Left Hand Path666

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by Michael Kelly

A Publication of the Order ofApep

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Copyright 2009 by the author of this book Michael Kelly. The book
author retains sole copyright to his or her contributions to this book.

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CONTENTS

Introduction 7

The Trail of the Serpent 9

The Seven Heads of the Ancient Dragon 39

The Work of the First Head 69

The Work of the Second Head 93

The Work of the Third Head 125

The Work of the Fourth Head 159

The Work of the Fifth Head 219

The Work of the Sixth Head 265

The Work of the Seventh Head 283

Further Reading 287

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INTRODUCTION

Draconian magic is unequivocally a school of the Left-Hand
Path. That is to say it is a school which teaches the
immortalisation and deification of the individual psyche, as
opposed to the Right-Hand Path which seeks to submerge that
psyche within a sense of universal oneness. Draconian magic
is in its very essence terrifying, alienating and antinomian, but
- for the successful few - it is ultimately liberating,
illuminating and joyous. It is definitely not for the faint-
hearted or dilettante. Casual experimentation will prove
worthless, as the act of tearing oneself from the womb of the
cosmos is an exercise of Will and heroism, qualities gained
only through intense struggle.

This may sound very off-putting, but so it should.
Dragons in western lore are creatures of terror and death.
These fearful archetypes resonate with those from other
cultural roots, such as Tiamat, the Serpent of Eden and
especially the Egyptian Apep, the primal serpent of Chaos.

This book takes the symbolism of the seven-headed
dragon of antiquity and instructs the reader how to awaken
each of these heads within his own psyche, until he truly
becomes a magical dragon, a god in essence. This work is

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presented in a carefully measured curriculum, which if
followed will provide a steady and powerful process of
awakening. The work of the heads must be approached in the
order given in order to ensure consistent and reliable results.
Picking and choosing may result in nothing at best or mental
imbalance at worst. Experienced magicians may feel inclined
to take short cuts to reflect what they have already learned.
Truly experienced magicians will not do so, recognising that
there is always more to learn.

The teachings codified in this book are derived from
my experience as past Grand Master of the Temple of Set's
Order of Leviathan and were further developed in the later
independent Order of Apep. They have been tested by many
strong Initiates over many years and are of proven efficacy.
The first footsteps of this curriculum may be familiar from
many schools of magical practice, but the Work of the later
heads is, I believe, unique in print. Never before have the
ultimate aims and essence of the Left-Hand Path been
revealed so clearly in practical steps.

To those who will plumb the abyss of the reptilian
mind, awaken the fire serpent and ultimately see through the
Eye of Leviathan, I salute you!

Michael Kelly

- The Dragon Fafnir -

Winter 2009

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CHAPTER ONE

THE TRAIL OF THE SERPENT

What is Draconian Magic?

Draconian magic is, by definition, magic fuelled by the
symbolism and energies of dragons. Although today dragons
tend to be relegated to fantasy novels (usually trilogies, of
course) or fantasy cinema, their mythological roots are deep
and dark. I suspect that most people with a fascination for
dragons today have acquired it through fantasy rather than
myth. This is not always a bad thing. Tolkien's Smaug stands
upon firm and recognisable mythological roots, for instance,
and the serpents who slither through Robert E. Howard's
Conan stories are truly bearers of the helm of awe. But many
of the dragons of popular fantasy are far removed from the
Draconian spirit, becoming just another monster in a fictional
menagerie. The journey of rediscovering the true essence of
the dragon is an uncomfortable and terrifying experience for
most contemporary people, cruelly displaying aspects of their
own selves that they would rather not acknowledge. But self-
knowledge and self-integration are the only true keys to

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magical wisdom and magical power.

Draconian lore and practice are rarely found in any of
the published books on magic. There are a few very notable
exceptions, of course. Kenneth Grant's Typhonian Trilogies
are packed full of references to the Draconian current and
should be sought out and avidly devoured by all students of
this present curriculum. Don Webb's growing corpus of
Setian magical books - commencing with The Seven Faces of
Darkness - are likewise indispensible for both theoretical and
practical purposes. A selected, annotated reading list is
included at the back of this book.

One reason that so little of the Draconian current
appears in modern magical books is that it is unashamedly
and irrevocably Left-Hand Path in its aims and
methodologies. People are very afraid of this. The Right-
Hand Path teaches that the goal of the soul is to attain a
blissful union with God / Goddess / Universe, or - in the
purest forms of Right-Hand Path philosophy, such as
Buddhism - the very cessation of existence in a serene
nothingness. The Left-Hand Path in contrast champions
individual existence and ultimate Self-deification as its goal.
The Universe is not a thing to lose oneself in, but a
magnificent arena for play in which the Self may express and
develop its own unique and indissoluble essence in an ever-
expanding cycle of Remanifestation.

The first thing that the Initiate learns, however, is that
he knows next to nothing of himself. The personality is a
hotch-potch of parental and societal conditioning, shaped and
reshaped by the media, advertising and selective education.
The first tasks for the student are to strip away the accretions
to finally reveal his own unsullied central core. This process
of self-revelation is the first opening of the Eye of Leviathan,
learning to see things - and particularly oneself - as they

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really are. Even this first realisation is difficult and time-
consuming, much harder work than the majority of modern
people - and certainly the majority of occultists - are
prepared to commit themselves to. Add to this the fact that it
is always a frightening and disorienting experience that will
change the Initiate in irreversible ways and you don't really
need to wonder too hard why the Left-Hand Path is shunned
and feared.

But why dragons? Because of their mythology and
enduring imagery, certainly, but also because of their
biological inheritance. Man is the inheritor of the dragon's
wealth and power, as amply demonstrated in the myth of
Sigurd and Fafnir. The human brain stem is reptilian in origin
and the dragon thus signifies not consciousness itself, but that
monstrous primeval potential which births consciousness,
whose power still lies coiled deep within. Mythologically,
the world was formed from the body of the primordial dragon
Tiamat and human beings sprang from the droplets of
demonic blood shed in that conflict of proto-Gods. Many
dragon myths conceal great initiatory secrets.

The Left-Hand Path conjures different images in
different minds. The term originated in India, where it
referred specifically to those sexual magical techniques which
accelerated the soul on its journey. In this early context, its
goal was seen as no different from that of the Right-Hand
Path: cosmic union, or oblivion, depending upon your
interpretation. The difference between the Paths lay in the
sexual methodology, in the deliberate breaking of social and
moral taboos to free the soul from its enthrallment to
orthodoxy, and in the emphasis it placed upon the female.
The Left-Hand Path offered a much quicker, but much more
dangerous, route to the top of the same mountain.

The term evolved with time and cultural changes,

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whilst retaining its underlying qualities and methodology. In
the Victorian era, the phrase had passed into the West via
Blavatsky and her writings, and the gentlemen and ladies of
organisations such as the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn
would mutter about it under their breath with dire warnings,
equating the Left-Hand Path with Black Magic. It is not
difficult to understand how such sexually explicit practices
were regarded in those straitlaced times.

Aleister Crowley - without doubt the most renowned
magician of the last century - is often termed a Black
Magician by the ignorant, indeed he would sometimes claim
to be one himself when the mood took him. But Crowley's
philosophy and practice are contradictory in this respect. In
his writings he seems ardently Right-Hand Path, but his huge
ego and zest for life mark him to the Left. He heaps scorn
upon the 'Black Brothers' who close themselves up, but these
changeless shells he describes bear no relation to the Self-
transformations of the true Left-Hand Path practitioner.
Crowley's writings, whilst pivotal, are a mass of
contradictions on this subject. He seemed torn between his
own early training and his personal magical experience. But
it must be said that the central core of his teachings, The Book
of the Law, is utterly Left-Hand Path in tone and implication.
Ipsissimus Crowley's work remains invaluable and Don
Webb's recent book, Aleister Crowley: The Fire and the
Force, at last provides us with a coherent Left-Hand Path
analysis of Crowley's system and philosophy.

In purely practical terms, Crowley's use of sex in his
'Magick' and the antinomian role he adopted as the Great
Beast 666 were absolutely Left-Hand Path methodologies and
they certainly led to his strait-laced contemporaries labelling
him as such and shunning him in consequence. Then the
novels of writers such as Dennis Wheatley introduced the

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phrase to the wider reading public. These twin factors - the
notoriety of Crowley and the romances of Wheatley -
irrevocably equated the Left-Hand Path in the West with the
practice of Satanism.

Rather than kick against this association, the Left-
Hand Path thrived because of it. In 1966, Anton Szandor
LaVey, who had long held spooky soirees and occult
ceremonies at his San Francisco residence, formally
established the Church of Satan as a vehicle for his
philosophies. LaVey produced a streamlined and utterly
pragmatic system of magic which focused upon personal
power and satisfaction as its raison d'etre, Indulgence being
his watchword. A born showman, LaVey played his role as
Satan's High Priest to perfection. When he penned his
grimoire, The Satanic Bible, it wasn't published as an in-house
pamphlet, but as a hugely popular mass market paperback.

While this was going on, Kenneth Grant, who had
studied under the tuition of the aged Crowley, benefitting
from his mentor's entire lifetime of experience, had been
operating the New Isis Lodge of the Typhonian O.T.O.
Mingling Crowley's teachings with those of his other friend
and teacher, the London artist / occultist Austin Osman Spare,
Mr Grant breached a wide expanse of new territory. He
began the process of writing his discoveries in the volumes of
his Typhonian Trilogies series, commencing with The
Magical Revival. Mr Grant has deliberately never presented
his books as practical manuals, but for those already practiced
in Crowley's methodologies, a complete and working system
of Left-Hand Path Qabalah can be mined from these volumes,
which feature the Left-Hand Path staples of sexual and
Draconian magic heavily.

Meanwhile, dissent within the Church of Satan led to
Magister Michael Aquino resigning from the organisation,

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along with several other high profile members. Dr Aquino
invoked the Prince of Darkness for guidance and was hailed
by Set, the ancient Egyptian deity who is the earliest Form of
the Lord of Darkness conceptualised by (or revealed to) man.
Set inspired Dr Aquino to write a document entitled The Book
of Coming Forth by Night, which defined a new philosophical
and magical Vision and severed the Left-Hand Path in the
West from the Judeo-Christian taint inherent in Satanism.
The Temple of Set, founded in 1975, remains the foremost
global initiatory school of the Left-Hand Path today. A full
account of Left-Hand Path history and philosophy up to this
point may be found in Lords of the Left-Hand Path by
Stephen E. Flowers.

Within the Temple of Set, it became the practice for
the Masters of the Temple to establish Orders, specialised
schools in which they could concentrate their particular brand
of teaching. James Lewis, one of the Temple's earliest
Masters and a man with a fascination for the serpentine,
founded the Order of Leviathan. The Order was established
to investigate the implications of the 'Statement of Leviathan'
in Michael Aquino's inspired piece of writing entitled The
Diabolicon. The Order fixed its view firmly upon the future
evolution of the Initiated Self and abandoned the traditional
theatrics of magic in favour of a direct and focused
application of the Will. At the time of the Order's founding,
Magister Lewis sought guidance through a series of Apep
Workings', which charged him to "teach them immortality".
The immortalisation of the psyche became a central focus of
the Order of Leviathan, ultimately giving rise to the magical
process and philosophy of Remanifestation, the cornerstone
of contemporary Draconian magic.

In 1996, Ipsissimus James Lewis stepped down from
his position as head of the Order of Leviathan and I assumed

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the post of Grand Master. I worked hard to consolidate the
breakthroughs he had made and put his ideas fully into
practice. The Order ritual at the 1996 Temple of Set
Conclave at which I assumed the Grand Mastery was quite
deliberately the most outrageously theatrical we had ever
staged, "with a thousand elephants" as the saying goes. But it
was a last hurrah. I formalised my predecessor's Vision of
magic worked "by force of Will alone" and at the Munich
Conclave a couple of years later, the Order Working took
place in a darkened room without ritual robes, without props
or paraphernalia, without a script. All who attended avowed
it to be one of the most intense and devastatingly powerful
group Workings in which they had ever participated.

Among my teachings as Grand Master were those
core discoveries which form the basis for much of the
material in this book. Having honed magical practice down to
its barest, most spartan, essentials, I was able to intuit a new,
more accurate, model of how exactly magic works. This new
model I termed the Magic of the Void. Using this model, I
was able to chart the inner process that motivates magic and
strives for the immortalisation of the psyche. This process I
termed the Magic of Desire. From these twin

Understandings, I was able to prepare my personal Seal, the
Eye of Leviathan, pictured below, which contains all of the
Secrets of Draconian magic in symbolic form. All three of
these things are discussed in great detail in this book.

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In time, I too stepped down as Grand Master of the
Order of Leviathan, passing its reins to another, whilst I took
time to reflect upon my teachings and allow them to gestate. I
finally resigned from The Temple of Set - which should not
be interpreted as any kind of criticism against that fine
initiatory school - as I knew that I needed to forge something
new as a vehicle for my teachings, something fully
harmonious with, yet distinct from, the Temple in which I had
earned my Mastery. Thus I established the independent Order
of Apep as a Remanifestation of my own focal teachings
within the Order of Leviathan. To inaugurate the Order, I
performed a fresh series of Apep Workings to establish a
resonance with those upon which James Lewis had founded
the Order of Leviathan so many years before. The revelations
were astounding, reforging my ideas into a coherent
curriculum which framed itself around the ancient and
powerful symbolism of the seven heads of the primordial
serpent. This curriculum was introduced in the Order's
journal, Apophis, and is now explained in full in this book, so
that others may tread the trail of the serpent. The full record
of the Apep Workings which shaped the curriculum is also
reprinted in its proper place in these pages.

The Order of Apep is an umbrella beneath which
Apepian Initiates can share their work and ideas. This
process continues and new projects are underway at the time
of writing. In late 2005 I began the process of preparing the
Order's teachings for wider circulation in this book. I do this
not only to share what we have learned and to encourage
others to seek the innermost secrets of their souls, but also as
a very deliberate act of Draconian magic, in the sure and
certain knowledge that the seeds thus cast into the world will
bear strange fruit and that a new turn on the initiatory spiral
of Remanifestation will be discovered in consequence. I

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await it eagerly.

An Unholy Trinity

Draconian magic is not pantheon-specific and the Initiates of
the Order of Apep have worked extremely effective magic
within the traditions of the Egyptians, the Teutons and the
Enochian deities, among others. The actual faces and
identities of the god-forms invoked are thus largely dependent
upon the affinity, aesthetic and cultural / genetic imprint of
the individual practitioner.

In all cases, however, it will be found that three major
archetypes or Forms predominate within the Draconian
initiatory process and none of these may be safely excluded
from the Work. Indeed, there will be no Work at all unless
the Initiate can forge a vital personal link with each of these
divine beings, learning to recognise their promptings without
self-delusion, and to act decisively upon the guidance
received.

The first of these Forms is the Lord of Darkness, the
God of Consciousness. The second Form is the Scarlet
Woman, the Goddess of Desire. The third Form is the
Serpent, the Force for Remanifestation. Each of these is
discussed in some detail below. Through the Initiate's
interactions with these Deities, a new personal God will
ultimately arise if all is well done. This is the personal
Daemon - also called the Holy Guardian Angel by other
nomenclature - which will be discussed later in this book in
its proper place.

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The Lord of Darkness

The Lord of Darkness is, first and foremost, the God of
Consciousness. It may seem strange that consciousness - the
primary defining factor of human existence - is said to be
derived from the Prince of Darkness, the Devil. But this is
true in any mythology you might care to examine. In the
Biblical Eden myth, humanity is given self- awareness through
the prompting of the Serpent to taste the forbidden fruit. In
ancient Egypt, the dread Set was the champion of
individuality, the Self-willed rebel in a structured and
inflexible society. He was the God who was against the
Gods. In Greek mythology, humans acquired consciousness
only when Prometheus stole fire from heaven, a
consciousness that the jealous Gods never intended mankind
to have. In Northern myth, man was granted consciousness,
intelligence and being as a tripartite gift from the grim and
dark God Odin. And so the list goes on. In each case, man's
consciousness and sense of Self is bestowed upon him by a
dark entity - itself a conscious and rebellious being - in
defiance of the laws of conformity.

The Lord of Darkness - the giver of the Gift of Self -
is thus the primary Deity of the Left-Hand Path, since the
purpose of that Path is the deification of Self itself, the
exaltation and development of that Gift to the maximum
degree.

In each mythology, it is the Gods of Darkness who
have given consciousness and self-determination to the
human race. The conventional Deities of the Right-Hand
Path and the establishment chastise these Dark Gods and their
followers, branding mankind as willful and rebellious,
demanding our obedience and a return to subjugation. In
Judeo-Christian myth, we are worthless sinners who must

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renounce our own wicked desires and throw ourselves upon
the mercy of God; our sole purpose is to worship him and to
practice self-denial. In Egypt, the dominant cults insisted
upon adherence to the social codes, living life according to
the strictly regulated dictates of religious law. Obedience,
self-denial, servitude: these are the creeds of the Right-Hand
Path which are present in every majority religion wherever
you may look. They are contemptible and an insult to our
own conscious existence.

However, the Dark Gods strike against these attitudes.
In Norse lore, Odin slays the monolithic giant Ymir so that a
new and lively world may be born. He infuses humanity with
consciousness and ecstasy so that fresh innovations and joys
might arise through our genius. He foresees the need for
change in this seething transformative matrix - Ragnarok -
and employs His cunning and craft to ensure His own
metamorphosis and rebirth through that change.

In Egyptian mythology, three events in particular
stand out as we examine Set in His role as Lord of the Left-
Hand Path. Firstly, He is Self-Created. He is not born in
natural fashion, but tears Himself out of the constricting
womb and into manifestation. He then bestows His Gift upon
mankind, granting the spark of individual identity and Self-
awareness to our species. In the mythology, He becomes the
murderer of Osiris, the God of the Dead, who stifles creativity
and individuality in his confining mummy wrappings. Set
effectively slays Death itself.

Set is not a comfortable or docile God. On the one
hand, He can be a spirit of fury and passion; on the other
hand, He may be as cold and calculating as a reptile. But He
is always Himself, never a slave. To humanity He gave the
capacity to rebel against constraints, the ambition and vision
to reach for the stars, the Will to live as free and passionate

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beings instead of docile sheep subject to the whims of others.
Indeed, He placed deep within the core of our species the
Divine Fire of a God - the Black Flame - that we may have
the capacity to become as He is.

These things, of course, come at a price. The sad but
simple fact is that the constricting and choking religions of
the Right-Hand Path are a true representation of the hopes and
opinions of most people. When faced with the infinite
expanse of space and the eternal sweep of time, most people
are horrified by the realisation that their own minds are
seemingly also limitless and that an entire universe of
imagination and subjective reflection lies within them. In the
face of immensity, their first reaction is to deny it, to run and
hide themselves under a rock, terrified by their own freedom
and potential. Thus they seek out and serve gods, priests and
politicians who call them sinners and deviants, condemning
the blasphemy of selfhood and compelling conformity,
obedience and a comforting narrowness of vision. And,
inevitably, those who defy these strictures and revel in their
self-awareness and consciousness are labelled heretics and
destroyed in the most brutal manner possible, agonies
inflicted upon them to reflect the pain felt by those blind
bigots whose feeble inner eyes cannot bear the brightness of
an ascendant star.

So I do not begin to pretend that the Left-Hand Path is
for everyone. It is for a certain kind of mind, an outsider who
shuns comforting conformity and accepts his own essence as
the sole reason for his being. It is for the pioneer who desires
to push back the furthest frontiers of knowledge and
possibility in his quest for beauty, new experience and further
becoming. It is for those who see life in all of its comedies
and tragedies as Play, a glorious kaleidoscope of
metamorphosis, a thing of joy even in its most painful

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moments. It is for those who can speak with thunder in their
voices the watchword of Set: "Xeper: I have Come into
Being". If you are not one of these people, then Draconian
magic is not for you and it can only bring you terror and
misery. To you I would say, go on your way and enjoy life in
comfort. There is nothing for you here.

But for those who rejoice in their identity, in their
status as self-aware and unique beings, for those who seek to
catalyse and actualise that essential Selfhood in the ultimate
goal of Self-deification, for those there is no greater God or
role model than Set, who tore Himself from the constricting
womb, who became an untamed force of war and storms, who
ignited the same Flame of non-conformity in humanity and
who ultimately slew Death itself. In order to focus and
Remanifest my own personal Work, I resigned from the
Temple of Set after a ten year period. But I retain my status
as a Priest of Set in my inmost being and always will. Set is
the oldest historical expression of the Lord of Darkness
known to our race and His image, mythology and living
Essence confirm Him as the Prince of Darkness.

Moreover, Set is a God totally divorced from the
Judeo-Christian world model. He is not a Devil forever
subservient to an omnipotent, omniscient overlord who moves
in mysterious ways. He is the God against the Gods of stasis,
the one who champions the cause of the heroic - or indeed
anti-heroic - individual against the homogenising mass and
He does so with terrible force. Lust, ecstasy, ferocity: these
are the attributes of Set and His Priests. But not as
debilitating addictions; they are epicurean manifestations of
Will, exultant power rather than guilt-ridden wretchedness.
Set is not the underdog Devil of Christianity, He is the
conquering power who will not be constrained. Set is not
Anti-Christian per se: Christianity is simply irrelevant, it

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doesn't matter.

We might pause to ask why a being such as Set would
bother to bestow the Gift of consciousness upon our species.
There are two possible reasons that spring to mind
(additional, more complex, factors will no doubt occur to you
as your Initiation progresses, but these initial considerations
are the principal pair). Firstly, we might as well wonder why
human magicians seek company. Why join Orders, Temples,
and so forth? Partly for company, partly for like minds to test
our ideas on, who can provide feedback and enthusiasm - or
correction and criticism when necessary - thus inspiring us to
further Becoming. Since our own consciousness must by
definition be similar to that of its Giver, we can presume that
Set too desires companionship. Indeed, in Dr Aquino's Book
of Coming Forth by Night, Set's Initiates are bidden to
approach Him as they would a friend.

The second fundamental reason behind Set's Gift of
consciousness to our species is to assist Him in retaining His
own sense of Self. Consider a being in Set's position, the
Universe responding to His Will and reshaping itself
according to His Desire. The Universe would become a
simple mirror of Set, reflecting and expressing His every
thought. He and it would ultimately be indistinguishable, He
would lose His boundaries, His sense of Self as a separate
entity would be gone. In the end, He would inevitably
succumb to inertial sleep and consciousness would once again
be lost. It is by our differences that we define ourselves and
in order to remind ourselves of who we are and what vitalises
our essence, our Wills need to meet with resistance, with
something which is not us and which may be moving at a
tangent to our plans, forcing us to adapt and revaluate. So it
is with Set too. He is a warrior, who loves a challenge. He
therefore bestows consciousness upon other creatures as a

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magical Gift. Now the Universe will be pushed and pulled in
many directions by many Wills, some greater, some lesser.
But it will no longer be a simple mirror of Set. Now He may
pursue His purposes, striving to overcome conflicting
currents, winning through might rather than default. With
every action, His own identity is reasserted and He no longer
risks absorption.

It is interesting to consider that having instilled
consciousness within our species, Set is loathe to interfere
further. We have been granted the capacity for free Self-Will
and this Gift is all we're getting. If you find yourself in a tight
spot, there is no point in calling upon Set to get you out of it.
At best, He will not do so: at worst, He will be angered by
your weakness. He has given us the intelligence and the Will
to determine our own fate by our own thoughts and actions.
For Him to intervene further and sort out our problems for us
would be to demean and deny the dignity of His Gift of Self-
determination. In effect, it would be to take away from what
He has already given.

This being the case, you may ask what purpose there
is in approaching Set at all? There are two reasons for doing
so. The first is a form of bond known only by those who are
truly free: it is a bond of loyalty and honour, a desire to
openly acknowledge the one who made us what we are. The
second is that Set delights in fellowship with those who
actively exercise His Gift to remake themselves and their
worlds. To such, He may reveal His own purposes and
insights in an exchange of essence, which may ultimately give
rise to a new Priest of Set, one who may speak with the voice
and authority of the Prince of Darkness. This is a touching of
souls, in which each is enriched by the other, yet retains its
own Being.

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The Scarlet Woman

Mythologically, Set had three wives, each one of them 'ball-
busting bitches', to quote a contemporary Priestess of Set.
These were Nepthys, Anat and Ishtar. Nepthys was an
Egyptian Goddess, the other two were imported foreign
deities of war and eroticism. None of them were shrinking
violets. Perhaps in bestowing these three powerful wives
upon Set, the other Egyptian Gods may have hoped that the
women might succeed in taming Him a little. They did not.
Instead, the influence of these Goddesses inspired Set to even
greater ferocity.

The Mystery of the Scarlet Woman (or the Daemon
Lover if you are female) is the Quest for the Other. Love is
the Law of Creation. Two bodies combine and a third is
produced from their coupling. This is true on all planes. On
the atomic level, atoms meet and combine to form more
complex molecules. These molecules again create more
complex and specialised forms until living systems ultimately
arise. Atoms themselves are sustained by the relationships
between sub-atomic particles. Complex living systems mate
and produce offspring which are unique combinations of the
properties of both parents and a little more besides. On a
cosmic scale, clouds of gas and dust and the force of
gravitation can ultimately birth suns and planets. Yes, Love
is the Law of Creation and since magicians are particularly
creative, Love is a powerful force in us and through us. We
Understand it, Need it and wield it.

As has been said above, Set was not chained by His
three wives, He was inspired by them and in Don Webb's
Book of the Heb-Sed, Set speaks openly of His Beloved,
whose secret name is 'Victory'. This is Norea, the true name
of His wife Nepthys (Nepthys being a title rather than a

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name). Magical Love must always be inspirational and
liberating rather than restrictive and confining; it is the beauty
of starlight, not the stuffiness of convention. As Aleister
Crowley put it, "Love is the Law, Love under Will".
Magicians - who are great lovers - must ensure that they
always love greatly.

We may pause at this point to consider why this is so
important an issue for a practitioner of the Left-Hand Path.
To do so, we must first remind ourselves what differentiates
us from the Right-Hand Path. Our Western cultural bias
means that when we think of the Right-Hand Path, we
immediately think of the Judeo-Christian religions which
have diseased our society for centuries. In truth, however,
these are corrupt distortions, a combination of Right-Hand
Path self-negating philosophy and the fanaticism of power-
hungry clerics who use that philosophy to tyrannise others
because of the loathing they feel for themselves.. If we want
to see a pure example of the Right-Hand Path, we must look
to the gentler philosophy of Buddhism, which we of the Left
reject because of its defeatist goals rather than its rabid guilt.
Buddhism holds that sorrow is a bad thing and that sorrow is
a result of desire: we desire that which we don't / can't have
and this makes us miserable. Thus, the Buddhist seeks to
eliminate desire and enter instead a state of inert bliss. The
Left-Hand Path, however, holds that sorrow gives value and
meaning to life and is a powerful galvanising force. If you
feel sorrow, it signifies that something in your life was
valuable and precious enough for you to feel its loss keenly;
this is a positive thing. Life is an adventure, a Quest, a thing
of Beauty. For us, Desire is our greatest strength.

The whole question of Desire and the Sense of Beauty
is explored in some considerable depth in the Work of the
fifth head of Apophis, presented later in this book. But at its

25

APOPHIS

most basic level, the Scarlet Woman Formula is what keeps
the magician fresh. She represents all that the magician holds
sacred and holy, all that he strives towards and yearns for.
She embodies those qualities found within his own Self which
are not yet manifest and She also embodies those qualities in
the Universe outside of his Self which complement him and
make him complete. However, it is a serious error to see Her
as merely a projection of these things. Above and beyond
these, She is a Being and a Power in Her own right.

It is obvious from the above that the true Scarlet
Woman is a Goddess, not a person. It is, however, only
natural that magicians will seek to find a suitable fleshly
partner through whom She may clearly manifest Herself to
them. Aleister Crowley certainly did, having a whole stream
of mistresses in his quest to find Her in the flesh, most
notably Leah Hirsig. But in his Magical Record he makes
plain his love for Babalon first and foremost. Several
contemporary Magi of my acquaintance also seem to have
found that fleshly partner who best incarnates their aspiration.

In most love affairs, it is said that relationships should
be built upon compromise. This is not so with the Scarlet
Woman: She is utterly uncompromising. But so is the
magician who loves Her. His Will is steel, completely
focused upon his Work. But the magician and his Lady share
a Vision and their uncompromising natures both lead in the
same direction, each striking creative sparks from the other,
urging to greater efforts, greater heroism, greater deeds. This
is why the magician is so inspired by the Goddess who is the
Scarlet Woman and by the rare mortal who incarnates Her for
him. This is also why magicians - despite being passionate
lovers - are notoriously bad at handling ordinary human
relationships. The Will and the Work are everything and if a
partner cannot accept and support that totally, then the partner

26

APOPHIS

will be left behind.

This highlights the major difference in perspective
which the Left-Hand Path sheds upon the question of love and
relationships. The philosophy of most romantic relationships
remains that of the caveman. It is primarily about possession
and the personal pride of the possessor in his / her possession.
People speak of 'my wife', 'my boyfriend', or in the most pig-
ignorant and primitive forms of 'my bitch 1 . This is the
philosophy that leads to so-called crimes of passion: 'If I can't
have you, no one will'. The lesser and more familiar
companion to this is the entire notion of unfaithfulness.
Unfaithful to what, pray? In contrast to this possessiveness,
the Left-Hand Path agrees wholeheartedly with Crowley's
declaration that "there shall be no property in human flesh".
Instead, we rejoice in the freedom of our beloved, we relish
her every new Becoming. The Right-Hand Path seeks union
in a marriage, but we know that it is our differences that
attract us and we worship our lovers as the unique and
wonderful beings that they are. They inspire us, they enrich
us, but they are not our property, nor are we theirs.

The above attitude champions neither monogamy nor
promiscuity. It simply insists that the Initiate must practise
'Love under Will'. In other words, seek the Love that best
inspires your Work and enthuses you. A good lover is a
catalyst for Self-discovery and Self-expression, leading
ultimately to Self-metamorphosis. Anything less is a mere
pastime, a convention or even a prison. Love in full
accordance with your Desire.

The true and abiding Love, of course, as has already
been said, is that of the divine contra-sexual being, the
Goddess who provides the counterbalance for your own
identity, embodying all that you lack. It is the love of Faust
for the Eternal Feminine, who draws us ever on. It is the love

27

APOPHIS

for Runa, the Lady of Mystery, who is always just beyond the
next horizon. It is the unquenchable yearning of the heart for
its Other.

The term 'Scarlet Woman' is of great antiquity, dating
back to the Mysteries of Ishtar. It was already old by the time
it was used to describe the consort of the Beast in the Biblical
Revelation. But let us seek a definition from the Beast, for it
is through the Work of Aleister Crowley that the term has
been made most familiar to contemporary magicians. In The
Magical Record of the Beast 666, Crowley's magical diaries
from his Cefalu period, we find the following definition of the
Scarlet Woman: "the vehicle of the Power of the Beast".
This is an Absolute and True definition.

Hands up those who were outraged at the blatant
sexism of the above definition. Now hands up those who
were even more outraged by my defence of this definition as
"Absolute and True" (with capital letters, no less). Crowley
has often come in for criticism of this sort, with claims that he
was misogynistic. There are, of course, those who excuse
him by saying that although his views and treatment of
women were poor by our modern standards, they were
remarkably enlightened for the times in which he lived. He
constantly fought against the bias of his own age and
upbringing to declare that "every man and every woman is a
star". But how dare I, as a modern magician in an equal
opportunities age, echo his definition of the Scarlet Woman
as "the vehicle of the Power of the Beast"? It dismays me to
have to spell out the obvious, but our minds are so shaped by
the agendas of political correctness that we tend to forget to
stop and think for ourselves. Surely I should not have to point
out that the logical and necessary complement to the above
definition should be that it is equally Absolute and True to
declare that the Beast is "the vehicle of the Power of the

28

APOPHIS

Scarlet Woman"?

Having established that the Scarlet Woman is first
and foremost a Goddess, we may ask what form that Goddess
may take. Her aspect will differ depending upon the
individual Initiate. Some magicians of my acquaintance have
found great favour by bending the knee to one of Set's three
wives: Nepthys, Anat or Ishtar. Babalon, the Enochian
Goddess with whom Crowley was enamoured, is another
perfect example of Her face and form. But it is very likely
that the ultimate choice will not be yours to make. You may
begin by selecting a suitably appealing Goddess Form to
approach Her, but when She replies She will dress Herself in
the image She chooses. She came to me as the ancient Celtic
Goddess Badb and thus I am a devotee of the Cult of the
Banshee. When She does come, it will be unmistakeable.

All of this begs the question whether it is necessary
for the Scarlet Woman to manifest Herself in a fleshly form to
the Initiate. Need the Idea take on incarnation? Crowley
certainly thought so and he spent his life searching for Her,
though he always kept Babalon as a Goddess at the forefront
of his mind. I feel that it is wrong to assume that any given
person is going to be the sole conduit of Her power and
influence. She will speak to you through many masks and
guises throughout the course of your life, very often without
Her temporary vehicle even being aware of it, or such is my
experience at least. Crowley perhaps erred in expecting each
of his mistresses to be the One instead of accepting each as
the Star she was. This is not to deny that a skilled magician
of the opposite sex cannot deliberately and Willfully manifest
herself as your complement in a long term manner. I have
known several powerful and magical relationships established
for very many years in this manner. But in such a case you,
of course, must also provide her with her own complement for

29

APOPHIS

the flow to continue, each feeding and inspiring the other.

The truth of the matter seems to be that the Scarlet
Woman will reveal aspects of Herself through a number of
women, some fleeting and others longer term, but it is
possible also for a dedicated and compatible co-Initiate to
become a more focused channel for Her. The choice lies in
the nature and Will of the individual Initiate and the kinds of
relationships he cultivates. "Take your fill and will of love as
ye will, when, where and with whom ye will!" as Crowley's
Book of the Law puts it. However, I would add a point from
my own experience here which I have rarely seen recorded in
magical texts: absence can indeed make the heart grow
fonder and can inspire the magician to a fever pitch of
aspiration and creativity. The following extract is taken from
a paper entitled There and Back Again, a magical record of
my Banshee Workings, penned just after my fleshly lover had
departed overseas:

"Cruelty indeed in a human sense, but deep down I knew and
I know that She was present in the parting. The simple truth
is that family life would have been a barrier to my Work I
Work Alone, no other way, and without the spur of Desire
unfulfilled and of dissatisfaction, my Work would have been
more difficult and less True. I tasted of these things in order
to know them, but they were not who I am, nor are they who I
should Become.

"The Desire and Need for such things is essential,
but I feel She will ever keep them at arm's length as She
dances Her teasing dance. And I the better for it, and I
Become my own Self through it...

"How cunningly played, that I should be
simultaneously inspired and stimulated, yet kept distant and
yearning. Perhaps cruel,... but nevertheless a perfect

30

APOPHIS

balance to bring out the very Self of me. What we Need is not
always what we want, and I have long understood that
fulfilment is very bad for me. And this Formula of Desire
over distance brings me far closer to the deep roots of the
Banshee. Employing careful capitalisation, one might say
that when Need is strong and she is distant, She is near. "

All of this is to say that Her goals are not human ones, nor are
they your own. The Invocation of the Scarlet Woman will
inevitably bring forces into play in your life which will
change you irrevocably in the ways you Need, not necessarily
the ways you would want or choose from your previous
perspective.

It remains to point out one obvious fact that has
doubtless been overlooked by the politically correct in their
fervour to find fault. I have written this account of the Scarlet
Woman wholly from the perspective of the heterosexual male
magician. As a man, I can do no other: mine is the Path of
Odin, not of Freyja. It remains for a female Initiate to write
the other half of this chapter. Accusations of sexism are thus
utterly refuted. I may only write of the Path I experience.
Crowley did the same and has often been unfairly condemned
for it. But only a fool will pontificate on the Mysteries he is
not given to experience.

What should be obvious to any discerning Initiate is
that what is true for the current of the male magician will be
true in the opposite direction for the current of the female
magician. The male will tend to adopt the Prince of Darkness
as an initiatory role model and will Desire the Mysteries of
the Scarlet Woman: the female will tend to adopt the Scarlet
Woman as an initiatory role model and will Desire the
Mysteries of the Prince of Darkness. But each sex will draw
inspiration and sustenance from each Deity, although the

31

APOPHIS

relationships will differ. Initiates whose Desire is of a
homosexual or lesbian flavour will discover further Mysteries
to suit their Needs within these relationships.

The Serpent

The last member of our triumvirate of Gods is the Serpent, the
ancient Dragon. Draconian Deities have figured large in
many ancient legends and myth cycles. The Sumerian Tiamat
is the dragon of the primordial abyss, a Goddess of Chaos
who was slain by the new Gods of Order. But She abides, as
Her flesh and bones formed the structure of the cosmos and
from the spilled blood of Her and Her kindred sprang the
races of demons and men. Thus Her consciousness dwells
deep within us now, at the roots of mind. We are the children
of Her blood.

A similar theme is struck in the Biblical myth of
'Genesis', in which the Serpent persuades Eve to partake of
the fruit of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil,
which she shares with Adam. Thus, the primordial humans
gain consciousness and a sense of Self through the guidance
of the Serpent and the mindless inertia of Eden is shattered.
Significantly, this great achievement is made through the
female. The Left-Hand Path is noteworthy in its use of the
female as Initiatrix, primarily through sexual rites. In many
ancient myths, such as that of Tiamat, the Dragon itself is
explicitly female. The Serpent's Promise is that "ye shall
become as gods" and in the Qabalistic system ultimately
derived from Biblical lore, the Path of the Serpent provides
the winding route up the second forbidden tree, the Tree of
Life, allowing humanity to win Godhood at the Crown
through the divine metamorphosis of the Self awoken by the

32

APOPHIS

Serpent.

The Serpent finds a wonderful form in the entity
named Leviathan, an enormous sea creature that embodies
primordial Chaos, both in its own vast and coiling motion and
the deep abyss in which it dwells. It was as Leviathan that the
serpentine consciousness arose within the Temple of Set
through the person of James Lewis. Leviathan became
defined as "the principle of continuity and ageless existence"
and shaped the Temple's views on immortality, ultimately
birthing the magical process of Remanifestation.

In Egypt, a land well familiar with snakes, the Serpent
manifested in many symbolic forms. There was the kingly
Uraeus - the cobra poised about to strike - which adorned the
pharaonic crown, thus symbolising the peak of Initiation and
Self-deification. There was the dual serpent Mehen, whose
Mysteries are touched upon in Don Webb's published
writings. But primarily for our purposes there was Apep - or
Apophis in Greek - the Serpent of bewitchment and illusion,
who sought to devour the sun.

The relationship between Apep and Set was wholly
different in the various stages of development (both temporal
and geographical) of Egyptian mythology. At one point, they
were enemies and fought at sunrise each day, Set being the
only God capable of resisting the Serpent's hypnotising stare,
driving it back and preventing it from swallowing the barque
of the sun. At other times, they were seen as allies, two
raging dragons opposed to the stately order of the Egyptian
cosmos. In the final muddied mythologies their distinctions
were blurred altogether and Apep was seen as simply another
form of Set.

The confusion is understandable, though
disappointing. The relationship between the two is easily
discovered by examining the principles they embody. Set is

33

APOPHIS

defined as "the Principle of Isolate Intelligence"; Apep is
defined as "the Principle of continuity and ageless existence".
Set is the principle of Self-Ordering; Apep is the principle of
Chaos and eternal renewal, never the same from one moment
to the next, yet of a single timeless Essence. Their enmity /
opposition is explained because Set creates Himself as a
unique and sovereign being, Self-created and Self-sustaining,
by forcibly tearing Himself from His mother's womb, i.e. from
the shifting currents of Leviathan. He then must sustain His
own Essence and defy the tendency to be absorbed back into
Chaos. But the opposite tendency is equally devastating;
without conflict and the continual testing of his limits, He will
enter a state of stasis and calcify. Thus, He sports with Apep,
finding expression and joy in His play within the Serpent's
illusions, that Play which we call Life. In order to achieve
His own immortality, Set must therefore embrace the Serpent
who embodies timeless existence, but without being
entrapped in its coils and losing His own identity.

The task of the Draconian Initiate is twofold. We
must seek to emulate Set, recreating ourselves as sovereign
self-ordered beings, separating ourselves from the tyranny of
those forces that would overwhelm and submerge us. Then,
having won to the pinnacle of Self, impervious to life's
bufferings, we must throw ourselves joyfully into Play in the
arena of Life, the Abyss in which Apep coils. Ultimately, our
aim is to touch the heart of the chaotic maelstrom that is
Reality and perceive the Absolute by looking through the Eye
of the Serpent itself, whilst retaining the sense of Self. This is
a difficult balancing act on a perilous and precarious path, but
damn it all, it's great fun! These concepts will become clearer
and the means more obvious as the Work progresses.

In the east, the original birth-place of the Left-Hand
Path as a label for a distinct spiritual approach, we find the

34

APOPHIS

Serpent manifest in the concept of Kundalini, the fire snake
which lies coiled at the base of the spine. Kundalini
embodies that unique synthesis of spirit and flesh which is so
characteristic of the Left-Hand Path. Activated by the careful
application of sexual energies, the Serpent uncoils and
ascends the spinal column to unite with the brain, flooding the
Initiate's psyche with its numinous power. This sexual aspect
of the rites of the Serpent will be addressed further in this
book when we consider in depth the symbolism of the Seal of
the Order of Apep, known as the Eye of Leviathan.

Dragons are, of course, revered in the cultures and
legends of the Far East and also in the far West, where
Serpents stare menacingly from their stone perches on the
temples of the Aztecs. All of these are of great potential
value to the Initiates of Apep and will bear great fruit for
those who commit themselves to researching and
Remanifesting their essence. But it is with the dragon lore of
Europe that the Order of Apep has so far wrought its deepest
Work, discovering great treasures therein.

The myths of Northern Europe are full of dragons.
From Nidhogg, who fouls the very roots of Yggdrasill, to the
Midgard Serpent whose coils define and limit the manifest
world, to the dragon ships of the Vikings, whose carven heads
struck the terror of the Serpent into those who saw them
drawing close. The secret lore of the Norse Dragon is the
magic of Self-transformation. When Sigurd slew Fafnir, he
did not simply kill the dragon, he became it. He tasted of the
beast's heart's blood and assumed its powers, its golden hoard
and the Helm of Awe - the Serpent's power of fascination and
magical projection (compare this with the hypnotising stare of
Apep). These Northern Draconian Mysteries are dealt with in
detail in the Order publication entitled Volsungadrekka,
penned by Apepian Initiate D.V. Graal.

35

APOPHIS

Dragons also feature largely in Celtic lore. In the
account of Vortigern's Tower in Geoffrey of Monmouth's
Histories of the Kings of Britain, Merlin reveals the secret of
the two dragons. The symbolic meanings of this tale - which
veils a kind of Western Kundalini of a particularly ferocious
nature - will repay deep study. Viewers of the film Excalibur
will also appreciate the otherworldly portrayal of Merlin by
Nicol Williamson, whose mastery over the Dragon is superbly
depicted. This interpretation of the energy matrix which
underlies and shapes reality is symbolised by a two-legged
winged dragon named Nwvre in Welsh lore. The dragon
chant used by Merlin in this film has often been used in the
rites of the Order of Apep.

There are many other myths and legends concerning
dragons and great serpents, of course, including a large
number of folk tales specific to particular locales. You
should particularly familiarise yourself with the myths of
your own culture, as these have shaped you and the matrix in
which you find yourself, whether you realise it or not. These
will offer you keys uniquely suited to the doors of your own
psyche. If there are places endowed with such legends in
your vicinity, you should certainly visit them and take time to
soak in the atmosphere. Try to divine what it is about this
locale that stirs the serpentine consciousness. These are all
things that should be actively pursued by the Draconian
Initiate, but an analysis of all these legends is beyond the
scope of this book, which seeks to lay the foundation for a
practical magical curriculum. Some of the books in the
bibliography will assist with further research in this field,
however.

Much more could be written about the Serpent and
the reader is urged to seek further information in the
recommended reading at the end of this book. But the Dragon

36

APOPHIS

is an entity and a force which will be experientially realised
through our curriculum of Work and it is through this
practical application and the ongoing initiatory progress,
following the book's guidelines, that the Initiate will learn to
see through the Eye of Leviathan.

This concludes our brief definitions of the three main
Deities of the Left-Hand Path: the Prince of Darkness; the
Scarlet Woman; the Serpent. Respectively: the Separator /
Initiator; the Other who inspires Desire; the Absolute that
underlies Reality and stirs its currents. Initiates will be
expected to research all three through the best possible
sources in order to experience Them directly as living forces.

There remain two Hidden Gods who will reveal
Themselves to the Initiate through hard Work. The first of
these is the tutelary Deity, sometimes known as the Holy
Guardian Angel, the Daemon, the Augoeides, the Fylgja, or
simply the Genius. The concept of this entity is discussed and
practised under the Work of the Fourth Head of Apophis.
The final and ultimate divine influence is that of the Striding
God into whom the Initiate is metamorphosing. This future
Self will make Its presence and Will known long before you
become It. This is a Mystery of the Seventh Head of
Apophis.

37

APOPHIS

*i* *i* *t* *i* *^ *x* *4* *i* *^

The Book of the Dead, Chapter 87
Formula For Taking the Form of a Serpent

r n irt xprw m sAtA
ink sAtA Aw rnpwt sDr msw ra nb
ink sAtA imy Drw tADr.i ms.kwi mA.kwi rnp.kwi ra
nb

[I am the serpent, long in years, sleeping, and born

every day

I am the serpent who is in the ends of the earth

As I sleep, I am born, I am renewed, I am rejuvenated

every day]

*f+ *t^ *J* *J* 'J* *1* ^^ ^^ ^^

From His seat behind the constellation of the Thigh,
Set looked upon all that He had wrought and spoke in pride
of the Victory He had won.

She who sat beside Set smiled and said Nothing, for
Her Work was a Secret.

Apep spoke Not and smiled Not, for Who Knows the
mind of a Serpent.

38

APOPHIS

CHAPTER TWO

THE SEVEN HEADS OF
THE ANCIENT DRAGON

The Apep Workings

When James Lewis founded the Order of Leviathan, he
performed a series of magical Workings to discover the
direction his teaching should take within the Order. At that
time in the Temple of Set's history, it had been decided that
the Masters of the Temple should each found Orders -
specialised faculties within the larger school - in which they
could give instruction in the specific magical methodologies
and philosophies that had crystallised in their Mastery.
Magister Lewis had been associated with dragons since his
entrance into the Temple, having taken such magical names as
Orm and Ankh-f-n-Apep. He therefore invoked Apep for
guidance, using the Enochian Calls to enter progressively
higher Aethyrs in his quest for wisdom. Thus, through this
series of Apep Workings, he focused the teachings of the
fledgling Order of Leviathan upon the pursuit of immortality
and in due course discovered and taught the magical secret of

39

APOPHIS

Remanifestation.

When I established the Order of Apep in 2002 as a
Remanifestation of my own teachings in my time as Grand
Master of the Order of Leviathan, I too sought guidance from
the great Serpent to determine the focus of this new Order. I
wanted a true resonance with the founding principles of the
Order of Leviathan as originally established by James Lewis,
so I emulated his series of Apep Workings, invoking each of
the Enochian Aethyrs in turn. Apep spoke to me and
reaffirmed the centrality of the quest for immortality to the
Order. But the Serpent also revealed to me the programme of
initiatory Work that was to be employed within the Order, a
programme based upon the powers of the seven heads of the
Dragon and described in detail in this present book.

