A Little Chaos – Magick

What is chaos magick?

Red hand, photo by fathomfive

“Nothing is true; everything is permitted.”
– Hassan I Sabbah

“I tell you: one must have chaos in one, to give birth to a dancing star. I tell you: you still have chaos in you.”
– Nietzsche, Thus Spoke Zarathustra

“…if you want a one-line definition with which most Chaoists would probably not disagree, then I offer the following. Chaoists usually accept the meta-belief that belief is a tool for achieving effects; it is not an end in itself.”
– Peter Carroll, January, 1992

“Chaos is not in itself, a system or philosophy. It is rather an attitude that one applies to one’s magic and philosophy. It is the basis for all magic, as it is the primal creative force. A Chaos Magician learns a variety of magical techniques, usually as many as s/he can gain access to, but sees beyond the systems and dogmas to the physics behind the magical force and uses whatever methods are appealing to him/herself.”
– Mark Chao, “Defining Chaos

“The Chaos Magician seeks to understand the natural laws behind the workings of magic, and the reasons behind the use of ritual in the performance of a magical working.”
– Jaq D. Hawkins, Understanding Chaos Magic1

“Chaos Magick is an extraordinary deconstruction of magick, semantics, and psychology designed to eradicate consensual belief structures and, using the energy freed by this act, glimpse the fractal contours of reality.”
– Marik

“Chaos Magick is in essence shamanism devoid of culture.”
– The Heretic Heathen, on alt.magick.chaos

“Chaos can be beautiful and good. Order can be dangerous and evil. As any carpenter will tell you, some tools are dangerous. Dangerous tools are safest when properly sharpened, and used by experts. You get to be an expert by practicing your sharpening skills, not by hacking away…”
– alt.magick.chaos FAQ V 1.00

“There’s basically two kinds of magick. There’s puff’s magick, and git ‘ard Magick. Chaos is git ‘ard Magick.”
– Mick McMagus, Leeds, 1987

“Rather than trying to recover and maintain a tradition that links back to the past (and former glories), Chaos Magick is an approach that enables the individual to use anything that s/he thinks is suitable as a temporary belief or symbol system. What matters is the results you get, not the ‘authenticity’ of the system used. So Chaos Magic then, is not a system – it utilises systems and encourages adherents to devise their own, giving magic a truly Postmodernist flavour.”
– Phil Hine, Condensed Chaos2

“Much of what passes for magical theory is, at root, a matter of belief. As such, it is more relevant to the successful outcome of the magician’s spell that he has some degree of belief in what he is doing. Moreover, whereas scientific theories are based (at least so we are told by scientists) on mathematical proofs, magical theories are rooted in personal beliefs of whoever is expounding them. Where as scientific theories at least have the appearance of being unified and consistent, magical theories do not, nor is it a requirement, from the position of practical magic, that they do.

“Henceforth, whilst there are a great many theories and models proposed as to how, or why, magic works (based on subtle energies, animal magnetism, psychological concepts, quantum theory, mathematics or the so-called anthropomorphic principle) it is not a case that one of them is more ‘true’ than others, but a case of which theory or model you choose to believe in, or which theory you find most attractive. Indeed, from a Chaos Magic perspective, you can selectively believe that a particular theory or model of magical action is true only for the duration of a particular ritual or phase of work.”
– Phil Hine, Prime Chaos 3

“Chaos comes before all principles of order & entropy, it’s neither a god nor a maggot, its idiotic desires encompass & define every possible choreography, all meaningless aethers & phlogistons, its masks are crystallizations of its own facenessness, like clouds…Chaos never died.”
– Hakim Bey, “Chaos” in T.A.Z.4

“Chaos Magic is about actualising the will in the real world, rather than attaining ever more colourful dreams in imaginary higher states.”
– Steve Wilson, Chaos Ritual

“Chaos Magick does not use a concrete theoretical focus, the emphasis in Chaos Magick is on the Doing rather than the Explaining…Thus, in Chaos Magick a system of belief is a means to an end and is not an answer to the mystery of Life, the Universe and everything.”
– D. J. Lawrence, The Chaos Cookbook

“…I think the magician is sort of adversarial by nature. Brash and arrogant at the least, to acknowledge that there is a pattern and to also say “I can do better”.”
– Fra. Samuel 23, of ChaosCurrent.com

“…Chaos magick should be all about ‘getting out there and doing it’. Sometimes it is also all about thinking about how to do it, and thus creatively inventing marvellous and sometimes scary new ways of how to do it. And then damn well doing it!”
– Francis Breakspear, Kaostar!5

Image credit: fathomfive

from:    https://www.spiralnature.com/magick/what-is-chaos-magick/

Sigils & Effects

Sigil magick: Down and dirty

Strange sigil, photo by Alexander SynapticOne of the simplest forms of magick to do is sigil magick. Sigils can be found throughout the magick world, and are often used for quick works; however, they can also be employed for long lasting work and protection. They are very easy to learn, making them approachable, but make no mistake, mastering this skill, like anything else in magick, takes time.

Many people make the mistake of thinking that these are simple magicks because they are relatively easy to learn, and do once you have the system of creation down. Although there are various systems, which this piece will go over, they all, more or less, follow the same rules. Due to this ease, people often thoughtlessly practice this type of work which leads to easy mistakes and unexpected consequences.

