#stele of jeu

[asinusrufus]

"My Name is Heart encircled by a Serpent; come and follow me"

[thetriplesnake]

Charm The Water podcast appearances.

Aaron David has removed many of the older episodes of Charm The Water. Below is an archive of the episodes I was involved with. 

https://www.podchaser.com/podcasts/charm-the-water-55805/episodes/episode-37-spiro-nidelkos-the-14609805

https://www.podchaser.com/podcasts/charm-the-water-55805/episodes/episode-40-stele-of-jeu-headle-17021593

https://player.fm/series/1187690/186197690

https://www.podchaser.com/podcasts/charm-the-water-55805/episodes/ep-44-trithemius-w-alexander-e-18312183

https://www.podchaser.com/podcasts/charm-the-water-55805/episodes/ep-49-mage-table-w-kelly-spiro-18992314

https://player.fm/series/charm-the-water/ep-56-spiro-nidelkos-of-triple-snake

[satyrmagos]

Bell, Book, and Blade: Adding Pages

The first pages of your book obviously and inevitably represent a highly idealized vision of your practice. For me that was the Stele of Jeu, followed by a triangle of art for each of the seven traditional planets. What followed were a handful of rituals that I had done and more that I wanted to do: the prayer for a vision from the Serpent-Faced God(dess), aTyphonic Initiation, a pair of scrying…

[manicpixievideovixen]

[kerblackthorn]

Donning the Mask of the Mastriss: An Adaptation of the Rite of the Headless One/Stele of Jeu

Bathe, then tie a Bull Rush, the leaf of a Cattail, or a strip of Goat skin on your head with the formula pictured above written on it.

Face North and gaze up towards Orion, stretching the emblem across your forehead from one of your temples to the other and reciting the six names written on the leaf:

“AÔTH ABRAÔTH BASYM ISAK SABAÔTH IAÔ” (Pronounced: “AH-OATuh AHB-RAH-OATuh BAH-SOOM EE-SAHK SAH-BAH-OATuh YAH-OH”).

Then recite:

“Make all spirits become subject to me, so that every spirit, no matter where they dwell—that they who dwell within the stars and planets, the winds, the lands, the depths, and the waters would all be obedient to me, and every enchantment and power that is under the dominion of the Mastriss of this World be under my control.”

Now, read aloud the summoning of the Mastriss of all Sorcery:

“I call to You, Headless Hunter Akephalon, who shapes the Sky and the Earth, who separated Night and Day, beautiful Ruler Who dies and is reborn each year—none have ever seen Your true face, Mastriss OSORONNOPHRIS (pronounced: “AH-SAH-RAHN-NAH-PuhREES)! You are IABAS (pronounced: “YAH-BAHS”)! You are IAPOS (pronounced: “YAH-POSE”)! You are the true God of this world, the one Who humans have long said of, “I’ve found the One!” yet few have.

Because You dwell in the middle, You show good from evil, just from unjust, dividing pleasure from pain. You made men and women as the divine Sun and Moon, Your eyes; revealing seed and fruit and teaching humankind how to plant and harvest, you manifest Your presence. You make people love or hate one another as is Your good pleasure, spreading Your madness to the ends of the Earth.

I am Solomon the King/Moses the Mageia/Isobel Gowdie the Witch (insert whichever mystical occultist you’d like here), Your seer in the Dark Glimmering Land Below to whom You have revealed Your Mysteries celebrated by the scholars of Alexandria; You cause the rains to fall and the mist to rise, the breeze to evaporate, and provide nourishment for all. Hear me, for I am the angelic messenger of PHAPRO OSORONNOPHRIS (pronounced: “PuhAH-PRAH AH-SAH-RAHN-NAH-PuhREES), which is Your true name, handed down to the prophets of Ees-rah-el!

ARBATHIAÔ REIBET ATHELEBERSÊTH ARA BLATHA ALBEU EBENPHCHI CHITASGOÊ IBAÔTH IAÔ! (Pronounced: “AHR-BAHTuh-EE-AH-OH RAY-BET AH-TuhEL-EH-BEHR-SAYTuh AH-RAH BLAH-TuhAH AHL-BEH-OO EH-BEN-Puh-KuhEE KuhEE-TAHS-GAH-AYE EE-BAH-OATuh YAH-OH”)!

