Romanian New Year kinks

For the last post of the year I will add an article about various Romanian traditions, charms and practices of a superstitious nature relating to the New Year, along with a few superstitions relating to this time. Although some of those practices can come across as simple superstitions, they stem from beliefs that span back into the midst of time. They are part of the popular, agrarian calendar that in many cases overlaps with the religious one. This increases the diversity of the customs and their symbolism.

Some of those beliefs were identical to or at least similar to some degree to those of other cultures regardless of geographical location. Others still, are unique to these lands and in many cases they are unique not only between different historical provinces, but also between various regions that compose each province. Therefore, I can only write down but a few of them. You'll have to excuse me for switching between tenses and all the grammar quirks, since it's been cumbersome to flip through several exhaustive sources over a very short period and to translate from them at the same time.

Spiritual authority

One of the major underlying themes in my Magic Words addresses spiritual authority, or the magician's ability to command spirits. The book also discusses offerings by providing more science-like details with respect to how they work, among other things. 

For some time now I've been paying more attention to Romanian folklore and I began to recall the old stories my grandma used to tell me. This made me broaden my search and I started to look up various customs and habits, as well as mythological entities from this neck of the woods. It just so happens I've come across rather detailed references to the Mother of the Woods as she's widely known around here, although she is also known by other names depending on region. How does this fit with my book? Stick around and I will tell you.

Lunar call

And since there's a Full Moon today, I guess it's a good time to add the lunar call from The Anthology of Romanian Popular Charms I mentioned in the previous article. Again, Im not able to translate in rhymes...

Documented by S. F. Marian - Spells, from Mitrocul Dragomirnei - Suceava

"Moon, Moon / Vârgomoon! You are proud and fair / You are night's queen / Horse you have / Reins you lack / Here, take my waist* / And make reins [of it] / For your horse / So you may go after the one that's destined for me / Should he (or she) be here in the village / Should he (or she) be from the next village / Should he (or she) be from the third village / Or from the ninth village / Give them no respite / Nor comfort / May he (or she) not sleep / [May he (or she)] not rest / Until such time they come to me!"

Obviously, this call is for a love goal. The term "vârgomoon" is an associations of the words "virgin" and "moon" and alludes to the goddess Diana.

*The waist is a traditional belt-like clothing accessory worn by both men and women. In some regions it was made of leather.

Hate on, dum-dums!

The Great Gazoo

Solar calls

At the end of yesterday's article I mentioned a charm for love from The Anthology of Romanian Popular Charms, compiled and edited by Radu Răutu. Besides charms for specific goals, the book also contains a few prayer-like structures referred to as calls. Specifically, there are a few solar calls, one lunar call and quite a few stellar calls. 

Since Solstice is upon us, it came to me I should translate the solar calls and add them here. The calls themselves are a form of prayers that call on the magical aspects of the Sun - I usually write Sun and Moon with capital letters whenever I'm referring to the divine consciousness behind them, while I use lowercase letters whenever I'm referring to the physical cosmic objects; in this case I will refer to the Sun by writing it beginning with capital S, despite the text also referencing attributes of the physical sun. Unfortunately, I'm unable to translate them in rhyme as its their original structure. I would have to make certain modifications to the text to preserve the essence of its meaning though.

Old Romanian charms

Now that my Magic Words is out I figured I'd share some old charms from my neck of the woods. They are mostly spoken formulae although various tools and ingredients are also used depending on the goal they are used for. Talk about protocol, huh? 

Similar charms are found in various cultures around the world. During my time in the occult I came across somewhat similar ones in sources like the Egyptian Secrets, The Grimoire of Arthur Gauntlet, or Ancient Christian Magic so it's not like these are their own trend or something. What makes them special to me is simply that they come from around here. 

Such magical workings were usually performed by old women known by a term that would be the equivalent of both old woman and hag in English. Whereas the stereotypical image of a witch in the western world is a woman with a pointy hat, the hags from around here usually looked like the old woman depicted in the above image. While some men also performed this role, women were predominant in this field. These people were often both feared and respected in their community and people took great care not to cross them. It was not uncommon for priests to send sickly people to the hags whenever their religious work could not provide relief from suffering.

Beyond psychological...

...but wtf do you know?

It's been a few years now since I ceased to be pissed off whenever I came across alleged occultists stating that lodge magick is psychological. It became obvious to me those people knew very little relating to the occult in general and it is possible that their innate ignorance prevented them from trying to understand magical systems other than then ones (mostly one!) they're using. The fact some of the people who made this stupid statement aspire to fame and glory as renowned occultists should cause people to question their overall knowledge and experience, but that's not the point of this article.

If you've read Asteria, even the first few pages, it's likely you've come across a phrase that says "a magical act is in itself an interaction between the magician’s consciousness and the outside world." This should be a no brainer for any practicing occultist yet what I forgot to write at that time was that it does not take place on a physical level, otherwise practically any mundane experience during a person's life time can be considered a magical act - my bad! I do speak about magicians elevating their consciousness in Magic Words and the benefits resulting from that. I think I also said in The Magick of Astrorelationships that you can't be in the same mindset when you're doing a magical ritual as when you're at a strip club, but that was a very short explanation in a book that targeted people who want to address relationship issues (and then some) using magical means more, than those who seek to pursue a lifelong magical path.

