#jewish fraterities

[eretzyisrael]

BY ANI WILCENSKI

At Cornell, the school uses an anonymous reporting system in which anyone can submit a complaint against a frat, even people who don’t attend the university—which can then become near-immediate grounds for a formal investigation during which the fraternity may very likely be suspended. This happened as recently as February, when Cornell’s Office of Student Conduct and Community Standards (OSCCS) received “an anonymous incident report” making unspecified allegations against at least 10 fraternities. By 9 p.m. the same day, OSCCS emailed every new member of those fraternities encouraging them to come forward with their own reports; three days later the school began suspending the accused chapters. The frats were prohibited from all social activity during the investigation, which included banning new members from eating at the house, even though they were paying for the fraternity meal plan, and limiting events at campus apartments occupied by graduating seniors, some of whom even had to cancel their birthday parties. I talked to one senior who wrote to the university, explaining that their guidelines were making it impossible to hold even small gatherings among friends and asking for additional clarity so seniors could find approved ways to enjoy their final days as students—especially since the anti-Israel protests were making campus life notably unenjoyable.

“It was frustrating because most people in our frat are Jewish, and the frat really was essential for us while there were swastikas being drawn on school sidewalks and people were yelling ‘From the river to the sea’ every day,” he said. “I said in my email to the school that campus is divided, isolating, and even threatening for Jews sometimes, so having the fraternity social network is actually a critical part of our lives. They didn’t even respond to my message.” The school lifted his frat’s suspension nearly a month later after the university found insufficient evidence for the allegations.

This incident—and the myriad other times the school leaped to penalize even unsubstantiated infractions—is still fresh in the minds of Cornell fraternity brothers as they watch the university’s noisy Gaza encampment enter its second week, despite multiple statements from the school pointing out its many rule violations. “It’s pretty clear the school views a certain type of rule break as honorable and just, and other rule breaks as violations by entitled jerks, so this was not surprising to me,” the senior said.

[alchemy-fic]

Bibliography:

Alchemy and the Occult:

Western:

Alchemy Unveiled, Johannes Helmond (Translated into English and Edited by

Gerard Hanswille and Deborah Brumlich); (1963)

Practical Alchemy, A Guide To The Great Work; Brian Cotnoir (2006)

The Black Arts (50th Anniversary Edition); Richard Cavendish (1968)

Alchemy & Mysticism: The Hermetic Cabinet; Alexander Roob (2009)

The Forge and the Crucible: The Origins and Structures of Alchemy (2nd Edition); Mircea Eliade (1962, 1978)

History of Alchemy; M. M. Pattison (1902)

Alchemy (Revised Edition); E. J. Holmyard (1990)

Dictionary of Symbolism, Cultural Icons and the Meanings Behind Them; Hans Biedermann, Translated by James Hulbert (1994)

The Encyclopedia of Witches, Witchcraft, and Wicca; Rosemary Ellen Guiley (1989)

The Encyclopedia of Ghosts and Spirits; Rosemary Ellen Guiley (1992)

Levantine:

The Jewish Alchemists: A History and Source Book; Raphael Patai (1994)

Ancient Magic and Divination, A Microhistorical Study of the Neo-Assyrian Healer Kiṣir-Aššur; Troels Pank Arbøll (2017)

Fuck Your "Magic" Antisemitism: A Lesser Key To The Appropriation Of Jewish Magic & Mysticism; Ezra Rose (2022)

“His wind is released” - The Emergence of the Ghost Ritual of passage in Mesopotamia; Dina Katz, Leiden (2014)

Cursed Are You! The Phenomenology of Cursing in Cuneiform and Hebrew Texts; Anne Marie Kitz (2014)

Egyptian Magic; E.A. Wallis Budge (1901)

Mesopotamian Planetary Astronomy-Astrology (Cuneiform Monographs); David Brown (2000)

Astrology in Ancient Mesopotamia: The Science of Omens and the Knowledge of the Heavens; Michael Baigent (July 20, 2015)

Ancient Jewish Magic: A History; Gideon Bohak (2008)

PERFORMING DEATH: SOCIAL ANALYSES OF FUNERARY TRADITIONS IN THE ANCIENT NEAR EAST AND MEDITERRANEAN; Nicola Laneri, Ellen F. Morris, Glenn M. Schwartz, Robert Chapman, Massimo Cultraro, Meredith S. Chesson, Alessandro Naso, Adam T. Smith, Dina Katz, Seth Richardson, Susan Pollock, Ian Rutherford, John Pollini, John Robb, and James A. Brown (2007)

Mesopotamian Conceptions of Dreams and Dream Rituals; Sally A. L. Butler (1998)

Forerunners to Udug-Hul: Sumerian exorcistic incantations; Markham J. Geller (1985)

Šurpu. A Collection of Sumerian and Akkadian Incantations; Erica Reiner (1958)

Mesopotamian Protective Spirits: The Ritual Texts; F. A. M. Wiggermann (1992)

The Alchemist's Handbook- Manual for Practical Laboratory Alchemy; Frater Albertus (1960)

Licit Magic: The Life and Letters of al-Ṣāḥib b. ʿAbbād (d. 385/995); Maurice A. Pomerantz (09 Nov 2017)

Further Studies on Mesopotamian Witchcraft Beliefs and Literature; Tzvi Abusch (2002)

The Heavenly Writing: Divination, Horoscopy, and Astronomy in Mesopotamian Culture; Francesca Rochberg (2004)

Greco-Roman:

Magic, Witchcraft, and Ghosts in Greek and Roman Worlds: A Sourcebook; Daniel Ogden (2002)

Far East Asia:

I Ching; Fu Xi (~1000 BCE)

Myths, Legends, Religious Texts And Folktales

Levantine:

The Treasures of Darkness: A History of Mesopotamian Religion; Thorkild Jacobsen (1976)

Persian Myths; Jake Jackson (2022)

Myths of Babylon; Jake Jackson (2018)

The Epic Of Gilgamesh (2nd Edition); Anonymous, Andrew George (????, 2000)

The First Ghost Stories; Dr. Irving Finkel (2021)

On Jewish Folklore; Raphael Patai (1983)

Sumerian Mythology, a Deep Guide Into Sumerian History and Mesopotamian Empire and Myths; Joshua Brown (2021)

Sumerian Mythology, a Study of Spiritual and Literary Achievement in the Third Millennium B.C. (Revised Edition); Samuel Noah Kramer (1961)

Sumerian Liturgies; Anonymous, Stephen Langdon (1919)

Inanna, Lady of Largest Heart, Poems of the Sumerian High Priestess Enheduanna; Enheduanna, Betty De Shong Meador (1989)

Ninurta's Journey to Eridu; Daniel Reisman (1971)

A Sumerian Proverb Tablet in Geneva With Some Thoughts on Sumerian Proverb (2006)

Enki's Journey to Nippur: The Journeys of the Gods; Al-Fouadi, Abdul-Hadi A. (1969)

The Arthur of the Welsh: The Arthurian Legend in Medieval Welsh Literature by Rachel Bromwich (1991)

Encyclopedia of American Folklore; Linda S. Watts (2006)

Jewish Magic and Superstition: A Study in Folk Religion; Joshua Trachtenberg (1939)

Amulets and Talismans; E.A. Wallis Budge (The copy I have was published in 1992 but he died in 1934. Not sure when the original work was created.)

