Magus Magazine: Will, Wisdom and the Word: Occult Thought in Moder...

Magus Magazine: Will, Wisdom and the Word: Occult Thought in Moder...: Will, Wisdom and the Word Dilige et quod vis fac Along with wisdom and the word, an operator’s Will is an integral aspect of the ma...

Will, Wisdom and the Word: Occult Thought in Modern Times

Will, Wisdom and the Word

Dilige et quod vis fac

Along with wisdom and the word, an operator’s Will is an integral aspect of the magical equation. Occultists are guided early in their initiations to understand this thrice-fold aspect of the esoteric paradigm. In the Will, initiates acquaint themselves with the architectural framework of intention. It is a skeleton and foundation for what is desired. It is also a mediator with the divine. Schopenhauer considered it the life-force of an individual. He wrote that “it is manifest in every blindly working force of nature; it is also manifest in the considered deeds of man.”[1] An ‘As Above So Below’ concept, the Will as individual energy is also part of the larger whole. It nourishes and is nourished by the universe that surrounds it.

The Will also encapsulates unitive experience. It is representative of completion-when the universe works in tandem with the Will.  It is a liberation from bondage and a negation of duality. It is one, among all possible concepts, that does not derive from the observation of phenomenon, not from 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.[2]

This idea of union is a classic example of religious paradox. In particular, 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. It is both something and nothing. Sometimes it is described as there and not-there. Philosopher s such as Merleau-Ponty have remarked that this state of being is experienced not from the depths of nothingness but from the midst of itself.

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 suggested that it is a dazzling obscurity which outshines all brilliance with the intensity of its darkness. Buddhism recognizes this paradox by labeling it the void. In fact, 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 and object-subject duality simply dissolves. Therefore, we can’t really say that ‘there is a light in the darkness’. The light is the darkness and the darkness is the light.

Darkness is also representative of the supernatural world. Like the maw of the earth monster or the belly of the whale, darkness is a symbol of the other world, whether the world of death or of the fetal state.[3] In darkness our Will is able to shine. As it traverses the  boundaries of the profane, it is dissolved into a unitive state and placed on a trajectory of intention. Being both here and there, knower and known, light and dark, the Will manifests our “inner fire” into form.

For many occultists, the Will is best understood in terms of the Greek word Thelema. Thelema is an ideology developed by the magician Aleister Crowley in the early 20^th century. Adherents live by the maxim “Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the law. Love is the law, love under will.” A message dictated to Crowley by an extraterrestrial intelligence in 1904, the ‘Book of the Law’ is the major text that Thelemites refer to. The idea is to follow and live by one’s “true will” in order to find peace and happiness in this life. Part of this true will involves making contact with one’s own Holy Guardian Angel via ritual magic and utilizing this connection to live a better life. The true will is likened to somebody’s calling. It is the raison d’être of existence. In addition, our true will is analogous to the divine will of the universe. By attaining our true will, we also touch the godhead and experience union with the divine.

Magicians have long held that the word is a way to activate supernatural currents. From time immemorial, words have been thought to hold occult virtues. It’s not hard to discern why. The written and spoken word are a direct way to propitiate the gods. They are a way of interaction. The nature of magic demands strict adherence to the original form of the magical name or word because it’s potency lies hidden within its syllables, within its very consonants and vowels.[4] In the shape and form of letters are mysteries of our esoteric past. Many schools of the occult teach extensively the correspondences that letters hold with the creative process. Judaic mysticism holds that the letters of the Torah are literally supernatural essences. They are the sigils of God imbued with mystical prowess. In fact, German Kabbalists of the 13^th century practiced the art of arranging and rearranging Hebrew letters as to discover their maximum potential.

Like more orthodox religious ritual, ceremonial magicians place importance on correct intonation and pronunciation. It’s not unheard of to witness an entire magical rite sung or chanted. The Calls of the Angels are usually sung during invocation. It is thought that singing will more successfully establish a favorable communication with the supernatural. Pronunciation is also important because each divine letter is made up of phonemes that are the very essence of god. Slightly discrepant changes in sound can be what marks the successful occult operation. Some esoteric schools utilize linguistic study as to focus the mind. The Hindu AUM is a practiced meditative technique as well as preparatory focal point of the magical procedure. It is an exhalation into silence.

