THE
ARCANE
ARCHIVE

a cache of usenet and other text files pertaining
to occult, mystical, and spiritual subjects.


TOP | OCCULTISM | MAGIC

Eden, Magical Tools and Emotions

To: thelema93-l@bitsy.hollyfeld.org
From: tyagi@HOUSEOFKAOS.ABYSS.COM (xiwangmu)
Subject: Eden, Magical Tools and Emotions
Date: Fri, 23 Aug 1996 12:08:31 -0700 (PDT)

49960823 AA1  Hail Satan!  Kaos Day!!

if 'do what you want' is the whole law, can we ever be sure we've broken it?

E6

Mu:
#> >#>...the Fall of human arrogance to presume a god beyond terra.

Bantik:
#> >#...If terra is the only god, then what of the space outside of our little
#> >#gravity well? Terra's influence doesn't extend far beyond the moon.

Mu:
#> >few of us will likely ascend beyond Luna either.  Terra is our origin
#> >and our Mom.  treating Her otherwise strikes me as disrespectful.  no
#> >more grand a god than She do I desire.

J B Bell :
#Mu, surely you don't mean to condemn the ambition of moving out of our 
#home eventually, when we grow up?  

I don't condemn it, but I don't laud it either.  this concept works for
some of us and not for others.  let those who have the 'get out of it'
spirit begone!  explore!!  raise toads in space!

let those of us who find continual gravity-sinking and peaceful nature-
worship to the tending of the ailing biosphere (whom we know as deity).

'growing up' is a modern ambition.  I like your 'returning to the source'
pointers (returning to Eden) and the 'filmy gauze' ideas.  strikes me as
nearer my own heart.  some Easterners suggest that we need not move from
the spot we've been planted as the whole cosmos may be found in our back
yard.  I'm inclined to agree (having lived my 34 years in roughly the same
geographical region (a radius of about 10 miles).


#I agree that transcendentalism is a disease, but I don't wish to return 
#to the vegetative cycles of early agrarian societies.  Surely there must 
#be a compromise possible.  

yes I don't see the value in that either.  thus I chant:

	Asphalta Cementia Metallica Polymera Coyote La Cuckaracha Humana

				and

	We're all going to the Compost
	Whether we are boxed or burned
	Like a fluidless skiptoad
	Flung into a landfill


#...as far as gods beyond Terra goes, well, if I plan on moving out 
#from under Mom's wing eventually, assuredly it pays me to make some 
#contacts for future employment and housing, eh?  

not condemning it, I just don't think it works for everyone.  the One
Solution bit doesn't appeal to me.  diversity is a key I value.


#...I have withdrawn temporarily from the game of creation/destruction, 
#to hone my Will.

precisely.  sliding betwixt the Poles, how can I not perceive the Glory?


#...I still find the temple preparations Crowley describes to be 
#hideously baroque.  I think an altar is great, but we have dagger, 
#chain, scourge (of copper with bits o' *lead*--yow!), oil (okay, I 
#like the oil), sword, cup, pantacle, and wand!  Where the hell do 
#you put all that stuff?  

most of it can be placed within the altar itself, the blade(s) a
possible exception.  it strikes me that these are as much metaphors
of interior elements as they are exterior and as such may require
different levels of manifestation for different aspirants (some
benefitting most from the procurement or, better, construction of
all of them, some only on the astral or in alternative forms).


#...I've chosen to enter into a practice that assuredly most Chaotes 
#consider stuffy at best, and I'm considering doing a Minerval at the 
#first opportunity in the O.T.O.--an Order that's so conspicuously Orderly 
#in most people's minds, that even plenty of Thelemites find it positively 
#noxious (so to speak).  This is out of a simple recognition that I am 
#tired of fucking about so much, and would like a little discipline, and I 
#find it easier to discipline myself when I have a curriculum.

that is why I entered unto the Order, as a discipline.  what better challenge
for those of KaOs than to grapple with the Orderlies?!


