Nearly a year ago, I interviewed Donald Tyson regarding his then new book, Grimoire of the Necronomicon. Since then, my review partner, Lon Sarver, and I have been working with Tyson’s system and we’ll present our findings in this the next issue. Mr. Tyson was kind enough to agree to a follow-up interview; you’ll find it just below.

Sheta Kaey for Rending the Veil

How did you first become acquainted with H. P. Lovecraft’s writings?

Donald Tyson

Pure accident. Way back in 1967 I bought a Lancer paperback titled H.P. Lovecraft: The Colour Out of Space and Others. It was a collection of seven stories by Lovecraft, including “The Call of Cthulhu,” which is generally regarded as the initiator of what is now called the Cthulhu Mythos, although I prefer the term Necronomicon Mythos myself. The stories impressed me with their strangeness — they weren’t like the usual horror stories I was reading at the time. Over the years I read as many other stories by Lovecraft as I could find.

Sheta Kaey for Rending the Veil

Did you ever think back then that someday you would write books about Lovecraft?

Donald Tyson

It never even entered my mind. At that time I didn’t even know that I would become a professional writer. I just enjoyed reading his stories.

Sheta Kaey for Rending the Veil

Why did you decide to write your own version of the Necronomicon?

Donald Tyson

It was pure hubris. I was participating in a newsgroup where different versions of the Necronomicon were being talked about, and I suddenly thought to myself, “I can write a better version of the Necronomicon than this.” So I did.

Sheta Kaey for Rending the Veil

What makes your version better than, say, the Simon Necronomicon?

Donald Tyson

Whether it is better or not is ultimately for readers to decide, but I tried to make my version better by posing the question to myself, “If the Necronomicon really existed, what would it contain?” I figured that it would not be just a collection of spells and sigils — that is not how Lovecraft described it, and it doesn’t match up with the quotations from it that he included in his stories. I figured it would be more of a history of the earth before the rise of the human species, describing all the alien races that had existed on it back then, coupled with a description of the strange places the author of the book, Abdul Alhazred, had encountered during his wanderings around the ancient world.

Sheta Kaey for Rending the Veil

So you don’t like the Simon Necronomicon?

Donald Tyson

It’s not that I don’t like it — the Simon Necronomicon is fine for what it is, a grimoire associated with the Old Ones. I just don’t believe it is very much like what the real Necronomicon would be, if it existed in our world.

Sheta Kaey for Rending the Veil

There are monsters in your Necronomicon Tarot that don’t exist in any of Lovecraft’s stories. Where did they come from?

Donald Tyson

The short answer to that is, I made them up. As you know, the Necronomicon Tarot is closely based on my version of the Necronomicon. I didn’t want my book to be limited to only what Lovecraft had written about the Necronomicon, because for one thing, Lovecraft didn’t write all that much about it. The total number of words that Lovecraft put into his stories as supposed direct quotations from the Necronomicon doesn’t amount to more than a few pages — it’s not enough for a book. Also, I’m a creative writer, and I wanted my version of the Necronomicon to reflect some of my own creativity. I did try hard to avoid directly contradicting anything Lovecraft had indicated to be in the Necronomicon, and I tried to include in my book everything that he had written about it. In those respects my version is more faithful to Lovecraft than any other version. It contains all that Lovecraft wrote about the Necronomicon, but it also contains a lot he never imagined.

Sheta Kaey for Rending the Veil

Talk about some of the monsters you created for the Necronomicon Tarot…

Donald Tyson

Well, there’s I´thakuah, an ancient crone who works a kind of witchcraft in front of her fire in the dry cisterns deep under the ruins of the lost city of Irem. She is so old it’s almost impossible to tell whether she is male or female, or even whether she is human. Her hands are like great claws and her arms are long and powerful, the better to catch the rats upon which she feeds in the total darkness. She has lived under the ruins of the city for so long, even she doesn’t remember when she first entered the cisterns. She serves Nyarlathotep, one of the seven Lords of the Old Ones, who communicates with her through his deep-dwelling inhuman agents when they approach and converse with the old hag.

Then there is the Beast of Babylon that lives in the ancient brick sewer tunnels under the ruins of Babylon in Persia. It was upon the folklore of this Beast that the Biblical beast of Revelations was based. It is a great animal the size of a horse, with massive wings that allow it to fly through the air, when it emerges from beneath the ground at sunset to hunt its human prey, and seven heads on seven long, snake-like necks that ceaselessly bud forth and then shrink away by turns. The heads are formed from the heads of all the human beings the Beast has captured and consumed over the millennia, and they are conscious and babble in their own languages about their pain and sorrow, laughing and weeping and screaming during the brief periods of their presence on the necks.

Those are two of my creations, I´hakuah and the Beast.

Sheta Kaey for Rending the Veil

Did you scry any of the strange creatures in the Necronomicon Tarot using a crystal or a black mirror?

Donald Tyson

Not in a formal sense, no. I never sat down before my crystal ball and saw images of these beings. But over the months it took to write the book, I had my mind on Lovecraft and Alhazred and the Old Ones night and day. They started to creep into my dreams, and I even began to notice strange things happening around me.

Sheta Kaey for Rending the Veil

What sort of strange things?

Donald Tyson

Noises that had no cause. Movements at the corner of my eye that were like flashes of shadow sliding past. Objects that disappeared with nobody around to move them, and then just as strangely reappeared days or weeks later. Strange looks or words from complete strangers I passed in the street.

Sheta Kaey for Rending the Veil

What do you think was happening? Were you under some kind of attack?

Donald Tyson

I don’t know. I got the sense that something was trying to communicate with me, but that it was so alien, it didn’t quite know how to even make the attempt. It kept fumbling around, using whatever was available as a conduit. It didn’t so much feel malicious as it felt unnatural — like something out of place, or something that didn’t quite belong in our world. I think maybe when I started to write the Necronomicon, this intelligence took notice of me, and that maybe it communicated psychically some of the creatures I wrote about. But no one can prove a thing like that, it’s just a sense you get, like a kind of feeling.

Sheta Kaey for Rending the Veil

Do you believe the Necronomicon really exists in some form?

Donald Tyson

At one time I would have said no, but today — yes, I believe that the Necronomicon does exist. It was never published in the usual way as a book, of course, but I believe that Lovecraft didn’t invent it from nothing. He was a sleeping seer. When he dreamed, he saw visions of astral planes that are deeper and stranger than most people ever visit during sleep, and he brought things back from those planes that he put into his stories.

Sheta Kaey for Rending the Veil

What kinds of things?

