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To: alt.paranormal.spells.hexes.magic,alt.magick,alt.magick.tyagi,alt.occult.methods,alt.lucky.w
From: Gnomedplume@aol.com (Gnome d Plume)
Subject: Re: Black Mirror / Magic Mirror
Date: Sun, 16 Mar 2003 18:48:56 GMT

****Steve:

You have a lot of interesting info here and some useful
suggestions--but (pardon me for playing the friendly old professor) a
few corrections and amplifications might be in order: ****

On Sun, 16 Mar 2003 02:17:14 -0600, "Steve" 
wrote:

>Never seen the other guy, but I do know that Bardon made use of the 'fluid
>condenser'; I also know Bardon was a fruitcake... His sigils look like
>drawings made by my 4 year old daughter, except you can tell what hers were
>supposed to be.

****Bardon was far from being a "fruit cake" although I will admit I
got the same impression when I first looked at PME over 30 years ago.
Since then I've learned that those sigils were done automatic writing
style in very deep trance. This is what is meant by asking the spirit
to sign your Liber Spiritum. Other types of sigils are constructed by
the kamea, monogram, rose cross, and cypher methods.****
>
>Between Bardon and an unknown source for Bardon, I would pick the unknown
>source any day... 

****Bardon's main sources were P.B. Randolph, Georg Lomer and Rudolph
Steiner. ****
>Looks like Bardon was one of those select few... the ones
>who can be completely oblivious, and still get a hold of good systems.

****Bardon was a natural clairvoyant. This is why his books,
especially the first one, are difficult to work through. He knew how
to do it, but he was not the best teacher.****
>
>For the other guy, Paskal Beverly Randolph, seems like I need to check him
>out.

****We all need to check him out! Randolph (was) is the forgotten man
of Western magick. Get *Sexual Magick* which is Maria Naglowska's
digest of Randolph's practical techniques. It goes well with Bardon.
****
>
>As far as the mirror goes, no offence intended, but I would not use ANY type
>of artificial glass.  Not that it would be bad for you, just that I
>wouldn't... Emerald?  Sure!  Glass, no.

****Oh come on! Glass works just fine; with or without fluid
condensers. If you want to get alchemical, get a clock face, read
Randolph and Bardon and make fluid condensers. If you want to be
archaic get a piece of obsidian (look at our big obsidian mirror in
*Solomon's Magick* and drool....unfortunately the old guy who made
ours has passed over.)****
>
>Part of the nature of any object is the substance from which it is made, and
>its history; seems to me like 'real' glass is nothing but a poor copy of the
>way nature makes it anyway.  Within each crystal of emerald, for example, is
>a microscopic drop of water; there is even a variety (I believe South
>American, but I could be wrong) that contains a drop of water and a single
>grain of salt in every crystal.  That, and emerald forms with natural
>occlusions that help capture the eye, and distract the mind.

****The mind of a trained magician is not distracted by such minor
flaws. A trained receiver can visualize off a door knob. ****
>
>While I understand the value and expence that a large emerald represents,
>the same type of history and meaning could be found with several natural
>mirrors... Hematite, for example, is magnetic (find any glass that does
>that!), the mayans used to grind it up and mix it with water for the red
>paint on their temples; this is called "dragon's blood" today.  Obsidian is
>actually true glass, formed from lava, heart blood of the earth.  It is
>capable of two differing types of optic effects difficult to render in
>'real' glass.  Lastly, by taking a slab of crystal or calcite, you could
>polish a mirror and paint the back just as you could with glass, but still
>have all natural materials and the optic effects and occlusions present in
>them.  Anther possibility is star sapphire (I have a beautiful 20carat blue
>star sapphire that I use for scrying).  And we cant forget the old faithful,
>black onyx.

****All of this is psychological "crutch" support. You should learn to
receive on a straight, clean glass or crystal orb or black-backed
glass speculum before you jazz it up with any kind of alchemical
enhancements. I not saying they don't work, or don't help---but if you
start off depending on them, you are behind from the beginning.
Remember the words of Maestro DuQuette: "It's ALL in your head, but
you have no idea how BIG your head is!" (But that doesn't stop us from
charging our 90mm Madagascar rock crystal ball with a 250,000 volt
lightning machine....not that we need to.....).****

