Basic Sigil Magic - Phillip Cooper 2001
Black Magick
The Psybernomicon
The nature of the black power is stability and limitation. It governs business matters, debts, land dealings, property, patience, self-control, endurance, depression, delays, restrictions, professional matters and one's profession, ambitions and career, the elderly, obstacles, falls, fears, inhibitions, chronic ailments, warts, and work.
The virtue of black power is silence. The black magicians are the quiet figures who do their work without fuss, using the robe of concealment. The key word of the black power is "understanding." Regrettably, black power is little understood, and is often classified as the great malefic. Without limitation, you would not have form. There would be impossible situations and you would have neither a body nor an environment in which to live.
Black power may often be viewed as restriction, but, as always, it is your choice. You can allow depression and negative thinking to bear down on you, or you can seek to understand why. Every effect has a cause and, within every apparent problem, is a solution. You can continue to beat your fists against obstacles, or you can learn to think them over. The lesson of the black power is that "all is as it should be." In other words, if you originate discordant and destructive ideas, these will eventually find form as restriction by your black Saturnian consciousness. You, as a human being, are responsible for who you are and all that manifests around you, without exception.
The black Saturnine power, or death-self, has two modes: the Grim Reaper with his scythe, and Father Time with his hourglass. When the sand runs out, the scythe begins mowing. The nature of the harvest depends on whether you have interacted negatively or positively with life. The truth of the matter is that you create your own troubles and experience the negative effects of your Saturnine consciousness. No one else is responsible. The reverse is also true. When you pursue true-self-seeking, wise ways, you will achieve perfect results. Cause and effect cease to be a curse and burdens become achievements, due to understanding.
Black power also links to the matured self, and leads to old age. The influence here is to stress the wisdom of age that time will bring. The taskmaster that the black power can be ensures that any acquisition of wisdom will be painfully earned. Black power combines these painful lessons with a benevolence that will make the hard experiences of life easier to live through. The philosophical realization of why it all had to happen will only come with advancing years. Then it will be possible to look back and see the complete picture of your life.
Contrary to popular belief, black Saturnine power is not the ruler of death. Death is not "the last enemy," but simply the cessation of the dance that creates the material illusion. Although death inspires the dauntless, it is also the element of change within the material world—in gardening terms, the maker of the compost on which new life grows. Only in its negative aspect is death the wrecker of monuments to human vanity and devourer of the materialists. We are all, human and beast, but spiritual stardust, and to dust we must return. Modern humanity is the only species whose brief and brutal existence is wasted in futile flight from this self-evident certainty.
The samurai warrior has no wish to die, but he does not fear death, therefore he prevails over the fiercest foe.
As material beings, we are the physical hostages of the Gnostic Demiurge, creator and ruler of the tangible world, known also as Rex Mundi and counted by all who pursue wealth and power. Those who declare "God is on our side" are often its most faithful, if deluded, acolytes. Cohorts of the Demiurge bear the insignia of religious, political, and bureaucratic office, and move in privileged circles, yet are enslaved by their own greed and gullibility. Rex Mundi, the King of the World, represents everything temporal and illusory.
Black power represents restriction, limitation, and consolidation. Black magick slows things down and encourages patience and steadiness. Black power is often associated with time. Always remember that uncontrolled expansion is not good. We need to apply the brakes to retain control and black magick is the power of control. Either you control its energy, or life is likely to restrict you.