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My whole life I have instinctively sought a type of unity among varying types of religious and philosophical thought. I have always seen and felt that there are a lot of intersections in the philosophical constructions of the human mind, the differences being less important to me, though that is not to say they are not important. For my own line of contemplations I have always typically gravitated towards the Neoplatonists, Gnostics, Hermeticists, Kabbalists, Brahmins, Buddhists and Taoists because they all share common useful themes which I can grasp more or less, though I am aware of and even find interesting their barriers of difference. Yet to me these are shades of degree of emphasis, not necessarily hard boundaries of this vs. that. Of course, in the name of defining magic as an underlying force in these systems many have recognized and expounded on the similarities ad nauseam. The differences are enough to separate into relatively distinct piles these classes of studies, much as the Buddha divided his skandhas into five piles of rice. But rice is common to rice, and to say that all major doctrines contain some essential essence of commonality in recognition of supreme unity set against their “hylophobia” might be a little misleading if technically accurate.
Generally, the world is always evil on some level and in some way, a trap or prison that can be escaped if one depersonalizes and depolarizes one’s self from it. Again, the emphasis is different by degrees – for instance, the Gnostics claim the world is a prison of the Soul while Plotinus counters emphatically that the world is not exactly evil, but it does entice and trap the Soul if it gets hypnotized and does not engage in Virtue. In both cases the world must be resisted and renounced in some fashion in favor of that which is above it. For Plotinus, this comes through contemplation of higher principles. For the Buddhist, this comes through self analysis to the point of complete recognition of one’s own non-being. Yet for both these philosophies the root of being can be said to be in non-being, which is indefinable. Similarily, the Ain Soph of Kaballah can be said to be “non-being”, but really in all cases we are looking at an “infinite recess” where it is not nothing, but rather the inability to define what is beyond “thing”. Reconciling these doctrines with a more materially oriented intuition while adhering to strict definitions of terms are a brain melting problem of tedium unless one likes repetition – perhaps a futile task. With regards to magic, the “candidate” lacks the mercy of logical constructs after a certain point in experience, and it may be said that magicians have historically violated all these boundaries in favor of their intentions probably out of pure frustration morphing into “Understanding”. Religious boundaries have historically proven tenous for magic in general. The Jewish Kabbalist and the Hindu Tantric have slithered serpent-like along with the scandalous Christian monk scribbling grimoires in a basement by candle light. All have secret handshakes in twilit grottos.
Infinite recess… All ideas tend to collapse on themselves into a fragmentation of pure unappealing abstraction or relenting to physical exhaustion, or both, in the act of relentless analysis. But to make it magical, if one has not disintegrated completely, one must do something. Action must become religion.
On that, I have something to share. It was a brutally hot day during the so-called Great Lockdown when I was sitting in my vehicle outside the dentist’s office. I had to wait to be cleared to go in due to pandemic rules, and while I did this I decided to read some of the Introduction to Magic by Julius Evola. Actually, the work is of multiple authors of the UR Group which was active in Italy around the time of of Il Duce. I should note that I was enduring a very emotional time which I will not describe other than to say it was a balance of oppressive expectations and “guarded optimism” hinging on the ever present wave of life and death issues concerning my family as well as all of society. I was also worried that sitting in a car without air conditioning would lead to cancellation of my appointment on the spot due to my temperature being too high, which would make me suspect of infection. But this was simple fang sharpening; who would have thought it would be so complicated.
