Spirits I've Summoned: The Gnomes

The frame work of ceremony I followed in the early years my magic carrier were based on the Neophyte and Grade initiations of the Golden Dawn. I worked the elements by following an outlined based on the Grade ceremonies in order to scry and commune with the elemental beings of each realm. My  first experience with this method was introduced to me by an Adapt of the Golden Dawn.

In my early days of practicing magic, I was very influenced by the visionary works of Dee and Kelly as well as Crowley with his infamous Vision and the Voice. I was fascinated by the idea that magicians could view the invisible through ceremony and scry stones in order to gain knowledge and power. Naturally, a young magician like myself would want to gain esoteric knowledge from spirits and be able to predict the future.

I recall voicing my fascinations to a more experienced magician and he informed me of the Golden Dawn making use of tattwa cards to interact with elemental beings. Tattwa cards used specific elemental images of the Samkhya Hindu philosophy to symbolize the basic elements. A yellow square for earth, a blue circle for air, a red triangle for fire, a silver crescent moon for water, and a black or deep indigo egg for spirit/akasha.

I sat out to acquire Dr Mumford's book and card set Magical Tattwas, and straight away began to attempt the exercises in the book. One of the main objectives of the exercises is to "see" the tattwa image within your mind and project yourself through the image into the elemental landscape. I spent long hours attempting to open visualize the images with my eyes closed and see the "portal" so often described to little avail. However, despite not yet having the ability to see the elemental landscape, I was getting quite good at simply seeing the tattwa image in my mind.

I vented my frustrations with my progress after a couple of months to the same more experienced magician. He suggested that we open an elemental temple and then try scrying the tattwas. Admittedly, I was uncertain how a ceremony would improve the ability to scry, it seemed to me that all the action would produce the opposite state of mind I was striving for. Regardless of my feelings, I decided to go along with the ceremony.

The next day I went to the park to try and get in touch with earth elementals. I found a shady spot under a tree where the soil was rich and soft. I introduced myself quietly and sat around for a while, I thought I felt a presence like being watched but eventually gave up and decided to leave. I touch a small amount of soil with me for the ceremony that would take place the following evening.

We prepared the space for the ceremony by doing a Lesser Banishing Ritual of the Pentagram. Then we cleansed and incensed the space with water and frankincense. I was given the task of doing the invocation of Earth. I had spent the day practicing tracing the Earth invoking pentagram while intoning the God names of the Zealtor ceremony. I felt my whole body shaking while I drew the pentagram while intoning the names. The room began to feel animated and a lamp flickered on and off while I said each name.

The presence of the spirits fully invoked I picked up my little dish of soil and sat down in front of the altar where a the tattwa for earth was on display. I gazed into the yellow square and felt my consciousness begin to move into the image. I closed my eyes and saw the portal! I instinctively walked through and saw a landscape of rolling hills. It was like looking at a television screen. Suddenly I saw squat ugly little men in funny clothing coming over the hills. They were dancing and singing a strange little song. It seemed like they were watching me as I was watching them. They began to dig gold out of the ground and offered me handfuls of it.

Slowly the vision began to fade and I found myself back in the temple. I took a moment to regain my bearings and looked around the room. I was informed that I was in a trance for a very long time. Excitedly, I explained everything I experienced and I was surprised that no one else had such intense visions. It was suggested that because I was the one who did the invocations that I would have the more potent visions.

After that ceremony I began to experiment more with using God-names before scrying with similar success. I found myself being requested to be a scryer for ceremonies after I developed the skill. It even translated into my tarot reading abilities as I began to see things when I looked at the cards. I still employ a similar technique to this day when I wish to speak to angels in a crystal ball.

Spirits I've Summoned: The Great God Pan

Of all the exercises that the Golden Dawn offered that were of value, the absolute greatest of them is the assumption of God-form. This is an excellent exercise for aspiring mediums and those seeking control over their mediumship. I was not aware of my gifts as a medium (although I think I had suspicions) until I started practicing the assumption of god-form and the practice of invoking deities.

My earliest success with this practice came almost 17 years ago when I discovered Aliester Crowley's Hymn To Pan in an old hardcover copy of his Magick. Mind you, I believe that Crowley should be taken with a grain of salt and a laxative as his notions are deliberately way off base, however, a broken clock is right twice a day. 

Even reading the Hymn To Pan silently to myself I began to be filled with an otherworldly notion. It seemed as if a wild energy began to flow through as I excitedly read the words. I found myself working to memorize the Hymn in an afternoon so that I could enjoy it whenever I pleased. Around this time I was reading Donald Michael Kraig's Modern Magick, and was learning some basic Golden Dawn Magic techniques. 

