OV 23

https://www.ov23nexus.com/thee-hand-ov-fate/

http://www.chaosmatrix.org/library/chaos/texts/liberkkk.html

1- Sorcery Evocation

For this month’s Hand ov Fate, I rolled a 1, Sorcery Evocation, which Carroll describes in the horribly named Liber kkk as follows: “The magician creates with his own hands a physical representation of a fetish entity by carving, moulding or assembly. Its functions are in general to attract success, to protect by repelling misfortune and to act as a reservoir of power for the magician. It is usually shaped to resemble some kind of actual living being or chimerical being whose form suggests its function. If it is vaguely humanoid in shape it is known as a Homunculus. It may be made to contain parts of the magician’s body or be annointed with blood or sexual fluids. The magician treats the fetish as a living being, speaking his will to it, commanding it to exert its its influence in his favour and carrying it on his person when on critical errands. Some magicians prefer to make two fetishes, one to implement will, the other to bring knowledge and information.” 

Sure thing, needed to make some talismans for DBoE anyways and explore a theory related to the system that causes the operation that I performed to align closer with the “evocation” bit of sorcery evocation. I held off on doing the rite until the 6th because the new moon is necessary to the rite that I performed. 

I began with the raising of the tree, then moved to the Full Assumption, which is just a long series of transvocations (with some other initiate junk thrown in), then proceeded to make offerings to the watchers. Straightforward. Then the oracular shit happened. There’s a rite that I attempted to use to invoke and automatically draw a talisman that I have reason to believe is hidden within or adjacent to the system. Started to make some progress…and then my hair caught on fire. I have no idea how or what happened to cause it, but needless to say that brought the rite to a pretty abrupt end. I read off the dismissal as fast as I can, finished what notes I could in my working book, and shut everything down. Went and essentially bathed in some blessed water, set up as much beefy on the fly protection stuff as I could on a Wednesday night, and went to a dreamless sleep. 

I still need to work out what this chicken scratch may be, and I think the answer is somehow within the notes. I’ll update this post as I make progress if I can share it, however this on its surface served as another reminder that magic always incurs risk, and that all magick has a price. 

Rolled divination ritual, something I am terrible at. In the spirit of doing it though I chose to go back in time and do one of the water divination rituals from the Hygromanteia, which are simple enough.

I chose the version II for the lack of certain materials for the others, and just one day of purity is not that terrible. The only small concession I had to make was taking normal tap water (still silent anyway) because y’know, close enough.

Otherwise I followed the procedure, ignoring my dogs jumping at me. On a positive note, I did get a faint answer for my question, on the negative side the answer was pretty bad.

In an attempt to get slightly better at this, I recited the psalms in a meditative state. Looking at the mirror, I tried my best to engage my magical thinking. The “vision” came in the form of a distortion on the mirror and certainties on my mind. Not many or solid images but it was a pretty certain answer. In the interest of being honest, I was crying at the end. Won’t get into details because as usual, personal shit.

Conjuration Fifteen - Ritual Illumination

The night before, I grabbed my bag of rune coins to do some divination prior to the ritual and two coins fell out of the bag:

Γ (gamma): foundation, heart, guide  Κ  (kappa): communication 

I saw this as an allusion to the “Conversation with HGA” aspect of the Headless Rite, and interpreted it as an indication to move forward.

On the evening of 2/5 I took a shower and cleaned my space. To start the ritual, I cast a circle and banished. I didn’t have the rite memorized, but I hand wrote it on fresh paper and brought it into the circle with me along with a paper “headband” with the words AOTH ABRAOTH BASYM ISAK SABAOTH IAO in black ink. 

I performed the rite in its entirety facing Orion, but never experienced more than some goosebumps and eventually a headache. Slightly disappointed, I meditated for a few minutes before calling it. I banished again, closed my circle, and pulled one coin:  Δ  (delta): threshold, change.

The so called medicine journey of Shamanic Illumination is a quest for self-knowledge, self renewal or self improvement. It can take many forms. Traditionally it often takes the form of a death and rebirth experience in which the magician visualises his own death and dismemberment of his body followed by a rebuilding of his body and “spirit” and a rebirth.