So, to describe my impressions while I was reading, for illusionary and hyperbolic purposes only, I will describe being accosted in a flash by a demon Code Named ABRAXAS: he is a cold teacher without pity or remorse. He appeared in my very sensitive imagination in clouds of darkness that welled up from the words of the pdf on my cell phone. Picture a suave Italian man sitting in a wheelchair. You can call him a “meta fascist” wearing a crisply tailored black militant uniform crawling with faint curvilinear magical and alchemical symbols on ichor black cloth. Boldy set upon his militant cap, armband and chest in natonalistic fashion there are the classic symbols of Sul-Phur, Mercury, Sal and Celestial Niter. This modernist general (or policeman) of the ancient credos of Trismegistus has a monocle in one eye and smokes a cigarette from a long stem. Covering his apparently crippled legs is a mauve blanket, again decorated with dim sigils – yet under the cloth there is a sense not of failed human limbs, but of a coiled and slowly writhing serpent’s tail. His pale clawed hand covers a ratty book of which I can barely see the title as something like The World----------------hauer. His eyes are black, seductive and empty as he lectures:
"The life of all beings, without exception, is ruled by a primordial Force deep inside them. The nature of this force is craving: an appetite that is never satisfied, an endless restlessness, an irresistible need, and a blind, wild yearning."
"The essence of this primordial cosmic nature is: becoming; chaotic and disorderly transformation; an incoercible flux; generation-destruction; attraction-repulsion; terror-desire; formation-dissolution. All of these elements are combined in a fiery mixture that knows no rest. "
"The Wise spoke of it as a wonder and as a terror. They called it: Universal and Living Fire, Hyle (matter), Green Dragon, Quintessence, First Substance, Great Magical Agent. The principle of the universal work is also the principle of their "GREAT WORK," since the Magistery of Creation and the Magistery with which man realizes himself according to the royal Art are one and the same. "
When I look upon this demon and try to listen to his words, he smiles and says in a sidebar:
“It is hard to grasp on that particular level of intuition which says 'Ah yeah, I get it' - yessss, but that is the point. You have yet to embrace the ideology of ‘You do not exist.’”
That is to say, in summation, that the “life that is within me” is “not me” – this seeming a paradox of sorts. Yes, some would call it quite disturbing. My car is hot, even with all the windows down, parked in the shade. The craving itself mentioned is easily connected with the Hermetic phrase: “Desire is the cause of death.” Of course, there is the Buddhist “tanha”, or that impelling lust “to be” which leads to endless futile incarnations of “dukkha” or suffering. It all makes sense, if it’s a bit demotivating because I have heard it all before, so it seems. I myself admit that I have fetters to work out – but Abraxas is unsympathetic and unrelenting:
"Know, therefore, that the Life of your life is in It.
"Look out for It.
"It reveals itself, for example, at all times of sudden danger.
"It may be a speeding car rushing toward you, when you walk absentmindedly; or the opening of a yawning crevice in the earth under your feet; a flameless burning coal, or an electrified object that you have touched inadvertently. Then in reaction, something violent and extremely fast happens. Is it your "will," your "consciousness," your "Self"? No. Your will, consciousness, and Self usually come into play only later on. At the time they were absent and left behind. Something deeper, faster, more absolute than everything that you are has suddenly manifested, taken charge, and asserted itself."
Ah, it now smacks of a sense of adventure. Have we strayed from the endless cyclic refrain of “you are a slave of the world and must be purified to ascend?”
"Since everything is at the mercy of this force and exists through this force, know that he who learns to master it completely will be able to dominate through all of nature: fire, earth, air, and water, life and death, the powers of heaven and hell, because this force encompasses them all. And now, since you wished to learn about it, realize that the "Science of the Magi" wills this and disdains anything that is not this."
Domination…
It’s an audacious word I had not often encountered in books of magic. In contrast to being a slave of matter, this makes me reflect Castaneda’s assertion (through Don Juan, of course) that we are all “slaves of power”. That’s a little different. In power there is the implication of games of domination. I have also read commentaries on the phrase in the Book of the Law that “the slaves shall serve” does not necessarily refer to inferior ignorant persons, but to the magician’s exalted managers in the formless. Then there is power working up and down in a cycle from unmanifest potential through manifest agency. Naturally, this is all very entangling.
There is in the hissings of Abraxas a further explication with regards to the “Humidum Radicale” and its ouroboric signatures which are graphically demonstrated by the symbolisms of the dynamic elements, the sign of Aquarius – which had great import to me at the time – and other mutations, particularly of Mercury. The dead magician’s words conjured too many images in my mind at once, and for a moment I could hardly gain my senses. Well it was hot, and my nerves...
