God Has Joined the Air Force

The New York Times has an article in its June 24, 2005, print and online editions about religious intolerance/insensitivity at the Air Force Academy. It appears that fundamentalist Christians are very active at the Academy, supported by the Chaplains and the administration, and the staff is now mixing religious appeals in with the other student activities. From the scope of the mixture, it sounds like the Air Force Academy is now more of a religious college than a secular university. I thought this stuff was prohibited by the Establishment of Religions clause of the Constitution.

The real howler in the article was that an atheist was not allowed to start a Freethinker student club, on grounds that it was antireligious.

While I am not against a prayer before going into battle, I am against sending my Jewish/Buddhist/Hindu son/daughter off to serve our country and having them indoctrinated into another religion. They are going to college, not joining a cult.

LBRP

LBRP, affectionately known as the "Lesser Banishing Ritual of the Pentagram."

Recommended by Bill Heidrick as an absolute prerequisite to any advanced work, lest you want to rattle your marbles. A year is good, daily. Crowley said, and I paraphrase, he who does not appreciate this, does not deserve to have it.

It has Christian elements, to annoy the pagans (there are some versions in the Ciceros' edition of the Middle Pillar which edit out these annoyances); and heathen aspects to annoy the Christians. And a lot of Jewish aspects, to annoy everyone else.

To get a complete edition, Google LBRP or or "Lesser Banishing Ritual." Or buy Regardie's Middle Pillar, in the unembellished original edition, or in the Lewellyn reissue with Regardie's students (they say) the Ciceros' edits and annotations. Or find it in Ophiel's books, he seems to include it in each. In 11 Lessons in Magick. Or in the back of Magick in Theory and Practice, reprint edition or expanded OTO edition; or in Regardie's Golden Dawn.

First is the "cross of light" or kabbalistic cross; similar to crossing onself in Church.

No, first would be imagining oneself very large, outgrowing the earth, solar system, and universe; imagining oneself in idealized form. Radiant, majestic (but not arrogant or brash), with a body of subtle energy and light, not flesh and blood. The four spiritual directions - east in front, west behind, to the right the south, to the left the north. Above you the infinite, below you the cosmos Everything mundane is encompassed by the extremes of these compass points. Having done the LBRP right, you not only cleanse the minutum mundi, your aura, but the larger world in which you move in secular space.

Imagine awesome brilliant, yet soft and full, white light in a ball above your head. Reach up your right hand and draw down the light through your body and you direct it to your feet and below; at your feet you imagine a citrine, olive, russet, and black (in the quadrants) ball of light. As the beam of light passes through your body, it hits the throat, solar plexus, genital, and feet energy centers - corresponding to Daath, the unknown Sephiroth, Tiphareth, the heart, Yesod at the genitals, and Malkuth below the feet. Violet, golden yellow, purple, and citrine/olive/russet/black, respectively. At the same time you feel the centers at Chokmah and Binah, Geburah and Gedulah (left and front brain lobes, right and left shoulders) energize. You are not doing the "Middle Pillar" exercise with concentration and formality, you are simply remembering the vital centers associated with the Kabbalistic Tree of Life in the human aura. Your human aura.

When you first reach up, you touch Kether, white Kether, and vibrate "atoh;" pointing to your feet, "malkuth;" at the right shoulder "ve [vay] geburah;" and at the left shoulder, "ve gedulah;" finally palms together at the heart "le olahm, amen [om or aumgn]."

Thus finishes the Kabbalistic Cross, the first part of the LBRP. More to follow.

A comment on olahm, om, and aumgn. To me these are the same root sounds, but separated by time and cultures. "om" is best known as the primary creative word for Hindus; arguably the sound ends when the lips are closed (no nasal sound to continue with the last expiration). "aumgn" is Crowley's adapatation, as explained in MTP (Magick in Theory and Practice); it continues the last part of the breath as a nasal sound, once the lips have closed. I like Crowley's spin on things better than the traditional explanation that the palms together means "forever." "aumgn" means, to me, the entire cycle of creation (which is always a moving process of beginning, middle, end; start over) plus the "eternity" that lies behind and encompasses the cycle plus the aspect of "nowness" or the eternally present.

That's the fun thing about the LBRP. It is a one page ritual, but you add your own glosses over the years. Much as Blake added his own glosses to Swedenborg's visionary Christianity, until Blake was way out there, in the mystic.

Memorable Fancies, or Luminaries I Have Met

My brother met Ophiel sometime mid-60's, and described him as a "creepy old man." There is a small website devoted to Ophiel, and that site gives a different impression, as do his books. I write my brother's off-hand comment off to youthful misjudgement. I think for my brother, "old" equalled "creepy" at that time.