For this HoF I decided to do part of the SHUA ritual from the Dragon Book of Essex, namely “The Tripartite Cycle of the MAH Offerings” which is an incredibly pretentious way to say “elemental purification and death meditations”. I opened with a quick banishing and circle raising, lit my central candle, opened up my dragon vessel, and lit a combination of mugwort, copal, mullein, and cedar berries in the censer. 

For Thee Hand ov Fate this month I rolled a 4, which is sorcery invocation in Liber KKK (KAOS KERAUNOS KYBERNETOS by Pete Carroll, nowhere near as bad as the other). Conveniently enough, this roll kinda fit perfectly with my current work with the Dragon Book of Essex. Although technically not an invocation, yesterday night’s (I write this on the afternoon of the 5th, but i did the following after midnight so close enough lol)  Dark Moon is the appropriate time in the cycle of practice within the DBoE to begin the full assumption of the Stellar Spells, which is a long series of transvocations of the stars in Draco and each of the associated Godforms within the pantheon and paradigm of the book. 

Perfect. 

Shortly after midnight I retrieved my Marriage Vessel (what good ol’ Chumbles named the vessel in which you craft a really gnarly egregore over the span of 28 days that you eventually merc and sacrifice to some other stuff in the book (also fair warning to anyone working the marriage vessel with some edits, it’s super non-conventional and around the 10 day mark it starts wanting to kill you, long story)) from it’s shrine, lit up some candles, and performed some of the ~mystery rites~ in the system, then moved onto the stellar spells cast over the vessel. 

I won’t go into detail here about the spells specifically, as A.) they’re in the book and B.) technically not able to discuss any internal changes made to the rites as written for a number of reasons. I will say these get weird quickly- @coyote-696 and I have started noticing in our working of the text that a lot of the rites produce huge chunks of lost time, probably due to the way in which the godforms are either directly present or even invoked during the course of the entire system. Stuff that should take an hour tops and seems as though it does ends up taking 3+ hours with blanks in memory and generally weird shit happening in the surrounding area. 

Throughout the transvocations, a visualization of a tattoo or other similar marking began to form across my left hand, which I think hotkeys and alludes to some other stuff in the system (if you’ve worked the book, you know what i’m talkin around with your hand re: the other stuff and the rites, if you haven’t then it’s gonna remain a mystery :p). After the petitions to Azhdeha directly towards the end of the full assumption, I managed to jot down a glyph in my working book alongside the orations- since the DBoE assumes full familiarity with Azoetia and other chaos-magic leaning works of Chumbley and the Cultus Sabbati, I strongly suspect that this glyph is the first character (or rather, 0th character) of the alphabet of desire to be formed while working within the CS paradigm. After the assumption, I fed the egregore of the Marriage Vessel, sealed it back up, and concluded the rites.

All and all pretty successful evening, it was fun to get started with the hardcore transvocations and hope to keep it up and unlock more tech moving forward. 

Conjuration Fifteen - Ritual Illumination

Thee Hand ov Fate #3: Conjuration Ten - Shamanic Illumination

The so called medicine journey of Shamanic Illumination is a quest for self-knowledge, self renewal or self improvement. It can take many forms. Traditionally it often takes the form of a death and rebirth experience in which the magician visualises his own death and dismemberment of his body followed by a rebuilding of his body and “spirit” and a rebirth. Sometimes this process is accompanied by physical privations such as sleeplessness, fasting and pain to deepen trance. Another method is to conduct a series of visionary journeys summoning up the so called “spirits” of natural phenomena, animals, plants and stones and asking them to yield knowledge. The simplest method of all is to retire for some days to a wild and secluded place far from the habitations of men and there to conduct a complete review of one’s life up to that point, and also of one’s future expectations.

Oof this one’s gonna be a beast

(I totally rolled evocation guys, believe me)

Trying some things different, because I changed what I was supposed to do I didn’t restrain myself to a particular mindset. I used some things I was taught with more ceremonial trappings.

Nothing fancy to report though. Instead of a mirror I used a fire (sorry friend) with fragrant wood and *cough* oregano, it was a test to see if it can substitute dittany of crete (initial test says no, marjoram next). Simple circle drawn on dirt with ritual knife. Had my trusted old sword at my side.

Evocation done as per lesser key, but with a written “contract” thrown in the fire (this is something I was taught, no it isn’t usual I think).