Ashkenazi Herbalism: Rediscovering the Herbal Traditions of Eastern European Jews; Deatra Cohen, Adam Siegel (2021)

Encyclopedia of Catholicism; Frank K. Flinn (2007)

As Through a Veil: Mystical Poetry in Islam; Annemarie Schimmel (1982)

You Will Have Other Goddesses in Addition to Me: Polytheism Among Ancient Israelite Women; Liora Finke (2022)

Gods That Travel: On The Ritual Aspects of Divine Journeys And Processions; Klaus Wagensonner (2014)

NINURTA AND ENKI; A new divine journey of the warrior god to Eridu; Klaus Wagensonner (2013)

Jewish Music in Its Historical Development; Abraham Zevi Idelsohn (1929)

The God Enki in Sumerian Royal Ideology and Mythology; Peeter Espak (2010)

The Encyclopedia of Jewish Myth, Magic & Mysticism: Second Edition; Geoffrey W. Dennis (2007)

Book of Jewish Knowledge: An Encyclopedia of Judaism and the Jewish People, Covering All Elements of Jewish Life from Biblical Times to the Present (03 May 1948); Nathan Ausubel

Encyclopedia of Judaism (Encyclopedia of World Religions); Sara E. Karesh & Mitchell M. Hurvitz (2006)

Aboriginal Australia: 

Gadi Mirrabooka: Australian Aboriginal Tales from the Dreaming; Pauline E. McLeod, Francis Firebrace Jones, June E. Barker, Helen F. McKay (2001)

The Two Rainbow Serpents Travelling: Mura Track Narratives from the 'Corner Country'; Jeremy Beckett, Luise Hercus (2009)

Mixed or Other:

Egyptian Myths & Tales; Japanese Myths & Tales, Aztec Myths & Tales, Scottish Folk & Fairytales, Viking Folk & Fairytales, Chinese Myths & Tales, Greek Myths & Tales, African Myths & Tales, Native American Myths & Tales, Persian Myths & Tales, Celtic Myths & Tales, Irish Fairy Tales; Anonymous, Flame Tree Publishing

Tales of King Arthur & The Knights Of The Round Table (Le Morte D’Arthur); Thomas Malory

The Encyclopedia of Celtic Mythology and Folklore; Patricia Monaghan (2004)

Academic (Science including Psychology)

Stellar Alchemy: The Celestial Origin of Atoms, Michel Cassé, Stephen Lyle (2003)

Aboriginal Suicide Is Different: A Portrait of Life And Self Destruction; Colin Tatz (2005)

Fruit Domestication in the Near East; Shahal Abbo, Avi Gopher & Simcha Lev-Yadun (2015) 

Astronomical Cuneiform Texts: Babylonian Ephemerides of the Seleucid Period for the Motion of the Sun, the Moon, and the Planets (Sources in the History of Mathematics and Physical Sciences, 5); Otto E. Neugebauer (1945)

Studies in the History of Science;  E. A. Speiser; Otto E. Neugebauer; Hermann Ranke; Henry E. Sigerist; Richard H. Shryock; Evarts A. Graham; Edgar A. Singer; Hermann Weyl (Compiled In 2017)

Studies in Civilization;  Alan J. B. Wace; Otto E. Neugebauer; William S. Ferguson (Compiled In 2016)

Astronomy and History: Selected Essays; Otto E. Neugebauer (Compiled In 1983)

The Encyclopedia of the Brain and Brain Disorders; Carol Turkington (2002)

The Encyclopedia of Poisons and Antidotes; Deborah R. Mitchell & Carol Turkington (2010)

The Encyclopedia of Suicide; Glen Evans, Norman L. Farberow, Ph.D. & Kennedy Associates (1988)

Academic (History)

Western:

Encyclopedia of Native American Tribes; Carl Waldman (2006)

Levantine:

Sounds from the Divine: Religious Musical Instruments in the Ancient Near East; Dahlia Shehata (2014)

Gender and Aging in Mesopotamia: The Gilgamesh Epic and Other Ancient Literature; Rivkah Harris (05/12/2003)

House Most High: The Temples of Ancient Mesopotamia; A. R. George (1993)

The Cultural Atlas of Mesopotamia and the Ancient Near East; Michael Roaf (1990)

The Meaning of Color in Ancient Mesopotamia; Shiyanthi Thavapalan (2020)

The Loss of Male Sexual Desire in Ancient Mesopotamia; Gioele Zisa (2021)

Materials and Manufacture in Ancient Mesopotamia: The evidence of Archaeology and Art. Metals and metalwork, glazed materials and glass; P. R. S. Moorey (3/1/1985)

Collections; Bendt Alster, Takayoshi Oshima (2006)

Political Agency of Royal Women; Paula Sabloff (2019)

Studies in Sumerian Civilization: Selected Writings Of Miguel Civil; Miguel Civil, edited by Lluís Felu (2017)

A study on the natural heritage and its importance in the Sumerian civilization in southern Iraq; Al-Hussein Nabeel Al-Karkhi, Isam Hussain T. Al-Karkhi (2021)

A Sumerian Riddle Collection; Bendt Alster (1976)

SUMERIAN “CHILD”; Vitali Bartash (2018)

The civilizing of Ea-Enkidu an unusual tablet of the Babylonian Gilgamesh Epic; Andrew R George (2007)

Celibacy in the Ancient World: Its Ideal and Practice in Pre-Hellenistic Israel, Mesopotamia, and Greece; Dale Launderville OSB (07/01/2010)

House and Household Economies in 3rd Millennium B.C.E. Syro-Mesopotamia; Federico Buccellati ,Tobias Helms & Alexander Tamm (2014)

The Harps That Once… Sumerian Poetry In Translation; Thorkild Jacobsen (1987)

The Divine Origin Of The Craft Of The Herbalist; Sir E. A. Wallis Budge (1928)

Disease in Babylonia; Edited by Irving Finkel and Markham (Mark) Geller (2007)

Royal Statuary of Early Dynastic Mesopotamia; Gianni Marchesi and Nicolo Marchetti (2011)

Myths of Enki, The Crafty God; Samuel Noah Kramer, John Maier (1989)

Household and State in Upper Mesopotamia; Patricia Wattenmaker (July 17, 1998)

Assyrian Rulers of the Early First Millennium; Albert Kirk Grayson (1987)

Gudea's Temple Building: The Representation of an Early Mesopotamian Ruler in Text and Image (Cuneiform Monographs); Claudia E. Suter (January 1, 2000)

Reading Sumerian Poetry (Athlone Publications in Egyptology & Ancient Near Eastern Studies); Jeremy Black (2001)

Handbook to Life in Ancient Mesopotamia; Stephen Bertman (2002)

Weavers, Scribes, and Kings: A New History of the Ancient Near East; Amanda H. Podany (2022)

History Begins at Sumer: Thirty-Nine Firsts in Recorded History; Samuel Noah Kramer (1981)

A History of the Animal World in the Ancient Near East; Edited by Billie Jean Collins (2002)

The Sumerians: Their History, Culture, and Character; Samuel Noah Kramer (1963)

The Ancient Near East in Transregional Perspective: Material Culture and Exchange Between Mesopotamia, the Levant and Lower Egypt from 5800 to 5200 ... Sudan and the Levant; Katharina Streit (11/10/2020)

Colonialism and Christianity in Mandate Palestine; Laura Robson (September 1, 2011)

Poetic Astronomy in the Ancient Near East The Reflexes of Celestial Science in Ancient Mesopotamian, Ugaritic, and Israelite Narrative; Jeffrey L. Cooley (2013)

Hasidism, Haskalah, Zionism: Chapters in Literary Politics (Jewish Culture and Contexts); Hannan Hever (October 17, 2023)

Mourning in the Ancient Near East and the Hebrew Bible; Xuan Huong Thi Pham (1999)

Medieval Hebrew Poetry in Muslim Egypt; Joachim J.M.S. Yeshaya (2011)