Donald Tyson

Like the Old Ones, who are invisible creatures that inhabited the earth long before the evolution of the human race. They are so strange, so unlike anything we know in this world, that our eyes can’t even see their color. They floated through the air, and lived in black stone cities without windows — they didn’t need windows because they had no eyes. They perceived the world with senses we wouldn’t even comprehend.

Sheta Kaey for Rending the Veil

There is more than one kind of Old Ones in Lovecraft’s stories, isn’t there?

Donald Tyson

Yes, several species are called Old Ones or Elder Things or The Elder Race by Lovecraft. He used the term Old Ones as a general term for those intelligent alien species that inhabited the young earth before the coming of mankind.

Sheta Kaey for Rending the Veil

Did the Old Ones write the Necronomicon?

Donald Tyson

According to Lovecraft, the Necronomicon was written around the year 730 by an Arab poet of Yemen named Abdul Alhazred. He went insane, and he wrote the book based on what he had seen in the desert, in abandoned cities and old tombs and caverns deep beneath the sands, and what the creatures that have always lived in these remote desert wastes and deep places whispered to him when he talked with them.

Sheta Kaey for Rending the Veil

Maybe writing the Necronomicon drove him insane.

Donald Tyson

The book was written when Alhazred was an old man, so he must have gone insane at some earlier stage in his life, since he was known as the “mad Arab” in Lovecraft’s stories. But whether the process of writing the book drove him mad, or whether it was his madness that allowed him to gather the information that went into his book, there’s no way to know.

Sheta Kaey for Rending the Veil

You talk about Alhazred as if he were a real person.

Donald Tyson

That’s how Lovecraft wrote about him, and about his book. That’s one of the reasons they seem so real to us today. But I believe that maybe Alhazred did write the Necronomicon, not while he was awake, but while he was asleep, in his dreams. That is how Lovecraft was able to see the book so clearly. Alhazred created it in the dreamlands, as Lovecraft called them, and Lovecraft in his explorations of the dreamlands was able to see the book and learn its Greek name.

Sheta Kaey for Rending the Veil

Your Necronomicon and the Necronomicon Tarot are only two parts of a trilogy of works from Llewellyn Publications. What is the third part?

Donald Tyson

The third part of my Necronomicon Trilogy is my novel Alhazred. I refer to the three works as a trilogy because they are all based on the same content, the text of my Necronomicon. The Necronomicon Tarot illustrates pictorially the things I wrote about in that book, and my novel Alhazred relates the events in the book from Alhazred’s point of view, as he experienced them during his wanderings.

Sheta Kaey for Rending the Veil

What about your other book, the Necronomicon Grimoire?

Donald Tyson

The Necronomicon Grimoire is not a part of the trilogy, but it is closely linked. I wanted to create a practical grimoire based on Lovecraft’s mythology of the Old Ones, with a ritual structure that could be used by serious magicians for practical purposes. I based the grimoire on information in my Necronomicon, so the two books are in harmony with one another, but whereas the Necronomicon concerns strange monsters, alien races, and hidden places of the ancient world, the grimoire lays down the precise details of a system of magic, and sets forth the outline for an occult society based on its rituals that I’ve named the Order of the Old Ones, or OOO for short.

Sheta Kaey for Rending the Veil

Is the Order of the Old Ones an actual occult society?

Donald Tyson

It will be, if enough people want it to be. I look upon it in much the same way that I regard the Necronomicon of Lovecraft — both are real in an astral sense, and that reality can bring them forth into the world if enough individuals seriously want them to exist.

Sheta Kaey for Rending the Veil

Are you planning to write any more books based on the Necronomicon?

Donald Tyson

Yes, I have two more in the works, which I won’t talk about in detail here. It seems that Lovecraft hasn’t finished with me yet.

Sheta Kaey for Rending the Veil

Do you get the sense that Lovecraft is telling you to write these books?

Donald Tyson

I get the sense that his ghost is standing at my shoulder as I’m writing, reading what I’ve written. What he thinks of it, I don’t know, but I hope he approves. I’ve done my best to honor his memory and his mythos, and to add to its occult current rather than merely drawing from it. A lot of writers had reason to be thankful to Lovecraft while he was alive, because he was unfailingly generous to young authors. He would write endless letters encouraging them to write, and giving them helpful advice about how to improve their stories. Today, in a strange way many writers still have reason to be thankful to Lovecraft, because they are building upon the foundation he laid down, writing books that are part of a mythos that would never have existed without Lovecraft’s genius.

Sheta Kaey for Rending the Veil

Thank you for taking the time to answer these questions.

Donald Tyson

I always enjoy talking about the Necronomicon and the Old Ones. It’s the thoughts and dreams of all of us that give life on the astral level of the dreamlands to both the book and the things it describes. As long as people continue to read Lovecraft’s stories, the Necronomicon will never die.

The Rapier’s Edge is a semi-regular column featuring interviews with our contributors, other occult authors, and celebrities of interest to RTV readers. If you’d like to be interviewed, please contact admin@rendingtheveil.com and we’ll be pleased to consider such an interview (especially if you have suggestions for questions!).

Donald Tyson is the author of Sexual Alchemy: Magical Intercourse with Spirits, Familiar Spirits, and Soul Flight: Astral Projection and the Magical Universe, among other works. You can visit his website here.

Sheta Kaey is Editor in Chief of Rending the Veil and is working on her first book, Infinite Possibility. You can read her blog here.

©2009 by Sheta Kaey
and Donald Tyson.

In 2004, Llewellyn published Donald Tyson’s novel, Necronomicon: The Wanderings of Alhazred, based on the stories of H.P. Lovecraft. While former Necronomicons were written as grimoires, Tyson took a novel (ahem) approach to the text, having fun with it and viewing it, as he told me at the time, as “entertainment.” He followed the following year with Alhazred: Author of the Necronomicon, a much thicker novel relating the travels of the mad Arab from a first-person perspective. Later, he introduced the richly illustrated Necronomicon Tarot, and this year he releases the long-awaited Grimoire of the Necronomicon.

In my talks with Don and Llewellyn publicist Marissa Pederson, I came up with a plan to review the Necronomicon series in a way that readers of Rending the Veil can uniquely appreciate. We begin with an interview with Donald Tyson on his new release. Then I, along with magician Lon Sarver, will test the efficacy of Tyson’s system for a few months. We will follow up with a joint review of the system from the evocation and the tarot angles, and another interview with Don. We’ll keep you posted. For now, let’s see what Don has to say.

Sheta Kaey for Rending the Veil

If H. P. Lovecraft invented the Necronomicon, why do so many people think it is a real book?

