October 6, 2015 by The Blog of Baphomet

Conversation with a Cosmonaut

In my own explorations of Gnosis, one of my friends whose work I have found consistently inspiring has been Dr. Lloyd Keane. What follows is an interview that Lloyd graciously agreed to with regards his own initiatory work:

Could you tell us a little about your own magical background? (How you got into it.)

I hate this question. Answering it brings up some pretty embarrassing moments and yet those moments lead me to where I am now so it can’t be all bad. Still…ugh.

My magical background began with three books: The Black Arts by Cavendish, Modern Magic by Kraig, and Wicca: A Guide for the Solitary Practitioner by Cunningham. At that early time I was also a member of A.M.O.R.C. So basically I was a very sincere and dedicated White Lighter. Theological thrillers such as The Omen, The Exorcist, and The Prince of Darkness inspired me too. And of course Star Wars was a huge influence! I would have to say it was the notion of forbidden and really super real knowledge symbolized (and commodified) by all the books in the local occult shop at the time that really dragged me in. My journals from that time are remarkably naive and yet utterly sincere. I have been practicing some form of “magical” tradition since roughly 1987-88.

Mixed mediums

You’ve worked in a few different traditions, could you tell us about those and your current affiliations?

Well as my answer to your first question clearly indicates I was setting myself up for all manner of problems. In a strange way Wicca provided me with an emotional outlet for my ceremonial/ritual magic, and the ceremonial/ritual magic provided me with intellectual curiosities like Kabbala and alchemy. Really they both reflected my yearning for Mystery. Later I developed a deep love for Crowley’s writings and Thelema (or rather my mystical non-threatening, non-orgy, non-recreational drug version of Thelema), as well as a connection to Irish pagan revival and Asatru (or rather my mystical non-believing, non-kindred, giant loving version of Asatru). Again, Crowley’s Nuit as well as Odin and the Etins all reflected Mystery and vastness. Off the top of my head I’ve been a member of A.M.O.R.C., two online Golden Dawn groups, B.O.T.A., an associate member of the OTO, a Probationer in a lineage of the A∴A∴, the Troth, and the Rune Gild. I also worked closely with a friend and mentor in Wicca for at least ten years. In some ways this reflects a haphazard approach to Initiation and in another way it demonstrates my systematic search for something that I could not find from any of these organizations and traditions.

One day something snapped in me. Something had changed. I was going to leave an offering to Thor (Odin was far too spooky) and I thought to myself, “This is it? This is what I’ll be doing when I’m 80!?”. I was in an existential crisis and two websites grabbed me by the throat: the Church of Satan and the Temple of Set. I loved the ridiculously and seriously playful aesthetic of the Church of Satan. It was so different from anything else I experienced up to that point. However, the Temple of Set website was, at the time, this strange blue colour. It had an inverse pentagram (or a properly proportioned pentagon… however you want to see it), and the monolith from 2001. Top that off with a quote from Plato and I was utterly confused and fascinated. There was something deep in that imagery.

After much hesitation (and rewriting my application) I applied to join the Temple of Set and I’ve been a member since then. I’m currently a Priest of Set, a Master in the Esoteric Order of Beelzebub, and a member of the Order of Tiamat.

Much of your current practice makes use of visual art and music, can you describe some of these explorations and why you find these methods so helpful?

That’s a really good question. I’ve always been a doodler and I’ve always played around with artistic creation; however my work in the Temple of Set helped my focus my understanding and use of art as an Initiatory tool and form of expression. One of the things that makes the human animal unique (as far as we can tell) is the drive to create. We create things that have no overt, ontological, purpose. This drive to create is stimulated by what we could call the Black Flame. Taking that metaphor, this substance, this flame of isolate intelligence, can (and I would say should) be applied to creating Initiatory works of art (of whatever form or format). I also strive to inspire others to connect with and work with that Flame. I may not be technically advanced in my art but I often communicate and transmit my meaning very well. It can become entertainingly annoying when highly talented artists email me to say that something I created inspired them to begin creating again. Great. So glad I could be of service now go create something that I could never create in a million years. At least that inspires me to keep going. My music is the same thing. I must create. I go squirrely if I’m not drawing or manipulating images, or playing music. Often creating things helps me work through ideas or issues I’m dealing with as part of Initiation (for me Initiation and living one’s life are synonyms). I am able to understand or approach Initiatory issues from various angles by creating something concrete from the stirrings of subjective inspiration.

