Animis factis Magorum Tolpanis

Being the Spirit Actions of the Magicians of Tolpan
4:00pm April 18th 2010 - Sydney, Australia. 
The Fire Tablet: Luna Senior

A brief intro to the work we've FINALLY commenced, and then the work itself. Yes, we finally got our group off the ground. The core four originally involved have lost a member (Frater D may work with us in future if he can), but we've gained about 10 more folks keen to work with the Enochian corpus in a group setting. At this, our first meeting, we had 9 magicians (not a particularly Enochian number - 7 would have been perfect, however considering we were invoking the Luna Senior, 9 was perfectly fine!). Soror L, Soror V and I were sort of de facto convenors (Soror L having done the work of organising the venue and FB events with much gratitude from all). First order of business was agreeing on the ritual structure - we used the ritual from Duquette's Enochian Vision Magic as a basis - and pronunciation of names. I "played Lon" and read the separate parts, guiding the ritual - this was an interesting challenge as I remember at the workshop Lon ran it was so easy to slip into trance - I remember seeing the room and the chairs and everyone in it being blown away by a storm of wind and sand and debris leaving a very Enochian terrain. This was more difficult. I didn't actually slip into trance until we had completyed the invokations. I read the 6th Key (we originally decided I'd read it repeatedly in Enochian until the energy had built while the rest of them chanted the Nalvage words, but I ended up saying it 7 times, with the fourth time in English without planning to at all - it felt suitably like what Lon calls "plugging in upstairs" - VERY empowering. I was virtually trembling by the end. We set up the space with a basic SDA on a round piece of MDF surrounded by four pillar candles, and the Ensigns I'd drawn on paper scattered around in the approriate arrangement, and the nine of us sitting in chairs in a circle around this. I had a paper version of the Lamen and held it up on "Behold the Lamen..." We burnt frankincense. We ended the opening of the ritual with an evokation of the hierarchy in Enochian, where we all chanted the names 7 times together, building to the final reitteration of "ALNDVOD" repeated together ad nauseum until we all faded into our own journeys...

The Vision of Alndvod

The room darkens. Shadows draw up to the edge of the circle, obliterating the world outside. In the centre of the circle the candles are dimmed. I become aware of a sound as of feathers being ruffled. Standing there in the centre is a hunched, man sized figure robed in green feathers, it looks over what seems to be its shoulder in my direction and its eyes are aflame. It lifts off the ground and into a star filled night sky, the Moon hanging full and purest white above. Without hesitation I leap into the air and follow this figure; the air is cold and the wind rushes past me. I find myself flying on the back of this creature, feeling the feathers under my hands, the flames from its eyes streaming behind. We are flying over the ocean at night. The ocean is tempest tossed and colossal waves reach up to drown us, but when it seems like the ocean itself is going to shatter the sky great sheets of flame and lightning stream out like a fiery barrier, forcing the ocean back down. Rather than this being the sea being beaten back by the power of fire, I get the sense of the dynamic tension between the watery Luna and the fire of the realm of the OIP Tablet - the interplay of opposites.

The green feathered creature with the flaming eyes flies straight at the Moon and is engulfed by it. The shining white circle of it fills my vision, a black letter Lamed blazes forth and I too am engulfed by the light, pulled into it.

We drift down into a square shaped room with a very high vaulted ceiling, stone walls and columns, wrought iron candelabras, etc. It is furnished with armchairs, tables, shelves around the edges filled with dusty books and objects. There is a fireplace on one wall, and a door in each wall adjacent. In front of the fireplace there are two chairs and a game of chess set up on a small low table between them. I see an abacus on a table behind.

The feathered figure stands near the chairs at the fireplace watching me. I realise that this is the L in ALNDVOD, and not the spirit itself, and that this room is the square upon which L resides on the Great Table. L walks to one of the doors and opens it. Brilliant white light streams forth and I see beyond another square room, this one filled with white light, so much so that the walls themselves are washed out and indistinct, but I can see that there is a door in each wall. In the centre of the room is a great Eye staring at me. It floats above the floor, white light radiating. I ask if this is Alndvod and I hear/understand the reply that it is it's Beginning and beyond are Followers, all Begin with it, and it is He. I look behind me as a great wind flies through the room I just came from, blowing open the door on the wall oposite, and then the doors on a series of rooms beyond, so that I see that this Eye is the A and each subsequent room is the abode of the spirit of another letter of Alndvod's name. I have an image (rather than actually seeing) of this great Eye flying across the night sky with six small green feathered creatures flying behind, flaming eyes trailing. The Eye seems to have a black pupil, and probably black iris, but if I think, it may have been brown - but it's overall feeling is of bright light and whiteness.

