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To: alt.magick,alt.magick.tyagi,alt.pagan.magick,alt.magick.moderated,alt.activism
From: nagasiva@luckymojo.com (nigris (333))
Subject: Of Armchair Magicians and Thallophytic Thelemites
Date: 17 Nov 1996 00:02:40 -0800

49961017  AA1  Hail Satan!

E6

a needler,
> From: solis 

wrote:
> Sheep in wolves clothing.
 
> ...really interesting takes on Thelema... who determines who is "scum" 
> and who is doing their "will"?

we all do.  that's the beauty of it.

 
> The truth is, most Thelemites wont do anything.  They will sit in front
> of their computers until their eyes hurt, then they will stare at the TV
> screen until they fall asleep.

here I sit in front of the computer screen, my eyes strained, having been
at it all day long (and a few days previous as well).  was revising the
_Mage's Guide to the Internet_ ( http://www.hollyfeld.org/magi ), noticing
that the work is never done, the revision required becoming continuous so
as not to let living breathing Web-links escape as they mutate and slough
off their old carcass-addresses.

here am I, the Emperor of the Armchair Magicians, dreaming vast visions,
placing them in a subtle gossamer which dissolves even as I watch, all
around me.  

do I face the East, South, West and North to Call the Quarters or Banish 
the 'Kakodaimonos'?  no, I merely sit facing the West and my one-eyed 
altar of silicon and steel, the Machine Messiah.  do I wave my tools
about me in a fierce display of raw chakratic power?  no, I merely move
my fingers in complex patterns, composing patterned language upon the
rectangle-eye of my worship.  do I perchance shift from my position
and engage the teeming hordes in their revelrous and protestant parties,
displaying my acumen in persuasion and glamor?  no, once in a while I
get up for food, to piss, and fetch a book from the library, inspired
to continue my technocratic dissolution.  here let me read to you 
something your words inspired me to find:

		It is my Will to inform the World of certain
		facts within my knowledge.  I therefore take
		"magical weapons", pen, ink, and paper; I
		write "incantations" -- these sentences --
		in the "magical language" i.e. that which is
		understood by the people I wish to instruct;
		I call forth "spirits"; such as printers,
		publishers, booksellers, and so forth, and
		constrain them to convey my message to those
		people.  The composition and distribution of
		this book is thus an act of

				MAGICK

		by which I cause Changes to take place in
		conformity with my Will!)

		_Magick in Theory and Practice_, Crowley,
		  Dover Publications, NY, 1976;, p. XIII.
		__________________________________________


		_(11) Science enables us to take advantage of 
		the continuity of Nature by the empirical
		application of certain principles whose
		interplay involves different orders of idea
		connected with each other in a way beyond
		our present comprehension_....

		_(21) There is no limit to the extent of the
		relations of any man with the Universe in
		essence; for as soon as man makes himself
		one with any idea the means of measurement
		cease to exist.  But his power to utilize
		that force is limited by his mental power
		and capacity, and by the circumstances of
		his human environment_....  

		_(23) Magick is the Science of understanding
		oneself and one's conditions.  It is the Art
		of applying that understanding in action_....

		_(24) Every man has an indefeasible right to
		be what he is._  (Illustration: To insist
		that any one else shall comply with one's
		own standards is to outrage, not only him,
		but oneself, since both parties are equally
		born of necessity.)

		_(25) Every man must do Magick each time that
		he acts or even thinks, since a thought is
		an internal act whose influence ultimately
		affects action, though it may not do so at
		the time_.

		Ibid; pp. XV-XX.
		__________________________________________


oh and

		He was dressed in a flowing gown with fur
		tippets which had the signs of the zodiac
		embroidered over it, with various cabal-
		istic signs, such as triangles with eyes
		in them, queer crosses, leaves of trees,
		bones of birds and animals, and a planet-
		arium whose stars shone like bits of
		looking-glass with the sun on them.  He
		had a pointed hat like a dunce's cap, or
		like the headgear worn by ladies of that
		time.... 

