Is There A Way Out? Part Three

Continuing on in Stanislav Grof's Beyond The Brain: Birth, Death, and Transcendence in Psychotherapy on page 32-33: "Many psychedelic experiences appear to have a general quality similar to everyday life, with the sequences occurring in three-dimensional space and unfolding along a linear time continuum. However, quite typically, additional dimensions and experiential alternatives are readily available. The psychedelic state has a multilevel and multidimensional quality, and the Newtonian-Cartesian sequences, if they occur, appear to be arbitrarily teased out of a complex continuum of infinite possiblilities. At the same time, they have all the characteristics that we associate with the perception of the material world of "objective reality."

Although LSD subjects frequently talk about images, these do not have the quality of still photographs. They are in constant dynamic movement and usually convey action and drama. But again, the term "inner movie" that so frequently occurs in LSD reports does not really correctly describe their nature. In cinematography, the three-dimensionality of scenes is artificially simulated by the movement of the camera. The perception of space must be read into the two-dimensional display, and ultimately it depends on the viewers interpretation. In contrast, psychedelic visions are truly three-dimensional and have all the qualities of everyday perception, or at least they can have them in certain types of LSD experiences. They seem to occupy a specific space and can be seen from different directions and angles with a true parallax. It is possible to zoom in and selectively focus on different levels and planes of the experiential continuum, perceive or reconstruct fine texture, and see through transparent media of envisioned objects, such as a cell, an embryonic body, parts of a plant, or a precious stone. This intentional shift of focus is only one mechanism of blurring or clearing the images. The pictures can also be clarified by overcoming the distortions caused by fear, defenses and resistances, or by letting the content evolve along with the continuum of linear time.

An important characteristic of the psychedelic experience is that it transcends space and time. It disregards the linear continuum between the microcosmic world and the macrocosm that appears to be absolutely mandatory in the everyday state of consciousness. The represented objects cover the entire range of dimensions from atoms, molecules, and single cells to gigantic celestial bodies, solar systems, and galaxies. Phenomena from the "zone of middle dimensions," perceivable directly by our senses, appear on the same experiential continuum with those that ordinarily require such complicated technology as microscopes and telescopes to be accessible to human senses. From the experiential point of view, the distinction between the microcosm and macrocosm is arbitrary; they can coexist within the same experience and are readily interchangeable. An LSD subject can experience himself or herself as a simple cell, as a fetus, and as a galaxy; these three states can occur simultaneously, or in an alternating fashion by a simple shift of focus.

In a similar way, the linearity of temporal sequences is transcended in unusual states of consciousness. Scenes from different historical contexts can occur simultaneously and appear to be meaningfully connected by their experiential charactertistics. Thus a traumatic experience from childhood, a painful sequence of biological birthing and what seems to be the memory of a tragic event from a previous incarnation can all appear simultaneously as parts of one complex experiential pattern (my emphasis). And again, the individual has the choice of focusing selectively on any one of these scenes, experiencing them all simultaneously, or perceiving them in an alternating fashion, while discovering meaningful connections between them. The linear temporal distance that dominates everyday experience is disregarded, and events from different historical contexts appear in clusters when they share the same strong emotion or an intense physical sensation of a similar kind.

Psychedelic states offer many experiential alternatives to the Newtonian linear time and three-dimensional space that characterize our everyday existence. Events from recent and remote past and future can be experienced in nonordinary states with the vividness and complexity that in everyday consciousness are reserved only for the present moment. There are modes of psychedelic experience in which time appears to slow down or accelerate enormously, to flow backwards, or to be entirely transcended and cease to exist (my emphasis). It can appear to be circular and linear at the same time, can proceed along a spiral trajectory, or show specific patterns of deflection and distortion. Quite frequently time as a dimension is transcended and acquires spatial characteristics; past, present and future are essentially juxtaposed and coexist in the present moment (my emphasis). On occasion, LSD subjects experience various forms of time-travels-regressing in historical time, passing through time-loops, or stepping out of the time dimension altogether and reentering another point in history.

The perception of space can undergo similar changes: unusual states of mind clearly demonstrate the narrowness and limitations of space with only three coordinates. LSD subjects frequently report that they experience space and the universe as being curved and self-enclosed, or are able to perceive worlds that have four, five or more dimensions (my emphasis). Others have a sense fo being a dimensionless point in consciousness. It is possible to see space as an arbitrary construct and a projection of the mind that has no objective existence at all. Under certain circumstances any number of interpenetrating universes of different orders can be seen in holographic coexistence (my emphasis). As in the case of time travel, one can experience linear transfer to another place be mental space travel, direct and immediate transport through a space loop, or by stepping out of the space dimension altogether and reentering at another place.

The different modes of existence talked about by Stanislav Grof here fascinate me. They also give me hope for a better future in some ways. This is because I feel that if the reality that appears so solid to most of us and unbendable is really so effervescent and derivative (not to be mistaken for the much abused financial instrument:-) that there may just may be a way for the whole human race to survive and flourish in what would seem to be the most perilous of all times in human history coming right at us. It is so funny what a child knows. I had an intuition as a ten- year-old that poverty was created by evil people. I didn't know how to give a voice to my thoughts at the time- and in later times of my life people told me that I was very foolish for thinking that all people on the face of this planet should be happy and not want for anything. I actually gave in to the other view at some point- but no more. I really and truly believe now that poverty - the love of money- power- even sex in some ways are things that exist to keep us trapped within this Black Iron Prison. I will try to work some of these new and old insights into what I believe as I try to continue with some discoveries made by Stanislav Grof- and I would absolutely love to hear what you believe! All the best to anyone stopping by!

PS- like how I re-did the first paragraph of this article? I didn't think it looked good enough the first time around - had to perfect it ya know:-)

Is There A Way Out? Part Two

In the "Is There A Way Out" series I had wanted to talk a bit about transcendental psychological experiences. I would still like to look at some of these-well actually tto kind of keep various aspects of Gnostic thought/philosophy-in view during the whole series-to look at the question "Is there a way out?" in the light of this world/reality being a "Demiurgic" or fallen world of matter. Perhaps I am chasing down a wrong path? To many people, there really might not be a darn thing wrong with the world we "have." I think the description of the whys and hows if you will of how our world came to be in Gnostic thought are what fascinate me the most. A comment by the very intelligent and thoughtful Justin Russell under part one of this series reminded me not only of this aspect of my fascination -but also that perhaps NO philosophy, science or religion will ever even come close to describing all of reality. I think Kurt Godel "proved" something along these lines mathematically or using "logic" but I looked at the proof ages ago and didn't understand a bit of it (which is not surprising! although I did understand Cantor and transfinite numbers:-) I am using many sources and hope I don't get off-track or hard to understand.

The reason I would like to talk about Stanislav Grof's work in transcendental psychotherapy might not be obvious at first. I wanted to look at his work, not only because of the fascinating revelations and discoveries he had while working with people from all walks of life-but also to see if any discoveries he made give us any clues of why there is so much evil in the world-why our world is "fallen" and disjointed. This isn't, of course, to say that there isn't any good in the world-there is-and there is good, truth and beauty in enormous amounts on our little planet. It is just that with me -not only looking over all of history- but the amount of blood spilled in the century we got "done" with a little over ten years ago -the "Century of the Sun" so to speak -that there MUST be something that explains those extra touches of evil embodied in the horrors that befell hundreds of millions of people during that time ( I sure hope this century is different!).

From pages 30-32, Stanislav Grof explains some "essentials" about his work in his Beyond the Brain: Birth, Death And Transcendence In Psychotherapy, published in 1985: "The most important and obvious reason for limiting this discussion to the field of psychedelic research is my long-term scientific interest in the subject. Having conducted several thousand sessions with LSD and other mind-altering substances, and having myself experienced many psychedelic states, I have a degree of expertise concerning drug-induced phenomena that I lack in regard to other types of related experiences (note again that Grof is probably writing this in 1984 and has accumulated much more knowledge in other areas since then) Since 1954, when I first became interested in and familiar with psychedelic drugs, I have personally guided more than 3,000 sessions with LSD and have access to more than 2,000 records of sessions conducted by my colleagues, in Czechoslovakia and the United States. The subjects in these experiments where "normal" volunteers, various groups of psychiatric patients, and individuals dying of cancer. The nonpatient population consisted of psychiatrists and psychologists, scientists from various other disciplines, artists, philosophers and theologians, students, and psychiatric nurses. The patients with emotional disorders belonged to a variety of diagnostic categories, among them individuals with various forms of depression, psychoneurotics, alcoholics, narcotic drug addicts, sexual deviants, persons with psychiatric disorders, borderline psychotics, and schizophrenics.

