Tag: austin osman spare

How to Sell Your Soul

Experiments in Spirit Evocation by Frater Ananael

’’If there is no God or Devil, no Heaven or Hell, and if the place we go to when we forsake our physical bodies is merely a ‘sea of memory’ in constant flux, then would it not be better to ‘make a deal’ and know exactly what you’ll become and where you will go when you die, or persist with the constant fear and anxiety of an uncertain fate..(?)” Denerah Erzebet (The Rites of Astaroth)

Over the last year I made several attempts at spirit evocation using a Goetia type formula with mixed success. I tend to take the position that the demons listed in the grimoires are neither ‘evil’ nor ‘good.’ The rituals were performed by myself as well as in group settings. Some of the summonings seemed to set off a series of events whilst others seemed to not culminate when they were supposed to with the most intense visual experiences occurring at unscheduled times. The format I used was to summon the demon into a cauldron that would be placed at the centre of a circle of magicians with a triangle of art around it and a protective circle around that: cleansings would precede and follow each ritual. Incense was burnt inside the vessel in an incense burner placed over the sigil.

The first temple summoning of a Goetia entity was Ashtaroth. I like to use very unorthodox methods in my magic with a particular leaning towards the trappings of traditional witchcraft. So in this ritual I used a small dutch-pot with Ashtaroth’s sigil in chalk at the base. The dutch pot is a particularly useful tool in witchcraft, lending itself to all sorts of sorcery; it appears very much like a traditional cauldron but with a flat floor it lends itself well to having sigils drawn inside it.

We had another magician present who did a brilliant Lesser Banishing RItual of the Pentagram and after a relatively short summoning we did some connected breath-work: breathing deeply we chanted ‘Ashtaroth’ on our outbreath. We kept this up for 20 minutes. This ritual was reasonably intense but without any major effects during the summoning.

I myself have experience of Ashtaroth through my work with Exu Rei das sete Encruzilhadas, a powerful spirit who will intervene on the physical plane especially if etiquette is not properly observed, with a penchant for cigars and rum. A series of synchronicities did unfold in parallel with a Soror who was making offerings at the Crossroads for Lucifer in identical fashion to how I did for Exu: both entities being associated with Venus as the Morning Star. A Tarot ritual preceding this did point out to me that paths would cross with this person in no uncertain terms- it did in the familiar challenging ways that I have come to expect when working with Exu.

The second conjuration was out in the country with a group of magicians and it was Asmodeus this time. I brought my dutch pot and the ritual was preceded by a thorough cleansing ritual performed by a very competent magician and he did it in the manner as set out in the grimoires. I used the Asmodeus prayer from Spare’s Grimoire of Zos, bowdlerising it somewhat as I could not imagine this temple indulging in an evening of fornication. This time we used the connected breath-work again chanting ‘Asmoday’ on the outbreath. This was followed by the ‘spontaneous path-working’ method that we devised where a vision would be passed around the circle with a squeeze of the hand, each participant adding to it. The ritual completed at exactly the stroke of midnight and we had some insightful visions.

For my third demonic conjuration I would break-away from traditional goetia-type work altogether and loosely follow the ritual as outlined in a book called The Rites of Astaroth. This would be considered a dangerous rite which culminates in trading one’s soul to gain favour with this demon. In principle I would have no objections to trading my soul to Astaroth: is it not the case that practically every religion requires its adherents to dedicate their soul to the object of their adoration anyway but dressed up in different words?

I made a few adjustments but the rite is performed from the full moon to the new moon in a very left-hand path fashion. I made offerings of my own blood on each day of the rite and made a point of learning the conjuration from Grimorium Verum off by heart: mastering it by the day of the actual rite. The blood offerings were astoundingly powerful! I had ordered a sigil that was laser-branded onto wood and that I was wearing around my neck. I pricked my finger each day that I conjured Astaroth using sterile diabetic lances and anointed this talisman. There is something very primal and potent about letting your own blood, even if it is only such a tiny amount. The discomfort, the psychic link and the vital energy all help strengthen the magic. This was a revelation to me!

