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Driving is fun. [23 Nov 2001|10:25am] [ mood | contemplative ] [ music | AFI - Fall Children ] Central to Jung's work was the collective unconscious, a "myth-producing level of mind common to all." Alchemy, often misunderstood as chemists trying to make gold out of base metals, was in fact a spiritual quest for philisophical gold - a pinnacle of spiritual development. Not only is it rich with the archetypal images that compose the collective unconscious, but it also attempted to work with them and unify them. Jung saw this as a symbolic process of individuation. Although, as a religion, alchemy has ceased to exist, as a psychological-awakening system it can still illuminate us. Through not being institutionalised, it retained an intimate relationship with the collective unconscious. And, in compensating for the one-sidedness of dominant religions, it addressed similar problems to the ones that we face now, but from a different historical point. 7 comments|post comment

Raining Apathy: UNDERWEAR GNOME [20 Nov 2001|04:17pm] [ mood | relieved ] [ music | :wumpscut: - Angel ] Language is dead. Words are numb symbols that barely convey the emotions that they're meant to. 5 comments|post comment

Raining Apathy: You say it was your birthday....dun dun dun dun da [18 Nov 2001|11:31am] [ mood | content ] [ music | Katatonia - Dispossession ] Gnosis is a lapse in conscious/rational mind that allows the subconscious mind to fully function. The easiest example of this state is the exact moment of orgasm. The term "gnosis" is used because the state allows for the instantaneous, intuitive (as opposed to consciously deduced) grasping of a much larger set of the variables involved in causing an outcome to manifest from any given state of events. This is done because the time it takes to reason out such a large set prohibits effect; by the time the relationships are consciously worked out, the variables have changed. It must be done instantaneously in order to be effective. If Gnosis could be placed anywhere on the Kabalistic Tree of Life, it would likely be at Keter. Once the state of gnosis has ended, one can get an idea of how profound the experience was by trying to recall what exactly happened. The less that can be remembered, the more profound the experience of the state. Perfect gnosis would leave no signature in the rational mind, not even the awareness of a gap in time. 1 comment|post comment

Raining Apathy: BITCHSTICK! [12 Nov 2001|04:07pm] [ mood | relaxed ] [ music | My Dying Bride - Like Gods of the Sun ] Bacchus was the Roman god of wine and intoxication, and was equated with the Greek Dionysos. His cult was introduced to Rome around 400 BCE and was closely modelled on that of Dionysos. The object of a secret cult whose rites, the Bacchanalia, were infamous for their sexual license and criminal behavior. Bacchus was also known as Liber (although the latter was sometimes considered a separate entity), and under this name was honored in the festival of the Liberalia. 1 comment|post comment

LordConsequences: I can't wait until I'm a slut. [07 Nov 2001|07:13pm] [ mood | apathetic ] [ music | Danzig - She Rides ] Dualism is the metaphysical doctrine that there are two substances, distinct and independent types of being, one material and the other spiritual. Material substance is variously defined as physical or material and is asserted to be the underlying reality of the empirical world, i.e., the world we see, hear, etc., and measure with our senses as well as with technical instruments that extend the range of the senses, such as electron microscopes, telescopes, radar, etc. The spiritual world is variously described negatively as the non-physical, non-material reality underlying the non-empirical world, variously called the psychological, the mental or the spiritual world. Dualists are fond of a belief in immortality. If there is another type of reality besides the body, this non-body can survive death. The non-body can conceivably exist eternally in a non-physical world, enjoying non-physical pleasures or pains distributed by a non-physical God. This notion seems to be non-sense, but it apparently gives many people great comfort and hope. 3 comments|post comment

