Volume I
Chronicle Four

Karma

In order to understand karma, you must first understand the passive-aggressive duality of existence. The passive existence is that we all live in a world that has already been predetermined through destiny. The aggressive existence is that we create our own destiny. Both forms of existence holds true and because there is only one existence they both exist at the same time and in fact are one and the same.

The passive existence is karma. The general belief is that karma determines what will happen to us and you can not avoid your karma. Should you possess bad karma, when it arrives there is no escaping it.

The aggressive existence is freewill. We determine what shall happen to us and the world is one chaotic place where everyone is doing whatever they want.

The reality of existence is that karma is like a huge boulder falling from the sky. The fact that it exists does not deny you your freewill and it is your decision what to do about the falling boulder. People who accept their karma, are simply just standing there waiting to be crushed. People who try to run from their karma are usually crushed by the boulder as they pretend that the boulder doesn't exist. The way of the magician is not to run away nor is it to accept that they will be crushed. The way of the magician is to acknowledge that the boulder is coming and to do something about it.

Not only does karma apply to the wrongs that we commit, but it also applies to the virtuous actions that we commit. What goes around, comes around. Everyone has heard this phrase and still many do not truly understand it's meaning, which is that everything that we do will be done to us. This includes the good, the bad, and everything in between. The karmic process does not differentiate between good and bad. The only thing it can perceive is action and reaction.

If you don't want to get crushed by a boulder, then it is wise to counter any bad karma with good deeds now, even if you aren't sure the boulder actually exists. By the time that you see the boulder, it is usually too late.

The karmic process itself is overrated. Many go through life pointing at things saying that it's good or bad karma, when in reality; everything occurs through the karmic process.

Ethics and Morals

You often hear debates on what is proper conduct and what is not. People disagree when it is appropriate to use magic especially when it pertains to other people being involved. Many will say that unless you receive a persons permission, you may not infringe on that person's Will.

Although it is a beautiful sentiment, it interferes with our true nature which is to help others when we can. Angels do not ask permission before they help a person and neither does the  Almighty Lord. As a Angelic Magician, I do not believe in asking for permission, because to do so is vain.

The truth is that we infringe on other people's Will everyday. We do so when we merge into traffic. We do so when we compete for a job. We do so when we buy the last plane ticket. If we concern ourselves with what other people want, we loose sight of what needs to be done.

There is a saying that I am sure many are familiar with, "As above, so below, that is the Law. Love is the Law, Love under Will". "Love under Will" means that in a freewill existence we can do whatever we want but it must be done out of love. Any action made out of compassion is a proper conduct. If you listen to your heart, the Light shall guide you and you will know what needs to be done.

If a child is about to be crushed by a rock, I am not going to stop to ask the parents for permission to get involved. I will save that child. If a good man is ill, I don't care if he wants my help or not. I will heal that man. If a metaphysical shop is in trouble, I will get involved because to do otherwise is to turn against my true nature.

Now, I am not saying that it is okay to commit actions of hatred and violence under the guise where somehow it can be related to a compassionate act. Such decisions are made of the mind and not of the heart. Should you choose to take such a path, the person you are truly fooling is yourself as you will eventually realize when the threefold Law hits you square between the eyes.

Another erroneous assumption is that by my decision to not attain permission, I would be interfering with a person's karma, but that is not true. I can no more interfere with another person's karma than they can interfere with mine. If a person's karma is to live a brief life, there is nothing I can do to prevent that. If a person's karma is to live a long life, there is nothing I can do to prevent that. The only person that can change karma is the person that the karma is meant for. At best, the only thing that I can do is delay the karma and that has no significance. If it does, I for one wouldn't mind if it manifested into my life as someone getting involved and delaying my bad karma. It would give me more time to clear it up before it hits me.

A friend of mine brought up a very important point which is that many try to use general statements  in their rituals that are designed to protect themselves from doing something they will regret. Such phrases are very effective, but they only work if you actually mean what you say, or else they are merely words being spoken.

You must know yourself. Magic is not based on what you say, but rather what you feel and the mindstate that is evoked. If you have good intention, it does not matter what you say, or if you say the words at all.

