Last night during a troubled sleep I realised that Geomancy was not mathematically binary in that a dot was not one and a line was not zero. This becomes important when looking at elemental theory applied to Geomancy. Modern Geomancers tend to see a dot as representing an elemental power switched on (One) while a line as an element switched on. However binary mathematics requires the use of zero as a decimal place holder. So one plus two would equal 10 while in geomancy it would have the same value a line (or two dots). Olcam would say that 1+2=3 (is an odd number and therefore 1) is a more logical way to create a geomancy reading. Christopher Cattan (Geomancy 1591)talks about
magic
Astrology and geomantic figures
For the last few months, I have been having nagging doubts about the way I have been interpreting some geomancy symbols. It has been nice to use the traditional black and white methods with absolute meanings, but the issue was that some of my readings were subtly off. Some of this is due to the assessment of elemental action in each of the symbols. Populus has all its elemental attributions switched off so it is entirely passive and via has them all switched on and is so is entirely active. What sparked off my train of thought was a chart which strongly perfected and had a comparatively positive court (which should have meant “yes”) could only be read as “no” because
The Magic of tearing down statues
The recent attention to the pulling down of statues of those whose history has fallen short of modern expectations has a long magical tradition. In Ancient Times statues had a magical function. They were supposed to represent either Gods or Heroes looking down on society and protecting it. Sometimes they were used as a focal point for a god at a particular site. In other times a statue was erected to a dead human “hero” to appease them. In Egypt, the Hermetica (and repeated by Iamblicus) statues were used by magicians to communicate directly with the dead or Gods. They were doorways between the worlds, and the statues could speak. But statues were often destroyed or buried because they were not doing their
Testing spirits
One of the central issues about contacting spirits, either ritually, channeling, scrying or through inner plane chats is a fear that they might be lying. Much time has been wasted by magicians listening to what they believe is their “contact” or “an angel,” getting duff information and acting on it. Iamblichus mentions spirits who seek to trick the magician into following them by pretending to be much more important than they are. Much of the problem is based on a lack of knowledge of how spirits work. The assumption often is that the gods and spirits are “like mighty humans” and approached in the same way. However, Gods and spirits are not humans -- they are spiritual forces which have a consciousness
Moon in ritual timing
The Moon is one of the most important planets for magic acting as a transformer for supernal and planetary powers. This makes the Moon's position of the Moon and its phase a critical timing feature in ritual or talisman consecration. Talisman lore requires the planet or zodiacal force is in a good position. We are told that the ritual performed during the correct planetary hour, but the books generally ignore the Moon. The moon gods, such as Thoth and Hekate, are often magical gods, and this hints that while the planets might represent the ritual or talisman’s purpose, the Moon is its magical power. So if the Moon is off or weakened, you might have a perfect intention but lack the magic
Things you need to remember about historical magical systems
In looking at ancient systems and texts there are shedloads of pitfalls for those who have worked within a system and those who are self-taught. When people have started to suggest that you do not have undergo that basic training in a system and can just launch into ancient texts and cobble together a workable system, I wonder how. I love adopting a historical approach to magic – my bookshelf is no longer dominated by modern occult classics and has been replaced with academic texts and different translations of source texts. It is part of my make-up that I love history (up until the renaissance where I lose interest.) It is natural then that my path would involve taking a historical
The main Hermetic Principle
If you had to boil down Hermetic thought into a single idea, then you are left with a saying which would be familiar to those who know their Led Zeppelin lyrics (and the Three Musketeers). It would also prove inconsistent with the Kybalion and other modern beliefs as to what Hermetics really are. All is one and one is All. Meditating on this one phrase can keep you up at night and when accepted as truth and applied to most magical or spiritual situations it answers most questions. Hermetics is a very wide church and binding it to too many ideas is tricky but the idea of a Monad is consistent. It means that everything is made up of One Thing or a
Occult(ish) lessons Coronavirus lockdown taught me
Being locked down during the Coronavirus and having your life being put on hold has taught me a couple of things which are important for the occult path. Some dismantle a few esoteric myths; others were just things I learnt on along we way. It does not matter how experienced you are in magic, or how good, there are somethings which are bigger than you and you cannot deal with (or are meant to) magically. Even if I were able to do a ritual to eradicate the Coronavirus I would not be allowed out of my house for a couple of weeks. No amount of magic will change that. If you look at this issue wider, it means that other
Using your Nous
One of the closest things that the Kybalion comes to a real hermetic thought is the statement that “everything is mind.” In its Principle of Mentalism, the Kybalion claims that “Everything that happens has to be a result of a mental state which precedes it. For anything to exist, thoughts had to form first, which then form physical reality or manifestation. While this ends up with new-age bollocks such as “Your thoughts are seeds, plant positive seeds in your mind garden” the idea appears to be based around the corruption of the sound Platonic/ Hermetic concept that God is something called Nous. The word Nous can be literally translated as Mind. Those who inspired, and wrote the Kybalion, thought it logical to
The real Hermetic Principles
While people mistakenly believe the new-age pseudoscientific mishmash which is the Kybalion is hermetic, few have looked at Corpus Hermetica to work out what the real Hermetic Principles are. There are far more than seven but here are 11 which I produced, without too much effort (there are many more). 1. God is One Thing which is unknowable and having built creation within itself. If anything is a division, then it is only an illusion. It contains within itself everything. If in doubt remember that everything is One Thing. This has a huge impact on those looking for dualities such as Good and Evil for if such dualities are real, they are illusions within God. So if we can’t know God