But the first thing to be done is to publish the record
of the Apep Workings themselves. These are recounted
below, in the words that the Serpent spoke to me. The
messages were received in an altered state of consciousness
of an especially clear and focused kind.

30 - TEX

"Time is what you must destroy. Every day you shall strive to
shatter its shackles upon your senses. Devour them, as I
strive to devour the Sun. Consume time as I consume the day.
Thus shall it sustain you instead of ruling you. You must see
the roots of things even as you see the full flowering of
things.

"Yes, time is the barrier you must overleap. You
must leap and dance on the unbound outside, free of its
malign embrace. Spray your poison upon the roots of events,
so that they are your servants and not your masters. Then all
things shall be for your play, for you will be among those of

40

APOPHIS

the Outside, the Mesu Betesh, who are the Children of Set."

29 -RII

"You persist in your illusions, although you know them to be
false. Have I not shown you this? Do I not send to you the
knowledge and the understanding that you Need when it is
Needed? Doubt not the omens and synchronicities which
arise in response to your Will. Some things which arise are
foreshadowings. Again, you are mired in time and this is
difficult to see.

"Your senses must be stripped down and laid bare.
You shall create a programme of exercises to restore your
senses to their pristine state, pure and open to all stimuli. The
mental conditioning and programming must be erased so that
you can see with new eyes, hear with new ears, feel with new
hands, smell with new nostrils and taste with a new tongue.
Then the world will yield its secrets to you.

"And when the body is reforged, the fetters of the
mind will be broken, and you shall know the Absolute.

"Taste of the dragon's blood and speak the tongues of
the beasts."

28 - BAG

"What is it, this consciousness you seek? You have drawn it.
It is the eye of the ancient serpent, remote and aloof from the
world of events. Yet through the matrix of space-time, it may
perceive and manipulate the world of events.

"Learn this too. Your fellows have spoken of
Ouroboros. The phenomenal world is formed and defined by
the body of the serpent, even as its eye is alone at the centre,
as observer. Go and reread the Book of the Law in this light.
For Apep is both Nuit and Hadit at one and the same time,
because for myself I am everything. But behold, I devour

41

APOPHIS

Horus so that Set shall ascend.

"Do you Understand me yet? If your consciousness
may realise this, you may both Nuit and Hadit be to yourself.
Has not Valgard reminded you of the omnijective
perspective? You may be both inner and outer, phenomenon
and observer. This is what it means to be the Red Magus.
You yourself shape and give form to the arena in which you
play. Look again into my Eye, for you have not fathomed it
yet."

27 - ZAA

"You who seek immortality, know that you have it. If you
live, then you live. Your life is all that defines you. Do not
think that life is different here or hereafter. Life is life,
fuelled by Desire and shaped by action. For this reason you
project yourself into the phenomenal realm.

"How to teach immortality? The same way that I told
James Lewis: by not dying.

"But you do not truly know the life that you have.
The Children of Set are not bound in the flesh; they exist
outside of Space-Time. You find it hard to grasp this true
mind of yours, for it remains Outside and reaches through to
influence the flesh in which it rides. Do not mistakenly call
this your Higher Self: it is your only Self. It is all that has
coherence. Nor deny it the flesh; you choose this path for joy,
not for sorrow. But learn to keep your senses open, your
mind open.

"Not all are such, only the Children of Set. But as the
Black Flame burns, the breaks become ever more frequent,
and eyes may view the dancing shadows with dawning
curiosity."

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APOPHIS

26 - DES

"Consider the spark of your life, what a blasphemy it is. The
sense of wonder reflected in a child's eyes is a thing of more
moment than any cosmic spectacle. For without that wonder,
cosmic affairs are meaningless. But how that wonder is
suffocated and crushed out all too often. Teach your children
to be strong of spirit and wondrous.

"Wonder is slain by conformity, by the Self being
swallowed by the crowd. And, unable to express itself in the
world, the Self withdraws into its own inner domain, and lives
no more in the splendour of the outside universe. 'A magician
is one who dreams outside of his skull'.

"Live then in the world and do not die to the world.
Wonder and infinite expansion, these are the tools for your
survival."

25 - VTI

"You wish to know of Remanife station? I shall tell you of it.
Time is to be devoured; live in an Eternal Now. Every
moment in time is a discrete particle, and in order to
experience each matrix of possibility, you must destroy all
prior manifestation, all prior relationships, and create yourself
anew in the new moment.

"Ordinarily, this is an unconscious and automatic
process, which provides the illusion of passing through time.
But manifestation in the matrix of happenings is particulate,
not continuous. The only thing which possesses continuity is
your consciousness of previous states. Therefore, seize
control of your Remanifestations. Choose what to destroy
and what to empower, which events and relationships to
empower and which to lay low. This is contained within the
very Key whereby you called me.

"Now do you Understand the Red Magus? He

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APOPHIS

destroys the Universe that is and recreates it! As you do -
every discrete moment. So master it. The Red Magus can
chart his Remanifestations - he is a Lord of Time. Such
irony!"

24 - NIA

"The human falls away. The accretions crumble and are dust.
The process is painful and yet inevitable if you would see and
understand and partake of what really is.

"What really is? You really are!

"Here is the third of the seven skins of Apep which
must be shed, so that the seven heads of the Dragon may arise
unfettered. Now do you see where this Work is heading?
You asked for a Teaching and you shall have it! It may not be
to the liking of many.

"So, having determined to take the initial step, and
having trained and sharpened the senses, now the faculties of
the mind must be honed razor sharp and severed from their
attendant baggage.

"Question every thought, every opinion, every
impulse, every habit. Question its value, question its origin.
Question it all. That which is strong enough to stand up to
such scrutiny may pass to the next Aire."

23 - TOR

"How long have you lived? How much of you that is now has
been before? How much of you that is now has arisen in
response to the matrix of happenings in which you find
yourself?

"Look back through the ages and trace the presaging
of your own arising. Realise then that you are your own
cause. You are the chooser and the chosen.

"Count well the coils of the Serpent, the cycles of

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APOPHIS

your Remanife stations. Of a sudden, your eyes will be
opened to see that which was hidden: all that you have been.
"In your awe, pledge to choose well in future!"

22 - LIN

"What is this that surrounds? Where does your identity
express itself in play? What arena have you chosen for
yourself?

"It is a place of terror and dismay, for it is subject to
laws and mechanics, the rules of the game. It is twisted and
shaped by Wills other than your own.

"It is a place of laughter and wonder, where you may
discover things which were formerly absent from your
Understanding, where you may recreate yourself in new and
powerful ways.

"It is a place of ultimate Victory, for at no time is it
you, and you soar above it. And yet you may find your face
within it, gazing back at you.

"Walk and Act; Perceive and Reflect. These are the
actions of a god."

21 -ASP

"Consider the image of Ouroboros. Consider the serpent that
bites its own tail. Your mind runs also in cycles, chasing the
pathways it has previously pursued, reinforcing the patterns
with which it is familiar.

"No thought is judged upon its own merits; no sight is
appreciated for itself. All are referenced back to what is
already known. Oh, to gaze upon the world through fresh
eyes!

"The Universe is an infinite ocean of chance and
happening, of splendour and possibility. Unshackle your
mind from its preconceived patterns so that every new

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APOPHIS

thought may stand or fall on its own merits.

"Shatter the cycles of the ages! Once again I call to
you: swallow the sun!"

20 - KHR

"Have the patterns of your mind been overwritten? Have the
furrows been turned over by a layer of the fresh soil of
consciousness? Is all virgin and fresh?

"Then whore yourself! Spread your legs to all
experience, erect your member to all happenings.

"Build new structures within your consciousness,
raise high new towers of the mind dedicated to the symbols
whereby you shape your life. Arrange your mind and senses
to perceive those things which are meaningful to you. Thus
you will not miss the synchronistic patterns which may steer
your course.

"And so your mind shall be your own, not anybody
else's.

"And those of you who Understand the Mystery of
Remanifestation shall also secretly build siege engines within
your mind against that day when this new creation too will
become tired and need tearing down.

"But today is a day for building."

19 -POP

"All things lead to stifling imprisonment and chains, all things
soever. No matter how well meant, no matter how
unrestrained, the trap of comfortable attachment awaits.

"Old ghosts haunt you and comrades crowd you and
the bonds of affection seize you tight. How to escape from so
terrible a prison?

"But escape you must, and you can see the way
already. But that secret is the Key to the next Aire, and the

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APOPHIS

means of shedding the fourth of the seven skins..."

18 -ZEN

"Know that all manifest things decay. Even your attachments
and joys become stifling traps, as has been said. This is as it
must be, so that the old may pass away, making room for the
new.

"How shall the Dragon shake off the tattered rags of
stale days and stagnant meanings? He shall fan a great fire in
the innermost core of his being, until it flames forth from his
jaws, consuming and transforming all.

"The name of this fire is Desire. The new heat of the
fresh passion bursts all bonds asunder and gives new vigour
to tired limbs.

"The hot flame of Desire is all that will save you from
the mires of stagnant regrets. Learn to live with a fire in your
eye and a sword in your hand. Then the very stars shall dance
for you."

17 - TAN

"Are you weary yet of this Work? Do you wish for it to
finish? Do you resent the time you set aside for it? Would
you rather be doing other things? Yes? Good!

"Desire wavers. Passion falters. All seems for
nothing. Tedium reigns. The featureless sands of the
sweltering desert surround you for miles on all sides, and you
really could not be bothered for a moment longer. And yet
you persist. Why?

"Because there comes a point when Desire
Remanifests as Will. There comes a point when Passion
Remanifests as Purpose. There comes a point when Man
Remanifests as a Power.

"So, rejoice in your Struggle, for then shall you

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APOPHIS

perceive Beauty. Truly, tomorrow you shall see Her, for I
shall show Her to you.

"Every step taken in the desert is a triumph. It is your
Victory, laugh in glee and be prideful. Then - Desire
Remanifests; Passion Remanifests; Man Remanifests; and
Will, Purpose and Power remain. You are so much more than
you were."

16 - LEA

"Where shall your Desire lead you? She is dancing amid the
stars above your head; Her hot blood pumps in the Earth
beneath your feet; Her sweat is the salt of the sea; Her scent is
in every breath that you take. Your pulse quickens in lust for
Her, your heart trembles in terror of Her. She is the maiden
of Life; She is the dragon of Death.

"Life in all of its forms is a thing of beauty. Every
time you draw breath, you win a victory, inspired by the
Shieldmaiden of the Stars. And when your life is finally laid
down, She will take you unto Remanifestation.

"Beauty is in proportion to Struggle. Do not be afraid
to fight, it is a noble and glorious thing.

"If you cannot see and taste and feel the ecstasy of
your muse by now, then return to crawl in the gutters.
Otherwise, onward!"

15 - OXO

"The mind of the Magus must be upon many things. A mind
with clarity of thought and clarity of passion. A paradoxical
mind, which has both precision of focus and breadth of view.
Such a mind may manipulate reality at all of its levels.

"Have you ever wished you could go back in time,
reverse some deed, undo some mistake? Then do so. If your
mind is truly exalted to this Aire, then you can see how it may

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APOPHIS

be done. There are always second chances, for chance is the
game you play.

"But do not be deceived that a second chance is the
same as a first chance. In the very act of returning, the matrix
and the perspective are both changed. And you yourself will
never be the same. There is no escape from your own magic.

"Come then, Lord of Time, and swallow the sun with
me!"

14 - VTA

"What is the purpose of your life? Why do you live it? When
the machine breaks down, why not let it rust? Why not drift
into the peaceful sleep of oblivion? Is it better never to have
been than it is to be and then have to end?

"You ask me for a Teaching. It resides in these
questions. Do you expect easy and comforting answers? Of
course you don't. These are the questions of a lifetime. And
to those who bemoan the lack of easy answers, shrug your
shoulders. Their answers are not yours to give. But ask the
questions.

"How not to die? Your body will ultimately fail, and
you will know then that it is time for a transition, for you will
have heard Her crying in the night. But I repeat and affirm
the prophecy spoken of you by Setnakt. After your death, you
will be seen leaving with Her. One will see you, and thus you
will show them immortality.

"Do not offer answers to the Initiates of Apep;
instead, teach them to craft walking sticks."

13 - ZIM

"High through the Aires you have ascended. Sharp is your
mind, focused your Essence. Yet you shall totter and sway at
these rarefied heights if you have no deep foundations.

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APOPHIS

"For here the icy core which has fought for its
independence, which has risen on the planes, must form new
bonds of its own shaping, and the awakening Dragon shall
know that although the Great Eye abides in the heights, it
looks ever down. For now that vision births within you.

"Look down and move your hand upon the Earth. It
changes, and it changes in vibration with the changes in
yourself, yet buffeted by contrary winds.

"This has been called a garden, but it is like a game of
chess, played by one man against ever-changing opponents,
who each play a single move and vacate their seat for the
next. But only the Player understands that it is a game.

"Here, in the playing of the game, the fifth skin is
shed and the sixth head stirs in its sleep."

12 - LOE

"The world is a spinning thing of flashes, sounds and delicate
threads, a sphere of wonder, glamour and enchantment which
rotates around you.

"You stand now at its centre and you know that it is
indeed a glamour, a wonder, an enchantment. It is an illusion,
a kaleidoscope vision only of true reality. But yours is the
hand which turns the lens and shifts the colour and pattern of
the illusion until it is pleasing to your Eye.

"Your centrality and your consciousness of it begin to
affect you deeply now, don't they? I can sense the awe and
dawning Understanding within you even as you scribble these
words. You have always known these things, you have
always seen in this way. You just never realised, did you?
But you have been told of the simple things, the roots of stars.
You see now that words can never suffice; Secrets can never
be told. But the words mean something more precious than
jewels in the wake of experience.

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APOPHIS

"Your Eye is as my Eye now. Be glad."

11-ICH

"Is everything in perfection? Have you developed and
strengthened all of the faculties of your Being? Have you
drawn together and integrated the various threads of your
Essence? Have you attained Mastery over your own soul and
over the world around you? Does reality shift and adjust in
response to your mere presence? Have you indeed Become a
Black Magus?

"Yet you are conscious that a wall rises before you,
that there is a barrier yet ahead of this State of Being. Beyond
the wall, guarded by daemons of Self-preservation, yawns the
Pit.

"To proceed and raise the sixth head of the Dragon to
full wakefulness, it is necessary to first lay down the sixth
skin: your own uncertainty. What you risk is the loss of your
own cohesion as all of your support lines are severed and the
Void gapes. How well have you made yourself?

"If deliberately set loose and unravelled to the four
winds, what will you Remanifest?"

10-ZAX

The sixth skin of the Serpent is shed.

9 -ZIP

"So now you know that beyond Desire there is to be found
Desire. When all of the bonds are loosed, when all of the
attachments are severed, when the sense of Self is all that
remains, cast adrift in a Void... you were carried through by
Desire.

"Not Desire for the things you had known and lost.
The remembrance of the most urgent and important things in

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APOPHIS

your life elicited not a flicker of interest in the void of ZAX.
You cared nothing for them. This Desire was not for person
nor thing, but for the testing of possibilities, the extension of
your Self into new arenas.

"And now you awaken afresh to Desire between the
spread thighs of Badhbh. Mount Her chariot and ride with
Her, heedless of all, laughing in lust and fury. When the rules
of the game displease you, sweep aside the pieces and play a
different game.

"The message of Set to Man is: 'Who gives a fuck? 1 "

8-ZID

"The sixth head of the Dragon is that of the Player, the
strategist, who sits astride his horse on a high place, surveying
the field of battle below, despatching runners to carry his
instructions to the combatants.

"In the uppermost Aires, you are out of sight and
mind of Men, looking down through cold, dispassionate eyes
far removed from their troubles, always seeing the larger
picture and making your plans.

"Cold and dispassionate, do I say? What then became
of that burning Desire which brought you here? It remains as
fierce as ever, but its goals and struggles are far beyond the
understanding of those who have not tasted this.

"A cruel, heartless monster you may appear to them,
when indeed you appear to them at all, a schemer whose
blood is cold. A wonderful Dragon you now make! Cold you
may be, but your blood melts steel, and your Desire leaps
from your mouth in tongues of flame."

7 -DEO

"The Universe is a Whore: She gives birth to all senses and
impressions, all ideas and expectations, all things sick and

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APOPHIS

sublime. And She laughs as they devour each other and She
takes Her play with each as it takes Her fancy.

"So you too shall take your play in the world, and you
shall admire Her whoredom. But will you laugh? For even
here, even now, there is a trap.

"The Cosmos in which you will take your pleasure is
a falsely painted strumpet, a she-spider who will catch the
unwary in her webs and paralyse them with her venom as she
slowly sucks the life from them.

"She is but a reflection of one who lies seductively
behind a further veil. If you have seen behind that veil, you
may take your pleasure indeed.

"The flesh of that Hidden One is your flesh and Her
blood runs in your veins."

6-MAZ

"Where is the Ancient Dragon? Where is its lair? Where
does She who ripped asunder the primal Chaos coil in Her
repose? In what skies does She rise on flaming wings?

"She is the fabric of reality itself; the very molecular
bonds that hold the cosmos in an illusion of cohesion. She is
the substance of your flesh; She pulses in your blood; the
whirling of your mind is the beating of Her wings; your
thoughts are the fire of Her breath; your desires are the
throbbing of Her heart.

"The glue of Her drool binds all; Her searing venom
dissolves all. And how hard it would go for you were you not
Her kin."

5 -LIT

"The seventh skin loosens, but you hesitate to shed it. You
know why. It is your footing in the Universe. It is the mask
you wear in the mirror, behind which is no substance.

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APOPHIS

"You are no substance, yet you cling to the illusion of
substance in blind terror. But the world of substance is itself
illusory.

"The primal Chaos never went away. It is still here.
All is a veneer, a veneer which you yourself recreate with
every moment.

"The ultimate Remanifestation is when you outgrow
the Universe which you have created to house yourself. And
what do you think you do then?"

4 -PAZ

"What is left when all that has made you is gone? When all
else is unmade, what remains but the one who did the
making?

"What have you made, then? And to what purpose?
What is it that endures when the foundations of the Earth
have shivered into dust?

"The seventh skin falls free..."

3-ZOM

"Behold! Only Leviathan!

"Thy end hath been attained.

"For now you see that your end is as your beginning.
You are a book fully bound, and the passage of time is but the
turning of the pages whereon you write.

"This is freedom, Time Lord. To hold the book of
your Being in your own hands, to flick back and forth through
the pages as you will, to edit and amend.

"Close the book. Now what remains, when the very
idea of Space-Time can be set aside as casually as you lay a
book on a coffee table?

"Turn around and behold the War in Heaven..."

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APOPHIS

2-ARN

"All Creation is at war and carries within its parts the seeds of
destruction. How could it be otherwise? For the parts are not
the whole, but to wholeness they aspire. Thus they fight to
win more space and being for themselves at the expense of all
others. Even love is such, seeking to draw the beloved into
the personal sphere, to become part of one's wholeness.

"How few rebel and find joy in their limitations and
boundaries! How few have the courage to take up the
birthing knife and sever themselves, becoming a star in the
void, self-illuminated.

"Even so with your creations. Watch as they war and
develop and intertwine and take joy in that, for they follow
your Will. But take still greater joy in those creations which
break free and run a course uncharted.

"And fight with your Self- often!"

1-LIL

In this Aire, I saw myself as I am and I learned a great and
terrible magical Secret. It is a Secret which is shocking and
monstrous and heretical. It is easily communicated in words,
but not really graspable unless experienced. Therefore, I am
not going to share it as I don't want to spoil the shock and the
surprise for you when you discover it for yourselves. But I
will freely discuss it with those who demonstrate their own
knowledge of it to me, either in word or act.

Finally, Apep spoke a single sentence to me.
Interpret it carefully:

"There Is Never A Moment In Which You Are
Not".

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APOPHIS

The Seven Heads Explained

As I have explained above, to mark the Remanifestation of
the Draconian current in the form of the Order of Apep, I used
the Enochian Calls of the Thirty Aires to throw out a question
to the great Serpent. This question was the same one posed
by James Lewis many years ago: "What will I teach? What
is the purpose of the Order?" The Workings were long,
involved and transformative to the point of turning my life on
its head in ways which I have not yet communicated to
anyone. But the main answer I received back was the same
one heard by James Lewis at the dawn of the Order of
Leviathan: "Teach them immortality." "How?" "By not
dying."

The first task charged by the Apep Workings was to
establish a coherent curriculum of work for the Initiates of the
Order to tackle. This curriculum is foreshadowed in the
progression through the Aires in the Workings, in which
Apep sheds seven skins and raises seven heads. The
curriculum is therefore based around the seven heads of the
dragon, each head raising into consciousness to manifest a
specific Draconian power. The symbolism of the heads is
discussed in full here. When developing this initiatory
programme for the Order, I was not interested in making false
promises or conducting a dragon discussion group; I aimed to
provide practical and workable keys which will ultimately
transform the lives of those who dare to use them. With this
book, I place those keys in your hands for you to use or not as
you Will.

The symbolism of the dragon with seven heads is a
very ancient one. Probably its most famous source is the
Biblical Apocalypse, but the symbolism predates that book
and seems to be Sumerian in origin. In his book Nightside of

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APOPHIS

Eden Kenneth Grant discusses this at some length and
attributes the characteristics of the seven heads as follows:

1 . A Scorpion

2. A Whirling Cross, or Thunderbolt

3. A Leopard, or Hyena

4. A Serpent

5. A Raging Lion

6. A Rebellious Giant

7. Typhon, Angel of the Fatal Wind

I had not read the above symbolic attributions until
after completion of the Apep Workings, yet the
appropriateness of the symbolism is astounding when
compared alongside the seven powers which the Workings
had attributed to the heads, powers which were to be sought,
developed and finally mastered by the Initiates of the Order.

Before proceeding to an analysis of each head, I
would point out that the list given above represents the
'nightside' attributions, which are most appropriate to the
Work of Apophis. But it is interesting to take a moment to
compare and contrast the symbolism with that offered by
Aleister Crowley when listing the seven heads of the Lion-
Serpent Beast in his discussion of the Xlth Atu, Lust, in The
Book of Thoth. Crowley's list makes an interesting
comparison, since his pertains to the ordered, sunlit,
masculine side of reality, not the seething, chaotic, feminine
nightside. Both sets of attributions are tabulated overleaf:

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APOPHIS

HEAD

NIGHTSIDE /

BRIGHTSIDE /

APEPIAN

HORIAN

First

Scorpion

Angel

Second

Whirling Cross,
Thunderbolt

Saint

Third

Leopard, Hyena

Poet

Fourth

Serpent

Adulterous Woman

Fifth

Raging Lion

Man of Valour

Sixth

Rebellious Giant

Satyr

Seventh

Typhon,

Lion-Serpent

Angel of the Fatal Wind

Whilst the magical attentions of the Initiates of Apep will be
focused more or less exclusively upon the Nightside
atributions as appropriate to the dark, chaotic, feminine aspect
of the Serpent, the Brightside attributions may assist us in
rounding out the identity and symbolic importance of each
head.

The First Head: The Scorpion

The scorpion is as carnal a creature as it is possible to
imagine. It crawls along close to the ground, its tail sting has
long established it as a symbol for sexual potency, it can
survive in the harshest physical environment and it is
extremely venomous. The symbolism of its poisonous sting
also leads to its association with the process of dissolution
and the breaking down of tissue. All of these qualities suit it
perfectly as a representative of physical and sexual ordeals
and powers. The scorpion has been said to be a creature
whose appearance is a composite of its fellow arachnid, the
spider, along with the serpent (both of which are also

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APOPHIS

venomous creatures). The serpent likewise slithers along on
the ground and its link with Apophis is obvious. The spider is
not so earthbound, however, weaving its webs in the places in
between, alert to every vibration on every strand as it waits
for its prey. This symbolism of the taut web is highly
appropriate to the work with the senses which will be carried
out under the auspices of this first head.

It should come as no surprise, therefore, that the
power of the first head is a carnal power. It is control over
one's own body and (when mastered) some limited control
over the bodies of others. The exercises of the first head
begin by seizing control of one's own senses, which are
initially 90% skewed and inaccurate in the manner that most
humans are accustomed to employing them. The curriculum
then leads into subtler areas of bodily mastery and carnal
magic.

In the Brightside list, the first head is that of an angel.
The original meaning of the Greek angelos implies a
messenger; the angels of God in the Bible were messengers
between God and Man. This too accords with the work of
heightening the senses, as they are messengers between the
world and the Self. With training, our senses may deliver
messages to our consciousness which we would ordinarily
only have been aware of on a subconscious level. This
confers an obvious advantage in a wide variety of situations.

For those who like their planetary symbolism, the
seven heads are more or less aligned with the seven planets
according to their usual ascending order on the Qabalistic
Tree of Life diagram. This is to be expected, as Messrs Grant
and Crowley are both Initiates of that symbolic school. These
orderings certainly go back to very ancient times, with the
roots of astrology well established in Sumeria. As such, the
first head would be associated with the Moon. This befits the

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APOPHIS

scorpion, who crawls out into the desert night after the heat of
the day. Also the angelic messenger, who traverses the astral
plane (Lunar) between Man (Earth) and God (Sun). The
symbolism is of the subconscious mind, whose
communications and contents become more open to our
consciousness as the powers of our own senses are enhanced
and paid attention to. By becoming more attuned to the
physical world outside of ourselves, we open ourselves more
to the promptings of the subconscious world within.

The Second Head: The Thunderbolt

The whirling cross, thunderbolt, or swastika are all primarily
symbolic of whirling thoughts within the mind, the never-
ending internal dialogue. It is the task of the Initiate to win
control of his / her mind, to still the undisciplined torrent of
disconnected thoughts and learn to focus in a way never
previously thought possible.

This is supported by the Brightside symbolism of this
head as a saint, an individual who spends his life in
meditation and reflection, seeking to bring his thoughts under
control.

The thunderbolt is also symbolic, however, of the
sudden flash of illumination when lightning descends from
the heavens and strikes the earth. The terror and suddenness
of the lightning is a weapon of Set in His role as the God of
storms. What may be significant here is that the visible flash
of lightning actually descends along the path of a pulse which
ascends from the earth to the skies a split second earlier.
Therefore, the Work of this head is focused upon the control
of the mind and the stilling of the ceaseless babble of
thoughts. This done, the consciousness can be focused into a
single concentrated force, capable of sending the pulse which

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APOPHIS

is responded to by the illuminating lightning flash from
beyond. Moreover, the thoughts so concentrated and wielded
become a thunderbolt in their own right, a whirling hammer
of Will that the Initiate can bring to bear.

The second head's planetary attribution would be to
Mercury, the planet traditionally associated with all matters
pertaining to the intellect and communication.
Communication is pertinent, since control of one's own mind
affords insights which allow a degree of control over the
minds of others. The arising of the first two heads is
indicative of mastery over the field of Lesser Black Magic.
The Work of this head seems comparatively simple when
expressed on paper, but it is a damnably difficult thing to
achieve.

The Third Head: The Hyena

The hyena is a scavenger and a mocker, renowned for its
laughter. It is a creature described by Kenneth Grant as a
"Beast of Blood". It is a carrion animal, a lurker among the
tombs. The hyena is a hunter in the darkness, finding its
sustenance in substances shunned by others.

The Work of the third head involves the stretching of
the Initiate's awareness to likewise find nourishment in things
unknown and unnoticed by others, searching in dark places
for those things which are not to be found in the light. In
other words, the Initiate seeks to develop true clairvoyant
faculties, discerning links and connections between objects,
people and events which others cannot perceive. Similarly,
the Initiate chooses to become, like the hyena, a 'beast of
blood', hunting in the dark places of his own mind, seeking to
establish effective control over his dreams, consistently
achieving the ability to experience lucid dreams.

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APOPHIS

The Brightside attribution of the poet to this head also
emphasises the ability of the mind to reach out and perceive
connections which are not apparent to the solely rational
mind. Any true poet is also a visionary.

The planetary attribution of Venus to this head echoes
its emotional, intuitive aspects.

The Fourth Head: The Serpent

The central head is that of a serpent. Its centrality is
emphasised since it is that head which truly displays the
nature of Apep, also because in the planetary scheme of
things this head is represented by the Sun, the centre and life
source of the system. It is for this reason that the Order Seal
of the Eye of Leviathan should be allotted to this head. The
Eye is raised in the centre of the solar system and watches in
cold detachment as all else revolves around it. But never
forget that Apep swallows the Sun, and thus this Eye is only a
reflection of that greater Eye which is truly Outside and
glimmers in the Darkness of the Unmanifest. When all seven
heads are upraised and empowered within the Initiate, this
fourth head will open its mouth and swallow the Universe.
Something to think about, the Keys to which are contained
within the Apep Workings. Think upon it as turning inside
out, upside down and back to front.

But the Work of this head in the meantime is the
cultivation of the serpentine qualities of coldness and
detachment. Emulate the Eye of Leviathan by observing
events from afar and discerning their underlying patterns.
This attitude must extend to the events of your own life as
well as the happenings around you. The Initiate perceives and
understands all that he has been and the ways in which he has
repeatedly Remanifested. In doing so, he acquires a new

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vision of his own purpose and destiny, that which Aleister
Crowley would have termed his True Will. This may / should
extend to an understanding of the nature of past life
experiences, symbolised by the Serpent shedding its skin and
renewing itself

The Brightside symbol of this head is the adulterous
woman, who sheds past lovers in like manner, taking what she
desires from them and then discarding them. At best, She is
Babalon, the supreme Initiatrix; at worst, the Initiate fails the
test and is discarded.

With this head, a new perspective is won, in which
the meaning and limits of one's own current life is
transcended. The magician paints his picture upon a larger
canvas and becomes remote and cold in his / her attitude,
manifesting the Draconian Essence. Something truly
inhuman comes to reign within the psyche.

The Fifth Head: The Raging Lion

Almost paradoxically, having achieved the cold detachment
of the fourth head, the fifth head is a Remanifestation of
Desire and raging passion. This is the red fury of Set, the
discovery of Self-determination and the joy of both lust and
battle; the unholy triumvirate of war, sovereignty and
eroticism.

Both symbols of the fifth head are obvious indicators
of its attribution to Mars: the raging lion and the man of
valour. The raging lion is Sekhmet, the destroying heat of the
desert sun. There is a fury in this head which is reflected in
its Work. Having understood the course of his destiny in the
previous head, it is inconceivable that the Initiate will allow
any obstacle to stand in his way in his pursuit of that destiny.

The Work of this head is to totally rearrange one's life

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to best suit the achievement of that discovered destiny. The
tools provided are those offered by the Scarlet Woman: War,
Eroticism and Sovereignty. The Initiate declares war upon all
areas of his life that are not fully supportive of his Work; he
ensures that he is properly inspired and empowered by
Desire; he arranges matters so that he is his own master and
not answerable to the beck and call of others

This is the hardest and longest Work of all the heads,
because it demands sacrifice and real life change, which we
are often fearful of committing ourselves to. But for one truly
seized by the Vision of the previous head and empowered
with the qualities of the first three, this can truly be achieved.
All it needs is the genuine Will to carry it through; the only
thing holding the Self back is the self.

The Sixth Head: The Rebellious Giant

Both of the symbols of this head represent a spirit of
lawlessness. The satyr of Mr Crowley's attribution is Pan,
leaping free from the mountain tops and personifying the
transgressive, evolutionary force within nature. Now Pan is
wild and free when compared with the restrictive tendencies
of human society, indeed he engenders terror and 'panic' in
those who witness his manifestation. However, it will be
realised that Pan is still bound by the uncivilised natural laws
which he embodies, which although often cruel and brutal
remain the laws of nature nevertheless. Pan represents the
ultimate Brightside manifestation of rebellion, still within the
bounds of cosmic law.

The rebellious giant, however, goes beyond this, for
rebellion is in his very essence: rebellion against the most
fundamental laws of time and space. He is a giant because he
is outgrowing the cosmos itself and may no longer be bound

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or restricted by it. He has stretched himself to touch the
Outside. Therefore the Work of this head lies in the conquest
of time and space. Literally.

There have long been tales of Adepts who could stop
time, who could translocate objects or themselves. In days
past, the Initiates of the Order of Leviathan often used to joke
about being an Order of Time Lords. It may seem
unreasonable and irrational, but I want that to be so with the
Order of Apep in very fact. We need to discover the
mechanism behind phenomena such as time slips,
precognition and the experience of having time freeze for
others whilst continuing for oneself. It's a tall order and
magicians tend to shy away from anything which would put
their magic to a real test, but I am in all seriousness in
devoting the Order to this purpose, however long it takes and
by whatever means.

This head is attributed to Jupiter as the planet
representative of cosmic order, and represents the usurpation
of that throne.

The Seventh Head: Typhon

The final head is that of Typhon, Set Himself, the God who is
against the Gods. The final goal of the Initiate is to become
like Set, the Red Magus, who ransacks and destroys in order
to create new playthings from the rubble.

The moment at which this head rises is the moment at
which humanity is left behind and divinity is attained (though
it will not be sustained without further Work; there are no
instant and irrevocable attainments in Initiation). It is the
most exalted state of being of which we can currently
conceive, yet paradoxically it is only a beginning. The
Initiate pursuing this Work of Self-divination must build a

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foundation on which he is entirely Self-reliant, for all other
props and supports will be destroyed in this process. The
Left-Hand Path may be relatively swift and direct, but it is
also dangerous in the extreme and loss of sanity or life are
certainly possible.

A clue to sustaining oneself through this critical
climax to the Work is shown in the Horian attribution by
Aleister Crowley of the Lion-Serpent to this head, indicative
of the core symbolism of his solar-phallic philosophy. The
strand of Self-immortalisation and perpetuation concealed
within this symbolism must be grasped.

The planetary attribution is Saturn, for Set is lord and
master over time and it is a tool to Him, not a habitat or
prison. Saturn is also traditionally the planet of death and
there is indeed a death to be undergone in this Work: the
personal devastation implied by success in awakening this
head cannot be stressed enough. When the seventh head
arises, Apep will swallow the Sun.

The Apep Workings led to the conceptualisation of the seven
heads, a restatement of the aims of the Order in a symbolism
appropriate to the Order, which now becomes a Work
appropriate to the Order. These are keys which are to be
practically applied. The first heads are inevitably easier to
conceptualise and understand than the more esoteric heads
which come later and which must (at this stage) be expressed
purely symbolically. Rest assured that all seven heads will
have pragmatic and working technologies applied to them in
the chapters that follow.

For now, a question for the reader's meditation, which
may prove fruitful and illuminating: Why is the position of
the Eye of Leviathan and its perspective (whilst assuredly
implicit in all seven heads) centred in the fourth head instead

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of the seventh as might perhaps be expected? My own
answer to this question is solidly hinted throughout all that
has already been written up to this point and will be fully
discussed later in the appropriate place. But do take time and
pause in your reading to consider your own answers to
questions raised. Never allow yourself to be spoonfed.

To summarise, the powers and qualities of the heads
are as follows:

1 . Control of the body

2. Control of the mind

3. Clairvoyance and synchronicity

4. Destiny / seeing the big picture /
Remanifestation / the Black Magus

5. Desire: War, Sovereignty and
Eroticism

6. Mastery of Space-Time

7. Self-Deification / the Red Magus

In the chapters that follow, many practical exercises
will be presented which will assist the Initiate to develop the
powers of each head. Many of these exercises, especially in
the early stages, will be familiar to the informed reader from
any number of self-help and meditation books. Others will be
new. I would advise the reader not to skimp the simpler
exercises, however, for mastery of these is key to them all. I
would urge even those readers who consider themselves to be
seasoned occultists not to be tempted to take short cuts. Each
new Work should be approached with respect and accorded
its true dignity. If you feel an exercise to be beneath you,
then you have never done it properly.

The exercises attributed to each of the heads form a
logical, progressive sequence and are best approached in the

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order given. However, the heads of Apophis are not truly
sequential, but are co-existent and possessed of a single
consciousness. It is not necessary, or indeed advisable,
therefore, to impose unnecessary restrictions. Although I
would counsel beginning with the exercises of the first head
and gaining a working knowledge of them before progressing
to the second head, it is by no means necessary to establish
mastery over them before proceeding. Establish a foothold, a
good familiarity, that is sufficient at first. There is nothing
wrong with beginning later exercises while you are still
practising the earlier ones, so long as you pace yourself
sensibly.

The heads of Apophis will not reveal all of their
Mysteries to you at once and even the simplest of exercises
will still be capable of revealing new Mysteries to you years
hence. The heads and the exercises should be approached and
repeated as a cyclical series, an ever-expanding initiatory
spiral, not a one-stop shop to illumination. This is the Work
of a lifetime, which you will return to again and again, finding
something new each time.

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CHAPTER THREE

THE WORK OF THE FIRST HEAD

The Work of the first head, that of the Scorpion, focuses upon
the Initiate's interface with the physical world, the human
body. This Work can be divided into four main categories:
(i) posture and breath; (ii) motion; (iii) sharpening the senses;
(iv) defining and ultimately extending physical limitations. It
is our consciousness which makes us beings capable of magic,
but the most potent magical tools with which we are provided
are our own flesh, blood and bone.

Before detailing the recommended exercises,
however, it will be a good idea to examine an example of the
ways in which physical events and experiences can open the
door to profound initiatory developments. The following
account by Order Initiate Paul Fosterjohn is reprinted from
issue #3 of the Apop his journal.

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The Devouring Dragon
by Paul Foster John

Omitted from the final print of Volsungadrekka due to space
was a dedication to my very own highly personal interaction
with the Dragon force. However, the working itself was both
a dedication and a continuing remanifestation of that
experience (RAUN).

Born during a meteor shower known as the Draconids
(the meteors appear to come from the constellation of
Draconis) in 1968, my reintroduction to this entity came as
the result of what is termed as Sorcerers Apprentice
Syndrome some sixteen years later.

Prior to this, I had attempted to curse a Methodist
minister (daft yes but I was young) as with such things, the
whole event backfired and I had seen this as the outcome in a
tarot spread only the week before for someone at work.
However, I was doomed and I could not avoid it, although in
hindsight I used the experience or better said the experience
used me.

On the fateful day, I managed to trap the middle
finger of my left hand in some machinery and had to be
rushed to hospital. After arriving at the casualty department, I
was taken to a specialist unit at another hospital. Finger in
tatters with bone and gristle proudly showing, I was left
without any medical attention for 24 hours, I was finally
operated on for some four hours. When I came around, I
found that the finger was still attached with a pin driven down
its centre. I marvelled at the spiral of the stitches that went
from the tip to the base but yet felt that something was
dreadfully wrong. Thankfully I was looked after by a nurse
called Ceridwen, a name that I didn't come to understand for
some years.

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Things started to worsen, the finger had lost its blood
supply and had started to go black, the pain was excruciating
and racked my entire being, only morphine could ease it but
they wouldn't administer it. The smell of rotting flesh
consumed my nostrils and yet I could do nothing, feelings of
fear and terror overwhelmed me and I eventually started to
hallucinate. Out of sheer exhaustion and the subsequent fever
from my necrosis, I entered onto a vision quest. I vividly
remember being in a subterranean world, a hellish nightmare
world. There before me was a dragon of immense
proportions that eyed me from top to toe, I could sense its
breath as it moved closer and then its talons started to tear my
flesh from my form. With one slash it disembowelled me and
placed my form into some strange arrangement, my etheric
body hovered and I expected this creature to consume my
cadaver. Instead it moved to one side of its lair and brought
an object back to where my entrails were placed. I could not
see what it had in its hand but it placed the object inside my
chest. It then consumed my finger before recreating my form
from the blood soaked set of flesh. At this point I was told
that I was screaming in my altered state and was roused by
several nurses.

That day I was taken to the operating theatre and the
finger was removed. I never saw Ceridwen again although her
essence has remained.

Whilst I do not profess to be an authority on
Shamanism or comparative religions, I feel that such altered
states are pivotal to some degree or other in achieving the
Apepian consciousness. I could dissect (pun very much
intended) the experience was highly personal and acted as a
beacon on the initiatory journey along the LHP.

The experience contains all the elements of a
mythological model and indeed now I know why Ceridwen

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was and is so important to me.

Paul's experience has striking similarities to those described
in shamanic initiations (see Mircea Eliade's Shamanism for
many examples). The truth is that any physical trauma or
ecstasy inevitably affects the mind-body interface and leads to
altered states of consciousness as startling new perspectives
on reality and our place in it are gained. Contrary to most
Right-Hand Path philosophies, the Left-Hand Path does not
view the physical world as a prison from which we need to be
liberated. Life is a delight and the psyche is enthroned within
the flesh, not trapped within it; this is the proper sphere and
nobility of human consciousness. We seek to enhance rather
than diminish that experience and this is the rationale for the
work of the first head of Apophis.

(i) Posture and Breath

The initial exercises train the body and breathing so that a
balance can be discovered between poise and relaxation,
motion and stillness, energy and rest. This leaves the Initiate
alert to every possible action and prepares our own beings for
the fluid and natural expression of magical symbolism.

a) Relaxation and Preparation

Prior to beginning the Work proper, it is essential to rid the
body of its everyday tensions. This can be done easily, by
sitting or lying down for a few minutes and breathing slowly
and steadily. Forget the cares of the day. You will already be
aware of how a good stretch (often accompanied by a yawn)
helps you feel relaxed. We can consciously emulate that

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technique to induce a state of bodily relaxation preparatory to
magical Work. We are not consciously aware of most of the
tensions we carry, so before we can let them go we need to
bring them fully to attention. Therefore, clench each set of
muscles in your body in turn, pulling them taut and then
letting them go, moving on to the next set. Begin at the top of
the head and work down to the toes. Don't neglect the smaller
muscles, such as the scalp, face or toes, as these are often
where tensions linger. Once you have worked through each
area of the body in sequence, clench all of your muscles at
once, hold them for a second or two, then release them all.
This process of conscious muscular contraction and release
should leave your whole body relaxed and prepared for the
Work.

This process of releasing yourself from daily tensions
is an essential prelude to all effective magical work, not just
these physical exercises related to the head of the Scorpion.
At first, it will probably take you several minutes to prepare
yourself in this fashion. But as with everything, practice
makes perfect, and it will take an experienced practitioner
only a few seconds to effectively unwind and let go.

b) Basic Postures

One of the first skills to master with regard to the magical use
of the physical body is the use of posture. A magical posture
is a meaningful / symbolic bodily position which is adopted
and then held for a period of time. Sometimes the posture is
but one movement in a linked series of movements, but the
posture may sometimes constitute an entire magical process
in its own right and may be held motionless for an extended
period.

There are a great many benefits to be won when

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developing the ability to stand or sit in a motionless posture
for a long time. First, the posture is consciously adopted and
the body arranges itself into the correct position and then
settles down. Inevitably, there follows a series of distracting
itches accompanied by the overwhelming urge to fidget or to
just alter one's position a smidgen. But at length, if ignored,
the bodily irritations fade altogether and only consciousness
of the rigid posture remains, leaving the psyche feling
empowered and focused, better able to focus upon matters
magical.

With practice, the adoption of a familiar magical
posture will bring with it the seeming stillness and
weightlessness of perfectly poised physicality almost
instantly. Indeed, the adoption of a meaningful posture with
which one has trained long and rigorously will instantly snap
the awareness into a magical state of mind appropriate to the
magician's purpose.

Posture is therefore an important magical tool, which
throws the whole physical being of the magician into the
support of his Will. However, it will be realised that this can
only be true after long and painstaking practice. Moreover,
the only effective practice is daily practice, not weekly or
haphazardly or "whenever I feel like it". And believe me,
when practising posture you will most definitely not feel like
it, not until you reach that stage where it becomes a fully
internalised magical tool, potent and empowering.

My recommendation is that each Initiate should
choose one of the suggested postures and practise it on a daily
basis until mastery is attained. Try them all out initially, but
then choose one which appeals most to you and stick with it.
Once one has been mastered, the others will follow easily, but
none will ever be mastered if you flick back and forth
between them, chopping and changing whenever you find the

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practice tedious. There is no need to overdo it, however. Ten
minutes daily will easily suffice. Most teachers recommend
significantly more, but from my experience ten minutes is
perfectly adequate if done with diligence and a will to
succeed. Also, ten minutes is no loss from anybody's
schedule, removing any temptation to skip a day.

There are many highly developed systems of magical
posture. One of the most sophisticated is that of runic
stadhagaldr (extensively detailed in such books as Futhark
and Rune Might by Edred Thorsson). Initiates will no doubt
discover / develop such systems as may appeal to them. For
now, however, suggestions follow for five symbolically
appropriate postures, especially suitable for the Apepian
Initiate. It should be noted that posture number 5 is a highly
specialised one suitable for magical sendings and is therefore
best left till proficiency is attained in at least one another.

1. The God

This simple posture involves sitting on a hard-backed chair,
with feet together flat on the floor, knees together and hands
on knees. The back, neck and head should all be perfectly
straight and vertical. The posture is the same as that depicted
in the rigid, seated god figures in Egyptian art, hence its
name. It is the most common posture for beginners due to its
generally applicable symbolism and its simplicity.

2. The Dragon

This posture involves kneeling down and sitting back, so that
the buttocks rest upon the heels. The hands are placed on the
knees and the back and neck are upright. The symbolism is of
a dragon sitting alert on its haunches.

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3. The Sign of Apophis and Typhon

This is the central posture of the Golden Dawn's series of
LVX signs and represents Apophis rising between Isis and
Osiris, dividing them. It further signifies the death of Death,
the slaying of Osiris by Set. Both associations are highly
appropriate to the Order of Apep. The posture is also
identical to the stadhagaldr for the elhaz rune, which
represents a martial form of protection and also the
relationship between the Initiate and his / her Fetch, a tutelary
spirit. This is a standing posture, with the head held proud
and the arms upraised in a 'V shape, victorious over Isis and
Osiris, Nature and Death.

4. The Sign of Set Fighting

This posture is Aleister Crowley's adaptation of the Golden
Dawn's Zelator grade sign. The right arm is flung forward
and up (similar to a Nazi salute); the left arm is flung
backward and out; the right foot takes one pace forward. The
symbolism is aggressive, warlike and dynamic.

5. The Sign of the Snake Striking

This posture is highly appropriate to magical Workings which
involve a 'sending' of some description. Its ophidian
symbolism is obvious. The posture is a kneeling one, with a
curved back, leaning backwards. The arms are lifted over the
head and curved forward so that the hands meet above the
head, pointing forward in the attitude of a snake about to
strike. One curious effect of this posture is that when
adopting it the seat of consciousness seems to shift from the
head to the hands, the position of the invoked serpentine head.

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c) Magical Breath

One very important physical skill for the magician to acquire
is that of control of the breath. This is a technique which has
reached its highest development among Eastern practitioners,
but nonetheless has its place in the West.

There are three main reasons for gaining control over
the breath:

1. The first is purely physical. Most people simply do not
breathe properly. The organism becomes healthier and
more awake and robust if deep, measured breaths are
routinely taken instead of lazy, shallow ones.

2. Changing your breathing patterns significantly changes the
chemistry of your blood. These physiological changes in
their turn affect the mind, opening the way to altered states
of consciousness.

3. Control of breath facilitates mastery over vocal magic, the
use of the spoken word. This is important in so many
areas, from the intonation of names or mantras to the
measured recital of chants or the effective and rhythmic
utterance of poetic invocations and magical statements.
Pausing to gasp for breath at an inappropriate point can
spoil the effect for others present in a group Working and
worse still, it can jar your own mind out of its magically
inspired state.

