The Magician's Dictionary

IALDABOATH

(Or YALDABAOTH; sometimes SAMAEL.) The Gnostic's Creator demiurge (name means "born of chaos" < yalda, "child" + bohu, "void"). He is little more than a demon, for the world is a creation of evil untouched by the true God, who dwells far away -- who, then, Jahweh is supposed to be is another question altogether, outside of context.

IAMBLICHUS

Neoplatonic magus (250-325) of whom Julian the Apostate said, "He is posterior to Plato only in time, not in genius." Author of On the Mysteries of the Egyptians, Chaldeans and Assyrians, which is the foundation of Cabalism. It was Iamblichus, also, who popularized Proclus. In his practice of sacred magic he advocated that the soul could be divinized through mantrams and invocations.

IBEUM

One of many vaults in Egypt, containing the mummies of inummerable ibises, birds sacred to Thoth. The largest are found in the cemetery of Hermopolis, Tuna el-Gebel, and the Aesculapium of Imhotep at Sakkara.

I CHING

The 64 hexagrams can be seen as 32 pairs of opposites and related to the 32 Atus of the Book of Thoth. McKenna believes the I Ching is but a fragment of a much larger device for prognostication, and bases his fractals of Timescape Zero upon its regular sequences. A simple way of casting the I Ching is to throw a single die six times. An even number indicates Yin, an odd number Yang. A 12-sided die is best, so that you may determine "movables".

IDIOTHEOSIS

A private version (or private experience) of god-becoming.

IDOLON

An image; a false, mistaken or deceptive idea; an obscure vocabulary.

IGNOTUM PER IGNOTIUS

Latin for explaining the unknown through the even more unknown. Sometimes necessary when putting arcane idolons together.

IHS

An error in transliteration from the Greek produced this ludicrous abbreviation of the name IESOUS, which has since been given tacked-on, dubious meanings such as In Hoc Signo, In Hoc Salus, etc. Perfect example of how error becomes dogma through fear of criticizing traditional authority. A. C. circumvents this nonsense by turning it to Thelemic advantage. His versions: Instar hominis summus ("The highest in man"); In homini salus ("In man alone is salvation"); Imago hominis deus ("God in man's image").

ILIASTER

(Paracelsus.) Cf. Akasha, Univ. Proteus. Martinus Rulandus described it as "the first chaos of the matter of all things." Thus the iliaster of the three Threophrastic principles is sulfur, salt and mercury. The iliaster of the elements is fourfold and the iliastri of man are his life, broken down into four parts: the span of life, life derived from the elements, the quintessence and the other world. By analogy, it can also refer to the Philosopher's Stone

ILLUSION

We know that the Hindus and Buddhists teach that the entire world is Maya, or "illusion". Gurdjieff understood that there is only one thing repeated endlessly to give the illusion of variation (see REALITY). We know, from modern physics, that the atom is composed of infinitely smaller and smaller impermanent points of potential energy. We are aware that all things are in flux and that the distinction between world and self is imaginary. Given these and an endless array of further facts, and seeing that the alteration of reality is, in fine, the magician's job, it is obvious that the magician must be a "master of illusion". The conjuror, buffoon or practitioner of legerdemain merely carries the "Great Work" of the magus to an absurd degree and in demotic burlesque or genuine mockery, he attempts to "expose" everything as a fraud and to reveal that nothing is sacred, after all.

Thus the stage magician serves a useful purpose by reminding the serious magician to avoid pomposity. The purpose of the conjuror and the sorceror are equally to deceive -- the one innocently, as a pastime, the other not so innocently, as an effort to wield power. But the goal of High Magick is exactly the reverse -- its aim is to undeceive us about ourselves and the world we inhabit.

IMAGINATION

One of the two human magickal powers (the other is Will). Actually the two powers are but aspects of a secret third intelligence that goes unnamed. It is through the imagination, for instance, that healing takes place. A persistent focusing of the attention on the disease or affliction will eventually yield its dynamics and plan of action to the imagination, whereupon it then becomes possible to superimpose one's own healing pattern (also created by the imagination) over the modus operandi of the disease, forcing it to conform to one's own preference. Rather than simply "willing" something to happen, if you can imagine how the happening can occur, you can painstakingly go over each step in your mind until the event takes place.

Wade Baskin suggests that magic possesses but one dogma, which is that the visible is the manifestation of the invisible. Since the part contains the all, any part can control any other part. What you can imagine in sufficient detail you can and will produce. Failure to manifest is simply the failure to follow through in every detail and to give up too soon.

IMHOTEP

A famous Egyptian magician (equivalent of Asclepios), sometimes referred to as a "god". First minister of Pharaoh Djoser, inventor of architecture (the step pyramid at Saqqarah). Scribes used to pour "libations" from their ink pots in honor of him before starting to write.

IMMACULATE CONCEPTION

Refers not to a "virgin woman," but to the descent from the Perfect Void.

IMMANENTIZING THE ESCHATON

R. A. Wilson's phrase for speeding up the End of the World.

IMMORTALITY

The fourth and shallowest of ego desires. The difference between the initiate and the ordinary person is that the initiate knows that he, along with everything in the universe, is already immortal. Ordinary people see the truth in such ideas but choose to live as if the illusion of commonplace, middle-class job and family are more "practical" or "real" than metaphysical truth.

IMPRINT VULNERABILITY (or IV)

This is the state of the mind induced by shock, fear, psychedelic drugs, sensory deprivation, etc. R. A. Wilson's term: "To change ourselves we need to learn how to recreate imprint vulnerability." This enables us to create new reality tunnels for ourselves (the right sort of ritual can also do this). IVs should be introduced by a qualified shaman into the body, mind and emotional "bloodstream."

