The Anubis ritual

The Anubis ritual is based on an ancient Egyptian ritual which is similar to a seance. The priest/ess of Anubis invokes Anubis’s Godform into the medium which will channel Anubis’s knowledge concerning the other deities which will be invited into the “table”.

This year we invite to the table: Geb the God of the Earth, and Nuit – the Goddess of the sky (Geb & Nuit are lovers and the parents of Osiris, Set, Isis, Nephtis and Horus the Elder). As is the time of Green Magick we also think that we have to invite the God Min – which is the most ancient form of the God Pan.

Min

Min is an ancient Egyptian god whose cult originated in the predynastic period (4th millennium BCE). He was represented in many different forms but was most often represented in male human form, shown with an erect penis which he holds in his right hand and an upheld left arm holding a flail.

As the central deity of fertility and possibly orgiastic rites, Min became identified by the Greeks with the god Pan. One feature of Min worship was the wild prickly lettuce Lactuca serriola (the domestic version of which is Lactuca sativa (lettuce)), which has aphrodisiac and opiate qualities and produces latex when cut, possibly identified with semen.

Celebrations of Min’s birthday are recorded on Egypt’s oldest memorials such as the 1st Dynasty Palermo stone. But his cult is even older reaching back to the prehistoric era when he was a deity of fertility, sexual reproduction and natural phenomena such as storms. His erection is his most famous attribute — combined as it is with his raised arm and flail some have speculated that this is all part of an aggressive/protective posture. 

His main centres were Koptos (Kuft) & Panopolis (Akhmim). His symbols are the Thunderbolt, the White Bull, the Flail and the Phallus. Wallis Budge speculates there was also a lunar component to his cult. Min is also called ka-mwt-f “Bull of his mother” a reference to the incestuous impregnation of his mother, an epithet of various gods, including Horus, also Geb who kills his father Shu in order to ravage Tefnut. Before getting too outraged, it’s as well to remember this is an agricultural motif and refers to the reproductive activity of bulls and cows. Min’s archaic shrine was a phallic-shaped hut, woven from two significant and emblematic plants — the White Lotus & the (narcotic) Blue Lily (Nymphaea caerulea). 

The blossoms and foliage of these flowers are to be woven into a model phallus or perhaps a crown. The traditional hymns are referred to as “Danced”, implying they are rhythmic chants.

Danced Hymn for Min 

who is on his staircase

Hail to you, 

Min, Min Ra

Welcome

On your staircase

Hail to you

Min, Min Ra

And the crown you wear 

on your forehead

Hail to you 

Mysterious Min

“Bull of his mother”

Much that you do remains in obscurity

You are unique

To whom praise is given

You have power to give life 

To those you love

Powerful to give him to be propitiated

He is unique here

To whom has been conferred the function 

of the unknown god

While you go out of the great door

And are standing on your stairway of truth

Speaking with Osiris hour by hour

See, that which you ordain

For protection

Against all bad things

Min justified before your enemies

In the sky and on the earth

By the judges of all the gods

And all the goddesses.

NWT/ NUT/ NUIT & GEB

Nuit is the daughter of Shu and Tefnut. Her brother and husband is Geb. She had five children – Osiris, Set, Isis, Nephthys and Horus the Elder. She is considered one of the oldest deities in the Egyptian pantheon, with her origin being found in the creation story of Heliopolis

Her name means “The watery one” which may also symbolize the uterus. She represents the sky but not as the lifeless roof of heaven but as a dynamic entity, creating and destroying. She also represented the entire sky. Night and day as well as large features such as the Milky Way.

The female sky is the realm of the dead, whereas the Earth is for the living. This perhaps explains the male rulership of the Earth.

Nuit is intimately connected with the stars, especially those that are close to and appear to envelop our world. According to The Book of NWT, creation begins with the ambisexual Amun-Ra or Sungod Ra. he has the power to emanate part of himself, creating other Gods and Goddesses. He starts with Shu and Tefnut, who represent the principles of air and fire respectively. The process of emanation continues and they generate NWT the sky Goddess and Geb the Earth.

Nwt and Geb are locked together in a sexual embrace, almost a single entity. It is Shu, the God of the winds and the air who separates them, creating a space between all these elements in which our world can exist.

Geb was the Egyptian god of the earth and a mythological member of the Ennead of Heliopolis. He could also be considered a father of snakes. It was believed in ancient Egypt that Geb’s laughter created earthquakes and that he allowed crops to grow.

The oldest representation in a fragmentary relief of the god was as an anthropomorphic bearded being accompanied by his name, dating from king Djoser’s reign, 3rd Dynasty, and was found in Heliopolis. However, the god never received a temple of his own. In later times he could also be depicted as a ram, a bull or a crocodile.

