Delta T and Delta C

One of the challenges of being involved in the study of occultism is to find people with similar interests. The pool of occultists interested in studying magick is even smaller. The pool of magickal students who want to practice magick is smaller still.

It is true that today you can find people on the internet who are practicing magicians…at least they claim to be practicing magicians. However, the truth is the so-called “social media” is antithetical to actual socialization. Besides, the time I’m talking about in this True Tale was pre-WWW, so other than through the use of “snail mail” and telephones, the only way to be part of a group  was to actually meet people—i.e., really socialize, something that appears to be incredibly important for the health of our bodies, minds, and spirits. There were no online covens or magickal orders because there was no online.

So, after a long period of searching, I found an actual, magickal group in my area. It had dozens of members and a few locations near where I lived in San Diego, California, as well as further north in Santa Barbara. Both branches drew from local colleges.

This was a Crowley-oriented group (later, they tried to combine this with concepts from “Star Wars”), and they claimed to have been associated with the O.T.O. (although that’s debatable). They certainly used the O.T.O. initiation for my Minerval (neophyte) degree, although I don’t remember anyone ever describing their form of applause: making fists and banging their thumb nails to make clicking sounds.

Don’t get me wrong, I learned a great deal from my time with this group. I have differences with them (see True Tale 10 below), but working with people, in person, teaches us as much or more than just reading or Skyping with someone can ever do.

So we were in a meeting doing a version of the LBRP. A high-ranking member from Santa Barbara had come to visit and many people there were honoring him by attending. There must have been thirty people or more for the appearance of “The Teacher” (who was also known as “The Barber” due to the way he earned a living).

The ritual followed the group’s usual pattern, during which there is a time made for quiet reflection or meditation. For some reason, I was really getting into it. I could feel my consciousness expanding to envelop the room, the house, the area, the city. And then, the phenomena started to happen.

I started to feel warm, and then hot. Soon I was sweating up a storm. It was as if the temperature had been turned up to 150 degrees. It was sweltering with sultry heat. I opened my eyes and could see everyone else calmly breathing as if nothing was going on. I could feel it; couldn’t they?

Then I realized that the sultriness, the humidity, was increasing with the heat. The moisture in the air increased my sweating. Soon, it made breathing impossible. I couldn’t get any oxygen! I felt myself gasping for air. It seemed like I was going for hours this way, yet when I opened my eyes, other people there were calmly breathing as if nothing was happening. Would I pass out from the heat and inability to breathe?

Suddenly, the section of the ritual ended. Within seconds the air returned to normal temperatures and breathing came easily. Nobody said a thing to anyone about this strange occurrence. It was as if this had happened to me and to nobody else. I asked a few people of their experiences during the ritual. None mentioned the heat, the sultriness, or the time dilation. I went to my immediate superior and advisor in the group and asked why I felt it and nobody else did. His response, directed at in the form of a put-down: “How do you know nobody else did?” I could have replied that I had asked them, but there was a great deal of formality and structure within the group and I decided it was better not to do so.

Since that time I have come to learn that while the results of magick can often take a long time to manifest, the signs of a successful ritual, in some instances, may be instantaneous. Two of these signs are:

Delta T: A temporary and sudden change in the temperature. In my experience it is usually a dramatic increase in the heat.

Delta C: A temporary and sudden awareness of a change in the passage of time. A ritual that seemed to take a long time was only a few minutes long (time dilation). Alternatively, a ritual that seems to last a short time actually took much longer to perform (time contraction).

Both of these seem to indicate that magick effects are occurring.

The Aura, Survival, and “Cabin Fever”

In the tale above I wrote that, socialization is “something that appears to be incredibly important for the health of our bodies, minds, and spirits.” In fact, I would say that really socializing by meeting with people in person rather than just messaging them over the internet is necessary to survive and thrive. How and why does this happen? The answer, I believe, is related to Cabin Fever. (No, not the bad movie by that name.)

