Category Archives: Ontology

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Masonic Initiation Rituals and Mormon Temple Ceremonies


FINALLY!!!
I have been trying to explain this for decades (me also being an initiate of several lodges and other initiatory bodies + having recieved the LDS endowment once upon a time).

The few liknesses between (especially) The Royal Arch and the Nauvoo Endowment (LDS Temple Ritual) are smaller than many think and the history where Masonry and Mormonism meets often obscured.

Ps: No obligations are broken in the video to Freemasonry or Endowment and it is not meant as proselytatization. Purely academic comparison).

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Collecting Questions Or Answers?


rosalarian:

nerdaliztix:

What’s the point if a wrong answer blocks you from returning to the right question?

It is funny!

I think this is great, BUT, it seems to be meant as an argument for Atheism???

To me relying on empirism IS the old answers.

Perhaps not as old as many forms of Theism but definatly a lot older than many questions asked by several branches of Philosophy.

To me a cramp like hold, as if life depended on it, to ideas limited to very few Epistemologies and and the resulting Ontologies ARE the old answers.

The thinkers KEEP asking….Atheism is an answer, and one that at lest in my country has been documented at least a thousand years back (there are Atheists in the Norse Sagas).

Is there Divinity or no????

Is there a material universe?

Keep asking!

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Esoterisk Sexualitet


Martial och venusiansk sexualitet

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Artikel om sexualitet ur Esoterisk synvinkel av Frater Sincerus Renatus.
Imperator Av The Hermetic Order Of The Golden Dawn-Sverige:

 

 

 

Min kommentar:

 

Personligen anser jag nog att Igra ger uttryck för väldigt gammalmodiga föreställningar som i stort sätt gör sexualiteten heteronormativ. Alla uttryck för sexualitet bör stå i fortplantningens tjänst och allt därutöver är “perversioner”.
Min egen åsikt är nog snarare att det är just ett begränsande av sexuella uttryck som föder obalans (Gamaliel-Yesod blir obalanserad). Många moderna sexologer verkar snarast obekväma med begrepp som parafili eller perversion . När det gäller våldtäkt så ser jag det inte som en sexuell avikelse utan snarare som en obalans i Geburah (som ju faktiskt trots svärdet som symbol är centripetal och restriktiv), dvs en våldstendens/dominansönskan som tar sig “sexuellt” uttryck, vill man vara Freudiansk så skulle det snarast vara ett analt uttryck.

Den Stora Riten.

När det gäller sexuella läggningar (inklusive BDSM osv) och mindre normativa utövningar så är det på tok för komplext för att analyseras enbart med ett par Sephiroth och är ett helt mysterium i sig själv. Inom många sex magiska utövningar så används principer som skulle kunna kallas tex sado-masochistiska, homoerotiska,fetishistiska osv både historiskt och i modern utövning (och i Judiska Kabbalistiska traditioner så är ju oftast det esoteriska “könet” på en Sephira avhängigt av kontext även om den har ett “allmänt kön”).
Din egen slutanalys är intressant. Själv har jag dessutom ofta associerat “manlig” sexualitet med Tiphareth (centrifugal och egostyrd) och “kvinnlig” med Yesod (centripetal och idealstyrd).

Baphomet. Balanserandet och trancenderandet av alla motsatser.

 

Min personliga åsikt är att sexualiteten spelar en stor roll andligt, socialt, fysiskt och känslomässigt, konstnärligt, intellektuellt som går långt bortom (fysisk) fortplantning.

Dessutom så talas det ofta om Qliphoth i Esoteriska sammanhang i väldigt kvalitativa termer snarare än kvantitativa. Det var influx av Ohr (Aur) som spräckte Kelim, kort sagt inflöde av Gudomlig/kreativ kraft spräckte kärlen.

Två av något som balanserar ut varandra och inte generellt överflödar systemet är Sephirothiska.

En kvalitet som tar över och lämnar en obalans i systemet riskerar att bli Qliphothisk.

Detta är väl tämligen “basic” Kabbalah?

Att totalt ägna hela livet åt en enda Mitzvah skulle likt förbannat bli en obalans.

Mycket som i exoteriska sammanhang skulle anses “omoraliskt”, balanserat med sin motsats och i en “dos” lämplig för helheten leder till trancendence bortom båda dessa principer.

