Vajrayogini: Her Visualizations, Rituals, and Forms – Elizabeth English
Wisdom Publications. 2002. 563pp. 086171329X.

Vajrayogini is one of the primary female figures of Vajrayana Buddhism. Her practice stems from the earliest reaches of Tantric Buddhism and continues to be popular to this day. Beautiful and fierce, loving and powerful. This massive tome is all about her. Let me make this clear though, this text is academic, it’s adapted from a thesis, nearly 600 pages. If you’re curious about Vajrayogini, this isn’t the book for you, if you’re a practitioner of her sadhanas, this still might not be the book for you, but if you’re very serious about understanding her, this is the book for you. (Or if you have a lama like mine who insisted I read this as part of my preparation for her empowerment.)

This book isn’t about Vajrayogini in general, but specifically focusing on her appearance in a twelfth or thirteenth century manuscript that collected sadhanas devoted to her. English states that “I hope the book will serve a double purpose: examining, from out textual evidence, the cult of Vajrayogini in India prior to 1200 C.E., and shedding light on tantric sadhana meditation” (xx). She accomplishes both goals quite well, it’s dense and academic, but thorough and well laid out.

The text follows the origins of the wrathful and erotic in Tantric Buddhism to Saiva praxis. Saiva mythology being adapted into a Buddhist cosmology is explained in a way that really clarifies a lot of the history and connection between the traditions. For those of us who practice Vajrayogini sadhanas and/or rituals of emanations of her (like Machik in some conceptions) there is an explanation of 17 different forms and emanations of Vajrayogini and what they mean and represent and where they came from. For the symbolism of figures like Vajrayogini this is the most detailed and complete writing on the topic I’ve ever come across.

Moving from the figure of Vajrayogini herself English explores the sadhana, breaking it down into smaller parts, while offering remarkably in-depth analysis of these sections. From benedictions, to creating the Circle of Protection, to Generating Vajrayogini to the mandala, and into specific practices. This is 110 pages of how to do the basic rituals, while that might sound like it will teach you, it requires a lot of prior knowledge to understand how to assemble and use all this information.

As someone who has been practicing chöd for coming up on two years, this book was very insightful due to the connection of Machik (founder of chöd) being an emanation of Vajrayogini. This is a book that takes a lot to read, it is long, complicated, and dense, but for those serious in their practice it is a great text to read, though one that will constantly have to be referred to in order to make use of the massive amount of information there in. If you’re interested in the tradition and history of Tantric Buddhism this text also has a lot to offer.

I’m not a huge horror movie fan. At some point they got taken over by needless violence and gore, which I don’t mind but that’s not what I seek out movies for. I haven’t liked a horror movie since The Others, but this one looks interesting.

The Possession

It is supposedly based on the case of the dibbukbox but I don’t know how much is really from that incident. I liked that it’s a Jewish spirit, and that you see a Rabbi tackling it. I annoys me the monopoly Catholics have on spirit/demons and exorcisms in movies…and even in ghost-related reality tv series, so it’s nice to see a Rabbi step up to the plate.

In Iceland a politician is moving a boulder which he believes houses three generations of elves. I don’t know what to make of this story. Personally I’m not an elf fan. It’s interesting though, he seems to be quite serious about this, and doesn’t seem bizarre, can’t say for sure there are elves though. In a counter news story, Rob Ford mayor of Toronto can’t stand to have faeries around him.

There are many reasons to complain about the Star Wars Prequels. (If you can’t think of any, I suggest you watch these reviews, even if you can, watch them. They’re hilarious and very intelligent.) Some people complain about the idea of Anakin (Darth Vader) being a messiah, and even having a virgin birth. Oddly enough though it seems that Darth Vader’s armour in the original movies (the good three) may have Hebrew writing on them. This of course left me hearing “Barukh ata Adonai Eloheinu melekh ha‑olam” in Vader’s voice. I guess that would make him Da’ath Vader?

If that wasn’t unusual enough. Mihai Mihu created the Nine Circles of Hell out of Lego. Now before you ignore that link, this isn’t some child’s fooling around with Lego, this is some seriously well crafted stuff. My favourite is Lust, with a Lego menstruating vagina creating a river of blood. (Did you ever expect to read a sentence like that ever?)

Rufus Opus makes an excellent post regarding the differences in how eclipses are seen and used in Eastern and Western magick. It’s a great read, and it applies to far more than just the eclipse. It explains how different traditions can interpret the same phenomena in completely opposite terms, while both being right, without resorting to “It’s just what they believe in that works” or something in that arena.

