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


TOP | OCCULTISM | MAGIC

TMaroney: Magick and Psychology

To: alt.magick.tyagi,alt.magick,alt.pagan.magick,talk.religion.misc
From: tyagi@houseofkaos.abyss.com (nagasiva)
Subject: TMaroney: Magick and Psychology
Date: 3 May 1997 03:20:18 -0700

[from thelema93-l@hollyfeld.org: Tim Maroney ]

>Further, as Magick is the *art* , as well as the science, of causing
>change in accordance with Will, I'm not sure that a *complete* replacement
>of poetic, religious or mystical metaphor with scientific and
>psychological terminology is automatically a Universally Good Thing.

Whether it's possible to model mystical and magical phenomena in 
psychological language is a different question from whether we will be 
able to get good results by using that bloodless language in our 
practices. I don't believe in deities, but I use them in ritual because I 
just can't work up the same emotional dynamic towards a statement of 
psychological or philosophical principle as towards an 
anthropomorphization (or at least, I have not succeeded in doing so yet).

I regard the declarative content of a ritual as fiction but the critical 
and psychological description of a ritual as a separate and non-fictional 
domain. In traditional occultism these two domains are mixed, which has 
led to a great deal of confusion. Ritual on the face of it often makes 
direct assertions about the nature of the universe and about the entities 
populating it, and exegesis has served to reinforce this by treating the 
statements made in ritual as if they were factual. I think we can only 
make progress here by embracing the fictional as such.

For instance, we should not ask "is the HGA the metaprogrammer?" but 
"what psychological phenomena could give rise to the experience 
characterized as K&C of the HGA?" Perhaps we'll arrive back at the 
metaprogrammer through exploring this question, or perhaps not, but 
starting with the HGA as an entity and looking for another entity with 
which to correlate it is jumping to conclusions.

Tim Maroney
-- 
see http://www.hollyfeld.org/~tyagi/nagasiva.html  and  call: 408/2-666-SLUG!!!
 ----  (emailed replies may be posted)  ----  CC public replies to author ---- 
 * * * Asphalta Cementia Metallica Polymera Coyote La Cucaracha Humana * * *

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