Thursday, December 13, 2012
Magus Magazine: DISCORD HAPPENS: THE SECRETWAR BETWEEN THE ROSE-CR...
Magus Magazine: DISCORD HAPPENS: THE SECRETWAR BETWEEN THE ROSE-CR...: DISCORD HAPPENS: THE SECRET WAR BETWEEN THE ROSE-CROSS AND ILLUMINATI “Facilis descensus Averno ; noctes atque dies patet atri ...
DISCORD HAPPENS: THE SECRET
WAR BETWEEN THE ROSE-CROSS AND ILLUMINATI
“Facilis descensus Averno ;
noctes atque dies patet atri ianua Ditis;
sed revocare gradum superasque evadere ad auras,
hoc opus, hic labor est.”
noctes atque dies patet atri ianua Ditis;
sed revocare gradum superasque evadere ad auras,
hoc opus, hic labor est.”
It’s been a rollicking few months. Most of Syria Serbia North America , Illuminati are being chased down with machetes. Some
people know. Most can’t make the connections. But it’s there. The unending
struggle between the Rosicrucian brotherhood and Illuminati has been dotting
the political and economic landscape since the 18th century. A quick
glance at any tabloid headline reveals how both groups have been displaying
like baboons, whooping it up while the whole world sits stupidly unaware that
the BIGGEST decisions in business and global politics have been made under the
pretense of a Spy vs. Spy comic strip. Both the head demon of the Illuminati
conspiracy and the twelve reptilian aliens of the Rose-Cross have been filled
with such a righteous hatred that for the last 200 years, an underground war
for control of the human-race has been right under our noses. Even the
conservative Christians stand aside in this one. After the lashing Swaggart
took for getting uppity and the shaming of Heaven’s Gate, December 21,
2012 is a possibility for
some real righteous hysteria.
It’s gonna be up to us to hunt these heathen like dogs and
take back our country. Jesse Ventura understands. It doesn’t take long for
Jesse “the body” to whip suspected Illuminati like mules. And he isn’t
Rosicrucian. I’m not even sure he’s Republican. Governor Ventura comes from the
old times-ex seal-spit-in-your-face-and-stomp-you-like-an-insect-school of
political righteousness. It was soldiers like him that rolled up on Osama like
a pyroclastic flow of stars and stripes. I was witness to a “Jesse’ism” outside
the San Jose County Courthouse when ‘The Body’ cornered a poor Rosicrucian like
a dumb animal. For those of you not privy to AMORC or the Ancient and Mystical
Order of the Rosae Crucis, they are a secret initiatory fraternity bent on the
perfection and evolution of human consciousness. They cast their lot with
groups such as Freemasonry and Ordo Templi Orientis and they are clearly the
wrong ilk for someone such as Jesse Ventura. The look of struck-dumb terror on
this young initiates face when the billowing form of the Governor rose up like
something from the abyss was frightening even to me. And I was standing feet
away and out of the line of sight. I had seen the look before. It’s the
panicked expression of a lion tamer at the moment his cracking of the whip
conjures a deep-seated and reverberating animal rage. I could smell the fear
and so could Jesse. The neophyte recognized at once that the television cameras
and microphones were NOT his friend. I could only assume he expected to be
beaten. He backed up the courthouse and with trembling voice muttered, “Hello
brother, are you ready for the new world?” “Why not?” Jesse said with clear
disdain. “I had nothing better to do today.” There followed an awkward silence
as the fledgling Rosicrucian rocked on the balls of his feet and began to blink
wildly. “Have you come to see the temple and research our fabulous archives?”
Jesse ignored this and drawled, “So…I heard you Rosicrushans have some interest
in taking over the American government.” He took a step forward. “Do you
understand the meaning of ‘Born Free or Die’?” He dragged out the last few
words and stood silent with a dead stare. I think his eyes began to glaze over.
This sent the crazed jabbering of the Rosicrucian to elevate just under
hysteria as he babbled about, “Love, liberty, and fighting the Illuminati…”
Even Jesse paused in his tirade of Nationalism and anti-conspiratorial fervor
to stare vacantly and ask, “What did you just say? Illumi-what?” The man broke
into a literal run and screeched, “Nothing further!” as he sped away.
And this is how the secret got out. This is how the Discord
was revealed or unveiled to the world. What seemed lamely like an outburst by a
peculiar little man driven mad with fear was in actuality, a tightly-sealed
secret held in the underground by a cabal of businessmen, politicians, artists,
and scientists. The secret history of the world really was the history of
warfare between secret societies. This is nothing new. It was all business. In
any given city, Rosicrucian and Illuminati propaganda pamphlets littered
street-corners along with political manifestos and store front advertisements.
People knew about these ultra-secret groups but their intricacies were left a
mystery. And just as nowadays, competition was grounds for a savage end to
normal sensibilities. People who snitched were liable to be beaten, labeled an
opium fiend, and left to be picked up with the rest of the rubbish. Even
friends would smirk and say they always knew you were weird. From the very
outset, the Illuminati considered the Rose-Cross to be a bunch of pigs. They
constantly whined that the new reason-inspired age didn’t need any archaic
superstitions from the past. They were doing just fine without magic,
fairies, or even God. One of their early pamphlet headlines declared:
Rosicrucian
magicians exhume plague-ridden
corpses for vile Necromancy Ritual!
