Magic Warfare

Concerning Magical Warfare This is a short paper concerning the concept of magical warfare, including what it is, what it can do, its working dynamics, and examples of magical attacks. All thoughts therein are mine, and I do not force my views on conduct or the classification of casts on the readers, though I use definitions that have held up for over 2000 years. Read this paper, and accept or decline my views as you will. Introduction-The Magician and the Sorcerer You may notice that I make a general distinction here as to the magician and the sorcerer. This is because I do not go by today’s definition of the sorcerer, but instead the older Hebrew definition, in conjunction with the hermetic viewpoint of the White Lodge concerning the Left Hand Path. Throughout this paper, when I say sorcerer, I am referring to one who has embraced the left hand approach to magic. This does not imply that the individual is a Satanist, or even a follower of the Yessidic sect, but instead one that delights in the corruption and destruction of his/her fellow creations, or even simply one who has quite “evil” outlooks upon the ways of the world. Let us take a look at Crowley’s distinction: “When the Neophyte enters upon the Path of Evil, there confronteth him the angel Samael. In vain he saith that he is come between The Pillars and seeketh the Hidden Knowledge in the name of Adonai; the angel answers him “I am the Prince of Darkness and of Evil. The wicked and rebellious man gazeth upon the face of nature, and findeth therein naught but terror and obscurity; unto him it is but the darkness of the darkness, and he is but as a drunken man groping in the dark. Return, for thou canst not pass by!” The sorcerer is one who has done so, be it a subconscious declaration to the universe, or in the case of the more powerful sorcerer, an actual confrontation with Samael between the Pillars of the Temple, BOAZ and JAKIN. It is one who has turned from the light in favor of the darkness, though not quite accustomed to the darkness, and therefor still able to look upon the light when one shines it. Yet the most powerful of sorcerers, such as Crowley himself was(having killed two people with his magic on record), is one who has turned to the angel Samael and yelled aloud “Step aside, angel!” and broken through the seals past the Unity of the Duad. Such sorcerers as these are rare and few, though when they surface they rise with the Red Tide out of the Astral Abyss wielding a black sword of power and a black book of secrets. Crowley was indeed such a person, having almost been able to bind Lucifuge himself with no help from any angelic forces, and in fact having set out to The Pyramids with the intent of doing such a thing. Study Crowley, The Beast 666, if you wish to see a good example of a relatively modern sorcerer of the highest calliber. That being said about the sorcerer, let us also make a distinction of the magician. Once again, I do not go by the modern, mundane definition of “magician,” which does simply suggest someone who can wrought magical feats. For such people I simply refer to as Occultists. My definition of the magician rings true to its linguistic roots, in which “magician” is derived from the Latin word “Magus,” which applies to one who is versed in “magia,” or the Wise Arts. This I in turn derive from the Persian order of the Magi, from which all trained magia priests came, and eventually served as the Qabalistic leaders and High Priests of the Jewish Sect, having wrought their knowledge from the confines of Ur. However, this does not mean that I restrict the term Magician only to those who are students of the Hermetic arts. It simply means I look upon the term magician as one applying to a magician of a somewhat “holy” disposition, and ultimately one who seeks the Divine Doctrine, by whatever means of spiritual advancement used. As such I have made a clear distinction between the sorcerer, the occultist, and the magician. Also bear in mind, however, that I am not suggesting an Occultist, or literally, a

“Keeper of Secrets,” can not become as powerful as a sorcerer or a magician, nor that a sorcerer can not become as powerful as a magician or occultist. Occultist is simply a general term I apply to any student of the Arts unless they have a solid foothold in either the dark or the light. All can obtain a powerful virtue in the arts through their individual paths, be they from The Left Hand path, The Right Hand path, or a neutral road in between. The powers of magic are indeed open to all who pursue it, though those powers come in different forms. However, I have seen that in the end, most followers of the art of magic can be put into either the Right Hand Path, or the Left Hand Path. It is difficult to stay neutral your entire magic journey. Regardless of all this, I will for the sake of simplicity refer to any student of magic as a magician in this paper, unless it be in reference to a sorcerer, for simplicity’s sake. In my time I have found that typically if one is assaulted maliciously by a force which has been identified as being caused by an incarnate entity, such as the follower of magic or the psychic, the person is a follower of The Left Hand Path. Why? Because in most other codes of ethics there is a “Do not strike unless stricken upon” attitude, and so if you are attacked it is usually because someone simply felt like making another’s life miserable. What magical warfare isThere is a fine division in the class of magical warfare. This division exists within the severity of the assaults and the magnitude of the defense. We shall call these two types, for the sake of this paper, lesser and greater magical warfare. Concerning lesser warfare, you shall no doubt recognize its characteristics. It is the manipulation of energies for the sake of causing a very general disturbance to the magician directly, usually within his aura and direct energy system, often not powerful enough to extend even to the etheral double. This is generally viewed more as psychic sparring than magical warfare, however, there is a distinction between the two that exists within the division of approaches, which many students of even psionics may not know. The proper definition of a psychic attack is one in which the victim’s senses are on some level appealed to, and a psychological door is opened by such a synergy that allows outside energies to freely move into and about the confines of the subliminal mind. From there, the intent of the released energies merge with the internal body of the victim, causing a severe mental effect. However, we could see this as greater psychic warfare, and what most psionics do, such as projecting energy constructs and picking apart shields, is simply lesser psychic warfare. Lesser magical warfare is much the same. “Sparring partners,” as it were, create a link to one another and go about “pinging” in various stages to produce a somewhat noticeable effect to the opponent. This effect is usually limited to a simple pressure in a part of the body caused by a disruption in the corresponding auric area, and occasionally, a small head or stomach ache. This is closer to lesser psychic warfare than it is to magical. What happens on the magical level, is that the student may use a chant, sigil, symbol, gesture, etc, to produce more effectively the same effect, and narrow down the attack radius if needed. For example, a beginning magician can produce a ping effect to a specific layer of the aura by means of using a serious of mind-focusing chants to induce a state of gnosis not usually within the reach of the typical psychic(that is, not readily accepted by them for use). This being said, lesser magical warfare is more a perversion fit for the use of today’s youth to create a sense of competition than it truly is warfare. For indeed the significant magical figures of the past did not amuse themselves with such entertainment, having a better understanding of the powerful energies they were using.

