What an interview this is! Denny has been so generous with his time and descriptive in his story telling. Denny has used Bold in his answers to highlight important points, we have kept all the answers unedited to retain Denny’s original meaning. So, if it is in bold make sure you pay special attention to it.
Additionally if you would like to learn more about Dennys ‘Attaining your Guardian Angel’ course then you can visit this page to learn about how you can begin the training online to meet your HGA. If you would like to learn more about Denny then you can visit his website here. Also, if you are interested in his book all about Werewolf Magick you can see it here on Amazon.
If you enjoy this interview, then please let us know in the comments.
PAA: Welcome to Perseus Arcane Academy. We have already provided readers a brief bio but could you in your own words introduce yourself.
Denny: My name is Denny Sargent, though I go by several initiated magickal names. As a Witch, I go by Glain, as a magickian, a founder of the Horus Maat Lodge and author of obscure books and grimoires I go by Aion 131 and as an initiated Tantric since 1980 (Nath and Uttara Kaula lineages) I go by Hermeticusnath. I am also a member of the OTO, a Vodouisant and work with Shinto Kami-sama among other magickal interests. I have been involved in esoteric and occult groups, circles and practices since I was 14 when I was first initiated into the Welsh Traditional Witchcraft in NYC. I had to get a letter of permission from my parents, a very interesting conversation! In the mundane world I am a university instructor of Linguistics and Language Teaching Methodology, a gardener and have done extensive global travels and esoteric studies in many countries including Japan where I lived for 4 years. I write on Alternative Religions, of all kinds. My most common published books are: Global Ritualism, The Tao of Birth Days, Your Guardian Angel And You, Clean Sweep (Banishing), The Book of the Horned One, Naga Magick, Dancing With Spirits (Shinbto),& Dog Magick: My newest books are Werewolf Magick and the just released Werewolf Pack Magick.
I regularly present lively online and in-person workshops and lectures and have been a keynote presenter at several esoteric conventions and gatherings. I currently reside in Seattle, WA USA and welcome conversations on all manner of esoteric subjects!
PAA: I see you started in the 1970’s with Wicca. This must have been an interesting time to be involved in such a group. Can you talk about this time in what you call the Occult capital in New York and how it set you on the path of further research.
Denny: It was an amazing time- I was a clueless punk-rocker Pagan who met some Pagan teens by letter (no internet then) and hung out with them at the Warlock Shop- which later become the infamous Magickal Childe- and I met everyone by just hanging out in the store with my best friend Robert- who ended up being my cover High Priest…anyway, punk rock clubs, NYC in the 70s, insane partying and every kind of occult scene was present- I thought it was normal- HA! It really was the epicenter of the occult revival- While working my way through Pagan groups, different levels of Trad Craft I became very close with a young group of serious witches/occultists and as the witch politics got a bit much we formed our own group, THE GROVE OF THE STAR AND SNAKE and we devoured everything- from all Crowley, all Spare, all Kenneth Grant-really everything. We belonged to dozens of cults and groups from CAW and Grants OTO to the Temple of Isis, IOT etc etc- in 1977 we began intensive communications with Soror Nema in Ohio and went there for an astounding week of intense magick which resulted in the creation of the Horus Maat Lodge (www.horusmaatlodge.com )- pdfs of our magazine MANDRAGORE can be found there as well. Then by1980 we all accepted initiation into the Nath Sampradaya (lineage) of Tantrika…we continued to publish our own magazine and the HML grew …I can say much more but overall it was like being caught in a carnival whirlwind of the occult explosion and meeting so many important people and reading and doing work with so many occult traditions I can’t sort them all at this moment:)
PAA: You are also part of the Horus Maat Lodge this sounds like a fascinating organisation. I know one of our other teachers Andre is also a part of this lodge. Could tell us all a little more about this lodge and how they operate?
Denny: It all starts with one of the greatest adepts I’ve known, Margaret Cook Ingalls, known in the magickal world as Soror Nema. She was born Sept 16, 1939 in Cincinnati Ohio and died in 2018. She grew up in rural Ohio and settled down to domestic life on a farm in Ohio. She had three daughters and, after her divorce, was drawn to occult in the early 1970s, exploring yoga, meditation, Paganism, Wicca, Magick and Thelema. By 1975 she was working eclectic ceremonial magick with a group named Bate Cabal. Amidst one of their rituals a visionary presence unexpectedly appeared to her and declared itself ‘The Children of Maat’ from the future and sought ongoing communication.
