Coming Full Circle
Five years since its inception as an experimental framework for magical practice, Star Club has completed its fourth Practitioner Cycle, teaching key skills and concepts of the Western Mystery Traditions to magicians of all levels of ability. We invited friend of the Order Dr. Robert Anderson Plimer back to see our final class and experience our Syncretised Headless Rite.
The group's first meeting last September
Cycle 4 Retrospective
Our most recent Cycle, running from September 2023 to July 2024, was our first mixed Cycle - including students who had never attended Star Club before, and previous Practitioners who came back to refresh and upskill their understanding of each of the 8 Praxes which comprise the Cycle.
Our Practitioners started with mixed skills, some with a background in witchcraft and druidry, others in ceremonial magic, and one whose previous experience was in the mindfulness techniques of Eckhart Tolle, Wim Hoff, and others who are outside but related to the sphere of occult practices we teach. During the course, each excelled in improving their grasp of other practices and deepened their understanding of familiar material. More importantly, they all improved as practitioners - which is why we say we make magicians.
Some of the more mundane results have included buying a house, moving careers into the creative industry and promotions, and breakthroughs in other areas of life. Crucially, each has now aligned their intentions with the Universe, integrating the neurological with the mystical - the core of Neuro-Gnostic Sorcery.
We are now taking bookings for the next Foundational Workshop in February 2025, and the Practitioner Cycle which follows on from it through the rest of the year. You can book your place for either here.
How to Lose your Head
For our final session of the Cycle, we discussed Classical Magic - that is, magic taken from classical sources, which teach techniques of apotheosis. Our ritual is a summative syncretisation of the Headless Rite taken from the Greco-Magical Papyri, including techniques and markers from all of the Praxes taught during the course. Each student worked incredibly hard to create masks, write invocations, and master the techniques involved in this ritual.
I’ll be speaking more on this at PanDaemonium on September 22nd this year - you can read more on The Visible College’s website. But for now, I am very proud to present to you Dr. Bob’s review of our lesson and ritual, and you can see for yourself how we fared.
The Constellation of Orion, the Headless Hunter
Speculum Ritualis…
Dr. R.A. Plimer, Black Lodge Publishing - 27 July, 2024 Bristol
The Akephalos ritual PGM V.99 ff. Στήλη τοῦ Ἰέου Zwgr(a0fou)* εἰς τὴν ἐπιστολήν”
The following is a brief summary of my attendance and lecture notes from July at the Star Cub’s final cycle ritual, I was extremely fortunate to have been invited for a second time by my good friend initiate and creative esotericist Sef Salem to lecture and to observe Star Club’s final session of the Cycle and performance of the Akephalos or ‘headless’ ritual. Interestingly, I had attended and lectured at the first session the year before, so, this was indeed a fortuitous event for me to observe each of the mystes in their reaching this point in their magical transformation.
The ‘Headless Rite’ is itself a ritual found in the Greek Magical Papyri (PGM) and where Sef’s reworking of the rite successfully links both ancient and modern praxeis for the attainment to a level of Divinity.
Star Club’s reworking of the ritual involves the initiates by identifying and disclosing their magical names by writing an invocation of their partner's ‘name,’ and then by writing a ‘Key Phrase’ on the inside of their prepared planetary masks.
The ritual includes various protection, invoking, and banishing rituals; the arrangement of participants according to i) planetary aspects and ii) the Tree of Life; the rite also involves the recitation of key Orphic Hymns, and finally orientation towards the constellation of Orion.
The ‘Headless Rite’ is itself performed by two adept Initiates (in this case Sef Salem and Dr. Halo Quin) while the rest of the mystes chant the ‘Cycle's Mantra’ and repeating the Key Phrase and Star Club Mantra after each section of the ritual.
The ritual concludes with with the recitation of invocations and reciting of the Mantra together – this built an impressive energy block of power.
The closing involves invoking pentagrams and final affirmations.
“The time I spent with the Club’s Practitioners and Initiates proved how the group has developed and generated much interest in their magical telos, both philosophically and mystically.”
So, what was the purpose of the ‘Invocation’ in the Rite? The purpose of the invocation in the Ritual is is used to call upon and establish the direct connection with the Headless One (Akephalos), otherwise, who is also known as OSORONNŌPHRIS (this is a Hellenised form of the Egyptian ’Osiris is perfected’ - magically, this represents the union of Osiris’ with Re) and where the invocation also serves to unify both his power and authority. The Invocations in the rite also serve to acknowledge the creation of the Earth, the Heavens, the Night and Day, Darknessand Light, along with other aspects of the kosmos. They also proclaim the participants as ‘Prophets’ of the Star Club, to whom the mysteries are revealed. The invocations are a way of seeking the ‘assistance’ (as in paredroi) and where the obedience of both the heavenly and aetherial daimons, assert control over various elemental dunameis and energeia. Overall, the invocations are therefore a central part of the ritual aims in establishing a connection to the ‘divine’ (a form of unio mystico) and to further empower the participants as initiates in their magical praxeis.
