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Tuesday, November 2, 2021

Set Takes Over America




Author Rick Riordan has been bringing the myths of old back fo to life in a modern context. He is doing a good job of it as the schools are reading his books in class. This one is about Egyptian mythology.


Some background is required for understanding the story more fully. First off Set is the brother of Osiris and Isis, he is lord of the desert. When Osiris was crowned pharaoh of Egypt he had him killed by locking him in a coffin and cutting off his body in to pieces. Isis puts them back together save for one part. Later on Horus fight Seth for the throne. But Sethmis also Ra’s lieutenant who jabs the wicked apaphis with a spear.


Sadie and Carter Kane come from two pharaonic lineages. They are the two most powerful godlings born in a long time. Their parents belonged to the house of life which is an order of Egyptian magician dedicated to keeping the gods locked away in the duat, or Egyptian spirit world. They feel the gods are no good.


Carter and Sadies parents foresee something and they free Bastet from battling Apophis for eternity. Bastet gets out but to keep Apophis imprisoned the mother has to give her life.

Since then the Juliious Kane must keep his activity secret from the house of life. Sadie and Carter are raised apart.


Life changes again when the father opens a portal and releases Set and some other gods . Juliious gets imprisoned and Set plans on using a Red Pyramid to destroy North America. The two have to stop Set. Along the way they meet they uncle Amos, khufu the  Baboon and a host of other Egyptian characters. They need Sets secret name if they are to stop him.


Reading this book not only renders a good but also gives a good overview of how Egyptian magic works. The house of life works magic but they do not worship the gods. Sadie and Carter have to struggle with Isis and Horus who want to take full possession of their bodies. Only Pharos can host deities. If you enjoy Egypt then this one Is for you.


 

Tuesday, October 19, 2021

Occult Influence of Major Authors


  Dark Muse does not exactly cover a history of the occult as that would go back to the beginnings of mankind. Rather what proceeds is how the occult and occult ideas influenced some of the great artistic minds of Europe. Occult ideas have always influenced the way certain writers write. Sometimes it effects the plot of their story, other times the author is putting forward an occult idea. Occult means hidden. There are different time periods or occult periods and they are in order they are enlightenment occultism , romantic occultism, satanic occultism , fin de siecle occultism and modern occultism.


During the enlightenment period when it seemed that science and rationalism have completely overcame magic and superstition one could find street vendors selling book on the Kaballah , alchemy and astronomy. Indeed it could be argued that these occult arts were treated like a science and subject to many experiments. Swedenborg was one such individual. Before some mind bending dreams shattered his picture of reality he was a hardcore scientist who accomplished a lot. But a prophetic dream changed all that and he became a cartographer of the inner dimensions .

The period of Romantic Occultism. If something is Romantic it is often times seen as imaginative or unrealistic. Romantics saw the imagination as the central source of existence, the fundamental creative power, and the most god–like of human faculties. One writer that evinced this quality was Goethe, the German poet. His work Faust , which was based on a real personage, dealt with pacts being made with the devil. There have been earlier telling if Faust but it is the Goethe version that stand out.

The next period is Satanic Occultism . Now Satanism is kind of a recent development and only a very minor branch of the occult. Satan is really only mentioned extensively in the book of Job. Later on the Christians would matnify his position and make him real Important. Further on in Christian history dissident groups would be accuse of being in league with the devil. Gnostic held the view that the devil or an evil god created the world we live in and the god of light who created the universe wanted to rescue us. There were earlier embodiments of a dark principle. Ahriman, in Zoroastrianism the enemy of Ahura Mazda, is a kind of prototype Devil. Indeed to embrace the devil is to embrace rebellion. Charles Baudelaire would be an example of this. He was a poet born to a rich man and he lived a decadent life. Good food, lots of unsanctioned sex dresses well etc. his writing were filled with decadence as well along with many elements that would be found in a horror story.

The Fin De Siecle period of occultism would nite the bringing about of new age ideas along with a preoccupation of a mythologized past. Notions of prehistoric lost civilizations and evolutionary supermen shared the same intellectual space as a profound rediscovery of magic and a dizzying preoccupation with higher dimensions. Madame Blavatsky would be part of this movement. Having starting Theosophy there were legends of super developed humans in underground civilization which are lead by ascended beings.