I return to the Eye and make a fire invoking pentagram. The gesture is repeated by it being emblazoned in the air surrounding the Eye. I imagine the Hebrew letter Ayin as a question (the Lamed I saw before had a clear meaning) and the answer comes that yes this is A, but I only see it as Ayin because of the way my mind works. It could be seen as any number of connected ideas connoting "A." I ask Alndvod what is his nature: He says following and tension. I ask his colour: Green. I ask his scent: charcoal and mint. I ask his taste: sweet & sour. I ask what symbols/items he bears: "I carry a Star, and nothing else." I ask if he has a symbol with whicih I may work with him: Two slanting lines trace down before the Eye to make a downward pointing arrow, then on the floor a single line draws down towards me, and then splits in two - each of these then curves up and makes two spirals. (I'll try to attach an image...) I was given a gestural form of this symbol as well. I ask if he has any lessons on Healing. He says no. I ask what he has to teach. He replies "You teach." (I am a teacher, so I take this as a kind of Enochian joke). I reply that I want to learn. "Your heart does, your head wants to teach." I thank Alndvod and ask if I may meet the rest of the Followers of which he is the Beginning. He gives assent.

I pass through L's room again, he stands by the fireplace and watches me. I ask him his nature: Tension (like the ocean and the fiery sky). He watches me pass through to the next room.

The next room is shaped exactly as the previous, only it is bare of furniture (I think). Another green feathered figures - N - darts from wall to wall to floor to ceiling like a bullet. It flashes right in front of me before stopping. I ask it its nature: fierce, cutting ties, severing. It almost feels like it is a great pair of scissors with only one function. It seems to be offering to cut something for me, or perhaps even cut me. I thank it and say I don't need it right now before hurriedly moving on.

The next room has no furniture but has a great bowl cut into the floor and a booming sound louder than a thunderclap and echoing deeper than the deepest cave blaring at me. A great sphere of dark light swirls over this bowl and in the centre floats another green feathered creature - D. I ask it its nature: size, big-ness, vastness, girth, SOUND.

The next room has a similar figure to N, but V darts more gracefully and easily. With more purpose than the unpredictable and fearsome N. I aks it its nature: darting, changeability.

The next room also contains a sphere, but this light is white with a very faint bluish tinge. In the centre of this sphere floats O, revelling in the space inside, swirling in circles one way vertically, horizontally, one direction, then another. I ask it its nature: freedom within boundaries.

As I reach the final room I see a fountain of water flowing up from the floor like a spout. I think I catch sight of D floating up through the jet of water and perhaps sitting on the fountain at the top, but Soror L is ringing the bell for us to return. I am pulled back through the rooms rapidly, doors slamming behind me. I see the door to the room with the Eye - A - swing shut, I echo a thanks, and L is pulling me upwards. I erupt through the floor and find myself back in the room. The others coming back to themselves also.

DEBRIEF

Several others shared visions involving Eyes, the colour green, feathers, and a Star. Other spiral symbols were received. Some others agreed with the charcoal scent. I have since read a fascinating essay by David Richard Jones linking the imagery of the Dee and Kelley Watchtower actions to the Biblical Revelations. In particular the idea of the four Kings of the Tablets being the four Kerubic creatures, which are described as having SIX WINGS (the Seniors) each of which have EYES where they enter.

Night of the Demons

LON MILO DUQUETTE SYDNEY LECTURE - Monday 2nd November 2009

INTRODUCTION TO SOLOMONIC MAGICK

(No, not the fabulously schlocky movie starring Amelia Kinkade, sorry folks) 

I proudly brought along my Triangle of Art to this lecture for Lon to display as a prop. He was graciously impressed (although I'm sure he's seen much more beautifully constructed things of that ilk in his extensive travels).

The night opened with probably my favourite quote from Lon the whole time: "The Lesser Key of Solomon deals with spirits we might refer to as infernal. And the reason we might refer to them as infernal is because they come from Hell."

For those who quail at the very thought of invoking a demon from hell, the point was made that sometimes the esoteric is just the opposite of what the exoteric would have us believe (this is the essence of Qabalistic interpretation). Lon sees demons as the heavy machinery of the universe, like massive construction vehicles which are very useful - if you know how to use them safely. If you don't they will quickly become demolition equipment. They are wild forces, but the method of dealing with and controlling them follows a certain formula.Essentially the lecture took the form of Lon relating different stories from his own experience (and one or two from others) which were vastly different in their make-up, but still conformed to this Solomonic formula.

He first related in great detail the story of his first Goetic evocation of Orobas which he relates in My Life With the Spirits and Angels Demons and Gods of the New Millennium (I think). Buy those books for the story - it's fucking hilarious. Especially considering he had to use his child's bedroom to perform the operation: "Now son I'm gonne be in your room for a while, don't come in no matter what you hear."
"What're ya gonna do in there Papa?"
"Papa's gonna evoke a demon in there sport, hopefully he'll be gone by bedtime."

The big lesson in this experience of his for the likes of everyone else is that these demons may be in your head, or they may be external forces, but when you whip up a demon to deal with a problem it IS that problem, and you may have been fighting that demon your entire life - it is essentially creating a now or never, sink or swim situation where the fear and the anguish is confronted head on.