The bottom line is this and it is really quite simple. Do your best not to harm another and when you are able help a person in need; do so. You can spin yourself around in circles debating on what is proper ethics and karma and you will never come up with a perfect answer. Listen to your higher self and it will tell you what you need to do.

The next ritual is the first of the Achromation rituals and it may have ethical consequences. However, I can assure you that no one ma be harmed by the following ritual including yourself. After all, that's why it's called white magic. As we have discussed in the last chapter, the Invocation of the Lesser Banishing Pentagram is a training ritual. The training involved in that ritual is preparation for the ritual known as the Achromation of the Lesser Banishing Pentagram. Through the Invocation of the Lesser Banishing Pentagram, we are taught that when our defenses are in operation, it produces a specific mind state, and that mind state is equivalent to the ritual and thus equivalent to producing the results of the ritual.

The Achromation ritual of the Lesser Banishing Pentagram, put simply is the ability to activate your defenses immediately without hesitation. Although there are many defensive magic out there, I am sure that you have found that the end product usually doesn't contain the same intensity as the ritual itself. That is because much of your energy was devoted to doing the ritual and thus diverted from the end product. As before, one source doing two tasks can never commit it's entire strength to one single task. The Achromation of the Lesser Banishing Pentagram is the ritual and it is the end product and both exist as the same task therefore when performing this ritual, it tends to be a bit more effective.

In order to do this ritual you must first have accomplished the Invocation of the Lesser Banishing Pentagram and have successfully associated it's mind state as well as your normal state with the Sensorial Association Method. That in itself allows you to do the achromation as many of you may have discovered on your own.

What we shall accomplish in this chapter is the refining of this process along with using physical elements as well as visualization methods to aide in the achromation process.

The Achromation Ritual of the Lesser Banishing Pentagram

STEP ONE. Do the Mind State Identification. The objective of this step is to clear the mind and to assure the possession of the normal state.

STEP TWO. Perform the Invocation of the Lesser Banishing Pentagram. The objective of this ritual is to attain one final connection to the ritual and to make this association fresh in your memory. The time frame given for it's duration should be one hour.

STEP THREE. Once you have completed the ritual. Find a quite area where you can meditate without being bothered. Perform the Mind State Identification at this time. The objective is to assimilate what it feels like when the Invocation of the Lesser Banishing Pentagram is currently active.

STEP FOUR. As you are meditating you will consciously experience as the duration period expire and your mind state will change. Once this has occurred, cease meditating.

STEP FIVE. Consciously change your mind state by using Sensorial Association and acquire the mind state of the Invocation of the Lesser Banishing Pentagram.

STEP SIX. Point ahead of you with your right index finger and visualize a blue stream of light extending from your finger. Cast a clockwise circle by using your right elbow and wrist only. To use more of your body than this would be a waste of energy and often become a burden in casting the circle as it would be difficult to do so in a vehicle or in public for example.

STEP SEVEN. Return your extended right index finger and form a fist. Slowly raise your right hand forward with your fingers gently extended and your palm of your hand facing forward. The physical element of the achromation ritual is now complete.

The right hand symbolizes your Will to evoke action and the five upper sephiroht. It acknowledges Kether, through which you draw your power. It acknowledges Hochma and Binah for it is through wisdom and understanding that you are able to use this power properly, and in doing so the power is allowed to manifest. It acknowledges Hesed and Geburah for it is through Mercy and Strength that you choose to assume a defensive position and not lash out and harm others.

The extension of the fingers and the palm facing forward is the sign of greetings and acknowledgement. It symbolizes the recognition of forces that may harm which is necessary in order to defend against them. Knowledge is power and ignorance is dangerous.

The action of opening your hand represents the creation and the charging of the pentagrams. As you do so, visualize the four pentagrams appearing around you. The direction of the pentagrams are not important, and if you so choose, you could even have them circle around you as they were on vigilant guard.

STEP EIGHT. To return to your normal state, use Sensorial Association to acquire your normal state. As in everything in life, it is not only important to learn how to turn things on, but also to learn how to turn things off when you are done.