When working with sigils, it’s not just how to do it, it’s also why and when. Understanding when sigils are best put to use and what circumstances they help most with will help practitioners grow their practice. Though these are simple to use, they’re not meant to be just thrown around whenever.

A short history and what sigils are and are not

Sigils are glyphs created from letters of the alphabet either by using the letters directly or by changing them over to numbers to build patterns. There are done by hand in many cases, but there are multiple websites and apps to help people create sigils quickly and efficiently. That being said, the creation is only half of the process for working with them. The second half is destruction.

The use of sigils was first noticeably pioneered by Austin Osman Spare. He was an artist and was heavily involved with the occult scene during the early part of the 20th century, along  with Aleister Crowley. The two eventually had a falling out, but Spare is responsible for influencing what we know of today as chaos magick. His original work was refined in the later part of the century to be more palatable and easy to work with.

Spare had grand ideas for sigil work, some of which would combine the physical body with the alphabet to make new symbols and form a stronger connection with the work, but this never really caught on. This has left us with the very basics of sigil use, our alphabet and for the most part, paper.

Although Spare in considered the “father” of sigil work, and sigil work is still an important practice in chaos magick, many different types of practitioners use this technique. It crops up in modern hoodoo studies, Wicca, and shamanic paths. It’s relationship with chaos magick is undisputed, but it has been adopted by other schools of magick as well.

Sigils are not the same as veves or charms. They aren’t symbols that are placed on other things for protection or to call back to a deity. They aren’t alchemical, they don’t speak to the elements. They are unique structures created to fulfill a certain intent. They are for one-time use, for the most part.

There are have been a few sites and people who have put out sigils for use against massive issues. Some websites have premade sigils that anyone is free to copy and use. There’s nothing wrong with this, as long as the intent that the user wishes is the same as what the sigil as created for, it’s fine.

Sigils cannot be used for issues outside of what they were created for. If your intent when you created the sigil is to find a new job, you can’t then use the same sigil for finding a new apartment. This is because they are created with specific words and phrases and are simply not interchangeable.

Although they can be general, such as a broad sigil for protection, they work well when they are more specific. The act of outlining your intent is part of the ritual of creating them. This is the one issue with premade sigils, they don’t hold much of your own intent. Now with a good foundation in what these are and aren’t, we’ll move on to how to create them.

Making your own sigil in just a few steps

Before we dive in, it’s important to note that this is easier to do on paper than it is online unless you are using a generator program.

Step 1: Identify and set your intent

This literally means sitting down and laying out what you’re attempting to accomplish with this work. Do you want a new job? A romantic partner? A chance to meet someone famous? To get over a cold? Whatever it is you are trying to do, this is where you identify that exact need.

It is also where you decide if this is really the best work for this desire. There’s a time and a season for everything, and although sigil magick can be used for anything, it’s not the greatest for all situations. This is a really subjective practice and there are no hard and fast rules.

The only advice here is to really think about what you are asking for, and if some other practice would not be better suited for getting the results that you want or need. You can, if you want, use sigils for everything, but this isn’t responsible, and likely won’t give you the results you want.

Things to consider: can my petition be boiled down to one concrete sentence? If not, then sigil work is probably not the best work. Am I open to a variety of outcomes that satisfy my original request? If you are not ok with this, then sigil work may be too broad for your needs. Do I know what I really want? If the answer is no, then sigil work is not a good move for you.

Your intent, or petition as I call them, should be written in a clear decisive sentence. “I want a new job,” is fine but “I want a new job in my field that does not require relocation,” is better. The first sentence can find you having to move across the country, or being flooded with offers that you are not interested in. The second sentence gives the magick parameters to work within. There are still ways we could make this petition better, such as by mentioning things like a pay rate or benefits, but for the purposes of this example, this is fine.

Step 2: Reduce your intent

The first step is to remove all the vowels. This turns “I want a new job in my field that does not require relocation” into “wntnwjbnmfldthtdsntrqrrlctn” which is very unwieldy. A note on the letter “y”, it is removed as vowel when it is acting as a vowel, as in the word “my,” but otherwise would be a consonant.

This is further reduced by removing the repeat letters. Some people don’t do this step, but I think in longer petitions this is needed. “wntnwjbnmfldthtdsntrqrrlctn” becomes “wntjbnfldhsgrlc.” This string of letters is much easier to work with.

Step 3: Draw your sigil

There are a few ways to do this. I will lay them out. The first is perhaps the easiest (and most fun). In the most popular form, you take the letters of the petition and create an image from them. The letters connect and overlap, and the results are often quite attractive and artistic. This process takes more time as they must be laid out intentionally, so that the result seems natural. You don’t just write them on top of one of another.

The second, faster option is to use a grid. This is where we see some overlap between sigils and magick squares. In order to use this method, you must reduce your intent once more into numbers. If you are only transferring their place in the alphabet, you can use a square that has 26 jumbled numbers such as the Square of Mars, or you can reduce them all down to numbers 1-9. The second suggestion is most common, but many people use magick squares as basis for their sigil creation. This goes a bit beyond the basics, so we’re going to leave that concept alone. It is enough to say that, although sigils and magick squares do at times overlap, they are two distinct types of work that exist independently of each other.

It’s very easy to draw with this system. Start at your first letter and just draw lines to the next letters, like connect the dots. The image that is created by the connecting and overlapping lines is your sigil.

Step 4: Charging

How you charge your sigil really depends on what sort of magick your practice. For people who are eclectic, charging is generally a small act of mediation. Some groups let the finish sigil sit on their altar for a few days. Others carry it around so that the energy can be drawn.