He makes a good point about "barbarous names" in that they have some value in terms of shifting you into a trance state, but using them in the construction of your Circle and/or Triangle may not be the best. The Divine Names you use should be particular to you. As shoudl the Invokation of Supereme Divinity. The prayers and invokations given in the Key of Solomon are not only long-winded and obtuse, but they are a little contradictory. They are basically the magician calling out to God and saying how worthless they are. "I'm pitiful, I'm dirt, I'm so so worthless, I'm not even worthy to lick the spittle dribbling from a slug that is worthy to lick the corner of your toenail, I'm so so shit, I can't do anything right, I'm a sinner, and I can't control myself, Gawd I'm so fucking tragic, I'm just nothing, I'm nothing BUT I WANT TO KNOW THE SECRETS OF THE UNIVERSE!!!!!!!!!!!" Basically all you need to do is call upon that which is Most Divine to you, align yourself with that Divinity, and fill yourself with it. Lon calls it plugging in to upstairs. Essentially, if you trying opening the door to downstairs without having plugged in to upstairs you're going to have one Hell of a fight on your hands.

Lon's invokation is just the most brilliant and astoundingly individual innovation I've encountered in modern magick. On the mundane level, he sings the name of Ganesh 108 to the tune of "Pop Goes the Weasel" (no, really). But on a deeper level, there is the intense affection and love for the hindu god Ganesh that Lon feels. There is the act of expanding your universe and filling it with divinity until there is no space left but it is filled with God. This is followed by pulling all that back into yourself so there is No Thing but your universe, and you in it.

Little tidbits were useful - things the grimoires don't usuallyt explain very well, or do so in such an obtuse and roundabout manner that you're not sure what you're being told to do. For example, when the spirit arrives, you first show it the Pentagram, which binds them, and then show them their sigil on the reverse of the Pentagram - showing them you have bound them. Then you show the Hexagram if need be. Also something Lon has done on occasion when a spirit is being difficult is saying that he won't leave the circle until the spirit complies. As his circle is nothing more than a length of string laid around him, he simply picks this up and tie it around his waist and then go about his business. His innovative methods for threatening spirits were also greatly inspiring.

He related the story of a Catholic girls' school in Los Angeles he performed an exorcism on which was an astounding story probably too long to relate here. He related the sotry of the efficacy of the Goetic spirit Andromalius who is good at finding lost things - and in Lon's experience, specifically cars. My favourite example of this was Lon simple telling a woman who's ex-husband had run off with the car to draw a circle and triangle, call up the spirit with it's sigil and ask it to help. She took this further and drew the circle and triangle in the empty garage, drank and entire bottle of tequila while hurling abuse at the triangle as though it were her ex-husband. The car was miraculously back in her driveway the next morning.

In any case, this lecture made Solomonic evokation seem something I could actually one day perform. It's a question of needing to do it, and I'd still be shit-scared, but I now feel I understand the whole process better. I'm now looking for a perfect way to invoke Divinity for myself. Lon's method is so particular to him, and I can see how powerful it is simply because of that specificity. It excites and inspires me - much like the whole lecture series has done.

Wrapping the whole experience up, I feel invigorated beyond words - as though my world has changed, I've changed, and my magical practice can now never be the same, just like I can't nor can my world.

After the masses had gone I got Lon to sign some books. He drew an hilarious little cartoon of "Baba Lon" in my copy of Ordinary Oracles - after correcting a little editorial mistake he straightaway turned to. I'm now raring to get into some ENochian exploration. We have a group ready to go now - more than the small cabal of four of us from before. Now we have to get it off the ground!

I'll finish with my other favourite quote from Lon which was more serious than humorous was this: "The real magic is becoming Solomon, not doing the Magic." 

Intermission

LON MILO DUQUETTE SYDNEY TOUR INTERLUDE - Monday 2nd November 2009

THE BLUE MOUNTAINS TRIP

So before the first lecture Soror L came up to me and whispered in my ear "What are you doing on Monday?" I said I wasn't sure, but could find out, why? "I'm taking Lon sightseeing in the Blue Mountains and there's a space in my car, do you wanna come?" I said I'd clear my diary regardless of what it took. As it happened I had nothing on and I didn't have to clear anything.

I was picked up bright and early - Soror V was also in attendance. We then headed over to the house Lon was staying in and picked him up. Despite having spent several days in the same room as him and listening to him talk it was still just a wee bit awesome to be chatting to him.

We hopped in the car and headed off. Unfortunately I can't remember every brilliant story he related. I do remember one about some astounding cult-leader in America called Shaknar or something who is a large woman confined to a wheelchair who speaks in a rasp between gasps from an oxygen tank. Apparently they were for a time a vaguely Vodou cult until Shaknar woke up one day and said they were now Goetic magicians and that's what they all started doing. Bizarre. We learnt all about their family possum, which was just a beautiful story. I just loved listening to his accent, which he claimed was Mid-West with a bit of hybridisation. His "here", "art", "fight", "learn" and "take" vowels were the main differences. I need to work out how to insert phonetics in this blog - will make things much easier.

We went to the Common Ground cafe in Katoomba (Lon loved this place name, and rightly so) which is run by the creepy Christian cult called the Twelve Tribes. But let's not hold their cultishness against them TOO much - they make great coffee and the food is tasty, plus the cafe itself is just - so - CUTE. As a button. No really. Everything is made of wood in some way. Plus they have random patches of leather riveted to the wall here and there. And you'll suddenly notice two little hand crafted budgies sitting on a rafter nearby. Plus all the women walk with this bowed posture and skirts right down to their ankles in drab colours, and the men all have creepy adolescent beards. They're so friendly! It's apparently made up primarily of three families and "several single members." Anyway, Lon loved it. I related some of my Enochian Reiki vision to him which he loved. He made the completely obvious observation I can't believe I never made that the gesture the Kings gave me for ChoKuRei was basically a Xi-Rho. We spoke about numerous experiences we'd had in magic, which is always fantastic fun when magicians get together - especially when punctuated by Twelve Tribes members entering, eyes downcast, bearing trays of food and coffee.

