So as you may have noticed I’ve been doing a lot of exercises recently, mostly with a group of energy workers so you can see the themes that are popping up.
For the next couple of weeks, we are working on an exercise from Jason Miller’s writing. I love his books and nearly anything Jason Miller writes. I find his stuff is well researched and very practical, albeit filled with plenty of UPG. You need to be able to recognise the UPG when working through it, so you can take those parts with a pinch of salt, but still use the very practical exercises to achieve results. His books do tend to be magic for those that are already experienced.
They are also very results-focused magic, which in my head is good. Some people will suddenly say results is not how to measure magic. (Usually people who don’t get great results.) Results show you’re actually doing something. Too many people are energy workers without the energy to get up in the morning, healers that seem to be perpetually sick and people capable of magic who show no change, progression in their lives which are often constantly falling apart at the seams. Magic is capable of a lot of deception. People often go off in their head and think they’re getting somewhere but years later you come back to them to find they have been reading the same Wheel of the Year books for years and who are as changes and magically effective as a bag of chips.
In truth, real magic is very powerful. It can produce a lot of real-world tangible results as well as the stuff we feel. Me owning stocks and a house in London sounded like an absolute joke that was never going to happen 3 years ago as I waded through debt repayments. Also, “me owning a limited company” also seemed a joke 5 years ago. All these things have happened. I have cleared a debt equal to my salary at the point I began paying it off. I created a queer family around me, coached one person into uni. Helped another two people into new careers that massively increased their salaries and freedom. Helped another couple of people find confidence in artistic expression to the point they actually commented on what they’re capable of now compared to before. Also I lead a coven these days. I’m a powerhouse for positive sustainable change because I have real magic flowing through my veins. I don’t need to rely on wishy-washy feely stuff. Results shows me that I am not delusional. 3rd chapter of the book of the law ” Success is thy proof: argue not; convert not;”. (I’ll leave off the next line to avoid contradicting the whole reason for blogging.)
So I conclude, Millers work is great. It focuses on results and it has results. It certainly has for him and many of my friends who have committed to his books / courses / engaged with them and understood them.
This exercise is taken from Jason Miller’s work which I recommend for some witches / magicians looking to take their magic to the next level. A great starting place is his book Strategic Sorcery which gives you a clue as to whether you can continue.
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Sorcerers-Secrets-Strategies-Practical-Magick/dp/B0938KNTWB
This exercise is inspired by a PGM ritual (PGM XIII.763—887)
The purpose of this ritual is to to balance and filter the astrological energies of the planets as they manifest in the sphere of the ritualist. It creates a magic circle like a sphere or cube.
Each planet is given a direction and a Greek vowel which is sounded out. The modernised version of this ritual uses the symbols for the planets from Alchemy. You will stretch out your hand intoning the vowel moving your hand around slowly until you reach a point where the energy just snaps to grid. Aim in the appropriate direction, but recognise that it can sometimes be unaligned. Once it is anchored in place you can adjust it to the correct place.
Ground yourself and reach your energy up finding your center. From there expand a sphere around you a meter or so bigger than your body.
East – Mars – Omicron
Face East. Visualise a sphere with the symbol of Mars and/or the omicron Greek letter at your hand. Pronounce it drawn out like the o in pot but longer. Trying to find a place where the sphere clicks into place and draw it to the edge of the sphere directly eastward.
North – Mercury – Epsilon
Face North. Visualise a sphere with the symbol of Mercury and/or the epsilon Greek letter at your hand. Pronounce it drawn out like the “e” in pet, but longer. Trying to find a place where the sphere clicks into place and draw it to the edge of the sphere directly northward.
West – Venus – Hta
Face West. Visualise a sphere with the symbol of Venus and/or the hta Greek letter at your hand. Pronounce it drawn out like the “ai” in “air”. Trying to find a place where the sphere clicks into place and draw it to the edge of the sphere directly westward.
South – Jupiter – Ypsilon
Face South. Visualise a sphere with the symbol of Jupiter and/or the Ypsilon Greek letter at your hand. Pronounce it drawn out like the “u” in “rule”. Trying to find a place where the sphere clicks into place and draw it to the edge of the sphere directly southward.
Down – Moon – Alpha
Touching the ground create a sphere for the Moon and the vowel alpha (“a” as in father). Glide it into place and then draw it directly to below you.
Centre – Sun – Iota
Focusing on your own heart picturing the symbol of the Sun and/or Iota. Vibrate the sound I (Greek syllable Iota pronounced like a long “e”, like in tree)
Up – Saturn – Omega
Finally, reach up and do the same for Saturn Ω and Omega directly above you.
Spell
This is an optional prayer to finish:
I call upon the eternal and unbegotten Aeon who holds together the creation of all things whom none understand and whom the gods worship empower the sphere that surrounds me
That the seven rays be a balanced and beautiful blessing and the Archons Influence dignify my works In the name of ABRASAX
And in the name of the great one, Whose name is the name of the Cosmos itself.
Stand in the centre of this sphere before letting it dissipate.
Initial Impressions
Well, I had to correct a few vowel pronunciations since most English people seem to struggle with pure vowels. The pronunciation of vowels is inconsistent enough in English to make it hard to write the vowels. Also due to natural vowel rounding English is very limited to express pure vowels. This is more of a pet peeve than a real issue.
In my opinion, the planets are pure and don’t need “balancing” or any kind of correction. I am slightly concerned by the idea of balancing them. It reminds me of what happened to chakras, which led to a mass-commodification of spirituality. That concerns me greatly as I will explain below.
A chakra is a divine symbol. It is, by its nature, pure, balanced and infinite. A chakra does not need to be “balanced” or “unblocked”. It can’t actually undergo either of these. It can’t get blocked. A part of the subtle body can get blocked, but not a chakra. Originally however chakras did not naturally exist in your subtle body. They are a divine symbol which people began to carve into the energy of their subtle bodies at certain nexus points, where there was a large flow of energy and a nexus of nadis (energy pipes) at each point. These nadis can block, but not the chakras themselves.
Why is this a concern? Well over 40 billion USD is spent on chakra-balancing every year! This can be through shining coloured lights, crystals, sound baths, reiki, magnetic therapy, tapping, massage, herbs, hot stones, water, oil and more. In creating a need to correct something that never needed correcting before “healers” made a multi-billion dollar industry, but inventing a need. Regular users of these services avoid learning how to correct their own energy and no longer take responsibility for their own wellbeing instead of relying on the person offering the service to do it for them. Also, these services are frequently expensive and theory-ignorant. This is like caudling a person. Soon they are lulled into a state of dependency and milked for years to come like a cash cow.
I am VERY concerned with any indication of starting to do something similar with a different system like the planets.
Potentially however we are simply encouraging a good reflection of the universe in ourselves. Making our microcosm match the macrocosm, but then again it should already do so.
Experience
The regular invocation of planetary forces seems to make them more readily accessible which is a very usable magical system. However, this could be done quicker by threading the qabalah’s tree of life and using planets through the body.
The resulting sphere makes one feel nice and protected, but deliberately creating a shield would do this also.
The invocation at the end is powerful, but difficult for many people who have hang-ups about monotheistic views and it has a slight monotheist vibe.