On the Great Work of Alchemy : East meets West

 

While much of the Great Work of Alchemy, East and West, takes place deep inside the body and serves to restructure its functioning and refine its subtlety, there is also an intellectual dimension to the process that creates a new understanding of self and world and relates the practice to the larger rhythms of nature. For this, adepts learn to appreciate the cosmological patterns of the universe and see the world in terms of interrelated patterns, calendar cycles, complex numerology, and intricate networks of abstract symbols.

 
This, too, is typical for transformative traditions throughout the world.Adepts of Buddhist insight meditation, for example, are trained to see the universe as the ever changing interaction of flowing, swirling energies and to appreciate the key doctrines of suffering, impermanence, and no-self. Similarly, students of Western esotericism study the intrica­cies of Hermetic philosophy, following in the footsteps of Albertus Magnus, Thomas Aquinas, Jacob Boehme, and Robert Fludd, and work with the com­plex system of the Jewish Cabbala. In all cases, the universe is reinterpreted to fit the new identity created through the practice and often intricate cosmologies and highly abstract symbols take the place of ordinary perception.

 
Internal alchemy works with three different cosmological systems. There is first classical Chinese cosmology, most prominently known from its application in Chinese medicine, that divides the universe according to the two forces yin and yang and understands their working in terms of the five phases. Next, there is the Chinese calendar and the understanding of the seasonal rhythms and patterns, the cycles of summer and winter, the sun and the moon, and the various phases of the Great Work associated with them. And third, there is the Yi Jing ,(Book of Changes), which serves not only to create a more detailed outline of alchemical timing but also provides the blueprint for the stages before and after creation and a powerful symbolism for internal energetic transformation.

 

The structure that underlies the yin-yang system is a form of correlative thinking, which is not unique to China but can also be found in other traditional cultures, such as ancient Greece, and in the West is still used in occultism, magic, and alchemy. It represents a basic pattern of the human mind, forms the foundation of more elaborate forms of logic, and is dearly present in the way we acquire language.

 
Developing an intricate set of correlative patterns, the yin-yang system provides a good basis for understanding the workings of qi in the world. To access its subtler movements, moreover, the system subdivides into five stages of development: minor yang-major yang-yin-yang-minor yin-major yin. These five are then associated with five organic substances that symbolize the different stages in the process: wood, fire, earth, metal, and water. These, then, are known as the “five phases” and appear in integrated cycles of mutual production or control. Thus, for example, water makes things grow and produces wood, wood dries and becomes fuel for fire in a productive sequence; water extinguishes fire, fire melts metal, and so on, in the controlling cycle.

 

 

In addition to the five phases as a fundamental cosmological underpinning, adepts of internal alchemy are also very conscious about the structure and patterns of time. They work closely with the four seasons which are marked by the solstices and the equinoxes, often beginning the Great Work at the height of yin at the winter solstice. Following this, they observe the so-called Eight Nodes, the solstices and equinoxes plus the beginnings of the seasons a system that roughly matches the festivals of Western pagan religion. In addition, they may work with twenty-four solar periods of about two weeks each that are named after weather patterns such as “great heat,” “slight cold,” “great rain,” and “slight snow” and also include the solstices and equinoxes. Alchemy in China has numerous similarities with that practiced in the West, both sharing an emphasis on the transmutation of base metals into gold, the discovery of the elixir of life, and the creation of the Philosophers’ Stone.

 

 

Traced back in its earliest beginnings to the Greek mysteries,notably associated with the gods Hermes and Dionysus, and to practices in Egypt under Greek and Roman rule, Western alchemy began to flourish in the early Christian era, focusing particularly on the rather obscure figure of Hermes Trismegisros, who supposedly lived around 100 C.E.. He is linked with an early document, the Tabula Smaragdina or Emerald Tablet, which outlines the basic principles: as above, so below; all material entities are of one matter; the sun and the moon are the parents of all things; the wind brings them to gestation; and the earth is their great nourisher. Realizing this truth in one’s own body and self, one can find the essence of nature and realize perfection within.

