It’s all too easy to chastise oneself for not making enough blocks of time to devote to writing when writing is your passion.
Aside from work and a fulfilling family life, I find myself heavily involved in social media lately. While I dislike the way that social media has forced its way in to our daily lives the way that it has, the amount of time I’ve spent communicating with others in settings like Reddit and Facebook has given me some perspective. I would be disingenuous if I continued to chastise myself given the large amount of writing I do explaining Satanic philosophy or occult concepts on Reddit or discussing politics on Facebook. The truth is that I’ve been writing quite a bit and not giving myself any credit for it.
The Church of Satan published a short essay I wrote for Religious Freedom Day back on the 16th of January.
One of my current writing projects is an occult book that I am tentatively calling Liber QQQ as a working title. This book is probably years away from publication, because I’m writing it in a different manner than any occult book I’ve seen to date. This is intended to be a scholarly piece, using APA citations throughout as well as The Scientific Method and a magical journal in the format proposed by Phil Hine in Condensed Chaos [Hine, 1995]:
- What was done
- Duration
- Where it was done
- Any pertinent weather, moon phase, or astrological conjunctions (if deemed relevant)
- How you felt it went
- Any ideas arising from it
- Any other comments
The intent of this book is to cover a history of eastern and western esotericism, how those histories have evolved over the years in to the secret societies of today (e.g. O.T.O., IOT, A∴A∴), and give the reader a foundation to stand on to begin understanding magic and its application to our subjective and objective universe(s).
Below is a small unedited section concerning definitions of magic as well as the right-hand path and left-hand path. I will include citations and a bibliography for this section:
Anton Szandor LaVey defines magic as, “The change in situations or events in accordance with one’s will, which would, using normally accepted methods, be unchangeable.” [LaVey, 1969] Phil Hine goes on to say that, “Magic is a set of techniques for rousing a neurological storm in the brain which brings about microscopic fluctuations in the Universe, which lead to macroscopic changes – in accordance with the magician’s intent.” Hine goes on to explain that magic power is, “the ability to achieve intended effect within the constraints of a given situation.” [Hine, 1995] Dr. Stephen Flowers defines magic as, “A methodology by which the configuration of the subjective or objective universe is altered through an act of will originating within the psyche, or the core of the individual subjective universe.” [Flowers, 2012] Aleister Crowley has stated, and Peter Carroll agrees in Liber MMM that, “Magic(k) is the Science and Art of causing Change to occur in conformity with Will.” [Carroll, 1987] Dr. Flowers goes on to explain that a more scholarly definition of magic would be that magic, “is the willed application of symbolic methods to cause or prevent changes in the universe by means of symbolic acts of communication with paranormal factors. These factors could be inside or outside the subjective universe of the operator. Magic is a way to make things happen that ordinarily would not happen.” [Flowers, 2012]
“The right-hand path is the path of union with universal reality (God or Nature). When this union is completed the individual self will be annihilated; the individual will become one with the divine or natural cosmic order. In this state the ego is destroyed as “heaven” is entered or nirvana-like existence/nonexistence is “attained.” This is clearly the goal of all orthodox Judaic, Christian, Islamic, or Buddhistic sects.” [Flowers, 2012]
“The left-hand path considers the position of humanity as it is; it takes into account the manifest and deep-seated desire of each human being to be a free, empowered, independent actor within his or her world. The pleasure and pain made possible by independent existence are seen as something to be embraced and as the most reasonable signs of the highest, most noble destiny possible for humans to attain—a kind of independent existence on a level usually thought of as divine.” [Flowers, 2012]
“Essentially, the left-hand path is the path of nonunion with the objective universe. It is the way of isolating consciousness within the subjective universe and, in a state of self-imposed psychic solitude, refining the soul or psyche to ever more perfect levels. The objective universe is then made to harmonize itself with the will of the individual psyche instead of the other way around. Where the right-hand path is the theocentric (or certainly alleocentric: “other-centered”), the left-hand path is psychecentric, or soul/self-centered. Those within the left-hand path may argue over the nature of this self/ego/soul, but the idea that the individual is the epicenter of the path itself seems undisputed. An eternal separation of the individual intelligence from the objective universe is sought in the left-hand path. This amounts to an immortality of the independent self-conciousness moving within the objective universe and interacting with it at will.” [Flowers, 2012]
What all of this means is that the right-hand path seeks to harmonize itself with God or the universe whereas the left-hand path seeks to harmonize the universe with its will.
References:
Carroll, P.J. (1987) Liber Null & Psychonaut. San Francisco, CA: Weiser Books.
Flowers, S. (2012) Lords of the Left-Hand Path: Forbidden Practices & Spiritual Heresies. Rochester, VT: Inner Traditions.
Hine, P. (1995) Condensed Chaos. Tempe, AZ: The Original Falcon Press.
LaVey, A.S. (1969) The Satanic Bible. New York, NY: Avon Books.
Corna & Quill 