CHAPTER FOUR

1.There has been a great upsurge in the interest in magic over the past two decades, but in all the literature there is no indication of ‘when’. Astrology is Magic and Magic - apart from the bumbling efforts of sorcerers - is Astrology. Since the beginning of time, what we now know as two distinct subjects used to be one.

2.There are four weapons required in Stellar Magic - the Wand, Cup, Knife and Pantacle. Each weapon symbolises a different element - wand=fire, cup=water, pantacle=earth, sword=air. They represent different aspects of a force and also different ways of dealing with it. The fire wand directs power, the air sword can change its nature. The cup contains and the pantacle earths in a specific way.

3.The power invoked by the fire wand can be directed to negative symbols like the cup and pantacle. These negative weapons can then be charged with the planetary force. The method used is to invoke the power using the appropriate ritual. The power is invoked from above via the Qabalistic Cross, it is directed down the wand through the right arm. The power is visualised in the colour appropriate to the planet involved. The magician visualises the power pouring down from the planet and suffusing him in its energy. It streams from the wand and charges the cup or pantacle with whatever energy is required by the ceremony.

4.The wand is used to invoke the powers of Jupiter Mercury and the Sun. The wand is a symbol of the will as these planets are symbols of the divine will. The sword or knife is used to invoke the powers of Mars, because the energy of Mars is so violent that only a destructive weapon can mediate it. It is a weapon not much used in Astral magic, except in works of Destruction and vengeance where the magician invokes the power of Mars at the astrologically correct moment, charges his knife with its power and stabs the symbol of his enemy. The symbol can be anything from a photographic image or talisman. When a magician resorts to this kind of magic it is a very good idea that he is certain that he has not lost the golden thread. He must know that the law of Karma will cause him to experience that which he is afflicting on others. There is no grace and guilt in magic. The balance will be redeemed and that is all.

5.The cup is a wonderful weapon, it is owned by all of the Goddesses and he who knows how to wield it can be assured of the hearts of all real women. The cup is used to invoke the spirits of the Moon and Venus. The powers of Venus are truly visions of beauty. It is second only to Mars in ease of invocation. The spirits of these two planets can be conjured to visible appearance easily when their stars are right. The best way of dealing with the power of Venus is to hold the cup in the left hand, and allow the power to flow through it into the cup. I find it easier to use the Amber aspect of her light than the emerald when charging a cup. The cup itself can be empty or water or wine can be charged with her power. This is useful if one wishes to influence a lady. It is easy to introduce the fluid to the lady should that type of magical link be required, using a drink or something of that nature. The Goddess is invoked and the cup is charged with a particular aspect of her i.e. the lady in question for all women are different aspects of the Goddess. It can also be charged with the desire for the magician, so that the woman will come to magician. However if the Goddess is simply invoked and worshipped this should be enough, without going to all the trouble of being specific and invoking her for a particular woman. If one is beloved of the Goddess she will give of her daughters with open arms: It is usually enough to invoke Venus to intercede on one’s behalf. She is also, being the Goddess of beauty the principle invoked for all works of art and beauty. The Moon is also involved with the cup. She is invoked for specific direction.

6.The weapons must be made and consecrated under the correct Stellar influences so that they vibrate in sympathy with and mediate the power involved. The ritual of the appropriate planet is used to consecrate the weapon. The weapons must be perfumed with the appropriate perfume and ideally kept in silks of the appropriate colour. The perfume must be blessed and consecrated on the feast day of the planet.

7.A preliminary consecration is performed in the day and hour of the planet. The Grand consecration is performed on the feast day of the planet which governs the weapon - i.e. - Sun conjunct Moon in Aries for the Wand; Sun conjunct Venus for the Cup; Sun conjunct Jupiter for the Pantacle; and Sun conjunct Mars for the Knife; using the invocations of the planets as indicated in Chapter 5. The weapon is consecrated at the section marked ‘‘The consecration of the talisman’’.

8.A burning incense stick is used to make the symbols over the weapon: there must be nothing left of the incense stick at the end of the rite so that the integrity of the weapon is preserved.

9.The Wand is of the element of Fire, and the incense used is galangal or camphor.

10.The Cup is of the element of Water, and the incense used is rose, sandalwood, and a tiny amount of vanilla.

