steve dee | The Blog of Baphomet

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).

One of the techniques that I often employ during my own systemic psychotherapy practice 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 body postures and spacing as a demonstration of relationship patterns of communication, power, closeness, and distance.

Sculpts can take many forms. They can involve the placement of individuals in proximity to each in order to capture something of their relationship with each other, e.g. “You’ve chosen to stand behind your son, does that mean that you feel protective of him?”; or they can utilise objects like buttons or rocks to map out the things that are important to us in our lives. Work with sculpts was pioneered by the brilliant Virginia Satir (see her book Peoplemaking). Satir was one of the three therapists of excellence on whose work Richard Bandler and John Grinder based their development of Neuro-Linguistic Programming.

Many things

For this exercise I’d like you to find a collection of small objects that you feel can represent the people or interests that are currently important in your life. You might chose something fairly abstract (buttons or rocks), or you might use objects directly connected to a person such as a feather or a chess piece. Make sure you also choose something to represent yourself.

Once you have collected your objects and placed the object representing yourself in the centre of your working space, begin to place these objects in proximity to yourself and each other. Perhaps a sister is currently somewhat distant (she’s a smooth black button, very prim and proper), whereas the uncle you’ve reconnected to (the small toy golf club) is quite close. Don’t limit yourself to family or even people. Pets, hobbies, spiritual beliefs, the deceased and your games console can all be represented within your personal universe. Part of the aim of this exercise is to enable us to gain a new appreciation of the elements within our personal universe and to consider whether there are aspects we wish to change.

Often when people use this technique in therapy, the next step is to consider what you might want to move, introduce or remove from the sculpt. As people move objects closer or further away from each other, the therapist might explore what could need to change for that desire to take hold more objectively. Maybe I need to ring my sister to have that tricky conversation or, if I want those cigarettes out of the picture then I need to get to a chemist. This can be a highly helpful exercise as we think about what might prevent change and also the things we thought were important but forgot to put in there.

Perhaps it needs stating that this can be a highly poignant undertaking that one should not feel rushed in doing. We are always very conscious within a clinic session of allowing people to disassemble their own sculpts and allowing them to keep a specific object if they feel the need to.

Given that recently I have been thinking about the main players within Gnostic mythology and their inter-relationship, for those of us following an esoteric path it can also be interesting to use a sculpt technique to depict our relationships with our gods, spirits and other spiritual allies. Many magical folk already do this unconsciously via the construction of altars. When we look at these spaces, we can see the way in which we perceive our alliances and also how we want to communicate them to ourselves and potentially others. As Julian and I have reflected upon in these two podcasts, altars often act as anchor points for our spiritual lives, by which we return to these spaces to reconnect ourselves with the values and worldviews that are important to us during a given time.

Another exercise of potential value is to create a sculpt involving the spiritual forces that one currently sees as being present in your life. You may wish to use small objects again or you may choose to utilise statues and magical tools that are currently integrated within altars or working spaces. When I have done this for myself, I have noted with interest the distance between those things I assumed were important and what I actually found myself putting in my altar/sculpt (in my case there wasn’t a chaos star in sight!).

One star in sight! (Behold, an altar yesterday.)

After we have created this altar-sculpt; take time to reflect on what its significance might mean for you. Following your reflection you may want to shift, introduce or remove elements of what you have depicted in physical space. The very act of doing this can be an invocatory act as we acknowledge those spiritual realities that we wish to see more present in our lives. As we consider the new map we have created, it can be helpful to make notes of these changes, as these shifts may provide us with directions for further more in-depth ritual work.

My own experience, both therapeutically and in a more ritual context, is that sculpts can be a highly effective tool for helping us access the less linear aspects of ourselves. They can help promote more visual forms of processing and allow a greater sense of playfulness in that you can’t really do it wrong! Anyway I hope you have fun with it and find it helpful. 🙂