Cult of the Hidden God (rough draft)

© Mogg Morgan
Cult of the Hidden God (rough draft)
© Mogg Morgan

I’m told that on the Lizard there exists a shamanic lizard cult who are
dedicated to the ‘dark serpent goddess’, who is believed to be contained
in the caves and dark places of the earth. Amidst great secrecy this
Lizard Pella cult operates conducting their projects without outside
interference. People can become the vehicle for a tremendously powerful
earth force that enables them, to heal and do magick.1

So it seems that not too far from here is to be found yet another of the
tunnels of Set and a group of secret initiates involved in their exploration.
If any are present today I hope they will excuse my feeble attempt to
reveal some of our mysteries to such a worthy gathering.

The ‘Hidden God’ of my title signifies two things – the Holy Guardian
Angel – secondly what is spoken about in many circles as the secret or
hidden ruler of all followers of the magical path. In what follows I hope
to give some indication of who this ‘Hidden Ruler’ might be – and
secondly to describe some of the magical techniques the Hidden God has,
at various times, communicated to his followers.

What the purpose of magick? For one reason or another all of us here, to
a greater or lesser extent, feel a calling to follow an ancient spiritual path.
It is not the easiest of life journeys. It can be quite a struggle. Contrary to
what some sociologists maintain, magick has very few of the social
benefits that come from the submersion in one of the other ‘so-called’
great religions. We follow what is known in the east as the ‘way of the

1
Robert Ellis, writing of the cult in Meyn Mamvro (no 22, Dream
Weavers of the Lizard) says:
‘The great secrecy with which the Lizard Pella cult operates is
understandable, as they wish to carry on their projects without outside
interference. People can become the vehicle for a tremendously powerful
earth force that enables them, to heal and do magick.’ (Witchcraft in
Cornwall. Kelvin I Jones (Oakmagic Publications, c1995) p32
You can purchase photocopies of articles from back numbers of MM . In
this case the two articles would cost 70p inc postage. Make cheque/PO
out to Meyn Mamvro Publications. For a full list of contents and
index to previous MMs (nos.1-50) you can go to the web site at
www.cornwt.demon.co.uk.

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householder’ – a middle way and is in many ways very unglamorous. If I
give an example from my own experience. As some of you may know I
have a penchant for imitating Christian priests. It fascinates me that one
merely needs to adopt the physical mantle of a priest – by wearing the
dog collar – in order to seamlessly bear the whole structure of that role.
So at last year’s Kensal Green Cemetery open day – I found myself
answering intimate questions from recently bereaved relatives about who
would have to pay the funeral director’s bill and who owned the corpse!
(I was tempted to say I’ll have it if you like)

Perhaps it is a good thing that on the whole magicians and pagans, as yet,
do no have this easy ride to increased status and influence.

So if not these things what is the purpose of magick? Some would say
there are two major purposes – one black one white. The only person I
know who has adequately attempted to define the differences between the
two, black and white, is our good friend Aleister Crowley. He does so by
pointing to the major aim and thereby defines black magick as everything
that is left. It’s funny how all the great master’s critics over the years
have studiously avoided this bit of his theorizing. In a nutshell Crowley
states that we, the mystoi, should be one pointed and focussed on one
overarching aim – one star in sight. That star represents the inner abiding
spirit or genius that according to occult theory is within each of us viz
‘every man and every woman is a star’ –According to Crowley anything
that is not relevant to this spiritual quest for personal transcendence and
realisation of the true will – is strictly speaking black magick. For
example a great deal of results magick or spellcraft is black. Magical
work done for personal financial gain would also be counted as black.
Expensive self help seminars with or without crystals are black.

Of course Crowley, like everyone else had to live – but he was prepared
to live with the tension, the realisation that life cannot be wholly black or
white but is in the words of an ancient Indian Gnostic text –many
coloured or grey.

These are the kind of concerns that make magicians very unpopular. It’s
also probably the reason why serious magicians are often feared and
stigmatised as evil and black. But in truth we are all have some of the
blackness in us, we are all creatures of the night. Which is why I’ve
argued many times that the highly ambiguous Egyptian god-form Seth is
a very appropriate icon for humanity. As it says in one of our holy books
‘my colour is black to the blind but I have a secret colour for those that
know me...’ But before I go on to unravel this argument a little I want to
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try and explore what it might mean to have accomplished a little of the
above spiritual aims – i.e. to have made a good stab at communicating
with one’s inner guardian spirit.

This description of magick was not new to Crowley – it is one of the

corner stones of Neoplatonism. There is a very interesting account in
Porphyry’s Life of Plotinus, the neo-platonic philosopher who was born
AD 205 in Lycopolis (city of the wolf) in Egypt and died 65 years later in
Rome. 2

‘. . .Plotinus possesed by birth something more than is accorded to other

men. An Egyptian priest who had arrived in Rome and, through some
friend, had been presented to the philosopher, became desirous of
displaying his powers to him, and he offered to evoke a visible
manifestation of Plotinus’ presiding spirit. Plotinus readily consented and
the evocation was made in the Temple of Isis, the only place, they say,
which the Egyptian could find pure in Rome.

