Tag Archives: protection

The Prayer of Refuge

September 1, 2020 By in creative Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , 5 Comments

Do you want a 3000-word-plus prayer for protection against all harm?  Of course you do.  The whole thing will fit comfortably on six pages, less if you use a small enough font size.

Okay, I admit that I’ve been super busy lately, and even though the Salem Folklore & Witchcraft Festival has come to an end (which you can still get the recordings through the end of 2020 for all the classes!), there’s just…so much going on, and it’s easy to get bogged down, run through, and torn up by everything.  To that end, while I have a whole bunch of nebulous ideas of things I want to write, I’m having to prioritize my time between those and the things that actually need doing around my house and job.  To that end, there’re a lot of drafts piling up in my blog box, but not a lot coming out of it.  One day, I’ll get to them.

In the meantime, one of the things I’m going through is working through my own prayerbook again, reorganizing it, taking out the things I don’t use (or don’t care to use), rewording the things I’m not yet comfortable with, and the like.  One of the prayers is…well, I did come up with it, sure.  It’s one I call, rather boringly enough, the “Prayer of Refuge”, written as a generally Abrahamic-ish monotheistic prayer appealing to God for protection from…well, just about everything.  Protection from all evil wrought upon oneself, and forgiveness for all the evil one has wrought; why not?  The prayer was inspired largely by the famous Lorica of Saint Patrick, but also was based in part on the Benedicite, the Doxology of the Seventh Firmament from the Sepher haRazim, the Sanctus prayer, and the books Al-Ikhlās., Al-Falaq, and An-Nās from the Noble Qur’ān, along with a bevy of other Islamic supplications against witchcraft and spiritual afflictions.  I…may have gotten a little carried away when enumerating everything to ward against, but hey, go big or go home, and since we’re all already home anyway…

What I ended up with is, frankly, a beast of a protective prayer.  It’s far from the worst sort, to be sure, and it’s definitely got some oomph in it.  Besides, it’s not like such lengthy charms of protection aren’t otherwise extant across any number of traditions, but even this one is pretty sizable, indeed.  However, given the other tricks up my sleeve, this is one I just don’t have a need to turn to anytime soon, except perhaps if someone needs it said for them who’s under a severe case of spiritual affliction from a wide number of sources.  To that end, because other people might need such a thing more than me—and since we all have a fair chunk of free time nowadays, for some definition of “free”—I figured I’d share this bit of my own prayerbook today.  I’ll also move it up to the Prayers menu, too, for easier reference in the future.

Although this prayer is presented below as being broken up into segments, they are all intended to be read in a single sitting in succession.  For best results, try doing this after a period of fasting and purification while also making charity for those who are oppressed.

Preliminary Invocation

In the name of God, with God, from God, unto God, and in the way of God,
for there is no strength and no power save with God,
for we come from God and return to God,
and all things are done only through God!

The Glorification of and Appeal to God

All glory, all praise, all reverence, all honor be to God,
the Lord of the Great Throne, the Father of Heaven, the Fountain of Light,
the King of all kings, the God of all gods, the Creator of all creation!
God is prior to all things, for God was when Heaven and Earth was not.
God wills, and what he wills happens, and what he does not will does not happen.
God searches hearts before they are formed, and knows thoughts before they are made.
God has power over all things, and encompasses all things in his knowledge!
God made the whole of the cosmos and all within it,
God made the Day and the Night to follow each other in turn,
God made the Sun and Moon and planets and stars subservient to his command,
God gave to Heaven its strength, to the Stars their brilliance,
to the Sun its light, to the Moon its radiance,
to the Fire its splendor, to the Water its sweetness,
to the Lightning its speed, to the Wind its swiftness,
to the Sea its depth, to the Earth its stability,
to the Mountain its height, to the Forest its lushness,
to the Rock its firmness, to the Soil its fertility,
to the Winter its cold, to the Summer its heat,
to the Angels their greatness, to the Prophets their prophecy.
God created all things and ordered all things,
God sustains all things and judges all things,
God commands all things and rules all things,
and by all that God has ordained,
I appeal to God for his mercy, his forgiveness his refuge, and his protection!

Taking Refuge from Evil

I take refuge in God, the One and Only, the First and Last, the Highest and Holiest,
He who creates all things that exist and is not created by anything created,
He who depends upon nothing yet upon whom all depend.
He who surpasses every power and excellence,
He who has neither equal nor comparison,
I take refuge in God, the Lord of Dawn, the Lord of Daybreak, the Lord of Light,
from the evil that lies waiting within creation,
from the evil of darkness when it settles,
from the evil of those who work ill upon me,
from the evil of those who wish ill upon me.
I take refuge in God, the Lord of Mankind, the King of Mankind, the God of Mankind,
from the evil of the whispering enemy and of the whispering devils,
from the evil of those who whisper in the hearts of mankind,
from the evil of those who whisper in the hearts of spirits,
from the evil of those who retreat upon the remembrance of God.
I take refuge in God!