The word is also a powerfully personal communicator. As any writer will attest, creation with words is a remarkably individual task. This form of conjuration is mercurial. When Man puts pen to page, He is as Thoth scribing the arts of magic. The writer puts form to potential. These utterances create worlds. Within the recesses of ‘self-expression’ and the individual mind is a universe outside of time. The creation becomes autonomous from its progenitor simultaneously as the shapes are given meaning and uttered into existence.  

Once uttered, letters can have a profound number of correspondences of meaning. This is especially true in matters of the esoteric. For example, in Joseph Ashkenazi’s Commentary on the Sefer Yetzirah, we witness how the letter ‘Beth’ as uttered by the Metatron delves into depths where tentacled  phantasms lay in cavernous corners of the abyss. This letter usually signifies “House” and is the physical body of the divine. But in the words of the Metatron to the Holy Qarah:

“He has appointed the letter Bet over life and bound a crown to it and formed [the planet] be it; Sabbatai in the world, and Sunday in the year[ie. In the dimension of time], and the right eye in the person, namely that He elevated the letter Bet so that it is the head on the power of the Keter Eliyon. And he put in it the power of Hokhmah and formed in it the planet Sabbatai, which is beneath the [divine name], ‘ABGYTTz’, and the letter gave wisdom to Sabbatai…And because it is appointed over the weight, it designates darkness and over everything that is black and over the black bile [named melancholy]…and the planet Sabbatai is appointed over them. See and understand that this is the secret of ‘Meshiyah’ YHWH. See and understand that the planet Sabbatai has the crown of Binah, and higher than this is Hokhma. (As Quoted by  R. Abraham Peretz)

Within this commentary is the secret formula for invoking Sathariel. Sathariel is one of the impure husks or shells on the back side of the Judaic Tree of Life. These broken vessels were created when Adam transgressed God in the Garden of Eden. Called the Kelippot, each husk is an emanation of evil and holds a correspondence with the divine Sephiroth of the Tree. Sathariel is the impure correlative of Binah and is characterized as ‘concealment of god’. The operator who wishes to invoke Sathariel must have a conceptual understanding of the entity before attempting an experiential contact. The sorcerer draws forth the spirit of impurity and mixes the clean and unclean together.[5]

Sathariel, the Kelippot of Binah was ‘formed [the planet] be it; Sabbatai in the world. To this planet was assigned the dross or waste of the broken vessel. It designates darkness and everything that is black and over the black bile [named melancholy. When a magician experiences the Sabbatai, they embody the upside down union that is symbolized by the Hanged Man. An inversion or backward reflection of the Holy Tree, this reversal is why St. Peter chose to be crucified upside down in the early years of the Christian religion. The mystery extends with the phrase, Meshiyah YHWY or ‘anointing of the King’. It was requisite for the King to be anointed for him to fulfill the royal role. This is why there is a direct correlation between ‘upside-down’ union and kingly leadership. Sabbatai is appointed over the King who is bestowed the crown of Binah. So as the operator moves through the rite, a mindfulness of crossing over and backward is required to have an audience with Sathariel. Also, the operator must embody the values of anointed kingship. These attributes will prove to be beneficial when Sathariel is invoked within the magic circle.

Perhaps the most telling aspect of Ashkenazi’s Commentary involves Sabbatai itself. As Moshe Idel remarked, “what is significant in this text is the recurrence of the name of the planet Sabbatai, which corresponds to the Latin deity and planet Saturn.”[6] Sathariel- the husk of Binah embodies the restriction, self-unknowing or concealment of the planet Saturn. Its materiality and bile functions as a tester to perfect one’s character through Ordeals. The Latin Saturnus must also be taken into consideration when performing this interaction. A god of wealth, regeneration and time, Saturn must be used as a focal point during the conjuration. I might add that Saturn’s association with time might be the most important aspect of the deity to consider due to the fact that Ashkenazi’s Commentary specifically mentions the ‘dimension of time’ in the text. The festival of Saturnalia should also be kept in mind because this event was characterized by a reversion of social norms. These reversals are identical in principle to the backward paths explored during a Sathariel conjuration.