At the summons a Divinity appeared, not a being of the spirit-ranks and

the Egyptian exclaimed: “You are singularly graced; the guiding-spirit
within you is none of the lower degree but a god.” It was not possible
however, to interrogate or even to contemplate this God any further, for
the priest’s assistant, who had been holding the birds to prevent them
flying away, strangled them, whether through jealousy or in terror. ’

It’s worth considering this issue of the guardian spirit for a while. Occult
theory maintains that individuals have a guardian spirit allocated to them
at birth. We find this idea in many differing cultures of the ancient world.
In India, this spirit, called a Gandharva, takes hold whilst the individual is
still in the womb. In ancient Egypt the individual is said to be a
conglomeration of seven3 parts Viz:

Ren, Sekhem, Khu, Ba, Ka, Khaibit and Sekhu

The name
The power
The Angel or as Heka ‘magical power’
The Heart
The Double (ka)
2
Plotinus: The Ethical Treatises: being the treatises of the first ennead with Porphyry’s life of Plotinus
and the Preller-Ritter extracts forming a conspectus of the Plotinian system, translated from the Greek
by Stpehen Mackenna (Philip Lee Warner, publisher to the Medici Society, 1917) p.11
3
Is seven (sefekh) linguistically connected with Seth, whose name means to cut or
pierce and begins with same consonant – s – a bolt, perhaps a stylised from of Set
wand also Budge says in his dictionary that it is same consonant as Hebrew Shin.
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The Shadow
The Remains (Sekhu)

(see Mailer/Ancient Evenings, chapter 4 for interesting realization of all

this)

The story of Plotinus belongs the classical period, when the Hermetic
doctrine was brought to its highest expression in the melting pot of Greco
Roman Egypt.

Most people don’t know of the existence of this guardian spirit until near
or after death. Some important magical rituals, deriving from ancient
Egypt were able to activate this knowledge whilst the person was still
living. The Egyptian god form Set was often connected with such
operations. The quote from Plotinus makes it clear that this spirit has a
place in some divine hierarchy – put simple it can be an elemental spirit
or in certain unusual circumstances it is what was know as a god (neter). I
assume that communications of an elemental spirit will be very personal
and confined to the interests of the individual. Whereas those of a god,
will have implications that go beyond the interests of the lucky person.
Plotinus’s HGA was a god we don’t know which one.

In our own time we have the example, good or bad, of Aleister Crowley,
who claimed to have been one of the few modern magi who had
successfully, if temporarily, activated his HGA at an early point in his life.
I’m talking principally about Aiwass (‘I was’) – the discarnate entity that
in some obscure way communicated a holy book of the law to Crowley
almost one hundred years ago. There is a certain amount of argument in
the literature as to the identity of ‘I was’.4

Even Crowley was unclear about the true identity of his own Holy
Guardian Angel. This is very significant - most magicians I know, if they
have made the contact at all, can usually quote chapter and verse about
the nature of their HGA.5

Crowley thought that Aiwass is Satan. He wrote in a footnote to Liber

ABA Magick6 etc :
4
Perhaps a pun on ‘I was’
5
It’s a gray area and it seems to me that there is no real contradiction between the
‘minister of Hoor-paar-kraat’ still being a Setian.
6
Have you ever considered why Crowley used a more archaic spelling of Magick, in the title of his
magnum opus – Liber ABA, otherwise known as Magick in theory and practice. It’s the eleventh letter
of many sacred alphabets including English. ‘Because the number 10 was regarded by Qabalists as the
stable number of the systems of Divine Emanation, or Sephiroth, the number eleven was considered
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‘The Beast 666 has preferred to let names stand as they are, and to
proclaim simply that Aiwaz - the solar-phallic-hermetic ‘Lucifer’ is
his Holy Guardian Angel and ‘The Devil’, Satan or Hadit of our
particular unit of the starry universe. This serpent Satan, is not the
enemy of Man, but He who made Gods of our race, knowing Good
and Evil. He bade ‘Know Thy Self’ and taught initiation. He is ‘The
Devil’ of the Book of Thoth. His emblem is Baphomet, the androgyne
...’ (p. 277 HB edition)

Crowley’s Holy Guardian angel appears to be some sort of amalgam of

ancient Egyptian god-forms, Horus and Seth. Perhaps this duality is very
appropriate for the new age, which according to occult theory is just now
starting.