Taking Refuge in the Glories of God

I take refuge in all the wondrous names of God!
I take refuge in the might and power of God,
I take refuge in the strength and pride of God,
I take refuge in the presence and sovereignty of God,
I take refuge in the justice and judgment of God,
I take refuge in the beginninglessness and endlessness of God,
I take refuge in the immanence and transcendence of God,
I take refuge in the assistance and security of God,
I take refuge in the protection and preservation of God,
I take refuge in the nourishment and restoration of God,
I take refuge in the resurrection and life of God,
I take refuge in the kindness and guidance of God,
I take refuge in the mercy and forgiveness of God,
I take refuge in the sight and hearing of God,
I take refuge in the awareness and knowing of God,
I take refuge in the wisdom and knowledge of God,
I take refuge in the nobility and highness of God,
I take refuge in the glory and greatness of God,
I take refuge in the beauty and majesty of God,
I take refuge in the grandeur and subtlety of God,
I take refuge in the peace and splendor of God,
I take refuge in the holiness and perfection of God,
I take refuge in the truth and light of God,
I take refuge in God!

Taking Refuge on All Sides and All Times

I take refuge in God throughout my life!
I take refuge in God on my right,
I take refuge in God on my left,
I take refuge in God above me,
I take refuge in God below me,
I take refuge in God before me,
I take refuge in God behind me,
I take refuge in God inside me,
I take refuge in God outside me,
I take refuge in God around me,
I take refuge in God when I sleep and when I awake,
I take refuge in God when I lie and when I sit,
I take refuge in God when I arise and when I stand,
I take refuge in God when I move and when I abide,
I take refuge in God when I speak and when I think,
I take refuge in God when I hear and when I see,
I take refuge in God when I eat and when I drink,
I take refuge in God at all times,
I take refuge in God on every day,
I take refuge in God in every place,
I take refuge in God with every act.
I take refuge in God!

Taking Refuge from Every Harm

I take refuge in God from all evils threatening me!
I take refuge in God from the evil of every devil and demon,
I take refuge in God from the evil of every archon and prince,
I take refuge in God from the evil of every influence and power,
I take refuge in God from the evil of every corruption and temptation,
I take refuge in God from the evil of every fear and terror,
I take refuge in God from the evil of every lie and deceit,
I take refuge in God from the evil of every delusion and hallucination,
I take refuge in God from the evil of every treason and espionage,
I take refuge in God from the evil of every snare and trap,
I take refuge in God from the evil of every gossip and smear,
I take refuge in God from the evil of every suffering and affliction,
I take refuge in God from the evil of every instability and infirmity,
I take refuge in God from the evil of every pain and plague,
I take refuge in God from the evil of every illness and injury,
I take refuge in God from the evil of every weakness and wound,
I take refuge in God from the evil of every chaos and tragedy,
I take refuge in God from the evil of every calamity and accident,
I take refuge in God from the evil of every fire and flood,
I take refuge in God from the evil of every earthquake and disaster,
I take refuge in God from the evil of every storm and gale,
I take refuge in God from the evil of every famine and drought,
I take refuge in God from the evil of every pursuit and war,
I take refuge in God from the evil of every accusation and imprisonment,
I take refuge in God from the evil of every abandonment and neglect,
I take refuge in God from the evil of every loss and impoverishment,
I take refuge in God from the evil of every creature and beast,
I take refuge in God from the evil of every spirit and ghost,
I take refuge in God from the evil of every witch and poisoner,
I take refuge in God from the evil of every smith and mage,
I take refuge in God from the evil of every alchemist and astrologer,
I take refuge in God from the evil of every priest and scholar,
I take refuge in God from the evil of every thief and brigand,
I take refuge in God from the evil of every killer and rapist,
I take refuge in God from the evil of every abuser and torturer,
I take refuge in God from the evil of all that I am aware,
I take refuge in God from the evil of all that I am unaware,
I take refuge in God from the evil of all that I am frightened,
I take refuge in God from the evil of all that I am unfrightened,
I take refuge in God from the evil of all that was done to me intentionally,
I take refuge in God from the evil of all that was done to me unintentionally,
I take refuge in God from the evil of all that was done to my body,
I take refuge in God from the evil of all that was done to my soul,
I take refuge in God from the evil of all that was done to my spirit,
I take refuge in God from the evil of all that was done to my mind,
I take refuge in God from the evil of all that was done to my food,
I take refuge in God from the evil of all that was done to my drink,
I take refuge in God from the evil of all that was done to my possessions,
I take refuge in God from the evil of all that was done to my land,
I take refuge in God from the evil of all that was done to my home,
I take refuge in God from the evil of all that was done to my household,
I take refuge in God from the evil of all that was done to my work,
I take refuge in God from the evil of all that was done to my roads,
I take refuge in God from the evil of all that was done to my family,
I take refuge in God from the evil of all that was done to my friends,
I take refuge in God from the evil of all that was done to my secrets,
I take refuge in God from the evil of the evil eye,
I take refuge in God from the evil of the untimely death,
I take refuge in God from the evil of the curse,
I take refuge in God from the evil of the cross,
I take refuge in God from the evil of the binding,
I take refuge in God from the evil of the whisper,
I take refuge in God from the evil of those who threaten me,
I take refuge in God from the evil of those who hate me,
I take refuge in God from the evil of those who despise me,
I take refuge in God from the evil of those who are envious of me,
I take refuge in God from the evil of those who are jealous of me,
I take refuge in God from the evil of those who are fearful of me,
I take refuge in God from the evil of those who are enraged towards me,
I take refuge in God from the evil of those who perform mischief and trickery,
I take refuge in God from the evil of those who perform witchcraft and rituals,
I take refuge in God from the evil of those who perform incantations and spells,
I take refuge in God from the evil of those who perform conjuration and inscription,
I take refuge in God from the evil of those who perform sacrifice and bloodletting,
I take refuge in God from the evil of those who perform false prophecy and false blessings,
I take refuge in God from the evil of those who inspire others to evil,
I take refuge in God from every evil, from all evil, from evil itself!
I take refuge in God!

