Tag: thelema

hierophage:

Today, July 29th, let’s commemorate the passing of an oft unsung hero of the 19th century, a true spiritual vanguard on all fronts, Paschal Beverly Randolph. It was on this day at the age of 50 (and only a few days after his son Osiris was born) that Randolph opted to end his life in 1875 with a bullet to his brain. The path he cut was through rough terrain and it took a terrible toll. Lucky for us that follow the weeds have not completely reclaimed the road upon which he toiled. 

Randolph was born a true American in the sense that his ancestry was as complicated as the racial makeup of the country which he loved and fought to enlighten. His father came from the distinguished, genteel Randolph family of Virginia while his mother was of European, Native American and Malagasy heritage. In Randolph’s heritage we find all of the dynamics at play in America in the 19th century: the hypocritical Jeffersonian, the poor European laborer, the Native American, the Diasporic African. But this fusion of paradoxical cultures lent their strengths to Paschal in a way no other conventional family could have. 

Consequently, Randolph embraced the Jacksonian idea of the self-made man since he really had no other option than to be a rugged individualist. But he did so without sacrificing his intellectual strengths or his heterodox spiritual drives (both impulses are as American as apple pie but have always been seen as taboo anyway). As a teen he traveled the world in order to support himself and to expand his horizons and cultivate his yearning to understand the secrets of the Universe. He met and mingled in many of the occult circles of Paris and London, traveled throughout North Africa and the Middle East, and went as far east as Persia all before the age of 30. 

He was a pioneer in exploring non-ordinary states of awareness and promoted these states as a means to alleviate the ills of the world. As a Spiritualist and trance medium he often used this platform to educate the populace about social as well as spiritual issues. He also started the oldest recorded Rosicrucian society in the United States. Additionally he worked with magic mirrors, trance states induced with and without the aid of hashish and other entheogenic substances, sex magic and a host of other techniques. 

He was a champion of sexual freedom and the cultivation of sexual energy for spiritual ends. Many of his books like “Eulis! The History of Love” or “The Ansairetic Mystery – A New Revelation Concerning Sex!” were stunningly progressive works which fuse together the twin American obsessions for sex and the religious impulse in ways that few had seen stateside. 

As a defender of human rights he was a staunch abolitionist. After the Emancipation he taught freed slaves how to read and write in New Orleans (a city where he also eventually became a school principal). He was a friend of Lincoln and was the only African American in the president’s funeral procession. He also had ideas as radical as those of Garvey on how to protect African-Americans from the aggression of whites. 

He was and forever will be one of my great American heroes.

Cheers to PBR.

Short Verse to PBR

Caliban’s revenge against Prospero

You railed against the fools,

A tried and true

Green Hermeticist,

In lands not so hospitable

To learned men of color.

The Stone, yours,

Displayed brilliantly

Moony-wombs and Solar CMEs

Conjoined in erotic frisson,

Magnetized for the ages,

Is now ours

Per Aeternum.

-NRSYH

“The ejective moment, therefore, is the most divine and tremendously important one in the human career as an independent entity; for not only may we launch Genius, Power, Beauty, Deformity, Crime, Idiocy, Shame or Glory on the world’s great sea of Life, in the person of the children we may then produce, but we may plunge our own souls neck-deep in Hell’s horrid slime, or else mount the Azure as coequal associate Gods; for then the mystic Soul swings wide its Golden gates, opens its portals to the whole vast Universe and through them come trooping either Angels of Light or the Grizzly Presence from the dark corners of the Spaces.” 

– The Ansairetic Mystery

Source: hierophage

poeemindfckr:

One of my favorite deck, especially for analytical meditation and observation, VIA TAROT – The Path of Life

by Susan Jameson & John Bonner

With this Via Tarot of high artistic standard Susan Jameson deliberately picks up the thread of the famous Thoth Tarot deck conceived by Aliester Crowley and executed by Frieda Harris. But also with regard to its content the Via Tarot, which draws on Cabbalistic, alchemistic, astrological and magical sources, continues the occult, thelemistic tradition. The explanatory booklet was written by John Bonner, secretary O.T.O. UK

with a preface by Hymenaeus Beta, Frater Superior, O.T.O.

