Becoming Invincible
The purpose of life is to familiarize oneself with this after-death body
so that the act of dying will not create confusion in the psyche.
terence mckenna
Properly used, magic will destroy your life. This is a feature, not a bug. Ever since modern humans first emerged into full consciousness those who worked with spirit, be they shamans or witches or magicians, moved into their tribal function only after some kind of Otherworld trauma experience. Some event has to occur that provides the magician with a lasting, visceral, unshakable knowing that the universe extends beyond what can be physically observed.
Pragmatically, I do not much care what that event is. The very fact that you are reading this book suggests you may have already had one: a UFO encounter, a poltergeist attack, a near death experience (NDE), a profound visit from a deceased relative. Really any event beyond common consciousness effects such as sibling telepathy will do. As you can see from the above list, they do not even need to be pleasant. If you feel the need to spend the night in an abandoned mental hospital with nothing but a Ouija board for company, go right ahead. For most of human history, shamanic initiations were—and still are—hugely traumatic. If you have been abducted by aliens or Discovery Channel has made a programme about ghosts in your house, then you can probably skip this chapter. Otherwise, read on.
“True” Initiation: Becoming Invincible
You are certainly free to join whatever nineteenth-century swingers club masquerading as a magical order you like, but do it on your own time. The purpose of this chapter is to provide options for “true” initiation, or what we otherwise might call becoming invincible. Why?
There is no greater defence against the grim, uncompromising wasteland of the late capitalist world than the unshakeable awareness that it will end and you will not. One of the most popular posts on my blog, Rune Soup, is called “There is the Rescue Mission and the Salvage Mission.” Just as our Palaeolithic ancestors had to head out onto the ice or into the sea in tiny boats regardless of the weather, there is something simply and profoundly stabilising in knowing that you are so much more than your circumstances or your job that makes getting up at 5 am to go do some telemarketing a little bit more bearable. Becoming invincible is the process of immunising yourself against the monoculture. Your world becomes permanently bigger … so big that the shrill howlings of marketers and politicians get so faint that you can barely hear them, let alone believe them.
From a mythological perspective, becoming invincible begins with the inciting incident. Viewed in this context, an initiation ritual does not actually initiate you but rather triggers the process of initiation. It is the act of dialling the universe, not the moment when the universe actually picks up. You cannot simply draw a bath, light a few scented candles, and declare yourself a witch. Take your bath, but you are only a witch after the demons have come calling, which they most certainly will.
The Fastest Route
It’s best to not sugarcoat this: the most effective route to becoming invincible is to take a high dose of psychedelics in a suitable ritual environment. And I do not mean most effective for you, because I don’t even know you. I mean most effective overall. This was mankind’s initiatory method of choice for at least thirty thousand years. Added together, all nonpsychedelic methods of shamanic initiation represent a small fraction of the whole. The so-called Palaeolithic Renaissance may represent the largest, longest psychological experiment mankind has ever performed, lasting ten millennia.
The last twenty or so years of archaeology are finally beginning to overturn the Victorian prudishness that has prevented us seeing these substances make the jump from hunter-gatherers to settled societies. Indeed, it appears humans first grew einkorn wheat to turn into beer rather than bread, and viticulture appears to predate agriculture. It is our thoroughly modern view of the past that obscures this reality. We think of marijuana or opium as “drugs” and leeks or carrots as “vegetables,” but the classical world saw them all as plants. Some you ate, some stopped stomach cramps, some relieved pain. Their view of the plant kingdom was much broader with a greater range of outcomes that could be achieved in their dealings with it. We have missed this entirely. Consider the opinion of Dr. D. C. A. Hillman in The Chemical Muse.
Imagine how our views of the past would change if we knew that Plato enjoyed using psychedelics as a devotee of certain mystery religions, or that Alexander drank opium at his rowdy banquets, or that Julius Caesar smoked weed while preparing to cross the Rubicon …
[F]ew academicians would even consider the possibility that the collected thoughts of the Classical world had been heavily influenced by the use of psychotropics. Despite innumerable references in the literature to plants containing mind-altering chemicals, despite precise descriptions in the same works of the effects of psychotropic substances on humans, and despite the documented use of narcotics in Classical medicine, modern scholars of all strains are culturally united by their unwillingness to admit that drugs had a significant impact on the evolution of Western literature.37
It was only in the decades immediately following World War II that it became legally problematic to do so, as the molecules became the subject of large-scale human testing by intelligence networks, their assets (including counterculture heroes Timothy Leary and Andrijah Puharich) and also became a cornerstone source of black project funding.