For a little over a month I would sit quietly and relax myself. I would gaze at various images of Pan and satyrs. I would begin to recite the Hymn and imagine the shape of the god formulate around me. I would begin to feel my consciousness expand into the image, all the while visions of satyrs and nymphs would fill my mind. Gradually I would wind myself down from the ecstatic state and ground myself by touching things around the temple. 

I noticed during this time period that my life was becoming VERY interesting. It seemed like I was always getting invited to parties and my sex life had never been so wild. There was a charm in the air around me and I noticed that people seemed to center around whatever I was doing. People would often give me things for free and my social life was expanding.

I wanted to see how far the experience could go and I decided that I wanted to formally invoke Pan. I told some other young magicians that I was acquainted with about my desires, and everyone agreed that they wanted to make it happen. We convened at another magician's house because it was centrally located and the space could accommodate the small crowd. We brought a bottle of wine for the god to drink and some bread for him to eat. 

The ceremony opened with a Lesser Banishing Ritual of Pentagram and followed with the Greater Invoking Ritual of the Pentagram. I burned an incense that I had made from cedar, pinion, vetiver and other resins while asking that my prayers be heard. I stood between the pillars temple and began to recite the Hymn. As I did the other magicians began to chant, "IO Pan! IO Pan!" 

Waves of ecstasy washed over me and I felt as though I was transforming into what had previously been an image in my mind. I felt horns protrude from my forehead, and my feet twist into hooves. My voice changed into the sound of a goat baying when I would try and say, "IO Pan." Eventually I lost all sense of self and everything disappeared. 

When I came too, I looked around the room to see an expression of shock on every face. It seemed as if just a moment had passed, but each magician informed me that they saw me change before their eyes. They said I looked like a satyr and began baying like a goat. That I then grabbed the bottle of wine and drank the whole bottle in a few gulps, and then began to give an oracle to each person present. I informed them that it was not me but rather Pan that had done so. There was no doubt in the room that a god had just been present.

I maintained a very special relationship with Pan for many years after that. Eventually, I felt that he brought me to the place I needed to be and that we both needed to move on. However, those experiences with him were very special and still fill me with delight when I think about it.

"Goat of Thy flock, I am gold, I am God!

Flesh to Thy bone, flower to Thy rod!

With hoofs of steel I race on the rocks,

Through solstice stubborn to equinox!

And I rave, and I rape, and I rip, and I rend,

Everlasting world without end,

Mannikin, maiden, Maenad, man,

In the might of Pan!

IO Pan! IO Pan Pan! Pan! IO Pan!"

The Head Spirit Vs The HGA

There seems to be a great deal of confusion and erroneously held beliefs between the western concept of the Holy Guardian Angel and the Head Spirit of Haitian Vodou. At some point in my development I actually believed that they were similar, but as I grew in my understanding and within my tradition I realized that they are two entirely different phenomenon. It is my intention to point out the differences between the two different concepts and demonstrate the continued colonialism of westerners into foreign traditions.

The HGA in Origin

The notion of guardian angles was largely championed by Christianity in the 5^th century, although there is a mentioning in both Islam and Zoroastrianism, Christians expanded deeply upon the concept liturgically and theologically. In Catholicism the guardian angel is an angel set to preside over each individual from birth. Through daily prayer and devotion, one develops a working relationship with this angel. One famous instance of this is recorded in the life of the stigmatic Padre Pio, who claimed that he could see and speak to his guardian angel from a very young age. The guardian angel is consistently described as an external force meant to guide the faithful and guard them from danger and demonic forces.

The Holy Guardian Angel in the Abramelin

The Holy Guardian Angel commonly called the “HGA” was a concept that originated in a medieval grimoire commonly called the Abramelin naming an author of Abraham von Worms, supposedly legitimizing the magic in the grimoire as being Jewish in origin. This type of notion was popular in texts of the time that the Jews in their closed culture were hiding esoteric mysteries from the goyim. What makes the claim of that the grimoire is Jewish in origin stands as a dubious claim is the fact that it is written in German instead of Yiddish, which would have made sense if we are to believe its supposed origins. The primary claim of this particular grimoire is that it is to place the magician in contact and communication with his very own Holy Guardian Angel, and in doing such would confer authority to the magician over all “unredeemed spirits” upon the earth. The supposed method was given to Abraham von Worms by an Egyptian mystic by the name of Abramelin.

The HGA and the Magical Revival

In my younger years I readily swallowed the story of this Jewish mystic writing down the secrete magic of Abramelin in the form of letter to his son Lamech. I mean it all fit my immature model of the magic and the universe as was introduced to via the Golden Dawn’s founder Samuel L. Macgregor Mather’s and espoused by Aliester Crowley, the self-proclaimed prophet of the Aeon. Mather’s original translation called The Sacred Magic of Abramelin the Mage, was based on French manuscripts that were resting in the Bibliotheque de l’Arsenal. Unknown to Mather’s was the numerous flaws omissions in the translation and seals from the manuscript he was working from. However, the concept of the Holy Guardian Angel and the Knowledge and Conversation thereof would become the focal point of the teachings of the Golden Dawn and later that of Crowley’s A.’.A.’..

