Just a Simple Tank

As an engineer, I am responsible for reviewing plans. One of the basic sets of equipment that I look at are tanks for storage of large amounts of combustible liquids like fuels, in upwards of 10,000 gallons per tank. I review these so much, it is like second nature, I can do it in my sleep (sometimes, I am without adequate caffeine) and many reviews are done...well...AD NAUSEUM (Ready to fall asleep as a result of this post..HAHAHAHA!!). I got to thinking about how water, and all liquids in general, are placed within a container and since I am engineer, my thoughts and contemplations were not just on only a plain container for water, that is, a drinking cup, I got to thinking about the large tanks I have spent so many years reviewing and saw a metaphor within my work for my Work. The combustible liquid and the tank becomes a mechanical engineering allegory for magick and Will.

When you fill a tank, one thing you have to be sure of is that the tank is enclosed so none of the liquid splashes out or evaporates. Since evaporation is always a concern, the tank should be insulated by either providing multi-layered walls or placing the tank under ground. For an enclosed tank, the heat of evaporation comes in two forms, diurnal (night to day) temperature changes or by seasonal changes (i.e. spring to summer).  A common method of preventing evaporation for above ground double walled tanks is by painting the outside white, to reflect the sun's rays. No matter how much the tank is insulated for some liquids, evaporation, or the term I use, "vapor growth" should be expected so a good tank design always includes a means to reroute and condense any vapors that form.

When filling the tank,  you have to be careful how you fill the tank with fluid. Typically, the tank design will provide for a filling tube (called a submerged fill pipe) that begins at the top and terminates at nearly the bottom (standard specification is 6"). The reason for this, is that fluids will create vapors if allowed to just dump into the container. The filling should be done in what engineers call, laminar flow, or the steady easy flow causing very little mixing or aeration. The type of flow that causes mixing is called turbulent flow. A combustible liquid flowing in turbulence can be very dangerous. A certain amount of ullage should also be provided for vapor growth and without ullage, the combustible liquid can also be very dangerous. Another means to prevent turbulent flow is by filling the tank from the bottom, or "bottom filling" and gravity and the weight of liquid provides for the slow and steady filling of the tank.

So how does this relate to Magick?

 I think that when you learn magick, its sorta like understanding the properties of a fluid to be placed in a tank. You learn how well it flows, any toxins that may be associated with it, and if it causes any problems, like combustion. As magicians, we should spend a great deal of time, just learning the craft and getting an understanding of what the magick is about, before we allow ourselves to let the magick begin to fill the vessel, or the "tank", of our bodies. The combustible liquid and the flow, or the "magick" becomes the active part and the container becomes the "passive" part, two very essential parts of our Will.

One of the very basic tenets for CM is learning the Lesser Banishing Ritual. We learn to control the fluid flow of the magick  and introduce the magick within our bodies in a straight and narrow path, as in the idea of pulling the Divine energy from the interface at Kether to Malkuth ("ATAH-MALKUTH"). The flow of magick is like the fluid flow within the submerged flow pipe. Magicians control the path of the magick, because, like the fluid, any other way would cause loss of the precious fluid. We cannot allow the magick to simply dump within our bodies.

The creation of the quarters and circle become your body's  insulated and multi-layered walls and the purity one brings to the body is like painting your above ground tank white to reflect the sun's rays. (As an aside, I think that the purity we bring forth is through the means of healthy eating and exercise.) Since some tanks are placed underground to provide for insulation, I think this notion is a good metaphor of why grounding our practices within such subjects such as herbalism, gemology, metal-working, the martial arts, fine arts and the performing arts are so beneficial. Working with these arts in the material realm become our multi-layered insulated walls: grounding (as in an underground storage tank) the magick in the Earth, providing another means to capture the active part of our Will, setting boundaries for our experiences and allowing us a way to define our Will.

Cyclical temporal temperature increases, as in day to night or spring to summer, or the way I see it, the issues and challenges we encounter during normal everyday life (diurnal) and getting older (seasonal), are to be expected. I think the grounding practices/arts or the insulated/purified walls we create provide for stabilization that may cause us to lose the precious fluid of magick. It becomes our solace, a means of expression, yet nurturing and protective.

