Deviant Moon

After seeing this hauntingly beautiful deck online a few weeks ago I immediately felt that I just got to have it, but my left brain - and my credit card statement - were telling me that I have too many tarot decks already, and getting another one might just be a waste. But so now I finally and unashamedly gave in to my desires and I'm not having a single ounce of regret for it. The package from Amazon arrived aptly on the day of the Full Moon. After getting over my "opening the box" moment I took it for a test drive and slapped down a Celtic cross, and the meanings and images just flowed smoothly like melting butter from my subconscious. I realized I needed this deck more than I thought: my other tarot decks (namely Rider-Waite, Enochian, and...

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Studying the Classical Western Magical Cosmology

To work magic, we must first see the world in the eyes of the magician. That's why the first entries in my books of shadows are all about cosmology. In the classical Western magical view, Earth and Man are at the center of the universe, as illustrated in the diagram below. I designed this diagram to more clearly explain why the planetary spheres are assigned a particular number and color. Knowing this would be useful later on in working with Western systems of magic.  Aleister Crowley defined magick as an art, so I don't see why I should settle for boring correspondence tables: Latin text copied from St. Isidore's "Origines" (circa 560 C.E.), discussing the assignment of names by the Romans to the days of the week based on the...

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The Pagan Cats

The Jellicles is a Pagan tribe of the genus Felis and specie Domestica. It is that time of the year again when the High Priest chooses among the community the One who shall be sent into the upperworld called the "Heavyside Layer" in order to be reborn and live life anew. This time however, none of the candidate tribe members who were presented one-by-one were chosen by the clan leader, but the award went instead to an outcast - Grizabella, who was able to charm High Priest Deuteronomy into choosing her with a tear-jerking rendition of "Memory". The tribe Martha Stewart, Jennyanydots, who was an audience favorite, must be sulking by the water pipe now. Me and  friends, at the gala opening of CATS in the PICC, July 27 ...

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Notebooks of Shadows

These decade-old disheveled stacks of spiral notes are the closest things to what I would consider "Book of Shadows". By contrast, these are actually far more glamourous than the Cattleya filler-journals that I keep today. Uniting Chaos and Order. Trying merge some aspects of Zos Kia Cultus with Hermetic Kabbalah and gnosticism. I imagined TZIMTZUM, the kabbalistic concept of the contraction of infinity to measurable space and time, to be synonymous to a perfect circle getting pinched (by the Prime Mover) into some form and thus resulting to new dimensions, as well as giving birth to the concept of beginning, duration, and end - which is I A O for the gnostics, the trimurti for the Hindus, and Eos, Alfiga, and Min-goreth in my crazy autistic...

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Getting In Touch Again

One of these days I would love to walk into the forest alone during sunrise. And there I would sit on a cushion of grass and fallen leaves, smell the earth wet with the morning dews, feel the cool breeze of air and the fresh warmth of the sun, and just listen to the sound of the birds and the crickets and the trees rustling in the gentle wind....

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Necklaces for the Gods

Bought these lovely pieces of magical jewelry from a lone merchant somewhere along Taft avenue. These were reasonably priced, and the merchant ("Bongbong") told me that he makes custom items too. There were a lot more cool looking stuff that I saw - like a rabbit's foot, wild boar tusks, and a dreamcatcher made from the tail of a stingray. Unfortunately I didn't have enough money to get some more. I needed something to wear in the ileocha so I've chosen the ones which remind me of certain orishas. [L to R] preserved scorpion with carnelian (Oshun Ibu Ikole), shark's tooth pendant (Oggun / Yemaya), skull and serpents (Santa Muerte), buffalo horn dreamcatcher with amethyst (Oya / Oggue...

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