Greater magical warfare is the traditional application of magical energies to some sort of offensive/malevolent ends, expanding past the direct vessel of the victim into his/her etheric double, then emanating by means of connected energy currents into the spiral of his/her ultimate environment. Allow me to break that down for the less learned: Magical warfare is not used by the occultists simply for amusing each other with a little “sparring.” It is the projection of the magical forces with the intent of causing some type of discord. As such, anyone who has ever asked me to “attack” them will know that I have often refused, and I do so out of acknowledgment that these forces are not to be played with. Now once the attack has been launched, it does not simply manifest itself on some basic auric level, but by means of the body’s energy systems expands into the etheric double. Once the attack’s energy has reached the etheric double of the victim, it can from there use all energy currents connected therein to travel into the victim’s environment. The effect of this is things such as bad luck up to physical attacks through the medium of some type of animal. Here we can also clarify what is meant by bad luck. In magical warfare, bad luck is not simply “man, I didn’t wake up to the alarm this morning.” Bad luck is spilling coffee on your business suit, then walking outside once cleaned up and tripping on a crack in the sidewalk into a puddle of mud. Finally, when you arrive at your work, your boss calls you into his office to fire you. Granted that kind of bad luck is better than the type that makes you trip into oncoming traffic. The Effects of Magical AssaultThere are many ways to wreak havoc on a victim through magical means, and many types of havoc brought about therein. In greater magical warfare one may see anything from a basic bad luck streak up to total destruction of a social life, a severe drop in health, mental breakdowns and/or insomnia brought about by fierce nightmares. Do not think, however, that the effects of magical warfare only extend to an immediate physio/psychological environment. I myself have sat outside for hours fending off magically sent hail and thunderstorms. Once I even had to take up defense and fend off a series of tornadoes forming over my house, as directed by a follower of The Left Hand Path whom I had recently met, and did not leave so great an impression upon. To understand the possible severity of occult attack, I believe that lending an example of something that happened to Dion Fortune may help shed some light. The experience that led Dion Fortune on to become a rather prominent magical figure in the mid 20th century was an occult attack, the effects of which were induced by what seems to have been suggestive telepathy and undermining hypnosis, combined by the attacker’s will and magical means at her disposal. Before Dion had any knowledge of the occult she worked in a simple law firm. Over her time as an employee, she began to notice a peculiar ability with which she could exploit her fellow legal workers. Confrontations with this woman often left her employees feeling drained and beat, as if they had been working all day. Eventually, after becoming sick of how her employer treated people, Dion resolved to quit. She literally went home and packed all of her bags, at the end of which one of her fellow co-workers stepped into her apartment. The girl looked at Dion and said that if she was leaving, it would be best to tell the Employer so face to face. Dion, being young and full of zeal, marched proudly down to her employer’s house, knocked on the door, and came in to confront the woman, ignorant of the true forces at work against her. When she came into the house, her employer looked at her and said “Very well, if you want to go, you shall, but before you go you have to admit that you are incompetent and have no self-confidence. Suddenly being struck with fear beyond measure, Dion somehow managed to muster up the gall to reply that she was not incompetent, and was in fact only the product of her employer’s own council. This naturally made matters a little worse, and her employer looked at her and said “You are incompetent and you know it. You have no self-confidence, and you’ve got to admit it.” Then commensed a most extraordinary litany,

in which the employer fixed Dion in her gaze, and repeated that sentence over and over, thus beginning three things: telepathic suggestion, hypnotic suggestion, and vampirism. Dion recalls that with every sentence she felt more and more disoriented, struggling for a hold on the world as giant black walls closed in about her. She knew that if she admitted she was incompetent, the damage would be everlasting. Though it only seemed like 15 minutes, four hours had passed before her employer ceased her litany and said “You are now free to go.” As Dion turned to walk out the door, she noticed it did not feel like her foot was landing where it did, an effect produced by disrupting the etheric double in proportion to the physical self. She called a friend from just outside her employer’s house, and got a ride home. Once home she went to her bed and fell asleep for two days. When she finally awoke again, she felt horrible, shaking violently, sweating, and distraught because of her horrible nightmares. She layed in her bed for weeks like this, occasionally calling up the will to stumble into the kitchen and fix herself some food. Eventually her land-lord noticed something was wrong, and after an inspection with a doctor(which did not help), had her family come and pick her up, relocating her to a house in the country. Once there, she continued in her shaken state for another year, laying in bed all day ever day, sweating and shivering, screaming out in the night. After about a year she became stable enough to walk, but still had night fright and little energy. A simple walk up the stairs was enough to wind her. This incredible lack of energy and failing of health(as she became prone to illness very easily at this point) continued on for another two years, despite medical treatment. Finally a more distant relative of the family was informed of the situation, and brought it to the attention of a personal friend whom was very much skilled in the occult arts. After an introduction between the family and him, the occultist made a quick diagnosis of Dion’s problems based on her story, and began treatment on a metaphysical level. Within two weeks Dion began getting her energy back, and at the end of two months felt as good as new. Upon inquiring into what had been done, Dion was introduced to the concept of psychism and the occult arts. From that point on she was a fervent student of the arts, attending several occult colleges and eventually winding up as a part of the Great White Lodge of Masters. I have here shared an account of Dion’s experience because I believe it to be a great example of the possible effects that can be brought about on a victim through magical means. However, it will do you well to know that these days, thanks to that bastardizing “New Age Movement,” most “sorcerers” you will run into are naught but children who play with matches, the term child here not just applying to age. It is rare that you will manage to draw the malevolent attention of a magician actually well versed in the more powerful dark arts, be they modern or traditional. Far more likely is it that you will upset some distraught teenager in the midst of puberty who will, in some emotional rage, light a few candles, burn a picture or two, and sing some rhyming curse. Because of a blatant lack of knowledge and understanding, the worst you may get is some itchy skin, and in my experience, curses sent by such insolent fools are easily dispelled with the wave of a hand by the learned occultist. Keep in mind, however, that if the emotion, intent and focus is all strong enough, even that candle-lighting, herbmaking wiccan may be able to produce a surprisingly powerful hex. All this having been said, I will here go about to lay down a basic list of the most common effects, those being: Head ache, stomach ache, internal aches, eye irritation, skin irritation, local bug problems, inconvenient weather, a slight misalignment of the etheric double, basic bad luck, sever bad luck, nightmares, relationship problems, marital problems, domestic difficulties, and a steady health drop. All these things can be brought about by the slightly-better-than-average magician, and as such can be put to malevolent ends by the sorcerer. In the case of the more powerful, learned sorcerers, such effects may appear as: Insomnia brought about by night-fright, severe nightmares, noticeable drop in health at a constant rate, devastating lack of energy(mental, emotional and physical), nausea, self-entropy, a

