The Initiated Interpretation of Ceremonial Magic by H. Sapiens

IT IS LOFTILY amusing to the student of magical literature who is not quite a fool—and rare is such a combination!—to note the criticism directed by the Philistine against the citadel of his science. Truly, since our childhood has ingrained into us not only literal belief in the Bible, but also substantial belief in Alf Laylah wa Laylah [A Thousand and One Nights], and only adolescence can cure us, we are only too liable, in the rush and energy of dawning manhood, to overturn roughly and rashly both these classics, to regard them both on the same level, as interesting documents from the standpoint of folk-lore and anthropology, and as nothing more.

Even when we learn that the Bible, by a profound and minute study of the text, may be forced to yield up Qabalistic arcana of cosmic scope and importance, we are too often slow to apply a similar restorative to the companion volume, even if we are the lucky holders of Burton’s veritable edition.

To me, then, it remains to raise the Alf Laylah wa Laylah into its proper place once more.

I am not concerned to deny the objective reality of all “magical” phenomena; if they are illusions, they are at least as real as many unquestioned facts of daily life; and, if we follow Herbert Spencer, they are at least evidence of some cause [This, incidentally, is perhaps the greatest argument we possess, pushed to its extreme, against the Advaitist1 theories].

Now, this fact is our base. What is the cause of my illusion of seeing a spirit in the triangle of Art?

Every smatterer, every expert in psychology, will answer: “That cause lies in your brain.”

English children (pace the Education Act) are taught that the Universe lies in infinite Space; Hindu children, in the akasa, which is the same thing.

Those Europeans who go a little deeper learn from Fichte,2 that the phenomenal Universe is the creation of the Ego; Hindus, or Europeans studying under Hindu gurus, are told, that by akasa is meant the citakasa. The citakasa is situated in the “Third Eye,” i.e., in the brain. By assuming higher dimensions of space, we can assimilate this fact to Realism; but we have no need to take so much trouble.

This being true for the ordinary Universe, that all sense-impressions are dependent on changes in the brain, [Thought is a secretion of the brain (Weissmann). Consciousness is a function of the brain (Huxley)] we must include illusions, which are after all sense-impressions as much as “realities” are, in the class of “phenomena dependent on brain-changes.”

Magical phenomena, however, come under a special sub-class, since they are willed, and their cause is the series of “real” phenomena, called the operations of ceremonial Magic.

These consist of

(1) Sight.
The circle, square, triangle, vessels, lamps, robes, implements, etc.

(2) Sound.
The invocations.

(3) Smell.
The perfumes.

(4) Taste.
The Sacraments.

(5) Touch.
As under (1).

(6) Mind.
The combination of all these and reflection on their significance.

These unusual impressions (1-5) produce unusual brain-changes; hence their summary (6) is of unusual kind. Its projection back into the apparently phenomenal world is therefore unusual.

Herein then consists the reality of the operations and effects of ceremonial magic, [Apart from its value in obtaining one-pointedness] and I conceive that the apology is ample, as far as the “effects” refer only to those phenomena which appear to the magician himself, the appearance of the spirit, his conversation, possible shocks from imprudence, and so on, even to ecstasy on the one hand, and death or madness on the other.

But can any of the effects described in this our book Goetia be obtained, and if so, can you give a rational explanation of the circumstances? Say you so?

I can, and will.

The spirits of the Goetia are portions of the human brain.

Their seals therefore represent (Mr. Spencer’s projected cube) methods of stimulating or regulating those particular spots (through the eye).

The names of God are vibrations calculated to establish:

(a) General control of the brain. (Establishment of functions relative to the subtle world.)

(b) Control over the brain in detail. (Rank or type of the Spirit.)

(c) Control of one special portion. (Name of the Spirit.)

The perfumes aid this through smell. Usually the perfume will only tend to control a large area; but there is an attribution of perfumes to letters of the alphabet enabling one, by a Qabalistic formula, to spell out the Spirit’s name.

I need not enter into more particular discussion of these points; the intelligent reader can easily fill in what is lacking.

If, then, I say, with Solomon:

”The Spirit Cimieries teaches logic,” what I mean is:

”Those portions of my brain which subserve the logical faculty may be stimulated and developed by following out the processes called ‘The Invocation of Cimieries.’”

And this is a purely materialistic rational statement; it is independent of any objective hierarchy at all. Philosophy has nothing to say; and Science can only suspend judgment, pending a proper and methodical investigation of the facts alleged.

Unfortunately, we cannot stop there. Solomon promises us that we can (1) obtain information; (2) destroy our enemies; (3) understand the voices of nature; (4) obtain treasure; (5) heal diseases, etc. I have taken these five powers at random; considerations of space forbid me to explain all.

(1) Brings up facts from sub-consciousness.

(2) Here we come to an interesting fact. It is curious to note the contrast between the noble means and the apparently vile ends of magical rituals. The latter are disguises for sublime truths. “To destroy our enemies” is to realize the illusion of duality, to excite compassion.

(Ah! Mr. Waite, the world of Magic is a mirror, wherein who sees muck is muck.)