I never met Ophiel, but later in the early '70s I met Israel Regardie. Oddly enough, my father (who thought I was a little daft based on my intereste in the occult) introduced him to me - my father sold equipment for outfitting chiropractic offices, and that was Regardie's line of work at that time, so my father had run into Regardie in the course of making a sales call. Plus, it turned out Regardie lived less than three miles away from us! Rumor had it that Regardie no longer had any affiliations with practicing magickal orders (Golden Dawn, Rosicrucian, etc.) and that he felt no one should be taught magick without first undergoing analysis (Freudian, Jung). In his chiropractic practice, he reportedly led his patients through Reichian breathing exercises as a form of psychological "adjustment." My conclusion at that time was that his experiences, first with Crowley as his secretary, and then with the Stella Matutina offshoot of the Golden Dawn, had left him rather burnt out.

Nevertheless, he had written the awesome "Tree of Life" when he was barely past 20, and his publication of the Golden Dawn ritual and knowledge papers had both shocked and energized the occult community. He had also published other magick related books since then. He did not publicly accept Crowley's Thelemic creed, and current reports indicate he always considered himself "a Golden Dawn man" although he had pursued Crowley aggressively and been his secretary prior to any affilation with the Golden Dawn.

Although Crowley had already published many Golden Dawn rituals in his "Equinox," it was Regardie who put it in all (almost all) in one place (one today, the first editions were in two volumes with larger typeface), without anything distracting.

I talked my father into taking me over to meet Regardie (I was much shyer then, and less adept at getting to meet people), and we spent about 20 or 30 minutes together. I was quite taken aback by Regardie's appearance - without any disrepect intended, he looked rather like a troll and had a nasal twang to his voice that was very unappealing. If you buy cassettes or CD's of him doing the Lesser Banishing Ritual of the Pentagram you can confirm his voice, at least, for yourself. Although a giant among magickians, he was short in physical stature. All in all, not what you'd expect after Hollywood's depiction of larger than life heros.

I was very interesting in Tibetan Buddhism at that time, so didn't pursue Regardie aggressively, which is a shame since here I am, thirty years later, still diddling around with magick. However, I did meet Regardie two more times, which I took at a "sign" (which never amounted to anything): once at McDonald's - I worked near his house and the McDonalds; and once at the Bodhi Tree Bookstore somewhat later, where I got a job as a sales clerk. He made a strong impression on me, more for his reputation and the "scare" factor in magick.

I have to admit that my ego is bruised; I had an opportunity to meet this remarkable figure, and could have probably wangled my way into studying with him (based on all the people who have surfaced since then who, it turned out, were studying with him - see the revised introduction to the Lewellyn "Golden Dawn" and other works). On the other hand, the time was not ripe. And I was scared.

The other very cool dude I got to at least see, if not personally meet, was the elusive Carlos Castaneda. In 1993 or so, I attended a Tensegrity seminar in Anaheim and he appeared, took the stage. Although he did not match Regardie in voice (his was ok) he did match him in height. Suddenly it all clicked: for all those years, Castaneda had been publicity shy, not because he would be found out, but because he was too short! They would have laughed at the Nagual! But he did exude charisma. In spades.

The Romance of Magick (Not to Be Confused with Prestidigitation)

Call me obsessive-compulsive or a hopeless romantic, but ceremonial magick is appealing to me in a way that other forms of "human potential" development and meditation are not.

There is something appealing about bringing it all together and getting it right.

Of course, there is also all that mystery and "bad boy" reputation associated with ceremonial magick. Anything that causes the religious right to perspire nervously can't all that bad. (Remember, we are talking about western ceremonial magick, which was highly influenced by the ceremonies and spiritual mythologies of the Catholic church and by Masonic ritual, and not "black magic" or devil worship.)

So, how did I get started? With the usual trepidation and misgivings that come from a conservative religious upbringing. Basically, my 13 year old younger brother showed up with Francis Barrett's "The Mage," the "Greater Key of Solomon," and some old hardbound Ophiel books - I believe "The Art and Practice of Astral Projection." I was 17 at the time and was convinced that he was drifting towards a dark and gloomy path. It didn't help that he had painted the walls of his bedroom with scenes from the Lord of the Rings. And this was back in the '60's. Boy was he way ahead of his time.

Years later, with nothing better to do in college, I began reading Ophiel's book, figuring I'd at least give astral projection at try, though my wiser friends warned me that if the "silver thread linking you back to your body" got cut, I'd be a goner. In an insane asylum for sure.