...During the years of my clinical work with psychedelics, it has become increasingly obvious that neither the nature of the LSD experience nor the numerous observations made in the course of psycedelic therapy can be adequately explained in terms of the Newtonian-Cartesian, mechanistic approach to the universe and, more specifically, in terms of existing neurophysiological models of the brain. After years of conceptual struggle with confusion, I have concluded that the data from LSD research indicate an urgent need for a drastic revision of the existing paradigms for psychology, psychiatry, medicine, and possibly science in general. There is at present little doubt in my mind that our current understanding of the universe, of the nature of reality, and particularly of human beings, is superficial, incorrect and incomplete.

In what follows, I will briefly describe the most important observations from LSD psychotherapy that I consider to be serious challenges to contemporary psychiatric theory, to present medical beliefs, and go to the mechanistic model of the universe based on the views of Isaac Newton and Rene Descartes. Some of these observations are related to certain formal charactertistics of the psychedelic states, others to their content, and yet others to some extraordinary connections that seem to exist between them and the fabric of external reality.

(emphasis mine)

I emphasize again at this point that the following discussion applies not only to psychedelic states, but also to a variety of nonordinary states of consciousness, that occur spontaneously or are introduced by nondrug means. Thus, all the issues in question have general validity for the understanding of the human mind and disease.

Let me begin with a brief description of the formal characteristics of nonordinary states of consciousness. In psychedelic sessions and other types of unusual experiences, dramatic sequences of various kinds can be experienced with a sensory vividness, reality, and intensity that match or surpass the ordinary perception of the material world. Although the optical aspects of these sequences tend to be prominent for most people, quite realistic experiences can occur in all the other sensory areas. On occasion, powerful isolated sounds, human and animal voices, entire musical sequences, intense physical pain and other somatic sensations, as well as distinct tastes and smells can dominate the experience or play an important part in it.

Ideation can be influenced in the most profound way, and the intellect can create interpretations of reality quite different from the one that is characteristic of the individual in his or her ordinary state of consciousness. The description of the essential experiential elements of unusual states of consciousness would not be complete without mentioning an entire range of powerful emotions that are their standard components.

Many psychedelic experiences appear to have a general quality similar to those in everyday life, with the sequences occurring in three-dimensional space and unfolding along a linear time continuum. However, quite typically, additional dimensions and experiential alternatives are readily available. The psychedelic state has a multilevel and multidimensional quality, and the Newtonian-Cartesian sequences, if they occur, appear to be arbitarily teased out of a complex continuum of infinite possibilities.

(emphasis mine)

At the same time, they have all the characteristics that we associate with the perception of the material world of "objective reality."

There is more after this in the same section of Stan Grof's book that I want to put here next. I hope anyone stopping by will enjoy reading this, and once again appreciate the thoughtful and intelligent comments. All the best to anyone stopping by!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stanislav_Grof

http://www.stanislavgrof.com/

James Richardson: Friends

THE AIR has some jokes on us

It turns like a star
It will not let us see

the past

It blows a little dust off us
and brings tomorrow

So it has been burying us
since we dried

It remembers that we made it
what it is
that we have the lungs and eyes and arms

So it follows us everywhere
to be remembered

No one who breathes
lives very long

Is There A Way Out? Part One

Although certain topics I would like to put before you might not seem to directly involve Gnostic belief structures, I would like to see if people who read this blog agree that I am still essentially talking about the basic Gnostic philosophy or not. It seems to me that a great deal of Gnostic thought and discussion centers around the belief that this world we inhabit is a "false" world created by a "false" god. There may be some disagreement as to the degree of falseness of both the material world and the "god" who created it. There is definitely a huge degree of debate about the nature of the Demiurge or "false" god. To some, this being is essentially good but misguided. To others, the Demiurge is an utter imbecile or fool. And to many the Demiurge is the very embodiment of evil.

Perhaps an example of the degree of how fake our own three-dimensional world is would be the theory that we don't even inhabit a material world at all. This is what has come to be loosely known as the "Matrix" or "Simulation Argument." In this theory, which I have discussed before here in some of the "nature of reality" posts-all you see around you-and you yourself are an illusion created by a vast supercomputer -or something very much like one. Many people might be tempted to laugh at the "Matrix" theory or "Simulation Argument"--and I don't like the idea myself-but the idea that our world is projected by a hugely powerful computer (again computer might be too weak of an analogy-but the idea it evokes is appropriate) solves an uncomfortably large number of problems in modern physics. The "Bottom Layer" site on my blog under the "great links" section goes into this in great detail and will guide anyone interested through the intricacies of the theory much better than I can.

Whatever the true nature of our world is, there are many reasons Gnosticism intrigues me. There are two major reasons that come to me immediately all the time. Remember the three types of human personalities discussed in a prior post? The pneumatikoi or "spirituals"-people who have awakened to their real divine nature through gnosis. The psychikoi or psychics, whose soul-nature may be guided by faith, but who will still need exceptional effort to gain enlightenment. Lastly, there are the hylikoi or hylics ("materials")-these people are only aware of matter, material things. They only belong to matter and because of this they don't have any chance of enlightenment. From the spiritual point of view they are already dead. I find this categorization very interesting, for what it says to me is that there are varying degrees a person is "stuck" in matter-the gross, physical material world.

I am not saying that this way of classifying people is one-hundred percent correct by any means, but aspects of the three states remind me of myself and other people. I do feel that there is some aspect of my being that is not attached to this world- a little spark here and there-a little light that is both divine and "me" at the same time. I really do feel that I "have" a body and don't feel as if I am "only" a body. There are even times that I have dreams where I feel I am really somewhere else and not just a sleeping body whose matter based brain's neurons are discharging and creating an inside movie.

The problem is that these insights and intuitions seem to occupy about one to two percent of my reality and the other 98 to 99 percent is concerned with surviving- mentally, physically and psychically in this world. There is also another face to the "surviving" aspect. At first this opposite aspect of surviving-to do more than survive-to enjoy various pleasures seems good or even great but many times I wonder if the pleasure principle, the things that give us joy in the world-of course pain is pleasure to some but lets not go there:-) chains us to the gross material world much more effectively than the painful and unpleasant aspects of life.

On the surface this might seem a stupid way to put it, as no one generally likes pain. But think how often in your daily routine you become obsessed-many times-first and foremost with money. Will I have enough money to pay my bills? Will I be "downsized" or let go from work? And to many these days-even in the so-called "modern" or "progressive" nations of the world- Will I be homeless soon? or "What bridge am I going to sleep under tonight? What I am basically trying to say is that for a species which supposedly craves pleasure and despises fear and pain, many people seem to live in a constant state of fear or free-floating anxiety (even when there is no need) -this will also be a very important idea in future posts here in relation to the archons or "rulers"- many Gnostics believes the archons or rulers of our material realm "feed" of psychic energy. A junkie putting a needle into his or her arm and getting the huge (and false -and sometimes fatal) initial rush of pleasure might be the equivalent of Steak Diane with a baked potato and a Caesar salad to an archon. The millions of lives ended or ruined by Hitler and Stalin (not to mention many others) might be like a bacchanalian Roman orgy-and a seven course meal. And perhaps a person having their first smoke of the day is just a Philly Cheesesteak or cheeseburger to them. In other words the archons- the rulers of this world-who serve at the pleasure of the Demiurge -feed off any type of human emotions-but in some Gnostic thought -agony -which there is so much of in this world-is the most exquisite for them.

Tobias Churton in Gnostic Philosophy talks about the history of some of these ideas on pages 23 to 24: We now come to a key Gnostic conception, one that caused consternation to the enemies of Christian gnosis in the second century A.D. Insofar as the Demiurge claimed to be the highest God, then the Demiurge, the awful creator of the material universe, was, for the Gnostics a false god. The Gnostic had seen through his deceptive handiwork, and, free of it by virtue of knowledge, could "look down" on it. Enemies of the Gnostics regarded this posture as one of insufferable arrogance. The radical Gnostic could reply that such a position was as nothing compared to the supreme destructiveness and arrogating offense of the Demiurge-himself the blind god who knows no higher than himself.

In their Secret Book (Apocryphon) of John, written sometime in the second century A.D., we hear of how the Demiurge, here called Ialdaboth, took counsel with the archons and created seven planets-hence the false god's claim to "have none before him." (The zodiac provided the image for the grim fetter that held humans in ignorance, or agnosis: that is, "without gnosis").

I would also like to go to pages 40 and 41 from the same book to give some information about the "Unknown God And The Demiurge: The Jewish philosopher Philo of Alexandria, a contemporary of Jesus wrote polemics against those who taught of two gods; at the same time, Philo himself called the Logos (the divine instrument of creation) "a second god," "archangel," "Lord," and "Name."