Listen to me and turn away all spirits contrary to my sorceries and my health! I call upon You emptied of breath, Old One, for I am in awe of Your might! AROGOGOROBRAÔ SOCHOU MODORIÔ PHALARCHAÔ OOO (Pronounced: “AH-RAH-GAH-GAH-RAH-BRAH-OH SAH-KuhEW MAH-DAH-REE-OH PuhAH-LAHR-KuhAH-OH AAHH”). Windswept Headless Hunter, deliver me, (Full Name), son/daughter of (Mother’s Maiden Name), from all spirits which restrain me, ROUBRIAÔ MARI ÔDAM BAABNABAÔTH ASS ADÔNAI APHNIAÔ ITHÔLÊTH ABRASAX AÊÔÔY (Pronounced: “REW-BREE-AH-OH MAH-REE OH-DAHM BAHHB-NAH-BAH-OATuh AHSS AH-DOH-NIGH AHPuh-NEE-AH-OH EETuh-OH-LAYTuh AH-BRAH-SAHKS AH-AYE-OOOH-OO”)—mighty Headless Hunter, deliver me (Repeat Your’ Name As Above) from all spirits and powers that restrain me!

MABARRAIÔ IOÊL KOTHA ATHOREBALÔ ABRAÔTH (Pronounced: “MAH-BAHR-RAH-EYE-OH YAH-ALE KAH-TuhAH AH-TuhAH-REH-BAH-LOW AH-BRAH-OATuh”), deliver me (Repeat Your’ Name As Above), AÔTH ABRAÔTH BASYM ISAK SABAÔTH IAÔ! (Pronounced: “ AH-OATuh AH-BRAH-OATuh BAH-SOOM EE-SAHK SAH-BAH-OATuh YAH-OH”)!

The Mastriss is the Ruler of the Spirits; They are the Ruler of the World, the Wild Man, Azazel Who stole the blacksmith’s tools, Prometheus Who stole the fire, Who taught humans the civilized arts, Baal Hadad with the voice of the Storm; all the Winds obey Your command and call out, “my Liege!”; You can create all things by the utterance of the Words of Power which You know!

Liege, Mastriss, Helper, Good Skin-Walker, fill my soul with Fire, IEOU PYR IOU PYR IAÔT IAÊÔ IOOU ABRASAX SABRIAM OO YY EY OO YY ADÔNAIE (Pronounced: “YEH-EW POOER YEW POOER YAH-OAT YAH-AYE-OH YAAH-OO AHB-RAH-SAHKS SAH-BREE-AHM AAH OOOO EH-OO AAH OOO AH-DOH-NIGH-EH”).

Hurry, hurry, Good Goblins of the Huntsman, ANLALA LAI GAIA APA DIACHANNA CHORYN (Pronounced: “AHN-LAH-LAH LIE GUY-AH AHP-AH DEE-AH-KuhAHN-NAH KuhAH-ROON”).

I am the Master/Mistress of Spirits and Beasts with eyes in My feet! I am the Turnskin Trickster Who has stolen the immortal Fire! I am the Good Judge Who hates the injustice of humankind! I am the lightning and My voice is the thunder that announces My will! I am the rainfall that fertilizes the Earth! I am the One Whose mouth is always flaming! I am the One Who creates and destroys! Fate favors Me: I am the apple of the Dark Mother’s breast! My name is Heart-Encircled-by-a-Serpent! Let them come forth and follow Me!”

This rite invokes the names of the Mastriss, the Skin-Walking Ruler of the Spirits, for a delegation of Their authority. Out of Her love for Her Child even the Dark Mother may bend Her pronouncements of Fate through the use of this rite. This being, called “Pan” among so many other names, was said to elicit the joyous laughter of all the gods. By the mere pronouncement of it, spirits may suddenly manifest and be plainly seen and the sorcerous conjurer may even soar gloriously into the very Depths, meeting the Strange Beings there. It will cause any spirits trying to keep you in the dark, any powers which are casting their glamour upon you, and anything opposed to your sorcerous work and Night flights to depart. It will give you the intuitive knowledge necessary to put on the body of the Double and walk about. Any evocation of any spirit will become successful to you, and hedge-walking will become as simple as waking from sleep. You may meet your Guardian Paredros Angel and/or have a visit from the “Man in Black” by the pronouncement of it alone.

The most important aspect of this is the timing of it. In the Northern Hemisphere, it must be done just before sunrise in August and September, around 4 am in October, 1 am in November, 11 pm in December, 9 pm in January, 7 pm in February, just after sunset in March and April, afternoon in May, noon in June, and mid-morning in July. Do the rite EVERY DAY until you are successful in it, which will be quite obvious when success is won. You should also be performing Dark Communions out of worship to the Mastriss as a payment for this authority. You should never perform the rite on either solstice, since Orion is headed by the Sun at the Summer Solstice and the Moon at the Winter Solstice, and it would therefore be sacrilegious to refer as such. Performing the rite on the day after the Full Moon in December is a very powerful time for its performance, as the energy is high and Orion is newly beheaded.

