MARK REEVE | NOT NOT

NOT NOT: INNER & OUTER PERCEPTIONS OF BLACK EAGLE & THE ZOS KIA CULTUS

INTRODUCTION

"Somehow from the beginning I felt that knowing a given skill is not enough, but that the manner in which we learn is of prime importance. A technique like anatomy or perspective learned from models and books is a dead skill just as is the theoretic learning from books of how to be physically strong. Strength of muscles is developed by lifting weights and by exercise, and creativeness in the arts is developed simply by doing, prior to knowing the professional laws and tricks. To be creative is to try being creative from the very start by doing things from memory."[1]

My first exposure to the "Nightmare World" of the British artist and magician, Austin Osman Spare (AOS), was in the late-1980s when I eagerly purchased The Collected Works of Austin Osman Spare (Sorcerer's Apprentice Press Second Revised Edition, 1986). It took a while to understand what he was "really going on about", but when the realisations dawned it was a Great Revelation. To say Spare's books are "cryptic", with "layers-within-layers" is an understatement. His visual output especially never ceases to amaze. Despite their terrible reproduction (looking something like an nth generation photocopy), or maybe because of this, several years later I was leafing through the book one night without really paying attention, when for some reason I began to turn it sideways and upside-down, then saw all sorts of extraordinary, previously hidden, images.

Akin to this phenomenon, since then I have dream-visited the Zos Kia Cultus dimension several memorable times and had the joy of seeing some of the unpublished pages of Spare's The Book of Pleasure and The Focus of Life (arguably his two most important magical works),[2] plus previously unheard of items. I could never remember any of the exact details upon awakening, which was annoying, until I understood that the experience belonged on other realms only; to have examined it in mundane environs and consciousness would have spoiled the very real effects it later engendered there. (Hint hint).

Over 10 years later it was an altogether different situation, thus this present article is an almost verbatim transcript from my Magical Record regarding my transmundane traffick with Black Eagle, the Native Amerindian spirit guide of AOS, who wrote nothing about Black Eagle in his published works, although he did draw a 50×25 cm pencil and watercolour portrait of Black Eagle (shown in greyscale left) in 1946,[3] which perhaps says more than words. We can thank Spare's friend and literary executor, Kenneth Grant, for supplying much of the background knowledge here. He claims most of Spare's automatic work was created in trances controlled by the "Intrusive Familiar," Black Eagle, whom Spare had clearly observed and drawn several times, and that it was Black Eagle who sometimes made pictures through Spare whilst the latter was asleep, or awake but in total darkness. After Spare's death Grant realised that: "Black Eagle was a focus for the ancient Amerindian sorcery that once informed the Witch-Cult in Salem, Mass., from which Mrs Paterson had drawn her magical power."[4]

Nearly two decades later, in Grant's Outer Gateways we learn Mrs Paterson's first name is Yelg; that she claimed to be descended from the Salem witches and was the leader of a witchcraft coven based in South Wales, where she invoked Black Eagle, whom she asserted was of the Narragansett tribe. After she died Black Eagle supposedly "focussed" through Spare and inspired many of his drawings and "oracles." Grant also connects the Narragansett tribe, Black Eagle and Yelg Paterson to HP Lovecraft's Cthulhu Mythos.[5] Although these last assertions are open to question, I can definitely run with the idea that Black Eagle was the spirit guide of Mrs Paterson, and that after her demise he transferred his attention to the young Spare (perhaps at the request of Spare's "second mother"[6] and childhood magical mentor, Mrs Paterson) in order to get across certain teachings to humankind via such a talented medium, and to eventually act as Arch Tutelary Egregore of Zos Kia Cultus, that was evidenced in the outer by AOS and Kenneth and Steffi Grant in the early-1950s and continues to this day in myriad guises: on the physical plane, and those of the dream and astral (if there's any difference?).[7]

As the Zos Kia Cultus (or more accurately, Crossroads) is of the greatest interest and relevance to myself, I decided it would be efficious to go straight to the source to obtain a deeper understanding of, and initiation into, its Mysteries. Grant relates that Spare used his Black Eagle portrait magically as kind of oracular window when he wished to contact Black Eagle, letting his mind "wander in the network of lines" of the portrait to create in himself a conducive altered state of consciousness "acutely receptive to the Spirit's influence,"[8] so I decided to do something similar. Here are the results of my adventure.

NOTES

[1] Stanislav Szukalski, The Lost Tune: Early Works (1913-1930). Archives Szukalski/Polish Museum of America, 1990.
[2] Austin Osman Spare, The Book of Pleasure (Self-Love), privately published by the author in 1913, is considered to be his most important grimoire delineating his philosophy, and The Focus of Life (Morland Press, 1921) a further expansion and elucidation of the themes presented in the former work. Both are reprinted in The Collected Works of Austin Osman Spare (Sorcerer's Apprentice Press Second Revised Edition, 1986) and also in From the Inferno to Zos Volume 1: The Writings & Images of Austin Osman Spare (First Impressions, 1993).
[3] The portrait is listed as picture Number 89 with the title 'Blue Eagle' in the catalogue of AOS' exhibition at the Archer Gallery, London, 3–30 November, 1947 (reproduced in From the Inferno to Zos Volume 1: The Writings & Images of Austin Osman Spare [First Impressions, 1993, unpaginated]), although it is later entitled 'Black Eagle' in Kenneth Grant, Images & Oracles of Austin Osman Spare (Frederick Muller Ltd., 1975, p.95). The actual colour portrait of Black Eagle by Austin Osman Spare is reproduced in Kenneth & Steffi Grant, Zos Speaks! (Fulgur, 1998, Plate 1).
[4] Kenneth Grant, Images & Oracles of Austin Osman Spare. Frederick Muller Ltd., 1975, p.15. (Reprinted by Fulgur in 2003.) Some have questioned the existence of Mrs Paterson, but aside from Grant, there is another account of her by the (somewhat unreliable) Frank W. Letchford, who writes that a clairvoyant named "Mrs Patterson," with an extra t, was a friend and neighbour of the Spare family, and "influenced young Austin's impressionable mind between 1894 to 1897. As for being a witch this has yet to be proven" (Frank W. Letchford, From the Inferno to Zos Volume 3: Michelangelo in a Teacup: Austin Osman Spare. First Impressions, 1995, p.37). Letchford does not state how he came by this information.
[5] Kenneth Grant, Outer Gateways. Skoob Books, 1994, p.17. Aside from the chapter in the aforementioned book, Grant also devotes a whole chapter to the work of Austin Osman Spare in The Magical Revival (Skoob, 1991) and Cults of the Shadow (Skoob, 1994).
[6] Kenneth Grant, Images & Oracles of Austin Osman Spare. Frederick Muller Ltd., 1975, p.9. (Reprinted by Fulgur in 2003.)
[7] Kenneth Grant - the former Outer Head of the Typhonian Ordo Templi Orientis (now known as the Typhonian Order) - mentions the existence of: "the Lodge of the Black Eagle which uses formulae comparable with those of New Isis Lodge. The latter received via O.T.O. and Zos Kia Cultus the individual charismata of both." (Outer Gateways, p.8), and at least one bookmark with a hand-drawn design entitled 'Talisman of Black Eagle' was seemingly drawn and dated 1996 by Andrew D. Chumbley - the former Magister of the Cultus Sabbati - and issued with the first edition of his Qutub, Or, The Point (Fulgur/Xoanon, 1995).
[8] Kenneth & Steffi Grant, Zos Speaks!. Fulgur, 1998, p.155.

THE RECORD

SATURDAY 6 APRIL 2002

Today I officially start my Black Eagle Working (after a preliminary Call to Black Eagle in the wilderness some weeks earlier, to state my intentions). I'm not in a formal Ritual Mood, so will simply sit and drift with pen and paper before me, writing down any impressions I receive.

Began: 11:49 PM Ended: 12:36 AM Duration: 47 Minutes.

Gods, to choose a God of a specific power, such as Love, War, whatever, I am all Gods and can do anything - Do I need to contact a traditional God to tell me about something? Arrogance perhaps, or honest acknowledgement of my reach? The opposite of arrogance is small-minded controlled timidity. I look Elsewhere, as Picasso said: "I don't seek - I find..." Anything can be Godded, worshipped. Some men love their cars more than their wives. I don't need a traditional, classical human conception of a God. I am immediately drawn to the difference of Black Eagle and Lam - Higher Intelligence Gateways. Twelve Midnight Interstice. The Black Eagle flys unseen by the unseeing in the Night of Infinitude Pathways. Relation to White Eagle, the spirit guide who came to prominence in the 1950s-60s amongst the occult fraternity? Compliment-Opposite perhaps. [The White Eagle Lodge was founded as an UK charity in 1936 and continues to channel White Eagle - Frater 33 - 2015.]

