Crowley Tarot Deck – Yet Another Update

This pretty much just officially confirms what I suspected in the earlier posts. I got an email from AGM today (the publishers of the tarot) stating that Crowley’s deck is being reprinted right now and will be available shortly, and that US games is still the US distributer.

Waite and Crowley: BFF

What follows is mental masturbation devoid spiritual value. Proceed at your own risk.

Waite Vs Crowley is the Nintendo Vs Sega rivalry of the magickal world. It’s the most well-known, most participated in debate, and a classic that will never die. Even today, these two men both being dead for over a half-century, one only has to spend a bit of time on the Internet to see Waite fans talking smack about Crowley, and Crowley fans talking smack about Waite. These men have become opposing icons of the magickal world, the wise old school occultist vs the sexy bad boy of magick. Unfortunately its all a lie.

Let’s begin by deconstructing the two reasons why these men would have a rivalry to begin with (and we’ll get to the rest later on). The first reason being, and the least complicated of the two, that they were possessed of two very different views on spirituality and magick. These two western ceremonial magicians who were both greatly influenced by the Golden Dawn and the works of Eliphas Levi, who were both well read literary men, and who both valued tarot enough to create their own decks (with some surprising similarities). I could go on, but all I get are similarities. One of the major differences listed is the fact that Crowley published secret information where as Waite believed in keeping it secret. But Waite published secret information when it pleased him to do so (the strength-justice switch of the Golden Dawn for example), where as Crowley created secret information for the eyes of the highest levels of the OTO only (and the OTO still practices this secrecy today). Furthermore the written works of both men are definitely valuable works created by adepts, and neither one, being at the level they were, could truthfully deny the value of the other’s work. Ultimately one can only surmise that these two men were not possessed of very different views on spirituality and magick, in fact they had strikingly similar views on spirituality and magick.

Secondly there’s the belief that this mutual hatred stems from the fact that Waite was part of one of several factions within the Golden Dawn that wished to change its direction, where as Crowley was a loyalist to Mathers, and that Crowley had played a central role in the ultimate demise of the Golden Dawn, something Waite wouldn’t forgive him for.

Let’s start with the idea that Crowley was a loyalist to Mathers. This is generally gathered from Crowley’s own statements about his history with the Golden Dawn, however this history has been disputed by some, particularly that Crowley achieved the 5=6 adept grade, which Crowley claimed was bestowed upon him personally by Mathers in a secret ceremony. There is evidence that Crowley received the 5=6 material from a friend, and that he never surpassed 4=7. Crowley’s own accounts also show that he felt that Mathers and the Golden Dawn had cheated him out of his money, that the secret information was not what was neither secret nor what he was initially promised, and he had a very bitter and public rivalry with Mathers until the later’s death, both publishing the secret Golden Dawn material developed by Mathers and publicly claiming Mathers had engaged in psionic vampirism against him. Although Waite was definitely opposed to Mathers in the end, Crowley seems to be in the same boat with him. Shortly after the original Golden Dawn resolved both men went on to form their own splinter groups, Crowley forming the A.A. and Waite taking over the Isis-Urania temple. Loyalists to Mathers were men like Edward Berridge and J.W. Innes-Brodie who were part of the reconstructed Alpha et Omega, not Crowley who seems to have jumped ship with most everyone else.

As for Crowley being a central figure in the dissolution of the Golden Dawn, I’m sure Crowley liked what this “fact” did for his rep, but ultimately there isn’t much support for this idea either. The Golden Dawn lasted for fourteen years, a very long time for a group of its type, and in that time it had grown to several hundred members with several different temples, all with their own leaders. The group had become large and bloated, the two remaining of the three founding members were at odds with each other, they had been disowned by their German superiors, and their leader had relocated to Paris while the bulk of the organization was in England and being led by others. Factions were forming against Mathers, and that the group had to change was inevitable prior to Crowley joining (which occurred very late in the Golden Dawn’s life-cycle).

Even if Crowley was responsible for the death of the Golden Dawn though, this isn’t something that should have bothered Waite one bit. He was, after all, one of the folks that wanted to change the current direction of the group. Ultimately the dissolution of the Golden Dawn ended with Waite wrestling complete control over Isis-Urania, the group’s original temple, from Brodie-Innes, which Waite held for over a decade before he ran it into the ground on his own.