		[He] had a long white beard and long 
		white moustaches which hung down on
		either side of it.  Close inspection
		showed that he was far from clean.  It
		was not that he had dirty fingernails,
		or anything like that, but some large
		bird seemed to have been nesting in
		his hair....  The old man was steaked
		with droppings over his shoulders,
		among the stars and triangles of his
		gown, and a large spider was slowly
		lowering itself from the tip of his
		hat, as he gazed and slowly blinked
		at the little boy in front of him.  He 
		had a worried expression, as though
		he were trying to remember some name
		which began with Chol but which was
		pronounced in quite a different way,
		possibly Menzies or was it Danziel?
		His mild blue eyes, very big and 
		round under the tarantula spectacles,
		gradually filmed and clouded as he
		gazed at the boy, and then turned his
		head away with a resigned expression,
		as though it was all too much for him
		after all....

		...Finally, when they had got them-
		selves into the black and white
		with as much trouble as if they were
		burgling it, he climbed up the ladder
		after his host and found himself in
		the upstairs room.

		It was the most marvellous room that
		he had ever been in.

		There was a real corkindrill hanging
		from the rafters, very lifelike and
		horrible with glass eyes and scaly
		tail stretched out behind it.  When
		its master came into the room it
		winked one eye in salutation, although
		it was stuffed.  There were thousands
		of brown books in leather bindings,
		some chained to the book-shelves and
		others propped against each other as
		if they had had too much to drink and
		did not really trust themselves.  
		These gave out a smell of must and
		solid brownness which was most secure.
		Then there were stuffed birds,
		poppinjays, and maggot-pies and king-
		fishers, and peacocks with all their
		feathers but two, and tiny birds like
		beetles, and a reputed phoenix which
		smelt of incense and cinnamon.  It
		could not have been a real phoenix,
		because there is only of of these at
		at a time.  Over by the mantelpiece
		there was a fox's mask, with GRAFTON,
		BUCKINGHAM TO DAVENTRY, 2 HRS 20 MINS
		written under it, and also a forty-
		pound salmon with AWE, 43 MIN.,
		BULLDOG written under it, and a very
		life-like basilisk with CROWHURST
		OTTER HOUNDS in Roman print.  There
		were several boars' tusks and the
		claws of tigers and libbards mounted 
		in symmetrical patterns, and a big 
		head of Ovis Poli, six live grass 
		snakes in a kind of aquarium, some 
		nests of the solitary wasp nicely 
		set up in a glass cylinder, an 
		ordinary beehive whose inhabitants 
		went in and out of the window 
		unmolested, two young hedgehogs
		in cotton wool, a pair of badgers 
		which immediately began to cry 
		Yik-Yik-Yik-Yik in loud voices as 
		soon as the magician appeared, twenty 
		boxes which contained stick 
		caterpillars and sixths of the 
		puss-moth, and even an oleander that 
		was worth sixpence -- all feeding on 
		the appropriate leaves -- a guncase 
		with all sorts of weapons which 
		would not be invented for half a 
		thousand years, a rod-box ditto, a 
		chest of drawers full of salmon flies 
		which had been tied by Merlyn himself, 
		another chest whose drawers were 
		labelled Mandragora, Old Man's Beard, 
		etc., a bunch of turkey feathers and 
		goose-quills for making pens, an 
		astrolabe, twelve pairs of boots, a 
		dozen purse-nets, three dozen rabbit 
		wires, twelve corkscrews, some ants' 
		nests between two glass plates, 
		ink-bottles of every possible colour 
		from red to violet, darning-needles, 
		a gold medal for being the best 
		scholar at Winchester, four or five 
		recorders, a nest of field mice all 
		alive-o, two skulls, plenty of cut 
		glass, Venetian glass, Bristol glass 
		and a bottle of Mastic varnish, some 
		satsuma china and some cloisonne, the 
		fourteenth edition of the Encyclopedia 
		Brittanica (marred as it was by the 
		sensationalism of the popular plates), 
		two paint-boxes (one oil, one water-
		colour), three globes of the known 
		geographical world, a few fossils, the 
		stuffed head of a cameleopard, six 
		pismires, some glass retorts with 
		cauldrons, bunsen burners, etc., and a 
		complete set of cigarette cards 
		depicting water fowl by Peter Scott.
		-----------------------------------------
		_The Once and Future King_, by T.H.White,
		     G.P.Putnam's Sons, NY; pp. 22-5.
		_________________________________________


So with thy all, thou hast no right but to do thy will,

nigris (333)
nagasiva@luckymojo.com