It should be noted that Orion was said by the Aztecs to be the final cause of the world’s end. Each year, at the rising of Orion in August, they performed ceremonies that lasted through the Winter period designed to forestall the world’s end. The Mayan doomsday clock is based on these stars. The constellation is the inspiration for the engineering of the pyramids at Giza, Gobekli Tepe, and the seven ancestral Hopi cities. In Aramaic, the constellation is called “Nephila”, and is said to be the creator of the Nephilim, who are, of course, the parentage of the witches, progenitors of the witch-blood.

This rite is based on that of the “Stele of Jeu”, PGM V. 96-172.

[coldalbion]

Detail from the Greek Magical Papyri, of the Headless One, from the Stele of Jeu  (circa 350 CE)which Aleister Crowley adapted into his so-called “Rite of the Bornless One”. Because apparently, to him Bornless was cooler. (I disagree) Source here

[whiskyhorse]

8

I’ve never entirely understood why magicians use bad second-hand poetry when they could use first class second-hand poetry or write their own shitty poetry.  Admittedly, there are more examples of the latter than the former (see: Andrew Chumbley).  The assumption often seems to be that if it’s old then it’s good, but that is patently un-true.  If millions of dead people prove the validity of a thing then we would still be saying that leukaemia is un-treatable 1.

Most living traditions produce new material.  Capoeira has a wealth of old songs, but young capoeiristas still write new ones.  An inspired song has as much (or more) power as an inherited one.  It’s all about what the words are imbued with.  I doubt that there is much traditional poetry in Chumbley’s work. The core material may come from an older tradition, but the voice is too consistent across his published work for it to come from other sources.  He either created it whole cloth or he gussied it up.  People find it potent nevertheless.

The bones of the work and what it is intended to mete are more important.  In Britain poets held the power to kill or maim with satire alone. That is a tradition that continued well into the Christian era.  As an example, see this Welsh englyn attributed to Gwerful Mechain (c. 1460-1502, trans. Katie Gramich), which calls on no god or power beyond the poetic form:

I’w gwr am ei churo Dager drwy goler dy gallon – ar osgo I asgwrn dy ddwyfron; Dy lin a dyr, dy law’n don A’th gleddau I’th goluddion

To her husband for beating her A dagger through your heart’s stone - on a slant To reach your breast bone; May your knees break, your hands shrivel And your sword plunge in your guts to make you snivel

(I am making a few assumptions here and skipping over the importance of the poetic form used, but I wanted to reference Gwerful.  Also - if you compare the internal meter of the original englyn to the translation you can see that Gwerful was a much better poet than her translator, but there’s not much one can do about that short of learning old Welsh)

I see some useful bone structure in the Headless Rite.  The formula for invocation is clear just underneath its skin.  Aiden Wachter uses a similar progression in Six Ways: State intention, call in the power required, identify the desirable traits of that power, then acquire or borrow them as one’s own (p.18).  However, although the stated intention of the Rite in the Greek Magical Papyri (PGM) is for exorcism it plainly has a more complex application.

Previously I’ve touched on parallels between the Headless Rite and the Song of Amergin.  The main things I identify as being different between them are that 1) the Song calls up Eire, whereas the Rite calls on a(n unknown) god/s. 2) The Song dispenses with a lot of the early stages and proceeds directly to identifying with the land.  Arguably that may be due to editorial interference, but personal experience indicates that those stages are not necessary.  Especially if a relationship already exists.

A lot of people use the Headless Rite, or its Thelemic equivalent, as part of a daily practice. I’ve read they do this because the Rite confers dominance over spirits and may align the magician with a particular current.  Certainly it has been used to augment a variety of other practices, particularly deity obsession (Stratton-Kent).  The flexibility of the formula is confirmed by the Song, in my mind.  I suspect that it’s far older than the Headless Rite’s stated purpose in the PGM.

I see the sense of using praise or boast poetry as a daily practice.  However is it necessary, or even desirable, to use such a dramatic martial formula every day unless you have regular goetic practice?  To bombastically acclaim one’s dominance on a daily basis?  It’s a bit like a yuppie in the 1980s yelling, ‘You’re a TIGER!’ at the mirror every morning.

As I think about using this as part of a daily practice I ask what purpose it should serve.  Let’s say I want it to align me with a particular current of being, re-affirm who/what I am and build a core strength for later dealing with spirits.  Fine. The Headless Rite would align me with an unknown deity or deities (at minimum it seems to reference Osiris and Yahweh) through use of some barbarous names we no longer remember the origin, meaning or use of.  That doesn’t really suit.

