So once we have fine-tuned, trained and strengthened the magical and spiritual faculties that make up the human being - what is the Great Work we are meant to do? How do we contribute beyond ourselves? And what then is the path that we need to keep ourselves from squandering?
Read MoreWhat I am about to share here and for the first time in English language is one of the finest gems of their collections. It is the transcript of a lecture given in 1933 by a German Jewish magician and lodge member by the name of Brother Leonardo. In fact it is the second lecture of his in a small series. I will share the speech without any long introductions. For whatever it is worth to other people, this lecture in my eyes deserves to stand on its own, to speak for itself and to find ears that can hear wherever you may life.
Read MoreAt a relatively early stage when we begin to practice magic it is really helpful to develop a proper understanding of the term ‘topography’. Today, especially in the US the term is mainly used to refer to a map with elevation contours. However, its original meaning was much broader and one still can find it being used in its old form in many countries in ‘old Europe’. Topography is made up of the two Greek words ‘place’ (topos) and ‘writing’ (graphia). Thus in its original meaning it signifies an accurate description of a specific place. Such description wasn’t limited to geographic features but could also include an accurate report about the people living in this place, its wildlife, weather and even history.
Read MoreWell, I should warn you - this might be the most foolish post I shared yet. For one, because the two reports of magical experiments from the 1920s which I have translated for you don‘t shed a very positive light on our art and ancestors. In fact, they are probably amongst the worst examples of how to practice magic. As so often the anonymous magician involved seems to have held sufficient half-knowledge to be dangerous - dangerous all at the same time to himself, to his scryer, to the beings he worked with as well as to his own cat.
Read MoreVolker Lechler’s biography of Heinrich Tränker opens a profound new perspective on our magical past as it emerged in the early 20th century. Based on the life and work of Tränker as its central hub the book paints an equally broad and incredibly accurate and detailed picture of the origin stories of many of our current magical orders and how they were formed by the personalities and human weaknesses of their founders.
Acquiring such knowledge and understanding of one’s own tradition’s history is so much more than satisfying academic or historic curiosity. It enables today’s students of magic to consciously realise the human errors woven into the tapestry of tradition they learn from.
Read MoreHow do you review a book that begins to dismantle the myths of an entire tradition? A tradition that depends so much on the numinous, the ill-defined such as Western Ritual Magic. A tradition in fact that was only able to develop in the absence of books like this.
Such books are the results of decades of research, countless hours, weeks and months in old archives, of reading, re-reading and cross-referencing handwritten notes, letters and biographical evidence left behind by their now famous authors. Such books begin to replace myth with fact and craving for a mythical past with the knowledge of what truly happened. It is books like these that make the busts of our ancestors tumble and threaten to reduce them to what they truly were - people who struggled to understand the path of magic just as we do today. Yet, maybe even more drastic to some, books like these threaten to make entire lodge egregores tumble and fall - in the bright light of historic facts, in the mirror that reveals our ancestors’ flaws and lies born from their desire to recreate a romantic past rather than recognising it for what it was.
Read MoreBefore you learn how to sit still, before you learn how to breathe, before you learn how to cast a circle, before you even learn how to focus your mind, ideally the very first thing you learn is how to look. That is: How to look into the talking mirror of your inner contacts and listen to what they tells you. For most of us in the Western Tradition this talking mirror is the Tarot. What you see in it depends on what you put in front of it - which question, situation, sickness, being, vision or dream. However, whatever it is you expose to this mirror its answer will be unapologetically straight forward.
Read MoreRecently I shared the account of the sixth ritual in the Arbatel cycle, the rite of the Olympic Spirit of Bethor. Performing this ritual was an eye opening experience on many levels. Not at least because it was the first Grimoire-related ritual I performed simultaneously in vision and in ritual. Being able to witness the magical tides and dynamics from both sides was a completely different experience to any of the previous Arbatel rites.
