Atmosphere within the ritual space

The atmosphere of a ritual can vary greatly from one ritual to another, but it is always of great importance. Atmosphere is a fluid thing; It can be changed in order to fit whatever working or goal is being attempted. It has a strong effect on the psyche and a person’s confidence, which can strongly influence the effectiveness of a working. There are several ways in which atmosphere can be manipulated.

In ceremonial magic, among other forms, there is often a lot of importance put on specific tools, symbols, methods, and actions. Everything must be done in a precise manner, at a precise time during the ritual, using precisely the right materials. What most magicians don’t understand though, is that the adherence to these principles is more about the atmosphere they create within their own minds, than it is about fulfilling some magical recipe that will guarantee success. It is through them knowing that they have done everything correctly, exactly the way it should be done, that the needed confidence and surety of purpose is instilled. They know they have done everything right, so they know the working should be a success. Confidence and strength of will is what breeds magical success, not staunch adherence and conformity.

In other types of ritual, the correct atmosphere can often times be achieved through much less effort. Music is usually one of the most effective, and most commonly used, due to it’s versatility and inherent ability to influence and affect mood. You can almost always find a piece of music to put you into a particular mood, regardless of what it is. But even common ritual tools are sometimes nothing more than items designed to alter the atmosphere and mood of a working. The symbols and icons one uses, the candles and the incense one burns, are often really just props that induce the correct kind of atmosphere for that particular working. Because regardless of path or “color”, magic comes from within. Everything else, is just fluff.

May Musings

Sorry for the delay in any posts this month. I got off to a bad start and offline life kept me offline. It seems if I forget my first of the month post, which I did this month, no one else posts.

This months posts are supposed to be about ritual atmosphere. Creating it, relishing in it, and how it effects us psychologically.

There’s really nothing else new this month, please correct me if I’m wrong, so enjoy the posts (if our bloggers would be so kind as to post something even if they missed their scheduled day) and we’re always looking for dedicated bloggers so if you’re interested, drop me a line at [email protected].

Things I Wish I knew…..

There are so many things I wish I knew, I don’t know where to begin. Things just keep adding to the list, whether I like it or not. A post on this site on possession I was reading not five minutes ago has now raised the question of who are the ‘others’. 

I could argue black is blue over the ideas of knowing things before I set upon my path of occult enlightenment, but if I already knew them, I would not learn anything, and to some extent, I think our purpose here is to learn. Life on the physical plane is very much akin to term time in school, death a schol holiday, then you are reborn to learn some more. So with this idea, I am know faced with the philosophical question of do I really want to know upfront what I am learning through life, and deprive myself of this process ? How much would I want to know ? If I knew everything, what would be the purpose of life in the first place ?

If there was something I would have wanted to know earlier than I did, it would have been the practice of Demonolatry, but at least now I have found it, and looking back, I can say, yes, I did enjoy the experience of searching and trying different things. Looking to the future, I am enjoying contemplating the questions that my search has raised, especially who are the ‘others’.

A phrase from one of my favorite films “thinking and working things out for ourselves is the one true freedom we have.” Don’t give up that freedom by wishing to know everything upfront.

Bonus prize points if you can guess the film !!

Ten Things I Wish I knew…

Ten things I wish I knew when I started out:

1. Never go in to any magickal work expecting to do it once and know it completely afterward.

2. Every three years (at most) go back to the beginning to find all the things you missed.

3. Don’t be literal – think outside the box.

4. Real magicians create.

5. Truth is in the eye of the beholder. (i.e. Truth is subjective)

6. Daemons are always talking, you just need to shut up and listen.

7. It’s no secret that like attracts like and if you think it and be it, you will attract it. (For good or bad.)

8.  When you’re ready for it,  it will come.

9.  Titles are meaningless and motivation is everything. Some people are only motivated by a title.

10.  It’s good to have people whose ideas you respect and who respect your ideas to bounce ideas off of. (This doesn’t mean you have to agree.)

So Many Things…

I have several things that I wish I would have known when I began my path, with hindsight being 20/20 and all that. I’m only going to touch on three here though, so I don’t run on for pages. I apologize for the post coming a day late, but since the introduction of a new puppy to the family, it’s been really hard to get just about anything done. Except deal with the puppy, of course.