Some people skip this completely. Even though I’ve listed this as a step, it’s optional and not everyone does it. I like to have a connection with my work, but not everyone feels like this process makes it any stronger. Whether you do so is up to you. For some the act of creating the sigil is enough.

Step 5: Destruction or activation

Sigils are made to be destroyed. That act of destroying it is what activates it. The most common practice is to burn it. This is part of why paper is recommended, because it burns easily. It can also be ripped very easily, in case you can’t burn it. You can even scribble over it completely, which destroys it.

This is also the part that makes online generators a less favourable option. I recommend using them to speed up the first few steps, but copying the sigil onto paper so that it can be destroyed. If that is not possible, save a picture, a screenshot, and delete it or take it into Paint or similar program, and destroy it by colouring, erasing or cutting chunks of it out.

Step 6: Profit

Well, not really, unless your sigil was about money. As with any work, you must let the universe do its work. It may take time for your sigil to manifest, but give it that time.

This is a basic guide for creating and using sigil magick. You can do many things with it, and it’s best to experiment to find your own style and voice with it.

Image credit: Alexander Synaptic

from:    https://www.spiralnature.com/magick/sigil-magick-down-and-dirty/

Magic, Physics, & The Sacred


‘Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic’ —Arthur C. Clarke

‘What the universe becomes depends on you’ —Henryk Skolimowski

 Magic may not be what we think it is. In fact, it may be very much more. It may in fact be everything, and everything that is not magic simply is not. In other words, life itself is magic. Not only the miraculous nature of life itself (which is what it is when we come to think about it), but also the very process/act of life creation is itself a form of magic. We live in a world of magic today; without magic there would be nothing. So let’s be clear, I’m not talking about white doves flying out of long sleeves, rabbits jumping out of top hats, or sleight of hand card tricks. This is conjuring (or ‘party tricks’) and is as far away from genuine magic as a tasty meal is from the written menu. Rather, true magic is about the animation and power of the human soul. The ancient Egyptians knew this well.

For the ancient Egyptians magic was not so much seen as a series of human practices or rituals but rather as the essential energy that pervades the cosmos. It was an underlying pervasive energy that humans could access, activate, and potentially direct. The Egyptians understood this magic to be in the form of a god, named Heka, which represented the primal cosmic energy that permeated all levels of existence. It was an energy that animated the bodies of gods and humans, as well as the plants and the stones. Everything was thus instilled with this ‘magic,’ which was a spiritual energizing power. It was through Heka that things of the material plane could participate upon the spiritual. The spiritualizing force was also the conscious, animating energy. Heka – magic – also referred to the activation of a person’s soul. The Egyptians believed that one of the functions of magic was to activate the soul within the human body. As Jeremy Naydler notes,

The ancient Egyptians understood that to become enlightened one must become aware of that which is cosmic in one’s own nature. One must realize that there is something deep within human nature that is essentially not of this earth, but is a cosmic principle.1

This cosmic principle in one’s own nature was magic, or the underlying animating energy of the cosmos. In those times there was not the vocabulary that is extant today for observing and describing the cosmos. In the ancient past, which had a participatory understanding of the communion between humanity and the cosmos, language was couched in different terms. The Egyptians, for example, expressed themselves through the visual language of hieroglyphics. In this language the world of the human was inextricably bound with the world of the gods, and the otherworld. The deep animating force of the human soul came from a communion with the spiritualizing force of the cosmos. From their language, translated into our own, we know this as magic. Yet to them it was a different form of magic, and totally unlike that which we understand today. And yet if we look at the quirky weirdness of the quantum world, with its uncertainty principle and quantum entanglement, we are seeing the same form of magic that inspired the Egyptians. As the eminent science-fiction writer Arthur C. Clarke noted, any form of advanced technology is, to the observer, indistinguishable from magic. Magic is the mysterious glue that entangles, connects, communes, and also animates us from nothing to everything. Sacred creation and the creative sacred is the mirroring of the magical quantum collapse into being.

The knowledge of sacred magic, of the cosmic mysteries, was sought after by all of our known and most highly regarded historical philosophers. From Plato, Pythagoras, Empedocles, Democritus, Plotinus, and so on, such seekers of wisdom travelled widely and extensively in their time for the gaining and understanding of such knowledge. Upon their return, they then publicly preached and taught it. There was that which was allowed to be divulged in public, for the consumption of the masses, and then there were the Mystery Schools for those initiates deemed worthy of the deeper knowledge of the cosmos. Magic and natural philosophy were seen as aspects of the same stream of knowledge. It was about the science of material and non-material things; knowledge of the pure forms and secondary forms.

The great religious institutions also openly wrote accounts of the use of sacred magic. The biblical King Solomon was declared as proficient in the magical arts, and it is said that God bestowed upon him the knowledge of the ‘true science of things.’ In the Quran there are also numerous references to the existence of djinns and their magical, and often disruptive, influence. Magic is also connected to the cosmos and creation in many cultures, and in indigenous and so-called primitive tribes the world over. Some form of shamanic contact with the spirit world seems to be nearly universal in the early development of human communities. For millennia it has been known that ritual acts, language, and intention (mental focus) form a bridge of magical influence over forces within the universe. Magic is the art of participation, and the participatory art of communion with the forces around and within us. The celebrated anthropologist Bronisław Malinowski argues that every person, no matter how primitive, uses both magic and science.2 Magical practices and religious observances are so similar in their approach in that they both employ the manipulation of symbols, words, or images, to achieve changes in consciousness. Similarly, both magic and religion often serve the same function in a society. The difference is that magic is more about the personal connection with non-material forces, and the power of individual gnosis. In contrast, religion serves to connect both the individual and the community to a prescribed godhead through faith.