So if the two didn’t have a reason to fight, what would they get out of a rivalry. To begin to answer that, one has to look at how traditionally, and to a large part even today, magickal information is gathered. When someone is reading a book concerning ceremonial magick, sometimes other books or magicians are named. For instance when Waite references Papus and the Tarot of the Bohemians in the PKT. The reader is then aware of another author or book to look for, and in this way the author recommends other books to the reader by pointing them out. It isn’t coincidence that nearly every book listed in the bibliography to Waite’s extraordinarily popular PKT are considered important and influential books on tarot, even if he did kind of pan them.

The problem is, there’s no such thing as bad press. Although a book Waite says is devoid any value obviously won’t send as many seekers as one he highly praises, he’ll still send more people towards it than if he outright refuses to mention it. So if you know what you’re doing, as Waite did, you never mention a name or book title of someone you despise. We actually see this with Paul Foster Case, a former Alpha et Omega member and anti-enochian magician that actually did dislike Crowley and his works. When Case goes off on Crowley, which he does, he never mentions him by name. If you’re familiar with Crowley already, you’ll probably get everything Case is trying to say, and maybe be deterred from him. If you’re not familiar with Crowley though, you’ll have no idea what Case is talking about, and so he isn’t leading you to him.

Waite and Crowley, however, were both very willing to specifically name the other. And their insults only go to grow each others reputations in a positive way. Every time Waite talks about Crowley he paints him as the magickal rebel, the guy who will let loose the great secrets without requiring years of dedication and the guy that will give away the powerful and, let’s face it, sexy magick that other people guard. Meanwhile Crowley paints Waite as an old school occultist that won’t give up on antiquated traditions, but this of course makes Waite out to be a wise old man with access to powerful information that he’s guarding.

Notice how both men also refrain from ever delivering a killing blow. Waite could have done tremendous damage to Crowley’s organizations had he simply shouted about the sexual practices, particularly homosexuality, present in Crowley’s system, something that would have been clearly discernible by examining just Crowley’s published works. Waite meanwhile was a notorious plagiarizer, and although Crowley may not have known about more obscure sources like the Sola-Busca tarot or the Book of Days, he definitely knew about some of the sources, like Waite lifting the design of the devil card from Levi. Had Crowley exposed Waite, he would have seriously knocked down Waite’s credibility and perceived value.

Also keep in mind both men were notorious liars. Many of the facts Crowley claims to have happened in his life are easily disproven with historical evidence. Meanwhile Waite outright lies at times, such as his belief that there was no connection between Kabbala and tarot (this when his own tarot deck has definite Kabbalistic influences). Neither man could really be trusted, and both are probably amused to no end that they managed to trick so many people for so long with a made up rivalry that did nothing but benefit both men.

Site Update

It’s been months since I last posted anything. Part of that just has to do with real life keeping me busy. Part of that is because my spirituality has taken a very inward focus lately, which leaves me with very little to contribute to the general community. And part of it is because I want to get more practical information on the site, but I’ve been too lazy to actually get any of that together.

I’m going to try to get a series of articles together about different types of creatures and common characteristics of them and how exactly their logic works, and also how to correctly identify their otherkin counterparts. I’m thinking of doing one on elves and one on fae creatures, and possibly doing one on angels and one on dragons. These are all things that I’ve dealt with extensively in the past and have a fairly good understanding of, and at the same time most of them are very misrepresented in popular culture.

But if anyone was wondering, yes I’m still here and taking care of this blog, and if anyone has any ideas of what they’d like me to go into drop me a line or comment somewhere, I’m a little lost on post ideas right now.

How to Summon Baal, or Anything Else, Quick and Dirty Like.

I posted this on another forum to a fellow who was asking for a method to summon Baal. My reply isn’t specific to Baal and I thought this might be useful to some so I’m reposting it here.

1. Research what it is you want to summon. In the case of Baal, the name can refer to numerous things, including several deities, so you need to figure out exactly what Baal you want to summon, and then you need to get an idea of how Baal is seen, what people generally think about him, and what he’s probably like. So long as it’s something that is popular or common internet searches will probably turn up enough information for the summoning. Be sure to check out encyclopedia mythica and wikipedia, although not always accurate they can still have a lot of information to help you out.

2. Find a statue or image of what you want to summon, and if you can’t find that then try for a symbol associated with it. Spiritual depictions are usually better than artistic depictions, but in any case go with the depiction that you feel most closely resembles what you’re trying to summon. If you have no other alternative you can make your own depiction.

