Saturday, November 20, 2010

23 Years & What I've Learned Thus Far

I dedicated myself to the pursuit of the Occult just three days and twenty years ago. Wow. Never thought I'd live that long, you know? LoL Well this from a guy who never gave a damn about what he ate, what he drank & was into daredevil things like riding super bikes at speeds in excess of 140 mph. (That's not to mention some of the strange drugs I've imbibed over the years either!)

The first thing I've learned as I look back over it all is that dedication is often given lip service by people. They want to promise themselves to the Gods or the Old Ones but it turns out that those are mere words to them. They want everything on their terms and to hell with what the Spirits want. Arrogant but true! Dedication is a very important step because it's the precursor to Initiation. It's an opportunity to snow the Spirits you mean business.

In our modern society, we have the unfortunate infiltration of what accounts for humans trying to rationally explain the irrational through a pseudo-practice called Psychology. Oh sure there have been a few good things come of Psychological research such as some forms of therapy that have shown promise like Neuro-Linguistic Programming but even so, such things pale in comparison to what real Sorcery can do for a person in their life.

I really think too many make far too much of this pseudo-Psychological claptrap where they try and combine it with Magic & then call it MagicK. Really? You feel the need to throw Magic in with Psychology? Why? To what end or purpose? They do this then call it 'High Magick' which it's not. It's just pseudo-Psychological nonsense that does what in the real world exactly? Nothing! Now in all fairness Chaos Magick, which bills itself as Sorcery but is really NEW Sorcery, can do some amazing things internally but externally to affect someone else? I've never seen Chaos Magick work in that regard. Typically Chaos Magickians need to get their sigil in front of the target before they can get it to take effect.

Old fashioned Sorcery is where it's at for a consistent results in the real, external world. Such things as herbs, roots, charm bags, candles, prayers, and such that here in the US we call Hoodoo. This has become the Low Magic which provides results that CM's dream about doing. Sure it's one thing to summon a powerful Spirit up from the Netherworlds and gain all sorts of insights & maybe coax it to do your bidding but why bother when you can get a root, a candle & a prayer to do it for you?

My first taste into African Folk Magic came through Obeah which I learned from an old black gent in the South Florida area. I was introduced to a number of black folks in the South Florida area who worked what many would call Hoodoo or RootWork-Conjure Sorcery but they called it 'Spiritual Work' and themselves 'Workers'. One was a 90+ y/o black woman who had a very strong psychic talent and was able to tell you very intimate details. She was a Spiritualist and said she had a familiar Spirit who'd tell her all your business. Scary eh? LoL

Another lesson I've learned over the years is to keep a healthy skepticism but do not be idiotic & throw out the baby with the bathwater! Morons deem themselves 'debnkers' pretending to figure out things by saying, "Well if we can reproduce the effect, then it's not Metaphysical" to which I reply, "Just because you can reproduce an effect, does not imply anytime someone does this same ritual/spell/whatever it's a fake. Hollywood can with CGI reproduce ANYTHING on screen. Big deal!" But if Hollywood can reproduce multiple images of you, so does that mean YOU aren't real? Same convoluted logic. Ugh.

I've also learned that Spirits can & do some very weird things. They can make you see things that are not there; let you experience things that you thought impossible; and give you information such as insights into the unknown to help you find a solution to your problem. They do not always have to be conjured to physical appearance because if you have a valid medium on hand, you can summon the Spirit through them and converse with them directly in conversation.

In summary, it's been a very long strange trip. I've learned a LOT about myself over the years and have also discovered that I don't know near as much as I wish to know.  But no matter how much I learn or discover, I'll never learn it all. Even in many lifetimes nor after death. *shrugs* Such is the way of things.

Evocation Part 1

To this day, I have never understood the mindset of the modern practitioner. What confuzzles me is the way someone's mind can swing like a pendulum from one extreme to the other.

For example, we find practitioners who barely know anything and are ready to start summoning things far bigger than their head. No training, very little accumulated knowledge and due to no experience, no wisdom concerning this art. But these folks have moxy, guts, balls, and ready to face a Spirit head on regardless of the consequences. On the opposite side, we have practitioners who are highly trained, well read yet have never performed an evocation though they've read about it or heard other Magicians talk about it.

Often I find those that want to summon a Spirit just want to crack open a grimoire & start the summoning with the whole 'damn the torpedoes' routine. Many of these types want to summon the most powerful Spirit they can find instead of rationally analyzing their need for doing so. They have this mentality that a problem HAS to be solved by the biggest, baddest, meanest, strongest, most powerful of all beings.

