A Visit to the Museum of Masonic Symbolism

The artefacts amassed by the family include historical documents, books, stamps, photos, magazines, application forms and objects used in Masonic rituals. Among these are, for example, the banner of the first Masonic lodge in the United States, in Minnesota and pictures of important Freemasons, among them Kit Carson, the Frontier man who refused to kill Native Americans or capture women. The oldest object is a French standard from 1700, which was buried during World War II to hide it from the Nazis.

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Visit to a Gnostic Sanctum - Aquileia

Just north of the lagoons bordering the Gulf of Venice at the head of the Adriatic Sea, roughly ten miles from the shore and twenty miles below the last foothills of the Alps one can find the ruins of Aquileia. Right in the centre of the small town a large spiritual complex survived the millennials - made up by a huge bell-tower (73m), a large basilica as well as very special baptistery.

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Guest Post - Walter Ogris on Being Awake

Where the neuroscientist sees neuronal networks, the gnostic Hermetical understands such electro-magnetical phenomena as physical manifestations of spirit-cells that form our inner organs (Wesenszellen) - so called ‘elementals’. It is these elementals that form one’s consciousness, mostly without any active involvement of the self. Sunday roast, sex, and other smart or stupid thoughts suppress the self. (...)

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Working the Thread. Loving the Weave.

Once we have spent a considerable amount of time at the edge of Abyss a few things become incredibly clear. They become obvious not like a truth derived from philosophical speculation or from scientific hypothesizing, testing and retetesting. They become obvious like a truth that is part of who we are, of our own being, our very own flesh. We cannot call it faith, because we have seen it with our own eyes.

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Osiris is a black god

Everyone of us is forced to learn how to live life before we die. What as a toddler seems like constant play and discovery over the years turns into a raw and essential struggle. A struggle for one's own place in this maddening world. A struggle for a clear image in that mirror of knowing who we have become. A struggle of balancing what we want for ourselves with what we want to be remembered for by others. The difference for magical adepts lies in a simple choice. It lies in the choice that on top of learning how to live life they also choose to learn how to die before dying.

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Gareth Knight's Series 'SONS OF HERMES'

Today I want to draw your attention to a wonderful blog-post series Gareth Knight has been constantly and quietly releasing since late in 2015. In a world that is awash with repetitive, unconnected snippets of information, hearing the voice of people who hold the actual genuine knowledge and giving them the time to tell a full story has become a rarity. Especially on this particular topic - and then completely for free on top of it!

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2016 - good times!

What a start to the year! The stock market has already killed all of its 2015 gains in less than 10 days while David Bowie rang the occult death-bell for one last time. The former left most people scared about how deeply intertwined our global economies have become and how little safety local communities are granted these days from events that might happen on the other side of the earth. The latter left many people scared about who will now be the occult-artist torchbearer - and sing about alien Gnosticism and superhuman-astronauts in the future? (...)

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On the Godfather of Occult-Social Revolution

... Sättler points us to the historic name and records of an infamous magician, social revolutionary and martyr who aimed to restore the true form of Adonism roughly 1500 years ago. Compared to more recent occult celebrities who showed similar aspirations - Edward Kelly, Aleister Crowley or Gregor A. Gregorius to name a few - this man can fairly be considered the original godfather of occult social revolution, playing in his own Western league only with the likes of e.g. Shabbatai Zevi or Jakob Frank.

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On the 360 Genii of the Earthbeltzone

(...) Since the publications of Wilhelm Quintscher and Franz Bardon these spirits have come to be known as the ‘360 Genii of the Earthbeltzone’ (die 360 Genien der Erdgürtelzone). Unfortunately outside of the tight boundaries of the German speaking countries, they remain almost unknown to this present day. This is even more surprising considering that the first mentioning of their 360 names stems from one of the original manuscripts of the infamous ‘Book of Abramelin’.

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An Interview with Walter Ogris on magical amulets.

Today I have the pleasure to introduce you to someone whose magical work - as well as hermetic worldview - is very dear to me. Through my conversations with him as well as through experiencing his magical amulets firsthand, he offered me a completely fresh perspective on what it truly means to walk the hermetic path and to master magic. Even if few of us will ever be able to follow him in his footsteps, it is all of us who we can ensure it's genuine adepts like him who leave a deep mark on our Western Mystery Tradition.