The Land that I Will Show You: Essays on the History and Archaeology of the Ancient Near East in Honor of J. Maxwell Miller; J. Andrew Dearman & M. Patrick Graham (January 9, 2002)

Jerusalem in Ancient History and Tradition; Thomas L. Thompson (2003)

Prisons in Ancient Mesopotamia, Confinement and Control until the First Fall of Babylon; Dr. J. Nicholas Reid (2022)

Prophets Male and Female: Gender and Prophecy in the Hebrew Bible, the Eastern Mediterranean, and the Ancient Near East; Jonathan Stökl & Corrine L. Carvalho (2013)

The Calm before the Storm- Selected writings of Itamar Singer on the late Bronze Age in Anatolia and the Levant; Itamar Singer (2012)

"Holiness" and "purity" in Mesopotamia;  E. Jan Wilson (1994)

The Material Culture of the Northern Sea Peoples in Israel; Ephraim Stern (2013)

Family and Household Religion in Ancient Israel and the Levant; Rainer Albertz and Rüdiger Schmitt (2012)

Scribal Education in Ancient Israel: The Old Hebrew Epigraphic Evidence; Christopher A. Rollston (11/2006)

Neanderthals in the Levant- Behavioural Organization and the Beginnings of Human Modernity; Donald O. Henry (10/2003)

Suddenly, the Sight of War- Violence and Nationalism in Hebrew Poetry in the 1940s; Hannan Hever (2016)

Gender and Law in the Hebrew Bible and the Ancient Near East; Victor H. Matthews, Victor H. Matthews, Bernard M. Levinson, Tikva Frymer-Kensky (1998)

The concept of fate in ancient Mesopotamia of the 1st millennium: Toward an understanding of 'simtu'; Jack N. Lawson (1992)

The Myth of the Jewish Race; Raphael Patai, Jennifer Patai Wing (01/01/1975)

The Dream of the Poem: Hebrew Poetry from Muslim and Christian Spain, 950-1492; Peter Cole (01/22/2007)

Encyclopedia of Jewish Folklore and Traditions; Raphael Patai (2013)

Hebrew Myths; Robert Graves and Raphael Patai (2005) 

Vast as the Sea - Hebrew Poetry and the Human Condition; Samuel Hildebrandt (12/05/2023)

Sex & Eroticism in Mesopotamian Literature; Gwendolyn Leick (1994)

Far East Asian:

Encyclopedia of Ancient Asian Civilizations; Charles Higham (2004)

Aboriginal Australia:

Aboriginal Peoples: Fact and Fiction; Pierre Lepage, Maryse Alcindor, Jan Jordon (2009)

Visions from the Past: The Archaeology of Australian Aboriginal Art; M.J. Morwood, Douglas Hobbs, D.R. Hobbs (2002)

Mixed or Other:

Early Civilizations of the Old World: The Formative Histories of Egypt, The Levant, Mesopotamia, India and China; Charles Keith Maisels (May 20, 2001)

20,000 Years of Fashion: The History of Costume and Personal Adornment; Francois Boucher (1967)

Black Morocco: A History of Slavery, Race, and Islam; Chouki El Hamel (2012)

The Birth of Science: Ancient Times to 1699; Ray Spangenburg & Diane Kit Moser (2004)

The Architecture of Castles: A Visual Guide; Reginald Allen Brown (1984)

Encyclopedia of War Crimes and Genocide; Leslie Alan Horvitz and Christopher Catherwood (2006)

Linguistic

Cuneiform; Irving Finkel, Jonathan Taylor (2015)

An Introduction to the Grammar of Sumerian; Gábor Zólyomi (2017)

Learn to Read Ancient Sumerian: An Introduction for Complete Beginners; Joshua Aaron Bowen, Megan Lewis (2020) Learn to Read Ancient Sumerian: An Introduction for Complete Beginners, Volume 2; Joshua Aaron Bowen, Megan Lewis (2023)

The Sur₉-Priest, the Instrument giš Al-gar-sur₉, and the Forms and Uses of a Rare Sign; Niek C. (1997/1998)

Sumerian Grammar (Handbook of Oriental Studies. Section One, the Near [And] Mi) (English and Sumerian Edition); Dietz Otto Edzard (2003)

A Late Old Babylonian Proto-Kagal / Nigga Text and the Nature of the Acrographic Lexical Series; Niek VELDHUIS -Groningen (1998)

Learning To Pray In A Dead Language, Education And Invocation in Ancient Sumerian; Joshua Bowen (2020)

Aboriginal Sign Languages of The Americas and Australia: Volume 1; North America Classic Comparative Perspectives; Garrick Mallery (auth.), D. Jean Umiker-Sebeok, Thomas A. Sebeok (eds.) (1978)

 The Literature of Ancient Sumer; Jeremy Black, Graham Cunningham, Eleanor Robson, Gabor Zolyomi (2004)

Sumerian Lexicon: A Dictionary Guide to the Ancient Sumerian Language; John Alan Halloran (2006)

A Sumerian Chrestomathy; Konrad Volk (1911)

Online Articles, Dictionaries And Other Resources:

https://nationalclothing.org/middle-east/305-traditional-clothing-of-mesopotamia-what-did-it-look-like.html 

https://www.getty.edu/news/meet-the-mesopotamian-demons/ 

https://factsanddetails.com/world/cat56/sub363/ 

https://ehistory.osu.edu/articles/marriage-ancient-mesopotamia-and-babylonia 

https://etcsl.orinst.ox.ac.uk/section5/tr561.htm 

http://psd.museum.upenn.edu/nepsd-frame.html 

https://www.britannica.com/place/Africa/Trade 

https://www.worldhistory.org/article/2185/festivals-in-ancient-mesopotamia/

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/07/25/well/family/cutting-out-the-bris.html 

http://oracc.museum.upenn.edu/amgg/listofdeities/nannasuen/ 

https://phys.org/news/2023-08-idea-imprisonment-prisoners-earliest-texts.html 

http://www.mathematicsmagazine.com/Articles/TheSumerianMathematicalSystem.php 

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1ooHEYR30oNCdI4Xxop9qBjKQGnqTPwLHQzT8cvv5oxA/edit Sumerian Grammar Made Easy! (2022 Edition)

Historians, linguists, etc:

https://sumerianlanguage.tumblr.com/ aka http://www.jamesbarrettmorison.com/sumerian.html

https://sumerianshakespeare.com/

https://www.youtube.com/c/DigitalHammurabi aka https://www.digitalhammurabi.com/

https://twitter.com/digi_hammurabi and https://twitter.com/DJHammurabi1 

Podcasts and online-exclusive documentaries, video essays, etc

8. The Sumerians - Fall of the First Cities (2020)

13. The Assyrians - Empire of Iron (2021)

The Complete and Concise History of the Sumerians and Early Bronze Age Mesopotamia (7000-2000 BC) (2021)

The Royal Death Pits of Ur (2022)

Gilgamesh and the Flood (2021)

The Birth of Civilisation - Rise of Uruk (6500 BC to 3200 BC) (2021)

The Earliest Creation Myths - Mythillogical (2022)

Enuma Elish | The Babylonian Epic of Creation | Complete Audiobook | With Commentary (2020)

 Eridu Genesis | The Sumerian Epic of Creation (2021)

 Irving Finkel | The Ark Before Noah: A Great Adventure (2016)

Cracking Ancient Codes: Cuneiform Writing - with Irving Finkel (2019)

Ancient Demons with Irving Finkel I Curator's Corner S3 Ep7 #CuratorsCorner (2018)

 How to perform necromancy with Irving Finkel (2017)

 Mesopotamian ghostbusting with Irving Finkel I Curator's Corner + #CuratorsCorner (2018)

Video Games

Sonic The Hedgehog Encyclospeedia; Ian Flynn (2021)

Direct Inspiration

The Golden Compass (1995), The Subtle Knife (1997); The Amber Spyglass (2000); Philip Pullman

The Last Unicorn; Peter S. Beagle (1968)

The 13 and ½ Lives Of Captain Bluebear: A Novel; Walter Moers (1999)

Allerleirauh; Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm (1812)

The Epic of Beowulf; Anonymous (c. 700–1000 AD)

The Writing In The Stone; Irving Finkel (October 10, 2017)

[greensaplinggrace]

Hey! I am the anon who ask for an alternative for "grisha", and, as someone who don't know Russian culture or language, I want to ask your opinion on what I thought.