Magic in its original form is a practical extension of natural philosophy. Through observation and experimentation it sought to study, and then engage with, the hidden forces of Nature. It also sought for an understanding of the relations – the correspondences – between the macrocosm and the microcosm; that is, the ‘As Above, So Below’ communion as expressed through the Hermetic Arts. In this sense, magic can also be viewed as an amalgamation of science and religion (from Latin religare – to bind). That is, science seeks to understand whilst the religious impulse seeks to bind the human to the greater cosmic forces. Magic was a merging of the natural world with the human spirit. The investigation of Nature’s secrets, of the cosmic mysteries, was a spiritual quest long before it became seen as a scientific endeavour. As Giambattista della Porta, the 16th century Italian philosopher wrote, magic is ‘nothing else but the survey of the whole course of Nature.’3

The Renaissance zeitgeist, and especially its magical adherents and practitioners, experienced the world, the universe, in which they lived as a thriving intelligence, and not just as an intellectual idea. For them, art itself was a form and expression of magic; a means of channelling the secret patterns and energies of the cosmos into the world of matter. The famous German occultist and theologian Heinrich Cornelius Agrippa (1486 – 1535) referred to magic as ‘the most perfect and chief Science, that sacred and sublimer kind of Phylosophy [philosophy]’4 The early Renaissance philosopher Marsilio Ficino wrote that ‘The whole power of magic consists in love. The work of magic is the attraction of one thing by another because of a certain affinity of nature.’5 For Ficino, natural magic reflected a desire to animate human life with the living spirit of the cosmos. Magic then was a means for humanity to align itself with the living intelligence of the cosmos and to be able to receive its enhancing energies. In other words, it was a kind of cosmic connection and download. And when Arabic numerals (representing the Hindu-Arabic numeral system) – now our modern numbers – entered Europe from mainly Arabic thinkers, writers, and speakers they were adopted quickly by western occultists. In time these ‘uncanny squiggles’ came to replace the orderly roman numerals so beloved by government bureaucracy. The vital and dynamic era of renaissance magic was necessary in laying the foundations for the new Scientific Revolution of the 17th century.

In the 20th century the concept of magic was given bad press by its association with black magic, and the public rise of the ‘black magicians’ (or those of the Left-Hand Path). The most infamous of these was the Englishman Aleister Crowley, who preferred the spelling of magick. Yet despite his much-beloved public displays of anti-social eccentricity and taboo-breaking lewdness, he was a man of deep insight into magical operations. When communicating on a more profound level he would declare the true definition of magic as being ‘the science and art of causing change to occur in conformity with the will.’ That is, Crowley used a form of mental and mystical/ spiritual discipline in order to train the mind to achieve greater focus to commune and participate with the non-material forces of the cosmos.

Even today various forms of magical practices have become merged with accepted psychological principles and are utilized to promote techniques for personal development. For example, the visualization techniques once widely used in magical operations are nowadays often put to use in such diverse areas as clinical psychology and sports training. Many forms of modern recreational health practices, such as yoga, tai chi, yiquan, and qigong, are based on a series of body posture, breathing, and meditation techniques that connect with the underlying energetic force/energy prevalent in the cosmic matrix that surrounds us and in which we are embedded. After all, magic is little more than the application of one’s own soul-self, our integral unity, with the cosmos. In other times this would be seen as mystical, magical, and mysterious. And now it is part of the world we are living in as the sacred revival rears its head from the non-visible to the visible plane once again.

Magic too can be viewed as being indistinguishable from our art, whether we are talking of painting, writing, music, sculpture, or any other form. Also, the word ‘technology’, which comes from the Greek word tekhne, means art or the ‘science of craft’ but not directly the application of science. Yet whether we are talking about magic, technology, art, or science, in the end it is all about the same thing – the exploratory path to knowledge and understanding. And this quest for understanding includes, and often merges, all such forms and pathways. We can say it all constitutes parts of the same body, just dressed up in different rags according to context, time and culture.

Magic as Science and Technology

It is my view that science and magic are manifestations of the same phenomena. There is more than one path – one ‘science’ – in persuading the cosmos to open up and reveal its secrets. Science did not overthrow magic, it emerged from it. The beginnings of empiricism were rooted in the magical tradition. It is now well understood that modern chemistry materialized from practical alchemy (al-kimiya). Many practising alchemists – from Paracelsus to Isaac Newton – were employing empirical methods with natural magic. The shift in applications went hand in hand with a changing worldview. Applied science was yet another avenue to gain access to and command the secret forces of the cosmos. What we consider as barbaric and primitive from the past will similarly stigmatize the current methods of our day from a future perspective. We cannot, it seems, escape the trap of being victims of our time.

The underlying basis of science derives from the convictions of the earliest natural (magic) philosophers such as Plato and Pythagoras. Namely, that our apparent changeable world adheres to certain laws that can be applied to external formulae. Is searching for the Higgs boson – as the quantum excitation of the Higgs field – any different from magical correspondences with non-visible fields of force? Perhaps applied science then is our modern name for the magical pursuit of eternal truths?