mental breakdown, nervous distrophy, anxiety attacks, heart attacks, poltergeist activity, fires with no apparent cause, nearly any type of disease you can fathom, and in extreme cases, even death. Fortunately the sorcerers that can produce these effects are few, and even so, they can all be done away with if the problem is identified before any permanent damage is done, and the victim can be cured in about two weeks’ treatment from a magician in conjunction with the proper medical treatment. As for the lesser effects, and in turn the most common, they are all easily dispelled in less than a week if the magician knows how, or will dissolve on their own in under a month at the most. Magical warfare in comparison to magical assaultIn order for a magical assault to escalate into magical warfare, a full defensive course must not only be taken, but then an answering attack from the defensive part must be launched. At this point, both participants have etherically agreed to and partaken of magical warfare in its entirety. The distinction lays within the retaliation. For if no retaliation is presented by the defensive host, then all that has taken place is an attack. This can be seen in terms of the past terrorist attack on 9/11. Had the U.S.A not retaliated to the attack, but instead simply increased defense and then erased the effects of that attack, no warfare could have possibly taken place. If no warfare had taken place, then all that would have happened was a terrorist attack, not an act of war. However, the U.S.A decided to retaliate offensively from their defensive position, launching a retaliation that was the bombing of Afghanistan. This then led to a full war on terrorism, in which both parties are taking place in a volley of attacks. This in mind, the magician comes to a two-way street, in which he can decide humbly to just defend against the threat, banish the attack’s results, and go on living, or he can chose to retaliate. Those who retaliate are in turn generally of one of these two classes of people: those with a lack of real discipline, or those with a sense of justice. The first of these two is simply the person who angrily replies to the attack not because he has anyone but himself in mind, but simply because he’s been bothered. The latter of those two types is the person who does not retaliate for his own good, but instead because he sees himself as the instrument with which the universe will return the sorcerer’s karma. By destroying the sorcerer, he can possibly save other future would-be victims from his malice. This sense of justice is also found within the martial arts as the justification of physical retaliation, in which the martial artist becomes a vessel of the assailant’s karma returning back to him, keeping the martial artist in turn devoid of any bad karma. Now there are those in magic, as there are in martial arts, who claim that to be a pacifist one must accept all that comes to him, whether deemed good or evil. My friends, let me introduce a new way of pacifism to you: To be so potentially deadly that would-be aggressors would rather not disturb the harmonious existence of the pacifist, and feel the resulting wrath of that action. To better understand this principle, let us make an example of the follower of the Second Way to Pacifism, as we shall call it, and the follower of the First Way to Pacifism. Place a peace-loving hippy on a corner of a bad street(first way), and let him stay there. On a different corner of the same bad street, place a strong, imposing individual with a gun in his hand. Who do you think will be seen as the more likely victim of a mugging? No doubt any ruffian with an IQ of above 10 would attack the defenseless hippy, knowing that no hurt would find its way to himself as a result. For that ruffian will surely have figured out that any attempt to disturb the man with the gun may result in his own death. In this sense, because it was the hippy’s “peace loving” defenselessness that invited the attack, he is as much the source of the disruption of peace as the assailant. On the other hand, the man with the gun did

not start an attack, nor did he invite one by his own weakness. Therefor it was the follower of the Second Way to Pacifism, the man with the gun, who actually kept the peace, and therein fulfilled the true principles of pacifism. It is my personal philosophy as a martial artist and a magician that the student of the Arts must be much like that man with the gun. He has it, but does not go about using it for no reason, and in turn can apply it to sustain peace for himself and those attached to him. I believe that the magician must make himself a ferocious force of nature, a viper ready to strike when needed, with a deadly poison. The magician must be every bit as ferocious in power and attack as the sorcerer. With that last statement, it should be easy for the aspirant to conclude that to be a complete magician, one must be versed in both the “white” and “black” arts to some extent. It is hard to attack someone if all you know how to do is erect a shield, and therefor impossible to engage in warfare. Why no Defense Exercises? I do not plan on releasing any methods of magical defense in this paper. Why? Quite simply because there are so many diverse ways of defense, and because many types of attacks must be handled differently. On top of that, thanks to the diverse amount of magicians who all think their way is THE way, there would be countless rants as to “why is this needed?” and “this seems like a big waste of time!” Maybe even a simple “but I’m still a teenager and live with my mom and dad, and they won’t let me do that!” Though I am not big on ritual myself, and prefer instead to learn ritual and gradually strip it down to its finer forms, even a simple chant is to ritualistic to most people. There are some who think too scientifically, some who think too cynically, some who accept everything as absolute truth, and some who don’t like to hear anything that doesn’t agree with their own outlooks on how magic should be performed. So, in order to avoid countless comments and pointless ramblings, I will not provide here any exercises for magical defense, as it would be impossible for me to do so without some bothersome person making a complaint. If you truly wish to find ways to defend yourself, there are plenty of resources out there, particularly Dion Fortune’s Psychic Self Defense book. For those who are open-minded enough and willing to listen to a discourse about techniques that have worked for me in the past, I plan to hold a class concerning methods of magical warfare, as well as touching on aspects of psychic battling, over this summer(summer of ‘04), in which I will discuss both methods of attack and defense. When done, the lesson will be posted in the Article section of The Veritas Academy. My blessings upon you all in your path. May light shine where there is shadow, and show you the wonders the darkness hid from you. Take care. __________________________________________________ ________________ Do not say "it is dead," for in doing so you condemn it to death, Do not say "it is alive," for in doing so you give it life. What you condemn to death, do not do so unless you are prepared to bring it to that end, What you bring to life, do not do so unless you are prepared to support it. What you can deliver death unto is that which you claim mastery over, And what you give life unto is that which you claim mastery of. Who is the magician to make himself master, when he in fact has a master? Therefor do not try to obtain mastery of others through life and death, But instead seek to obtain mastery of yourself through life and death. The power of the enlightened lays within the soul’s crucifixion and rebirth, So do not seek power that is not yours. The ambitious mind can not understand this.