What do you think of "bditel'nyy" (which should mean awake, vigilant, according to an English-Russian dictionary I found online, but this could be wrong) as a substitute, at least as a formal title, for "grisha"? I was inspired by the "egregore", especially Frater Tenebris' definition: "[…] an occult term for an independently functioning spiritual entity created by one or more magick practitioners. Many egregores begin as thought-forms but then become capable of operating independently of the practitioners", with "thought-form" being "an esoteric entity created by magick […] or from worship and prayer by generations of believers". The definitions of Gaetan Delaforge and René Guénon respectively also seem interesting in this sense: "egregore" is "a kind of group mind which is created when people consciously come together for a common purpose", "possessing a subtle force made up in a way of the contributions of all its members past and present, and which is consequently all the more considerable and able to produce greater effects as the collectivity is older and is composed of a greater number of members".

In other words, it would be related to: 1) an elite spiritual group, who maintain traditions and are vigilant; 2) a group mind; and 3) an independent magical being arising from the collective mind.

PS.: Thank you for answering my first question! And, by any chance, do you think it's offensive to take a Western concept for a group that is part of a country inspired by Russia?

ah my apologies! I took your previous ask to mean a canonical replacement for grisha instead of a fictional exercise in creativity.

if you're searching for answers about russian culture and language, I'd recommend asking the slavic members of this community, of which there are actually many. I believe @stromuprisahat could help you out, if not with your question then just to recc others with more knowledge on the subject.

bditel'nyy is actually fun! and I'm sure there are many russian words or phrases you could use in your writing to replace the word grisha, especially if you came up with the lore for why the phrase exists and where it does and how it's dispersed throughout the world/who uses it/how it affects grisha culture and all of that other worldbuilding stuff which is incredibly fun. so I say go for ideas like that! it's cool and interesting.

I'm going to give a bit of a neutral reaction to frater tenebris and the term egregore in general, however. again, I'm by no means an expert on the subject, but I think you should be wary of how you incorporate what seems to be american centric paganism into a tsarist russia built on what appears to be a mixture of slavic paganism and the russian orthodoxy. while I think the meaning of the term itself could be fun to play around with, I'd give it some thought and maybe ask around more. I'm also not partial to the "elite spiritual group mind" aspect of it, personally, but a name doesn't have to be logical or strictly defining of its members, so that's really one of my own hang ups lol. you could have real fun creatively with that if you used it right.

I love this creative peek into sab lore too! it's neat to explore rewriting it, considering the canonical lore is so lacking, and even sankt grigori is a shallow excuse for worldbuilding when it comes to the true naming of a whole people, imo. there are so many aspects of the grishaverse that could be built on lore wise in much more rich and complex ways.

and you're welcome! I'm glad I got to answer your first question, even if I maybe didn't get your point 😭

last note: I do think it's probably not a great idea to use a western concept for a group of people within a country inspired by russia. but at the same time, the grisha themselves take heavy inspiration from western jewish persecution and ghettoization. so in general, I'd be careful of both russian culture and your interpretations of the grisha and how they're named/treated in your world.

anyways, good luck on whatever you're working on! let me know if you have any more questions!

[robot-roadtrip-rants]

Frater Mathieu slammed all my Jewish anti-missionary buttons so goddamn hard. Like, full-blown, fingers-digging-into-the-table, smiling-with-gritted-teeth, “No, Messianic Jews are NOT Jewish,” unmitigated RAEG. That was how I knew he was well written. Absolutely stellar job, Guy Haley, you have my immense respect, but also I kinda wanna throttle you.

I’m reading The Plague Wars and good god Mathieu is such a fanboy of Girlyman it’s embarrassing (my man literally get excited at the idea of his God Jr killng him in a hot sexy holy way while Rowboat is yelling at him)

[brother-hermes]

THE TAROT OF THOTH

A fellow Frater and I have been carrying on the same conversation for several years now. I’ve always adhered very strictly to the roots of Jewish mysticism when it comes to, let’s call them spheres, and only study hermeticism as it relates to Christianized Alchemy? (Not sure that describes it) Anyways, he’s passed through several degrees in several occult schools over the years and is devastatingly Thelemic in his approach.

I have always viewed Qabalah as an abomination of Jewish mystics and studied/applied Abulafia, Gikatellia, and Maimonides to my understanding of Rav Yeshuas instruction. Naturally, I am woefully ignorant of Crowley and Thelemists in general. Like I come from a magickal family- Father followed the old gods of Ireland, sisters read tarot for 20+ years, mothers an old school acolyte with a completely different take- I should have studied western esotericism fiercely. But I didn’t. My meditations are Jewish, my prayers Aramaic. My understanding “God is, nothing else exists.”

*it’s worth noting I don’t consider AMORC to be a fount of quabbalistic wisdom. They’re more armchair occultists slaving themselves out every time they enter their sanctum- someday I’ll elaborate on that.

Unfortunately, that’s a blind considering most of the people who read these posts are drawn to the alchemical aspects that I’ve “Christianized.” (Again, not sold on the word.) Yeshua is a master alchemist to me. I don’t know, His entire story in the Gospels just reads like the Great Work and I can’t shake that Christian Rosenkreutz approach because it gave me relationship with Sophia. Relationship with Logos became an inner guide and meditators end up in all sorts of places we can’t describe. I’d have gotten lost a million times I’ve the Bridal Chamber wasn’t the heart of my path.

Turns out, Crowley’s Gnostic Mass leads to that exact level of understanding. It’s something that can’t be taught. It’s why Teresa of Avila wrote the Interior Castle. It’s why the Hasidic teacher I studied under calls her work the best explanation of Hekhalot a Christian mystic ever wrote. Crowley’s work fits into that same narrative from a completely different approach. It just happens to be one I’ve never even considered.

Aside from reading everything attributed to Hermes Trismegistus, Dion Fortune, Cornelius Agrippa, and dissecting The Book of the Law because the ka is explained I know very little about “Magick.” (Not sold on that word either, but labels bother me in general.)

Anyways, all this came about because of my personal pathwork… Revelation- John describes his meditation unfolding in chapter 1:9-20 in this world of symbolism that goes well beyond “Christian” understanding. The 6 jars at the Wedding at Cana, the 7th left behind by the High Priestess(Samaritan Woman) at Jacobs well screams “pay attention to the twin flames of hermeticism and Kabbalah!”

So, deck is here. Introductory course from OTO initiate was included. It’ll be months, maybe years, of meditating on the symbols Crowley placed on the cards before I’ll even pretend to be able to extract the hidden symbolism from the most esoteric epistles of scripture. But… I am expanding my understanding and opening myself up to aspects of the path I’ve ignored.

It’s doubtful I’ll ever use the deck for divination- thats for people who couldn’t divine the entrails of animals if they needed too. Thanks Dad! 😂 but I can see myself doing readings on the aspects of the gospel that are so obviously related to the sephirot it needs to happen.