Received a Symbol (shown left), which suggests much in relation to this magic. "The Black Eagle flys unseen by the unseeing in the Night of Infinitude Pathways" could also aptly describe the UFO. Kenneth Grant has stated that the lineal stream of the Zos Kia Cultus is informed by an Amerindian Magical Current worked by the Narragansett tribe. As Black Eagle is the supreme spirit guide of this lineage, this raises interesting comparisons between Black Eagle and the extraterrestrial (or more probably, interdimensional) beings of the UFO. Could they be one and the same, appearing in different guises to suit the context and beliefs of each particular age?

It would have been perfectly natural for the early Amerindians of any tribe to believe that a stranger might have fallen to earth from the sky, as they adhered to the universal belief of ancient times, that the stars are the residences of spiritual beings who have a definite connection with, and a mysterious relation to, human souls. Nearly all of the Amerindian tribes have a rich and varied tradition of an interaction with the "Sky People" or "Star People", that is as extensive as fairy lore is among the natives of the British Isles. Amerindians have long been aware of the "magic circles" left by the Star People, just as their British counterparts know of the "fairy rings", and the modern UFO investigator examines strange, scorched and blackened circles left in farmer's fields and meadows. [Also note that a ring is also a call - in olden times by a bell and in modern times by a telephone or doorbell, etc. A curious double meaning - Frater 33 - 2015.]

The Narragansett Current is said to have later surfaced within the Salem Witch-cult in America, from whom Mrs Paterson is said to have derived her occult knowledge, working within covens of this lineage in Great Britain, especially in the South of Wales, under the aegis of Black Eagle. Andrew D. Chumbley in The Cult of the Divine Artist claims that a lineage which informs the present phase of the "Sabbatic Tradition" (an ancient Initiatic Mystery Craft comprised of various streams and lineages including the Zos Kia Cultus and other related Orders such as the Cultus Sabbati) derives from Llandeilo (meaning "Land of the Devil") in South Wales, which is adjacent to a village called Salem. Phantom bomber aircraft were seen flying over the Llandeilo area after World War II, which may be another fascinating example of the ancient Intelligence which manifests in a multitude of forms. If previously invoked at Llandeilo-Salem, could it even have been Black Eagle soaring aloft, interpreted as a plane by the filtering subjective mental arcana of the witnesses?

Black Eagle doesn't want to be worshipped, but Understood. Get out. Lift Off. Black Eagle: BE. White Eagle: WE. BE is the Individual aspect-representitive of the Secret Chiefs. WE the emissary-personification force of the Secret Chiefs Group consciousness. A Meditation: Sit and don't think about Black Eagle. My own thoughts of God are not God. Humanity is an Argument.

By NAEQ6 (New Aeon English Qabalah Cipher 6), BLACK EAGLE = 109. The number suggests the essential One-ness (1) of the Female (0: Yoni) and Male (9: Phallus). 1+0+9 = 10, that glyphs the singular individualised consciousness (1) and its relationship with the Void (0). Also, 10 = 1+0 = 1, Duality (10) Uniting Becoming One (1). [In Chapter 33 (By NAEQ6: KIA = 33), 'Baphomet', of his The Book of Lies (1913), Aleister Crowley writes: "A black two-headed Eagle is GOD; even a Black Triangle is He." This black Eagle "is swallowed up in the Great Sea; yet not a feather is wetted." This sounds like an allegory for becoming One in the non-dual All - Frater 33 - 2015.]

Using only those words from the NAEQ6 Codebook, Liber AL vel Legis (in which the cipher was originally concealed and revealed), as is recommended in NAEQ6 practice for the best results, we may deduce Black Eagle's relationship with the New Aeon in which we move. Here, 109 = HERMIT = THE LOVER, the highest two of the three grades of Thelema. Also: THE WINGS = OF THE SOUL = I NEVER = NAY NOT TWO, emphasising the annihilation of the ego and the resulting transcendence of duality.

BLACK EAGLE (109) + ZOS (20) = 129 = WHO IS FIFTH = THE FIVE. According to Kenneth Grant, 5 is: "the number par excellence of the Great Old Ones, the number upon which their entire Cultus and architecture is founded." (Outer Gateways, p.19). The five symbolism is reinforced by: EVERY STAR, in its pentagrammic form. Since, as we read in Liber AL that "Every man and every woman is a star" (I:3), are we to understand from this that Black Eagle represents the aspect of the Outer Ones present inside all of us? This gives relation to the concepts of the backwards exploration of genetic memory and atavistic resurgence. 109 also equals: IS ELEVEN. Thus, as 11 is the number of all those who are truly attuned to Thelema, as is stated in Liber AL (I:60), we can assume from the above gematria that Black Eagle is a highly important being for the New Aeonist to contact. Other leads from 129, relating to ZOS, the body, in relation to BLACK EAGLE, are: AM THE SNAKE = THE COILED. Also the Non-AL word: KUNDALINI.

BLACK EAGLE (109) + KIA (33) = 142, thus, in the relation of BLACK EAGLE to the formless Other, KIA, we obtain: I AM NOTHING = FOR I AM NONE = OF HOOR PAAR KRAAT = NOW ANKH AF NA KHONSU = BE PURGED = NO LAW IS BEYOND = THE FOOL BLISS. Again we see the importance of stopping the world and expanding the consciousness far beyond what the I can see. No Law is beyond the Bliss of the Fool, for the Fool has no knowledge or rational thought, and therefore no place for Laws or outside influence prison structurings. This is why the Fool is the only un-numbered card in the Tarot, Atu 0. In non-AL words this is reinforced by: BLACK EAGLE = ICONOCLAST = NOT MIND = END MIND = BLACK LIGHT = SOLITUDE. Black Eagle is a flying projection of Black Knowledge Illumination. Turn off your lights that have been turned on by others.

The black eagle is the supreme bird of Death (in its full occult meaning, as in the Tarot Trump): the emblem, omen, messenger, bringer of NOT-THING - or the ally, even the master, of death, which is why in folk art and fetish objects the eagle is sometimes depicted sitting atop a skull. Note the two feathered wings emanating from the skull which sits on the top of AOS' head in the frontispiece to The Book of Pleasure - the drawing itself is entitled The Death Posture. Two feathered wings are also hooked around his left hand, which appears to hold a snake - this could symbolise the ascension, or sacrifice, of the sex force to higher realms or purposes.

SUNDAY 7 APRIL 2002

Develop Invokation and perform it to establish initial Contact. Then develop the work from there. Go Beyond, or Behind, formal ritual approaches. You are capable, just do it without barriers. I have myself to please. I shall try to get the Black Eagle Invokation. Black Candles and Incense. Black Eagle's colour portrait from Zos Speaks! on Altar, and Zos Kia Cultus Seal. [Originally made by Steffi Grant and also reproduced in the same book - Frater 33 - 2015.]

B: 11:33 PM E: 11:48 PM Duration: 15 Minutes.

I open the Doors on the Winds and Call to Black Eagle,
Transmitter of the Starry Fountain,
Flying Unseen by the Unseeing in the Night of Infinite Pathways.
I am Here and Do see thee,
Come to my Awareness Now In the Flesh,
and impart to me thy Knowledge and Power.
For I seek the Outerness of All Otherness,
Outside and Within Me.
Show me thy Sacred Way,
Enter me and Guide me upon it,
Guide me through this Occult Maze with Your Wisdom and Conversation.
Black Eagle! Black Eagle! Black Eagle!
Now, In the Flesh!
I are Ye, Ye are Me.

(Repeat final Line as Mantra).

Banished with Pentagrams and The Sign of Silence, then SOI: "IT IS MY WILL TO OBTAIN THE INVOKATION TO BLACK EAGLE". It seemed a lot longer than the time it took. Knelt before Altar and stared at the Portrait, and the Words just appeared, without labour or Lust of Result. The couple upstairs were sexing loudly, the sounds of the woman in ecstasy certainly seemed condusive to what I was doing. At end closed the Book and then blew candles out and savoured the Darkness and Quiet. Banished with Laughter and Lightbulb. During the Ritual, I happened to gaze at the Black Mirror, which was unopened, and my reflection in it. A few seconds after I began doing this the woman upstairs fell out of bed with a loud crash.

Must read Crowley's Liber Astarte for devotional praxis ideas and Austin Osman Spare's Witches Sabbath.[1] In the future I want deeper Gnosis - Really Out There states. Words to add to Invokation: Wish. Power. Ecstasy. Neither-Neither, That Informs Zos Kia Cultus. Hand and the Eye. Awaken. Mysteries. Do sense thee. Come fully to my Awareness. Lead me Upon It. Almighty Transmitter. Thou. Knoweth.

MONDAY 8 APRIL 2002

Read Crowley's Liber Astarte in the early hours amongst a recording of birdsong. Some good ideas there I shall adopt and adapt. Read Austin Osman Spare's The Witches Sabbath. Great Inspirational Current from that. Made pictorial Sigil and Talismanic Mantra for the work. Mantra has same meaning as Sigil, to be charged together simultaneously, staring and chanting. Also made a conscious mantra for use in devotion: "I LOVE TO LOVE BLACK EAGLE".

