The Adept – Perfumes & Cognitions

This article follows in the sequence of The Adept – Potions and Emotions. I have committed myself to write on various disciplines outside the field of magic from the standpoint of magic, and I have arranged the disciplines according to the four elements and the planetary spheres. Each discipline follows this structure, and it is, as well, the structure that divides the disciplines. Because it is my main seat, I started with art, which I attribute to Venus. I followed a long way “down”, to the elements. This article is dedicated to the air element to which I will give the art of preparing perfumes, the art of self-hypnosis, the method of integrative thinking, psychology and intuition, and philosophy and the higher self.

With perfumes, the magician needs to know essentially a few things: such as top notes, middle notes, and base notes. This pyramid is formed based on volatility, as the particles of the top note evaporate quicker and the particles of the base note, slower. This means that the scent in the top note is more immediately perceived and the scent at the base note leaves a long-lasting impression. The mind is quicker to react than the soul, the soul than the body, therefore we will use the top notes to stimulate the mind, the middle notes to stimulate the soul and influence the astral, and the base notes to cause a change in the awareness of the body. To study the notes, in anything the magician is able to smell, he has but to notice the first scent and its analogies with the mental influence of the object, the heart scent once the first scent, also called the head fragrance, starts to fade and its analogies with the astral, and the base scents that appear once the first scent disappears completely. This corresponds to the physical essence of the substance or object. To build perfumes, the adept has to understand that herbs and light fruits are usually pervasive in the mental plane and are to be used as top notes, Flowers are a good bet for the heart or middle notes, and to influence the soul. The base notes will mingle with the middle notes to form the personality of the perfume after its first appearance, and spices, woods, resins or fungi are appropriate. While the base note is altered by the notes above, even the headnote will be influenced by the base note as well. 

One way to choose between the ingredients for your perfume is to measure the evaporation coefficient of the materials. Anything from 1 to 14 Is most volatile and therefore it makes a good headnote. 15 to 60 is appropriate for heart notes, and 60 to 100, being the least volatile, is suited to form the base notes. In oils, any oil that takes from one to two hours to evaporate can be used as a top note, 2 to 4 hours, middle notes, and from 4 hours forward, base notes. 

Having all this in mind, let us give an example of a perfume for each element that can enrich the magician´s experiences according to their substances.

Earth – Solid perfumes

Ingredients and Preparation

• 2 tablespoons of beeswax, the beeswax will be the base note, and
• 2 of coconut oil, the heart note.
• Finally, 20 drops of essential oil will reflect the magician’s personality and make the headnote.

Load the beeswax with the light oscillation of Venus, load the coconut oil with the feeling of meaningful transition and add them together in a glass jar. The next step will be to boil it in two inches of water. There is no use in loading the water. Stir them and combine them until they melt, then remove the heat and have it rest for about 4 minutes. Add the essential oil and stir well. It is important that the essential oil is something the magician identifies with, for it will represent the magician´s personality and stability and it needs not be loaded.  

To use: Apply to your skin. I have nicknamed this particular perfume “spell of transition”, it triggers the personality, makes the body sensible, and inserts transition in the heart.

Water – Essential oils

Ingredients and Preparation

• Use 2 tablespoons of carrier oil of your preference, its function will be to carry the essential oil onto the skin.
• Add as a base note 6 drops of the essential oil of myrrh, it having been loaded with holiness and superiority.
• Then add the middle note of pine as an essential oil, 15 drops, it having been loaded with longevity.
• For the top note use basil essential oil, being loaded with love, 9 drops.
• Add 6 tablespoons of 100 proof vodka, secure the lid, and let the perfume sit for 2 whole days up to six weeks.
• Once the strength of the scent satisfies you, add 2,5 tablespoons of bottled water and shake for at least one minute.
• Use a coffee filter and a small bottle and transfer the scent to this bottle, preferably of dark glass. 

This perfume bestows a loving mind, a holy physical reality and a vital soul, I have called it the self consecration perfume.

