DubhGhaill

Do What Thou Wilt

‘I thought they were more into restoring democracy’

‘Yeah, for now, though I don’t know how democratic it all feels when the partisans roll into town and call a meeting. But for the long run, when the Sheenisov have conquered the world -’ we share a laugh ‘- their theories advocate the weirdest kind of communism I’ve ever heard of: everybody owns nothing, or everything.’

‘Sounds like every dingbat communist since Munzer -’

‘No, no – every individual owns everything. The whole goddamn universe.’

‘Including every other individual?’

‘Only to the extent that you can.’

‘Nice if you can get it. I just want to be princess of the galaxy.’

‘Modest of you, my sweet. But that’s the catch – the universe is yours to take if you can.’

‘So what’s to stop me?’

‘Only the other contenders, and your possibly reluctant subjects. And the size of the universe. If you can get around all that – go for it, gal!’

‘Oh. I see. And there was me thinking that eating people is wrong.’

Tony does glance at me sideways, now. ‘Eating people is wasteful…but seriously, if you think it’s wrong, fine. I entirely agree. So do something about it. Arm the prey! Set up taboos. Give them teeth! Just don’t think that announcing you moral convictions affects any part of the universe further than your voice can reach.’

‘And they want to base communism on this…this unlimited selfishness? What’s to stop it all degenerating into a war of all against all?

Tony shrugs. ‘No doubt they expect we’d come to some kind of an arrangement.’

Ken Macleod
The Cassini Division

This is really the most important point that people miss when they begin playing around the edges of moral nihilism. No matter which way you choose, moral or amoral, you will still need to deal with practical necessity in the end.

“You are free to do whatever is in your power, and if you want to survive and thrive you had better do whatever is in your interests.”

Most actions traditionally considered criminal or immoral across a range of cultures have come to be considered so because they carry serious potential side effects. Emotional, medical, social and financial side effects. That doesn’t mean that they’re wrong, necessarily, just risky.

Some actions are risky to the self, some to others. Actions that are risky to others always end up being risky to the self, too, if only in a round-about way.

Some actions are so risky they ought to be classified as downright stupid!

On the other hand, there are many traditional moral injunctions, in our culture and in others, that just don’t make any sense. It’s when you run into one of these that you need to seriously start questioning your morality and where it comes from. And once you start pulling on that thread…oh boy!

Which leads us back to our starting point…While I have become quite convinced that all morality is a lie, I have also come to believe that ethics are extremely important. Ethics are derived from the practical necessity of dealing with other human beings. It’s only when we turn away from the twisted lie that is morality, and begin exploring practical frameworks for getting along with each other, that we can ever hope to begin making real progress towards a peaceful, enlightened and civil society.

Of course, that’s all assuming you consider a peaceful, enlightened and civil society important. It’s OK either way by me. I like to fight.

Hail Chaos! Viva Loki! Aum Wotan!

Facebooktwitterredditpinterestlinkedinmail

The True Knowledge

I felt like sharing a quote today. This is from one of my favorite sci-fi authors, Ken MacLeod, and expresses some of the sentiments of my last post, only far better than I ever could.

Enjoy,

Clint.

The true knowledge…the phrase is an English translation of a Korean expression meaning ‘modern enlightenment’. Its originators, a group of Japanese and Korean ‘contract employees’ (inaccurate Korean translation, this time, of the English term ‘bonded labourers’) had acquired their modern enlightenment from battered, ancient editions of the works of Stirner, Nietzshe, Marx, Engels, Dietzgen, Darwin, and Spencer, which made up the entire philosophical content of their labour-camp library. (Twentieth century philosophy and science had been excluded by their employers as decadent or subversive – I forget which.) With staggering diligence, they had taken these words – which they ironically treated as the last word in modern thought – and synthesized from them, and from their own bitter experiences, the first socialist philosophy based on totally pessimistic and cynical conclusions about human nature.

Life is a process of breaking down and using other matter, and if need be, other life. Therefore, life is aggression, and successful life is successful aggression. Life is the scum of matter, and people are the scum of life. There is nothing but matter, forces, space and time, which together make power. Nothing matters, except what matters to you. Might makes right, and power makes freedom. You are free to do whatever is in your power, and if you want to survive and thrive you had better do whatever is in your interests. If your interests conflict with those of others, let the others pit their power against yours, everyone for theirselves. If your interests coincide with those of others, let them work together with you, and against the rest. We are what we eat, and we eat everything.

All that you really value, and the goodness and truth and beauty of life, have their roots in this apparently barren soil.