This sparked such a vile and
public outcry that a twelve man investigative committee made up of a few
priests, a city official, doctor, scientist, and disguised reptilian alien
found that not only was the bloated body a plague hazard but probably a vampire
and definitely smelled bad. When the Rosicrucians went to pieces and
claimed that the entire inquiry was anti-reason and based on superstitious
conjecture, Weishaupt simply stated that he knew necromancy was real
because his Illuminati was really just an Illuminized Freemasonry. He claimed
that there existed an Illuminati Lodge in London
It is said that the Illuminati
was created in 1010 AD in the Middle East when Hassan : Sabbah founded the
Hashishim but really came to fruition in Bavaria May 1, 1776 . It is said that Adam Weishaupt, a student of the occult reached
illumination yet created his entire order on the ‘Enlightenment’ tenets of
reason and rationalism . This one went beyond smoke and mirrors ectoplasm
regurgitation or spirit knocking. This one was elevated to shaman. A real
medicine man or Merlin. In him were the teachings of ancient Assyria and Babylon , Egypt Persia Germany
It’s been publicly documented
that Weishaupt dodged more throwing knives, poisons, and prisons than any
member of MI-6 or covert CIA spy. In his Christian Rosenkreutz persona, this
super-agent was both friend and adversary to himself. He delighted in
writing an anti-Rosicrucian rant just to rebut it with equal gusto on behalf of
all esoteric groups. He took his job very seriously and would forget
himself at times. There has been instances when Weishaupt wrote a scathing
criticism of Illuminati just to have Rosenkreutz step in with pro-Illuminati
jabbering. This created in Weishaupt a new hubris that he embraced during his
travels. Eventually members of the Illuminati began to notice word choosing and
sentence phrasing that seemed eerily like what they’d read in despised
Rosicrucian manifestos. It was decided that Weishaupt was a menace and should
be flogged and fed to the dogs. He haggled his case but in the end was labeled
positively ghoulish and the once all-powerful caliph was buried to his neck
in sesame oil.
Wednesday, November 14, 2012
Magus Magazine: Evolution and Deities Part One
Magus Magazine: Evolution and Deities Part One: Hello everybody! Here is a portion of Evolution and Deities. I'll be adding another bit concering the falsity of Ontological Relativism ...
Evolution and Deities Part One
Hello everybody! Here is a portion of Evolution and Deities. I'll be adding another bit concering the falsity of Ontological Relativism next week before really getting into the 'economy and power relations of Deity Evolution' but here's a taste. Enjoy!
EVOLUTION AND DEITIES:
PART 1
Discussing
non-humans has many more implications than just anthropomorphism. As Latour has
remarked, “Non-humans have not been emerging for aeons just to serve as so many
props to show the mastery, intelligence, and design capacities of humans or
their divine creations. They have their own intelligence, their own design, and
plenty of transcendence to go on, that is, to reproduce” (Latour, Bruno. Will
Non-Humans Be Saved? 2009). Although many non-humans do have human-like qualities
or tendencies, they are autonomous entities that have their own trajectory and
hold their own agency. Attributing only anthropomorphism to deity production is
like trying to play a three-note guitar chord with only two strings. Although
there is a familiarity with the sound, something seems missing. This something
in terms of non-humans is evolutionary and experiential.
Truth be told, non-humans aren’t so much ineffable or
infallible as incommensurable. Much like biological organisms, there is an
evolution of the supernatural. Deities that are fittest or created with
a favorable evolutionary trait tends to be more successful over time. These
genetic variances may mutate and shift as in the case of the Holy Tree.
According to what is known as the “Golden Legend”, the true cross came from
three seeds from the ‘tree of mercy’ in the Garden of Eden. These three seeds
were placed in the mouth of Adam’s corpse by Seth. After many centuries, wood
from the tree was used to build a bridge that was used by the Queen of Sheba on
her travels to meet King Solomon. When she walked across the bridge, Sheba
The narrative shows how non-humans have an evolutionary
trajectory. The tree (object) went from being a seed, to a tree, bridge,
crucifixion cross, and holy relic. But its symbolization, or what it means
epistemologically, also evolved as centuries passed. This non-human’s meaning
changed as it was imbued with the numinous. In fact, the severity of its
numinous qualities ebbed and flowed through time. It was certainly a sacred
object when it was in seed form and placed in Adam’s mouth. However, it lost
some of its sacred power when Solomon buried it underground. Not till it was
fashioned into Christ’s cross did the object reach its evolutionary potential.
As a religious determinate, the true cross underwent an epistemic trajectory
wherein its power as a religious symbol changed.
Self-determining deities also show evolutionary prowess as
they move through time and space. However, there is an incommensurable aspect
to the trajectory that keeps us from making oblique comparisons of sacred
narratives. Because of its experiential nature, interactions with deities are
necessarily incommensurable and must be examined as autonomous but
non-comparable events. Its like comparing an entheogenic psilocybin experience
with the visitation at Fatima by the Virgin Mary. Both
are numinous events but they cannot be compared in any way. The experience of
psilocybin-its affective qualities and pure unmitigated surrealism cannot be
compared to any other numinous experience in any way because every
experience of the sacred is new. Every numinous event is different in
every way from other religious events due to the subjective experience in a
sacred event. After all, we’re not comparing the experience of going to a
baseball game or a movie. An experience of the deity is something
extra-ordinary. It can be wholly beautiful or awful and terrifying. But the
interaction will be unique and the experience new. And these are the qualities
that are renewed or re-embodied through religious ritual.
Although the experiences are incommensurable, they can be renewed subjectively
to foster a change of state.
In the work of trajectories, the re-presentation of gods are
a form of ritual economy. The rite of passage involves Man and the Deity to be
successful. As Chris Knight and Camilla Power have remarked, “The gods do not
just appear and then replicate themselves autonomously through being
‘attention-grabbing’. Rather, the immortals need organized communal help”
(Journal of Royal Anthropological Institute. 4(11) March 1988. pp 129-132.
Comment). Through the rite of passage sequence, the Deity and Man exhibit a
ritual exchange of goods and services. But it is Man that performs the
high-cost activities of conjuration. It is Man that does the dancing, and
chanting, and trance exploration. They must in order to be embodied. And every
occult knows this…..
PART II
Tuesday, October 16, 2012
Magus Magazine: RITUAL AND TRANSITION STATES IN NON-HUMANS: HOW TH...
Magus Magazine: RITUAL AND TRANSITION STATES IN NON-HUMANS: HOW TH...: Hello everybody, here is the promised second part of deitic rite of passage. Since my lunacy is something both expected and irritating, ...
Hello everybody, here is the promised second part of deitic rite of passage. Since my lunacy is something both expected and irritating, I'll let you enjoy the article and welcome all comments. I've been flailing around trying to develop the idea for a few months. Feel free to be openly disgruntled.
btw currently working on the 'evolution of deities' but I'll annoy you with that in a few weeks.