As stated earlier, words are an integral aspect of the liminal experience. just as Beth uttered in a Commentary can give rise to an interaction with the bile oozing melancholy of Sathariel, the power of the word both conceptualizes and provides an experiential aspect of the occult operation. It’s no surprise that ‘Abracadabra’ is supposedly an Aramaic phrase meaning, “I will create as I speak.” Along with Wisdom and the Will, the power of the Word is an avenue for entering a transitionary state.

Wisdom comes in many forms and through a number of ways. We often see wisdom in our elders and in generations long past. As an archetype, the recluse is always imbued with wisdom. We think of the Old Man alone in the womb cave meditating sixteen hours a day in order to reach enlightenment. Wisdom beckons us to explore our inner vision; to shed our dross shroud and become something anew. We think of the hermit wise one as a scarab- somebody who is self-conceived. The scarab beetle was long worshipped in ancient Egypt as a symbol of transformation and renewal. It is a very alchemic thought process. This creature lays its eggs and rolls dung around them to form balls. These balls hold the potentialities for life and as the beetle rolled them across the desert ground, they were equated with the Sun rolling across the sky. When the egg changed into larval form, the transformation was characterized as the god Khepera who is unknown and who more hidden than the other gods.[7]Like Khepera, the wise man is the scarab beetle that takes form and is a restorer of existence. Just as our wise man experiences a birthing due to inner transformation, the little scarab beetle tirelessly ensures that the sun will be re-created anew every night.  This is the wisdom of the magical operator. It is the wisdom of Khepera; the wisdom of the occultist.

There is also wisdom in the invisible work done between magicians and their conjured entities. As every occultist will attest, magic required work to maintain relations with the Other side. In fact, occultism itself is the opposite of negligence. A practicing occultist takes the care and gives the attention required to maintain spirit rapport. They work at it. The wise magician shows at least a prudent enough responsibility to be in contact with the entities he conjures. It might be something as simple as prayer or being in a mindful state. 

Whatever the case, there is wisdom in recognizing the invisible forces that drive both the operator and the deity. These forces might include the ambitions and fears of the operator. It might be their intuition or even madness. But in every case, the conjurer learns what he is made of from what he created. He is given the insights of his many mediations and the action they so deciduously engage. Human toil becomes the spark of wisdom in any occult exchange. As Mick Taussig has affirmed, the more you reveal the mechanisms necessary to invite the gods to the ceremony during an initiation, the more certain the divinities will be present.[8] It is in the work behind the scenes, in those seeds planted, that we cultivate the wisdom of interacting with the unseen.

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[1] Schopenhauer. Die welt als Wille und Vorstellung, II 21; Samtliche Werke, Vol. 2. pp. 152-153

[2] Ibid

[3] Mircea Eliade. Birth and Rebirth. Harper and Brothers. New York. 1958. pp. 16

[4] Joshua Trachtenberg. Jewish Magic and Superstition: A Study in Folk Religion. Atheneum Press. 1987. pp. 81

[5] Gershom Scholem. Kabbalah. Meridian Publishing. New York. 1974. pp. 184

[6] Moshe Idel. Messianic Mystics. Yale University Press. New Haven. 1998. pp. 193

[7] Sir A.E. Wallis Budge. The Gods of the Egyptians. 2 volumes. Dover Publications. New York. 1969. 2:15

[8] Michael Taussig. Defacement: Public Secrecy and the Labor of the Negative. Stanford University Press. 1999. 

Magus Magazine: Supernatural Sculpting: The Philosophy of Occult ...

Magus Magazine: Supernatural Sculpting: The Philosophy of Occult ...: Supernatural Sculpting:  The Philosophy of Occult Operations Creating the Magick: The Metaphysics of Occult thinking.           ...

Supernatural Sculpting: The Philosophy of Occult Operation

Supernatural Sculpting:  The Philosophy of Occult Operations

Creating the Magick: The Metaphysics of Occult thinking.  

                                               

“Poor idiot! Are you so foolish as to believe

                                                we will openly teach you the greatest and most

                                                important of secrets? I assure you that anyone who

                                                attempts to study, according to the ordinary and literal

                                                sense of their words, what the Hermetic Philosophers

                                                write, will soon find himself in the twists of a labyrinth

                                                from which he will be unable to escape, having no

                                                Ariadne’s Thread to lead him out.”

