As this will make all positive and negative actions multiplied by 10,000 times, I have decided to do another batch of Tibetan Talismans. This time focused on Vajrakilaya. They will look similar to the Dzambhala and Kurukulla talismans, with Kilaya on front and his Mantra in Tibetan on the back. Kilaya of course is the main diety of the Phubra, and my central Tantric Yidam Practice. My hope is that these will be mega powerful talismans for overcoming all obstacles to health, wealth, happiness, and enlightenment for their wearer. Cost, as always is $50.

Whether you purchase one or not, if you do any Dharma practice you should consider doubling down on those dates.

If you are mainly focused on western astrology, the eclipses are generally considered days to avoid – just one of the differences in thinking.

A couple weeks after that there will be a Lunar Eclipse that coincides with Saga Dawa Duchen, (Enlightenment of the Buddha) when the effects of work are multiplied 10,000,000 X.

Chaos Magic arose in not only in a multi-cultural world, but in a world that had become such a melting pot that even the most esoteric and secretive occult traditions were becoming public in an unprecedented manner. It is hard though for any westerner to shake off Christian programming, and part of that programming states that God is the one true source of power, and the more faith you have, the better access you have.  The problem is that we can observe that people in other religions do magic too, including those that do not have the same god, or even any god at all. This poses a problem if we see the effectiveness of magic in other cultures and religions we must conclude that there is no one true way.

Chaos Magic handled this by stating that it is belief itself, rather than the object of belief that is they key to magic. This opened the way for all the strangeness of invoking Scrooge Mc Duck and such that we talked about in the last post in this series. Belief as a tool became the mantra of the Chaos Magician.

For reasons I have already touched on, many people found this not to be accurate. People found that they got results, and even unexpected treatment, from beings that they did not believe in. In some cases these were beings that they were not even aware of. Likewise, beings that they tries to psych themselves into believing in but which were not traditionally considered spirits or powers, tended not to yield the same results as those that were.

Just a reminder here: I am not saying that these were everyone’s findings. Clearly some people are still Chaos to the core. I am saying that it does represent the findings of a large section of people who tried Chaos Magic.

MAGIC’S NEXT TOP MODEL

Frater UD wrote an essay in 1991 that has had a profound effect on magic inside and outside the Chaos Current. I have often said that it is one of the single worst things to happen to the art in last 100 years. I am speaking about his article on Models of Magic.

In it he presents a 4+1 model of models. The four he lays out are the:

1. Spirit Model
2. Energy Model
3. Psychological Model
4. Information Model.

You can read his description of each, but your probably already have a good grasp on them.       It is with his +1, that things get totally fucked up.

ANYTHING YOU CAN DO, I CAN DO META

Frater UD posited the Meta model as a way of explaining why magicians adhering to each of these models work. He posits that the Meta Model is not really a model but an instruction on how to use the other models. “Always use the model most adequate to your aims” is the way he sums it up.

This sounds good right?

Wrong. It totally fucks up the whole thing.

Why? Because by suggesting the need for a meta model to bridge the gap between the other four, you have effectively suggested that the other four are models that attempt to explain ALL magic. By suggesting you need to use “A Model” in your magic, even if you get to jump from one to the other by being “meta”, you neglect the idea that all of these have separate but complementary roles in magic.While certainly some people did think this way, it was not the predominant thinking even just 15 years ago. When I was coming up it was a given that Spirits, Energy, Mind, and a more subtle Informational Level ALL had a role in magic.

It is also not particularly traditional despite assertions to the contrary. My primary training is in Tibetan Buddhism which has a strong emphasis on all of these factors playing different but complementary roles in thje same rite.

Think about it. Your car runs on gas, electricity, oil, and water. No gas and the engine wont run. No electric and it wont start. No oil and it will seize. No water and it will overheat. Suggesting that we need a “Meta Model” to deal with spirits, energy, mind, and information is like suggesting that we need to flip back and forth in believing our car works entirely by gas, entirely by oil, entirely by water, and entirely by electric.

In the past few years I have seen more misunderstanding, and even some actual harm, come from the need people feel to cleave to one model or another. It was not meant to be like that.

