Maoshan School of Taoist Magic

 

 Practical Chinese Magic

By Jason Read

I have long been interested in far eastern spirituality and martial arts and I have been interested in magic.  My main beef with any magical system is that it is too complicated. I mean like if I want to do a money spell, it would be like never mind easier to spruce up my suit , dust off my resume and go job hunting. I found Chinese magic to be complicated. What is so difficult are the longevity of ritual and the hand mudra’s all that stuff is hard to understand.

The school of magic this gentleman works with is the Taosist Maoshan school. Often times magic was separate from the official religion of Taoism.  Not every Taoist subscribes to magic. Certain magics could be taught in the temple. Most magic though was kind of informal folk magic practiced by the common people as opposed to high ritual in the temple.  There are 4-5 other schools of Taoist magic. It must be noted that Maoshan magic preceded the oncoming of Taoism. Taoism and Taoist magic have absorbed element from Buddhism that came from India. As the Chinese migrated to different lands, they took their magic with them. The magic took on the local flavor of where the people migrated to.

Taosism and Taosist magic operate on the principle of Chi or bodily energy. Our bodies produce energy that travels through meridians on our body. Energy can be directed and stored. There are objects meant for storing chi so that it can be used later. Another aspect of Chinese magic is fu talismans. Artists who make these are called Fulus. The amulet or talisman can be used for repelling evil or attracting wealth or love.

Much like western magic there is reverence for the ancestors and gods. Ancestors can be biological, or they can be ancestors of the magical school, otherwise known as lineage. As in Western Magic offering to the gods and ancestors are given. The Chinese have gold money which is burned and given to the gods. There is also red money that is burned to the ancestors. This gives the ancestor money to spend in the afterlife which is pretty like western tradition. Also, like western magic tradition there is spirit flight.

Similar to the witches sabbat Taoist do some meditation that transports them to a mountain for a party or spiritual experience. Wudang Mountain is the most famous as it has a Taoist monastery. The Taoist do not ingest any chemicals or anoint themselves with flying ointment.

In Taoism there are also methods of divination. Most notable is the I-ching. The querent throws the bague or tangrams to get a reading. The different bagua means different things.  If you are checking out different magical systems, then give this book a read. Honestly though I do like the idea of burning fake money to a deity or ancestor. Fu talisman are something to investigate.

History of a Popular Occult Movement

 From the years 1981 to 1991 musician Genesis Breyer P-Orridge founded the Temple of Psychick Yourh. It was meant to last only 10 years. The Temple’s purpose was so help,people wake up and shake off the shackles society has put us in. Their main vehicle for reaching this enlightenment was the use of Magick, Art, Meditstion and music. With Magick they took a Chaos Magick approach which was to demystify and make those oh so secret magical techniques available to all.

The organizTion was inspired by the artistic magical techniques of Austin Osman Spare. The most notable and widely practiced technique was that of the sigil. The sigil is made by first writing out your statement of Magical intent then going through and crossing out all the repeating letters. Those letter are then arranged into a design. Finally the design is charged then destroyed.

Their headquarters in Britain used to have it’s members make sigil on the 23 rd hour of the 23. Day of the month. The sigil were usually magic aimed at self improvement . There was another technique called the cut up technique where in everything is collages from all things going on during the moment. The technique was developed by William Burroughs on Brian Gysin.

The Temple also was involved in social change. Using magic and protests they managed to close down the Dolphinarium in Britain. The place was known for its inhuman treatment of dolphins. They also use music, and videos to promote change.

But things did not go well for the author. Often times magical orders were accused of ritual abuse of young children and satanism . This was also happening during the Satanic Panic.This lead to Scotland Yard raiding his home and confiscating his belonging. The author lived in exile in Kathmandu helping a Tibetan refugees. Afterward he would return to America.

After the folding of the Temple there were legal issues as to using the name and the trademark cross. Incredible adventure.