Subsequent rituals opened this occult connection. She received an all-pervasive vision of a Black Flame/Feather and Maat who dictated a work announced as ‘The book of the preshadowing of the feather’ or Liber Pennae Praenumbra. In her words, this transmission and the magick it represented became her life’s work. An entity named N’Aton, the ‘future group-mind of humanity,’ was part of this work and still guides Maat magick.
As this was going on, I was a 16 year old witch in New York City. My coven friends and I formed The Grove of the Star & Snake to delve deeper into Magick. We discovered Nema’s work in 1976 through the The Cincinnati Journal of Ceremonial Magick which contained Liber Pennae Praenumbra. Its use elicited amazing magickal experiences. Fascinated, we began a long correspondence with her and she sent us more Maatian material which we used. We were continually astounded with our visions, art and writings.
Inspired, we drove to Ohio in 1979 to meet her. There we were, a group of teenage boys hanging out in the country, with a middle-aged woman doing magick. We shared a vision of a red blaze of Horus energy colliding with a Black Flame. Bam! This resulted in the most intense ritual work we’d ever done that resulted in a clear directive to form the Horus Maat Lodge (HML).
Afterwards, the HML evolved and grew. It became a vehicle to manifest the magick of the future aeon of Maat via N’Aton to balance the ferocity of the aeon of Horus. The goal was manifesting the optimal future path where humanity would survive and evolve into what Nema called Homo Veritas or True Human. N’Aton was reaching back in time to aid us and the HML is the praxis for this work. The internet confirmed all this with its global reach as the exoskeleton of N’Aton.
HML has continued this work since 1979 with Nema as our “queen bee” until her passing. I am grateful for the love and work we shared together and miss her, but we remain dedicated to helping humanity evolve. Nema will always live within our hearts and works which include: Maat Magick, The Way of Mystery, The Priesthood: Parameters and Responsibilities, and more found at horusmaatlodge.com and in the anthology The Horus Maat Lodge: The Grimoire of a PanAeonic Tribe.
PAA: How do you approach basic skills and training such as concentration skills, meditation, energy work? What would your advice be for those just starting out on how to acquire these important skills?
Honestly, I tell people on a variety of different esoteric paths to simply DO AN ESOTERIC PRACTICE EVERY DAY- regular practice of meditation, pranajama, visualization, chanting, ritual work etc etc is the key to success- no matter what. When someone asks me, “What should I do?” “I ask them ‘What do you do daily?”- often the answer is nothing. The key to any of this is systematic and daily practice, like exercise, sports, whatever. Yoga, meditation, simple rituals, daily sun salutations- anything spiritual or esoteric to focus the mind, heart and body on the spiritual! This includes concentration skills: Meditation: energy work.
Once you do a regular spiritual practice, it soon opens up an inner door and the NEXT practice is revealed and then the NEXT and the NEXT- initiations are offered, book or teachers appear- the HGA is always there- but if you dont start and continue a practice, all is stagnant- once you start and are consistent (!) then everything falls into place….hope this makes sense.
PAA: Now we have to ask about the Werewolf Magic, a great name and one that immediately gets attention. From looking at the book and your interviews it is clear that this book is sitting on top of a lot of solid research into our past. So could you introduce the book, its importance and relevance for modern day magicians.
