28
Apr
2011

Review: Pamela Colman Smith Commemorative Set


Pamela Colman Smith Commemorative Set – Stuart R. Kaplan
U.S. Games Systems. Inc. 2009. 9781572816398.
Pamela Colman Smith is an unsung hero and artist in western occultism. She most famously illustrated the Rider-Waite tarot (I’ll discuss the naming convention later), largely based on Golden Dawn symbolism and teachings, and it is probably the most influential tarot deck ever. She was much more than this though, she was a quiet mystic, a member of the Golden Dawn, and a talented artist who received some recognition in her time and was sadly forgotten.
The Pamela Colman Smith Commemorative Set tries to bring this visionary woman back to our lives. The set contains two books, a tarot deck, and some artistic extras, which will all be discussed in their own time. This set was released in 2009 (somehow I missed hearing about it) on the centennial anniversary of the publishing of the Rider-Waite tarot and I think it is great collection to have.

Back of the Smith Waite Centennial Tarot


The first book included is The Artwork & Times of Pamela Colman Smith by Stuart R. Kaplan. This relatively small book of just over 100 pages is exactly what it sounds like. Kaplan tells the story of “Pixie’s” mysterious life. As you’re led through her life Kaplan also gives many examples of her art, in fact only once is there a spot where you can open the book and there isn’t some example of Pamela’s art. She lived a fascinating life; charmed, beautiful, sad, and lonely all at the same time. Most people only know Pamela as the Rider-Waite artist but she was far more than that, an accomplished artist who had shows in New York and London, an author and artist of folk tales from Jamaica, and a poet. The story is sad and the art is just beautiful. It was much to my dismay after reading the book I found out you cannot obtain prints of her artwork and my favourite painting from the book seems to have no presence on the internet at all.
The second book is The Pictorial Key to the Tarot by Arthur Edward Waite. I feel there is little to say about this book, it was originally published in 1911 to explain the Rider-Waite tarot. This particular edition does not contain the images of the cards.

Centennial Strength


The set comes with The Smith-Waite Tarot Centennial Edition deck. This is not just another reprint of the Rider-Waite deck you’re used to seeing everywhere. First off, to clarify terminology, the deck you see everywhere, and probably have is properly called the Rider-Waite tarot; Waite after A.E. Waite and Rider after the publishing company that first produced it. Some people, myself included, refer to it as the Smith-Waite or Waite-Smith tarot in an attempt to remind people who gave us this deck. The deck included in this set is properly called The Smith-Waite Tarot Centennial Edition, firmly putting forth that Pamela Colman Smith was one of the creators and will not be forgotten. There is more to it than just the name change though, the Rider-Waite deck is filled with bright, almost jarring colours. No yellow is a muted yellow, it is a daffodil screaming yellow, and this is a product of how the earlier decks were reproduced from the original.

Common Strength


For The Smith-Waite Tarot Centennial Edition Kaplan has used a 1909 printing of the deck to restore the deck to its original colouring, something I find far more peaceful and elegant than the borderline cartoon colouring of the general deck. I find this makes the cards stand out more and the subtly of shading and symbolism easier to see and work with. Also, this deck has done away with that gawdy blue and white diamond pattern on the back of the cards; instead the back is adorned with Pamela’s monogram and a rose. It isn’t a reversible back due to the rose, but it is subtle enough that you still can’t pick out which way is up without turning the cards over. Without a doubt this version is replacing my Rider-Waite tarot.
Lastly the set comes with a few artistic extras. It contains six reproduced postcards with Pamela’s artwork, only one of which is an image from her tarot. It contains three 5×7 prints of some of her art and a 5×7 photo print of Pamela herself.
Everything comes in a handy box with packs away nicely. My only complaint about the set is one I’ve had with far too many decks I like and that is it contains a drawstring bag for the deck rather than a box. The box that the art, deck, and books come in is too large to carry around and I find decks not in boxes get damaged too easily so I have to find another storage device for my cards. Other than that small complaint, I found the set wonderful. It is great to see Pamela Colman Smith getting the attention she deserves and the deck, the art, and the books are just wonderful. Really a must have for any tarot enthusiast.