Alien Origins of the Watchers

 

The Rise and Fall of the Nephilim: The Untold Story of Fallen Angels

By Scott Alan Roberts

The book of Enoch which elucidates the story of to hundred angels descending to earth in order to mate with human women and teach mankind. The angels mate with mankind and create a hybrid beings called Nephilim or fallen ones. These hybrids were the demigods and heroes of old. They were giants. The book is controversial, it was left out of the official canon and is considered Apocrypha. Not official scripture.

Scant reference is made to the Watchers in Genesis. One could wonder why that would be? It is part of the Ethiopian bible. Reason this book is explosive. Angels and demons are spiritual being and as such cannot mate with humans as they are physical. So who were these watchers? Angels are not flesh and blood and they cannot mate. They must be human like and if they came from the sky then chances are they are extraterrestrials. They came from another planet with superior skills and they attempted to teach these skills to mankind. The bible does not speak highly of these watchers they consider them to have been corrupting human kind.

All across the planet there are stories of teachers or people coming from the sky. They are depicted in a positive way. The bible makes them look bad. When human women mated with them they produced giants who could either be heroic or oppressive. The bible speaks about a council of gods. If there is a council there must be many and there is more than one god.

The author makes reference to other cultures coming into contact with these giant shining beings. It would have been nice if he would have gone more into depth about these shining ones and the cultures they mingled with. Since the author is a bible scholar he did give good over view of the judeo Christian viewpoint and examining their culture.

Going through the book one learns more about Moses, now mind you some of this is well known in Jewish scripture. They cannot identify where in Egyptian history did the figure Moses occur. Careful reading of Egyptian history may shed light on some things.  The Pharoah he grew up under was thutmosis. Hatshepsut was the queen. Thutmosis the third was her step child. Egyptian history makes note of Seknut. He was like her adopted son meant to take the throne. Moses always wanted to be a ruler. Seknut disappears from the record and is never heard of again. Very similar to the story of moses .

The Garden of Eden story has some different details as well. In Genesis it says that Eve was tricked by the serpent to eat of the tree of knowledge, after god has said “No” A more careful reading of symbolology we learn that the serpent had arms and legs and could talk. Sort of like a lizard person. Looking through the symbolism we find that he is a magician who seduced eve and that was how Cain was born. Cain was hybrid and Nephilim . Supposedly the flood cleaned them out. Wiped out all the hybrids. Yet they survived. Mention of them echoes throughout the Old testament and New. Why the flood happened no one knows. The Bible says sin like Adam knowing Eve kind of sin.

In the end it is aliens. While the author does subscribe to Alien intervention he does criticize Zecharia Sitchin and Erich Von Daniken. Good book.

Where are the Djinn ?

Djinn Patrol on the Purple Line

By Deepak Anappara 

The story opens up with the introduction of a spirit named Mento, who even after he is dead still looks after the poor slum boys who worked underneath him building railway lines in India. Mento does not play that big a role in the story.

The story does not showcase the djinn as much as it showcases what life is like loving in a poor Bhasti or slum. The houses are one room which houses four to five people. People go outside to use the facility. There is dirt everywhere and people do not have enough to really make ends meat.

The story showcases another facet of life in India, that of the missing children. About 180 children go missing in India daily often times never to be hear of again. What happens to them no one really knows. Are they used in an organ racket, labor exploitation or something even worse.

In the bhasti near the Boot Bazaar children are starting to go missing. First is Bahador then Omvir and soon the list goes on. People begin to worry w out the missing children. They try to get the police to take action but their efforts are in effective . Due to the futility of the search Jaya and his friend Pari become detectives and try to find their missing friends.

The Bhasti is filled with characters like drunken Lalu, quarter Faisal. Lalu is the drunken father of Bahador. He beats the child and the child runs away. A similar story is behind all the missing children. Trouble at home. Some people think the kids ran away. A smog like haze lingers over the Bhasti. As the children run away they are greeted by strange people who appear to come out of the smog.