Babalon rider på Besten. En helt receptiv natur, med andlig avsikt färdas framåt på sin “djuriska” rent biologiska sida. “Love under will”. Binah/Neschamah använder Yesod och Malchut/Nephesh för att uttöka sin upplevelse, balansera motsatser och trancendera. Notera att Jesus red in i Jerusalem på en åsna (traditionellt associerad med Satan), ett envist djur använt som bärare av ryttare och egendom.

Jag känner massvis med bögar, transor, sadister, masochister, voyeourer och exibitionister av de mest varierande slag.

De enda “perversa” jag känner till är de som helt frånsäger sig hela principen eller förfalskar sin egen natur för att glädja en övernaturlig varelse.

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The Iluma, the Canaanite Pantheon – paganSquare


The Iluma, the Canaanite Pantheon – paganSquare.

Day 22 Rashu Yeni (month), Shanatu 84 (year)*
Many people aren’t as well acquainted with the Canaanite pantheon as with other pantheons. My guess is that this is because biblical lore and religions did a great job stamping out their polytheistic roots and succeeded better with Canaanite religion than for other ancient religions.
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Here am i, floating in a tin can… (Thelemic Banishing Meditation)


The Ritual:

There has been all kinds of speculations by the usual “experts” on the attributions of the Star Ruby pentagrams.

However, suffice to say that for this work i attributed them to the Parzufim thus:

Therion-Nukvah (Malchut)

Nuit- Zeir Anpin (Chesed,Geburah,Tiphareth,Netzach,Hod,Yesod)

Babalon-Imma (Binah)

Hadit-Abba (Chokmah)

Laying on my back ,relaxed,on my bed i performed the silencing gesture (Apo Pantos Kako Daimones) in the Godform of Hoor Paar Kraat (physical movement but astral/mental “sound), allready banishing any intruding ideas, thoughts, emotions,forms or what have you.

Letting the very ideas of the Partzufim “bleed” out of my forhead as i formed the pentagrams, very literally, “aright on my forehead”, only to let them hurl themselves into place as i mentally vibrated the names.

Therion at my feet.

Nuit at my left.

Babalon at my head.

Hadit at my right.

In every case astrally letting the Godform of Hoor Paar Kraat (me) make his sign and complete the circle.

Salvador Dali

Formulae:

I let every idea, thought,emotion,form, the whole universe, time and space, dissolve while (astrally) vibrating the mantra “Aumgn” thus drawing the whole to a point, creation, berashait, a Hoor Paar Kraat state.

Having done this as far as i dared/could i (mentally) intoned:

Lashtal

Thelema

Agape

Abrahadabra

Fiaof

Letting myself only consist of those formulas.

Performing the qabbalistic cross, adding those sephiroth.

Now, all there was in the universe was a being consisting of above formulae and sephirotic forces (all else would add itself automatically as the sephirotic way of completing the microverse and getting back to Tikkun).

Ending with “Io Pan” to create an influx and allow the Kav to revigorate.

Repeating sign of silence as i begun.

Salvador Dali:Crucifixion

Analysis:

This should probably not be done regularily.

This “floating” feeling can make one quite disoriented.

Even thinking about walking around with the hexagrams in front and back of you and the rest of it doesent help (or perhaps thats exactly what it is doing).

As a matter of fact i´m experiencing a rather “faint” feeling.

*It should be said that i just came out of food poisoning* [A stupid time to perform advanced mystical work , i know, bite me]

On the other hand, resisting change would nullify the whole work.

Dali: Crucifixion Scetch

The way the guardians are placed in a sence places Kether at the feet, while the cross places it at the head (thus corresponding quite nicely with the gemmatria of the words of the cross).

Banishing “everything” (oneself included) to the point of a form of Dhyana (only leaving enough “self” to realize one has left some “self”. Stopping short of hurling oneself into the abyss for which i´m not ready) only to reconstitutionalize oneself consisting only of the cross and the formulas (obviously, the sephiroth of the cross and the formulas will beget the missing ones, or rather,already have, since i have physical form. The invoked ones will however dominate) is also a bit disconcerting (no pun intended).

It should be said, though obvious, that one should not think of oneself as if lying on something, but as floating in emptyness during the ritual.