There are two main approaches to the magic of
breath. The most common one in the West is that of taking
deep, measured breaths in a set rhythm. The usual count
given to beginners is a fourfold rhythm: breathe in to the
count of four; hold the breath to the count of four; breathe out
to the count of four; hold the lungs empty to the count of four,
then recommence the cycle. Even this simple exercise will
produce significant results as the Initiate will breath far more

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deeply than normal, enriching the blood with oxygen. This
will inevitably have knock-on mental effects. Certain
physical effects may also be noted. Sometimes the body will
seem to go numb (breath control of this type works very well
in conjunction with posture work, helping to avoid discomfort
and twitching). At other times, the body may seem to buzz
and vibrate in a peculiar manner.

Once practice is established the Initiate can begin to
extend the length of the inbreath and the outbreath, slowing
and further deepening the breath cycle. If intonation is
required, a pattern of breathing will be established which has
a good inbreath, a long outbreath in which to speak / chant /
intone, and relatively short pauses between the two. After a
while, the variations of breath control to match the Work in
hand become an easy thing to judge. It's all a matter of
practice, practice, practice.

At this point, it is interesting to recall how in very
many cultures the breath is considered to be a vital substance,
often being equated with the spirit. These exercises can be
used to 'charge' the breath with willed qualities, then use it to
empower items such as talismans or sigils by breathing upon
them or singing words into them, literally imbuing them with
life of a very specific nature. Many of the old techniques of
magic can be better understood once the vital process
underlying them is grasped and understood through hard work
and personal experience.

The other approach to breath magic is that of
hyperventilation, inhaling and exhaling very deeply and very
rapidly, causing very sudden changes in body chemistry and
consciousness. This will cause extreme giddiness and
Initiates must bear in mind that this practice has the potential
to be extremely dangerous and injurious to health if care is
not taken. However, it can whip the mind into a magically

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charged frenzy and I have had considerable success with this
simple technique in results oriented magic.

(ii) Magical Motion

Having looked at the use of static posture for magical
purposes, the next logical step is to consider the body in
motion. It is a certainty that different types of motion will
best suit different people. We will examine them in order
from the most gentle to the most frenzied, but Initiates are
encouraged to try all of them, creating a rigorously thorough
training regimen for themselves. Some will inevitably be
found to be more effective than others for each individual, but
all should be mastered before that value judgement is made.

The simplest movements to start with are the
traditional ones associated with ritual magic. Now I don't
have a lot of patience with attempts to resurrect old Golden
Dawn Masonic style rituals, they are simply not appropriate
to this day and age. However, for the purposes of this
exercise the Initiate should perhaps endeavour to practise the
sequence of grade signs and circumambulations employed in
the ceremonies of such a group and detailed in most
contemporary books of occultism (most notably Israel
Regardie's The Golden Dawn). These circling parades in
particular, reinforced by meaningful signs given at various
points, have a very definite effect both upon the focusing of
the psyche and the perceived atmosphere of the Working area:
the air seems to throb, an effect which can be tangibly felt.
These simple and effective patterns of movement can easily
be carried forward into the modern magician's personal
repertoire whilst leaving the unnecessary bulk of the pomp
and ceremony behind. Those more drawn to the Northern

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Mysteries would do better ro practise some of the rune yoga
exercises described in Edred Thorsson's Rune Might. Those
who prefer to stick solely with the exercises given in this
book can try simply walking in large counter-clockwise
circles to define their Working area, pausing to adopt one of
the five postures described previously each time the
northernmost point of the circle is passed. Always be aware
that whatever psychic changes you register during these
practices are arising in response to your physical actions.
You should take time to consider why it is so important to be
aware of this fact.

Moving to a slightly more energetic practice, Austin
Spare developed a technique which he termed 'the right way
of walking'. Basically, the Initiate should take him/herself off
to the countryside or to some other place where he/she can
walk in privacy. Then begin to walk, the back held straight,
the arms kept by the sides with the thumbs pointing forwards,
the eyes defocused and looking straight ahead. Walk with an
even, measured rhythm. You will find that this technique
induces a state of trance very rapidly and this practice is
readily used for the charging of sigils and other magical
operations. Again, take time to consider the way in which
physical techniques induce magical trance. Why should this
be so and why is it so important?

Dance is an obvious candidate for our consideration
and magical dance is an important part of the repertoire of
many skilled magicians. We may consider the dignity and
control of a Shinto shrine maiden's dance, or at the opposite
end of the spectrum there are the rites of voodoo in which the
dancer enters an ecstatic frenzy, thereby allowing a loa to
manifest through his/her form. Ritual dance has been
significant in many cultures. We enter a slight minefield
here, as some people (such as myself) can't dance to save our

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lives and would ordinarily prefer to suck on a mouldy old
sock than set foot on a dance floor. However, in private, even
I feel occasionally compelled to make rhythmic actions
vaguely resembling dance when in the throes of a magical
trance, and I have even participated in a dance in a group
ritual with good effect. The most appropriate dance
movements for an Apepian Initiate, of course, are sinuous,
serpentine ones. The choice of music (if any) must always be
a matter for individual preference and should resonate with
the purpose of the Working, but as a general rule music which
includes singing is not effective. Instrumental music is much
more effective at sustaining the trance state. Of course, when
voice is used as a musical instrument rather than simply
singing lyrics, it can be very effective.

Another highly effective magical use of motion,
particularly appropriate to the ophidian current, is that of
swaying. Simply stand on one spot and begin to sway slowly
from side to side. This will be found to enhance mental
concentration in ritual remarkably. It may be found that a
kind of shaking or trembling also seizes the body as the trance
takes full hold. The mechanisms of this process are explored
and discussed more fully in the book Seidways by Jan Fries.

Finally, we must examine the practice of whirling
rapidly around until the body is overcome with dizziness.
This may be pursued to the point where you collapse in a
heap, at which time the mind acquires a high degree of
lucidity and detachment, or with practice the whirling may be
continued indefinitely, holding the body right on the brink of
dizzy imbalance and collapse, but never quite going over the
edge. This allows a highly concentrated trance state to be
maintained for an extended period of time.

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(iii) Reclaiming the Senses

One of the most important challenges which faces each
Initiate on a daily basis is that of determining what is Real.
We must learn to perceive True instead of mindlessly
swallowing the vague wash of impressions and pre-packaged
viewpoints with which we are routinely bombarded. Apep is
the God of Illusion, so we must be masters over that which is
illusory, not its slaves.

This is much more difficult than might be supposed,
since we cannot actually trust our senses, at least not as they
currently stand. Our conscious awareness only actually
receives about 10% of the sensory information transmitted to
our brains; the remaining 90% is simply filtered out and we
are never aware of it. It may be judged irrelevant by the
brain's processes, or it may simply not fit in with what the
brain 'expects' to perceive and is thus ignored. If you doubt
the extent of this filtering effect, consider how many times
you have looked fruitlessly for the ketchup or your keys, only
to discover they were right in front of you the whole time and
you wonder how you could possibly have missed them.
Lesson one: the brain is biased and it will do its damnedest to
present and accept only that information which conforms to
its own worldview. That worldview is an unconscious one,
programmed in by cultural and societal influences during the
first few years of life and reinforced by the pressure of society
and the media thereafter. Trying to deprogramme that bias is
almost impossible, or is at least a very long term process. But
we can certainly make ourselves aware of it and take steps to
consciously direct our attention and our senses in an attempt
to circumvent it.

Exercises follow which should be of assistance in
reclaiming full use of the five physical senses, so that we may

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begin to perceive what is Real.

SIGHT:

As an example of how untrustworthy your sense of sight is,
try the following exercise. Cast your mind back to a room
you recently visited for the first time. (It doesn't matter what
kind of room: it might be a home, shop, office, or even a
public lavatory.) Can you remember the pattern on the
carpet? Can you remember how many chairs were in the
room? What colour were the curtains? Were there pictures
on the wall? What of? Were there books on shelves? What
were their titles? Your eyes will have seen and processed all
of this information, but nearly all of it will have been filtered
out of your conscious perception by your brain as irrelevant
and you will not now be able to recall it. Where the eyes
perceive a pattern on a carpet in all of its detail, the brain
tends to take short cuts in presenting the information to your
awareness; it will extrapolate the basic pattern over the whole
area, 'filling it in' to reduce processing effort, and presents
that image to your conscious mind. Thus, you will probably
miss seeing the wine stain in the corner unless you
specifically focus upon it with full attention. Try asking any
group of people to describe a room or an event from memory;
their descriptions will all be different, sometimes wildly so.
This is because their brains 'cut and paste' according to their
personal bias instead of seeing True.

The only way to remedy this is to stop observing on
automatic pilot and to deliberately take conscious control of
your sense of sight. When you enter an area, deliberately
look at everything and note every detail in your mind. Make
note of colours, objects, people, patterning, relative
positioning, subject matter of pictures, titles of books,

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everything. With continued practice and vigilance you will
train your brain and it will start to get used to the idea that
you want to record these things; it will eventually begin to do
so without the need for conscious prompting. But you will
need to deliberately and persistently train it out of years of
accustomed sloppy vagueness.

HEARING:

The ear of an infant can distinguish between many more
sounds than the ear of an adult. This again is because the
brain starts taking short cuts in analysing sense perceptions.
As a child begins to pick up and learn language structure from
its parents, the brain focuses upon those sound patterns,
particularising them, and begins to relegate less used
distinctions into broader, vaguer categories somewhere at the
back of the mind. This is one reason why Occidentals find it
so difficult to master Oriental languages and vice versa;
because our brains are not geared to differentiate between the
sounds used in this linguistic palette. Sounds which are quite
clearly distinct to Oriental ears seem identical to Occidental
ears. Again, the only solution is to stop listening on
automatic pilot and to deliberately concentrate on each and
every sound you hear, distinguishing between the different
layers and subtleties of intonation. Focusing upon complex
pieces of music and dissecting them note by note is one
effective exercise. Another method is to learn a foreign
language (always a worthwhile endeavour in any case),
forcing the brain to deal with new orderings and sequences of
sounds and attach meanings to them. This will be a struggle,
it will not happen quickly, the brain has to be extensively
retrained. Success in these disciplines will reap enormous
rewards in all fields of incantatory magic.

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TOUCH:

Touch is not so extensive a source of information as sight and
hearing, but the sense can still tell us a great deal if properly
trained. People today have largely got out of the habit of
touching and handling things, of exploring and considering
texture. This is a habit we need to get back into. Also, we
tend to ignore subtle environmental clues such as the
sensation of a breeze blowing across the skin, or the feeling of
moisture in the air foreshadowing rain. Our sensitivity to
events around us can be increased enormously by taking time
to develop and pay attention to the often neglected sense of
touch.

SMELL:

One of the reasons I rarely use incense in magical work is
because it smothers other smells. In my experience some
Workings, some 'presences', bring with them an odour. This
was something picked up on by H.P. Lovecraft in his tales:
"by their smell you shall know them". The memory of these
subtle odours, brought back to mind, can be of great assisting
in expediting future invocations and in such instances a
similar-smelling incense may indeed be a potent tool. But
first, you have to be sensitive to such subtlety and perceive
for yourself the haunting odour lurking on the fringes of
imagination. The only way to train and develop your sense of
smell is to deliberately seek out every new odour, fair or foul,
with relish, and take time to savour their subtlest nuances.
Human beings will never possess a dog's sense of smell, but
you will be surprised how powerfully this sense can be
developed, until you really can smell people approaching. As
Marcel Proust exhaustively recounted, smell has the power to

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unlock the mind's deepest recesses of memory and
association.

TASTE:

Taste may appear a peculiar one to concern ourselves with,
since it seems a purely internal sense. This is not quite true.
For one thing, taste and smell are intimately linked and
developing one will necessarily develop the other. For
another thing, taste is a sense which interacts very closely
with the psyche when attention is paid to it. Events have a
'flavour' which can be tasted in the mouth with practice and
this subtle apprehension of unfolding events can prove almost
precognitive as signals detected subconsciously are
transmitted to the consciousness through the medium of taste.
As with scent, deliberately seek out and savour new
flavours all the time.

Our upbringing teaches us to rely almost exclusively on only
two of our senses, sight and hearing, and we can't even use
these correctly. But we must learn to develop all of our
senses in order to rectify the sensual deficiency in our
contemporary lifestyle and gain access to new methods of
knowing and perceiving.

My recommendation is to be alert to the development
of all five senses all of the time so far as it is possible, but to
dedicate one day to each sense every week in order to really
focus upon each in turn. This will amount to five days'
intensive sensual exercise each week, allowing you to rest at
the weekends. (It is important to always schedule time for
rest, to allow all that you have learned to be absorbed.)
Arrange challenges and trials for each sense on its allotted
day in order to test yourself. Make a game of it, make it fun,

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and your subconscious will want to play along, making
progress much easier. Following a training programme like
this will soon bear results.

(iv) Testing Your Limits

It is important that we each should know the limits of our own
bodies so that we are aware of just how far we can afford to
physically push ourselves. From an everyday perspective,
this gives us a baseline against which to measure our progress
as we strive to become more fit and healthy. From a magical
perspective, those Workings which push us almost to our
limits, into a kind of trembling, in-between state, are those
which pack the most punch.

It goes without saying that the magician will strive to
be fit and healthy as far as possible. This means a balanced
diet and a programme of exercise. Even a daily walk is
sufficient to maintain a level of reasonable physical fitness.

Here follow six suggestions to test the ability of the
body to cope when pushed to its limits. All are potentially
hazardous to health if pursued in a foolish and unbalanced
way. Due precautions should be taken and assistance from
friends sought where possible; ultimately, all such exercises
are pursued at the individual's own risk. Only a fool would
attempt any of these exercises when feeling remotely unfit or
under the weather. Other methods will suggest themselves to
Initiates.

1. Exhaustion

This exercise requires the use of a mobile phone and a
reliable friend. The Initiate sets off walking. The aim is to

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walk until you literally can not take another step without
collapsing (note that the point of the exercise is not to
collapse, but to discover the point at which it is imminent and
then to stop). Be harsh with yourself, as most people will
tend to give up and tell themselves they have reached their
limit long before it is actually approached. Bring sandwiches
by all means and definitely equip yourself with plenty to
drink. But don't sit down and have a picnic, you should eat
and drink whilst on the hoof, just pausing long enough to take
a bite or a drink. When you finally feel that you cannot take
another step phone your friend, who must be prepared to
come and collect you no matter what time of day or night.
Also, be sure to check in on an hourly basis.

2. Alcohol

Alcohol, taken in moderation, can assist in preparing the mind
to experience altered states and can be a useful magical tool.
Taken to the next step, carefully induced intoxication can lead
to the state of divine ecstasy embodied in the runic t h n 'Alu f
formula. It is necessary for the Initiate who would use this
tool to know the precise quantity required to produce the
desired inspirational effect without tipping over into drunken
idiocy. Alcohol is a good means of testing mental self-
control.

Again, a trusted friend is required for this challenge.
The Initiate drinks several alcoholic beverages at a carefully
measured rate and to an agreed maximum quantity (e.g. "I
will drink one measure of whisky every ten minutes to a
maximum of eight measures"). The intention is not to get
blotto, but to monitor the progressive effect of the alcohol
from the viewpoint of an objective observer. The magician's
companion will take notes of the apparent effects as time

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progresses, for up to an hour after the final measure (e.g.
"After fifteen minutes and one measure the eyes dart about
and will not remain fixed on one spot ... After twenty five
minutes and two measures the eyes stop roving and the gaze
becomes dull and heavy as the subject struggles to retain
focus ... After thirty minutes and three measures the speech
starts to slur ... After forty minutes and four measures the
subject has difficulty following the track of a conversation ...
"). You will find it interesting to compare these objective
observations with your own subjective evaluation; there may
be significant differences. In this way, the Initiate learns his
precise 'tipping' point, important for those situations when he
uses alcohol as a sacred tool to achieve a state of divine
inspiration, or in mundane social situations where he wants to
be careful to appear convivial yet retain full control of his
faculties.

3. Fasting

Agree to give up food for a period of time. Start small (i.e.
one day only) and work up to three days or so. Drink only
water during this period. Study the effects of food
deprivation upon the body and upon the psyche. You may
find that the ability to concentrate becomes much enhanced as
your mind focuses itself because of the desire for food. This
exercise in particular must be used with caution and
infrequently.

4. Sleep Deprivation

Try going without sleep for a night or two (again, be warned
that overdoing this may prove fatal). This exercise should be
done during a period when you will not have to drive. Also,

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restrict meal preparation to microwaves or take-aways to
avoid the danger of falling asleep and leaving the oven on.
Study and record the effects of tiredness upon you, both
physically and mentally. Do hallucinations occur? At what
point do you start to enter hypnogogic trance without
warning? Consider the possibilities of this as a magical tool.

5. Orgasm Exhaustion

Set aside a free day to discover how many orgasms your body
can endure in a twenty four hour period. This does not mean
how many you want to have, you would probably be satiated
after two or three. How many can you physically endure,
even when you don't want to? When it becomes too much,
take an hour off, then get back to it with gusto! Masturbation
is probably preferable to intercourse for this practice, as love-
play will serve to increase the delay between orgasms, it is
just too distracting for the current purpose, which is a
dispassionate experiment. This exercise, here intended to test
the body's limits, will be returned to under the auspices of the
second head when considering eroto-comatose lucidity.

6. Orgasm Deprivation

There are two distinct approaches to this, each of which
should be practised for a pre-determined period of time. You
may decide that you wish to practise one of the exercises for a
week, for instance. Once decided, that time scale must be
adhered to.

The first and easiest kind of orgasm deprivation is
simple abstinence. Turn your mind away from sex whenever
it enters your thoughts; focus your mind and energies upon
other things. You will become aware of a great sexual

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tension gradually building below the surface. Consider how
this can be redirected and used magically.

The second technique is that of karezza, i.e. the
practice of masturbating without allowing yourself to reach an
orgasm, always stopping just as the critical moment is
approached and recommencing when it subsides. This
generates a very high charge of sexual desire, which can be
maddening as it is constantly denied release, but very
magically empowering. This raging energy can be thrown
into any magical operation you carry out (though this should
not be done during your scheduled practice sessions, when the
intention is to study the effects of the exercise and take
notes). During the span of the exercise period, karezza
should be employed on a regular basis (at least twice daily,
preferably three or four times) to inflame the accumulated
desire to fever pitch but allow it no physical release. This is
an extremely potent magical practice, but should not be used
to excess.

A Few Words On Sex Magic

It would be remiss to ignore the subject of sex magic in a
chapter specifically focused upon the carnal aspects of magic.
Indeed, the magical potential in the biological energies of sex
is briefly touched upon in the exercises suggested for orgasm
exhaustion and orgasm deprivation. However, sexuality, goes
far beyond the physical, incorporating emotional, mental and
imaginative elements. As a result, the use of sex magic as a
tool for illumination or sorcery is best employed in the work
of the third and subsequent heads, reaching its full flowering
in the fifth head of the Dragon.

The varied techniques of sex magic in practice are too

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vast to adequately address in this current work. There are as
many theories and practices as there are practitioners. Nor is
the practice of sex magic an essential component of Apepian
magic (Desire certainly is, but not necessarily its expression
through the sexual act itself). Its use or otherwise will thus
depend upon the preference of the individual Initiate. But at
the very least an understanding of the powerful currents of
sexual exchange is absolutely central to the Left-Hand Path,
whether or not they are actually directly utilised in practical
magical Workings. These energies will always be present,
even if only in inner desires. The reader is referred to the
very fine works in the Reading List for further information.

The main additional comment to made upon the
subject at this stage is to state that those people who take the
time to work through the exercises offered in this chapter
will find themselves becoming intuitively familar with the
elusive key which will reveal to them the secret of how the
physical and magical realms are intertwined. This key will
then inform and empower any sex magical experiments they
may choose to undertake. But the only way to properly use
the flesh is to come to know and love the flesh. The
techniques for doing that are presented here in as clear and
straightforward a manner as possible.

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CHAPTER FOUR

THE WORK OF THE SECOND HEAD

In the previous chapter, we focused our attention upon the
practices relevant to the first head of the Dragon, namely the
control and development of the physical body and the
realisation of flesh, blood and bone as intrinsically magical.
Indeed, the flesh is the very foundation of the Left-Hand Path
and all else must be grounded in it. Like Merlin in Robert
Holdstock's Merlin's Wood, our runes must be carved upon
our very bones.

In this chapter, we build upon the preceding work by
introducing similar practices to exercise and train the mental
faculties. The mind must be monitored and brought under
control; it must be expanded and adapted to suit our magical
purposes.

We like to kid ourselves that we have control over our
own minds. This is a ridiculous assertion. As soon as the
exercises in this chapter begin to be conscientiously applied
you will discover that your mind is scattered, fragmented and
cannot stay focused on one thing for a single moment without
hard and rigorous training. Developing sufficient mental

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control to consistently work successful magic is difficult in
the extreme.

To illustrate this point, I would like to share a couple
of experiences that I had when very ill in May 2003. My
joints had been attacked by a viral infection which I had
apparently contracted after exposure to rat urine in the archive
storage of the company I worked for at the time. I was unable
to walk, could not even stand without the aid of sticks and
every movement was agony. My hands were so stiff and
swollen that I could do precious little with them and I had a
headache that felt like a drill boring into my right temple.

Not surprisingly, I found it difficult to sleep and I lay
awake one night trying to read, half delirious since I was so ill
and tired. The book I had chosen was simply a light novel,
nothing heavy or overly complex. However, when I picked it
up again in the morning I discovered that I had completely
lost its thread. In my delirium, I had created entirely new
characters in my mind and had woven them into the plot of
the book. I could recall whole sections of the story peopled
with characters who simply did not exist in the novel. In fact,
I was so muddled that I could not tell apart what I had read
and what I had imagined and I was forced to begin reading the
book again. This shows how the mind can break free of
conscious control and run away with itself without our even
realising that it is happening. When properly trained and
applied, this ability is actually a very important tool for
magical applications, but it must first be brought to heel.
Until this period of illness I had never noticed the extent and
power of this tendency of the mind.

But this was not the only odd mental experience I had
during this period. As I lay trying to sleep on another night,
my brain's usual filters must have been lowered, allowing me
a glimpse of the subconscious at work. We often talk of the

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mind's 'internal dialogue' as it constantly chatters away with
itself, but in this rare moment when the barriers were down I
was able to see just how extensive this actually is. I became
aware that my mind was having at least a dozen simultaneous
conversations with itself as I observed it, all of them divorced
from conscious participation. You know when you sit alone
in a busy bar or cafe and simply listen to the buzz of human
noise around you? How the many conversations are all
distinct, but the overall rumble is so loud that you are unable
to fully tune into any one of them and isolate it? It was like
that, but it was inside my head and I came to the shocked
realisation that it was always like that in there! But the brain
is accustomed to filtering out those bits which are not
pertinent to the current interests of the conscious mind, which
is arrogant and absurd enough to assume that it is in control.
In actual fact, it is being hoodwinked and manipulated by the
preprogrammed filters that our society and upbringing have
conditioned our minds with. It is the task of the magician to
undo this conditioning and free the resources of the whole
mind, integrating and unifying them. But first, it is necessary
to simply become experientially aware of them and familiar
with them and this in itself is no easy task.

It is this task which we shall address in the current
chapter.

Models of the Soul

In order to train the mind in magical work, it is necessary to
understand the underlying structure and substance of the
mind. The words 'mind', 'soul', 'spirit' and such like are very
vague and woolly and it would be of benefit to the Initiate to
take some time to learn the interrelationships implied in some

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of the more sophisticated models of the body-mind-soul
complex.

Most magical traditions teach soul lore as part of their
curriculum. The Egyptian model of the soul and its various
parts is alluded to in the Temple of Set, especially well
defined by Don Webb, and this may be familiar to some; if
not, then his published books contain a good portion of the
most pertinent information. The Germanic soul model is well
known through the books of Edred Thorsson, most notably
Runelore and The Nine Doors of Midgard. The kindred
Celtic model is presented in my Book of Ogham. A highly
developed Qabalistic model exists within the Knowledge
Papers of the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn. There is
no shortage of sophisticated models of the psyche within the
traditions of magic.

More recent psychological lore will also be of use to
the Initiate, especially the works of Carl Jung.

To boil all these models down to their basics and
present an inventory of distinct soul parts in modern English
in no particular order, we might create a list that reads
somewhat as follows:

intellect

memory

emotions

repressed shadow aspects

inherited characteristics

idealised image

public face

tutelary projection

post-mortem shade

focal core, the sense of Self itself

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The purpose of Initiation is to knit these faculties into
a single cohesive identity, capable of surviving the death of
the physical vehicle and Remanifesting in a new existence,
whether in a fleshly form or incorporeal. Before they can be
integrated, they must be understood and developed and
streamlined. Many of these faculties ordinarily behave
according to preprogrammed conditioning, some of it social,
some of it biological, some of it simply habitual. Using the
same techniques of observing, testing and stretching which
were applied to the five physical senses under the work of the
first head, we must now bring the parts of the psyche into full
working order. This takes practice and patience and a great
deal of hard work.

I would recommend that the Initiate should
familiarise him / herself with as many of these soul models as
possible and work with them vigorously within the context of
their own symbolic and cultural tradition. Each traditional
model is balanced within itself and by taking time to fully
absorb each in turn on its own terms and in its own frames of
reference, the Initiate will soon establish a very cohesive
image of his / her interior operations, something which will
be critical to the work of the second head.

Monitoring Thought

Before we can even begin to try to control our thoughts, it is
first necessary to become aware of them. For this exercise,
which should be practised regularly for at least a month
before progressing to any of the other practices which follow,
assume the seated posture of the God as described under the
work of the first head.

Once the posture is steady and stable and the

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breathing has settled into an easy rhythm, simply begin to
observe your thoughts. Centre your consciousness in a kind
of Vantage point' within your head and just keep watch. Take
note of your thoughts as they arise. Do not allow yourself to
become involved in any of them, just observe them as they
arise, multiply and vanish.

After a time you will become aware of insidious
'concealed' thoughts which creep into being from within your
mental vantage point itself. These will be thoughts such as:
"I wonder how well I am doing"; "How much longer till the
end of today's exercise?"; "Hmm, where did that thought
come from?", and so forth. It may be difficult initially to
notice thoughts of this kind, since they disguise themselves as
a part of your process of observation. But they are not, they
are separate and distinct thoughts in their own right and you
should recognise them as such.

Once you have spent some time in regular practice
and have become familiar with the patterns of your thoughts
as seen from your inner vantage point, you can take the
exercise one step further. Now you should let your attention
latch onto one thought when it arises and follow it to the
exclusion of all others. You must not try to influence it or
develop it in any way; just observe it and its convolutions
perfectly dispassionately. You will discover that different
streams of thought will react to such close observation in
different ways: some will dry up and cease almost instantly;
some will develop steadily; some will leap about from idea to
idea, shifting and changing in the blink of an eye; some will
bizarrely seem to stop, turn around and stare right back at
you. Again, practise this on a regular basis.

Finally, keep notes of your progress with these
exercises and always be encouraging with yourself. Every
minute spent in such practice is a triumph of your Will, even

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if no obvious sign of improvement seems noticeable. If you
continue to encourage yourself, your subconscious mind will
respond and will start to play ball, opening itself more readily
to your inspection as it senses that you are pleased with it and
that there is pleasure to be gained in these practices; the
subconscious responds best to fun in such long-term
exercises, so make a game of them. Bullying it will produce
poor and resentful results; try to involve it and welcome its
participation.

Stopping Thought

Once you become proficient at observing and following your
trains of thought without interfering with them, you will
discover that you have gained some insight into the
phenomenon of thought itself. You will start to recognise the
patterns whereby random thoughts arise in your mind,
surfacing from the depths of the subconscious. Now, armed
with this knowledge, we face the considerably more difficult
task of actually dampening and stilling thoughts, preventing
them from arising in the first place where possible and
quickly snuffing out those which manage to slip through the
net.

This is done in much the same way as the previous
exercise. Centre your consciousness within your mind and
begin observing. But this time keep your mental landscape as
still and empty as you can possibly make it. As soon as you
become aware of a glimmer of thought, extinguish it.

Now the battle will begin in earnest. You will be
stunned by just how undisciplined your mind is, you will not
believe just how many uncontrolled thoughts whizz around in
there and resist all your attempts to quash them. They will

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seem like the hydra: cut one off and two more spring up in its
place. You will despair at how little progress you seem to be
making. You will be fooled as you think to yourself, "I'm
doing really well, I haven't had a single thought in ages," only
to realise how insidious the little bastards are by playing off
your own vigilance and enticing it to thought. They will
laugh at you, mock you, dance rings around you. You want to
know the best thing to do? Laugh with them, don't get
uptight. Your subconscious will cease rebelling and will
eventually start to work with you if you convince it that you
are not its enemy and that its cooperation will benefit your
whole Self.

It may seem disheartening to say that after a lot of
work and practice you may find yourself able to truly cease
thinking for a mere three or four seconds. But this is a truly
incredible achievement and the sense of pure Self that will
arise in these moments is - quite literally - like a good
orgasm. Consider that an orgasm to tends to last for only
seconds, but that doesn't stop people striving for it. This
degree of mental control will be of tremendous value in the
magical workings of the later heads, especially the temporal
manipulation of the sixth head. But you will need to practise,
and often.

Single Pointedness

Once you are able to successfully still your thoughts for a few
brief seconds (which is the Key to magical gnosis and
prophetic powers), it is time to start focusing upon single-
pointed concentration, which is a related and similarly
difficult discipline.

Begin by staring directly at a single fixed point. It

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may be a mark on the wall; it may be a dot on a piece of
otherwise blank paper; it may be the edge of a knife (very
traditional); it may be the head of a pin; it may be any one of
a hundred small and simple things. Bring your mind to bear
exclusively upon your chosen point of focus. Allow no other
thoughts or impressions to arise in your brain.

This will be fiendishly difficult in exactly the same
way that the thought vacuum of the previous exercise was
fiendishly difficult. Your mind will twist and turn in its
struggle to escape your point of concentration. Rogue
thoughts will spring up faster than you can quash them, you
will find your mind wandering, distracted by the most trivial
thing. None of this matters, just willfully turn your attention
back to your chosen focus point.

The issue at this stage is not how successful you are,
it is simply the fact that you are practising. This practice will
inevitably improve your skill over time. Every slight
improvement in the powers of magical concentration and
applied Will that you are now deliberately honing will pay
enormous dividends. Lack of practice will, of course, pay
nothing at all.

Visualisation Exercises

Once you have acquired the knack of concentrating upon a
point without suffering undue distraction, you can begin to
make the practice more magically useful by focusing your
newfound attention upon a visualised object instead of a
material one.

Begin by visualising some everyday object with no
esoteric significance. Hold its image fixed in your mind's
eye. Imagine every aspect of its appearance in all three

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dimensions and hold it steady in your imagination, your
concentration rigidly fixed upon it. As you gain facility and
confidence, begin to turn and rotate the object within your
mind's eye, viewing it from all angles. Finally, introduce the
other four senses to your visualisation and imagine the object
in all of its sensual glory.

A good item to choose initially would be a small
piece of fruit such as a tangerine or a strawberry. These are
simple shapes, but are colourful and textured and offer a full
sensual feast when the exercise is practised at its full
potential. Imagine the sweet smell of the fruit; the soft
dimples on its surface as you touch it; the mouthwatering
flavour; the pulpy, mushy noises as it is squeezed.

Finally, begin to practise with visualising magical
symbols or sigils which are meaningful to you (do not at this
stage play with ones which you do not know the meaning of,
that kind of work belongs to the third head, not the second).
Use colour, shape, etc., in your visualisations and again try to
grasp the symbol in three dimensions. This practice will have
direct magical application in the work of the third head.
However, at present any insights or what not that may arise
are not to be welcomed; indeed, they are evidence that you
are not concentrating hard enough upon the task in hand,
which is single-pointed focus upon a visualised object with no
distractions.

When you have achieved success with static
visualisations, begin to envision whole scenes being acted out
around you. Read a passage from a book and recreate it in
painstaking detail within your imagination. Walk around and
view the scene from all angles, examine the characters and the
objects in their world. Again, exercise all five senses: pick
things up and stroke them; listen to the sounds of the
scenario; taste things; sniff the air to discover what odours

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you can detect. Carry out this exercise many times in many
different scenarios until they seem 'real'. This practice too
will translate into direct magical work in the next head, which
will prove quite difficult going if this prior experience and
expertise has not been gained now by hard graft.

Mantras

Another way of focusing the mind is the chanting of mantras.
A mantra is a word or phrase which is repeated over and over,
capturing the mind with its rhythm and preventing the
attention from wandering. Of course, if this was all there was
to it, we might as well recite 'Mary had a little lamb...'.

Now actually, that is a briliant idea and I would
suggest that Initiates should indeed begin their mantra
practice by reciting nursery rhymes or limericks. In this way,
you can forget about any esoteric meaning and simply focus
upon wrapping your attention up in the rhythm of the mantra.
Later, when expertise has been gained and magical trance can
be easily entered through mantra use, more meaningful
mantras may be used for positive magical purposes, warping
the world through their repetition.

The mantra should be hummed, sung or vibrated, not
simply muttered under the breath. The exact tone and
duration will depend upon the mantra chosen. Some work
best with a buzzing drone; others with a harsh, explosive
whisper; still others with a deep, sonorous incantation. The
breath should be regulated to suit the mantra, which should be
intoned aloud initially. As the repetition of the mantra begins
to operate on 'automatic pilot', leading the thought along with
it, it can be gradually quietened until it is being repeated
silently within the mind, like a spinning wheel of inner sound

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which holds the mind enthralled.

Once this trance can be entered readily, the Initiate
will be ready to begin using mantras with magical meanings.
A mantra spinning in the mind induces a state of trance and
opens the gates between the conscious and subconscious
minds. It can therefore be used to plant magical seeds in the
deep mind for either operative or illustrative purposes. Some
suggested magical mantras follow:

The Formula of the Aeon of Set: "Xepera Xeper Xeperu"

The Formula of Leviathan: "Xeper and Remanifest"

To Seek after the Mysteries: "Reyn til Runa!"

To open the Gates of Hell: "Zazas Zazas Nasatanada

Zazas"

The Word of the Aeon of Horus: "Abrahadabra"

To summon the Draconian current: "Capimao Vovim"

The combined forces of the Lord of Darkness and the

Serpent: "Apepi Set"

The Charm of Making: "Anadl Natuiaeth Ufudd-Dod Bedd

Oedd Doeth Ni Fyny Fel"

"I reign over ye...": "Ol sonf vors g"

The Secret whisper of Apep: "TINAMIWYAN"

Further methods of developing mantras for operative magical
purposes will be discussed under 'Sigils' later in this chapter.

Liber Jugorum

In his instruction paper entitled 'Liber Jugorum' (see Magick
or Gems from the Equinox), Aleister Crowley offers a highly
effective technique for training and developing the mind,

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which can be adapted effectively for use by modern Initiates.

In Ipsissimus Crowley's original method, the Initiate
attempts to keep watch over his mind by taking an oath to not
say a certain word for a specified period of time. This word
should be one which is used often in daily conversation in
order to ensure proper vigilance. For example, the word 'and'
might be selected. The Initiate might decide to avoid the use
of this word for a period of forty-eight hours.

If the Initiate realises that his vigilance has lapsed and
he has used the forbidden word, or - equally terrible - he
cannot remember whether he has used it or not, then Mr
Crowley would suggest slashing the forearm viciously with a
razor blade in order to drive the lesson home. However, I
tend to agree with Kenneth Grant when he suggests that this
action can serve to actually widen the gulf between the
conscious and subconscious minds and is not to be
recommended. Training by punishment always breeds secret
resentments, which is the last thing we want. Instead, if you
realise that you have slipped up, just smile wryly and take
note of the fact, promising your whole mind that with its help
you will improve. This more gentle approach to training may
take longer, but the mental bridges thus built will stand upon
firm and lasting foundations. You want to build your mind
into an integrated, focused tool, not have it cowering and
snarling like a whipped cur.

When some degree of success has been achieved with
this exercise of guarding your tongue, you can take things one
step further. Now try to guard against the word entering your
very thoughts, not just your speech. This, of course, is a
considerably more difficult task. No sooner are you told not
to think of something than it springs right to the forefront of
your mind. Bugger! Nonetheless, in this as in everything,
regular and determined practice will be proven to produce

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results, with the mind gradually and willingly taking its cue
from the strength of your determination and desire.

Death Posture and Magical Trance

The death posture is a technique developed by Austin Osman
Spare and discussed most fully in his Book of Pleasure. In
that book, there is a self-portrait of Spare in his death posture,
sitting at a desk with his chin resting in his hand as he gazes
straight ahead with a fixed, dead stare. Around him, the
picture is cluttered by various obsessions and symbols that
begin to spring into manifestation as the gates of his
subconscious mind are unlocked and yawn open.

Over the years a number of people, such as Kenneth
Grant and Peter Carroll, have found a great many words to
say about the death posture and their insights are invaluable,
but its essence is simplicity itself.

The key to the death posture is an understanding of
Spare's Zos-Kia cultus. Again, a lot of words have been
written about this, especially in the books of Kenneth Grant
(Spare's literary executor), to which the reader is referred.
However, in very brief terms the idea can be interpreted as
somewhat akin to Ipsissimus Crowley's Nuit-Hadit duality:
the infinitely large and the infinitely small. Zos can be
viewed as the entirety of potential, the Unmanifest awaiting
manifestation and infinite transformation. Kia can be viewed
as the isolate spark of Self, stripped of all accretions, the Eye
in the Void.

The death posture is the process of stilling bodily
movement (see the work of the first head in the previous
chapter) and extinguishing the personality. This allows the
consciousness to retreat into itself, sloughing the skins of

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opinion, assumption, indoctrination, programming, etc. In
this vacuous state, the Eye moves upon the Void and the gates
of Hell (the subconscious) yawn open, allowing deep-rooted
obsessions and powers to arise into manifestation. This, of
course, can be a devastating experience, but it is a
tremendously empowering one.

It goes without saying that the death posture requires
some skill with the types of practice described in the previous
exercises in order to be effective. But for any true magical
transformations to be wrought, some facility with this trance
state is absolutely essential. The Initiate must be able to
isolate the true core of Self from the mundane personality and
directly perceive the Void in which "true creation" may take
place.

Later in this chapter I will provide a brief account of
the Order of Leviathan Working from the Temple of Set's
Munich Conclave, at which a slight variant approach to
attaining this altered state of consciousness was successfully
employed in a group Working.

Eroto-Comatose Lucidity

Aleister Crowley is credited as one of the pioneers who
introduced sexual rites into contemporary Western magical
practice. However, he actually wrote very little on the subject
in his open writings and his sex magical teachings must be
largely deduced from a combination of diaries, letters, the
people who worked with him and reading between the lines.
They are not generally expressed in his published works.

However, one practice which he certainly advocated
was that termed eroto-comatose lucidity. Put simply, this is
the use of sexual stimulation to induce a state of trance. In

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the trance state, the mind is devoid of mundane thoughts and
is peculiarly focused, capable of great insights and touching
deep enough roots in the psyche to effect profound and lasting
changes in both the inner and outer worlds.

The most basic method of utilising sex magic is
simply to focus upon the moment of orgasm, when thought is
crushed into oblivion by the intensity of the experience. At
this moment the magician hurls a focused packet of Will
through the open psychic gateway. Some magicians achieve
tremendous results with this simple key, though my own
experiments with this method have met with absolute zero
success. Horses for courses, as the saying goes.

However, I have had much success with eroto-
comatose lucidity, which works in a quite different way to the
above. In fact, it may be approached in two distinct ways.
Initiates should try both and find out which works best for
them; it may be that one method works best at certain times or
for certain operations and the other works best under different
circumstances. Try them and see.

The first method lays emphasis on the 'comatose' part
of the description. Build up to a tremendous orgasm and then
let your mind drift into trance in the ensuing exhaustion (it
may be necessary to chain a sequence of two or three orgasms
in order to induce a profound enough state of dissociation).
The mind should be temporarily shattered, allowing the Will
to focus itself into a diamond hardness without interference
from idle thoughts. It can then reach forth to seek the
knowledge it requires or to work the desired changes. This
operation can be done solo or works very well with the
assistance of a partner, who can talk the Initiate through a
guided vision / astral experience after pleasuring him / her
into a somnambulistic trance state.

The second technique reutilises the first head

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methodology of karezza, the practice of masturbating to the
point just preceding orgasm, but never allowing it to occur.
This is continued until the buzzing of trapped energies
coupled with frustration and mounting tedium cause the mind
to slip into trance.

Initiates should practise these techniques to observe
the changes wrought upon consciousness and the strange
effects they can have upon the mind (not to mention their
undoubted magical utility).

Sigils and Automatic Drawing

Austin Spare developed a technique of sigillisation which has
become widespread and well known in recent years. A sigil
is basically a pictorial glyph which conceals a Statement of
Desire. When the eyes behold a sigil, they do not consciously
register its meaning; however, the subconscious mind, which
beheld the formation of the sigil and recalls the way in which
it was shaped, certainly associates its form with the Desire.
The use of such sigils is a way to bypass the conscious mind's
rational objections and plant the suggestion of the Desire
directly into the deep places of the psyche where it may be
worked upon. These methods of mental manipulation fall
under the work of the second head and Initiates should
practise until they become perfect at the casting of such
simple sorceries. We will first examine the ways in which
such sigils may be formed before discussing how they may be
effectively implanted in order to incarnate the magician's
Desire. In this as in most cases, different techniques work
best for different people.

The simplest way to formulate a sigil is to decide
upon a phrase which states your Desire in simple terms. Let's

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take a straightforward piece of weather magic as an example.
Let us assume that a magician is a bad sailor but needs to take
a ferry journey. His statement of Desire might therefore be
'FAIR WEATHER'. He then eliminates all duplicated letters
from the statement (this stage is optional and certain letters
may be used more than once to create a more aesthetically
pleasing or numerically significant design). This leaves him
with FAIRWETH. These letters are then taken and
assembled into a single diagrammatic expression which
utilises all of their shapes, as exemplified below. The
magician may make this as simple or ornate as he wishes until
his sense of artistry is satisfied.

We now have a symbol which is derived from the
statement of the magician's Will, but which no longer
consciously suggests it. Personally, I would recommend
creating the sigil within the charged environment of a formal
ritual, coupled with a solemn declaration of intent, to ingrain
its purpose more readily within the psyche (for ritual
guidelines, see the chapter concerning the third head and
many of the titles in the reading list). Once created, the sigil
should be put aside for several days before being taken out
again and charged, as described later.

Sigils can also be created to resonate with the
energies of Gods or spirits, whether traditional or shaped by
the magician's own mind (so-called artificial elementals or
thought- forms). The grimoires are full of sigils relating to
specific spirits and demons. In such a case, the letters of the
spirit's name would be incorporated in the design of the sigil.

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A simple sigil for devotional work with Apep is suggested
below.

jj— S

This can be spiced up as needed by the ingenium of
the magician, as in the second, more evocative and
aesthetically pleasing, representation.

A look at the artwork of Austin Spare or the
illustrations in Peter Carroll's Liber Null & Psychonaut will
furnish many examples of sigils created in this manner which
should help stimulate the new Initiate's creative juices.

To return briefly to the subject of mantras, these may
be created by the same means. By choosing a statement of
Desire, removing duplicated letters, then scrambling the
remaining letters, a suitable sounding word or phrase may be
produced and chanted. Taking our 'fair weather' example
from above, we might create a mantra like 'THERIF AW.
This would then be charged in a similar manner to a visual
sigil, but at the moment of casting it would be chanted rather
than stared at.

In Uncle Setnakt's Essential Guide to the Left-Hand
Path, Don Webb suggests a method of creating sigils from
purpose-developed magic squares. If the English alphabet is
counted as twenty five letters rather than twenty six (achieved
by treating I and Y as the same letter / sound), then it will fit
into a 5 X 5 grid, as follows.

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A B C D E

F G H I/Y J

K L M N O

P Q R S T

U V W X Z

Now the trick is to rearrange the letters into a matrix
which reflects our statement of Desire. Taking the same
example once again, we place the 'fair weather' letters first in
the grid in the order of their occurrence in the phrase, then fill
in with the remaining letters of the alphabet, thus:

F A I R W

E T H B C

D G J K L

M N O P Q

S U V X Z

The magician can now trace sigils upon this square,
which further expresses his Desire. Having created a magical
square for fair weather, the magician might wish to sigillise
the words 'ferry journey' upon it in order to render his Desire
more specific. He does this by tracing lines upon the letters
on the square, spelling out the words f-e-r-r-y j-o-u-r-n-e-y
and tracing the shapes wrought, producing the following two

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sigils:

These shapes and patterns of lines have no meaning to
the conscious mind, but the subconscious knows how they
were wrought and what they mean, recognising the Desire
encoded within. Because of the conscious dissociation from
them, the subconscious may manipulate them directly and
without interference when they are charged.

Another technique which may be used in the creation
of sigils is also derived from Austin Spare, that of automatic
drawing. The technique in this case is very simple, although
attaining a satisfactory use of the art may take some time and
practice to develop to an aesthetically pleasing standard. It
really does require the lowering of inhibitions and psychic
barriers. But you know the drill by now: practise, practise,
practise. A pen or pencil is held loosely in the hand over a
blank sheet of paper. The mind drifts in reverie upon the
Desire to be reified and the hand is allowed to move as it
Will, without conscious interference or direction. From the
resulting patterns, some parts may be extracted and adapted as
sigils of the Desire and subsequently charged.

The methods for charging sigils are many and varied.
Some will work wonders for some Initiates, others won't. The
basic intention is to achieve an altered state of consciousness
in which the mind enters a void and casts the sigil loose,
throwing it into the deep places from which it will
subsequently manifest. It is then effectively forgotten about

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and left to do its work. This is neither the time nor the place
for the passionate willing for results; that should have come
earlier in the actual formation stage of the sigil. The time of
casting, or charging, needs to be free of 'lust of result', a
surrender of the Desire to the depths of Hell, the subconscious
mind. Only by completely releasing it in this way will it be
free to move and to act, fulfilling its directive to manifest in
the outer world.

Probably the simplest and most used way to charge a
sigil is to intensely visualise it or stare at an image of it at the
moment of orgasm. It sounds great in theory, for at this
moment the mind is incapable of ordinary conscious thought
(just try saying your multiplication tables while you're
coming) and the sigil should penetrate straight through to the
subconscious. Many people report very great success with
this method. Personally, I have always had rather poor results
using it, which just goes to show that what is reportedly the
single most effective method for charging sigils will not
necessarily be the best for everyone.

Death posture is another highly recommended
method, placing the sigil at eye level as the dead stare is fixed
upon it. This one I have had excellent results with, also with
the right way of walking described under the first head.
Really, any of the physical and mental exercises so far
described can be adapted for this form of results magic. This,
after all, is what all of that hard training is ultimately for.

Personally, my supreme triumphs with sigils have
been when I have combined them with Workings of demonic
evocation. Aa a goeticist of long standing and great
enthusiasm, nothing pleases me more than whipping my mind
into a state of consciousness wherein I can conjure some
demon or obsession into seeming visible appearance. In such
Workings, the evoked entity is passed the inscribed sigil to

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charge and to act through as a physical seal of the Working.
This works because the magician's attention is focused upon
the demonic manifestation, so the charging of the sigil and its
subsequent reification is apparently accomplished by the
demon, not by you. In other words, it is being handed behind
the scenes to a subconscious obsession in the guise of an
external entity by a form of sleight of mind. I have had
awesome results from this kind of combined Working.
Evocation techniques are not a necessary part of the Order of
Apep's curriculum per se, so are not detailed in this study of
the seven heads. Full guidelines can be found in many of the
books in the reading list, however.