The influence of the Golden Dawn, Crowley, and Thelema upon the modern understanding and practice of magic would become immeasurable. These concepts would be parroted from generation after generation of aspiring magicians without question and would eventually became canon for all novices. The pervasive ideology of the need for a guardian angel reached peak levels of nonsense when Satanic and Luciferian magicians claimed the notion of a Guardian Demon that was in opposition to the supposed Holy Guardian Angel. All the while not a single person making a claim to neither confirmed nor denied their own gnosis or knowledge and conversation. Most would begin a circular argument that someone must complete the supposed rite and know for themselves. The nonsense of not being able to adequately prove let alone discuss the phenomenon should give any reasonable person a moment of pause. In fact, the continued obscurity of the HGA by magicians that have supposedly attained this union flies in the face of the “wisdom” of the Abramelin itself:

“Everyone should be able to describe properly everything that he has seen and learned. A clear description of what has been seen gives listeners the opportunity to judge whether a traveler’s boasts are true.” –Abraham von Worms

Haitan Vodou and Colonialism

Haitian Vodou, the indigenous religion of Haiti well known for its influence over the Haitian revolution as well as having a large influence over Haitian politics has always been a source of fascination of Americans. The journalist William Seabrook published a rather sensationalist account of Haitian Vodou in his book The Magical Island in 1921. A book that would later inspire the film White Zombie. The notion of wild orgies and midnight fire-lit ceremonies where priests of invisible dark forces would be the source of a great deal of media while simultaneously distorting the ancestral traditions of the Haitian people.

In 1964 a man by the name of Michael Bertiaux would travel to Haiti and claim his initiation into Haitian Vodou, as well as, stake claims to an order of dubious origins known as the OTOA by which he somehow becomes the sole authority. (Sounds very similar to Crowley and the OTO, huh?) He would publish essays of his version of Vodou that would later be compiled under a single text called the Voudon Gnostic Workbook. This collection ranging from simple hoodoo spells to rambling virtually incoherent nonsense of homosexual sex magic, pseudo-Loas, and secret initiations would become fuel for a movement to gain access to the secret magic of the Haitian people. The overall tone of his work smacks of an intelligent white man who took mystical knowledge from another people only to improve upon it.

A more modern author, published under the name of E.A. Koetting would publish another pseudo-Haitian Vodou grimoire known as The Spider and the Green Butterfly. Making bold claims of having “backdoor initiations” or being able to command the powers of the Loa. He goes as far as claiming that a counsel of “Master Houngans” convened over his because the information was so incredibly crucial. What the work did offer however was a collection of poorly compiled information on a handful of Loas (one of which was even mis-gendered) and pseudo-ceremonies that have no foundation in the actual practice of Haitian Vodou.

Now this essay isn’t meant to pick on individuals who have made a profit by exploiting traditions that they have no valid claim to, I am merely setting the stage for my next point.

The Met Tet and Initiation

Within Haitian Vodou it is understood that Vodouisants have a Met Tet commonly referred to as Head Spirit, a being that presides over the spirituality of the individual. The purpose of the Head Spirit is better understood by the literal translation of Met Tet: Head Master. This spirit governs and protects the spirituality of the vodousiant. This relationship is secured only by initiation whereby a houngan (priest) prepares the head and soul of the initiate to receive the spirit. After the initiation the Head Spirit now resides in the head of the initiate. Possession play a necessary role in the initiation and must occur in order for the rite to be considered successful. The spirit will mount its “horse,” perform magic, offer advice, and voice concerns. The result of this union numbers the initiate among the ancestors of the society that initiated them, and grants a tremendous amount of spiritual authority. What is interesting is that the notion of guardian angels exists in some Vodou societies as a separate spiritual phenomenon that is tied to the influences of Catholicism in Vodou.

This process vastly differs from the asceticism of the Abramelin which involves solitude, prayer, and meditation. It also differs in the certainty of attainment of the spirit and the knowledge that the spirit that has been encountered is correct. The HGA is described an external force in the text while the Head Spirit exists within the head of the initiate. While the Holy Guardian Angel gives authority over “unredeemed spirits” the Head Spirit grants authority over the spirituality of the initiate and grants generational authority from all ancestors affiliated with the society. To this end, we are absolutely dealing with two different phenomenon, each one unique and each deserving the respect of individual recognition. Conflating the notion of the Holy Guardian Angel with the Head Spirit serves only the interest of a certain few who are seeking validity without having to explain themselves. 

Stop colonizing other traditions and work to understand your own.