Saturday, October 31, 2009

My Work of Late

This is just a general catch up post about what has been going on lately.

I spent a lot of time working on the Tarot Pips class. I laid my theory of the pips and court cards to positive response. This is book worthy stuff.

As part of that work, I've been sleeping with various tarot cards under my bed and doing some praying as I do so. This has resulted in some odd dreams.

With the Ace of Cups, I had a prophetic dream.

The Ace of Swords resulted in nothing but I had went to bed way too late that night and my dream cycle wasn't very strong.

The Ace of Cups (again) resulted in a dream where I was in the middle of the four Enochian elemental tablets and trying to step on to each. A being on each pushed me off. This fits very well with my work as I've worked with only the tablet of union. I haven't called any of the kings of the tablets. Why would they let me on? I will be working with more Enochian soon.

With the Knight of Cups (Thoth) I had dreams about a person from a former group who spoke about his 'return'. There are many analogies to that but I don't know which one is correct. So, I will simply wait to understand if that was an anomaly or a about something more important. There were also some erotically tinged dreams. Both of these fit into my definition of the Knight of Cups.

When we gave Lon DuQuette a ride back after my tarot class in Bakersfield, he confessed that it gave him so new ideas. He even conceived a form of Enochian work that may take my work to the next level. I will give his idea a try and report back here soon.

I've been fighting with my HGA a bit. Yes, I know that is stupid but I haven't quite evolved past that yet. I want to focus my magick on learning a skill. Yes. Obtaining that skill is part ego driven and part necessary for the furtherance of my work. He is saying no. My work must involve writing that book on the tarot. Bah! I have tried but I simply do not seem to have the discipline. Maybe that is the point. Who knows?

I've disbelieved my HGA and did a ton of tarot readings. They all come out the same. What I want to do is pointless given the techniques I'm considering. What I don't want to do, is what will work. I will continue to try to develop that discipline and write the book.

Sunday, October 25, 2009

Tarot Pips Class Part Duex

Well, the first tarot class with the power point presentation went quite well. The second one was not so hot. There were a couple of problems.

1)I took something that needed 30 visuals and reduced it to a few handouts and poster boards. This made things awkward and choppy.

2)Since I tried to rewrite to be okay without visuals but didn't put in huge amount of effort to do so, it fell flat

3) The first audience was more inclined toward the qabala. The combination of qabala and new ideas was too much for audience. I should have toned it down for the audience.

Overall it was a learning experience.

Good News: I can now study and write what I want and I am going to seriously delve into some some study and doing some magick. The latter will likely be documented here. The former will likely be documented elsewhere.

Note: I know how much work I have to put into a class. When I steal someone's material, I give them full credit like any good researcher should. However, stealing someone's whole book and putting it on torrent is something else. If someone did that to me, I'd curse him and I don't curse. Someone was dumb enough to that to Frater RO. Someone is going to quickly understand the junction point of demonology and proctology. Go get 'em RO!

Thursday, October 22, 2009

Extreme Solution

There is a magickal talent I want that I have failed to obtain. I'm tired of failure. I am considering some conventional ritual work to get this done. I am also considering contacting the spirits of the Domarum Mercurii.

Wednesday, October 21, 2009

Retaliation

Frater RO posted a link to a blog that I found humorous in its arrogance. I liked this line the best "Make absolutely clear that no “laws” will prevent retribution that exacts from them at least ten times more pain than they have caused."

This makes some fundamental assumptions that I disagree with.

I have caused pain in people's lives. There were times when I should have known better. There were other times when I was just oblivious. Other times, I have tried to avoid causing pain and did so anyway. There have been times where I've caused pain (from the other person's point of view) and I'm clueless as to why they feel pain.

I can not think of a single instance in my life where I actually woke up and said to myself, "I am going to cause pain to person X." What good decent human being does that? Well, apparently, the author of the post thinks intentionally causing pain is a good thing as it discourages the causing of more pain (or so I assume). No. It actually causes more.

Why do people cause pain? Let us put aside the mentally ill (with compassion) and the asshole who actually enjoys causing emotional pain. In my life as an adult, my observation has been there are very few of the latter relatively speaking.

What of the rest?

Much anger and upset is the result of variances in expectations. Everyone has dated someone that hide higher expectations of romance than one can meet. That other person gets hurt every time. There is hardly a cause for retaliation times ten!

Sometimes expectations are wildly different. I once felt emotional pain not when women turned me down for dates but because she lied to me to do it. I'd have felt much better had they just said "no thank you," rather than making some social excuse. While I expected truth, they were trying to spare my feelings OR they simply lacked the backbone to say no. Either way, my expectations caused my pain. They were not trying to hurt me. So, should I follow this guy's advise and cause ten times the pain I felt? No. Yet, this example matches his point. A lie caused pain therefore retaliation is in order.

People are hurt by layoffs at work. Assuming the causes are purely economic in origin and the result of no illegal or immoral activity, should those people on the unemployment line go burn down the business owner's house? No.

There are a million more examples of pain caused purely for accidental reasons. Retaliation is never appropriate.

Lets move on to over the top reactions. Let's say someone gets the wrong change in a grocery store and rather than politely pointing this out the person has a tirade. His or her yelling and screaming is emotionally painful to the sales clerk. There are several options.

One, we could teach the obnoxious bore that an accidental five dollar short doesn't deserve that kind of response by stealing his shoes causing him to spend fifty to replace them.