                                                            --Artephius

The occult as a source of study has traversed a myriad of philosophical schools of thought. Anthropologists and Folklorists have discussed the implications of magic on socio-cultural and religious levels but have largely shied away from individual agency as part of the occult process. The reason is simple. It is much easier to infer the effect that magic and religion has on a group rather than make speculative guesses on the causal and deterministic motives that the ‘individual’ makes use of. That’s not to say that metaphysical quandaries don’t have a place in occult study. On the contrary, much of what characterizes occult discussion is based on solid metaphysical properties. For example, Jan de Vries has remarked that, “If we view magic as an institutional technique, it does seem that the sprinkling of water causes the rain to appear. But the person who executed this act for the first time did not in the least desire to apply, albeit incorrectly, the law of causality. Primitive man had not come that far at all; He laid hold on the expedient of magic because he found himself in one or another emergency” (176). Even if the causal factor is refuted, the fact that causality is included in a study of magic shows the potency of metaphysical thinking on occult study.

           

Even Frazer’s work on sympathetic magic had largely causal concerns. It is no surprise that imitative magic makes use of causation as part of their design. For example, the desired effect of manipulating somebody’s personal hair clippings or clothing was to produce a significant effect in their owner. A classic cause and effect scenario. Often times, the experiential nuances of the occult ritual or much more important to understanding occultreasoning than causation or deterministic structure. Famous folklorist Lutz Rohrich has stated that, “The experiential legend depicts numinous astonishment at the apparent suspension of the natural laws of causality in external reality” (26). The shock of witnessing the supernatural becomes an integral aspect of interpreting the magic experience. But is this all there is to occult philosophy? Are there other paradigms that enter into the occult way of thinking?

Whether it is demonic legends, Old Hag, or even UFO abduction narratives, the occult disregards theories accepted in scientific milieus yet is concerned with science. The occult wants to be legitimate. Many occultists strive for the valid deductive argument form: If [theory + experimental conditions + assumptions] then prediction. The problem lays in the fact that many occult and paranormal researchers tend to affirm the consequence of their predictions. For example, a Ufologist might suggest that:

If a UFO, then presence of anomalous lights.

If presence of anomalous lights

Therefore, a UFO.

However, just because there are anomalous lights does not automatically mean there is a UFO present. There obviously could be another explanation. These invalid deductive arguments are more common in studies of paranormal and occult than you many realize. In fact, even some aspects of Ancient Astronaut Theory is guilty of invalid deductive form. It is known that many aspects of AAT make use of highly complex megalithic structures to prove the influence of extraterrestrials on early Man. They postulate that at sites such as Puma Punku in Peru, early Man wasn’t sophisticated enough to design or engineer such an intricate complex. Therefore, aliens must have intervened. The argument tends to take these forms:

            If ancient aliens, then highly advanced megalithic structure.

            Highly sophisticated megalithic structure,

            Therefore ancient aliens.

Or

            If highly advanced megalithic structures, then aliens.

            Aliens,

            Therefore highly advanced megalithic structures.

Although these examples may seem trivial, you can see the complications that arise when attempting to deductively formulate a sound occult or paranormal prediction. However, that’s not to say that the occult is abhorrent to philosophy. On the contrary, there are other philosophical forms that lend a great deal of credence to the occult.

I would lean towards an experiential phenomenalism that relies on some aspects of materialism for its foundation. This theory would postulate that behavior is based upon the phenomenal qualities or interpretations of experience. The mind would provide input based on experiential happenings and determine whatever output or behavior is appropriate. Subsequently, we negotiate phenomenal qualities based upon our perceptions of an experience. And since we are constantly experiencing, we are constantly digesting new input that affects our behavioral output. This would be conducive to memory as well. Past experience would necessarily effect our interpretations of phenomenal qualities thus potentially altering our behavior. For example, if somebody happens upon a UFO, experiential insights are going to be produced by inferring phenomenal qualities as it happens. This person may have never seen a UFO or indeed have no conception of what a UFO is and yet still experience something on account of phenomenal associations. Whether the behavior is awe, bewilderment, or terror, the experiencer’s mental state will change and produce more mental states. The fact that the experience and its phenomenal sensations are occurring and changing in real time as the experience unfolds is why we see multiple behaviors manifest. (i.e. confusion, to fear, to awe)

