Introducing…Maria Leonza and Her Sect (El Espiritismo Marialeoncero)

Updated: 10-14-2009 Order of Esoteric Research Discussion Annotation Links

OCCULT USA: Process Church Sabbath Assembly Ritual at Anthology Film Archives, NYC

Robert Anton Wilson Day 2009

Today is once again the day designated to an inspiration to this site and myself, Robert Anton Wilson.  Here is the link to all previous Bob entries.  By the way, his site has been updated lately by his family.

Introducing: The Stooges of the Occult

My colleagues Austin Gandy and Raymond Wiley are finally going on tour to the EU~! Everyone within 10000 miles should attend their performances.

Green Eggs and Bob?

Editor’s Note: Yesterday, two years ago, on January 11, 2007 at 4;50 AM PST, Robert Anton Wilson left this life.  I wrote some words to remember him by, last year.  Interestingly, Jason Pitzl-Waters, a premiere blogger of the Pagan community reviewed Green Egg Omlet, An Anthology of Art and Articles from the Legendary Pagan Journal, which contained artciles Rev. Bob wrote for the celebrated peridodical.  From reading the review, and gleaming inside the TOC, I think I might get a copy from Borders.  It would look nice next to my copy of Drawing Down the Moon in my bookcase.  What were the first forty years of the modern Pagan movement like? Here is an an excerpt of Pitzl-Waters’ review of this collection from a bygone era.

The print medium is changing irrevocably. Any clear-eyed assessment concerning the state of magazines and newspapers would see a widespread and unforgiving culling taking place. So many magazines are going under that a regularly updated blog has been created to keep track of the carnage, while digital-age pundits predict that the surviving niche publications will soon have to make hard choices about their future. While I’m no futurist, I’ve seen some of these changes coming for some time now, the struggling economy only hastening a transition already underway. It is part of the reason that the bulk of my writing is focused on this blog, rather than in the more “traditional” outlets for a writer/journalist (though I do admit to a certain romantic attachment to being in print, and I currently write for Pagan publications like PanGaia and Thorn).

Given these shake-ups in the world of print, I think it is entirely timely that I recently received a review copy of “Green Egg Omelette: An Anthology of Art and Articles From the Legendary Pagan Journal”. This book, a compliation of excerpts from one of the most influential Pagan magazines ever printed, shows just how vital and necessary the format once was. While books published for Pagans usually stuck to the “101-isms” of Wicca and other Pagan faiths, it was in the magazines that this loose network of Witches, Pagans, magicians, free-thinkers, and philosophers started to communicate, hash out ideas, argue, and push the boundaries of what they knew. It was a place where Pagan filk could rub shoulders with treatises on magic(k) by Robert Anton Wilson, and initial attempts at describing a Pagan theology could have a place next to explorations of polyamory. It is little wonder that even today Green Egg is remembered fondly by almost all who came across it in their journey.

Read more.

YuleTide One Shot: Of SANTA and ODIN (KNIGHT RUPERT and BELSNICKEL too)

With 86% of Americans having a belief in Santa Klaus until age 8 (AP-AOL, 2006), Jolly Saint Nick is perhaps one of the most recognizable figures in the USA. The story goes that from the North Pole, Santa emerges from his House each year to dispense gifts to children who are obedient to their parents each year. His house according to North American lore is located in the North Pole, where he lives with his wife “Mrs. Klaus.” In workshop hidden from the world, meek elves in his employ make toys and other presents to the believing, which are delivered to Jolly Old Sat Nick some time before Christmas. When Christmas Eve arrives, Santa and his team of eight reindeer fly across the world. Santa enters home through chimneys and eats cookies left by children.