In Frater UD’s defense, he does warn against people getting too literal about the models. That warning seems to have largely fallen on deaf ears of people who are either looking for one grand way of explaining everything despite evidence to the contrary OR by people who really like to be meta about fricking everything. I am now at the point with “meta” in magic that I am with the names raven and shadow in Paganism: enough already!

SCREW META, BE MEGA

It is time to drop the over-thought and over-complicated. It is time to plus size our models! We don’t need to be meta. We can be Mega. One big issue I have with magical thought is that it makes the universe seem so small. One explanation for how magic works. One model with seven levels to cram all of existence into. Its BS. I would like to see the Post Chaos world adopt a Mega Model.

This Mega Model would state:

1. The Multiverse is no large that we not only dont know everything about, but we can’t know everything about it. At least not at our stage of human development.

2. The same applies to the nature of Gods and Spirits. The fact is that if you have a lot of experience with them they can behave like parts of your brain, like separate beings, like friends who are just hanging out, or like forces so great that it would be more accurate to say that we exist in thjeir brains rather than they in ours. In short lets EMBRACE THE MYSTERY instead of rushing top half assed explanations that don’t fit the evidence but which screw up our future experiments.

3. Spirits, mind, “energy”, etc all have a role in magic. Attempts to explain all magic with just one of them consistently fail. The exception might be Patrick Dunns Semiotic Model, but this is akin to stating that all things and constructyed of just a handful of subatomic particles and four forces. Technically correct on a very microcosmic level, but once the structures get complex enough, we need macro models to describe how to work with them. Perception may indeed be the underlying reality, but that does not negate or help very much woith the more relative reality that presents itself in terms of energy, spirits, astral work, and mental action.

4. By all means we shall attempt to explore and experiment and put forth ideas and models. The difference is that we must not allow our models, even the meta ones, to fool us into thinking that it is the absolute truth.

.

At the end of the post she states that she is going to” scour my library and the internet for anything that can help me understand prayer in a positive light”. To this end I have a few things to add.

I am a Buddhist, and in Vajrayana Buddhism there are a LOT of prayers. The thing is though, that there is no god. Buddhism is a non-theistic religion. There is no first creator or supreme being. So what is up with the prayer then?

Well on one level prayers can be directed to beings that are not a Supreme being. In Buddhism they are directed at Dharmapalas for protection, Buddhas and enlightened beings for blessings, local spirits like Nagas and Shidak for supplication, and most importantly to your own root Gurus who are inseparable from the Buddha. In some cases you are directing prayers at all sentient beings in the universe.

Rather than groveling your prayer might be:

• Asking for blessings and help attaining enlightenment.
• Asking intercession in worldly matters
• Stating aspirations of attainment such as in the Kuntuzangpo Prayer
• Speaking words that move the mind into a particular mind state or which bring a certain quality to awareness.
• Spreading spiritual benefit to others.
• Confessing our shortcomings and seeking to redress them.

Let’s take a look at each of these.

When asking for help attaining enlightenment you are definitely not groveling. You are simply acknowledging that there are beings who have attained what you seek to attain, and you are asking for their help to achieve the same. Gurdjieff once pointed out that it is hard to break out of prison without someone on the outside to assist you. This is the case with prayers like this. You are not begging a being that will always be above you for mercy. You are saying “Hey dude, you are awesome. I am planning on being awesome as well. How about a hand with that?”. Zeta in her post identifies as an LHP practitioner, and in this context the prayers to Set in the Ruby Tablet or many other Satanic Prayers to achieve the kind of remanifestation that is represented fit this bill pretty exactly as well. There is a line in the Hevajra tantra that the only worship appropriate is to become as he is…

Intercession in worldly matters can seem like begging for sure, and maybe it is, but it is really not fundamentally different than asking another person for help. If it is tied to an offering system, as it often is in Buddhism, there is more of an exchange than a one sided service.

The statement of aspiration is a reminder to the self of what you are doing and where you are heading. It is in many ways a prayer to yourself, or at least the you that is at the goal. It is there to keep you on the path.

Words to bring us into certain mind states are just that. They are perhaps prayers that address certain gods or powers, but their primary function is to effect the psyche. Take for example the Litany against fear from Dune. Is it a prayer? It is, it is just not a theistic prayer.