CyRaptor: huzzah. [02 Nov 2001|10:41pm] [ mood | hyper ] [ music | Rozz Williams - HER Only sIN ] Beauty (Tipareth) is a Stellated Icosahedron. Its part of the soul is the Heart. This form has thirty-two Vertices, and the Hebrew word for Heart has a Gematria value of the same value. Leb (heart) is the sum of 30+2, and the Vertices of the form also are the sum of two values; 20+12. The twenty outer points of the form connect very neatly inside of the Stellated Dodecahedrons inner Vertices, and in like manner another SD can be constructed from the inner Vertices of the SI, and another SI within the SD, etc.. So these forms reproduce each other infinitely; one within the other. This is the essence of the fractal. The fractal replicates at alternating nodes of 12 and 20 Vertices. At nodes of 20 two other forms are also constructed. 5 comments|post comment

Aye. [29 Oct 2001|10:20pm] [ mood | cold ] [ music | Shadow Project - Holy Hell ] The most common misconception about Friedrich Nietzsche, held by many, is that he was a nihilist. Nihilism is one of the central structures of his works, but it was not a statement that provided a basis for this system of beliefs (of lack of thereof), but rather, it was his question. Nietzsche's attitude towards nihilism is displayed most clearly in The Gay Science, where he announces for the first time that "God is dead." This declaration adds up to Nietzsche's recognition that without a god, humans are deprived of the supports of eternal truths. All views that pronounce such truths (or even their possibilities) rely on the existence of a god. The death of any god is what poses the nihilist question for modern man. One may think, "If God is dead, then nothing is forbidden." This is the nihilist void, and rather than keeping his distance from it, Nietzsche holds our faces to the edge and forces us to take a long, hard look into it. What does this void consume? Everything. 6 comments|post comment

CyRaptor: eyeballs are hilarious. [25 Oct 2001|08:56pm] [ mood | restless ] [ music | Unto Ashes - Teach Me How To Drown ] Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angles, but don't have love, I have become as sounding brass or a clanging cymbal.  And though I have the gift of prophecy and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and though I have all faith, so that I could move mountains, but have not love, I am nothing.  And though I give all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned, but have not love, it profits me nothing.  Love suffers long and is kind; love does not envy; love does not parade itself, is not puffed up.  Love does not behave rudely, love does not seek its own, love is not provoked, love thinks no evil.  Love does not rejoice in iniquity, but rejoices in the truth.  Love bears all things, love believes all things, love hopes all things, love endures all things.  Love never fails.  But where there are prophecies, they will fail; where there are tongues, they will cease; where there is knowledge, it will vanish away.  For we know in part and we prophesy in part.  But when that which is perfect has come, then that which is in part will be done away.  When I was a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child; but when I became a man, I put away childish things.  For now we see in a mirror, dimly but then face to face.  Now then I shall know just as I am known.  And now abides faith, hope and love.  These three, but the greatest is love. 1 Corinthians 13 3 comments|post comment

How 'bout that art? [22 Oct 2001|12:02pm] [ mood | sick ] [ music | Tool - Lateralis/Lateralus ] The word "art" is used so often and so loosely, it seems as if it can be applied to anything. However, a word that can be used to describe or name anything is a word that has no meaning. To find the meaning of the word, it is necessary to find the human need (or want) that it fulfills. Humans are conceptual beings. We think not only in specifics, but in abstracts. To learn more about the world around us, we build abstracts upon other abstracts. Each step higher in the matrix of abstracts brings us to a broader sense of reality. Each step also takes us farther from the clarity that comes from direct perception or contact. This is not to say that our abstractions are incorrect or unclear. If our use of reason is accurate enough, the abstractions will correspond to/interact with reality. The difficulty, then, is using the abstractions for further reasoning. The higher the level of abstraction, the more difficult it is to fully grasp it. Art is the tool that makes it possible for us to grasp complex abstractions. 1 comment|post comment

