Magical black holes

Why some appear immune to ritual influence

Years ago, Nick Farrell mentioned “black holes” to me, referring to people who go about apparently unaffected by magical workings. He told me he knows one such person quite well. The man in question had been the target of more than a few rituals and spells, but nothing seemed to have touched him, for good or ill.

There are those out there who constantly scream that their spells always work, irrespective of intent, circumstances, or target. When asked for technical details to back up their claim, their screaming becomes louder, usually accompanied by a chorus of screams from followers who instinctively leap in to defend the person they look up to. Naturally, such claims are bogus, and anyone who makes them ought to be ridiculed for not having managed, by now, to rub shoulders with the people conspiracy theorists are so worried about: the ruling elite.

Magical workings have their limitations, and I have talked about this in Words. Nevertheless, I believe everyone can eventually be affected by spells, no matter how much of a black hole they appear to be. A magician only has to find the right angle of approach, the right timing, and possibly even the right spell combination.

Based on this hypothesis, I will develop a theory that applies to this particular kind of person. In several earlier works, including Asteria, I discussed various reasons why spells may fail on individuals in general. Here I am concerned with a narrower problem: those people who seem to absorb magical pressure without showing much visible effect. Any future practical work that proves or disproves what follows would be welcome. For this purpose, I shall turn to Rudolf Steiner. I am not quoting him because he was a magician, but because his psychic abilities allowed him to observe the microcosm. During his lectures, he devoted many words to describing the structure of the human being, addressing each component in varying depth depending on the subject.

Thus, human beings have a physical body, an etheric body, an astral body, and an I, or ego. The physical body is the material basis of the human construct, composed of natural substances and suited to inhabiting and interacting with the natural world. The etheric body is an energy body closely related to the physical, sustaining its living processes and containing elements necessary for earthly life, such as habitual patterns and memory. The astral body contains cravings, passions, desires, and the sense of pain and pleasure. The I is the spiritual centre of the human being, the individualising principle of will and self-consciousness, responsible for the certainty of being oneself and not another.

Steiner notes that each of these parts is the architect of the elements within the microcosm. The physical body gives form to physical existence as inherited through earthly ancestry. The etheric body generates growth and digestion, as well as the forces of reproduction. The astral body governs the nervous system, while the blood and its circulation relate to the I. Without going into further classifications such as the sentient, rational and consciousness soul, these four elements constitute one’s personal sphere of sensation, usually referred to as the aura, which can be psychically observed.

Steiner goes on to detail how these non-material components unite with the material body. While they are present within the microcosm, they do not fully manifest at birth. Instead, their influence works more from outside the physical organism at first, gradually entering and shaping it in stages of roughly seven years.

Thus, the physical body at birth has the characteristics inherited from the being’s earthly ancestors, which it maintains up to the changing of baby teeth. The changing of the teeth is triggered by the etheric body beginning to work more directly within the physical body, after which the boy or girl starts developing their characteristics.

The astral body then begins to work more strongly through the physical organism at the start of puberty, flooding the individual with a myriad of intense sensations. Lastly, the I makes itself felt around the age of 21, when the person is considered an adult and consciously begins to feel independent from his or her family, whereas previously they merely rebelled.

Steiner said:

“Everything physical is subject to the laws of physical heredity, but so too are the organs of propagation, the nervous system and the blood circulation. The individuality of a human being must unite with a physical body that is subject to these laws. This means that the ‘I,’ together with the ennobled parts of the astral and ether body, and perhaps part of the physical body, must establish harmony between itself and what is inherited. This usually happens through the fact that the spiritual, by transforming itself, adapts to the physical. But what happens when that is not possible, when for example an astral body encounters a nervous system to which it cannot adjust, and therefore cannot make use of?”

He then provides an answer:

“When the ‘above’ is in harmony with the ‘below,’ one is not at all conscious of inner processes. But, if for instance, the brain is clumsy and sluggish so that the astral body is unable to make use of it, then the astral body suffers disturbance. It projects itself outwardly just as it does when the eye is impaired. It becomes conscious of itself, and feelings of hopes, wishes and cravings, that is, the attributes of the astral body, are projected and appear as forms approaching from outside. Madness, querulousness, hysteria—all conditions in which a person cannot make his feelings agree with what goes on around him—belong to this category. The ether body can also suffer disturbance through inner abnormalities. It contains our mental pictures of the outside world. As long as it is not conscious of itself it receives these pictures in their true form, but if they become projected outwards due to a disturbance of the ether body, the result is delusions and paranoia. When that aspect of the physical body that should bring about the accord with the physical environment becomes disturbed, becomes conscious of itself, it leads to idiocy. A human being can become what is called ‘demented’ when the physical body is too ponderous, too unwieldy, so that the astral body is unable to master it. If on the other hand the physical organs are too mobile so that they fail to express the soul’s intentions, the result is paralysis.”

As not to come to hasty or unhealthy conclusions, we must not consider the non-physical component as being ropey but rather the way it connects with the physical:

“The spirit itself is always healthy; it cannot be ill, but when it can find no harmony with the ‘below’ it becomes distorted. A face reflected in a convex mirror is distorted, but no one assumes that the real face must therefore also be distorted. The various forms of insanity are the distorted reflections of the spirit in the physical.”

I also came across them when I had a brief encounter with energy healing, several years before practice. I am talking about genuine energy healing, done by a clairvoyant who could observe and manipulate people’s subtle bodies with nothing but his hands. He worked directly within the subtle bodies, much as a mechanic works inside an engine, except with fewer spanners and less swearing. Basically, someone who knew what the fuck he was doing.

We will now look at how spells work when a subject is targeted, say, by a curse, although the same principle would apply to a blessing.

