Magic and Mystery in the Greek Magical Papyri

John William Waterhouse, Pandora, 1896.

Sections of the Greek Magical Papyri that exemplify attitudes, practices, and symbols pertaining to elements of the mystery cults come along with Greek deities, fragments of hymns and invocations, rituals, and myths. According to Hans Dieter Betz, “Obviously, in the eyes of the magicians who wrote and transmitted these texts, the mystery cult language and ritual provided religious legitimacy and cultural approval for all the other magical materials” (Betz, 1991, 250). This phenomenon of the imposition of mystery cult ideas, rituals, and tradition indicates and testifies how the Greek mysteries expanded their influence, along with the expansion of other religious fields of discourse into mystical cults enriched with magical rites and spells. Apart from the ‘Spell of Pnouthis, the sacred scribe, for acquiring an assistant’, the ‘Mithras Liturgy’ (PGM IV. 479-829) also attests to this with verses such as “mysteries handed down not for gain but for instruction” and “O lord, while being born again, I am passing away; while grown and having grown, I am dying; while being born from a life-generating birth, I am passing on, released to death – as you have founded, as you have decreed, and have established the mystery.” Other rites that reveal mystery cult terminology with some Hebrew influences are the ‘Stele of Jeu the hieroglyphist in his letter’, which includes a verse summoning the Headless One by declaring, “I am Moses, your prophet to whom you have transmitted your mysteries” (PGM V. 108-111) and the ‘Eighth Book of Moses’ which states “Now begin to recite the stele and the mystery of the god” (PGM XIII. 685). These verses testify to the influence that mystery cult terminologies and practices had on the Greek Magical Papyri. According to Betz, under this impact:

Earlier Egyptian magic was transformed, enriched, brought up to date, and thus legitimated. By presenting themselves as mystagogues, the magicians doubtless added to their prestige… The mystagogue-magician of the Greek mystery cults transformed the older magic into a new and higher “religion.” For the mystagogue-magician, the syncretistic amalgam was indeed “religion” ((Betz, 1991, 250).

However, one must not discredit the fact that there were differences between magic and religion in the Greek Magical Papyri, which were determined by theological issues inherent within the structures of the mystery cults and the fashion in which they were adopted within the realm of magic. To an extent, it appears logical that most of magicians were not fully aware of the entirety of the inner dimensions of the mystery cults whose material they appropriated. For they believed that their ‘art’ was indeed a fully operational religion, which they referred to as ‘magic’, and themselves as the operators of it as ‘magicians’, reflecting yet again the natural receptiveness, fluidity, and impressive power of the magician’s worldview. To conclude, I shall quote a passage from Butler’s exceptional tome, Ritual Magic, which so eloquently invokes and encaptures the diachronic fascination we have up until this day with ritual conjuring the natural receptiveness, fluidity, and impressive power of the magical worldview:

For the inventors and practitioners of the rites, however deeply versed in the lore of their subject and however obedient to its rules, often gave proof of the artistic temperament, to the advantage of the literature which has survived. The aim, like that of astrology, alchemy and applied science as a whole, was strictly practical; the means show evidence of creative instincts, poetical imagination and feeling for beauty and drama… this is what makes the study of ritual magic still interesting to-day (Butler, 2002, 4).

References:

Hans Dieter Betz, ‘Magic and Mystery in the Greek Magical Papyri’, in Magika Hiera: Ancient Greek Magic and Religion, edited by Christopher A. Faraone and Dirk Obbink, 1991.

Elizabeth M. Butler, Ritual Magic, 2002.

Austin Osman Spare and the Psychology of Transgression

Austin Osman Spare, Protection Against Evil People, 1955.

For many, the most original magician after Crowley to formulate a unique system, of sex, ritual magic, and artistic creations was Austin Osman Spare. The son of a London policeman, Spare demonstrated at a young age a talent for art, which led him to briefly attend art school. Spare’s artistic endeavour appealed to many attached to London’s avant-garde scene, and he also attracted the attention of Aleister Crowley who initiated into his occult order Argentium Astrum, or otherwise known as the A∴A∴. However, Spare at the age of twenty with his most notorious work, The Book of Pleasure, would take fundamental tenet of Thelema and the Nietzschean idea of trans-human valuation further, whilst using ritualised sex and art to tap into the inner depths of the subconscious mind as a source of magical power.[1]