Take for example the famous catchphrase from Crowley’s Book of the
Law: The one that goes ‘Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the law.’
In some senses you couldn’t ask for a better definition of Egyptian Seth.
It’s the often-levelled critique of Seth that he wants his own way. And this
is seen as a very human failing, we want our own way. So it’s another
example of how Egyptian Seth is a very important piece in the puzzle of
the human psyche. 7

Seth, the Egyptian god of ambiguity was associated with foreign lands
and the adversary of the god Osiris. Seth was usually depicted in human
form with a head of indeterminate origin. He had a curved snout, erect
square- tipped ears and a long forked tail. Sometimes he was represented
in entirely animal form with a body similar to that of a greyhound. He
was said to be the son either of Nuit and Geb or of Nuit and Ra, and the
brother of Isis, Osiris and Nephthys. Nephthys was sometimes given as
his consort, although he is more commonly associated with the foreign,
Semitic goddesses Astarte and Anat. Despite his reputation, he had an
important sanctuary at Ombos in Upper Egypt, his reputed birthplace, and
had his cult was also prominent in the north-eastern region of the Nile
delta.

accursed, because it was outside the system. Therion adopted eleven as his formula.’ (AC&HG p6).
7
(AC&HG p33) Affinities sough between Draconian cult and Tantrism is survivor. Set is a very sexy
god in AE – but all have sexual qualities – Nepthys has qualities of scarlet woman. Does Horus even
have a consort.

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For a time during the third millenium BC, Seth replaced Horus as the
major deity of the pharaohs. He also made a comeback during the time of
Ramesses II. The war with Horus lasted eighty years, during which Seth
tore out the left eye of his adversary and Horus tore out Seth's foreleg and
testicles. Horus eventually emerged victorious, or was deemed the victor
by a council of the gods, and thus became the rightful ruler of the
kingdoms of both Upper and Lower Egypt. In the Book of the Dead Seth
was referred to as the "lord of the northern sky" and held responsible for
storms and cloudy weather. Seth protected Re during his night voyage
through the underworld against the Apophis-snake. On the other hand,
Seth was a peril for ordinary Egyptians in the underworld8, where he was
said to seize the souls of the unwary. Among the animals sacred to Seth
were the desert oryx, crocodile, boar, and the hippopotamus in its aspect
as a destroyer of boats and of planted fields. The pig was a taboo in Seth's
cult. The Greeks later equated Seth with their demon-god Typhon.9

Horus is the falcon-headed god, the son of the goddess Isis and the god
Osiris. Following the death of Osiris, the first king of Egypt, Isis retrieved
her husband's body and hovered over it in the form of a sparrowhawk,
fanning enough life back into him for her to conceive a son, Horus. She
knew Seth would harm her child, so she fled the Nile delta and gave birth
to Horus at Chemmis near Buto. With the assistance of other deities, such
as the goddesses Hathor and Selqet, Isis raised Horus until he was old
enough to challenge Seth and claim his royal inheritance.10

It is these two gods in particular – Horus and Seth, along with their
associated family and consorts that appear to be re-manifesting in the
modern magical realm. You might think that what I’ve so far said it
relevant only to a very small group of dedicated occultists. But it is
possible to show that what I’ve called ‘the cult of the hidden god’ is the
secret force behind many, if not all magical currents of the new age. In
that I include Wicca and Witchcraft, Tantrism, even the Northern
tradition. But that argument I intend to leave to one side for the present
otherwise I’m in danger of never finishing his talk!!11

Of course, all this has been said before most notable in the works of
Crowley’s last student, Kenneth Grant. I was recently reading Kenneth
Grant’s ultimate instalment in his Typhonian trilogies this one called The
Ninth Arch. ‘The Ninth Arch is an ancient Masonic concept relating to
8
Perhaps not in all accounts – see sarcophagus of Sethy 1
9
edited from Social Science Data Lab
10
Edited from Anthony C. DiPaolo, M.S. (internet)
11
See for example the eightfold festivals and miracle play of Abydos
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the legend of the three Grand Masters engaged upon the erection of King
Solomon’s Temples. After it was completed, the three deposited therein
those things that were important to the craft, such as the arc of the
covenant, a pot of manna, the rod of Aaron, the book of the law etc.’
Inscribed about it was the lost or unutterable Word.’ The purpose of
Grant’s book is to explain this mystery and reveal the word.

The heart of Grant’s book is a 924 verse Liber, the Book of the Spider, a
mystical text channelled to Grants New-Isis Lodge in the 1950s. The
book’s central thesis is that something out there is trying to tell us
something, using a whole variety of mediums and modes of
communication.

Crowley seems to have foreseen that we were on the brink of contact with
extra terrestrials. And indeed soon after his death in 1947 the first flying
saucer was spotted by Kenneth Arnold. This triggered a ‘massive interest
in alien phenomena’. And ‘whatever one’s attitude to such phenomena –
positive, negative or indifferent – there is no just denial of the fact that the
wave initiated an era of psycho-mythology unparalleled since man
conceived the idea of the ‘gods’…. unless, therefore, we are to write off
the entire ‘myth’ as an unprecedented mass delusion, we have to accept
the fact that something approaching a seemingly new and inexplicable
nature began slowly and insidiously to disturb the world in the year
1947.’. (p xix)

Perhaps we could say the process began earlier than that – maybe in as far
back as 1875, the date of Crowley’s birth and also the foundation of the
Theosophical Society. We can argue about time scales but whatever way
you look at it, for a hundred years or more, with increasing intensity,
something out there has been trying to tell us something. And that
something is the ‘hidden god’ – that has projected itself forward into our
future.