Magic Words

>MAGIC WORDS<

FINALLY! ABOUT FREAKIN TIME! Supposed to be out 18 months ago...

Anyway, this magnificent piece of magical... NAH! This book of mine got published today by Lord Manticore. I published it independently earlier this summer and it got the attention of LM so I decided to remove it from amazon and awaited for it to be published elsewhere. I was told I needed to make some changes to the original because apparently it was going to hurt some people's feelings and make them cry so much they were prone to sue me and although I cared not about that, I reluctantly made the changes. It doesn't mean it's not going to irritate people and so on. And then I waited... and waited... and then I started cursing... and it finally came out at some point.

At any rate, this short book was written from my overall experiences in occult social media over the past five years or more. It addresses basic things that answer many repetitive questions I've encountered along the way from people who were in their early magical days, but not exclusively from them.

Occult customer awareness 2

This is a follow-up on my previous article. In this article I'll be discussing #2 contained within the definition of customer support I've found online, namely "how conscious customers are of their needs or wants in relation to your company's offerings." 

In the past I've worked in the retail business for more than enough time in something akin to an Apple store around here, but which also sold washing machines and refrigerators and so on. During that time I've encountered all sorts of people, ranging from those who simply nose around in stores criticizing the merchandise out of spite because they can't afford it to those who walk up to a product with cash in hand saying they want that one. And then there are the people in between who have to be more or less tutored in the specifics of each product they are interested in based on their specific needs.

The problem is not everyone knows what their needs are and some of people have a harder time expressing those needs. Others confuse their needs with their wants. Others still misunderstand the explanations they receive for various reasons, Mercury retro perhaps, and this case, along with a negligent salesman generate the most amount of complaints these stores receive. I will offer three examples based on personal experience:

Occult customer awareness 1

I was thinking of writing something else this weekend before going berserk writing the previous articles. But that made me think of yet another article, one that would help occult customers get a better deal for their money so this is that article. If you happen to be in need of magical service from occult providers who deal with planetary forces then I think this article would be helpful.

Using a quick online search I found that "customer awareness is a concept used by marketing and sales teams. Customer awareness refers to two key concepts:

1. How knowledgeable potential consumers are about your brand, services or products.

2. How conscious customers are of their needs or wants in relation to your company's offerings." 

This applies in every commercial field, even more so in the occult, since many people in this field are not that educated with respect to certain particularities surrounding a magical act, let alone the intricate details that would boost or hinder such an act. The people in question should not be blamed for this imo, since it's the so called teachers that should have imparted such details in the first place. Unfortunately, many such teachers are oblivious themselves, while others seek to keep their followers at a minimum supply of knowledge just to maintain the upper hand. And I don't think someone who's eager to earn more and more money from such services will tell a potential customer they cannot perform a certain planetary ritual on that person's behalf for such and such a time due to unfavorable energy flows that planet is experiencing.

Moon talisman experiment

Tis the final article of the series on experimental planetary square talismans from Agrippa's Three Books of Occult Philosoply. After Venus (which it'd be best if you read first), Mercury, Jupiter, Saturn, the Sun and Mars we will wrap it up with the Moon. 

Agrippa said the following of this talisman:

"The seventh table is of the Moon, of a square of nine multiplied into it self, having eighty one numbers, in every side and Diameter nine, producing 369. and the sum of all 3321. And there are over it divine names with an Intelligency to what is good, and a spirit to what is bad. And of it are drawn the Characters of the Moon, and of the spirits thereof. This fortunate Moon being engraven on Silver, renders the bearer thereof grateful, aimiable [amiable], pleasant, cheerfull, honored, removing all malice, and ill will. It causeth security in a journey, increase of riches, and health of body, drives away enemies and other evil things from what place thou pleaseth; and if it be an unfortunate Moon engraven in a plate of Lead, where ever it shall be buried, it makes that place unfortunate, and the inhabitants thereabouts, as also Ships, Rivers, Fountains, Mills, and it makes every man unfortunate, against which it shall be directly done, making him fly from his Country, and that place of his abode where it shall be buried, and it hinders Physitians [physicians], and Orators, and all men whatsoever in their office, against whom it shall be made."

Mars talisman experiment + bonus

After Venus (which it'd be best if you read first), Mercury, Jupiter, Saturn and the Sun, here's the article for Mars' planetary square talisman from Agrippa. Good ol' Cornelius wrote the following of this kamea:

"The third table belongs to Mars, which is made of a square of four containing twenty five numbers, and of these in every side and Diameter five, which make sixty five, and the sum of all is 325. And there are over it Divine names with an Intelligence to good, with a spirit to bad, and out of it is drawn the Character of Mars, and of his spirits. These with Mars being fortunate, being engraven on an Iron plate, or sword, makes a man potent in war, and judgments, and petitions, and terrible to his enemies, and victorious against them; and if engraven upon the Stone Correola, it stops blood, and the mestrues [menses]; but if it be engraven with Mars being unfortunate, on a plate of red Brass, it hinders buildings, casts down the powerfull from dignities, honors, and riches, and causeth discord, strife, and hatred of men, and beasts, chaseth away Bees, Pigeons, and Fish, and hinders Mils, and renders them unfortunate that go forth to hunting, or fighting, and causeth barreness in men and women, and other Animals, and strikes a terror in all enemies, and compels them to submit."