The Breaking of Evil

In the name of God, with God, from God, unto God, and in the way of God,
for there is no strength and no power save with God,
for we come from God and return to God,
and all things are done only through God!
God the Most High, God the Most Holy,
God the Most Merciful, God the Most Compassionate,
God the Almighty, God the All-Aware, God the All-knowing, God the All-Seeing!
I entrust all I am and I all I have and all I do to God,
I am safe from the evils threatening me in the refuge of God!
God judges in truth, evening the scales of justice and speaking in righteousness!
God upholds those who uphold him!
God keeps faith with those who keep faith with him!
God keeps the pure close to him in his mercy and protection,
but drives the impure away in his unconquerable wrath!
In all the Heavens God is feared, and by all the angels God is revered,
For when God raises his voice the gods themselves tremble,
and when he roars the pillars of Heaven and Earth shake.
Nothing and no one can repel the might of God,
nothing and no one can annul the commands of God!
God seizes all events that would threaten me and blocks them from occurring!
God seizes all things that would threaten me and smashes them into nothing!
God seizes all magics that would threaten me and unravels them in an instant!
God seizes all people who would threaten me and casts them out now!
God seizes all spirits who would threaten me and banishes them utterly!
God seizes all enemies who would threaten me and vanquishes them easily!
Nothing and no one is as great as God is, nothing and no one is as mighty as God is!
All the evils that threaten me cannot reach me in the protection of God!
All the evils that threaten me cannot harm me in the protection of God!
All the evils that threaten me are cut off in the protection of God!
All the evils that threaten me are destroyed in the protection of God!
I take refuge, seeking protection from the evils threatening me, in God!
I am safe from the evils threatening me in the refuge of God!

The Appeal for Forgiveness from God

And as I take refuge in God for protection from the evils threatening me,
I implore God for his forgiveness and his mercy for the evil within myself that harms myself.
I seek the forgiveness of God for the evil within me,
I seek the forgiveness of God for the evil of what I have done that I should not have done,
I seek the forgiveness of God for the evil of what I have not done that I should have done,
I seek the forgiveness of God for the evil of my vice,
I seek the forgiveness of God for the evil of my lust,
I seek the forgiveness of God for the evil of my gluttony,
I seek the forgiveness of God for the evil of my greed,
I seek the forgiveness of God for the evil of my sloth,
I seek the forgiveness of God for the evil of my wrath,
I seek the forgiveness of God for the evil of my pride,
I seek the forgiveness of God for the evil of my apathy,
I seek the forgiveness of God for the evil of my attachment,
I seek the forgiveness of God for the evil of my addiction,
I seek the forgiveness of God for the evil of my intentions,
I seek the forgiveness of God for the evil of my neglect,
I seek the forgiveness of God for the evil of my ignorance,
I seek the forgiveness of God for the evil of all that I have committed against God,
I seek the forgiveness of God for the evil of all that I have committed against the angels,
I seek the forgiveness of God for the evil of all that I have committed against the prophets,
I seek the forgiveness of God for the evil of all that I have committed against Heaven,
I seek the forgiveness of God for the evil of all that I have committed against Earth,
I seek the forgiveness of God for the evil of all that I have committed against creation,
I seek the forgiveness of God for the evil of all that I have committed against mankind,
I seek the forgiveness of God.

The Thanksgiving for Forgiveness

God is abundant in his forgiveness and unsurpassed in his mercy,
whose forgiveness and mercy are immeasurable, everlasting, indefatigable,
in whose forgiveness and mercy I take refuge from my own evil!
I am safe from the evil within myself that harms myself in the refuge of God!
For all that he has forgiven me and all that he has given unto me,
do I give my thanks to God, do I bless God!
All glory, all praise, all reverence, all honor be to God,
the Lord of the Great Throne, the Father of Heaven, the Fountain of Light,
the King of all kings, the God of all gods, the Creator of all creation!
In God do I take refuge, and from God do I seek mercy!