RITUAL AND TRANSITION STATES IN NON-HUMANS: HOW THE GODS ALSO UNDERGO RITES OF PASSAGE- PART II
Hello everybody, here is the promised second part of deitic rite of passage. Since my lunacy is something both expected and irritating, I'll let you enjoy the article and welcome all comments. I've been flailing around trying to develop the idea for a few months. Feel free to be openly disgruntled.
btw currently working on the 'evolution of deities' but I'll annoy you with that in a few weeks.
RITUAL AND TRANSI TION
STATES IN NON-HUMANS: HOW THE GODS ALSO UNDERGO
RITES OF PASSAGE
PART II
We already know that transition states lead to
re-presentation of the initiate. What isn’t as readily discussed is the effect
ritual has on the deity. After all, ritual is an interaction. In the past, the
deity has enjoyed a central place in this interaction. As Bastaire &
Bastaire have remarked, non-humans had a central place in theology, in
spirituality, in rituals, and of course in art which they have almost totally
lost.[1]
Nowadays, a crisis of representation has nearly left the deity completely out
of the ritual equation. Uncertainty about adequate means to interact with these
non-humans has led many religious systems to forget their presence entirely.
The ritual may be performed without god even in mind. When the process
becomes mindless, re-presentation doesn’t occur and the ritual fails.
Moreover,
ritual interactions are the most successful when both the ritual specialist and
the non-human connect personally. I don’t mean pure anthropomorphism although
the deity may take on human or animal qualia. I refer to a metaphysics of
presence that functions as an ontological foundation. This gift of presence is
consciousness. And it is this presence, this re-presentation, that forms part
of the fabric of social reality. Until now, we have viewed the present crisis
of representation as one distinctive, alternate swing of the pendulum between periods
in which paradigms, or totalizing theories, are relatively secure, and periods
in which paradigms lose their legitimacy and authority-when theoretical
concerns shift to problems of interpretation of the details of a reality that
eludes the ability of dominant paradigms to describe it, let alone explain it.[2]
We have
conjured a reality where non-humans exist but lack any ontological ethos. We
are quick to assert that god exists but ascribe no autonomous status to the
concept. Our interactions with non-humans are without any interaction at all.
Yet it is us that provides meaning to the deity. We imbue it with qualities and
characteristics and even a personality. We give it presence and in so doing,
renew its importance in reality. The same concept is used by quantum physicists
to describe the position and momentum of particles in the universe. These
postulated entities are defined and given meaning through the techniques used
to measure them. Like deities, they wait on us to give them an ontological situation.
And we have
many ideas as to what makes up the qualities of our deities. Some cultures say
that god resides in caves, others in forests; for many, god is in the sky while
others suggest underground. And still others would persuade us that god is a form
of consciousness while their counterparts argue for an entity outside of the
human universe. The prevailing thought is that either god is out there
or in-here. We call this relationship transcendence and immanence.
Transcendence
refers to our deities as being outside of human influence. God then, is beyond
anything that is other than god. This form of thought is indicative of
monotheistic religions. However, polytheistic and ‘nature-religions’ also
experience moments of grace or enlightenment characteristic of transcendence. A
transcendence deity is beyond thought, ‘above’ physical things and apart from
the world we live in. In the Kantian sense, transcendent means beyond al the
forms and categories of experience and knowledge: space and time, as well as
quantity (unity, plurality, or universality), quality (reality, negation, or
limitation), relation (substantiality, causality, or reciprocity), or modality
(possibility, actuality, or necessity). All these things are the preconditions
or presuppositions of human experience and thought. Hence to imagine creation
(causality) and creator (first cause) of the universe is only to project the
categories of human experience and reason beyond their field. [3]
On the
other hand, Immanence refers to the divinity being near or within.
In eastern orthodoxy, it is hypostases or energies of god. Immanence finds god
in this life and in the world around us. According to Joseph Campbell, the
immanence of god is in the faces, personalities, loves, and lives all around
us, in our friends, or enemies, and ourselves.[4]
Furthermore, immanence takes place in the mind and is entirely subjective.
Perhaps the best way to understand the immanence of god is in its experiential
qualities. When we experience the divine or what if feels like to be the
deity.
One is also
reminded of the subject object relationship in philosophy. The subjective
immanence seems to sit in stark contrast to the transcendent object until we
realize that a unitive experiential understanding of the divine dissolves any
distinction between immanence and transcendence. Spetnak remarks that what is
emerging now is the nondualistic understanding of immanent and transcendent
long seen as opposites in western cultural history, transcendence is coming to
be understood as “beyond” but not “above” the material plane we can see in
everyday life. Our minds will never be able to map the endless networks of what
I call “relational reality”, so spirituality that seeks to commune with either
immanence or transcendence now sees that they are no apart. This realization is
not new to eastern philosophy or indigenous cultures, of course; we were simply
late coming to it in the modern west because of our dualistic and mechanistic
worldview.[5]
Understanding god as both immanent and transcendent was also proposed by
Plotinus when he asserted that “we should not speak of seeing, but instead of
seen and seer, speak boldly of a simple unity for in this seeing we neither
distinguish nor are their two”.[6]
And also by Flemish alchemist Theobald de Highelande when he says that “this
science transmits its work by mixing the false with the true and the true with
the false, sometimes very briefly, at other times in a most prolix manner,
without order and quite often in the reverse order; and it endeavors to
transmit the work obscurely, and to hide it as much as possible”. [7] We
understand then that the deity and what it feels like to be the deity
are one in the same. Just as the object and subject, seer and seen, even god
and man enjoy a unitive relationship, we can expect that a rite of passage
would effect the deity equally as much as the neophyte.
Its hard
for many to accept this basic occult principle. The tendency is to see god
outside of ourselves or as something greater than us. We grant him extraordinary
powers and omniscience. We are taught that man is flawed or wicked and must be
separated from god. At least for now. And this separation is the definition
of hell. Our dualistic frame of mind places us, be default, in an experience of
eternal punishment by refusing to acknowledge the one-ness or at-one-ment of
god and man.
