Magic: It's More Than Just Finding Parking Spaces
Taylor Ellwood
In my article, "The Role of Identity Within Magic," one of the readers expressed her own experiences with magicians as being people who talk about magical orders and oaths and call each other frater and rave about finding parking spaces. She also noted that in terms of improving the quality of life in this world, it did not seem that magicians were doing much. Another reader believed that the practice of magic was mainly done by people who were power hungry or trying to fill a void within their lives. Yet another reader spoke scathingly of the words magic, magician, shaman, arguing that there was a guru complex associated with these terms and that magic is an archaic and out of date word that shouldn't be used to describe the connections one cultivates with others or him or herself.
None of these critiques are invalid. In fact, they are indicative of two problems that the occult subculture faces, but which it rarely addresses, namely the cultural stigma associated with the term magic (or magick if you must) and the inability to cohesively explain and demonstrate the benefits of including a practice of magic in a person's life. Let's explore each problem in further depth, before I point the way to a possible solution.
Stereotypes about magic
On any cultural level, other than the occult subculture, the term magic has a lot of cultural stigma associated with it. This cultural stigma takes three forms, and none of the forms are entirely accurate, but nonetheless they are prevalent because of a simple fact that many magicians would prefer to ignore. The term magic (or magick) has never been rehabilitated. And why is that so important?
Because a certain magician once wrote that he would set out to rehabilitate magic (or as he coined it: Magick). That magician's name is Aleister Crowley and he is probably the only occult magician that has any real claim to fame, though most of his fame is really notoriety. Crowley failed to rehabilitate magic in any substantial way. The most he did was what previous magicians did, which was write about it and spread the relevant literature to interested parties. To this day, there are people, myself included, who write about magic and yet it is still not rehabilitated. It may never be rehabilitated, at least within contemporary culture, and if it is rehabilitated, it may involve using new terminology to convey the concepts that are structured into various paradigms of magical practice.
First Stigma: Magic is practiced by people who feel powerless
The first form of cultural stigma that surrounds magic comes from academia. Until relatively recently (the last two decades), the majority of academic works on magic and the occult have usually depicted magic as something performed by ignorant primitives who aren't "civilized" enough to know better or something done by eccentric "civilized" people who feel powerless and resort to using supernatural forces to gain control of their environment. Recent scholarship has gotten better, partially because there are pagans and occultists in academia who are raising their own voices, and partially because those researchers who don't identify as pagans or occultists are willing to acknowledge their biases and consider the possibility that magic could actually work and be utilized for a variety of reasons beyond an attempt to control one's environment or situations. One reason, as an example, is the choice to use magical techniques to achieve an altered state of consciousness that allows the magician to connect with the universe in a fundamentally different way than everyday consciousness allows (more on this later).
What must be realized about the academic coverage of magic is that such coverage is usually situated in a Western-centric perception of the universe. For instance, the argument that magic is only performed by ignorant savages is certainly rooted in Western Imperialism and the belief that the so-called primitives have an unsophisticated and irrational understanding of the world and so resort to magic as a way of controlling their environment. Did these vaunted academics consider the possibility that magic might have other uses, that it might for instance provide a common bonding experience for the community, as well as a means of focusing the intent of the community? From the writings I've perused, it seems the academics never considered this a possibility until very recently. (For a much more comprehensive examination of this issue, please refer to the two chapters on definitions of magic that I wrote in Multi-Media Magic.)
The claim that magicians only practice magic to achieve a sense of power that is lacking from their lives is a claim that can easily be applied to any religious zealot as well: If I pray hard enough and long enough, God will grant me what I desire. This desire to claim power is based in a concept called magical thinking, which argues that by appealing to external powers the magician or religious person can somehow obtain control over his or her immediate reality, without having to lift a hand in the process.
While it is true that magicians may work with spiritual entities and deities, creating a mutual relationship of respect where all parties benefit, it's also true that any sense of power the magician has ultimately comes from mastering his/her internal reality. The magician achieves true power when s/he no longer reacts, and instead consciously evaluates a situation and makes a conscious choice based on that evaluation. That is real magic (and not something every magician, let alone every person has mastered).
Second Stigma: Magic is evil
The second stereotype of cultural stigma surround magic is the belief that magic is satanic or evil or that magicians are out to become gurus. This stereotype also points to the idea that people get involved in magic because they feel powerless. As someone who was once a born again Christian, and left Christianity because of the pervasive ignorance and intolerance that exists in the more extreme versions of it, I got involved in magic because I wanted to answer the questions about life and reality. I hadn't gotten answers from the Christian god, and when I found about magic, I realized that here was a system of methodologies that could be used by anyone to actively work toward answering the questions a person might have about reality and life.
Magic didn't promise all the answers on a golden platter. Nor did it promise gobs and gobs of power. If anything, my own journey as a magician has involved lots of hard work, the facing of many internal demons and issues (and resolution of said demons and issues), and the humbling realizations of just how little control I may have over my immediate environment, as well as the very empowering realizations of how much control I have over my internal beliefs and how I choose to act in a situation. The practice of magic taught me to discipline and apply myself to what I really wanted to achieve in life, as well as providing me a variety of techniques I could use to alter my consciousness, heal myself, change negative behaviors into positive ones, and in some cases increase the possibility of an opportunity working out.
Nonetheless, magic isn't a cure all. It doesn't solve every problem and can sometimes complicate issues. And the real test of magic is not seeing how much power you can acquire. The real test involves learning to be responsible with the power you do have, which is the power of your actions and responses. And remember, magic is only one avenue of expression for those actions and responses.
As for magicians trying to become gurus...just about every magician I've met has had anything but that particular interest in mind. Do you know how much work it takes to become a guru? Not only that but you have to keep the Guru vibe going and make sure you never make a mistake. No thanks. Being a guru is a thankless task. Whatever perks one might get for doing it, s/he is trapped by the very image s/he creates in order to obtain followers. The true magician doesn't need to be a guru and is much more satisfied developing his/her own spiritual journeys.
Third Stigma: Magic is useless
The third and final stigma is the argument that magic is useless. This stigma is connected to the second problem that magicians face, namely: What is the benefit of doing magic? As one reader put it, all she seemed to hear about was the various oaths and magical orders different magicians belonged to and how impressed they were about finding parking spaces. If all a magician can is find a parking space, you have to wonder if magic is all that effective, because anyone can find a parking space. Frankly, I don't feel that finding a parking space is an indicative of a magical achievement and if that's all a magician is boasting about, s/he really needs to get a life and needs to spend a lot more time practicing magic and a lot less time talking about it. Likewise, talking about what magical order you belong to doesn't say much about the benefit of magic.
I don't think that magic is an archaic word or concept. The fact that even in the most "sophisticated" cultures there are people still practicing magic speaks to its relevance. But the question does arise as to what the benefit of practicing magic is. And unfortunately a lot of the focus in magical practice is primarily on obtaining short term goals and material needs, as opposed to focusing on more long term goals. When the magician is focused on getting his/her next parking space, or even the next job, then it's rather hard to determine exactly how magic plays a role in obtaining these things or what the overall benefit of doing magic is, other than creating some kind of placebo effect. While the magician can claim that magic has been employed to get that parking space or job, it can just as easily be said that the magician got these things through coincidence or having the right set of skills.
