I've seen a large surge in the amount of people asserting, ironically or not, that various religious ideologies such as neopaganism and witchcraft are ahistorical roleplaying. Usually cited in these criticisms are materials like Graves or Murray having been shown to be essentially pulling things from their ass. Gardner often get criticized for cribbing materials from Crowley, and the discussion gets left at that. But, what if this isn't actually the case? The folks leveling these criticisms clearly haven't done any serious anthro-historical research on the topics of witchcraft since the 70's, because there's been a complete pile of texts published in academic currents that argue for compartmentalization of practices not relying on Murray's witch-cult hypothesis.
The earliest evidence of witchcraft comes from Babylon. Brill has an edition of protections against witchcraft from Babylon. There's also the Udug-Hul incantations, Lamastu Incantations, and “Babylonian witchcraft literature”.
The Greek Magickal Papyri can be considered a form of witchcraft, especially in terms of the empowerment of amulets present though it and similar religious praxes and evokatory protocol. The concepts of spirit work in these, as well as late Semitic practices, essentially find their way into the later western Grimoire tradition. Funny, then, that when you go through the fine details of Agrippa he mentions various entities from Mandaean culture and the historical Book of Enoch; indeed there's speculation from myself and others (Italian scholar Eugino Garin) that large chunks of what we consider western magick has its origins with the Mandaeans, in terms of how spirits are bound and evokations/invokations are given. In fact, some Mandaean spirits find their way into Agrippa (and thence the rest of the grimoire materials)
Agrippa's three books tend to serve as the basic foundation of Western magick; indeed Dee & Kelley's Enochian elaborations are standardized by Agrippa. Beyond Agrippa there's cultural material like Sefer Raziel. The notions of a modern grimoire tradition tend to flow from these sources.
Tthe grimoire tradition of Europe spans from like maybe 1200 to maybe 1800, between the foundation of modern (read: Lurianic) Kabbalah and the writing of Elphais Levi. When someone's talking about “demon summoning” or “Goetia”, they're usually referring to Lemegeton, a text which describes the 72 spirits bound by Solomon, their qualities and means of summoning them, sigils, with other books dealing with planetary magick and angleic material (which is tied more closely to the year). Given that Lemegeton is the most common material, I recommend “Lon Milo Duquette's Illustrated Goetia” for noobs or Henson's Lemegeton for advanced practitioners. There are a lot of material needs for these rites. I'm of the school that you'll do fine just trying to work the material to the best of your ability. IMHO the minimum requirements are a chalk circle or one painted into cloth, and either a black mirror or a source of smoke (aside from various specific sigils). There's a LOT more grimoire material, though, from Grimorium Verum to Black Pullet to various more obscure texts. Interestingly, about Verum, we may be able to validate some form of Satanic styled tradition via The Pact of Urbain Grandier, which shows a sigil that would not be put to paper (as far as we know) for well over a hundred years. The mark at the top of Grandier's pact is startlingly similar to Silcharde's personal sigil in Verum.
Wyatt Reyes
(my revised /sum/ pastebin for those curious about Lemegeton: pastebin.com/v6qsewmw )
In any case, these materials were used by so called 'cunning folk' as the grimoire period wound down. A long time ago Murray wrote about a theoretical “witch cult” and long ago it was debunked.…
But this isn't the entire story. There are clearly writings from the time just prior to witch panic which describe a more or less cohesive body of practices melding old forms of paganism, the aforementioned source materials, and late folk magic remnants that survived Christist suppression. A Candle in the Darkness and Saducismus triumphatus give perhaps the first view of practices after Formicarius changed the public perception of witchcraft (introducting the idealized form of mostly female covens).
So what does all this mean in light of modern scholarship?
Jaxson Carter
Most modern conceptions of witchcraft are routing through Carlo Ginzburg, Norman Cohn, and Emma Wilby (Cunning Folk and Familiar Spirits: Shamanistic Visionary Traditions in Early Modern British Witchcraft and Magic, Europe's Inner Demons: An Enquiry Inspired by the Great Witch-Hunt, The Visions of Isobel Gowdie: Magic, Witchcraft and Dark Shamanism in Seventeenth-Century Scotland, The Visions of Isobel Gowdie, The Night Battles: Witchcraft and Agrarian Cults in the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries, Ecstasies. Deciphering the Witches' Sabbath, Between the Living and the Dead: A Perspective on Witches and Seers in the Early Modern Age, Witchcraft, Mythologies and Persecution, Christian Demonology And Popular Mythology: Demons, Spirits, Witches), with basic academic titles filling out the empty space (Oxford Handbook of Witchcraft, Agents of Witchcraft in Early Modern Italy and Denmark, Icelandic Magic, Witchcraft and Belief in Early Modern Scotland, Physical Evidence for Ritual Acts of Sorcery and Witchcraft, Anglo-saxon Charms, Superstition and Magic in Early Modern Europe, etc.).
A guy by the name of Andrew Chumbley, practicing occultist and PhD candidate in History (of religion) was writing a dissertation on possible validations a line of transmission from the sorts of practices mentioned in the witch-hunting manuals down to the modern day, when he died of asthma shortly after preparing to release some occult books which were pushed back many years. Anyway, some of his assertions can be found in “children of qayin” which is in my Cultus Sabbati folder; it displays photos of “Witch Bottles” held in museums, the jugs having origins in both America and Europe, and they bear marks that look more or less like the sigil methods described by Agrippa and later popularized by Spare and the Chaos Magick traditions.
Jaxson Edwards
While common today with the Spareian elaboration, in his day these methods were more or less a footnote. Spare claimed to have been initiated into a coven in Essex. Historically speaking, at one time a quarter of the girls in Essex were accused of witchcraft, and often of the type mentioned in some of these witchcraft manuals.