>
>As for symbols, I have to aggree, there are many, especially from the time
>of Alexandria to the end of the Renaisance, that do look rather, well...
>made up.  Many of these were probably created simply to make it look like
>the person writing had great power, and deep connections with systems that
>were hidden from everyone else.  Most of that was bullshit.  Very few books
>that I trust out of the middle ages, but of them all, the Greater Key seems
>greatly authentic... Don't get me wrong, I know that some of the chapters
>were added later by the Christians, and there are a few pentacles that were
>made up later by someone of obvious ignorance (mostly in the 'Pentacles of
>the Moon'; unfortunately.)  There are, though without a doubt strong
>influences from OLD cabalistic schools.  For example, the primary
>conjusration (pg 26-28) is undoubtedly authentic, and contains references
>that would not have been recognized or employed by the Christians at the
>time. ('Who hath measured those heavens in the hollow of His hand, and
>enclosed the earth with three of his fingers..."  as just one example.)
>
>While you can use symbols from any system of thought (or even simply those
>that have meaning to you); the systems you seem to be headed through would
>reccommend the Greater Key heavily... I would also reccommend 'Meditation
>and the Kabbalah' and 'Sepher Yetzirah' by Rabbi Aryeh Kaplan.  

****Great recommendation! Pay especial attention to what Kaplan has to
say about the Ispaklaria (magick mirror). ****

>By >understanding the systems which were practiced by the Hebrew mystics, many
>of the seals in the Greater Key simply begin to make sense.  You can
>immediately see the thought and depth in several of the seals, as well as
>most of the conjurations; I have even made a personal study of specific
>pentacles and their effects... which has greatly increased my knowledge as
>to the Cabalistic and magical arts... and all of it meshes perfectly with
>the Hebrew (as seperate and quite distinct from the Western or GD/OTO
>cabala)....

****GD qabalah is a lot closer to Zoharic kabbalah than most people
think. Remember, it is based on Issac Luria's system which is
essentially Zoharic. ****
>
>From evidence such as this, there are several examples of pentacles that
>would be beautiful engraved upon a mirror... depends on how you wish to use
>it:
****Do not engrave sigils in the scrying surface on a mirror unless
that's all you are going to use it for. You may surround the mirror
with appropriate engraved sigils such as the four Cheruibim, pentagram
and hexagram, four archangels, but for the working area use a grease
pencil---black if you are working off your own reflection. ****

>Saturn - The last pentacle of saturn:  figure 17:  This pentacle is in the
>shape of a triangle (suitable for goetiec evokations) and the three sides
>of the triangle are formed by the names of the nine choirs of angels.  One
>note, however... the author of the pentacle chose to place the choirs of
>angles in direct order, but it would make more sense, in my mind, if he
>listed those choirs from the pillar of mercy on the left, those of the
>pillar of severity on the right, and those of the middle pillar on top...
>then the sides of the triangle would represent the triple aspect of the
>universe (present in the three pillars) descending through the three worlds
>(represented by the three ranks of angels (outer to the inner) in the
>pentacle) these three worlds, in Hebrew thought are 'Create' (something from
>nothing), 'Form' (spiritual essence tied to shape and form) and 'Make'
>(which denotes physical, tangible substance)... this should help focus the
>intent, channel energy into the center of the triangle, and be sufficient to
>trap just about any creature in the triangle. (excepting of course, angels
>and God forms, which would not be trapped).

****Using this sigil for Goetic evocation would only be confusing and
dangerous for anyone less than a master magician.  Goetic evocation
is a separate system that requires study in its own right.****
>
>            Another choice here would be the Second pentacle of saturn, the
>one with the accrostic... It has been claimed to me (with some evidence)
>that the "SATOR AREPO TENET OPERA ROTAS" accrostic would be translated as
>"Saturn spins the wheel of life"... but that cant be completely supported.
>
>Jupiter   The Fifth pentacle of Jupiter:  "This hath great power. It serveth