This wasn’t
always the case. Scotus Erigena discussed divine ignorance in the 1800s when he
stated that there is yet another kind of ignorance of god, inasmuch as he may
be said not to know what things he foreknows and predestines until they have
appeared experientially in the course of created events. [8] Just
as the initiate must undergo experientially the rite of passage that confers a
new state of consciousness, so too the deity must wait until events play out in
order to know what the ritual accomplished. Erigena goes on to say that there
is another kind of divine ignorance, in that god may be said to be ignorant of
things not yet made manifest in their effects through experience of their
action and operation; of which, nevertheless, he holds the invisible courses in
himself, by himself created, and to himself known.[9]
Just as man has nascent potentialities that must be unlocked via ritual, so too
the deity is ignorant of things not yet made manifest. A rite of passage
must unveil or bright to light aspects of himself.
Furthermore,
sometimes the rite of passage involves man awakening nascent potentialities in
the deity. Carl Jung one stated that, “For the alchemist the one primarily in
need of redemption is not man, but the deity who is lost and sleeping in matter
only as a secondary consideration does he hope that some benefit may accrue to
himself from the transformed substance as the panacea, the medicina catholica,
just as it may to the imperfect bodies, the base or “sick” metals, etc… His
attention is not directed to his own salvation through god’s grace, but to the
liberation of god from the darkness of matter”. [10]
Here man acts as initiator to the deity. Object and subject
although unitive are also autonomous entities that reveal parts of the whole to
the other. It is a paradox. Object- subject immanence-transcendence, man-god
are both unitive and separate. They are mutually exclusive yet
inseparable.
This
classic example of religious of religious paradox is best seen in the idea of
light in darkness and darkness in light. When consciousness becomes unitive or
objectless, we are left with a consciousness not of anything. It is a
pure or “cosmic-consciousness”. There is nothing empirical in this state of
mind. Unitive consciousness is both something and nothing. Sometimes it is
described as there and not-there. Merleau-Ponty has remarked that this state of
being is experienced not from the depths of nothingness but from the
midst of itself.[11]
Religions
have many names and describe “cosmic-consciousness” in a myriad of ways.
Christians identify it with god. The bible calls it a “desert” or “wilderness”.
Dionysius the Areopagite stated that god is “the dazzling obscurity which
outshines all brilliance with the intensity of its darkness”. Buddhism also
recognized this paradox by labeling it the void. The Tibetan Book of the Dead
speaks of “the clear light of the void.”
It is the darkness of god. It is called darkness because all physical
distinctions disappear. It is the same as the Indian Brahman and identical to
the Atman. Object-subject distinctions simply dissolve. Therefore, we can’t say
that there is a light in the darkness because there would then be no
paradox. The light is the darkness and the darkness is the light.
Philosophers
have also identified with unitive experience brought about by a metaphysics of
presence. Schopenhaur called it the ‘Will’. He stated that,
Up to now, the concept Will
has been subsumed under the concept force; but I am using it just the
opposite way, and mean that every force in nature is to be understood as a
function of Will. For at the back of the concept force there is finally
our visual knowledge of the objective world, i.e. of some phenomenon, something
seen. It is from this that the concept of force derives…whereas the
concept Will, on the contrary, is the one, among all possible concepts,
that does not derive from the observation of phenomenon, not from mere
visual knowledge, but comes from inside, emerges from the immediate
consciousness of each of us: not as a form, not even in terms of the
subject-object relationship, but as that which he himself is; for here the
knower and the known are the same.[12]
The Will then, is without empirical
content. It is pure “cosmic” unitive experience. This is not a new or radical
concept. It is simply experiential. Our metaphysics of presence is one in which
personhood is granted to the deity. In other words, there is not one deity in
the mind and one in the physical world. As Neils Bohr once remarked in terms of
the Quantum, “Theorizing should be an embodied practice, rather than a
spectator sport of matching linguistic representations to preexisting things”. [13] When
we unite object-subject, we unite matter and meaning and man and deity.
That’s not to say that the deity is
solely a part of man. Again, they are mutually exclusive yet inseparable. When
we experience the deity, we experience a corporeal or bodily component to
experience. At the same time, the object(body) gives us access to subjective or
numinous experience. And in this state, we cannot articulate the experience
because we are embodied by the deity. You could say we are possessed. Mystics
are used to this idea. As Stace remarks, “the mystic, of course, expresses
thoughts about his experience after the experience is over, and he remembers it
when he is back again in his sensory-intellectual consciousness. But there are
no thoughts in the experience itself”.[14]
Philsopher Merleau-Ponty also states that “He who sees cannot possess the
visible unless he is possessed by it, unless he is of it”.[15]
Those who possess the numinous cannot see it because they are, at that second,
part of it. They are experiencing the unitive.
This is exactly what is occurring
as man and deity undergo the rite of passage. But there is once crucial
difference. Whereas man embodies the unitive and experiences subjectively what
it feels like to be the deity, the deity itself is re-embodied.
While man is transcendent and immanent undergoing a change of consciousness,
the corresponding deity is also unitive yet because of their inherent divinity
being renewed through the ritual. Anthropologist Arnold Van Gennep identified
three stages to the rite of passage. First, the initiate is separated from his
or her group. This separation is also one in which they abandon their previous
social niche and head into the unknown. This unknown is a state of liminality.
Here the initiate is betwixt and between or without any social status at all.
It is during rites of liminality that the initiations actually occur. The rite
then culminates with the neophyte being reintegrated into society. They return
a new person with a new social role and identity.
The deity also experiences a rite
of passage as the initiate undergoes a change of consciousness. During the ROP ,
the deity is sent into a liminal state and is also betwixt and between.
However, this liminality is unitive or at-one-ment. The deity cannot transcend
or enlighten because they are already transcended; they are already
enlightened. There is nothing for the deity to become for the deity has already
become. The ROP is a renewal of the
numinous. In it, the deity is ‘made anew’ or ‘re-embodied.