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LXXXI - The Quareia Magician's Deck

(...) Now, to make this project happen everyone's contribution is required. Whether you want to help through pre-ordering your copy now or instead through a crowdfunding donation - every little helps! This project has been carried for years by very few people, they have brought it a huge way - and so close to its realisation. I truly hope in the next 21 days we can bring it over the finishing line jointly.

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A rare 1920s Example of Occult Book Publishing

Despite being buried in oblivion by most of us today, Dr. phil. Franz Sättler was quite a remarkable figurehead of the 20th century German speaking occultism. Born on 7th March 1883 in Brüx, Bohemia and deceased about 1942 in Nazi captivity, Sättler during his lifetime was not only a remarkable and highly gifted orientalist, travel writer from the Orient and co-author of the first German-Persian dictionary, but also a spy, a magician, a dealer in occult books and services, a social reformer, a rebel for sexual freedom and - obviously - the founder of the cult of Adonism. (...)

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On Man's Place in Magic - or why developing character is the hardest thing.

(...) Let’s explore this hypothesis together: The biggest block to leading an ethical life is to fear failure. Actually, to be afraid of failure is a distinctly human invention. Nature never considers failure an option. Had it set out a few millenials ago to achieve evoultion and hat it been afraid of getting it wrong somewhere along that eternal path, where would that have left all of us? None of us would be here. Instead of being afraid of failure, nature embraced the idea of adaptive recovery as its secret design principle for everything it does. Failure thus turned from the worst-case scenario into a necessary trigger for any learning process.

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On the Limited Lifespan of our Magical Tools

(...) Magical paraphernalia are like four-dimensional recordings of a ritual event. Think of a sacred space filled with a handful of such implements - and now switch positions and look through the eyes of the spirits: Can you see how incredibly busy and noisy this place is? Because from the spirit’s viewpoint these implements, these material tools of spiritual recordings, are in constant playback mode. Without ever stopping they express the rhythms, utterances, forces and living beings recorded into them.

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Book Review | Part 2: 'The First Years of the Fraternitas Saturni'

In Eugen Grosche (1888-1964, aka Gregor A Gregorius), the founder of the Fraternitas Saturni, we come across one of the most chatoyant characters in the more recent tradition of Western Magic. Throughout his life he had a strongly polarising effect on people. While avoiding much of the public excesses and scandals of his magical contemporaries (e.g. Austin Osman Spare, Aleister Crowley or the slightly younger Rosaleen Norton), his impact on the German speaking tradition of magic cannot be over-estimated. (...)

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Book Review | Part 1: 'The First Years of the Fraternitas Saturni'

(...) Just like the previous release, Mr.Lechler’s new book on 'The First Years of the Fraternitas Saturni' is of incredible value in light of the above. It continues to dismantle many of the myths of our tradition that we allowed to turn cold and become false orthodoxy. The results of his painful private studies and research continue to break open the stone we, i.e. the German speaking tradition of magic believed to firmly stand on. In doing so, Mr. Lechler’s new book offers a vast amount of new perspective, new interpretations and of living stories to come. (...)

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On Becoming an Adept. Or how QUAREIA works.

If you follow its path consider yourself in the business of turning yourself into a spiritual adult. Now, the paradox on this path is this: For many years you'll be the baby, the teenager and the adult all in one person. Life doesn't come with an instruction leaflet; all boundaries are temporary in nature. As part of your journey with the Quareia material nobody will disciplinise you, except for yourself. And nobody will praise you, except for yourself. Someone once said, 'Integrity is what you do when nobody is watching'. Without integrity you can still have a fulfilled live, believe me. You might even be able to become a magician in the traditional, sad sense. But you certainly won't get anywhere with Quareia.

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In Search of a Holy Magic - Explorations on the Renaissance of Magic during the early 16th century - Part 5

Looking from the outside in one could come to the conclusion that by the late 15th century ritual magic had degraded into a mummified, fractured and fallen version of a once golden antique past. Sigils, circles, recipes and barbaric names were copied from manuscript to manuscript and seemed to lose more and more of their original and integral meaning each time a scribe put their hand to them. Ultimately the genre was perceived to degenerate to a cryptic extravaganza, a marginal phenomenon within a dark and largely unchartered ecclesiastic subculture.  (...)

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