On the other hand, when the magician obtains a result which clearly involves the creation of a reality out of improbable circumstances, that situation can be pointed to as an example of magic working to the benefit of the magician. Even so, usually such situations seem to focus on addressing the short term material needs of the magician, as opposed to doing anything more substantial or contributory to anyone besides the magician. Little wonder that magic is considered useless, while magicians are sneered at.
The lust for results is the undoing of the magician. While sometimes practicing magic to address a problem that has occurred recently is a very necessary activity, it should not be the only activity or reason for doing magic. Nor, for that matter, should the activity only focus on the material gain of the magician. Instead of summoning a Goetic demon to get a girl or a job, one might wonder what would happen if the magician chose to work with the Goetic demon to achieve a better awareness of his or her weaknesses, or to learn new skills that s/he can use to navigate life better.
The Benefit of Magic and a future direction
We can only provide a solution to the three stigmas I mentioned above when we answer: What is the benefit of doing magic? The benefit of doing magic isn't merely the acquisition of material goods or advantageous opportunities (though these can be useful in their own right). The benefit of magic is that it provides the practitioner a methodology for interacting with reality, possibility, and his/her own conscious awareness of the space s/he travels through during these interactions. When a person can utilize magical processes to recognize the ways s/he is sabotaging herself and can then make changes and become a healthier person as well as model those changes to others then the real benefit of magic is realized. Magic is the harnessing of willful intention and conscious attention to change the self's identity and role within the universe and recognize the potential to be part of something larger than just him/herself.
And what is larger than the magician? It is not society or culture which is reflections and illusions; something a magician is a part of and affects the sense of self everyday, but nonetheless is just a matrix holding us to certain patterns and behaviors that entrap us far more than they free us. What is larger is the universe itself...and when the magician can recognize how s/he is just a small part of the universe itself, a cell in the body of the universe, but one that nonetheless either transmits healthy information or unhealthy information, then the magician might realize that the benefit of magic is the evolution of the person and the role that person plays in the evolution of the universe. Society and culture are illusions because they are transitory. What they reveal is the overall health and integration that people have with each other and the universe. This sense of health and integration is played out in how we treat each other and how we treat this planet. Magic is just one methodology among many for helping us achieve a better awareness of our place in the universe as well as how we can change that place, for better or worse. And it must be understood that our place in the universe is small...we are not so significant that if we were gone the universe would collapse. But we are significant enough in the sense that our actions and choices play a role in not merely how we live our lives, but also how we pass on that living to our descendents and to the universe we live in. Every action, every choice is an imprint. They are tiny actions, tiny choices, seemingly insignificant in and of themselves, but the repetition of pattern provides strength in numbers and the consequences can be very hard to undo. I realized some few years ago that magic wasn't doing me much good if my life was headed on a collision course of bad decisions and worse consequences. I realized that true magic wasn't about reactively doing magic to solve a problem or get a quick fix.
True magic was proactively choosing to change, to recognize the root of my problems and change those problems, while also examining various areas of my life and choosing to do something about them instead of just stumbling along, waiting for whatever might happen next. Magic was spending a year dedicated to working with the element of Earth and consequently learning a lot about how to handle finances effectively as well as how to show others that it could be done. Magic was spending a year focused on love and seeing all the unhealthy patterns of love in my life and then making changes, becoming healthier in how I related to love, while also learning a lot about what this culture doesn't really show with any kind of relationship: The intimacy of connection with each other, and with our environment. Magic has been doing the internal work, the meditation, the mindful awareness, and the changing of old patterns into new healthier ones, so I don't need to do so many overt acts of magic to solve the latest crisis in my life. And magic, for me, has always involved learning as much as possible about a wide variety of fields of study such as semiotics, linguistics, multimodality, psychology, neuroscience, etc, and then taking that information and applying it to my spiritual practices so that I could refine how I did magic, while also showing myself and others what it could be used for.
For magic to be relevant and significant and of any real benefit to us, it must be balanced with an awareness of other disciplines. The magician needs to be a renaissance person, one who has knowledge on a variety of disciplines and the practices those disciplines contain. S/he must also be able to connect all of those practices together and create an effective synthesis of principles for promoting effective changes, i.e. changes that have the potential to benefit all as opposed to or only a few. Henry Agrippa wrote in The Three Books of Occult Philosophy that the magician who only practiced magic was a dull person who did not really understand magic. To understand magic involved learning about other disciplines and applying those practices to his or her life and the lives of others. Magicians in general need to return to this approach to magic, instead of focusing on hyper-individuation as a display of will. The hyper-individualized person cannot connect with anyone else, because s/he fails to understand or acknowledge anyone else. By learning about a variety of disciplines and also experiencing a variety of people and the struggles they deal with, the magician can begin to consider how magic can be applied to the benefit of all and focus on doing so. Until such a time as that occurs magic will never be rehabilitated. It will instead be the masturbatory wanking of trying to get results, or showing your true will off, or the boasting of finding a parking space. There's not much change in any of that and it doesn't do much beyond providing people yet another way to re-act instead of consciously act. For magic to be rehabilitated and beneficial, we must change our way of thinking about it and implementing it, moving away from a model of self gratification, and moving toward a model of conscious awareness and connection with each other and with this universe we live in. When we can do that and share what we develop with others, so that all can benefit, then we will see real change, real magic, and realize its benefit in our lives.
Image by Bohman, courtesy of Creative Commons license.
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magic, shamanism, prayar
i hate
"commands the universe to act" and "mind over matter". such as comments like that put me OFF orthodox magick!
I see Nazism, with jumped up shits thinking they are ubermenschen. I see the so-called elite around us now with their occult signatures over 9/11 7/7, working to take over the world/the 'New World Order'/command', and even space, and even our very consciousnesses
All of that is this sad spirit of control. I see this as malesupremacist magick. A magick that--speculating--may have began with the rise of the upstart god Marduk in Babylon who was versus the Great Serpent/Goddess, Tiamat. And from there we got male sects who appropriated Goddess symbolism for their own control-freakery agenda, and that attitude continues as they lay Earth to waste with their poisons
'command' and 'mind over matter' is their religion
There is a deeper magic that is working with and not wanting to control Nature, the universe.
ok yeah i see this attitude a lot
I don't really know what to say. You got me pretty emotional and I don't want to just go off on you but you way way way overanalyzed what I said. Words like male supremacist and Nazi and what? Whoa girl you're getting way too heated.
I don't know what to say because at the same time as you made me hate you a little, you made me agree. I just don't think it matters. If the gods let you control nature in some way there is purpose in it being controlled. Maybe the laws of magic only let you control stuff so much. I see kabbalah and the planets and I think Saturn, and its relation to the briah and that is just one symbol of something greater lending laws and limits on the universe. So obviously I'm only one star in a universe of a million so what am I really doing? Who even said I was going against nature anyway? You are giving it a command. If you don't get anything you either made your intention too weak or you failed the ritual in some way. Or something stopped you. Or it disobeyed. I guess it really is a request but it's really all semantics. So you give a request to the universe which is pretty reliable if you know the right way to do it and you could call it a command if you wanted to. And you can disengage the universe from the Goddess and call it the Big Computer. Or the great I AM or hell even Satan and magic will still work. I mean a lot of the stuff I've studied seems to invoke Jesus Christ or the God of Israel or various demons. My view of the universe occasionally sees it as a Goddess but sometimes as YHVH, sometimes other things.
