Peeking in the Black Mirror

I finished construction and initial blessing of my black scrying mirror earlier this month (in the picture above). I ordered a piece of custom-cut glass (18-inches in diameter, and ¼ of an inch thick) and got black spray paint, per the instructions of Frater Ashen Chassan. 

I should emphasize, this is *practice* scrying equipment, and I thank Fr. Chassan for his emphasis on the beginning student or rookie-magus to spend as much time as possible developing his third-eye and scrying ability. The theory is, if one attempts to scry a dark mirror in formal ritual (Goetic operations) or a crystal glass (angelic operations), then the practice work makes it that much easier.

A few notes about the mirror.

*I waited to spray paint it until the day/hour of Monday (Luna)during waxing of a Moon.
*The nice thing about starting on a Mercurial hour, is it flows right into Luna!
*I needed to use nearly the *entire* spray paint can on the 18-inch glass on one side.
*That’s because little holes of light kept peeking through

After the mirror dried, and the days were still waxing to a full moon, I decided one night to try it out. Not serious scrying, just setting up and doing an initial blessing. That’s when the interesting stuff happened.

Short story: I’m not ready yet to proceed with scrying.

Long story: Why? Well, when I set up the dark mirror and lit the candles, immediately I felt a little funny, like there was another window open in my room, and things could see me or I could, if I gazed long enough, see them. It wasn’t oppressive, but definitely affected my mind. One message kept crashing through: “This is real. Magic is not something to take lightly. If you approach scrying, you need to do it with the full protection of the divine and with absolute attention.”

This really hit home *why* the mages and secret practitioners of Solomonic magic took the precautions they did...because they were dealing with beings that were beyond the physical realm, existing in dimensions of reality inaccessible but through very specific techniques, scrying being one of those initial doorways. I had to smile too...for when people make fun of how drawing a circle on the ground can protect you...they fail to realize they’re talking about a physical act that ripples out into dimensions and affects our being on nonphysical dimensions of consciousness.

Additional faux pas - I did *not* set up a circle of blessed chalk or rope around my sitting space, or recite a circle prayer over it, so I felt less protected, even though I wasn't actively trying to contact/reach out to a specific spirit.

In the end, I felt off balance enough that I took my friend William Wallen's advice and did a Lesser Banishing Ritual of the Pentagram (LBRP) to try and stay grounded and cleanse the room after I took the mirror down.

Things I will do before attempting scrying again:

*Memorize the initial KoS prayer for divine light pre-scrying
*Memorize the Blessing of the Ground/Working space from DSIC
*Slowly start to memorize the other DSIC operations.
*Use blessed chalk in my sitting area

*Finish each session with a LBRP (one of the few lodge magic practices I’m entertaining at the moment).


Keep the Light, Blessings to All,

The Aspergillum

"Thou shalt then make unto thyself a sprinkler of vervain, fennel, provinca, sage, valerian, mint [majorana], garden-basil, and rosemary,5gathered in the day and hour of Mercury, the moon being in her increase. Then cut a handle with a single stroke from a virgin branch of hazel; the length should be three spans.6 Bind together these herbs with a thread spun by a young maiden, and engrave upon the handle on the one side the characters..."

-Key of Solomon, Book II Chapter XI


The first magical tool (celestial implement) needed on my journey is the Aspergillum, or Holy Water Sprinkler. This is the foundation of all tools and, along with the Holy Water, can be used to bless and consecrate any other tools or working space for any magical ritual. In other words, this is where the base of the pyramid begins for me.

So, to do this, I needed: 1. a proper branch, 2. proper herbs and 3. virgin-spun thread.

I ordered a 1. virgin-cut branch from a trusted Solomonic practiioner in Costa Rica, which was cut in the day or hour of Mercury. I then ordered the 2. appropriate (above) vervain, fennel, valerian from Alchemy-Works.com, which is a great resource for harder-to-find herbs. The others (mint, sage, garden-basil and rosemary) I obtained from the local grocery store/organic food place. Finally, I ordered the virgin-spun thread from Solomonic mage and author Aaron Leitch on his page DocSolomons.com. I highly recommend this page for anyone needing holy water, virgin-spun thread.

I waited until the Day and Hour of Mercury, and did the following steps (these are short-hand notes of what I was to do, so please ask me or look to the KoS for more information:


*Dip thy hands in water and Sprinkle over the sticks, with devotion.
*Trace these Key of Solomon characters on the stick:

*Gather all of the herbs from boxes and line them up on a plate.
*Because the incense was flicked by initial holy water hands, censor is good.
*Go outside, w/ Aspergillum stick, lightly sand it and charge it with devotion (Raph)
*When charged, go back inside and bind the herbs with virgin-spun thread
* Light cense and bless the stick (w/herbs on it) w/ devotion
*Engrave aspergillum with characters.


I hope to use this with daily meditation/room clearing, and of course before any ritual work or scrying.

Fetching Port In Light's Harbor

First Hour of Day of Mercury, Wednesday, During Waxing of the Moon.

Praise you, Light! Praise you, All-Good Energy of the Multi-Dimensional Reality! Guide my thoughts to only see You, polish my heart to reflect my inner divinity, which is Me, You, God. 

