Unlike

previous volumes in this series, Everything and Nothing is primarily a volume

of philosophy rather than practice. It is a volume that is now sorely needed, as the
occult in general including the Left-Hand Path becomes increasingly mired in
superstition, loose thinking, unfounded beliefs and old habits which are taking far too
long to die. Draconian Magic Works upon the Real, and without a clear and precise
Understanding of what is Real, you cannot hope to master it.

The book is divided into three sections. The first two sections of the book follow the
old alchemical process of solve et coagula: in the first section, magic is deconstructed
and taken to pieces, discarding all the flim-flam until its purest Essence is revealed and
unsullied; only then can it be rebuilt into a coherent and powerful engine in the second
section. The third section employs this new Understanding of magic to address some of
the most common questions people pose about life, the universe and everything.

The title of this book, Everything and Nothing, has a multitude of meanings. You will
find that some of these feel more appropriate the more you read the book and come to
Understand it. First time round, as you're sore because it's rubbished some of the things
you may have held sacred, you may feel that the book promised Everything and gave
you Nothing; later, as its perspective starts to paint a new picture of Reality, you may
feel that it reduced your prior worldview to Nothing, but provided Everything in return;
as Understanding and Mastery dawn, you will discover that Everything and Nothing are
Truth in the most sublime sense.
The Apophis Club Draconian Magic Series

APOPHIS
gishjlmur: The Book of Dragon Runes
Dragonscales
Draconian Consciousness
Words of Power
The Grimoire of the Sevenfold Serpent
Gods and Monsters
Runes of Mann
The Sevenfold Mystery
Everything and Nothing
The Satanic Dragon (forthcoming)
The Draconian Quadrilogy (the first four books above in a single, large format
volume)

The Apophis Club Practical Guide Series

How To Read Ogham
How To Conjure a Spirit
How To Astral Travel
How To Make and Use Talismans
How To Read Tarot
How To Do Sex Magic
How To Be a Necromancer (forthcoming)

The Apophis Club Lesser Magic Series

The Masks of Lesser Magic (forthcoming)

www.theapophisclub.com

https://www.facebook.com/TheApophisClub

EVERYTHING & NOTHING

by Michael Kelly

A Publication of The Apophis Club


Dedicated to the memory of

David Austen
a great friend and a Great Noble,
a Master of Magic


Copyright 2016 by the author of this book Michael Kelly. The book author retains sole copyright to his contributions to
this book.


 Preface

It's probably as well for me to explain this book before you read it. Because it's likely
to offend and upset a lot of people. And by 'a lot of people', I don't mean the general
public, I mean magicians even members of The Apophis Club!
You see, in these pages, I deliberately attack a lot of cherished beliefs. And I
don't mean religious beliefs, I mean notions and opinions held by magicians that I feel
are either false or which actually have no evidence to support them. This is likely to
get a lot of people's hackles up.
Indeed, in the first, solve, part of the book, it may appear to some that I have
turned my back on magic and the occult altogether. This is not the truth at all, which is
why I am asking you here in advance to bear with me. In the coagula section you will
see me gradually rebuild a coherent magical model after first levelling the ruins of the
old world, and the closing, everything and nothing, section has many passages of
soaring magical beauty. So stick with it, you may be amazed and heartened by what
results.
But first you will need to join me in tearing down the painted scenery and
slaughtering the sacred cows in solve. And it will be painful. But if a belief cannot
stand up to challenge, it is false, and the magician is a seeker after Truth. Illusion may
be our trade, but it is not our Vision.
You may, of course, disagree with some of what I write. This is your
prerogative. I am trying to encourage questioning, not enforce dogma. I am a
challenger, not a debunker. Nevertheless, it should be understood that after three
decades' experience of magic, during two of which I have rubbed shoulders with the
very highest of my peers, this book represents a true evaluation of magic as I currently
see it. I believe the 'Runes For Sceptics' chapter to be one of the most profound and
philosophically beautiful I have ever written, especially when expanded with the
material from the third, everything and nothing, section of the book.
This challenging, radical book is actually a gift. Far from being a debunk, it
actually asserts that yes, magic really works, and it offers a profound magical
worldview in its conclusions. But it does not tolerate superstition or unratified belief.
The magic presented here is far more reliable, powerful and transformational than any
approach I have otherwise found. It has taken me decades to streamline and fine tune
this model and I wish to save you time by learning from my own painful lessons.
You need not agree with all of my conclusions, but that is not the point. Your
beliefs should be open to challenge and investigation. After that, your conclusions are
your own.
Finally, read this book very carefully. Some parts are deliberately worded
with a view to pressing readers' hot buttons in order to challenge their thinking. Do not
skim read. Sometimes a single word, easily glossed over, changes the whole tenor of a
sentence. But this book was not written for popularity, but as a genuine expression of
tough love, to raise up smarter and far more powerful magicians. It is in this spirit that
these words are offered.
- Michael Kelly, 11 May 2016
 What's It All About?

Previous volumes in The Apophis Club's Draconian Magic series have basically been
practical instruction manuals, with the occasional collection of essays and articles to
illuminate or elaborate upon certain specific areas. This new volume, entitled
Everything and Nothing, is quite different in both structure and purpose.
This is primarily a volume of philosophy rather than practice. It is a volume
that is now sorely needed, as the occult in general including the Left-Hand Path
becomes increasingly mired in superstition, loose thinking, unfounded beliefs and old
habits which are taking far too long to die. Draconian Magic Works upon the Real, and
without a clear and precise Understanding of what is Real, you cannot hope to master it.
The book is divided into three sections and it should be read in this precise
order. When a new recruit begins military training, they are first subjected to
experiences and rigours which break down the person they were before enlisting,
leaving them a relatively blank slate. Only then can they be rebuilt through discipline
and training into a well-drilled fighting machine. The same is true for magicians, or at
least for those who aspire to Mastery.
Therefore, the first two sections of the book follow the old alchemical process
of solve et coagula: in the first section, magic is deconstructed and taken to pieces,
discarding all the flim-flam until its purest Essence is revealed and unsullied; only then
can it be rebuilt into a coherent and powerful engine in the second section. The third
section employs this new Understanding of magic to address some of the most common
questions people pose about life, the universe and everything.
The solve section of the book will undoubtedly prove to be the most
controversial thing I have ever written. I will be slaughtering a whole herd of sacred
cows, debunking superstitions and challenging loose thinking. Every magical school
tries to Awaken its Initiates and break the chains of conditioning and convention which
bind them; however, very few challenge some of the worst chains of the lot: the errors
and general rubbish which constitutes 90%+ of occultism itself. There will be some
very cherished and widely held beliefs dragged screaming into the light of day where
they will evaporate into nothing in this section, and there will be very few if any
readers who do not feel their hackles rise as some cherished belief or practice is
thrown to the dogs. I make no apologies for this, as I am more concerned with making
strong and empowered Initiates than providing comfortable half-truths. If you do not
want your illusions to be shattered if you do not want to become truly Initiate instead
of just an occultist do not read this book.
After demolishing superstition and plain wrong thinking, the second coagula
section will look at the pure kernel of magic that remains and create a fresh Reality
from it, allowing a true knowledge and understanding of magic and the Real to develop
and grow, informing the Initiate's Work and leading to profound insights and
unprecedented magical success.
Finally, this new insight is applied to the great philosophical questions which
people are always asking: why are we here? how did the universe begin? what is the
meaning of life? why is there evil in the world? For there are clear and satisfactory
answers or at least, approaches to answers to all of these questions once the
bullshit has been cleared away. And they're not the usual garbage that you've heard a
thousand times before. If, like me, you've ground your teeth upon hearing everything
happens for a purpose one time too often, you'll love this section. But in order to
properly appreciate it, you'll have to work through the solve et coagula process first.
The title of this book, Everything and Nothing, has a multitude of meanings.
You will find that some of these feel more appropriate the more you read the book and
come to Understand it. First time round, as you're sore because I've rubbished some of
the things you may have held sacred, you may feel that the book promised Everything
and gave you Nothing; later, as its perspective starts to paint a new picture of Reality,
you may feel that it reduced your prior worldview to Nothing, but provided Everything
in return; as Understanding and Mastery dawn, you will discover that Everything and
Nothing are Truth in the most sublime sense.
This, I guess, is my Book of Lies, and it comes complete with all the
challenges and paradoxes and heresies of that volume. Read it and weep...

 SOLVE

 The Hogwash School of Witchcraft and Wizardry

Seek After the Mysteries, the English meaning of Magus Stephen Edred Flowers'
formula Reyn til Runa, is the clarion call of every genuine school of magic (or
something very much like it, if not these exact words). But something very tragic
befalls almost every such seeker. Even as we strive to discover and illuminate the
genuine Mysteries of life, we tend instead to become more and more entangled in the
mysterious, wrapped around in obscuring fogs of mystical obscurantism, half truths,
assumed knowledge, unquestioned 'facts', all mired in acres of good, old-fashioned
bullshit.
And believe me when I say that I'm not simply wagging a stern finger at other
people here. I know this because I've been there. Everything I have learned and
Become has been at the cost of hard graft, harder lessons and often painful experience.
The occult world is full of comforting lies, told by well-meaning people, and
this bumfluff is accepted by those who have struggled and managed to win their
freedom from the lies that society has told them and which have been imposed upon
them by the media and politicians every day of their lives. It is a terrible and shameful
fact that these new magicians, people who have torn themselves free from conformity
and convention, just as Set the Mighty tore Himself free from the womb of the Cosmos,
should then be trapped in new bonds forged by the very schools they hoped would teach
them freedom. But so much of what passes for 'genuine' magical lore is a shallow
sham, accepted on the rebound, instead of a genuine love affair.
Everyone who becomes a magician experiences this to some degree. Even
those of us lucky enough to have received our training in schools where Truth was
paramount and where Teachers could be found who told us exactly how things were,
would still be lulled into a soporific slumber occasionally, so all-pervasive is the curse
of occultism.
So there are no mocking fingers being pointed here, we have all been there and
we can all slip back so easily. But here, if you will have it, is the Hogwash School of
Witchcraft and Wizardry. Here, your most fondly held illusions will be dispelled, your
superstitions will be flayed from you, the very foundations of your belief will be
smashed beneath your feet, until you stand in a Void, stripped of all. Then, the Work of
Remanifestation can begin and you can learn Real Magic in Truth.
But first comes the hard and painful part. So let's start naming and shaming
that bullshit and shredding that loose thinking...

 The Three Types of Magic and How They Work

To begin with, it will be helpful for us to define the different types of magic. This will
help us more clearly to identify the processes involved. Now I'm not talking about
those old chestnuts 'Black Magic and White Magic' here, although there is an interesting
philosophical distinction between the two. For now, I'm thinking of far more pragmatic
and process-oriented definitions: methods rather than motives, if you will.
In the Temple of Set, the magical school in which I earned my Mastery[1],
magic was initially divided into two broad categories. These were Greater Magic,
which was concerned with the transformation and magical development of the Self, and
Lesser Magic, which was the use of psychological and other skills to manipulate others
and your circumstances in order to effect the results you desired.
Greater Magic was generally practised in the setting of a ritual chamber (or
outdoors), using ceremonial techniques. It used ritual, artistic symbolism and
invocation amongst other techniques to enter a state of consciousness in which the
psyche could apprehend truths and insights which it could then use to fashion its future
becoming. These insights could be used to enhance life, transform the Self, and steer
your course in the direction you wished your life to take.
Lesser Magic used techniques such as suggestion, misdirection, body language,
stage magic techniques and general bamboozlement to persuade, influence and direct
other persons and organisations in such a way as to promote your own agenda, enabling
you to achieve what you wanted.
When I joined the Temple, these were the two distinctions made in magical
practice. During my sojourn, a third category was added: that which became known as
Medial Magic. Medial Magic was basically 'results' magic aimed at the acquisition
of everyday things, such as love, money, revenge, etc., the kinds of things which would
otherwise be the province of Lesser Magic using ritual methods. In other words, it
was Lesser Magical goals targeted by Greater Magical techniques.
Now, before we proceed any further it is necessary to address the elephant in
the room and ask, purely and plainly: does magic work? Because if it doesn't, we may
as well all close this book and go about our business. But yes, thankfully it does. After
thirty years' applied magical practice, I can honestly tell you that magic works. And the
more you practice it, the more skilled you become, and the better it works. Magic can
accomplish the seemingly impossible.
Having said that, I am going to make the first of many statements in this solve
section which will initially seem absolutely outrageous and will have most practising
magicians reading this spitting feathers. Are you ready? Here it comes:
Almost all successful magic involves no supernatural element whatsoever.
Have you got that? Have you finished choking and spluttering in indignation
yet? Okay, let me explain why this is so by returning to our three varieties of magic and
explaining the successful operation of each in turn.
I guess we should begin with Lesser Magic, since the statement is quite easy to
comprehend with respect to this. Lesser Magic works by utilising skills with
psychological techniques in order to get what you want. There are several different
levels of Lesser Magic, but all of them utilise perfectly natural phenomena. The
magician may beguile with wit and charm, using charisma and confidence to win over
his target; he may employ sleight of hand or other modes of trickery to effect a result; he
may utilise hypnotic language, embedded suggestions and similar techniques of
programming a response on a subconscious level. He may cast a glamour through dress
and appearance, bewitching with colour and music and mood. But in all cases, he is
using his own wits and skills to form an impression in the psyche of his target which
will lead that target to give him what he wants. His methods will be tailored to the
situation, whether trying to seduce someone, negotiate a business deal, successfully
pass a job interview, or whatever. If he is skilled enough and has learned the tricks of
Lesser Magic, his sorcery will be successful, but at no point will he have used any
supernatural agency, although it may sometimes seem as though he must have done to
witnesses who see him pull off some unlikely coup. This is the magic of Derren
Brown, of Jedi mind tricks, of Svengali. And it is by far the best type of magic to use if
you want to get things done your way, though beginners tend to shy away from it
because it takes a lot of practice to learn and a lot of skill to develop. You inevitably
fall flat on your face and bloody your nose more than a few times while learning the
ropes. Hardly any magical schools teach these techniques. The Temple of Set and the
Church of Satan certainly give attention to Lesser Magic but personal, one on one
training is a rarity. This is something I plan to remedy within The Apophis Club.
Greater Magic is quite different. The most important magical Work is Work
upon the Self. This is what Initiation is all about, the transformation from a man in the
street into someone who has become more conscious, more Awake, more aware of the
world around them and the potential of both themselves and the world. Someone who
is determined to become something greater than they previously were. This kind of
magic is worked through ritual methods. The magician may manipulate a symbol set,
such as runes, to define what he is seeking, or may call upon spirits or divine figures.
But what does this ritual process do? Are we really to believe that the lighting of
candles, the utterance of scripted conjurations, the movements and the symbols can
actually have any true power over reality?
Actually, they do. Not directly upon the nuts and bolts of the Cosmos, perhaps,
but the ritual procedure has a fascinating and focusing effect upon the magician's own
mind. By entering into this sequence of unusual, ritualised events and recitals, quite
distinct and separate from the daily routine of workaday life, the psyche is put in a
strange and receptive mode, a form of self-hypnosis. In this condition, the usual gulfs
which divide the conscious and subconscious minds are at least to some degree,
depending upon the skill of the magician bridged, and the whole mind may be
accessed and put to use. The subconscious takes in everything, much of which is
filtered out of conscious awareness. These filters are created by habit, conditioning,
cultural expectations, personal belief systems, and many other factors. But the ritual
lowers them, at least partially, for a time, by hypnotically leading the expectant mind
into a place where it can be afforded a glimpse into its own depths. The magician's
perception and understanding then become so much more complete than they were,
solutions may be seen to problems, bad habits may be erased, creativity may be ignited;
in short, the magician may emerge from the ritual changed on some inner level which
can then be channelled through to adjust his life and circumstances in a permanent way.
This is not the result of the ritual. It is the result of the magician's self-induced
suggestibility which leads to a greater cohesion of mind, giving access to resources and
insights which are usually obscured and hidden away. Having experienced this process
a few times, a genuine Adept no longer needs ritual to recreate this state of mind; he can
recall it at need.
So, the magical changes and transformations in the magician's life are actually
brought into being by the perfectly natural process of focusing his own mind upon a
question. He has simply learned the skill of doing so to an extent which non-magicians
tend not to be familiar with (though artists and writers do tend to be able to access a
similar state of mind in their creative works).
Looking at a good example, I recall that the Temple of Set's encyclopaedic
volume for Adepts, The Ruby Tablet of Set, used to contain a ritual script titled 'The
Fat Lady Ritual'. This had been penned by an Initiate who was unhappy about her size
and wrote a ritual to help her lose weight. So how would this ritual work? Would it
zap away a few pounds of flab in a blinding flash? No, obviously not. It directed her
focus, opened her mind, and allowed her to access and reprogram her subconscious so
that she would eat less and healthier, and exercise more. Note that this is a completely
different thing than simply boosting her willpower to diet; it involves an actual change
in her personality matrix on a deep level, so that bad habits are adjusted and new
patterns of behaviour and attitude introduced. This is much, much more than mere
'positive thinking' or willpower; this magician has actually effected a transformation
within herself. But the important thing to note is that nothing supernatural has
occurred. She has used the mind that she has in order to effect the change. The nature
of this change and the skill to bring it about are certainly not things that anybody can
accomplish without magical training, the degree of Self-control and Self-knowledge
evidenced are far beyond the scope of the ordinary man in the street. But it is by no
means supernatural.
Now there are other applications of Greater Magic, in which the magician may
become oracular, supposedly connecting with the consciousness of a God or spirit, or
may journey in the mind to other-dimensional realities. Such types of magical Working
are too big in their scope to be examined under this umbrella heading, so will be
addressed in detail later in this solve section. For now, it is sufficient to have
examined the process of Greater Magical ritual and the transformations which may be
effected within the Self, recognising that at this basic level there is no requirement for
any supernatural explanation: the process is highly skilled and difficult to do, but it is a
function of the human mind.
So what about Medial Magic, the use of ritual methods to create change in
others, or in the environment, instead of in yourself? Oh, this is where it really gets
cunning!
With Medial Magic, we are talking about such magical operations as attracting
money, or love, or a new job, or perhaps cursing an enemy. And we are seeking to
achieve these things through ritual techniques. Does Medial Magic actually work and
deliver the desired results? Yes, it does. So how can I possibly extend my absurd
assertion that most successful magic involves no supernatural element to this kind of
ritual results magic?
The first step in answering this question (because yes, my rule most definitely
still applies) is to consider firstly the nature of the ritual and the effect that it has upon
the psyche of the magician. The ritual will be devised with the purpose of focusing the
Will exclusively upon the goal. There will be pertinent colours and symbols used.
Appropriate names of power may be called upon. Sigils and talismans may be
created. Demons may be evoked. All will be appropriate to the purpose of the rite.
Exactly as with Greater Magic, this has the effect of turning the magician's mind
inwards, focusing it upon the matter in question, and increasing the flow-through of
information between the conscious and subconscious through the auto-suggestion
created by the ritual. The effect that this interchange has upon the overall
consciousness of the magician has two aspects, one passive and one active. Passively,
it adjusts the magician's perspective upon the matter, making him feel more confident in
relation to the goal, viewing it as something which must now inevitably come to pass,
virtually a fait accompli. This has the inevitable knock-on effect of making the
magician behave differently with regard to the matter, since he believes it is already
decided in his favour. This more confident and positive approach can in itself
sometimes be all that is required to swing the balance. Actively, the spell works upon
the most malleable substance available to it the magician's own mind to carry out its
function. So if the magician has cast a love spell, the reason being that his crippling
shyness has never permitted him to ask out the girl of his dreams, he suddenly finds
himself with the courage and resolve to do precisely that; moreover, the newfound
confidence the magic has engendered within him will boost his charisma and make him
much more likely to receive a positive response. If he has conjured for money, he is
suddenly able to recall an item stored in the attic which he can sell on ebay for more
than enough to cover his immediate need; or he is impelled to apply for a new, more
lucrative job opportunity which he would previously not have noticed or would have
been too lazy to consider. In all cases, the magician becomes far more aware of
opportunities and actions which are always there, but which are usually ignored or
suppressed. What the magic does is make him far more aware and alert to the
possibilities which exist to bring about his desired goal; it does not create these
possibilities, it points them out and makes them obvious. And it certainly doesn't do the
work for him; he still has to make the decisive move which fulfils the spell.
What is apparent in nearly all cases is that the Medial Magic ritual does not
alter the surrounding reality directly. Instead, it acts upon the consciousness of the
magician, enabling him to see the already existing paths to success, and boosting his
confidence and abilities to the extent that he is able to carry out those necessary tasks
successfully. An honest appraisal of successful magical Workings three decades'
experience of them in my own case will reveal this to be true in almost all cases. So
once again, we are able to see that my little law holds true in the case of Medial Magic,
with most successes requiring no supernatural element at all.
Of course, the rubric and thrust of most Medial Magic rituals are geared so
that it seems as if the ritual itself is the engine which will effect the result. This is
because magicians especially in their early careers like to bolster themselves with
these crutches, still uncertain of the real power of the unified mind. We can therefore
see that, amusingly, Medial Magic can actually be defined as the trappings of Greater
Magic being used as a technique of Lesser Magic to fool our own selves into going out
and achieving the changes we want the magic to accomplish.
You may be going into full-on defensive mode by now and insisting that there
are many results achieved through magic which cannot be explained in this way.
Maybe there are, but remember my rule states that almost all have no supernatural
element. Perhaps the few who don't quite fit that 'almost' do? We'll deal with that in
the coagula section, but before we can even think about the supernatural, we need a
clear appreciation of what actually happens in a successful Working of magic. This
current chapter dealing with the three types of magic has furnished us with two
verifiable facts: magic of all three types does indeed bring the results it claims to; it
works. But in nearly all cases, it is clear that no supernatural element is required in
order to explain that success. Later, after reading sections two and three of the book,
you may choose to decide that (according to your belief) these operations do
incorporate a factor which is transcendental and outside the normal laws of physics.
Or you may not. But neither position will alter the simple truth I have revealed here of
how magic actually works; it does not require such a supernatural factor. I know
several atheists and materialists who regularly achieve magical results far more quickly
and spectacularly than those who believe firmly in spirits and astral planes. This
doesn't prove either of them to be correct, but it does demonstrate the absolute
neutrality of magic on the issue.
There will be several people holding up a finger to remonstrate at this point
and going, Ah, but... Don't! Because having looked at these three broad categories,
we're now going to go on to slaughter a whole herd of sacred cows as I start to look at
specifics. You may be surprised. But in any case, before we start to rebuild in the
coagula section, we are going to dismantle the whole magical edifice piece by piece.