The flame of magical enquiry was also dampened by the rise of religious fervour and cries of heresy. Occult philosophy increasingly found itself confronted by allegations and rumours of demonic flirtation amid the rise of witch trials and mass suspicion (or hysteria). As C.S. Lewis pointed out, the great renaissance magic was discredited less by science than from a general ‘darkening of the human imagination.’6 Perhaps there is no greater symbolic end to the magical enterprise than the public burning of Giordano Bruno in Rome in 1600. After the demise of renaissance magic the human imagination did not rise to such heights again until the Romantics, or the depths of the human psyche so probed until depth psychology. The new struggle of the human mind was now with the rise of scientific thinking.

Heliocentricity, the understanding that the planets revolve around the sun, came to symbolize the great scientific revolution and the step from the medieval mind into early modernity. Our scientists now scorn and smirk at the religious thinking that once placed the earth at the centre of the ‘divine’ universe – and yet today, centuries on, we know little else. Our neighbouring planets are gas giants or oddly pock-marked balls of rock that remain as enigmas. Sun-flares and coronial mass ejections disrupt our communications and continue to intrigue and baffle us. Dark matter is a mystery that is estimated to constitute 84.5% of the total matter in the universe. Dark matter plus dark energy together constitute 95.1% of the total mass–energy content of the universe, and we don’t know what it is. The universe is singular, then it’s multiple, or parallel; it’s held together by strings, or it’s connected multi-dimensionally, or is a holographic projection from a quantum matrix beyond space-time, etc, etc. We may indeed be in a stage of modernity, or rather just a later period of medieval-ness. Or maybe, like our philosophical Greek and Arab predecessors, we merely like the fun of being able to ‘entertain contradictory world-views simultaneously.’7 As Patrick Harpur astutely observes,

…whatever we suppress gathers in the unconscious and throws a ‘shadow’ over the world. Dark matter is precisely the shadow of the imaginative fullness we have denied to our cosmos. The daimons we cannot bring ourselves to admit return as dark ‘virtual particles’. Like the psychological shadow, dark matter’s massive invisible presence exerts an unconscious influence on the conscious universe.8

Renaissance thought and the medieval mind accepted the existence of the world soul – the anima mundi – where all things were connected by an underlying soul/force. Modern science banished the soul from roaming the world, and replaced it by the tick-tock of mechanistic laws. The technical inventions of renaissance science – its clocks, telescopes, and compasses – no doubt assisted to dissolve belief in the world soul and its system of correspondences. New correlations, connections, and correspondences were derived by technical means, by materialized devices. And yet our high technologies of today are turning this situation around by de-materializing themselves and merging into our environment and our bodies. Perhaps the coming era of high technology re-constitutes a new chimera of the world soul. I will return to this question later in the book.

Broadly speaking, technology can be defined as those means and devices, both material and immaterial, which allow a greater degree of manipulation over one’s environment. Their use also achieves a degree of value for the user. It has often been said that the human species’ use of technology began with the conversion of natural resources into simple tools. The prehistoric discovery of how to control fire is frequently cited as one of the first widespread uses of a technology. Whatever definition we choose to use the essential feature is that technologies materialize magic – they make the once-magic happen. They bring the sights of the seer into the human eye (telescope), transport telepathic communication (phone), create occult harm at a distance (weapons), delve into the mystic heart of the body (microscope), and project our imaginations and otherworlds into image (television/video). Technologies are an extension of magic by other means.

In this day and age we are moving further into the world of image. We have always been fed images of the world that are not. We live in a world of representations; we dance with the shadows on the wall of Plato’s cave. We exist in a world that, as Plato would say, is construed from representations of Eternal Forms. And then we take a further step back as we live in cultures that use symbols and images to relate the represented world to us. We are thus even further away from the Real. There is little wonder then that our souls often feel under-nourished. In response they long for, and seek out, the sacred, the eternal, and the bridge to the real: the phenomenal is the bridge to the real (Sufi saying).

Because the Scientific Revolution put the emphasis upon the quantifying eye, the visual aspect became a validating tool of empirical reality. What we could witness became a legitimate part of our truths – ‘seeing is believing’ as they say. What was seen at the end of the telescope or microscope became a new fact to add to the expanding artefacts of facts we kept accumulating. We began to trust too much in what the human eye, and its technological appendices, could see. The eye became a dominant lens for seeking truth within the new paradigm of modern science. This was not the case with our ancestors, who relied much more on a close range of senses, especially touch and smell, as well as a heightened sense of instinct. Because they formed more of a participatory bond with the world around them they did not distance themselves like we do today by viewing the world in terms of object and subject. That is why in modern terminology we refer to the observer effect whereby the act of observation can influence, or make a change, upon the phenomenon being observed.