INFLATION

Psychic inflation is much worse than economic inflation. It refers to believing that an idealized image is actually one's real self. Sometimes this can be an archetypal image. Jung describes it as a morbid condition in which the ego becomes exaggerated and, together with the unconscious, invades the self. A real prophet, says Jung, does not identify with god, but says, "a spirit has spoken to me." By keeping the spirit outside we can try to measure up to it. But in inflation, the ego projects its own hatreds, flaws, wekanesses, evils and ugliness onto others (while simultaneously denying their presence in itself) and it grows increasingly unconcerned with the world's reaction. Whereas in the Middle Ages people developed religious inflation (thought they were God), in modern society the affliction is more likely to be political and rationalistic and, in the name of reason, we like to deny the reality of the unconscious altogether. Psychically inflated ego is also pernicious because it generates further ego inflation in others.

An inflated person is a neurotic with whom nobody can deal because no one ever knows which is the real person. Inflation can only be overcome by a balance of patience and humility, and self-analysis of the ego at all times.

INITIATE

One who has been "initiated" into the mysteries, an official Epopt, a magus. For such a one, initiation is an ongoing process which is never completed. It has been said, "An initiate is not one who knows everything, but one who knows that he has everything to know."

Initiates know the meaning of the terms "Black," "White" and "Yellow" M/magic(k) but realize that, in fact, all M/magic(k) is one. No magus ever ceases to be an Initiate, no matter how far into the wildernesses of technocratic society life may lure him.

I.N.R.I.

The message affixed to X's crown of thorns, conventionally translated as Iesus Nazareth Rex Iudorum, but also "I Never Risk Inquiry." as well as Igni Natura Renovatur Integra ("All of Nature is Renewed by Fire") or Igne Regenerando Integrat ("...integrates in regenerating by fire"), and "Iron Nails Ran In." Also: Ingenio Numen Resplendet Iacchi ("The True God is Iacchus" (Dionysos)) and Isis Naturae Regina Ineffabilis ("Isis, Ineffable Queen of Nature"). Then there are In Nepenthe Revolvit Ixion ("Ixion Spins in Nepenthe") and Id Numquam Rogat Iterim ("The Id never asks the way.") Finally, Ipsum Nomen Res Ipsa ("The Name itself is the Thing itself"). Freemasonry supplies two more variations: Igne Nitrum Roris Invenitur and the Hebrew Iammim Nour Rouah Iabescheh ("Water, Fire, Wind, Arid"). If Fire is the Will, then when we say "Nature is renewed by Fire," we mean that the Will alone has control over the universe.

INVISIBILITY

Legend recounts many magical devices for conferring invisibility: Tarnkappe, the Norse cloak of invisibility; the rings of Fulla and Luned; the tartan of King Arthur, etc. All are attempts to make the work of magic easier. Magic, however, contrary to childish belief, is never easy.

The ability to vanish can be developed in stages. Fisrt one learns how to pass unnoticed through a crowd -- protective mimicry, camoflauge, keeping to the movements of the throng, etc. Then one learns how to pass quickly before the watchful eyes of sentinels and those whose business it is to examine everyone closely. The latter "invisibility" is considerably more difficult to acquire, but not impossible. Finally, one learns the art of cloud and shadow generation. There is a technique for cupping darkness out of the air with one's bare hands. (See Invisbility by Steve Richards, Aquarian Press, 1982.)

INVOLUTION

As evolution is an outward unfolding of higher out of lower forms, so involution is a turning towards deeper complexities. It is the separation of the one into the many. The Elemntals are said to be engaged in involution. The highest spiritual being must ultimately descend towards manifestation as physical being, as lesser spirits are still moving upward. This is the true Wheel of the Tarot. By contrast, evolution is the merging of spirit with matter, recognition of self as identified with all forms, high and low. Ultimately, spirit separates and the self merges with the All.

IPSE

The self as having authority, individuality. Ipsissimus is the highest self.

ISA/ISSA

Arabic form of "Jesus."

ISEUM

A museum or temple storehouse containing art and material pertaining and sacred to Isis.

ISHTAR

Babylonian goddess corresponding to Roman Venus, Phoenician Astarte and the Arabian hermaphrodite, Athtar.

ISIS

The ("Thousand-Named") Egyptian Goddess, whose aspects are also the cow-headed Hathor and the hippopotamus goddess, Taurt (the first deity of magic). Mother and wife of Osiris. She was originally a mortal sorceress who desired to become a goddess. From some of Ra's spittle she fashioned a viper of clay, which she then brought to life and caused to bite and poison him. She released its antidote to him only when he agreed to tell her his secret name(s). The power thereof was so great that it ignited her deification. Ra has at least three names: Khepera, Ra and Atum ("Morning, Noon and Sunset"). At night he is Osiris and his eye is Thoth, the moon (as his eye by day is the Sun). Unfortunately, everyone already knows those names. Ra's secret name was heard only by Isis herself, and she has never deigned to share with anyone else. It is for this reason that she is identified as the Goddess of Mystery itself.

The understanding of these names, indeed, is the key to all Egyptian wisdom, for sooner or later, all the Gods run into and become one another. As we have begun to suspect, the secret of magic is the knowledge that everything is everything else. Isis is the Goddess of Ultimate Mystery itself and the Mother of all M/magic(k). She is the great veil over the night that "none may remove." But in simple, she represents the manifest world, as Nephthys is the unmanifest.

ITZLI

Stone knife god of the Aztecans, identified with Tezcatlipoca.