(3) A careful naturalist will understand much from the voices of the animals he has studied long. Even a child knows the difference of a cat’s miauling and purring. The faculty may be greatly developed.

(4) Business capacity may be stimulated.

(5) Abnormal states of the body may be corrected, and the involved tissues brought back to tone, in obedience to currents started from the brain.

So for all other phenomena. There is no effect which is truly and necessarily miraculous.

Our Ceremonial Magic fines down, then, to a series of minute, though of course empirical, physiological experiments, and whoso, will carry them through intelligently need not fear the result.

I have all the health, and treasure, and logic, I need; I have no time to waste. “There is a lion in the way.” For me these practices are useless; but for the benefit of others less fortunate I give them to the world, together with this explanation of, and apology for, them.

I trust that the explanation will enable many students who have hitherto, by a puerile objectivity in their view of the question, obtained no results, to succeed; that the apology may impress upon our scornful men of science that the study of the bacillus should give place to that of the baculum, the little to the great—how great one only realizes when one identifies the wand with the mahalingam, up which Brahma flew at the rate of 84,000 yojanas a second for 84,000 mahakalpas, down which Vishnu flew at the rate of 84,000 croces of yojanas a second for 84,000 crores of mahakalpas—yet neither reached an end.

But I reach an end.

Boleskine House,
Foyers, N.B., July, 1903

Thee ∞ Magiks by Peter J Carroll

Our perceptual and conceptual apparatus creates a fourfold division of matter into the space, time, mass, and energy tautology. Similarly, our instinctual drives create an eightfold division of magic. The eight forms of magic are conveniently denoted by colours having emotional significance:

Octarine Magic

Following Pratchett's hypothesis, the eighth colour of the spectrum, which is the magicians personal perception of the "colour of magic", may be called octarine. For me, this is a particular shade of electric pinkish-purple. My most signifikant optical visions have all occured in this hue, and I visualise it to colour many of my more important spells and sigils on the astral. Before I set sail in a handmade open boat through the Arabian Sea I was tricked into accepting a huge and priceless star ruby by a wizard in India. It was of an exactly octarine hue. During the most violent typhoon I have ever experienced I found myself shrieking my conjurations to Thor and Poseidon whilst clinging to the bowsprit as mountainous waves smashed into the boat and octarine lightning bolts crashed into the sea all around. Looking back it seems miraculous that I and my crew survived. I have kept the octarine stone, uncertain as to whether it was passed to me as a curse, a joke, a blessing, or a test, or all of these things.

Other magicians perceive octarine in different ways. My personal perception of octarine is probably a consequence of sex (purple) and anger (red) being my most effective forms of gnosis. Each should seek out the colour of magic for himself.

The octarine power is our instinctual drive towards magic, which, if allowed to flower, creates the magician self or personality in the psyche, and in affinity with various magician god forms. The "Magician Self" varies naturally between magicians, but has the general characteristics of antinomianism and deviousness, with a predilection for manipulation and the bizarre. The antinomianism of the magician self arises partly from the general estrangement of our culture from magic. The magicial self therefore tends to take an interest in everything that does not exist, or should not exist, acording to ordinary consensus reality. To the magician self, "Nothing is Unnatural". A statement full of endless meanings. The deviousness of the magician self is a natural extension of the sleight of mind required to manipulate the unseen. The god forms of the octarine power are those which correspond most closely with the characteristics of the magician self, and are usually the magicians most important modes of possession for purely magical inspiration. Baphomet, Pan, Odin, Loki, Tiamat, Ptah, Eris, Hekate, Babalon, Lilith and Ishtar are examples of god forms which can be used in this way.

Alternatively the magician may wish to formulate a magician god form on a purely idiosyncratic basis, in which case the symbolism of the serpent and the planet Uranus often prove useful starting points.

The magician can invoke such god forms for the illumination of various aspects of the magical self, and for various works of pure rather than applied magic. The category of pure magic includes such activities as the development of magical theories and philosophies, and magical training programs, the devising of symbolic systems for use in divinations, spells and incantations, and also the creation of magical languages for similar purposes. It is worth noting here that chaos-magical languages are usually now written in V-Prime before transliteration into magical barbaric form. V-Prime or Vernacular Prime is simply one's native tongue in which all use of all tenses of the verb "to be" is omitted in accordance with quantum metaphysics. All the nonsense of transcendentalism disappears quite naturally once this tactic is adopted. There is no being, all is doing.

The octarine power is invoked to inspire the magician self and to expand the magicians primary arcana. The primary personal arcana consists of the fundamental symbols with which he interprets and interacts with reality (whatever that may assault perception as), magically. These symbols may be theories or kabbalas, obsessions, magical weapons, astral or physical, or indeed anything which relates to the practice of magic generally, that is not dedicated specifically to one of the other powers of applied magic, whose symbols form the secondary personal arcana of magic.