As written in the past few days, this tradition is not universal; i.e. reindeer do not live in the North Pole, factually, so many European traditions locate the Reindeer of Santa in Lapland, Finland. Originally, the figure celebrated for bringing holiday cheer for the British whom would colonize the US, was traditionally Father Christmas, whose origin was the 17th Century when The Protestant ban on Christmas feasts was lifted. He was a man draped regally as if he was royalty. The modern interpretation of Santa Klaus, a large jolly man full of spirit was only popularized in the mid 19th Century, but was iconized by the drawings of former Playboy illustrator Haddon “Sunny” Sundblom as ads for the Coca Cola Company in the 1930s. This was after Father Christmas and the legendary Bishop of Lycia, Turkey, Saint Nicholas of Myra were syncretized. Nicholas was a holy man reputed to have resurrected three children butchered and paid for the dowry of three women, thus preventing them from entering a life of slavery.

Knight Rupert, or Knecht Ruprecht, as he was named originally in German folklore, protects Santa Klaus with staves. He also uses his rod to discipline “misbehaving children.” Contrasting with Santa, Rupert wars dark colored clothes and has generally uncouth hair and facial hair. Due to his strong resemblance to Odin, he is believed to be a modernization of the Highfather so much to the extent that the NAZIs attempted to replace Santa with Rupert believing him to be a corrupted form of the ancient deity. In some traditions, Rupert and Santa have been merged (something like the fusions in Dragon Ball Z and the combining in Transformers I guess) into one entity: Ru Klaus (Eng: Rough Nicholas), who is both the giver of gifts and the dispenser of punishment. Knight Rupert is also linked with Saint Rupert in Switzerland.

YuleTide: Santa Klaus and His Companions #3 – ELVES (and their Kin)

Since the 19th Century, there has been a tradition that elves are little people that work for Santa Klaus (or some mass production food companies) who live inside trees.  Those who are familiar with folklore and fantasy know that is not the always case; in fact, when Lord Dunsany  wrote his celebrated, The King of Elfland’s Daughter, the first modern tale which elves appear, they still live in the legendary Alfheim (of Norse Heathenism, albeit with an Anglicized name), and they are tall enough and capable of mating with humans.    Tolkien, however, would be the one to bring elves into their current level of popularity with The Hobbit (1937), followed by his Lord of the Rings Trilogy.

One of the antecedents of pint sized elfs was the short story, “The Elf of the Rose,” of fabled storyteller Hans Christian Andersen.  In this tale, the namesake elf was in fact the size of a blooming rose and had wings.   In 1933, Snap, Crackle, and Pop made their debuts for Kellog’s Rice Crispies ads.  They were however, originally identified as gnomes.   Note the spellings used in this paragraph; elf aficionados have made a case that the original regular sized are elves, whereas the smaller ones are the “elfish” of the “Elfen race.” The guys clad in green who assist Santa in  making (or in some stories, importing)  are Elfen.  In some traditions, they also works on logistics year round for the Saint’s one-day journey circumnavigating the globe.  According to some folklorists including noted archivist of Scandanavian stories, Viktor Rydberg, they are headquartered somewhere between the Arctic and Lapland, as their are no reindeer for Santa to ride at the Pole itself (more on this at another date), in a secret, may be even camouflaged, village.

The first mention of elves historically is in Norse tales perhaps dating back before the Aesir and Vanir House of Norse Gods.  The Light Elves were said to be tall, eternally youthful, and fairer than even Nordic peoples.  They lived in heavenly Alfheim.  Their cousins, the Dark Elves, however, live in the bowels of the Earth similar to Dwarves.  The last known monarch of the elves was Gandalf, who like his counterpart in Middle Earth, wielded a magic wand to protect his kin.  Humans and Elves can have kids together with the most famous being the Half-Elf sorceress princess of Norse legends, Skuld, being the most notable.  Elves  similar to other preChristian entities were later demonized and thus the term “Little People” today.  They were believed to cause mischief such as replacing human children with their own (though Changelings were more famous for this) to improve their bloodlines.  Modern day philosophers of the metaphysics such as Robert Anton Wilson, note the similarities between alien abductions and the “spiriting away” attributed to “fairy mounds.”  Wilson in fact, classified Mr. Spock, “the little green man” of Star Trek as being of the same archetype as Elves.