But like I said, a good tank design always includes a means to reroute and condense any vapors that form. If we were gurus living in meditation and prayer on a mountain, we do not need to expect many effects on our Will, as in the Heat of Evaporation or vapor growth. The magick simply pours into our Being, slowly and steadily, without many interruptions and cannot be affected by the Heat of Life...But unfortunately, most of us are not gurus on a mountain and we have to deal with the struggles and issues of day-to-day Life. I think, and I am agreeing with Dion Fortune on this, the Western Mystery traditions were established because the West needs a means to capture the magick or become enlightened, despite our needs to make a living, raise families and be part of a social culture. I think the grounding practices or arts... and especially alchemy... besides being a solace or our passion...provides for the very necessary means to reroute and condense the fluid of our magick. These practice becomes our bottom filling, the steady devotion of time and learning stabilizes us, like gravity.

Do I think our Will is like fire? No, on the contrary, I think our Will, both the active and passive elements are more like a combustible liquid within a tank and the liquid exhibits the same behaviour properties as water: taking the shape of its container, requiring containment, insulation, means for steady/easy flow and a way to re-route/condense. The Will is the fluid, the flow and the container.

What are the dangers of a combustible liquid that I was alluding to? What happens if one allows the liquid to overfill or become turbulent? What happens if we add too much of a spark of Fire, without understanding the properties of Will?

KABOOM!!!!

 This is not the kind of transformation I desire, I desire the type of transformation that when respected, maintained and used properly can propel a vehicle and human forward, and perhaps, even to the stars.

 QED

Goddess Moon Said to Father Sun

The Moon said to the Sun," I love you and adore your Light. I would duck if I caused a shadow in your brilliance." 

Then the Sun said to the Moon, "Mother Goddess, you provide the Light for Man in the Darkness, there is room enough for both of us to shine" 

Then the Moon said to the Sun, "But Father Sun, I am so small in comparison to you and sit alone and away from the Splendour of the Stars?" 

Then the Sun said to the Moon, "My Beloved Goddess Moon, You serve as a reminder to Man that he can touch the Stars and become One with them and the Heavens are on the Earth and within their hearts. Love is not small within a man's heart. My Love for you shines as brightly as the Stars. You inspire me like the Heavens. It is I, who ducks each day so that you may shine your beauty and Love upon the Earth"

Happy Full Moon Eclipse

My Thoughts on Killing

I was watching some TV with my Jupiter Angel and caught one of the shows we both like to watch. I like it because it reminds me of my own upbringing with immigrant parents and the personalities in my ex-husband's family. In the show, a redneck was cutting off the heads of and skinning several live bull frogs that he and his family had just caught. The redneck, a grandfather of a self-made "millionaire" family, was trying to impart the values to his rich grandson of living off the land. The frogs were caught by hand.

As he cut each bullfrog head off, the animal made a guttural screech and you could hear the gases in the animal evacuate as the grandfather pulled off the frog's head and skin in one swoop. The whole endeavour was done skillfully and quickly and each frog took all of maybe 5 seconds to kill and skin. I expected to see a whole lot more blood than I actually saw. The grandfather skinned at least 10 while I was watching. The scene wasn't grizzly, bloody or graphic, like a Tarantino movie...it was actually quite natural. It didn't have the gratuitous splatters of blood and guts like one would see in a game on the Xbox. The end of the show showed the large family of rednecks eating their feasts of the land and water and the meal started with a prayer.


When I was a little girl, our family used to butcher a pig for an annual feast. The whole family was involved in the excursion. My dad liked for us to be involved, because like the redneck grandfather, he wanted to impart the values of his culture. We were told to put on nice clothes (not Sunday best, but clean and neat) and we drove the 40 minutes in our family station wagon to a local farm. Since I was the youngest, I got the seat in the very back that faced the opposite direction. My dad picked the best he could buy and my brothers got to chase it and catch it. My father showed each brother how to kill it quickly, safely and with respect. I was told I was too little to learn how to kill the pig because the beast would probably hurt me in the process of trying to survive. I did not complain. The pig would always scream beforehand and his death would usually be following by the evacuation of some urine or feces. There were no whoops or hollers after we killed the pig, the whole family would just kind of solemnly leave the farm... tired from the trip and very much wanting a shower. Though I didn't do the killing, I shared my backwards facing seat with the dead pig.

