How to Make Cakes of Light A Pictoral

Commentary
May 14, 2009 in Thelema with 5 Comments
I decided it was time to try making my own Cakes of Light, so as to enhance my Gnostic Mass
experience and allow for performance of the Mass of the Phoenix, a daily Thelemic eucharist. At
this stage in my life, I think I agree with Crowleys emphasis on the importance of the daily
consumption of a eucharist.
After checking Google, there seem to be two main recipes that can be easily found [note: I found
a bunch more after writing this, by searching things like "thick leavings of red wine" and such as
opposed to "cakes of light"]. Im not sure of the origin of the first, but in depth instructions
regarding it are given in Rodney Orpheus Abrahadabra: Understanding Aleister Crowleys
Thelemic Magick (ISBN 1-57863-326-5) The second is a recipe by someone who goes by the
name Aisha. They can be found at these locations, respectively:
http://www.hermetic.com/egc/cakes-recipe.html
http://www.hermetic.com/egc/aisha-cakes.html
I decided to work primarily with the Aisha recipe, myself, although I used the other recipe to
determine that I should buy 2 liters of port wine and heat at the lowest possible temperature to
obtain my wine leavings. Neither of these recipes mentioned how much Ingredient X
(frequently menstrual blood, semen, etc. See the Liber AL quotes in the recipes above) to use,
although after careful perusal through my library, I was able to find this passage in the Orpheus
book cited above:
Take a very small amount of the dough, add a small (homeopathic) amount of the other
ingredient to it,
and make it into a single small cake. Turn the oven up to its highest setting and bake this single
cake
until it is burned black. Take it from the oven and crush it into powdery ash, then add the ashes to
the
original dough mixture.
This satisfies AL III:25: This burn: of this make cakes & eat unto me. This hath also another
use; let it be laid before me, and kept thick with perfumes of your orison: it shall become full of
beetles as it were and creeping things sacred unto me.
Unfortunately, before I came across this passage, I had already mixed Ingredient X into the 7
tbsp of honey I would be using for the Aisha recipe, and froze it to preserve it overnight. I had
interpreted burn as another word for cook in this case, although next time I will try literally

burning the ingredient and see which way I prefer. I wonder if there is any potential for
carcinogenesis from the ash? I think I saw discussion on this somewhere online.
I will now present my photographical guide to Cakes of Light:
Ingredients Used:
[No picture, but I ended up using brownish flour I found, which I assume was whole wheat]

I mixed the Ingredient X (conjoined fluids not just the menses) into 7 tablespoons of honey
and stuck it in the freezer for overnight preservation. Im guessing that as a preservative, honey
would maintain freshness of these ingredients for longer than just one night, if necessary.

The Wise Weeds Abramelin Oil (which I highly recommend) *did not* kill me when I ate the
cakes during the Mass of the Phoenix the next day. Quite to the contrary, these are some of the
most delicious Cakes of Light I have ever had. Not bad for my first time making them. I did not
measure out the 7 drops exactly as I didnt have a dropper, so what I did was put tiny amounts of
Abramelin Oil into a 1/8 tsp and slightly tip it until one drop fell off, put more in if necessary,
and repeated. There was maybe mild irritation on my tongue after eating the Cake of Light, but
nothing too bad. I was a bit worried at first about the cinnamon oil causing problems/not being
safe to eat (if I used too much Abramelin), but I dont think theres an issue. Jalepinos are
certainly more of an irritant!
Process:

The port wine reduction took *forever* (6 hours maybe) for 1.25 liters. I ended up getting a 1.5
liter bottle and not using the entire amount because it wouldnt fit in the pot I used. I would say
that minimal oven heat is not enough to get the job done in a reasonable amount of time. I had it
set to medium/medium-low most of the time.

Although the scent was pleasant, Im pretty sure it filled my house with alcohol fumes
want to open a window and set up some fans for this if youre sensitive.

Might

The finished product looked like a bunch of foam, and after cooling became this thick syrupy
stuff that resembled blood. When reducing the wine, it may seem to be maintaining its
consistency, but it *will* eventually look foamy and then cool into syrup.

Side note: Most of the people at the liquor store had no idea what port wine was (except vague
notions that it is eaten with cheese) and there was none on the shelves. I almost settled for
regular wine when a manager came out and brought me a bottle of port (the only kind they had)
from the back. He knew exactly what it was and said for a stove reduction, port is specifically
required as it is different from other red wine.

Even though I used quite a bit less wine than the 2 liters suggested in other recipes, and even
though I used twice the amount of wine leavings (2 tbsp instead of 1) in my recipe than
suggested, there was still a lot of left over. I stuck these in the freezer to use some other time.

I just kind of stuck all the ingredients in at once and then mixed (and then kneaded on a counter)
the dough together. Next time, I may put the Abramelin Oil in the olive oil, mix that up, and then
mix that into the flour for a more even consistency. Not that I doubt that mine was thoroughly
mixed, but it seems like a better approach.

I ended up putting them in the oven for 3 minutes per batch. For the thinner cakes of light, this
was perfect. The thicker ones ended up still being soft even after cooling. While I like the thinner
ones better for burning (perfect because theyre dry/crisp), the thicker ones give you more to eat
(and these were delicious) and seem more like Cakes of Light. Id recommend making some of
each.

The cleanup wasnt nearly as bad as I thought it would be, despite appearances! Total yield was
approximately 75 cakes, and if I had made them thinner not to mention the 1/2 3/4 inches in
diameter that most places suggest as opposed to the much larger size I made mine I would
have had far more.
Overall, this was a fun albeit tedious task (took all day), and the fruits of my labour are definitely
worthwhile. If you have not yet made your own Cakes of Light, I highly recommend it. Doing so
(and then using them in the Mass of the Phoenix) proved to be quite intense/effective.
If anyone stumbled across my site and has questions, Id love to be of assistance. Just leave
comments.
Good luck!