Source: poeemindfckr

poeemindfckr:

French translator and publisher of Aleister Crowley, Collagist, Poet and Photographer, Philippe Pissier is one of the most talented artists living in France. As a joke or as a ritual his art reveals alchemical connections between comic books and magick. His own creative insight is delicate and shy, beyond all knowledge or understanding. In other words, his art seeks to express simplicity among cacophony. – See more at: http://www.leatherarchives.org/collections/art/pissier/pissier.htm#sthash.mzMe5kOR.dpuf

http://pissierarchives.canalblog.com/

Source: poeemindfckr

Hemethterith

hijodelagua:

image

The divine ordeal of terror ended when I finally understood that there wasn’t a narrative on reality more solid than any other. And it was just afterwards that my heart was pierced and I couldn’t but fall in love.

For many years I identified the ocean of love I became surrounded by when I embraced confusion with the “Angel”. And it stayed. In occasional, scattered messages. A wink. A clue. Guiding me onwards.

As I made myself familiar with the rules of the now almost visible astral realm underlying reality, I realized that emotional intensity and willpower were key to manifestation. But it was the “ocean of love” that I wanted to experience again. However, manifesting things with the aid of magick might not be the best path there. After all, I had only reached that endless ocean when I had finally emptied myself.

Yet if what is manifested through the astral is a reflection of what is inside, a different point of view emerges. Wasn’t that ocean a reflection of an inner unknown self, seen only once the filters were clean? What if instead of an external Angel, it was a sparkle of the beauty that you might project if you work hard enough to become the Sun?

hijodelagua:

For Lacan & Zizek, sexuality -at least for the male gender- always needs a fantasy, fucks with this fantasy, so it is always hopelessly masturbatory. Arousal is due to the partner entering this fantasy frame. Now if this fantasy is the structuring principle of our sexuality, then in order to use it effectively for magick it could be a nice idea to manipulate it, turning it into something ecstatic, into a fantasy which involves a contact with a dimension of the divine.

Then, maybe the same way as the other person arouses us because it enters the fantasy frame, the divine entering through this might help this very divine thing manifesting, so those empty eyes can penetrate deeper than if they entered through the cracks of a sexual fantasy pointing to a physical body.

Source: hijodelagua

Through the Tunnels of Set: Yamatu, Temphioth, Characith,…

hijodelagua:

image

Lately I do not write much about magick here. A few months ago I used to write on my ongoing work with the Tunnels of Set, but its been long since I’ve felt like it.

Its not that I’ve stopped or anything. On the opposite, I go on and each and every tunnel implies some strong inner or outer experience. Sometimes both. This magical work has run so deep it is really difficult to think what to write about. Also, everything gets just way too personal.

My whole life has become a dance with the tunnels. Each and every meaningful event coordinates with the tunnel I’m exploring, and as I approach a new one so does my life change to become the next lesson I am to learn.

I expected it to be difficult and demanding, but not this much. I’m not complaining, though. I like it. Also even though I’ve seen magick work a thousand times I still have this skeptical mind inside which sometimes thinks it is all coincidence. Then I open yet another tunnel and a new set of utterly relevant events emerge, crushing my skepticism.

I was cuddled by my HGA when exploring Raflifu and was shown it all as a lie with Qulielfi. My almost six year relationship ended as I was exploring Malkunofat, and Kali mercylessly cut from my life that which was hindering me. I was lost at endless possibilities in Lafcursiax, and concluded that magick was the only real thing left to guide me. A person I knew took her life the same day I opened Niantiel, the Tunnel of Death, thus teaching me the appropriate lesson in the clearest and most painful way. When trying to find the Hermit’s light amidst the darkness of Yamatu, I was taught by a person from the sempiternal A.·.A.·. on the meaning of the visions I had had through the tunnels and the events that had happened, from the perspective of Thelema and its maps on the path of Initiation. I understood the path I had already walked, and where I am headed to.

Recently I met a person who shouldn’t be alive by all medical standards but whose unnatural strength embodies that of Characith, and even though most probably our joint walk will end in tragedy, it is almost time to close Characith and open the Tunnel of Zamradiel, under the aegis of The Lovers. There are 7 paths left to explore, out of 22. I can’t believe I’ve already explored 15 paths. I can’t believe I’ve survived this ordeal thus far.

No matter what happens, be it suffering or be it ecstasy, I will not let myself be broken.

theeyeofzoro:

THELEMIC   GREETINGS!
Jimmy, Charlotte & Scarlet Page

Imagine getting a Holiday card from Jimmy Page at the height of his success and instead of it saying “Merry Christmas” or the more politically correct “Happy Holidays”, it says instead… “Thelemic Greetings”.