Wish me luck. Feel free to tag in with your understanding and elaborate on any points you feel I should pay attention to. I learn just as much as you guys do having these conversations.

[serpentstole]

Luciferian Challenge: Day 17

What symbols do you refer to in Luciferianism? Why?

There’s some overall symbols I’m really drawn to when it comes to my Luciferianism. Torches and serpents are the big ones, perhaps for obvious reasons: the Lightbringer or enlightenment aspects of Luciferianism are wonderfully represented by a torch (though I’ll sometimes use a lantern as a substitute, especially when it comes to an actual physical prop or tool) and serpents or snakes have a connection both to the Original Sin and to imagery of rebirth and growth given their constant shedding. 

Stars and fire are also imagery I enjoy, as they’re often a light in the dark and the theme of the Morningstar is ever present during modern discussions of Lucifer, and they have some overlap with my Dionysian side of things, as do the aforementioned serpents. 

For more obscure ones that are a bit esoteric and personal to me, I like the dagger (for its history as a very broadly used magical and practical tool) and those archways/portals with a set of stairs and stars beyond it (because it reminds me of imagery similar to the Flammerion Engraving, and the act of trying to look beyond the firmament). 

And finally, I’ll sometimes use the seal of Lucifer from the Grimoire Verum or a pentagram, but they’re sort of a supporting symbol or last resort rather than what I like most or find the best fitting for my beliefs and practice. 

I will admit that most of my general symbols are also ones I’d also use for Lucifer specifically, as despite having a trio of figures that are important to my practice and beliefs, he’s central and the tie that binds it all together. It is, after all, called Luciferianism. I’ve used the Emperor tarot card as a temporary idol for him during divination, but it’s a poor fit and I’d want to find a new one… perhaps the Magician instead, but it’s something I mean to put more work into. 

For Eve, I like the apple best as it’s most recognizable, but also figs, pomegranates, and mushrooms. Due to some tarot divination I’ve done, I also associate her with the Empress card, and the Queens of Swords and Pentacles. I’m still working on other flowers and plants beyond the fruiting ones that suit her, as well as planetary associations. It’s an ongoing process. 

And for Azazel, I so far default to a goat or goat’s skull. I don’t like leaning too far into the Scapegoat side of things, as that feels pretty uniquely Jewish, but even in Christianity he has some association with goats. He also has a role to me that feels very similar to the paintings you’ll see with the goat headed figure at the witches’ sabbaths, so it’s double appropriate. 

I am very, very conflicted on Heinrich Cornelius Agrippa’s symbol for Saturn being used as his sigil. While he is absolutely a figure you could describe as Saturnian, magically speaking, my research suggests that the earliest popularization of using that seal for him might have come from the founder of the JoS, which would be deeply unfortunate. Obviously it’s not like I’d be the one to spread the idea (as looking up “sigil of Azazel” will almost universally give you the Saturn symbol), but I’m just so deeply allergic to everything they stand for that the idea of using it is a bit, for lack of a better word, icky. 

Frater VIM, who ran a now defunct blog that brought this un-fun bit of trivia to my attention, proposed that the related symbol of the planetary daemon/demon Zazel was actually referencing Azazel, and therefore an appropriate alternative. However, I’m not fully sure if the idea of Azazel and Zazel being the same figure purely on name similarity is one I vibe with, and would have to do further research. While this happens a lot with some angelic names/occult figures, there’s other times when a similar name is not in any way indicative of two deities or spirits being related. Finally, as far as Tarot symbolism goes, I used the Devil card in a pinch but did not like it for him. As with Lucifer I need to investigate more appropriate alternatives. Currently I’m leaning towards the Hermit.  

I tend to represent myself in my practice, when the need arises, with the Fool (for its association with new beginnings), or with the card that’s become my signifier during Tarot divination, which I don’t want to post publicly at this time. I think having personal symbols and associations can be incredibly handy, and I wish I’d started employing it in my practice sooner.   

[esoterica333]

Occult Library Recommendations (Part One)

Witchcraft: “Complete Book of Witchcraft” by Raymond Buckland “Magic in the Ancient Greek World” by Derren Collins “Children of Cain” by Micheal Howard “Witchcraft Theory & Practice” by Ly de Angeles “The Inner Temple of Witchcraft” by Christopher Penczack “Opuscula Magica 1 & 2” by Andrew D Chumbley “Hands of the Apostasy” by Daniel A Schulke and Micheal Howard “The Pickingill Papers” by Micheal Howard “Masks of Misrule” by Nigel Jackson “Secrets of East Anglican Magic” by Nigel Pennick “Backwoods Witchcraft” by Jake Richards

Wicca “Traditional Wicca” by Thorn Mooney “Wicca for the Solitary Practitioner” by Scott Cunningham “Living Wicca: A Further Guide for the Solitary Practitioner” by Scott Cunningham “Wicca in the Kitchen” by Scott Cunningham “The Gardnerian Book of Shadows” by Gerald Gardner “Witchcraft Today” by Gerald Gardner “Meaning of Witchcraft” by Gerald Gardner “The Craft Grimoire of Eclectic Magic”

Thelema “The Book of the Law” by Crowley “The Book of Lies” by Crowley “Liber 777” by Crowley “Magick Without Tears” by Crowley “Magick in Theory and Practice” by Crowley “Book Four” by Crowley “The Best of the Equinox (All of This Series!)” by Lon Milo Duquotte “Living Thelema” by David Shoemaker “The Collection Writings of Jack Parsons” by Jack Parsons “Freedom is Two-Edged Sword” by Jack Parsons “The Red Goddess” by Peter Gray

Kabbalah, Cabala, Qabalah “Sepher Yertzirah” “The Zohar” “Chicken Qabalah” & “Son of Chicken Qabalah” by Lon Milo Duquette “Jewish Magic and Superstition” by Joshua Tratchenberg “Thelemic Qabalah Volumes 1-4” by Frater Apollonius “An Introduction to the Study of Kabbalah” by William Wynn Wescott “The Doctrine and Ritual of High Magic” by Elphias Levi

Grimoire Tradition & Related “The Keys of Solomon” “Crossed Keys” by Micheal Cechetelli “The Illustrated Goetia” by Crowley “Grimoire Verum” “Holy Diamon” by Frater Archer “John Dee’s Five Books of Mystery” by John Dee “The Enochian Evocation of Dr. John Dee” by Geoffery James “The Complete Enochian Dictionary” by Donald Laycock “Picatrix”

ATR & ATR Related Traditions “The Vodoun Gnostic Workbook” by Micheal Bertiaux “Exu” by Nicholaj de Mattos Frisvold “Obeah Witchcraft in the West Indes” by Hesketh Bell “The Way of the Orisha” by Philip John Neimark “The New Orleans Voodoo Handbook” by Kenaz Filan “Old Style Conjure, Rootwork, & Folk Magic” by Starr Cass

Chaos Magick “Liber Null” by Peter Carroll “Liber Kaos” by Peter Carroll “Condensed Chaos” by Phil Hine

[pangeanews]

Mezzo inchino a Calasso: Adelphi ristampa “Il mago” di W.S. Maugham. Ovvero: Aleister Crowley e l’esoterismo che ha fatto la Storia

Adelphi che ristampa Il mago di Maugham dà da pensare. Chi è il mago? I contemporanei ci videro Crowley, Maugham con quel libretto toccò di striscio il successo e se ne uscì col proverbio che i riferimenti a fatti e persone erano puntualmente casuali. Cerchiamo di veder chiaro.

