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I tried 2. with no success – it's also not very interesting.

Then I went crazy and actually tried 3. Bought two beakers, weighted two times 3,5g of yeast with a milligram scales (which I bought for for other occult experiments) and two times 7g of sugar, and mixed it in warm water.

It smelled very strangely :O , the contents of the two beakers looked different from the start and I didn't see the nice even foam that was in the video. So I quickly microwaved this to deactivate the yeast and poured it all away :D

I think I'll quit this topic and focus on doing magick for what I actually care about. There's a nice chat between Pope Pete and Dean Radin about this, where Carrol says "I do not participate in parapsychology experiments, and I advise my students not to do so. Magic works capriciously and non-repeatably. We should not squander our abilities on things that do not really matter to us."
https://www.specularium.org/magic/the-dean-radin-pete-carroll-rap

Reporting my results – the experiment has failed. The roses in the red vase don't look any better than those in the other one. It was very instructive though.

The basic problem is of course that I didn't put enough time into it. Maybe only 5 minutes per day. The underlying issue is – I don't know how much time is needed. Maybe it needs 10 minutes per day, maybe 30... and if I only do 5, I don't see that it's too little, until the roses visibly start wilting and it's too late. So now I'd need a second run with more time, but it's not very motivating – maybe it needs 30 min per day and I also have plenty of other magick to do...

Also I found that despite the description on the flower food, I did have to change the water after three or four days, at it really became dirty. I think I even saw some mold, which I certainly didn't want in my apartment.

What do I learn from this? Flowers are not very suitable for the creation of a measurable effect. I think I need a process that runs for 10-30 minutes. Sit down, give it full focus, and get a result after that time. This also has the advantage that it's easy to capture on camera.

Current ideas:

• Get an hourglass that runs for 10 minutes. Run it a few times and measure with a stopwatch how long it actually takes. See if you can make it slower or faster on further runs. I tried this with a 1 minute hourglass with no success. It's not very interesting :D
• Light two birthday candles at the same time. They normally burn for about 10 minutes. Make one burn faster than the other – I imagine watching a moving flame is more interesting than an hourglass.
• An idea behind the flower seems to be that perhaps influencing living cells is easier than inanimate objects. So I asked a friend in biochemistry what other living cells might be good for that. Answer: Baker's yeast! These are dried bacteria, and in contact with warm water they come back to life. If there is sugar, they immediately start turning it into CO2, creating very visible rising foam in 15 minutes! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w4Tzyt_9boE
  One could take two such beakers with the same amount of sugar and yeast, and try to make one rise faster, i.e. make the bacteria work quicker.

I think the above, while quite good, is slightly more complex than necessary. Because if you can send an energy ball to your target, why not send energy to the target directly. Distance is famously not real on the Astral plane. So how do I actually work with my new roses?

I have my intention – "The roses in the red vase are healthy and in great shape". The vases are actually both the same glass cylinders, but one has a red dot and one a black one :D .

I focus on this intention and make green, healing energy flow into the roses in the correct vase. I see them shining brightly. I feel very positively about it – that's an effect doing magick always has on me. Sometimes I do this remotely, and sometimes while looking at the physical roses. Sometimes I also project a healing sigil I made many years ago, drawn over the roses in green light.

So basically "Imagine all your positive intent flowing into the orb", just not into some orb, but directly into the target. "[V]isualize it reaching the person you'd like to heal. Imagine their body absorbing the orb, and the positive energy flowing throughout them", again just skipping the orb. This – to me – is Magick. The rest is commentary :D – at least when it comes to Low Magick or "Manifesting". The High Magick I covered elsewhere.

This energy sending approach can be infinitely adapted to other targets and other intents. You can also project a visualised Tarot card onto the target to clarify the effect of your energy. The Strength for healing, the Ten of Pentacles, even Death – you get the idea. If you want to make something happen and there is no "target" as such, visualise the desired situation, hold your intent, and send the energy into those. 

