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Comment by Mark Anthony Richfield on August 21, 2014 at 15:27

Greetings from Vancouver BC Canada

Comment by Ashfox on February 6, 2011 at 18:47

Hi Hope,

Gnosis is the state of enlightenment, or at one with the supreme being.  Wiki has a good writeup on it.  In Chaos magic the concept has an ancestor in the Buddhist concept of Samadhi, made popular in western occultism by Aleister Crowley and further explored by Austin Osman Spare.


The gnostic state is achieved when the magician's mind is focused on only one point, thought, or goal and all other thoughts are thrust out.  This is "Western meditation" - as opposed to Eastern Meditation where the goal is to focus on completely blanking out *all* thoughts.

Chaos magicians find it in themselves to reach this state.


But it has to hinge on the belief that a simple thought or direction experienced during the gnostic state should then be forgotten quickly afterwards to bypass the psychic censor (consciousness-faculties averse to the magical manipulation of reality) so it can be sent to the subconscious, rather than the conscious mind, where it can be enacted through means unknown to the conscious mind.

Three main types of gnosis are described by Phil Hine:

    * Inhibitory gnosis is a form of deep meditation into a trance state of mind. This type of gnosis uses slow and regular breathing techniques, absent thought processes, progressive muscular relaxation, self-induction and self-hypnosis techniques. Means employed may also include fasting, sleeplessness, sensory deprivation and hypnotic or trance inducing means.

    * Excitatory gnosis describes a mindlessness reached through intense arousal. It is aimed to be reached through sexual excitation, intense emotions, flagellation, dance, drumming, chanting, sensory overload, the "right way of walking" described by Carlos Castaneda, hyperventilation and the use of substances.

    * Indifferent vacuity was described by Phil Hine and Jan Fries as a third method. Here the intended spell is cast parenthetically, so it does not raise much thought to suppress.

As for tarot, you don't need a tarot deck - you can use 3 coins and the I Ching to get a meaningful divination.

Some even use a TV tuned to a dead channel and stare at it for hours to each a state of gnosis.  Instead of a crystal ball, some even stare into a clear light bulb -- magic is in us - Your will will be done.

I prefer a pendulum for my divination-   I made it myself and am quite proud of it.  I'll post a pic of it soon.

Comment by Ashfox on February 4, 2011 at 14:24

There are shadows lurking in every person's inner life;  psychic darknesses sheltering inner conflicts and unexpressed emotions. It takes its shape from a menagerie of archetypes, each recognizable throughout time and around the world.

Troubling characters who thrive within our persona. The "shadow" is a saboteur, martyr, victim, addict, sadist, masochist, or tyrant... Dark figures that prey on the lighter qualities of the human personality.

The shadow also represents latent talents and positive traits that were banished from us at some time along our life path: artistic, musical, athletic, or creative talents... Usually because of a disconnect from our phuysical self from our astral self.

Undeveloped abilities, dreams that have gone unexpressed, fantasies of what might have been ...these, too, make up the personal shadow, the lost parts of ourselves.

To channel the negative characters in our personality, we first must bring them into our waking consciousness.

Some people use tarot or other divination work, some use gnosis, some use drugs -- but it is our own responsibility to merge the light and dark of our being into a cohesive one-person.


The idea is to come to terms with life's dualities ... embrace the darkness, and learn to balance the light with the shadow.

I still stick by my suggestion of Ramsay Duke's "Little book of Demons"... but many people do a lot of this work on their own - I stumbles upon this thread from a different forum that might be of help:

    http://forums.vsociety.net/index.php?topic=17358.0
   
   
...Am I getting warmer to what it is you're asking?

Comment by Ashfox on January 26, 2011 at 12:08

Hi Aydan,

By Shadow work, I'm assuming you mean describing the part of the psyche that we'd rather not acknowledge... The denied parts of the self.   The general Jungian theory being that since the self contains these aspects, they surface in one way or another.

Is this correct?  Because you might be wanting to discuss something I'm not aware of.... But if I may continue with my thought -  I have my own personal theory that shadowed aspects of the soul are in psychological terms described as the unconscious - but in the magickal realm they are descriptions of  servitors and demons.