In Buddhism we do a lot of spreading benefit to others. At the end of every session of practice, no matter what it is, we take all the merit we accumulate from that practice and give it away to all sentient beings. People in Nepal wander the streets with malas and prayer wheels praying for the enlightenment of everyone everywhere, and of course, there is the prayers of specific magical action.

Prayers of confession can seem like groveling, especially if you were raised in a particularly oppressive Christian sect or denomination. It is not though. Even without a list of “sins” we all know that we say and do things that keep us from gnosis, from love, from compassion, and from being the people we want to be. Confessing these things is a powerful way of addressing them and starting reparations. Pretending that everything you do is perfect gets you no where.

The last note I wanted to give here is that often, the really debased groveling in much Christian Prayer actually serves a purpose. It is there to lesson the hold of the ego on the spirit, which in turn allows what is underneath that (or, if you like, the spirit of god) to shine through. It is setting aside self grasping at thoughts, so that the REAL self which is inseparable from the divine can manifest. This of course brings us to meditation and contemplation, yet another form of prayer.

In contemplation one enters in Christian terms into union with the divine. In Buddhist terms one rests in the nature of their own mind which is primordial awareness. This is a state beyond formal prayer and beyond the type of topical communication that is the focus of some types of prayer.

Whatever your practice, or even if you don’t practice I hope you have a good day of prayer.

Also a good day of reason for my Atheist friends who are focused on good works today.

No reason not to do both.

CYCLE 9 of STRATEGIC SORCERY TRAINING STARTS ON MAY 15th

HELL NO! I used Magic on the go!
Step 1: Get materials. I could have done it on paper, but that would be too easy so instead I stopped by a quality Paint store and purchased a bag of Lambskin strips for $5.

For those that are not hip to this, Lambskin of often used by painters to apply polyurethane. Most places have pads, but good stores will also have bags of loose strips of 100% Lambskin. Just pick a strip and cut or shave the excess wool (unless you want a wooly talisman to make an orgona pad out of, but that is a post for another day). While I was there I grabbed a Blue Pen. Afterward, I zipped by a Catholic Church for some Holy Water.

Step 2. Find a small park. I make it a point to have a list of quiet and scenic places that are mostly empty. This makes it easy to do some magic or meditation. When I lived in teh city I even knew what floors of certain buildings were empty or being worked on. Nothing beats doing magic or meditating on an empty 20th floor looking out over the city.

Step 3. Prep tools and perform a zone rite (if you want). Specifically I went to my little corner of the park and before the election, I made an offering to the spirits in the park, as well as the powers that be in the neighborhood, city, county, etc. I performed a quick and silent zone rite, and meditated until the election.

Step 4. Bless the skin and pen with the holy water using short verses. Performed short invocation of Jupiter and began chanting the seed vowel of Jupiter. As I chant, I draw my Jupiter seals in blue on the lambskin and perform a short consecration on the spot.

That is it.  If I had books and stuff with me I might have chosen different words and symbols, but I did not so I relied upon the stuff that I have memorized.

Point being, you should never feel that you need a big temple space to do magic. Chances are you did not have one when you started out, and once you get one it is easy to forget how effective you can be without one.

Btw: if anyone needs some lambskin, I have a lot left over.

What’s that Chris? No? Not that kind of election? OOOOOOOHHHH….

What I mean to say is that Christopher Warnock has found an exciting election for Jupiter and wants people to take advantage of the auspicious moment.

The following is from Mr Warnock:

You can use any Jupiter ritual, Jupiter talisman, etc and super charge
it by making it AND consecrating it at the appropriate astrological
time.  It needs to be Jupiter, however, I don’t recommend the
“everything = everything else” approach, so no I would not use this
for Thor or Shango, etc, just Jupiter.

All of the following elections are for:

(1) Jupiter culminating, ie within 10 degrees on either side of Midheaven
(2) Jupiter day and Jupiter hour ( hour is key, day is bonus)
(3) Jupiter dignified by term (+2)
(4) Jupiter unafflicted
(5) Moon unafflicted,  (note that once we get to the Midwest US, we
are starting to have Moon applying to square Saturn, still basically
out of orb, though West Coast is getting more ifffy.  Still about as
good as we can do until 2013 with Jupiter in Cancer, his exaltation.)

Note that you CANNOT simply adjust by time zone, full chart
astrological elections are location specific!