I could adapt the Headless Rite.  I am tempted to adapt it for use alongside kaula/tantra.  It would be fun making the syncretism work.  However that’s something I’ll probably come back to because right now I don’t want to focus on deities and spirits.  I want to strengthen myself and my practice.

So I went back to thinking about other work that exists in the same realm.  Work that could support a useful trance and be imbued with the same principles I work with.  I thought for a long time.  I considered Sufi verses and other options, but I kept coming back to Walt Whitman’s Leaves of Grass.

I have used Whitman’s poetry in a similar way to the Song of Amergin before.  In particular I’ve used I sing the body electric.  It works if used with a correct method.  Whitman’s poetry also has a broader scope than either the Rite or Song of Amergin. In Song of Myself he is singing up an ecstatic vision of what we could be, what he sees that we are underneath the eidolons that clothe us.  It’s a much better fit for what I am and how my magic is arrayed.  It also fits the formula for invocation.

In fact, Leaves of Grass is interesting beyond invocation.  When Chumbley wrote Azoetia and Dragon Book of Essex he tried to create a living grimoire – something bigger than its pages.  Whitman did the same, but, I think, more successfully from an ecstatic point of view.  Leaves of Grass opens by defining Whitman’s intention (“One’s self I sing”), then by charging the book with its purpose (“Then falter not, O book, to fulfil your destiny”). He casts aside materialism in EIDOLONS, summons up and addresses his audience with the purposes he tasks them with, and, in SHUT NOT YOUR DOORS, he opens the gates for the book to do its work.  Walt Whitman may not have written Leaves of Grass to be a work of magic, but because it is structured like an inspired text it can act as one nevertheless.

The content of Song of Myself invokes some very particular states.  Take 43:

“I do not despise you priests, all time, the world over, My faith is the greatest of faiths and the least of faiths, Enclosing worship ancient and modern and all between ancient and modern… Ranting and frothing in my insane crisis or waiting dead-like til my spirit arouses me, Looking forth on pavement and land, or outside of pavement and land, Belonging to the winders of the circuit of circuits.”

Or 48,

“I have said that the soul is not more than the body, And I have said that the body is not more than the soul, And nothing, not God, is greater to one that one’s self is”

Or 41,

“Magnifying and applying come I, Outbidding at the start the old cautious hucksters, Taking myself the exact dimensions of Jehovah, Lithographing Kronos, Zeus his son, and Hercules his grandson, Buying drafts of Osiris, Isis, Belus, Brahma, Buddha, In my portfolio placing Manito loose, Allah on a lead, the crucifix engraved, With Odin and the hideous faced Mexitli and every idol and image, Taking them all for what they are worth and not a cent more”

To me, that is bold magic and better suited to daily practice where one is building relationships and one’s own self.    

The main problem with Song of Myself is that it is bloody long.  However it’s broken into 52 sub-sections.  That allows for using the poetry flexibly as a more reflective and prolonged invocationary practice.  Whitman’s use of (sort of) free verse also allows editing to focus on sections that fit what is desired.  Consider – charging a pentacle can be done (in part) through choosing sections of Bible verse that help evoke a particular quality.  Something similar can be done here with invocation.  Whitman wrote Leaves of Grass to inspire and to inform an alternative way of being in the world.  This is entirely appropriate to its purpose.

I’ve gone on long enough, so I won’t get into the pros and cons of adapting supportive aspects of the Headless Rite like the barbarous names and paper crown.

1 Read The Emperor of all Maladies by Siddhartha Mukherjee

[omniasolart]

I’m ecstatic to announce my first full graphic novel H3AD1355 will be released through Void Front Press later this year. H3AD1355 is the story of Kim Samson; a 20-something non-binary individual who turns to magic as an escape from depression and existential ennui. During their intellectual pursuits into the occult, they come across an ancient Greco-Egyptian magical ritual which changes the course of their destiny forever. As well as the fictional memoir, this work contains an artistic recreation of the Stele of Jeu (aka the Headless Rite) in a visual format which may be used as, in the words of Samson, “a talisman for magical practitioners of all degrees.”