>for assured visions." speaks well of it; the fact that the spirits invoked
>within the pentacle itself are related to Cabalistic mysticism does also;
>Note the three Mem's in the center?  Read up in Sepher Yetzirah by Rabbi
>Aryeh Kaplan for their useage.
>
>The Sun - The First pentacle of the Sun:  bears the face of Methraton, (but
>incorrectly calls him the Prince of the Countanance, which I do not think
>was quite accidental) which is the spirit called upon by Jewish mystics when
>they meditate upon the Shemhamphorash; this being sort of equivelent to
>meditaing on the 'World Soul'.
>
>                The fourth pentacle of the sun - "This serves to enable you
>to see the spirits when they appear invisible to those who invoke them;
>because, when you have uncovered it, they will immediately appear visible."
>Say enough?
>
>                 The Seventh pentacle of the sun : Claims to be good for
>those imprisoned.. It will immediately set free those who are "Bound in
>fetters of Iron".. which I would take as meaning that it would release you
>from your physical bondage...
>
>                Mercury: 1st... serves to invoke those spirits that can
>grant things "contrary unto the order of nature"... depends on your personal
>bends...  Either way, "they can with difficulty be seen" so personally I
>would skip.  I mention it only because I dont know what your goals are; the
>pentacle is also VERY basic, and was either very quickly thrown together, or
>simply impossibly obscure.
>
>                Fourth: to aquire Knowledge of all things created... the
>sigil itself is actually pretty deep, and its physical design etched into
>the face would greatly assist in distracting the mind.
>
>                Fifth: this one, and the first pentacle of the moon, are to
>'Open any door, no matter in what way it may be fastened'... the one of
>mercury blows secrets wide open, and grants the answer to pretty much any
>question you can ask... the one of the moon rips open the third eye.
>
>                MOON: two pents here, and they seem to work in concert quite
>well.  The First, to rip open the third eye, I would place (in a modified
>form) on the face.  It lists four spirits upon it, as well as five great
>names of god... more important, tho, is their organization... the 1st name
>of God, YHVH is placed down the center of the talisman, seperating the
>remaining names into four pairs.  Since the four letters of YHVH symbolize
>the four elements, and the four directions, I would take it to mean that the
>four God names, and their coresponding angels would be called within their
>respective quadrant.  I have actually broken their names down in Hebrew, and
>have a good idea of the functioning of this particular pentacle.  I wont
>bore you with breaking them down here, or explaining its use atm, but I
>would place at minimum the four angels in the four quadrants on a mirror for
>myself.  Its versical reads "He hath broken the gates of brass, and smitten
>the bars of Iron in Sunder.".
>
>                The second pentacle, the mate to the first, is the Last.
>It, according to its description causes rain... "All the great fountains of
>the deep were upon the earth, and the rain was upon the earth" (from the
>great flood); however, this is pretty obviously an allusion to is ability to
>cause manifestation of etheric/astral energy (at least, based on Hebraic
>cabala).  I have not yet succedded in breaking down the language that forms
>the angles in the pentacle; to be honest... but I have seen enough with
>regards to the alphabet that they are using to be convinced of its power.
>Unfortunately, I do not generally ACTIVELY use anything I do not have a good
>grasp on, so it is up to you... personally, if I were to include it on the
>design, I would place it on the back of the mirror, with the hexagram facing
>the side I had designated EAST with the previous pentacle...
>
>For a mirror purely used for evokations from the Goetia or the like, I would
>undoubtedly use the last pentacle of saturn... across the face with the
>third pentacle on the reverse to assist in containing/energizing the
>mirror... for this purpose, the mirror would undoubtedly be black, and made
>of either Onyx, Obsidian or Hematite. (if hematite, I would allow the
>engraving of the letters to remain unpolished inside, then the blood red
>oxidation would shine through); note also that hematite has a very strong
>martial componant to it (it is actually iron ore, specifically,
>Iron-Oxide... natural rust crystal).

****Fortunately you haven't tried it yet. With Goetic spirits you have
three choices when it comes to planetary/sepherotic location: you can
take a Jewish approach (ala Maestro Savedow) and put them all down in
the klippoth (lower Malkuth) which gives you very nasty results. You
can put them on the dark side of each sephira---but Saturn (Binah) has
only Furcus---or you can do what we do and put them all (Fallen
Angels) in the various sephira of Yesod. (Remember: each sepherioth
has 10 spheres inside it). But you can't put them all in
Saturn---unless you and Furcus know something we don't.....) ****
>
>For purely Angelic evokations, or for purely high spiritual visions, I would
>chose either the pent of jupiter, or the first or last of the sun, perhaps
>in some form of combination.

****But here again, why just one planet/sephia? We have angels for all
the planets/sephiroth.****
>
>For a general purpose mirror, I would personally chose the pentacles that I
>mentioned of the moon... While I can not ACTIVELY use the last pentacle
>without fully understanding it; it works wonderfully passively (hence my
>recommendation for the reverse of the mirror)... This I would make circular,
>and out of rock crystal or calcite by choice, but it would be difficulat and
>expensive to actually do this.  If you wish to use glass, I would use some
>form of silver or its oxides for its reflectivity; certainly not lead.
>
>If you have a hard time developing your astral sight, the fourth pent of the
>sun would be great; and I would recommend it on either Feldspar (sunstone)
>or on more economical Obsidian (the type with the golden optical effect)
>
>The fourth and fith pentacles of mercury would be great fun!  Although I am
>not sure what type of stone I would construct such a thing of... might even
>be better to make that one on metal.
>
>Hope that helps.  Sorry its so long; I rant.
>
>Me
>
****Actually it was a lot of good stuff, and some good ideas. Again,
pardon me for being a little pedantic, but we have to sort out how
many angels we can put on pinheads. Remember what a great rabbi once
said: "God is ineffable and everything else is man's cleverness...."
Another even greater rabbi said: "Women have babies and men have
kabbalah." ****

Good Magick!

Gnome d Plume
Come visit the dark mirror magicians at:
http://members.aol.com/CHSOTA/dmirror.html