Review: ABYSS: Daemonolatry Hymns for Ritual and Meditation

ABYSS is a CD produced Abyss and Reckless Recluse that I found though the good people who brought us The Complete Book of Demonolatry, DB Publishing. Just reading on the inside sleeve that the lyrics come from S. T. Dukante-Mallory, the daughter of Richard Dukante, and M.D. Delaney, a generational Demonolator and the author of Sanctus Quattuordecim. The vocals were provided by S. Connolly, the author of the above mentioned Complete Book of Demonolatry.

They are 12 tracks on the disc and it is only 13 minutes long but it finally allowed me to hear some hymns and some Enns in a voice other than my own! Oh, all the lyrics can be found in The Complete Book of Demonolatry

Positive: For something made in a home studio, I was impressed with the quality of the sound as well as most of the music and the vocal works. I liked how most of the hymns have a version with music and without music. I say most because 'Ave Rege Leviathan' is a choir piece and so has no music accompanying it. I totally loved the fact that there is a track with the elemantal Enns on it, finally I get to hear what they sound like (I will be updating my pronunciation guide soon)

Neutral: I didn't like the backing music to track 6 for Meleus De Quo Maga, the drum beat was too loud compared to the vocals for my taste.

Negative: A track list wasn't included so I had to make one up myself. Here it is for those who want it:

Track 1: Rite to Lucifer with music
Track 2: Rite to Lucifer without music
Track 3: Meditation with music
Track 4: Meditation without music
Track 5: Ave Rege Leviathan
Track 6: Meleus De Quo Mage with music
Track 7: Meleus De Quo Mage without musci
Track 8: Liturgy of Love with music
Track 9: Liturgy of Love without music
Track 10: Earth Meditations with music
Track 11: Earth Meditations without music
Track 12: Elemental Enns (Belial, Lucifer, Flereous, Leviathan, Satan)

Overall, I love this CD! I hope to hear more from Abyss in the future.

I rate it: 9.0/10

Herb Suppliers

I recently bought some herbs so I can start making my own oleums. I had to buy everything that I needed from two different online vendors and I noticed a huge difference in the quality and the experience and so I thought I'd share.

I bought the lions share of what I needed at Mountain Rose Herbs and I would have bought everything but they didn't stock it. Their site is easily navigatable and even allows you to save your shopping basket so you can come back later to order. The herbs were well packaged in sealable bags and well marked with what the herb was and how it was cultivated, whether it was wild harversted or organic. After reading the literature that was sent with my order I'm really impressed with the lengths that Mountain Rose Herbs go to to make sure that they are supplying high quality products. I admit I didn't give it much thought beforehand, but now I'm far more conscious to getting herbs that aren't ladened with chemicals.

Along with the herbs I ordered, I also bought some same amber bottles, a mortar and pestle and a suribachi. For those who don't know what a suribachi is, it is similar to a mortar and pestle but the mortar is grooved and the pestle is made of wood.

I was surprised at the high quality of the tools given how much I paid for them.

For the herbs that I couldn't find on Mountain Rose Herbs, I turned to the Penn Herb Co. to find what I needed. While their site isn't the best and their prices were a little high (in my opinion), they did have a huge selection. The herbs I bought were decent quality, they just weren't to the level as Mountain Rose. In fairness, I'm sure I would have been more than happy with them if I didn't receive my order from Mountain Rose first.

Another difference I noticed is that with the cheapest shipping option, Mountain Rose offered tracking on the shipment while Penn Herb did not. Not a huge problem, but I do like checking on my packages.

Book Review: The Art of Creative Magick

Yet another title from author S. Connolly, this one directed towards all magical paths and not just Demonolatry. It can be still used by Demonolators, in case you were wondering. In a nutshell this book is a book of permission, permission to do magic as you want to do magic and not being constrained to other methodologies. On to the review:

Positive: This book reads really easy and I found myself devouring it very quickly. It is divided into sections: 'Symbolic Aspects', 'Spiritual & Belief Aspects' and 'Purposeful Aspects'. The first section covers your ritual space, decorating it, rituals tools and creating talisman, amulets and sigils. The next section covers beliefs in magic, creating a person pantheon and invoking your god(s), with the last section covering rituals and spells.

As said before, this book really empowers its reader to do what feels right for them and create their own form of magic.

Neutral: There is no 'Contents' page and I only noticed that when I was writing this review.

Negative: I don't see this as negative, but I can see how some would: Creative Magick encourages people to practice magic in a way that works best for them. I'm sure some practitioners would see this as bad,

Over all, this is a small book that is big on advice.

I rate it: 8.0/10

Ok, Vacation over...