Moreover, we've found a text I also present, the Grimoire of Arthur Gauntlet, a “cunning man” from England who blends well known grimorie material with folk magick not seen elsewhere. It was discovered mixed into the papers of Elias Ashmole, of the Royal Society, experimenter with John Dee's angle magick. This is also significant as a number of hanged and near-hanged occultists in the New World cite Ashmole's instruction as the backbone of their folk practices.… are all these things possibly a touchpoint by which to vindicate the theory old witch cults? I leave you to draw your own conclusions.
Ayden Richardson
>93 I also have a decent amount of Greek reconstructive material and info on obscure forms of Euro paganism. Not much but it's there. Using my material on Greek Sacred Law one might make a rough reconstruction of Eleusinian mysteries, but it'd be a pain in the ass with no temple or hard answers on Kyekon. More easily reconstructed is the late Greek magical tradition in the Greek Magickal Papyri using Jake Stratton Kent's “Geosophia” as a guide.
Anyway, direct links to folders on this shit. The Chumbley file has some of Ginzburg and Wilby. The Euro folder has a shitload of old not quite historical but still influential books, source texts, and modern scholarship. The Grimoires folder has the old books of magick plus a bit of academic comentary thereon, and JSK's Geosophia:
Could give a fuck about gnosticism and OTO and all that but this is the good shit mang. Thanks
Xavier Perry
I try.
Brandon Ortiz
Threads like this are deliberately general in tone; any area you'd like to see more focus on?
Example, Galdrabok (minus things like necropants) is a completely workable historical system of paganistic European practice that wasn't just conjured out of thin air by a hamplanet feminist:
>The Galdrabók (Icelandic Book of Magic) is an Icelandic grimoire dated to ca. 1600.[1] It is a small manuscript containing a collection of 47 spells and sigils/staves.[2] The grimoire was compiled by four different people, possibly starting in the late 16th century and going on until the mid-17th century. The first three scribes were Icelanders, and the fourth was a Dane working from Icelandic material.[3] The various spells consist of Latin and runic material as well as Icelandic magical staves, invocations to Christian entities, demons and the Norse gods, as well as instructions for the use of herbs and magical items. Some of the spells are protective, intended against such problems as trouble with childbearing, headache and insomnia, previous incantations, pestilence, suffering and distress at sea. Others are intended to cause fear, kill animals, find thieves, put someone to sleep, cause flatulence, or bewitch women.
>The book was first published in 1921 by Natan Lindqvist in a diplomatic edition and with a Swedish translation. An English translation was published in 1989 by Stephen Flowers, and a facsimile edition with detailed commentary by Matthías Viðar Sæmundsson in 1992. In 1995 Flowers produced a second retitled edition of his book and with the assistance of Sæmundsson corrected many translations and added many more notes and commentaries
Adam Watson
Much the same applies to the Svartkonstböcker of which I have a copy of two translated as "Salomonic Magical Arts":
>While bearing some relationship to the corpus of European grimoires which feature angelic and demonic magic, the Svartkonstböcker as texts of magic are in a class all their own.
>Salomonic Magical Arts consists of two such volumes, originally handwritten in the early eighteenth century. Named The Red Book and The Black Book by one of their owners, they passed through the hands of priests and cunning men before coming to rest in academic institutions. Invoking a variety of spiritual powers ranging from Christ to Beelzebub, its magical formulae, numbering in excess of 450 individual receipts, serve as a testament to the endurance of sorcery in the early modern era. First published in Swedish in 1918, Salomonic Magic Arts is here published in English for the first time.
>Introducing the work is a substantive introduction by the translator, which places the book in its cultural and magico-historical context, including Swedish cunning-folk traditions (trolldom) the European grimoire tradition, traditional magical healing, pagan belief, and the relationship between folk magic and the church.
Noah Young
>Udug-Hul incantations Healing Magic and Evil Demons. Canonical Udug-hul Incantations Markham J. Geller— 2015 This book brings together ancient manuscripts of the large compendium of Mesopotamian exorcistic incantations known as Udug.hul (Utukku Lemnutu), directed against evil demons, ghosts, gods, and other demonic malefactors within the Mesopotamian view of the world.It allows for a more accurate appraisal of variants arising from a text tradition spread over more than two millennia and from many ancient libraries.
>Lamastu Incantations Lamastu was one of the most important Mesopotamian demons, playing a dominant role in the magico-religious and magico-medical beliefs and practices of ancient Mesopotamia for nearly two millennia. Yet, she has never been the subject of a scholarly monograph dedicated to the textual and visual evidence for her, her activities, and the measures that ancient magical specialists took to counter her. This volume also falls short of this description, because it covers only one part of the material: it is an edition of the textual record only, which is, however, collected here as completely as seems possible today. Walter Farber, who has studied these materials for decades, presents a comprehensive collection of all of the known texts, the texts of the primary incantations in a "score" format, and transliteration and translation of a number of ancillary texts. This much-awaited volume will fill the void in the literature on this aspect of the life and thought of ancient Mesopotamian peoples regarding the character of this malevolent creature and the means of warding off the threat that she posed.
Daniel Gomez
>Greek Magickal Papyri Many of these are pages or fragmentary extracts from spell books, repositories of arcane knowledge and mystical secrets. As far as they have been reconstructed, these books appear to fall into two broad categories: some are compilations of spells and magical writings, gathered by scholarly collectors either out of academic interest or for some kind of study of magic; others may have been the working manuals of travelling magicians, containing their repertoire of spells, formulae for all occasions. The pages contain spells, recipes, formulae and prayers, interspersed with magic words and often in shorthand, with abbreviations for the more common formulae. These spells range from impressive and mystical summonings of dark gods and daemons, to folk remedies, from portentous, fatal curses, to love charms, cures for impotence and minor medical complaints.