The case of the missing children vexes the community so greatly that there are riots against Muslims as there is a fear that it is Muslims who are kidnapping Hindu children. Eventually innocent Muslims get arrested . They do find a culprit which leads to showing how the rich get treated better than the others. Unfortunately no djinn are involved. The worst monsters are always human beings.

Flight of the Divine Feminine

 

Women Who Fly

By Serenity Young

 

Flying about throughout the world in the skies overlooking the ground, someone in the air can see everything from the Americas all the way to the far east. This book does precisely that albeit from a valid feminist perspective. With the coming of religions like Christianity, Judaism, Islam, early Pagan religions, Taoism and Buddhism have all reduced the once prominent role of women to the sidelines. Ousted from power they were subjugated, dominated and used as accessories for men. A travel through the mythologies one finds that certain women were able to escape the prison of patriarchy.

Women like the European swan maiden are shapeshifter par excellent and take the form of whatever they want. These women chose to be swans. Most of the stories go that a man abducts a swan maiden and forces her to marry him. In some tales she finds her swan suit and manages to escape leaving behind her children and husband. Sometimes it is a willing marriage but the man must honor certain conditions like never hit the wife, yell at her etc. in these tales the man usually breaks the prohibition. These tales represent the feminine being subjugated by male power.

In the Western World during modern times, we have Emelia Earhart, Wonder Woman and Hannah Reiche. Their stories are indicative of the patriarchy attitude for women. During the war years when there was a shortage of pilots women were allowed flying jobs for the time being. They were not allowed to fly when menstruating. If there were problems during a flight, if the pilot was a man it was blamed on mechanical failures. If the pilot was a woman it was blamed on her incompetence. Once the war was done the women were dismissed an never allowed to fly again. That is until the 1970’s and a limited but growing basis.

Amelia Earhart was the first woman to fly across the world, in fact the first person. Her plane went down and she was never found. She did not live a conventional life. She was seldom with her husband and did not have children.  Hannah Reach was a German who loved Germany during World War 2 . She was a fighter pilot and learned how to use gliders when the Germans were not allowed to have an air force. She later became part of the Luftwaft. Wonder Woman flew an invisible jet.

Other Flying women in Europe were more fairy like and magical. The Valkyries of the Norse arrived after a battle to escort dead warriors to the realm of Valhalla. Sometimes they are mates to loyal warriors. Women used to be powerful warriors and leaders. Now they are reduced to being rewards for brave male warriors. The women who stood outside the fold are often most degraded by the patriarchy. Women who were independent, mate freely with who they want or who have ability beyond man were shunned and persecuted. One group of the women was the Witches. Know one really know if there were even any of these do called witches. They were said to fly to sabbat by putting on an ointment and riding a broom to the sabbath where in they would cavort with the devil . Later it was learned that they would make an ointment and fall asleep inn their beds and astral travel. Further on it was realized that they were hallucinating. The gist behind this was to target old, widowed and disagreeable women.

There are further myths of flying women that run throughout the far east and India. If women can ever equal men it is not because they are mortal women but they have to be supernatural. Many time  they do not meet with good . The Patriachy hates strong women.   

 Priestess of The Morrigan: Prayers, Rituals & Devotional Work to the Great Queen 

By Stephanie Woodfield

Authoress Stephanie Woodfield is a priestess to the Goddess Morrigan. This book serves to recount her experiences as a priestess of the Morrigan. In this book she discusses the identity of the Morrigan and other goddesses that are associated with her. She also discusses some of the challenges involved with being a priestess and running rituals for pagan. Included at the end of the book are rituals and working for the Morrigan.

Who is the Morrigan? Is the Morrigan a title or is it the Goddesses name. In some Irish folktales she is identified as Morrigan. She is also identified with three other Goddesses. They are Anu, Baive and Macha. Anu is a mother goddess. Macha is a horse goddess and Baive can be a furious goddess of war. Each of these three goddesses conflated with Morrigan have their own separate histories along with different parentages, children and husbands.

