G. Michael Vasey's Blog: The Wacky World of Dr. Vasey, page 101

A Photo

A photo of my Dad looks back at me from my desk in my home office.

He sits in rainproof gear and back pack with a big smile on his face on the top of the Sgurr of Eigg. It was chilly and drizzling that day but we had climbed the Sgurr in the morning and were now examining the remains of the Iron age fort at the top and admiring the views periodically visible through the mist. After a sandwich and crisps lunch, we would walk down the other side of the Sgurr talking animatedly about the Iron age, geology and Scotland. Half way down, I would step inadvertently into a hidden crack in the peat and have to endure a smelly, wet and very darkly stained foot and leg all the way back to the caravan we were staying in. By the time we got back we were drenched but who cared?

It was probably one of the best week’s of my life if I am honest. Dad came to stay with me for the last week of my six-week stay on the Island of Eigg off the west coast of Scotland. I spent a couple of days walking him around the Island looking at and discussing the Geology. We visited the local dance a couple of nights and I saw my Dad attempt Scottish country dancing and really enjoy it. We went out on a local boat pulling lobster pots and we sat and talked while admiring amazing and wild views. Idyllic.

We always said we would do it again sometime. We would often discuss the idea over the years. But we never did. Somehow time rushed by and though we did spend many hours together on the odd day trip in Yorkshire or Texas and spent several years researching family history, we never did return to Eigg or spend that week together. I wish we had.

Chapter 16 – A Lost Soul

Chapter 16 from The Last Observer selected at random to tickle your fancy….

Alison’s heart was beating fast and loud. She dare not move nor look up. Around her, she was aware of movement and chanting. Inside her head, there was a shadow. She was not alone. There was an indwelling presence inside of her head and it wasn’t a nice feeling. She felt as if she could hear something breathing inside her head. Another existence now seemed to share her consciousness. What had she done?

She lay there prone in front of the altar for what seemed like an eternity; a shared eternity. Then, she felt hands on her shoulders, they pulled her upright, and then she was face-to-face with the man she knew as Zeltan. He looked her in the eyes looking from eye to eye as if checking something before finally smiling. “The seed has taken,” he said. “Come Alison, come with me.” He walked her across the room and she was vaguely aware of many hooded faces peering at her with similar smiles on their faces. They sat her on a chair and told her to wait.

As Alison sat, she could hear another voice talking inside her head. The voice was indistinct as if far away and she could not quite grasp what was being said but the voice kept on talking and talking as if to itself. This would drive her mad, she thought. Then she was again looking into the eyes of Zeltan.

“Relax, don’t fight the Master and all will be well. This is just a passing phase and soon you will feel more normal.” He told her.

“What have I done,” she murmured.

Zeltan laughed and threw back his head. “Alison, you have become as a Goddess. The world and its sleepers are at your disposal. In due course, you will learn how to use this power. In fact, I will show you. We will change everything as the Master wills it. You will see.”

A cold chill ran down Alison’s spine as she listened to Zeltan’s words. She understood deep down inside that somehow she had betrayed herself. Her ego, her desire to be special, it had brought her to this moment and she understood it to have been a ruinous act. She had sold her soul. Tears slowly and silently ran down her cheeks. She had been fooled but it was her that was the fool as she had wanted to believe that she was special and important. How arrogant!

“You will sleep here tonight Alison.” She heard Zeltan saying to her. “The seed will take a few hours to establish itself properly and it is best that you remain here among friends while that happens. In the morning, Sedgwick will give you further instructions. Meanwhile, I must attend to some unfinished business.” He said and was gone.

They then helped her up and walked her through a maze of corridors. They removed her robes and she laid her on a bed. Whoever had walked her there left, switching out the light, and Alison was alone but not alone in the room. The droning voice in her head was compelling her to sleep and sleep she did.

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New Age Socialism

What exactly is it about following a spiritual path that suddenly brings out the nutty side of people? Do people suddenly leave their brain in a jar by the door? Why do new age people think they need to be nut job environmentalists and socialists? Do they think that to be spiritual requires this? If so then they should reconsider.

More or less the first thing we all learn studying magic is about duality and polarity. We learn that everything is polar and that what we need to do is try to balance everything out – reconcile the opposites. It’s not easy to do I will admit but we learn that one polarity is just as bad as the other in terms of what it is not. The Tree of life demonstrates this aptly with its two outer pillars and the middle pillar with Tiphareth more or less the balance point of both horizontal and vertical polarity. We discuss this in much more detail in The Mystical Hexagram by the way.