The practice of Evocation is also rife with people who want to summon a Spirit just to see what happens. These idiots remind me of the kids who get off making prank phone calls to people. No need to bother them but hey, it's fun! And yes it's fun, that is, until the pissed off Spirit they've summoned starts by making their lives a living hell! There’s an excellent account of this by S. Jason Black in Pacts With the Devil which he co-wrote with the late Chris Hyatt.

What is your problem? This is NOT rocket science, folks. Magic is complicated, yes, but not overly so. Practitioners MAKE it complicated because of some inborn need to validate it to themselves. "Simple spell work simply cannot help me!" Oh really?? Not much of a MagicKian are you? Finally learned that Crowley's brand of pseudo-Masonic folderol won't get you what it is you want, eh? So now maybe summoning a Spirit is what you need to do.

There are snares, pitfalls & traps in Evocation that too many ignore or think they can run around them. The biggest hurdle of all though is the practitioner himself (note: this is NOT gender exclusive!)

You my friend are your own WORST enemy. You've waited until the 11th hour before doing anything and realize a simple candle ritual or Planetary talisman just won't work as quickly as you need as both require time & planning to execute correctly. No, you need fast help from big guns.
Therein lies your first & usually biggest mistake: waiting too long.

I like to teach my Apprentices that the wisest thing to do is to learn how to work with Spirits as soon as possible. The reason for this is to show them what they need to know to summon Spirit entities long before there's a desperate need to do so. You see, desperation causes all sorts of dangerous elements to creep in. This is a trap that can cause you lots of problems with Spirits because they can sense what is amiss.

By taking time in the beginning of training & learning how to work with Spirits as well as other things such as philosophy of the art and techniques to achieve it, the student can become gradually proficient so that he can have confidence when the time comes.  This preparation is what one needs to fend off any desperation that may come down the line.

Early training should consist in summoning Spirits  such as those from the Four Elemental worlds of Water, Earth, Air & Fire. Aside from the fact that there is MUCH knowledge & wisdom to be gained from direct contact with the Elemental Rulers & their brethren, the average student wants to call on heavy handed Spirits erroneously thinking this will solve their problem quickly and without fail.

I know a Magician who I met in the Tampa, FL area from many years ago who summoned the Ruler of the Water Elementals, Nicksa, and managed to acquire a Familiar. This is the only Spirit he’s ever called upon since. She (his familiar)  gets fed regularly but also works regularly for his insurance agency by bringing him prosperity (even in a poor economy), protecting him & family from harm, helping to heal physical ailments and so on. He's even used this Undine to kick someone else's butt who was metaphysically screwing with his nephew.

So the concept that you MUST have an all mighty, all powerful Spirit on your side is silly and only fueled by the imaginations of goofy people who just don't know any better. That's not to say if you're of the hierarchy mindset that you shouldn't use the hierarchal approach because if you like order & structure that is how to do it. I'm merely suggesting one does not need to go and acquire the greatest Djinn, Spirit, Elemental or whatever. With patience as well as proper care, a minor familiar can grow in power & might to sufficiently handle anything that anyone else throws your way.

If you can get through your own mentality, you have a chance at succeeding. You may need to sit and think about what factors could hinder your success but my guess is that most of you will answer with a knee jerk reaction, "Gee Moloch, there's nothing wrong with me" and while that may be, what's keeping the Spirits from coming to you? Are you going to be like the majority of Ceremonial Jerks who blame it on poor technique? Or improper reason for summoning the Spirit to begin with? Maybe it's your body odor?

The truth is that the Spirits are just like us. We have individual personalities and so do they. Hello? Not everyone here you run into is going to like you EVEN IF you offer them a reward (job, money, etc) to do so. Same thing with the Spirits because some will be nice, others will be hateful to you. Some Spirits have told me in no uncertain terms to go and fornicate myself! LoL So I just let it go, moved on and found another Spirit willing to work with me. Wow. Big setback, eh?

In closin, it’s a good idea to be respectful to your Spirits so they will be respectful and cooperative in return to you.

Tuesday, November 2, 2010

Greetings dear reader. I am Moloch aka Brother Moloch, author, Sorcerer & now a Houngan Asogwe in Haitian Vodu.

I decided to join this blog site because it has a large readership & a number of my students have asked me to move away from the blogging at MySpace and set up shop here.