The Dream Diary

During the course of the Work of the second head, the Initiate
should begin in earnest to keep a dream diary if he / she does
not already do so. There are many benefits from keeping such
a diary, but in terms of our Apepian Work at this second head
stage it is primarily because the process of consciously
recalling dreams upon waking will work miracles in
establishing a consistent dialogue between the conscious and
subconscious minds. This process of mental integration is the
whole focus of the second head of the Dragon. As a negative
symbol, the whirling thunderbolt can represent the chaotic
thoughts which must be reined in and controlled; as a positive
symbol, it represents the whole psyche turning as a unified
force, with each part coming to the fore in its turn. One of
Don Web's sayings which impressed me greatly was that
dreaming is the battleground for immortality.

The practice of keeping a dream diary is therefore an
essential part of the work of this head and will assist greatly

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with the other exercises. However, it is also valuable
preparatory work for the third head, in which dreams play a
very important role and Initiates will be expected to develop
the ability of lucid dreaming and also map their own personal
dreamscapes. None of this will be possible without a good
deal of prior practice in recalling dreams and a good stock of
dream records for analysis.

Having got the whys and wherefores out of the way,
the nuts and bolts of dream recall are quite straightforward.
Keep a pad of paper and a pen by your bedside, within easy
reach, also a lamp in case you wake in the middle of the night
with a dream to record. As you fall asleep, remind yourself
that you must remember your dreams when you wake up.
Immediately upon waking - literally as soon as you realise
that you are conscious - relax and still your mind. Then let
your memory drift gently back until some image or
impression arises from your dreams. You will probably find
that once you manage to latch onto a single item, a whole host
of information will come flooding through as the entire dream
resurges in your memory. Write it down immediately, for it
can disappear again in moments and you then won't be able to
recover it for love nor money. If you remember only a single
tiny thing, write that down, no matter how insignificant. This
will reaffirm to your subconscious that your dreams are
important to you. If you remember nothing at all, write in
your diary, "I am disappointed that I was unable to recall my
dreams this morning. I will try again tonight." In this way,
your deep mind is made aware that you are not about to give
up and go away. It will become an ingrained habit and results
will then become more or less automatic.

In this, as in everything, practice makes perfect. The
more your mind grows to expect you to want to recall your
dreams, the more it will offer up to you, but it needs to be

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trained to do so. In time, you will probably find yourself
remembering a whole series of four or five dreams from a
single night.

In the course of this practice, you wil learn how
important it is to get sufficient sleep. Snatching four or five
hours at a time will quickly reduce your dream recall to zero.
You need a good night's sleep. Sleep is not a waste of time;
as you enter the work of the third head you will discover that
sleep and dreaming are keys to some of the most powerful
magic you can experience. At that time, you will be grateful
for the preliminary dream recall work which falls under the
jurisdiction of the second head.

Emotional Control

By control of one's emotions, I am certainly not referring to
their suppression. Indeed, the emotions are a vital part of the
soul-complex and should flow easily. However, we need to
learn how to use our emotions to enrich our lives and our
magic. Unfortunately, in the uninitiated state our emotions
are usually switched on and off by implanted hot buttons,
leaving us open to manipulation by the media and advertising.
Our emotions can then be our chains.

The first step in our emotional liberation is therefore
to identify our own hot buttons. Carry a small notebook with
you, which will be your 'emotion diary'. Every time an
emotion arises, make a note of the date, time and
circumstances. Make special note of those emotions which
occur in response to adverts or items on the televised news or
in newspapers.

After you have accumulated some data, you will be
able to look through your diary and begin to recognise

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patterns. You will learn what your hot buttons are: what
makes you angry; what makes you sad; what inspires your
lust; what makes you swoon into mushy lovey-doviness.
Once you have identified these factors, you will be able to
realise when they are being triggered and you will find that
you can coolly detach yourself and switch off the
programmed emotional response if you so wish. Emotions
are a vital part of life, but they should arise because of your
desires and experiences, not because someone is pushing your
buttons to manipulate a response. The greater your insight
and success with this exercise, the more immune to
manipulation you will become.

Once your pre-programmed hot buttons have
effectively been disconnected, you can concentrate instead on
discovering what really makes you happy. A little
introspective meditation - and perhaps divination - will work
wonders here and you can channel your enthusiasm and
affections into projects, people and things that truly mean
something to you. Similarly, your hate and anger can be
turned away from media-promoted bogeymen and turned
upon your true enemies. You will be greatly empowered.

One extremely helpful side effect of this exercise is
the ability to redirect unproductive emotional energies into
other magical projects. When you become aware that you are
getting angry or otherwise emotionally stimulated because
one of your hot buttons has been pressed, don't just let the
unwanted emotional response dissipate. Put it to good use
instead. All effective magic is fuelled by emotion, so redirect
the awakened energies into a sigil or similar work-in-
progress. Make these things work for you instead of simply
draining or frustrating you.

Any truly initiatory Right-Hand Path programme
worth its salt - I am thinking of Buddhism in particular - will

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teach its Initiates to similarly control their emotions and to
switch off the programmed triggers that allow them to be
manipulated by the media, advertisers and politicians. They
attain a kind of detachment and that is where they are content
to remain. The Left-Hand Path Initiate is not content with
this. Having worked to shatter the chains that have shackled
our true Selves, we must now choose to forge new and
stronger chains which will reinforce and bolster our Selves,
chains of power of our own choosing. A suitable example of
this is Tolkien's Sauron forging the One Ring. This new act
of decisive and conscious empowerment / bondage is
horrifying to Right-Hand Path mentality.

It is up to you to deliberately choose those people,
projects, places and treasures that truly inspire you and then
to formally bind to them your love, loyalty, enthusiasm and
ambitions. You must also choose those people, projects,
places and things that are hostile to your goals and direct your
hate and rage upon them. This part of the process - the
conscious choosing of new chains - is truly Satanic and best
sought in the writings of Anton Szandor LaVey, as its
importance has not been stressed by any of those who have
come after him, even those who may have surpassed him in
other ways. Some will no doubt argue that it appears to be a
backward step to form new attachments after severing old
ones. It is, in fact, one of the keys to immortality. The
difference is that our new bonds are self-chosen, selected to
reflect and amplify our essential Self. In order to progress,
we need to define what we are and strengthen this essence,
even as we cut away that which we are not. Our true, Self-
chosen loves, attachments and hates will feed and sustain our
souls. There is a further Mystery here which you should learn
for yourself during the work of the fifth head and beyond.

By this stage, your understanding of your own

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emotional triggers and attachments should be sufficient to
allow you to press your own hot buttons and turn your
emotions on and off at Will, for any purpose and at any
degree of intensity that you wish. Love and hate, laughter and
tears, should be available on tap. Your emotions will be a
useful tool and a reliable guide now that you have redeployed
them to resonate with your true Desire.

You should regularly practise with your emotional
arsenal. Try getting absurdly angry in situations that don't
warrant it; make yourself fall in love with randomly selected
people; cultivate a new phobia and experience irrational terror
at the most trivial things; walk calmly and dispassionately
through troubling situations. Exercises such as these -
induced under specific circumstances and with strict time
limits - will enhance your emotional range and ensure that
your feelings only respond to your own manipulations.

The Art of Remembering

The final part of the psyche to be exercised during the work
of the second head is that of memory. There are two different
types of memory exercise here, the former of which may be
rendered easier if you have already diligently practised the
exercises for developing the sense of sight in the first head.

This first method is simply based upon remembering
things seen. Any number of conventional memory games can
be used to help develop your ability to remember. Examples
include such games as remembering what objects are placed
upon a tray after staring at it for a few seconds before it is
removed from sight. Variations upon this theme are noticing
what item(s) has been added or removed when the tray is
placed back in front of you. These are more than simple

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games, they will actively develop and improve your memory
over time.

Similar skills can be developed for the more verbally-
oriented parts of your brain by learning passages of words by
heart. Choose a play and learn the lines of one of the leading
parts. Memorise a poem. Learn long passages of prose that
are meaningful to you until you can recite them flawlessly.

A superb exercise for the work of this second head is
to learn a new language. In doing so, you will exercise your
memory as you learn new words and try to remember new
grammatical structures and ways of expressing yourself. But
you will also exercise your entire intelligence, learning new
ways of linking concepts together. Freeing the mind from a
single, rigid linguistic structure will provide great freedom of
thought.

You may adapt one of the exercises presented under
the first head for the sense of sight, so that it becomes a
memory training exercise also. Walk into a shop or a busy
room that you have not previously visited. Look around for
thirty seconds and then leave. Sit down as soon as possible
and begin writing a list of everything you can remember
seeing. As time and practice accrue, you should find your
lists getting progressively longer.

Finally, we will turn to a memory exercise which will
also provide a valuable foundation for some of the work of
the fourth and sixth heads. When you retire to bed, think
back over all of the events of the preceding day in reverse
order. Include all of the minutiae that you can recall. Begin
by remembering pulling the covers over you, then climbing
into bed, then undressing and getting ready for bed. If you
pottered around first, remember what you did. If you had
supper, recall what it was and how it tasted. Go right back
through the day in this fashion. This exercise will not only

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help your memory, it will gradually loosen the bonds of time
upon your psyche.

The Munich Working

It seems appropriate at this point in our study of the heads of
Apep to recall the state of consciousness which was induced
in a group Working of the Order of Leviathan at the Munich
Conclave of the Temple of Set, which occurred a few years
ago when I was the Grand Master of that Order.

This Working was noteworthy on three counts:

1. It was the first group Working to be performed at a
Conclave by a major Order which had no script at all.
Literally everything was ad-libbed. There were no props
or ritual accoutrements save for a single candle on a
central table to provide a slight illumination in an
otherwise pitch black room. This Working was proof that
the Order's doctrine of magic "by force of Will alone" was
a viable one and could be forcibly demonstrated in the
context of an open group Working, something which had
previously been doubted. Many of those in attendance
remarked that this was one of the most powerful group
Workings they had ever attended.

2. The Working also demonstrated that dramatic shifts in
consciousness could be effected in group Workings to a
very pronounced degree. The mental exercises described
in this chapter are generally presumed to be solitary
practices, but the Munich Working showed that this need
not always be the case. Although regular solo practice is
absolutely essential, success can evidently be catalysed
and enhanced through occasional group Workings to

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reinforce the ongoing magical practice.
3. As stated, the Working was an expression of the spartan,
minimalistic ritual work championed by the Apepian
philosophy. However, it was observed by more than one
person that part of its success was due to it having directly
followed the heavily scripted and choreographed Working
of the Order of Horus. This was not simply a question of
contrast: the two positively enhanced each other. This
suggests that although our most powerful tools - and the
only ones on which we can ultimately rely - are those of
the mind applied directly to the Void, the approach to this
state of consciousness can be eased by carefully
considered ritual work. (N.B. the philosophy and
conceptual model underpinning 'the Magic of the Void'
will be discussed in the next chapter.)

So what did the Working actually do? Basically,
following initial decompression and invocations, we were
each asked to raise up and examine all of our strong emotions,
our thoughts, our opinions, our concerns and so forth. These
were to be whipped up to a frenzy within the brain ... and then
they were to be dropped, blotted out, cast aside. The emptied
mind then looked inwards to perceive That which it truly Is at
its still centre. In truth, the Working was engineered to locate
and experience the Eye of Leviathan at the still centre from
which all phenomena radiate. We looked into the Abyss and
beheld a Monster looking back at us: our Selves.

Hopefully, the brief account of this Working will help
suggest the many ways in which the powers of this second
head may be awakened and developed. But such moments of
lucidity are fleeting unless constant practice is observed.

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CHAPTER FIVE

THE WORK OF THE THIRD HEAD

In this chapter, we address the work of the third head of the
Ancient Serpent, that of the hyena, leopard or jackal: the
Beast of Blood. Here we explore clairvoyant faculties and
how to develop them; their uses and their limitations. We
explore the related phenomena of astral journeys and skrying,
lucid dreaming and the mapping of the personal dreamscape.
We explore theories of synchronicity and their implications
for clairvoyance and the practice of divination and the
interpretation of omens.

The first two heads are really hard graft and form the
foundational work of developing necessary skills. Here at last
with the third head the trance states so learned can now be
applied in fascinating and transformative ways, literally
opening up a new universe of possibilities to the Initiate. The
danger of the third head is one of becoming enrapt in glamour
and running a risk of self-delusion. This can be avoided if
you adhere to the self-discipline learned during the arduous
process of the previous work.

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Clairvoyance

The development of clairvoyant abilities - among which we
may include such psychic phenomena as telepathy,
precognition, astral travel, etc. - has long been one of the
major aims of magical practice. Some people seem to have
been born with a greater or lesser natural talent, but in all
cases it can be developed, encouraged and improved through
practice. There's that annoying proviso again: hard work!

For most of us, clairvoyance will never be a tool that
we can use to read the thoughts of our neighbours effortlessly,
nor shall we find ourselves able to levitate our coffee cups to
our lips. It is a focused moment of communion between the
conscious and subconscious aspects of the mind which brings
to the surface facts and insights and phenomena which lie
beyond the range of everyday experience. As such, it rarely
manifests to order and it generally takes us by surprise. But
when it happens it is unmistakeable. A few anecdotal
examples from my own personal experience may help
illustrate the matter.

Clairvoyance often manifests in dreams, when the
conscious mind is not in control and the barriers are down,
allowing things to slip through. I remember a time a good
few years ago when I was anxious to obtain a couple of LPs
for my record collection. (Remember those? Quaint vinyl
things which made musical noises when a stylus was dragged
through their grooves?) This was in the days before the
internet, when rare titles remained rare, and living as I did
(and still do) upon a small island, I despaired of ever finding
any records of the non-mainstream artistes I was interested in:
Sally Oldfield and the Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band. But on the
morning in question - a Saturday - I awoke and I absolutely
knew that albums by both artistes were to be found in a

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particular music shop in the island's main town. I had seen
them there in a dream and I knew in my bones that I had
dreamed true. I went to town that same morning and bought a
record by the Bonzo Dog Band and two of those newfangled
CD things by Sally Oldfield from the shop I had dreamed I
would find them in. None of these recordings had been in the
shop when I had previously looked and there had been no
reason to suppose that such relatively obscure - and old -
recordings would be brought into stock. Indeed, the two Sally
Oldfield CDs were actually German imports, not a usual find
on the Isle of Man at that time (nor indeed today), as the small
population deters shops from stocking non-mainstream items.
An interesting question thus arises: did my sleeping mind
respond to my desire and inform me when those products
were in stock?; or, did my desire conjure those items to the
island, with the dream a notification that my subconscious
magic had worked? As an aside, similar occurrences with
other music and books would happen on other occasions, and
still sometimes do, but this was noteworthy as a double
whammy with particularly unexpected titles.

On another occasion, I carried out a short series of
clairvoyant experiments with some friends. One of them went
into another room (we were working in his home) and
handled various objects. He was accompanied by a witness.
Doors were left open, so that we could converse, although we
could not see each other. It was up to me to 'see' and describe
the objects I believed he was handling. Often this was not too
convincing, but on this particular night I felt a physical buzz
in my body and the 'hits' came thick and fast as in my mind's
eye I correctly saw him picking up socks, then a stuffed toy.
But it was the next item which impressed me most and which
taught me most about the way in which this phenomenon
functions. I immediately knew and declared that the item was

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red and made of plastic. I knew that he was holding it to his
ear and I suggested to him that he was using a red plastic
telephone. I thought it to be a ridiculous guess, but could not
shake the certainty that I was correct. Shaken, he walked
back into the room I was in, with one of those fold-up red
plastic travel alarms held to his ear exactly as if it was a
phone.

It became apparent to me that rather than perceiving
the objects directly in a type of out-of-body experience as I
had initially supposed, I had instead established a mental link
with my friend and was picking up his feelings and thoughts
about the objects: first the clock's colour; then its texture;
then unfolding it and holding it to his ear to listen to it. This
struck me as very important, hinting at the ability to perceive
through other minds.

It was at about this time that I scared half-witless a
fellow clerk in the bank where I worked at the time. He was a
real Jack-the-lad, always messing about, joking and
frequently finding himself on the receiving end of the
managerial wrath. One morning, full of cheek and good
humour, he said to me, "I bet you can't guess what I had for
breakfast this morning." Quick as a flash, before my
conscious mind could even begin to formulate a response, I
had replied, "Ravioli". The blood drained from his face and
he demanded that I tell him how I could possibly have known.
Had I been spying on him? He checked his shirt and tie for
tell-tale stains, whilst I too wondered how I could possibly
have known. It was hardly a usual breakfast choice, after all.

When I thought about it afterwards, I realised that
even before he had finished phrasing his question I had seen
him in my mind's eye opening a tin of ravioli and I knew that
it was true and spoke the answer. This process had not
occurred on a conscious level, it had arisen from somewhere

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deep and I had blurted it out before I had even realised.

A final example - which has made me quite popular
with friends on occasion - involves attending a casino. I was
sitting at a table drinking coffee and munching crisps when a
friend asked me for a number for the roulette table. I told him
one instantly and without thinking and he placed his bet and
won. Excited, he ran back to the seat where I was reclining
and observing people (a favourite hobby of mine) and he
asked me for another number. A second number duly sprang
to mind and this time two of them bet on it and won a great
deal of money. When they asked for a third number it was
not forthcoming, but they had no grounds for complaint. (I
don't mean that I guessed a third number incorrectly,
incidentally, I refused to name a third number since I couldn't
tell what it would be.) This happened again on a number of
subsequent visits.

You see, I can always tell whether one of these
experiences is true or not, whether a hunch is going to bear
fruit. I feel it physically; I know it absolutely. The physical
symptom is an apparent tugging in my stomach, as if someone
had hooked their finger under my ribcage. Maybe this is why
such hunches are called a 'gut feeling'. If that physical
sensation arises, then I know that my insights are absolutely
accurate.

Two major points spring to mind when I think back
over my own clairvoyant experiences:

1 . The most remarkable instances occur spontaneously, when
my attitude is simply open and mildly interested. If I am
personally involved in a situation in a passionate way, or if
there is any excitement or tension in me, then nothing
happens. I can't do it by trying to do it. I can help out my
friends at the casino until their enthusiasm infects me and I

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become too focused on what is happening. But if I try
betting myself, I can forget it, as I cannot sustain the
necessary detachment and vacuity of mind.
2. The phenomenon is fleeting and cannot easily be
prolonged. I am given a certain amount of information in
a package. Trying to push for more than 'comes through'
of its own accord will give nothing further or - worse - it
will supply delusory / false information. After that first
inflow and realisation, the mind interests itself too much in
the process and the door closes, thwarting further true
perception.

However, it is also apparent that training can enhance
such experiences in two distinct ways:

1. Through practice and the proper recording of such
phenomena as they arise, their occurrence becomes
integrated and acceptable to the mind; thus, their incidence
may be increased.

2. Through practise of and familiarity with the mental
focusing techniques taught under the second head of Apep,
two advantages may be gained: (a) the doors may be
opened somewhat between the conscious and
subconscious minds, increasing the likelihood of
clairvoyant phenomena; (b) the mind's excitivity may be
held at bay more effectively and the duration and clarity of
the phenomena may thus be extended.

Developing Clairvoyance

This practice was taught by Aleister Crowley to his students
so that they might exercise their psychic muscles and develop

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their clairvoyant abilities. I have used it personally over a
period of months at various times over the years and I can
testify to its efficacy. It is a very simple but demonstrably
effective method of developing clairvoyance.

Basically, you should obtain a full deck of 78 Tarot
cards and take time to familiarise yourself with them
thoroughly. Study each picture in detail until you know it
intimately. Sleep with the cards by your bedside for several
nights.

Once you have familiarised yourself with the cards in
this way and established a rapport with them, you should
perform the following exercise on a daily basis.

Shuffle the cards, then place the pack face down in
front of you. Turn over one card at a time, trying to guess
which suit it is (Trumps, Wands, Cups, Swords or Disks).
Work through the whole pack in this manner, recording your
guess and the true result in each case.

You will find that your number of 'hits' will increase
over time. Eventually you wil be scoring significantly above
average. More significant than such dry statistics, however,
will be those instances when you find that you know beyond
any shadow of a doubt the precise identity of a card before
you turn it over - not just its suit, but the exact card. You will
come to recognise the symptoms of this sense of certainty and
soon you will be able to invoke the phenomenon by
replicating these psychosomatic symptoms deliberately.

After a few weeks, you should progress to trying to
guess the precise card instead of the general suit as a matter
of course.

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Trance States

Much of the work of the third head involves the ability to
enter into altered states of concsciousness, commonly referred
to as trance. The single biggest obstacle to success in this
work is misunderstanding what constitutes a trance state and
the failure of the Initiate to realise that he/she has already
achieved a light trance. Years can be wasted waiting for a
non-existent 'perfect trance'.

Any Initiate who has been diligent with the work of
the second head will already have a good deal of experience
with trance. A light trance is entered simply by focusing the
mind upon a symbol or a sound and blocking extraneous
thought.

The biggest culprit as a stumbling block always seems
to be the phenomenon of astral travel, or trance journeys.
Initiates often seem to have expectations of literally feeling
the sensation of lifting out of their bodies and leaving their
physical selves behind while their consciousness drifts away
to another plane. Utterly unnecessary. Sufficient focus of
mind to visualise and move around a scene in the imagination
is a perfectly adequate trance for early forays into this form of
magic. The work of the second head should have trained you
perfectly well to hold a stable scene in your mind's eye.

The so-called 'out of body experience' is not so much
a case of travelling out of the body as it is travelling into the
mind. Paradoxically, this inward journey can often permit the
Initiate to clearly perceive events in the outside world.

In early experiments the magician will inevitably
remain all too aware of the body throughout. It will itch,
twitch and generally be distracting, though this will be
lessened in direct proportion to your experience with first
head techniques. These twitches are not a sign of failure, they

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simply mean that the mind is aware of its vehicle. Just
refocus upon your inner vision and continue. With practice,
the mind will become so accustomed to astral work that it will
simply cease to take notice of the body and its distractions.
But this deepening of the trance state will only come with
work and familiarity.

The nearest everyday comparison to astral work is
simple daydreaming. Astral magic is simply - in technique, if
not in substance - a daydream focused and directed by
magical Will. In other words, it is the use of magic to harness
and control the image-shaping capacity of the human
imagination for initiatory purposes.

If the imagination is popularly dismissed as a world
of make-believe and seems a wishy-washy kind of a magical
tool, just pause and reflect that every work of art, every work
of literature, every piece of architecture or engineering, every
technological advance, every human act, had its first birth in
someone's imagination. Make-believe = manifestation
through belief.

Experiments in Telepathy

Since telepathy is a touching of minds, to effectively practise
it requires more than one person. The following experimental
format, which combines telepathy practice with astral work,
requires a minimum of three people: a transmitter; a receiver
and a recorder. If you do not have a group of people with
whom you can do magical work, try introducing this as a kind
of parlour game with your friends. There's no reason why
your training shouldn't contribute to their fun.

The receiver lies down on the floor and relaxes,
closing his / her eyes. An image of the body is then created in

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the imagination and visualised in the room, positioned over
the physical body. Once the image is vivid and stable, the
receiver transfers his / her consciousness to it by an act of
imagination and Will, 'seeing' through its eyes. This should
not be difficult for those who have diligently practised the
work of the second head.

The transmitter then leaves the room. The astral form
of the receiver follows the transmitter and tries to observe all
that he / she does. With practice, the receiver will find it easy
to remain incorporeal, observing the transmitter, while
simultaneously using his / her physical mouth to relay his /
her impressions and observations to the recorder. This should
be done in a stream of consciousness style, as it is often the
smaller details which prove to be most significant. When all
is done, the receiver returns to the vicinity of his / her body
and 'settles back' into it, regaining ordinary consciousness and
wriggling extremities to ensure consciousness is properly
'grounded'.

The above method forms the basis for some
illuminating experiments in telepathy. Why do I term this
'telepathy', though? Surely it is some kind of remote viewing?
Yes and no. It quickly became apparent to me that although
the mind of the receiver interprets the phenomenon in terms
of travelling to a place and observing what is happening there,
what actually happened when we analysed the results was that
the receiver picked up information from the mind of the
transmitter - and, perhaps, others - and then span an
experiential tapestry around it. A good example is that of the
red plastic telephone / alarm clock recounted earlier in this
chapter. I received the transmitter's perceptions of colour,
texture and the act of listening as he focused on each of these
in turn. My mind envisioned these in the form of a phone. I
did not 'see' a phone; I accurately perceived three pieces of

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information which were reassembled and interpreted by my
mind in a matrix that made sense of them, as if I was seeing a
phone. This is why it is important to have a scribe present to
capture the stream of consciousness so that the significant
details are not lost. Simply to record, "he thought he saw a
phone, but it was actually a clock" completely misses what
was actually a remarkable hit.

Initially it will be found that the ability of the receiver
to recover pertinent and accurate information will wane
rapidly after only a minute or two. Needless to say, with
persistent practice both the accuracy and duration of results
will increase measurably. In time the receiver may become so
adept at nailing correct information that he may as well be
physically present in the same room as the transmitter. But as
was stated previously, trust only that information which arises
of its own accord; pushing for more will always lead to
falsehoods as the pressured mind makes things up to fill in the
blanks.

The ultimate aim of experiments such as these, of
course, is to develop facility and confidence in one's
telepathic abilities to such a degree that they can be used to
seek out information of a more pertinent nature. Our goal is
to produce tools appropriate for Initiation.

Trance Journeys / Astral Travel

The basic technique for undertaking a trance journey is very
similar to that relating to telepathic experiments as described
above. The main difference in this case is that instead of
focusing upon a terrestrial person or place, the Initiate
explores an inner realm of the imagination - a dreamworld -
and interacts with the beings and things he finds there.

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Such astral journeys are usually tightly focused.
Generally, the Initiate will use the technique to explore the
inner meaning of some symbol or icon associated with his
magical universe. For example, Qabalists may walk the paths
between the Sephiroth of the Tree of Life, focusing their
Wills upon the task by reinforcing the experience through use
of the planetary, Tarot, numeric and other symbolism
associated with the particular path in question. They would
invoke the Gods and Daemons attributed thereto and through
use of these symbolic keys the Initiate would keep his Will
fixed firmly upon the correct path. The oracles encountered
upon the journey could then be relied upon to be true. This
Willed orientation and magical control is what differentiates
astral work from idle daydreaming.

In like manner, rune magicians will follow the rune
streams between the worlds of Yggdrasill; Celts will explore
the roots and branches of the multi-layered structure of the
Otherworld and Underworld; Enochian magicians will visit
the Thirty Aethyrs which constitute their magical universe.
Mircea Eliade's book Shamanism recounts the spirit journeys
and techniques of shamans in many different cultures.

The actual technique of astral projection generally
follows a familiar pattern. The Initiate will surround himself
with symbolism pertaining to the realm to be visited, drawn
from the appropriate tradition. He will then enter a trance and
project beyond his ordinary physical awareness by
formulating a visualised body and transferring his
consciousness to it as previously described. However, instead
of exploring his immediate surroundings as in the telepathy
experiments, he will generally use one of two techniques to
enter the desired realm:

1 . Visualise a door upon which is a symbol representing the

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journey (a rune, a Hebrew letter, an ogham few, a Tarot
image, or a pre-prepared sigil, for example). Once this
visualisation is strong and is firmly associated in the mind
as an entrance to the desired world, open the door and step
through into whatever may lie beyond.
2. You can cause yourself to seemingly rise into an area of
formless mist whilst intoning names or mantras pertinent
to the journey (Enochian work in particular often follows
this pattern). The incantations continue until the mist
clears and a landscape takes shape fully around you and
you 'arrive'.

Needless to say, for the advanced practitioner there are more
direct and less formulaic methods, but only practice can make
perfect and teach you what works best for you.

Once practice has proven fruitful with a set of known
symbols, the Initiate may use the technique to explore the
hidden arcana of symbols whose meanings are unknown to
him. Indeed, Aleister Crowley used to actively test the skills
of his students in such a manner, charging them to unravel a
sigil of which he knew the import but they did not.

Through such trance journeys the Initiate will begin
to discover recurring imagery and themes, all of which will be
useful in the task of mapping his personal magical universe,
which is a major project of the third head.

A word about the reality of these experiences is
probaly appropriate at this juncture. After all, they do take
place within the imagination, which is a much more malleable
realm than they physical world. So is it all make-believe?
Perhaps, but only in the sense that by believing we can make
real. Isn't that a fantastic thing to realise! Indeed, we
ourselves are only make-believe; we create ourselves through
our belief that we exist. Remarkable! Delusion remains, of

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course, a very real danger in the flux and flow of that astral
world, but the Will can hold a vision true by continually
checking every symbol and happening for proper resonance
with the invoked force. Ipsissimus Crowley's writings place
considerable emphasis upon this and should be consulted for
further guidance. In short, the astral realm is as real as we
make it, which is every bit as real as the outer objective
world, but in direct proportion to the proper application of
skill and Will.

The Seal of the Eye of Leviathan is, of course, the
symbol par excellence of the Order's aspiration and its
superimposition upon any astral phenomena should test their
relevance to the Draconian Gnosis: if it is true, the Eye will
strengthen the phenomenon; if false, the Eye will whither it
away. Only Truth can stand in the gaze of the Absolute.

Skrying

Skrying is a further technique for exploring the magical
universe. Unlike astral travel it does not necessitate the
shaping of a complete landscape with the imagination,
through which the Initiate moves and interacts in a mentally
projected body. Instead of participating in a dream-like
experience, the skryer perceives astral images reflected upon
a surface, as if looking through a window or a camera lens.
Some Initiates prefer one method, some prefer the other. All
should practise and develop some facility with both.

Various surfaces can be used for skrying. The crystal
ball is the most obvious and best known device; John Dee and
Edward Kelly used an obsidian mirror, reputedly of Aztec
origin; Austin Spare recommended the thumbnail; the Golden
Dawn used painted symbols in 'flashing' colours pertinent to

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the visions they wished to invoke. I personally use an egg of
obsidian and occasionally a small piece of quartz. Bowls of
water or ink are also popular. Basically, any surface which
can fascinate and hold the gaze can be a suitable tool for
skrying.

As was common in Golden Dawn practice, it is
possible to mark the skrying surface with sigils or other
symbols in order to direct the visions. These may be marked
with wipeable colours or to forge a more personal link they
may be traced with one's own blood or sexual fluids. Two
additional adaptations of the technique then suggest
themselves: (1) the charging of sigils for operative magical
purposes, willfully projecting them beyond the skrying
surface into the deep realms; (2) the evocation of spirits in the
skrying device by tracing their seals upon it and reciting the
appropriate evocatory formula.

What can an Initiate expect when skrying? As with
most aspects of magical practice, there is no stock answer.
Some may see images in the surface before them, as if
looking through a window. For myself, I find that my eyes
become transfixed but I perceive images within my head, as if
they were being projected upon the back of my skull from a
distance. Try it and see what you experience; never be
limited by what you think is 'supposed' to happen.

Mapping the Magical Universe

The practice of keeping a dream diary was introduced in the
work of the second head. This is a tool which becomes
increasingly important and useful the more it is used. It
should be referred to now in order to identify any recurring
places, people or themes which occur in your dreams so that

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you can chart these important psychic nexus points and begin
the task of mapping your own magical universe.

You will discover many places of personal
significance which you will revisit many times during the
course of your consciously directed trance journeys and
skrying. But often those which are most striking and affect
you most deeply are the ones which continually haunt you in
your sleep.

Start with a blank piece of paper. In the centre, draw
some symbol to mark the entrance to your dreamscape. Then
proceed to mark those places which have figured prominently
for you in your astral work, but most especially in your
dreams. Mark each place in the relative position that feels
most right. Is it above, below, to one side or the other?
Where do you feel it lies in relation to other places? Near or
far away?

Once this highly personalised map has been fleshed
out a little (it will never actually be complete) you can
experiment with marking the same places on the more
conventional maps and models of the traditions you are
familiar with, such as the Tree of Life, the worlds of
Yggdrasill, the Enochian Aethyrs or the Celtic Otherworld.
Interesting comparisons can thus be drawn and relationships
suggested: you will come to understand yourself and the
tradition in which you work a little better. Your map should
always be malleable, subject to change with the shifting of
dreams.

Lucid Dreaming

Dreaming is a fascinating process and a tremendous
demonstration of the creative power of the mind. Take a

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moment to reflect upon just how real a dream seems when
you are in it. Your dream eyes can see a whole world around
you; your dream hands can touch and feel the solidity of that
world as your dream feet transport you within it. More
astonishingly still, you meet people who seem to have
thoughts and feelings of their own, living their complex lives
in your dream world. But all of these things are spun into
existence and sustained by your own mind. Doesn't that give
you some perspective on the seemingly solid and complex
world we inhabit when awake? Is it simply a difference of
degree?

Kenneth Grant's writings contain many marvelous
insights upon the nature of dreams. In his novel Against the
Light there is a passage of searing prose in which he points
out that each and every person you encounter in your dreams
- every hero, every villain, every friend, every lover, all with
their own lives and agendas - is a creation and facet of your
very own self, an expression of you. Every landscape is
modeled by your own creative power. You are not a placid
observer here, you are absolute god and creator - but at the
time you have forgotten it!

The purpose of lucid dreaming is to remind yourself
of this sovereignty while you dream so that you can exercise
the full scope of your divine powers within the dreamscape.
By this stage, you should already be keeping a dream journal,
so your subconscious is already aware of the fact that dreams
are important to you. Now you need to begin telling yourself
as you go to sleep that you wish to become aware of the fact
that you are dreaming whilst still in the dream state.

There are many tricks which can be used to achieve
consciousness within a dream. One of these is to prepare a
sigil to induce lucid dreaming, which can be visualised as you
go to sleep. Another way is to repeatedly pause throughout

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the day and ask yourself if you are currently awake or
dreaming. As this habit becomes ingrained, you may start
asking yourself the same question when you dream. How to
become aware that you are dreaming and not awake? The
landscape will be less 'fixed' and more malleable than the
waking world. Concentrate upon changing some small detail
by an act of will. If it shifts, adjusting to suit your wish, then
it is a pretty good bet that you are dreaming.

Once you realise that you are experiencing a lucid
dream, you will find that you are fully conscious within a
world that feels every bit as real as the waking state. But you
can manipulate and change this world in any way that you
wish. Naturally, enormous changes can strain credulity and
may run the risk of ending the dream and waking you up more
than subtler changes would. So you might choose to walk
through a door to find yourself in a new environment instead
of simply overwriting the one you're already in.

Your first few experiences of lucid dreaming will
likely be very brief, as your over-excited mind will rapidly
wake you up. But practice will bring greater self control and
lengthier dream experiences.

In the early experiences simply have fun and enjoy
yourself in any way you wish. Fly; visit alien worlds; have
sex with the rich and famous; whatever. But as your skill
grows you will be able to explore your magical universe
freely. That dreamscape you mapped can become as real and
permanent a place as the waking world.

What's more, the perception we gain of reality is no
more than a shared dream. The more control we have over
our dreams, the closer we can align the outer world with our
own vision instead of the vision of others.

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Synchronicity - The Continuum of Inner and Outer

Within certain of the most sophisticated modern occult
schools - notably the Temple of Set and the Rune-Gild - the
prevailing model taught is that of distinct and separate
objective and subjective universes. These inner and outer
worlds can communicate / exchange via a phenomenon which
is generally termed the 'magical link'.

This model is a very useful one when it comes to
planning workings of operative magic to produce results in
the outside world, as it suggests a mechanism for arranging
internal symbols to achieve external effects. It is also a useful
symbolic tool for gauging workings designed to induce
paradigm shifts in the consciousness of humanity as a whole
(so-called 'Aeonic' magic). But whilst a useful model to be
applied in practical magic, it fails to really explain the ins and
outs (if you'll pardon the pun) of the magical process. As
Apepian Initiates, intent upon seeing through the lens of the
Eye of Leviathan, we need to step back and take a much
broader view.

At the limits of experience, it is fair to say that there
are those things which seem sensible to everybody and are
wholly objective. Similarly, in the other direction there are
those thoughts and impressions which are ours alone and
seem wholly subjective. But for most of our experiences, the
waters muddy and there is no real way to distinguish what
parts of reality and our impression of it are objective or
subjective. Between the extremes noted above (which are
themselves not actually as fixed as they may appear) there are
limitless shades of reality merging into a continuum. There is
ultimately only a Universe (as the name itself implies: 'uni' =
'one'). If we visualise the Self as a point of pure
consciousness, it can be seen to be surrounded by a field of

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thoughts, experiences, perceptions, which constitute its world,
as illustrated.

(/OOrt-l-k

se^f-

Those thoughts, ideas, perceptions and experiences which are
closer to the point of Self-awareness will resonate most
strongly with its essence and purpose and will be most
malleable to its Will. But the further we get from that centre
the more distant, detached and impersonal our worldview will
become. Then, inevitably, our field of play will overlap that
of somebody else, as shown.

At the point of overlap, the perceived universe will inevitably
be flavoured with the essences and desires of both Selves.
This is good in so far as we become exposed to new ideas,

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APOPHIS

new visions, new powers. But it also means that the area of
overlap is much more difficult to influence, for it is partially
shaped by another's Will as well as our own.

The situation becomes even more complex, of course,
when further individuals are added to the model, as shown.

In this diagram, it will be observed that there are now several
degrees of overlap and the central region - where the
worldviews of all three selves interact - is the most rigid and
least malleable aspect of reality: the most objective, if you
will, since any changes must manifest in three separate
worldviews before being actualised here.

To make this easier to understand, there is a
metaphorical similarity with the world of physical sensations
and actions. Your body is yours: you control it. If you wish
to raise your arm, you only have to will to do so and it
happens, responding instantly to the signals sent from your
brain. Your mind's interface with your body is that good. But
if you want to lift your coffee cup off the table, willing it to
happen is not enough. You must first raise your arm and

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extend it, take hold of the cup and then lift it. You must use
your body as an intermediary between your mind and the cup.
But your body and the cup are of the same substance; both are
composed of matter and the Universe is by definition but one
thing. All of its particles come from a single ultimate source
and are shaped and re-shaped by the ever-shifting fields of
sub-atomic attraction and repulsion. There is no difference.
For some reason, our bizarre biological mindsets try to
persuade us that we and our world are solid and enduring.
But the truth is that there is hardly anything there at all. The
universe is almost completely Nothing.

We can shape our own minds as we can control our
own bodies. Within our social circle we can exercise a lesser
but still powerful degree of control if we exercise the skills of
Lesser Black Magic. Within the matrix of our societies we
can manipulate our position and influence by means of
Medial Black Magic. Global and cosmic patterns require
Greater Black Magical Workings simply to understand, let
alone manipulate.

The key to making sense of all this and to gaining real
power over it is to truly perceive, understand and integrate
your own magical universe. This is the purpose of the dream
exercises in the work of the third head. If you can seize upon
the power symbols that work for you then you will have
found the keys to those doors whereby the deep mind can
access and influence the larger continuum. This is also the
reason for mastering one of the traditional schools of magic as
it gives you a coherent, tried and tested framework upon
which those unearthed power symbols may be arranged and
more easily integrated.

If we use the runes as an example, each rune
represents a mysterious quality which is active within both
the inner and outer worlds. Once an Initiate has aligned his

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APOPHIS

consciousness with the runic streams he may use those keys
to create change by an act of Will. Since we are here
postulating a continuum rather than completely separate
subjective and objective universes, there is no need for any
'magical link' phenomenon (though specifically engineered
links with the target / recipient of a Working can certainly
provide an enormous boost to its efficacy; in such a case, the
link is a symbolic targeting tool, not a phenomenon in itself).
The change simple happens, radiating out from the point of
Self, flowing along the rune stream as far as the Will can
carry it. The further it travels, the more friction, opposition
and deflection it experiences from the consciousness fields of
other Selves. The purer the resonance between the Will and
the Rune, the further the effect will travel, as it is less diluted
by the distortions and idiosyncrasies of mundane thought
patterns. This is what Mr Crowley meant when he counselled
working without "lust of result"; the resonance in the moment
is the thing, not the goal. Conversely, the more a Working is
tangled in ego-stuff, the less it will penetrate other
consciousness spheres, the less will be the change wrought. It
will be readily seen that time-proven technologies such as the
runes will greatly facilitate the magic of the one who can
master them. The runes have carved channels in the ancestral
collective consciousness and the magician who can funnel his
Will through such channels will encounter much less
resistance.

In practical magical terms this leads to an interesting
model of Black Magic, which I term 'the Magic of the Void'
and which is discussed a little later in this chapter. The
continuum model has ramifications for the whole essence of
the Left-Hand Path and the deification of Self. Such is most
properly a meditation for the seventh head.

But now to discuss synchronicity in the light of this

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APOPHIS

model, synchronicity being focal to the work of the third
head. Synchronicity is what happens when an Initiate is
properly attuned to his magical universe and its power
symbols. His Work is then able to radiate out a significant
distance into the continuum and begins to feed back to him
from sources of a more objective nature. It becomes apparent
that the essence of his Work has become overlaid upon the
Universe at large and has infiltrated and inspired the minds of
others. This feedback - whether it manifests in the form of
coincidentally significant articles, overheard conversations,
chance meetings or events - is a clear signifier that the
Initiate is affecting the world outside of his own immediate
horizons. He is dreaming outside of his skull.

Our minds our very good at shutting out apparently
extraneous information and censoring our perception of
synchronicities as they happen. It is not easy to stay
continually focused and alert and whenever we fail to do so it
is to our own loss. This tendency of the mind to brush
seemingly 'unnecessary' input under the metaphorical carpet
of consciousness also explains why we are so vulnerable to
the suggestions implanted by others, which skip past
conscious apprehension and influence us without our being
aware of it.

This model is an attempt to explain why
synchronicities happen - they are evidence of the Will
interfacing with parts of the continuum it might not normally
reach, hence they are a very positive sign. In the next section
we will explore how we may best use them.

Omens and Auguries

The goal of the Initiate is to develop a consciousness which is

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both subjectively and objectively puissant. To express this in
terms of the model offered in the preceding section, we aim to
develop a consciousness which is clearly resonant throughout
the entire continuum.

Once such a consciousness is established,
synchronistic phenomena and experiences will inevitably
occur. Many of these will be helpful feedback and
amplification of Work the Initiate is currently doing and their
utility is obvious. But there will also be those cases when
something new comes through in response to a Working,
something which seems to lead off at a new angle. Kenneth
Grant has recorded several such experiences from the records
of New Isis Lodge in his Typhonian Trilogies and he terms
them 'tangential tantra'.

What this basically means is that some new vision or
area of Work is being prefigured, some new angle which has
not been explored previously in the Initiate's magical
universe. To ignore such promptings is asking for trouble.
When such a deep-level unforeseen response to a magical
Working arises but is not acted upon by the Initiate, that
individual's magical career is effectively over. As in all
matters concerning feedback from subconsious levels, the
trafic continues for only so long as the deep mind feels
wanted. Dilettantes need not apply.

Not all synchronicities are of deep magical
importance, of course. There is also feedback pertinent to the
Initiate's everyday life. All manner of opportunities may be
offered or prefigured. It is up to you to be awake enough to
recognise them and to act upon them. Be aware of your
hunches, gut instincts and intuitions and act upon them
without fear. Omens for you will manifest themselves
through imagery and symbols which are powerful to your own
imagination. These need not by any means be recognised

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occult symbols, they only need to be potent to you. If you are
a student of Shakespeare, a quotation taken eerily out of
context in some weird circumstance may constitute a
profound message to you personally.

It all comes back to being awake, to keeping the mind
alert and aware beyond the robotic imprints which we are
programmed to follow without thinking. Once the mind is so
awake the continuum will open to it. Thus we should all
aspire to the truth which Aleister Crowley defined as the Oath
of the Magister Templi: to interpret all phenomena as a direct
message from the gods to your own soul.

Divination

The practice of divination is scorned by many magicians, who
consider themselves above the parlour game of fortune
telling. But it should be obvious from the preceding parts of
this chapter that divination is actually the magical process of
actively invoking synchronistic feedback from the Universe in
order to expand the Initiate's insight into a given situation.

Divination involves the manipulation of symbols
which have specific relevance within the magician's magical
universe and their interpretation within a meaningful pattern.
The invocatory part of the formula aims to extend the Will
along the continuum sufficiently for synchronicity to deal a
meaningful and pertinent message which will afford the
Initiate a significant insight. This is a tool which we cannot
afford to ignore.

The symbol set used - Tarot, Runes, I-Ching, Ogham,
whatever - will depend upon the aesthetics and magical
heritage of the individual Initiate.

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APOPHIS

A Quick Word On Prophecy

Prophecy - the art of inspired utterance - deserves a
tangential mention at this time. Basically, prophecy is the
practice of resonating the Magical Will within the continuum
to such a degree that a response is received from a divine or
inner source. This response is usually in the form of a
coherent but highly symbolic message, often in words but
possibly through other means of expression, such as drawing
or sculpting or music.

All inspired texts are examples of prophecy. Of
course, this does not mean that all inspired texts are equally
valid. Some prophecies still revered as holy writ are now
utterly worthless, having been a message for specific persons
in specific circumstances at a specific time. Their repeated
reinterpretation and erroneous application over the centuries
is stupidity in its purest form. Using the formula of the Magic
of the Void discussed later in the this chapter, we can model
the validity of any given prophecy upon the degree of
resonance between the following three factors: the person of
the prophet; the situation or question which demands insight;
and the divine factor.

StTUflTlof

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APOPHIS

The prophecy arises in response to the resonance
between the three factors when enflamed by Magical Will.
The stronger the resonance, the more precise and useful the
prophecy.

Even the best prophecy, of course, is filtered through
the lens of the magician who records it. Its relevance must be
assessed by each Initiate by its resonance with his own angle
in the above-diagrammed relationship.

Prophecy - as a direct communication with a god -
unleashes powerful psychic forces and is by necessity a
highly transformative process. It is generally accompanied by
a release of repressed emotions, evidenced by floods of tears
or hysterical laughter. For those whose connections in the
above model are weak, it can be a dangerous and precipitate
occurrence, leading to obsession, fanaticism and emotional
devastation.

The Daemon Rising

The increase in incidents of synchronicity and the awareness
that the continuum is shifting in response to Will inevitably
leads the Initiate to the realisation that he is somehow more
than he thought, that he possesses an Essence that transcends
the experiences of everyday life.

The realisation of this phenomenon has been called
by many names: the Higher Self; the Genius; "the Self who
can do more"; the Holy Guardian Angel; the Wode-Self. We
can label it by any of these titles; personally I prefer Daemon.

The rising awareness of this Self who is beyond self
is the signifier of Adepthood. The Adept is himself that
'Beast of Blood' who is symbolised by the jackal or hyena of
the third head. Life becomes richer, opportunities blossom,

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the world shakes at your footsteps. It is the duty to Self of
every Initiate to cultivate this consciousness, to become the
Beast of Blood.

This will be pursued further along formal lines in the
Work of the fourth head, when the Initiate will establish a
symbiosis with the Daemonic Self in full consciousness and
the Eye of the Dragon will open in consequence. Under the
fourth head, we will study this awakening in detail and
explore a contemporary Left-Hand Path approach to the
Sacred Magic of Abra-Melin the Mage. I introduce the
subject in this place, since the diligent Initiate will become
aware of the first stirrings of the Daemon in the process of the
third head's Work.

The Magic of the Void

One of the intriguing statements in the Book of Coming Forth
by Night is that "true creation" takes place in a void.
Moreover, this void is something which is created by the
magician. The Magic of the Void is a model I first proposed
at the Munich Conclave of the Temple of Set a few years ago,
but the fresh presentation offered here reflects advances in
Understanding since that initial proposal.

The symbol of the triangle was associated with the
Order of Leviathan from the very earliest days, when James
Lewis used it to symbolise the viewpoint of the Order, which
always looked in towards the heart of a matter. Rather than
become entangled in a situation, the Draconian Initiate would
look at it objectively from the three points of triangulation,
seeing it and experiencing it from every possible angle whilst
remaining a free agent.

