Tag Archives | Occultism

Ritual Shamanism – The Drum and the Wand

Shamans_Drum“The wand as used in many modern day esoteric practices is in fact a symbolic drum stick, directionally beating our concentrated willed intent against the energetic surface of creational reality”

My personal involvement with shamanism started some 30 years or so ago whilst on what may appear at first sight to be a totally unrelated path.

At an early age I developed a deep interest in the mystical side of our nature, it was as if I was instinctively drawn towards anything that was different or had a freakish nature and was coupled the suspicion that there was much more going on in the world than met the eye. I would spend hours exploring the overgrown orchard and the abandoned farm that backed onto my parents property, the place seemed to be virtually alive with the spirits of nature who had reclaimed the land as their own.

As the years progressed I became ever more interested in the possibilities of our human potential.… Read the rest

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Why Biologist Rupert Sheldrake’s Work is So Interesting for Fans of Mixed Martial Arts and Occultists

The sense of being stared at is only one aspect of Dr Sheldrake’s research but it’s the area most obviously relevant to the archetypal image of an occultist. If you really can occasionally ‘feel’ yourself being looked at, as his work appears to suggest, this could reveal something of the long suspected human “telepathic” abilities of ancient legend.

Sheldrake argues our minds actually connect with objects as they percieve them:

“The sense of being stared at works because our minds reach out to touch what we’re looking at and sometimes we can feel that, or animals can feel it, so we can effect what we’re looking at, simply by looking at it. So, there’s something coming out of our eyes, as well as going in.”[1]

Furthermore this might even be a skill you can learn to enhance. Experiments conducted into the phenomena have been altered to include instant feedback for the person being stared at.… Read the rest

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Discordian Theology and a Short Guide to Divination

“I don’t want words that other people have invented”.

Essays for The Discordian Occultist, Part 5.

Discordian occultism is a system which has only rules which you’ve chosen or invented. Discordians are almost supernaturally bound to be contrary to “dogmas”, wherever or whenever they notice them[1]. This also includes the dogmas inherent in the previous sentence. This essay, the final part of our series, will not be for everyone as we inevitably get drawn into the highly subjective world of Discordian occult theory. This means that, in a sense, much of it should be treated as a work of fiction alike to a poem, crude painting or pleasant song. However we will wrap the discussion up with a look at one of the most useful of all skills: divination. If you want to skip the theory and move to that, be my guest. There’s a quick three step guide at the bottom which comes after the sacred Discordian words of initiation.… Read the rest

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A Beginner’s Guide to Sigil Craft

“Magick has many aspects, but primarily it acts as a dramatized system of psychology”

- “Pope Bob”, Robert Anton Wilson

Part 4, Essays for the Discordian Occultist: the sigil.

Here’s one way of making a sigil. It’s partly cribbed from a talk given by Grant Morrison at the Disinformation conference[1] with slight personal additional details provided by my own experiences. Sigils are a low-magick technique which will not fail to get you exactly what you need. It can become a high-magick technique but for the moment we’ll just stick to the basics[2].

One important thing to note is that sigils always appear to work. The distinction being; if I kicked in a window, I’d feel I knew who’d done it. If I cast a sigil which asked for that window to be broken and then discovered a few days later it was now broken, no one can prove a causal relationship between the sigil and the broken window.… Read the rest

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The Supernatural World

Preface to The Supernatural World by Danish author and philosopher Erwin Neutzsky-Wulff:

Dear reader!

Are you fascinated by the supernatural? By the idea, that there may be a deeper meaning to existence?

That demons – or just beings from other worlds or dimensions – actually exist? Or do you simply wonder why some people seem to believe in, or even in some form experience, the supernatural?

If not, then you probably belong to a very small minority. In all likelihood it will not have escaped your attention, that there are entire retail chains, that exist to provide you with anything from gemstones with healing properties to inverted crosses – anything according to taste.

What is it all about? And what has auras and reincarnation got to do with the religion we were taught at Sunday school?

Are people who communicate with spirits insane, do they have real contact, or maybe both?

