The Skull Temple

STRATEGIC SORCERY BLOG HOP
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Some students of mine decided to organize a Strategic Sorcery Blog Hop. The topic for this hop is Planetary Magic, so I decided to share a short ritual that I do to assist in formulating any magic that relates to speech or breath… I call it the Skull Temple.

The head is a temple unto itself. In Dzogchen and Tantra there are various methods for working with your own skull as a chamber of power: specific points and drops are concentrated on, certain sounds reverberate and are empowered within, The eyes themselved become chambers upon which dakinis dance and reality itself is assembled accordingly… Its very cool stuff, but that’s a post for another day.

Western Astrology is certainly filled with suggestions on how the planets relate to the body in general, and then in the head specifically.  Al-Biruni suggested that the moon and sun were in the left and right eyes specifically. Venus and Mars are in the left and right nostrils. Saturn and Jupiter are at the ears. Mercury is, fittingly enough, on the tongue. I wrote a short spell based on this arrangement in my chapbook Advanced Planetary Magic, but that is not the only arrangement possible.

The Skull Temple ritual arranges the planets in the skull in way that is based both on the vibrations of the vowels associated with the planets (using ascending alphabetical order*) to bring the fullness of the planets into the head where they can be harmonized and put to use in beholding of senses with the eyes and ears, the processing of information with the brain, and perhaps most importantly for the Sorcerer the formation of words of power in the mouth.

Bring your attention to the crown of you head. Sound the Greek Syllable IOTA pronounced EE. Conisder that the light of spirit and inspiration shines down from this spot.

Bring your attention to the inside of the mouth. Sound the Greek Syllable ALPHA pronounced AH. This is the lunar point, where all the powers of the planets will be reflect and formed into the words we speak unto the earth.

Bring your attention now to your throat roughly where the thyroid gland is. Sound the Greek Syllble OMEGA pronounced like a long OHW This is the Saturn point where breath is harvested into sound. It is also the place that most symbolizes our own mortality. The hand making the cutting gesture at the throat is a nearly universal sign of death.

This will form the central pillar and of course the sacred name IAO.

Turn your attention now to the area behind the forehead where the third eye might be. Sound the Syllable EPSILON, pronounced Eh. This is the mercury point where the frontol lobe controls movement and analysis.

Turn your attention now to the solft area at the back of the skull where the neck meets the head. Sound the syllable Upsilon pronounced Euw like the french u, or like the ew in dew. This is the Jupiter point called the Jade Pillow in Chinese. This is where the spine connects to the head and thus a great place for the governance of the body.

Turn your attention to the right temple and sound the syllable Omicron, pronounced Oh (shorter and sharper than Saturn’s Omega). This is the Mars and the culmination of the aggressive “male” channel.

Immediately afterward turn your attention to the left temple and sound the syllable Eta (pronounced Ay like day). This is the Venus point and representative of the loving “female” channel.

I use these male and female designations very loosely, don’t read too much into them.

Once you have these resonances set up in the head you can run through them again. You might begin to perceive channels between these points activate and even create shapes in the head: A pyramid made from Venus and Mars, Mercury and Jupiter with the sun as its pinnacle would be just one example.

Sit and breathe in this, if you’ll pardon the expression, headspace. What do you feel? What you explore with your mind attuned this way? What powers can be given birth to in the womb of the mouth?

Perhaps you might see another better arrangement. The skull ikon above has Jupiter and Saturn in the right and left eye rather than where I place them. Perhaps seeing the possibilities and limitations of all things. You should treat these placements as designations of choice, rather than as some kind of biological truth. The question is not “which part of the skull does Mercury belong?” The question is “What does mercury do when placed in different spots”.

The exercise out for a spin and let me know what, if any, results you get.

*As opposed to descending or harmonic order…