Persona 4 is released in the US

Megami Tensei: Persona 4

Coming to your nearest dealer today December 08, 2008 for the Sony PlayStation2 Computer Entertainment Syetm. Living in the Japanese village of Inaba can be a bore sometimes. Staying up late at night and flipping through the channels though, you come upon a real urban legend: Midnight TV. As you gaze in the dummy box, you become aware of the “other” you. Worse still you come upon a murder victim…

The latest from the Green Wolf Shop

LUPA, former guest and friend of the Invisible Web, wrote:

My timing for Black Friday wasn’t intentional, but this stuff needed to be posted anyway.

First off, Immanion Press/Megalithica Books is proud to announce the release of our newest nonfiction text, Mastering the Art of Ritual Magick by Frater Barrabbas! Brought to you by the author of the well-received Disciple’s Guide to Ritual Magick, this is the first in a three-volume set of practical and clearly explained guidelines to ritual magick; the material may be used as-is, or customized to the individual magician’s needs. Click here for more details! And, as always, you can find all current titles here!

Also, as we have for the past few years, we are offering free shipping on all artwork orders $10 and over through the end of the year! Orders with books and artwork will have the books sent separately. You can check out what I have here–however, click the cut below to see the very newest creations!

This necklace is pseudo-Roman-influenced-Celtic in the same way Jim Butcher’s Codex Alera series is kinda-sorta Roman in flavor–which is to say, while appreciation of the aesthetic was worked in there, it’s not authentic–but it still works. I started out with a 1 1/2″ ceramic boar pendant made by a local artisan, and strung it on a 30″ necklace of serpentine, amber, and a few unknown stones. I’m really happy with how this one turned out–here’s to it finding a good home! $22.50

I stitched together a scrap of green lambskin and some reddish-brown deerskin to make a 6″ x 3 1/2″ foldover pouch. It closes with a clasp made from a ceramic button with a crescent moon and grapevines made by a local artisan. I also added a 43″ deerskin strap for hanging or wearing. $15.00

I started with a 1″ metal (pewter?) mandala pendant, and strung it on a 21″ necklace made from variously colored small glass beads. $10.00

This is a basic brown leather drawstring necklace pouch, 3 1/2″ x 2 1/2″, but with a scrap of lavendar mink fur added for accent (sort of a faux foldover flap). The brown waxed linen cord drawstrings also have wood bead accents, and the pouch has 16″ long necklace cords. $6.00

I made this 4 1/2″ x 4″ necklace pouch out of brown rabbit fur from an old hat. I added 19″ green lambskin necklace strings, and the drawstrings have glass pony bead accents. $7.00

The 1 1/2″ long pendant on this necklace is made of inlaid bone, with metal accents. It’s on a 22″ necklace made of bone and metal beads, which pick up the colors of the pendant quite nicely. $22.00

I first wrapped this 14″ metal hoop in various earth toned leather lacing, then stretched a piece of creme-colored leather across it. I painted a reddish-brown wolf on a green background on the leather, and also added this quote from Henry Beston: “…the animal shall not be measured by the man…they are other nations…fellow prisoners of the splendor and travails of the earth” (and the original quote is “animal”, not “animals”). I also added three decorative dangles to one edge of the leather, with a coyote molar and some random bone and wood beads. The picture doesn’t do it nearly enough justice! $40.00

Disinformation: World News – Cast a Vote or Cast a Spell

Raymond and Joe at the Stonehenge of the ATL area~!

Description from Disinfo’s site:

In the first episode of Disinformation: World News, Raymond and Joe report on the results of the recent elections in the United States, including an election exclusive that you won’t find anywhere else! In military news, the capture and imprisonment of “spy pigeons” in the vicinity of Iran’s controversial nuclear facilities has raised eyebrows in intelligence circles throughout the world. Finally, occult expert Austin Gandy returns with a new edition of “The Invisible College.” Cast a vote or cast a spell, this week on Disinformation: World News.

