From: Julia Phillips Area: ENOCHIAN To: Josh Norton 27 Sep 94 20:02:34 Subject: enochian 101 UpdReq Hello Josh! 16 Sep 94 14:47, Josh Norton wrote to Starchild: JN> In regard to my own practices, remember that I've been at this JN> business a long time, and my methods have gotten more than a JN> little idiosyncratic. Hey! I use exactly the same word to describe the way I do things :) JN> The problem with the first of these purposes is that while JN> certain types of forces can be cleared out of an area, any circle JN> a human being can create is going to remain transparent to many JN> other forces. Environmental (as opposed to invoked) astrological JN> forces in particular aren't affected at all by banishings, or by JN> any sort of shielding. They pass through the region of working, JN> and act on the magician, whether you want them there or not. Just a comment which may (or may not!) be of interest. In our magical system, "banishing" is really non-existent, being a euphemism for "balancing", more than anything else. One of the Hermetic exercises to integrate the Shadow self is to go through the whole process of creating the circle, censings & purifs, and so on, invoking the quarters, etc etc, and then discovering the "demon" is actually inside the circle anyway. As Above, So Below, As Without, So Within, and all that. The exercise concludes when the Shadow is accepted, and no longer perceived as a "demon". Don't know if this strikes any chords with you? JN> The circle-as-container view isn't really relevant to my everyday JN> work, since the only thing I'm trying to influence is my own JN> being and perceptions. Circle-as-container has never made logical sense to me: after all, if someone has erected an impervious magical barrier, then surely they have (in effect) created a magical vacuum? If the whole point of magical ritual is to connect with forces (gods, angels, amorphous discarnate entities, whatever), then creating an impervious barrier is surely defeating the object? If it works, then the magician will not be able to contact anything; if it doesn't work, why bother having it? Of course, my world-view is that the universe is reflected within my Self, and vice versa, so I'm not really into creating artificial structures to prevent that taking place JN> My magickal body does just fine as a JN> container for that purpose. I do use astral structures in some of JN> my major workings, but in those cases the structures are intended JN> to be permanent homes for the forces, and aren't shut down at the JN> end of a session. Yup, me too. B*B Julia 201434369420143436942014343694201434369420143436942014343694718