Thank yous!
I wanted to thank further posters for using love and judicious thought in response to the above post. DrunkChimpanzee has worthwhile ideas underneath the emotions in the post; however it may be shocking at first read.
I also wanted to take this time to remind community members to keep posts from straying into personal attacks, as we truly want this to be an emotionally and mentally safe place in which to exchange.
Thanks again for everyone's involvement!
"You have to grow from the inside out. None can teach you, none can make you spiritual. There is no other teacher but your own soul." - Swami Vivekananda
this is a post about magic
i did not read into DrunkChimpanzee
as being "emotional"
and sometimes we need to be shocked
to wake up, we don't want to be shocked
by new inquistitions, and those that pretend
that the world is not filled with shocking
news, and shocking cults that would
blame us like they once blamed women
for being "witches" or anyone they decided
was not playing the game, what personal attacK?"
can't people speak to the issue?
does making Sawmi quotes
hide some emotion?
so projection of emotion, so emotion
implies that people have no emotions
when they speak of subjects like magicK
in fact magick is all about finding those feelings
that we pretend that are not there, or covered up
by prohibitions and suppressed or inhibitions
magic is a...... r e l e a s e.......it involves dropping
the facades we wear in society, it is poetry unleashed
not foaming at mouth fundamentalists, or fake religion
or psychology that is nothing but a pimp for drug companies
( i like psychology when it is wild and free)
but you already knew that.
"love is the law...love under will"
(" the Secret behind the Secret"
"the answer may shock you" )
hehe sheshe shasha chi chi cha cha
I didn't flag you
I noticed 'flagged' at the side of reply. I didn't do it. I have never flagged anyone either here or YT etc, blocked yeah
you assume me a female dont you, because i question what i call 'male supremacist magick'. Well i am not. One doesn't have to be a woman to crit males ;)
Look . I am VERy aware that this world right now is under the horrific hand of elitst occultists who care nothing for respect for life. THAT is the danger I see, and warn about.
I know all about so-called chaos magick where they mix and match all kinds of models. The people i spoke to seems self obsessed, apathetic, and cold. That was my experience
But i am not ANTI magick, but Am anti malesupremacist magick which commands, and is full of phallic egoistic power tripping
Le'ts keep it civil
There's some interesting points in this dialogue but I just want to make sure everyone stays clear of personal attacks. There's plenty of ways of getting points across while still being civil. Some of the comments above are borderline for our guidelines, so please just be mindful of this when posting to the site. Below, you'll find a list of our comments guidelines. Thanks.
Be Civil: Please respond respectfully to all participants on the site. Of course, you're welcome to disagree and debate people's ideas; we just ask that you do so with general common courtesy. Personal attacks aren't helpful to anyone.
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Manifesting magic on an Earthly plane
majik
I was drivin around lookin for a place to park and i was thinkin that if that dude that calls himself some variation of Anubis, tries to mess with me and my priestess by pulling rank with the Caliph and his Professor treasurer i'm gonna call on the whole club of the Mickey Mouse Lovecraft style.I could not figure what his game was, why was he doing this? I figured out that he wanted to have sex with my wife, because as he said at a meeting one night at the Grand Lodge, "this is a sexual order" meaning that my wife was suppose to have sex with anyone that is a higher degree then us, ha! i thought.
Here we are doing this public ritual when the temple has nobody to fill those robes, it took us months to wrap ourselves around the idea of putting ourselves in that role, months to memorize the long parts of The Gnostic mass, and the right way of handling the magical implements, the alter had to be built just right and lucky that the dude that has the egyptian name of a bull was handy with building things.
The other priest and priestess were moving back to Utah, and the office was needing a new set of the same, they walked us through the mass one day, that was in the living room of the Caliph, before they built a temple in an ajasoned building.The priestess was a very sexy chick that had that willfull look in her eyes, you just knew she would do what ever she had to do to rise in the order.The priest was a tall blond guy that was an intellectual and played piano, and was soft spoken.
Lilith Moonshot or what ever she called herself, was going around the circle of purifing the elements and she had that big sword in her hands, she almost poked it into my wife's throat as she was loath to pass the mantle, but she was gracious enough to show us how to perform the ritual by showing us how it was done, at least in her style.
Here we were a year later, and we had braved the chaos of the outer order, a rad tag bunch that came to our Gnostic mass, and received the virtues i and my priestess wife consecrated and gave to the "brotheren" and sisteren as i liked to call it.I recalled the weird legal hassle of incorporating the Gnostic Church, and others from other parts of the country and maybe the world that were opposed to that move.I was thinking of the first time we did the Mass in OHO's livingroom, and how we stumbled through it, but how high we felt when we completed the ritual.And what an aphrodisiac it was for Morgana and me.
But all the inner politics of the scene, were beginning to feel not worth the hassle.That Anubis cat pretended to be our friend, now he was telling outragious lies about us, and the wormtongue Treasurer as i called him was sitting there accusing us of these bad things we were being fingered with, this Anubis guy was setting us up, only to look good in the eyes of the mucky mucks, even the 10th degree head of oto uttered "horeshit" but then he seemed to side against us anyway.
What had we done? months ago we had been called, "my pillar's of strength" by the head, now we were being dragged over the coals that we used to burn the special incense we used for the mass.That was the last straw that broke the camel's back, this was the thanks we get.
But, hey this would be good practice for the up coming "Rites of Eleusis" that that recently initiated into oto wiccan lady was planning on doing in her two story house up the freeway from Frisco, about 30 minutes.It was known that the Treasurer would not set foot in the Rites, because he opposed them, and doing the sacraments that would be in ample supply.Onword Temple warriors dancing off to ecstasy! i sung this to myself as i knew the sorcerers would be seperated from the magicians in this magickal three ring circus.
My Brother The Wizard
My Brother says he's The Wizard,
I still don't understand but I'm trying...
Sometimes it makes sense...
Wild!
Because I call myself a Shaman.
Between Magic and Mystic (MISTEEK)?
Take a look in a mirror...
Now comb your hair... whatever.
Wiggle Your Nose
Lete me give this a try.
You know I'm thinking of the California fires...
Can we work a little magic from Ohio with that?
Well, I thought of a good performance and walked out in the rain. My directions were a bit foggy and so I just felt for the wind and faced into it.
I then thought of the fires in California and said to the Element of Fire. "Ok now, Fire, it's time to die down."
This happened 4:15 on Saturday afternoon.
Now cross your fingers!
And whille wiggling your toes!
With the crossed finger wiggle your nose!
I just did and I hope it works!
Made me feel better that I thought of saving the homes and people of California today. So it's good for one thing I know.
Magic is just a Mystics way of seeing the world. Yeah, I believe in magical moments... and I believe they are by far the greatest when they come to us from the Great Spirit through all things living in the moment.
Peace!
I really enjoyed this
I really enjoyed this article, and I agree with a lot of what you say about learning different schools of knowledge, being a Renaissance person, etc.