The magician performs the ritual, raising as much energy as possible. The spiritual force is directed towards the target, using the strongest available link to them.

Links are twofold: sympathetic or contagious. Sympathetic links are less powerful, since they are artificial constructs made to resemble the target, not things that come from the target. Contagious links are personal to the target, and the more intimate the better. Hair, blood, bodily fluids, nail clippings, clothing and other personal traces all carry a stronger connection because they have belonged to, touched, or been part of the person. A third option is something magically altered and then placed in close contact with the target, as discussed here.

A macrocosmic spiritual force acts upon a microcosm. To do so, it must work its way through the person’s sphere of sensation and create changes within it. Those changes then generate repercussions in the person’s inner and outer life. In this example, those repercussions would be unpleasant.

A person’s sphere of sensation shapes their experience throughout life. It generates inner states of consciousness and conditions by which the individual meets outer events, whose effects then create further inner states. Karma works within and outside us, steering us towards the experiences from which we are meant to learn, assuming we ever do, which is a bold assumption for the species.

In the microcosm, karma is imprinted in the natal chart. Its macrocosmic influence is felt through ongoing planetary transits. When a transit hits a natal placement in a particular way, it produces effects that impact the person inwardly, outwardly, or both.

Spells act by inserting their energy into the astral body. Their effects may later be felt in the etheric and physical bodies. While active in the astral body, they behave in a way like planetary transits, drawing the individual towards certain experiences. In this example, those experiences are unpleasant for the target.

From what I have observed over a considerable period, spells are usually directed at someone when one or more transits have already begun to affect one or more of that person’s natal placements. In that case, the casting of the spell, and whatever the target experiences, become part of the manifestation of those transits. If that were not the case, the material effects of the transit would be generated by some other physical cause. The person might be run over by a car, fall and break something, lose their job, become ill, or meet some other expression of fate’s customer service department.

Whatever the transits orchestrate for the person as physical experiences, spells included, would be propagated from the astral body down into the etheric and physical. So far, so good, until we consider that some people’s subtle bodies are not always aligned in the same way. One or more subtle bodies can either press too strongly into the lower ones or fail to engage them fully. It is this second case that calls for attention, even though both conditions can lead to various mental or physical imbalances.

If one or more subtle bodies remain too loose, they can’t work on the lower vehicles properly. In occult terms, this may appear alongside physical and mental ailments whose clinical causes are hard to pinpoint and diagnose, even when the symptoms suggest recognisable medical conditions. Autoimmune diseases and paralysis would be among the more serious physical conditions one might be tempted to examine through this lens, while dementia or schizophrenia would be among the mental effects. This does not mean the occult explanation replaces medicine, unless one is trying very hard to be an idiot. It means that the occultist may sometimes observe a subtle pattern running alongside the clinical picture.

I once talked to a medical student who wanted to specialise in psychiatry. She told me the first thing her professor said to the class was that, while it is simple to label people with psychiatric conditions, but a diagnosis that thoroughly reflects the person’s condition is almost impossible. Repeated investigation over a considerable period may uncover more details, often carrying the doctor further away from the initial diagnosis.

It is interesting to see how many people over the years have been stamped with one mental condition or another by specialists, then put through intense treatments based on those diagnoses, only for the label to be changed later with the confidence of someone absolutely certain, for no especially good reason.

It must be said that not everyone with loose subtle bodies will manifest such conditions fully. In some cases, the manifestations develop gradually, while in others they remain in earlier stages. Additionally, such a person is not necessarily prone to physical and mental effects. They may experience only one kind of disturbance, or both in varying degrees, sometimes so slightly that the effects are barely noticeable.

People whom I have identified as black holes usually exhibit mental issues more often than physical ones. Those who I have worked against magically to change their condition, and who proved hard to crack, display some form of mental issue, despite my having used their DNA as a link and having worked with forces of above-average strength at the time. Two quite recent cases stand out.

A man should, by any ordinary magical measure, have been seriously changed by the salvos I sent his way. I was told that, besides experiencing severe depression for a few days, he was not hindered from getting on with his life as usual. His mundane life suffered no damage, and it was as if he had completely shrugged off the magical attacks. He was subjected to a dose that would knock out a herd of elephants. Later, he was blessed. Again, the effects were barely visible and lasted only a short while. The man had been clinically diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia earlier in his life.

A woman with visible neurosis, although I do not know her medical history, was also subjected to a series of rituals that should normally have stopped someone in their tracks. It may be that she, too, has some clinical psychiatric diagnosis or has been subjected to drug treatments for such conditions. I have no way to find out, but she shows telling signs that something is not right psychologically. She, too, continues to live as usual, and so far, I have noticed no signs of any significant microcosmic or macrocosmic damage. Minor annoyances may have occurred, but the possibility of discovering that is impossible.

An older case should be noted, but only because some material effects occurred while little harm was done to the target’s microcosm. I was told that, besides experiencing more anxiety and nervousness than usual, the man’s car broke down, and he had to spend a ton of money to have it fixed. This generated even more anxiety for him, but he suffered no physical harm. This man too has some psychiatric diagnosis, although the person who told me did not know the details.

So, some magical “black holes” might exist because the person’s astral body is loose. Any magical energy entering it is unable to move properly down into the etheric and physical bodies, where it would normally produce changes in line the intent behind the spell. Or, if it does move further down, only a small amount does so, causing a reduced effect that is usually negligible compared to the spell’s potential and lasts for a far shorter time than the spell would normally produce.

This phenomenon goes mostly unnoticed; it requires observation, repeated cases, comparison between targets, and enough experimentation to separate pattern from magical chest-beating. Any investigation into this matter needs a proper psychic who can observe the aura in detail.

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