I did want to get in touch with the author to have some insight on the magician’s state of sanity after having completed the rite and by a strange coincidence I made her acquaintance on Facebook! I timed it so that I could have the weekend off on a river-boat. The climax of the ritual would be to summon Astaroth as a demoness or entity of the opposite gender and to consummate the ceremony sexually. Astaroth is historically associated with Astarte and Ishtar and mentioned in the Bible as such, so it makes perfect sense in this context. My feeling throughout was that Astaroth is female or at least gender-fluid.

I do much of my magic whilst working at my job as a gardener. Michael Bertiaux discussed the fact that many of the African slaves would do their sorcery whilst labouring in the fields in his Voudon Gnostic Workbook and I took my inspiration from this. I use the time that I do monotonous work to also do magic or to learn lines off by heart. During the time that led up to the ritual when I was learning the conjuration, Ashtaroth seemed to manifest very intensely. This would in retrospect have been the correct time to have consummated the ritual as outlined in the book but I wanted to keep to the schedule. I had intense visions and instructions on how to draw up a pact and what should be included.

The encounter had a very erotic flavour of the type associated with incubus/succubus phenomena documented in the witchcraft trials. I also had an intense dream that I had impregnated a black woman who would have our baby and it was going to be called Cressida. I had no idea what the significance of the name was until I researched it. Cressida was the daughter of the seer Calchas in Greek mythology. The book has a ritual for creating a magical child and it seemed that I was on my way of having done so already. The name has become a word of power for me with some weird effects when I intone it. When I say the name I feel like a female spirit superimposes its body astrally over mine.

When the actual day of the ritual arrived I headed out of London with my shamanic drum and a sacrament expecting a night of drumming and conjuring. I did actually draw up a pact with clauses to ensure that I get to know Astaroth a lot better before commending my soul to her. The ritual itself ended up being unspectacular. I was not ready for an all night session of drumming so I decided to keep the sacrament for another day in the future – maybe after my nine-month pact comes round. I intoned the conjuration that I had learnt 108 times and did a good amount of drumming. Astaroth did hear me and I have come away from this rite with a new method of magic that I will be experimenting with based on my experience with The Rites of Astaroth.

The book The Rites of Astaroth is available from Draco Press

Death and the Lovers

This was the theme of the Occult Conference 2018, held in Glastonbury by The Visible College. As soon as it was announced we suggested to the organiser, Sef Salem, that an event themed around Thanatos and Eros should have some input from a magical organisation with ‘Thanateros’ in the name. Surprisingly, he concurred.

It was quite a successful gathering all round. The IOT British Isles Section was active as myself and Section Head Soror Brigantia presented a workshop on the polarities of Black Saturnine and Silver/Purple Lunar magic, the Thanateros current in the raw. Here we find the tensions and paradoxical coincidence of opposites of beginning and ending, burgeoning life and decline into death, the Knowledge of Arising and Passing Away, from coagula to solve, each implying the other as two sides of a coin. We began by resuming the Star of Chaos and its paradoxes. We ended with a version of Pete Carroll’s insufficiently famous Thanateros Rite from Liber Kaos.

Shortly after our workshop there was that earthquake that measured 4.7 and originated from a few miles north of where we live. That means nothing, okay? It wasn’t our fault. Fault, geddit? Oh, never mind.

The following day we reflected on the ritual and workshop we had done the day before, recounting the Greek mythic lore of Chaos, Eros and Thanatos underpinning our work and discussed Austin Spare’s Death Posture in the light of that.

Next, past Section Head Dave Lee developed the Death Posture further, drawing on an article by our beloved brother Alan Chapman and on his own knowledge and experience of Connected Breathwork. He followed this with a practical workshop so that we could all have a go. This was an extraordinary experience.

More extraordinary though was the closing ritual of the Conference, which Soror Brigantia, Dave and I had devised, involving invocations of Eros and Thanatos and La Danse Macabre de la Vie, l’Univers et le Reste, manifesting as a giant double conga doing its DNA thing and splicing the entire Conference experience together.

And so it was done.

 

Check out Dave Lee’s Chaotopia website and maybe sign up for his newsletter.

Also see Alan Chapman’s website Wiser by Design and maybe buy his book on magic(k).

And then there’s the Kite’s Cradle.