I spent several years as a practicing pagan, and was even the 'Master-at-Arms' (laughable, if you could see how skinny I am) at the pagan club at Auburn University for a short time, so I have some experience with magic (though I now tend more towards Dzogchen Buddhism or some kind of Zen-Taoism. I don't like to label myself, because I am definitely my own being. But just so you get an idea of where I'm coming from).
Now, I will have to clarify, before I go on, that to me, magic means the use of will and intention, harnessed and focused by attention, to affect a change in the world with will and intention alone. The other things you mention; the drive to learn, to apply, to seek, to know, to constantly become a little bit more than you were a minute ago; these all fall under the label of mysticism to me.
Magic I had to leave behind me, and I will explain why: it feeds both unhealthy Ego, and attachment.
In Zen, the realm of magic is known as Lesser Manifestation, and the student is warned to continue with his meditation in humbleness, and let it pass. Not because it isn't real. Not because you shouldn't use it, per se: but because, by accessing this world before you have truly left behind your sense of identification with this finite being, you might be lost forever in a world of sorcerers, demons, Gods, and monsters.
The forces, the powers, and the entities encountered can corrupt, or build an Id-driven Ego that will once again begin to consume everything as you marvel at your own power. You should only touch them once you know -- not just are sure, but *know* -- that you will never use it for your own finite self.
I will admit, you seem to have largely escaped this danger, yourself. Perhaps you know something I do not. =)
Also: the term magic (or magick) is so tainted by this point, I often wonder why it isn't simply left behind. You could get a lot more people to listen if you just called it willful intentionality, or something sciencey like that. Perhaps as a safeguard? Those who are willing to look past the stigma will be more likely to be dedicated?
Anyway, it doesn't matter. You sound like you have a system that works very well for you indeed. You can call it jajabebadadudibop for all I care (although that might just be silly). ^_^
"You must *be* the change you wish to see in the world." Mahatma Gandhi
Hello chibione
It's actually fair to say that Taoism and Buddhism heavily influence my approach and understanding of magic, which is likely wherein you see that inclusion of more mystical elements. I don't entirely think of magic as jsut an acto f intention and will. Those are certainly components, but I tend to feel there's more involved, or rather I feel a different perspective than just gratification for the self should be involved.
As for using different terminlogy...That's certainly something that could occur at some point. I think though that despite magic having a lot of baggage, it also has a lot of history with it...I'm not sure the word will ever go away.
I know what you mean.
I know what you mean. There isn't any kind of bright line.
I mean, when I move my arm to retrieve something, aren't I then using intention and will, harnessed by attention, to enact a change with intention and will only? My arm, obviously physical, reacts to my will and intention. Of course, it is my arm...but then, aren't we all the same Thing? Isn't all apparently individual will simply a manifestation of the Divine Will?
Magic is all around us. Just try to focus on the truth that everyone does better when everyone does better, and use your power for good.
"You must *be* the change you wish to see in the world." Mahatma Gandhi
Jajabebadadudibop
Chibione,
You got me to thinking about Jajabebadadudibop and I see now that I need to find the silence in me.
I will write back somewhere on this board on December 6th, 2008... I hope. Just see now that I need to take a time out... until then I'll just tell the wind to calm a bit... it always seems to get fire rolling and fire can't get too wild without the wind.
Everything will be in moderation.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e2PggDw-vww
See you all next month... December 6th!
Then there will be soaring.
Peace.
May it be the stuff of which dreams are made.
Even (maybe even especially?) moderation in moderation.
"You must *be* the change you wish to see in the world." Mahatma Gandhi
loop me
I walked everyday from one end of the world to the other
fell from grace the leaves wave at me seasons talking to me
traces of remembrance gather through the world view
we are either mundane or we are profane we are feign
to call on the wild whirl of elements
invoke often it is said will bring the blood to your head
a black hole opens in the swirl of feathers in the sky
Abrasax Abrasax Abrasax
i hold the light beams in my fingers up to the call
if i'm falling up or down heaven or hell who can tell
all my life flashed by birds eye view of Saint James
i'm fanning the flames or calling on the names of angels
fallin fast and fallin slow i want the horns to blow
swing low sweet chariot a little Satchmo goes down
well plungin with a vengence all kinda souls writhin
and wormery marchin into St. James infermery
i' looking for some lucky moon it won't be long now
it wont be too soon for zero out or zero in
tripped with the book of the dead woke in an African
den i don't recall when with a Scarlet women at my side
she whispered the majik words she never lied
"fuck you" she cried to the statue of Pan
Pan Pan Io Pan....eeeeeaaaaaoooooo
until we all had a mind expanding fuck flash man
oh you make passes with the gypsy dagger
as you sway and swagger side to side
a twisty one of fate and fortune unraveling your kismet
she screamed "disengage" and a long curse uttered under
her sweet breath shake your snaky wand at the godhead
she was all dressed in black & red from this bornless one
from the birthing rush of time all erased in her mystic dark
stormy eyes...from whence i come kindled that thus spake
come to know thy mystery i walked every day from one
end of the world to the other
flagged
tagger bagger ragger, why do people even read?
they might object to reality
are protecting some fragile egg shell?
take a look around you
joe six packs are not obscene
and little miss muffet was frigtened by that big bad spider
oh oh, Harry Potter beware!
yes we are flagged, we are dragged down by
those who run away as fast as they can
from any thing they don't understand
and here in lies the real magic
what we don't know, how do we know?
who is a flagger? a hater? a child that is not watching
the news? a jealous one? a supporter of war for prophet?
profit? pro fit a prediction of the second coming?
how easy that is construed to be sexual, oh dear!!!
monkey see no evil hear no evil speak no evil
but don't for get to take your lies with a dose of mind
candy, it goes down easy then, are we still in some dark
ages, or do we just read the yellow pages
it always comes back to the world of words that people flag
its a drag man, Ginsberg, Burroughs and Lenny Bruce
ring a bell?
~Break-ing The Spell-ing~
Happenings that 'can' be regarded as magical take place in & around me everyday, people with me often see these magic like happenings....or those on the surface of 'their' reality anyway.
These magic like happenings.....or more-so 'all' magical happenings are created By The Same 'IT' that creates 'all' my consciousness, all my perceptions, all my realities.
If i found myself in a position whereby i was given to think that i could/do control whatever happened within my reality bubble (as i have been in the past),... then i would be within boundaries defined external to that bubble & so quite limited...& likely set for a hard wakeup fall...
(i would need to be snapped out of that bubble one way or another in order to progress towards further understanding).
...similarly so if i was within the illusion that 'i' was able to conjure up, or could call on ghosts/spirits/angels/demons/gods/devils/entities...... by some means...... & plead with/ask/force them... to do as i wished/hoped...(i've been this way also)............
I was moved beyond these limiting views many years ago......into yet another limited view...& ongoing so...
The difference here is that i control nothing...though none the less...'sometimes' i still seem to have to act as though the job doesn't get done unless i put some small effort into it,
& further beyond that,... where here, i'm 'subjected' to all that befalls me......exactly as is so at every level of realization (knowingly or otherwise),................
but,
here now with some 'extra' aspects of subjection from what was the 'norm' for the first half of my life experience...