This is the true knowledge.

On this rock we had built our church. We had founded our idealism on the most nihilistic implications of science, our socialism on crass self-interest, our peace on our capacity for mutual destruction, and our liberty on determinism. We had replaced morality with convention, bravery with safety, frugality with plenty, philosophy with science, stoicism with anaesthetics and piety with immortality. The universal acid of the true knowledge had burned away a world of words, and exposed a universe of things.

Things we could use.

-Ken MacLeod ‘The Cassini Division
’

Facebooktwitterredditpinterestlinkedinmail

Utiseta

Some strange things can happen when you spend a night sitting out in the dark. Your eyes play tricks with the light and objects that you try to focus on seem only to melt away. The combination of fatigue, hunger, fear and pure boredom can quickly break down the barrier between worlds and let you see things you never even believed could exist.

I’ve seen a thing or two, in the darkness.

No complex techniques, rituals or meditations are required. Just choose a spot and hold your ground. Gravesites are traditional, as are haunted houses, crossroads, wilderness areas and anywhere you are unlikely to be disturbed by humans. Just don’t fall asleep

Hail Chaos

Facebooktwitterredditpinterestlinkedinmail

My Magic Hair Cut

When I was 17 years old, I joined the Army Reserve. Taking the whole process very seriously, I made sure my hair was clipped short as per regulations before I arrived at my unit for transport to recruit training. Some of the others had not taken this step, a problem which had been anticipated by the unit, and so were given regulation haircuts that night. Fortunately, one of the Corporals was dating a hairdresser who was able to provide this service at five dollars a pop. The next day we flew down to Puckapunyal where we all got our heads shaved anyway. Everyone, regulation haircut or not, got an all over, number two clipping.

As pointless as the above may sound, psychologically it did actually serve its purpose. Recruit training is intended to be a life-changing experience. The uniforms and haircuts helped get us all in the right frame of mind.

Since then, shaving my head has become a valuable personal ritual for whenever I want to get serious about something. A shaved head represents a turning point, a declaration of intent, a commitment to do whatever it takes. For me, the experience is powerful and moving. I can achieve a fraction of the same experience by tying on a pair of boots, but nothing tops a shaved head as a reminder that I’ve got a job to do.

Now, in the Eddas and Sagas the magical use of a haircut seems to actually work the other way around. A man taking an oath might commit not to cut or comb his hair until his mission is completed. In a well groomed society like that of the Norsemen, I’m sure that could be very effective magic, too. I’m going to stick with my head-shaving because that’s what works for me and, at this point, the associations are too deeply ingrained. You’ll need to find out for yourself, what works for you. But believe me in this, a haircut can be a life-changing experience and a bold New Year is just a few weeks away.

Clint

Facebooktwitterredditpinterestlinkedinmail

Act As If

Another magic trick to which I have had frequent recourse is the one known as “Act As If”, AKA “Fake It ‘Til You Make It”,which is a practical application of the concept of the “Self-Fulfilling Prophecy”.

This trick is exceedingly simple, in fact I’d say it’s probably fundamental to all magic. But, I can’t remember ever having seen it spelled out explicitly before, so I’m going to take a crack at that task today.

It works like this…When you want to change something, especially something about yourself, then you should act as if it is already true and it will become true.

I’ve used this trick for all kinds of transformations. I’ve made myself feel warm in horrible weather by acting as if I couldn’t feel the cold, I’ve breezed through security checkpoints by acting as if I was supposed to be on the other side and I’ve met a lot of cool people simply by acting as if I was the fun guy to meet.

Simple, right? But, unfortunately, it’s not easy. Your act needs to be convincing, at least convincing enough to fool others before you can really fool yourself. And, you need to believe in the part you’re playing if you’re going to fool others up close.

Acting lessons are strongly recommended, with an emphasis on screen over stage.

Viva Loki!

Clint.

Facebooktwitterredditpinterestlinkedinmail

On Looking for Things

“When you go looking for something specific, your chances of finding it are very bad, because of all the things in the world, you’re only looking for one of them.

“When you go looking for anything at all, your chances of finding it are very good, because of all the things in the world, you’re sure to find some of them.

“And the most important rule…often the thing you’re looking for is right in front of your nose.”

-Daryl Zero

I came across the above quote yesterday while watching the great film The Zero Effect, and was immediately struck by how closely this ties in to the law of detachment. This applies to pretty much everything, whether you’re choosing a novel to read, looking for a lover or just trying to kill time on a Sunday afternoon.

