Chaos Monastery

Chaos Monastery is a KIA node

Chaos Monastery: Is respectful, cross-cultural magic possible?

querubax:

chaosmonastery:

This is an open question to all my followers and … well, everyone else.

I am struggling with a moral aspect of chaos magic - one that has not been mentioned in any literature I’ve come across or by any chaos magician I have personally met. I have been pondering this matter for a while now and…

You seem to imply, especially in your answer to drunken-rambling that this is actually not possible. I think that a lot depends on the attitude of the magician, and that respectfully borrowing is a thing, “killing the inventors of the technology, mocking them and labelling as savage, oppressing the native users of the technology” is another and there is a large spectrum of options between the two. Moreover, I don’t think there is something like a culture - magical or mundane - which has never borrowed something from other places and peoples, popping fully formed like Athena out of Zeus’s head. Santeria, for example, is a  syncretic religion of West African and Caribbean origin influenced by Roman Catholic Christianity (wikipedia). Christianity itself borrowed from dozens of different sources, and this can be said of every religion, magical system or philosophy in the world.

I think magic should be free from fences and enclosures. If one is Russian or Italian or Maori and wants to work with Santeria, Goetia or whatever, that’s fine. The main point is if he is a good person or an asshole. 

 

So far, in this thread, I am merely implying, that it is not up to us ( the magicians / the cultural receivers ) to say whether such borrowing is right or wrong. Only the natives, those who live a culture, its traditions and care for its history and meaning, can say if what we are doing (or trying to do) is right or wrong. And our position is that we should gratefully accept and act upon their opinions if they care to share them with us.

Sadly, your example is exactly what caused this question in the first place - just a short glance at the history of Santeria on wikipedia suggests, that this religion was created as a result of slavery and suffering of people, whose belief or even the sole right to freedom were crushed by those who thought they knew better. The circumstances were not created by them, which is completely different from a free, white magician sitting in their cozy apartment in Manhattan.

And with Christianity - well the argument that “they did it so it’s ok to do that” is not sufficient to me, as I personally disagree with Christian churches’ political/cultural doctrines.

Luckily, as a society, we are now more conscious and knowledgeable than we were during the formation of these religions, systems and philosophies you are mentioning. And we can take far more into consideration when approaching such delicate matters. Perhaps as a part of the global consciousness we are so happy to partake in (thank you tumblr), we can learn to consider the opinions that we were so happy to disregard in the past?

3 days ago - 32

Chaos Monastery: Is respectful, cross-cultural magic possible?

drunken-rambling:

chaosmonastery:

This is an open question to all my followers and … well, everyone else.

I am struggling with a moral aspect of chaos magic - one that has not been mentioned in any literature I’ve come across or by any chaos magician I have personally met. I have been pondering this matter for a while now and…

Yes. Using thoughtforms from other cultures is no less ethical than using technology invented in other countries. As long as you don’t try to pass them off as your own inventions or something I think you’re doing just fine.

I would be very, veeery careful when responding with such certainty. You see, it is not like “using a technology invented in other countries”. I’m going to deliberately exaggerate a bit (at least to my knowledge - some more educated individuals than myself could probably point to historical events very close to the extreme presented) in hopes it’ll illustrate the point better.

I feel it resembles a bit of a different model: “killing the inventors of the technology, mocking them and labelling as savage, oppressing the native users of the technology, both in personal/political relationships, as well as in the media (to the point of people not being aware that the natives ARE actually alive and should be considered when the subject of the technology is tackled). THEN taking whatever the elements we like of that technology and saying we are now USING this technology regardless of whether the native users of it like it or not”.

And to make it extra clear. It matters not what motivations an individual has when “borrowing” the culture. What matters is the way it is perceived by the natives - they are the only authority in judging, whether such activities are respectful and OK, or not.

The matter is very delicate and I understand it might elude people who have not faced the misfortune of being oppressed. I suggest reading up a bit on cultural appropriation if you are interested where my reasoning comes from.