Two, we could do violence unto him so that he no longer shouts at people.

Three, we could escort him out of the store and tell him not to return.

Four, we could empathize, for all we know the man just lost a job and is terrified financially. For all we know he suffered a severe beating as a child for not coming home with the right change. We have no idea what this person has been through. We could refrain from judging him a brute and simply see a flawed and wounded human being.

Five, with four in mind, we try to talk to the person and treat him better than he treated us.

Six, we could reflect upon our own past behaviors and learn how to improve ourselves.

We could take the writer's advice and perform the necessary actions to make items 1 and/or two happen. But what if four is true? By upping the pain level this guy feels, we've put him in a higher state of anxiety on the issue. While we've likely decreased our chance of him causing us pain, we've increased it for the rest of society. Even if four isn't true and he is just a jerk, what have we done? We've increased his pain level, which will be externalized on the next hapless clerk. So, we've harmed another by proxy. Wonderful.

Item 3, is the default in my mind for a kinder society. Defuse the situation.

Four and Five are acts of compassion. Does our author find this to be weakness? Perhaps. It is only weakness if you have no backbone and are never willing to stand up to extremes. I've committed some acts of compassion that some would feel extraordinary and been burned hard but I'd rather the occasional burning than the cold heart of one that needs to retaliate against every perceived offense.

There is a line in the Golden Dawn Neophyte ritual that I try to apply, "Unbalanced mercy is but weakness that allows evil to flourish; Unbalanced severity is but cruelty and barrenness of the soul."

Six should be the default for every spiritual person no matter what other action is taken. When we improve ourselves we cause less pain in others.

The goal of my life as a magician is to make the planet a slightly better place. Given that I am as flawed as the next fellow, my hope in doing that lay with the balanced approach of the Golden Dawn with a slight lean toward the merciful side of things. When in doubt I am merciful. Where no doubt exists about intentional infliction of pain, I have every right to be severe. Yet, how often can we be that sure of someone else's intent? Often, it is merely our own expectations, judgmental attitudes and personal whims that claim to be without a doubt.

My personal out clause is this. Some people can be good people in many respects but their particular issue is so toxic to my issues that I can not tolerate them in my sphere. These people (very few of them) I excuse from my life but I do so with the realization that I have an 'issue' that must be addressed as well. The people that retaliate are unlikely to see their own issues. And are therefore doomed (assuming they are not perfect) to cause pain to others through their own ignorance. I wonder if they feel that retaliation times ten is appropriate in reverse? Usually not.


Note: When I was done with this, I realized it could have been organized better. It is late. I am going to leave it as is. Sorry folks.

Saturday, October 17, 2009

Tarot Class

I gave my tarot pip class today. I've done better presenting other classes. I could have done a lot better in this go around. However, I did enjoy Lon DuQuette's comment, "Post graduate work made accessible to beginners."

Friday, October 16, 2009

Jason's Nice Gesture

I received a surprise call from friend and mage Jason Miller wishing me good luck at tomorrow's Tarot class. It is very nice to hear from friends that are not obligated to call in situations like that and even more so as he related how busy he is with the new kids and his upcoming classes.

Thanks Jason, that was a classy move.

Oh, and it was really cool to be mentioned in his new book Sorcerer's Secrets in the acknowledgments.

Thursday, October 8, 2009

Simplicity

I am a bit of a pain in the workplace. I am always irritated. I once told some that she was what politicians were talking about when they speak of cutting waste in government. I am calmer now than I was then but still. I get away with it because I work hard, do an excellent job and really care about the over all department, our services and the tax payer. That can get you a long way in government work.

Regardless, I don't like that I am so cranky there. I have prayed and meditated. I've worked various magicks all having some impact but never the final blow the solved the problem outright.

Then I started working with the elements in the simple pattern that I devised and hinted at in the intro to my tarot class I posted. People actually smile when I enter their offices. We laugh and have a good time.

It would appear, simplicity works.

Monday, October 5, 2009

The Tarot Pips

I will be speaking on a unique interpretation of the tarot pips. The intro to those lectures follows below.

Saturday, October 17, 2009

The Enchanted Cottage
30 H Street
Bakersfield, California at 12:00 PM
(661)323-9929
http://www.enchanted-cottage.net

And

Sunday, October 25, 2009
Spirit Fusion Festival
At The Fresno Discovery Center
1937 N Winery Ave Fresno, CA 93703
Fresno California
Time to be Announced

Intro:

The tarot has been designed to be a perfect representation of the universe. It contains cards called the Major Arcana that represent the big concepts like astrological signs, planets and the three mother elements, fire, air and water. These huge things appear in twenty-two cards which actually represent a minority of the tarot. It is the major arcana that gets all the attention. It like focusing on the president’s power and not realizing that your area of the country is shaped by the influence of its congressional representatives.

With all due respect to astrological signs and planets, the average person’s daily life and actions are defined by the interplay of fire, air and water. Those elements and earth are revealed to us in the pip cards. There are 40 of them, if you count the aces, as compared to the 22 major arcana. Those forty cards represent only four ideas that spring forth from the aces. There are an additional sixteen cards of the tarot called court cards. These too are related to the suits and these too hold the same pattern of four ideas. Together, the court cards and the pips represent 71% of the entire perfected universe. Seventy-one percent of your life is comprised of four ideas. The idea that life is complicated is an illusion. Difficult, yes. Complicated, no.