I took a week off from posting to concentrate on getting everything ready to go fro 2 up coming promotions at work. I got what I need done for now, so I'm back!

I have a lot of things to post about, so lets get this show on the road...

Book Review: Sanctus Quattuordecim

Sanctus Quattuordecim, as you linguaphiles out there know, means (the) Sacred Fourteen. It is a book about sigils and as you can imagine, it has 14 of them contained within. These sigils have been supposedly passed on to the author's great-great-great-grandfather though ascension and are now being shared with us who have bought the book. On to the review:

Positive: 14 sigils might not seem like a lot but these sigils are pretty comprehensive in their scopes and help with everything from concentration and learning to purification and cleansing to separation and revenge. Along with each sigil is a list of correspondences from what Demons, plants, planets, colors, hour, day, numbers, stone, element, and metal are associated with each one.

Not just throwing out the sigils, the author also explains how they can be used. He mentions how to join or trine sigils, not just the ones discussed in the book. To finish it all off, he talks about 14 rituals that can be used with any of the 14 sigils.

Neutral: I'm not too incredibly happy with how the sigils are drawn in the book. They do show the sigils but they are kind of pixalated from being drawn what looks like freehand in MS Paint. In saying that, I probably couldn't have done better!

Negative: Nothing struck me negatively with this title. It was short but it was cheap so that didn't bother me.

Over all, the material in this book is designed to be used by people who already know the basics of Demonic Magic. You can learn all you will need to know about demonic magic in The Complete Book of Demonolatry and The Complete Book of Demonolatry Magic.

I rate it: 8.5/10

Projects to blog about

I thought I would have had some of the projects I've been working on completed by today, but sadly I don't. Life has been cruel to my spare time, and frankly, season 2 of Heroes came out on DVD not to long ago and I've been watching that. So, instead of showing you the end result of what I've been working on, I thought I'd just tell you what I've been working on. Maybe it will get you excited to see the end results.

I've been reading through The Magician's Companion for the last 2 weeks or so and I'm almost done, so once I am, I'll be posting my thoughts and a review. Goetic Demonolatry, Sanctus Quattuordecim, and The Art of Creative Magick arrived from lulu yesterday so I'll be reading them very soon. I've already given them a brief once over and I know I'll have great things to say about 2 of them and not so great things to say about the other. I won't say which one just yet.

I've been planning to buy a few books on Hermetics and use the money I get from selling my plasma to pay for them. With the purchase of a pickup last week, that plan is going to be limited while I divert some of my book money into my truck payment. So, I guess that means I'll just start re-reading some older books of mine and refresh my memory enough to review them instead.

Since reading the Al-Jilwah for the first time last week, I've been doing some research into it and so I'm planning on posting my thoughts on Yazidi's Book of Revelations. There is a lot already out there in web-land but I just don't feel right not adding my two cents!

Now that I have a pickup, the huge overhaul of my garage has begun and the cleaning of some space is now immanent. I'll be able to start experimenting with, and making, oleums. My candle making supplies have resurfaced which I'm viewing as an auspicious sign for my want to make my own ritual supplies. I've been keeping an eye open for other bits and pieces to serve as my ritual tools. The coming of the 2nd Rite to Leviathan is spurring me into overdrive. I hope to be ready for it. Of course I'll have a lot of say as I get prepared and I'll be sure to share it here.

I have a pray ritual that I've been tossing around in my head concerning The Nine Demonic Divinities, I've been working through a fully comprehensive pronunciation guide for Demonic Enns, and I've been comparing Demonic correspondences with other cultures/religions/pantheons and I've been coming up with some interesting conclusions and ideas.

I have plenty on my plate to keep me blogging, I just need to get some of it finished and finalized first!

Demonic Enns Pronunciation - Nine Divinities

I've been trying to learn to pronounce the Demonic Enns and I'm not sure if I'm sounding them right. I thought I'd write out how I'm saying them as phonetically as possible to share with everyone. Please leave a comment saying if you say them differently, or the same for that matter, maybe between us all we can get a more accurate pronunciation. Maybe it might grow into a guide.

