85.
Borborygmi
I distrust any thoughts uttered by any man whose health is not robust. All other thoughts are surely symptoms of disease. Yet those are often beautiful, and may be true within the circle of the conditoins of the speaker. And yet again! Do we not find that the most robust of men express no thoughts at all? They eat, drink, sleep, and copulate in silence. What utter proof of the fact that all thought is dis-ease? We are Strassburg geese; the tastiness of our talk comes from the disorder of our bodies. We like it; this only proves that our tastes also are depraved and debauched by our disease.
Sunday, August 05, 2007
Wednesday, August 01, 2007
Sin
"Doubt as sin. ... Christianity has done its utmost to close the circle and declared even doubt to be sin. One is supposed to be cast into belief without reason, by a miracle, and from then on to swim in it as in the brightest and least ambiguous of elements: even a glance towards land, even the thought that one perhaps exists for something else as well as swimming, even the slightest impulse of our amphibious nature - is sin! And notice that all this means that the foundation of belief and all reflection on its origin is likewise excluded as sinful. What is wanted are blindness and intoxication and an eternal song over the waves in which reason has drowned."
-Friedrich Nietzsche, The Dawn (of Daybreak)
"Doubt as sin. ... Christianity has done its utmost to close the circle and declared even doubt to be sin. One is supposed to be cast into belief without reason, by a miracle, and from then on to swim in it as in the brightest and least ambiguous of elements: even a glance towards land, even the thought that one perhaps exists for something else as well as swimming, even the slightest impulse of our amphibious nature - is sin! And notice that all this means that the foundation of belief and all reflection on its origin is likewise excluded as sinful. What is wanted are blindness and intoxication and an eternal song over the waves in which reason has drowned."
-Friedrich Nietzsche, The Dawn (of Daybreak)
Monday, July 30, 2007
Saturday, July 28, 2007
Madman: "I am like you, darkest Night, naked and laid bare! I walk a flaming path above daydream."
Night: "No, you are not like me Madman, for you look backwards and your ankles are crooked!"
Madman: "I am like you, great starry Night, silent and still, for in my lonely heart lies a Goddess in childbirth, whose navel touches heaven and hell."
Night: "No, you are not like me Madman, for you bark at the moon and lap-up blood spilt into the abyss!"
Madman: "I am like you, wild Night, terrible Night, for my ears are crowded with the screams of religious nations and the moaning wail of a past that never was."
Night: "No, you are not like me Madman, for you are little and petty and call monsters 'friend'!"
Madman: "I am like you cruel and aweful Night, for my heart rips at my chest and my lips drink the blood of all dead."
Night: "No, you are not like me Madman, for you are infectious ignorance!"
Madman: "I am like you Night - joyous and glad - for my shadow is drunk on wicked wine and lies ... beautiful lies!"
Night: "No, you are not like me Madman, for your soul is barren and your heart shriveled. Nor can you ride the tempest and grasp lightening!"
Madman: "I am like you passionate Night, for my blood pumps with the thrusting of lovers, and I am caressed by their withered kisses."
Night: "No .. you are mad, Madman! I am mighty and high, and yours is a throne of fallen kings. I wear a cloak of starshine, and your garment is torn with dried shit. I am loving thoughts and gentle whispers, and you speak no language, but babble on saying nothing!"
Madman: "You are right, I am not like you Night, but more than like you, for we are Brothers Twin. Where you reveal empty space, I reveal my soul."
Night: "No, you are not like me Madman, for you look backwards and your ankles are crooked!"
Madman: "I am like you, great starry Night, silent and still, for in my lonely heart lies a Goddess in childbirth, whose navel touches heaven and hell."
Night: "No, you are not like me Madman, for you bark at the moon and lap-up blood spilt into the abyss!"
Madman: "I am like you, wild Night, terrible Night, for my ears are crowded with the screams of religious nations and the moaning wail of a past that never was."
Night: "No, you are not like me Madman, for you are little and petty and call monsters 'friend'!"
Madman: "I am like you cruel and aweful Night, for my heart rips at my chest and my lips drink the blood of all dead."
Night: "No, you are not like me Madman, for you are infectious ignorance!"
Madman: "I am like you Night - joyous and glad - for my shadow is drunk on wicked wine and lies ... beautiful lies!"
Night: "No, you are not like me Madman, for your soul is barren and your heart shriveled. Nor can you ride the tempest and grasp lightening!"
Madman: "I am like you passionate Night, for my blood pumps with the thrusting of lovers, and I am caressed by their withered kisses."
Night: "No .. you are mad, Madman! I am mighty and high, and yours is a throne of fallen kings. I wear a cloak of starshine, and your garment is torn with dried shit. I am loving thoughts and gentle whispers, and you speak no language, but babble on saying nothing!"
Madman: "You are right, I am not like you Night, but more than like you, for we are Brothers Twin. Where you reveal empty space, I reveal my soul."
Wednesday, July 25, 2007
In Repetition, Kierkegaard asks:
"How did I get into the world? Why was I not asked about it and why was I not informed of the rules and regulations but just thrust into the ranks as if I had been bought by a peddling shanghaier of human beings? How did I get involved in this big enterprise called actuality? Why should I be involved? Isn't it a matter of choice? And if I am compelled to be involved, where is the manager - I have something to say about this. Is there no manager? To whom shall I make my complaint?"
Some 150 years later, David Byrne of the Talking Heads wrote:
And you may find yourself living in a shotgun shack
And you may find yourself in another part of the world
And you may find yourself behind the wheel of a large automobile
And you may find yourself in a beautiful house, with a beautifulWife
And you may ask yourself - well...how did I get here?
And you may ask yourself
How do I work this?
And you may ask yourself
Where is that large automobile?
And you may tell yourself
This is not my beautiful house!
And you may tell yourself
This is not my beautiful wife!
Same as it ever was...Letting the days go by...water flowing underground
Into the blue again...in the silent water...Under the rocks and stones...there is water underground.
And you may ask yourself
What is that beautiful house?
And you may ask yourself
Where does that highway go?
And you may ask yourself
Am I right? ...am I wrong?
And you may tell yourself
My god!...what have I done?
Once in a lifetime...Same as it ever was...
"How did I get into the world? Why was I not asked about it and why was I not informed of the rules and regulations but just thrust into the ranks as if I had been bought by a peddling shanghaier of human beings? How did I get involved in this big enterprise called actuality? Why should I be involved? Isn't it a matter of choice? And if I am compelled to be involved, where is the manager - I have something to say about this. Is there no manager? To whom shall I make my complaint?"
Some 150 years later, David Byrne of the Talking Heads wrote:
And you may find yourself living in a shotgun shack
And you may find yourself in another part of the world
And you may find yourself behind the wheel of a large automobile
And you may find yourself in a beautiful house, with a beautifulWife
And you may ask yourself - well...how did I get here?
And you may ask yourself
How do I work this?
And you may ask yourself
Where is that large automobile?
And you may tell yourself
This is not my beautiful house!
And you may tell yourself
This is not my beautiful wife!
Same as it ever was...Letting the days go by...water flowing underground
Into the blue again...in the silent water...Under the rocks and stones...there is water underground.
And you may ask yourself
What is that beautiful house?
And you may ask yourself
Where does that highway go?
And you may ask yourself
Am I right? ...am I wrong?
And you may tell yourself
My god!...what have I done?
Once in a lifetime...Same as it ever was...
Monday, July 23, 2007
Faith is more than a fleeting sensation, more than a step towards something else. It is the release of identity through the existence of an external power. It is the beginning of loss and despair so deep and intense that entire civilizations have succumbed to its horric power. Yet it is simple and mono-dimensional, and for this, its darkness should be admired.
Friday, July 20, 2007
Thursday, July 19, 2007
"In the classic novel by Pauline Reage, Story of O, there lies concealed a great philosophical, and virtually mystical, message. It is a message of personal transformation and change, of the path of the human soul on the road to empowerment and even transcedence. ... O..allows herself to be 'given', and since this is essentially an act of her own will, she succeeds in further objectifying her ego in yet another step toward self-realization."
-C. Dawn and S. Flowers, Carnal Alchemy: A Sado-Magical Exploration of Pleasure, Pain and SElf-Transformation
-C. Dawn and S. Flowers, Carnal Alchemy: A Sado-Magical Exploration of Pleasure, Pain and SElf-Transformation
Tuesday, July 17, 2007
"Yog-Sothoth knows the gate. Yog-Sothoth is the gate. Yog-Sothoth is the key and guardian of the gate. Past, present, future, all are one in Yog-Sothoth. He knows where the Old Ones broke through of old, and where They shall break through again. He knows where They have trod earth's fields, and where They still tread them, and why no one can behold Them as They tread."
-H. P. Lovecraft, The Dunwich Horror
-H. P. Lovecraft, The Dunwich Horror
Monday, July 16, 2007
Working Class Hero
As soon as your born they make you feel small,
By giving you no time instead of it all,
Till the pain is so big you feel nothing at all,
A working class hero is something to be.
They hurt you at home and they hit you at school,
They hate you if you're clever and they despise a fool,
Till you're so fucking crazy you can't follow their rules,
A working class hero is something to be.
When they've tortured and scared you for twenty odd years,
Then they expect you to pick a career,
When you can't really function you're so full of fear,
A working class hero is something to be.
Keep you doped with religion and sex and TV,
And you think you're so clever and classless and free,
But you're still fucking peasents as far as I can see,
A working class hero is something to be.
There's room at the top they are telling you still,
But first you must learn how to smile as you kill,
If you want to be like the folks on the hill,
A working class hero is something to be.
If you want to be a hero well just follow me.
-John Lennon
As soon as your born they make you feel small,
By giving you no time instead of it all,
Till the pain is so big you feel nothing at all,
A working class hero is something to be.
They hurt you at home and they hit you at school,
They hate you if you're clever and they despise a fool,
Till you're so fucking crazy you can't follow their rules,
A working class hero is something to be.
When they've tortured and scared you for twenty odd years,
Then they expect you to pick a career,
When you can't really function you're so full of fear,
A working class hero is something to be.