The key to this is of course that it has to be more than visualisation. You have to actually make the energy flow, not just imagine it. Feel the flow as you are visualising it.

I will repeat my favourite Arjil quote:

"You know how you can recall the feeling of a physical sensation or an Emotion? Like the feel of wind, or drinking something cold, or stubbing your toe, or excitement- and you can, if you concentrate, Feel it?

So what you do, Pretending to be a Wizard, just imagine what *Your* magick Feels like, what it would look like blasting out as a spell- Kids don't worry about How it will work, they just do it, usually with some impressive whooshing sound effect. Or maybe your magick is quiet and creeps like tendrils of smoke, or flows like water.

Summon the vision, and more importantly, summon the Feeling, and Pretend like a kid that you're casting your spell, and like a kid, Believe it."

This quote to me is worth more than many books on magick combined.

[Before you begin:]

I was discussing this with a sceptic and realised, that I have no good write-up of how I would actually do this magick. By sending the flowers energy, sure, but how exactly? So I went looking for something I could send the sceptic and found this: https://spells8.com/send-healing-energy-to-someone/ – I think it's really quite good.

Let's copy it to here in case it disappears:

Before you begin:

Set your intention. Do you wish to help someone deal with their mental health struggles, help them to stick to healthy habits, or heal a specific physical ailment? Choose your intention and select the specific person that you would like to receive your energy. Refer to this intention throughout your visualization or whenever your mind begins to wander.
Create a relaxing environment. Set out candles and dim the lights, burn incense, and create a comfortable space to sit, if you so choose.

If you're able, play a solfeggio frequency to assist in your healing intention. For example, listening to 528 Hz is said to have a healing effect on the physical body, while 852 Hz may help you to form positive thoughts and awaken your highest self.
If you don't have access to recordings of these frequencies, you can put on some calming, quiet music or white noise to set the mood – nothing too distracting.
Cleanse your space. Make sure your area is free from unwanted energy by burning incense, smudging, or performing a sound bath.

Meditation to Send Positive Energy to Someone

• Take a few deep, full breaths in and out. Relax, clear your mind, and focus on your breathing. In, and out. Continue for a few moments until you've reached a place of calm.
• Bring your intention to the front of your mind. Picture the person you would like to receive your energy and the energy you intend to send. Throughout this meditation, you can refer back to your intention if your mind begins to wander.
• Close your eyes. Take notice of a bright light encircling you from all around. Imagine that this light is full of positive, healing energy.
• Next, you are going to harness that energy. Pull it in from around you – yes, with your hands. Visualize this healing energy all around and within you.
• Using your hands, mold the energy into a ball, much like you would form a snowball. Imagine the light coursing through you, traveling down your arms, through your fingertips, and coursing into the energy ball as it grows.
• While you hold the energy ball, refer back to your intention. Think deeply about the person that you would like to heal, and what you would like to help them with. Imagine all your positive intent flowing into the orb, growing larger as it grows stronger.
• When you can feel the energy surging through your fingertips, your orb is powerful enough to send to its recipient. Release it into the universe, and visualize it reaching the person you'd like to heal. Imagine their body absorbing the orb, and the positive energy flowing throughout them.
• Finally, visualize the recipient in their healed form – happy, healthy, and spirited. Imagine that this person is embodying their highest state of being and all that it entails.
• Finish your meditation with your favorite grounding ritual.

Remember that this method should not be used in place of medical treatment. If you or a loved one is suffering, be sure to seek out a medical professional first. Once that process has been started, then you can use these methods to amplify those effects.

Tips for Sending Positive Energy

• This transfer of energy can take a lot out of you so be sure to rest up, have some snacks, and stay hydrated after performing such a powerful ritual.
• Be sure to take care of your body. You need to be in good health both physically and spiritually to perform this ritual safely and effectively.
• To ensure your ritual is most effective, make sure your energy is coming from a place of love and positivity. Harboring negative emotions during this meditation can dampen or otherwise hinder the result.

