Aaron Leitch (Part 2/2) - Glitch Bottle Podcast #004

Today on the podcast we continue our discussion with author, magician, scholar and western shaman, Mr. Aaron Leitch.



In this second part of the podcast, we discuss why the celestial and infernal views of spirits aren't that far apart, the importance of ritual offerings to spiritual entities, the relationship between politics and magic, and why every magician isn’t a zillionaire, swimming in pools of gold coins. Aaron also shares important tips that every magician should keep in mind.



Aaron Leitch’s Blog - https://aaronleitch.wordpress.com/

Doc Solomon’s Occult Curios Facebook Page - https://www.facebook.com/DocSolomons/

‘Secrets of Magickal Grimoires’ book - https://www.amazon.com/Secrets-Magickal-Grimoires-Classical-Deciphered/dp/0738703036



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You can download this podcast here: 



Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/alexander.eth.7

Twitter - https://twitter.com/glitchbottle

Blog - http://glitchbottle.blogspot.com/

Aaron Leitch (Part 1/2) - Glitch Bottle Podcast #003

Glitch Bottle is so excited to welcome author, magician, scholar and western shaman, Aaron Leitch to the podcast!

Aaron wrote one of the first books that many in the magical and Solomonic communities consider a foundational introduction to the practice and theory behind grimoiroc magic: “Secrets of the Magickal Grimoires”. In this first part for the podcast, Aaron Leitch shares about how he came to the Solomonic magic path, what inspired him to put quill to parchment and author his “Secrets” book, the Holy Guardian Angel, and so much more!

Aaron Leitch’s Blog - https://aaronleitch.wordpress.com/

Doc Solomon’s Occult Curios Facebook Page - https://www.facebook.com/DocSolomons/

‘Secrets of Magickal Grimoires’ book - https://www.amazon.com/Secrets-Magickal-Grimoires-Classical-Deciphered/dp/0738703036

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You can download this podcast here: https://drive.google.com/open?id=0BxyuzWCLMfaeY01acXRsVXNjd0k

Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/alexander.eth.7

Twitter - https://twitter.com/glitchbottle

Blog - http://glitchbottle.blogspot.com/

Frater Ashen Chassan - Glitch Bottle Podcast #002

Frater Ashen Chassan is an acclaimed author, practicing occultist, and Hermetic Magician. He joins the podcast to share about his new book, "Gateways Through Light and Shadow", and discusses the importance of sincerity in magical workings, talisman making, what "grimoire hopping" is all about, and how to talk with your significant other about magic.



'Gateways Through Light and Shadow' - https://www.miskatonicbooks.com/product-category/featured-publishers/azoth-press/



Frater Chassan's Upcoming UK Workshop - http://qabalahproject.com/frater-ashen-chassan/

Frater Chassan's Facebook Page - https://www.facebook.com/frater.ashenchassan

Frater Chassan's Blog - http://bryanashen.blogspot.com/



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You can download this podcast here (direct download).



Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/alexander.eth.7

Twitter - https://twitter.com/glitchbottle

Blog - http://glitchbottle.blogspot.com/

Frater Daniel Ist - Glitch Bottle Podcast #001

Let's Uncork the Uncommon with the Glitch Bottle podcast! In this first episode, Frater Daniel Ist is a member of the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn and a part of the Solomonic and Western grimoiric community, and joins us! We talk about magic in general, debunk the Hollywood and pop culture take on magic, and also to talk about what real magical practice looks like.

Download the podcast here (direct download)

Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/alexander.eth.7

Twitter - https://twitter.com/glitchbottle

Blog - http://glitchbottle.blogspot.com/

Peeking in the Black Mirror

I finished construction and initial blessing of my black scrying mirror earlier this month (in the picture above). I ordered a piece of custom-cut glass (18-inches in diameter, and ¼ of an inch thick) and got black spray paint, per the instructions of Frater Ashen Chassan. 

I should emphasize, this is *practice* scrying equipment, and I thank Fr. Chassan for his emphasis on the beginning student or rookie-magus to spend as much time as possible developing his third-eye and scrying ability. The theory is, if one attempts to scry a dark mirror in formal ritual (Goetic operations) or a crystal glass (angelic operations), then the practice work makes it that much easier.

A few notes about the mirror.

*I waited to spray paint it until the day/hour of Monday (Luna)during waxing of a Moon.
*The nice thing about starting on a Mercurial hour, is it flows right into Luna!
*I needed to use nearly the *entire* spray paint can on the 18-inch glass on one side.
*That’s because little holes of light kept peeking through

After the mirror dried, and the days were still waxing to a full moon, I decided one night to try it out. Not serious scrying, just setting up and doing an initial blessing. That’s when the interesting stuff happened.

Short story: I’m not ready yet to proceed with scrying.

Long story: Why? Well, when I set up the dark mirror and lit the candles, immediately I felt a little funny, like there was another window open in my room, and things could see me or I could, if I gazed long enough, see them. It wasn’t oppressive, but definitely affected my mind. One message kept crashing through: “This is real. Magic is not something to take lightly. If you approach scrying, you need to do it with the full protection of the divine and with absolute attention.”

This really hit home *why* the mages and secret practitioners of Solomonic magic took the precautions they did...because they were dealing with beings that were beyond the physical realm, existing in dimensions of reality inaccessible but through very specific techniques, scrying being one of those initial doorways. I had to smile too...for when people make fun of how drawing a circle on the ground can protect you...they fail to realize they’re talking about a physical act that ripples out into dimensions and affects our being on nonphysical dimensions of consciousness.

Additional faux pas - I did *not* set up a circle of blessed chalk or rope around my sitting space, or recite a circle prayer over it, so I felt less protected, even though I wasn't actively trying to contact/reach out to a specific spirit.

In the end, I felt off balance enough that I took my friend William Wallen's advice and did a Lesser Banishing Ritual of the Pentagram (LBRP) to try and stay grounded and cleanse the room after I took the mirror down.

