reviews | The Blog of Baphomet

This book represents an updated and expanded version of Gregory Peters’ previous volume “The Magickal Union of East Meets West”. I really enjoyed that book and having reviewed his work on the Blog, I was excited to see how the evolution of his magical practice was reflected in this new work.

The book begins with a new and substantial introduction by the legendary Michael Stayley of Starfire Publishing and Typhonian Order fame which in itself is worth the price of the book. He provides a clear overview of how the Thelemic current has sought to engage with the wide variety of religious expressions from Asia, highlighting both its successes and failures in trying to synthesise such a vast body of material. Stayley (and Peters within the main body of the book) highlight a process of bricolage in which the magician recombines an array of material in the light of their personal insight and genius in order to distil a new perspective.

Peters comes from a rich background of Thelemic ceremonial magic and various lineages of both Hindu and Buddhist tantra. In this work he seeks to outline some of the key ideas and practices that he and other magical colleagues have worked with, within the Ordo Sunyata Vajra (OSV) over the past 30 years. As is suggested by its English translation as an Order of the “Adamantine Void”, this is a curriculum that seeks to equip the magician with both philosophy and ritual technique for exploring dimensions of the “true” and “silent” self. For Peters these dimensions of self are vital to exploring key Thelemic concepts such True Will and work with the Guardian Angel.

Peters is an open and enthusiastic guide who offers the insights he has gained with a deep sense of gratitude to those teachers and currents that have informed his work. Whether it be the work of Kaula Nath lineage of AMOOKOS, Dzogchen or Chan Buddhist practices, he presents these approaches within an explicitly Thelemic world view. However much he has gained from these Eastern traditions, his work seeks to engage with them as means for getting to the deeper dimensions of Crowley’s work as it was carried forward by Kenneth Grant, and Greg’s own mentor Soror Meral (Phyllis Seckler).

Peter’s is deeply inspired Kenneth Grant and his form of Typhonian Thelema and clearly sees the focus of the OSV as being profoundly connected to the recovery of a perennial form of “Stellar Gnosis”. In contrast to Grant however, Greg (as a Tantric and ceremonial practitioner) provides us with plenty of guidance with regards things we can do. Malas can be blessed and altars can be created and there are plenty of ritual outlines that we are invited to explore and adapt depending on setting and inclination. We also spend time thinking about what it means to inhabit the “dragon seat” of meditation in order to explore the oscillating sense of being and non-being.

This updated volume provides new examples of ritual practice that provide the reader with inspiration and structure in order to promote the development of initiatory depth. The expanded sections on Mantra, Yantra and Mudra also help the less experienced aspirant to build a solid understanding of the key components of a spiritual practice that seeks to fully engage our senses and embodied self.

What I liked most about much of the newer material in the second half of the book was the way in which is brought into clearer definition the place of the Divine Feminine within his Order’s work. Whether through his tantric exploration of the Thelemic Goddess Babalon or the potency of the Yogini’s within lunar magic (which he describes more fully in his 2022 title Yogini Magic), this volume has a greater emphasis on what the Goddess orientated Shri Vidya traditions might mean for the contemporary magician.

I feel that this updated work brings a greater focus on how the interweaving strands of Thelema and Tantra can connect and hopefully strengthen our magical work in a way that avoids either superficiality or self-obsession. If we adopt a psyche-centric focus for work, are we seeking to reinforce concepts like ego-strength or are we pursuing the dissolution of our self-concept? In seeking to simultaneously deepen our engagement with both True Will and the formlessness of the Void, Peters seems to be acknowledging the inevitable spiralling movement of the self as it dances between such poles.

I would highly recommend this updated book to those magicians interested in how the Aeon of Horus can shake-off some of its dustier, pseudo-masonic origins. In the spirit of Grant’s Typhonic work and Nema’s Maat magick, the work of the OSV provides some highly helpful guidance as to how we as contemporary practitioners can work with both Eastern and Western magical currents in a manner that feels at once respectful, deep and innovative, as Peters summarises in his conclusion:

“Ultimately, the essence of tantra transcends elaborate ritual or esoteric knowledge. It resides in the direct experience of our inherent divinity. Traverse this path with courage and conviction, honouring the sacred trust bestowed upon us – to discern and enact our True Will in perfect harmony with the cosmic dance of existence.”

Steve Dee

Click here to buy your copy

Coming up this month…

Breaking Convention, the mother of all psychedelic conferences, begins on the 17th of April.

For more details and to buy tickets, including Saturday only tickets which have just gone on sale –

https://breakingconvention.co.uk/ Hope to see you there!