 Divination

Let's start by taking a close look at the divinatory arts, one of the most popular and most
passive of magical skills, also one which most practitioners insist requires the greatest
degree of spiritual perception and intuitive openness. This incorporates such practices
as reading Tarot, runes or ogham, interpreting astrological charts, or the more free-form
techniques of prophecy.
If we look at Tarot to begin with, as the comments we make about Tarot can be
equally applied to similar divinatory practices using runes or ogham, in which
symbolic tokens are placed in positions of specific meaning by a random process.
The Tarot deck consists of two types of card: the twenty two symbolic picture
cards of the Major Arcana, and the fifty six number and court cards of the Minor
Arcana. In more recent times, commencing with the French occultists of the Nineteenth
Century and most popularised in the writings of Eliphas Levi, and leading through to the
Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn, who refined the system, the Tarot has been
attributed to and combined with the symbolic models of the Qabalah. The twenty two
Major Arcana cards are attributed to the letters of the Hebrew alphabet and thus
ultimately to the twenty two paths of the diagram of the Tree of Life. The numbered
cards 1 through 10 of each suit of the Minor Arcana are attributed to the ten Sephiroth;
the four court cards of each suit, and the suits themselves, are attributed to the four
Qabalistic world levels and to the four classical Elements. Furthermore, each Sephirah
and each Path has its own Elemental, Planetary or zodiacal attribution, which is carried
over to the card(s) related to it. So the Tarot becomes a symbolic picture book of the
entirety of Qabalistic magical philosophy.
Both Qabalah and Tarot have been utilised in different ways by magicians for
centuries, and even the more recent Golden Dawn model has now seen extensive use
and adjustment and philosophical speculation for well over a century. As such, it has
been balanced and counter-balanced until it is a precise and accurate portrayal of all
aspects of human psychological experience. This is true whether you interpret the
symbols of the Tarot as eternal spiritual principles or as aspects of the human psyche;
the Tarot is a balanced, complex and comprehensive psychological map whether you
are a spiritualist or a materialist, it simply is what it is.
So anybody who has studied magic which inherits elements from the Golden
Dawn (as most occult books and systems do) will find themselves very comfortable
with the symbolism of the Tarot, finding the cards and their associations very
meaningful.
In divination, the cards are shuffled, randomising their order, then they are laid
out according to a predetermined pattern, with a view to providing insight into a
question which the querent has posed to the Tarot reader. The positions in the pattern
of the layout (or the 'spread') have meanings of their own, which are then referenced
against the meaning of the card that is dealt there. Finally, all of the meanings of all of
the cards and their positions are balanced against each other to tell an often detailed
story which ultimately leads to a solution or insight relating to the question.
The first question that we need to ask is: does a Tarot reading work? Can a
reader lay out the cards and gain fresh and pertinent insight which will be of real
practical help to his querent? After thirty years' experience of Tarot reading, I can
unequivocally say yes, it does work, once the reader has gained the required
experience. I often give startlingly accurate readings which give querents much food
for thought and have been responsible for major changes and improvements in peoples'
lives.
There are all manner of theories which try to explain how divination works.
Some will tell you that a skilled diviner taps into other levels of reality, channelling
spiritual forces which guide the shuffler's hands to ensure that the right cards fall in the
right places. Others will tell you that fate or destiny is set in stone and that someone
who is trained in Tarot reading cannot fail to lay out the correct, predestined cards.
Some will insist that incorporeal spirits literally influence the shuffle. Others will
suggest that a Tarot reader who is familiar with the cards and their meanings is
sensitive to their vibrations and will be 'guided' to lay the correct cards in the correct
places. Carl Jung suggested, as part of his theory of synchronicity, that each moment in
time has a kind of signature and that the cards placed at the time a question is asked
will have a definite resonance with the subject of the question at that time, allowing the
reading to afford genuine insight. Others will tell you it's all pure bunkum, but since we
have already established the accuracy of a Tarot reading from an experienced hand (by
which I mean a magician, trained over long years, not a fairground 'psychic'), there must
be a little more to it than that.
One thing that most of these theories have in common, however, and which is
fully borne out by experience, is that contrary to fairground fortune-teller expectations,
the Tarot cards do not foretell the future. That is not the purpose of divination, which
is to gain clear insight into a situation so that the right choices may be made in order to
fashion the kind of future that we want. Divination is a magical means of reading the
patterns of events in the present. Now inevitably, if we are able to discern the patterns
manifesting in present situations, we may be able to discern the ways in which those
patterns will continue and unfold, thus gaining an insight into probable or possible
futures, which may change depending upon how we interact with those patterns now.
But such is reasoned extrapolation, not a fated future.
So, does my non-supernatural rule hold true with a Tarot reading? Yes, it
does: almost all Tarot readings involve no supernatural elements whatsoever. In fact,
in the case of divination, you might even omit the word 'almost' and just say 'all'.
So what is actually the mechanism which decides which card is placed in
which position after shuffling in a Tarot reading? This is perfectly easy to answer: the
mechanism in question is pure random chance[2]. The shuffling of the cards very
effectively randomises their order and there is no preference or significance in which
card ultimately lands in which stead of meaning in the spread; it could equally well be
any of them. There is no agency at all to ensure that the 'right' cards land in the 'right'
places; it simply does not happen.
So, if the placing of the cards is not and cannot be in itself significant, but
divination nevertheless furnishes genuine insights and good advice, how can this
possibly be the case? What is it that in fact happens? The simple fact is that when a
proper reader a skilled magician reads the Tarot, he will do so in a similar manner
to the way in which he approaches any other magical Working. His attention and Will
become focused upon the matter in question and a trance-like state is entered, during
which the conscious and subconscious are able to exchange and communicate much
more coherently and readily. The meanings of the cards and the steads in which they
are placed already hold considerable symbolic significance to a practised reader.
These meanings will coalesce within his mind, merging with his current understanding
of the situation, and enhanced by the deeper, subconscious recognition of underlying
patterns of which he now becomes aware, but which ordinarily lie below the
threshold of awareness. It is the intuitive apprehension of these subconsciously
perceived underlying traits which he already knew but was not previously
consciously aware of that are the foremost factor in enabling the Tarot reader to
deliver a devastatingly accurate reading. This is assisted by the cards chosen, because
even though they are a completely random selection, each of them will suggest some
new way of looking at the situation, providing the querent with alternative perspectives
and suggestions that they have probably never considered, in a kind of symbolic
'brainstorming' session. These two factors taken together provide a very powerful and
effective analysis of the situation, coupled with a range of creative suggestions and
potential solutions. A skilled reading such as this may not be supernatural as commonly
understood, but its value is pure gold.
Exactly the same process is true when other tools such as runestaves or ogham
fews are used for divination. Like the Tarot, each rune or ogham is a packed symbolic
entity, and when placed or cast and interpreted in relation to each other, these
combined with the reader's subconscious uprising of operant patterns will inform an
accurate and insightful reading.
On the surface of it, astrology may appear to be a completely different thing,
since its factors are not random, but depend upon the calculation of fixed positions of
astronomical bodies and their relative positioning at a given point in time. But in point
of fact, the actual divinatory process is exactly the same. The stars and their positions
influence nothing, they have not the slightest discernible effect upon our affairs.
Instead, the discipline and concentration involved in preparing the chart and calculating
the aspects perform the familiar effect of drawing together the reader's conscious and
subconscious, focused upon the querent's situation. Then the mythic qualities attributed
to the Planets and Signs and Houses all combine in the reader's mind to accomplish the
same function as Tarot cards, runes or ogham, suggesting new ways of viewing or
approaching a situation, pointing out suggestions never previously considered.
This is why it requires a skilled reader, with many years of practice, to give a
worthwhile reading. Because it is the meaning of the symbols, brought alive through
long study and understanding in the reader's mind, coupled with the ability to bridge the
conscious / subconscious divide, that furnishes the reading. A beginner without such
discipline and training is simply laying out random pictures printed on card, with no
rhyme nor reason; these things have no intrinsic power in themselves, only in the
prepared and trained mind. And then, as can be seen, the procedure whilst
remarkable, uncanny and spellbinding, potentially life-changing is not a supernatural
matter.

 Astral Travel

Another mainstay of modern magicians is the phenomenon generally termed astral
travel (also known as 'travelling in the spirit vision', 'vision quests', 'shamanic
journeying', etc.). This is a practice whereby the magician allows his body to relax and
enter an immobile, almost catatonic state, whilst his consciousness leaves its usual
moorings and goes off exploring other dimensions, other planes of existence.
Very rarely will astral travel be an unfocused or vague process. The magician
has generally prepared for the experience in advance through invoking specific
Elemental, Planetary, Qabalistic, Enochian, runic or other powers, focusing his Will
upon the precise region of the Magical Universe he wishes to visit. He will also
generally have some visual representation of the desired region before him as a focus
for Will. This may be a sigil, a rune, a Tarot image, or anything else which is pertinent
to the purpose of his journey.
When the ritual preparations are complete, the magician relaxes completely,
closes his eyes and focuses upon a visualised representation of his wish. Again, this
may be an intense visualisation of a sigil, a rune, a Planetary Seal or whatnot.
Sometimes a landscape will then gradually appear before his inner vision; other times,
he may visualise the sigil upon a door and mentally imagine himself stepping through
that door and finding himself in the landscape beyond. In either case, he may then
explore this landscape and find there the insights he is seeking.
In a variant to this practice, termed skrying, the magician will instead quiet his
body and then stare into a reflective surface, such as a mirror, a pool of ink, or the
traditional crystal ball. In skrying, he witnesses visions passing within or upon the
surface which holds his eyes rather than actually entering into the visionary experience.
There are three main theories about what actually happens when a magician
undertakes an astral journey, and these are recounted below.
The first theory is that the other planes and dimensions of the Magical
Universe are objectively real. In this worldview, the magician's consciousness literally
leaves his body and travels to another plane of existence. He is able to accomplish this
because alongside our physical body, we all also possess a series of subtle bodies,
each one appropriate for use upon its own subtle plane. When astral travelling, the
magician's consciousness transitions into a subtle body, in which he can move around
and interact with the plane he is visiting.
The second theory also holds that the other planes are objectively real places,
located in dimensions beyond the physical. But this theory holds that the magician
doesn't actually 'travel' anywhere. Instead, the imagination functions as an interface,
building an imaginary but accurate representation of the desired plane, in which the
magician can move and interact in an imagined body. This theory interprets astral
travel as something similar to daydreaming (or indeed, deep night dreaming if the
magician's trance state is sufficient), but one which is directed by Will and making a
genuine connection with other-planar reality, through which real insights and
knowledge may come.
It is worth noting that some psychologists make use of similar techniques in
therapy sessions, helping their patients to visualise themselves in new, peaceful
locations, then hypnotically (or otherwise) guiding them to explore these locations to
obtain insights into their problems. The final theory postulates that the astral realms are
no different to the psychologists' methods: the magician creates an environment within
his own psyche which reflects his purpose and then seeks answers and wisdom relating
to that purpose by exploring the environment in which he finds itself. But according to
this theory, the entire experience takes place within the magician's own mind and has no
objective existence outside those confines. This does not invalidate the method, as this
symbolic exploration of a magical principle, shaped and guided by the subconscious,
can give access to huge reservoirs of information and insight; it's simply that it all
occurs within the magician's own skull. Any entities met and communicated with in the
visited realm are thus interpreted as dream manifestations from the deep places of the
magician's own subconscious (and very important, to be heeded, for that precise
reason).
To make an informed judgement on this question, we should consider what
precisely the magical planes are deemed to be and how they are arranged.
They are arranged according to the cosmology of the tradition in question. But
the first stumbling block we encounter is that although some of them are similar, not all
of these cosmologies are the same, and some are quite contradictory. For example,
although nearly every tradition views the Magical Universe as a gigantic tree, there is
heated debate concerning the placing of the physical, material world (and by world we
mean the entire physical Cosmos) in this model. Most of the European and shamanic
traditions place our physical realm at the centre of the tree. The trunk and branches
lead into Divine realms high above, fanning out to touch the primal creative forces,
whilst other pathways lead down to the Underworld, from which the nourishment and
life force of the Universe arises. But other traditions, such as the Qabalah, or the
Enochian system, see the material world as the last and least exalted manifestation of
Creation; it is appended to the very bottom of the Qabalistic Tree of Life, and is
similarly beneath the thyrs which rise from it up into the infinite regions in the
Enochian cosmology.
These differences are not irreconcilable if we consider that the cosmological
models are representative of principles and creative forces, not literal place maps. But
in making this adjustment, we necessarily bring into question the objective existence of
these planes, at least in a fixed and dogmatic format.
The Qabalistic Tree of Life consists of ten Sephiroth, linked by twenty two
paths which run between them, linking them. These Sephiroth represent emanations of
Divine force, descending from a monad down into the variety of the material world.
The Norse World Tree, Yggdrasil, has the material world at its centre
(Midgard = 'middle enclosure'). Midgard is surrounded by worlds defined by primal
creative forces (fire and ice, verdancy and stability), with higher worlds leading to the
realms of the Light Elves and Asgard, where the Gods sit, and down to the underworld
of the Dwarfs and ultimately to the domain of Hel. Paths attributed to the runes run
between the worlds (Bifrost, the Rainbow Bridge).
The Celtic (Irish) cosmic map is similar to the Norse, with our physical world
in the centremost point of reality, with a vast Otherworld symbolically above and an
Underworld below, a network of plains and lands joined by paths signified by the
ogham.
All of these models do share a common purpose, which they each fulfil
extremely well: they balance and counter-balance all of the cosmic, mythic forces in
that tradition's conception of the Cosmos, as well as the mythic forces which shape and
have dominion in the human psyche. The fact that they are all effective and
comprehensive suggests that they each incorporate the same, or similar, forces and
symbolic regions. This speaks volumes for the authenticity and usefulness of these
models in psychological terms. But although they each contain similar themes and
ideas, and although some are certainly more closely akin than others, and although it is
possible to deconstruct them all, rearranging and revising their parts to compare with
each other, in no case is it possible to simply superimpose one magical tradition's map
upon another's. This would tend to rule out the first, most literal, theory of astral travel,
which would require a single model to be correct and absolute, not a shifting
arrangement in which the territory can adjust to fit the map. But it would not
necessarily negate the feasibility of the second theory, in which the imagination acts as
a mirror in which the qualities of the desired realm are projected and experienced by
the magician. In this case, the invoked realm is real and the imagination is used as an
interface between it and the magician's consciousness. The magician's traditional
cosmic map is then used as a personal guide to access a given state of being / cosmic
quality, it need not be a literal plan of fixed landmarks, only a mental trajectory.
So it can be reasonably established that an astral journey is something that
takes place in the imagination of the magician, guided and directed by the magical
Will. It remains to decide whether the experience is solely an imaginative construct, or
whether it is some kind of reflection of, or interchange with, a 'real astral location'.
This can best be decided after considering the next chapter.
 Of Matter and Spirit

Most occult traditions assert matter and spirit are two distinct things. In the Qabalah,
the Tree of Life represents a series of emanations which roll outwards from the Divine
creative source, becoming progressively denser and more specialised until they
ultimately become manifest in matter in Malkuth, a tenth Sephirah which hangs
suspended beneath the Tree.
The assertion is that the Sephiroth above Malkuth are somehow distinct from
it, made of more subtle spiritual substance, which is malleable and can be reshaped and
directed. This quality is used to explain the multi-faceted nature of the astral plane. It
is often asserted that on an astral, spiritual level, thoughts are things. We will come
back to this.
A similar kind of dualistic model was employed within the Temple of Set,
where I earned my magical laurels. It was felt that there was a clear distinction
between the world of things, the universe outside of your skull, and your own thoughts
and inner imaginings. There was an objective universe, governed by the laws of
physics, and there was an inner, subjective universe, which was yours alone.
These dualistic models are highly effective ones for magicians to employ in
their magic: they explain how a magical Working effects a change in the subjective
universe; this change is then mirrored to a greater or lesser degree in the objective
universe, the extent of the outer change depending upon the passion and precision of the
magician. The one thing this model has never been able to manage is to identify the
means by which the one influences the other, either falling back on undefined and
ultimately meaningless labels such as 'the Magical Link', or else mumbling about things
such as 'resonance', but never getting around to explaining how something with no
material substance can resonate with something composed of 'real world stuff'.
Thus, the model falls far short and explains nothing; it simply provides an
impassable philosophical gulf. It remains a very clever and useful model for assisting
novice magicians in developing their rituals and measuring their success. But a model
is all that it is, a 'lie for children'.
Some Eastern philosophies deny this dualistic thinking and assert that
everything is spirit and that the material world is mere illusion. But even in doing this,
they create a distinction and a new duality to replace the old one. By denying physical
reality as illusion, they deny it the dignity of other forms of spirit; it is seen as
something to be escaped, to be left behind as one ascends spiritually.
But what if we were to reverse this thinking? What if we were to deny any
separation between matter and spirit by suggesting that everything is matter? In terms
of Occam's Razor and the experience gained through life and observation, this would
appear to be the most sensible conclusion, the one which is most in accord with Reality
as we know it. It certainly seems to be a good foundation to build upon; if other planes,
distinct from the physical, do exist, the onus is upon them to prove themselves. This is
the position taken by the Church of Satan, who stress the carnal nature of Reality.
You may argue that thoughts are not material things, that emotions are not
material things, that our wild imaginings are things beyond the physical world. This is
balderdash. Our thoughts and our imaginings and our emotions all occur within our
physical brains. They don't occur in some other reality, they occur here and now. It's
simply that these things generally assumed to be purely subjective, or spiritual have
always been considered to be separate from matter. But there is no reason why we
should suppose this to be so. Even the attribution of Spirit or consciousness to the fifth
Elemental point of the Pentagram indicates that this is so: according to the attributions
of this ancient occult symbol, Spirit is just as much a part of the manifest Universe as
Fire, Water, Air and Earth (or, respectively, energy, liquid, gas and solid, the states of
matter). The only change we need to make in order to establish this unified model is
accept that consciousness suffuses matter and is an aspect of it. We ourselves are
evidence of this.
When this notion that all is matter takes root, it implies two things with
regard to magical practice. Firstly, the magician's training must begin with the body
and the five physical senses, exactly as in the APOPHIS curriculum. Secondly, the
other worlds and realms of the astral plane that we discussed in the previous chapter
can now be clearly interpreted as having a very real and tangible existence, but that
existence is within the consciousness of the magician; it is not some 'place' on 'another
plane' that you can go to. It is an inward journey. What does this imply about the
otherworldly entities, spirits and gods that are met in these regions? We'll consider the
ramifications of this in the next chapter.
There are a couple of protestations that people are bound to make at this
point. Some might argue that their thoughts cannot possibly be part of the material
world because they do not influence reality. Well, of course they do! Every single
thing you do is done because you have thought to do so. You choose which thoughts to
put into action, but they are all real and contain the potential to affect the world. You
cannot pick up your coffee cup without first issuing a mental impulse to do so. As for
your more outlandish conceptions, such as pastel green unicorns, you may not see such
creatures cantering around the fields, but you can certainly tangibly sculpt one or paint
one, or tell a story about one. And the image is composed of colours and shapes and
notions that exist in the material world, even if not in this precise configuration. The
error here is failing to realise that creativity too is a quality of matter. It makes no odds
whether you create something like a palace or a garden fence, or incredible fantasy
vistas within your own mind; there is no distinction when you recognise that mind and
matter are ultimately the same substance. They just have different degrees of
subjectivity and objectivity; but subjective and objective here are mere relational
markers, not exclusive absolutes. Objectivity is simply the degree to which an event is
measurable by another person. Wailing that I can't levitate a table by thinking about
it! is no argument, it's simply wrong application of force. You can't levitate a table by
switching on your car engine either, which is another way of saying exactly the same
thing. But you can levitate a table by putting it in the boot of your car, then turning the
key and driving off with it, just as you can levitate a table by thinking about it and then
subsequently moving your limbs to walk across and lift it off the ground with your
hands. All of these things are on the same plane and thus able to relate.
Some readers will by now be beginning to think that this is a very narrow and
materialistic view of life. But we are seekers after truth, so this shouldn't be a
problem, surely? If this is the way things are, then this is the way things are. And I am
certainly not denying the power of magic, I am simply destroying some of the false
premises often used to explain it. For such readers, all I can say is that you will have to
wait until I start to rebuild a new and clear magical vision and worldview in the
coagula section of the book. In the meantime, we still have a lot of deconstruction left
to do.
Other readers may by now have started to intuit where I'm ultimately heading
with all of this and may be beginning to get excited about it. If so, congratulations on
your perceptiveness. You will have realised by now that the discovery of this 'single
plane' model of Reality is going to demand a rethink of definitions of matter and
consciousness. But for the moment we are clearing away the smoke and mirrors, not
reconstructing the truth.

 Of Gods and Spirits

Magicians habitually hobnob with gods, spirits, angels, demons and assorted
otherworldly beings on a regular basis. And to be fair, there is already much debate
among practitioners of magic concerning the reality of these beings, even before I start
poking my paddle in the waters.
Even the very best minds have struggled with this question, and have often
changed their minds over the years. In Aleister Crowley's younger years, when he
published the Mathers translation of the Goetia, adding his own introduction to it, he
argued that the conjured spirits were projections from the magician's own
subconscious. If a magician wished to seduce someone, he would find a suitable spirit
in the grimoire and perform his evocation. But what he would actually call forth was
an aspect of his innermost self, usually submerged below the threshold of
consciousness. This aspect would embody his charisma, personal magnetism and sex
appeal, awakening these forces within him so that when he attempted his seduction, he
would stand a much greater chance of success.
In later years, Crowley came to believe the opposite to be true, considering
that the spirits might be literal independent entities. At the very least, he believed in the
literal existence of the Deities of the Book of the Law: Nuit, Hadit, Horus, Babalon
and his Holy Guardian Angel Aiwass. But in his magnum opus Magick, his manual of
practical magical instruction, he wrote the following: "In this book it is spoken
of...Spirits and Conjurations; of Gods, Spheres, Planes and many other things which
may or may not exist. It is immaterial whether they exist or not. By doing certain
things certain results follow."
The position in the Temple of Set is not set in stone, the question being left to
the understanding of each Initiate. The official position is that Set Himself is an
objectively existing entity, and this is the position which all members of the Priesthood
are expected to hold. But even that is a supposition with many possible
interpretations. Temple members in general are not required to adhere to this opinion.
Concerning other Gods and spirits, the matter is again largely left to personal opinion.
Some hold the other Egyptian Deities the Neteru to possess individual, objective
existence; others don't. Others believe that most Gods are the personification of natural
forces, with spirits such as those of the Goetia being assumed to be products of the
human psyche, symbolic personifications of the nature described by Crowley in his
Goetia.
In the Church of Satan, Anton LaVey defined Satan as the dark force in
nature which drives human evolution and genius, bringing about necessary change in
opposition to crushing conformity. Satan was thus a metaphor for the awakened human
spirit, but a lively one and one which could seem to take on a life of its own. The other
diabolical names and beings called upon in Satanic rituals were specialised aspects of
this same dark genius within, called forth to awaken and enable the desired qualities.
I have discussed the question of what precisely spirits are at great length in the
lectures of The Apophis Club and here is not the place to go into such precise and
convoluted discussions. We will return to discuss this matter further towards the end of
the coagula section, but for now, in our work of deconstruction, the perspective of the
Church of Satan seems to be the most likely and workable scenario. This also accords
with our law that nearly all magical phenomena have no supernatural element. This
means that most spirit encounters (whether by astral meeting or ritual conjuration) are
projections from the deep places of the magician's psyche. They remain powerful
forces, but are not externally independent entities.