At the core of Spare’s magical cosmology is ‘Kia’, which is an inconceivable primal energy that is the source of all manifestation, and in Spare’s words, “Absolute Consciousness (Kia, the Self) like Infinite Space (Nuit) is without a boundary; it is the plenum-void, formless and unlocatable; to all intents and purposes – nothing at all, except that it is the sole reality.”[2] The vehicle of this primal energy is called ‘Zos’, which refers to the human mind and body, and the human self reflecting the Kia is also by nature unbounded and blissful, demanding complete freedom from all laws. Therefore, “Ecstasy in satisfaction is the great purpose. Freedom from the necessity of law, realisation by the very wish, is the ultimate goal.”[3] Following from this Spare declared,

In pleasure Heaven shall break every law before this Earth shall pass away… He who is lawless is free… Without hypocrisy or fear ye could do as ye wish. Whosoever, therefore shall break the precept or live its transgression shall have relativity of Heaven. For unless your righteousness exist not, ye shall not pleasure freely and creatively.[4]

More explicitly than both Randolph and Crowley, Spare identified sex and its pleasures with the deepest nature of the Self through which the ‘I’ becomes infinity through the only true sense to exist, the sexual, and the only one desire, to procreate.

The most infamous of Spare’s magical methods to achieve such as state of transgression and finally tap into the ultimate source of magical power, consisted of the use magical sigils, abstract ideograms made up of letter combinations expressing a particular magical desire, and which would also act as the focus of the magicians meditation. In order though for the magician to bring this sigilised magical desire into reality the magician must enter an altered state of consciousness through a gnostic trance or ecstasy. Spare’s ultimate mean to achieving this was through sheer exhaustion, “that is, by so exhausting and emptying the mind that it is open to forces of the subconscious, which can then manifest the idea or desire represented in the magical sigil.”[5] This state of altered consciousness, according to Spare, could culminate through various ways, but the most powerful means was through the powerful momentum of the orgasm when a state of ecstasy prevails and the ego and Kia are in unison in a receptive state of openness and emptiness. In Spare’s word, “At this moment, which is the moment of generation of the Great Wish, inspiration flows form the source of sex, from the Primordial Goddess who exists at the heart of Matter.”[6] Spare also described the saturnalian use of,

The sense of smell, hearing and sight seduced by incense, mantric incantation and ritual, while taste and touch are made more sensitive by the stimuli of wine and… sexual acts. After total sexual satiation… an affectivity becomes an exteriorized hallucination of the pre-determined wish which is magical in its reality.[7]

Despite this liberating ecstasy being the path to tapping into the magical source of the primal essence of being, this final state of ‘exhaustion which Spare referred to also had a mystical quality to it where the limits of thought are exhausted resulting in an annihilation of all conceptual categories in a non-dualistic fashion. This mystical current in the sexual magic of Spare is clearly expressed when,

Desire is the conception I and induces Thou. There is neither thou nor I nor a third person – loosing this consciousness by unity of I and Self; there would be no limit to consciousness in sexuality. Isolation in ecstasy, the final inducement, is enough.[8]

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[1] According to Kenneth Grant in his introduction to Austin Osman Spare’s The Book of Pleasure (Self-Love: The Psychology of Ecstasy, 1975, Sigmund Freud allegedly described Spare’s work as “one of the most significant revelations of subconscious mechanism that had appeared in modern times.”

[2] Kenneth Grant, The Magical Revival, 1973, 205.

[3] Austin Osman Spare The Book of Pleasure. The Hermetic Library, www.hermetic.com/spare/pleasure.html.

[4] Austin Osman Spare The Anathema of Zos: A Sermon to the Hypocrites, 1976, 13.

[5] Hugh B. Urban, Magia Sexualis: Sex, Magic, and Liberation in Modern Western Esotericism, 2006, 231.

[6] Quoted in Nevill Drury, The History of Magic in the Modern Age, 2000, 123-124.

[7] Quoted in Kenneth Grant, The Magical Revival, 1973, 197.

[8] Quoted in Kenneth Grant, The Magical Revival, 1973, 201.