Much of what constitutes occult and the supernatural involve reality and how we interpret the world around us. Whereas a realist would say that our world is not dependent on human minds for existence, a post-realist philosopher such as Hilary Putnam would assert that the external world is mind and theory dependent. The world is a human construction. He states that, “There is, then, nothing in the history of science to suggest that it either aims at or should aim at one single absolute version of the world” (228). A relativism concerning ontology and truth, what exists and the nature of what exists is relative to society. As we formulate a theory in society, we construct a world. Therefore, all versions of world-making are equally valid. It’s not hard to see how proponents of the occult and investigators of the supernatural would find this philosophy significant. World-making is a relativism that is

community dependent. A pertinent example can be found in the social organization of Malaysia. As part of the social structure that permeates Malaysian culture, magic is a key ingredient in the belief systems and solidarity of the group. Along with socio-political and economic milieus, the magic that accompanies their religious convictions is an integral aspect of understanding Malaysian reality. Although the Western world largely trivializes magic as something anachronistic or archaic pagan debris, for the Malaysians, it is accepted as part of their everyday reality. Because as a society they make the choice to include magical practices, it becomes true and real. As Goodman eloquently remarks, “If we make worlds, the meaning of truth lies not in these worlds but in ourselves—or better, in our versions and what we do with them” (38). By utilizing a social and religious ecology to make sense of reality, Malaysia has found what works for them as a culture.

Another mediation that occurs in occult practice and metaphysical thought can be found in the ‘paradigm of appearances’. Paul Feyerabend uses this ‘paradigm’ to discuss the idea of god in different societies. He remarks that the god that is worshipped in the Abrahamic religions (i.e. Christian, Muslim, Judaic) is ultimately the same God but described differently. A very new-age concept, this God appears to people in different ways but it’s a same reality. God and reality are ineffable and determined by interpretations of appearances. For Feyerabend, reality is pliable and we sculpt the external world. In regards to the Greek Homeric Gods, he concluded that these otherworldly entities were constructed in the same way that modern society constructed the idea of electrons and protons. He remarks that, “If the entities postulated by a scientific worldview can be assumed to exist independently of it, then why not anthropomorphic Gods?” (34) Indeed, why not? If reality is malleable, then all the demons, ghosts, or entities an occultists can conjure is equally valid and real. They take an autonomous existence.

Another example where concepts of appearance and construction can be applied is in supernatural assault narratives. Folklorists have studied accounts of UFO abduction in terms of their morphology and structural similarity to more traditional supernatural narratives. However, much more work could be done with these stories using a study of ‘appearances’ and social construction. For example, for somebody who has had a first-hand UFO abduction experience, their initial impression of the trauma is a legitimate and more importantly, realoccurrence. However, if the abductee comes to realize that the experience was akin to a liminal rite caused by some extenuating circumstance or personal Ordeal, then that impression is equally valid and equally successful. Because reality is ineffable, both impressions are a manifest reality or experiential construction of what exists.

            

Perhaps what really provides ontological and epistemological credence to occult study is the fact that it can be examined in terms of Actor-Network Theory. Latourian ANT theory makes use of mediations to explain the many nuances that make up a subject. According to Luckhurst, “Actor-Network Theory is the predictive tension between the centered actor and the de-centered network, enabling the critic to move across different scales of explanation” (8). Actor-Network lends itself to the occult so easily because there a multitude of facets that construct the occult. Through the use of translations, transformations, and substitutions, the occult can be re-situated and re-embodied. In what I call the expression of movements, the occult can be made to re-appear in a myriad of forms. These ideas are best illustrated in an example: According to authors, Ruck, Staples, Celdran, and Hoffman,

“A drawing of the 15^th century Frater Vincentius Koffsky, a monk of the Danzig order of preachers, depicted himself draining the sacred blood directly from the wound of a Christ crucified as a Tree of Life, with an alchemical oven shown as a temple in the background, marked with the symbols for male-iron, female-copper, and an encircled dot, which is the sign for the final goal, the elixir of drinkable gold, and also a common motif for a mushroom cap; the oven-temple itself also resembles a cluster of fungal caps. The inscription reads: “Now learn naturally and artfully, to draw from this Catholic medicinal fountain of the living water and the oil of joy” (34).