From the vantage point of the octarine gnosis, the magician self should be able to perceive the selves of the other seven powers, and be able to see their interrelationship within his total organism. Thus the octarine power brings some ability in psychiatry, which is the adjustment of the relationship between the selves in an organism. The basis difference between a magician and a civilian is that the latter the octarine power is vestigial or undeveloped. The normal resting or neutral mode a civilian corresponds to a mild expression of the yellow power which he regards as his normal personality or "ego". The magician self however, is fully aware that this is but one of eight major tools that the organism possesses. Thus, in a sense, the "normal personality" of the magician is a tool of his magical self (and, importantly, vice versa). This realisation gives him some advantage over ordinary people. However the developing magical self will soon realize that it is not in itself superior to the other selves that the organism consists of, for there are many things they can do which it cannot.

The development of the octarine power through the philosophy and practice of magic tends to provide the magician with a second major centre amongst the selves to complement the ego of the yellow power. The awakening of the octarine power is sometimes known as "being bitten by the serpent". Those who have been, are usually as instantly recognisable to each other as, for example, two lifeboat survivors are.

Perhaps one of the greatest tricks of sleight of mind is to allow the magician self and the ego to dance together within the psyche without undue conflict. The magician who is unable to disguise himself as an ordinary person, or who is unable to act independently of his own ego, is no magician at all.

Nevertheless, the growth of the octarine, or eighth power of the self, and the discovery of the type of magician one wants to be, and the identification or synthesis of a god form to represent it, tend to create something of a mutant being, who has advanced into a paradigm that few others are aware of. It is not easy to turn back once the jouney has begun, though quite a few have tried to abort the voyage with various narcotics including mysticism. It is a pilgrimage to an unknown destination, in which one awakes successively from one nightmare into another. Some on them appear vastly entertaining at the time. There are worlds within us, the abysses are just the initiations in between them.

The evocation of an octarine servitor can create an invaluable tool for those engaged in magical research. The main functions of such entities are usually to assist in the discovery of useful information and contacts. Negative results should not be ignored here, the complete failure of a well prepared servitor to retrieve information about the hypothetical cosmic "big bang", was a contributory factor in the development of the Fiat Nox theory, for example.

Black Magic

The Death programs built into our genetic and hence behavioral and emotional structure are the price we pay for the capacity for sexual reproduction which alone allows for evolutionary change. Only organisms which reproduce asexually, to replicate endless identical copies of their very simple forms, are immortal. Two conjunctions with the black power are of particular interest to the magician: the casting of destruction spells and the avoidance of premature death.

So called "Chod" rites are a ritual rehearsal of death in which the Death-self is invoked to manifest its knowledge and wisdom. Traditionally conceived of as a black robed skeletal figure armed with a scythe, the Death-self is privy to the mysteries of ageing, senescence, morbidity, necrosis, entropy and decay. It is often also possessed of a rather wry and world weary sense of humour.

Surrounding himself with all the symbols and paraphernalia of death, the magician invokes his Death-self in a Chod rite for one of the two purposes. Firstly the experience of the Death-self and the black gnosis brings the knowledge of what it feels like to begin dying and thus prepares the magician to resist the manifestation of actual premature death in himself and perhaps others by, as it were, knowing the enemy. A demon is just a god acting out of turn. In the course of various Chod rites the magician may well experiment in shamanic style by invoking into himself the visualised entities and symbols that he associates with various diseases, to practice banishing them. Thus the Death-self has some uses in medical diagnosis and divination.

Secondly, the death-self may be invoked as a vantage point from which to cast destruction spells. In this case the invocation takes the same general form but the conjuration is usually called an Entropy Rite. One should always look for any possible alternative to the exercise of destructive magic, for to be forced into the position of having to use it is a position of weakness. In each case the magician must plant in his subconscious a mechanism by which the target could come to grief and then project it with the aid of a sigil or perhaps an evoked servitor. Entropy magic works by sending information to the target which encourages auto-destructive behaviour.

Entropy magic differs from Combat magic of the Red Gnosis in several important respects. Entropy magic is always performed with complete stealth in the cold fury of the black saturine gnosis. The aim is a cold blooded surgical strike of which the target is given no warning. The magician is not interested in getting into a fight, merely in a quick and efficient kill. The supreme advantage of such attacks is that they are rarely perceived as such by the targets who have nothing but themselves and blind chance to blame for the disasters which even magnanimity in victory does little to assuage. One disadvantage however, is that it is rather difficult to present invoices to clients for effects that appear to be due entirely to natural causes.

God forms of the black power are legion; if the simple form of a cloaked skeleton with scythe does not adequately symbolise the Death-self then such forms as Charon, Thanatos, Saturn, Chronos, Hekate the Hag, Dark sister Atropos, Anubis, Yama and Kali may serve.

Servitors of the black power are rarely established for long term general use, partly because their use is likely to be infrequent and partly because they can be danger to their owner, thus they tend to be made and dispatched for specific single tasks.

Blue Magic

Wealth is not to be measured in terms of assets, but rather in terms of how much control over people and material, and thus ultimately one's own experiences, one achieves by economic activities. Money is an abstract concept used to quantify economic activity, thus wealth is a measure of how well you control your experiences with money. Assuming that varied, exciting, unusual and stimulating experiences are preferable to dull ones, and that they tend to be expensive for this reason, then the main problem for most people is to find a highly efficient form of money input which has the above agreeable qualities. The aim of wealth magic is to establish a large turnover of money which allows agreeable experiences at both the input and output stages. This demands what is called Money Consciousness.

