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To: alt.magick.tyagi,alt.magick,alt.pagan.magick,alt.thelema,talk.religion.misc,talk.religion.newage,alt.recovery.religion
From: tyagi@houseofkaos.abyss.com (nigris (333))
Subject: Anger at Fundies and Thelemic Response
Date: 12 Jan 1998 15:16:55 -0800

49971111 aa2 Hail Satan!  Alien Angel Day!  Open the Door!  Beam them down!

E6

Patrick Crumhorn:
#> The best psychic warfare against your enemies is to erase them from
#> your thoughts, utterly and completely.  Anyone who professes (or even
#> aspires to) Mastery ought to be able to deal with these issues of Severe
#> Emotional Attachment to Things they Hate....(etc.)
 
Michael S Miller <"us,ppp,msquare"@ix13.ix.netcom.com>:
# ...loathing those organizations collectively called the 'religious right.' 
# This hatred DOES interfere with my tranquility, and I find I am only
# able to remove it while in a 'gnostic state of mind' (i.e., meditative
# or magical).  Dealing with them while in 'consensual reality' strains my
# nerves to the limit.

I wonder what either of you mean by 'dealing with them' here.  I find that
most religious and occult folx typically mean 'make them go away' (that
is, repress them).


#     How does the rest of the list deal with this? (I truly find it hard
# to believe that I am the only one with this issue....)

there are a number of tacks to take in response to this post.  one might
explain how one handles anger and what one does to channel it toward
less difficult routes, how vision in the meditative state of uninvolvement
and nonattachment can be a bridge to distancing oneself from those areas
with which one has difficulty, or the most extreme will no doubt advise
some means of changing these feelings through biofeedback, extended and
inclusive studies, or psycho-maturitive ritual.

I would personally rather explain how it is that I go about encountering,
assimilating, absolving and opposing these (often deluded or very
deceptive) fundamentalists.  it has been an 'issue' for me since I first
came into contact with religious (whom I've often found both fascinating
and frustrating).

the first method I found was encountering them within my philosophic
studies.  engaging a study of philosophy of religion I began to try to
see how the various religious pathways took to answering the age-old
questions which I found either poorly-asked or impossible to resolve.
I met with divinity students, pastors, and usually the religious
themselves and asked them innumerable questions, posing as strong and
persuasive arguments against their presumptions as I could muster. 

I still do this upon occasion, but I have curtailed it once I began 
to notice common patterns of mental habituation in the religious
culture and resistance to honest self-examination.  today I will only
take to this method with those broadly-read in their scripture and 
tempered of spirit (with whom I can respectfully disagree and we can
remain cordial), decreasing my ignorance and learning new ideas.

assimilation has taken me a long time, mostly because I loathe those
who play at being intelligent without substance to back it up, and
hypocritical often without awareness of this failing.  the greatest
barrier has been an understanding of what the terms conservative
religious use when they mouth their standard rhetoric.  I tried to
ask questions which gave me insight into their motivations for
adopting these memes, how what they said differed from my favorite
mystics and philosophers who bothered to explain the complexities
and subtleties of idea with which their origins may typically be 
assigned.

with some I found their clarity of expression lent me easy access
to identifying with their paradigm (albeit metaphorically rather
than literally :>).  Jehovah's Witnesses were a joy, and the
range of conservatives varies considerably, usually taking to 
their religion in a different way than myself (not rationally but
emotionally or for reasons of affiliation and security).  I'm
still piecing this together, though I've constructed several
interpretations of the standard fundie rhetoric from which to
operate in discussion with the conservative of a variety of
religious pathways (it is sometimes fun to enter into conversation 
using these and watch the fireworks).

absolution is hard for me to come by, since my values are almost
180 degrees opposite of the typical fundamentalist.  usually I
must pose ecumenical or relativistic philosophical questions and
assertions against my own biases so as to break myself of them even
temporarily.  I don't always find this valuable as it interrupts
my standard religious motivations and deep values, but if I want
to come to an understanding of the religious right and resolve any
difficulties I may be having in the area of judgement and anger,
then this is one way I can do it.

an example here would include acknowledging from my experience 
that most people are genuine and good-hearted, even if their ideas
and values differ radically from my own.  only occasionally do I
run into truly deceptive religious, aware that they are deluding
not only themselves (a common feature of religion) but others too.

another would be using deconstructive philosophical approaches to
assess the relative truths in coherent expressions of both my own
and conservative religious perspectives.  often these all point
to truths without containing them wholly.  a heart-based view is
to see that we are all walking along our paths of development at
our own pace and that some simply need what I might find to be
distasteful, limiting and ignorant presumptions about the cosmos
in order to feel more comfortable or secure.  to another (even
to me looking back at my later writing! ;>) my own will seem
just as immature and ignorant.  my history tells me that I am a
changing and sometimes very silly person. 

opposition usually takes the form of political action or statement.
I don't mind what you believe but I do care how this factors into
the impact it has on my liberty.  ignorant religious have for too
long exploited wild nature, Satan, seeing Hir as a resource placed
here by their glorious Creator-deity.  seldom have they either
delved deeply into their own hearts or scriptures to derive 
something more than a justification for continued tragedy.  

I try to take what I would call a 'respectful' (even 'Thelemic') 
attitude toward those whom I would oppose, whether they are 
Christian, Satanist, Muslim, or Thelemite conservatives: 'as 
brothers fight ye!'.  in this way not only do I DEMONstrate my
values rather than just talking about them, but I also keep the
lines of communication open for channelling rays of corruption.

broad-thinking can inspire broad-thinking.  demonstrated compassion
can inspire compassion, not only for those who exhibit it but also
for the weak and fragile beings whom the conservative overlook as
'just more (often demonic) things to control, dominate and serve us'.

E6/6/6
__________________________________________________________________________
nigris (333)/tyagi@houseofkaos.abyss.com; http://www.hollyfeld.org/~tyagi/

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