Most modern magical systems feature the use of elements Fire, Water, Air, and Earth without really understanding why. Coupled with the neo-Platonic idea of emanation, which sees creation as the result of an emanation from simplicity to complexity, we appear to have missed something. Yet elements are part of most much even when modern science has rejected them for something better. Neo-Platonism, as seen in the Western occultists’ Cabbalah, makes sense in many ways and has much in common with ancient thought. Life starts from a point, becomes a line and then a triangle, and from a divine triad, the rest of the universe is created ending with the four elements in Malkuth. This serves to create a universe which is

People have been asking me when my “Pagan Abramelin” is coming out for about three years now. The PGM based system with its nod to the Picatrix (and the Golden Dawn)  in finally in its official print run and is packed full of different pagan magical techniques which are designed to contact your Higher Genius. From the back: The Western Mystery Tradition is based on a bedrock of pagan magic, yet too many important developments are over-influenced by post-pagan Judeo-Christian-Islamic dogma. One of these is the concentrated "storming of the gates of heaven" technique known as the Abramelin system, in which the magician attempts to contact a spirit called the Holy Guardian Angel after an intense six- or 18-month programme. In Helios Unbound,

Anyone who has read my book Beyond the Sun will be aware of the importance Rudolf Steiner had to the early Whare Ra and Robert Felkin. Felkin needed Steiner’s Rosicrucian links to provide him with the authority to operate.  Mathers had obtained mythical links to the European Rosicrucian movement which apparently gave him the rights to work higher-level grades within the AO.  Felkin matched this with his meetings with Steiner who had connections to the Rosicrucian orders derived from Alois Mailander. Felkin also obtained “processes” from Steiner (which were exercises) and the “link” ritual which effectively gave him a connection to the Mailander-inspired Rosicrucian movement. However, it has been bought to my attention that various Steiner anthro masonic groups, who also look

For several years there has been an issue for me about writing authentic invocations in the Ancient Greek style.  Going through the Greek Magical Papyri there would appear to be a formula but it has become a little corrupted due to mixing with Egyptian and Hebrew formula.  While there is nothing wrong with using the PGM invocations, this is a little limiting. What I want is a traditional formula which can be used to write my own invocations. Fortunately, academia has managed just that. According to Ljuba Merlina Bortolani’s Magical Hymns from Roman Egypt invocations generally follow a three-fold pattern.  This pattern might be “taken as read” as some of the PGM spells might lack different levels because the copyist could not

While most geomancers have an established set of meanings for the 16 geomantic symbols, it might be we are missing a hint dropped in Agrippa’s Fourth Book when the placement of the symbols on a chart was mentioned. The author hinted that the placing of the symbols of the chart was advanced and significant. Various works have attributed astrological associations to each of the geomantic symbols (some are contradictory), and yet these give clues to a much deeper understanding of the symbols. I first realised that three might be something to this when I hit a reading where both the quested and querent were Tristia “sorrow” which is traditionally a bad and depressing figure. Yet the question was talking whether the

Sam Robertson has posted a rather lengthy article which effectively rubbishes the Golden Dawn’s Rosicrucian credentials. Sam had I often row about this privately, and he wants my reviews on the posting – so here it is. Sam’s central problem is defined, and he never gets away from it.  He tries to set unfair standards which are unique to his own system and orders. Firstly, he fails to correctly define Golden Dawn in terms of its history.  What outsiders call the Golden Dawn was always the outer order of system and only briefly called itself Rosicrucian.  The second order of the Golden Dawn is clearly Rosicrucian and brings in the manifestos, the vault, the myth etc. Sam’s fails to define what the “Golden