Shiva, dread-headed lord of destruction and transformation, your electric drum heralds the close of the world.
You dance with Shakti, refusing climax, among bands of wild youths and sneaky gnomes.
Your blue throat holds the world’s poisons, its toxins and psychoactive drugs. Shiva, you are stoned.
Your serpents tongue our spines, fuck inside our cells. They proffer amines, the gnostic fruits that taste like
no
turning
back…
“In seed time learn, in harvest teach, in winter enjoy.
Drive your cart and your plow over the bones of the dead.
The road of excess leads to the palace of wisdom.
Prudence is a rich ugly old maid courted by Incapacity.
He who desires but acts not, breeds pestilence.
The cut worm forgives the plow.
Dip him in the river who loves water.
A fool sees not the same tree that a wise man sees.
He whose face gives no light, shall never become a star.
Eternity is in love with the productions of time.
The busy bee has no time for sorrow.
The hours of folly are measur’d by the clock, but of wisdom: no clock can measure.
All wholsom food is caught without a net or a trap.
Bring out number weight & measure in a year of dearth.
No bird soars too high, if he soars with his own wings.
A dead body revenges not injuries.
The most sublime act is to set another before you.
If the fool would persist in his folly he would become wise.
Folly is the cloke of knavery.
Shame is Prides cloke.” – excerpt from The Marriage of Heaven & Hell by William Blake
– Indra’s Net by Valerie McGaughey
“Far away in the heavenly abode of the great god Indra, there is a wonderful net which has been hung by some cunning artificer in such a manner that it stretches out infintely in all directions. In accordance with the extravagant tastes of deities, the artificer has hung a single glittering jewel in each “eye” of the net, and since the net itself is infinite in dimension, the jewels are infinite in number. There hang the jewels, glittering like stars in the first magnitude, a wonderful sight to behold. If we now arbitrarily select one of these jewels for inspection and look closely at it, we will discover that in its polished surface there are reflected all the other jewels in the net, infinite in number. Not only that, but each of the jewels reflected in this one jewel is also reflecting all the other jewels, so that there is an infinite reflecting process occurring.“
“Many times in the early part of my dream I felt doubt as to what the Star Maker was striving to accomplish in his creating. I could not but believe that his purpose was at first not clearly conceived. He himself had evidently to discover it gradually; and often, as it seemed to me, his work was tentative, and his aim confused. But at the close of his maturity he willed to create as fully as possible, to call forth the full potentiality of his medium, to fashion works of increasing subtlety, and of increasingly harmonious diversity. As his purpose became clearer, it seemed also to include the will to create universes each of which might contain some unique achievement of awarenes and expression. For the creature’s acheivement of perception and of will was seemingly the instrument by which the Star Maker himself, cosmos by cosmos, woke into keener lucidity…
At length, so my dream, my myth, declared, the Star Maker created his ultimate & most subtle cosmos, for which all other were but tentative preparations. Of this final creature I can only say that it embraced within its own organic texture the essences of all its predecessors; and far more besides.” – excerpt from Star Maker by Olaf Stapledon
“Magick has always been an empowering DIY art, it’s practitioners have utilized many tools in a variety of manner throughout time. The modern neophyte technomancer is disempowered from the get go simply based on where (s)he’ll stand relative to the large amounts of information needed to execute an operation through the technical aspects of this art. As a result he/she has only the option of utilizing pre-formed digi-tools for executing work – esp. looking towards computer-based solutions to magickal questions. Often times you can find an executable that claims to do what you need but did you write it off of principals you researched and thus believed to be true? Essentially circuit bending offers us a simple and elegant solution for building occultech out of equipment brought into your possession – often times through synchronicity – as a means of digital invocation and evocation.” excerpt from Circuit Bending as A Spiritual Artform by Ikipr featured in Key64
“Archetypal forces act as autonomous energies with lives and agendas of their own. What I hope to encourage here is an intuitive grasp of the archetypes as living forces within our humanity; in humanity we discover the divine and within the divine, our humanity. With this perspective, the language of astrology can be studied and used to deepen experience of the very life living through us. After a simple semantic adjustment is made – think forces, not planets – we can learn to use astrology to discern two distinct yet related energies: personal and transpersonal. Astrology, as I’m using it here, involves a process of setting up communication lines with energies — spirits in the material world — for the purpose of knowing them more directly, of embodying them, and realizing ourselves in the process.” – Excerpt from Planets as Forces by Antero Alli
“For Corbin, the Arabic words zahir & batin perfectly indicate the contrast and complementarily between exoteric and esoteric. In Islam, everything that is, all external or apparent (zahir) phenomena, conceal (and thereby reveal to whoever has eyes to see) a hidden, interior (batin) reality. From this point of view, the exterior, as the phenomenal manifestation, is the place of the hidden reality’s ephiphany or revelation: the disoccultation of the occult. All truths have a phenomenal aspect that is not heterogeneous with their noumenal reality but, rather, stands in the relationship of object to image or extension. Thus, the relationship of zahir and batin is by no means allegorical – they do not stand arbitrarily over against each other – but symbolical. ‘Thrown together’, appearence and reality are not disjunctive and seperate, but symbolize each other in a mediated identity. The exterior is neither something imposed upon nor different from the interior, but is the interior itself transposed to another level or state of being.” – Chris Bamford, excerpt from The Voyage & The Messenger: Iran & Philosophy by Henry Corbin
There were these two men sharing a railway carriage. They didn’t know each other, they just happened to be travelling together. One of the men had, resting on his lap, a cardboard box with holes punched in the top. After some time contemplating what might be inside his travelling companion’s box, the other man at last could not contain his curiosity.
“Excuse me, but I could not help noticing your box. Does it by chance contain some variety of animal?”
The other man, though obviously surprised by this impertinent intrusion from a stranger, smiled politely as he answered “You’re absolutely right. There is indeed a creature kept inside this box, and furthermore, I may reveal that the animal in question is a mongoose.”
The first man, who’d initiated the enquiry was astonished by this revelation. Sputtering with surprise he sought some explanation of this certainly provocative disclosure made by his strange fellow traveller. “A mongoose? Sir, I must confess I had expected it to be perhaps a cat, or a rabbit, not a creature so exotic and outlandish. The animal you mention so excites my curiosity that I must beg you to tell me more. Where are you bound with such a specimen, if I may be so bold?”
The other man, who sat with the perforated box on his lap shrugged wearily as he replied. “Well, it’s something of a personal matter, as it concerns a family tragedy. However, since I’m confident I may rely on your discretion, I suppose I don’t mind sharing my unfortunate account with you. You see, this sorry tale concerns my elder brother.He’s always been what I suppose you might refer to as the black sheep of the family. He has for many years indulged himself in a predictable and commonplace array of vices, of which the worst is his fondness for strong spirits. His drinking has progressed until he is now in the final melancholy stages of delerium tremens. My brother now sees serpents everywhere, which is the reason I am taking him this mongoose, that he may be rid of them.”
“Excuse me,” the other man interjected, looking puzzled. “But these snakes your brother sees, aren’t they imaginary?”
“Indeed,” his fellow traveller replied. “But this,” and here he gestured meaningfully to the perforated box on his lap, “is an imaginary mongoose.”