Bob Freeman is an author, artist, and paranormal adventurer from rural Indiana, and also a member of the Aleister Crowley Society.  In February of 2011 Bob posted on his blog Occult Detective an entry regarding a set of greeting cards from Jimmy Page being for sale in the Weiser Antiquarian Catalog.   Weiser Antiquarian, has been one of the world’s leading suppliers of rare, secondhand, and out-of-print books on comparative religion, mysticism, and the occult for over 88 years.  

A set of hand signed greetings cards from Jimmy Page being sold from a private collection is not that all interesting.    However the images he had reproduced on the cover of these cards and what he had printed inside, is what intrigues me.   Specifically, what was the spiritual significance of the artwork chosen for these holiday cards? 

The first of the two privately printed greeting cards, was commissioned and sent out by Jimmy Page circa 1972 with the second one dated 1973.  Further the Weiser Catalog stated… The cards are:

a) A large (6″ x 8″ – when folded) undated greeting card privately produced for Jimmy Page and sent out by him circa Christmas 1972.  The card has a reproduction of a black and white work by Austin Osman Spare on the front.  Inside is the printed text “Jimmy Page / Plumpton Place / Plumpton Sussex.” Above this it is boldly signed “[name of recipient] 93 93/93 Jimmy Page.”

b) A large (6″ x 8″ – when folded) undated greeting card privately produced for Jimmy Page and sent out by him at Christmas 1973. It has a reproduction of a drawing by Aleister Crowley printed in dark red on the front, and inside has the printed text “Thelemic Greetings” / Jimmy, Charlotte & Scarlet Page / Plumpton Place / Plumpton Sussex.”  This card is NOT signed.

Despite Jimmy Page’s well-known interest in Thelema, items directly connecting him with the spiritual philosophy or religion that Aleister Crowley founded in 1904 with the writing of the Book of Law are extremely scarce.  Never mind associating Thelema indirectly to Jimmy’s partner Charlotte Martin and his daughter Scarlet.  

The artwork visible in the above image [Bottom Row-Left] is from the actual Weiser Catalog listing for the cards.  It shows the Aleister Crowley drawing b) and Austin Osman Spare’s Portrait of the Artist (1907) a) tucked behind the card with Crowley drawing.  Phil Baker, author of several books on Austin Osman Spare, chose this very image for the cover of  “Austin Osman Spare – The Occult Life of London’s Legendary Artist”, and states on page 46 of this book that this image is in the private collection of Jimmy Page.  It is further stated in the one sheet for this book… “that the world’s largest Spare collection is held by Jimmy Page of Led Zeppelin.”

This Austin Osman Spare self portrait was painted in 1907.  In October of 1907, Spare held his first major exhibition, titled simply “Black and White Drawings by Austin O Spare”, at the Bruton Gallery in London’s West End.  Attracting widespread interest and sensational views in the press, he was widely compared to Aubrey Beardsley, with reviewers commenting on what they saw as the eccentric and grotesque nature of his work. The World commented that “his inventive faculty is stupendous and terrifying in its creative flow of impossible horrors”, while The Observer noted that “Mr. Spare’s art is abnormal, unhealthy, wildly fantastic and unintelligible”.

Baker writes in his book [that ‘Portrait of the Artist’]…“It is a remarkable work of Edwardian black-and-white art, and if only this one work survived people would say ‘Who was that artist…?’  Baker also provides a great interpretation of this self portrait on pages 46 through 48.  

Spare depicts himself staring straight at the viewer with a remarkably unique hand gesture.  In front of him, on an idealized desk, are over twenty objects.  Some objects are typically found on a desk and others appear to be from his creative minds eye. 

The description inside the card, “[name of recipient] 93 93/93 Jimmy Page” followed by / Plumpton Place / Plumpton Sussex, is very similar to what has been discovered to have been sent by Page to Grady Louis McMurtry.  Grady, the student of Aleister Crowley, is best known for reviving the fraternal organization, Ordo Templi Orientis, which Grady headed from 1971 until his death in 1985.   

I found what appears to be actual images of the second greeting card on Lashtal.com, The Home of Aleister Crowley Society.  This card was sent out circa Christmas 1973 and features an Untitled drawing by Aleister Crowley dated Aquarius I7 [1934] whose media was pen and ink on paper.   This drawing was on exhibit in April of 1998 at the October Gallery in London.  Aleister Crowley: Paintings and Drawings – A Retrospective Exhibition was the first time Crowley’s expressionist drawings were shown in public since 1931.  The exhibition was made possible by Kenneth Anger and the OTO archives along with private collections.  The above drawing was listed as “Private Collection”.   If the first card had a reproduction of artwork now owned by Page, could the original work of this drawing also be owned by Page?

