

Ever heard of the axiom “Speech if silver, Silence is Gold” ? The reason magickians don’t go red in the face trying to explain to the others what magick is or convince them that it works, is because they don’t feel the need to tell everyone. Put simply, it doesn’t really matter. This is not apathy, but acceptance of the way things are. It would be far better to improve the world through action, than by arguing with others and endlessly worrying about what the world thinks.

Interestingly, this ties into the values of the Enlightenment era. The scientific method states that nothing should simply be accepted, unless it has been tested and proven effective. Classical liberalism encourages us to live and let live. If you look at history, you’ll see these values didn’t come about in the Enlightenment for the first time, and have existed and evolved since the birth of Civilisation, and often spoken within spiritual and Occult traditions.

The Hermetic Order of the Golden dawn used to insist that the Adept must have three key qualities. Not intellect, nor magick powers. Simply: Persistence, Determination and Humility.

People who are intelligent, or gifted, or rich, or well educated can fail. These things aid people in succeeding, but they do not guarantee success and fulfillment in life. Nor is it that the poor, illiterate, or those who have gone through a lot of hardship always succeed. The only quality common across those who are Adept is their persistence, determination and humility.

When you look at truly great people, you always see that they had a goal that they pursued no matter what, and a strong moral code they lived by. The pursuit of this goal led to failure after failure. But it doesn’t matter how many times they failed, but rather that they continued until success was found.

When you practice magick, you may find that you very quickly start transforming yourself and gaining an edge over others. But we have to constantly remember that we are not superior, or ‘higher’ than others. You have to treat even “lowly” people with respect.

I’m not making a case for pacifism, meekness or servility. Certainly, if someone crosses you, you have to deal with them firmly. Never turn yourself into an unwitting martyr. It’s okay to want things, it’s okay to have desires and ambition, and it’s okay to be aggressive. The Gods favor these qualities. But petty elitism, entitlement, and cruelty toward those who are weak are signs of an inflated Ego. That usually leads to the fall of the Magickian.

The Meaning of Godhood

We have established that the Initiation or Adepthood means the ability to think independently. The key qualities that are sought for in an Adept are humility, persistence and determination.

Most Occult traditions bring about this process through a system of “grades”. Usually, each grade involves rituals, meditations, learning, real world tasks and self analysis. These days, most people self initiate, especially in Western traditions. In Eastern traditions it is still more common to find a teacher.

Every system is different, and it’s not necessary that every person who has achieved a ‘rank’ is actually Enlightened or Spiritual, nor that Initiation can only be attained through this method. The aim is to bring about self transformation.

Every great magickian has only one trait in common, that they truly think for themselves, and would not compromise their principles and values due to social pressure.

The second “enlightenment”, was summed up simply by the Oracle of Delphi:

Know Thyself

Buddhism is the only religion that is the most blunt about how Buddhahood is achieved. It is done through the acquisition of Self Knowledge.

Each person has their own path to this, because each person is unique. The Western traditions call a person’s life path as his “True Will”, and the performance of your True Will is doing the “Great Work”. Hinduism calls it “Dharma” or Duty (in the Bhagavat Gita sense, not Hindu orthodox sense)

These are all simply fancy ways of saying “know thyself”. A person who understands himself, also learns to see himself in others. Each of us will have some degree of insight, and we do various things to increase this. I mean, it is often said that everyone is just looking for love and happiness. Perhaps a better way to put it, would be that everyone is looking for fulfillment.

They want to know what their life means, what they enjoy, whom they are meant to be with, what their profession is supposed to be. “God’s plan” as the Christians put it.

Obscurantism in the Occult has made it seem like ‘Enlightenment’ is some distant, magical privilege afforded only to holy men living in the mountains, or monks living in isolation with nothing but a devotion to God. This is why people allow so called “Enlightened” men and women to take control of their lives, and dictate social norms. This is why people would rather rely completely upon ‘divinely’ inspired scriptures of various political ideologies that promise Utopia, instead of their own intuition and wisdom. Simply put, people do no know themselves, and you cannot trust what you do not know. And so, people seek Divinity in everything but themselves.

Unlike Initiation, there is no specific structure to ‘attain’ Enlightenment’ The simplest way to put it would be to discoverer and follow your unique path. I do not know if everyone’s purpose is Divinely ordained, although I believe this. Even if it isn’t, self knowledge leads the the perception that one is doing what one was meant for, and this brings fulfillment.

As far as I am concerned, Enlightenment means coming to terms with the suffering of life, and then finding something that makes it all worthwhile. If, when my time comes to die, I am not filled with regrets and feel I lived as I was meant to, I think that’s Enlightenment. Sometimes, this means standing against the status quo, and challenging it.

Generally, the Golden Dawn and other such groups stated that integrating the Jungian Shadow and developing a strong moral code, and finally being able to rely completely on your own wisdom, to the point where you do not even need the the symbols of various Occult traditions, is how Enlightenment is achieved. But the point is, it’ll be different for each person, and only each person can know what it means.

It has been described by Western occultists as “the moment where the Individual realises that the entire Universe is speaking to him personally”. The Zen Buddhists speak of ‘spontaneous enlightenment’. In other words, not an elaborate process, but a sudden realisation of Self. Becoming who you are.

For someone, it might mean creating a great scientific invention and for another it may just mean running a bakery in their village. Some enlightened people may develop spiritual powers or take part in the destiny of nations, while others may find fulfillment in gardening or a simple service job. People are different, but, in my opinion, it comes down to Independent Thinking, which then leads to Self Knowledge.

If you can think for yourself, you can act for yourself and do what’s right for you. Over time, you can understand what it is you should do with your life. You can figure this out at 18, or you can figure it out at 50, and then spend the rest of your life pursuing it. This is my interpretation of Dharma.

How to Get On Your Path

First off, I think one should become depolarised. I’ve linked a great video on this topic by Frater Xavier, who explains depolarisation better than I ever could. You don’t have to do “magick” for it, but rituals and meditation certainly helps. Namely, a daily performance of the Middle Pillar Ritual.
A big part of this, as Frater will explain, is learning not to react.

Secondly, learn to be self reliant. During this lockdown, I made an interesting observation. A huge number of people, of all ages, do not know how to perform simple tasks: like cooking, cleaning, and saving money. I suppose I should thank my mother for teaching me everything under the sun. When the lockdown started, and we ran out of Gin, I started brewing alchohol at home using baker’s yeast, burnt bread and a pressure cooker (a Russian drink called Kvass). On the other hand, there were people who are so reliant on immigrant maids cleaning and cooking for them, they can’t even figure out how to make rice.

I’m not trying to pass judgements, but this lockdown brought one thing to everyone’s attention: we simply aren’t self reliant enough: as nations, as communities and as people. We’ve come to rely completely on this interconnected social web that without it, everything starts collapsing. Countries are starting to be forced to open up, even though the virus is still around, because of the very nature of our economy.

I’m not going to say what’s right or wrong, instead I’ll tell you this: this isn’t the first or last time something like this has or will happened. The enormous comfort, peace and prosperity that the world has enjoyed since 1950 is extremely unusual in terms of human history. And let me remind you that everytime things go wrong, people first come after those like us. People like us who are somewhat unusual, do not conform to social norms, have unorthodox beliefs and practices etc. Yeah, we are in an “enlightened time”, but then again, there ARE still countries where ‘witch hunts’ happen. History shows us that things can change radically in just over a decade.

As magickians, we need to learn to rely on ourselves. Learn all basic skills that are needed to live independently. I’m not saying to be detached from society (although some may prefer that), but learn to take care of yourself, so that you aren’t dependent on others. Self reliance is the first Step to Self Knowledge.

Finally, learn. You are part of a vast and complex social network that you were born into. It is not important that you go out and start challenging it, but at least start learning about it. Learn about your religion, your country’s real history, about the political parties you support, what you believe and why. Learn these things without passing judgement, and expose yourself to opposing ideas without engaging it debate or mental justification/retorts. Open your mind, and then open your heart. This is what it means to think for yourself.

And there we go, Enlightenment. It means different things for different people, but the most important thing to remember that it was always supposed to be something the Individual himself can attain, not something rewarded to a few special people.

Until next time.
~White Raven.

Magical Communion with Nature

August 13, 2019November 1, 2020Posted in UncategorizedTagged alchemy, ancient, communion, folk, gods, herbalism, invocation, magic, magick, mysticism, nature, new age, Occult, philosophy, psychadelics, religion, spirituality, talking to plants, the alchemist, witchcraft1 Comment

Have you ever read the Alchemist?

Yes, that one, by Paulo Coelho. Despite being a book that details some supposedly secretive teachings of the Occult and alchemy, it happens to be the most read book in the world (with the only exception being the Bible, but assuming every Christian family and institution owns at least a few, it is difficult to say which book is actually more well read. Consider also, that there’s many different Bibles, but only one standard version of the Alchemist).