3 days ago - 32

A short note on Dreaming

Having left behind me all the divinatory techniques I have ever used (tarot, runes, stones, mirror, etc.), I am now reading reality mostly through the process of Dreaming. I am unsure how my way of doing it relates to traditional methods from various shamanistic traditions. In fact, I don’t care. Over the last months, I have polished my practice and feel comfortable enough to share a rough outline of the technique. So here goes…

(As with all the instructions I give, these are based on my experiences and might not work or be safe for everyone. Be sure to listen to your body/feelings/intuition above anything else and don’t do anything you fear or feel uncomfortable with. It’s up to you to keep yourself safe.)

Preparation

The success of the Dreaming process depends solely on the ability to enter a sort of gnostic, single-minded concentration before falling asleep. This is rarely possible with the main, long sleep at night, when you are really tired after a day’s work. I personally practised during a separate, dedicated short nap time during the day (when possible) or just by going to sleep a bit earlier, when I was not yet completely exhausted.

Of course, being intimately familiar with the state of gnosis/meditation/trance was a necessary prerequisite. In order to succeed, I had to not only be able to enter the state, but also focus on it and maintain for an extended period of time. This state was to be a bubble, an area, within which a vessel to the dreaming was to be formed.

The second requirement was definitely the ability to visualize. I was personally unable to enter the Dreaming in my human form. I needed a vessel, something to get me through into Dreaming while allowing me to remain conscious. This was the tricky part, and visualization was crucial in letting me do it.

So, gnosis/trance and visualizations need to be developed to some extent before trying the technique of Dreaming.

Dreaming

So, what is the Dreaming state? By my understanding of it, it’s a state exactly like sleep, when the mind roams free through information, repeats itself, tests scenarios, etc. However, in the Dreaming process, we are able to see the information processed by the brain (and I mean all parts of it), maintaining a level of awareness, along with some capability to control the content of the processing.

In most cases, my awareness limited me to seeing the visual information processed by the brain. Only sometimes were they enhanced by sounds and smells. This, however, makes the experience similar to so called visions.

As with many a divination technique, Dreaming operates on symbols. These are, however, symbols customized for an individual brain, not dependant on knowledge of any system, esoteric or other. This means, that the Dreamer is the one and only person capable of understanding the messages. They can be analyzed using Jungian methods or just left alone and reabsorbed by the psyche, both ways contributing to a more intimate relationship with oneself and the world.

Going in

I would start with extra short relaxation to ease me to sleep followed by meditation/focus on the vessel. In my case, the vessel would be a wolf/man hybrid (I’d call it a werewolf, but this term does not seem to sufficiently represent the complexity of the image). I have, in my journeys, developed a rather intricate image of myself as this creature, with many a detail in terms of all senses. This part seems crucial to me. Having a very well designed, representative and complex image of oneself in a Dreamwalking form makes it easier to slip through to the other side of the veil. And that is exactly what I did - I slipped through.

I visualized myself in amazing landscapes, roaming free as the creature of my imagination. I paid close attention not to lose focus and also to use any chance to enhance my understanding of my Dreamform.

The Dreamform was not exactly me. Nor was it a simple vehicle. I could not compare it to a car or a bike. It would be more like a horse raised with me, one that I have cared for all my life. A dear friend, a relative, a beloved pet. Something in this area.

As I ran in the forests of my imagination, I would at some point realize, that my body has already fallen asleep.

Now comes the tricky part.

At this point, I’d relax my imagination  and let the images slowly fade away, while maintaining enough concentration and self awareness to not fall asleep in the classic meaning of this term.

To the outside world, I’d be asleep, but I was by all means conscious. If I’d Dreamed with some background music on, I could even still hear it (luckily, I could not hear my snoring!).

The relaxed mind was now free to explore, with me sitting in the backseat and peeking out of the windows.