In many cases the formulaic words and phrases are strikingly similar to those found in defixiones (curse tablets or binding spells, kατάδεσμοι in Greek), such as those we find inscribed on ostraka, amulets and lead tablets. Since some of these defixiones date from as early as the sixth century BC, and have been found as far afield as Athens, Asia Minor, Rome and Sicily (as well as Egypt), this provides a degree of continuity and suggests that some observations based on the PGM will not be altogether inapplicable to the study of the wider Greco-Roman world
Throughout the spells found in the Greek Magical Papyri, there are numerous references to figurines. The figurines are made of various materials, usually corresponding to the type of spell, but often with liminal properties, as is frequent in a number of elements of Greek Magic. Such figurines have been found “throughout the Mediterranean basin”, usually in places that the ancient Greeks associated with the underworld; “graves, sanctuaries or bodies of water”, all stressing the liminality of Greek magic.
Noah Ortiz
>any area you'd like to see more focus on? I dunno. I like this stuff because it's a window into pre-Christian Europe. I'm not so much interested in "workable" magic systems.
Jaxon Moore
>I'm of the school that you'll do fine just trying to work the material to the best of your ability. IMHO the minimum requirements are a chalk circle or one painted into cloth, and either a black mirror or a source of smoke (aside from various specific sigils).
Out of curiosity, why do you think these are necessary if the other materials are not? Never personally even tried working with Goetic entities with less than those, but lately I've been considering if materials are actually necessary at all.
What are your opinions on paganism as opposed to occultism? Is there any gain in trying to reconstruct the ways of your ancestors, or should one treat the Great Work as one would philosophy, seeking wisdom where-ever it is found regardless of origin.
+awesome job on the library
Christopher Gonzalez
>Eugino Garin Eugenio Garin (May 9, 1909 – December 29, 2004) was an Italian philosopher and Renaissance historian. He was recognised as an authority on the cultural history of the Renaissance.[1] After a period as professor of philosophy at the licei scientifici di Palermo and the University of Cagliari, Garin began teaching at his alma mater in 1949 until 1974, then moving to the Scuola Normale di Pisa until his retirement in 1984.[2]
>Agrippa He belonged to a family, many members of which, had been in the service of the House of Habsburg.[2] The University of Cologne was one of the centers of Thomism, and the faculty of arts was split between the dominant Thomists and the Albertists. It is likely that Agrippa's interest in the occult came from this Albertist influence.[3] Agrippa himself named Albert’s Speculum as one of his first occult study texts.[3] He later studied in Paris, where he apparently took part in a secret society involved in the occult.[1]
Margaret's death in 1530 weakened his position, and the publication of some of his writings about the same time aroused anew the hatred of his enemies; but after suffering a short imprisonment for debt at Brussels he lived at Cologne and Bonn, under the protection of Hermann of Wied, archbishop of Cologne.[2] By publishing his works he brought himself into antagonism with the Inquisition, which sought to stop the printing of De occulta philosophia.
During his wandering life in Germany, France, and Italy, Agrippa worked as a theologian, physician, legal expert, and soldier. He devoted his time mainly to the study of the occult sciences and to problematic theological legal questions, which exposed him to various persecutions through life, usually in the mode described above: He would be privately denounced for one sort of heresy or another. He would only reply with venom considerably later (Nauert demonstrates this pattern effectively.)
Michael Rivera
That's so hard to get though, so many records lost, so many commentators purged. Largely what we have to work on is back-tracing probably usage from the materials that synthesized with Christianity. Our best surviving practices are the GMP.
Like item for item? I'd have at least: >wand >robe >black mirror or brazier >sigils (metal plates are superior but if you can't make this shit happen with paper you can't make it happen with metal) >working space I'm of the opinion that you SHOULD simulate what you're able to and wing the rest as need and circumstance dictate. Much of what's important is planetary standardization.
>Paganism as opposed to occultism Paganism is occultism if it's an initiatory cult or mystery tradition. The line is often hard to draw; see GMP.
Both paths are not mutually exclusive. Your "ancestors" will NOT be all your race. Period. The more you work with them, the more opportunity you have to find 'wisdom wherever it's found".
Nolan Barnes
>Grandier Urbain Grandier (born in 1590 in Bouère, died in Mayenne – 18 August 1634 in Loudun) was a French Catholic priest who was burned at the stake after being convicted of witchcraft, following the events of the so-called "Loudun Possessions". The circumstances of Father Grandier's trial and execution have attracted the attention of writers Alexandre Dumas, père, Aldous Huxley and the playwright John Whiting, composers like Krzysztof Penderecki and Peter Maxwell Davies, as well as historian Jules Michelet and various scholars of European witchcraft. Most modern commentators have concluded that Grandier was the victim of a politically motivated persecution led by the powerful Cardinal Richelieu.
>Grimorium Verum The Grimorium Verum (Latin for True Grimoire or The Grimoire of Truth) is an 18th-century grimoire attributed to one "Alibeck the Egyptian" of Memphis, who purportedly wrote in 1517. Like many grimoires, it claims a tradition originating with King Solomon.
The grimoire is not a translation of an earlier work as purported, its original appearing in French or Italian in the mid-18th century, as noted already by A. E. Waite who discussed the work in his The Book of Ceremonial Magic (1911), stating:
The date specified in the title of the Grimorium Verum is undeniably fraudulent; the work belongs to the middle of the eighteenth century, and Memphis is Rome.
