Magic is afoot

[Scorptrio]

my stepfather is very knowlegeable about such things and maybe I can get info from him if neccessary (Scorptrio, didn't you introduce my mom and stepdad?)...

Yes I did; it's all my fault!

Rick is one of the best read people I've had the privilege of knowing. He is an encyclopedia and a bibliography behind glasses.

Gregori

[Scorptrio]

Thanks to everyone for sharing information and asking questions. I'm working on responses, so please be patient. IMHO, what Copperfield does is called Illusion. Adding a K to Magic is a very recent invention, usually but probably incorrectly attributed to Crowley. It's something I feel was unnecessary but find myself using either spelling arbitrarily. (No offense to anyone who prefers the new spelling.) Semantics aside, it's what you do not how you spell it. Anyone who has been practicing for as long as you have, Shadow, must have some amazing insights and experiences. Thanks for posting and I respect your opinions so please don't think I'm trying to start an argument. (Being a veteran of many forums and their flame wars over the topic, I'm certainly not wanting this to turn into that!) Thanks for the blessings and right-back-atcha!

Re: New Forums. I'm glad I only asked about asking and didn't actually ask.

General definitions and information about Mystic Christians, Masons, Gnostics, The Golden Dawn, Thelema, Crowley, the Templars, Qabala, Astrology, (and anything else which junkie christ mentioned in his post ) are readily available on the WWW and at any Books A Million or similar store which doesn't discriminate by excluding any specific subject matter, generally lumped together under 'New Age.'

I'm happy to post about my specific experiences and studies. Please bear in mind that these are all from my own limited perspective and not meant to imply any Truth of The Matter(tm)

I'm not gnostic, though some of the ideas are interesting. I'm not wiccan, druidic or pagan, though I respect everyone who is on any path toward self-realization.

Herbalism: eat lots of garlic, it's good for you. Drink lots of water. Eat a balanced diet and supplement your nutritional choices. Bananas and green peppers have stuff that your heart needs to keep beating, so eat up if you like your pulse. Taking scheduled potent doses of certain herbs while avoiding dairy can boost your immunity. Natural foods are good for you while long-chain artificial chemicals break down into nasty bits in your body. Order now, operators are standing by.

Mystic Christianity: Having attended the seminary of an Oriental Orthodox Christian Church for many years, my take on Mystic Christianity is simply this: proper practice of the prayers, meditations and ceremonies yield profound mystic experiences for those who are capable of such things. (Oriental = "far eastern" in this context.) Something is mystic if you can experience it but can't characterize it with language. (i.e. adequately convey the full effect of the experience by describing it.) To paraphrase Morpheus, no one can be told what the Vision of Universal Harmony is; you have to see it for yourself.

… more to come …

At death's door,
Scorptrio

[Scorptrio]

