I have used the AI system Dall-e to create magical images for the last few days. Some people were upset when I showed some examples on social media. They claimed that a computer created them, and they were weaker. They do not understand magical images. They believe that they are holy, and adepts created them. Magical books from The Picatrix to Agrippa only described magical images by their symbols. They rarely drew them (and when they did, they were slavishly copied by the pendants of their era). The adept had to draw their images containing these symbols. The Sacred Book of Hermes gave a mag ..read more

My latest book, Things My Hierophant should have told me, is now available on Lulu. The book covers advice and suggestions for those on the magical path. The first edition of this book, which was half the size, sold out and there have been many requests for me to redo it. This edition has more advice and is packed with cartoons and illustrations. Occult advice for those on the Magical Path The magical path is full of pitfalls, blind alleys, and many monsters that will get in your way. Occult, philosophical teachers and books provided short aphorisms for students to help them guide their ..read more

One of the parts of Cattan’s book that I did not develop in my Star and Stone book was his approach to good and bad figures. In his book, Geomancy, he identified what were good, bad and meh figures for each type of question. He also hinted at how they would influence a reading. Lately, I have been reviewing these attributions, and while some of them are questionable or at least out-of-date, others reveal themselves with a little meditation. What follows is a list mixing Cattan’s attributions with my own. Note that when there is a reference to a company, it means the figure transforms the one ..read more

Many assume that the Golden Dawn was a fixed system and Regardie’s “black book” is an effective bible. However, as time passed, I realised that some of the things the old Whare Ra members told me differed from what was published. Focusing on the elemental tablet One thing is the elemental pentagrams, which, if you ask a modern Golden Dawn person, need to be directed at an Enochian tablet (seeing it as a form of elemental talisman). However, at Whare Ra, the tablets were optional. If they were used, the pentagrams were drawn through them. This visualisation method had the final pentagram drawn ..read more

The cypher documents did not mention anything specific to be placed on the black and white pillars. Instead, all that was required were two emblems of spiritual evolution. The early versions of the Isis-Urania pillars were blank, other than images of the Kerubs at the top. But there was a move to place vignettes from the Egyptian Book of the Dead, specifically Chapters 21 and 17. Chapter 21 was the famous Judgement scene of the dead, while Chapter 17 was a more obscure system of occult knowledge and ritual challenges. The Vignettes did not have the accompanying ritual text, and indeed some il ..read more

Medieval geomancers used to make a big deal about the elemental attributions of the lines of the figures, yet there is little about how these lines could make a difference to a reading. Information is limited to the top line being fire, the following line being air, the third being water, and the last being earth. These follow the Corpus Hermetica, with fire being the highest level of spirit, air representing the mind, water being emotions and earth being the physical body. One clue is in the Chinese iChing, where the lines change from one force thing to another. We would get similar informat ..read more

Sheshat is an important Egyptian goddess from a magical perspective. Sometimes seen as Thoth’s wife, she is the goddess of writing and measurement. Like a lot of Egyptian divine roles Sheshat’s job is more complex than at first appears. Her mundane role as head librarian rapidly becomes something more Stella and her words and writing become the basis upon which the earth is centred. I wrote this short invocation to her based on different spells and titles I found across different sources. Have fun. Invocation Seshat opens the portal of wisdom She clothes me in knowledge She builds me a mans ..read more

Doing a geomancy reading takes time, and before you even start, it is wise to have a sound safety system to know if a Chart will be valid. Geomancy has two well-known safety devices relating to the first house – if Rubeus or Cauda Draconis appears in the first house, scrap the chart. While this is true, another one taught me by African geomancy expert Shittu A. O. Sage involves something he calls the Mace. The Mace is a generated figure that says the spirits have given the chart authority to speak. The King’s Mace is placed in Parliament to represent his authority over the government. Calcula ..read more

What follows is an ancient theurgic visualisation method devised by the neo-platonic philosopher Plotinus. I have modernised it and added a few things to make it more practical. It is important because it links our techniques and those of antiquity.  Place a statue or picture of the god on the altar with a tealight before it. Perform an invoking pentagram. Purify and consecrate as the 0=0.  Light the candle and invoke the god using the normal method. Visualise yourself in a crystal ball with the night sky reflected in it. Then visualise yourself as being within that universe. You sh ..read more

While being the touchstone for Western Mystery Tradition magic, the Golden Dawn system has been largely shrouded in secrecy. While versions of its rituals have been published, these have been hacked and valuable material missing. Most importantly, the valuable information about how to work these rituals is largely unpublished. This has created a ridiculous situation where many self-appointed Golden Dawn experts have no idea how to work the important initiation rituals or even understand how they are supposed to work. Fortunately, the Golden Dawn Tradition has managed to preserve its secret te ..read more