Air – Flower perfumes

Ingredients and Preparation

• Get lavender, jasmine and patchouli: 2 half cups of lavender, 3 of jasmine and 6 of patchouli.
• Wash the flower petals with water while loading lavender, by water magic, with grace, jasmine with purity and patchouli with the sacredness of life. 
• Soak them in cheesecloth in a bowl, overnight, under the light of the evening star until the light of the morning star. Have it covered with a lid.
• Squeeze the pouch of flowers over a saucepan, extracting the watery scent, and heat it softly, having the water stay just below boiling point while bubbling gently until there is but a teaspoon of the liquid.
• Now you have to load the substance with grace, enveloped by purity which is in turn enveloped by the sacredness of life in its radiation.
• Pour 2 cups of cold distilled water and then bottle it.
• Wait one night before use.

I call this fragrance “the blessing faery”, for the mind awakens to grace, the soul to innocence and the body recognizes the sacred.

Fire – Oils

Ingredients and Preparation

In fire we will return to the oils, as oils can extract both the water and the fire of a substance, why they are called essential.

• Fill your perfume bottle 3/4 full and add 10 drops of each of these essential oils: sandalwood, vanilla, pomegranate.
• Sandalwood will be the base note and should be charged with the propriety of the mystery of life,
• Now, Vanilla is also a base note, but while sandalwood is a woody note vanilla is a sweet note, and should be considered somehow the heart note.
• The adept should make the vanilla oil emanate with the astral fluids of devotion and abandon.
• Pomegranate is the top note or headnote, and it should be loaded with the principle of fertility.
• Once all are put together, form an electromagnetic volt and then shake the bottle.
• Test the perfume on the wrist. It awakens the mind to power, the soul to fiery passion and fixes the body on the positive principle, the plus.

I call it “dragon tears”.    

Akashic Perfume

Ingredients and Preparation

Again, and to avoid the adept hunting for herbs, we will work with essential oils.

• 5 parts of Myrrh loaded with the earth element
• 3 parts of Calamus loaded with the water element
• 1 part of Cassia loaded with the air element and 0,5 of Cinnamon loaded with the fire element.
• 70 parts of olive oil, enlivened by the akasha.
• An alternative way to do this perfume is to load the olive oil with the earth element and the four other oils with the akasha;
• Myrrh having the akashic quality of deliverance
• Calamus the akashic quality of providence
• Cassia the akashic quality of sovereignty
• Cinnamon the conductive Holy Spirit

While the first formula takes quantity into account, as in portions and intensity – Myrrh has a woody aroma, Calamus a fresh aroma, Cassia between sweet and spicy, and Cinnamon spicy – the second takes quality into account, i.e. divine virtues and symbolism of the herbs. This perfume actually has a name, it is the famous ”Abramelin Oil”, used to consecrate oneself and one’s magical tools.

An additional perfume that works with the five elements is the Four Thieves Oil:

• Ingredients include cloves, lemon, cinnamon, eucalyptus and rosemary.
• Cloves should have earth,
• Lemon water,
• Eucalyptus air
• Cinnamon fire,
• Rosemary is to be enlivened by the akasha.
• Once all the elements are together and mixed, add black pepper, not the oil but actual black pepper.
• The flask should be small and the lid should have two small openings on the sides.
• Cover it with garlic and chilis, tying the ball of garlic and chilis together with a net bag, and uses it to generate a protective elementary or as a talisman to anchor any warding being from the akasha.
• Given that the being’s charged seal has been imbued and placed inside the oil container. 

Moon

We jump from perfumes to something less material. The subconscious as one of the features of air in the moon sphere. And, in working with the subconscious, we chose the science of self-hypnosis, not to pick affirmations and autosuggestion, that we know so well from IIH. Put very simply, the magician just has to work on a number of steps in order to have self-hypnosis working wonders for whatever end. Motivation is the fiery step, without the proper motivation self-hypnosis is fruitless, therefore working with the cosmic letter K will solve many problems. Relaxation is the watery step. Time is to vanish entirely, and also any conditioning, therefore, the cosmic letter M is to be practised. Concentration is the airy element, the individual is to concentrate completely on a single image as the progress of self-hypnosis takes place, and the letter C will come in handy. Finally, we are left with directing, so that self-hypnosis can and will be used for a specific goal, visualizing the desired result, and it is the earthly step, to which we should apply the cosmic letter Ae in a light brown colour and the C tone. Our formula is, therefore, KMCAe. Surely we may realize that half of IIH is about perfecting with absolute mastery the art of self-hypnosis, even if the term doesn’t appear in the book. From conscious breath to the imagination of the senses, to the working of the cosmic letters themselves, all is included in self-hypnosis, although generally not as perfect. 