It can’t have escaped notice that my title bears an obvious reference to

Kenneth Grant’s 1973 masterpiece ‘Aleister Crowley and the Hidden
God’. This book is probably the most sophisticated work on Crowley’s
system of sexual gnosis to have been published since the old man’s death.
Yes KG relies on what are. IMO, defunct historical sources – such as
Gerald Massey, who wrote about ancient Egypt before the existence of a
standard Egyptian dictionary. Hence Massey’s and Grant’s confusion of
Set and Horus. (see p 22) for an example. Even so, Kenneth Grant’s
numerology may be suspect, his historical sources unreliable, but his
poetical intuition is strangely prescient.
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In a nutshell he says:
The Hidden God is a force from the ancient magick that is manifesting in
the modern magical revival. That there is always a connection between
the individual HGA of modern magicians and the Hidden God.

[show slides]

2. That’s all quite complex so I want now to move onto to an examination

of the magical techniques that are used in this modern cult of the Hidden
God. I want to show you the crooked wand. [Show model and slides] This
wand is made from Hippotamus Ivory, the Male Hippo being one of
Seth’s cult animals.

Wouldn’t you agree that its shape alone is very suggestive of some kind
of lunar mystery? Although there is an Egyptian lunar deity (Thoth
sometimes Khonsu) the Egyptian Seth has many important lunar
functions.12

‘The magical wand is . . .the principal weapon of the Magus, and the
name of that wand is the Magical Oath.’ Thus writes Crowley in one of
the highly informative chapters on ceremonial contained in his
masterwork Liber ABA, otherwise known as Magick. ‘The Magical Will,’
he continues, ‘is the wand in your hand by which the Great Work is
accomplished, by which the Daughter is not merely set upon the throne of
the Mother, but assumed into the Highest.’

In the Thoth Tarot the Prince of Wands’ in various versions drawn by

Frieda Harris is shown holding the so-called Phoenix wand as wielded by
the grade Adeptus Major in the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn.
Several of these wands were modeled on the ceremonial scepters of
Ancient Egypt. But interestingly the so-called ‘Phoenix-wand’ is actually
the ‘was13’ or ‘sceptre of well being’.14 The iconographers of the Golden
Dawn seemed to have missed the fact that the head of this scepter is
actually that of Set, and not the solar image they presumed. It might also
be that the original wielders of the Was-sceptre were also in denial about
its original meaning. This fact is not, as far as I know, common
12
Indeed Thoth is a later substitution for Seth

13
Note homonym with ‘I was’
14
Notes
1 B William C Hayes,
The Scepter of Egypt: a background for the study of the Egyptian antiquities in the
Metroplitan Museum of Art, 2 Vols, Abrams, NY 1953

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knowledge amongst current Golden Dawn savants, which may account
for the fact that some modern realizations of the wand have moved even
further away from its original functionality and indeed power. In very
ancient Egypt of Old Kingdom times and before, Egyptian men often
carried a stick or staff or some kind. Sometimes these were like the
European quarterstaff.1 One suggestion I got from my friend the cunning
man Jack Daw, is that the original of the Was scepter may have been the
kind of hooked wand used to hold back grass or wheat for the stroke of a
sickle. It serves to protect the harvester’s left hand from been accidentally
struck by the blade. If true this maybe explains the Was-scepter’s name as
Sceptre of well being’. The significance of the forked foot of the Was-
scepter is a mystery, it may be connected with the binding of the scepter
to the arm or perhaps have a function to do with the warding off of
snakes, a common enough hazard of harvesters, The Was-sceptres of
Middle Kingdom times became purely mystical or symbolic. The image
of the ‘was-scepter’ also appeared in carved decorated borders on
Egyptian reliefs, where two or more scepters hold up the vault of heaven.
But still the Scepter shows an unexpected connection between Set and
agriculture and this is worthy of some thought.

But there was another wand commonly used in ancient Egypt and this too
bore an image of Set, as indeed one would expect in operation of a more
magical / esoteric nature. Many examples of this kind of wand have been
found, and some of the finest are displayed in the more important
museum collections. Most museums have numerous other examples of
this type of wand in their vaults. This instrument is constructed from a
male hippopotamus tusk. I would remind you that the male hippopotamus
is viewed as a totem of Set. The more aggressive male hippopotamus
were a favorite quarry of the ancient Egyptian hunter. The tusk shape
demonstrates a clear Setian association, both from its material and
decoration. Its curved nature reminds us of the lunar mysteries. We are
told that the wands were used in acts of highly personal magick, the most
quoted example being to ward off hungry demons during the critical
moments of childbirth and infancy. This is the realm of popular magick
as opposed to the more exoteric variety of magical religion practiced in
the temples. I think it would probably be wrong to draw too impervious a
line between both realms. And in fact the use of the hippopotamus tooth
wand shows a clear connection between both realms through the agency
of Set, here equally at home among the holy family of the temples and
scaring lesser demons in the hearth.