-Prophecy

Experiences with Magical Warfare One of the most common psychological syndromes amongst neophytes and newcomers to the occult path is a form of anxiety that manifests as the disillusionment that one is under magical attack. I have personally observed hundreds of such cases, had multiple people come to me on the same day as one another even, where various individuals usually quite new to the field of occultism believed themselves to be under some sort of attack. The most notorious and common of these claims is that there are astral “demons” that are attacking the so-called victim. This in itself is a form of megalomania, for the individual is presuming that he is important enough to merit the time and attention of an entity that is apparently powerful enough to manipulate the currents which affect this world. The idea becomes that the demon visits him at night, or in his dreams, usually having very marked traits of psychic vampirism. Complaints tends to follow that there has been an unusual run of bad luck lately, perhaps a few health problems, and almost always that during certain times of the day the individual “feels” a “presence” somewhere in his house. Amongst this particular audience, in nineteen out of twenty incidents it is quite likely that the socalled “attacks” and “hauntings” are nothing more than an overactive imagination that has led itself into anxiety, and with its plethora of newly learned occult terminology tries to attribute perfectly normal things to apparently paranormal incidents. So it is that feeling uneasy becomes feeling a “presence.” Having a perfectly normal karmic repercussion becomes a “suspicious string of bad luck.” Losing a little sleep over the nervous tension that the individual has now worked himself up into becomes “being drained of vital power by an entity.” In essence, ketchup becomes blood. We must not forget that unfortunate twentieth person however who has fallen victim to a genuine assault at the hands of a malicious operator. The victim will still often claim that he is being attacked by “astral beings” that do not appreciate his endeavors or operations, but in all likelihood this is not the case. In my years of occultism I have only experienced a single event which could be with all certainty attributed to malicious intent from purely astral beings, certain demons under the rule of a certain Qelipoth, and it ended after two and a half hours in the middle of a field during a storm which blew wind both Eastward and Westward. The details of that event however are too extraordinary to mention here, and so this only serves to illustrate the rarity with which genuine spiritual assault occurs. Far more likely when a newcomer to occultism reports symptoms characteristic of assault is that the individual has recently affiliated himself with a group or even a single other person who has a working knowledge of occultism, and that he has fallen into the malicious grasp of a group that has intentions not apparent on the surface level. Perhaps our newcomer is a newcomer because he has recently met a self-proclaimed occultist who has offered to take him under his wing in training, and only afterwards has the individual noticed any disturbance. In the mind of the earnest and zealous seeker the cause of the problem could certainly not be the so revered and admired teacher that “providence” has put him into the hands of. No, it is far more likely that the so-called “teacher” explains away all the symptoms of a genuine parasitical relationship by attaching improper occult terminology that he knows the student can not follow, and therefore likely attributing the problem to something that would fit perfectly in with the aspirant’s imagination: the unwanted attention of malicious entities.

Such a parasitic relationship as the black magician tends to establish with his unaware apprentice can be devastating when it is allowed to run its natural course, and I have heard of several such instances which have eventuated in the death of once hopeful aspirant. Therein I can not emphasize enough how much caution must be exercised when considering a teacher or an order. Check the background of anyone you may wind up associated with magically. Complaints from other people who have been associated with them will shed much light on certain decisions, and any hint of a criminal record is almost always a sure sign that you should turn back around. Another thing to be wary of is when a supposed adept proclaims, apparently out of no where, that you should be his disciple. It is far more common that the student finds the teacher, and so any incident where the teacher seems to have been earnestly looking for the student should be handled with caution. Let us move on to the work at hand. The intention of the present paper is to illustrate via my own personal experience in the vast field of occultism certain legitimate incidents of occult warfare, who they were made apparent, the forces which were at work behind them, how they were handled, and the ultimate result. In doing so I hope to shed some light upon this dark field once again, and allow others to compare there experiences with the templates herein provided. While there is a great deal of documentation of such incidents already available for presentation, I am apt to rely only on my personal experiences when it comes to trying to understand the matter, for amongst the documentation there is also a great deal of story-telling, and the untrained seeker shall usually not be able to differentiate between the two. That said, I can only give my word and my promise that everything I intend to present in this paper actually occurred, though all names of the people involved have been intentionally omitted for the sake of privacy.

A Manifestation of Hate About two years ago I was confronted with a case by an individual who I knew as the close friend of a mutual friend. He had heard I knew something of occultism, and desired to present to me a situation which he had exhausted all possible mundane causes of. While he did not believe in magic per se, he asserted that he did not necessarily disbelieve it in either, and this was enough of a working ground in his conscience to merit visiting a known magician. We shall call this man Mr. X. For about a month Mr. X’s little sister, who we will call Ms. Y, had been having very disturbing dreams accompanied by physical and mental exhaustion during the day. One a particular night, the night that spurred Mr. X to come to me with the situation, Ms. Y had been sleeping in her bed when she woke up to what sounded like somebody angrily calling her name in her room. Instantly a pressure came over her and her solar plexus became tense. She felt a weight upon her chest, and noticed that it felt as though someone were grapping both of her wrists and leading forward with most of its weight upon her. During the entire ordeal she could neither move nor speak, else she would likely have screamed and the situation would have halted. She related later that this procedure went on for about ten more minutes, after which the weight was lifted and the feeling of malice and hate dissolved. Immediately upon the release of her entrapment she screamed for her parents, whom with at the time she was fortunately still living (the nervous anxiety created by such an attack is difficult to deal with alone), and when they awoke related the entire story to them. They assured her that it was merely a bad dream, and that she would be alright if she went back to bed. She slept on the couch that night, for she told me later that she felt as if someone was waiting for her in her bed.