Donald Tyson

Lovecraft did not invent the Necronomicon, he dreamed it into existence. He saw the book repeatedly in his dreams, and he even dreamed the title without understanding what the title signified. It was only later that he researched the name and was able to offer an opinion as to its meaning — he wrote in one of his letters (Selected Letters: 1929-1931. Edited by August Derleth and Donald Wandrei, V, 418) that the word was Greek and meant “an image of the law of the dead.”

Lovecraft presented the Necronomicon as an actual occult work in his stories, even quoting from it. To make it seem more plausible, he mentioned, alongside it, various genuine works on occult topics, such as The Witch-Cult in Western Europe by Margaret Murray, Daemonolatreia by Remigius, and Wonders of the Invisible World Being An Account of the Trials of Several Witches Lately Executed in New England by Cotton Mather. The titles of the books he referred to were obscure to most readers, so the Necronomicon seemed to fit in with the others, particularly since he described minor details of the book that would only be known by someone who had studied it.

Other writers of horror stories who were Lovecraft’s friends took up the game and began to mention the Necronomicon in their own stories as though it were a genuine work; and to return the favor, Lovecraft included the names of some of their fictional grimoires in his stories. For example, the creator of Conan, Robert E. Howard, created a book on magic called Unspeakable Cults (Unaussprechlichen Kulten) as a plot device for some of his supernatural fiction, and Lovecraft used the title in his own stories as though it were a real work, sharing an inside joke among his writing circle.

Fans of Lovecraft began to also treat the Necronomicon as though it were real. A few rapscallions inserted cards into the card catalogues of various libraries in North America and Europe listing the Necronomicon as one of the works carried by the libraries. Alas! when someone requested it, the librarian who searched for it found it to always be unavailable. Antique book dealers sometimes listed it in their sales fliers, just from a sense of fun. Fans would go into bookstores and ask for the Necronomicon, then pretend to be puzzled when the store clerks could not find the book among their catalogues of books in print.

In this way the myth of the Necronomicon grew. Finally, the inevitable happened, and in 1973 someone published an actual book purporting to be the genuine Necronomicon. The first edition was titled Al Azif: The Necronomicon (the supposed Arab name of the work) and was introduced by the science fiction writer and biographer of Lovecraft, L. Sprague de Camp. Other writers began to do the same, and now there are more than a dozen versions, including my own. The existence of real books that bear the title “Necronomicon” only increases the confusion of those who think Lovecraft may have been writing about a genuine occult work.

Sheta Kaey for Rending the Veil

How is your book, Grimoire of the Necronomicon, connected? How would you describe a “grimoire”?

Donald Tyson

The Grimoire of the Necronomicon is connected to Lovecraft’s dream book by the Great Old Ones, who were supposed to figure prominently in Lovecraft’s book. In one of the quotes from the Necronomicon, Lovecraft described the Old Ones. He also mentioned the Long Chant, used to call them forth, as being part of the Necronomicon, although he never actually gave the chant itself. No one knows the exact contents of Lovecraft’s dream book, apart from the few quotations he left in his stories, but the Grimoire of the Necronomicon is based on the contents of my own version of the Necronomicon, so that the two form companion works that may be studied together. In my grimoire I provide the Long Chant in the Enochian language, with a phonetic pronunciation guide and an English translation.

A grimoire (French: grammar) is a magician’s workbook. In it, a magician sets down his personal system of magic, for his own use or perhaps for the use of his son or apprentice. During the times the most famous grimoires were created, there were no printed books in Europe. All books were written out by hand with pen and ink, and unless copied by someone else, were unique. The oldest of the grimoires that survive were just such works. They are highly practical in nature, and contain descriptions of rituals, sigils, names of spirits, incantations, exorcisms, astrological procedures, and similar material for dealing with the spirit world.

My own Grimoire of the Necronomicon is of the same nature — a highly practical guide for summoning and communicating with the Old Ones and their servants.

Sheta Kaey for Rending the Veil

What are the Old Ones? Is there any evidence that they’ve ever existed, or were they just figments from Lovecraft’s dreams and imagination?

Donald Tyson

The Old Ones revealed themselves in Lovecraft’s dreams. Edgar Cayce is sometimes called the “sleeping prophet” but I believe that this title should be given to Lovecraft. So much of his fiction was not invented at all, but was merely copied from his repeating nightmares and dreams, which had a visionary or prophetic quality.

The term Old Ones is used loosely by Lovecraft in different stories over a span of years to refer to several races or hierarchies of alien beings who came to dwell on the Earth in the distant past, before the rise of humanity. This multiple use naturally causes some confusion, but most commonly the Old Ones are assumed to be the beings described in the quotation from the Necronomicon that appears in Lovecraft’s story “The Dunwich Horror” (published in 1929). The quotation reads:

Nor is it to be thought … that man is either the oldest or the last of earth’s masters, or that the common bulk of life and substance walks alone. The Old Ones were, the Old Ones are, and the Old Ones shall be. Not in the spaces we know, but between them, they walk serene and primal, undimensioned and to us unseen. Yog-Sothoth knows the gate. Yog-Sothoth is the gate. Yog-Sothoth is the key and guardian of the gate. Past, present, future, all are one in Yog-Sothoth. He knows where the Old Ones broke through of old, and where They shall break through again. He knows where They had trod earth’s fields, and where They still tread them, and why no one can behold Them as They tread. By Their smell can men sometimes know Them near, but of Their semblance can no man know, saving only in the features of those They have begotten on mankind; and of those are there many sorts, differing in likeness from man’s truest eidolon to that shape without sight or substance which is Them. They walk unseen and foul in lonely places where the Words have been spoken and the Rites howled through at their Seasons. The wind gibbers with Their voices, and the earth mutters with Their consciousness. They bend the forest and crush the city, yet may not forest or city behold the hand that smites. Kadath in the cold waste hath known Them, and what man knows Kadath? The ice desert of the South and the sunken isles of Ocean hold stones whereon Their seal is engraver, but who hath seen the deep frozen city or the sealed tower long garlanded with seaweed and barnacles? Great Cthulhu is Their cousin, yet can he spy Them only dimly. Iä! Shub-Niggurath! As a foulness shall ye know Them. Their hand is at your throats, yet ye see Them not; and Their habitation is even one with your guarded threshold. Yog-Sothoth is the key to the gate, whereby the spheres meet. Man rules now where They ruled once; They shall soon rule where man rules now. After summer is winter, after winter summer. They wait patient and potent, for here shall They reign again.

Mentioned in company with these Old Ones are several great beings that I have characterized as their lords: Cthulhu, Yog-Sothoth and Shub-Niggurath. In other stories Lovecraft refers other great and powerful beings, and places some of them in the Necronomicon. Not all of these great beings can be directly linked with the Old Ones of the “Dunwich Horror” but it is not a great leap to suggest that they are related. In addition to the three lords above, I have made use of four others — Azathoth, Nyarlathotep, Dagon and Yig.

