June 5, 2006
Back to the blog
I push away the fog
stumble out of the bog
and back into your face.
Its sometime in the afternoon, a sunny Idaho afternoon, and I find myself in a $2 million mansion with nothing much to do. Its obviously time to update the blog. The pool does beckon though… but I suppose its time to get back to filling in what’s happened since my last entry on May 5th - wow, its been a month already!? A far bit has gone on magickally, as well as transportationally. Check the dates below for details…
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May 26, 2006
Arrived in Seattle on Wednesday, crashed in Bellingham, then went up to Vancouver. Today I hooked up with Lola, a fellow Lashtal resident. Great to meet another Thelemite - lots to talk about over a few beers. Its nice to be part of something where you can just hook up with someone you’ve never met before and its no drama. Unfortunately I wasn’t able to hook up with friends from Star of Isis Oasis due to scheduling conflicts - maybe next time!
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May 22, 2006
I was asked to do a Tarot reading for someone today. As the environment was favorable to it, I did the Star Ruby and Liber Samekh beforehand. I’ve had much better readings when I’ve done Samekh beforehand - its almost like I’ve invoked the HGA, so its the HGA that is giving the reading through me, as opposed to just me giving the reading myself through my normal level of consciousness. If anyone else has experimented with doing Samekh before Tarot readings (or other activities) to achieve HGA consciousness and then use that consciousness for the activity in question, leave a comment and let me know how it went.
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May 21, 2006
Enochian is something that I’ve been interested in for quite some time, but had never felt ready for it. I’ve done quite a bit of reading, and was thinking of starting exploration back in December, but put it off after a Tarot reading said, “You need more study and preparation first.” As time went by, my curiosity grew, so I read more. I looked all over the web for tablets that I could color myself - I figured that was the least amount of preparation that I could do. I wasn’t able to find anything online. All of the tablets I could find anywhere were already colored or had to be ordered. I ended up doing enlargement photocopies from DuQuette’s “Enochian Sex Magick.” I think I read the book cover to cover at least three times, and specific sections more than that. It took me a number of weeks to finish coloring in the tablets with high-quality artist markers in my spare time. Finally I had them done, and felt ready.
The 3 people I’ve talked to personally about Enochian practice that they’ve done have told me that they stopped their practice after having extremely frightening experiences (one person reported a feeling of “being eaten alive”), stating that they plan to get back to it at some indefinite point in the future when they feel more ready. This was disconcerting, to say the least. All 3 recommended that I try it if its my Will. Thanks, its like… “We all got bitten by the doberman every time we went into that yard, but if you want to, go for it.”
That didn’t make me feel so brave, but curiosity was getting the better of me, so I finally decided that the time had come. My partner was willing to help out, so I proceeded with a scrying of the 30th Aethyr, Tex, as a sex magick operation - my first dealing with the Enochian system. I have a 2 x 3 ft magnetic whiteboard which I set near the head of the bed - a futon on the floor of the temple room. I attached the tablets to this with magnets, and then with markers wrote the names of the Tex Governors in English and Enochian, with their sigils underneath. Underneath all that I wrote the opening sentence of the call. Then I just proceeded as per DuQuette’s book: banish, chant the names of the governors, recite the call, proceed to initiate sex with partner.
At the moment of orgasm, I chanted the names of the governors 3 times each, and recited the opening of the call. I then lay back and closed my eyes. My partner started an audio recorder program on the laptop I’d set nearby, and also took notes via pen/paper. The vision started after a few seconds. When I hesitated for a few seconds, she’d ask me questions about what I saw and such. The vision went on for around 50 minutes, after which I got up and banished. The experience was far from the fearsome, negative things that I’d heard or imagined. For me it was more of a fairytale landscape - a very positive experience. I won’t say too much about it online, but I did run several of the images/symbols I encountered through 777 and realized some cool correspondences.
I’m not done with Tex yet, and am looking forward to my next trip.
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May 17, 2006
Today I went to Mt. Takao, a couple of hours West of Tokyo. Takao-san is home to a Shingon Buddhist temple which holds “water training” at a nearby waterfall, “Serpent Falls.” This training is open to the public, although reservations are required, communication is in Japanese only, and the cost is 3,000 yen. There were 3 of us who’d made reservations and went together, and the total group who participated was about 12 people, all Japanese with the exception of myself and one other in our group.
The purpose of the water training is to identify with the guardian deity of the waterfall, Namu Seiryuu Dai-Gongen, a great blue dragon revered as the guardian of water in general, and this waterfall itself in particular.
The first thing we did was to participate in an invocation of the dragon deity. This took the form of a group recitation of a sutra at the shrine to greet the deity, after which we proceeded with a salt and water purification ritual:
First, we each took a fistful of salt from a bucket and smeared it over our right leg, chanting aloud the name of the deity, “Namu Seiryuu Dai-Gongen!”
Then we proceeded with our left leg. “Namu Seiryuu Dai-gongen!”
Then our right arm. “Namu Seiryuu Dai-Gongen!”
Then our left arm. “Namu Seiryuu Dai-Gongen!”