Over on his site Aghor Pir gave a great list of Hindu Tantra sources. It’s very thorough. Now I just need some more funding for texts and time to read them…

This is an interesting photo, beautiful, grainy, something ephemeral about it. Oh, it was also taken with a camera made out of a human skull. This artist has more than one, that was Third Eye (as the pin hole is in the third eye region), and there is also Yama, which is capable of 3-D pictures.

Lastly. I came across a new blog, and I’m in love. It’s Angry Asian Buddhist. I deal a lot with the concerns (and reality) of cultural appropriation of Buddhism in the West. This blog deals with a lot of that, in an intelligent, but as the title suggests angry manner. If you’re looking to get involved with Buddhism, or are already but are unaware of these concerns, take a read.

May 20th will deliver us an Annular Solar Eclipse. I love eclipses; mundanely, magickally, and astronomically. It’s amazing that our Moon is about 1/400th the size of the Sun, and is 400 times closer so that we actually get these eclipses. If our Moon was smaller, or farther away it wouldn’t obscure the Sun, just blot out a little as it passes. I love the world slipping into a fake twilight. I love the feel eclipses give me, and what they mean to me, what they inspire in me.

I mentioned it when discussing the period between my birthday and New Years, but I love the liminal places, the twilight realms, that is where I thrive. Magickally I love the expression of being balanced and in transition, and it’s something I love to make use of. A lot of my life (and my death) has been about these neither-nether places and they have a personal appeal to me.

In Vajrayana Buddhism it’s believed that during a solar eclipse the effects of positive and negative actions are multiplied by 10,000. So in general they’re considered auspicious days to practice on. This eclipse takes place on the 30th day of the third Tibetan month, the next day begins Saga Dewa, the holy month containing the birth, Enlightenment, and death of Shakyamuni Buddha. (I have some issue with the concept of multiplier days, but I still practice with them.)

Eclipses are linked with other eclipses in different ways. Eclipses occur when the Moon is conjunct a Node; South Node is a solar eclipse, and North Node is a lunar eclipse. While the Moon is at the same plane as the nodes it can have multiple eclipses, the most common is a lunar eclipse 14-15 days before and/or after a solar eclipse. We have just such a link this year, a lunar eclipse falls 15 days after this solar eclipse on June 4.

This is the 15th day of Saga Dawa, known as Saga Dawa Düchen, the day celebrating the Enlightenment and death of the historical Buddha. That holiday is another multiplier day, as is the lunar eclipse. (But, like a well balanced role-playing game these multiplication modifiers don’t stack) So this eclipse is part of a bigger system.

On top of this the Sun and Moon will be conjunct Alcyone during the eclipse, Alcyone being the central star of the Pleiades. The only thing that could make this eclipse better in my system was if Pluto was aspected somehow, but alas he is not.

So what does all this mean? It means I’ll be locked in my temple pretty much all day. The eclipse doesn’t start locally (EST) until 16:56, is full at 19:53, and ends at 22:49 but even still there will be preparation to do. I have stacks of pendants and talismans that I’ve been waiting to complete (and some I have to finish physically making) so there will be a lot of time spent on that. I’ll probably complete them properly during the lunar eclipse to tie them into both. I have materia to transform, magickal items to make, bless, and charge. I have a Cosmos to love.

I’ll probably end up figuring out more in the next few days. I see my lama tonight, so we’ll nail down (phurba down?) some plans and I’ll go from there.

Robert made a good post on the Do’s and Don’ts for Teachers in pagan/magickal groups, also followed by one for students. Regardless of where you think you’re situated, they’re both worth reading.

Wildmind has a list of 10 Things Science and Buddhism say will make you happy. Really only the Buddhist side is sourced, but a list of ten things to consider.

Phil Hine tackles the Energy Model. Now I like the model, but he makes great points on the hypocrisy and poorly thought out way many people use it I think I should go cleanse my shoes, since they were made (unbeknownst to me) by a homophobic company, and I don’t want my feet becoming homophobes.

Before I linked the Buddhist bar. One step better is the Buddhist Strip Bar. Even the pimps are Buddhist there, you can hear them saying Om Mani Peme Hum…or maybe there were saying “Owe money, pay me ho.” (Bad joke, I know)

A Witchcraft-inspired murder in the UK has come to trial. A very disturbing case. The police believe this is an underreported crime, but give no reason for why they believe that.