I suppose he and I could relate to eachother in the sense of it was like the mental experience of playing hopscotch during an aerial bombing raid only to end up in a whirlwind – which is why he ended up in a wheelchair – so it is said. And it was fucking hot in that car. With sharped toothed grin, old Abraxas, cold as he is, has an insidious way of consoling:
"To create something stable, impassive, immortal, something rescued from the "Waters" that is now living and breathing outside of them, finally free; and then, like a strong man who grasps a raging bull by the horns, slowly but relentlessly subjugating it, to dominate this cosmic nature in oneself—this is the secret of our Art, the Art of the Sun and of Power, of beneath you: "I exist in this"—then you have achieved the KNOWLEDGE OF THE WATERS. "
One of the seminal illustrated figures presented in the book in question is the image of Mithra slaying the Bull, which relates philosophically to salvation but also the heroism of that attainment. Already overwhelmed by the “multiplication” of “signatures” (as in Aquarius, alchemically, per Pernetti’s assignment), I made a note to pursue Mithra further. But a footnote in the chapter in question makes mention of the origin of this term "the Waters" in Buddhism, a study I am not unfamiliar with, but which called for more immediate attention- the ball bounces back:
2. In Buddhism, this "knowledge of the Waters" corresponds to the realization of so called "samsaric consciousness" and of the truth anatta (no-soul). Beyond the awareness of the unique life of a given individual, there is the awareness of the trunk, of which this life is only a branch: the primordial force of this trunk is experienced. Moreover, what is also experienced is the unreality of the "Self and of everything that resembles the Self " (this is the doctrine of anatta). To feel samsara and to feel oneself in samsara is the presupposition, also in Buddhism, for the realization of that which is truly spiritual and transcendent.
I am reminded of a Sephirothic meditation of Malkuth (in which the concept of samsara emerged) some years prior in which I had a terrible vision of the world burning down and falling apart to the sound of emergency sirens and screams.
At the point I command Abraxas to recommend books for further study on these points. Preferably on pdf so I can sample them.
He replies, “It’s a game.”
And with a text message beep, he is gone.
I get called in to the dentist. They take my temperature and sure enough, it's way to high after several attempts, though am not sick, just hot. So they refuse to treat me anyway and I reschedule.
And with such a reflection I open this journal. I have a leisurely idea that I can follow it where it leads. It’s what slaves should do.
Generally, the world is always evil on some level and in some way, a trap or prison that can be escaped if one depersonalizes and depolarizes one’s self from it. Again, the emphasis is different by degrees – for instance, the Gnostics claim the world is a prison of the Soul while Plotinus counters emphatically that the world is not exactly evil, but it does entice and trap the Soul if it gets hypnotized and does not engage in Virtue. In both cases the world must be resisted and renounced in some fashion in favor of that which is above it. For Plotinus, this comes through contemplation of higher principles. For the Buddhist, this comes through self analysis to the point of complete recognition of one’s own non-being. Yet for both these philosophies the root of being can be said to be in non-being, which is indefinable. Similarily, the Ain Soph of Kaballah can be said to be “non-being”, but really in all cases we are looking at an “infinite recess” where it is not nothing, but rather the inability to define what is beyond “thing”. Reconciling these doctrines with a more materially oriented intuition while adhering to strict definitions of terms are a brain melting problem of tedium unless one likes repetition – perhaps a futile task. With regards to magic, the “candidate” lacks the mercy of logical constructs after a certain point in experience, and it may be said that magicians have historically violated all these boundaries in favor of their intentions probably out of pure frustration morphing into “Understanding”. Religious boundaries have historically proven tenous for magic in general. The Jewish Kabbalist and the Hindu Tantric have slithered serpent-like along with the scandalous Christian monk scribbling grimoires in a basement by candle light. All have secret handshakes in twilit grottos.