When I was done, I’d usually just relax completely and fall asleep. Sometimes, when using the shamanistic drumming in the background, I could hear the callback and would again assume the Dreamform (far easier from this side, it seemed) and allow myself to be carried back, waking up to the sound of the drum.

Conclusion

I am aware it might not be easy, but having the ability to concentrate on a single subject for an extended period of time is crucial in this process. It took me months to develop this skill and make it useful.The trick is to be SO CONCENTRATED, you don’t realize you have already fallen asleep. This way you are in control of whatever happens, and the Dreamworld is a vast and interesting place.

I have used this state to see the implications of my magical activities, notice barriers and difficulties and prevent them from interfering with my life. I also managed to communicate with spirits in this state, reaching for their assistance in situations, when I felt it was necessary.

I’m eager to hear from you - Have you ever had similar experiences? Did you come up with compatible or complimentary techniques? Do you have suggestions on how to improve it?

3 days ago - 7
worldofmythology: “Icelandic magical staves” (Source)

worldofmythology:

“Icelandic magical staves”

(Source)

(via kiamagic)

5 days ago - 1059
there is something in the air…

there is something in the air…

(Source: airows, via unsorted-posts)

2 weeks ago - 7819

http://mstsue.tumblr.com

I have a new awesome tumblr blog dedicated to not posting on tumblr. Whenever I don’t feel like posting on tumblr, I will not post specifically to that blog, so that the other blogs I work on are free from not posting and I can focus on posting on them.

Check it out at mstsue.tumblr.com!

1 month ago - 3

lightspeedsound:

one-bite-at-a-time:

aka 99% of Fox News programming.

EVERYONE ON THE INTERNET SHOULD HAVE THIS AT THE READY. 

(Source: logan43000, via cosmiccluck)

1 month ago - 51966

hauntedbythelight:

A few days ago I found and reblogged an interesting post about sigil making here on Tumblr, the painted image is from that post. I’m gonna copy the text which belongs to that post first, so you can get the connection to what I’m explaining afterwards:

katjabach:

So I saw this (someone I follow posted it, but I can’t find who right now) and decided shoaling sounds interesting.

From what I understand it’s about launching many sigils at a time. Instead of one big goal you sigilize for a couple of small ones that will aggregate into the desired overall effect. You throw in some bonus unrelated wishes (is this so that you don’t stress too much over the result?) and one sigil for something that already happened. The idea is that because the subconscious isn’t too good with space and time, this one thing that actually happened will pull everything else closer to happening, closer to materialized reality.

In my first shoal I also threw in a symbol to tie all the sigils together, so that it’s enough that one gets through, it will pull the others with it. So I don’t have to worry if launching one of them seemed off or maybe not strong enough. Will see what happens. I’m really excited for this method because I love designing sigils, but can never come up with enough wishes/needs for such a magical endeavor.



Anyways, it inspired me to advance the original idea. So I designed a pentagram with a spell as binding element, painted it on cardboard and cut it out. I created the sigils the same way, painted them on cartboard and cut them out, so once the sigils manifest, I don’t have to paint everything new, but only the sigils.
Then I arranged it on my altar, using the five elements in the pentagram and symbols of them (like the candle representing fire, an owl feather representing air, a seashell representing water, some salt representing earth and a quartz crystal representing spirit) together with a crystal grid to reinforce the whole process. One of the sigils is already manifesting, I’m curious about how this is going on.

(via blaqmercury)