Plato = my bitch. [20 Oct 2001|03:24pm] [ mood | apathetic ] [ music | The Velvet Underground - Sunday Morning ] Evil is the vulgar lover who loves the body rather than the soul, inasmuch as he is not even stable, because he loves a thing which is in itself unstable, and therefore when the bloom of youth which he was desiring is over, he takes wing and flies away, in spite of all his words and promises; whereas the love of the noble disposition is life-long, for it becomes one with the everlasting. The custom of our country would have both of them proven well and truly, and would have us yield to the one sort of lover and avoid the other, and therefore encourages some to pursue, and others to fly; testing both the lover and beloved in contests and trials, until they show to which of the two classes they respectively belong. -Pausanias, in Plato's "Symposium" 2 comments|post comment

Raining Apathy: WE CAN DANCE IF WE WANT TO [17 Oct 2001|06:38pm] [ mood | full ] [ music | Semotus Vita - Virtue[less] ] Every student of magick would benefit from studying math, because it leaves the student with a set of lenses through which to view the world, and a set of tools for altering the things that these lenses reveal. Moreover, math is an art with no limits - any tool can theoretically be applied to any task, if the task is viewed properly. The methods of math carry quite well into the realms of metaphor, into other types of mental pursuit - mysticism, logic, philosophy - resulting in overall expansion of the student's cognitive ability. This mirrors the method of the magickian, who presents hirself with a never-ending set of new experiences and ideas. These in turn have to be assimilated into some sort of overall framework, whether this be Kabalah, mythology, chaos, materialism, or humanism. This framework is never completely stable, and the magician may find hirself at a nexus where the framework is suddenly and severely tested. It must then be rebuilt or replaced - how is this to be done? The student who is well grounded in "solid" cognitive disciplines such as math, logic, psychology, symbolism, or philosophy will have a better chance of surviving these types of "paradigm shifts" unscarred. With magickal maturity, even the framework itself becomes only a tool that can be changed at will, as a serpent sheds its skin. The history of mysticism is closely tied to the pursuit of mathematical understanding. Pythagoras is perhaps the most well-known example of a mathematician-mystic, but the truth is that math's footprints can be found everywhere in magick: the occurance of the Golden Ratio in Egyptian temples, the pentagram, and the religious paintings of Leonardo da Vinci... numerical symbolism that has changed little over thousands of years... the encoding of astronomical data at sites like Stonehenge... the age-old practice of gematria, assigning numerical value to the letters of the alphabet... the remarkable similarity between modern cosmology and ancient Kabalah... and so on and so forth. Most of magick's pre-eminent figures, notably John Dee and Aleister Crowley, were well-educated in math, and math played a considerable role in their work. 2 comments|post comment

Audiogalaxy sucks. [15 Oct 2001|06:37pm] [ mood | drained ] [ music | Skinny Puppy - Convulsion ] The Unicursal Hexagram originated from the Golden Dawn document "Polygons & Polygrams." When Regardie published his book "The Golden Dawn," he did not have access to document it, and it was first published by Aleister Crowley, which lead to the generel misconception that Crowley originated the Unicursal Hexagram. The Unicursal Hexagram is a solution to the problem of drawing a six-pointed figure in a single pass, which can be done with a traditional pentagram. This one-pass version is easier to trace in the air during rituals than the several Star of David variants, consisting of superimposed separate triangles. In addition, it has some symbolic advantages as well, such as its inclusion of the center point in the figure, and its radial asymmetry. Combined with the Marian Rose, the Unicursal Hexagram becomes Crowley's personal sigil, which is the magickal union of 5 and 6 adding up to 11, the number of magick and new beginnings. The Unicursal Hexagram also symbolizes the beauty of Tiphareth. This is at the center of the Tree of Life on the Pillar of Equilibrium. It connects to all other Sephera, except for Malkuth. It is the first Sephera below the abyss, directly in line with Kether. The hexagram has always been recognized as a symbol of the balance of power, politically, religiously, and spiritually. The Unicursal Hexagram represents victory after struggle. The ensuing pleasure and success following the completion of any of life's "great works" is what we all strive to feel, but not finality. That is Malkuth. In Tiphareth, we are only half way to the ultimate goal. 1 comment|post comment