Anthony Cook
One of the documents introduced as evidence during Grandier's second trial is a diabolical pact written in Latin and apparently signed by Grandier. Another, which looks illegible, is written backwards, in Latin with scribal abbreviation, and has since been published and translated in a number of books on witchcraft. This document also carries many strange symbols, and was "signed" by several demons with their seals, as well as by Satan himself. Deciphered and translated to English, it reads:
We, the influential Lucifer, the young Satan, Beelzebub, Leviathan, Elimi, and Astaroth, together with others, have today accepted the covenant pact of Urbain Grandier, who is ours. And him do we promise the love of women, the flower of virgins, the respect of monarchs, honors, lusts and powers. He will go whoring three days long; the carousal will be dear to him. He offers us once in the year a seal of blood, under the feet he will trample the holy things of the church and he will ask us many questions; with this pact he will live twenty years happy on the earth of men, and will later join us to sin against God. Bound in hell, in the council of demons. Lucifer Beelzebub Satan Astaroth Leviathan Elimi The seals placed the Devil, the master, and the demons, princes of the lord. Baalberith, writer.
Jaxson Hernandez
>A Candle in the Dark In A Candle in the Dark, Ady attacked current ideas of witchcraft by arguing (as did his opponents) directly from the Bible.
The third part attacks contemporary writes on witchcraft and demonology. Ady suggests the book Daemonologie attributed to King James was ghostwritten by the Bishop of Winchester. He also disagrees strongly with Thomas Cooper ("a bloody persecutor of the poor"), author of the book The Mystery of Witchcraft (1617) and with Matthew Perkins's Discourse (1608), calling it "a collection of mingled notions" from Jean Bodin, Bartolommeo Spina, and "other popish (Catholic) blood suckers" who wrote "great volumes of horrible lies and impossibilities." Ady also corrects John Gaule (author of Select Cases of Conscience touching Witches and Witchcrafts (1646) and Mysmatia, the Mag-astromancer (1652)) and George Gifford (author of A Discourse of the Subtle Practices of Devils by Witches and Sorcerers (1587) and A Dialogue Concerning Witches and Witchcrafts (1593)).
The scholar and librarian George Lincoln Burr called A Candle in the Dark "one of the bravest and most rational of the early protests".
>ST: Saducismus triumphatus A book on witchcraft by Joseph Glanvill, published posthumously in England in 1681.
The editor is presumed to have been Henry More, who certainly contributed to the volume; and topical material on witchcraft in Sweden was supplied by Anthony Horneck to later editions. By 1683 this appeared as a lengthy appendix.
The book affirmed the existence of witches with malign supernatural powers of magic, and attacked skepticism concerning their abilities. Glanvill likened these skeptics to the Sadducees, members of a Jewish sect from around the time of Jesus who were said to have denied the immortality of the soul. The book is also noted one of the earliest descriptions of the use of a witch bottle, a countercharm against witchcraft.
Brayden Johnson
>Andrew Chumbley Chumbley published several limited edition books through his private press Xoanon Publishing, and had many articles printed in occult magazines. Their subject was the doctrine and practice of a tradition of sorcery which he called 'Sabbatic Craft', a term which, according to Chumbley, "describes the way in which elements of witch-lore, Sabbath mythology and imagery were being employed in the cunning-craft tradition into which I was originally inducted". He claimed that this tradition was founded in two lineages of traditional witchcraft, both pre-dating "those modern revivalist forms of witchcraft, which have become generically nominalised as 'wicca'". Chumbley's early articles were published in the chaos magic journal Chaos International; later articles appeared in Starfire, journal of the Typhonian OTO, and in the long-established British witchcraft journal The Cauldron. Daniel A. Schulke succeeded him as Magister of Cultus Sabbati.
Chumbley's work is cited in several journals and books on the occult including The Journal for the Academic Study of Magic, a juried academic journal, Ronald Hutton's The Triumph of the Moon, Laurence Galian's The Sun at Midnight, Phil Hine's Oven Ready Chaos, The Pomegranate journal and The Cauldron magazine.
Aiden Young
The Grimoire of the Golden Toad, by Andrew D. Chumbley
"Here lie the skulls of all mortal gods and goddesses. These serve the Faithful as masks for the Sabbat – for the timely processions of faith upon faith."
This unique grimoire was published in the year 2000, marking the cusp of the old and the new chiliad. It is the first full grimoire-text to treat specifically and from personal account of the Traditional East Anglian ritual called ‘The Waters of the Moon’: the solitary initiation of the so-called ‘Toad-witch’. The textualisation of this magical process was, in this unique instance, undertaken as an extension of the ritual itself – a perfection of its cycle of arcana to a point of individual crystallisation.
The Leaper Between by Andrew D. Chumbley >"You ketch a hopping toad and carry that in your bosom till that's rotted right away to the back-boon. Then you take and hold that over running water at midnight till the Devil he come to you and pull you over the water… and then you be a witch and you kin dew all mander of badness to people and her power over 'em."
So spoke Tilly Baldry of Huntingtoft, an English wise-woman of the 19th century, describing the ritual of obtaining the witches amulet known as the toad-bone. Known to rural folk magicians and secret societies such as the Society of the Horseman's Word, the exacting ritual of killing a toad to obtain the bone of power has been documented in various forms and cultural milieus for two millennia, though its origin is likely far older. Focusing on extant forms in Britain and Europe, Chumbley traces the metamorphosis of the toad-bone amulet from its beginning as a talisman for controlling animals to its ultimate manifestation as a conduit of diabolic power of the 'Toad-Witch'. The first academic study of this little-known aspect of folk magic, The Leaper Between is here presented in unabridged form, newly typeset in several fine bindings worthy of its fascination.