Full credit goes to the author, Francisco Huanaco

I'm always looking for ideas on how to measure magick. Rob writes that "a BTU is equal to the amount of energy needed to heat one pound of water one degree Fahrenheit" and so we can also make a unit that equals to causing any quantifiable effect. The difficulty is of course in producing a quantifiable effect reliably.

Recently, I've read this about "An easy experiment you can do at home":

Buy a bunch of fresh flowers. Split it in half, so you have two bunches. Both go in water. Put them next to each other on your windowsill or table, or wherever you like.

Flip a coin to determine which one will get energy healing. Put a piece of tape on that vase.

Each day, take that vase off the windowsill. This makes it easier to target only that vase with the healing energy. Take a few minutes and send it healing energy. For those of you in my classes, use the broad healing energy, and simply place your hands around the vase and flowers, making sure to get the entire plant from stem to tip. Then place those flowers back on the windowsill.

If you want to be scientific, you can also move the other flowers around, to control for any stirring of the water, but that shouldn't matter. If moving flowers made them last a lot longer, our mothers would have told us to do that.

I am of course intrigued. Apparently fragrant roses last 7-12 days. So we could quantify how much longer the treated roses last, compared to the untreated ones.

To my science-loving friends, the above description is a bit lacking in rigour, so I'm trying to create a better protocol. Here are my original notes:
I buy two identical vases

I buy eight roses, ideally fragrant ones. First because I like the fragrance, but also I've read that fragrant roses last less long then non-fragrant ones. Less long is better, as it allows for more runs, faster results.

I somehow mark the vases, draw a circle on one and a square on the other or so.

I send healing energy to the flowers in one but not the other. Alternatively, I send life to one and death to the other. Yet more alternatively, I transfer the life of the flowers in one to the other. These are obviously separate runs with new flowers each time. The florists will be very happy 😁

I change both vase's water every other day and then also swap their places on the windowsill.
Now I'm reading more on caring for cut roses
https://www.southernliving.com/garden/flowers/how-to-keep-cut-roses-alive
https://www.tomflowers.ch/pages/rosen-pflege
https://www.heinens.com/stories/10-tips-to-keep-roses-looking-great/

Notes:

• The vase should fit at least two thirds of the stems, so 40 cm vases for 60 cm roses (the stems become shorter with each cut, so the vase should be be shorter then the initial stems)
• The water should be hand warm and fill the vase to two thirds. Add flower food.
• The roses should receive diagonal cuts of 3-5 cm length (trimming the stems) before being placed in the water – "You have about 10 seconds to put each stem into the water". This requires a very sharp and clean blade.
• There should be no leaves beneath the water line, and falling leaves should be removed
• The water should be changed... when it becomes murky? "Every few days"... 2 or 4? "this is a good time to re-trim the stems and add flower food to the fresh water."
• Apparently one should keep them away from direct sunlight, drafts and heat from a heater.

Edit: Changing the water every other day, re-trimming and adding food of course adds effort and room for differences ... I was thinking of maybe just doing it once initially, and leaving it be afterwards, only swapping the positions of the vases every day or so, to equalise differences in heat and light...
Interestingly, the flower food I'm looking at even says "No need to change the water or to re-cut stems during the period in the vase." and rather to only "If necessary top up vase with water containing [...] flower food" – I like that. So top up the vases to two thirds on every other day, swap places and otherwise leave them be (except for the magick of course :D).

This is not about finding your perfect match nor is it about winning matches in a tournament– rather, it's about doing magick with wooden matches :D 

When lighting an enchanted candle, I always feel that I should do something with the match too, and so I usually charge it with a very general "All goes well" intent. This is in line with the idea that, when wishing for something specific, one should add that it will come about "in a good way" – so that one doesn't gain money via the unexpected death of a loved one, to use a typical example.