"After Philo's time, Jewish rabbis complained of heretics (minim) who believed that God had a representative who bore his name, Jao (an abbreviation of YHWH, the proper name of God) or Jaoel. These Jewish heretics said that this figure sat on a throne next to God's and was called Metatron. Metatron became a significant figure in what Gershom Scholem called "Jewish Gnosticism," which contains much of what is now generally referred to as the Kabbalah."

"Some dissident Jews, called Magharians, said that all anthropomorphic names in the Hebrew Bible referred not to God, but to the angel Metatron, who created the world. In the Gnostic Apocryphon of John, which is dated before A.D. 185, something like this angel appears as the Demiurge, or "the archon who is weak," with three names: Ialdaboth, Saklas, and Samael... "

"Come," says Ialdaboth in a terrifying parody of the Genesis account of the creation of Adam, "let us create a man according to the image of God and according to our likeness, that his image may become a light for us." Having made a "luminous" man, the archons recoil in jealousy, for their combined efforts have made a being greater than themselves individually: "And when they recognized that he was luminous, and that he could think better than they, and that he was free from wickedness, they took him and threw him into the lowest region of all matter".

"This is hard-core Gnosticism, where the false god has become a perfectly sinister deity. The philosopher Hans Jonas, for one, has doubted it could possibly be the work of Jews-especially since its knowledge of Hebrew scripture seems limited to the Book of Genesis, which certainly did fascinate Gentile readers. In a short and typically clear paper of gnosis, Professor Quispel observes, "Only people who had been brought up to believe every word of the Bible, and to cling to the faith that God is one, and yet found reason to rebel against Law and Order may have been inclined toward the Gnostic solution: God is one and the Bible is right, but Anthropomorphisms like the handicraft of a creative workman and personal lawgiving are to be attributed to a subordinate angel".

"Perhaps Quispel is right, but there is all the difference in the world between a subordinate angel and the vicious, scheming, sinister bunch of archons who make Man on to kick him into the dark dungeon of matter, there to all but tread the life out of him. This was the disturbing revelation of the cosmoclastic Gnostic texts such as the Apocryphon of John."

I hope to have the next article here as soon as possible. This series might be somewhat more difficult to do because I would like to use many different sources for it. I wish I had known I would stay on this subject for so long because I would have done it very differently. If anyone is confused about anything please let me know in comments or emails. My basic questions when I think of Gnosticism are: Is this world of matter we are in inherently evil? Is there any good in it at all? Or is the gross, material world indeed more like a prison than anything else? And why-if the material world is absolutely no good-why and how did we come to descend into it? And-what is the best way to regain our "real" spiritual nature-or to "break out of prison"? Thanks again for all of your wonderful comments! The next time I am online I am going to try to get caught up with everyone's work on their blogs and other things. This should be fairly easy to do because I don't think this series can be rushed in any way from here on out-especially as I want to use seven different books and other sources for it, and don't want to confuse anyone by needlessly rushing it-and if I already have please let me know. All the best to anyone stopping by!

Stephen Morrissey: The Summing-Up

After wo I rede us to be merie.
---Chaucer, "The Knight's Tale"

My life isn't quite
an open book,
but I stand behind
what I've done--
I did what I had to do
to survive. I thought
survival was enough
but it leads to stasis,
and denial of transformation;
I thought redemption
lay in confessionm,
but it can lead to
self-absorption,
or strengths beyond
what others know.

The beginning of wisdom
is in the love of God,
but some people
have to wait a long time
before they learn anything.
I am like the body of a man
found preserved in a bog--
he was removed
from his thousand year long
rest, both legs broken
so his spirit couldn't return
at night to haunt the living
--his wrists
tied with rope
braided from straw

My legs aren't broken
but something kept me here
long after others fled this place.
My hands aren't tied
behind my back,
but I carry the burden
of my parent's life,
unconscious, unaware,
and deflected onto me
to examine. I've lived
on the end of strings,
controlled by obligations,
duty, responsibility
and a rigid sense
of who I am.

In early November
in my fiftieth year,
I lie in bed
by the open window,
sunlight illuminating
autumn's yellow leaves;
ivy around the window
while in the yard
the single apple tree
still hasn't lost its leaves.
The complexity
of every leaf,
vein and fibre;
sunlight traveling
millions of miles
before casting long shadows
across the yard.

Then there is the flight
of birds across a blue sky,
as though synchronized
with the flight of other birds
or the rustling of leaves.
Insects move silently
in the dark soil;
I think of the human heart
and soul, the intricacies
of blood and life,
bone and thought,
brain and muscle.
I am in awe
of all creation,
and love God
as I did when a child.

I certainly hope anyone passing through will enjoy this poem by Stephen Morrissey! It is from his latest book, Girouard Avenue-please read the post below this for more details. Peace and love to anyone stopping by!

Girouard Avenue to Ogden Street

The following is just the beginning to what I hope will be much more and better thought out words to describe the wonderful work of Stephen Morrissey and other authors/poets (and even "wannabes" hopefully) that I have discovered -or in some cases have discovered My Favorite Monsters! As my health and energy levels are really all over the place anymore-I am not online near as much as I used to be-so I wanted to get these very short thoughts in before I post one of Stephen's poems next-hopefully right after this. It has also become more important to me (than it already was) to try and give applause/kudos/bravos -maybe compliments is the best word to describe the writing (fiction, non-fiction, poetry and even blogs) of the women and men who don't have household name recognition -but should-I feel anyway.

There isn't any reason in the world perhaps why anyone should care a thing about what I have to say. The only reason I think I ever got the idea to do my version of "reviews" which are hardly scholarly NYT style material to say the least, is that people over the years-some known very well and some only the slightest of acquaintances have told me I do a good job of recommending things to read in different areas. The different areas also comes in to play in that I have about a million different subjects I am interested in, which can be a blessing and a curse!

The only other things I can say is that with regard to blogfriends and others I have known awhile-I hope to soon be offering the "My Favorite Monsters Money Back Guarantee" on books I am hyped up on (books I have already talked about in the past like Rigorous Intuition, A Walk With An Irishman, Augustus, RVBICON, Gnostic Philosophy, Daimonic Reality and others apply too) Like I say-I hardly consider myself the unofficial Minister of Culture here in the U.S. (thinking of Maecenas at my other blog). This is just one small person's attempt to put a finger in the dike (OMG- no I won't go there:-) to hold back what seems like a tidal wave of "Jonas Brothers" "Formulaic" "Pre-Fab" shit that is threatening to drown the world in its utter banality, puerility, stupidity and other insults I could think of or make up.

I have often wondered-what qualities make the best writers? The best poets? Honesty is a huge one-a huge plus especially I would think in the area of poetry. One idea/image/thought comes to mind with the poetry that I have enjoyed and loved over the years-this is the notion that the author kind of takes you by the hand-and guides you-but not forcefully at all and says "Look-please look at the things that are important to me. Please look at what I have or maybe even haven't learned. This is me-this is my life. These are the things that are HOLY to me." I do not use the word "HOLY" lightly here. I would think that in every soul who has tried to lead an "examined" life to some degree-that you, me-all of us-have these "mind movies" (that's what I call 'em anyway) of things we have done -people we have known-thoughts we have had-even moods that grabbed hold of us that are HOLY to us.

Let me tell you-my good friends "Girouard Avenue" by Stephen Morrissey is a HOLY book. I say this unabashedly, without apology and in the spirit of dignity. I would also like to say that 'round the net and other works of poetry I also consider HOLY. I am awestruck by the honesty and courage and talent of Stephen and other poets who bare their minds and souls and take us by the hand to "lead us to higher ground."

The "Ogden Street" part of the post title comes from the street where I spent the first twenty years of my life. Reading Stephen's work has brought so much back to me that was already there and put it in a glorious new light-and at times a breathtakingly melancholy and wistful light-and taking a cue from David Leavitt (gosh I hope so -don't want to look stupid you know:-) "A Place I've Never Been." Needless to say-as long as I draw breath (and have a 'puter and net access:-)- I will talk more about Stephen's work. I am already wanting to order "The Yoni Rocks" and other of his books of poetry.

My insomnia is making my mind wander so I had better finish with this as I still want to post one of his poems above this post. BTW -before I forget Stephen's blog is on my bloglist by his name and his "Reincarnation" poem is also on the 1 January 2009 entry for poetry on my blog. Now a few words about Girouard Avenue from a much much brighter star than myself-to show you I am not leading anyone astray. These words are from Laurence Hutchman, author of Reading the Water (Black Moss, 2008) and also Professor of English, University of Moncton, Edmundston, New Brunswick: "...The poet accurately portrays the individual ties he has to his brother, mother, grandmother, and aunts. He expresses a central sense of loss, as well as a recuperation of the essential qualities of his father. In elegiac poems, he defines these relationships through appropriate language, original imagery and strongly felt lines..." History, family, ancestors, the spirit of place, and the legacy that one generation leaves to the next -all expressed beautifully in Girouard Avenue from Coracle Press by Stephen Morrissey!

