Author: James

Every week I’ll share with you seven websites with great resources or fantastic art to raise your knowledge and your gnosis.

Carl Jung Resources: http://www.carl-jung.net/  Information on Carl Jung’s theories and how to apply them to your own self-explorations.

The Gnosis Archive: http://gnosis.org/welcome.html   All about Gnosticism, the backbone of Western magick.

US Grand Lodge of the Ordo Templi Orientis: http://oto-usa.org/   Leading Thelemite organization in the US.

The Nachtkabarett: http://www.nachtkabarett.com/theOccult    The occult symbolism in the works of Marilyn Manson.

Witch’s Voice: http://www.witchvox.com/xmap.html   Before social networks there was the Witch’s Voice. A lot of great resources here to connect with pagans.

The Website of Rodney Orpheus: http://rodneyorpheus.com/    Musician and magician, a worthy successor to Lon Milo DuQuette?

Open Source Golden Dawn: http://www.osogd.org/    These guys get it. The information is free, let’s bring on the eschaton.

“That’s why I think Africans say that white people or Europeans go to church and speak about God, we dance in the temple and become God.” 

       — Wade Davis

Thank the gods for vodou! (1)

I admit that I don’t know exactly when it happened, or who started it, but the introduction of vodou to modern paganism has been a true gift from the gods. You’ve got vodou in my paganism? You’ve got paganism in my vodou? Yes we do, and they go great together.

In the West, we have a long tradition of the priestly caste attempting to take the people out of religious experience. Talking directly to the god(s) was deemed just too dangerous for the common people. What if the god(s) told you that your leaders were full of shit? That would not do.

Many religious scholars believe that the miracles Jesus performed in the bible–turning water into wine, walking on water–were actually parables for taking away the power of the priests. What do you mean you don’t need to be a rabbi to bless the sacramental wine or baptize someone? We better have the Romans nail that guy up.

Perhaps the ultimate manifestation of this philosophy is Catholicism, where the parishioner is assigned the role of audience, with some kneeling or standing and the occasional droning of a hymn, while the priest goes through the motions of a prescribed ritual. Everyone’s been well cordoned off from god lest they get the wrong message.

Sadly, it was medieval churchmen that laid the foundation for ceremonial magick. While the magicians themselves tried to capture some degree of Gnosticism, they had little to work with in their own experience. So when Gerald Gardner took those forms from the Golden Dawn to establish Wicca, he inadvertently imported a hands-off approach to deity.

Lucky for us, when the Wiccan umbrella opened to a wide range of paganism, including those who wanted to re-create ancient practices, important questions were asked. If we know that Gardner wasn’t giving us the revitalization of ancient ways, what were they?

Historians didn’t have an answer. So much was lost, and so many of those pagans came from non-literate societies. The archeological evidence could only provide so many answers. We knew what their temples looked like and we knew what instruments they used, but it never gave us the whole picture of how they actually felt about their gods.

Well before Gardener, modern esotericists looked towards the East. But while Eastern religions often contained multiple gods, they usually included overarching monotheistic principles(2). They also suffered the same dumbing down that religions in the West went through, with the priests and monks guarding the doorways to the divine.

I credit anthropologists, especially guys like my hero, Wade Davis, for showing us the way. If you wanted a living and breathing example of how ancient pagans may have interacted with their gods, you need look no further than right next door, to Haiti. Vodou mambos and houngan have given us tools for experiencing the divine in the most direct ways.

What started as a few pagans bringing Vodou gods (lwa) into their practice has morphed into using Vodou practices to contact traditional pagan deities like Hekate and Odin. Devotees of particular gods now know their patrons in intimate ways. To be ridden goes beyond the warm fuzzy feelings of asking the divine to join our ceremonies. It’s a direct hotline.

When working magick, we now have better tools for reaching a deep and powerful current in the collective unconscious. It’s like grabbing a power line with your bare hands. Dangerous to be sure, but there’s few better ways to get a well needed jolt.

I recommend that any magician used to invoking their deities the old fashioned Golden Dawn way should get some drums, move their feet, and speak out in the voice of the gods. I know from my own work that abandoning myself fully to the divine presence has been a source of the most profound teachings I’ve ever experienced.

(1) I use the traditional spelling of voodoo to get people’s attention, but prefer the newer spelling used by scholars.

(2) Vodou has this as well, but not as strong.

While writing a chapter for my new novel yesterday, I came to a scene where the main character attends an OTO initiation. Part of my shtick for this new book is that it’s an urban fantasy, but it uses real world occult practices as a basis for the magick, so I wanted it to be relatively accurate. No problamo I thought. I know Crowley’s works. I should be able to find an initiation ceremony somewhere. Lo and behold, it’s a secret.