Posted by kalagni in blueflamemagick
25
Apr
2011

Sex, Angels, Bones, and Books


Easter Monday, time for a Judeo-Christian post I think. This is mainly more links and connecting data, but I have a few relevant articles off on the wings I thought I’d bring together.
Over at Remnant of Giants a post just went live “How Do You Know When You’re Having Sex with a Fallen Angel: Some Handy Hints from a Biblical Scholar“. The site is a mix of funny responses to relevant events and scholarly study related to the Biblical and extra-Biblical giants, and occasionally more generic Biblical/extra-Biblical study. As a fan of the Enochic literature (meaning related to the Book of Enoch, not Enochian in the Dee-Kelly sense) I find it is both an entertaining and informative site.
Of course there are a few mistakes. With number one, the Angels you could sleep with, humanoid ones, didn’t have wings Biblically it was the non-humanoid Angels that had wings. I’m actually writing a personal article on that now which may or may not make it up here in the future. Number two, should have stuck with naming fallen angels, Metatron (either one of them) is an odd choice of name for a fallen angel to assume. Other than that, it is a handy (silly) guide, of course I’d rather use guides not to avoid but to pursue, but to each their own.
The University of Wyoming shared the news that the trial/investigation of the James Ossuary box may finally be wrapping up. It’s only been about a decade. In fact since then the box has dropped off most people’s radar. If you’re unfamiliar with it, it is an ossuary box that is about 2000 years old (that part isn’t questioned) which reads “Ya’akov bar-Yosef akhui diYeshua.” For those without their Aramaic 101, that translates as “Jacob, son of Joseph, brother of Joshua.” Or when rendered out of Aramaic into Biblical English “James, son of Joseph, brother of Jesus.” So apparently we have the bone box of James, Jesus’s younger brother. But so far most of the evidence points to it being a fraud. “Ya’akov bar-Yosef” is generally believed to be authentic, but the bit about Jesus looks like it may be a modern addition, the trial is trying to figure out how modern, as some experts say it is more recent than the box, but still from the first millennium.
Speaking of Biblical forgeries it looks like Indiana Jones’s David Elkington’s codices are not standing up will to investigation. Rather than link to any individual story I want to link to this great resource here which is both a collection of relevant links and articles and a pretty solid analysis of the flaws of the codices. Included at the bottom of the article, the very last link is a collection of all the images of the codices that have been released, for those of us who like to take a look for ourselves. Just a sidenote since I brought it up the first time I posted about it, this man actually has degrees, a BA in Near Eastern Studies and a Masters in Jewish studies, and is working on more. Credentials aren’t the end-all be-all, but by Baal they’re useful.
Now in the spirit of Easter Monday, I’m off to buy discount chocolate.

Posted by kalagni in blueflamemagick
19
Apr
2011

Mercury Retrograde: Background



My Mercury Retrograde post got a surprising amount of attention, even though I was really just babbling about it not being a big deal to me, but it and the conversations it inspired made me realize how unfamiliar a lot of people actually are with Mercury Retrograde and the Shadow of it I mentioned.
Now as I begin, in honour of Mercury Retrograde (being confused and meaningless communication) after loving harassment of my friend Psyche (who has four websites so I didn’t know which to link to or should I link her twitter?) I have finally broken down and have decided to give twitter a try, so you can follow me here under the name Blueflamemagick. As far as I know I’ll be using it mainly to mention blog stuff, and to share interesting articles/links that don’t deserve their own posts but are fascinating none the less. This apparently gets me into this century.
Now back to our regularly scheduled blogging. I was surprised that a lot of people who dread Mercury Retrograde don’t even know what it is, much like a Saturn Return. Simple put Mercury Retrograde is when Mercury goes backwards in the sky. Obviously the planet doesn’t actually start to travel backwards but that is what it looks like from Earth. Why? Because we’re both orbiting the Sun at different distances and different rates and that creates the illusion of it travelling backwards. Have you ever been in a car and as you pick up speed that car ahead of you gets closer and then once you overtake it that car looks like it is travelling backwards? It’s the same illusion; Mercury just looks like it is going backwards because we “lap” each other in the race around the Sun.
So why does this disrupt our lives? I don’t know, it’s astrology, I find it works but no known mechanism, moving on. What it represents is everything about Mercury going backwards, against the flow of things. So it tends to be a time of travel issues, technological hiccoughs, miscommunications and the like. Now essentially all the bodies used in astrology go retrograde, so why does Mercury get all the glory? Mercury is a personal planet, which means it moves fast and affects people in more individual ways than a slower planet like Saturn does, but because it moves so fast when it goes Retrograde it “hits” a lot of other planets. When Mercury travels backwards it covers around a dozen degrees and if there are any planetary aspects in that range they get a touch of Mercury Retrograde. This is why it seems to hit people so much, Saturn hits around 8 degrees when Retrograde and it takes almost half a year to do it, so when it does affect something it is a smaller range, so less people are likely to share in the experience. Mercury is also an interpersonal planet, it’s communication, it’s commerce, it’s about you and other people, so it seems like it hits more people because by its nature it is a shared experience.
What is the Shadow of Mercury Retrograde? It’s a fancy name describe the time before and after retrograde when it is in the affected degrees. So right now Mercury started at 24 degrees of Aries and will go back to 12 degrees. So this area of 12-24 degrees is the shadow period. March 31 to April 23 Mercury is travelling backwards, but on April 23 Mercury will be in the same spot in the sky it was on March 17, and on May 12 it will finally be as far ahead as it was on March 31. So while March 31-April 23 is Mercury Retrograde, March 17-March30 and April 24-May 12 are the Shadows of Mercury Retrograde. They aren’t nearly as bad but share some of the same influence. One way of thinking of it is the first shadow is like walking on uneven terrain, retrograde is when you actually stumble, and the second shadow are your first few shaky steps as you catch your balance.
So what is the lesson of Mercury Retrograde? Like I said in the last post all retrogrades are about re-doing that planetary influence, and turning it inwards. Mercury you have to rethink, replan, rewrite, recommunicate, and such. While life must go on if you can avoid it never start something during the retrograde planet associated with it. That would be like a certain blogger who stupidly decided to upgrade Windows during Mercury Retrograde and has spent the last two days trying to get everything functional again. When you can’t avoid something in a retrograde people, always try to “re” it over in your head. Mercury Retrograde is commonly known for miscommunication, so when sending that important email or letter take time to reread, and revise it because now is the time where mistakes can appear more easily. Other than that, sit back, and relax, it is only Mercury Retrograde, it lasts for a short while and then you’re safe…for three months.
(Disclaimer: All spelling and grammatical errors are the result of Mercury Retrograde, milk the excuse while you have it.)

