Well according to Deepak, Lakshmi should be all over me like a new suit.

So what's holding her back?

Maybe she is taking a vacation in galaxy 5.4 Sector 2Z Area 3??

No, I got sidetracked watching An Affair to Remember.

Such a great movie.

Today is the day I arrive at Mordor and finally throw the Ring of Power into the lava where it will be destoyed forever and never again will one person hold all the power.
Sorry, been watching too much LOTR.

Wish me luck in court!

Hugs & Good Morning All

May today see your dearest wishes come true

Good Luck Ruth!



It's funny that you should mention power and who holds the power. Last night I was reading the secrets of Mulkuth. It's all about gaining sovereignty over your own power. There are many exercises and meditations in this chapter. And although this is actually "Lesson Two" in the book this is the first lesson that contains as series of shamanic journeys to achieve the goals.

The first set of journeys is to search for the UnderWorld city of Falias. This searching process itself contains many introspections. Once the city is found the Queen of Falias is met, and there you ask to be given the stone of sovereignty. The Queen may simply give you the stone. Or she may request that you fix certain things in your life before you are worthy of receiving the stone. The witch is given a month to complete this journey to Falias to receive the Stone of Sovereignty. One received the witch then places the Stone of Sovereignty on the altar and proceeds to the next lesson. This Stone of Sovereignty has magical powers, and those powers are indeed associated with the sovereignty of the power of the witch to partake in mystical manifestations.

The next Lesson is the lesson of Yesod which is a journey to the inner city of Murias to retrieve the Chalice of Compassion. After that there is the lesson of Hod and the journey into the inner city of Finias to retrieve the Sword of Truth. Then there is the lesson of Netzach which is a journey to the inner city of Gorias to retrieve the Wand of Victory.

This completes the "Persona Triad" of the Qabalah.

This continues through the rest of the book with a journey into the cities of each sephirorth of the Soul and Spirit triads. It's all journey-work. Of course there is much waking-state work that goes with these journeys as well. The shamanic journeys are the lessons and meeting with the gods, the waking state is the implementation of those lessons. And this is a back-and-forth thing. It's a never-ending process. Even though the witch has acquired all the tools, the power of those tools increases as the witch perfects each of these visions.

Every lesson takes the following form:

1. A detailed description of the Sephirah and its deity(s)
2. A detailed description of and map of human traits associated with this Sephirah.
3. The name of the Celtic City, the associated chakras, planet god, elemental spirits, etc.
4. Entities of this deity. Every deity has a host of subordinate entities.
5. The Vision of the Deity. Every Sephirah is associated with a primal vision or goal.
6. The Deity's Magick - the magic that the deity of this Sephirah specializes in.
7. Pathworking for this Sephirah. The shamanic journey work.
8. The *Initiation of this Deity.
9. A detailed description of the "world" of this deity.
10. Journal work (Book of Shadows for this deity)

*Initiation here does not mean initiation "into" something as normally thought. The witch is not being 'initiated' into the Sephirah, but just the opposite is happening. The deities of the spehiroth are being "initialized' into the life of the witch.

~~~

Having now read some of these lessons in greater depth I can see that what's going on here is much of what I've already been doing. All of this was covered in R. J. Stewart's book, "The Miracle Tree". He presents the Qabalah quite differently but it's the same reality map viewed from a slightly different perspective. I've already journeyed into the four Celtic cities, Falias, Murias, Finias, and Gorias via the journey work and audio guided meditations used with his book.

I also have another book with guided meditations too called "The Faery Teachings". This book is basically the same thing but never mentions the Qabalah at all. It too is a journey into the four cities but doesn't name them other than by the four compass headings and the elemental forces of Earth, Air, Fire and Water. However, the cities that it describes are clearly the cities of Falias, Murias, Finias, and Gorias. I've also visited these worlds via these shamanic journeys. In fact, I first met Raol in Falias. I just didn't realize who she was at the time. It wasn't until she showed up in my Labyrinth Garden that I actually 'met' her.

~~~

Penczak is quite insistent that the witch embrace at least two reality maps going into this "year-and-a-day" journey. He offers about a dozen to choose from in the appendix of the book. I have already created my Labyrinth Garden Path as my "second" reality map.