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Nella buona ritraduzione di Maugham, Adelphi ha omesso la noterella di Maugham dove l’autore diceva al lettore di non cercare richiami alla realtà, a quel mago della democrazia che fu Crowley. Ma guarda un po’, le menzogne degli scrittori…

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Il mago di Maugham è opera pregevole perché l’autore giovane era colmo di idee estetiche e osservava meno la realtà rispetto al suo omologo vecchio e cinico, quello dei racconti di Singapore.

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Nel diario mai tradotto in italiano Maugham non fa cenno a persone reali negli anni del Mago. Motivo in più per capire chi fu Crowley.

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Il diario del 1923 di Crowley a Lisbona è micidiale. Tra note di sesso orale (Kusseln) e anale (Kusseln Mixen) Crowley si lancia ad analizzare la sua amante o, se si preferisce, accompagnatrice. Cito dall’edizione inglese.

Tues[day] 16. After worry.

Began the Great Op[eratio]n – very well indeed.

Her fits of melancholy are usually connected with the wish to make a mystery of some nothing-in-particular. They are capricious as sea-fog, and as dense. It is almost as hard to get through to her as it is to a genuine melancholic. They seem harmless, but are not; for if the habit grows, it might become truly morbid if it coincided with serious depression at time of stress.

Sun very hot in A.M. and we stayed later than usual. She had a fit of worry which developed into a general hysterical attack – very severe. The whole hotel in turmoil.

Note her pathological fear and lying. For latter, all her “magic” stories. For former, her locking her suit-case a dozen times in a couple of hours, though she doesn’t leave the room, and there is nothing of value in it. But she has lived in the underworld too long.

*

A seguire, una nota contro i poeti, addirittura contro la poesia, seguita a tambur battente dal nome dell’incontro fatale. Pessoa.

Sat[urday] 6.  Took it very easy with Sun and Water (symbols).

20 Began in A.M. an Op[us]c for health and strength for the Jade Princessd; but she wanted it for me. So we agreed; it went on till late. 8

Note: “People who read poetry” are (by definition almost) congenital idiots. Hence they can only digest tripe. The ideas of great men naturally horrify them. So, poetry having got this reputation of emasculate tosh, fewer and fewer decent people read it. And so on.

  Sun[day] 7. Pessoa lunched and spent P.M. My little blue flower of the Woode very drooping all P.M. – and too much energy10 after dinner. Practically all Portugese have Jewish blood. See history.

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Come e in che modo i Servizi esteri di controspionaggio British potessero impiegare come piede di porco, per i loro olocausti, una figura macchiata come Crowley, è mistero che cercheremo di risolvere ora.

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Alesteir Crowley genera, con tutti i suoi trucchi, un po’ rituali, un po’ para-culturali, la magia post-positivista e quello che Alfred Rosenberg, uno dei veri ideologi del nazismo, chiamerà il “mito del XX secolo”. Per dirla con il mago inglese, “l’eone di Cristo verrà sostituito dal nuovo Eone Ermetico”. Tutto l’esoterismo di quegli anni è nettamente anticristiano, un po’ per scimmiottare Nietzsche, sempre molto amato dai maghi, un po’ per costruire quel mondo del tutto laicizzato che oggi sperimentiamo, dove la libertà di scelta serve proprio ad eliminare ogni scelta eterodossa o priva dello stigma dell’Anticristo, proprio lui.

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La magia “operativa” e positivista di Conan Doyle si basava su procedure e miti visibili, che mimavano gli “esperimenti”, come accade con la “religione scientifica” di Comte, che è un misto di mito scientista e esoterismo visibile: Eusapia Palladino e i suoi tavolini a tre gambe, i fantasmi che ritornano, tutto un armamentario che, da Sherlock Holmes in poi, è l’anima del romanzo gotico britannico e dell’immaginario stesso dei cittadini del Regno.

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Dracula di Bram Stoker (1897), l’orientalismo vittoriano, l’Oriente magico di un popolo, come quello britannico e oggi gli Usa, che non vede altro, negli altri popoli, se non l’immagine riflessa di sé stessi…

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Per Crowley questo non accade: la magia operativa è una trasformazione di sé e del mondo, ma senza finti fantasmi che appaiono e senza miti scientisti, men che meno la Grande Madre di Comte, la Clotilde de Vaux, che il fondatore del positivismo idealizzerà al posto della Santa Vergine. Il Positivismo imita la Metafisica del Cristianesimo, mentre la nuova Esoteria creerà un nuovo mondo misterico, del tutto estraneo al Cristo, alla tradizione latina, a quella cristiano-germanica, al mondo pre-cristiano dei Franchi, ai Visigoti di Spagna.

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In Crowley l’esoterismo, lo vedremo in seguito, è sempre e nettamente, oltre che esplicitamente, anticristiano. Come l’Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn, dove assume il nome di Frater Perdurabo, che perdurerà, un ordine fondato da massoni regolari, e che vide tra i suoi adepti William Butler Yeats e la moglie di Oscar Wilde, ma che espulse Crowley in quanto tentò di prendere in mano la Loggia di Londra, senza averne diritto. Ma, nel 1911, proprio in Germania, Crowley fonda un Ordine dedito soprattutto alla magia sessuale, l’Ordine dei Templari Orientali. La sessualità è un tratto naturale del satanismo. Forse Hitler venne scelto dalle reti occulte tedesche perché era un bisessuale, anche lui, con una lunghissima sfilza di segnalazioni alla Polizia di Monaco.

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Ricordiamo qui che una delle amanti del bisessuale Crowley era una donna tedesca che diffuse, poi, le sette sataniste britanniche nel mondo nazista, soprattutto tramite Rudolph Hess, il vice di Hitler, che atterrò nella tenuta del Duca di Hamilton il 10 maggio 1941, il giorno in cui Londra subisce il primo grande bombardamento. Senza esoterismo, ce lo ha insegnato Giorgio Galli, non si capisce la politica del XX secolo. E oltre.

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Trattare la pace separata tra Hitler e gli inglesi, due razze ariane, tramite il legame tra sette come la Golden Dawn, molto diffusa sia nella Corte di Londra che nei circoli che daranno vita al nazismo? Molto probabile. Certo è che l’esoterismo della via mala spiega molte cose della politica novecentesca.

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Anche a Cefalù, e il Mago inglese amava il Sud europeo e il Nord-Africa, Crowley fonda Thelema, una sorta di falansterio alla Fourier, e certo il sansimonismo produce sia la Banca Mobiliare e le prime grandi ferrovie, oltre allo Stretto di Suez, che l’esoterismo della Grande Madre Mediterranea e alla ricerca di Re Sebastiano, tema che sarà caro ad un altro esoterista che Crowley andrà a conoscere personalmente a Lisbona, Fernando Pessoa.

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Sperate! Caddi là sull’arenile/nell’ora Avversa che Dio ai Suoi concede/Lungo il tempo sospeso in cui è immersa/in sogni che son Dio l’anima nostra. Il Poeta portoghese scrive a Crowley di aver trovato un errore complicato nel suo calcolo dell’oroscopo, ma il mago inglese si meraviglia e vuole conoscerlo.

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Si trovano a Lisbona, Crowley ha portato la sua amante tedesca, che poi diffonderà il satanismo del Mago in Germania, e vanno a fare un bagno alla Boca do Inferno, niente di meno per un Crowley che si fa chiamare già allora “La Bestia 666”. A quel punto il Mago inglese, sempre un po’ truffaldino, come tutti i suoi colleghi, inscenerà un affogamento, per ingannare la sua amante, e poi ritornerà in quella Germania che lo ama sempre di più. Pessoa, in barba un noto scrittore di Vecchiano, Antonio Tabucchi, non è mai stato un critico del “fascismo” portoghese, che peraltro non era tecnicamente un fascismo, né era certo un cripto-democratico, lui che odiava la democrazia con tutto il cuore, e che ha contatti epistolari sia con la Golden Dawn che con l’esoterismo della Thule Gesellschaft, e scrive di esoterismo anche ai capi delle SS.