Posted by kalagni in blueflamemagick
14
Apr
2011

Christ Copper Codices a Curious Cache


Oh, and a hoax…
Going with the flow. I have two posts that I wanted to put up this week, but I’m going to hold back because there is something I want to address.

Copper and lead books tell the most contemporaneous account of Christ’s life!
Or so they say. This story has been getting spread about the internet the last week or so. I’ve seen it pop-up several places, everywhere from magick blogs to the facebook page of a friend who is a Catholic priest and very excited about this. So I decided to put aside some time this afternoon and rant and analyze this.
So if you don’t want to read the link above, let me summarize it. A British couple are currently hiding out in Gloucestershire (but don’t tell the Jordanian hitmen) after recovering a collection 70 books believed to contain an early account of Christ’s life written sometime in the first century by early Christians who fled to Jordan in the 70s.
A lot of people are getting into this story, but there a lot of little problems with it that add up to bigger questions. I’ll start with a reading of the news story before I expand my discussion. Yes, I could just link all the data and other people doing the work, but part of my issue with this is that anyone can pick up some of the concerns with the text with reading and googling.
First thing I noticed is the couple are described as archaeologists and David, the hero of the story is also an author. Yet there are no credentials. Granted this could be an oversight, but in pretty much any news story when you mention an expert you put their credentials, where they studied, where they work, what they degrees are, etc. Every expert the Elkingtons consulted within the article have their credentials mentioned yet the Elkingtons are left blank. Where did they study, what is their area of focus, and who is sponsoring this dig? Why is he sometimes called Dr. but often not? Archaeologists, despite the media image of Croft and Jones, don’t fund their own digs, they don’t decide to pack up, go to some random dirt pile and start digging. No, a museum, university, or government branch has a location site, permissions, equipment and hires people to excavate and analyze the findings. The article mentions none of this, and quite frankly if this were real what museum or university wouldn’t fight to get that information included in the press release that they just uncovered the real story of Christ? Suspicious point.
David (who gets all the press, despite the idea that it is a husband/wife team) is also an author. Of what? Well two books, first is In the Name of the Gods, a book about Templars and an energy-sound-spirit connection, and an upcoming book based on how awesomely exciting and dangerous his current quest for these early Christian books have been (this will link up to Feather later). Not only is he writing a book on it, because it is so much like Indiana Jones (his own admission) but Robert Watts, producer of Raiders of the Lost Ark has contacted them about making it into a movie. Amazing how this story is just coming to light and already a book deal and a movie proposal. Don’t worry folks, it gets more suspicious. (Also the constant reference by Elkington to how much like a movie it is seems odd. The researcher was like Ms. Marple, the owner is like a mafia boss, then he’s like Gollum…) But suspicious point two.
The books are written in ancient Hebrew, a fact we’ll touch more on later, which is odd. Aramaic was more commonly used (and probably Jesus’s mother tongue) though Hebrew and Greek were both widely used in that area and time frame in different circumstances.
The article lacks anything primary. All the research that is done is relayed by David, not cross-referenced to the experts; he’s talking for them, they’re often unnamed, who tested the metals? So that’s the issues with the news story just as it is, time to go down the rabbit hole?
Dr. David (or Paul?) Elkington. An archaeologist, author, real-life Indiana Jones, curious where did he study and get his credentials? Turns out he studied as an artist at the Bath Academy of Arts. Nothing against artists, trained or otherwise, but I prefer my archaeologists making ground breaking discoveries to have some relevant degree in history or archaeology. So not an archaeologist, historian, or anyone qualified for such a dig. Suspicious points abound.
When investigating the source of the books, where they were found and by who, two stories emerge, sometimes on the same website or paper. Five years ago they were uncovered in a flash flood in Jordan, or they were uncovered in a flash flood and in the Jordanian trucker’s family for a hundred years. New stories once you branch past the telegraph (which I’m dealing with because it was the first I came across and the most widespread) don’t always agree. The language it is written in is is often mentioned as Hebrew as well as an unidentified Phoenician language, and then rare occasions in Greek. The name of the man who owns the books changes, not drastically, but enough to be suspicious, then again David Elkington is sometimes Paul Elkington, so many everyone on this adventure have multiple names. Whether there were found in Jordan or Egypt changes. The story shifts more than the sand it was apparently buried under. Now just because news papers disagree on stories doesn’t mean they’re wrong, but it does start to make the story questionable as we have to wonder why are these mistakes present, why aren’t they corrected? 5 years, 100 years, big difference. Jordan, Egypt, big difference. Hebrew, Greek, Unidentified, big difference.
Now one Peter Thonemann, MA, DPhil, lecturer on Ancient History at Wadham and Keble Colleges (look credentials!) was an expert that Elkington asked to help with the translation of the texts a year ago, yet he isn’t mentioned in the news articles generally for some reason. He translated the Greek on the cover (wait, wasn’t this written in Hebrew, or an unidentified Phoenician language?) and came up with an odd sentence fragment that made no sense, but mentioning a name Abgar. A bit of research on Thonemann’s behalf turned up not just the name Abgar, but the entire fragmented sentence on the cover of the book. What profound Judeo-Christian source did he uncover? A Roman tombstone for Abgar from Madaba Jordan c. 108 CE and on display in the Archeological Museum in Amman. Thonemann let Elkington know this, but Elkington, with the academic insight of his art degree, went public anyways.
What makes the story more amusing is that the books were previously discovered/released by Robert Feather as an early Qabalistic text with the location of the treasures of the Temple of Solomon. At that time there were only more then 20, now the number is 70. At that time the Israel Antiquities Authority said they are useless and a hoax because they contain a horrible mishmash of languages, images, and sentence fragments that really don’t match up. Letter soup that is grouped together to look intriguing until you start translation. This was denounced as a hoax, and then a month later with a much better back story Elkington arises with the same documents.
The only thing lending any credibility to this is that apparently the corrosion on the metal dates back about 2000 years (but again not properly cited who did this research, sometimes it was an “initial” test, other times seems more of a proper study) and the fact that the Jordanian government apparently wants them back.
Recently some more data came to my attention while writing this as Ananael posted on it in the process of my editing, and a friend knowing what I was doing sent a link.
The image of Jesus on the codex is considered currently to be Helios, but there is also a theory that it is The Mona Lisa of Galilee. I’m not totally convinced by this, but it makes an interesting case, and if all the data from the author is right it means this forgery is less than 30 years old.
From Ananael’s post there is a link showing how the letters themselves show the age of the books is wrong as some of them are from a form of Aramaic that is from the second and third century it also contains so far to my knowledge the only article so far pointing out that Elkington doesn’t have credentials to be involved with this sort of thing.
When I saw the title of the article I was curious, after reading it I was suspicious after some googling I realized it is a hoax. I can’t say by who or for what end, but all signs point to hoax.
Some good reading for those wanting more information on this:
Heavy metal secrets from a Mid-East cave

Peter Thonemann on the Lead Codices
Lead Codices and Leaden Minds
The Messiah Codex Decoded