 
The ultimate goal of alchemy-in the West as much as in China-was therefore not just the material transmutation of one substance into another, but the attainment of perfect self-knowledge and participation in the divine through conscious and hypo-static union, the return to primordial chaos and reversal of the cosmogony. Employing multiple-layered symbolism, the philosophers’ gold also meant absolute and supreme reason, perfect universal truth, the sun, and the concrete precious metal.

 
Similarly, ­operative alchemy in China was not the mere mixing of noxious substances in secret cauldrons, but involved extensive physical and ethical preparation, medi­tations and visualizations, and was generally geared to return to the origins of the universe and serve the self-realization of the practitioner. One is no better then the other, each has it’s merits and faults. The one that lights your cauldron, that is the system you should choose and study.

 

Till next time everyone, Stay Gold..

Sources: Atwood, M. A., Hermetic Philosophy and Alchemy,”Yoga and Daoyin.” in Daoist Body Cuftivation edited by Livia Kohn,Lindsay, Jack. The Origins of Alchemy in Graeco-Roman Egypt., Internal Alchemy edited by Livia Kohn.

On the Great Work of Alchemy : East meets West was originally published on The Hidden Left Hand

The Texts of Taoism on Karma

 

Among the facets of the Taoist tradition is an interest in fostering longevity or even immortality, whether that is understood to be a physical immortality or something more subtle. I am not prepared to explore the full scope of Taoist views on the afterlife at this time, but I do want to share some information on a particular Taoist text, because it presents a novel doctrine of something like karma. Thanks to Baharna.com for the info.

Karma Without Rebirth: The Thai-Shang Tractate of Actions and Their Retributions

The Texts of Taoism, Part II, translated by James Legge, includes a short text called the Thai-Shang Tractate of Actions and Their Retributions, which describes a Taoist concept of something very like karma. Thus, the text says:

1. There are no special doors for calamity and happiness (in men’s lot); they come as men themselves call them. Their recompenses follow good and evil as the shadow follows the substance.

So far, this sounds much like the Hindu and Buddhist views of karma. The key difference is that no concept of rebirth is involved. Therefore, the recompense for actions works as follows:

2. Accordingly, in heaven and earth there are spirits that take account of men’s transgressions, and, according to the lightness or gravity of their offenses, take away from their term of life. When that term is curtailed, men become poor and reduced, and meet with many sorrows and afflictions. All (other) men hate them; punishments and calamities attend them; good luck and occasions for felicitation shun them; evil stars send down misfortune on them. When their term of life is exhausted they die.

There also are the Spirit-rulers in the three pairs of the Thai stars of the Northern Bushel over men’s heads, which record their acts of guilt and wickedness, and take away (from their term of life) periods of twelve years or of a hundred days.

There also are the three Spirits of the recumbent body which reside within a man’s person. As each kang-shan day comes round, they forthwith ascend to the court of Heaven, and report men’s deeds of guilt and transgression. On the last day of the moon, the spirit of the Hearth does the same.

In the case of every man’s transgressions, when they are great, twelve years are taken from his term of life; when they are small, a hundred days.

Note that the Taoist mind, perhaps in some respects less abstract than the Hindu, immediately makes some effort to articulate the mechanism that causes deeds to be rewarded or punished. Actually, the text seems to give too many such explanations; citing both spirits “in heaven and earth,” spirits in one of the stellar constellations, and three spirits that reside “within a man’s person.” Thus a multitude of intelligent agents are provided to do the record-keeping. Another aspect, however, is passed over just as cryptically as in Hindu thought: what agency actually causes the reward or punishment to occur, and how is it reconciled with the other factors that appear to motivate people’s actions?

For example, consider the following statement:

5. […] Further, those who wrongfully kill men are (only) putting their weapons into the hands of others who will in their turn kill them.

Thus if a murderer is himself later murdered by another person, we must suppose that some celestial moral principle guided or contributed to this second murder. Such an influence would have to be rather subtle and indirect, or else Providence could be accused of inciting the second murderer to an evil action he would not otherwise have performed, with a resulting implication that he should not be held completely accountable for his actions. It seems unlikely that the author of the Thai-Shang Tractate would be happy with such an conclusion.