Keep you doped with religion and sex and TV,
And you think you're so clever and classless and free,
But you're still fucking peasents as far as I can see,
A working class hero is something to be.
There's room at the top they are telling you still,
But first you must learn how to smile as you kill,
If you want to be like the folks on the hill,
A working class hero is something to be.
If you want to be a hero well just follow me.
-John Lennon
Sunday, July 15, 2007
Saturday, July 14, 2007
Some call this current affairs:
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - As plaintiffs sobbed but Cardinal Roger Mahony sat silently in court, the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Los Angeles and victims of clergy sex abuse on Monday finalized their record $660 million settlement.
http://www.reuters.com/article/newsOne/idUSN1528797120070717
I call it old news:
Bishops ... may fuck thair fill and be unmarried."
-Sir David Lyndesay, Ane Satyre of the Thrie Estaits 1534
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - As plaintiffs sobbed but Cardinal Roger Mahony sat silently in court, the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Los Angeles and victims of clergy sex abuse on Monday finalized their record $660 million settlement.
http://www.reuters.com/article/newsOne/idUSN1528797120070717
I call it old news:
Bishops ... may fuck thair fill and be unmarried."
-Sir David Lyndesay, Ane Satyre of the Thrie Estaits 1534
Thursday, July 12, 2007
Niflhel
When the light of my eyes has faded forever, then, even then I shall not forget the vast planes of Niflhel. Why? Because it is my home .. forever! The river and the thousand bridges, the white peak beyond, the sweet-scented moon glow gardens, the lilies, the pleasing noises of wind laden with myst and the music of bells .. all these are mine!
When the light of my eyes has faded forever, then, even then I shall not forget the vast planes of Niflhel. Why? Because it is my home .. forever! The river and the thousand bridges, the white peak beyond, the sweet-scented moon glow gardens, the lilies, the pleasing noises of wind laden with myst and the music of bells .. all these are mine!
Wednesday, July 11, 2007
Death Tree
As I walked upon a road
I saw a man upon a tree.
I did not speak but sat to watch
The ravens pull and pluck and gorge.
Night I stayed and as sun rose
The man was born anew.
So my spear I took and stab him fresh,
That man upon the road.
Ravens came and ate fresh flesh
And night I stayed again.
Upon the morning I beheld
That man full born with strength.
Outstretched my hand to help him down
And kindly did he speak,
"Thank you friend for watchful eye,
Here, hold this rune for me."
As I walked upon a road
I saw a man upon a tree.
I did not speak but sat to watch
The ravens pull and pluck and gorge.
Night I stayed and as sun rose
The man was born anew.
So my spear I took and stab him fresh,
That man upon the road.
Ravens came and ate fresh flesh
And night I stayed again.
Upon the morning I beheld
That man full born with strength.
Outstretched my hand to help him down
And kindly did he speak,
"Thank you friend for watchful eye,
Here, hold this rune for me."
Tuesday, July 10, 2007
I drink the heron guarded honeyed mead
And did those things of which others only read.
Upon brittled pages of ancient book
The wind awoke, elms and willows shook
Before the galdr spoken loud
Thunder of fantastic wings did abound.
Down from Ginnungagap gulfs Nidhogg fell,
The grey-green, stupendous, bat winged Draco volans,
Come from the cloudy shores of Hel's shores,
Black furred and iron beaked, with eyes like mirrors reflecting heat.
When upon his back Nidhogg did unfurl
His vast and mighty wings across Jotun seas.
Of space we flew amid the Eleven Rivers,
So reached at last the mythic Tree
To men forbidden and by gods adorned,
Yggdrasil, where great Norns weave
Bloodied bonds that fetters keep.
And did those things of which others only read.
Upon brittled pages of ancient book
The wind awoke, elms and willows shook
Before the galdr spoken loud
Thunder of fantastic wings did abound.
Down from Ginnungagap gulfs Nidhogg fell,
The grey-green, stupendous, bat winged Draco volans,
Come from the cloudy shores of Hel's shores,
Black furred and iron beaked, with eyes like mirrors reflecting heat.
When upon his back Nidhogg did unfurl
His vast and mighty wings across Jotun seas.
Of space we flew amid the Eleven Rivers,
So reached at last the mythic Tree
To men forbidden and by gods adorned,
Yggdrasil, where great Norns weave
Bloodied bonds that fetters keep.
Monday, July 09, 2007
Bhagavad Gita and Druidry
"Die and you win heaven. Conquer and you enjoy the earth. Stand up now, Son of Kunti, and resolve to fight. Realize that pleasure and pain, gain and loss, victory and defeat, are all one and the same. Then! Go into battle!"
"If this was the kind of creed taught by the Druids, and it seems most probable that this was the case, it is no wonder that the Romans hastily suppressed it. Few doctrines could have been more dangerous in the event of a revolt against Rome. It explains too the speed and fury of Boadicea's revolt and why she did not hesitate to sacrifice her captives to Adraste."
-T.C. Lethbridge, Survival of the White Horse Cult in Ireland
"Die and you win heaven. Conquer and you enjoy the earth. Stand up now, Son of Kunti, and resolve to fight. Realize that pleasure and pain, gain and loss, victory and defeat, are all one and the same. Then! Go into battle!"
"If this was the kind of creed taught by the Druids, and it seems most probable that this was the case, it is no wonder that the Romans hastily suppressed it. Few doctrines could have been more dangerous in the event of a revolt against Rome. It explains too the speed and fury of Boadicea's revolt and why she did not hesitate to sacrifice her captives to Adraste."
-T.C. Lethbridge, Survival of the White Horse Cult in Ireland
Sunday, July 08, 2007
Life of Willibrord: Apostle to the Frisians
"A storm once drove a man of god to this island. He stayed until the storm lifted giving him an opportunity to sail away. He witnessed the island's idiotic religion. He also saw the island's cruel king condemn violators of the spring's sacrality to terrible deaths. He invoked the trinity and baptized three men in the spring. He also planned to kill some of the island's animals for food. The pagans looked on, think the Christians would swiftly die or go mad. But when they saw the violators suffer no harm, they fell into a terrified bewilderment and then told King Radbod what they had seen."
Driven mad because their gods did not lift a hand to smite their foe sounds like Christian propoganda.
"A storm once drove a man of god to this island. He stayed until the storm lifted giving him an opportunity to sail away. He witnessed the island's idiotic religion. He also saw the island's cruel king condemn violators of the spring's sacrality to terrible deaths. He invoked the trinity and baptized three men in the spring. He also planned to kill some of the island's animals for food. The pagans looked on, think the Christians would swiftly die or go mad. But when they saw the violators suffer no harm, they fell into a terrified bewilderment and then told King Radbod what they had seen."
Driven mad because their gods did not lift a hand to smite their foe sounds like Christian propoganda.
Saturday, July 07, 2007
Gardens of Niflhel
Beyond that Well, whose ancient masonry
Reaches to the Roots, moss covered and thick threads,
There are terraced gardens, rich with white fleshy flowers,
And flutter of night bird and flutterby and bee.
There are walking trails and bridges arching over
Warm indigo lotus-pools reflecting hof eaves,
And black cherry trees with delicate boughs and leaves
Against purple petals where mead-colored herons hover.
All is there still, even after old dreams flung
Open, and the gate torn asunder to that stone circle
Where drowsy streams fall upon winding ways,
Trailed by shimmering green vines dripping from bending branches.
I preserve both dreams, of wall strong and ancient, and grim and great,
The Well still stands that leads to the gate.
Beyond that Well, whose ancient masonry
Reaches to the Roots, moss covered and thick threads,
There are terraced gardens, rich with white fleshy flowers,
And flutter of night bird and flutterby and bee.
There are walking trails and bridges arching over
Warm indigo lotus-pools reflecting hof eaves,
And black cherry trees with delicate boughs and leaves
Against purple petals where mead-colored herons hover.
All is there still, even after old dreams flung
Open, and the gate torn asunder to that stone circle
Where drowsy streams fall upon winding ways,
Trailed by shimmering green vines dripping from bending branches.
I preserve both dreams, of wall strong and ancient, and grim and great,
The Well still stands that leads to the gate.
Thursday, July 05, 2007
Down dark streets of cold moss-grown stone
I come to the shambling face unknown -
A voiceless troll walks by my side,
And to the Gate he stands beside.
Before the silent troll I make
Black sacrifice and speak those Names
That only echo in man's most fearful dreams.
The Gate groans open letting me pass,
Rightfully here by after-birthed Wyrd and Freyja's stars
Do I walk past. Cloaked I stand now alone to take the Oath
Before Hel's Elder Throne -
She laughs and draws her hood aside
To let my eyes rest awile, upon the
Mist that resides, behind the mask that never hides.
I come to the shambling face unknown -
A voiceless troll walks by my side,
And to the Gate he stands beside.
Before the silent troll I make
Black sacrifice and speak those Names
That only echo in man's most fearful dreams.
The Gate groans open letting me pass,
Rightfully here by after-birthed Wyrd and Freyja's stars
Do I walk past. Cloaked I stand now alone to take the Oath
Before Hel's Elder Throne -
She laughs and draws her hood aside
To let my eyes rest awile, upon the
Mist that resides, behind the mask that never hides.
Wednesday, July 04, 2007
Tuesday, July 03, 2007
Freya Aswynn's Diary
June 3rd, 2007
http://www.aswynn.co.uk/blog/index.php
Freya Aswynn: "My intelligence sources have reported a worrying development within the Asatru or heathen framework. It concerns people who invoke the powers of the Ragnarok prematurely. In the USA of course!."
There is no one I know of who can 'invoke the powers of..Ragnarok', just as there are so few who can even effect the weather. Here is the Under the Black Sun music festival featuring the "Norwegian black metal horde Ragnarok":
http://www.go-gigs.com/utbs.htm
Europe was the soil that birthed The Thule Society and the Third Reich, and more recently The Order of Nine Angles and the Satanic Reds.
Freya Aswynn: "Invoking the Midgarsorm with a blood sacrifice will have a resonance if those in charge would be capable magicians, something I am not qualified to judge. However, do you want more hurricanes, do want more brush fires, droughts etc etc."