The Magical Eroticism of Paschal Beverly Randolph

The most important figure in the rise of modern sexual magic was arguably the fascinating yet generally neglected figure of Paschal Beverly Randolph. Born in 1825 to a wealthy Virginian father and a slave from Madagascar, Randolph was a poor, self-educated free black raised in the poorer parts of New York. He was orphaned at a young age and ran away from his foster parents to explore a vast range of new spiritual traditions and to travel the world. Through his journeys in Egypt and the Near East he claimed to have been initiated by various seers and holy men, including Egyptian mages and Indian Brahmins. Upon his return to the United States he became involved with various Spiritualist movements, and was also involved in various political movements championing the cause and future of African Americans. These ideas of liberation would become a major theme in his spiritual writings and understanding of sex magic, especially in regards to gender equality. He also founded a new religious order, which he labelled the Brother of Eulis. Although he had been influenced by European Rosicrucian orders, he claimed that his order would surpass them and that the core of their spiritual teachings had a sexual magical element. Unfortunately, Randolph’s life ended after a series of tragic events. An accident had left him invalid which led him to excessive amounts of intoxication. Suspicious that his wife had betrayed him, he committed suicide in 1875.

Randolph’s work on sexual magic took place during mid-nineteenth century America, where the tremendous power of sexuality was slowly being recognised scientifically and socially, where it was praised within the confines of marriage and condemned outside of it. It was also an era of radical social movements and the foundation of various new religious movements and especially the Spiritualist movement, all of which were concerned with the spiritual side of sexuality but not all in the same fashion.

Randolph’s main contribution to Western occultism concerned sex. Apart from being an expert in the cure of sexual diseases and dysfunctions, he developed a system and practice of sexual magic that, as he claimed, could achieve all manners of marvels, both worldly and otherworldly. He saw his system of sexual magic as a path to a millennial new world. Randolph’s teachings would later on inspire and influence a host of new magical orders, such as the Hermetic Brotherhood of Luxor and the Ordo Templis Orientis. His system of sexual magic has been described by Hugh B. Urban as “a system of magical eroticism, or affectional alchemy.”[1] As Randolph continuously stressed,

LOVE LIETH AT THE FOUNDATION... and Love is convertibly passion, enthusiasm affection heat, fire, SOUL, God... The nuptive moment, the instant wherein the germs of a possible new being are lodged... is the most solemn, serious, powerful and energetic moment he can ever know on earth.[2]

Randolph believed that the sexual drive is the most potent and fundamental force in the universe, due to its natural attraction between the active/positive and the passive/negative. Following Franz Anton Mesmer’s pattern of thought, Randolph understood the male and female as opposite yet complimentary electromagnetic forces, with the male genitals being the positive and the female the negative. Because sexual attraction is the most potent and fundamental force in nature, the experience of the orgasm is a very primordial, powerful, and critical moment in human consciousness. It is the key to magical power. At the moment of climax the soul is exposed to the energies of the universe and new life pours from the spiritual into the material realm. At this point anything that is truly willed can happen.

The moment when a man discharges his seed – his essential self – into a womb is the most solemn, energetic and powerful moment he can ever know on earth; if under the influence of mere lust it be done, the discharge us suicidal... At the moment his seminal glands open, his nostrils expand, and while the seed is going from his soul to her womb he breathes one of two atmospheres, either fetid damnation from the border spaces or Divine Energy from heavens. Whatsoever he shall truly will and internally pray for when Love... is in the ascendant, that moment the prayer’s response comes down.[3]

A unique feature of his sexual techniques, apart from the employment and magical use of the orgasm as a means of acquiring otherworldly sympathies, was his emphasis on the mutuality and equality of male and female in their loving union. All forms of sexual abuse within the Victorian framework, whether through masturbation or excessive intercourse, drained the body of the vital energy required for the undertaking of a sexual magical operation.

Despite being accused by many as promoting promiscuity and sexual license under the guise of his sexual magical teachings, Randolph was indeed a very conservative character. His practice of sexual magic is anything but mere hedonistic license. Sex, for Randolph, is strictly for married couples in a state of pure love.

Although for many in nineteenth century America Randolph might have appeared to be a radical, spiritual antinomian threatening the moral and spiritual foundation of society, his teachings on spiritualised love and sexual magic reflected and embodied many of the basic sexual values of his day, both physically and spiritually. His system was unlike the sexual techniques developed by many magicians to come who were inspired by him.

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[1] Hugh B. Urban, Magia Sexualis: Sex, Magic, and Liberation in Modern Western Esotericism, 2006, 23.

[2] Paschal Beverley Randolph, Eulis! The History of Love: Its Wondrous Magic, Chemistry, Rules, Laws, Modes, Moods, and Rationale, 1874, 100.