My dad, like the redneck grandpa, skillfully cut up the animal using knives he painstakingly sharpened to surgical precision. He roasted the entire body on a deep pit barbecue he made himself in the backyard. The pig was roasted with herbs and vegetables from our garden. I remember making this structure with him with bricks and mortar and the experience is one of the reasons why I always liked building stuff and became an engineer. My dad always encouraged me to do non-girly stuff and though he had only a third grade education, the lessons were very much a way he could teach me stuff, spend time with me and enrich my experiences. Roast pig tastes differently when you flavor it with your own home grown veggies/spices, in a barbecue made by yourself and by a means that have been done passed on for generations.. All of your own intent is put into the meal and all was done with great respect and reverence for the sacrifice that was made.

Life should not be a waste. The Life and Work put into taking a Life are offerings.

My family was taught never to waste a single part of the pig and we ate parts that most people see as gross. We used all parts out of respect to the pig, the effort it took to kill it, cook it and the money it cost to procure it. My gentile mom's favorite was always the knuckles, she like the soft meat between the grisly crunchy parts and she would delicately suck out all of the marrow from the bones. We even used the blood for a stew that my dad would meticulously collect. My dad always told me that the blood will make me strong and to this day, I still enjoy the blood stew dish when I am feeling weak and missing my dad. My family was not overweight as a result of our eating habits because the same amount of calories that was consumed were the same as the amount of calories required to procure and cook it.

As an aside, the neighborhood kids were always hesitant about coming over to play at my house. Even decades ago, the neighborhood felt our annual ritual killing was strange, barbaric and slightly "witchy" or "head-hunter"-ish. I found out that many of the little kids were afraid of my very quiet father and were afraid he would come after them with a machete and hide their dead bodies in our garden. This rumor was not a very good one to have when I was a dating teenager.

When I was married, my ex-husband liked to fish... A LOT... He loved to fish so much, I allowed him a fishing excursion in the waters north of the San Francisco Bay (Bolimas) as part of our honeymoon. Though my dad never taught me to fish (he was legally blind by the time I was eight), I realized I had quite a talent for it. I used to piss my ex off all of the time because my bucket would always be filled and his would be paltry.

My first experience with gutting a fish was not with the same respect and reverence my family used to observe in our ritual pig killing. It was done at the side of the canal upon the dirt road. My ex husband screamed at me to do it with a heavy smell of whiskey on his breath. I resisted since it did not seem right to kill the fish in such a disrespectful manner and the most unclean situation. He said to me, "that's part of being a fisherman, you gotta get the blood and dirt on you". He laughed at me and the fish the whole time while I struggled with its slippery and gyrating body with an un-sharpened knife. The blood of the fish was gushing and spilling all over the ground. He was still very much alive though his entrails were hanging out. He refused to show me the proper manner to gut a fish. I pleaded with my ex that the animal was suffering because I could not kill it swiftly and skillfully enough. After about 10 minutes of observing the fish and my pain, my ex took his bowie knife and stabbed it in the head and threw it back in the canal. I cried the whole way home that someone would be so cruel.

When I was married, we also raised rabbits for a short while. My ex husband made a hutch that was too small for the amount of rabbits he wanted to raise. Though I protested, he did it anyway. In my experience, I realized what happens to animals if you don't raise them in the best conditions, they become a little crazy about survival in general. I stopped raising the rabbits shortly after I realized the mama bunny was eating her young, not the entire body, just their heads. She would escape, pull her babies out of the hutch, kill them and leave a trail of blood and bodies all the way back to the hutch. It was extremely horrifying. My ex killed the rabbit the night of my discovery and he said it was the most scrawny and worse piece of rabbit he ever had. He got sick shortly thereafter from the meal.