Posted by kalagni in blueflamemagick
12
Apr
2011

Review: Magic in the Biblical World – ed. Todd E. Klutz


Magic in the Biblical World: From the Rod of Aaron to the Ring of Solomon – edited by Todd E. Klutz
T & T Clark International – Journal for the Study of the New Testament Supplement Series 245. 2003. 261pp. 0567083624.
“[A]lthough the increasingly recognized shortcomings of defining ‘magic’ as a primitive form of behaviour exemplifying a type of mentality different from and inferior to that of ‘religion’ had become apparent to a handful of scholars by the 1950s, the majority of authorities continued long after this to assume that such definitions were valid and useful.” (2)
This issue is central to the text, essentially every chapter –each being an essay by a different researcher– devoted some time to trying to define magic in relationship to religion. The papers originally came from the Magic in the World of the Bible colloquium in 1999, the focus was not on the validity or reality of magic, or the question of Jesus as a magician, but instead the focus was to understand the notion of magic in the social and legal world of the historical context of the Bible.
This is an academic text, not a practical or theoretical manual, within the covers of the books it is all about history, language, and politics. Only two spells, from Sefer ha-Razim, are given in the book and only so that paper may dissect the ideology behind the spells.
It is commonly believed that to Judeo-Christian-Islamic faiths the distinction between magic and miracle is that miracles are from YHWH, and magic is from other sources. The first two parts of the text, of three, grapple with this idea, is it valid and historical? To do so they provide a close reading of the mentions of magic and miracles, the Hebrew and Greek words used for them, and the names applied to the practitioners. Parts of this discussion are highly specialized, requiring an understanding of ancient Hebrew and Greek grammar to follow, but if you can work through the language (or perhaps skip it all together) the conclusions are interesting, and intimate that in the Biblical world magic and miracle weren’t as definitive of categories as many people think.
The paper “Magic and Scepticism in and around the First Christian Century” was quite intriguing. In it the author analyzed the magic/miracles of the early apostles and the reactions in the texts, and begs the question did people really believe and accept magic/miracles to the extent we believe they did, or was the population they were trying to convert sceptic not just of their faith, but of faith and miracles in general. It includes some really interesting reading of the evidence.
Part III of the book was of the most interest to me, as the title “’Magic’ in Disreputable Books from Late Antiquity” may imply. In these papers the authors dealt with Sefer ha-Razim, The Testament of Solomon, and the origins and etymology of Alchemy. The focus was largely to analyze the clearly magical tradition that existed and the source and ideology behind these practices. Here we get a close reading of the Greek artifacts left in Sefer ha-Razim and the astrological implications in The Testament of Solomon.
As I said early on, this is an academic text, this is not a practical or theoretical manual. If you’re looking to practice a Biblical form of magick, this book will be of little to no use for you. If you’re a historian with a passion for the Biblical tradition and/or Biblical magick this book may be of little practical use, but will be without a doubt fascinating and insightful.

Posted by kalagni in blueflamemagick
09
Apr
2011

Welcome To Mercury Retrograde: Spring 2011


For those not keeping score at home Mercury decided to turn backwards on the 31st of March and will continue his moonwalk until the 23rd of April. Of course to those more sensitive to the horrors of Mercury Retrograde there was a build up starting on the first of March and we’ll be in the shadow of Mercury Retrograde until May 12th.
For those slightly more astrologically inclined he is travelling backwards from 24º Aries back to 12º so if you think you’re getting hit hard and aren’t sure way, you can take one of the links from my last post and draw up your birth chart and see if you have anything in his way.
I have a very tight chart, with the exception of Pluto, Neptune and Venus, everything in my chart is between 14 and 26 degrees, and all in all everything in my chart takes up a mere 120 degrees. They’re also in such signs that everything other than my Saturn will get hit by this Mercury Retrograde using the basic five aspects.
I’m fine with this. I’m a Mercury Rx baby. I was born with Mercury Retrograde in my chart, and it went Direct in my life in the early 90’s. Mercury Retrograde rarely hits me in the way it does other people. No disrupted travel, no crappy communication. Though it sometimes hits me with Retrograde splash-back, meaning other people in my life get hit with it, and I get rebound effects. Within the first week of Mercury Rx both my father and my sister got hit with pretty resilient computer viruses that all their anti-virus, malware, rootkit programs and the like couldn’t handle. So I was called to help. Both were surprisingly tough challenges taking probably about two to three dedicated hours of work to clean up each.
See I’m not hit be retrograde, but people near me are, and I have to deal with it that way. When I was studying astrology, my mentor would tell me that to understand a retrograde period just put “re” infront of the keywords for the planet. So Mercury Retrograde is about recommunication, retransportation, rethinking, and reconnecting. Whenever Mercury Rx is going to hit my chart hard, it picks a time of my life and I’m sent back there. This time it is focusing on high school, and I’m not sure why. Since Mercury Rx I’ve seen two friends from high school, one who I haven’t seen in 2 years, the other 8, this morning I wake up to a facebook message from a high school friend I haven’t seen in 8 years who thinks we should go out for coffee, this week a friend I haven’t talked to since high school due to a falling out added me on facebook (but hasn’t said anything), and another whom I’ve seen twice in the eight years invited me to her birthday party which I had to decline.
This is what happens to me. For me it’s all about reconnecting with my past. It never lasts past the retrograde (okay rarely), I’m not going to resurrect relationships eight years dead, but I’ll catch-up, get my curious closure and move on. That’s what I love about Retrograde periods, specifically personalized ones, they give me a chance to go back, tie up loose ends, and then continue forward. So I don’t see what everyone’s problem is, I just do a little recommunication, a little reconnection, and then I can get on with my life. So stop your fighting, Mercury is bigger than you, if you’re getting hit by the Retrograde, take the time to turn in, reconnect, recommunicate, rethink, and when this is all over you’ll be refreshed and better prepared to tackle what is ahead of you.
I’m just hoping that I don’t have to deal with any more splash-back, and now that I think about it, perhaps this is why two of my book orders are a week late. If Mercury Retrograde starts interfere with me getting books there will be hell to pay.
Also, since we’re discussing Mercury and communication at such, I have two things I want to say.  First off, if you haven’t noticed on the top of the right sidebar there is now mention of an about page.  It only contains a short biography for me, but it contains an email address for me to save a certain commenter from posting a comment meant just to talk to me, and then realizing they can’t delete it because comments are hidden until your first one is approved…not that anyone had done that and panicked.  So yes, if you want to email me, rather than communicate through the site, the About page has that.  Point two, which hopefully addresses another person…  Someone keeps googling “blue flame magick blog” to get here, which is fine, glad to have you, but don’t forget there is a subscribe by email function on the right sidebar, so you get posts emailed to you, or you can add my blog to google reader to keep up with me.  Or you can just randomly google it every once and a while, I’m trying to make it easy.