Episode One – Cast a Vote or Cast a Spell

Disinformation: The Podcast (Series Premiere)- The Egypt Code

Raymond Wiley and Joe McFall have long been supporters of my work. I was going to interview for a Halloween special however I am dying of the FLU~! Thus for Halloween folks I highly recommend listening to their new show and subscribing to their feed. HAPPY HALLOWEEN & SAMHAIN everyone~!

Disinformation: The Podcast – The Egypt Code

(C) Robert Bauval

In the inaugural episode of Disinformation: The Podcast, Raymond and Joe speak with author Robert BauvalThe Egypt Code. Robert Bauval is the author of The Orion Mystery and co-author, with Graham Hancock, of Talisman. His new book, The Egypt Code, explores the relationship between ancient Egyptian myth, ritual, architecture and astronomy. Mr. Bauval joins us from Spain to discuss his life, his work and his philosophy.

The feed.

The Heretic, Giordano Bruno

Thanks to TiamatsVision @ TechnOccult

one of the forefathers of the Western Esoteric Movment (C) Salon

Laura Miller wrote for Salon:

Giordano Bruno has been called a martyr to science and an occultist, but a new book argues that the brilliant philosopher’s unconventional behavior did him in.

Aug. 25, 2008 | The bronze figure of Giordano Bruno that stands at the center of Rome’s Campo de’ Fiori may be the most successful commemorative monument in the world. The average statue in a park or square usually rates no more than a glance: Either you already know who the guy is, or you don’t care. But the hooded and manacled effigy of Bruno, with its haunted stare, immediately catches the eye, and the gruesome story attached to it — Bruno was burned at the stake in that very spot, for the crime of heresy — cements him in memory. Practically every tourist who comes to Rome tromps through the Campo and hears that story, even if they’ve never heard of Bruno before. The students who commissioned the statue in the 1880s, as an emblem for freedom of thought and the division of church from state, really got their money’s worth.

But who was Giordano Bruno, and why was he executed in the Campo de’ Fiori in 1600? A common misperception mixes him up with Galileo, who ran into trouble with the church 16 years later for embracing the Copernican model of the solar system instead of endorsing the Aristotelian belief that the sun revolves around the Earth. (In fact, the two men shared an Inquisitor, the implacable Cardinal Robert Bellarmine, canonized by the Catholic Church in 1930.) Bruno, too, thought that the Earth circled the sun, and subscribed to many other than heterodox ideas as well: that the universe is infinite and that everything in it is made up of tiny particles (i.e., atoms), and that it is immeasurably old. But as Ingrid Rowland demonstrates in her new biography of the renegade thinker, “Giordano Bruno: Philosopher/Heretic,” Bruno was no martyr for science. What got him killed was a murky mixture of spiritual transgression and personal foibles, combined with a large dose of bad luck.

Read more.

Update on Genesis Breyer P-Orridge, founder of Throbbing Gristle and Psychic TV

Written by Aaron Gell for RADAR magazine:

…Suddenly, Jaye came to. “What’s wrong, baby?” she asked, smiling.

Gen urged her to see a doctor, but Jaye refused. She’d been watching doctors in action for years at the hospital where she worked and didn’t want any part of it. Besides, she seemed fine—better than fine. She was full of life, invigorated, cheerful. The next few days were a whirlwind as she dragged Gen out shopping, cooked him special meals, ravished him. On October 8, after one especially passionate encounter, Gen dozed off, waking up to find Jaye slumped on the floor of the bathroom. He shouted to their handyman to call 911, and began giving her CPR. She breathed her last breath, he says, right into his lungs.

The cops were terrible. Okay, they wanted to know, who’s her next of kin? I am. No, we need someone who’s related to her. Me. We’re married. Maybe in California, honey, but not in New York.

In the end, they left Jaye wrapped in a white sheet, and assigned a young patrolman to keep an eye on the body. The kid had been a rookie beat cop in the neighborhood, and remembered Genesis as a friendly face. “You always used to say hello and offer me a cup of tea in the winter,” he said, repaying the kindness by giving them some space. Gen lay down on the linoleum floor next to Jaye, talked to her for awhile, and finally fell asleep.