We then headed down to the Three Sisters. I'd been many times as a child, and a few times since, but not for a few years lately. We could only do the main lookout as Lon couldn't do the full walk down, but that was enough. He was suitably impressed. Luckily Soror L knew the full story off the top of her head - I'd forgotten it years ago. The huge expanse of the valleys opened out before us and we took photos in the hopes of capturing something weird on film. Many many tourists. By this time the day had heated up a great deal and we were standing int he shade of rocks while looking out over the expanse before us. The lookouts in the Mountains always feel like you're standing in the prow of a ship, thrusting out over the sea of green. Mount Solitary looms in front, and the three huge crags to the left, the echo of waterfalls round to the right. Sublime Point encapsulates this feeling most - especially as it's usually so windy up there. Unfortunately we didn't really have the time to go there.

From the Three Sisters we took a bit of a scenic drive to a few more lookouts before heading to the Norman Lindsay Gallery. For those who don't know Norman Lindsay is one of Australia's most famous artists - who was the subject of the movie Sirens starring Sam Neill and Elle Macpherson. Lindsay lived in a gorgeous house in the Mountains with well-laid English-style gardens, including a man made pool complete with statuary. His house is now a gallery dedicated to his work and the gardens are filled with his sculptures. There was always a very Bacchanalian and Pagan (as was a significant part of the artist's life!) theme to his work and it's really one of a kind. We bought him a print of one of his more occult etchings on behalf of the eCT. I bought a print of "Visitants from the Moon." (right)

We had a leisurely coffee and cake at the gallery cafe before heading back down the Lapstone hill way and back to civilisation. A really unique and special day.

The Sorors and I left Lon to prepare for his final lecture that night on Solomonic Magic. We had a drink at the nearby pub before returning to pick him up - he gave us a quick rendition of his new Christmas song "If We Believed... Hilarious.

Qabalah Water

LON MILO DUQUETTE SYDNEY LECTURE - Saturday 1st November 2009

QABALAH - ZEN OF THE WEST (PART 2)

So where were we...? Ah yes! The beginning - 913 - BRAShYTh. Literally this means "In the beginning..." as I understand - but it's also interesting to note that BRA means "created" and ShYTh means "six." Doesn't really need much explanation. BR = pure, a field, son. RASh = a head. ASh = fire. I could even go further and say that there's a Head (RASh) in a House (BYTh) B - RASh - YTh. Which suggests to me the House of God, the Primum Mobile, etc.

So yes. In the beginning there is Nothing. Makes sense really. But this is a very special kind of Nothing - AYN (Ain) to be specific. This Nothing is so absolute that you can't even think about it. This is very appropriate really. If someone asks you "What is the supreme creative force?" you could say "God" or "Elohim" or some such. If someone then asks you what comes before God, you could say "Nothing." "What can you say about God?" "Nothing." This appeals to me, because nothing irks me more than people who think God is an old man with a white beard. Or that He is a Man at all. Or any single figure with any single specific mind and direct active will (see my previous post about Rabbi Cooper's "God-ing") That old man might be YHVH - the Demiurge, or creator God that THINKS it is God but is NOT God. Or he might not be.Having NO God before Him might more appropriately be rendered as having NOTHING before Him. No Thing comes before Elohim.

In any case imagine we have Nothing - No Thing. Or rather don't because you can't. From this No Thing-ness proceeds another kind of Nothing: AYN SVP (Ain Soph) - No Limit, Limitlessness. Infinity. In a way this is the corollary of trying to conceive of No Thing. Ain is impossible for our human minds to grasp. Infinity is just about as impossible, but a little easier to think about. If we are to go with the Creator idea, it's almost as if Nothingness realised how perfect it was and simultaneously and necessarily realised what it was Not - numerous beautiful renderings of this realisation exist - Robert Fludd had a whole series depicting this process. Nothingness contracts into itself, realising the Infinity it encompassed and at the same time was Not. In the space that was the diference between Ain and Ain Soph there is the third special kind of Nothing - AYN SVP AVR (Ain Soph Aur) - No Limit to the Light, Limitless Light.

AYN SVP AVR = 414 (non finals) = going forth (MShVTTYM) = Meditation (HGVTh) = Kadish or mourning prayer (QDYSh).

The realisation of Limitless Light appears to be - for the Creative Force involved, at once an active and a passive process. It is a going forth, yet it is a meditation - not that, as many esoteric traditions teach, meditation has to be passive. The link to Kadish or a mourning prayer is only right consdiering the Qabalaistic perspective of Creation(-ing) as a process of degradation or distancing from the God. The Perfect Nothing has realised it's Perfection, and in realising this Perfection, it realises Imperfection and begins the path to Manifestation that will eventually end in Malkuth. Because as Lon put it, saying that Nothing is Not means that Something Is. And that Something is One.