I was lucky to have these experiences. It gave me a respect for Life that few people in our modern technological world have. Meat in the modern world comes from the supermarket and the meat comes neatly packaged and tidy. No skill, no sweat, no toil, very little blood, and no trauma for the consumer. Sometimes that meat is entirely unidentifiable and comes in a 6,12 or 24 pack from a long five minute wait in the drive-through with a choice of 10 types of pre-packaged sauces.... Tastes like chicken?

My point of this post is that sacrifice and spilling blood should start with the process of knowing, understanding and seeing what is involved. Then, the sacrifice should be done in a respectful and skillful manner so as to minimize the pain and suffering. I am uncertain whether most people in our modern world are adept at being able to do this or have access to people who know how.

The Allegory According to Dory

When you're a mom/magician, your study and magickal time is limited or is done in a multi-tasking manner. You take the kids to the park and then you go over your next rite. You take the kids to the museum, which may have items of magickal significance. You practice your lines for a rite, you fold the laundry.  I believe the Western Mystery Traditions were established because most people in our culture cannot be a guru sitting on top of the mountain, waiting for enlightenment and most of us do not have the luxury of going on a spiritual journey or trek to find ourselves. You learn to make every experience as meaningful and magickal, as possible and seek out those things that can provide you with clues on spiritual growth. You do the best you can to be a human.This post is an example.

A big humbling experience is when you sit in conversation with a bunch of scholarly magicians. I am very blessed to have such experiences. People who willingly study the great magicians of the previous centuries and seek/read the reputable researchers of mystical documents....for FUN...and have TIME...Most of the time, I sit there quietly, trying to soak in and process all of the information I can. Somethings go way over my head but other things, I can add my own perspective to. One such discussion was related to invocation and evocation.

I have always felt that some magicians get into their head too much or they become so disconnected with the mundane, they lose the context of their Work, the world around them. The beauty surrounds them and yet they are so lost, they lose sight of the Divine gift of our Life, Love, and become bat-shit crazy. I think Robert Anton Wilson best described the problem in his references to the forehead chakra:

So yeah, I agree with Wilson. The Work should include working on yourself, evolve as a human being. If you are having bunches of problems yourself in your private life, such as your love life, physical health or mental health, you do not have any business, whatsoever, to be handling certain magickal processes for other people. If you're not in the greatest health, maybe it is time to work on eating better and purifying the toxins in your body or if you're considered obese, maybe it's time to take on some yoga or go to the gym. If you're suffering from paranoia, perhaps it's time to seek some counseling.

My biggest beef, especially with some so called "healers" is that sometimes they work on other people in a mode of insincerity or ignorance or the lack of that "context"... what it is to be a human. I mean... REALLY???... people have to go to years of college and training before they can be a therapist so who the HELL thinks they can help someone with a mental illness if they do not have a background? Even certain therapists are not appropriate for some people, What happens is that these "healers" end up ascribing a whole buttload of other health problems and/or mental illness on their client. How the HELL is a healer gonna heal someone if they cannot even pass a physical at the doctor themselves? We are all human and we are blessed/cursed with certain problems but I think the objective is learning from and overcoming those obstacles, be a better human.

So I was watching a movie my Jupiter Angel has watched dozens of time, Finding Nemo, and I realized the following scene portrays what some magicians go through in their own Work: working on themselves and processes such as invocation/evocation:

The Allegory According to Dory:

Marlin: Tell me, Dory, do you see anything?
Dory: Yeah, I see a light.
Marlin: A light?
Dory: Yeah. I see a light.
Marlin: Yeah, I see it too.
Dory: Hey, Conscience, am I dead?
Marlin: No, no. I see it, too. [they swim up to the light]
Dory: It's so... *pretty*.
Marlin: [mesmerized] I'm feeling... happy, and that's a big deal... for me.
Dory: I want to touch it... [she does; the light bobs quickly away]
Dory: Oh!
Marlin: Hey, come back. Come on back here. I'm gonna get you.
Dory: Come here.
Marlin: [singing] I'm gonna swim with you...
Dory: I'm gonna get you. I'm gonna get you.
Marlin: [singing] I'm gonna be your best friend...
[a big scary fish looms into view]Marlin: ...Good feeling's gone.
Marlin, Dory: AHH!