Dark, deep doodling…

Many of your explorations touch on themes around depth, vastness and awe, can you tell us why such themes are important in your own initiatory work?

I think all those aspects are part of Mystery or Runa. At least on one level I think that it’s part of it. Mystery has been with me from a very early time. However, often my experience of Mystery was filtered through other people’s interpretations. I was told Mystery was a God(s)dess(es), Angel, HGA, ancestors…everything except what resonated with me. Depth, vastness, and awe are core facets of the experience of the numinous and that experience of the numinous is another way of describing the experience of Mystery (keeping in mind that there are varying degrees of the experience of the numinous). Another important facet of such themes is that they help to act as a cosmic eliminator of occultnik douchebaggery. I get so tired of people saying how they are living gods (or demons or angels) or how their HGA is uber divine, or that they are an incarnation of Crowley. Just sit still for a moment. Contemplate how vast our solar system is. Then think of how utter miniscule it is from the perspective of the nearest supermassive black hole. Really in the grand scheme of things we are pretty insignificant. I have found that encouraging that sense of awe and dread is a good way to reset my own hubris. Not that I have such problems. Obviously I’m beyond such pettiness.

How do these ideas connect to your work within the Esoteric Order of Beelzebub?

Actually it’s interesting, I find that my work within the Esoteric Order of Beelzebub (EOB) and within the Order of Tiamat both reflect the ideas of vastness and awe in different ways. For me EOB is about exploring the Black Flame. It is about engaging with substance, energy, and purposefulness, and it is about cultivating independence, inspiration, and invention. In this case the deepness and awe comes from experiencing ourselves, who we really are when we are free from what other people have told us we are and are not. EOB uses the term “Cosmonaut” to refer to its members. This is a playful title but it is also very poignant. We are explorers. We want to wander out into the vast expanse of our being and see what we can discover and we bring that knowledge back to share with our fellow explorers. Well at least that’s this Cosmonaut’s perspective!

The Order of Tiamat approaches deepness and awe through dread. In this case we can see Tiamat, mother of the eleven monsters, mother of the Abyss, as something so utterly beyond comprehension as to lead to existential dread. Lovecraft very much captured this idea of dread. The Mesopotamians had a word of it: Melammu. This is the sense of the numinous that their gods were said to exude. By working with this sense of awe we can come to integrate it into our own Being.

The exploration of vastness and the full awareness of our place in the cosmos alternates throughout my art and my approach to Initiation.

Sowilo

Many people view the god Set as having strong stellar/cosmic connections, can I ask how such links are important in your own magical work?

This is a difficult question. I don’t work much with how the ancient Egyptians apprehended Set. There is a great deal of evidence linking Set with stars and stellar traditions. I guess I approach this aesthetically or metaphorically. The stellar roots of Setian thought are distinct from say Thelema or witchcraft or Wicca, for example. With Thelemic religion we have the solar phallic, in your face, Ra-Hoor. In Wicca, at least a good number of traditions within Wicca, there is an emphasis on the moon, the Earth Mother, the Goddess. Set has warlike aspects of a solar god but Set is far more alien and unnatural. Again metaphorically speaking, Set is not bound to an earth or lunar perspective. Set is not bound to a solar perspective. Set dwells behind the Constellation of the Thigh (Big Dipper). Set’s playground is the deep vastness of space. I often think of this wonderful quote from The Stars my Destination (by Alfred Bester):

“Gully Foyle is my name
And Terra is my nation.
Deep space is my dwelling place,
The stars my destination.”

To me this quote summarises my work as a Cosmonaut and as a Setian.

What direction do you see your initiatory work heading in the future?

Another great question. Thank you.

I’m actively working to refine and articulate my own approach to Setian Initiation. This is a difficult, though necessary, task and it is just beginning. This process will have a major impact on my art and my understanding of awe, deepness, and Mystery. What that will look like in the end I can’t say for sure. For now it is in the Yet to Be and when I get there I will let you know! (For more information about Lloyds work click here.)

(Questions asked by SD).

September 7, 2015 by The Blog of Baphomet

Pilgrim Age

Across the globe, seekers travel, on quests to find what they lack in their usual existences. On this island there are hundreds of festivals to choose from over the non-winter months, as well as smaller gatherings where groups come together for ceremony, music, and colloquy. Magick happens.