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Pessoa, anzi, parla espressamente di una “invasione ebraica” in Europa, soprattutto dopo l’assassinio di Rathenau, all’origine anche di Massa e Potere di Elias Canetti, ma teorizza solo tre “vie” per la realizzazione esoterica: la magia, che è manipolazione della materia ed è intimamente satanica, il misticismo, meno pericoloso della magia, ma sempre troppo lento, infine l’alchimia, la via perfetta.

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Crowley non avrebbe potuto dire di meglio. Ma era un vero mago, quindi un satanista. Pessoa scrive anche che “occorre coltivare la disintegrazione mentale”, lui l’ha compiuta con i suoi eteronimi, ma non come Crowley, e il satanismo derivato dal mago inglese infesta, a tutt’oggi, gran parte della pop culture, soprattutto musicale.

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Da notare con attenzione: l’Ordo Templi Orientis, ennesima creatura del Mago inglese, genera l’Ordo Novi Templi, fondato però da Lanz von Liebenfels nel 1907, poi fondatore anche dell’“ariosofia” che successivamente, quando Hitler invase l’Austria e negò valore esoterico alle teorie razziste di Lanz; quest’ultimo lo accusò perfino di essere “di inferiore livello razziale”. Ma l’Ordre du Temple Renové fu fondato nientemeno che da Renè Guénon. Tout se tient.

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Esoterismo satanista, in Inghilterra, e teoria della razza nazista in Germania: Crowley, che pure non disdegnò di dare qualche lavoretto per l’Intelligence Service quando era a Cefalù, e solo per questo Mussolini lo farà buttare fuori dalla Polizia, elabora, forse perfino inconsciamente, una teoria della unione delle razze ariane del Nord contro il Sud e soprattutto contro una particolare razza che viene dal Sud, quella ebraica, e su questa base tenta di creare un canale di comunicazione tra la Corte di Londra, piena di esoteristi, e il nazionalsocialismo tedesco, che nasce da una rete esoterica, occultista, satanista. Nella quale, almeno all’inizio, Crowley ha una qualche influenza.

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I rapporti tra esoterismo e intelligence sono di vario tipo: c’è certamente un raffinamento delle percezioni e un aumento della loro complessità, in cui si esalta colui che abbia una formazione e una esperienza esoterica; ma c’è anche l’origine da un mondo omogeneo, quello dell’aristocrazia britannica e dei suoi simbolismi occulti, inoltre c’è anche l’esperienza del potenziamento delle proprie capacità intellettive, fenomeno che spesso accade a chi inizi il “viaggio esoterico”, ma questo certamente non  accade a tutti.

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Da John Dee a William Shakespeare, da Yeats a Kipling, non vi è alcuna letteratura inglese senza esoterismo. Si pensi a Puck o a Macbeth: il mito stesso della identità nazionale inglese è inscritto in un cerchio esoterico. “Essere Jekyll e Hyde”, ecco una frase di Crowley che spiega molte cose del suo esoterismo. Ma anche “Sii plurale come l’Universo”, avrebbe risposto Pessoa.

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La rottura dell’Io (l’“Io-palo”, avrebbe ironizzato Gadda) è il punto di partenza e di arrivo di queste pratiche, che possono portare i dotati a una espansione della Potenza dell’Io (uno Yoga della Potenza, come in Julius Evola) oppure alla più assoluta autodistruzione, mentale e fisica. Anche Charcot, il maestro di Freud in Francia, si dilettava, oltre che di dissezioni cerebrali, di rituali magici e di parapsicologia.

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Solo il neo-positivismo, molto più cretino del vecchio positivismo, ha eliminato questa sovrapposizione di curiosità metafisiche e di pensiero “razionale”, che peraltro deriva anch’esso da una metafisica.

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Tutto questo per fare un mezzo inchino a Calasso. Bravi!

 Andrea Bianchi e Marco Giaconi

L'articolo Mezzo inchino a Calasso: Adelphi ristampa “Il mago” di W.S. Maugham. Ovvero: Aleister Crowley e l’esoterismo che ha fatto la Storia proviene da Pangea.

from pangea.news https://ift.tt/3iU4d5R

[forbidden-sorcery]

Deeper studies into the subject of spirit familiars sparked further intrigue when I came upon a passage from a book titled Communing With Spirits: The Magical Practice of Necromancy by Martin Coleman. The author of this book theorized that the Witch of Endor sometimes called the Medium of Endor, had most likely called upon the aid of a familiar spirit within a vessel to summon forth another ghost or spirit. In the First Book of Samuel, the Endor Witch or necromancer summons the prophet Samuel's spirit, at the command of King Saul. The woman or necromancer is described as "a woman with an ob, which has been translated to mean a talisman or wineskin (spirit container, a bottle made from animal skin used by a necromancer).        Upon further research I also discovered that a particular spirit container was a human skull. Archeologists have unearthed skulls containing various spells and incantations written in Aramaic which were found in ancient Jewish communities in Babylonia. Many classical images of wizards or alchemists contain at least one human skull pictured on a table or tucked in some dusty bookcase. Illustrations of scholarly men writing intently away are often depicted with a skull on one corner of the desk. Have you ever wondered as to the nature and use such articles were put to? Though undoubtedly originating from multiple cultures in various parts of early history, my particular findings stemmed from sources in ancient Hebrew folk magic.        From what I've researched, there have been over two thousand spell skulls found with ancient Hebrew or Aramaic writing scrawled in complex patterns within bowls, pots, and skulls alike. In the case of the Witch of Endor, the skull spirit is what Martin Coleman alludes to as possibly being the assistant which summoned the shade of the prophet Samuel.

Frater Ashen Chassan - Whispers From A Skull: Lessons In Spiritual Offerings From A Conjured Familiar

[itztagninut]

summer occult projects

I am so excited for the off-season! I’ve got nearly the whole summer off work! This is the payoff of some work-related magic I worked a year ago or so. In honor of the spirits who’ve helped me, I’m devoting (at least some of) my extra free time to occult study and furthering work with them. Finally with some spare time on my hands, I’m going to work my way through 3 topics:

🌱 Benebell Wen’s I Ching and the Practitioner course. I’ve been drawn to the I Ching for years but wanted to approach it in a respectful manner and I think this course is what i’m looking for. Wen presents the text bilingually with her own translation and extensive annotations...I’m kind of obsessed with it. I’m looking forward to the chance to get a glimpse of the Classical Chinese text with the support of this awesome translation. I really recommend it.

So far I’m around a third through the course. Today I cast my first hexagram, seeking a characterization of my studies of the i ching—恆 héng, endurance, persistence. Encouraging!

🌱 In July, once things really slow down, I’m going to do a deep dive on the tarot. I’ve accumulated a small pile of tarot books but I’m especially interested in combing through a re-read of Rachel Pollack’s 78 Degrees of Wisdom and Cassandra Snow’s Queering the Tarot, which just came out at the beginning of last May!

I also got ahold of Benebell Wen’s Holistic Tarot, and one of its suggestions is what she calls an intermediate practicum, in which the reader logs 30 readings in a lunar month. I’m going to try to do 30 tarot readings and 30 i ching readings in July (I’ll probably offer some through here).

