Friday, June 30, 2006


morning came screaming through a strange window in a stange home, where i had stayed last night, tormented dreams and restless sleep I found myself unable to keep still, and as my faculties returned i realized i was somewhat hung over, a condition i am unfamiliar with, very unpleasant and something i don't particularly want to repeat. i had a demon to exorcise, it was gone, a long shower a long slow drive home and i am moving towards the gloomy sky, the dull greys and light blues as Pan and I head to mission control, we hit some sleet and i am reminded of dark winters in england. later i talk to the old scisilian lady who makes me coffee, these days words are kept minimum, she thinks sometimes she sends me telepathic messages, when she needs help, she is convinced i pick them up and always arrive to assist her. who am i to disagree. i read the papers and make small talk with the opera singer who says i am rude, my head being buried in the papers, yeah i am rude i say, i am not interested in chit chat, talk about soccer, split endz or anything mundane, it's a mundane day, i need to make it exceptional. the paper doesn't help.
i walk pan and we head back to mission control where i plan my day, i take jake to see superman returns, he is hung over to, so we seek solitude and escapism in the darkness of the cinema. No words just watch the screen.
Superman returns after 5 years, he comes back to see his friends have moved on, married and have children, he saves a plane filled with journalists (not doing humanity any favours here) then goes of to fight lex luther who has some crackpot scheme to sink america by growing a crystal island, it's well made, kinda brilliant in pockets but so in need of a better story, i think both jake and i drifted into sleep on those comfy armchairs, i didn't feel much better when i awoke. the day dragged onwards, i was killing time, outta whack, in need of some stimulation, some thing to feed my mind i spoke to a friend who had split up with his wife, he was on heavy duty tranquilizer and was blissed out, talking bullshit, i had some goats cheese and wine with sam, watched a strange movie where nietzchian philosophy was mis represented yet again, in a 'rope' type english drama. towards the days end i drove to work and wondered when it would end.

idea for a new superman film
superman returns from space after 7 years, his home is a polluted sticking war zone, memes and environmental disasters dictate the earths future, humanity is doomed to extinction, his one true love lois lane is an alcoholic single mother, who is writing her third book entitled, 'Sexual Politics in the BioTech Age.' We see throughout the film that biotechnology has come a long way in supermans absence and most people have argumented body modifications, mostly sexual, some weaponry and defensive, some gene spliced with animal dna. Superman returns to the Daily Planet wich is now called Global Corp. part of the worlds largest media corp, owned by Lex Luthor. Superman is disillusioned with humanity, he looks at all the millions of people and finds few redeeming factors, he travels far, eastern europe, india, the east, south america where he takes shamanic drugs and and undergoes a spiritual quasi religious experience finding nature. superman then joins an extreme enviromental agency, and in a raid on a chemical lab accidently is responsible for releasing a toxin that kills most of the population and giving the planet a second chance.
in the last few frames we see superman hand feeding a reindeer and a tiger and a pelican.

Thursday, June 29, 2006


in the city of illusions all is not well, there are signs that are written in the patterns of the sands, the sprawl of stars and the lines on the old mans face, there are ripples in the cosmos, the tortoise shell has cracked. An old lady places her hand upon the last card and reveals it to be the hanged man.
on the streets people move like insects panicked, scuttling about, stocking up on grains and water, there's talk of guns.
A priest makes a sacrifice, a young boy is slaughtered, to appease a vengeful god and the perverse pleasures of a corrupted church. His mother and father feel privileged to have given their only offspring in this honour, they would gladly offer another if they had been blessed.
Later that evening a stillness descends upon the city, quiet permeates the fabric, not even the rats are on the streets. A shadow slowly moves, below a full moon.
From above the city, a birds eye view, we can see a single figure glide effortlessly above the clouds, hidden from the eyes of the sky watchers, a shape not unlike a giant bat.
The creature is the size of a man, perhaps slightly larger with equal wingspan, it follows a slow decent like a pelican approaching water and then with the grace of a eagle eases into a spiral above the old church towers where the gargoyles look downwards with disapproving gaze below.
A lone girl child stares from behind the doorway, she looks at her now dead friend who's body lays upon the alter, defiled, entrails spilling over a body turned inside out, a flood of blood still trails from the wounds, the body still warm and glistening. The girl don't notice the shadow pass across the skylight, she is moved passed her horror at what she has witnessed, fear slowly replaced by curiosity and the mystery of death.
She takes a deep breath, the elders have gone, she bites her bottom lip and steps out. Taking one step at a time she moves towards the body of the boy. Slowly and carefully, tip toeing her way forwards. Each beat of her heart becoming louder and louder, she can feel her own blood very much alive cascade through her tiny body, she can taste her excitement as she draws closer and closer to her dead friend.
And then the silver iridescent light from the moon that floods the belfry is snuffed, darkness and the gust of breeze blows across her face frozen in terror as she gazes at the shape before her.
He looks upon the body of the boychild, it lays there for him, fresh and still with lifeforce, these human priests always do his dirty work so effectively, so enthusiastically, he dislikes the kill, it is only his addictive need and desire that drives him to such depravity. He loathes himself for what suffering he inflicts, many times he has preyed for death, he has welcomed it, he has sought it but it eludes him. His existance is suffering, his own plus the suffering of the pain he inflicts upon the humans, he is filled with sorrow and self pity, for there is no salvation for his kind.
His sharp, attuned senses have aleady felt the prescense of the girlchild, he has tasted her fear hanging in the air, it's energy fresh and vibrant. He knows he is it's cause and he feels shame.
The girl is trembling, before her stands the demon, the unholy one. It is beyond her frame of reference, she has no comprehension of such things, excession.
The demon speaks, 'Girlchild, do not fear me. I bear you no harm. Please?'
The girl cannot speak.
'I am sick girlchild, i suffer from a terrible curse, the curse of the Undead.'
The girl is mute.
'I will not harm you.'
Terror. The demon speaks, he tries trickery and deciet, will destroy her. She cannot look into those eye's they burn like twin suns, they will pull her into him, into the eternal abyss, she starts to mumble a prayer.
'Little one. Your words mean nothing, they are the words of a superstision. Tell me your name and perhaps i will tell you mine. No one has ever heard me speak my name before. You will be the first.'
Silence.
'Speak little one or i will search your mind.'
The girl meets his gaze, she is alive now, empowered, she will not let him reach her mind without a fight. 'My name is Charlotte.'
'Charlotte. What a beautiful name you have human. Do you fear me?'
'A little but if you come close i will scream and scratch your eyes.'
'I will not harm you I promise.'
'A demon's promise means nothing.'
'Ha. Do you think I am a demon?'
'Your are the demon that drinks blood.'
The demon sighs. 'No i am no demon, i was once beautiful like you. I am fallen, cast out and cursed to drink the blood, i wish it were otherwise.'
'You can't trick me demon, i have heard all the stories about you.'
'Stories, myths, tales, speculation and fictions but the truth is much stranger than the fiction.' The demon stood tall, overwhelming Charlotte, his eyes ablaze, penetrating the darkness gazing into her soul, 'Do you fear me?'
'No!'
The demon knew it was true. He searched deep into her mind, into her heart. She was strong and unafraid.
'Charlotte. You are a brave strong girlchild, i see many things in your future, you will be a powerful human one day, a leader.'
'You try to trick me Demon.'
'Charlotte, why are you here, in this chamber, alone?'
'I came to see my friend, the priests sacrificed him for you.'
'Ahhh i see. If i were to tell you i can make your friend live again, would you do some thing for me?'
'Your a demon, filled with tricks, why should i trust you?'
'Because you are still alive girlchild.'
And Charlotte knew he was right.
The demon turned towards the dead body laying upon the alter, he placed his hand upon the boys forehead, and then felt his heart. 'Charlotte, the knife, the sacrificial knife, where is it?'
'The priest keeps it there,' she pointed towards the darkness.
The demon steped into the dark and returned with the knife in his hands, he held it out to Charlotte to take. 'You must plunge the knife deep into my heart Charlotte, and then help me to where the boychild lies.'
Charlotte took the knife, it was large in her small hands, heavy to hold. It didn't feel as awkwards as she anticipated, just heavey, she looked at the blade, it was clean and gleamed like the blood at her feet, there was a black handle, onex or some precious stone encrusted within. With this knife, she thought, i can kill the demon.
She knelt by his side as he took her hand and helped her find his heartbeat. She was puzzled, this must be a trick, yet i hold the blade, and the demon seeks oblivion.
'You can trust me Charlotte, I want to give life to the boychild, but you must be strong enough to release me from this curse.'
'I am strong.'
'Then pierce my heart.'
Charlotte held the knife in both hands, she knew exactly what she had to do, yet could she really trust the demon, he looked almost pathetic, like a stray mistreated beast, his pale skin, his eye's so distant, tired and sad, he was not much of a demon close up.
The knife hurled towards his body, cracking the rib gace and finding the heart, a spurt of blood errupted from the wound as she pulled the knife away. She helped him up and towards the alter, he was so light, like a bird. He stood above the boy and placed his mouth upon the boys, turning to Charlotte he said, 'My last breath will be the boys first. You must take him to the healer, he will need help and you must never talk of these events again.'
'You dIdn't tell me your name?'
'Lucifer,' he whispered and turned towards the boy, 'Lucifer.'
Morning was breaking over the city as the boy opened his eyes.

Monday, June 26, 2006


it's a shame sams boy didn't work out for her, she was kinda happy about it all coming together but it didn't, so here we are again, back in the loop, although the last few days have been nuts with autistic central, and the strange machinations of the
govt. dept that runs it. Inefficiency is the name of the game, the middle management is the fat of the system, it needs desperate shedding. these fat cats sitting in their offices creating new ways to record old information that no one ever looks at, they get paid millions to determine how a persons life can be qualified on a graph that gets filed away once it's written, it's so frustrating to have to jump through the hoops and over the hurdles of a bureaucracy that sometimes i wish sometimes i had just stuck it out and suffered for my art when i was in a band, but my fucked up sense of responsibility thought i'd do the right thing and stick with the girl, oh well i'm just feeling kinda washed out because i have been stuck at work for 16 hours and my clients are all going nuts on me, screaming in high pitched yelps, getting aggressive, restless, raiding my patience, my normal self control feels non existent and i'm loosing my sense of humor. see how they mirror me, or is it the otherway around, i guess it's that old mystic magickian thing, at the end of the day, it don't matter, my information is getting scrambled, i'm really missing the surf.
loosing my sense of humor is possibly the worst thing that can happen to me, i don't care about loosing much but that is my secret weapon, it's my defense against stupidity, ignorance, vanity, cynicism, and bad tv. sometime's it's all i have ever had and it's saved my skin. yeah i mean it, i have laughed my way out of death. even batman can't do that. my sense of humor is also used against myself, when i remember to use it.
some one said the other day, people have a front and a back, the front being the bit they present to the world, the happy face, the face they want you to see. i did an exercise once, made a mask, my mask, and then i made a mask of what lies beyond the mask, and then beyond that until i came to the final mask, it hangs in my kitchen, sometimes when i need clarity i put it on. it's a beautiful looking thing, all black with a jewel where the pineal is, possibly identical or not much different to your mask if you look deep enough, i guess one could go deeper but that's where i stopped.
strangely enough one of the first books i ever read and certainly a huge influence upon my life was 'The Jewel in the Skull' by the incredible micheal moorcock who once played in hawkwind. his fictions are a series of fantasy type books all inter- related, some almost believable and others set in worlds that even stretched my imagination, the central charater is always the same incarnation of jerry Cornelius, the eternal champion who was a pawn of the gods of order and the gods of chaos, always sent to restore the balance, however the good lords of order where not always good and the agents of chaos were not always bad, it was all about equilibrium. if you wanna read one of these books read the dancers at the end of time, it's fucking brilliant, way ahead of it's time, it's funny and original and easy to read on a bus.

Sunday, June 25, 2006


you are a young impression able adolescent, with the infinite horizon of future spread before you, north south east and west, you like girls and you like music, but you're not sure what you like best, girls are so mysterious and all the beautiful magnetic forces you feel towards them are met by the strange thermodynamic law of an opposing force, so those teenage years you chase the music, you loose yourself in it's landscapes and thus the soundtracks to the future are written.
a cold winter in london, you have a holiday job at the winsor and newton paint factory, a bleak Lowry building, masses and masses of toxic chemicals and bright tubes, it's as if the willy wonka paint factory had been designed by hells architects. every morning you drag your self through those huge gates and punch the clock, every morning you see the same old faces, wrinkled and toothless, sad and almost undead, as you clamber into your white overalls and head into sector 7 where you and your best friend pour chemicals into a vat, and make Creulean Blue and Perylene Turquoise. Yeah this was not the kind of alchemy i had in mind, but you plug in your little cassette player press a few buttons, slip in a tape, press play and the soundtrack starts, and right on cue the acid you washed down with a cup of tea kicks in.

I saw the furs in London, they were amazing, a 7 piece band, dark and brooding, tribal and menacing and Richard Butlers voice sounding like nothing i ever heard before, touches of Johnny Rotten and Bowie but with his own ironic drawl, 'we love you' like he just didn't. Yeah the Psychedelic Furs were the band i plugged into when i was working in satans colour factory, mixing up huge tubs of strange colors in huge vats, me and my best friend tripped for about 2 months non stop, day in day out, just to get through the fucking awful haze of holiday jobs during the uni break and all through that time the only band we listened to was the Psychedelic Furs who i think had two albums out at that time, well before they went all disco.
fast forwards to last night and i am down the front with agent stone going ballistic, tribal fucking primal mutant music as my flashback head filled with beautiful swirls of crystal blues and explosions of flurorecent Thoindigo Violets penetrate the enmore, yeah you probably recall the furs as a kinda eighties pop band, but before 'pretty in pink was used in the movie and before they discovered drum machines, 'The Psychedelic Furs' were an awesome sounding band, and last night they had reverted to the old format, almost shamanic in parts, Butlers Voice raspy and gravely was filled out, it was emmense as he moved through the set with exactly the same kinda egde and energy that he had 30 years ago. It was a good sound for the most part despite one moment where the mixing went a but AWAL but the feel off the old Psychedelic Furs was present and along with my weird flashbacks, i found myself in mezmorized by, the moments of brilliance in 'President Gas, Imitation of Christ, India, Sister Europe, Into You Like a Train, Heaven and Love My Way.

I still can't work out what to make of that band, they seem a dichotomy with these amazing songs and then they have terrible ones like the awful 'heartbreak beat', but i guess for the sake of nostalgia i will always associate them with my LSD coping strategy in the corridor's of industry, behind the scene in Winsor and Newtons paint factory.

Friday, June 23, 2006


Transmigration

imagine at the point of death downloading you're consciousness into your new body, think it's far fetched, belongs in sci fi movies, well you are mistaken, it's possible and it happens, admittedly not to everyone but various individuals prepare for this their whole lives. Certainly Doaist would avoid death totally and remain ageless, incarnate in one body, look after if, it's a smart option, various Tibetan Buddhists would use the technique of Po-Wa, Magickians would use certain rituals and science would take a different path, possibly why wait till death to transfer when i have a cyborg body that is better and more riesiliant than any other flesh one. After all when you think about it In five years, every cell in your body will have been replaced with a different one. Are you, therefore, the same person? If so, how? How is it that you can change a persons brain cells completely and claim that they are the same person?
Subjectively a person can say that he is not the same person, can we say that that person is wrong? The answer is not known - the persons complete brain contents has been replaced gradually yet the essence of what it contains and the content of its matter records the same information and the same memories simply transferred onto new materials, molecules and cells. This person is still a conscious alive entity after transferring all the material that contains his essence into a new medium that serves him in the same way as the old one.
In five years time it will be accepted that you are the same person as you are now. The actual molecules and matter of which you are built is not important as long as your thought-patterns, functions and memories are preserved.

How would I react if I had a different nervous system? A person can lose organs, physical organs, without losing any sense of self. How much of my body do I really need? There are layers of skin that are dead, hair is already dead and most of a persons fluids are free-flowing and uncontrollable but for other chemicals. Our muscles can be replaced with anything from a keyboard interface to a new mechanical body part and we can learn to use it just like learning to ride a new bike. A persons leg, or arm, or legs, or arms, can be lost in war and these people suffer mental pain, but do not have their conscious self diminished. I can replace most of my chemical systems with mechanical ones that replicate the function of my body. What do I need to preserve of my body and soul (conscious perception) to remain me?
Our brain systems, our thought patterns, are not dependent on any molecules or parts of the brain in particular but merely in the preservation of patterns. The preservation of the patterns can be transferred from one set of molecules to another, as happens in nature, without debasing the beings mind. The nature of the body and the exact cells do not matter as long as the patterns are preserved. Instead of allowing the natural cell-replacement cycle to commence why can we not step in and direct it ourselves? Or duplicate it?
The important concept which must not be overlooked is the word "preserved" which implies that the material that holds the thought-patterns does just that and that it does not inhibit or change the patterns as they existed in the original material.
I am controlled by the chemical reactions in my brain, I am aware of my decisions not because I make them but because I have made them already. I am aware of my thoughts not before they are thought but as they chemicals in my brain conspire to make them. It makes no difference to me, as a conscious entity, how these chemical reactions occur but only that they have certain affects. Likewise, any system that produces the same results using any system can call itself sentient without needing to compare the specifics of the physics involved.
To what extent then, can we determine where life can occur? If we constructed a brain, exactly the same as a working human brain, and slowly allowed over (say) five years a person to unknowingly "move in" or copy his thought patterns to this new medium it is conceivable that the original thought patterns would not be corrupted. Such a gradual transfer of brain power to a new medium over five years could go consciously unnoticed. However the one factor missing in all of the memory at a cellular level, body and mind are connected, consciousness has to leave the body at death, that's death, sometimes in older people it's left well before the body even dies. Unfortunately most people won't miss their consciousness. The magcikian has to be aware, conscious of being conscious of being conscious x 12. Yeah well certainly a lot to even consider being beyond conscious, then that consciousness has to be able to be directed, maneuvered and travel by thought. A super-concious human knows what's happening across the planet, there are many documented reports of these events, from memory this occurs frequently in 'Autobiography of a Yogi'

Strangely i have a story myself about that particular book. It first appeared to me when my cousin came to visit, i was about 12 and she brought the book for my family. I was always drawn towards it but never actually read it. Then 30 years later a very good friend of mine read it and told me about it suggesting i read it, but i always had something else to read, and the more my friend told me to read it the more resistance i felt towards reading it. Then a few years later i was working in Balmain markets one afternoon, buisness was slow and i was getting bored as i had finished the book i was reading, so i went over to the 2nd hand stall where a range of books was sprawled out on a table, and searching through them the guy turns to me and says, 'You should read this, I think you'll enjoy it. And lo and behold he offerred me a copy of the book. I made my escuses and left, wandered up the road to the new bookshop and went inside, i automatically walked towards the back of the shop, started looking at the bookshelves and a book quite literally fell onto my head, yeah, it was Autobiography of a Yogi. So i went back to the stall and bought it.

transmigration of souls or metempsychosis (mtm´´sk´ss) (KEY) [Gr.,=change of soul], a belief common to many cultures, in which the soul passes from one body to another, either human, animal, or inanimate. The Australian aborigines believe that an infant is a reincarnation of deceased ancestors and that the soul is continually reborn. Some Indonesian peoples hold that ancestral souls reside in sacred animals, sometimes in preparation for a new incarnation. Similarly, several tribes in western Amazonia avoid eating certain animals, such as deer, because they believe ancestral souls have entered the animals’ bodies.

Thursday, June 22, 2006



i just saw the future pm of australia, his name is noel pearson, he's very smart and articulate, he's aboriginal and he won my vote, actually i don't have a vote being a permenent resident of this here wonderful country, i am still europian by passport, still english by birth and still feel like alien being trapped on my favorite planet in the galaxy. possibly why i love the silver surfer so much, he is the only comic book hero that ever made any sense to me. In origin there is no one quite like him, living on a planet that was so advanced it had forsaken the warrior code, a planet purely devoted to hedonistic pursuits and recreation, even the adventures people had were all simulated until an alien being entered their solar system. Galactus the devourer of worlds, a being that consumed planets for energy had now set it's sights upon Norin Radds native planet. Becuase exploration had been abandoned as a concept centuries ago there was no way Norin could attempt to stop head Galactus so he appealled to the council of eleders that goverened his planet to provide him with a space ship from the museum. As cities were already falling the council had no choice but to listen to Norins plea. So out he went leaving his loved one behind, into space to meet Galactus and convince him to spare his planet.
Beamed into the huge space ship of Galactus Norrin made a pact that he would become a scout and find fresh uninhabited worlds for Galactus to devour and in the devils bargin, Norrin was coated in a silver substance that gave him access and control over what is known as the power cosmic. As a vechile Galactus provided Norrin with the ultimate surfboard. Years past by and Norrin had provided Galactus with many worlds but they were becoming increasingly difficult to find and then Galactus spotted earth. Norrin tried everything he could to warn humanity, but they treated him as an outcast, declared war upon him and wherever he went he was considered an enemy. Eventually in tibet he met a blind woman who gave him hope for the species and he ultimatly betrayed Galactus and refused to supply his world-devouring appetite. His punishment was confinement to earth where he spent several years assisting mankind, in his spare time he wuld hurl himself at the invisible barrier Galactus had sheilded around the planet to contain his ex herald. On earth he was known as the silver surfer, eventually he escaped and currently soars the starways as a universal protector.
Yes this very much was my kind of superhero, a shiney dude on a surf board riding through space, being cool.

Wednesday, June 21, 2006


I was looking through some papers and found this beautiful piece by AC whom although was a fantastic magickian, mountain climber, expolorer and writer was also a very serious poet and produced many volumes of excellent work that has never been acknowledged in critical terms, not that that really matters. This is an intresting piece becuase of what it alludes to, without being blatent, old AC lived in extreemly conservative times, as we still do. Much of his work was camoflagued, or so blatently fluanting his pilosophy that people found it hard to take seriously, eg in often misquoted one piece he wrote of 'human sacrifice' and of course those who fear him condemed him to their level of judgement. Most of these people had never really understood what his work, the great work was about, therefore it's akin to someone reading a foreign language and misinturpreting the words, one could accuse the catholic church of canibalism, 'eating the body of christ' if one chose to ignore the symbolic references.
By the way, in case you did not know, human sacrifice was the male ejaculation, a term which in ye olde days was considered more evil than mentioning lucifer. Anyways here's some AC, you can read into it what you will.

" I give unimaginable joys on earth: certainty, not faith, while in life, upon death; peace unutterable, rest, ecstasy; nor do I demand aught in sacrifice.
My incense is of resinous woods & gums; and there is no blood therein: because of my hair the trees of Eternity.
My number is 11, as all their numbers who are of us. The Five Pointed Star, with a Circle in the Middle, & the circle is Red. My colour is black to the blind, but the blue & gold are seen of the seeing. Also I have a secret glory for them that love me.
But to love me is better than all things: if under the night-stars in the desert thou presently burnest mine incense before me, invoking me with a pure heart, and the Serpent flame therein, thou shalt come a little to lie in my bosom. For one kiss wilt thou then be willing to give all; but who gives one particle of dust shall lose all in that hour. Ye shall gather goods and store of women and spices; ye shall wear rich jewels; ye shall exceed the nations of the earth in splendour & pride; but always in the love of me, and so shall ye come to my joy. I charge you earnestly to come before me in a single robe, and covered with a rich headdress. I love you! I yearn to you! Pale or purple, veiled or voluptuous, I who am all pleasure and purple, and drunkenness of the innermost sense, desire you. Put on the wings, and arouse the coiled splendour within you: come unto me!
At all my meetings with you shall the priestess say -- and her eyes shall burn with desire as she stands bare and rejoicing in my secret temple -- To me! To me! calling forth the flame of the hearts of all in her love-chant.
Sing the rapturous love-song unto me! Burn to me perfumes! Wear to me jewels! Drink to me, for I love you! I love you!
I am the blue-lidded daughter of Sunset; I am the naked brilliance of the voluptuous night-sky.
To me! To me!"
"For God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil."




And here's a nice piece i found that attempts to explain the Great Work, the serious magickians duty, although i stress, this is a meme, it is clearly one that serves a constructive purpose within our universe and the aware mind that takes on The Great Work, should be in full understanding of it's implications.

The term "The Great Work" is not a term to be found in the literature of traditional Kabbalah, but it is a term which has come to be associated with traditional Kabbalastic ideas. Two key ideas underpinning the Great Work are:

the universe we live in is not as it should be. In some way it is "damaged", and only a conscious and deliberate effort on the part of the created will restore it to its intended state. Also, as a consequence...

we live in ignorance of our true estate. We know not what we are. In the words of the poet W.B. Yeats, "Consume my heart away; sick with desire and fastened to a dying animal, It knows not what it is..."

The Great Work is the attempt to undo the damage, and it consists of two parts. The first part is the preservation of knowledge and techniques which enable individual human beings to awaken and recover the knowledge of their true nature. The second part is the deliberate efforts undertaken by these awakened individuals to restore the world to what it should have been. There is nothing explicitly Kabbalistic about this idea of the Great Work - similar ideas have occurred at many times and places - but the idea that the creation is not what it should have been is one of the key elements of Kabbalistic speculation, and the belief that it is possible for individual human beings to help to repair the damage and restore the creation was and is one of the key motives underlying Kabbalistic practice.

The extent of Kabbalistic speculation has been so extensive that it is difficult to extract simple explanations for why human beings do not understand their true nature, or why the creation is flawed. It is unreasonable to expect simple explanations for something which lies outside the domain of intellectual speculation, and perhaps it is unreasonable to expect an explanation of any kind, agreeing with Wittgenstein that "the sense of the world must lie outside the world"; those who go beyond the world cannot be expected to bring back answers which mean anything to those who are in it. Given this caveat, the following discussion on the Great Work is based on several traditional ideas.

A great deal of Kabbalistic speculation begins with the Biblical story of Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden. This story is not to be taken literally; it is usually taken as an allegory to be interpreted within the context of general Kabbalistic ideas concerning the Creation. The Garden represents the Creation as it should be, the Creation as it was before the Fall. Before the Fall, Adam and Eve were conscious, but not self-conscious - they did not know that they were naked. The sin of Adam and Eve was to eat from the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil, and in doing so they became self-conscious; they understood what they had done, became afraid, and hid themselves from God. As a consequence God made coats of skin to clothe them and they were ejected from the Garden to become human beings - animals who join sexually to produce offspring, animals who die. The return to Eden and the Tree of Life was barred.

In the Biblical story mentions two trees in the garden: the Tree of Life, and the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil. For some Kabbalists the Tree of Life and the Tree of Knowledge were one tree until Adam and Eve picked the fruit, causing the two to separate; the Tree of Life became the right pillar of the sephirothic Tree, and the Tree of Knowledge became the left, and the Tree of Life as we now see it is not the original Tree as it was before the fruit was picked. The sin of Adam was the sin of separation, the sin of creating a division between knowledge and life.

The Biblical story can also be interpreted as a story of the growth of self consciousness. There was a time when humans lived unselfconsciously among the animals, a time when humans *were* animals, and that state was shattered by the growth of self-consciousness. The self-conscious creature, terrified by the naked consciousness of the One, and in danger of slipping back into the One, hid itself away from God; the Cherubim who wielded fiery swords were servants of its own making. The self-conscious creature, in an attempt to strengthen its fragile identity, anchored itself to the left side of the Tree, the Tree of Knowledge, and set about building the structures and abstractions which have resulted in our complex and confused society.

There is a relative unanimity among Kabbalists that the left side of the Tree is the source of evil. To be fair, it is also the source of good, as it is difficult to have one without the other, but the problem of evil was the major preoccupation. Suppose a rich man walks past a beggar in the street. The rich man thinks: "If I give to this person, then logically I ought to give to all equally poor people, for all are equally miserable and equally deserving. I do not have enough money to feed every poor person, and my poverty will not solve the problem of poverty, so really there is no point in giving." This kind of rational thinking belongs on the left side of the Tree. Suppose the wealthy man decides to give something. How much should he give? Everything he has? This unlikely. He will give a little and hold back the rest. This "holding back" is the quality of Din, Judgement, and many Kabbalists have seen God as the wealthy man who gives a little and holds-back much. In the Bahir the left side of the Tree was associated with gold, and the right side with silver, to make the point that God gave silver, but held back something more valuable. The Creation could not stand the full force of God's light, and so it was held back, and as a consequence each one of us has inherited the ability to hold-back.

Let us continue with the story of the rich man and the beggar. Why does the beggar have so little? The beggar has so little because there are laws of property. Laws belong on the left side (Hod). The beggar cannot take what is not his because there are authorities to uphold the law, and they also belong on the left side (Gevurah). There are well-defined procedures for transferring property; work is one of these. These well defined procedures also belong on the left side (Gevurah, Hod). If the beggar does not "fit-in", then he must take what comes by chance, or live outside the law.

In every case we see what we would regard as an inequitable situation as being created and sustained by qualities associated with the left side of the Tree. Fortunately there are also laws (left side) which provide some minimal provisions for the poor, which is evidence that good is not completely divorced from evil. How did these laws come about? I believe that in most people the left and right pillars are not completely divorced; they meet on the middle pillar to produce Rachamim, compassion.

In the previous example evil was a side effect of structure; when one puts a fly in a jar and seals the lid, then sooner or later the fly will suffocate. The effect of confining the fly is that the fly dies. There is no evil in the jar, and if evil is to be found anywhere it is in the hand that screws the lid tight, or in the mind that conceives of ways of killing. In the same way, the left side of the Tree provides the structure for evil, it is not in itself evil. Structure provides the means for people such as you and me to create evil, but there is no suggestion that some kind of metaphysical evil is involved. Some Kabbalists have gone further and suggested just that.

The suggestion that powers of evil exist is usually based on the belief that the Creation involved or even required and excess of the quality of Din or Judgment. In the Zohar the first attempts at creation were unbalanced, and the power of Din overflowed and shattered the worlds; the fragments fell into the Abyss to become the realm of the Qlippoth, powers which are the result of unbalanced Din, and hence evil in the sense that unbalanced Judgement and Severity are evil. Isaac Luria further dramatised these events with extraordinary elaborations; the first three sephiroth were able to contain the light of God, but the remaining seven were shattered in an event known as "the breaking of the vessels", and in the catastrophe some of the light was carried into the Abyss and became trapped in the realm of the Qlippoth. The four worlds were dislocated, and Assiah slipped into the realm of the Qlippoth. In Luria's view we are immersed in a world where evil has a primordial origin.

Other Kabbalists have stressed that, regardless of the catastrophic origin of evil, its continued existence is based on an unbalanced flow of energy down the left side of the Tree, and it is this steady drip of unbalanced force which nourishes the Sitra Achara, or Other Side. It is human evil which creates this unbalance. In a definition reminiscent of the classic definition of dirt, Gikatilla defined evil as an entity which was not in its rightful place - sand is fine on a beach, but not in engine oil - and there are powers which have a rightful place in the world but which are evil in the wrong context. Kabbalistic views of evil cover the entire spectrum, from the surprisingly sophisticated view of evil as a structural and necessary part of creation, to a low superstitious belief in a hierarchy of evil demons.

The exact nature of the Great Work is no simpler to explain than the problem of evil itself, and if one takes it to be the attempt to restore a defect in the creation, then its nature will depend on what one believes that defect to be. There is no simple view of the Great Work, but there are a number of clear threads to follow.

The first thread is to re-unite what has become separate, and the the place to begin is in one's own nature. When one re-unites the elements of one's being, then one becomes capable of transmitting, of acting as an agent between the higher and the lower. This is an important Kabbalistic idea. The purpose of Kabbalah is not a personal quest for self-realisation; it is a conscious decision to play a part in uniting the higher and the lower, not only in oneself, but more importantly still, in the world. If it is part of the essential nature of God to give, then someone who only receives and does not give cannot be like God or understand the nature of God. To know God one must not only receive, but give out in direct measure. Likewise, if "God wished to know God", then one must fulfill the purpose of creation by making this possible. There is a tradition that Kether and Malkuth play a complementary role in sustaining the Tree of Life. As long as Malkuth only takes from Kether, and does not give back, it is not like God. Once Malkuth begins to give back to Kether, a continuous loop of impulse and reflection will be created, it will become like God,and "God will know God". It is our role, as creatures of matter, to create this bridge and make the creation self-conscious.

In Jewish Kabbalah this process is called "tikkun" or reintegration, and is best known from complex speculations of Isaac Luria. Scholem states:

"The object of this human activity, which is designed to complete the world of tikkun, is the restoration of the world of Asiyyah to its spritual place, its complete separation from the world of the kelippot, and the achievement of a permanent, blissful state of communion between every creature and God which the kelippot will be unable to disrupt or prevent."

This all sounds very grand. It is an enterprise which appeals to those with an idealistic and crusading temperament. Unfortunately, one cannot repair the design faults in machine by giving it a fresh coat of paint. The Tree of Knowledge is not going to be reunited with the Tree of Life unless it is re-united in ourselves, and when one looks at conditions in the world today one sees an ever-accelerating dive into the knowledge of Assiah and a blissful disregard for the condition of the human soul.

This comment upon the Great Work may seem more than a little metaphysical, and this is intentional. People want to know what life is about, and latch onto anything which gives their life a greater meaning. For one person to supply to another person a reason for living is the antithesis of the Great Work, which is to understand it for oneself. If each of us is a little piece of God, and "God wishes to know God", then the whole is to be found in the sum of the parts, and each part has its own role to play. No-one has the authority to define the Great Work for another.
Promises of Maybe

Uncertain endings lead to the start
We all come together until we fall apart
You’re making demands imposing your will
Drawing me closer and then you repel
Uncertain emotions traditional ways
Loose all significance under your gaze
Lust and desire on the tip of your tongue
You won’t be happy till the damage is done

You razed my temples
Pillaged my town
Plundered my heavens
And tore them all down
You made me a promise
Of maybe or not
And now that your gone
That’s all I got

Instinct and intuition guide my days
Through the labyrinth and into your maze
You’re pulling the string calling the shots
Contradicting your self and you can’t stop
Insight and in tight I’m loosing my grip
Holding on to the stars in case I slip
Can’t sink or swim caught in your tide
And now you won’t, throw me a line

You launched your weapons
You sunk my fleet
Fired your missiles
At my heart beat
You made me a promise
of maybe or not
and now I’m alone
that’s all I got

promises promises
sweet nothings

yeah you chopped down my trees
you stormed all my towers
ploughed all my fields
cut down my flowers
you made me a promise
of maybe or not
lifting me higher
only to drop

promises promises
sweet nothings


Ha! after a few days of psychic anxiety, my intuitions confirmed, sam is involved with some one else, a boring man from her past she once got engaged to then dumped, i knew the third diumping was coming, i could feel it in my bones, however this time anxiety had build up to the point i could prepare for it and process it well, it was the non confirmation stage that was fucking me up. anyway all done, very clean, i hope she's happy with him i really do, but i did feel the potential there for a while, it was a good and i feel sad that she has made her choice, more for her than me.
never mind life here at mission control goes on, things happen, people pass through the revolving door of my world and i pass through theirs, it's not the journey i really ever wanted but it's the one i am on and i may as well enjoy the view.
so the morning starts with a huge black rain cloud, i am driving down the carnage highway, listening to 'killing moon' into the low cloud, rain hits the windshield as i drive through a waterfall that lasts till i get to palm beach, cars are speed boats, water flies every where as roads are flooded, i park, i run to a friends house, my guitar case is hualed up a flight of stairs, i perform the song to her as the kettle boils, she does some re-arranging on the piano, makes it hers, it sounds nice, but it's lost the edge i gave it.
anyways after the break up i find myself feeling a bit lost and lonely, i listen to some more echo, if i smoked ciggarettes i would have smoked one, but instead i just watch the clouds roll by and look at the waterlogged life i leave behind me. it's a terrible feeling to be dumped, but after the third one it begins to feel liberating, thrilling even. usually when i dump someone, i take them to bronte beach, where the cafes are, it's more memorable and a nicer enviroment. Once when i was with a friend i was telling her about how it's my break up beach, the girl sitting next to us overheard and said she was meeting her boyfriend to dump him. i think dumping is a real art form, when i dump, very rarely, i like to do it with as much dignity as possible. it's an ending, it's completion, it's closure, it's a ritual and if it's not done correctly it will come back to huant you. Credit where it's due sam handled it well and was able to express herself in a reasonably clear way, i don't harbour any bad feelings towards her at all. i am powerful, my ability to read the etheric patterns is uncanny, it's sometimes more a curse than a blessing but it's okay becuase i trust it. it's a terrible responsibility but i manage it well, i rarely abuse it. shaman, transpersonal, magickian, all of these things come naturally to me, and over the last 5 years they are sharply refined and improved, using the techniques i rave on about in these pages sometimes.
so here i am 4 days off in a row and nothing but big black clouds in the sky, rain falling, the cold held at bay, a residual sadness at the possibilities of the promise of maybe.
i have a recipe for blueberry crumble. I'm going to test it out, i'll let you know if it's any good.

Tuesday, June 20, 2006

More memes fresh from the factory.

I've very recently read Stewart Home's Mind Invaders which is a compilation of lots of subversive stuff from different sources. Following is an excerpt a document from that book that is the closest thing to a self-definition I can find from the Neoists...

Viva Neoism!
Neoism is a cultural movement influenced by Futurism, Dada, Fluxus and Punk, which emerged from the Mail Art Network in the late seventies. Neoism is a methodology for manufacturing art history. The idea is to generate interest in the work and personalities of the various individuals who are said to constitute the movement. Neoists want to escape from 'the prison of art' and change the world'. With this end in mind, they present capitalist society with an angst-ridden image of itself.

Anyone can become a Neoist simply by declaring themselves to be a part of the movement and adopting the name Luther Blissett. However, Neoists don't restrict themselves to using the name Luther Blissett, They use the name Smile too. Neoists call their pop groups Smile, their performance groups Smile--even their magazines are called Smile.

This is a genuine existential experiment, it is an exercise in practical philosophy. Neoists wish to determine what happens when they cease to differentiate between assorted artefacts and individuals. However, while Neoists place thier faith in practical philosophy, they DO NOT endorse the study of logic as pursued in the universities and other authoriarian institutes. Neoist philosophy is to be tested on the streets, in pups, and night clubs; it involves the creation of a communist culture--not theoretical abstractions.

Capitalism masters the material world by naming and describing those objects it wishes to manipulate. By rendering names meaningless, Neoists destroy the central control mechanism of bourgeois logic. Without these classifications, Power cannot differentiate, divide and isolate the revolutionary masses. Because they are sick of the fragmentary world in which they live, the Neoists have agreed to adopt a common name. Every action carried out under the banner of Luther Blissett is a gesture of defiance against the Order of Power--and a demonstration that the Neonists are ungovernable. Luther Blissett is a true individual in a world where real individuality is a crime!

Ultimately, Neoist philosophy is a revolutionary project which is undertaken with a view to improving the lot of mankind. Neoism supercedes all previous philosophies because it consciously founds itself on rhetoric rather than factual observation.

Neoists belive in the value of fraud as a revolutionary weapon. They practise an impure science and regularly fake thier results. Using this methodology, Neoism has effortlessly refuted the dominant illusions conected to the mental set 'individuality' and now claims its right to slaughter all those who refuse to realise thier true humanity. The success of Neoism is historically inevitable. LONG LIVE LIFE !

Monday, June 19, 2006


dogs are barking, pandemonium on the streets, schoolkids race by, 4WD swerves around a corner at a superfast speed, the stink of rubber floats through the air, an old man never knows how close he came to death. i look out from my balcony at the now quiet street, life, death plays out like a strange pantomime below me, around me, all is chaos and sometimes i think it's quiet beautiful, aesthetically it's a miracle but then i don't live in the sudan or downtown mogadishu, yeah it's all very nice and quiet at the end of my street. so how are you people out there, i hope life is going well for you all and it's not getting you down, i hope you are all having your dreams come true, there's a difference between wishful thinking and taking control of your life, driving your own experience, i like to drive my own but i think i may be heading along a one way street at the moment.

i am often mistaken especially by girls as a dreamer, a man with his feet firmly in the clouds along with his head, how mistaken these people are, it makes me laugh as one by one judgements are made, positions taken and conclusions drawn. yet these people have never even bothered to get to know me, to peek under the surface, i'm the first to admit i am not an easy person to get to know but i am not a closed book, ha, ironic that my life is exposed for the world to see on the net. the truth is stranger than fiction and most people wouldn't believe the experiences i have had, the highs and the lows, the incredible places i have traveled to, the faces i have seen in all my years working with the lonely, the desperate and the fringes, the microscopic activities of man and the macro ones of the galaxies above and below, i see it all, it passes through me like an old gods dream i see them all, it's not being a dreamer, it's having a wider perspective. yes my friends, as my old and dear friend the Proffessor Leary knows i am often judged becuase of the way i look and then the way i behave, how i come accross, quiet, articulate, slightly introverted, yet i take up space and form, i get under the skin, i possess and infiltrate.
i take a certain pride in having a very keen sense of politeness, my son has this to, it's something we aquirred, the code of the gentleman, although it's important to know how to be strong when nessessary, i have faught various forms of monster, myself included, and sometimes pure brute strength and endurence is all that is required. And i meet my responsibilites, to my son my dog and to myself. People often mistake my kindness for weakness, my strength for detachment and my well trained emotional responses as being some what unreachable. Not the case, i am extremely reachable, but i do not suffer fools, i am intolerent to the intolerent, although emilie says i am the most tolerent person she knows, i fight fire with fire, i know my expectations are high for people around me, yeah that's probably because i am surrounded by primates who operate on their operating system, (C1-4) I don't play games unless i chose to play and then i break the rules, i am a contra control freak, i'm to smart, to fucking good to be true.
I am part octopus and i have been out of the water for to freaking long, i need a wetsuit, i'm going to have to find one quick becuase i need to catch those waves.

On Denton last night, he smuggly nterveiwed a christian/catholic guy who denton obviously saw as a real fucking idiot, he was a giant, blonde dreaded, vacant looking, hippie who had done two years in jail for breaking into a navel base and wrecking a warship, he advocated peaceful protests and belonged to an active part of the church that sounded like more like greenpeace. As usual Denton took the approach of being a fuckwit and making his guests look dumber than he is but this guy was incredibly smart, and he was articulate. It's intresting watching the so called greatest mind on australian tv making a complete prick out of himself by falling into the same traps that the 'left' always do, they (the left) are all intellectual and no or little action, at least this guy was true to his principles. He even said that jesus was an activist, not something you hear at church, jesus was always getting in trouble, questioning authority and the staus quo, when was the last time your minister got thrown in jail for activly trying to stop a warship launching a nuclear missile. The only ministers you see in jail are the peodophiles that get busted.
I don't particularly like christians anymore than other dogma heads but i like people who practice what they preach in a way that dosn't involve mindless destruction of innocents.

There's old wave, there's new wave. And there's David Bowie.


That was the ad for Low in the NME. I love this cd, its the cd that made me wanna make music, it fucks with all preconception of yr rock and roll, it's the first album that made me think of music as art. i remember my band covering 'what in the world' dicovering all the weird chord structures in that song, and the way the vocals worked, we speeded it up and turned it slightly pyshcadelic but it was Be My Wife that i really wanted to cover.
At the meltdown festival 2002 which Bowie curated, the weeks events climaxed as he preformed the whole album live, i have a recording of that magickal night, i would have loved to have seen it, it's amazing. Credit to Toni Vinsconti who often gets left out of his contribution to the recording and of course eno, who probably twiddled a few knobs, Even iggy does some backing vocals.
Heres some info about Low i niked from wickapedia, read on.
Low is a 1977 album by David Bowie, widely regarded as one of his most influential releases. It was the first of the "Berlin Trilogy", a series of collaborations with Brian Eno. Contrary to the moniker's implication, much of the album was actually recorded in France and only mixed in Berlin. The experimental, avant-garde style would be further explored on "Heroes" and Lodger. The album's working title was New Music Night and Day.
Following the release of the cocaine-fueled Station to Station, Bowie began to rekindle his interest in art. As a recovering cocaine addict, his songwriting on Low tends to deal with difficult issues; many of the songs concern lethargy, depression, estrangement, or self-destructive behavior. The format of the album was unique for its time: side one contained short, direct song-fragments; side two comprised longer, mostly instrumental tracks. While some attribute the instrumental songs to Eno, he shares songwriting credits only on "Warszawa".
Although the music was influenced by German bands such as Kraftwerk and Neu!, Low has been acclaimed for its originality and is considered ahead of its time, not least for its cavernous treated drum sound created by producer Tony Visconti using an Eventide Harmonizer. The album's influence spans many genres that would come to prominence in following years, such as Post-punk, New Wave and Industrial. Not only was it an influence on these styles, but the fact that an artist of Bowie's prominence had experimented with these styles made other proponents of the genres more respectable.
Prior to the album's release, much of the music was intended for the soundtrack to The Man Who Fell to Earth. Time constraints prevented Bowie from completing the music in time for the film's premiere, so it ended up on Low instead. The album's cover is a still photo from the movie. Furthermore, the photographic image juxtaposed with the album's title formed a deliberate pun on the phrase "low profile".
Though written off by many mainstream critics at the time, Low has risen to the top of many critics' "best album" lists. It was rated the #1 album of the 1970s by Pitchfork Media. In 2003, the album was ranked number 249 on Rolling Stone magazine's list of the 500 greatest albums of all time.
Philip Glass based his 1992 classical album Low Symphony on Low, with Bowie and Eno both assisting in its creation. "Bowi", an EP by Nick Lowe, was named in response to Low. Trent Reznor would later claim Low to be one of his influences while creating The Downward Spiral.
Low peaked at #2 on the UK charts and #11 in the U.S.. "Sound and Vision" and "Be My Wife" were released as singles; the former reached #3 in the UK.[1]

Track listing
All tracks written by David Bowie, except where noted.
"Speed of Life" - (2:46)
"Breaking Glass" (Bowie, Davis, Murray) - (1:52)
"What in the World" - (2:23)
"Sound and Vision" - (3:05)
"Always Crashing in the Same Car" - (3:33)
"Be My Wife" - (2:58)
"A New Career in a New Town" - (2:53)
"Warszawa" (Bowie, Eno) - (6:23)
"Art Decade" - (3:46)
"Weeping Wall" - (3:28)
"Subterraneans" - (5:39)

1991 reissue bonus tracks
"Some Are" (previously unreleased) - (3:24)
"All Saints" (previously unreleased) - (3:25)
"Sound and Vision" (1991 remixed version) - (4:43)

Production credits

Producers:
David Bowie
Tony Visconti
Musicians:
David Bowie - vocals, guitar, bass guitar, saxophone, xylophone, vibraphone, and harmonica, percussion, keyboards: ARP synthesizer, piano, "tape strings", "tape-cello, & "tape-"horns (ie chamberlin),
Brian Eno - vocals, splinter minimoog, report ARP, guitar treatments, piano, keyboards, chamberlin, other synthesizers
Carlos Alomar - guitar
Dennis Davis - percussion
George Murray - bass
Ricky Gardiner - guitar
Peter Himmelman - piano
Mary Hopkin - backing vocals
Iggy Pop - backing vocals
Eduard Meyer - cello
Roy Young - piano, farfisa organ


ever since I started keeping a dream journal i have been able to see the patterns and shapes that guide my subconscious, it's a very interesting process and one i recommend to any of you pychonauts out there. themes that seem to manifest themselves in cycles are sexual, magickal, and death, usually in the form of some fantastic near disaster.
a few years ago i was being initiated (long distance) into an obscure magickal order in Victoria, the procedure was quite standard and the ritual was nowhere near as demanding as some others i have been involved in, i completed the ritual and then fell into a deep sleep. my dream was that i was swimming in a sea pool, it was a glorious day, blue skies, turquoise water, the rock had this fine graininess, like high quality film, it was perfect, i could even see the water drip from my skin as i climbed in and out from the pool. Suddenly the scene was changed by a thunderous roar, the sound of the universe tearing apart, i looked at the sky and saw what appeared to be a fire ball cut the horizon, it was getting closer and it was actually a plane, i could see that it was about to crash on the beach near the pool and i pulled myself out to get to the wreckage to see if i could help, as i ran across the beach the aircraft skimmed parallel to me, bits of metal fell away and the exposed interior revealed itself, suddenly it hit the sand and tore a trail right across the beach. I jogged up to it, waiting for the smoke to clear and the flames to die down so that i could see what was left.
Instead of a mangled heap of burnt flesh and steel i gazed at what i could only describe as a library, in which various people sat in very comfortable reading chairs reading books on magick. The library was filled with information on various magickal practices and i walked in to be greeted by every one.

The next day when i spoke to the head of the order, he said that they all felt my presence when they conducted the initiation and it was overwhelming, everyone commented upon it after the ceremony.

Dreams states are very powerful things if one knows how to navigate them, and how to read them. It is not an easy task reading a dream because the ego will hijack the interpretation, be warned. my mind is trained to write down the dream immediatly after i dream it consequently i am awake, in and out of sleep several times a night sometimes.
I also recommend hightening dreams with
Valerian, Mugwort, Mullein, Kava Kava, Dittany of Crete, St. Johns Wort, Calea Zacatechichi, Salvia Divinorum, Scutellaria Indica, Licorice Root, Vervain, Jasmine, Honeysuckle, Datura, Bee Pollen, Catnip, Hops, Scullcap, Mimosa, Lavender, Damiana, Withania Somnifera, Passionflower, Chamomile, Cardamom, Gotu Kola, Ginkgo Biloba, Ibogaine, Verbena, Rose, Cinnamon, Marigold, Nutmeg, Peppermint, Holly, Yarrow and Anise.
Make sure you know more about these herbs before you use them: some are to be used in pillows, some are to be smoked, some are to be used in tea, etc. Many B-vitamins may help you have more vivid dreams and even Lucid Dreams. Sedative drugs like Melatonin may help. And finally, we have psychedelic drugs like DMT that may induce Lucid Dreams. Some of the drugs and herbs can be addictive, and be poisonous if taken in too large doses. So do yr own research. One of the most incredible dreams i had was under morphine in hospital, where my dreams all themed around dolphins. I was totally convinced there was absolutly no distincction between my dream life and my waking reality. Dreaming can be an excellent divination technique to, usually my partners dream the result, women tend to be better receptors, (having said this i could just be saying this as it was imprined upon me in my foramtive years as a Magickian) so i always encourage my partners to keep dream journals or inform me of any significant dream they have.

A strange co incidence has occurred as i write this.
Recently an australian solider in Iraq died under mysterious circumstances, it is believed he shot himself in the head, although there is an inquest nothing has been determined yet. It has provoked a huge amount of conversation amongst the public, all suspicious and looking at the angles in a conspiracy, especially when the wrong body was flown back by mistake, however today the private's diary was released and in it he wrote, a week before he was found dead, that he had a strange dream. In the dream he describes his death exacly how it happened, he put the gun to his head and pulled the trigger, he also wrote that when he woke up he was curious as to what happened to him after the suicide.
Here is a case where a dream journal has shown the incredible insights into a mans life and death, it would be intresting to see how this case unravels and what is revealled.

Saturday, June 17, 2006

so here you stand at the gates of the underworld, where Anubus leads you down to the chamber where the scales are and places a pristine feather upon one, meanwhile Thoth or Hourus or some other friendly godlike being, plucks your still beating heart fresh from your chest and places it upon the other scale. Yes those ancient egyptians know how to have a good time. The 42 assessors ask a question each from which they determine your suitability to pass through, into the afterlife or to eternal damnation.

The 42 questions of Maat

1. I have not killed, nor bid anyone kill.
2. I have not committed adultery or rape.
3. I have not avenged myself nor burned with rage.
4. I have not caused terror.
5. I have not assaulted anyone nor caused anyone pain.
6. I have not caused misery.
7. I have not done any harm to man or to animals.
8. I have not caused the shedding of tears.
9. I have not wronged the people nor bear them any evil intent.
10. I have not stolen nor taken that which does not belong to me.
11. I have not taken more than my fair share of food.
12. I have not damaged the crops, the fields, or the trees.
13. I have not deprived anyone of what is rightfully theirs.
14. I have not beared false witness, nor supported false allegations.
15. I have not lied, nor spoken falsely to the hurt of another.
16. I have not used fiery words nor stirred up any strife.
17. I have not spoken nor acted deceitfully to the hurt of another.
18. I have not spoken scornfully against others.
19. I have not eavesdropped.
20. I have not ignored the truth or words of righteousness.
21. I have not judged anyone hastily or harshly.
22. I have not disrespected sacred places.
23. I have caused no wrong to be done to any workers or prisoners.
24. I have not been angry without good reason.
25. I have not hindered the flow of running water.
26. I have not wasted the running water.
27. I have not polluted the water or the land.
28. I have not taken God's name in vain.
29. I have not despised nor anger the Gods.
30. I have not stolen from God.
31. I have not given excessive offerings nor less than what is due.
32. I have not coveted thy neighbourÂ’s goods.
33. I have not stolen from nor disrespect the dead.
34. I have remembered and observed the appointed holy days.
35. I have not held back the offerings due to the Gods.
36. I have not interfered with sacred rites.
37. I have not slaughtered with evil intent any sacred animals.
38. I have not acted with guile or insolence.
39. I have not been unduly proud nor acted with arrogance.
40. I have not magnified my condition beyond what is appropriate.
41. I have done no less than my daily obligations require.
42. I have obeyed the law and committed no treason.

Well i think i am looking at eternal dammnation, how about you?

Friday, June 16, 2006

Magick can be thought of as the intersection between the relativistc realm (space time and mass) and the quantum (probability, possibility, etheric patterns in shadow time.
There have been two major magickal philosophies until now,
Animisn - based on the idea that everything has a lifeforce, some vital principle, Mana, this is transferable between phenomena when magicians ingest or carry things that add to their own power and Mana.
Spiritism - all things contain a degree of sentiance, thought, memory, emotions and thuis can be responsive to petition, bargining or threat.
Combined these two branches of magic equate to Shamanism.
They must not be confused with Paganism which is where spirits are abstracted from their origin to become gods. Paganism is useful to adjust ones various selves whereas Monotheism is an instrument where one of those selves doinate the others, but for actual magic the animist paradigm is required.
The third system is Chaos Magic.
More later.

Well it's been an intresting few days, sam made up with me, she apologised, emilie calls me non stop and sends me e mails demanding to know why i won't contact her, despite the fact i saw her the other day, mmm strange magnitism that seems to exist between us all, i don't like the fact it seems to have an energy all of its own.
Started and halfway through Venuss Underground, very good, puts me in mind of Perdito Street Station by China Meiville, which i recommend you read asap. It's the kind of fantasy book that actually makes fantasy very cool. Brilliant.

Saw Jake again for a quick lunch, i like the way we go to the back of the bookshop and have our special tea, read the international magazines and papers and talk in snippets, he's really quite amazing. People say he is identical to me, he is in many ways, especially when i was his age, however he is much smarter, his capacity in incredible, i wonder what it is he will apply himself to.
Art I hope, music and creation. But at the moment he wants to do PR which i don't really know anything about.

It's a beautiful day here, the sun is shining, it's still slightly cold but it's blue skies, i watch the surf, perfect waves rolling in, crashing down, a few surfers, a woman jogging, pan sniffs around the bench, some kids come and chat with us, i start to read a few pages from my book, it all seems so perfectly simple.

Wednesday, June 14, 2006

the human condition can be explained by a simple equasion.

HC = (S) P +C vs (I + R = F)

HC =Human Condition
S = Social
P = Power
C = Control
I = Individual
R = Responsibility
F= Freedom

Yeah human beings are a social species, we co exist (okay that is questionable) with our peers in societies, sometimes small, sometimes large. What ever the framework of the society, the is always interaction between people, we are dependant upon others. Usually in a harmonious society that will exist in harmony there are no C or P issues, yet how many do you know off. It seems that in most societies P and C issues manifest. They take the guise as social responsibility (S) for a social order to exist there must be social responsibility, yet there is a conflict becuase it comes at the expense of negotiating the surrender of power and control or the taking of it. In a relationship between a man and wife, power and control issues are the undercurrent, in a city they reign supreme and in a country it is more obviously displayed.
If an individual surrenders their control they expect something right? ie. i expect the govt to give me access to a hospital if i pay x amount of taxes.
Usually this exchange is acceptable, health, eduacation, transport and protection are all reasonable things to pay. We empower our govts to do this.
In a relationship, some one likes to take control of the desicions, perhaps one partner feels loved more than the other and therefore is feeling insecure, perhaps one beats the other up, perhaps one uses sex as a weapon. the means are infinate, the fact is rarely is there a balance.
So the trade of is we give control and power to our govts. Are we happy with the trade of?
Perhaps only when we learn to be responsible for ourselves can we truly be free at the moment we are slaves, sure we are not in chains and most of us have nice homes and tv sets, but really the truth of the matter is we are not as free as we claim we are. Locked in to constructs, thought processes, cycles and patterns how can we really be free when we depend on so much from our govts.

I'd really like to run a test on all the people on the planet. Do you trust your government?

The sad and awful truth is most people require govts, they are sheep, zombies sleep walking though their lives. Wake up before the alarm bell goes off, you don't wanna miss it.

Monday, June 12, 2006

back from a few hours absorbing my fave vitamin, its nice to see the streets filled with friendly faces, despite the fact that most of them only seem to be able to talk about some weird game where men kick a ball around a grass field, yeah world cup, who cares, not me.
well i was playing some tunes from an old band i used to like, they are called Bauhaus, formed in London around 1978, kinda gothic in style and experimental in a radio head kind of way, very cool dudes, post punk, arty types, excellent musicians, i saw them play once and i have to say they were amazing, it was a frentic 2 hours of sonic sculpture and pete murphy the frontman (singer) was like a vampyre with st. vitus dance, he moved around on stage like iggy on speed, with unlimited grace and style, knowing when to be still, a cross between a bat and a stick insect with intermitant moments of firefly. Part theatre part rock, Bauhaus were years ahead of their time, very cool, i'm enjoying listening to them again. Flashes of Bowie, Bolan and a originality that makes them unique.

i've almost finished my book, 'This thing of Darkness.' It's turned out to be quite surprising as Darwin turns out to be the less likable and Fitzroy the Christian is a man of honour and integrity, caught between the folly of the english establishment and his belief in god, while Darwin although on the brink of understanding transmutation, is a slightly arrogent and nationalistic english snob. It's a good book, kept me entertained for days with lots of information, drama and some comic moments. I like reading about those voyages, they were amazing distances in their time, man dicovering his planet, pre computer, electricity, maps. In fact it is the Beagle's mission to chart the South American continent. The crew are all so young yet they are men, men shaped by years at sea, sights they can't even describe, a bond that can't be broken. I'm sure it wasn't all like this but it does appeal to my romantic sense of adventure. I can't imagine anyone taking on these types of journeys today without the back up of GPS and technology. Imagine being the first europians to see the Americas, or Australia. Imagine the veiw from the native's side. That would be akin to us seeing the alien spaceships zooming in over our cities.
Any advanced technology would appear to us like magick.
it's big, it's yellow and it's fucking beautiful, yeah the suns back, doing it's thing, making people smile, flowers shine, dogs out on the streets, the surf even looks friendly. fuck writing blogs, i'm out soacking up the heat like a lizard king.

Sunday, June 11, 2006







Ahh old Captain Mission, directs his blog back on to matters of considerable importance, it took me a long long time and many years of disipline and self awareness to understand and make sense of the events that conspire in my life, to forge meaning in meaninglessness is an art in itself, we are all deluded, lost and alone as we struggle with our maps, as we process information, and we navigate through our own experience. Here's the map i follow most of the time, it's not law, don't invest any belief in it, it's no more true for you than it is for me, it's just the map i use. It's one of many directions my life moves amongst. I took pete carrols KKK and adapted it to suit my experience.

KAOS KERAUNOS KYBERNETOS

Liber KKK is the first, complete, systematic magical training programme for some centuries. It is a definitive replacement for the Sacred Magic of Abramelin the Mage, which system has become obsolete due to its monotheist transcendentalism and its dependency on repressive forms of inhibitory gnosis now considered inappropriate. (ACCEPT RESPONSIBILITY AS A GOD)

Liber KKK is presented as a series of general magical techniques which the magician must develop into a workable programme using whatever symbols, instruments and forms of gnosis that appeal to him. It would be inappropriate for a Chaos Magic text to prescribe any particular beliefs or dogmas, except that magic works if certain general principles are followed. It would be inappropriate for any Chaos magician to slavishly adhere to the fine detail of any system. Much can be learnt from Liber KKK in the process of adapting general procedures to personal taste and objectives. Liber KKK may be attempted by any adult. (AN ADULT TAKES RESPONSIBILITY) The word "magician" applies equally to either sex and the use of the male personal pronouns in the text is merely a literary convention in the absence of neutral forms in English.

Liber KKK is a series of twenty-five magical operations or "conjurations". The five classical conjurations of Evocation, Divination, Enchantment, Invocation and Illumination are each performed on the five levels of Sorcery, Shamanic Magic, Ritual Magic, Astral Magic and High Magic. (QUANTUM MAGICK) Thus the whole work systematically resumes the entire tradition of magical technique, leading the magician from simple practices and the manufacture of tools towards the mastery of more complex experiments on the psychic level.

It is highly desirable that the magician has some form of private temple for his conjurations. Yet it is essential that the magician remains active in the world for the period of the work as a whole. The work does not entail any form of retreat from the world, (THIS SHOULD BE DONE MUCH EARLIER IN MYSTIC STAGE) but rather the world surrounding the magician is used as the proving ground for magic. Thus the business and social affairs of the magician are the prime focus for his magic. In performing that magic he gradually defines his style or spirituality. For it is senseless to define spirituality as other than the way one lives. If the Way of Magic is to have a spiritual component it can only be discovered through the performance, all strictures and exhortations are useless.

There is no upper limit on the time that may be alloted to complete the entire work but it cannot be completed in less than a single year. Any person with the time to complete the operation in less than a year should consider adopting further worldly commitments as arbitrary goals in support of which, various parts of the work can be used. Objective results (NOT SUBJECTIVE) are the proof of magic, all else is mysticism.

Samples of the Philosophers Stone which do not transmute lead to gold will also fail as elixirs of enlightenment in a lifestyle of risk and uncertainty. The magician may need to consider whether he needs to adopt projects involving these elements before he begins the work.

For the purpose of this operation, the five classical magical acts of Evocation, Divination, Enchantment, Invocation and Illumination are defined as follows:-

EVOCATION:

Is work with entities which may be naturally occuring or manufactured. They may be regarded as independent spirits, fragments or the magicians subconscious, or the egregores of various species of life form, according to taste and belief structure. In practice Evocation is usually performed for Enchantment, in which the evoked entities are made to create effects on behalf of the magician. Evoked entities also find some application in Divination, when they are used to discover information for the magician. (AKASHIK FIELD)

DIVINATION:

Includes all those practices in which the magician attempts to extend his perception by magical means.