Magical publishing in the last thirty years has been significantly hamstrung by the way psychedelics have been used as geopolitical footballs. As an author, I cannot legally advocate a reader break any laws, and publishers can, in theory, be held liable for damages arising from actions taken as described in their books. This state of affairs has detached a generation of magical seekers from their palaeolithic birthright.
Fortunately, the drug laws of the western world are slowly returning to sanity over the protests of a pharma industry that would much rather sell you five years of antidepressants than have you cure yourself with a mushroom. So I can legally suggest you investigate an ayahuasca retreat in the Amazon conducted by a responsible local shaman. And I can legally suggest you consider a Santo Daime church experience or a psychedelic drumming circle outside Amsterdam. You can even visit one of the growing number of states that have legalised marijuana and spend a supervised evening camping out in the woods, intoning a mantra of your choice.
Too often I hear that such a solution is unaffordable. This is an opportunity cost error. What is more important than becoming invincible? You may otherwise take five years of dedicated magical practice to achieve an effect of comparable profundity. Think of what the initiated you could have achieved with those five years. When people say “unaffordable,” they mean “I don’t want to change a single thing about my life, but please can I be a wizard?” Sell your television, move in with friends or family, sell your car. To paraphrase Doc Brown, where you’re going, you won’t need roads.
The Second-Fastest Route
You may consider a self-initiation ritual to be a safer choice than a ritualised psychedelic experience. You would be wrong. Fallout from becoming invincible is impossible to predict. Even if you are in the snake- and piranha-infested Amazon, at least you are in the safe hands of an experienced shaman!
Boiled down to its essence, a self-initiation is a declaration to the universe that you have a seat at the table, that your Highest is united with your Lowest, and you expect the cosmic croupier to deal you in. It is a fundamentally radical act, a transgressive move. It runs counter to almost two thousand years of social, economic, and religious diktat. There is a lot to burn through, which is why you must persist in your transgression until the volume of High Strangeness in your life is so extreme that it cannot be interpreted as anything other than contact.
One of the most notorious, simple and widely used methods of triggering initiation is found in Paul Huson’s classic Mastering Witchcraft. In it, he suggests the aspirant light a candle just before bed for three successive nights and recite the Lord’s Prayer backwards. The speaker is required to visualise shackles being struck off his or her arms as the incantation is read. Such a seemingly simple approach belies its potent psychological
effect. Even those raised decidedly godless will still balk at such an inversion of cultural norms. It is a depatterning exercise par excellence.
Beyond depatterning, the violation of taboo or the transgression of cultural norms is an ancient and essential component of practical magic. In Laura Makarius’s seminal article “The Magic of Transgression” (1974), she points out that tribal taboos reflect cosmic limitations imposed by the spirit world. For instance, it may be forbidden to eat the flesh of a certain animal because it is involved with a creation story. To temporarily break a taboo is to unleash tremendous power because the sorcerer steps outside the rules or conditions governing the proper function of reality. Returning to Philip K. Dick’s metaphor of the black iron prison, transgressive magic temporarily bends these bars so that the witch may come and go as she pleases. Makarius explains further:
In magic based on the violation of taboo, the individual sees himself placed in a new relationship with regard to nature: instead of suggesting to natural forces what he expects of them, by relying on imitative acts, he wrests from them the power to coerce them into yielding to his wishes.38
As we have seen, the economics of our reality are constructed in a way that favours a tiny elite at our expense. That leaves us with two metaphysical choices. First, use sympathetic magic to imitate the tiny elite in the hopes that such an imitation will eventually stick, but this is a gamble of very long odds. Second, use transgressive magic to break the system of economic harvesting. You know which one I am going to suggest.