The Labyrinth Garden came to me intuitively from all my previous pathwork. So it contains all of the same elements. I have all of the tools on the magician's table already. I had already traveled to all of the Celtic inner cities to retrieve them via my work with the Fae. I've added a Quill of Communiqué to the mix as well as a Cauldron of Purity. These 'new' tools do not represent new elements. They simply represent my own appreciation of existent elements. The Quill of Communiqué and the Sword of Truth are both facets of the element of Air. The Cauldron of Purity and the Wand of Creativity are both facets of the element of Fire. I have created (or associated) those symbols for deeply intuitive reasons that may only be meaningful for me.

John is probably thinking that his is way too complicated. But from my point of view the more complicated it gets the simpler it gets. The complexity is just a sign of increased understanding.

I'm really glad I bought this High Witchcraft book now. At first I was thinking that it was going to be mostly a waste of time because it appears to be filled with so many superfluous dogmatic details. But I think Penczak is just offering a very wide variety of ideas and symbolism so that the reader can pick and choose what calls to them. And so this is how I will use this book, along with the other books I have. It's just additional information. Not to be taken as a strict dogma, but simply to be taken as an overall pathwork guide filled with much useful information. Even Penczak himself is always encouraging the reader to follow their own calling. He suggests many additional reading materials (including "The Miracle Tree" by stewart and "The Faery Teachings" by Orion) so he already recognizes these other sources that I've already been using.

So anyway, this was all just a personal ramble for whatever its worth.

So, James, did you like Miracle Tree better than this book?

My court date was very anticlimatctic but it did reinforce my beliefs and concerns about the problems that arise during mercury retrograde.

The court continued the case until Nov. 24 for unknown reasons and mailed a notice to my home advising of the continuation. There was a typo in the address they mailed it to. Instead of apt. J205 they sent it to apt. 1205. So I never got it. Mercury rules communication and communication breakdowns occur more frequently during mercury retrograde. So, I'm assuming this has happened for a reason and that it will work out for the best.

Summary: The Evil Lord Sauron has received a temporary reprieve. But, the ring of power WILL be destroyed.

No, not really.

I mean there were aspects of "The Miracle Tree" that I liked better. But there were also a lot of things that I didn't like about it. Stewart, in many ways, if far more dogmatic. His dogma is 'Celtic' dogma, but he's very insistent on doing things HIS WAY.

Penczak's book in some ways seems far more 'complex', but this is only because Penczak throws everything at you including the kitchen sink.

But if you truly understand where Penczak is coming from (from his previous Temple Series Books), he's always stressing to just pick and choose what calls to you. So while he's throwing all this junk at you, it's your job as the reader to realize that you don't need to embrace it all.

He expects you to take what calls to you and just ignore what doesn't.

Stewart, on the other hand, tends to speak from a position of dogmatic authority. You either do it his way, or you're doing it wrong. I didn't mind that because I just took what I wanted and told him to shove the rest in a place where the sun doesn't sun.

After all, the author isn't there to argue with you.

The Faery Teachings were also quite demanding that their way was the 'only way'. I don't know why people need to take such rigid stances.

Penczak doesn't come accross like that at all. He does describe things 'matter-of-factly' sometime like as if he's stating them as absolute truths, but he had already made it prefectly clear in the introduction (and other books) that he expects you to only respond to what calls to you.

Also, I've been reading more even today and I'm finding that I truly like this book a lot, and I'm glad I bought it. It's going to be far more useful than I had originally thought.

I can see where it is indeed a really good outline for a year-and-a-day journey or course. The key is not to take it dogmatically and to only use it as a Guide. Even Penczak himself suggests using other books and materials during your journey.

The book has a surprising 'twist' at the end. A twist I should have seen coming. I'm going to describe it in my next post. In a way I feel like I'm giving away the end of a great movie, but it's not the ending that's important. It's the journey. So there's nothing lost in knowing how it ends.

I actually highly recommend this "Temple of High Witchcraft" by Penczak.

At first I was almost in agreement with you that he just wrote it because the publishers were egging him on to write something. But after having looked into these lessons deeper now I can honestly say that Penczak put GREAT EFFORT into compiling this information and putting it into a very meaningful "Year-and-a-day" course.

It really is worth "taking". I'm definitely keeping this book as an overall outline that will help me in my journeywork.

I have to honestly say that it's better than either Stewart's Book or the Faery Teachings overall. But at the same time, having read those other books has greatly aided me in understanding Penczak's work.