You may not be aware but I came on the Internet in 1997 when there was very little about the Occult online & nothing about Sorcery. What was on the Net then was Magic (with the K) which was primarily rehashed Crowleyism & Thelema, some Golden Dawn sites & a number of Wiccan (and McWiccan) sites. There were a few Satanic sites but none on Sorcery.

The only thing on the subject of Sorcery available at that time was a short piece by the Lodge of UR & it was barely a page. I saw a great opportunity to put up a website on Geocities to help spread the word on Sorcery. For about 2 years it was only about 5 pages then I began to spend some real time on developing it. I believe you can find it on the Wayback Machine site - not sure anymore.

Believe it or not, I caught a LOT of flack from people reading my five pages. The biggest beef was that I was using a term that denoted I was 'evil' or 'Satanic' or some such rot from the McWiccan community. Sorcery is about selfishness & unfortunately in our society, choosing to be selfish is somehow evil in people's way of thinking. I never understood that sentiment because I had spent time in the 80's reading some books on how to be selfish such as:

How I Found Freedom In An Unfree World by Harry Browne
Looking Out For Number One by Robert Ringer
Winning Through Intimidation by Robert Ringer

These books, among others, helped to shape my Sorcerer's philosophy. I even spent a little time enjoying some movies that were made for Sorcerers such as Michael Caine's "A Shock to the System" which is about a man who gets shafted & takes matters into his own hands albeit Graham (the lead character) uses murder to attain his goals. Still, Sorcerers have been known to use malefica (Latin: evil, harmful) & veneficus (poisonous; magical) to attain their goals.

This is not to say that as a Sorcerer that I believe it is right to simply shove my way through life without regard to life & limb of others. Why would I say that if my personal philosophy is 'selfishly oriented'? Simple: there is a certain amount of selfishness one can indulge in without it grating on his nerves. I'm able to sleep at night without having to resort to being to what amounts to a Metaphysical bully.

Bullying others is frowned upon especially if you've ever been on the wrong end of bullies. Typically they thrive on fear of others & sometimes they are just huff & puff (re: all talk) but then there are those who are tough enough to back up whatever their mouth says. My dad used to say, "Never let your mouth say shit that your ass can't back up!" which is a darn good philosophy to live by. But bullying goes a LOT farther (or is that further?) in life than merely physically kicking sand in someone's face.

There are those who have political influence, those with wealth & money and those with charming good looks who can spin a yarn a Connecticut Yankee would believe. These examples have their own bullies as well. I've seen good looking jocks bully their way through schools; rich people who make a simple phone call & city hall bends over backwards to give them whatever they want; and smooth talking politicians who lie through their teeth to your face but do whatever it is they want behind your back.
Bullying comes in all shapes & sizes.

So when bullies go overboard, you can use Sorcery to bring them down a few notches. There are some authors out there who get their panties in a wad over summoning Spirits to go & put a hurt on someone when the Karcist (re: summoner) should walk up to & smack the bully in the face. Really? That's more gentlemanly? Perhaps we should use clubs or swords? No? Maybe pistols at twenty paces? How about lobbing a grenade at them? Well we do that in war, don't we? Firing off a 45 mm shell from half a mile away is not gentlemanly is it? Doesn't give the other guy a fair chance, does it?

There are people out there that do not realize that Sorcery levels the playing field. It really doesn't guarantee that you will succeed but it helps to have something to rely on your side. Of course you may say, "Sue them!" and we all know that's a big joke. Lawsuits are settled between the two lawyers & the judge based on who knows whom. Look at how often concessions are made when clearly there's a right & a wrong. Some guy can blow away a shopkeeper in broad daylight in front of twenty nuns & still get off on a technicality or a plea bargain.

Practicing real Sorcery is not easy because it takes personal dedication, perseverance, talent & skill. Sadly most would-be practitioners want to circumvent all of this & go straight to the action as soon as they pick up a book. LoL I find that amusing because I was among them back when I first started in 1987. Ugh. My first spell, a candle spell for love, fizzled. What I really wanted was to get laid which I did but because I didn't understand the way Sorcery works & how knowing what you want is the biggest parts of getting success, she didn't fall in love with me. Oh well, easy come, easy go. Still I found out that she was just a gold digger looking for a guy who made a lot of money.

Eventually I met an old Sorcerer who gave me a good foundation in what became my own system or MolochSorcery. We'll get into this later on.