During the invokation of the guardians and the rest of the text in Greek i let my astral body slide up in the usual Tau angle and position in the circle only to return to “lying” directly after (by now there would be no “up” or “down” anyway. All is relative only to the circle.

Ritually, this is very simple. On the surface it is just a form of laying down Star Ruby meditation.

Mentally, it is difficult, and rewarding.

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Could Magicians Praying Have Over Sensetive Invocation Trigger Fingers?


Sounds like i´m kidding, i´m aware of that.

However it is something i have pondered as i am also religous and have a more “fit into everyday activities” spirituality.

Whats your problem dude?

Those who sing might have noticed how you sometimes just “silly sing” or hum and it sounds quite good for a guy with a toothbrush in his mouth.

One might think “Not bad for not using any technique” before realizing that one is actually using technique.

It has just gotten habit and is more in the back of the head (and very downplayed obviously).

Sometimes while and after praying i have experienced a feeling not unlike the one after an invication.

That feeling of being energized in a way that is not “general” but specific (i am a polytheist so we might even talk different Deities here giving it even more of a span). This feeling of “thickness” or charge in the air and the body.

Emotions running a bit wild, ideas running through the head (though less so than after an invocative ritual).

You know that feeling, when you know you need to banish. When it would be obvious to perform an LBRP if you where mid magical or Yogic practices.

Ofcourse ordinary exoteric religion doesent normally require any banishing type activity (when did you hear a praying Christian end with “Ok God, thanks, i will now purify the area from exess prayer mojo”).

Pondering

Could it be that someone who has practiced Ceremonial Magic…k…ue…for years, a few decades or so, might be so “used” to certain states, visualizasions and so on that practically anything that feels “spiritual” or “ritualistic” might trigger an internal “behaviour”. A number of effects accessing Yesod (or the supernals as Neschamah depending on if you internalize the Etz Chaii)?

If so that would mean that an LBRP might be a good idea even if all you have been doing is praying or being very devout in practices who normally wouldnt require it.

In my case i often have periods where either Ceremonial/Yogic/Alchemical work is done in a very concentrated way OR prayer/ devotion and sacrificial life is in focus.

I dont blend the Thelemic part and the Heathen part (in praxis).

Maybe this is part of what Crowley meant by it being impossible to leave magick once you entered (exept for the magickal vow part).

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Malaysian: Worldview of the Batek tribe


Malaysian: Worldview of the Batek tribe.

ScienceDaily (July 3, 2012) — How do individuals conceive their world and their place in it? In an attempt to identify the worldview of the Batek tribe, a team of researchers from the Academy of Language Studies at the Universiti Teknologi Mara (UiTM) embarked on a comprehensive study to document the characteristics and elements found in Batek folklore.

In an attempt to identify the worldview of the Batek tribe, a team of researchers from the Academy of Language Studies at the Universiti Teknologi Mara (UiTM) embarked on a comprehensive study to document the characteristics and elements found in Batek folklore. (Credit: ©UiTM)

 Exploring the relationship between superstitions, the supernatural world and culture, the team draw on oral literature, in particular the eighteen stories recounted by Tok Batin Mahad, the head of the Batek tribe in Taman Negara, Pahang, to produce this socio-cultural study.

The study provides an intriguing insight into the diverse elements found in Batek folklore. Twenty three elements including folk botany, traditional narratives, supernatural beings, sorcery and witchcraft, the physical world, the earth, the material world, animal folklore, fire, hypnotism and animal magnetism, the human body, life and death, folk medicine, traditional customs and ceremonies as well as folk sayings form the core of the stories.

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Contact: Science, Religion, Mystery, Myth And The Human Experience


After seeing “Contact” for the (at least) fourth time, i have once again to admit what deapht it has.

It possesses Mystery in the true sense of the word.

The movie is after Carl Sagans story and stars Jodie Foster as Dr Arroway.

Cooks, scientists and religous people

One interesting thing is how it is fully clear that you can  exchange the experiences of the characters with eachother.

Arroway is supposedly the one representing science at first (or on surface rather) as oppose to Father Joss (Matthew McConnaughey) representing faith but by the end of the movie, though officially  being a scientist and empiricist  she rather represents the Mystic (the one with direct experience) as oppose to Father Joss being the one with learning within a particular Theology.