[renegade-hierophant]

1. Gnostic non-Christian:

On the Origin of the World

Eugnostos

The Paraphrase of Shem

The 3 Steles of Seth

Zostrianos

Thought of Norea

Marsanes

Exegesis on the Soul

Apocalypse of Adam

Allogenes

2. Gnostic with marginal Christian glosses:

Books of Jeu

Pistis Sophia

Untitled text

Hypostasis of the Archons

Tripartite Tractate

Gospel of the Egyptians

2nd Treatise of Great Seth

Valentinian Exposition

Trimorphic Protennoia

3. Gnostic with enhanced Christian elements:

Gospel of Truth

Apocryphon of John

Sophia of Jesus Christ

Melchizidek

4. Gnostic Christocentric:

Gospel of Thomas

Gospel of Philip

Book of Thomas the Contender

Dialogue of the Saviour

Apocryphon of James

1st and 2nd Apocalypse of James

Apocalypse of Peter

Gospel of Mary

For anyone interested in studying real Gnosticism, focus on the 1st and 2nd group of texts, only marginally on the 3rd, and you can completely ignore the 4th. Studying Middle Platonism and the Ancient Egyptian religion, particularly the various cosmologies and theogonies is absolutely necessary, since real Gnosticism is deeply rooted in Egyptian mythology and Hellenistic philosophy, and has no Christian or Jewish roots whatsoever. 

[plumeandparchment]

It’s about 10:30am and I’m off to a late start. I waltz into “the Sorceror’s Den” and mumble “Time for a late Resh”. I do a super a late Morning Resh and proceeded to some other stuff.

Once I’m done with those things I reach into the box of “Magic Light” candles, grab two white candles and my little etching tool.

Candles in hand, I saunter over to the beat up white stool in front of my altar and plop down. I examine the candle for a second and then I carve the zodiacal glyph of Saturn into it. I then take my tool and carve a little nook in the bottom of it so it sit nicely in the black candle holder on the altar.

I grab the brazer of incense, pop the top off and empty out the ashes from yesterday’s session. The sound of the brazier rustling around in my hand triggers elicits a strangely pleasurable shift in my awareness. Feels like my body is just getting hip to what’s going on. Feels like a tiny spark of magic and it get’s me goin’.

I snag a disc of charcoal, light it with the blue lighter on my altar and then I toss it in brazier. Then, without thinking, I light the candle.

I pause for a moment and say to myself “wait, that’s too soon” but I check myself and decide to roll with it. Normally I’d wait to light the candle until I was ready to recite the Orphic Hymn of the day but something felt “right” about lighting the candle when I did.

I grab the plastic pouch of frankincense on my desk, grab a few grains and sprinkle them on the charcoal, which is pretty well lit at this point. I gently placed the cover of brazier on, stand up, tie the black headband across my head and begin reciting the Voces Magicae:

“Aoth Abraoth Basym Isak Sabaoth Iao...”

I happen to notice that by the 2nd repetition of the opening lines, faint streams of smoke slowly start billowing out of the holes in the brazier.

I repeat the Voces Magicae 4 more times and by the time I’m done, the faint streams are now full, bold pillars of smoke. I make a mental notice and then finish performing the Stele of Jeu from the PGM. Smoke slowly fills the room as the strange words of the ritual fumble out of my mouth.

By the time I get to the last line l : “My name is a heart encircled by a serpent, come forth and and follow!” the entire room is filled with smoke and smell of incenses. The timing couldn’t have been more perfect.

[rudyroth79]

Vineri, 5 mai 2017, la ora 16.00, la Centrul Socio-Cultural ”Jean Louis Calderon” din București (str. Jean Louis Calderon nr. 39, sector 2) va avea loc lansarea volumelor ”Trecea un cântec peste veacuri”, antologie de poezie franceză (selecţie de poeme şi traducere în limba română de Paula Romanescu) și ”Et si l’amour avait raison?”, selecție din lirica originală a Paulei Romanescu, ambele apărute la Editura Tipo Moldova. Prezintă: George Corbu.

Antologia de poezia franceză cuprinde traduceri din Guillaume Apollinaire, Louis Aragon, Felix Arvers, Aliette Audra, Henri Bachou, Georges Bataille, Charles Baudelaire, Pierre Bearn, Joachim Du Bellay, Yves Bonnefoy, Georges Brassens, Jacques Brel, Paul Celan, André Chénier, Paul Claudel, Jean Cocteau, Pierre Corneille, Robert Desnos, Paul  Éluard, Benjamine Fondane (Barbu Fundoianu), Théophile Gautier, Iulia Hașdeu, Victor Hugo, Jean de La Fontaine, François de Malherbe, Stéphane Mallarmé, Henri Michaud, Molière, Gérard de Nerval, Anna de Noailles, Charles d’Orléans, Charles Péguy, Jacques Prévert, Sully Prudhomme, Henri de Regnier, Arthur Rimbaud, Pierre de Ronsard, Léopold Sédar Senghor,  Jules Supervielle, Tristan Tzara, Elena Văcărescu, Paul Valéry, Emile Verhaeren, Paul Verlaine, Boris Vian, Alfred de Vigny, Voltaire, Ilarie Voronca ș.a., aforisme de Martha Bibescu, Constantin Brâncuși, Emil Cioran.