The Song of Glory

Blessed be God in his refuge, and blessed in his forgiveness and mercy!
Blessed be God in the Heavens on high, and blessed in the lands of the Earth.
Blessed be God in his might, and blessed in the beauty of his power.
Blessed be God in his glory, and blessed in the beauty of his dignity.
Blessed be God in his splendor, and blessed in the beauty of his strength.
Blessed be God in his majesty, and blessed in the beauty of his throne.
Blessed be God in the mists of brilliance, and blessed in the clouds of glory.
Blessed be God in the storehouses of snow, and blessed in the rivers of flames.
Blessed be God in the chains of fire, and blessed in the ropes of flame.
Blessed be God in the peals of thunder, and blessed in the bolts of lightning.
Blessed be God amid all the deserts, and blessed amid the waves of the sea.
Blessed be God in each generation, and blessed in all the people of every land.
Blessed be God in the heights of the Earth, and blessed in the depths of the Earth.
Blessed be God in the mouths of all people, and blessed in the song of every creature.
Blessed be God for ages and ages, and blessed for an eternity of eternities.
Blessed be God, now and forever!
Holy, holy, holy, Lord God of Hosts,
Heaven and Earth are full of your glory.
Hosanna in the highest!*
Blessed is he who comes, has come, and will come in the name of the Lord.
Hosanna in the highest!

The Concluding Invocation

In the name of God, with God, from God, unto God, and in the way of God,
for there is no strength and no power save with God,
for we come from God and return to God,
and all things are done only through God!

The Prayer Whispered In The Temple

June 24, 2020 By in creative, hermetica, philosophy, whining Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , 2 Comments

I have to admit: it’s not the being home and away from friends, family, and colleagues in person for three and a half months that’s getting to me, nor is it the fear of being Kissed by the Lady of Crowns.  It’s not being shut in with the same people whom I love every day, even when the little things add up that frustrate and annoy me, more than ever before given that I’m home all the time and can’t escape it.  It’s not the hypothetical worries of financial solvency in a time when the economy is constantly degrading and when there are threats looming on the horizon of the next bank statement.  It’s not seeing the cracked and corroded political system of my country implode with constant protests the whole nation over for over three weeks, with more and more people being murdered in grotesque ways every day.  It’s not seeing people I’ve heard about or know die, sometimes naturally, sometimes unnaturally, and usually before their time.  It’s not seeing global climate change catch scientists by surprise with trends that are happening a century earlier than expected.  It’s not seeing the constant war, famine, plague, and death sweep the world (when has it ever not?) in ever-encroaching circles.

It’s not any one thing, but it’s…kinda all of this at once.  (Except the working-at-home-indefinitely bit, I sincerely dig that.)  I know I enjoy at least some measure of safety, however temporary, secluded and swaddled in comfort as I am in my home, free to spend my time mostly as I please, but…

I’m a staunch believer in the claim of Ecclesiastes 1:9, that “what has been will be again, what has been done will be done again; there is nothing new under the Sun”.  We, as a species, are pretty much the same as we were 60,000 years and more ago: we still have the same fundamental needs of sleeping, eating, fucking, and wondering, and everything else is just accessorizing and window-dressing.  We still love and hate, we still learn and ignore, we still live and die, as we and every single one of our ancestors always have going back to the beginning of humanity.  It’s this cyclical continuity that, although it might have been dreary to the author of that book, gives me hope and comfort in that, no matter how bad things get or seem, everything can be survived and surpassed, one way or another, just as it always has been before.  But…it’s hard even for me to not realize that, even if the melody is the same, the key of the music can and does change, and although the lyrics may rhyme, it’s never the same thing being said.  And in that, things may never have been good, depending on whom you ask, but on any large scale by pretty much any measure, things are definitely not great right now, and despite what I want to see, it also seems like things are getting less great by the day.

Despite the breadth of my writings, my focus in my various spiritual practices is decidedly on the small-scale.  Sure, I do readings and consultations for clients, and I study and practice rituals in case I need them should the need arise, but I don’t need a lot, seeing how much I already have; in a way, I’m kinda living one of the messages of the Double Sice bone in reading dominoes, where your material life is in a state of fulfillment so now you need to turn your sights higher.  Instead of trying to advance myself worldly, I do what I can to maintain things in a state of peace and satisfaction for myself, my husband, my housemates, my family, and my godfamily—those near to me and dear to me, and those for whom I can do the most at the time being.  It’s not that I’m being greedy with my power, but necessarily rationing it; even with what little I’m doing to maintain my standards of living, I still have high standards of living, and keeping up with it all can sometimes be soul-wearying and heart-tiring.  (How much worse, then, for people who have it worse?  Why can’t I help them more beyond offering mere words or some meager support here and there, especially in the face of Just So Much where any gain feels like a loss?)  And that’s not even bringing up the work and Work that will surely need doing once the current situations pass—or, if they don’t, and some of them won’t, the work and Work that will still need doing even then.  Gotta save some spoons for what comes later.

There’s an undercurrent here of everything I’m doing being all the running I can do just to stay in the same place.  Even with a legion of spirits, ancestors, angels, and gods at my back supporting me and uplifting me, there’s just so much to tackle on even such a small scale as my own personal life, even without broader problems that so many of my friends and online colleagues I see suffer routinely or constantly.  Even with keeping to a quiet, daily routine of the same-old same-old, logging into work every day to earn a paycheck to keep a roof over my head and food in my belly, it’s hard to not hear the klaxons growing louder every minute and every mundane, routine thing I do seem increasingly, surreally, laughably absurd in comparison, and operating under this kind of farce is tiring.  It gets harder and harder to chop wood and carry water when the hairs on the back of my neck rise as the insidious question arises in my mind: “what happens when there’s no more wood to chop or water to carry?”, not out of a sense of completion, but out of a sense of running out through faults both mine and not my own.  I’m not saying this to complain (maybe a little?), but…even if nothing else, it’s hard to look forward to the future in general with more than a modicum of hope, and even that feels forced more and more often.  None of this is me just being self-pitying and grieving uselessly, but it’s hard to not feel the pressure of everything bearing down with no end in sight, and it gets to everyone at different rates and in different ways.  And, so, I turn to those same spirits, ancestors, angels, and gods in prayer and contemplation as a way to resolve this pressure.