The thing I regret the most, is not being aware that subjects like metaphysics and occult studies were actually available as college paths. As a teenager I actually had moments where I wished that there was real magic, and that I could study that in college. Without that knowledge, I did have other subjects that interested me, but nothing that made me say, without a doubt, yes I want to go to college. Subsequently I did not go, and while I’m not particularly upset about that, knowing now that I could have gone to study subjects that would have really interested me, it really is a regret. I still may go, but it would have been nice to know that stuff back then.

It would have also been nice to know exactly how solitary of a path this life can be, and how rare it truly is to have someone to trade knowledge with and ask questions to. My best friend and I started out on our paths together, and while neither of us were experts, it did really help to have someone else there that had an opinion on a certain subject. I wish I would have spent more time with him, really pursuing our spiritual goals together while we had the chance, instead of allowing the every day doldrums of life like work and friends and parties take precedence.

Finally, I really wish I would have known about Demonolatry when I started out. The history of generational practice, and the formal structure of study and advancement would have been absolutely invaluable to me at the beginning. Instead, being left to my own devices, I picked up information and guidance wherever I could, whenever I could. And while this led me to develop a more critical and cynical mind due to the types of people I met, it surely didn’t facilitate my spiritual or magical progress. I think knowing about the Demonolatry community and the resources at it’s disposal, probably would have led me to better results, more quickly.

Introducing the DB Publishing Chapbook Series

DB Publishing is currently seeking submissions for our Chapbook Series of books. These  books are generally between 50-80 pages (that’s between 20K-30K word count) and focus on a topic of interest to Daemonolaters.

These topics can include (but certainly aren’t limited to)

  • Sigil Magick
  • Goetia topics
  • Grimoiric Magick (wherein Daemons are treated respectfully)
  • Candle Magick
  • Herbal Magick
  • Necromantic Magick
  • Sex Magick
  • Worship/Prayerbooks
  • Ritual Books
  • Daemons (for example – a book entirely devoted to Ashtaroth)

Please do your best to try not to repeat all the information already out there. Unique viewpoints are welcome. Find your own angle. I’d prefer to stay away from the “My Personal Story” or “My Personal Path/Belief System” type books (unless VERY unique) and instead go with how-to’s or practical guides for working.

We provide editorial staff and we do put our own cover on the book to match the rest of the books in the Chapbook Series. All Chapbook Series books retail for $7.99.

We pay our authors $1 per copy sold (based on quarterly sales reports). So you won’t get rich, but you’ll get a little something for your trouble. Most of our Chapbooks sell 2-4 copies a month. So please don’t submit if you have grand expectations of selling hundreds or even thousands of copies of your work. This is a very small niche market and none of us is getting rich (publisher, editors, or authors).

Send only full manuscripts to [email protected]   If you absolutely must write to inquire, please be brief and to the point. Our editors are busy people and don’t have time to handhold would-be authors from idea to finished product. Serious inquiries only please.

If you’re looking to see the kinds of books we publish, some of our chapbook series includes The Art of Creative Magick, Goetic Demonolatry, Ater Votum: Daemonolatry Prayer, and Sanctus Quattuordecim (which is still in print btw – we rewrote that entire section of Grimoirium Daemonolatrie and added new material so we saw no harm in keeping the chapbook in print). You can get all of these chapbooks on Amazon and those that aren’t graphic intensive can also be found on Kindle and Nook.  Visit our Bookstore for links to online retailers.

Some of our upcoming titles include Nuctemeron Gates and Selinda Dukanté’s Energy Workbook.

A Mentor!

Man how would I really would have loved a physical mentor worth his salt when I was starting up.

When I was around 14-15 I found the word “Occultism” through sensationalist publications, I used to be a UFO freak around that age, and until I was around 19 (I met a girl with some serious issues with abductions and other people didn’t had much of a good story with that stuff, I also found incredible amounts of disinformation and bullcrap conspiracy theorists, so I completely lost the hype and quitted entirely)

And I became fascinated into the occult looking for spells, and texts, but since my mother language is Spanish (and I was quite young, I’m still young but yeah I was younger), medieval texts like Agrippa, Picatrix, and a lot of the old Grimoires were not my fancy, Not to mention I live in a cultural pit, and I still knew nothing about Masons from Dan Brown novels that age (sad I know).