Infinite recess… All ideas tend to collapse on themselves into a fragmentation of pure unappealing abstraction or relenting to physical exhaustion, or both, in the act of relentless analysis. But to make it magical, if one has not disintegrated completely, one must do something. Action must become religion.
On that, I have something to share. It was a brutally hot day during the so-called Great Lockdown when I was sitting in my vehicle outside the dentist’s office. I had to wait to be cleared to go in due to pandemic rules, and while I did this I decided to read some of the Introduction to Magic by Julius Evola. Actually, the work is of multiple authors of the UR Group which was active in Italy around the time of of Il Duce. I should note that I was enduring a very emotional time which I will not describe other than to say it was a balance of oppressive expectations and “guarded optimism” hinging on the ever present wave of life and death issues concerning my family as well as all of society. I was also worried that sitting in a car without air conditioning would lead to cancellation of my appointment on the spot due to my temperature being too high, which would make me suspect of infection. But this was simple fang sharpening; who would have thought it would be so complicated.
So, to describe my impressions while I was reading, for illusionary and hyperbolic purposes only, I will describe being accosted in a flash by a demon Code Named ABRAXAS: he is a cold teacher without pity or remorse. He appeared in my very sensitive imagination in clouds of darkness that welled up from the words of the pdf on my cell phone. Picture a suave Italian man sitting in a wheelchair. You can call him a “meta fascist” wearing a crisply tailored black militant uniform crawling with faint curvilinear magical and alchemical symbols on ichor black cloth. Boldy set upon his militant cap, armband and chest in natonalistic fashion there are the classic symbols of Sul-Phur, Mercury, Sal and Celestial Niter. This modernist general (or policeman) of the ancient credos of Trismegistus has a monocle in one eye and smokes a cigarette from a long stem. Covering his apparently crippled legs is a mauve blanket, again decorated with dim sigils – yet under the cloth there is a sense not of failed human limbs, but of a coiled and slowly writhing serpent’s tail. His pale clawed hand covers a ratty book of which I can barely see the title as something like The World----------------hauer. His eyes are black, seductive and empty as he lectures:
"The life of all beings, without exception, is ruled by a primordial Force deep inside them. The nature of this force is craving: an appetite that is never satisfied, an endless restlessness, an irresistible need, and a blind, wild yearning."
"The essence of this primordial cosmic nature is: becoming; chaotic and disorderly transformation; an incoercible flux; generation-destruction; attraction-repulsion; terror-desire; formation-dissolution. All of these elements are combined in a fiery mixture that knows no rest. "
"The Wise spoke of it as a wonder and as a terror. They called it: Universal and Living Fire, Hyle (matter), Green Dragon, Quintessence, First Substance, Great Magical Agent. The principle of the universal work is also the principle of their "GREAT WORK," since the Magistery of Creation and the Magistery with which man realizes himself according to the royal Art are one and the same. "
When I look upon this demon and try to listen to his words, he smiles and says in a sidebar:
“It is hard to grasp on that particular level of intuition which says 'Ah yeah, I get it' - yessss, but that is the point. You have yet to embrace the ideology of ‘You do not exist.’”
That is to say, in summation, that the “life that is within me” is “not me” – this seeming a paradox of sorts. Yes, some would call it quite disturbing. My car is hot, even with all the windows down, parked in the shade. The craving itself mentioned is easily connected with the Hermetic phrase: “Desire is the cause of death.” Of course, there is the Buddhist “tanha”, or that impelling lust “to be” which leads to endless futile incarnations of “dukkha” or suffering. It all makes sense, if it’s a bit demotivating because I have heard it all before, so it seems. I myself admit that I have fetters to work out – but Abraxas is unsympathetic and unrelenting:
"Know, therefore, that the Life of your life is in It.
"Look out for It.
"It reveals itself, for example, at all times of sudden danger.