Things I will do before attempting scrying again:

*Memorize the initial KoS prayer for divine light pre-scrying
*Memorize the Blessing of the Ground/Working space from DSIC
*Slowly start to memorize the other DSIC operations.
*Use blessed chalk in my sitting area

*Finish each session with a LBRP (one of the few lodge magic practices I’m entertaining at the moment).


Keep the Light, Blessings to All,

The Aspergillum

"Thou shalt then make unto thyself a sprinkler of vervain, fennel, provinca, sage, valerian, mint [majorana], garden-basil, and rosemary,5gathered in the day and hour of Mercury, the moon being in her increase. Then cut a handle with a single stroke from a virgin branch of hazel; the length should be three spans.6 Bind together these herbs with a thread spun by a young maiden, and engrave upon the handle on the one side the characters..."

-Key of Solomon, Book II Chapter XI


The first magical tool (celestial implement) needed on my journey is the Aspergillum, or Holy Water Sprinkler. This is the foundation of all tools and, along with the Holy Water, can be used to bless and consecrate any other tools or working space for any magical ritual. In other words, this is where the base of the pyramid begins for me.

So, to do this, I needed: 1. a proper branch, 2. proper herbs and 3. virgin-spun thread.

I ordered a 1. virgin-cut branch from a trusted Solomonic practiioner in Costa Rica, which was cut in the day or hour of Mercury. I then ordered the 2. appropriate (above) vervain, fennel, valerian from Alchemy-Works.com, which is a great resource for harder-to-find herbs. The others (mint, sage, garden-basil and rosemary) I obtained from the local grocery store/organic food place. Finally, I ordered the virgin-spun thread from Solomonic mage and author Aaron Leitch on his page DocSolomons.com. I highly recommend this page for anyone needing holy water, virgin-spun thread.

I waited until the Day and Hour of Mercury, and did the following steps (these are short-hand notes of what I was to do, so please ask me or look to the KoS for more information:


*Dip thy hands in water and Sprinkle over the sticks, with devotion.
*Trace these Key of Solomon characters on the stick:

*Gather all of the herbs from boxes and line them up on a plate.
*Because the incense was flicked by initial holy water hands, censor is good.
*Go outside, w/ Aspergillum stick, lightly sand it and charge it with devotion (Raph)
*When charged, go back inside and bind the herbs with virgin-spun thread
* Light cense and bless the stick (w/herbs on it) w/ devotion
*Engrave aspergillum with characters.


I hope to use this with daily meditation/room clearing, and of course before any ritual work or scrying.

Fetching Port In Light's Harbor

First Hour of Day of Mercury, Wednesday, During Waxing of the Moon.

Praise you, Light! Praise you, All-Good Energy of the Multi-Dimensional Reality! Guide my thoughts to only see You, polish my heart to reflect my inner divinity, which is Me, You, God. 

Hypocrisy has enchained my consciousness. With the infectious-gravity of habit, with the inflaming of desire for flesh and food and all things that tap on the dopamine-drip, thus I kneel in chained defeat. The Celestial Intelligentsia depart, halting their benign vibrations, as I close myself off from higher echelons of magical progress. I used to think I could manage my habits and still carry on the work of a neophyte in the Solomonic Magical tradition, but more and more I am seeing that this is impossible for a Hermetic Mage. I offer just a few pieces of evidence:

"But first thou must tear off from thee the cloak which thou dost wear,—the web of ignorance, the ground of bad, corruption’s chain, the carapace of darkness, the living death, sensation’s corpse, the tomb thou carriest with thee, the robber in thy house, who through the things he loveth, hateth thee, and through the things he hateth, bears thee malice...

For that it hath with mass of matter blocked them up and crammed them full of loathsome lust, so that thou may’st not hear about the things that thou should’st hear, nor see the things that thou should’st see."

-Corpus Hermeticum, book VII.


I'm realizing Hermetic magic isn't about *denying* the body's cravings or lower energies, locking them in a bottle of self-hatred and "sin". That's the domain of organized mega-church religious groups. Instead, Hermetic magic is about *harmonizing* lower energies (lust, desire, cravings, bodily stimulation) under the domain of the higher consciousness, The Holy Mind, the only Good, God. For me, this harmonization takes the form of daily meditation, hymns and inner songs that induce a trance-like state of light-ecstasy, and constant praise of God (the Light, the Good), and incorporating that into myself.

But, that's where hypocrisy snakes it's way into my actions. I am notorious for paying lip service to all of these noble lightworkings, but fail in consistently "keeping the light" in praise, meditation and thankfulness. And it's this hypocrisy that keeps us down, that denies us, as the Corpus Hermeticum tells us, from seeing and hearing what we must hear and see (i.e., the truth of our own divinity).

This concept of waging spiritual war against hypocrisy is also articulated in a 17th century document involving Dr Thomas Rudd, a well-known angelic magician who continued research into holy invocations. In this relation, Rudd and Sir John Heydon encounter spiritual beings, and relate various effects that these 'Good Genii' have on a man. But the end of this document sums up the Path to Theurgy perfectly:

"It is lawful to pray to God for such a good genius or Angel. And to purge the mind from pride and hypocrisy which is one reason that all men are not capable of Consociation with these good Genii, for faith and desire aught to be full sail to make such voyages prosperous, and our end and purpose pure and sincere; but if pride & conceitedness or affection of some peculiar privilege above other mortals spur a man up to so bold and enterprise, his Devotion will no more move wither God or the good Genii than the whining voice of the counterfeit will stir the affection of the discretely charitable. Nay, this presumption may invite some real friends to deceive him & be his destruction.

But the safest wisdom is the sincere consecrating [of] Man's Soul to God, and the aspiring to nothing but to a profound pitch of humility, as not to be conscious to our selves of being at all touched with the praise and applause of men; and to such a free and universal sense of charity as to be delighted with the welfare of another as much as our own; they that only have their eye upon these will find coming in what ever their heart can desire; but they that put forth their hand to catch at high things as they fancy & neglect these, prove at last but a plague to themselves and a laughing stock to the world."