Cabin Fever is described as extreme irritability and restlessness experienced during periods of being shut up in a small place. A wonderful example of this is shown in Charlie Chaplin’s classic movie, The Gold Rush, where he and another gold seeker are trapped without food in a small cabin during a massive snow storm. For them, the results are hilarious. In real life, the feelings of anxiety are not much fun.

When I was living in St. Paul, Minnesota, I experienced some of the same emotions. We used to joke about the weather: Nine months of winter and three months of bad skiing. Well, it’s not that bad, but certain things do happen in Minnesota that don’t happen in Southern California. Wild animals and birds migrate, hibernate, or die. Sometimes it gets so cold you are literally warned against going outside. Plants, bushes, and trees lose their leaves or vanish to a far greater extent than the wonderful green that always seems to be here in So Cal.

While living in Minnesota my response to the extreme winters and being cooped up was to feel “antsy” and anxious. Even going to work or meeting in crowds didn’t fully overcome this. Living in downtown St. Paul, I was on the “Skyway.” These were large tubes that ran from building to building so I could travel to movie theaters, restaurants, malls, night clubs, a small grocery story, etc. very easily. I called the tubes, “Habitrails for Humans.” I wasn’t confined, but I still experienced Cabin Fever.

One day, while looking outside at the snow-covered and seemingly lifeless land, I had a realization: Cabin Fever—at least the type of Cabin Fever I was experiencing—wasn’t due to being a shut-in. We each have an energy about us known as the aura. Every day our aura interplays with the things around us. I came to the conclusion that our auras need this interplay for us to survive and thrive. During the harsh winters, the number of animals, plants, people walking around, and even insects in the air vastly decreases. We don’t get the same amount of interplay between us and other living things simply because there aren’t as many living things around. When animals and plants hibernate for the winter, their auras shrink, making interaction with them more rare.

The solution: get out more. See more people. Be around them. It will help you to survive and thrive.

That’s also one of the reasons I’m a strong supporter of festivals such as the various Pagan Pride Day celebrations, Starwood, Pagan Spirit Gathering, Babalon Rising, PantheaCon, etc. Attending festivals—and even just classes or hanging around with people at local occult or new age shops—allows your aura to interact with those who have similar ideas and feelings. Their auras will tend to be in harmony with you, an experience which creates resonance amplifying and strengthening your aura. In turn, this amplifies and strengthens things your aura reflects: physical, mental, and spiritual health.

You May Know More Than You Think

After the ritual described above, all of the members changed from the robes they had put on back to their street clothes. We then had a short talk by “The Teacher.” The subject was “Taoism and the Kabalah,” a topic that interested me. I was looking forward to some mystical insights. Instead, he gave an incredibly generic, bland, and superficial interpretation explanation of a couple of Taoistic ideas. It was at that moment I started to become suspect of his knowledge and abilities in spite of my delta C/T experience an hour earlier. My concerns were confirmed when I asked, “How does the Tao relate to the Tree of Life?” Suddenly, The Teacher started blathering and found it difficult to string together logical ideas, saying something about looking at how the overall shape of the Tree of Life seems to go in and out at the sides just like the concepts of Yin going in and Yang going out. “Could you also say that Tao is in Kether, Yang is in Chochma, and Yin is in Binah as Crowley listed in Sepher Sephiroth?” describing the relation Crowley gave between concepts of the Tao and the Tree.

The Teacher looked down to hide the blushing he was doing, and said, “Yeah, you could look at it that way, too.” [Strike One!]

The next week I had a regular meeting with members of the Minerval degree and our immediate teacher. During the week I happened to read a book which made me wonder about something:

The God Name “AGLA” is an acronym (in the Kabalah that’s called a Notarikon). Usually, I had seen the words that made the acronym listed as the Hebrew Atah Geeboor L’olam Adonai which translates as “Thou art great forever my lord.” In this case, the word translated as “great” implies magnificence. However, in the book I read the Hebrew was given as Atah G’dulah L’olam Adonai. The translation is the same, but the meaning of the second word implies largeness rather than magnificence. It’s a small difference, and I wondered which interpretation the Order I belonged to used. After all, we did use the God Name AGLA in the first ritual we were taught.