[3] Paschal Beverley Randolph, Eulis! The History of Love: Its Wondrous Magic, Chemistry, Rules, Laws, Modes, Moods, and Rationale, 1874, 339-340.

Marsilio Ficino on Eros and Magic

Domenico Ghirlandaio, Zachariah in the Temple, 1486-1490.

Eros and magic operate through the all-permeating pneuma that flows through each and every part of the cosmos, just as the human soul flows through each and every part of the human body. Eros is the almighty attractive power that holds all things as one, from the stars of the Heavens above through to the Earth below; and magic is the philosophy and gesture of understanding and manipulating these attractive relationships between the parts of the cosmos, between the parts of the human soul and body. Take for instance the ritual employment of talismans inscribed with images of the stars drawing down the life of the particular stars. Ultimately, the Magos is able to know and control these attractive forces through the cosmos as power, with the Magos being the male principle and power the female principle responding to his virility and charm, or neglecting him if he finally reveals himself as being impotent. The Magos is the lover, and power is the beloved, for “the lover and the magician both do the same thing: they cast their ‘nets’ to capture certain objects, to attract and draw them to them.”[1] According to Marsilio Ficino, the powers of eros and magic are entwined beyond belief, for both eros and magic work by the principle of attraction, which is the very force that holds the cosmos together,

The whole power of Magic is found on Eros. The way Magic works is to bring things together through their inherent similarity… In our body, the brain, the lungs, the heart, liver and other organs interact, favour each other, intercommunicate and feel reciprocal pain. From this relationship is born Eros, which is common to them all; from this Eros is born their mutual rapprochement, wherein resides true Magic.[2]

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[1] Marsilio Ficino, Commentary on Plato’s Symposium, 128.

[2] Marsilio Ficino, De Amore, VI, 10, 87.

The Whore of Babylon

William Blake, The Whore of Babylon, 1809.

“And there came one of the seven angels which had the seven vials, and talked with me, saying unto me, Come hither; I will shew unto thee the judgment of the great whore that sitteth upon many waters: with whom the kings of the earth have committed fornication, and the inhabitants of the earth have been made drunk with the wine of her fornication. So he carried me away in the spirit into the wilderness: and I saw a woman sit upon a scarlet coloured beast, full of names of blasphemy, having seven heads and ten horns. And the woman was arrayed in purple and scarlet colour, and decked with gold and precious stones and pearls, having a golden cup in her hand full of abominations and filthiness of her fornication, and upon her forehead was a name written a mystery: BABYLON THE GREAT, THE MOTHER OF HARLOTS AND ABOMINATIONS OF THE EARTH. And I saw the woman drunken with the blood of the saints, and with the blood of the martyrs of Jesus: and when I saw her, I wondered with great admiration. And here is the mind which hath wisdom. The seven heads are seven mountains, on which the woman sat. And there are seven kings: five are fallen, and one is, and the other is not yet come; and when he comes, he must continue a short space. And the beast that was, and is not, even he is the eighth, and is of the seven, and goes into perdition. And the ten horns which thou saw are ten kings, which have received no kingdom as yet; but receive power as kings one hour with the beast. And he said unto me, The waters which thou sawest, where the whore sat, are peoples, and multitudes, and nations, and tongues. And the woman which thou sawest is that great city, which reigns over the kings of the earth (Revelations: 17: 4-18).

Sex, Reality, and Metaphysics

Jan Saudek, Zuzanka's Night Window, 1979.

The word ‘sex’ throughout the history of humanity has always summoned multiple meanings, manifestations, and images expressing the most primal instinct of the human species. For humans, sexuality is a mode of experiencing themselves as sexual beings biologically, emotionally, and in some cases, spiritually. The implications of human sexuality can cover nearly all aspects of the human condition, embracing issues of culture, society, politics, philosophy, and religion. Regarding human sexuality one must neglect how it is also influenced by superior mental activity and by social, cultural, educational, and normative characteristics of areas where individuals develop. However, apart from being the very essence of the birth of life, it can also mutate into a dimension of demise, degeneration, and even horror. The endless tale of sex is one of pleasure and obsession, invoking both beauty and sorrow. Some of the most wondrous achievements of humanity have been inspired by this primal instinct, and the unfolding of history has been guided by the urges of human sexuality. Its ambiguous nature can be seen in how it serves and unites the two fundamental human drives of reproduction and pleasure. So great is the effect of sexuality on the human psyche and body that it has urged some to manipulate its force either by suppressing it or celebrating it in the pursuit of spiritual paths and exercises endeavouring to transcend and partake in the spiritual dimension. Its power has also been used as the most dreadful weapon to destroy, humiliate, and enslave. Despite these differences and many more, our relationship with it is the one uniting feature of humanity that we all accept and recognise. Even the absence of it is a reaffirmation of its existence. On a final note, from an esotericist’s perspective one should always bear in mind that the beginning of orgasm, a change of state takes place… and in an extreme case, during the spasm, the individual undergoes a traumatic experience of the power that ‘kills’.

