Howlings from the PitA Practical Handbook of Medieval Magic, Goetia & Theurgy

Table of Contents

Preparation for Old System Magic

Introductory — and Necessary — Remarks

"Preparations for Old System Magic? Me? I already prepared myself with umpteen years of Golden Dawn practice, or Yoga practice, or Wicca rites, not to mention this study and that discipline. Now there's more? Is he kidding?"

Nothing, and I mean nothing of what you have done in the past--ritually speaking--will be of any use to you here. Not in this Work. Not in Old System Magic. And if you think that all of that "visualization" and "astral projection" you engaged in; all of those Tarot spreads you cast and sets of cards you personally fashioned for yourself; all of that "scrying in Spirit Vision" and psychometry work you did; all of that crystal gazing and 'pendulum' swinging you busied yourself with throughout the years; all of those Lesser Banishing Rituals of the Pentagram and Banishing Rituals of the Hexagram you performed so religiously two or three times a day for months or years; all of those Middle Pillar Rituals you performed throughout the past ten years, and all of those paper 'talismans' you made and 'charged' by this New Age technique or that New Age expediency; all of those 'Evocations' you did in your miniature circle taped off with masking tape on the floor of your apartment or basement, and all of that gift shop Indian-compounded incense you burned for a spirit you never saw and the results you never got: if you think any or all of that has prepared you for this ancient Art and Science, guess again. Because if they prepared you in any way for your entrance and Work in Old System Magic, you would not be sitting where you are now reading this which should be making no small number of you angry enough to spit bullets, and irritating the hell out of an equal number, if not more, of you. But before you go off into some self-justifying, self-aggrandizing episode in an attempt to make yourself feel all those years of struggle and practice were worth at least 'something,' ask yourself: "WHERE ARE THE RESULTS?" Ask honestly, "Did I get--even ONCE--all or everything I wanted? And if I did (or didn't), what price from the Slingshot Effect did I receive from those actions as well?" Ask yourself also, "Besides feeling warm and cozy inside from all my reading and practicing, what do I have to show for it? I mean really? If not in those material objects I desired, then what do I have to show for all that work in terms of my at least being a better, more spiritual human being as a result of them?"

You and I both know the answers to these so very uncomfortable questions: all of those practices have brought you nothing. That is, nothing of any consequence upon which you can hang your hat. If you did get this or that every so often, you can't be sure it was the Effect that followed from your magical Cause: not unless it manifested so clearly, completely, and quickly after the rite. And you know it didn't. For if those activities did work and were repeatable, then surely, you would be happy, content, have what you desire, and be so well-balanced in so many ways, that people would seek you out simply to bask in the glow of your personality--and I'm not being facetious here. But they don't, do they? So it's time to enter a deep period of Self-Analysis, and by this I mean a period of deep self-scrutinization; a period of examination that follows directly upon a period of ruthless self-honesty such as you (may) have never known before. It's time to till the soil. Time to turn over the psychological dirt covering the gold beneath, and start removing and doing what you must if you are to have the life you desire. It's as simple as that.

Oh, and before I forget any of you "Theoretical Magicians" who have read, and read, and re-read 'all the great books of Magic of the twentieth century'; all of the great writings of William Butler to Franz Bardon and Aleister Crowley to John Dee; all who have discussed these matters with your fellow magicians, and Order Heads and other occult leaders, I have a surprise for you: you're in the same boat as your hard-working, practicing colleagues. Forget all of those books and their dialogues, for you have not translated them into practice: that special action which brings about Experiential Knowledge, and which leads to a state of Apprehension whereby that knowledge is made a part of your living being, and upon which you draw--through your Subjective Synthesis--to produce--through the Magic--the ends you want.