11.The Pentacle is of the element of Earth, and the incense used is dittany mixed with cedar.

12.The Knife is of the element of Air, and the incense used is a general incense tinged with sulphur.

13.Although the names of the planetary spirits come from the Hebrew, they predate the Hebrew. They are basic sounds that have come down from antiquity, sounds that awaken the planetary Gods, Archangels and Spirits.

14.These names are in fact sounds that influence the deepest and highest aspects of our psyche. They belong to no religion - how can the true names of God ‘‘belong’’ to a religion? When a baby says ‘‘MA’’ because it is one of the easiest things for a baby to say, it is enunciating one of the highest Names of Power, ‘‘AIMA’’ - Mother. The root ‘Ma’ for ‘Mother’ exists in most languages, as does another sound a baby makes - ‘‘ABA’’, meaning Father. These are the root sounds that are the supreme names of God and the Goddess uttered by a child who does not yet know language.

15.Nobody can lay claim to the names of God; they belong to us all. They were entrusted to the Hebrew race at the end of the last Cataclysm: they were the Chosen Ones, chosen to carry these names down the centuries. They were the truly blessed of God in that they were entrusted with such a mighty secret.

16.Hebrew prophecy has now ended and a cataclysm is feared; but that history has reached its destiny, it is not ended. The Jews have suffered persecution down the centuries because they were the carriers of a great secret; now that secret is revealed, and the Tetragrammaton will have a new task for them: a new mystery that they must guard and cherish down the centuries.

17.Who knows what that secret will be? It is not the prerogative of a mere Gentile to speculate, but I know that we must respect and honour these people of the Lord: their destiny may not be our destiny, their way is and always has been hard. They have never shirked the challenge; they deserve our respect and, dare I say it, veneration.

18.The sounds that they have brought to us constitute the Kiss of the Prince in the ‘Sleeping Beauty’ myth - the Kiss that awakens the Castle of the Archetypes that govern the world. These are the sounds used to call the planetary spirits. They are not words: they must be pronounced in a particular way. They must be vibrated by taking a deep breath and holding it; let it gather power and release it slowly, and powerfully allow the sound to come out. A sign that one is successful is that one’s whole body tingles with the sound. At the same time one must visualise one’s whole body bathed in a sea of light coming down from above, a sea of light in the colour of the power invoked.

19.We are straying here into the techniques of higher magic, so we had better limit ourselves with what the average person can do; but the method of vibration is not too difficult and aids one considerably in the invoking of the planetary spirits.

20.The manufacture of talismans depends for its effectiveness on the ability of the magician to mediate the invoked planetary forces and direct the forces into a talisman. The material from which the talisman is made should vibrate in sympathy with the planet invoked. This can be a metal sacred to the planet or a more general purpose material such as parchment, hand-made paper or beeswax. Each material should be consecrated to the work. The attribution of metals to the planets have changed a little down the years and the most effective results have been found to be with gold for Sun, silver for Moon, etc. Tradition required that the parchment should be from a new-born or very young animal, the reason for this was that the spirit contained within the parchment (i.e. of the animal) should be as pure as possible and therefore easily directed to the will of the planetary spirit invoked. Hand made paper is usually made by the magician himself from a plant or material sacred to the planet invoked while beeswax shares to a certain extent the nature of parchment with the added power that it partakes of all the spirits of nature, in that bees symbolise the crystallization in their mode of life and production of wax and honey. These ideas, although somewhat obscure to the reasoning mind, have a logic that is the currency of the unconscious mind or Astral plane. Don’t worry if you don’t fully understand the whys and wherefores, your unconscious is structured in just the same way as everyone else’s and will always respond in a magical way to a magical act.

21.Many other materials can, and have been used to make talismans. You will develop an instinct for this as you become more proficient in the art of Stellar magic. For Solar conjunctions we tend to use the metal appropriate to the planet after first demagnetizing it of previous influences by heating it and exorcising influences from it. ‘‘The Key of Solomon’’ is recommended to the student desirous of more information on this subject.

22.For lesser influences such as the Moon or mutual aspects we use beeswax or paper. If it is desired to melt an old beeswax talisman down and re-use it, it must only be used for that planet’s forces to which it had previously been dedicated. It would be extremely unwise to use material that had been dedicated to Saturn for Jupiterian purposes!

