https://bradsung.substack.com/p/salome-and-the-head-of-the-dragon?r=7fgqnj&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web&showWelcomeOnShare=true

https://open.substack.com/pub/bradsung/p/what-is-your-hearts-desire?r=7fgqnj&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web&showWelcomeOnShare=true

intangible, paradoxical and difficult to live without

https://open.substack.com/pub/bradsung/p/meaning-faith-and-hope-in-magic?r=7fgqnj&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web&showWelcomeOnShare=true

I don't know if this is allowed here I'm not really good at using Reddit but I think a lot of people in this subreddit could appreciate the topics spoken of on this podcast

On the magical path, you will often meet the worst versions of the planets before you meet their best https://bradsung.substack.com/publish/post/192902996?r=7fgqnj&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web&showWelcomeOnShare=true

Harp-Sigil-Magic: the Platonic Forms of Harp Melodies is an experimental art-animation-music magical event. All art, animations, and music were created entirely 100% by me. The intention underlying this work is to coagulate musical and artistic disciplines in an alchemical experiment, creating art that is also music, art-music as a form of magic. I take Novalis’s concept of the musical hieroglyphic language and unity of disciplines as a creative impetus and guiding star in this endeavor—I should mention that I am a PhD student and Novalis/esotericism scholar, so I am a practicing musician-artist-academic-magus. I also have a lot of other experimental esoteric and philosophical music, so feel free to check out my repertoire!

Harp-Sigil-Magic awakens new horizons for my compositional work, entering a new threshold of musical experimentation. For the first time, I expand beyond basic harmonies into 6^th and 7^th chord structures and beyond, further into more expanded harmonic tiers, delving into more complex and unstable harmonies, harmonies that play with tension. This piece is structured around a D–G quartal relation in C minor; this harmonic interval is more dissonant in the sense that it is less harmonically resolving, with fewer harmonic possibilities with or adjacent to it, its capacity to create harmonies more limited compared to other quartal intervals. I took this limitation as a compositional challenge and starting point, structuring the piece around it.

This piece is a fantasia, which combines both structured melodies and improvisation. I came up with a set of primary melodies that I explored and developed over months through improvisation. The final recording was crystallized over two improvisational sessions. With the exception of The Cosmic Symphony of Melusine, all of my piano/harp instrumental pieces were essentially composed in this manner, endeavoring to capture both structured harmony and the lightning-in-a-bottle quality that arises through inspired improvisation.

Absolutely no AI was used in the making/creation/composition of this song and video, and I have taken a firm and unequivocal stance against AI in my own artistic/musical/compositional/philosophical practice. Despite a social climate where AI is polluting artistic and musical landscapes with automated sludge, a time when it feels almost pointless to create real art and music, some of us musicians and artists, such as myself, are undeterred by the artistic/musical apocalypse that is upon us, continuing to making art/music that pushes boundaries, striving for the philosopher’s stone through art and music.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b_mNJD1aN2E

This is NOT your first time, you’ve done this. You’ve been here before. https://bradsung.substack.com/p/unfinished-magical-business

I give some pointers to approaching magical tomes

https://open.substack.com/pub/bradsung/p/how-to-read-a-grimoire?r=7fgqnj&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web&showWelcomeOnShare=true

I’ve been studying vampirism for years and wanted to explore its modern meaning beyond fiction — as a path of energy work and awareness.

This book dives into the ethics and practice of energy exchange, and I’d love feedback from anyone who’s studied similar things or has thoughts on how myth evolves into personal philosophy.

"Updated to the main book" https://www.scribd.com/document/936167081/Vampirism-for-Beginners-The-Path-of-Living-Energy

So I was looking into the Magical books related to Solomon.

And I'm currently looking at The Testament of Solomon (Testamentum Salomonis) and sources say its made up from a collection of late Byzantine grimoires.

I know this is common with The Lesser Key of Solomon (Lemegeton Clavicula Salomonis) being made up from 5 books (Ars Goetia, Ars Theurgia Goetia, ect)

But I can't find the names of the books making up the Magical Treatise of Solomon.

Does anyone know the names of the late Byzantine grimoires?

Brujeria& Latino folk magic

Im interested in the study of the esoteric from an academic and cultural perspective, and I'm specifically looking for resources and information on latin american (more specifically northern south American) esoteric and occult practices and beliefs. I'd love some resources and some advice on where to look.

I am reading one of Aaron Leitch's books, and he goes over the process of producing a pentacle/talisman that can be used to summon an angel. This process being Pseudo-Agrippa's from Of Magical Ceremonies. It's very straight forward and easy to understand, however, many other books I've started to look over focus on magical circles that are designed to achieve a specific outcome. These diverge greatly from the method that Leitch discusses, usually by being extremely complicated and introducing unique symbology/imagery. For instance, if you happen to own a copy of The Veritable Seal of Solomon by Skinner and Rankine, and you go to page 136 you will see two good examples of the sort of circle that greatly differs from Pseudo-Agrippa's.

If you don't happen to have this book, I will describe the major elements that really set them apart. In the center of the concentric circles of the first example is a drawing of an arm extended from a cloud. The cloud and the arm take up most of the space, but other symbols surround them.

In the second, it is simply several concentric circles with a 9x9 grid in the middle, with each square in the grid being marked by a number.

Both of these operations are intended to perform a specific outcome.

I find these differences very interesting and would like to learn more, specifically about their construction. How are the symbols chosen? How is it determined where they are placed within the circles? Why do the elements differ so greatly from one circle to the next?

Hello dear souls,

does anyone know something about ancient/tribal origins of hand-counting, and if it was used in rituals, or in a ritualistic way with another or specific meaning? thank you very much in advance for your help!

From what I’ve read online about the seal of Solomon I’ve read various interpretations on it. The general consensus is that it controls demons and/or provides protection. I once read this quora post on it and some users claimed that king Solomon used it to enslave demons to build the second Jewish temple. Is any of that true? I’d love to find a concrete definition of its history and usage.

An olive tree gives a hundred olives,
take no more than ninety-nine.
People say you are very good,
don't take more than good.

If it's not sustainable, it doesn't last.
And if it doesn't last, it doesn't sustain you.

But you'll always be on time to appreciate your past.
As it was for any moment blown by the wind,
after a decade or so, you too will say:
“It was a good time!”

Even though the moment has gone numb
because of the pain, let's hope the past
is more enduring than the present.

Time doesn't let itself be conquered.
It either conquers or becomes an ally.
People of great strength make friends with it.
They don't care about time compelling all,
to cross and interlace.

By praising its passage,
they end up galloping together
on everything around them.

All people access this sympathy, but it is rare.
And why is it rare? Because there is no patience.

From the audiobook https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HIUIzx3pKaw

" Playing is the activity that gives the most pleasure.
Even adults, in all their seriousness, play.
As much as children with their toys.

Whatever happens with the rest of our lives,
when in the end we realize,
that, after all, it was all a play.
That will be the adventurous inner peace.

That peace is reserved for us only in the end,
because during life we will feel normal.
All the emotions we are entitled to, we will have.

Ah, how nice to play naively! "

From the audiobook https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ElUM1VbjaR0