As to whether the Old Ones are real, it is my belief that Lovecraft was connected on some deep, subconscious level with higher dimensions of reality, and that he saw things in his dreams that have existence on those higher planes. His creations have a archetypal, mythic quality that gives them resonance in the imagination. I believe they have as much reality as many other astral beings that occultists regard as real, such as fairies and elementals.

Sheta Kaey for Rending the Veil

Do you feel that dreams have any connection with astral projection? Could Lovecraft have been encountering these beings on another plane of reality?

Donald Tyson

As I mentioned, I regard Lovecraft as a sleeping prophet. He did not so much invent his stories as dream them, often dreaming them over and over for months or years. One of his strangest and greatest characters, Nyarlathotep, was copied from a repeating dream, which Lovecraft gave almost verbatim in his story “Nyarlathotep” (published in 1920). Dagon also appeared to him in a repeating dream in which a strange island rose up from the midst of the ocean bearing ancient monuments. He described it in his story “Dagon” (published in 1919). Years later, Lovecraft used the same plot device for his story the “The Call of Cthulhu” (published in 1928).

I do think that Lovecraft was unconsciously projecting astrally while asleep, and that his astral experiences came to him in the form of vivid dreams. Lovecraft would never have admitted this to anyone, and probably would not have admitted it even to himself. He was a hard-headed scientific materialist. Even though he wrote about the supernatural, he claimed not to believe in any of it.

Sheta Kaey for Rending the Veil

Is the Necronomicon black magick? Are the Old Ones demons? Why or why not?

Donald Tyson

This depends as much as anything on your point of view. Remember, Lovecraft was writing horror stories. His characters encounter alien beings and occult forces as antagonists, ignorant of their true nature. They are naturally terrified of these beings and seek either to flee from them, or destroy them.

Lovecraft himself did not regard the Old Ones as evil. To Lovecraft, they were above human concepts of good and evil. The affairs of humanity were so trivial as to be largely unimportant to them. There are exceptions. Nyarlathotep enjoys the company of men, and sometimes deceives or torments them for sport. Cthulhu relies on his cult of human worshippers to free him from his stone house on R’lyeh, once the stars come right in the heavens, and sunken R’lyeh rises from the depths of the ocean. Shub-Niggurath also appears to welcome the worship and sacrifices of human beings. Lovecraft associated this lord of the Old One with witchcraft and the sabbat.

Just as witchcraft is looked upon as evil by Christians (“Thou shalt not suffer a witch to live.”) but as wholesome and life-affirming by neo-pagans who have embraced the Goddess, so can the Old Ones be viewed in a more positive light by those who serve them and who receive aid from them. The ritual worship of the Old Ones, or their service, would undoubtedly be regarded as black magic by Fundamentalist Christians, but these are the same people who think that witches should be executed, and that any form of magic is the work of the Devil.

The rank and file of the Old Ones might be called daemons in the higher sense that the ancient Greeks used the term, to describe spiritual beings of the air and the earth who are more wise and potent than man, but less in stature than the gods of the firmament. The great beings that I have characterized as the lords of the Old Ones would better be thought of as gods.

Sheta Kaey for Rending the Veil

Why should a magician want to contact the Old Ones?

Donald Tyson

We might ask why anyone should wish to contact any spiritual being. Those of us who believe that such beings exist, also believe that they can teach us useful spiritual wisdom, and can in some cases aid us in our daily lives.

The Old Ones, as Lovecraft presented them, are beings from another dimension or plane of reality who have immense knowledge and power, but who are restrained from acting directly on this planet by the natural alignment of the heavens that presently exists. This causes them to seek human beings to serve as their instruments or agents in this world. As agents of the Old Ones, these individuals and groups receive certain gifts of arcane knowledge as a kind of payment, and they are watched over and protected by the Old Ones because they are useful to the purposes of the Old Ones.

Even though the Old Ones are restrained from large displays of direct action in our world, they can act in indirect ways, making their favor worth cultivating. Some of the lords of the Old Ones are more overtly active than others. Nyarlathotep seems to have an unusual degree of freedom, as does Yig and Shub-Niggurath. They prefer to remain unseen and unknown by the greater mass of humanity, so when they do act, it is usually in the shadows and in ways that will remain unnoticed.

There is reason to suspect that the pact entered into by witches with a being generally supposed to have been the Devil by Christian demonologists was in actuality a pact between Shub-Niggurath and her acolytes. Lovecraft identifies Shub-Niggurath as the so-called Black Man who presided over witches’ sabbats throughout Europe during the Middle Ages, to whom witches pledged their service. Shub-Niggurath is hermaphrodite, having aspects of both sexes (consider this in conjunction with the illustration of Baphomet by the occultist Eliphas Levi). She is the sabbat goat, and indeed one of her titles used by Lovecraft is the Goat with a Thousand Young.

So the answer as to why a magician should wish to contact and enter into an arrangement with one or more of the lords of the Old Ones is the age-old answer — knowledge, and power. These are the primary reasons we study magic. We seek self-empowerment.

Each of the seven lords of the Old Ones rules over a certain area of human interest and activity. To invoke and give offerings to a particular lord is to invite and seek wisdom and proficiency in that particular area of life. Cthulhu, who is a warrior, presides over martial arts and fighting skills, the dominance and supremacy of the will. Dagon, the lord of the Deep Ones, presides over arcane and occult knowledge, and is for this reason to be sought by scholars of necromancy and other obscure arts of magic. So for the rest.

Sheta Kaey for Rending the Veil

What precautions would you advise for magicians wishing to evoke these beings?

Donald Tyson

In my grimoire I describe a ritual structure that is enacted within a ritual circle of seven stones. This structure is designed to channel communication between the magician and the particular Old One with whom communication is sought. Since it excludes interference by other beings, it insures a measure of safety. It is a kind of ceremonial filter that only allows interaction with the particular entity who is invoked.

Those who fear the lords of the Old Ones should not summon them. They are potent beings, but they are not malicious (with the possible exception of Nyarlathotep, who must be dealt with circumspectly). They are alien, which is to say, their thoughts, emotions and motives are not human. Do not expect them to react as a human being would react.

The primary protection for the magician is the Elder Seal, a sigil in the form of a talisman that may be uncovered to drive away the Old Ones from the circle. This sigil was fashioned aeons ago by a race that waged war against the Old Ones and defeated them — or so the writings of Lovecraft state. Lovecraft himself drew out this sigil in one of his letters — he was addicted to letter writing, and wrote thousands of letters to fans of his work and to other writers. It is reproduced in a more detailed form in my book.