I like the "Faery Well" journeys of the Faery Teachings book, but Penczak's description of the Qabalah here has enhanced my understanding of the "Faery Realm". It's the same story but they don't even mention the "Qabalah" Although they do mention the Bilé which is their version of the "Tree of Life". But they just treat it as an infinitely large Oak Tree and they don't talk about sephiroth at all. They have you exploring "limbs" and "roots" instead.

But the messages of conciousness are the same.

Yes, I highly recommend Penczaks "Temple of High Witchcraft".

If you can see past the technical details and don't let them scare you off, the bulk of the story and lessons are really great.

Maybe you're supposed to take the journey of Mulkuth into the city of Falias and retrieve your Stone of Sovereignty first?

That's where I met Raol.

The two-sided clay pentacle that is sitting on the magician's table in my shamanic labyrinth garden is indeed my 'Stone of Sovereignty'.

Even in my journey Raol was showing me how to use it. The stone still resides within the shamanic journey though. It hasn't yet become manifest in the domain of Mulkuth. But that will happen soon I hope. There are things that I need to complete before I will permitted to possess the magick Stone of Sovereignty.

I think there is more truth in your statements than you or I realize.

I am certain there is.

James, would you mind posting that recipe for holy water you mentioned?

(please forgive any typos that may exist in this description)

The Making of Holy Water

(I modified this ever so slightly to include some concepts from the Faery Teachings, but it's basically the Penczak Ritual)

Preparations:

Obtain water from the Earth. Spring or well water is preferred. Rain water will suffice in a pinch. Water from a river or stream is also suitable if it appears clear and clean. If a natural source of water is unavailable, bottled water is suggested, specifically if it states that it is 'spring water'. City tap water should not be used because it contains the spiritual vibrations of every place it flowed through before it got to your abode. If you live in a rural area with your own private well, then tap water is fine. In fact, in the latter case it's actually preferable because it contains the spirit of your genii loci. (that latter part actually came from the Faery Teachings)

You'll also need the following ingredients:

1. A small bowl of sea salt - Earth

2. A wooden stick and a candle - Fire
(The stick will be lit aflame from a ceremonial candle)
(Some witches use a match for this. This flame will be doused in the water)
(you can use a matchstick as the wood, but I would personally remove the sulfur head and light it from a candle)

3. Sacred ash - Air
(The is often the ash from an oak fire that had be used in a circle ritual at Beltane)
(alternatively you can use the ash of ceremonial incense, other sources of sacred ash)

4. A dried rose petal - Spirit
(This is the spirit of living essence. Any flower or vegetation that calls to you can be used for this purpose)

You'll also need a holy grail to hold the holy water. That may be your Chalice of Compassion or some other vessel that you use for this purpose on your altar.

Performing the Ceremony

Place all of these items on your altar. Cast a magic circle and perform your standard rituals to bring the sacred spirits into harmony with your intent.

Place the holy grail upon the peyton of your altar pentacle. (If you have no peyton just place it in the center of the pentacle).

Take your sacred athame in hand. Hold the knife before you with it's blade pointed skyward. Commune with the Goddess of the Moon. Allow her to become one with your intent. You psyche should be focused on the desire and intent of purifying the sacred water. Feel the love. Do not be afraid to smile as a child should this feeling come over you. Allow the Goddess to work through you.

Turn the athame about facing the blade toward the Earth and the Chalice before you. Plunge the tip of the athame into the water. Feel the power of the Mother Goddess flow through you from your crown to your fingers and into the athame. You may also feel a blue light flowing up from the Earth below. You may be sitting on a chair, kneeling on the floor, of sitting on the floor with legs-crossed in a lotus position, or standing tall before a table altar. It make no difference how you perform this ritual. But in all cases be aware of the blue light that flows up from the Earth as the Goddess light descends from above.

This is the merging of (Mulkuth and Yesod) or (Gaia and Hecate) or whatever a witch has come to know as these Deities of these worlds.

The lights merge at the athame and you will psychically see the bluish/sliver glow flow from the tip of the athame into the water and permeate the water. Say the following incantation: (or hold the equivalent intent)

I exorcise and bless the, O Creature of Water,
casting out all impurities and discordant energies
May you ever be blessed as a vessel for Healing and Love

Stir the water deosil thrice with the tip of the athame

Remove the Chalice from the peyton and place it on the left side of the altar.

