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are nowhere to be seen in Anderson’s
manual. The rest of the symbols on Anderson’s list are an interesting
collection of mathematical symbols, astrological short hand and mysterious
symbols that I’m sure only Anderson knows the meanings of. Other
interesting inaccuracies in Anderson’s manual include a claim that an
“Agrippa” is “A grimoire written in black or Purple pages, and shaped like a
man.” Agrippa, or more correctly Henry Cornelius Agrippa, was a fifteenth
century alchemist and philosopher. There has never been a black and/or purple
grimoire shaped like a man. Anderson
also claims that the “Book of Moses” was “The standard magician's code of the
Middle Ages; it contains a complicated ritual for the induction of
neophytes.” If Anderson wants to know about the Book of Moses, perhaps he should read
the Bible (2 Chronicles 25:4, 2 Chronicles 35:12, Ezra 6:18, Nehemiah 13:1
and Mark 12:26): He’d find out that it is a biblical text, not a
grimoire. He’s probably referring to
some “Long Lost Books of Moses” 4 through 10, that one can buy in
metaphysical stores that purport to be ancient tomes of ceremonial
magick. Another
amusing definition from Anderson's manual which I’ve subsequently found in
several others reads: "Zoso: A mythological three-headed dog who guards
the gateway to hell.” Further on in Anderson’s manual is a
crude drawing of the word “zoso,” accompanied by this definition: “Zoso: The name
of a three headed dog; the protector
of the gateway to hell; a nickname of
Jimmy Page.” Medieval
magicians believed that each spirit had a seal or sigil which identified it
or which was related to it. This was
probably because it was customary for people to use seals of distinctive
designs to seal letters as a form of signature in those days. The argument seems to have been that if
people had seals, then spirits must have them too. “Zoso” is a sigil which is related to the planet
Saturn. In modern times you will find
it on the album covers and record labels of the British rock group “Led
Zepplin.” A good example of this sigil
can be found on the dust cover of the album “Led Zepplin IV.” Jimmy
Page was the lead guitarist of the band Led Zepplin. Page is a serious student of occult
subjects. Page bought Aleister
Crowley's old house in London, which he turned into a metaphysical book
store. Page chose this particular
sigil for the album cover design because Saturn is related to the metal lead,
relating in turn to the name of his rock band. Jimmy chose several other symbols for the
Led Zepplin IV album, an example being the inside cover, which is a
reproduction of “The Hermit” card of the Major Arcana of a Tarot deck. “Zoso”
later became the name of the Led Zepplin Fan Club, based in San Francisco. Of
course, the three headed dog in ancient Greek mythology that guarded Hades
was Cerberus, not Zoso. Cerberus also
appears in Dante's Inferno as the guardian of the third of the first seven
circles of Hell. Dante incorporated
several attributes of Hades into his description of Hell, though even a
cursory study of Greek mythology will show that Hades is not equivalent to
the Christian Hell. Dante's book may
have been the inspiration for naming Cerberus the guardian of Hell, but I
have never been able to figure out how Anderson connected the sigil “Zoso”
with Cerberus. I speculate that some
promoter of the "listening to rock music causes Satanism" theory
saw this symbol on the Led Zepplin albums and let their imagination run
wild. I wrote a letter to Anderson pointing
out the errors in his manual. Anderson
indicated in his reply to me that he would be making corrections to his
manual. This
isn’t the only example of silliness that I’ve found in police manuals on the
“occult” over the years. For example,
in his investigative manual, Occult Crime Control, William Dubois claims that Satanic circles “are... either five or nine
feet in diameter as with other forms of magic... or are commonly 13 feet in
diameter, as the number 13 is traditionally associated with Satan.” I wonder if Dubois has ever really
encountered a ritual in so small a circle?
Anyone who has ever tried to do a ritual in a nine foot diameter
circle with several participants, an altar and ritual paraphernalia would be
able to tell you that this wouldn’t work very well: It resembles one of those
high school pranks where people try to see how many you can cram into a phone
booth or a compact car. A five foot
circle would be impossible to work in, even as a solitary. The only people traditionally associating
the number 13 with Satanists are a few frightened Christians. Another
example of a flawed reference text is the Colorado Bureau of Investigation's Questioned Documents Examiner's Occult Guide. The stated purpose this Guide
is: "...to provide a basic
reference guide for symbols and terminology used by black magic, pagan, and
satanic cults... The primary focus will be on providing information to enable
a “questioned documents examiner” or investigator to recognize and identify a
cult related symbol or verbage." Essentially what document examiners are
trained to do is examine documents to determine whether they are forgeries,
to perform handwriting analysis and to identify the device used to print the
documents. The documents they examine are referred to as "Questioned
Documents". This guide is
supposed to help people interpret such documents. Anyone attempting to use the Questioned Documents Examiner's Occult Guide will quickly discover that it could best be described as a questionable document. There are five lists of “occult ritual dates” in the CBI Guide. Several of these are incorrect or at least incorrectly spelled. On page two they state: "Other important dates are Spring and Summer Equinox celebrations known as Beltane and Lammas". Of course there is no such thing as a Summer Equinox. The equinoxes occur around March 21 and September 21. Beltaine is actually April 30 and Lammas August 1. The authors could have obtained their exact dates by contacting a local observatory or by referring to an astronomical ephemeris. Obviously |
Experts, pg 2
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Anyone who has ever tried to do a ritual in
a nine foot diameter circle with several participants, an altar and ritual
paraphernalia would be able to tell you that this wouldn’t work very well: It
resembles one of those high school pranks where people try to see how many
you can cram into a phone booth or a compact car. |
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Volume 1 No. 2 Beltaine/May Day/Galan
Mai/Cetshamain/Rudemas/ Walpurgisnacht 2007
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Cerberus
and Hercules on an ancient vase |