The next morning when she awoke there were small finger-shaped bruises on her wrists and her throat. This alarmed her mother, who knowing a thing or two about basic spirituality now suspected some manner of foul play. Not knowing how to deal with this however, for she had no knowledge of practical magic, she told Ms. Y that she should fall asleep trying to think of good things, and if she did so this might not happen again. In the mean while a family physician was consulted to examine the bruises, and while concurring that they appeared to be from fingers, concluded that since no one in the house had a fingerprint that fit the size of the bruise the cause must have been from bumping her wrists at night while she was having the horrific “dream.” I discovered later that this had also happened about a week before the present event, but in a less severe manner. She chose not to tell anyone at the time, as it had markedly less traumatic symptoms. She had been laying on her couch alone at her house watching television when a sudden overpowering sense of dread came over her, and it suddenly felt as if something were sitting on her chest, pushing her into the couch. She lost the ability to breathe for a matter of seconds, but shortly came out of the situation. It did not leave the bruises that the following week would give her. I agreed to the case, as it appeared legitimate enough, and the fact that someone who was essentially a nonbeliever in such things was the one who brought the case to me helped to solidify its sense of validity. The following night I was taken out Ms. Y’s house and introduced to the entire family, all of whom received me warmly though justifiably cautiously (it is a strange thing for the average individual to know that there is a magician in the house). After having individually interviewed all three members of the family who lived in the house I began the psychic investigation of the magnetism of the areas where she had been attacked. Immediately, before she had told me of her incident on the couch, I noticed via the shape of the ether that a certain violent exchange had occurred there, and asked her if she had been attacked while laying down on the couch with her head on the south end. She replied to the positive, which apart from giving me some better grounds to work on, gave the family exceedingly more faith in my services. After explaining the entire scenario to me I continued the investigation, this time in her bedroom, where the findings lent themselves to my developing hypothesis. My working hypothesis at this point was as such: Ms. Y had angered someone connected to her life, most likely someone who was intimately connected with someone that she in turn was closely connected to. This individual, possessing either an extraordinary capacity for hate or a natural knack for psychic ability, directed malicious mental force towards Ms. Y when he fell asleep, which was likely usually when she tended to fall asleep as well. When his astral body was most detached from his physical body, a state that occurs usually about seventy minutes into the first sleep cycle, and then at corresponding times throughout the following sleep cycles, the anger he harbored for her acquired the ability to condense the malicious energy he was sending her to such a degree that it created physical sensations. On two occasions he had been so preoccupied with his hate for her while he fell asleep that the etheric vehicle actually left his body and traveled to hers, where it would leech emotional energies that were necessary in order for the emotional sway of the attacker to fall back into a degree of harmony. In essence, he was leeching off of Ms. Y’s capacity for forgiveness and the emotional energies connected therewith. This would explain why she had been noticed to be increasingly irritable to all of her family members, who in turn all agreed individually on this subject to me during our initial interviews. Ms. Y showed a great deal of anxiousness while I was reciting my hypothesis, and immediately upon my completion leaped forward to say that essentially every detail was accurate, in so far as she knew. She confessed that she had severely angered the boyfriend of her best friend and several occasions, telling the boy (who we will call Mr. Z) quite up front that she believed he was bad for her friend, and

would try to prevent them from living together as much as she could. One of the reasons that Ms. Y believed Mr. Z to be so bad for her good friend was that he was exceedingly emotionally instable, and he expressed this instability primarily through uncontrolled fits of rage. On more than one occasion he had gone storming through his girlfriend’s house, breaking pictures, dishes and any furniture light enough to throw, merely because they had disagreed on something. This was exhibited accurately immediately after Ms. Y had told him her intentions, for he turned around and kicked his car door, breaking the handle. Luckily this occurred at Ms. Y’s house, and so she was likely in no danger of him actually trying to hurt her. When I described the distorted image of her attacker as retained by the Reflective Ether of her bed and couch, she said it matched Mr. Z to the letter. With the hypothesis confirmed, now becoming a working theory, I moved to locate some source of positive magnetism in the house, preferably a religious item. Following a particularly strong presence, I found behind a laundry basket the Bhagavad Gita. Taking one volume from its midst, I placed it under Ms. Y’s bed. After asking everyone to leave the room and wait for me in the living room I proceeded with the necessary banishing formulae. The order of the process was as follows: 1. Diffused the etheric tension of the room, which still had certain areas of the condensed effluvia from the attack, directly into the universe. 2. Identified and diffused the negative thought forms which had attached themselves to Ms. Y’s clothing upon the particular day that she told Mr. Z of her intentions. 3. Performed the Lesser Banishing Ritual of the Pentagram. 4. Anointed the four corners of the room with Holy Water. Anointed the bed with Holy Water. 5. Established a magic circle around the bed, consecrated its physical presence with the Holy Water, and sealed it with the appropriate God Name (YHSVH). 6. Filled the space within the circle with a feeling of comfort and safety. 7. Sealed the four corners of the house for good measure. I went back into the living room and notified the family that all should be well, and that the problem would no longer occur. They inquired as to method of payment, and I informed them that no such discussions would occur until two weeks had gone by without the recurrence of the phenomenon. Two weeks later I got the phone call explaining to me that all was well, Ms. Y was back to her normal emotional state and sleeping fine again, and that all feelings of malice and hate had been dispersed without return. Though the mother intended to pay me quite well for my services, she eventually settled for my request: a twelve-pack of Sprite. Two years later the phenomenon has still never occurred again, and Mr. Z is no longer associated with Ms. Y’s friend. It is interesting to note that within a few days of my visit to Ms. Y’s house, Mr. Z feel particularly ill, and remained so for a series of weeks. When the weeks were over Ms. Y’s friend realized how emotionally instable Mr. Z was and left him. There was a reason for the use of the God Name YHSVH, who is Yeheshuah, known in English as Jesus Christ. Jesus was the Avatar of Love, Mercy, Compassion and Forgiveness, all of which were qualities that were antagonistic to the emotional nature of the individual in whom the cause originated. Seeing as how the powers of invoking the name of Jesus are far superior to those of an angry man, it

was without a doubt the most proper name to be employed given the emotions involved in the situation. Should you ever find yourself under an attack which has the distinct feeling of hate and vengeance to it, reciting in a mantra the name of Jesus, and asking for His help, will alleviate the attack greatly if not stop it altogether. Another way that the name can be turned into a powerful protective mantra is by vibrating the individual Hebrew letters, “Yod Heh Shin Vau Heh.” An attack that is actually completely stopped via the employment of any Divine Name will never occur again.

The Dangers of Astral Projection Amongst the Uninitiated It was not with malice or ill-intent that the adepts of all ages have concealed their operations from the public eye, keeping them always secret within their respective fraternities. It is only recently that even the terminology of occultism has become public knowledge, and as shall be demonstrated sometimes the mere breach of occult terminology alone is a dangerous thing when someone who is curious but not trained picks up on it. One of the most prevalent dangers that result from this breach in today’s world is the attempting of astral projection amongst the uninitiated. When a trained and responsible magician looks out across the many communities and libraries devoted to occultism it is a frightening thing to see so many “How-To” books written about powers that have rightfully always been reserved for the carefully guided and disciplined initiate. Too many times I have seen books bearing such titles as “All you need to know about Astral Projection,” “A Guide to Astral Projection,” “How to Astral Projection,” and even “The Idiot’s Handbook to Astral Projection.” Suffice it to say in the least that an idiot has no place in occultism at all. Why is this disturbing to those magicians who have actually been trained and properly initiated? Not because they are selfish and desire to horde such secrets for themselves, but because they care for the wellbeing of their fellow man, who they are in fact training to help. There was a particular woman I spoke to on occasion by virtue that she was a good friend of my cousin’s, and was often there while I was. While my cousin (who has a degree of occult knowledge himself) and I were speaking, he mentioned in passing the subject of Astral Projection. At the time this mentioning seemed innocent enough, for Astral Projection is quite the public knowledge these days, and so I took him up on a very brief conversation about the subject. As the conversation moved on so did we, and the subject was left behind. However, it had apparently hit a spark with our mutual friend, who we will call Ms. B. She mentioned nothing of her interest in the subject of Astral Projection while my cousin and I were speaking of it, but I learned later that immediately after she left his house she went to the nearest bookstore and purchased for herself a small book that claimed to teach the method of her new fascination. That afternoon she attempted astral projection as soon as she got home. During the experience she felt as if she had become slightly lighter, a noted a strange wavering of her consciousness, but it was shortly over. Convinced that she did not astral project she decided to leave the subject alone, and made no consequent attempts at the skill. That night while she was sleeping she was suddenly stirred into motion by a pressure upon her solar plexus. She could not speak, and she could no longer control her body. Her body sat up entirely on its own, and she began to shake violently in her bed. After this physical spasm she fell back into her bed and “fell asleep,” instantly waking back up again, after which she had complete control over herself. Frightened out of her wits, she turned all the lights on in her house and spent the rest of the night awake watching television until sunrise, upon which she felt it was safe to fall asleep again, and did so this time with no disturbance. This scenario had occurred some four or five times before she finally consulted me about it. When