23.Great care must be taken when invoking a planetary power to do a specific task that the spirit invoked has authority over the task required of it. It is no use invoking a Mars spirit for material wealth it would only interpret ‘‘wealth’’ as great energy. Therefore care must be taken to make sure that one is invoking the right planetary spirit for the job. Also great caution must be exercised in preparing Mars and Saturn talismans as they are not easily destroyed once prepared. The talisman must be completely deconsecrated by ceremony, demagnetized by heating.

24.The nature of the Houses are of paramount importance in Stellar magick, particularly the angles. The tenth is used to get into contact with the spirit by means of worship. The planet in the seventh is used when one requires the force to act upon one’s behalf. The fourth House is used for casting spells and the ascendant is used when one wishes to embody the God involved, by the method of God-forms. In each case the planet whose God is to be worshipped must be in the appropriate angle with the planet most conducive to the magician’s work. The Sun in the tenth is ideal for worship as it confers the supreme Authority upon the planet it conjuncts.

25.When one requires the force to act on one’s behalf then one would have it in the seventh House with the Moon applying to a conjunction with it. This would also be true in the case of a spell using the fourth: again we would require an applying conjunction of the Moon.

26.To receive the benefits of Astrological magic one must first get in touch with the spirits that are concealed by the planet. To do this one must begin by invoking the Highest aspect of the deity when its planet is in the tenth House and conjunct the Sun. The invocation must be approached as an act of worship, and having the planet in the tenth ensures that it is in a totally positive polarity with the worshipper.

27.The planet’s archetype is invoked and worshipped, and a sacrifice of the appropriate incense is desirable. The method of invocation is indicated in a subsequent chapter. The more symbols consistent with the planet’s nature one can bring to bear upon the ritual the better, they will all help to attract and direct the force. For example, in the case of Jupiter we would use a cubic altar with four purple candles. The details of temple furniture are described at a later stage.

28.It is not always possible to have the planets in the right places. For general magical work the use of planetary days and hours can be used when there are no astrological configurations available to aid one in the work. However I must add a word of caution, it is not possible to make a silk purse out of a sow’s ear and planetary hours are limited in their effect unless fortified by planetary influences so therefore cannot be expected to produce results nearly as powerful as the Stellar powers.

Planetary hours are most useful for the making of inks, perfumes, minor magical implements and talismans of short duration and effect. An exception to this is when the Sun and Moon are conjunct in a sign that a planet rules on its day and hour and the planet itself is dignified by aspect and free from affliction.

29.The principal rituals of Stellar Magic are as follows:

1). Sun Venus

2). Sun Jupiter

3). Sun Moon

4). Moon Venus

5). Moon Jupiter

These are the so-called benefic planets: invoke their power, make your demands of them; burn incense sympathetic to them at the end of the ritual as a sacrifice.

30.These rituals divide into two types: those concerning the Sun which control general events and background atmospheres, and those which have a more direct effect upon day to day events that are governed by the Moon.

31.The planets Venus and Jupiter are known in Astrology as the two great benefics, and it is the beneficial effects of astrological influences that one is primarily interested in when one begins to work with this branch of the Art. As one advances in the knowledge of magic, and when the

magician has made his contacts with the powers behind the symbols, then and only then will he be allowed to deal with the more fast acting and direct forms of magical work.

32.The general use of the benefic powers is as follows:

(1) SUN conjunct JUPITER: invoke God for health wealth & general happiness. Feast of Jupiter can make great changes of direction.

(2) SUN conjunct JUPITER conjunct MOON: good for starting any project, gaining favours from superiors.

(3) MOON conjunct JUPITER: invoked approximately once a month, will bring good fortune, health and prosperity, but has not got the power of Sun Jupiter.

(4) MERCURY conjunct JUPITER: invocation for blessings on generous enterprises, writing books on religion, games etc.

(5) SUN conjunct VENUS: feast of Venus. Invoke the God and Goddess for aid in all matters of love. Invoke for the favour of ladies.

(6) SUN conjunct VENUS conjunct MOON: invoke for the favours of a specific lady to produce a lasting relationship. A good time to invoke the Artistic Muses for inspiration.

(7) MOON conjunct VENUS: will give the favours of women and girls. Will aid in any artistic project.