The last period is Modern Occultism treats everything in the art as a symbol for something spiritual. “In all the poets of the modern tradition, poetry is a system of symbols and analogies parallel to that of the hermetic sciences.” Fernando Peso was a Portuguese’s poet recently rediscovered . He has done some major translations of some really well known work. Pessoa work was found posthumously in a trunk with scattered bits of poetry. He was known for writing in Heteronyms, literally assuming a different identify when writing his works. It was as though he were a different person doing he writing. These non acquaintances had their own identify, history and biograph. Pessoa was in a word obsessed with defracturing the personality and dissolving identity.

The last half of the book contains written passages by various authors. Crowley’s Hym to. Pan is included along with some works by Baudelaire, Poe and Rimbaud just to name a few. There were many popular authors who were influenced by the occult. Read up and find out more about them.

Monday, October 4, 2021

Magical Book of Cash

 


5.0 out of 5 stars
Gallery of Magick Cashbook
Reviewed in the United States on October 4, 2021
This is a short little work that is about a simple technique to bring in more cash. The book is short and sweet and goes straight to the point of what you need to know to perform the magic. The first thing the author discusses is attitude. Attitude is everything. When you speak your words of power make it as dramatic as possible like you are doing this for a movie. Hum the names of power as loud as you can, provided the situation allows for that. If not, then put as much energy into it as possible. Another attitude that can get in the way is wondering if the magick will work. To overcome this the author advises that you be a like an actor and pretend as though the magick will come real and that you already have what you want in hand. The third attitude that can mess a magician up is the lust for result. Always focusing on what you want or did the magic for. This louses up the spell. It is ok however to occasionally visualize yourself already in possession of the money and to be showing gratitude for it even if I had not come through as of yet. The final thing magicians always worries about is if they did the steps right. The author advises that you do the best you can and do not get overly hung up on getting all the steps correct. Do the best you can and be confident of the result.
Once the aspiring magician gets through these attitudes then they can design and charge their book. The author tells the reader how to design the book and how do the sigils that will go on the front and back of the book. There are also certain colors that should be used for the front and back of the book. The author does prefer that you use unlined paper but in the end it does not matter. The author gives the reader the incantation needed to charge the book. The incantation has the user vibrate the names of gods. The spirit is Nitika. There is a an incantation to the spirit as well.

It is important to ask for money that is needed no matter how much and let it come the way it comes. Do not be picky as to how this book arrives to you. Remember attitude is everything. It is a simple book and the proof about how good the book is will be measured in how effective the technique works.
Thank you for your review.

Thursday, September 9, 2021

Pirate Nation

 Between the years of 1700 to roughly 1720 the Pirates held sway over the Atlantic and trade between the new world and Europe was severely disrupted to the point of endangering the colonies of Britain. These years were extremely turbulent. There was the Spanish War of Succession, political intrigue in Britain and trouble brewing in Austria.


Years before a man named Avery made a name for himself. A revered pirate leader that managed to sort of create his own country. Well that is what these pirates did, in the Bahamas they set up their own republic. Their place was Nassau. Once a Spanish colony then it became the Pirate Republic.

There were some definite leaders in the Republic. The biggest one is Benjamin Hornigold. A former officer in the British Navy turned buccaneer then pirate . He was still loyal too the British and limited his seizures to other countries. Bellamy who was raised poor and left behind a pregnant wife who died alone without him. Charles Vane grew up poor in Britain and was a real psychopath. Edward Teach was better known as Blackbeard was also on the scene.

During these turbulent years the government used give commission to privateers. These privateers were allowed to act like pirate and rob ships from enemy countries. Pirates could pray on whoever.

The life of a pirate was not all that bad. Being a soldier in the British Navy was grueling. The soldiers were underpaid and often time the checks did not arrive on time if at. Punishment for infraction could be real tough as well. Flogging and executions were common place. The pirate life was more democratic and fair. Pirates got a share of the plunder and they could vote in the captain of their ship. Many former slaves and escaped slaves became pirates because a a pirate there were treated more equally and could hold on to their dignity.