Here's the kamea itself:

The election time for this talisman is Monday, February 7, 2022 at 9:32am GMT:

Sun talisman experiment + bonuses

This article follows those on Venus (which it'd be best if you read first), Mercury, Jupiter and Saturn regarding the use of planetary squares as talismans, as per Agrippa. We've seen the articles on Mercury and Jupiter containing a bonus in the form of an additional decanal talisman that can be made using the astro elections I provided. This article will have two bonuses, meaning a decanal talisman and another talisman I will detail upon.

Agrippa writes of the solar kamea: 

"The fourth table is of the Sun, and is made of a square of six, and contains thirty six numbers, whereof six in every side, and Diameter, produce 111, and the sum of all is 666. There are over it divine names with an Intelligency to what is good, with spirit to what is evil, and out of it is drawn Characters of the Sun, and the spirits thereof. This being engraven on a Golden plate with the Sun being fortunate, renders him that wears it to be renowned, amiable, acceptable, potent in all his works, and equals a man to Kings, and Princes, elevating him to high fortunes, inabling to do whatsoever he pleaseth: but with an unfortunate Sun, it makes a tyrant, and a man to be proud, ambitious, unsatisfiable, and to have an ill ending."

Saturn talisman experiment

This is the fourth planetary square talisman from Agrippa for today following those for Venus (which it'd be best if you read first), Mercury and Jupiter. So look up the other three articles for more in depth information about the ritual itself if you're interested, especially the one on the Venus talisman. 

Moving on with it, Agrippa said the following about the Saturn kamea:

"The first of them is assigned to Saturn, and consists of a square of three, containing the particular numbers of nine, and in every line three every way, and through each Diameter making fifteen. Now the whole sum of numbers is fourty five/ Over this are of Divine names set such names as fill up the numbers with an Intelligency to what is good, with a spirit to what is bad, and out of the same numbers is drawn the seal, or Character of Saturn, and of the spirits thereof, such as we shall beneath ascribe to its table. They say that this table being with a fortunate Saturn engraved on a plate of lead, doth help to bring forth, or birth, and to make a man safe, and powerfull, and to cause success of petitions with princes, and powers: but if it be done with an unfortunate Saturn, that it hinders buildings, plantings, and the like, and casts a man from honours, and dignities, and causes discords, and quarrellings, and disperses an Army." 

Jupiter talisman experiment + bonus

It seems that after the Venus (which it'd be best if you read first) and Mercury articles about these talismans I do have to go ahead and write one for each of the other planets. Just my luck... Keep in mind these articles are about the planetary squares from Agrippa's Book II, Chapter XXII and experimenting with them as talismans the way Agrippa wrote. Simply go to the previous two articles (especially the Venus one) and see more in depth instructions. However, you can use the astrological election times I'm providing in these articles to perform other magical operations with the forces of the respective planets. 

Moving on, we come to Jupiter and Agrippa wrote the following relating to it square:

"The second is called the table of Jupiter, which consists of a Quaternian drawn into it self [i.e. 4 times 4], containing sixteen particular numbers, and in every line, and Diameter four, making thirty four. Now the Sum of all is 136. And there are over it divine names with an Intelligence to good, with a spirit to bad, and out of it is drawn the Character of Jupiter, and the spirits thereof. They say that if it be impressed upon a Silver plate with Jupiter being powerfull, and ruling, it conduceth to gain, and riches, favor, and love, peace, and concord, and to appease enemies, to confirm honors, dignities, and counsels, and dissolve enchantments if it be engraven on a corall."

Mercury talisman experiment + bonus

I was going to leave the Venus article I posted the other day as a stand alone one, but upon hearing news yet again of people charging money for occult services done at highly awful astro times based on the planet in question, I decided to allocate additional time in this direction. I noticed that calling out people saying they're stupid isn't working, being like a small drop of awareness raising in a vast occult ocean of gullibility and fraud, so I will merely put these articles up and whoever is to see them is free to make use of this information or discard it.

Since the occult service I've referred to revolved around a Mercury operation, I will go ahead and continue with good ol' Cornelius Agrippa's magic square talismans, this post being allocated to Mercury. Here is the square of Mercury from Book II, Chapter XXII of his Three Books of Occult Philosophy:

The text relating to such a talisman says the following:

Venus talisman experiment

Ok people, here's something from good ol' Cornelius Agrippa's Three Books of Occult Philosophy. In Book II, Chapter XXII the illustrious renaissance guy mentioned the use of planetary squares as talismans. This article will address this topic and expand a bit on it since our venerable predecessor mentioned astrological necessities when it comes to such talismans.