Money has acquired all the characteristics of a "spiritual" being. It is invisible and intangible, coinage, notes and electronic numbers are not money. They are merely representations or talismans of something which economists cannot coherently define. Yet although it is itself intangible and invisible it can create powerful effects on reality. Money has its own personality and idiosyncratic tastes, it avoids those who blaspheme it, and flows towards those who treat it in the way it likes. In a suitable environment it will even reproduce itself. The nature of the money spirit is movement, money likes to move. If it is hoarded and not used, it slowly dies. Money thus prefers to manifest as turnover rather than as unexploited assets. Monies surplus to immediate pleasure should be re-invested as a further evocation, but the truly money conscious find that even their pleasures make money for them. Money consciousness gets paid to enjoy itself. Those in money consciousness are by nature generous. Offer them an interesting investment and they will offer you a fortune. Just don't ask for small cash handouts.

The attainment of money consciousness and the invokation of the Wealth-self consists of the acquisition of a thorough knowledge of the predilections of the spirit of money and a thorough exploration of personal desires. When both of these have been understood, real wealth manifests effortlessly.

Such invocations must be handled with care. The blue gnosis of wealth and desire creates demons as easily as gods. Many contemporary success and sales seminars concentrate on creating an hysterical desire for money coupled with an equally hypertrophied desire for the mere symbols of wealth rather than the experiences the punters actually want. To work like a possessed maniac all day for the questionable pleasure of drinking oneself into near oblivion on vintage champagne every night, is to have missed the point entirely and to have a entered a condition of anti-wealth.

However, the majority of those who are poor in relatively free societies where others are rich, owe their poverty either to a lack of understanding of how money behaves, or to negative feelings which tend to repel it. Neither intelligence nor investment capital are required in any great degree to become wealthy. The popularity of tales about the misery and misfortunes of the rich is testimony to the ridiculous myth prevalent amongst the poor, that the rich are unhappy. Before beginning works of blue magic it is essential to seriously examine all negative thoughts and feelings about money and to exorcise them. Most of the poor people who win in lotteries, and only the poor regularly enter them, manage to have nothing to show for it a couple years later. It is as if some subconscious force somehow got rid of something they felt they did not really deserve or want. People tend to have the degree of wealth that they deeply believe they should have. Blue magic is the modification of that belief through ritual enactment of alternative beliefs.

Blue magic rituals may thus involve exorcisms of negative attitudes to wealth, divinatory explorations of one's deepest desires, and invocations of the Wealth-self and the spirit of money during which the subconscious wealth level is adjusted by ritual expression of a new value, and affirmations of new projects for the investment of resources and efford are made. Hymns and incantations to money can be delivered. Cheques for startling sums can be written to oneself and desires can be proclaimed and visualised. Various traditional god forms with a prosperity aspect can be used to express the Wealth-self such as Jupiter, Zeus and the mythical Midas and Croesus.

Simple money spells are rarely used in modern blue magic. The tendency nowadays is to cast spells designed to enhance schemes designed to make money. If one fails to provide a mechanism through which money can manifest then either nothing will happen or the spell will flesh by strange means, such as a legacy from the untimely death of a much beloved relative for example. Serious blue magic is never attempted by conventional forms of gambling. Conventional gambling is an expensive way of buying experiences which have nothing to do with increasing one's wealth. Blue magic is a matter of carefully calculated investment. Anyone but a fool should be able to devise an investment that offers better odds than conventional forms of gambling.

Red Magic

As soon as humanity developed the organisation and weapons technology to defeat its main natural predators and competitors it seems to have applied a fierce selection mechanism to itself in the form of internecine warfare. Many of the qualities we regard as marks of our evolutionary success, such as our opposable thumbs and tool handling abilities, our capacity for communication by sound, our upright posture, and our capacity to give and receive commands and discipline, were almost certainly selected for during millennia of organized armed conflict between human bands. Our morality reflects our bloody history, for whilst it is taboo to attack members of one's own tribe, it remains one's duty to attack foreigners. The only debate is over who constitutes one's own tribe. When enthusiasm for war is limited, we devise sports and games in which to express our aggression. From the whole ethos and terminology of sport it is plain that sport is just war with extra rules.

However, it should not be supposed that war is completely without rules. Wars are fought to improve one's bargaining position; in war the enemy group is a resource that one wishes to gain some measure of control over. Wars are fought to intimidate one's adversaries, not to exterminate them. Genocide is not war.
The structure and conduct of war reflects the "fight or flight" program built into our sympathetic nervous system. In battle, the aim is to intimidate the enemy out of the fight mode and into flight mode. Thus, assuming there is sufficient parity of force to make a fight seem worthwhile to both parties, morale is the decisive factor in conflict. Indeed, it is the decisive factor in virtually any inter-human competitive, sporting or military encounter.

Red magic has two aspects, firstly the invocation of the vitality, aggression, and morale to sustain oneself in any conflict from life in general to outright war, and secondly the conduct of actual combat magic. A variety of god forms exist in which the War-self can be expressed, although hybrid or purely idiosyncratic forms work just as well. Ares, Ishtar, Ogoun, Thor, Mars, Mithras and Horus in particular are often used. Contemporary symbolism should not be neglected. Firearms and explosives are as welcoming to the red gnosis as swords and spears. Drums are virtually indispensable. Sigils drawn in flammable liquids, or indeed whole flaming circles in which to invoke should be considered.