'Here' my supposed consciousness watches on as the thing that now 'is' what 'was' my body, performs truly amazing magical like feats, completely void of any perceivable conscious input towards achieving those results...
rather....at these times i'm consciously engaged in a multiway multiview multivoice multilingual multicode multiaspect multimulti conversation... with rare or ner a thought as to the movements performed by my body other than any 'mime-like' messages made apparent within,..
& all precisely synchronized to events both internal & external to the perception i'm given to regard as 'me'..
.. maybe at this point i ought say that i have several disabling health problems that 'individualy' make it difficult for me to stand up or move around...let alone collectivly,..
.however....as i said....when i'm being communed with,.. by this thing which controls my body & all that i'm made aware of, then rather than being disabled..i'm 'Superenabled'.. & free from the pain that is my lot when i'm not undergoing these intense magical communications/t-e-a-c-h-i-n-g-s.
I'd like to be within the better of these states constantly...but after decades of trying have as yet not found/been taught/been granted anyway of sustaining that beyond some small percentage of the day.
It seems likely to me that i've more to be taught before that percentage is raised. .....................................................................
be-here-in this centerzone,
betwixt the sides-asunder,
medium amidst the wonder,
ascendant from the under,
the light before the thunder,
the thought before the light.
~But The Sword~ moved, ~by its own self~
Perfect Timing
I have been exploring some of the magical concepts out there recently, after years of militant rationalism (and I am a rationalist; the non-rational so outweighs the rational in our culture, despite the propaganda of the anti-scientific set - just look at the success of Sylvia Browne and her ilk). But I've been trying to figure out just what magic is for. After all, if magic led to vast power, George Bush wouldn't have been president, right? Some ethical mage would have seen to that.
This article helped me take a grasp of concepts underlying magical work, and confirmed some of my own intuitions. Thanks.
Hello BoDo
i was on another site
i asked the owner of the site
where does the censorship begin and end?
mind you
this was about one of those sticky issues
but it really was not about
the issue alas
it is not lost on me, that people become their own worst
critiques
Magic: is not just about finding parking spaces
or pots of gold at the end of the rainbow
MAGIC is a word that has been attacked much
it is a word that is right out there in the world
everyday
Magic is not pulling rabbits from a hat
or slight of hand
but we are seeing it and then we don't
think: 9/11 think 2012 think 777
did Eve see magic when she enjoyed that forbidden fruit?
did Lilith? what was Adam doing? when she had her fun?
was there magic in the sun?
Who was John Dee? what angelic language did he see?
think Shakespeare, was Newton a magician? did that eve
bit apple fall on his head by mistake?
say hello to my friend, movie magic
and the magic in a young girl's eye
i do believe in that
and cheshire cat
I once shared a house with a wiccan devotee........
At the time i was immersed in Native American spirituality to try and find a way through all the damage that catholicism had done to our cultural heritage,post celtic christianity trauma i suppose you could say!......she had an altar set up in her bedroom that she placed various power objects,dagger and chrystals and other mish mash of items...
I could see no continuity with any of it as the person in question was not a very happy one,stuck in a victim vortex and was grasping at tools that she thought could save her...anyhow...she believed that she could change things but her cloudy disposition hindered all of this...the cloud extended over the house...and i had my work cut out for me!!!!!
I think we know now that the power of intention is indeed very powerful and there are tools...four of them,,,,dagger,spear,stone and bowl,four directions and four colours...i don't dabble in over manipulation too much now but its a bit of a playground for certain control freaks that like to blame outside of themselves for the predicament that they find themselves in..
This i feel is why the Taoist approach is an essential ingredient of mindset here...
If you are not well in mind you should not engage in any of this,let others do the work,watch and learn and by learning achieve understanding and hopefully wisdom....
tis a rocky path at times,plenty of cuts and bruises along the way,smile at your scars and remember how they got there...
Another great article...i'm not a fan of Crowley....i think he was one of the guys that was trying to find the ark of the covenant in Tara...i could be wrong...There are many orders gone into folklore now.....we can only visit these places and try to sense what they did right and ponder over mistakes they made... Solas
Definitions
Alllright, so there are as many definitions of magick as there is people who are defining it. But what about the (apparently on here, anyway) unpopular Crowley's definition: Magick as the art and science of causing change in conformity with will. By that definition, conscious acts are magick ones. Even blowing your nose. I've always had a contention when people talk about their magical aims like they must be for the greatest good, enlightenment, etc. Well, of course. If you want to lead an ever-enlightening life then as a magician your "magickal"-life should reflect that. Let's stop acting like utilizing magick is an all together different way of living, or atleast I will.
It seems like the same people that are trying to exude a new and improved, yeah and enlightened, opinion on magick are the ones who are degrading it. When the church attempted to take magick away they attempted to take life and living away. That's the only reason people see any difference between the two. (Magick & Life)
The problem with Crowley's definition
The problem with Crowley's definition is that he tries to argue that every conscious decision is magical act, when in fact it may not be at all. Say I consciously open a door, with my full intention to be that I am going to open that door. Is that a magical act? According to Crowley it is, but I disagree. Rather, it's how a person reads meaning into an action or choice which determines if it's "magical." My choice of opening that door hasn't significantly altered my reality (beyond the door being open) and likely hasn't manufactured significant changes in how I perceive the world. It's opened a door and that's it. I might see it as a magical act, if it was convenient for me to read meaning into it in that way, but then again do I really need to read that much meaning into opening a door to manufacture a sense of magic in my life? Crowley's definition also conveniently ignores the simpel fact that some people may consciously open a door with intent or sneeze with intent and never think of it as an act of magic (or want to think of it as an act of magic), and so not perform said act as an act of magic.
I find it interesting that you argue that people who are trying to examine magic from a different perspective are trying to degrade it. Beyond the fact, that your statement is generalized and hasn't really offered a substantial argument as to how this is occurring, what it really demonstrates is an attempt to discourage the evolution of magic by relying on the same old perspectives that have kept occult culture firmly rooted in a stagnant rot, because of the lack of questioning as to the direction that the occult culture is going in. Crowley's hyper-individuation hasn't served occult culture and it didn't really serve him either. It merely left him destitute, after blowing through two fortunes and preying on countless people over the course of his life. We have to ask, "Did Crowley significantly change his life by utilizing magic? " In other words, did he embody his own definition of magic? If success is his proof, then Crowley's life is a warning to us as to what happens when magic is utilized for the mere gratification of the individual, which results in short term thinking Short term thinking...and given how much that type of thinking influences corporate decisions, politics, environmental policies etc., isn't it time we start looking into more long term oriented ways of thinking? I apply that to magic as well, because if you're going to use it to change reality, you might as well put some real thought into what you want to manifest as well as how that manifestation will effect you, others around you, and/or your descendents.
Say I consciously open a
Say I consciously open a door, with my full intention to be that I am going to open that door. Is that a magical act? According to Crowley it is, but I disagree. Rather, it's how a person reads meaning into an action or choice which determines if it's "magical."
So it's how you read meaning into it that determines it's magick? That could be the de-evolving part aswell. This is probably where we could never agree because I believe magick(yeah, not going to drop the K anytime soon) is something always happening whether you've summoned your will or not. It's something that occurs within and through-out each persons consciousness whether or not they are cognizant of it. Now when we want to talk about its conscious USE, the use-of, we have to call it magick and talk about where our intent is involved.. This does not mean that we HAVE to call every conscious act a magickal one, but I'd put it to anyone that the very process of living and life is magic and our will- exerting itself on a multitude of levels simultaneously.
