Mandrake Speaks Newsletter

TyphOnia

On the eve of the Nu Moon I sat down to play this DVD of what T.O.P.Y. (Temple ov Psychic Youth) would call a "sigil". That's to say the old paper based system as it is now in the digital age. So it's not a straight forward film but a fifteen minute transmission intended to invoke a dream in the viewer. Filmed largely in black and white - its the record of a typhonian rite conducted by the very attractive members of Luxifera Research Group (aionicstar.com) presumably in a deserted Canadian necropolis.

To the sounds of a discordant soundtrack, the half dozen or so celebrants perform an invocation of the Typhonian current, the hieroglyph of Apep flashes momentarily on the screen, along with many another secret sign - the chorus chants a line from the powerful repertoire of the classical mage - ABLANATHANALBA. It's a very spirited production that definitely carried me to the end - despite my reservations about yet another occult production with no script. But there again I must remind myself this is a sigil not a film in the conventional sense - so I'm certainly glad people are making and circulating such material for the edification of the magi.

As an exponant of a peculiar system of Egyptian magick I was expecting a visitation from the incubair - that which the sigil is designed to incubate. And sure enough as I prowled the night-time I came upon a film crew filming interviews on the topic of the importation of crocodile skin - and the destruction of their habitat - I probably don't need to remind you of the typhonian nature of Sobek - so much so that a recent part-work having omitted Seth, one of the most important of Egyptian gods, partially redeemed themselves by the inclusion of Sobek. I was woken by someone hammering on the door at seven am (seven the number of the Typhon) come to deliver a copy of Stephen Skinner and David Rankine's latest offering 'The Goetia of Dr Rudd' (more on that next time). So all in all not a bad result - why not get yourself a copy and see for yourself. Sigils such as TyphOnia probably work only the once or perhaps intermittently. Best use them - pass them on or put them away somewhere, until they are almost forgotten then give them another go - but do have a go.. [Mogg Morgan]

The Goetia of Dr Rudd by Stephen Skinner David Rankine

isbn 978-0-9547639-2-3, £40 Golden Hoard

448pp, hardback includes full text of Lemegeton or Lesser Key of Solomon (Liber Malorum Spiritum seu Goetia, Theurgia Goetia, Ars Paulina (1&2) Ars Almadel)

Is there such a thing as a definitive edition of a grimoire? The authors of this spanking new edition certianly think so. The Goetia or Lemegeton to give it its full title, is a well known sorcerous book still widely available through Aleister Crowley's 1903 edition, which like several other of the master's works was re-badged from the manuscript provided by Samuel Liddel MacGregor Mathers of the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn. Skinner Rankine's justification for reprinting this new edition lies in the fact that the Crowley/Mathers edition is incomplete, contains editorial errors and is peppered with 'extraneous' material including some of Crowley's trade mark jokes. Crowley also added some additional ritual material such as the powerful Egyptian 'Headless Ritual' which is seen as anachronistic by some or a touch of magical genius; by others.

In their Goetia, Skinner & Rankine discuss the recent scholarly edition of The Lesser Key of Solomon edited by Joseph Peterson. They advance many coherent reasons as to why a further edition is useful. Controversially their edition is based on a manuscript actually rejected as defective by Peterson yet, so they argue, it possesses an internal coherence that has perhaps been overlooked. Viz: Dr Rudd's edition, warts and all, shows a system of magic as actually practiced by a working magician of the seventheenth century. In this respect, the edition of Dr Rudd has a lot in common with that of Crowley/Mathers. Dr Rudd also made his own additions to the text, additions that Stephen Skinner David Rankine this time welcome because they make the system more rational and to their minds safer. Rudd's brilliant addition was to add corresponding angelic seals for each of the demonic names, thus provided a technique by which one (the angels) could control the other (the demons).