Or, as the American Rap Music Artist Marshall Mathers articulates: "There be no such thing as half-way crooks."

Frater Ashen Chassan, a modern Hermetic magician, author and researcher into the occult arts of Celestial Invocations mentions in his book "Gateways Through Stone and Circle", that a wise man once said the most powerful thing we humans can say to ourselves is "No". To choose. To never straddle the fence, but rather, to plunge headlong into the pools of light and divinity, consecrating our consciousness to all things holy and One. To be sincere. Sincerity is the paddle from which we can cut through the waters of hypocrisy and exhausted, low-energy, and make sail to the Port of Light, to Honesty and Magic and Humility.

Praise and Bless You, Oh God, oh Thoth, or All Mind, Universal Brimmer Of Consciousness and Light! Please help me as I seek to always praise Thee, harmonize my lower passions to sing in union the song of your Light.

Sudden Trance

Easter Sunday - Sol rises on the first hour of Sunday, Michael's Day.

Have you ever been suddenly approached by the divine? Something that made you question "What is this humming eternity?"

Even sitting in a meeting, suddenly the occult tides of multi-dimensional energy and hieroglyphics wash in wave after wave over my mind, washing and cleansing my spirit.  Oh Majesty! Oh Allah In A Glittering Leaf! What *is* this feeling?  Does anyone else *feel* this? Unreal.  

Theurgy: I don’t need to run, exhausted, to the beach to fill my pail with water and haul it back to the mote of my sandcastled body.  I just have to *allow* myself to be still...let the waves come and wash naturally...they wash all the time!  Always waves!  Whether we feel them or not!  Whether we cling to occultness, or materialism, or this thought or that...the waves crash!  I am so humbled right now...proud, little flesh me….so thankful to the Almighty.

*What *IS* this?  Feels similar to being on bill hicks...just seeing the spiral move across my skin, rabbis gripping brown robes in Egyptian tombs full of multi-dimensional hieroglyphics!  Just so amazing.  So thankful.  Thank you, Lord.  “be still and know I am God.”  How true the bell of these words reverberate throughout my soul.  

Devil Pacts Debunked

FUNNY EXPERIMENT: If you type in the phrase ‘devil pact’ into YouTube and hit search, without leaving the first search result page, your eyes will be blinded by the following:

*Blond haired girls running through the woods in low-budget horror film trailers

*Metal bands equating the Catholic church to an Illuminati conspiracy to steal souls *Televangelists talking about how pacts with the devil cause earthquakes in Haiti, and *Some guy telling us he’s the - and I’m really quoting here - “The Grand Mufti Of Satanism”. (?)







Have you ever played the “telephone” game as kids? Where you whisper something to the kid next to you, like, “Blue is the best color” and it goes from kid to kid until by the time it gets back to you it's supposed to be the same message but it’s the national anthem of….Romania?” Welp...that’s exactly how most of the modern world treats the concept of pacts with the devil: instead of focusing on the origins, they see it as some pre-existing, evil-horrible thing that’s always been there, and that happens every time you open a book of magick.

Well, for those of us who study and practice ritualistic Western magick, known as Solomonic Magick, we open books on magick (also known as grimoires) everyday, read from them and recite incantations and engage with surrounding powers and consciousnesses...and our souls remain steadily NOT stolen or committed to a smiling, horn-imbued beast leering over us with a contract and a pen.


I’m sorry I’ve you’ve been married to your own ideology for many years, but this post aims to divorce your thoughts from the notion that Pacts With The Devil go hand in hand with ritualistic magick, OR that pacts with the devil have their roots in traditional western shamanic practices. So let’s take a very broadstroke look at where the concept of pacts come from.


Rosemary Ellen Guiley, the author of The Encyclopedia of Demons & Demonology, gives us a solid definition of a pact:









"Pact - A binding agreement with a demon or the Devil for gain and services beyond the power of nature, usually in exchange for one’s soul."


She also mentions how pacts with the devil are implied in Scripture:


Isaiah 28:15 “For you have said: We have entered into a league with death; we have made a covenant with hell.”


Matthew 4:8-9 Again, the devil took him [Jesus] to a very high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their splendor. “All this I will give you,” he said, “if you will bow down and worship me."





So the implication is there, and that’s not uncommon for tribes and communities to recognize forces like sickness, death and the like as having ‘dark’ attributes...but something to keep in mind is that, in the last two thousand years this implication was existing right alongside traditional, shamanic, ritualistic magickal practices, the writing of the grimoires etc. So what happened? How did Christian Europe methodically start to tolerate, then suspect, then accuse and finally kill off people convicted as being “in league with the devil”?? Well, in Europe, the Christian-infused Middle Ages saw a gradual shift in labeling magick as heresy (or a violation against God). So what happened? Authors Stephen Skinner and David Rankine weigh-in on this shift in their book “The Goetia of Dr. Rudd”, starting off with how things USED to be, where “...magic was being transferred from the secular to the religious courts. Previously, in the secular courts magic was only prosecuted if it led to death, or seriously affected some highborn person, but in the religious courts magic was increasingly construed as a crime in itself.” (Goetia of Dr. Rudd, pp. 30) “Up to 1258 the categories of sorcery and heresy were kept well apart, and Pope Alexander IV actually issued a canon forbidding inquisitors from getting involved in sorcery investigations, unless manifest heresy was also involved.” (Goetia of Dr. Rudd, pp. 30) ...Sounds pretty decent if you are a practicing pagan or a priest with a secret Solomonic oratory in Middle Ages Europe. But what happened? Well, Guiley helps give us a very brief timeline, and here it is, of this shift:



Timeline


*200 - 430: Early Church fathers condemned simple magick (divination).
*400s - ‘Devil Pacts’ appear in writing for the first time (via St. Jerome)
*500s - Stories appear of people selling souls for love, money
*538 - Theophilus sells soul to become a bishop (starts the Faust myth)
*1200s - St. Thomas Aquinas - “Magicians perform miracles through devil pacts.”
*1484 - Pope Innocent VIII Papal Bull finally declared any practice of magic a heresy.
*1500s-1600s - witch hysteria, mass trials.


