RiverSnake

Thanks for the layout of your methodology. It's interesting and simple (IME simple is powerful). You mentioned "setting a candle or two", could you elaborate on this? I have noticed there is an entire genre of magic people refer to as "candle work"? Also I have noted that some authors emphasize working these kind of stuff astrally rather than physically. Do you happen to have any experience or opinions on that? My 2 cents, Peace

Thanks for the link Rex. I can't say I know much about the OAS. However, what I am finding is that there is tremendous things way beyond divination that can be done with the Tarot. I am currently reading Tarot and Magick by Tony Willis, which I can say that so far I highly recommend it, he comes of as an old school adept from an earlier period. According to what I have read the Tarot represents an entire system of ritualistic magic. Supposedly It can be used High Magick and Low Magick along with divination and I saw one author even claim that It can be used as a tool for connecting with ones HGA. I am just starting to understand its principles. These are some of the books I have found on the topic which seem to have some juice behind them and have a similar focus to the link you posted. I have only started reading the one by Tony Willis, the rest I can only recommend by Intuition: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0738709808/ref=ox_sc_sfl_title_5?ie=UTF8&psc=1&smid=ATVPDKIKX0DER http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0738708712/ref=ox_sc_sfl_title_9?ie=UTF8&psc=1&smid=ATVPDKIKX0DER http://www.amazon.com/Magick-Tarot-Manipulate-Unseen-Universe/dp/0850306256/ref=sr_1_8?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1366041744&sr=1-8&keywords=Magick+and+the+Tarot

Interesting insights Xienkula, its always useful to know where the pitfalls are lurking. Thanks for sharing. My 2 cents, Peace

I was recently listening to a practitioner and he said communion with ones HGA was basically the result of opening ones heart center? Anyone know if that is true? He said this was because Tiphareth was associated with the heart center. My 2 cents, Peace

I was recently listening to this podcast with Andrieh Vitimus. His story of how he became involved with Voudon is quite interesting. If you email him he might beable to give you some direction. http://occultofpersonality.net/podcast-64-hands-on-chaos-magic-with-andrieh-vitimus/ My 2 cents, Peace

Actually "Love" is very empowering if used as a tool for self cultivation. As for busting nuts, yes it is draining. My 2 cents, Peace

Was re-listening to this podcast where Josephine McCarthy is talking about Exorcism. She talks a lot about relating to other Beings and gives some critupiques on Grimoires like the keys of Solomon. It may give perspective to those interested in working with Beings and how to approach it practically (Invocation, Evocation...etc). Enjoy http://occultofpersonality.net/podcast-100-josephine-mccarthy/ My 2 cents, Peace

Hm.....dont know much about "sequences".....IMO being proactive in protecting oneself via warding oneself off on a daily basis is best, rather than waiting to get attacked, as i imagine after the fact things can get more complicated. There are plenty of books out there on psychic self defense. Best of luck to you, perhaps someone else will have more exact knowledge for you on your specific situation. My 2 cents, Peace

Perhaps there are knowledgable practitioners on this site. Maybe you should ask about it in the General Discussion area....also say a prayer to make a connection with that tradition.....cast your intent out there into the void.....if your sincere.....IME....you'll usually find a conenction. My 2 cents, Peace

Thanks for the insights Zhongyong. I found it intresting how you distinguish between Fortune Telling and Oracles. If approached creatively, I think there is really no limit to the depth you can divine...albeit as you mentioned each system does have its different emphasis and focuses (images, letters....etc) My 2 cents, Peace

I use the Tarot of the Spirit deck. It's the deck I was most drawn towards, each has a different vibe, different people will be drawn to different decks. When interpreting the cards in this context you would look at the negative or positive aspect of each card. For example lets say you get the devil or tower card in the positive side, you would interpret the positive aspects of that card rather than the negative and also look inward in to see what that means to you individually. Yes, I draw the 3 negative cards first, put them of to the side and then draw the 3 positive. However, this is all open ended stuff, do it the way you won't to. My 2 cents, Peace