So, now that we know how to activate the perfect mood through our cosmic formula, we will go with a specific example, proper to the adept.

1. In your temple, choose an asana and practice it
2. Focus your mind on a single thought, the image of a dot
3. Start breathing deeply through all pores, holding for a moment between breaths
4. Load the whole body with magnetism
5. Leave in the mental body and stand parallel to your physical body.
6. In your mental body, tell yourself that you will return to the material body upon the count of 5. Start counting from 1 to 5. When you reach 5, you will wake up in your material body

To give it a broader perspective, let us start again

1. This step is from 1 to 5 as previously described. You can also trigger your jump from the physical body to the mental body by counting from 5 to 0.
2. In your mental body, enter akashic trance then picture the situation you wish to master and see yourself achieving your goal.
3. Repeat to yourself “I am omnipotent, omniscient, eternal and omnipresent” with absolute confidence while picturing the image of achievement for 10 minutes
4. Count from 1 to 5 and come back. 

Do it on a daily basis. Write your goals down on paper with clarity and precision. The goals must be achievable and if we are talking long term goals, broken into manageable steps. Remember when you were working the soul mirror and the ennoblement of the soul? You were practising all these steps and working self-hypnosis either you knew it or not, and you continued to do so all the way to the end of Initiation Into Hermetics, including all the human faculties that were left out. What one needs to understand is that hypnosis is not that much related to hypos, that is, to sleep, as we usually come to understand it. Hypnosis is an awakened state of higher awareness and higher sensitivity where one is in control. 

Mercury

In the topic of Mercury, we will apply air as the discipline of integrative thinking. 

• The earth element here will make every variable of the object of thinking salient. We tend to simplify matters in order to process them, in here, we are aiming at all the alternatives and contradictory information and we are holding them still.
• We then apply water, witnessing how the salient features interconnect and influence one another, flowing. In this, we understand true causality, which is circular and multi-directional. 
• Air comes into play when the adept works on individual parts of the problem while keeping at all times the whole of the problem in mind. The elements of the problem or object of thinking are therefore not pieces of it, nor sequences, they are dynamic parts of a whole that start harmonizing with that very same whole and becoming in its image.
• Fire concludes the process by forcing the creative solution of the tensions that still remain, rather than simply choosing between one solution and another.  

Venus

And now, over the lunar subconscious, a feature of the air in Venus is intuition. The psychologist Gerd Gigerenzer said that intuition “is a form of unconscious intelligence”. I said that, in this body of articles, I would stick with fields outside the field of magic and work them through magic, intuition can also be the case, as I am working from the point of view of psychology, another applied philosophy, just as magic. 

The First Step

To manage the skill of unconscious intelligence, the adept is to avoid reflection and favour intuition, judging faster and with more accuracy. Start practising by watching politicians, teachers, scientists and philosophers speaking with no sound nor subtitles, and measure their efficiency. Do not seek to find the reasons for your judgement. Deliberation leads here into misleading clues while holistic impression stands accurate. Watch people in the streets, trying to find out if they are strangers, friends, lovers… 

The Second Step

The next thing the adept should strive to do is not cling to his intuition. Contradictory, isn’t it? But intuition is immediate and it should be in constant actualization, for once there is clinging, it fails and gives birth to all sorts of biases and prejudices.  

The Third Step

Is to avoid applying intuition to his feelings and stick with applying it outside. Make the outside into metaphors and sketches to reframe and find solutions. The strength of a feeling doesn’t make it trustworthy in what concerns intuition, it makes it trustworthy in what concerns motivation. A very accurate way to sharpen intuition works in the opposite direction, we think of a plan we have and then imagine that we are in the future and that the plan failed, then we look back and examine why: this technique is strong to find real weaknesses and it is not truly the fruit of reflection. 