ILTLBE Mantra chanted verbally and mentally on walk to town and in town. The phrase: "Don't Look Back" arose in mind on walk there. Tried to open myself out to Love, so I can interact deeper with Black Eagle. Amazing how Love can lighten the mind's reaction to the world. I was astounded at how easy it was to Love my fellow humans, who I usually dislike or hate.

I knew there was a good, important Book waiting for me in one of the Charity Shops, so even though I was tired I went in most of them, that I don't normally do. In the final one I went in, sure enough there was a great book waiting. I found Artaud & After by Ronald Hayman (Oxford University Press, 1977), an excellent biography of the very interesting Antonin Artaud, with many references to his occult interests and madness-as-genius, the awareness of hidden dimensions. The Woman in the shop gave me 50p too much in change, that I noticed when I was outside, so I went back and gave it to her as an act of Love and Honesty for the Charity. The two women in the shop smiled and I saw how much this act affected them. It "made their day".

Went round the Red House and saw its man and wife and their children as aspects of Black Eagle. This is a strange exercise. Really short-circuits rational thinking. Helpful. Noted that unprovoked, the wife talked of love and my sex life, and how humans can do lots of strange things like seances and so on. I talked unlovingly about people, that I shouldn't have - although at the end I said: "But I shouldn't talk like that about people," so at least I was aware I was doing it. Also dedicated acts to Black Eagle - Food to make me stronger for the work and so on.

TUESDAY 9 APRIL 2002

Concentrated on the working before sleep. Making it clear that I wanted my Deep Mind to give me information please. Slept really soundly and had dreams about Love - pets, parents, friends, the bond there. Read an interesting quote by Artaud in the Hayman book, page 119:

What unites creatures is Love. What divides them is sexuality.

The initials of BLACK EAGLE, BE: the emphasis is on YOU. BE - Live, do it yourself. As with HERMIT - KUNDALINI - NOT MIND gematria. Stopping the Ego. Silence. The Void, going beyond mundane human habitual conceptual thought. The usually unproductive and limiting thought patterns we are forced to learn from others as we grow up. It is in the nature of people who have sold out to try and make others do likewise. Why the hell should I want to think like anyone else? This Control - so obvious, down to the finest detail... BLACK EAGLE = THE LOVER = ANDROGYNOUS: A Loving Beneficial Force, beyond duality and the ridiculous either/or - frown/approval matrix that wants to rule the world. 309 came up in dream in large white characters. Interesting as it equates with: BLACK EAGLE MANIFESTATION. BLACK and MANIFESTATION being Liber AL Words. The Black Manifestation of No-thing-ness. I live in skulls, the night.

Attempt to Fine Tune the Black Eagle Invokation. One Candle. Portrait. Banish with Pentagrams and Sign of Silence. Keep it simple, therefore with no barriers to Power. SOI: "IT IS MY WILL TO FINE TUNE THE BLACK EAGLE INVOKATION." Then No-Mind Meditation. Stare at Portrait. Contact.

B: 11:30 PM E: 12:05 AM Duration: 35 Minutes.

Had Black Eagle's Portrait facing the paper I was writing on, that felt right. I did feel Contact was made, there was a more different and powerfuller 'me' doing the writing. I am happy with the result. The Invokation expresses my Desire very well. The Words evoke good images for me. Banished with Laughter and Lightbulb.

Revised Invokation to Black Eagle:

I open the Doors on the Winds,
and Call to Black Eagle,
Almighty Transmitter of the
Starry Fountain of Gnosis.
Flying Unseen by the Unseeing in the
Night of Infinite Pathways.
I am Here and Do sense thee.
Come fully to my Hand and Eye,
Now, In the Flesh.
Impart to me thy Knowledge and Power.
For I Wish to Awaken
the Outerness of All Otherness,
Outside and Within Me.
Reveal to me thy Sacred Way.
Enter me and lead me through
Thy Mysteries.
Guide me with Your Wisdom and Conversation.
Black Eagle! Black Eagle! Black Eagle!
Now, in the Flesh!
I are Ye, Ye are Me!

(Repeat Final Line As Mantra - eventually letting the words blur and merge together into glossalailia as I lose myself and obtain Contact).

WEDNESDAY 10 APRIL 2002

Slept during the day. Woke up with headache that I cured. Helpful dream: I'm playing darts and need Double 16 to Win. The lights go out and it is dark. I forget my ordinary self and let my Higher Self take over and throw the dart. It goes in Double 16 and I win. I.e.: remember that the SUB-conscious is all powerful and don't let the conscious ego mind get in the way. Thought unloving thoughts about people, but I am noticing that I'm doing it, and stopping it - changing it to loving thoughts.

Black Eagle Sigil. Laid down in the dark, still. Banished Astrally.

B: 11:40 PM E: ? Duration: ?

Fell asleep during and cannot remember any information, although there was some. Banished on awakening. I read some good bits in the Artaud Book today, especially about his travels in Mexico and meetings with the Indians there and talk of the Void being central to their philosophy. See the Mexico Chapter. Also their Monist beliefs: Everything is one and has consciousness. These ideas are the Key to Black Eagle and Zos Kia Cultus I think, and deserve to be meditated and more importantly, acted upon. Dedicated actions to Black Eagle. Food, Bath and so on, "I do X, so I will be stronger in my Work with Black Eagle".

THURSDAY 11 APRIL 2002

Went for a walk around the slate mine at dawn in the clear light. ILTLBE mantra chanted mentally for most of the duration. It is obvious everything is connected - even aesthetically, let alone psychically - The effect a metal railing post gives against the grass below it. Bird song heard amongst factory hum. The smell of moist earth with the eyes of a young child. Juxtapositions are a forgotten key to magic. Walk was all very pleasant. Saw hippy-traveller encampment near Holiday Park in the Woods - unexpected - wordless information/realisations from that event. Near end of walk I saw to my left briefly for a few seconds a warping dark shadow, about human sized, in the bushes near the river.

I'm too tired to do a formal Invokation, so shall concentrate on Sigil in the dark lying down.

B: ? E: ? Duration: ?

Fell asleep again before even starting the Ritual. Seem to go to sleep very quickly these past few days. I have been really tired. Is this my Psychic Censor? Or perhaps a message that the Zone where Black Eagle dwells is more easily reached through the dreaming deeper levels rather than the conscious, waking world of effort and let's face it, Lust of Result, grasping stupidity. Some dream conversation: "You are the core, moving through space." "What is me?" I replied. The answer was: "Infinite Possibilities for your Will." Then later: "I believe in everything - but don't think of it too often."

FRIDAY 12 APRIL 2002

Was accosted in town by a middle-aged Christian woman and her brainwashed-looking male apprentice, wanting to sell me their conception of "The Lord". They both had that unsettling "dirty shadows" look about them I've noticed in the faces and auras of similar Xtian cultoids, that suggests that however much they pray or bathe, they are just never going to get really clean. These people don't have a clue about what LIFE is, and are too stupid to even realise they might not have a clue. As Nisargadatta Maharaj once remarked:

Wisdom is knowing that you are nothing. Love is knowing that you are everything.

A man on the bus on the way home, I stood behind him on the stairs as we were waiting to get off. I noticed he had three blue dots tattooed on the back of his right hand in an upright triangle, as in the three dots denoting an esoteric organisation and much more. I take this as a Sign from Black Eagle that I am not alone, there are others on the Path also. Contact - Interact with them, maybe I am to meet one of them - possible help? Should I have said something to Triangle Man? Hadn't seen him around here before. Why don't I ever follow these people to see where they go and what they do - like that meeting with the alien woman outside the train station?

Found these words in my notebook I always carry around - just in case. They were received during the Mantra Walk some days ago. Forgot I'd written them: "Silk Moves. The Crown is all around. The Moon."

SATURDAY 13 APRIL 2002

Last night or this morning I had a dream where AOS said "Regard Everything As Self." I could regard everything as an aspect of Black Eagle. It would be better perhaps to regard people, and other living creatures and Nature as aspects of Black Eagle, and keep vigilant for Signs and Omens also, as they are coming. Wrote for hours for most of the day. Laid down to rest hand before starting Black Eagle work at about 10:00 PM, then fell asleep really quickly without meaning to.

SUNDAY 14 APRIL 2002

In dream I met a Sucubus, or rather, a real Woman? Seemed like a genuine this-world situation - met her family and was at her House - no alien glitches in the situation. She took her clothes off and we began to make love - then I woke up. This dream and the feelings and realisations I had in it tells me I really should sort out my love life - how can I truly understand Love and Devotion when single? Then again, seeing the state most couples are in... Also this morning I had a sudden urge to read From The Inferno To Zos Volume 2,[2] that I haven't really looked at in great detail before. Found the Chapters on The Alphabet of Desire very helpful. Was Black Eagle guiding me to read this material today? Black Eagle did inform AOS of such matters after all.