Sex, Magick, and To Mega Therion

Jose Gabriel Alegria Sabogal, Babalon, 2014 

Aleister Crowley presented various veiled instructions for practical operations of sex magick in his writings, the most infamous being the Grimoirium Sanctissimum, which he published in Book 4, appearing originally only in Latin. The Gnostic Mass can also be seen as a continuum of ideas and practices from Grimoirium Sanctissimum, and which are also described in some parts of Liber Aleph. The Star Sapphire and Liber Samekh also conceal some elements. In addition, Liber Cheth vel Vallum Abiegni and Liber A’ash vel Capricorni Penumatici also describe features of sex magick but in highly veiled and symbolic terms.

A sex magick rite with Crowleyan flavourings and ritual gestures tends to focus on the ritual intent in advance with all participants aligning themselves to the same magical purpose, which must always coincide and be in sympathy with the True Will of the magicians. Depending on the form of ceremonial magick manifesting, some might decide to construct and empower ritual objects through their exercise of sex magick, whilst others might aspire to embody the Great Work. Preparations might include ritual bathing, extensive meditations, ceremonial invocations, consecrations, and so on. Once the preparations have been accomplished and the opening rituals performed, the participants are to stimulate each other sexually until fully aroused. Simultaneous recitations of invocations and chanting of voces magicae may be employed as long as they embody the correspondences of the nature and purpose of the rite.  When the sexual act commences, the magicians are to focus only on the purpose of the rite with the sexual performance extending as long as possible constantly driving the magicians in each other’s sexual embrace into a state of a natural trance and gnosis upon the threshold of the orgasm, constantly allowing the explosive ecstasy of the orgasmic energy to flirt intensely with their sexual senses. Throughout this they should passionately focus on the manifestation of their ritual purpose in conjunction with their Will by reciting mantric spells or rhyming incantations to assist them if they desire so. The orgasmic explosion of sexual fluids and energy should be simultaneous to express the annihilation of dualism and the celebration of the monadic nature of sex magick. However, the crucial element of the whole structure and expression of sex magick is at the point of orgasm, where although the conscious mind will be lost in waves of ecstasy, the Will of the magicians must remain even more focused on the intent of the rite for as is revealed in Liber AL vel Legis I: 57:

Nor let the fools mistake love; for there are love and love. There is the dove, and there is the serpent. Choose ye well!

The Circle and the Triangle

Sir William Fettes Douglas, The Spell, 1864.

The Temple itself, within which are to be found the ritual Circle and Triangle, contains all magical gestures and words, for it represents the entire operative magical Cosmos and, by inference, the Magos as well, because of the perceived relationship between the Microcosm and the Macrocosm. On the walls are mounted banners, images, signs, and colours reflecting the nature of the ritual, and on the floor of the Temple are certain inscriptions, the most important of which is the Circle. The Circle, as place of containment of the Absolute, to Hen, is the manifestation of infinity and the sacred source of gnosis to which the Magos aspires. Within this symbol of holistic spiritual aspiration, the Circle becomes cosmic point for all ritual gestures of invocation. The holy names of power, barbarous words, and arcane geometric figures are inscribed around the periphery of the Circle to stipulate the exact nature of the ritual working. The Magos may desire to remain within the contained infinity of the Circle for the duration of the ritual, yet it is essential that the nature of the Circle be ritually affirmed within his mind and heart, for the Circle will otherwise remain yet another profane symbol echoing sadly and feebly from a distant past the occult formulas of geometric patterns. Every ritual gesture and every word must be a reflection of meaning and purpose of the ritual, an extension of his Will and that holy attempt to align with the pure forces of the Cosmos. The Magos may also desire to utilise the Triangle also as a symbol of containment, but serving a purpose not akin to that of the Circle. Unlike the Circle, the Triangle is employed for purpose of evocation, the magical act of summoning beings of the netherworld through spells and incantations. Within the Triangle is placed the Sign, Sigil, or Seal of the spiritual being that is to be evoked, providing the manifestation of this being for the purpose of the ritual.