HOORAY!!!!! SOMETHING we can think about! ONE! This is the Crown, Kether - the Smooth Point, the Inscrutable Height or the Inner Light, as it is variously called. The God name of Kether is Eheieh (AHIH - 21) - "I Am" - the Divine Breath has been exhaled in a sigh upon realisation of Imperfection and it's first whispered words are self-identification.

From here the process of manifestation as represented in the Tree of Life diagram is extensively well attested in innumerable Qabalistic works. In a faint echo of the workings of Ain-Ain Soph-Ain Soph Aur, One percieves it's Oneness, and in order to do this must create duality - Two, Chokmah - as soon as this duality is created, the Ternary follows in order to be able to perceive this Duality - Three, Binah. All this is One thinking about itself. From here One crosses the Abyss from idea to actuality, giving rise to the 4th, 5th and 6th Sephiroth, which are reflected again, and finally manifest in Malkuth.

We had an interesting discussion about how Malkuth comes forth - specifically on the established Tree of Life diagram. Some highly secular analogies involving the One "pushing out" the Earth of Malkuth if you cathc my drift. All very amusing. Some theories mentioned about Malkuth originally having been higher on the Tree and being pushed down. For me it encapsulated the "Kether is in Malkuth and Malkuth is in Kether, but after another manner." Malkuth is the Kether of the Lower Worlds - showing us that Creation(-ing) is an unceasing outpouring.

From there we examined some Gematria, which is always fun, and a bit of Notariqon, etc. We all looked at our own names. Tried making them into squares. So a 3-letter name makes a 9-square grid. Then in the centre one can put a letter of choice depending on what sort of talisman or links you wish to make with your name. I was a bit astounded at the number of people there who had either never encountered this concept, or who simply couldn't grasp it. I've not got a particularly mathematical mind, but I do have a linguistic mind. I sometimes forget that Itaqke some things for granted too. But a couple of people there I know have been engaging in occult thought for decades, and still hadn't really encountered Gematria before.

All in all nothing drastically new in the day, but Lon really manages to make a lot of these vast and complex ideas very approachable. His explanation of Ain-Ain Soph-Ain Soph Aur was fantastic. He also gave us all a little card certifying us as Chicken Qabalists, which is just hilarious. I had him sign the back of it on the Monday as the Rabbi Lamed Ben Clifford. I'm getting it laminated.

The working through of his "10 Command-rants" was also excellent - I highly recommend everyone getting his book The Chicken Qabalah of Rabbi Lamed ben Clifford.

Next up is GOETIA!

Qabbalah Water

LON MILO DUQUETTE SYDNEY LECTURE - Saturday 1st November 2009

QABALAH - ZEN OF THE WEST (PART 1)

So the third installment of my Duquette experience was this fabulous day long workshop on the Qabalah - specifically Duquette's particlar take on it called "Chicken Qabalah" after his pseudoepigraphical character Rabbi Lamed ben Clifford's take. It was probably just as interesting hearing of the wiriter's process in creating such a character, abnd how the character is you, but can speak in a voice you never would - and inevitably begins to take on a life of its own.

Lon summed up the qabalistic approach very nicely with phrases like "Inscrutable Illumination" and "External Mysticism" (as opposed to the "Internal Mysticism" of the East). Qabalah is not a religion in and of itself - despite being tied intimately to it's Judaic roots - but it is priamrily a way of thinking. It is a way of thinking which orders the Universe into a neat and arbitrary package. I so appreciate Lon's use of the word arbitrary - again synchronistically it ties in with my current reading of The Occult Mind in which Lehrich asserts that any occult system of thought is necessarily arbitrary and culturally specific. This isn't a new idea, but he is somewhat distinctive in his acceptance of and tentative embrace of that fact (in his rigid academic and scholarly way).

The Qabalah is a system of Hebrew mysticism which uses the forms, symbolism and names of Judaic scripture. However its particular way of thinking is not entirely unique, and would actually be quite familiar to a lot of modern physicists.

We start at the very Beginning (a very good place to start) with 913. Yes that's right - BRAShYTh "In the Beginning..."

I'll have to come back to this post at a later point as I've run out of time at work...

To be Continued...!

Qabalah Water and Thothapalooza

LON MILO DUQUETTE SYDNEY LECTURE - Friday 30th October 2009

SPIRITS OF THE TAROT

Okay I couldn't think of a really witty blog title relating to Tarot. That's alright, I don't often talk about them. Lon's Lecture was a distillation of his book on Crowley's Thoth deck and ideas contained in a chapter of Chicken Qabalah. So they weren't necessarily new to me, but listening to Lon talk about it all was just fantastic. He related the story of designing his deck - the Tarot of Ceremonial Magick, which he had laid out on the table before him. The sheer complexity of the symbolism contained in each card was impressive, but when he showed how you could line the cards up to create an Enochian Great Table of Watchtowers I was staggered. It really did encapsulate the idea of the Tarot being a representation of the entire Universe.

His recounting of the history and development of the Tarot as we know it today was new to me. There is an excellent chapter in The Occult Mind by Christopher I. Lehrich (see right) concerning the Tarot and particularly how its nature expresses the nature of occult thought. I also have a book I am yet to read called Origins of the Tarot Deck which also extends to other games and divinatory systems.