Rushkoff has a theory about Jaye’s last days. Maybe, he says, she’d actually been dead when she’d had the first seizure. And maybe she’d been allowed to come back—granted a special dispensation—for a few more crazy moments with Gen, like Emily in Our Town. Stranger things have happened.

A few months later, as Gen and I walk beside the elevated subway tracks near his apartment, he suddenly stops, steadies himself with a hand on my elbow, and fumbles in his pocket for an inhaler. He’s having a bout of pneumonia, his third in two years. “She used to tell me to take care of myself,” he says, tears filling his eyes. “I’ve lost my nurse. I’ve lost everything.”

We make our way to his favorite local restaurant, a heavily mirrored Dominican diner that’s decorated with autographed pictures of local baseball players, and settle into a booth. “Corona?” asks a waitress, who seems to know him well. “Thank you, dear,” Gen says.

Pneumonia isn’t his only worry. The same healer who first spotted Jaye’s cancer has found three tumors in his brain, clinging to his pituitary gland—a diagnosis confirmed by conventional doctors. “They can go in through the roof of your mouth and try to cut them out,” he says, sipping his beer, “but that can blind you, which isn’t something we particularly fancy.” The tumors are presumably benign, but he’s planning to go in for a scan to make sure…

Read more.

Online conference with Dr. Robert Anton Wilson (April 1986)

Deep Leaf Production presents from 14 April 1986:

(Sysop Jim) OK, quiet peoples. I present Dr. Robert Anton Wilson.

(Bob Wilson) Cocaine is natures way of telling you the Vatican Bank needs your money more than you do.

(Ben Rowe) Bob, since magick, and the cabala play such a role in your books, I’m curious to know just what you attitude towards such things are, here in the real(?) world. Could you state your feelings briefly?

(Bob Wilson) I regard magick and cabala as doorways to archeological levels of the human brain.

(Ben Rowe) Do you practice any form of it yourself?

(Bob Wilson) Yes.

(Ben Rowe) Care to say what kind?

(Bob Wilson) Ritual invocation, gematria.

(Avatar) To follow up on Ben’s question, are you presently a member of any secret societies or occult orders and could you tell us the names and your grade within them?

(Bob Wilson) That would be telling. Ippsissimus maximus of the Illuminati
and toenail of the Head Temple of the High Priesthood of Eris Esoteric.

(Avatar) Amusing to the last.

(Peter da Silva) I’m not sure what book this was in, I think maybe Right Where you are Sitting Now–you were talking about the possible future of human sexuality. I thought that the sorts of things you were talking about were rather pedestrian. Were you…

(Bob Wilson) Define pedestrian?

(Peter DA Silva) Well, you only considered two sexes, to begin with.

(Bob Wilson) Oh.

(Sysop Jim) A major oversight, no doubt.

(Rodney) When will the next volume of THE HISTORICAL ILLUMINATUS be out and will there be more to follow?

(Bob Wilson) It will be finished a year after I finish writing it. There will be five volumes in this series, of course.

(peter) do you think machines will ever be smarter than people?

(Bob Wilson) they’re already smarter than some people.

(Sysop Georgia) true!

(Peter DA Silva) Can I be obnoxious some more?

(Bob Wilson) Yes.

Read more.

The Cosmic Trigger is Pulled and Robert Anton Wilson Departs

Father Crow of Dublin Ireland @ Words of Fire Ink of Blood wrote:

Robert Anton Wilson, January 18, 1932 – January 11, 2007

Last night, as it said on the mans blog, Robert Anton Wilson Defied Medical Experts, who expected him to live for another two months, and left his body @4:50 AM on binary date 01/11.

Wilson was a driving force of energy and optimism, that even up to the transition of that energy to other form(s), never failed or weakened. Right up to the end he remained a force of love, humour, energy and perhaps most of all, intelligence.