Combat magic is usually practised openly with the adversary being publicly threatened and cursed, or finding himself the recipient of an unpleasant looking talisman, spell or rune. The aim is intimidation and control of one's adversary who must therefore be made as paranoid as possible and informed of the origin of the attack. Otherwise combat magic takes the same general form as that used in Entropy Rites, with sigils and servitors carrying auto-destructive information to the target, although with sub-lethal intent.

However, the real skill of red magic is to be able to present such an overwhelming glamour of personal vitality, morale and potential for aggression that the exercise of combat magic is never required.

Yellow Magic

Most of the extant texts on what is traditionally called "solar magic", contradict each other or suffer from internal confusion. Astrological commentaries on the supposed powers of the sun are amongst the most idiotic nonsense that discipline can produce. This is because the yellow power has four distinct but related forms of manifestation within the psyche. This fourfold division has led to immense problems in psychology, where various schools of thought have chosen to emphasize one in particular and to ignore those which other schools have alighted upon.

The four aspects can be characterised as follows. Firstly the Ego, or self image, which is simply the model the mind has of the general personality, but excluding most of the extreme behaviour patterns that the selves are capable of. Secondly Charisma, which is the degree of self-confidence that a person projects to others. Thirdly, something for which there is no single English term, but which can be called Laughter-Creativity. Fourthly, the urge to Assertion and Dominance. All these things are manifestations of the same yellow power; although their relative emphasis varies greatly between individuals.

Success in most human societies usually results from a skilful expression of the yellow power. The strength of the yellow power in an individual seems to bear a direct relationship to levels of the sexual hormone testosterone in both sexes; although its expression depends on personal psychology. There is a complex interplay between testosterone levels, self image, creativity, social status and sexual urges, even if they are unexpressed. In esoteric terms, the moon is the secret power behind the sun, as most female magicians realise instinctively, and most male magicians discover sooner or later. The Ego gradually accretes through the accidents of childhood and adolescence, and, in the absence of particularly powerful experiences thereafter, remains fairly constant even if it contains highly dysfunctional elements. Any type of invocation should make some difference to the ego, but direct work with it can achieve much more. Several tricks are involved here. The very recognition of the ego implies that change is possible. Only those who realize that they own a personality rather than consis of a personality, can modify it. For most people a preparation of a detailed inventory of their own personality is a very difficult and unsettling activity. Yet once it is done it is usually quite easy to decide what changes are desirable.

Changes to the Ego or self image or personality by magic are classed as works of Illumination and are mainly accomplished by Retroactive Enchantment and Invocation. Retroactive Enchantment in this case consits of re-writing one's personal history. As our history largely defines our future, we can change our future by redefining our past. Everybody has some capacity to re-interpret things which were considered to have gone wrong in the past in a more favourable light, but most fail to pursue the process to the full. One cannot eliminate disabling memories, but by an effort of visualisation and imagination one can write in parallel enabling memories of what might also have happened, to neutralise the originals. One can also, where possible, modify any remaining physical evidence that favours the disabling memory.

Invocations to modify the ego are ritual enchantments and personifications of the new desired qualities. Attention should be given to planned changes of dress, tone of speech, gesture, mannerisms and body posture which will best suit the new ego. One manoeuvre frequently used in yellow magic is to practice the manifestation of an alternative personality with a specific mnemonic trigger, such as the transference of a ring from one finger to another.

Various god forms such as Ra, Helios, Mithras, Apollo and Baldur are useful to structure fresh manifestations of the ego, and for experiments with the other three qualities of the yellow power.

Charisma, the projection of an aura of self confidence, is based on a simple trick. After a short while there is no difference at all between the pretence and the actuality of self confidence. Anyone wishing to remedy a lack of confidence and charisma, and uncertain as to how to begin pretending to these qualities, may find that a day or two spent pretending to absolute zero self confidence will quickly reveal both the effectiveness of pretence and the specific thoughts, words, gestures and postures required to project either pretence.

Laughter and Creativity may not immediately seem to be related, but humour depends on the sudden forging of a new connection between disparate concepts, and we laugh at our own creativity in forging the connection. Exactly the same form of elation arises from other forms of creative activity, and if the insight comes suddenly, laughter results. If you don't laugh when you see a seriously brilliant piece of mathematics then you have not really understood it. It also take a degree of positive self-esteem and confidence to laugh at something creatively funny. Persons of low self-esteem tend only to laugh at destructive humour and the misfortunes of others, if they laugh at all.

Laughter is often an important factor in the invocations of the god forms of the yellow power. Solemnity is not a prerequisite for ritual. Laughter is also a useful tactic in drawing conscious attention away from sigils or other magical conjurations once they are finished with. The deliberate forcing of hysterical laughter may seem an absurd way of ending an enchantment or an invocation, but it has been found to be remarkably effective in practice. This is yet another sleight of mind manoeuvre which prevents conscious deliberation.