”[…] Pe vremea când, copil îndrăgostit de hărţi şi stampe cum am fost, transcriam într-un «jurnal» frânturi de poeme descoperite în acea foarte de folos zăbavă care-mi era cetitul cărţilor, nici nu îndrăzneam să-mi imaginez că acela va fi fost grăuntele primei mele antologii, azvârlit în câmpul fertil al tăcerii, în aşteptarea vremii de cules. Mă mulţumeam cu bucuria fără nume de a mai fi adăugat micilor mele comori de gând o frumuseţe nouă. Uneori nu păstram dintr-un poem decât un vers, o frântură de zicere ca un tăiş de fulger pe care-ai vrea să-l prinzi în palmă, nebănuindu-i dulcea arsură. Împărţeam cu cei de-o cale spre împlinire într-un mâine al vieţii de adult (vai, cât de grăbiţi copiii să devină oameni mari de ani, ignorând capcana de a se trezi bătrâni chiar fără a fi fost vreodată adulţi!) noua bogăţie şi, prin acest gest simplu am înţeles că a dărui frumuseţe înseamnă a te îmbogăţi, îmbogăţindu-i şi pe ceilalţi.

Aceasta mi-a fost porunca: Să realizez din iubire de cuvânt prezenta antologie în limba română. 

Cuvintele ard uneori. Chiar sângeră. Alteori capătă adâncimi în care, de te afunzi, «dai de stele-n apă», cum zice lancrămeanul poet din Valea Frumoasei. Dar numai astfel sufletul se preschimbă-n armonie, bucuria în lumină şi lacrima în cânt.

Selectând şi traducând poeme din literatura franceză, apărute de prin secolul al paisprezecelea până în zilele noastre, am vrut prin aceasta să aduc un omagiu culturii unei ţări de la care au luat lumină de-a lungul timpului şi «ai noştri tineri» care vor fi învăţat pe la Paris nu doar «la gât cravatei cum se face nodul», ci şi cum se poate înnobila prin cunoaştere mintea şi sufletul omenesc.

Dacă nu am ocolit nici poeţi anonimi din nu se mai ştie care timp, nici poeţi-interpreţi de muzică dintre cei care s-au impus în conştiinţa publicului şi care au fost percepuţi de cititori drept creatori de poezie adevărată – Brel, Brassens, Ferré –, cum aş fi putut ocoli pe acei poeţi români sau trăitori un timp în România, cărora limba română le-a rămas patria din suflet şi, care au adus prin scrisul lor în limba  franceză o contribuţie deloc neglijabilă ba chiar de o excepţională originalitate şi valoare – Emil Cioran, Gherasim Luca, Iulia Hașdeu, Anna de Noailles (prinţesă Brâncoveanu), Paul Celan, Martha Bibesco, Barbu Fundoianu (Benjamin Fondane), Elena Văcărescu, Tristan Tzara, Ilarie Voronca dar şi un Brâncuşi, acest sculptor de aforisme şi poet al pietrei, al lemnului, al metalului…

Am credinţa că doar astfel «sporim a lumii taină» ori de câte ori un poem care va fi traversat veacurile se amestecă în cântul nostru luminându-ne cu o frumuseţe nouă.” – Paula Romanescu, ”Mărturie”, prefață la vol. ”Trecea un cântec peste veacuri”.

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Ilustrații coperți: Adina Romanescu

Arhur Rimbaud

Cel ce-odihneşte-n vad (Le dormeur du val)

E un vad de verdea��ă unde un râu subţire Cântă aninând prin ierburi de-argint străluminări, Unde un soare mândru îşi cerne peste fire Din crestele muntoase luminile din zări.

Un soldat tânăr doarme cu gura-ntredeschisă, Cu capul gol, cu ceafa scăldată-n reci undiri, Doarme întins în iarbă sub bolta necuprinsă, Palid în patu-i verde sub ploaia de lumini.

Doarme şi gladiole picioarele-i cuprind, Surâde-n somn cum face copilul suferind. Leagănă-l cu blândeţe, natură, îi e frig.

Întreaga-nmiresmare nu-l tulbură ca alt’ dată, Tihnit doarme sub soare cu mâna aşezată Pe piept; în coasta-i dreaptă două răni se deschid.

Traducere de Paula Romanescu

Paula Romanescu

Je n’aime pas les statues

Je n’aime pas les statues, Néron non plus d’ailleurs ; Il les décapita Puis sa tête roula Et le jeu continue: Un tyran est tombé De son socle rougi, L’oiseau dans la forêt Chante et l’herbe refleurit.