Skiinner and Rankine's rather excellent introduction now addresses the putative history of the Grimoire, a topic which is in many ways more interesting than the grimoire itself (you might guess I'm not a grimoire man myself - one has to specialise afterall. Although I do have my own theories about the Goetia, but that can wait for another day.) As one might expect, details of the history of the Lemegeton gets murkier, the further back one looks. Ultimately, one is in the territory of myth and selective memory. I wonder if the editors had seen Lon Duquette's lively little book The Key to Solomon's Key (reviewed in MS) in which he addresses the historicity of King Solomon 'the Magician'. In 586bce the Hebrew elite of Jersualem were taken into captivity by the Babylonians and the 'Solomonic' temple destroyed. When this captivity ended the captives returned with a new name and some would say a new history and religion. Which means that all those post captivity stories of King Solomon cannot be taken at face value. King Solomon is a figure of myth who has so far remained invisible in the archaeological and historical record. So is the King Solomon who inspired the Lemegeton really a Hebrew mage or could he derive from Arabic or even Egyptian tradition? Afterall the Goetia itself says that the demons speak the Egyptian tongue?

Which brings me back to my opening question. I've yet to be convinced that the grimoires really deal with a world of facts; they seem to be much more connected to an imaginal world of magick. For all those magicians wanting to address this and other issues for themselves - you probably couldn't ask for a clearer and more complete guide than Stephen Skinner & David Rankine's excelllent new edition.. [Mogg Morgan]

The Book of Mephisto- A Left Hand Path Grimoire of the Faustian Tradition,
Asenath Mason, Edition Roter Drache, 2006. 76 pages.
ISBN 3-939459-00-3

The Necronomicon Gnosis- A Practical Introduction,
Asenath Mason, Edition Roter Drache 2007. 184 pages.
ISBN 978-939456-05-7

Experienced occult practitioners understand that the Mysteries may be invoked under many identities, shifting forms and names from circumstance to circumstance. Thus it is that amongst the oldest traditions we often find elements of what might otherwise be called ‘post modern’ sorcery. For example, I remember during an adventure into the dark underbelly of London coming across a Voudon altar which had been erected to the Baron of the Cemetery - a genuine lwa of that tradition- represented by the image of Darth Vader (or perhaps that should be Daa’th Vader?). Much to the bafflement of the uninitiated, many of those practicing ‘traditional’ witchcraft often display a similar attitude towards the Mysteries of our own culture. We know that underneath all archetypes, be they from the pagan myth cycles or modern popular iconography, there lies the power of the ultimately unknowable, unnameable Mysteries of which even our traditional pantheons are ultimately the merest shadows.

Just as the Voudon cultists have identified their own lwa or ‘laws’ at different times with the saints of Catholicism, or the new myth cycles of popular culture such as the Star Wars films, so have we as witches in England. Hence it is also that the pagan gods found themselves re-identified as demonic forces in the various grimoires of cunning tradition. We know that neither interpretation of these Mysteries are strictly speaking the ‘ultimate truth’. We know also that the form beneath which the Mysteries are called may even be completely fictional, and like the rest of Western Magic in the modern day have even succumbed on occasions to applying the mythos of H. P. Lovecraft in our rites. Similarly, post-modern Chaos magicians have found that it has proved possible to work effective sorcery by invoking gods that did not exist five minutes ago, or even invoking characters from ‘Buffy the Vampire Slayer’ (although why you would want to do that is anybody’s guess). It is an attitude that is shared also by Asenath Mason, founder of Lodge Magan – Polish lodge of the Order Dragon Rouge, in the two books I have recently received from her.

In the ‘Book of Mephisto’, Asenath explores the goetic tradition through an exploration of the Faustus myth, specifically his making of a Pact with Mephistopheles, whom she identifies at various times with Ahriman, Samael, the Initiator, the Opposer, and the Jungian ‘Shadow’. She sees the Faustian Pact to be ultimately a misunderstood manifestation of the Great Work of the Left Hand Path, pointing out early on that in Marlowe’s play he does not evoke demons to satisfy petty desires, as many of the later editions of The Lesser Key promise to fulfil. He does not seek material benefit, or to have control over other humans. Rather, he sells his soul in exchange for knowledge, and for exploration of the outer and inner cosmos. In this sense he seeks illumination with the ultimate aim to become himself ‘as a god’, which as Mason points out is the definitive quest of the Left Hand Path magician. From this perspective she goes on to explore the tradition of the magical pact in sinister witchcraft, identifying Mephistopheles also as a face of the Black Man of the Sabbat. The work includes a number of ritual formulae that combine traditional and modern elements that might be employed by any aspiring magician or witch to commune and invoke this Mystery, whether in the guise of Mephistopheles or any of its other names.