Interestingly a plate of this very drawing was created for inclusion in Kenneth Grant’s 1994 book titled “Beyond The Mauve Zone”.   This same Crowley drawing can be found on page 190 as plate 12. captioned “If I droop down mine head, and shoot forth venom…”. (AL. II. 26)  A quote from Aleister Crowley’s Liber AL, (also known as The Book of the Law) Chapter II passage 26.

Page’s Thelemic Holiday Card, sent out 39 years after it was drawn, says nothing about what the artist was depicting, as neither did the wall card at the exhibition in 1998, 64 years after it’s release.  Does Kenneth Grant’s caption give us some insight to the meaning behind this drawing?

Grant, a close personal friend to Austin Osman Spare and secretary to Aleister Crowley was granted by Karl Germer to run a UK OTO lodge from 1951 to 1955.   Germer expelled Grant from the OTO for taking his Nu-Isis lodge in a direction Germer felt was inconsistent with the teaching’s of Crowley.   Grant ignored this and ran his Nu-Isis lodge from 1955-1962.  From 1962 to 1969 little is known about Grant other than in 1969 he appointed himself OHO or the Outer Head of the OTO.  Essentially, according to Kenneth Grant, he was running the OTO worldwide, from London.  Also in 1969 Grady McMurtry, “invoked emergency authorization” from Crowley and became the Frater Superior of O.T.O.   Grady did not acknowledge the OHO office, and remained in this O.T.O. leadership position till his death in 1985. 

Minimal correspondence from Page to McMurty is known to exist, other than a card similar to the one depicted here.   However, there exists on the internet several copies of letters from McMurtry to Page wanting to discuss Page’s plans with the Boleskine property, that Page purchased in 1970, a property formerly owned by Crowley and considered a Kiblah of Thelema.

The schism between the Grady O.T.O. and Grant O.T.O. is well documented on the internet.  Question is, did Thelemites have to pick sides, like Rap musicians did during the East Coast & West Coast Rap Schism?

Did Page lend this drawing to both Kenneth Grant for inclusion in his 1994 book and the Crowley 1998 exhibition?  

None of this is as interesting as what is being referenced in Grant’s caption on page 190 of his book “Beyond The Mauve Zone”.  This line is a from section of Crowley’s Liber AL or The Book of The Law, Chapter  II passage 26 and references Hadit.   

The second chapter of Liber AL is spoken by Hadit, who refers to himself as the “complement of Nu,” his bride.  As such, he is the infinitely condensed point, the center of her infinite circumference. Crowley says of him, “He is eternal energy, the Infinite Motion of Things, the central core of all being.

Hadit is also the Secret Seed. In The Book of the Law he says; “I am alone: there is no god where I am.”. He is “the flame that burns in every heart of man, and in the core of every star.”.  He is identified with kundalini; in The Book of the Law he says, “I am the Secret Serpent coiled about to spring: in my coiling there is joy. If I lift up my head, I and my Nuit are one. If I droop down mine head, and shoot forth venom, then is rapture of the earth, and I and the earth are one. There is great danger in me…”

Crowley’s drawing depicts a snake, a symbol for Kundalini.

Hadit is the Fire of Desire at the Heart of Matter (Nuit). The combination of the upward-pointing triangle of Hadit and the downward-pointing triangle of Nuit forms the Star of Spirit (the Hexagram). The union of the infinitely small Hadit and the infinitely great Nuit causes an explosive rapture which leads to samādhi.  Grant showing a plate on the very opposite page with a hexagram seems perfectly well placed.  

Hadit’s symbols are our Sun, the serpent, the Fire Snake, the star Sothis, the planet Pluto, sperm, the Will, the winged globe, the Hermit, and the hidden flame.

Is it a coincidence that Jimmy Page’s ZoSo sigil itself has two circles with a dot in the center?  A symbol described as above referencing Hadit.

Jimmy Page’s passion for art and its influence on his career is very interesting to me.   The choice for this image on a “Thelemic Greeting” card is very spiritual indeed.   I suspect it represents the Kundalini as divine creative energy, but I will never really know its personal significance to Page  as his choice for the card.