Hypocrisy has enchained my consciousness. With the infectious-gravity of habit, with the inflaming of desire for flesh and food and all things that tap on the dopamine-drip, thus I kneel in chained defeat. The Celestial Intelligentsia depart, halting their benign vibrations, as I close myself off from higher echelons of magical progress. I used to think I could manage my habits and still carry on the work of a neophyte in the Solomonic Magical tradition, but more and more I am seeing that this is impossible for a Hermetic Mage. I offer just a few pieces of evidence:

"But first thou must tear off from thee the cloak which thou dost wear,—the web of ignorance, the ground of bad, corruption’s chain, the carapace of darkness, the living death, sensation’s corpse, the tomb thou carriest with thee, the robber in thy house, who through the things he loveth, hateth thee, and through the things he hateth, bears thee malice...

For that it hath with mass of matter blocked them up and crammed them full of loathsome lust, so that thou may’st not hear about the things that thou should’st hear, nor see the things that thou should’st see."

-Corpus Hermeticum, book VII.


I'm realizing Hermetic magic isn't about *denying* the body's cravings or lower energies, locking them in a bottle of self-hatred and "sin". That's the domain of organized mega-church religious groups. Instead, Hermetic magic is about *harmonizing* lower energies (lust, desire, cravings, bodily stimulation) under the domain of the higher consciousness, The Holy Mind, the only Good, God. For me, this harmonization takes the form of daily meditation, hymns and inner songs that induce a trance-like state of light-ecstasy, and constant praise of God (the Light, the Good), and incorporating that into myself.

But, that's where hypocrisy snakes it's way into my actions. I am notorious for paying lip service to all of these noble lightworkings, but fail in consistently "keeping the light" in praise, meditation and thankfulness. And it's this hypocrisy that keeps us down, that denies us, as the Corpus Hermeticum tells us, from seeing and hearing what we must hear and see (i.e., the truth of our own divinity).

This concept of waging spiritual war against hypocrisy is also articulated in a 17th century document involving Dr Thomas Rudd, a well-known angelic magician who continued research into holy invocations. In this relation, Rudd and Sir John Heydon encounter spiritual beings, and relate various effects that these 'Good Genii' have on a man. But the end of this document sums up the Path to Theurgy perfectly:

"It is lawful to pray to God for such a good genius or Angel. And to purge the mind from pride and hypocrisy which is one reason that all men are not capable of Consociation with these good Genii, for faith and desire aught to be full sail to make such voyages prosperous, and our end and purpose pure and sincere; but if pride & conceitedness or affection of some peculiar privilege above other mortals spur a man up to so bold and enterprise, his Devotion will no more move wither God or the good Genii than the whining voice of the counterfeit will stir the affection of the discretely charitable. Nay, this presumption may invite some real friends to deceive him & be his destruction.

But the safest wisdom is the sincere consecrating [of] Man's Soul to God, and the aspiring to nothing but to a profound pitch of humility, as not to be conscious to our selves of being at all touched with the praise and applause of men; and to such a free and universal sense of charity as to be delighted with the welfare of another as much as our own; they that only have their eye upon these will find coming in what ever their heart can desire; but they that put forth their hand to catch at high things as they fancy & neglect these, prove at last but a plague to themselves and a laughing stock to the world."

Or, as the American Rap Music Artist Marshall Mathers articulates: "There be no such thing as half-way crooks."

Frater Ashen Chassan, a modern Hermetic magician, author and researcher into the occult arts of Celestial Invocations mentions in his book "Gateways Through Stone and Circle", that a wise man once said the most powerful thing we humans can say to ourselves is "No". To choose. To never straddle the fence, but rather, to plunge headlong into the pools of light and divinity, consecrating our consciousness to all things holy and One. To be sincere. Sincerity is the paddle from which we can cut through the waters of hypocrisy and exhausted, low-energy, and make sail to the Port of Light, to Honesty and Magic and Humility.

Praise and Bless You, Oh God, oh Thoth, or All Mind, Universal Brimmer Of Consciousness and Light! Please help me as I seek to always praise Thee, harmonize my lower passions to sing in union the song of your Light.

Sudden Trance

Easter Sunday - Sol rises on the first hour of Sunday, Michael's Day.

Have you ever been suddenly approached by the divine? Something that made you question "What is this humming eternity?"

Even sitting in a meeting, suddenly the occult tides of multi-dimensional energy and hieroglyphics wash in wave after wave over my mind, washing and cleansing my spirit.  Oh Majesty! Oh Allah In A Glittering Leaf! What *is* this feeling?  Does anyone else *feel* this? Unreal.  

Theurgy: I don’t need to run, exhausted, to the beach to fill my pail with water and haul it back to the mote of my sandcastled body.  I just have to *allow* myself to be still...let the waves come and wash naturally...they wash all the time!  Always waves!  Whether we feel them or not!  Whether we cling to occultness, or materialism, or this thought or that...the waves crash!  I am so humbled right now...proud, little flesh me….so thankful to the Almighty.

*What *IS* this?  Feels similar to being on bill hicks...just seeing the spiral move across my skin, rabbis gripping brown robes in Egyptian tombs full of multi-dimensional hieroglyphics!  Just so amazing.  So thankful.  Thank you, Lord.  “be still and know I am God.”  How true the bell of these words reverberate throughout my soul.