The Oculus

Every man has his own world. He dwells in the midst of his little universe as the lord and ruler of the constituent parts of himself. Sometimes he is a wise king, devoting his life to the needs of his subject, but more often he is a tyrant, imposing many forms of injustice upon his vassals, either through ignorance of their needs or thoughtlessness concerning the ultimate disaster that he is bringing upon himself. Man’s body is a living temple and he is a high priest, placed there to keep the House of the Lord in order.

- Manly P Hall (Melchizedek and the Mystery of Fire)

I’ve often said that the only thing I can change with magick is myself. I believe that. Whatever changes I wish to effect with magick, the first and only thing that will be directly changed by magical operations will be me. Once I am changed, then the new changed me will then somehow affect or attract the desired object of my operation.

- Lon Milo DuQuette

Putrefaction is so effective that it destroyed the old nature and form of the rotting bodies; it transmutes them into a new state of being to give them a totally new fruit. Everything that has lived, dies; everything that is dead putrefies and finds a new life.

- Pernety 1758

In alchemy, one of the symbols of nigredo is the ‘decapitation’, and also the ‘raven’s head’ (caput corvi). Those symbols refer to the dying of the common man, the dying of his inner chaos and doubt because he is unable to find the truth in himself. In one of his works, Hercules cleanses the Augias stables. It is the cleansing of all the impurities in oneself.

- Johann Daniel Mylius, Philosophia reformata, Frankfurt, 1622)

In alchemy, one of the symbols of nigredo is the ‘decapitation’, and also the ‘raven’s head’ (caput corvi). Those symbols refer to the dying of the common man, the dying of his inner chaos and doubt because he is unable to find the truth in himself. In one of his works, Hercules cleanses the Augias stables. It is the cleansing of all the impurities in oneself.

- Johann Daniel Mylius, Philosophia reformata, Frankfurt, 1622)

The central idea in alchemy is that matter and spirit are one whole unity. They are inseparable and one works on the other. The alchemist must purify himself in this material-spiritual world. Only when one has attained the highest state of perfection one could make the philosophers stone. Therefore one must unify himself with the divine, results in a new ‘birth’ or new state of consciousness.

- Dirk Gillabel

I admit that my visions can never mean to other men as they do to me. I do not regret this. All I ask is that my results should convince seekers of the truth. That there is beyond doubt something worthwhile seeking, attainable by methods more or less like mine. I do not want to father a flock, to be the fe**sh of fools and fanatics, or the founder of a faith whose followers are content to echo my opinions. I want each man to cut his own way through the jungle.

- Aleister Crowley

Magic is, then, the modifying of one’s perception, vis-a-vis, the observable universe, which, consequently, realigns itself to the actuated polls of one’s Grace.

- AURORÆ by G McCaughry

The essence of Hinduism isn't doctrine or discipline, it's moksha-liberation. You discover that you are on one level an illusion, but on another level, you are what's called the self-_the one self that is all there is. And the universe is the game of the self that plays hide-and-seek forever and ever. When it hides, it hides so well that it pretends to be all of us and all things whatsoever, and we don't know this because the self is playing hide. But when it plays seek, it enters onto a path of yoga, and by following this path, it wakes up, and the veils fall from its eyes.

- Alan Watts

You are doing the finest possible thing and acting in you best interests if, as you say in your letter, you are persevering in your efforts to acquire a sound understanding. This is something it is foolish to pray for when you can win it from your own self. There is no need to raise our hands to heaven; there is no need to implore the temple warden to allow us close to the ear of some graven image, as though this increased the chances of our being heard. God is near you, is with you, is inside you. Yes, Lucilius, there resides within us a divine spirit, which guards us and watches us in the evil and the good we do. As we treat him, so will he treat us. No man, indeed, is good without God - is any one capable of rising above fortune unless he has help from God?
He it is that prompts us to noble and exalted endeavours. In each and every good man
A god (what god we are uncertain) dwells.*

* Virgil, Aeneid, VII: 352.

Once the inner the light has been discovered, it must be made into only reality in our consciousness. After having descended into the unconscious, into the darkness, into the underworld, we found the light, we found the volatile spirit. Now the volatile spirit, or Quicksilver, has to be fixated or coagulated. This means our conscious, or attention, must completely pe*****te our unconscious, or soul, or everything that lies hidden in ourselves. By doing this we fixate (that is bring it into the conscious) the volatile and make it durable. When everything in our souls has been provided, in the light appears, we have to fix this light and make it durable so that it remains always… when rubedo has been realise, the alchemist has accepted his spiritual inheritance (his new name)…

With the aid and help of God, she (alchemy) reveals all hidden energies of the whole wide world. As the vine grower grafts the vine to the elm and espalier, thus the magician, the alchemist, marries and unifies heaven and earth, the lower and the higher energies.

-Pico della Mirandola

Philosophising with the Hammer, leads one to reconsider many things about himself. Scrupulous use of the illogical (I.e. the magickal) makes such reconsideration of values, much easier, in that, it does not require logic to ‘make sense.’ Doubt, remains a driving factor, and such philosophical views and discourse cannot be properly assimilated into one’s life without the acquiescence and regularly use of Magick.


- AURORÆ by G McCaughry

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