A very important word here is "if", because I know no "magicians", "capable" or otherwise, who have the power to bring about the natural disasters that Ms. Aswynn appears to be attributing to those who are "invoking the Midgarsorm".
Freya Aswynn: "Invoking this into present will result in more unbalanced natural forces devastating the land."
So Ms. Aswynn is saying that nature is "unbalanced" and that this is due to "capable magicians" "invoking the Midgarsorm". This sounds similar to the Christian preacher who said Hurricane Katrina was a 'curse by god upon the United States' for accepting homosexuality.
Freya Aswynn: "However in modern terms the Midgards orm is that energy which hold the borders between land and water." AND "To invoke and let loose this energy in this day and age were already there are problems with these borders global warming and all that, is a working from which none benefits it’s totally gratuitous ."
Then "invoking the Midgarsorm" will intensify global warming which is a nothing but a political farce.
Freya Aswynn: "And to those in Asatru who reject the notion of ‘magic’ they are at a distinct disadvantage as regarding those who do not only believe but practice magic. I recommend an opening of the mind to the probabilities, as a safe guard."
Belief in magic and belief that Asatru symbols can bring about Ragnarok are two different things. I also believe that this topic is causing a commotion within Asatru, placing a wedge between non-magic users, magic users, and those who use "rokkr" magic.
Do Asatru magic people really think they can move or prevent Hurricanes? Do Asatru people really think their magic users are that powerful? If so, the Asatru magic users have great public relation officers.
June 3rd, 2007
http://www.aswynn.co.uk/blog/index.php
Freya Aswynn: "My intelligence sources have reported a worrying development within the Asatru or heathen framework. It concerns people who invoke the powers of the Ragnarok prematurely. In the USA of course!."
There is no one I know of who can 'invoke the powers of..Ragnarok', just as there are so few who can even effect the weather. Here is the Under the Black Sun music festival featuring the "Norwegian black metal horde Ragnarok":
http://www.go-gigs.com/utbs.htm
Europe was the soil that birthed The Thule Society and the Third Reich, and more recently The Order of Nine Angles and the Satanic Reds.
Freya Aswynn: "Invoking the Midgarsorm with a blood sacrifice will have a resonance if those in charge would be capable magicians, something I am not qualified to judge. However, do you want more hurricanes, do want more brush fires, droughts etc etc."
A very important word here is "if", because I know no "magicians", "capable" or otherwise, who have the power to bring about the natural disasters that Ms. Aswynn appears to be attributing to those who are "invoking the Midgarsorm".
Freya Aswynn: "Invoking this into present will result in more unbalanced natural forces devastating the land."
So Ms. Aswynn is saying that nature is "unbalanced" and that this is due to "capable magicians" "invoking the Midgarsorm". This sounds similar to the Christian preacher who said Hurricane Katrina was a 'curse by god upon the United States' for accepting homosexuality.
Freya Aswynn: "However in modern terms the Midgards orm is that energy which hold the borders between land and water." AND "To invoke and let loose this energy in this day and age were already there are problems with these borders global warming and all that, is a working from which none benefits it’s totally gratuitous ."
Then "invoking the Midgarsorm" will intensify global warming which is a nothing but a political farce.
Freya Aswynn: "And to those in Asatru who reject the notion of ‘magic’ they are at a distinct disadvantage as regarding those who do not only believe but practice magic. I recommend an opening of the mind to the probabilities, as a safe guard."
Belief in magic and belief that Asatru symbols can bring about Ragnarok are two different things. I also believe that this topic is causing a commotion within Asatru, placing a wedge between non-magic users, magic users, and those who use "rokkr" magic.
Do Asatru magic people really think they can move or prevent Hurricanes? Do Asatru people really think their magic users are that powerful? If so, the Asatru magic users have great public relation officers.
Sunday, July 01, 2007
I awoke to a dream I had known before,
A barren expanse, desolate and sore
Through which I wandered, staff in hand,
In dream-like trance to splendid shore.
Of dark Helheim - did ancient hof rise
Black fortifications and monolithic towers loom
Stark and gigantic, blocks only a Jotun can move -
Not like druid menhirs this haunted keep,
These cobbled streets and cold stone walls
I know yet only half recall.
Wandering one-eyed through winding ways
Beneath a pale steel sky where black stars blaze,
From some distance off I turned to hear
The Song of Hel, which I love so dear.
Then flaps the tattered banner bright -
The Yellow Sign aglow in darkest night!
A barren expanse, desolate and sore
Through which I wandered, staff in hand,
In dream-like trance to splendid shore.
Of dark Helheim - did ancient hof rise
Black fortifications and monolithic towers loom
Stark and gigantic, blocks only a Jotun can move -
Not like druid menhirs this haunted keep,
These cobbled streets and cold stone walls
I know yet only half recall.
Wandering one-eyed through winding ways
Beneath a pale steel sky where black stars blaze,
From some distance off I turned to hear
The Song of Hel, which I love so dear.
Then flaps the tattered banner bright -
The Yellow Sign aglow in darkest night!
Thursday, June 28, 2007
I sense, on crystal-star nights
When constellations float about my sight
And shine down through black-branched trees,
A sky so dark that no gazer sees
To which some dread malevolently clings.
No star chart shows this slumbering being,
Its vision from the Clustered Hyades.
Inky waters over which a leaden breeze
Wafts the lament that dead Gullveig sings.
No darker vision greets the far-rider than
That lake, from which the coiling myst-waves pour
To break upon the frozen basaltic shore
Beneath the deep blue beams of Aldebaran
The lake that sends casual dreams fleeing in dread -
Is where Hel rises from her bed.
When constellations float about my sight
And shine down through black-branched trees,
A sky so dark that no gazer sees
To which some dread malevolently clings.
No star chart shows this slumbering being,
Its vision from the Clustered Hyades.
Inky waters over which a leaden breeze
Wafts the lament that dead Gullveig sings.
No darker vision greets the far-rider than
That lake, from which the coiling myst-waves pour
To break upon the frozen basaltic shore
Beneath the deep blue beams of Aldebaran
The lake that sends casual dreams fleeing in dread -
Is where Hel rises from her bed.
Monday, June 25, 2007
Ripples
Like widening rings in water the Will and Idea ripple out, searching and crossing over each other as they create vortexs of isolate intelligence. Thought finds particle in mist and dust, smoke and motes - transforming them all.
Like all water this is flushed, dumped in a drain and swirling in darkness towards darkness towards the sea.
A few months it reaches the Pacific, a few months more Morocco, Libya and Greece, gathering intensity from every wave, every fin and every current to drift upwards with pinpoint accuracy the incredible minuteness and intensity of atmosphere and stratosphere, to find itself among daylight stars .. this Will and Idea.
Like widening rings in water the Will and Idea ripple out, searching and crossing over each other as they create vortexs of isolate intelligence. Thought finds particle in mist and dust, smoke and motes - transforming them all.
Like all water this is flushed, dumped in a drain and swirling in darkness towards darkness towards the sea.
A few months it reaches the Pacific, a few months more Morocco, Libya and Greece, gathering intensity from every wave, every fin and every current to drift upwards with pinpoint accuracy the incredible minuteness and intensity of atmosphere and stratosphere, to find itself among daylight stars .. this Will and Idea.
Saturday, June 23, 2007
I will not worship a fairy-tale ‘god' who chooses to leave the future to the whim of idiots and fanatics.
I will take the reins of the world into my own hands and guide it as I wish, as I may, as no other but my self allows.
I will set myself as a god. With the advantage of superior knowledge and the latest technology at my fingertips, I will rule as I see just.
You may claim godship also and join me, or try to create the world in your own image. All you need to do is realize that you are also worthy and then attain the knowledge I have gained.
If you will not realize and accept that you are a godlike creator then I have no pity for you and I will continue to dominate you and destroy you with my Black Flame.
I will take the reins of the world into my own hands and guide it as I wish, as I may, as no other but my self allows.
I will set myself as a god. With the advantage of superior knowledge and the latest technology at my fingertips, I will rule as I see just.
You may claim godship also and join me, or try to create the world in your own image. All you need to do is realize that you are also worthy and then attain the knowledge I have gained.
If you will not realize and accept that you are a godlike creator then I have no pity for you and I will continue to dominate you and destroy you with my Black Flame.
Monday, June 18, 2007
Friday, June 15, 2007
Wednesday, June 13, 2007
I Am a monger of wryd. Come .. let me embellish yours!
What would you have? What sort of life not fully grasped?
Let me dress and trim your self-screwed wyrd and make it new.
If you then reek what I sow, then I will monger for you a wyrd renewed!
Your past is nothing in my hands! I will screech new existence from my throat, and once released from trembling lips, will fill your past and present with forgotten memories or life brand new!
Want a new life? Want to start anew?
I am a monger of wyrd .. come! Let me embellish you!
What would you have? What sort of life not fully grasped?
Let me dress and trim your self-screwed wyrd and make it new.
If you then reek what I sow, then I will monger for you a wyrd renewed!
Your past is nothing in my hands! I will screech new existence from my throat, and once released from trembling lips, will fill your past and present with forgotten memories or life brand new!
Want a new life? Want to start anew?
I am a monger of wyrd .. come! Let me embellish you!
Monday, June 11, 2007
Embalm the Prophets! Set in their ways, wrapped in borders and factories, law courts and universities, their sterile minds cracked by seeping mold.
Doctors, lawyers and engineers know nothing of starry wisdom. False scholars! Pretend philosophers! Your decrepit credentials are shallow pools of stench and decay.
The least spontaneous creation that blows out of my ass is more complex and revealing than your science can ever fathom.
Doctors, lawyers and engineers know nothing of starry wisdom. False scholars! Pretend philosophers! Your decrepit credentials are shallow pools of stench and decay.
The least spontaneous creation that blows out of my ass is more complex and revealing than your science can ever fathom.
Sunday, June 10, 2007
Saturday, June 09, 2007
Thursday, June 07, 2007
Wednesday, June 06, 2007
"As long as he thinks that he was a victim, his life will be hell. And as long as you think the same your promise will be valid. What makes us unhappy is to want. Yet if we would learn to cut our wants to nothing, the smallest thing we'd get would be a true gift. ..To be poor or wanting is only a thought; and so is to hate, or to be hungry, or to be in pain."
