The other Crowley

Peas in a very od pod

Churchill and Crowley

"1965 e.v. should be a critical period in the development of the Child Horus"

Churchill and Crowley were born within a year of each other, Churchill in 1874, Crowley in 1875; Both were destined for similar careers, as Crowley considered the diplomatic corps in St. Petersburg. Although Crowley's career took a vastly different course, never theless I think they show a remarkable similarity of character and attitudes.
Some examples: Both were bombastic, arrogant men, both believed in the natural superiority of the Briton, both had demeaning opinions of for example the Indians, both went into prolonged periods of self-doubt and despair when not recognized for the "geniuses" they were (or felt themselves to be). Both even looked similar, and sounded similar. Neither was particularly successful in life, except in an uncanny ability to project themselves - glamour - and an equally strong ability to inspire followers with a vision. Both were overly fond of the good life; brandy (the finest) and cigars, even in the depths of war. Both felt themselves abandoned by their followers and became embittered in their old age. The difference, of course, is that Churchill, as leader of the country at the time of war, was pensioned off travelling around the world recieving medals and honorary citizenships.

Very similar souls - almost twins.

1965 was indeed a critical period. Churchill died.

Rituals, Musings, and Results

I'm in a groove right now; picked up an art book at the library (Sister Wendy - yeah!) of which the first picture discussed was by Velasquez. The very next day, Google decides to use that picture as its background of the day.
Picked up a Shewstone today; decided on an impromptu ritual, to invoke a spirit to enter. This involved shedding all in a nearby park, and dispersing my essence. Its staying overnight so as to allow a compatible nature spirit to enter. On returning, at the spot where I asperged the shewstone, a stag appeared to me; very auspicious. I honored the horned God, invoked His blessing, and returned home.

Previously, I recognized columns of companions of Beelzebub shimmering over the road as sprites; on the return, I walked through some of these sprites. Instead of being annoyed by them, I experienced joy at being accompanied by such a creature of the air. Now that is magic.

The Origin of Ethics and Cultural Evolution.

There is a belief that ethics are derived from a eivine source, a source which cannot be seen or heard by most people, but which a very small group of people claim to have experienced directly. Some of these people report what they heard in scriptures, which then become the basis of belief by those who have not, and can not, hear or see the Deity themselves.

As these scriptures often vary substantially, and as they generally claim to be the exclusive revelation, it is clear that they can not all be authentic. Most, in fact, must be the work of deluded people at best, and outright liars at worst. For example, Islam, Catholicism, Protestantism and Judaism are incompatible religion, in that each claims divine authority for statements that directly contradict statements from the others, which claim the same divine authority.

In the best possible case scenario (from the religious viewpoint), only one religion can therefore be authentically inspired by a divine source; all of the rest are in error. The alternative, of course, is that none of the religions are authentically inspired. However most people have no means of examining the claims of individual religions, because of the personal nature of the revelation which inspired them. It is this inability to examine the truth of religion which enables false religions to prosper equally with the “one true faith”.

The situation in the public square, therefore, is that of several competing individuals, each claiming that a scripture that he or she has read, is the only correct scripture, with no evidence to choose between them. This of course would be of little interest to anyone except the participants, were it not for the fact that the participants each demand to regulate the behavior of others, based on what they percieve to be the “one true faith”. In the standard understanding of Justice, when two people claim opposite things to be true, and neither has evidence, the case is generally considered to be undecideable. So on purely rational grounds, it seems obvious that no religion should ever be imposed on another who does not subscribe to it.

However the case is unfortunately not decideable by reason; Religion is not a system of truths, open to experimentation, verification or rejection, but by the time it has grown in size to be of interest, it has transformed from a cult to culture. To say that long hair is better than short is rationally nonsense. But to wilfully wear one’s hair at an unfashionable length may be inappropriate, leading to derision, scorn, even a lack of employemt or romantic prospects. The fact that in a decades time the cultural norm may be reversed is of no comfort to the wilful maverick.

