Quote of the Day

"Is it better to out-monster the monster, or be quietly devoured?" -Nietzsche

Mr. Bonewits

Hats off to Isaac Bonewits who passed recently after a bout with cancer. To a life well done sir.

What Must Be Done

An ideal will not wrap you in its arms nor warm you when you're cold. It will not fill your stomach when you're hungry. An ideal will not raise the dead. No ideal will lay down its life for you. It will not watch over you when you sleep or even put gas in your car.

I say all that to say this.

Do what must be done and then if you still can, do what should be done.

I Call Upon the Wh... Who are you Again?

Don't you hate it when you're calling the quarters and you turn the wrong way? Oh well, seems to have worked anyway. Dammed work stealing my brain...

God and Goddess Life and Death

God and Goddess, death and life, pleasure and pain. New inspiration in very old ideas.

On Weakness

It's becoming more and more clear to me that in our modern society, and not just in this country, people are confusing piouty with weakness. It's in the news, on television shows, and in the mall. Nevermind the abusive parent/husband at the grocery store. Nevermind the trashtalking punk at the restaraunt. Be the bigger person and walk away. That's what the police are for. People feed these lies to themselves, and worse, their children regularly.

Allowing yourself and those around you to be victimized is not righteous nor is it strong. It is weakness of the foules kind and empowers the scum that drag the rest of us down with them. It's not holy for a man who can't pay his bills to keep feeding money to his church. The belief that if I just give away everything that means something to me and sacrifice my pleasure for God, or my country, or my friends, or whatever status then it will all be worth it in the end is a dangerous dellusion.

Live YOUR life, defend YOUR familiy, give YOUR money to YOURself. If you suffer let it be to better yourself for your own ends. Sacrficing to protect and provide for your own child and wife/husband should come from a place of strength not servitude. If you don't have the courage to take control of your life someone will.

King Leonidas didn't become famous for placating the Persians. The pacificst lives only so long as he is tolerated by the warrior. Carpe diem.

Back in the Saddle

Well, in the face of my last post I have gotten back on the magical horse so to speak. Due to an excessively harty schedule I have altered my approach somewhat. Rather than physically going through the steps and laying out the candles and drawing the circle and donning all other props I've taken a more intrensic approach as of late.

I enter a deep meditative state, and enter an intrensic ritual space. In my mind I cast my circle, if need be, call upon the thought forms that suit me and go from there. If the sword and chalice are indeed only props than an internal sword and chalice ought to do just fine by my reckoning. Will I get the same zip I may get by using the actual physical ingredients? I guess we'll find out.

Four Months, holy crap

Well, it's been four freaking months since my last post. For the longest time now I have been fading away from occult practice. Not belief in the occult mind you but occult practice. This seems strange to me being that I went from being a dyed in the wool skeptic of things like auras, and "energy work" to having personal experiences of these phenomenon.

The reality of it all hit me like a freight train the first time I actually saw, and felt my aura. And then the experiences that followed. So how can I explain my lack of follow through on something that changed my world view so completely? It has been puzzling me for several months now.

The answer is personal will. Its fundamental. Practicing the occult arts is all about manifesting your will. Using ritual and subtle (and not so subtle) energies to form reality to your will. However, often the question is how do I manifest my will in the most effective manner possible? If I wish to feel better and run faster is it more effective to perform a ritual or change my diet and training regimen?

It takes a great deal of discipline, study, and soul searching to be an effective witch. I would argue it takes considerably more effort to be a good and effective witch or occultist, etc. than it does to eat right and exercise. Or go and find yourself a mate. Or find a job. Or do just about any old thing a witch would put forth there magical efforts to do. Its economics.

Now a very probable rebuttal to this observation would be that a truly effective witch could effect occurrences that a non-magic user would have no hope of affecting. Such as using magic to heal, foretell future events, protect oneself and their family from harm, or effect the weather. One might also make the argument that it is simply more spiritually fulfilling than obtaining your will by more mundane means.

Such an argument certainly has merit. Certainly I feel much more spiritually fulfilled when actively engaged in ceremony and meditation. But I would also point out that the things that truly matter to a person such as, love, health, a good cup of coffee, and a good roll in the sheets, can all be met just as fully through mundain means.

This leaves me with the question of what is the question here? If the question is something like: Is pursuing my will through occult practices necesarilly more fulfilling than pursuing it through mundain practices? Than I am unconvinced.

If the question is: Am I more fulfilled spiritually when engaged in occult ceremony, meditation, and magical work? Then the answer seems to be yes.

So, which is it the means or the end?

Here's to finding out.

The Wheels Turn Slowly

It's been a while since my last post partly due to being busy. The other part is this continuing internal debate I've been having since discovering neo-paganism and occult systems. Years ago I was a Christian. A very sincere dyed in the wool type. Several years of study and many more years of intense honest questions brought the whole show down around my head.

I never did loose my belief in God, just religion. I had too many what should probably be called "paranormal", if there is such a thing, experiences growing up, witnessed too many faith healing, and felt the presence of divinity and other not so pleasant entities much too strongly to ever stop believing in God in general. Not the Jewish/Christian God mind you, more the DIVINE CREATOR.

However, religion in general seems so ludicrous to me now it is sometimes difficult to marry my personal experiences with any sort of belief structure. Before you go saying that luckily doing so is not necessary in practicing magik, I remind you that nearly all if not all magikal systems were birthed from religion.

I now know Christianity is a false religion. However, I have witnessed faith healings. I am not a Buddhist but I clearly see auras. I don't have an ounce of faith in Gerald Gardner but I have felt the divinity in nature and have trembled in the presence of what I can only describe as the/a goddess. It's not that I believe there is really "something or someone out there". There is evidently a whole fucking lot of something out there and I am at a complete fucking loss as to what IT is.

Shit.