It really is difficult to learn how to say them correctly when you are just reading them out of a book or off of a screen. Anyway, here are the Enns to the Nine Demonic Divinities with my phonetic pronunciation in the square brackets

EDIT: I've heard some of the Enns been spoken and so I'm updating my pronunciations

Satan -
Tasa reme laris Satan - Ave Satanis
[Tah-sa ray-me lah-ris Seyt-n - Ah-vay Sey-tan-is]

Lucifer -
Renich Tasa Uberaca Biasa Icar Lucifer
[Ren-ich tah-sa ubur-ak-a buy-ass-a ick-r Loo-sif-er]

Flereous -
Ganic Tasa Fubin Flereous
[Gahn-ich tah-sa fu-bin Flare-e-us]

Leviathan -
Jaden Tasa Hoet Naca Leviathan
[Yay-den tah-sa hoe-t nah-ka Li-via-thon]

Belial -
Lirach Tasa Vefa Wehlc Belial
[Lir-atch tah-sa veh-fa weh-lik Bee-lee-L]

Verrine -
Elan Typan Verrine
[E-lan tye-pan Veh-rin]

Amducious -
Denyen valocur avage secore Amducious
[Den-yen val-o-cur a-vah-jay se-core Am-duce-e-us]

Unsere -
Unsere tasa lirach on ca ayar
[Un-zer tah-sa lir-atch on ka a-yar]

Eurynomous -
Ayar Secore on ca Eurynomous
[A-yar se-core on ka U-re-no-mus]

The Freedom of Definition

Who gets to define your religious beliefs?

Do you?

Does anyone else?

I'd answer those questions as: Me. Yes. No. I can't imagine many people not doing the same. Everyone has the freedom to practice and believe in whatever religion they choose as well as to define what it is they practice and believe in.

This is all stemming from reading other peoples writings where I see them defining the beliefs of other people. I've seen Muslims define the beliefs of Christians, and Christians define the beliefs of Pagans, and Pagans define the beliefs of Satanists, and Satanists define the beliefs of other Satanists, and so on ad nauseam.

It is wrong, and if you do it then you should stop it. I've been racking my brain to remember if I ever defined another persons religion and I can't seem to recall anything, however, I'm sure I have. I apologize.

Don't get me wrong, just because I believe that you should not define other people beliefs doesn't mean that I think you shouldn't, from time to time, take their own definition of their beliefs and bash them over their heads with it. This is not my attempt to get people to play nice, it is my attempt to get people to stop being stupid. That is what this is all about, to stop people from lying about each other to try to win an argument or make a point. If you truly wish to argue a point or vilify someone else's beliefs then just use what they have already said, or use whatever 'book' they subscribe to, just don't make shit up.

Book Review: Ater Votum

I've seen the book before online as a pdf and liked what was in it enough to buy a physical copy (there is something to be said to having something in your hands instead of on the screen). It says right on the cover that it is 'a daemonolatry pray book' but I found out that is was a little bit more

Positive: Twenty three prayers, one page of blessings, eighty four proverbs and the Al-Jilwah with commentary - all packed in within the covers of this book. It is a tiny little thing, the Ater Votum, but it took me some time to read it. Nearly everything gave me pause as I stopped to think about it.

I was really impressed with the Proverbs, which are supposed to be have found carved on Egyptian temples. These gave more the most pause as their meanings slowly soaked in.

This was my first time reading the Al-Jilwah, but it is far from my first time hearing about it. I'll save getting into for a later post, but I do have to say that is did provoke a thought or two. The commentary from S. Connolly gave greater dept to the text in my opinion.

Neutral: A few of the prayers didn't ring for me, but I doubt all the prayers will ring for all the people

Negative: I'm really pushed to find anything negative about this book. I guess at a stretch I could say that it was too short!

Overall, I've found a book that I'm going to find myself going back to, not for information, but more for inspiration. I like that in a book!

I rate it: 8.5/10

Book Review: Demonolatry Rites

This is a short little book that arrived today in the mail from www.lulu.com. Demonolatry Rites is, as you can guess, a book that contains rites, or rituals, from demonolatry. It is collected and edited from the lovely S. Connolly who you might recognize as the author of The Complete Book of Demonolatry. On to the review:

Positive: For such a short book it packs a punch and doesn't waste time getting to it. A two page introduction is all that is that is standing between the reader and twenty rites. I think that is worth repeating: twenty rites!

This book reveals a lot of information from many Demonolators private collections, everything from rites to the elemental Demons, creating talismans, curses, ridding yourself of previously held religious dogma to rituals to help you find love, protect your car and find lost items.

My favorite is called 'Pillars of the Sisters' and is a seven day rite to seven Demonesses. It is beautifully imaged and beautifully written.

Oh, and the book includes two Appendices that has some of the information held in other books that is great to have on hand in this one.

Neutral: There is a rite called 'To Learn Magick' that was just a tease. All the information to perform the rite is there but it was very short.

Negative: Nothing really except for my own petty want for more!

Overall, Demonolatry Rites is a great book that holds greater knowledge. I'm rating it in context: it is a book of demonolatry rites only, not something to for someone who knows nothing about demonolatry at all.

I rate it 9.0

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