Introduction
I wanted to do a new post on Dr Peter Duchemins new arrivals at Perseus. The Ibis System and Realist Astral Travel. So please read on to get a full introduction to all of Peters offerings.
A few years ago, I was introduced to Dr Peter Duchemin by one of our other teachers on Perseus and then had the pleasure of meeting Peter in Taipei, Taiwan and then a few months later Hong Kong, his home at that time. He not only gave me, Falcon Books Publishing and amazing author Nenad Talerman and his wife a very thorough and exciting tour around the temples and special places of HK Island but also began sharing his work and ideas, Meta Magick, the beginnings of the Ibis System and more. It was a fascinating time as at that point a lot of this material was very new to me.
From this meeting it was clear that Peters approach is very different and if you do not scratch below the surface, you may miss the incredible depth and the adventure that Peter has ready for you.
I keep talking about Peters methods as I see him as a bit of a magical iceberg in that though many might think they have an understanding of his methods, but truly most of it has not been seen yet as you only access it by going through his training, conducting the experiments he sets up for you and absorbing those experiences. I am saying that not because we have his courses, I would say this wherever Peter was doing his work. Just like I do for Chris Radnedge in the Kung Fu world, he really is better than most of the big names out there with a far better curriculum, he does not sell anything on Perseus, he is just that good that I will continue to sing his praises. This is how I feel about Peters Magical work; though he is also pretty dam good at Hung Gar an awesome southern system of Kung Fu.
About Peter Duchemin
Dr. Peter Duchemin, PhD, has been practicing esoteric Tarot for over 25 years, from an ecclectic, non-emanationist magickal perspective, specializing in calendar magick. Peter is the author of over 30 magickal calendars, and the developer of an original approach, called meta-magick that uses these calendars to realize potent spiritual energies in time with the movement of the heavens.
Before devoting himself full time to esoteric calendrics and Tarot, Peter performed professionally as a stage magician, clown, and circus performer – with a skillset inspired by the Tarot archetypes. In 2006, he completed a Master’s thesis entitled, The Enchanted Circus: Language, Time and the Circus Arts while touring with the Wonderbolt Circus in Newfoundland & Labrador, Canada.
Dr. Duchemin received his PhD in the interdisciplinary study of magic in 2019 from the Memorial University of Newfoundland with a thesis entitled The Art of Hidden Causation: Magic as Deep Mediation. He has since contributed to numerous scholarly and trade publications – an output ranging from poetic and artistic works to academic essays and theatre monologues – and has performed magic, clown, and Tarot all around the world. Duchemin is also a prolific visual artist and metasequential cartoonist who posts his work regularly on instagram: @metasequentialartist.
Peter is completely committed to the path of Tarot Time, full of love of the Work. He is dedicated to helping others to realize their true magickal Ways – as artists, magicians, and Taroists.
Since 2019 he has been publicly celebrating the Forest of Life Venus calendar on his Instagram page, @tarotphilosopher.
The Meta Magick Tarot course on the Forest of Life Calendar is his flagship class. He is also available for private tutoring, reading, coaching and consultation.
Meta Magick Tarot (Flagship Course)
What Is Meta Magick Tarot?
This is huge. It is far, far more than Tarot in the way that many know it. It is a 32-week adventure (divided into 3 separate courses or get all as a bundle) where you delve into almost every aspect of magical training. More than that it is experiential with homework to be done within the course. So, at the end not only do you have what could be called a college level education in western magical systems, but you also have the confidence of experience. You have travelled the tree and not just learned the stations, but you have experienced it. This is not an armchair course it is for those who want to get involved and feel like they have emerged from the training different from when they entered it.
Watch the First Week
The Practices and Techniques
Every week you will receive a PDF (see example below) package packed with esoteric ideas, that over the 32 weeks will gradually unveil an original, potent, magickal system – powered by the Meta Magick methodology. These PDF’s basically provide you with your very own book by the end of the training, made even more personal and meaningful by adding your own experiments from the work into a binder with the PDF’s.
Every week through videos, discussion, and guided meditation – you go in depth at one of the key Tarot themes.
Each week you use scrying, or receptive imagining, to discover images and inspirations to link us with the growing Tarot energies. You make marks on paper together, and grow them into living works of art.
Participants who choose to may use the course as a creative rhythm – perfect for making your own complete Tarot, or Tarot-based project. Artists, writers, poets, musicians, magicians are all welcome to create in their chosen medium.