According to the Thai-Shang Tractate, the reward or punishment for actions is meted out primarily in this same lifetime where the actions were performed. In case this is not sufficient,

4. […] If at death there remains guilt unpunished, judgment extends to his posterity.

5. Moreover, when parties by wrong and violence take the money of others, an account is taken, and set against its amount, of their wives and children, and all the members of their families, when these gradually die. If they do not die, there are the disasters from water, fire, thieves, robbers, from losses of property, illnesses, and (evil) tongues to balance the value of their wicked appropriations.

One may ask how guilt may remain unpunished at the time of a person’s death. Presumably this would be the case if a person commits a crime toward the end of his already allotted lifespan.

A more serious concern is how a morally motivated system could punish a man’s descendants for his crimes; in what sense do they partake of his guilt? It is well to remember that, in ancient times, the bond between ancestor and descendant was taken much more seriously than it is in the West today. Thus, the Biblical Yahweh offered Abraham first, not salvation of his soul, but a multitude of descendants; and on occasion, punished the descendants of a transgressor even unto the seventh generation. Offerings to ancestors also play a major role in ancient Chinese and Egyptian religion, not to mention in modern Hispanic folk Catholicism, and the ancestors become deities in West African and Hawaiian beliefs. From a motivational point of view, the threat to punish one’s descendants simply provides an additional reason to do good, just as holding a person’s children hostage will motivate a parent to pay a ransom.

As in Buddhism and Christianity, the system assigns a moral status to thoughts and words as well as more concrete actions:

5. […] Therefore the good man speaks what is good, contemplates what is good, and does what is good; every day he has these three virtues: —at the end of three years Heaven is sure to send down blessing on him. The bad man speaks what is wicked, contemplates what is wicked, and does what is wicked every day he has these three vices: —at the end of three years, Heaven is sure to send down misery on him. —How is it that men will not exert themselves to do what is good?

The question may then arise, “I have already done so many bad things that many punishments are stored up against me; so why should I bother to change my ways now?” As if to provide moral motivation even for such depraved souls, the text assures us that there is hope for those who have done evil in the past.

5. […] If one have, indeed, done deeds of wickedness, but afterwards alters his way and repents, resolved not to do anything wicked, but to practice reverently all that is good, he is sure in the long-run to obtain good fortune: —this is called changing calamity into blessing.

We have seen how the Thai-Shang Tractate achieves a system of moral recompense without recourse to a theory of future births. However, there is another dimension of Hindu/Buddhist karma theory that is also omitted, and that is the dimension of previous births. And it is that dimension that gives karma theory one of its main attractions, as well as one of its major drawbacks. For by postulating previous births, karma theory is able to conclude that all the pleasant and unpleasant circumstances of this life are the result of past actions, and thus morally justified. This would include circumstances such as childhood disease or birth into a poor family, which cannot be explained as moral recompense for actions in this life. It is this feature that supposedly saves Providence from the charge of being unfair. The downside is that such a view of karmic predestination can lead to a fatalistic resignation to one’s lot, which is scarcely calculated to help people to better their circumstances.

Another difference to the Thai-Shang Tractate view is that is seems at least slightly more testable than other religious views that postpone moral reward and punishment to a future life. You can imagine studies that would attempt to determine statistically whether people who do good achieve longer life than people who do evil. One difficulty in conducting such a study is that people tend to hide their evil actions. Still, there are instances of evil being conducted in public on a mass scale, as in the case of ruthless dictators, slave owners, witch hunters, and so on. It would not be surprising if such people average a shorter or less happy lifespan than most, but one suspects that the tendency is only a statistical average rather than an infallible justice, and that it can be accounted for by more mundane means than the intervention of spirits.

Sources: http://baharna.com/,The Texts of Taoism, by James Legge.