she told me what had been occurring every few nights, and once even during the day, I immediately asked her if she had attempted astral projection. Guiltily she admitted to having done so, and proceeded to inform me of her reactions to the conversation my cousin and I had some weeks before. This put her in a difficult situation, which I shall now describe. It is true that she had not been entirely successful in her attempt at astral projection. Unfortunately, she had not been entirely unsuccessful either. She managed to reach that state of separation that the astral body maintains during deep sleep, during which the consciousness is still attached to the physical brain. When she did so, due to the fact that the separation was unnatural and therefore did not have the usual safeguards, she created a small astral vacuum between her physical and astral bodies. A wandering entity who happened to be “on watch” at the time, most likely a spirit of a deceased human still wandering around in the lower etheric regions, noticed and capitalized on the situation. Sliding between the astral and physical body, he was able to establish a kind of domination therein. Fortunately she was unsuccessful in separating her consciousness from the brain, which is why during these seizures she retained complete consciousness and full awareness. The spirit could not establish complete dominion in Ms. B, and most importantly had no influence in her mind. As such, every night, when her astral body had reached that normal level of separation from the physical body, he would use the influence he had already planted and squeeze back in to try and conquer the entire vehicle. Fortunately he had been unsuccessful with every attempt. His discontent at this was likely reflected by the increasing feelings of anger that Ms. B would feel in her room after awaking from her seizure. The fact that the spirit came and left every night gave me a tremendous advantage in a situation that would have otherwise been considerably difficult to dissolve. I went to Ms. B’s house and erected a barrier around her bed, sealing it with the proper magic names and symbols. When done, there was little doubt in my mind that nothing save an angel from God could pass through that barrier. Merely keeping the being out was not enough however; a trap had to be set to completely rid ourselves of it. I left in the barrier a very distinct signal that pointed back to me, so that even the most dull psychic or spirit would be able to figure out that if they followed the trail they would wind up at the source of the barrier. A few nights later I was laying in my bed, not yet asleep, when I began to notice that the sound my ceiling fan gave began to change into a peculiarly loud and menacing knock. The fan itself began to sway far more than usual, and a kind of subtle murmur began to be heard in the far corner of my room. Knowing by now far and well that the fish had bit the hook, I lowered my own natural defenses. As Sun Tzu aptly stated, “When strong, feign weakness.” Instantly there came over me a definite weight, and I felt myself actually get pushed into my bed mattress some two inches. My clairvoyance allowed me to see the entity quite clearly, hovering horizontally just above my bed in a film of grey mist. I quickly gathered pure vital light into my right hand (those familiar with Bardon shall know the method), and thrust my palm into the solar plexus of the humanshaped being above me. I sent the accumulated light soaring through the etheral being, and shouted “Back to The Desert with you!” The Light dissolved the spirit, and in the words of Dion Fortune, “There was a sign, a word, and then it was gone.” I sat up in my bed and vibrated ADONAI until the presence which the being had brought with it was completely dissolved. After the five or so minutes that this took, my phone rang (it was about 1:00 AM). Answering the phone, I found that it was Ms. B. She called me saying that she had woken up to a very angry force in her room, which was telepathically insulting her insecurities. Within a very short amount of time the anger dissolved and the being was gone. There are a few key notes of significance to these details. For one, the “grey mist” surrounding the being when it presented itself to me. The aura of the spirit of a person who is still incarnate appears to

the clairvoyant eye as having a feint gold color to it, whereas the aura of the spirit of a deceased person who is clinging onto the lower etheric regions of the Earth Sphere is that of a discolored grey. This leads me to believe that the perpetrator of the assault was someone recently deceased with a working knowledge of practical occultism. This individual was likely a black occultist in life, and so naturally feared the repercussions of his immoral living that he would certainly experience if allowed to pass from the Earth Sphere into the more spiritual realms. As such he used what little knowledge he had and clung to the gross ether of the Earth Sphere, where he found a fitting opportunity for a host. Whether or not possession was the aim of his endeavors I can not say, but it seems certain that his actions were out of desperation, and inadequately planned. An explanation may also be accorded of the charge “Back to The Desert with you.” This is an old Sumerian charge, and while I translated it for the purposes of the reader, it is actually spoken as “Edin nau tsu,” pronounced “Ay-din now tsoo.” It is a charge directed at gross entities who have climbed out of the spiritual septic tank that most immoral spirits are cast into, or in some cases a spirit which has avoided such altogether. The charge itself likely comes from a shared ritual that Judaism took out of Ur. During this ritual a donkey is loaded with the burdens of sinful life and sent out of Jerusalem into the desert, the supposed prison of the demon Azziel, who according to the Book of Enoch first burdened humanity with the means to satisfy sin. The phrase “Back to The Desert with you” is the verbal expression of the symbolic act of sending the gross spiritual impurities back into “The Desert,” a place of death and decay, where they essentially had their origin. As for the utilization of the Divine Name ADONAI to rid my room of the etheric excess, this was a matter of trial and error. Particular forces have particular agitating forces, and these are not always the same. I tried a series of divine names before I finally landed on one that, each time it was vibrated, resulted in a substantial release of the tension in the room.