¿So where do ended being a teenager with no reference of Magical practice and working with spirits?… Chaos MagicK!  It was easy and all the cool stuff I liked like video games could be in there and I didn’t needed to understand much (Or so I thought Im recently reviewing Phil Hine and considering Andrieh Vitimus Hands on Chaos Magic). So I started launching sigils and doing rites my way, everything was comfortable and nice (Thought I never even dared to any of the actual Masses of PH).

Only the spirits of my former apartment know if any of that out of the mill of pseudo magic actually did something, but I was having fun.

Until I decided to actually work with spirits, so naturally I went with something I could relate to and was easy, so I decided to call somebody’s servitor (now fully grown Egregore).

Katagami-sama (Kagayakashikute Taiyouno Shiniryuu-Kitsune-Sama) an entity created as a general all trades servitor, sent to china by his creator, Rin Daemoko, to master the path of Hitsu-zen, which provided how to build an altar, the Kanji of the entity and a written contract, so I decided I would set up my Shrine to the Young god of the Martial arts, (Instructions still available on forums), and I would work with him, since I was moved by anime and stuff, I did quite a lot of meditation in front of that shrine and even started to get interest in things like the Kuji-in (still like that one) and eventually even started to practice Muay-Thai, one good day I was sorting through my text messages and I found a message froma four digits telephone number: “YOUR SHRINE MUST BE IN A QUIET PLACE, MEANING AWAY FROM THE PATH OF OTHER PEOPLE”

Even  thought I always had a very calm feeling around Katagami-sama, and understood its evolution as a very gentle being over all, I have to say I almost peed myself right there, any doubt in my mind that this was real; it was blotted out right that very instant.

I moved the shrine right away hidden inside a closet I would only open for practice.

At the same time, I found Brother Moloch 969, Evocational Magics forum, and It was there old grimoires started to pop out my attention, still I must admit Im still find very hard to fancy reading ye old English, so I kind started to get informed by commentaries or other people’s practices, like Rufus Opus, Aghor Pir, Brother Moloch 969, Jason Miller, Aaron Leitch, Andrieh Vitimus.

And Finally one good day Moloch 969 comented on Ellen Purswell’s Goetic Demonolatry, and since I was eager to know a way into Goetia without all the Golden Dawn’s thingamabobs and whatnots, and I was really unconvinced on the cohersitive ways of Evocation of some ceremonial magicians, I jumped right in, buying that book, along the Demonolaters Guide to Demonic Magic, Demonolatry Goetia, Sanctus Quattor Decim, and  Later the Infernal Colopatiron, as what happened with my first daemonic expiriences will be for another blog.

My practice has evolved quite a lot and my expiriencies are now quite far more deeper and magic is molding the way my life moves in ways I might not even suspect, and usually its a combination of practices, I hardly practice only one tradition or system, and I try to keep it varied.

To conclude I would have saved quite a lot of hassle, time, and waste of energy if I had somebody in my face explaining me thing from personal expirience, but sooner than later at least I found the right books and getting used to my new practices, thought I think there is something unique in human conection that cannot be replaced by mere information.

 

P.S. In case you are wondering I dismantled my Katagami-sama’s altar when moving to my new apartment (Ive been considering reinstalling it but I still have quite some hassle with space being smaller so It might take some time)

What I wish I knew…

Wow, where to begin with this.. Well first off with my past experience, I was more shamanic.. More nature based belief, and with that came with alot of limitations of how I was trained.

Magick squares and numbers in magick. I find it fascinating now since I can basically use it for alot of things, back then I never lift a finger in learning it..  But now I’m reading up on it.. Has Stef says “You’ll start to see it everywhere.”  Trust me, you’ll start to notice things…

Demons!  Has I progressed I knew demons has entities like angels and gods, but was surrounded with people who believed them to be evil spirits ( not Satanic, like negative makers). Now I realize that I am sort of right with it, so many missed opportunities in the past to connect with them.

