Of Rituals and Young Dudes
This Article Originally Appeared In ESP Magazine
by Christine Hall Morgan, Doug, Nick and Mick are four local young men who are all in their twenties. Every week they get together at someone’s house and do Magick.
“Real Magick - with a ‘k,’” Doug says. “Not smoke and mirrors, like David Copperfield.”
It used to be that when young guys wanted to be real hip, they formed a band and patterned themselves after the Beatles or the Airplane. These days they still form the equivalent of the garage band, but they perform the rituals of Aleister Crowley, the Mick Jagger of the occult arts and the person the London papers once deemed “the most evil man alive.” It’s a world of glowing blue pentagrams, flaming Hebrew letters and the chanting of strange barbarous names. Groups like this are everywhere on the net, exchanging magical secrets and recipes.
Like most such groups, Morgan and the boys pattern themselves after the Golden Dawn, an occult group that flourished briefly around the turn of the century. Today, the reputation of the Golden Dawn is built around their glory years when, in addition to Aleister Crowley, they produced the poet W. B. Yeats and influenced both the Irish insurrection and the works of George Bernard Shaw. The stated purpose of the Golden Dawn is dedication to the “great work,” which is defined as helping mankind to evolve.
Like any good garage group, Morgan and the boys have a name; “The Temple of the Perfected Sun.” They perform the published rituals of the Golden Dawn, and claim that it helps them to unleash the magical techniques of ancient Egypt in order to access the more powerful “angelic” or Enochian magic devised by Dr. John Dee, the court mathematician to Elizabeth I. He channeled his magic from an angel who claimed it went back to the time before Atlantis.
At the mention of Dr. Dee, Nick shivers and says, “We’re just learning , so we don’t fool around with the Enochian yet.”
That’s because the Enochian system comes with a warning. “Do not attempt to use until you are ready,” say all the experts. There are numerous stories of the inexperienced suffering dire consequences. One local magic “teacher” who is familiar with the system refuses to teach it. “It would be like giving loaded guns to children,” he says.
Morgan agrees with the experts.
“I know this woman who worked with the Enochian before she was ready,” he says. “Several days after she did her ritual, a car went out of control and slid backwards into her house, destroying her temple in the process.”
Until they are ready to advance, the group focuses on the practices of the ancient Egyptians. Every Sunday they meet and work within a world where the vegetation king, Osiris, and his Snow White sister/wife Isis, still rule the underworld. They call these gods and goddesses into being in their temple, a room set aside for ritual purpose, to seek their advise or to ask for their help.
They each work with a particular god that is suited to their individual personalities and needs. Morgan is the group’s Horus, who represents the idea of the perfected human being. Nick is Osiris, who oversees the weighing of the heart at death. If the weight of the heart is not lighter than the weight of a feather, then the deceased is thrown to the crocodiles and denied life in the spirit. Doug is Anubis, a jackal-headed god who resembles Wharf on the “Star Trek” series.
Indeed, their reality is very much like science-fiction in many ways. They think that some of the Egyptian gods are outer-space beings who are both trying to help mankind evolve while keeping a watchful eye on us. Morgan even claims to have had an audience before a great being in a city located in the center of the galaxy.
“It was like being kidnapped,” he says. “I was astral traveling when suddenly these two beings showed-up and threw me into some kind of vehicle. I was taken to this giant golden pyramid that was just floating in space.”
Once inside the pyramid city, he was escorted down a long hallway.
“It was like being in some sort of mystical Mecca,” he explains. “There were visiting beings from all corners of the galaxy. Many were shopping at astral souvenir stands, like they were trying to find a momento to take home to the family. Others were in groups, like they were taking part in a seminar or something.”
Morgan was taken into a gigantic meeting room where he was brought before a shadowy being of enormous height. “He showed me what was going to happen - all of the earth changes and stuff. He said this was necessary because we’ve grown so over-populated that we pose a threat to ourselves and the rest of the galaxy. He said that I was supposed to help make the situation less drastic.”
To that end, they spend much of their time trying to help people. Sometimes, they help by just being available to aid their friends. At other times their help is more metaphysical.
“One time we helped this woman who had a curse on her,” says Doug. “She had gotten-in with some voodoo people who had managed to zap her of her energy and self-confidence. So we read up on voodoo and called upon one of their deities to help. She’s doing fine now.”
For several years Mick would drive up every week from his home in Durham to work with the group. At this time, they haven’t seen him in about six months, although they do occasionally talk to him on the telephone.
“He went-off in a different direction than us,” says Nick.
Doug nods in agreement.
“He’s trying to make himself into Aliestar Crowley,” he says.
Morgan also nods.
“A lot of people think that Crowley was a Satanist, but he wasn’t,” he says. “He knew a lot and it’s good to learn from his writings, but you don’t want to be like him. He was way too screwed-up. Besides, that defeats the whole purpose. You’re supposed to be learning to fulfill your own destiny, not someone else’s.”
With that, the three get up and file into the temple for their weekly ritual. Tonight they’re going to call upon Isis to intervene and ease the mounting tensions in Iraq.
“She should do well in Iraq,” Doug says before closing the temple door. “After all, Baghdad is ancient Babylon. She should be right at home.”
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2003 by AlternativeApproaches.com
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