Having read the first, I decided to work through it. I didn’t have a physical copy and felt I would benefit from doing so, so I can dog ear the shit out of the pages and make remarks in the margins… But the price wasn’t right and I decided to put it off and wait for a used one.
An unexpected $100 for Christmas, a nearly half off sale later and…
Soon. Still getting over my last illness and was advised to wait before moving forward. But the books came today, so I’ll making plans in my head.
Not a teaser, but I want to make plain that I really liked this GoG I grimoire. Reading the second. There are some things that seem unnecessary, but I plan on making those areas, as I see them, plain.
Having only finished the first, I can say that I believe the authors have actual skill and experience in this area. Doesn’t mean I agree with everything, but in anything but a mainstream, watered-down tome, that’s the case.
The GoG I (GoG1) is as much a workbook as it is a catalogue. The reason is that there are a lot of spirits listed and there is an initial ceremony to determine who is your first. I listed this here - Rituals, Musings, and Misc - #363 by norse900
Do Not mistake Service for Worship.
Where were you able to purchase the books from?
I had intended to make my first substantial post to be the meditation/discovery of who is going to guide me through this. Business first, I guess. Bloody business. I wanted to wait another half week or week, but that was out of my hands.
The white spot is where I left my hand there too long and the paper stuck to me.
Added some of @Czar 's War powder to it. Rubbed it in as best I could.
Doesn’t look as bad, cleaned up. Due to the location, it’s a pain offering and will leak. I’m left handed.
Mostly stopped bleeding now.
I told/warned her I would plug her stuff. My Beelzebub and Necromantic herbs are in oil - per her direction to my Luddite ass.
She’s going to be my go-to for cemetery soil, too, when I need it.
Cool, I just ordered one of her skull candle holders the obsidian - shungite.
I can get cemetery soil easy here.
But that war powder, I’m interested.
I have nothing but good to say about it. I clearly use it. I have some stuff in oil right now that my luddite ass would’ve wasted on an incense disc first.
We will take over one day! Just you wait!
Yay! This makes me happy to know you are using them!
All right, just finished the second book. I wanted to see what was ahead and plan for a path forward that would allow others to follow along in some sort of meaningful way.
Both books have their place. Both give you information that complements the other. There are some plugs to some of their others books, but these aren’t necessary to find value in these two.
GOG1 has a catalogue of spirits and some general advice for getting started. There are several rituals in it, but it’s obvious that the expectation of the reader is to use it only as a starting point for those areas of interest. The rituals have a heavy African-esque vibe to them, which makes sense.
There are a few things I will not be doing. I won’t be pulling the skin off of a corpse to make a fetish. I won’t be sacrificing the boat load of chickens, fowls, dogs, goats, etc… I will be offering my blood and whether this is done via scalpel or lancet will be decided for each ritual. This has been acceptable with some of these same spirits in my current practice and don’t expect that to change. Ti-Tor, for example, hasn’t required it. That doesn’t mean there won’t be some other type of sacrifice needed, but that’s then.
Let’s get started.
Chapter 1 starts off with a base understanding of where they’re coming from. Very high level and explains their energy model point of view. Mainly everything having it and it’s a mixture of different types. Make sense and isn’t new to the target audience of this book - non-beginners. I didn’t say Adepts because it’s vague and doesn’t really describe anything. Intermediates or those wanting to become one in this area.
One thing that will trip me up a bit is their vocabulary for specific things. Psychopomps, to them, aren’t Gods or Goddesses, but Agents of Death itself. I use that term a lot to describe Hecate, for example, so I expect to slip on the vocab a bit and hope it’s not too confusing.
Now, they DO decide to make a stand on how they feel that Psychopomps/Cthonic Beings aren’t “happy-go-lucky friends of the Occultist” (largely agree) waiting to help with mundane problems. Uh, all right. Can’t say I know many that call them for a friendly chat over coffee. That doesn’t seem to be the target audience of the book, so I don’t know why they decided to call that out. There are times like this where they seem to be speaking about an “issue” that largely shouldn’t be with their target audience. I mean, some teenage isn’t going to be asking Grandma for a cope of Gospel of the Ghouls for Christmas, ya know? Well…not likely.
There is a really strange question to determine if the spirit is human or not… Asking them about a world event and the year it happened in. I can’t recall a time where I couldn’t feel whether a spirit was human or not. Grain of salt with this tip.
The book really starts off with something usable on Page 11, the Ceremony of Wakening. True to me, I didn’t follow all of the instructions. This was partially on purpose, though. The majority of my working idols/partners are…Agents…or the dead themselves. The space has a nice vibe brought on by scores of rituals and interactions. I don’t want to overwrite any of it.
I skipped almost all of the instructions for the preparations. The area is already prepared. So, no saltwater washing of the walls, no sage, no grave dust in the 4 corners. No new black clothes (my lounging clothes worked just fine, no waiting until 22:30…
So, what DID I do? I burnt Myhhr resin, recited the “Shade Lords of Sard” calling. My altar faces West anyhow, so that didn’t need changed. I did prepare myself with some ritual music and meditation, even though I didn’t feel like I really needed it for this.
Then, I rolled into the next part.
If you change your mind, I would like to volunteer my boss. Consider him at your disposal!