Jackson Hill
>Grimoire of Arthur Gauntlet The Grimoire of Arthur Gauntlet is an outstanding example of a seventeenth century London Cunning-man's book of practice. Cunning-folk were practitioners of magic and herbal medicine who dealt with problems in their local communities. Cunning-man Arthur Gauntlet was based in Gray's Inn Lane in London, and his personal working book contains a fascinating diverse mixture of herbal remedies, prayers, magical and biblical charms, with previously unseen angelic conjurations and magic circles, in an eclectic blend of practical magic for health, wealth, love and protection. This unique manuscript demonstrates both the diverse and spiritual nature of such Cunning-folk's books of practice, as well as their magical emphasis on Biblical scripture, particularly the Psalms, and their opposition to witchcraft, found in charms and conjurations. Arthur Gauntlet worked with a female skryer called Sarah Skelhorn, and drew on numerous preceding sources for his craft, including the Arbatel, the Heptameron, Folger Vb.26, The Discoverie of Witchcraft, the Book of Gold, the writings of the German magus Cornelius Agrippa, the astrologer William Bacon and Queen Elizabeth I's court astrologer Dr. John Dee, as well as other London Cunning-folk.
Jacob Wright
>Your "ancestors" will NOT be all your race. Period.
Calm down, I never even mentioned race nor do I care about it. The question was if magick is something "objective" which we can find truths about, and thus making previous, less accurate, claims more or less worthless. Or if there is some sort of value in cultural practices in the mind of the aspirant. So would you say magick is more like a science of sorts or a personal journey.
The fact that you consider certain materials necessary for Goetic working indicates that you think that there are some laws to be obeyed, making the occult a sort of 'science'. And if this is the case, why would one spend time researching obscure and ancient traditions when more modern currents have laid out these laws you respect?
Jack James
In his introduction, the author provides fresh insights into the hidden world of seventeenth century magical London, exploring the web of connections between astrologers, cunning-folk and magicians, playwrights, authors and church figures. These connections are also highlighted by the provenance of the manuscript, which is traced from Arthur Gauntlet through the hands of such notable angel magicians as Elias Ashmole (founder of the world's first public museum, the Ashmolean in Oxford), Baron Somers (the Lord Chancellor), Sir Joseph Jekyll (Master of the Rolls) and Sir Hans Sloane (founder of the British Museum), as well as the astrologer John Humphreys and the cunning-woman Ann Savadge. This is a unique work which draws attention to the often neglected place of women in seventeenth century magic, both as practitioners (such as skryers and Cunning-women), and customers. It also emphasises the vital and influential role played by Cunning-Men and Women in synthesising and transmitting the magical traditions of medieval Britain into the subsequent centuries, as well as their willingness to conjure a wide range of spiritual creatures to achieve results for their clients, including angels, demons, fairies, and the dead.
Cameron Wood
>So would you say magick is more like a science of sorts or a personal journey. I'd again posit that the distinction is illusory. You're talking to a nondualist here.
>race nor do I care about it You might want to, ijs, exploring ancestral paths will fork you into incredibly wild territory if you make the effort.
>more modern currents have laid out these laws you respect? They do? Of the two most coherent and robust systems that outline these laws, one was formulated before the home radio, the other was formulated before the dotcom boom.
Both of these argue for simulationist/replicatory experimentation more than their way superseding history. Crowley may be something of an exception to this but then you've got way more nuanced takes on his program of abrogation if you tear through his obscure texts.
Wyatt Thomas
>Geosophia Geosophia: The Argo of Magic is Jake Stratton-Kent’s masterpiece. Tracing the development of magic from the Greeks to the grimoires, it lays bare the chthonic roots of goetic ritual. By exposing the necromantic origins of much of modern magic we are able to reconnect with the source of our ritual tradition. There is a continuity of practice in the West which encompasses the pre-Olympian cults of Dionysus and Cybele, is found in the Greek Magical Papyri and Picatrix and flows into the grimoires. Rather than a muddle of superstition, the grimoire tradition is revealed as the living descendant of the ancient practices of the Goes.
This is a work which redefines our understanding of the Western tradition, one which does not begin with Kabbalah or Solomon, but rather descends into the Underworld and brings forth new life. JSK illuminates scarce and overlooked texts with an incisive commentary, from volcanic conjurations to over 70 pages dealing with Picatrix. Following the voyage of the Argonauts, Geosophia offers biographies of the heroes and gods, and discovers the hidden magical meanings and significance of their actions and adventures.
Yet this is not a history lesson, JSK foresees a global synthesis of magic where Western goetic magic, reconnected to its chthonic origins can dovetail with the African Traditional Religions. Like The True Grimoire, this further work in the Encyclopædia Goetica series is both a scholarly and eminently practical work. Geosophia equips the modern grimoire magician with an arsenal of techniques and approaches that will transform their personal art.
The mythic structure of Geosophia anchors the practice of the modern necromancer in an indigenous yet eclectic history which transfuses the Western magical tradition with the same vitality that we find in the African diaspora religions.
Carson Wood
>materials that synthesized with Christianity. Yeah it's ironic that in trying to learn about the pagan past everything you have to read is pretty much Christian polemics
Ayden Morgan
Well, not everything, but enough that it becomes a headache if you weren't prepared for this material.
Between the Eddas and the Nordic grimoire tradition you should have no problem reconstructing a Paganism that's NOT larp-tier. Same with the Greek mystery cults and early evokatory work.
Hell, even some archaeology helps you ballpark rites, particularly in terms of zones of power if you're lucky enough to have a culture with a few preserved in the same rough time block.
Connor Johnson
Bump?
Kevin Mitchell
Always good to see you, Ape. Weren't you busy with some military stuff recently?
Gavin Butler
>military lol no. Not at all.
Ethan Wood
I guess it was another /x/-tripfag then. I myself thought it was weird when I wrote that because I do remember you work in a museum.... right?
Tyler Baker
Yup.
Luke Myers
What are your thoughts on Wicca? Is it a good school of contemporary witchcraft and paganism? Or just new age stuff for edgy teen girls?
Also for rites where a black mirror is used, is that used for scrying and divination? Do you prefer that to a crystal ball? Is it more effective or just personal preference??
