Hermetic Virtues Hermetic Virtues is one of my favorite journals. The latest issue, Volume VI Number 2, continues their record of excellence. This issue begins with an article by Chic and Tabatha Cicero (You can pre-order the new edition of Israel Regardie's The Philosopher's Stone with the Cicero's incredibly valuable notes and additions now) on "Osiris in the Golden Dawn System."  There is a section, here, that's fascinating: …the Throne of Osiris—the Throne of the Spiritual Realm—is situated upon the Dais in the East of the Neophyte Hall, the place of "Light." Aaron Leitch has pointed out that this was exactly how the Egyptian Gnostics described the Spiritual Realm. In the

[Part One of this Series: Click HERE] [Part Two of this Series: Click HERE] An Alchemical Laboratory Most people think of alchemy as a bunch of frauds trying to cheat people into thinking they could change lead (actually any base metal) into gold. In actuality, alchemy is far more complex than that. The challenge is that the original books and documents about alchemy are written in coded language. As a result, there are commonly three ways used in interpreting them. Sexual Alchemy: In this system the terms of alchemy are decoded as sexual terms, resulting in the production not of gold, but of a "magickal childe," your magickal goal. Until the late 20th century many, if

Throughout the existence of this blog I have avoided taking political sides other than to say that politics is important enough that you should educate yourself on issues and vote. When you feel an issue is important I believe you should contact your politicians and let them know. If need be, you should demonstrate in support of your positions. When I was going to UCLA it seemed like every vote in Congress, every action of the President, would change the world. And yet, we've survived. In every election since, the political pundits have declared that "this is the most important election in our history." And yet, in spite of who got elected, we've survived. Right now, there are political

In the blog Gleamings from the Dawn, Morgan Drake Eckstein seems surprised to hear that on another blog, a person wrote that you shouldn't use the term "cult" to describe "Golden Dawn groups." Eckstein writes, "If we cannot use the word 'cult,' especially in its technical sense, then what word are we supposed to use?" Using a simple term to describe an organization (or individual) is a great advantage. After all, rather than give a list of characteristics, I can simply use that term, a label, and not have to describe all of the qualities I like or dislike. The problem, however, is that your definition of the label may not be the same as my definition. Let's use this highly charged