After the preparation, you go into the “Bardo Initiation”. This is where you meet the Agent of Death that will guide you in your journey. They also say the Psychopomp that has chosen you. It is a commitment of sorts to the path, which I’ve already been on for a bit now.
The initiation is an internal journey, a guided meditation. For the parts to have meaning, you need to know who you might meet at the destination. You’ll also find out your “name”. This is the second time I’ve received one and it was different.
This space is said to be your inner temple between worlds and there, one can dispatch the dead waiting to be given tasks. When I took the cup of blood given by my Agent, I could feel it run down inside and this felt like it was a commitment of sorts, but I didn’t feel really bound, tightly bound, by it. Maybe that’s because I already am, in an inner sense, more deeply than this ritual.
My Agent - Ti-Tor, whose sigil is listed above. He asked me to call on him in my ritual space after I completed the initiation.
There are a few places in this guided journey where you have to count the number of steps. The number of steps down do not equal the number of steps up, for example. The numbers are supposed to have meaning. Anyone that’s followed my journey for a bit knows I have a…lack of appreciation…for this sort of thing. But I’ll be damned if I didn’t write them all down as I crossed those points. In one area, there were only 7 steps instead of the 9, I saw green orbs that weren’t in the instructions, and the hallways I walked down to initially meet Ti-Tor was gone when I returned.
Ti-Tor said I should call him (in the journey).I gave him 3 swallows of my beer. I’ve drawn his sigil. Plan on bleeding on it. For he is the Agent that came in the crypt. Now, I’m debating a blood offering. I don’t know that I want to use the scalpel yet. As thankful as I am, I am unsure. Trust must be built before very visible things are done (visible cuts).
I knew when reading the book that it would be Ti-Tor. He told me. But I went into the ritual all the same.
T: “That is true, you did. (And) you got your dead name for this. Yes, you bowed both physically and metaphysically. I noted this. But it was not a bow of (complete) submission. I would swallow you for such. I do not (want/wish) weak-minded practitioners as such (practitioners) I could crush in my fist on a bad Saturday afternoon.”
(This was done on 18DEC22, a Sunday. He let me know he prefers Saturday night rituals, but not to wait if something needs done beforehand)
(I questioned about my relationship with Leviathan, whom I’m a dedicand to)
T: “I will not (interfere with) this romance (?). For there are still terrifying things that can happen to them when Water Meets Death. A good combination, I think.”
He was done.
The last response was a bit odd, because I felt like he was speaking as much about future actual things as general terms. I don’t rule out that there was something missed on my part, but he didn’t bring it back up and I was clearly not fully understanding.
hehe, I’d say something more about potentially being a living sacrifice, but this is a public thread…
I’ve revealed the names of the Personal Daimon/Holy Guardian Angel of a few people to them from their natal chart following the instruction of Agrippa in his Three Books of Occult Philosophy, Book III chapter 26, following what he calls the “Arabian method”. And each time I discovered the name of their Personal Daimon/HGA, I felt a benevolent presence. The people I revealed them too also sometimes get a strong presence or some sort of sensation when first speaking the name I revealed. However, I used the English alphabet while calculating the names, while Agrippa mentions Hebrew being used for the calculation, and no doubt Arabic would have also been used.
I have no doubt that using a different alphabet would be just as fine. I believe it is still the same spirit, while the name might have a slightly different quality since letters themselves have power. So no doubt we have a large variety of names, and every aspect of our lives are ruled by some Daimon, who are not entirely seperate from us in a sense.
Interesting, thank you, @Dankquanicus . This was the second “dead name”. The first ended up being Arabic (don’t remember the dialect). Haven’t looked this one up yet. I also have a name given to me by Hecate. But the two “dead” names, if the other translates, might be interesting.
Ouch. No translation. Similar to Cthulhu and it appears to be a first name in a few places. There was a reference to a video game I hadn’t heard of as a location name. Would’ve been cool to find, but it also means I won’t steer myself that direction inadvertently. The one from Hecate was quite rare, as far as Google was concerned. There was one hit from a reference in a scholarly source, first name.
Tonight, I was flipping through the book and Saint Cyprian caught my eye. He felt “close”. Ti-tor explained that his time will happen, but not yet.
There are a lot of ways to go through this book and you kinda have to have an idea of you as a magician to get a lot out of it. Now, if I wanted to call on Saint Cyprian for a specific reason, there’s no harm in doing so. What Ti-tor was really saying is that to work more in-depth with them, at the proper time, a sort of agreement had been made. Ti-tor, Saint Cyprian, Hekate, Murmur, Santa Muerte, Centella Ndoki, Dumah, Babalu Aye, and Kali have some agreement/arrangement on what I will learn and be faced with. Despite having worked with 3 and felt the gaze of another, I won’t expect or ask for quarter, an easier time.
This book COULD be taken as a catalogue and checklist. I wouldn’t recommend doing so. Even if you want to. And this should be headed, if you value progress over ego.
I wanted to call Ti-tor tonight for something and he came before I could call. Not tonight. It wasn’t some rejection, nor the lack of work I need to do. “Listening” to the subtle signs, some things need to happen to set up the next portion.
These books aren’t for someone that wants a bloated ego . Some of these spirits are openly dangerous. While I have a fair amount of experience with those types, I also have enough Wisdom to understand that there was more to be gained by waiting. Fair enough.
working.