3 months ago - 93
electricspacekoolaid: Dwarf Planet Eris May Reveal Quantum Gravity The dwarf planet Eris, named for the Greek goddess of strife, could also bring down the most popular explanations for dark matter and dark energy. Best known for demoting Pluto’s planetary status by showing that there are many similar bodies in orbit beyond Neptune. Many galaxies appear to have stronger gravity - and thus more mass - than can be explained by their visible matter alone. Overly massive galaxies are most often attributed to dark matter, an invisible substance that interacts with matter through gravity. To date, though, no one has directly detected dark matter particles. But a well-established notion in physics could hold another explanation for their size. This says that empty space is really a frothy, turbulent sea full of virtual particles - matter and antimatter that spring in and out of existence so fast that we can’t see them. Though they are tiny, quantum objects, Dragan Hajdukovic, a physicist at CERN near Geneva, Switzerland, thinks these bubbling particles may have opposing gravitational charges, similar to electrical charges. In the presence of a gravitational field, the particles would generate a secondary field, which, in the case of galaxies, could explain the mass discrepancy. Hajdukovic’s theory could also explain dark energy, the baffling force thought to be driving the universe apart at an accelerated pace. If virtual particles have gravitational charges, then space-time itself is imbued with a small charge that could be causing objects in the universe to speed away from each other. To test whether quantum-scale gravity is at work, Hajdukovic plans to borrow a trick from Einstein (see diagram). Due to gravitational effects in the solar system, such as the tug of other planets, Mercury’s oval-shaped path around the sun slowly turns, or precesses. In the 1800s astronomers noticed that this happens at a different rate than predicted by Newtonian physics. Einstein showed that the sun’s mass creates a curvature in space-time that affects Mercury enough to explain the difference, lending credence to his theory ofgeneral relativity. Hajdukovic’s quantum gravity might create a similar discrepancy with more distant orbiting bodies, he says - which is where Eris and its moon Dysnomia come in. Eris’s great distance from the sun means the effects of general relativity become negligible. Newtonian physics should dominate, putting Dysnomia’s precession rate around Eris at 13 arc seconds per century. But if quantum gravity exists, the rate should be -190 arc seconds per century, Hajdukovic calculates (Astrophysics and Space Science, doi.org/j6r). He thinks the required measurements could be made from Earth using existing observatories. “Einstein was lucky that there is a planet so close to the sun as Mercury,” he says. “My theory might be lucky that there are trans-Neptunian objects allowing astronomical tests.” Read

electricspacekoolaid:

Dwarf Planet Eris May Reveal Quantum Gravity

The dwarf planet Eris, named for the Greek goddess of strife, could also bring down the most popular explanations for dark matter and dark energy. Best known for demoting Pluto’s planetary status by showing that there are many similar bodies in orbit beyond Neptune.

Many galaxies appear to have stronger gravity - and thus more mass - than can be explained by their visible matter alone. Overly massive galaxies are most often attributed to dark matter, an invisible substance that interacts with matter through gravity. To date, though, no one has directly detected dark matter particles.

But a well-established notion in physics could hold another explanation for their size. This says that empty space is really a frothy, turbulent sea full of virtual particles - matter and antimatter that spring in and out of existence so fast that we can’t see them.

Though they are tiny, quantum objects, Dragan Hajdukovic, a physicist at CERN near Geneva, Switzerland, thinks these bubbling particles may have opposing gravitational charges, similar to electrical charges. In the presence of a gravitational field, the particles would generate a secondary field, which, in the case of galaxies, could explain the mass discrepancy.

Hajdukovic’s theory could also explain dark energy, the baffling force thought to be driving the universe apart at an accelerated pace. If virtual particles have gravitational charges, then space-time itself is imbued with a small charge that could be causing objects in the universe to speed away from each other.

To test whether quantum-scale gravity is at work, Hajdukovic plans to borrow a trick from Einstein (see diagram). Due to gravitational effects in the solar system, such as the tug of other planets, Mercury’s oval-shaped path around the sun slowly turns, or precesses. In the 1800s astronomers noticed that this happens at a different rate than predicted by Newtonian physics. Einstein showed that the sun’s mass creates a curvature in space-time that affects Mercury enough to explain the difference, lending credence to his theory ofgeneral relativity.

Hajdukovic’s quantum gravity might create a similar discrepancy with more distant orbiting bodies, he says - which is where Eris and its moon Dysnomia come in.