Ophiel had a very "hard luck" voice, he ranted in his book a lot, and he used strange abbreviations (like "tho" for "though"). All this rubbed me the wrong way, but I persisted and over the long years have come to appreciate the many, many useful tips and techniques that Ophiel published. It's important to remember that at the time Ophiel published, there were virtually no do it yourself books out there, nothing to compare with the Idiot's Guides and Dummies books of today. The Art and Practice of Astral Projection also included a simple ritual, which got me started, known as the "Lesser Banishing Ritual of the Pentagram" which I will outline in my next posting.

Expansions to My Personal Library

I have gotten interested, again, in western mysticism and the occult. I have noticed some gaps in my library, mostly from losing books during moves (or perhaps recycling some to used bookstores).

In particular, I used to have the "Complete Golden Dawn" which was a reissue by Israel Regardie, through Falcon Press, of his original Golden Dawn book published by Lewellyn, with some updated materials. I don't know if Regardie had a falling out with Lewellyn, or just liked Hyatt and the others behind Falcon Press better, but generally if you like to collect this stuff you need to have both the Lewellyn (cheap) and Falcon Press (expensive) editions.

I am also thinking about getting another copy of "Gems from the Equinox" (where did my original wander off to?) and getting the second edition of Michael Kraig's "Modern Magick: Eleven Lessons in the High Magickal Arts." Michael Kraig started out by offering correspondence courses in practical magick, then turned his course into this book. I used to dislike it because it was not very...hmm...elegant, more like a cookbook (but of course the old grimoires or magical grammars suffer from the same lack of charm) but as I grow older I appreciate all the help I can get.

What is "practical magick" as opposed to the more glamorous "ceremonial magick?" Well, "practical magick" includes shorter ceremonies or simple rituals, like the Lesser Banishing Ritual of the Pentagram, which a solo practitioner can easily perform without a lot of temple furniture, robes, and ceremonial (symbolic) weapons. "Ceremonial magick" usually requires a setting similar to a Masonic temple, several practitioners,weapons, robes, etc.

When I talk about "magick" I mean the western practices and ceremonial derived principally from Westcott/Wynn/Waite/Mathers (the Golden Dawn) and Crowley (the OTO, the A`A`), with a healthy dollop of Mdm. Blavatsky's "Secret Doctrine" and other Theosophical Society works. I don't mean the modern pagan or witchcraft movements. I also don't mean the much maligned "black" magick although from the best I can tell, this issue lies more with the individual and less with the system; I have met great Christians, and frauds that hide behind evangelicism; I have met great magicians, and frauds that are looking for excuses to engage in dissipate behavior, drugs, and adultery.

I DO like a more Egyptian/Hermetic flavor to my magick, vs. the pretty heavily Christianized Builders of the Adytum approach. Still, one can't avoid the fact that the Golden Dawn was strongly influenced by the Rosicrucian movement, and Frater Christian Rosenkreutz was, after all, a Christ figure.

Blake Debates with an Angel, and Takes Hell's Side

A Memorable Fancy.

An Angel came to me and said: 'O pitiable foolish young man! O horrible! O dreadful state! consider the hot burning dungeon thou art preparing for thyself to all eternity, to which thou art going in such career.'I said: 'perhaps you will be willing to shew me my eternal lot & we will contemplate together upon it and see whether your lot or mine is most desirable.'

So he took me thro' a stable & thro' a church & down into the church vault at the end of which was a mill: thro' the mill we went, and came to a cave: down the winding cavern we groped our tedious way till a void boundless as a nether sky appear'd beneath us & we held by the roots of trees and hung over this immensity; but I said, 'if you please we will commit ourselves to this void, and see whether providence is here also, if you will not, I will?' but he answer'd: 'do not presume, O young-man, but as we here remain, behold thy lot which will soon appear when the darkness passes away.'

So I remain'd with him, sitting in the twisted root of an oak; he was suspended in a fungus, which hung with the head downward into the deep.By degrees we beheld the infinite Abyss, fiery as the smoke of a burning city; beneath us at an immense distance, was the sun, black but shining; round it were fiery tracks on which revolv'd vast spiders, crawling after their prey; which flew, or rather swum, in the infinite deep, in the most terrific shapes of animals sprung from corruption; & the air was full of them, & seem'd composed of them: these are Devils, and are called Powers of the air. I now asked my companion which was my eternal lot? he said, 'between the black & white spiders.'But now, from between the black & white spiders, a cloud and fire burst and rolled thro' the deep black'ning all beneath, so that the nether deep grew black as a sea, & rolled with a terrible noise; beneath us was nothing now to be seen but a black tempest, till looking east between the clouds & the waves, we saw a cataract of blood mixed with fire, and not many stones' throw from us appear'd and sunk again the scaly fold of a monstrous serpent; at last, to the east, distant about three degrees appear'd a fiery crest above the waves; slowly it reared like a ridge of golden rocks, till we discover'd two globes of crimson fire, from which the sea fled away in clouds of smoke; and now we saw, it was the head of Leviathan; his forehead was divided into streaks of green & purple like those on a tyger's forehead: soon we saw his mouth & red gills hang just above the raging foam tinging the black deep with beams of blood, advancing toward us with all the fury of a spiritual existence.