So obviously these same people sneezing, walking through doors, and parking their car's aren't recognizing their will or assigning any magickal importance to the acts, they are however living their individual realities. Even if they were sneezing for the good of all and their descendents they'd still be living their own reality.
The degrading bit for me comes when you extoll your own ideas over someone else's for the supposed sake of improvment or change. If there is anything outdated or over-done in this uncommunity it is the whole: "...and he died penniless and addicted to heroin, whaddaya call that? MAgick!? PSh!"-attitude.
I would argue, er, claim?, that you have no measure for another man's progress or the extent of his impact on the world, however illusory. How many people read 'Magick in Theory' and then went on a new course of development? How many of those same people were influenced (either way) by the poor drug addict and then perhaps influenced those that you, Ellwood, were taught by.?
The people that brag about finding parking spaces degrade themselves, the ones who degrade them-degrade everyone else.
I still believe magick happens whether you do it or not, whether you say it happens or not., you can either take part in it or not. But you should do it if you claim to and not tell people how to think about it but show them. I've found buddhism and zen to have their own peculiar hints of nihilism. Remeber that weird black and white circle with the two colors equally a-part of each other? Saving the whales type attitudes are great but I think ultimately the earth and the course of evolution knows what it's doing better than I ever will understand it, I find that humbling. I only responded to this article because it seemed an over-simplification that claimed not to be.
So, in the virtually the
So, in the virtually the same sentence that you claim people shouldn't degrade others for having a different idea of magick, you then go and degrade someone who holds a different idea of magick. Methinks I notice a bit of a contradiction here. Perhaps it is simply that you perceive Taylor as saying that only his conceptualization is correct. To me, it appears as though you are making precisely the same claim. I happen to think (as usual) that the truth is somewhere in the middle.
If every act is magick, then Taylor pointing out the facile nature of persons utilizing cosmic power to find themselves a place to park is just as magickal. I happen to agree with you that every act is a 'magickal' one, but that doesn't mean every magickal act is of equal value.
I have never, in fact, found very much in Crowley's life or work that is very inspiring to me. I tend to think he was a bit of a monster, in fact, and his teachings (along with other notables, such as H.P. Blavatsky) helped to empower and inspire the leaders of such wonderful movements as the Third Reich. I would say that persons with that kind of track record are teaching an ideology that is of less value than one that promotes compassion and love amongst, and to, all sentient beings.
You can think of Zen or Buddhism as being nihilistic, but I have yet to see them come anywhere near to spawning anything like that (although no belief system is without blood on its hands).
Also of possible interest: the black portion of the yin-yang is not meant to represent evil. Black as the color of evil is a bias of this culture. It is meant to represent the Unfathomable Source of Reality. That from which springs all. The white part is meant to represent all that springs from It. And the trick is that the two are ultimately One, and all supposed differences are merely a matter of appearance, not substance. This is made as clear as can be in the very first chapter of the Tao-Te Ching.
I don't see much that I would consider nihilistic in that conceptualization, personally.
"You must *be* the change you wish to see in the world." Mahatma Gandhi
more conspiracy theory
flinging at a complex issue, oh, and you want to compare the Tao De Ching to western magical tradition? your argument falls apart as soon as you make assumptions based on guilt by associations, its rather like what Obama just had to deal with in the case of the 60's radical."He pals around with terrorists"OH Crowley was a Monster" Obama is a terrorist, and worse yet a "socialist" oooohhhh.Look, if Crowley is not your cup of black tea that does not mean he was a monster.You should go back and read your Tao a little deeper.In fact maybe the Tao De Ching made some people be monsterous.Perhaps the Tao De Ching was writen by a monster, because it really was a code work for the Chinese Generals to subdue the potential terrorists.But you know it also is a piece of poetry, not unlike the Book of the Law.All i see in your response to the above post is a lot of flinging of conspiracy theory at a word that word just happens to be "magick" we could use another word of your chosing, and see how far we get before we start yelling at it, and calling it all kinds of names and dumping a load of theory on it.
OH the Nazis, were into bad magick, so means makes all magick bad bad bad, and monsterous.Crowley did some strange things we don't understand, well because we don't really grok the magical tradition.Crowley just happened to chose to stand out, as there was no getting around it, he had to look like a "monster" because he was not the Pope in Rome.Or some world leader that needed Crowley to have an excuse to be Nazi like.
meanwhile, back at the ranch, those Taoists stood back, and practiced all sorts of strange arts, but we only know of some written works, translated from Chinese.How do we know what effect the tao de ching had on the first people that read it.How do we compare? So in the west we pretend to have a grasp of facts and know history, but as soon as we speak of the unspeakable, it has to be about monsters and nazis.
and socialist terrorists that we pal around with.Mickey Mouse?
ok back to tao de ching and the monster mash.
.
Hi there CJ
To the extent that western magical traditions comprise a philosophy and mystical framework, they can very easily be compared to Zen and Buddhism in general, and the process is very informative.
I think I have stated pretty plainly in previous comments on this article that I, by no means, believe all magic to be bad. I do believe magic used for selfish purposes, to gratify the individual persona is bad, however. And that is the crux of what Crowley believed in. I believe that to be very damaging, to both the practictioner and those around them.
I also believe I stated that no ideology was without blood on its hands.
There is also considerably more literal and obvious connections between the work and teachings of Crowley and Blavatsky with the ideology touted by the Third Reich than between Obama and Ayers. It has nothing to do with guilt by association.
It has everything to do with acknowledging that the general fruit of that strain of thought has spoiled very, very fast indeed.
As for the Pope in Rome comment, I believe fundamentalists of any mythology are equally silly. And that is what Crowley was: a fundamentalist of the Mythology of Himself. Perhaps that is okay with you. Maybe you think he was pretty dern cool. You are welcome to your opinion. I am sure you aren't entirely wrong. The work of Crowley may have helped a lot of people.
But no, it is not what I, personally, would call inspiring. And it isn't what I seek to be. And I will not promote that idea.
And I have read my Tao pretty deeply, thank you (although it is an endless well).
"You must *be* the change you wish to see in the world." Mahatma Gandhi
gee thanks
i'm welcome to my experience, dern cool? that taoist reading sure makes people deep.Darn! so deep that they
are shallow?
still clinging to that opinion, of yorn, makes some people darn above it all, darn darn darn.Some personal opinions.I read my Crowley, i guess that makes me a monster! but you guys with your Tao De Ching.It can mean anything, it makes you see monsters under every character that makes you feel uneasy.dang!!
(still don't explain your fundamentalist like op pin onion.)
better read tao de ching a little deeper still.i mean get beyond the surface deeper. dig? darn?
too, dern. too cool.
So I'm shallow now, am I?
So I'm shallow now, am I?
Interesting. I become shallow for having an opinion, and because you don't believe my reading of the Tao to be in line with yours.
I believe I sense some hypocrisy here. To me, it seems to be exactly the same thing as you having an opinion on Crowley that differs from me. I say, if you don't think Crowley was a monster, you need to read his biographies again.