All seven classical planets are mentioned in that chapter alongside each of their respective square, how it should be done, what for and moreover, when. But for this experiment I will solely focus on the square of Venus. It should be noted I have yet to experiment with these talismans, but more than often I have found Agrippa's notes with respect to astrological needs regarding the powers of the talismans also apply in other kinds of planetary magical workings. 

Agrippa mentioned the following for Venus:

"The fifth table is of Venus, consisting of a square of seven drawn into it self, viz. of fourty nine numbers, whereof seven on each side and Diameter make 175. and the sum of all is 1225. And there are over it divine names with an Intelligency to good, and spirit to evil; And there is drawn out of it the Character of Venus, and the spirits thereof. This being engraven on a Silver plate, Venus being fortunate, procureth concord, endeth strife, procureth the love of women, conduceth to conception, is good against barreness, causeth ability for generation, dissolves enchantments, and causeth peace between man, and woman, and maketh all kind of Animals and Cattle fruitful; and being put into a Dove-house, causeth an increase of Pigeons. It conduceth to the cure of all melancholy distempers, and causeth joyfulness; and being carryed about travellers make them fortunate. But if it be formed upon Brass with an unfortunate Venus, it causeth contrary things to all that hath bin above said."

Venting outta boredom

This is a long overdue post and I apologize for not having done it back in the day. I see no reason why I wouldn't do it now so here we go.

There are people in the occult universe who, wanting to come across as whatever, stress upon certain things when it comes to preaching their alleged vast amount of knowledge to the masses. It's their business and I stopped caring about that. There are others still that take those preachings to heart and pass them on. While I see nothing wrong with this either, it kinda rubs me the wrong way to see people chewing the same things over and over again, things someone's spat into their mouth, and then spitting them into someone else's mouth. One such thing is about protocol and how it is by far the most important component of woowoo.  

                                                       Protocol droid

Protective hard transits?!

We wrote in Asteria about situations where certain hard transits over a natal chart can protect the native from curses. This happens despite such transits having the potential to increase the chances for the person to be cursed and even the damage done by the curse. 

I recently got an email from someone asking me more about that particular subject, the individual specifically asking me for an example. I knew I should've mentioned at least one in the book and it's my fault again for not having done so, just as it is for pretty much any errors inside. The truth we were in the final stages when we wrote that and by then our focus shifted towards making sure everything fitted well together and eliminate as many loose ends as possible. Nevertheless, I should've been more careful and prevent errors from occurring, as well as adding the necessary examples where required.

I alone have collected more than a few examples over time, prolly since I kept cursing people right and left so often, but I will resume to sharing only one. This example confirmed to me without any doubt that such occurrences are likely to take place and shredded all trace of doubt I had been having based on previous observations. The experience in question took place back when Saturn was transiting direct and at normal cruise speed though Capricorn, thus being very strong.  

Helping hand

Dear Show-offs, 

Having been blunt towards you and your ways with respect to talking out your asses and selling crap pentacles, I hereby take it upon myself to help you with them pesky astrological elections you're both ignorant of and all-out dismissing in the most shameless, pathetic way, even when faced with the reality of receiving awful feedback from people. This is not to be understood I think all your work is wack and produces no results or worse! I think you're simply conducting some of your work with extreme irresponsibility with respect to timing because the more the merrier. Because show me the money, right? So pay attention now.

I'm sure this is not the best election possible, but I've done it on the go on my phone by using a simple free astro site and a planetary hours one. So all you'd need to know is the essential dignities and make use of them as best as possible. Otherwise, buy an advanced software that'll calculate the best goddamn elections evah. But again, you'd have to wait for longer so b-bye money... 

Clash of the Show-offs

It has come to me there's somewhat of a verbal war going on in some occult regions of social media. These developments are of no surprise to me considering the fact I've been observing how things were playing out in the background, even as a simple bystander. At any rate, this could be seen as a follow-up to this article in which I talked about wannabes in the occult and their hypocrisy. I wasn't going to do a follow-up initially, but people prove to be as obvious as they are hypocrite so here we go. 

The dictionary defines hypocrisy as "the practice of claiming to have higher standards or more noble beliefs than is the case" and this can be extended into the realm of occult knowledge too. It seems that, because of the obvious reason almost no one is noticing, which is money, people start saying and claiming all sorts of stupid stuff. This ultimately applies to their occult services, because money. So people who have just began walking their occult path recently have found themselves in the midst of a Beavis and Butt-Head episode where people thrash one another with more or less help from others over something none of them knows anything about, or at least they know too little to start making pompous comments, let alone try to come out on top as being superior to the other. And this is where the hypocrisy lies. 

You see, in modern astrology there's a fictional point in the chart called Black Moon Lilith (BML). People usually call it the Black Moon or Lilith for short. It is not something classical or medieval astrologers would've studied because it was only "invented" some 103 years ago. But this is the mistake of people that stick to old dogmas make very often, that is to deny newer discoveries or at least to study any possible uses of such discoveries and see if they get to at least one conclusion that has a practical application. This happens in the occult as well and in many other areas of life, showing many people are still stuck in Saturn's limitations despite their alleged expertise in areas where they can understand Saturn much better and work with it.   