-Don Juan, speaking to Castaneda
-Don Juan, speaking to Castaneda
Sunday, June 03, 2007
The beggers and thieves of knowledge - it annoys to give them, and it annoys to not give them. They are nothing but zombies spewing bile from their bad conscience. Delighting in petty thoughts they impregnate themselves with ignorance - wallowing and itching and irritating until they stand before the Adept and say, "I am disease, and it is honorable!"
Friday, June 01, 2007
I have searched and I have found - both answer and question.
Ropes untied and disentangled.
No more searching for that path - Set's tracks are clear to follow.
The tracks of his feet. The tracks of his nails. The track of the Bear I follow.
From the left and from the right my eyes split to look both ways.
Ropes untied and disentangled.
No more searching for that path - Set's tracks are clear to follow.
The tracks of his feet. The tracks of his nails. The track of the Bear I follow.
From the left and from the right my eyes split to look both ways.
Tuesday, May 29, 2007
Sunday, May 27, 2007
Spin Programming: A Newly Uncovered Technique of Systematic Mind Control
John D. Lovern, Ph.D.
The following paper was presented at The Sixth Western Cliniclal Conference on Multiple Personality and Dissociation, Irvine, CA. It is archived with the permission of the author, and may be copied and distributed freely.
Abstract
Information obtained clinically from seven multiple personality patients with recalled histories of ritual abuse has revealed a coercive technique previously unknown to psychotherapists. This technique here labeled "spin programming," appears designed to spread effects such as pain, painful emotions, and other feelings or urges globally throughout a patient's personality system for purposes of either designing and building a young victim's personality system, or harassing older victims and disrupting psychotherapy. Spin programming appears to be based on a combination of physical spinning, cognitive and imagery training, and repetition and practice aimed at creating an internal multi-alter spinJeannieit the pain or affective components of numerous traumatic memories simultaneously to large groups of targeted alters. This paper presents signs and symptoms commonly seen in patients subjected to spin programs, training methods apparently used to create spin programs, and an analysis of strengths and weaknesses of spin programming.
That old black magic has me in its spell, that old black magic that you weave so well.
Those icy fingers up an down my spine, the same old witchcraft when your eyes meet mine, that same old tingle that I feel inside, and then that elevator starts its ride:
Down and down I go. 'round and 'round l go, like a leaf that's caught in a tide ( ...)
Darling, down and down I go, 'round and 'round I go, in a spin, loving the spin I'm in, under that old black magic called love.
-Johnny Mercer, c 1942, 1969
Discussion of ritual abuse as a cause of multiple personality disorder is a fairly recent phenomenon (Coons & Grier, l99O; Ganasway, 1989; Hassan, 1990; Kluft, 1989; Los Angeles County Commission for Women, 1989; Mayer, 1991; Neswald, Gould, & Graham-Costain, l99l; and Van Benschoten, 1990). Use of the term "ritual abuse" here relies on the definition developed by the Los Angeles County Commission for Women (1989):
Ritual abuse is a brutal form of abuse of children, adolescents, and adults, consisting of physical, sexual, and psychological abuse, and involving the use of rituals. Ritual does not necessarily mean satanic. However, most survivors state that they were ritually abused as part of satanic worship for the purpose of indoctrinating them into satanic beliefs and practices. Ritual abuse rarely consists of a single episode. It usually involves repeated abuse over an extended period of time.
The physical abuse is severe, sometimes including torture and killing. Te sexual abuse is usually painful, sadistic, and humiliating, intended as a means of gaining dominance over the victim.
The psychological abuse is devastating and involves the use of ritual/indoctrination, which includes mind control techniques and mind altering drugs, and ritual/intimidation which conveys to the victim a profound terror of the cult members and of the evil spirits they believe cult members can command. Both during and after the abuse, most victims are in a state of terror, mind control, and dissociation in which disclosure is exceedingly difficult. (p. 1)
The topic of ritual abuse is controversial (Kluft, 1989), and several authors have either questioned the credibility of reports of ritual abuse or have advised caution in interpreting the usually unsubstantiated accounts (Coons & Grier, 1990; Ganaway, 1989; Noll, 1989; and Van Benschoten, 1990). This paper avoids taking a position on the accuracy of clinically derived accounts of ritual abuse, and instead simply presents information that has come to light consistently and repeatedly during intensive psychotherapy with a number of different patients with recalled histories of ritual abuse.
The information presented here is offered in hopes of making available recently discovered and preliminary findings that may be of value to some members of the psychotherapeutic community and may stimulate additional investigation by some members of the scientific community. The information is admittedly too new, derived from too small a sample, and too unsubstantiated by other investigators to he presented as fact. Nevertheless, the description of spin programming, if valid, shines a valuable light on the techniques employed by ritual abuse perpetrators and provides important insight into how problems frequently seen in multiple personality patients with recalled ritual abuse histories might more successfully be approached.
Programming Terapists working with victims of ritual abuse often discover (or encounter compelling evidence) that their patients have been subjected to sophisticated mind control techniques, often called "programming," designed to compel them to do various things, including engaging in self-destructive behaviors such as suicide or self-mutilation; allowing access to perpetrators so that abuse may continue; responding to various cues, such as sounds, hand signals, lights, names or numbers, etc., by carrying out specific behaviors or behavior chains; disrupting psychotherapy in a number of ways, including thought-stealing or scrambling, outbursts of various emotions (anger, depression, terror, jealousy, apathy, etc.) and distancing from the therapist (by fearing the therapist, attempting to protect the therapist from harm by others or by the patient herself or himself, etc.). Neswald, Gould, and Graham-Costain (1991) provide a listing and descriptions of a number of typical ritual abuse programs.
Patients with histories of ritual abuse often reveal that programming techniques have been applied to them for at least two distinct purposes: (a) current or recent programming designed to harass or disrupt psychotherapy, and (b) programming begun early in life (often at birth), as the means by which programmers designed and built their victims' entire personality systems in order to achieve and maintain control over them. One technique has recently come to light that appears to have had utility both for harassment/disruption and for system-building. The technique is based on spinning.
Sources of Information for This Paper
This paper is based on information that came to light during psychotherapy sessions in which the author was the therapist or, in some cases, co-therapist. The patients, of whom there were seven, all carried diagnoses of complex multiple personality disorder and had clearly defined and consistently expressed histories of ritual abuse by satanic or similar cults. They had been in therapy intensively for at least a year before disclosing any information about spin programming. They were all female and ranged in age from their mid-twenties to their mid-forties. Their education levels ranged from two years of college to masters degrees. They were all white, the majority were married, and just over half were employed full-time. They disclosed some of the information about spin programming during conversations in which they and therapist were "brainstorming" about their programming histories, and they revealed the rest either spontaneously (generally making their discoveries between sessions) or in response to direct questioning carried out with due regard to the dangers of leading them by directly or indirectly suggesting desired responses. Before an item of information about spin programming and related phenomena could appear in this paper, it had to be verified by comparable experiences and reports from at least two patients. In most cases, information was verified by all patients, with only minor variations. Informal conversations with other therapists about their experiences with similar patients have consistently verified the information presented here.
Description of Spin Programming
Specific versus Global Tageting of Programs
Programmers appear to rely on certain criteria in deciding which mind control strategies they will select. One meaningful criterion is specific versus global, that is, whether they intend to target a single alter (or a small, defined group of alters) in a specific way, or the entire system (or a large portion of it) in a global way. Spin-based programming is a globally targeted programming technique. Programmers apparently use it when they intend to disseminate an effect throughout either a large portion of a victim's personality system, or the entire system.
xamples of the types of effects that may be spread in this way are physical pain, confusion, depression, self-destructive or suicidal urges, alienation, apathy, hopelessness, fear of abandonment or rejection, panic, terror, urges to run away, jealousy, doubt, suspicion, rage, violent urges, sexual arousal or urges, lethargy, immobility, sleepiness, sleeplessness, hunger, loss of appetite, and urges to use drugs or alcohol. Programmers may spread these effects throughout a personality system as a method of disrupting the total functioning of the person, or they may use the possibility of spreading them as a threat to enforce compliance with directives or prohibitions they have issued.
Spin programs are also useful in system-building, both because of their ability to quickly transmit information within or throughout a personality system, and because of their ability to establish power relationships between alters and groups of alters. How these links and power relationships are established will be explained in the section on training methods.
Signs and Symptoms of Spin Programs
Patients who are suffering the immediate effects of a currently activated spin program tend to present with a number of typical features. These features include: global effects, symptoms occurring like a "storm," pressure, dizziness, a sense of spinning inside, physical movements related to the internal experience of spinning, and spinning-related imagery and vocabulary.
lobal Effects. When a patient is affected by a specifically targeted program, she or he typically experiences one or a small number of alters having emotions or urges or manifesting behaviors, while most or all other alters remain unaffected. The patient might say, for example, "Somebody inside wants to cut," or "Joey is feeling suicidal." When a spin-based program is active, every alter with whom the therapist talks is likely to be suffering from the same or similar symptoms. At such times, the- patient might say, "Everybody in the system is depressed;~ "None of us has any hope or any energy or any interest in anything;" or "We are all terrified that you are going to abandon us.
Stormlike Symptoms.
The experience of dealing with a spin-programmed patient is, for patient and therapist alike, somewhat like riding out a storm. The flurries of pain, affect, or impulse tend to grow in intensity, build to a crescendo, maintain that peak for a time, and then gradually diminish before finally subsiding. Nearly every alter in the system is lashed by the "wind and rain" of the storm, often without understanding why these effect are occurring, and doing their best to minimize damages until the storm passes.
Pressure
As will be seen in a subsequent section, spin training relies in part on conditioning the patient to connect, through cognition and imagery, the experience of spinning with internal buildups of centrifugal force. When spin programs are active, the affected alters subjectively experience high levels of force or pressure, as if they were sitting at the outside edge of a rapidly rotating disc. They feel overwhelmed by this pressure, finding it impossible to resist, and they often complain of symptoms that would be caused by mounting internal pressure, such as headaches that feel like they are going to cause the head to explode from the inside, disruption of speech, vision problems, and similar phenomena.