Coelho is an open occultist, even going as far as describing himself as a “magician”. Some Occult circles that take themselves a bit too seriously, and hate books like this because they think it’s all wishy-washy and new agey.

The story of The Alchemist uses symbolism and metaphor to explain spiritual philosophy, and perhaps most people assume that Coelho merely uses fantastical imagery and language to make a point. Similar things are ascribed to Nietzsche, Jung, Watts, McKenna and Peterson.

After all, the Occult and spiritual practices are merely psychosomatic processes, right? It’s all just an elaborate form of visualization and self hypnosis. No one really calls on Angels, influences the weather, summons the dead, heals the sick or makes things spontaneously burn, right?

Oh boy, if only you knew.

Anyway, the reason I’m talking about the Alchemist is because it always struck me how Coleho speaks so frankly and bluntly about certain Occult phenomenon that are considered “crazy” by the modern rational mind. Often, if you pick up ANY book on Occultism written in the past 2 centuries, at least the first 100 pages are dedicated to the author desperately and laboriously trying to justify how magick is compatible with modern science. Even Crowley makes this error, where he desperately dumbs down magick just so that it would fit within the archaic and “materialistic” framework of the early 1920s. Even the Kyballion does this, showing a grave misunderstanding of who is actually reading their book, failing to keep with the so eloquent axiom “Don’t cast pearls before swine”.

I never understood the point of this. Books from the early 20th century, which changed occult philosophy to fit into the science of that period, now inadvertently become pseudo-science, because the scientific knowledge of their period was incomplete and has since advanced quite a lot. In fact, if anything, as Science progresses, more and more aspects of older, seemingly “unscientific” Occult wisdom actually get verified. This also makes me wonder if many of the people writing the Books had any practical experience with Occult phenomenon, or if they simply read the theory and attempted to merge it into the existent world view. Or maybe they were simply trying to avoid becoming outcasts, like pagan Occultist before them who disguised their writings as being Abrahamic.

Books from the East are often a bit more open, because Western materialism never truly took hold in most of the Eastern cultures (no, not even in Japan, Russia and Korea). On the other hand, there’s very, very few modern Occult texts from the East. If anything, most recent books on Eastern occultism are written by Western or Western educated individuals. That’s a different can of worms I’m not keen to spring today.

Whatever your opinion be about The Alchemist, the first thing that struck me is that it isn’t based in any fantasy Universe, but in our world. Yet, despite it’s extremely grounded and realistic stories, there are scenes where the protagonist, Santiago, is able to communicate with the Desert, the Sun and the Wind. There are seers and prophets who can see the future. It always throws you off, and Coelho does not attempt to give any further explanation about how everything has a rational explanation, nor attempt to reduce anything to materialism. It is perhaps this reason why many rationalists scorn the book as childish.

Personally, I couldn’t care less what objections they have. I think it’s futile to try and convince people. I don’t claim to understand the exact scientific process behind magick, and perhaps some day in the future science will discover it. Science isn’t some ideology or philosophy, but merely the process and methodology of discovering new knowledge. If something exists, there simply HAS to be some explanation for it, but that doesn’t mean that explanation must adhere to our current knowledge of science.

So it’s up to you how to take what I write. I won’t pretend to make it reasonable, nor reduce everything to psychological processes. usually, I do this in my blog, when I write about invocations and philosophy, but now the subject matter is so complex and unexplored that this is no longer within my capability. I do not wish to make up an untested pseudo-science to explain it, but nor can I pretend that it isn’t real. Those who feel uncomfortable are free to deny it or build up some logic for it.

The Forces of Nature

Nature comprises of many forces. One common way to categorize this is through the traditional system of four elements: Fire, Water, Air and Earth. The other is by applying the classification system of some particular pagan religion (most often the Hellenic, Japanese or Celtic) to distinguish between different types of spirits.

However, as you’ll see, any method of rigid categorization or classification is bad for communing with the Natural forces. It might work when invoking angels or gods, or even calling on elemental forces, but for the forces of nature, we have to adopt a rather older, folk perspective, rather than some universal and global categorization like the modern individual may be used to doing.

But what do I mean by the forces of Nature? Exactly what it sounds like. The winds and the rain, the spirit of the desert, trees and mountains, rivers spirits or plants, fungi or perhaps a specific rock, animals or even rice. Did you know that the Japanese believed there are seven gods living in each grain of rice? ha. (This was apparently the justification given for why rice should be properly chewed. The Occult is often science not yet understood)

Communicating with these forces is possible, but a ritualistic or religious approach is difficult to work with, since these forces are……let’s say “simple”, or “ancient”. Before organised religions and the worship of cosmic forces in the form of idols and symbols, people revered mountains, sacred trees or holy animals. It is a very intuitive and basic process, and varies from situation to situation.

You have to connect to such forces personally, however feels right to you. This is why, when the protagonist of The Alchemist simply gazes upon the Desert and “talks” to it, we feel disturbed or out of our depth. Usually, you would expect some sort of elaborate invocation, some ritual to call on some specific deity that merely resides in the desert, but it’s a lot harder to envision speaking to the “desert” itself.

We as humans have an evolutionary tendency to anthropomorphize things, and for this reason we feel more comfortable with Gods and demons, angels and spirits, fairies and elves. For things like nature, oceans and winds, we often do not worship them directly, but some deities that preside over them. For example, instead of communing with the Rain, we may seek communion with Zeus or Indra.

I do not want to drag this on, so I’ll just say this: communion with the Forces of nature is distinct from communion with Deities presiding overt them, or any particular spirits that dwell over them. They inhabit the material plane.

To anyone who has read anything about evolution, it is extremely obvious that the sentient hominid races are out of place on Earth. Our bodies may have evolved with everything else, but our minds and souls are at odds with everything else, even from a totally materialistic point of view. In a way, if humanity really is a group of beings that have been sent to the Earthly plane to learn certain lessons and achieve certain things, then you could say that that the things we find in nature are the original inhabitants of this plane. That’s why we are the only thing on Earth, and in fact in the entire material Universe, that is not in harmony with Natural law, because it makes us suffer, to the point where the single most recognized motif on our planet, signifies physical suffering.

Communicating with Nature

Communicating with animals is widely accepted, but some would say communicating with plants is not truly possible as they aren’t sentient. Further, it can be said that communication with rocks, rivers, the winds or the land is impossible as these aren’t even living.

And then, you have the people of the Amazon, who somehow figured out how to take two plants that grow totally apart from each other (one containing DMT and the other having an MAO inhibitor), and figured out how to cook them in a very specific manner to produce Ayahuasca, a potent psychedelic substance used for shamanic rituals. If you were ask them how they were able to learn this, they give you ever eloquent answer “the plants told us”.

Update (2020): If you click the link, it’ll take you to Soul Herbs, who have sponsored me on this post. On their website, you can learn more about Ayahuasca, it’s ingredients, legality, as well as purchase some Ayahuasca tea.

They have a Soul, and a consciousness. They have the same life force as us. Perhaps we cannot communicate on a material level, but maybe on some higher plane our soul can touch theirs. Or perhaps we are simply projecting our own internal psyche onto them, but that could be said for any and all interactions, including those with humans.

The ancient Greeks believed in a concept called the noosphere, similar to the atmosphere, hydrosphere and biosphere. The Noosphere was said to be the sphere containing all human thoughts and memories, which would later be fleshed out by Carl Jung as the “Collective Unconscious”. maybe such a concept applies to different forces of Nature too, and everything in the end is part of the Great Collective, which is the Universe, the Brahman, the World Soul.

The most powerful form of communication, with both other humans, and with Nature, is through symbols. These are used everywhere, from marketing to mythology, as they resonate with our subconscious, whcih of course, if the gateway to the Unconscious. Therefore, good communication involves the subconscious, and the same is true for natural forces. You must communicate through symbols, visualization and emotion (similar to a magick Ritual)

How this Communion Is Achieved

A few things are important in order to commune with any force of nature. First, meditation and the ability to enter a trance at will. This isn’t actually hard and will become second nature after some time of daily meditative practice. Through meditation upon any object, that object becomes a medium to enter the World Soul. In more technical terms, when the conscious mind becomes quiet, the subconscious directly.

The second thing, perhaps most important, is emotional clarity. Thoughts belong to the Conscious Mind, the Ego, the Ruach, while Emotions belong to the Subconscious mind, the Animal Self, the Nephesch. Women are naturally more in tune with the subconscious (while men are with the conscious), and this may be the reason why most witches and those who commune with nature end up being women. Of course, it is fairly easy for a man to achieve this same communion if he can be in touch with his emotions.