 Mediums and Psychics

Talk of spirits may make our minds wander away from questions of gods and dmons
and consider instead the spirits of the dead, together with the mediums and psychics
who claim to be able to communicate with them.
I'm going to put aside the question of whether there is life after death for now.
It suffices for the moment to say that it's not something that can be proven, and that if
there is, we would need to spend some considerable time defining what kind of life it
could be. And still it would not be proven. Therefore, this is a philosophical matter
best held over until the third part of the book, after we have deconstructed magic and
rebuilt a coherent model around which to weave our speculations.
So for the time being we must set aside that part of the question for later and
instead concentrate upon the question that if spirits of the dead do exist, is it possible to
communicate with them? Are mediums and psychics fraudulent or genuine, or a mix of
both?
I have sat in the audience and watched a fair few mediums at work in my time,
some famous and others definitely not so. I can say, hand on heart, that I have never
witnessed a single genuine mediumistic demonstration. The identification of both
spirits and sitters is shoddy and the 'messages' passed on are so pathetic as to be
laughable, if it were not for the fact that there are poor, bereaved people sitting in the
audience desperate to believe this tripe and be momentarily reunited with their loved
ones.
Perhaps this may be best demonstrated by quoting from memory some of the
bullshit I heard at one meeting:
Does anybody know someone whose name began with a D? I'm getting a
D, could be a father or a brother do you remember anything about a budgie? Did
you used to have a budgie, or was there a budgie somewhere around, maybe at a
friend's or a relative's? Ah, it must be you, then. Yes, he says that's right, he's
got a message for you: he sends you love...
This old fraud waffled on in the same manner for about an hour and a half. He
kept pulling out the same old hooks; I forget how many times he asked people if they
knew anyone who had ever had a budgie. At no time did the information offered
become more specific than the above. An awful lot of additional information was
volunteered to him by the audience, who were convinced he was the real deal, but none
of it originated with him.
There was a family present, two parents with their two daughters. I
recognised the parents as people who circulate through nearly all of the local psychic
events, true believers both. Evidently one of the daughters was having as much
difficulty as me accepting all of this bullshit. The way in which the medium sidelined
her was devious and cunning; he suggested that the reason she found his gift so hard to
accept was that she herself was similarly gifted and was afraid of the fact. This
immediately made the audience nod and feel compassion for her, completely
patronising her, because she was unable to accept her gift, which his mighty insight
had so clearly discerned. Her parents looked so proud about this, that poor girl's life
must have been a misery afterwards as they pestered her to develop her non-existent
clairvoyant talents. This was a cold and merciless trick by a cheat, but I have to give
him grudging admiration for the way in which he accomplished it, instantly bringing the
audience on his side, turning a sceptic into an asset, taking away their credibility whilst
seeming to praise them.
There are no genuine mediums. None at all. It is all trickery or self-delusion.
I've seen some who obviously believe what they do; in fact, they're embarrassing in
their desperation to believe, but so usually are their audiences, so they all feed back
into each other and go home convinced. The more polished shows are actively
fraudulent.
If the dead do communicate with the living, it's not like this. It simply does not
happen. We'll come back to look at other methods of post-mortem communication
before we close this chapter, but first let's take a look at professional psychics.
You guessed it, these too are frauds, using cold-reading techniques, stooges,
selective memory and so forth to fake it. Again, some evidently genuinely believe that
their random thoughts and whims are psychic communications and will happily let all
manner of garbage trip off their tongue; others are deliberately conning you, using vague
prompts to elicit information. And they are all somehow qualified to teach their gifts,
you notice, offering expensive courses which even the most inept pass with flying
colours after paying the astronomical fees. I have a friend who has racked up hundreds
and hundreds of pounds of credit card debt attending these 'seminars' that he can't afford
to repay, and there are many, many more like him. All of this despite the fact he knows
of my magical history and I continually warn him not be fooled, but like so many, he is
desperate to believe, against all evidence to the contrary.
I'm simply stating these things for the record, of course. Any magician worth
his salt already knows these things, because anybody with any kind of genuine psychic
experience will know damn well that it doesn't happen to order like this. Not ever.
Anybody who says it does is a liar, a con man, or a fool.
Genuine magicians understand that psychic and clairvoyant phenomena are not
produced to order, and when they do happen they are generally accompanied by a
definite physical sensation (a cue which is soon recognised by the magician) and they
only last scant seconds. Each such phenomenon must be accepted on its own terms; the
information 'received' is inevitably accurate, but all attempts to elongate the experience
or seek out more than came through of its own accord always leads to false assumptions
and imaginary details which are proved wrong after checking. To stand in front of an
audience and make the claims that mediums and professional psychics do is at best self-
deceit on a colossal scale, or more likely deliberate, malicious fraud.
For those who are interested, if you search on Amazon, you will find a large
selection of books which will teach you all of the tricks employed by mediums and
professional psychics, all the way from simple cold-reading to how to duplicate the
table-turning and spirit materialisation antics of the Victorian mediums.
Yet, I have intimated above that although more fleeting and less showy in
nature, genuine psychic phenomena do occur. So after dismissing all the bullshit, what
lies behind these genuine occurrences, with which the magician will no doubt become
personally familiar?
The mechanism is a simple one to describe: such a psychic breakthrough
occurs at a moment when the brain is 'idling' and the conscious and subconscious are
able to briefly connect. The magician experiences a jolt, a physical response, and then
the flash is over. Basically, as soon as your attention snaps back to focus upon the
thing, the usual gap between conscious and subconscious is immediately reinstated.
This is the dilemma; you can only recognise and respond to such a flash of inspiration /
insight by effectively cutting it off. But your subconscious is not stupid, and what you
receive will be what you need.
So what is it that actually happens? Do two minds actually connect to share
information, or is the psyche able to discern things at a distance and convey something
to the magician that he should not have otherwise been able to know? In some cases in
my experience, there have been incidents which only seem explicable in such terms.
However, although such things do seem able to happen, you shouldn't at this stage (or
any) simply take my word for that, and in any case such otherwise inexplicable
incidences seem to be in the definite minority. Most such incidents can be explained by
the transmission of information from the subconscious to the conscious levels of
awareness which has been previously noticed and filed away by the brain, but beneath
the threshold of conscious awareness. The subconscious basically reaches out to
inform the magician of something important that it has noticed, but his conscious mind
has missed. This knowledge seems to miraculously spring up in the brain, as if from
nowhere, a sudden remarkable realisation. But again our rule holds true: in most
cases, although a remarkable incidence of conscious / subconscious communication and
thus noteworthy in its own right, no supernatural element need be inferred to have been
involved.
Before concluding this chapter, we need to briefly consider another means of
communing with the dead, this being the more controlled and potent method of
necromancy, a method practised by magicians with due precision, skill and Will, a far
cry from the mediums' shenanigans.
Readers who who have dipped into many of my Apophis Club publications
may recall that in the book Gods and Monsters I gave a detailed account of my
necromantic conjuration of the shade of Dr John Dee, the Elizabethan magician. More
details on the substance of these conjurations were later given in the book The
Sevenfold Mystery.
So what can be learned from the experience of necromancy? Firstly, let's ask
our default question: did the experiment actually work? The answer is yes, I
successfully and very fruitfully, as The Sevenfold Mystery proves conversed with
Dee's shade.
The question then becomes: what then is this shade? Is it literally the dead
person's spirit and personality? The answer in this case, however, is no.
The shade is something which is left behind when a person dies and departs
the world. It is, if you like, the imprint that the person has made upon the world, and
most specifically the imprint he has made upon the minds that knew him. As such, at
least a part of that imprint consists of people's memories. We have to consider the
possibility if not the probability that much of what constitutes an evoked shade is a
simple shadow play of memories and reflections within our own minds. With an
individual such as Dee, this shade may endure for many centuries, as his imprint has
been great and he is still often thought of by magicians.
If you would like a second example of a magician's necromantic experiment,
read the account of Eliphas Levi's evocation of the shade of Apollonius of Tyana in his
Transcendental Magic. Apollonius' shade, being far further removed across the
centuries, his life less well known in its details, was very nebulous when called.
But in either case, a conjured shade is never the true essence of the person. It
has no consciousness per se, only memory and reflection. Nevertheless, in its
interactions with the subconscious of a skilled magician, it may reveal many secrets and
profound insights. The Sevenfold Mystery stands as testament to this fact.
So what does this leave us with? That once again our rule seems to hold true,
and the the supernatural need not be invoked as an explanation in nearly all necromantic
experiences.

 The Higher Self

Most magical traditions speak of a so-called 'Higher Self'. It may be called by all
manner of names, such as the Holy Guardian Angel, the Augoeides, the Dmon. But
almost all commentators reference this 'Higher Self' at some point. And very, very
many of them are content to spout utter and total bollocks about it, filling learning
magicians' minds with bullshit.
The Self is a complex and multi-faceted thing. Every magical tradition agrees
with this; psychology agrees with this. There is far more to a person than the muted
automaton who works, eats, shits and sleeps. Every human being has passions and
desires, visions and aspirations, capable of great creativity and genius. These qualities
are suppressed by the workaday world, and advertising and the media do their level
best to channel these urges to the places where they will engender the most profit for
others, such as fashion, popular entertainment and so on.
The Higher Self or the Dmon as it is called in the context of The Apophis
Club is quite simply the true Genius of the Self awakened and brought fully to life and
consciousness. In other words, it is the development and celebration of our own
creativity, our own wishes and desires, our own sense of values, ethics and aesthetics.
This may seem like a small thing, but it requires a literal inner revolution to overthrow
the bonds of advertising and conformity. The liberation of the Dmon, the true
Creative Self, is the most empowering and liberating thing imaginable.
But there are another set of chains that we have to escape first, and these are
much more insidious and subtle, but far more dangerous and entrapping for that. The
occult attracts many people who have realised how programmed by the media and
politics their lives have become; they seek ways to liberate themselves from these
externally imposed confines. But very few of them realise that they must also struggle
to shatter the chains of occult conformity too.
Because the simple truth is that there are a huge number of people out there
who will tell you in no uncertain terms what your Higher Self is, and how you should
behave if you want to access it. As if they could possibly know your personal,
innermost nature! And surprise, surprise, their definition of the Higher Self never fails
to be just another rehash of the same old tedious, pseudo-Christian moralising, utter
bullshit which has neither relevance nor power to your true Self. I have even heard this
sort of drivel from people who claim to be Left-Hand Path teachers.
It can be very difficult for new magicians to notice this new set of chains:
after all, when the group or person who taught them how to liberate themselves from the
shackles that bind most of society, they're going to trust those people when they coax
them into a new set of shackles.
But there are two very clear and apparent ways to recognise this and to shrug
off such conditioning. Firstly, your Higher Self is your Higher Self. Not somebody
else's, not some group's or teacher's, just yours. Never let anybody else tell you who or
what your Higher Self is, or what its attributes are, or what it wants you to do, or how it
wants you to behave. Only you can determine that, only you have access to your
Higher Self. And this rule applies to me and to The Apophis Club as well. Don't
accept what I have to say about these things just because I say so. I may be wrong. I
may be lying. Don't just accept it as a matter of faith; put my words to the test. Subject
them to scrutiny. If what I have to teach is appealing to you, it must be because my
words make sense to you after proper consideration, not simply because I wrote them in
a book.
The main thing that has to be remembered about your Higher Self is that it is
indeed a part of your Self. It is a part of your consciousness and gets its name through
being the part that is most awake, aware and integrated. It is presented as something to
be aspired to and invoked because it is an image of how we want our entire Self to
become in due course, as a result of our magical Work. But it is still your Self, your
consciousness. And this means that it is something which has a great affinity with the
rest of you. It is not an isolated thing, it is not an alien or an outside deity to be
worshipped and obeyed, to be grovelled to whilst it pronounces commandments. It is
you and it is the same essence as you.
There are those who claim that the Higher Self is some sort of Christ-like
figure and that we must give up everything in order to approach it. As if we are to
become ascetics, crawling in sackcloth and ashes, in order to approach the most fully
conscious aspect of our own Self. What kind of rubbish is this? I have seen magicians
piously give up all of their passions and interests, living like monks because they
believe this will be pleasing to their Higher Self. Bullshit! Your passions and interests
are your passions and interests; therefore they are the same as the passions and
interests of your Higher Self!
The only thing the magician need give up are the over-consumerism and
slavery promoted by the kind of society we live in. In other words, you cut loose those
things that have been put there from outside yourself. In the Apophis curriculum, this is
all part of the Work of the first four Heads of the Dragon. But then, in the Fifth Head, as
the Dmon arises into full consciousness within the magician, a concerted and
deliberate attempt is made having wiped the slate clean to remove pre-conditioning
to rediscover and immerse oneself in all of the things that one is passionate about. And
I'm not just talking about 'occult' or 'spiritual' things, I mean every delight you ever
genuinely felt. If you love moving tiny soldiers on a table, playing tabletop wargames,
your Higher Self will love it too because it is you! Creativity and art and
imagination, and the appreciation and passion for these things, are all among the very
highest consciousness, so indulge yours and be glad! Because those who fall into the
ascetic trap are every bit as much a slave as they were when they set out.
 I received a review on Amazon recently for my book gishjlmur, which
made my eyebrows raise and proved this point very well, as the reviewer very
obviously simply didn't 'get it'. He wrote as follows: For the most part the author is
structuring his book on the concept that we are to gain control over our lower selves
(dragon within) in order to harness our desire energy towards awakening the Wode-
Self. While this is a classic hook in todays world, promising that we can continue
down our lower natures desired roads without having to change, what ends up
happening, especially when all we have is the little bit of self-control work the
author offers, is a false sense of power that ultimately becomes our downfall as our
lower natures do what they do best: please themselves at the expense of the rest of
our self. This is all very pious and neo-Christian and falls into that same old trap of
assuming that there is some moral duality separating the Higher Self and the so called
'lower nature'. It's just another Remanifestation that those of us born in nations that
have been infected with the poison of the desert religions are indoctrinated into from
birth. The desires of the 'lower self' are the same as the desires of the 'Higher Self'; the
only distinction is the Will and power available to achieve those goals and the
improved balance factor and far sight of a more unified consciousness. The goal of
Initiation is to integrate the whole Self, not to suppress or deny part of it, for as soon as
you fall into this trap you stop short at best or fall back into guilt and neurosis at worst.
So embrace the Vision of the Higher Self and seek to unify all parts of your
consciousness into a single perfect sublimity. But you will still be wonderful, glorious
you! The people who fall and who experience self-destructive tendencies are those
who fail to achieve this integration, denying their very own natures. And never forget
that the Apophis curriculum as all genuine initiatory paths starts with the realisation
that we are carnal creatures and that all of our levels of conscious awareness must
spring from that foundation.
Perhaps one day someone may succeed in inventing a time machine and will
go back to put a bullet through that old lunatic Abraham's head, before any of the guilt-
ridden, murderous, psychotic religions the crazy old fool spawned have time to appear.

 The Healing Arts

Magical healing and various other kinds of 'alternative' healing are also things
surrounded by superstitions and unwarranted beliefs. More alarmingly, genuine,
effective medicines often bear the brunt of occultists' hostility on social media these
days, as if science was somehow 'the enemy'.
I shouldn't have to mention exploitative faith healers, as they've been pretty
much covered whilst discussing fraudulent mediums. Exactly the same applies here.
There is nothing more despicable than these vampires who prey on the desperately sick
for money, offering them false hope and lies, then often having the nerve to blame the
victim for not having enough faith when the 'cure' fails.
I also lump into the same category those idiots who genuinely believe that they
channel healing energies through Reiki or other such nonsense. It. Does. Not. Fucking.
Work. I know people who practise Reiki, I have experienced it at their hands, I have
witnessed them use it on others. I have heard all the stuff about symbols and energy. It
is utter bullshit and it heals nothing. It may be a superb Lesser Magical technique in the
hands of a skilled showman to assist in the alleviation of pain or symptoms (we'll get
back to this shortly), but it does nothing to heal any underlying illness or injury. We can
also include other 'alternative healing' techniques, such as acupuncture and
homeopathy. They simply do not work, they have no effect upon any ailments. They too
may occasionally temporarily lessen symptoms, but never the underlying condition.
And yet when we look at conventional medicine, stuff that does actually make
people well, many occultists are rabidly against it. They say it isn't safe, that it isn't
natural. If it exists, of course it's bloody natural! Of course, what they actually mean is
that it's been refined and prepared by Western scientists instead of picked from the herb
garden of a backwater shaman somewhere. They offer up the word 'natural' as if it was
a panacea, radiant with love and light. Shall I tell you what's 'natural'? The plague
bacillus, that's natural, as is leprosy, as is smallpox. Mmm, all that natural goodness,
eh? It is scientists and Western medicine that have eradicated smallpox, produced a
cure for leprosy and created the antibiotics that give plague victims a fighting chance.
These diseases are now generally limited to those places where Western medicine is
least present. Measles too was also almost eradicated, but that's making a huge
resurgence now, because of ignorant people refusing to have their children vaccinated.
If you go to any of these places in the world which are still lacking Western
medicine, where it is difficult to procure, you won't find the people there raving about
the 'natural' cures they have available. They want our medicine, because they know it's
what will make them well!
Claims are made that medicines are toxic, that vaccinations are poisonous,
etc. Of course they are! Everything is toxic. Everything! The food you eat is toxic, it
can kill you. Drink too much water and it will kill you. The very air you breathe is
toxic, oxygen is one of the most corrosive substances. The things that keep us alive are
paradoxically all toxic. But they don't kill us because of the quantities in which they
are taken into our systems. The same is true of medicines, which is why it requires
careful measurement and precise prescription by people who know what the hell they
are talking about in order to render them both effective and safe. In some cases, such as
the stronger forms of chemotherapy, the medicines can be very toxic, with awful side
effects. But those side effects are a damn sight better than being dead and these
medicines have saved countless lives; they may not be pleasant, but they can be very
effective, they offer a real hope, and contrary to what you may read online, this is
something that smoking a joint will definitely not do (though it may help manage your
pain and make you forget your symptoms for a while).
Vaccination is the big elephant in the room these days, of course, with utterly
unfounded hysteria claiming that it causes autism. Rubbish. There is no evidence for
this at all. None. But you know what? Even if it did have a one in ten thousand
chance of causing autism or some such, that would still be vastly preferable to the
alternative. Millions upon millions of lives have been saved through vaccination.
Diseases that once culled whole populations are under control. These are facts.
The acid test is this: I have met many people who are only alive today
because of conventional Western medicine, without which they would have died. I
myself am one and my wife is another. I have met nobody who can say the same about
alternative medicine.
So why do some of these alternative treatments appear to work for a short time
(and it is only ever for a short time, never a long term improvement)? It's simply down
to the placebo effect. The placebo effect was noticed during clinical trials of new
drugs; sometimes the control group, taking an inactive compound for sake of
comparison, would also report feeling better, though their improvement was never
permanent, only apparent, a lessening of symptoms. This occurs because so much of the
symptoms that we suffer when ill or injured is within our own minds. And when
misdirected away from our illness, the mind is capable of subduing and controlling the
worst of the symptoms. Once the fear, focus and anticipation of pain are removed, for
example, we find ourselves able to endure far greater extremes of pain without the
same anguish. And when a person is led to believe they are being given a treatment
which will alleviate their condition, the mind reduces its focus upon the symptoms
accordingly, rendering them less intense and more bearable, hence an apparent
improvement in the condition. However, the actual illness or injury remains unchanged,
we simply become less aware of it.
A similar effect occurs when hypnosis is used to relieve pain; the mind is
distracted from it and focused elsewhere, rendering the discomfort negligible or at least
significantly more tolerable.
 The Lesser Magical applications of healing rites become very apparent when
the placebo effect is borne in mind. By his rituals, or amulets, or Reiki or whatever, the
magician's charisma works upon the recipient to convince them that they are feeling
better. This leads to a tremendous uplift in general positivity and reduces the impact of
pain and other symptoms significantly for a greater or lesser period of time. It does not
actually heal an illness or injury, however, it provides comfort and the opportunity to
rest easily.
What about when a ritual is worked in all earnestness, with a view to a
genuine healing? What occurs then? It really does follow the same exact pattern as the
principles we have already discussed. It focuses the magician's mind upon the
problem, opening awareness to possibilities and opportunities that would otherwise not
have been realised. The best doctors will be found, the best surgery performed, the
best drugs sourced, because everyone involved will be operating at the top of their
game, either directly influenced by a ritual they took part in, or else galvanised and
inspired by those who did. But it is the surgery and the doctors and the drugs plus the
body's own immune system which will actually effect the healing.
What about those cases which seem genuinely impossible, which only a
miracle can help? Am I saying then that magic can be of no help in cases such as
these? I am only saying for the moment that in nearly all successful rites for magical
healing, no supernatural element is involved.

 Magical Tools

Every magician has their collection of magical tools. These will vary in details from
tradition to tradition, but a few examples will help. Golden Dawn and Thelemite
Initiates, for instance, have their four Elemental weapons: a wand for Fire, a chalice
for Water, a dagger for Air and a pantacle for Earth. They also have a sword for
evocation and a lotus wand for invocation. All consecrated by complex rites and
symbolism. All of these tools are supposed to be crafted by the magician's own hand,
or at least the final shaping, colouring, marking and consecration should be
accomplished personally by the magician. Other tools include such things as Tarot
cards, rune sets, talismans that have been created, statuettes and figurines, wall
hangings, altars, etc.
We can immediately apply our rule to the question of magical tools. The tools
in and of themselves, no matter how artfully created and skilfully consecrated, remain
tools. The process of creating and consecrating them, the investment of time, intent,
Will and imagination in that process, render them very important in the psyche of the
magician, however. This is why mass-produced items are so very inferior and it is
always better to make your own. That importance in your own mind is deeply
ingrained, so when you use these tools in a ritual, they are going to be very powerful
keys in unlocking the deep places of your psyche and furnishing the results you want.
But in almost all cases, this will be a result of the unique relationship you have
established with each object, not an inherent quality of the object itself. In other words
this is a little Lesser Magical smoke and mirrors, whereby your own mind's
associations empower the object which then empowers your mind.
This Lesser Magical application applies to other people. When they see these
hand-crafted tools, adorned with weird sigils and symbolism, they cannot help but feel
spooked and in awe of such objects, especially if warned of dire doom should they
handle such powerful sacred objects. This raises their expectation that your rituals will
produce results and their evident belief increases your own confidence, with the
expected knock-on effect.
If you give someone an amulet or talisman that you have made, its image and
symbolism will likewise inflame their imagination. Even the sceptical recognise
mystical symbols and magical signs and know that they are handling something outside
the ordinary. Because in order for the item to be effective and evoke the result you
desire, it only has to speak to their subconscious; their conscious scepticism is totally
irrelevant where such responses are concerned. When the purpose of the amulet is
explained, their subconscious will ensure that it is achieved in order to satisfy its own
sense of wonder.
Some tools, such as Tarot cards or rune staves are readily recognised as
magically symbolic and most non-magicians experience a frisson of supernatural
delight upon seeing them. This renders their subconscious completely receptive. Tarot
cards in particular can be used to execute a huge number of stage magical type effects,
which can be terrifyingly convincing once taken out of the domain of showbiz patter.
This in turn prepares the person for further suggestion and priming to achieve your
magical purpose.
So magical tools are well worth investing your time and effort in, they can
facilitate quite remarkable results. But as in all cases, nearly all successful operations
need incorporate no supernatural element.

 The World of Should-Be

One of the major problems facing most new magicians is that they find themselves
operating within a World of Should-Be instead of the World That Is.
A magician can only change the world in ways that match his Vision if he first
sees and accepts that world exactly as it really is. Otherwise he is working from a
false premise and who knows where the hell his ill-informed meddling will lead?
It is necessary to understand the laws of physics, the ways in which the world
works. It is also important to understand psychology, the ways in which peoples' minds
work. Anybody who wrings their hands and bleats Why can't we all just get along?
hasn't even begun to get this yet. Peoples' major failing is to assume that other people
think the same way they do and have the same values that they do. This is manifestly
not true.
We will be dealing with the big philosophical questions in section three of this
book, including the doozy of why there is evil in the world. But I'm hoping that by the
time we get to that point, readers will be well equipped to answer them for
themselves. But you owe it to yourself to think about these things in the meantime.
It is human nature to want the whole world to be run along the lines of the snug
little enclaves in which the fortunate (such as we in the Western world) find
themselves. But the magician needs to understand the realities that underlie the illusion,
the ways in which the world actually turns, for nature is indeed red in tooth and claw.
In every case, one man's comfort is bought at another man's expense. And I'm not about
to sit here and tell you this is a bad thing either. It is up to each of us to make the best of
the situation in which we find ourselves and do the best we can for ourselves and our
kin. That is nature's way. There are always winners and losers and it's up to you to be
a winner, or not. But you can only do that if you understand the rules of the game.
This solve section of the book has been deliberately written to shatter your
most precious illusions, to toss your superstitions in the garbage, to relegate your
beliefs to irrelevance and to deal solely with what we know to be so. Because if you
do not establish your magic upon this solid base, you will sooner or later fall.
Nature is cruel. Money talks. Might may not be right, but it can certainly act
as if it is and get away with it every time. People hate. People kill people. If you don't
protect yourself and your loved ones, no one else will if it comes to the test. Face up to
it, live with it, deal with it. Stop being surprised by things which are totally
predictable. Look Reality in the eye and embrace it for what it is. Then and only then,
when you see the World That Is, not the World That Should-Be, will you be in a
position to change it and improve it, or at least your small part of it.

 COAGULA

The Importance of Lesser Magic

By deconstructing the processes of magic in the solve section of this book, we have
placed ourself in a position where all of the beliefs and superstitions have been torn
down, where magic has been stripped to its very bones, its rituals and results reduced
to a few very down to earth postulates. Armed with this knowledge and clear sight, we
are now in a good position to begin the process of reconstruction. None of this
reconstruction will nullify any of the sometimes painful realisations that have brought
us to this place if we want to truly be magicians instead of play actors, people who
really change the world instead of those who act a role, then we have to do so from a
position of understanding what is Real. After dispelling the smoke and mirrors, we
have discovered magic to be a very earthbound, carnal thing, rooted in clear
behavioural patterns, steered with a cunning mind. There is very little of the mystical
or so-called 'spiritual' to be found. However, for the truly insightful, those who have
stuck with the program and have not cast this book aside in disgust before reaching this
point, dismayed at their cherished beliefs getting tossed on the scrap heap, it is just
possible that we may discover that the carnal and the cunning are much, much larger
things than we ever previously supposed, There is a whole Universe of wonder out
there, and it is a Universe that is Real.
One of the first things that will have struck the reader of the solve section is
just how all-pervasive Lesser Magic actually is. It is not simply a set of techniques for
manipulating the viewpoint of others; it is also a means of bewitching our own senses
in order to establish a conscious-subconscious connection which is what makes results
magic possible. It is a sleight of mind which assists us to see beyond the illusions and
presuppositions with which we habitually surround and limit ourselves, so that we can
see clearly and achieve the seemingly extraordinary. If there was no more to magic
than this, it would still be a worthwhile and rewarding pursuit for these reasons.
So, is there more to magic than this? This is something we will discover as
we rebuild our magical perspective in this coagula section, and we will see what
impact our realisations have upon our philosophy in section three, where Kelly will
indeed explain Everything and Nothing.
But first, since we have discovered it to be crucial in one form or another to
every magical operation, we need to spend some time on this subject of Lesser Magic.
The Key to Lesser Magic in all of its forms can be summarised as follows:
 By persuading somebody that something is true, that person will act as if
that something was true, making that something effectively true.
To give a couple of examples: if you have a project you want to get underway
at work and you intimate to others that it was the boss' idea, and then convince the boss
it was his idea (not difficult at all to do), your project will be actioned, even if it would
have been sidelined if you presented it as your own. Everybody believes it's the boss'
baby (including the boss), so suddenly it is the boss' baby and gets everyone's full
attention.
If you do a ritual to woo and seduce a young lady you regularly see in a night
club, the ritual (if you do it properly) will convince you that she is indeed attracted to
you. This conviction will give you the confidence and charisma you need in order to
actually appear attractive to her.
If you are known to be an effective magician and you prepare a healing
talisman for someone who is ill and pass it to them, their confidence in your abilities,
reinforced by the strangeness of the talisman, will help their symptoms to abate,
allowing them to rest properly and experience some relief. It may also help persuade
them and others to ensure the very best medical advice and treatment is being sought.
So Lesser Magical skills are all-pervasive. The techniques of Lesser Magic
are far, far too complex and subtle to go into here. An introduction to Lesser Magical
techniques can be found in my book Words of Power. It is possible to learn Lesser
Magic through books and trial and error experimentation, but it really is something that
is best taught in person, learning the skills from someone who knows. I will be offering
courses in Lesser Magical training once this book has been published. Sign up on the
Apophis Club web forum and Facebook page to be sure of getting the details. Orry
Whitehand will also shortly be penning a whole series of 'How To...' books which will
cover a broad range of specific Lesser Magical techniques. Watch out for those shortly.
Lesser Magic is the great legacy of Anton Szandor LaVey, the founder of the
Church of Satan and one of the greatest magicians of the Twentieth Century. Others had
certainly practised Lesser Magic before him. Aleister Crowley certainly did. But it
wasn't until LaVey came along that someone actually placed these apparent carnival
tricks right where they belonged; in the beating heart of genuine occultism. In doing so,
he exposed a truth that most occultists try to deny, but which is nonetheless absolutely
paramount: in order to be effective, the magician must be a showman.
It was LaVey who taught this essential truth: the first and most powerful tool
of the magician is charisma. In order to Work magic, a magician must possess Will and
must be able to direct that Will towards a purpose; he must have Imagination, in order
to shape the Unmanifest and give form to his deepest insights; he must have Desire, the
fuel that drives him on to change the world. But all of these things are made manifest
and communicated through his charisma. It is charisma which gives flesh and blood
and voice to his magic, which causes the Universe to listen and take heed, which
beguiles the unwary and bewitches the listener, weaving visions of wonder that enthrall
and fascinate, so that all follow in his wake, like rats or children behind a Pied Piper.