The Pirates had their political leaning as well. Many of the English pirates did not like King George. Hew was a Hanoverian king and many of the pirates preferred the Stewart line. Those who favored the Stewart line were known as Jacobins .

During the early 1720s things began to end. A gentle man named Rogers was sent to govern Nassau. HIS tactic was to offer the pirates a pardon if they quite their ways. Charles Vane ended up dying in Jamaica after he was captured. Back Beard died in the colony of virginia . Hornigod lived out his days.

Back in the day the Pirate Republic was a force to be reckoned with.After the 1720s piracy continued but they were no longer as strong as they used to be and were not in the position to challenge a major naval force like they used to

https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/4228493967

Tuesday, August 24, 2021

A Treasury of Kahlil Gibran

 




Khalil Gibran was a visionary who hailed from Lebanon. His land was beautiful and the people simple and pure. But it was a land that was ruled by corruption, and he saw this. The church and the local despots and mukhtars keep the people under lock and key. The church keeps the villagers chained to traditions that enforce their slavery. Women are given to rich older men and are locked in marriages with people they no longer care about. The church and the landowner keep the people enslaved. Working in partnership the landowners and village chiefs work the villagers to death all for their own profits. Khalil Gibran wrote about this problem and spoke about it at length in his poetry and prose. The church excommunicated him for it and he eventually came to US to live in exile.

While I cannot remember all the names of everything I have read.  The stories and poems illustrate their point. On story tells about a monk who is excommunicated from a monastery. His crime was preaching pure Christianity. Giving charity to the poor and encouraging freedom of though. Once expelled from the monastery he finds refuge with a widow and her daughter. But no sooner has he found refuge when the local mukhtar and priest find him and lock him up. The exiled monk speaks his truth and eventually the townspeople free him.

 

In another story three people are tried and condemned for various offenses. The first offence is for a woman accused of adultery. Her body is left to rot in the woods. What happened is that she was in love with another man. He went out of town for a day and her father married her off to an older more established man. Her old lover came to visit her one last time when the husband walked in. She was accused of adultery and killed. The second person killed the sultan’s soldier with his own sword and for that he was sentenced to death. A woman came by his body after it was left for the beasts to devour it. She buried the body and explained the story. The sultans’ soldiers had detained her family and were about to do bad thinks to the women folk.  He bravely stepped up and defended her. The third case involves a man stealing from a monastery. His wife comes by to bury him after his death sentence. She explains that he stole from the monastery to feed his family. He asked the church for help, but no charity was forthcoming.

Khalil Gibran also touches upon reincarnation and the deities of old. In one story there is a priest, dedicated to Ishtar the goddess of love. As he watches his love die she gives him a promise that they will meet again in another life. They do so. A young shepherd meets a young maiden and the two fall in love. It is in a lovers embrace that their memories return.

The poet loved his country, and he loved his people. It was unfortunate that Lebanon was run by corrupt leaders and supported by a greedy church that k new how to take and not to give. The leadership and the church worked in tandem to keep the people oppressed and have them be subservient. Marriage customs were outdated and oppressive as well. Often time a father would marry his daughter off to an older more well-established gentleman. The father cared about his business contacts and not about the daughter’s health and wellbeing. This led to a situation where in the woman had to remain locked in a marriage, she was not happy in. In many of his writings this young woman was or is in love with a nother lover closer to her age. For his writings and point of view Khalil Gibran was excommunicated by the church.

Thursday, August 19, 2021

Fairy Tales Glimpses at Society

 Fairy tales are filled with wonder. Strange creatures’ dwell within those realms. Fairies, dwarves, and elves populate the landscape. Although works of fiction they still take us away to another reality. Good literature places a mirror in front of us giving us a view of who we really are. These fairy tales are exactly that a mirror in which to view ourselves and society. 

The first tale is about a fairy who strives to eliminate hatred and prejudice by summoning a spell to keep people from acting out their base hatreds. But in the fairy’s efforts to enforce equality the people in this tale cannot be proud of their achievement as it may make others feel bad. Making all the same is not equality. 

The pursuit of knowledge can lead to disastrous consequences if one is not aware of the pitfalls of their journey. Two of the tales displays this. Once is about a moth who ventures to close to a source of light, and another is about a robin who wants to find the secrets of life. Seeking the wise old owl might not be the smartest move. 