Sydney Australia, April 19, 2012 12:50-1:46 pm AEST

Berlin, Germany 2:16-2:56 pm CEDT
London, UK April 19, 2012 2:10-2:50 pm BST

Washington, DC April 19, 2012  2:15-3pm EDT
NYC, NY April 19, 2012 2:02-2:43 pm EDT
Miami, FL April 19, 2012 2:25-3:10 pm EDT
Cleveland OH, April 19, 2012  2:33-3:13 pm EDT
Chicago, IL April 19, 2012  1:57-2:37 pm CDT
Minneapolis, MN April 19, 2012 2:20-3pm CDT
Dallas TX April 19, 2012 2:32-3:16 pm CDT
Boulder CO April 19, 2012 2:07-2:38 pm MDT
Phoenix, AZ April 19, 2012 1:33-2:13 pm MST
San Francisco, CA April 19, 2012 2:15-2:55 pm PDT

You want to physically inscribe, engrave, or actually create the image
during the window given above.  It works well to print out a paper
talisman during this time and I like to write my name or the name of
the person to be affected on it and add the goal.   Making a talisman
without timing its creation and then trying to consecrate it later
losses much of the power of the election.  However, if you have a
talisman that was properly timed in its making you can reconsecrate
and recharge using this election.

Make the talisman and then at least start your consecration ritual
during the window.  If you have to continue the ritual after the
window closes, that’s ok!

BUT WAIT, THERE IS MORE! YOU ALSO GET THIS EVEN MORE AWESOME ELCTION FOR THOSE WEST OF THE ROCKIES:

STOP THE PRESSES!!!!  How did I miss this? This early morning election
avoids the Moon opposing Saturn completely, though it’s basically out
of orb even on the West Coast.  You don’t need to even bother with
this unless you are West of the East Coast of the US, that is the
Midwest, Rockies and West Coast.  But for those locations it’s worth
using the an early morning election.

For those that know enough astrology, once the Sun rises, this is
Jupiter day and hour, then have Jupiter rising, ie within 8-10 degrees
of the Ascendant, rather than culminating.

If you don’t know enough astrology to look at a chart for all election
locations   Sunrise on April 19th, that gives you Jupiter day, hour
and Jupiter rising.  Start your talisman making and ritual about 20
minutes after Sunrise and then you have another 30 minutes to make the
talisman and consecrate it.

If this is too complicated stick with the afternoon times, they are
usable, just not as good as this one.

About two years ago I did a few posts about Chaos Magic, one detailing my main criticisms of it, and another positing that something new was evolving – a Post Chaos Magic if you want to call it that. I don’t want to call it that by the way, so please somebody think of something better to call it fast

This evolution is a pretty logical step. Chaos Magic arose in part as a response to overly barouche and hierarchal magical orders and religious based magic. By the end of the 1990′s however the wild experimentalism and excesses of Chaos Magic had caused its own counter response, and I think few would disagree that if there was a theme in magic over the last 10 or 12 years it would be Traditionalism. People involved in Chaos Magic and GD/OTO based magic started to initiate en masse into very old lineage traditions like Tibetan Buddhism or various ATR’s. Those with an eye to the Witchcraft started looking past Wicca and into “Traditional Craft” represented by folks like Robert Cochrane, Andrew Chumbley, and Robin Artisson. Those with a more High Magic focus dig into the literary tradition and started translating and re-translating the Grimoires and doing things as close to the book as possible.

But again, like everything else people get carried away by their own BS. Soon, rather than saying “hey there is all this cool stuff in the traditions and old texts that we have been ignoring”, people started crying that “none of the Chaos or GD/OTO stuff works at all! If you want to do magic you had better follow this book to the fucking letter”. OR you have the folks so high on the richness of whatever tradition they have initiated into that they cannot see value in anything outside of it. I know this because I went through a period of being exactly like this when I first got initiated into Tibetan Buddhism. It was so amazing (still is) that I considered everything else crap.

GETTING DESCRIBED AS A CHAOS AND POST-CHAOS MAGE

After I started to put my own ideas of magic together into what has become Strategic Sorcery, some people started referring to me as a Chaos Magician, and just a couple weeks ago someone referred to me as a post-chaos mage, which gave me pause yet after some thinking, seemed to fit. I did some googling and found that MR Black has been thinking about the post-chaos current so much that he has started the POST CHAOS MAGICK PROJECT.  In his list of online resources relating to Chaos Magic in the 21st century, I found my own posts on it from two years ago.