Gnosticism & The "Real" World Part 13

Now I would like to turn to Gnostic Philosophy yet again to talk about Crowley's supposed Satanism from page 356: "...Crowley regarded Christianity as hostile to sex, associating it with sin, the work of the devil, immorality, and so forth. His experience of Kundalini convinced him that sex was a manifestation of the archetypal creative power of God. It is such a simple idea that it beggars belief how sex could ever have been seen as wrong.

Nevertheless, Crowley was intrigued by the association of Satan with sexual energy, and with darkness. He came to the conclusion that Satan or Shaitan, the Hebrew being derived from the Egyptian god Set-the sun in the south that blackens everything (and becomes to the physical eye invisible or occult)-had acquired his evil overtone from a war between rival solar priests in Egypt. Osirian priests, taking the myth of the murder of their god by his brother somewhat literally, eventually triumphed, and Set's followers went underground.

Crowley sometimes identified Shaitan with Aiwass, his unconscious self-or the self of which he was largely unconscious. The Hebrews had simply taken over from the Egyptians this idea of Satan, the Adversary (as he appears as God's servant, the one that tempts, in the biblical Book of Job). In time he became the actual and cosmic adversary in their more Osirian (or in Greek mythology Apollonian) god, with the resultthat Set/Shaitan became ever more the receptacle for ideas of evil, anti-God or antihuman, and so on.

Now from page 357 of Gnostic Philosophy: A similar range of ideas can be seen in Nietzche's Birth of Tragedy, in which the German philosopher pits the Apollonian (sun god) virtues and classical Greek theater against the earlier demonic and instinctive, cthonic and unconscious life, symbolized as Dionysus. Dionysus is the energy of the Bacchic revel that tears the ego to pieces (as the body of Osiris was found in pieces and reconstituted by Isis, the Earth Mother). We are accustomed to thinking of the artist (magician) as being driven by his demon, careless of the values of the world. All this explains why dominant Western culture has had such a problem with the bohemian (Bohemia had been the home of Hermetic alchemy in the sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries). The artist, the reveler, the Falstaffian figure, the rock-and-roller-all have been treated with contempt until contained and the joy or ecstasy controlled. Materialist culture is fearful of what Crowley was and stood for. It is the urge for order over what is perceived to be chaos-and repression by almost any means is the tool.

Apollo is inevitably a materialist in this context, clinging to the hope of the solid, the visible, the stable, while the whole universe (ignoring Newton and praising Bohr) is crying out that things just ain't that way! This is what Blake means when he sees the sun no as "a golden guinea" but as a host of angels crying out "Holy! Holy! Holy!" Apollo here corresponds to the Gnostics' Demiurge or Blake's Old Nobodaddy, the archrationalist, the divider, the cosmic accountant-likewise the disrespect of Gnostics fo the God of the Law. But it happened, according to Crowley's way of thinking,that the Osirian and Jehovistic wing got hold of the Christian Church, linking it up to the legality and force of the Roman Empire.

One thing that has always fascinated me is if Crowley really thought he himself was the man who was the harbinger of the New Age. It would definitely appear that he thought that the ancient conflict between Osiris (or in Greek mythology Apollo-the rational, clockwork, "materialist" god-Blake's Old Nobodaddy) and Set (or Satan. Shaitan of the Hebrews, who over the centuries became identified with all that was evil-Crowley, of course, sometimes identified Shaitan with Aiwass) intensified in April 1904 when Horus-the Crowned and Conquering Child, came to rule over the future of humanity. His involvement with the Invocation of Horus during this time and his basic anti-Christian viewpoints may indeed have led him to believe he was the Beast (the solar man, 666) of the Apocalypse.

However, depending on the light one is viewing Aleister Crowley in-this may have actually been a "good" and necessary event. Obviously if one is a fundamentalist Christian, the prism you would view anyone proclaiming themselves to be the Beast of the Apocalypse would be very different! Overall-as a human being-it is very hard to see where Crowley was any more or any less evil that the great mass of humanity. In Gnostic Philosophy on page 358: But has it not occurred to his detractors that the Satan of their personal mythology would find it more appropriate to infiltrate quietly, subtly, stealthily, under guise of being something else? In the Hermetic scheme of things, the real darkness comes from repressed energies, mangled, regrouping, and then overwhelming the psyche. It is the unrestrained Apollonian total-control, total-order, total-law states that have generated the greatest evil. The worst murderers have been found to be cool, orderly, calm, often distinguished by the ice of intellect that has frozen out the Love under Will that is, according to Aleister Crowley, the agent of the world's salvation.

Here is part of a letter that Crowley wrote to his son taken from the "Notes" section of Gnostic Philosophy. Written in the last year of his life this letter certainly doesn't evoke any "Satanic" images in me!: My dear Son, This is the first letter that your father has ever written to you, so, you can imagine that it will be very important, and you should keep it and lay it to your heart [...] I want you to learn to behave as a Duke would behave. You must be high-minded, generous, noble, and above all, without fear. For that last reason you must never tell a lie; for to do so shows that you are afraid of the person to whom you tell it, and I want you to be afraid of nobody. [...] There is one more point that I want to impress upon you! The best models of English writing are Shakespeare and the Old Testament, especially the Book of Job, the Psalms, the Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, and the Song of Solomon. It will be a very good thing for you to commit as much as you can, both of these books and of the best plays of Shakespeare to memory, so that they form the foundation of your style: and in writing English, the most important quality you can acquire is style. [...] Your affectionate father, Aleister

That brings to an end the Aleister Crowley part of this series. I very much appreciate the wonderful, kind and intelligent comments from everyone who has enjoyed this series-the links too Anadae! I have ordered Gnostic Philosophy by Tobias Churton-I enjoyed this part so much and the many other aspects of Gnosticism he talks about and enjoy his style of writing enormously-the book is over 400 pages long and has very detailed (and lengthy) Notes, Bibliography and Index sections. I would like to return to the subject of Gnosticism fairly soon-after taking a break to work on some other things-both for this blog-and other stuff. All the best to anyone stopping by!

Gnosticism & The "Real" World Part 12

The mystery of sex and the power and understanding derived from the practice of sexual magick is very important to any understanding of Aleister Crowley. In Gnostic Philosophy on page 343 we have some important information: "On June 28, 1930, Crowley reflected in his diary, "Spiritual attainments are incompatible with bourgeois morality." The morality Crowley is referring to is based on the restriction of natural impulse; a cocantenation of fear of disease, fear of self, fear of poverty, fear of truth, and ultimately fear of life itself."

Churton also has a wonderful letter that Crowley wrote in 1913 to a Dr. Graham of Cambridge on page 343 to 344: I should have supposed that any mind could see that the finest possible thing is the indissoluble union of the whole of two personalities. Such union would be Samhadi [union with Brahman] and in accordance with the One Great Law through whose operation we get back to God.

I should also have thought even the conventional mind could see that this union was not secured by marriage, and owing to this failure, marriage has today become certainly to the young a symbol for the association of all that is vile and degrading with all that should be most pure...It has consequently already been replaced by hazardous unions between economically independent people. That such unions are not open and respectable prevents them from developing into unions which would be marriage in all but name. Respectability, as always, defeats itself.

How I love that last sentence! Also on page 344 of Gnostic Philosophy: "Crowley regarded the sexual life of his time as a mass of hypocrisy that stirred up something akin to an international neurosis that could find satisfaction only in conflict of the destructive kind. On the outside, a crisp sugary coating of sentiment, lush, romantic and dreamy; on the inside, a craven desire for satisfaction of a blind urge with the reward of a relief redolent of defecation."

I think Churton is "spot on"-especially with this last sentence. How many times have you heard- "I need to get laid" and other "romantic" :-) phrases like that to describe something that should be beautiful and also something that links one soul to another? Continuing on page 344: "Crowley cut through the whole morbid morass with a sharpened scalpel in an attempt to clean out society. His efforts, as we might expect, earned him the kind of innuendo, police harrassment, tabloid character assassination, and widespread denunciation that would later be meted out to another sexual pioneer, Wilhelm Reich. It was not society but Aleister Crowley who was King of Depravity, living on immoral earnings, debauched, diseased, and demonic."

As Churton points out-not only did Crowley want to make sex holy and ineffable again-but he wanted people to take notice -to see what William Blake meant when he said, "The Lust of the Goat is the Bounty of God" and "Everything that lives is Holy."