Around fires on every night of the year, humans meet, exchanging moods, stories of others and of themselves, offering thanks for the good times, prayers for that which we dream of. Moving away from our homes, into the wider realm of the outside.

As someone who has links to several informal groups of one sort and another, I find my life shaped by the journeys I take, criss-crossing my island (and occasionally beyond!) on a regular basis. I love this semi-nomadic lifestyle, and even with my ongoing health issues as long as I pace myself I can manage. The cost may appear prohibitive to those who only travel on holiday; when one is familiar with the nonsensical process of advance purchase train tickets and has hospitable friends all over the place, as well as a decent set of compact camping equipment, travel becomes possible on a low budget.

Some of the places I make my Pilgrimages to are old favourites, regularly visited for more than 10 years. Many are new sites, which greet me with a mixture of faces known and unknown. Spending evenings nights and days in a place with other people, doing rituals (sometimes more overtly occult than others), takes me out of the usual round; although in some ways it has now become my ‘usual’.

This urge to move away from our homes, and meet with certain people in a special place at a particular time, seems a primal and eternal quality of our species’ character. Phenomenologically the main activities at such gatherings are universal. Food, drink, sitting in a circle, music and conversation, dancing, appear with regularity whatever the ostensible ‘reason’ for meeting. A fire often focuses the gazes, and acts as the unifying centre of the space.

From a magickal perspective, such journeys are equivalent to a long ritual process, culminating in the eventual arrival and then the ceremony which occurs. The SOI depends upon the glamour associated with the destination, e.g. one visits a healing shrine for healing, or a place holy to a particular deity to encounter that presence. Psychogeographical fans treat a pilgrimage as an active artwork of discovery, often encountering synchronicities and open to the interactions provided by the entire process. Using each step to power up a servitor, or visualised as a move towards

I hear of ever more of such opportunities each year. It feels sad when I have to decline once-in-a-lifetime chances to go on adventures, and I am currently trying to make sense of this week’s lack when it should have provided days of walking that would have given me enormous pleasure, and a huge sense of achievement. A group is making a long journey this September, looping around the country from London via the West Country and then Wales, back to London, visiting many old sacred sites with the intention of empowering them. This is enhanced further by the presence of a Huichol shaman from across the ocean, whose family has been practicing pilgrimages to their sacred sites for hundreds of years.

But the weather is torrential rain, and I won’t be nearby as I expected to be. I am trying to understand this new narrative.

Perhaps there is no sense to it though, and this is just a sad I have to take on board.

A few days later…

I haz a happy! 🙂

A last minute invitation to an extra date on the pilgrimage itinerary and the willing complicity of my partner meant I did get to attend for one night!!!

We drove 38 miles to Dartmoor, along roads, smaller roads, lanes, and a track. We reached the end of the tarmac, presumably the ‘car park’ marked on the map. It was notably lacking any other vehicles. Hmm… Both laden with the essentials (tent, sleeping bags, sheepskins and drums, water, torches and a detailed map), we navigated across the moorland avoiding the worst of the boggy bits, wondering exactly where we were headed. Nearly an hour later, having miraculously spotted two tiny stone slab bridges across unfordable rivers, we reached the stone circle, two hours after the appointed time to meet for the night. It was empty.

We spotted a distant figure and followed it for a few minutes before realising this was a trickster will-o-the-wisp avatar, merely a man walking his dog and not in fact another pilgrim.

Downhearted we returned to the stone circle, as dusk fell. Faced with the option of staying alone on the wild windy landscape, or a long trek back across the moorland followed by an even longer drive home through the night, we paused, to notice where we were, and to leave the offerings we had brought to the spirits of the place (a bouquet of plants from our garden). A large fern leaf, some willow, fennel flowers, a large sprig of rosemary, a few pink flowers, tied with another strip of willow. As I placed this in the circle I pushed down hard, into the ground, feeling the magic of the place and my magic mixing together. Slightly perplexed and faced with a feeling of mild peril, we had just reshouldered our baggage in order to return to the car when over the horizon two figures appeared; one of them walked with a familiar rangy gait, and as soon as we heard his dulcet tones we knew it was our party.

Filled with relief at having spent those extra minutes following a trickster (thanks be to Loki!), and hanging around a while instead of immediately returning (despite the knowledge this had left us unlikely to reach the car before dark), we hailed them with waves and smiles.