No overt manifestations. Fire did behave as what could be describe as “weird”, but nothing worth noting and certainly only by the wind. Heard steps around the circle and a presence watching me but nothing major or explicit besides what I could consider the “presence” of the demon, felt through divination on the fire.

The evocation was, however, completed and if it proves fruitful I will report.

For this THOF I rolled Ritual Evocation, which is pretty far outside my wheelhouse when it comes to grimoire traditions. Tl; Dr Called up Raphael, got squacked at about Time, and and got a headache. Read on below the break

For this THOF I Really couldn’t decide what I wanted to do until the 5th, bouncing around between the Goetia style evocation of Vassago from Huson’s Mastering Witchcraft, Fotamecus Empowerment rites, DKMU godform calling rituals, and Drawing Spirits into Crystals. Eventually settled on the latter because it’s quick, to the point, and can be done with minimal tools. 

After mucking around and talking to a few OV23 folks, decided to use the slightly modified script from Digital Ambler (here) as well as his variation on the lamen (here), in addition to the corrected table of practice from Rufus Opus’ Seven Spheres (here, also credit to Jake Stratton-Kent on that one). Originally I planned to call Samael in an attempt to empower a talisman, but that ended up not working out (read: I fell asleep on a copy of DSIC) and decided to instead draw Raphiel into the crystal. 

I began by taking a shower and brushing my teeth, then laid out an “altar” (An upturned laundry basket with a clean pillow case on top. Magicians make do.) and constructed the table of practice and the lamen of Raphael on fresh sheets of paper in the hour of mercury. Unfortunately, due to the construction of the tools, the time rolled over into the hour of the moon before starting the conjurations, which explains some stuff later.

Setup the altar as seen below, a new consecrated candle on a tin, the table of practice aligned to the cardinal directions with a piece of Icelandic spar for a crystal, and the lamen affixed to a chain (not shown is a bottle of some sort of herbal cologne (similar to Florida Water) that was used in place of incense)

Pretty straightforward from here on out.

Followed the script, repeating the conjuration until what looked to be a pair of fiery eyes appeared in the crystal. The interrogation yielded no definitive name but a possible sigil, and at the “what time do I talk to you” portion (taken from the original Trithemian version of DSIC) I just heard someone shouting “time” over and over again, which would make sense due to the start time rolling over into the wrong hour.

This gave me a massive headache, so I repeated the liscense to depart 3 times, with the eyes flaring up then flashing out of existence after the second iteration of the liscense.

Shockingly decent results for a first attempt, May have to experiment with it in the future if I ever decide to call up a celestial again.

Having worked divination for a long time in a medium that I am already very comfortable with, I felt at a bit of a disadvantage due to my pre-aquired bias. I also have a strong affinity for artifice, though it can be astral in nature rather then physical, all the same I found this to be a bit of a disadvantage. I might have preferred to perform this divination with a drum, but lacking said drum and the time to make one appropriate to the task, I made due.

My method: I began by defining the matter that I wished to receive information about. Through sleep deprivation and incidental emotional overstimulation due to extenuating circumstances I attempted to evoke a vision through entering into a lucid sleep state, forcing my mind to stay alert retaining my consciousness while closing my eyes and relaxing. All the while, I kept the subject that I wished to receive clarity on in mind.

Results: The first two attempts were a bust. I lost consciousness and fell into sleep for a handful of minutes, had to wake myself and start over again. On the third attempt I received a vision. I stood in front of a large grey building, it was  single story and there were a pair of revolving doors on the front of the building. above them was a very brightly colored red heart that had been cracked down the center. The revolving doors had alternating glyphs depicting half of a woman and man, like the signs on a bathroom door, but split in half. the rotating doors turned opposite directions toward the divide between them. The visual effect was essentially that the two doors would create a completed glyph that alternated from half and half and whole gendered images. Once inside, I found myself in a very long room with concrete pillars extending in all directions. It looked like a bare warehouse. The floor was tiled with broad off-white linoleum, and was dimly lit. Somewhere off in the distance toward the left side of the building was a open door with a warm yellow light spilling out into the main room of the building. Closer investigation, proved the room to be  a large empty supply closet. The entire inside of it was painted red. The walls were lined with empty shelves. On the top shelf up in the corner was a bright blue stuffed rabbit, with both of its ears missing. It appeared they had been torn off. after this the vision started to dissolve into dislocated random impressions and images that I was no longer able to track or make sense out of.