Initiation and the Absolute

The essence of an overwhelming initiation has an elitist character and the power to distinguish the higher initiated man or woman from the ordinary uninitiated man or woman. The difference is the natural effect that magic has. For the ordinary uninitiated man, knowledge is restricted to the senses and their finite sphere of operation of accidental character that directly experiences the phenomena and then assumes the existence of the noumenon within a framework of concepts and relations of an abstract character. However, the higher initiated man or woman undergoes the antithesis of experiencing the abstract in a pragmatic way. Experiencing the sensible is merely one perception of reality that the higher initiated man possesses. Initiation corresponds, transforms, and arranges in a hierarchical fashion levels of perception of absoluteness with the experience of the phenomenal belonging to a certain degree of experience, whereas that of the Absolute is only accessible to the higher initiated man. As far as the measure of ‘absoluteness’ is concerned, Evola wrote,

One may say approximately that it is determined by the degree of ‘active identification’, namely by the degree according to which the Self is implicated and unified in its experience, and according to which its object is transparent to it in terms of a ‘meaning’. In correspondence to these degrees, the hierarchy proceeds from ‘sign’ to ‘sign’, from ‘name’ to ‘name’, until it reaches a state of perfect, superrational, intellectual vision, of full actualization or realization of the object in the Self and the Self in the object. This is a state of power and of absolute evidence… There is an ancient saying according to which one did not join the ancient Mysteries in ‘to learn’, but rather in order to achieve a sacred state through deep experience.[1]

From the perspective of the initiatic process, ‘to know’ equates with ‘being the known object’, a realisation that extends when one’s consciousness is transformed by active identification, which is not a mystical and emotive state, but an essential and supra-rational one. The transformation of one’s consciousness also parallels the acquisition of power as the consequence of active identification with a cause conferring power over that same cause. According to this active and experiential initiatic principle, knowledge and experience are the same. This process of initiation is what established the differences between human beings and reaffirming the principle of ‘each to their own’ where one’s ideals and freedom are proportional to what one is.

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[1] Ea, ‘The Nature of Initiatic Knowledge’, in Introduction to Magic: Rituals and Practical Techniques for the Magus, by Julius Evola and the Gruppo di UR, 2001, page. 27.

Dualism and a Cosmic War

 William Blake, The Good and Evil Angels Struggling for the Possession of a Child, 1795.

Despite the efforts of various scholars down through the ages endeavouring to provide a tradition for dualist renditions of the universe, the particular emanations of dualist thought still remain aloof to biased revisions and broad generalisations that either celebrate or condemn. Although the term ‘dualism’ denotes the existence of the state of two parts in the form of binary opposition, the manner in which this idea finds expression differentiates itself to the extent of both embracing opposing doctrines and transcending them. The reason for this is due to the fact that dualism has a different application in philosophical, historical, and cosmological contexts.  The term ‘dualism’, as a distinct area of description for the religious tradition of Manichaeism, was introduced by Thomas Hyde in 1700 and then further introduced by Christian Wolff to define philosophical systems that relate to the mind and body as two distinct entities. However, the use of the term ‘dualism’ in philosophical discourse differs greatly from its examination within a religious context with cosmological and historical references. Although many have argued that dualism within a religious context is the rite of passage from polytheism to monotheism, or a rebellious outcry against monotheistic cosmology, studies in individual religious traditions that have and continue to express dualist tendencies demonstrate that these tendencies exist in polytheistic, monotheistic, and monistic religious traditions, either as metaphysical expressions on the margins or inherent doctrines within the core structure of the religious tradition.

The essence of religious dualism usually manifests in the cosmic battle between the forces of good and light against the minions of evil and darkness, which exists as an all-embracing conflict defining arcane mechanisms of the universe. In some traditions, such as Zoroastrianism and Manichaeism, this cosmic struggle is between two distinct and coeternal principles, and the battle is everlasting, for it is the very definition of the universe itself. In more moderate dualistic traditions, such the Gnostic school of Valentinianism, the source of evil and darkness is inferior to the principle of good and light, with the former being an extension of the latter. Some dualist traditions have an eschatological dimension, where at the end of time a purification of the world will take place and all evil will be vanquished. A final difference that takes place between various dualist religious schools is the way in which creation is conceived. In cosmic dualism, such as Zoroastrianism, the created world is not conceived as evil, but instead as a creation of the good principle that has been assaulted by the forces of evil and darkness. However, in more anti-cosmic dualist systems, as presented in the mythologies of some Gnostic schools, the created world is seen as a creation of the Demiurge who opposes the good and light principle that resides within the domain of spirit.