It made me double-take. Someone in this day and age honestly thinks they can keep something a secret? Coming from the OTO makes it even more comical. Crowley made a name for himself by revealing the secrets of the Golden Dawn. My respect for him comes from that act, as the rebel, breaking down the temple doors. Yet it seems he honestly expected his acolytes to do as he said and not as he did.

I understand their reasoning. Initiations are designed to break down an applicant’s preconceptions about themselves. Fear is a way to do this. To make them react to a real threat. Engendering a fear of the unknown, of what’s about to happen, is a tried and true method. But it seems the OTO has a misunderstanding of where that fear comes from. The rituals themselves are designed to provoke the necessary response. I guarantee, if you strip someone naked, blindfold them, bind their hands, and put a dagger to their throat, you will get a fear response. No matter how much the initiate trusts you or how far ahead they knew this was coming.

One the supposed admonishments to magicians from the Emerald Tablet of Thoth is, “to keep silent.” I admit I have a hard time doing this. Blog case in point. But what does it really mean? At one time, I’m sure it was meant to protect magi from persecution. But now I only see it used as an excuse to withhold knowledge so the teacher can fleece the student.

It took me only a few minutes of Googling to find accounts of OTO initiations. I describe what I learned in my book. Much of it probably inaccurate, but I’m sure some of it is truth. You just can’t keep secrets in the information age. And it seems silly to try when what’s important is not the secrets but the mystery. You can never understand the experience until you have the experience.

Perhaps what Thoth really meant is that you should not try to describe too much what magical processes should feel like. Each magus comes to magick on their own, and it is impossible to impart that knowledge. Perhaps it was Thoth’s way of saying, “Do not make thine students and colleagues into armchair magicians. Lead them to the well, but do not describe the water.”

At least this is what makes sense to me in out times. Tell me your opinion.

Every week I’ll share with you seven websites with great resources or fantastic art to raise your knowledge and your gnosis.

The Hermetic Library: http://hermetic.com/   A massive archive of public domain books, music, art, poetry, and more than I can describe here.

Occult of Personality: http://occultofpersonality.net/    Homepage of one of the best esoteric podcasts.

Rebel Physics – The Specularium: http://specularium.org/    The official blog of Pope Pete, fuck yeah.

Andrieh Vitimus: http://andriehvitimus.com/   Homepage of one of the most outspoken advocates of chaos magick.

Occult Forum: http://www.occultforum.org   Great website to shoot the shit. I will be posting here more often.

Teampall Na Callaighe: http://www.callaighe.com/    The website of Janet Farrar and Gavin Bone, the best progressive teachers in Wicca today.

Thelemapedia: http://www.thelemapedia.org/    All things Crowley.

 

Greed is the problem. I accept this as true. The evils of economic disparity, besides being unfair and the cause of misery, are bad for our economy as well. That those at the top are willing to take more than their fair share is indicative of a culture off the rails. But that’s only half the problem.

The more I practice magick the more I see things as created paradigms. If you ever wondered why the hell ceremonial magicians do all those repetitive rituals and spend hours in meditation, it’s this: it breaks down the walls of perception and assaults your preconceptions. You start seeing the truth, that world runs not on money, or gravity, or relativity; the world runs on magick.

Activists constantly blame the greedy executives when corporations pollute the environment, exploit workers, and influence our values. But they fail to recognize that these people are part of an institution created for the sole purpose of making money, and that it will, like any good egregore, fulfill its purpose. These are created entities with wills of their own and the ability to manifest them.

I’m not saying that those in charge should not be held accountable for their actions, but those actions were directed by malignant entities as dangerous as anything summoned by Solomon. As magicians we must recognize these entities as what they are, and lead the charge in combating them. Make no mistake, they are on the attack with a constant barrage of propaganda (we call it advertising now). We must recognize their logos as powerful sigils with the purpose of legitimizing their existence, planting them firmly in our reality.

Keep in mind, however, the warnings of Pope Pete (1), a magician must do everything possible on the physical plane before turning to magick. If the takeover of our minds and bodies by these corporate entities disturbs you, and it should, you need to be out there organizing and protesting. These things do make a difference.

I have one friend in particular who bemoans that protests don’t do any good. That’s utter nonsense. It is not a stretch to say that Occupy Wall Street determined the winner of our presidential elections. By giving us a vocabulary – the 99% vs. the 1% – the Democrats were able to paint the Republicans in simplistic terms that blamed them for our economic misery. In a way, OWS shifted the paradigm, the most powerful form of magick.