Denny: Werewolf Magick is full of fur and fangs and howls:) It is about wildness and illogic, full of wild gods and spirits, of full moon revels, beasts and werewolves. WM exists to help free you from the constraints of a civilization that has forgotten the primacy of nature and denied the truth that we are animals. The goal of WM is not only to help you remember your innate wildness and animal powers, but to unleash them. In the process, I truly believe, people will become happier, wilder, freer, more authentic, and more open emotionally, physically and psychically as I have , for all of these are rooted in the Animal self, the inner wolf, the beast all of us have been forced to suppress and deny most of our life. I believe that when we call up our Animalself and reconnect with nature, it restores our integration with the Earth and we can again become one with our ecosystem, as all tribal people I have visited do. Werewolf magick is a systemic form of animalistic primal magick rooted in shamanic shape-shifting traditions, mostly from areas where wolves were apex predators and important spiritual beings. Werewolf magick focuses on magickal, psychological, and spiritual shape-shifting—shifting from a human mindset to a low- er-cortex, atavistic resurgence DNA centered feral consciousness—by unleashing the Animal self and so manifesting as “werewolf‘’ energetic forms. We can see this kind of prehistoric animistic magick in ancient pictographs, myths and magickal lore, but the techniques for such shamanic lycanthropy—the taking on of animalistic consciousness manifesting as wolfish characteristics—are often obscured or hidden. I have done my best to rediscover these practices and try them out based on a lot of research as well as years of personal practice. I have an MA in Ancient History so thak this seriously:). They work, but in ways that may be unexpected, as you will see. Ancient tales and even modern Native Americans and other tribal people tell of a time when all humans could converse with and learn from the animal spirits, our primal ancestors. Some tribal cultures I’ve visited such as the Mayans in Guatemala and the Mien in the Thai mountains still do these things. However, the Western culture I find myself in shas lost this ability because social norms and monothiestic religions have arisen that con-vinced us that we are not animals and are separate from nature. Today, as we approach ecological disaster, we see where this has led us. I believe that real historical werewolf magick, shape- shifting and ritual practices will help us revive and embrace our Animal self and so be happier, more aware and to reconnect with our environment, our Mother Earth. This is a real, achievable goal. Shape-shifters have existed for thousands of years and there are still shape-shifters around today, I’ve met them. This work is not about shamanism, however, it is informed by information I received from shamans of the Siberian Ulch people. The ancient Norse shamans and others used similar techniques for consciousness shifting with an animistic focus as the Ulchi still do. Since these techniques are mostly lost to us now, I sought to take the information and apply it within a Western historical framework. I am not a shaman and I hold the shamans I have met in my travels in high esteem and believe some of the shamanic techniques I learned from them can be used to unleash the Animal self as long as the rituals are done with focus and clarity. I believe those who use my WM work will be amazed at the results and will have a lot of fun as well as discovering the joys of pragmatic shape-shifting. One thing I can guarantee, you have never done any magick quite like this. 🙂
PAA: Could you talk about the relationship with the Wolf Spirit here, how it made itself known to you?
Denny: I enjoyed a kind of normal and mundane life for a couple of decades. Then, suddenly, I was hit by a number of completely unexpected total personal disasters. Without warning, I lost my wife, my home, my art studio, my job, my savings and even my dog. I was utterly despondent and alone and depressed and traumatized beyond belief. I felt I was finished with this life. Something inside me awoke with a jolt, a part of me I’d suppressed and ignored most of my life. Something wild and vital broke through the despair.
During this time I did continue to dedicate every night but was miserable. Suddenly a wold began to show up in my meditations! It patiently sat there and had three eyes. I ignored it for a time but finally directly spoke to it. It clearly told me that I had ‘called it’ and it had come to help me, maybe save me. I finally opened to this very weird experience and accepted that I really needed help- and this spirit was offering it. I began to listen to it. I wrote things down. It told me to release my inner animal, my inner wolf, to shut down my overheated monkey-mind that was driving me to madness- to become THE ANIMAL I WAS and so be able to accept Nature as a beast – and so be accepted by Nature-and to find healing and growth. Everything suddenly shifted. What the hell was happening? My inner beast, my monster, was suddenly howling at me to heed the deep instincts I had ignored all my life. I couldn’t sleep or be still. I stopped thinking and just ran with it. I grabbed camping gear and some simple food I had like raw veggies and nuts. Fresh raw meat, my inner beast