Space woowoo

Unlike many occult enthusiasts who're busy debating Key of Solomon pentacles inside out or making up theories based on their wild albeit admirable imagination, yours truly is focusing on something else. Besides seeking to come up with more and more new stuff that will ensure progress in this field and educating people to start doing magix in a simple yet efficient manner while overlooking the pompous but mostly useless teachings one often comes across, or at least trying to do that, I'm also thinking about what the future will bring in terms of opportunities. But with those opportunities come questions.

Do you know that NASA announced there's a possibility a human colony will be established on one of the moons of Saturn? Or was it Jupiter? I don't have the link and I can't remember the title of the article because it was shown to me by someone on the go this morning. Regardless of that, it seems space agencies are really thinking about colonizing our solar system. While that's no news since this thought was probably on people's minds since the first man traveled outside our atmosphere, it's kinda news because more options present themselves for possible colonization.

This means there's a probability a practicing occultist will end up on another celestial body by the end of this millennium. Many things can prevent this from ever happening, but I don't want to start going into those scenarios because it's beyond the point of this article. So for the sake of things let's imagine at least one occultist will get to travel to another planet or moon. Imagine what kind of spirits they can find there. Besides the few we know attributed to each planet surely there must be others we're not aware of. Wouldn't bit be cool to encounter at least some of them and work with them "more closely" so to speak?

Downward spiral

I don't put anything up for sale if I don't thoroughly test it on both myself and on others in addition to having at least another person trying out the method. In this post imma speak about another unfortunate victim of my life ruining curses. It's pointless to write down everything the did that's caused this upon themselves. It suffices to say they did many things to many people, things that would be considered awful in the eyes of many.

I started doing my thing on them this past spring. For some reason I could not hold myself back from doing more than I initially wanted so I kept doing it for the sport at some point. Or whenever I had no idea what to do for a ritual that day I did another something on then - my daily practice consists of practical rituals since summer 2017. The effects of the rituals were relatively instant in this case compared to the other one I've talked about before. 

Book changes

This was on my mind for a while now so I guess this Mercury retrograde has allowed me to make a final decision and go ahead with it. Therefore, I ended up making the following changes to my books:

1. Mundane Body Magick has been unpublished. Who ever bought it will hopefully get to benefit from the information inside for their practical rituals concerning health and well-being, but I guess I will have to use bits of that elsewhere at some point. If ever. It was useless to keep it running since it made no sales in quite a long time.

2. Magick Pills for Hard Transits is now priced at $12 whereas before it was $14.99.

3. The Magick of Chiron is now priced at $10 whereas before it was priced at $12.

4. The Magick of Astrorelationships is now available in its second edition and is now priced at $22.10. I've done a full make-over of its layout and formatting to be more easier to read. This makes it have more pages than before although the content and the number of words remains approximately the same.

Milestone achieved

Today is the end of the first month in which this blog has hit more than 500 views. This is not much, especially since other blogs get 500 views in a day or in a few hours, but it's a huge milestone for me :D Even more so, this is the first month in which this blog has been viewed every single day at least once. 

The numbers on this blog are not high at all, but that doesn't matter to me. I am glad this blog that started out mostly as a joke is picking up speed and more people are benefiting from whatever it is I have to share. So, thank you for visiting!

Hate on, dum-dums!

The Great Gazoo

Geomantic figures in ritual

Unfortunately this is not some method on working magical operations with the geomantic figures. I for one do it following Scott's planetary rituals so use that coz it works very well.

It just so happens I was notified the other day my Star and Stone copy had arrived and I realized again that simply going through it during the editing process has allowed certain information from there to stick to me. Me (!!!), someone who's divination challenged. 

Anyway, my mind started making these weird associations this morning while I was waiting for the subway: how geomantic figures relate to a magical ritual. So, as stupid and useless as it might be, here it is.

The Hand of Karma keeps on slapping

And not in a happy way, if you know what I mean.

Not even an year has passed since I posted this article about yours truly being The Hand of Karma. Even though my prime objective was achieved and my cousin's son ended up living with him, a closer bond forming between the two with each passing day, the woman in question has experienced further slapping. 

It turns out she's been fired from her high position of authority. Some of her friends and at least one of her lovers started "forgetting" about her. And nooooow, she's being prosecuted due to some alleged illegal activities she had been involved in by using her position of authority. To make matters even more humiliating for her, she's close to agreeing to a peaceful divorce and renouncing the child's custody in exchange of my cousin helping her out with a good lawyer he's friends with.

Teaser

As mentioned at least a couple of times on this blog, yours truly is currently working on a future project alongside Señor Shaman and El Maximo Exponente de la Magia. The writing process is about halfway through and then I think the editing shouldn't take too long because it's being done along the way, so I expect it to be published sooner rather than later. Fingers crossed my creative juices won't fail me because I'd have to blast myself with some inspiration and I already have a full schedule!

In the mean time I managed to take a few screenshots of it and I'm sharing them as a teaser. At any rate, the book will be published by Lord Manticore House so keep an eye on the website in case you're interested!