In my various searches through the rich body of Islamic prayers and supplications, I found one that struck a particular chord with me: the Munajāt, or the Whispered Prayer, of Imām `Alı̄ ibn ‘Abī Ṭālib (as) in the Great Mosque of Kūfa.  This supplication attributed to the first Shia imam invoked during the lunar month of Sha`bān is simple, if a bit long (though nowhere near as long as many other such supplications).  The structure of the prayer can be broken down into two movements: the first movement calls upon the blessing of Allāh on the day of the Judgment at the end of time, when all else fails and there is nothing good left in the world, while the second movement calls upon the mercy of Allāh according to his various attributes and epithets, and how the imām relates to Allāh by them (e.g. “you are the Creator and I am the creature…you are the Powerful and I am the weak”).  It’s a touching monologue of a prayer that emphasizes the connection between the divine and the mundane, the immortal and a mortal, the One and a one.  In some ways, it kinda encapsulates a particular kind of mood I often find myself in nowadays.  Not to say that I feel the world is ending, but…when things keep looking like they keep getting worse, when the world looks like it’s all downhill from here, it’s hard to keep the mind from thinking about what it’s like at the bottom of that hill.  Even in the pleasant summer nights that make me pine for a walk on the beach under the stars, wind-rustled dunegrass on my left and moon-soaked seafoam on my right, there’s a poignant and quiet terror laced throughout the humidity that fogs the heart more than it does my glasses.  It’s not the impermanence and dissolution and passing-away of things in a world that constantly changes that I fear, I suppose, but rather the lived process of waiting for it and undergoing it at the slow, painful pace of the day-by-day.

All this reminded me of that infamous part of the famous Hermetic text of the Asclepius, specifically sections 24—26.  In this part of the dialog between Hermēs Trismegistus and his disciples Asclepius, Tat, and Ammon, Hermēs begins by praising Egypt as the image of Heaven, and how Egypt is the temple of the whole world, where the gods themselves reside on Earth and where all good order is maintained, and why it is necessary to revere not just God but also humanity made in the likeness of god and the ensouled statues of gods that we ourselves make from divine nature.  “And yet,” Hermēs continues after such praise, “since it befits the wise to know all things in advance,” Hermēs foretells the future of this temple of the world, a harrowing prophecy and prediction of the ultimate fate of Egypt and the world as a whole, a cataclysm and eventual apocalypse that, although ultimately ending in a renewal of all that is beautiful and good, necessitates the utter destruction of everything that is, both by its own hands and by divine impetus.  In some ways, it’s not unlike the Stoic notion of ekpyrosis, the periodic conflagration and destruction of the cosmos that is renewed through palingenesis, or the recreation of all things to start a new cycle—except, when seen from a personal perspective on the ground instead of an academic theoretical one, it’s…well, terrifying, and makes Asclepius weep on the spot in that point in the dialog.  (In some ways, one might argue that more than a fair chunk of the prophecy has been fulfilled, and that we’re well on our way to the rest, at least on some timescale or another.  Such people who argue thus have a point that I can’t really argue against, except maybe vacuously.)

In this, I saw a bit of an opportunity for inspiration to strike, given my recent introduction to the Munajāt.  I did a bit of prayer writing and rewriting, and adapted the Munajāt through a Hermetic lens, substituting the Islamic cataclysm with the Hermetic one from the Asclepius. Instead of using Islamic epithets and names of Allah, I scoured the Hermetic texts for the various epithets and attributes of God with a Hermetic understanding and approach.  Not living in Egypt myself, I spatially generalized the prophecy a bit to take place more generally, but the effect of the wording is the same for me as it might have been for Hermēs and his students.  Nothing new under the Sun, after all.  It’s not my intention to rip off or appropriate the Imām’s prayer, but to make use of it in a way that better befits my own practice, communicating the same sentiment with the same devotion and reverence to, ultimately, the same One.

In keeping with the structure and theme of the Munajāt, there are two movements in this Hermetic rendition of the Whispered Prayer, the first seeking protection and the second seeking mercy. Although it might be odd to see such an emphasis on protection and mercy in a Hermetic prayer to the divine, both of these things are extant in Hermetic texts, too: in the Prayer of Thanksgiving given at the end of the Asclepius, also extant in PGM III as well as the Nag Hammadi Scriptures, a plea for “one protection: to preserve me in my present life”, and in Book XIII of the Corpus Hermeticum, when Hermēs describes to Tat the method and means of rebirth, he says that it is unobtainable except for those “to whom God has shown mercy”, and that “whoever though mercy has attained this godly birth and has forsaken bodily sensation recognizes himself as constituted of the intelligibles and rejoices”.  In this, the goal of Poimandrēs as given in the First Book—the end of the Way of Hermēs—is fulfilled.