Knowing and understanding this then it should be understood that leaning so far left you almost completed the circle and became a fascist isn’t exactly what is required of us is it? Nor is being such an environmentalist or pro- animal rights person that you would rather human kind in general poisoned itself and died out as a species.

Frankly, I’m a bit sick of it myself and I reserve the right to hold my own balanced opinions and strike out at idiocy, lies and propaganda where ever I see it.

Amen.

Currency Blues and Other Topics

So these days I get paid in the (not so) mighty Dollar. Right now, the USD is falling against most other currencies due to the US Government shutdown. It is now below 19CZK – $1 which just a couple of months ago it was 20CZK per USD. This is not at all good news as for every 1CZK it slips, I would lose 5% of my income in CZK……. The US shutdown is costing me money….

Meanwhile, inflation here continues.

In fact, everything I earn more or less is in USD compounding the issue. Even the books are mostly sold in Dollars.

I had decided to go out and buy an exercise bike. One that had the heart rate program to try to lose some of the weight I appear to be gaining steadily and surely. Of course, said bikes are made in Germany – a Euro country and so, you guessed, its price is moving steadily upwards because the CZK is weak against the Euro.

I feel squeezed by the currency blues!

Magic As A Reality

The word ‘magic’ can mean different things to different people. For some, just watching the sunset or seeing a beautiful view can be magic, for others it is trickery and sleight of hand and yet for others, me included, magic is real magic. Real magic is making something happen through willing it to be. However, before we go too much further, let us make a few discoveries together that may convince you that we are all magicians and that we work real magic each and every day.

As you are reading this, your eyes are taking in light from the computer screen. The light enters your eye. It is then converted into electrical signals and they are then sent to a part of your brain where they are processed back into a picture. The picture is upside down by the way. Your brain even presents it to your consciousness the right way up. The image that you see is actually ‘created’ inside your brain. It is the same for the feeling being transmitted from the nerves in your bum that is right now feeling rather numb from sitting on that seat. It is just a set of electrical signals sent to the brain where they are presented to your consciousness. Think about this a bit more and you understand that you are just a cloud of atoms within a cloud of atoms. Even your brain is simply a cloud of atoms.

What is reality? Is your reality, created inside your brain, different to mine? When we both ‘see’ the color purple, are we even seeing the same hue or color? We are trained to know that that particular set of vibrations is to be described as ‘purple’.

Quantum physics (don’t go away, I won’t bore you with too much detail) has been trying to unravel reality for quite some time now and what physicists have discovered is simply mind-boggling. The brain is presented with much more information than you can use so it dumbs it down. It chooses what to present to your consciousness and it does so moments after what you are observing took place. Imagine that! In fact, everything is vibration or, put in a more scientific way; it is all waves of different wavelengths. Quantum physics shows that waves can be particles and particles can be waves – the decider of whether wave or particle is the observer – you. The act of observing by a consciousness ‘collapses the waveform’ into particles.

What does this mean? It means that you continuously create your reality and that you interact there with other co-creators of reality. Yes – it is all a sort of matrix and that is a scientific fact. How you feel, how you are raised, how you speak, what you say, what you think and a myriad of other inputs determine your reality from moment to moment. Isn’t that the work of a magician? Don’t you make magic every instant of your life?

Imagine what you could do if you were truly a conscious being and not operating more or less on autopilot much of the time? Maybe you could make things change via force of will and imagination. It’s all about your imagination you know. Maybe it isn’t so much faith that can move mountains as it is about imagination and faith in that imagining. If you have come across ‘cosmic ordering’ or The Secret, then you have been exposed to a rather crude and materialistic form of this concept. It is by the way, no secret, it has been known by occultists and magicians for thousands of years.

In my new novel, The Last Observer: A Magical Battle for Reality

, published by Roundfire Books, I use these ideas to create a compelling story about reality and magic. A group of black magicians is killing people who have the talent to observe reality and therefore create it. Most people are sleepers and react to the reality presented to them as opposed to actually creating it. Stanley, a bookworm with a very well developed imagination, is their next target. He is the last observer and it falls to him to make sure the good guys win even though he doesn’t believe in magic and knows nothing about quantum physics. Once his life is in danger, he has to learn fast.

So, the next time you think of magic remember that you are a magician and you are making magic the entire time, whether in terms of observing the sunset, through your sleight of hand, or by simply willing that parking place to be there just for you when you arrive at the mall. That’s reality and that…is magic.

