Chaos magic II

I found this post at the Abrahadbra forums. Its good, easy to understand and connects alot with my personal thoughts:

Chaos magicians do not believe in belief. There is no such thing as truth, so it's no use trying to find that one correct belief that corresponds to external reality. The core maxim of chaos magick is Hassan i-Sabbah's last words:

NOTHING IS TRUE; EVERYTHING IS PERMITTED

Yes, chaos magicians can be quite shallow and puerile (like Peter Carroll and others), but the philosophy of chaos magick, as I understand it and as I practice it, is mystic. In fact, I'd go so far as to say it is the foundation of all mysticism and all magick. Do I have your attention? Let me explain -

How is magick different from science or philosophy? Science and philosophy (analytic philosophy at least) seek to give a true account of the universe. They seek a set of propositions, sentences, mathematical equations and pictures that will give Knowledge. All you need to do is read the book and you know What's What.
Mysticism and magick, on the other hand, argue that reality and concepts are two different things. Reality is not a concept, so it can never be told. You can read The Book of The Law (and the commentaries too), but you haven't gained any insight into Truth. Truth must be experienced ('tasted' as the Sufis say), so we have all these practices to get to that state.
So aren't mystics basically just saying "Nothing is true"? That is to say, no sentence is Truth, no concept is reality. The Tao that can be told is not the true Tao.

It follows quite naturally from this that no moral law is true, therefore everything is permitted. (The teaching "Everything is permitted" is identical with the law of Thelema.)

The name 'chaos magick', in one sense, refers to the belief in Chaos as the being underlying everything. If something is Pure Chaos, then nothing can be said of it. If you can talk about it meaningfully, then it has order; it's not really Chaos. Chaos is the ineffable state from which everything emanates. It is therefore synonymous with Tao. (Compare Roman theogony, where Chaos is the father of all other gods.)

Other readings are "No thing is true", which is the Buddhist teaching of emptiness and impermance. Or "Nothing (i.e. The Void) is true", where "nothing" means something like Japanese Zen's "mu" or the Qabalistic zero.

You can, on the other hand, take the phrase "Nothing is True; everything is permitted" shallowly, to mean that there is neither mystic nor factual truth and that you should therefore follow your egotistical desires and drives like the Satanists do. Many chaos magicians do this and chaos magick has therefore gotten the reputation of being a shallow, materialistic system of sorcery. But that is just the shallowness of people with no insight and no interest in The Great Work. Similarly, I could take "Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the law" shallowly and think it gives licence for violence, greed and pettiness, but I'd just be interpreting it wrongly.

Notting Hill

I have just finished re-watching the film Notting Hill. Now people may smile or think Im just daft but I really like these cheesy love story kind of movies. And they have to have a happy ending of course. Not alot of films manage to make me laugh out loud but this one actually does. BUt it also brings forth a couple of joyful tears.

I really wish I could experience something like what they do in the movie and where things end up on a good note. I dont have a desire for it to be with a celebrity though I just want that great girl who in the end just wants to be with me. Now this may sound kind of corny but really who doesnt want that?

I thought I had it before. Walking down the street with my girlfriend just being so damn proud she was with me and not some other guy. Wanting to be with her and no one else and thinking she was in the same place. I want that feeling again but already having lost it once has made it harder for me to hope. Thats when movies like this comes in handy. They make me smile and feel better and they do manage to give me some hope even though they may be cheesy and in alot of cases unrealistic. You know at least I feel good after having seen them.



And Julia Roberts really is wonderful in this film :)

To vote or not vote.

Just a small note before I go to a friend to study some. Yesterday I was thinking about a conversation I had at work with a woman who I think to a large degree summarizes the general Swedish standard outlook on things. Actually I get mad about her opinions alot of times but the thing this time around was about democracy and voting.

I dont know what other countries say but in Sweden alot of people is taught that if one doesnt vote at all (not even a blank vote) one has no right to complain about the political climate. I think that is totally wrong (and this comes from someone who did vote in the previous election).