SEEING THE LIGHT OR FACING A DEMON?



So the question is, when you're doing your Work or possibly leading a friend through the Darkness, what exactly are you encountering or summoning? Is it the True Light or actually some fucked up demon that dwells within the depths of your soul?

 

QED

 

PS: A quick prayer to the sick:

 

O Divine Goddess. Grant the sick with your blessings of health and strength, the wisdom to provide their own healing and guide them to someone who can actually help them. Amen

Hermaphroditus

Those who know me in the mundane world, know that I am very pro-lesbian-gay-bisexual-transsexual-transgender (phew! that was a lot to type). Though I am a monogamous person in a heterosexual relationship, I have considered myself bi-sexual in the past. I love beautiful people and beauty transcends sexual identity. Beauty is something that really comes from the inside.  I admire and adore those people who have an androgynous quality to them. My definition of androgynous is a person who has both masculine and feminine characteristics in a paradoxical manner. In my perspective, they are aesthetically balanced and a perfect embodiment of Yin/Yang. The fashion industry also prizes this quality through their use of androgynous models in Haute Couture, but not commercial/catalog modeling:

Dig the Black and White Pillar-like Motif? Eh, Frateres and Sorores?

I believe that the lack of acceptance to homosexuality and bisexuality has to do with the male-centrism of Christianity, particularly fundamental Christianity. Homosexuality and bisexuality were  considered normal in ancient Greek and Roman cultures, which was reflected in their spirituality and perspective of their deities, specifically Hermaphroditus. the two-sexed son of Aphrodite and Hermes (incidentally, a revered fashion company and icon). 

Hermaphroditus' lore also appears to be linked to the institution of marriage, in that, a marriage is a union of both masculine and feminine. Hermaphroditus symbolized the embodiment of both masculine and feminine. But what, Dear Readers, are the definitions of masculinity and femininity? Is it defined by our sexual organs? Is it defined by the way we have sex and procreate? Technically, as humans, we define our male-ness and female-ness according to whether we have a cock or a pussy, but should we limit ourselves to strictly these definitions as hermetic practitioners? I believe that once we become sensitive and nurturing to both our inner masculinity and femininity, we begin to grow and transform. Our Path becomes a sort of procreation.

So what, Dear Readers, does this have to do with the institution of marriage? I think we should take a closer look at Hermaphroditus, the Patron of Marriage. I think that once we can be loving and accepting of both our masculinity and femininity, we also can take the leap into the notion that marriage, a sacred union of Love and Devotion, is not limited to just our sexual organs. Sacred unions, in the highest of forms, become alchemical unions:

So My Dear Readers know, I will not use this blog, as a venue for politics but the inspiration was timely with current events and a recent post by Matthew. I did come up with the following prayer that I posted to Facebook as a direct result of the recent controversy:

Thou Beautiful Man effeminate. O lovely Hermaphroditus;
Transformed by the lustful Water Nymph, Salmacis, in her Pool in the woods of Caria;
Holy two-sexed son of Aphrodite and Hermes;
Patron of marriage, the sacred union of two people;
Grant us your blessings of luck and protection for all brides and grooms; and
Lead us into a realm of acceptance and belief in Love.

My inspiration came by ways of a visit from a close family member. I love that boy. I babysat him, fed him, diapered him and played with him when he was a babe. His mother was an addict who was taking some strong street drugs when he was born. At inception, the child already had some issues to work through.  He was a beautiful boy, doe-eyed and strong. He was an accomplished martial artist and his mind was both sensitive and intelligent.  He struggled with his identity, spent some time trying to be a "man" by going into the military and serving overseas where he suffered from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. He even fathered a child but since he did not grow up in an environment, whereas, the masculine/feminine was nurtured, his spirit suffered.  He also made some very bad decisions and there was a time he kept his lifestyle secret from me out of personal shame. About 15 years ago, he began the transition from male to female and came out to our family. He consulted with me first, looking for support and guidance, and I told him that I would be by his side and I would always love him. Some family members ostracized him completely and some, including myself, gave him the Love and support he needed. A notable person of support was his elderly grandmother who told him that she too always saw his struggles with his identity and still loved him, despite his change of sexuality.