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So let’s expand a bit on the last 800 years to trace this transformation:

“Formal pacts with the Devil appeared for the first time in the writings of St. Jerome in the fifth century.” This is where St. Jerome tells us of a man who wishes to seduce a pretty girl, and agrees to renounce Christ in writing via a magician, undergoes a black baptism, BUT St. Basil helps the man repent and all is well in the end. (The Encyclopedia of Demons & Demonology, pp. 192)



*In the 400s and 500s we start hearing stories in medieval Europe about people allegedly selling their soul to the devil to either get, say a woman fall in love with them, riches, or to gain power. Guiley tells us there was one such man, Theophilus, the treasurer of the church of Adana in 538 who sold his soul to the devil to become a bishop. Guiley tells us that that last example also helped provide the basis of the legend of Dr. Faust, (pic) the learned but arrogant man who made a pact with the devil to experience all forms of lust, and mental ecstasy in return for giving up his soul.

*In the 1200s, St. Thomas Aquinas also states that “Magicians perform miracles through personal contracts with demons.”

*In the 1300s, Guiley tells us we see the first appearance of a devil’s pact in witchcraft trials, where in 1335 a married woman was accused of entering into a devil’s pact via a shepherd boy she was having an affair with, and was required to attend black sabbats every Friday night. (193)

In 1484 - a Papal Bull from Pope Innocent VIII finally declared any practice of magic a heresy, and inquisitors could get involved and prosecute those suspected.

And in the 1500s and 1600s - devil’s packed riddles accounts during the massive witch hysteria, where we see everything from bewitched nuns to a stranger making a mother and daughter swearing allegiance to him, having sex with them, then disappearing into thin air.

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So what was behind this shift? Were hordes of pagans and grimoire authors running through the countryside, burning churches, boiling virgin blood in cauldrons and engaging in massive orgies on top of the Vatican? I’ll leave those theories to another Dan Brown novel, but the historical truth is that Christian, Catholic Europe was going through some massive problems at the time, and the Church needed someone or some group to blame. What were these problems? Even a cursory wiki-search gives a condensed explanation





<<The prosecution of witchcraft generally became more prominent throughout the late medieval and Renaissance era, perhaps driven partly by the upheavals of the era - the Black Death, Hundred Years War, and a gradual cooling of the climate which modern scientists call the Little Ice Age between about the 15th and 19th centuries). -wikipedia.org/wiki/Inquisition>>

Couple those problems of war, disease and climate shifts *with* direct challenges to the Catholic Church itself like the Protestant Reformation and individual kingdoms wresting the sovereignty from the Vatican...and why you’ve just listed the perfect recipe to pun-intended “demonize” The Other.


Enter the Inquisition: That bloody, tortuous period where the Church, in a seemingly paranoid and reactionary manner….brought the full weight of its suspicion of the Other down upon the heads of so-called witches, pagans, and people who practice Solomonic Magick...people who engage in ritualistic grimoiric tradition...many of whom were in the priestly class itself within the Church! Again mentioned in the Goetia of Dr. Rudd

“In the darkest days of the Inquisition, magicians and witches were forced to ‘confess’ not only to heresy, but that they had made pacts selling their soul to the dark side, a concept that probably would not have even remotely occurred to Solomon or to any of the magicians of pagan antiquity. If it had occurred to them, they would have thought it totally laughable that any man would make himself beholden to a demon, rather than simply binding it.” (Goetia of Dr. Rudd, pg. 31).


This hits at the heart of the matter: The Church’s own reactionary suspicion finally succeeded in labeling God-fearing and Angelic-seeking magicians into the class of being in league with the devil….just because they engaged in a perceived departure of the Church itself.









Aaron Leitch, an author, scholar and practitioner of Renaissance-era Solomonic magic, weighs-in on this paranoia in his book Secrets of the Magickal Grimoires: “...the art is mired in anti-occult Church propaganda and the glitz of Hollywood. Modern occultists have generally drawn their opinions on spirit work from sources influenced by these things...As always, a little understanding of history can go a long way.” (Secrets of the Magickal Grimoires, pg. 365) “...the critics of the grimoires cited the sacrifices and offerings made to the demons (animals, incense, etc) as proof of the Satanic nature of the texts...In reality, this was not the stance of mages at all...the act of sacrifice is a method of empowering and nurturing a spiritual entity.” (Secrets of the Magickal Grimoires, 365) *Devil pacts, in fact, so a historic and spiritual disservice to actual infernal spirits as worked with my traditional Solomonic magicians...for more information on actually Defending Demons, check out a link to another video below on that topic.

*But here’s the bottom line: a great deal of this hysteria concerning magic being tied to pacts with the devil has almost *everything* to do with the Catholic Church’s near paranoia of everything NOT Christian, more specifically Catholic. And as for devil pacts in Hollywood and death metal band interpretations...they either draw from *later*, Romanticized interpretations of grimoiric books of magic, OR they simply draw from so-called “left-hand path” Church of Satan or so-called Luciferian interpretations of “engaging the devils”....but even people from these paths will tell you that actual pacts with Devils aren’t existent, or are secondary to self-empowerment and self-knowledge….but as for Solomonic Magickal practices...devil pacts fall way, way outside the traditional grimoires.





In conclusion - YES pacts with the devil were widely circulated tales in Christian Europe in the Middle Ages, and Yes there are people or organizations, musical bands, who allegedly engage in devil pacts today and in yesteryear….but these are NOT consistent with Solomonic Magickal and shamanic practice. Instead, these were the products of the Catholic Church’s paranoia and reaction to historical events to help protect it’s own identity. Inventing so-called Devil pacts helped toward this end.