As such, the triangle symbolised the Eye of the

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APOPHIS

Dragon which glares at the world from the edges of time and
space. This was made explicit during my time as Grand
Master, when I remodeled the triangular perspective into my
personal seal, the reptilian Eye surrounded by three
interlocked triangles within a circle, a seal which I carried
forward into the Order of Apep. But the Eye has always been
associated with dragons and serpents, not least because of the
sexual symbolism of the masculine one-eyed snake and the
secret crimson eye which opens in the female.

The Magic of the Void casts this model into the field
of practical results magic - as well as Greater Black Magic -
and works by first establishing the triangulation, then
allowing the Eye to open in the Void at the centre. Some
examples may help.

In the diagram, point [a] will always represent or
include the Initiate. You are part of any situation you observe
simply by dint of observing it. Your own observations - and
thus yourself- will change as the situation changes. Point [b]
represents one pole in the encounter; point [c] represents the
other pole (note that these poles may sometimes be different
phases of the same situation, e.g. [b] may be the situation as it
stands and [c] the situation as it is hoped to become). The
lines connecting the three points represent all of the shades
and variations in their shifting relationships. Point [x] is the

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Void, the potential for change which vibrates between these
three outer points.

If we take a Lesser Magical example to begin with,
let's imagine an Initiate who wishes to obtain a new job. He
attends the all-important interview, where he will make it or
break it. The magician and his desire for the new position is
at point [a] on the triangle; the prospective employer
(embodied in the person who makes the decision whether or
not to hire) is at point [b]; the job vacancy itself and all of the
promise it holds is at point [c]. In the diagram all of these
points connect, each from their own perspective, by following
the lines of the triangle. The magician and employer can see
and evaluate each other in interview; the magician looks at
the job and wishes to obtain it; the employer has expectations
of the kind of person required to fill that role and must
measure these expectations against the applicant. The job
itself has a function within the company and the magician
may or may not be capable of fulfilling that function.
Although the three points connect, they each have their own
agenda, there is a void between them. It is the task of the
magician to understand that void so that he can bridge it,
unifying all three points through his magic. The first essential
step is to open the Eye in the Void - to see all three points
with their separate needs and agendas clearly. Only then can
you see what needs to be done in order to satisfy them all and
bring them together in an act of magical fusion. Only when
this Understanding has been gained does the magician bring
his Lesser Magical skills into play, using eye contact, speech
rhythms, body language and so forth to win over the
interviewer. He can't win the employer over to his cause until
he knows what the employer is looking for and what the
interviewer's hot buttons are. He can't bullshit that he is the
best person for the job until he knows what the job entails.

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Only then can he bridge the Void, collapsing the three points
into one, where he, the employer and the job are unified. It is
important to note that the Void is bridged between all three
points: the magician has bound himself to the employer and
to the job just as closely as they are bound to him. Be careful
what you ask for.

Let's leave 'headology' behind now and consider a
different example employing Medial Magic: a

straightforward lust spell. A friend of mine once saw a very
naughty French girl on a train and fell head over heels in lust.
He was an accomplished magician, so how might he have
gone about fulfilling his wicked desire? In the diagram, he
himself is at point [a]; the French girl is at point [b]; his
vision of their lustful union is at point [c]. All of these things
are connected but are not unified: [a] and [b] have
encountered each other on a train; lustful imaginings [c] arise
in [a] and are directed toward [b] with all the force of his
heightened emotions. But the void [x] lies between them.
[a]'s goal is to draw the three points together, so that he and
the French girl [b] may unite in lustful union [c]. To achieve
this, the magician must open the Eye in the Void, thus
bridging it and uniting the three points of the triangle in a way
that transforms them all. He may attempt to do this by sigils,
mantras, meditation or ritual, but ultimately he will succeed if
he can open the Eye and destroy the barriers that isolate the
three outer points with the fiery breath of the awakened
Dragon. When this crisis of magical transformation happens,
the magician must be aware that he binds himself to the
French girl through his lust to the exact same degree that he
inflames her desires and binds her to him. All three points of
the triangle are affected and transformed by the magic coming
through the Void.

Greater Black Magic will follow a similar pattern. In

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APOPHIS

this case, the point [a] still - as ever - represents the magician
in his role as aspirant to change and / or knowledge; [b] is the
matter upon which he wishes to exercise change or to be
illuminated; [c] is the divine source from which he seeks
illumination or the transformative principle (Apep / Set / Odin
/ Badb, etc.). In this case, [x] is a Void which will reveal the
desired wisdom as he opens his Eye within it. Such wisdom
may manifest in words, images, feelings or other forms, all of
which must be recorded immediately. GBM Workings will
be forgotten by the conscious mind if they are not deliberately
and painstakingly recorded at the time they happen. Note that
the knowledge gained will inevitably alter the magician to the
same degree that it changes his worldview.

Two Secrets of the Left-Hand Path

In writing concerning the magical continuum of subjective /
objective experience and in presenting the model of the
Magic of the Void in this chapter, I have deliberately omitted
to mention one key fact which is absolutely fundamental to
the Left-Hand Path. You may discern it meditatively or
experientially, but its apprehension will be more
transformative when you win it for yourself rather than being
told it by me. So my mouth remains closed concerning this
secret. Don't feel that you are missing out or being misled: if
you truly advance along the Left-Hand Path, this unspoken
secret is the most obvious thing in the world.

The second secret is implicit in the model of the
Magic of the Void and has been stated throughout that
section, but requires highlighting here: you yourself are one
of the angles of the triangle of manifestation. Therefore, you
yourself are altered and transformed by the process of

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opening the Eye in the Void. Do not use magic unless you
yourself are willing to be changed by it!

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CHAPTER SIX

THE WORK OF THE FOURTH HEAD

There are three main parts to the Work of the fourth head.
The first of these is an understanding of the Dragon's Eye and
the means of its opening. The second is the apprehension of
the Daemon, the personal tutelary deity. The third is the
vision of the Striding God who abides in the seventh head.

Upon arriving at this head, the Initiate will find little
in the way of new exercises and techniques to practise. The
Eye now begins to open and the sorcerer must use those skills
already learned to pursue a lifelong quest. It is at this stage
that we begin to appreciate why we have developed these
magical muscles so painstakingly, to understand what it is all
for.

The chapters that follow hereafter are therefore
addressed to the great questions of life and magical
experience instead of the acquisition of the skills necessary to
understand such questions, let alone answer them. Your bag
of tools should by now be full. The fourth head is a place and
time of realisation and Self-recreation. The magician
discovers his place in the Universe and obtains a Vision of

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what he may yet be. He exercises his Will to reshape both
himself and his environment in order to chase after his
Vision. In so doing, he becomes a new being. He discovers
and wields the single defining power of the Lord of Darkness.

Priesthood

The Work of the Left-Hand Path certainly possesses a
religious element, even if it is antithetical to most
contemporary notions of religion. The root Deities of the
Path have been presented earlier and each Initiate will gain an
understanding of their Essences as he progresses. But before
pressing any further ahead, we must here digress slightly to
explore one of our options, for it is at this stage of the journey
that some will feel called to approach those Deities more
closely and to assume the role of a Priest.

The concept of a Priest of the Lord of Darkness can
initially be a difficult one to grasp. It has similarities to the
priests of conventional religions, but in many respects is a
very different thing. One might wonder how a path that
champions a heroic individual quest could accommodate a
Priesthood at all. Yet such individuals do arise and they are
unmistakable when they do.

Unlike most religions' priests, the Priesthood of
Darkness is not a salaried occupation. Such a Priest will
dispense wisdom and offer advice concerning the initiatory
quest, but has no pastoral duties nor congregation as such.
The problems of those who approach him are none of his
concern unless he chooses to involve himself in others' affairs
in the role of a personal friend. He has none of the usual
societal obligations of a pastor. None have any claim over
him beyond what he is willing to offer of his own free will.

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Moreover, any advice of value will always be in the form of a
challenge to catalyse the Initiate's own work, never a free
lunch.

What makes a Priest or Priestess? What differentiates
such an individual from any other Black Magician? Not
ambition or aspiration. You don't just simply decide that you
want to be a Priest and work set about becoming one. It
doesn't work like that. Every true Initiate of the Left-Hand
Path will form a close relationship with the three principal
Deities of the Path, as described earlier. But certain Initiates
will experience something more, a true touching of minds.
This is a wholly unnatural phenomenon, completely alien to
the mechanical processes of the cosmos. In truth, all Adepts
will feel this kind of connection with their Gods at times, in
the ecstasy of awakened consciousness. But the Priest is an
individual who embraces it and chooses to accept that alien
consciousness into his own Self. He binds himself to his
Gods, and They - if They are willing - bind Themselves to
him. The Essence of the Dark Gods now dwells in the depths
of his own consciousness.

Considering the nature of our three Deities, the
foremost will always be the Lord of Darkness Himself, for He
is the very source of consciousness, the First Form of Isolate
Intelligence. To Him all honours are due. The Scarlet
Woman embodies the Priest's Desire, motivating and inspiring
him; immortalising him. The Serpent is the current and the
potential for his Work, the coiling power in the Void; It is the
horror behind the mask.

The assumption of the role as Priest is invariably met
with three distinct consequences:

1. The Initiate's everyday life is thrown into

upheaval as his circumstances are swept clean to make room

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APOPHIS

for his new vocation. I have known new Priests endure
devastating events, such as job losses, relationship break-ups
and relocations as the magic invoked by their ordination
rearranges their lives for them. Priesthood is not something
to be taken lightly. The Gods will take your pledge seriously
and declutter for you.

2. In terms of personal initiatory progress, the
Initiate's new relationship with his Gods will heighten his
awareness of his own latent divinity. Much of the Work of
the fourth and subsequent heads will be seen with a new
Understanding and may progress more smoothly as a result.

3. In order to become a Priest at all, the Initiate
must experience a sense of closeness with the Lord of
Darkness and must have some comprehension of His Will. In
other words, the Priest cares passionately for the struggle of
consciousness against inertia and is an active soldier in that
Invisible War. His magical motivations extend beyond his
own person. Since he now possesses something of the
Essence of the Prince of Darkness, that Essence may
occasionally speak directly through him when he champions
the cause of conscious identity over conformity.

Such is the role of a Priest of Darkness and such
individuals are the guides of those who tread the Left-Hand
Path. They are the operatives of the Powers of Darkness in
the world, inspiring and leading change on a large scale, often
subtly from behind the scenes. Their personal charisma and
power is boosted, but there is a price to pay. Such Outsiders
see too clearly to be satisfied by mundane trivia and their
personal and professional relationships can suffer as a result.
Things that once enthralled are now seen as dust. The things
they Need often sweep aside the things that they want.
Priesthood is not an option for all, nor should it be, but it

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would be remiss to not mention it at this juncture.

The Eye of Leviathan

The diagram of the Eye of Leviathan, which adorns the front
cover of this book, is my personal Seal and the Key to all of
my teachings on Draconian Black Magic.
There are three parts to the Seal:

1 . The surrounding circle

2. The three interlocking triangles

3. The Eye

The symbolism of each of these will be considered
from many points of view. I am hopeful that such an
investigation through the medium of these pages will inspire
Initiates to uncover new Mysteries in the design and its
implications.

First, I want to look at some of the origins of the
triangle and eye symbolism so that the history of the
development of the Seal and its pertinence to the Order of
Apep may be understood.

My first encounter with the triangle as a specifically
Draconian symbol was when I first met Ipsissimus James
Lewis of the Temple of Set, the founder and Grand Master of
the Order of Leviathan. Ipsissimus Lewis was visiting
London and a meeting of the British Setian Initiates had been
arranged in his honour. At this time I was a First Degree
Setian and this was only the second Setian gathering I had
attended. As a light-hearted conclusion to his presentation,
the Ipsissimus subjected those assembled to the 'Infamous
James Lewis Test'.

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APOPHIS

The test was a simple one. Each attendee was given a
piece of paper on which four geometric shapes were depicted:
a triangle; a square; a trapezoid and a circle.

The object of the exercise was to select which of the
four forms struck an immediate resonance with the Initiate.
The shape was not to be chosen intellectually, but should be
the one which intuitively gripped the attention the moment the
page was glanced at. In this way, Ipsissimus Lewis claimed
an insight could be gained into which of the Temple of Set's
three largest Orders would best suit each particular Initiate.

I selected the triangle as the shape which most
attracted me. This transpired to be the symbol most pertinent
to the Order of Leviathan. The triangle represents the process
of viewing every situation dispassionately, seeing both sides
of any debate and then formulating a third, initiated
perspective which transcends the others. The Initiate of
Leviathan sees things from a different perspective to most
people and gains wisdom thereby. This process of
triangulation is akin to a snake's cold-blooded, hypnotic stare.

For those intrigued by what the other three geometric
shapes signified: the trapezoid quite naturally referred to the
Order of the Trapezoid, with its interest in strange angles and
Germanic magic; the square was indicative of the Order of the
Vampyre, as it signifies the solidity of the material world in
which the Vampyre - a master of the techniques of Lesser
Black Magic - performs most of his Works; the circle was a
bad choice to make, symbolising unity and traits more
pertinent to the Right-Hand Path.

That same night we all piled into the legendary Black
Room of the Temple's Gates of Albion Pylon (by far the most
impressive and awe-inspiring ritual chamber it has ever been
my pleasure to behold) and performed a ritual of Leviathan,
which had been scripted by myself in honour of the

164

APOPHIS

Ipsissimus' visit. At the peak of this ritual I was called
forward and Recognised as an Adept and simultaneously
inducted into the Order of Leviathan.

This marked the commencement of my personal
association with the triangle as a symbol of the Dragon, but
the basic sigil of the Eye in the Triangle is a very old and well
known one: Israel Regardie's biography of Aleister Crowley
is titled after it; the symbol appears on U.S. currency, and so
forth. It also plays a highly significant part in The
Illuminatus Trilogy by Robert Shea and Robert Anton
Wilson, whose final part is entitled Leviathan and in which
the Ancient Serpent makes a personal appearance.

My thoughts have never strayed far from the symbol
of the triangle and at length I endeavoured to interpret it not
only as a model of Initiation, but also of operative applied
sorcery. After all, if the model was to have validity it must
operate on all planes. On the Left-Hand Path it is not
sufficient to Be: one must also Do, so that one may Become.
This operative application of the Key led to my concept of the
Magic of the Void, which was introduced at the Munich
Conclave of the Temple of Set and has been discussed in the
chapter concerning the third head.

Thoughts of Eyes, Triangles and Voids kept dancing
in my mind and it was at a mid-year gathering of the Temple
of Set held in Austin, Texas, that I first unveiled the Eye of
Leviathan. Here was the Seal of the Eye within its three
equilateral triangles bound together within a circle, exactly as
we know it today.

Given the nature of Leviathan as the Absolute, a
primeval force predating the ordered cosmos, and given the
mastery of this being over time (preceding the flow of time as
we know it), my initial instinct about the three triangles was
that they represented the Eye's perspective in past-present-

165

APOPHIS

future. I later adopted the idea that - like the valknutr - the
triangles might actually be interlocked as admirably
illustrated below by Order Initiate D.V. Graal), with one point
of each extending to past, present and future, a truly
dimensionally transcendental image.

Before proceeding any further, it is as well to define
the basic symbolism of the Seal of the Order. The
surrounding circle represents the manifest cosmos in its
entirety. The Eye is at the centre. It is a point of awareness
which is an Absolute in its own right and never directly
touches the cosmos which it observes. The three triangles are
experiential processes extending throughout all of space-time,
including the shadow-realms of the past, the future and the
may / may not be. Through these experiential processes, the
Eye may project images of itself into Play and enjoy endless
permutations of its own Being without ever becoming
ensnared, for its eternal Essence abides in the Void (here
symbolised by the centre).

The Eye symbolises both an ageless entity known to
us as Leviathan or Apep; it also symbolises the unique

166

APOPHIS

Essence at the heart of each Initiate, his very Selfhood, which
has Come Into Being and established its own sovereignty.

The Eye and the Circle may be likened to Hadit and
Nuit of Thelemic philosophy. It should also be noted that
there are two dragons in the Seal: the Eye of Leviathan is in
the centre and the circle which bounds and defines the cosmos
is of course the Midgard Serpent or the Wyrm Ouroboros.
These may appear reflected in the red and white dragons of
Merlinic lore, who fight each other furiously, breathing fire.
The flames of their battle are established in the three
triangles, the matrix of personal experience of Life with all of
its pleasures and pains.

From another perspective, the Eye is an isolate point
of pure consciousness which is able to perceive itself from all
angles as the rays of the three triangles are reflected back and
forth from the mirror of the surrounding ring. In a practical
initiatory sense, the Cosmos (ring) is an arena in which the
Self (Eye) may extend and have its Play (triangles), without
the two ever actually touching and becoming one.

There is also obviously a great deal of sexual
symbolism in the Seal. As Kenneth Grant's writings reveal,
the Draconian Gnosis is very much a sexual one. Crudely
speaking, both the serpentine and Eye symbolism are
addressed in the old description of the 'one-eyed trouser
snake', and the penis is certainly a manifestation of the
penetrating stare and hunger of the Eye of Leviathan. But the
Eye is also very much a female symbol. Many years ago,
there circulated dozens of smutty stories concerning a certain
Colonel Castarse, a gruff old figure with an insatiable sexual
appetite. In one such tale, the Colonel attended a dignified
social event, where the assembled refined ladies and
gentlemen amused each other with riddles. One old dear
twittered, "What part of the human body is moist, dilates

167

APOPHIS

when touched and is fringed with hair?" The Colonel grunted,
"That's easy, it's a cunt." The outraged socialites informed
him that the correct answer was, in fact, an eyeball. The
disgraced Colonel was promptly dispatched to the furthest
reaches of the Empire for his indiscretion. Many years later,
having wheedled his way back into polite society, the Colonel
heard the same riddle posed again: "What part of the human
body is moist, dilates when touched, and is fringed with
hair?" The Colonel loudly declared, "I don't care what you
say, it's still a cunt!" And so, as we gaze at the Seal of the
Eye, I don't care what you say, it's still a Cunt.

The Seal therefore contains the entirety of the sexual
process and spectrum within its symbolism. It is the Eye of
the penis extending; it is the Eye of the vagina opening. It is a
true glyph of the Gate to the Abyss and the aspiration thereto.
The resourceful will be able to construct a full curriculum of
sexual magic upon this Seal.

The Seal is in its essence a proclamation of mastery
over time and space. To understand it is to understand what
happens when Apep swallows the Sun. Time itself ceases.
The Seal affirms the essential separation which is the function
of Set and Key to the Left-Hand Path.

Permutations

There are several possible alternative permutations of the Seal
which may assist in unlocking more of its Mysteries. Two
such permutations deserve a close exploration at this point,
namely the Valknutr and the Nine Angles.

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APOPHIS

The Valknutr

The definitive work on the Valknutr is Valknutr: 9 Lays of
Power by Valgard, published by Eormensyl Hall, BM
Sorcery, London, WC1N 3XX. The following quotations are
taken from that book with Valgard's kind permission:

"To don the valknutr is to join with Odhinn in the
great work of reshaping the worlds, the eternal
battle of the forces of consciousness to overcome
the reactive resistance of the forces of
preconsciousness..."

"The valknutr is the symbolic representation of
Odhinn's ability to apply and release fetters or
constraints, the underlying power to form and
reform the Nine Worlds in accordance with
conscious will..."

"For the most part, the valknutr is in the form of a
never-ending triangle creating three further
triangles..."

"Gate of Dead before Holy doors
Stands upon hallowed acres:
Old is that gate, and how to bolt it
Few now know."

- The Lay of Grimnir, 22

"9: Three triangles multiplied by their own
number, the H Hagalaz mystery.

"The holiest of numbers within the
tradition. The Nine Valkyries of the Odian
functioning with both the God and the Odian. The
worlds of the tree. The stages of initiation in the
learner phase. Hyperconsciousness actively

169

APOPHIS

working in all the realms. The paradoxical nature
of the Odian tradition."

This permutation of the Seal has a subtly different emphasis
and implications than the standard one, which are best
explored in Valgard's book, but it again emphasises the Eye -
in this case the single eye of Odhinn - as distinct from the
play of the worlds as symbolised in the triangles, yet able to
lock and unlock the gateways to those worlds at Will.

The inner Eye and outer Ring of the Seal as envisaged
in the Odian tradition represent two serpents. The first (the
Eye) is the Dragon within the runester, the one who wears the
Helm of Awe. The Ring is the Midgard Serpent, who
encircles and binds the world. The interplay between these
two completes the figure of the Seal and summarises the
whole process of Black Magical Initiation.

The Nine Angles

The Nine Angles are a uniquely Left-Hand Path depiction of
the initiatory process, a cycle of Coming Into Being, passing
away, then Remanifesting, each time at a higher turn of the
spiral. The Nine Angles may be discovered in 'the Ceremony
of the Nine Angles' in Anton LaVey's Satanic Rituals (the
ceremony was originally penned by Dr Michael Aquino).
The Angles can be listed as:

1.

Chaos

2.

Order

3.

Understanding

4.

Being

5.

Creation

6.

Death

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APOPHIS

7. Birth

8. Recreation

9. Rebirth, or Victory

A fresh cycle of Becoming then ensues. It will be understood
that the majority of this process is one of internal
metamorphosis and realisation, but it does impact upon the
cosmos during the cyclical process, when an Exchange takes
place and the inner and outer worlds are irrevocably changed
in consequence.

In all of these permutations, the Eye is at the centre
(and reflected at the circumference) and thus is not itself a
part of the Play of the Angles which it projects, though it may
change itself as a consequence of their interactions and thus
project itself in fresh images, an ever-changing kaleidoscope
of Becoming. This cyclical process of separation-projection-
change is fundamental to the Left-Hand Path and ultimately
defines Life as Play.

TINAMIWYAN, usually rendered in Enochian characters as
above, is a Word composed of the initial letters of the final
statement recorded in the Apep Workings 2003: "There Is
Never A Moment In Which You Are Not".

It is worth spending some time to explore the many
levels of meaning which are borne in the statement. I will
then 'analyse' the Word using the techniques of several
different magical systems. Such practices can throw up some
astonishing synchronicities and subtle shades of meaning.

"There Is Never" - This is a positive statement.
"There Is" implies a positive state of being, a function of the

171

APOPHIS

verb 'to be'. "There Is Never" is a declaration that a condition
of Neverness exists. Never becomes an existing, positive
quality: a state which exists but cannot be defined since it is
not limited by temporal conceptions.

"There Is Never A Moment" - This may be read in
two ways. On the one hand, it is a declaration that time has
no true reality, or no jurisdiction, i.e. the moment that you call
now has no real, tangible existence. Remember, however,
that Never - timelessness - has now been accorded a positive
value. So this Apep recalls Apep swallowing the Sun,
devouring the passage of time and invoking a positive state of
Never, of timeless existence. Now read the clause with
altered punctuation: "There Is Never: A Moment". Again
we find Never defined as a positive state, but now it is further
defined as a single timeless moment which is eternal. This is
the condition of the Core Self, the spark that endures outside
of the narrow boundaries of time and space and which is
symbolised by the Eye in the Order Seal.

"In Which" - This is a spatial consideration.
Having asserted a timeless 'place' / mode of existence, Apep
now focuses our attention within it, isolating us within that
Void in which true creation may take place. Thus, the
imperative of Apep removes our consciousness from the
familiar space-time continuum altogether.

"You Are Not" - Not, in this case, represents
Crowley's Qabalistic Zero, defined as 0=2. It is the Fool of
the Tarot. It is a condition of Being unbound and unfettered,
utterly outside of time and space. Thus, it is not part of the
Universe as we Understand it, it is the Absolute referred to in
the 'Statement of Leviathan' of The Diabolicon. It can be
given no coherent definition, hence it is No-Thing, Nothing.
It is every potential and possibility which we have within
ourselves but have not yet made manifest. Thus it is all that

172

APOPHIS

lies beyond the Ring of Runa and implies the omnijective
perspective. The declaration makes plain that we ourselves
contain this Absolute and are Nothing, for we our Essence is
not bound by the Universe.

"There Is Never A Moment In Which You Are
Not" - The declaration taken as a whole has two meanings,
one obvious and one esoteric:

1. All of time and space, i.e. eternity and infinity, is
imprinted with your presence and influence.

2. There exists a timeless Void in which you are All-
Potential.

Both interpretations are of significance to the Initiate of
Apep. The first is an expression of Becoming; the second is
an expression of Being. Consciousness - the Gift of Set -
arises through the dynamic tension between these two
visions / experiences of the Absolute.

Enochian

We'll begin the analysis with Enochian, since this system was
the driving force behind both series of Apep Workings (by
James Lewis and myself), and also because these are the
written characters in which TINAMIWYAN is usually
expressed, as follows:

Using Crowley's Enochian numbering system, we arrive at the
following results:

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APOPHIS

9+60+50+6+90+60+70+60+6+50=461
or 3+60+50+6+90+60+70+60+6+50=455

The two values are caused by the fact that the Enochian letter
J may be equivalent to either 9 or 3 numerically.

The underlying meanings of the Enochian letters are
as follows:

Desire / Attraction
Wisdom / Skill / Ability
Death / Completion
Student / Beginning
Magus

Wisdom / Skill / Ability
Ecstasy / Bliss
Wisdom / Skill / Ability
Student / Beginning
Death / Completion

We are thus presented with a formula which is kick-started by
Desire, the ultimate weapon of the Left-Hand Path. Spurred
by Desire, the Initiate extends his skills until he can progress
no further and an end is reached. A new beginning is then
brought into being by his Magical Will, creating a new matrix
in which his skills may be better expressed. He achieves new
states of Ecstasy of Being, which requires further closure and
another new arising in a yet more powerful form.

Runes

D.V. Graal's Order publication Volsungadrekka is the
definitive statement upon the Draconian Path in the North and

174

J

T

1

I

y

N

s

A

•c

M

1

I

7\

W

1

Y

*>

A

y

N

APOPHIS

chronicles the metamorphoses and Remanifestations of the
soul as it is exposed to the life essence of the Dragon. We
may expect to uncover a few secrets when we transcribe the
TIN AMI WY AN formula into runes, as follows:

1 1 + I* M 1 1 <> t i

Numerically this gives us:

17+11+10+4+20+11+8+12+4+10=107

The formula reads thus: The axis around which the cosmos
turns t is the isolate focus of the Eye I, which must
necessarily I project its divine Essence & into fleshly
manifestation M so that it may perceive its own reflection I in
its interactions and relationships P with others and the world
beyond Self Thus, a new cycle commences <> with a fresh
and expanded appreciation of its own innate divinity * , which
in turn leads it to seek new ways to test its own boundaries I .
Once again, we have a formula of spiral
Remanifestation, cycling around the constant of the watching
Eye.

Ogham

Celtic lore is also fond of its dragons and serpents. Due to
similarities in sound values, we can expect some resonance
with the runic coding as we explore an ogham interpretation
ofTINAMIWYAN:

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APOPHIS

Numerically this adds to the following figure:

8+20+5+16+11+20+18+20+16+5=139

The formula commences with the Eye in its central position
of timeless balance n and agelessness ^. It is reborn /
made manifest P, so that it may test its nature and exercise
its sovereignty i in the Play of the inner and outer worlds r
(see the following section of this chapter). It then experiences
the cyclical Remanifestations of death and rebirth ^, guided
by passion and Desire T in ever-increasing transformations
of its Essence ^P, an eternal cycle of discovering /
establishing its sovereignty i and Remanifesting in new
arenas of Play P.

Qabalah

Given Kenneth Grant's enormous contribution to the
Draconian Mysteries in his Typhonian Trilogies, it is
appropriate to include a Qabalistic analysis of
TINAMIWYAN. It will be understood that when I refer to
the Qabalah, I am employing the system of magical
correspondences developed by the Golden Dawn and refined
by Aleister Crowley, not the Hebrew mysticism which
predated their revisions.

9+10+50+1+40+10+6+10+1+700=837

Using the traditional Tarot attributions, we arrive at the
following analysis:

176

APOPHIS

VIII LUST

IX

IX

V

IX

HERMIT

XIII DEATH

FOOL

XII HANGED MAN

HERMIT

HIEROPHANT

HERMIT

FOOL

XIII DEATH

Desire is the beginning of the

process

Channeling from the isolate

Core Self

Causing change and

transformation

Leading to a new beginning

with a blank slate

A fresh immersion in a new

arena of Play, sacrificing self

to Self

So that Self may learn new

lessons through manifestation

And Understand the

Mysteries it Seeks

Taking them deep within its

Being, making them a part of

itself

So that it may gain yet more

Being

And trigger another

Remanifestation, a fresh cycle

of Becoming

Number lore is a subject outside the focus of this present
work, but those versed in the practice will find some aspects
of the above illuminating. It is perhaps noteworthy that three
of the five numbers obtained (excepting the second Enochian
one and the Qabalistic one) are prime numbers. 461, 107 and
139 are all primes, indivisible save by themselves and 1.
Perhaps this is indicative of the indivisible timelessness of
this concept, which is possessed of no factors save its own
Being?

177

APOPHIS

The Inner and Outer Worlds

Most contemporary schools of the Left-Hand Path teach a
distinction between the inner and outer worlds, the subjective
and objective universes. Such a distinction does indeed exist.
Under the Third Head, I suggested the model of a continuum
containing both matter and mind-stuff. The two worlds do
overlap far more than most people - magicians included -
realise. Our inner mental landscape is very much influenced
and shaped by the people, places and objects we encounter in
our daily lives and is flavoured by the imprints we receive
from society, media and advertising. But much of what we
perceive as real and objective in the world around us is
likewise filtered and distorted by the conditioning of our
minds. For instance, the entire Western economic structure is
founded upon flimsy fables and fantasies which have no
objective validity whatsoever and it is sustained only because
the populace insists upon believing in it. It is a useful tool for
exchange, but a tool which is ultimately without substance
and which vapourises under scrutiny. Yet for most people,
finance is viewed as a feature of hard reality and for many it
is the major focus of their lives. The present (2009) recession
is a symptom of what happens when belief in the mythical
money god begins to waver. As soon as people begin to
believe that money has value again, lo and behold, it will have
value and the recession will end.

So what is the more accurate model? Continuum or
objective / subjective split? It depends on the circumstances.
For magical work of an illustrative nature, I prefer the
continuum model. For operative workings, the objective /
subjective model is better focused. The two models, although
apparently paradoxical, are not actually irreconcilable so long
as you remember they are models of a complex, multi-

178

APOPHIS

dimensional Reality. One only has to remember the single
fundamental Truth of the Left-Hand Path and they both
dissolve into laughter. This Secret has been blatantly stated
in a single, apparently throwaway, sentence in this chapter; it
is up to you to find it. It is the simplest, most obvious thing,
but so many people overlook it, even many of those who tread
the Left-Hand Path and pay lip service to this Secret but never
Understand it nor realise its implications.

In the Temple of Set, much attention was given to a
mysterious agency termed the Magical Link, which somehow
connected the subjective and objective universes, allowing
the one to influence the other. The nature of this link is SO
obvious: only one thing links the two and can possibly do so.
Don't bother looking under cushions to find a concealed
smoking gun when you're holding it in your hand.

There is a hideous trap inherent in this Secret, or
rather in the approach to it, which has crippled the Initiation
of many, who just go blundering in burdened with their
preconceptions and see what they want to see instead of the
true Beauty of the Real. This common error is alien to the
Order of Apep and is why I insist upon training to open the
Draconian Eye so that we may swallow the sun and devour
the Universe that Is.

Zain - The Wordless Mon

It is in the Typhonian Trilogies of Kenneth Grant that I first
found reference to the JEon of Zain, the Wordless Mon. I
have quite deliberately not referred back to Mr Grant's books
while writing this chapter, since it is important to present here
the insights that arose in me in specific reference to the
Apepian current as I meditated upon the Seal of the Eye.

179

APOPHIS

Therefore any errors, contradictions or inconsistencies are my
own and should not be implied to be present in Mr Grant's
Work.

Before progressing any further, however, I must
define my terms clearly, since TEon', 'Word' and 'Zain' may
mean many different things to different people and it is
essential to make clear the context in which I am using them.

^Eon

The word '^on' is generally used by modern occultists to
denote a period of time in which a particular magical current
is predominant. By popular consensus, such JEons are
presumed to coincide with astrological ages and thus to be
approximately two thousand years in length. This is a gross
simplification bordering on fallacy.

It was Aleister Crowley, Magus of the JEon of Horus,
who introduced the concept of ^ons as a coherent magical
tool for contemporary magicians, and he certainly didn't
consider them in such a basic and facile way. In extracts from
his letters (published in the preface to the second edition of
Liber Aleph: The Book of Wisdom or Folly) he explicitly
states that JEons are not to be identified with astrological
ages. Indeed, he remarks that there exists great tension
between the tenets of his JEon of Horus and the flavour of the
Age of Aquarius. Moreover, he declares that an JEon may
last thousands of years, or merely tens of years.

Other JEons have been declared over the years since
1904. In Temple of Set terms, the transitional Age of Satan
commenced in 1966, paving the way for the JEon of Set in
1975. Other groups have championed the JEon of Ma or JEon
of Maat. Chaos Magicians revel in the freedom of the
Pandsemonason. So which is the valid current ^Eon? They

180

APOPHIS

can't all be, surely! Well, of course they can.

Among the Gnostics, where the term had deep roots
as a spiritual concept, TEon' had a rather different meaning.
To them it implied a Power, a being akin to a deity or daemon.
These powers had their own spheres of operation surrounding
the Earth and could perhaps be viewed as the layers of an
onion. This concept can be carried forward and applied to the
contemporary Understanding of JEons.

From such a perspective, ^Eons are not limited to
spans of time, though they are sequential and the secrets of
each must be unlocked before an individual may enter the
next. This is the Odinic Secret of one Word leading to
another Word. So although I operate in the JEon of Set, the
JEon of Horus still abides, as do the ^Eons previous to that.
Layers, like the skin of an onion.

Does this mean that we may pick and choose as we
please? Not one bit of it. The energies of the JEon with
which we align ourselves shape the very nature of our lives
and of the world around us. ^Eonic magic shapes and changes
the world on a subtle but massive scale. An JEon is not
caused by the Zeitgeist, but the Zeitgeist arises from the JEon;
the most powerful magical current predominates. We must
take great care to create the world we want to live in. It will
be understood that the dominant JEon - that of Set - dampens
and suppresses the contradictory structures of opposing
iEonic complexes, but they continue to exist so long as those
complexes abide in a human psyche.

The Order of Apep is focused wholeheartedly in the
JEon of Set, although it is by no means alien to the
Pandasmonseon. But as we shall see, it also draws some of its
most powerful and dangerous energies from the Unspoken
and Unmanifest JEon of Zain.

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APOPHIS

Word

In the systems of the A.'. A.', and the Temple of Set, a Word is
a proclamation made by a Magus which initiates a new
magical current and a fresh Understanding of magic. Aleister
Crowley declared that there may be Words which announce a
new JEon and Words that enhance an existing JEon. This
differentiation is maintained within the Temple of Set.

Given my pragmatic and experiential perspective on
JEons in the preceding definition, I propose an equally
pragmatic take on Words. Given the intensive training and
practice necessary to achieve the exalted State of Being of a
Magus, the Word Uttered will inevitably resonate with the
school in which the Initiate arose. A Word is a true Working
of iconic magic in so far as in order to be considered True, it
must vibrate beyond the confines of the school in which it
was Uttered to change the outside world and its perspectives.
Anything less is vanity. This does not mean that everyone
must hear the Word and Understand it in a literal sense, nor
exercise it in an operative magical sense, but the thoughts of
all must be touched and tainted by its vibration.

With a Word goes a Formula, a magical statement of
operation. To take a few modern Magi as examples, Aleister
Crowley's Word was Thelema = Will. The Formula was
Abrahadabra; the components Ab = Heart, Ra = Sun, Had =
Hadit, the Secret Centre, could be restated in his English
phrases "Do What Thou Wilt shall be the whole of the Law"
and "Love is the Law, Love under Will".

Anton LaVey claimed the degree of Magus. He never
theatrically proclaimed a Word, but from his Work it is clear
that such Word would be Indulgence, with its Formula,
'Indulgence - not compulsion - instead of abstinence'.

The Word of Michael Aquino and Don Webb is

182

APOPHIS

Xeper, 'to Come Into Being'. The Formula is Xepera Xeper
Xeperu: 'I have Come Into Being and through my Coming
Into Being the Way of Coming Into Being is Established'.
Xeper is the Eternal Word of Set and thus Essential to the
process of the Order of Apep.

James Lewis Uttered the Word Remanifest and
established the Order of Leviathan upon it. This Word and its
Formula - Xeper and Remanifest - is thus central to the Work
of the Order of Apep.

Stephen Edred Flowers Uttered the Word Runa and
espressed its Formula as Reyn til Runa! ("Seek after the
Mysteries"). The Rune-Gild is founded upon this Utterance.
Runa carries its own momentum as a Secret in its own heart
and is the entire motivation for life and magic.

The above are modern Magi whose Work and Words
have proven themselves. There are other claimants to the
degree known to me, and doubtless others yet unknown,
whose claims are ongoing.

N.B. As a painful but necessary footnote, following on from
several individuals making erroneous assumptions, I must
state the following in absolute terms: TINAMIWYAN is not
and will never be a Word by the definition of this chapter. It
falls at the first hurdle in that it is not even a word, but is
created from the initial letters of a phrase. What it is is an
extremely powerful Magisterial Formula.

Zain

Zain t is the seventh letter of the Hebrew alphabet and seven
is its number (the heads of the dragon). In the Golden Dawn's
Qabalistic correspondence system, it is attributed to Atu VI of
the Tarot, the card known as The Lovers. The letter zain

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means 'sword' and this is also suggested by its shape. Its path
on the Tree of Life diagram extends from Binah
(Understanding) to Tiphareth (Beauty / Harmony), spanning
the Great Outer Abyss. All of these attributions are
suggestive of its significance to us.

In his Typhonian Trilogies, Kenneth Grant alludes to
an JEon of Zain, a 'Wordless Mori of the unshaped future.
Why should this JEon be described as 'Wordless'? The
answer is quite simple. In Qabalistic terms, zain is a path
which bridges the Abyss, extending from regions beyond
manifest Space-Time. It is The Lovers - duality rejoined in
one flesh. It is the sword, the only weapon which avails
against Choronzon, the Archdemon of Dispersion. From our
perspective, it is Choronzon. In Tarot lore, Atu VI indicates a
choice: zain is unmanifest potential, the choice which has not
yet been made. Zain is that which lies ever beyond the
horizon of Runa; here may be found the omnijective
perspective for which we aspire when the Ring of Runa has
been penetrated.

In many ways, Apep is kindred to Choronzon. Both
are hypnotic, dispersive entities; both are Forms beyond
Space-Time; both are terrifying monsters to the uninitiated
psyche.

Zain is a Wordless JEon (or perhaps more accurately,
an Anti-iEon) simply because it cannot be expressed. It is
ever-potential and always a shadow in the future, never yet
manifest. As soon as it Comes Into Being and its
indeterminacy is resolved, it has become something else. Yet
an Anti-Magus may perhaps show its terrors through veils of
Silence, through the act of Not-Uttering. It is similar to
Neheh, the unshaped future which is the domain of Set. To
call it 'the shape of things to come' is inadequate. It is the
shape of things which may come and the shape of things

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which may never be: all are Real in zain. But whatever else
it is, it is the abode of the Eye of the Serpent, so much at least
is clear.

I could wax long and lyrical about this, but would add
nothing to the above, which expresses it as well as the
inexpressible may be expressed. So instead I choose Silence
(cue slithering sounds from beyond the Barrier as a further
choice has been made).

"But Apep spoke Not and smiled Not, for Who knows the
mind of a Serpent. "

Triumph of the Will

The symbol of the Eye signifies the legendary hypnotising
power of Apep, the Helm of Awe that Fafnir wears. But as all
practitioners of Draconian magic are aware, the dead still
gaze is only the beginning of the Serpent's power. Once its
spell has seized and snared its prey, the Serpent uncoils at
lightning speed and strikes.

One of the dangers of our Path is to focus inward,
ever inward. We do need to do this: we need to unravel
every thread of Self and trace its origin; we need to be unique
and whole to an extent that most would never dream possible.
But this is only half of our Task. To go ever inwards is
ultimately to find only oblivion, for it is the Right-Hand Path
under another guise.

No, to gaze is not enough. We must also strike like
the Serpent, injecting the inner Venom we have accumulated
into the world around us. Thus, it will lash and change in its
agonies, transforming, and will offer us a fresh arena of Play,
a new mirror in which to seek our Selves, a new prey to
transfix with our gaze and aflict yet again with a fresh bite of

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newly brewed venom. Thus, our focus must be always both
inward and outward simultaneously, the sense of Self located
in a nexus between these polarised points, continually fed by
new and ever-shifting stimuli. Make no mistake about it, the
Self is hungry and if it is not fed it will atrophy and ultimately
die.

Most magical and mythological traditions ignore this
necessity for dynamic interchange. Some do so because they
are ignorant of it, falling into the soporific trap of
introspection alone. Others do it deliberately, for their
objective is the annihilation of Self as a separate entity. The
slave religions of the Middle-East (Christianity / Judaism /
Islam, etc.) all start with the supposition that Man is a fallen
species, deserving to suffer, whose duty is self-negation and
self-denial and whose goal for the masses is envisioned as an
unchanging eternity at some holy Butlin's. But the original
European religions have at their hearts an entirely different
supposition: life is hard and it's as simple as that. Man is not
a fallen wretch, but a courageous and valiant being who
wrestles against hard conditions, takes his joys and pleasures
where he can, and enjoys the challenge of the game of being
alive. And when the current round ends? Hey, let's do it
again! And in the doing, the laughing, the living, the dying,
he learns ever more of himself and the worlds.

This Mystery is manifest in the dagaz rune N , which
is indicative of polarised reality, the paradox of dawn and
dusk. The zig-zagging shape of dagaz may be seen as a
representation of the Serpentine path. The viewpoint of the
Eye is at the centre, where all of the poles are in equilibrium
and the paradox is resolved in the still point. But the active,
manifest Path of the Serpent reaches to encompass all of the
extremes of existence, embracing all poles and paradoxes in
experiential glee. Never forget this. We must be both

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contracted and extended, still and in motion. Not in
sequence, but all at the same time. Only in these rare
transcendental moments is the true omnijective perspective
attained.

The Sacred Magic of Abra-Melin the Mage

Having studied the Seal of the Eye and gained its Vision, the
Initiate of the fourth head begins to gain an Understanding of
the nature of reality and his place in it (and out of it). The
practices and sorceries of the previous heads suddenly expand
into a far wider picture. The Self stands alone in a great
Void, but as in the Seal, it may extend its gaze in order to
experience and change the phenomenal world. One thing is
certain though: upon realising the extent of the Universe and
the Self and upon beginning to discern the nature of their
relationships, the Initiate is going to need a guide.

The concept of a divine advisor is an ancient one and
the notion of acquiring one as a distinct initiatory step -
generally considered to be the mark of Adepthood - goes
back a long way. In modern magical works, it can be traced
in the Golden Dawn, with their 'Bornless Ritual' (more
accurately 'Headless' than 'Bornless', a ritual derived from a
papyrus fragment of an ancient Setian spell). It resonates
throughout the Work of their inner Order, the R.R. et A.C.,
and owes a lot to Macgregor Mathers' translation of the
Fifteenth Century grimoire entitled The Book of the Sacred-
Magic of Abra-Melin the Mage.

Abra-Melin is quite unlike any other of its
contemporary grimoires. Its ritual requirements are simple
and basic in the extreme, with the operation being charged by
the passion and ardency of the magician rather than any

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props. It consists of a six month period of meditation and
increasingly fervent prayer, culminating in the attainment of
the "knowledge and conversation of the Holy Guardian
Angel". The magician successfully invokes his Guardian
Angel, followed by the four Princes of Hell, which enables
him to work all manner of powerful spells expressed in an
extensive series of magic squares.

The underlying idea of this grimoire was reworked by
Aleister Crowley in his Liber Samekh, which combined the
Abra-Melin process with the invocations of the Bornless
Ritual (which he had also used as the 'Preliminary Invocation'
for his version of the Goetia). He retained the terminology of
'Holy Guardian Angel', viewing it as a non-rational title for a
non-rational being / process. He made this initiatory step the
absolute cornerstone of his Teaching and magical philosophy.

The tutelary spirit has been known by many other
names, of course. It has been the Augoeides, the Daemon, the
Genius (or the Higher Genius). But what is this entity and
what relation has it to that advisory being referred to by many
modern occultists as the 'Higher Self? Is the Holy Guardian
Angel of the Abra-Melin Working (or the Daemon as I shall
henceforth call it, this being my preferred title) a separate,
independent entity or some exalted projection of the
innermost Self?

As is often the case with such questions, the apparent
answer is a paradox: the Daemon is both at once. It is a
projection from your future, a guidance sent by the Self you
have the potential to Become. Yet at the same time, it is not
you, for you are not yet that Self. It is a Self that
paradoxically possesses a wisdom and an insight which you
do not. It has been described most usefully as "the Self ahead
of self, a much more pertinent and less loaded label than
'Higher Self. Don Webb once wonderfully described it as

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"the Self who can do more". So yes, it is a projection of your
Self, but it is not you, it will always be removed from you,
ahead of you. Thus, it will manifest to your perceptions as a
distinct and separate being and it will embody a Name which
describes its relationship to you. The discovery of your
Daemon's Name is part of the process of attaining its
'knowledge and conversation'.

The Understanding of this critical initiatory
experience has not stood still since the time of Aleister
Crowley, however, and it will be of benefit to examine some
of the more recent advances in this field before offering a
Draconian methodology for the attainment.

Anton LaVey provided a very useful tripartite model
of the human psyche in his book The Compleat Witch (now
The Satanic Witch). The soul, according to this view, is
composed of: (1) the surface, apparent self, whose
personality is tied to its physical traits, the body being an
expression of the soul and vice versa; (2) the hidden,
daemonic self, which is in many ways the opposite of the
surface personality, the repressed parts of the psyche; (3) the
innermost, core Self, which is similar in tendency to the
surface personality, but is informed and enriched by the
daemonic.

LaVey's model is a deliberately simplified one, but a
very accurate one, specifically designed to allow quick and
easy analysis of people's motivations and personality triggers,
so that they can be manipulated or guided by the magician.
Every personality is attracted to its daemonic reflection. In
terms of the Abra-Melin Working, the Daemon (enriched and
empowered Core Self) communicates with the outer
personality by manifesting through the image of the
daemonic, revealing the path to Self-actualisation.

LaVey's book is angled towards the use of Lesser

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Magical techniques for worldly success and satisfaction and
is a magnificent handbook. But given the above
interpretation, it can also be read for a few handy pointers for
the Daemon Initiation.

A more recent magical manual has been published by
Don Webb, High Priest Emeritus of the Temple of Set. Uncle
Setnakt's Essential Guide to the Left-Hand Path is the most
important practical magical book of the Twentieth Century. It
guides the reader on an initiatory journey over a fixed time
period, similar in purpose to the original Abra-Melin
grimoire. It offers a truly transformative experience to the
one who follows it through and hands over mighty Keys of
magical power. By the close of the Working you will
Understand your Self and your purpose; in other words, you
will be aware of and conversant with your Daemon. I would
recommend that every Draconian Initiate reaching the stage of
the fourth head could do no better than following the
instructions in Don Webb's book to the letter.