said. I grabbed that too. Without much of a plan I drove up into the mountains and ended up in a national forest at an isolated campground. I turned the car engine off and rested my head on the steering wheel. What the hell was I doing? Then I unleashed my Animal Self- tore off my clothes and went completely wild, my brain shut down and I let the Wolf Spirit fill me and guide me into a pure state of simple BEING immersed in wilderness- I began screaming, howling. I couldn’t stop, I was letting go, I was flying apart. Finally the eruption calmed and I entered a weird, post-freak out listlessness. I was silent, in body, in mind, in self. I slid into pure animal consciousness, remembering little except fuzzy flashes of memory. I rocked and danced and growled about the fire. When I slid into my sleeping bag I was shaking with electric energy. It was as if I physically changed into a wild hairy beast. A werewolf, of course! The wilderness and I became one, it was orgasmic. Everything faded to darkness except for the animal consciousness that consumed me. In the morning I awoke with a start and leapt from my bag vibrating with energy. Everything had changed. I saw the forest truly for the first time, every detail of light and shadow, every tree and stone. I was filled with strange information. Now the wolf-power shared my soul, my skin, my life. I went home and began to write as the wolf spirit guided me- I did rite after rite, did research, discovered that werewolf cults were EVERYWHERE in the ancient world and dug deeper- I had NO plan on writing a book, but as my personal path opened up I shared it with some people- some though I was nuts, but suddenly I was pushed to write a proposal- then it was accepted by a publisher- all of this seemed crazy to me but- I have more people into Werewolf Magick than ANY other book I’ve written- go figure! We all need to get back to the Wildness:)
PAA: You talk in some of your interviews about being in the animal state separate from the thinking mind. Is this somewhat of a balancing act between gaining access to the energy and power of primal nature vs losing what makes us human. Apart from the mental freedom, what other benefits are to entering this state regularly?
Denny: I am fascinated by the phrase ”losing what makes us human”– what is human? The dichotomy created by being human as separate from animals is the key problem leading us to global destruction and many tribal people, including Native Americans, have been very clear about this. When I first dove into this magick the big AHA moment was exactly this.
Here is the real truth; WE ARE ANIMALS. Our DNA is 98% the same as Chimps, 78% the same as a wolf- etc. We contain ALL ANIMAL S in our body, in our DNA- We are specifically the last of a long line of evolving Hominids, and we are in fact a species of Mammal, an Animal. We can argue that we have differences, but dolphins have more cognition than humans and so on, but this is really about us wanting to be special, God-anointed and superior- we are not, we are the only animal that is destroying our own ecosystems, we are an insane animal now because we have disconnected from the source of life. This is a really really important point. Let me emphasize the scientific truth of how critical this is- montheistic religion, out culture, our mechanistic programming etc created a Western Schema ‘truth’ that we are NOT ANIMALS- that we we have souls and animals do NOT, that God gave us control of everything to destroy and devour as we like- including ‘lowly animals’ who have no souls- THIS is the cancer destroying our environment- We believe deeply, often unconsciously, that we are separate from Nature, and thus we are- and so we have disconnected ourselves from THE SOURCE OF ALL LIFE! This is why self-destructive ant-nature Western culture is so fucked up- and the disease is spreading across the globe. Money matters more than life or health or happiness. I’ve hung out with many Tribal Cultures- they do NOT separate themselves from animals- they know they are animals- they call animals their brothers and sisters, their guides and fellow ‘people.’ This is the key to everything that the Wolf Spirit and Nature has directly revealed to me- REAL Gnosis comes from Gaia, from real Nature- Prima Natura the alchemists called it- but we have forgotten. I know Cabala well- and also the teachings that MALKUTH IS THE QUEEN OF ALL and that ALL important Magick occurs in Malkuth, not the other spheres- yet hyper-active holographic ego-centered view of the world sees Malkuth as a stepping stone! 1000 years of our restrictive ‘human’ centered monotheism Holy-book-centered capitalist narrow worldview has convinced us that we are the rulers of all- yet it is bringing us our destruction. My point is this- when I enter theWM fugue-state of non-ego Animalself, the walls between perceived ‘human’ and animal evaporate– and I am whole again since all division is an illusion. I can simply BE and in that state I achieve real centeredness and open acceptance of being unified with nature- all my senses and perceptions are enhanced open- I’m really CONSCIOUS and not MONKEY-MIND THINKING and thus eternally distracted by all the whirling muck in my head and the constant ego-fixation.
A close analogy is Taoist or Zen consciousness- I hope this rant makes sense:)
WE ARE ANIMALS- and that is OK- it is the root of much wisdom and gnosis.