Read the rest

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Alan Moore Interview

Picture: Loz Pycock (CC)

Here’s an interview I did with Alan Moore a few years back:

http://thecultofnick.libsyn.com/alan-moore-interviews

I think it features the only full audio version of his demonic possession story which has gained a certain level of notoriety in occult circles because, as you’d expect, it’s really well told.

Alan Moore is the reason I first gave the world of occultism any serious attention and so I selfishly draw him into the subject in quite some detail once we’ve chatted about comics.

The podcast also features an interview, recorded on the same day, regarding Mr Moore’s dislike of film conversions of his work. It wasn’t possible to broadcast this interview in its full form so it features like this here for the first time.

I hope my fellow Disinfonaughts will forgive me such a blatant plug, I try to put up as many interesting stories as possible on here so every now and then it’s nice to push something like this.… Read the rest

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“Living The Dream”

Picture: "Gwenboul" (CC): www.centrifuge.fr. See full-sized image here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/gwendalcentrifugue/8157645003/sizes/c/in/photostream/

“Reality is that which, when you stop believing in it, doesn’t go away”

- How To Build A Universe That Doesn’t Fall Apart Two Days Later, Philip K. Dick

Part 2, Essays for the Discordian occultist: inducing a magickal state of consciousness

Magick is a highly subjective skill. According to the occultist, Ramsey Dukes, as a discipline it lies somewhere alongside ‘art’, ‘science’ and ‘religion’ [1]. All of these pursuits require a certain state of mind. The magick user who entirely excludes the possibility of magick from his worldview is like a cleric who knows no God, an artist with no appreciation for art or a scientist who refuses to accept the laws of mathematics. It’s not necessarily the case that you will be unsuccessful but it’s significantly less likely. So, for as long as is comfortable[2], it’s time to allow magick to be part of your reality.… Read the rest

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What is Magic?

D.I.Y. MagicThe official demise of Arthur Magazine, Jay Babcock’s carefully cultivated psychedelic culture journal, left many fretting their future prospects for an intriguing, in depth, and off-color window into the fractuous mindstream of contemporary culture. Thankfully the digital beast we ride would never allow such a thing, and Arthur Mag lives on through online archives, and a new Tumblr feed, which is already bearing fruit as evinced by the news of the upcoming publication of Anthony Alvarado’s initiatic indulgence D.I.Y. Magic, a book born from a series of articles that ran in Arthur Magazine:

“What is magic? It is the fine and subtle art of driving yourself insane! No really, it is just that. It is a con game you play on your own brain. It is the trick of letting yourself go crazy, and when it’s done right, the magus treads the same sacred and profane ground where walks the madman…

We can read descriptions of myths, of the practices of shamans, but the descriptions we might read by a Pentecostal believer, or a voodoo practitioner ridden by the loa, will be meaningless to us unless we have already been in the state they describe.… Read the rest

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Gods and Aliens: The Infinite and the Beyond (Podcast)

The Infinite and the BeyondPodcast: Episode 026 — Gods and Aliens

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Alien Pope

In the latest episode of The Infinite and the Beyond, discuss gods and aliens and the ideas surrounding Ancient Astronaut Theory. Do you believe in extra-terrestrials? Do you think they visted and helped ancient human civilizations? Are you a supporter of Ancient Astronaut Theory? If your answer is a resounding YES, then this episode is not for you, because I take a look into some of the propositions made by Ancient Astronaut Theorists and offer my thoughts on the matter which may not jive with you and your alien putty, but do not worry there is always Stonehenge!

Later in the episode, I discuss the only alien abduction case I have helped with as a paranormal investigator. Hear the details as I share my diagnosis and methods of addressing the issue in my effort to help a friend. In A Corner in the Occult we learn about Lam, Aleister Crowley’s favorite martian, as well as the Typhonian Order which focuses on working and communication with extra-terrestrial entities, The Great Old Ones, as well as some of the darker aspects of metaphysics.

We hear a track from our featured artist and future guest Alka, an electronic music composer who incorporates magick, occultism, and estoric practices and systems into his music making process. We discuss evocation in the Essence of Magick. I read listener email and talk about James Randi. We see which two lucky listeners won copies of Etched Offerings, and to close we ponder the origin of deity. This episode is really out of this world!

To message the show please go here.

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