After you have done the groundwork, you should treat corporations no different than worst creatures from the Grimorium Verum. Summon them up, stuff them in triangles, slap them around. Make them the victims of your most vicious magical assaults. Use them as target practice. You may want to work with others, however, as these entities are large and powerful. Tackle them during your next circle. Join or organize a group like the Knights of Chaos. Feel free to contact me if you have a particularly loathsome corp you want to take down.

(1) Peter J. Carroll, father of chaos magic.

Moved all my posts from my old blog for new people to enjoy. Expect a new post soon.

P: We don’t have a common way of working in our group now.
T: There isn’t a common mythos. We’re not claiming a single tradition just claiming insanity.
L: Again I really like the individuality of that. It makes for a creative tension.
T: A very exciting synthesis.
P: There’s nobody who wants to force their way of doings things onto everyone else.
C: Maybe we should all have tantrums next time.
T: Yes, a Tantrum Afternoon!
     – Phil Hine, Prime Chaos

 
Believe it or not, Indianapolis, Indiana, is not a hot bed of occult activity. Admittedly, my admonishments of Crowley may have alienated me from some of the few practicing magicians in the area. Not to mention the very nature of the Art makes most magi hard to get along with. All of this works against me in my longing to practice with others.

I know of no structured surveys on the subject, but I would bet that the majority of magicians remain solitary. A small percentage of people I know occasionally participate in group rituals. Only the most hardcore OTO members seem to have group ritual on something of a regular basis. Being a chaos magician makes things that much worse. Not that I am saying the nature of chaos magick implies a lack of structure, only that its relative youth and few established organizations make it a lesser known practice.

As the old trope goes, if I had a dollar for every time I’ve heard someone say, “I feel like I am missing out because I don’t have a group to practice with,” I could buy myself a pretty nice dinner. Seldom do I hear, however, what exactly that person feels they are missing. While the experiential nature of magick does preclude some knowledge of what group ritual would provide, it does not stop a magician from speculating on what they want out of a group experience. A chaos magician, perhaps more so than others, should look at any endeavor as a means to get results.

As I dig deeper into the subject, and reflected on some of my recent breakthroughs, I feel I can provide a decent argument as to why practicing with others could lead to greater results. Most people cite the nebulous power of group “energy”, which may have some merit, but seems to lack concrete explanation. I would say, the benefit of group perception may be the true value of working with others. Most magi agree on the individual nature of perception. Every consciousness perceives reality in a different way based on their perspective. For example, many of us have met in our time people able to perceive things we do not. When we later witness events related to this perception, such as a stunningly accurate divination, we know that even though we did not perceive the phenomena related to the event, we know that they had a basis in reality.

Given this truth, working within a group gives a magician access to those who may perceive their results in different ways than the magician themselves. It’s foolish to believe that we can always detect every detail of our results. Wouldn’t it be invaluable to have input from others as to what they experienced?

Moving away from the self-centered model, it would of course be of great benefit to witness the results of more capable magicians. I do not believe in gurus. I also know that what may work for one person may not work for others. But that knowledge can still act as a springboard for your own practices. The danger lies in the folly of human nature, which sometimes drives us to adoration of those who seemingly can accomplish feats beyond our reach. This poses an even greater threat when it involves those who deal in miracles.

So with all these good reasons, here I am, still slogging away in solitude. The difficulties of geography and culture are no small obstacle. Yet, I have been able to participate in more than one local discussion group with people practicing in a similar style of my own. I know that two things hold me back. A fear of dedication, and a fear of intimacy.

I think most people can relate with the dedication hurdle. With all the time we already dedicate to our practice, adding the responsibilities of group participation seems daunting. But those things tend to be overcome once the benefits become readily apparent.

What holds me back more than anything is the difficulty in finding the “right” people. Magick involves sharing a great deal of ourselves. It would be foolish to give away that kind of knowledge to people are not already completely familiar with. Also, magick will often put you in delicate and intimate situations. You never know how people will react in that kind of environment, even ones you think you know well.

But here I sit, pouring this all out. Hoping that someone reading this lives close enough to contact me, and at least entertain the idea of working together.

“Because half the truth is just how much there is.”
      – The Tragically Hip, The Kids Don’t Get it

I’m trying, I’m really trying. If you read this blog you know about my great love-hate relationship with one Frater Perdurabo, Master Therion, that’s Aleister Crowley to the uninitiated. I find his followers intelligent, amusing, engaging and great fun to be around. I find his works obtuse, convoluted, and patently ridiculous. To clarify the misunderstands I may have about Crowley’s work, a friend advised me to read The Magick of Aleister Crowley by Lon Milo DuQuette. I have heard DuQuette speak several times, and I respect him. The jury is still out on whether or not he will help me understand Uncle Al’s work.