I've often wondered what life is like for people who don't perceive or experience things which are considered paranormal, supernatural or occult. There are a great many people who do perceive these things. They are known as seers, psychics, witches, magicians, clairvoyants or as having extra sensory perception. Those who can't, don't or won't reach out beyond "normal" perception are usually referred to as "mundanes" by those who do.
One doesn't have to subscribe to a theory of a magical universe to believe in the extraordinary happenings of the invisible world. It's not a difficult stretch to believe that things exist which can't be perceived by the five physical senses. Indeed, educated people accept the existence of the invisible, such as x-rays, radio waves, radiation, etc. We know these things exist because we have developed technologies to propagate them and receive or detect them, such as film which is sensitive to and is exposed by x-rays.
To investigate the paranormal world, those who have a scientific view (rather than a magical one) use infrared and visible light photography, thermal sensors, electromagnetic detectors, audio recordings, etc. These methods have revealed evidence which is startling not only in what is revealed, but how often it occurs. Photographs have shown currents or complex manifestations of energy, which appear like rays of light, strokes of colored lightning or groups of human or ball shaped illumination. There are numerous accounts of paranormal activity, from ghostly faces permanently appearing in the floor tiles of a house later learned to have been unknowingly built on graves, to people hearing the nightly sounds of a battle fought decades ago, to people seeing apparitions walking the halls of old buildings, to the very frightening accounts of people being slapped, choked or thrown across the room by invisible forces able to show their presence and malevolence in tangible ways. Documented cases of possession, exorcism and "cleansing" of a haunted locale also give us hints of how the unperceived levels of reality interact with human consciousness.
However, one doesn't have to seek out these extreme cases of occult phenomenon to know that there is much more going on than can be explained away by physics or dismissed as human misperception or hallucination. Dreams, visions, imaginings and hallucinations do play a part in some of these experiences and may represent the only surreal perception a "mundane" person might have in their lifetime. Jung proposed the idea of the collective unconscious, a realm of pure mental energy which connects or comprises the whole of human awareness. The idea of universal archetypes - persona or symbols which have profound meaning for all people regardless of race, culture, religion or upbringing - hints that some ideas are so pervasive that they must hold some clue to the nature of consciousness on the level an individual and the entire human race.
All things vibrate at a rate according to their nature, with solid objects having a relatively low vibrational rate and spirit beings having a much higher rate. Consciousness, made up of the mental energy of thoughts and the free will which directs them, also has a vibrational rate depending on the nature of the mind and the thoughts themselves.

… to be continued …

[Flamegrape]

I briefly studied with a small splinter group of wiccans here in Knoxville ten years ago. Since then I've been studying the symbol system of Kabbalah. I don't practice any magick. However, I determined that the form and function of magick can be amorphous. Especially in the Information Age, some of the traditional methods of practicing magick no longer seem relevent. Whats to stop people from conducting rituals involving electronic lights and sounds combined with projected images? Combined with psychology and time-control, slack can be obtained in new and improved ways. Praise "Bob!"

Contact me. I'm interested.

[Onibubba]

"Whats to stop people from conducting rituals involving electronic lights and sounds combined with projected images? Combined with psychology and time-control, slack can be obtained in new and improved ways. Praise "Bob!"

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

Sounds like a Throbbing Gristle show to me! Seriously, a lot of what you are saying was a major crux of performance for Gristle and their "offshoots" Psychic TV, Coil, and Current 93. Experimenting with imagery, frequencies, samples and such to stimulate the listener into a certain mode of behavior., was as important to them, if not moreso, than the music they were creating.

Praise "Bob" and pass the frop.

[The Stormstress]

Praise "Bob!"

Dobbs?

[Mistress Eve(L)]

I don't think that one should rely on any set of rules

ON the contrary.....I think without rules...people begin to create religion as they want it IE (GOD meant for that person to die for a good reason, or I dont need to do these things that my faith has set for for me......God likes me anyway...I mean Im a good person thats enough right?????) No its half ass and non commital.....when there are no rules......people make them up as they go along and you begin to see off shoots of new religions....hence all the new religions since the beginning of america



HOWEVER!!!!!!!!! Ambiguity is JUST as important.......People cant seem to say I dont know....All my life I have grown up in church being fed crap and some of it warped me for life....the crappy answers to my questions that were supposed to drive me to the cross and not away, and you would think that it would occur to people that if Hitler tried it......maybe you should try another direction....anyway I found that my faith is ok with saying....we dont know. it isnt written and I wont make something up to tell you...and I freaking appreciate thatI hate it that all my life answers were merely political agendas within the church instead of I DONT KNOW........


um BTW I feel like this applies to all faiths and practices......not just protestant, and non protestant

[junkie christ]

hey this thread is in crafty goth too
will some moderator combine these damn threads?

[Scorptrio]

Some nice admin please move this topic thread into CrafyGoth... that would make things easier. Can they be combined into one thread? I have a lot of catching up to do. We're kicking around the idea of having a magicK discussion at 11th St. One Fri night. It would have to be soon, it's getting COLD out there! Smoke inside at Cup-a-Joe = no frozen body parts.

Scorp X 3