Just ask yourself this: When religious leaders turn Astarte (that ancient goddess of fertility) into the Evil Demon Astaroth, THEN the Church tells congregants to avoid any contact with the demonic monster THEY themselves created...is this rooted in spiritual reasoning, or paranoia of ‘The Other’?







WHY do religious groups do this today? Why perpetuate the false stereotype of Devil pacts? Because if you’re scared about diving into the subconscious or spiritual world and, through ritual or meditation, *confronting* with a variety of forces and energies….well, if you’re not doing that then it’s easier to be controlled by established institutions that exist, on a large part, because of a level of dependency by their flock of adherents. In other words, if you’d rather be scared in a movie theater seat than composing your own Psalms to the seven planetary angels and activating your consciousness with meditation, then you’re easier to control. It’s that simple. Solomonic magick is the opposite….it’s all about independence, tailoring your own psyche to the energies that constantly change and swirl around us.


*A saying goes, the opposite of love isn’t hate...it’s apathy...because love and hate are strong passions with motivated means. Just so, ask yourself...is the opposite of Modern Day Religion really evil devil pacts with Satan? Or, are religious authoritarianism and devil worship, like love and hate, really two sides of the same, ever-spinning coin, and do both rely on each other far more than….perhaps either care to admit?

Ode To the Autumn Mist

I.

Oh soft Autumn Mist! Pourer through Summer's dry feast,

Embalming taker of the trees' last spasms

Which, conquer'ng, thou soothe to bedeviled rest

Leaves laved in Earth's sacrificial spectrums:

Of orange and gold and amber-hued red,

Lured to fall by thy vapory anthem

Till, drop by drop, is Summer thus led,

His throne blurred under thy hazel-curved gait

Yearly ripened for him, who helpless sheds

For thee the Sun, the hills, the o're parched weight

Of singed domain. Oh! With softest groans

Is he by thy moistness quenched, yet too late—

Thy feet banish greens to Hades' abode

With withr'ing grace on Persephone's shroud!

II.

Thou dimming bliss! Beyond fidelity's clutch

Do thy dewey hands cull each leaf to feign

It’s stemmed bond from willow, oak and birch

To trade settled life for a dance inflamed!

As if jewel shards flecking the gray seas' churns

Were thought to hover, to forever bane

The colorless tides, alas! They'd sink and learn

Well the seafloor's rhythm, gravity's intent.

Or as sonnets and plays are splashed with words 

In faint rapture of relished events,

So do thy fogged prey gaze from wrinkled nests

And in crinkling sighs throw up lament

Of dances once made in August vest

But no more! Oh grounder, oh darkn'ing Mist!

III.

Hush death, hither life! Soft dealer of time, 

The year's tense labor makes final bravo

From rushed seeds, and incessant pulse of vine,

See the forest's realm 'neath thy haze brought low

Pregnant with these, bearing autumn's crowned mirth:

Apple, wheat, pumpkin, all, emit mellow glow.

If only like these could I ripen new verse,

Make burst on fields of yet unsickled minds! 

Just once mist as thou mist, and cascade the earth,

Layer generations reposed from the grind

Of these dust-founded days. My pen drops mute!

Instead let me thy phantom wanderings find—

There's something mournful in the sweetest fruit,

Birthed only on the dying root.

Ode To Archangel Sachiel (Zadkiel)

Ode To Archangel Sachiel (Zadkiel), ruling Jupiter and the Sixth Heaven (Zebul) Oh, Silent Violet Angel of Mercy Magnanimous King of Heaven, Lord of Joy, Angel of Jupiter Zadkiel, Sachiel the Pure We Hail and praise Thee, Unconquered Lord of Riches! Gather, all Ye Jupiterian Elements of Water, Brim our circles, our shewstones with rivulets of Truth! Flow through our crystals, our crops, our minds, Reflect the High Learning and Growth From the Laughing King Merciful Zadkiel, Sachiel of the Philosophical Faith! You stayed the hand of Abraham, stopped the knife from Isaac’s throat Zadkiel, Sachiel, Righteousness of God Stay our magick from error and pride Let our consciousness vibrate to your resonate Joy May you laughter echo eternities in the Sixth Heaven O! Zadkiel! Sachiel the Good! May you forever Drape mercy like thunder On the shoulders of a mage.

Ode To Archangel Cassiel

Ode To Archangel Cassiel  (Angel Of The Planet Saturn And The Seventh Heaven) 

O! Gather and Hail! From the deepest vales of hidden moss and 
Black musty metals cradled in valleys balmed with 
The sealed knowledge of those far-circumferenced wheels of Cosmic Churning!  
All Ye Spirits of the Earth! Ye mountains-onyx imbued in 
Steadfast vigilance of the massive forests outstretched, 
Ye Twilight Essence kissed upon oceans of emerald grass,
Reaching down through the numinous black soil!  
Come, Ye Elements of this deep Earth!
Ye glittering stones yet cocooned in the hazy dark caverns
Cloaked in healing silence, Come All Ye Spirits of the Earth and 
ADORE YOUR CREATOR! 
Adore this uncreated consciousness that weaves 
The arms of galaxies like light thread, into a timeless tapestry of space
Rolling out forever before us, forever behind us, forever above and below us!  
Yod He Vau He! AGLA! Adonai!  Allah! Elohim! 
Ye, The Replenisher of Wonder in Our Experience! Eternal Rejuvenator of hope and 
Returner of man’s mind to the Infinite Reality that swirls it’s glittering atoms around us like 
Sand smashed from the fresh dune of experience! Hail! Come Elementals and 
Hail this Great Spirit that binds and flows through all things!
O Lord!  Ye Ultimate Transparency and Ever-Flowing Forgiveness 
That moves our consciousness…..O! Hail Him! Ye Spirits! 
The Irresistible Weaver of all particles. Hail! That we may petition
The vibrational Phrensy and Resonance of this Holy Presence 
For Communion with these Celestial Spirits!  Adore and Praise our Creator of Ecstasy!
In in the Jewel of vibrational phrensy so cherished and transmuted from mage to mage 
Working in the High Tower, In the Hidden Grotto, and in all green hills and misty oratories Sanctified by the Earthly Stability of hidden knowledge!  
O! That Hidden Knowledge! That clouded shimmering jewel under the domain of 
YE, CASSIEL! O! Coelius Cassiel! Ye!  The Lord of Time, Ye High Lord of the Earth, 
Ye Revoluter of a Long Space! O! We Hail Thy presence from all the spirits and mages
Who seek and lean on Ye, like the endless growth of forests lean
On seas of thy hidden black soil!  May Ye hear our collective song roll 
As it resonates it sonorous harmony from our minds to the deep echoed chambers of the Earth, Hail, Cassiel! Ye Blesser of Thy holy Sigils that we may know and call upon Thee! 
Ye be the slow revolver, Ye bring to us the eventuality of True Destiny
From every dimension! 
We Hail, and Praise Thee, O Cassiel!