This beautifully described drawing has all the earmarks of occult thought. For example, a quick list might include: a Frater, sacred blood, Tree of Life, alchemy, symbol, Male/Female, entheogenics, the inscription, the occult process. But we can calculate other movementssuch as Catholicism, the fate of the Danzig preachers, the occult in the 15^th century, the fate of the drawing, the process of creating the drawing i.e. instruments used to create, and so on. If we centralize the drawing and construct this set of mediations around it in a network, we can use a model of substitution and translation to glean the many meanings in the drawing. I say multiple meanings because the drawing can be re-situated in any number of ways based upon mediations and in doing so, take on any ontological status. It becomes re-created infinitely and enjoys autonomous existence. The drawing then is created and re-created just as in Feyerabend’s ‘paradigm of appearances’ or Goodman’s world-making. It is an entity made real and given meaning through the examination of movements and mediations. 

"Dividing in order to Divine": The Occult Doppelganger

It seems incredible that what our minds produce can affect us in such powerful ways but it’s true. Sometimes what ‘was’ or ‘is’ are less important that ‘what could be’. To a magician, what could be is thought of as in the process. It is an intermediary step between thought and being. The Stoics called it the lekton or expressible. It is an incorporeal state lacking presence. Without ontological form, it is liminal or in-between. Just like the middle period during a rite of passage, when an initiate enters this state they communicate the expressible. In addition, the exchange that occurs between the initiate and the deity takes the form of conjuration.  This operation or birthing is always more important than how we describe the process. Origin is not intended to describe the process by which the existent came into being, but rather to describe that which emerges from the process of becoming. [1]

During ritual, there is a permanent bond that forms between the initiate and the deity. Benjamin went so far as to suggest that part of the creator dies in the ritual process. He states that, “the origin of the great work has often been considered through the image of birth. This is a dialectical image; it embraces the process from two sides. The first has to do with creative conception and concerns the feminine element in genius. The feminine is exhausted in creation. It gives life to the work and then dies away. What dies in the master along-side the achieved creation is the part of him in which the creation was conceived. In its achievement, creation gives birth anew to the creator. [2] Although a part of the magician is lost to the entity summoned, in turn the entity gives something back to the evoker. This something is the gift of presence. The magician is renewed by having the entity there and present. It is always the hallmark of a successful occult operation.

Now what do we mean by saying the magician is renewed by losing a part of himself in the ritual? Only that there is a part of himself that must be released when summoning the supernatural entity. Artisotle expressed the idea in his ethos anthropoi daimon. The usual translation of this phrase is “For man, character is the demon.” Ethos originally referred to what is proper in the sense of “dwelling place, habitat.” In addition, daimon means etymologically “to divide, lacerate.” So daimon was he who lacerates or divides. We shouldn’t consider this a negative connotation because only in what divides could the daimon be thought to destine or thread a fate. So ethos anthropoi daimon translates into ethos, the dwelling in the ‘self’ or that which is most proper for him, is what lacerates, divides, assigns, or destines. In other words, for man to be himself, he must necessarily divide himself.[3]  Man must divide and lose a part of himself if he seeks the presence of an occult entity. But in doing so, he becomes renewed by having the entity close.

The idea of division isn’t a new concept. Gershom Scholem has discussed it at great length concerning Jewish prophets in the 13^th century. In his ‘On the Mystical Shape of the Godhead’, he writes of a cabalistic anthology called the Shushan Sodoth. In this work, prophesy appears as one’s own doppelganger. The complete secret of prophesy consists in the fact that the prophet suddenly sees the form of his own self standing before him, and he forgets his own self and ignores it and that form speaks with him and tells  him the future. As it is necessary for the prophet to “divide” in order to “divine”, the occultist must also separate from himself to exact a successful ritualistic interaction. This separation is also the first state of the rite of passage. When the initiate divides, he is then ready to enter a liminal time.

The doppelganger is also the difference between actuality and potentiality or ‘what is’ and ‘what could be’. Potentiality then is the ability to do something. It could happen. For example, a magician has the ability or potentiality to perform ritual. But he also has the ability to not-ritualize or to not pass into actuality. It is these changes from potentiality to actuality that embody ontological trajectories of the supernatural. To refer again to Aristotle, the philosopher called it a harmonizing part of nature. He interpreted actuality (energeia) as light and potentiality as darkness (skotos). What is sometimes dark and sometimes light is one in nature.[4] These stages of light and dark are the perfect metaphor for describing the liminal. In many societies the liminal initiates considered to be dark, invisible, like the sun or moon in eclipse or the moon between phases, as the “dark of the moon.”[5] Those in the liminal state traverse what is and what could be. Describing the initiate in terms of light and dark is only a short step from comparing them to gods or ghosts. It’s essential we understand these various ideas of being when we attempt to understand critically what is happening during the occult process.