Posted by kalagni in blueflamemagick
08
Apr
2011

The Feast for the Three Days of the Writing of the Book of the Law


93.
To those who celebrate it, today is the first of the three feast days marking Aleister Crowley’s reception of Liber AL vel Legis in 1904. For those who don’t know the mythology of the reception the basic account can be found here on wikipedia. I was going to link the Thelemapedia article on it but they have conveniently excluded parts of the story.
Anyways, I wouldn’t say I celebrate the feast, but I observe the reading. I enjoy Liber AL vel Legis, so this gives me an excuse to reread it.
The exoteric side of the tradition, is simply read Chapter I today, Chapter II tomorrow, and Chapter III on Sunday, the anniversaries of their individual reception.
For those looking to read it you can find the full text here on Sacred-Texts.com. This is the full book, so remember to read just the first chapter today.
You can always but a text copy Book Of The Law by Aleister Crowley which looks deceptively like a Gideon Bible, they are on the same shelf in my library, and I’ve confused them occasionally.
You can also find a podcast reading of the book here on Thelema Coast to Coast. This link is just to Chapter I, the following two podcasts are the successive chapters.
And of course, I’ve shared this before but I do enjoy the song. Burning Hearts, from the band Nuit’s album Mother Night. It’s a condensed version of Chapter II.

To those who celebrate, Love is the Law.