Shivian Balaris wrote a good post on making a functional grimoire or Book of Shadows. I disagree with using it as a journal, cause I do a lot and have a complicated daily practice, so I go through journals far quicker than I’d want to with a grimoire or Book of Shadows. I have a few books that I’m trying to put into one, right now it seems like a three hole punched binder is my best choice. If you use a book like this it’s worth a read

Coming soon to a book store near you, a pre-teen/teen novel about a boy who discovers he’s quarter Angel. Nephilim tween fantasy is the new thing.

No, seriously, there is another.

This is really a case of an unbalanced individual taking advice the wrong way. Man murders family for his inheritance after a psychic told him riches were coming his way.

If you’re under a rock Gordon put up the Ultimate Sigil Magic Guide and it is seriously worth a read.

Synesthesia may explain how people see auras!

Or not…

An excellent look into elemental work and initiation into them. Really worth the read.

Lastly on a light note, this will be the problem I have with my children

I know this is short notice. This is short notice for me too, but tonight is the first night of the radio show I’m hosting with my friend Jackie Williams, Occult Spectrum.

If you’re interested tune in here

And if you want to text chat with us during the show (we may take questions) sign up for a free account here

Apparently these will be archived, but I don’t have the data on that yet, but will have it up later.

“There’s always hope, Gandhi. When life gives you lemons, you clone those lemons and make super-lemons.” Some of the best advice I’ve ever heard from a high school principal.

Life gave me lemons. A few bouts of illness, plus a ridiculously heavy course load coupled with the workplace practicum my degree requires, and a supervisor who hated me and expected the world of me. I’ve been horrendously busy, no time for anything, but I don’t complain because I was given my lemons, and I’m working on my super-lemons.

In spring-summer of 2008 I started a magickal working to get my life on track, it was a series of complex and oddly connected rituals. It’s not over, that’s the beauty, this hectic rush I just survived is just the latest manifestation of my path taking me where I belong. So yes, I went too long without sex, social encounters, or magick for the sake of exploration, but it was all a sacrifice to my Path, to my Self as I continue.

I’m boggled when I see people (moreso when they are occultists) who balk and complain about the amount of work required to reach their goals, especially when it is a goal they used magick to gain the opportunity for.

Whether it’s in some far-off abstract magick realm, or the nitty-gritty physical world, it takes work, it’s the Great Work people.

So while I’m sorry I haven’t blogged, and miss magick that isn’t just daily practice or patching up the boat, I’m glad I went through such a ridiculously hectic period when I had time for nothing else. I have a summer free, and a world to love with magick. New experiments and ventures coming soon. Stay tuned for tinkering with reality, exploring the world, and even a radio show (I’m baffled by that too).

Polyphanes posted “Be a ninja! Remain unseen! Here’s How.”  Inspired by this post I wanted to talk about three examples of what I’ve done to hide myself, and share one of my favourite stories of (possible) magickal invisibility.

For structured and clear rituals, there is the Rose Cross. I don’t know how traditional it is, but I was taught it with the instruction that it can be used to deflect attention, to make you invisible, and I’ve had good results with that.

I admit I'm clueless to what this says, hopefully something witty and ironic.

Another method I have takes a bit of practice. Go stand against a wall and press yourself flat against it, try to hide against the wall, even if there is nothing to cover you. Then reach out and try to draw the wall around, the energy, the perception, the concept of the wall, pull it across you like a curtain. This is all well and good if you have to hide against walls, but it’s not very portable, but the idea is. That is the training. Get used to the sensation, physical, mental, emotional, energetic/spiritual of pressing against the wall trying to avoid notice. Now stand in the middle of a room and try to flatten yourself against the centre of the room. It’s hard to explain, but just as you pressed yourself against the wall, away from the room, now you are pressing yourself away from everywhere at once. To use a sci-fi analogy by backing away from everything at once you’re pushing yourself out of phase (what does that even mean?) of our physical reality. In this state draw the room around, as you did with the wall, covering yourself in the same way. If you keep your focus on being drawn away and covered you can actually move around with this, leave the area, and pass beneath notice on the move.

The last technique is a bit simpler to pull off. All you need is a few small candles, a mirror, and a dark room. Light the candles (I prefer nine, for Lunar associations of illusion, and the ability to go unseen like the New Moon) place them within easy reach of you and turn off the light. Sit in front of the mirror (you can stand, but subtle swaying makes it more difficult) and just stare at your reflection until it starts to blur. Once it blurs for a moment blow out a candle, and see the light from the extinguished flame being drawn into you. Repeat this for each candle. The idea is you’re associating a blurred harder to see image with yourself, and you’re drawing the light from the candles, what allows you to be seen, into you. The light which illuminates you is being taken into you, is in your control.