Quantum physics tells us that through measurement, or rather observation, quantum energy ‘collapses’ into a particle or wave function. And yet this terminology is misleading as it uses the older vocabulary which stipulated the human eye as a validating tool of empirical reality. It is a fallacy of how we understand sight and observation. We don’t observe particles or phenomena at a distance – we are already participating in their existence. The observer effect should really be changed to saying the participatory effect. Consciousness is a participatory phenomenon. In our known reality, we participate in a conscious universe where, according to the Hermetic saying, the centre is everywhere and the circumference nowhere. There is no better place for the Hermetic arts and the quantum realm to meet than in the magic of alchemy. This archaic science is the crossroads where science, magic, and the spirit meet. On the material level it is seen as a long series of precise and laborious scientific experimentation in order to transmute base metals (such as lead) into gold. It is a play with chemical composition and atomic arrangements; a form of molecular management and interference. However, upon the spiritual plane it is a major magical and mystical arcane participation with non-visible forces that bind the material world beyond our known sciences. Perhaps the most well-known, and revealing, brief encounter and explanation of this process occurred in the 20th century. According to the now infamous meeting with the mysterious alchemist Fulcanelli in June 1937, in a laboratory of the Gas Board in Paris, the chemical engineer Jacques Bergier was warned about efforts to create the atomic bomb. Jacques Bergier was given a message by Fulcanelli to pass on to the noted French atomic physicist André Helbronner. Allegedly Bergier was told that:

The secret of alchemy is this: there is a way of manipulating matter and energy so as to produce what modern scientists call ‘a field of force.’ The field acts on the observer and puts him in a privileged position vis-à-vis the Universe. From this position he has access to the realities which are ordinarily hidden from us by time and space, matter and energy. This is what we call the Great Work.9

The Great Work, it would seem, involves the participatory mind of human consciousness interacting with a specific field of force that produces a view/perception of the universe. This appears to be a form of the quantum observer/participatory effect yet on an intentioned and conscious level – a form of consciously arranged quantumly entangled perception? This view correlates somewhat with the words of famed theoretical physicist John Archibald Wheeler:

The universe does not exist ‘out there’ independent of us. We are inescapably bringing about that which appears to be happening. We are not only observers. We are participators. In some strange sense this is a participatory universe.10

Our cosmos is set up for cognitive participation, which is why we should realize that whenever we attempt to observe or describe reality, what we are actually doing is participating and thus influencing, or interfering, with it. Our own conscious thoughts are more powerful and non-visible tools than we realize. In this regard, the ‘principle of cognitive participation is replacing the principle of objectivity.’11

Moreover, another way of re-phrasing the deceptive ‘wave collapse’ is to refer to it as coming into being. What is taking place is a quantum act of creation. The underlying quantum energy landscape of our cosmos is an energetic playing field of participatory creation. It is the ancient Egyptian divine archetype Heka, the spiritualizing force that is the conscious, animating energy of the cosmos. The quantum realm is the magical realm, where through participation the enquiring human mind proposes new hypotheses that then gets projected into the underlying energy matrix which has the potential to conjure them into reality. We could call this the Higgs Boson Effect, whereby we actually form a participatory relation to the physical manifestations of our own projections. The Higgs Boson – also somewhat ironically referred to as the ‘God Particle’ – was first proposed by a team of physicists in 1964 (and not just one guy called Higgs!). Several other physicists from the 1960s onwards also speculated and hypothesized on the Higgs Field effect. This enquiry led to a forty year search within the international physics community and eventually culminated in the construction of the world’s most expensive experimental test facility and the largest single machine in the world – the CERN Large Hadron Collider.12 After many experiments and independently verified research CERN announced on 14th March 2013 that there were strong indications that the Higgs boson had been found. It was what they had been looking for all along. And finally, after much mental focusing and scientific ritual, with instruments and precise application, a phenomenon materialized into reality. Maybe this is a good time to recap Aleister Crowley’s definition of magic – the science and art of causing change to occur in conformity with the will. Was not then the discovery of the Higgs Boson an act of magic, after all? Perhaps it will go down in history as one of the most complex, community-led, conjuring tricks in the annals of science. Or maybe it will just be seen as yet another proof that the scientific method works. This would show, yet again, that the universe exists upon a set of static fundamental laws that are just in need of discovery.

It would be heresy to speculate that our quantum-matrix reality actually responds to sentient thought and creates – forms into being – material representations of willed projections. If this were the case, then it would be a big secret indeed. So big, in fact, that it would need to be kept hidden from untrained minds who, ignorantly, could set into motion a wave of material phenomenon of destructive and chaotic consequences. Such potential power, if it existed, would likely need to be placed in quarantine until such a time whereby it could be used for the greater good. Luckily for us though it is only speculation.

Similar speculations have occurred elsewhere too, such as in our popular culture. One example is the science-fiction story by Stanislaw Lem called ‘Solaris,’ which was later visualized hypnotically in Andrei Tarkovsky’s 1972 film version.13 In Lem’s story, the protagonists of a research space station are investigating an alien intelligence that is the oceanic sentient planet of Solaris. However, the sentient planet is in turn probing into the minds of the human researchers and investigating them. In this process the planet is able to respond by materializing thoughts, memories, and desires that are deep within the human mind. In this way each scientist is forced to confront those aspects that they have mentally hidden away. By encountering an unknown and alien energetic entity, mental processes are able to be projected into a material reality. The sentient ocean of Solaris could be taken as a metaphor for the quantum ocean/field that is increasingly recognized today as a consciousness field.14

Whilst this may seem like magic to us, for the ancestral pre-modern mind the real magic was the spiritualizing force that animates the entire cosmos. Animation – the bringing to life – is a spiritualizing sacred force, and it is magic. And that is why the sacred revival is all about magic: the magic of how we create into being our soul-life and project it into the world in which we participate. Genuine magic is the science and art of the participatory mind to commune with the cosmos and manifest our deepest will into materiality. Magic is the spiritualizing force that animates the human soul, and which communes with the soul of the world, the anima mundi. We have also hidden this magic within our sciences, our technologies, and within our human memories and emotions; and yet it is the pervasive force which entangles us all together and from which the immaterial becomes material.

