changing the world | The Blog of Baphomet

This proposal is an open invitation and not a strict program or dogma for prescription.

LSD, DMT, Psilocybin, Peyote, Ayahausca and other psychedelics, enthoeogens, shamanic medicines and hallucinogenic chemicals are generally illegal and targeted by nation states and supranational organisations like the United Nations, G20 etc. Production, distribution and possession are heavily penalized in the majority of countries around the planet, even though there have been some advances towards their accepted uses in spirituality, psychiatry, psychotherapy and neuro-research in various territories.

The cases of judicial injustice which have taken place internationally and continue to take place are staggering in multitude, at the level of a so-called “war on drugs” which has been declared to be taking place for decades. This war is a means of domestic and foreign repression, racial and class-based segregation and it fuels an increasingly privatized prison system which props up an economic order based on division and
exploitation. It is also a war against consciousness itself, who gets to experience it, how it gets transformed and who gets to control and define it. The psychedelic community is a revolutionary and subversive explosion of colour, love, possibility and positivity which has suffered since its inception from state repression, disruption, investigation and infiltration.

50-years-of-lsd-in-the-usa-358aaa2a-6eb0-430c-af86-71e825b78669

Subverting the State since 1967

There is a need within the psychedelic community for an increased awareness of legal, security and penal issues, from those who are in need of support and to those who will be. Without illegal chemists, distributors, local suppliers and trippers themselves, the psychedelic current wouldn’t exist. Currently the whole entire scenes which dovetail
with the psychedelic movement are based on ‘drug’ experiences which are criminalized and forbidden. Someone has to produce and supply the psychedelic and entheogenic medicines which are so prevalent and so there is a responsibility from the community to support those people who get caught.

A proposed psychedelic prisoner solidarity group would have to decide about a centralized or decentralized structure; their relationships to other entities such as government bodies, trade unions, penal reform organisations such as the Howard League for Penal Reform, Amnesty International, and prison abolition groups such as the Anarchist Black Cross.

The group would need at least four or five core activists in order to be effective at a wider level, needing all the usual resources that a group like this requires: laptops, phones, printer, photocopier etc. It would be thought that a small group which has a such a broad remit and potentially vast interaction with many incarcerated psychonauts and wider society could suffer from being overwhelmed with cases and avenues of expansion beyond its means. The group should be a means to collect and unify many drug war prisoners without being based on individuals solely. This is to focus on the overall picture of repression and to prevent the ebb-and-flow of interest due to a particular case coming to an end or to give the illusion that the group could be a solution to all the problems that an imprisoned person may suffer from. The group should not be a charity based organisation but a means of struggle for the acceptance of psychedelic substances and their positive uses. This also means the family and friends who are supporting their imprisoned loved one do not have to spend all their time doing the public outreach which could be achieved by the impact of a psychedelic prisoner solidarity group, if they wish to focus on more important issues, like practical help to the one inside.

Inside the System

The group would bring itself to the attention of the authorities quickly due to the campaign topic and the actual contact with prisoners inside. It would need to be up to date with law and policing issues and themes such as security and policy. The group would need to maintain virtual and physical presence, and provide accurate legal information and resources; it would network within and without the psychedelic community, researchers, medical community, marijuana industry, alternative and mainstream media, etc. It would maintain contacts with drug reform groups, lawyers and solicitors with expertise for those requiring their help; it would collect and maintain emergency funds for psychedelic prisoners and defendants; it would seek high-level public support from people, groups and entities of influence as a way to promote it’s causes; it would promote psychedelic culture and values, explaining the reasons to support advocated prisoners to the broader public. It would promote, through its outreach, the struggle for a world without need for a vast prison-industrial complex,
social repression and criminalization, for a better future and healing for all.

We can’t let those psychedelic chemists, entheogenic suppliers and drug war prisoners behind bars remain there, and we cannot fail those people who the state wishes to jail for many years, in some cases, for multiple lifetimes, like William Leonard Pickard. A movement for social change can be judged on how well it treats those who go to prison in defense of its principles, as a movement which forgets its prisoners, forgets itself.