Although I have performed no formal devotion/rituals and so on, all day today I have felt Black Eagle's presence around and in me - at the 'edges' of my mind - simply there, helping and inspiring me. I feel very magical, a strong sense, definitely not ego games. Surely formal, traditional Invokatory methods are out of date here? Unnecessary. What Is Necessary? What is Celery? AOS stripped down magic to the bare essentials, erasing the convoluted ritual decadence trappings - Can I strip it down even further? Dispensing even with Sigils whatever? And JUST DOING IT? Turn It Off To Turn It On. The placement of the throne is paramount to the King. Time Out. Stifle the Stifle.

Invokation of Black Eagle

B: 8:40 PM E: 8:58 PM Duration: 18 Minutes.

Banished, then SOI. Then opened Book to Portrait. Changed my consciousness by rolling head in circle and will. Then spoke Invokation quietly. Some hesitation in pronouncing the words several times but generally quite inspired. Felt the need to write and quickly, without too many stops, and wrote one side of A4, sometimes feeling I was writing it - other times that Black Eagle was 'me' inside me, writing it. Banished. This way of doing things seems right, very Zos-Kia. I do not need paraphanalia and the usual, it is not condusive to my current state of magical development nor to work with Black Eagle - but I feel I could/should enter a deeper Gnosis state during the Invokation and before the actual Invokation. Perhaps some kind of excitatory dance. Some awareness of neighbours overhearing me has limited me.

Most of the page I wrote is obviously, I suspect, from my surface, conscious mind. It only became more interesting, deeper and Black Eagle-like towards the end, so I shall only record these parts, and later do a Cut/Up Ritual of the entire text to see if it will reveal more.

Here and There he speaks still to us who call in the Magic Time. Now he says is the Time to Act. We must not wait until tommorrow for that never exists. What we do now is paramount, there is an existant loci of formulations apparent to the knowledgable gained way of information. Be What You are. Open the Channels to Outer Stars, become what you are, and have forgotten. You are blocking your powers by what you mistakenly think you are. No one is looking. Reap the reward of your ancestors toil. Sweeten thy life, oppose not the natural synthesis of Powers. When the Sun and Moon are One the Third Being can Become. Star Sirius silent yet knowable, it speaks no words but can be heard. The Cross is important + .

Then obtained the vision of a wooden Y-shaped stick segmented equally by horizontal bands of red and green. Then a naturally holed stone, holly leaves, running river - suggestion of a Ritual involving these things.

Some thoughts that arose afterwards: FEEL the Invokation more. LIVE the images conjoured. Make it REAL. Develop as if - Regard Black Eagle as childhood imaginary friend. I feel taller. I remember I felt taller when round the Red House a few days ago. The Symbols - obviously Sex-Magic. The Stick is Phallus. Stone is Yoni. Holly - Xmas, present, a Gift given or received. River - moving, ships, bringing things. A mental attitude of not looking back or clinging to the past. Could do this Ritually Astrally. Green - Nature, simple existence power. Red - lust, sex.

MONDAY 15 APRIL 2002

Had a headache for most of the day that effected work. Walking home from the Green House at night under the stars along the deserted road with no pavements, tree-lined on either side of me, I did an improvised Invokation of Black Eagle. Felt good - difficult to explain - wider awareness of surroundings, the night opening - revealing, the people I saw - especially a woman and her dog - Wider Psychic Power Awareness is how I describe it. Potentials.

When I got home I looked at my hi-fi amplifier and realised it was an "Eagle" make with the trademark symbol of a black eagle's head next to the word Eagle! ILTLBE Mantra repeated mentally for a while during all this.

TUESDAY 16 APRIL 2002

Streuth! Some of these dreams... They are showing you just what's possible over there. Is the Dreamworld interested in us? Tried to draw one of the scenes presented (shown below), the undulating myriad of selves within us all - all of us within the myriad of selves.

Cut/Up Ritual involving the A4 page of text I received on Sunday 14 April 2002. Banished by Beam of White Light sweeping and filling room. Did the Ritual by the light of one candle. Auto-erotic stimulation to Gnosis State then cut the page up. Rekindled Gnosis several times by auto-erotic stimulation then wrote out the cut-up words whilst still in Gnosis - not exactly as they were - sometimes substituting other words that they prompted or felt like or inspired.

B: 12:22 AM E: 12:56 AM Duration: 34 Minutes.

His Teachings can Become. Startime Now he says through integrals efficiency and Blackwords/Blackwards, but can be he until tommorrow...? Eagle Sensitives Black hum is paramount, he manifested Elder Naturally conditions apparent to be entity at Source. The Holed. Be What You are, the inner locus. Of Course Austin Stone, the Channels great magic certainly possessed to A, and have Spirit of be an Ancestor pupil powers by what you call asking. Reap the New Act. Life oppose not, exists with the Sun and distant gained Stars need to Transmit ore, whose genuine ray seen by the Spirit in the form of Teacher, and your still to us many. Is the Time AOS, although more times called.... Ascent Moon are for that never. Weakens wear maske, was the Spirit to Sirius silent? There is teachers come to us, called American Ascension, herself the Bard. The Knowledge Olded Ones, Secret Chiefs Black Eagle could she transmit. Open. That informed, and there the speaker access to Black Holly leaves to Outer. Her/the Inspirer of Running River forgotten and the Doorways Ritual Invoking these Things. Eagle to her Third Being, he speaks/it speaks no words distant + augmented equally. Think your loci of formulation Austin Osman Spare ancestors ray of information symmetry can be easily natural symbols is an Indian Space One. Come what you open to MP and A, yet knowable unlocking your powerley different. Tao Ego/Eagle is the Cross important one. No one is Indians of what is now, they are why? soil. Sweeten thy magical power and Ones. Black Eagle thesis of Powers. These People Here Mystery, Mrs Paterson in the Magic T Osman Spare. We must not wait and pass what we do now. Black Eagle continues.

This is interesting - the first and last sentences enclose a definite Transmission Message. "Austin Stone" reminds me of the "Jizo Stone" of Buddhism, usually depicted as a statue of a child, that sits outside the Temple and outlasts all the books, teachings and practitioners, thus reminding the practitioner of the Kia, Tao or Absolute, beyond the real and unreal. It neither "is" or "is not", and cannot be called by any name. The Jizo Stone tells us of the ultimate folly of all spiritual teachings, descriptions and conceptions, as they arise from the deluded, unenlightened mind, producing pitfalls and deviations from the aim. He who knows, does not speak.

The Jizo Stone is a demonstration of the saying: "All things possess the Buddha Nature" - the Dharma is given even through inanimate objects. "possessed to A" - the Zos-Kia backwards reaching through genetic memory to the Almighty Simplicity of Kia. Also "open to MP and A" - Mrs Paterson and the Eternal Resurgence teaching. Go back to A, the beginning... "American Ascension" - the AA? - Jack Parsons Babalon Working? - "herself the Bard" - Babalon, who dictated "The Book of Babalon" to him? She can transmit the "Knowledge Olded Ones"? "Powerley" - is an interesting word, evoking one's "Ley" Line, individual path to Gnosis and Secret Information and Intelligences. Some references throughout to the "Now-ness" of Black Eagle magic. "Running River forgotten" aptly describes the vacuity state, essential to Zos-Kia Sorcery - the river runs so fast and effortlessly that the reason why it's doing it is lost to consciousness - it simply acts without any lust of result. The "Doorways Ritual" Invoking this state - giving access to Babalon - Nuit. "They are why? soil" - the people lost in Reason and Because, seeded encased pasts absorbed, brewing their future - not knowing the Eternal Moment Awareness of the Indians.

Invokation to Black Eagle

B: 11:46 PM E: 11:56 PM Duration: 10 Minutes.

Banished. SOI. Final Line Mantra worked well, transforming into effective Barbarous Language. Weird things attract Weird things. Closed eyes and saw afterimage of Book and Portrait for a long time. Opened eyes and noticed Spirit forms to the right of Black Eagle's figure in the Portrait, that I hadn't noticed before. When eyes were shut I saw long lines, forming Symbols in front of them or behind them. There was an emphasis on being NOW, and with NO EGO, no past effecting me. Laid on floor and felt like this - more powerful than usual, the power being the power, and not my conception of it. Surges of didactic energy. Vision of me dancing round the Black Eagle Sigil that has been drawn in the Earth.

WEDNESDAY 17 APRIL 2002

Had a dream saying forget the past - don't let it influence you. This idea has been told to me several times during the past week or so. The "Running River forgotten" from yesterday sums up the attitude. There is great satisfaction in stillness and movement, that we knew and understood as a child. We tend to forget these simple wonders, and must re-discover them. Ask Black Eagle to explain No-Mind and Now-ness. Act - Be as Black Eagle - In situations ask "How would Black Eagle react in this situation?". Do as he would, "as if" I was him. Become him whenever possible.

Invokation of Black Eagle.

B: 10:25 PM E: 10:52 PM Duration: 27 Minutes.