A lesser protection is the Elder Sign, a hand gesture that may be used to ward away the otherworldly servants of the Old Ones, but it is less potent than the Elder Seal. This Lovecraft did not describe, but I have given my own received impression of its shape.

Sheta Kaey for Rending the Veil

In your book, you talk about the Great Work of the Old Ones. What is their Great Work, and why should human beings help them achieve it?

Donald Tyson

This is something that lies at the heart of understanding the Old Ones and their purpose on this planet, but even though it is indicated by Lovecraft in his story “The Dunwich Horror” no other writer has focused serious attention upon it, to my knowledge.

The Old Ones did not come to this planet by accident, but to fulfill a purpose. They are here to raise this planet up from its present plane of existence to a higher dimension of reality, a place from which our world fell countless aeons ago. They are here to restore the Earth to her former high spiritual estate. In doing so, they intend to literally wrest our planet from its orbit around the sun and pass it through the gates of Yog-Sothoth to its original exalted and more spiritual dimension.

Before the Earth can be lifted up through the gates of Yog-Sothoth, it must be cleansed of its material lifeforms. This does not necessarily mean sterilization, but rather entails a sublimation or spiritualization of living things from their present condition to a higher and less grossly physical state.

You will immediately see the parallels here between the purpose of the Old Ones, and the Apocalypse described in the biblical book Revelation. In Revelation, the Earth is also to be cleansed and purified, its inhabitants either destroyed or rendered more spiritual in nature.

There are also similarities with the Gnostic teaching that mankind is in his essential nature divine, and will ultimately be stripped of his gross covering of physical matter and elevated to his rightful place among the stars, once the veil of ignorance is lifted from his eyes, and he is made aware of his true god nature.

This Great Work of the Old Ones has been delayed by the chance alignment of the stars, which inhibits them from fulfilling their purpose. However, human beings may pledge their service to the lords of the Old Ones and assist them in preparing for the day when the stars come right, and this purpose is ultimately fulfilled. In return for this service they gain the patronage of the Old Ones, to the improvement of their lives.

It might be argued that the Apocalypse is a bad thing. Perhaps it is, for some, but it will be to the betterment of others. This is what Christians believe and teach, at any rate. They welcome the Apocalypse and constantly search for signs of its imminent commencement. They believe that it will result in a more spiritual world.

Of course, Christians have their own interpretation of this period of cleansing of the planet. The Apocalypse of Christians and the Great Work of the Old Ones are the same future event. It is merely a matter of different points of view. Whether a person welcomes it or hopes that it never occurs largely depends on how they see themselves in its unfolding — either as an active participant, or as an unwilling victim. According to prophecy, the Apocalypse cannot be averted. However, it is possible that it is not going to be quite so grossly destructive in a physical sense as is depicted by St. John the Divine. I suspect that if it does occur, it may be more spiritual in nature, and may involve more inward transformation than outward transformation.

Sheta Kaey for Rending the Veil

It’s been said that the real purpose of the Old Ones is to destroy life on this planet. If that is not their purpose, then what is?

Donald Tyson

This gets to the question of what the Great Work will actually involve. We might just as easily ask, what will the Apocalypse entail? They are the same event from two different prophetic perspectives.

In Lovecraft’s fiction, it is said that it will involve the destruction of all life on the surface of this planet (though not necessarily all life beneath its surface). But remember, Lovecraft was writing horror fiction, and his human characters are terrified by the Old Ones and their intentions. Remember, too, that Lovecraft’s Necronomicon was written by a human being, from a human perspective. It is not to be expected that we would find any sympathetic description of the Great Work of the Old Ones in these stories, where the Old Ones are depicted as alien monsters who must be destroyed.

One of the servants of the Old Ones in Lovecraft’s story the “Dunwich Horror,” Wilbur Whateley, does not intend to die when the work of the Old Ones is fulfilled, but expects to be transformed as his gross fleshy aspect is stripped away.

Consider the biblical book Revelation. It seems, on the surface, a completely horrifying and negative series of events, with endless scenes of destruction and mass killing. Yet it is presented as the necessary work of God, that will be presided over by Jesus Christ himself carrying a flaming sword. How can it be all evil if it is required by God? And indeed, when we look more closely at Revelation, we discover that not every human being will be annihilated. Rather, a chosen number will be transformed and rendered more spiritual in their natures, so that they can endure the spiritual world that will arise from the smoldering ashes of the old material world.

I do not wish to whitewash the Great Work of the Old Ones. It will involve destruction and death. It is a period of radical transformation. However, there are indications in prophecy that it is not only necessary, but inevitable. On the bright side of things, it may not take place for many years into the future, and it may not be a rapid series of events, but may occur over such an extended span that its severity is mitigated for those who actually must live during its unfolding.

Sheta Kaey for Rending the Veil

Are there connections between Lovecraft’s Old Ones and ancient sources, such as the Bible, the Gnostic, or the Book of Enoch?

Donald Tyson

I’ve already anticipated this question by referring to the Revelation of St. John the Divine, the final book of the New Testament. The Great Work of the Old Ones, and the Apocalypse of St. John are the same event.

This makes the Old Ones and their minions the same angels of judgment, death and destruction described by St. John. We cannot know how accurate the descriptions of these beings in Revelation may be, since prophecy is at best, a distorted mirror of the future, but by considering Revelation we can perhaps form a fuller understanding of the nature of the Great Work that will elevate the Earth from her orbit to a higher spiritual estate.

As for the prophecy of Enoch, it may well be that the men of old who were the result of the interbreeding between the angels known as the Watchers and the daughters of men, were servants of the Old Ones. The Watchers gave their hybrid offspring knowledge of all arts and sciences, including the knowledge of the forbidden arts of magic. It is also said in the Book of Enoch that these children and their descendants were more intelligent and stronger in body than ordinary human beings. This suggests the benefits that may result from a close interaction with the Old Ones. Wilbur Whateley, the servant of the Old Ones in Lovecraft’s “Dunwich Horror,” was the result of breeding between a human woman and one of the Old Ones, perhaps Yog-Sothoth himself.

The Gnostic connection would be in the view that a transformation from a physical body to a spiritual body is not something that is to be feared or dreaded, but is to be welcomed as a liberation from our prisons of flesh. The Gnostics taught that mankind is trapped by incarnation in ignorance of his true divine nature. The ultimate goal of Gnostics is to achieve liberation from this prison of flesh that binds us all to dross matter. The way to this achievement is through gnosis (wisdom). According to Gnostics, the process of gnosis began in the Garden of Eden when the wise serpent gave to Eve the gift of the fruit of the Tree of Knowledge. It will be consummated when the world we know ends and we cast off our vessels of matter and ascend to the stars as fully aware, spiritual beings.