"Suddenly another voice spoke, low and melodious, its very sound an enchantment.
Those who listened unwearily to that voice could seldom report the words that they had
heard; and if they did, they wondered, for little power remained in them. Mostly they
remembered only that it was a delight to hear the voice speaking, all that it said seemed
wise and reasonable, and desire awoke in them by swift agreement to seem wise
themselves. When others spoke, they seemed harsh and uncouth by contrast; and if they
gainsaid the voice, anger was kindled in the hearts of those under the spell."
- The Two Towers, by J.R.R. Tolkien
 Occult Stage Magic

'Serious' magicians tend to turn their noses up at stage magicians. This is a big
mistake. The arts of misdirection and sleight of hand are every bit as magical as the
arts of evocation and invocation, and every bit as useful in Working your Will in the
world.
Now I'm not recommending necessarily that Draconian magicians should put
on a tuxedo and stand in front of an audience asking them to pick a card[3]. Not that
there's anything wrong with that, but it's the skills and the approach that we are
concerned about learning.
The whole field of stage magic is ripe for study, exploration and practice,
practice, practice! But there are four main areas which every Draconian magician can
benefit from paying particularly close attention to. We'll deal with each of these in turn.

1. Bizarre Magic

Bizarre magic is a very specific sub-genre of stage magic that has appeared in recent
years. It is distinguished by the type of effects employed, but also the manner of their
presentation.
Bizarre magicians tend to employ effects which are based around disturbing,
sinister or occult subjects. They won't use playing cards when Tarot cards are so much
more evocative, for instance. They often base their acts around occult routines such as
a sance. Some will even work apparent necromantic rituals, with the illusions of
spectral apparitions, reworking the routines of Victorian mediums. In my own arsenal,
I have several routines using Tarot cards and runes, themes of damnation, effects based
around the Faust legend, Jack the Ripper, witch trials and witchfinders' deceits, and so
forth. The bizarre magician delves into these dark waters, using occult equipment and
produces apparently genuine supernatural phenomena at least from the perspective of
witnesses. It can be seen why these skills would be of benefit to a magician,
reinforcing belief in your powers and through that belief perhaps opening the way to
genuine manifestations.
The other thing which distinguishes bizarre magic is that there is none of the
normal magician's patter. Instead, the bizarre magician is all about presentation and
giving a complete performance. The effects he produces are almost secondary to the
stories he tells, means of raising the tension, evoking an atmosphere and providing high
drama. One effect, titled 'Balnagowne', developed by The Black Hart, tells the story of
a Scottish village called Balnagowne where a series of notorious witch trials were
carried out. The magician tells the story of these trials and as he does so, he passes
around a coffin nail from one of the executed witch's burials, so that a psychic link may
be established between his listeners and the victim. He then produces a scroll, which
bears a facsimile of the writ of execution relating to this same victim. A list of the
accused women is shown and one of the audience then uses a pair of scissors and cuts
this list in two at a random point, but unable to see where they are making the cut. The
writ is then read and the accused witch is named, revealing that her sentence was to be
hanged by the neck and then cut in half. When the list is examined, the audience
member is discovered to have cut the same woman's name through the middle, slicing
her in two. The magical effect is dramatic and its means are unfathomable, but the
spellbinding effect is achieved most of all through story telling. It is this charisma
which makes the bizarre magician so different, having people hanging on his every
word as he tells his spine chilling tales. Most bizarre magicians deliberately cultivate
a sinister stage personality to go with their routine, dressing their space with all manner
of occult paraphernalia. It will be readily understood why this kind of magic is very
much a demonstration of Lesser Magic at its very finest; the audience fall readily under
the magician's spell. These techniques are readily adaptable for off-stage use also.

2. Divination

Many bizarre magicians also perform divination routines as part of their shows (these
theatrics are best restricted to private functions of 20-30 people, since most bizarre
effects are of the close-up variety). They may offer attendees Tarot readings. Some of
these may be sleight of hand effects in themselves. Others will be genuine readings, but
will be hugely enhanced when the reader demonstrates his psychic ability by gradually
revealing the identity of each card before he turns it over as the reading progresses.
This will be done subtly, without drawing attention to it, but it will suddenly dawn upon
the audience what is occurring, with a thrill of superstitious awe. Naturally, a good
deck of marked Tarot cards are essential for this purpose, so that the reader can identify
them from their backs. It will be readily understood how much extra weight this 'proof'
of clairvoyance gives to a reading, making the recipient pay proper, awe-struck heed to
the advice and / or instructions given. This is something which should obviously be in
every Lesser Magician's arsenal.

3. Mentalism

A particularly fascinating aspect of stage magic is that sub-category which is generally
known as mentalism. This refers specifically to those effects which seem to imply
mind-reading, as the magician demonstrates knowledge concerning the person he is
talking to that he could not possibly know.
Mentalism is something which is effected by a whole range of tricks and
techniques, including cold reading, simple research, suggestion and code words. Watch
some television shows or Youtube videos featuring masters of the art, such as Derren
Brown. Also, read Practical Mental Magic by Theodore Annemann, the classic on the
art.
It shouldn't be necessary to explain how powerfully effective it can be for the
magician to 'prove' his psychic credentials in this way. It was a practice that Aleister
Crowley was allegedly very fond of when meeting someone for the first time, to
impress them with his power and make them susceptible to further suggestion.

4. Suggestion

This is in some respects the flip side of mentalism; whereas mentalism is about
extracting information from a subject's mind, suggestion is about putting information in
there without them consciously realising it.
In order to plant suggestions effectively, it is necessary to understand a thing or
two about hypnosis. For a start, you need to realise what hypnosis actually is, which is
simply a distracted or focused attention, in which the mind is looking in upon itself. It
is not necessary to enter a 'trance', nor to fall into a 'deep sleep' in order to be
hypnotised. You are in a light hypnotic state whilst watching television (easy prey for
the advertising!); you are in a hypnotic state while reading this very book.
Once this is realised, you will understand that you can implant suggestions in
people's minds while they are fully awake, so long as they do not realise consciously
that you are doing it. The suggestions must slip below their guard and go direct to the
subconscious.
Suggestions may be verbal or visual, they may be triggered by association with
other visual cues or sounds. They will probably have to be subtly built up over time
until the subconscious automatically responds without the conscious mind even
realising what is happening. The suggestions will probably have to be covert or coded
in some way, so as to avoid conscious filtration.
You can find such techniques for suggestion in NLP handbooks, by watching
(again) videos of that master of the technique, Derren Brown (check Youtube for his
encounter with Simon Pegg, in which he not only carries off a tremendous
demonstration of suggestion, but then goes on to explain precisely how he did it), and
also check out the remarkable series of books by the Rogue Hypnotist, available from
Amazon and worth their weight in gold.
All of these techniques of suggestion and persuasion are supplemented by an
arsenal of other factors, such as body language, tone of voice, rhythm of speech,
physical appearance, all chosen to reinforce the impression the magician is trying to
make.

The usefulness of the first two factors will be adjusted depending upon the type of
magician you are and how open you are about your occult interests. In some instances,
you may not wish to present yourself as a literal magician. But in all cases, you will
benefit from learning the bizarre magician's story telling technique and the production
of props to reinforce your words at precise points in the narrative. No other magic is
as powerful as the magic of a well told story, delivered with charisma and style; it can
reshape opinions and rubber stamp decisions like nothing else can.
Even in instances where you do not utilise standard divination techniques, you
can learn to adapt spreadsheets and statistics into divinatory tools, using the diviner's
spiel to impose your own interpretations and slant upon data in a coherent and
persuasive manner. This is supplemented by mentalist techniques, where you always
appear to be one step ahead, impressing those you work with by the way in which you
always have your finger on the pulse, seemingly aware of all that transpires before
anyone else has told you. Whose advice do you think they are going to trust and follow
when you demonstrate such skills? The use of suggestion needs no further explanation.
It's not all about influencing others in order to get what you want, of course. A
thorough working knowledge of these techniques also enhances your Medial and
Greater Magical practices. The more you can create a mysterious atmosphere for
yourself, the more immersed in your magical process your imagination becomes, and
the more effective the ritual. You need powerful story telling techniques in order to
make your invocations effective, carrying your concentration and passion along for the
ride, bridging that gap between conscious and subconscious, which is key to all
successful magic.

 By Force of Will Alone

Throughout all of the currents that have swirled through the world of magical practice
since the days of the Golden Dawn, we find this theme recurring even in the midst of
tomes devoted to details of ritual practice that magic can and must be ultimately
Worked by pure Will. Crowley wrote of this. All of the tools, the invocations, the
beliefs, all of these things are but window dressing, evocative and effective but not the
smoking gun. It is Will and Will alone which is the operative force in magic. This was
made explicit in 'The Statement of Belial', one of the sections of a document entitled
The Diabolicon, which was written by Dr Michael Aquino whilst a member of the
Church of Satan, prior to his establishment of the Temple of Set. The Diabolicon
mirrored the tale of Milton's Paradise Lost, examining the various Satanic archetypes
and their rebellion against stasis and non-consciousness. Belial, whose name means
'without a master', spoke of the fully evolved Black Magician, an individual termed the
Black Magus, whose magic was of the uttermost purity. Devoid of props and
incantations and other paraphernalia, the Black Magus called upon neither God nor
Dmon, but Worked his magic by force of Will alone, simply by bringing his own
mind to bear upon a situation in order to change it.
During my time in the Temple of Set, Ipsissimus James Lewis penned a
document titled 'The Chicago Letter'. This letter was addressed to attendees at one of
the Temple's regional Conclaves and proved to be a very controversial statement at the
time. In it, James Lewis suggested that the time had surely come for Black Magicians to
cease calling upon things which never were, to stow the black robes and other
paraphernalia away in the attic where it belongs and to stride forth to practice their
magic in the clear light of day, devoid of superstition.
He was right, you know. I have devoted my Work since that time to making
this far-sighted Vision a reality, identifying the precise Keys and processes which make
magic feasible. These are the things which we shall be examining in this coagula
section of the book.
The solve third of the book was an act of deliberate deconstruction, which has
hopefully shown just how true this proposition is. Our magic does not work by calling
upon Gods or Fiends or Spirits of any description; the robes and wands and seals and
sigils are all so much stage dressing, a way of weaving a compelling story, spellbinding
others (or ourselves) with our Lesser Magic, but not in themselves a conduit for change.
We have seen how effective and all-pervasive Lesser Magic is, but we have
realised that all of these things are means of manipulation, of triggering a response.
The only thing ultimately compelling such magical change is the Will that drives us to
accomplish it.
Throughout this book, I have asserted the rule that nearly all successful
magical Workings contain no supernatural element. This was not hypothetical rhetoric,
designed for shock value purposes. After three decades of magical practice (and half
of that time as a Master Recognised by my peers), that is precisely the situation as I see
it.
Careful readers will have realised long ago that I am in no way denying the
reality or the power of magic. Witness that I have very carefully used the phrase
successful magical Workings when formulating my rule. I would hardly have done
that if I believed that magic does not work, or that it is simply self-delusion. Magic
does work and it is a very powerful tool, but we need to learn to comprehend it in a
new way, devoid of superstition and unfounded suppositions.
These same careful readers will also have noticed that in each case when I
have invoked this rule, I have been careful to cite almost or nearly all. What of those
elusive few instances which do not fit into the 'almost all'? Am I therefore saying that
there are some rare occasions when magic has no other channel to manifest through
than one which appears to be supernatural, contrary to the laws of physics?
Now that we have entered the coagula phase of the book and are in process of
reconstructing magic from the building blocks we have identified, all of its past
accretions and detritus swept away, I can cease to be deliberately provocative and we
can begin to address these questions from a standpoint of objective knowledge and
analysis, not superstition. But in order to do so, we will need to face up to the very
real implications of all that we discovered in the solve phase, and this will necessitate
a new and very different model of Reality.
The clue to this lies in the insistence I made that there is no differentiation
between matter and spirit (as they are usually called). They are a single substance. I
knew when I wrote this in the solve section that most people would interpret it in one of
two ways, both equally erroneous. Some would assume it was a statement that the
whole Universe is an illusion, that there is no tangible reality; others would assume that
it was a statement of total materialism, denying the existence of the 'spirit world'. In
point of fact, I said neither of these things. In fact, I specifically said that these two
things are exactly the same and of the same 'substance'. We'll come back to this in three
or four chapters' time as we have some other matters we need to explore first, but it's a
worthwhile distinction to point out to you first, so that you can get your own minds
mulling over the issue. For now, consider that if magic is Worked by force of Will, then
that Will must be capable of acting upon the substance of the world, thus must
necessarily be resonant with that substance, a party to its being.

 Runes For Sceptics

Before we investigate further, I need to demonstrate effectively that such factors as
belief and faith have no necessary place in the practice of magic. This is because
magic does not require belief in any kind of supernatural agent in order to be wholly
effective. All it requires is knowledge, learned skill and application, and confidence in
oneself, helped along with a good dose of charisma. In order to illustrate this point, I
am devoting this chapter to an explanation of how a complete materialist may Work
magic using the runes, without belief in any Gods or Spirits or other supernatural
agents. Please note that I am not dismissing discussion of these things, we will
reconstruct our view of Spirits etc. later. But the purpose of this chapter is to
demonstrate that they are not required for the successful practice of magic. This will
help to show how personal Will is indeed the sole effective factor, not any other entity,
and will also help to shed light on this unified matter / spirit Universe I am touting (and
which will be discussed properly later).
Let's begin by listing the meanings of the twenty four runes of the Elder
Futhark:

Rune Meaning Inner Principle
Fehu Fire, Cattle, Gold Expansion, Heat, Financial Exchange
Uruz Aurochs Ferocity, Physical Vitality
Thurisaz Thurs, Giant Obstruction, Brute Force
Ansuz Ancestral Sovereign God / Odin Wisdom, Speech, Ecstasy, Inspiration
Raidho Riding, Wagon Journey, Right Action
Kenaz Torch, Flame Applied Energy, Controlled Fire
Gebo Gift Exchange, Act of Giving
Wunjo Joy Joy, Fellowship
Hagalaz Hail Hail, Destruction & Renewal, Seed Form
Nauthiz Need Necessity, Resistance
Isa Ice Ice, Contraction
Jera Year Annual Cycle, Harvest
Eihwaz Yew Yew Tree, Yggdrasil, Life & Death
 Perthro Lot Cup Luck, Chance
Elhaz Elk Divine Protection, Aspiration
Sowilo Sun Glory, Clear Guidance, Courage
Tiwaz Tyr Rectitude, Honour, Victory, Cosmic Axis
Berkano Birch Mother, Growth, Protection, Nurture
Ehwaz Horse Partnership, Marriage, Loyalty
Mannaz Man Consciousness, Humanity, Mortality
Laguz Lake Water, Crossing Point, Rite of Passage
Ingwaz Ing Earth God, Seed, Fertility, Hidden
Dagaz Day Day / Night, Opposites, Paradox
Othila Home, Enclosure Fixed Wealth, Homestead, Security

One of the first things that we can discern by studying the above list is that the runes all
have concrete, readily understandable meanings. They either refer to something
tangible, such as cattle, the Sun or a yew tree, or they refer to a readily understood
concept, experience or emotion, such as joy, or a year. The inner principles which lie
behind these rune meanings are likewise easy to understand. Everyone knows what is
meant when we talk of finance, or necessity, or motherhood, or ferocity.
So if I turn around to a complete sceptic and say, We have here twenty four
runes, which are each a kind of shorthand for the things and the principles that they
represent. If you spend time memorising these runes and their shades of meaning, you
will give yourself an easy way of cataloguing these aspects of reality, which you will
then be able to bring back to mind in all their fullness simply by seeing or thinking upon
the shape or sound of the rune. That sceptical person will find little reason to find
fault with what I have said. By spending time to learn the runes, they will provide
themselves with powerful mnemonic keys to bring these meanings back to mind. There
is nothing ooga-booga or make-believe about this, everything is grounded in what can
be seen, felt and experienced by any rational person. So far, so good.
If this sceptic then worked hard at internalising the runes, their meanings and
principles, until they provoked automatic subconscious recall and recognition, they
would then find no difficulty in agreeing with me when I pointed out that we had now
installed brain software which would categorise and assess internal and external
phenomena and impressions. For instance, if they took a car journey, they would think
raidho; if they saw the Sun in the sky, they would think sowilo; if they gave a present to
their spouse, they would think gebo; if they flicked a light switch, channelling
electricity to illuminate a room, they would think kenaz. And all of these associations
would occur naturally and instantly, purely by dint of them having learned the attributes
of the runes. There is nothing supernatural about any of this.
But what if I wanted to teach this sceptic how to work magic? Would such a
thing be possible? All I would have to do is point out to him that since the runes were
now encoded in his subconscious, he could use them to bring into conscious
consideration all manner of insights and bright ideas that might not otherwise have
occurred to him. All he would need to do in order to achieve this would be to encode a
suitable message in runes; these runes would then cross the conscious-subconscious
divide and bring forth the desired deep level response.
For example, let's say our sceptical runeworker is short of money. He will
struggle to pay the rent this month unless he somehow manages to remedy a shortfall in
his cash flow. So he takes a small piece of paper or wood and writes upon it the
following runes:

Fehu bookends the design, emphasising his need for money. Othila has the
central position, because the purpose of the required funds is the security of his home;
he needs to pay the rent. Othila is flanked on one side by nauthiz, emphasising that this
money is requested out of genuine need, not flippantly; on its other side is perthro,
calling upon the opportunities to fulfil this need.
The sceptical runeworker then smears the prepared runes with a tiny amount of
his own blood. This invests himself in the process and asserts his responsibility for the
runes he has written. A gesture of this sort is not lost upon the subconscious. He then
sings the rune names as he stares at the prepared paper or wood, sending his request
deeper into his subconscious as he does so. When he feels ready, he burns the paper or
wood to ashes, symbolically removing the matter from his conscious fretting and
relying upon his subconscious to furnish the solution. This it will invariably do.
Within the next two or three days, he may recall some forgotten item hidden in the loft
that he may sell to raise the needed money. Or his senses may simply be more open to
opportunities which are always around him in his daily life, but which he normally pays
no heed to. Someone needs to hire temporary bar staff perhaps? Or he realises he has
some skill that others are willing to pay for which he has never previously considered?
We are all surrounded by a multitude of such opportunities every day, but we make a
point of ignoring them because usually they don't matter and we have other things on our
minds. But his subconscious now jumps to the task, alerting him to these things which
are usually filtered out of his awareness. If it judges that his short term shortfall is
symptomatic of a longer term problem, it may even give him the necessary nudges to
effect a more permanent change in circumstances. But if done properly, the magic will
work. And he doesn't have to believe in a single supernatural element; he need only
believe in his own psychology.
We can also convince our sceptic of the value of divination. We would
emphasise that he doesn't have to believe in the significance of which runes fall where,
he doesn't have to buy into any concept of fate, nor need he believe the future to be
fixed. All that he has to accept is his own natural ability to extrapolate the likelihood
of various scenarios from the data he sees playing out in the world around him. His
subconscious notices the patterns of events and the ways in which those events are
naturally unfolding. He will no doubt accept that his conscious mind tends to miss
these important cues, being too wrapped up in the other business of his daily life. Thus,
at those times when he needs to perceive and interpret these patterns, he does not know
how to recall them or consider them. The runes can assist him in doing so.
The simple fact of laying out runes according to a pre-determined, meaningful
pattern, will open his access to his subconscious thought processes. It really doesn't
matter which rune falls in which place, because any rune will cause his conscious mind
to begin looking at his situation from a fresh perspective and cannot fail to provide new
insights or food for thought. It really is as simple as that, and whether you personally
believe that the precise fall of the runes in a reading is supernaturally significant or not,
it is in this spirit that I advise divination should always be approached.
For our current purposes, I am going to pose a random question. So let's
assume our sceptic has been invited to visit a friend who resides in a city in a foreign
country. He hasn't seen his old friend for far too long, but is worried because the news
has recently featured several reports on unrest and rioting in the city in question. His
government has advised caution when visiting the region. He is nervous about whether
he should go and needs to consider the matter more deeply. Having decided upon a
hypothetical question for our sceptic to pose to the runes, I'm now going to draw three
completely random runes in a simple three rune spread, representing respectively the
root of the matter, the present situation, and the outcome. The three runes selected are
as follows:

Nauthiz is the foundation of our sceptic's dilemma: it repesents necessity and

may speak of both the need to see his old friend, but also the need to keep himself safe.
It also highlights the rune's meaning of resistance, as the situation in his friend's city
really casts doubt on the wisdom of his visit.
Wunjo expresses the present situation, the wish to reconnect with his friend
and share companionship. This causes the sceptic to consider his priorities: does his
friendship outweigh his personal safety? And just how unsafe would his trip be in any
case? Would this person, his friend, really invite him if the situation was dangerous?
Is this just another media exaggeration, with the people in the region simply going about
their normal lives without worry?
Isa is interesting in the context, since it could be interpreted as two very
different results. It represents a force of contraction and isolation. This could be
interpreted as going to visit his friend, but keeping his head down when out and about,
keeping himself to himself and avoiding the slightest hint of trouble. Or it could be
interpreted as withdrawing into himself and staying home, declining his friend's
invitation at the present time.
The precise interpretation and ultimate decision would be decided by the
personality of the sceptic. But whatever the case, the rune reading has given him scope
to examine the question with fresh eyes, revaluating his friendship and the things that
are most important to him: loyalty and comradeship, or self-preservation? It also
prompts him to check his sources again and perhaps strive to gather more detailed
information on what is going on in the region than he has been fed through mainstream
media channels. Such a small reading has given him plenty of food for thought, causing
him to check his facts thoroughly before rushing to a decision.
This is how divination works. Now this question was pure make believe, I
just made it up. It's not a veiled question based on an experience someone I know is
having or anything like that, I simply plucked a situation out of the air. The runes
selected were purely random, they don't even refer to a genuine person or situation. But
look at how apt they are, and how their meanings and principles illuminate the question,
causing the fictional querent to examine himself, his motives, his facts and the kind of
person he is before making his decision. If three completely different runes had been
drawn, they would have given an equally illuminating and informative reading. This is
because each rune is an archetypal principle and each in its own way will make us
rethink and consider more deeply when drawn in a reading any reading thus
inevitably leading to a better considered, wiser decision. So even on this basis, which
most 'true believers' would consider heretical and horribly materialistic, the runes
become an absolutely invaluable divinatory device, providing they have been properly
internalised and thus enlivened within the psyche first.
By this stage, our sceptic will probably see the sense of also studying the
mythology of the North, to add depth and flavour to the runes. He will understand that
there is no need to believe in these tales or the beings and characters within them, but
that the myths represent a symbolic way of understanding both reality and self.
He may even become so captivated by mythic thinking (which will be
discussed in much more detail at the close of this coagula section of the book) that he
undertakes astral journeys to explore the Nine Worlds of Yggdrasil, understanding these
to be representative of the deep places and forces within his own mind, a psychological
inheritance from his ancestors. He attributes mythic meaning to his own experiences on
these imaginary journeys, but understands their psychological basis.
 He is able to accomplish all of this, becoming a skilled magician, without ever
once believing in the supernatural. He understands that everything that his magic
achieves is through the application of his own mind and Will.
It is a sobering thought that so many cherished beliefs held by so many
magicians can be dismissed by this alternative explanation. Because let us reiterate
once again, most successful magical Workings require no supernatural agency. What
will our sceptic do when he encounters the elusive incidence that does seem
preternatural/? We'll look at that eventuality below, but by that time he should be big
enough to put matters to the test and form his own opinions.