Lon's take was very down to earth - as is to be expected - but suitably incorporating the spiritual element. The Tarot as we know them are undeniably spiritual objects, but how did they become more than mere games of chance and entertainment? Lon speaks fot eh two separate card games of Tarrochi and "Mamloc" (didn't get the spelling of this from Lon but after searching I found references to the Mamelukes (see Mamluk) as a likely precursor to the traditional deck of playing cards we are familiar with. The former contributed the Triumphs/Trumps - the 22 Major Arcana - and the latter contributed the 56 Minor Arcana.

Contrary to what some occult writers would have us believe there was no brainstorming convention of esotericists in antiquity when these cards were conceived and organised with precision. It has been demonstrated that these cards have no documented usage as anything other than a social past time and game prior to the 18th Century. Lehrich asserts a specific origin as a divinatory tool, but rather than being an act of occult significance it is more a misreading and misappropriate of scholarship and history from a time when Egypt was not the historical Egypt but "Aegypt" - the illud tempus or "time which is now and always" a time out of time. If there was an Aegypt which was the haven of idyllic spiritual understanding, then we have clearly fallen far from this pristine time. And if we have in our very hands the remnants of that knowledge and profound understanding we have lost, we can perhaps bring humanity closer to that prisca theologica (the doctrine of a single, pure and veritable religion, inevitably one which has been lost and many (most) religious and psiritual traditions are trying to recapture or aspire to).

Unfortunately the Tarot simply shifted themselves together with little to no planning. Lon's assertion is that if you shake anything (from a tray of magnetic sand over magnetic plates to a deck of cards to a cylinder of yarrow sticks, etc) they will fall along the same or similar lines which represent a Universal quality - a mathematical quality. We had a brief digression into Qabalah this night - which I'll go into at greater length in my next post about the Sunday workshop. Essentially we introduced the concept of Unity (divinity) dividing itself into a series of qualities, giving rise to common and familiar principles. 1 into 3 (Aleph - height, Mem - breadth, Shin - depth), which is at the same time 7 (these 3 principles seen as binaries - 6 - plus the central point - 7), which gfives rise to the cubic space of 12 edges.
- 3 dimensions, 3 primal elements, 3 mother letters.
- 7 points of intersection, 7 planets, 7 double letters.
- 12 edges, 12 signs of the zodiac, 12 simple letters.
This is the cube of space, seen in numerous esoteric traditions. It is the primal centre which unfolds at the moment of creation, and simultaneously is all of creation. It contains everything that was potential at the "beginning" and therefore everything that is "now" is still contained within it.

I'm again reminded of the illud tempus, and also of Reb. David A Cooper's book God is a Verb.The good Rabbi talks not about Creation (a thing which has happened) but Creation-ing (a thing which is ongoing) and not God (a man in the clouds with a white beard) but God-ing (a process, an outpouring, and action - i.e. a verb).

ANYWAY, Lon basically said that if you shake antyhing, it will fall along these universal lines. The Tarot fall along these lines. The Major Arcana are made up of 22 cards (3, 7, 12) which can each be linked to a Hebrew letter, an element, planet or sign of the zodiac, and the totality of the Tarot deck can then be systematically applied to other magical esoteric systems - the Tree of Life, the 72 Goetic demons, the 72 angels of the Shem ha-Mephorash, the temporal calendar, etc, etc.

The coolest thing Lon spoke about would have to be his own deck and the way he spent three days and two nights (I think) ritually invokiing every single spirit of the Goetia and the Shem-ha-Mephorash into the "mother" deck of his cards when he received it from the publisher. When you view the Tarot this way - every card does literally contain spirits because the represent a part or a facet of the Universe.

Further Qabalistic musings were great penny drop moments for me. Imagine a Qabbalist sitting thinking about God. God is one, God is Unity, God is perfect. What can you say about this God? Not much except that it is very unified, and one-ish and singular. What if we broke it in half? It wouldn't be as perfect as the One, but we'd be able to say more about it. Then we have the idea of Two - God is duality. Now we can say a bit more about God - hot/cold, high/low, good/evil, light/dark, etc, etc. What if we break it up a little more? Not as perfect as the Two, and certainly not that fabulous One, but what can we say about Three? LOTS of things! Not only do we have polar opposites but we have something in between - hot/medium/cold, high/middle/low, thesis/synthesis/antithesis, etc, etc. Breaking it up even more we get more and more facets and can see more and more unfolding from the One, but each, although containing the perfection of that One, is imperfect because of its distance and dependence upon the One. Now imagine that this Qabalist in not a little old Rabbi with a beard and a hat, but the One itself. All of this is the One thinking about itself.

I also had a major penny drop about Dee's Monas Hieroglyphia, which I read recently and must admit had a lot fo trouble understanding! But I finally got the whole 1 is 2 is 3 is 4 is 5 is 6, etc, etc. I might do a separate post about that.