Posted by kalagni in blueflamemagick
05
Apr
2011

Stars and Planets, Sites and Programs


Inspired by a recent post on Rock and Root in which Scylla gave a list of websites/programs she uses for occult matters I figured I would share my own. All programs/sites are free unless I mention how ridiculously expensive they are.
Astrology, Planetary Hours, Astrological Magick
Chronos XP: This little program runs on your taskbar and calculates the Planetary Hours for you. You can set it (as I did) to pop-up every time the hour changes. It’s very handy for a moment to moment indicator if you think you need it, but you can also scan ahead over the day or several days to find the appropriate Planetary Hours for whatever your working requires. I’ve tested this against manually calculated Planetary Hours and it seems to be accurate, though two minutes off based on when another program places Sunrise/Sunset. I figured though if your doing something requiring planetary hours, and two minutes makes/breaks, you’re doing something wrong…
Astrolabe has a Planetary Hour calculator, which is largely accurate, just a minute or three off of my calculations and Chronos XP. Unfortunately most online calculator’s I’ve tested seem to be wrong, a common problem is they don’t switch between daylight savings time, so can be an hour off, and they may use a different time for sunrise/sunset, for what reason there I do not know.
Lunabar: I no longer use this program, but it was helpful and interesting when I did so I thought I’d share. This is like the Lunar parallel to Chronos XP, it displays an image of the current phase of the moon on your taskbar and lets you know what astrological sign it is in. Again you can search times to fine the corresponding dates and phases.
Astrolabe’s Astro-Weather: You can set this website to your location, and every time you load the page it will show you the current astrological chart. It also gives you a little one or two sentence “forecast” of the current situation. This forecast changes throughout the day, as the chart does. As a serious (re: nerdy) astrologer I have my chart memorized, so I don’t just get the vague general forecast of the day, but I can look and quickly figure out my own transits. I have two expensive astrology computer programs, but when I just need to see what the moment has and figure out my current transits, this is far quicker and easier and free.
Speaking of which, I have Astrolabe’s Solar Fire program (v7), it’s an investment, but not a bad one. It’s my second favourite astrology program. My favourite aspect that is largely unique to Solar Fire is the ability to animate charts. If you know you need to do a ritual tomorrow, you can put in the day, and progress the chart minute by minute or hour by hour to find the most appropriate astrological timing of the day. This is also very helpful when rectifying a chart. It also has the ability to search for specific astrological aspects, if you need Moon Squaring Mars, you enter that data and the program will search for you, I find this very handy for astrological themed magickal planning. This would be one of those horribly expensive programs, but if you’re a serious astrologer it may be worth it.
There is also Win*Star another expensive astrology program. It is (was?) my preferred astrology program until my laptop died and I got a computer with Windows 7, and my eleven year old astrology program could not be installed on this computer (as I have version 2.05). It still works on my desktop computer (Windows XP going strong) so I still have access to it, but not everywhere. It’s a strong and powerful program, hundreds of different chart designs for all sorts of different astrological systems. Also as someone who has worked as an astrologer, in my opinion it looks far more professional. When on the computer screen it’s elegant and minimalist in design, and the print outs are sleek and black and white. Solar Fire in both cases is big, bold, and colourful, not my taste. I also find the display and search of transits far more logically on Win*Star than Solar Fire.
For those who can’t afford (or are smart enough not to buy) such programs there is Astrodienst which has a fairly good online program, lets you draw up charts, and if you sign up they’re stored online so you can access your charts later or from a different computer.
The Naval Observatory Moon Phase Database: You can use this to find the moon phases over the course of several years. You can use this online if you don’t want to use a program like Lunabar. This is also helpful if you’re dealing with astrological magick, as it is important to locate the full or new moon closest to specific dates and birthdays, so this is helpful with that.