While the beginnings of many religious traditions are decidedly focused on the salvation, liberation or empowerment of the individual, they rarely remain as such. Given time to evolve and gaze outwards, many religious traditions develop a greater sense of collective responsibility, where the impact of any apparent awakening demands a response to the “other” and the world around them.

In considering such development, contemporary Paganism is no different and this concise work by Phil Hine provides us with a pacey and inspiring overview of the evolution of the political dimensions of Paganism within the UK scene.

Phil begins by mapping some of the origins of political conservatism within occult and esoteric circles, with writers such as Dion Fortune casting doubts over the spiritual pedigree of those who involve themselves with worldly politics. Such messages helped shape the reluctance within the magical and Pagan circles well into the 1970’s and early 80’s often leading to an absence of challenge to the mainstream positions in a way that translated into activism. For Hine this shifted radically during the ‘Satanic Panic’ that hit the UK in the late 80’s and early 90’s, which seemed to catalyse parts of the Pagan and magical communities into adopting a new radical openness in seeking to challenge the lazy stereotyping and misinformation so widespread in the media.

This work features some inspiring flyers and snippets from ‘zines from this time period that help capture the dynamism and punk rock energy that inspired many Pagans to greater acts of openness and heroism. Phil helpfully tracks a timeline of magical resistance before the late 1980’s as it manifested in Pagan contributions to the Greenham Common anti-nuclear protests, PAN: Pagans Against Nukes, Stop the City and the contribution of the PaganLink Network. These movements alongside seminal works such as Starhawk’s Dreaming the Dark (1982) helped ferment a new questioning as to whether “we are content to be spare bedroom Witches” with a limited vision of what our Paganism has to offer the world.

Moving into the 1990’s Phil paints a vivid picture of the collective ritual workings of the Dragon Environmental Network, Thee Temple ov Psychick Youth and Queer Pagan Camp as they sought to bring people together to challenge both ecological threat and attempts to limit sexual liberty. These collective actions fostered community and helped create a sense that change was possible. The book provides us with insights into large group rituals such as the ‘Heal the Earth’ working (summer solstice 1987) and smaller sorcerous rites born from his time in the Leeds squat movement where the “magic of need” brought together activists seeking change in their immediate communities. These aren’t simply feel-good pathworkings in the hope of societal change, with rituals such as ‘Unleash the Furies’ illustrating how occult technologies such as Goetic working can be used to name, contain and then redirect contemporary demons such as patriarchal abuse or homophobic violence.

While this work is inescapably a challenge for us to move our magical practice and perspectives out of our spooky-club ghettos, it also manages to avoid the grimness that can feel present in our often near-exhausted activism. What I really enjoy about Phil’s writing is his ability to remain playful and humorous even as he is trying to describe the realities of trying to bring about political change. In a similar way to his ‘Liber Nice’ in his seminal Prime Chaos, he frames many group rituals as having a Discordian and almost Dadaist potential in being able to disrupt and undermine the bloated misuses of power that so often lay at the heart of oppression. When we are able to ‘play’ via our protests, so we model and embody a freedom that can even act as an invitation to those who we are protesting against.

The book concludes with a rich and diverse section on influences and resources to inspire. Phil reminds us of our heroic forebears such as Annie Besant, Florence Farr and those Kali worshippers who invoked her potency in order to challenge British colonialism. These spiritual allies and suggestions all aid what Phil calls “A Space for Wonder”, that can help us when our activism and protest might threaten burn-out or compassion fatigue. How can our Paganisms and practices reawaken creativity, openness and a connection with others? This is surely one of the primary goals of our magic and as such Hine urges us to embrace Wonder’s “alienating presentness”:

“Wonder propels us toward the unfamiliar, to seek new relations, to revel in dizzying complexity and richness. Wonder pulls us into the world beyond a limited horizon, beyond the certain, the familiar, the possible.”

In our current times, Phil’s book is a real grimoire for a magical engagement with our lives, our struggles and our joys. Highly recommended.

Steve Dee

Buy Act of Magical Resistance by Phil Hine

Coming up next…

Baphomet Magic – March 13th and 20th, 7-9pm UK time live and recorded.

Ghost in the Machine – March 25th, 7-8:30pm UK time live and recorded.

Psychotropics & Western Magic – April 3rd, 7-8:30pm UK time live and recorded.

Aleister Crowley & Liber AL – April 8th, 7-8:30pm UK time live and recorded.

Breaking Convention, Europe’s largest and most diverse conference on psychedelic consciousness. 17th-19th April at The University of Exeter.

The History & Practice of Scrying – May 15th, 7-8:30pm UK time live and recorded.