Place the small bowl of salt on the peyton.

Earth: (This is the element of Earth. The spirit of Assiah)

Touch the salt with the tip of the athame and say the following incantation or hold the intent:

I exorcise and bless the, O Creature of Salt,
casting out all impurities and discordant energies
May you ever be blessed as a vessel for Strength and Purity

Remove the Bowl of Salt from the peyton and place it nearer to you on the front of the altar.

Place the Chalice of Water back on the Peyton. Take a pinch of Salt from the bowl using your thumb and two fingertips. Release this pinch of Salt into the Water.

Stir the water deosil thrice with the tip of the athame as you say that following words or hold the following intent in your psyche.

May the Salt and Water conjoin as one in the Love of the Goddess

Once again feel and see the psychic light of the UnderWorld and the Moon Goddess merge into the water.

Remove the Chalice from the peyton and place it on the left side of the altar.
Remove the bowl of Salt and set it aside.

Place the small caldron of ash upon the peyton.

Air: (This is the element of Air. The spirit of Yetzirah)

Touch the ash with the tip of the athame and say the following incantation or hold the intent:

I exorcise and bless the, O Creature of Ash,
casting out all impurities and discordant energies
May you ever be blessed as a vessel for Wisdom and Sight

Remove the cauldron of Ash from the peyton and place it nearer to you on the front of the altar.

Take a pinch of Ash from the cauldron using your thumb and two fingertips. Release this pinch of Ash into the Water.

Stir the water deosil thrice with the tip of the athame as you say that following words or hold the following intent in your psyche.

May the Ash and Water conjoin as one in the Love of the Goddess

Once again feel and see the psychic light of the UnderWorld and the Moon Goddess merge into the water.

Leave the Chalice on the peyton.
Remove the cauldron of Ash and set it aside.

Prepare the match or sacred wooden stick and ceremonial candle.

Fire: (This is the element of Fire. The spirit of Atziluth.)

Light the sacred wooden stick and say the following incantation or hold the intent:

I exorcise and bless the, O Creature of Flame,
for you are the power of transformation and transmutation
Please add your spark of life to this Holy Water

Douse the flame into the water, and remove the stick.

Stir the water deosil thrice with the tip of the athame as you say that following words or hold the following intent in your psyche.

May the Flame of life pervade this Holy Water as one in the Love of the Goddess

Set your athame down in its sacred cradle, scabbard or place.

Spirit: (The following is the Spirit of the Living Garden)

Take the rose petals in your fingers and sprinkle them onto the water as you say the following incantation:

I ask for your blessing, O Creature of the Living Green.
May your blessings of spirit be upon this water.
May you and the spirits of the four elements aid me in sanctifying myself
and this space, to know that we are always in the garden of the Goddess.
All is sacred.
So mote it be.

Thank and release the attention of the gods. Perform whatever closing ceremonies you use to complete this circle ritual.

This Holy Water is permanent. But it should be stored in a cool dark place shielded from direct light.

It may be used to sanctify the witch, or any tools or objects whatsoever that the witch wishes to consecrate.

Thank you so much.

You're welcome Ruth.

(the following is just a personal rant about the Qabalah and Tarot)

Tarot and the Qabalah

The following graphic seems to be the most standard accepted way to lay out the tarot onto the Qabalah.



This is the scheme that Penczak uses, although Penczak doesn't say much about the tarot. I've tried to make sense of this scheme and it makes utterly no sense to me at all. So I created my own scheme that does make sense to me.

I just now went back and tried to make sense of the popular standard correlation again and I just realized that there is utterly no wisdom to it whatsoever. Whoever laid this out simply started at the top and just laid out the tarot deck in order (working right to left as the Jews did), and going down the tree.

To begin with, they went the wrong way. God is not the Fool who is trying to become a human.

The humans are Earthy creatures and so if the tarot is going to be laid out according to the journey of the Fool it should be laid out from the bottom up, not from the top down.

Although, I personally see no reason to just blindly lay it out in the order of the deck. My layout was done entirely intuitively based on the meanings of the tarot cards and on the meanings of the Qabalah sephiroth.

This is how I have laid out the tarot on my Qabalah.



I'm not changing it for anyone.