The Fourth Step

Next, he is to make his peace with reason and reflection, just as it can blur intuition, so can also intuition blur reason, which is supposed to judge intuition rightfully. But the adept who is now a master of integrative thinking knows how to solve this problem. 

The Fifth Step

One must know how to turn intuition into insight. While intuition tells you about what is, no matter in what time we are talking about, insight tells you what can be. The same works for clairfeeling and clairvoyance. Yet a clear intuition can tell the adept when insight is possible and advisable. On the other hand, intuition must then be swept out in order to give full possibility to insight. Intuition is not insight, and many magicians were lost in the way because of confusing both. While intuition can lead us right or left through the dark forest in search for insight, it can also lead us astray if mistaken for insight itself. In all cases, let the adept clean any remnants of melancholy, it is the sickness that mistakes intuition for insight. Additionally, insight feels like a surprise, while intuition feels more like a gut feeling.

The Sixth Step

The magician is to watch out for values that take on the disguise of qualities and principles, they can direct intuition as well as an electromagnetic volt can direct the astral light. For instance, if the left supports EQUALITY and EQUAL RIGHTS for gay couples, the right may find in it a deviation from the original values, it is not PURE, and it is DISLOYAL to the concept of opposite-gender couples. But if the gay couple is portrayed as PATRIOTIC, representing an elite LOYAL to the country, it might be seen with sympathy and even hope. It is intuition that judges these things blindly, and if they are wrong or right. In any case, a gay couple is just a gay couple. Internet memes are a way to trigger this kind of intuitions, for values are as the virus that takes over intuition, but the adept is and must remain independent at all times. 

The Seventh Step

Context. Intuition knows how to spot traits, but they mean different things under different contexts. A person who is swearing may be a mindless brute in one context and a person of attitude in another, but it does not mean that we are examining the words and attaching them to values. If one values what is most rebel, swearing will seem OK on any occasion, if one abhors swearing intensely, he will likewise become numb to the actual moment. 

If I could put it in such a way, I would say that IIH is about self-hypnosis and building the proper motivation to master things, PME is about insight, for the beings will open to us completely new visions, and KTQ is about intuition, knowing and working with the blocks that are there and that constitute the universe. 

Now that we have cleared the path of intuition, let us rise up into the Sun. 

Sun

The air element in the sun, at least as seen through the earth sphere, is higher consciousness, or what Arthur Schopenhauer called the better consciousness. The adept can use tools not usually used by theoretical philosophers to understand what philosophers have said about the higher consciousness. For instance, the adept has learned how to reject all thoughts for at least an hour. To understand what Schopenhauer meant he is to reject all thoughts incident on experience, reason and instinct. What is it that remains? Schopenhauer called it “a flash of insight, with no connection to the understanding”. The technique of akashic trance, if well done, will leave the magician with no trace of personality, causality, subject or object, and what is left is the supersensible and extra-temporal consciousness that Schopenhauer talked about. If taken to its last consequences, it leads back to GodHead. An unconventional technique that might lead into the same state is for the magician to go out in his mental body and run continuously through a black tunnel filled with light while meditating on the cosmic letter M. The mystic experience that it leads into will bring the magician to similar results. 

Of course, Friedrich Schleiermacher has come to the same higher consciousness, but through means of the macro cosmos: the absolute other, actively independent of the self and its world, that is, the outside infinite. To understand it the magician has to reject all thoughts of necessity, pain and pleasure, what remains is the dependency on this “Outer God” in order for consciousness to remain. It is this connection that is, to Scheilermacher, the Higher Consciousness. 

In either case, it allows the adept to perceive, as Blavatsky would put it, “things in the interior or invisible world”, in every age and every country, being that the mind is taken from the form into formless spirit. 

The higher consciousness is no stranger to scientists themselves. They have described it as “secondary consciousness”. While the “primary consciousness” is perception and emotion and the awareness of perception and emotion, the “secondary consciousness” is the one conscious of being conscious. If the adept transfers his whole identity to the secondary consciousness, he is following on the most natural path to higher consciousness.

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