Wilson was also, among other things a Mystic, Magician, Guerilla Ontologist, Activist, Libertarian, Drug Taker, Scientist, Joycean Scholar, Fortean, musician, stand up comedian and also, as described by himself and others, a philosopher. Over a forty year career Bob waged war against dogma, idiocy, fear and ignorance.

He was more successful on this mission than anyone else I can name. He wrote many books, including:

Prometheus Rising
Cosmic Trigger
Quantum Psychology
Sex, Drugs and Magic
Reality is what you can get away with
Ishtar Rising
The New inquisition
Everything is Under Control

These books, like Wilson himself, are all beacons of light, humour and a wonderful rationality, both mystical and mischievous, magickal and scientific. I could and will recommend them to anyone who is interested in the future positive evolution of humanity, from the macrocosm of the species to the microcosm of the individual. He educated all of us that came in contact with his work, that, as he said himself, “the universe contains a maybe.”

Read more.

Grant Morrison’s web site has been updated for the first time in years.

Thanks to Klintron on Technoccult:

There’s also a new column he’s running there (you’re supposed to register to be able to see it, but direct links there seem to work fine):

The mental, magical immersion in the DC Universe of superheroes that’s consumed all my time these five years past is finally, and quite literally, drawing to its apocalyptic conclusion and I can’t concentrate on much else until the dust settles.

[…]

What else? It’s been hectic but I’m having a good time doing these ‘Final’ storylines for Superman, Batman and the DC Universe itself. I want to end on a couple of big, definitive stories before I take a break from superheroes for a little while and I’m really happy with the way all of these are turning out.

Full Story: grantmorrison.com

Grant Morrison (C)

The Invisible Web Episode 18 (2.09) Our Great Podio Horror

The Invisible Web Episode 18 (02.09): Our Great Podio Horror

On this episode of the Invisible Web I celebrate Midsummer’s Day with the odd synchronicities of the holiday. I also review two movies an episode of a legendary BBC Science fiction television series. BAD WOLF~!

The Voluspa featuring Fenrir, from the Poetic Edda.

Fenrir @ Godchecker

Happy St. John’s Day, from Cryptomundo

Happy Solstice/ Midsummer’s Day et all

Doctor Who @ Sci Fi Dot Com

New York Asian Film Festival going to July 3 at IFC (and from July 3 – 6 at the Japan Society)

Pre-order DIY Totemism by Lupa!

Meta-Magick: The Book of Atem – NOW AVAILABLE!

Believe it or not another episode will be released this weekend focusing on Pro Wrestling and some MMA.

Pre-order DIY Totemism by Lupa!

I know there are folks who have been waiting for this for a while…

I’m quite pleased to announce that my next book, DIY Totemism: Your Personal Guide to Animal Totems, is available for preorder! It’s due out in August 2008–not exactly sure what part of August, though we’ll shoot for sooner rather than later.

( So what’s this book all about, Lupa? )

We’re running a bit of a special, too–if you preorder a copy of DIY Totemism and a copy of Fang and Fur, Blood and Bone: A Primal Guide to Animal Magic, you’ll get FREE priority shipping in the U.S. or FREE air mail shipping internationally! You will have to wait until DIY comes out to get Fang and Fur, since we’ll be shipping them together. However, this way those of you who don’t yet have a copy of Fang and Fur can read that earlier work as well as this one–or give it as a gift, if you already have your own copy.

So if you’re wondering what neopagan animal totemism can be beyond the dictionaries, DIY Totemism: Your Personal Guide to Animal Totems has a lot of good answers, based on my decade and change of experience. Feel free to pass this information on to anyone you think may be interested!

Meta-Magick: The Book of Atem – NOW AVAILABLE!

Yes… At long last… The trade paperback edition of Meta-Magick: The Book of
Atem is now available!