Sunrise Sunset: If you have Chronos XP you don’t need this site as the first hour of day and first hour of night are sunrise and sunset respectively. If you’re doing anything like Resh or Abramelin that require sunrise/sunset workings, this site can be very handy.
Not an astrology program, but as an astrological magickian who loves the night sky I recommend Stellarium. It’s an amazing free planetarium program, it lets you see a visual representation of the night sky any date, any place, even other planets and moons…in case you’ve ever wondered what sunrise looks like from the western edge of Jupiter’s Red Dot. If you make use of constellations in your work, rather than signs, this could be useful or if like me you just love the night sky.
Another astronomy program, but even less practical than Stellarium, but again I find it nifty and thought I would share. This is the Wheel of Stars. This is a graphic representation of the stars in the sky, slowly rotating, and as they intersect the dividing line they play a note, the pitch, volume and panning of the notes are all based on the brightness, location, and BV measurement. Don’t really have a use for it, but I like it. It has a literal take on the Music of the Spheres.
I had intended to include more than just astrological programs and sites, but this post ended up being a bit longer than I expected, so I’ll put the other programs and sites in a separate post.
Also if you have any nifty sites, programs, or gadgets good for occultists feel free to share in the comments.

Posted by kalagni in blueflamemagick
25
Mar
2011

Retrojective Divination: Learning Systems though Hindsight


Recently I was helping two people with learning a divinatory system; two different systems, and two different circumstances and yet my advice was the same in both cases. If you’re having trouble learning the system, with making the symbols and process coalesce stop looking forward.
This seems counterintuitive to some people as divination is mainly used to look forward, why stop? The future is the vast unknown, so when you don’t understand a system and you’re looking forward it’s like looking at meteorological data for tomorrow. You don’t understand how all the data comes together to make a coherent picture and you’re stuck trying to project meaning forward into the unknown. In the same way you’re not sure how that Queen of Pentacles under a reversed Ten of Wands means anything for the coming day. Also, some people believe that the future is mutable, so the cards may be right in the present but the future can change and you’re looking for a symbol/meaning that may no longer arise.
Looking backwards you don’t have this problem. You can see all the data, you can see the result, the event won’t change and from there you can start to unravel a meaning. In one case someone was asking about using geomancy, as there are different systems for generating Daughters and Nieces, and how to lay them on a chart. The other case was just someone having trouble learning how to relate abstract tarot meanings to their life. In both cases I said to toss their gaze backwards and use that. If you’re not sure which of the methods of generations is accurate or more accurate, pick a big event in your life and divine backward. If one set says things are happy and fast moving, and the other says things are painful has an overtone of loss, well if you’re looking at your Grandfather’s death, assuming you liked him, you know which is accurate. Same with tarot, if you can’t see how to draw meanings from the cards pick an event you know and that is important to you and divine it like you would the future and then knowing how things were, you can see the relation. Eventually this will help you look forward.
I call this retrojective divination. To me calling it retroactive would be about looking back for meaning, using divination for the same purpose as usual, just backwards. Retrojective though is a term I gleaned from my history professor, it refers specifically (in historical study at least) to act of interjecting meaning into the past from the present. That I feel is more the point. You’re not divining to find the deeper meaning of why your cat ran away when you were nine; you’re divining to see how your system displays the events of your cat running away so you understand the system. So turn your cards, your transits, your holes in the ground, whatever backward, and look to the past. The past isn’t going anywhere and you know it so you can study it to your heart’s content, the future you have to wait for and create. Find information in your past, learn to interpret the future. Simple.

