AMOOKOS | The Blog of Baphomet

“Women are divinity, women are life, women are jewels.”
Yoni Tantra

“Within, a Sakta; outwardly a Saivite; in the world a Vaisnava. This is the rule.”
Kaula Upanisad

Regular readers of this blog will be aware of my previous explorations of the contribution that Mike Magee has made to development of the Thelemic current within the world of contemporary occultism here. Via the impact of the Amookos Order that he founded (the Arcane and Magickal Order Of the Knights Of Shambhala), and his accessible but scholarly translation of core Sanskrit texts, Mike has helped lay a significant foundation for how we as magical practitioners in the 21st Century integrate non-western sources into our practice.

The genesis of Amookos is often considered to be the result of Mike’s initiatory relationship with Sri Mahendranath (Dadaji) and the seismic impact that this had on his personal magical universe. While the encounter with Dadaji was undoubtedly powerful, it also came within the context of his work with Kenneth Grant and his Typhonian Order. Grant himself was significantly influenced by Eastern teaching and source material (as depicted within At the Feet of the Guru) and Mike is quite open about how the presence of this material in his work with Grant catalyzed his own journey eastwards. Prior to travelling to India and encountering Dadaji, Mike had already begun mantra work, embarked on in-depth studies of Sidereal astrology and Sanskrit, and was familiar with Kashmir Shaivism. While Dadaji’s relationship with Mike and Amookos sadly deteriorated due to the on-set of dementia at the end of Dadaji’s life, Mike was able to utilize his own significant skills as both a translator and interpreter to move forward on the path and this current volume is a prime example of his contribution.

For me, this book represents a brilliant distillation of over 40 years of practice, translation and interpretation of the Tantric Shri Vidya (Goddess focused) tradition. For those in the know, Mike’s work held over at shivashakti.com has long represented some of the highest quality translations of primary texts relating to the Kaula Nath path (upon which Amookos is based) and wider tantric traditions. This book provides us with an excellent drawing together of material relating to the darker aspects of the Goddess and specifically the Great Mother Kali.

The book has a forward by Phil Hine and contains numerous beautifully illustrated line drawings by Jan Bailey. The introduction by Mike contains a superb overview of the central themes, methods and approaches that are often utilized in approaching “the primordial Devi who is the root of all Great Knowledges….She destroys time, is time, and is the night of eternity”. Blimey! And we are only on page 4! As both a practitioner and scholar, Magee does not shy away from the complexity of the terrain he is seeking to depict and the differing cultures and historic periods that this material has emerged from. While this is far from a simplified attempt to reduce the Great Mother to a few bullet points, it does offer the determined explorer with a vital portal through which we can appreciate the contradiction and theological complexity that her traditions embody.

Kali Magic is at once scholarly and highly practical with sections on Sadhana that explore core techniques and technologies such as mantra, yantra and nyasa. The book contains helpful explanations of the major Kali Yantras and how their insights might provide vital keys as to how our practice might be earthed in the body and within the ritual space (whether actual or imagined) of the cremation grounds. In the latter portion of the book Mike provides us with vivid translations of primary source material that will allow our practical exploration to be based firmly within the depths of historic traditions. Personally I found these Goddess Upanishads and Tantras both powerful and shocking in their physical frankness. As Mike stresses, the way of the Great Mother and the Left Hand Path is raw and unapologetic in its exploration of how bodily fluids and sexual practices can be skillfully utilized in promoting the most profound alchemical processes:

“The miraculous Yoni Tattva Tantra is the best of all tantras. Because of love for you, this very hidden tantra is revealed. The only evil in sexual intercourse is disgust for blood and semen. He who mixes them with wine is discriminating in worship.” Yoni Tantra, Third Patala.

This is a truly significant work that represents a lifetime of scholarship and devotion, and while deep and demanding it also captures the raw beauty of Kali and pulls no punches in opening a door way to her mysteries. Highly recommended for those magical practitioners wishing to work with Tantric currents in a way in that is profoundly aware of the original source material so as to avoid either reductionism or consumerist appropriation. As we as Pagans and Occultists seek to evolve and strengthen our theology and sadhana in order to highlight the potent validity of our chosen spiritual paths, works such as Kali Magic offer a vital and valuable contribution to such processes of growth.

Steve Dee

Purchase Kali Magic by Mike Magee

Coming Up Next…

There are still a few places left on our Sacred Space Holder Program for people looking to develop their practice of working with Sacred Mushrooms. Join Nikki, Julian and the fabulous Fungi Academy crew in October on the shores of Lake Atitlán for a hands-on adventure into the science and spirituality of psychedelic ceremony.

For people who can’t make it in person to Fungi Academy HQ in Guatemala there is the Psychedelic Journeywork course, use the code ‘Julian’ to get a discount!

Julian is also going to be teaching again with Treadwell’s Books in the autumn this year with lectures and workshops, online and in-person, on subjects including The Meaning of Witchcraft, Queer Magic, Applied Chaos Magic, Aleister Crowley’s Magick and The Thoth Tarot

For more details of one-to-one mentoring and support, psychedelic integration services, tarot readings and online courses with Julian please visit julianvayne.com

Nikki and Julian will be running a ceremony at Medicine Festival and will also be speaking at Trans-States.

Steve Dee’s new book Chaos Monk: Bringing Magical Creativity to the New Monastic Path is out now!