Austin Powell
>What are your thoughts on Wicca? Define your terms. """Wicca""" as in the new age section of Barnes and Noble? BTW? Cochraine Craft? Alexandrian? Sabbatic Craft?
>is that used for scrying and divination? Yes, though I personally prefer reading from smoke (the original method).
>crystal ball? They're dodgy for me, I work better with occluded crystal and best with smoke.
Asher Rogers
tl;dr >"""Wicca""" as in the new age section of Barnes and Noble? Teen garbage. >BTW? Decent, initiatory, they may not have ancient tradition but most of the initiates know what they're talking about. >Cochraine Craft? Ahistorical but clever and probably more right than Cochraine realized. >Alexandrian? Same as BTW with less sex magick. >Sabbatic Craft? Best on the block, historical pedigrees, well researched, living current, still publishing stellar work.
African villages believe still in witchcraft. It often poisons the community as people are suspicious of each other, bury all kinds of charms and countercharms under each others doorstept with the occasional bad thing being blamed on a witch that then gets killed or other outgrows such as congolese rapemagic and protectionmagic that does not work.
Fuck Witchcraft.
Nolan Diaz
Wait Mr. Ape-- you seem like you might know the answer to this. So like what's the deal with David Myatt actually? He obviously started or took over the ONA at one point, so why does he deny it?
Caleb Flores
this, witchcraft breeds autistic behavior.
Grayson Phillips
>So like what's the deal with David Myatt actually? He obviously started or took over the ONA at one point, so why does he deny it? It's not obvious at all. Long appears to be a name in communal use. Sometimes it's Myatt. Sometimes it ain't. I'm actually writing up some new thoughts on the O9A, criticism and praise, from the frame of a practitioner.
I've got a fair amount of Afro Carib material.
Gavin Richardson
My take on witchcraft:
1. It's undoubtedly real 2. Most of the witch trials were justified as witches were extremely dangerous 3. It concerned mostly women because a female is Satan's gate to the mortal world ever since Eve. Beware of females.
>b-but if witchcraft is real how come we don't observe it today? Because we fucking killed most witches.
Leo Lewis
To wit: The person who was fisking Mike Aquino into the corners of the earth was NOT Myatt.
>Because we fucking killed most witches. Nowhere near enough, fagmouth. Also, the 'feminine' witch wasn't really a meme until WELL after Formicarius hit the scene.
Zachary Jackson
>person who was fisking Mike Aquino into the corners of the earth was NOT Myatt Right..that makes sense. I'll refine my statement a bit... it's obvious he's involved in some pretty central capacity. And that they share particular preoccupations like "acausality" and stuff. The language and terminology they share make it clear to any reader that they're, at least, collaborators. So it's weird to me that he outright denies it. I haven't read a lot of ONA material (because I find it tedious t-b-h) so maybe I'm out of my depth. Would love to read whatever thoughts you've got on the ONA.
I can't help but be sympathetic to the theory that Myatt "works with" some intelligence service in some capacity. Why else do they not press his connection to C18, or the suicide bombing stuff?
Carson Phillips
The female witch was a thing even in the Bible, like that whore from Endor who conjured up Samuel's ghost.
I think even Murray was somewhat right - witchcraft represents the eternal female, anti-civilization, nature worship primitivism and emotional malice. While the grace of the Lord represents civilization and order.
The "horned god" is a fitting image, since wearing horns is the ancient European symbol of a cuckold - it represents the males bedazzled and cucked by feminine Satanic witchcraft.
Gabriel Campbell
>acausality This is simply a component of the Satanic memeplex. This doctrine may well have been lifted from the Temple of Set. Myatt and Long, insomuch as they're different people, come from the same nexion, sharing the same ideologies, inclined to wear the same masks, and attracted to the same insight roles.
>it's weird to me that he outright denies it If you were Myatt and you could get away with this having nobody pin the central point of emanation on you....would you?
>tedious The O9A is tedious because it works. There's really no denying Myatt verges on polymathic brilliance.
>Myatt "works with" some intelligence service in some capacity I'm with the academics and O9A members, your opinion on that topic says more about you than it does about Myatt. (I'm inclined to agree tho).
Oliver Thomas
Preach.
Jonathan Evans
>I think even Murray was somewhat right - witchcraft represents the eternal female, anti-civilization, nature worship primitivism and emotional malice. While the grace of the Lord represents civilization and order. Then explain the Grimoire of Arthur Gauntlet.
I'm already working on a page of material here. Flowing better than I'd anticipated. I'd hate to unseat Jall as (((outer representative))), her blog's long dead unless I missed something.
Luke Sanchez
>You really think someone would do that, just write a grimoire and fill it with lies?
Blake Ramirez
If you wanna write out a refutation of current scholarship on the title, I'm SURE Brill, Palgrave, Oxford, or any other academic press would LOVE to publish it for 350$ a pop.
Eli Turner
I have better things to do with my time than refute (((academics))) for shekels.
Xavier Morgan
Like shitpost my thread because you get [triggered] by badwrong discussion on a webzone for Vietnamese graphic novels?
Daniel Turner
>...would you? True enough.. why not deny it? >Myatt verges on polymathic brilliance. I can't disagree. I just want to understand what dude is about. Like I said earlier, my interest in "occultism" and magic is mainly for it's retaining of pre-Christian European tradition. So the "myth" about the founding of ONA is particularly interesting to me, and I wish it wasn't obscured with deliberate misinformation. >a page of material here. Well, I'll just "hang up and listen" as they say.
Joseph Cox
That anyone would defend witchcraft does trigger me yes.