When partial, ego-conscious thoughts are stopped, the Will-Desire-Belief are in perfect Unison, unimpeded and can transmit to the All-Kia, crystallising in Its Ever Powerness, to be reborn as flesh as now in this World of Illusions upon Illusions. Make thy Illusions serve thee, not vice-versa, for that is the Way of the Zos-Kia Cultus. Make your enbirthings of flesh, not abortions of the shadow mind of ego, empty, half-formed ghosts that hinder, and not help. On the Brink of Vacuity, all things are possible, Make that real. Formulate then Forget. The First Letter of the Sacred Alphabet is also a Posture of the arms behind the head in the Death Posture. Therefore it is a means to the Kia, the Neither-Neither. Other Sacred Letters can be represented by other Postures, formed by the Body and/or Hand. There is the key to No-Mind. Perform it and understand.

Banished. SOI. Perfected Yoni Mudra as Preliminary Preparation. (Note: My version of this Mudra and variation of the Zos Kia Cultus Death Posture consists of stopping the five senses, plus the breathing and thinking, by taking a deep breath in and holding it, then closing the eyes and holding the eyelids shut with the two forefingers, placing a thumb in each ear, holding the nostrils closed with the middlefingers, and the mouth closed by clamping the lips shut between the fourth and little fingers. Whilst in this position, block all thoughts. This is a very effective means - especially when extended to near unconsciousness - of charging Sigils, or to generally "Blow away the cobwebs".)

Entered Gnosis and Performed the Invokation. Asked for Information and help with No-Mind. Then put arms behind my back in the Death Posture, and realised that this placement of the arms and hands actually forms the first letter of Austin Osman Spare's Sacred Alphabet (see drawing above-left).[3] Inspired, I wrote the above Commentary about it. Then performed the Death Posture in this exact position, thumbs touching, correlating to the first Sacred Letter. The posture is apt, as the head is situated directly in the center of the two arms - the arms representing the transcendence of duality, with the head - consciousness - ego balanced directly in the center. In The Book of Pleasure, page 33 (which by NAEQ6 is the number of: KIA), AOS uses this Sacred Letter to symbolise the Neither-Neither state, or duality as unity. Also cognate with this arms position is the legs position formed in the full lotus asana, the left foot on the right thigh, and the right foot on the left thigh. When the legs are crossed like this, even though we have a right leg and a left leg, they have become one. The position expresses the oneness of duality: not two, and not one. When the left foot is on the right side of the body, and the right foot is on the left side of the body, we do not know which is which. So either may be the left or the right side.

Found it hard to balance on tip toes. At Climax I lay on floor laughing sex body energy potential - Visualised Black Eagle Sigil. Thanked Black Eagle at end then Banished. I shall use the Death Posture more, both this way and with mirror. Is the Death Posture the "Doorways Ritual" Invoking the "Running River forgotten" state and "her" - Isis - Typhon - Babalon? Predicted in the Cut/Up of Tuesday 16 April 02? Or is the "Doorways Ritual" my personal Invokation, "I open the Doors on the Winds" is the first line. It "Invokes her," Inspiration from Beyond.

Postures - Mudras - Symbolising Forces is reminiscent of Voodoo - when possessed by a loa the person sits in the customary characteristic posture of the particular loa. The Fraternitas Saturni developed sexual congress postures relating to the Astrological Signs and Rune magicians have used a system of forming the Runes with body postures. There is magical power in gesture - the upraised middle finger, the shaking of the clenched fist, pointing, no-one likes to be pointed at - all convey wordless information that penetrates beyond the conscious awareness, and registers at the instinctual level, probably left over from the cavemen times when human interaction relied mainly on gesture, not words. Thus it conveys information more directly and deeper, bypassing conscious thought - making ideal for use in magic. Do I want to work with Postures - Mudras as Sigils/Symbols?

THURSDAY 18 APRIL 2002

Was looking for a quote in the Artaud book - didn't know where it was. Began reading parts of it instead, forgot about looking for the quote, then a while later, as I was about to put the book down, I happened to just open a page and it was the one with the quote I was looking for.

Invokation of Black Eagle. Sexual Ritual. Candle, Incense, Naked.

B: 11:24 PM B: 11:41 PM Duration: 17 Minutes.

Banished. SOI - To Invoke Black Eagle and obtain a suitable sex partner. Stared into the mirror briefly - quickly went into Selfless Trance. Performed Invokation - misread some words due to the depth of the trance so had to repeat several lines. Then self-caressed body and began visualising the running river - the actual gurgling sound the radiator was making at this point helped this. Induced a state of fast flowingness that no thoughts could cling to - a good image to visualise, then beside it lay a circle of interwoven Holly Leaves, that felt very apt - the Holly's sharp points keeping hostile influences at bay, and also symbolising Yule and Gifts, attracting good things and giving good things in Selfless Pleasure. Inside this the Red and Green Stick and Holed Stone, that began to mate together in congress, the Stick locked in penetrative embrace with the Stone. This grew more frenzied, and at Climax I threw the Stick and Stone into the River, and made everything White. Banished by IAO, Clap, Laughter and Lightbulb.

I'm very pleased with this Ritual, it all felt very natural and right. Some confusion between "getting really into it" and "lust of result" - was the latter the former and vice-versa, but didn't really effect the performance. As the ritual progressed the Auto-Pilot effortlessly took over. During the Invokation I felt a very positive response from Black Eagle - the Portrait smiled at me, if a little bemused! Read some of Gavin W. Semple's Zos-Kia (Fulgur, 1995) earlier. Very helpful. These men with their words, but it's not words, it's part of their mind talking to you.

FRIDAY 19 APRIL 2002

A dream symbolising Be Anarchic, Wild in Nature. Chanted ILTLBE continuously on walk to town and in town for a while. On the way there saw a Cow giving birth, then later two young lambs playing, full of the Joys of Spring - Elemental Nature Forces. After that I saw an Egg Box on the pavement that looked like a Skull Mask. All very interesting and speaking of the Other.

Improvised Invokation to Black Eagle. Sigil and Mantra.

B: 11:45 PM E: 12:14 AM Duration: 29 Minutes.

Banished. Improvised Black Eagle Invokation. Then imagined the mystic union of my ego with everything, as in The Book of Pleasure, then chanted Mantra and visualised Sigil. A bit too tired to get really into it, mind did wander a bit but overall a serious sustained concentration.

SATURDAY 20 APRIL 2002

Dreamt of the Black Eagle Ritual I did yesterday night. Couldn't do any work as I had a headache for most of the day. I have to sort this out. Very angered 'nihilism' thoughts today - what use is anything, though not in a hopeless sense - more a desire for purity, quality rather than quantity. This may be a result of yesterday's Ritual. Although still can't help thinking of that Mark E. Smith one-liner: "Everyone's in prison or in the army - all sincere, all phony."

SUNDAY 21 APRIL 2002

Invokation to Black Eagle.

B: 5:08 AM E: 5:24 AM Duration: 16 Minutes.

Don't say anything too small. Live each Word born centrally. Do not impose thought where it is not needed. Light the Path To Wisdom with Grace. Night Out. The Hand and Eye encircles this World and creates Others. Subvert the past by Erasing. Open Now the Potential Futures Present. The Fires of Life burn Eternally. Kia rains through Channels of Light. The Flowers are Books. Midnight Rainbow opens the Door to Over-Knowledge. You are All Things, Before and After Birth and Death.

Banished. SOI. Felt Communication from Black Eagle emanating from the Portrait in waves to inside me. I imagine if I stared long enough the lips would move and speak to me, like the ancient statues and idols did to my ancestors. Wrote down the above words during.

Afterwards wrote the following: The artist's lines are carved moments. Reverse. Revolt. Don't go down train tracks. Psyche a portion of the whole, a Hole in the All, mentioning a part of the Star. Power never stops you think it does it is all here. I must be aware - see you everywhere. Be what you are. Disregard disregardings. Our Oracle is the sky. We came down before man came up. Then read Zos Speaks! around pages 120. Good words about Magic and the Sacred Alphabet. Had lovely long dream, where I overheard a voice off-stage saying: "A Ten year old Girl can mean almost anything." And: "I tend to give up a three-minded yesterday." Yes-No-Maybe.

MONDAY 22 APRIL 2002

Dreamt I was being taught the Martial Arts. Symbolises be vigilant, alert. Feel the inner prana and make the best use of it. Strike while the iron is hot. Didn't get up until 5:00 PM so today is really tommorrow.

TUESDAY 23 APRIL 2002

Invokation of Black Eagle.

B: 5:35 AM E: 5:59 AM Duration: 24 Minutes.

Banished. SOI. Read Invokation mostly silently, then lay down and stared at Portrait. This is the Icon and Link to Black Eagle, and is a Gateway to his Sphere. I noticed just how brilliantly the picture has been made, saw how intricate it is, the 3D like quality, that I hadn't fully noticed before. Black Eagle really seemed to come alive several times and move. He told me how Line is Magical, the drawing/making of lines - an act of will describing the imagination, raw mind stuff translated from one plane to another, inside the head to outside on paper - marriage of the Hand and Eye. Just felt wonderful to commune with Black Eagle. Had electric light on - the trick would work better in candlelight - certain sacraments also would help. Banished with Laughter.