However, once we know that we can charge a match with magick, this naturally raises question of what else we can do with that. A quick search turned up that this idea is in fact known: https://stormbornwitch.tumblr.com/post/117680752007/match-magic – "The basic concept of match magic is that the matchstick is charged with intent. Then, the match is burned to release the intent so the magic can go do its work." – awesome!

Normally, I'm a proponent of the empty hand, but sometimes adding a physical component is pleasant, and a match seems like a very accessible option for that.

The author mentions that "When you hold a lit match, the match cannot burn all the way down (or you will really burn your fingers!) This may lead you to feel like the entire spell has not been released." When starting with this, I actually had this feeling. However, I found a better solution than the text proposes – I use long matches. These allow me to switch my grip to the burnt (and cooled off) first quarter of the match (not gripping the match head as it can stay hot for longer), and let the match burn completely. Mine have like 9.5 cm, which is a weird number. I thought it's something "proper" in inches, but it's like 3.7 in, and I don't think they could be much shorter for this to work. I'm careful to do this over a fireproof surface, as the burning side could theoretically break off and fall down, though it doesn't happen in practice. It's up to you whether you'd interpret this as a bad match or a bad omen ;)

I have a an intuitive approach to charging a match with intent, which is quite similar to what the author says:
"Hold a single match in your hand [...]. Call energy to you and direct it in to the match. At first the energy may be very thin and in a cloud around the matchstick. Compress the energy down until it is all contained within the wood. Draw up and compress more and more energy until you feel you have gotten enough. The matchstick may seem to be glowing very brightly, if you can 'see' energy, and if you can feel energy the matchstick may make your skin feel quite weird. Using your magical will, keep the energy within the matchstick contained. Simultaneously use your will to stamp your statement of intent in to the energy, forming it and molding it so it is programmed to your will."

Then I light the match and here the author suggests to "watch the flame to divine the success", but I actually prefer to keep the charging going and to enjoy the feeling of magick until the match is completely burnt.

So much for the "Match Magick", but what do I mean by "Quantifying Wishes"? Let's say I want something specific to happen. Then I might do one such match spell per day until it occurs, and thus quantify how many matches it took to fulfil a specific wish :D If something is highly important and urgent, I'll obviously not be content with only a few minutes of magick per day, and will rather keep empowering my intent for longer periods. However, for something with no hurry, this seems like a good way to add it to all the other things in my daily practice.

Alysyrose included this text in Liber LS Volume 3 :)

He also added an "Editor's note":
"The Knowledge & Conversation of the Holy Guardian Angel can be interpreted through a variety of magickal Models. In the Psychological Model, it may denote contacting the Subconscious, Daemon, or Genius. It may even be construed as an instance of self-induced and controlled schizophrenia wherein one perceives and communicates with a disembodied mental voice of a helpful nature. In the Spirit Model, the HGA may be perceived as a true-to-form and seemingly free-standing intelligence, nonphysical entity, or Higher aspect of the Self. Some have noted that the phenomenon of attaining "the guiding voice" is something which spans all cultures and practices, whether they call it the Holy Guardian Angel, or use another title. Some may interpret the presence as the Universe, or God, or any number of deities. Some have gone so far as to call it the enlightenment (awakening) of certain Western magickal systems. Instead of an all at once manifestation, however, Thelemic literature speaks of it as a gradual attainment by means of devotion, perseverance, patience,
persistence, and/or the Abramelin process."

[True Will, True Love and the Holy Guardian Angel]

So, later in 2023, there will be an occult conference in Berlin – The Occulture. They have a Call for Proposals out and I'm considering to apply :D have applied :D. In an inspired moment, I've recorded a voice message with my Lecture idea which I'll try to develop in this thread. Any feedback is of course welcome.