Practically, therefore, it appears that codifying cultural (including religious) impulses into law no more than sanctions normal human behavior, which is to enforce cultural norms. However there is a very real and serious defect in this practise, due to an inherent inconsistence between the nature of cultures - which is to change - and that of law, which is not to change. This is a very real conflict, and leads to negative consequences for society. As an analogy, one may consider the movement of plates in the earth’s crust. The crustal movement plays the role of the inevitable evolving of human customs, while the natural friction of the rock mirrors the lendency of law to lock the system and prevent it from movement. The movement of the crustal plate is of course inevitable, the friction can do no more than prevent its movement for a time. The greater the ability of the friction to resist movement, the more violent the rupture when inevitably the plates slide past one another. In cultural terms, the resistance to change creates the ground for more violent ways of cultural evolution.

It is for this reason, that constitutions are more general in tone, and are generally written after a violent rupture from the past. As time passes, laws generally accrete, one upon another, until finally the system reaches a pseudo-equilibrium, where the conitnual encrustation of new laws is balanced by occasional whole-scale revisions of parts of the law which no longer reflect cultural reality. This can be thought of like small scale earth movements which allow the plates to move slowly past one another.

However the problem is that while the continual small-scale revisions alleviate the local pressure, the more general principles enshrined in the constitutional documents are slowly under increasing variance from cultural reality. If the constitution is not general enough, or if it is not subject to frequent revision, these deviations from cultural reality can finally cause a massive rupture, with devastating consequences.

In this light, the religious impulse becomes especially dangerous to society. The nature of law is to maintain things as custom has dictated, but the nature of religion is to return to an archaic time, and is generally quite reactionary to the customs of the day. When religions claim divine authority, they assume the right to operate outside reason. And when they assert that constitutional claims are not culturally driven, but subject to the unchanging word of a deity, they freeze all movement in an idealistic resistance to cultural evolution. Such a futile appeal against change, has always ended violently, as the the immoveable object of religion finally gives way to the irresistable force of change. Typically, the society ends and is replaced by something different, which reflects the new cultural reality, but after great bloodshed.

The alternative is for society to accept that values are in fact culturally driven, that they are not derived from an outside source that cannot be appealed to, and to build into our social structure, mechanisms for allowing such change to occur, at whatever pace is consistent with both the advance guard and the read guard. It is not beyond the scope of debate to consider dual track options, in which the society permits both streams to flourish somewhat independently. The current model of pandering to the most conservative stream of society, however, has consistently failed, and will continue to fail, catastrophically, if at irregular, possibly even lengthy intervals.

Those who believe that they are in fact lucky enough to hold the “one true faith” can of course congratulate themselves on their good fortune, and maintain whatever values they feel best reflects their position, while allowing those who believe otherwise the same privilege. If they are indeed correct, societal values will surely return full circle.

Friday, Oct 13, 1307 LEST WE FORGET

On Friday, October 13, 1307, hundreds of Knights Templar in France were simultaneously arrested by agents of Philip the Fair, to be later tortured into admitting heresy in the Order. The Knights Templar were a 200-year-old military order, supposedly answerable only to the Pope. But Philip used his influence over Clement V, who was largely his pawn, to disband the order and remove its ecclesiastical status and protection in order to plunder it.

Skrabbalah

My article on an English Language Gematria was published this week;
Using selected values for english letters;

To Mega Therion = The Great Beast;
Theodore Reuss = Carl Kellner = Baphomet = Al Crowley = Karl Germer ( = Frater Saturnus);
Christ = Hermes = Thoth;
The Law = Thelema = Liberty = Wisdom.

Nostradamus Tarot?

Another interesting set of images are the "prophecies of Michel Nostradamus on the Future Vicars of Christ to Cesar his son"
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vati...Nostradami

Not mentioned in that article, is that more than one of these images are close to tarot images; even curiously, ones not then available, like the 4 of cups (see plate 5).

Plate 4 is a good version of the tower, 44 the lovers, 3 the heirophant, and so on. I'd be curious to see the full set of images, but the link to the origin seems to be useless.

The oldest Baphomet?

"The "Horned God", found at Mohenjodaro, 2.500 BC; National Museum, Delhi"

This seal, from the Indus Valley Civilization, shows most of the features associated with the image of Baphomet.

Artistry

Naked people and Trees; two of my favorite things.
jackphoto.com/images/tree/Gallery.html