But as I mentioned earlier, these momentous events may not occur in our lifetimes, or for many lifetimes to come in the future. They need not be feared as imminent.

Sheta Kaey for Rending the Veil

You once told me that you believed Enochian angels were intent upon ushering in Armageddon. Is there any similarity between this view and the goals of the Old Ones? Why do you think the alleged “end of the world” is a desirable event?

Donald Tyson

I do tend to think that the Enochian angels believed themselves to be agents in triggering the Apocalypse described by St. John in Revelation. Whether this belief on their part is plausible is for each person to decide, based on a consideration of the existing angelic communications they made with John Dee and Edward Kelley.

If we presume that there is one apocalyptic series of events that is being foreshadowed by prophecies, then the Apocalypse sought by the Enochian angels and the Great Work pursued by the Old Ones, intimations of which Lovecraft glimpsed in his dreams, are at root the same thing. This suggests that the Enochian angels may be agents of the Old Ones.

I don’t view the end of the world as a desirable event, from a purely conventional human perspective. It will cause great disruption in human lives, even if it is not immediately fatal, and disruption and change are always to be avoided, and are almost always viewed with horror and looked upon as disastrous by those they afflict. However, it may be that some form of great transformation, such as that predicted by various prophecies, is inevitable. It may also be that it will be seen as a good thing by those who weather its difficulties and emerge at the other end of it transformed — though exactly what they will be transformed into is a matter of conjecture.

Sheta Kaey for Rending the Veil

Are you planning any more volumes in your work on Lovecraft and the Necronomicon?

Donald Tyson

Yes, I plan at least one more book on Lovecraft’s mythos, that will be a reference work describing and categorizing all the strange beings and races, alien landscapes, and curious objects, revealed to Lovecraft in his dreams, and recorded by him in his stories. I intend this book to be a resource for those who wish to work in a serious way with the magic of the Necronomicon and the Old Ones.

It is also possible that I will write another novel concerning the adventures of Alhazred, the author of the Necronomicon. Writing my novel Alhazred gave me great enjoyment, and was an experience I would like to repeat.

The Rapier’s Edge is a semi-regular column featuring interviews with our contributors, other occult authors, and celebrities of interest to RTV readers. If you’d like to be interviewed, please contact admin@rendingtheveil.com and we’ll be pleased to consider such an interview (especially if you have suggestions for questions!).

Donald Tyson is the author of Sexual Alchemy: Magical Intercourse with Spirits, Familiar Spirits, and Soul Flight: Astral Projection and the Magical Universe, among other works. You can visit his website here.

Sheta Kaey is Editor in Chief of Rending the Veil and is working on her first book, Infinite Possibility. You can read her blog here.

©2008 Sheta Kaey and Donald Tyson.
Edited by Sheta Kaey

Many people have been curious about our work with the glyph and have interacted with us on a number of levels in an attempt to understand what it is we’re doing. The following is the text of a sort of panel discussion in which these questions are addressed by the folks most intimately involved.

Interviewer: What the hell do you think you guys are doing?

Dr. Silver: In effect, we are trying to bring balance and harmony to our community by drawing upon the subtle forces of the cosmos and aligning them through the process of ritual with the larger macrocosm. Drawing upon the hexagram as the symbol of the macrocosm, and its embodiment in the planetary spheres. We are trying to “juice” our community with the radiant energy of the sun, in Tipareth. Source of Love, Compassion, and Beauty. Such energy is sorely needed in our world today.

Magnus Po: Birthing a machine which filters stray psychic emanations from a city into seven parts, those parts being analogous to the sevenfold division of humankind’s perception of the universe used in planetary magick. Workings then bring down additional energies to selected points for application.

Frater A.: I certainly can’t improve on that, aside from the remarks made earlier in the book.

Interviewer: What if somebody gets hurt? Helped?

Dr. Silver: What if? The actual causal relationships would be hard to track. My own philosophy states that pure will, unassuaged of purpose, and delivered of the lust of result, is in every way perfect. I’m comfortable with my intentions, and trust that whatever happens, or if anything happens at all, it will be for positive purposes.

Magnus Po: I suppose there is a possibility of woe in this as in any technology. The degree to which the innocent bystander is hurt is usually dependent on what kind of lunatic is at the wheel, what sort of idiot has his finger on the button & the specific type of imbecile at the controls. In this case I suppose that you will just have to take our word for it that we are just the right kinds of lunatics, certainly the correct types of idiots, and precisely the sorts of imbeciles you, and everyone else, would jump at the chance to place in positions of authority over a gargantuan world-changing energy juggernaut such as the Glyph. Actually we are all very ethical folks. Misuse in this generation is unlikely. As for the possibility of spontaneous dangerous effects on the energetic level I would suppose this to be most possible at the focii during a working. Those responsible would then be those affected.

Frater A.: We didn’t start this big puppy up without a pretty clear idea of how to shut it down if we have to. We expect subtle effects over the course of a few years…

Interviewer: What gives you the right? Did you study up on this first?

Dr. Silver: What gave the Druids the right to use Stonehenge? What gave the Egyptians the right to build the pyramids? Not that our project is anywhere so lofty, but the key is the intention and the perspiration behind that. We felt that our community with its rising crime, drug rates, road rage, family violence, police brutality, and such was an ideal candidate for bringing about change in conformity with Will. Our initial intention was positive, and instead of protests, sit ins, or political rallying, we choose to work in more subtle dimensions to facilitate change. All of us are quite well versed in magical philosophy and practice. My own interest as an anthropologist rested largely in my curiosity with Margaret Mead’s activities with a similar group in Denver.

Frater A.: I might add that what gives me the right, even the audacity, to run for public office, and, upon winning that office, make decisions that will affect thousands or even millions? It is much the same thing. We have a genuine willingness to improve the lives and lot of our fellows and of ourselves and are bending our will in that direction using the tools at our disposal.

Magnus Po: We are unaware of having stepped on someone’s toes and are eager to make right any injustice for which we are responsible. In terms of study this project is the overlap of our areas of obsession and that was how we came to it.

Interviewer: What’s with the Star of David?

Dr. Silver: The Star of David, or Hexagram, is a symbol of the Macrocosm in harmony. Two triangles symbolizing the “upper” celestial, and “lower” terrestrial energies come together to reflect the union of opposites in the coincidata oppositorum of the Cosmos. As the symbol of union, it rests in Tipareth, the Heart, were all dimensions meet. As such, it’s the ideal symbol for our purposes.