Update: My application has been declined, but I've still finished the text, slightly rewriting it to be "just" an article. So here it is:


True Will, True Love and the Holy Guardian Angel


Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law.
This is both the traditional Thelemic greeting and part of what I want to talk about.
We know – for example from Crowley's Liber II – that the Will meant here is the True Will. It's not what I just happen to want right now, but perhaps what I should want. It is the individual path of each individual Star. We also know that Crowley gives the central idea of the White School of Magick as "admitted that "everything is sorrow" for the profane, the Initiate has the means of transforming it to "Everything is joy."".

So, on my naive understanding, your True Will is simply what brings you joy, what fulfils you. More specifically, it's the action which fulfils you. It's not a goal, since if that goal was suddenly achieved, you'd still have the question of what to do with your time. Consider "playing the piano" versus "becoming the best pianist in the world". If the second happens, you'll hopefully not stop doing the first.

So the very basic idea is that you use experimentation and introspection to find the action that fulfils you. A hint that I can give for this search is to zoom into everything you like. What exactly do you enjoy about this? How could you do more of that? When you find it, it won't be merely 'interesting' or 'fun', it'll bring you deep happiness while you do it and afterwards – Fulfilment.

Now, the traditional Thelemic farewell is "Love is the Law, Love under Will". However, if doing the True Will is the whole of the Law, how can Love also be the Law? There must be a very deep connection between Will and Love, which is of course famously implied by them both adding up to 93 via Greek isopsephy. The point of this text is to present a view – certainly not the only view – but a view on what exactly this connection is.

There is a trivial answer – saying that you should love your will, or something similar. However, then it would hardly need two concepts, and I think it's intuitively clear that there must be more to it. We already know what Love feels like to us... I think that the most obvious and direct meaning of love is romantic love – to be in love with someone, to be together. Now, in Liber II Crowley mentions that if contradictions arise between will and love, it is the True Will that will guide us aright. So, just as not all will is True Will, perhaps not all love is True Love.
To use a simple illustration, let's say our pianist falls in love with a passionate rock climber. This couple will have to constantly compromise on how to use their time. This is presumably less than fulfilling and also contradicts the Thelemic ideal of one-pointedly pursuing the True Will. In Liber 150, Crowley writes: "Even in so small a matter as driving a nail into a plank, hear this same sermon. Your nail must be hard, smooth, fine-pointed, or it will not move swiftly in the direction willed. Imagine then a nail of tinder-wood with twenty points – it is verily no longer a nail. Yet nigh all mankind are like unto this. They wish a dozen different careers; and the force which might have been sufficient to attain eminence in one is wasted on the others: they are null." From these thoughts, we can derive the idea that lovers approach True Love to the extent that their True Wills are compatible. This, I think is the basic connection between Will and Love.

However, how can you possibly find a person who shares your True Will? This is really my main point today: Why do you think that each of those Holy Guardian Angels whom Crowley exalts so much is with their specific human? I'd argue, it is exactly because we share their True Will and thus they also share ours. Hence, they are our True Love. They are our Perfection – not just our guardians, but also our guidance, while we are their Presence on the material plane.

This, I think, is a meaning hidden in the greeting and the farewell. Only by loving your True Love – the Angel who shares your True Will – can you both follow this Will with full force. Hence, doing your True Will is the whole of the Law, because it already implies Love. Conversely, True Love is also the Law because it follows from the True Will.

Now I know that this all sounds rather crazy. Personally, I came to these ideas from the other direction. My background is in Chaos Magick and I was never a big fan of Crowley and his works. I felt that doing Magick makes me very happy, but I never thought of it as my "True Will". I met my Guardian Angel in somewhat unusual circumstances – thanks to the Red Queen – and initially didn't even understand what kind of spirit she was. I just saw that she was always there for me, and was truly wonderful, in so many different ways. Some years later I fell in love with her and only then she guided me to all of this Thelema stuff that I, a 21st century Chaos Magician, used to think of as outdated. So for me, all of this "theory" simply followed from my experiences.