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[1] Walter Benjamin. Gesammelte Schriften, Vol. 1 Pt 1 pp226.

[2] Walter Benjamin. Gesammelte Schriften. Vol. 4. Pt 1. pp438. Ed. Rolf Tiedemann & Maini Suhrkamp 1974-89. 

[3] See Giorgio Agamben’s ‘Potentialities’ for a more detailed account of Aristotle’s ethos anthropoi daimon.

[4] Aristotle. 418. B-419 e 1

[5] Victor Turner. From Ritual to Theatre. PAJ Publishing. New York. 1992. 

Magus Magazine: What is the Occult? Identifying The Unseen.

Magus Magazine: What is the Occult? Identifying The Unseen.: What is the occult that many seem to fear and misunderstand? That which is deemed occult – although difficult to define, does have charact...

What is the Occult? Identifying The Unseen.

What is the occult that many seem to fear and misunderstand? That which is deemed occult – although difficult to define, does have characteristics that make it at least identifiable. The concept of correspondences is maybe the most common trait associated with occult design. Like the Gnostic maxim, ‘As Above, So Below’ the microcosm as represented by Man corresponds to the universe that is the macrocosm. As Ioan Couliano remarked, “Before becoming aware of his own possibilities, man-microcosm finds himself in a universe in which the parties, both low and high, ‘cooperate’ with each other without his knowledge. At the time he grasps the structure of that cooperation, the correspondences between the visible universe and its invisible prototype, he will be able to make use of them in the service of capturing the unknown presences that lurk in the threshold between the two worlds”.[1] In other words, mind and matter cooperate to achieve a desired goal by corresponding with each other.  However, although mind and its conjurations are one, we are not always aware of the correspondences. Sometimes they are simply beyond our reach until the association unfolds experientially. And that’s not to say that the angels or demons invoked by Man are ‘exclusively’ in the mind. They are also autonomous entities that have their own personalities and agenda. This idea is a rejection of ontological dualism. Instead of binary opposition, the occult works off of benign reciprocity. Entities make magicians do things. There is work involved. When a magician constructs a magic circle and an entity appears, both parties are doing something. The presence of the entity acts in accordance with the work the magician did in ritual. 

However, occult processes judiciously negate linear causation as well. This work that is done in ritual- the complex expressions and original sentiment would never be replaced by simple, sleight-of-hand utterances of causation under the pretext that former explains the latter. Instead, occultists present a state of affairs. In the act of invocation, for example, the magic circle-like a laboratory, construction site, chef’s kitchen, or theater stage, shows us the consensus decisions used to create an association. It is the paths taken in the labyrinth to reach a correspondence. Not only does it lead you backstage and introduce you to the skills and tracks of practitioners, it also provides a rare glimpse of what it is for a thing to emerge of our inexistence by adding to any existing entity its time dimension.[2] In the construction of an occult interaction, the magician vicariously activates the signatures of the primordial but not necessarily in a lineal mode of time. What occurs is a completely unique state of affairs built on correspondence.

Furthermore, this activation through interaction is another common occult trait. To cause to function, excite, or react is the utmost goal of the magical rite. Usually the activation of the ‘Pneuma’ facilitates the interaction a magician will have with an entity. The Pneuma or “immaterial ether” is the breath of the living god. Judaic mystics asserted that it was the Pneuma that sparked the primordial air of Hokmah, then the water and fire of Binah and Hesed on the Tree of Life. And according to Eilberg-Schwartz, Pneuma denotes air in movement. It can refer to wind, breath, or life, in the sense of animating power. The Pneuma  occurs in the 1^st century BCE in connection with the oracles of Apollo at Delphi: the priestess sat over an opening in the earth and when she became intoxicated by the vapors that arose from the fissure she fell into trance, which was interpreted as possession by Apollo.[3] The Pneuma is the residing spirit John Dee activated to communicate with angels. It was the Pneuma that was activated when Aleister Crowley received the ‘Book of the Law’ in 1904. Pneuma is a mirror with two faces , one of which reflects perceptions coming from the external senses and the other the phantasmagoria of the soul.[4] The Pneuma is innate yet when activated an event or surprise. It is a surreptitious mediator that translates how occultists make their entities do things.  