If you’re interested in this proposal please get in touch.

https://www.gofundme.com/psychedelic-prisoner-support

In my last post I touched upon the inspiration that I have been gaining from the Ma’at Magick current as outlined by the wonderful Nema (Maggie Ingalls). It was through her description of her work with the mysterious figure of N’Aton that I found a vehicle for furthering my own explorations of the Gnostic current in a more creative, future orientated way.

Those acquainted with my writing here will probably be unsurprised by my attraction to N’Aton as a future-mythic figure. N’Aton represents a non-binary ‘They’ at a number of levels. As is represented by their image half in starry shadow and half in light, their gender is located in a third place that dances between and beyond polarities. N’Aton as a future magical self also integrates an inspiring way of being that holds together the unique individual and shared collective.

Face of the Future

While the primary structure of the book Ma’at Magick follows the time-tested format of the Hermetic Kabbalah, for me juiciest insights are gained as Nema incorporates her more Typhonic and Nu-Thelemic inspirations. Having worked closely with Kenneth Grant and the Kaula Nath lineage of AMOOKOS, her work weaves together a rich variety of magical strands.

One of the areas of magical practice that seems to reflect this rich material is Nema’s work with the Forgotten Ones. For her these are the personified aspects of our ancient and primal drives that have allowed humanity to survive and evolve. These are the lurkers in the deep that connect us to the potent needs of hunger, sex, clan connection, communication and curiosity. As Nema observes: “Civilisation, law, governance and good manner form a fragile veneer over the survival urges in the human unconscious.”

Once one has entered into conversation with the Holy Guardian Angel, Nema believes that it is vital to engage in our work with the Forbidden Ones so as to avoid the perils of megalomania and potential magical burn-out. For us to truly earth our experiences of transcendence and the sense of who we might become, it is essential that we as magicians remain connected to the earthy reality of who we are as human animals. For our work to have sustainability the balancing scales of Ma’at need to be attended to. If we focus only on the future, the “spiritual” and the new, we risk fragility and escapism. If we focus only on the ancestral drives of the past, we risk getting bogged down in materialism and missing the possibility of who we might become. Like the scales we seek balance, a Hermetic tightrope walk of “as above so below”.

For me part of the genius of author-artists such as Nema, Kenneth Grant and Austin Osman Spare is their appreciation of the ‘darker’, dream-like dimensions of magical work and how critical these are in fuelling a more integrated version of magical advancement. While critics might depict such approaches as being ‘nightside’, I couldn’t frankly care less as my own experience with dusty, linear approaches is that they often fill the head while doing little for the heart or the body. For our alchemy to be real we need the fuel of body, mind and emotions ignited and transformed.

This need to reconnect to the Forgotten, dark and unconscious has been a theme key to my own magical journey. The psychological struggle to hide aspects of mySelf behind a mask of perceived respectability drove me down into what felt like a pit of confusion and personal torment. While I longed for a quick fix that demanded less effort or a ready rescuer, the answer came via darkness, stillness and the eventual death of who I thought I was. While these days I find limited value in terms such as ‘Left-hand path’, I can still recognise the territory it is attempting to map in trying to describe those spiritual paths that engage with the dark, earthy and potentially frightening dimensions of existence.

In revisiting these insights of Nema’s, I was reminded of my own ongoing focus on the form of draconian magic articulated in the works of Michael Kelly. In works such as Apophis and Aegishjalmur, Kelly describes the work of the initiate as being an ongoing dialogue between consciousness and chaos. Yes we might strive for an awakened sense of Self that seeks the qualities of Godhood, but we must also recognise the darker more chaotic currents of the Serpent moving through the depths of both ourselves and the cosmos. The true adept is the one able to acknowledge the presence of both chaos and order within their personal sphere, and that both impulses can be harnessed when done so consciously.

While the approaches outlined by Nema and Kelly might differ significantly in their chosen starting point and aesthetics, for me their shared authenticity is found in their balancing of wide range of human needs and competing drives. Our personal journeys and tastes will of course shape the degree of comfort and congruence with a given path, but my hunch is that any school or method of lasting value will force us to confront those forgotten aspects that potentially hold the key to deeper progress.