Eris’s great distance from the sun means the effects of general relativity become negligible. Newtonian physics should dominate, putting Dysnomia’s precession rate around Eris at 13 arc seconds per century. But if quantum gravity exists, the rate should be -190 arc seconds per century, Hajdukovic calculates (Astrophysics and Space Science, doi.org/j6r).

He thinks the required measurements could be made from Earth using existing observatories. “Einstein was lucky that there is a planet so close to the sun as Mercury,” he says. “My theory might be lucky that there are trans-Neptunian objects allowing astronomical tests.”

Read

(via aetherclaw)

3 months ago - 17
katjabach: So I saw this (someone I follow posted it, but I can’t find who right now) and decided shoaling sounds interesting. From what I understand it’s about launching many sigils at a time. Instead of one big goal you sigilize for a couple of small ones that will aggregate into the desired overall effect. You throw in some bonus unrelated wishes (is this so that you don’t stress too much over the result?) and one sigil for something that already happened. The idea is that because the subconscious isn’t too good with space and time, this one thing that actually happened will pull everything else closer to happening, closer to materialized reality. In my first shoal I also threw in a symbol to tie all the sigils together, so that it’s enough that one gets through, it will pull the others with it. So I don’t have to worry if launching one of them seemed off or maybe not strong enough. Will see what happens. I’m really excited for this method because I love designing sigils, but can never come up with enough wishes/needs for such a magical endeavor.

katjabach:

So I saw this (someone I follow posted it, but I can’t find who right now) and decided shoaling sounds interesting.

From what I understand it’s about launching many sigils at a time. Instead of one big goal you sigilize for a couple of small ones that will aggregate into the desired overall effect. You throw in some bonus unrelated wishes (is this so that you don’t stress too much over the result?) and one sigil for something that already happened. The idea is that because the subconscious isn’t too good with space and time, this one thing that actually happened will pull everything else closer to happening, closer to materialized reality.

In my first shoal I also threw in a symbol to tie all the sigils together, so that it’s enough that one gets through, it will pull the others with it. So I don’t have to worry if launching one of them seemed off or maybe not strong enough. Will see what happens. I’m really excited for this method because I love designing sigils, but can never come up with enough wishes/needs for such a magical endeavor.

(via mythosandmagick)

3 months ago - 89

(Source: everydaycomics, via deepwoodsteaparty)

3 months ago - 4272

Interacting processing. Tao Duh! That’s all I tune in. Interacting processing. No nouns anywhere. I never met a noun yet.

Robert Anton Wilson in Maybe Logic

3 months ago - 8
A journey to the end of realityPrompted by my recent play with mathematical concepts and dimensions of reality, I went into trance…View Post

A journey to the end of reality

Prompted by my recent play with mathematical concepts and dimensions of reality, I went into trance…

View Post

3 months ago - 2

Mind, the weapon of the Revolutionary: chaosmonastery: Mind, the weapon of the Revolutionary: chaosmonastery:...

chaosmonastery:

Mind, the weapon of the Revolutionary: chaosmonastery: iahbulon answered: Does this non-dimensionality…

chaosmonastery:

iahbulon answered:

Does this non-dimensionality connect with the Kabbalistic veils?

I would probably say “yes”, but I…

Oh, it does make much sense to me both, in terms of the idea of holographic universe, as well as psychonautic, internal exploration of human knowledge.

I think I can come up with a multitude of magical applications, starting with the premise that any alteration of perception (for example as a result of expanding one’s mind) can cause direct change in the perceived reality (a huge simplification, but it should suffice :) )

I am wondering how accurate our approximation of reality in terms of mathematical models of complex systems really is. I can see little enlightenments in applying equations to my meditations and trances, but each of such revelations only shows how much more there is still to explore.

And then, there are also ‘unity’ and ‘nothingness’ to check out.

Verbal constructs.

3 months ago - 14

(Source: ancora-imparo, via scrollofthoth)

3 months ago - 132

← Older 1 ⁄ 10

- Inkhorn theme powered by Tumblr -