3. Remove any barriers, wards, ect. that you may have around the general area that you’ll be doing the summoning (most likely your home). This includes personal wards and barriers, ones that are anchored to objects (be aware of certain things that may be decoration but are used for protection because they may have become active and can effect the summoning. This includes gargoyle statues and depictions of pentagrams), and ones that may have been put up by others.

4. Take down your shields and natural defenses. Any type of defense can hinder the summoning.

5. Make sure you aren’t in any kind of circle. Make sure there are no seals or sigils in the area since these may have an unknown effect. Refrain from doing any pre-ritual type ritual including asking for protection from anything. We don’t want to be putting up new barriers.

6. Now take your depiction of what you want to summon (in this case Baal), and place it somewhere (such as on a table or a night stand). You can just leave a picture on your computer screen if you want, that works too. Or you can print out a picture and put it in a frame and then place it on a table (the later method will generally bring better results). Now you need to activate this as an alter, in this case to Baal. Unless you want to develop a very strong relationship with Baal, this will probably just be a makeshift alter that we will take down after the summoning.

7. Now that the alter is ready non-aggressively direct energy towards the depiction of Baal with the intent that this energy is to be received directly by Baal. Make sure your defenses and your shields are down and, if he chooses to, Baal will also be able to direct his energy towards you. With a little practice you should be able to figure out how to bury thoughts into the energy in order to communicate, and you’ll be able to receive thoughts in the same manner.

8. Whether or not Baal responds you should also make it clear that he has an invitation to appear in your house and that you wish for him to come.

9. Have fun with your summoning adventures.

Direct Link to Book and Promises of Pictures

Know first off that it’s a miracle that I even manage to upload posts at all. I have no clue what I’m doing or how this blog thing really works.

That being said, I’ve managed to semi-master the art of uploading stuff. Right now the most current PDF of my book is available for download via this site. This is the book as it currently appears on Lulu, minus the covers. This is the fourth revision (which fixes some spelling errors, notably a typo of ore for or and some confusion with the words affect and effect).

I’m also going to try to get pictures attached to posts.

Let Us Bring Some Evil Into This World (A Call to End Inaction)

Within the realm of my blog, my book, when I speak with people, when I write people through email, I’ve been rather free about the magickal information I give out. I am very much aware of the danger this information can pose to the practitioner if it’s put to use. I’ve been hurt badly in the past, and I’m no doubt at least partly responsible for injuries that have occurred to others. Still, I continue, and will continue, as I have been, offering what information I have to anyone who truly wants to learn.

There is a disgusting trend that has emerged where information is being hidden away in fear that it may be used in such a way that the practitioner is hurt. Books are being burned or otherwise taken off the market, stores refuse to carry certain titles and authors, people are being told not to read certain works because of the ideas discussed within them, and some are asking, or even demanding, that people stop teaching spellwork, astral projection, channeling, mediumship, and the like to just anyone. Meanwhile practitioners are being urged not to practice. They are being told that they aren’t strong enough or learned enough yet to protect themselves if they chose to utilize magick. In some instances practitioners are being urged to give up magick completely as it’s far too dangerous to ever be used and instead to just be a part of a neopagan religion.

Change is upon us. If you can tap the energy of this place, the vast ocean of energy that exists around us, and fall into it, and follow it a bit into the future you’ll notice that it starts to twist and turn, that it’s twisting and turning right now. We’re heading towards an apocalypse of sort, this world is going through a great change. I can feel it, my teacher felt it, my peers feel it, and almost a hundred years ago Allister Crowley felt it. This isn’t something new.

A lot of people like to talk about this change. I’ve become certain that most can’t feel it, they’re just repeating what they’ve heard from others. They have no understanding of it. A common belief is that, once this change occurs, the veils will break and we’ll all be blessed with magickal and psychic powers. Another belief is that this effect is generational, we won’t gain these powers, but our children or grandchildren or whenever this happens will be born with it.

The truth is this change isn’t something that’s going to happen. It’s happening right now, and it’s been happening for some time. Those waiting to just wake up with their magick powers one day should give up now. It isn’t happening. No new power is coming into this world. The power has always been there, and it will always be there. Having power is a matter of grasping that power which has always been there to be grasped. What has changed is an increase in opportunity.

In the 19th century Levi’s works were only available to those who could speak French. In the early 20th century translations started appearing, but these translations along with their French counterparts were still difficult to find and treasured among those who owned them. By the 1970s increased interest in the metaphysical and cheaper printing techniques meant that Levi’s works were now more widely available, assuming you knew who he was and knew of a place that sold good occult books or a good mail order company. Today Levi’s works can be found at the local bookstore, they can easily be downloaded online, and even if you don’t know who he is typing magick into a search engine along with a week studying online should lead you to him.