The above is but the first of several charts and there's also pretty tables :)

Book review: Star and Stone

A short background is in order before reviewing Star and Stone: 

During the editing of Asteria, El Maximo Exponente de la Magia took it upon himself to teach me how to rub my dice... ahem! Geomancy. I told him several times I am divination challenged but instead of being discouraged by that, the illustrious Professor patiently assisted me in the learning process while drastically punishing me whenever I made mistakes: "You think with your weewee!" he kept saying. In my defense, those were readings about sex so... 

Anyway, I kept asking him to make videos on his YT channel to explain wtf he was trying to teach me because my mind works better by processing visual images of concepts. So to me it's useless I can understand every word of a sentence and the sentence as a whole because if my mind cannot create an image of the essence of that sentence... cannot compute. "No!" answered the grumpy Manticore, "no one learns geomancy from videos" he continued while grumpily instructing me onward. (Raise your hands if you want the meanie to keep posting woowoo videos!!! Hasn't posted in ages ffs!!! Carelessly keeps growing a beard instead...) I asked him to write a damn book about it several times, each time getting another grumpy "No!" because apparently "no one reads books on geomancy."

The hypocrisy of the wannabes

Photo from here

Ever since I found myself involved in the occult universe I realized that, besides the obvious fact it dealt with things considered out of the ordinary by the vast majority, it was very different from any other environment I had frequented beforehand. Despite the fact occultists engage other levels of reality, something that would grant them a greater perspective over the world at large, at least in theory, for the most part they remain as human as any other person and often show their flaws of character just like another, in some cases even more so. 

I felt disappointed by this at first because the image I had constructed in my mind about magicians in general was totally different. It's not that they had no flaws but that they undergo a constant work to correct them, thus cancelling out any imperfection of their mundane self with the aim of clearing the path for their Higher Self to manifest more easily. I was wrong!

This does not mean my view of magicians was centered upon them engaging solely into mystical work. On the contrary, I saw them as being more perfected vectors for generating change in the material realm. But in my view those changes would be generated by a heightened awareness those individuals would have on the world around, something that would allow them to generate the changes much faster and with greater ease. I was wrong!

The eerie twelfth house

Version en Español aqui. Gracias, Señor Shaman!

This article marks the end of the first series of articles I've done so far: astrological houses. You can also find it translated en Español by Señor Shaman on his blog. I might start another series in the future if the opportunity arises and if I find at least a tiny amount of inspiration to write it. I hope those who read through these articles will find at least some information useful and I apologize for not having covered every area of life attributed to each house. I did not do that because there are already free sites that discuss astrological houses and there is a possibility they will list many more than I have, from both a modern and older perspectives and even discuss them to some degree. Truth be told, there are so many particularities to life that have to be allocated between just twelve sectors of the chart and the actual process of attributing them can prove very cumbersome. Instead, I chose to focus more on the connections between the houses and try to show that many areas of life can be related to more than one astrological house.

I also apologize for not writing the article on the twelfth house in the way I've written the rest of the articles in this series. That is to say, I will not discuss it in detail. The reason for this is that I have already announced I am working on a future project alongside Señor Shaman and Lord Manticore as a followup to Asteria. As stated in that article, the future book will be structured on several stand alone articles that address several topics related to astrology which can prove useful for occult practitioners.

The convivial eleventh house

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I used this word to describe the eleventh house because I came across it in the draft of El Maximo Exponente de la Magia's future book on rubbing your dice (geomancy), where the illustrious Professor uses it to describe Albus in the first house. I Imagine it shall be a glorious book and I shall review it on this blog after it gets published. 

Speaking of Mr. Farrell, he assigns the Higher Self (Higher Genius, in his ever so Pagan views) to the eleventh house. He likely does that based on ancient Hellenistic attributions of this house, it being the joy of Jupiter and the house of the Good Genius (or Daemon). As a result this house signified good things, especially those of a spiritual nature since it is located above the horizon (Asc-Dsc axis) and thus its associations were with the celestial realm. It is opposite the fifth house, the joy of Venus, which covered good things of an earthly nature. 

I will extrapolate a bit on the subject on the Higher Self and its attribution to the eleventh house while risking to provide a major spoiler for the article on the twelfth house (or maybe I'm providing this spoiler on purpose). The way I see it the Higher Self is one's divine spark which in essence is the Supreme Creator, regardless of religious and spiritual views. It would thus be extremely superficial to attribute it to a single house, especially since it transcends the zodiac entirely. You might come across various occultists who advertise classes for getting in touch with certain personal spirits, in way that will greatly praise that spirit, ofttimes calling it transcendental and whatnot. Mind you, that is still a spirit and not your divine spark. I have addressed these things to a degree in my Magical Words.

The cosy fourth house

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The fourth house is the last of the angular houses in the order of strength assigned to them when calculating planetary dignities. You can look up Asteria for more detailed information on that. Señor Shaman and I speak of both essential and accidental planetary dignities there, alongside many other topics of great relevance in astrology with respect to its use occult applications. Like all angular houses, its energies are strong and so they have a great impact over the native. 