Geb was frequently feared as the father of snakes (one of the names for snake was s3-t3 – “son of the earth”). In a Coffin Texts spell Geb was described as the father of the mythological snake Nehebkau of primaeval times. Geb could also be regarded as personified fertile earth and barren desert.

In the Heliopolitan Ennead (a group of nine gods created in the beginning by the one god Atum or Ra), Geb is the husband of Nwt, the sky or visible daytime and nightly firmament, the son of the earlier primordial elements Tefnut (moisture) and Shu (“emptiness”), and the father to the five lesser gods of the system – Osiris, Seth, Isis, Nephthys and Horus the Elder. In this context, Geb was believed to have originally been engaged with Nut and had to be separated from her by Shu, the god of the air. Consequently, in mythological depictions, Geb was shown as a man reclining, sometimes with his phallus still pointed towards Nwt. Geb and Nut together formed the permanent boundary between the primaeval waters and the newly created world.

His association with vegetation, healing and sometimes with the underworld and royalty brought Geb the occasional interpretation that he was the husband of Renenutet, a minor goddess of the harvest and also a mythological caretaker (the meaning of her name is “nursing snake”) of the young king in the shape of a cobra, who herself could also be regarded as the mother of Nehebkau, a primaeval snake god associated with the underworld.

Sources: 

Egyptian magick (Morgan: 2021) 

Demonic Calendar (Morgan: 2021)

 

Invocation of The 7th Head of the Dragon

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The Seven Heads of the Dragon are the foundational system of philosophy and practice of Apophis Club Initiates. Each head symbolises and embodies a layer of the primordial power of the Serpent.

The 7th head invocation was inspired by the book Apophis by Michael Kelly and the work curriculum of The Apophis club which was and still is a big influence on my way of thinking and being. 

Xepher!

APOPHIS By Michael Kelly

A practical handbook of Draconian Left-Hand Path Initiation. The Primordial Serpent lurks in the deepest, darkest roots of human consciousness. Each of its seven heads embodies a power which may be awakened within the psyche. ‘Apophis’ outlines the transformative process whereby the human Initiate becomes something much more than human. It provides the weapons necessary to win the war of consciousness against conformity. It openly teaches the means of immortalising the Self.

Invocation of the Typhon (2018)

The head of the Typhon or the ‘7th head’ represents the future self, the guardian angel, or the demon, your personal demon if you like.  

The head of Typhon was something I thought nobody would ever go through with, that is to say, I never imagine that anyone I know, let alone me, will ever go through with the invocation of all of the 7 heads. 

A few days before I set for the invocation I prepared my space by cleaning and sorting out everything I might need for the ritual. Music always helped me to focus when I need to plan a ceremony or an invocation, something about the rhythms of the tune I chose that afternoon is that before invoking one of the heads it is recommended to do the ritual of ‘opening the eye’ and then invoke myfutureself… 

Just to make it clear, by the time I felt ready to approach Typhon in a ritualistic way and invoke the 7th head, a few years have passed by, and the intense days of study and practice of the Apophis Club curriculum, were long behind me, and I was no more an active member of the club.

 Once you ‘open the eye’ and invoked your futureself it is the time to call upon one of the heads. There is no point leaving the eye open with no one to guide you through it – and by having your futureself about, the sense of security and reassurance to cross the abyss and reach out to the final head. I was a little nervous I must admit.

Am I really going to invoke the 7th head? 

It’s a myth, isn’t it? 

Deep breath, and here I am, getting ready to call upon Seth, the lord of darkness, the principle of ​Isolated intelligence, god of the Unknown future. 

Before midnight I started with banishing and soon realised I needed to repeat it a couple of times. Before I noticed I got carried away, and end up doing three different kinds of banishing — just to be on the safe side…  

You can take the girl out of the chaos, but you can’t take the chaos out of the girl… 

I went out to the garden altar and lit a candle and burned some incense and made a small offering of beer and bread. I put a little ​cake of light on the incense burner and looked up to the sky for the Ursa Major constellation. As soon as I saw Him, I stood in the Apophis and Typhon posture and chanted IAO for a little while. Satisfied, I went back inside and started singing and dancing, Open Up by P.I.L. Leftfield’s remix is always a favourite in raising the energies.  

 Earlier in the day I drew the sigil of the 7th head and mixed Dragon’s Blood powder into some red wine, I never tried it before, but what can be more symbolic than drinking actual dragon’s blood, especially when part of the invocation reads:  

‘Here I stand, initiate of the Dragon Mysteries…  And I am as you are, a void dweller.  The blood of the Dragon pulses through my veins;  My bones and flesh are of your substance’   

So I call upon my futureself, charge the dragon blood wine and drank it. 