Examples of such wands show they were well used and treasured over
several generations. The pointed tip shows signs of wear, as if it has been
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repeated used to draw mystical signs, in sand or clay. It is also likely that
the wand was used to draw protective circles, like the cartouche’
inscribed around the name of the King. When the tips broke off from
repeated use, the ends were pinned back in place.

The ubiquitous nature of the head of Set is something that warrants

meditation. To acquire such a wand in the modern world might prove
difficult. I suggest perhaps carved or shaped wood, coated with ivory
coloured paint or perhaps resin. The more linear was-sceptre suggests the
throwing outwards or the more static instantiation of magical power. The
curved or hooked hippopotamus wand suggests several additional
functions; the drawing of sigils mentioned above, as a sigil itself, laid
beneath a bed or perhaps hung on a wall. But also I feel the drawing of
things to the magician - in order to use, spear or bind them to one’s
power.

Like many powerful ‘night-side’ spirits, Seth clearly has a beneficent

side. His ferocious side may be a mask that tests our true desire for
initiation.

There is also said to be a secret method by which the phases of the moon
are somehow ‘controlled’ or predicted by Seth’s northern constellation
Ursa Major, The Plough etc. But the primary lunar reference comes from
the fact that in myth, Seth dismembers the first king Osiris into 14
pieces.15

Fourteen days is a half lunation – so it seems likely that what we are

seeing here is a very ancient system of correspondences between the parts
of the moon and the human body. I’ve argued elsewhere that the
contention found in several authors, including Kenneth Grant’s of some
kind of parallel between the Tantrik doctrine of the Kalas or lunar phases
and its earlier Egyptian model is essentially correct. In fact it seems
highly likely that many of the secret body magick techniques of the
ancient Egyptians were transferred or certainly only survive in India, after
the systematic destruction of the Egyptian religion and sacred
technologies by Christianity.

15
(AC&HG p55) for sexual gnosis and yoga as presumed from Egypt and decipherable in glyph of
Nuit (see p 55)

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In the courtly erotic texts such as the Kama Sutra there are laid out certain
doctrines. Before I go onto to describe that – a couple of points are
worthy of note.

Occult tradition from time of Egyptians states that the moon has four
phases. The fourth phase is rarely talked about in books but is reserved as
secret knowledge to be transmitted orally. Incidentally you might
consider what happens to the tarot if you restore the five ‘hidden’ cards of
the major arcana. This has led to the common misunderstanding that the
moon is threefold. It has been said that the so-called triple goddess of
‘virgin/maiden, mother, crone’ does not represent a very positive set of
female archetypes. Some would say the three – virgin, mother, crone are
the three times in a woman’s life when she has least fun – sexually that is.
Others that they represent the least empowered aspects of a woman’s life.

2. The elision of the fourth phase is especially interesting. Four is in

many cultures an inauspicious number. It is often used to designate the
fourth and most heterodox part of a system. Hence the fourth Veda – the
Atharva is the most magical and diverse. The ‘fourth’ Book of Occult
Philosophy – the ‘fourth’ Book of the Law. So the fourth phase of
anything, is from a particular perspective likely to be the most interesting.
In Egyptian cosmology there was a fourth or ‘secret’ region, called Setaue
and conceived as being behind the seven stars of the Big Dipper and
therefore ruled by Seth, (Webb p.34). Sokar, an early form of Osiris was
called the ‘lord of the mouth of the passages to this secret place, ie some
connection here between Setaue and fear of initiation.

The fourth lunar stage is the dark waning moon, the moon’s final quarter
– and perhaps as an archetype this is the scarlet16 woman – she may
physically be either of the other three, i.e. a virgin, a mother or even an
older woman – but in a sense she stands outside of these as a woman in
her own right.

You might struggle hard to find a goddess to fill this role – most trad love
goddesses of the past don’t quite do it – with the possible exception of
Seth’s sometime consort Nepthys.17 The response of modern magi is to
make one up – hence Babalon.18
16
Scarlet indicate a magical affinity with Set (although KH presumable following Massey think Horus.
(AC&HG p33) Affinities sough between Draconian cult and Tantrism is survivor. Set is a very sexy
god in AE – but all have sexual qualities – Nepthys has qualities of scarlet woman. Does Horus even
have a consort.
17
18
2. The Scarlet Woman. Chapter eleven on Magick ought to be significant –
(AC& HG p28) The eleventh sign of the zodiac = Aquarius – Sequis
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The term ‘kala’ as found in the works of Kenneth Grant, is a Sanskrit

term meaning part or digit. There is a maxim in Hinduism that ‘Man is a
microcosm of the universe– as above so below’. Sound familiar? This is
pretty much identical with the Hermetic doctrine of the so-called emerald
tablet. So if the physical moon can be described as have 28 different
parts or phases throughout the month, 14 waxing, 14 waning.19 Then
these parts are also reflected in the subtle anatomy of every human being.
This Tantrik system is not to be confused with the system of talismanic
magick based on the lunar mansions popular in grimoires from time of
Pope Honorius until about the time of Francis Barrett when it fell into
disuse20

These 28 parts are most noticeable in the doctrine of erogenous zones

(chandrakala)– zones of sensitivity that migrate around the body through
the course of a month.
KG says sign transmits influence of Set because it is ruled by Saturn – sets planet (actually sets planet
is mercury)
19
See for example the Picatrix where its Indian origin is acknowledged. see Chapter 4 p19sq. Ghayat
Al-Hakim, Picatrix: Goal of the Wise, vol 1, Oroboros Press 2002.
20
The system appears in some but by no means all grimoires. One of the earliest is the Sworn Book of
Honorius the Magician in which it appears as a mere listing of the angels of the mansions of the moon.
It also appears more fully in the work of Cornelius Agrippa. Another important instance is Barrett's
Magus in which the system broadly derives from Agrippa. See book ii p.165.