If we are to look at a natal chart, the four angular houses form a cross that represents the four major areas in the life of the person: self, relationships, career, family. Life usually pulls a person into many directions, but these four houses have the strongest pull because, aside from being the strongest, they form squares and oppositions between them that have the potential of generating great tensions in the life of any individual and they do so in many cases. The first and seventh houses are in opposition meaning the native needs to balance their life with respect to their self and their partner, but the squares between these two houses with the tenth and fourth can produce many problems for them when it comes to finding that balance.

The commanding tenth house

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I think this title is very fitting with respect to this particular house. The tenth house is (usually) "at the top" of the chart because it (usually) depends on the Midheaven, the highest point the planets will reach in the sky from an earthbound perspective during their "travel" from the Ascendant towards the Descendant. Since height is usually considered a position of status, those who hold the high ground usually having an advantage over others, the areas of life covered by the tenth house usually govern all other areas covered by the rest of the houses. This house is angular so its strong energies enforce that.

And since I began so abruptly, I might as well follow my own lead and say governments fall in the tenth house. The tenth house is opposite the fourth and the latter does represent countries, so it is fitting that the government is "above" the country in a sense they rule it. Back in the day this was the house of the king and for hundreds and even thousands of years kings had absolute power over their kingdoms, so this symbolism of the tenth house being above all others makes more sense from this perspective than the one on governments. During modern times and coming into the current ones, dictators would best fit this symbolism.

Governments are usually made of people who are part of one or several parties that get to form a majority in parliament, that majority allowing them to form a government. There are quite a few differences between countries when it comes to forms of government and how each government comes to power, but I chose a simpler and more general depiction of the process to make it easier for anyone to understand. So it is in fact the majority in parliament that has the power to rule, governments being merely the extension of that majority, that actually performs the process of ruling.

The mirroring seventh house

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I chose the term mirroring because selfless would've been cheesy, with respect to the title I gave to the article on the first house. There are several reasons why I chose this term and I hope they will transpire from the rest of the article.

One of these reasons bares a more pronounced psychological (microcosmic) component for the sole reason the seventh house is the area of life in which the self (first house) is reflected back onto itself through its interactions with the world. From a seventh house perspective, the first is a microcosm while the seventh is a macrocosm from the perspective of the first. However, the seventh house is also part of one's microcosm because when a person interacts with the other his or her macrocosmic interaction generates reactions inside their microcosm. The same applies for the other person. Those reactions represent various states of consciousness and in most cases they reflect back into the macrocosm, but they do so based on each person's unique microcosmic particularities.

The selfish first house

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I used selfish as a term to describe the first house because, together with the Ascendant, it represents the individual native. Of course, the entire natal chart represents the native and he or she can be thought of as being in the middle on the circle that represents the chart. But he first house is the one that best represents the native from a perspective of their own, personal self. 

I have also mentioned the Ascendant along with the first house because the first house is one of the four angular houses in the chart - they (usually) depend on the four principal angles: Ascendant, Descendant, Midheaven, Imum Coeli. Señor Shaman majestically detailed domification in Asteria, how different house systems are calculated and how some systems generate a chart in which the angular houses do not necessarily fall on the principal angles. There is much to be discussed surrounding this topic, but it does not make the subject of the current article. I am currently working on a future masterpiece together with Señor Shaman and Mr. Superior Overthetop Lord Manticore and it will contain a chapter that tackles with the subject of the houses with respect to various house systems, at least from certain perspectives. But for the sake of simplicity I will talk about each principle angle in the article about its corresponding house, so to speak.

The diverse third house

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The third astrological house covers many areas of life that span across diverse fields. It has Giel as its angel and you can work with him with respect to activities related to the third house and you can use Asteria as a guide for that with respect to finding auspicious astrological times for that work. You can also ask him to help you uncover more particularities about this house:

The voracious second house

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I was initially going to say precious instead of voracious in the title and I hope the article will show why I chose the latter. 

The second house is usually known as the house of money. More specifically, this house covers the native's personal money, money he or she has made by themselves or money which come into their possession without any further obligations. I am saying this because loans fall in the eighth house and although the money received from loans is (in many cases) at the individual's disposal, he or she will have to pay it back under certain conditions. 

These conditions include specific time frames and certain added interest in many cases, along with others that depend on the initial deal (seventh house) that was struck between the native and the creditor. The creditor can be a family member (fourth and third houses, depending on the kind of relative), a friend (eleventh house), a bank (tenth house), a co-worker (sixth house), a loanshark (I would place that in the eighth house) and various other people, including your significant other or a stranger (seventh house).

The demanding sixth house

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I hope this article will reflect the reasons I am calling this house in such way. In general, the sixth house can be seen as a house of servitude. It was very much so in ancient times as it was regarded as being the house of slaves and servants. 

While slavery mostly ceased to exist over time, it is still practiced even in the 21th century although a lot of times in different forms than the stereotypical understanding of the word. A simple example is people who are forced into working in the sex business and who are, objectively, slaves to their masters. I am of course referring to prostitutes and even some people who appear in adult movies, although not all those people do those things out of necessity or because life has placed them in a position of weakness which made it possible for them to be forced and compelled into doing that stuff. I am also referring to those who are outright sex slaves to people who, generally speaking, have the wealth (second house), authority (tenth house) and influence (I would say influence is a combination of several houses - feel free to write to me which one you think fits best) to use people like that constantly.