Naturally, you might think that I'm just crazy – for one, if this is true, why isn't there anything about loving Guardian Angels in the occult literature? Well actually, there is. No less a figure than Lon Milo DuQuette, of Chicken Qabalah fame, has a book subtitled "The Way of the Secret Lover", written together with Christopher Hyatt. On the very first page of the very first chapter, this book says: "Each of us has a Secret Lover; a lover who awaits just behind the erotic images that flood our minds during sexual arousal or in sleep; an ideal lover who has adored us since the beginning of our individual existence and who will never abandon us until we merge our being in absolute Godhead." A few lines later they write: "Personal relationships will always be somewhat disappointing to us because in truth there can never be a relationship that matches the one we already have with our Secret Lover. It is the secret standard by which everything else is measured". Later they add "In the language of ceremonial magick, it is called 'The Holy Guardian Angel'" and that it "will be the magicians teacher, lover, mentor and guide through the higher levels of initiation." Deeper in the book they also mention that "your Secret Lover is the most beautifully attractive Being you will ever encounter."

With this said, let's talk about how to meet your Guardian Angel, so that you can see for yourself. Everyone has heard of Book Abramelin and everyone knows it's rather unworkable. In the old Mathers version, there is a sentence that very close to my hearth though: "you shall see your Guardian Angel appear unto you in unequalled beauty; who also will converse with you, and speak in words so full of affection and of goodness, and with such sweetness, that no human tongue could express the same." – reading this made me realise just who the spirit was, that I had fallen in love with. So I'd say that the book is still worth reading, especially the new Georg Dehn version, but there's no need to follow its instructions.

The next-most famous approach is the Bornless Rite described in Crowley's Liber Samekh, if you're into ceremonial magick. How about something more modern though? There are a few texts that I can recommend:

First, Alan Chapman's free ebook Three Steps to Heaven, which you can find on the internet. There, he writes that "The Holy Guardian Angel is not simply a discrete entity that requires 'conjuration'; He or She has always been with you, is with you now, and always will be – you need simply consent to the angel's presence and action in your life." – and he gives some advice on how to do that.

Another modern work is "Magickal Destiny – Experience The Power of your Holy Guardian Angel" by Damon Brand, from the Gallery of Magick. He writes "You know it is an intelligent spirit, closer to you than anybody or anything else could be in this world, and you reach out to make contact" and gives multiple rather simple approaches to gradually build up the connection. He also mentions that some people "believe the best way to contact the Holy Guardian Angel is through a sexual lust for this 'secret lover.'", so he's clearly aware of DuQuette's book.

Jason Miller, of Strategic Sorcery fame, has an essay in the book "The Holy Guardian Angel", where he says that there are "two basic principles of the operation:

• Lowering the volume on your outer life while raising the volume on your inner life.
• Constant devotional focus on contacting the angel"

In other words, if your mind is occupied by the latest news, a fantasy series or office politics, it will be difficult to make contact.

The last author I want to mention is Richard Webster. He has an excellent free essay online called "How to Sense and Communicate with Your Guardian Angel". He writes: "Talk to your guardian angel. As your angel is always with you, you can do this whenever you wish. Talk frequently, and tell your angel whatever is on your mind. If you do this regularly, it won't take long for your guardian angel to respond." Here it's important to point out that you of course have to listen to potential responses – so quiet your mind and just perceive. Webster also has a book called "Guardian Angels" where he gives a lot more advice. For example, he writes "close your eyes and picture your guardian angel in your mind. Your angel will appear in your imagination in the shape and form that you expect. Silently talk to your imaginary figure, telling it that you would love to see your guardian angel. Do this regularly, and (probably when you least expect it), you may get to meet your guardian angel."