Any modern forms of this? My 2 cents, Peace

Thanks for sharing spotless. My 2 cents, Peace

Here are 2 interviews with Scarlet Imprint authors: Jake Stratton-kent and Nicholag de Mattos. I enjoyed both of them a great deal. Both seem to be a balance of academic as well as occult/practical understanding, which I think is something that is not often found in this area of study. Enjoy http://occultofpersonality.net/podcast-61-jake-stratton-kent/ http://occultofpersonality.net/nicholaj-de-mattos-frisvold/ My 2 cents, Peace

Hey Dragonsnektar, very interesting experiences. In regards to protecting yourself (if you dont already know how) from psychic attacks i recommend putting up one gold and one purple shield around yourself to ward of others influences and generally the heavy energy that we encounter on a daily basis, atleast that is what I have been taught. Welcome to thetaobums. My 2 cents, Peace

Hey spotless had a question for you since you offered. Once you open you 3rd eye do all visualization techniques as a method become obsolete....given that you can "see" now? Thanks for being so open with your knowledge and experiences. My 2 cents, Peace

I recently read the first book: Magical Knowledge by Josephine McCarthy. I would say its right next to IIH, an amazing book, one of the best books on Occult I have read....there are 2 more In the series though which I have yet to read which go deeper into working. Magical Knowledge 1: takes the approach of an introductory book for the new practitioner. The first half of the book basically shows the novice the ropes, the levels as well as the various pitfalls that the practitioner will face on the path (not something I have seen in other books). The 2nd half of the book is about utilizing Visionary work in order to act magically. Not a method I was familiar with at the time, but still a style that seems to be prevalent in the Western Tradition. Also what I have toyed around with in Vision was powerful and highly transformational. Altogether an excellent book, lots of juice behind it and I look forward to reading the next 2 books. Also it's only 5$ on Kindle. http://www.amazon.com/Magical-Knowledge-Book-Foundations-Practitioner/dp/1906958440/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1365587148&sr=8-1&keywords=Magical+knowledge My 2 cents, Peace

My understanding of this is that anything people focus or concentrate on acquires energy. Thus, because of the nature of television one might imagine that spongebob in a way has become infused with people's energy. Chaos magicians and others try to use these "charged" symbols to there advantage......but that is just my limited understanding. Wouldn't mind hearing others thoughts on this. My 2 cents, Peace

There is nothing wrong with "you", but there is definitely something wrong with your energies and how they are functioning. The following are my recommendations in order to enhance your energies and work to correct imbalances within yourself: 1. Do a 7 day juice fast 2. Stop whacking off 3. Practice Chi Kung daily (do it for about 6 months to give it time to work) Hope things go well for you. Life can be a very beautiful and wondrous experience. Just gotta raise your vibration and your experience of life will naturally change and become more and more positive.....the above list of 3 things are designed to do just that. My 2 cents, Peace

Thanks for the recommendation Seth. Also thanks for the link Bagua. My 2 cents, Peace

Just also found a free link for those interested in Ars Paulina, if you'd like to take Seth's tips that is. Don't know if I'll ever get into this kind of stuff, but doing KCHGA first makes sense and resonates with me. It's probably good to have a solid pal in your corner before diving in. http://www.hermetics.org/pdf/grimoire/arspaulina.pdf It seems like they have an entire library of Grimoires on this site: http://www.hermetics.org/ My 2 cents, Peace

Found a couple books on the history of Grimoires. Probably gonna get both of them in order to educate myself about their historical context and origin. Here's a couple links for those interested, also if anyone has any recommendations please feel free to share: http://www.amazon.com/The-devils-bookshelf-history-written/dp/0850302471/ref=cm_cr_pr_product_top http://www.amazon.com/Grimoires-A-History-Magic-Books/dp/0199590044/ref=cm_cr_pr_product_top My 2 cents, Peace