And, to be frank, both divine protection and divine mercy sound like good things to pray for, both in general and especially now, especially in this admittedly dour mood of mine.  We should pray and work for everything else good, too, to be sure—good health, long life, prosperity, happiness, peace, and all the rest of the things we seek in life—but maybe it’s also appropriate to think about what what we ask for instead when none of that can be found or given.  In this, too, I suppose there is hope; it might be small and distant, but there is still hope, because there is always, and must always be, hope.  Even when all I can eke out is just a whisper of a prayer from my heart, knowing that even the deepest refuge of the strongest sanctuary must one day still fall, that hope that I whisper for is enough and will have to be enough.  So sit satis; let it be enough.

In reciting this prayer, after every supplication, silently recite “Oh God, my God, be merciful, be gracious, be propitious to us all”.  In keeping with the Munajāt, it is preferable to recite this prayer in a low, hushed, or whispered voice.

O God, I ask you for your protection,
on the day when all devotion will have been in vain.

O God, I ask you for your protection,
on the day when all worship will have borne no fruit.

O God, I ask you for your protection,
on the day when all the gods will have abandoned the Earth and returned to Heaven.

O God, I ask you for your protection,
on the day when all reverence will have fallen into neglect.

O God, I ask you for your protection,
on the day when the divine teachings will have been mocked as delusion and illusion.

O God, I ask you for your protection,
on the day when all religion will have been outlawed and all sacred traditions lost.

O God, I ask you for your protection,
on the day when the reverent will have been executed for the crime of reverence.

O God, I ask you for your protection,
on the day when all temples will have become tombs.

O God, I ask you for your protection,
on the day when the dead will have outnumbered the living.

O God, I ask you for your protection,
on the day when darkness and death will have been preferred to light and life.

O God, I ask you for your protection,
on the day when the cosmos will have ceased to be revered and honored.

O God, I ask you for your protection,
on the day when the world will have been filled with barbarity.

O God, I ask you for your protection,
on the day when all the people will have turned to cruelty against each other.

O God, I ask you for your protection,
on the day when all the rivers will have filled and burst with blood.

O God, I ask you for your protection,
on the day when all the lands will have crumbled under stress.

O God, I ask you for your protection,
on the day when all the seas will have ceased to be navigable.

O God, I ask you for your protection,
on the day when all the winds will have stalled lifelessly.

O God, I ask you for your protection,
on the day when all earth will have become sterile, bearing only withered fruit.

O God, I ask you for your protection,
on the day when all the heavens will have gone dark.

O God, I ask you for your protection,
on the day when all the bodies of heaven will have ceased their courses.

O God, I ask you for your protection,
on the day when all the voices of divinity will have gone silent.

O God, I ask you for your protection,
on the day when you will have ceased to be worshiped and glorified.

O God, I ask you for your protection,
on the day when you will dissolve all the world in flood, fire, and pestilence.

O God, I ask you for your protection,
on the day when you will restore the world to worthiness of reverence and wonder.

O God, I ask you for your protection,
on the day when you will return all that is good and sacred to the world.

O God, you are the Father and I am the child;
who else can be merciful to the child except the Father?

O God, you are the Creator and I am the created;
who else can be merciful to the created except the Creator?

O God, you are the Unbegotten and I am the begotten;
who else can be merciful to the begotten except the Unbegotten?

O God, you are the Pervasive and I am the blind;
who else can be merciful to the blind except the Pervasive?

O God, you are the Invisible and I am the mistrustful;
who else can be merciful to the mistrustful except the Invisible?

O God, you are the Good and I am the one the one immersed in evil;
who else can be merciful to the evil except the Good?

O God, you are the Pure and I am the one immersed in defilement;
who else can be merciful to the defiled except the Pure?

O God, you are the Complete and I am the one immersed in deficiency;
who else can be merciful to the deficient except the Complete?

O God, you are the Perfect and I am the one immersed in excess;
who else can be merciful to the excessive except the Perfect?

O God, you are the Still and I am the one immersed in motion;
who else can be merciful to the moved except the Still?

O God, you are the Unchanging and I am the one immersed in change;
who else can be merciful to the changed except the Unchanging?

O God, you are the Imperishable and I am the one immersed in decay;
who else can be merciful to the decaying except the Imperishable?

O God, you are the Beautiful and I am the one immersed in crudity;
who else can be merciful to the crude except the Beautiful?

O God, you are the Ineffable and I am the one immersed in babble;
who else can be merciful to the babbler except the Ineffable?

O God, you are the Cause of Liberation and I am the one immersed in torment;
who else can be merciful to the tormented except the Cause of Liberation?

O God, you are the Cause of Temperance and I am the one immersed in recklessness;
who else can be merciful to the reckless except the Cause of Temperance?

O God, you are the Cause of Virtue and I am the one immersed in vice;
who else can be merciful to the vicious except the Cause of Virtue?

O God, you are the Cause of Truth and I am the one immersed in deceit;
who else can be merciful to the deceived except the Cause of Truth?

O God, you are the Cause of Mind and I am the one immersed in ignorance;
who else can be merciful to the ignorant except the Cause of Mind?