Now, invisibility and my humorous past. No surprise, I do a lot of work in cemeteries. While there are several closer to me, there is an excellent cemetery for rituals a 20 minute walk away. This cemetery has several streams, open fields, forests, it’s great. There is one spot in that cemetery I love for rituals; two roads intersect making a crossroad, two streams go underground near there and seem to cross underneath this area at the cross-quarters, and between the roads there are small walls sealing in this crossroad. I love it. Now sometimes rituals are small…sometimes not so much. When I had a big ritual to perform there I did the Rose Cross and the Mirror/Candle to make me invisible, or so people won’t pay attention to me.

So I put on my backpack, filled with my ritual items, and limped to the cemetery -as my ritual sword was tucked in my right pant leg so it can’t be seen, but obviously limited my range of movement. I get to the cemetery about two hours after it closes, other than around Halloween security only patrols it for an hour after closing. Waiting for a lull in traffic (no need to push my luck) I snuck through the gate they never lock.  I finally arrive at my crossroads, and unpack my ritual stuff. Pillar candles set at the crossquarters of the intersection, incense in the eight directions against the wall, black silk robes put on, and of course my ritual sword now safely out of my pants. (That sounds wrong, but I’m keeping it in.)

It was a clear full moon night, so it was very bright and easy to see. I called to the Guardians of the Cemetery, set up my magickal boundaries, and dived into the ritual. About half an hour into the ritual, I’m standing in the centre of the crossroads, the walls are a good 20m at least away from me, bright moonlight while I contrast it in solid black, sword thrust toward the sky, when suddenly at the road just south of me the security guards drive by. It’s only 80m away (260 feet), nothing between us, they drive by slowly, and passed out of site.

Artist's rendition

Being confident in my magick I just stood there… okay, not really, I ran and grabbed my backpack and knelt against the farside of the wall in the shadows. This put me as far away from them as possible if they either did a U-turn, or took the next corner to loop back. And a minute passed, and another, and another. After maybe five-ten minutes, far longer than it should have taken them to get back there was still no sign of them. I move back to the centre and resume the ritual and complete it, the security guards never drove by again. Really they should have, they didn’t patrol the quarter I was in, and I was there long enough that they had enough time to cover the entire cemetery more than once.

This is always my favourite story about magickal invisibility. Though, a friend (or possibly my brother, I forget now) did give a less magickal alternative that I’m still fond of. “If you’re a security guard in a cemetery, and one full moon night you see a black robed shadow wielding a sword on the top of a hill, your first thought is ‘Fuck no. I’ve seen this horror movie’ and you keep driving.” Of course, even if they saw me and were unnerved, they paid me no attention, so in that way still a success.

A young monk was doing a meditation retreat, and every day during his afternoon meditation Buddha would appear to him in a brilliant light. Finally he said to his teacher “Every time I meditate I see Lord Buddha.” His teacher nodded and said “Just keep breathing, he goes away eventually.”

At dinner a friend asked me “What are the signs of a successful magickal working?” At first I gave two answers which dealt more with the path of results, but then I went back to the exceedingly obvious and true answer “What was intended, comes to pass.” Much like the young monk we often get too caught up in the signs during, but really it is the sign after that matters.

When I cook dinner, the sign of a good meal has nothing to do with how the water boiled, if the onion chopped perfectly, or if the sauce bubbled in a specific shape. I’ve bad great meals where everything goes wrong, things burn, or don’t brown right, or nothing seems to happen at all. The sign of a good meal is when it’s all over if it is delicious and well-made.

Every once and a while the debate flairs up about visual/physical manifestation during magick, and I think it deals with the phenomena all wrong. Sometimes when I do magick I get the weird noises, lights, solid looking faces forming out of smoke, stuff moving, glass shattering, and the other woogity. Sometimes I feel like I’m in a dark smoky room, staring at a black mirror and just talking to myself.

The odd part to some people? Just because a face forms out of smoke doesn’t mean I’m any more likely to succeed than the times it feels silent. I think these signs are probably dependant on something why don’t fully understand, some complex combination that people don’t have the whole picture of, and that’s okay. What matters is getting results, especially results with repeated success.