The Texts of Taoism on Karma was originally published on The Hidden Left Hand

LARA CROFT TIME TRAVEL DINOSAUR GIRL

Haven’t heard from this Artist in a good long time, thank you Faustus Crow, love your work… I recommend it to all of you heretics out there.

FAUSTUS CROW

The twenty-seven year old professor in palaeontology, whose name is Ronovea, became rather notorious when she was featured in the Playboy Grimoire entitled the Goetia. Ronovea decided to become a whistleblower, who revealed that the British Natural History museum has a Stargate in its infernal basement.

Her revelations did not go down at all well with the shadowy curators of the museum, whose secretive agenda is to influence the past so that they can control the present, whereby owning the future.

The shadowy curator’s were further aggravated, since Ronovea allowed some photographs of her self to be published, which depicted her raunchily riding a raptor, during one of her time-travelling escapades back into the prehistoric past.

Ronovea is often equated with the iconic video game character, Lara Croft by many a male paleontologist, whose erotic ‘Anima’ manifestation inspires their scientific endeavours; for she knows of their deepest reptilian brain-stem…

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HorrorMagick: A GUIDED TOUR OF HELL

 

BEFORE JIGSAW, THERE WERE FREDDY KRUEGER AND JASON VOORHEES. Before those two were slicing and dicing up teenagers, there were Michael Myers and Leatherface. And long before either of them, there were Dracula, the Wolfman, Doctor Frankenstein, and his monster. And before all of them, there was Nergal, Lord of Death.

 
Horror has, among all of the genres in film and written works, one of the longest, most distinguished, and often misunderstood bloodlines in history. It is often overlooked by critics who don’t see anything more than blood and guts on the screen, or a collection of cheap scares. But what is most often missed is its commentary on society and life in general. It’s use in Magic is sorely overlooked, and in the coming blog posts I’d like to take the time and tell you why I think this is so.

 
This genre also has a unique ability to show, in a frank, explicit manner, the ills of society and be a warning to us if we don’t do something about it. This is where we can get away with showing some of the ugliest, most disgusting things. We can explore that shadowy side of human nature that many people would rather have swept under the rug. And people will pay money to see it! Before films were invented, the horror genre already had a long history in myth, folklore, short stories, novels, dime novels and just about anything else that could be written, printed, or told on a dark night in front of a fire. But how did anyone ever think of making a horror movie?

 
The invention of movies by Thomas Edison was seen at first as just a passing fad, nothing that was going to be of importance. After all, pictures and film had been around for a long time. Although Edison had figured out a way to make pictures move — and at first, it was exciting to see a person walk about, do a dance, flex some muscles — those clips became boring really quickly. But soon early filmmakers had the idea to make moving pictures tell a story, and Edison created one of the earliest film stories in The Great Train Robbery (1903), the first Western, shot in New Jersey.The French fell in love with the invention of the movie camera and almost instantly saw the potential of the machine mixed with the arts. In 1896, the first horror film was shot. It was only three minutes long but it proved that fear could be contained and retold countless times. The Devil’s Castle scared its audience and gave them a taste of what horror films would be in the future.

 

 
The art of film progressed, and along with it, horror films were one of the genres that progressed at a good pace.
German Expressionism was an important art movement of the early twentieth century that had a great influence on all film, but especially on the beginnings of horror. Expressionism was an artistic style that depicted subjective emotions rather than objective reality “through distortion, exaggeration, primitivism, and fantasy and through the vivid, jarring, violent, or dynamic” way using formal elements, This is just how HorrorMagick works, taping into these primal emotions and bringing them to flesh, sometimes kicking and screaming…but back to the Tour.

 
One of the most memorable and influential films was the 1920 German silent movie The Cabinet of Dr Caligari
From Wikipedia, on The Cabinet of Dr Caligari2—
“The film tells the story of the deranged Dr. Caligari and his faithful sleepwalking Cesare and their connection to a string of murders in a German mountain village, Holstenwall. Caligari presents one of the earliest examples of a motion picture ‘frame story’ in which the body of the plot is presented as a flashback, as told by Francis.”