O God, you are the Cause of Life and I am the one immersed in death;
who else can be merciful to the dying except the Cause of Life?

O God, you are the Cause of Light and I am the one immersed in darkness;
who else can be merciful to the darkened except the Cause of Light?

O God, you are the Propitious and I am the one given favor;
who else can be merciful to the one given favor except the Propitious?

O God, you are the Gracious and I am the one given grace;
who else can be merciful to the one given grace except the Gracious?

O God, you are the Merciful and I am the one given mercy;
who else can be merciful to the one given mercy except the Merciful?

O God, you are the Glory of the All and I am the one who is in the All;
only you can be merciful to all in the All, for you are the Glory of the All!

O God, be merciful, be gracious, be propitious to me,
and be pleased with me by your mercy, your grace, and your favor,
you who are the source of all mercy, all grace, and all favor!
O God, be merciful, be gracious, be propitious to me and to us all!

On Secrecy of Ritual

June 21, 2016 By in occult, philosophy Tags: , , , , , , , , Leave a comment

After a bit of preliminary research and a bit of reflection on my own works and studies up to this point, I felt like the last post on mathetic rituals for solar ingresses into the signs of the Zodiac was needed for two main reasons.  For one, my mathesis work has been mostly contemplative and meditative without any real ritual, and since I’m a stickler for actually having and doing rituals to get Work done, I need to start building up the ritual repertoire more for this project I’m doing.  The other reason is because I can’t find any significant ritual body to celebrate or mark the ingress of the Sun into different zodiac signs, which is odd.  The Western tradition is filled with rituals that mark the change of the seasons, or different celebrations of the planets, or certain elections that call on specific planets or stars or houses or lunar mansions or faces or whatnot within the context of astrological magic.  Elections, however, are far too specific for this and don’t accomplish exactly what I’m looking for.  Yet, besides those, I can’t find anything in the publicly available corpus in my library or online that celebrates or ritually marks the passage of the Sun from one sign to the next.  Maybe I’m not looking hard enough or not asking the right people, but the case is the same.

So I’m making my own.  That’s cool.  So why would I decline to share all but the most superficial, broadest thoughts on these rituals, rather than posting the full rubrics and process on my blog?  The same goes for my ritual of self-initiation into mathesis; why would I hide that?  Well, I have a few reasons:

  • Mathesis is designed to be a mystery tradition in the vein of Neopythagorean and Neoplatonic theurgy.  As such, it is going to have mysteries, rites that are kept secret from exoteric knowledge or use.  This is by design, since I don’t think the specific transformations here are for public consumption except those that I think are worthy to work it and, by extension, work with me on this.
  • I simply haven’t finished some of these rituals, and I’m not one to give out unfinished or unpolished product except in some experimental or philosophical cases.  I may wax academic and mystic on many topics, but when it comes to rituals, I only want to share what I’ve refined and completed, if I share them at all.
  • If you use a ritual of my own creation, then even if I say that it’s at your own risk, I am still responsible for those who use my specific rituals in some small way.  I cannot yet vouch for the efficacy or safety or expected results of these things except in some limited circumstances.  If you were to use a ritual of my own design and get seriously fucked in the process, then I may not have the time or resources to help you out as I’d be obligated to do.  To avoid this, I prevent giving out my specific ritual knowledge to all except my students.  I don’t have many students for a reason: I can’t look after them all and the effects of the rituals I prescribe for their benefit or development.
  • For a very few cases, it’s “not the right time” to release some of these rituals.  As the explorer and scout of some of these things I research and work, I also have to decide how, when, and to whom to release these rituals.  If the gods or spirits have expressed discouragement from making something public, and if I make sure that’s the case and there’s a good case for it, then their word goes over mine.  Sometimes rituals are prescribed for a particular person in one state of their life, but not at another; sometimes rituals are released to the world only after certain current events have resolved; sometimes rituals are kept secret until death for posthumous release; sometimes rituals are kept secret forever with only me to know these things.  It depends, and as open as I’d like to be about my work, it’s not guaranteed that I am able to do so for ritual and spiritual reasons.  (This, thankfully, is the minority case with my work, or at least it has been up until this point.)

I write a lot on this blog, and I share plenty on my thoughts and experiences in working with this god or that force or this entity, and I share many rituals and frameworks for ritual, both theurgic and thaumaturgic.  Why do I share these and not others?  In many cases, the rituals have been out there forever (maybe not forever, but sometimes 2000 years, give or take a century or two), and all I do is offer a refinement or different take on them.  In other cases, I share rituals of my own creation that anyone of any level can pick up and use, with varying results that any spiritual worker worth their salt can manage or amplify or diminish.  Other times, I provide ritual frameworks that can be adapted or manipulated for various ends, and I just synthesize the overall technique for others to use.  When I release or publish a ritual on this blog, it’s because it’s for the greater good in a way that can actually become and expected to be good.  In other words, while all this stuff I write about may be occult, it’s not necessarily esoteric in the sense that they’re guarded secrets; much of this is exoteric, or could very easily become exoteric with a bit of thought and action on the part of my diligent and excellent readers regardless of how little or how much I say.

