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I'm still mulling over these articles which are the author's very interesting attempts at an Eschatology (what happens after we die) that is more true to the Western cannon.
I don't necessarily agree with his all his exploratory non-conclusions, but I sure get tired of the forever-conversations about reincarnation and literal immortality, as if both are faits accomplis (done deals) , and all we mere mortals can do is nod along in agreement with the assumed wisdom of such assumptions.
I find it interesting that the one figure the idea 'demons are pagan gods' ideas usually leave out is the Devil himself. The magician, ATR intitate, and author of the Subatack 'Goetic Musing' rehabilitates Old Scratch by broadening our conceptual tools, by looking at diverse ideas about the Greek pagan smith god Hephaestus, at the Alexandrian School of Neoplatonism, as well as Catholic and Hermetic ideas about the afterlife.
At the bottom I've added the writing of Luciferian-Catholic Bishop Rev. Michael Lux, who knows vastly more about traditional Catholic theology than I ever will. I will say the Trad Cath vision of the afterlife - in the more mystical schools - even before being modified with Rev. Lux's Lucierian gnosis - is vastly more humane and optimistic than both the New Age 'we get reincarnated forever for some reason' - or the bleak ideas of the pagan annihilation of the Second Death imported from an ancient Egyptian worldview . The Second Death is also addressed in in Goetic Musings articles.
Speaking more personally, in my personal gnosis, we are already immortal beings, and most of the more mystical visionary practices form a kind of preventative eschatology so we don't get stuck in a loathsome dream of our own delusions - as the weight of our soul pulls us in a horrible nightmare dreamscape where we haunted by our own unintegrated bullshit. For what that looks like, in my opinion, the horror movie The Others, with Nicole Kidman, does a great job dramatizing an afterlife experience gone bad look like.
MB
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A summary, but is actually works as an intro the three main article:
The Devil and the Path of Liberation
Ascending through the Fire of the Adversary
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No Eternal Damnation: The Devil as Cosmic Smith,
Toward a Positive Theology of the Adversary
Part 1
Part 2
Part 3
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About the author, An Italian blacksmith who is intriatied in Dominican Vodou, 21 Divisions.
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On Gnostic Eschatology: Order, Return, and the End of All Things
A Luxumbrian Episcopal Reflection
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Oh, I wanted to highlight this section from his 'The Devil and the Path of Liberation.'
I've mentioned on occasion here the practical ways New World traditions will construct ceremony, use different matreria, music, rhythm, to get varying types of manifestations , depending on what is needed to get done.
Some of the other ATRs (African Traditional Religions) will say they are different caminos (paths). Others say they are different beings. TO add to this I will say there are many of classes of spirits who respond to the same name, or are willing to go by them. The name is part of the human-spirit orientation.
But in the end, it really does not matter what the truth is. What we say about it is just how we make sense of it. As long as they act like the stories say, and do the things that the stories say, then that is all that matters. Did shit get done, or not? (FYI, As always start 'cool' and move to 'hot' when things need to get done. )
MB
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From his article linked above, 'The Interface and the Entity'
My position might seem to invalidate cases where the Devil’s role is one of possession, obsession, or malevolent curses. I do not deny these occurrences, and here is how and why they fit within this framework. This section will be simplified a bit, but this knowledge is part of the initiatic secret, so I’ll give the general overview.
Through my experience in the tradition known as the 21 Division (Dominican Vodou), I’ve seen that the Loa (spirits) that practitioners work with have multiple aspects. If you change the mode of calling a spirit, you may call upon a different aspect. Imagine an entity normally invoked in an environment adorned in white, with moderate rhythms and sweet, gentle perfumes. If we, instead, want to invoke its fiery, martial aspect, what do we do? We drape the space in red. We use strong, spicy scents. We play the drums at a faster tempo, perhaps in triplets, adding a metallic element to keep a driving rhythm. We might light a fire with alcohol or burn gunpowder so the sharp scent of black powder fills the air.
Our body and its senses are the interface through which we interact with these entities. The state of our environment and our physical responses determine which part of a complex entity’s identity steps forward to meet us. We saw this in the discussion of the bardo: the Wrathful Deities are simply the way luminous deities manifest to those who lack the inner purity to perceive their light.
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