According to Crowley: The close connection of sexual energy with the higher nervous centres makes the sexual act definitely magical. It is therefore a sacrament which can and should be used in the Great Work. The act being creative, ecstatic and active, its vice consists of treating it as sentimental, emotional and passive. Then going back to Tobias Churton on page 345: Crowley's theory of sex departs from the conception that ecstasy is a mystical state and that orgasm represents not only the condition whose sublimation is laughter but also, more important, the temporary annihilation of the ego-bound consciousness, thereby permitting in principle the unveiling of the unconsciousness..."

Also on page 345 to 346 of Gnostic Philosophy is a fragment of Hermes Trismegistus' dialogue with Asclepius which was found in a Coptic version of the Nag Hammadi library in 1945: And if you wish to see the reality of this mystery, then you should see the wonderful representation of the intercourse that takes place between the male and female. For when the semen reaches the climax, it leaps forth. In that moment the female receives the strength of the male; the male for his part receives the strength of the female, while the semen does this.

Therefore the mystery of intercourse is performed in secret, in order that the two sexes might not disgrace themselves in front of many who do not experience that reality, [it is] laughable and unbelievable. And, moreover, they are holy mysteries, of both words and deed, because not only are they not heard, but also they are not seen.

Therefore such people [the unbelievers] are the blasphemers. They are atheistic and impious. But the others are not many; rather, the pious who we counted are few. Therefore wickedness remains among the many, since learning concerning things which are ordained does not exist among them. For the gnosis of the things which are ordained is truly the healing of the passions of matter. Therefore learning is something derived from gnosis.

It would seem that Aleister Crowley realized that sexual magick was a virtually constant thread that was hidden in the symbolism of all of the world's esoteric teachings. Going way back to Hermes thinking on the subject "God eternally generates the cosmos, and that cosmos possesses generative power, and thereby maintains all races that have come into being." Another way of looking at this thinking is that a higher-more ineffable kind of "sex" is not only how God generates All but is also how he "looks" through the "eyes" (or any other sense organs) of the beings and things he has created.

Crowley did have a new take on the classical ascetic and Gnostic concepts of divine sexual union. His notions of purity and virginity were set against the framework of Einsteinian relativism. This should come as no surprise as Crowley was a contemporary of Einstein and many other great physicists of the day who realized the deeper implications of the theories (special and general relativity and quantum mechanics). The concept of relativism was spreading out into the liberal arts, and other areas too. One could make an argument that on the "bad" side of this revolutionary way of thinking about man and his place in the universe that relativism in the political world really got a much unwanted (I would think so anyway!) boost after these discoveries were made exemplified to the greatest degree by two real "Beasts"- Adolf Hitler and Joseph Stalin-who seemed to embody the "relativity" of morals when the ends justify the means.

True Will was what guided the adept in his or her experiential untion with God. On page 347 of Gnostic Philosophy, Churton lets us know the true meaning of some of Crowley's symbolism: Due to the repressive laws governing sexual material-as well as many other things-in Crowley's lifetime, in addition to the (necessarily) initiatic character of Crowley's teaching, much of his writing on the subject is expressed in symbol, metaphor, euphemism, and humorous plays on words in the old occult tradition. "Bloody sacrifice," for example, does not denote something out of a horror novel but refers to the expenditure of semen (=life="blood") for magical purposes other than reproduction of the species, and "child sacrifice" meant, cheekily, masturbation or contraception.

I am almost done with the "Crowley" part of the Gnosticism series. I really appreciate all of your thoughtful and open-minded comments about this part in particular. I didn't know what to expect when I started this -because of course-all I had ever heard of for the most part was how "evil" Aleister Crowley was. It has been fascinating for me to see this vastly different viewpoint from Tobias Churton! All the best to anyone stopping by!

Gnosticism & The "Real" World Part 11

The Book of the Law not only was important in "predicting" -in a fashion-the importance of the youth movemnent-it also predicts the victory of the rebellion of Woman. Aiwass believed that Woman-whose body is the door to the manifest (material) world and that is should never be closed: "Let Mary inviolate be torn upon wheels for her sake
let all chaste women be utterly despised among you!"

"We do not foul and flatter women; we do not despise and abuse them. To us a woman is Herself, as absolute, original, independent, free, self-justified, exactly as a man is...We do not want Her as a slave; we want Her free and royal, whether her love fight death in our arms by night...or Her loyalty ride beside us in the Charge of the Battle of Life..."

From Gnostic Philosophy on page 353: "Crowley was prepared to go to virtually any lengths to unite esoteric bodies behind this system, whether it was recommending that Krishnamurti be brought into the OTO (Rudolf Steiner had been a member) or, as in the following letter to the German OTO G.M. Herr Hopfe, urging contact with Adolf Hitler, written on January 20, 1936:

"Under the present circumstances, if I understand them aright, the only means of propaganda is to address the leader himself [Hitler] and show him that the acceptance of these philosophical principles is the only means of demonstrating to reason instead of merely enthusiasm the propriety of the measures he is taking for the rebuilding of the Reich. Unless he does this, the Churches will ultimately strangle him; they have an almost infinite capacity for resistance and endurance for this very reason tha their systems are based on a fundamental theory which enabled them to survive attacks and restraints. They bow as much as they are compelled to bow by force and they subsequently excuse their yielding on the grounds of expediency. If the Fuehrer wishes to establish his principle permanently he must uproot them entirely and this can only be done by superseding their deepest conceptions.

Enthusiasm for a man or an outward system dies with the man or with the circumstances which have brought the system into being. The Law of Thelema being infinitely rigid and infinitely elastic is an enduring basis. Love is the Law, Love under ?Will."

Tobias Churton in Gnostic Philosophy on page 354 goes on to talk about Hitler's will and the balance of forces: "Hitler's will was already irredeemably perverted, and its duration was consequently short, overpowered as he was by unconscious forces that he was utterly unable to balance under the point of crisis. His ego simply grew and then cracked under the strain of those reactionary forces he had himself evoked and that manifested themselves all over the planet. In magick as in nature, equilibrium is all. Should a country ever lose grip of the Golden Mean, we shall know what to expect."

"The key to equilibrium may lie in a consideration of sexual magick: balanced forces of male and female, right and left, Jachin and Boaz, sun and moon, positive and negative, the duality whose apex is the unknowable One, projected in creation. Crowley denied the ascetic, encratite, and Buddhistic view that duality must mean evil. According to Crowley, "Love is the uniting of opposites" In a letter of May 27, 1913, to George Macnie Cowie, Crowley wrote: "I have just got back and have read Transcendental Universe. It is rather interesting but I think of no great value. This alleged contest between intellect and spirit makes me tired. It shows a totally wrong conception of the nature of the cosmos. It is just as bad as the alleged antagonism between mind and body."

There is a universal archetypal recognition that the sun-the Solar Principle-symbolizes the creative, conscious, generative and male aspect of God. The moon represents the Feminine Principle and sybolizes the receptive, unconscious, female aspect of God. It can't be stated to strongly that this view of the Feminine Principle is no insult-no "women are less than men" type thinking. I am about to say something that reminds me of the great religious and philosophical scholar-Huston Smith-said about the same subject/experiences with consciousness altering hallucinogenic drugs-with the same preamble he used (in his book The Perrenial Philosophy if I remember correctly)-"The Chinese have a saying: "Know ten things, tell nine." You will see why I think.

In the vast literature that has accumulated over the years about people's experiences wiht these consciousness altering drugs-both synthetic and natural (I also prefer "Brain filter" shutter downers" when I think of these substances as I truly believe they open vistas to the infinite reality that lies just beyond human perception, because the brain "filters" out 99 percent or more of a reality that we are immersed in -yet lies just beyond most people's perception most of the time-especially during "normal" waking consciousness.

When men and women both, report back on what they experienced when they "returned to earth" so to speak-many report that their consciousness was subsumed into -or at least witnessed a "formless void" that seems to be "pregnant with all possibility." This "void" that appears to contain all things in their as yet unrealized potential of course sounds extremely important- and maybe even "before-prior-or containing" all things. So this "feminine" void that is "pregnant" with all possibilities is at as important as the male "active" principle if not more so in some ways.

Going back to Churton's Gnostic Philosophy on pages 354-355: "As the Christian declares that "the sun and moon bow down before Him," the Hindu holds to the view that the God of which the cosmos is an expression (Brahman) has no attributes and can be considered to be absolute zero (the philosophical Nothing). While some of the early Gnostics postulated theories as to how 0 came to generate 2, the Hindu is satisfied that such things are beyond thought; from Brahman came an egg that divided into two, male and female, and their uniting created the universe in which we move. The Vedantic Vnishnava and Shivite sects worship the male principle; the Shakti sects worship the female principle. Some scholars assert the necessity of remarrying the opposites and merging into the resultant union (samadhi, and the meaning of Crowley's "stars separated for the sake of union").