After Barrett the magical revival does not seem to have favoured the Lunar Mansions or mansions of
the Moon. I am unaware of the Golden dawn taking an interest in them, although they studied other
Indian derived systems like the tattwas.

The other kalas. (The search for ojas)

This is extracted from some notes I made in the Welcome Institute for the History of Medicine about
ten years ago. I was not so strict with myself about noting every reference as I am now. So this is raw
research without backing. The subject that then interested me was the production of ojas a cold oily
white substance which permeates the body of the Vira (tr. hero equivalent to magus in some ways.) It
makes him indifferent to grief, injury and loss and indeed by the deliberate precipitation of raga
(turbulent emotion) the vira can extend his psychic powers (Siddhis) in many ways. It is thus of the
essence of the left hand path (vamacara) being body directed and physical rather than mentally directed
and spiritual.

There are also the Nityas: the Kali Nityas (darkening moon) and Lalita Nityas (lightening moon). These
are the source of of the "Kalas" as they are popularly known in the West. Broadly speaking the Goddess
emits one of these Kalas per day, each with its own meditative images, mantrams and essences.
Experienced adepts can extract from each kala essences by which they may become a vira (hero) of the
left hand path. On one level these essences are vaginal secretions, at another they are spirtual essences.
At another they are powers Siddhis and so on.

It is quite clear from the literature that this initiation can only be channelled, manifest and given by a
suitable and willing suvasini at the appropriate phase of the moon. No suvasini. No initiation.

Also of course there is the great interpretation of the Kalas via the teaching of Kenneth Grant.

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One interesting source for this is Kalyaanaamalla’s Anangaranga: an

Indian erotic. (see Chaukhambha Orientalia 1983) trans S N Prasad. The
Anangaranga is one of the last of a long line of the important texts of
courtly love that began with the more famous Kama Sutra. It was written
in the sixteenth century. It seems to contain much tantrik material, hardly
surprising when you consider that most tantrik magi made their names by
providing magical services to kings, most often in the form of battle and
defensive magick.

‘Having found out which type she belongs to studious men of pleasure
will do well to learn the nature of the shifting erogenous zones in women.
Kalyaanamalla describe in detail a mysterious connection between the
varying digits of the moon and the changing erogenous zones in women.
In other words each day of the lunar month is supposed to have a definite
bearing on the exact position of the erogenous zone in a woman.
Speaking generally, from the full moon day of the Chandrakala (as the
erogenous zone is termed) descends by the left side of the woman from
the forehead through the eyes, cheeks, lips, chin, neck, shoulder, armpit,
breast, the side, hip, public region, genitals, knee, ankle and the foot; on
the new moon-day it starts its upward course by the right side in a like
manner and reaches the forehead on the full moon day. The amount of
amorous urge centred around a Chandrakalaas is not, however, equal for
all women on a particular day.’

for example:

‘On the first day of the lunar month (both bright and dark) the studious
man of pleasure would embrace the neck of the Padmini type of woman
with one hand and with the other he should hold her cheeks, hip, back and
armpits should be marked with the teeth; her lips should be sucked and
forehead be kissed passionately. In order to arouse romance (to keep her
in good humour) she should be roused to a pitch so that she will be easily
gratified by kissing.’ II.4
In table form looks like a kamea!!

The number represents the say of the month, starting from new moon,
when particular woman will be most randy.

1 2 4 5 Padmini
6 8 10 12 Chittrini
3 7 11 13 Shankhini
9 14 15 30 Hastini
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All very formulaic – this after all is not a magical text. But there is a
kernel of an important and ancient magical technique.
Contemporaneously with the above, Arabic textbooks on magick, for
example Picatrix, were using the Indian system of Kalas for the
construction of talismans, many with erotic intent.

I have to say that there is evidence for a similar approach in ancient Egypt
and moreover that the migration of erogenous zones can be applied to
female and male practitioners.

How to use this: I’ve selected four key methods

1. Karezza/Astral sex.
2. Eucharist or Cakes of Light rituals
3. Menstrual mandalas
4. Dream control

1. Karezza/Astral sex.
‘Karezza was a name coined (from the Italian for "caress") by Alice
Bunker Stockham in the 19th century. It refers to non-religious
spiritual sexual practices that draw upon tantric techniques of body
control but do not involve any of tantra's cultural or iconographic
symbolism. (from internet)

Let me start by again talking a little bit about Kenneth Grant. He is

important because he is our one remaining link with Aleister Crowley.
Grant has more than any other living magician come to be seen as the

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personification of sexual magick. So how he does it and where he puts it
is probably instructive.