Imagination and Intuition are what allows the occultist to perceive the many correspondences in their craft. Tarot readers and astrologers use intuitiveness to interpret divination after Pneuma has been activated. Both imagination and intuition are forms of perception. Fantastical reality is part of the real world and it’s these areas of our psyche that make the jumps and connect the dots during an occult interaction. There are many ways in which mystics, sages, magicians, and shamans utilize the imagination and intuitive faculties of the mind to aid in occult practice. Some tirelessly use meditation in order to awaken areas of the psyche otherwise unexplored. Visualization techniques are also honed so that focus can be elevated. For some, lucid dreaming or the use of psychedelic drugs opens portals in the mind. What they all share, however, is the assertion that the imagination is not simply flights of fancy or unimportant debris of the conscious self. The imagination is something unique, mysterious, and transcendent.

Occult doesn't define a reality. It was never meant to. It is a translation or movement that shows us a reflective state of affairs. It is paths taken to reach a precedent or circumstance. This reflectivity is reflective of occultists themselves. This is the reason why the mirror has long been an enduring occult tool. Supernatural folklore is also full of mirror narratives as portrayed in folktales such as Snow White or in legends like Bloody Mary. Renaissance magician Marsilio Ficino wrote that menstruating women who look at themselves in the mirror leave little drops of blood on its surface.[5] And its been long thought the soul is connected to its reflection in a mirror and that‘s why breaking a mirror is bad luck. The mirror is a mediator between the microcosm and macrocosm. It is a portal between realities. After all, if the whole of reality is infinite and universal, then Man(the microcosm) must also be infinite and universal. And since experience shows that the body is neither infinite nor universal, there must be in Man ‘something’ of the infinite and universal. The reflection cannot differ from that which the mirror reflects. [6]

The mirror is also brutally honest. Reflections don’t lie and for may occultists, reflections in a mirror are a metaphor for their own spiritual progress. If they perceive a reflection that is cloudy or if the soul is not sufficiently clean, the individual can be reduced to a lower, almost bestial state. Then it is a matter of polishing the mirror, removing its impurities-restoring to the clouded spirit its original transparency as well as its purity, flexibility, and hardness. [7] Plato associated mirrors with the Pneuma itself. He stated that, “using the senses [spirit] grasps the images of external bodies; now, the soul itself cannot perceive these images directly, given that incorporeal substance, superior to that of the body, cannot be induced by the latter to receive images. Omnipresent in spirit, the soul can easily contemplate images of bodies reflected in it as in a mirror. It is through these images it can appraise the bodies themselves.”[8] Although the body cannot directly perceive the Daimonic world due to our meaty matter state, the soul or Pneuma is free to reflect on this unseen world and perceive it as in a mirror’s reflection.

The occult is much more than a collection of spells designed to conjure demons or gain access to the spirit realm.  The concept has evolved. The word now acts as a canopy for all manner of the strange and inexplicable. Although ceremonial magic may be the centerpiece of the occult altar, the word also evokes ufology and  paranormal studies. Nowadays, the occult is both Lam and Old Hag. It is hauntings and Hecate herself. The word has become intertwined with the supernatural and the two are in many ways one and the same. The fact that the occult has transformed tells us that it has undergone its own rites of passage. Just as initiates go through changes of status during supernatural events, the occult has also experienced a change in ontological state due to ritual processes.

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[1] Ioan A. Couliano. Eros and Magic in the Renaissance. Univ. of Chicago Press. 1984.

[2] Bruno Latour. Reassembling the Social. Oxford Univ. Press. 2007. pp 89.

[3] Howard Eilberg-Schwartz. The Savage in Judaism. Indiana Univ. Press. 1990. pp. 104.

[4] Ioan A. Couliano. Eros and Magic in the Renaissance. Univ. of Chicago Press. 1984. pp. 130.

[5] Marsilio Ficino. Amore. VII, 4.

[6] A. Heller. 1967/78/ Renaissance Man, Trans. R.E. Allen. London: Routledge Publishing. Pp417.

[7] Couliano Ibid pp. 130.

[8] Plato. Symposium. VI, 6.