Join me on a virtual exhibition tour and discover the curious artefacts of European folk-magic: skulls to swear by, relics to be mixed with your food, and crowns to be worn by the corpse. Upon closer examination we'll find many surviving ties between the pragmatic folk-rites of our ancestors and the old Grimoire tradition of the West.
Read MoreWARNING: If you are an old-school grimoire ritualist - or simply fancy things that are shiny and beautiful - please be warned. You might blush or even loose sleep over the quantity of mystical paraphernalia displayed in this post.
Read MoreHere is the story of an anonymous 13th century German recluse who voluntarily confined herself to a hermitage and struggled through the 'dark night of the soul' - until she finally achieved first-hand vision of angels and the nature of the soul.
Read MoreA formula is meant to provide orientation. This formula is looking at the necessary foundations for any magic to achieve proper results. You might not need it if you are well orientated already. I still learn a lot from understanding and applying it in my own practice.
Read MoreSuch was the case when I got the spirit's name tattooed on my chest - just like the golem was brought to life when its creator wrote the word 'ameth' on its chest. In the most literal sense I also signed this spirit pact in my own blood. The promise of this pact was for me to accept a part of my nature as a golem. That part is now bound to inhale the 'life' which this spirit breathes into me. That part is bound to walk into the circle I am being conjured into, rather than to conjure myself.
Read MoreIn a not at all metaphorical sense JSK’s final double volume is an expedition into the ancestral blood-ties of this famous sorcerer-saint. To embark on it is to encounter Cyprian the Mage. Not only as the hero of an ancient polemic against the last surviving pagans, but more importantly as a still present inner contact, a powerful spirit in its own right.
Read MoreHere are ten academic facts on Cyprian of Antioch you might not have heard about. We'll hear about Apollonius of Tyana, the Greek Magical Papyri as well as a Greek satire that might have well paved the way for Cyprian's own legend... An excellent distraction while you wait for Rubedo Press' Cypriana: Old World.
Read More(...) Herein lies the crux of vertical development: at first sight it seems like a loosing game. Any time we move forward on our vertical ascent the journey begins with us being proven wrong, with us accepting that part of the reality we had lived in is an illusion. Step by step we discover more subjective filters that ‘have us’ rather than us ‘having’ them. As anybody who has raised kids knows - growing up is a damn hard business. You bleed dreams, phantasies and imagined powers on this path more than you can care to count.
Read MoreThis essay in two chapters is exploring what in Kabbala is often referred to as the 'rainbow path'. A cryptical reference in most books only - referring to a pathway of direct mystical ascent. To begin with, and in order to ground our exploration in everyday life, we'll be looking at the contemporary field of adult learning - and a related philosophy and practice of facilitating deep personal change that emerged from it recently.
Read MoreAs mages we are known to stand at crossroads. That's where we perform our best work - at that liminal place where two worlds, two forces, two beings intersect. In this post we will be exploring such a crossroad: the one where magic and modern artificial intelligence research intersect.
Read MoreIf you ever make it to Florence (Italy) the odds are high you'll be leaving without even having heard about this magical place. And yet walking along all the famous sights of this beautiful ancient city, you are never really more than a mile apart from this hidden gem.
Read MoreFearless at Work actually isn't a book about work. It's a book about cowardice. The kind of cowardice most of us comfortably have forgotten about, and to aid that process we conveniantly began to call it everyday life. It's the cowardice that masks itself as numb acceptance or bitter withdrawal, as grudging tolerance or thick-skinned suffering. Fearless at Work is a book about the siege-mentality that most of us have come to live in these days.
Read MoreThe 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.
Read MoreJust 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.
Read MoreWhere 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. (...)
Read MoreOnce 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.
Read MoreEveryone 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.
Read MoreToday 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!
Read MoreWhat 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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