Why would anyone take away the feelings of unsatisfaction with the current political climate if one doesnt vote. Sure the individual hasnt done anything to change the climate through voting but who took away his or her right to not me satified because of that?

Back when I was in school I remember what caused the most controversy was the amount of people not voting. Ever since I've seen these tendencies outside of just the school world as well. With less votes in general people worry about more extreme parties may thrive or the established parties finally get their head out of their asses and try to be creative to lure people back into voting for them. To just vote blank almost never gives anything. People just nod their heads and say "ok, so no existing party suited them, thats alrigh" and nothing is ever done about it. I think not voting at all is a bigger statement that one really doesnt believe on what the parties have to say.

And to make a extreme comparison no one ever say that the fans didnt have a right to be disapointed with say the Swedish football team in the world cup this summer. Very few outside of the team has probably had anything to do with their training, getting better and working to eliminate their weaknesses. Regardless people were so disapointed and starte to complain. Thing is even if we arent directly involved in a process I think we have the right complain about it if we see that it isnt any good according to our standards. Why shouldnt we?

Unplanned and unscripted.

I usually tend to plan out what I am going to write before I actually log in to publish it on the blog. This time however I havent done so. So if this post seems a little bit random and if different parts of it may not connect with eachother thats why.

I've been in the same place for several months now. Neither is it getting worse nor better. Im still feeling down which is also why I seemingly have no interest in reading up on heavy subjects such as religion and philosophy. What I have been able to read that makes me escape is Terry Funks biography. A good book I started on a year ago or so but never got through. Im almost done with it now and it has helped me to think of other things. While on the subject of wrestling even though I saw NOAH live this year I have not seen a whole lot of their product in 2008. However WWE have really been at it throughout the summer. Im really enoying thir stuff now probably more than I have since I started watching RAW and SD on ar egular basis (mate 2001). Just alot of things happening, new or fresh talent pushed (CM Punk, The Brian Kendrick, Edge and MVP) and old talent pushed just right (Undertaker and Triple H) etc. They are on a roll. Its just to bad William Regal messed up his push. I'd love to see that go somewhere.

I have also been worrying about the future. Of course I still cant let go of the past which really sucks and which makes me not being able to focus on what I want to do now. What I know is that I should look into getting a new job. I've been looking at some stuff in the hotel business. Its a little bit better payed and I think it wont tear as much on the body as my current job does.

I was also out to dinner with a friend a couple of days ago. It was a great storm that day but of course it came when I had already decided to go from the train to the sub-way station where we decided to meet. Sure, I had an umbrella but with the hard and heavy wind and the raining of cats and dogs I was soaked from the waist down when we got there. Not very pleasant. Anyway my friend and I spoke and he thinks I should get my education. I basically have 2 years of religion and one year of philosophy and just some small stuff to get the last remaining points in each course. If I read some more I could probably become a teacher. We will get together tomorrow to study sso we'll see how that works out.

However I also have a strong urge to move, and when I say move I mean far away. Im thinking London would be cool. However Im not sure I want that because of the right reasons. As you all know my ex is from England (not London though) and I was so set on moving there. If I do now Im scared it might still be because of her even though we do not speak to eachother anymore. A part of me want to do it to be free and come to something all new and start over. Another part of me wants to do it so I can be in the same country as my ex if things dont work out for her so I can easily go to her. I know its fucked up.

Last weekend my band played a show in Norway at the small Mölla festival. It was great and Knut (the man in charge) was great as always. It was intense though and I didnt enjoy much after the gig the same night. Its just people doing stuff that other friends also experimented with a few years ago and Im not really into that kind of stuff (I guess you know what I talk about). I hope they grow away from it eventually. My other friends did. However this being the music scene one never knows :-|

And also Im getting ready for my first run in over a week. I was of course busy the last weekend and then I have had a small pain in my leg the following week. Nothing serious I dont think but I dont wanna make it worse. Man I hate when I havent trained for a while and then start doing it again. Its never fun but maybe it can clear my mind somewhat. At least for the moment.