Thanks everyone for your continued interest in this series and fantastic comments and links! I am sorry it is going somewhat slow-the information posted today has been ready to go since the 27th of December. I am hoping this exhausted feeling will go away soon and I will have more energy. I do think we are getting close to the end of the "Crowley" information of the series. I am indebted to the information in Tobias Churton's Gnostic Philosophy for this series. I have his book as a library book now and can't wait to order it and have a copy for myself to have around all the time-and would suggest to anyone who has any interest in Gnosticism-and the history of it -personalities and different philosphical and religious views of it to order the book! When the "Crowley" series is finished and I have done just a bit more at my other blog, I will be taking a 3 week break from blogging to work on my writing or attempts at perhaps I should say. I will try to keep up with friends and their blogs during this timeframe. All the best to anyone stopping by!

Gnosticism & The "Real" World Part 10

To finish with the quote from Aleister Crowley from part 9: "...The only Word which can unite Mankind is "Do what thou wilt" for this asks no man to distort his personality to serve a fixed idea of conduct. At the same time, the injunction is most austere; for it permits no man to go beyond the aim appointed by his nature. The real opposition to the Law of Thelema lies just here. The base understand by instinct that this Law must destroy the whole machinery of the civilization which assumes that the greatest good of man is the possession of material means of enjoyment."

Going from Crowley to Tobias Churton in Gnostic Philosophy on page 339: "The Cephaloedium Working (Cefalu, Sicily, 1920-21) produced a "comentary on the Book of the Law" that represented much of his mature consideration of its import--although, in a sense, his entire life subsequent to April 1904 was a living commentary on the book and its perils."

" The Cefalu "Commentary" contains enlightenment, rhetoric, and disciplined synthesis. We learn, for example, that the Greek kabbalistic numbers of Agape (Love) and Thelema (Will) are both 93, as in Aiwass, spelled Aiwaz, the name of the god of the Yezdis: "Our work is therefore historically authentic, the rediscovery of the Sumerian Tradition...(the earliest home of our race.)"

Going forward in Gnostic Philosophy on the same page: "It also suggested that the principal deities of the Book of the Law, Nuit and Hadit, correspond to Anu and Adad, the supreme Father and Mother deities of the Sumerians."

"It may also be added that Nuit corresponds not only to the Gnostic Sophia (Wisdom), the Lady of the Stars, bu also to Sabbaoth, the starry sky goddess of the Sabians. In late antiquity, and even after the Islamic Hejirah, the Sabians took the Hermetica as their scripture in the city of Harran."

"The Book of the Law is divided into three chapters, being the repective expressions of three cosmic concepts personified in the form of three Egyptian deities: Hadit (motion), Nuit (infinite space), and Ra Hoor Khuit (the martial aspect of Horus and archon for the Aeon)."

"Space is motion-concealed, and by motion, space is made manifest, at the center of every atom in the cosmos. These dynamics also correspond to the Shiva and the Shakti of the Hindu pantheon and the Tao and Teh of Chinese philosophy. The conception is profound and has many intriguing correspondences. Crowley wrote: "It is cosmographically, the conception of the two Ultimate Ideas, Space, and that which occupies Space...These two ideas may be resolved into one, that of Matter: with Space its 'Condition' or 'form' included therein. This leaves the idea of 'Motion' for Hadit, whose interplay with Nuit makes the Universe. Time should be considered as a particular kind of dimension of Space." In chapter one of the Book of the Law is the enchanting thought that: "Every man and every woman is a star"; "each human being is an Element of the Cosmos, self-determined and Supreme, co-equal with all other Gods. From this Law 'Do what thou wilt' follows logically." Now of course, one can only imagine what the various major religions of the world would make of this. Every man and woman a star? Do what thou wilt? I can just imagine the paroxysms of hatred and fury these thoughts would send a fundamentalist preacher (any religion) into!

Crowley's commentary on Hoor-paar-Kraat, for whom Aiwass is a minister is informative and exquisite: Hoor-paar-Kraat or Harpocrates, the Babe in the Egg of Blue, is not merely the God of Silence in a conventional sense. He represents the Higher Self, the Holy Guardian Angel...He is the first letter of the Alphabet, Aleph [Hebrew], whose number is One and his card in the Tarot is the Fool numbered Zero...In his absolute innocence and ignorance he is "The Fool"; he is "The Saviour," being the Sun who shall trample on the crocodiles and tigers and avenge is father Osiris.

Thus we see him as the "Great Fool" of Celtic legend, the "Pure Fool" of Act 1 of Parsifal, and generally speaking, the insane person whose words have always been taken for oracles. But to be "Saviour" he must be born and grow to manhood; thus Parsifal acquires the Sacred Lance, emblem of virility. He usually wears the "Coat of many colours" like Joseph the "dreamer"; so he is also now Green Man of spring festivals. But his "folly" is now not innocence but inspiration of wine, he drinks from the Graal...Almost identical symbols are those the bisexual Baphomet, and of Zeus Arrhenothelus, equally bisexual, the Father-Mother of All in One Person. (...Tarot Trump XV, "The Devil.") Now Zeus being Lord of Air we are reminded that Aleph is the letter of Air. As Air we find the "Wandering Fool" [the Troubadour] pure wanton Breath, yet creative...He is the Wandering Knight or Prince of Fairy Tales who marries the King's Daughter.

...Thus once Europa, Semele and others claimed the Zeus-Air had enjoyed them in the form of a beast, bird or what-not; while later Mary attributed her condition to the agency of a Spirit, Spiritus, breath of air,-in the shape of a dove.

But the "Small Person" of Hindu mysticism, the dwarf insane yet crafty of many legends in many lands, is also the same "Holy Ghost," or Silent Self of a man, or his Holy Guardian Angel. He is almost the "unconscious" of Freud, unknown, unaccountable. "Blowing whither it listeth, but thou canst not tell whence it cometh or whither it goeth." It commands with absolute authority when it appears at all, despite reason and judgement.

Aiwass is there...the "minister" of this Hoor-paar-Kraat, that is of the Saviour of the world in the larger sense, and of mine own "Silent Self" in the lesser." In Gnostic Philosophy, Tobias Churton talks about the "Child" being a very important archetype in our age: "A key aspect of Horus is that of the "Crowned and Conquering Child." In the Yorke Collection, Caephalodium Working (1920-21), folder k.1., Crowley had this to say: "The Concealed Child becomes the Conquering Child: the armed Horus avenging his father, Osiris. So also our own Silent Self, helpless and witless, hidden within us, will spring forth, if we have craft to loose him to the Light, spring lustily forward with his Cry of Battle, the Word of our True Wills."

The image is a collection of the Gnostic deity "Abraxas" images. Thanks again everyone for your thoughtful and intelligent comments! I hope to post again here soon-until then all the best to anyone stopping by!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abraxas

Two by Terry Robinson

The Shallow Mind

Sometimes my dreams are shattered
by sneers and ill-read frowns.
Someone again reads past my mind
with little depth in theirs.

The danger in not thinking
is a danger indeed.
To be destructive, not creative
twists the meaning of everything.

Many Holes Indeed

You turned your back in anger
when I confessed to you
the path that I had travelled
was far apart from yours.

Your fields grew different flowers
than mine. Your poems told different tales.
And when you gave yourself to me
some part of you was far away.

The moulds that shape our lives
are seldom woven by truth.
The need to find companionship
has many holes indeed.

I hope anyone stopping by will enjoy these two poems by my friend Terry Robinson! The first image is of a famous Renoir painting-for the life of me I cannot think of the name of it now. The second image is a very good looking guy named Anton Antipov if I have my information right. Again-I wish everyone a beautiful and happy new year!

Gnosticism & The "Real" World Part 9

The Book of the Law is an incredibly unique work that essentially promotes the idea of spiritual revolution at the very heart of human existence. "Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the law" is the radical spiritual idea that pervades the three chapters of the book. Aleister Crowley's Holy Guardian Angel, Aiwass, the Minister of Hoor Paar Kraat (Harpocrates, a fusion of spiritual powers within the god Horus), speaks throughout the work.

In his "Commentary on the Book of the Law," written in September 1923, Crowley states: "The Secret was this: the breaking down of my fake Will by these dread words of mine angel freed my True Self from all its bonds, so that I could enjoy at once the rapture of knowing myself to be who I am."

From Tobias Churton's Gnostic Philosophy: "The mystical death of the ego and resurrection of the hidden God would also be charactertistic of the birth of Crowley's New Aeon. So Crowley believed that his problems were also the problems of the culture in which he was suffering. If he overcame them, it follows that he and anyone else who had attained this would be empowered to be an authentic mouthpiece for a new culture. Aiwass-Crowley, the hidden and formerly repressed god of the West, thereby became the Logos (Word) of the Aeon-and the Word was thelema-will."

