it has been shown that much of the work of Trithemius, Agrippa’s mentor and the progenitor of European ceremonial magick, was actually veiled cryptography, a brutal and embarrassing truth that much of the occult and neopagan revival, which ultimately stems from Trithemius, has never assessed.
Jason Louv, The Angelic Reformation: John Dee, Enochian Magick & the Occult Roots of Empire
It is hard, in fact, not to imagine the Angelic Conversations as a kind of Elizabethan sitcom—the records are as much a comedy of errors as they are fearsome divine revelation, with Dee and Kelley gossiping around their scrying board, angels drifting through the room and sternly lecturing them, political intrigues, an annoyed Elizabeth hovering, and walk-on bits from demons and European nobles, all set against the backdrop of the imminent Eschaton.
Jason Louv, The Angelic Reformation: John Dee, Enochian Magick & the Occult Roots of Empire
The more one learns about Dee and his work, the more complex the terrain becomes—and the more threads of the modern world one can trace back to this crucial historical flashpoint.
Jason Louv, The Angelic Reformation: John Dee, Enochian Magick & the Occult Roots of Empire
Taken together, it seems that Dee may be responsible for nothing less than our present world.
Jason Louv, The Angelic Reformation: John Dee, Enochian Magick & the Occult Roots of Empire
Ultraculture Journal: Essays on Magick, Tantra and the Deconditioning of Consciousness (Volume 1) from Jason Louv, with Jhonn Balance, Joel Biroco, Ira Cohen, Ganesh Baba, Brion Gysin, Genesis Breyer R-Orridge; may be of interest.
“Ultraculture Journal collects under one cover some of the most volatile and direct tantric and magickal writing currently available in the English language. It will change you at the cellular level. You have been forewarned. This issue includes:
· Genesis Breyer P-Orridge on the holographic Garden of Eden Brion Gysin’s travelogue of his journey to Alamut, the citadel of the Assassins
· Lalitanath and Shivanath on the Magick Path of Tantra
· Jason Louv’s essential guide to Western magick
· Beat legend Ira Cohen on John Dee and the Kumbh Mela, the biggest religious festival in the world
· Dave Lowe and Hans Plomp travel across India’s mountains and rivers without end
· The psychedelic rantings of Ganesh Baba, the world’s most tripped-out guru
· Johnny Templar broadcasts live from the tomb of Christian Rosenkreutz
· Joel Biroco on the “War on Terror”
· Prince Charming interviews Tibetan Tantric Adept Monica Dechen Gyalmo
· New lyrics from the late Jhonn Balance of Coil and Genesis Breyer P-Orridge
· Treasure chests full of rituals, reviews and wish-granting genies!Ultraculture Journal promises to catalyze a twenty-first century actually worth living in. Welcome to the psychedelic make-out party at the beginning of history. Jason Louv is the editor of Generation Hex (2005) and Thee Psychick Bible (2009).”
On the occasion of Aleister Crowley’s lesser feast for life, born October 12, 1875, Jason Louv, over at Ultraculture, links to the Libri of Aleister Crowley in a re-post about Crowley’s continued relevance today at “It’s Aleister Crowley’s Birthday“.
“Crowley took it as his life’s work to return an understanding of Magick to a society that had buried it. Like many others of his generation, he helped kick down the locked doors of repression, both sexual and spiritual, and sought to put the study of the ‘otherworlds’ on a firm scientific basis.
Crowley was one of the first Westerners to openly talk about and advocate yoga, meditation, ritual, shamanism, the chakras, understanding of past lives, sexual and chemical experimentation, Qabalah, Buddhism, Hinduism and even Tantra as valid tools for self-exploration.
For Crowley (also an early advocate for gay rights), all of these could be used as structures to achieve one thing: the discovery, and execution, of one’s true life purpose. Unlike the Theosophists who came before him and the New Agers who came after him, he ruthlessly sought to cut out any fluffy, wishful and deluded thinking and instead posited Magick as the study of the true nature of the world, which, being natural, is neither black nor white but, rather, red in tooth and claw.” [via]
Jason Louv, over at Ultraculture, has posted “It’s Aleister Crowley’s Birthday” which links to the Libri of Aleister Crowley.
“Aleister Crowley was born on this day in 1875 in Leamington Spa, England, with his Sun in Libra, Moon in Pisces and Leo Ascendant.” [via]
“Crowley did incredible things and he did horrible things. Now he is dead, and we have inherited the world that he prophesied. Now, in the Aeon of the Child, we all stand as terrible and immature infants with the electronic power of gods, running wild in a world of nuclear chaos. Even Crowley cowered in terror when he was shown what the world would become, after two world wars, the splitting of the atom and the breaking of all social codes: Us, that most awful and vicious Beast of all.” [via]