The Key Phrase used in the ritual: "AŌTH ABAŌTH BASYM ISAK SABAŌTH IAŌ”
AŌTH and AB(’R’)AŌTH (cf. Preisendanz Vol.i 186-187) are two words that show up frequently in Voces Magicae. BASYM is possibly B’ Shem, Heb. for “in the Name”. ISAK is Isaac. SABAŌTH is interesting; it and IAŌ put together imply the Hebrew Lord of the Hosts (transliterated from YHVH Tzabiot). The reference is usually “IAO-SABAOTH,” thus, the IAŌ formula applied afterward is slightly unusual. It is usually associated with the Gnostic demiourgos (IAŌ but is also used as a formula for Ialdabaoth as demiourgos). However, IAŌ-SABAŌTH has also been associated more directly with Abraxas and even with Set-Typhon in the Greek Magical Papyri – although, I have had several discussions over this and where I would favour Pantokrator – as in the all powerful Thoth (cf. Hermes Trismegistos, lit. ‘thrice great’).
The purpose of reciting the ‘Key Phrase’ in the ritual is to activate and channel the power and energy associated with it. The Key Phrase, "AŌTH ABAŌTH BASYM ISAK SABAŌTH IAŌ," therefore holds significant symbolic and mystical meaning within the context of the ritual’s outcome. By reciting the Key Phrase, the initiates align themselves with the syncretic and ancient traditions associated directly with the Headless Rite.
“This personalized invocation therefore strengthens their personal connection to the ritual and improves their ability to harness and then direct the desired energeia for magical working.”
Reciting the Key Phrase multiple times, as instructed in the document, serves to intensify the energy and focus of the ritual. It acts as a form of incantation, invoking the power and presence of the divine forces associated with the Headless One. The repetition of the Key Phrase also helps to create a more rhythmic and meditative state, that allows the participants to attune themselves to the desired energies through its vibration.
Furthermore, the Key Phrase acts as a symbolic representation of the participants' own magical names and affirms their connection to the Divine. By writing their magical names below the Key Phrase on the inside of their masks, the initiates infuse their personal energy and intention into the recitation through its attunement and vibration. This personalized invocation therefore strengthens their personal connection to the ritual and improves their ability to harness and then direct the desired energeia for magical working.
In summary, Star Club’s recitation of the Key Phrase in the ritual serves to activate and then channel the power associated with the all-powerful, and wherein the participants can then regenerate the magical current and praxeis connected to the Headless Rite itself. Thus, by creating a focused and meditative state, this strengthens the initiate’s connection to the Divine forces that are invoked through the ritual. The time I spent with the Club’s Practitioners and Initiates proved how the group has developed and generated much interest in their magical telos, both philosophically and mystically. The orations and mantras along with the masks that each in the group had made, provided an eerie spectral effect to the Practitioners’ own gowns and grade positions during the rite as it was performed.
In summary, I had an excellent and most informative stay with Sef and the wonderful Hannah and Halo. The Star Club’s day was therefore in my opinion an overwhelming success, and the ritual was performed with great focus, vigour and gusto. Therefore, in the final section of the rite and from the vibration of the group’s chant did indeed produce so such an overwhelming energy that the piano strings next to where I was seated vibrated at an extremely high rate of intensity, so much so that I experienced the epiphany of the rite - in the form of the union of Re (as the great Ba-soul) energised the great khat (or body of Osiris) providing the Cyclic rotation of night and day symbolised the completion of the rite.
* Some of the characters from Bob’s font did not transpose correctly but I’ve left them in as a cryptic challenge.
If anyone should know about ancient magical practices, it's Dr. Bob! These and so many more incredible titles available from Black Lodge Publishing.
Another Opportunity Awaits
So what now for these Practitioners? They have completed their Cycle and accomplished their goals, set at the beginning of the course. Halo and I have spoken to all of them and they are doing well, continuing to research areas of interest discovered or deepened by the Cycle, and enjoying the fruits of their magical labour.
Star Club offers them further opportunities:
Return for the next Practitioner Cycle and undertake a new role, helping those who are new to learn and supporting each other in achieving new aspirations and goals.
Approach Star Club’s optional Initiation into Societas Astris, for those who wish to find a deeper meaning in the mystical underpinnings of the Framework and join as Bob put it a modern magical Order.
Go on to the Graduate Programme, which will be starting next year and running alongside the Practitioner Cycle - this brings our Initiates into a deeper understanding of both the magical technology in the course, and the core teaching skills needed to run a magical group.
Our next Practitioner Cycle will begin February 22nd 2025 with our Foundational Workshop - Places are limited so book now to reserve your space on this intensive and transformational course. You could be in our next performance of the Headless Rite!
We are proud of our Practitioners and Initiates, and the community built around Star Club’s Open Events - the next lecture by Dr. Liz Williams on Saturday 24th August will be (Un)Sympathetic Magic. We’re also having a great time at events such as the South Wales Occult Conference and the group will be staffing (and attending!) the International Thelemic Symposium this Autumn Equinox.
You can be a part of Star Club too by joining our Online Membership, which gives you exclusive access to our Individual Course, ritual scripts to use with your own circle wherever you are, and a discount on the Foundational Workshop and Practitioner Cycle when you’re ready to come and join us in person.
Dr. Plimer has kindly given us access to his research on the Headless Rite, and other techniques for use with the PGM, which will be available to members along with further resources to perform fantastic rituals.
We have plenty going on, from our lectures and events at The Visible College, to appearances at a host of conferences through the Autumn and Winter. I’m excited about next year’s Practitioner Cycle, and I hope you’ll be a part of it. Enjoy the Summer everyone.
Until next time.