It is stronger than I thought, the tingling sensation rushing through my veins. It’s time to invoke the Typhon.

I stare at the sigil and start chanting the words of the invocation. 

Everything becomes quiet for a few seconds, minutes, dead quiet. I’m not sure for how long I stood there until I felt something behind me.  It didn’t spook me, which is surprising.  

Seth is present in the room, I felt Him immediately, strong, stable and daring. Everything I say, he’s daring me to question and think it over. I find myself saying laud what needs to be done, speaking in such a confident way, using some hands and arms mudras like I was casting a spell. This led to a very bizarre conversation, between me, myfutureself and the Typhon. I started by saying all I needed to say to the Mighty Seth, and for one second, a thought crossed my mind — what are you doing woman? 

It was like staring into a mirror, into the void. I was staring into the eye, and I knew that now is the best time to say things as they are, that there is no god, apart from that I am a god/ess. We are partners in this journey, I do my bit, and you do yours. 

 I was trying to think about how I’m going to end this conversation when He just says; ‘Drink, Partner!’ and I’m thinking to myself, yes, ‘Partner’ sounds so much better than ‘My Lord’ or ‘Prince of Darkness’!  

 This might sound weird to you, but I’ve let you into my head now, and that’s the way things are in there.  

 Everything around me is slowing and quietening down, like I’m watching it all in slow motion, at times the sound of silence is quite alarming, my heart racing and then Typhon says, ‘I need some beer, so drink!’ 

​I knew I just did something incredible, but not sure what it was. We had some beer by the altar, then He said go, go and feel what it is like… 

 My blood is tingling and the music sends me far, far away. I lie on the sofa, I’m flying high with the music. The room is pretty dark but new thoughts and ideas keep bubbling up in my mind. I write them in my journal, like little messages, some private, some to share later.

I wait for the playlist to finish, before getting up and consigning the 7th head back to whence it came from. The circle is closed with as many banishings as I could remember and do. It is 4 am, and the sun is just coming up. I wind my whistle to the four corners, welcoming the new dawn. 

It is done!

***

That was a year ago, and what a year it was!

Soon after the invocation, I decided to leave my old job and at the same time, I got an offer for a much better one ( a dream job in a way at the time ). Before starting the new job I took a little holiday and went to Stonehenge for the Summer solstice, and what an amazing experience that was! A beautiful golden dawn, a good omen I would say. I found love, a soulmate and a magical partner and all in the same person! 

I went on the most fantastic holiday to Cairo, where we were very lucky to have the Red Pyramid at Dahshur to ourselves. We were the only people inside, so we took our chances and did a little ritual (our version of the open-the-mouth ritual) in the King’s chamber, at the heart of the pyramid!

We have been experimenting with crazy dream work, which gave us some very interesting results. And oh yes, there’s a book nearly finished,  in which you will find much more of my magical adventures in hyperspace reality…

So, it Is Done!

Xepher!

About Altars

Babalon the Scarlet woman

The altar is raised structure or place that is used for sacrifice, worship, or prayer. 

A working altar could be a table or anything similar to it. 

The height of the Altar is equal to the height above the ground of the navel of the Magician. (Liber ABA, chapter III).

The altar is the place in which we focus our magical work and consecrate and keep our ritual tools. There are all sorts of altars, which usually correspond to different types of magical work and deities. 

When we start working with a new deity, or one that we never worked with before, it is advisable to dedicate an altar just for it. In this way, we can fine-tune ourselves into the subtle energies of the deity. Only when we learn enough and get familiar with the deity, we might want to try and add another deity to the same altar. 

Some deities even though belong to the same pantheons, would not approve of sharing the same space with one another. I realize that this might sound a bit nonsensical to the neophyte, but it is easy to detect, as soon enough you will notice the disharmony flowing around your house and affecting everything you do. Some traditionalists would even go as far as separating certain deities completely from the rest and dedicating a whole room to them.

But we are Chaos Magicians, I hear you say, how does this apply to us?

To master the art of Chaos magic, we need to learn first the order of things and how they work, only then we will know how to turn chaos into magic. To live in chaos does not make you a chaos magician…

I have many altars around the house, each one of them is like a PowerPoint of certain energy and information that I can stop by whenever I need or want to, and charge myself with. The main altar in the house is like an ongoing creation of itself, always changing according to the seasons and the sabbats or the main magical work of a specific time. 