It is worth mentioning briefly at this point a further
Temple of Set experiment pertinent to this Work. The
Temple's Order of the Trapezoid arranged a year-long event
known as the Shub-Niggurath Working. At one of the
Temple's annual Conclaves, the assembled Initiates
endeavoured to receive a message from their future selves
(specifically, a year in the future), something which would
enable them to use the benefit of their future hindsight to
accelerate their initiatory progress in the year ahead. At the
following year's Conclave, the Working was tied off as they
sent a message back to their selves of the year before, to be
received at the starting point.

This kind of Working is a fresh take on the Abra-
Melin theme: receiving instruction and guidance from the
Self ahead of self, the more empowered entity we have the

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potential to be. The curious student will develop many
variations on this theme.

How is the modern Draconian Initiate to approach
such a Working? How are we to actualise the Work of the
fourth head? We may choose to develop a six month
programme such as the original Abra-Melin grimoire
describes, setting aside a place and hallowing it and ourselves
with ever more fervent invocations until illumination occurs.
We may adapt one of the rites of antiquity which is
meaningful to us, such as Crowley did in Liber Samekh.
There are many Celtic passages or sections of the Eddas that
can easily be adapted for such purpose. We may pursue a
more modern staged curriculum such as that in Uncle
Setnakt's Essential Guide. Or we may devise a new and
revolutionary approach that best suits our own outlook, as
was done with the Shub-Niggurath Working.

It must be said that those expecting the flash-bang of
video game magic in Workings of this sort had best go back
to their consoles now. Your Daemon will not appear before
you, explaining the nature of life, the universe and everything
and handing you a handy check list of things to do. Yes, your
visual imagination should be stimulated by the series of
Workings to clothe your Daemon with a symbolic Form,
something you can meditate upon and commune with,
something to focus your thoughts and open the channel. Yes,
you should be able to intuit a name for your Daemon,
something that will well up from your deep mind and be
indicative of the nature of the relationship. But as is so often
the case with revelatory magic, the true insights and
communications will come to you in quiet moments of
reflection, rising slowly into consciousness as the path
becomes open for them. You may find yourself struck by a
significant realisation as you relax after a meal or take a walk

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several days after the climactic Working. This is the way
things tend to happen. Do your Workings to the best of your
ability, then await the results patiently and without anxiety.
They will arise as you stop worrying about them and loosen
your stranglehold on your mind.

This consideration may be helpfully examined in the
light of the Northern Mysteries. In Germanic soul lore, the
part of the psyche relating to the Daemon is named the fylgja.
This entity may appear to the consciousness in one of three
forms: an animal; a geometric shape; or a person of the
opposite sex. The lore concerning the fylgja (as outlined in
Edred Thorsson's published works) is that its essence partakes
of three aspects. It is a manifestation of part of the Initiate's
soul, but it is more than that. It is also a link to the souls of
his ancestors, a channel for the ancestral stream of which the
individual is a part. Thus, it may carry wisdom and insight
from his ancestors. Moreover, the fylgja is linked in certain
respects with the valkyries (the two may or may not be
synonymous in certain respects). Thus, it is also a messenger
between the Gods and the soul. These distinct facets are
helpful to consider when we think of the Daemon. It is a
complex entity.

The lore of the fylgja, as well as enhancing our
Understanding of the nature of the Daemon, also offers us a
further practical tool for use in this Work. One of the
techniques for communicating with the fylgja described in
Thorsson's Nine Doors of Midgard is the practice of utiseta
('sitting out'). This involves taking oneself to a remote and
resonant location, preparing oneself with meditation and
literally passing the night sitting in contemplation, waiting for
some sign or message. This may be perceived aurally,
visually, or by the interpretation of cloud patterns or other
changes in the landscape as the shades of twilight, darkness

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and dawn pass over it. Such periods of calmly sitting and
waiting for communion in an evocative location are an ideal
counterbalance to the more structured invocatory aspects of
the Work.

It is pertinent to ask what benefits the Initiate will
receive from this Working. What does communion with the
Daemon give us? The result of such a successful operation is
literally life-changing.

As mentioned above, the Daemon is a multi-faceted
manifestation. It is part of the psychic heritage passed down
from our ancestors, something that grows with every
generation. As such, it brings with it an awareness of the
evolutionary current within us and where that current is
carrying us, not only on a personal but a multi-generational
level. It is also a projection back from the Self we have the
potential to become and brings with it the gift of foresight and
accelerated initiatory transformation. This creates a sense of
Destiny within the Initiate. It is a fundamental consideration
of the fourth head and one we will return to in greater detail
later in this chapter.

There are other practical magical enhancements too.
When the insight of the Daemon is gained, extending beyond
our usual dimensions of consciousness, significant magical
powers become available by the application of Will alone.
These dwarf the little spells and sigils and so forth that the
Initiate may have practised to date.

In the original Abra-Melin grimoire, these powers are
presented in a series of hundreds of magic squares containing
patterns of letters, each of which has a specific purpose. The
instructions encoded on these squares was carried out by
legions of demons. The magician gained authority to
command these by summoning the four Princes of Hell and
receiving their allegiance after being fortified by his Holy

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Guardian Angel.

This very symbolic and poetic description expresses a
simple underlying truth: once the Initiate has attained the
insight of his Daemon and understands the patterns unfolding
around him and his own very Essence, he may also perceive
and manipulate the patterns that shape reality and causality
itself (symbolised by the patterns of letters on the squares).
The demons symbolise the interface between the Will of the
magician and the situation he wishes to affect. We will
investigate the nature of demons, spirits and so forth under
the fifth head.

I have known magicians who have very successfully
used the squares from the Abra-Melin system, indeed I have
done so myself, sometimes accompanied by a demonic
evocation, sometimes simply used as a focus for the Will. If
you take time ro read Mathers' notes on the meanings of the
words on the squares and determine a personally satisfying
system of alphabetical coding that makes sense, this can be
very appropriate. However, sticking with the grimoire is
unnecessary, though it can occasionally be fun if indulged for
aesthetic reasons. The Daemon will empower whatever
magical tools you choose to employ and amplify your magic
through them. Indeed, at this level the best Initiates will
change a situation simply by entering into it and turning their
attention upon it. This 'on the fly' sorcery is surprisingly easy
and unnerving to those who witness it and realise what is
going on. A formal act of Will, such as a ritual, is advised for
specific purposes which are planned in advance, however. It
keeps things tidy.

It is to be remarked that in Aleister Crowley's
published writings, he regularly downplays or chastises the
use of magic for material ends, complaining that such detracts
from the Great Work and so forth. I make no such objections,

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for reasons which will be elaborated fully under the fifth
head. Initiates should use their sorcery for whatever purposes
they see fit, providing it is borne in mind that you yourself
will be changed by the processes of any magic you choose to
wield. It must also be pointed out that Crowley's practice
belies his preaching. Kenneth Grant, for instance, in his
Remembering Aleister Crowley, recalls that Crowley retained
a fully functional set of Abra-Melin squares written out in
Enochian characters as one of his most prized personal
treasures.

It will already be seen how the fourth head is
qualitatively different from those preceding it. The Initiate
seeks to Understand the Seal of the Eye of the Dragon,
thereby piercing the layers of illusion that shroud Reality.
The veils of time and space are parted. In so doing, he
becomes aware of the deeper parts of his own psyche and
actively seeks the guidance of his Daemon to catalyse his
Initiation. This provides a completely new magical dynamic
in his life and a new Vision of what he may Become.

There remain a few brief comments to make
concerning communion with the Daemon. These will be dealt
with again under the Work of later heads, but should be
introduced at this juncture.

Firstly, contrary to what the Abra-Melin grimoire and
Crowley's comments may imply, this is not a one-time-fixes-
all event. The brain is very good at editing out the memory of
strange and anomalous events and you can be certain that
following your initial flood of realisations and insights, you
will sink back down to earth and feel no different. Persistent
striving after this state of consciousness is essential; every
time it seems to have slipped from your mind, you must reach
out and grab it all over again, until - finally - it becomes
habitual. If your training under the previous heads has been

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rigourous, this will come as no surprise to you.

A subject which we will be raising again in greater
detail when considering later heads is the nature of
communications received from incorporeal entities. The
purpose of the Working currently under discussion is to attain
communion with your Daemon. What sort of

communications can you expect to receive? Just remember
that the channel used by your consciousness for magical
operations and communications is that of the imagination.
For those new to the art - and for those more experienced
who forget their objectivity when passionately involved in
some Working - it must always be borne in mind that even a
true communication may be filtered by one's own hopes and
fears and tainted with wish fulfilment. Every message must
be rigourously tested for authenticity. Not because its origin
is necessarily doubted, but because the messenger - our
imagination - may have embellished the message originally
delivered.

Finally on this subject, remember that the value of
any kind of communication is directly proportional to the
transformation it causes. You can receive visions that would
make Michelangelo weep for joy; you can record sweeping
passages of poetry describing other-dimensional worlds; you
can be told the innermost secrets of the soul and the workings
of the universe. All of these things are worthless if you get up
tomorrow and do the same things you did today. If these
things inspire you to do something, to Become more than you
now are; if they drive you to put into action the processes that
will make you into that Self ahead of self who has divulged
them to you, then they have great worth. Anything less is
wankery. Ipsissimus James Lewis taught me the golden rule
for evaluating the worth of any such communication: ask
yourself a simple two word question: "Who cares?"

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It should be borne in mind that the Daemon will
always abide in the future; it will always be removed from
you in time. Although you act upon its advice and aspire
towards its substance, it will always remain ahead of you.
For as you advance further towards it, so your Vision grows
and expands too, pushing your potential - and thus your
Daemon - ever further forward. Should your Vision and
aspiration ever diminish to the point where your Daemon
seemed achievable, just around the next bend so to speak, this
would definitely not be a good thing.

Remanifestation

Earlier in this chapter, we briefly looked at the concept of the
Words of Magi, those great expressions of magic on an JEonic
scale. The Temple of Set's Order of Leviathan, the crucible in
which this philosophy of Draconian magic was developed,
was founded upon such a Word: the ^on-enhancing Word
Remanifest.

There came a point in the Temple's development
when a number of Initiates had attained the degree of
Magister Templi, having demonstrated their Mastery of the
Black Arts to their peers. Traditionally, a Master would then
be expected to go out into the world and found his own Order
in which to express his own Teachings, the Path which had
led him to Mastery. The genius of the Temple of Set was to
permit the Masters to found their Orders within the greater
body of the Temple itself, so that the larger Temple would
contain a number of schools adapted to different styles of
magical approach, each teaching unique but complimentary
techniques. As a result, all would be enriched. One such
Master at this time when the first modern Setian Orders were

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founded was James Lewis.

Magister Lewis had long pondered the question of the
immortality - or otherwise - of the human soul. Now that the
Order system had been established within the Temple, he
resolved to create an Order to address that very question in
earnest, from every possible angle. He had long been
fascinated by dragons and had taken magical names reflecting
this interest throughout his career in the Temple. Thus, when
he sought guidance for his Order, he chose to invoke Apep,
the devouring serpent of ancient Egypt, using the Enochian
Calls. In this, the original series of Apep Workings, he was
given his task: "Teach them immortality". "How?" he asked.
"By not dying."

Thus the Order of Leviathan was born, an Order
devoted to the Mysteries of the Dragon and Immortality.
Through the early Works and investigations of this Order,
James Lewis ultimately crafted the concept of
Rem anile station. This was ratified by the Temple's Council
as a V° Word and James Lewis himself Remanifested as a
Magus.

Remanifestation is a huge concept. In its most basic
form, it has some similarities to the laws of cause and effect.
Any cause will necessarily Remanifest as an effect. But there
is far more to it than that. The Word also expresses the
recurrence of patterns of behaviour, of patterns of being. A
seed may grow into a plant, but the plant itself wil then
produce seeds, Remanifesting the very thing that was its own
cause. The same occurs within the framework of our own
lives: patterns of thinking or behaviour will repeat
themselves. This explains habits and compulsions; it explains
why we sometimes need a new set of eyes to look over a
problem because our own patterns of thought prevent us from
seeing the obvious answer. Because such habits of action and

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thinking are usually subconscious, we often go unaware of
how they continually express themselves through us.

The truth implicit in the proces of Remanifestation is
that the Self - through the sheer long habit of its own
existence - must also necessarily resurface following physical
death. The Order of Leviathan made no claim to knowing
exactly how this would occur: some Initiates believed in
reincarnation, others did not; some preferred the idea of a
discarnate existence within the mind's own bounds, others did
not; some proposed that the soul would migrate to new realms
in other dimensional realities, others did not. More recently,
within the Order of Apep, the paper entitled The Immortality
Engine and its later additions propose what I believe to be the
current definitive notions on the subject. (This will be
abbreviated in the next chapter.) But all of these questions of
how the soul will Remanifest are unimportant when weighed
against the certainty that it will Remanifest. This simple fact
is as far as the subject needs to be taken in the context of this
book and its initiatory curriculum. Those wishing to pursue
the question more thoroughly are invited to contact the Order
and join in our research.

Most pertinent to our current study is the active use of
the process of Remanifestation as an initiatory tool. This is
clearly expressed in the Formula of the Word, which ties it to
the Eternal Word of Set: Xeper and Remanifest.

Xeper is the process of Coming Into Being.
Remanifestation is one of the mechanisms the Self may use to
shape its Being and channel its Becoming in the desired
direction.

Remanifestation, as with most initiatory tools, is a
cyclical process. We spend our time as Initiates gathering
knowledge, insights and experiences which define and
express our identities in relation to the world around us. We

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explore our own Essence and its potential for future
development. Periodically, we reach a stage where a certain
critical mass of insight and experience has been gathered. If
we were armchair occultists, concerned only with the
accumulation of interesting data, we would continue blithely
on, gathering trivia and gathering moss. But the Draconian
magician is not like that. Instead, when we have become
glutted, it is time to utilise our craftsmanship, to sift the things
we have learned and to forge this valuable ore into a finely
edged sword for the next stage in our campaign. A pile of
bricks and timber do not make a house; they must be
cemented and fixed together in a stable structure in order to
be of use.

To use Remanifestation as an active initiatory tool, it
is necessary to take time to sit down and catalogue all of the
experiences and changes you have undergone. This involves
preparing several lists. You should make a list of all of your
personal characteristics and behavioural tendencies. Then
you should divide this list into those which are most
beneficial and those which are largely obstructive: your best
qualities and your worst qualities respectively. Then you
should make a list of all the major experiences of your life to
date, a kind of potted autobiography. Pay special attention to
those things which have occurred since you last performed
this exercise. Trace the manner in which you have developed.
Then make note of any insights or new understandings you
have gained since your last performance of this exercise. You
should refer to your diary for this purpose, plus any other
records you may have made. Finally, make a note of the
qualities you are currently lacking in but wish you might
acquire. Look to your friends and fellows and see what
qualities they possess that inspire you and which you aspire
towards.

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Having gathered all of this information, you need to
spend some time weighing it all up, deciding how you want to
arrange and prioritise all of these facets of yourself in order to
mould yourself into the person you want to Become.
Obviously, a familiarity with your Daemon will be helpful in
this regard. Do be aware that nothing should ever be thrown
out. Even those things which you consider to be your least
desirable properties have their place and their use. You
should instead place these aspects in specific 'back room'
areas of your psyche, where they will not interfere with your
daily business, but can be accessed as required. Anger, for
example, is not a desirable quality when it generates
uncontrolled temper tantrums, but it can be a positive force
when applied willfully to get your point across under full
conscious control.

Having reconstructed your idealised Self from the raw
components, you can then formulate a ritual to actualise the
Remanifestation of your personality in its newly ordered
matrix. This soul-tidying exercise will make you more
productive and sharpen your magical Vision, ready to accrete
more experiences and insights in preparation for your next
Remanifestation. It is up to you whether you perform such
soul-housekeeping at regular intervals, or when you begin to
feel 'cluttered' and unfocused, or a mixture of both.

There is another specifically initiatory use of the
process of Remanifestation, however, one which must be used
carefully but which has far reaching effects. Since the Initiate
understands that things which are put away in a hidden place
and forgotten about must necessarily Remanifest at some
future date and bear strange fruit, he may deliberately plant
the seeds of his own future.

In order to do this, he must decide what he wishes to
send to his future self. It may be something like a career in a

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field that has always interested him; it may be the solution to
a problem that has long troubled him; it may be something as
specific as a particular rare book or something as general as
love. Having decided upon the sending, he must then embody
it in a real and painstaking way. If he wishes to work in the
technical side of television, he must read books by
professionals in that field and read them cover to cover,
absorbing them. He must learn what academic courses he
will be required to complete, apply to them and place copies
of the applications with the books. If he wants love, he must
read books by leading psychologists and philosophers on the
subject; he must read the great love stories of his tradition; he
must observe how lovers behave; he must write what he wants
from love and why he wants it. And so for all his Desires, he
must research them and express them as fully and
exhaustively as he can.

Having done this, the Initiate must bury the Desire in
a place where it may lie forgotten until it is time for it to
Remanifest. This may mean a literal burial of materials in a
chosen area, or it may mean consigning them to an attic or a
safety deposit box where they may lie undisturbed for years to
come. If the project necessitates work in the meantime, such
as a course of study, this should be accomplished for the
value of the work itself, without reference to its end purpose.
The Desire must literally be forgotten and left to make its
own way back into the world through its own means.

It may reasonably be asked bow the above process
differs from any ordinary spell. Is this really any different
from preparing a sigil, charging it and then forgetting about
it? The difference is one of scale and time. The sorceries we
ordinarily work are intended to actualise pretty promptly to
meet specific needs. A Remanifestation of the type we are
crafting in this chapter is intended to project itself into the

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future, perhaps years hence, and its results are also intended
to Come Into Being on a much larger scale, both in ourselves
and in the world. The Initiate is looking ahead and planning
the path of possibilities that will change his life and reshape
the world in which he lives. It's as simple as that. Every
magical Working - even unsuccessful ones - are of course a
Remanifestation of what has or has not been put into them.
But in an initiatory sense, we use the Word for those
Workings whose results will wipe the slate clean and rewrite
the rulebook.

This should all become more evident in the remaining
chapters.

The Shedding of Skins

Now that we have reached the fourth head, the head of the
Serpent itself, and have won its perspective, we can cast our
eyes back over our Work to date and begin to tie up some of
the loose ends. We have just been discussing

Remanifestation and a good metaphor for Remanifestation is
when a snake outgrows its old skin, shedding it and emerging
as a remade being. We have now raised four of the heads of
Apep, but before we proceed further it is time to shed the
skins we have outgrown. Just as there are seven heads to
upraise, there are seven skins to shed.

The skins that we outgrow are directly related to the
heads. They represent the values of the heads grown stagnant
and constrictive. Once the viewpoint of the fourth head has
been attained, it is necessary to ensure that our Work within
the previous heads has not become routine and formulaic. We
need to continually expand our horizons and reassess our
patterns of Work. We need to break the bonds and habits that

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constrict us and Remanifest the qualities that will allow us to
progress further. At this stage, we can evaluate what this
means for the first three heads.

The first head concerns itself with the physical senses
and presence of the Initiate. Thus, the skin that constricts us
here is our own blinkered way of perceiving the world. The
exercises of the first head are designed to expand and extend
our senses to their fullest utility, to understand our physical
limitations and to shape our very bodies as a magical tool. So
now we must take time to revaluate our lives in this respect.
We have worked hard to create associations within the
subconscious mind that are beneficial to our Work: aligning
certain postures with certain magical forces, for instance, and
training ourselves to observe everything meticulously. But
now we must concentrate also on decluttering the
subconscious of those habits with which it is programmed
which are of no value to us. The habit of chewing nails, for
example, is in itself no barrier to our Work. But this
ingrained habit blocks paths into the subconscious, so should
be gently trained out. Similarly, if we have tested our
physical endurance and have discovered that we can walk no
further than ten miles because we are out of condition and too
fat, now is the time to remedy the situation, taking regular
exercise and moderating food consumption (I am not
advocating faddy diets here: simply eat less of what you
would normally eat).

The second head concerns itself with the mental and
emotional apparatus. So the skin we must shed here are those
lazy thought patterns that we become accustomed to using.
The mind becomes accustomed to solving problems in a
particular way and soon ceases to view issues from all
possible perspectives. Constant vigilance is required to keep
our thinking processes alert and fresh. The same is true of

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emotional reactions. No matter how many times we
investigate our hot buttons, new ones are always forming and
we find ourselves reacting in predictable ways without
thinking. As an exercise, pick up a tabloid newspaper
(preferably from a dustbin, as I don't advocate paying for
ignorance) and monitor your mental and emotional reactions
carefully as you read it. Consider what phrases or inferences
are used to steer your opinion as you read and how you
respond to them. If you have been following the programme
of the heads, it is to be hoped that you will spot the
misrepresentations, omissions and inferences easily and edit
them out with disgust. But you will still probably find a few
germs of habitual reaction growing within you, which you can
weed out. Keep your thinking fresh.

The third head focuses upon clairvoyant abilities.
The exercises for keeping the mind open and alert are
perfectly adequately explained in the chapter dealing with
that head and the housekeeping exercises of the first and
second heads will also help to keep the channels open. There
is, however, another species of mind-broadening exercise
which is of specific use when seeking to shed the skin that
constricts us in this area. The powers of the third head
depend upon the openness of the relationship between the
psyche of the Initiate and the world in which he finds himself.
If our interface with the world is constricted, our psychic
powers will be too. The best way to loosen the third skin and
liberate your clairvoyant powers is to own up to your personal
inhibitions and break the taboos you have established for
yourself. This is one of the fundamental techniques of Left-
Hand Path Initiation. If you are shy and lacking in
confidence, belt out a song in a crowded karaoke bar; if you
are embarrassed by showing your body, visit a nudist beach
and walk around naked for an hour; if you are sexually

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bashful, walk into a sex shop or visit a prostitute. I am not
saying you won't feel embarrassed, you will. But you will
also feel more focused and alive in transgressing your own
limits than you have felt before. You will be flooded by
positive emotions and will feel that you can now accomplish
anything. This in turn will unlock clairvoyant channels as
your consciousness becomes aware that it is capable of more
than you decreed. Needless to say, this only works if you
address your real inhibitions and are honest with yourself: an
exhibitionist will find no value in any of the aforementioned
examples. Look within and dare to peer over the walls you
have built. The harder the transgression, the more liberating
it will be.

The fourth head also has its skin to shed, but we will
look back upon this from the vantage point of the next
chapter, when sufficient experience has been gained to fuel
the Remanifestation.

A Word on Ritual

Up until now, I have deliberately avoided providing any ritual
frameworks or texts in the chapters of this book. There are
plenty of examples out there for those with the wit to seek
them out. Crowley's later Thelemic rituals, such as the Star
Ruby and the Mark of the Beast can be of benefit to
Draconian magicians. Those who follow a specific tradition,
such as Celtic, Teutonic or Egyptian, will no doubt have
sought out appropriate ritual practices from within their
tradition. The best publicly available general guidebook on
how to formulate a magical ritual is undoubtedly The Satanic
Bible. Up until this point, any of these would suffice and it
would have been a waste of time to elaborate upon them,

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giving undue weight to the theatrics of the process.

Mention of theatrics also gives rise to the observation
that formulaic ritual has always been frowned upon within
both the Order of Leviathan and the Order of Apep. Both
Orders have urged their Initiates to Work magic "by force of
Will alone", without scripts or unnecessary props. The
optimum conditions for magic are a darkened room,
illuminated by a single black candle, plus the intensity of the
magician's Will, vision and passion.

Even in this minimalist, spartan approach to magical
practice, however, certain facets of a ritual framework are still
presumed to take place on an internal level. What is more, as
an Initiate inevitably begins to find and attract other people to
share occasional Work with, a slightly more formal
framework may be needed, simply to ensure the correct
synchronisation of the Working. I am not going to provide a
script for ritual, therefore, but it is probably advisable at this
stage to define the essential steps of a magical Working in
their proper order. These may be represented by outer words
or signs, or simply affirmed on an inner level; each Initiate
must find their own best balance. However, it is well to learn
the skill of firing off an effective enchantment in the blink of
an eye. Such is never the preferred course of action, but it
can prove effective and is sometimes a skill well worth
having.

Step 1 : Whether by Word or by Will, the Initiate

must begin by focusing his mind upon the Work at hand,
removing the distractions of the everyday world and preparing
his place and frame of mind.

Step 2 : The Initiate recognises consciousness itself as

the source of all meaning and magic in life. This may be
symbolised by the lighting of a candle to embody the Black

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Flame of consciousness, which illumines the Creative
Darkness.

Step 3 : The Initiate acknowledges the Gods of the

Left-Hand Path, who embody the powers he champions.
These are: Set in the North, behind the Constellation of the
Thigh; Babalon in the South, the seat of Desire; Apep in the
West, in the depths of the eternal ocean; his own Daemon
rising on the horns of the morning in the East. This may be
done by spoken invocation or by internal mental link.
Step 4 : The Initiate opens the Gate into his magical

universe. This can be done by an act of Will or via a
symbolic gesture. This is best achieved by considering the
aspects he wishes to influence (i.e. the 'elements' of the ritual)
and then opening the Void between them, as explained in the
last chapter.

Step 5 : The Initiate focuses his Desire into a liquid in

a chalice or Grail, charges it and then drains it, feeling his
Desire flood through his mind and veins. This step is best
performed physically when possible, and with a strongly
alcoholic drink. Alcohol in Northern lore is an inspirational
force that raises the consciousness of Man to a Divine pitch.
Mead or ale are traditional; my personal preference is for
cherry brandy as its sanguine colour, sweet scent and strong
flavour and viscosity are strongly sexual and evocative. In a
group context, the Grail can be very effectively embodied by
a female Priestess.

Step 6 : The Initiate now carries out the main part of

his Working, whether by invocation, evocation, sigillisation,
or sheer force of Will.

Step 7 : The Gate is now closed, withdrawing the

consciousness back into the everyday world and closing the
door to the magical universe behind it, so that the Working is
released into the subconscious and / or other planes,

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submerging in order to later Remanifest itself in objective
results.

Step 8 : Assuming a candle or lamp has been lit to

symbolise the Black Flame, it is now extinguished.
Step 9 : Take deep breaths and refocus consciousness

in the here and now. Write up your magical record, then set
the Working aside to resolve itself without any further
interference on your part. (Naturally, if you were using
sorcery to obtain a job, you still need to make applications
and present yourself well at interviews; if for sex, you still
need to play the game of seduction. But these are 'this world'
tasks. What you should not do is continually ritualise for the
same result; this will not render it more likely and may very
well muddy the waters, negating possible success.)

An understanding of the above steps becomes increasingly
important now that we begin to enter the field of
communication with entities such as the Daemon.
Observance of this basic structure will properly prepare and
focus the mind for its task, lessening the risk of contamination
by everyday trivia or wish fulfilment fantasies.

A Sense of Destiny

The sense of purpose and direction which arises following a
successful Working to communicate with the Daemon, may
lead the Initiate to question the concept of destiny. Is our
future mapped out for us? Do we each have a sacred mission
to perform for the Dark Gods? Is there a task which only I
can accomplish? When we speak of receiving messages from
some future projection of our own Selves, such questions are
inevitable.

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So is there such a force as destiny, shaping our
futures and driving us forward? Those who have diligently
read the book up to this point and put its teachings into
practice will already know the paradoxical answer: yes, there
absolutely is and no, there absolutely is not.

There is no force outside of ourselves that seals our
fate and decrees the shape of our lives. There are no gods
who steer the course of men with a vice-like grip. Set
certainly doesn't: having Gifted Man with consciousness and
Self- Will, to interfere further would be to make a mockery of
his own Essence. Some occultists and religions would have
you believe that the lives we now lead are shaped by the
karmic debt we have incurred in previous lifetimes, and / or
that every soul must ultimately experience all things, so that
we have a checklist of things to do hardwired into us at birth.
This is all utter rubbish. Still others would suggest that
everything is preordained, that time has a single set course
and that we can only tread our appointed path towards our
predetermined end. Codswallop. When viewing such criteria
as these, the question as to whether or not there is such a
thing as fate or destiny is: absolutely not.

There are a few factors, however, that hint at a sort of
middle ground and we should explore these thoroughly before
proceeding to the final phase of our argument, in which the
answer to the destiny question is paradoxically positive.

There do exist certain influences and events that have
great effect upon our lives. These are all tendencies or
chance, however, rather than a fixed destiny. Our genes
provide us with inherited characteristics, which may include a
vulnerability to certain diseases and so forth. This only
defines the arena in which we play, however: we choose our
own responses to these factors and how we deal with them.
We acquire behavioural patterns from our culture and the way

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in which we are brought up. But none of these dispose a
person for or against great achievement; this disposition
remains individual. All of these conditioning factors, whether
physical or cultural, are steered by, and can be amplified or
ignored by, consciousness. Great catastrophes, such as wars
or earthquakes may threaten or devour us. None of these are
destined to happen to us. Our being in a particular place at a
particular time is down to the choices that led us there; it is
either a conscious decision or pure bad luck. The world is
fickle and sometimes the best of us get tripped up.

There is such a thing as Destiny, however, though it
exists only for those with strong Will and powerful
imagination: magicians, artists, inventors and pioneers in
other words, those people who see beyond the everyday. For
this Destiny is something that we create for ourselves.

Think about the magic we work upon ourselves and
the world. Think of the initiatory discoveries we make and
the changes wrought within our innermost beings as a
consequence. Think of how we begin to direct these forces
when we learn the Mystery of Remanifestation and begin
consciously using it to accelerate our Becoming. Think of
how this process is catalysed when we begin to see the
potential of our own future and commune with the Daemon.
All of these forces are set in motion by our Will. Once we
have initiated them, they continue to operate on an
autonomous level. The more magic we Work, the greater the
momentum that drives us forward. A very real sense of
Destiny begins to arise, which is shaped and steered by our
own magical Will as it has been embodied in the Work that
has brought us to our present point. These magical impulses
do not cease, they continue and they are added to with every
Work that we do until their momentum is a tangible,
irresistible force, but entirely Self-Created.

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Germanic mysticism has a word for this: orlog. It
refers to the primal layers built up by the past actions of
yourself and your ancestors which have led you to the present
moment. Once these layers have been identified and their
impetus analysed, they can be steered to an extent by Will,
through the process of conscious Remanifestation.

It should be remembered in all of this that even as we
shape our Selves and our circumstances to steer our path into
the future, our faults and character flaws are amplified and
empowered to the same degree as our other faculties. This is
ably illustrated in the monsters from the id in the classic
science fiction movie Forbidden Planet. Those Initiates who
forget this and who fail to make allowance for their whole
personalities will be in for a rude surprise when it turns
around to bite them in the arse. All of the talk about
loosening the grip of the ego and so forth is so much
poppycock. The demonstrable truth is that effective
magicians have much larger egos than most people and
contrary to mystical waffle this is no bad thing. It is
necessary for magicians to be aware of this, however, and to
cultivate the ability to laugh at themselves, otherwise tragedy
and tantrums will follow. We need to develop and integrate
the entire personality, not just the bits we want to show off.

This will all become clearer as we progress through
the Work of the remaining heads, but it is here in the fourth
head that the hand of Self-Created Destiny will first awaken
and begin to nudge the Initiate's actions. In Aleister
Crowley's terminology, this is the prompting of the True Will.

The World of Horrors

The 'World of Horrors' is a phrase which was much used in

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the Temple of Set as a euphemism for the everyday world and
its mundane activities. It had its origin in 'The Ceremony of
the Nine Angles' and 'The Call to Cthulhu', two ceremonies
with Lovecraftian themes which were penned by Dr Michael
Aquino when he was a member of the Church of Satan. They
were published in Anton LaVey's book, The Satanic Rituals.

Used in this sense, the phrase is obviously an ironic
little in-joke. In Lovecraft's stories, the creatures of his
Cthulhu mythos are a source of horror to the human race. In
Dr Aquino's rituals, the horrors are actually human beings and
their world as seen from the perspective of the Great Old
Ones.

So what are these horrors? To the worshippers of the
God of consciousness, the ultimate horror is stupidity: the
enforcement of conformity over creativity; the hatred of Self;
the violent repression of Man's fundamental instincts and
essence; the championing of slavery over freedom; the
suppression and murder of any who challenge the mediocrity
of these precepts. These things are true horror.

Nor will they go away. This will always be a World
of Horrors and the wise Initiate must recognise that fact and
deal with it. There is no harmonious golden age just around
the corner. There are only new angles on old repressions.
We are fortunate enough to live in an age when those holding
the reins are content to rake in the cash by presenting some
freedoms as marketable commodities. Even so, stray too far
from the ad-men's guidelines and you tread a very risky road.
If you actually sit down and begin to list all of the restrictions
on your freedoms, you will find it reaches a horrifying length.

Having achieved this realisation, it is then necessary
to take a further shift in perspective in order to avoid a
particular curse of recent decades. As we enter the Twenty
First Century, the Western world has become adept at

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bemoaning its lot. We suffer from stress, our rights are
infringed, we are discriminated against, moan moan moan,
whinge whinge whinge... Do grow up. Stress is necessary to
survival and we have very little to be stressed about. No
major wars, no plagues wiping out half the population, and
double the life expectancy of just a couple of centuries ago.
As for your rights, you have none except those you are
prepared to fight for. It is to be sorely regretted that we do
not live in an age when individual heroes can establish
kingdoms and possess the integrity to establish codes of good
conduct through the nobility of their own example. Instead,
we live in an age of greedy, corrupt politicians who use red
tape, rules and regulations as a smoke screen for their own
degeneracy. Heroes are actively frowned upon and regulated
out of existence, since their qualities reflect badly upon our
elected representatives.

Nonetheless, it is important to realise that the
situation for practising magicians in the Western world is
probably the best it's ever been. We can be quite open about
our practices without risk of execution. But the Initiate is no
fool. Remember that this may all change in the blinking of an
eye. It is important to keep a sense of perspective, to keep an
eye on the currents passing through society, changing it, and
to quietly get on with one's own Work.

The Initiate's first priority is his own Initiation. This
is where his focus must be set and all of his effort should be
applied to it. In a world where privacy is becoming a dirty
word, where people clamour for details of others' private lives
and tune into television programmes to spy in wonder at the
tedious activities of talentless strangers, the Initiate follows
an old rule that many have now forgotten: "Mind your own
business". Such things are no concern or interest of ours.

There are aspects of the larger world that directly

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impact upon our way of life and our ability to practise our
magic without obstruction, however, and these need to be
addressed. When we first begin in magic, the emphasis is
upon getting the things we want: little things for the most
part, that make our own lives better or more exciting. But as
Initiation progresses and as we Remanifest, our Vision
becomes clearer and we see further. And as Vision
progresses, so too does Desire. We want more things and
better things. This is good, no matter what other creeds may
have told you. Soon it is not enough to sit in a comfortable
home with a few personal treasures. Soon we want to see the
world in which we live reflecting the values and ideals that
we have come to treasure. As has been explained, this
expansion of Vision is a manifestation of the fourth head of
Apep, hence the need to address these matters now. It will
also be freshly apparent why the Abra-Melin Working has
always insisted that the conjuration of the Demon Princes
should always directly follow the knowledge and
conversation of the Daemon itself: the Initiate needs to see
the World of Horrors with clarity, in all of its loftiest and
basest manifestations. The biggest mistake imaginable - and
one that is made all too often - is to naively assume that
everyone else has the same ideals, perspectives and general
sense of decency that we do, and that everyone will listen to
calm reason. This is manifestly untrue and such a false
perspective leaves us open to every form of abuse.

It is not my place to set forward a political agenda
here, nor to suggest the kinds of changes that would produce a
better world. The criticisms I have levelled thus far and the
faults I have pointed out are simple facts. Whether you
decide the answer to these problems lies in a hippy Utopia, an
anarchy, or a totalitarian regime, is up to you. You must be
guided by the Vision you have won through your Initiation.

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How does an Initiate approach the task of reshaping
the world? By magical Workings? Certainly, the long term
effects of Works of ^onic magic are well attested. But not
only that; to sit in your armchair waving your wand and fail to
do anything else exhibits a paucity of Will that is Self-
defeating. It is necessary to speak out in the appopriate times
and at the appropriate places, to sway people with your
words.

This can be a tricky manoeuvre. You will find that
there are groups and organisations who are stronger than you
are alone and whose goals largely match yours. But these are
always a double-edged sword, for not all of their goals will
match yours and some will probably be diametrically
opposed. because most political pressure groups will
approach issues from a totally different standpoint from the
Initiate. I have always found it best not to associate. Add
your voice in subtle or direct ways where appropriate and
withdraw at other times. Always see the full picture and
tweak in the places where it is most effective and most
necessary. It's a very fine balancing act which requires the
highest intuitive balance. A quiet word spoken in the right
single ear can be more effective than the loudest shouting in
the streets. Nevertheless, there are times to stand up and be
counted. Let your genius inform you.

The two principles to be most firmly borne in mind
here are: (1) it is important for a magician to be true to his
ideals and to do what he believes to be right; (2) the power
that Initiates seek is not the same as the power that politicians
seek. We seek Sovereignty, not control.

So yes, it is a World of Horrors out there. But never
forget that it is also a fun playground, which can sing and
dance at our prompting. The purpose of the preceding
paragraphs is to keep you aware of the promptings of your

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Daemon and the right course of action. With experience you
will discover that this is always the path that leads towards
laughter and merriment. The world will always have its faults
so long as human beings are in it. As one problem is solved, a
new one will arise. This is inevitable and it is a good thing.
We need this challenge. We will never 'save the world', nor
should we. Our goal is to create exceptional individuals.

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CHAPTER SEVEN

THE WORK OF THE FIFTH HEAD

In the Work of the fourth head, the Initiate learns to see
through the Eye of Leviathan, perceiving all things as from a
distance. He becomes attuned to his Daemon and is
awakened to the greater patterns that turn the wheels of
worldly events and his own life. He achieves the potential for
great wisdom and attains a balanced and detached
perspective, allowing him to make effective tweaks to the
patterns he beholds.

By the time the Initiate is ready to consciously
contemplate the Work of the fifth head, he will have become
aware that his colleagues, friends and family no longer regard
him in the way they used to. Almost without becoming aware
of it, he has become a more detached and dispassionate being,
remote from them and their everyday interests. This is an
inevitable consequence of the Work of the fourth head, which
can put an end to many long held friendships and
relationships as common ground gradually fades and
disappears, leaving only strangers where friends once stood.

But the fourth head is only one of the initiatory

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milestones, albeit a major one. Now, as he pushes ahead
towards true Mastery, the Initiate will find all of his passions
reigniting, but in a controlled and purposeful manner. Now
he will truly come to Understand what Aleister Crowley
meant by "love under will". Passion will become the greatest
weapon in his magical armoury, both for Works of sorcery
and those of Self-realisation. This very phrase, 'Self-
realisation', now takes on a new meaning. It no longer refers
to mere discovery of what makes one tick, but becomes a
literal making Real of Self in an imperishable Form.

Where the student of the fourth head was almost
exclusively inwardly focused, catalysing his own
Setamorphosis, the fifth head Initiate will become
increasingly aware of the importance of sorcery as a mean of
Self-expression and Self-extension. He will also need to
finally confront the question of the reality or otherwise of
gods, demons, and so forth, since he will now be operating at
their level. (This should not be misinterpreted as a statement
that the Initiate is now a god; that would be a grave mistake to
make, at least at this stage).

Symbolically, through the Work of the fifth head of
the Dragon, the Initiate will Become the Raging Lion, a
sovereign beast of fury. For Right-Hand Path practitioners,
this would be seen as a retrograde step, because they retreat
from this State of Being in fear. Not so for us; it is a step
closer to the God of consciousness, the fury of Set, Lord of
storms, who is not a calm deity by any stretch of the
imagination. Nor are His other cultural reflections, such as
Odin or Tezcatlipoca. The name given to this State of Being
in Setian lore is the Black Magus, a mysterious figure who
will be discussed fully at the end of this chapter.

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Of Ego and Self

By now, the Initiate will have long discerned the difference
between the personality and the Self The former is an ever-
shifting mask which adapts to circumstances and is subject to
whims and outside influences. It is easily led, easily
distracted, and is a slave to its environment rather than a
master. The Self, on the other hand, changes only under its
own impetus and is a direct projection of the core of
consciousness.

When a practitioner of the Right-Hand Path
approaches this State of Being, he attempts to suppress and
extinguish the personality, the so-called 'lower ego',
altogether, deeming it unworthy. This is a precursor to his
ultimate aim of blotting out the actual Self and attaining
annihilation.

But for us, who revel in the pleasures of incarnate
life, and who realise that the Desire of the Self is to Play and
to Love in ferocity, something incredible comes to pass. The
ego responds to our Self-knowledge and Self-love and instead
of slinking away as a shameful thing, it awakens into new and
joyous life. But now, since we have learned to see through
the Eye, it is no longer manipulated by circumstance, but
owns only one master: the Self. It roars with passion and joy
and stretches out to seek its pleasure in the world. This is the
true manifestation of Anton LaVey's doctrine of Indulgence.

From the lofty heights our Vision has scaled, we turn
back to our old hobbies and delights with a new enthusiasm.
But we seek ever new expressions and enchantments in our
joys. A refinement and a fixity of purpose enter everything
we do. Some supposedly 'spiritual' types will tut at our jollity
and mischievousness, but we have learned the Secret that
such can never know: that every single thing that affords us

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pleasure and joy is a direct expression of our innermost True
Self, and that every such act is a direct channel to the Gods of
Darkness. Those who have read and properly Understood this
book up to this point should feel a wave of joy washing
through them at the mere reading of these words and the
realisation that they bring. Hail Set! Hail Babalon! Hail
Apep!

It is through this Remanifested ego that we will
activate the Immortality Engine, the process which will
ensure the survival of the psyche beyond physical death. This
same process will also lead us to the principles which will be
used under the sixth head to manipulate time. It can be seen
then why this is such a momentous difference between
Draconian Magic and that taught in other schools. The
Secrets in this chapter have never been printed so openly
before. But you will still not be able to fully grasp them
unless you have earned them by arduous Work through the
preceding heads.

If other schools seek to divorce themselves from the
ego, the Draconian Initiate seeks to wed it, forging a union
between the personality and the Self, Becoming a complete
Being. The manner in which this fusion happens is revealed
in the Work of this chapter.

A Passion Play

We have spoken of the importance of passion to the Work of
this head. Before we can begin to use this powerful engine,
we must take time to discover what inspires it. Very often
these inspirational forces are things which will seem trivial or
nonsensical to others, but which mean the world to you.

You should know by now that I'm going to ask you to

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write a list of all the things you are passionate about; this
should come as no surprise. What might trip you up are the
nature of some of the things I'm going to ask you to put on
that list.

It is so difficult to shake off the conditioning that has
been imprinted upon us since birth. Even at this stage, it will
still keep creeping back in and entwining its tendrils around
your thought processes no matter how many times we shake
them off. Don't be disheartened by this, it is important to stay
awake and to keep casting off our shackles anew. This
struggle is actually good for us. Cherish every new Victory in
the war against non-consciousness (for it is a war).

Your first instinct is probably to reflect that this is a
serious, spiritual question and merits serious, spiritual
answers. You will make a list of worthy causes which arouse
your passions - either for or against, rage is as much a
passion as lust - and then you will draw a line under it. You
may struggle a little and then add a few vaguer general
principles, such as 'truth' or 'justice' to your list. Then you'll
pat yourself on the back and congratulate yourself on a job
well done. Or at least you would if your mind hadn't put its
blinkers on.

In following the above course, you would omit nearly
everything that you are really, truly passionate about,
probably without ever realising it. You would then stumble
through the Work of this head in a kind of half-life,
wondering why you kept hitting a brick wall. This is because
we are preconditioned to believe that only big issues and
worthy causes are deserving of our time and attention;
everything else is deemed to be trivial. This is a lie. This
misconception is the biggest stumbling block to the Work of
the fifth head and I am breaking my usual rule by pointing it
out so bluntly instead of letting you discover it, because it can

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take years to break down this conditioning. It took me a full
decade to finally concede what I now know to be the truth.

What are your hobbies? What are the things that
really interest you? If you love fishing and spend lots of time
doing it, then it is a major part of your life and one of your
ruling passions. No, it may not directly make the world a
better place. Yes, other people may consider it valueless and
boring. But you should be past caring what they think by
now. It is something that is important to you, it is something
that inspires you, it is one of the means you use to express and
manifest your Self. I love Japanese comics and animation to
the point of delirium. Other people don't understand what the
fuss is about. But they are a ruling passion in my life. Don't
write these things off or disregard them. You probably didn't
even consider such things when you were first told to
consider your major inspirations. But these should be the first
items on your list. People, places, things, events that inspire
you: these will all be unique to you alone, a mix of whirling
enthusiasms that constitute your own fingerprint of Desire in
the Universe.

So take your time, prepare that list thoroughly and
don't leave anything out. Then put it aside for a week or so.
When you return to it after a few days' break, prioritise your
passions. Highlight the things that are most important to you
and arrange the list in a proper hierarchy that accurately
reflects the person that you really are.

It is important to embrace your whole span of
passions. In an initiatory sense, it will assist with your Self-
Understanding. In a practical magical sense, it will prove
invaluable in works of sorcery, which we will be returning to
later in this chapter. But one passion is pre-eminent: there is
one burning Desire which eclipses all others. This is the
Desire of the Self for the Other. In other words, the Desire

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for the perfect sexual partner, the so-called 'soul mate'. This
Desire is closely bound up with Babalon, whose influence is
at its strongest in this head.

This is one of the most difficult operations in the
entire Work and one which will be resisted by your entire
conditioning. It requires an act of sovereign Will. You see,
throughout all of your progress so far, you will have been
dogged by that preconditioned supposition that the spiritually
advanced man sheds the personality, whether you
acknowledge it or no. In truth, he only distances himself so
that he can break the chains that hold his mind in thrall. This
done, the full richness of the personality explodes into
Remanifest life, stronger and more forceful than ever before,
freed of all masters save Self. But your conditioning will kick
against this initially. In this head you must come to
Understand that all Will is born of Desire.

Who's That Knocking?

Although the fifth head encompasses all of our passions, there
can be no doubting that the strongest Desire within the human
organism and the greatest motivator for human action is sex.
"Love is the Law, Love under Will." So the next step is to
explore and understand all of the factors which influence our
own sexual and romantic inclinations. Who is the Other who
beckons to us? What semblance does he / she wear? And
what are his / her ultimate origins?

It's list time again. But this time we need to prepare
two lists, approaching the question from two distinct angles
which will ultimately allow us to intuitively grasp the whole.
The first list should include all of the people you have ever
fallen in love with. I do mean all of them. Every crush, every

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passion, every yearning. You should include fictional
characters from books and movies. The criterion for
inclusion is the reality of your own emotion, not the reality of
its target.

The second list focuses on sexual attraction rather
than the more emotional love. Write down the names (or
descriptions if you never knew their name) of the people you
most fancy. I am not referring to an admiring glance, but
those whose beauty really twists your guts with longing. You
should continue revising these lists and adding to them for
several days - even as long as a full month - until you are
happy that they are comprehensive expressions of your
Desire.

Once your lists are ready, (for sake of brevity I will
henceforth refer to them as the 'love list' and the 'lust list'
respectively), you should set aside some time each day for
meditation. Each day, choose a person from the love list and
contemplate what it was about them that caused your
emotions to overflow in their direction. It may have been a
word spoken, a fragrance on the breeze, a warm smile on a
wearing day, a glint in an eye, or a combination of things.
But relive it all in your mind until you can distill the
experience and record it faithfully in your diary. Then take
your lust list and use your imagination to imbue the people on
this list with the qualities and emotions you have just
meditated upon. The following day, choose a different person
from the love list and proceed in like manner until you have
worked through them all. If you then find that you are
unhappy with the results you obtained during some of the
meditations, return to those ones until you are satisfied that
you have nailed it.