 ------------

 O Coileus Cassiel, Lord Of Time! 
I praise Thee for the Infinite Circumference Thee Scythe through all creation! 
For the Ingenious Synchronicity your Order throughout all Dimensions! 
Everything mingles under Thy presence! 
Ye strip away the cloud of sin from our eyes, ye unclog our ears from the muddy mundane,
Ye place us firmly on Thy Wide Rings of Power! O, High Lord, O! Ingenious! 
I bid thee Hail and Welcome, Cassiel, for Thee alone  write depressions of destined thought
On our hearts, Thee alone give us the Diligence and Maturity to sync with
The Cosmic Hum of Destiny! Thee alone, O Cassiel! Do we seek,to Reveal unto us
The hidden knowledge, the occult Reality, the sap flowing 
Through every sprouted thought in the mind of man.  
We praise Thee, O Cassiel! For Thee detest the Impatient! 
Thee detest the harsh, quick thoughts in the minds of man
Thee detest those who let their spirits outpace them like
A mad stallion charging the wide road to hell.  
We praise thee, O Cassiel! To show us Destiny and Shield us
From the Rash Death of Impatience! 

 --------
O Cassiel! Embodier of Saturnus!  Lord of The Dark Void!
Raise Thy Banners of Dimensional Space to our minds
Dispatch Thy Cosmic Stability Deep through our minds!
Destroy Our Impatience and Reveal Our Destiny!
Cassiel! O Coelius! Father of the Gods!
Imbuer of The Throne with Distant Glimmer!
Great Rotater of Eventuality! 
The Earth runs waves of green through thy soil
Black stones cry out in their mustiness
For you, O Cassiel! Give us the void of your Destiny!
Great Eventualiter! Cassiel!
Break Open the Hidden Wisdom of the Gods
Shower us in your Cosmic Revelations, All!
Show us the workings of divinity, the True Nature of Reality
O! Reveal to us the Roots of The Tree Of Life
Elevate us High To the Tree of Death!
Show us the Grand Unification of All Dimensions!
Gives us the Consciousness To Hold Thy Wisdom
To Cradle the Cosmos in Our Minds!
Make Smooth the Dark Path to Thy Subtle Wisdom
Free from impatience, brimming with Destiny! 
O Coelius Cassiel! Watch Over us Forever!
Make our minds void to receive Thee!
Like the Blackness of Space, Hail Thy Eventuality! 
I call upon Ye, Cassiel! To deepen my relationship with Ye
Dig for me the secret, deep wells of Thy Knowledge and 
Overflow the darkness with your Gravity! All this, so I may
Understand Thy Nature and Ask Thee
To Increase and Preserve my Faith, My Phrensy,
And my Communion With Thee Always! 
This I ask, and humbly beseech Thee, O Cassiel Coelius, Lord of Time,
That this praise may resonate and please Thee to manifest Thy presence for me,
Through the blessing of The Great Uncreated Presence,
Weaver of Stars
Brimmer of Thoughts
Allah! Elohim! Adonai! May my request be accomplished and 
Please Ye Forever! 

In Defense Of Demons

Salutations and welcome to GlitchBottle, where we Uncork the Uncommon in magick, mysticism and the generally misunderstood.

In today’s post we will be polishing our shields to a shimmer and defending one of the most maligned, and unjustifiably prejudiced entities in today’s world - demons. Yes, mainstream culture and religion have put a watered-down crucifix to the head of these extremely powerful, consciousness-expanding denizens, threatening to pull the trigger and forever have people associate them with either A.) horrible Emo death metal albums or B.) under-budgeted slasher films, while any *legitimate* attempt to understand these creatures and their relationship to humankind’s own evolution will be met with mockery or worse….simply forgotten.

For this post I’m going to assume you know the basics about Western ritualistic magick, the grimoires, and other texts that support what’s known as Solomonic Magick. If you’re not too familiar, a basic explanation is as follows:


“Grimoires are books of magick found throughout history, but are most popularly referenced as books in the Middle Ages detailing how to summon, bind and control infernal spirits, or to commune with angels. These authors attributed the summoning techniques to King Solomon, the Biblical figure legendary for his engagement with infernal spirits.”

Attempts in Hollywood to depict ritualistic magick that contain even a *hint* of fidelity to the original sources or proper technique are more lacking than finding talent in pop-star musical careers. Here are a few Hollywood gems that involve some kind of “occult” based practices, that fail way short of the mark of reality, while exceeding the mark of profitability:



You might wonder *why* such horrible films were put on a reel and not used for toilet paper (yes, I’m aware films are digital now, just go with it). The answer is twofold simple: First, it makes Hollywood more money for to exaggerate or simply invent “dark” or “black” magick rituals that demand more blood, guts and morbid interest. On a higher level of consciousness, one might assume Hollywood does this because it keeps people more ‘addicted’ to watching slasher-esque, dopamine or adrenaline releasing films, rather than the introspective spiritually-elevating techniques that Solomonic Magickal practices offer.