Levi Clark
>So the "myth" about the founding of ONA is particularly interesting to me, and I wish it wasn't obscured with deliberate misinformation. Consider this: Spare and Chumbley posit these same survivals of witchcraft in the British countryside. Long (Myatt, Beest, whofuckingever) clearly is trying to cover for the fact that there's obviously some lifted Kabbalah and Crowley by saying neither is a component, when the bare facts of symbolism betray otherwise.
>hang up and listen Don't hold your breath mate, I dunno how much I'm going to functionally finish this evening. Ask away, that may help.
Brayden Ross
Here's a question: why are there so many stories about witches stealing children?
Hudson White
>Ask away In that case...
What's the deal with "Chloe Ortega?" Is she a real person? Also, is Myatt's "renouncing extremism" an "insight role?"
Ryan Parker
Because people want to spook their children into behaving.
Elijah Bailey
But the stories aren't about naughty children being stolen, in fact witches seem to prefer obedient children so your explanation doesn't make sense.
Austin Jenkins
>Is she a real person? Appears so.
>is Myatt's "renouncing extremism" an "insight role?" Maybe. Maybe not. Long was in operation terrorizing cripples when Myatt had a death sorta just shatter him. Everything went quiet for a while. Is Myatt reformed? Maybe not. He'd always espoused an 'ethical' National Socialism in which other races needed preserved as expressions of the physis of the human spirit. He just wanted a white homeland/the Jews to fuck off from control systems. I don't exactly AGREE with this position, but Long insomuch as author of NAOS also advocates for hard left Trotskyite politics to shatter control systems as well.
Certainly the idea of the pathei-mathos is not necessarily in contrast to the imperative toward cultivating volk consciousness. It just becomes more localized and in different focus; love and fellowship starts at home, in a sense.
Because the Moloch rite ain't going to perform itself.
Grayson Perez
And you defend that.
Owen Thompson
Children are pure.
Andrew Morris
>108 In case you missed the last few posts I'm also defending a dude implicated in the mail bombing of children.
Lucas Morris
Which should cause you to seriously re-evaluate your life.
Daniel Turner
Why? Myatt, et. al, posit one of only three seriously viable Satanic currents.
Also his recent work with Greek translation has just really been solid and admirable work no matter how awful you think he is as a human. For what its worth he appears repentant in his new philosophical elaborations.
Owen Collins
>myatt-still-nazi.pdf Hm... so, in your personal opinion, do you think the ONA really constitutes a network of capable individuals who might be 'called to task' or motivated on their own to (attempt to) enact some kind of racialist revolutionary platform? Is the material itself about this at all?
I guess what I'm getting at is, is the ONA "merely" a 'memeplex?' Does it only inspire individuals to undertake strenuous efforts, or better themselves, or learn things? Or is it a radical political group? If it's the latter, even in a small degree, do they have a real potential for organized violence? Or is it a Cold War-mindset holdover from Operation Gladio?
Liam Lewis
Because you will reap what you sow. You can dress it up in whatever high flown academic sounding language you want but the reality is witchcraft and satanism are directly responsible for the rape and murder of children. If you cannot out of your own understanding see why that should not be defended then you are even more far gone than I thought.
Chase Richardson
I'm a neophyte
Cooper Garcia
>do you think the ONA really constitutes a network of capable individuals who might be 'called to task' or motivated on their own to (attempt to) enact some kind of racialist revolutionary platform? That really depends on who we're talking about.
This guys is ready if shit goes down. Pic related.
>is the material *itself* about this at all Maybe not? I'm skeptical of Dark Logos' claims here given Long more or less gives the thumbs up to practice whatever leftist ideology you'd like as long as there's the potential for a few bodies and/or property damage along the way.
>merely a memeplex >>>merely qyq
>Does it only I dunno mate I'm sorta skeptical that most people exposed to the ideology are using it in any serious sense. The hardcore faction tends to stay the same. Most nexion blogs pass away.
>organized anything >O9A That's very very VERY not the point.
>The hardcore faction tends to stay the same. That makes sense. Thanks for taking the time to answer all my questions. I don't know anyone in person who's into this stuff and it's not something you can sort of casually explain to even your intellectual friends. Your picture is very heartening. I get nervous that when SHTF I'll get stuck with a bunch of methodist rednecks who listen to Lynyrd Skynyrd instead of a proper pagan unit >:^). Anyway I suppose I've got one more question. Feel free to not answer. How many people make up this "hardcore faction?"
Wyatt Martin
>11 >How many people make up this "hardcore faction?" Hard to say. So academics put them at like 2-4 thousand. Using my own measures of this sort of thing I'd say under 360.
>So academics put them at like 2-4 thousand Meaning size overall.
>Using my own measures of this sort of thing I'd say under 360. For a hardcore faction, including but not limited to LEA/military infiltration, hardcore blood ritualists, drug dealers, ascetics, survivalists, gangers, skinheads, etc.,
Interdependant as worms in the grave Allah's true name is naught Christ cannot save Locked in a waltz of evermore frantic steps Spells of regret... Death Magick for Adepts
Be prepared to fulfill prophecies The glorious fall of a sin dynasty Gutted on fool's paradise Glutted on cruel appetites...
Which of these occult / witchcraft / pagan traditions can I just join by declaring myself a member, or join through a self dedication or self initiation?
Which traditions would require me to be initiated or accepted by another member or by a group?
Thanks.
Leo Flores
There are too many to list.
Rest assured though that nearly every cooperative rite can be turned into self initiation with some elbow grease.