The book has so far been disappointing. I yearned for an in-depth post-mortem on Crowley’s rituals. Instead I got a lot of reprinted material from Crowley’s works and some commentary on the benefits of using it. Starting with a total reprint of The Book of the Law probably didn’t help endear him to me.

He falls into exactly the same trap as many occultist before him, do this, then that, like a recipe. Don’t bother to teach what it means or why you are doing it that way. It also presumes knowledge of the kabbalah and insists that Crowley’s world view, what he calls the Thelemic pantheon, fits exactly within its structure. It reaffirms Crowley’s expertise on the subject, implying that if you feel differently you’re just not as well studied on the subject. Maybe I am, maybe I’m not. But I have studied kabbalah and AC’s assertions as to to the nature of the sepiroth bears no likeness to the concepts presented by actual Jewish scholars. We need to assume that maybe, just maybe, Frater Crowley didn’t know shit.

What really gets me though is how an intelligent man like DuQuette present it as gospel truth, and insist that perfection of these rituals is the only way. let’s quote:

“For practical workings these Pentagrams must not only be memorized but imprinted firmly upon the unconscious mind.”

Translation, my way or the highway. You will draw pentagrams the way Crowley taught you to draw pentagrams or you will go nowhere.

This is why I love chaos magicians. They will downright tell you that if that way doesn’t work try another. In fact, that way may work for some things, but not for others.

It’s no surprise that the founder of chaos magick is a quantum physicist. To me, magick should be approached in that manner. We constantly look for a grand unified theory, one great equation: kabbalah, astrology, chakras, tarot, etc. But we know by experience that no matter how we try, all of magical experience cannot be forced into one of those models.

In quantum physics the only way for us to explain the way energy behaves is to approach it from the contradictory perspectives that it is both a particle and a wave. Chaos magick realizes this, and internalizes it. A chaos magician can switch from one perspective to the other as soon as he realizes the first one doesn’t work in this instance, and return to it when it does.

We realize that our goal is a grand unified theory, but we’re smart enough to know we haven’t reached it yet. So we can keep searching outside of a given paradigm, leaving those stuck in one way of looking at things in the dust.

So perhaps the chaos magick motto – Nothing is true, everything is permitted – is superior to – Do as thou Wilt shall be the whole of the Law. Because the Thelemic model assumes there is a “Law”.

I subscribe to a good number of pagan news feeds. Almost all of them warn me of the impending Christian-right takeover. One particularly repugnant group being focused on lately, the New Apostolic Reformation, have made many inroads into government, and seek to go national with their chosen presidential candidate, Rick Perry. This doesn’t particularly alarm me, not that I want to live in a theocracy, only that it seems to be a natural extension of current political trends. 

       What makes me slap my face in sorrowful disbelief is the reaction. I never felt the need to move away from a friend before, until one of mine became a rabid atheist. What happened? I used to watch Fox News, just to keep tabs on what these ass-bags were up to. I remember ten years ago, when some blonde retarded Fox pundit would rail against the “liberal atheist agenda.” I would laugh my ass off. Atheist agenda? Atheists don’t have agendas. All the atheists I knew then were quite happy to go about their lives not believing, and not caring if you believed one way or the other. Not anymore.

       Sadly, the atheists now use the same tools as their enemy. They put up billboards. They attack people on the internet, calling in to question a person’s intelligence for believing in “invisible people.” What’s even worse, just like their enemies they use their beloved science for their own agendas. My one friend went out of her way to say she could disprove the existence of an historical Jesus. As if that was important. I tried to point out that science really can’t disprove anything. I went so far as to show the preponderance of historical documents verifying his existence. Nope, all of them were faulty. 

       Word to budding historians. When you find one piece of evidence for something and it has flaws, you don’t have good evidence. When you find several pieces of evidence and try to say all of them are flawed, you need to reevaluate.

       So as I see pagan faiths growing in the US and becoming more organized. As more and more communities host Pagan Pride days, and teach classes in public forums. I ask this, please do not use the tools of your enemy. Do not look for politicians because they are pagan. Do not seek to spread the word beyond those who ask. We need protection from religious persecution, but we do not need more converts. If you truly believe that everyone must reach enlightenment in their own way, you don’t go around saying how much better your way is. This especially goes for you Thelemites. You guys have been riding a line and need to be careful how wide you cast your nets.