 
The narrator, Francis, and his friend Alan visit a carnival in the village where they see Dr. Caligari and Cesare, whom the doctor is displaying as an attraction. Caligari brags that Cesare can answer any question he is asked. When Alan asks Cesare how long he has to live, Cesare tells Alan that he will die tomorrow at dawn — a prophecy that turns out to be fulfilled. Francis, along with his girlfriend Jane, investigates Caligari and Cesare, which eventually leads to Jane’s kidnapping by Cesare. Caligari orders Cesare to kill Jane, but the hypnotized slave relents after her beauty captivates him. He carries Jane out of her house, leading the townsfolk on a lengthy chase. Francis discovers that ‘Caligari’ is actually the head of the local insane asylum, and with the help of his colleagues discovers that he is obsessed with the story of a medieval Dr. Caligari, who used a somnambulist to murder people as a traveling act.

 

Cesare falls to his death during the pursuit and the townsfolk discover that Caligari had created a dummy of Cesare to distract Francis. After being confronted with the dead Cesare, Caligari breaks down and reveals his mania and is imprisoned in his asylum.” The pivotal twist ending reveals that Francis’ flashback is instead his fantasy, and the man he claims is Caligari is in fact his asylum doctor, who, after this revelation of the source of his patient’s delusion, claims to be able to cure him.This story was the boilerplate, if you will, of a number of horror stories to come.

 
Soon after Dr Caligari, other great European horror films were released, cementing the structure of the genre. In 1921 a Hungarian film called The Death of Dracula, the first vampire movie, was made, the first of many adaptations of Bram Stoker’s novel. In 1922 Nosferatu was produced from an unauthorized film adaptation of Stoker’s novel. It was shot on location and because of copyright problems, the vampire was named Nosferatu rather than Dracula and
the location was changed from Transylvania to Bremen. In 2000, a film called Shadow of the Vampire was made that explored the question of what would happen if the central character, played by Max Schreck, were a real vampire.
Of course, the legend of Faust was brought into play as a movie in 1913 with Student of Prague. A student makes a pact with the devil for wealth and women. (It sounds like a pact made every week by some of the magicians I know in the United States.)

 

 
The Jewish story of the Golem was also used in early monster movies, such as in The Monster of Fate (1914) and the remake in 1917, The Golem and the Dancer. These were interesting stories of a man-like creature made of clay, bought to life by a secret Hebrew prayer placed into its mouth, based on the idea that God, or rather the secret prayer, can create life where there was none. The version of 1920, The Golem, was an expressionistic film that had many of the same story components we see later in a more recognizable form in the Frankenstein films.

 
Okay, now that we’re talking about monsters, in this case the man-made kind: Many people don’t know that the first Frankenstein monster movie was made in the United States in 1910 by, of all people, Edison, in his Edison Studios. It was a 16-minute one-reel film, and there were some differences from the elements of the story as we know it, most notably that the monster was not created from body parts but inside a cauldron of chemicals.

 

 

During the early twenties while Hollywood was still learning how to walk but did not talk yet, there were some horror films made with the first American horror film star, Lon Chaney. Chaney had been a stage actor known not just for his performances but also for the transformations of grotesque makeup that he used for his characters. He was known as the “Man of a Thousand Faces.” His 1923 version of The Hunchback of Notre Dame was considered a classic until the Charles Laughton version. Chaney’s ultimate performance was as the disfigured, deranged Erik in The Phantom of the Opera in 1925. It was the dark, expressionistic tones that helped set the standard for horror films in the ’30s. The unmasking scene is still a pivotal moment in the genre.

 
In the U.S., the 1930s were the years where horror films in Hollywood came to the forefront and entered into their Classic Age. Dracula, with Bela Lugosi, and Frankenstein with Boris Karloff arrived in American theaters in 1931. These films marked the beginning of a rush of different horror films. Dracula was based on the stage play of the same name, in which Bela Lugosi had won great reviews as the Count from Transylvania. Universal bought the rights to it and wanted to cast a known actor as Dracula. The actor everyone wanted was Lon Chaney, but, unfortunately, he had passed away in 1930, forcing Hollywood to do something it never really likes to do: hire the stage actor for the film.