So when I arrived at the meeting, I asked my mentor/advisor/teacher which version the Order followed. “I don’t know,” he said [Strike Two!], “but you’re in luck. The Order’s Kabalah expert would be there tonight.” I waited until long after class when the woman who was the Order’s Kabalah expert rushed into the house. I asked her the same question: which position did our Order use? I made it clear that I wasn’t trying to say that one was right and the other wrong, I just wanted to know what I was expected to believe as a member of the Order.

She looked at me as if I had been speaking Klingon. “I don’t have the faintest idea of what you’re talking about,” she said. “Perhaps you should be the Order’s Kabalah expert.” [Strike Three!]

One of the reasons I had joined the Order was to get knowledge, information, and perhaps some wisdom I didn’t have before. Realizing that for me, at the time, I wouldn’t find any of what I wanted within the Order. They had struck out in my game of magick baseball, and the following day I turned in a letter with my desire to leave the Order.

More about what happened after I left in the next True Tale.

***** I’m Coming Back to Las Vegas *****
NEXT WEEK!

Tantra Magick Workshop & Ritual

Well of the Moon
2650 S. Decatur Blvd. Suite A02
Las Vegas, NV 89102
702-666-7200
Information: LINK

Meet & Greet: Friday, November 15, 6:00 p.m. Free!
Date:……………..Saturday, November 16, 2013
Time:…………….Workshop: 2:30–5:30……Ritual: 6:15 to conclusion
Besides myself, the workshop and ritual will be led by Shama Helena: a Life, Love & Sex Coach and Tantric Educator for the last 20 years in Los Angeles, she has helped thousands of lovers through personal coaching, lectures and workshops, books and articles and on Television and radio. She offers private sessions with individuals, couples, and people in alternative lifestyles, to empower, re-balance, and provide tools that enable, enhance and energize their lives to live more consciously and create their own Heaven on Earth.
See her website: www.thepleasureparadigm.com

Tantra is more than “that sex stuff.” It is a complete spiritual system that includes everything from philosophy and psychology to divination and magick. Spiritualized sexuality is just one part of the system. On November 16 you’ll have a chance to learn about and experience Tantra and Tantric Magick.

Come out to amazing Las Vegas, Nevada, where you’ll learn practical techniques of Tantra. During the afternoon workshop, you’ll learn such things as:

•  A brief history of Tantra
•  Tantra as a Path of Pleasure
•  The nature of real magick (as opposed to magic tricks)
•  How to set up effective goals for magick
•  Tantra and the secrets of Vibration
•  The importance of compassion
•  The chakras and their activation through sound, visualization, breathwork and movement

At the conclusion of the workshop there will be a brief break of about 45 minutes. During this time please have a very light meal. Fruits, grains and vegetables are preferred over meats and processed foods.

Please return promptly. Only those who participated in the workshop will be permitted to attend the ritual. During the ritual you will put what you learned into practice. Either come dressed appropriately (please wear white, especially a white shirt, blouse, or dress. You may then adorn with jewelry and makeup of your choice), or change once you have arrived. The ritual will include banishings, cleansing, traditional honoring of the gods and goddesses of Tantra, movement, and finally activation of the chakras leading to sending magickal energy to achieve your goal.

During the ritual we will be sitting on the floor. Please bring pillows or other items that will cushion and support your bottom and your back. If possible, bring a colorful flower from your personal garden as a gift to the deities. If you don’t have one, it will be provided. Bring water to drink.

Please note that although we will be raising energies often associated with sexuality, there will be no nudity or sexual contact. Finally, due to the size of the location, attendance will be extremely limited. You are advised to register with the payment for the class as soon as possible to guarantee a location. Here, again, is the LINK to contact.