gnosticism | The Blog of Baphomet

The prolific Steve Dee has written a third book! Chaos Monk offers an unexpected fusion of New Monasticism and Chaos Magic, demonstrating that it is possible to simultaneously be devout and fully embedded in the everyday world…

Steve writes: This book is an invitation to spiritual intensity. In the face of life’s brevity, it seeks to offer a challenge to consider what truly matters and how we might find skilful means for exploring such a question. As the pace and pressures of daily living seek to crowd out our ability to find space and silence, I believe that those traditions and techniques associated with monasticism provide vital keys for regaining our balance. While some may view such paths as ones of restriction or severity, as we travel together I hope to demonstrate the profound value of what simplicity, faithfulness and accountability might bring us when viewed through dynamic and responsive lens of Chaos magical practice.

This book is a deeply personal one, and unapologetically so. The impulse to engage with the monastic current runs strongly in my veins and it continues to be a deep personal obsession. When I started my spiritual journey at age 10, I was captivated by images of orange clad ascetics from both Hindu and Buddhist traditions. Now, as an adult, I ask: Why do I continue to be drawn to a path that emphasizes asceticism and discipline? What draws so many people to the form of stark spirituality that monastic traditions represent? How might contemporary explorers distil its essential components? This book seeks to explore such questions and describes how my own journey into contemporary magical practice continues to include monastic dimensions within it.

Sitting still is where it all starts. Only by ceasing to move can we gain access to the state of mind necessary to begin moving. Both in our psyches, and in our lives, we carve out a space which is our own to pause, to take stock, to commune with our higher Self. And then, with our feet in the right place, we take the steps necessary towards our goals, in fellowship with our communities. The modern monk constructs their cell within the everyday world.
This book helps to model some of these processes for you. It contains personal examples, historical reviews of Monasticism through the ages, gentle prods to keep things moving, and reflections upon what such a pilgrimage might mean. The alchemy of transmutation applied to the soul takes time, but gives us gold.

“A profoundly beautiful exploration of spirituality, magic and self that I consider to be one of the most important books I have read on the subject in many years. Particularly relevant to this era, Chaos Monk is intellectually satisfying whilst presenting an eminently practical approach. This book examines internal and external realities and the tensions they generate; acknowledging wider relationships that impact upon magical and spiritual development. Referencing Tantra, Thelema, Monastic Traditions, Chaos Magic and psychology, ‘Chaos Monk’ structures a template for the development of a long term, pertinent, spiritual approach to the self and the times, and as such should be an essential component of every committed practitioner and seeker’s library.” Charlotte Rodgers, creator of sculptural art works, writer of books which include P is for Prostitution: A Modern Primer, The Sky is A Gateway Not A Ceiling, and The Bloody Sacrifice.

“An exhilarating journey through chaos monasticism, a mystical practice informed by chaos magic. Accessible and clearly written, yet informed by a deep knowledge of the history of spiritual movements in both East and West, decades of magical practice, psychotherapy and art, this is a book for anyone with mystical leanings who wants to put them into practice. The first part describes the theoretical basis of chaos monasticism, and the second part shows how to put it into practice. Steve offers genuinely original spiritual exercises to help you develop your practice and introduces an element of play into the inner work. He also taps into the important mystical streams of apophatic theology and the dark night of the soul, and offers an exploration of one of my favourite spiritual practices, lectio divina. Other practices offered here include pilgrimage, psychogeography, and pathworking, all of which are great ways of engaging with sacred space and time.” Yvonne Aburrow, author of All Acts of Love and Pleasure: Inclusive Wicca; Dark Mirror: The Inner Work of Witchcraft; and The Night Journey: Witchcraft as Transformation.

“Chaos Monk is a book I’ve been looking for for quite some time as it helps fill an often neglected area in the Chaos Magick approach—Mysticism! Steve Dee has an in-depth look at what a modern day monastic approach to Chaos Magick might look like. He draws from the past and other approaches but ultimately supplies the reader with some practical and useful ways of actually going out and doing it in a modern world setting. His thoughts on Chaos Mysticism, and his approach, ideas, and insights really resonated with me. I can only imagine that there will be a large number of people in the Chaos Magic community who will be well served by this book.” Tommie Kelly, Irish artist. musician, and writer, best known for his oracle deck The Forty Servants.

An Invitation
This is a call to come to the Quiet,
Those spacious places of the deep self.
This is a desert place found by the few
And others may laugh and call your journey madness.
Darkness is here
And only the brave can see that it holds the most brilliant of lights
Come, come my friends,
Come sit with those who are seeking the other side of silence.