The "pecking order" within most groups of social animals is usually immediately obvious to us, and the animals themselves. Yet within our own society such dominance hierarchies are equally prevalent within all social groups; although we go to quite extreme lengths to disguise this to ourselves. The human situation is further complicated by the tendency of individuals to belong to many groups in which they may have different degrees of social status, and status is often partly dependent on specialist abilities other than displays of naked force.

However, assuming that a person can appear competent in the specialist ability that a social group requires, that person's position in the group depends almost entirely on the degree of assertion and dominance that person exhibits. It is basically exhibited through non-verbal behaviour which everybody understands intuitively or subconsciously but which most people fail to understand rationally. As a consequence they cannot manipulate it deliberately. Typical dominance behaviours involve talking loudly and slowly, using lots of eye contact, interrupting the speech of others whilst resisting the interruption of others, maintaining an upright posture of concealed threat, invading the personal space of others whilst resisting intrusion into one's own, and placing oneself strategically in any space at the focus of attention. In cultures where touching is frequent, the dominant always initiate it, or pointedly refuse it. Either way, they control it.

Submissive behaviour is of course the reverse of all the above, and appears quite spontaneously in response to successful dominance from others. There is a two way interaction between dominance behaviour and hormone levels. If the levels change for medical reasons then the behaviour tends to change, but more importantly, from a magical point of view, a deliberate change of behaviour will modify hormone levels. Fake it till you make it. There is nothing particularly occult about the way some people are able to control others. We simply fail to notice how it is done because nearly all the behavioural signals involved are exchanged subconsciously. Dominance signals do not tend to work if their recipients perceive them consciously. Thus in most situations they must be delivered subtly and with gradually increasing intensity. One of the few situations where such signals are exchanged deliberately is in military hierarchies, but this is only possible because of the immense capacity for direct physical coercion that such systems exhibit. Break the formal rules of non-verbal communication with an officer and he will have a sergeant instil some submission by direct means. Eventually the formal rules become internalised and function automatically, allowing enough obedience to permit mass self-sacrifice and slaughter. The yellow power is the root of most of the best and the worst of what we are capable.

Green Magic

There is inevitable a considerable overlap in what is written in popular magic books on the subject of venusian (love) and lunar (sex) magic. Consequently a planetary nomenclature has been largely avoided in this text. Although love magic is frequently performed in support of sexual objectives, this chapter will confine itself to the arts of making other people friendly, loyal and affectionate towards oneself.
Friends are probably anyone's greatest asset. My adress book is easily my most valuable possession. As with erotic attraction, it is first necessary to like oneself before others will. This ability can be enhanced by appropriate invocations of the green power. Most people find it easy to elicit friendliness from people that they like themselves; but making persons who are not disposed to friendship towards you, become friendly, and making persons who you do not like at all friendly towards you, are valuable abilities. An unreciprocated friendship is a disability only to the person offering it.

Invocations to the green power should begin with self-love; an attempt to see the wonderful side of every self one consists of, and then proceed into a ritual affirmation of the beauty and loveability of all things and all people. Suitable god forms for the Love-self include Venus, Aphrodite and the mythical Narcissus, whose myth merely reflects a certain male prejudice against this type of invocation.

From within the green gnosis, spells to make people friendly may be cast by simple enchantment or by the use of entities created for this purpose. However it is in face to face meetings that the empathic abilities stimulated by the invocation work most effectively. Apart from the obvious manoeuvres of showing interest in everything the target has to say and affirming and sympathising with most of it, there is another critical factor called "behavioral matching", which usually takes place subconsciously. Basically, in the absence of overtly hostile postures on the part of the target, one should attempt to match the non-verbal behaviour of the target precisely. Sit or stand in the identical bodily posture, make the same movements, use the same degree of eye contact, and talk for similar intervals. As with dominance behaviour, such signals only work if they are not consciously perceived by the recipient. Do not move to match the target's moves and postures immediately. It is also essential to try and match the verbal behaviour and to communicate with the same level of intelligence, social status and sense of humour as the target.

Before I made myself wealthy, I used to practice these abilities when hitch-hiking. Soon, even people whom I found quite ghastly were buying me lunch and transporting me far out of their way. Empathy will get you anywhere.

Orange Magic

Charlatanry, trickery, living by one's wits and thinking fast on one's feet are the essence of the orange power. These mercurial abilities were traditionally associated with the god forms which acted as patrons to doctors, magicians, gamblers and thieves. However the profession of medicine has now partly dissociated itself from charlatanry since doctors discovered that antibiotics and hygienic surgery actually worked. Nevertheless about eighty percent of medications are still basically placebos, and the profession still retains the mercurial caduceus for its emblem. Similarly the profession of magic has become less dependant on charlatanry with the discovery of the quantum-probabilistic nature of enchantment and divination and the virtual abandonment of classical alchemy and astrology. Pure magic is now best described as an expression of the octarine power, having an Uranian character. Yet charlatanry still has its place in magic as in medicine. Let us not forget that all "conjuring tricks" were once part of the shamanic warm up repertoire in which something lost or destroyed is miraculously restored by the magician to get the audience in the right mood before the serious business of placebo healing began. In its classical form, the magician puts a dead rabbit in a hat before pulling out a live one.