Im trying to think if there was more stuff I wanted to get of my chest but I cant think of anything. So over and out...

Votes for "other" in the poll.

I have seen that 5 people have voted "other" in the poll. Why not make a comment to this post and tell me what you consider is the best religious label for you?

Update!

I made a small update with a link list and the possibility to subscribe to the blog. The links do not necesarrily reflect my own thoughts and opinions but for one reason or another I find them worthy of a read. More links will be added as time goes by.

Edit #1: The Temple of Set website is listed because of the two excellent e-books Michael Aquino hs published there. One is his view on The Church of Satan from 1966 to 1975 and the other deals with The Temple of Set but it is a work in progress (i.e. uncomplete).

Two short texts are linked to, Tao Te Ching and Heraclitus Fragments. Both well worth a read but I may not agree with all they have to say. There is also a article on Sunyata and atman, the relationship between hinu and buddhistsic metaphysics. Interesting stuff.

The 600 Club and Abrahadbra websites have nice forums which I like to visit every now and then. At times there are some threads that are well worth a read.

I linked to Cavalcare La Tigre because the author sometimes touches on some really interesting subjects even though I dont agree with him(?) in general. The Stinas blog I found only yesterday and since I've been playing with the though of moving to London I found her story interesting and worth a read.

The extent of magick's power.

These are two posts from the abrahadabra forums. I love the response given to post numer one.

coma_gnosis:

Chaos magick can do many things, it seems. It can bend "laws" of nature, change what is considered unchangeable, and create things and situations that could be considered impossible by others...

I've encountered many people who claim that magick can only affect the mind, some who say magick can have only slight affects on the world, others who say magick can do some things but not others, and other people who believe magick can do pretty much anything. I am of the last group. I think that magick can do things considered impossible by others.

I believe magick can trigger physical effects instantly, I believe it can changes a physical shape into another, I believe it can break any "law" or "rule" that would limit a magician.

I don't believe these things so that I'll feel more in control of my life or so that I'll feel special. I simply don't see any point to not believing you can do something. After all, if you don't believe something will work, it probably isn't going to. But if you believe it can, there's a chance it can work and you can do things experience life in ways that those who doubt cannot.

Have any of you experienced an "impossible" thing because you believed?

Wolfman:

I've experienced 'impossible' things and I don't think it mattered whether I 'believed' in what was happening or not. I think that's the trick: Humans get so caught up in what they 'believe in' or what they don't - when all along the multiverse is doing exactly what it wants to.

Directionless.

I have been rather unsure of what direction I want to take with my life as of late. Well, more than usual. I wrote on the blog about how I met this girl I had an interest in. I also wrote a post on how happy I was for stepping away from the whole thing in time. And I truly was even if I still enjoyed being friends with her.

However I made things complicated a few days ago and I think looking back at things that we both made some bad moves. In any case it seems like she doesnt want to speak to me anymore which is a shame because I really enjoyed her as a friend. I guess part of that is because of my behaviour of not being able to know what I want.

All of this is of course because of my mental state and Im always looking for things to break the pattern but Im still very much locked inside a bubble I seemingly cant break out of. Like right now for example. It really is to late for me to be up because Im off to work early tomorrow morning but when I went to bed my mind just couldnt relax. I have so much in my head right now and I dont know what to do about it so here I am writing to get my mind to rest. I know that it will work eventually.

They say after rain comes sunshine but its been raining for so long that I have almost forgotten how the sun looks. And everytime I have a good few days or a week I somehow fall back. Its not as bad as it was before but its pretty scary because it seem like its been flattened out. I see no improvement at all. I dont want this to be my "neutral state of mind" so to speak.
Im searching hard to find a way to keep on improving.

Human beings?

We are human beings not human doings.

(Norwegian woman on some tv-show)