Dizziness
As the internal spinning associated with spin programming increases in speed and force, patients frequently complain of dizziness. At these times, they may be literally feeling the sensations caused by the original spinning, because they are experiencing a planned (i.e., produced by intervention of the abusers) revivification or flashback of that event.
Sense of Spinning Internally
Along with the dizziness, patients experiencing active spin programs often notice a sense of spinning internally, or comment that "everything seems to be spinning." If they do not mention this feeling spontaneously, they will often admit it when questioned, for example, by answering in the affirmative when asked, "Do you feel as if someone inside is spinning a mile a minute?"
hysical Movements. When the internal spinning is at its most intense, patients often move in ways that a person might move while being physically spun. These movements tend to be rhythmic and repetitive, they may involve any part of the body, and they are subtle and may escape the therapist's attention unless the therapist is looking for them. For example, a patient may stare blankly or appear to be wincing from pain or closing her eyes tightly, then move her head or upper body very slightly and rhythmically from side to side, forward and back, or in a circular motion. Feet or hands and arms are also often involved in these movement. The movements tend to be slower, smoother, more fluid, more subtle, and more regular and rhythmic than typical "nervous" movements.
Spinning-Related Imagery and Vocabulary
When describing their subjective sensations during an active spin program, patients often utilize imagery or words that are related to the experience of spinning, possibly because these images and words are literal descriptions of their experiences, and possibly because they were taught these images during the original spin training. Patients may use this kind of imagery spontaneously during sessions or in writings or drawings produced outside of sessions, or they may only describe them in response to questioning. Typical words used include: vortex, whirlpool, whirlwind, tornado, cyclone, abyss, falling, drowning, sinking, being pulled or sucked down, being blown or shot or exploded out, tumbling, hurling, whirling, swirling, and twirling. Typical visual images include drawings depicting the ideas listed above and various doodles that will be described later in the section on training. Some alters have programmer-assigned names related to spinning (e.g., Spinner,) which is a name that was independently assigned to alters in the personality systems of several different patients).
Training Methods
Pain Contests
Pain as Power. and Multiples within Multiples. A patient disclosed during a psychotherapy session some time ago that the most powerful alters in her system were those who had endured the most pain. Subsequent exploration of this notion, combined with abreactions of memories of "pain contests" eventually led to the discovery of spin programming.
Many patients with cult abuse histories have had to endure contests in which they and another person received steadily mounting pain until one of them (the loser) could not stand it anymore. Generally,only one alter was allowed to remain out during the contest, or else worse abuse would follow. The requirement that only one alter remain out had some profound ramifications, leading to the conjecture that this condition (only one alter staying out), not the outcome of the contest, was the primary purpose of the competitions.
In order to stay out continuously instead of leaving the body to a rapidly switching succession of alters (the more typical pattern of dissociation during trauma), the single alter had to create a group of internal alters to whom she or he could send the pain. The typical result of this type of experience appears to be the creation of an internal analogue of multiple personality disorder, or a "multiple within a multiple."
In other words, just as traumatic experiences in general can lead to the creation of a number of alters in one "outside" body to produce multiple personality disorder, this specific type of experience can create a similar phenomenon one level in, consisting of a number of alters "within" the alter undergoing the contest. However, since the alter has no physical body, the newly created alters do not necessarily exist "inside" that alter, but more likely coexist with or near the original alter in internal space--the "inside world").
One source of internal power arising from this arrangement stems from the ability of the original alter to send pain to her or his next level of alters inside the multiple within a multiple subsystem, allowing her or him to intimidate them by threatening to activate a flashback of the original training, thus forcing them to re-experience the pain. The multiple within a multiple subsystem taken as a unit is more powerful than other, simple alters, because, as a system, it possesses or is capable of possessing greater and more varied capabilities than a lone alter might be able to produce.
Graphic Depiction
Another patient, after looking at a drawing of a tree structure that was my rough attempt to depict the connection between pain transmission and power (Figure la), suggested that the drawing ought to be circular instead of tree shaped (Figure lb). The original alter, according to this new view, was located at the center of a circle of alters, and the ring or rings) of alters surrounding this alter comprised the multiple within a multiple" system. Secondary alters could dissociate further by creating alters of their own, resulting in branches of tertiary and beyond) alters. She indicated further that her entire personality system, not just individual multiple within multiple systems, was arranged in this kind of circular array consisting of concentric rings, with the most powerful alters located at the center.
Figure 1: Tree and Circular Diagrams Depicting Pain Distribution Among Alters During Pain Contests
This patient then became visibly frightened, stating that some internal alters felt that I may not be a safe person because I knew too much. Subsequent discussions with other patients about this topic and other topics related to spin programming have elicited similar reactions from them; it appears that information about spin programming is highly secret and not for "outsiders" to know.
However, in spite of her fears, this patient disclosed more information at the next session, revealing that her system contained a number of alters who have been trained to create internal multiple personality systems, and that alters of these systems often received additional training that made them into a coordinated, self-monitoring and self-correcting mechanism designed to employ internal spinning to send pain (and other experiences) to large groups of alters outside their system. Discussions with all of the patients (the two mentioned above, plus the five others) provided the rest of the details comprising this paper.
Overall Training Strategy
According to patients' disclosures, spin training begins at an early age, perhaps age three or four, or even younger. Training appears to utilize a combination of three basic elements:
(a) the creation of internal multiple personality systems (by pain contests and similar experiences) whose alters are separated and given specialized training to make the internal systems into self-regulating mechanisms;
(b) actual spinning both to teach senders the sensations of spinning sothat they can re-creat it internally and to force them to spin internally in order to avoid the extremely painful sensations of "real" external spinning; and
(c) cognitive and imagery training to build and reinforce connections between internal re-creations of the experience of spinning and the sending out of pain as a means of escaping it.
Along with this, connections are also established and reinforced between velocity, centrifugal force, and the intensity of the pain and other feelings that are spun. In addition, some programming is necessary to convince the spinning alters that they are not connected to the other alters in the system, so that they do not feel guilty about hurting someone about whom they care Material must be available to "feed" into the spin mechanism, and this material consists of large numbers of dissociated memories that contain pain and other feelings capable of acting as punishments or sources of disruption. Finally, there may be additional programming to create controls over such things as which material is to be spun, when or under what conditions it is to be spun, to which alters or groups it is to be targeted, which groups of alters will be exempt from the spin, etc.
Actual Spinning
All patients reported having had many experiences of being physically spun by ritual abusers throughout their lives. While being spun, they were invariably drugged, usually with sedative or hypnotic drugs as well as anti-nausea agents, often shown or forced to look at white or colored lights or to listen to music or rhythms, often given verbal instructions, and sometimes given other kinds of pain (in addition to the extreme pain of spinning). The spinning was of various types, including horizontal spinning on a table, similar to a record player; horizontal spinning about an axis, similar to being turned on a spit; vertical, "wheel-of-fortune" type spinning; and vertical spinning about an axis, on a pole, hanging upside down by the feet, or inside of a cylinder.
Patients who have experienced a great deal of spinning have a number of sensitivities that they usually do not understand until they are consciously aware of having been spun. For example, many patients become very disturbed by flashing lights, because they are similar to the lights they had to watch while belong spun. For similar reasons, they are also often disturbed by watching rapidly changing colors or circular, swirling motions of any kind, as well as by certain types of music.
Programmers apparently take advantage of these sensitivities by simulating spinning when it would be impractical (due to unavailability of equipment, etc.) to actually spin a victim, or when they want to intimidate a reluctant alter by threatening her or him with spinning as a punishment. Rapidly changing lights moving across the victim's visual field, for example, can very effectively bring back the full experience of a past actual spin. Exposure to other stimuli that accompanied spinning, such as spoken words or music, can also trigger experiences of spinning.
Abusers trigger the re-experiencing of traumatic events by taking advantage of their victims' means of coping with trauma. When a victim experiences a painfully traumatic or terrifying event, including administration of drugs to enhance state-dependent learning, the victim dissociates the experience, breaking it into component parts (as in the BASK Model: Braun, 1988a, 1988b). Abusers apparently record the contents of these dissociated experiences and know which aspects of them to remind victims of in order to bring about a vivid replay of a component or portion of them. By simply introducing such a cue to the victim, the abusers can initiate the experience of spinning.
Dissociated components of any traumatic memory appear capable of being moved from one alter to another, making it possible to "collect" the pain or affective component of dozens of experiences that contain similar elements (e.g., physical pain, terror, abandonment, grief, etc.), feed these into the spinner, and thereby spread massive amounts of these feelings throughout the personality system or to targeted groups of alters.
Visual Aids, Demonstrations, and Practice
All patients reported having observed as children (or when spin training was done, if later than childhood) a wide range of demonstrations apparently intended to teach them to think about and perform spinning in ways that are advantageous to the programmers. For example, several patients report having watched mechanical devices, such as centrifuges or devices similar to those sometimes seen at fairs that make pictures by spreading paint with centrifugal force; people, such as "whirling dervish" dancers who are made (presumably by drugs and special effects) to seem as if they are able to spin so fast that they become a blur; and object lessons, such as people who are tortured or killed for failing to spin properly.
Patients also report having spent a great deal of time as children (again, only those programmed as children) practicing spinning at a conscious level. For example, they may have spun around furiously at play time, but the spinning was done in grim earnestness, not for fun. They may also have been involved in organized activities that involved spinning, such as ballet or figure skating lessons.
Drawings and Doodles
All patients reported having filled or decorated many pages over periods of years from early childhood (again, only those whose training commenced in childhood) through adulthood with doodles that are strikingly similar across individuals. They describe themselves as having produced the doodles in an almost obsessive manner, drawing them over and over for no apparent reason. Certain themes connect these doodles. Many of them obviously depict spinning, such as the drawings of spinning tornadoes (Figure 2a). Others only suggest spinning, such as spirals that may be round (Figure 2b), rectangular (Figure 2c), or triangular (Figure 2d), but they also depict movement or transmission outward from the center. Finally, other doodles depict movement or transmission from one linked unit to another, without spinning, as in the interconnected boxes or interconnected loops (Figure- 2e and f).