To interface with nature, you must sit in meditative and passive state of mind, ideally around or at least in view of what you want to communicate with. Then, slowly, open yourself up. Imagine you are interacting with another person. You know how you sometimes converse with the voice in your head? Do that, but don’t make the voice speak. Instead, call forth the thing you want to communicate with, and allow it’s mind into you, and your mind into it. This might take sometime, and might have to be repeated over days. Usually, it’s good to do it with something you already know and recognize, and are familiar with, like pets or house plants. Meditate on the thing, and eventually it shall ‘speak’.

You don’t have to force it, or ‘try’ to do something. In the Alchemist, the protagonist is a shepherd from the mountainous region of Andulas. He travels to Egypt, and spends many days in the desert, slowly learning it’s ways, it’s laws and it’s mentality, and becoming immersed. He could, of course, have done the same to the mountains back home, but maybe he was so busy with his routine he never had the chance to pay attention. He begins to understand that the Desert itself is an entity, a thing that functions according to certain mechanisms (very similar, in fact, to most “living” biological organisms).

At one point, he is captured by tribesmen, and manages to escape by transforming himself into the Wind, which he achieves by spending three entire days staring at the Desert, until it speaks to him. Much more could be said here, but not today.

It is our obsession with our mundane life which stops us from noticing the phenomenon taking place around us. You will recall hat, for our ancestors, who had much more free time, to notice supernatural occurrences (not having immediate access to entertainment all the time, they simply payed attention.

The most reliable force of nature that one can commune with is the fungal intelligence of the Earth, and this is done through the consumption of psychedelics. To some degree, it can also facilitate communication with plants. However, this isn’t a post about that, so we won’t discuss it further. Through the meditative methods described here, one can access the fungal intelligence without psychadelics too.

Once, in a lucid state, I communed with the fungal network of mycellium that spreads across the entire planet. It was incredibly profound, but when it was over I could no longer recall exactly what I felt. Only a sense of enormity and humility remained.

Most forces of nature will grant wisdom or insight, or just a general look into their world. Sometimes, if you are lucky, you can do the things that are spoken off in ancient tradition; stories of great Masters who could cause the wind to blow, the rain to fall, water to freeze, who could see the future and the mechanisms moving the celestial bodies.

These are not to be thought of as “powers”. You are not controlling nature. Rather, you have been graced by the presence of something greater and it’s important to remain humble and thankful when this happens. Generally, you don’t ask for such things for personal benefit, but with pure intent. A magician may bring about rainfall, not because he wishes to affirm his status or test his power, but because he wants relief for the land and it’s inhabitants from the burning heat of Summer. Sometimes, it may occur when he is doing a ritual, and he will see it as some sort of Divine acknowledgement.

Also, eliminate doubt from your mind. any doubt, or conceptions of egotistical grandeur, or even any pretense of being better than you are, will stop the process.

A Simple Exercise

Do this. Go to a plant, preferably one at your house that you water daily. if you don’t have one, find out outside or get one. For a couple of days, when you take a break from daily work, go and sit with the plant/s and relax. Calm yourself, and meditate. Pay attention to the plants, and focus on their many intricacies, mannerisms, and imagine what life must be like for them.

Do this daily, maybe for 10-15 minutes. When you feel a level of comfort and normalcy, try to initiate a dialogue. Touch the plant if you have to, and call on it to speak with you. If you can go deep enough into the subconscious, you will hear their voice. Through such a connection, there’s a huge amount of wisdom to be gained. Trust me, it’s very real. It’s a distinctive state of consciousness to enter into the collective unconscious of plants (which can occur through invitation, after repeated communion is achieved). You begin to understand their point of view, and they may also understand yours. Remember, they are not absolute or holy. Take everything as it is, and converse like you would with a friend.

Honestly, they have a bit of animosity towards humanity, because they cannot understand our worry and obsession with life, but it won’t be directed at you. Besides, “hatred” is a very human emotion.

Got that? Good, now go ahead and try it.Eventually you should be able to call upon higher forces, like the land, the winds, rain, the clouds, the storms.

These are not things that I can “instruct” you in through the written word, mainly because I can’t describe it myself. I can point the way, but beyond that it’s all personal development.

Remember to follow this blog for more content. You can also follow me on Instagram @WhiteRavenMagus

Until next time
~White Raven

The Pentagram and Its Many Meanings!

August 3, 2016July 24, 2020Posted in UncategorizedTagged Angel, devil, evocation, five pointed, god, guide, hermeticism, invocation, kabbalah, LHP, magic, magick, new age, Occult, pagan, pentagram, religion, RHP, ritual, seals, solomon, Spells, spirit, spirituality, wicca, witchcraft14 Comments

Written August 3rd, 2016 | Edited: 6th March 2019

Of all the symbols associated with magick and the occult, the pentagram is the most popular and recognizable, almost the emblem of Magick. And even as all the occult symbols infiltrated and found a place in the mundane world, the pentagram was above all else, as it is the common symbol for perfection, and even found on the flags of nations, both communist and capitalist. When little kids draw space in art class, they use the Pentagram for stars, and the Pentagram is what dominates the Walk of Fame. Several religions have also incorporated the symbol throughout history, and it has it’s origins all the way back in Mesopotamia. It was eventually co-opted in both Persia, and Rome, and lived through till the Byzantine era. later, the Turks would conquer Byznatium and adopt it, and it would be carried to all corners of the world. The symbol itself is archetypal, and several different meanings have been denoted to it over the millenia.

But what is the true meaning behind this famous and popular symbol? Like all symbols in Sacred Geometry, the Pentagram has several layers of information encoded into it. Much of this information transcends into higher planes, and the Pentagram might just be the lower visual manifestation of some profound higher thing. But anyways, today I’ve made a handy list of the multiple meanings on the Pentagram, as well as the inverted version of it, so you don’t have to read a hundred different sources to understand all the different associations. This isn’t an exhaustive list, just the different interpretations offered by different branches of the Mysteries.

Note: Pagans sometimes use the word Pentacle, but Pentacle refers to vast range of symbols. So, when I say Pentagram, I mean five pointed Star. I’d actually suggest against using the word Pentacle. For example, all the Seals of the Greater Key are referred to as “Pentacles”.

In Sacred Geometry

The symbol of the Pentagram is part of sacred geometry, meaning it is made of very exact and precise proportions which are considered holy.

“God is the Great Geometer of the World”

Although “Pentagram” refers to only the star itself, it is generally depict it enclosed in a circle. While this circle is very important, just the star itself is sufficient.

The Pentagram, naturally, adheres to the Golden Ratio, and is constructed on five straight lines. The regular pentagon is the middle is 108 degrees at each inward angle. The Isometric triangles on the outside are 72 degrees on the base and 36 degrees at the top. If you joined all five corners of the star, it would also form a regular pentagon. The star itself can be divided into many other pentagrams.

And if you want to draw one, you can do so easily with a compass or protractor, or even straightedge. So there you have it, a bit of math of those interested. I know I hated math, but this info is useful if you ever need to construct or draw a Pentagram, which is very likely for magicians. All the numbers used in it’s construction: 36, 72, 108, are sacred numbers, most commonly used in Judaic and Hindu mysticism.

The Unity of the Five Elements

This is the most important meaning of the pentagram, which is Universal, regardless of which philosophy or tradition you follow.

In Kabbalah, the top left hand represents Water, then going clockwise it is Fire, Earth, Air. The top hand represents their sum total as Spirit.

Put very simply, the Pentagram= Air+Water+Fire+Earth= Spirit. And since everything is created of the elements, the Pentagram represents the sum of everything in the cosmos, aka the All/Divine, as well as the mirror image of it, which is Man, who hosts the Spirit.

Often, the circle around it can be interpreted as the material/manifest world, in which all 5 elements are contained and restricted, or the Divine Unity which binds all together.

As Tetragrammaton

The letters YHVH, pronounced Yehovah or Yahweh, is the Hebrew name of the Divine. These days it has become corrupted as “Jehaovah”, the patron deity of Israel and the God of the Judeo-Christian tradition. But the original mystical name YHVH does not refer to a specific deity with human attributes. It’s is a mystical name, made from the Hebrew letters Yod-He-Vav-He.

Each letter represents one of the four elements, Yod is the sacred Fire, with He being Water, and the Womb of the Great Mother. Vav is Air, or the Son born from the Union of the Male (fire) and Female (water). The second/last He is the Lesser Mother, or Bride of Vav, representing Earth. YHVH = Fire Water Air Earth.

This name, YHVH, is called Tetragrammaton, and so the Pentagram represents Tetragrammaton, as you can tell from the above discussion. I write this separately because there are multiple symbols that are used for the Tetragrammaton, not just the Pentagram, but the Pentagram itself is the sum of all elements, which IS Tetragrammaton. This might not be making a lot of sense to those of you who are new to magick, but try to keep up. You’ll understand eventually.