 

Universal had decided to do two films at the same time. Sound was getting popular in the U.S., but most theaters still hadn’t been turned over to sound. However in most of Latin America the theaters were newer and had already been converted, so the studio decided to shoot the English version during the day and the Spanish version at night to save money. Director George Melford was hired to direct the Spanish version, while Tod Browning did the English version with Lugosi. Melford realized this was an opportunity for him. With his Director of Photography at his side, Melford
would watch the dailies shot by the English version unit and try to outdo them with better camera movement, lighting, and so forth. To this day many critics consider the Spanish version more impressive visually than the English version.

 

Just a few thoughts on the History of Horror and HorrorMagick, as we close on another Halloween, I will write more soon but till then,Stay Gold….

Sources: Wikipedia, Horror screenwriting : the nature of fear  by Devin Watson ,http://filmmakeriq.com/lessons/a-brief-history-of-horror/, http://nofilmschool.com/2013/10/a-look-at-the-history-of-horror-films

 

HorrorMagick: A GUIDED TOUR OF HELL was originally published on The Hidden Left Hand

A Review of “The Billionth Monkey” : by Richard Kaczynski

Fun fact: All writers are crazy, to some degree. There is a reason for it — actually making it through a novel almost requires it. If you love to read, then you’re continually benefiting from other people’s craziness. And by this standard you would think Mr. Kaczynski is quite insane (I did at first), but in a delightful, Slapstick 0 to 80 Mph sort of way. For someone born and breed from the city of New Orleans, this book gives some of the best descriptions of the city and it’s likes’ and dislikes’ by a non-native that I’ve read in quite sometime. Filled with nerd humor, dead bodies, and more Pop culture references then you can shake a microwaved kitten at, It strains my imagination to the breaking point to even attempt to tell you what this book is about without ruining it for you.Let me just put it this way, say you happen to live in a world where every urban Legend your grandma’s, boyfriends, ex-roommate’s uncle told you about slowly became real and tried to kill you. What would you do? Mr. Kaczynski gives us a few ideas, along with sight gags in print, occult facts mixed with the Snarky Observations of the main Protagonist’s “companion” , Dr.Who style, AND a Hamlet scene comic book at the end. Why? I can’t tell you that! Read the book and see, I promise you dear reader, you will not be disappointed.

I Give this one a Tip of my Hat, and look forward to his next work with rabid anticipation.

Stay Gold folks…

Review by: Vincent Piazza

A Review of “The Billionth Monkey” : by Richard Kaczynski was originally published on The Hidden Left Hand

Horror Magick part 2: The Evocation of Pinhead

 

 

“Its voice, unlike that of its companion, was light and breathy-the voice of an excited girl. Every inch of its head had been tattooed with an intricate grid, and at every intersection of horizontal and vertical axes a jeweled pin driven through to the bone. Its tongue was similarly decorated.”

— The Hellbound Heart, Clive Barker, ch. 1

 

 

As I’ve said in part one of this blog series,  In its current form, the horror film itself is the perfect breeding ground for creation of ready-made thought forms and egregores preprogrammed with abilities and skills that would put any Goetic King to shame. Putting it another way, monsters are not just for horror films anymore, so why waste such a valuable resource? So, I’ve decided to put it to the test and write an Evocation of Pinhead, the main hell priest and cenobite of Clive Barker’s novella “The Hellbound Heart”. Made famous by the Hellraiser movies, It was originally published in November 1986 by Dark Harvest in the third volume of their Night Visions anthology series, but was re-released as a stand-alone title by Harper Collins in 1988 after the success of the movie, along with an audiobook recorded by Clive Barker and published by Audioworks.

 

This Mythos of Pop Culture has endured to this day and has quite a strong fan base, with comics and tee-shirts, new stories and another sequel in the works. I felt he was the perfect Horror egregore for my first test of the system. He is also talkative, and this is quite a good thing as I believe a calling of Jason or Michael would be much harder to work out when it came to the evocation proper, and no one wants Freddy in the house for any length of time, at least not the same place that you wish to sleep.