Once your have worked with this ritual for quite some time, you will be able to abandon the requirement to control the environmental factors as well as the preparation phase of the ritual. You will be able to bring up your defenses at a moments notice anywhere that you feel it is necessary.

In time it will become second nature and you will not even have to think about it. When faced with danger, you will bring up your defenses automatically and it will take less than a second.

As many of you can probably foresee, doing magic in public can raise a few problems. As you cast your circle and invoke your pentagrams, there is no doubt that you will hear comments such as, "Gather the children! There's a crazy person in the area!". People who do not understand scare very easily, and if they by chance do understand; it would probably scare them ever more. In order to avoid such a situation, here are three suggestions.

No 1. The physical elements can be done on the astral plane. This requires experience in doing magic on the astral. If you are an Astral Magician, then this is an option that you may choose to take.

No 2. The physical elements can be reduced to a simple gesture of the hand or a finger by truly understanding the essence of what they stand for. They are not cast in stone and can be changed, as long as the symbolic meanings behind them are not altered. If you are a magician and you do not agree with something, then change it accordingly. A magician seeks balance and there is no balance when things are in disagreement.

No 3. The physical elements can be omitted all together, by acquiring the ability to create the mind state with using only the sensorial association. Eventually this will inevitably occur as you become so familiar with the association that the physical elements outlive their usefulness.

The Warning Signs

It stands to reason that in order for this achromation to be fully effective, something must tip you off to raise your defenses before it is too late. This hold true especially because people usually don't see the car that hits them from behind or the lightning that hits them from above.

The indication that something bad is going to happen if often perceived as a gut feeling or bad vibrations. What these things really are, is the subconscious mind as it perceives the ethereal and is trying to communicate with our conscious mind. It does this through our mind state.

The unfortunate reality is that unless you posses this gift, you will have to learn it and the only way to learn it is to experience it. What this means is that in order to know what the mind state is that warns you of danger, first you must be in danger in order to experience the mind state. The problem is that you don't know that you actually are in danger because you don't recognize the mind state.

In order to acquire this mind state you must first pay attention to your mind states, which is known as "listening to the song". It is called this because it will seem as if it is singing to you like a mother would sing to her child. It has to do with compassion and self-love, you cannot communicate with your higher self without it.

As you listen to the song, you will still be surprised when danger pops up and smacks you, but by doing such, it will allow you to recollect and contemplate on the mind state previous to the event. Through experiencing danger arising, you will be able to accumulate enough information so that when it does occur, you are able to recognize it and to jump one step ahead of the game and defend yourself.

The key is to pay attention. If you are not paying attention, you will miss your opportunity and you will have to wait until the next time that danger enters your life.

Ethical Consequences

Let's say you are driving down the road one day, as you give a friend a ride. Little do you realize that it is your friend's karma to be injured in a car accident. Suddenly, the car beside yours starts to swerve. What would you do? What if it wasn't your friends karma to be injured? What if it was your karma to save your friend? How are you suppose to know which is the right karma? The answer is the "Akashic Records", but unless you're Saint Peter, I don't think you will be able to access the records while driving down the highway.

The fact is that should you bring up your defenses, everyone around you within your chosen defensive area benefits by your action. In doing so, not only may you affect their karma, but you will be infringing on their Will unless you ask them for permission first. Sometimes asking for permission isn't convenient as choices must be made immediately.

Departing Thought

I am always surprised to hear when people within the magical community actually perceive magic as an action that works in contrast to the natural way that things come about. Such people perceive that the mundane course of events is natural while magical intervention is some how a supernatural course forcing events to manifest that would not be normal.

I disagree. The workings of magic is equally as normal as any other natural action. There is no such event that can occur that conflicts with nature, but rather only in our understanding of what is natural. From astrology to medicine things that were magical are now considered natural and explained through science.

Once you realize that magic is as normal as getting wet when the rain starts falling, magic becomes much simpler and easier. Once you realize that magic is a natural course of action, you will no longer believe that such things are physically impossible and the doorway called faith swings wide open.