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- Jun 13, 2025
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I take the opinion of shelteringskye, and find it to be well grounded. Indeed, seasoned practitioners involved in, say, ceremonial/Solomonic magic would be hard pressed if they didn’t have a belief system that worked within the context of the work they are doing. What one believes in is very important. All to often it seems that a great many “practitioners” hold to the pseudo-atheist position because such a position has to do with the subjectification (Foucault) of the ways in which their being has come to them. Occultists, writ large (I mean contemporary ones) very often (not always) come to it through a “rebellion” stream or an anti-nominal counter public attitude (screw the status quo, I reject liberal late capitalism, Nietzsche is my man, will to power, do what thou will’t … etc) . This is fine and well, but that inner conditioning of subjectivity does not mean in any way that the person is an agential subject - autonomy is a complex beast … are your thoughts yours? Do you like the music you like because you like it truly, or is it habit a d simple nostalgia for when you chose to listen to it to fit in with the other punk rockers, or Manson fans, or rave-parking lot kids. What I mean is this: I don’t think those who claim athiesm (certainly atheist-materialist types) have thought long enough about what belief actually means … I think often the very idea is rejected and the rejection becomes a point of self-pride about what one has chosen (chosen?) to reject about the power structures in the world .
The West is Christian in its entrenched ideology — it’s how it is. The very fact that we get irritated by another’s prideful boasts, or that we have a dislike for those who love money and flaunt it, (we can reject this too, but it’s there in our subject-forming-throwness in the world ). It’s often why other cultures get accused of being petty, or that wealth and status drives their lives… your dislike of it should show you this truth — that should you be of a traditional Confucian /Taoist lineage, well, wealth and honour become a moral good because they literally please the gods and show heavens favour upon you. Belief and structure matter .
So, when we speak of the “Christian God” of the Abrahamic faith are we talking about the petty jealous God that says worship only me? Sacrifice to me only? Yes and no — yes, that’s how it appears in the Hebrew Bible , through the words and hands of those folk thousands of years ago … did God write the scripture ? … exactly .
But this is of little consequence . A few things one ought to contemplate before standing too firmly behind the atheist/materialist flag which we probably took up when we were an ill informed and impressionable youngster.
1: are you willing to be a person that “believes” that the tens of thousands of years the human race DID believe in God, or gods, or the spiritual, they were all just bloody idiots and deluded themselves? That we finally woke up a few hundred years ago and all before was rubish? Praise you oh Locke, oh Hume !! Did elite mobility and aristocrats spend hoards of wealth on these grimoires because they … were fun? Cool looking? But ultimately was just a mental game of self ego lifting theatre? John Dee sold the Sumna Sacre Magice for a carriage and horses to drive it — yea that’s right , a god damn car ! And it was a deal because Dee was desperate — And it was a nice car … 4 live hotness? C’mon, that’s an Audi Q 7 my lad .
2: consider the insane number of academically studied accounts of near death experiences… the reporting on what was seen, felt, how they saw things and knew things that absolutely couldn’t have been known while dead on the operating table for two hours . All of them: liars and fools or the deluded.
3: and I suppose if one had written of the Catholic Church and all Catholics (rebel ! Us against them !!!! No future XXX) this wouldn’t be too off handedly hard to deny outright, but : what about exorcism and possession?
every single priest exorcist is just lying to your face for… fear? To scare people to go to church (think it if you want but that’s childish) . I asked two friends I know who are priests one Catholic, one Anglican : “are priests allowed to lie if that lie serves the bigger scheme of leading those they lied to towards a chance at salvation? Scaring them to go to church? … they both unequivocally answered no : bearing false witness is a hands down breaking of commandment- capital S sin, making baby Jesus cry sort of thing / but maybe they too are just lying to my face. False friends ! They must be living cause it doesn’t fit with my rejection of shit I don’t understand !
but even if one exorcist is telling the truth … and one of these forces/personslities/ demons is real , that speaks freakin Latin or some other forgotten tongue back to you, laughs and sneers at you with knowledge they could not possibly have known… hurls three grown men across the room (sure, adrenaline and cortisol — super strength it gives when the schizo state manifests… or maybe they put on the right archetype mental cloak ). well, one should be quite genuinely curious as to what the heck is really going on here. Yes maybe it’s an unconscious Jungian archetype … okay… you a Jung expert? Or just read his seven sermons to the dead and think he’s a cool off-kilter occult psychologist — fits in with your “left hand leather wearing persona” — jacket cost a good 400 bucks — real bobcat , for that “lion skin belt” chic ! Yay Abraxas !! Sure, believe in that instead .
what I mean is that those who practice magic from systems that demand adherence to a theology of the world, should do well to understand why the magic works. Invoke the Tetragrammaton names of God, and they seem to hold this thing I’ve summoned… why? Chance? Word sounds neat? Maybe it’s my porn watching, rock music listening , fuck-the-man consciousness that’s the real power? … the whole of the law baby — we’re all stars !!! Hadn’t yea heard?
hmmm… okay
So you believe and have faith, this magic seems to require a real prayer and admission before “Adonai” and combines the Malakoth … you better be darn sure what you are doing is for a worthy cause, for calling down the archangels through the star ruby or lesser banishing ritual to cleanse a room for you? it better not be because you think wearing an Egyptian cosplay outfit feels cool and a bit creepy and wild, or “sexy” (spare us ) and you want to “dive” into a chakra colour and go astral walking . Is it the archangels who showed up for you? You ain’t saving lives in the name of the White, that’s for sure . But I’m sure they weren’t busy— “just be chillen, bro” waiting for a neophyte to call on them for a little back alley banishing .
or you choose not to believe (I guess it’s your choice … you really really made an effort to weigh the data and experiences of the world , and for all of it, you still ratherrock out with “God is Dead” and the promethean saga is just to cool— and the ritual works ! That asshome got sick just as I intended ! ) and that it’s all you , your mind, your consciousness, and so why not take the stand that Vandheer said above… whatever works baby— :
“What spirits are called upon in the rite doesn't matter. It doesn't matter if they didn't exist. As long as I get what I need what do I care.”
sure— no belief no consequences. You die and that’s it. Nothingness… no hell, no bardo state (what do the kids get told to say in their music these days? YOLO was it? Yea, you only live once… and it’s very likely forever) it’s just like the John Lennon song :
imagine there’s no heaven -/ it’s easy if you try — no hell below us —- above us only sky—- imagine all the people— living for today —-
great melody (replace that tune with a death metal rip, and scream the same the lyrics ) — boy, is that really what I believe, or should everyone just like John Lennon because … you know.., he was in to acid, and life and freedom : our side !
So don’t believe — we’re responsible for everything, and there are no rules or consequences except a tear here and there from others affected — no Kantian categorical imperative , nothing to ground ethics in divine consequence . Let’s add a “k” to that word magic and forget all about the prayers at the beginning of the black book — it’s just me talking to my mind and I’m not so vain as to need a prayer for “me” . I’m vesting into my Mars archetype astral mental clothing … and don’t it feel grand ! “Light bearer grand” !
Or do you believe ? —- then you better be darn sure you ain’t just cosplaying baby -doll.
I spent decades in the Saturn brotherhood and my dear dark Grandaddy Gregorius was telling a fib. (I’ve posted at length about the need to understand a teleology as it relates to “what it is you are doing, and why”
—- what a conversation: so happy to converse with you fine anti-nominal folken
(I’ll forgo all the 93 nonsense and just say good day)
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