Several years ago, while walking down George St in Sydney, I found myself slip into the mood I call “All Green Lights”. (The mood is best characterized as a sense of vague, detached euphoria. When I get it, all the lights turn green.) So there I was, cruising down George St with no particular idea of where I was going and every time I reached a street corner, the pedestrian crossing light would turn green for me before I even needed to break stride. Suddenly, one of the lights failed to change so I turned right and kept walking. Two streets down, I turned right again (without knowing why) and found myself standing outside an Occult bookshop nestled between a Sci-Fi bookshop and a branch of the Theosophical Society.

The event was hardly what I’d call life changing, but it did solve the question of what to do that afternoon and that pair of bookshops became one of my regular haunts in Sydney. Moral of the story? Go with the flow and you’ll get where you’re going, even if you’re not sure of quite of where that is.

Hail Chaos! Viva Loki! Aum Wotan!

Facebooktwitterredditpinterestlinkedinmail

Meditations on the Ur-Law

Tao, Dharma, Logos, Orlog, Wyrd.

The names are different, but the basic concept is universal. There is a Natural Law, a fundamental pattern that underlies reality and according to which the entire universe operates. The Ur-Law is knowable, but not explicable. Unfortunately, no-one can be told what the Logos is. You have to see it…for yourself.

Fortunately, there is a simple method that allows you to see the web of Wyrd more clearly.

Relax, chill out, take a deep breath and a few steps back. Now see, hear, feel, smell and taste without judgment, without prejudice. Scientific observation requires detachment…So does Magic. Surrender your preconceptions and you will see truth. Divorce yourself from the lust for results and you will achieve power through effortless grace.

Weird, isn’t it? That the first thing you need to do, in order to succeed, is to stop trying so hard. Fate, it seems, is not without a sense of irony.

Clint.

Facebooktwitterredditpinterestlinkedinmail

Hard Polytheism

One phrase that keeps popping up in my reading lately is the term Hard Polytheist, referring to individuals who believe that each God is absolutely separate and distinct, not different representations of the same archetypes cross-culturally. The phrase and the whole idea bug me, partly because I don’t like it implied that I’m soft-anything and partly because it’s expressed with such dogmatic certainty every time. So I’d like to throw in my two cents on the issue and see if I can complicate things enough to raise some doubts for a few people.

Assuming the Gods really exist (and they do), we’re talking about beings that are extremely long lived, possibly immortal. They are known shape-shifters, sex-shifters, liars and users of multiple aliases. They are shown in the myths to grow, evolve, incarnate, die and reincarnate. I also wouldn’t put it past some of these guys to be in more than one place at a time. Take all that into account and it becomes pretty damn hard to say with any certainty that Odin is not now, nor has he ever been, another guise of Shiva or of Dionysus, or they guises of Him.

It certainly makes more sense to me to believe that the Gods have historically gone by different names when they’ve traveled to foreign kingdoms, rather than that the Gods have always restricted themselves to working exclusively within defined geographical areas and with specific, distinct racial groups.

I would also like to point out that Polytheistic Syncretism was an extremely common theory among the Romans and still is current in Hinduism today. Many Hindus even recognize both Jesus and the Buddha as avatars of Vishnu. This so-called “Soft” Polytheist view is definitely a historically valid part of the Indo-European Tradition.

As for the assertion “the Gods are not just archetypes”. What do you mean “just”? Archetypes are extremely  important. Ideas are extremely important. An idea can make or break not just lives, but entire civilizations. It’s not for nothing they say the pen is mightier than the sword. So even if the Gods did exist just inside our heads they would still be potentially more powerful than any one human being alive.

So, are all of the Gods distinct individual entities? They are and they aren’t. Do they exist in objective reality, or just inside our heads? Both. How is this possible? I don’t know, man. I didn’t do it.

Hail Chaos! Viva Loki! Aum Wotan!

Facebooktwitterredditpinterestlinkedinmail

The Music of the Runes

As much as I’ve always loved Norse Mythology, I’ve always felt a little ambivalent towards the Runes. Recently, that seems to be changing.

I feel the presence of Odin much closer than before. I see the Runes before me in sudden flashes, as though lit by lightning or a flickering flame. I hear their strange music whispered to me as the wind whistles through the trees. I feel wyrd, and I know that I am approaching some new turning point, some cross-roads, and that very soon…Very soon something big will happen, and I will never be the same.

Hail Chaos. Viva Loki. Aum Wotan

Clint.

Facebooktwitterredditpinterestlinkedinmail