In the spirit of Paul Huson’s simple, transgressive trigger, below you will find a suggestion that more closely aligns with the economic challenges we currently face. The underlying function is identical.
The Headless Rite
The association between headlessness and the spirit world stretches back up to fifty thousand years. Burials have been discovered with the skulls of the dead smeared in red ochre or detached entirely. Decapitation is the most important component of the shaman’s metaphoric dismemberment. Symbolically this likely represents a shaman or witch having her head in another realm. It survives today in folklore across much of the planet. One need only think of John the Baptist, he who initiated Jesus Christ and brought God down to earth … a quintessentially shamanic act. His head was removed by the goddess (the Queen of Sheba) and has become one of the cornerstone treasures of western esotericism.
One of the more obvious continuities of African neolithic shamanism into dynastic Egypt is the story of Osiris. His is an archetypal shamanic role: dismembered and decapitated, hid in a tree to further emphasise his vegetative association, and then restored back to life through the magic of his sister/queen, to become the lord of the underworld—the home of the spirits—who also appears in the sky as the constellation Orion.
There is thus significant precedent for folding this imagery into an initiatory process. Fortunately for us all there is a ready-made, solo-rite version of this imagery hiding in plain sight of the western esoteric tradition. What is now known as The Preliminary Invocation or Bornless Rite was first translated from a collection of Greek Magical Papyri housed at the British Museum in 1852 and was subsequently discovered by magicians involved in the High Victorian renaissance—namely Samuel Mathers and Aleister Crowley. Despite some clumsy retranslation where the word “headless” was swapped out for the word “bornless” thanks largely to their penchant for playing fast and loose with Hebrew words when it suited them; the Hebrew resh can mean, among other things, “head” or “beginning,” but the original Greek, akephalos, is clearly “headless.”
Even with its transliteral damage, The Stele of Jeu—its other commonly known name—has still managed to accidentally trigger some of the most significant events in the last 125 years of Western magic. Crowley, for instance, performed it inside the Great Pyramid (which is probably a stone map of the Orion constellation on earth) during his honeymoon. He then performed it again when passing back through Egypt; both acts preceded the reception of the Book of the Law.
Dating in its current form to around the third century, the rite contains vivid elements of the Egyptian tradition—through the use of terms such as Osiris, Pharaoh (paphro in Greek) and general references to judgement and hating when unjust things happen—as well as the Hebraic tradition through the use of concepts such as Moses and Israel. We shall come onto this in later chapters, but it is during these centuries of extreme Hellenic hybridity that western magic begins to take on its recognised form. As a self-initiation rite, then, it ticks all the boxes.
Given that more august sorcerers than myself have messed around with it to great effect, I have provided a modification that includes the four kings of the grimoires. My reasoning behind this is, I think, sound. Directionality—specifically the honouring of directions—is another obvious continuation from Neolithic shamanism. Rather than simply opting for the more milquetoast option of “the four elements,” the four kings are a better match for the rite’s original spiritual goal. In conversation with the author Jake Stratton-Kent, the world’s foremost authority on Goetia, he suggested that the rite is designed to associate its performer with a very large and powerful spirit that has the requisite authority over lesser spirits. It orients the magician in a higher position relative to an ambivalent spirit world. There is much to recommend this interpretation, especially when one reads of Osiris as king of the spirits of the Land of the Dead in the Pyramid texts. Also, Moses is the typological “law giver.” His word—and thus the magician’s word—is the word of God.
If any of this sounds too much like bullying spirits, I recommend taking the ayahuasca/shamanism route mentioned at the top of this chapter instead. It may serve to re-frame your opinion away from cartoon fairies at the bottom of an Edwardian garden more toward the intense and occasionally unpleasant realities of extradimensional contact. The spirit world is certainly holy, but that does not mean it is nice. Shamanism, for instance, is better described as “wrangling and trading” with the spirit world than anything we might consider worship. Besides, these bombastic phrases are more for the magician’s benefit than the spirit’s. We announce ourselves loudly and then we make friends.