There are indeed some, both female and male, who perform those things because they enjoy themselves doing it and this represents a neat crossover from the fifth house. This also applies to those athletes I've mentioned in the previous article and many other people out there in various other fields like artists and so on. But the harsh reality is many people are indeed forced to sell their bodies and are treated as slaves, something which represents a not so neat crossover with the fifth house. Child slave labor also falls into this category and there have been many reports, news and documentaries of poor children who perform assiduous work for long hours and who are being paid next to nothing. If you think about it, one of the reasons people in the past had children was to have more hands for working the land and doing all sorts of chores around the home. This is something that still takes place in our time in many rural communities.

The pretty fifth house

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I am calling this house pretty because for the most part, it is. It does have its darker sides to it and I will discuss them further on. I was going to call it prettiful as a gesture of appreciation towards someone I highly admire, but I think that will make things harder for Señor Shaman to translate :D

The fifth house is a succedent house and so it is stable energetically. This does not mean natives will benefit from its pleasures all the time and with the same intensity, but that it does provide a stable environment for them to manifest themselves. It also does not mean the natives will be successful when it comes to indulging in its pleasures, but they are free to try all the time. 

Based on the universal attribution of houses to zodiac signs the fifth house is a Fire house, meaning it calls for action. It is also trine the first house, making it easy for the native to enjoy its spoils in some form or another. Being a house of pleasure and fun, this house covers quite a few areas of life and more than enough activities that can range from eating a strawberry breakfast to a romantic candlelight dinner and from drinking a beer while watching a sports match from the comfort of your armchair to sipping expensive champagne in some exclusive nightclub. (And to snorting coke off of hoes' tits on a tropical island - had to say that!)

The superior ninth house

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It seems I will have to post an article for each of the twelve astrological houses following the one I posted a few days ago. Sheesh... damn you, beyond!!! As in the previous case, I will do it based on what I've come to understand about this house based on actually working with it magically.

Following the lead of the previous article on the topic, I refer to this house as superior alluding to an inside joke between me and El Maximo Exponente de la Magia. I am also doing this because the ninth house covers the higher mind, as opposed to the third house (the two being in actual opposition inside the chart) that covers mental faculties one uses in ordinary day to day activities and for addressing trivial stuff. 

The ninth house is thus superior to the third, so to speak, as it covers areas of life that are more advanced than the ones covered by the former. Thus, everyone who's able to actually speak is running their mouth on a daily basis, more or less, depending on individual nature. But the ninth house covers intellectual speech one usually uses in all sorts of scenarios requiring oratory skills to deliver various forms of knowledge. It is no wonder then that teachers are covered by this house, since they have to impart knowledge to their students and must do so by (usually) using a more elevated and grammatically correct speech. 

The mysterious eighth house

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The eight house is somewhat of a black hole in astrology in my opinion. I am saying this because it covers death, as in something beings undergo without the possibility of undoing. I am also saying this because, like a black hole, this house has remained muchly unexplored in my opinion.

A lot can be discussed about it yet little can be said for certain, even among astrologers I dare to say. There are several reasons for this and one merely needs to look at how this house was seen throughout history as besides death and things connected to it (burials, wills, etc.), it also became associated with the wealth of the spouse (likely based on horary considerations) and over the last century sex and intimacy became associated with it. Moreover, stuff like surgeries and transplants were allocated to this house and it also bears important psychological components, fears being assigned to it. 

I am not into psychology and I do not know how this science deals with fears, how they have been analyzed and catalogued. I am sure someone like Scott is way more able to discuss these things from a scientific perspective. What I can say is that I have been actively working with the energies of this house more than once, both on myself and on others, both for pretty things and for less pretty ones. By the way, the angel of this house is Susul and here's his sigil in case anyone is curious to take a quick dive into it:

El Maximo Exponente de la Magia

A few days ago, Mario (the artist who made the splendid cover for Asteria - link to the right of the page) posted a thread about receiving his copy. Besides mentioning querido Shaman and yours truly, Mario also named Lord Manticore, whom he referred to as El Maximo Exponente de la Magia (fireworks effects!), an even more superior over the top title than the ones I've been calling good ol' Nick by so far.

So big up for you, Mario!

Therefore, henceforth, I will be using this title of Nick's more often and I've already started doing it in my recent articles. Besides finding it to be a pretty title, I think it fits perfectly with the vast superior over the top magical experience and knowledge Mr. Farrell has acquired so far. I imagine he must be some kind of Magister Templi (at least) by now, something he no wanna talk about. I also imagine he's one of the few, if not the only, people alive with direct connection with the original Golden Dawn current (yea, that of Mathers&co), through his contacts of the former Smaragdum Thalasses aka Whare Ra temple down in Kiwiland. But he no wanna talk about that either. Prolly because now he's ever so seriously Pagan and sticks to his ever so serious Pagan stuff in an ever so serious way.