The crazies..  If I would have known there are crazy people out there getting their brains melted on magick (or disorders and using magick) I would of stayed isolated in my world.. But thankfully its only a handful of them, and the rest of the people are pretty cool.

I’m sure there is so many things I wish I knew back then, but those I keep to myself and allow you the reader to stumble in the dark.. mawhahahha *evil laugh*

April Updates

This month the bloggers discuss what they wish they would have known when they started out.

Meanwhile, in the bookstore, we’ve done some revamping so it’s easier to find what you want.

Audrey Brice’s new occult paranormal Into Darkness is finally available now for those of you who like contemporary occult fiction. It will be added to the bookstore here before the day is out.

S. Connolly released last month that her next grimoire, Keys of Ocat: A Grimoire of Daemonolatry Nygromancy will be released later this year through Nephilim Press. We will link it from the bookstore once it becomes available. I am told it could possibly be available as soon as October this year (possibly for ordering).

The official press release states: The Keys of Ocat reveals the never before published Saturn rites, seals, and theophantic gate opening rituals of Ocat, the abyssal gatekeeper of the dead. Behind His gates dwell the Daemons of death including Euronymous, Balberith, Bune, Hekate, Frucissiere, and many others. These blood magick rituals, talismans and seals will aid the advanced magician in conjuring Daemons to speak with the dead, commune with death, and discover the true meaning of mortality and spiritual immortality. Be forewarned, however, Ocat is not known to be a friendly gatekeeper to all magi who approach Him, and the Daemons behind His gates are some of the most terrifying of their nature.

I think I’ve covered everything and I once again apologize for not posting on the first.

-Frank

Those Damn Christians Want Everything !

Demonic possession is a very old and much talked about subject. Before the advances of medicine and psychiatry, all mental illness was blamed on the demons ‘possessing God’s innocents’. However, there were some very interesting cases – The Nuns at Lourdes for example – not really explainable unless you start bringing in dubious ideas like mass hallucinations and major mental trauma. Another case is the true story of the boy who started behaving strangely after his grandmother died – he did play on the ouija board mind you – which formed the basis of the Exorcist story line. The boy’s story can be found in Possession by Thomas Allen. I remember reading (although I can’t remember which book), that during the middle ages, the Demons walked amongst us, before deciding that we couldn’t really be trusted and moved to a higher dimension (much like the dragons).

Possession has been a major and ‘living’ part of all religions since the dawn of time. The Shamans sought possession by the spirit of the eagle and jaguar. Voodoo priests still regularly offer themselves up for possession today. Minor possessions occur in tv programs such as Most Haunted. Possession is feared amongst some religions such as Christianity and Islam (who fear the Djinn).

It should be noted that nothing horrendous tends to happen until you get Christianity involved. Its always the ‘innocent children of God’ who get possessed. The Church seems to catalyze these things. Even though Islam fear the Djinn, they do respect them and pay them courtesy. Not exactly true of the Christians, who despise virtually every other religion and non believer, and condem all other deities as false gods. Any wonder sometimes that these other deities might get miffed ? Back to possession. It is interesting to note that the Church has a list of things to certify possession. Unfortunately, nearly all but one of them also occur on the list of things that may happen to someone who ‘has the Holy Spirit brough down upon them’. Speaking in tongues, performing ‘magic’ and miracles, displaying abnormal abilities. In fact, the only discerning factor they have is ‘aversion to holy relics and men of the cloth’. So, in other words, you can display all the major recognised factors of possession, but unless you do something dirty with a crucifix or utter things to the priest along the lines of ‘your mother cooks socks in hell’ then according to the rule book, you could be possessed by a Christianity approved spirit !

So, the Christians have claimed the rights either way you look at it and argue, the Christians have it covered. Mind you, if it wasn’t for the Demons having a sense of humour and not obviously getting too annoyed with us, we wouldn’t have any of the entertaining films such as The Exorcist, The Rite and the new one just released The Devil Inside.

Thinking things logically – would Demons, (aka deities before Christianity) spend all that time, inside a single persons body ‘until it rots’ ? Don’t you think they might have something else better to do ? Another thing perhaps twisted by Christianity ?