When the Tetragrammaton is depicted as a Pentagram, is often looks like this (as far as I know, the first depiction like this was by Eliphas Levi).

As you can see, the Pentagram is combined with other symbols to give the full meaning. The figure of Tetragrammaton is what is used as one of the Seals of Solomon.

So in simple terms, the Pentagram represents The Divine, or rather when the Divine is depicted as Tetragrammaton, the symbol for it is the Pentagram.

You might notice that the Pentagram is five pointed but YHVH only has the four elements. There is VERY long and complex reason for that, laboriously conceived by our great mages of the Golden Dawn, who perhaps enjoyed tedious and mind numbingly long thought experiments. I won’t go into it here, it’s not important if you just want to understand the Pentagram.

But for what it’s worth, the five lettered name is YHSVH, with the letter Shin representing Spirit. The name then spells Yeheshuah, and that is the original Hebrew name of Jesus.

(mind blow?)

By the way, that is why the old symbol of the Five Wounds of Christ was an inverted Pentagram, before it’s association with Satanism. There’s literally medieval Churches which have the Inverted Pentagram in their spires.

As A Symbol for Man/Spirit

Now that we’ve established that the Pentagram represents the sum of all elements, and the Divine. However, Man is said to be the reflection of the Cosmos too. You may have heard how God made Man in his image, and also that God dwells within us. This, the Pentagram becomes a symbol for the Human Spirit (which is basically the same as the Divine). This is best captured in Hinduism, where Brahman (The Cosmos) and Atman (the Soul) are considered identical.

“As within, So without”

(Note: For anyone actually confused when I say Man, I also mean Women. Please no bully)

Man is made of the four elements, together form and house the Spirit. This is the pentagram. One might say that the spiritually awakened man, who has the five elements working in harmony within him is the Pentagram. Each element can be represented with separate symbols too. For Earth (the physical body), the symbol if the Cross.

An interesting depiction of this is Leonardo Da Vinci’s Vitruvian Man, where you see a person eagle spread in the form of the Pentagram, representing the Five elements, superimposed on a person standing with his arms out and tilted upwards in the form of the Cross (or specifically, the form of a man hanging on the Cross, known to the Christians as the image of the Crucification), representing the material body of Man. (Of course, this image itself has it’s own multitude meanings, as does the Cross).

While performing the LBRP, which is a basic ritual in ceremonial magick, this posture of the Pentagram is assumed at the end by the magician, to invoke the five elements within him. The Pentagram is both the Microcosm (Man) and the Macrocosm (The Cosmos)

EDIT (2019): According to Da Vinci himself, this symbol shows Man has the perfect blueprint of the Universe, made in the Golden Ratio (this is his official definition. He was definitely an Occultist). I won’t break down the image here, but it’s got some very strong symbolism. According to me, he is showing the Mundane, that is the Earthly vessel of Man, as well as the Sacred, the Awakened Man, as the same being. Or perhaps, like the symbol of Christ, he wants to show the emergence of the Awakened Man upon Crucifixion of his flesh. This is the same concept shown in Hinduism by the Lotus emerging from the mud.

Secondly, I should mention that the Pentagram enclosed in the circle represents Man, and so it is used as the symbol for the Earth element in many traditions. When I say “symbol” I mean implement. For example, in the Golden Dawn, Fire is represented by a Wand, Air by a Dagger, and Water by a Cup. The element of Earth is often symbolized a wooden Pentacle. Although the actual Pentacle has a Hexagram on it, it is depicted with a Pentagram on tarot cards.

Lady Venus

Venus is the Goddess of Love and Fertility, called the Morning/Evening Star. The Pentagram is closely associated with her as well, and this might be why we use it to depict stars in general. It should be noted that Venus rules over fame, drama, music and the arts. This is probably why the Pentagram is the symbol of celebrities and stardom.

If you look at the orbit of the planet Venus throughout the cycle of 8 years in the Earth’s sky, you will see it traces a rough Pentagram shape.
There is a lot of astronomy and math behind this, which I wont claim to fully understand. Google it if you want.

EDIT (2019): The Pentagram is not the Kabbalistic symbol of Venus. That would be the Seven sided star, or Heptagram. Nonetheless, the Five Pointed Star is a powerful and important symbol of the Sacred feminine.

When we are talking about Venus, we often mean the “lesser” aspect, known to the Greeks as Aphrodite Pandemos. This is the well known Goddess of Love, Sex, and fertility. This is the Heptagram Venus. This Venus, in Hellenic mythology, was the daughter of Zeus.

However, Venus is also the symbol of the Sacred Feminine itself, in it’s higher aspect. This Venus, known in Greece as Aphrodite Ourania, was born from the castrated phallus of Uranus falling into the Sea (Neptune). This is the ancient aspect known as Ishtar/Ianna in the Middle East, and as Shakti in India. This aspect is rightly symbolized by the Pentagram.

Remember how we discussed at the start that the five pointed Star first emerged in Mesopotamia? Well, in Mesopotaia, it was the symbol of Ishtar, and in Egypt a symbol of Isis. In Rome it was that of Venus, and even later in Christian Byzantine, it was used as a symbol of the Virgin Mary. All of these deities represent the same force.

Ishatr was known as Astarte to the Greeks. Astarte. That’s why the Pentagram is symbol commonly called a “Star”. Mind blown?

Well, the “star” in question, at the time, referred not to the planet Venus, but to Sirius, or the “Tear of Isis”. It was the brightest star in the Sky, and it’s heliacal rising symbolized the ancient Egyptian New Year. The festival is still celebrated in Egypt.

Spirit Over Matter

You might have noticed how each arm of the Pentagram represents one of the elements, but the Spirit is the one on top. While the opposite of each element is depicted on the arm opposite to it, the Spirit, having no opposite, is on top. Even when you see Pentagrams with a different combination of the elements, the Spirit will always be on top.

The reason should be obvious. The Spirit is separate to the other elements. The Pentagram also depicts the message that the Spirit is superior to the material body, hence, “Spirit over Matter”, and here by “Matter” I mean “flesh”, or one’s Earthly life, desires and ambitions.

A thing to note here is that the astrological symbol of Venus also depicts this.

It’s a circle over a cross. Remember what I said about the Circle of the Spirit and how the physical body is shown as the Cross. The Circle is over the Cross, so once again, “Spirit over Matter”. I think it’s interesting how the Pentagram is a symbol of Venus, and the message it contains is contained in the astrological symbol as well.

In magick, it can be said to symbolise the exaltation of Spirit over Matter.

Inverted Pentagram

So, now that we know that the Pentagram is symbolic of Spirit over Flesh, we can see what the Inverted Pentagram stands for.

The Inverted Pentagram is structurally the same as the Pentagram, so it symbolizes the same Unity of Elements, The Spirit but now it is flipped, with the Spirit BELOW the four elements. You know what that means: the Inverted Pentagram depicts “Matter over Spirit”.

The Inverted Pentagram and it’s strange message have their own significance. You’ll be interested to know that the Second Degree of Witchcraft is symbolised by this Inverted Pentagram. I’m not a witch though, so I don’t know what exactly they do in this degree.

The Inverted Pentagram stands for a message that opposes what the Pentagram stands for, and this can be seen in the astrological symbol for Mars, which is the opposite of Venus.

As you can see, this time the Cross of Matter, which is now in the form of an arrow, is above the Circle of the Spirit.

The Order of the Eastern Star, which I believe is the Sisterhood associated with the Freemason Brotherhood, use an inverted Pentagram to show the Union of the elements.

EDIT (2019): In magick, this is the exaltation of Matter over Spirit, and is the opposing counterpart to the normal Pentagram. In this way, the upright Pentagram become the Key to access the Angelic forces above the realm of Matter, while the inverted version is for the Infernal forces beneath Matter (hence why Inferno lies under the surface of the Earth, while Heaven is symbolised as being in the Sky. It wasn’t just primitive people being superstitious. It was symbolic.)

We talked about how the Kabbalistic symbol for Venus was the Heptagram. Well, the Kabbalistic symbol for Mars in the Pentagram. Mars and Venus are strongly connected too. In Kabbalah, the Pentagram would a more male symbol.

I’d love to get into, but Kabbalah is just far too much for this already long article. In Kabbalah, the Pentagram (and the number 5) represent Kinetic energy, or motion. This is perhaps the most clear reason why the Pentagram is used as a symbol for Magick. It is the symbol for invoking any and all spiritual and mundane forces. It is Symbolic of force itself, and magick relies heavily on Invocation and Evocation of forces. It is like a spinning water wheel, helping you harness the latent energy of water and turn it into power. I could go on and on, from one thing to the next.