Furthermore, a deity is both a
determinate and self-determining. As well as being able to decide their own
course of action or fate, the deity is also a fixed or distinct symbol. For
example, the goddess Demeter is a mother to Perseophone, daughter of Cronos
& Rhea, and part of the triple goddess manifestation. She is spatially
identified with Greece ROP also acts as a renewing
agent for the harvest and agriculture. Moreover, as his state of consciousness
changes, man renews not only the transcendent qualities of the goddess but his
own immanent determinate symbols.
Discussing non-human characteristics
has many more implications than just anthropomorphism. As Latour has remarked,
“Non-humans have not been emerging for aeons just to serve as so many props to
show the mastery, intelligence, and design capacities of humans or their divine
creations. They have their own intelligence, their own cunning, their own
design, and plenty of transcendence to go on, that is, to reproduce”.[16]
Although many nonhumans do have human-like qualities or tendencies, they are
autonomous entities that have their own trajectory and hold their own agency.
Attributing only anthropomorphism to deity production is like trying to play a
three-note guitar chord with only two strings. Although there is a familiarity
with the sound, something is missing. This something in terms of nonhumans is
evolutionary and experiential.
Truth be told, nonhumans aren’t so
much ineffable or infallible but incommensurable. Much like biological
organisms, there is an evolution of the supernatural. Deities that are
“fittest” or created with a favorable evolutionary trait tend to be more
successful over time. These genetic variances may mutate and shift as in the
case of the Holy Tree……
TO BE CONTINUED
[1] Bastaire & Bastaire
2004
[2] George E. Marcus and
Michael M.J. Fischer, ed. Anthropology as Cultural Critique: An Experimental
Moment In The Humans Sciences. 2nd edition. University
of Chicago Chicago
[4] Ibid pp 578
[5] Spretnak 2011
[6] Plotinus reference
[7] Theobalde de Highelande
reference
[8] Scotus Erigena 1838. 594c.
[9] Ibid 596c.
[10] Carl Jung, Psychology
and Alchemy. Trans. by R.F.C. Hull, Bollingen Series XX, vol. 12. Pantheon
Books. New York
[11] Merleau-Ponty 1968. pp
113
[12] Schopenhaur, Die welt
als Wille und Vorstellung, II 21; Samtliche Werke, Vol. 2 pp 152-153
[13] K. Barad, Meeting the
Universe Halfway: Quantum Physics and the Entanglement of Matter and Meaning.
Durham , NC
[14] Walter T. Stace,
“Subjectivity, Objectivity and the Self”, Religion For A New Generation 2nd
edition. Ed. Jacob Needleman, A.K. Bierman, and James A. Gould. Macmillan
Publishing Co. New York
[15] Merleau-Ponty, The
Visible and the Invisible. A. Lingin Trans. Evanston. Northwestern
University Press. Pp134. 1968.
[16] Bruno Latour, “Will
Nonhumans be saved? An Argument in Ecotheology.” Journal of the Royal Anthropological
Institute. (N.S.) 15. pp 459-475. 2009.
Monday, October 15, 2012
Magus Magazine: RITUAL AND TRANSITION STATES IN NON-HUMANS: HOW TH...
Magus Magazine: RITUAL AND TRANSITION STATES IN NON-HUMANS: HOW TH...: Hello, all of you occult and esoteric lovers in the multiverse. For months, i've been blathering on about how deities undergo rites of pas...
Hello, all of you occult and esoteric lovers in the multiverse. For months, i've been blathering on about how deities undergo rites of passage and enter liminal states when their human counterparts perform ritual. I've been screeching and frantically trying to get something down on paper that develops this sordid and clearly antagonistic philosophy. Finally, I've finished part 1 and part 2. Here is part 1- I'll post the sequel tomorrow. This post deals with primarily the ritual and archaeology of the idea whereas the second develops the philosophy of deitic rite of passage. Enjoy and keep the howling to a minimum.
RITUAL AND TRANSITION STATES IN NON-HUMANS: HOW THE GODS ALSO UNDERGO RITES OF PASSAGE PART ONE
RITUAL AND TRANSI TION STATES IN NON-HUMANS: HOW THE GODS ALSO UNDERGO RITES OF PASSAGE
PART ONE
The problem with the occult is
establishing a consensus of definition. Too often, ‘descriptions’ of the occult
are used to provide meaning of the phenomenon. Variances of narrative and/or
thematic characteristics are employed to explain not only what the occult is
but why it operates in the way it does. This is not surprising. Occult arts and
sciences have enormous reach and enter multiple avenues of discourse. The
occult is, in many ways, pluralism run rampant. The genre is anthropological
and folkloric; it is psychological and sociological. The occult is a favorite
of the arts and theatre. It is religious and scientific, conspiratorial,
quantum, and mystical.
But above
all else, the occult is experiential. It is something experienced. Just as one
cannot adequately explain ‘enlightenment’, ‘disappearance of the ego’,
‘satori’, or ‘absorption into god’, an occult event is a happening.
Something happens to both the occult and anybody who is witness to it. In many
ways, there is no definition of occult as it happens because there is nothing
to be conceptually defined at that moment. As Norman Melchert has remarked,
“the conceptual representation of the experience invariably comes afterward,
while one is no longer in the grip of it” (Melchert 445). Certainly more
Dionysian than Apollonian, this form of mystical experience is surreal and
difficult to comprehend.
Indeed, for
anybody who has witnessed a supernatural assault, there is a disorienting and
hallucinatory quality that really cannot be adequately explained. And each
occult event is unique. It is this inherent having no like or equal that
makes each occult happening incommensurable from any other so-called
occult event. We see this in a 1975 Ouija experience. According to the account:
On Tuesday evening, Mark and Kent
were on their way to MIA when they ran into Stephanie who wasn’t a member of
the church. So they went over to Stephanie’s house. They lit the candles on the
mantle piece and on the coffee table and began to play the Ouija board at about
7:00pm . They got the Ouija board to
work really well and then asked it a lot of questions such as ‘who would marry
whom’ and ‘does Suzie like Jimmy’ etc… Then they tried an experiment. Two of
them would close their eyes and place their fingers on the Ouija board. The
third person would place a ring on the board somewhere and the Ouija would
knock it off upon a command from one of the participants. After that Mark
wanted to ask the Ouija to show himself but Kent Kent Kent 9:30 pm when Kent Kent Kent 10:30pm . They realized that
they had all blacked out for about forty-five minutes. They put the Ouija board
in the garage and left. Kent Utah State
University
Such is the
atmosphere of many supernatural assault narratives. The experience of the
teenagers was indefinable as it occurred. The shock and horror of the moment
makes the entire episode unique to itself and completely incommensurable from
any other occult narrative. When the moment is gone, conceptual representation
can be applied and meaning ascribed but until then, the experience is
not unlike visionary trance. Each episode is an autonomous self-serving event.