Crowley always denied sincerely, that the last position his conscious self would ever want was the responsibility of leadership of a New Aeon-and hid from this every time the subject came up. Thus the Book of the Law was put into a packing case and almost completely ignored until a lucky rediscovery in the attic at Boleskin in 1909. However, the spiritual and mental preparation for the rediscovery of the manuscript appears to have occurred in March 1906, two years after Crowley wrote it. Crowley had been in southern China with his wife and baby daughter, and a series of powerful internal invocations had left him feeling very uneasy.

Again from Gnostic Philosophy on page 335: "Crowley's Buddhism had already been severely undermined by the message of Aiwass that existence was "pure joy" and that sorrows pass.

"Now it was time for his intellect to undergo a severe attack. As Blake had realized that reason is only one faculty of mind and should never be permitted to unbalance the harmonious mens and rule the roost alone, now the essence of that conclusion smashed into Aleister Crowley's mind with sudden violence...Seventeen years later, his thoughts on the limitations of reason had coalesced into a firm grasp of the problem. This from a commentary written at the Hotel in Djerid in Tunisia on Aiwass's declaration that "Reason is a lie": "When Reason usurps the higher functions of the mind, when it presumes to dictate to the Will what it desires to be, it wrecks the entire structure of the star...The Will should not be conscious at all. Once it becomes conscious, it becomes able to doubt; and having no means of getting rid of this by appeal to the Self, it seeks a reason for its action.

The reason, knowing nothing of the matter, promptly replies, basing its judgement not on the needs of the self, but on facts outside and alien to the star. The will having stopped in doubt goes on again in error. The will must never ask why. It ought to be as sure of itself as the Law of Gravity. Aiwass now leaps to the supreme stroke-Reason itself is a lie...It can never be sure of being right unless its knowledge is complete, which of course can never happen. There is always a factor infinite and unknown."

Aleister Crowley not only thought that the Book of the Law was transmitted to him by a higher intelligence but that the book's rediscovery in 1909, due to a series of synchronicities, was also engineered in advance by the same preternatural intelligence. However much Crowley was surrounded by these strange (supernatural?) events he never lost touch with his rational intellect. Crowley had a great thought that was a kind of answer to the high priests of rationalism who truly thought humanity and its scientists had almost discovered ever law of nature and would soon be able to explain the whole of existence-as if nature-the universe-were a watch, that upon opening up, one could explain everything by the movements of its cogs and gears: "There is a factor infinite and unknown." As Tobias Churton points out: "Niels Bohr would have agreed with him."

Bohr was one of the physicists of Crowley's era that truly understood how odd and counter-intutitive the discoveries of quantum mechanics really were.

I would like to go back to Gnostic Philosophy on page 337: The laws of the unconscious are not the laws of the conscious. Awareness of this made it easier for Crowley to embrace the Book of the Law. From 1909 onward, the "Cairo Revelation" would come to be both the yardstick of his entire teaching and the arbiter of psychological, spiritual and philosophical conflict. It should also be absolutely clear why Crowley declared himself to be the sole and final judge of its contents. Not only did he not want to be the center of theological conflict and disputed readings-as the Bible had become-but it was, in the profoundest possible sense, his work."

As Churton also points out: "Very few people want to listen to their "true will": the will of the god in the human being, of whom the personality is an expression...Aleister Crowley rebelled against his Angel almost as much as against his parents and his culture. It would take fifteen hard years before he became permanently identified with Aiwass, his own very Self: a Secret Chief, an Ipissimus-the highest grade of the Golden Dawn system."

In a 1925 letter to the head of the German Ordo Templi Orientis, Heinrich Tranker, Crowley explains his belief in the necessity of the Law of Thelema: "Those who came to me in 1904 E.V. [vulgar or Christian era] told me that they chose me for the Work in question on account not of my spiritual or magical attainments (which were and are small indeed) but for (a) my loyalty and steadiness. (b) my knowledge of compartive occultism, especially in my comprehension of the essential unity underlying sectarian differences. (c) my perception of the Great Work was as strictly scientific as Chemistry. (d) my command of language.

The urgency, they told me, was this. There was to be a general destruction of Civilization...We are on the threshold of the New Aeon. The death of the formula of Osiris is marked understandably to any student of the affairs of the planet, with the complete breaking-up not only of all the religions but of all the moral sanities. The result is constantly increasing anarchy feebly stemmed here and there by reactionary movements which are merely brutal, containing no firm elements because of the lack of any principle to which reasonable men can appeal."

This will probably be the last article here for 2009. I hope to be back with more next year! Once again I thank all of you for your wonderful, intelligent comments and I hope you all have a beautiful new year!

Gnosticism & The "Real" World Part 8

Once again going to Tobias Churton's Gnostic Philosophy: From Ancient Persia to Modern Times pages 331-332: "After a fruitless divination on March 23, he made the following notes in his "Book of Results": "There is one object to complete the secret of wisdom-or it is in the hieroglyphs [of the stele]. (perhaps or Thoth) GD [Golden Dawn] to be destroyed ie: publish its history & its papers. Nothing needs buying. I made it an absolute condition that I should obtain samhadhi, in the Gods' own interest. My rituals work out well, but I need the transliteration [of the stele]."

"Crowley had the assistant curator of the museum (M. Brugsch Bey) make a transliteration of the stele's inscription into French, which he then transposed into verse. According to Crowley's Confessions, Rose then told her husband to enter the room where the transliteration had been made every day at noon on April 8, 9, and 10 for one hour."

"It is interesting to note at this point that the "Book of Results" and the notebook containing the "Invocation of Hoor" contain notes revealing that a fortnight before Crowley entered the room, he was already thinking about turning the image of the stele into a ritual. He was also making inquiries about the nature and origin of the stele."

"In the Tarot divination of March 23, we find the words and symbols: Mars in Libra=the ritual is of sex; Mars in the house of Venus exciting the jealousy of Saturn or Vulcan. Crowley had been thinking deeply already about how to turn the Horus invocation and its message into a working magical system. He could not fail to see the image of Nuit bending over Hadit, witnessed by Horus, as a sexual image of magical potency. This is especially surprising, for it is usually held that Crowley took no serious interest in sexual magic until after 1913."

"The Invocation of Horus was the key event, proving for Crowley that he had come to the explicit attention of the Secret Chiefs and was thus empowered to create his own magical order."

"The next stage of what came to be called the "Cairo Working" introduced Crowley to someone he had been wanting to meet for some considerable time. Crowley entered the room at noon, as instructed, on the appointed days "to write down what I heard," for an hour each time."

"In these three hours were written the three chapters of the Book of the Law." "The interpretation of the Book of the Law taxed Crowley's mind for the rest of his life, and since he was its authoritative interpreter, it is presumptious for this author to attempt to do any more than examine what Crowley himself believed to be its meaning and import, and to attempt to clarify some of its contents for the interested reader, with due reference to Crowley's work on the subject."

I hope anyone stopping by has a beautiful Christmas and a wonderful and joyous 2010! Thanks again for the great comments!

William Keens: For Caroline

At day's end, swans

Like ciphers on a green page,

Light-shadow-light,

Swimming in tributaries of shade.

From a lifetime's distance.

This may seem small, pathetic-

the secret genetic

Code of wild mustard,

Paroxysms of dogwood in an overgrown glade.

In such fields we see

Only fields of possibility,

Room to breathe, the pure oxygen

Of love's early years.

Now we are here, arrived together,

Oblique as light

Over the swaying weedheads,

Deep into the deepening day.

"Stone" another poem by William Keens was put up here at MFM on 2 December. Many people told me how much they loved that poem-and I certainly did too. Mr. Keens is near to publishing a limited edition of 26 poems. "For Caroline" -which I also loved and think many will too is the first in the collection. Mr. Keens was kind enough to give us a preview here at MFM. I am looking forward to ordering the collection as soon as it comes out! I will let people who read this blog know as soon as it is published. Thanks again Willam Keens-and best of luck with your new collection-if "For Caroline" is representative of the poetry in it -I am sure it will be a huge success! I felt honored for you to stop by and comment and leave "For Caroline" for us to enjoy-all the best!

Gnosticism & The "Real" World Part 7

Here I would like to once again quote from Tobias Churton's Gnostic Philosophy on page 325: "...Crowley headed for Sri Lanka in the hope of annihilating the universe that was his troubled mind. From Colombo, he wrote to Kelly: "I have chucked all nonsense, except a faint lingering illusion that anything exists. This (with my breathing practice [pranayama] should go soon." Crowley, for a season, became something that perhaps had never been seen before: a combination of neo-Egyptian novice-hierophant and a Buddhist. The Buddhist asserted the illusion of the very world the Egyptians deified."