Originally published as The Reality of Magic

The Last Observer is available at all online book stores…..

Computerized Democracy

The US Government has shut down – ran out of money. Do we think anyone will actually notice?

I’m being facetious of course but I am so sick of US politics. Apologies to friends and family who have strong feelings but the Republicans and the Democrats are bankrupt of ideas and have simply managed to create such an ideological gulf between their respective supporters as to make civil unrest a distinct possibility. Unfortunately, this bankruptcy of ideas isn’t just an American phenomenon but affects the entire western world.

So here is my proposal for a new system…… I dreamed it up when I was a kid but it might have some merit to it.

Since a census is taken every decade, we have a description of each nation. We know what the average Brit or American is in terms of sex, age, religion, status and so on and we have the data to know how the country is made up or broken out by these demographics. So, let’s get a computer and fill it full of everyone’s details and then have it pull 525 names out the hat in roughly the same proportions as the last census and have them serve instead of the current batch of liars – er, politicians.

I would add a few details such as:-

1. Anyone can opt out

2. You may only serve once or up to three times if put in a ministerial position

3. You may not have any interest in politics

4. You may not have a criminal record

5. You must be paying taxes to be considered

6. Your current employer must reserve your job.

Now, I would have half the members elected every three years and a total length of service of six in total.

Could it possibly be any worse than having a bunch of career egocentric liars in power?

Astral Messages Reviewed

Sue Vincent has kindly written a review of astral Messages on the Amazon.co.uk site. It reads like this – Thanks Sue!

Writers can be mysterious creatures, their personal presence and character divined only vaguely and often erroneously through their work. The phenomenon of blogging has opened a portal into their lives and allows readers to catch a glimpse of the person behind the persona.

In Astral Messages Gary Vasey has collated a selection of posts from his blog, Asteroth’s Domain. These posts, written over a number of years, allow the reader to see into the mind and heart of the man. This vision is expanded by marrying each of the posts with a poem. On the surface that may not seem of much importance, but read side by side this opens a whole new level of perception.

You have only to read the first pairing in the Amazon preview of the book to see this in action. There is a depth and openness to beauty in the poetry, a realisation of the multi-levelled nature of reality and perception in the prose… and already it shadows the thread of magic woven through this little book.

Every page gives food for thought and further reflection. Yet this is not a manufactured collection, these are thoughts that have arisen and been written as a response to a moment in time, a mood, a whisper of inspiration… and they show the man behind the words for any who take time to look.

A thoughtful, thought provoking little book. Highly recommended.

also available of Kindle….

Special Kindle Promotion on The Last Observer

The publisher – Roundfire Books – is running a promotional price on the kindle version of The Last Observer. As I understand it, its a 2-week promo and will NEVER be repeated and is designed to get a few reviews. Of course, you can also get a reasonable price on the paperback if you prefer the smell of books – as I do!

On Amazon UK its priced at 99p and its also discounted on the US site so far as I can see..

Please tell your friends.

Astral Messages Reviewed by Gordon Strong

Many thanks to Gordon for taking the time to read it and then provide this very beautifully written review….

Astral Messages

The Poems and Thoughts of a Troubled Mind

Dr. G. Michael Vasey

Here’s an interesting idea, to juxtapose prose reflections with poems. Of the latter, ‘A Dream’ and ‘Life’s Tapestry’ are gems of composition. The poems get my vote straight away because most of them rhyme, thus they have an inherent melody and rhythm. That is not to say blank verse cannot have these qualities, T.S. Eliot – for one – did pretty well on this score. It is a rare talent, however, and the experiment often misfires.

What is very endearing is the honesty of the writer. In a gesture of great affection he dedicates the book to his father. Gary is not afraid to reveal his fears, loves and his puzzlement about the world. Never maudlin or sentimental, he debates the pros and cons of an argument, and only goes slightly off beam when he has a mini-rant.

Could it be that the work reads best when the analytical and the lyrical complement each other, and are perfectly balanced?

Magic is mentioned, as one would expect from a recognised pundit upon the esoteric. The deep anxiety that may accompany exposure to the occult, the profound responsibility of owning magical power, and the nature of reality are all examined. The views of Dion Fortune upon relationships and the polarity of the sexes are given a welcome airing, all in the context of Gary’s own marriage.

The author despairs of the current evil of ‘dumbing down’ and the embracing of received opinion. For this sensitive and perceptive artist, ignorance is most certainly not regarded as bliss.