And like visionary trance, logic is suspended in favor of discovery. Moreover,
while in that mental state, belief is also suspended. Being in the grip
of the experience leaves no room for doubt or belief because the event is
happening at that moment. Belief becomes self-evident.
In
actuality, the occult is an assemblage of representations that lack any clear
idea of what they are representative of. The occult is, at the same time,
horror stories, initiatory systems, and a symbolic system of correspondences.
It is realization of the numinous yet hidden. Occult comes from the Latin word occultus
and means secret or veiled. But perhaps in its capacity for creation, the
occult re-presents itself continuously. By its very nature, the occult renews
the numinous and makes affective experience paramount to its teachings. For an
occultist, the feeling of conjuring a non-human is equally as important as the
non-human itself.
What is
peculiar about occultists is that they resemble archaeologists and utilize a
context of discovery when they go about sifting through temporal and spatial
layers of meaning to uncover past ritualization. Their techniques and
instrumentation allow them to reveal or part the veil of the
past. As negotiators of time and space, they gather artifacts to form an
understanding of long-ago cultures. And as more data is revealed, the picture
of the past changes accordingly. The imagery archaeological study conjures
then, is essential because we are afforded a moment in time. By reconstructing Rome Rome
It wasn’t
always so. Before complex societies, representation of the occult was a
solitary experience. The ancient religion of Rome Rome
What was
once solitary then city-wide hearths became a pluriverse of pantheons. Gods
evolved distinct personalities and interacted among themselves. They developed
attitudes and schemed with and against mankind. And narratives were written to
biograph their exploits. Moreover, as migrants from places like Egypt Persia
As
population and religious complexity grew, the Imperial Regime suspended the
political obligations of ordinary citizens. At this time, the population didn’t
even vote. According to Robert Turcan, when the individual no longer played an
active part of the running of the city, religious, micro-societies, and mystery
sects assured the individual a kind of reintegration and existence.[4]
When exotic foreign gods coupled with the already robust Greco-Roman pantheon,
they facilitated a creation of initiatory-based mystery schools. It is these
same schools that have served as the prototype to hierarchal initiatory systems
since the 17th century.
“To elevate man above the human
sphere into the divine and assure his redemption by making him a god and so
conferring immortality upon him.” – Martin P. Nilsson, Greek Popular
Religion, “The Religion of Eleusis Colombia University New York
According
to myth, Persephone was picking flowers one day when the ground split upon and
a black chariot with invisible driver rose up and abducted her. Taken by Hades
into the underworld, the young maiden became she who brings destruction.
This re-embodiment of the goddess into something terrifying led to social
anxieties attached to the cult. In fact, the word Persephone instilled such a
terror that it was rarely used. According to Michael Cosmopoulos, prayers to
Persephone were either prayers to the dead or curses on the living. No parent
ever considered naming a daughter after her, and it should be no surprise to
discover that even the place she dwelt had no name of its own.[5]
Much like
ancient Egyptian narratives of Osiris and Isis, the Demeter-Persephone
relationship involve purification and the loss of a loved one. Demeter searches
for her daughter and as she does, all vegetation begins to die. During this
period, she took the alias Doso and worked as nursemaid to the two sons of King
Celeus. Demeter sought to make Demophon a god by giving him the divine breath,
anointing him in ambrosia, and burning his immortality away in the
family-hearth. One night, the boy’s mother walked in while her son was in the
fire and became horrified.
Narratives
of Isis also involve purification through the use of
fire. In Egyptian myth, Isis discovered that Osiris was
trapped in a wooden pillar at the royal palace
of Byblos Isis admonished the queen for
robbing her son of immortality.
Although
these events are perhaps secondary to the main action of the mythos, they still
resonate in occult importance. The use of fire is essential in astrological understanding.
Often times, fire denotes the creative spirit. Alchemy and Tarot also make use
of fire as an agent of transformation. And this is key. Throwing the princes in
the hearth-fire was a way to awaken their potentialities for enlightenment or
absorption into God. It was an initiation and their becoming.
The success
of the mystery ritual occurs when mother and daughter are reunited in the
confines of the Telesterion. One of the primary centres of the
Eleusinian mysteries, this building is where the dramatization of Persephone’s
return was revealed to initiates. The mystae were blindfolded and made
to wander through the dark. Reliving Persephone’s terror in the underworld,
these initiates had the subjective experience of being the goddess. They knew what
it felt like to be in Hades domain. According to Cosmopoulos, the Epoptai
(more advanced initiates) who are waiting outside the Telesterion could see
Persephone, together with her mother, emerging from the cave precinct where she
arose from the underworld. The light that came from within the Telesterion
came, I imagine, from the torches that were suddenly lit by the hundreds,
perhaps thousands, of these Epoptai standing at the steps that line the walls
of the Telesterion. It was at this moment that the mystae entered and beheld
the image of the reunited goddesses.[6]
Now,
compare the Eleusinian mystery with its Egyptian counterpart. Initiates first
went through a purification ceremony which readied them for their ultimate
becoming. When nighttime came, the initiate was dressed in a linen robe never
previously worn. Then the priest took him by the hand and lead him to the
remotest part of the sanctuary or penetralia. The neophyte was probably
shown statues that were concealed from the gaze of ordinary followers. The
ritual then enacts the symbolic death that corresponded with Osiris. By dying
to his former life, the man was reborn as a god. According to Turcan,
this moment occurred in the middle of the sanctuary, a platform was set up
which the new initiate mounted, this time clad in an embroidered linen
robe…when the curtains were drawn, he was revealed like a statue,
crowned with palm-leaves and armed with a torch, for the admiration of the
faithful, who filed slowly past his feet. [7]
Just like the Eleusinian narrative, the initiate undergoes a change of
consciousness. In ritually becoming the deity, each candidate undergoes a rite
of passage. They now understand what it feels like to be the deity.
