A first look behind the curtain

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A first look behind the curtain

Postby JeanSebastien » Tue Apr 19, 2016 12:12 am

I write this article with the eyes of a neophyte. The metaphysics of the spirit planes are both complex and interesting. Despite my 20+ years experience delving into various spheres of the occult and of magick in general, I feel it is never superfluous to go back to basics. Or at least it always pays to keep the 101 material handy in cases where our advanced formulas and models fail us. I wish here to explore part of my own internal mythos and to highlight some of the spirits I interact with and why they are important to me. But I also want to open a dialogue about the ways in which our relationships with spirits, angels, daemons, deities, as well as with a variety of other spiritual and celestial intelligences define an important part of our magickal paths, for those of us who engage in such practices.

I will begin by introducing each one of my friends, teachers and bound allies to whom I turn to the most when it comes to my spiritual development. I will then describe shortly the ways in which they help me, each in their own way and using their own sphere of knowledge and ability. I will divide each kind of being into categories to simplify the listing of their names and offices and finalize this part with a short description for each of the spirits or deities. This includes beings I have worked with in the past but do not work with anymore. It also includes being which I have encountered, some several times but do not necessarily have a close relationship with. I felt like sharing these few insights into my personal cosmology might trigger other experienced mages to tell me a little bit about theirs either as comments following this article or in private messages. This article should also serve as a glossary for the possible affinities, tutelages, and powers at the disposition of the entities mentioned in my personal entries about them or possibly as a correspondence list for ritual use. Finally it is an act of shared and publicized self-exploration, that will hopefully allow others to make the same kinds of leaps of awareness for themselves. I will also impart some of my personal experiences in the encounters with these spirits.

Totem spirits
Dragonfly: Representing creativity, freedom, liberty, fertility, the breaking down of obstacles of boundaries as well as the opening of the ways, the ability to see thru the illusions and veils that we encounter in our daily lives. The dragonfly totema is a great counsel that manifests as a spectral flying being that buzzes with the glittering sound of chimes as it speaks in a high pitched whisper. He teaches me to remember that I am not bound by myself, by my past or that my path is entirely dependent on me and my actions.
Firebird: The firebird totema represents life, death, reincarnation, fire, healing, male energies as well as courage, passion, loyalty, and perseverance. It teaches me that I am often stronger than I give myself credit for and that no amount of complaining can help me avoid reality when it comes down to its harsher aspects. It has also taught me to work with unique techniques of fire elemental manipulation through unique, focused, yet adaptable spells.
Manticora: The human headed lion with a scorpion's tale represents inner-strength, power, cannibalism, hunger, longing, intelligence, and cunning. The manticora totema taught me the value of picking my battles. He helps me define my role as a master in BDSM and to always seek to better myself in that part of my life. He also reminded me that the cultivation of self-confidence and inner-strength begins from within..
Crow: The crow totema represents the passage between life and death, the finding of wealth in the most unlikely of places and from the most unlikely of sources, along with wisdom, occult knowledge, initiation. He taught me like the firebird totema to always change, grow, evolve beyond my limits once they are pinpointed and understood. He has also enhanced my abilities to communicate with ghosts and the spirits of the dead. He has also revealed to me unique wealth making opportunities I might otherwise have missed.
Coyote: The coyote totema represents the ability to see in the night, to see through illusions and lies, to confuse and beguile our enemies, and to advance personal growth even in the most unorthodox of endeavors or paths. He has taught me personal magnetism and seduction of the opposite sex. He has had many discourses with me about manifestation and the nature of mana/energy. He has also taught me about spellcrafting and wishes.
Snow owl: The snow owl totema represents hunting, sight in absolute darkness, enigmas, secrets, magick, majesty, glory, strength and wisdom. He has taught me the value of secrecy and the importance of critical judgment. He is indigent to my place of residence in Canada and thus has a special bond to the land. He also taught me the importance of taking the occasional step back from an anxiety causing situation to be able to see through the ensuing confusion and hypersentivity. He has also had intriguing insights and discourses with me about magick and shamanism.