Gordon Strong. September 2013.

General Book News

With Astral Messages now out and a Kindle version of Inner Journeys (my very first book) having also just appeared, my first novel doing quite well and…. a kindle version of The Mystical Hexagram about to appear, I thought perhaps I would just write a quick article about all of my books.

The first book was Inner Journeys: Explorations of the Soul. Having completed the first degree course with the SOL, I asked Dolores Ashcroft-Nowicki if she would mind if I published a sort of autobiographical book about why I had done the course and what I had experienced. Not only did she think it a great idea but she helped me find a publisher and to promote the book. It was published by Thoth in 2005. Interestingly enough, I recently worked with Tom over at Thoth to make a Kindle version of Inner Journeys that is now available for sale.

Having written one book, my mind being what it is, thought what about publishing a book about ETRM software – which is the software I work with for a living. As a more or less independent analyst, I thought we could self publish it and get one or two clients to sponsor it. The general idea was that it would be paid for via the sponsorships and then earn some reasonable royalties as a self published book. This concept worked amazingly well raising $40,000 in sponsorships which more than covered production of the book. Of course, my employer saw the money as opposed to me though I most likely got it in salary of course. The result was “Trends in ETRM Software: A Primer” co-written with Andrew Bruce that appeared in 2006 via Createspace. This book is no longer in print as it was superceded by a second edition this time written with Patrick Reames and also paid for via sponsorships and published in 2010.

Around that time, I was also interested in hedge funds and how they were beginning to trade commodities. My partner in crime on hedge fund research – we undertook the first research project on the funds in commodities – was Peter C. Fusaro who had had a best seller with his Enron book. He was able to get Wiley Finance interested in a book and even got us a nice advance for the work. Energy & Environmental Hedge Funds: The New Investment Paradigm was published in 2006. It did OK but I think Wiley priced the book way too high at well over $100.

In 2006, I had the bug for publishing and I also had a file full of poems written by me over the years – from 1972 to 2006 in fact. Of course I couldn’t resist and a selection of the better poems duly appeared as Weird Tales: Otherworld Poetry in 2006.

Patrick and I also used the lucrative sponsorship and self publish model again to write and publish “Selecting and Implementing ETRM Software: A Primer” in 2008. Interestingly, this became the course book for a graduate program at the University of Houston and is my best seller so far with well in excess of 1700 copies sold to date.

Around about 2006, I also had an idea for a novel discussed with my eldest son, Paul Vasey, in a pub in London. I ended up writing a chapter and a half but then my pen fell silent. The book was to be named The Last Observer.

From 2006 until 2012 I was obsessed by a symbol – The hexagram. I really had some strange insights into the symbol that seemed important. Dolores Ashcroft-Nowicki saw some of the early material around 2008 and told me I was on to something and maybe so but I couldn’t finish it. I had the core chapters but somehow I was stuck until that is I asked Sue Vincent to take a look and trial some meditation exercises associated with the text for me. I didn’t want to kill anyone with the material and having an experienced practioner like Sue go through it would be reassuring to me that my exercises would be beneficial as opposed to destructive! Of course, I next asked her to help with diagrams and then write the introductory chapter and finally she was the catalyst that got the thing finished as she edited and added some of her material on the Qabalah to round out the book. I wanted to keep it in the SOL family and so Datura Press published The Mystical Hexagram in 2012.

In 2012, I also took a few more poems along with some photos taken by Gabriela Vasey and used Lulu to publish Poems for the Little Room. It seemed to me that people liked having short photo and poetry books in their little rooms and why not mine? It hasn’t sold well at all so I am guessing I got that title and market all wrong!

Having gotten over the hump so to speak with that one, I returned to the chapter and a half of The Last Observer. Strangely, Sue was again involved as I sent her a preview of that material and she responded “What, you are going to leave me there? Where is the rest?”. I began to write and the book wrote itself. I sent updates to Sue throughout the process and she kept me going. By January 2013, it was finished and I had a publisher – Roundfire Books. In late July 2013 it finally appeared.

By now, I was writing like a fiend. So it seemed reasonable to go ahead and pull together my latest and best poetry combined with short articles and publish it as Astral Messages…..

And now I am writing two books at once…. One is about The Fool as an aspect of The Deity and the other is the prequel to The Last Observer…..

well – I don’t make any money but boy -is it fun!

Here are all my books….except Poems for the Little Room that you can find on Lulu and Amazon.co.uk.

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