You examine and study a wide variety of Tarots together using the Rider-Waite-Smith deck as a home base from which to discuss the differing images and ideas. Together we will learn the Qabalistic philosophy of (post)modern Tarot, and explore the paths and spheres of the Tree of Life.
The course is an initiation into meta-magick, into the Venus calendar, and into Tarot Time.
Who Is This Course For?
This is for anyone who wants to commit something that is different, challenging and wanting an experiential journey rather than a theoretical one.
Meta Magick Tarot — Scrying
Scrying and the Meta Magick approach
I am sure most have heard of the term scrying, it is fairly well documented in the magical world. It is an important and foundational skill. Normally this might utilize a medium such as a bowl of water, crystal ball etc. Setting an intention and recording the results. Though here in the Meta Magick system things are done a little differently.
Peter Duchemin’s Approach to Scrying
What You Will Do
Throughout the course, students will engage in exercises designed to elicit visions from various zones defined by the structures being studied. These visions are then recorded and mapped onto provided templates using intention and receptive intuition. Upon completion of the course, students who have completed all exercises will have created a set of talismans that anchor and integrate the MetaMagick Fields. Additionally, students will have gained valuable experience in visionary projection and an understanding of advanced mathemagical objects and figures.
As part of the course, students will also construct a specialized magickal tool to aid in the active transmutation of obstacles and the metabolization of difficult energies into a MetaMagick perspective. By the end of the course, students who have completed all work will have full control over a fully operative set of MetaMagick fields.
The course culminates in a 28-day program of practice that integrates all tools and solidifies them into a mode or vehicle for experiencing time through the lens of a personalized set of MetaMagick artworks. It is important to note that MetaMagick is the application of artistic pressure to time itself.
The Ibis System
What is the Ibis System?
The Ibis System is Dr. Peter Duchemin’s system of advanced calendar magick. It links magical and symbolic work to the actual movements and orbital cycles of the planets, creating a series of interacting planetary calendars. Rather than working only with ordinary clock and calendar time, the practitioner learns to follow several different rhythms at once, each connected to a different planet and a different program of magical development.
The system has developed over more than twenty years. Peter originally created planetary calendars for Mercury, Venus, Earth, the Moon, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune, later adding further work around the system. The result is what he calls the Ibisystem Apocalyptic Orrery: a complex, interlocking structure of magical time built around real astronomical cycles.
What is the goal?
The goal is to learn to synchronize magical practice with larger cycles of time and, through repeated work with the calendars, cultivate different capacities.
In the introductory Ibis System material, Peter focuses particularly on Mercury, Venus and Mars. He associates these calendars with the development of qualities such as intelligence and flexibility, empathy and creativity, and focus. More broadly, the system is intended to change the practitioner’s relationship with time itself: instead of experiencing time as one uniform sequence, you begin working with multiple overlapping rhythms and using those rhythms as structures for magical training.
How does it relate to Meta Magick?
The Ibis System is one of the deeper practical expressions of Peter’s Meta Magick.
Meta Magick is Peter’s broader approach to magic: an attempt to take magical experience seriously while retaining philosophical skepticism, logic and engagement with scientific ways of thinking. The Ibis System applies this attitude directly. Its magical structures are symbolic, but the calendars themselves are anchored to real planetary movements and astronomical data.
There is also a direct historical connection. Peter’s Meta Magick Tarot course grew out of his work with the Venus Calendar. During the Covid period he began teaching Tarot through this particular Ibis System calendar, and that work developed into the Meta Magick Tarot course. So the Ibis System is not separate from Meta Magick Tarot; part of the Tarot system actually emerged from it.
Realist Astral Travel
What is Realist Astral Travel?
Realist Astral Travel — Peter calls the course Realist Astral Projection — takes astral practice in an unusual direction. Instead of treating astral space purely as an imaginative or symbolic environment, the method attempts to work with real, mappable astronomical space.
Students learn techniques intended to project awareness through mapped celestial space and attempt telepathic contact with stars and other celestial entities. The emphasis on “realist” is important: the practice is connected to actual astronomical locations rather than an entirely invented astral geography.
How does it relate to Meta Magick?
Realist Astral Projection and the Ibis System belong to a more advanced branch of Peter’s Meta Magick work that he calls Nuonics. He describes Nuonics as a form of spiritual and mental training for a future space-faring culture.
