A more serious introduction
Posted: Fri Aug 04, 2017 1:48 pm
Greetings to every member reading this! [pray]
First of all, I would like to make an apology if my previous introduction (here) was perceived as inappropriate or wrong. I thought you would be a bit bored with "conventional" introductions, and that as magic is also about going beyond mere common sense, something witty, playful, and full of symbolism would be seen positively. I thought you would notice how, for example, I managed to blend two Jungian archetypes (the Jester and the Explorer) and turn a seemingly buffoon story into the beginning of a quest.
Did Aleister Crowley start his magical journey by being coy or by submitting to political correctness (or any social or political ideology for that matter)? I thought a forum on magic, occult, full of people who know about the "do what thou wilt..." motto would be sensible to this.
Anyway. No apprentice, I suppose, escapes the iron laws of "proper" sociability, whatever the "proper" means. So, allow me to drop the wit and apologize once again if any elder member was offended.
Second, who am I?
Well, seriously: I spent years studying philosophy. This led me to grow critical about modernity, whether we speak of its convenient notion of "rights" or good, or of its recurring idea that every phenomena should be understood as purely physical, psychological, or whatever the "bottom" level is, as if knowledge meant getting away from the higher levels of being.
Aware of the sham, I discovered the works of metaphysician René Guénon. After I picked up his Crisis of the Modern World I was interested enough to read several books of his, as well as Julius Evola's companion Revolt Against The Modern World.
Guénon emphasizes the importance of actual initiation, that is, not only understanding theoretically but receiving a "spiritual influence" from a genuine representative of a genuine tradition. Evola, writing a bit later, mentioned the practical impossibility for many Westerners to be properly initiated and focused instead on magic (Tantric yoga, hermetism...) as a way to grow spiritually.
This is why I became interested into magic. Actually, I already met with it in several instances:
- two or three times, as I was sick and shivering with fever, I focused so that a warm, celestial influence would descend upon me... and I actually felt it "descending" upon my stomach and glowing with heat.
- people talk about the "meme magic" around Pepe the frog, perhaps there is more than mere exposition effect at play in the rise of the Internet movement it represents?
- people talk about how a powerful elite uses magic in music, movies...
- overall, there is a big, unconscious make-believe aspect in the modern world: millions believing that whatever is presented to them as "progress" is necessary and inevitable make it true and actually hard to avoid.
Now, I know all this has a psychological and social aspect as well. It is not "pure magic" and in all likelihood I must focus on my own growth to make finer distinctions.
But as the will and imagination matter so much in magic, as the symbols that help to focus, meditate and direct whatever energies at hand, can we always distinguish between the "profane" social and psychological on the one hand and the "truly magic" on the other?
From my immature perspective, magic can be accessed by extending practices that already exist in the "profane" world a bit beyond.
Also, why didn't I already start to practice?
Mostly because I am still reading. Franz Bardon, Aleister Crowley, and Julius Evola are my books of choice for now.
I also started modestly by recalling my recent thoughts or not following my trains of thoughts, by controlling my breath, by visualizing a "midnight Sun" before sleeping... Quite modest as you can see. Invocations and proper sigil use is still far away. In all likelihood, I will lurk on the forums to see what the confirmed and seasoned individuals' experiences here are like before going on posting.
Thank you for your attention. [smile]
First of all, I would like to make an apology if my previous introduction (here) was perceived as inappropriate or wrong. I thought you would be a bit bored with "conventional" introductions, and that as magic is also about going beyond mere common sense, something witty, playful, and full of symbolism would be seen positively. I thought you would notice how, for example, I managed to blend two Jungian archetypes (the Jester and the Explorer) and turn a seemingly buffoon story into the beginning of a quest.
Did Aleister Crowley start his magical journey by being coy or by submitting to political correctness (or any social or political ideology for that matter)? I thought a forum on magic, occult, full of people who know about the "do what thou wilt..." motto would be sensible to this.
Anyway. No apprentice, I suppose, escapes the iron laws of "proper" sociability, whatever the "proper" means. So, allow me to drop the wit and apologize once again if any elder member was offended.
Second, who am I?
Well, seriously: I spent years studying philosophy. This led me to grow critical about modernity, whether we speak of its convenient notion of "rights" or good, or of its recurring idea that every phenomena should be understood as purely physical, psychological, or whatever the "bottom" level is, as if knowledge meant getting away from the higher levels of being.
Aware of the sham, I discovered the works of metaphysician René Guénon. After I picked up his Crisis of the Modern World I was interested enough to read several books of his, as well as Julius Evola's companion Revolt Against The Modern World.
Guénon emphasizes the importance of actual initiation, that is, not only understanding theoretically but receiving a "spiritual influence" from a genuine representative of a genuine tradition. Evola, writing a bit later, mentioned the practical impossibility for many Westerners to be properly initiated and focused instead on magic (Tantric yoga, hermetism...) as a way to grow spiritually.
This is why I became interested into magic. Actually, I already met with it in several instances:
- two or three times, as I was sick and shivering with fever, I focused so that a warm, celestial influence would descend upon me... and I actually felt it "descending" upon my stomach and glowing with heat.
- people talk about the "meme magic" around Pepe the frog, perhaps there is more than mere exposition effect at play in the rise of the Internet movement it represents?
- people talk about how a powerful elite uses magic in music, movies...
- overall, there is a big, unconscious make-believe aspect in the modern world: millions believing that whatever is presented to them as "progress" is necessary and inevitable make it true and actually hard to avoid.
Now, I know all this has a psychological and social aspect as well. It is not "pure magic" and in all likelihood I must focus on my own growth to make finer distinctions.
But as the will and imagination matter so much in magic, as the symbols that help to focus, meditate and direct whatever energies at hand, can we always distinguish between the "profane" social and psychological on the one hand and the "truly magic" on the other?
From my immature perspective, magic can be accessed by extending practices that already exist in the "profane" world a bit beyond.
Also, why didn't I already start to practice?
Mostly because I am still reading. Franz Bardon, Aleister Crowley, and Julius Evola are my books of choice for now.
I also started modestly by recalling my recent thoughts or not following my trains of thoughts, by controlling my breath, by visualizing a "midnight Sun" before sleeping... Quite modest as you can see. Invocations and proper sigil use is still far away. In all likelihood, I will lurk on the forums to see what the confirmed and seasoned individuals' experiences here are like before going on posting.
Thank you for your attention. [smile]