I know AOS simply gazed at and lost himself in the lines of the Portrait when he wanted to contact Black Eagle. This shows an example of the Line as Magical, the lines of the Portrait are an expression, an encapsulation representing Black Eagle, as like a Talisman. AOS drew it as an icon of his desire for and love of Black Eagle, so what simpler way to contact Black Eagle than to just look at the Portrait properly? I find the simplicity of this technique very full of vast potential and is obviously analogous to the Sacred Alphabet.

Chanted the last line of the Invokation for some while during the Ritual - Repeatedly Projecting my consciousness to his - then his consciousness back to mine: "I am Ye" - as me speaking to him, then "Ye are Me," as him speaking to me. First I am me, then him. This establishes a strong rapport that can be developed. Locks my awareness with his early on.

WEDNESDAY 24 APRIL 2002

Invokation of Black Eagle.

B: 5:39 AM E: 5:57 AM Duration: 18 Minutes.

Banished. SOI. Invokation, then stared at Portrait in the light of one candle. So much arose, the majesty of the technical way the Portrait has been done, so it seems to move, the importance of the Death Posture and Atavistic Resurgence, of meditating on Black Eagle - who he is - get deeper into him, trance-astral meetings with him and the Indian Tribe he belongs to. How he taught Mrs Paterson, Austin Osman Spare and now myself. Of communion with him - direct, powerful. How effective Magic must come from oneself. Other peoples ideas and techniques are just that, and must not influence your own way. Have a Clue.

Keep getting the idea to draw the Sigil on the Earth and dance around it in a circle. My footfall indenting an actual circle on the ground. The phrase: "Ground Source." You put a seed in the earth, or even in a small pot of soil in your room, and it just bloody grows due to the Ground Source.

THURSDAY 25 APRIL 2002

On the walk to town I told Black Eagle aloud that I was sorry I wasn't doing more work with him, but that I was sincere and asked him to give me the knowledge and insight he taught the Witch Paterson and Austin Osman Spare. Then repeated "Black Eagle" verbally and mentally for a while, then "I Love You Black Eagle" as Mantra, then later shouted this out loudly twice. Saw an unmistakable head in the arrangement of stones in a dry stone wall, and also observed Nature more clearly, more intensified than usual. Several weird visuals - things shimmering - appearing in the distance fleetingly. As I verbally chanted "I Love You Black Eagle" I sent the desire out into the Universe, to the far distances, which felt proper and apt - I have been too insular perhaps in former work - Think Big - Excess Succeeds. In town, starting under the Arch of the Bridge there was spread along the road in a rough line many blank white sheets of A4 paper, suggestive of the Void extending.

In the bookshop read in a book by Lewis Spence on American Indian Myths [probably Lewis Spence, North American Indians (Myths & Legends), Senate Books, 1994 - Frater 33 - 2015] that the Eagle was one of the supreme symbols of veneration and that only Warriors could claim the name of Eagle - not ordinary persons of the Tribe. The Eagle was venerated highly by almost all tribes of North American Indians. Was up all night manic then a friend came round so no formal Invokation.

FRIDAY 26 APRIL 2002

Didn't get up until 9:00 PM and had a headache, so no work.

SATURDAY 27 APRIL 2002

Read The Cult of the Divine Artist article from Starfire, that mentions Black Eagle, which was useful. Also read Opening the Way for the Daemons of the Void article, from another issue of Starfire, which reproduces an interesting Ritual, that is basically a form of the Death Posture, used to contact the Outer Entities Inbetween.[4] Think I can use a variation of this as a Ritual to contact Black Eagle, perhaps combined with the Invokation.

Black Eagle Invokation.

B: 9:07 PM E: 9:16 PM Duration: 9 Minutes.

Image of Black Eagle appeared, and said "Be Still. Impart." Some other vague forms of Beings. A Symbol appeared before the former, which meant: "Limiting Duality from Limiting You."

Banished. SOI. Read Invokation. Sigil before one candle. Visualised White Beams coming from the candleflame to make a circle around me, then forming a Sphere. Imagined Black Doorway slowly widening in the White, improvising further Black Eagle Invokation, "I open the outer, come inner, Black Eagle," and suchlike. Then White Doorway slowly opening in the Black. Repeated this several times then Neither Black-Neither White Void State. Opened eyes and looked at Sigil then threw it astrally into the candleflame. Closed eyes again and remained in the Void where I obtained the above Communication. Banished with one clap and Sign of Silence to close.

This is a good ritual that works - it does open the Inner and Outer Gates. I can't believe it only lasted nine minutes! Seemed much longer. I should extend it perhaps. Definitely need to be more extrovert and pay more attention to Black Eagle - always in mind, either by Mantra, seeing other people as him, thinking about him, dedicating food and drink to the work and so on. What is a diversion and what is not a diversion? Something to pick up and put down. Why are diversions?

SUNDAY 28 APRIL 2002

Started keeping Black Eagle in constant awareness - dedicating food and drink to the work, and Mantras. Didn't get up until past 9:00 PM so no other work. Sleep pattern is erratic and puts me out of sync with myself. In the morning I turned the TV on and the first thing I saw on the screen was the title credits for a youth programme called "AS IF" in large capitals. Obviously a Sign on how to approach the work from now on. To live for a week "as if" I was the greatest magician in Britain, assuming that I'm not already, and I'm not so sure sometimes.

MONDAY 29 APRIL 2002

Stayed up all night. In the early hours as I searched for something unrelated, and in the same box I came across Kenneth Grant's Outer Gateways that reproduces a preliminary sketch of the Black Eagle Portrait by AOS, that I forgot was included in the book. The text around page 87 was very helpful. I understand more clearly now the concept of the Old Ones, Secret Chiefs, since reading this and Andrew D. Chumbley's articles - the belief that They exist beyond duality, inbetween thoughts. It's one of those times when I knew it already - but now I really know it already. Black Eagle is a personage, and also a mask of these Forces. Page 108 of Outer Gateways: "the wings of the black eagle, or vulture, typical of the Old Ones." Flying hidden in the Deep Dark Night. Also the NAEQ of BLACK EAGLE supports this assertion. Surely, the True Gods would exist beyond the duality of human thought with its limitations and deceptions. They would dwell in a realm hard to reach except by the chosen few. All man-made gods may be an attempt to concretise vague glimpses, intuitions or aspects of the True Gods.

Invocation of Black Eagle, as on Saturday 27 April 02.

B: 7:06 AM E: 7:21 AM Duration: 15 Minutes.

Neither-Neither stronger - Used the "one-minute zazen" technique from the Zen Training manual: staring fixedly at a point on the wall whilst keeping stomach muscles tensed and not breathing.[5] This really does stop discursive thought. Vision of brown (also red?) winged bird - very happy intensely joyous, also a Black Raven-Eagle. Visualisations better than yesterday - stronger. Asana/Pranayama would help the visualisations even more. The essential thing is to explore directly the Death Posture, as this, and the Neither-Neither state it rams home is the Key and Gateway to the Zone of Black Eagle. Read Invokation at start, although I was supposed to do it after the circle-sphere of white light from candle. Did not matter.

Read chapter 3 of Kenneth Grant's Outer Gateways. Scintillatory fascinating information on Black Eagle and related subjects. Perhaps I should go on a Magical Pilgrimage to the "ruins of a twelfth century edifice" in South Wales where Grant claims Mrs Paterson invoked Black Eagle. Is this a real place or Grant's artistic license? Has he made it real by his craft?

Go back through previous work - note any ideas or themes that may assist me. Work - find out as much as possible about Black Eagle, as a lover would for his partner. Art - Trance, Absent-Minded, Side-Real states of thinking whilst allowing the pen to make Lines. Yoni Mudra - block my five senses with my ten fingers - concentrate on Sigil - forget it - breathe out - tense stomach muscles + stare at a point on the wall - remain in Void State aware for Communication. Do an all out extrovert extended fervent psychotic all day Invokation of Black Eagle.

On walk to town I had an encounter with a large black bird, probably a Crow, but quite possibly a Raven, that appeared out of nowhere to my right with a flap of radiant wings, arching upwards, shooting up vertically on (I presume) a current of air from near the ground into the sky - brilliant display, and strange. I haven't seen a bird do this before, it was almost levitating itself straight upwards, without moving its wings, and so close to me. Showing me the power of ecstasy-upliftment, a goad to go further. Nature teaches by demonstration and symbolic analogy - not words. This is why the subconscious thinks in symbols and pictures. Then once in town another strange experience - saw to the right of me an outstretched black crow - dead? But somehow not - still with power, lying on top of a low wall. These two experiences symbolise life and death - Make the most out of existence - Seize the Day. The latter Crow symbolises the Death Posture? Outwardly 'dead' but inwardly actually more truly alive.

TUESDAY 30 APRIL 2002

Dreamt that I was in a White Void. Is this and yesterday's Crow sightings a result of the Death Posture Ritual I've been doing? The Black Crows and the White Void. In the evening I laid down to rest before starting work, but fell asleep again.