To the list of professions drawing heavily on the orange power one must now add salesman, confidence trickster, stockbroker and indeed any profession with an extreme heart attack rating. The motive power of the orange gnosis is basically fear, a species of fear which does not inhibit the user, but rather creates an extraordinary nervous speed that produces quick moves and answers in tight corners.

The apotheosis of the Wit-self is the ability to enter that state of mental overdrive in which the fast response is always forthcoming. This ability is,, paradoxically enough, created by not thinking about thinking, but rather allowing anxiety to partially paralyse the inhibitory process themselves so that the subconscious can throw out a quick witted response without conscious deliberation.

Invocations of the orange power are best delivered at frantic speed and gnosis can be deepened by the performance of mentally demanding tasks such as adding up large lists of numbers in one's head or ripping open envelopes containing difficult questions and answering them instantly; activities which should be persisted with until a breakthrough to the experience of thinking without deliberation is achieved. Varied god forms can be used to give form to the Wit-self. Hermes, Loki, Coyote the Trickster and the Roman Mercurius are often employed.

Orange magic is usually restricted to invocations designed to enhance general quick wittedness in secular activities such as gambling, crime and intellectual pursuits. Enchantments and evocations performed subsequent to an invocation of the orange gnosis rarely seem to give results as effective as the invocation itself in my experience. Perhaps something should be said about crime and gambling for the benefit of those hotheads who may misunderstand what can be done with orange magic in support of such activities. Theft is ludicrously easy performed methodically yet the majority of thieves get caught after a while because they become addicted to anxiety, which they experience as excitement and start taking risks to increase it. The novice thief who, in state of extreme anxiety, takes something in a situation of zero risk, does not of course get caught and neither does the careful professional. However there are few careful professionals because there are far easier ways of making money in most societies for people with that kind of ability. The great majority of thieves however always manage to find some way of incriminating themselves because the anxiety of the theft itself fades, only the anxiety of punishment remains. Those quick witted and outwardly cool enough to thieve successfully can easily make more from salesmanship.

There are three types of persistent gambler. The losers account for two types. Firstly there are those addicted to their own arrogance, who just have to prove that they can beat pure chance or the odds set by the organisers. Secondly there are those addicted to the anxiety of loosing. Even if they win, they invariably throw it away again soon afterwards. Then there are the winners. These people are not gambling at all, either because they are organising the odds and stakes, or because they have inside information, or because they are cheating. This is true orange magic. Poker is not a game of chance if played skilfully, and skilful play includes not playing against persons of equal or superior skill, or persons holding a Smith and Weston to your Four Aces. Most conventional forms of gambling are set up in such a way that the use of anything but the most extreme forms of psychic power will make little difference. I would not bother to bet on odds that I had reduced from an hundred to one to merely sixty to one. However certain results obtained using double blind prescience with horse racing show encouraging potential.

Purple Magic

A large proportion of all the cults throughout history have shared one particular characteristic. They have been led by a charismatic man able to persuade women to freely dispense sexual favours to ther men. When one begins to look, this feature is startlingly common to many ancient cults, monotheistic schismatic sects and modern esoteric groups. Many, if not the majority of adepts past and present were, or are, whoremasters. The mechanism is quite simple, pay the woman in the coinage of spirituality to service the men who repay you with adulation and accept your teachings as a side effect. The adulation from the men then increases your charisma with the women creating a positive feedback loop. It can be a nice little earner until old age or a police raid catches up with the enterprise. The other danger is of course that the women, and eventually the men, may come to feel that constant changes of partners work against their longer term interests of emotional security and reproduction. The turnover in such cults can thus be high, with young adults constantly replacing those approaching early middle age.

Few religions or cults lack a sexual teaching, for any teaching provides a powerful level of control. The vast majority of the more durable and established religions trade on a suppression of so called free love. This pays considerable dividends too. Women's position becomes more secure, and men know who their children are. Naturally adultery and prostitution flourish in such conditions because some people always want a little more than lifelong monogamy has to offer. So it's quite true that brothels are built with the bricks of religion. Indirectly so with conventional religions, directly so with many cults.

All this begs the question of why it is that people have such an appetite for wanting to be told what to do with their sexuality. Why do people have to seek esoteric and metaphysical justification for what they want to do? Why is it so easy to make a living selling water by the river?

The answer, it appears, is that human sexuality has some built in dissatisfaction function of evolutionary origin. Our sexual behaviour is partly controlled by genetics. Those genes most likely to survive and prosper are those that in the female encourage the permanent capture of the most powerful male available and occasional liaisons (clandestine) with any more powerful male that may be temporarily available. Whereas in the male, the genes most likely to prosper are those encouraging the impregnation of as large a number of females as he can support, plus perhaps a few on the sly that other men are supporting. It is interesting to note that only in the human female is oestrous concealed. In all other mammals the fertile time is made abundantly obvious. This appears to have evolved to allow, paradoxically both adultery and increased pair bonding through sex at times when it is reproductively useless. The economic basis of any particular society will usually supply some pressure in favour of a particular type of sexuality and this pressure will be codified as morality which will inevitably conflict with biological pressures. Celibacy is unsatisfactory, Masturbation is unsatisfactory, Monogamy is unsatisfactory, Adultery is unsatisfactory, Polygamy and Polyandry is unsatisfactory and presumably Homosexuality is unsatisfactory, if the renetic merry-go-round of partner exchanges in that discipline is anything to go by.