My friend the Angel climb'd up from his station into the mill; I remain'd alone, & then this appearance was no more, but I found myself sitting on a pleasant bank beside a river by moonlight, hearing a harper who sung to the harp; & his theme was: 'The man who never alters his opinion is like standing water, & breeds reptiles of the mind.'

But I arose, and sought for the mill, & there I found my Angel, who surprised, asked me how I escaped?I answer'd: ' All that we saw was owing to your metaphysics; for when you ran away, I found myself on a bank by moonlight hearing a harper, But now we have seen my eternal lot, shall I shew you yours?' he laugh'd at my proposal; but I by force suddenly caught him in my arms, & flew westerly thro' the night, till we were elevated above the earth's shadow; then I flung myself with him directly into the body of the sun; here I clothed myself in white, & taking in my hand Swedenborg's, volumes sunk from the glorious clime, and passed all the planets till we came to saturn: here I staid to rest & then leap'd into the void, between saturn & the fixed stars.'Here,' said I, 'is your lot, in this space, if space it may be call'd.' Soon we saw the stable and the church, & I took him to the altar and open'd the Bible, and lo! it was a deep pit, into which I descended driving the Angel before me, soon we saw seven houses of brick; one we enter'd; in it were a number of monkeys, baboons, & all of that species, chain'd by the middle, grinning and snatching at one another, but witheld by the shortness of their chains: however, I saw that they sometimes grew numerous, and then the weak were caught by the strong, and with a grinning aspect, first coupled with, & then devour'd, by plucking off first one limb and then another till the body was left a helpless trunk; this after grinning & kissing it with seeming fondness they devour'd too; and here & there I saw one savourily picking the flesh off of his own tail; as the stench terribly annoy'd us both, we went into the mill, & I in my hand brought the skeleton of a body, which in the mill was Aristotle's Analytics.

So the Angel said: 'thy phantasy has imposed upon me, & thou oughtest to be ashamed.'I answer'd: 'we impose on one another, & it is but lost time to converse with you whose works are only Analytics.'

Another Excerpt from "The Marriage of Heaven and Hell"

A Memorable Fancy.

As I was walking among the fires of hell, delighted with the enjoyments of Genius; which to Angels look like torment and insanity. I collected some of their Proverbs: thinking that as the sayings used in a nation, mark its character, so the Proverbs of Hell, shew the nature of Infernal wisdom better than any description of buildings or garments.
When I came home; on the abyss of the five senses, where a flat sided steep frowns over the present world. I saw a mighty Devil folded in black clouds, hovering on the sides of the rock, with corroding fires he wrote the following sentence now percieved by the minds of men, & read by them on earth.

How do you know but ev'ry Bird that cuts the airy way,
Is an immense world of delight, clos'd by your senses five?

Comments on the Excerpt

William Blake was wrestling with the prevailing religious view of his time that the "body" is the source of sin, while "reason" is the source of all good things. If you go back and re-read the exerpt, substituting "passions" for "energies," it makes more sense. I like Blake's use of "energies" for "passions," though - it echoes Vajrayana Buddhism's view of passions as energies and not as a human characteristic to be despised.

Strange to say, growing up in the '50's things weren't much different from Blake's day - sex is bad, Church is good.

So the moral dilemma for my life has been -

can I be good, and still have sex?

From "The Marriage of Heaven and Hell"

From William Blake's poem, "The Marriage of Heaven and Hell:"

All Bibles or sacred codes have been the causes of the following Errors.

1. That Man has two real existing principles Viz: a Body & a Soul.

2. That Energy, call'd Evil, is alone from the Body, & that Reason, call'd Good, is alone from the Soul.

3. That God will torment Man in Eternity for following his Energies.

But the following Contraries to these are True

1. Man has no Body distinct from his Soul for that call'd Body is a portion of Soul discern'd by the five Senses, the chief inlets of Soul in this age

2. Energy is the only life and is from the Body and Reason is the bound or outward circumference of Energy.

3 Energy is Eternal Delight