The road to Hell...

... good intentions etc. Specifically good intentions of updating this blog regularly, AND starting to log ritual experiences, AND starting to spice it up with some hot and inspiring musclemen.

Alas all is for nought when one has no internet connection at one's hot new home, nor enough shifts at work in a week where one can hop online regularly. No.

So this is the first post in however long, and it may be a little longer before the next post. But a next post there will be, be assured!

I'm currently in the penultimate week of rehearsal for a play which is part of Sydney's Mardi Gras Festival. It's a fabulous play, and I have a true gift of a role. I also have to do it in a sustained accent, which is a great challenge. I teach other people how to talk like New Yorkers, Hillbillies or Warwickshire farmers all the time, but it's a while since I've had to play a character in accent. This one is a New York Jew. I'm having trouble getting consistency with the short back-mid vowel in not and stop. It keeps veering more GenAm than New York - and of course the more pronounce the NY diphthong is, the more Jewish he sounds, and the director wants him to be a little softer. Hmm... It'll come together. First rehearsal on the set tomorrow night. Excitment.

I'm also the dialect coach on three other productions at the moment. Yes, typical Sagittarian. Just can't say no. If it'll help me meet new people and have new experiences, I'm in. And I'll find a third end of the candle to burn in order to be there. One of the plays is Angels in America Part 1. I now have a bit of a theory that the playwright Tony Kuschner read a bit of Western Occult literature in the writing of this play. Repeated Hebrew phrases like "Ha-adam, ha-gadol... Zefirot, Zazahot..." The appearance halfway through to Prior Walter of a vision of a book with steel pages and a burning Aleph emblazoned on its open page. Also the Angel keeps referring to "the breath" and "the ascent," "infinite" space, spheres, "Daughters of Light" etc. The final moment of Part 1 involves the actual arrival of the Angel, and the script specifies that there is blinding light shifting fiorst from pale light blue, to burning gold, to forest green, to royal purple, and finally bright white. I'm going to look in my 777 and my Stephen Skinner tonight to see if that figures in a particular colour scale... There's certainly a shitload of transmutational imagery and metaphor. The whole idea of Prior being infected, but having a part, deep in his core which is free of disease - like a spark of divinity. The idea of ordeal, initiation, there's a sexual edge to every encounter with the angel, and after this is "consummated" Prior is a "prophet."

Penny drop moment! Hadn't even thought of the parallel with Dee and Kelley before - ushering in a new age, the "Milennium Approaches" - Prior becomes a prophet, just as Dee and Kelley were ordained prophets of the new age - the Enochian angels were also all fire, poetry, hermetic, sexuality (let's NOT forget the wife-swapping episode), and most importantly, apocalyptic. One age must end as another begins, like the Rosicrucian Enlightenment, Christianopolis, etc. Prior finds a book under his floor in which must be written the new scripture. It's amazingly parallel.

I'm going to do some more research on Kuschner now. I love his writing (Bright Room Called Day was breathtaking - also features angels, and the Devil himself, no less).

Hmm... a lot more to talk about. Most notably in Pimping News - I'm on date number four with a lovely guy. Pumping Iron has been depressing me because of all the shit I'm doing I'm barely lucky to manage two days in a week. I'm just trying to not freak out about it, because I know this is just a two or three week period which will pass. Of course it doesn't help that Mr Fourth Date is a bodybuilder who goes four days a week, and I'm keenly aware of my "talk" of training and that I'm not currently doing much of any of it. Like I said, I'm trying to just keep perspective.

Okay, fingers crossed i'll find time for another post soon!

Pumping Iron

Wed 7th Jan 2009

Second day back with full body routine. Was really pressed for time, but I managed everything except cardio. Plus side of the lack of time though was my intensity was doubled, despite initial soreness, and endurance was much better.

Cardio: none

Comp. squat/shoulder press: 7x20; 8x20
Comp. lunge/one arm cable row: 4x20/20
Standing cable press: 4x20/20
Tri pushdown: 6x20; 7x20 }
} superset
Bicep curl (cable): 5x20/6x20 }
Cruches: 30/25

I then went outside into the humidity and swam all the way home. Sydney has been ridiculously hot lately.

Pumping Iron

Monday 5th Jan 2009

First day back after a month off. And what a month! Planning a week of full body at least - considering my workload, I can't go too heavy or I'll shatter myself before having to work.

Cardio: 3mins/100 strokes on rowing machine

Comp. Squat/shoulder press: 7kgs dumbells x 20/20
Comp. Lunge/one arm cable rows: 4 x 20/20
Standing cable press: 3x 20/20
Tri pushdown: 6x 20/20 }
} superset
Bi curl (cable): 5x 20/20 }
Crunches (on ball): 30/25

Almost stopped after first superset as I felt a bit queasy, but I risked it, and all was well.

Qabalah Water

(This title signifies all things occult int he ceremonial sphere - pun related to the different Romanised renderings of the Hebrew QBL. The insidious Kabbalah Centre has appropriated Jewish mysticism and turned it into glorified self-help. "Kabbalah Water?" Piss off - check out this discussion: http://curiouscurandera.blogspot.com/ in particular the poster "Caliban's" first response explaining the K/C/Q distinction)

Okay so me and another eCT member, Soror L, have been planning a series of Enochian workings based on the framework in Lon Milo Duquette's recent book "Enochian Vision Magick" http://www.amazon.com/Enochian-Vision-Magick-Introduction-Practical/dp/1578633826/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1211189236&sr=1-3

We brought two other order members on board who we knew would be interested. We've so far only been talking, and Soro L and I had a crafty day where we began to construct the Watchtowers, and draw the Ensigns, etc.