The Right and Left Hand Paths

The Pentagram and the Inverted Pentagram have been symbols in the occult for a very long time. The distinction was not commonly used by ancient magicians. It is generally seen as a modern new age idea. In ancient traditions, they would have been used together.

Eventually, there was the divide within the occult between the Left and Right Hand Paths. One of the primary differences between the two was whether God was inside us, or outside us. Now yes, I know that there’s a lot more to this, relating to the history of Black and White magick, and a long history of philosophical and ideological struggles, and we can argue about that forever.

But this was the first time the LHP and RHP properly came about. LHP believed that God was inside us, and so we should serve the Self only, so they chose the Inverted Star, which was Flesh over Spirit. This was probably influenced by the founding of atheistic Satanism at the time. The RHP guys said that God was external, a theory which had already been believed by the Church for centuries, and so they believed in serving others, and picked the normal Pentagram, Spirit over Flesh, which they interpreted as serving others before self. And so they argued whether God was within, or without.

One could say that the split was also between Hedonism and asceticism. If the Divine is external, then Spirit must be exalted over Matter. After all, we must sacrifice everything for the greater good. On the other hand, if all Divinity is within, then why not be self serving? Why not exalt the Matter over Self?

EDIT (2019): Lots of angry people have said that I never did justice to this topic here, and I know. This post is about the Pentagram, so I merely give an introduction to the RHP/LHP split in the Occult, and how they each used their Pentagram. It’s just so that new people an have a basic understanding. I myself do not ascribe to either, and follow the Middle path. And the way I see it, this was of thinking is only growing, as the old absolutist worldviews decline.

The Satanic Pentagram

Well, as you know, the RHP/White Magick and the LHP/Black Magick are still two existing streams within magick. I’ve made it clear how I don’t buy into that idea, but I still have to admit that they’re there. And obviously, even though the utterly polarized Serving Only Others vs Serving Only Self thing is more or less gone, an ideological divide over various other issues still exists, particularly over White and Black magick. The Inverted pentagram has a more common symbolism associated with it.

You’re probably familiar with it: it’s the image of a Goat head, which is Satan, superimposed on an inverted Pentagram with an outer circle that has five characters, which, which spell Leviathan. It is often called the Satanic Pentagram.

This is the symbol for the religion of Satanism, which today is an atheistic, philosophical religion present largely in the USA. The philosophy and ideas they believe in are also present within the LHP, and so this symbol has also become an emblem for many Black Magicians. The symbol of the inverted Star now represents the collective ideologies of the LHP, as the normal Pentagram sometimes represents the ideologies of the RHP.

I don’t mean that people will always show it with the goat head, and most of the times you’ll simply see an inverted Pentagram, but this does not simply mean “Serve only Self” anymore, but instead represents the ideas and beliefs that the LHP stands for, as oppossed to the ideas and beliefs of the RHP, which are often depicted by stylised variations of the the Pentagram, which also no longer really means “Serve only others”. I’ll leave it at that.

Remember again how the Inverted Star is linked to Mars. Well, Mars rules the sign of Aries, and it’s symbol is the goat head.

EDIT (2019): I should say that this largely affects modern traditions, especially those derived from the New Age. The way I see it, true, complete and authentic traditions reject ideologies entirely, accepting that the world is complex and each person must chart his own path.

You may object, but I personally hold that the LHP/RHP split is superficial. There is only one Magick, one force. Duality is ever present, and we must live in it, but it comes form the One.

Secondly, I say that no perspective is totally correct. I venerate both dark and light Gods, and respect the Gods and practices of others. To me the split is the sign that a practitioner is still polarised and blinded by himself. When I originally wrote this article, I was not confident enough to make such a statement. But now I am. This is not the fault of people, because they simply have not experienced the spiritual process fully yet. Suffering teaches empathy, and empathy leads to an end of polarity.

Elemental Pentagrams

The Pentagram is used to invoke forces. We established this before.

Within a ritual setting, the Pentagram can be used to represent each of the other four elements as well. This depends of exactly which of the five points you begin tracing from, and which direction you go:

So, in short, there is an Invoking and Banishing Pentagram for each of the four elements, making 8, and 4 for Spirit, both for passive and active, making 12. Technically, these Pentagrams can be used to Invoke and Banish pretty much all magickal forces, depending on how they are used. This is the primary use of the Pentagram for the magician. You will see it in a variety of rituals.

Concluding Note

As you can see, the Pentagram has a vast plethora of encoded and acquired meanings. You will often see people use it in different ways and give a different explanation for it, and remember, over time it may very well acquire even more meanings and associations. In this article I tried to give as clear an understanding as I could manage, starting simple and slowly building up the layers. I follow the Hermetic Kabbalah, so I have a bias towards the Kabbalah in general. There’s probably more about Pentagrams that I missed out. As I discover them, I shall continue to edit and update this post.

EDIT (late 2019): Yeah that’s not really happening. While I updated each post on this blog this year, any new ideas, experiences or insights I have will always be written as new posts. I hate changing old work, but I also don’t like bloating them with extra content. Remember, when on my blog, always read the latest post, and you’ll know where I currently stand on most things. For one, I can actually write now without spelling errors, and in more eloquent prose. At the very least, I no longer sound like a 19th century philosopher. Now I just sound like a 20th century philosopher!

Who knows, maybe we’ll get to the 21st one day. Lol amirite mah dudes. #sorelatable #pepedidnothingwrong #ihatehashtags. But I think I might scare away all my older, sophisticated readers in their 30s and 40s. You know, millenials 😛

All symbols in the occult have many meanings built on top of one core meaning, such as the unity of five elements in this case, but even that is a condensation of many things into one symbol, and the end result is a huge amount of energy contained in a single symbol. That is why these are called Symbols of Power. They too follow the Law of Rhythm, and over time grow, evolve and adapt, growing in power, influence and popularity. They are archetypal.

So remember, whatever the Pentagram means to you, it may mean something else to another person, and both of your interpretation is as valid as the other.

Well that’s it for now. Be sure to follow the blog. You can also follow me on Instagram @WhiteRavenMagus

EDIT 2020: As of July 2020, I’ve written a new book on the Tree of Life and Kabbalistic theory. I’m quite proud of it, and you can check it by going to the Books tab, or clicking right here.

Until we meet again

~White Raven

A Powerful Invocation of Lucifer [Pt 3]

June 29, 2016July 24, 2020Posted in UncategorizedTagged Angel, demon, devil, evocation, expereince, god, invocation, lucifer, luciferian, magic, magick, new age, Occult, pagan, religion, satan, solomon, Spells, spirit, spirituality, white raven, witchcraft, worship24 Comments

Written July 29th, 2016 | Edited: 4th March 2019

Part One | Part Two

Interactions with the Morning Star

So I began with the standard greeting you normally give spirits, and went ahead with the ritual. I first asked him for help with some personal things, which he readily agreed. He behaved not like a Goetic demon, meaning there was no pact involving “I’ll do this for you, and in return you give me this”, but rather like a Greek deity. As you know, you don’t barter with those Gods. Instead, you revere them, and make frequent offerings, and every now and then, ask for things in return. You won’t incur their wrath if you don’t always repay every wish with a offering (although this depends on the God. Lesser Gods can be wrathful, but “true” Gods don’t). Anyone who’s pagan will understand.

Perhaps he is a Greco-Roman deity after all, rather than a Abrahamic Demon. Or maybe that’s just how I perceived him. To be honest, I was too overwhelmed with emotion to say much. He did say though “don’t get swayed by emotion! be calm and in control”.

I continued talking to him. He had a hell of a lot to say. I don’t think I’ve ever had such a long invocation before. He talked endlessly for about an hour, and I wrote down everything. That’s probably why this post is so big, but then again, the Bringer of Knowledge will obviously end up imparting lots of knowledge. That’s what he’s known for. Let me write some of the generic things he said, that he’d want publicly shared. You may have heard some of these before.

“When you’re indulgent, carefree, fun and loving, you become a beacon and everyone is attracted to you. These are what make some shine and stand out, and be adored..”

“Call on me, and you shall have what you want…”

“Indulgence, euphoria, relaxation, sex, light, attraction, charm..I am in all of these..”

“Control your emotions”

“To an extent, I am of Pluto. I am also of the Sun, Venus, Mars and Neptune, and even the Moon. All planets, in fact..”

“No I don’t hate humanity. I find you amusing…”

Did he hate Mikhael? The moment I asked this, I swear I heard a laugh to my right (the direction in which Mikhael is invoked during LBRP), but I was in a trance so I can’t be sure. Lucifer too seemed somewhat amused. Seems this question comes up a lot.

“None can hate Mikael. We are on the same side, but our energies don’t mix. Water and oil do not mix, but would you say they hate each other?…
He is Seraphim. You don’t mess with them..
I love him as a brother. We really were brothers in one life, you know, but now we are transcended..
We may have taken physical bodies many times, and even fought..”