So what follows is my own attempt to raise some very broadstroke, basic points about magick in general and the so-called ‘demonic’ in particular. This post hopes to rebuff three main erroneous assumptions people raise about demons and magick in general.

Assumption Number One: Demons Are Inherently Evil.

Truth Number One: Not. At All.




The mainstream antagonism to demons in general is the first wall of falsehood to dutifully hammer down. In greek, even the word itself, daimōn is similar to the Latin word genius, in that it actually referred to external inspiration coming upon someone, a thought or feeling that infringed on a human’s consciousness. While this morphed into being ‘possessed’ by the Church in the Middle Ages, it was seen for thousands of years as a sensitivity to different vibrational forces coming upon someone. For instance, one interpretation of reading Homer’s the Iliad is that the ancient Greek people, whenever having a sudden thought of love or hate, assumed that Gods and Goddesses were descending down from mount Olympus and conveying information to them. There’s a famous scene when the great warrior Achilles is possessed by rage and unsheathes his sword to kill, when, suddenly the goddess Athena descends and restrains him:



Now, this could be seen as a goddess interacting with a mortal, or said another way, this was Achilleus experiencing some other power or daimon restraining him from acting rash.


We can see this in the works of Plato as having some kind of outside influence that guided one to higher states of thought. And so, at this point, if one contends that Plato is evil...then maybe you need a nap, or fly a kite, or summon yourself dutifully out of the conversation.





How about Western religion? Well-known figures from Jewish, Islamic and Christian traditions actually saw demons as ways to either better themselves, their people, or - and this one is for all the religious people out there - to glorify God, not blaspheme God. So...if that’s the case, why are demons hated today? How did even that word, daimon, go from an external inspiration to an evil pacts with soulless creatures bathed in fire? Well-known scholars of magick and authors Stephen Skinner and David Rankine weigh-in on this transmutation from good to bad for later European traditions, in their book “The Goetia of Dr. Rudd”:








That’s right, ladies and gentlemen...Jesus Christ was known back then, in part, as a well-known exorcist among the residents in the communities that he ministered to, and by no means the only person on scene who engaged with these entities.


Assumption Number Two:Jesus was unique, most other holy people avoided demons.

Truth Number Two: Biblical figures engaged with spirits on a regular basis and control other demons.

Furthermore, we shall see that the Biblical figures did this for the betterment of the community/people they served, NOT for furthering their own, assumed evil or dark ends to glorify Satan.


Since we just referenced Jesus a moment ago, let’s stick with the Anointed One for a little longer. Skinner talks about how Jesus was accused of using a specific demon’s name, Beelzebub, to control lesser demons. And this was, as many things, in plain sight in Bibles all across the world. Let’s take a look at Matthew Chapter 12, verses 24 through 27, after Jesus healed a man possessed by demons:





Also cross-reference, The Goetia of Dr. Rudd,


“It does not matter who used the name of Beelzebub to control lesser demons, the important point is that it was seen as an acceptable procedure, used by holy men, and not a damnable one, and this procedure is definitely part of Solomonic magic.” -Goetia of Dr. Rudd









In other words Jesus here is saying that Evil can’t drive out evil, and this passage is almost a blatant hint demanding that the operator of magick approach the Art from not a light or dark, but a shadowy neutral perspective to whatever light or dark ends exist in the Mage, or the Operator. But let’s take a look at more evidence as well, this time from the legendary and Biblical figure we derive Solomonic Magick from: King Solomon, who reigned roughly from 977 to 927, so 50 years BCE, and who built his fabulous Temple with the aid of infernal spirits.

Aaron Leitch, an author, scholar and practitioner of Renaissance-era Solomonic magic, says many important things, literally chapters of gems, in his book Secrets of the Magickal Grimoires, and here are a few passages that pertain to the Legendary King Solomon:




“Historically, the grimoiric (and similar shamanic) arts were not practiced by so-called Satanists making Faustian pacts with devils...Instead, they were placed firmly in the domain of holy men - shamans and clerics - who had been granted a spiritual authority to command the ethereal creatures. Without this authority, the holy men could not have cured disease, retrieved lost souls from the underworld, or protected the community from the random rabid spirit (demon). This was hardly “black” magick.” -Secrets of the Magickal Grimoires, pg 365-366






Enter King Solomon, who, as Leitch goes onto explain, was world famous for binding demonic spirits...but he did this with the help of God. In fact, he was instructed by God and the Holy Archangel Michael on ways to control the demons, what magickal tools to use, etc.


Leitch also talks about probably the first real grimoire, the Third Century Testament of Solomon, where Solomon performs the positive role of Shaman for his people by calling up demons, treating with them, and binding demons through OTHER infernal spirits.


But why did Solomon do this? Was he a mad man possessed by these demons to glorify Satan? What was he doing?


Leitch goes on explaining the Testament of Solomon piece, saying that the first time Solomon gets involved in a long chain of binding and interrogating demons is because he is called upon to help a child who has fallen ill...due to a vampiric spirit called Ornias...and thus begins a long succession of Solomon binding and interrogating demons. But, is that evil just to engage with these spirits? Leitch hits at the heart of the matter with Solomon:





As Leitch implies, THIS reason is why the grimoires are written as ways to control infernal spirits THROUGH the power of God, and not through another entity.