This pushes Meta Magick beyond Tarot and conventional magical symbolism into a much larger frame. The Ibis System deals with our relationship to planetary time; Realist Astral Projection deals with our relationship to astronomical space. Together they ask what magical practice might look like when its frame of reference expands from the human world to the planetary and galactic scale.
What will I be doing?
In the Ibis System material you will learn how Peter’s planetary calendars operate, particularly the Mercury, Venus and Mars calendars. You will work with calendar trackers and almanac material, follow the different planetary counts, and perform exercises designed to synchronize your practice with their rhythms. Each calendar contains its own symbolic and magical program, so the work develops over time rather than being reduced to a single ritual or meditation.
In Realist Astral Projection, the emphasis shifts from planetary time to astronomical space. You will work with Peter’s methods for orienting consciousness toward real celestial locations, developing astral projection skills and exploring the possibility of contact with stars and other celestial intelligences.
Taken together, these courses move into some of Peter Duchemin’s most experimental work: calendar magick, astronomical consciousness and advanced Meta Magick on a planetary and galactic scale.
Where Should You Start?
Peter Duchemin’s work ranges from Tarot and scrying to advanced calendar magick and experimental approaches to astral projection. You do not need to study everything at once, and the best starting point depends on how deeply you want to go.
If you are new to Peter’s work, Meta Magick Tarot is the strongest foundation. The complete 32-week journey explores Tarot, Qabalah, scrying, symbolism, meditation and Peter’s distinctive approach to magical practice, all structured around the Forest of Life Venus Calendar. You can begin with Meta Magick Tarot – Part 1, or take the Complete Meta Magick Tarot Bundle, which contains all three parts together with Meta Magick Scrying.
Courses:
Meta Magick Tarot – Part 1:
https://courses.perseusarcaneacademy.com/b/meta-magick-part-1
Complete Meta Magick Tarot Bundle + Meta Magick Scrying:
https://courses.perseusarcaneacademy.com/b/meta-magick-tarot-bundle
Meta Magick Scrying can also be studied separately. Across seven classes, Peter moves from relatively simple magical structures into increasingly complex constructions involving magic squares, scrying, the Lunar and Solar Envelopes, the Alphasphere, Magic Cube and finally the Metamagic Temple.
Meta Magick Scrying:
https://courses.perseusarcaneacademy.com/b/metamagick
For those ready to explore Peter’s work with magical time directly, move into The Ibis System. Here Peter introduces the Ibisystem Apocalyptic Orrery and its planetary calendars, beginning with the three inner counts of Mercury, Venus and Mars. This is where his ideas about planetary cycles, chronoforming and the deliberate cultivation of human capacities become the central practice.
The Ibis System:
https://courses.perseusarcaneacademy.com/b/the-ibis-system
From there, Realist Astral Projection moves into Peter’s experimental work with astronomical space: using real celestial geography as the framework for astral exploration and attempting contact with stars and celestial intelligences.
Realist Astral Projection:
https://courses.perseusarcaneacademy.com/b/realist-astral-projection
Get the Nuonics bundle – Ibis System and Realist Astral Projection.
There is no need to treat all of these as rigid prerequisites. But for someone who wants to experience the development of Peter’s ideas progressively, we recommend:
Meta Magick Tarot → Meta Magick Scrying → Ibis System → Realist Astral Projection.
Explore Peter Duchemin’s Courses and Interviews
Dr. Peter Duchemin’s work crosses Tarot, Qabalah, scrying, magical calendars, planetary time, philosophy and experimental approaches to astral exploration. His courses provide the practical training, while his long-form interviews with Perseus allow him to explore the ideas, experiences and philosophy behind that work in considerably greater depth.
A particularly good place to begin is our extensive Meta Magick curriculum and interview guide, which brings together Peter’s teachings and several of our conversations with him. It also links to two of our long-form written interviews, including an interview approaching 9,000 words. READ IT HERE.
Whether you begin by watching an interview or go directly into a course, Peter’s work rewards following the connections between the different subjects. Tarot leads into scrying; Tarot Time leads into planetary calendars; the calendars lead into the Ibis System; and from planetary time the work expands outward into astronomical space.
Taken together, the courses and interviews offer something much larger than a collection of separate classes: an evolving body of magical work concerned with symbolism, consciousness, time, space and humanity’s relationship with the wider cosmos.