 

For those of you who haven’t read the story or have not seen the film (the 1% of those who read my blog ),The story focuses on a Puzzle Box (Lament Configuration) and the horror it wreaks on a family which is unfortunate enough to come across it. Pinhead (his real name was Elliott Spencer) was born Elliot Spencer and opened the Lament Configuration after becoming disenchanted with human life from his service in World War I. Like the other Cenobites, he lost all memory of his human identity following the transformation and serves the deity Leviathan by abducting others who solve the Lament Configuration and torture them in a labyrinth realm called Hell. In the Hellbound Heart we find Frank, a nihilist and selfish moral degenerate who has participated in every hedonistic pleasure, extreme experience and sexual perversion known to man, each time seeking a greater pleasure higher than the last. Jaded, Frank hears rumor of a mysterious puzzle box (the Lament Configuration) which opens the gateway to a realm of unfathomable carnal pleasures. Frank tracks down the current owner of the box in Düsseldorf and obtains it through performing “small favors”.

 

Frank manages to solve the puzzle while squatting in the attic of his grandparents’ house, where he has set up an elaborate display of flowers and a jug of his own urine. A gateway opens and appearing from it are the Cenobites, Lead by Pinhead, a race of distorted creatures who practice an extreme form of sadomasochism centered around agonizing torture and mutilation. They see little difference between extreme pleasure and extreme pain and drag Frank, willingly at first, into their extradimensional realm, where Frank begins what he realizes too late will be an eternity of torture.

 

If you wish to read the whole story, you can find it here http://www.amazon.com/The-Hellbound-Heart-A-Novel/dp/0061452882, and if you plan on repeating this experiment, I suggest you do read it, at the very least. On to the Ritual…

 

Note: while this Ritual is called “The Evocation of Pinhead” the Hell Priest despises that name so it will only be used once in the Evocation (see below) if you succeed in this rite, I would suggest you refer to him as Hell Priest or Cenobite. You may also call him Mr. Spencer, but he will be quick to inform you that is no longer his name.

Supplies:

Myrrh and Musk (Tears and Passion) Charcoal and an Incense burner

A Low table that you can sit in front of cross legged ( Lotus or Half is preferred, indian or tailor style will work if you can’t) Have the table face North.

A bunch of flowers (some wilted, some fresh) a jug, jar or cup of your own urine. Place the flower to the left of the burner, the jug to the right.

6 candles, two burning behind you, two on either side of you, two placed on the table behind the burner.

Something to cause you pain and draw blood with (Razor, Knife, Pin)

A Chain and a Hook, placed before the burner.

A Small Wooden Box with six sides, you will hold this throughout the ritual

I started with a calling of Leviathan while doing so I visualized a large Sea serpent coiling about me, creating a circle.Did a Microcosmic Orbit 6 times and pushed my Aura out from my Tan T’ien to the edge of the serpent.

 

I then Began this Evocation:

“I call to thee, Elliott Spencer, Known to the Worms of this realm as Pinhead. I conjure thee, Great and Terrible Hell Priest, in the name of your creator, Clive Barker, to walk into this circle of Leviathan and appear before me. Heed my call and come now, oh Master of Pain, Cenobite, reside in the Pit no longer (at this time, stroke the box with your fingers, turn it over and over in your hands and see it in your mind’s eye start to glow and open). Hell Priest, I have completed  the task you have set before me, the puzzle is solved, pleasure and pain indivisible shall be the state of this chamber. I wish to see the sights you have to show me. ( Then say the following call six times, once for each side of the box)”Cenobite come to me, Hell Priest come to me, Elliott Spencer come to me, in the name of Clive Barker, your creator, I call to thee.”