Such a
statement would be meaningless if the deity didn’t also undergo a rite of
passage. This is what occultists seek to understand. What are the mechanisms
that lead to liminal or transition states in a non-human?
[1] Fustel De Coulange, The
Ancient City Greece Rome
[2] Ibid.
[3] Ibid.
[5] Michael B. Cosmopoulos, Greek
Mysteries: The Archaeology and Ritual of Ancient Greek Secret Cults. Routledge
Publishing. 2003.
[6] Ibid.
[7] Turcan 1996.
Tuesday, October 2, 2012
Magus Magazine: Exodus as Initiation Narrative
Magus Magazine: Exodus as Initiation Narrative: Hello folks, this is look at the Exodus story using a Structuralist POV. Although it is unedited and in dire need of revisions, you get the ...
Exodus as Initiation Narrative
Hello folks, this is look at the Exodus story using a Structuralist POV. Although it is unedited and in dire need of revisions, you get the gist of the idea. Furthermore, I will be continuing the Biblical theme of 'Wilderness' and how it pertains to Religious Paradox next week so stay tuned...................
The story of Exodus is filled with meretricious leaps of faith that are impossible to verify but contain themes by which history and myth can find common ground. Scientific Illuminism has sought to explain the ten plagues of Egypt as climatic, biological, and geological events. Using a largely cause and effect approach, this theory postulates that natural processes turned the Nile a blood red. While this theory is reasonable, it also takes away from the mystique of the story. In fact, the story takes on a deeper and more profound significance by examining it in terms of folklore. By analyzing the Exodus as an initiation, we supplant an anachronistic interpretation of the story. We find that one possible reduction of the events of Exodus can be outlined as thus:
Moses placed in basket. Womb. Plucked from Subconscious.
God comes to Moses. Reveals magical name: Ehyer Asher Ehyeh "I am" or "I Will Be" or "I Will Be What I Will Be."
Enters Wilderness. Subconscious. Amenta.
Rod becomes Serpent. Wand. Object of Ritual Specialist.
Meets Moses in wilderness and mountain of god (initiation)
Israelites search for straw all over Egypt. Appropriated Osiris myth?
Rod turns Nile to blood. Red, Fire, Symbol of at-one-ment and sacrifice.
Emergence of frogs. Symbol of regeneration and fertility.
Emergence of Lice. Cleanliness. need for anointing.
Swarms of insects. Karmic demons.
Pestilence. Disease. Trapped in Materia Prima.
Hail. Difficult Truths. Glimpses of enlightenment. Flashes of god.
Locusts. Impenetrable darkness.
Death of First Born. Attack on Divinity.
Wilderness again. Back in Subconscious.
Pillars of clouds and fire. Baptism.
Parting the Red Sea. Separation of the abyss to achieve revelatory experience.
Sinai. Mount of Initiation.
Initiatory struggle bathes the story of exodus in a whole new light. Instead of Judaic maledictions inflicted upon the Egyptian people, we are given an archetypal initiation narrative possibly the result of Judaic/Egyptian interaction. Giving credence to a theory of Peer Polity Interaction, these two States effected each others oral traditions and ritual by being within a spatial proximity that encouraged the lending of ideas. A natural result of two cultural traditions, Egypto-Judaic amalgamation would be the product of networking within economic, social, religious, and political arenas.
Exodus beautifully depicts the initiatory journey taken by every neophyte of the Mystery Religions. We witness Moses being placed in a wicker basket and set adrift on the Nile. This is the womb of the initiate or first steps into the initiation experience. Moses (Initiate) is then contacted by and given the magical name of God: 'I am', 'I will be', or 'I will be what I will be'. Although the translation is uncertain of the correct Hebraic meaning, the message of transformation is clear.
Next, the initiate travels into the Wilderness. Symbolic of the subconscious, the Wilderness is a place of introspection and self-knowing. The transmission of God's power is represented when Moses' staff or 'Wand' is imbued with magical power. At this moment, both the rod and Moses become an instrument for the divine. As ritual specialist, our initiate then returns to the Wilderness.
We are then confronted with the bondage of matter and earthly suffering symbolized by the Israelites being forced to search all over Egypt for straw needed to make bricks. Like Isis searching for her consort's remains, the Israelites search the physical reality of existence for a way to reach enlightenment. It is here that a crisis point is reached in the story. This crisis comes in the form of plagues or initiations.
With the Nile turning to blood, we are shown the at-one-ment or sacrifice that will be required when trespassing into the realm of the sacred. In the emergence of frogs, we have a symbol of regeneration and fertility. It is also a foreshadowing of the change in consciousness that will occur through the gradated steps of initiation. Cleanliness and the need to be anointed is apparent in the initiation of lice. As an essential facet of the spiritual life, hygiene is an initiatory step. After these seemingly innocuous but preparatory prerequisites, the initiate is then thrown into the purges of karmic release.
The first purge of our earthly vices, the insects have the potential to destroy everything in their path. In this we have not only fear for the crops but the spiritual sustenance that is yielded in the harvest. Next comes disease and physical hardships that come with pestilence. Lightning and hail are the next teaching that Moses undergoes. As symbols for difficult truths, hail is the continuation of spiritual purging . The use of lightning in the narrative makes reference to glimpses or 'flashes' of the divine. The swallowing of the desert sun would be the result of a swarming of locusts. This impenetrable darkness is reminiscent of the journey of Ra through Amenta and would also be the nadir of the entire experience. The death of man's first born is an attack on divinity itself. It is the last Bardo or karmic demon that threatens man's attainment.
The initiate then finds himself back in the Wilderness or subconscious. A period of liminality between one degree and the next, Moses prepares himself for the appearance of Apep, the serpent dragon that takes the form of the Egyptian army. God then follows the Israelites with pillars of cloud and fire. Baptism is traditionally achieved through the purifying aspects of water and fire. This baptism protects the chosen people as they flee the pursuing darkness of matter.