Having just passed the 12 month anniversary of The Heretic’s Journey being published, I thought I would share part of the Foreward with you all as a blog post. Also, one of the many magical exercises that are peppered throughout the book – enjoy! Steve Dee

“This is a book that seeks to provoke you to heresy! The territory I invite you to explore is that of the spiritual free thinker who is no longer satisfied with the easy answer. The literal definition of Heretic is “to choose” i.e. to make a conscious and active choice rather than merely accepting an opinion due to it being espoused by the mainstream or by those in authority. To walk such a path is far from risk-free, but in my view the rewards of such self-sovereignty are powerful and profound. It is my hope that this work (The Heretic’s Journey) will act as a catalyst for your own exploration of your heretic self, and in that exploration you will experience the unfolding of who you truly are.

Spiritual Freethinking during Pride month

Such an unfolding can take time. The magical axiom “To Dare, To know, To Will and To Keep Silent” for me points to a circular process of refinement where the daring Mage receives new insight, which when proven through practice is internalized (kept silent) so that this incubation then gives birth to further development/mutation.

This internal alchemy can birth things within us that at first seem monstrous. As our freethinking allows us to conceptualize and articulate ideas beyond the realms of orthodoxy, so we will be viewed as Monsters. Witches, Werewolves, Vampires and an assortment of other freak-labels were at times applied to those who questioned the limits of what we thought we knew.

While the mundane world may conspire to keep us small and within a form that makes its control of us more possible, as explorers of awakening we have a more formidable task ahead of us. Our own initial response may be to flinch when we see the possibility of who our deepest self might become; these glimpses at the edges of sight may demand too much of us; too much sacrifice, too great a transformation. Dear traveller, be of stout heart! The inner genius of your daemon doesn’t require that we reach the goal before the journey has begun; rather it asks of us the bravery to stop and truly look at the possibility of who we might be…”

Exercise 1: Sculpting the Heretic’s Altar

One of the techniques that I employ during my day-job (as a Systemic/Family psychotherapist) is that of the Sculpt. Sculpting is a tool for making an external picture, or ‘sculpt’, of an internal process such as feelings, experiences, or perceptions. It can use both items and bodily postures as ways of experimenting with the relationships between things and how their proximity or orientation might express the dynamics of communication and power.

In this activity I am proposing that we create an altar as a means for exploring the interplay between different aspects of our heretical selves. So often religious or spiritual altars express something of our aspirations and longings, and it is interesting to note the changes we make to them (or the time we spend in front of them) depending on which guiding principles or realities we wish to experience more of.

The first part of our task is to collect a series of objects, pictures and texts that embody those heretical, rebellious and inspirational figures and ideas that mark us as outsiders and inspire our processes of free thought. At this point it is important that we don’t over-think this process.

We may draw our inspiration from a broad spectrum or it may reflect the narrowness of our current obsessions. In my case I had everything from an icon of St Francis, a Gurdjieff book, a leather-clad Catwoman figurine and a Henry Rollins CD. I made little attempt to rationalise why I needed this collection of heretic heroes together, I was simply aware that they embodied important markers in my own journey of personal liberation.

As a person with strong devotional tendencies, I then spent some time offering incense to the assembled representation of free-thinking and undertook my normal meditative practice. This felt less like an act of worship and more a process of acknowledging and aligning myself with these embodiments of freedom.

altar

Heretical Heroes

If you choose to undertake this task, I would recommend an initial period of simply sitting with the choices that you have made. Maybe note their presence and position within a journal or magical diary so that any future changes can be noticed.

Working with sculpts can be accomplished in many ways, and it may be interesting to note how this altar-sculpt evolves over time. You may want to shift the objects to change their proximity to each other (interestingly, Cat Woman currently seems to be whipping St Francis; but it looks consensual) or we may want to introduce new elements to either maximize a component or to provide a sensed need for counter-balance (in my case a black feather representing Ma’at).

However you choose to work with this exercise, as with most sculpts, the aim is to externalise those key aspects of who we are so that in seeing them “out there”, we can gain a greater sense of clarity having brought them more fully into the conscious parts of self. The purpose of beginning such work is usually far more beneficial if we view it as an unfolding process of questioning and exploration for ourselves rather than attempting to rush towards answers prematurely.

More about The Heretic’s Journey can be found here: https://theblogofbaphomet.com/the-heretics-journey/

Steve Dee

In other news…

Julian is teaching Sigils at Treadwell’s Books in July and Magical Words and Signs at The Museum of Witchcraft in August

Our dear friend Lucia is offering a Tai Chi retreat in the magical Hazel Hill Wood near Salisbury. Lucia is an awesome practitioner and a great teacher. Find out more here.

heretics