Our little tent went up, the rest of the group arrived and assembled a tipi tent, a fire was lit in a brazier fuelled by wood carried by them from the other car park where they had set out from.

It was so nice to meet people, some old acquaintances and friends, others we had not met before. How so many fitted inside the space is one of those miraculous phenomena of such events! There were songs, chants, amazing poetry, prayers, drumming, casual remarks and tales shared around the fire, a chaotic mix of the formal and informal, from which new traditions will doubtless develop once the people there have reflected upon what worked well, and what might assist the flow of sharing ritual space in future.

Different Drummers at the stones of dawn

Pilgrims at the Stones of Dawn

These hours are the engine that drives the rest of the experience, the time of Magick, done for its own sake, rationale left behind, flowing with the ways the spirit moves (in) us. Inspired words are spoken, thoughts thunk, and gestures take on significance above and beyond the normal. As the loss of Self, the lessening of Ego occurs, if feels like the world has possession of my form. ‘I’ transmits sound to the group, where ‘I’ is the locality itself, acting through the presence of the human bodyminds.

Free of usual identity I could indulge in possession, alone amongst a group, secure and isolated, which the ‘I’ of that moment found very liberating. Lost to myself amongst a throng of companions, I felt the personality of the place, of the earth beneath me, arrive and act through me to cast spells upon the world, quietly and without fuss whilst the voices rose and fell around me, within our circle.

At 2am we two reluctantly left the main tipi to retire to our sleeping quarters, as for us the next day was a normal work day. Wind whipped around the canvasses, humming as it passed the guy ropes, the rhythms of traditional and new songs drifting across the grass to our ears as we drifted to sleep.

Awaking at just after dawn, we emerged to see the group clustered around the largest of the stones, and spent a while chatting with friends, throwing a stick for one of the dogs present (both very well behaved), before tatting down and walking back across the moor to our car. Sheep, red cattle, and early morning humans out for a stroll/run greeted us with sounds ranging from indifference to friendly remarks. In the landscape of green and grey, any flowers stood out like a trumpet call, foxgloves deep purple against the streams. After breakfasting on croissants we drove back along the old twisting track, the narrow lane, the single lane road, the two way road, and then a bit of dual carriageway, to the usual world, in enough time to start our weekday routine; aware of the sleeping pilgrims behind us, wrapped in blankets in the tipi, who were headed for mountains later that day. Glad we had made time to connect with their longer trek.

In the depths of the ceremony I felt a deep sense of why I need to do these things, go physically away from ‘me’. One can choose to reach a state of overview wherever one is, of a different perspective on things (especially oneself and one’s normal world) in a psychological sense, but to embody this difference, to remove all cues of identity which our home surroundings provides, to make that effort to traipse for miles into unknown territory on foot carrying only things necessary to the event, taking risks, these elements resulted in a profound awareness of the moment.

We each take away melding memories, the remnants of our shamanic returns, those medium sized ideas and motivations now discovered, to power the quest for how we can each affect the future in our own style whilst in harmony with the wider self, as manifested, shared, and enjoyed, as we chanted and sang and drummed together through the night.

A pilgrimage, then, allows us to escape, to travel away from the normal in geographic space. But we could do that by going anywhere; why do we seek out the communal destinations we do? Each place has its own particular answer, but in a more general sense we travel to a place which allows us to meet others in time. Past and future travellers go to the same destination, focussed on the present moment throughout the journey, on each footfall, the weight we carry with us each second. Meeting similar journeyers, our attention cannot eventually help but be caught by thoughts of those who preceded us, and those who will follow. The destination reached, our physical movement stilled, our time-trapped minds are free to wander across the chronosphere, picturing those who trod these ways before, and those who will inevitably follow, each pilgrim’s tale unique as well as the same, sharing so much with here & now.

At this intersect of the physical surface of the globe, and the imaginal vertical axis of time, we transcend our Selves, having reached some where special.

Each of the eight solar sabbats can offer occasion to share this quest, albeit on a tiny scale, knowing that we join not only our immediate groupings, but as part of a far wider pilgrimage with thousands of locations across the globe. Connections forged and refreshed, common bonds of mutually assured ecstasis. Make the most of this weekend’s Samhain/Hallowe’en parties, see them as the pilgrimage opportunities they are, enter those worlds beyond the Ordinary in your own ways. Take a moment, however short, to appreciate the magick of gathering together.

Pick up your bed and walk.