The culmination of the rite occurs with Moses parting the Red Sea. This separation of the abyss is the last obstacle keeping the initiate from spiritual transformation. The powers of light triumph as the water of spiritual
becoming engulf Apep and the initiate completes the sacred ritual. The covenant is complete when Moses ascends the mount of initiation and receives the commandments of god.
CHECK BACK NEXT WEEK FOR A DISCUSSION OF WILDERNESS AND DARKNESS IN OCCULT AGENCY.....ITS MUCH MORE THAN JUST THE SUBCONSCIOUS!
The story of Exodus is filled with meretricious leaps of faith that are impossible to verify but contain themes by which history and myth can find common ground. Scientific Illuminism has sought to explain the ten plagues of Egypt as climatic, biological, and geological events. Using a largely cause and effect approach, this theory postulates that natural processes turned the Nile a blood red. While this theory is reasonable, it also takes away from the mystique of the story. In fact, the story takes on a deeper and more profound significance by examining it in terms of folklore. By analyzing the Exodus as an initiation, we supplant an anachronistic interpretation of the story. We find that one possible reduction of the events of Exodus can be outlined as thus:
Moses placed in basket. Womb. Plucked from Subconscious.
God comes to Moses. Reveals magical name: Ehyer Asher Ehyeh "I am" or "I Will Be" or "I Will Be What I Will Be."
Enters Wilderness. Subconscious. Amenta.
Rod becomes Serpent. Wand. Object of Ritual Specialist.
Meets Moses in wilderness and mountain of god (initiation)
Israelites search for straw all over Egypt. Appropriated Osiris myth?
Rod turns Nile to blood. Red, Fire, Symbol of at-one-ment and sacrifice.
Emergence of frogs. Symbol of regeneration and fertility.
Emergence of Lice. Cleanliness. need for anointing.
Swarms of insects. Karmic demons.
Pestilence. Disease. Trapped in Materia Prima.
Hail. Difficult Truths. Glimpses of enlightenment. Flashes of god.
Locusts. Impenetrable darkness.
Death of First Born. Attack on Divinity.
Wilderness again. Back in Subconscious.
Pillars of clouds and fire. Baptism.
Parting the Red Sea. Separation of the abyss to achieve revelatory experience.
Sinai. Mount of Initiation.
Initiatory struggle bathes the story of exodus in a whole new light. Instead of Judaic maledictions inflicted upon the Egyptian people, we are given an archetypal initiation narrative possibly the result of Judaic/Egyptian interaction. Giving credence to a theory of Peer Polity Interaction, these two States effected each others oral traditions and ritual by being within a spatial proximity that encouraged the lending of ideas. A natural result of two cultural traditions, Egypto-Judaic amalgamation would be the product of networking within economic, social, religious, and political arenas.
Exodus beautifully depicts the initiatory journey taken by every neophyte of the Mystery Religions. We witness Moses being placed in a wicker basket and set adrift on the Nile. This is the womb of the initiate or first steps into the initiation experience. Moses (Initiate) is then contacted by and given the magical name of God: 'I am', 'I will be', or 'I will be what I will be'. Although the translation is uncertain of the correct Hebraic meaning, the message of transformation is clear.
Next, the initiate travels into the Wilderness. Symbolic of the subconscious, the Wilderness is a place of introspection and self-knowing. The transmission of God's power is represented when Moses' staff or 'Wand' is imbued with magical power. At this moment, both the rod and Moses become an instrument for the divine. As ritual specialist, our initiate then returns to the Wilderness.
We are then confronted with the bondage of matter and earthly suffering symbolized by the Israelites being forced to search all over Egypt for straw needed to make bricks. Like Isis searching for her consort's remains, the Israelites search the physical reality of existence for a way to reach enlightenment. It is here that a crisis point is reached in the story. This crisis comes in the form of plagues or initiations.
With the Nile turning to blood, we are shown the at-one-ment or sacrifice that will be required when trespassing into the realm of the sacred. In the emergence of frogs, we have a symbol of regeneration and fertility. It is also a foreshadowing of the change in consciousness that will occur through the gradated steps of initiation. Cleanliness and the need to be anointed is apparent in the initiation of lice. As an essential facet of the spiritual life, hygiene is an initiatory step. After these seemingly innocuous but preparatory prerequisites, the initiate is then thrown into the purges of karmic release.
The first purge of our earthly vices, the insects have the potential to destroy everything in their path. In this we have not only fear for the crops but the spiritual sustenance that is yielded in the harvest. Next comes disease and physical hardships that come with pestilence. Lightning and hail are the next teaching that Moses undergoes. As symbols for difficult truths, hail is the continuation of spiritual purging . The use of lightning in the narrative makes reference to glimpses or 'flashes' of the divine. The swallowing of the desert sun would be the result of a swarming of locusts. This impenetrable darkness is reminiscent of the journey of Ra through Amenta and would also be the nadir of the entire experience. The death of man's first born is an attack on divinity itself. It is the last Bardo or karmic demon that threatens man's attainment.
The initiate then finds himself back in the Wilderness or subconscious. A period of liminality between one degree and the next, Moses prepares himself for the appearance of Apep, the serpent dragon that takes the form of the Egyptian army. God then follows the Israelites with pillars of cloud and fire. Baptism is traditionally achieved through the purifying aspects of water and fire. This baptism protects the chosen people as they flee the pursuing darkness of matter.
The culmination of the rite occurs with Moses parting the Red Sea. This separation of the abyss is the last obstacle keeping the initiate from spiritual transformation. The powers of light triumph as the water of spiritual
becoming engulf Apep and the initiate completes the sacred ritual. The covenant is complete when Moses ascends the mount of initiation and receives the commandments of god.
CHECK BACK NEXT WEEK FOR A DISCUSSION OF WILDERNESS AND DARKNESS IN OCCULT AGENCY.....ITS MUCH MORE THAN JUST THE SUBCONSCIOUS!
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