Then again, I also fight with my brother. All brother fight, don’t they. Who else are you gonna try your mettle against? (These are metaphors anyway for deeper mysteries).

“We did fight, but we are not enemies. On the plane we are on, hate, anger, pride and jealousy are meaningless..”

At one point he asked me if I was tired from writing. I started to say, “ok i’ll end the ritual”, and he was like “That was a question! I did not give you leave to quit. Are you tired? Or will you continue? It’s your choice, you are the master of this circle!” That was his drill sergeant side. I decided to continue.

(Once again, stunningly similar to Mikhael)

I asked what he was to the Goetia.

“I am to them, like a god and overseer!”

“I create, I destroy..”

“I like fine things, like poetry, prose, art and such. I also like brewing and cooking..”

And I was hit with a bizarre image of Lucifer in a kitchen, with an apron, chopping veggies.

“Yes, I am an Angel, mighty and ancient! At first, you did not know me, and you were afraid. Fear binds you to your plane, but where I am, there is no fear..”

What is your opinion on all those who fear and shun you as the Devil?

“I want them to fear me. It is my job to scare the weak and ignorant. Only he who overcomes this fear, may glimpse at the light that is me…
My kingdom is light and wisdom. The ignorant fear wisdom, like rats in sewers fear the light. One must strive to overcome this fear, or my presence will burn away his senses and shatter his small and narrow system of petty beliefs, superstitions and mindless morals. I am of Pluto! I transform ignorance to knowledge, but I will shatter the ego of those too stubborn to accept knowledge…
Thus, I masquerade as the Devil, to protect those who are not spiritually ready. They rely so much on their ego, doubt and arrogance, that if I shatter it, they will be lost”

EDIT (2019): You will notice here, that this statement was tinged with an pride unique to Solar spirits. It is in their nature, so usually you don’t question it. What Lucifer meant here is actually fairly common knowledge. Human beings have deeply rooted belief systems, and if these collapse, everything in their lives falls apart. This is the reason most Occult orders warn against premature revelation of Knowledge, and why even I am careful what I write on a public blog. Even in my own self initiation, things are revealed to me slowly, like “droplets from an ocean into the body of time”. Even I, at times being suddenly shown the falsity of my own actions or thoughts, have felt myself collapse internally, and felt bitter, angry, alienated, or nihilistic. Magicians usually have the strength to work through such periods, like Job, or Arjuna. But many people don’t, and like Cain they become bitter and resentful. Lucifer said this in his capacity as a mighty God of the Zodiac.

However, for human beings (or more specifically, magicians) it is not the right frame of mind to have, to shun the “weak” or the “ignorant”. Fundamentally speaking, all magicians and occultists are bound to the same limitations as all humans. Even if it is true, that we are somehow greater than them, I have found through personal experience that raising yourself on a pedestal leads to nothing but isolation, suffering and being cut off from the Higher Self. One of the teachings of the Golden Dawn is humility. Don’t look down on others. Everyone is suffering, even the demons and angels and gods. Suffering is constant. And everyone tries their best. There’s something extremely evil about dismissing someone who is doing their best to be up to your standard, as “lesser”.
Trust me, I’ve seen remnant traces of the caste system, belonging myself to the Brahmin caste, and what such beliefs do to people. The sense of entitlement that comes from belonging to a “pure” of “high” bloodline like tear your humanity apart.

/endrant.

“I like Luciferians, but I wish they’d talk to me more”

If you don’t know, many Luciferians are atheists and don’t actually believe in Lucifer, or magick in general. They think it’s all an illusion of the mind. I’ve dealt with many theistic Luciferians though. In general, I respect them, even the atheistic ones. Although I am more rooted in tradition and orthodoxy, I can understand the need for a rebellious current. I also partly tap into that rebellious current.

“For me, burn fat in a container of gold, or a candle which is yellow or white. Sing, dance, indulge and create! Let there be celebrations! Reject all oppression, liberate yourself from fear through knowledge.”

“Party hard. Partying means doing that which you love, not just drinking and pleasuring (unless one enjoys that the most)”

“Destroy ignorance wherever you see it, and seek knowledge”

Destroying ignorance is not the same as destroying the ignorant. That’s the fine line between the Just and the Tyrannical.

“He who is happy, has found the answer”

The candle burned for 13 hours straight. This is interesting because normally ghee lamps burn for a few hours.

Post Invocation

As he said, he will give you what you want, and very quickly. But it works only with things you truly want, things you REALLY desire, especially material things, so please don’t go begging Lucifer to get you a girlfriend or asking him to fulfill petty whims and fancies that you can easily do yourself or with your own magick.

Imagine you’re out shopping, and you really need something, but can’t find it, even after searching in multiple shops. You don’t even need an altar or circle. If you simply call out and ask Lucifer to give that thing to you, chances are it’ll show up in the next five minutes, or in the next few hours at most. Lucifer is very quick and gives you what you really want or need. In exchange, set out nice food or beverages for him from time to time, draw him or compose poetry or music in his honour. Or just burn candles. Whatever you’d normally do for a pagan god.

Most invocations will have a positive impact on your life, but this one had a specifically material one!

So in short, Lucifer’s specialty is granting your deepest desires, particularly material, and very quickly, and teaching you things that will help you broaden your mind or stuff that’ll make you an interesting person.

He is a great deity to work with if you’re experienced.

Thank you for reading. Please be sure to follow the blog for more content. You can also follow me on Instagram @WhiteRavenMagus

EDIT 2020: As of July 2020, I’ve written a new book on the Tree of Life and Kabbalistic theory. I’m quite proud of it, and you can check it by going to the Books tab, or clicking right here.

Until Next time
~White Raven

Personal Opinions on Lucifer, Written 2019

So, it has been about 3 years since I wrote this post. Over this time, this has been one of the most popular topics on the blog, and many people have contacted me specifically asking about Lucifer. I thought I should make some clarifications.

My opinions on Lucifer are still more or less the same. He is a Solar deity, and most of the association are still there. By now I’ve realised that even the story of his Rebellion and Fall from heaven tie into the symbolism of the Sun/Tiphareth. In the Microcosm, the Mind is associated with Lucifer. It is the vibrant, sparkling light that guides us in the darkness, and the gateway to all knowledge. However, there is the ever present tendency of Man to become infatuated with his own Mind, much like the tendency of Lucifer to forget that he is also part of the Cosmic Plan, of the One. Thus, Lucifer become a reservoir of the the rebellious energy that destabilizes Order, and creates Chaos. This is neither good nor bad, but contextual. In an oppressive Tyrannical system, it is precisely this energy that is needed for the liberation of the Individual. The Individual MUST see himself has exalted above the group, as special and powerful in order to stand a chance against Tyranny. Perhaps this is why most people drawn to Lucifer come from a fundamentalist Christian background.

However, in a different situation this same energy can lead to the collapse of Civilization. In a free, liberated society, Chaos simply causes degeneracy, alienation and the breakdown of tradition and order. Even if a magician feels he does not need these things, he must not forget about the countless people who rely on it. They are not lesser just because they are seemingly weak.

In such a case, the energy of Lucifer becomes dangerous, and often it is the Orderly and disciplined energies (such as Mikhael/Michael) that are needed for people to make sense of things, and have structure and meaning in Life. Perhaps this is why the reverence of Archangel Michael is so common in the regions of the world where there is currently a lot of uncertainty, such as high crime rates or lack of trust of the government.

Lucifer is what he is. It is dependent on the situation of the Magician to decide whether that is what is needed. Generally, the darker spiritual forces, like Lucifer, Kali, Samael etc. bring Feminine Chaos, while the lighter forces, like Mikhael, Indra, Christ, bring Masculine Order. The key is to balance the two forces, like the ancient Taoist wheel of Yin and Yang.

Those are some of my reflections on this topic.

A Powerful Invocation Of Lucifer [Pt 2]

June 29, 2016March 1, 2019Posted in UncategorizedTagged Angel, demon, devil, edgy, evocation, expereince, god, guide, invocation, lucifer, magic, magick, new age, Occult, pagan, religion, satan, Spells, spirit, spirituality, witchcraft, worship6 Comments

Written July 29th, 2016 | Edited: 1st March 2019

Part One

Associations

Great, now that we’re past all that theory, let’s get to the good stuff. People often try to force Lucifer into a single planet, but this is impossible. Lucifer is a very vast and powerful spirit and, almost like the Archangels, and has many aspects and is associated with multiple planets.