 

If he has not shown himself after the six calls, you may do another set of six, but I would suggest no more then that. When and if he comes, be very respectful as if dealing with the most arrogant of kings. I had a conversation with him about the nature of Pleasure and Pain, and I suggest that you do the same to gain insight into this eggagore before asking for anything from him. I then Cut myself with my straight razor and offered some of my blood into the burner for payment, I strongly suggest you do the same with whatever implement you have at hand, for in the lore the cenobites never leave without drawing blood and causing pain first. I then asked him politely to return to hell, he seemed satisfied and quickly did so( interesting note, he flickered in and when he left he blinked out, like a cathode tube television turning off.)

 

I then thanked Leviathan, dissolved the circle, and pulled my Aura back into my Tan T’ien, cycled the Microcosmic orbit and stored the Qi in my Tan T’ien. I accept no responsibility for the mental state of anyone who tries to repeat this ritual.This stuff is experimental and I have no idea what the side effects may be, if any. If you do so, my only suggestion is that you find out all you can about the lore of the Hellraiser sub-universe. Watch all of the Movies (even the bad ones), read the Hellbound Heart and the Scarlet Gospels as well for a deeper understanding of what you are dealing with, before you proceed.

All Art and Writing Copyright 2015- Vincent Piazza

Stay Gold everyone….

 

Horror Magick part 2: The Evocation of Pinhead was originally published on The Hidden Left Hand

Demon Study: Amon

 

Amon (also Aamon and Nahum),It is said that he is a Marquis of Hell who governs forty infernal legions. Often  confused with the Egyptian god Amun, the name can also be traced to Baal Hammon, or properly Baʿal Hammon, who was the chief god of Carthage. He was a weather god considered responsible for the fertility of vegetation and esteemed as King of the Gods. He was depicted as a bearded older man with curling ram’s horns.Some Evokers I’ve spoken to believe him to be the very same spirit as the great Egyptian god Amon-Ra, and whether this demon is indeed an ancient god or not is up for debate,but in my experience with him the subject didn’t come up.

 

In the “Pseudomonarchia daemonum” Johann Wier wrote:

“Amon, or Aamon, is a great and mightie marques, and commeth abroad in the likenes of a woolfe, having a serpents taile, [vomiting] flames of fier; when he putteth on the shape of a man, he sheweth out dogs teeth, and a great head like to a mightie [night hawk]; he is the strongest prince of all other, and understandeth of all things past and to come, he procureth favor, and reconcileth both freends and foes, and ruleth fourtie legions of divels.”

 

And then we have S. L. MacGregor Mathers description in the Goetia:

“The Seventh Spirit is Amon. He is a Marquis great in power, and most stern. He appeareth like a Wolf with a Serpent’s tail, vomiting out of his mouth flames of fire; but at the command of the Magician he putteth on the shape of a Man with Dog’s teeth beset in a head like a Raven; or else like a Man with a Raven’s head (simply). He telleth all things Past and to Come. He procureth feuds and reconcileth controversies between friends. He governeth 40 Legions of Spirits. His Seal is this which is to be worn as aforesaid, etc.”

 

Amon came quite quickly and was very easy to talk to. He appeared to me as a Medium sized Gray Dog with an odd colorized flame shooting from his mouth every now and again. I’ve spoken with him twice and asked questions about my future and the nature of the Tao and Luciferianism. Some of the answers were quite personal but far in advance on the timeline about my life (called in 2012, gave information about an event that “could” happen 20 years from now). Gave consul on my studies and how they could affect me in the future, one statement I found quite telling “Avoid the study of too much Kabbalah or the curse of YHVH will compel you to tread that path for the rest of your days. That is an avenue of deep work that you could follow, but you would be quite unhappy doing so. ”

 

His Demonic Enn is: Avage Secore Amon Ninan

I’ve called him to both the Mirror and visual appearance, made offerings of honey and wine mixed that he seemed to quite enjoy.

Stay Gold folks, till next time.

Sources:

S. L. MacGregor Mathers, A. Crowley, The Goetia: The Lesser Key of Solomon the King

Collin de Plancy, Dictionnaire Infernal

Pseudomonarchia Daemonum

The Complete Book of Demonolatry by S. Connolly

Demon Study: Amon was originally published on The Hidden Left Hand