The Journey into the Night-Side
Star Club celebrated the Autumnal Equinox with an action-packed weekend featuring teaching, ritual, and a guest lecturer. Back in May, we attended the Welsh Occult Conference in Welshpool and saw Dr Robert A. Plimer speak on Place and Space, the concept of constructing a magical hypodoche when practising ritual to allow access to the Universe via the unconscious mind, and this is such an integral technique to the Star Club Model of magic that we invited him on the spot to come and visit for our Equinox Open Ritual.
Stellar Preparation
A Glyph encapsulating the Star Club Model
The Star Club Cycle is the integral inner praxis of our group, and involves using 8 different magical praxes to impress upon the Universe our aims and aspirations for the group of magicians who have come together. These praxes are expressed by rituals oriented towards each praxis and within the Teaching Cycle students are guided through the theory and practice of each module before the ritual is performed.
These rituals are performed within the Star Club Framework, a separate ritual container which in itself works to create and sustain the Body of Light and is the engine for the over-arching Cycle. Before each Cycle, participants must have completed the Foundational Workshop which gives practical instruction in all elements of the Framework for both group participation, and our Individual Course in the Members’ Area which builds a complimentary set of modular daily practice to manifest changes in daily life. You can sign up here for the Individual Course without needing to take the Foundational Workshop, but we recommend visiting if you can to see the techniques demonstrated first-hand!
Sef Salem and Dr Halo Quin teaching the Foundational Workshop in Bristol
Our new Practitioners attended the four-hour workshop where we discussed the Neuro-Gnostic Model - our schema of the Universe and the magical process - and taught them foundational techniques adapted from Hermetic Qabalah, Enochian magic, and Neuro-Linguistic Programming. They each were guided through the step-by-step of both daily and group practice, and the visualisations associated with these rituals. We finished with a performance of the group ritual, and the Pranayama and Mantrayoga essential to the daily practice of the Individual Course and Training Cycle.
Along with returning Members and Initiates of Star Club, Dr Plimer attended our workshop to peer-review and offer the occasional contribution which we immensely valued, and we look forward to his insights when they are ready to be shared. The overall impression was positive and I for one am grateful to have had the opportunity to discuss our mystical and magical cosmology with such a scholar.
Dislimning for the Duat
Dr Plimer commencing his lecture
Once our closed workshop had completed, we opened the doors and invited other Members and the public in to attend Dr Plimer’s lecture. He began with a brief history of the Ophidian Current, described the magical training practices of the ‘swnw(t)’ in the house of ‘per-ankh’, and then went on to instruct us in dislimning techniques as taught in The Demotic Book of Thoth.
Stellar worship in Nubia and Egypt
Bob’s incredible research into Egyptian magical practices gives remarkable insights, and he described the noetic skills required for those seeking to become Initiate (or swnw(t)) in the magical training schools of the House of Life (or per-ankh). We learned of the stellar cults running through the entire Egyptian period, from 6,000 BCE to 1,100 CE, and how the intention of both drawing down from the stars and then entering the Night-Side of the Duat had grown and evolved.
“The student (mer-rekh) must be prepared to enter and then engage the limbs and its Energeia, Daimones, Atavisms, Teratomas, and Ancestral memories.”
We then heard about the system of magical training, beginning with the ability to scribe and understand hieroglyphs creating sigils, and then the practice of creating ikons or fetishes - not for the faint of heart, and empty hearts need not apply. These became mesocosmic structures, at once physical and energetic, and able to transfer the magician through communication and astral travel to the land of the dead, the Duat, or the Night-Side.
Finally, Dr Plimer elucidated the process of dislimning, creating an astral transportation system to carry you and aid you as you undertake this journey into the shetit of the Duat, skrying for magical outcomes and learning. This Mehen-Barque is not directly equivalent to but analogous of the Body of Light concept and entirely in keeping with the Ecstatic Praxis of our Transcendent modules within the Star Club Model. While I couldn’t do the lecture and instruction justice in a blog post, suffice it to say we are excited to fold some of these techniques into our practices and teaching, and it was a true pleasure to hear Bob speak with passion and practical knowledge on the Ophidian Current.
The Mehen-Barque as used for Egyptian dislimning processes.
The Sun goes into the West…
Our busy magical day closed with a performance of the Mithraic Invocation of Sol Invictus, a syncretic ritual of my own devising which demonstrates the passing of the Sun throughout the year. Two of our recent Initiates took on the roles of Sol and Luna, our Priest and Priestess for the Eucharist component, and we successfully distributed Sol’s magical powers to be kept safe for the long Winter as he retires into the West.
Leading a ritual which draws on classical texts in the presence of a classics scholar was nerve-wracking, but Dr Plimer enjoyed the ritual and we discussed it at length in the evening. One of my favourite aspects of occultism is the opportunity to have long and meandering conversations with other practitioners, and we certainly made the most of the evening, heading to the pub for our monthly social. It was a great day with attendees from right across England and Wales, and the feeling of community is what drives me to carry on offering our Open Rituals.
…and so do we!
What next for our intrepid troupe of trouble-makers? We’ll be seeing Dr Plimer and a host of other occultists ad the Welsh Occult Conference in Cardiff City Hall on the 8th October. I believe there are still a few tickets left, and you can pick up yours here.
Beautiful tomes of power
There’s just enough time between now and then to get your hands on Bob’s books available on their website, so all of us at Star Club heartily commend them to you, we’re excited to read ours.
Finally, our next Open Ritual will be constructed from ancient texts concerning the Descent of Inanna, and held on 28th October to coincide with Samhain. This ritual by Dr Halo Quin will lead you to explore the Underworld safely to mark the turn of the year and integrate your shadow selves. You can buy a ticket here to join us.
Until next time.