I’ve come to find that Lucifer is a spirit of opposites. He is principally a Solar and Plutonain spirit. Those two are polar opposites. I know, Pluto may not be commonly associated with him, but think of his most popular mythology. He was “cast out” of Heaven. All Plutonian spirits have a mythology of loosing something that is rightfully theirs, like Hades and Osiris, but later regain it in some way, either in myth or in their worship. Hell, the Planet Pluto itself was cast out of the Solar System, despite being so important for so long. The archetype of one being cast out of paradise is an ancient one. After all, it is the fundamental and most basic idea that all things in all of creation, from Gods to insects, were “cast out” of the perfect unity and balance of the Supreme One (Ain Soph Aur, not YHVH, which is beneath that), and this is the reason for suffering. The Hermetic philosophers and Vedic Sages both proclaimed this.

Lucifer becomes very important in this era as the Bringer of Light (transformed into an Angel of Light indeed. The Bible was right, lol). The Aquarian current is picking up, and with it comes a breakdown of old, accepted social structures and norms. This isn’t “good” or “bad”. It just is.

Lucifer is also associated with Venus, as the bringer of light, and Mars, as the rebellious Angel and ruler of Hell. Again, two opposite Planets. One might say that the Martian aspect of Lucifer is now the being we call Satan (I do not have personal gnosis of this).

Lucifer also has a Neptunian aspect, as he is very deeply associated with fantasies, drugs and indulgence. I guess, since Neptune is the higher octave of Venus, and Pluto is of Mars, that’s another polarity. Remember, don’t go on about how his myth is “corrupted” and go digging to find his original legends, if there are any. I don’t know why people treat Gods as poor helpless beings whose name got tainted. These are powerful, ancient spirits for crying out loud. They often ensure their mythology gets remembered a certain way, and even change according to people’s beliefs in them. Everything happens for a reason. As Above So Below.

When you invoke him, although he’ll carry all his attributes, his strongest will be based on how you choose to perceive him, and on his post popular mythos at the time. Ideally, you’d want to invoke him in his Solar or Venusian aspect, as the Bringer of Light, his strongest parts, at least these days. Thank all the heavy metal songs, religions, anime and video games created honoring him as the hero (or anti hero) and all the love from pagans and satanists.

So, these is all the stuff he is associated with: Sun, Venus, Neptune, Pluto, Mars, Light, Darkness, Morning, Night, Dawn, Knowledge, Rebellion, Pride, Lust, Charm, Angels, Gold, Silver, Rebirth, Transformation, Alchohol, Drugs, Fantasy, Stoicism, Calmness, Fine Arts, Music, Phoenix, Leo, Lion, Peacock, Yellow, Golden, White, Light Blue.

Lucifer and L.V.X

For those who don’t know, L.V.X is a Golden Dawn formula, used in the Banishing Ritual of the Hexagram. LVX is how you’d write Lux in Latin, meaning Light. It consists of 3-4 poses,one for each letter.

I’m connecting it to Lucifer because of the fact that it means Light, but also something else. If you at Lucifer’s most common seal, you should be able to see pretty easily that it appears to have been constructed from the letter LVX. That’s not just a coincidence.

The upside down triangle also represents Water, and the Sacred Feminine, but also the Chaos that unbalances Order. I feel like the curved lines and the V also seem to represent a goat/ram’s head.

Prep Work for the Invocation

For this invocation, I used the following seals from the Grimoire Verum. One (the ones below) I made from black paper, with silver writing, and another (the one above) on white with a gold seal and then some holy names in red and blue, like you’d do for Angelic seals. I think i captured all planetary energies properly.

I prepared the following incense:
Lemon Grass
Myrrh
Sandalwood
Orange Peel Powder
There was some other stuff, but these were the prime ingredients.

I decided not to use a candle, and instead used a golden (brass) lamp with milk fat (called ghee), the kind people use for Hindu deities. I felt like i should use it, and followed my intuition. Into the liquid ghee, I added 3 drops of some essential oils.

Right before the ritual, I also anointed my temples and eye lids with Fairy Salve.

EDIT (2019): I no longer rely on anointing my eye lids in order to sense spirits. Over time with practice, your psychic senses become more sensitive.

Pre-Ritual Manifestation

A Ritual is complete before it is even done. The actual ceremony is just a formality. When you focus your Will on it, the Spirit you are going to invoke comes to you, and the energy gets stronger and stronger, and so does your intent, until the actual ceremony when it is released from the mind. It is not rare for things to happen in the days leading up to the ritual. The prep for the ritual went very smoothly, and I also came to realise many things in my meditation that would help me in the ritual.

I was out of ghee, so I went to buy some, and I was informed that the ghee which normally came in cartons had been stopped, and replaced by a much nicer looking jar of ghee from a different company. The processed ghee used to be refined, so it was white, but this new ghee was unrefined, and was a golden in colour. To anyone confused, butter that you normally buy is basically salted, frozen ghee.

Here’s the most notable thing: I planned to do the ritual on a Sunday morning, around sunrise. Of course, the hour in which the sun would rise on Sunday would be the hour of the sun. I wanted to start in that hour and end in the next hour of Venus. Now, i’m not a morning person, and I knew that I would not be able to wake up so early (there’s a reason I do all my rituals at night), so I decided to stay up that night. I got to around 4:30, and I’d done all the prep. It was a little while until dawn, so I thought i’d rest my head for 15 minutes or so. Biggest.Mistake.Ever.

I awoke again around 8:45 am. Sock followed confusion as I realised I had fallen asleep, and was 3 hours past when I had to begin. I was a bit devastated.
Now, normally i wouldn’t be so upset, and just do it anyways, but you see, I had something important to do around 9.

However, just then I was informed that the person who was meant to show up at 9 wouldn’t be coming. Lucifer himself had made time for me, so it was wise not to postpone anymore, despite it being a different time than i’d planned. It’s best not to try and control everything. I did the ritual at 10 am.

EDIT (2019): Also bear in mind that at the time I was rather undisciplined and unable to wake up on time or keep schedules. These days I wake up at 7 am, with the Sun. Discipline IS important for all occultists and spirtualists. Even if you’re a rebellious Luciferian, do wake up on time. Staying up all night becomes a worse and worse idea as you get older.

The Ritual

Timing

I think it’s important to mention when I did the ritual. I did it on a Sunday, in the Morning. The next day was Monday, day of the Moon, as well as a Full Moon. Monday Full Moons are very strong, but what’s more, Tuesday was June 21st, the Summer Solistice, when the day is the longest in the year. As you can see, it was a period of incredible Light, when the Sun and Moon would be very powerful, and when better to invoke the Bearer of Light.

The Altar

On the altar, I had the seals of Lucifer and the lamp forming a triangle, my container with burning incense to one side, which was my offering (along with the ghee, of course). I placed six stones in a crescent shape around the lamp. It included peacock stone, jade, sun stone, lapis lazuli, and some others.

Appearance of Lucifer

Ah, and now, I can finally get to the actual invocation itself. Lucifer’s energy had been growing all week, and now reached it’s peak.

I cast the circle as I normally do, and did a standard LBRP, and you may do it however it is done in your tradition. Lucifer is powerful, and doesn’t normally need very fancy rituals or gestures.

By now, the atmospheric pressure of the room had increased dramatically, and I could feel an intense, warm energy pushing on my chest, where Triphareth and the Solar Plexus Chakra are.

I didn’t prepare an invocation in advance, instead chanting what comes to mind at the time. I called out to Lucifer, and asked him to come, into my temple and circle and me.

EDIT (2019): These days I write and memorise invocations before hand. It makes it easier to conduct the ritual smoothly.

I used some of his many names and titles, as is normally done in invocations: Helel, Helel Ben Shahar, Lucifer, Bearer of Light, Bringer of Dawn, Morning Star, Son of the Morning, Lord of Light, Father of Night, Illuminater, Lord of Inferno, Angel of Rebellion, Mighty Dragon etc. as well some of his achievements.

Lucifer came fast, and when he came my astral vision was filled with golden light. When you invoke, you often see the spirit in many forms, but I’ve tried to get some distinctive characteristics. He has white wings, and white golden hair, and pale, white skin. There is golden fire all around him. He wore a golden band on his head, and at some point he had a flaming torch, I think.

At one time, he was a pool of orbs of light. At another time, he stood in a dark forest on a pedestal of tree branches. I also had a glimpse of his court, but it went away very quickly, and when I did see it, my mind could hardly perceive it’s glory. I could make out a large, grand white building, towering columns of lapis lazuli, and intricate blue green or black stone floor. I saw glimpses of royal garment and this time his wings were in peacock colours, like the wings of Isis. The court was very disorienting, and I felt like I was falling off into golden clouds, but someone caught my hand and brought me back to my immediate vision, with Lucifer before me in the golden fire. In fact, he himself seemed to be made of that fire. “Don’t fall off now, or you’ll be overwhelmed”. As far as I can tell, his voice is soft, and silky, yet firm. Yeah, I can imagine him seducing everyone with that voice.