Amazon.com is listing it as IN STOCK at a discount price of $10.17 plus shipping:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1578634245?ie=UTF8&tag=hawkridgprod-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=1578634245

And we’ve got signed copies at the regular retail price here:

http://www.hawkridgeproductions.com/goods/atem.html

Meta-Magick: The Book of Atem
by Philip H. Farber

Foreword by Douglas Rushkoff

NOW IN STOCK.

“Meta-Magick is a brilliant and patently original book of magical
instruction that future generations will revere as an ‘ancient classic.’” – Lon
Milo DuQuette, author of My Life with the Spirits and Enochian Vision Magick

“Philip H. Farber in his new book has once again shown where Magick
meets the brain.” – Richard Bandler, co-founder of NLP

“The intent of Farber’s ongoing literary sigil is to move his readers
beyond the practice of individual magicks into the shared space of collective,
consensual hallucination…. Farber quickly branches out in new directions -
casting a visionary world picture as if it were a guide book, a description and
instruction manual to a realm that is quite literally created in the process of
its depiction and subsequent imagination.” – Douglas Rushkoff, author of
Coercion and Media Virus

“Years ago, Aleister Crowley published books he considered to be
talismans. In Meta-Magick: The Book of Atem, Philip H. Farber has produced a
book that each reader turns into an evoked entity. It is a unique linking of
ancient techniques of magick combined with modern science and advanced
Neuro-Linguistic Programming and even includes concepts that would be at home in
Gibson’s Neuromancer. Atem uses the ancient concept of evocation while eschewing
needless excesses that have evolved around the techniques over centuries.
Instead of relying on objectively questionable external entities, the book
reveals how to bring forth and direct specific inner qualities. The result
combines personal power with practical simplicity in the first book on the
subject that moves evocation into the 21st century.” – Donald Michael Kraig,
author of Modern Magick

“Phil Farber has a genius for transformative edu-tainment. His writing
captures the warmth and liveliness of his workshops because multisensory
experiential processes are part of every page. In decades of magickal
experimentation and hypnotherapy practice I have never seen such a concise
digest of contemporary techniques for invoking desirable qualities and banishing
negative ones from the attentional field. It is arguably the ONLY Magick or NLP
book you will ever need… Whether you are healing, exploring or aspiring this
is a journey to the frontiers of consciousness, the cutting edge of human
potential. ” – Iona Miller, co-author of The Modern Alchemist.

Why Did the Chicken Cross My Mind? An Update on Food Totems

For Rending the Veil, LUPA wrote:

A couple of months ago I wrote about food totems – animal totems of those species whose relationship to humans is primarily based on how edible they are. One of my recent efforts has been to work with less common totems as a way of breaking free of the Big, Impressive North American Birds and Mammals (BINABM). There’s nothing wrong with, say, Wolf or Eagle, but other animals like Banana Slug or Sea Urchin tend to be largely ignored.

I’ve managed to breach the initial communication barriers with several of the totems. I’ll admit I haven’t worked with them as often as I’d like, though a lot of that has been because the past several months have been pretty rough in other areas of my life, taking up a lot of the time and effort that I’d put into magic. Despite this, we have managed to have a few good conversations.

Chicken, for example, asked me the other night what was the first thing that I thought of when the word “chicken” was mentioned. I realized, rather guiltily, that the first image to pop into my mind was that of a decapitated, footless, defeathered dead bird fresh out of the oven. However, I moved beyond that thought and began visualizing chickens scratching in a barn yard, observing them as they went about their business. I admired the colorful plumage of the birds in my mind – and remembered that while they might not be as flashy the peacock or parrot, they still come in some lovely colors.

Read more.

If you enjoyed this article, please check out LUPA’s newest book, DIY Totemism: Your Personal Guide to Animal Totems, which is ready for pre-order.

Simple Evocations by Philip H. Farber

Phil Farber wrote:

Basic Positive Resource Entity

1) Banishing – Imagine a circle around you, where you sit. Take a deep breath. As you inhale, let your awareness fill the circle. As you exhale, let your awareness contract to as small a point as you can, in the center of your chest. After 5 or 6 cycles of this, take a really, really, really deep breath, filling the circle with your awareness, then exhale forcefully and fully, letting (or imagining) your breath sweep through your personal circle, chasing out anything contrary to your purpose.