He/she came back to me several weeks ago, on a day of Hermes. He/she has not gone through the complete transformation. Immediately, I thought of Hermaphroditus though the idea never came to me before when I thought about this family member. Years, the streets, abuse,  mental illness and pain have taken its toll on this young person and though he/she is nearly 10 years younger than I am, he/she looks much older than I appear. Though he/she could not express himself efficiently, I intuitively knew he/she showed up on my doorstep because I have always given him great Love. When I gave him/her one of my famous hugs, his/her body melted in my embrace and for a second, I could feel his wholeness once more. Our conversation was interrupted several times by him/her making sounds, like a Crow, and moments of discomfort was followed by an insincere full-toothed grin, almost pysczophrenic-like. It was painful for both of us and I found myself using many of my inner magickal tools so he/she could have a setting he felt both secure and nurtured.

There's no happy ending to this story, as I needed to send him/her on his/her way. I explained lovingly that my Jupiter Angel and I have gone through great trauma and could not deal with any more at this time. I did promise him/her that I would do my best to say prayers to my guides and angels so the rest of his/her journey would be happy and protected.

I think the key to this issue can be obtained from the allegory of Hermaphroditus. The sacred combination or that alchemical union within ourselves, was not obtained from the just lust or just the material plane, but with help from the Divine.

The Riddle of PhoenixAngel: Thoughts on Equinox

The equinox occurs two times per year, in the Spring and in the Fall. Technically speaking, the equinox occurs when our Mother Earth's axis is neither leaning away or towards our Father Sun. The term "equinox" is derived from the Latin aequus (equal) and nox (night), because around the equinox, the duration of day is about the same as the duration of night.

I got to thinking about the equinox in my own terms and within my own Life and the notion reminded me of equilibrium, which means, "the condition of a system in which all competing influences are balanced" but the idea of balance in my perspective does not necessarily mean stasis. Equilibrium is not really stasis when you consider the state in the context of the First Law of Thermodynamics. Equilibrium really implies motion:

In all cases in which work is produced by the agency of heat, a quantity of heat is consumed which is proportional to the work done; and conversely, by the expenditure of an equal quantity of work an equal quantity of heat is produced. -Rudolf Clausius

In the engineering perspective, "work" is what causes objects to move or displace. Using my trusty well-worn and meticulously tabbed thermodynamics book from college (I had three years of thermodynamics: basic, theoretical and applied), the term "work" has the following implication:

The work W done by, or on, a system is evaluated in terms of macroscopically observable forces and displacements..."  -(Page 32) Fundamentals of Engineering Thermodynamics, Michael J. Moran  and Howard N. Shapiro, Third Edition.

But before you guys start rolling your eyes again and begin thinking, "Oh!!! She is interpreting it literally again!!!" or think I am trying to force my scientific perspective to fit the metaphysical perspective. Think about it in the allegorical sense. Think about it in the "As above, so below..." perspective.  Isn't Clausius' description of the First Law of Thermodynamics and "work" a perfect description of the "Great Work", that quintessential idea of perfection, the Philosopher's Stone?

 I found a corollary to Clausius' description of the First Law of Thermodynamics in my own Work:

Thou art The Same all-present in Heaven and in Hell!  Thou that vibratest between the Light and the Darkness! Rising, descending! Changing ever, yet ever The Same! - Liber Israfel Sub Figura LXIV, Aleister Crowley

So I postulate a sort of Riddle to you, in the flavor of the Riddle of the Sphinx:

What vibrates between Light and Darkness, turns lead into gold, but can never be created?