In relation to the diverse types of dualism that can be found in polytheistic, monotheistic and monistic religious traditions, Yuri Stoyanov writes:

                                    

In certain religious traditions diverse types of dualism could coalesce and appear in torturous combinations with monotheistic and polytheistic conceptions. What is more, within the framework of the development of some religious traditions, there can be detected a transition from dualist tendencies or notions of duality to the dualism of the irreconcilable cosmic opposites or a reversal of this process – a neutralization of the dualist elements implicit or developed in earlier stages of religion (Stoyanov, 2000, 5).

References:

Yuri Stoyanov, The Other God – Dualist Religions from Antiquity to the Cathar Heresy, 2000.

Down There

Hieronymus Bosch, The Temptation of St Anthony,  1495-1515.

A truly dark undercurrent penetrating Western religious imagination, from the era before Christ up until this very day and age, has been the nightmarish fantasy of sexual license and the perversion of sacred ritual. The effects of the anguish by the presence of such a nightmare can be seen in merciless attacks on the Gnostics, the massacre of the Cathars, and the persecution of the Templars, yet never fully manifesting until the conjuration of the unholy principles and aesthetics of the Black Mass inverting the Holy Eucharistic through sin, violence, and ungodly sexuality.

By the nineteenth century, images and tales of Black Masses had possessed European literary and popular imagination, with the most choreographed and perpetuating literary rendition of the Black Mass being that of Joris-Karl Huysmans presented in his classic decadent novel Là Bas. According to Urban,

Increasingly interested in the occult arts, witchcraft, and Satanism, Huysmans allegedly sought out a series of guides to lead him to the Black Mass. There is a great deal of controversy as to whether Huysmans ever did in fact witness a Black Mass or whether he simply fabricated the event and embellished the already long history of Western fantasies of satanic ritual.[1]

According, Huysmans’ personal account is that he did witness the Black Mass, where he had encountered Abbé Van Haecke, whom he believed was the “greatest Satanist of all times, the Gilles de Rais of the nineteenth century.”[2] Huysmans also made the acquaintance another controversial character who openly confessed to blasphemy and illicit sex through his Society of the Reparation of Souls, the defrocked priest Abbé Boullan. In his book, the Temple of Satan, Stanislas de Guaita described him as a “pontiff of infamy, a base idol of the mystical Sodom, a magician of the worst type, a wretched criminal, an evil sorcerer, and the founder of an infamous sect.”[3] In 1889, Huysmans heard about Boullan and sought him out in order to learn more in regards to the occult. Boullan denied that he was a Satanist, but did confess that he was a master of incubi and succubi. Both Boullan and van Haecke appear fictionalised in his book, with the former being the learned priest, Dr Johannes, whilst the latter appearing as the sinister and defrocked priest, Canon Docre, who is the one who officiates over the Black Mass. The main character, who is Huysmans alter ego, Durtal, seeks out a performance of the Black Mass during his research about the life of Gilles de Rais. Despite his account of the Black Mass being an imaginary weaving of blasphemy, ungodly sexuality, and infernal cravings, it remains one of the most widely read accounts of the Black Mass.

The Black Mass takes place in the remains of an Ursuline convent, where a grotesque and naked image of Christ laughing sinisterly has replaced the crucifix, and the choir boy is a demonic faery. Canon Docre decries Jesus as a hoax and a liar, whilst praising Satan as, “King of the Disinherited, Son who art to overthrow the inexorable father… Master of slanders, Dispenser of the benefits of crime, Administrator of sumptuous sins and great vices, Satan, thee we adore, reasonable God, just God!”[4] The Black Mass escalates into a spiritually violent and bizarre chaos of blasphemy and disgust, as the prostitutes and degenerate old women, who act as the congregation, writhe in infernal ecstasy on the floor as Canon Docre chews up and spits out the host to desecrate it. In Huysmans’ words,

