Why do people still practice Magick?

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Kewl stuff! What do all those little symbols mean?

The sword, cup, coin, and wand are clearly the four elements, he's got the symbol of Mercury on top of a caduceus, almost seems a bit redundant, and he has the astrological symbols for Saturn, Jupiter, the sun Mars, and the Moon spread around the pentagram (the Mars with a cross-bar could be some oblique version of Venus, don't know for sure).

The Hebrew I get three of the words - Adam and Eve on the crossbar, Pachad or 'fear' up the right side (fits with Mars), and then Kopher on the left-to-bottom cross bar which means 'price of life, ransom'. Being he was a French occultist and came around maybe 50 years after Martines de Pasqually I'm guessing he had the 'reintegration of Man', ie. reunion of Adam Kadmon, as one of his goals and in some ways this is probably sort of like a stripped-down Baphomet in the alchemical sense of what he envisions in the goals of the alchemical Great Work. That he named himself 'Eliphas Levi' seems to cozy up to the Levitical priesthood in a similar way to how Martines de Pasqually named his theurgical magic order the Elus Cohen (ie. Elect Priests).

Why the word "TETRAGRAMMATON" to seal the pentagram?

Everyone knows that using a tetrad to seal a pataran renders it incomplete.

A popular renaissance workaround of extending YHVH into five parameters was reinterpreting Yeheshua as YHShVH. It isn't proper Hebrew but the connotation was the injection of the holy flame into the tetragrammaton and being that Renaissance Hebrew was probably every bit as bad as Renaissance Latin it stuck.

Seems like in this case he didn't bother with that though, instead he just focused on tetragrammaton having five syllables.

Very fascinating stuff!

On my altar in a little tin can I i use a little unlit candle to represent fire, a small rock for earth, a sea shell for water, and a bird feather for air.

I also have a small stone goblet to symbolize The Goddess and woman and an old timer carving knife to symbolic The God and man and together they represent creation (yes they are indeed phalic symbols).

I admit I improvise a lot based on what I read online and in books about setting up an altar.

And honestly I just dabble. I'm not an expert on the occult.

A really useful and interesting book, interesting from a lot directions actually (released and translated posthumously, afterward written by a Catholic cardinal, etc.) that gets into a lot of the import of French occultism of the period, drops the whose who and conveys a lot of the core concepts quite well is Meditations on the Tarot: A Journey into Christian Hermeticism by Unknown Author (ie. Valentin Tomberg) translated by Robert Powell.

He does something like a 25 to 30 page dissertation on each of the 22 major trump of the Marsailles tarot and uses the keys as a jumping off point to meander all over the worlds of kabbalistic symbolism, the mystical import of the symbols in the cards, what bible stories and characters he sees them lining up with, which occult principles the given card most relates to, which occult philosophers and esotericists had meaningful things to say on these, which ones were controversial, which Catholic saints or Middieval scholars embodied these principles, and it seems like he was trying to make a friendly bridge in certain ways between Roman Catholicism and the French Hermetic tradition. He was also writing this in his 60's with the intention of using the book as a means of imparting his knowledge to the next generation so that also adds a certain intimacy in how he chooses to address the reader.

Sounds like an interesting read. I might check it out someday.

A pretty bold topic 'banishing the armchair', and I think he's saying you've gotta jump in feet first even not know what you're doing - otherwise you can read forever. I'd say yes and no, there's some stuff worth the risk, other stuff that smacks of Darwin Awards like grabbing up the Grimorium Verum and winging it your first time.

The democrats are getting a pretty lucky break right now.



The center focused card was the Jack of Diamonds. Supposed to be a young go-getter with brown hair or red hair and green or hazel eyes and pale or light brown skin. They are dynamic, outgoing, and very motivated. They have plenty of wonderful ideas to offer but nobody takes them seriously. Is there anybody on the left side who fits this description?

Left card is 5 of hearts, a card representing great fortune.

Right card is 6 of spades, representing courage and strong will. A rare opportunity to fix what went wrong.

Top is 2 clubs meaning difficulties with projects. Represents minor problems in careers and the card of a procrastinator.

The final card is the ace of clubs, signifying major transformation and great change.

Maybe the Democrats are having a lucky streak at the moment (Trump's not doing as well in the polls right now) but they're still not giving it their all. They are certainly fed up with our current situation with Trump though. Whoever they get as their Democrat Represenative in the end may be somebody who isn't taken seriously.

And a big change is still coming, according to the Ace of Clubs. Just like I checked before. That much seems beyond dispute. ♧

Maybe the Jack of Diamonds is a young Joe Biden?

After getting bullied by some sh***y ass wiccans on Facebook I nearly broke my hand smashing everything on my altar and throwing it all in the trashcan.

You're cutting your nose off to spite your face in this case.

Why destroy YOUR things because some people want to be as*holes on the Internet?

Because if I were to destroy them I'd end up in prison.

I think you need to find a community who has some similar values.

A lot of Wiccans don’t really understand what it’s about and use it to spread more negativity than anything else. Is that the type of thing you were seeing in the Facebook group?