It seems that by the end of 1901 Crowley realized two very important things even if his realizations were in the embryonic form at that time. 1.) He would have some part to play on the stage of this new century. 2.) Crowley-like other interesting and learned people born during the decade before and including his own (1870s) also seemed aware that Western civilization was about to undergo what would be the first of several convulsions.

Here I would like to go to Gnostic Philosophy on pages 328-329 again-speaking of Crowley's letters to Gerald Kelly: "They also give a picture of a strange outsider hanging on to reality, with all the bravado in the world, by the skin of his teeth. Six months later, he wrote to Kelly a letter full of suppressed guilt feelings, unsure of himself, frustrated. He had just met Kelly's very beautiful, but, by the standards of the time, wayward sister, Rose-a woman whom he would marry (to her family's initial dissatisfaction) within the month, in a fit of youthful impetuosity-in order, he thought, to get her out of an unwanted liason: "I have been trying since I joined G.D. (Golden Dawn) in '98 steadily and well to repress my nature in all ways. I have suffered much, but I have won, and you know it...Did your sister want to hear the true history of my past life, she should have it in detail; not from prejudiced persons, but the cold drear stuff of lawyers. And English does not always fail me. If your worst wish came true, and we never met again, my remembrances of you, with or without beard would, as you say, be good enough to go on. But I am ambitious. I hope one day to convince you that I am not only a clever (the 4tos have "mentally deformed") man but a decent and good one. Why must 9/10ths of my life: the march to Buddhism, go for nothing; the atrophied 1/1,000,000 always spring up and choke me, and that in the house of my friends?...All luck, and the greatest place in the new generation of artists be yours. So say Aleister Crowley, always your friend whatever you may do or say. Vale! till your Ave!"

----Strange Angels----

All of the suppressed or repressed material in Crowley's psyche would burst forth in a supernova of a psychic experience during his honeymoon in Cairo with Rose in March to April of 1904. This amazing episode in the life of Aleister Crowley began when his pregnant wife told him "they" were waiting for him. In some of his later writings, Crowley treated this odd statement as if he didn't know what Rose was talking about. However, many people think he knew exactly who Rose was referring to when she said "they." Crowley had been trying to make contact with his Holy Guardian Angel, his Genius or Augoides since 1899 at the very least-perhaps earlier. He had felt it was imperative to achieve contact with this being or these beings or entities if they did indeed exist.

Rose had some more news for Crowley the day after the "they" are waiting announcement. She added that this meeting was "all Osiris" and "all about the child." Crowley then performed a ritual-an "invoking" to seek the powers of Thoth (Hermes)-the Egyptian god of magic, writing, science and the judgment of the dead. By performing this ritual, Crowley hoped to receive the wisdom, insight and understanding of Thoth. Rose-who was experiencing clairaudience the next day, revealed that a particular power was trying to communicate to her husband-that it represented "Horus, whom thou offended and ought to invoke."

In Gnostic Philosophy on page 330: "Crowley later thought that the power of "Horus the avenger" with his character of "Force & Fire" (very much like Blake's Orc, child of freedom and rebellion) was precisely what he had been trying to avoid or suppress. He associated it with the martian tendencies of Mathers, whom he had been obeying in an almost masochistic fashion-and this obeisance went against his true nature that years of Plymouth Brethren conditioning made him repress. Horus, of course, is the avenger of his father's murderer; Set the sun in the south: symbolically speaking, the dark and hidden aspect of the unconcious...That Saturday's (19 March 1904) invocation achieved, Crowley wrote "little success." But Sunday's invocation was a real mind-blower. It was revealed that the Equinox of the Gods had come, "Horus taking the throne of the East and all rituals being abrogated...I am to formulate a new link of an order with the solar force."

Aleister Crowley was determined not to be hoodwinked in any way and thought of some tests for Rose, that were to make absolutely certain that it was indeed the god Horus whom she was "speaking for." One of the trials that Crowley devised for Rose was ingenious for its simplicity. They would go to the nearby Boulak Museum and walk by the various inscriptions that depicted the god in his many aspects. He was wondering if this was another false path as Rose passed by one after another without comment. Then-out of the blue-Rose pointed down a corridor to a stele (she could not see the image depicted on it), and said, "There he is!"

Crowley was very interested and when he got to the stele he saw the funerary inscription of the priest Ankh-f-n-Khonsu. On the priest's left, enthroned, was Horus in his form called Ra Hoor Khuit-the solar aspect of Horus. The goddess Nuit (the Egyptian sky goddess) was arched over the scene, and below her the winged globe of the god Hadit. The catalogue number of the stele-666-astonished Crowley. This was a number for the sun and a number that held special importance for him as it also represented his opposition to the Christian era.

Once again, I am indebted to Tobias Churton's Gnostic Philosophy: From Ancient Persia to Modern Times-pages 325 to 331 for this information for this article. Thanks again for all of your thoughtful and intelligent comments! Peace and be well to anyone stopping by!

Gnosticism & The "Real" World Part 6

Allan Bennett, who had given up on Western magic, and was about to begin a life as a Buddhist bhikku (novice monk), suggested that Crowley was too interested in evoking demons. This point of view from a good friend appeared to have started a questioning process in Crowley's mind and he went to Mexico with his friend and fellow mountaineer Oscar Eckenstein to look over his priorities and sort his thoughts out about where he was heading in his career.

A red notebook contains information about Crowley's activities in Mexico from January to April 1901, aside from climbing mountains of that country in double-quick time. On the cover of the notebook, next to a sketch of the Monas Hieroglyphica of John Dee, are the words: "Feb 2. My 2 and 1/2 years work crowned with success. We will probably never know exactly what happened but it was most probably some sort of spiritual attainment.

Crowley left Mexico for San Francisco and from there he sailed to Japan stopping for Hawaii. There is a diary entry of his for 18 June 1901, that reveals a yearning for the simple (but also very demanding spiritually) life of a Buddhist monk. He seems to be wanting to withdraw from the greed, stupidity, absurdity and illusion of the world: "Shall I go to Kamakura and live a hermit's life in the Temple? A tarot reading advised against this -and also offered a bit of advice to which the meaning soon became obvious: "Be wise in avoiding quarrel if Alice be obsessed."

From Yokohama Crowley wrote to his friend, Gerald Kelly who was an aspiring painter: "You are a good boy and I am a good boy and I am right and you are right and everything is quite correct...Japan is a fraud of the basest sort...To change the key. This is the strictest of all confidence. I have had the greatest love-affair of my long and arduous career (arduous is good). Her name was Mary Beaton. Think of it! Absolutely the most beautiful woman I have ever seen, of the imperial type, yet as sweet and womanly as I ever knew. Moreover, a lady to her fingertips. I call her Alice in the poems you will read about her, as she preferred that name. She was travelling for her health in Hawaii where we met. We loved and loved chastely (She has a hub & kids-one boy with her) I made her come with me. On the boat we fell to fucking, of course, but-here's the miracle! we won through and fought our way back to chastity & far deeper truer love. Now she's gone & forgetten but her sweet and pure influence has saved my soul. (Heb: Nephesch). I lust no more-What never? Well- hardly ever!

"...I wish you'd buck up with occultism so that I didn't have to talk with all this damned reticence. I have done none myself lately-there's been love and poetry going on. Also my ideas are changing and fermenting. You will not recognise my mind when I get back."

In the years of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, one gets the feeling that Aleister Crowley was in the grip of some deep unresolved conflicts in his unconscious mind-these "issues" were struggling to make themselves known. The way this affected his actions in this timeframe is fascinating to look at. He had the soul of a lover, but seemed incapable of making a longstanding commitment. He was a poet-tried and true-his poetry received good reviews in the prewar press, but poetry was not where his destiny was either. He was the "98 pound-weakling" who turned his physical body into one that allowed him to become an accomplished mountaineer. In 1901, Crowley left for Sri Lanka.

Thanks to one and all of you for your beautiful thoughts and comments about the last few days-or about the posts on my blogs. I promise this bit with Aleister Crowley is going somewhere-sorry it is so slow-my back is hurting too much to not take a rather long break-or maybe even try to get back to this tomorrow. I would also like to do a post at my "history" blog today that just needs a bit of work in drafts to post.

Again I cannot tell you all what your friendship and support mean to me-and I will try to get to some friends who have updated today. I was so intrigued with this bit from Tobias Churton's Gnostic Philosophy: From Ancient Persia to Modern Times because it seems like the only "fair" treatment of Aleister Crowley I have ever seen written. Today's information in this post comes from pages 322 to 325 of that book. All the best!