Magnus Po: This is actually a black-ops project of the Priory of Sion.

Frater A.: Oooh! That’s funny! We started by looking at the lay of the land and seeing what forms were suggested by it. We found a lot of geophysical features with relationships to each other of about 60 degrees and this suggested a triangle, not unlike the Denver device. However, a simple triangle suggests the number three and so the energies of Saturn. We didn’t want to build a device that manipulated odic force in a Saturnian way, so doubled the figure, checked it against the map and were amazed by the correspondences that resulted. We felt that something in the nature of Tipareth would serve us better; the project evolved from there.

Interviewer: To what end did you want to draw down the planetary energies?

Dr. Silver: In drawing upon the various planetary energies, we acknowledge all facets of being and respect their various spheres. Mars, Venus, Saturn, etc.… are all metaphorical expressions of dimensions of Being. As such, in our work we seek a holistic and integral harmony that shuts no key dimension out. The Blessing was meant as an overarching empowerment and harmonization for the town, though its effects are in no way geographically bounded by the hexagram itself.

Magnus Po: Possible applications are endless.

Frater A.: We’ve seen our odd-but-lovable city undergoing a certain cultural entropy and sought to, at the very least, attempt to balance the forces here on a large scale to see if it would have any notable effect, feeling that no significant harm is likely to arise.

Interviewer: Do you plan to use these energies in later workings?

Dr. Silver: I personally, plan to “use” these energies in as much as they affect me in my daily life in society.

Frater A.: It was assumed that the Glyph would provide concentrations of specific planetary energies and these energies might be used in, say, empowering a talisman. Talismanic magick has always interested me, partly because it is so easy to quantify/qualify the results of such magicks in a fairly scientific statistical manner: either a thing happens within a specified period or it doesn’t. Being an eyewitness to a number of talismanic “successes” and very few “failures” made a believer out of me years ago. The thought that these focuses might facilitate visioning “in the Spheres” was also been discussed at length, and our preliminary results are suggestive of success, but it’s too early to tell.

Interviewer: You drew all your triangles in the same direction. Do you think Tyson’s dictum against doing such has any merit?

Dr. Silver: I feel Tyson’s system works for him. I don’t feel there are such “hard and fast” rules in this game. The quality of intention is the key.

Frater A.: We were intrigued by this thought of tracing the triangles in both strengthening & balancing directions. We adhered pretty much to the G.D. figure because it was the only one we had to hand that made enough sense, what with designing heptarchic magick using a hexagonal figure. I’ve noticed that G.D. and derivative traditions seem to like to “wind up” a ritual (or force) using circumambulation while Aurum Solis (the framework within which we choose to operate) rites stress the balancing of such things. I suspect we thought of kicking the glyph into a sort of motion by invoking the presences/powers of the planets as thoroughly as we could. It makes a great deal of sense to us to conduct circumambulations in the manner Mr. Tyson’s method suggests and we have incorporated this in present works, as shown in earlier parts of the Book of the Glyph.

Interviewer: It seems that you were trying to evoke the power of the Sun with your hexagram. Does it make sense to do so by invoking the powers of all the planets?

Dr. Silver: As all the planets existence and energy emanates from the Sun, it makes total sense to invoke their power as expressions of the center of the solar system. Once again, in addressing the totality, all dimensions are seen in relationship to a larger whole.

Magnus Po: The emphasis on the Sun is, I think, incidental. The hexagram was settled on in large part for geographical reasons and this left one planet in the middle. The Sun was the obvious choice for cosmological^/psychological mirroring.

Frater A.: I’d like to think it wasn’t left so much to chance. We are invoking the qualities of the power of the Sun, e.g. harmony, balance. We see the entire figure of the Sun and his family of planets as creating a balanced figure in and of itself, which happens to be divisible into 7 discrete entities, each with their own unique utility. Considered Qabalistically, we are dealing with the Will, Tipareth and one’s Knowledge and Conversation with one’s Holy Guardian Angel, so I expect those sorts of energies to be magnified in some way, perhaps even if only on a small scale. I guess I mean to say that the Glyph is envisioned as taking in local, non-organized energy, then imparting a pattern to it. This energy is concentrated in various places but also spreads a harmonious influence within its bounds, radiating out into the adjoining countryside as far as whatever encountered friction allows. At least, that’s our visualization so associated.

Interviewer: Was your ritual design too grand in scope?

Dr. Silver: Asking for a job, a sex mate, or a new car is the common use of people’s will and intention. Asking to bring harmony and peace to one’s community is far from “Too Grand in Scope.” It is hoped others will take such interest in how the powers of will and intention on the plane of mind bring about effects in the larger community.

Frater A.: I’m not sure we can say yet. We plan to give it five-plus years of effort to see if it attracts interest outside of our small group. By a simple formula not unknown to dynamic sciences: if you’re not going to have as much energy, you’re going to need more time. We believe we can make a measurable difference (the Glyph being detectable to dowsing/magnetics/etc.) with 6-7 regular participants working for 4-5 years. But, at least one of us is the sort of person (had they enough personal influence on our local scene) who would schedule a road race to be run upon the Glyph’s very course while the “elect” held rites of alchymical transubstantiation at some key location(s). Forgive my waxing poetic — we think we’ll wait and see how large an area upon which it can actually have a notable effect. It is, after all, an experiment.

Magnus Po: Full sized circumambulation is an exertion. It is also a real pleasure. We have been flexible enough so far to deal with it, whereas rigid thoughtforms make such things unendurable.

Frater A.: Boy howdy!

Interviewer: Would it have made more sense to draw down the powers of the planets one at a time over a much longer period? Did you take care to balance the planetary energies, or if that was even a valid consideration?

Frater A: I was concerned that that this would produce a potential abundance of one sort of energy or another over too-long a time. All planets were used in the original invocations, each merely “hi-lighted” at a different time. As a point of note, Magnus Po and I set out one day on bicycles to map out the precise location of the glyph upon the lay of the land, and since at least one of us is no longer a spring chicken, we were unable to complete the second circuit until later. We traced Moon-Mars-Jupiter-Moon on that day and that night a disturbed individual (and some buddies, it is supposed) took a notion to run about town with bedsheets and spray paint, decorating places with nazi-type swastikas and white supremacist slogans. The cops figured that it wasn’t a serious threat — just some kids acting out some weird fantasy. We took this incident a bit to heart, as it’s hard to imagine a better connection to Jupiter, Mars and Luna! We’ve elected to be more careful in future, just in case.

Dr. Silver: I favor the “All together now” approach. We are going for a specific effect that addresses multiple facets of being in totality. Thus, by invoking the energies together we address their essential relationality, and integral embodiment in the larger domain of Tipareth.

