Methods in Magick V: Calling and Receiving
From the Chaldean oracles of Julian the Theurgist comes the famous phrase: "Call and you shall receive." What does this verse mean? Is it about getting what we want on a whim? Or is it about calling to perfect ourselves, to elevate ourselves to divinity after receiving the right measure, the right portion of a daimonic essence that will transform us? Is it to lag behind and pray for whimsical things with empty words, or is it to burn out passion in great works and become as impassionate and objective as the deities in great wisdom and arete?
Every call begins with a sending, etymologically this word is related to sowing in the field, in fact a call is a saturnine sowing, because what we want to collect with our scythe is what we sow, a good agricultural professional knows how to take care of his crops, not to spoil or tire the earth, not to abuse the earth, how to take care of the seeds, how to watch the grain grow, how to protect it from spoiling and how to harvest it at the right time, how to preserve the crops, what to share, what to eat, what to sell and how to distribute it so that it lasts for the next years.
Similarly, we do not appeal to the air or to anyone who will listen, but use human logoi to direct the signal to a specific request. The best petitions are selfless, genuine, natural, coming from the depths of the spirit, soul, mind and heart in unison, made in great reverence, poetic rapture, passionate despair, lamentation, hatred and sorrow. The void ones are dull, empty, mere words, superficial.
The strength of human logoi depends on the intensity of the beholder, but their wisdom belongs to moderation and balance. No good gods will refuse a curse or a blessing for a man shattered by fate and plunged from nobility into a great abyss of broken existence, where the soul dances sadly from the ocean of the abyss to the highest of the stars.
The ethereal world may have eyes and ears, whispers, cries and silent thoughts are perceived. Woe to the child of the abyss who returns with a voice thundering through the ethereal worlds, mad or unwise, everything dirty, great, vicious and virtuous is heard.
It is written in the Book of Changes that the words of a wise man still meet with approval 10,000 miles away, while those of a vicious man break off at the end of his tongue. The earth is full of gossip, most of it unwise.
If you want to attract the great ones, you must develop your greatness, otherwise the small ones will listen to you. A monument of life testifies to deep experience, from it words follow the song of the theme, the song follows the beauty, the poetry follows the rapture, herein lies the secret of greatness, that it rises above ordinary people and the wise man follows a mountain which he incorporates little by little. The a priori conditions follow the a posteriori, not vice versa.
The call may be a silent thought addressed to a select audience, or it may be sent to anyone who can receive it over the "radio nowhere." It can be a cosmic cry that crawls out of the throat in great pain, a poetic wisdom, a gnosis arretos painted with perfect emptiness.
It can be a summons, evocation, banishment, exorcism, an incantation. There are two modalities here: either you create with your voice, you co-create, you co-inspire, you spread ideas and inspirations that enter the noosphere and are distributed in the aethyrs, that is active ceremonial magic "Here are the dragons".
The other action is supplication, typical of prayers, but prayer is something for the unskilled. A magician should know what he wants to receive, know the scope of the reception and have wisdom and discernment to know what he needs. The Hermetic planetary path begins with working with the Earth spirits, then with the Sun spirits, then with the Moon spirits, the Mercury spirits, the Venus spirits, the Mars spirits, the Jupiter spirits and the Saturnian-Uranian intelligencers in the Egyptian-Hellenic and Chaldean framework.
Knowledge of astrology and the nature of the archons and intelligencers of these planets is of great value, because in Gnostic Hellenism the archons (rulers, the totality of the nature of a particular planet, the autophaneic essence of a planetary nature) were simply a way of testing whether you could absorb the qualities of the planet without being psychomagically torn to pieces. It is not a mere fairy tale, for the intelligencers should be objectified as independent spirits, not as mere archetypes of which there are myriads and who willingly teach the willing and prepared.
If, for example, we want to develop martial prowess, sagacity, and strength of heart, work with Mars when it comes to exquisite beauty of soul adornment and loving ideas, with Venus when it comes to divine communication, the gift of writing, and speed in the transmission of ideas, with Mercury, if with truth, honesty, justice, lion-like pride - with the Sun, if with delightful sanctity, bliss, calm and easy moderation - with the Moon, if with royal, noble, cultured and civilized qualities - with Jupiter, if with imperial, wise, philosophical qualities - with Saturn. This is a flawed enumeration, but you will grasp it immediately when you begin your work. There is a danger that you will encounter the chthonic aspects of the planets, the key word here is enantiodromia, for they all have their own "hells" or spheres of torment for the little human souls, but there are more things that you can gain from the treasury of Helios, and the gods bestow gifts of inspiration, muses of ingenious breakthrough, even on the ignorant.
There are grimoires with seals that operate with traditions, but these are delicate, there were encyclopedically inclined magicians who called entities only not to bring down their seals, if they managed to win them over to the operation, there are many charlatans who try to emulate them. Therefore, from experience, it is better to make calls in a standard - and safe - operation when the planet is above the horizon, in exaltation, in daylight, possibly the heliacal rising of the planets in the morning is optimal. Planets have their greatest strength when they are seen, intelligencers are called with greater certainty when they are visible. Nocturnal work, melancholically inclined is of deeper value, as stars have their greater effects when one finds himself in the cosmic cavern.
If you have high intelligence, an open mind and critical judgment, ask for wise things and you will share in the gifts and watch them unfold, over days, weeks, months and years. If you feel discouraged, work on your shape and form, meet the gods halfway. At worst, nothing will happen, but you will gain excellence and artistry, at best you will be helped to stand out as a great person, even louts have been transformed in this way into great orators, skillful rhetors.
Do not hesitate, call often, strengthen the sacred bond, consolidate the ties with the intelligent, until - if fate wills it - they will raise your spirit to the stars. If you ask for insignificant or worldly things, be careful from which corner the answer comes, you can receive them, but only to promote the will of another, these things you can still receive if the fate is right, but not as a goal in itself, but as a by-product of the above operations. It is a joy to see a great man who has rich possessions, power and dominion, fame and nobility, not losing an inch of his being and reverence for men and the gods. It is a pathetic spectacle to watch wretches acquire with the same perishable things through inheritance, fraud, injustice and base methods. So, be forewarned, go!