Nearly all of the most famous magickal and spiritual works are available online. Every year more works are translated and better translations appear (compare Mather’s Sepher Yetzirah to Kaplan’s superior translation). Finding the exact book you want isn’t much harder than typing the name into an Amazon or Ebay search, or asking your local bookstore to order it. Meanwhile inventions like the Internet, HTML, and cheaper and more efficient POD techniques make publishing and distributing ideas, techniques, theories, and teachings easier.

Right now it is easier for a neophyte to find the information they need to begin solitary practice or work towards initiation than it has been in thousands of years. It is taking less and less work to find the necessary information, and more and more the information is simply presenting itself to people, no work required. And the situation is only going to get better, or worse depending on your perspective of it. No one is going to be gifted with magickal powers. Rather we’re being gifted with a better opportunity to acquire those powers.

This world is in the process of shifting. It’s moving towards some unforeseeable end, and currently it’s ripe to be influenced. I’ve seen factions of otherworldly beings forming. They’re parties that have an interest in where this world is heading and the final outcome of these events. They will take what they can by influence and they will take what they can by force. Wars will be fought between these powers that be, actually the battles have already started, and in the end their strength will determine the fate of this world.

Humanity has been castrated and robbed of the right to determine its own destiny. They’ve taken from us our gods and angels and heroes and villains and demons and old ones, the very things that were meant to show us what we could aspire to become.

And now the world shifts, and the power long ago taken from us is offered to us again. Some believe that we’re destroying this world, that we are a parasite to it, and that it seeks to expel us. This world clings to us and I hear it pleading with us to realize our potential and again become masters of our destiny and determine this world’s fate.

We are among the elite, and we are growing. We are those that have chosen not to cower behind a higher force, but rather to throw ourselves into the universe allowing our strength, our talent, our merits, and our character to lead us to our salvation, or our damnation. We are supposed to be the strong and the powerful who walk the path to enlightenment unhindered by fear, not the cautiously weak who chose ignorance out of fear.

A time will come when these battles come near to an end, and they will have taken what can be taken by influence, and they will have taken what can be taken by force, and the victor will determine what fate befalls all of humanity, and the only hope humanity will have to determine its own fate will be to prove themselves stronger and uninfluenced and take back by force what is rightfully theres.

Inside each of us is the potential to achieve power beyond that of even the gods. Those incarnate here have a greater right to determine the fate of this world than any other entity, and with that right comes the power to claim and defend it if we chose to.

This world does not need caution. It does not need fear. This world needs strength, and it needs practitioners that are practicing and growing in power so that they may face what is yet to come against them.

Power can only be achieved through experience. Risk is an essential element of progress. Read books. Read everything. Don’t be swayed from a particular author because they have been labeled as evil or dangerous. Look at their ideas and determine for yourself their validity. And cast spells, astral project, summon things, channel, in other words practice magick. Get into fights and mix it up with entities. Yes, all of this is dangerous. Do it anyways. Don’t wait to do things because you doubt your abilities. Your abilities will only grow through experience, and doing things now is the only way to grow your abilities. Time spent waiting for your abilities to develop from an armchair will only be time wasted.

We need to walk our paths fearlessly. We need to allow ourselves to grow spiritually. We need to have confidence in our abilities and faith not in higher powers but in our own power to protect ourselves and find salvation.

When we see ourselves as weak, we become mastered by our own limitation. When we believe that we our strong, strength tends to manifest within us.

The true master teaches empowerment, not subjugation. The true master preaches of the strength of his disciples, not their weaknesses. The true master sees himself not as having ascended to a point above others, but of having reached a higher point that others will hopefully exceed.

Rich’s New Blog

I thought I’d mention that Rich (a friend who sometimes comments here) has made a new blog called Trolltopia, which deals with subjects that he believes wouldn’t go over too well with some of the readers of his other blog.

Right now he’s doing a tarot card of the day thing where he draws a tarot card every day or two and then writes his interpretation. And there’s an open comment section if you want to participate too.

Edit: Rich’s blog went down a while ago. I’ve removed the link. 

Free Book Now Available

I’ve finished writing the book and it can be downloaded free from Lulu. Those wishing to buy a hard copy can get one there too. Those who don’t want to go through lulu can wait. I should have the contents uploaded to this site in a few days at which time anyone who has any questions or comments can post them here.