FROM CHAOS TO ?

I took this as a sign to join his project and articulate my own view of Post-Chaos Magic. Please note that by doing so I am not suggesting that Chaos Magic is invalid or over or anything like that. As long as people are doing it and getting something out of it, it is alive and well. I am also not suggesting that the work of the traditionalists is coming to a close – indeed there is a lot more to be done and I pay strict attention to new translations and exposition on traditional practices. I am simply saying that there has been a Post-Chaos View of magic emerging and I am sharing what my own take on that is.

SUPERMAN VS MARS

The first thing I want to deal with is probably the most controversial aspect of Chaos Magic. In the Introduction to the Octavo, Peter Carroll sums it up like this:

” It (chaos magic) liberated magic from its dependency on religious symbolism and theological theories about deities and spirits by demonstrating that imaginary gods and spirits have exactly the same effects as the supposedly real ones.”

While I am sure that he and some other peoples findings support this idea, but one of the primary reasons that Chaos Magic has been declining in recent years is precisely that when many people put this theory to the test imaginary gods and spirits or fictional characters DO NOT seem to have the same effect as traditional ones.  For instance, Andireh Vitimus author of Hands-On Chaos Magic, recently told me that Papa Legba has certainly done things that do not jive with the “all in your head” view that Chaos Magic tends to take.

I have seen examples of people who did not believe in spirits get overwhelmed by the experience of them.

• A ceremonial magician nearly ruined his life by invoking Yemeja and Oya into the same circle because while in his paradigm they fit the elements of the west and north, in Santeria mythology they hate each other with passion.
• A Buddhist starts suffering spiritual and psychological attacks at a Nyingma retreat only to discover that it is caused by Dorje Shugden, a sectarian anti-nyingma protector that the person did not even know she was bound to during an earlier empowerment with a different Lama.
• A trekker begins suffering nervous problems after angering Nagas by bathing in and eating meat at a pool sacred to the Nagas. Despite not even believing in Nagas, it is only a supplication ritual that winds up alleviating his symptoms.

Some chaos magicians have claimed that in the modern, largely secular world, a figure like Superman receives more collective belief than a pagan deity like Mars, thus making comic book or pop culture characters even more viable for magic than traditional gods and spirits. Even if we accept that it is belief, rather than the object of belief, that holds the power to magic, this thinking confuses attention with belief. Attention and belief are not the same thing, there is a different quality to the experience all around.

You can go back to my posts about criticisms of chaos magic from more arguments against the idea that spirits, gods, servitors, fictional characters, and made up twaddle are all equal. Those arguments however should not be taken as supporting a view that only traditional beings have a place in magic. Far from it – this brings us to post-chaos view.

For a traditionalist the idea of invoking a fictional character or creating an artificial spirit fit to design, is just silly. For many Chaos magicians, they all amount to the same thing. To the post chaos mage, they are all functional in magic – they just have different natures and roles to play.

Let’s take a look at the spectrum of possibilities here:

GODS, ANGELS, DEMONS, AND OTHER BIG NAME BEINGS: You know what I mean here. Beings who are known and supplicated the world over or at least widespread within a culture. The actual nature of such beings is highly subjective. For instance if RO was to bind a Goetic Demon into a Brass Vessel, I would still be able to evoke him. He would be removed from RO’s sphere but not mine. It might bleed over if we were then to interact using that spirit etc. I am fond of pointing out that these entities are usually not spacial, when present you can’t usually point to a place in the room and say “There he is” unless they choose or are directed to occupy that space. Though most of these beings are transcendent, they also manifest down as immanent beings which is why you can have seeming contradictions like Shiva being a being that gets jealous and petty in some stories, yet a Kashmir Shaivite might describe everything as Shiva including you, he, the question, and the world it occurs in. This is also hopw you get a YHVH that acts like a bloodthirsty fasciest war god, yet is also a god of love and transcendence.  Or, ya know, something like that. These tend to be beings that I call upon for big things only. Major macro-enchantments etc. Not to find my keys.