Figure 2: Doodles Frequently Drawn by Patients With Histories of Spin Programming
The doodling appears to be intended to reinforce by repetition and visualization the lessons learned through cognitive and imagery training. Doodles may be produced by alters trained as spinners, or they may be produced by others to be seen by the spinners, as reminders to the spinner to maintain their skills and alertness.
Cognitive and Imagery Training
Programmers apparently combine pain transmission training, actual spinning, visual demonstrations, and doodles with detailed verbal instructions that contain a great deal of vivid visual imagery. This training takes place over a period of many years, with countless repetitions and variations, so that the overall effect is very potent. The thrust of all this training appears to be to convey several key ideas to the spinners and other alters, so that they accept these ideas without question as their actual reality.
First, the spinners must learn to spin inside, just as they did while out in the body during actual spinning. Often, they learn to become a spinning object, such as a tornado or a spinning top. That is, their internal representation of self (or internal body), as viewed by both themselves and other alters, is a spinning object (at least while spinning or during rapidly accelerated spinning). T hen, they must link the experience of internal spinning with the sending out of pain, emotions, and other feelings to other alters, so that that two experiences are inseparable and indistinguishable. Finally, they must link the velocity of their spins with centrifugal force, so that the more rapidly they spin, the stronger and more irresistible is the force with which they send out the pain or other feelings.
An additional set of ideas is important to impart to the spinners for spin programs to be effective. The first of these has to do with spinners feeling good (or not feeling bad) about spinning. In order to feel good about spinning, spinners must think themselves separate from other alters, and view the other alters as deserving the painful feelings that they receive as the result of the spinning. It is clear from patients' reports that programmers teach and reinforce these ideas. It ie also useful for the spinners to derive feelings of competence and pride about their spinning. Therefore programmers apparently reward proper spinning with praise and other reinforcements. Next, spinners need to be convinced that they have only two choices once a spin program is activate: Either they must spin, or they will experience all the pain themselves; but, if they do spin, they will experience no pain at all. Programmers apparently teach these lessons too. Finally, it is advantageous to protect spinners from contact with otter alters or outsiders, who might impart information to them that could potentially allow them to think for themselves. Therefore, programmers apparently often set up a ring of guardians around the spinners or impose other security measures.
Transmission Routes
When patients first began to describe pain contests, it was thought that the purpose of these ordeals was to establish transmission routes for the spinning of pain. Soon it became clear that, instead, they were designed to create multiple within multiple systems which would be trained to become spinning mechanisms. This conclusion left open the question of how transmission routes are established. Additional inquiry of patients about this question has not provided conclusive answers, but the one hypothesis that "feels right" to most of them is that pain is sent along the lines of lineage, that is, the connections between alters who split off of earlier alters, who split off of yet earlier alters, etc., going all the way back to the core or near-core personalities. If this is true, then either spinners learn how locate and to send pain to near-core alters, or they themselves are near-core alters who were selected for spin training because of their position in the internal genealogy. The second alternative appears to be the more likely one.
Self-Regulating Spin Systems
One would think that it would be very difficult for a programmer to control a multiple within a multiple system. More than the desired number of alters may be created during the initial abuse, leaving the programmer with a problem of disposition. Alters may be created who are never discovered by the programmer, and are in positions potentially to resist or disrupt the programmer's plans. The number of alters and complexity of their interrelationships would make it difficult for a programmer to keep track of the behavior of both individual alters and interactions among them. Programmers apparently respond to all of these problems by imposing rigid structure and strict discipline. They control alters' personality traits and other attributes, where and with whom they live in the internal world, who may communicate with whom, who watches whom, and who punishes whom.
The outcome of programmers' control efforts appears to be a complex, self-regulating systems of alters, each of whom is assigned specific roles and duties, which is governed by a carefully designed scheme of checks and balances. Certain functions are essential for spinning to take place, and there seems to be some uniformity across patients in terms of which functions are carried out by which alters, and how the alters are allowed or forced to interact.
The first step in creating a spin system appears to be to split up the group of alters comprising the system, keeping them only dimly aware, if aware at all, of the existence of the others. They appear to be placed in specific locations in the internal world, determined by the roles they occupy. Those who occupy the same or corresponding role are often similar to one another in other ways, such as all being children of a given age, all being of the same gender, or all being animal alters. They may also have similar skills or other attributes such as having been taught a performing art, having been trained in psychic abilities, or belonging to a specific cult figure who "loves" them. As additional spin systems are created, alters from other spin systems who occupy the same roles are placed in the same locations. These role-based groups may then be taught to be suspicious of or hate the other role-based groups, thereby keeping them from "comparing notes," cooperating together, or organizing any kind of resistance.
The key functions that need to be accomplished for spinning to work effectively are as follows: Of course, there should be an alter who spins. There should also be an alter who locates, obtains, and moves the dissociated memory components so that they can be spun by the spinner. There should be a controller or coordinator of the overall process. There should be informers who report to programmers about whether other alters are performing their duties, including other informers. There should be punishers who discipline misbehaving alters, including other punishers, and one who can punish even the spinner (who is otherwise impervious to pain). There should be a "key" or access alter who makes it possible for programmers to enter the system, obtain information, and make adjustments. And all these functions should be designed to interact in such a way that the system can regulate itself and operate independently.
The roles and lines of communication and influence within such a system can be depicted graphically in some cases, with lines representing the communication pathways and points of intersection representing the alters who occUPY the essential roles. The result is a three dimensional geometric figure resembling a crystal.
Utility of Spin programming
Spin programming has some obvious uses to programmers for designing and building personality systems. The power of the spinners or alters who control them, and the threat of pain that they convey, establish them internally as authorities who must be obeyed The networks (apparently of descent) along which spinners send pain and other experiences represent natural divisions within the overall system that programmers may program separately and use for specific purposes, such as spying/informing, enforcing internal discipline, sexual behaviors, ceremonial behaviors, etc. Spin programming can contribute both to unifying a system and to separating groups from one another. There are doubtless many other ways in which spin programming can facilitate system building.
Harassment and disruption of therapy are easy to achieve with spin programming. For example, only one brief programming session is capable of setting up a spinner to react each time she or he notices the therapist engaging in a predictable behavior by setting in motion a furious spin of the emotions contained in dozens of dissociated traumatic experiences of childhood rejection and abandonment. The patient is then likely to perceive the therapist as behaving in an abandoning and rejecting manner, and as a result the therapy may be dominated by endless sidetracking from other issues in order to deal with the more subjectively pressing issue (to the patient) of the fear and hurt that the patient feels the therapist is causing. And the spinning may continue for days, weeks, or months. Numerous variations of this kind of approach are possible, providing many opportunities for keeping therapy ineffective for years.
Importance of Spin Programming
Spin programming must be of immense importance, judging from the sheer amount of time and energy that programmers appear to have devoted to creating and maintaining these programs throughout their victims' lives. Another indication of the central importance of this kind of programming is the wariness shown by many patients when the subject is initially broached. It is obviously "classified material." These factors, plus the obvious power of spin programming as both a system-building and harassment/disruption technique, indicate that this kind of programming is a fundamental mind control method used on victims of ritual abuse. Therefore, it must be addressed in psychotherapy with victims of ritualistic abuse. In fact, spin programming is apparently so fundamental a technique that our patients may not be unable to heal unless it is addressed in therapy.
Strengths of Spin Programming
Spin-based programs present a number of strengths from the point of view of programmers. They have been difficult to detect, because therapists have been unaware of globally targeted spin programs as a separate type of programming strategy. The reactions created by spin programs, if not identified as such, are likely to be mislabeled as borderline traits or "transference issues," providing little or no benefit to the patient. Containment strategies (utilizing hypnosis or visualization) that may work well at stopping or preventing flashbacks of specifically targeted programs are often useless with spin programs, because of both the sheer volume of memories that are activated by a spin program and the force of the spin. Working with the affected alters is difficult because of the lengthy, intensive attitude training against communicating with outsiders that they have received; due to the fact that they are guarded to prevent contact; because they fear that they will experience pain if they do not spin it out, combined with the immediacy of pain relief if they do; and due to the power, or perceived power, of the spin.
In general, when therapists attempt to deal with a spin program, they are likely to feel as if they are grappling with a complicated, powerful machine. In fact, that is essentially what they are doing. Spin programs "feel" quite different from specifically targeted programs. Many more alters are involvid in spin programs, they are much more highly trained and more automatic and smoothly coordinated in their functioning, and the operations of the programs are much better safeguarded against attempts to tamper with or undermine them. As such, they present a formidable challenge to therapists and patients.
Weaknesses of Spin Programming
In spite of the power and complexity of spin programs, they are nevertheless amenable to therapeutic intervention. with patience, commitment, and compassion, an astute therapist working closely with a creative, motivated patient can gradually make a dent in this kind of programming and eventually overcome it by exploiting its inherent weaknesses.
The first weakness is the fact that all programmed alters, including spinners, guards, controllers, and all those who are part of the spin mechanism, are personalities who were "cut from the same cloth" as the rest of the system and are therefore capable of both reason and emotion. Alters comprising the spin mechanism can actively observe incoming information and react to it by commencing the spin, making decisions about when to block outside contact or punish those who fail to cooperate with the program; therefore, they can reason. Spinners often take pride in being good at spinning, and they are proficient at spinning painful emotions in order to avoid them; therefore, they are capable of feeling emotion. If a therapist or an internal helper can establish communication with these alters, the way is open for them to correct their present, limited cognitive grasp of their situations and options by learning new facts, and to want to change what they do by becoming aware of their feelings about it. They are also capable of positive emotions, and they are likely to be deprived of and hungry for them. Therefore, they are likely, once contacted, to respond favorably to care and concern.
The second weakness is the fact that much of the training that makes up spin programming is conditioned as opposed to unconditioned, that is, based on paired associate or cognitive learning. Therefore, cognitive changes such as consciousness of how the conditioning was done can facilitate breaking the connections rapidly. The connections and beliefs that can be broken in this way include the link between external spinning and internal spinning; the link between internal spinning and the sending out of pain and other feelings; the link between velocity of internal spinning, centrifugal force, and the irresistibility of the pain and other feelings being spun out; the illusion that the spinners are separate from the rest of the system; the pride of being good at spinning; and the belief that they have only a limited number of options.