The Savior from Over the Sea has a fairy queen deliver a curse to a town. The curse is to see their own wickedness and greed reflected to them to the point where they want to blind pout their own eyes. The Rose Garden shows how are needed to possess things we find beautiful ultimately ends up with us eventually destroying the thing that we want to possess. There is a race of fairies in these tales called “Blamekin” These fat useless fairies justify their existence by criticizing everyone and everything. The complaining eventually destroys their society with intense litigation and senseless laws. 

The Tower of Glass tells a tale of how fairies in a large glass tower look down upon the humans and their hovel. The fairies thinking, they are superior talk about ways to help the suffering humans, but nothing ever comes of it. In the end there is a war and the faeries realized that the humans were just like them and that they are in fact brothers. The superiority was just an illusion. 

The last faery tale is about a group of gods who are bored and decide to inhabit mundane bodies to experience limitation. 

This set of fairy tales holds the mirror to societies face and lets society see its own reflection. As a society we are afflicted with political correctness that it does in fact limit what we can say. We are so afraid of offending others that we are afraid to mention our accomplishments or offer criticism for fear of offending other. Our world is filled with pitfalls as the Owl and the Sparrow illustrates. In our quest for knowledge, we must be wary of those tricksters who pretend they want to help us only to take advantage of us when our guard is down. The Myth of Total Equality points out how we as a society in our quest for equality has sought to eliminate any differences and tries to make us all the same. Equality is allowing others to be different and accepting that difference. A very short but enlightening read. 

Wednesday, August 18, 2021

Drawing Down the Feminine Divine

 How to contact a goddess and have her with you and influence you....this is a book you could well be looking for. I have read books before on trance work and have also read books on how to contact spiritual allies. These techniques are similar .


The first technique is walking with the goddess. Walking with a deity is sort of like having a conversation with a goddess as you are walking. It is reminiscent of a Jewish practice called “hisbodedut “ where in someone can our out there heart to a deity . This connection is more casual. The goddesses she uses to illustrate this technique are Bloodwould and Persephone. Bloodwould was a maiden created from flowers and Persephone was the Greek goddess abducted by Hades. The author renders her experience with each of the goddesses,. She illustrates two goddesses per technique. At the end of each section .


The second technique for connecting with deity is research. That is right you can read up on your deities through scholarly works and their mythology. The two goddesses she illustrates this with are Isis and Mary. After this section there is a creative exercise involving writing and creative expression.


The third technique is dedication. This method of connecting with deity means that you are dedicated to that deity for a specific time period. Usually it is for a year and a day. The goddesses that she uses this technique with are Ereshkigal and Aphrodite. There are ritual suggestions at the end of the section for dedicating oneself to deity.


Presencing is when you invite a deity into your ritual and/ or life and allow them to become part of things. The focus is on the relationship between you and deity. The goddesses she works with using this technique are Freya and Nephthys. At the end of the section there is a chapter on creating your altar and another chapter on developing aspects of the deity within yourself.


Enacting a myth during ritual is when you sort of make a play out of the myth and everyone acts out there part. Gives new perspective into the old mythology. The Goddesses that works with using this technique are Inanna and Ariadne. At the end of the section on enacting a myth and another chapter on finding your own story within the myth. The process is rather creative


Aspecting is when you let the deity take partial or full control of your body. One can give the deities various amounts of control and that is something to be negotiated. The goddesses she uses this technique with are the Star Goddess and Eve from the Bible.


The end of the book discusses grounding, invocation and entering and leaving trance states. The chapter on grounding talks about the importance of grounding but I wish there was more information on grounding techniques . The section on invocation taught abut the different flavors and invocation may have for a certain goddess. The invocation focused on an aspect of the deity. Entering and leaving trance states was excellent and the role of the person tending the person going into a trance.


A word to thee wise, you can use these techniques for gods as well as goddesses and if you are into Chaos magic then you can use these techniques for imaginary deities and servitors.

Baba-Sali

Baba-Sali
Holy Morroccan Sage engaged in Prayer

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One blond hair blue eyed Calfornian who totally digs the Middle East.