Beyond Goetic Invocation: better methods
Aleister Crowley is probably the best known magician who invoked Goetic Spirits, but there have been few documented conjurations of the Goetic spirits. All the effort and inconvenience and time spent seems to count for nothing when the results are inconclusive at best, and at worse detrimental to health not only of the magician, but, it seems, people associated with him, and the surrounding area! It would seem that the Abramelin ritual is a waste of time.
Problems with Ritual Magic
A large part of the problem lies in the methodology of ritual magic where the magician, having found a suitable place, set up his circle, prepared his magical weapons, checked on the astrological portents, the weather, the tattva tides, possibly an I Ching or tarot divination, has decided on the invocation of a particular spirit at a particular time. Who has the time, energy and inclination to undertake such an important ritual, particularly when the likelihood of the portents from all these methods agreeing is so small? There is no particular evidence that a Goetic spirit is tied to any particular time of day anyway, while the supposed powers of the spirits bear little resemblance to modern day life, and what use is the massive duplication of powers anyway?
Over the years, at various times, a Goetic spirit has appeared to me. The phrasing of that sentence is deliberate - I have never performed anything like a Goetic ritual, and I certainly was not expecting to invoke or evoke a spirit of any class at that time, let alone Goetic. In my own experience, the appearance of a spirit means that there is some work to be done, to the mutual benefit of myself and that spirit. Spirits know who they are and what they want and they know when a magician can assist them. While this is all very interesting, there is nothing that will help the reader who aspires to contact and work with Goetic Spirits for attaining his or her Holy Guardian Angel. For that reason I tended to keep quiet on the subject - I had nothing to pass on that would help.
What is different about me that bring success in Goetic Invocation? I am not, nor have been, a member of a Lodge or Magical Order such as the Golden Dawn or the O.T.O.. From an early age I had a thirst for spiritual knowledge that took me through Yoga, the Eastern religions and beliefs onto the Western magical systems. That desire to know, to experience was maintained as I devoured spiritual books looking for answers. Twenty years ago that answer came in the form of a Sufi Master. Forget all notions of what a Sufi should look like, and what he would say. This man lived in a world where everything was caused by spirits - animism. Strange things happened all the time, when I was with him, and when I wasn't. We almost never discussed philosophy. I was expected to figure things out myself, trying to understand the onslaught of spiritual experiences that would happen at all times of the day and night. Those experiences were never discussed with him, but I was under no doubt that they came from the intervention of 'spirits'. Very often I had 'spirit problems', which he would fix. We never discussed the name or nature of these spirits, or the particular spirit that was affecting me. Over the years I began to find answers to what was happening to me, not in Sufi literature, but in the Golden Dawn books, Enochian, and the writings of Aleister Crowley. Now, I am not saying that Sufism is in any way the same or similar to the Western occult tradition. Far from it. What I can say is that I understood my experiences through the language and symbolism of Western Magic. In other words, I was given the experience, and later, sometimes months or even years later I was able to understand that experience having found it mentioned in a book by Crowley, or Mathers, or Dion Fortune, for example. Within this milieu the occasional Goetic spirit would visit - I suspect there were far more visitations, but I probably knew nothing about Goetic spirits at the time.
So, you need to spend maybe twenty years with a Sufi! Not just any Sufi either. This is all as practical as an Abramelin Ritual, and besides how do you find a Sufi with this knowledge of spirits? There is a tradition in the East that 'when the student is ready the Master appears'.
Without power, without energy, the magician will never be able to work effectively with spirits. Knowledge is equally important. My studies of the occult have benefited me in so many ways over the years.
While I was writing “Tarot and the Magus” I intended it to be an introduction to the Golden Dawn divination techniques using the Tarot. In the process I spent nearly two months studying the same sequence of cards. Somehow this study created a resonance with a mysterious group of Spirits associated with the Tarot, whom Crowley wrote about in Liber 231. Again, I have had the odd contact with them over the years since reading Kenneth Grant and Linda Falorio, but this time all 22 of them appeared at once. Knowing that almost nothing was known about these spirits, I did not get too excited, but within a few weeks, some Goetic spirits appeared; they were anxious to tell me that they were related to the Liber 231 spirits and I should not forget them! At the time I was writing this book for beginners on the subject of Tarot and divination, but over the next few months I could not ignore these delightful spirits - they are great fun, and the experience is usually quite blissful, nothing like their sinister reputation. With the guidance of these spirits I began to uncover the magical and spiritual techniques hidden within Golden Dawn teachings and Crowley's writings - not only that, but my publisher was happy for me to include them in my 'beginners' book.
How the Crystals work
We have all heard the white noise of an un-tuned radio or seen the 'snow' on a tv screen not tuned to a channel. We have also had the experience of a weak signal or receiver which results in several different stations 'competing' to be heard or seen. Cheap radios are not particularly strong, need retuning, and the sound is not particularly good. Reception can be poor. The vast majority of humanity experience life similar to the white noise and 'snow' of untuned equipment - they have been told that amazing sounds and pictures can be experienced but they do not have the knowledge, experience and equipemet to aspire to anything. Magicians, on the other hand, do get 'something' but the wires are often crossed, the reception is not good, and trying to watch or listen to something when reception is poor is a frustrating experience. The radio or TV guide is probably out of date too. With a psychotronic crystal, experienced magicians can cut through the fog and start to get good sounds and pictures. It seems that over time psychotronic crystals create a resonance between the magician and the spirits - both benefit, and both gain energy. The natural resonance makes communication easy and comfortable in both directions.
Magic needs Energy
In the past, the focus on Magic was on knowledge - magicians believed that mere knowledge of the names of Spirits gave them power over these spirits. Since knowledge is power, great efforts were made to ensure the general population did not know these names. Similar things happened in religion, where the translation of the Bible from Latin into English and other common languages marked the beginning of the end of the power of organized priesthood. These secrets were jealously guarded.
Today, not only are the names of the spirits easy to find, but we also have full information on the magical rituals and techniques practiced by the Golden Dawn and other occult institutions. With the full release of all this information, are we better magicians? I doubt it. The fact is that the likes of Eliphas Levi, MacGregor Mathers, Dion Fortune, and Aleister Crowley have not been surpassed. Talented individuals will always do well in Magic, but could they have been better?
While the time taken for contact with one's Holy Guardian Angel could take longer than the formal period of six months required by the Abramelin Ritual, the modern magician will be working towards this goal simply by going about ordinary life, studying magic, and possessing crystals. Health and energy levels will be up, psychic defences will be stronger, and magical powers will increase.
We have gone from an outdated method of uncertain value and limited benefit at cost to the health of the magician, to the situation today with psychotronic crystals where the magician has the choice of two methods: