Internet Echo Chamber Elephantiasis... of Small Stories (Substack)

[MorganBlack]

Robert Peter at his NOHAND PATH Subtack calling out the blind leading the blind.

Not about folks here, but yeah , so much modern occult "assumed wisdom" is just internet-grown and endlessly repeated argumentum ad populum (appeal to popularity) exacerbated by a publishing environment the midst of late-stage capitalism where everyone trying to get a second-income selling books, usually by trying to appear as an authority online to build up a reader base - the real game being played.

I agree about 90% with what David Rankine said "There are no experts in magic." Pre-20th century animist magic was a "relationship field" and less a "skill field ." Seriously, how much "Magical Mystical Super Mage" skill do you have over your cat or cats? Is "friending" cute, willful fuzzy creatures really a skill - or is is a knowledge, sympathy, and wisdom / awareness field? Modern Magic is sold as skill get you hooked on the process and sell books.

Just to add to the above. Pardon the rambling.

There is some skill to the basics of magic, like some memorization and learning a form of divination, but really, anyone can do that. The real "skill" of magic is letting go and feeling deeply - letting yourself get "caught up" in the right-hemispheric mythic drama and story.

So, can you watch a movie and feel along with the people on the screen as somatic-empathic doubles (the body/feeling-based experience ) and get caught up in the "dream" of the film? If so, then you have all you need for traditional magic, aside from some knowledge, which is found in the grimoires. It really does not take that much.

The "Big Picture" and "The Whole" is the purview of the right hemisphere and not our chatty left brain. What's left out of the magic hustle culture Magic "training" " I'd recommend take up reading fiction, watching movies, or taking an art class and creative writing class. Get out of your chatty left hemisphere. (See Dr. Iain McGilchrist for more on this dynamic.)

So, if your parents did not read you bedtime stories as a small child, this might be part of you brain that needs some extra love and care. Right now it's underdeveloped and starving , and being fed on fast-food of internet equivalent of McDonalds and mouldy vegtable-drawer garbage. Go seek out the bigger and better stories to "fold "them into your sense of things.

Indigenous people of the New World will say myth is what makes you visible in the spirit world. They can't even see you offerings until they become part of the mythic story. Magicians have a bunch of consecrated items around for this reason... to get their attention by lighting up the place. As a Neoplatonist, I would say we, must become another character in the Story they perceive themselves to be a part of. Why else would we call ourselves Solomon, Moses, or Pharaoh Osoronnophris. It's not becasue we're a ego-maniacs.. Without myth and better stories, the internet is the only "book" you’re reading right now, and it’s pretty much a badly written movie made of small stories.

MB

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The Elephantiasis In The Room

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There is a very predictable habit that shows up in modern occult circles where systems and grimoires are dismissed not because they have been tested and found lacking, but because they were never properly understood in the first place, and instead of sitting with that discomfort or putting in the time to work through it, the conclusion is drawn that the material itself is flawed, outdated, or unnecessarily complex, which conveniently removes the need to engage with it any further.

When you actually look at how this plays out in real terms, especially online, the pattern becomes even clearer, because you will see people pick up a grimoire like the Key of Solomon or the Lesser Key of Solomon, flip through it, maybe attempt one or two operations with no real preparation, no understanding of timing, no grasp of the planetary framework, and no real effort put into the ritual conditions, and then within a week there is a video or a post explaining why it does not work, why it feels restrictive, or why it is not necessary in modern practice, when in reality what has happened is that they have brushed up against a structured system without the tools to operate it.

 

[Durward]

Agreed. Mostly posers, Harry Pothead fans, Wish-and-Cry because it won't do what I want immediately, what do you mean I have to do some work or inform myself, can't I just buy an amulet, sigils, or talisman from someone, scared of Ouija boards but want to own my own demon, why isn't this working like my DND game, it's all about me and my ego and desires, glamour potions, love potions, spells that I recite in my closet, and "Mom, hurry up with the hot pockets, I'm hungry and can't stop my fantasy game" so I now wear diapers... But I think I can chime in on real magic, esoteric or occult matters because I've seen a few movies... crowd. I likely missed like a thousand different facets of the poser world of fantasy nonsense and low IQ people that are paying customers for most of the nonsense. All of that is becoming illegal in Russia because they recognize the financial damage these fake scams are doing to people.
Hopefully the over 16 only systems will remove about 90% of that problem for some lucky countries. If these are adults, the entire world is in big trouble.
On the bright side, we never have to worry about lame people with giant ego problems ever getting any powers of any kind.

 

[FraterFraxinus]

Agreed. Mostly posers, Harry Pothead fans, Wish-and-Cry because it won't do what I want immediately, what do you mean I have to do some work or inform myself, can't I just buy an amulet, sigils, or talisman from someone, scared of Ouija boards but want to own my own demon, why isn't this working like my DND game, it's all about me and my ego and desires, glamour potions, love potions, spells that I recite in my closet, and "Mom, hurry up with the hot pockets, I'm hungry and can't stop my fantasy game" so I now wear diapers... But I think I can chime in on real magic, esoteric or occult matters because I've seen a few movies... crowd. I likely missed like a thousand different facets of the poser world of fantasy nonsense and low IQ people that are paying customers for most of the nonsense. All of that is becoming illegal in Russia because they recognize the financial damage these fake scams are doing to people.
Hopefully the over 16 only systems will remove about 90% of that problem for some lucky countries. If these are adults, the entire world is in big trouble.
On the bright side, we never have to worry about lame people with giant ego problems ever getting any powers of any kind.

I'm reluctant to anounce to you, that a lot of those people are adults and the world is in big trouble.
Had the pleasure to meet a real shaman from the amazon once and one thing he said stuck with me: "A lot of people in the western world dont really grow up, they never learn delay of gratification and act like children." i'm paraphrasing. im also remembering his smug(im not completetly sure that this word conveys the right idea, the tone was joking with some pity and maybe a sprinkle of contempt)
undertone when he said that. laughs were had.

 

[MorganBlack]

Agree, I'd say they are children (at whatever age) acting like what think adults act like. It's a totally performative LARP in the wrong direction.

People who come from more devout cultures, where they are not in major conflict with the mythic stores of their culture, do not know how hard it is for the rest of us to just let go. There is a real power to the Beginner's Mind, or in the language of mystical Catholicism, becoming like a child to "enter the gates of heaven." Zen help here to get past the trap of strict reductive "Talker"language.

The same dynamic I'm suggesting to help us overcome blocks (and hook up a bunch of stuff on the other side of reality) is used in foreign language classrooms. It's probably tribal knowledge that was passed among professional teachers, but they will often have you adopt a name in the language you are learning, like Juan instead of John. Obviously, John does not know how to speak Spanish, but you as 'Juan' does.

The story lowers the Affective Filter. In linguistics, the Affective Filter is the emotional block (anxiety, self-consciousness) that stops learning. Switching names effectively bypasses that filter. It lets the Big Picture right hemisphere take over the flow as the "Expert" John has been temporarily sidelined.

Post automatically merged: Yesterday at 5:55 PM

Oh! I'm 50% Neoplatonist so I see our inner dynamic as part of the animist experience... but to head off at the pass that this gets used to further retrench and re-psychologicalize Every. Single. Damned. Level... on which all this stuff works...

...the same dynamic doing double, or even triple duty: first helping us enter Story, then sending the right signals to the class of beings we are trying to contact, and also forming a language we can use for human-to-Mystery communications. It's only after a while these get hardened into various religions of the fundamentalist varieties, be it pagan , Christian, Secular Materialism, or other.

 

[FraterFraxinus]

The same dynamic I'm suggesting to help us overcome blocks (and hook up a bunch of stuff on the other side of reality) is used in foreign language classrooms. It's probably tribal knowledge that was passed among professional teachers, but they will often have you adopt a name in the language you are learning, like Juan instead of John. Obviously, John does not know how to speak Spanish, but you as 'Juan' does.

Thats a neat outlook on why magical names are a usefull thing for practice. Thanks for this.

 

[Durward]

Agree, I'd say they are children (at whatever age) acting like what think adults act like. It's a totally performative LARP in the wrong direction.

People who come from more devout cultures, where they are not in major conflict with the mythic stores of their culture, do not know how hard it is for the rest of us to just let go. There is a real power to the Beginner's Mind, or in the language of mystical Catholicism, becoming like a child to "enter the gates of heaven." Zen help here to get past the trap of strict reductive "Talker"language.

The same dynamic I'm suggesting to help us overcome blocks (and hook up a bunch of stuff on the other side of reality) is used in foreign language classrooms. It's probably tribal knowledge that was passed among professional teachers, but they will often have you adopt a name in the language you are learning, like Juan instead of John. Obviously, John does not know how to speak Spanish, but you as 'Juan' does.

The story lowers the Affective Filter. In linguistics, the Affective Filter is the emotional block (anxiety, self-consciousness) that stops learning. Switching names effectively bypasses that filter. It lets the Big Picture right hemisphere take over the flow as the "Expert" John has been temporarily sidelined.

Post automatically merged: Yesterday at 5:55 PM

Oh! I'm 50% Neoplatonist so I see our inner dynamic as part of the animist experience... but to head off at the pass that this gets used to further retrench and re-psychologicalize Every. Single. Damned. Level... on which all this stuff works...

...the same dynamic doing double, or even triple duty: first helping us enter Story, then sending the right signals to the class of beings we are trying to contact, and also forming a language we can use for human-to-Mystery communications. It's only after a while these get hardened into various religions of the fundamentalist varieties, be it pagan , Christian, Secular Materialism, or other.

Sounds like my lock, block, and filter preaching with some examples... nice!

 

[StoatCatcher]

The same dynamic I'm suggesting to help us overcome blocks (and hook up a bunch of stuff on the other side of reality) is used in foreign language classrooms. It's probably tribal knowledge that was passed among professional teachers, but they will often have you adopt a name in the language you are learning, like Juan instead of John. Obviously, John does not know how to speak Spanish, but you as 'Juan' does.

Wow, no one actually taught me that concept when learning English but that makes sense. I think it really became clear when I started engaging in online english-speaking communities with an english name. I could vividly sense my mind switching gears into some other mode of thinking when I was first learning how to speak it and thought it was a little weird. It was like this "other me" was forming inside of my mind. I'll for sure apply this thinking to magical names going forward like @MorganBlack said.

And as for your broader point of giving other systems a solid try, I've been trying to do some esoteric vampirism practices as of late as an exercise in getting out of my comfort zone. I've always dismissed it because the energetic frameworks provided did not make sense in my model and the whole aesthetic looked a little silly. But then I had some promising results that were against my pre-concieved notions. I'm going to investigate further and record results for processing later, but I'm really happy that I gave it a shot and stopped ignoring it.

 

[AbammonTheGreat]

Robert Peter at his NOHAND PATH Subtack calling out the blind leading the blind.

Not about folks here, but yeah , so much modern occult "assumed wisdom" is just internet-grown and endlessly repeated argumentum ad populum (appeal to popularity) exacerbated by a publishing environment the midst of late-stage capitalism where everyone trying to get a second-income selling books, usually by trying to appear as an authority online to build up a reader base - the real game being played.

I agree about 90% with what David Rankine said "There are no experts in magic." Pre-20th century animist magic was a "relationship field" and less a "skill field ." Seriously, how much "Magical Mystical Super Mage" skill do you have over your cat or cats? Is "friending" cute, willful fuzzy creatures really a skill - or is is a knowledge, sympathy, and wisdom / awareness field? Modern Magic is sold as skill get you hooked on the process and sell books.

Just to add to the above. Pardon the rambling.

There is some skill to the basics of magic, like some memorization and learning a form of divination, but really, anyone can do that. The real "skill" of magic is letting go and feeling deeply - letting yourself get "caught up" in the right-hemispheric mythic drama and story.

So, can you watch a movie and feel along with the people on the screen as somatic-empathic doubles (the body/feeling-based experience ) and get caught up in the "dream" of the film? If so, then you have all you need for traditional magic, aside from some knowledge, which is found in the grimoires. It really does not take that much.

The "Big Picture" and "The Whole" is the purview of the right hemisphere and not our chatty left brain. What's left out of the magic hustle culture Magic "training" " I'd recommend take up reading fiction, watching movies, or taking an art class and creative writing class. Get out of your chatty left hemisphere. (See Dr. Iain McGilchrist for more on this dynamic.)

So, if your parents did not read you bedtime stories as a small child, this might be part of you brain that needs some extra love and care. Right now it's underdeveloped and starving , and being fed on fast-food of internet equivalent of McDonalds and mouldy vegtable-drawer garbage. Go seek out the bigger and better stories to "fold "them into your sense of things.

Indigenous people of the New World will say myth is what makes you visible in the spirit world. They can't even see you offerings until they become part of the mythic story. Magicians have a bunch of consecrated items around for this reason... to get their attention by lighting up the place. As a Neoplatonist, I would say we, must become another character in the Story they perceive themselves to be a part of. Why else would we call ourselves Solomon, Moses, or Pharaoh Osoronnophris. It's not becasue we're a ego-maniacs.. Without myth and better stories, the internet is the only "book" you’re reading right now, and it’s pretty much a badly written movie made of small stories.

MB

--------------------
--------------------

The Elephantiasis In The Room

Please, Log in or Register to view URLs content!

There is a very predictable habit that shows up in modern occult circles where systems and grimoires are dismissed not because they have been tested and found lacking, but because they were never properly understood in the first place, and instead of sitting with that discomfort or putting in the time to work through it, the conclusion is drawn that the material itself is flawed, outdated, or unnecessarily complex, which conveniently removes the need to engage with it any further.

When you actually look at how this plays out in real terms, especially online, the pattern becomes even clearer, because you will see people pick up a grimoire like the Key of Solomon or the Lesser Key of Solomon, flip through it, maybe attempt one or two operations with no real preparation, no understanding of timing, no grasp of the planetary framework, and no real effort put into the ritual conditions, and then within a week there is a video or a post explaining why it does not work, why it feels restrictive, or why it is not necessary in modern practice, when in reality what has happened is that they have brushed up against a structured system without the tools to operate it.

Largely my issue with modern occulture/cottage industry. There are a few people doing innovative work (looking at you Jack Grayle), that is producing working magical systems that are a synthesis of history, praxis, and gnosis but the default mode of the cottage industry is "if it doesn't have a lineage/in accepted framework its UPG/doesn't work".

The skill in magic, as in mastery over it comes through most commonly two primary modes. There is innate magic, that is people who are just born/incarnated with an ability that can not be trained, studied, or taught into; and then there is the studied/wise approach which is ultimately a synthesis of mystical training with a developed understanding of theology, philosophy, and the disciplines relevant to wizardry. The magical act in the latter mode is a reconstruction of the depth of one's understanding of their relationship to the cosmos and this is not what is approached in modern occulture. We do not see lengthy discourses on the metaphysics behind the magic that were so commonly prefaces to the greatest tomes in history. We do not see references to other materials, legends, or mythologies. Everything is sanitized, cut and dry, plain language, and only referenced like a religious studies professor not like a wizard or occultist dense with mythological themes.

The language used in i would say 90% of modern grimoires reads like a reddit post and leaves little room for personal development. The ideas being presented keep getting watered down into simpler language and easier axioms, reinterpretations of reinterpretations of the same exact currents. Visconti presents us with Crowleys magic without any of the dense symbolism that made Crowleys work so inspiring to the occultists that came after him. Skinner writes commentaries on grimoires from an "acceptable" lineage. That is, one that can be easily placed within the historical record choosing to exorcise deviations in the material in the hopes of some type of disingenuous "scholastic/academic" perspective. The rehashing of Golden Dawn material reinterpreted and reinterpreted has left the current nearly identical to New Age materials.

This "testing" of grimoires isnt being done thoroughly because the biggest voices in occultism are coming from authors in a cottage industry. Where are the wizards? The authors are appealing to the largest demographic they can for consumption. The wizard toiling away at pushing the boundaries of magic and mysticism is not heard from or of, the ones truly mastering the grimoires. And so the authors come to the conclusion the material is flawed or outdated, you can see what type of material one consumes by their writing style. And if the modern grimoire reads like a reddit post or wikipedia entry I can only assume the author only reads reddit posts and wikipedia entries. It is a feedback loop that keeps watering itself down, these big voices are not uncovering the WHY in the flaws they're comparing and contrasting against their contemporaries, the contemporary scholarship on our tradition, and loudly proclaiming "well this does not checkout with the accepted lineage" or "the accepted scholarship".

There was one point, even a decade ago, where it was common knowledge amongst occultists and our community that these flaws were often times intentional either to obfuscate the information or to serve as a puzzle to unlock gnosis. Where are the wizards? Where is the wizardry? These "mistakes" are serving as jumping off points for the development of the magus, they are LACUNA to be resolved through direct experience. The Magister Templi is dead in favor of the PhD Occult Author/Anthropologist

 

[weirdbird]

There is a very predictable habit that shows up in modern occult circles where systems and grimoires are dismissed not because they have been tested and found lacking, but because they were never properly understood in the first place, and instead of sitting with that discomfort or putting in the time to work through it, the conclusion is drawn that the material itself is flawed, outdated, or unnecessarily complex, which conveniently removes the need to engage with it any further.

When you actually look at how this plays out in real terms, especially online, the pattern becomes even clearer, because you will see people pick up a grimoire like the Key of Solomon or the Lesser Key of Solomon, flip through it, maybe attempt one or two operations with no real preparation, no understanding of timing, no grasp of the planetary framework, and no real effort put into the ritual conditions, and then within a week there is a video or a post explaining why it does not work, why it feels restrictive, or why it is not necessary in modern practice, when in reality what has happened is that they have brushed up against a structured system without the tools to operate it.

Been that way for ages. Joseph Lisiewski wrote a book about it which can be summed up in a single sentence "try following the instructions first before complaining they don't work" - the thing is, most grimoires don't even have that complex of a framework. I came to dislike the term "UPG" since 90% of the time, instead of "I discovered it through practice and research" it means "I made it up and now I believe in it religiously". You can blame the early 20th century psychologism for ruining the occult scene for years to come - if it's all in your head and the "demon" is just a part of your "subconsious mind", then surely there's no need to follow the instructions, right?

The skill in magic, as in mastery over it comes through most commonly two primary modes. There is innate magic, that is people who are just born/incarnated with an ability that can not be trained, studied, or taught into; and then there is the studied/wise approach which is ultimately a synthesis of mystical training with a developed understanding of theology, philosophy, and the disciplines relevant to wizardry.

That's just D&D

There was one point, even a decade ago, where it was common knowledge amongst occultists and our community that these flaws were often times intentional either to obfuscate the information or to serve as a puzzle to unlock gnosis.

In all honestly that was mostly just MacGregor Mathers and some of his contemporaries, intentional flaws weren't really that prevalent before or after his time

Where are the wizards? Where is the wizardry? These "mistakes" are serving as jumping off points for the development of the magus, they are LACUNA to be resolved through direct experience. The Magister Templi is dead in favor of the PhD Occult Author/Anthropologist

That's ultimately a good thing. I would take a PhD over a guy who can barely read Hebrew putting Shem in the middle of the Tergragrammaton and patting himself on the back any day. Sadly there seems to be very little middle ground when it comes to quality occult literature, you either get the dry and direct scholarly approach or barely readable Crowlesque ramblings