I don't find your responses to be very helpful or informative, at all; merely a word-salad in which you try to sound wise because you speak in gibberish -- a rebel who ignores punctuation, and has no use for grammar.
Seriously, your reply to my comment (and especially your treatment of my use of the word 'dern') seems a lot more like something I would hear between quarelling children on the playground than from an older (former?) hippie. If you don't like what someone says, consider a more constructive (and sensical) course of rhetoric. Maybe toss some Crowley quotes at me that show me to be incorrect, as another commentor has done, or something useful like that.
I won't be replying to (or even reading, really) any more of your comments, I'm pretty certain.
You do not seem interested in discussion (or, at least not with me), only in pimping your poetry skills. It never goes anywhere positive, and you have no apparent desire to learn from others (or, again, from me at least. Must be because I am so totally wrong, and have not one iota of truth in what I say. Bummer).
It must be nice to have all of the answers, and to know that anyone who disagrees with you is just shallow. I hope that works out for you.
"You must *be* the change you wish to see in the world." Mahatma Gandhi
Great Games
I see that void C.J.
I always imagined Crowley as a trickster, who originally played an architypal iconoclastic heirophant character role and who then spent forever running to keep up with the projected egregore that had grown autonomously around him as the result, leading in equal parts to rapture and horror.
Man then myth.. ...myth then man.
One more perspective.
Binary - Spectrum - Continuum
most people that darn AC
never read poetry, readin Tao De Chings deep like does not a poet make it seems.all them great poets wrote stuff that people makes em all say dern and dang! go...oohhhh
makes me feel all uneasy...them horror, myth, witches on brooms...Bukowski banging on garbage can lids like great Chinese Gongs, forget then dern Bongs!
the heirophantic task is the naked mask of your trickster persona.it's a Tao De Ching on your face, even though AC translated the I Ching too, what's a poor poet monster ta do?
all them ching i chiny chin ching some kind of rap rap rapture.and some kinda ho ho horror too.The Western Magus jugglen them Aeonic balls of light and dark in equal perportion.Almost yin yang, dang!
DAO!!! like IAO...WoW
the word that can be spoken is not the wyrd ( think i'll do my own translation of the Tao te Ching)
well duh!!!
I can see we will disagree
I'm not going to even bother getting into the issues with the crowley culture in occultism. Suffice to say, your comment demonstrates everything I find distasteful about the uncritical acceptance of Crowley's work, which is far more prevalent than the attitude you claim is demonstrated toward his work. I'll instead address what I consider to be an oversimplification of magic
The notion that everyone automatically practices magic when they do a conscious act, whether they are cognizant or not is the oversimplification and de-evolution of magic. By your argument everyone does magic, even if they don't want to do it. Seems rather presumptous to assume that everyone does magic, even if they don't want to do it. If we go your perspective about about magic, then magic isn't what Crowley claims it to be at all. It's not even something that has techniques or processes. It's not a technology, a skill, a science, or an art. It's just something that happens to people. As such magic can't be measured or performed. It just happens to people. That sounds remarkably similar to the fluffy bunny phenomena that occurs in Paganism.
Now I think utilizing critical thinking and asking some hard questions about how people utilize magic and how they measure its effect is very important. I'm not degrading people for boasting about finding parking spaces. I'm challenging them to raise their standards.
As for this: "Saving the whales type attitudes are great but I think ultimately the earth and the course of evolution knows what it's doing better than I ever will understand it,"
That's the kind of attitude that sees species wiped out, the ecosystem polluted, and complacently sits by and lets it happen. We are part of this Earth, and it's time we start realizing that and becoming part of the solution instead of just focusing on our own desires.
i think we all see the Crowley
that we can only see through the lens of history, i certainly am not placing him on some dung heap of history, nor do i think he was perfect.I think this was part of what Abrasas23 was saying.That you have to grok what it was like, before television and the later the internet, before there were all kinds of new age gurus that came and went in the blink of a few decades since Crowley was on the scene.I don't see Crowley's as a warning, i see it as a perplexing refection in the magic mirror.The word enlightenment has no more or less meaning because of AC.Nor does the word magic.I don't look at Frank Zappa and say that he changed our perceptions of music and magic, because he maybe did something that Crowley was supposed to have done, namely he did a bowel movement on some rich woman's carpet.AS Zappa did once on the stage.I really don't see those as parallel acts in the public's eye, yet intense creative people like Zappa or AC are not bound by our limited view of proper manners or proper responses in certain situations.So we can take the meaning of words like blowing one's nose being just a magical act as any other.Crowley was always saying things that were not to be taken literaly, because he understood his own ideas, as being that above the abyss there is a point where all our ideas about magic or acts of magic being like angels on needles arguments or that on one level a simple act might seem mundane on another it suddenly becomes profound.In each situation there is a certain law of corresponding resonance, but on another level its like light years away or a quantum leap over the abyss.
One either takes Crowley with the grain of alchemic salt he was at some effort of project, through some of his remarks and documents, to warn us, or he becomes the BooBoo man that the world in all its enlightenment would have him be.
But the elite love Crowley
and, I have heard from recently watching a Freeman interview (though I dont agree with a lot of his theories) that Bush senior is Crowley's grandson?
I personally don't like Crowley, and that attitude of high magick which seeks to 'command' spirits, and the universe etc etc. I find all that attitude abhorrent!
I cannot look at the subject of magick without always keeping in mind the state of the world we are living in with its unbelieveable inequality, and its unbelieveable abuse of animals, and insects, and all species, including trees and rocks and air!
I have tried to communicate with various magickians, and mostly Chaotes, and have found a grim apathy about all of that. And they seem more concerned with using magick to get a job or get laid, etc. And even begrudge someone wanting to share their worries with them because they dont want a 'vampire' sucking their 'energies'....?
on doubt zest
but you are speaking of a whole world view and views of views.How can you like or dislike Crowley? based on your own narrow views of magick? No doubt things need to be changed, and this is either or stuff.I'm not preaching Crowley, i'm merely saying that its a complex situation.I agree that most of the people that i met when i was in oto were very confused.But on the other hand i was in a meditation community, and those people were confused also.Obviously these issues need to be adressed, but merely flinging doodoo at it, is not the answer.And conspiracy theory aside, Crowley was his own person, he was poor and alone when he passed away, if you like it or not, the western magical tradition is there and things have been going through shifts and changes, and the balance if power in the world has always hinged on the Catholic Church and magical orders, masonic.Actually in recent years psychology has been perverted and used to make us like the ruling class, and confrom to capitalist consumerism.Read Herbert Marcuse Eros and Civilization, to see where we have come from since the 50's the 60's and since Freud.
we will not learn much just yelling at it.
Some academics better than others
Just a quick note on a helpful article. You ask, "Did these vaunted academics consider the possibility that magic might have other uses, that it might for instance provide a common bonding experience for the community, as well as a means of focusing the intent of the community?"
In fact, this was the central thesis of the whole British structural-functional school of anthropology, especially in later writers like Victor Turner. His 1967 monograph _The Forest of Symbols: Aspects of Ndembu Ritual_ argues precisely that the larger function of witchcraft accusations is to negotiate conflicts within society and to focus intent, to use your phrase.