The secondary reason for suggesting this rite as a means to triggering initiation is that it is largely interoperable with whatever your resting belief system happens to be. All too often when reading a magic book, the author seems hell-bent on converting you to his or her belief system. I have no such inclination. The Headless Rite deals with spirits and the spirit world. These concepts are for all intents and purposes universal. You do not need to swap out any of your gods or festivals to work it. You could take yourself off to mass or a sabbat or Diwali immediately afterwards.
Perform once and then see what happens over the ensuing couple of days. Then perform several more times, randomly and/or as needed. The rite may trigger initiation, but it is not an initiation rite. Like an old friend, you can return to it whenever you feel like it.
Preparation: Headless Rite
AŌTH ABRAŌTH BASYM ISAK SABAŌTH IAŌ
The Headless Rite
Face north, touch your left temple and then your right temple with the parchment, and read aloud what is written on it six times:
AŌTH ABRAŌTH BASYM ISAK SABAŌTH IAŌ
AŌTH ABRAŌTH BASYM ISAK SABAŌTH IAŌ
AŌTH ABRAŌTH BASYM ISAK SABAŌTH IAŌ
AŌTH ABRAŌTH BASYM ISAK SABAŌTH IAŌ
AŌTH ABRAŌTH BASYM ISAK SABAŌTH IAŌ
AŌTH ABRAŌTH BASYM ISAK SABAŌTH IAŌ
Then say:
Subject to me all daimons, so that every daimon, whether heavenly or aerial or earthly or subterranean or terrestrial or aquatic, might be obedient to me and every enchantment and scourge which is
from God.
(Note: If you invest in a nice piece of parchment and put some effort into the writing, the first part of the Headless Rite can be used in any number of situations, and the parchment itself becomes something of an apotropaic charm.)
Move from facing north to facing the direction of Orion and continue.
I summon you, Headless One, who created earth and heaven, who created night and day, you who created the Light and the Darkness; you are Osoronnophris whom none has ever seen; you are Iabas; you are Iapos; you have distinguished the just from the unjust; you have made female and male; you have revealed seed and fruits; you have made men love each other and hate each other.
I am Moses your prophet to whom you have transmitted your mysteries celebrated by Israel; you have revealed the moist and the dry and all nourishment; hear me.
I am the messenger of Pharoah Osoronnophris; this is your true name which has been transmitted to the prophets of Israel. Hear me, ARBATHIAŌ REIBET ATHELEBERSĒTH ARA BLATHA ALBEU EBENPHCHI CHITASGOĒ IBAŌTH IA; subject to me all daimons, so that every daimon, whether heavenly or aerial or earthly or subterranean or terrestrial or aquatic, might be obedient to me and every enchantment and scourge which is from God.
I call upon you, awesome and invisible god with an empty spirit, AROGOGOROBRAŌ SOCHOU MODORIŌ PHALARCHAŌ OOO. Holy Headless One, deliver me from all restraining daimons and misfortune, ROUBRIAŌ MARI ŌDAM BAABNABAŌTH ASS ADŌNAI APHNIAŌ ITHŌLETH ABRASAX AĒŌŌY; mighty Headless One, deliver me from all restraining daimons and misfortune. MABARRAIŌ IOĒL KOTHA ATHORĒBALŌ ABRAŌTH, deliver me from all restraining daimons and misfortune, AŌTH ABRAŌTH BASYM ISAK SABAŌTH IAŌ.
He is the Lord of the Gods; he is the Lord of the Inhabited World; he is the one whom the winds fear; he is the one who made all things by command of his voice.
Lord, King, Master, Helper, I call upon you, IEOU PYR IOU IAŌT IAĒŌ IOOU ABRASAX SABRIAM OO YY EY OO YY ADŌNAIE, immediately, immediately, good messenger of God ANLALA LAI GAIA APA DIACHANNA CHORYN.
I am the Headless Daimon with sight in my feet; I am the mighty one who possesses the immortal fire; I am the truth who hates the fact that unjust deeds are done in the world; I am the one who makes the lightning flash and the thunder roll; I am the one whose sweat falls upon the earth as rain so that life can begin; I am the one whose mouth burns completely; I am the one who begets and destroys; I am the Favour of the Aion; my name is a Heart Encircled by a Serpent; Come Forth and Follow.39
At this point, move to face east and continue on with the invocation of the Four Kings. It is worth mentioning that you can effectively cut the performance into two completely separate standalone rituals at this juncture. I use a variant of the Four Kings ritual below as part of my regular offering practice (more on that in later chapters). If you have rum, pour out a quarter of it as you begin the invocation, otherwise take the joss stick or censer with you as you perambulate the directions.