Nothing in the spectrum of possible sexualities provides a perfect long term solution, but this is the price we pay for occupying the pinnacle of mammalian evolution. So much of our art, culture, politics and technology arises precisely out of our sexual yearnings, fears, desires and dissatisfactions. A society sexually at peace with itself would present a very dull spectacle indeed. It is generally if not invariably tha case that personal creativity and achievement are directly proportional to personal sexual turmoil. This is actually one of the major but often unrecognised techniques of sex magic. Inspire yourself with maximum sexual turmoil and confusion if you really want to find out what you are capable of in other fields. A tempestuous sex life is not a side effect of being a great artist for example. Rather it is the art which is the side effect of a tempestuous sex life. A fanatical religion does not create the suppression of celibacy. It is the tensions of celibacy which create a fanatical religion. Homosexuality is not a side effect of barracks life amongst elite suicide shock troops. Homosexuality creates elite suicide shock troops in the first place.

The Muse, the hypothetical source of inspiration, usually pictured in sexual terms, is the Muse only when one's relationship to her is unstable. Every possible moral pronouncement on sexual behaviour has doubtless been given a million times before, and it would be unseemly for a Chaoist to re-emphasise any of it. However, one thing seems reasonably certain. Any form of sexuality eventually invokes the whole gamut of ecstasy, self-disgust, fear, delight, boredom, anger, love, jealousy, rafe, self-pity, elation and confusion.It is these things which make us human and occasionally superhuman. To attempt to transcend them is to make oneself less than human, not more. Intensity of experience is the key to really being alive and given the choice I'd rather do it through love than war any day.

A dull sex life creates a dull person. Few people manage to achieve greatness in any field without propulsion that a turbulent emotional-sexual life supplies. This is the major secret of sex mgic, the two minor secrets involve the function of orgasm as gnosis and the projection of sexual glamours.

Anything held in the conscious mind at orgasm tends to reach down into the subconscious. Sexual abnormalities can readily be implanted or removed by this method. At orgasm sigils for enchantment or evocation can be empowered either by visualisation or by gazing at the sigil taped to one's partner's forehead for example. However this kind of work is often more conveniently performed auto-erotically. Although the gnosis offered by orgasm can in theory be used in support of any magical objective, it is generally unwise to use it for entropy or combat magic. No spell is ever totally insulted within the subconscious and any leakages which occur can implant quite detrimental associations with the sexuality.

At orgasm an invocation can be triggered, this operation being particularly effective if each partner assumes a god form. The moments following orgasm are a useful time for divinatory vision seeking. Prolonged sexual activity can also lead to stages of trance useful in visual and oracular divination or oracular states of possession in invocation.

The projection of Sexual Glamour for the purposes of attracting others depends on far more than simple physical appearance. Some of the most conventually pretty people lack it entirely, whilst some of the plainest enjoy its benefits to the limit.

To be attractive to another person one must offer them something which is a reflection of part of their self. If the offer becomes reciprocal then it can lead to that sense of completion which is most readily celebrated by physical intimacy. In most cultures it is conventional for the male to display a tough public exterior and for the female to display a softer persona, yet in a sexual encounter each will seek to reveal their concealed factors. The male will seek to show that he can be compassionate and valnerable as well as powerful, whilst the female seeks to display inner strength behind the outward signs and signals of passive receptivity. Incomplete personalities such as those which are machismo to the core, or consist of the polar opposite of this, are never sexually attractive to anyone except in the most transient sense.

Thus the philosophers of love have come to identify a certain androgyny in either sex as an important component of attraction. Some have taken the poetic license to express the quaint ideal that the male has a femal soul and the female a male one. This reflects the truism that to be attractive to others you must first become attracted to yourself. A few hours spent practising being attractive in front of a mirror is a valuable exercise. If you cannot get mildly excited about yourself, then don't expect anyone else to get wildly excited.

The "moon glance" technique is often effective. Basically one briefly closes the eyes and momentarily visualises a lunar crescent in silver behind the eyes with the horns of the moon projecting out of each side of the head behind the eyes. Then one glances into the eyes of a potential lover whilst visualising a silver radiance beaming from your eyes to theirs. This manoeuvre also has the effect of dilating the pupils and usually causes an involuntary smile. Both of these are universal sexual signals, the first of which acts subconsciously.

It is generally unwise to cast spells for the attraction of specific partners but better to conjure for suitable partners in general for oneself or others. One's subconscious usually has a far more subtle appreciation of who really is suitable.

Sexual magic is traditionally associated with the colours of purple (for passion) and silver (for the moon). However, the effectiveness of black clothing as either a sexual or an anti-sexual signal, depending on the style and cut, shows that black is in a sense the secret colour of sex, reflecting the biological and psychological relationship between sex and death.

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