"It may be a speeding car rushing toward you, when you walk absentmindedly; or the opening of a yawning crevice in the earth under your feet; a flameless burning coal, or an electrified object that you have touched inadvertently. Then in reaction, something violent and extremely fast happens. Is it your "will," your "consciousness," your "Self"? No. Your will, consciousness, and Self usually come into play only later on. At the time they were absent and left behind. Something deeper, faster, more absolute than everything that you are has suddenly manifested, taken charge, and asserted itself."
Ah, it now smacks of a sense of adventure. Have we strayed from the endless cyclic refrain of “you are a slave of the world and must be purified to ascend?”
"Since everything is at the mercy of this force and exists through this force, know that he who learns to master it completely will be able to dominate through all of nature: fire, earth, air, and water, life and death, the powers of heaven and hell, because this force encompasses them all. And now, since you wished to learn about it, realize that the "Science of the Magi" wills this and disdains anything that is not this."
Domination…
It’s an audacious word I had not often encountered in books of magic. In contrast to being a slave of matter, this makes me reflect Castaneda’s assertion (through Don Juan, of course) that we are all “slaves of power”. That’s a little different. In power there is the implication of games of domination. I have also read commentaries on the phrase in the Book of the Law that “the slaves shall serve” does not necessarily refer to inferior ignorant persons, but to the magician’s exalted managers in the formless. Then there is power working up and down in a cycle from unmanifest potential through manifest agency. Naturally, this is all very entangling.
There is in the hissings of Abraxas a further explication with regards to the “Humidum Radicale” and its ouroboric signatures which are graphically demonstrated by the symbolisms of the dynamic elements, the sign of Aquarius – which had great import to me at the time – and other mutations, particularly of Mercury. The dead magician’s words conjured too many images in my mind at once, and for a moment I could hardly gain my senses. Well it was hot, and my nerves...
I suppose he and I could relate to eachother in the sense of it was like the mental experience of playing hopscotch during an aerial bombing raid only to end up in a whirlwind – which is why he ended up in a wheelchair – so it is said. And it was fucking hot in that car. With sharped toothed grin, old Abraxas, cold as he is, has an insidious way of consoling:
"To create something stable, impassive, immortal, something rescued from the "Waters" that is now living and breathing outside of them, finally free; and then, like a strong man who grasps a raging bull by the horns, slowly but relentlessly subjugating it, to dominate this cosmic nature in oneself—this is the secret of our Art, the Art of the Sun and of Power, of beneath you: "I exist in this"—then you have achieved the KNOWLEDGE OF THE WATERS. "
One of the seminal illustrated figures presented in the book in question is the image of Mithra slaying the Bull, which relates philosophically to salvation but also the heroism of that attainment. Already overwhelmed by the “multiplication” of “signatures” (as in Aquarius, alchemically, per Pernetti’s assignment), I made a note to pursue Mithra further. But a footnote in the chapter in question makes mention of the origin of this term "the Waters" in Buddhism, a study I am not unfamiliar with, but which called for more immediate attention- the ball bounces back:
2. In Buddhism, this "knowledge of the Waters" corresponds to the realization of so called "samsaric consciousness" and of the truth anatta (no-soul). Beyond the awareness of the unique life of a given individual, there is the awareness of the trunk, of which this life is only a branch: the primordial force of this trunk is experienced. Moreover, what is also experienced is the unreality of the "Self and of everything that resembles the Self " (this is the doctrine of anatta). To feel samsara and to feel oneself in samsara is the presupposition, also in Buddhism, for the realization of that which is truly spiritual and transcendent.
I am reminded of a Sephirothic meditation of Malkuth (in which the concept of samsara emerged) some years prior in which I had a terrible vision of the world burning down and falling apart to the sound of emergency sirens and screams.
At the point I command Abraxas to recommend books for further study on these points. Preferably on pdf so I can sample them.
He replies, “It’s a game.”
And with a text message beep, he is gone.
I get called in to the dentist. They take my temperature and sure enough, it's way to high after several attempts, though am not sick, just hot. So they refuse to treat me anyway and I reschedule.
And with such a reflection I open this journal. I have a leisurely idea that I can follow it where it leads. It’s what slaves should do.