And then over the top of the head. “Namu Seiryuu Dai-Gongen!”
I let other people go first so I could observe and see the pattern. The spots which were chosen for anointing struck me immediately as signifying the pentagram: Right leg, left leg, right arm, left arm, head. This was going to be cool. I closed my eyes and visualized the tracing of an invoking unicursal hexagram of water while listening to the chanting. I was beginning my own invocation of a water dragon.
After the salt purification was completed, we moved on to the water. This was taken out of a runoff from the falls in a bucket:
First, I doused my right leg with a bucketfull of the freezing mountain water.
“Namu Seiryuu Dai-Gongen!”
The shock of the cold water hitting my skin almost made my voice falter. It was an exercise of focus and will as I doused my left leg.
“Namu Seiryuu Dai-Gongen!”
Right arm. “Namu Seiryuu Dai-Gongen!”
Left arm. “Namu Seiryuu Dai-Gongen!”
And then the head. “Namu Seiryuu Dai-Gongen!”
By the time I doused my head, I was well on my way to being numb, so it wasn’t as shocking as the first splash on my right leg. By the time this had finished, I was visualizing a large winged dragon superimposed over my body. It had the round, reptilian head of a snake rather than the horned head of a gothic dragon. Its eyes were steely and unblinking, the window to the reptilian brain.
The purification was followed by an approach and 3-stage obeisance to the falls. Right knee down onto the wet rock, left knee down, right elbow down, left elbow down, forhead down. Stand up. Repeat. Stand up. Repeat. High above the falls was a large statue of the dragon. On either side of the falls a Tengu demon (half crow, half man) stood guard, one with a sword pointing down at the point where we, the aspirants would soon stand. One at a time, we walked up to the waterfall and put our right leg in.
“Namu Seiryuu Dai-Gongen!”
Took the right out and put the left in. “Namu Seiryuu Dai-Gongen!”
Then the right shoulder in. “Namu Seiryuu Dai-Gongen!”
Then the left shoulder in. “Namu Seiryuu Dai-Gongen!”
Then the head in. “Namu Seiryuu Dai-Gongen!”
Then, one at a time, we entered the waterfall itself and loudly chanted the deity’s name repeatedly, “Namu Seiryuu Dai-Gongen! Namu Seiryuu Dai-Gongen!. …,” while an attending monk recited a sutra. Our loud chanting, in combination with clenching our hands in a certain mudra, helped our minds stay focused despite the numbing cold of the water which cascaded heavily down over our heads and white-robed bodies. Despite the cold (or perhaps because of it), it was a very intense experience. The 3 of us who went each seemed to experience a strong, grounding feeling as we stood chanting under the freezing water.
A very interesting experience which I’d always wanted to do, was finally able to, and one which I am looking forward to doing again. (Note: Cameras were not allowed near the waterfall itself. The pictures in this post were taken in the surrounding area.)
Posted by Frater I.T. under Japan | Comments (1)
May 16, 2006
Tonight I didn’t have time to spend as much time in my temple as I like to do before going to the dojo, so I didn’t do Samekh. The Star Ruby and some pranayama meditation was all I had time for. Sensei did come over and thrash me some during class, so perhaps it isn’t Samekh that is resulting in this attraction or “beacon” effect that I’ve been imagining(?). At this point I’m not really sure if this experiment is really even worth pursuing. I’ll probably do some more classes without doing any magickal or meditation work beforehand to even out the data.
Posted by Frater I.T. under Japan, Martial Arts, Thelema | Comments (0)
May 5, 2006
This week was “Golden Week” in Japan - 7 days of which 5 are national holidays. Its one of the 3 times in the year (along with “Obon” in August and “Fuyu Yasumi” over the New Year) in which the Japanese have enough time off work to actually travel somewhere overseas. For my part, I elected to stay in Japan and avoid the travel rush by spending only one night on vacation - at an onsen (hot spring) resort town on the Izu Peninsula, in the town of Hakone.
There is a lake in Hakone called Ashinoko, and it was here that I performed my first Mass of the Phoenix. Aside from having memorize the ritual, I was ill prepared as far as implements went - the wine was purchased from a local convenience store, as were the ‘cakes of light’ (rice crackers), the bell was a house key struck against the neck of the bottle, and the burn a razor bought at said convenience store. Still, despite the contrived accoutrements, it went well and brought on the same ‘buzz’ that I experience during the Gnostic Mass. A satisfactory performance for my first blood ritual. The ’sacramental gash’ has almost disappeared one week later… Perhaps the healing was acclerated by a soaking in the hot springs (’onsen’) at the resort hotel I stayed at overnight.
After checking out on Saturday morning, did a bit of sightseeing and then headed back into Tokyo in time to catch ‘movie night’ at a Frater’s house. Kenneth Anger was in fine form. 
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April 30, 2006
Blue Equinox Journal
Issue 2, Spring 2006 e.v.
Panic in Detroit : The Magician and the Motor City
by Richard Kaczynski, Ph.D.
