Due to the overabundance of goetic magic being disseminated on the Internet, a read of the original Book of Black Magic by AE Waite feels more like a review of the Lady's Home Journal recipe book than a daring work of occult practices. Apparently no one is doing their own schtick anymore, they are calling up the demons of the Goetia to get their groove on. I am sure poor Bune would love to changed his sigil just to avoid the lot of us. Even the serial bad boys of the Goetia -- Baal, Asmodeus and Lucifer -- are getting a serious work out by less than stellar magicians (I saw an on line game calling for these three - I means, really? You want that lot showing up in your living room?) Seems anyone with a scrap of parchment and a wand can command Solomon's team of demons to come on down and play. I have no doubt why the world seems so topsy-turvy. Literally, who let the dogs out?
Witness the many uses of the Clavicle of Solomon and I don't mean just armchair magicians reading goetic evocations out loud. The Clavicle has been so trotted out, worked over, and stepped on so much, it's barely worth the paper it's written on these days. TV is the new minstrel on the block, and the writers have really been digging for stories (when they aren't reading comic books it seems.) There have been no less than five television shows that used some portion of the Solomonic work - The Librarians, The Dig, Grimm, Constantine and Dominion. Not the entire clavicle mind you, but enough so that if you are knowledgeable about the book, you will see or hear some of it in each show. I am sure the demonics love their five minutes of fame on the electronic circuit, but when the magic is so watered down as to feel comical, it loses all context and meaning for me. Alan Moore is probably turning green just thinking about how his work will be bastardized when he's gone (and if you don't know who that is, then you must go back a grade in Hogwart's...)
Being an occultist used to have such a mysterious air about it. Arcane tomes littered with odd languages uttered in dark chambers lit by candlelight while dressed in fabulous robes and weirdly symbolic jewelry. Nowadays, the world seems filled with social references to Cthulhu, the media is awash in zombies, ghost hunters, mediums and it seems everyone's a vampire. Or dating a vampire. Or hunting the chupacabra. Or the Jersey Devil. You can't watch television, read a newspaper or talk to anyone without them mentioning their current paranormal happening. Everyone's house is haunted. Every person has a spirit guide/guardian angel. Everyone is working with or married to or channeling various angels, demons and aliens. Hail me a UFO please - I need to get off the planet.
And in the midst of all this, the truly arcane knowledge has just dissipated into thin air, leaving behind more nonsense than ever. Writers are re-inventing, re-imagining and re-working the old information, quoting and misquoting it or one another so repeatedly that the real knowledge has become diluted; a mere shadow of what it once was. There are more books on the occult than ever before, and less information than there ever was to begin with. It's a downward spiral of repetition and adulteration that shows no sign of stopping.
Which brings me back to my teachings. I am no longer buying books to learn from. Yes, I buy books on occasion, but I no longer jump on every publication as soon as it comes out. I have come to the place in my practice where the spirits are instructing me and although it takes longer, it's much more fulfilling. I have taken the time to sit at my altar daily. I light candles, sing my prayers and meditate. My fellow mage, Jason Miller advocates meditation and he is so very right to do so. I am waiting - patiently mind you - for the download. It will be here, I am sure of it. And it will not be diluted, paraphrased, copied, repeated or plagiarized from somewhere else. It will be original, fresh and completely my own. I will be wholly liable for its efficacy or failure, and that works too.
Sciomancy is the truth that is kept by a living soul. Truth never dies, never goes away and like a fine cognac, just gets deeper and smoother with time. To call forth a soul in search of truth is to touch God in a way no ceremony can ever come close to doing. Necromancy, on the other hand, is the calling up of the body; the physical cadaver of the dead. It should not done lightly and requires a blood sacrifice to actually work. A real act of necromancy would send most armchair occultists running for the hills (no, a drop won't do...) Sciomancy is the real reason for "raising the dead."
Necromancy might give you an easy answer - but not necessarily the correct one. Sciomancy will always give you the truth, providing you approach the work in the light of truth. Meaning don't go lying to the spirits, because they know before you do, what the question will be. What I like to call the 'new occultists' are all looking for easy answers, like having the spirits to do the work for them. So listen up, I have a secret to tell you. Ready? The spirits won't "do" your life -- you do. You need to do the work. They can inspire you, create opportunities and open doors. But you have to walk through. You can certainly ask for help, and that's where sciomancy comes in. So I'll let you in on my new secret teaching for my godchildren this weekend. It's this:
Sciomancy is the new Necromancy. Let's get it on. Ayibobo.
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