***

The Altar should delight

A personal magical altar should be a delight to behold. Keep things simple and aesthetically pleasing. For starting out, you need only a very few things. A basic altar usually has on it symbols of the five elements. Candles or lamps for fire, a cup for water, incense and burner for smell, a plate or pentacle for earth, a bell for spirit. Try to put aside any doubts you have about the need to have these things actually there. You will come to see these doubts as just another kind of conditioning that you need to work through. 

Optional things for your altar are perhaps a special knife or wand to point with when doing an invocation. At this stage a finger does just as well. A wand you make now may not please you in a years time but you will nevertheless have great difficulty abandoning it. To avoid this problem, why not do without a wand until you really feel the need for one – perhaps you never will. Other useful things include a robe or cloak (black cotton is the most widely used variety). Robes and cloaks work well for standing up rituals, but for sitting down, of which there is a fair amount in Magick, they can be a bit restrictive. If your room is well heated then going naked might be an option, otherwise comfortable leggings, sarong or yoga trousers might be better. 

One last recommendation, try using real incense, which is burnt on self lighting charcoal. Clouds of incense have long been used by magicians as an alternative to the ancient animal sacrifice. Real incense is more expensive, but can be more potent than joss sticks. But even the later vary a lot in quality, so investigate the best. Ask about reputable magical incense suppliers or details about how you can make your own – as with anything there are good and bad suppliers of such things. 

(From Thelemic Magick: Mogg Morgan 2022)

***

From Liber ABA

CHAPTER III

THE ALTAR

THE Altar represents the solid basis of the work, the fixed Will

footnote: It represents the extension of Will. Will is the Dyad (see section on the Wand); 2 x 2 = 4. So the altar is foursquare, and also its ten squares show 4. 10 = 1 + 2 + 3 + 4.

of the Magician; and the law under which he works. Within this altar everything is kept, since everything is subject to law. Except the lamp.

According to some authorities the Altar should be made of oak to represent the stubbornness and rigidity of law; others would make it of Acacia, for Acacia is the symbol of resurrection.

The Altar is a double cube, which is a rough way of symbolizing the Great Work; for the doubling of the cube, like the squaring of the circle, was one of the great problems of antiquity. The surface of this Altar is composed of ten squares. The top is Kether, and the bottom Malkuth. The height of the Altar is equal to the height above the ground of the navel of the Magician. The Altar is connected with the Ark of the Covenant, Noah’s Ark, the nave (“navis,” a ship) of the Church, and many other symbols of antiquity, whose symbolism has been well worked out in an anonymous book called “The Cannon,”

WEH footnote: written by William Stirling

(Elkin Mathews), which should be studied carefully before constructing the Altar.

For this Altar must embody the Magician’s knowledge of the laws of Nature, which are the laws through which he works.

He should endeavour to make geometrical constructions to symbolize cosmic measurements. For example, he may take the two diagonals as (say) the diameter of the sun. Then the side of the altar will be found to have a length equal to some other cosmic measure, a vesica drawn on the side some other, a “rood cross” within the vesica yet another. Each Magician should work out his own system of symbolism — and he need not confine himself to cosmic measurements. He might, for example, find some relation to express the law of inverse squares.

The top of the Altar shall be covered with gold, and on this gold should be engraved some such figure as the Holy Oblation, or the New Jerusalem, or, if he have the skill, the Microcosm of Vitruvius, of which we give illustrations.

On the sides of the Altar are also sometimes drawn the great tablets of the elements, and the sigils of the holy elemental kings, as shown in The Equinox, No. VII; for these are syntheses of the forces of Nature. Yet these are rather special than general symbols, and this book purports to treat only of the grand principles of working.

{diagrams on this page, at top the microcosm of Vitruvius from the title page decoration (not frontispiece as is sometimes said) to Robert Fludd’s “Utriusque Cosmi Maioris scilicet et Minoris Metaphysica, Physica, Atque Technica Historia”, based on a Renaissance copy of Vitruvius’ 1st century “De Architectura” as interpreted by Cesariano in 1521, minus Fludd’s rope, clouds and winged fawn+hourglass, with the caption beneath “DESIGN SUITABLE FOR TOP OF ALTAR”, and below that a geometrical figure of the planets and stars from “The Cannon” fig. 3, p. 30, chap. II. with the under caption “THE HOLY OBLATION”}

{diagram on this page: Inside a dashed equilateral triangle are a scourge, chain, dagger and a wide, low perfume bottle shaped like a woman’s breast with nipple, below this is a scale in inches and below that the caption “THE SCOURGE, THE DAGGER, AND THE CHAIN; ENCLOSING THE PHIAL FOR THE HOLY OIL.”}