Magnus Po: Maybe it would have been a good idea. In any case we coalesced it in little more than seven weeks. Balance is inherent in form and my subjective experience of the astral temples is that they are of equal magnitude.

Interviewer: It looks as if you started with Saturn and worked your way inward through the planets. Why start with Saturn?

Dr. Silver: Saturn is form and foundation. It’s the root and structure. By starting with Saturn, we give the macrocosmic glyph a lasting and grounded basis for more Mercurial, Jovial, or Venusian energies.

Frater A.: When the sun comes over the eastern horizon, it’s rays first reach the place consecrated to Saturn, therefore Saturn had to be first, just as the Sun had to hold the middle position. We personally fiddled with a variety of possible allocations of planets to geographical places before settling on the current arrangement. Saturn, you’ll note, has an association with the idea of “a gate,” and we thought this also appropriate for the easternmost point.

Interviewer: Have you had considered using a unicursal hexagram? That glyph gives you a clear way to move back into the center. Might this be helpful as a practical matter during the performance of the ritual?

Dr. Silver: Crowley’s Unicursal Hexagram, though having six points, does not convey the idea of the linking of macro and microcosms through the conjoining of two inverted triangles. The linkage of celestial and terrestrial energies is most visible in this diagram.

Frater A.: I sat down and attempted to trace the unicursal hexagram in a variety of ways and couldn’t come up with a satisfactory arrangement, no matter what I tried. Some describe the force of this hexagram as “weak” and we imagine this is due to the alleged fact that such a figure cannot be constructed precisely, using any real mathematical proofs. A hexagram cannot be unicursal, and relies upon the clever alteration of the width of the drawn line to accommodate the idea. The introduction of Crowley’s Magick says as much. Significantly, drawing this figure creates anything but a sense of balance and more a sense of taking two steps backwards followed by three little ones forward. The territory is covered but more in the manner of an ambling drunkard than in a straight forward formula of balance and equity. For what it’s worth, Po and I discovered that if you trace the planets out in their order as given on the Tree of Life, you’ll come up with the figure that adorns the fly-leaf of the book. If you trace it in the order suggested by our planetary holiday schedule, you will get a unicursal hexagram.

Interviewer: Your magick seems to have a geomantic component to it. You can draw down the energy and establish the astral temples, but it seems that these temples must be grounded and founded on the earth for their greatest effectiveness. Stamping on the earth, calling the spirits of the earth for your aid seems like a good idea.

Dr. Silver: The Chinese geomantic art of Feng Shui with which I am familiar, addresses “Dragon Lines,” celestial “energies” and terrestrial forces through various methods, including landscaping, invocation, ritual, and such. Very little, if any “stamping” is visible in the Chinese relationship to receptive, earthy, “Yin” energies. This seems to be largely a creation of Western earth based religions. As such, there is no inherent need for such action.

Magnus Po: Temples are grounded because we are. Things must be located somewhere. Things astral manifest physically through a place to which they are anchored by natural or artificial correspondence (or through the mind/intent of an autonomous being).

Frater A.: The geomancy thing comes up quite a bit, but that’s not at all what we had in mind. I didn’t even know that the act of driving metal pins in the ground was a part of that tradition. I don’t fully subscribe to what’s going around this set of theories because I can’t really find much science behind it.

Interviewer: You perform part of the ritual with a willow wand. Perhaps that wand was a gift from the tree? Did you get any impression as to how local spirits/devas/dryads reacted to your ritual?

Dr. Silver: They liked it.

Frater A.: Yes, YES! We broke the damn tree! It was an accident, okay? But seriously — you’re right. We merely preserved a portion of the tree for later/permanent use in the rites that might follow. Laws of Association and Contagion, you see. We’ve seen a number of animals in various parts of the glyph and it’s interesting to note that some plant life is springing up, many of the wildflowers quite pertinent to their location.

Interviewer: Could it be that you were building upon the energy matrix that was already present?

Magnus Po: As above, so below. If one applies a natural form to the world one comes up with correspondences whose apparent significance says much about the world, the symbol, and the one doing the application. We are all it, unfolding, forever: Ewige Blumenkraft! In other words, I have absolutely no inkling whatsoever.

Frater A.: It was our assumption that some sort of energic flow is present in any case, likely modified by arrangements of geophysical features in the area. We wished to discover this arrangement and expand upon it, refining it, if possible.

Interviewer: Did you do any dowsing or any other kind of preliminary observations that could help verify this hypothesis?

Dr. Silver: Not to my knowledge.

Frater A.: Not as yet. That is part of our plan for evaluation.

Interviewer: What would constitute a success in the context of this ritual? For example, success can either be achieving whatever goal is held in the conscious mind, or good but unintended consequences that seem meaningfully related to the work.

Dr. Silver: Success for me would be a greater sense of ease, and harmony in my own relationship to my community, which I do feel, and in the overall tone of people’s relationships in our community.

Frater A.: We would consider success to be along those same lines, generally. In particular, this is a success if it a) is detectable by magickal or scientific means, b) shows any sign of attracting people to its maintenance, c) can be shown to positively effect the charging of talismans, d) can be shown to positively affect experiments in scrying, pathworking or similar workings. This is where we are headed, but it is very early in the game, we feel, so this is far from an exhaustive list.

Interviewer: Have you noticed anything that points towards the achievement of your goals or any unintended consequences, good, bad, or indifferent?

Dr. Silver: I enjoy the company.

Frater A.: It’s too early to tell, but there have been reports from Po that these exercises have stirred something odd in him and put a finer polish on his visualization skills. The feelings the rest of us have are about as vague at this point. It is interesting to note that, in the first period of evaluation, we obtained the services of a few “remote viewers” or clairvoyants and asked them to check up on what we had done, feeling fairly certain that they did not have access to much of the specific details of the project. The results they returned were quite significant. The overall shape and precise location were both described by these people. But stay tuned! That’s the sort of thing that’s going into Glyphbook 2.

More information about the Western traditions of planetary magick and the Companions of the Glyph can be found on their website located at: www.geocities.com/athens/oracle/8465.

This interview originally appeared in Cup of Wonder magazine.

©2006 Frater Auxilior Arti
Edited by Sheta Kaey.

Frater Auxilior Arti (nee Fr. Adsum Iterum) is an initiate of the Astrum Sophia, co-founder of the Companions of the Glyph and author of the Book of the Glyph and PRAXIS: The 2nd Book of the Glyph. A life-long student of the paranormal, he brings a scientific/Fortean viewpoint to the subject, a thing he feels is sadly neglected. You can find his Facebook page here.