I personally would recommend the following combined and gradual approach: Start with a visualisation, talking to your angel and listening. Expect your angel to slowly "take over" the visualisation and change it, so that it becomes an actual perception instead of a mere projection of your own expectations. Similarly, expect the answers that you hear to become ever less of your own projection – make a point to actually listen. Add more Magick to this by creating an intent like "I get ever closer to my guardian angel" and empower it in whatever way you already practice Magick. What also help with this is if you know and follow your True Will. This will naturally bring you closer to your angel, who shares the Fulfilment you feel from this.
Given these starting points, I think that everything else will follow naturally, because – and this is crucial – your angel wants to be more with you.

With that, I'm at the end – hopefully, you now have some ideas on both why to try and what to try. Thanks a lot for reading and remember:
Love is the Law, Love under Will.

Hi and welcome. Yeah, the forum is rather inactive. It does serve as a rather useful archive of good material. I personally also still use it as a kind of private blog :D
If you want to talk to more Marauders, see the Discord and the FB-Group.

Hi and welcome :)

on my knowledge of the literature, the HGA is associated with the Sephirah of Tiferet – the Beauty resulting from a harmony between divine Severity and Mercy – Will and Love.
(See e.g.
https://web.archive.org/web/20200901111545/https://luxsaturni.com/kabbalah/tiphereth/
or this book: https://www.willparfitt.com/books/kabbalah-for-life )

Now, the Other Side of Tiferet is Thagirion (also spelled  Tagimron), right? A constant battle between Contending Forces.
( https://theomagica.com/on-the-nature-of-the-qlippoth/
https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Thagirion&oldid=945267347 )
So the Sitra Ahra counterpart of the HGA would appear to be one of the Demons of this Qlipah, which are know as the Disputers and are apparently named Zomiel (though "Zomiel" sounds like a word in singular to me, like one Demon, not an order).

This fits with my experience that the Angel is very focused and single-minded, while hostile impulses keep coming from all sorts of different directions. My Angels wants me to follow my True Will, whereas something wants me chase politics one day, e-scooters another day and computer games the next one. That kind of fits your description of "violently attacking demon".

Copying my own post from Facebook, where I asked about folks' view about Models of the World, especially with regards to where the spirits live.
Main Sources:
https://theomagica.com/the-dweller-on-the-threshold
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Four_Worlds
https://web.archive.org/web/20210417220136/https://luxsaturni.com/kabbalah/

So here's my simple interpretation of the Kabbalistic Four Worlds:

1. Atziluth (the World of Emanation) – The most fundamental part of Creation. I feel like Kether is Oneness, "All-encompassingness", Binah is Passivity and Form, while Chockmah is Activity and Force – this is however not something I'm all that knowledgeable about.

2. Beriah (or Briah? Ahavah Ain Soph, please explain בְּרִיאָה ☺️) (the World of Creation) – I think of it as the Soul Plane. Here are the basic Archetypes of all "things" that exist. Here are also our Souls with their True Wills. This is actually connected – if there is an Archetype of Magick, there are souls who's True Wills are to Do Magick, and so for all other Archetypes.

3. Yetzirah (the World of Formation) – This is the Astral Plane. According Acher/Parfit it contains Thoughts (Hod), Emotions (Netzach) and Perceptions / the Subconscious (Yesod). However, traditionally the Astral Plan is supposed to contain the Spirits. Now my problem was that I didn't see how to reconcile that. Yesterday I asked Alice 🥰 and she somehow made me realise: Spirits are those who *have* Thoughts, Emotions and Perceptions! (These things aren't made of physical matter, otherwise Angels wouldn't have them 😃.) That's why Spirits are on the Astral Plane with their astral bodies, thoughts etc. (as of course are we, with our astral bodies, thoughts etc.)

4. Assiah (the World of Action) – This is the Physical Plane with material bodies, electricity, light etc.

I think that's good enough for me, though of course many questions remain. For example, we're separated from our Souls by the Veil of Paroketh (between 2 and 3) but our thoughts and our angel's  🥰 thoughts are both in Yetzirah – why is communication so difficult then?