Attack by an Astral Black Lodge It was 9:00 in the morning, and I awoke to the call of an apprentice who had gone to work early that morning. The first thing he spoke to me was “Do you have any meditations I can do while driving that severely reduce pain?” Naturally my response was not the answer to his question, but an inquiry into the necessary information regarding what exactly was hurting him. He, who was shall call Mr. A, was at work early cutting some onions when in a strange moment of confusion he lost complete focus of everything that was going on around him, including his attention to cutting the onion, and amidst the momentary and fleeting state of disconnection from everything, the knife had slipped and cut his thumb off. Here then was my apprentice, driving to the nearest hospital with a thumb that was quite literally hanging on to his hand by a thread. I told him the best I could offer in advice would be to keep a constant flow of the vital force going into that area, while also trying not to pay too much attention to the physical thumb (or lack thereof). He got to the hospital fine, and an hour later I went to pick him up. I embarked on a series of healing operations, viewing the detachment and reattachment of the thumb as a good chance to practice reconstructing meridians, which is necessary in properly healing reconnected appendages that had previously been severed. For the sake of record, the healing turned out to be an excellent success, and baffled its share of doctors upon later examination.

This in itself was nothing usual, apart from the strange state of mind that he had been thrown into the moment preceding the accident. After ensuring that I had alleviated his pain as much as possible, my day attempted to proceed as normal. Less than an hour later however I received a call from a colleague in occultism of mine, a man who we shall call Mr. B. Apparently Mr. B had been driving on the highway into the town in which I lived when a sudden feeling of dread and anguish overcame him. A matter of seconds his one of his tires blew while he was traveling at about seventy miles per hour. His car went swerving off the road, and he wound up safely in the grass. Had there been a car coming in the adjacent lane, I believe it is safe to say that he would no longer be amongst the living. He called his towing agency, which came out and replaced his tire quickly. With the new tire on, he got in the car and proceeded to his destination. A matter of minutes later the same feeling came over him, and sure enough another tire blew, throwing him once more off the road at seventy miles per hour, and by virtue of God’s grace alone was he again spared the tragedy of a potentially life-ending accident. It was at this point that he called me, and without telling me why, requested that I meet him at a certain restaurant and have a talk with him. It was here that he told me all of the mentioned information. To he and I the link became rather clear. Only twenty four hours before the three of us had been jointly working on something that would either severely anger or severely frighten certain initiates of black magic. We knew this quite full and well at the time we were discussing the situation, and during my conversation with Mr. A the day before, he and I had simultaneously felt a brooding presence in the corner of the room, overlooking us. I performed a quick mental banishing, and it was gone. At the time it seemed to me to have either been a mass of energy or, at most, the attention of something that did not like what we were talking about. We continued on however, and the situation was forgotten. In the pursuant days there were particularly strange incidents involving motor-vehicle accidents. Anyone who has had any experiences with magic warfare knows that vehicular accidents tend to be the modus operandi of operations intended to cause the death of the victim, and it tends to follow that most people who both had the power and the desire to kill someone else are likely black magicians. Incidentally of the three of us I maintained comparative safety when I had to drive, receiving no particularly dangerous events myself, but there is most likely a definite reason for this. The night preceding the original incidents with Mr. A and Mr. B I had been sitting on the hood of my car when I had the sudden impulse to reach down and pick up a piece of bark-mulch, and with it inscribe in red the glyph known as the Aegisjalmar, a protective rune in Norse magic. There was now a symbol of protection across the hood of my car, and not being entirely certain why I felt compelled to put it there I decided to leave it there. It seems now that more than random impulse encouraged me to do this. The situation was diffused in a short amount of time, as Mr. B is a magician of the same grade as I, and the two of us moved quickly to erect the proper forms of protection. I erected a psychic bell-jar over my residence and constructed a certain sigil to carry in my wallet for the coming month. He did similar things, consecrating a particular solomonic pentacle instead which served the same purpose. Rather instantly the continued problems abated, and we have had no recurring problems since. Subsequent psychic investigation independently on both our parts proved to be quite complimentary when compared, and it was realized that a certain astral group was likely behind the attacks. They have been dealt with. As an interesting footnote to this story, two months later Mr. B took the talisman he had made out of his wallet for the first time since the initial attacks. About four hours later his car broke down.

Combat with a Black Magician The incident began when I received a message from an old friend that I had not spoken to in some time. Unfortunately the message was not one of leisure, but as most such messages in my life tend to be, one of emergency. My old acquaintance, who we shall call Mr. X, had been spending his days enjoying life with his beautiful fiancée, who we shall call Ms. Y. While both of them had at least a working knowledge of basic practical magic, it was Ms. Y who had actually been a member at one point of a group of magicians notoriously known for their adventures into black magic, and their abuse of the powers therein. Fortunately for all involved, Ms. Y was eventually able to pull herself out of the mental and psychic grip of this group, parting ways with them indefinitely. It was immediately after this original spiritual realization on Ms. Y’s part that I originally met both of these individuals some years ago, and I was glad to hear that in the time since then she had shown no real signs of relapse into the ways which that group holds in value. For that matter she had exercised great caution in insuring that she was not involved with them again. Ms. Y worked at a local bar in the vicinity of where she and Mr. X were living together. She enjoyed the job and had no particular reason to leave it, as she was well trusted and one of the more appreciated employees at that establishment. It was at this bar that the problem in question originated. Her employer, a man who we shall call Mr. Z, was a self-proclaimed black magician. Whether or not he was directly involved in the group she had once been a part of I am not certain, but various points of evidence point to such a conclusion in the affirmative. Now for one to proclaim himself to be involved in the occult arts in a public fashion is a rare thing indeed, and when it does occur is mostly characteristic of young dabblers in black magic who are overexcited by the prospect of power and feel the urge to supply their ego by letting everyone think that they already have said powers. I must be honest: had I known the man personally myself, and known his claims, I would likely never have paid him another glance at all, but would most likely have merely written him off as another one of the common dabblers that become interested in occultism for power, discover it is hard work and that they are not mature enough for the task, and then gradually lose their interest in the field. I am of the presumption that initially Ms. Y looked at Mr. Z in the same fashion, or else with her experiences of true black magic she would have separated herself from his establishment with great haste. The problem emerged when it became common knowledge that Mr. Z had quite the crush for the engaged Ms. Y, and would regularly make advances on her. At first this was handled laughably by both Mr. X and Ms. Y, viewing it in the same manner one might view a little boy asking an older woman to marry him. They would laugh about it together, joke about it together, and then move on to other subjects. Mr. Z himself had always been the subject of casual inside jokes between the couple, as he was reportedly a rather funny looking guy himself, which combined with his childish attitude made him an adequate target for the occasional jest. About a week before I was originally notified of the incident, Mr. X began to lose sleep. He would wake up several times during the night, as would Ms. Y, before finally settling down for any length of unbroken sleep. At about the same time, Ms. Y began demonstrating a strange agitation towards Mr. X. She would quickly lose her temper with him, often times becoming upset about the littlest of things that beforehand, if they were even noticed, merited nothing to be angry for. As this irrational anger towards Mr. X began to grow, it became noticed that anytime he would make one of their usual jokes about Mr. Z, Ms. Y would become strangely