Even when it comes to my publishing rituals and stuff, I don’t really talk about what I’ve currently got going on.  I may have at one point, but I’ve since stopped talking about the nitty-gritty of my current projects and traditions.  I do talk about my experiences and impressions, and I may talk about improvements to things I’ve done, but I’ve since come to terms with the fact that the whole “to keep silent” rule people love to repeat is pretty valid stuff.  Why?  Well, to take a bit of a paranoid stance, I don’t want people to know what I’ve got going on so that I can practice in relative isolation and security; the more people know about what I’m doing and how I’m doing it, the more means the more malicious out there can have to confound and ruin my projects.  To take a scientific bent to it, I can’t abide contamination of my experiments, so I keep my stuff under wraps so that I can have good, stable, and clear results.  While I like the idea of crowdsourcing my magic so that I can tap on the blessed wellspring of potency that the Internet provides, I don’t like the cost of doing so, because I don’t have control over things that I should in my own rituals.

Plus, in the case I need to work against another person?  The less they know about me, the fewer ways they have to defend or stymie me.  I have a theory that it’s best to fight fire with fire; when someone is working against you in a particular tradition or method, oftentimes the most effective way to fight back involves those same traditions and methods.  Someone laying a hoodoo trick on you?  Use hoodoo to clean yourself and fight back.  Someone sending a saint to restrain you?  Work with the same saint to subvert their efforts.  Someone calling on their dead to make your life hell?  Call on your dead to make your life heaven and turn the tables.  Someone using an astrological talisman to injure your life?  Use astrological magic to negate the presence of the talisman until you can destroy it.  But, if you don’t know what methods a person is inclined to use, you may not know the most effective way to fight back; certain spiritual traditions may have blind spots that other traditions can exploit to devastating success.  No one tradition is truly universal or perfect, and the cultural and mythic biases in any given tradition should be balanced out with other worldviews and practices to produce a truly well-rounded, balanced individual practice.  I’m involved with a number of traditions and practices, but I only bring those up rarely and in the company of people I trust; this blog, though notable in its wordiness and content, is still only a slice of what I know and do.

I swear that I won’t be one of those wizened curmudgeons who jealously hoard their knowledge, swatting people away from my notes with a flaming brand and threatening them with annihilation should they dare get on my lawn.  I do feel like I should be posting and sharing more than I do, if only for the sake of getting me out of laziness and back in the game.  That said, I equally feel as entitled to my own knowledge and secrecy, when called for and for legitimate reasons, that I don’t share out freely.  It’s just a constant fight to get the balance right.

On Tattoos of Spiritual Artifices

May 18, 2015 By in creative, internet, whining Tags: , , , , 5 Comments

Recently on the endless stream of half-formed thoughts that keeps me sane in the office, which is to say Twitter, I was approached by someone who likes my work and thinks highly of it.  While I take this as a humbling and honoring thing, I was troubled by this as well, since they asked if it was a bad idea to take the Table of Practice design I developed based on Fr. Rufus Opus’ coursework and use it as a tattoo on their body.

Table of Practice

I told them bluntly that, yes, this is indeed a bad idea.  Why?  Because the Table of Practice pattern is a combination of spiritual geometry and sacred names that is put together in such a way so as to contain and manifest spirits; this is the point of the diagram.  To have this on their body would mean that, wherever they go, they risk having spirits collect on their tattoo with or without their knowledge and, worse, to give those spirits form and place in the world without actively working with them or even attentively or intentionally calling upon them.  These things happen anyway, which is why regular cleansings and baths and banishings and the like are so necessary, but to trigger that even more than it happens on its own and in a more dangerous way is a terrible, awful, no-good idea.  Worse, the person in question wanted to use this for spiritual protection, which is not the point of this design at all!  It can be used for containment and isolation, sure, but it is not primarily intended for that, and has way too many side-effects that make this a poor choice for a protection tattoo.

Put simply, this person was coming from a place of ignorance, a place which I hope I was able to help them out from.  The occult world is full of arcane geometries, obscure patterns, and unusual shapes that many a graphical artist would love to get their hands on or take credit for.  Add to it, so much of this stuff is just so cool-looking (and if you’re one of the vast majority of people who get into the occult, you got into it because it looks so freaking awesome).  There’s a heavy and high danger in this, though, because if you merely work with this stuff because it looks cool, you often overlook how powerful and grave and serious this stuff is.  It’s easy to forget that these things that appear so simple are in and of themselves so dangerous; a simple stray mark, a vowel pronounced with the wrong intonation, the wrong type of pepper used in incense, or such minor differences could honestly and hugely change how something works.  Just because something looks simple and straightforward doesn’t mean that it can be used in a simple and straightforward manner.

This stuff is called the occult, and the word “occult” means “that which is hidden”.  This stuff is not always apparent but always needs to be studied and mulled over for it to make sense and for it to click.  Picking something up and running with it is a bold move, and can easily cross over into folly; without a firm understanding of what you’re doing and to what end, as well as the construction of the tools and designs and artifices you’re using, you could really hurt yourself or those around you.  This goes double for tattoos of spiritual designs and artifices, because you’re literally and permanently transforming your body into an occult tool or a container for occult forces and entities; you need to take extra care when getting a spiritual tattoo because you may be biting off far more than you can chew.