In a solemn but jerky voice he said “Hoc est enim corpus meum,” then instead of kneeling… before the precious Body, he faced the congregation and appeared tumified, dripping with sweat… raising the chausible, displayed his naked belly. Docre made a few passes and the host sailed, tainted and soiled, over the steps… A whirlwind of hysteria shook the room… Women rushed upon the Eucharist and, grovelling in front of the altar, clawed from the bread humid particles and divine ordure… Docre… frothing with rage, was chewing up sacramental wafers, taking them out of his mouth… and distributing them to the women, who ground them underfoot, howling, or fell over each other struggling to get hold of them and violate them. The place was simply a madhouse, a monstrous pandemonium of prostitutes and maniacs.[5]

So distraught and disturbed by his experience, or personal vision into this dark world sinful delusions and infernal howlings, Huysmans became convinced of the ontological existence of evil and eventually returned seeking salvation within the Church. As he put it, “the devil drew me toward God.”[6]

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[1] Hugh B. Urban, Magia Sexualis: Sex, Magic, and Liberation in Modern Western Esotericism, 2006, page 197.

[2] Robert Baldick, The Life of J.-K. Huysmans, 1955, pages 149-150.

[3] Robert Baldick, Down There (Là Bas): A Study in Satanism, 1958, page vii.

[4] Joris-Karl Huysmans, Down There (Là Bas): A Study in Satanism, 1958, pages 268-269.

[5] Joris-Karl Huysmans, Down There (Là Bas): A Study in Satanism, 1958, page 272.

[6] Robert Baldick, Down There (Là Bas): A Study in Satanism, 1958, page 27.

William James and the Mystical Experience

William James, 1942-1910.

With the emergence of modernity, the hermeneutic and liturgical dimensions of mystical thought and practice were gradually neglected in favour of an appreciation of a generic experiential value of the category of mysticism. An example of this shift is evident in the works of the pioneering philosopher and psychologist, William James, and his book The Varieties of Religious Experience: A Study in Human Nature, which was first published in 1902. James’s scholarly interest provided a framework for the study of mysticism and religious experience through the emerging discipline of psychology, yet he did not adopt the reductionist approach. For James, organised religion was secondary in importance in relation to private individual religious experiences, which reflected the process of secularisation prevalent with the rise of modernity and affected the transference of significance of religion being to public affair to that of a more private one.

The study of mysticism in the works of James has often been conceived as a study of the attainment of altered states of consciousness, which are inaccessible to the rational mind yet have exceptional meaning and impact upon the individual. In James’ words, “Our normal waking consciousness, rational consciousness as we call it, is but one special types of consciousness, whilst all about it, parted from it by the filmiest screens, there lie potential forms of consciousness entirely different.”[1] According to James, mystical experiences exhibit four characteristics, through which he was interested providing a theoretical framework for exploring the rich diversity of mystical texts and traditions throughout the world. The first characteristic is ‘ineffability’, which refers to the indescribable nature of the mystical experience. The second, the ‘noetic quality’, is the impact that the acquisition of the some mystical insight has. The third quality refers to ‘transiency’, indicated that the experiential state of mystical insight is limited in duration. The final characteristic is the ‘passivity’ of mystical experiences, where the powerful sense of the unity of all things experienced through a mystical insight renders the subject incapable to act, as they are ‘given’ instead of being an expression of an active imagination.

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[1] James, William, The Varieties of Religious Experience: A Study in Human Nature, 1977, page 374.

Poetics, Aesthetics, and Ritual Magic

"For the inventors and practioners of the rites, however deeply versed in the lore of their subject and however obedient to its rules, often gave proof of the artistic temperament, to the advantage of the literature which has survived. The aim, like that of astrology, alchemy and applied science as a whole, was strictly practical; the means show evidence of creative instincts, poetical imagination and feeling for beauty and drama… Some of the rites are radiant and serene; others are lurid and even sinister; others again vibrate with spiritual power; and the boons demanded are not so disproportionate to the pressure brought to bear upon the gods as is too often the case. Although they include immunity from such commonplace ills as headaches and fevers and requests for beauty, victory and misfortunes on one’s foes, the most important processes were undertaken for loftier reasons: for divine visions or communion with gods, for immortality or regeneration, for dreams, for prophecies and oracles. And when the aim was a lower one: the procuring of a familiar spirit, or the constraint of another’s love, the language in its intensity and fecundity rises above the normal ritual level."[1]

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[1] Elizabeth M Butler, Ritual Magic, 1949, pages 4, 8-9.