I've even changed the names of some of the tarot cards as follows:

(Std. Tarot) = (my titles)
Wheel of Fortune = Opportunity
Justice = Creativity
Judgment = Enlightenment
Hierophant = Guru
Devil = Horned One (not truly a demon at all)
Hanged Man = Hanged Fae

I have reasons for all of these name changes, but they basically hold the same meanings.

This is one reason why I would find it difficult to teach traditional folklore. Clearly the tarot was placed onto the Qabalah many centuries after the Qabalah had first been designed. The Tarot may have actually been inspired by the Qabalah, that would be hard to know for sure. But whoever placed the tarot back onto the Qabalah used a very simple scheme of just laying the cards out in their order from top to bottom. No thought was given of how the individual tarot concepts would actually fit into the picture of what's going on with the Qabalah.

So anyway, that's my rant for the day.

Placing the tarot onto the Qabalah works very well for me, but only if done intuitively the way that I did it. It has utterly no meaning for me at all in the standard form.

I would highly recommend that anyone who wants to combine the Qabalah and the Tarot should place the cards on whichever pathways make intuitive sense to them. The mere fact that these two completely separate reality maps were arbitrarily placed together in the first place reveals a lot. Why should everyone be locked into an arbitrary scheme just because it became historically popular? This truly flies in the face of what Penczak himself is attempting to teach.

When you get to the very last lesson in Penczak's book you'll find a very interesting challenge. The challenge is to create your very own reality map. He spends an entire chapter with exercises and meditations to help set you on a path that will lead to create your very own reality map.

In fact, when you get to the Vision of Kether you'll see the twist-ending to all of this. Kether becomes just another Malkuth for the next level of yet another Qabalah. And it goes on indefinitely.

By the way, I should mention that I'm not alone with this different arrangement of the Tarot.

I actually got the bulk of this idea from someone else who had laid out the Tarot according to the Faery Teachings. The central pillar of the Moon, Sun, and Star, is a focal point of the Faery Teachings. They have an "Earth Walk" meditation that That has your feet (or root chakra) in the Earth, your groin (or sacral chakra) in the Moon, your Heart chakra in the Sun and your Head (or crown chakra) in the Stars.

So they start with that central pillar and work from there intutively. And so that's what I did. So my concept for laying out the tarot is not entirely mine. Although I even changed a few thing up from what they had suggested.

I think the most important thing with any reality map is that it makes sense to the person who is using it.

A journey into some Artwork of Malkuth

The key to the temple of Malkuth were the Stone of Sovereignty is kept.




An artist's redition of the inner temple of Malkuth



The Sphinx of Malkuth



Kether becomes Malkuth - The Infinite Journey

Very beautiful work you show James. I really like the indepth history and information on what the author offers.

Yet perhaps simplicity is something I have been always thriving to achieve in all of the professions I have done thus far. Organization and simplicity are still my key focuses in everything I do.

Now I know this may sound a bit awkward, yet what if all this ancient studying that millions follow is nothing more then a vivid imagination of a human being that later enticed many to follow and those members just added additional information from their own individual imaginations.

Imagination...... think about this word for a moment.

Where does it evolve from? Why do we have it? What purpose does it have besides trying to give answers to the unknown and to help us sleep at night?

The works of many various spiritual quests can be nothing more than our imagination to create inventions of self assurance, self reliance, self security, and self enjoyments and hopefully for that matter the same goes for those who follow, read, or practice it.


In the end you have tapped into a idealogy that many people follow and enjoy, but what is the relevance of it, if we remain uncertain..... agnostic at best?


I mean what if a famous author such as J.R.R. Tolkien, Terry Brooks, or even R.A. Salvatore's work was buried for a thousand years and rediscovered to see as a "what could have been" world at one time, yet nothing more than in reality an imagination of a fantasy author.


yes this mysterious word "imagination" or "imaginating" and how it sometimes is not taken lightly from some of the biggest religions, spiritualists, followers, individualists, and yes even those atheists. What significance does it have if we can just create our own religion or spiritual quest without any information from previous ones. Is it possible? Can we just use our feelings as the information needed only?

If you could put it in the simpliest language of what you believe to be true and why we follow in a psychological aspect to needing such belief systems in the first place then that would be great of you to do for a simple mind as mine.

By the way good Tuesday everyone.