C:\Users\DaviesSte\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Windows\INetCache\IE\BL9634F0\Hine's-Varieties-front-cover-w-bleed.jpg — *Cover by Strutz & Hine*

As a latecomer to Chaos Magic in the mid-1990’s, Phil Hine’s Condensed Chaos provided an excellent guide to the Neophyte Steve Dee. Having been spiritually burnt out by my previous struggles with belief and attempts at religious faith, the iconoclastic approach of Chaos Magic articulated in that work felt like an invigorating breath of fresh air.

In this latest collection spanning over 40 years of magical practice and reflection, Phil has brought together not only a rich smorgasbord of his writing that has previously been featured in Zines, collections and his on-line presence, he also intersperses these pieces with illuminating snapshots of magical autobiography and reflections on his inspirations at the time they were written. In addition to Phil’s written work, the book also features evocative linocuts by Maria Strutz at the beginning of each of its major subsections.

He provides us with a vivid recollection of his own beginnings in Magic that reference the impact of Austin Osman Spare, Theosophy and some bold experimentation with the pantheon of HP Lovecraft. Early occult group work came in the form of a rather bumpy experience with a Wiccan Coven, and we also see him giving his playful and non-conformist streak expression via more experimental work with the Discordian Goddess Eris. Things clearly lit-up during his involvement in the vibrant Pagan/magical scene in the North of England during the 1980’s and his involvement with the enigmatic Lincoln Order of Neuromancers provides a Segway into the books first major section containing writing on Chaos Magic.

Even with the passing of time, Phil’s writing from this period still contains both a vibrancy and a relevance. Pieces such as the channelled Erisian Stupid Book and the brutally honest Fracture Lines provide clear insight into the magician both at work and struggling with the emotional realities of being a human being. In Cthulhu Madness he challenges the sanitised safety of our overly psychologised magic and our attempts at control. “Real Magic is Wild” insists Hine and yet he also asks us to use on whole of our beings in balancing magic and mysticism, work and play:

“Chaos Magic is a process of mutation…the deconstruction of Identity from the beleaguered Ego into the legion of Selves requiring only self-love”

In his section on Paganisms, we find Phil in full activist mode using both his writing and group ritual to challenge the hysteria of alleged satanic child abuse and the ecological threat posed by industrialisation. This a Paganism unbolted from the politeness of social conservatism and in his writing for Pagan News we see a clear embodiment of the magician-shaman as social disruptor. In his Must we Love the Golden Bough? I sensed the beginnings of Phil’s role as erudite historian of religion and critic of Western Occultisms lazy reliance on the Universalistic assumptions that reflect an insensitivity to cultural context.

Phil’s section on Practice provides some rich anecdotes and some very down-to-earth principles for magical practice. He provides valuable thoughts regarding the power dynamics present within the student-teacher relationship and how the paradigm of mentorship might provide a less lopsided model. I was especially struck by his piece on Leaving Magical Groups and was aware of the parallels in my own experience of how such departures can have long lasting impacts on friendships, personal psychology and the shape of on-going spiritual work.

Image result for phil hine — ***Phil throwing down some organic Tantra*** *Portrait by Asa Medhurst*

Somewhat organically Hine takes us with him on a voyage into his exploration of Tantra. We are treated to tales of his meeting his Guru, involvement with the AMOOKOS tradition and a description of a deeply personal embodied Kundalini experience. Phil openly wrestles with what it might mean to let the complex traditions of South Asia speak for themselves and inform his efforts to create a “hybridised Tantra”. Through a number of nuanced pieces of writing he invites us to become detectives with him in trying to experience the complex layers of meaning of Tantra’s twilight language rather than coarsely pillaging concepts around rebellion, antinomianism and sacred sexuality. However these concepts are present, they need to be able to speak on their own terms.

His sub-section on Sexualities was a personal favourite of mine, as Phil provides a robust challenge to much of the heteronormativity and phallo-centrism that is still present within certain quarters of western occultism. In exploring the fluid and evolving concept of Queer Paganism we encounter Baphomet as an “unfinished” deity who contains “a multiplicity of shifting planes and horizons”. These aren’t merely theoretical constructs but rather profound explorations of when the personal is the political and pieces such Sodomy and Spiritual Fulfilment and Biography of a Kiss provide us with some truly tender insights on how we unfold in becoming more human.

The final two sections of the book are given over to Histories and Fiction and in this juxtaposition we see Hine in both his most incisive and playful modes. In his analysis of the work of Lobsang Rampa and Elizabeth Sharpe’s writing on The Secrets of the Kaula Circle we have Phil in full religious historian mode challenging us to stay sensitive to context and to appreciate the complexity of contributions within the timeline. In Fiction (probably the section that appealed to me least), we see the blurring of the lines between story and history and the weird tales described could quite feasibly be chapters from his own biography.

In his writing on Masters, Mentors, Teachers and Gurus Hine advises us to let go of our fixation in seeking parental authority figures and to “seek friendship instead”. Finding such magical mentors can take time but I feel that Phil has provided us with a warm and authentic version of this albeit in print. This collection provides us with a rare, raw and at times hilarious insight regarding what it might mean to be a magician in the 21^st century. While playful and irreverent it also contains a moving story of the search for meaning, the fluid nature of identity and also a desire to find the Goddess in all their multiplicity of forms.

Highly Recommended!

Steve Dee

Book Launch of Hine’s Varieties

At Treadwell’s Books, London on 13th February.

Details HERE

Deep Magic Spring Retreat

Cultivating Connection

Last few days to secure your place at the early-bird price. Details HERE