PAA: Now you have written about many subjects over the years with a vast amount of experience. When we began talking about a potential course for Perseus you very quickly knew which it should be. Based upon a book you produced many years ago on the Higher Guardian Angel. Could you tell us why you chose this subject of meeting and working with your HGA over other subjects?
Denny: Actually, Andre thought that was the most logical book to start with, so kudos to him! I also thought that it was an important work and that K&C of the HGA was a key part of the western occult tradition that seemed to be fading away from a number of occult orders- it is often referenced but not often taught as to HOW to do it.
Honestly, I wrote the book because NO ONE could give me a clear methodology! I was shocked there was no book on it, so I wrote my own since I was piecing together a system that worked- and it did and I wrote it. A Lot of people were happy I did- now there are several books out there, but I still think I have more meat than most- I am a huge fan of Jung and his concepts of Individuation, the Self and the Shadow- The Self works as a way of seeing the HGA and the Shadow, in a sense, can be seen personally as the Animal self- I have change a lot about this – the beast is crucial to our connection with Earth- so much of Hermetics is about transcending the human world, head in the stars, Kether etc etc- yet so many Hermetic Occultists are deeply unhappy and disconnected from life I have noticed over the last 40+ years! To achieve the light without embracing the dark is hopeless, as Crowley and other pointed out- non Judeo-Xian faiths like Taoism point out that Yin and Yang are inseparable that the original image was a mountain, half in light and half in shadow but always changing- this is a healthier view of K&C of the HGA and you’ll see that I changed a lot about this in the lessons from when I originally wrote the book:) ‘Head in the heavens, feet in the Earth’ is the best phrase IMHO. But we are sadly missing the Earth by rejecting our Animal self, our primal, instinctual, intuitive being that has always been a part of us.
PAA: The implications of this course I think are hard for people to comprehend as it really is life changing and has been life changing for you personally am I right? From getting a sneak glimpse of the course it looks like everything after your meeting with your HGA was part of a much more understandable plan, in that you now had some idea of where to focus your energies as a result of this new relationship. How accurate is this and can you provide some examples of the positive influence this relationship has had on your life?
Denny: That is very accurate:) My HGA is with me every day, specifically I have communion when I meditate every night. I scribble advice and such from my HGA quickly because such conversations are ephemeral, yet real. My HGA brought the Wolf Spirit tome, if fact they work together. The last thing I needed was more Cabala or angelic visions! I was unbalanced and needed a path back to the heart of Malkith: Gaia, Nature, my true Animalself- back to the beginning:) I have recently been unhappy the the use of the term Angel- it just meaning messenger- because it is so entwined with the muck of our decaying religious and cultural systems which are death oriented- I lean on Guru as a better term (Light from Dark) or even Atman- eternal being- Tantra has been an excelly balance to much of this, being Panthiestic and Animistc but also inner- Self oriented- same can be said of Shinto. Living in Japan for 4 years really helped me see how enmeshed in Puritainism and this anti-sex, Apocalyptic, anti-nature capitalistic trap we are caught in- it is so pervasive in the west, it is hard to see it at all.
PAA: For anyone who might have your original book on the subject, could you also explain a little about how the course is similar to but also vastly different now to the book with so many new updates after all your years of additional experience.
Denny: I wrote the book a long time ago and have evolved and changed a lot since then. I have also had decades of work with my HGA to lean on, so much of the text in the PDFs has been changed, added to and unfolds in a more mature and, I hope, knowledgeable manner! I edited out a lot of stuff that I realized was too pedantic, narrow or a but ignorant. I have grown somewhat, I hope, and changed a lot and my HGA has had a hand in that every day! I tried to pass that one. I also have been a university teacher for decades and am much more mentoring-focused and see my work much more as service, especially as I get older! I want to leave positive helpful esoteric teachings behind when I go. So this is a great improvement over the book I believe, and missing some bad grammar too!
PAA: This is a good time to ask about any other significant experiences or training you have had, you have traveled and studied the magical arts extensively. Is there anything else that stands out in memory worthy of mentioning? We love a good magical story….