This completed, you should have a fairly
comprehensive understanding of the qualities that inspire love

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in you and the specific triggers that will generate an
emotional response. You have come a major step closer to
understanding the Other that will nourish you and who you
will nourish in turn.

It is now time to complete the other half of the picture
by meditating upon the second list, the lust list. As before,
each day you should select a new name from the list and seek
to discover precisely what it is that makes you fancy this
person. Is it the bone structure? the complexion? the eyes?
the mouth? the hairstyle or colour? Once you have
completed your day's meditation, remind yourself of the
qualities and emotions you experienced when working with
the love list and meld these with the person you have just
meditated upon. Continue with this work until you have
meditated upon every name on the list, then revisit any that
you feel you haven't quite learned all the secrets of yet. It will
very probably be the case that several names occur on both
your love list and your lust list. In such cases, they should be
meditated upon separately on each list, since they will be
approached from a different perspective and for a different
purpose in each case.

As your meditations with the lust list continue, you
will begin to notice recurring themes among the names on the
list. A certain kind of hairstyle and hair colour will
continually repeat; there will be similarities between eyes and
mouths, and so forth. As the meditations approach their
conclusion, you may even be able to glimpse the Ideal which
lies behind these individual manifestations of your Desire.
You may begin to dimly discern the features of Babalon
Herself in the guise through which She will commune with
you. This is much to be cherished. At the very least, you will
have a good idea of the key features that turn you on sexually
and will be in a position to marry these with the qualities that

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move you emotionally.

You should now be in a position to begin expressing
your Other in meaningful ways in a bid to attract it to you.
This may be done by painting, by the writing of stories or in
any other way. The important thing is that these expressions
must be crafted by your own hands. It doesn't matter how
amateurish they are, but there are many tools to assist with
such works these days. For instance, if you are familiar with
computers, art software and 3D modelling software may be
used to model the image of your inner beloved. For those
who find such applications too daunting, many modern video
games contain very comprehensive tools for creating and
designing your own character for use within the game. Give
them a try and keep tweaking the results until you feel you
have captured the beauty that inspires you.

When this Work is completed, you will have built
new and strong bridges between yourself and the Scarlet
Woman, the source of all Desire and the power that rules the
fifth head. You will now find that a new kind of
synchronicity begins to enter your life. You will encounter
people who match this image of your ideal lover, who will
enter your life in strange and meaningful ways. Some may
pass swiftly on, leaving you with some cryptic message or
piece of unusual advice. Others may prove a more abiding
influence, indeed this Working may ultimately attract a flesh
and blood lover conjured in the image you have wrought. But
in each instance they will insist that you drop whatever you
think you are busy with at the moment and do something else
or go somewhere on some mad quest. Welcome to the life of
the Raging Lion. In Aleister Crowley's Thoth Tarot deck, the
Woman rides the Beast and you will find a very active level
of interference and guidance entering your life at this stage.
Ignore or deny it at your peril. She does not ask twice and

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She does not forgive easily.

In your magical Workings, you may encounter a new
advisory figure, one who is conjured forth by your Work in
this field and is also a projection of the Scarlet Woman, a sort
of messenger who is easier to grasp and deal with than the
Dark Goddess Herself This is the being Crowley referred to
in The Vision and the Voice as the Daughter of Babalon. She
also features heavily in John Dee's Enochian works (though I
believe I am the first to openly state this, perhaps the first to
realise Her identity), providing a link between the earlier and
later Enochian Magi. If this should occur, take full advantage
of your good fortune and pay heed.

You will inevitably seek encounters and relationships
with people matching your ideal now that you have
formulated it and these can be powerfully transformative,
both magically and emotionally. But just every now and then
you may seek to emulate Austin Spare's method of anathema
magic, deliberately selecting a partner who is repellent to you,
a withered crone or a stooped, gnarled old man. If you are
straight, have sex with someone of the same gender; if you are
gay, give the opposite sex a try. In such a way, you will break
yet more taboos and unlock further reservoirs of power and
insight that you were completely unaware of. But this
practice is only for the brave and self-assured and should not
be over-used. Its value lies in its use as a shock treatment.

To some who have read this section of the chapter
relating to the fifth head, it will seem a thing of little
immediate consequence. It is my duty to warn you that the
Keys presented here in this chapter have the potential to
sabotage and break apart ordinary human relationships. If
your consciousness takes these Keys on board and begins to
reshape itself and its world through their use, then it will
jettison relationships which do not live up to its exacting

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standards. Since this sabotage will arise from within the deep
places of your Self, there will be little you can do about it.
Your consciousness will Desire a partner who matches the
blueprint established in your Workings. Naturally, not all
relationships will suffer this fate. A good partnership with a
magically aware person might well be strengthened by these
processes, but let's be honest when we admit that such
relationships are few and far between. If you are currently in
a relationship that satisfies you and you don't wish the boat to
be rocked, I would advise you to cease reading now.
Personally, I believe that to follow the Lady's teasing dance is
worthy of any sacrifice.

The Pentagram of Desire

The Pentagram, drawn with two points uppermost, has long
been the defining symbol of the Left-Hand Path. The
Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn taught the Elemental
attributions of the Pentagram and warned Initiates of the peril
of depicting it with two points up, declaring it an evil symbol
in this form. The seal of the Church of Satan depicted the
Pentagram as containing a goat's head, the horns filling the
two upper points, the ears the two side points and the beard
the lowermost point. Around this were written the Hebrew
letters spelling the name LVIThN - Leviathan. This version
was named the Baphomet, after the idol of the Templars. The
Satanic Pentagram symbolises the two horns of the Devil
uppermost, with the three prongs of the Infernal trident
pointing down.

When the Temple of Set was formed, it also adopted
the Pentagram with two points uppermost as a seal of the
Prince of Darkness. The Setian Pentagram is a plain five-

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pointed star set against a black, circular background. The
points of the star do not touch the edges of the circle, there is
a space between them. This signifies that the Black Flame of
consciousness is not a part of the cosmic order, but is a thing
alien and unique. There are many symbolic meanings
contained within this symbol and its geometry. In the
Temple's founding document, The Book of Coming Forth by
Night, Set describes the Pentagram as a measure of "beauty
through proportion".

A few years ago, I picked up a deck of Tarot cards
which featured illustrations by that master of dark imagery,
H.R. Giger. This was titled the Baphomet Tarot, linking back
to the Church of Satan's nomenclature and the little booklet
that accompanied it contained a Pentagram spread for laying
out the cards in a divinatory pattern. Each point of the
Pentagram was given a meaning and I came to see how these
mirrored the Deities of the Left-Hand Path and how the
Pentagram was itself a charged diagram of the initiatory
process in action. The diagram below illustrates the
attributions of the points.

The LoiEf Tbe Beloved

The Shadow 5 1 ,„. T ,

ine Daemon

The Serpent

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APOPHIS

We may observe the following about the five points:

The Lover - This represents the Magician in relation to the
Working. No matter what Work we do, whether illustrative
or operative, whether lesser, medial or greater, one of the twin
foci of the Working is always our own Self. Without the
immersing of the Self in the arena of play, there can be no
Work.

The Beloved - In the diagram, I have used the terminology of
Lover and Beloved, rather than Self and Other. The meaning
is the same, for the Beloved represents that for which the
Magician is seeking, the Beauty for which he/she quests. In
other words, here we have the second focus of the operation,
that which stimulates the Desire of the Magician and thus
kicks the whole magical process into action, directing the
Will, fuelling the emotions, sweeping aside the mental
barriers which otherwise prevent us from remembering our
potential. The Beloved may therefore be many things
depending upon the operation, ranging from a financial
windfall to a book project to an Understanding of the
Cosmos, or even a real earthly beloved. But I have chosen the
terms Lover and Beloved over Self and Other for two reasons:
(1) I agree largely with Crowley when he insists that every
Magical Act is an act of love between the Magician and the
Cosmos: the two meet, both are changed thereby and a third
force, completely distinct from both, Comes Into Being; on a
technical level, this imagery appeals to me; (2) I am of the
belief that the aspects of Lover and Beloved reflect the most
puissant manifestation of Desire; the purest essence.
Moreover, I believe Desire to be a thing essential to the Left-
Hand Path. In Buddhism, the purest expression of the Right-
Hand Path, desire is seen as the root of all suffering and evil;

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by negating desire, the Buddhist negates the Self. Therefore,
Desire lies at the root of the purest expression of the Left-
Hand Path; by enflaming Desire, the Initiate experiences
accelerated Self-individuation.

The Shadow - This is the fear which grows within the Lover.
Paradoxically, we all fear to see our desires realised and made
manifest. This has been so deeply ingrained in us, and is
indeed so much a part of the naturalistic, herd animal aspect
of us, that it arises in even the best of us. Also, we fear that
which we love; that which we love is something to which we
have granted the capacity to hurt us. An enemy may wound
our bodies, but those we love may wound our souls. This also
represents our awareness of nearing the ring of Runa, that
moment when we are about to step once more into the
Unknown, when we must ad-lib in our Play. The Shadow
which arises is a thing of terror which can hold us in thrall, or
it is a delicious and dangerous Unknown, something which
promises adventure and fascination whichever way the dice
roll. The former is the way of the natural brute; the latter is
the way of the Initiate.

The Daemon - This lies on the same plane as the Shadow,
and is linked to it, being the inner response of the Initiate to
the dark doubts and delicious dangers aroused by the
appearance of the Shadow; these being in their own right a
manifestation of Desire. In other words, the more stimulated
the Magician becomes through the apprehension of the
Unknown before him/her, the more Awake he/she becomes,
and the greater the opportunities for transformation. This in
turn leads to an increased perceptivity of the attendant
Mystery, which enhances further the potential for Initiation.
This may increase and grow throughout the life span of the

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Working or relationship between Lover and Beloved; some
such Workings and Becomings may indeed last years, ever
deepening and increasing in subtlety.

The Serpent - 1 named the lowermost point the Serpent as a
link to the Order of Leviathan and the V° Teaching of James
Lewis, for it is here that the energies of the upper points flow
down to and coalesce into a Remanifestation. That which
emerges from the Working is something changed from the
ingredients which were poured into it, something new and
exciting and vital.

Now let's examine the relationships of these things within the
diagram of the Pentagram, by following its lines, where a few
subtle nuances await. Those who Work with this model will
readily seek out the subtlest secrets for themselves, but there
are three key elements of the exchange of relationships which
I will list here:

1. Firstly, the Lover and the Beloved cannot approach each
other directly; no lines connect them, they are separate from
each other. Instead, as the Lover approaches the Beloved,
he/she follows the downward angle and finds him/herself
Awakening his/her Daemonic Self, the potential for
transformation arising out of the vitalising experience of
Desire. This is balanced by the transmutation of the Beloved
into the Shadow as the line from that side is followed down,
and horizons are crossed and the Unknown breached as our
personal world is touched by the influence of the Other.

2. The angle through which the influences of Lover and
Beloved actually meet is the lowermost one, where the
Remanifestation occurs; the relationship is consummated, the

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Working's goal is won, and something new and wonderful
enters the world in consequence, affording the potential for
fresh relationships and fresh Mysteries.

3. En route to the Remanife station at the point of the Serpent,
the horizontal line which links the Shadow and the Daemon is
crossed, and this is the point at which truly amazing things
may happen; here is the point at which the influence of the
Feminine Daemonic enters every relationship, every Working.
It is tangential to the result of a Working, but then She is an
active Principle and not one which we ourselves may
manipulate. Yet She is ever there, the opportunity to see
Hidden facets of our Self mirrored in the substrata of the
Work we do is always there so long as we keep our eyes open
to see Her and to seize the moment. That Remanifestation is
ultimately born out of this copulation between Shadow and
Daemon, the hidden, fearful, inner aspects of a Working. But
if we can recognise and consciously ride that moment then
how much more we can be than that which we are.

I think the utility of this model in understanding, approaching
and steering any magical process in order to get more out of
the Working is obvious. It is a coherent and concise model of
the variables and relationships in any situation. Moreover, it
is a clear affirmation that Desire is fundamental to the Left-
Hand Path. The model, since it is based on Desire, is also of
course a good map of human relationships. As such, it may
be used to investigate the Initiate's own relationship with our
Lady, or indeed with Set. Moreover, the model clearly
demonstrates how the influence of the Feminine Daemonic
arises out of the Hidden depths - like Leviathan - in any true
Remanifestation. We must learn to recognise Her when this
happens.

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Those who have absorbed and practised the
information offered under the previous heads may have
intuitively grasped the relationship between the Pentagram of
Desire and the model provided for the Magic of the Void
without need for me to point it out. The Magic of the Void
remains the best model of magic as a process which I am
capable of enunciating. The Pentagram of Desire expands it
in a more personal direction, looking more closely at the
motivations of the magician and the manner in which the
magic affects him in ways that he cannot foresee.

The Lover and Beloved obviously correspond to
points [a] and [b] of the triangular model of the Magic of the
Void; the Serpent is point [c], the Remanifestation brought
about by the magical act upon the various factors. What now
becomes apparent when we superimpose the Pentagram of
Desire is that as the magic works, the Shadow and the
Daemon are projected out of point [x] - out of the Void itself.
They are not a Willed component of the Working, in some
ways they are tangential to it, their exact manifestation cannot
be predicted, and yet they are both inevitable and indeed
essential. These results and impressions which derive from a
magician's magic and yet which are not of his conscious
direction are the spice that keeps things fresh and which
pushes forward the horizons of our vision. They should be
cherished, even when they hurt or terrify.

This may sound like a strange argument, but these
tangential synchronicities and odd happenings and insights do
not diminish the real results of a successful Working, they
simply add a new and unforeseen dimension. Those Initiates
who have persevered thus far should not need me to to tell
them this, but believe me when I say that the moment your
magic becomes boxed in and predictable is the moment you
spiritually die and are consumed by the gods of death. I

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shouldn't need to tell you why.

Those Initiates who Work with the Magic of the Void
and the Pentagram of Desire in the forefronts of their minds;
those Initiates who trace their lines and anticipate the arising
of Mystery in their lives; those Initiates who dare to do
instead of merely read: such will find new patterns and
possibilities blooming in their consciousness that they would
never have believed before. I leave these tools in your hands
for you to use as you will.

The Immortality Engine

I have often referred to the quest for immortality in these
pages previously. I have pointed out how it is a central theme
within the Order of Apep as it was within the Order of
Leviathan. I have mentioned the Word of the Magus James
Lewis, Remanifest, which is the Key to unlock the door to the
immortal realm. But so much more remains to be said on this
question, and when all that is currently known has been said,
so many questions remain to be asked. But we return to the
subject now, for the fifth head of Apep deals with the passion
of the Self for the Other and is a place where the soul hungers
for immortality in earnest in a way it has never really
understood before. Let me begin by quoting one of the
opening paragraphs from a privately circulated paper I wrote
a couple of years ago, under the title 'The Immortality
Engine':

"Yes, here it comes again. Yet there I was, perfectly happy
with my Work. I have been extremely busy lately. I have
established the curriculum of Apepian Work and am preparing
it for publication; I am writing a novel and making several long

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term life changes; I am pursuing my Work within the Rune-
Gild; I am delving deeper into Celtic matters and preparing a
ground breaking publication for this field too. I thought I was
doing so well. And so I was, after my fashion. Then comes
the summons from She Who Must Be Obeyed. She wears a
new form and face in this manifestation, one that suits Her so
well and that I can readily worship. She reveals Herself to me
when I least expect it and demands that I come away with Her.
Always, my Lady. Always."

It was directly through the inspiration and image of Babalon
that I discovered the very roots of the immortalisation process
and the powerhouse that drives it. All of the insights and
ideas that had drifted in isolated clutches within my mind
were drawn together into a coherent, well-oiled machine,
fueled by Her Desire and propeling my life forward. This is
not the place to reprint the whole paper, nor to recount the
details of the Working, but I shall share the nature of the
Immortality Engine for those with the wit to put it to use.

Once an Initiate has recognised the manner in which
the mind can reach out of the confines of his skull to
influence the world around him, once he realises that he is not
bound by the body but that the body is a tool, he no longer
doubts that immortality of some sort is a likelihood. But all
manner of questions then arise:

What is it within us that survives? All of the input of
our senses ceases with the body. How does a mind
unshackled from such inputs think? Does it verbalise to
itself? Language is only a symbol system evolved within the
confines of physical life. Will it 'see' and 'hear'? Will it
visualise? All of our thoughts are conditioned around our
physical senses. What about emotions, once the body's glands
and unconscious responses are no longer present? Will we
feel? Will we care?

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What of reincarnation? Do we enter again into flesh?
All of us or just a part of the psyche, the sense of Self itself?
What of our memories? Do these remain within a kind of
overSelf, distinct from that which incarnates? Is this overSelf
the phenomenon of the 'Watcher' we are familiar with, the
Self who is outside of self but looks over our shoulder and
sometimes prompts us?

The answer to these questions came to me from two
distinct sources, which fused into a single vision during the
process of an intense magical Working. One of these sources
was the soul lore of my ancestors, the Celts and the Norse
settlers on the Isle of Man. The other was my passion and my
sense of beauty, which had been inflamed by a young lady in
a work of fiction who ignited my desires.

These sources teach us a very important truth about
the way in which magic manifests in our lives. If I had not
done the hard groundwork, studying and working with the
runes and oghams and their associated lore for years, I could
never have acquired the knowledge for my realisation. But
also, if my mind had not been open to the influences of the
present and awake to the visions being presented to me right
now - through whatever medium - that knowledge would
never have been so effectively vitalised. Both are necessary.
Initiates tend to either study their magical traditions
exclusively and effectively cut themselves off from the world
around them, or shamble around seeking inspiration in all and
sundry but lacking the structure and discipline to find any
meaning in it. It is important to effectively tread a middle
path; instead, both must be pursued vigourously at the same
time. The magician is a multi-tasker.

The core of the answer lies in the ways in which the
old Europeans divided the body-soul complex into several
distinct parts. They had a far more complex and advanced

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model of the structure of the human soul than we tend to have
today. These days people tend to speak of the soul or psyche
as if it was a single object and thus our definition is vague and
wooly, trying to be all things to all men. But we are actually
composed of several distinct selves and with a little study,
their parameters are quite distinct and well-defined. I don't
want to go into this question in too much detail here - there
are several fine books available which serve that purpose -
but it is necessary to at least examine the basics. Let's look at
the Celtic psychological model, as detailed in my own Book
of Ogham (published by Runa-Raven Press).

We are all familiar with the body, which is itself
made up of several elements (bone, flesh, blood, breath, mind
and aspect in the Celtic model). This part of the Self is a
form adapted to our expression in the physical world. As
such, it embodies and processes and follows the rules of that
world. It is born, grows to maturity, ages and ultimately dies.
Its cells constantly renew themselves out of the substance of
this plane. It is estimated that every single cell in the body is
replaced over a seven year period. Thus, there is not a single
atom of me as I sit here now and type this which is the same
as the person I was seven years ago. Not a single part of that
earlier me remains and yet I continue. This in itself should
tell us something of immortality.

The physical body itself is shaped and moulded by a
non-physical field known as the delbh. This field is the
means whereby the Self moulds and shapes its manifestation
in the physical world. Once the physical form is grown and in
motion, a strong delbh may still morph it and project itself
through it. Good actors possess strong control over this
aspect of themselves and use it to project new personalities
and mannerisms through their body, transforming themselves
into different people. Strongly charismatic people manifest

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their delbhs directly; think of times when you have seen
someone's face shine or eyes blaze as they speak.

Also interpenetrating the physical body is the anal,
which is the vital breath, the animating principle itself. As
anybody who has ever been present when someone dies will
know, there is a world of difference between a dead body and
a living one. It is not simply that the body stops breathing and
moving. Something departs, it loses a definite substance.
That substance is vitality itself, which is withdrawn as the
soul-complex ceases to use that body as its vehicle. The
delbh too withdraws and the body starts to decompose as the
force that gave it its shape and cohesion is removed.

The Celtic model then introduces the mental faculties
to the complex, defining the menma, which is the mind itself,
the reasoning function, which also encompasses the capacity
for concentration and will. The cuimhne is the memory,
which incorporates the capacity for pattern recognition and
the association of ideas through past experience. By
extrapolating data from the menma and referring it to the
archives of the cuimhne, the self becomes capable of feats of
imagination, a mental process which takes place on a plane
beyond this one. The mental faculties thus operate both
within the physical realm and beyond its limits.

The puca is the shadow of the personality, which
lurks below the threshold of waking consciousness yet
observes all and insidiously comments upon it internally.
These are the repressed aspects of the personality, the dark
and disturbing corners which we do not like to peer into, yet
which are essential to the magician. When understood,
accepted and harnessed, the puca greatly liberates the
imagination, allowing consciousness access to the deep places
of the psyche. It is a tool for shape-shifting and mental travel
beyond the limits of the body. It is the untamed part of the

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psyche which may liberate that part of us which is shackled.

The enaid is a person's shade, or ghost. It represents
that which lingers on when a person dies, representing their
life and work in the minds and memories of others. It is this
which may return as a ghost, either as an unconscious
memory or as a more animated projection seeking to complete
an unfinished task or take revenge on one who has wronged it.

The final part of this complex of selves in the Celtic
scheme is the fein, which is the sense of Self itself. It is the
realisation and manifestation of personal identity which
accumulates through the action of the other parts of the body-
soul complex. It is not the body; it is that for which the body
is a vehicle. It is not the thoughts or feelings; it is that which
thinks or feels. It is not the memory; it is that which
remembers and for which memories have meaning. It is ever
the subject; all else is ever the object. It is the sole constant;
all else revolves arounds it.

There are, of course, other models of the soul. The
Germanic model is very like the Celtic one in most respects.
It is also possible to effectively reconstruct an ancient
Egyptian model. The important thing is to possess a coherent
and comprehensive understanding of all of the parts which go
into making us up. Having done so, it is then possible to
examine each part in turn and divine what must happen to it
upon physical death. We shall do so briefly now, tracing the
passage of the Celtic soul with reference to its parts. But we
will need to return to this again later after we discuss the
second ingredient of the Immortality Engine.

The first thing that should suggest itself to us when
we begin looking at the soul as comprised of several parts is
that each part may have a different post-mortem fate or
destination. This realisation immediately liberates us from
the modern conception of 'a' soul, for there is no such thing:

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there is a Self - a fein - which arises through the interaction
of several linked but distinct parts, but which is greater than
the sum of those parts and - in the Initiate at least - attains
sovereignty over them.

The fate of the body is evident to all. It is a physical
thing, so we can observe its processes with our physical
senses. It dies and decomposes into its constituent elements.
The anal - the vital breath - departs and all that remains is an
abandoned shell of meat. The delbh - the shaping persona -
departs along with the anal and thus the body rots as the
matrix that held it together in a coherent form is no longer
present.

We may ask where the anal and the delbh depart to?
They withdraw into that shadow body, that body which sees
more clearly than the physical one and is not afraid to probe
into the dark places, namely the puca. This less tangible
body, capable of walking and operating in the magical realm,
is now the vehicle of the soul. The magician's psyche finds
itself wandering the paths of the Otherworld and the
Underworld - the Magical Universe we took pains to explore
and map during the work of the third head.

The enaid - the shade or ghost - is also a thing of the
magical realm, but it remains in close proximity to the
physical world and may at times be discerned there by those
sensitive to such apparitions or those who were close to the
deceased. The enaid may or may not possess consciousness
in its own right. If there remains unfinished earthly business
which plays upon the mind, some part of the anal may abide
there, animating it, a kind of pocket personality of the larger
Self. It is a fallacy to say that such ghosts need to 'move on';
they are never complete consciousnesses, only a projection
for a purpose. The bulk of the awareness always passes into
the magical realms. If the shade is a passive one, it will

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APOPHIS

merely act as a link between the deceased and the places and
people he knew, fading with the passing of time until it too
goes the way of the physical body. In either case, the enaid
retains some vestige of the delbh, giving it ethereal shape and
substance for so long as it subsists.

The menma and the cuimhne - the mind and the
memory - continue to be associated with the fein, since the
Self retains the sense of its own continuity. If the shade of
the deceased is an active ghost seeking to complete some
earthly task, it may retain some awareness of the cuimhne, but
probably not the menma since reason is not required for such
a function; perhaps some faint vestige of the emotion that
drives the desire for completion.

Traditionally, all ancient authorities agree that the
Celtic druids taught that the soul of the deceased will be
reborn, usually among his own descendants or near relatives.
But the tales also allow that some considerable time may pass
prior to rebirth and that during this time the fein will pass into
the Underworld and travel through the magical realms of
Celtic cosmology, having experiences and forming
relationships there every bit as real as those in earthly life.
Indeed, binding debts and promises will pass over from life to
the post-mortem existence and vice versa.

So much for the traditional view. At the time of the
Immortality Engine Working, I had accepted the Celtic model
of the soul as a pragmatic and essentially accurate one and
was happy to give it my stamp of approval. I also broadly felt
that the dying process as described above was essentially
correct as regards the effects upon the various parts of the
soul. I was a magician and accepted the reality of the magical
realm and the ability of the Self to exist in this realm
independent of the physical and I also believed that rebirth
could indeed occur in certain circumstances. But I did not yet

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know the mechanism by which this all worked. I could not
put my finger on the why of it. I could not determine the
factors that contributed to rebirth or held a soul in the
Otherworld. Some fresh perspective was required to bring
this theoretical model to vibrant, compelling life.

This was when the Lady Babalon intervened. My
perception of the Scarlet Woman has always been coloured by
my Celtic heritage and She manifests to me as the Goddess
Badb (interestingly, Babalon may be seen as a title of Her as
Badb Avallon, or Badb of the Otherworld). She now
presented a fresh Vision of Herself to me, which triggered a
new Understanding and a new fusion of ideas and things that I
had already known but had never previously connected in
such a vital and powerful way.

I have stated many times already that Desire is Key to
the Left-Hand Path. I now fully Understood it as the Desire
for the Lady, for the Other. The Self s eternal quest for that
which it Desires beyond itself is what will drive us ever on.
This is Faust's Eternal Feminine. In The Symposium Plato
argued that man's pursuit of beauty is actually the pursuit of
immortality, since that which is truly beautiful must be
imperishably beautiful. That which makes us immortal is our
Desire for the Other, our eternal yearning and pursuit for that
beauty which burns our hearts and sears our vision with its
loveliness. So if the Celtic soul model described above is the
process, then Desire is the Engine that powers it.

For some reason, probably the direct inspiration of
the Lady Herself, on this occasion the realisation blazed
through my knowledge of soul lore and illuminated it for me.
Beauty is everything. The sole purpose of being conscious is
the admiration and adoration of the Beautiful. The Desire for
Beauty is that which fuels life itself, on every level. This
applies in the Underworld and the Otherworld just as much as

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in this world. So let us examine certain aspects of our soul
lore once again in the wake of this realisation.

Much of what was expressed earlier remains
unchanged. We may now gain a perspective on what may
cause an active shade or ghost to linger, if an attachment is
still felt toward a loved one who embodied the deceased's
Other on the physical plane. But as I considered the soul in
the context of Desire, I realised that the fein does not pass
from this world into the magical realms upon physical death.
Why not? Because it is already there and it always has
been. The sense of Self is not and has never been bound to
the physical body. Even in the most dull and unimaginative
of people, it indulges in daydreams, it dreams while the body
sleeps and it creates new worlds within the imagination. The
fein resides permanently in the magical realms and it
interfaces with the physical body through the other parts of
the soul that we have described. Upon death, it draws several
of those parts back to itself to one degree or another.

The mind and memory yield up the fruits of this life
to the Self. Those events and memories which have truly
inspired or transformed the soul will be held up as standards
on the plains of the Otherworld where the Self holds
sovereignty. The accrued skills and insights will lie in state,
enshrined in the Underworld, the lands of the dead, from
which they may arise and Remanifest when needed. When
the time comes for rebirth, the Self will send forth the delbh -
the shaping principle - to form and craft a new suitable body
in the physical world to give flesh to its parts once again.
Contrary to those creeds which teach that the goal of the soul
is to escape from some tortuous wheel of reincarnation, the
Celtic model teaches that fleshly life is a delight and a joy and
that Man is meant to be a carnal being with a physical
manifestation. A Buddhist will renounce Desire to disperse

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himself: a Draconian will embrace Desire to create himSelf.
But when each fleshly life ends, in accordance with the
transformations of this realm, we do not pass on to the
Otherworld, because we are already there. This was a
tremendously powerful and liberating realisation.

Since our sense of Self resides permanently within the
magical realm, what is the force that drives us to be reborn in
flesh? One reason has been mentioned above. The body and
its elements are a part of our overall complex as a human
being and the Self aspires to its fullest manifestation. In Left-
Hand Path philosophy, the physical world is not a
disfunctional prison from which the soul yearns to escape: it
is the culmination and manifestation of all the soul's efforts
towards Self-expression. The second reason is that we are
driven to reach outside of ourselves by the force of Desire,
yearning for experience of the Other.

The prime motive for entering into fleshly life,
submerging ourselves totally in the illusion which is the play
of Apep, is Desire for the Scarlet Woman, for it is in the
physical realm that She manifests to us and the flesh is Her
instrument of choice. We are here to seek Beauty, to
experience great and tempestuous love affairs, to find Her in
all of these things and in so doing to find new ways in which
to manifest our own Selves. It is Beauty which keeps the
process of Remanifestation turning over, drawing us ever to
rebirth: it is Desire which renews us, immortalising the
psyche: it is the Other who provides us with purpose and
motivation.

The Initiate who Understands the way in which his
soul takes on flesh and then withdraws from it in a cyclical
manner and the manner in which it arranges its parts, who
Understands how his ultimate Essence lies permanently
outside of the realms of space-time (as pictured in the Order

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Seal), and who Understands the engine of Desire that powers
this process, is mighty indeed. These words are easy for me
to type. Like most magical Secrets, this is easy to set down in
words. But this experience must happen to you as it did to
me. Anyone can believe or disbelieve in immortality. Such
belief is irrelevant, it is neither here nor there. Some may
read my description of these matters and consider it to be
unlikely. Others will dismiss it out of hand. Some will
consider it a logical and satisfying explanation. Others will
doubt. I can offer no proof or argument in words, nor am I
interested in doing so. However, for those who persevere
with this curriculum and Work diligently with the heads, I can
promise proof indeed, for when you attain the fifth head you
will experience for yourself something akin to my own
Immortality Engine Working. This experience will prove to
you beyond any doubt that you are an immortal Essence. You
may not use a Celtic model for your soul; the Lady will
certainly appear to you in different guise than She did to me.
But the illumination will come. Those who merely read these
words and avoid the Work will wait forever.

The Importance of Sorcery

There is a tendency among Initiates who attain exalted levels
of Being to neglect the practice of simple charms and spells,
the enchantments that so enthralled them and occupied so
much of their Work when they first started treading the Path.
In many ways, this is perfectly understandable. By the time a
magician reaches the Work of the fifth head in earnest, he will
no longer need to work sorcery in such a manner. His Will
and Being are by now so defined that he merely has to enter a
situation in order to change it. His very presence begins

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warping the world and reshaping it to his purpose. There is
nothing he can achieve by lighting candles or scribing sigils
that cannot be done by simply turning his mind upon his
circumstances and declaring how he wants events to transpire.
There will still be resistance - we have discussed the need for
this - and tangential surprises will still occur, but his magic
will be strong simply through the expression of his own
Essence.

But without constant exercise, the magical muscles -
those of the Will and imagination - become weak and
ineffectual. This is why some who are acknowledged Masters
may sometimes seem to sink into a lethargy, from which it
can be a struggle to rouse themselves. The fact that we are
capable of accomplishing our Will through the simple and
direct application of our minds is a tremendous achievement.
But it pays to keep the mechanisms well oiled and to
remember clearly how we attained this power. Set time aside
at least once a month to carry out a simple sorcery for some
purpose that appeals to you. Set up your ritual chamber and
proceed through the steps in proper sequence, just as you used
to as a novice. Remember where you came from. These steps
are carried out automatically and almost subconsciously when
we begin to truly work magic by Will alone, but they must
still be present, however subliminally, in order to be effective.
It is therefore essential to tread those steps anew on a regular
basis so that we remember them. In this manner, we continue
to stamp the imprint of conscious determination upon our
most automatic responses. At this stage I should not have to
remind you why this is a good thing.

Some may protest that rather than playing around
with simple spells and sorceries, the Initiate of this stature can
instead keep his ritual abilities exercised by carrying out the
occasional fully ceremonialised Greater Magical Working, its

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purpose to discover the secrets of the Universe or some such.
There are two very strong counter arguments to this
suggestion, however. The first is that nearly all of the
Initiate's attention at this point - whether ritual, meditative or
contemplative - is directed towards such esoteric ends. It is
vitally important as Initiates of the Left-Hand Path that we
remain grounded in the physical world and ensure that at least
some of our magical Workings have tangible, measurable
results. If you cannot point at something concrete and say, "I
achieved that recently through use of my magic," then you
have no ground on which to stand. Successful sorcery is the
demonstrative proof that our Work is resonating correctly.
The second reason is that it is fun to Play, it enhances
personal satisfaction and that is what we are ultimately all
about. There is no room for holier-than-thouism. So never
neglect to ensorcel, enchant and conjure to your heart's
content.

It is interesting to point out that at around this stage of
your Initiation, you will probably find that even illustrative
Workings begin to demand a tangible return. Where once you
could go on an astral journey and lose yourself in this
dreamscape, returning with tales of fascinating encounters
and psychedelic landscapes, such will no longer be enough.
Instead, you will find yourself being charged with the
completion of some definite and objective task before you can
lay claim to the secrets of a pathworking. You will be
compelled to make it relevant and distill its teachings into an
operative Key that can be presented to others. One of the first
things I was taught by James Lewis was the importance of the
question, "So what?" Try it. The next time someone begins
spouting a lot of mystical hyperbole, counter with, "So
what?" If they can't offer a definite reason why it matters,
then their experience has no value. You will find that your

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illustrative Workings are no less enthralling, but now you will
be actively tasked to define that Key which brings them
through to this reality. Because until your visions can be
actualised, they're no good to anybody.

Of Ghosties and Ghoulies and Long-Leggity Beasties
and Things That Go Bump in the Night

Since we are talking about sorcery and its kindred arts of
evocation and dealing with spirits, it is pertinent at this time
to address the question of the reality or otherwise of such
incorporeal entities. What is the Initiate truly to think of the
existence of gods, spirits and demons? Are they independent
entities or are they projections from his own psyche,
anthropomorphic personifications of various principles or
forces? Are they purely symbolic or do their professed
powers actually pack a punch? At this stage, the Initiate
should be in a position to ask such questions and expect to
find some answers - not from preconceptions, book-learning
or belief (whether for or against), but from his own
experience and direct perception of the magical universe. I
will discuss some of my own feelings on these questions here,
but such are not presented as absolute truth; they are what
seems evident to me. Other Initiates who I much admire
would disagree in greater or lesser part and I respect their
opinions. Of course, I am not interested in the opinions of
those who have not put in the initiatory groundwork to even
Understand the question. Never bother getting into debates
on these matters with morons, it is a waste of your time. You
owe such people nothing. But never cease to seek the
answers for yourself.

Let us look first at the Deities of Draconian magic,

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since these are the ones who concern us closely. In The Book
of Coming Forth by Night, the document upon which the
Temple of Set was founded, Set declares two things. Firstly,
He establishes Himself as an objective, intelligent being: not
an archetype, nor an ideal, nor a symbol. Secondly, He
declares that all other gods of whatever type have been
created by men. Both of these statements by the Prince of
Darkness require consideration before we move on to
consider other gods, demons or spirits.

The heart of the argument for Set as a unique and
intelligent being is His own quality. He makes no claim to
have created the Universe, nor to have created the human
species (though He does claim to have adjusted our
development). He holds a very specific position: He is the
living Principle of Isolate Intelligence. In other words, He is
the God of consciousness and individuality, of Self-awareness
itself. It is a reasonable assumption that a God of
consciousness must Itself be conscious. The only question is
whether that God's consciousness is a facet of our own in
exteriorised guise (as the Church of Satan would suggest) or a
unique, independent entity in its own right (as the Temple of
Set would suggest).

We first need to remind ourselves that we are not
postulating any kind of omnipotent, omniscient, omnipresent
God here like those of the majority religions. We are
postulating a highly evolved entity who has developed
consciousness and Self-awareness to the degree that It has
freed itself from the constraints of the physical universe and
exists as a powerful force in the Magical Universe. In other
words, the Prince of Darkness is a Being of the same order
that we ourselves seek to attain. So if our practices and
aspirations mean anything, the existence of a Being such as
Set should come as no surprise. One of the descriptions

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which I heard used of the Dark Lord in the Temple of Set was
"the First of our Kind". If we aspire to attain to such a State
of Being, it should come as no surprise that one got there
before us. If this is the case, we need to ask ourselves about
Set's possible origins.

It is unlikely that Set is of human origin, since a Set-
like being appears in the very earliest mythologies known to
our species. The purest Form is the Set of the Egyptians, of
course, the red terror of the desert who murdered death and
mocked the static gods who tried to calcify civilisation. He is
the Serpent in Genesis who Gifted Man with consciousness
and Self-will; He is the Satan who whispered in Job's ear,
trying to persuade him to deny the unbelievably callous
Yahweh who inflicted such suffering upon his poor, demented
servant for sport. In all of the oldest tales of humanity, the
Lord of Darkness is already present.

It would seem evident, therefore, that Set predates our
species since He appears fully formed in our earliest records.
It would seem that Set must be an alien intelligence who
attained the power of individuation - Xeper, or Coming Into
Being - in some distant time and place.

Even if we postulate a blind, mechanical cosmos,
where life forms and evolves by a purely natural process, the
spark of Self-awareness only needed to be ignited once, by
accident. If such an awakened being managed to sustain the
flame of Self through force of Will, it could rip itself free
from the laws binding the cosmos, asserting the laws of its
own Being. This may have happened only once, or perhaps
many millions of times, consciousness flaring up and then
flickering out. But at some point one managed to assert His
Will and Utter the Law of Xeper, creating a new pattern for
His own Becoming and Remanifestation. This Being was Set,
accomplishing that which we seek to accomplish.

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At some point, Set's consciousness became aware of
our remote ancestors and reached out to awaken
consciousness within them. How would He have done this?
We don't know. Some speculate a genetic tampering, or an
intervention similar to the obelisk in 2001: A Space Odyssey.
Since the Black Flame is itself a phenomenon which is non-
natural, however, I personally speculate that its transmission
probably was too. Basically, I feel Set performed a Working
of Greater Black Magic to ignite the Flame within our Being,
to open our eyes to our potential. Those who have Worked
diligently with the third head will know very well how one
mind may reach out to touch and influence another without
need for physical intervention.

In the above hypothesis, I mention a cosmos of
invariable mechanical laws, but as the frontiers of physics are
pushed further back, such seems to be a mere surface
appearance and the idea of an observer-created (or at least
observer-modified) universe is becoming increasingly
championed. Some scientists are now even daring to suggest
that we are effectively living inside a virtual reality, whose
programming may be adjusted. But this is an argument that
will go back and forth for decades and it makes little
difference to the Initiate. In either case, the Will of an
Awakened Self may operate outside of the strictures of the
objective universe and may alter it in proportion to the
strength and passion of that Will. In either case, Set is the
First of our Kind, the First to proclaim, "Xeper, I have Come
Into Being", and to ignite the flame of that passion in others.

Ultimately, no verbal proof can be offered for the
existence of Set. There are convincing arguments, but
nobody who has made their mind up otherwise is ever going
to be swayed by them. A proof does exist, however: an
experiential proof, won through the Work offered in this

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book. Once your mind has been touched by the living mind
of the Prince of Darkness, the matter will be settled for you.

The above obviously applies to those other faces
worn by the Prince of Darkness in other cultures, such as
Satan, Odin / Loki (see the runic writings of Edred Thorsson
for the relationship between these two), Tezcatlipoca and so
on. But we maintain that Set is the purest and loftiest
conception of the God.

Babalon - the Scarlet Woman - has long been linked
with the Lord of Darkness. Where He is the God of
Consciousness, She is the Goddess of Desire. Where He is
the First Form of Isolate Intelligence, She is the First Form of
Passion. She is associated with Set and thus She partakes of
consciousness through that association. But an Initiate's
interactions with Her will be of a more emotional nature.
Whether She is Self-Created, a being originally envisioned by
humanity, or a necessary extension projected from Set's own
Being to reflect His own purposes, there is no doubt that She
exists as a unique entity and is a conscious, Self-aware Deity.

Apep is a different matter altogether. Apep predates
Set. Apep predates the Universe itself. Apep is the coiling
Chaos from which manifestation unfolds. It has no
consciousness of Its own, but echoes and may partake of the
consciousness of all that is spawned from It. Thus, It is a
fractured and contradictory consciousness. To use the
symbolism of Enochian magic, Apep is the Abyss and
whatever momentary and fragmentary consciousness it may
manifest is Choronzon, the Guardian of the Abyss. Apep is
all-potential, a vortex of all possibilities, including those that
never come to be. It is the Void and the only thing which may
see in the Void is the Eye of the Serpent - that still centre
which perceives everything that has been, will be, may be and
may not have been. The only being who could withstand the

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hypnotic gaze of Apep and stare into the Void, seeing through
the Serpent's Eye, was Set. Thus, we must Become as Set is,
exalting our consciousness to such a dignity that we too may
choose what Comes Into Being on a scale beyond the merely
personal. This is the very essence of Draconian magic.

The consciousness of your Daemon is a more
complex thing, linked to your own, but certainly distinct from
your own present mind. This entity and its origins has
already been thoroughly discussed in the last chapter,
however.

Where does this leave other gods? Some of them, of
course, are aspects or different cultural interpretations of the
main Left-Hand Path trinity. Thus we have Set, Satan, Odin,
Prometheus, Tezcatlipoca; or Babalon, Badb, Ishtar, Freya; or
Apep, Leviathan, the Serpent of Eden, Fafnir. But there are
many others. Human beings have required deities to represent
a whole host of phenomena to their inner selves. Are these
beings purely symbolic? Are such symbols powerless to act?
The answer to the second question should be easy for anyone
who has mastered the second head. It will be understood that
any symbol may wield power if a person with a strong Will
and imagination invests it with such. So a fervent invocation
of any deity - including one made up on the spot - may be
effective in the hands of a skilled magician. So a deity's
effectiveness in producing rain or smiting the unrighteous
(always a favourite with spiteful, demented yokels like the
Judeo-Christian god) is no measure of the deity's own
essence; it may simply be the worshippers doing it.

Let's reflect back on Set's statement in the Book of
Coming Forth by Night that all other gods are made by men.
Note that He does not say that they do not exist; only that
they were made by men. As explained in the paragraph
above, such a god may still wield effective power, dependent

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upon the passion of those who invoke it. But what of
consciousness? What of identity? My personal feeling is that
such deities are crafted from the consciousness of those who
give them shape and form. The more people who work with
the god, the more multi-faceted and diverse its consciousness
is, as it draws on the projected emotions of all who address it.
Thus, a privately created and invoked elemental servitor is a
pure projection of the consciousness of its creator, an
expression of his Will clothed in astral substance and perhaps
focused in a physical image, such as a painting, sigil or
statuette. It will thus do precisely what he asks of it, since its
consciousness is an extension of his own. On the other hand,
a god such as that of the Christians, with millions of muddled,
befuddled worshippers, must necessarily 'move in mysterious
ways' and not know his arse from his elbow. The more
concentrated and pure the origins and mythology of a human-
created deity, the more potent and precise its actions will be.
But let us not forget that these actions are ultimately the
expression of human wills.

This brings us to a point where the Draconian Initiate
may call upon such gods in his magic in order to satisfy
aesthetics and may expect some response to his invocations, a
response which will increase in power and clarity the more he
addresses that deity. In general, the practice of the Order of
Apep is to invoke only the three deities of our Path, plus the
personal Daemon, as our preference is for the direct use of the
Will in magic. But everyone appreciates a little theatre on
occasion, so it should not be considered 'unApepian' to use
other gods, whether traditional or invented. Just be sure to
select appropriate deities.

The same basic principles would apply to spirits and
entities of other orders, such as demons, angels, elementals
and so forth. Through evoking them and working with them,

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the magician creates a template in which their consciousness
forms, primarily an externalisation of some aspect of his own
consciousness. They are thus able to carry out their functions
as independent beings once created.

I am now about to throw three spanners into the
works of this model, however, all of which will complicate it
considerably. This should not be surprising; consciousness is
a complicated and unruly thing that can quite neatly sidestep
all of our neat little parameters whenever it feels like it.

Firstly, when a god or a demon is drawn from a
tradition instead of being personally devised from the ground
up, it has already been invested with some degree of
consciousness by those who have called upon it before you.
Although this will be largely withdrawn when they finish
working with it, vestiges will remain. Also, a well known
mythological entity will have accreted a certain degree of
psychic substance from all of those who have ever heard of it.
Such beings will possess a great degree of independence and
will require careful dealing. To all intents and purposes, they
will exhibit their own natures and will act as they see fit, not
necessarily as you wish. Assume nothing.

Secondly, be aware that some incorporeal entities
have links (and may even be identified with) deceased
ancestors, for example the elves of Northern myth. This
raises all sorts of questions (which you must discover and
then answer for yourself).

Finally, I have personally come to feel that some kind
of animistic arising of consciousness may indeed occur in
places - or indeed events - of significant impact. Many
would dispute this, but it is the conclusion I have reached
through experience. Investigate and judge for yourselves,
which is always the best path to take. Do not prejudge before
investigating.

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The Black Magus

Within the Order of Leviathan, there were two mysterious
figures who were frequently alluded to in Order literature.
These were the Black Magus and the Red Magus, both of
whom were first mentioned in Dr Michael Aquino's
Diabolicon. It is the former of these two figures, the Black
Magus, who concerns us in this chapter. We will return to the
Red Magus when considering the seventh head.

The Black Magus is an Initiate who has obtained
Mastery of Black Magic "by force of Will alone". In other
words, the Black Magus has Remanifested a state of being in
which the pressure of his Will can reshape reality, without
need of props, invocations, symbols or any other
intermediaries. Within the Order of Leviathan, the Black
Magus was seen as an ideal to which every Initiate should
aspire. James Lewis began the process of steering the Order
in this direction, stating that ritual robes and paraphernalia
should be confined to the attic as products of a bygone age
and that we should face the future with a clear eye and a
strong and determined mind. When I was Grand Master, it
was my privilege to host the first Order Working which
conformed to these principles, without props or script.

Aspiration is one thing, of course, but achievement is
another. The Initiate who works with the fifth head should
now be in a position where he can exercise his Will in this
fashion. You should begin selecting goals to be achieved in
this manner, through the exercise of Will alone. As your
successes increase (and like all the work of all the previous
heads, practice is essential to those successes), you will come
to truly Understand the state of being symbolised by the Lion
of the fifth head. You will attain Mastery and may assume
the title of Black Magus. This may be the Work of years -

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young Initiates always seem to forget that our Work is a
lifelong project, indeed beyond lifelong - and beware of
hubris, for most who seize at titles only reveal that they do
not yet warrant them.

This trial of magic by force of Will alone is the
primary practical exercise of the fifth head. There are no
tricks or techniques that will hasten it, only a true
Understanding of your own being and Will.

The Two Masks of the Magician

There are two masks that the magician may wear in his
interactions with the world. It is to be expected that each
individual Initiate may wear each mask at different times and
in different circumstances. One of these masks is invisible;
when wearing it, the Initiate keeps his head down, ignores
what is happening in society and pursues his own Work,
keeping himself to himself. The other mask is that of the
trusted adviser, the power behind the throne, who whispers
the words of power in the ears of the great and mighty and
influences large-scale events in the world. The option to
become a tyrant oneself seems doomed to failure, since the
other two masks immediately become unavailable for further
use and Initiation inevitably stalls.

