“you have to be lost so you can be found, & so it goes, around & around”
the Master of the Lodge
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help me spirits, guide me; I need your voice inside me
When you first move to a new place, you start as it were in the middle of a spiral. With time, you may develop more sophisticated habits, rhythms and schedules in this place. This is why the image of a spiral is apt: the points of reference, places, objects etc might be the ‘same ‘, but the superstructure, if you will, of actions surrounding them develops with time.
Another way of conceiving this is to say that one is able to access other, deeper ‘layers’ of reality with time. These are not physical layers but rather energetic levels..
Esotericists think of these transitions, whose rate varies according to one's discipline & self-control, as one's entering a ‘new world’*, and they can often be correlated to the solstices, equinoxes and other astrological rhythms & transitions..
Phenomenologically (that is, in terms of one's personal experience), this is experienced as an apparent slowing down of time, an increase of one's ‘control’ over their experiences, and a decrease in seemingly random events or ‘novelty’.
This process has a parallel, or more accurately an oblique mirror reflection in esotericism proper, & more precisely the process of initiation. Here, one begins a seeming distance from the Mystery and, with time, feels that they are getting ever closer.
Eventually and as they evolve in their practice, the magician moves beyond simple ‘tricks’, that is, spells into what Bertiaux has called esoteric engineering.
This we define as the placing at various points in space-time of various esoteric machines, essentially energetic programs for the trance-formation of energy as the magician wills it.
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*: if, as we have hypothesized, reality is composed of threads of light, then one's own (not necessarily little) world is simply the matrix of their connections to particular threads. If so, then the year's rhythm of equinoxes, solstices and astrological transitions can be said to shift this matrix in subtle or not so subtle ways. This also accounts for the spirals of which we've spoken: with time, we connect to different threads or lose our connection to others..
eye am but a point plotted in the x dimensions of Space/Consciousness & Time/Will
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At times, & perhaps often (at least if they're doing it right), the magician will feel all alone in the world. Rather than being cause for concern, the magician should take solace in gnowing that all initiates have had such feelings.
Indeed, we do not write for the many who have not had these out of the ordinary experiences, but for the few (w)ho(o)do
"Sin. There was sin and sinners everywhere and as far as the eye could see. And if that's true, I must be one too. Surely", Shades thought, "this world must be fallen and evil. And if so, I must take the response ability to redeem it (& me) seriously…”
So Shades did just that, choosing to suffer. Not so that those who believed in him would be saved, no. Rather, he chose to suffer and (in a manner of speaking) ‘die’ so that he could save himself. Also, who knew, he might even find a way to prevent or cure the suffering of others whom he might come across in his own experience. Dig?
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“don't stop for anything or anybody, & take with you as many as you can carry; not 1 more & not 1 less”, is what my Gnostic daddy did say to me
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“I have insisted to the point of exhaustion that there are no procedures in sorcery...There are no methods, no steps. The only thing that matters is the movement of the assemblage point. And no procedure can cause that. It's an effect that happens all by itself”
Castaneda
a hangry ghost |
It's interesting to see how different places, cities, streets, etc, change with time. Private places are even more so, developing associations or ‘vibes’, i.e. tangible energetic layers, depending on the experiences we and others have therein. It is from these experiences that such idea-complexes as genius loci have arisen, not to mention those spirits of place(s) as lares & penates.
Magicians take advantage of these facts to imbue or ‘program’ a place with certain feelings and meanings. Indeed, this is one of the steps, and one of the main purposes, of ritual. Powerful magicians can turn even a small room into a power place, drawing theoretically limitless energies from the invisible webs they weave..
Creed of the we were never (w)here order
- we were never (w)here. leave no traces wherever you go, but also see below
- if you think you might be a member of the Order, then you (probably) are
- as you already gnow, the purpose of our disorganization is to question pre-established notions & increase wisdom & understanding. Feel free to paint, perform, write etc. anything that furthers consciousness & experience of the depths & subtleties of reality.
- allways follow your heart; don't let what others think determine your actions
- no followers, no leaders. This is not to say all are equal in the sense of the ‘same’; some have achieved more, others less..differences should be respected
- we are free to use all the methods of the various schools of esotericism towards our own ends, but must take response ability for the consequences
- (optional:) consider getting our official logo, a skull & crossbones, tattooed somewhere on your anatomy