When Grant was quite young, maybe eighteen, nineteenth. He was for a
while AC’s secretary and one of his last students. Grant married young
and that relationship with his wife Steffi has lasted his entire life. I think
you’ll agree that’s quite a different lifestyle to his master. From the
outside Grant’s life looks the very opposite of sex, drugs and rock n’ roll.
He is fairly hostile to homosexuality. He does not engage in extra marital
affairs. The core of his practical works stems from an intense seven-year
period between the death of Crowley in 1947 and the death of Karl
Germer (OTO financial caretaker) in 1954. Since then he has run his
magical organisation as a virtual recluse communicating with the world
via his books and a voluminous correspondence all from a 1950s
‘Remington’ typewriter.

Now Grant’s relationship with Steffi is surely very intense and creative.
But outside of that Grant has entered into scores of astral relationships
with a succession of ‘scarlet women’, usually serially but often in
tandem. The latest is with novelist Mary Hedger – whose History of Fun
novels attempt to sketch this tension between arousal and enlightenment.

This is the essential diference in interpretation between KG and AC -

encapsulated in words ‘Noli me tangere’ do not touch. –21

So here is one example of a sex magick technique that is similar to the

tantrik way known as Sahajayana – the natural way.

‘The Sahajayana sect of Buddhism, was distinguished by the doctrine that

eternal bliss can arise from sexual pleasure and that the Buddha in the
form of Vajrasattva had ritual intercourse with yoginis in four sacred
places or seats.’ sexual magick p.101

‘One intermediate point between sexual magick in pairs and in groups

might be found in the cult of the Sahajiyas.22 This is a cult, with many
similarities to tantrism, although it is based on the mythology of Krishna,
the dark tribal incarnation of Vishnu, and Radha, the wife of a herdsman,
but also Krishna's ritual partner. This pattern is mirrored in the Sahajiya
ritual group, a truly eternal triangle. The women initiates of the cult form

21
AC & Hidden God, p. 42.
22
My attention was first drawn to this topic by an article in the first and second issues of Starfire,
although the standard sources are Bose, Sahajiya Cult, Dasgupta's Obscure Religious Cults and
Dimock, The Secret Moon. E Dimock, The Hidden Moon, (Rider ).
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temporary relationships with male initiates other than their husbands.
Between these two an important relationship develops through which
they come to experience the rasa or true religious love for the divine,
which they see in each other. The driving forces for the growth of this
rasa is the unconsummated love between them. In some cases ritual
intercourse does take place, but it is quite possible to enter this magical
relationship solely on an astral or non-physical level. These magical
alliances may end at any time, and it is the elements of fantasy,
unrequited love and the unattainable that can give it a power to create
physical rasa in a way similar to those found in medieval grimoires. 23

2. Cakes of light
For this I recommend Alex Bennett’s paper on Eucarist Magick.
Making of so-called cakes of light is an ancient ritual – revivified in the
third chapter of Crowley’s book of the law.

Liber Al , Chapter III vs 23-25

23. For perfume mix meal and honey & thick leavings of red wine:
then oil of Abramelin and olive oil, and afterward soften & smooth
down with rich fresh blood.

24. The best blood is of the moon, monthly: then the fresh blood of a
child, or droppings from the host of heaven; then of enemies; then of
the priest or the worshippers; last of some beast, no matter what.

25. This burn: of this make cakes & eat unto me. This hath also
another use; let it be laid before me, and kept thick with perfumes of
your orison: it shall become full of beetles as it were and creeping
things sacred unto me

The Blood: This has to be fresh! Remember this is a sacrifice. It is no

good preparing this ingredient before making the cake of light. Every
type of blood no matter what type you choose to use has to come directly
from its source. The other ingredients should be prepared before making
the sacrifice.

The blood types in descending order of strength are: 1,Blood of the

moon, monthly (menstrual blood); 2, The fresh blood of a child (placental

23
See example 'three spirits in a chamber ritual' described in Sexual Magick p48)
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blood) or droppings from the host of heaven (semen); 3, Of enemies
(blood taken from the veins of anti Thelemites); 4, Of the priest or of the
worshippers (blood taken from the veins, as self sacrifice or from you or
other Thelemites); 5, Of some beast, no matter what (blood taken from
any animal whether it be from the veins, menstruation or semen).
If using menstrual blood it is best to use one gush than to try to
collect the whole lot over the few days. As with semen, one ejaculation is
better than waiting to come again. These are both used in Tantric or
Tankhem ( Egyptian Tantra ) rites and are best done solitarily or with a
Sex Magick partner.