Alan Chapman on the Death Posture

Austin Spare’s Death Posture has been aired in chaos magic circles quite a bit lately and is widely misunderstood. As far as we know, the best clarification of this technique was published by our good friend and IOT colleague Alan Chapman on the much-missed website The Baptist’s Head. It was republished in the print collection The Blood of the Saints, now out of print and going for silly money, but Alan has given us permission to publish the article again. Thank you Alan.

 

The Death Posture: A Definitive Instruction by Alan Chapman

Spare’s ‘Death Posture’ is the most misunderstood magical technique in the world. Ever.

The technique is described in The Book of Pleasure (Spare, 2005) and so I sympathise with any initial confusion readers may have concerning the posture; after all. Spare’s writing is demented.

However, a simple re-read of the page in question should be enough to dispel the confusion. I can only surmise from the absolute rubbish presented in many books, magazines and websites as ‘the death posture’ is due to the fact that most people cannot be bothered to read carefully.

The Ritual and Doctrine

The instruction is given in three paragraphs. Here’s how they are printed:

“Lying on your back lazily, the body expressing the condition of yawning, suspiring while conceiving by smiling, that is the idea of the posture. Forgetting time with those things which were essential reflecting their meaninglessness, the moment is beyond time and its virtue has happened.

“Standing on tip-toe, with the arms rigid, bound behind by the hands, clasped and straining the utmost, the neck stretched — breathing deeply and spasmodically, till giddy and sensation comes in gusts, gives exhaustion and capacity for the former.

“Gazing at your reflection till it is blurred and you know not the gazer, close your eyes (this usually happens involuntarily) and visualize. The light (always an X in curious evolutions) that is seen should be held on to, never letting go, till the effort is forgotten, this gives a feeling of immensity… whose limit you cannot reach. This should be practised before experiencing the foregoing. The emotion that is felt is the knowledge which tells you why.” (Spare 2005, p. 18)

It’s obvious, isn’t it? The death posture itself is completely open to interpretation. There is no ‘one’ posture; instead it ranges from holding your breath until you pass out, to staring at yourself in the mirror. And it can be used to ‘charge’ sigils.

Actually: no! What big fat hairy bollocks!

If we re-read these three paragraphs, we see that paragraph two (‘”Standing on tip-toe…”) “…gives exhaustion and capacity for the former.” In other words, it is a preliminary exercise for the instruction given in the first paragraph (“Lying on your back…”). As for the exercise given in paragraph three (“Gazing at your reflection…”), we are told: “This should be practised before experiencing the foregoing.”

Paragraph three is therefore a preliminary exercise to be practised before the instructions given in paragraphs one and two. The death posture proper is therefore given in paragraph one. So, to clarify:

1. Practice staring at your eyes in the mirror, until your reflection looks bizarre. Granted, it doesn’t help at this point when Spare tells you to close your eyes and visualise, and then goes on to describe something you should see (“an X in curious evolutions,” which I propose is the image left on the retina — indeed, there is very similar to a Buddhist exercise), but the point is that you concentrate on something, never letting go, until: “this gives a feeling of immensity… whose limit you cannot reach.”

Spare is quite explicit when he says this must be experienced before practising the death posture proper. In other words, you must have a degree of proficiency in concentration. Knowing Spare’s magical background, I believe he is here describing dhyana.

It should be noted that there is nothing special about this concentration exercise, as Spare explains a little later on: “There are many preliminary exercises, as innumerable as sins, futile of themselves but designative of the ultimate means.” (Spare 2005, p. 18). Once Dhyana is achieved, we can move on to the death posture itself.

2. The death posture requires a degree of relaxation, and to obtain this, you may first strain the whole body and hyperventilate. Of course, you could also go for a run or lift some weights — the aim is to be relaxed for the practise of the posture proper. Just to be explicit: holding your breath until you pass out is not the death posture.

3. So, once a degree of competence in concentration is achieved (i.e. you can enter a state of dhyana, or trance), you can practise the posture proper.