We are finally regaining the understanding through the new sciences that our knowledge is not discovered or given to us but are part of the reality that is being continually created by us. Our penetration into the participatory cosmos is part of a grander unfolding where everything is evolving; and so too are our perceptions of the sacred source evolving as well. The sacred revival is about re-animating our relationship to this profound, spiritual truth.

from:    http://realitysandwich.com/319503/magic-the-higgs-boson/

Esoteric Texts

Magic Of The Ancients – 5 Incredible Texts Of Spells, Curses, And Incantations

August 3, 2015

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By April Holloway
ancient-origins

As long as humanity has had beliefs in a higher power, the use of magic, spells, curses, and incantations have featured widely across cultures. A number of influential texts or ‘grimoires’ (textbooks of magic) were developed over the centuries, many of which became the books of choice for secret societies and occult organizations that endured well into the twentieth century. Here we feature five manuscripts that provide a fascinating window into the magic of the ancients.

The Book of Abramelin the Mage, Esoteric Grimoire of Kabbalistic Knowledge

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The Book of Abramelin the Mage was written as an epistolary novel or autobiography of a person known as Abraham of Worms. Abraham was a German Jew believed to have lived between the 14th and 15th centuries. The Book of Abramelin the Mage involves the passing of Abraham’s magical and Kabbalistic knowledge to his son, Lamech, and relates the story of how he first acquired such knowledge.

Abraham begins his narration with the death of his father, who gave him ‘signs and instructions concerning the way in which it is necessary to acquire the Holy Qabalah’ shortly before his death. Desiring to acquire this wisdom, Abraham said he traveled to Mayence (Mainz) to study under a Rabbi, called Moses. Abraham studied under Moses for four years before traveling for the next six years of his life, eventually reaching Egypt.

It was in Egypt that Abraham met Abramelin the Mage, an Egyptian mage who was living in the desert outside an Egyptian town called Arachi or Araki. Abramelin is said to have then taught Abraham his Kabbalistic magic and gave him two manuscripts to copy from. Pne of the highlights of this grimoire is an elaborate ritual known as the ‘Abramelin Operation’, which is said to enable a mage to gain the ‘knowledge and conversation’ of his/her ‘guardian angel’ and to blind demons. The manuscript was later used in occult organizations such as Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn and Aleister Crowley’s mystical system of Thelema.

The Ars Notoria – An Ancient Magical Book to Perfect Memory and Master Academia

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As part of a larger collection known as the Lesser Keys of Solomon, the Ars Notoria is a book that is said to allow followers a mastery of academia, giving them greater eloquence, a perfect memory, and wisdom. The Ars Notoria is one of five books within a grimoire called the Lesser Keys of Solomon, an anonymous text that was compiled from other works in the 17th century, and focuses on demonology.

The Ars Notoria is the oldest portion of the Lesser of the Keys grimoire, dating back to the 13th century. However, the texts contained within are a collection of orations, prayers, and magical words which date back to well before the 1200s. The prayers are in several languages, including Hebrew, Greek, and Latin. It was not a book of spells or potions, but a book of prayers and orations that are said to strengthen and focus one’s mental powers, by beseeching god for intellectual gifts. Among these intellectual gifts is the concept of a “perfect memory.”

Those who practice liberal arts, such as arithmetic, geometry, and philosophy, are promised a mastery of their subject if they devote themselves to the Ars Notoria. Within, it describes a daily process of visualization, contemplation, and orations, intended to enhance the practitioner’s focus and memory.

Devils, Demons, and Dangerous Creatures of the Pseudomonarchia Daemonum

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Pseudomonarchia Daemonum, also known as the False Hierarchy of Demons, is a great compendium from the 16th century dictating the names of sixty-nine demons. The list initially appeared as an appendix to a book about demonology and witchcraft by Johann Weyer. The son of a civic service merchant, Johann Weyer was a Dutch doctor and occult practitioner born in the Netherlands in 1515. Well versed in Latin from a young age, Weyer quickly became a student of Heinrich Cornelius Agrippa, a famous magician, theologian, and occultist in Antwerp.

It appears that Weyer’s fascination with magic began while working under Agippa, but later escalated after he became a doctor in his own right: he was summoned to a particular fortune teller’s court case and thereby asked by the judge for advice on the topic. This court case started his interest in researching the witchcraft way of life, culminating with his decision to attempt to defend those who were accused of practicing. Twenty-seven years after this case, when Weyer was sixty-two years old, he published Pseudomonarchia Daemonum,.

Weyer’s work claims that while demons and the monsters from hell could have illusionist power over people, the affected people were not witches on trial—the “mentally ill”, as Weyer stated—but rather the magicians who played tricks on common folk for an easy coin. Weyer’s intention was to create a creed to vet out the accused who were, in fact, innocent. How helpful Weyer’s efforts for the accused witches were remains unseen, yet there is evidence that his pleas for their mercy went predominately ignored.

Picatrix: The Ancient Arabian Book of Astrology and Occult Magic

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The Picatrix is an ancient Arabian book of astrology and occult magic dating back to the 10th or 11th century, which has gained notoriety for the obscene nature of its magical recipes. The Picatrix, with its cryptic astrological descriptions and spells covering almost every conceivable wish or desire, has been translated and used by many cultures over the centuries, and continues to fascinate occult followers from around the world.

