Using Planetary Magick For Practical Ends

Using Planetary Magick for practical ends - Considerations and potential disadvantages

Okay, so you don’t care about philosophy or equilibrium. You’re mainly interested in practical magick. Indeed, your blackened heart cares most about selfish ends. Will you still be able to use this system? Of course. The Gods aren’t that judgmental. If you want to hang yourself spiritually, they’ll be happy to give you all the rope you need for the job. If you aren’t so cavalier in your attitude, they’ll be happy to discuss every magickal act with you, before you earn any negative Karma points.

Let’s look at some potential drawbacks when considering planetary magick. You’re dealing with seven planets, each of equal importance. You may be attracted to one above the others, because it resonates with your personality. Or, you may find that it’s easier to summon one over another. Don’t fall into this trap. Saturn is just as important as Venus, despite their very different sensibilities. If you aren’t careful, you’ll find you’ve created an even greater imbalance than you had at the beginning. This is a big trap you need to avoid.

Next, make sure to avoid the sin of credulity. Believing too much is something that has always gotten the average to gullible person into much trouble. A simple rule to follow when dealing with the Gods is to trust but verify. Don’t forget, as part of their teachings, testing the aspirant is always included. Always question the information you ask, and make sure the answers are consistent and related to your queries. Verification, in the form of making sure they’re telling the truth, is perhaps your biggest challenge as a modern scribe.

So can you gain immense personal power from these entities? Without a question. These Gods want you to have it all, and they want you to have it now. They are grand thinkers, and if you’re lacking in drive or ambition, a stiff shot of their energy can fortify you for great accomplishment. They’ll feel content in their jobs, as long as you evolve into being your personal best.

But what if spell-casting tickles your fancy? Undoubtedly many are attracted to the field of magick based on practical concerns. They may plan on improving their relations with the world in a direct way based on spells or using sigils to great affect. The planetary entities are extremely powerful, and well versed in practical matters, but if the great technical skill you need to perform such works is missing, they can’t help you. Where they really excel is in the area of teaching. Plus, just dealing with them increases your personal power, which is, after all, the source of any magickal ability you have anyways. Just invoking often will increase the positive aspects of the planets in your personality, which will undoubtedly have profound affects on your life.

So, when we deal with these planets, what can we expect? The old texts all mention a hierarchy concerning each sphere, which goes something like this:

1) Angel
2) Archangel
3) Intelligence
4) Spirit

Not unlike military ranks, it’s implied that the Angel is above the Archangel, the Archangel above the Intelligence, and the Spirit is ruled by the Intelligence of the planet. For practical purposes, you’ll deal with the Intelligences of the planet almost exclusively. Why? There are two great reasons to deal with the Intelligences. Firstly, they are helpful, and don’t have the negative characteristics associated with the Spirits. Secondly, they’re the only ones who can, or will, talk to you. For beginners, understanding that the Intelligences are the correct ones to contact should save time and misspend efforts.

One of the greatest benefits of dealing with the Intelligences is that your “power” automatically increases. To put this in simple terms, the fact that you make and maintain contact with Jupiter means your “luck” will increase. This is for several reasons. The actual force of the Intelligence plays on your psyche in ways that manifest in the real world, and secondly, just dealing with these elegance forces in a conversational matter affords you an opportunity to learn more about the Universe than you can possibly imagine.

And herein lies the rub. If you don’t balance out the power of all the planets, you’ll end up with too much influence froms the ones you do contact. If you are naturally sympathetic to the powers of Mars, and you don’t offset the rough and virile energy from this planet with the benevolent love of Venus, you can almost be assured to have a malignant reaction in your character. It was often rumored that McGregor Mathers was one to invoke Mars over the other planets, and as a result, developed a mean-spirited temper and had constant anger issues. Even Aries himself will warn you about this possible development, so ignoring his and my advice is undertaken at your own peril.

In a full blown magickal system, it’s doubtful that such imbalances would occur. If you went in order and followed the initiatory process of certain types, you’d be less likely to find yourself in trouble. But nowadays, many books on these subjects are available, most people don’t magickal orders, and it would be quite easy to begin this subject in the middle, or even the end, while missing out on the beginning steps that will help you avoid, for lack of any better term, spiritual disintegration.

If you do decide to ignore the warnings, and you dig up invocations for the Spirits, keep this in mind: it’s much safer to invoked them under the leadership of their Intelligence. You don’t need to communicate with them directly, and they’re much more likely to comply with their superior leading the operation. Plus, the good Intelligences can warn you of any direct pitfall you might face during the operation. In essence, in their roles as Gods, it’s always been the Intelligences that have communicated with the Scribes. And that is exactly what you are in this role. You become a Modern Scribe, communicating with the same entities that once ruled the imagination and psyches of Earth’s most fruitful civilizations.