Just a quick reminder that “unity” is no less of an illusion than “separateness” is. “Nonduality” is not somehow closer to the way things really are than “duality” is. The absence of a consciousness of separation doesn’t mean that things aren’t separate any more than closing your eyes makes the universe disappear. If you say […]

The common warnings about the psychological harm that occultists can cause themselves as a result of their practices are well known. In The Complete Golden Dawn System of Magic, for instance, Israel Regardie wrote that: In the practice of Magic or anything which releases unusual amounts of energy from the unconscious the infantile megalomaniacal substructure […]

The student syllabus for Jim Eshelman’s A∴A∴ branch contains the following books: The Equinox (Crowley, 1909–1913) Raja Yoga (Vivekananda, 1896) The Shiva Samhita (trad., English translation Shri Chandra Vasu, 1884), or The Hathayoga Pradipika (Svatmarama) Konx Om Pax (Crowley, 1907) The Spiritual Guide (Molinos, first English edition 1688) 777 (Crowley, 1909) Dogme et Rituel de […]

More from Dawkins’ The Greatest Show on Earth: As we trace the ancestry of modern Homo sapiens backwards, there must come a time when the difference from living people is sufficiently great to deserve a different specific name, say Homo ergaster. Yet, every step of the way, individuals were presumably sufficiently similar to their parents […]

In a recent email exchange, a correspondent asked me “whats your opinion on astrology?”, to which I replied, “superstitious nonsense”. A further question of “so, what do you think of astral projection or such? Is it all your mind playing tricks on you?” elicited a response which seems to have hit home. So, for all […]

Over on Jim Eshelman’s Temple of Thelema forums, there’s a thread called True Will and physical obstacles. The original poster asked: A man, who is black receives repeated racial discrimination and abuse which affects his life so badly that he feels suicidal. He makes every effort to live his True Will and the path that […]

A few months ago, in the entry Religious naturalism and religious thinking, we criticized the much-vaunted but actually non-existent benefits of religion within the context of philosophy (which actually does not exist) which eschews the regular supernatural components of traditional religious beliefs. We saw that: once you take the supernatural out of religion, you are […]

I recently received the following questions via private correspondence: I want to ask you some detailed questions about the Trumps & the hebrew letters if you don’t mind? Do the hebrew letters play any part in Tarot readings? Ok for example the Chariot is assigned Cheth/Fence well we know that a fence can keep people/things […]

A post entitled A Church of Magic over on Kjetil Fjell’s blog has, despite being over a year old, been recently brought to my attention. The subject matter covered, a type of sociological, OTO-obsessed, college-kid “Thelema” inspired by Team418, is not the usual fare for this site, but in this particular entry – and in […]

There’s an interesting thread going on over at LAShTAL.com right now about “praeternatural intelligences” and supernatural claims in general. “Gurugeorge” suggested that the time may be coming soon where “science” may be able to “definitively decide about the Magickal theory” either way: The Magickal theory of the Universe is a bold punt. If it’s true, […]