WEDNESDAY 1 MAY 2002

Felt a strong Empowering Current today. Most of my mind was in another world. Felt compelled to draw a sketch of two entities (shown above) who were performing a strange ritual involving weird geometries and angles that lead to other dimensions. It says/represents something I won't try to describe. Was also inspired to write a semi-automatic text I shall use for my Book. Ideas for Rituals also.

Began Formally Consecrating things today, as Sacraments, different to how I have been doing it, along the lines of: "This Apple I dedicate and consecrate to my work with Black Eagle. May it strengthen me in this and make our Contact even stronger." Before I was doing it more as: "I eat this Apple so I will be stronger in my work with Black Eagle." There is a difference, the former method is more magically effective and a proper Sacrament. I am more conscious of the Apple being a Consecrated object before I consume it.

Same thing happened as yesterday, laid down to rest before working, but drifted off into sleep. No Black Eagle related dreams.

THURSDAY 2 MAY 2002

On the walk to town, that is becoming more and more interesting each time I do it, saw a Chinese girl in a car drive past - that reminded me of a forgotten dream this morning, of a postcard featuring a "KU" on the front, a picture of one, cartoon-like, in colour with a description on the reverse side, then another postcard with a 'related' being, a line drawing, abstracted, that now I think was the Symbol on the Altar that I drew yesterday between the two Beings. This drawing and the semi-automatic text I received yesterday I now realise was from Black Eagle. I shouldn't expect to only receive Information during or just after the Invokation - it may come later, and in unexpected ways, such as the wordless teaching of the bird I saw levitating.

Invokation to Black Eagle.

I approach the task freely, with no preconceptions.

Silent repetition of his name before Portrait, after putting whole mind in the Void. Read Invokatory text in a whisper, the words angling off into the furthermost reaches of the cosmos. Closed eyes and was with the Great Old Ones. Opened them to relations with Portrait. The face moves easily and quickly - the whole head, also the eyes and lips. An aura forms around the face and body easily, because I not there and stopping it. AOS intentionally drew the hair the way he did to provoke this. He also elongated the forehead purposefully so Sacred Letters, Symbols and Astral Scenes may appear on Black Eagle's forehead, through his Third Eye.

Afterwards, I knew something weird and good was going to happen. Wasn't just in the mind, but a different feel to the atmosphere, a curious weather feel of expectancy. Realised the Portrait was at the perfect height on my Altar, to sit under it with eyes looking slightly upwards at it - making them tired so they naturally closed half in and out so I slipped into Astral Sight. Again the assertion that it is all here. Everything is here if we would but recognise and grasp it.

I later found out that this ancient hypnotic technique works to establish the trance state because the eye muscles are the body's smallest and most easily fatigued. A subject will usually close their eyes upon command after they have been held in an upwards gaze for a short period of time - a trick used by professional hypnotherapists. This is also why Kings and Gurus are usually seated upon an elevated stage or platform in front of their followers, not just for symbolic social-hierarchical status reasons - the resultant eye-trance of the spectators induces a suggestible state, where they will accept subconscious commands from the leader far more easily and deeper than normal. Other research has confirmed that rolling the eyes upwards leads to increased Alpha Wave activity in the brain, which certainly deserves more attention.

FRIDAY 3 MAY 2002

Several instances of short-term precognition during the day. In the evening, walking home along the High Street, I saw two Mark of the Beast Symbols of the Cross within the Circle (shown above-left) reflected in light upon a wall, perhaps from a shiny surface [or chrome screw-head - Frater 33 - 2015] in one of the nearby shops. The same thing happened in town near my old place last year, only that time it was one larger version. Both then and now the Symbols were located at about the same distance from my house. [Strange as it may seem, it wasn't until six years later when I realised that I had drawn the two Beings standing inside a Mark of the Beast Magic Circle just two days before this abovementioned light-projected Mark of the Beast event - Frater 33 - 2008.]

Had a visitor in evening. Was tempted to do the work informally, invoking Black Eagle as I sat with my friend, but decided against it. Got half drunk and felt a strange excitement after friend had left. Started behaving like an unspecified animal beast, prowling around on all fours and growling. Knew the neighbours could hear but carried on. The thought of them wondering in dismay added to my power. Went over to the bed and with my teeth took out a Sigil that was kept hidden with the others in the pillowcase. Couldn't remember what desire it represented and was past caring anyway. Made a huge wave of power arise from my feet, up through my body and out of mouth with an awesome prehistoric wail, directing the energy into the very fabric that the sigil was inscribed upon. Then fell exhausted onto bed and slept almost immediately.

Was in the middle of an incredibly detailed dream that I was a wolf moving through the woods. Vision and hearing so acute, the smells were delicious. Then I woke up but was still a wolf. As the wolf consciousness tried to adapt itself to the unfamiliar surroundings of my room it started to panic and get violent. Then my normal self tried to take over, as part of me knew things weren't right and could easily get out of hand. Then the wolf/my point of awareness projected outwards from my body, and seemed to get stuck in the corner of the room near the ceiling. The corner was important, and seemed to attract and hold the consciousness there. 'I' remember thinking how clean the corner looked compared to the rest of the room. In hindsight, I suppose a wolf doesn't see many finely-rendered, painted corners out in the wilds, so would be interested in and fascinated by them. Then my normal self managed to take over and the next thing I knew I was me lying in bed, both body and mind. It took quite a while to get over this unplanned experience of Atavistic Resurgence. [I later found out that the Sigil I had charged, that I had made many months earlier, was in fact to acquire the Powers of a Wolf - Frater 33 - 2008.]

SATURDAY 4 MAY 2002

Invokation of Black Eagle.

B: 10:50 PM E: 11:11 PM Duration: 21 Minutes.

"Seek the Nights Entry to the Stations Beyond. I guide thine Hand and Eye for to Reach this Place. Stand steadfast in thy Way and naught shall assail thee in this. Unafraid, uncluttered - simply Open The Door directly with thy Sword of Will and surefire Desire, Solidly in Belief of thy Power. I am the Gate and the Key, a Mask I show for you to speak through. I am all that is Out-There, and a Sign of the Inmost Light. In crossroads or House I come, for I am always here to impart to the Chosen that which lies Beyond them. Come! and open, Greet me in Pleasure, for eternity is NOW, and the Space-Gates await! Outermost Unity showed. Heighten in Angular Sparks. Show the Line that carves the moment to your Will. (Flash of current of energy felt up my spine). The Snake makes Nought of concern, I make One of my Night, Before and After, Inside and Out, All Inbetween I slip to the Open Minded Ones." (A Pentagram appears, superimposing itself on top of itself, pointing in all directions in turn and all at once). This Transmission ends with an upright Star.

Simply did it with ease. Banished. SOI. Read Invokation. Turned around widdershins, revolving on axis flapping my arms like a bird as I intoned and repeated final line of glossalailia. Then stared at Sigil, afterwards eyes closed Yoni Mudra whilst facing Sigil still chanting Mantra mentally to Void. Opened eyes and the Sigil's afterimage from inside my head was projected from my eyes and placed right inside the shadow of my head as it fell upon the table, that was unplanned and good. Then tensed stomach muscles and concentrated on the Sigil, keeping mind blank. Received the Transmission above, that I wrote down as it came. Gave thanks, then Banished with a single clap. I like the no preconceptions - improvisational way I performed this. If you don't think too much about what you're doing and how you're doing it, interesting ideas and acts from the deeper mind arise.

SUNDAY 5 MAY 2002

Didn't get up until 4:30 PM and felt ill. Also tired and lazy. So no work, apart from thinking about Black Eagle. Did read in one of the newspapers a review of Anne Makepeace's Edward S. Curtis: Coming to Light (National Geographic Books, 2001), a biography of Edward S. Curtis, the great early-1900s cameraman and photographer of Native American Indians. I quote:

...every picture of his tells a story. Often the same one: his are vast narratives wherein the men are named individuals - Black Eagle, Two Whistles, Alexander B. Upshaw (an Apsaroke with a college doctorate) - while the women posture, very lightly draped, as "Maid of Dreams, Tribe Unknown". [Online version here.]

MONDAY 6 MAY 2002

In the early hours I lay in bed and meditated on Black Eagle - thought that the Key is No-Mind again. It seems like a constant thread running throughout this working is for my mind to repeatedly remind itself that No-Mind is the Key! I feel it is now time to bring this phase of the work to an end, and assimilate what I have experienced and learned. Later I shall no doubt return, and explore more deeply the important aspects I have discovered here.

The Warrior stays in the Nothing. He does not think when he doesn't have to. That way he does not lose Power. And when he does think it is from a stronger vantage point.