As a student (and later magus) of Alistier Crowley once said:  "...If the kingdom of heaven is within us all, why pay more that $10 bucks for an occult book?..."

But seriously...

From the standpoint of chaos magic practice, the soul's shadow spaces are explored with sigil magic, servitor creation and demonology - 

Yes, Shadow work sessions are expensive, but there is much to discover about your soul via some good magick texts that cover this ground from a different path.

 

Try reading the online version of Stephen Mace's "Taking Power" - the link is here:

    http://www.scribd.com/doc/37061869/Stephen-Mace-Taking-Power

..Or Uncle Ramsay's "Little book of demons"

 

Just my 2,

Peace and Happiness to you

 

Comment by Aydan Quinn on January 25, 2011 at 1:08

i was wondering what books do you guys recommend on shadow work? I'm not sure where to start with this, and the info that i'm recieving on the internet is limited, but they offer expensive sessions dealing with shadow work that are quite out of my price range.

Comment by Ashfox on January 23, 2011 at 22:34

Hi Hope,

 

They're all good, but the attached text to this post (Taking Power by Steve Mace) is a really good ePub.  Enjoy.

 

http://www.scribd.com/doc/37061869/Stephen-Mace-Taking-Power

 

PS-   A good book on Amazon is "Uncle Ramsay's Little Book of Demons".

 

Comment by Ashfox on January 6, 2011 at 11:22

There's are a lot things written by chaotes that are very humorous in nature -- made to poke fun at Crowley, Cunnungham, and others. Austin O. Spare wrote many things which were very inflammatory in the magical world, involving everything from the complete debunking of ceremonial magic to the description of the complete fallout between himself and Crowley.

I personally make it a policy to never poke fun at anyone unless I'm prepared for the consequences - specifically, the old adage "live bythe sword, die by the sword" holds for me, especially since words are either weapons or medicine.

FWIW - many phrases in the lore of other pagan paths poke fun atother religions or are downright hostile - Le Sorcerie comes to mind.

Also FWIW- saying jokes about the divine is not as such disrespectful, but you better be damn sure you know what you're doing... I'm sure the Divine enjoys a good laugh.  Humor can show both ultimate respect and ultimate humiliation.  Humiliating a deity is of course never a good idea... so if you choose to jest with the Divine, choose your words extremely carefully.

I personally don't think The Gods and Goddeses of the Divine mind so much if someone tries to approach them in a humorous way -- In fact, it's prolly a unique way to get their attention.  But, as someone who goes up on open-mike nights at comedy clubs, I can tell youfirst hand that comedy is one of the hardest things in the world to pull off... and I certainly wouldn't want to bomb in front of that audience.

Comment by VLM on January 2, 2011 at 16:35

PS: You will find that most magicians take many things seriously.. Since you can mess something up and end up with permanent psychological damage...

 

I don't know about you, but seeing pixies everywhere all the time, or voices talking to me, isn't my idea of happy fun times.. (though it could be after the fact.)

Comment by VLM on January 2, 2011 at 16:33

Hey Stonewolf,

A big part of the critisism for those exploring chaos magick is that many of them are simply dabblers, or armchair occultists.  Also, most don't seem to take many things seriously, sometimes to the detriment of themselves or others.

 

Saying things like, "without sucking up to a god..." generally seem disrespectful to people who do follow, work with, worship, or pay respect in some form to a god, goddess, or both. 

 

The big thing about Chaos Magick is that it's about the system..  you do what gets results for you... but unlike most other forms of magic, the system IS the goal.. There is no actual goal to it, outside of perfecting that system.

 

Also, there is really two groups of chaos magicians..  Main ones, anyhow.  The serious practicioners, and the fake it till you make it crowd.  Those who do, and those who wish they did, and talk like they do.. but really don't have a clue.

 

Which group a particular magician is in, is very easy to tell to other magicians, in general, as well.

 

Hope this helps

 

LVX,

Shawn..

Comment by the horned mod, crununos on January 2, 2011 at 12:40

"...sucking up to a god..." ..... seriously?.... you really should think before ya speak

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