I believe the biggest difficulty with understanding the death posture lies with the fact that Spare appears to be telling us to lie down, yawn, smile and ‘let go’ of all of our worries. But that’s not correct. The posture is indeed lying on your back, relaxed, without a care in the world. However, if you think he is advocating relaxation for its own sake, you’re missing the point. If we take a look at the next paragraph. Spare says:

“…know this as the negation of all faith by living it, the end of the duality of consciousness… Know the death posture and its reality in annihilation of law — the ascension from duality.” (Spare 2005, p. 18)

The aim of the death posture is not to achieve ‘gnosis’ in order to ‘charge’ a sigil, but to experience the non-dual. Spare is talking about samadhi, or the experience of what he called Kia.

Spare elaborates on the practice:

“The primordial vacuity (or belief) is not by the exercise of focussing the mind on a negation of all conceivable things, the identity of unity and duality, chaos and uniformity, etc., etc., but by doing it now, not eventually. Perceive, and feel without the necessity of an opposite, but by its relative. Perceive light without shadow by its own colour as contrast, through evoking the emotion of laughter at the time of ecstasy in union, and by practice till that emotion is untiring and subtle. The law of reaction is defeated by inclusion… Let him practise it daily, accordingly, till he arrives at the centre of desire. He has imitated the great purpose… Thus by hindering belief and semen from conception, they become simple and cosmic.” (Spare 2005, p. 18-9)

The ‘primordial vacuity’, or Kia, is achieved by cultivating an awareness of immediate sensation. For example, instead of experiencing a sensation and knowing it as ‘tight’, simply experience the sensation. The correct mental attitude is that which is experienced when you laugh; you accept all experience and sensation (including the sensation of thoughts) without resistance.

If this attitude of inclusive awareness is cultivated by daily practice, you will eventually experience a state of non-duality and bliss.

The parallels between Spare’s instructions and those of the Buddha are quite striking. The death posture facilitates the same awareness as ‘insight practice’ or vipassana, which can only be practised competently once a degree of proficiency in concentration is achieved.

A Practical Summary

1. Practise concentration exercises until you experience dhyana.

2. Practise being aware of all sensations and experiences as they arise without fixing your attention on or identifying with any one thing. (The correct attitude can be engendered by smiling or laughing.) This is easiest to do when relaxed, so practising after physical exercise is ideal. Alternatively, taking up insight practice, vipassana or Taoist meditation will achieve the same result.

Core teaching

Of the sixteen chapters of The Book of Pleasure, eight deal exclusively with the non-dual or Kia, either expounding the virtues of the pursuit of the non-dual, providing instructions for achieving the non-dual, or detailing the resultant state once the non-dual is achieved and becomes habitual (which Spare calls ‘Self-Love’).

Spare is essentially concerned with hedonism. (I think the title of the book gives that away.) If you want the most ecstasy and pleasure possible, if you want the greatest degree of satisfaction, then you must concern yourself with the non-dual:

“The wise pleasure seeker, having realised they are ‘different degrees of desire’ and never desirable, gives up both Virtue and Vice and becomes a Kiaist. Riding the Shark of his desire he crosses the ocean of the dual principle and engages himself in self- love.”(Spare 2005, p. 1)

Self-love is the state that results from the habitual experience of the non-dual, obtained through practising the death posture every day. It is freedom from desire. Now tell me, which brings the greatest pleasure: using sigils to acquire a magical effect, or the transcendence of all desires?

For a long time. Spare has been feted as the father of ‘Chaos Magic’ and the inventor of Sigil Magic. But his greatest magical achievement, the central teaching of The Book of Pleasure has either been misunderstood as an arbitrary component of sigil magic, or completely ignored as the ramblings of a mystic.

With his death posture. Spare managed to boil down the essence of all meditative practice to a very simple, easy and enjoyable method of genuine magical attainment, and not for any lofty, spiritual purpose, but simply for the sake of pleasure.

If you still think magic has nothing to do with mysticism, or is concerned solely with the manifestation of material results, consider the title of the book responsible for ‘starting it all’: The Book of Pleasure (Self-Love): The Psychology of Ecstasy.

 
Alan references the I-H-O 2005 edition, also going for silly money. Instead, get one of the more reasonably-priced collections of Spare’s writings.

Visit Alan’s ground-breaking website, Wiser by Design, buy his book Advanced Magick for Beginners.