LOCAL BEINGS AND PERSONAL BEINGS: These are beings that you can usually point to and sense the space that they occupy. When a house is being haunted you can often feel the presence in one place and not another. Many (though not all) nature spirits fit this category. This also includes many (though not all ) of the dead as well as personal familiar spirits and tutilary spirits connected to you like the HGA. Being more local and immanent in nature, you have a chance to develop more of a personal relationship. These are spirits that, I would call upon to find my keys.

FICTIONAL BEINGS OR FORCES THAT ARISE OUT OF SPIRITUAL EXPERIENCE: Not all fictional characters are simple inventions of their authors. Often there is a legitimate psyho-spiritual communication that occurs, but because of the inclinations of the receiver this does not manifest as overtly spiritual or magical literature. These are the stories that people almost cannot help but investing some reality to. The most obvious example is Lovecraft and the beings of the Chthulhu Mythos. Philip K Dicks Valis transmissions are another. Leaving literature out entirely, sometimes scientists make developments out of such communications. Tesla credited a spiritual “core” that he received visions from from inspiring some of his work. Swedenborg not only wrote spiritual works inspired by his visions, but scientific ones as well. Steiner is yet another example.

CHARACTERS OF PURE FICTION: Now we get to the stuff of pure fictional creation. Invoking Scrooge McDuck for money, Mr Spock for mercurial intellect, Superman for protection and so on. As I already said many people came into Chaos Magic expecting these beings to deliver the same results as the beings above, and left disappointed a few years later. Even if we are to accept that it is belief that powers the magic and that all the spirits are fictional surely collective belief outweighs attention and passionate lifelong personal devotion outweighs a day or two of convincing yourself to “believe” for the span of the ritual.

That said, there IS a psychic quality to attention and when invoked you do get a response – just one that is largely psychic rather than magical. This is why the practice is useful. If for instance you are looking to find a lover, it can be very useful to invoke a fictional character that represents the type of lover you wish to be. I once focused on Dale Cooper from Twin peaks as someone who was professional to the extreme, meticulous with detail, dressed the way I needed to dress for my new job, yet maintained his mystical side in such a way that it supported all the rest. By regularly invoking him and modeling behavior for a few weeks I was able to undo a lot of programming that was holding me back. I would argue that this worked better than it would have invoking a planetary power or something like that. It was ingrained. Another good friend of mine used to do this with Obi Wan Kenobi in order to get

Though not fictional, one can work with historical figures as well. In this work I specifically avoid overt Necromancy. I am not looking to contact the spirit of that person, but rather the idea that they came to represent. As I wrote in The Sorcerers Secrets, Archibald Leitch makes an excellent psychopomp for this kind of work overall, as he carefully deconstructed his habits of speech and upbringing, and crafted himself into the uber charismatic Carey Grant.

ARTIFICIAL SPIRITS: Servitors, Thralls, Watchers, Egregores, Articficial Elementals, Bud-Wills, or as I have lately come to call them Designer Entities. These are beings that the magician consciously creates and programs, and released into the world to accomplish specific things. I will be devoting an entire post in this series to them, so I do not want to go into here, but suffice to say, they are not the same as any of the above, yet have their own nature and features that makes them more useful for certain work than any of the above.

That is it for now. Next post in this series is on Modeling: From Meta Models to Mega Models

Glory to Vajrakilaya

At that moment I looked at the bedroom wall where I have several Thankas hanging and the Padmasamhava Thanka looked absolutely 3-D. I did not feel like I was in a trance state and just to make sure I got up and did some very normal things. I came back to the room and it still appeared 3-D. There  were two thankas next to it, Kuntuzangpo on the right and Yeshe Walmo on the left, but neither of them looked at all odd.

That night I moved the painting downstairs and did a Rigdzin Dhupa Puja (a form of Padmasambhava) and sat in meditation for a long while. I did not so much receive instructions as I did a series of inspirations about setting the thanka and a small puja table near my desk, where my Kilaya thanka and phurbas are kept. Having been focused a lot on Strategic Sorcery based work lately, it has been very refreshing to engage in these practices. After three days I already feel the difference inside. It remains to be seen if it effects the health situation like I hope it will.

The painting still looks 3-D to me whenever I glance at it for more than a second.