Nathaniel Davis
When his father died, Milarepa's uncle and aunt took all of the family's wealth. At his mother's request, Milarepa left home and studied sorcery. While his aunt and uncle were having a party to celebrate the impending marriage of their son, he took his revenge by summoning a giant hailstorm to demolish their house, killing 35 people, although the uncle and aunt are supposed to have survived. The villagers were angry and set off to look for Milarepa, but his mother got word to him, and he sent a hailstorm to destroy their crops.[citation needed]
Many of Milarepa's deeds took place in the homeland of Chö kyi Drönma, the Samding Dorje Phagmo, and his life and songs were compiled by Tsangnyön Heruka, sponsored by her brother, the Gungthang king Thri Namgyal De.[2]
Milarepa later lamented his evil ways in his older years in conversation with Rechungpa: "In my youth I committed black deeds. In maturity I practised innocence. Now, released from both good and evil, I have destroyed the root of karmic action and shall have no reason for action in the future. To say more than this would only cause weeping and laughter. What good would it do to tell you? I am an old man. Leave me in peace."[3]
Andrew Phillips
Austin Osman Spare (30 December 1886 – 15 May 1956) was an English artist and occultist who worked as both a draughtsman and a painter. Influenced by symbolism and art nouveau, his art was known for its clear use of line, and its depiction of monstrous and sexual imagery. In an occult capacity, he developed idiosyncratic magical techniques including automatic writing, automatic drawing and sigilization based on his theories of the relationship between the conscious and unconscious self.
Born into a working-class family in Snow Hill in London, Spare grew up in Smithfield and then Kennington, taking an early interest in art. Gaining a scholarship to study at the Royal College of Art in South Kensington, he trained as a draughtsman, while also taking a personal interest in Theosophy and Occultism, becoming briefly involved with Aleister Crowley and his A∴A∴. Developing his own personal occult philosophy, he authored a series of occult grimoires, namely Earth Inferno (1905), The Book of Pleasure (1913) and The Focus of Life (1921). Alongside a string of personal exhibitions, he also achieved much press attention for being the youngest entrant at the 1904 Royal Academy summer exhibition.
Soror Pasht Akhti & Frater Anshar were members of the original Cultus Sabbati when first formed by Andrew Chumbley. In addition, they were founder members of the Column, the inner group which developed and worked the system of rituals that formed the Dragon Book of Essex and also the Ku-Sebittu the ritual group that united members of the Cultus Sabbati and the Typhonian O.T.O. They also engaged in numerous personal workings which informed and expressed Cultus work.
In this collection there is one copy each of all three versions (Standard, Deluxe and Initiate’s Edition) of the recently published Outer Edition of the Dragon Book of Essex. This gives the yearly cycle of rituals by which members of the Cultus Sabbati may unite Heaven and Earth through exploration of the Mysteries of Sex and Death. Thus they may identify with the ancient constellation of Draco, manifesting its stellar influence. They are assisted by contact with ancient Gods and the ancestral spirits, the Witch fathers and Witch Mothers of the Tradition. The three forms of the Outer Edition (which has additional illustrations and other material) may be regarded as the fruit of magickal endeavour which commenced more than twenty years ago. Of course these are actions and experiences that are specific to those ritualists who participated, a time that has gone and a place that is not here. But the ritual texts that were taken out and used are physically existant objects that bear abiding witness to those workings which initiated the process of earthing the Dragon; the creation of the Dragon Book. They show how the rituals developed, with numerous variations to the published versions; and that Soror Pasht Akhti & Frater Anshar were crucially involved. When the Dragon Book was published, Andrew acknowledged their contribution, above all others.
John Whiteside "Jack" Parsons (born Marvel Whiteside Parsons; October 2, 1914 – June 17, 1952) was an American rocket engineer and rocket propulsion researcher, chemist, and Thelemite occultist. Associated with the California Institute of Technology (Caltech), Parsons was one of the principal founders of both the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) and the Aerojet Engineering Corporation. He invented the first rocket engine to use a castable, composite rocket propellant, and pioneered the advancement of both liquid-fuel and solid-fuel rockets.
Though Parsons in his mid-thirties was a "prewar relic" to the younger attendees, the raucous socials often lasted until dawn and frequently attracted police attention.[143] Parsons also founded a new Thelemite group known as "the Witchcraft", whose beliefs revolved around a simplified version of Crowley's Thelema and Parsons' own Babalon prophecies. He offered a course in its teachings for a ten dollar fee, which included a new Thelemic belief system called "the Gnosis", a version of Christian Gnosticism with Sophia as its godhead and the Christian God as its demiurge. He also collaborated with Cameron on Songs for the Witch Woman, a collection of poems which she illustrated that was published in 2014.
"Although his literary career never got much beyond pamphleteering and an untitled anti-war, anti-capitalist manuscript", Parsons played a significant role—greater than that of Church of Satan founder Anton LaVey—in shaping the Californian counterculture of the 1960s and beyond through his influence on contemporaries such as Hubbard and Heinlein. Hugh Urban, religious studies professor at Ohio State University, cites Parsons' Witchcraft group as precipitating the neopagan revival of the 1950s.
Marjorie Cameron Parsons Kimmel (April 23, 1922 – June 24, 1995), who professionally used the mononym Cameron, was an American artist, poet, actress, and occultist. A follower of Thelema, the new religious movement established by the English occultist Aleister Crowley, she was also the wife of rocket pioneer and fellow Thelemite Jack Parsons.
"[Cameron's] art and spiritual life were one. They were indivisible ... But that said, you can be a total sceptic or atheist, or know nothing of her spiritual practice, and still be deeply moved or blown away by her exquisitely rendered, and beautiful envisioned drawings and paintings. It's the work that remains. These sublime treasures that she seems to have captured and brought back from a netherworld for us all to view."
Cameron's occult beliefs closely impacted her artworks. According to The Huffington Post, Cameron's artwork merges "Crowley's occult with the surrealism and symbolism of French poets, yielding dark yet whimsical depictions buzzing with otherworldly power". The art curator Philippe Vergne described her work as being situated on "the edge of surrealism and psychedelia", embodying "an aspect of modernity that deeply doubts and defies cartesian logic at a moment in history when these values have shown their own limitations"