The third weakness is the fact that spin programming is built on an accumulation of individual dissociated experiences that can be abreacted, one after the other, until the foundation of the spin mechanism has been completely undermined. Three groups of dissociated memories may be addressed: the original training experiences of the spinners and others involved in spinning; the traumatic experiences from which pain or affective components are collected and fed into the spin mechanism; and the programs instructing the spinners what to spin and under what conditions to begin spinning.
The fourth, and greatest, weakness of spin programming is also its greatest strength: the complexity of the system of alters and the checks and balances that control them. An astute therapist can eventually gain access to individuals who occupy the different roles, either directly or indirectly, and then educate them about their betrayal by their programmers, about the compassion they could be feeling toward the suffering of other alters in their system (instead of the hate or mistrust they have been taught to feel), about their ultimate unity with the others (instead of the separation that has been forced on them), and about how to join forces to resist.
Summary
This paper has described spin programming, a type of abuse that until recently was unknown to psychotherapists, but has obviously been in use by ritual abusers for many years -- at least four decades, and probably much longer. I t is possible that most or perhaps all patients with histories of ritual abuse have been subjected to spin programming. Patients who were born into cults that practice ritual abuse (as opposed to having been recruited later in life) are probably more likely to have experienced spin programming, and their spin programming is likely to be both more intensive and more sophisticated.
Spin programming presents some formidable obstacles for psychotherapy. It is apparent that, in the past, lack of awareness and understanding of spin programming by the therapeutic community has contributed to many problems in therapy, and that complete healing has probably been impossible without facing and dealing effectively with this type of mind control technique.
It is hoped that this paper will provide a valuable service by making information available to therapists that may contribute to significant breakthroughs for their patients and ultimately allow for their complete healing, while also providing testable hypotheses to researchers interested in ritual abuse.
References
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Braun, B.G. (1988b). The BASK model of dissociation: Clinical applications. Dissociation, 1, 16-23.
Coons, P.M., & Grier, F. (1990). Factitious disorder (Munchausen type) involving allegations of ritual satanic abuse: A case report. Dissociation, 3, 177-178.
Ganaway, G.K. (1989). Historical truth versus narrative truth: Clarifying the role of exogenous trauma in the etiology of multiple personality disorder and its variants. Dissociation, 2, 205-220.
Hassan, A. (1990). Combating cult mind control. Rochester, VT: Park Street Press.
Hill, S., & Goodwin, J. (1989). Satanism: Similarities between patient accounts and pre-Inquisition historical sources. Dissociation, 2, 39-44.
Kluft, R.P. (1989). Editorial: Reflections on allegations of ritual abuse. Dissociation, 2, 191-193.
Los Angeles County Commission for Women. (1989, September). Report of the ritual abuse task force: Ritual abuse, definition, glossary, the use of mind control. Los Angeles, CA: Author.
Mayer, R.S. (1991). Satan's children: Case studios in multiple personality. NY: G.P. Putnam s& Sons.
Neswald, D.W., Gould, C., & Graham-Costain, V. (1991, September/October). Common "programs" observed in survivors of satanic ritual abuse. California Therapist, pp. 47-50.
Noll, R. (1989). Satanism, UFO abductions, historians, and clinicians: Those who do not remember the past... (Letter to the Editor). Dissociation, 2, 251-253.
Van Bensehoten, S.C. (1990). Multiple personality disorder and satanic ritual abuse: The issue of credibility. Dissociation, 3, 22-30.
John D. Lovern, Ph.D.
The following paper was presented at The Sixth Western Cliniclal Conference on Multiple Personality and Dissociation, Irvine, CA. It is archived with the permission of the author, and may be copied and distributed freely.
Abstract
Information obtained clinically from seven multiple personality patients with recalled histories of ritual abuse has revealed a coercive technique previously unknown to psychotherapists. This technique here labeled "spin programming," appears designed to spread effects such as pain, painful emotions, and other feelings or urges globally throughout a patient's personality system for purposes of either designing and building a young victim's personality system, or harassing older victims and disrupting psychotherapy. Spin programming appears to be based on a combination of physical spinning, cognitive and imagery training, and repetition and practice aimed at creating an internal multi-alter spinJeannieit the pain or affective components of numerous traumatic memories simultaneously to large groups of targeted alters. This paper presents signs and symptoms commonly seen in patients subjected to spin programs, training methods apparently used to create spin programs, and an analysis of strengths and weaknesses of spin programming.
That old black magic has me in its spell, that old black magic that you weave so well.
Those icy fingers up an down my spine, the same old witchcraft when your eyes meet mine, that same old tingle that I feel inside, and then that elevator starts its ride:
Down and down I go. 'round and 'round l go, like a leaf that's caught in a tide ( ...)
Darling, down and down I go, 'round and 'round I go, in a spin, loving the spin I'm in, under that old black magic called love.
-Johnny Mercer, c 1942, 1969
Discussion of ritual abuse as a cause of multiple personality disorder is a fairly recent phenomenon (Coons & Grier, l99O; Ganasway, 1989; Hassan, 1990; Kluft, 1989; Los Angeles County Commission for Women, 1989; Mayer, 1991; Neswald, Gould, & Graham-Costain, l99l; and Van Benschoten, 1990). Use of the term "ritual abuse" here relies on the definition developed by the Los Angeles County Commission for Women (1989):
Ritual abuse is a brutal form of abuse of children, adolescents, and adults, consisting of physical, sexual, and psychological abuse, and involving the use of rituals. Ritual does not necessarily mean satanic. However, most survivors state that they were ritually abused as part of satanic worship for the purpose of indoctrinating them into satanic beliefs and practices. Ritual abuse rarely consists of a single episode. It usually involves repeated abuse over an extended period of time.
The physical abuse is severe, sometimes including torture and killing. Te sexual abuse is usually painful, sadistic, and humiliating, intended as a means of gaining dominance over the victim.
The psychological abuse is devastating and involves the use of ritual/indoctrination, which includes mind control techniques and mind altering drugs, and ritual/intimidation which conveys to the victim a profound terror of the cult members and of the evil spirits they believe cult members can command. Both during and after the abuse, most victims are in a state of terror, mind control, and dissociation in which disclosure is exceedingly difficult. (p. 1)
The topic of ritual abuse is controversial (Kluft, 1989), and several authors have either questioned the credibility of reports of ritual abuse or have advised caution in interpreting the usually unsubstantiated accounts (Coons & Grier, 1990; Ganaway, 1989; Noll, 1989; and Van Benschoten, 1990). This paper avoids taking a position on the accuracy of clinically derived accounts of ritual abuse, and instead simply presents information that has come to light consistently and repeatedly during intensive psychotherapy with a number of different patients with recalled histories of ritual abuse.
The information presented here is offered in hopes of making available recently discovered and preliminary findings that may be of value to some members of the psychotherapeutic community and may stimulate additional investigation by some members of the scientific community. The information is admittedly too new, derived from too small a sample, and too unsubstantiated by other investigators to he presented as fact. Nevertheless, the description of spin programming, if valid, shines a valuable light on the techniques employed by ritual abuse perpetrators and provides important insight into how problems frequently seen in multiple personality patients with recalled ritual abuse histories might more successfully be approached.
Programming Terapists working with victims of ritual abuse often discover (or encounter compelling evidence) that their patients have been subjected to sophisticated mind control techniques, often called "programming," designed to compel them to do various things, including engaging in self-destructive behaviors such as suicide or self-mutilation; allowing access to perpetrators so that abuse may continue; responding to various cues, such as sounds, hand signals, lights, names or numbers, etc., by carrying out specific behaviors or behavior chains; disrupting psychotherapy in a number of ways, including thought-stealing or scrambling, outbursts of various emotions (anger, depression, terror, jealousy, apathy, etc.) and distancing from the therapist (by fearing the therapist, attempting to protect the therapist from harm by others or by the patient herself or himself, etc.). Neswald, Gould, and Graham-Costain (1991) provide a listing and descriptions of a number of typical ritual abuse programs.
Patients with histories of ritual abuse often reveal that programming techniques have been applied to them for at least two distinct purposes: (a) current or recent programming designed to harass or disrupt psychotherapy, and (b) programming begun early in life (often at birth), as the means by which programmers designed and built their victims' entire personality systems in order to achieve and maintain control over them. One technique has recently come to light that appears to have had utility both for harassment/disruption and for system-building. The technique is based on spinning.
Sources of Information for This Paper
This paper is based on information that came to light during psychotherapy sessions in which the author was the therapist or, in some cases, co-therapist. The patients, of whom there were seven, all carried diagnoses of complex multiple personality disorder and had clearly defined and consistently expressed histories of ritual abuse by satanic or similar cults. They had been in therapy intensively for at least a year before disclosing any information about spin programming. They were all female and ranged in age from their mid-twenties to their mid-forties. Their education levels ranged from two years of college to masters degrees. They were all white, the majority were married, and just over half were employed full-time. They disclosed some of the information about spin programming during conversations in which they and therapist were "brainstorming" about their programming histories, and they revealed the rest either spontaneously (generally making their discoveries between sessions) or in response to direct questioning carried out with due regard to the dangers of leading them by directly or indirectly suggesting desired responses. Before an item of information about spin programming and related phenomena could appear in this paper, it had to be verified by comparable experiences and reports from at least two patients. In most cases, information was verified by all patients, with only minor variations. Informal conversations with other therapists about their experiences with similar patients have consistently verified the information presented here.
Description of Spin Programming
Specific versus Global Tageting of Programs
Programmers appear to rely on certain criteria in deciding which mind control strategies they will select. One meaningful criterion is specific versus global, that is, whether they intend to target a single alter (or a small, defined group of alters) in a specific way, or the entire system (or a large portion of it) in a global way. Spin-based programming is a globally targeted programming technique. Programmers apparently use it when they intend to disseminate an effect throughout either a large portion of a victim's personality system, or the entire system.
xamples of the types of effects that may be spread in this way are physical pain, confusion, depression, self-destructive or suicidal urges, alienation, apathy, hopelessness, fear of abandonment or rejection, panic, terror, urges to run away, jealousy, doubt, suspicion, rage, violent urges, sexual arousal or urges, lethargy, immobility, sleepiness, sleeplessness, hunger, loss of appetite, and urges to use drugs or alcohol. Programmers may spread these effects throughout a personality system as a method of disrupting the total functioning of the person, or they may use the possibility of spreading them as a threat to enforce compliance with directives or prohibitions they have issued.