I invoke the Four Kings of the four corners of the earth. Most noble and ancient spirits, be with me now.
O Eastern Oriens, most shining, most excellent King, who reigns over and commands the Eastern Regions, whose Kingdom began with the founding of the world and shall endure until the end of All Things. I conjure and invoke thee by the most high and holy Names of God, do thou here manifest, clothed with all thy power. Oriens, I conjure thee, by the virtue and power of the Creator, and by the virtue of virtues.
Turn around and face west. Pour out some rum. Continue.
O Thou Paymon, King most glorious, who holds powerful dominion in the Western Regions of the Heavens. I conjure and invoke thee by the most high and holy Names of God, do thou here manifest, clothed with all thy power. Paymons, I conjure thee, by the virtue and power of the Creator, and by the virtue of virtues.
Turn back to the north, pour some rum, and continue.
O Thou Ariton, King most strong, whose Mighty Empire reaches into the cold regions of the North. I conjure and invoke thee by the most high and holy Names of God, do thou here manifest, clothed with all thy power. Ariton, I conjure thee, by the virtue and power of the Creator, and by the virtue of virtues.
Face the south, pour the last of the rum, and continue.
O Thou Amaymon, King most noble, ruler of the southern realms. I conjure and invoke thee by the most high and holy Names of God, do thou here manifest, clothed with all thy power. Amaymon, I conjure thee, by the virtue and power of the Creator, and by the virtue of virtues.
Return to face the direction of Orion and finish.
I invoke you all with power and I pray to you with the authority of the One who spoke and who hath made all, and who, with one sole word gave birth to the world and whom all Creatures obey. By the Seat of his Majesty and by the great and august names of the Creator, most noble kings, I ask for your aid and blessing.
By the holy name of IAŌ SABAŌTH, whose virtue hath no beginning and will have no end. So be it.40
What Happens Next?
Good question. One thing I will say with every confidence is that your dreams will certainly get a lot more interesting. Beyond that it will really depend on the conditions of reality around you. Expect the most unbelievably remote coincidences to begin manifesting. Also expect that any attempt to explain how amazing these coincidences are will fall on deaf or unsympathetic ears. This is always the case with magic, as even when the preferred outcome manifests in the physical world, so much of its significance is inside your head.
In my own life, following on from regular, albeit sporadic practice of this exact rite, family-owned houses have sold for over a million dollars on the other side of the earth immediately after performing Four Kings offerings here in London. I have had—and turned down—job offers from out of the blue without even an interview, from the world’s most desirable company. (Yes, that one.) The sensation is difficult to describe; it is almost as if you have dropped a depth charge into the ocean of the spirit world. Some things get cleared away, some things get shaken loose and some things come swimming.
One of the most persistent fallacies of wealth magic (or “probability enhancement magic,” as I prefer) is that the witch or sorcerer will work backwards from a successful result in her life and decide whatever
combination of colour, scent, and godform does that thing. As such, I cannot promise you specific miracles as a result of this practice. All I can promise is that the stack of mostly positive, highly improbable events will one day get so heavy that all other explanations for how they happen collapse under the weight of their own mathematics. Then you can declare yourself invincible.
In fact, the question of how one becomes “truly” initiated in magic is perhaps the one I am asked more than any other. My answer is always the same.
Inevitably.
37 D. C. A. Hillman, PhD. The Chemical Muse: Drug Use and the Roots of Western Civilization. Thomas Dunne Books, 2014.
38 Laura Makarius, “The Magic of Transgression.” Anthropos Issue 69. 1974.
39 Jake Stratton-Kent. “The Headless One.” Equinox. Number 6. 1991.
40 Jake Stratton-Kent. The Testament of St Cyprian the Mage. Scarlet Imprint, 2014.