Reading posts like these really blows my mind. Are people In the Western Tradition really this silly....or is it just the Youngins like me? As some one whom has spent a lot of time on the cushion learning to purify the mind....the fact that learning to still the mind is even a question in ones progression on the path through me threw a loop. I felt the author did a good job of answering the question. Has anyone else had similar experiences with people in the Western Tradition? Integration of Meditation and Magic "One of my teachings that people can find most vexing is my insistence on meditation as a cornerstone of the path. It can seem counter-intuitive to people that are magically minded. Meditation asks you to sit still, magic often asks you to move around and make potent gestures and signs. Meditation asks for silence, magic usually asks for arcane formula and grand invocations. Meditation asks that you treat all visions, messages from gods and spirits, and psychic experience as a distraction to be ignored, and return to the meditation itself. Magically minded people are often built specifically to experience such things, and tend to place great importance upon them. For this reason, my insistence on meditation can be For example, recently I got an e-mail from a student that simply does not want to meditate and does not see the point: "I have to say that I find your insistence on meditation frustrating and I really dont think it has as much to do with magic as you think. The magic I am interested in involves talking with spirits, traveling the astral, and raising and controlling the energies of the body. Meditation seems like a side issue." My answer: I think that talking with spirits, astral travelling, and energy work are great. Meditation is getting to know and control your own mind. What part of those things do not involve your mind? Spirits? Do you think you hear them only audibly with the normal ear? Astral Travel? Is your mind not essential to this? Is the astral not a realm of mirror-like appearance that can fool and deceive? Energy Work? There is no system of yoga, chi-gung, or anything else that does not recognize that the subtle winds are linked to mental processes. Literally none. Setting all this aside, even just normal waking experience of reality itself is only known through the mind. Every day we all perceive reality through a deeply flawed lens. Not only are we a slave to the heuristics that we use to make sense of what we take in, but our mechanistic slavery to what can only be described as the programming we all hold, keeps us from seeing reality-as-such and acting accordingly. If this is the case with normal reality, how more susceptible are we when we start dealing with subtle realms and mystical states? Meditation is the best way to know the tool that you interact with all experience through. It is the best way to clean that tool and keep it sharp. It is the best way to keep yourself from getting carried away by your own bullshit. Still though, if we are not just mediators but Sorcerers and Sorceressess, we need to know how and when to let the visions in, when to listen to the gods, and when to make the potent signs and grand invocations. Another student of the course is doing a lot of meditation and mentioned that she knows she is supposed to ignore the awesome visions, but finds it hard. The trick here is harmony in your practices. When I and other teachers tell people to ignore visions during meditation, it is mostly because we do not want people to confuse visionary and trance work with meditation. Once you know that, there is no reason that you cannot explore those visions outside of meditation. You can either finish your session and mentally attempt to revisit them or explore the vision right when it happens and make time afterwards for more meditation. The trick is knowing that you are departing the meditation in a mindful way for a purpose, not getting distracted from your meditation by shiny spirit baubles. While potent and meaningful visions are not meditation itself, they are a sign of progress in meditation. By reducing clinging to old perceptions, surface level mental chatter, and base karmic traces, you are making room for deeper stuff to manifest. In fact, meditation can sometimes be a better way to generate such visions than specifically visionary or shamanic methods, as well as leaving you in a position to deal with them critically. I will leave my thoughts on self-critique for my next post: The Usefulness of Doubt." Jason Miller http://www.inominandum.com/blog/integration-of-meditation-and-magic/#comment-12416 My 2 cents, Peace

Thanks for all the input guys. Guess this situation just really caught me off guard. In my view of magic there is nothing more important than having absolute concentration and focuses intent. But I guess there are a lot of (to steal another occultist's phrase) McWiccans out there. I was recently surfing around on another occultist's blog and saw that a 13 year old kid was asking questions about artificial spirits and their usage.....I thought I started young in the esoteric field, geez, best of luck to them. Hopefully I will live another 50 years, its interesting to see where the esoteric culture in the west is moving towards. My 2 cents, Peace

Zhongyong could you clarify what you mean by "meta-level context"? My 2 cents, Peace