defensive. This had never occurred before, and as explained, they always shared a good laugh about the guy when the subject came up. From this point onwards, anytime Mr. Z was brought up, Ms. Y would either talk very positively about him, or defend him ferociously, both of which were exceedingly uncharacteristic of her. This change in attitude was also noticed at work, where her actions became far more receptive of his advances. At about this time Mr. X notified me of everything that had been occurring, including his increasingly poor sleeping patterns and a loss of vitality on his part, accompanied by a serious sense of dread and malice. Looking over the situation I initially decided that at the most there was a form of telepathic suggestion going on between the bartender and his employee, Ms. Y, and gave Mr. X a series of simple things he could do to help alleviate the psychic pressure on his fiancée every night before they went to bed. He sent me another message five days later, once again in a state of turmoil. He said that for about three days the routine I had told him to do each night had born remarkable results, and that things were going much better between he and his fiancée. Her sense of humor had returned, rumors about she and the bartender had been stopped, and in general things were going as they should have been again. On the fourth day however, things took a sudden and violent turn for the worst. Ms. Y had once again been overcome by a strange infatuation with Mr. Z, and finding herself incomparably angry with Mr. X for a comment he made about the man, she picked up her things and moved out of the house. Her fiancée tried to reason with her, but every conversation she turned into an attack and became overtly defensive, eventually blaming irrational things on Mr. X. At this point it was clear to me that black magic was involved, and that telepathic suggestion was being exercised by someone who had actually been trained in its use. Satisfied that the individual really was a black magician of some degree or another, I launched a psychic attack of my own upon the individual. It was nothing particularly potent, as I was still not entirely convinced that I was dealing with anything more than a dabbler in black magic. It was however sufficiently powerful enough to have taken care of most mainstream students of black magic, and so content in thinking that the situation had been sufficiently resolved, I awaited the results. That night I came down with a 102 Fahrenheit fever, accompanied by a splitting headache, neither of which I had been victim to in about two years. Finally pulling enough concentration together to focus on the cause of the problem, I found a distinct astral trail leading back to Mr. Z. Weak as I was I knew that I could not counterattack in the present state, and so I launched something similar to a psychic volley, meant more to distract than harm, and employed a certain magically prepared powder I had made some months before to alleviate my illness and restore my strength to me by the following morning. It was on this next morning that I received another message from Mr. X, who told me that things had taken a more dangerous turn. His fiancée was still out of the house, and now he had begun to notice peculiarly dangerous bouts of bad luck the likes of which only the most unfortunate are subject to under most situations. At his workplace there had been a machinery malfunction that nearly resulted in the loss of one of his hands. One his way back from work on the same day he had nearly been hit by a car, and then again his car had malfunctioned at an intersection and almost gotten him into another wreck. While I can not recall with exact certainty, I believe that somewhere along here his vehicle actually did get into an accident, though he managed to escape comparatively unharmed. Knowing now that a black magician who could afflict me with a fever and manipulate situations so as to cause possibly deadly incidents in someone’s life was a black magician of a fair caliber, I arranged to deal with him once and for all. To this end I called the individual who was mentioned in the previous experience under the name “Mr. B,” and I will continue to refer to this magician under that name. We prepared for a comparatively rare occurrence in the field of magic, an operation which requires two

magic circles, two entirely separate ritual spaces, connected by an astral link and harmonized to act as a single magnified force as opposed to two distinct forces. I had decided that ritual magic would need to be resorted to if enough power were to be employed to overcome this particular foe. While I must say in retrospect that we most likely utilized extremely excessive force in dealing with this black magician, at the time all I knew was that I was dealing with someone who had successively proven himself more powerful than I thought him to be on several different occasions. It seemed far more wise, and I hold by this decision, to drastically overestimate Mr. Z’s power as opposed to suffer the consequences of an additional underestimation. This was not because I was in fear of my own situation, but because I was in fear of Mr. X and Ms. Y’s situation. Another underestimation on my part would mean more time that Mr. X was laid before the malice of this black magician, and therefore meant more opportunities for attempts at Mr. X’s life. This would not do, and so we resolved that t he situation needed to be dealt with that night. I can not explain every aspect of the ritual which we employed, though it took me a span of five hours to prepare and set up properly. Suffice it to say that things were arranged to make use of Lunar energy while the moon was in its detriment, a powerful force when one desires to afflict the spiritual, mental and physical health of someone, and that a great deal of time was spent preparing the house and the ritual space for the expected onslaught of demonic forces. This last one had careful consideration paid to it, for it seemed reasonable to think that this individual’s power was not of his own training, but rather the working of demonic forces which he had under his command at the time. The ritual was carried out fully throughout the course of a solid hour, with only about twenty minutes of direct psychic battling between us and the demons which he had employed. Once these demons had been banished, and we carved a clear path to his aura, I infected his energetic system with a certain psychic poison of sorts, and bound him foot and hand by certain creatures under my direction that could best be described as Hell Hounds. These particular astral creatures have the peculiar power of binding the powers of a black magician, and so they were adequately employed in this particular situation. Once the poison had been set and the hounds secured, the clock struck the point wherein it was most beneficial to release the lunar energy, and so from the Seal and Characters of the Moon flew the power meant to land the final blow of the battle, and this it did. Mr. X had not been told of my plans at this point, and had no idea that Mr. B and I had completely resolved the situation. His message two days later confirmed the effects of the operation none the less. He reported that for two days Mr. Z had not been seen at work, but had called in sick. During this time his fiancée had a reawakening of her emotions for Mr. X, and moved back into the house with him almost immediately. Two weeks later Mr. Z came into work to pick up the last of his things and quit his job, and he was not seen for about another three weeks after this. At this time Mr. X had quite literally bumped into Mr. Z on the sidewalk. They had a brief moment of awkward conversation, wherein X noticed that Z’s usual cocky attitude, his overpowering presence and his sense of malice were all gone, and that even his once healthy complexion had given way to a pale color reinforced by the weight which he had obviously lost. The conversation ended and they went their different ways, and to my knowledge neither Mr. X nor Ms. Y have had any contact with him since. Mr. X and Ms. Y are now married, and though I could not attend (which they likely knew), they honored me with an invitation to their wedding none the less, by which I was greatly moved. One of the most powerful feelings a magician can have is when someone tells him that his work was truly appreciated.