QED

It's 3AM

Well, the Mercury Retrograde rages on its course and I am not a stranger to the snafus associated with these periods. I thought it was interesting though, that the MercRetro occurred during a Daylight Savings Time Spring Forward event. Spring Forward is the time of year we set our clocks forward one hour at 2:00AM so the time becomes 3:00AM. Daylight Savings Time was created in order to save costs on electricity. (An interesting fact is that the Navajo nation does not observe Daylight Savings time)

Mercury governs intelligence, communication and travel. When Mercury is in Retrograde, the planet appears to be traveling in the opposite direction of its path, which is actually an illusion caused by the Earth's planetary rotation and our perspective from Earth. What happens during MercRetro is that problems occur with cell phones, computers, your car, messages and the like. I see it as a time to slow down and take stock of things. Perhaps, attend to those communication devices and vehicles, that we take for granted during other periods.  Above all, have patience with communication with friends and family because messages and meanings will often be misinterpreted.

Well, 3AM, as some of you know, is also called the "witching hour", which is a time when spirits, demons and witches are supposed to be most active. Funny thing is, most of my witch friends are asleep at this time and are early to bed, early to rise people. LOL. 3AM is also supposed to be the time when black magic is most effective but I always take the term "black magic" with a grain of salt because the term might be coloured by the Christian perspective. According to an urban legend, 3:00 in the afternoon is associated with the time of Christ's crucifixion and 3:00 is the morning is called the devil's hour, which is when a soul is most susceptible or vulnerable to demon possession.

Midnight is the beginning of the next day in the normie world but a planetary day runs from sunrise to the next sunrise. For example, although Saturday (the planetary day of Saturn) was already Sunday after midnight according to the mundane man clock, the magician sees that day as the day of Saturn until the next sunrise on Sunday morning. Sunday, being the day of Sol. Each planetary day is further divided up into planetary hours, the classic planets of Saturn, Jupiter, Mars, Sol, Mercury, Venus and Luna, which again has planetary associations. Saturn, IMHO, has to deal with temporal restrictions, discipline, responsibilities, visions and protection.

My own experience with 3:00AM has involved some spirit visitation but spirits are usually around me anyway so I think 3:00AM is probably the time period when I pay attention to them more.

So on Saturday night,  my Jupiter Angel and I were hanging out and Frater BF and I were happily chatting away and I glanced at my planetary hour calculator that I installed on my Droid and I realized, 

"Hmmmm...Mercury hour is one hour longer tonight according to my planetary hour calculator.  I wonder what kinda mischief is gonna happen on Mercury Retrograde on this day of Saturn?"

The planetary hour calculator said that the hour of Mercury went from approximately 1AM to 3AM, when it would have normally ended at about 2AM. An extra hour is a whole lotta of Mercury, on MercRetro, mind you, but it was an illusionary hour and the time, 3AM, wasn't really the time.  Or was it? The illusions were very MercRetro in feeling to me.

So I asked myself, what can I do during the Mercury hour, during a MercRetro, during a day of Saturn at a time that really doesn't exist, except by man, the Spring Forward time of 3:00AM? 

How about empowering an item to capture the energy of the moment?

I used my old standbys for invocations, the Orphic Hymns and I used the Hymn to Saturn (Kronos):

Etherial father, mighty Titan, hear, great fire of Gods and men, whom all revere:
Endu'd with various council, pure and strong, to whom perfection and decrease belong.
Consum'd by thee all forms that hourly die, by thee restor'd, their former place supply;
The world immense in everlasting chains, strong and ineffable thy pow'r contains
Father of vast eternity, divine, O mighty Saturn [Kronos], various speech is thine:
Blossom of earth and of the starry skies, husband of Rhea, and Prometheus wife.
Obstetric Nature, venerable root, from which the various forms of being shoot;
No parts peculiar can thy pow'r enclose, diffus'd thro' all, from which the world arose,
O, best of beings, of a subtle mind, propitious hear to holy pray'rs inclin'd;
The sacred rites benevolent attend, and grant a blameless life, a blessed end.

At first, I was just going to do some sigils but I really did not have the time to come  up with something nice, since the whole idea was last minute anyways. What I came up with was brilliant. I searched my jewelry box for old watches I never use and froze each of them at 3:00, or thereabouts.

What I use for these watches, I will keep a secret but leave it up to my Dear Readers to imagine the possibilities.

QED