Gods and Goddesses
Woden: Woden is not just a deity, He is a companion in the war of life. He is the advisor who never lets you stay face in the mud as long as your hands are strong enough to carry sword and shield in the defense of your own self-interest. Unlike other patron deities and divine teacher I have taken on, Woden let me do things according to my true will offering his counsel and advice freely without the delivery of the harsh, sometimes life-ruining lessons offered by other divinities. He represents honor, courage, self-discipline, wisdom, inner-strength, self-discovery and loyalty. He has taught me divination using the runes, galdr and has had discourses with me about the hidden truths behind the Norse creation myths.
Marduk: The babylonian messiah deity, master of mortal magicks, Marduk has been a harsh, somewhat cruel teacher to me and has allowed me to surpass myself, my flaws and limitations many times in the past. He represents male energies, fertility, magick, war, wisdom, strength and the victory of good over evil. He has taught me many unusual theories of metaphysics and magick, the value of sacred geometry, numerology, and astrology, the use of blood magick, the understanding of the Enuma-Elish, the importance of Gilgamesh in the latter as well as a deeper look at the role of Kingu in the fate of man to rule over daemons yet to never be satisfied of life from the hole in his heart.
Yog-Sothoth: Yog-Sothoth is no holds barred the most grandiose, powerful, omniscient, confusing and intelligent being I have ever developed a relationship with. We seem to resonate at a cosmic level of consciousness. He is the one in all who is all in one. He is time. He is space. He is the gate and the key. He also represents knowledge, wisdom, intelligence, connections, access to information, cosmology, awareness, ascension, astrology, astronomy and expansion. Praying to him is like tapping into an infinite stream of consciousness that almost implodes your brain from the sheer amount of output you access through this prolonged contact. He has taught me whole new ways to understand quantum physics, string theory, cosmology, aeonics, history, parallel universes, dimensional metaphysics, temporal mechanics, chaos mechanics, the importance of true names and links in spellcrafting. He has also taught me interesting new ways to astral project, to soul travel and to enter the Akashic Records.
Dana: The Mother Goddess of the Celtic pantheon and the matriarch to elves and faes, Dana is a protector, a teacher, a giver of nurture and lessons. She has always related to me as a parent, as a dispenser of compassion with a very caring demeanor. She represents life, motherhood, fertility, the cycles of nature, the passage of the seasons, glamor, wishes, mana, and creation. She taught me a greater appreciation for self-care, self-preservation, and the value of family. She taught me about herbalism, healing spells, spagyrics, alchemy, mana, manifestation, and has had strange discourses about otherkins and the metaphysics behind their existence with me.
Dagda: Dadga appears to me as a giant, a happy, jolly fella bringing with him the smell of humid pine needles, autumn leaves and melted snow. He appears calm, self-controlled, balanced and stable of mind. He has had long discourses with me about inner-balance, about ways to control my anxiety and my occasional bouts of depression, about meditations that root the practionner to ley lines and telluric forces found in nature. I have called upon his counsel many times to get thru moments in my life where I need to hold my tongue and to recollect upon myself to find my emotional center.
Freya: The goddess of love, compassion and lust, Freya, is, like Woden, a companion on the road of life. This is a tendency that seems to repeat among the Norse deities I have met and had contact with, to have no overinflated ego, no pretense about their own godhood. They present themselves as friends, advisors, family members in the larger cosmic sense. Freya is no exception. She is a lover, a graceful majestic woman that brings with her smells of honey, of amber and of patchouli. She has taught me the finesse of love, unusual techniques of sacred sexuality and of the spellcrafting of love magicks. She has had discourses about human interaction, seduction, personal magnetism, presence, communication, romantic relationships, psychology, as well as the ethics of BDSM roles and relationships.

Angels
Raziel: So far I've only had one chance, one single ritual to have Raziel as a teacher. The great Opphanim scribe archangel which gave Kabbalah and the knowledge of the tree of life and death to Adam, Raziel appears as a beautiful man with long golden locks, speaking in a fiery tongue, displaying a golden halo and an aura of holy white flames. He is said have expert knowledge about manifestation, ascension, alchemy, law and about the mysteries of creation. During a 7 hour ritual, he shared with me various charms and spells to produce wishes and effects towards gaining wealth and money-making opportunities from nothing. He also shared a grand sigil said to have unique virtues for manifesting the same depending on the material on which it is scribbled or etched.
Metatron: Metatron is another scribe archangel which as always inspired me. I have prayed and made offerings to him. I never develloped a teacher/student relationship with him. I have done dream spells and evoked him in astral temples of my creation, applying principles of lucid trance and lucid dreaming. During these few visits, he has had discourses about inspiration, about self-exploration, about confidence, about illuminations, about initiatory sickness and about manifestation with me. He is of a cold, logical,distant disposition. His voice feels far away when he appears to me yet it resounds throughout the room.

Daemons
Lucifuge Rofocale: This daemon of excess and of the obliteration of personal limitations has always called to me. He has appeared to me in dreams and has had one or two discourses with me about excess, manifestation and self-interest. He has also offered subjective opinions about structure of the ego and the human psyche. I have yet to evoke him or develop a personal relationship with him for further exploration and study.
Orobas: I have had two occasions to work with Orobas, as it required two passes at the same expected result to obtain a noticeable effect. The expected results were the manifestation of a small sum of money to help me get out of a tight spot and the manifestation of a job opportunity. These two ritual evocations were attempted a month and a half apart. The result was a few thousand + dollars and a well-paid contractual job i sorely needed at the time.

Spirits(General)

Ghosts and ancestor spirits: The spirits of the dead have long represented for me a source of tutelage, guidance, answers to my questions, companionship and the lost art of conversation. The people we meet, enjoy and then lose to death, the meaningful people in our lives, never really go away or leave us alone to face life. They are just experienced differently past the point of death.
Eggun: Since I have begun to study Palo Mayombe, I have been interested in developing a personal relationship with my ancestors, dead relatives and with the spirits of dead friends and allies. I offer them offerings of food and pray for their counsel and guidance when I go to sleep.
Mpungos: I have only encountered the Mpungos, the great spirits of Palo Mayombe indirectly through research and in passing in dream visions. I know there is much for me to learn through continue contact and with a deeper personal investment in my study of Diaspora religions.

Egregores

Nhudra: Nhudra is a Mother goddess, the conscious of the Otherside, omniverse between worlds and akin to Dana in many respects as a deity. She is the egregore attached to a pen and paper role playing game of my creation that I plan on someday getting published. She has been a great support and a great channeled source of inspiration in my writings.

This concludes a personal portrait of my inner cosmology. It offers a small yet clear window into my psyche. I hope it speaks to other mages out there.
JeanSebastien
 
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Re: A first look behind the curtain

Postby The Madame X » Tue Apr 19, 2016 3:57 pm

Beautiful introspective piece.

This is a very inspirational introspection and one that most of us should engage in. Many of us carry similar understandings but the value of putting it in words is certainly an added strength to each lesson.

Thank you for sharing such personal revelations with us.
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