Interpretation: I was asking specifically for advice on how to deal with a particularly difficult person that I cannot simply avoid. After checking my vision with a tarot card divination, this is what I have determined. The height of the building and the vacancy of it described the nature of the individual I have been dealing with. The broken heart above the doors represents the nature of this conflict, and in some ways directly corresponds to the three of swords. this is an issue that has been needing to be felt with for a while and really needs to be broken open and settled now. There revolving doors correspond to temperance and the necessary attitude to proceed forward. Without a balanced and tempered approach I am not going to get anywhere. The closet represents what this person actually has to offer me, despite what they appear to be able to offer me, the red inside of the closet represents the conflict and the desire for aggravated exchange and contest. The barren state of the closet reveals that this desire is empty in nature. The blue stuffed rabbit in the corner represents a childish nature ruling the jovial facility and grace, it’s ears missing represent my targets inability to listen and unwillingness to understand things from my point of view.    

So, I’m late af to one of them so I fused ‘em both.

Shamanic Illumination is funny, and also so vague…

I did my meditation to die under the tree, while welcoming the Gate in my stupor, I welcome the Guardian and said the words, then processed to die… it was made slightly difficult since our dogs were able to free themselves someone.

It became an exercise in stillness and meditation, while mutts fought over who had the right to like my face. The black one won, and sat between my legs growling at any other who approached me, every now and then getting up to lick my face.

Surprisingly I did see somethings. Faces of the dearly departed, some that I didn’t recognize. They had an uplifting message to me, but it is not to share. And I feel something else that might reveal itself in nights to come, something is swirling around me.

I’m slightly under the influence and dead tired. I saw the clock before I left, it said 00:05, it was 00:06 when I returned

I decided to do a fairly simple tarot reading for this HOF because the timing was bad for me, womp womp. Carroll calls for ritual acts to be performed under a state of gnosis, which I think is dumb and hard – jk, but that kind of prolonged act of gnosis runs at odds with the kind of higher order processing I employ in divinatory acts. So I kind of half-measured this part late Sunday night, and induced an altered state through the use of repetitive, semi-ambient music (this song on repeat, which is from my new favorite album  for planetary magic and will absolutely come out the next time I do Jupiterian stuff), had a few drinks, and inscribed the aerial cross on my body in flying ointment. As always, apologies to Carroll and big shoutout to the real MVP, drugs.

I set up my working space with several blue tapers, as it seemed a good night to invoke Jupiter energies. Set out the traditional offerings for my spirits, lit a divinitory incense, meditated to center my focus, etc. Using the Hexen 2.0 deck, which has such an odd character and seemed particularly suited to this work, I considered the following questions and drew a single card for each. This deck’s imagery is quite rich and tells a particular kind of story, elaborate spreads often feel unnecessary and even tend to muddy the message.

I asked: what can I do to empower the 23rd current, and how can my talents best serve Ov23.

At this point, my partner had a whole comedy of errors and I had to abandon my work, cards unturned, to manage his pile of bullshit. It took a while, and I just passed out after. I didn’t return to my cards until the following day.

Because of the interruption, I assumed the operation was kind of a loss, but attempted to salvage of it what I could. Monday night I meditated, reset my offerings, and returned to my two cards as a thunderstorm rolled in–a fitting aura for resuming a suspended work, despite my frustration at the whole thing. I turned the cards, and laughed–

\Those who know me outside of Tumblr might remember that my academic work surrounds cultures of VR, of which William Gibson is the spiritual forefather. Theorizing the cultural content of “virtuality” is my life project for at least the next year while writing my thesis, and the idea of integrating those philosophic concepts with the 23rd current is a heady and unexpected idea. This, of course, is also the thrust of the eight of wands–motion, inspiration, the completion of a project that leads to bigger and better projects. What a thought.

The seven of cups reversed, in contrast, is a card of illusions, of attempts to escape the mundanity of the day-to-day, and a refusal to adequately or accurately assess your own position in a situation. This is a perfect complement in terms of my academic work–I study dystopic conceptions of VR, specifically–and William Gibson plus a reversed utopia captures that eerily well. How it applies to lending my talents to Ov is, however, a little less clear to me. I have some hunches, but I’d be interested to hear other thoughts.