NOTES

[1] Aleister Crowley's 'Liber Astarte' is found in Israel Regardie, ed., Gems from the Equinox (Falcon Press, 1986). An expanded version of Austin Osman Spare's 'The Witches Sabbath' was published as 'The Zoetic Grimoire of Zos: The Formulae of Zos vel Thanatos' in Kenneth & Steffi Grant, Zos Speaks! (Fulgur, 1998, pp.219-237).
[2] Dr William Wallace, From the Inferno to Zos Volume 2: The Artist's Books: (1905-1927). First Impressions, 1995.
[3] Austin Osman Spare both drew and explained the device four times in The Book of Pleasure (Self-Love), on pages 7, 8, 18, 33, plus variants on pages 7, 33 and 56.
[4] Andrew D. Chumbley's 'The Cult of the Divine Artist' is in Starfire Volume II Number 1 (Starfire Publishing Ltd., 1996). His 'Opening the Way for the Daemons of the Void' is in Starfire Volume II Number 2 (Starfire Publishing Ltd., 1998).
[5] Katsuki Sekida, Zen Training: Methods & Philosophy. John Weatherhill Inc., 1983, Chapter 3, 'The Physiology of Attention'.

AFTERMATH

Before I moved onto something new, I felt the need to perform an experiment, the details of which came to me in a flash. I was urged to "Just Do It" - Contact Black Eagle with no formal ritual whatsoever. Instead I should sit in the room, and "Simply Know" that Black Eagle was already in the other adjoining room. Then I open the door and enter the next room, and see what happens.

This is a curious exercise. Felt quite scared and full of trepidation as I waited outside the door - as I didn't really know what to expect on the other side of the threshold. Very helpful in altering my awareness to wider things. (The oldest fear - of the Unknown. Now I've had a taste of what the candidates in the ancient Mystery Religions must have felt as they stood outside the entrance to the stygian chasm awaiting initiation.)

Then I entered through the portal and Everything Went Beyond Words, so I can't begin to describe it. I was, however, inspired to draw, and perhaps this Art will show something more than the 26 letters...:

Woman of Minimalist Maximism and Incubus & Sucubus (shown above) and Self Portrait in Trance (shown left) are three works witch I earthed in the room via strange states of mind under stranger influences. [I wouldn't exactly describe these as "automatic drawings," as I was aware I was there and making them; there was no loss of conscious ego control or even a vague blanking out. Yet I was certainly more than usual, imbued with an arcane but very obvious creative power. Whether this came from 'inside' or 'outside' of myself I haven't decided. I'm just pleased with the results - Frater 33 - 2024.]

Expectational Inklings (shown above) came later that night, and in many ways was the Crown of the Work, the jewel gained after all I had worked for. Once I had deciphered it, it shewed what to do next and how to go about it - but that's another story...

SUMMARY

The most important lesson I learned from this working is that No-Mind is, paradoxically, "Where it's at." Many years before, on meeting a Wise Woman from Spain, I asked her what was the best piece of advice she could give a young aspirant on the path such as myself. Her reply was simply: "Don't Think." At the time I thought she was dismissing me with a nonsensical riddle, but now I realise the wisdom of her words. If you have to walk along a slippery log across a bog it's no good thinking about the correct process of balancing, the right foothold, etc., as this will invoke the opposite: ineptness. Worrying about falling in and the aftermath will make such failure closer to you, more real, and likely to happen. It's not necessary. Just shut up and do it. If we are mindless of fear and limitation - then how can they effect us? We are here because we think we are, so if we cease thinking, we will escape from this prison world of illusion.

To paraphrase AOS: If one cannot perceive the Absolute, the Almighty Simplicity - then what's the point of perceiving anything? So I've now moved away from most traditional occult practices and structures, as it tends to become a part-time hobby, where one only really "switches on" as a magician in the few hours after work or whatever, being just as normal as everyone else the rest of the time. I want to feel the Mysteries continually, directly from the Source, without beliefs, desires and ideologies getting in the way. To quote AOS: "REVERE the KI? and Your Mind will become TRANQUIL."[1]

The Neither-Neither, non-dualistic Kia may be approached right now by sitting or laying down, with eyes closed or open, and performing a variant of the Death Posture known as Austin Osman Spare's "Neither-Neither Rule of Four" (that I first read of in one of Ramsey Dukes' writings).[2] It is executed in a four-stage sequence:

1. Meditate for a while entirely on a particular quality, such as "Blackness".
2. Meditate entirely on its opposite, in this case "Whiteness".
3. Meditate entirely on their duality, "Blackness and Whiteness together".
4. Reject/Banish/Destroy them in an instant, and perceive the total absence of both qualities. Not "Blackness" Not "Whiteness": "Neither-Neither".

This 'state', 'experience' or 'non-state', 'un-experience' whatever (let's call it "X") cannot be explained in words or understood by most modes of awareness; the less said and thought about it the better - although it is described for convenience as the "Neither-Neither". Where perhaps the KIA Vulture lurks... The infinite potential/possibilities of "X" will only be known by performers of the above technique, or those who can find "X" some other way - unless the "X" finds them first? (DON'T PAY ANY ATTENTION TO THIS PARAGRAPH!)

I also like the following method of Stopping The Thoughts:

Besides the orthodox way of sitting cross-legged in meditation, the best moment is that preceeding one's sleep when one is already in bed. Without being bothered by the correct position of one's body, one can close one's eyes to watch effectively the rise of a thought and pick it up with the keeness of a cat ready to pounce on a mouse. As soon as one seizes it, one should closely examine where it arises and where it ends, and even before one realizes that it has neither head nor tail, it has already vanished like an illusion or bubble. After 'catching' two or three thoughts in this manner, they will become so rare that the mind will automatically be calmed and one will fall into a deep sleep. If this practice is continued for several successive nights, it will ensure a rapid stoppage of the flow of thoughts, followed by a sound sleep free from dreams, a good sign that the mind is in its still condition.[3]

This method of nailing each rising thought was taught by Master Han Shan of the sixteenth century, and requires around twenty minutes per session. It can easily be performed every night without hindrance nor excuse.

Should I ever return to this work I would certainly become much more acquainted with the magical stele Austin Osman Spare made in 1954 for Kenneth & Steffi Grant, that embodied: "the secret glyphs and sigils of both Zos Kia Cultus and New Isis Lodge ... In this sense, the stele is to the Cult what the 'Stele of Revealing' is to Crowley's Cult of Thelema,"[4] and perhaps attempt to make contact with Yelg Paterson through one or more of the two known published portraits of the lady by Austin Osman Spare. Kenneth Grant informs us that one is in Austin Osman Spare's The Focus of Life (Morland Press, 1921), and that the other is in Man, Myth & Magic magazine No.73 (Purnell, 1971).[5] The former picture may be the undated 'O Zos, thou art fallen into ... the incarnating ideas of women', or 'Tzula', or several of the others. The latter picture seems to be 'Man is a Bundle of Ids' (1955), although it also appears in Grant's Images & Oracles of Austin Osman Spare (published four years after Man, Myth & Magic No.73) as 'Aerial Vampire' (undated, p.31), with no reference to Mrs Paterson.

In Zos Speaks! Kenneth Grant also writes that during a 1954 meeting between himself, Austin Osman Spare and Gerald Gardner, he learned that Mrs Paterson "appears several times in our [Kenneth and his wife Steffi's] collection of Sabbath Drawings," but gives no further information.[6] Two likely candidates are also found in Grant's Images & Oracles of Austin Osman Spare: the undated drawings 'Witch Mother'[7] and 'Initiation'.[8] Another two possibles are shown below:

The first has "Witch of one hundred and one years and still potent" written at the top in AOS' handwriting, and the second (entitled 'An old Witch with her exteriorisation of beauty' in From the Inferno to Zos Volume 1: The Writings & Images of Austin Osman Spare [First Impressions, 1993, unpaginated]) appears to show Mrs Paterson transforming herself from "the archetypal hag ... into a creature of extraordinary seductiveness," that she was able to do at will, according to Grant.[9]

NOTES

[1] Austin Osman Spare, Earth Inferno. Privately published by the author in 1905, p.18.
[2] This technique presumably predates Dukes and AOS (if indeed the latter man used it), and is well known in both Zen Buddhism and Ch'an Buddhism. See, respectively: DT Suzuki, Living By Zen (Rider & Company, 1986, p.22), and Lu K’uan Yü (Charles Luk), Ch'an & Zen Teaching: Second Series (Rider-Century Hutchinson, 1987, p.92).
[3] Lu K'uan Yü (Charles Luk), Ibid., pp.14-15.
[4] Kenneth & Steffi Grant, Zos Speaks!. Fulgur, 1998, pp.155; 99. A full-page greyscale reproduction of Spare's stele, entitled 'Formula of Zos vel Thanatos', is on p.154 of the same book.
[5] Kenneth Grant, Images & Oracles of Austin Osman Spare. Frederick Muller Ltd., 1975, p.10. (Reprinted by Fulgur in 2003.)
[6] Kenneth & Steffi Grant, Zos Speaks!. Fulgur, 1998, p.95.
[7] Kenneth & Steffi Grant, Ibid., p.46.
[8] Kenneth & Steffi Grant, Ibid., p.75.
[9] Kenneth Grant, Ibid., p.7.