Denny: Wow- I have a lot of weird stories, all are forgiven if you don’t believe me! I’ve been to many countries and am always looking for magick and esoteric situations being a Pagan and pantheist/animist in many ways. One thing I learned was to be very open and friendly and to have an honest, open aura as it were. Once I was in central Guatemala amone indigenous Mayans who only speak the native Mayan-based dialect. Our guide was great and was surprised by my interest and knowledge of Mayan history and so on. One night, sitting around I strongly felt his intense aura and I ‘looked’ at him, he was glowing. I asked him directly” So, you’re a Shaman, right?” He was shocked- then peered at me intensely and laughed, saying “Ha! So are you!” I had to explain that I wasn’t an actual Shaman, he shook his head and said “Look, there is a great brotherhood of light and we all recognize each other, hm?” And we had a moment of intense gnosis- then he said. “OK, do you want to meet my fellow Shamans? We are having a gathering tomorrow at Chiticastanaga. You are welcome, you’re one of us.” And the next day he skipped the boring tourist stuff and took us to some of the really powerful places, one being a small mayan pyramid way past the tourist ruins. It was covered with colored patterns and flowers, copal incense burning and huge sacred diagrams on the ground. He pointed out that this was a REAL pyramid that was still being used for Mayan ritual work, it hummed like an electric transformer. Later we wound up at a huge tin shed and suddenly there were a dozen shamans dressed in white with decorated hats and scarfs, in the center was ‘the smoking god’ a large wooden idol with a cigar, a powerful Mayan god. We just stood where we were told and then the ritual began, they were going to bless us and work with the spirits. It was hot outside, no wind, blue sky. Within an hour after chants and incense and ritual actions, a huge wind arose, like a tornado, inside the building! The gusts were so strong as it whirled around that all the flags were waving and sections of the siding of the building shook and rattled, it was astounding. The chanting and invocation reached a peak as did the mini-hurricane then- bam. It stopped. They came over, blessed us and then ended the rite and the energy deflated and we all started chatting and drinking. True story. I’ve had stuff like this happen in many countries. So much during my four years in Japan! I watched a shinto priest swirl energy around a shrine with his power and much more. In Nepal, once our guide found out I was an initiated Tantric, I got taken to see the Living Goddess, then to an astounding and powerful Ganesh puja with clouds of Ganja and so much more. In India my guide, once he heard me chanting and saw my rudraksha beads, tore up the itinerary, announcing that I was a PILGRIM not a tourist. From then on I ended up at ancient temples doing pujas with Shiva worshippers amidst floods of water and incense, chanting with Kali worshippers and much more. One place I was taken to in rural India, way up in the mountains, was not for tourists- it was a valley with a dozen temples, very wild, monkeys everywhere. When we arrived a Sannyasin or holy man was waiting. He walked up to the car, pointed at me and said ‘I’ve been waiting for you- come!’ My driver waved me off and I ended up in a deep cave temple dedicated to the Monkey God Hanuman. He proceeded to do a full Puja (ritual) to Hanuman for me, blessed me, gave me a special Hanuman mantra and refused to take any money at all! He told me Hanuman liked me and was now one of my deities, which turned out to be true because everywhere I went, there was a Hanuman picture, statue, temple and so on. Even at the airport I was seated under a Hanuman banner! It got nuts. I was in tribal Mien animistic spirit houses in rural Thailand, very potent places, after riding up mountains on elephant back. I climbed Ayers rock in Australia (more appropriately called Uluru) and had all the hair on my body stand on end and felt the god of that place. I climbed the pyramid of the sun in Mexico on my birthday and got an obsidian mirror. I was once pulled into a new years blessing by the priest at the massive Besakih ‘mother’ temple on Bali after the other tourists were forbidden to enter, the priest just grabbed me and had me stand before the altar- the energy was intense and the priest was laughing, telling me later that I was a priest so it was ok. I have a lot more stories like this, the point is, if you own your magick, if you are open, accepting, desire the gnosis to come at will and have no fear, there magick sees magick and most adepts, no matter where, are open to reaching out and transcending nationality or skin color because we are all one big occult fraternity, or so it seems.
PAA: Thank you very much Denny for your time and generous sharing with us.