ENCHANTMENT:

Includes all those practices in which the magician attempts to impose his will on reality.

INVOCATION:

Is the deliberate attunement of consciousness and the unconscious with some archetypal or significant nexus of thought. The classical conceptions of Pagan god forms are often used but other principles may serve. Invocation creates states of inspiration or possession during which Enchantment, Divination, or occasionally Evocation, can be performed.

ILLUMINATION:

Is deliberate self modification by magic and may include spells of Enchantment cast at oneself to repair weaknesses or increase strengths, and Divination and Invocation performed for inspiration and direction.

Thus all magical operations are based on the use of will, perception and imagination, which is to say that they are all species of Enchantment or Divination. Imagination is that which occurs when will and perception stimulate each other.

The five levels of magical activity, Socercery, Shamanic, Ritual, Astral and High Magic are for the purposes of this operation defined as follows:-

SORCERY:

Is simple magic which depends on the occult connections which exist between physical phenomena. Sorcery is a mechanical art which does not require the theory that connection exist between the mind of the operator and the target. Any effects arising from such a connection can, however, be regarded as an added bonus. Workng on the sorcery level the magician creates artifacts, tools and instruments which interact magically with the physical world and which can be used again in more subtle ways on the other levels. The sorcery level work should be performed thoroughly, for simple as its practices seem they are the foundation on which the higher level work rests.

SHAMANIC MAGIC:

Works on the level of trance, vision, imagination and dream. It opens the magician's subconscious by negating the psychic censor with various techniques. The magician faces considerable danger on this level and may have frequent recourse to sorcery techniques or banishing ritual if it threatens to obsess or overwhelm him.

RITUAL MAGIC:

Combines the abilities developed on the Sorcery and Shamanic levels. The magician brings together the use of tools from the Sorcery level with the subconscious powers liberated on the Shamanic levels and combines their use in a disciplined and controlled fashion. (UNNESSESSARY AT A QUANTUM LEVEL)

ASTRAL MAGIC:

Is performed by visualisation and altered states of consciousness or gnosis, alone. Physical paraphernalia is not used although the tools and instruments from the previous levels can be used in the form of visualised images. At first the magician will probably require seclusion, silence, darkness and considerable effort at concentration and trance to succeed with such magic, but practice will allow it to be performed anywhere.

HIGH MAGIC: (QUANTUM)

Is that which occurs when there is no impediment to the direct magical effect of will, no barrier to direct clairvoyance and prescience, and no seperation between the magician and any form of rapport or consciousness he chooses to enter into. For most people the portals of High Magic are open at a few peak moments in a lifetime. As the magician progresses through his training the momentum he acquires will force open the gates to the miraculous more often. No procedures are given here for the five conjurations of High Magic. High Magic represents the point where technique gives way to intuitive genius and each must intuit the key to unleashing such powers for himself.

The first twenty conjurations teach the full gamut of artificial tricks and techniques for throwing and catching the magical thunderbolt. In High Magic the primordial Chaos at the centre of our being grabs or hurls the thunderbolt by itself.

The five conjurations on each level may be attempted in any order but all five should be completed before beginning on the next level. The magician should prepare to begin the whole operation on a date that is auspicious or personally significant. Perhaps a birthday or a seasonal turning point. A book is prepared in which the magician is to record successes with each of the twenty-five conjurations. Only successful results are noted and the magician must modify his approach to each conjuration until results worthy of recording are achieved. Lesser results may be recorded elsewhere for reference. The record of the Liber KKK operation, however, should contain an account of notable successes with each of the twenty-five conjurations. A single success with each should be regarded as an absolute minimum whilst five successes with each of the twenty-five conjurations can be regarded as thorough work.

With the possible exception of acts of High Magic, all conjurations should be planned in detail beforehand. Upon entering the temple beginning work, the magician should know precisely what he intends to do. Most magicians prefer to write out a rubric for a conjuration even if they rarely use the written form as a cue. The magician will often have to do more than is planned as inspiration and necessity move him. Yet he should never fail to carry out what he has planned or begin work with a vague idea of doing some magic.

The Gnostic Banishing Ritual

During the period of the performance of the Liber KKK operation the magician may need to defend himself against the results of his own mistakes and hostile psychic influences. He may also need to replenish his own health and psychic forces. For these purposes the Gnostic Banishing Ritual may be used. It is a technically compact and powerful conjuration of Ritual Enchantment for all of the above purposes. It may be used freely during the work as a whole and particularly as a prelude and an ending to each of the first fifteen conjurations.

Conjurations One to Five - Sorcery Level Magic

Sorcery depends on exploiting psychic connection between the physical phenomena and only secondarily on establishing psychic connections between mind and physical phenomena. Each of the conjurations requires the use of physical instruments which can be used again on other levels. It is highly desirable that the magician make these instruments by his own hand. However the magician may adapt existing objects for use if such objects are especially significant, or unique artifacts, or designed by the magician, or if such objects become available to the magician in an unusual or meaningful manner. It is no accident that sorcery techniques often resemble certain childhood behaviour patterns. Children often have a natural familiarity with the simple principles of magic even if they lack the persistance or encouragement to make them work. The adult magician is seeking to regain that childlike sense of imagination, fluidity and wishful thinking, and turn it into something of real power.

Conjuration One - Sorcery Evocation

The magician creates with his own hands a physical representation of a fetish entity by carving, moulding or assembly. Its functions are in general to attract success, to protect by repelling misfortune and to act as a reservoir of power for the magician. It is usually shaped to resemble some kind of actual living being or chimerical being whose form suggests its function. If it is vaguely humanoid in shape it is known as a Homunculus. It may be made to contain parts of the magician's body or be annointed with blood or sexual fluids. The magician treats the fetish as a living being, speaking his will to it, commanding it to exert its its influence in his favour and carrying it on his person when on critical errands. Some magicians prefer to make two fetishes, one to implement will, the other to bring knowledge and information.

Conjuration Two - Sorcery Divination

The magician prepares a simple model of the universe for use as a divinatory tool. A set of Rune Sticks or Rune Stones is most excellent for this purpose. Occidental geomancy sticks provide a somewhat simpler model whilst the systems of Tarot or I Ching can prove too complex for later work on the Shamanic levels unless abbreviated in some way. The magician should perform divination both for general trends and for answer to specific questions. The element of the divinatory tool should be treated as having a fairly direct relationship to the parts of reality they represent and the procedures of sortiledge should be regarded as a mirror of the process by which reality takes its decisions. Divinatory activity should be pitched at a frequency and complexity which allows answers to be remembered. It is preferable to divine for phenomena which are likely to confirm or negate the divination within a relatively short time period.

Conjuration Three - Sorcery Enchantment

For the work of the third conjuration the magician may need to prepare or acquire a variety of instruments, but chief amongst these should be a single special tool or magical weapon, for enchantment. A small pointed wand or a knife are especially convenient. This special instrument or weapon can also be usefully employed to trace the pentagrams in the Gnostic Banishing Ritual. A fist sized piece of modelling clay or other plastic material may be the only other instrument required. To perform Sorcery Enchantment the magician makes physical representations of his will and desire. Where possible the magical weapon should be used to help make or manipulate these representations. The magician should perform one or several conjurations of this type per week. As always he should aim to influence events before nature has made her mind up, and he should not put too great a strain on nature by conjuring for highly improbable events.

Conjuration Four - Sorcery Invocation

The aim of the fourth conjuration is to create radical changes in behaviour by temporarily altering the environment. There is no limit to the variation of experience the magician may wish to arrange for himself. He might, for example, after some careful background research, depart in disguise to some strange place and play out a completely new social role. Alternatively, he may wish to equip his temple and himself in such a way that he experiences being an ancient Egyptian god for a time. In Sorcery Evocation the magician tests to the limit his ability to create arbitrary change by modifying his environment and his behaviour.

Conjuration Five - Sorcery Illumination

In works of Illumination the magician aims for self improvement in some precisely defined and specific way. Grandiose plans for spiritual enlightenment should be abandoned in favour of identifying and overcoming the more obvious weaknesses and increasing existing strengths. For the work of Illumination the magician makes or acquires some object to represent his quest as a whole. This objects is technically known as a "lamp" although it may take the form of anything from a ring to a mandala. The "lamp" is used as a basis over which to proclaim various oaths and resolutions. Such oaths and resolutions may also be marked onto the design of the lamp. The magician may need to perform various supplementary acts of invocation, enchantment, divination and even evocation to make progress with the work of illumination. It is not unusual for the magician to destroy and rebuild the lamp during the work of illumination.

Conjurations Six to Ten - Shamanic Level Magic

Shamanic Magic depends on the use of altered states of consciousness in which active visualistation and passive vision seeking can most easily occur. The altered states which are easiest and safest to access are those of half- sleep, dream and light trances brought on by quiet meditation. However, any method of Gnosis can be used according to taste, but in initial exercises it is wise to avoid certain dangerous and ecstatic practices which can lead to a loss of control. In general it is preferable to try and deepen the trance by concentrating on visualisation and vision than to deepen it by extreme Gnosis beforehand. In Shamanic Magic the magician is seeking to discover and establish connections between his mental imagery and phenomena in the world. Visions frequently occur in symbolic language, thus for example, diseases take on the appearance of insects or loathsome animals, and fears or desires may appear as spirits. The magician or shaman should deal with such things as the images in which they present themselves, banishing or invoking such forms by force of visualisation and interpreting their physical meaning where necessary. Shamanic magic tends to become a very idiosyncratic and free form exercise in which the magician also explores his symbol synthesising faculties.

Conjuration Six - Shamanic Evocation

In this work the magician strives to establish a vision of an entity which he projects to do his bidding. It is often useful to work with the visualised forms of the entities used for the sorcery evocation although other forms can be chosen. In general, entities are used to encourage desired events to materialise, or to seek out information, in situations which are too complex for simple spells or divinations to be formulated. Entities act as semi- intelligent spells with a limited degree of independent action. The magician seeks to build an increasing rapport with the entities he has conjured by imagination until they begin to have real effect upon the world. Some of the best work with entities can often best be achieved by interacting with them in dreams.

Conjuration Seven - Shamanic Divination

In Shamanic Magic divination consists of a vision quest for answers to particular questions. However, the traditional term "vision quest" should be understood to include a quest for an answer sensed in any way, be it hallucinatory voices, tactile sensation or whatever. In general the magician concentrates on the question he wishes to put as he enters his state of dream, half-sleep or trance and then allows a flow of images, voices or other sensations to arise within himself. A completely free form vision can be attempted and later interpreted, or the magician may attempt to structure his experience by looking for special symbols, particularly those chosen for the sorcery divination work.