Paperback, 166 pages
I have to admit, the cover sold me on this book. The colour version of a stylized artist’s rendition of a Gnostic Mass, printed in The New York American, March 14, 1922, I thought it looked really cool. The story of Crowley and Jones’ difficulties in having the Equinox printed by Ryerson’s Universal Book Stores in Detroit from 1918 through 1922 also seemed really like a very interesting section of the O.T.O.’s history. The book is mainly divided into 8 sections:
Panic in Detroit: The author’s explanation of the general sequence of events.
Correspondence between Crowley, Jones, et. al.
Illustrations
Appendix A: Prosepectus for the Equinox Volume 3, Number 1
Appendix B: Newspaper Articles: Equinox Review (1919)
Appendix C: Newspaper Articles: O.T.O. Expose (1922)
Appendix D: Newspaper Articles: Desmond Taylor Murder (1922)
Appendix E: Newspaper Articles: Ryerson Divorce (1922-1923)
My expectations when I got the book was that the first section, the author’s telling of the story, would comprise the bulk of the book. I was disappointed in this regard. Kaczynski takes a mere 24 pages (2 of these illustrations) to relate the series of events, from there moving into the Correspondence section.
This comprises letters that passed between Crowley and Jones, and some of the other related characters. Although there are some nuggets of information in the letters, I was still a bit disappointed. It is often not indicated overtly who the author of the letter is, only to whom the letter is being written. The reader is left to infer who the author is, which is more or less easy to guess, but I think the author of the book shouldn’t assume too much about the knowledge or background of his readers. There are also increasingly large gaps of time between the letters with no explanation of what was happening in the lives of the characters during these periods. Crowley is writing to Jones from New York in one letter and from Cefalu, Italy in the next. There is nothing in the letters to indicate really what was going on, why Crowley is suddenly now it Italy and not in America, etc. Again, it is assumed that the reader knows this background information well. Again, some great nuggets of information in the correspondence, not all of which have anything to do directly with the Universal Book Stores story.
The Illustrations section is 6 pages of black and white, 3 of which are used to show copies of Ryerson’s O.T.O. application forms.
The Appendices take up pages 97 to 165 of the book - almost 3 times the space the author uses to tell the story himself. They are interesting and again do contain some nuggets of information, although there is no commentary or extra light shed on them by the author.
Overall, this was an interesting book, although I was at times left feeling like it was assumed that I had a deeper knowledge of O.T.O. history and automatically understood who was saying what. The author spent much more space reprinting letters and newspaper articles than he did actually writing about the circumstances themselves. I guess I felt disappointed because I was expecting the author to tell the story, and what I found was that the story itself was really short and then I was presented with an anthology of information about the story which was much longer than the story itself. Also, there are a *lot* of spelling mistakes in the book. Things like “he” instead of “the”, “his” instead of “this”, etc. So although it looks like the text was run through an electronic spell-checker, the quality of actual human proofreading seems to be quite poor. (Perhaps the spelling mistakes were present in the original correspondence and news articles, but this is not indicated anywhere.)
Great cover design, an interesting read, but not quite what I expected. I give it 7 out of 10.
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April 26, 2006
So Panic in Detroit: The Magician and the Motor City arrived on my doorstep Sunday morning. Looks to be a good read so far - just getting through the correspondence stuff now, which at this point is mainly between Crowley and CS Jones. I’ll have to post a review when I’m done!
The Ritual Work/Dojo combination is as has been the last couple of Tuesdays. No hands-on last night either - but I did get promoted after class… Maybe I’m making too much of this experiment, who knows? I don’t know what to think anymore.
Yesterday I spent a bit of time updating the Nihil Lodge website with news about our upcoming Walpurgis party, making thumbnails for the flyers one of our Sorors has created, and posting news of the party on Lashtal.com and Witchvox.com. Looking forward to what should be a cool event!
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April 18, 2006
So keeping up with this blog thing isn’t quite so easy after all. One of those things where you start off with a lot of steam and good intentions, and then other things in life come in and you find less and less time. Guess that’s natural in a way.
So what’s new? Well, things are looking up on the work front - good possibilities for a change in work which will allow me to do more of what I want, and probably with more pay. The Easter weekend was a bit frustrating due to people changing their plans at the last minute. Maybe I need to work on my flexibility, but I think its lame when people change their plans with you at the last minute, leaving you scrambling to find something else productive to do with the time that you’d set aside for spending with them. I’m sure I’ll get over it if I haven’t already. Saturday saw two dojo trainings in a row, which left me with sore quads. Maybe I’m getting old? Nah, that can’t be i.t.
Yesterday I spent two hours at the bank waiting to deposit a foreign cheque into my account. Japanese banks never know what to do with those funny-looking pieces of paper from overseas. But it gave me time to make a bunch of notes on a book that I plan to write one of these days - about my first year in Japan back in 1990. I think I have a publisher who will put out for me, but not 100% sure yet.
Today was dojo time with Sensei again, and as before I did the Star Ruby and Liber Samekh before going to class. But this time Sensei didn’t talk to me at all. Could be for a number of reasons, including the fact that the dojo was packed with visitors, but I’ll continue adding more empirical evidence to the pot as the experiment continues.
Time for bed - ãŠä¼‘ã¿
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