Posted by kalagni in blueflamemagick
12
Mar
2011

Goetia Flow – Tao To Summon Demons


The circles slightly distort my vision as the preliminary evocation comes to a close. My body stands up straight while my mind is present, yet above and beyond me. My mind is a thread in a cosmic spider web stretched far past my little self. I am me and I am more. Attention is turned to my triangle with the seal of Raum drawn red on the black mirror. My mindstream and voice as one dance along the spider web “Raum, mighty Earl, take your place in the triangle.” The spider web thrums as a crow sitting on a dying tree branch forms amidst the smoke and the darkness in the triangle. Raum is told to harm no one in the process of this working, to speak only the truth, and to stay within the triangle for the working. He agrees and I give him his charge, he agrees and I give him license to depart. Slowly I sit down and pull my mind back into me, into a peaceful and empty glowing self.
I know some Goetic magickians have an issue with my style of evocation but the above pretty much sums it up. No long winded preambles on why the spirit should show itself, no threatening and torturing if it is late, no binding and threatening the spirit into service, just a natural flow of myself and the spirit.
I can’t always invoke this way, I assume it is a me thing, just sometimes I can’t get my mind where it should be, but this is the method I always strive for. Now for the horrible puns in the title; Goetia Flow is a poor play on Go With The Flow, and Tao to Summon Demons is a poor play linguistically and spiritually on How to Summon Demons. Yet in a loose way they describe what I feel I do.
As mentioned briefly in my Secrets of the Summoning Circle post I view the circle style I use less about protection and more about connection. Within the circle I’m reaching far beyond Kalagni the university student, occultist, sex-god, whatever, and I’m reaching up into the highest aspect of the divine that I can access. I find at that level there is less effort and more flow. Abstract but that’s the way it seems. I erroneously call my summoning style Taoist, not because it has any connection to Taoism -because it doesn’t- but most people who are familiar with Taoism understand what I mean there. Taoism can be translated as Path, Way, and Natural Order, and that’s what I find relevant to my evocations. When I use the traditional Goetic methods or variations of such, there is a feeling of a battle, my will against the demon, the forces I can wield against the spirit. Yet in my preferred method there is no such battle, it is just the way of things, the natural order.
When in my circle, connected to the highest divine I can reach, the entire process seems natural, normal, just the way the universe works. When I reach out and call the spirit there is no sense of command or ordering, and I don’t feel the spirit is threatened or forced to appear. Instead the spirit appears because that’s the way the universe works. When I spill my cup of tea the tea flows out of the cup across the table and if it finds an unlevel section it rolls down the incline. Not because the tea is forced, coerced, or threatened, but water flows downhill and that’s the way the universe works – at least in sections of the universe with enough mass to create sufficient gravity to cause water to flow toward the focal point of the gravity, but let us not nitpick. To me this is much the same as my summoning. I’d call it Effortless Evocation, but that term has problems too, and yet it does feel effortless as long as I reach this mind state. Once I’m in the “flow” of the universe, the spirit just comes because that is what it does, when I tell it to stay and be honest it does because that is what it does, when I give it a command and have it depart it does as I request because that is what it does. In this flow the universe just works; hot air rises, water flows downhill, entropy increases in closed system, and Goetic spirits respond and obey to divine forces without pressure or struggle.
Part of me thinks this is so clear in concept and explanation, yet another part of me feels this is something that I’m not explaining right. While sometimes summoning and dealing with spirits is a battle of wits and wills, I find sometimes it is a peaceful and effortless exchange that occurs simply because I am part of the Divine and when in that flow the spirit responds to that because that is the natural order of thing.
I know some Goetic magickians love pointing out why I’m wrong, or endangering myself, or even deluding myself. So far this process has worked for me with no horrible backlashes, and I feel –simply put– to quote dear old Uncle Al, “Success be thy proof.”

Posted by kalagni in blueflamemagick

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