 The Magic of the Void

The practical methodology known as the Magic of the Void is central to the magical
philosophy of The Apophis Club. Before proceeding further, it is necessary to discuss
the Magic of the Void here, and its implications given the 'almost entirely non-
supernatural' rule established by this current work.
I'm not going to go into detail describing the techniques of the Magic of the
Void here, as that is already covered more than adequately by previous Club
publications, such as APOPHIS and Draconian Consciousness. All we need to know
at present is that the Magic of the Void works by a process of focusing the attention
upon a situation until the metaphorical walls come tumbling down in an ecstatic
moment, in which the Void opens within the mind of the magician and his creative
power is loosed. It is this which effects the magic.
This is all very well, but what is the Void? In previous books, I have sought to
answer this question by referring to various mythologies, such as the Norse
Ginnungagap, or the Enochian Abyss. But that kind of approach, pertinent as it is in
those places, is not going to cut the mustard in a book such as this one, where we are
trying to define and discover magic through a non-occult lens.
The Void is potential. It is not things which are, it is things which might be. It
is common to contrast the Void (the Nothing of the title of this book) with the manifest
Universe (the Everything of the title of this book). It might be more apparent if we
reduce the question to a microcosmic level and ask it again from a personal
perspective. From a personal frame of reference, the Universe is everything that your
senses inform you, it is the objects, people and places that your senses[4] can perceive,
and the events and processes that can be perceived occurring or having occurred
relating to these same things. The Void is the imagination, the things which cannot be
measured, which are not tangible, which have no existence except in potential only.
So is the Void real? How can it be if nothing in it actually exists? And yet it
is. If I shape a magnificent house in my imagination, adorned with beautifully macabre
imagery suitable to my sense of aesthetics, it has no existence. But if I then sketch or
paint this house that I have imagined, or write an evocative description of it, its idea
becomes at least transmissible to others, through the words and images used. And if an
architect then uses this as a basis to draw formal plans of the house, and a firm of
builders then construct from those plans, and a team of designers dress the house to
match my vision, what was once pure imagination has become solid reality: something
has passed from the Void into the Universe, Coming Into Being.
There is a cognate in physics, of course, being the state of the Universe before
the Big Bang, before the laws of physics as we know them existed. This primeval,
unextended essence is the abode of the Dragon as understood by The Apophis Club.
And the mysterious, dark nothingness of the Void which still enwraps the manifest
Cosmos are the wings of that same Dragon, outside of the laws of space-time.
Returning to the microcosmic level to assist our understanding, as these things
are easier to grasp on a smaller scale, the Void may be seen as the opening of the
subconscious, when the usually hidden parts of the mind offer up their precious creative
secrets and abilities. In other words, as we have established, it is that moment at which
magic works, when the conscious-subconscious divide is bridged. This is the
phenomenon termed the Opening of the Eye in the Void by The Apophis Club, that
moment when the magician's encoded communication (his 'spell', such as the runes
written in the previous chapter) manage to reach the subconscious, which is able to
offer its response, ultimately leading to the successful result. As we have seen, this
process accounts for almost all successful magical operations.
But if the Cosmos and the Void share this same relationship, this dance of the
Unmanifest and the Manifest, can the same be said of them too? We'll investigate this in
the ensuing chapters. First, it is necessary to establish a new perspective upon the
Cosmos and the Void, however...

 Never Mind, It Doesn't Matter

Before we proceed any further, we first need to address a possible serious error of
understanding. It's another of those 'lies to children', useful models which initially help
us to grasp the principles of magic, yet later prove to be troublesome if we assume them
to be literally true.
Although at a higher conceptual level, this potential error is in many respects a
Remanifestation of that old subjective / objective one that we discussed in the 'Matter
and Spirit' chapter of the solve part of the book. Although it is a convenient and helpful
model to initially assume that the Cosmos and the Void are separate and distinct things,
the fact is that they are not. Subjective and objective, in spite of all appearances, are
ultimately not irreconcilable; at some level, even your most secret, innermost thoughts
exist in the same Reality as the solid foundations of your house. Sure, they're at
complete different places on the overall spectrum of Reality, but they are both a part of
that spectrum. In a similar way, matter and mind are not opposed; they both have their
place on that scale.
You can see where I'm heading here. The Void and the Cosmos are not
opposing forces. Not at all. A little thought will show this to be the case. For a start,
the two are not equal. Nor is the inequality loaded the way you might think. It would
be wrong to say that the Void is immeasurably 'larger' than the Cosmos, because the
Void pre-exists the manifest Universe and notions of time and space do not apply to it.
It may perhaps be slightly truer to say that the Void possesses more capacity for
expression than the Cosmos. After all, the various myriad possibilities and potentials
of a thought, idea or event in all of its phases must be far, far greater in scope than the
single narrow bandwidth that actualises as a physical event[5]. The Cosmos contains
only those things which actually manifest in being, but the Void contains everything
which has manifested, will manifest, might manifest, probably won't manifest and will
never manifest but exists as a concept anyway. So we are not talking of two equal but
opposite things here. We cannot blithely declare that the Cosmos is the Void, and the
Void is the Cosmos, because it simply isn't true, the relative scales are all wrong;
indeed the very notion of scale can't possibly exist, due to the nature of the Void[6].
The simple and logical conclusion must be that since the Cosmos is made
manifest out of the Void, since its things and events are manifestations of one possibility
out of the Unmanifest many, the Universe must be considered a part of the Void, a subset
in which a plethora of manifest possibilities interweave and cohere in a way that
establishes a Universe which exists according to the laws created by the interrelations
between its component parts.
You will notice that I have been very careful not to state or imply that the
Universe is unreal, nor is it an illusion. It has come into manifestation, it is very real.
But ultimately, once its complex, self-replicating pattern fades, it remains a part of the
Void in which it formed, upon whose spaceless, timeless surface its patterns played out.
I would bet any money that a lot of people reading this present work have
believed up to this point that I was advocating an utterly materialistic view of magic.
How very wrong that supposition would be. I am actually saying the Everything (the
Cosmos) is made from the stuff of Nothing (the Void). So yes, in a sense, I am a
materialist, because I see no distinction in essence between these two phases. But if I
am a materialist by this definition, my 'matter' includes mind stuff and imagination and
possibility alongside manifestation. I am the whisper from the Void, tying the Knot of
Reality in the Not of potential. Everything is so much vaster than you have ever
imagined: it is Nothing indeed.

 In Search of the Miraculous

Throughout this book I have kept reiterating the rule of thumb that almost all successful
magical Workings require no supernatural element in order to succeed. I stand by that
statement and by the analyses so far given. Some people particularly those whose
need to cast off articles of faith is the greatest will have been outraged by this
statement. Others, either more wise to my ways or simply sufficiently self-aware to
think instead of reacting, will have paused and looked at what exactly I have said.
These ones may then have asked the question: Okay, that covers 'almost all' of them,
but what about the others?
Now isn't that an interesting question? Does our rule imply that the remaining
small incidence of successful magical Workings (i.e. those that achieve their desired
result) do contain a supernatural element, something that can't be explained by
psychology or little understood physical laws, but is unequivocally paranormal?
The answer to this question is: perhaps. Because it is an answer that
requires serious contemplation. Above all, the magician seeks to see Reality as it is,
and this demands a measure of truth. The truth in this present case is that our answer
cannot be absolute, depending as it does upon subjective interpretation of events.
If you ask me my personal opinion, that opinion would be Yes, truly
inexplicable, miraculous events can and do happen, sometimes spontaneously, but most
especially in response to magic. Some examples? How about weather magic? My
weather magic is consistently successful. If I want the weather to be a certain way on a
certain day, whether fine, still, stormy or whatever, I can more or less guarantee that it
will be so. But there can be no physical, causal link between my spell and the weather
patterns; if it happens, it must occur as a result of some paranormal process. I have
several times successfully predicted winning numbers at roulette and have known with
utter certainty when one of these hunches is going to be correct. I have experienced
direct clairvoyant sharing of another person's thoughts with such immediacy, detail and
clarity that it was undeniable. In a series of experiments run by The Apophis Club a
few years ago to develop telekinesis, I experienced a coin moving from its position
twice with no physical cause (and no cheating; I was the only person present) and
ultimately disappearing altogether. So I have experienced those things that most people
would classify as miraculous.
But this is not proof of the type we need in order to answer our question. The
weather effects may be pure coincidence; the clairvoyance and prescience may be
delusion, or instances of selective memory, shutting out the memory of failures when I
had been similarly convinced, but wrong (I have seen such selective memory at work
many times with others. I do not believe the cited instances in my own experience to be
examples of it, but the possibility cannot be ruled out if we are to be objective). The
coin experiment, although satisfying to me, was not carried out under scientifically
controlled conditions. I may have imagined it, deluded myself, or I could even be lying
about all these things to you. How would you know? Experiments must be repeatable,
and no matter how you rate my integrity as a witness, it is not sufficient to take my word
for things. After all, I may be wrong and simply deluded even if I am being
scrupulously truthful, because the only truth I can share is that which I perceive, which
is all well and good unless I have got the wrong end of the stick.
So the further you develop your magical practice and extend your
consciousness, the more likely you are to encounter results and experiences which
simply don't 'fit the mould', which suggest some kind of intervention in Reality which
cannot be explained by conventional means. Indeed, such experiences are not only
likely, but inevitable. How you choose to explain them is up to you. You may decide
that these startling events are evidence of other dimensions of Reality; or you may
simply label them as 'unexplained' and leave it at that, or any number of shades of grey
in between. The one thing you will not be able to do is prove that your interpretation is
the correct one. All that any of us can do is offer up our own personal 'best guesses'
based upon the data so far gathered, for others to consider and accept, reject or adapt as
their own experiences lead them. And this is what I have been trying to do with The
Apophis Club publications.
You can find my own viewpoint and Teachings, therefore, in the prior
publications of The Apophis Club, most especially APOPHIS, Dragonscales and
Draconian Consciousness. But I am going to offer the fundamental philosophical basis
of that viewpoint in the next paragraph of this chapter, followed by my best possible
advice for practical Work in the Concluding paragraph that follows it. Added to which,
of course, will be the large number of philosophical questions tackled in the third
section of this book.
My personal conviction is that magic absolutely works, and that once a
practitioner has discovered its keys, magic works every time. Magical change will
always follow the path of least resistance when Coming Into Being, and this means that
in almost every instance, it will manifest through the psychological and physical laws
that have been established to keep our manifest Universe in balance. So if your lust
spell is most easily answered by spurring you into plucking up the courage to simply go
and talk to the object of your desire, that is how it will happen; he / she will not
suddenly be mysteriously compelled to wander over, zombie-like, to submit to your
'indomitable Will'. Ain't gonna happen. But in some cases, only something apparently
miraculous will do. I have railed against the idiocy, criminal irresponsibility and sheer
fraud of psychic 'healers' and their methods in the solve section of this book. All of that
I remain adamant about. And yet, on the very rare occasion, I have known a magician,
feverish with raging determination, apparently pull a loved one back from the very
brink of death against apparently impossible odds. But the proviso here is that I have
also seen this fail to happen on more occasions, and that when it did happen, the level
of commitment and applied Desire / fury was incandescent, and that this magician did it
themselves. Not through any other party, whether God, spirit or so-called 'gifted
healer' (a.k.a. stupid twat). So take your lesson from that. As Dr Flowers once put it,
any magical result will always be in proportion to the passion and precision of the
operator and if you haven't these qualities, you can whistle for it. The essential
philosophy underlying these magical 'miracles' as I see them is simply born out of the
interrelationship of mind and matter / Void and Cosmos as we have examined them in
this section of the book: if the Void can generate and manifest a relatively stable
Cosmos within its folds, it surely stands to reason that it can generate and manifest
additions / adjustments to that Cosmos also. We'll be discussing / discovering this in
more depth in the remaining three chapters of this coagula section of the book.
Be that as it may, my advice to new Initiates will always be to put practice
before philosophy and to base their ideas and beliefs upon the actual results that they
experience, using Occam's razor as their best guideline for interpretation. It is time
enough to begin thinking in terms of super-normal explanations when you have had
definite experiences to warrant such; then base your philosophy upon your own
acquired wisdom and knowledge. Keep your mind open and explanations simple and
you will be well prepared for magic.

 Consciousness, Art and Creativity

In this chapter, we are going to add another element into our reconstruction of magic,
one which I have been deliberately dancing around and holding over until it's become
somewhat of an elephant in the room. This is the element of consciousness, and the
related question of what exactly magic is for in any case? Normally, we will be
holding such big philosophical questions over till the third part of the book (as we will
be doing with the natural extension of this question: what is the Cosmos itself for?), but
this is one which simply can't be put off and is an essential part of our coagula process,
our reconstructed magical perspective.
Consciousness is that sense of Self we each possess as a self-aware entity. It
is not our thoughts, nor our emotions, these things are its symptoms, not its essence.
Consciousness is that which does the thinking and the feeling, which recognises and
records and compares these things. Consciousness is not our knowledge or our
opinions or our beliefs; it is that which knows and which has access to our knowledge,
which formulates our opinions and beliefs based upon what we know and surmise.
Consciousness has two defining factors which are extremely important to our
understanding of it: consciousness possesses identity and consciousness possesses
continuity.
I'm not going to question the origins of consciousness here, nor debate the
limits of consciousness, though both of these questions will be looked at in the third
section of the book. For the present, the important thing for us to note is that we are
conscious beings. Everything that you tend to refer to as part of I is an aspect of this
consciousness.
How do we know that we are conscious? Because we know that we are
conscious; if we were not, we would not know anything, we would be incapable of
knowing or thought.
It is also important to realise that everything we know about ourselves and the
world is of necessity filtered through the lens of our own consciousness. When you
stop to think about it, it becomes apparent that we can never know anything outside of
our own consciousness directly; we can only know the impressions, perceptions and
ideas that outer things (including other people) make upon our own consciousness. In a
very real sense, the world in which we directly live is purely our own consciousness,
because all we know of it are its reflections within our own thoughts, those parts of it
that can be interpreted and made sense of within our psyches. If I pick up an apple and
eat it, I have no direct experience of that apple. I feel and taste only those sense
impressions that my brain interprets and filters for me and then passes into my
conscious awareness. In many ways, this is indistinguishable from the sense data our
minds create and present to us in dreams as we sleep; the only difference is that the
(presumed) waking data tends to be more continuously consistent over the perceived
passage of time, thus we accord it a greater measure of reality in our worldview and
presume these waking experiences to be evidence of a persisting external Cosmos.
This is not an unreasonable assumption and is one that I hold to be correct.
But the faculty of dreaming that we have just mentioned is a most curious one.
It demonstrates that our consciousness is capable of independent creation. It is able to
draw together within itself the components of an imaginary world and then to project
itself while the conscious mind sleeps into this imaginary world that it has itself
created, and to experience it from a first person point of view, seemingly every bit as
solid and real as the reality we experience when awake. Some of the people, places
and circumstances in our dreams may be reconstructed from the raw materials of our
everyday lives, but other components are created from scratch and may not necessarily
follow the rules of the workaday world. We take dreams for granted, but this is an
absolutely astonishing ability!
It becomes even more astonishing when we learn that according to current
psychological knowledge, we are actually dreaming continually, not just when we
sleep. It is simply that most of this dream activity takes place in the subconscious mind,
at a level too deep for us to be consciously aware of when about our daily business.
But nonetheless, we do all have at least some experience of becoming aware of this
dreaming whilst still awake. Who hasn't experienced daydreams, becoming lost in
reverie whilst listening to some boring lecture or enduring a long train journey? We are
still fully awake, but our conscious hold drifts and the already occurring dream images
rise to the surface, immersing us in their world until something occurs around us which
gives us a sufficient jolt to jerk us out of the trance.
But if the subconscious can rise up and take us in daydreams while we are
conscious and awake, the reverse can also happen. On occasion, the conscious
awareness can surface in the midst of a dream while your body is sleeping. This
phenomenon, where you become aware that you are asleep and dreaming whilst still
asleep and in the dream world is termed lucid dreaming, and developing the faculty is
part of the Third Head Work of The Apophis Club. It is a compelling and fascinating
experience, and one that is incredibly magically useful. The mind becomes awake
within the dream and discovers that the dream world around it is every bit as
apparently solid and real as the world it inhabits in waking life. But this dream world
can be altered drastically according to Will, because in spite of its apparent solidity, it
is made of mind stuff and responds to Will. Initially, lucid dreams tend to be very brief
as the shock of finding oneself lucid within the dream state is so startling that you tend
to wake up very quickly. But with training and repetition, the state can be prolonged.
The implications here just for plain, simple fun should be obvious, let alone the
magical applications!
This helps to place in context the importance of astral magic, or journeys in the
spirit vision. In a sense, it makes absolutely no difference whether these are journeys
to 'real' places or not. What matters is that they are coherent, powerful, archetypal
experiences which occur when the conscious and subconscious minds connect. They
are, if you like, dreams under Will.
But now that we are examining the notion that the Void and the Cosmos are
ultimately but one thing, and that mind and matter are one thing, does it really matter if
we cannot locate these astral destinations on a map of the conventional Cosmos as
understood by geographers and astronomers? Perhaps it is sufficient that we can locate
them in our own internal map of the Void. For those who have really absorbed the
mythology of their chosen magical tradition, such as our sceptical rune magician of a
couple of chapters ago, these astral realms will appear perfectly coherent and will
exhibit continuity, conforming to the internal cosmic map of Yggdrasil, the World Tree,
complete with its nine distinct worlds and the rainbow bridge of rune paths that run
between them. In a sense, this is truly as Real as anything gets! Those who insist that
an astral location is objectively real and those who counter insist that it is but a
subjective notion both miss the point, which is the sheer wonder and power and
ecstatic majesty of the creative consciousness. This, my friends, is magic!
It seems that consciousness is that place where the Void and the Cosmos meet,
where potential passes into manifestation, the creative faculty, the shaping intelligence.
Is consciousness the substance of the Void, governing those possibilities which Come
Into Being? Is it an interface between possibility and actuality, between Everything and
Nothing, or is it the actual stuff of which they are made? Is the entire Cosmos
conscious, or is it the product of consciousness, an arena for consciousness to play in?
We will be asking some of these questions in the third section of the book and striving
to reach an Understanding concerning them. But one thing is for certain from the
outset: consciousness appears to be a creator and motivator, not a by-product; it is the
organ-grinder, not the monkey.
It is this tremendous creative force within consciousness which gives us one of
the clues as to why we Work magic and what magic is ultimately for. It is all about the
joy and exuberance of creation and transformation, the bringing into being of new
expressions of creative thoughts and ideas. Magic is all about Art, whether that Art be
a painting, a sculpture, a piece of theatre, a novel, a poem, a well-cooked meal, a piece
of architecture or a fine-tuned engine. Magic and indeed existence is all about
creative expression and the fascination of stories. When you hear embellishments and
shaggy dog stories from such charismatic figures as Crowley, LaVey or Grant, they are
being neither liars nor frauds, they are being story tellers and magicians! Do ye
likewise!
 The Draconian Gods

Having restored a Vision of the Void and the Cosmos, and the place of magic and our
own consciousness within these things, it is now time to turn our attention to one of the
mainstays of The Apophis Club curriculum: the Draconian Gods. We need to
Understand the place of these archetypal figures in our cosmology.
There are four primary Draconian Gods as defined by the Apophis Work.
Some of these can have several aspects and Their names and precise identities will
vary depending upon the precise tradition and curriculum followed (for instance, the
Lord of Darkness is called upon as Set in the 'vanilla' Apophis curriculum, or Odin in
the gishjlmur variant, or Iaida / Saitan in The Sevenfold Mystery. But the primary
archetypes are as follows:

The Lord of Darkness The principle of consciousness itself and the individual Will.
The creative impulse, the sense of Self, the ghost in the machine, the rebel against
conformity.

The Scarlet Woman The principle of Desire, pleasure and purpose. The quest for
Beauty and the inspiration for immortality.

The Dragon The timeless, spaceless essence of the Void, which is our ultimate
heritage. The sense of continuity and the principle of unbounded imagination and
possibility, ever recreating and Remanifesting in new forms.

The Dmon The very core of Self, the utmost expression of personal Essence, a
projection and aspiration of that which we Desire to Become. The Divine I AM..

It will be seen that each of these four primal Gods is an operant principle in magic. We
cannot Work magic without Will; we cannot shape and direct Will without Desire; we
cannot conceptualise Desire without Imagination and the awareness of change; we
cannot change unless we can appreciate what it is that we are transforming into. So
each of these principles is very real and very dynamic and essential to grasp, whether
we define them as Gods or not[7]. Therefore, at the very least, to this extent the
Draconian Gods are very real as practical, operant magical Keys for every member of
The Apophis Club.
But are they literally Gods who exist in the ways that the 'man in the street'
would understand the term? No, absolutely not, because the 'man in the street'
understands very little. The 'man in the street' completely fails to understand human
consciousness, let alone what we might categorise as Divine consciousness.
 So, let's rephrase the question. We know that the Draconian Gods are active,
dynamic principles, not static representations of abstracts, otherwise there would be no
point in harnessing them in magic. Also, we know they possess consciousness: how
could you have such qualities as Will, Desire or Imagination without consciousness?
So the question can be rephrased as: is the consciousness of the Draconian Gods a
manifestation of their own being, or is it a consciousness projected from within the
magician?
It's a tricky one to answer, if indeed we can answer it at all instead of simply
offering a best current working hypothesis. The Gods as we experience them definitely
owe something to ourselves, but they also derive some of their substance / essence from
the myths that have grown up around the names and faces they wear in the tradition that
we Work within. But since the entire Cosmos manifested out of the Void, not just us,
and since consciousness is either the interface or enabler of manifestation (depending
upon our interpretation), there is every reason to believe that consciousness will be
central to accretions of conscious principles. When you couple this with the hypothesis
that mind and matter are actually one and the same thing, and equally 'real', this applies
even more so. So if this view of the Universe is correct, the Draconian Gods must
possess some kind of Self-consciousness, even if it is of a wholly different nature to
our own.
Given that the Cosmos / Void appears to be suffused with consciousness, the
most readily acceptable explanation would appear to be to me that the Gods partake of
all of these modes of consciousness to at least some extent. They are foci of specific
kinds of consciousness, but the origins and manifestations of that consciousness may be
multi-faceted. It is worth pausing at this point to consider that exactly the same may be
and probably is true of human consciousness. For example, the 'you' that other
people perceive is not the real you who only exists within the event horizon of your
own Self; their perception of you is at least as much a product of their own
consciousness as it is of yours. Food for thought.

 Mythic Thinking

We have deconstructed magic in the solve section of the book, stripping it right back to
its bare bones. And now we have gradually applied flesh to those bones once more.
Perhaps not the same tired old flesh they once had, but new muscle and sinew, strong to
endure. But here at the close of the coagula process, there remains one thing left to do,
which will serve to get the magical blood pumping once again, giving magic back its
heart. This is what I term mythic thinking.
Mythic thinking is learning to think in the terms of the magical tradition you
have adopted, using its themes and archetypes to define your life, process and
transformations. This is not the same as religion, it is not a case of 'believing' in
Deities, nor is it a case of interpreting symbolic myths as real. It is a matter of
understanding that the things that make life matter are the meanings that we attach to it.
Mythic thinking occurs when we make our life decisions based upon the principles and
codes that matter to us instead of upon pure expediency. It doesn't matter a jot whether
these themes and principles matter to anyone else or not; the simple fact that we choose
to make them matter to us, and that we then act upon them, makes them matter.
In the process of living our lives around mythic principles, we will discover
experientially, not by reading it in a book what it truly means to be a consciousness
acting by Will as an interface between the Void and the manifest Cosmos: we will
literally be creating the Universe in our own image as we go. This is easy to say, far
harder to truly understand. It can only really by grasped by doing it.
This is why we have gone through this solve et coagula process, so that we
can Understand and shape the Real. This is something that can never be achieved by
those magicians who lurk in the World of Should-Be; in order to effect real change in
Reality through consciousness, shaping it to mirror your Desire, you first have to see it
as it really Is.

 KELLY EXPLAINS EVERYTHING

AND NOTHING

 The Real

We have now stripped magic back to its basics, ruthlessly removing multiple layers of
belief and supposition, and have then rebuilt it in a robust form, founded firmly upon
what we know to be Real.
But what we have discovered is that Reality is a much bigger thing than we
had perhaps realised. Even as we removed the notions of such popular occult theories
as an 'astral plane', we did not shrink Reality, but rather expanded it, as we were
compelled to admit experientially and philosophically the necessity for three separate
components which taken together constitute our experience of the Real.

The Material World This is the world that we can see and touch and experience all
around us; the world of manifest things, organised and defined by the laws of physics;
the world of the five senses. It is a world of stability, equilibrium and durability, but is
still subject to great change and patterns of decay and renewal. The world we share
with other living beings.

The Void The very existence of the material world, and the tendency of things to
manifest which did not previously exist, the capacity for consciousness to manipulate
and change the material world, all make necessary a potential from which these things
arise. A timeless no-place in which everything exists in potential, but nothing exists in
actuality. From this the Universe came; to this the Universe will return. In fact, the
Universe remains within its much vaster (in conceptual, not spatial, terms) folds.

Consciousness Neither of the two prior states have any meaning without
consciousness to perceive and interact with them. Consciousness is the bridge between
the two. It is only consciousness that can make sense of purpose of a manifest Cosmos,
a stable playground in which to Become. It is consciousness which straddles these two
phases of being, conjuring images within the imagination which can then transition into
manifestation.