A friend contracted me for some magick last week; he lost something valuable three days before and couldn’t find it. He offered to pay me for the help, and only because he is my best friend did I allow him the deal that I only got paid if I succeeded. So I did a brief divination, which gave an area for him to search, but also said that “yes this item would be found.” I told him that, and then I contracted two spirits I use specifically for lost objects, they agreed to help and said it wasn’t a problem. This was before bed, when he went into work the next morning a co-worker had found the item and gave it back to him. My friend decided that this wasn’t a magickal success, after all, he didn’t have a chance to look where the dice said, and someone just happened to find it and gave it back to him four days later randomly, within twelve hours of my work on the case.

I let this slide, he’s my best friend, I’d help him without the offer of payment, but I was more confused by the idea that the success wasn’t magick. I guess I forgot to stipulate it had to be delivered by blue butterflies, as well as arriving at the right time. The signs of successful magick aren’t what happens during the ritual, aren’t the ways it happens (not necessarily at least), but that success occurs. More precisely though I’d say that success occurs repeatedly, against the odds of both individual and repeated occurrences.

Crowley said “Success be thy proof” not “Crazy-ass lights while you yell in Hebrew be thy proof” or “Your Scarlet Woman coalesces out of thin air be thy proof.” Success people. Magick is a path and all paths are made of goals, look for the success.

Mastering the Mystical Heptarchy – Scott Michael Stenwick
Pendraig Publishing. 2011. 178pp. 9781936922048.

“Dee’s obsession with scrying and communication has been picked up by many modern practitioners of Enochian magick, and from reading some accounts one might be led to think that this is all the system is good for.” (50) I admit, I was in this category, I wasn’t an Enochian magickian, but that’s what I thought the system was for, and my few experiments in the system with friends were for information. This book aims to dispel that idea, as well as the mono-focus on the Great Table which is even more prevalent in the magickal community.

The Heptarchia Mystica is a section of Dee and Kelly’s work that is often overlooked and separate from the Great Table. It is also closer in structure and usage to the grimoires of the time. If you’re a grimoiric/Solomonic magickian (like me) some of the mainstream Enochian system can see a bit much to get into, but the Heptarchia Mystica is more accessible and familiar in many ways. It gives a collection of planetary Kings and Princes, as well as the evocations for each figure, and how to work with them, in a style far closer to what you get from the Lesser Key than from most Enochian texts.

This book is more than just printing of the oft ignored text, but also a general book on how to work with it. It was written with the “intention that you as an aspiring magician should be able to pick up this book and begin working magick right away” (53). If not for the fact that it requires specific ritual items like rings and lamens, this goal seems to be hit. The reader is led through a cursory history of the system and then some preliminary magick. Stenwick takes the standard banishing 101 seemingly required in every magick book, and goes a step farther. Instead of just giving the standard LBRP, the reader is given to Enochian inspired banishing/invoking rituals based on the Pentagram and Hexagram rituals. These are not simple rewrites of changing a name you sometimes get in books where they replace a name and claim it is Celtic (or whatever), but actually fairly distinct rituals I found quite enjoyable. Also Stenwick mentions what he calls the various fields: the effects of combining the different invoking and banishing rituals of the pentagrams and hexagrams. I had toyed with what these combinations too, but he takes it a step farther and discusses each combination and what they are best used for. It was an unexpected inclusion, but I definitely got a lot from it. Aside from the meat of the text that is something I will definitely do more work with.

The Enochian system is Christian in inspiration, it is a fact you can’t really get around, as such a lot of the prayers and evocations are quite Christian. On the other hand Stenwick is not, he’s a Thelemite, so each prayer is presented in its original form and then followed by a more Thelemic form, which often didn’t require too drastic of a change. I really liked this modification, as my belief system is far closer to the Thelemic system in philosophy than the Christian, and I know a surprising amount of Ceremonial Magickians have issues working with an overtly Christian system.

The book had a few formatting errors that irked me. Many of the internal page references were off by a page or two, so when working from the book you have to mark it somehow so you know to turn to the right page. Also sections that were supposed to be italicized so the reader would know what to omit or change were not actually italicized. In the grand scheme these are minor, but interfere just enough with the text to be a gremlin in the book.

For seasoned Enochian magickians, grimoiric/Solomonic magickians looking to break into Enochian systems, or occults of any shade looking for something new to try, this book is a good place to start. Largely complete within itself, and focusing on an uncommon part of a popular tradition, this is an excellent book to explore.

Personally I’m going to harass friends and family to borrow some Enochian gear, and get to work. If you want to read more by Scott Michael Stenwick, you can follow his blog here or comment specifically on his forum post, which is a blog post that looks like it will be question and answer, and discussion with others who have enjoyed this book.

I’m sure everyone has seen the meme already. I just thought I’d toss up my two contributions. Click to enlarge if you want/need more detail.