The Picatrix was originally written in Arabic, titled Ghāyat al-Ḥakīm, which translates to “The Aim of the Sage” or “The Goal of the Wise.” Most scholars believe it originated in the 11th century, although there are well-supported arguments that date it to the 10th. Eventually, the Arabic writings were translated into Spanish, and later into Latin in 1256 for the Castilian king Alfonso the Wise. At this time it took on the Latin title Picatrix.

The text is composed of both magic and astrology. One element that has contributed to the notoriety of the Picatrix is the obscene nature of its magical recipes. The gruesome concoctions are intended to alter one’s state of consciousness, and may lead to out-of-body experiences, or even death. Ingredients include: blood, bodily excretions, brain matter mixed with copious amounts of hashish, opium, and psychoactive plants. For example, the spell for “Generating Enmity and Discord” reads:

“Take four ounces of the blood of a black dog, two ounces each of pig blood and brains, and one ounce of donkey brains. Mix all this together until well blended. When you give this medicine to someone in food or drink, he will hate you.”

Arbatel: The Magic of the Ancients – An Occult Grimoire with a Positive Message

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The Arbatel de magia veterum (Arbatel: Of the Magic of the Ancients) is a Renaissance-period grimoire – a textbook of magic – and one of the most influential works of its kind. Unlike some other occult manuscripts that contain dark magic and malicious spells, the Arbatel contains spiritual advice and guidance on how to live an honest and honorable life.

The Arbatel is claimed to have been written in 1575 AD. The author remains unknown, although it has been speculated that it was written by a man named Jacques Gohory, a Paracelsian (a group who believed in and followed the medical theories and therapies of Paracelsus).

The focus of the Arbatel is on nature, and the natural relationships between humanity and a celestial hierarchy. It centers on the positive relationships between the celestial world and humans, and the interactions between the two. The Arbatel was an extremely influential work for its time.

from:    http://in5d.com/magic-of-the-ancients-5-incredible-texts-of-spells-curses-and-incantations/

THe Power of Nature, Art, and Belief

He Filled a Forest With These. What Happened Next Is Heart Shattering

Feb 10

Imagine devoting your life to carving one of the greatest sculpture gardens in the world- and then losing everything…

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This is the incredibly inspiring story of Bruno Torfs: How it began, how it was taken away, and how he made the best out of the worst thing imaginable.

Bruno was born in South America and lived there with his family till the age of fifteen. At this point the whole family made the move to Europe in seek of new opportunities. After working as a sign writer Bruno made a gradual transition to become a fulltime artist. Through his diverse talents and a spirit for adventure Bruno created a unique style full of culture and character. This was achieved through his many trips around the world.

Sketching the scenes and faces of his journeys allowed Bruno to return home and make oil painting and sculpture versions of his experiences. These artworks would then be sold in a series of annual exhibitions hosted in the lower levels of the family home.

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After several years of this lifestyle, Bruno and the family made a decision to pack up and move to Australia to create a sculpture garden that he would run as a permanent attraction.The family arrived in Melbourne and shortly after had found the perfect place in the small Victorian village of Marysville. The luscious sub-alpine forests of the surrounding area – were the ideal setting for Bruno’s plan and luckily the property he purchased he a large section of rain forest attached. After five months of backbreaking work Bruno’s art and sculpture garden was opened to the public. Also on the property was a gallery that housed over 200 of his artworks brought over from Europe that included oil paintings, sketches and smaller sculptures.

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The garden began with just fifteen life sizes terracotta sculptures, which evolved into over one hundred and fifteen pieces on display. The amazing sculptures attracted thousands of visitors each year.

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But then disaster engulfed the town of Marysville and swept his beloved garden . . .

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In February 2009,  the Black Saturday bushfires overwhelmed the area. A series of bushfires ignited across the Australian state of Victoria claiming everything in their wake. They resulted in Australia’s highest loss of life from a bushfire to date. Bruno and the rest of the town were prohibited from entering the town for two whole months while authorities conducted an investigation and attempted to identify victims.

This was an unimaginable time of grief for the townsfolk of Marysville, not knowning what remained of their lives. Bruno received overwhelming support from friends, family, and perfect strangers from all over the world.

Bruno knew his gallery, garden, and home were completely destroyed before getting a chance to see for himself. The images below were taken the day Bruno was finally granted permission to return home.

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 The amount of sculpture that survived the blaze was a miracle.

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With the help of friends and family, rebuilding Bruno’s home and gallery took less than two months!

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After that it was time to start planting. The native ferns rebounded vigorously and the green slowly returned to the area. Unfortunately it will be many years before the forest resembles the old lush wonderland, but that hasn’t discouraged Bruno one bit.

What the gardens are looking like now…

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Bruno’s words: “The bushfires deeply touched us all in many ways. It allowed me to see that people had a heart for each other, that when things really got dark, the best in us comes out. We have lost a lot, but life also provides us opportunities to gain a new vision, lots of new friends and a blank canvas to play. In the meantime, nature is already regenerating itself. The green is slowly returning and the rivers are flowing, finding new ways”.

Bruno’s story is a huge inspiration. Remember his struggle next time you have “dark” problems of your own. Perhaps it will provide you with the strength you need to breathe and watch ‘nature regenerate itself.’
Read more at http://www.realfarmacy.com/he-filled-a-forest-with-these-what-happened-next-is-heart-shattering/#7zZ5pGfRqBg1ZCCv.99