🌱 Fancifully i’ve been thinking of the third part as an occult practicum. I’ve read quite a bit over the last year but I’ve been too swamped in the “on season” of work to do much more than keep up my daily practices. So now I’m going to catch up! I may or may not post much about it but I plan to dig around in Six Ways (Aidan Wachter), the Witch’s Book of Spirits (Devin Hunter), Mirror of Elicona (Phil Legard), Spirit Conjuring for Witches (Frater Barabbas), and Seven Spheres (Rufus Opus). Clearly, I’m especially interested in getting comfortable with modern forms of spirit evocation and with contemporary updates to working with classical systems. I have enjoyed my experiments in classical magic but now I want to experiment with more modern systems. It’s hard to see the successes that others are having with non-traditional takes on some of the more low magic grimoires or the PGM, then to feel like it’s worth it (to me) to take on these other tech and ritual-heavy grimoires. 

There’s my general plan. I have some long term magical goals that I’m building towards but I’m going to cut my teeth on some of these more approachable  For the past three weeks or so, I’ve been working my way through Six Ways and I’m going to start on the vexna-kari from the Witch’s Book of Spirits. I’m also going to do some folklore mining in Trachtenberg’s Jewish Magic and Superstition and depending on things like time, I might take some time to dig around in some of the local and ancestral folklore at the library.

[mommytitta]

Quicksilver aaron taylor johnson

QUICKSILVER AARON TAYLOR JOHNSON MOVIE

QUICKSILVER AARON TAYLOR JOHNSON DRIVER

Trivia - Evan Peters and Aaron Taylor-Johnson played friends in Marvels. Kraven the Hunter has been scheduled for release on January 13 th, 2023. Will Agents of shield be used to introduce quicksilver and scarlet witch before. All four actors have reportedly passed on the role of Kraven for Sony's universe. Pietro Maximoff/Quicksilver received the short end of the stick when he was introduced.

QUICKSILVER AARON TAYLOR JOHNSON DRIVER

Kroll explains that Sony tried to get Brad Pitt, Keanu Reeves, John David Washington and Adam Driver to take the role. Aaron Taylor-Johnson won’t be donning his running shoes and reprising the role of Quicksilver anytime soon. Of course, this would follow the trend set by hiring Tom Hardy as Eddie Brock in Venom. Sony was reportedly planning to grab high-profile actors for the role. Read More: Could Sony's proposed MCU connections ruin Marvel's universe? Sony wanted Brad Pitt or Keanu Reevesįollowing the reveal of Taylor-Johnson’s hiring, Deadline reporter Justin Kroll revealed Sony's prior plans. Ryan Reynolds successfully launched the Deadpool franchise in 2016 after. The actor reveals the two stipulations he had for signing on. However, as Taylor-Johnson's new character is unlikely to interact with the main MCU cast, it shouldn't be an issue. The Marvel Cinematic Universe's former Quicksilver actor Aaron Taylor-Johnson says he turned down a role in Deadpool 2. AVENGERS: AGE OF ULTRON Set Interview: Aaron Taylor-Johnson Talks Accents, Humor, and More. With that in mind, it is weird to see an MCU actor grab a leading role for one of Sony's films. Sony's Spider-Man spin-off universe is supposed to be tied to Marvel's main cinematic universe. The Avengers: Age of Ultron (2015)Quicksilver (Aaron Taylor-Johnson) - All Scenes PowersPietro Maximoff was a native of Sokovia who grew up with his frater. Chandor ( All is Lost, A Most Violent Year) pour Sony Pictures a.

QUICKSILVER AARON TAYLOR JOHNSON MOVIE

As the upcoming Kraven movie will be an intense action movie, Taylor-Johnson’s action prowess is a must-have for the film. 2 days ago &0183 &32 Dans un entretien accordé aux gens de The Hollywood Reporter, Aaron Taylor-Johnson explique que le film Kraven the Hunter de J.C. Aaron is of English-Russian Jewish descent. He has a sister, Gemma Johnson, who had a small role in his movie Tom & Thomas (2002). He was born Aaron Perry Johnson in High Wycombe, Buckinghamshire, to Sarah and Robert Johnson, a civil engineer. Known for his work in Kick-Ass, Godzilla, Avengers: Age of Ultron and Tenet, the award-winning actor could be a good fit.Īfter reportedly seeing footage of the actor in the upcoming Bullet Train movie, Sony decided to pursue the actor. Aaron Taylor-Johnson Talks Adapting Quicksilver For The Avengers 2. Aaron Taylor-Johnson is an English stage, television, and film actor. Sony has revealed that they have signed on Aaron Taylor-Johnson as Kraven the Hunter.

[scuffed-tarot]

frater-tice replied to your post “afro-gay replied to your post “I do have a follow-up question to that...”

My research indicates that they are not entirely Jewish, they show elements of Greco and Egyptian magick. In my opinion it comes down to how you feel about syncretism.

In other words, Christian inventions. 

[itztagninut]

using sigils to create amulets

I’ve described a number of forms of protective magic in Jewish folk religion, but now I’m going explore some concepts rooted in my studies of modern magical practices that I synthesize to create my own personal wards. The techniques in this post are ones I use heavily in warding but, unlike most of the rest of this series, can be applied to a host of general situations.

I figured I’d start off with a brief snapshot of my style of sigil magic. I draw most of my sigil creation techniques from U.D. Frater’s Practical Sigil Magic, Austin Osman Spare’s Book of Pleasure, and Peter Carroll’s Liber Null. Essentially, you draft a statement of desire, then reformulate the characters of the statement into an abstract and stylistic form, which is the sigil. There are various methods of doing this enumerated all over the place but I wanted to focus on the next part: you charge and release the sigil via a trance, then obscure or destroy the sigil. Spare described the process as “bypassing the psychic censor”. Peter Carroll also uses the term gnosis to describe the trance state. 

There are many ways of doing this but the most successful one for me is using sexual energy. Bringing yourself to orgasm is a great way to release a sigil, especially starting off, but with some exploration it’s absolutely possible to use sexual energy to charge and release a sigil without necessarily reaching orgasm too. It’s a highly personal psychological experience so I recommend experimenting with your own psyche. My personal wards were set with partnered sex magic using this technique—we developed a sigil and charged it together, then took turns releasing the sigil.

Once the sigil is released, most sources are pretty clear: destroy it. As you can see from going to the sigil tag, people don’t seem to be destroying their sigils almost at all. While Carrol and Spare indicate that the sigil is supposed to be destroyed, U.D. Frater’s work (which came out more recently, in 2012) includes a passing note on keeping sigils around after releasing them. He advises you to put them somewhere where they can fade into the background, such as on the inside of a ring. That’s where what I’ve been calling sigil burying comes from.

When “burying” a sigil, you inscribe a sigil on a semi-permanent object, then just follow your normal sigil charging and releasing routine. Then, rather than burning the sigil or otherwise destroying it, you keep the object but obscure the sigil. Here are a few examples:

Drawing a sigil with charcoal on paper, then using pastels to embellish the sigil into an unrecognizable work of art

Drawing the sigil with several shades of water color pencils on paper, then using water to swirl the colors together and distort the lines of the sigil (this was used to construct the current ward on my home)

Painting a sigil on a wall, then repainting over the whole wall

Inscribing the sigil on a slip of paper, then mixing it in the stuffing in a pillow

Embroidering the sigil on a bit of fabric, then sewing it it on the inside of a pocket

The key here is that, once the sigil has been released, the sigil is obscured in some way so that its visual form no longer resembles that of the original sigil. This object becomes a powerful symbol for the statement of will that birthed the sigil; this is my preferred method for making amulets at this time. I used this method to create the amulet that forms one of the anchors of the ward on my house.

Posts in the home warding series…

Mezuzot: warding a Jewish home

Using Psalms/Tehilim for warding

Using sigils to create amulets

Anchoring and focusing a ward

A glance at my warding procedure

Erosion: physical considerations in warding