There is a balance to be had here, of course. Like all
true magical skills, the matter is polarised and the Initiate
must tread two paths at the same time. If time is not spent
developing our magical abilities and understanding in private,
we will be ineffectual in public. If time is not spent keeping
an eye on the patterns in the world around you and in
insinuating yourself into the positions where you can
influence those patterns, then you will be ineffectual.

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It is, of course, up to you to decide which of the larger
patterns are most important to the furtherance of your Work
and are most likely to shape the world into what you want it
to be. If you are an artist, you will want to ensure that your
means of expression is not stifled by censorship or political
correctness. If you are a writer, you will want to ensure that
there is a distribution channel to get your words to the people
who will read them. If you are a TV producer, you will want
to ensure that there exist channels willing to take risks with
edgy programmes. You must choose the best ways to expand
the choices you have in your field and to fight off the binding
ignorance that ever encroaches.

This is not enough, however. As Initiates, we need to
be aware of the larger patterns in the social climate. Modern
technology has opened many new doors for us. Texts and
records that were once very hard to access are now freely
available within seconds via the internet. Modern telephone,
fax and email networks make international communication
fast and affordable. But in reality, I had greater freedom of
speech back in the 1970s when none of these things were
available to me. The means of communication are now
easier, but the content is becoming subject to ever increasing
restrictions as political correctness and the nanny state tighten
their grip. This is a problem that all of us should be very
worried about at the time of writing. So it is also necessary to
use whatever skills you have to ensure that you can extend
your influence into the decision making process in society.
It's not a job that can be left for others to do. We all need to
pull our weight, each in our own way.

The two masks of the magician are Merlin the wild
man, who retreats into the forests and avoids the company of
men, and Merlin the adviser to Vortigern, Uther and Arthur,
the power behind the throne. As Draconian magicians, we

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must wear both. By the time we are working with the fifth
head, the power is ours to wield. Learn to do so.

Wending Your Own Way

You will no doubt have noticed that there is far less
instruction in 'things to do' now that we have entered the later
heads. This is entirely as it should be. All of the skills
developed during the preceding heads should be sufficient for
the new Works that we now encounter. Also, having attained
a measure of communion with your Daemon in the Work of
the fourth head, you have full access to the source of personal
inspiration. It is sufficient now for me to point out the focus
of each head and the powers with which it is concerned. The
development and application of these themes is now in your
own hands. The direction of your Work will now be steered
by the passion you awake within this fifth head: your Desire
is the Key to the Mysteries. If you truly cannot see the road
ahead at this stage, then there is no hope for you.

Shedding Skins II

In the fourth head, the Initiate learns to perceive through the
Eye in the Void and establish a link with his own Daemon,
winning a timeless insight into his Work and his world in the
process. So what could he possibly need to shed as a
consequence?

The answer is quite easy. Even in our most inspired
moments, when Vision sears our eyes and passions runs like
fire in our veins, when our Understanding gains its greatest
illumination, we remain creatures of habit. Our brain

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immediately tries to put the blinkers back on when he moment
of intensity has passed and we must ever struggle to pluck
them off again. It also seeks to calcify our inspired insights,
setting them in stone, establishing a new orthodoxy. The
Apep Workings warned against this tendency even at these
stages: "And those of you who Understand the Mystery of
Remanifestation shall also secretly build siege engines within
your mind against that day when this new creation too will
become tired and need tearing down. "

The skin that must be shed now is the sense of
certainty, the belief that we know everything. Any Initiate
who reaches this level is going to know fully well that he
actually knows next to nothing and that the universe is
immeasurably vaster than he once conceived it could possibly
be. But the brain will still try to erect barriers of certainty
that will prevent us from constantly viewing the world with
fresh eyes. This is the biggest obstacle at this initiatory stage.

We must also be vigilant that forgetfulness does not
creep in and erode what we have already learned. Take time
every week to reread some part of your magical records,
refreshing your memory. Go back and practice some of the
exercises from the earlier heads anew. Refresh your memory
and in doing so, refresh your Self.

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CHAPTER EIGHT

THE WORK OF THE SIXTH HEAD

With the sixth head, we reach an interesting and exciting
milestone, since the fifth head is the last one I can personally
claim to have mastered yet. I am still exploring the
philosophy and practice of the sixth head in my own Work at
the time of writing this.

This will not come as a surprise when the nature of
that Work is understood. Nor is it an obstacle to the writing
of the next two chapters. Anyone who has accomplished the
Work of the fourth head and has succeeded in seeing through
the Eye of the Serpent will already know in their own soul
what Work remains to be done. They will also have realised
that no matter how long they live, they will never accomplish
that Work within this lifespan. From the fourth head
onwards, all Work involves the establishment of matrices for
future Remanifestation and the temporal Work of the sixth
head contributes a great deal to that Understanding.

This does mean that the next two chapters are
suggestive and speculative and that there is huge scope for
future development and elaboration upon the ideas and

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exercises suggested herein. The Vision cannot be faulted,
however.

So let us proceed with an investigation of the
symbolism of this sixth head: the Rebellious Giant.
Rebellion is a key component of Left-Hand Path philosophy
and methodology, so why is it so highlighted at this particular
stage? The answer lies in the fact that it is a Giant who is
rebellious.

We are looking now at an Initiate whose Essence has
outgrown the constricting power of the cosmos. He has
become larger than the Universe in which he is manifest. The
first inkling of this state of being occurs in the fourth head,
when the Initiate sees through the Eye of the Serpent; in other
words, when he is able to look in from a position outside of
space / time. From that moment, when his consciousness first
realises experientially that it is larger than the manifest
universe, his being will strive in that direction.

This does not imply that the Initiate wishes to depart
from the universe and leave it behind; quite the contrary, in
fact. But it does mean that he is no longer willing to play the
game by its rules. He will no longer identify himself with the
manifest universe, nor consider himself subject to its laws.
He is thus both a giant and a rebel.

It will come as no surprise, then, that the work of the
sixth head revolves around freeing oneself from the bonds of
time and space, extending the psyche to travel in directions
unbound by the laws of physics.

Far-Seeing

Our first task is to extend the powers of clairvoyance that
were developed under the third head. It is no longer sufficient

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to see through the eyes of those you are familiar and
comfortable with in the next room. It is now vital to cultivate
the ability to stretch forth the mind and see through the eyes
of everybody, everywhere. We must see through many eyes
in many places if we are to keep our perspective on the major
events and patterns taking shape around us. If I want to know
what is happening in a remote region of Siberia, I must
develop the ability to extend my perceptions until I can see
that region clearly.

In order to provide an anchor for such visions, it is
imperative to obtain a good knowledge of current affairs,
history and geography. These are the links that the mind can
use to latch onto as it reaches out. There is no point even
trying to clairvoyantly see Easter Island unless you know
where it is located, how large it is, what shape it is, what the
climate is like, and so forth. With enough information, the
mind can make the connection; if uninformed, all that remains
to it is fantasy.

So the actual clairvoyant exercises remain much as
before. But the work that accompanies them is one of
research and fact-finding. These are disciplines which many
occultists, alas, like to shirk.

The Doppelganger

The next obvious step, having acquired a degree of facility
with clairvoyance at a distance, is to project the astral image
of yourself so powerfully that you can actually be perceived
by people in the place you are viewing.

This phenomenon of bi-location has been well-
reported over the centuries. The phantasm is often seen only
as a passing glimpse and then is gone, but the magician

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should not be satisfied until he is able to project his image
powerfully enough that a witness in a distant place can
confirm having seen him there.

The natural next step of this ability is to manifest the
image so strongly that it can manipulate objects at the point of
projection.

The Initiate should practice in this area and establish
a system of checks to confirm his progress.

Dimensional Doorways

The ultimate extension of these powers of spatial relocation is
to literally step out of reality at one point and re-enter it at
another. Before anyone asks, no, I have not personally
achieved this, nor do I know anyone who has. The fact
remains that it is something to aspire to and to work towards.

There are many tales of people who have found
themselves suddenly in a different place without crossing the
intervening space. I have a model within my own mind as to
how this might be done, but since I have not yet achieved it, it
remains hypothetical and incomplete and is thus not ready for
sharing. Nevertheless, this is a question which should occupy
the attention of those who approach the Work of the sixth
head.

Prior to achieving such a feat yourself, it occurs to me
that it might be easier to transport a small item from one place
to another instantly by mind power alone. Such items are
termed 'apports' and this is something I have experienced on a
couple of occasions. Maddeningly, I have not yet isolated the
'trigger' that would make such an experiment repeatable at
will. Nor have I witnessed the actual apport with my eyes.
The object has moved when my attention was elsewhere.

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This suggests that such a 'letting go' may be necessary to the
phenomenon.

Levitation - whether of oneself or of other objects -
is also a useful side practice which may be attempted in
preparation for this feat. Again, the phenomenon is well
documented, but I have only one experience of it and the
circumstances at the time were rather unique.

Invisibility

The act of making oneself invisible is a power often
associated with magicians. We are not necessarily talking
about the alteration of the properties of matter or light here,
but the ability to walk through a place completely unnoticed,
not registering in peoples' perception. This I have
successfully accomplished many times.

We all have some experience of the kind of
phenomenon I am referring to here. Everyone has been in the
situation of searching for their keys or the ketchup bottle and
completely failing to see them when they are right before
their eyes the whole time. The magician seeks to duplicate
this 'blind spot' in the mind of any who would otherwise see
him.

Any Initiate who has progressed to this head will be
amply capable of devising a ritual to induce invisibility. The
aesthetics of the practice are up to you. The Golden Dawn's
ritual worked by building up an astral shroud of darkness to
conceal the magician. You might alternatively surround
yourself with visions of swirling fog; anything to obscure you
and befuddle the mind of beholders.

This practice is suggested here because it resonates
with the Work of the sixth head. But an understanding of it

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may also assist with the practice of bilocation, since
invisibility is the opposite pole of the same process. Whereas
bilocation seeks to project a visible phantasm of an
incorporeal nature, invisibility seeks to render the corporeal
body imperceptible.

Erotic Crystallisation Inertia

Erotic Crystallisation Inertia, hereafter E.C.I., was a term
coined by Anton LaVey to describe how certain key events
become locked within a person's mind and can be used to turn
the clock back to the time at which they happened.

The phrase refers specifically to those images and
circumstances which are imprinted in the brain when an
individual first experiences sexual awakening; those who
understand these keys can determine someone's fetishes and
'hot buttons' at a glance. For example, I went through puberty
when the Sex Pistols were at the peak of their notoriety in the
U.K., so any girl with a punky haircut and general appearance
is always going to instantly command my attention. That
image was hardwired into my brain by the changes my body
underwent at that time and will instantly retrigger that
response.

The phenomenon is not limited to the sexual, of
course. Marcel Proust and his A La Recherche Du Temps
Perdu is a good example, when a cake dipped in tea throws
his mind back to his childhood and he is able to relive an
associated memory in its fullness.

The use of E.C.I, as a device for transcending time is
reliant upon a very high degree of self-knowledge. We need
to know what triggers these memories and chart what time of
our lives the triggers send us back to. For example, I can still

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remember my first ever cup of coffee and by preparing coffee
in a certain way (not my usual way; this is a secret arcanum
reserved only for time travel magic) I can cast my mind back
to when I was nine years old in an extraordinarily vivid way.

The Initiate now finds a new list to begin in his trusty
diary: a record of those memories which constitute E.C.I.
keys and effectively transport his consciousness back in time.
The list of erotic triggers will be aided by the work we have
already done under the fifth head, codifying our desires and
fetishes. Now the Initiate can trace these back and discover
the earliest memories to which they are attached. Identify the
point at which these fetishes arose. You will have to be
diligent in order to capture the more general keys, however,
making note every time some sense impression or incident
triggers a vivid memory. Trace it back to its roots and write it
down.

Once you have your temporal keys in your
possession, you can begin to make use of them. A couple of
suggestions follow.

A Rite of Rejuvenation

The first purpose for which we will employ E.C.I, is to reach
back into our own past and in so doing short out the time
differential between then and now, allowing us to enjoy the
rejuvenating effects of exposure to our younger selves. The
purpose of this rite is to promote vitality and longevity.

The structure of the rite is entirely up to the Initiate.
It may be as formal or informal, scripted or freeform, as you
wish. But its main focus must be this: you need to select one
of the vivid memories discovered previously - either erotic or
otherwise, it doesn't matter, although a return to an erotic

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awakening might provide a useful emotional boost for your
first attempts - and evoke it by every means at your disposal.
The memory should be one that recalls a significantly more
youthful time.

The evocation of the memory is achieved by
surrounding yourself with sensory keys relating to it and
objects and props pertinent to the time. Anything
anachronistic to the memory must be removed from your area
of working.

For example, I began reading a series of novels after
receiving the first one as a present from my parents on my
ninth birthday in 1974. These books had a profound effect on
me for many years and still have pride of place on my shelves.
But I always remember that very first one and the
circumstances in which I received it. To handle it now
rekindles that sense of excitement and delight. The book was
read in its entirety on my birthday, largely while we were on a
family picnic on a beach. So to empower my rite, I might
gather general objects dating from 1974. I would prepare a
picnic with the same foodstuffs that we ate at that time. I
would go to the same beach to eat them, with the book in my
hand to peruse at the critical moment of transition. If
possible, I would go on my birthday. All of the elements
would then be in place.

After opening the rite and entering a state of
heightened sensitivity, the Initiate should use his keys to
unlock the memory, reinforcing it as much as he is able until
it is as vivid and real as his current circumstances. He then
projects himself back into the memory by an act of Will and
relives its every nuance as though he had transferred back in
time, but with his present insight and awareness in
attendance.

He then Wills (with an appropriate invocation if so

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desired) that he will retain the youthfulness and vitality that
he knew at this earlier stage of his life.

When the experience begins to fade, the Initiate
withdraws back to his contemporary time and place and
allows himself to resettle here. But he carries that youthful
energy with him. Regular practice of this rite (not necessarily
always to the same memory; several such E.C.I, focal points
may be used) should effectively rejuvenate the Initiate.

Rewriting History

The second use of E.C.I, is to use a similar technique to the
rejuvenation rite to project yourself back to an earlier point in
your life. But this time, select a memory that is tinged with
disappointment or a sense of failure. When you re-enter the
situation, reflect upon it with the benefit of the hindsight that
you now possess. There are two approaches to empowering
yourself here.

The first, and easiest, is to look forward from that
point in the past to the present day, reflecting upon all of the
opportunities and experiences you have won precisely
because of that day's disappointment. In this way, you
transform it into a triumph. "Yes, I was unhappy about how
that turned out, but it's only because of those circumstances
that I met X and went on to place Y to achieve objective Z..."

The second approach is to relive the events of that
day in your projection as vividly as you possibly can, but this
time, use your Will and imagination to change the course of
events. You must achieve this as fully and as fervently as you
possibly can, literally living it within the ritual. Then, when
you return to the present, live your life as if your success had
always been the case. This will empower you and change

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your world in ways that you may not be able to foresee, so be
careful what you wish to alter before proceeding.

E.C.I, thus becomes a very powerful weapon in the
magician's arsenal. We will be returning to it on a larger
scale before the end of this chapter.

The Vision of the Book

Here is a little meditation that I have found valuable. Initiates
working with the sixth head may find it useful in attaining a
suitable state of consciousness. Let me cast your minds back
to the following passage from the Apep Workings:

"To hold the book of your Being in your own hands, to flick
back and forth through the pages as you will, to edit and
amend.

"Close the book. Now what remains, when the very
idea of Space-Time can be set aside as casually as you lay a
book on a coffee table? "

Picture a book which is an account of all that you have
achieved in your life, all that has happened to you so far. It
contains not only a record of events, but an account of your
thoughts and feelings. It recounts not only what happened,
but what might have happened.

Now realise that the remaining pages of the book are
not blank. They contain every possible future that you might
experience, describing the choices before you and the
consequences of each. Your entire life - actual and potential,
past and future - is recorded in this book.

Now in your meditation close the book. You can hold
your whole life in your hand - and yet you still have a hand to

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hold it with, you still have a consciousness to read it with.
The real You - the You that you as an Initiate have been
cultivating - is larger than the life you now lead, unbound by
its limits, unconstrained by its rules. Let this realisation sink
in and change your perception for ever.

Freezing Time

We now come to the first practice that actually attempts to
step outside of the stream of time. For the record, no, I have
not yet accomplished this.

Begin by meditating upon the fact that despite what I
wrote in the previous paragraph, time is not a stream. It is not
something that simply flows from point a to point b. Like
space, time is not just a single dimension; it has dimensions of
its own and it is possible to pass backwards, forwards and
sideways within it if we open our minds to the possibility of
doing so. The Vision of the Book meditation should have
helped prepare you for this realisation.

Once you have practised your meditation a few times,
devise a rite in which you simply step out of the seeming
stream of time that we perceive from the standpoint of the
physical universe. In other words, make time stop for you.
The goal is to be able to freeze time at a given point and walk
around in a still, unmoving universe. By now, you should
find this easy to do on a mental level. But try to achieve it on
this plane.

Practical Time Travel

There are two approaches to the question of time travel, the

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first of which should be relatively easy to you at this stage,
the second less so.

The first method is an extension of the E.C.I, time
travel techniques we have already discussed and practised.
But now we are seeking to reach our powers of temporal
manipulation beyond our own memories, so that we can
explore the entirety of history and subtly tweak it where
necessary.

In this case, we cannot rely upon triggering our
memories, but our minds should now be sufficiently familiar
with the process that this direct personal link is no longer
absolutely necessary. Instead, we must intensify the props we
use to evoke a distant time and place. If you wish to visit
Egypt during the reign of Ramses II, you would spend days or
weeks intensively studying all that is known of that place and
era. You would assemble appropriate Egyptian memorabilia
and remove all anachronistic objects, plus those pertaining to
other cultures. You would then reach out with your mind,
travelling back to the desired time period. Find something to
anchor your mind to when you feel you have arrived and let
your perceptions build from there. You are then free to
explore and interact with the setting.

The second technique seeks to engineer an actual
timeslip, in which you find yourself physically translocated to
an earlier time period for a limited time, before slipping back
to now. This necessitates travelling to a place that is linked to
the period you wish to visit and Willing yourself to 'slip
through'.

It should be noted that certain places have a
reputation for time slips and apparitions. The Initiate should
choose his site carefully and investigate what makes some
places temporally unstable whilst others are not. Consider the
effects of the geometry of the landscape and the effects of

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weather. This is a complex field, but the Initiate's familiarity
with mental transference should enlighten him with regard to
some of the keys.

Colin Wilson's book Mysteries offers perhaps the best
all-round introduction to the time slip question and identifies
the types of place - battlefields, places with a long or bloody
history, standing stones and other monuments - which seem
to be most conducive to the effect. The book is a good
starting point for the Initiate's research.

Past Lives

The subject of immortality and Remanifestation has already
been covered, but the question of the possibility of past life
memories is inevitably raised when considering this head's
focus upon the mutability of time.

There is no concensus among the Initiates of the
Order of Apep on the question of reincarnation. There is no
'party line'. We all accept the Remanifestation of the Essence
of Self as a given, but some assume that this will be on a
plane beyond the physical, whilst others insist that man is in
his very core a physical being and will seek to reclothe
himself in flesh.

My personal feeling is that rebirth in the flesh can and
does occur. But I do not feel that it is by any means a given
certainty, nor that it happens in all cases. Moreover, as
discussed previously when looking at Celtic soul lore, I hold
that there are parts of man's being that exist in the Otherworld
even whilst we are incarnate. I have an inkling that my views
may be somewhat more complex than most people's.

Regardless of which, if any, of these opinions is true
- and the Initiate will by this stage be endowed with ample

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insight to make his own mind up - the fact remains that past
life memories do arise and that they can be relatively easily
accessed. The Initiate alone can determine which of the
following three categories these memories belong to: (1) pure
fantasy or wish fulfilment; (2) genuine memories extracted
from the Underworld which may once have belonged to any
number of people, but not necessarily the person who is now
accessing them; (3) genuine previous incarnations of the
Initiate's own Self. I feel that the first category should
(hopefully) be easy for any Initiate who has reached this stage
to recognise and dismiss and that the second category
accounts for the majority of 'genuine' memories, i.e. they are
not necessarily personal. But if we do indeed Remanifest in
the flesh, there must be some relating to category 3. The
following technique can be used to attempt to access them.

This method was set down by Aleister Crowley for
his students and can be found in his published writings, such
as Gems From the Equinox, under the title 'Liber ThIShARB'.
Basically, the Initiate strives to remember the events of the
day backwards. Not just occurring in reversed order, but
literally running in reverse like a film being played backwards
in a projector. Once this can be done easily, the time is
stretched back to a week, a month, a year, finally to birth, and
ultimately beyond. The Initiate tries to remember back far
enough to recall the death of his previous body, then
recapture the events of that life.

I have had success with this technique and have my
own opinions concerning the information I have recovered.

Trading Futures

All of our consideration so far has been given to the past. But

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is it possible to use these techniques to see into the future
also?

Don't forget that we have already dealt with this
concept in part when we referred to the Daemon as partly a
projection of your own future potential. By this stage most
successful Initiates will thus have personal experience of
receiving messages or impressions from possible futures, even
if they have not realised that this is what they have been
doing.

The difficulty here is that although the patterns of the
future are already laid and although the paths through that
future already exist in all of their branches, the actual path
that we will choose to tread remains indeterminate until we
place our foot upon it. Reading those patterns is a well
known practice of magicians, whether by using a divinatory
tool such as Runes, Oghams or Tarot; evoking a spirit with a
penchant for foreseeing the future and questioning it; or
invoking one's own Daemon for a similar purpose.

Is it possible to use E.C.I, techniques to reach into the
future and haul our psyches there as we did for the past? I
would hazard that yes, it is, though it is considerably more
difficult. After all, those memories have not yet been created,
they do not exist in your mind to be recalled. There are two
approaches that suggest themselves here. The first is to
earnestly reach forth to catch the echoes of some future
memory and use them to drag it into your consciousness; the
other is to surround yourself with the imagery of your greatest
Desire and stretch out your mind to find its resonance along
the paths ahead. I should not have to remind Initiates of this
level to treat all results thus obtained with due caution.

Is it possible to experience a time slip into the future?
I don't know. I offer this as food for thought and a subject for
experiment.

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Inner World Structure

This book is quite deliberately divorced from any particular
cultural traditions. I have attempted to set down the core
principles and practices of Apepian Initiation in a pure form,
stripped of accretions. The system presented here is fully
workable and complete as it stands.

However, this is an appropriate place to point out how
much richer and more stirring these principles become when
integrated into a specific cultural tradition. This particular
chapter concerning the Mysteries of time, space and multi-
dimensionality is much more rewarding when utilised
alongside a tried and tested cosmological model and the
concepts of time embraced by a given culture.

Imagine the experimentation with spatial dimensions
enriched by a thorough Understanding of the Sephiroth, Paths
and Worlds of the Qabalah. Or the temporal magics enriched
by an Understanding of the Norns. If you have not already
done so, now is a good time to find the tradition that most
suits you and practice it in the spirit of these Apepian
principles.

Now is as good a time as any to declare that I will be
following Apophis up with a companion volume which will
be entitled ALgishjalmur and which will take the principles of
this present book and explore them from the perspective of
Northern European mythology and magical tradition. This
should provide clear guidance for those who wish to adapt
Apepian Initiatory practice to any other tradition.

Shedding Skins III

Before we leave the Work of this head, it is important to cast

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our minds back again and ensure that our progress is not
being hampered by bad habits and accrued detritus.

What skin might the fifth head, the Raging Lion, be
throttling us with? What new prison may we have
constructed for ourselves that we now need to break free of?

We need to test the integrity of our passions. Desire
is the basic driving force of the Draconian magician and we
need to keep it pure. Which of your passions have turned
stale, but you are clinging onto them out of sheer habit or
because they are comfortable? A passion, by definition, is
never comfortable. If old attachments claw at you and hold
you back, shake them off. If you find yourself wearied by
things that once inspired you and are ever seeking to inject
some new sport into them, perverting the original Desire, be
done with it. Cast them loose and seek for something
altogether new.

Also, be careful that your tired eyes do not dismiss or
fail to recognise a searing new passion. Strive to be awake,
lively and lusty at all times.

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CHAPTER NINE

THE WORK OF THE SEVENTH HEAD

The seventh head of Apep is that of Typhon, the Angel of the
Fatal Wind. Typhon is a monster or devil often invoked in
Graeco-Egyptian magic and equated squarely with Set. In
other words, the Work of the seventh head is that process
which was referred to within the Temple of Set as
'Setamorphosis', the transformation of the Self into an entity
of comparable stature to the Lord of Darkness Himself.

The title of such an exalted being is announced as the
Red Magus in the pages of The Diabolicon. The Red Magus
is one whose consciousness no longer depends upon any force
other than its own Will for existence. It is greater than the
Universe. It has Become a God of consciousness, even as Set
is.

In terms of State of Being, there are many similarities
between the Red Magus and the initiatory degree of
Ipsissimus. Those who are able to grasp and Understand what
this degree means through the writings of Aleister Crowley,
Michael Aquino, James Lewis or Don Webb (i.e. those who
have actually attained the degree) will thus have an idea what

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it means to be a Red Magus.

However, there is one particular Task which
differentiates the Red Magus from the Ipsissimus. Upon
Becoming a Red Magus, the Initiate will destroy the
Universe. I'm not kidding.

I am not a Red Magus, nor am I an Ipsissimus. But I
am a Magister and I Understand what this phrase means and
how this Task is to be accomplished. It is a Secret that can be
related in words quite easily - all true magical Secrets can be,
no matter what the mystically minded may tell you. But I am
not going to explain it. This is because the discerning of the
Secret is a realisation of the summit of Initiation. To tell you
it would be the biggest spoiler ever. It might even prevent
you from attaining.

The meaning will be obvious to anyone who
approaches the seventh head. Indeed, it will inevitably dawn
in the minds of all who master the fourth head and see
through the Eye. So if you are diligent in your Work, then
you needn't worry about not being told it. I'll happily discuss
it with those who can tell me what it is.

Aleister Crowley wrote of this in The Book of the
Law: "my left hand is empty, for I have crushed an Universe;
& nought remains." The Left-Hand Path leads to the
Wordless Mon Zain. We return here to the fundamental
distinction between the Left-Hand Path and the Right-Hand
Path: the Right-Hand Path annihilates the Self, but the Left-
Hand Path annihilates the Universe.

I have previously mentioned the deadly trap for the
unwary who rush through the motions of initiatory practice
but do not allow time for it to fully fructify within them,
illumining their consciousness. It is an irresistible temptation
for magicians to lust after degrees, charging through the
ranks, without allowing the cement to dry. If you do so, you

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will fall flat on your face when you reach the seventh head.

You may well think you Understand the metaphor of
annihilating the Universe and believe it to be obvious. Yes,
by this stage it should be. And if you have realised it and
have not paused to consider the next step, then you are in
grave danger of triggering the trap I have spoken of. I am
willing to discuss this trap and to speak of it to aspirants of
the seventh head who have worked out for themselves how to
destroy the Universe and "behold only Leviathan". Contact
me in such a case.

In the meantime, if you want a further clue, go back
and reread the Apep Workings. The clues are all there in
plain text. Indeed, the clues are plainly stated throughout this
entire book. They're everywhere you look and present in
every thought that passes through your consciousness.

These thoughts - whether they are recognised for
what they are or not - are the Fatal Wind, the wind that brings
inevitable change, that topples the towers of the pious and
holy and impales the human race on the horns of its
existential dilemma. With the rising of this head, you are
become the Angel - the Divine messenger - who breathes
forth that Wind and uses it to fan the Black Flame of
consciousness.

It is said of the Red Magus that he shall "behold only
Leviathan", that Leviathan is the Absolute and that when he
perceives it, his End has been attained. This is another riddle
easily solved by words, but best solved by experience.

We close with a radiant Initiate, an ascendant God,
who is that seven-headed Dragon, the fourth head blazing in
His midst, the other heads all upraised around it. May you
Become such.

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*T» *t» *T* *T* *T* *T*

77*e Method of Becoming is.
TINAMIWYAN

■I' ***' *** *i ' ■* ■" ***' ■*'*■
*T» *T» *T» *T* *T» *T* *T*

The Word ofApep is:

?

"ButApep Spoke Not ... For Who Knows the mind of a

Serpent. "

«1» «1» «1» -J* «!• «1» «1»

*T» *T» *T» *T* *T* *T* *T*

^4 C/i/e, smce I'm kind-hearted:
The second clause of the above statement concerning the

Word' is
intentionally a statement and not a question.

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APOPHIS

FURTHER READING

This closing section of the book is a selection from the Order
of Apep's extensive annotated Reading List. It is by no means
exhaustive, new titles are being added all the time and old
ones may occasionally fall into disfavour.

I have selected only those titles which are helpful to
the development of the general magical principles introduced
in Apophis and have omitted the more specialised categories
until they may be required in future volumes. For instance,
most of the titles concerning Rune Magic and Enochian
Magic are not listed here, though the former will be central to
JEgishjdlmur and will be included in that volume of the
Apepian library when it follows this present one.

I have also not referenced publications which are not
available outside of a particular organisation. For instance,
The Jewelled Tablets of Set are of supreme value, but they
cannot be obtained outside of the Temple of Set. Where such
documents (for example, The Book of Coming Forth by Night
and The Diabolicon) have been directly addressed in the text,
the fact has been noted at the time. Initiates wishing to read
these publications are encouraged to apply to join the Temple
of Set.

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After considerable thought, I have decided to exclude
fictional works from this list also. The Order's Reading List
contains many works of fiction in which powerful magical
Keys are concealed. But this primary wr-text of the Order's
basic principles should address only books directly applicable
to the technical aspects of the initiatory Work herein, I feel.

In short, I have endeavoured to restrict this list to key
volumes only which directly impact upon the Work of the
seven heads. Further volumes will be listed in their
appropriate place as the corpus of Apepian publications
grows. Those wishing to Work more directly with the Order
of Apep in the meantime are invited to contact me by email -
manxbull@hotmail.com - for further details.

General Magical Textbooks

These are those books which tell you how to do magic. In
other words, they are all of the grimoire variety, whether
ancient or modern. All of the examples presented here are
either exclusively Left-Hand Path or else they can be used as
such. Most of them also have some specific relationship to
the themes of the Order and the Draconian tradition.

Uncle Setnakt's Essential Guide to the Left-Hand Path, by

Don Webb

Essential indeed. This is the single most
comprehensive yet concise guide to Left-Hand Path practice
that has yet seen print. It particularly emphasises the Left-
Hand Path as a way of life. Moreover, its 'Grand Initiation'
section is a potent curriculum which will reward the
practitioner of any level of ability, from beginner to
Ipsissimus. It is a curriculum well suited to open up new

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perspectives and insights suited to whatever stage the student
is at. A masterwork.

The Satanic Bible, by Anton Szandor LaVey

The Satanic Bible wins by concentrating first and
foremost upon the flesh, the source and root of all magic.
Moreover, the sheer poetry of the book is intoxicating, written
in a lyrical, sweeping style. The invocations are emotive and
stirring and the condensed, pragmatic approach to practical
magic was a landmark breakthrough. Still worth its weight in
gold.

The Collected Works of Austin Osman Spare

Spare was one of the great magical innovators, an
artist and visionary whose works are entirely self-made,
dependent upon no pre-existing school or methodology. His
techniques of sigillisation, automatic drawing and atavistic
resurgence are invaluable magical tools for those who don't
mind flying by the seat of their pants. His prose is tortuous,
but his ideas merit the effort spent to extract them.

Pacts With the Devil, by S. Jason Black & Christopher S.
Hyatt

This is a marvelous updating of the grimoire
traditions, presenting a modern, pragmatic grimoire of
demonology with a luscious, sex-magical flavouring, all
peppered with those personal anecdotes which I love so well.
A superb book for those who love that old demonic flavour.
Moreover, the important magical tool of the formal Pact is
introduced and explored in some detail. There are some great
hints for further Work here for the postmodern Faustian.

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Aleister Crowley's Illustrated Goetia, by Lon Milo DuQuette,
Christopher S. Hyatt & David P. Wilson

More of the same from the same school. In this book,
Crowley's edition of the Goetia is reprinted in full, alongside
full page portraits of the 72 spirits. The Goetia is probably
the most useful of the old grimoires, since it presents a
coherent and comprehensive catalogue of spirits, representing
a full spectrum of psychological / demonic forces, all
arranged according to a traditional astrological scheme.
Indeed, this is the system on which I cut my own magical
teeth. The book is rounded out by personal observations and
anecdotes by the authors / editors.

Liber Null & Psychonaut, by Peter J. Carroll

The first of Carroll's works on Chaos Magic, this
double title is a must-have. Much of the Chaos approach is
very pertinent to the Left-Hand Path, or is certainly thus
adaptable, and the book is pragmatic and operative in tone.
Many of the exercises offered in the Liber MMM section are
complementary with the practices of the first three heads of
Apophis and the Apepian Initiate will find a lot of worth here.

Liber Kaos, by Peter J. Carroll

Carroll's second work offers an expansion of his
magical theories and a pragmatic codification of magical
practice which is always interesting and may be particularly
helpful / useful to some. But of great significance are his
musings on Spacetime and I would ask all Initiates of the
Order of Apep to study these ideas carefully and consider the
theoretical ramifications for (a) Remanifestation and (b) time
travel magic.

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Psybermagick, by Peter J. Carroll

Carroll's third offering is basically his version of
Crowley's Book of Lies. In it, he offers a series of practices,
theorems, heresies and curricula designed to challenge mind,
body and soul. The tone is very Left-Hand Path in the
overthrowing of orthodoxies and the challenging of the new
orthodoxies which then arise to replace those which were
overthrown. It makes for uncomfortable, exciting reading and
is a book which will kick your arse out of your seat and force
you to think.

The Seven Faces of Darkness, by Don Webb

The High Priest Emeritus of Set presents a large
collection of spells and magical Workings taken from the
Graeco-Egyptian magical papyri, along with erudite
explanations of their background, purpose and underlying
philosophy. Naturally, Set figures very large and so do
several of the serpent deities of Egypt.

Visual Magick, by Jan Fries

This book offers a fresh perspective on the magical
use of art. In many ways, it is a representation of the Work of
Austin Osman Spare, but it goes beyond that. Fries is
obviously someone who has not only used these techniques
but has developed them and taken them down new avenues,
so that this work is fresh and original and positively inspiring.
This book offers keys which will assist in the task of
awakening the inner serpent.

Seidways, by Jan Fries

In this book, Fries deals specifically with the Serpent
Mysteries and with the magical trance which embodies those
Mysteries. Drawing particularly upon the Teutonic and Celtic

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lore of Europe, Fries offers techniques to grip the body in a
'seething' or 'shaking' trance state of shamanic ecstasy. This
book is highly recommended as a practical manual for the
Order Initiate. Moreover, all of Fries' works are very well
written and a positive pleasure to read.

General Magical Philosophy

These titles are intended to provide specific information
concerning the philosophical and theoretical background to
Left-Hand Path magical Work.

Lords of the Left-Hand Path, by Stephen E. Flowers

The subtitle, "A History of Spiritual Dissent", says it
all about this important book, which investigates the different
cultural manifestations of the Left-Hand Path throughout
history and up to the present day. Key individuals and
organisations are placed under the microscope and their
teachings analysed. An invaluable study.

Mysteries of the Temple of Set, by Don Webb

This book presents Setian philosophy through the
collected notes and writings of Don Webb during the period
he served as the Temple's High Priest. It provides a lot of
guidance and stability for those travelling the Left-Hand Path.

Flowers From Hell, ed. Nikolas Schreck

A collection of short stories and extracts from longer
works exploring the role of the Devil in literature. Literary
representation of the Lord of Darkness allows use of a more
evocative, poetic language than is usually entertained in a dry
occult tome. This is a book about atmosphere, ideas and

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imagination, about the freedom of the rebellious spirit. Some
of the collected items are inspiring, others are amusing, all are
fascinating and spin a powerful enchantment upon the reader.
The introduction is worth the cover price by itself.

Of specific interest to the Order of Apep, the closing
item in the collection is the first publication of The
Diabolicon outside of the Temple of Set, the closing section
of which is the 'Statement of Leviathan', upon which the
Order of Leviathan - and ultimately the Order of Apep - was
founded.

The History of the Devil, by Paul Cams

A wonderful and well written overview of the Powers
of Darkness throughout history and the manifestations of the
Devil in a variety of cultural milieux. The book is heavily
illustrated and articulate and is a classic of magical and
religious history. The old Serpent is well represented herein.

The Satanic Screen, by Nikolas Schreck

This book is much, much more than a mere
compendium of film reviews. It actively discusses and
analyses the manifestations of the Sinister in the visual
medium, from the time of magic lantern shows all the way up
to the majesty of The Ninth Gate. Schreck traces not only the
cinematic representations, but also compares these with the
events shaping the occult world at the times the movies were
made. Many of the hidden influences are laid bare. Highly
recommended and not just for film buffs.

Chaotopia! , by Dave Lee

A postmodern grimoire that discusses magic in
straightforward yet imaginative terms. Opens the eyes to
many possibilities.

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Timedragons, by Dave Lee (Compact Disc)

Dave Lee here offers an audio CD which represents
an Initiated interpretation of the Dragon Gnosis. As he
describes it, the recording offers "poems, pathworkings and
pataphysical patter". Some of the contents are directly
magically interesting and illuminating, others are inspiring,
others are very funny indeed. All are worthy of your time.
Of particular interest to the Order of Apep are the tracks
entitled Timesnake', 'Celestial Dragon' and the awesome
Enochian invocation of the Draconian current, 'Capimao
Vovim'.

The Occult and Mysteries, by Colin Wilson

These two hefty volumes are probably the best
overview of occultism and psychic phenomena available.
Wilson's writing is clear and engaging and he covers an awful
lot of ground. Mysteries is especially recommended for its
investigation of 'the ladder of selves' and the nature of time.

Sex Magic

One identifying mark of the Left-Hand Path is its sexuality.
Unlike the Right-Hand Path, it is a magic which does not seek
to eliminate Desire, but uses that Desire as a positive driving
force in its own service. The interplay of sex and magic is at
heart a very dynamic and obvious thing.

Demons of the Flesh, by Nikolas & Zeena Schreck

This book is the be-all and end-all of sex magical
instruction. The pages are large and the print is small and
there is a surprisingly huge amount of information packed in
here. The book offers an overview of sex magical traditions

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eastern and western and is lavishly illustrated. The Apepian
Initiate will find very much of value in these pages.

TABOO: "The Ecstasy of Evil", by Christopher S. Hyatt,
Lon Milo DuQuette & Gary Ford

A marvelous little tome about sexuality, magic and
the breaking of boundaries. The book is written in the
familiar, easy style of Hyatt and DuQuette, with many
anecdotes from personal experience peppering the text and
serving to anchor the philosophical observations in real life.
Absolutely excellent.

Carnal Alchemy, by Crystal Dawn & Stephen Flowers

This book is devoted entirely to Self- trans formation
through sado-masochistic sexual practices. The book is
aimed squarely at those who already know their magical ropes
- there are no formulaic rituals herein other than the setting of
the scene for the transformational Work. It concentrates upon
practical and sane advice in a difficult and contentious arena.
I recommend this book even to those who have no interest in
sexually charged pain as a magical tool: the book is still
extremely valuable as a lesson in magical application and
preparation and establishes the flesh and nervous system as
one of our most important magical tools.

Sex in History, by Reay Tannahill

A comprehensive overview of the historical, religious
and cultural attitudes to sex makes this book a valuable
contextual reference work for all those working within the
Left-Hand Path.

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Aleister Crowley

The writings of the Great Beast cannot be ignored. Crowley
often vacillates between Left-Hand Path practice and Right-
Hand Path preachiness, wobbling on the fence, but his were
the steps of a giant. He was the first to set out to codify
magic in a pragmatic way. A firm basis in Crowley's writing
is essential before you stand the remotest chance of
understanding what Kenneth Grant is going on about in his
Left-Hand Path writings. Crowley will school you in the
discipline of magic in a way that most other authors will not.

The Confessions of Aleister Crowley, ed. John Symonds &
Kenneth Grant

Crowley by Crowley. This autohagiography is the
only means to truly get inside the Beast's head and see what
made him tick. It is a fascinating and humorous account of
his career and he is a born storyteller. You will learn much
about his magical system by examining the other areas of his
life closely, such as his mountaineering exploits and extensive
travel. For those who desire to witness magic being lived
instead of confined to the ritual chamber, this book is a must.

Magick, by Aleister Crowley

Here in his magnum opus Crowley details his entire
magical system in painstaking detail. Much of this is an
overcomplicated spaghetti junction of Qabalistic
correspondences, but it totally broke the mould at the time in
which Crowley operated. Many of the A.'.A.'. documents are
reprinted as appendices, including the basic instructional
pamphlets which guide beginners in magic and yoga
practices. These practices can be used to nicely supplement
the Work of the first three heads of Apep. The book is

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therefore of immediate practical value as well as historical
interest.

The Holy Books ofThelema, by Aleister Crowley

These texts form the religious core of Crowley's
system. The sexual symbolism and mystical tenor of these
'Holy Books' often tend toward the Left-Hand Path.

The Book of Lies, by Aleister Crowley

This book contains Crowley's instructions to those
who aspire to the grade of Magister Templi. As such, he
seeks to convey truths which cannot be expressed in rational
terms alone since they transcend ordinary consciousness.
Therefore, the essays and commentaries thereon often
incorporate riddles and multiple plays on words, which may
hopefully lead to a gnostic apprehension of the Truth
underlying the sayings. The contents are variable, but make
interesting puzzles and thought experiments and are excellent
preparation for the higher heads of Apep.

Gems From the Equinox, ed. Israel Regardie

As the title implies, this thick volume contains the
best material collected from Crowley's periodical, The
Equinox. Regardie has collected together all of the magical
papers, plus much of the supplementary material and
republished it in this single volume. As with Magick above,
many of the instructional items make excellent supplementary
exercises to expand the Work of the first three heads of Apep.

Aleister Crowley: The Fire and the Force, by Don Webb

This book evaluates Crowley's Work through a Setian
lens and masterfully reconciles his writings with a Left-Hand
Path viewpoint. The other titles in this section will gain much

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in meaning after reading this work.

Kenneth Grant

Of all Crowley's students, Kenneth Grant is the one who has
really taken the ball and run with it, taking Crowleyan Magick
into areas that the old Beast never imagined. Grant is
unequivocally Left-Hand Path, he wears his colours proudly
on his sleeve and he knows exactly what that Path entails. He
champions a type of Thelemic sex magic, with a very strong
focus upon Set. Grant needs to be read with caution, some of
his historical and mythological data is shaky and he mixes
fiction easily with fact (this is not meant as a criticism, by the
way; Grant understands how the imagination works, but his
easy blending may catch readers unawares). It is the
responsibility of the reader to check his own facts rather than
be spoon fed. But the core of his teaching is absolutely sound
and much of it is not to be found elsewhere. Be warned that
Grant is utterly incomprehensible if you are not well steeped
in Crowley.

The Magical Revival, by Kenneth Grant

In his first book, Grant recounts the details of the
occult revival of the Twentieth Century, spotlighting such
individuals as Crowley and Spare in particular, both of whom
he knew personally. He then traces the roots of this revival
back to the Draconian traditions of Sumer, Africa and Egypt
and the magical technologies of Left-Hand Path sex magic.
Grant was the first to champion Set as the role model of the
contemporary Left-Hand Path. The Setian and Draconian
emphasis make this essential reading.

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Aleister Crowley and the Hidden God, by Kenneth Grant

The hidden god of the title is Aiwass, who
communicated The Book of the Law to Crowley, but Grant
expands this to embrace the efforts of all magicians to
communicate with non-human intelligences in like manner.
The book is a Left-Hand Path slant on the two major
initiatory stages of the AAA.', system: the Knowledge and
Conversation of the Holy Guardian Angel and the Ordeal of
the Abyss. Grant postulates some interesting new
interpretations of the Archdemon Choronzon, which bear
greater fruit in later books.

Cults of the Shadow, by Kenneth Grant

The emphasis in this book is heavily upon sex
magical techniques and dream control, with the awakening of
the Kundalini force. The techniques are traced back to Africa
and Egypt. Grant's interest in Lovecraft's Cthulhu Mythos
sees its first stirrings in this title. Spare's Zos-Kia philosophy
is brought under scrutiny, as are the ideas of Michael Bertiaux
and the Cult of the Black Snake.

Nightside of Eden, by Kenneth Grant

This is the most practical and operative of Grant's
Typhonian series, but it is still only for those who've already
cut their magical teeth and know how to use the tools offered.
It posits a flip side to the Qabalah, a 'Universe B' of the
Unmanifest, accessed through the gates of the Abyss and the
false Sephirah Daath. The emphasis is heavily upon the
Feminine Daemonic who reigns beyond the manifest universe
and whose realm can be visited through the sexual rites of the
Left-Hand Path. Each of the 22 paths of the averse Qabalah
are investigated, along with the Orders of the Qliphoth first
codified and sigillised by Crowley in his Holy Books.

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Outside the Circles of Time, by Kenneth Grant

As the title would suggest, this book is of immense
interest to me as it deals with temporal anomalies, time travel
and timeless states of being. It should be very carefully
studied by all Initiates interested in such things. It also paints
a picture of Maat quite at odds with the usual representation.
Here she is portrayed not as a weak character always
championing the middle road and sitting in moral judgement,
but rather as a dynamic queen who straddles the cosmos and
finds balance by reaching out towards both extremes at once
instead of vacillating in the centre.

Hecate's Fountain, by Kenneth Grant

Grant continues in a Lovecraftian vein, introducing
the 'Mauve Zone' to his magical model, a kind of 'in between'
state which is neither dreaming nor waking, but which caused
unusual effects and unexpected results in the Workings of his
New Isis Lodge, something which Grant terms 'tangential
tantra'. Interesting speculations into non-human dimensions
only serve to highlight the main thrust of Grant's work, which
is the use of sex magical techniques to make contact with the
intelligences inhabiting these realms. As I said, all very
Lovecraftian.

Outer Gateways, by Kenneth Grant

Grant continues to develop his Left-Hand Path
blending of Crowley and Lovecraft, also bringing UFO
phenomena into the picture. But the highlight of this book is
The Wisdom of S'lba, a beautiful and eerie inspired text
received through the Workings of New Isis Lodge.

Beyond the Mauve Zone, by Kenneth Grant

Grant returns to detailed examination of the 'Mauve

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Zone', that weird dimension which is tangential to both space
and no-space, but is somewhere 'other'. He investigates the
sexual magical techniques which are the means to opening the
gateways to this realm. Once again, dear old Howard Phillips
is prominent in his speculations, but he also examines the
work of Aleister Crowley and Austin Osman Spare and the
more recent ideas of Michael Bertiaux, Margaret Ingalls,
Jeffrey and Ruth Evans and Zivorad Mihajlovic. These
practical magical technologies are applied to a broad and
sweeping multi-dimensional vision.

The Ninth Arch, by Kenneth Grant

This is the final volume of Grant's trilogy of
Typhonian Trilogies. This ninth book is by far the heftiest of
the series, running to over 600 pages. It foregoes the usual
general discussion and is instead a publication of The Book of
the Spider (OKBISh), a book which is the result of a lengthy
series of magical Workings by New Isis Lodge, plus an
extensive commentary upon the same. The book is
charmingly madcap in places, but is nevertheless haunting,
inspiring and meaningful. I have discovered some Secrets
here which I have found nowhere else.

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