#...perhaps I'll find all those toys are really great, but somehow I do 
#doubt that.  Would others more experienced care to comment?  

I have made some of these objects, though not often in the forms which
the Master specified.  example: I have a plastic left-over honeybear
container (spout-head) which holds the Oil of Anointment).  there have
been others which come and go.  big altars help.  I haven't been moved
to construct the dimensionalities and form of the ABBAic Enochialtar,
though I have known people who did and found it rather efficacious for
the type of workings which ceremonialists are typically prone (I am not).

as a form of discipline (a la Eastern martial arts) I would suggest that
the most extreme is best (such as metallurgy and the actual pounding of
the sword/dagger/etc.), yet not all of us are called to this extreme.

then there is the alternative Quest for the Perfect Weapon which takes
one about the world for the purposes of location and acquisition (many
and varied are the rules which have grown up in tradition surrounding
how this should be done also).

my own methods have been a jumble, at times constructing wholesale with
simple tools (a wand carved out of rosewood, sigilized, consecrated, 
then in some odd way dedicated to the Spider-Goddess), at times procured
at expense (a ring of white gold, carefully designed, functioning first
as for my secular, later for my monastic, wedding, occasionally 
functioning as a tool of patience and grounding).  

however, in my own unorthodox and intuitive path I find the best tools
are those which have deep emotional and/or symbolic significance to me,
and in this way being neither very difficult of fabrication (they are
often gifts) nor procurement (often very inexpensive).  I've often taken
to creating new tools out of old for particular workings (using the red
felt triangle bequeathed to me in Thelemic initiation as a handle for 
the stylus with which I signed my Pact with Satan, for example).

I have never (as can perhaps be inferred from the above) undertaken the
construction or procurement of weapons/tools *as a discipline* (as 
compared to entering into my Order, another matter, though related), so
the best I can offer you here is a fleeting glimpse of its experience. 


#...hate is a nasty impulse that divides the person against his or her 
#self.  

reminds me of "divided for love's sake"


#From a pragmatic viewpoint, anger can be helpful, as it may give the 
#necessary energy for self-defense, but hatred, the dehumanizing of 
#another human, serves only despots who wish to commit murder without 
#having to experience it.  

I'm very very glad to hear someone discern hatred from anger.  I have
tended to associate them directly in that to me hatred is anger 
personalized.  I may be angry about nothing of which I am aware, but to
hate I must have an object of hatred, be it person or event or circumstance.

Jambowlsky (sp?) writes that _Love is Letting Go of Fear_, being polar
opposites, and I'm inclined to agree.  very often that which I hate I 
am obsessed with just as much as was I in love with it (esp. in this
latter term's more popular meanings).

more often than not I see *self-hatred*, and it has been of some concern
to me -- women's hatred of flesh, men's hatred of homosexuality, people's
hatred of the Alien.  it seems an extreme to which those who feel
repulsed draw near (yes, often via violation) to the object of our
loathing (or at least what we take it to be), like two poles of a 
flexible magnet forced together and struggling with all their force to 
reject and eliminate the charge of the Other.


#Love is altogether a healthier thing, when directed toward the 
#worthy, though it, too, can destroy if foolishly misdirected.

I'm unsure what 'health' is, really.  I was reading the other day a text
where someone specifically said that the times when we are the most
'healthy' are when we are ill!  perhaps they meant that we are finally
feeling the out-of-placeness which is forever rampant, or that our limbic
system has generated 'health-substances' which rejuvenated, or some 
other support, I cannot be sure (the latter paves the way for a whole
Metaphysics of Medicine whereby our activity -- sex magick, for example --
might be used to generate interior (astral/material) substances as per
the Elixir of Immortality).

as I have heard there are many kinds of 'love' (the Greeks apparently
taxonomized it in a manner reflective of Eskimo's categorization of 'snow'),
I'm unsure how we can generalize so easily.  I have seen what was called
'love' lead to interminable and horrific suffering, yet also to incomparable
joy.  it is said that 'worthiness' ought be determined not by who also
generates beneficence (compensation) but who does not (need).  this seems 
a Christian masochistic teaching about cheeks and slapping, however. ;>

if love is the law, what is the penalty for breaking it?

tyagi@houseofkaos.abyss.com
mu


The Arcane Archive is copyright by the authors cited.
Send comments to the Arcane Archivist: tyaginator@arcane-archive.org.