The simple fact remains that the artwork of both Austin Osman Spare and Aleister Crowley were prominently displayed on these holiday cards and on the walls of Jimmy Page’s Equinox Bookshop.   Both Spare and Crowley were artists and practicioners of systems of Magick who knew each other, and both knew Kenneth Grant. 

Did Page know Grant?  It’s hard to believe that they didn’t know each other.  They both lived in London and Miami at roughly the same time and the community of Thelemites interested in original works by both Crowley and Spare is very small and secretive.   Page admits at a minimum reading books co-edited by Symonds and Grant, and has amassed a large collection of works that may have been sourced by Grant.    

Interesting facts regarding Spare is that he submitted several drawings for publication in Crowley’s Thelemite journal, The Equinox, receiving payment in the form of an expensive ritual robe.  Spare was also invited to join Crowley’s Thelemite magical order, the A∴A∴ or Argenteum Astrum.   However Spare shortly fell out with Crowley.  

Spare’s system of Sigil Magick has influenced an entire movement called Chaos Magick and Key to Spare’s magico-religious views were the dual concepts of Zos and Kia.  Spare described “Zos” as the human body and mind, and would later adopt the term as a pseudonym for himself.   Spare gave himself the magickal name “Zos”, and like Page he was a Capricorn who’s ruling planet was Saturn.   Is it a strong coincidence that Jimmy Page gave himself the name Zoso?  Maybe, maybe not.

Follow TheEyeOfZoro for more on the Magickal Life of Jimmy Page

Source: theeyeofzoro

David Bowie and the Occult — The Laughing Gnostic — Magick and Gnosticism — Golden Dawn — Aleister Crowley — Kabbalah — Kenneth Anger — Arthur E. Waite — Chime (Chimi) Youngdong Rimpoche — Charles Manson — Dion Fortune — Derek Jarman — Tree of Life — Sephirot — from Kether to Malkuth — cabbala — Qabalah — Steve Schapiro — Hitler — fascism — Third Reich — King Arthur — William Burroughs — Victoria & Albert Museum

occultvisions:

THE LAUGHING GNOSTIC, DAVID BOWIE AND THE OCCULT.

David Bowie and the Occult — The Laughing Gnostic — Magick and Gnosticism — Golden Dawn — Aleister Crowley — Kabbalah — Kenneth Anger — Arthur E. Waite — Chime (Chimi) Youngdong Rimpoche — Charles Manson — Dion Fortune — Derek Jarman — Tree of Life — Sephirot — from Kether to Malkuth — cabbala — Qabalah — Steve Schapiro — Hitler — fascism — Third Reich — King Arthur — William Burroughs — Victoria & Albert Museum

Dreams as a Compass

nv11:

Dreams can be a compass when you’re doing workings which fall outside of reason or logic.

For the past little while I’ve been in the midst of magical operations which work on very subtle aspects of my self.. The goal is essentially to discover the true nature of myself, my true will you could call it. To align my conscious self with my unconscious.

The great difficulty with this is that anything you can consciously think of is filtered through both the true will and the false will. The “me” who is deep inside is always present but by the time anything reaches my conscious mind it is muddled with all the imprints and conditioning that I have accumulated in life.

In a situation like this you can’t trust a single thought that comes into your mind. Any one of those thoughts could be a traitor in the mix, even the ones which seem like brilliant ideas. In fact, the ones that seem like brilliant ideas turn out to be traitors quite often.

How do, then? How do? Luckily we have an avenue in which the true self gets more control than our conscious self. Dreams. As Crowley has stated in Liber Aleph the places, characters, and objects in our dreams are often results of our conscious experiences. Yet the feeling of the dream, the events, and arrangements of symbols are all aspects which the unconscious takes control of.

Ecstatic dreams signal that we are coming closer to our true will in the area of the topic that the dream was based on. Terrifying, sad, or violent dreams are signals that we are moving far from our true will.

As an example if you have a dream about your love life in which you are filled with anxiety, and the events of the dream are violent, then your approach to love is coming from a position of false will. If, on the contrary, you have a beautiful and enjoyable dream about love then your perspective on love is in alignment with your True Self (or unconscious self).

This allows us to tiptoe around the traitors Reason and Logic. It allows us to receive messages, more or less directly, from our unconscious.

The transmission may be partially delayed, but that is a small price to pay for a tool which allows you to avoid all the wretched confusion the thinking mind creates. Personally I’d rather make slow progress towards the right destination instead of taking leaps in random directions and hoping I end up at the right place.