The rather militairistic charachter by James Woods might seem like the champion of rationalism and empiricism but takes on a role just as much in tune with the inquisition.

Arroway even ends up in a trial, expected to prove her experience or at least explain it.

This seems to be the fate of those who believe in non official truths as well as those disbeliving in sanctioned ones through history.

In short, at first Arroway must defend herself against faith, “Do you consider yourself a spiritual person”, “We dont even know if they [the extraterrestials] belive in God” only to at the end have to defend herself against empiricism.

Symbolism and connections


I have sometimes, as an ancestor venerating Heathen, wondered about me asking the psychopomps of my ways to bring those that has gone before me to me what these people would say, considering that they must have been of different or no religions.

Will they wonder or cry out in outrage at Odin or Freya showing them the way to the shrine or do they percieve something else (like Archangel Gabriel or a relative) guiding them?

Before you say anything, i´m fully aware that the question is only relevant within a metaphysical and cosmological field connected to my myths and rituals. Whether there are any psychopomps or ancesteors at all doing anything is another question.

It still leads to religous, cultural and personal symbolism.

When Arroway finally end up in Lira (?) she does so in a place looking like Pensacola, met by her late and much missed father.

One might ask how much of our experience, not only religous, mystical or emotional but even “empirical” that is actually a form of myth, saturated with symbolism.

Near death experiences often have dead relatives greeting and leading the person.

Religous symbolism is usually at least somewhat connected to culture.

Our culture detirmines a lot of how we percieve our “everyday and ordinary” world and interactions in it.

If a more intense experience takes on a “look” of familiarity to make itself accessable (whether a deliberate act of its own or an effect of us being us) i am not at all surprised.

The circle

That all of the experience seems to take place in the vessel of Arroways transportation makes it very much a symbol of the cirle that a ceremonial magician can relate to.

The whole thing is a bit “holodeck”, with the landscape being much bigger than the locale in wich it is experienced.

I guess in a way it is just as symbolic of the temple, sweat lodge, synagogue, mosque or any other place wich in itself is very finite but has an infinate experience within it.

Fittingly the vessel is spherical (magical circle) with circles around it making it look like an atom (a symbol of the Atheists) thus in a sense placing Arroway in the center of both myth and science.

Relative or absolute…and does it matter?


The question is not wether Arroway had a mystical experience (she cant prove or share it with anyone) or a physical one (the vessel and whole operation being based on science) or even wether reality is a relative or absolute experience.

The story is about the awe of existence and how we relate to it differently depending on place in life…but at the same time depending on time, personal experience (in a sense mystery and initiation) and view point how the people are exchangeable and thus relative.

That is, some reactions might be more human than connected to what we react to (in a sense the creationists are the heretics of today).

Not only is myth often based on history, history is often based on myth as well.

That is, all being questioned and a true skeptic questioning even empiricism and skepticism itself, life becomes less absolute.

If we knew truth, why would we have to search for it?

Can we search for truth if we do not know what it is?

The humbling answer must be that relative or absolute, absolute knowledge will always be relative.

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Tips for magicians


These tips are mainly aimed a ceremonial magicians since many other traditions allready fulfill a lot of it through their make up, or it doesent apply to them for some other reason (ontolgy, cosmology for instance).

I have found that “going back to basics” is sometimes important and that a lot of esoteric secret hide so well in plain sight that you smack your forehead when you get an “a-ha moment”.

These tips are ,however, most beneficial when doing thaumaturgic work, that is attempting to make a difference in the material world.

More strictly theurgic work, “only” affecting energetic and spiritual parts of the magician can often work just fine even if done in a purely astral circle with purely astral symbols (visualized letters, godforms, pentagrams and so on) with only the voice, movements and body of the magician having manifest form beyond Yesod.