Preparation
Once you have decided what blood to use, first prepare the other
ingredients. Taking roughly equal parts of all of them, the oil of Abra-
Melin and the olive oil counted as one. Mix the flour and honey together
into a sticky ball. Add the wine in small amounts, stirring it in, until it
forms a soupy liquid, not too thick as it will burn when cooked. You may
want a fraction more wine than the other ingredients to get the right
consistency. Now add the oil mixture and mix it in well as it will tend to
separate at first. It is now ready for the blood and can be refrigerated if
necessary until the required moment.

When ready take the mixture to the altar and do you’re prefered
invocation, make the sacrifice and add the blood. It is important to
include a powerful invocation to protect a blood rite, even if the cakes are
not to be used exclusively to him. You’re own deity may be very
powerful, but you need a force that is most definitely Thelemic and as Ra
Hoor Khuit is the chief of the gods of Thelema he rules over this rite.

How They Are To Be Used

This method requires a ‘ visible object of worship ‘, and cannot be
used with any supernal deity.. The best one to use is your own personal
Holy Guardian Angel Deity. If you don’t have one then start with a Solar,
Luna or planetary deity that you particularly like within the system you
are most familiar with.

Set up an image of the god or goddess that you choose above your
alter and lay the cakes out in front of it. Then do your Abra-Melin
devotional prayer or orison as it’s called. This consists of burning Abra-
Melin incense while evoking the deity with a heart felt prayer, honouring
it, written by yourself. Then anointing your Ajna Chakra ( Third Eye ) or
all the chakras, with Abra-Melin oil, followed by an invocation and
meditation upon the deity. At special times, i.e. the deity’s holy day, or

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when you think you need a boost, after doing the orison dip one of the
cakes in some red wine and burn it as incense, feeding the god, then eat
one yourself.

3. menstrual mandalas

The next useful technique is the making of a menstrual mandala

sometimes called the writing of a magical record but it must be keyed
into the cycles of the moon.

4. dream incubation
On further essential technique is the practice of dream control. Begin by
using the techniques of Dion Fortune – as described in her novels. Ie
enter the astral temple in order to go to sleep – i.e. at bed time – if using
the Setian temple make Sekhem to Amon ra – and allow just sleep.

The riding of the ‘dreamy night air’ is especially appropriate for the
hidden god Set, who has many associations with dream control and is
said in ancient dream manuals to be the source of evil sleep i.e. night
mares. Set is the hidden god ruler of cosmos. He is associated with the
path of self knowledge and initiation rather than more static Osirian way.
Osiris represents the efficacious past and contrasts with Setian (and
Horian) way of the future. (Webb)

Conclusion

There’s quite a good statement of magical cosmology in, of all places,

Ann Rice’s novel ‘Queen of the Damned’24.

‘There is no god but man’ but we share this world with various spirits.

‘The spirits spoke to us only telepathically, . . . , they were invisible; but

their presence could be felt; they had distinct personalities; and our
family of witches had over many generations given them various names.’

We divided them as sorcerers have always done into good and evil; but
there is no evidence that they themselves have any sense of right and
24
Warner Books, 1988
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wrong. The evil sprits were those who were openly hostile to human
beings and who liked to play malicious tricks, such as throwing of stones,
the making of wind and other such pesky things.’ p358

‘In those early times, when the spirits spoke . . . on the side of the
mountain, what human being would have believed that the spirits were
irrelevant things? Even we were captives of their power, thinking it our
duty to use the gifts we possessed for the good of our people, …’

‘Again and again we have witnessed the birth of cults and religions – the
dreary proclamations and miracles and the subsequent promulgation of
the creeds inspired by these ‘events’.’

‘We have seen the human mind slowly abandon the traditions of law
based upon revelation, to seek ethical truths through reason; and a way of
life based upon respect for the physical and the spiritual as perceived by
all human beings.’ p. 495

The Hidden God was once a human being like you or I. Over the long
years he has been transformed into a powerful spirit that despite his
frightening form teaches initiation and liberation. When the Poet WB
Yeats encountered this spirit he thought first to spend the rest of his life
analysing and codifying the experience. But the Hidden God said no – he
had brought him metaphors for poetry. So I should perhaps end on some
of that:

…‘Turn that I may expound

What’s bowed your shoulder and made pale your cheek
And saw her sitting upright on the bed;
or was it she that spoke or some great Djinn?
I say that a Djinn spoke. A livelong hour
She seemed the learned man and I the child
Truths without father came, truths that no book
Of all the uncounted books that I have read,
Nor thought out of her mind or mine begot,
Self-born, High-born and solitary truths,
Those terrible implacable straight lines
Draw through the wandering vegetative dream,
Even those truths that when my bones are dust
Must drive the Arabian host.

…‘The signs and shapes;

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All those abstractions that you fancied were
From the great Treatise of Parmenides;
All, all those gyres and cubes and midnight things
Are but a new expression of her body
Drunk with the bitter sweetness of her youth.
And now my utmost mystery is out.
A woman’s beauty is a storm-tossed banner;
Under it wisdom stands, and I alone –
Of all Arabia’s lovers I alone
Nor dazzled by the embroidery, nor lost
In the confusion of its night-dark folds,
Can hear the armed man speak.
(The Gift of Harun Rasid

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