I froze my ass off on Friday night. [14 Oct 2001|10:17am] [ mood | tired ] [ music | Darkthrone - The Pagan Winter ] Although he was well known for his many books on ritual magick, Eliphas Lévi is best known for his work regarding the deity of the Knights Templar, Baphomet. Lévi considered Baphomet to be a dipiction of the absolute in symbolic form. Most believe that Lévi's Baphomet contained the dualistic nature of life, along with the male/female aspects of creation. Is is also believed that the two arms, one pointed skyward while the other is pointed downward, are perhaps a representation of the Hermetic axiom "As Above, So Below." Eliphas Lévi was the first to seperate the pentagram into good and evil aspects, and was also the one who first incorporated the goat-headed Baphomet into the inverted pentagram, attributing the qualities of materialism and the Left Hand Path to this symbol. post comment

optical pleasure: you little bitch!!!!!!! [09 Oct 2001|09:45pm] [ mood | frustrated ] [ music | Death - Voice of the Soul ] an·ger (ang`gur) n. A strong feeling of displeasure or hostility. hate (haite) n. Intense animosity or dislike; hatred. Anger is a state of the soul/emotional being, and is a constructive emotion. Hate is a state of heart, and is destructive, but is not necessarily considered an emotion. One can feel happiness, sadness, rage, or euphoria while holding hate in his heart. Anger is more of a response or reaction to something/someone that is causing one discomfort, and is the state of mind/emotional self that wants to use force as a defense. Hate is the want, sometimes even the need, to cause pain. It is not simply a reaction, but, rather, a planned reaction. One can't learn anger, for it's already embedded within the human psyche. It's a mundane human state of emotion. However, one can learn hate and how to employ it as a weapon. 2 comments|post comment

I saw "Hannibal" last night. [09 Oct 2001|04:06pm] [ mood | hungry ] [ music | Opeth - Harvest ] "When a species is driven to eat their own, all cultural traditions are gone." The major characteristic of the artist's mind is that he sees a raw difference in actual reality (based on his own personal senses) and conditioned reality (what he is told). The creative mind is always pulled toward truth, in order to lessen the gap between actual and conditioned reality. When the gap becomes too great, the artist will see the conditioned reality as beyond repair, and will begin to destroy it. In order to destroy this particular reality, he must break the moral laws and taboos of society. The final and ultimate taboo to be broken is cannibalism. 4 comments|post comment

optical pleasure: omFUCKINGgawd!!!! scott stapp is SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO hottttt. [06 Oct 2001|04:09pm] [ mood | calm ] [ music | Arch Enemy - The First Deadly Sin ] My studies of alchemy may seem obscure and baffle many people, but taken symbolically - the symbolic gold of great worth, or the transforming philosopher's stone 'lapis philosophorum' hunted for centuries by the alchemists - is to be found in man. -Carl Gustav Jung In its genesis, alchemy was an experimental scientific/magickal process that involved the transformation of physical lead into physical gold. After much development, the major goal of alchemy became very different in nature. For most alchemists, alchemy had become a process that brought about a drastic transformation in the human psyche. Much more emphasis was put into the magickal/psychological aspect than into the scientific. Carl Jung saw that the alchemical process of transforming a worthless base into a precious metal reflected an internal developmental/transformation process of wholeness, which he termed "individuation." It seems that Jung merely valued physical alchemy for its symbolism and reflection of psychological alchemy. But in fact, he did learn through his studies that many early alchemists were aware of a corresponding internal psychological transformation process that took place during the physical process. What sets the earliest alchemists apart from inner alchemists is the fact that the former believed that they were dealing only with physical materials at hand. Today, many believe that Jung merely reduced the alchemical transformation process to nothing more than a transformation process that which took place within the human psyche. Others think that these modern-day critics "just don't get it." 5 comments|post comment

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