These are the three states of Being (both manifest and unmanifest) that we can be
certain of. The lack of any one of these things makes Reality as we know it
impossible. It is through the third of these consciousness that we can directly
experience the other two (consciousness, although manifest in the Cosmos in our flesh
and blood, retains awareness of the Void when it looks within and utilises the creative
imagination). More importantly, it is through consciousness that the ultimate Draconian
God the Self Comes Into Being. The Awakened Adept is aware that he manifests
his own Self out of the Void at every moment in a series of continual Remanifestations.
 It will have struck the astute reader that this model of Reality a purely
experiential model, which is the only model we can truly know provides a new and
dynamic way of considering 'astral' magical operations. In the solve part of this book,
we set aside the notion that astral planes and so forth were literal, objective 'places',
but at the same time, a purely psychological interpretation fails to account for all astral
phenomena (although certainly probably accounting for most people's early astral
experiences). But now we have another possibility, in which the consciousness of the
magician directly taps into the creative Void through the process of mythic thinking and
experiences a resonant locality within the imagination; this is fed from the Void, shaped
by the symbol-set and myths of the magician's tradition, and may pass certain
manifestations through into the material world by an act of Will.
This concept of consciousness drawing upon the Void and feeding into
manifestation also gives greater potential depth and meaning to the tools of the
magician's tradition. The runes may start out as mnemonic keys, but as Mastery is
gained and they penetrate deeper into consciousness, they become living currents,
drawing creative potential from the Void, not merely symbols. But all of this, of course,
is dependent upon the degree of their absorption into consciousness. A student will use
the runes in accordance with the model offered in the 'Runes For Sceptics' chapter in
the coagula part of the book; it takes a Master to direct the flow of pure Mystery from
the Void.
Nevertheless, although this model of Reality requires an advanced degree of
Initiation (Fourth Head and higher by the measure of the Apophis curriculum), it
remains a useful and informative gauge and aspiration even for those whose Work has
not yet reached that level of development.

 What Are the Origins of the Universe?

One of the first philosophical questions that people are moved to ask concerns the
origins of the Universe. Where did it all come from? Every religion and philosophy
from the dawn of time has wondered about this question and offered its perspective.
We often scoff at some of these Creation myths now, but this is because modern people
have suppressed that important faculty we discussed at the close of the coagula section
mythic thinking. A myth of creation is not supposed to be taken literally, it represents
a series of progressive manifestations, intended to shed some understanding upon the
way things are. We will look at some of these myths later in this chapter. But first,
before we can consider the origins of the Universe and the ways in which it manifested,
we have to consider another question: what was there before the Universe?
Bible believers often get criticised, because when people ask them where the
world came from, they get told, God created it. The sceptic will then reply, That's
all very well, but you're just putting the same question back one step, you're not
answering it: where then did God come from? The same charge can be levelled at
many Creation stories, including the scientific notion of the Big Bang; the Big Bang may
explain the start of the Universe, but it doesn't explain the primordial, super-
compressed matter which actually went bang in order to create the Universe.
The myths are actually surprisingly consistent in their descriptions and
nomenclature of the state of things prior to the Creation of the Universe. Norse
mythology speaks of Ginnungagap, an expression which is best rendered by a phrase
such as 'a magically charged void'. This corresponds with the Draconian conception of
the Void which we have already discussed: a Nowhere / Nowhen, with neither time
nor dimensions as we understand such things, yet pregnant with possibility. The
Genesis account in the Old Testament describes the situation prior to the Creation as
without form and void. This description is translated from the Hebrew phrase tohu
wa-bohu, which is suggestive of such meanings as emptiness, formlessness, confusion,
chaos and unreality. This Void, or Abyss, is presumed to be watery in nature (deep,
dark, and filled with shifting currents of possibility), as we read of the spirit of God
moving upon the face of the waters in the act of Creation. This notion of a primordial,
watery Abyss originates in Sumerian mythology, where the Void is the home of a huge
Dragon Goddess named Tiamat, who spawns monsters, demons and gods. Tiamat is the
first mythic representation of the great Dragon who is the most sacred and supreme
Deity of the Draconian current. The Dragon embodies the Void and is all-creation, all-
destruction, all-potential.
Every Creation myth then goes on to explain how an enclave of order is
established within the chaos of the Void, a world created with proper balance, and with
laws to govern it and to ensure its continuance. The Universe is often referred to as
the created order and this is an apt description, for only order and precise physical
laws can ensure the continuance of any creation out of the Void; if it has no rules and
mechanisms to bind it together, it will instantly disintegrate back into the charged
Nothingness of the Void.
This process of ordering and Creation is often preceded by a great conflict.
We can see this in the Sumerian myth, in which Tiamat and Her demons are overthrown
and slain by Marduk and the Gods who follow Him; or Ymir is slain by Odin, and the
worlds, skies and seas formed from his body, bones and blood. In a similar Greek
myth, Cronus separated the sky from the earth, creating the world as we know it, by
castrating his father, Uranus. There are two telling facts revealed by a careful study of
these myths of primordial conflict: firstly, the new Universe is created from the flesh,
bone and blood of the monstrous parent, so the Universe is of the same substance as the
Void; secondly, since time does not exist within the Void, the slain parent continues to
exist outside of time. Thus, although Tiamat is slain and Her body and blood is used to
create the matter of the Cosmos, She still continues to live within the Void.
So who are these Gods who arise in the myths to subjugate the primordial
Dragon (or Giant) and shape a coherent Universe from the stuff of Chaos and the Void?
They represent consciousness, surely, and it is consciousness that establishes Order
upon Chaos, creating an enclosure within which it can exist, express itself and
transform.
Of course, since the Universe, for all its Order, must be malleable and capable
of change if it is to be a fit place for consciousness to dwell, and since it is in any case
ultimately made of the stuff of the Void, it has the seeds of its own dissolution written
into it. Every version of the mythic thinking which underlies the Cosmos, foresees an
eventual end, whether a Ragnarok, an Apocalypse, or a heat death of the Universe
thanks to the Second Law of Thermodynamics. The ordered Universe is but a bubble
floating within the limitless, unbounded Void, or a pimple upon its skin. One day (by its
reckoning) it will return to the Void (where it has always been, by the Void's
reckoning). But we shall return to this. We shall also ask many more questions
concerning the purpose and substance of the Universe as we go. But for now, we have
witnessed its beginning: the Universe arises as a piece of the Void is ordered and
balanced by consciousness, so that consciousness has a place in which to express itself,
a magic mirror in which to behold its own face.
It is interesting to note the affinity of the parts of Reality with the Draconian
Gods. The Void is the Dragon, whose chaotic nature is tamed and ordered for a span by
the Lord of Darkness, the God of consciousness, allowing a beautiful Universe to arise
in which He may take His pleasure, represented by the Scarlet Woman. The magician
is consciousness clothed in flesh and star-stuff, able to walk in this new realm, to his
very great delight.
Play well!

 Self and Not-Self

We have established the key role of consciousness in the very structure of Reality. It is
consciousness that is capable of shaping and limiting the stuff of the Void in order to
make a stable enclosure / Universe possible. It is consciousness that is the interface
between manifest and unmanifest aspects of Reality, between Void and Cosmos. It is
consciousness that knits Reality together.
We ourselves are conscious beings, and it seems likely from the model of
Reality we have developed that all things are conscious (though we may not recognise
the nature of their consciousness; it may be hugely different to our own), or at the very
least all things are shaped by consciousness and consciousness remains a causal factor
in all things.
So what is it that differentiates our own, individual consciousness from any
other consciousness? What is it that makes I, I?
There are several different theories of consciousness, each one generally
geared towards the bias of those who promote it. Let's examine a few of the major
strands.
There is the theory championed by almost every monotheistic religion[8], in
which the individual soul is created by God, but its sense of Self and subsequent
wilfulness are inherently sinful. Under this paradigm, it is the duty of every soul to
submit itself to God (the originating consciousness) in absolute obedience, or else face
being snuffed out or eternally punished.
Then there is the theory prevalent among most other religions and occult
schools of thought. In this paradigm, all consciousness is but a part of one
consciousness and it is the destiny of all to evolve to the point where we can see our
essential oneness and return to a state of pure unity and bliss. This is the basic model
of Right-Hand Path thought (as that terms is defined in modern Western schools such as
the Temple of Set, I'm not going to get into the nit-picking arguments about the origins of
these terms here).
The usual (modern, Western) Left-Hand Path philosophy tends to run along
different lines. Each individual consciousness remains individual. Different schools
teach different origins: some assume that consciousness arises in an individual
following birth with no prior existence; others assume it reincarnates, but remains
continuous and isolate; others teach that individual consciousness is a spark Gifted by
the Lord of Darkness, but is thenceforth unique to its possessor. This consciousness
develops and grows and evolves, but remains its own Self. Some schools believe
consciousness may be stifled and expire if not properly developed and worked with via
Initiation.
The materialistic paradigm holds consciousness to be a by-product of brain
activity, a means of species adaptation and survival, with no function other than the
purely biological. According to this model, consciousness perishes with the death of
the physical body.
Having worked hard to rebuild our Magical Universe after deconstructing it,
we need to conceptualise an origin, essence and purpose of individual consciousness
which fits with the Reality we perceive and have defined. My current 'best possible
model' follows.
We have defined that consciousness is the essential factor to the very existence
of an ordered Universe. It is consciousness which shapes the Void in order to create a
viable, relatively stable space for existence to unfold, for manifestation to spring forth
from the Unmanifest. This First Form of consciousness, who performs the great
division and allows Self to arise within a place to Play, we name the Lord of Darkness.
Just as all substance within the Cosmos is ultimately shaped from the stuff of
the Void / the flesh of the Dragon, so all consciousness is splintered, or descended (or
Gifted, as the term is often used) from the Lord of Darkness. Beings in whom
consciousness has developed, establishing a sense of Self, are the Children of Set. The
Lord of Darkness is thus the origin of our consciousness.
However, once given, the Gift of Set is established, and the consciousness that
grows within us is our own indeed, our own very Self. Just as a spark that jumps from
a fire to ignite in a new place will burn on its own, so our consciousness (often called
poetically the Black Flame) will blaze with its own glory.
We hypothesise a Universe which is suffused with consciousness, created by
consciousness out of the Void as a play arena for consciousness, and our own
individual consciousness is a spark from that first consciousness. Given this model, it
matters little whether our consciousness first ignites with our own physical birth,
developing as our minds are exposed to the stimuli of the world around us, or whether
it pre-exists, perhaps migrating from one host body to the next (we will discuss the
notion of reincarnation later, so won't pursue this further here). Whatever the case, the
source of our consciousness is the consciousness of the Lord of Darkness (whether
viewed as a living, Self-aware being[9] or as a nebulous 'field' of consciousness).
Once we become Self-aware, our consciousness becomes self-referential and accrues
its own nucleus and essence, adding to its Being through Becoming.
In this Draconian model of the Left-Hand Path, as outlined above, the
individuated consciousness continues to perpetuate itself, to develop and to grow as its
own Self. It remains a spark of the primordial consciousness and has a close affinity to
it, even a certain shared / overlapping Essence in those who perform a Priestly
function, but it is its own thing and does not 'return' to the originating Flame, though the
Lord of Darkness may be 'enhanced' by those sparks that best reflect His Majesty.
From hereon in, the path is ever onward and upward. Perhaps, in far-off times
and places, in another cycle of the Void, other sparks may be struck off our own still-
burning consciousness, to bring glory and delight to us.
So our consciousness is linked and kindred to every other consciousness,
resonant with them, sharing the same source Essence, but it follows its own path,
becoming ever more individuated and unique as its Self grows. We are all part of the
Cosmos, with our roots in the Void, and our own Self enthroned to appreciate the
totality.
So the title to this chapter is ultimately paradoxical. We are our own Selves,
individual and apart, distinct from all others, and yet on some level we are linked to all
that exists and can enter communion with it. More, through the Void, we are linked with
all that does not exist, but which has potential and can be imagined by the creative
mind.

 Why is There Evil in the World?

This is one of the questions that gets posed to every religion or philosophy by sceptics,
and it's a good one that requires an answer. If God is so great and loving, why is there
evil in the world? Why is there war? Why do children get sick and die? These are
all valid questions.
The Christian can only answer these questions by vaguely mentioning God's
irritating habit of moving in mysterious ways, or referring to a Divine plan, saying that
the just will be rewarded and the wicked punished in the end, and besides, people are
better off dead and in Heaven with God, aren't they? We should be happy for them, as
they've gone to their glory[10]. Some of the grumpier ones may even insist that it's no
more than the sick kiddies deserve, since we're all sinners, them included. What was
that we were saying about evil in the world? Ah yes, it often wears the good guy
badge!
The occultist, on the other hand, will generally mutter something about karma
when asked this question. Oh, karma will sort it all out, they say, shuffling their feet
as they desperately try to change the subject to a more comfortable topic. Every good
deed will be rewarded, every wicked deed punished. What is it that they're actually
saying here? If every wicked deed is punished, are they saying that the people suffering
and dying now are paying the consequences for being serial killers or whatnot in
previous lives? Oh no, try to suggest that line of reasoning and you'll see some very
rapid backpedalling as they insist that this wasn't what they meant at all in which case
their precious karma must be selective! Or could it be that what they are actually
saying when they utter this trite bullshit is simply, Don't ask me, that's far too hard a
question, but I'm a spiritual person, so hey, something spiritual will surely sort it out,
because well it's spiritual, isn't it? In the meantime, I can't deal with this heavy
shit.
If that paragraph reads as though I'm sneering as I write it, I am.
For those of you who may still be wondering, there is no karma. It does not
exist. Or certainly not in the way that these fools mean. There is only cause and effect,
and the patterns of manifestation they create. There is no reward for the meek; there is
no punishment for the wicked, except that which might be meted out to them by those
outraged by their deeds. There is NO cosmic moral compass.
Does our Draconian Magic model have anything to offer in answer to this
question? Damn right it does. In order to discover an answer, we must look back once
more at the way in which the Universe is created, the stuff it is made of, and the forces
that shape it. Then, having found a likely answer, we will be able to basically prove it
by looking at a contemporary analogue.
As we have seen, the Universe is shaped out of the Void by the action of
consciousness. The fact that the Cosmos is ultimately mind-stuff is illustrated when we
look at sub-atomic physics. The deeper we look inside an atom, the more we realise
just how much of what we consider to be solid matter is just empty space. And the
harder we look at those tiny, charged particles that do exist, the less tangible they
appear, until finally they seem to represent only a tendency to exist. The Universe
seems so very solid and enduring to us, because that is how our senses have been
conditioned to perceive it. In order to enter into the Universe and Play, consciousness
must create a totally immersive experience.
Since consciousness is the critical factor in shaping the Universe, it remains a
critical factor in its continuance. But consider how many consciousnesses there are,
each vying for control, just here on our home planet Earth! So many billions of minds,
all tugging their own way, all bleating, I want! I want! I want! There are currents
and counter currents pulling every which way. Is it any wonder that things break, that
disasters happen, that evil deeds are wrought? Because the person committing the evil
deed never sees themselves as evil, you know, they invariably think they're perfectly
justified. Just take a wander down to your local cheap supermarket, or your Walmart if
you're in the U.S.A., and spend time simply observing the people there. Think about the
kind of world those people would create if they were in charge. Then get terrified
when you realise that they do have an equal say in the shaping of the world, and they
are in charge, or at least as much as any other non-Initiate.[11] Then turn round and
ask me again why there's evil in the world. Isn't it obvious? All of those small minds
and greedy hearts who are only out for themselves, rich and poor alike?
So when people ask you this question, you have an answer. You can say, It's
got nothing to do with sin or punishment, and it's not something that's deliberately
intended either. It's simply the way the world is, because everyone is pulling in so
many different directions. The more that people truly want to live in peace, and to cure
all disease, the closer we'll move to that reality; it really is that simple. In the
meantime, this is the way the world is, and we all must just do the best we can for
ourselves and those we love.
Now there will probably be people who object to this perspective, huffing and
puffing as they protest, How dare you, Kelly, you blackguard! If we really had a hand
in shaping the nature of the world around us, we would never create such a place
where suffering and war are so dominant! Oh yes, you would, you know. Let's just
consider the evidence of the worlds we know that we have created. I'm talking about
virtual worlds in video games. These days, these are so immersive and detailed, many
games having 'open world' environments, in which the player can pretty much roam
anywhere and do anything. But what kinds of worlds do we place the players in?
Without exception, worlds of conflict, worlds in peril, worlds where danger and death
lurks around every corner. Why? Because that's what makes it exciting! Even in such
games as The Sims, players delight in sealing their digital people in rooms without
doors, laughing as they piss themselves, panic and finally starve to death. The same is
true of the worlds created in other media: in literature, in comics, in art. It is conflict
that drives a story, and we are all the heroes of our own stories.
The only difference between a video game world and the 'real' world is that
the game world is formed of electrons arranged into patterns by lines of code. This is
then presented to the player as a coherent, three-dimensional environment which he
can interact with through the screen and controller. But hold on go back and reread
the paragraph which starts at the foot of page 135 and finishes at the top of page 136,
commencing with As we have seen, the Universe is shaped out of the Void... and
finishing with ...consciousness must create a totally immersive experience. Doesn't
this just say exactly the same thing about the Universe as I've just said about a
computer simulated reality?
The Universe really is an exciting game that our consciousness projects itself
into. Remembering that this is so can help us deal with the parts which are misery and
suffering, recognising that yes, this is precisely the kind of world we would expect
people like humanity to create! There is a comfort in knowing that illness, hardship and
suffering are not planned and that we can make a difference by combating greed and
indolence, which create these things as their by-products.

 Where Do We Go When We Die?

Here's another question that everyone wants to know. The fear of death is deeply
ingrained within us. The sense of Self is so pervasive that it cannot conceive of the
possibility that it might cease to exist. Yet we know that the body wears out and
perishes. So what is to become of us?
Various religions and philosophies have proposed various different answers to
this question, sometimes to soothe the worries of their adherents, sometimes to propose
genuinely held and deeply considered thoughts, sometimes to terrify their adherents into
obedience and submission. Let's examine some of these before we propose a Draconian
answer:
The creeds devolved from that ancient psychopath Abraham[12] revolve
around reward or punishment of the deceased by a clearly insane and sadistic God.
The faithful are promised eternal bliss in the presence of the Almighty; the wicked (or
even those good, honest people who dared to believe in the wrong thing) are punished
eternally by being cast into Hell, generally visualised as a Lake of Fire, beside which
the faithful may pleasantly picnic while they enjoy the screams of the damned.
Needless to say, this belief, conceived purely to suppress and enslave, is
rejected outright as pure and utter garbage[13]. Since we are each an individual
consciousness, the only Hell is that which an individual may create for themselves, due
to their own guilty conscience, lasting only as long as their masochism may continue.
There is no God who sits in judgement and decrees our fate.
Materialistic science, holding the mind and consciousness to be but a by-
product of brain activity, naturally holds that the only place we go when we die is into a
grave or a cremation furnace. The mind, the sense of Self, the personal consciousness,
all are snuffed out. There are magicians who also hold this view, believing that life is
a wonderful and magical phenomenon, but that it ceases (on a personal level) with the
death of its physical vehicle. This opinion is a lot more rational than that offered by
most religionists, but it does not fit with the model of Void, consciousness and Universe
that we have discovered, a model in which consciousness is the originator, not the
product[14].
Other religions and most New Agers hold that we reincarnate. When our
body dies, the soul vacates it, and after a greater or lesser period of time, is reborn in a
new body, to live a new life. This idea is common amongst Hindus, Buddhists and also
features heavily in the original European beliefs, being referenced in ancient Greek
literature, and with stories of the rebirth of dead heroes also occurring in the Celtic and
(to a lesser extent) Norse sagas. So this belief is a very old and very deep and very
pervasive one, possibly the most common of all 'after death' scenarios, apparently not
shared by only the three detestable Abrahamic abominations, the monotheistic religions
of Christianity, Islam and Judaism.
In some systems, such as the Hindu. Buddhist and Greek, there is a moralistic
bias to reincarnation, as the next life and its circumstances are determined by the
manner in which the previous life was lived; criminals, cowards and the dissolute
finding themselves in much reduced circumstances the next time around. In other cases,
such as the Celtic, this element is absent and rebirth occurs purely through a person's
great vitality and vigour of Self. Those with mighty spirits arise in might again; the
weak and unassuming must strive anew to better themselves. Also, in some of the
belief systems, a person may be reborn in any culture, or indeed regress to an animal
form if they lack worth. But in the Celtic and Norse strands, rebirth is always among
the same culture and very often the same family line or close genetic pool.
I find the Celtic ideal of rebirth far more convincing and rational than the other
notions of reincarnation, and we will return to discuss this more thoroughly in the next
chapter. But for the purposes of this current chapter, I am going to reject reincarnation
as a complete explanation for what happens to us when we die. As we will discuss in
the next chapter, there may well be a rebirth mechanism at work, but it is not by any
means a whole and complete answer. To find this, we must look again at the
implications of our Draconian model of Reality.
Let's ask our question again and think about it: Where do we go when we
die? The answer can only be, Nowhere. And I mean this quite literally: Nowhere
is the Void, our point of origin, before we came into manifestation. The Void is
timeless too, it is Nowhere / Nowhen. We have always been there. I am there now as I
am typing this; you are there now as you are reading this, because now is the only time
that exists there. So quite literally, we go Nowhere when we die.
But this explanation works on more than one level, depending upon the
emphasis with which you phrase it. We 'go Nowhere' as a reference to the Void, but it
also means that quite literally we don't go anywhere. Why? Because we are already
there. Our consciousness is already rooted in the Void, it always has been and it
always will be; there is no need for it to go anywhere, because it is already there.
When our physical body dies, our consciousness withdraws from it, but it is already in
the Void and has been all along, as witnessed by the way in which it can use creative
imagination and employ abstract thinking, the mind wandering into realms of its own
creation even whilst in the flesh. So according to this model, you don't need to worry
about the demise of your physical body, because it is only the projected focus of your
consciousness that is moored there; your Essence is still in its timeless Everywhere /
Everywhen / Nowhere / Nowhen, where it has always been. You don't need to worry
about immortality, because you're already alive and immortal now (if immortality has
any relevance to a Self that is ultimately timeless). In other words, and returning to our
previous analogy of the Universe being like a video game, death is similar to the player
logging out of the game and returning to his larger life outside it. When we die, we 'log
out', but we have only put down the controller and returned to a larger perspective.
Several of the psychological models developed by Initiates of some of the
traditional Mystery schools (such as Egyptian, Norse and Celtic) are very complex and
intriguing, suggesting that parts of our awareness and experiences remain accessible at
certain levels within the Universe, such as in Hel or Asgard in Norse tradition, plus a
shade which may be reached / communicated with by relatives or magicians. These
may be interpreted also by such oft-used phrases as 'collective unconscious', 'inherited
memory' or 'atavistic memory'. In any case, there is a good argument that some aspects
of the life we have just led may remain accessible to the consciousness of others, or to
our new manifestations if we are indeed reborn. Some of these soul models may be
studied in earlier publications of The Apophis Club, most particularly APOPHIS and
gishjlmur. But they are incidental to our main realisation here: that the Essential
Self is timeless and does not need to 'go' anywhere when the body dies, because it is
already beyond the body.

 Do We Reincarnate?