  • Be specific. Names are formulas. Visualizing something or someone is formulaic but regardless of how you twist it, saying “that cute girl at Wall-Mart” is NOT the same thing as saying “Jenny O´Brien at Wall-Mart” and maybe even describing her. The same goes for brand names, company names and so on. It is very easy to try to increase the power of a ritual until you almost explode instead of simply making the ritual “clearer”. Describing you relationship and maybe history to whatever you try to affect also helps.
  • Sequencing can be helpful. Describing your path as it lead up to the ritual in question (as it applies to that actual ritual, not necessarily your whole life history). This CAN include titles, magical degrees and earlier rituals, but also more “mundane” parts of life, thus making the ritual the next logical step in a series of steps leading up to what´s aimed at.
  • Sequencing can also be a part of the formula of the ritual. LVX and L.V.X are not the same thing. That is one can invoke the elements as separate parts of the ritual, putting the verbal invocation so that what is called works in concert, but each part “doing its own thing”. OR one could put the invocations in a way so that it tells a story, invocing one element (or whatever the case may be) describing certain things in the invocation and then the next element describing events or operations following on the first. In other words, a circle where (for instance)”L” works with “V” and “X” in the circle, all in balance and for the same goal but as “individual” powers, all contributing. OR as “L” leading up to “V” and getting finalized in “X”. In one examples the powers are like three guys in a room working together, in the other the powers are like a story beginning with one followed by a second and ending with the final one, relaying the operation from one step to another. Imagine the difference in constructing a pentagram ritual where the elements are placed in their classical positions vs one constructed so that it follows a formula like the name ADNI (Adonai), starting with Aleph and invoking/banishing the same things in a chronological order to Yod.
  • The easiest way to affect someone/something that is geographically separated from you is via a link. The strongest link is not only the names, visualizations, talismans “Voodoo doll” parts of ritual but actually transporting a physical, mental, verbal or other (as it suits the work) link to the goal aimed at.In African and Afro/Caribbean magic the placing of talismans, potions and more or less astral “land mines” for the intended person to step over (no one else is affected since they are not implied in the ritual/on the talisman) is common. To create a link one has to create a talisman, this can be almost anything (even a somewhat formulaic phonecall or letter ) charged for the intention and that will get in physical, mental, emotional (or what the case may be) contact with the person or situation. The best link, ofcourse, being yourself, since you are a sentient, active being that can adapt to circumstances as they arise (besides, trying to make someone “fall for you” is in my view less morally defencible than simply making yourself one sexy mf ).
  • Make the ritual manifest. It is like above. If like attracts like it goes to reason that a ritual with material components will produce more material results (again, the supreme talisman or material agent is yourself). Create a talisman or use robes, implements and other physical ingredients in the ritual if physical change is aimed at ( i will write on talisman making/charging later). There is one thing of the ritual regardless of anything else that is manifest in Malkuth (the physical world) and that CAN manifest in Malkuth, YOU. Work WITH the ritual, not against it. Sitting on your ass will not produce the same or even similar results as actually doing something to realize the ritual. Again, like attracts like. If you made a ritual to become a great tennis player, practice tennis, THAT is in fact the completion of the ritual, NOT the closing of the temple and banishing. As with any other component of the work, be in concert with the powers invoked. If you made a ritual to be attractive, put on your best clothes, some perfume and attitude. If you made a ritual to get a job, apply for one (or several). You might say “but why make a ritual if i still have to do it all myself?”. Answer: Many religions and spiritual paths have a statement akin to “God helps those who help themselves”. To think otherwise would be to think that Divine powers are your servants. ALL you do is magic, or as it is so nicely put in a book i have (by Lon Milo Duquette ) “Dont make magick you life if you dont make your life magick”. First of all, the ritual might actually be the hardest work you put in. Second, the way you lead your life is an extention of your rituals (or should be), or rather part of their completion.
  • Vows. Magical vows are binding. You will have no chioce but to fulfill them (or face the consequences). This is one reason for why becoming a member of a  magical order, coven or similar group of an initiatory nature should be taken seriously. Oaths in an order are usually general and last forever, that is they are permanent in nature and one vow can not nullify another, only add to it. However, in magical work one can take temporal vows, only lasting to a certain date or in a certain situation (For example “O mighty Adonai, o Hephaistos, i swear to devote at least five hours of job searching every monday until i´m hired in some position within this industry” or “Ra Hoor Khuit, i vow to perform an adoration when the sun is at the horizon every day until this date” vs “I swear to henceforth…” or “I vow to devote my life to” ). Note however that even these oaths, though not everlasting are just as dire. Dont promise what you cant keep. Be reasonable. You will find great strength and discipline in them and might experience that the powers invoked help you as long as you make an effort, but also put in ordeals and trials of your resolve (that are reasonable, tough and rewarding) in it.