The feeling I got from his was of warmth, but also of dissociation. He was emotionless, and calm, not at all like the common depiction where he is supposed to be angry, broody, sly, rebellious, indulgent and out of control. He felt both masculine and feminine, and very charming, but also distant: like a person at a party who could probably seduce anyone he wanted, and drink and dance and lose control, but chose instead to sit in a corner and talk to people and keep their attention. He felt like someone who’ love to enjoy and laugh, making everyone around them happy. But, if needed, he can be a harsh teacher. He’ll give you some tough love, like a drill sergeant (interestingly, the same as Mikhael).

Part Three

Spell for Binding Away Negative People

May 16, 2016June 11, 2020Posted in UncategorizedTagged banishing, hoodoo, magic, negativity, new age, Occult, pagan, protection, religion, Spells, spirituality, witchcraft2 Comments

Written May 16th, 2016 | Edited: 27th February 2019

NOTE: This is not a curse, but a banishing spell. The purpose is not to get revenge on someone you hate, but to make it so they can no longer send you negativity. It is a protection spell. A Magician should not be swayed by emotion, but it can be hard to stay calm while being bombarded by negativity, but if we succumb to it, we pull ourselves down to their the level of vain ignorance and despair. This is to cut them off from you, so they stop dumping it on you.

Right, time for a spell to bind all that pesky negativity someone is sending you, or to get them out of your life for good.

EDIT (2019): For passive protection, click here.

I’m a ceremonial magician, and this is a wiccan spell. I normally don’t use witchcraft, but there’s a lot of really cool, quick and nifty little spells they have, so i’m always interested in using them. The ceremonial magick protection methods are either simple like shielding or the sign of silence, or big rituals like the Rose Cross. This binding spell falls somewhere between them, and will work as long as you do it right. It also seems to have some hoodoo/shamanic inspiration.
The original inspiration was from a wiccan spell, but I have made some changes to it. I’ve realised it’s better to add things to spells according to your tradition, and that makes them work better for you. As a ceremonial magician, this to me is a Saturnine spell, so I’ve made sure to venerate him in it.

I just want to say now that this spell is NOT intended to harm the person you are binding or even restrict them, but to protect you from their negativity. Now, for those people whose life and existence hinges on being mean and negative to others, it might be hindering, but that’s not our concern, since the intent is pure. So, let’s get into it.

Preperations

So, first off, you want to do this during the Waning Moon, on the Day and in the hour of Saturn. For more about timings your rituals, click here.

For this you’ll need:

Amethyst
Smokey Quartz
Black String/Rope/Ribbon
Paper/cloth, ideally black in colour
A bit of earth
A Jar/Bottle
A Sympathetic Link to the person.
Four Thieves Vinegar (this is optional. I don’t use it, but it can be used)

Now, what you need to do is make a poppet. You ever watch those bad movies about witches, where they make little voodoo dolls and tie a hair to them and use it to torture people? That doll is essentially a poppet (of course, we are not torturing). It is a symbolic representation of the person.

It does not have to be detailed, just a basic human shape. It can be made of cloth, if you’re good at stitching. I had black paper, so just cut two identical human shapes and glued them together. Make sure the head is open, because that’s how you’ll put stuff inside. Note that the main purpose of the poppet is to hold the things together. You could probably put them in a pouch or something, but the poppet will have a much stronger impact on the subconscious.

After that take your jar (I just picked a old pickle jar with a red lid) and with a black marker, draw the astrological sigil for Saturn: ♄.

You also need a sympathetic link to the person you’re binding, like a hair, or a piece of garment, or something they touched. Blood or sexual fuid would be best, in theory, but let’s be honest, that’s very difficult to obtain, so don’t even bother. Hair will work just as good as blood. (Please don’t go around asking people for their bodily fluids).

EDIT (2019): Seems people are unlikely to give hair too. I’d stay stick with articles or pictures, unless you need the spell to be very strong.

If you can’t get anything, just a picture will do. That’s pretty easy to obtain these days, with everyone face plastered all over social media.
Just make sure all the materials you’ve chosen can fit in the poppet, and that the poppet can fit in the jar.

The Spell

For the spell, you want to add the amethyst and smokey quartz in the poppet: 3 pieces will do. Then, add the earth/dirt. If it’s dry and loose, please add a few drops of water it, or it tends to get messy, as we are reminded by this annoying emo rebel.

Then, add your sympathetic link, and seal the poppet. Take a pencil, and draw the Saturn sigil on the poppet. The dirt venerates Mother Earth (ruled by Saturn), the pencil drawn sigil and black colour venerates Lord Saturn. The Amethyst is for peace between you and the person, and the smokey quartz is for protection.

Now, take your string or ribbon, and from the legs, begin wrapping it around the poppet. Make sure you move the string counter clockwise, and you may chant while you do this: to the Mother and Saturn, to aid in this.

All the while, imagine this person negativity break from you and drain away. Imagine you not being controlled by this person, and imagine his/her negative energy returning to them, and leaving you forever and you being in control of yourself. Make yourself feel calm and protected. Do not think about how you hate this person, but how you want to be free of this hate. Make sure you bind the poppet completely.

“One ring to rule them all, One ring to find them, One ring to bring them all and in the darkness bind them” ~Lord of The Rings
In case you never realised, The One Ring is Saturn symbolism.

Containing of the Poppet

Ideally, you want this person out of your life, but what if you need them? When I was doing this, it was a person doing a group research with me. It was essential that we could interact at least professionally, for the duration of the project.

Often we are forced to work with someone, and can’t send them off, because we need to get shit done. So, now comes in the jar. This is an optional step, and is a way to temporarily bind just the person’s negativity towards you.

Take the jar with the Saturn symbol, and put the poppet in it, and close it tightly. Now, imagine the walls of the jar being a protective between you and the person. They can interact with you, but they are separated by this wall and cannot send you any energy. Imagine the jar to be like a shield that keeps their negativity contained and unable to harm you or them. You can chant for protection however you want.

Remember, you’re not containing the person, but their negativity. This should also help them, if they choose to let it go. If they still cling to their negativity and follow it into the jar, nothing you can do.

Next, store this jar somewhere you wont see it, and forget about it. Keep it away for the entire time you need to work with this person. You’ll find they will slowly stop their negative behavior towards you, but they’re still in your life.

EDIT (2019): I have found since the time I wrote this, that it is a rare occurrence where you actually “need” a person in your life. It usually means you are not firm in your resolve.
Ideally, I suggest skipping the jar entirely and just banishing the person’s negativity. It is what I should have done. Everything works out eventually if the intention is pure.
I am not going to remove it from this post since it does work quite well, but such methods are usually used for torture, to cause the person pain over extended periods. There’s little point in binding a person in the jar if you’re going to let them go anyway. So, do what you must, but keep my suggestion in mind.

The next step is for getting the person out of your life. So, at the end of the time period, open up the jar, pull out the poppet, and do the next step.

Disposing the Poppet

This is the final step for getting rid of the person. Very few people need the above step. Chances are you want this person out of your life fully. So, now that you’ve got the poppet bound, and may have put it in a jar for sometime, it’s time to banish it.

Take this poppet, and release it to the elements. There are a couple of different ways.

By Earth: bury it, say a prayer to Mother Earth, turn counter clockwise and walk away.
By Water: toss it in a stream or river, and before it hits the surface, turn counter clockwise and walk away. You could even flush it, if it’s very tiny.
By Fire and Wind: Burn it, and scatter the ashes to the wind, turn counter clockwise, and walk away.

You have to let go, and forgive this person. That’s the only way this will work. When you dispose off the poppet, also dispose off any feeling of resentment, anger and sadness this person left you with. If they’re filled with darkness, that’s not your problem. You’re not a trash can for others to dump their negativity, and the longer you hold on to negative feeling towards them, you’re holding on to the trash they threw at you.

Some people might like to toss the entire Saturn jar into the water or bury it, but I advise against it. The glass or plastic jar is non-biodegradable. I’d much rather you just took the bare poppet and buried it or tossed it in the water, since it will decay. We don’t want to asking the Mother for a favour, and polluting her at the same time.

Besides, there was recently a case in some South American country where some guy found a glass bottle on the beach, with a picture inside that had needles stuck in it. This was obviously a curse. Who knows what the effects will be on the person who finds and opens up your jar? Be careful, the chickens always come home to roost.

If you’re releasing it into the water or burying it, you can even put the poppet in a jar of Four Thieves Vinegar. I burn it, so I did not, but yesterday I saw a video made by Uncle Birch (freakphil1309) and that’s what he said he does.
The vinegar method is his way, and i’m only mentioning it because he’s a pretty solid occultist, and a witch as well (meaning he understands spells better than me). In his version, you skip the poppet entirely and just use a picture. I’d link his video but his channel is impossible to navigate. You’ll have to search yourself 😀

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Until next time
~White Raven