Un nouveau jour se lève, D’autres pas sur la grève, Et moi je rêve D’un Paradis perdu Au goût de bonheur.

Je n’aime pas les statues: La vie non plus d’ailleurs.

Știri: Dublă lansare de carte Paula Romanescu (5 mai 2017, București) Vineri, 5 mai 2017, la ora 16.00, la Centrul Socio-Cultural ”Jean Louis Calderon” din București (str. Jean Louis Calderon nr.

[satyrmagos]

Do Magick Day 5-2=3

Today was a big day for magick!

Meditation

Sat down to meditate in the afternoon.  Set my timer for 10 minutes (since I did 45 yesterday with no trouble), but was suddenly overcome by the sensation of itching all over my body at 6 minutes and had to stop.

Magic Art

Put a second coat of paint on my Venus mask.  It’s not quite ready to show off, yet, but probably later this week.

I also re-wrote a ritual from last October to fit tonight’s Esbat celebrations.  The ritual combines elements of eclectic Wiccan elemental circle casting, Gnostic theology, and the Stele of Jeu.

Full Moon Esbat Ritual

This evening, a half-dozen friends came over to celebrate the full moon Aradia and I.  We performed my purification ritual, then took turns undergoing a Portuguese ritual to cure the evil eye that Aradia and I picked up recently.

We went with purification for this month’s Full Moon Shennanigans on the advice of The Astrology Podcast, which described this full moon as “washing away your sins.”  I chose this purification ritual because I’ve been looking for an opportunity to field test the third draft.  The purification ritual worked a little better last time I performed it, but last time I had a full on bonfire as my Light not just a small cauldron in my house.  Everyone reported positive results.

The evil eye ritual was super effective.  It’s Catholic folk magic, of course, but my current Gnostic explorations are really helping work through some of my childhood antiChristian bias.  We all turned out to be suffering from the evil eye to one degree or another (not really surprising for a lot of reasons), but it actually took three rounds of purification to clear me (also not super surprising.

Now comes the Tarot and Chill, but I’m journalling now rather than risk missing a day.

[ogygia]

Experimenting with Headless Rite variants: issue #1

Yesterday I stumbled across an attempt to reconstruct the ‘six names’ described in the original PGM text of the Stele of Jeu, aka the Headless Rite. Typically most modern practitioners assume AOTH ABRAOTH BASYM ISAK SABAOTH to be the correct phrase to be uttered at the beginning of the rite, and which one should visualise as appearing across the forehead, but according to the above post at the Sublunar.Space blog this convention does not in fact have a solid basis in the PGM text itself; it is a convention derived from the fact that the only string of six words in the barbarous incantations happen to be the one that is now commonly used. Assuming important gematria numbers (9,999 in this case) the blogger reconstructs – or at least hypothesises a reconstruction of – the names to be

χαβραχ φνεσχηρ φιχρο φνυρω φωχω βωχ

but also suggests experimenting with preceding these names with the vowel incantation

αιη αιωι ηωιαη αη ιω ωη αιηουευωαι εαι υο ιαω ιωη οαυ αεη υωυω

So, in a mode of both experimentation and, well, enterprising exploration, I decided to perform the Headless Rite using the text from Cecchetelli’s The Book of Abrasax but substituting the opening barbarous names with the above (i.e. the vowels, followed by the reconstructed names). 

Unfortunately, I can’t say that was a good idea. Two things to note: 

1. The Stele of Jeu text used in The Book of Abrasax is not in fact the usual Headless Rite text I use. The translation I’ve used before is the one found on Sam Block’s website; alternatively, I’ve also used Gordon White’s version in Chaos Protocols before. But Cecchetelli’s version is one that I’ve read before but not used in practice yet. 

2. I can see the reasoning behind the reconstructed names on Sublunar.Space, but the recommendation to use the opening vowels is something that escapes my understanding. I thought I’d proceed, anyway. 

Not long after I’d finished performing this variant of the rite I found myself feeling deeply unsettled. I wasn’t sure if it was just my chronic anxiety being set off for completely unrelated reasons, but it was hard to shake off and I found myself having to perform a Star Ruby to try and alleviate any spiritual pressure I might have accidentally placed on myself. I also found myself feeling a little nauseous and ill-ish even though I’d made myself a fairly satisfactory dinner, but since I’d made it late I assumed it was just hunger pangs. No; in fact I just continued feeling ill for a bit after food. My head slightly ached and I felt a bit dizzy. 