In any case, according to the system of correspondences, as a Sagittarian born on the date I was, I fall under the following influences/have ties to the following Spirits:
- Major Arcana: Temperance (Art) card,
- Minor Arcana: Queen of Disks, 10 of Wands (Oppression)
- Archangel: Advakiel
- Angel: Saritiel
- Shem-ha-Mephorash Angel: Reiiel
- Goetia: Ronove
- Qlipothic Intelligence: Saksaksalim
- Order of the Qlipoth: Nachashiron - Snakey Ones

One question which still remains is the attribution of the 36 small or pip cards of the Minor Arcana to the Planets and Zodiac. Aries is the start of the Wheel of the Zodiac, but Saturn is the beginning of the Qabalistic planetary order, however in the system of attribution, the 1st decan of Aries is attributed to Mars, not Saturn. I naturally asked this question and Lon said it was a very good one. Apparently it was MAthers or Waite who made the attribution which essentially leads to the wheel starting with the energy of Mars dignified in Aries, and finishing with Mars in the 3rd Dec of Pisces, hence Mars is doubled up. This doubling gives the energy of the Wheel a little push over the edge. Personally I find this very arbitrary - the Wheel may just as well start and end with a double Saturn, which could symbolise a diminishing, or a death, commencing in a rebirth and moving on to an expansion with Jupiter. But, I know that this is a system, and as no system is perfect, it works in spite of - or perhaps because of - its imperfection.

Little snippet sof info I'd love to have been able to explore on the following day workshop on the Tarot include that all the Court cards reside in the Aces. Also the justification for the Shem ha-Mephorash attributions makes a lot of sense - there are 36 pip cards, and twice 36 is 72 - hence the 72 Shem ha-Mephorash angels and the 72 Goetic demons, so each card contains 2 angels and two demons.

Enough about Tarot, I could ramble for a lot longer and this is already epic!

Next will be some deeper Qabalistic analysis and ruminations!

Spirit Actions

LON MILO DUQUETTE SYDNEY LECTURE - Thursday 29th October 2009

Enochian magic has been a fascination since about 2005 when I read the dubious text "Enochian Magic for Beginners" by that pillar of scholarship Donald Tyson. I was at the time in the midst of my Reiki study and was most intrigued at the mention of these Angels Skilled in the Arts of Healing" in the eastern sub-angles of the Great Table of the Watchtowers. I designed a ritual whereby the system of healing I was familiar in - Reiki - could speak tot he system I was not familiar with - Enochian. It was intended as a first rite in which I very ambitiously wanted to contact all four kings of the Watchtowers. It was basically a Golden Dawn style usage of the material - I printed out the flashing colour tablets and used them and I relied on the pronunciation of the keys in "The Ritual Magic Manual" by David A. Griffin - probably the only time I've really used that thing, which I've since learnt is considered somewhat of an abomination, especially by orthodox Golden Dawn-ites. Despite it's hodge-podge nature, and the in some ways diametrically opposed systems, and despite my not insignificant terror at what could possibly happen, it was an incredibly successful ritual - incredibly! I found myself in a prolonged visionary experience full of imagery and landscapes I have since seen innumerable descriptions of, I received several symbols and gestures direct from the Kings, and a universe in itself was opened to me. I have since not returned to the Enochian universe, but have spoken to many a person about it, read a lot more (good and bad) and late last year/earlier this year plans were in the works to begin an Enochian working group with my Order Sorors and Fraters, which never properly eventuated, or rather, hasn't YET eventuated.

Enough personal history though - the lecture. Before it even started Soror L quietly took me aside and asked what I was doing on Monday. I said I wasn't sure and asked why. She said she was taking Lon sightseeing in the Blue Mountains and there was a spare seat in her car. She needed say no more - I said I would clear my diary and be there. More about that later. This night was my first meeting with Baba Lon and I was naturally nervous and awestruck at this towering and hilarious intellect. Very unassuming at first, his dry humour makes him somewhat of an esoteric stand up comedian. He takes the work absolutely seriously, but does not take himself seriously quite in the same way.

He started by introducing the origins of the John Dee and the contemporary thinking with regards to evoking spirits. It only then occurred to me that the proscribe act of ritually bathing and putting on fresh clothing prior to invokation would actually have been a pretty huge thing in that day and age, considering the cost of fabrics and seamstresses, and the fact that unless it was April, you wouldn't even think about putting deodorant on let along have a bath. That act had a simple yet profound significance it no longer has in this day and age of ubiquitous plumbing and irrigation. If taklen ritual showers or baths before, but rarely put into them the attention I think this fact necessitates. I may shower everyday, but a ritual shower is a ritual act.

Having read Woolley's "The Queen's Conjurer" I had a pretty good idea about how fabulous Dee was, but the point that Lon makes in "Enochian Vision Magic" is that the Enochian system as we know it would have been vastly different (and probably much more easy to understand and enter into) if ANYONE but a genius mathematician, philosophy, code-obsessed nerd like Dee had been the receiver. These angels spoke to him in such a way that his psyche would understand and respond. If they had spoken to a poet we would have had divine eloquence, if he had spoken to a musician we would be able to hear the mind of God in transcendent melody and harmony, but no, we had Dee - numbers, grids, geometry, vast complexity.