Continuing the argument of the previous chapter, we have concluded that according to
the Draconian model of Reality, the Essential Self, the consciousness that is the true 'I',
is established between the two poles of the Void and the Cosmos, above and beyond
both, and thus outside the confines of the body alone. Thus, it need not 'go' anywhere
when the body dies, because it is already in its proper place, the body-fixated
awareness being but an extrusion, a projection of its real Being.
We did not rule out the possibility of reincarnation in that discussion, but set it
temporarily aside since it was not central to our study and realisation of the nature of
the Essential Self and its continuity. But it will be interesting to return to this question
now, and ask ourselves, So, do we reincarnate?
Many occultists believe so, and many including several that I have the utmost
respect and admiration for can give detailed accounts of past life memories. Students
of the methods of Aleister Crowley will be aware of at least two practices he taught
with a view to accessing the memories of previous lives, and Crowley himself claimed
a long list of prior incarnations[15]. But respect and admiration do not constitute
proof. We need to analyse such claims rationally, allow for wish fulfilment (see the
footnote 15 below!) and carefully examine the case and precedent for reincarnation.
There are certain phenomena in nature which suggest that a kind of
reincarnation would be a perfectly natural perhaps even an expected process. After
all, everything else in nature recycles, springing up, fading away, only to recur in new
forms. Even things that pass away and disappear don't actually disappear. The
elements they were composed of are reconstituted in one way or another.
We're not only talking about physical things either. Einstein tipped us off that
energy can neither be created nor destroyed, it can only change its state.
So if this is true of matter and energy, why would mind-stuff be the only thing
that it was not true of? That would simply not make sense. So there is a certain
rational precedent for assuming that thought patterns, ideas and personality traits will
recur.
There is also a magical Law to describe this process, which is summed up in
the Word Remanifest, the Law of Magus James Lewis. This is the Understanding that
the magical patterns we create within ourselves and define ourselves with continue to
self-replicate and will inevitably Remanifest, bringing us back into being.
Remanifestation is discussed in some of the earlier Apophis Club volumes, also in the
third volume of my autobiography, The Children of Set.
Now we come to the tricky bit, because there may actually be more than one
mechanism at work here. You see, your thoughts, memories and emotions are not you.
They are manifestations of you, they are expressions of you, they are projections of your
Essence, but they are not actually you. They are, if you like, the symptoms of your
existence, the ripples created by the movement of your consciousness. But the true you
is your consciousness itself, not its extensions or accretions. Your thoughts, memories
and emotions are ripples created in the Universe by your interactions with it, but your
root consciousness has its origins in the Void and is an interface between Void and
Cosmos: it is not just a part of the Cosmos, whereas its thoughts, memories and
emotions are. This is a very important distinction, which will add a layer of
complexity to our conclusions that very few ever stop to consider.
Let's leave aside the thoughts. emotions, and so forth for the moment. We will
come back to them as they're an important consideration, but first we need to
concentrate on the most important things: that spark of unique consciousness which is
truly you.
For a start, we can rule out those moralising, karma-riddled doctrines which
characterise much thought of reincarnation. Your consciousness enters into
manifestation in order to Play, seeking its own reflection in the ever-shifting
kaleidoscope of Reality. Incarnation is a joyous choice, a player immersing in a game,
not a tedious chore of sin and punishment.
From what we know of magic, consciousness and Reality, it seems apparent
that consciousness desires to enter the material world and experience it. This is the
very reason for which a stable Universe has been created from the Void. The
incarnation of consciousness is therefore a willed choice, not some sort of karmic
bondage. If we hold this to be true, then it is only logical to assume that after
experiencing one incarnate life, consciousness will desire to experience more. After
all, it hasn't yet seen and experienced everything in that wonderful, immersive manner
which is Life. We can therefore assume that reincarnation of the Essential Self occurs
along the lines of the Celtic model proposed earlier, i.e. it is a resultant of the intense
vitality of the heroic soul, eager to play the game again, not a reward or punishment.
Incarnation is a Willed act. This realisation points us to another conclusion: if
incarnation is a Willed act, it is something which may occur, depending upon the Will.
It is not inevitable, it is not automatic, it is a choice. We will explore alternative
notions of post-mortem existence in the next chapter.
When an individual incarnates, who do they become? In most cases, no one
special. They are just one more person on an over-populated planet (there may be
other planets with life, of course, but we'll simply set that speculation aside as a
possibility and outside of our current knowledge and experience). If we use that video
game analogy once again (because it really is a remarkably pertinent one), they are
level 1 characters, with no special abilities or characteristics, just starting out in the
game. And most subsequent lives will be similar, while the 'player' continues to accrue
needed experience to develop their character. It's probable, therefore, that they may
pop up in a different place and a different culture each time, as they learn the ropes.
 What happens when someone becomes an Initiate[16]? An Initiate is someone
who has seen beneath the surface of the world in which he / she is manifest, someone
who has glimpsed the workings of the machine and has intuited the Void which lies
beyond it. In other words, this is someone who has remembered his / her true identity
and source whilst in the flesh. Given this Understanding of the Universe and the Self,
this person may now begin to develop and accrue greater skills and insights, a real
sense of purpose and a passion to achieve. True magicians may tap back into the Void
and become able to use the programmer's skills and cheat codes whilst still immersed
in the game, in order to accelerate their learning and Becoming. To again use video
game language, this Initiate then reaches a point where upon physical death, they have
reached a stage where it has become worthwhile to 'save their game', so that they may
resume more or less where they left off.
This is where we get back to the mind-stuff we mentioned earlier: the
thoughts, memories and emotions and skills, all the knowledge and wisdom accrued
during life which is not part of the Essential Self, the core consciousness. In most
cases, this is all small stuff of no consequence. In a couple of generations' time, no one
wants or needs to remember how you accidentally sat on your Aunt Mabel's best hat, or
how bored you were while stock checking at work last Tuesday. And even the greater,
peak achievements are small stuff when placed in context. Nevertheless, these things
remain in the sea of consciousness surrounding the world, helping to shape new
generations from those who have gone before, all leading to the ultimate evolution of
mankind and the enhancement of all our experience and knowledge.
We spoke earlier of the various parts of the soul, and the various worlds, as
defined in many magical psychological and cosmological models. Much of this
everyday accretion of humdrum affairs will likely never be needed again, at least not in
detail. It sinks down to Hel to rest in deep slumber, capable of revivification if strictly
necessary, but dormant. The peak experiences and ground-breaking insights ascend to
Asgard, becoming accessible to the Deific, shaping consciousness of our race,
increasing our collective wisdom and potential all the while. The personality that we
wore whilst in the now deceased life abides for a while as a shade, lurking in the hearts
and memories of those who knew us. This shade is what may be evoked in
necromancy, a shadow of memories of what the person once was. The conscious,
Essential Self is never evoked through necromantic magic, only the cast-off, timebound
personality shell[17].
But let's get back to the Initiate. The purpose and function of Initiation
(whether consciously realised or not) is Self-integration and personal evolution. The
Initiate gains wisdom and magical power by bringing all the parts of his being into
harmonious balance, all working towards a single end. This creates a very different
situation upon the death of the physical body.
Because the Initiate has integrated the various aspects of his manifest self into
his Essential Self, and has gained considerable insight, skill and power in consequence,
this integration does not simply decay upon death, with all of these attributes fluttering
off into the collective unconscious. Instead, the Initiate may retain those parts and skills
and insights which are useful, carrying them forward into another life, thus gaining a
considerable head start and having a host of learned abilities available from the outset.
This is that 'game save' scenario I mentioned earlier, and accounts for the truly gifted
people active in the world.
So, the Initiate is one who begins to carry increasing memories, skills and
knowledge from one life to the next, as he / she becomes increasingly evolved and
integrated. However, this makes the choice of vehicle for reincarnation by necessity a
much less random prospect. The Initiate will now seek out a host body which has a
strong resonance with what he / she has been before, to ensure a good 'fit' of attributes
and a smooth path to reintegration and continuation of his / her Work. This implies that
the Initiate will seek rebirth within the same culture and where possible, the exact
same family as previously.
This is borne out by many of the European mythic traditions, such as the Celtic
and the Norse, in which heroes are seen to be reborn within the same tribe / clan, often
to their own children or grandchildren[18]. When speaking of this conscious, Initiated
process that sought after by magicians I use the term 'rebirth' in preference to
reincarnation.
One further factor remains to be mentioned, which further distinguishes the
rebirth of the Initiate from popular ideas of reincarnation: in the Celtic tales, there is
more than one instance in which the same individual is incarnated in more than one
person at the same time! A hero reborn in his own son, for example, who lives
alongside his father and rises to full ascension following his father's death. The spark
of consciousness is not as restricted as we like to think it is and may inhabit two minds
at once. Renowned Thelemic magician Lon Milo DuQuette wrote a song about
reincarnation titled The Hero of Megiddo, in which he refers to having once been
triplets, wryly commenting Not sure how that works! Give it some thought!

 What is the Discarnate State Like?

I stated in the previous chapter that rebirth is a willed choice, being neither inevitable
nor automatic. This must lead us to wonder what the state of our consciousness must be
like when it is not clothed in a physical body?
For a start, we can safely assume that it will no longer be encumbered by the
things that often seemed so important whilst in the body. Love and Desire are great
motivating forces for the Self and these mighty engines will no doubt continue to drive
us, but we can forget about all the petty emotions and concerns that bother us in our
everyday lives. All of the little jealousies and biases and lusts and cravings, all of
those programmed reactions which arise out of biological chemicals or learned
responses instead of pure Vision none of these things will be of the slightest
relevance to the consciousness devoid of a body.
One thing we can be certain of is that the way we think in a discarnate state
will be very different from the way we think whilst in the flesh. For a start, we will
have no senses, these are all physical contrivances to enable us to interact with the
physical world. Reality itself, let alone the way in which we perceive it, would be
radically different. There really is no way of conceiving the difference between
incarnate consciousness and discarnate consciousness, and when discussing such
subjects as life after death, this is a fact which almost everybody completely fails to
grasp. Nevertheless, if our Draconian model of Reality is correct, then such a state of
consciousness necessarily exists, since that is our point of origin. But the only way to
even begin to conceptualise it and this is a thing that we should meditatively attempt,
at least those of us who have progressed to Fifth Head level and beyond is to begin
by stripping away all those thoughts, ideas and impressions that it most definitely is not
and then see what remains!
Of course, the fact that a consciousness is discarnate does not mean that it has
left the comforting confines of the Universe. This is why every magical tradition
establishes a number of worlds at varying 'levels' of the Cosmos. These worlds may be
visited and defined by the incarnate magician through so-called 'astral' Work as defined
previously, and may prove to be aspects of the Universe in which discarnate souls may
act or abide for greater or lesser periods. Thus, a soul may ascend to Asgard or travel
the Celtic Land of the Ever-Young. It takes a truly Draconian consciousness to wish to
dip toes directly in the Void. But it seems likely that even those souls which are reborn
will spend a certain time discarnate and recovering their bearings / sense of True Self.
The thing that seems obvious to me, however, and which runs completely
contrary to the expectations of most 'spiritual' people and traditions (except the Norse,
in which it is quite apparent, and also the Satanic), is that the Universe was created
deliberately, as a playground. This is the place where we are supposed to be. It was
our Will to become manifest, physical beings, and this is the world in which our joy is
wrought. So rebirth and the Remanifestation of Self in the physical arena is the right
and proper goal of the Initiate.

 What is the Meaning of Life?

This is the big question of course, the one which every religion and philosophy attempts
to answer. What is all of this actually for? All manner of soul-searching, agonising
and moralising has been expended over the centuries and dumped unceremoniously
upon our heads in response to this question. Most of it has been way off the mark, and
all of it has served to only muddy the waters. The answer is absurdly simple and
recursive and I give it here before explaining it:
The meaning of life is to discover or create the meaning of life. There
now, wasn't that easy?
The reasoning behind this answer is implied in every chapter of this section of
the book so far. The Universe is established by consciousness acting upon the Void, the
purpose of that action and creation being to establish a relatively fixed and coherent
arena which consciousness can enter in order to explore its own Being. The reason that
primordial consciousness that which we name the Lord of Darkness sparks off new
minds and sees new consciousnesses arise, is so that it has other minds to give input
into the Universe, shaping it in unforeseen ways, so that it will be a real adventure, not
the stale product of a single awareness alone. Each consciousness measures itself
against and to some degree sees itself reflected in, the other consciousnesses it
discovers. Every entry into the manifest world is new and original. because it is
shaped by other centres of consciousness as well as our own. The whole thing is a
wonderful game, a great diversion, a process of Self-discovery. Everything is Play.
It is through this process of immersion in the world and living within it that
Being can experience the more active and expansive state of Becoming.

 What is the Abyss?

There are two major magical Workings and realisations within the path of every
Initiate. These were first clearly defined by Aleister Crowley, who described them as
the attainment of the Knowledge and Conversation of the Holy Guardian Angel, and the
Ordeal of the Abyss. The Apophis Club concurs that these two events are the major
focal points of Initiation.
In his early writings, based around the Qabalistic model of the Hermetic Order
of the Golden Dawn, Crowley describes the Holy Guardian Angel operation as coming
first, being centred in the Qabalistic Sephirah of Tiphareth. Later, when invoking the
Enochian thyrs, he would reverse this order, discerning that the Abyss is faced in the
Tenth thyr, ZAX, whilst the full experience of the Holy Guardian Angel is not
attained until the Eighth thyr, ZID. This latter ordering is also the doctrine of The
Apophis Club, in which the Abyss experience occurs during the arising of the Fourth
Head, as the Eye Opens in the Void, and the Dmon is comprehended and indwells
during the arising of the Fifth Head. Although the matter is not absolutely critical and
all such curricula are by definition artificial segmentations of complex processes: any
magician capable of Opening the Eye in the Void will inevitably have at least some
Understanding of the Dmon, and vice versa. But the Void / Abyss followed by the
Dmon / Holy Guardian Angel appears the most cohesive and satisfactory process. We
will therefore hold over discussion of the Holy Guardian Angel till the next chapter and
deal with the Abyss first.
There are all manner of contradictory and wholly unsatisfactory explanations
of what the Abyss is, which is not surprising since it is Not. The Abyss is described as
the brink between Creation and the Unmanifest; it is guarded by a terrible Archdemon
named Choronzon; it is a place of Chaos, confusion and dissolution, in which every
thing that is is also its own opposite. It is said that the ego cannot survive there and
would be torn to pieces by the contending forces.
It will be blatantly obvious to anyone who has read even a fraction of Apophis
Club magical literature that the Abyss is in fact the Void: the Creative potential out of
which the Universe was spawned, through the action of consciousness.
So what does this imply about the Abyss experience? It means that the Initiate
who has advanced to this stage has experienced anew the underlying structure of
Reality, having recognised the Void as the Nothing which lies behind Everything, with
consciousness in this case, his / her own consciousness as the interface between the
Manifest and the Unmanifest.
Note that I stress this as the Abyss experience. It is not an intellectual
knowledge; it is not a belief; it is not a 'grasp of the fundamentals'; it is a full on, world-
shattering experience, capable of breaking the sanity of the unprepared. No amount of
book learning or meditation can prepare the psyche for the realisation of its own
phantasmal nebulosity in the face of the immensity of the Void, when it seems in that
crushing moment of apprehension that Everything will be swallowed up in Nothing. It
is an extreme, peak experience that changes your life irrevocably. If you have felt it,
you will know it; if you haven't, don't kid yourself and don't try to kid others, because it
stands out a mile.
This Abyss experience is the focal Initiation of The Apophis Club, when the
Fourth Head of the Dragon that of the Serpent itself rises into consciousness. In that
moment, the mind of the magician passes beyond the bounds of the Universe and
touches the creative potential of the Void, capable of manipulating all of the
possibilities that may be found in that Neverplace / Neverwhen.
It will be Understood that the term 'crossing the Abyss' is a misnomer, another
of those 'lies to children' to help them picture the inconceivable in their minds. There is
no 'other side' of the Abyss to cross over to, there is only the plunge into Infinite
Nothing, the Neverness of Ginnungagap, filled only with the magical charge of
possibility.
Nor can consciousness remain within the Void. How could it, for there is
Nowhere for it to remain? With its first thought, it triggers fresh creation and hurls
itself back into the Universe, the arena which consciousness has created to express
itself through. Whether the Abyss experience is subjectively seconds or centuries, its
objective reality is a single moment only, before Remanifestation necessarily occurs.
The longer the consciousness can endure as a mere observer, without a single thought,
the more of the Void it may perceive in its lightning flash revelation. But as soon as a
fresh thought intrudes, the experience is over and consciousness Remanifests in its
former place. But when it does so, it is very much changed.
This Remanifested consciousness, which brings back experiential awareness
of the Void within itself, is what constitutes what is misguidedly termed the 'other side'
of the Abyss. The so-called Supernal Sephiroth of the Qabalah, or the innermost nine
thyrs of the Enochian system, are metaphors for the Void-transformed consciousness
of the magician. These 'supernal' realms are within our own Selves, now able to bridge
Reality and draw new stuff through from the Void at Will. The Initiate becomes a
Master, who changes a situation simply by being present within it, a conduit for all
possibility.
I am not lying when I say that this experience transforms the world and the
Initiate. There is no return from it. And it is a source of constant irritation to hear
people talking of such things who have no experience of it. It's like listening to a
precocious schoolboy, who's never even had an erection, bragging to his friends, trying
to convince them he's had sex.
Don't cheapen the experience of the Abyss through bragging or lies. It is
actually the most simple thing imaginable, as all truths are, but it shatters worlds and
should not be sought unless you are willing to be completely changed, with no way
back. You will know them by the starlight in their eyes and the lilt in their voices.

 What is the Holy Guardian Angel?

The term Holy Guardian Angel was derived from the Abra-Melin grimoire and adopted
by Aleister Crowley in his curriculum of Work for his A.'.A.'. Order. To gain the
'Knowledge and Conversation of the Holy Guardian Angel' is a magical operation to
connect the magician to his / her personal tutelary spirit. Some people interpret this to
be a being distinct from the magician's own Self, others hold it to be a manifestation of
the magician's Higher Self. It is my firm conviction that the Holy Guardian Angel
phenomenon whilst perfectly capable of promoting an alternative and more advanced
perspective is most definitely a projection from the most Initiated part of the
magician's own Self.
In Apophis Club nomenclature, this entity is most often referred to as 'the
Dmon'.
We have dealt with the various ill-considered thoughts and theories concerning
'Higher Self' entities in the solve part of the book, so some readers may be bemused to
find the concept reintroduced here. But the simple fact is that it can be a very useful
exercise when trying to gain insight and deal with a problem to perform an invocation
which coalesces a coherent and communicative projection of the most initiatorily
advanced and focused aspect of your Self, cutting through all the fog, distractions and
illusions to reveal truth with the utmost clarity.
This perspective, when the Flame of consciousness burns brightly like a star,
dispelling all illusions and smoke and mirrors, comes naturally to those who have
already passed through the experience of the Abyss, having Opened the Eye in the
Void. To commune with the Dmon is to invoke the timeless, all-seeing perspective of
that Eye whilst still grounded here on Earth. This is why The Apophis Club concurs
with Crowley's later placing of the Knowledge and Conversation of the Holy Guardian
Angel at a point beyond the Abyss, in ZID, the Eighth thyr. In the Apophis
Curriculum, the Opening of the Eye in the Void is the peak experience of the Fourth
Head, with Knowledge and Conversation of the Dmon following as part of the Fifth
Head Work.
Nevertheless, most magicians earnestly involved in Third Head, or even
Second Head, Work within the Apophis curriculum, should be able to at least connect
with their Dmon to some extent in order to streamline and empower their magical
Path.

 If You're Such a Great Magician, Why Aren't You

a Millionaire?

Now this is a great question, and one which is often asked! In fact, it was posed to me
in a comment on one of my Youtube videos just a few weeks ago, so I'll begin by
providing my answer from there, and will subsequently expand upon it. After all, it's
not enough to talk the talk if you're not seen to walk the walk.
The Youtube video in question is one in which I demonstrate the Pharaoh
posture, also known as the God posture, one of the basic pieces of posture work
described in APOPHIS. It can be viewed at the following URL:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_P2h6wM_w0k

Viewer Tina Sizemore commented upon the video as follows:

if this works why are you not winning at life? i need to get ahold of Charlie Sheen
and see what poses that Olde Warlock is using." [sic]

I replied as follows:

+Tina Sizemore Lol, I'm doing very well, thank you, married to the woman I want to
be with, living in the country house I've always wanted with a spectacular view and
in the process of withdrawing from the rat race.
You get you what you put in, magic isn't an easy route, you don't just wave
a wand and become a millionaire. But you can definitely shape yourself into the
person you want to be and live the life you want to live. But it takes work, even with
magic. Nothing is for nothing.
But if you're asking me if I'm winning at life? Absolutely! This works, but
I've never promised it's easy. Magic is bloody hard work, because it requires real
change and commitment, it will take you to pieces before putting you together again
and the You who succeeds won't be the same you as now."

That reply was a pretty good summary, actually. If you want to use magic to acquire
riches, you can certainly do so. But you can't expect to draw one sigil, or burn one
candle, or summon one Demon, and suddenly there'll be money sprouting out of your
ears. Magic can and does work wonders. But the simple formula is that the amount
of Work you put into it is in direct proportion to the results you get out of it. If you want
to use magic to bring you riches, you'll have to work at it body and soul. You'll get
there, but you'll need to be obsessed with getting there.
And that's the whole problem, you see. Because if you're obsessed with
getting rich and are spending every moment either conjuring for money, or going out into
the world to put your plans of wealth into action, you're going to have no time for
anything else. And those who practise magic for any length of time quickly come to
discover that nothing is so rewarding as working to transform themselves.
There are many reasons why most magicians aren't rich[19], and a lot seem to
be permanently strapped for cash. Magic is an expensive hobby if you're really going
to give it your all. Many of the books we chase after and read are very costly. (Mine
aren't, but that's my deliberate choice, and not all occult authors follow my lead.)
Magicians know the value of the Creative Imagination and thus are great art lovers,
with a tremendous sense of aesthetics. The works of art with which we surround and
enrich ourselves are not cheap. The more initiated the magician, the greater their
appreciation and quest for Beauty. Magicians also tend to travel much more widely
than most people, always on a pilgrimage or quest to some place or purpose. Travel
does not come cheap.
So a magician worth his / her salt will have an enormous drain upon his / her
finances as a matter of course. No matter how much money comes in, more is always
needed. But then, the magician truly understands money to be but an illusion, a means
of exchange, not a thing in itself.
Most established magicians are actually pretty comfortable, bringing in ample
money, even if it's nearly always instantly spent. But they use their magic to live where
and how they want, to surround themselves with the artistic and aesthetic environment
that they desire. Most magicians who apply themselves also manage to arrange their
working lives to reflect their inner selves, either finding employment that really suits
them and which they enjoy, or gradually finding the means to become self-employed or
financially independent. Such changes can take a few years to fully effect, but the
magician who sets their mind upon these goals will succeed.
But truly rich magicians? Magical millionaires? As I've said, it's not
impossible, but it's not likely, simply because most magicians have things to do and to
focus upon which are far, far more important to them than the mere acquisition of
money. They may conjure cash to see them through immediate cashflow shortages[20],
but most of the time they'd rather be focusing upon more interesting matters.

 How Can We Aspire to be Gods in Such a Vast
Universe?

It's a common feeling to look up into the night sky and see the vast sweep of stars
overhead and to realise that these are all suns, inconceivable distances away, so far in
fact that it has taken the light from some of them many hundreds of years to reach us, so
that we are even looking backwards in time as we stare out into space. Then we learn
that the stars that we can see with the naked eye are only the tip of the iceberg, that the
Cosmos stretches on into near infinity. There are photographs taken by some of the
world's most powerful telescopes which show incredibly coloured and beautiful
nebulae and gas clouds which span absolutely incredible distances, far larger than our
minds can even begin to conceptualise. In those rare moments when we do perhaps
begin to realise just how large these things are in comparison to our own little world, it
is literally mind boggling. Our poor brains simply cannot take it and either shut down
momentarily or shrink from the the thought. We just cannot deal with such
overpowering immensity. The Universe is like a great, gargantuan monster, just waiting
to swallow us whole (perhaps literally, if we listen to those theories of super massive
black holes).
It is a well-worn saying of the Left-Hand Path that we aspire to be Gods. This
is something reflected in the very first promise spoken to Eve by the Serpent, that ye
shall become as Gods, knowing good and evil. But when the sense of the immensity of
the Universe grips us (let alone the realisation that the manifest Cosmos is but one
possible expression of the immeasurably vaster possibilities within the Void), we can
only cower and bleat, But how can we possibly call ourselves Gods in the face of this,
against which we are so insignificant, such tiny specks, who cannot even measure the
Universe in our minds without risking madness?
There are actually two answers to this question, looking at it in two distinct
and different ways. The first response is to say that most people (including many of
those strutting their stuff on the Left-Hand Path, usually the same ones who consider
themselves the 'coolest') have completely the wrong idea about the process being
described by Self-Deification.
Self-Deification does not mean becoming some sort of omnipotent, all-
powerful ruler, hurling thunderbolts about the place. Not even close. It means three
distinct things, not one of which is popular with dilettantes:

acceptance of total responsibility for yourself, your decisions and your
actions, together with their consequences.
assumption of total sovereignty over your own being and your world
 (i.e. the environment with which you surround yourself and which you
use to reflect you).
consciousness of your own highest principles and values, being true to
your ideals of Beauty and Valour.

The above is the kind of Divine consciousness we are talking about. The
problem is that people see the word 'God' and immediately respond to programming,
picturing themselves sitting on clouds, being wrathful and omnipotent. Tough luck,
you're still playing the incarnation game and you'll still need to join the rest of us
pushing your trolley round the supermarket.
The quality that we are speaking of is that of personal Divinity, becoming the
sovereign and absolute arbiter of your own life, defining your own purpose and goals,
living by the code that you create for yourself. The small print reads, Superpowers
not included.
The other aspect that we need to address is the feeling of awe we experience
when we realise the scope and span of the Universe, which can make us feel so small in
comparison, paling any notion of personal Divinity.
Don't forget that consciousness is the interface between the Void and the
Cosmos, the shaping factor, and the factor which affords meaning and purpose. And
although yours may only be a tiny spark of the Flame, this consciousness is nonetheless
yours, the most precious thing in all Creation. No matter how vast and wondrous and
awe-inspiring and beautiful and frightening the immensity of the Universe may be, it
only possesses these qualities because you are there to perceive them. Whatever there
is of majesty, of wonder, of beauty, of awe these things are created within your mind.
Without you to give them meaning, they are as nothing.
It remains to be reminded that Divinity does not mean ascending to some
'higher plane' and ruling from a distance. It requires immersion. The Universe is the
means that has been created for the expression and manifestation of consciousness. It is
not a prison to be escaped, as the slave religions would have it. It is the means of our
Self-knowledge and Self-Becoming. It is the mirror that we hold up to ourselves.
Living within this world is the purpose and the goal, the best possible place to be, with
so many possibilities open for us. Here and now is our Heaven and our Hell, Self-
wrought and beautiful beyond imagining. If you're looking for some kind of 'divine
plan', us is it, right here and right now. Ignore it at your peril.