I woke up okay this morning, but as the day got on today I found my headaches getting a little worse. They were pretty awful around lunch-time, but went away over the course of the day. The low-key anxiety ebbed and flowed throughout the day, made worse by the peak hour crowds after work, but now that I’ve had some time to myself at home and done non-magical things I find myself feeling a bit more at ease in myself now.

It’s possible that how I felt had absolutely nothing to do with my performing that rite, but suffice to say I can’t help having my suspicions either that loading the Headless Rite with an opening vowel incantation numbering 9,999, followed by another six barbarous names numbering 9,999, might also possibly be too much for a rite that’s already the magical equivalent of steroids.

For now, I’m probably going to need another day to feel fully myself again ...

[svenson777]

The Stele of Jeu from the Greek Magical Papyri

(Bornless Ritual)

~

Hellenized Egypt. These Greco-Egyptian magical spells are loaded with references to Egyptian, Greek, Gnostic, Orphic, and Hebrew deities—sometimes all in the same document.

[coldalbion]

What god?

What god Does now trespass on the fringes Of awareness?

Sly extension of foot So fleet and strong of sinew Disturbs the garden

Steps light in heated darkness Glides through viridian perfumes Seeking scarlet flowers

Soothing jaguar roar Into the rumble of pleased thunder As the hunters entwine themselves

About his calves Full of feline grace and serpent’s wisdom Fang forever embedded in his heel

What god has such sight? What god has such steps That brings forth from such soil all unknown? Coming forth aye Forth and following With mouth aflame

The Nameless God of Names - Akephalos! He who stirs the magician’s oracle Enlivens the anointed In frenzied baptism The severed head  With gory ashen locks a-writhing Cries out forever: AŌTH ABRAŌTH BASYM ISAK SABAŌTH IAŌ.

[whiskyhorse]

6

The Headless Rite bothers (fascinates) me.  From the Chaos Protocols:

“I am the Headless Daimon with sight in my feet; I am the mighty one who possesses the immortal fire; I am the truth who hates the fact that unjust deeds are done in the world; I am the one who makes the lightning flash and the thunder roll; I am the one whose sweat falls upon the earth as rain so that life can begin; I am the one whose mouth burns completely; I am the one who begets and destroys; I am the Favour of the Aion; my name is a Heart Encircled by a Serpent; Come Forth and Follow.”

I love this section of the rite.  It makes perfect sense to me.  Expression, boast, inhabiting haecceity. In terms of adherence to the original it is not the best, though.  Here’s Stratton-Kent’s translation from the original papyri:

“I am the headless spirit, having sight in my feet, strong, the immortal fire, I am the truth, I am he who hateth that ill deeds should be done in the world, I am he that lighteneth and thundereth, I am he whose sweat is a shower that falleth upon the earth that it may teem, I am he whose mouth ever burneth, I am the begetter and bringer forth, I am the Grace of the World, My name is the heart girt with a serpent: Come forth and follow.” Stratton-Kent asserts that the rite was originally an exorcism/banishing ritual that has since been adapted for invocation, particularly of one’s holy guardian angel, and prior to inviting visions.  However, as Stratton Kent points out in relation to Crowley’s use of the rite, a magician “producing a ritual for a specific purpose, on synthetic lines, overlooks the possibility that that what he is adapting has a life of its own”.

Stratton-Kent analyses much of the content of the ritual, but not the format of this piece of poetry.  What most interests me is that this segment of the rite takes a similar format to other inspired poetry.  For example, compare it with the Song of Amairgin White Knees, which is early Irish (translation by Du Jubainville because I like his poetry, though the translation is not the most accurate): “I am the wind that blows upon the sea I am the ocean wave; I am the murmur of the surges; I am seven battalions; I am a strong bull; I am an eagle on a rock; I am a ray of the sun; I am the most beautiful of herbs; I am a courageous wild boar; I am a Salmon in the water; I am a lake upon a plain; I am a cunning artist; I am a gigantic, sword-wielding champion; I can shift my shape like a god.”

Most translations also include a line roughly equating to “I am the god who shapes fire for a head”, which is likely to be coincidental alignment with “whose mouth burns completely” and may even be mistranslation.  Nevertheless the underlying poetic conventions are consistent and I would say they demonstrate the underlying potency and breadth of the Headless Rite.  Stratton-Kent argues for the rite having a relationship with kundalini, with an intention to invoke possession as a rising force and ‘headless’ relating to ‘removing’ the head.  He mentions Maya Deren’s accounts of possession ‘rising’ in voudoun. The idea that the rite is grounded in both tantra/kundalini and a form of invocation/possession (using these with an intention to banish/exorcise) makes great sense to me. Stratton-Kent, J. The Headless One. Hadean Press.