Since then we've been in the process of coming up with a name for the group and the workings. I consulted with a Latin scholar and we've all but settled on "Spiritis Factis Magorum Tolpanis" or the Spirit Actions of the Magicians of Tolpan. Tolpan is the 58th Part of the Earth as described in Liber Scientiae Auxilii et Victoriae Terestris (1585) which was described by the angels as being "under the South Pole" - hence is popularly believed to cover much of Australasia. Dee and Kelley referred to their workings as "actions" or "spirit actions" hence the name "Spiritis Factis Magorum Tolpanis." We may very well receive a word or name from the spirits ourselves to augment this title - I'd be very interested to see if there is an Enochian word with can attach to it. For instance, tolpan is the name "given by Man" but it is called ZILDRON "as named by God." The angels frequently communicate in gestures and symbols which act like passes, and can be accompanied by word-like sounds - at least in my limitted experience of the Enochian realms. The letter-essences work of Benjamin Rowe I've found useful in interpretting these Enochian words.

Anyway I won't talk too much about the actual results of this work here - we'll have a blog dedicated to that once we start up some serious "actions."

Five Cougars Thanks

Wey-hey! finally I get the time, and the space to add something vaguely titilating to this blog. Hopefully I can draw some crowds here eventually!

For those of you who aren't Aussies and don't get the reference:
http://au.youtube.com/watch?v=AlDXTc8IJ7c

So yes - hotness = five Cougars thanks! (NOTE: I am in no way endorsing Cougar bourbon. In fact bourbon makes me retch). I'm hoping I have the upload technique correct - they look a bit tiny here, but ideally you can all click on them and make them bigger.

I used to have a theory this was Ilario Rongioletti, but I'm now certain it's not - any help?

Love the clothed bodybuilder look. Any ID?

Beautiful shape.

I know he's breathing in here - but the roidgut-look is fabulous. Anyone have an ID?

Is this Tommi Thorvilsdsen? Or have I had too many Boxing Day beers? Beautiful and casual either way.

Naturally anyone with issues over copyright with these images (I try to always save with the original filename, or the name of the model, and I keep the watermark if it's there), please let me know and I'll remove the image immediately.

Hope y'all had a fantabulosa Christmas.

Pimping News

Okay so the date with the Leb was nice. We saw Twilight - might or might do a separate IMHO post about it - was even worse than the book.

He was much more conversational this time. Had more to say. I think he's grown up this year in some ways. He also thought the movie was crap.

We both got there early and had juice in the food court, then browsed shops a bit and chatted. When we got int he cinema he asked me why I reinitiated contact back on that day when I'd had a few drinks. I couldn't explain it well without saying "I'd had a few drinks." I said it, but also that I was genuinely curious about what he was up to. Perhaps I've always felt guilty about meeting him and then saying I didn't want to go anywhere with him - timing was always bad.

I don't know what it is. Perhaps it's just the idea of him, but he does turn me on. Then something about being with him face to face makes me balk. I dunno. He gave me a lift home, and I said catching up before Xmas/NY would be hard, so early in the new year we should catch up. He seemed fine with that.

Stake Huggers

Had the Pagans in the Pub replacement event on the weekend - "Divination in the Park." Was really very nice. Only four of us in the end. Surprising considering how gorgeous a day it was, but then the day before had been torrential rain and icy winds - could have deterred people.

The two organising regulars were there - Chandler and Kiwi - and a New Girl. Chandler actually gave me one of his hand made candles - really lovely.

We sat down in Chatswood Park (in a fenced playground which looked like it was designed by a team coinsisting of Gaudi, Dali, Tim Burton, and MC Escher) and proceeded to lay out our divination tools. All I brought was my Thoth deck. Briefly toyed with bringing the Chinese coins for I Ching I bought years ago and never used, left my rune set as three are broken and again, I don't really use them, and I couldn't find my pendulum, which is gorgeous, but again something I never use. Then from the others came the Fairy Oracle cards and the Destiny Cards, etc, etc. We didn't end up looking at them thankfully - Angel Cards and their ilk make me want to vomit pink feathers. Horses for courses.

The Kiwi had brought along her I Ching oracle as it happened. It was actually really interesting. Required a lot of thought. I asked about the audition I had. Basically it said don't put all your eggs in a basket which is an unknown quantity. In other words don't plan for a year of work when it may not happen. I wasn't. I also asked about my love life, and to be honest I can't remember the response. Something typical like "Wait." Then we did a couple of Tarot readings. I did one for the Kiwi which I was quite proud of. Then I did one about my schoolboy crush. Again, oddly I can't for the life of me remember the result. I showed them all geomancy, which none of them had encountered - and I realised I'd forgotten a lot about it. Couldn't remember the names of three of the figures, and I even forgot two of them. Bizarre.

Then we did a bit of psychometry. I enjoyed this - the Kiwi had brought all these little objects like ballet shoes and a bit of masonry. I'd only ever read off metal objects so I was suprised to get a whole lot from the ballet shoes. New Girl had never done it and didn't know what she was doing, but gained confidence and got some pretty good hits!

Ended with us going for coffee. Coincidentally we discovered that the Kiwi's teacher is a woman I met in my year up in Armidale. Totally random. One of those people who have been in the Pagan/Magickal community for a while, and have assumed a position of authority for themselves. I really disliked her at firs,t but I think because I impressed her with a ritual she decided I was worth her time, and I saw a different side of her. I developed a lot fo respect for her knowledge and experience, but I just can't see how someone who claims to be so spiritually advanced/evolved can behave in such a superior fashion. She said things like "So why Vodou?" as though it was a really odd, and frankly irrational choice. I wanted to say "Why witchcraft? Why Islam?" Again. Horses for courses. And I'm aware of the double standard. But she was incredibly knowledgable, and generous once she decided you were worth it.

Anyway, I caught the train to the city with the New Girl and we had a great chat.