This week we finish Dead Voices: Natural Agonies in the New World by Gerald Vizenor. Please read from page 87 (the Crows chapter) through to the end.

Knot’s suggestion was a hit! We continue Dead Voices: Natural Agonies in the New World by Gerald Vizenor. Please read pages 43-86, the Fleas, Squirrels, and Mantis chapters.

If you were with us last week, we request that you charge the Mysterious Sigil which has been placed in your keeping.

This week, we begin Dead Voices: Natural Agonies in the New World by Gerald Vizenor, and we shall see if it sticks! The suggestion was brought forth by our faithful compatriot Knot. Please read from the beginning through page 42, the Shadows, Stones, and Bears chapters.

We continue in Six Ways by Aidan Wachter. Please read from chapter 27 through to the end, pages 125-157.

Attempt one experiment from somewhere in the book!

We continue in Six Ways by Aidan Wachter. Please read from chapter 17 through to the end, pages 85-125.

You’re also invited to attempt this practical exercise before Wednesday.

AND: we will perform an experiment together during our next session!

Thanks to Frater Ex Nihilo for the insight you have brought forth!

This week we continue Six Ways by Aidan Wachter. Please read chapters 11-16, pages 57-84.

Please take a stab at: The trance induction exercise, pp.52-55

And the Fire Snakes ritual, pp. 59-60.

This coming Wednesday, a suggestion from Frater Ex Nihilo: Six Ways by Aidan Wachter. Please read pages 1-57, up to and including the trance induction exercise. They highly recommend trying it; they say it makes the book “worth its weight in gold.”

This week, we place ourselves in the hands of Sorcerix Helios Epicene, with essays on the subhuman, superhuman, or a Secret Third Thing:

Julian Jarboe’s “The Android That Designed Itself”

Susan Stryker’s “My Words to Victor Frankenstein Above the Village of Chamounix”

And it’s ok to give a somewhat less thorough reading to Donna Haraway’s longer essay, “A Cyborg Manifesto.” 

Helios’ word on the selections:

I chose the latter two essays because they have been instrumental in providing me the tools to build/understand my inner Divinity. Certainly, these works, chock-full of highly specialized academic terminology, do not easily give up their treasures for any magician hoping to understand the journey on which I have embarked. For that reason I have omitted the notes sections in both and I suggest my fellow wizards scan the Manifesto lightly and read My Words deeply. To summarize, these works have given me the tools to understand the non-dualism within my gender and identity, the key to interpreting cyberpunk fiction as thaumaturgy, and the first affirmation of my monstrosity that propelled me into greater workings. Susan Striker’s words, especially the poem, have been featured in my own ritual practice both public and private. Enjoy!

This Wednesday, we continue our discussion of the Headless Rite through time. If you have taken a stab at it, we are eager to hear about the experience.

To furnish the other half of the discussion, please read Israel Regardie’s so-called “cursory analysis” of the Headless Rite. He makes a number of assertions that are controversial but worth discussing.

Optional: If you’d like, take a look at Sorcerix Helios Epicene’s own variant, Song of the Headless Bornless One. They’ll be back this week and able to wade into the swamp with us.

In observance of a roughly annual tradition, we revive The Headless One! We’ll discuss the origins of this variously-named ritual and the forms it has taken across traditions and practices. Many of us have gotten amazing results with this one.

My note to you should say: Feel free to treat this as a buffet and read according to your own preference. If you’ve read some of the permutations by Wednesday, it will suffice to furnish a good discussion. Many of us have performed some variant of the ritual, but novices are heartily welcome.

First, take a look at Jake Stratton-Kent’s pamphlet on the ritual, The Headless One. Then look at the translations from the Greek and Demotic magical papyri: from the PGM, “The Stele of Jeu the Hieroglyphist” (pp. 103, PGM V. 96-172) and from the PDM (pp. 232, PDM xiv. 675-694).

The Golden Dawn adapted their own version of the rite, translated as “The Bornless Ritual”, found in The Golden Dawn, pp. 442.

Next we progress to Crowley, who first adapted the ritual as the “Preliminary Invocation of the Goetia”, and later expanded it as Liber Samekh. And finally, a variant of Liber Samekh many of us have celebrated to great effect, Frater Antichristos’ Liber Thagirion.

Wikipedia article on the PGM.

Israel Regardie’s comparative analysis of the versions of the ritual.

From Hans Dieter’s translations, the introductions to the Greek and Demotic papyri found at the beginning of the volume (pp. xlii and lv).

The Stele of Jeu (Rite of the Headless One) as it appears in Stephen Flowers’ Hermetic Magic (pp. 182-184).

Sorcerix Helios Epicene’s own variant, Song of the Headless Bornless One

Mme. Harrow’s preferred version: in song form and in textual form