Read MoreTo see the three luminaries from Natura Naturans people had traveled for long distances into town, sought for sleeping places over night and of course paid 250 EUR ($330) in advance. Unfortunately five minutes into the seminar I had my doubts wether making all that effort had been a smart decision...
Read MoreThe most essential dependency we encounter as magicians is our ability to extend our sensual ‘reach’ beyond the physical realm. Wether we call them ‘siddhis’ or ‘astral senses’ - without being able to open our senses to input from beyond the physical realm any spirit will struggle to directly connect with us.
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The 'North Gate’ is a book as daring in its approach, dense in its content and demanding in its techniques as a line of metal hooks in a steep rock face. Simply reading it will amaze you about what real everyday, practical magic can do to yourself as well as the world around you. Just like a steep rock when faced from down below this book will also scare you - about the sheer amount of work that lies ahead of you and about how insufficient your own foundations suddenly might seem.
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The following chapters explore the subject of Resilience and Renewal from the viewpoint of the practicing magician. The tools and models we will apply, however, will not be ‘magical’ by any means. Instead they stem from various fields of modern research such as behavioural science, science of sports or performing arts. Such choice of tools is not meant to devalue any magical approaches on the subject, but rather highlight their wide absence in the Western Tradition as we will see. Still, irrespective of their origins none of these tools will work unless they are practically applied - repeatedly.
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Over the last few years I repeatedly received feedback from readers that it can be hard to work through all the material on myoccultcircle.com online, i.e. when sitting in front of your computer. It took me a little bit of time to figure out how to overcome this - without additional financial costs and in a way that's also fun for me. I am happy to share today that I am now offering and will be slowly expanding a new section on free eBooks for public download.
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Last night I woke up from a strange dream. I had visited the remains of Gustav Meyrink's old house 'Home to the Last Lantern'. -- Here is the story of what happened next and where this dream guided me over the course of a day...
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A central aspect of the Western Occult tradition is the correlation between macrocosm and microcosm. The most prominent example of this philosophy is the Hermetic Tabula Smaragdina or Emeral Tablet. What this premise expresses is a worldview in which everything created is at the same time a part and a whole: Everything is a mirror to everything it is surrounded by, yet at the same time a unique expression of this universe.
Read MoreIt’s been about twenty months since my last rite in the Arbatel cycle. Back then I walked on from the realm of OCH into the realm of PHALEG. It was in December 2011 when I expected some major changes as a result of this rite; unsurprisingly that is exactly what happened...
Read MoreThe world around me seems to go crazy with the idea of self-optimization. To be more precise I should say: with the idea of self-quantification. Unfortunately the difference between the two seems to be insignificant to many? And that's where trouble begins... Let me suggest to go on a little walk. A walk back and forth between our everyday lives and our lives in the circles of the magical art.
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Nick Farrell recently posted twelve indicators that might help you identify wether or not you actually are a magician. Now, I don’t know Nick personally, but I have followed his writings for a while. From what I found I came to genuinely respect him as a magician in the tradition of the Golden Dawn, a knowledgable teacher of his subjects and overall a pretty reasonable person. It surprised me even more, therefore, to see such a naive list of criteria for supposedly true magicians on his blog?
Read MoreOver the last weeks I spent a lot of time diving deep into current research on empathy and its relation to the common psyche of mages and witches. I summarised what I learned in this article. Yet, once finished realisation hit me that I had missed an essential point. What this was, was to reflect on the purely practical implications of empathy in magic - outside of the realms of psychology, sociology and history. So here it is...
Read MorePetting Scorpions is an expression I came across in Daniel Smith’s book ‘Monkey Mind’. It is a small volume exploring the reality of living with anxiety disorders from a very personal point of view. In essence, Daniel is sharing his own story of dealing with his multiple anxieties from when they first emerged to the present day as an author, husband and parent. It is no happy-ending story, as he remarks himself. Rather it is a story that enables one to take a closer look at the siamese twin relationship one needs to accept when suffering from this kind of mental disorder.
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