Turner's work is often seen as emphasizing the importance of performance in general, which to me is really useful from an occult perspective. Occult IS a type of performance, after all. You could also look at Durkheim himself, who inspired everybody else and was really profound on the spiritual aspects, in my opinion.
It's true that in general academics poo-poo magic. But the anthropologists, who in some ways know it best, had a more nuanced view. "It is the language of the Earth, it is the language of the beasts."
nice post
some balance.
yes, performance...in the movie Performance,
the character played by Mick Jagger spoke: "the only real performance the one that achieves madness"
i think this line came from Antonin Artaud.Or it could have.
Ritual is a kind of controled chaos or performance madness, we live in a mad mad mad world.
we are so repressed that sometimes only holding up a Nietzschean mirror, can reflect the madness of society and we know, will to art.
Actually
☸☛☰☌☷ <-----<<< using a unicode rune ;)
The Direct Statement is so Authoritative
Reading the Ⓢⓘⓖⓝ⒮ of the Times
i have heard IT before
I WILL Again
Generational Identifications
The Nick Name
Foreshortened Wit
Is Both
Subject and Object
Witness the Witticism
The Transmission
Of Justifications
Proof of Awareness
The Rhetoric of Illusion
Distinguish the Difference
The Academic Reduction
The Mediocrity in Meaning
Math
Real? True? Numbers? Averages?
The Proportions of Belief Change
In Immediate Solutions
The Practiced, Juggle
Yet they don't walk the path of the Fool
The Rose and The Lotus
Both Wilt when Plucked
Right
Hi Taylor, Thanks for the response.
I see the diversity in anthropological/academic views on whether magic plays an important role in social cohesion.
Where I don't see diversity, and this is kind of the point, is on another question: Is the serious practice of ritual something modern westerners familiar with traditional practice might want to consider taking up themselves? Could it provide important values to our social movements? While I know a few scholars in the distant margins of academia who will say this in public (Peter Lamborn Wilson, for example), I don't know of any tenured anthropologist who has made that argument and said clearly that not only is magic good for them, but it might also be good for us, too.
For me, this is where even the most open-minded academics become conservative and a barrier to moving forward.
"It is the language of the Earth, it is the language of the beasts."
Agreed!
Great Works
Might it not be argued that 'modern westerners' are participating in formal rituals, individually and collectively, even though they don't necessarily realise or recognise them as such. I say this acknowledging that i presumptiously perceived that your intention was to suggest, that perhaps new 'apparent' and 'informed', formalised rituals maybe of benefit.
binary - spectrum and all tat
Like the word Diet...
The word magic/k is like the word diet, abused. We all have a diet, are on one. Magic/k is a result much like a diet.
I feel like the authoritarian basis of most social orders is more inhibiting than facilitating freedom to discover one's own identity. To cast the parameters of what is real and true falls in the province of the authoritarian model, much like academia as well. Our language is biased to the limited.
There appears to be some contradictory testimony.
...would that we had the 20/20 hind sight looking at the present and forward.
I can judge intent - that doesn't make me right.
Intent can only be admitted to, professed, confessed.
It is hard to accept the judgment that finding parking places with the use of Magic/k, a second road inner-sight/sense is degrading or not what the "High Art" should/would be intended for.
You see the same bias in the professional vs the amateur, the Priest vs. the Lay Minister, The Fine Artist vs. Utilitarian Crafts person.
William Gray in was not the only one to discuss the question of identity, the Plagiarist/Publisher L. W. De Laurence to whom "The Great Book of Magical Art" is ascribed, has a fundamental and early chapter on the Role of Identity, Identification(s) - this is/should be attributed it's proper author somewhere, (their name escapes me at the moment.)
Attempting to identify the problems of the occult sub-culture begs questions from me. Once you have Identified the problem do you think it can be fixed? Do you wish to elevate the sub-culture to mainstream-culture? Do you think by identifying the problems you will have the secret key to let you in it or give you mastery over it?
I think there is a reason it is a sub-culture. I think there is a reason some things appear hidden. I think there is a reason some things are hidden. Case by case it is the difference between world history and religious/socio-political/populist history.
Finding parking spaces
I don't see finding parking spaces as degrading per se. I do think though that boasting about it is kind of silly. Good on you for finding that parking space, but now what? What does that prove besides the fact that you can find one? It shows that you can utilize magic to make your life a bit easier, and hey that's great, but I think there's a lot more potential to be explored than just that.
If you do find that original source for the chapter on identity, please do comment here. I'd like to take a look at it.
You asked: "Once you have Identified the problem do you think it can be fixed? Do you wish to elevate the sub-culture to mainstream-culture? Do you think by identifying the problems you will have the secret key to let you in it or give you mastery over it?"
I don't care about elevating the subculture to the mainstream culture. I do, however, certainly have no problem taking techniques used in the subculture and re-packaging them for the mainstream culture, and I think to do that the question of what makes magic beneficial is an important one to ask. That said, I don't think it's bad if the subculture evolves in new directions. At what point do we seek to make our own path instead of following the paths others already walked?
if i had a dime
one other thing
in case anybody noticed, some people "flagged" a post i made, because i used the F*** word.First off i wonder why anybody would even be on RS let alone a blog that is about "magick" and would object to the F word being used in a poem.This is what we are up against in the world, people.People are so suppressed that even on RS on a blog on "magick" we get attacked for creative expression.I don't know what kind of magic or magick you practice or don't, but i know that poets and writers should be able to say F**K with out being oppressed and censored on a site that stands for freedom of expression and creative expression.Every creative person i admire and read, including all the poets, are attacked for saying a word that stands for sex.Meanwhile we are attacked on all fronts that matter to human life on this planet. If there is any true magick or real magick in the world, then it is about freedom of expression or not at all, it is about what is truly obscene, and there is a constant discussion about that here on RS. Peace & Love and Diggers
p.S. i was flagged for another poem on another blog on RS in that poem there were no cuss words.Somebody is flag happy.
Fruk Falgs
Fruk falgs. The notion of words being offensive is the first and last gasp of power. Is the word duck 25% less ofensive? They would have many of them taken off us. Apparently though, if you rearrange their letters they become tolerable for use on media-fashionable T-shirts.. and completely readable by the human semantic mind.. ...Ever seen La Antenna?
No offense R.S. i'm thinking greater, I respect this haven.
When you need to park.
What does it prove that you make your own way as an entrepreneur? What does it matter that you want to repackage, yet again, transmissions of knowledge that are currently present in the active culture as well as sub-culture? What does it mater that you strive to create a "New" model of magic for others to buy in your books? What does it matter that you don't care? What does it matter that you think something is silly?
As you explore all that potential to be repackaged watch your footing because you are going to be doing your own leg work along the paths others already have walked.
"At what point do we seek to make our own path instead of following the paths others already walked?" When you need to park. Everybody needs something. You seem to need to give the appearance to have done it on your own, made your own way. Call that a selfish, self serving, silly need if you like.
[Wikipedia on the Wiccan Reed According to B.A. Robinson of the Ontario Consultants on Religious Tolerance, Crowley adopted this line from François Rabelais, who in 1534 wrote, "DO AS THOU WILT because men that are free, of gentle birth, well bred and at home in civilized company possess a natural instinct that inclines them to virtue and saves them from vice.]
Eventualy it is known how we connect with those that came before us.