The Morrigan is identified as a goddess of war. She does not crave war and relish it like her reputation suggests but rather she recognizes the need for war and battle at times. She does weep for the fallen and realizes the cost. She is concerned with making and keeping the peace. This gets into the question, what is the nature of the Morrigan.

Many in the Pagan community did not take to the Morrigan until quite a bit of time elapsed. Many felt that she was a violent goddess who promoted anger and fighting. Now her worship is more widespread and it is realized that she is not all about violence. Morrigan is a tough goddess who expect certain things from her devotees. She expect them to work on themselves and throw away the parts of themselves that are no longer useful. When the Morrigan gives advice it better be heeded or she might ignore you. If you say your are going to do something then you better do it or a string of bad luck will follow.

Other areas of controversy include how the Morrigan is portrayed. One time she was portrayed in the nude. This caused quite a bit of controversy. Was portraying her naked making her like an erotic goddess? She is a goddess of war but not a goddess of love. The Celts used to go out to battle naked dressed in blue dye called Woad. So showing her naked is a display of power and sovereignty. In the mythos she is not a lusty goddess who goes after men. In fact she is married to the Dagda and has a son with him named Mecha.

Sometimes there are battle in the community. Often times it is a power struggle or an ideological difference. Sometimes it involves back stabbing and the priestess would have to expel someone from the group. Or else it could be solved by peaceful overtures and compromise.  There are other challenges as well. Balancing your life is a real challenge. Being a pagan priest or priestess is difficult. Unlike regular clergy who gets paid from their house of worship , Pagans have to hold down outside jobs for income. They also have to have time for the congregants and for their relationship with deity. This book covers a lot. Dive in and learn.

 

 

The brief Life of Count Dracula

 

This was a short easy read on the life of Vlad the Impaler.  “In Search of Dracula” however remains the best of Vlad the Impaler. The book covers the usual ground including Vlad’s birth, his three reigns in Wallachia and a few up and downs of his political career.  There were a few new facts learned as well. Such facts include the monasteries, forts and building he helped build. It also shows that Vlad the Impaler has living descendants and was and still connected to other European royalty.

The books biggest weakness as far as I am concerned was the grammar and spelling. The book was littered with poor grammar and spelling mistakes. Hard to take a work seriously if the translator cannot get the spelling and grammar correct.

What jumps out is that his first reign was short. His second reign was the longest. The third second longest. Throughout his rule Vlad was constantly challenged both without and within his realm. From outside his realm threats were emanating from Turkey. The Ottomans wanted puppet ruler in places like Wallachia who would pay tribute and provide troops for the janissaries. The Ottoman’s wanted to conquer Europe. Within his realm there were the Saxon merchants who were settled there by the Romans and the Boyars. Boyars were the elite rich people. Both groups were at odds with the Voivode or the ruler of Wallachia.

Vlad had tactics to deal with these groups.  There were often military raids for backing pretenders to the throne. Many Boyars were taken to build a castle and then killed. The Saxon merchants unhappy with Vlad spread stories about him though Europe. It was Boyars who killed his father and oldest brother.

There were three rulers known for fighting the Ottomans. First was Jonas Hunyadi from Hungary , Vlad Dracula and Stephan the Great from Moldovia. So vital was Wallachia and these other areas that the Pope sent money to Wallachia to fight the Ottomans but Hunyadi ended up keeping the funds and only arriving at the last minutes.

Vlad’s second reign was undone thanks the Boyars. They sent a fake letter to the ruler of Hungary saying that Vlad was conspiring with Ottoman forces to capture the ruler. This lead to Vlad being imprisoned in Hungary for 12 years. He married Hungarian royalty during this time and he fought on Hungary’s side during his imprisonment.  Vlad was ultimately killed in battle against the Ottomans. It is believed that he was beheaded and that his head was displayed outside the walls of Istanbul. Other beliefs say that his body was retried from the Ottomans an buried in Snagov.