2) Evocation – Identify something in your life that makes you feel very good in some way. It can be a feeling of confidence, intelligence, satisfaction, arousal, intoxication, approval, or whatever you might describe as a good feeling. Pay very careful attention to HOW it makes you feel, the structure of the feeling. Where does the feeling start? What kind of feeling is it? Where does it go as it develops? Does it continue to move? Is it static? Follow it through to its peak. Then decide “If this feeling had a color, what would it be?” Imagine the color (or colors) in your body in exactly the areas where the feeling is. Then imagine that you are taking the colored shape out of your body and flip it around to face you. Place it on the floor outside your circle and breathe deeply, feeding it breath and energy on each exhalation.

Keep breathing and feeding it energy until it transforms. Once it has transformed, imagine you are communicating with it. Ask it what it wants to be called. Ask it what it can teach you that it has never before revealed. Ask it how you can feel really good more often. Find out whatever you can from it. Thank it for everything.

You can also ask this entity if it has anything that it would like to do, away from your physical body, off in the external parts of consciousness. If it says that it does, then you can get an agreement of time from the entity… five minutes, an hour, a day, five years, or whatever is appropriate to the task, and the promise from the entity to return to your physical presence at that time. Note down the time of the entity’s return so that you can take notice when it occurs.

3) Closing – Absorb the entity and anything else you may have created in your aura during this operation.

4) Repeat Banishing.

Read more.

If you like what you have read so far, consider purchasing Meta-Magick: The Book of Atem, published by Weiser Red Wheel.

The Heretic’s Guide is here!

From previous guest LUPA:

The Heretic’s Guide to Thelema has arrived! Gerald del Campo, the author, will be over later this afternoon to do some signing, so if you want signed copy, go here to order now! Even if you order after he leaves, we’re having him sign this first batch. Plus we DO still have Trick Sensei CDs, which will go out with the first fifty copies preordered from us–not from Amazon, not from B&N, but just Immanion Press.

From the Green Wolf page:

No doubt a decent number of folks reading this are familiar with the works of Gerald del Campo, magician and musician extraordinaire. In June we’ll be releasing a special three-books-in-one volume of Gerald’s work-new editions of his popular (and, until now, out of print) New Aeon Magick: Thelema Without Tears and New Aeon English Qabalah Revealed, and a brand new text, The Ethics of Thelema. Starting now, you can preorder this volume, The Heretic’s Guide to Thelema.

New Aeon Magick is a primer on Thelema, written by the author for his children (though perfectly appropriate for people of all ages). Rather than merely relying on a lot of theory and fancy words, this text is meant for everyday practice and integration into one’s life. New Aeon English Qabalah Revealed takes Qabalah out of ancient Hebrew and into a more common modern language. However, rather than completely divorcing Qabalah from its roots, the text integrates the old and the new into a system fit for the 21st century. The Ethics of Thelema, while it explores decisions, beliefs and perspectives from a Thelemic viewpoint, may be of interest to anyone, Thelemite or no, who ponders the intent and impact of thoughts and actions.

We are proud to announce a special preorder deal! As mentioned, Gerald is quite the talented musician, and has been part of various bands for longer than he cares to mention. One of his current groups (yes, just one-he’s a busy guy!), Trick Sensei, have teamed up with him to release a special promotional CD just for folks who preorder The Heretic’s Guide to Thelema! Limited to a run of fifty copies, the CDs will be available-for free–only with the first fifty copies of the book sold from either this site, or the Immanion Press website. Preorder today to take advantage of this special offer!

For the first fifty copies sold, orders made from the U.S. or Canada will be shipped from the U.S. Orders made elsewhere will be shipped from the U.K. CDs will be shipped with books upon the June publication of the latter, barring unlikely and unforeseen delays.