In ‘Necronomicon Gnosis’ Asenath explores the employment of the Cthulhu mythos in practical modern Left Hand Path sorcery; not entirely unknown also amongst witches (being not too far a stretch of the imagination, since we commonly refer to the Mysteries as The Old Ones even when we are not being post-modern about it all), Chaos magicians, the Typhonian O.T.O., and not forgetting of course the Voudon traditions as they are transmitted through Michael Bertiaux’s O.T.O.A., nearly all of whom receive at least a passing mention. Although described as an introductory level work, there is also much here that may be of inspiration to the more experienced practitioner. Indeed, Asenath generally assumes an advanced knowledge in her readers, hoping perhaps as much to reach out to those who might be her equals (distressingly few I would imagine) as to inspire those whose journeys are only just beginning. Again, she employs this modern pantheon to explore mysteries that are in fact so ancient as to be ultimately unnameable. Along the way she offers us her always profound and occasionally alarming insights into such traditional magical practices as astral travel, the Sabbat, dream incubation, shape-shifting, necromancy, sexual communion, invocation, evocation, the creation of though-forms, and other elements that fit well into the Cthulhoid mould of working. That the pantheon is fictitious means very little, since it resonates with the deeper mind that knows no bounds to ‘truth’ or ‘fantasy’; the dreaming mind of the sorcerer.

Logic might tell us that offering sacrifices and pacts to gods that do not actually exist will bring no fruit, yet experience tells us otherwise. Similarly, just because a subjective magical belief yields objective results, this does not necessitate the objectivity of that belief. This, besides the human mind’s incapability of seeing the whole ‘truth’ at any one time, is something that we can be very thankful for. Again there are enough inspiring rituals to keep any cultist happy. These are much more your ecstatic rituals of sex and blood than the usual dry old recycled ceremonial material one has got so used to reading but never getting around to doing these days. You cannot go wrong with the odd frenzied rite here and there..

I am reminded also of a telling of a Buckinghamshire coven that, wrapped up in the usual inter-coven magical warfare over the five mile ruling or some such nonsense, attempted to evoke the Lovecraftian entity known as Azazoth, the ‘Blind Idiot God’, to direct its destructive capabilities towards their perceived ‘enemies’. As if such a being is likely to concern itself with petty squabbles about poaching each other’s coven members… As Asenath points out in the ‘Necronomicon Gnosis’, summoning entities like this to manifestation is never wise move under any circumstances. True to form, this coven failed entirely to direct the chaotic forces of Azazoth in the directions they intended, and within six months all those involved in the ritual were either in an asylum, dead after a freak accident, or had committed suicide. Which, personally, is the kind of magical f**k up we could all learn from observing. Thank the Old Ones that other people are out there to make mistakes like that for us, so that we do not have to.

Both works display profound insight into the Mysteries, as does her breathtaking ‘fantasy’ artwork which adorns their pages. I am always suspicious of so called Left Hand Path magicians that display no particular talent, such as the ability to paint inspiring images to write evocative prose (this is supposed to be the Dark Art after all) and it is obvious that Asenath Mason must surely be an accomplished sorceress to produce the quality of work that she does. I expect that her lodge will prosper and grow through her inspiration and guidance. It should matter little if your own approach is purely ‘Traditional’, or whether you are open to employing elements from fantasy as new ‘masques’ for the ancient Mysteries, there will most likely be much to inspire you within these pages. Highly recommended indeed.
So mote it be,
Nathaniel J. Harris
(Skratte)

For further details of these and other books published by Edition Roter Drache visit their web page at http://roterdrache.org
For information on the Order Dragon Rouge, visit http://www.dragonrouge.net

To see Asenath Mason’s accomplished dark fantasy artwork, and to find links to various esoteric articles by her, visit http://www.asaenath.deviantart.com

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