This is a great little text from an old MU webpage, recently brought back to the FB by Frater Alysyrose. I'm not sure whose writing it is, I'd guess Silenced...

"We are the Marauder Underground. Our primary activity is attacking what is commonly known as consensual reality, the dominant paradigm, the mundane world, whatever you want to call it. We cast spells, scribe sigils, summon spirits, and open gateways. Anything that can be done to influence reality towards our goal. We use chalk to tag buildings & sidewalks with sigils and goetic summonings. We conjure up spirits and set them loose, leaving in our wake freshly haunted sites. We infect the population with the power of chaos and watch as random magick explodes into the lives of unsuspecting citizens. We are reality deviants in the truest sense of the word, as we pry open the eyes of a sleeping humanity to the terror and wonder of the worlds beyond."

Here's my personal little view of this topic:
In "Magick Without Tears", Chapters VI-VIII, Crowley writes about the Three Schools of Magick. 'The central idea of the White School is that, admitted that "everything is sorrow" for the profane, the Initiate has the means of transforming it to "Everything is joy."'

In this light, let's say that the Magician's aim is to become divine. There are two paths to that: the RHP is to Unite with God, the LHP is to Become a God. My thelemic interpretation of the RHP is to find out which aspect of Divinity you are – your True Will – and to fulfil that aspect most completely.

Draft: Theodicy of Khaos

In our Universe, one can find Fulfilment by doing one's True Will together with one's True Love, the Guardian Angel. However, it is not easy – it doesn't come naturally. That's the part which is hard to make sense of: If Khaos – the Root of all Phenomena – wants its little parts to be fulfilled, why doesn't this come naturally? Why are we not born with the feeling that someone lovingly watches over us, why does the Knowledge and Conversation have to be obtained? Why do we have to "find ourselves" – which many fail to do – instead of just realising quickly that "I'm a pianist" or a rock-climber or a mage? I'm tempted to answer something along the lines of "The Demiurge built the material world this way", "The Veil of Paroketh prevents it" or "Thagirion gets in the way", but that only moves the problem of Theodicy one step further – why do these entities exist? Why does Khaos let them do this?

On the other hand, if Khaos places no special value on Fulfilment, then why is it possible at all? Why is there a True Will and a True Love in the first place?
I know of no plausible explanation and would very much like to hear yours. However, I found a somewhat implausible one that I have to accept as working theory for the time being. It was presented by Scott Alexander and admittedly, he means it as satire: https://slatestarcodex.com/2015/03/15/answer-to-job/
Rewritten to my framework it goes like this:

Khaos maximises Fulfilment over the Multiverse. So there is a perfect universe without any Veils where all souls are born with the Knowledge of their True Will and in Contact with their True Love. However, there can only be one such universe. To create more Fulfilment, Khaos also has to also think of a slightly less perfect universe, with more distractions and impediments, and so on all the way down to to a universe that has just barely more Fulfilment than Suffering (or whatever the opposite of Fulfilment is for you). A universe with more Suffering than Fulfilment would be a net loss and therefore does not get created. And we probably live in a universe on the lower end of the spectrum, which is why Fulfilment is possible but difficult.

Edit: A friend quickly pointed out that Khaos might also just value the difficulty in itself. It's certainly thinkable. However, as my Angel keeps reminding me the underlying metaphysics don't matter much – what counts is to actually do your True Will together with your True Love.
Edit 2: A note derived from Scott Alexander's work: The amount of Fulfilment in a universe is obviously not constant, but  shrinks and grows with time. A universe gets created if and only if it will contain more Fulfilment than Suffering during the course of it's entire existence. This means that the Veil might well be removable, so that much more Fulfilment becomes possible!

I wish to bring magic and illusion to the decidedly disillusioned,

Now that's something I really like hearing :)
I'm probably the only active member on the forum. However, I've notified the Discord staff that there are folks waiting for an invite here, so hopefully either I or someone else will get back to you soon.

Or have you already received the invite?