julian vayne | The Blog of Baphomet

The second realm in our sequence of The Spheres of Chaos is the Biosphere; the seething, fornicating, birthing and dying world of life. As the raw material of the Geosphere held the emergent complexity of life embedded as an implicate (and perhaps inevitable) force within it, so the Biosphere is the space within which our bodies are formed. It is in the next sphere, the Anthrosphere, that the centrality of humans and the products of our behaviours is described. But, as it says in The Book of Baphomet; ‘The Anthrosphere emerges from the Biosphere and remains critically dependent on it’. When we consider all life (using the model of the Five Spheres) we simultaneously acknowledge that we are part of this life, we are biological beings, and also (and here comes that Setian LHP vibe folks) that in some respects humans are radically different from the rest of Nature.

Within the Biosphere the twin serpents of DNA spin and twist, coding out millions of forms in continuously changing, morphing, adapting profusion. The constraints of the physical world anchor this wild multiplicity through adaptation to the environment. The sea of the late Triassic looked much like the sea of today and so the phenotype of ichthyosaurus reminds us of modern dolphins. Flesh adapts to the world in which it finds itself. One wave of gigantic reptilian life dies off (perhaps destroyed by a meteoric hammer blow) and new creatures flood in to the fill the evolutionary gaps. Ice-ages cover the Geosphere; life responds by getting all big and hairy. But this relationship goes both ways.Through the subduction and cycling of the earth’s mantle the products of biology are folded within our planet. Coal and oil, the sleeping shadows of ancient life, rest deep in the earth. Flint, made from the bodies of archaic creatures, chalk sifted from the shells of innumerable prehistoric snails. And not only echos of life, there’s plenty of living things a long, long way down. Meanwhile high up in the atmosphere (itself a mix of gases produced by biological activity) tiny critters throng the skies. Our whole planet is touched by life.

The symbol connected with this sphere is the two-point up pentagram, sigil of Baphomet and of The Devil. Given the biological focus of this sphere we decided to work with this spirit as Pan, all-devourer and all-begetter. A God appearing in the sylvan landscape of childhood’s dream as The Piper at the Gates of Dawn, and also as the insane sexual frenzy of Arthur Machen’s The Great God Pan.

With hoofs of steel I race on the rocks

The recording below is of Aleister Crowley’s wonderful Hymn to Pan, one of the finest ritual poems of the 20^th century. This was used as part of our ceremony.

Drumming, scourging, drinking and general wildness are perfect methods for connecting to this sphere. The Biosphere witnesses our lust for life!

Enjoy!

Greg Humphries is one of my closest friends. I met him over 15 years ago in the Watershed Arts Centre in Bristol. Our meeting was set-up by the wonderful and wise Ronald Hutton who said we simply had to get to know each other. I remember carrying a copy of Crowley’s Magick (the Routledge & Kegan Paul edition, affectionately known as ‘The Big Pink Stiff One’ back in the day) to identify myself. We got on like a temple on fire, soon agreeing that an acid test of a good magician was their ability to interact successfully with spirits. And since the most frequently encountered spirits are other humans the measure of a mage is often nothing to do with their ‘occult powers’ or dark-n-spooky look, but rather their social intelligence, thoughtfulness, and standing in their community. We started doing magick together very soon after that meeting (with a big set of rituals on the run up to the major solar eclipse of 1999, but that, as they say, is another story). We’ve continued to do magick together ever since.

Many years later we wrote Now That’s What I Call Chaos Magick, Volumes I & II. I wrote volume I and Greg the second part of the book (although it was many years before someone pointed out to me that nowhere in the book do we say who wrote which bits). This book detailed our differing but complimentary approaches to the process know as Knowledge and Conversation of the Holy Guardian Angel.

Greg in his natural environment

At the time Greg was already a practising artist (an early digital artwork of his is on the cover of Now…). I’m lucky enough to own several of his paintings. Artworks where the paint is often mixed with pigments and materials from the landscape they are inspired by. But then Greg’s art underwent a transformation. Away from visual art, and into what for him is a deeper practice. These days he makes artists’ charcoal, coppices trees, fashions powerful bows with hand-made arrows fletched in the traditional manner. He carves, builds, makes fire with a bow drill and works with the land. More than this, as an artist, as a magician, he passes these skills on to others. You can find out more about his work and the courses he offers at www.futuretracks.co.uk and via his page on facebook.

This interview was conducted as we sat by the wood burner in my cottage (if you listen carefully you might be able to hear my Guinea pigs rumblestrutting in the background). The music used at the beginning and end of the interview is by Munacuyki Sumaqta.

Enjoy!