As I said before, this book is being offered absolutely free. The download is free, and it will soon be freely available on this site. The cost of the paperback book is what lulu charges to print the book. I’m receiving no money from this.

The book itself contains an initatory system based on what I was taught, my personal experiences, and channeled information.

Have fun.

Up and Coming Free Book and Blog Stuff

I’ve started writing a very small book, ‘The Secret to All Magick’. I think I’ve gotten about half of it written and it’s only about 3000 or so words, so it will be short, but more on the contents in a moment.

I’d like to say I’ll have something ready by the end of this week, but to be on the safe side I’m going to say by the end of the month.

When it is finished I’m going to try to set up publishing through lulu. The book will definitely be available through lulu for free downloading, and I’m considering offering a hard copy for sale at cost (in other words just what lulu charges for the book, I won’t be receiving any money for it). I’m also going to post a full copy in the blog tabs (at least for a bit) for those of you who just want to read it here, along with splitting it into several sections and posting them in the main blog for commentary, discussions, and questions on individual parts. I’m thinking this will end up making the front page of the blog a bit scattered and ugly, but I’ve given fair warning.

Right now this little work is taking up a good deal of my free time, thus the short and simple post this week. Once I’ve finished with this the blog will get back to business as usual (or better yet, being updated sometimes) and I’ll get to work on churning out the next part on reading the tarot pips.

Part of my reason for doing things this way is that I hope to drive a bit more traffic and comments into the site.  But my main reason is that the work just doesn’t fit well into the blog medium. In it’s entirety it covers a lot of subjects and it’s long enough that most people aren’t going to read it as a blog post, while short enough that it’s enticing as a book read. Also all the parts of the work are interconnected and essential to understanding the work as a whole, so I don’t want it to be something that’s split across several blog posts.

As for what I’m writing, it’s a basic method meant for beginners to help them develop real magick and psychic abilities regardless of what aspect a person is interested in learning. It deals both with the theoretical information that needs to be understood along with the practical information that will achieve the results.

The methods I’m utilizing are dangerous and I already know that a lot of people will reject them because they aren’t going to want to go through with the exercises. But I can also say that I’ve verified them, these methods work, and a person should be able to develop some basic ability by following the methods in whole.

Most of what I’m writing I haven’t yet seen in print anywhere. Probably because the methods are dangerous, a lot of people will criticize them, and they’re unconventional enough to be problematic for most people. But that’s what’s required of real magick, and I don’t know any other methods to do this.

I’m hoping that this is going to help a lot of people who have been looking for this sort of stuff. The stuff I see in stores is all very basic, so I’m assuming that’s what people want or need, and yet it doesn’t really have enough to help most people.

I also know there are a lot of people out there selling simple magicks and basic princaples for a lot of money. However what’s being sold is so simple that most people aren’t going to see the type of results they want. At times they claim they’ve somehow obtained new information, yet I can trace their most profound theories back hundreds of years.

I’m not going to name any names, but I’ve seen this stuff out there. I have no need to waste my time discrediting, arguing with, or humiliating these authors. But I am going to attack them by offering for free what they’ve been lying about being able to sell.

I’ve also received some criticism that the stuff on this blog is too complicated to be useful for most people.  So here’s some stuff that should be useful for even an absolute beginner.

As always, any feedback is welcome. As soon as I have stuff ready for release I’ll put it up on the blog.

Need Help Identifying/Finding this

I’ve been trying to find a good statue of Saturn for a long time for an alter. Unfortunately there doesn’t seem to be any statues of Saturn; Roman, Renaissance, modern, or otherwise. I am aware of several depictions of Cronus out there, and these depictions are often times listed as being Saturn, but the two are different gods.

But while surfing the web today I came across this picture on answers.com. This is almost exactly the sort of thing I’ve been looking for to represent Saturn. I figure that this statue is listed as being Saturn or Father Time (The two are often times confused in mythology), or possibly even Cronus.

However I know nothing else about this statue. The website I got this from just had it included in a gallery of Cronus pictures with no explination as to what was what or where it came from. Any information about this statue would be helpful to me. Things I’m specifically looking for are: What is the official title of the statue? Is it a modern statue? If so, what company makes it? If not, where is the original? Do any companies make replicas? (and the best of all possible answers), do you know any companies that are selling it?

If anyone knows of other statues of Saturn, or statues of Father Time that closely resemble Saturn that might be easier to find then that would be appreciated too.