 The World Tree

In almost all magical schools, the Cosmos is likened to a tree. The most famous
example is the Tree of Life of the Qabalah. The most useful and well-balanced model
is the Norse Yggdrasil. The Celts also viewed the Cosmos as a tree, with the
Otherworld Plains up in the branches and the Lands of the Underworld deep down
among the roots, with the ogham paths themselves attributed to trees running
between them. Shamanic cultures invariably envisage a world tree also, as discussed
in Mircea Eliade's classic on the subject, Shamanism. So the model is all-pervasive
and it is a very good one. But the World-Tree is a much more complex, complete and
multi-dimensional model than has often been fully appreciated. A true Vision of the
World-Tree is one of the hallmarks of the Sixth Head of the Apophis curriculum.
We may ask the question, If time as such does not exist in the Void, why does
it exist in the Universe? But perhaps it doesn't. Perhaps time is nothing more than an
illusion created by the way in which we perceive Reality.
Let's consider the World Tree not merely as a model of the mythic worlds and
spheres of influence pertaining to a given magical tradition, nor as a psychological
model of the Initiate's inner being, but as a model of a complex space-time event.
Yes, an event. One single event, which encapsulates all of space-time. The
trunk of the tree is where your perception currently resides. Looking back to the roots,
you see all of the choices and paths which led you to this place. Looking up to the
branches, you see all of the myriad possibilities that are yet before you.
But here's the crux of it. Those roots and those branches are part of the tree
now. They aren't past and future at all, they exist in all their completeness right now.
The only distinction is the way in which you perceive and interpret them, in accordance
with your illusion of time.
Imagine that every division of every branch and every twig is an alternative
choice. This is something similar to the 'many worlds' theory of quantum mechanics,
which suggests that every time someone makes a choice, all possible choices actually
happen and the universe divides into several divergent courses. But we remain aware
only of the divergence that our consciousness is actually in. The same is true of the
past: every root and every division is another alternative route to the 'present'. And
what of the present? The only reason our 'present' perspective appears to be a solid
trunk is because we are only aware of the route we are currently following, not of the
multitude that have diverged from it.
This gives us a model in which the entire Universe past, present and future
as we understand them actually exists contemporaneously in its entirety, with every
possible choice and divergence present in its complete structure. There is no time in
the Universe, because the Universe is complete in its every possible manifestation as a
single, timeless whole. It never changes, it simply is what it is.
The only thing that changes is consciousness. We incarnate within the world,
then we follow our choices through it, moving from one branch to another as our
decisions dictate. But all branches exist. We only see the ones that we travel along and
cannot see the alternatives because we are within the Universe, not seeing it from
without (or at least not until we have become Initiate enough to Open the Eye in the
Void).
If this model of the Universe as World-Tree has merit, then there is no time in
the Cosmos, just as there is no time in the Void: the entire kit and caboodle exists all-
at-once. The Universe is complete and unchanging. The only thing that changes is
consciousness, as the incarnated ego navigates its path through the Tree, depending
upon the choices it makes. This would fit the purpose of the Universe exactly: it is an
arena in which consciousness is free to explore and express itself. Consciousness is
the only thing that experiences change and transformation, which is possible because of
its restricted perspective when immersed in the world. This, the Xeper of the
individual Self, is the whole purpose of manifestation, enjoying life in the playground.
Mention of play brings us back once again to our remarkably apposite
metaphor of the Cosmos as a video game. Because when you buy a video game on a
disc, or download it as a software package, the entirety of that game universe is
contained in the code that you install on your computer or games console. Everything
that can possibly happen in the game is already coded and exists within it. The game
contains no 'time factor' as such. The only occasion when time becomes a factor in a
video game is when you, the player, enter that virtual world and begin playing, making
your choices and exploring. But all of the choices you make dictate responses which
have already been coded; the impression of an unfolding, developing in-game world is
pure illusion, albeit an immersive and engrossing one that sucks you right in. The
Cosmos is even such, just on a grander scale. The only aspect of the game that actually
changes are the parts of it that unfold within your own mind, the story of your character
within the world and the way in which he / she develops in response to your in-game
actions.
As in 'real life', most players are content to play the game at this level,
enjoying the experience and immersion. Some will seek out and discover the little
inconsistencies, bugs and quirks in the game's programming, which they may exploit
without technically 'cheating' and exiting the game world as it currently stands; this is a
similar practice to Lesser Magic. Still others will use their knowledge from 'Outside'
(Opening the Eye in the Void) to rewrite sections of code, introducing 'mods' to the
program, which may change it in small or large ways, enhancing and expanding it to suit
their wishes. This is a similar practice to Greater Magic.

 Are There Other Universes?

Once an Initiate has got his / her head around the notion of Reality as a whole being
composed of the Creative Void, in which the Universe is a deliberately crafted and
balanced island of relative stability, the question will inevitably arise: Could there be
other Universes?
Theoretically, there's no reason why not. Perhaps the Void is like an infinite
ocean, with an infinite number of Universes bobbing around in it like bubbles? That
could be the case. But we don't know, and I'm going to stick my neck out and say that at
our present initiatory level, we can't know, nor do we need to know. The question is
one of those which springs up and immediately absorbs armchair occultists, who love
to debate such things back and forth. But we cannot possibly know, and moreover, the
question has absolutely no relevance.
As we have already mentioned, the Universe in which we now find ourselves
is so immeasurably vast that the idea that we might possibly outgrow its lessons and
experiences and potential any time soon is absurd, so laughably arrogant and ignorant
that the notion really needs slapping down and put in its place.
I've only brought this question up in this book because I knew it would be
asked and I wanted the opportunity to state that any true Initiate needs to stop wondering
about irrelevant theoretical bullshit like this, stuff that can simply not be known and
wouldn't make the slightest difference if it could, and instead get back to the Work.
There's a whole Universe of joy and experience to be had right here, and that is our
Task.
The kind of people you'll find discussing things like this back and forth are
bullshitters pure and simple. On the one hand, they're the worst kind of people for a
true magician to mingle with, as they'll distract you and annoy with their trivial,
inconsequential chatter all the time. On the other hand, they can just occasionally
be the best kind of people to associate with in the short term, as a clever Lesser
Magician can lead them on all manner of merry dances to his / her own advantage. And
yes, they do deserve it!

 Why Be a Magician?

Some of you will be scratching your head and wondering why this is even a question.
But it's actually a very valid one. Unlike nearly all religions, Draconian Magic is
perfectly happy with the idea that most people aren't followers of its own creed. We
really like the fact that the world is filled with all manner of ideas (though of course
we'd prefer if some of them weren't so psychotic and insecure that they try to insist that
everyone else adhered to the tenets of their beliefs). It is perfectly possible to live a
very full and happy life without ever entertaining the slightest idea of magic. And that
is a wonderful thing. It's not going to cost anyone their 'immortal soul' to do so, there's
no blame or harm or guilt in doing so. In many ways, that's precisely what
consciousness wants, just to live a life, with eyes wide and a sense of wonder. Nothing
could be more precious. A life well lived is its own reward indeed.
Those who become magicians are those who've probably undergone the
incarnation process quite a few times previously and have become old hands at it, able
to peer behind the curtain at the stage settings of the world. They become magicians in
order to enhance their understanding and experience of life, and so that they can
continue to learn and evolve carrying more through with them from one life to the next
through increased Self-integration which is the whole aim and ultimate purpose of
manifestation: the Becoming of the Self.
This is a process which occurs of its own accord as the Self accretes enough
Xeper to actualise it. It cannot be forced or learned by those not ready for it, because
they won't grasp its principles, as evidenced by the frothing, ranting internet 'mages'
who lack the insight or self-knowledge of a duck's arse. This is why every occult
Mystery can be clearly stated in plain words and yet misunderstood and completely
glossed over by those not ready for it. Every Initiate is familiar with the heated internet
debates between insistent know-it-alls who have quite evidently not glimpsed even the
first principles of the subjects they are pontificating upon so hilariously. This is a sad
fact of the situation when the occult is fashionable and spouting crap is easy[21].
The only reason for becoming a magician is because you have Become a
magician, in the sense that your own Understanding and Self-transformations have
brought you to that place.

 Will Everyone One Day Be Enlightened?

This question is a consequence of the same kind of wrong thinking that is discussed in
the first paragraph of the previous chapter. It erroneously assumes that there is
somehow something 'wrong' with living and enjoying a simple, ordinary life, with all of
its everyday joys and woes. The question is riddled with the same old bullshit that our
society has programmed us with for generations, ever since the putrescent desert
religions spawned by fuckwit Abraham took a grip: namely the supposition that life is
worthless and meaningless, that we are a miserable species in need of some kind of
salvation.
Ain't the case!
It also buys into the insecurities fostered by most religions and belief systems,
whereby if we believe something, then we feel that everyone else must feel and believe
the same way, otherwise it somehow invalidates us. News to you, people: if you are a
magician, aspiring to be one of those Gods we mentioned earlier, you need to grow up
and learn to be your own sovereign. You need the validation of no one, nor is anyone
else's Becoming any responsibility of yours. It's not your place to decree how they live
their lives, and you definitely don't want or need others to shape how you live yours.
These are ingrained bad habits, wrong thinking that must be shed.
So will everyone one day be enlightened? Who knows? Who cares? In the
meantime, so long as they're alive and conscious, their consciousness is experiencing
and learning, gradually coming to know and understand more about its own being,
though the good times and the bad, and that's pretty much what life is for.
Everyone who possesses consciousness, sentience, a sense of Self, is already
enlightened in the most important sense possible: they have realised that they exist, that
they live, that they are individual. Some will embrace this, some will fear it, it will
inspire some and subdue others. But all will deal with the realisation in their own
way. Because that's precisely what being an individual consciousness, a Self, is all
about, and it's nobody else's business to interfere in that process unless comparing
comradely notes by invitation.
Just to open your eyes and face the day with a sense of wonder: that is
enlightenment enough. Anything else is down to the individual.
Does any of this mean that animals too have selves and can experience
enlightenment? Very probably, if their consciousness evolves sufficiently to spark into
Self-awareness. This is a fact that no pet owner will doubt. But that consciousness is
for them to shape and exercise and enjoy, not for us to dictate.

 What Ifs?

To close this series of reflective essays, it seems appropriate to close with a couple of
'what if?' scenarios that have often been thrown my way.
The first is a favourite of evangelical Christians, who will wring their hands in
despair at the fate of my soul and plead with me, But what if, Michael? What if I'm
right and God exists and you haven't accepted Jesus Christ as your Lord and Saviour?
What then, when you stand before God on the Day of Judgement?
The answer is simple: I'd stand there proud and spit in the bastard's eye.
Because if their God did exist and was anything like the vicious, sadistic, psychopathic
monster portrayed in their Bible, there is no way I would bow my knee to that twisted
abhorrence! I would stand proud, and the evil fucker would have to make sure to pack
me off to Hell pretty quickly, before I had chance to boot him in his almighty balls.
Such a horrifying, savage entity warrants no worship, not out of fear and definitely not
out of love. So you can stick your 'what if?' up your arse and toot tunes with it!
The second 'what if?' is a much more reasonable one and merits proper
consideration. This is when I'm speaking with a rational materialist, who says to me,
You're so involved with this magic stuff. Doesn't it worry you that it's getting in the
way of living your life? What if there's nothing in it, if it's all fantasy and self-
delusion? What if matter is all that we are, and there's nothing after death? Aren't you
afraid that you may be wasting your life with this stuff?
There are three answers to this question. The first one is flippant, but true, and
is simply that if it's all self-delusion and there is nothing beyond death, well, I won't
know about it in order to be disappointed in that case, will I?
The second answer is basically contained in the solve and coagula parts of
this book. It will be self-evident that I assert absolutely that magic works, and works
reliably. Once the magical 'knack' is learned, it is something that can be depended upon
to deliver. But it is also apparent that I would argue that nearly all magical success
comes through natural channels and can be explained by processes activated within the
psyche, which empower the magician to achieve things he / she may ordinarily have
deemed extraordinary. Although there are exceptions to this rule, most successful
magic is of this type, so even in a completely mechanistic Universe, I would still claim
that the practice of magic is a tremendous tool and advantage for those who can learn
how to use and apply it effectively, as described in the chapter 'Runes For Sceptics'.
Of course, as this book proceeds beyond that point, most especially into this
latter section, speculating upon such matters as the Void and rebirth, we are once again
entering into the territory of things which are not immediately or definitely verifiable.
They are the best possible answers I can come up with, based upon the model of
Reality I have experientially found to be the least problematic, the most comprehensive
and the most satisfying. But these things remain open to challenge. I and you, as my
reader must always remain aware that these things are theories and working
hypotheses which seem to fit the facts. If they ever fail to fit the facts, there must be
some flaw with them, which will need to be identified and addressed. But at no time is
it likely that these things will be demonstrably proven. So I have to freely admit that
some of the further flung ideas of the philosophy, psychology and cosmology offered in
this book may be incorrect. But since I'm open to new ideas and new information, since
I have an open mind and am working with my current best possible model, that's
perfectly okay. It's important to never let these things crystallise into a dogma. The
purpose of a model of Reality is to help you understand the Real, not to obscure it.
The third answer is specifically addressed to the study of magic, its characters
and its history, its language and its symbolism. Perhaps our sceptical friend may admit
the usefulness of certain magical practices, accepting the presentation in the 'Runes For
Sceptics' chapter, but will find fault with the time spent meditating, poring over old
books, memorising tables of correspondences, and just the whole dark and spooky
aesthetic of magic. Surely, he may suggest, it is a waste of your time to indulge in
all these things, to the detriment of other pursuits? My answer to this one is simply
that everything we choose to do is of necessity done to the detriment of those things that
we choose not to do. Because we simply can't choose to do everything. And my
response in favour of the study of magic is that even if his worldview is correct and
there is no tangible benefit from it, I find it interesting, fun and fascinating, and that is
reason enough to do anything!
I hope this book has succeeded in annoying you and causing you to question
your ideas, because that means that your ideas will become better and stronger in
consequence. And may your magic always be interesting, fun and fascinating, as mine
is for me!
 Other Draconian Magic Titles by Michael
Kelly

APOPHIS

A practical handbook of Draconian Left-Hand Path Initiation. The Primordial Serpent
lurks in the deepest, darkest roots of human consciousness. Each of its seven heads
embodies a power which may be awakened within the psyche.
'Apophis' outlines the transformative process whereby the human Initiate becomes
something much more than human. It provides the weapons necessary to win the war of
consciousness against conformity. It openly teaches the means of immortalising the Self.

 gishjlmur
The Book of Dragon Runes

gishjlmur takes the curriculum of Draconian Magic powered by the Dragon
energies that lie in the deepest parts of the human psyche and applies it within the
context of the runic tradition of Northern Europe.
The myth of Sigurd and the Dragon Fafnir is used as a heroic role model for the
Initiation of the reader, who is guided on a journey of discovery which unlocks the
hidden powers of the body and mind, opening consciousness of higher dimensions and
timeless states of being.
The student is empowered by the polarised energies of the three great Dragons of the
North: Fafnir, the guardian of riches; Jormungandr, the Midgard Serpent who
establishes the boundaries of the world; Nidhogg, the primal Dragon of Chaos, who
transcends life and death.

 Dragonscales

Dragonscales is a collection of essays and articles which supplement the Initiatory
curricula presented in Apophis and gishjlmur. The articles may be read alone or
together with the other two books in the series.
These essays explore some of the Draconian themes in greater depth than was possible
within the scope of the basic curriculum, providing new avenues and techniques for
students to explore. In particular, this book's contents shed much more light upon the
higher 'Heads' in the Draconian initiatory curriculum, providing much food for thought
for the more advanced student.
With expanded lore, practice and philosophy across a broad scope of subjects, this
book will prove invaluable to all who Seek After the Draconian Mysteries.

 Draconian Consciousness
The Book of Divine Madness

Draconian Consciousness is the fourth book in Michael Kelly's Draconian series, and
is intended for advanced students.
This is pre-eminently a book of 'doing', a practical manual of Work to be performed by
the Initiate. It is a challenging and demanding curriculum which gives no quarter and
pitilessly turns many cherished ideas and notions on their heads.
This book was penned from the heart of the Void. It is deliberately full of the
contradictions and about-faces that characterise the Abyss where time and space no
longer exist. Where most occult books fail to deliver, there is REAL power here, use it
at your own risk.
The time has come for Apep, the Ancient Dragon, to swallow the Sun. Let the
consciousness of the Dragon permeate your mind. You will never be the same again.
NOTHING will ever be the same again.

 Words of Power

Words of Power is the latest in Michael Kelly's series of Draconian titles. Its purpose is to reveal the Mysteries of the
spoken and written word, and how the precise use of words is essential to magic.
The book is divided into three sections:
In the first section, historical traditions of magic are studied with specific reference to the ways in which they use
Words and Names of power. The Graeco-Egyptian magical papyri; Qabalism; the grimoire traditions; runes; ogham;
Enochian; Satanism: all are examined closely and their techniques dissected. This demonstrates how the entirety of
magical practice is founded upon words and their correct use.
In the second section, attention is turned to the use of our own contemporary language as a tool to influence and
persuade others, utilising the skills of Lesser Magic. The secrets of persuasion are laid bare, with a full discussion of
how to choose the right words to convey the precise meanings and emotions which will persuade others to do what
you want, whether you are talking to an individual, addressing a crowd, or using the written word.
The third section looks at the Draconian characters created and used by The Apophis Club, demonstrating a method
of drawing forth your own personal sound keys by accessing the qualities associated with various letters in your own
subconscious. These words and letters are then explored further through three levels of numerological analysis.
The reader of this book can expect to come away with not only increased knowledge of the power of applied
language, but the skills and techniques to choose the right words to create the changes he or she most desires. For
magic is the fulfilment of desires, and this book will show you how to fulfil yours.

 Grimoire of the Sevenfold Serpent

The Grimoire of the Sevenfold Serpent is a small handbook of purely practical,
results-oriented magic based upon the Seven Heads of the primordial Dragon and the
teachings of The Apophis Club.

In this handy booklet, the sorcerer will find techniques for evoking the essence of each
of the Seven Heads and applying their powers to achieve worldly success. There are
also instructions for invoking your personal Dmon, an important consideration in
boosting the power of your magic.

Here you will find a useful shortcut to harness powerful energies for those who are new
on the Path, and who wish a foretaste of the unearthly consciousness which is their
Draconian heritage.

 Gods and Monsters

Gods and Monsters is a collection of five profound and challenging writings by some of the foremost members of
The Apophis Club. These essays seek to address the nature and essence of entities such as Gods, Dmons and
Spirits from both practical and philosophical standpoints, offering up new insights and tools to Initiates of the
Draconian current:

Vampyric Alchemy by Steve Dee and Lucien von Wolfe. This study examines the archetypes of
the Lycanthrope and the Vampyre, and the ways in which they may be awakened and used in the
process of Self-transformation.

At The Left Hand of the Goddess by Matt Anon and Durga Mahavidya. An in-depth study of
Indian Tantric practice (the original Left-Hand Path), with particular emphasis upon the role of
taboo-breaking female Divinities within this current.

The Dragon in Antiquity by Joyful Hydra. A detailed study of the initiatory importance of the
Dragon in the roots of mythic traditions, with particular emphasis upon the Indo-Iranian
mythology. Contains the necessary keys to apply such mythology in practice, as well as
understanding it within its proper context.

Haunters of the Dark by Michael Kelly. A study of ghosts, hauntings and the spirits of the
dead. Focuses upon the possible causes of hauntings and culminates in a necromantic experiment
to determine the fate of the soul after death.

Remanifestations in Rheged by Jez Green. A personal account which demonstrates how
Initiates can go about connecting with the mythology and spirit of the landscape that surrounds
them, providing themselves with powerful foundations to stand upon. Witty, informative and
profoundly practical.

 Runes of Mann

Runes of Mann is a study of the runes used by the Viking settlers on the Isle of Man
approximately 1,000 years ago.

The first part of the book describes the exact set of runes used by the Manx runemasters,
a variant of the set of sixteen runes known as the Younger Futhark.

In its second section, the book gives detailed descriptions, illustrations and
photographs of many of the runestones that have survived on the Island since the Viking
Age. Stones bearing the Celtic ogham characters are also described and pictured.

The third section of the book seeks to recreate methods whereby those interested in
using the Manx runes for divination or magic may put them into practice today.

An important book, both historically and practically.

 The Sevenfold Mystery

The Enochian system of magic, received by Dr John Dee and his clairvoyant colleague Edward Kelly in the 16th
Century, has fascinated magicians and occultists ever since the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn adapted its
mysterious Tablets and language to their use.
Enochian magic was the force that established the dominion of the British Empire in Elizabethan England. It
was used by the Golden Dawn and Aleister Crowley to invoke incredible visions of the Magical Universe, and has
been in use by occultists ever since, with frequent tweaking and adaptation.
This new book on Enochian magic aligns the system to the Draconian methodology and curriculum of the
Apophis Club, marrying the parts of the system to the Seven Heads of the primordial Dragon and creating a powerful
engine for Left-Hand Path Initiation in the process.
The book is divided into five sections:

A clear, precise summary of the core parts of the system
A discussion of the Work of Dee and Kelly, and how the system was first derived
An overview of other individuals and groups who have Worked with Enochian
The bulk of the book comprises the detailed grimoire of Apophis Club Enochian Initiation, a series
of ritual Workings, meditations and challenges which will lead the successful practitioner to the
pinnacle of Self and into the heart of the Void
A discussion of the apocryphal Ordines Descendens: Satanic Enochian magic

The author says: There is tremendous power to be found in this book and the Work it contains and it is my ardent
hope that it will be as useful and transformative to others as it has been to me. I make no apologies for sacred cows
slaughtered along the way, nor for necessary innovations. This is a book for progressive magicians, not Elizabethan
purists. And I really do believe for reasons that will become apparent that John Dee would approve of the
progress that has been made and that time has not stood still.

[1] See The Confessions of Michael Kelly, Vol. 3: The Children of Set for full details.
[2] There is one very important exception to this, relating to stage magic when a card may be 'forced'; it
doesn't concern us here when looking at 'vanilla' divination.
[3] Although Paul Fosterjohn, who co-founded The Apophis Club with me right back in its earliest days,
did moonlight as a magician. His show was a thing of terror, however, including all manner of macabre effects and
culminating in a sance which patrons were known to run from, screaming. It was Paul who introduced me to the
ways of the sinister stage showman in earnest.
[4] For the purposes of this definition, 'senses' includes those inventions we make to extend our physical
senses and investigate things for us, such as microscopes, telescopes, and all manner of other technological
information-gatherers.
[5] though even this view is challenged and expanded as another 'lie to children' in Apophis Club Lecture
#20, 'Time and the World Tree', a philosophical conceptualisation not yet ready for print. Visit the Apophis Club
forums at the website listed at the front of this book for further information on subscribing to the lecture series and
keeping abreast of the very latest cutting edge ideas in Draconian Magic.
[6] It is so difficult to describe these relationships in conventional language, which is why Crowley titled
his book devoted to this level of consciousness The Book of Lies. Almost everything said is metaphorical. 'The
nature of the Void', for instance, is so obviously an oxymoron. But that's all there is to it, so your consciousness
will just have to deal with it and make the right calls.
[7] And one might well argue, what is such a guiding principle, if not a God? And what is a God if not
such a guiding principle?
[8] You know, the ones descended from that insane fucker, Abraham
[9] which would be suggested by the association with consciousness
[10] I've actually heard this said to grieving relatives.
[11] Initiates do have a larger clout, because of the accelerated focus and Understanding of
consciousness, allied to Will. But wise Initiates are also aware of the strength of mass movements and the flow of
power, which is why they usually harness existing patterns and currents of consciousness instead of swimming
directly against the stream.
[12] or at least Christianity and Islam, less so Judaism, which is much less vocal about post-mortem
matters and does not promise an afterlife specifically.
[13] However, do see the final chapter later, 'What Ifs?', for some further speculation and debate.
[14] Nevertheless, I will refer you once again to the 'What Ifs?' chapter for further discussion of this
theme.
[15] Rather hilariously, if we listen to the exaggerated claims and oneupmanship bids of some of his
followers, he himself would appear to have been reincarnated at least a hundred different times simultaneously
since his death, with each 'incarnation' possessing a bare hundredth of his genius!
[16] Note that in this instance, I use the term Initiate to denote anyone who has been touched by the
Mysteries, not just formal magicians or mystics, but boundary-leaping scientists, artists, writers: those in whom the
creative Will and Imagination are strong. Einstein and Pratchett were more Adept than most Hierophants.
[17] You may read of my own necromantic experiments in the Apophis Club titles Gods and Monsters
and The Sevenfold Mystery.
[18] The Celtic doctrine of rebirth is referenced in my Book of Ogham, and my biography of English
shaman Dusty Miller 13th is also worth reading in this respect: WyrdWood: The Story of Dusty Miller.
[19] Some are, don't doubt that.
[20] and in such cases, the Will responds quickly and provides the necessary funds, because it is
responding to genuine, deep level Need, not greed or mere wanting.
[21] As a footnote for those who knew me as a young, inclusive Magister Templi a couple of decades
ago, yes, I have become much more scathing, cynical and dismissive of fools as the years have rolled by much to
my credit!