Conjuration Eight - Shamanic Enchantment

In Shamanic Enchantment the magician seeks to impress his will upon the world by a direct or symbolic visualization of his desire. Thus whilst in his chosen form of trance he summons up an image of the target phenomena and visualises his desire coming to pass. The magician will often find it helpful to visualise himself in the spirit vision travelling to the person or situation he wishes to influence. He then visualises an imaginative enactment during which the situation or the person's behaviour changes to fit his desire. It is not unusual for the visualisation to become somewhat symbolic or distorted or coloured by the magician's imagination. In general these distractions should be banished by greater concentration on the desired visualisation. However, if they are persistent they may reveal some knowledge about the target or the magician's relationship to it which he can use to improve his enchantment. For example, if a target person repeatedly appears to have some kind of aura or animal form in a vision it is often best to work ones visualisation directly upon this. Similarly, if a target situation seems to have some kind of characteristic vibration or "feel" about it in the spirit vision then the magician will often succeed by spirit vision then the magician will often succeed by working his magic upon a visualisation of this rather than of the actual substance of the situation.

Conjuration Nine - Shamanic Invocation

In Shamanic Invocation the magician draws knowledge and power from Atavisms, normally animal atavisms. A number of ingenious explanations exist as to why such experiences are possible. The human genetic code contains a huge amount of apparently unused information. Much of this must relate to our evolutionary history. The human brain has developed by a process of accretion rather than by complete modification. The older parts of our brain contain circuits and programs identical with those in other animals. Some magicians consider that the psychic part of humans is built up from the psychic debris of many past beings including animals, in much the same way as the physical body is. Others consider that the collective psyches of the various animal species is available to them telepathically.

To perform Shamanic Invocation the magician strives from some kind of possession by an animal atavism. The selection of a particular animal form is a very person matter. It may be that the magician has had some affinity with a particular animal since childhood, or has some characteristic, physical or mental, which suggests an animal, or it may be that an intuition builds up or that a sudden visionary revelation occurs. To develop the invocation the magician should try to visualise himself in animal form whilst in trance and even to project himself in astral travel as an animal. It is often useful to physically act out the behaviour of the animal in a suitable environment. With practice, varying degrees of split consciousness can be achieved in which it is possible for the magician to interrogate his atavism upon matters it understands and to ask it to provide him with such of its powers as his physical or astral bodies can support.

Conjuration Ten - Shamanic Illumination

The so called medicine journey of Shamanic Illumination is a quest for self-knowledge, self renewal or self improvement. It can take many forms. Traditionally it often takes the form of a death and rebirth experience in which the magician visualises his own death and dismemberment of his body followed by a rebuilding of his body and "spirit" and a rebirth. Sometimes this process is accompanied by physical privations such as sleeplessness, fasting and pain to deepen trance. Another method is to conduct a series of visionary journeys summoning up the so called "spirits" of natural phenomena, animals, plants and stones and asking them to yield knowledge. The simplest method of all is to retire for some days to a wild and secluded place far from the habitations of men and there to conduct a complete review of one's life up to that point, and also of one's future expectations.

Conjurations Eleven to Fifteen - Ritual Magic

In ritual magic, the physical use of magical instruments is combined with altered states of consciousness in a series of structured ceremonies. You, the magician, also begin to incorporate certain magical theories into the design of your work to make it more precise and effective. In particular, you should seek to broaden your use of trance by using various techniques of gnosis. This has the effect of bringing the unconscious parts of the mind, which actually do the magic, more fully into play. In ritual magic, considerable use is made of various systems of symbolic correspondence, analogical thinking, and sigils. These are used to communicate with the unconscious and to preoccupy the conscious mind while magic is being worked.

Ritual magic is always structured as an indirect approach to desire on the conscious level. The ritual magician never works with a direct representation or visualization of what he or she wants, but rather with some sigil or symbolic analogy which in a gnostic state stimulates actual desire in the unconscious.

Conjuration Eleven - Ritual Evocation

For ritual evocation, magicians may choose to continue using the entity forms employed in the sorcery or shamanic levels or may wish to experiment with traditional forms from the classical grimoires of spirits. Alternatively they may attempt to build up their own entity forms. Tradition has it that a magician should not seek to maintain more than four entities at the same time, and in practice this seems a good rule of thumb. In ritual evocation a material basis is always used even if this is merely a graphic sigil on paper. In the initial evocations, the magician builds up a strong visualized image of the entity using full gnosis. In subsequent evocations, you address various commands and directions to the material basis of the entity or else seek to receive information from it. The material basis should be handled ritually and while in a gnostic state whenever possible. When not in use, it should be concealed.

Conjuration Twelve - Ritual Divination

In ritual divination some kind of physical instrument is manipulated to give a symbolic or analogical answer while in a state of gnosis. Deep states of gnosis tend to preclude the use of complex divinatory instruments such as the Kabbala or I Ching for many people. Others may find that very simple systems such as bone casting tend to yield too little information for this kind of work, while systems of intermediate complexity such as runes, tarot or occidental geomancy are often most useful. Before the divination, the magician should ritually charge the divinatory instrument with a sigil or analogical representation of the question. The divinatory selection is then made under gnosis. The interpretation may be made under gnosis also or on return to ordinary consciousness.

Conjuration Thirteen - Ritual Enchantment

For ritual enchantment, the magician may well choose to use the special instrument of enchantment from the sorcery level work, unless particularly inspired to create a better tool. The instrument of enchantment or "magical weapon" is used to trace sigils in the air, and also where possible in the manufacture and manipulation of various spells. All ritual enchantments depend upon the use of some kind of spell to occupy and bypass the conscious mind and bring the more powerful unconscious into action. A spell can consist of virtually anything from the manufacture and consecration of a sigil, to the manipulation of wax images, or a ritual enactment of some analogy of desire. In all cases, the magician must use gnosis and concentration upon the spell itself, rather than the desire it represents to work effective enchantments.

Conjuration Fourteen - Ritual Invocation

In ritual invocation, you, the magician seek to saturate your senses with experiences corresponding to, or symbolic of, some particular quality you wish to invoke. Thus you may dress your temple and person with colors, smells, symbols, numbers, stones, plants, metals, and sounds corresponding to that which is to be invoked. You also adapt your behaviour, thoughts, and visualizations while in gnosis in an attempt to become possessed by what you invoke. In practice, the classical god-forms are frequently used as the pagan pantheons offer a spectrum of qualities resuming the whole of psychology. You should not confine yourself to invoking only those qualities for which you have a personal sympathy. Any particularly successful invocation should be followed by an invocation of quite different qualities at some later time. A thorough program of ritual invocation should encompass success with at least five completely different invocations.

Conjuration Fifteen - Ritual Illumination

In Ritual Illumination the magician applies various ritual acts of divination, enchantment, evocation and invocation to himself for self improvement. As with all acts of illumination the changes attempted should be specific rather than vague and general. The magician may find it useful to prepare a more elaborate "lamp" perhaps in the form of a mandala representing his self or soul for this conjuration. One effect of ritual illumination is often to force the magician to choose between Atman and Anatta. If he works within the paradigm of Anatta, the hypothesis of no-soul, then illumination is a matter of the addition or the deletion of certain patterns of thought and behaviour. If the magician works within the paradigm of Atman, the doctrine of personal soul, or Holy Guardian Angel, then he faces a more complex, dangerous and confusing situation. If a personal soul is presumed to exist but without a true will then the atman magician can proceed as if he were an Anattaist. If a true will is presumed to exist then the conjuration must be directed towards its discovery and implementation. The author has avoided treading too far along this path but has observed the process go spectacularly wrong in numerous cases. Those who wish to attempt it are counselled to avoid accepting as true will, anything which conflicts radically with ordinary commonsense or "lower will", as it is disparity called in this paradigm.

Conjurations Sixteen to Twenty - Astral Magic

Astral Magic is Ritual Magic performed entirely on the plane of visualisation and imagination. Unlike Shamanic Magic where a fairly free form use of images and visions is explored, this magic requires the precise and accurate visualisation of an internal landscape. In this landscape the magician carries out processes designed to bring him knowledge of the ordinary world or to change the world or himself. Astral Magic has to be approached with at least as much preparation and effort as it put into ritual magic or else it can tend to become a brief series of excursions around the imagination to little magical effect. Properly performed, it can be a source of extraordinary power and it has the advantage of requiring no physical equipment. Astral Magic is usually begun in some quiet secluded place whilst the magician is comfortably seated or couched with closed eyes. There may be few outward signs that anything is happening apart from perhaps a variation in breathing rates or posture or facial expressions as the magician enters gnosis.

To prepare for Astral Magic a temple or series of temples needs to be erected on the plane of visualised imagination. Such temples can take any convenient form although some magicians prefer to work with an exact simulacrum of their physical temple. The astral temple is visualised in fine detail and should contain all the equipment required for ritual or at least cupboards where any required instruments can be found. Any objects visualised into the temple shold always remain there for subsequent inspection unless specifically dissolved or removed. The most important object in the temple is the magician's image of himself working in it. At first it may seem that he is merely manipulating a puppet of himself in the temple but with persistence this should give way to a feeling of actually being there.

Before beginning Astral Magic proper, the required temple and instruments together with an image of the magician moving about in it should be built up by a repeated series of visualisations until all the details are perfect. Only when this is complete should the magician begin to use the temple. Each conjuration that is performed should be planned in advance with the same attention to detail as in Ritual Magic. The various acts of astral evocation, divination, enchantment, invocation and illumination take on a similar general form to the acts of Ritual Magic which the magician adapts for astral work.

Conjurations Twenty One to Twenty Five - High Magic

All the techniques of magic are really just so many ways of tricking some indefinable parts of ourselves into performing magic. The universe is basically a magical structure and we are all capable of magic. The really useful theories of magic are those which explain why magic tends to work so erratically and why we have such enormous inhibitions about believing in it, making it work, and recognising that it has worked. It is as if the universe has cast a spell upon us to convince us we are not magicians. However, this spell is rather a playful cosmic joke. The universe challenges us to shatter the illusion by leaving a few cracks in it.

No details are presented for the five conjurations of High Magic, nor can they be given, the reader is referred back to the remarks made on them in the introduction. The magician must rely on the momentum of his work in sorcery, shamanism, ritual and astral magics to carry him into the domain of high magic where he evolves his own tricks and empty handed techniques for spontaneously liberating the chaotic creativity within.

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