For this episode we return to a new book, as yet unpublished, called Magick Here and Now. We begin with Alchemy—Stone of the Wise. Learned men and women with academic qualifications are no better than the common or garden New Age or online ‘gurus’ when it comes to construing the meaning of the stone of the wise, the secret of alchemy. This does not, it seems, stop anyone from pretending they know what it means all the same. Worse still, these pundits and bloggers probably believe in all sincerity they really know the secret. The second part of this episode is concerned with Cosmic Mind and Group Mind—two things that are frequently confused today. The relatively modern notion of a group mind, a kind of collective mentality that no doubt owes something to popular psychological theories, is very mistaken when applied to initiation—unless the organisations are pseudo-spiritual or even anti-spiritual.

Part One: Secret of Alchemy

Part Two: Cosmic Mind and Group Mind

The music is called Alchemy Zero, and was composed and played by myself, Oliver St. John, on guitar and other instruments especially for this podcast.

Last year, our very first book was rewritten from top to bottom and re-published under the title Law of Thelema—Hidden Alchemy. The new book shows how much our views have changed in the last five years and so the old content is seen in a totally different light. Included here is an abridgement of the Preface and two chapters from that book, of which the second is a much needed clarification on what the ‘Holy Guardian Angel’ really is.

Part One: Law of Thelema—Hidden Alchemy

Part Two: The Star of Revealing

Part Three: The Holy Guardian Angel

The Antichrist, mentioned in Part One, is not an individual or a group but is a completely impersonal, demonic force that is the sum total of the anti-spiritual in all forms. Thus in other works we refer to this as the System of Antichrist, as it is more like a machine than any kind of living being. It is sub-infra, in so far as it is barely in the realms of manifestation—yet it is the dominant influence on all worldly affairs today. The irony of imagining rebellion where only conformity and subjection exists, naturally escapes the followers of Antichrist.

The music I played on the guitar is Prelude 3 from Cinq Preludes, composed by Heitor Villa-Lobos.

This episode is drawn from a new book, soon to be published and titled Magick Here and Now. In the introduction we make it clear that ‘ordinary life’ is a very serious obstruction to magick and yoga. This will be explained. We then move on to a discussion of the magician, since there can be no magick without a magician and so far as initiation goes everything must start from the human state. The second part concerns the question of what a magician really is? Some of what we will reveal might be quite surprising to some. The third part of this episode moves on to Magick as Science and Art. As well as dispelling some false notions including populist theories about magick as ‘occultism’, we will explain some little known facts about what magick really is.

Part One: Magick and the Real

Part Two: The Magician

Part Three: Magick as Science and Art

The music, Invocation, was composed and played on guitars, five-string electric bass, keyboards, Egyptian and Turkish drums by myself, Oliver St. John.