Did you like what you read here? Find it useful?
Then please click on the Paypal Secure Server logo and make a small
donation to the site maintainer for the creation and upkeep of this site.

The ARCANE ARCHIVE is a large domain,
organized into a number of sub-directories,
each dealing with a different branch of
religion, mysticism, occultism, or esoteric knowledge.
Here are the major ARCANE ARCHIVE directories you can visit:
interdisciplinary: geometry, natural proportion, ratio, archaeoastronomy
mysticism: enlightenment, self-realization, trance, meditation, consciousness
occultism: divination, hermeticism, amulets, sigils, magick, witchcraft, spells
religion: buddhism, christianity, hinduism, islam, judaism, taoism, wicca, voodoo
societies and fraternal orders: freemasonry, golden dawn, rosicrucians, etc.

SEARCH THE ARCANE ARCHIVE

There are thousands of web pages at the ARCANE ARCHIVE. You can use ATOMZ.COM
to search for a single word (like witchcraft, hoodoo, pagan, or magic) or an
exact phrase (like Kwan Yin, golden ratio, or book of shadows):

Search For:
Match:  Any word All words Exact phrase

OTHER ESOTERIC AND OCCULT SITES OF INTEREST

Southern Spirits: 19th and 20th century accounts of hoodoo, including slave narratives & interviews
Hoodoo in Theory and Practice by cat yronwode: an introduction to African-American rootwork
Lucky W Amulet Archive by cat yronwode: an online museum of worldwide talismans and charms
Sacred Sex: essays and articles on tantra yoga, neo-tantra, karezza, sex magic, and sex worship
Sacred Landscape: essays and articles on archaeoastronomy, sacred architecture, and sacred geometry
Lucky Mojo Forum: practitioners answer queries on conjure; sponsored by the Lucky Mojo Curio Co.
Herb Magic: illustrated descriptions of magic herbs with free spells, recipes, and an ordering option
Association of Independent Readers and Rootworkers: ethical diviners and hoodoo spell-casters
Freemasonry for Women by cat yronwode: a history of mixed-gender Freemasonic lodges
Missionary Independent Spiritual Church: spirit-led, inter-faith, the Smallest Church in the World
Satan Service Org: an archive presenting the theory, practice, and history of Satanism and Satanists
Gospel of Satan: the story of Jesus and the angels, from the perspective of the God of this World
Lucky Mojo Usenet FAQ Archive: FAQs and REFs for occult and magical usenet newsgroups
Candles and Curios: essays and articles on traditional African American conjure and folk magic
Aleister Crowley Text Archive: a multitude of texts by an early 20th century ceremonial occultist
Spiritual Spells: lessons in folk magic and spell casting from an eclectic Wiccan perspective
The Mystic Tea Room: divination by reading tea-leaves, with a museum of antique fortune telling cups
Yronwode Institution for the Preservation and Popularization of Indigenous Ethnomagicology
Yronwode Home: personal pages of catherine yronwode and nagasiva yronwode, magical archivists
Lucky Mojo Magic Spells Archives: love spells, money spells, luck spells, protection spells, etc.
      Free Love Spell Archive: love spells, attraction spells, sex magick, romance spells, and lust spells
      Free Money Spell Archive: money spells, prosperity spells, and wealth spells for job and business
      Free Protection Spell Archive: protection spells against witchcraft, jinxes, hexes, and the evil eye
      Free Gambling Luck Spell Archive: lucky gambling spells for the lottery, casinos, and races