According to the Iamblichus' [1] The Higher Genius is made by the Master of Daemons by the King of the Underworld it is important when trying to contact this Daemon to also contact being. Unfortunately, there was no God named as being the master of daemons and many people think he was Hades, which makes a far amount of sense. But another candidate could be the Egyptian god Tutu who related to (amongst other things) to the the Higher self of the Pharoah. He was a popular and accessible God to whom people could turn for help in their everyday existence. He was shown in side view but with His head turned to be viewed frontally, emphasising this approachability. Tutu usually is
Tag: magic
Star magic in the Iliad
The Homeric Catalogue of Ships has been a puzzle for studying the Iliad since antiquity. The catalogue lists those who took part in the siege of Troy and where they came from. The catalogue appears to be slapped into Book II with no plain reason and while Homer wrote it, it was not his best bit. Some early editions of the Iliad drop the Catalogue of Ships completely, others leave it in a box by itself. Cynics have said that the list was just a crowd-pleasing list of places. A bit like a rock star screaming “It’s great to be back in Scunthorpe again” so that the poet’s audience may see their region mentioned in the poem. In fact, it was believed
The magic ball of Helios-Apollo
The splendid palace of their fire sublime. O best of gods, blest daemon crown 'd with fire Proculus In 1866 the archaeologist, antiquities “looter,” Prof Athanasios Rhousopoulos dug up a marble ball which was 30 in diameter covered with magical signs similar to what can be seen in the Greek Magical Papyri. The Helios-Apollo ball had been buried in the hill just outside the temple of Dionysus in Athens and was identified as a magical talisman to help someone win a combat . This was because the theatre of Dionysus had been adapted by the Romans to host gladiator fights and wild animal displays. Some of the symbols on the sphere look like fields or strategy plays. On the face of it
Magic, the hero and the others
For a while it has nagged at the back of my mind that the magical path tends to focus on the needs of the individual rather than wider society. It was not that most magicians did not care, it is just that no-one really came up with a good reason why they did. Lately though this void of a reason has led some magicians to adopt views which are so individualistic and self-serving that they make Ayn Rand look like Karl Marx. It was often espoused by people who felt that magic groups were evil and you were better off working alone. It was actually a problem for pagan magic and one which Christianity was able to exploit. The central ‘bible’ of
TEN REASONS WHY PUBLIC OCCULTISM IS DYING
The writing is on the wall for Public Occultism. Its glory days are over and even those who are trying to keep the lights on are finding it hard to pay for the power bill. I have been quiet lately because I have had a few breakthroughs that have provided me with all the answers I needed to make magic work and why it doesn’t. This is pretty big, but unlike the other revelations which I have tended to share with the wider occult community, I don’t have much impulse to share any of this outside my own magical order. It is the sort of thing I will hint at if I write my books, but I don’t really feel like
HEROES IN MAGIC
In the Geometric Greek period (8th Century BC), there was an interesting development from Ancestor Worship to the worship of Heroes. This was inspired by the rise of Homer and other poets. The belief was that the Heroes had been so significant in life that they could act as go-betweens between the living and the dead. Despite their often bloodthirsty acts in life, they became defenders, healers and oracles and guaranteed fertility of the land. The idea that they had created an access of power by their heroic acts is similar to the idea of Christian saints which came much later. In this case, they filled a role often associated with stone circle’s as the guardians of the land. Often they were fixed
TEN TIPS FOR YOUNG OCCULISTS
Every elder thinks that the younger generations fails to respect them. As I am fast reaching the age where I am one of those “elders” I have started to notice the same irritation. I started this game young – I was 17 and I irritated my “elders” too. But in a completely different way from the way I am irritated now. I was the eternal student. I listened and asked questions and wrote a lot down. I remembered what was told, often reminding teachers what they had said in the past, or what others had said. If I struck what I thought was a contradiction I would ask about it. I did manage to swallow a lot of rubbish from a lot
SORTING OUT THE SHEEP FROM THE GOATS
Occult groups can't let everyone in. They have to be exclusive clubs and there are good reasons for this. One of the difficult issues that a modern occult group faces is “who do you let in” which actually comes out as “who don’t you like.” The modern “new age” theory is that everyone should be let in unless you can find a damn fine reason not to. However his is not entirely true. There are some people who should not be allowed into an esoteric group until they have mastered some fairly basic skills and some will find the work actually dangerous. Mental illness On my Facebook group were talking earlier about being excluded from occult groups for mental illness – and it
Earthing that isnt
When you are trained, some things go into your head and you accept them without thinking. You live them because they provide you with a temporary answer. Sometimes though the universe moves to challenge your views. The issue of “earthing your magic” has come to the forefront lately and I have discovered that I have changed my view completely. When I was trained, I was told that it was vitally important to “earth” both yourself and your magic. I was taught to be suspicious of teachers who relied on training for their income and look only to those who participated properly in the material universe. It was claimed that it was impossible to be a full time magician or occultist, because
THE MAGICAL IMPLEMENTATION OF TIME
This is not an attempt to mix science and magic. I have to admit my knowledge of scientific ideas connected to time are very limited. I tried reading Stephen Hawking once and was only able to finish it when I saw it as a magical book rather than a scientific text. As a result I would have missed a lot of what he was really trying to say. The magical tradition since the Neo-Platonists has started with the idea of a No-Thing – a divine being which is entirely without explanation and can only be defined by what it is not. Such a being was seen as infinite and totally above time (or duality). That is all very well, but there