Duquette tradition informs us (this is Lon's key phrase for "this is not necessarily historically accurate") that Dee wanted to know if his friend Laski would be King of Poland. The angels said Sure! We'll tell you that. But first you need to understand what WE think of when we say "Laski" or "King" or "Poland"... or "Europe"... or "Earth"... or "Heaven"... or "planet"... or "galaxy"... or "Universe"... or "God." Lon argues that the angels set about circumscribing the entire universe for Dee and Kelley in order that they could contextualise themselves within in. This came in stages, building in complexity. He used the analogy of a beginner magician learning the Lesser Banishing Ritual of the Pentagram as a first order of duty. This gets the magician the illusion that he knows WHERE he is - it orients him on the Earth, or at least the Earth he thinks he is in. THEN he moves on to learn the Lesser Banishing Ritual of the Hexagram, which orients him in the Solar System, then he moves on to progressively more and more complex ritual actions which parallel the expanding complexity of his Universe.

We went on to briefly examine the Sigillum Dei Aemeth and the elegant structure of it and the dynamic nature of its construction - I loved his description of it as like a "basket" focussing energy woven together. We have the Lamen worn on the magician's breast, constructed from two misaligned tables, which reflects our imperfection as manifest human beings. We have the Holy Table itself, constucted from the same table which was flawed to make the Lamen, but has been corrected in it's alignment - making the Table of Practice a representation of the perfect Universe. So by wearing the Lamen the magician places himself as an imperfect part in the perfect universe and is drawn to perfection by virtue of what he wears.

We then as a group performed Lon's simple Enochian invokation and we all skryed the 30th Aethyr TEX. This involved a preliminary statement of sanctification, declaration of authority with the Ring and the Lamen - we put these on ourselves in our own minds because we didn't have a pretty gold one like Lon. We then began chanting the names of the letters around the outer edge of the Holy Table of Practice starting at the top right and working counter-clockwise. We chanted these seven times - 7 times circumscribing the edges of the universe. All the while Lon was chanting the letters in the centre of the Table 7 times.The visionary aspect began here. I felt hot all over and my legs just kept restlessly jumping, like I wanted to just leap up in the air. It was like air was rushing around up and there was a cacophany of activity. I could see the rows of chairs with the group of us sitting and chanting while the room around us was swept away. I'd like to say it was like we were rushing down a tunnel, but it wasn't quite.

We then said another mini-prayer before reciting in groups the words of the Tablet of Nalvage while Lon recited the Call of the 30 Aethyrs for TEX. We then finished this chant and Lon recited the Call again. This was when the visionary shit got really intense. The activity aroud us increased. Flashes of light, a dust storm of purple and orange and light and dark. Then there was something like an altar or plinth ahead - basically a truncated pyramid of yellow stone, like sandstone - spinning or approaching, then spinning again - a bit like the way the TARDIS in the more recent Doctor Who incarnation spins through space. The group, and the lines of chairs is gone and I am by myself in a sort of temple with a marble floor and square trapezoidal arches. The roof may be open, or it may not be. The altar is before me and seems to have some kind of pool of wtaer aroudn it - blacky-purpley water. There are people rushing everywhere around me - ghost like people that come and go, streaking past - a bit like an interdimensional Times Square. I hear words spoken all around me. Then there is no one there but me. Then the activity is back, then gone, then back. I kneel down, almost as if I am compelled, before this plinth. There is a male figure before me. (EXPLICIT INTERDIMENSIONAL BIZARRENESS WARNING:) I see an erect phallus. It's blue - sky blue. I take it in my mouth, then I don't, then I'm receiving fluid from it. Then the figure is gone. I see another hooded figure behind the plinth to the left of it watching me from under a hood. It steps behind a wall out of sight. Lon is meanwhile reading the names of the four Governors of TEX: DOXMAEL, TAAOGBA, GEMNIMB, and ADVORPT. Then I am alone there but for four figures staning around me.

I think it's a fair assumption these are the four Governors. So, being proactive, I draw one of the symbols I received from the Elemental Kings. The four Governors immediately burst into joyous applause. I then hear a voice saying DOXMAEL and one of the figures steps forward and draws a simple sigil in the air - it is like a boiling down of the original symbol. I repeat his gesture and they all applaud again. This gesture is repeated for all four symbols, each time a different Governor steps forward and traces a simplified symbol - which is at the same time a gesture. I'm planning another trip back to visit to try the original gestures I received, and also see their reaction to the strange Enochian phrase I received a long time ago, which first set me on the road to Enochiana. I tried this during this little group ritual, but we were pulled out of it and while the "state" of TEX held firm, the vision of it began to rock and disintegrate like a shakey hologram.

It ended with a few of us describing what we were seeing or had seen. A nuimber of us had experienced the sensation or image of spinning. Columns featured in others - and mine had slanted columns in that trapezoidal canopy.

We wrapped up the talk, and I was still floaty and awestruck. It was the most hilarious mind fuck I'd ever experienced. And I mean mind fuck in the best possible way - as my account of the Qabalah lecture will show.

I had a lift home from Frater D, and discussed the possibility of my attending his next Masonic Lodge meeting (another story I guess - I mention it only for the potential of personal posterity). I barely slept that night, but I didn't have a heap of wild dreams like I expected to. The following day many others had the same reaction - except Soror L who said she slept like a log. Darn her.