Finally on this point, let’s turn to Al-Qur’aan Al-Hakeem, the Wise Qur’an, the Holy Book is Islam. Solomon again, through the power of God, or Allah, is given power to control demons, but a more accurate term in Islam in the Jinn...being of smokeless fire that exist on a seperate, parallel plane of existence alongside humankind. And it says in the Quran, surah 34, Surat-u-Sabaa’ (or the Chapter of Sheba): verse 13:









In other words, the Jinn, the infernal spirits, were bidden to do as he, Solomon, willed….this is a huge statement for magickal purposes, because it, again like with Jesus, implies a neutral standing when operating a magickal procedure...one has to take individual responsibility and use the powers for whatever purpose they are aiming for, in the case of the Testament of Solomon, he was using infernal spirits to heal members of his community and build his fabulous and legendary Temple.








Assumption Number Three: Magick in its deepest nature is altogether antagonistic towards human spiritual evolution.


Truth Number Three: Magick is a *neutral* force, gray, shadowy, neither good nor bad, but dependent on the user


Magick, as we shall see, is dependent on the user, like a cosmically-infused tool, a multi-dimensional hammer or screwdriver, (for all you Do It Yourselfers Out there), that can be used all along a so-called Spectrum of Intent.

Let’s go back to Jesus for some more evidence in Holy Scripture (which is, for all you Bible thumpers, mainstream, non-Gnostic, non Mystical scripture).

Reading Mark, historically the earliest of the canonical Gospels, proves very interesting when looking for clues that Magick abilities, or shamanic abilities, are neutral, almost like Water, or gravity, a force that has neutral properties of it’s own. Let’s take a reading of Mark 5: 25-32:










Again, we see here that healing abilities, Magickal abilities that a shaman acquires to help his or her community, like water, doesn’t seem to be good or evil...but rather available to anyone who seeks or comes into contact with it...like this woman, who leaves Jesus almost bewildered as to who in the world took the power from him. Again, like water, fire, or a hammer, this passage again hints at the essence of magick as a spiritual force that depends on the user, not being inherently demonic or evil.


Any Indiana Jones Fans here? Well you’d definitely remember Raider of the Lost Ark, featuring the Ark of the Covenant, that legendary chest containing the Ten Commandments, known as the “Instrument of the Lord” (interesting title here, as it implies it being a tool, depending on the user’s aims).









Skinner and Rankine reference the Sixth Chapter of the Book of Samuel where it tells us the Ark can kill thousands of people just by looking at it, or, in one unfortunate case, killing an innocent man who put his hand on the ark to steady it when it was shaking. The hints at moral neutrality of divine magick are replete throughout the Holy Texts...texts that are read in churches and synagogues every day across the world...but with deeper, hidden, or, shall we say, Occult, meanings veiled beneath.


These Magickally Neutral, of Grey, practices are not just found in the Bible...they draw from thousands of years of human tradition in ancient communities...these were ways how people dealt with the tangible.


But how were ancient societies even neutral, spiritually? Well, Historian, Hermetic researcher and classicist Dan Attrell has a video post on his blog the Modern Hermeticist, https://themodernhermeticist.wordpress.com/about/ where he talks along with Stephen Millburn about 10 concepts shared by most pre-Christian religions, which are:





Before we conclude this Defense of Demons in the Modern World, let’s turn back to the Middle Ages, to one of the most popular grimoiric texts in existence, the Lesser Key of Solomon. This is a very popular grimoire as it contains methods for calling up infernal spirits, binding them, the tools used to contain them, etc. But in a preface to the Lesser Key, before the section on demonic summoning called the Goetia...we find the following passage under a section called, literally, “The Definition of Magick”:





Yet again, we find not only personal responsibility like using a tool such as, like using Fire, Water, or a Hammer, we also find an emphasis on the mage, the operator of the magick, as being the determining factor of whether an operation is good or bad….even though those terms are constraining, relative and polarizing.









DEFENSE OF DEMONS, A CONCLUSION:

At its best, modern, mainstream Christianity and Judaism are extremely watered-down versions of techniques and introspective traditions practiced hundreds and thousands of years ago. The Islamic school of Sufism has many positive aspects, like engaging in direct, trance-like experience, remembrance and love of God, (that trance or ecstatic state is essential to performing rituals, but that’s a whole other topic).





But, At its best, in general, today, mainstream religion serves billions of people as a whitewashed, smiley-faced artifice that stresses congregants to do good things, live a good life, avoid anything and everything demonic, listen to the preachers, and if you do all that, in return you’ll be promised to eventually, maybe, gain favor with the divine. That’s at it’s best. But at its worst, this kind of sheep-like thinking is both psychologically and spiritually disingenuous...because by denying the mystical, let’s face it, occult-based practices of confronting a range of light *and* dark mental and ethereal forces, by essentially refusing to plunge, or even dip a toe, into the fantastic pool of mingled spiritual shadow that soaked the consciousnesses of Jesus, Solomon, Simon, and an uncounted range of apprentices and seekers...to towel off and deny a drop of that introspection to touch your everyday experience, is to deny a key essence of their teachings.





If you’re still not convinced that Demons are not Good or Bad, but Magickally Neutral….well, here’s the best part: Do. Not. Believe. Me. You heard right, don’t take my word, or anyone else's’ word...try. it. for. yourself. Know Thyself. Meditate. Learn the rituals, enter a trance-like state and see what you find for yourself.


As the Psychonautic explorer and philosopher Terence McKenna states, the “felt presence of direct experience”, is the best arbiter of truth. This post means nothing, it’s all about YOUR thoughts, YOUR bedroom, YOUR dreamscapes, YOUR trees swaying in the backyard, YOUR thoughts during sex, YOUR internal mental circuits, YOUR spiritual perception, free from the shackles of dogma or church, or weekly routine...THAT is what passes your gut check of what’s true, and only YOU can deem it so. And that’s what Western Solomonic Magickal practices offer - a gateway to your own introspection, and a way to elevate your mental and spiritual energy, as you define it...to a higher power that keep our universe humming.

The rabbit hole looms large before you, the mental spirals of Solomon’s staircases sing stony hymns down to the golden floors of your mind….and these western shamaic techniques flicker quietly right beside you, as a lantern on your journey. I hope you choose to pick up that lantern, and take that first step.