Spin programs are also useful in system-building, both because of their ability to quickly transmit information within or throughout a personality system, and because of their ability to establish power relationships between alters and groups of alters. How these links and power relationships are established will be explained in the section on training methods.
Signs and Symptoms of Spin Programs
Patients who are suffering the immediate effects of a currently activated spin program tend to present with a number of typical features. These features include: global effects, symptoms occurring like a "storm," pressure, dizziness, a sense of spinning inside, physical movements related to the internal experience of spinning, and spinning-related imagery and vocabulary.
lobal Effects. When a patient is affected by a specifically targeted program, she or he typically experiences one or a small number of alters having emotions or urges or manifesting behaviors, while most or all other alters remain unaffected. The patient might say, for example, "Somebody inside wants to cut," or "Joey is feeling suicidal." When a spin-based program is active, every alter with whom the therapist talks is likely to be suffering from the same or similar symptoms. At such times, the- patient might say, "Everybody in the system is depressed;~ "None of us has any hope or any energy or any interest in anything;" or "We are all terrified that you are going to abandon us.
Stormlike Symptoms.
The experience of dealing with a spin-programmed patient is, for patient and therapist alike, somewhat like riding out a storm. The flurries of pain, affect, or impulse tend to grow in intensity, build to a crescendo, maintain that peak for a time, and then gradually diminish before finally subsiding. Nearly every alter in the system is lashed by the "wind and rain" of the storm, often without understanding why these effect are occurring, and doing their best to minimize damages until the storm passes.
Pressure
As will be seen in a subsequent section, spin training relies in part on conditioning the patient to connect, through cognition and imagery, the experience of spinning with internal buildups of centrifugal force. When spin programs are active, the affected alters subjectively experience high levels of force or pressure, as if they were sitting at the outside edge of a rapidly rotating disc. They feel overwhelmed by this pressure, finding it impossible to resist, and they often complain of symptoms that would be caused by mounting internal pressure, such as headaches that feel like they are going to cause the head to explode from the inside, disruption of speech, vision problems, and similar phenomena.
Dizziness
As the internal spinning associated with spin programming increases in speed and force, patients frequently complain of dizziness. At these times, they may be literally feeling the sensations caused by the original spinning, because they are experiencing a planned (i.e., produced by intervention of the abusers) revivification or flashback of that event.
Sense of Spinning Internally
Along with the dizziness, patients experiencing active spin programs often notice a sense of spinning internally, or comment that "everything seems to be spinning." If they do not mention this feeling spontaneously, they will often admit it when questioned, for example, by answering in the affirmative when asked, "Do you feel as if someone inside is spinning a mile a minute?"
hysical Movements. When the internal spinning is at its most intense, patients often move in ways that a person might move while being physically spun. These movements tend to be rhythmic and repetitive, they may involve any part of the body, and they are subtle and may escape the therapist's attention unless the therapist is looking for them. For example, a patient may stare blankly or appear to be wincing from pain or closing her eyes tightly, then move her head or upper body very slightly and rhythmically from side to side, forward and back, or in a circular motion. Feet or hands and arms are also often involved in these movement. The movements tend to be slower, smoother, more fluid, more subtle, and more regular and rhythmic than typical "nervous" movements.
Spinning-Related Imagery and Vocabulary
When describing their subjective sensations during an active spin program, patients often utilize imagery or words that are related to the experience of spinning, possibly because these images and words are literal descriptions of their experiences, and possibly because they were taught these images during the original spin training. Patients may use this kind of imagery spontaneously during sessions or in writings or drawings produced outside of sessions, or they may only describe them in response to questioning. Typical words used include: vortex, whirlpool, whirlwind, tornado, cyclone, abyss, falling, drowning, sinking, being pulled or sucked down, being blown or shot or exploded out, tumbling, hurling, whirling, swirling, and twirling. Typical visual images include drawings depicting the ideas listed above and various doodles that will be described later in the section on training. Some alters have programmer-assigned names related to spinning (e.g., Spinner,) which is a name that was independently assigned to alters in the personality systems of several different patients).
Training Methods
Pain Contests
Pain as Power. and Multiples within Multiples. A patient disclosed during a psychotherapy session some time ago that the most powerful alters in her system were those who had endured the most pain. Subsequent exploration of this notion, combined with abreactions of memories of "pain contests" eventually led to the discovery of spin programming.
Many patients with cult abuse histories have had to endure contests in which they and another person received steadily mounting pain until one of them (the loser) could not stand it anymore. Generally,only one alter was allowed to remain out during the contest, or else worse abuse would follow. The requirement that only one alter remain out had some profound ramifications, leading to the conjecture that this condition (only one alter staying out), not the outcome of the contest, was the primary purpose of the competitions.
In order to stay out continuously instead of leaving the body to a rapidly switching succession of alters (the more typical pattern of dissociation during trauma), the single alter had to create a group of internal alters to whom she or he could send the pain. The typical result of this type of experience appears to be the creation of an internal analogue of multiple personality disorder, or a "multiple within a multiple."
In other words, just as traumatic experiences in general can lead to the creation of a number of alters in one "outside" body to produce multiple personality disorder, this specific type of experience can create a similar phenomenon one level in, consisting of a number of alters "within" the alter undergoing the contest. However, since the alter has no physical body, the newly created alters do not necessarily exist "inside" that alter, but more likely coexist with or near the original alter in internal space--the "inside world").
One source of internal power arising from this arrangement stems from the ability of the original alter to send pain to her or his next level of alters inside the multiple within a multiple subsystem, allowing her or him to intimidate them by threatening to activate a flashback of the original training, thus forcing them to re-experience the pain. The multiple within a multiple subsystem taken as a unit is more powerful than other, simple alters, because, as a system, it possesses or is capable of possessing greater and more varied capabilities than a lone alter might be able to produce.
Graphic Depiction
Another patient, after looking at a drawing of a tree structure that was my rough attempt to depict the connection between pain transmission and power (Figure la), suggested that the drawing ought to be circular instead of tree shaped (Figure lb). The original alter, according to this new view, was located at the center of a circle of alters, and the ring or rings) of alters surrounding this alter comprised the multiple within a multiple" system. Secondary alters could dissociate further by creating alters of their own, resulting in branches of tertiary and beyond) alters. She indicated further that her entire personality system, not just individual multiple within multiple systems, was arranged in this kind of circular array consisting of concentric rings, with the most powerful alters located at the center.
Figure 1: Tree and Circular Diagrams Depicting Pain Distribution Among Alters During Pain Contests
This patient then became visibly frightened, stating that some internal alters felt that I may not be a safe person because I knew too much. Subsequent discussions with other patients about this topic and other topics related to spin programming have elicited similar reactions from them; it appears that information about spin programming is highly secret and not for "outsiders" to know.
However, in spite of her fears, this patient disclosed more information at the next session, revealing that her system contained a number of alters who have been trained to create internal multiple personality systems, and that alters of these systems often received additional training that made them into a coordinated, self-monitoring and self-correcting mechanism designed to employ internal spinning to send pain (and other experiences) to large groups of alters outside their system. Discussions with all of the patients (the two mentioned above, plus the five others) provided the rest of the details comprising this paper.
Overall Training Strategy
According to patients' disclosures, spin training begins at an early age, perhaps age three or four, or even younger. Training appears to utilize a combination of three basic elements:
(a) the creation of internal multiple personality systems (by pain contests and similar experiences) whose alters are separated and given specialized training to make the internal systems into self-regulating mechanisms;
(b) actual spinning both to teach senders the sensations of spinning sothat they can re-creat it internally and to force them to spin internally in order to avoid the extremely painful sensations of "real" external spinning; and
(c) cognitive and imagery training to build and reinforce connections between internal re-creations of the experience of spinning and the sending out of pain as a means of escaping it.
Along with this, connections are also established and reinforced between velocity, centrifugal force, and the intensity of the pain and other feelings that are spun. In addition, some programming is necessary to convince the spinning alters that they are not connected to the other alters in the system, so that they do not feel guilty about hurting someone about whom they care Material must be available to "feed" into the spin mechanism, and this material consists of large numbers of dissociated memories that contain pain and other feelings capable of acting as punishments or sources of disruption. Finally, there may be additional programming to create controls over such things as which material is to be spun, when or under what conditions it is to be spun, to which alters or groups it is to be targeted, which groups of alters will be exempt from the spin, etc.
Actual Spinning
All patients reported having had many experiences of being physically spun by ritual abusers throughout their lives. While being spun, they were invariably drugged, usually with sedative or hypnotic drugs as well as anti-nausea agents, often shown or forced to look at white or colored lights or to listen to music or rhythms, often given verbal instructions, and sometimes given other kinds of pain (in addition to the extreme pain of spinning). The spinning was of various types, including horizontal spinning on a table, similar to a record player; horizontal spinning about an axis, similar to being turned on a spit; vertical, "wheel-of-fortune" type spinning; and vertical spinning about an axis, on a pole, hanging upside down by the feet, or inside of a cylinder.
Patients who have experienced a great deal of spinning have a number of sensitivities that they usually do not understand until they are consciously aware of having been spun. For example, many patients become very disturbed by flashing lights, because they are similar to the lights they had to watch while belong spun. For similar reasons, they are also often disturbed by watching rapidly changing colors or circular, swirling motions of any kind, as well as by certain types of music.
Programmers apparently take advantage of these sensitivities by simulating spinning when it would be impractical (due to unavailability of equipment, etc.) to actually spin a victim, or when they want to intimidate a reluctant alter by threatening her or him with spinning as a punishment. Rapidly changing lights moving across the victim's visual field, for example, can very effectively bring back the full experience of a past actual spin. Exposure to other stimuli that accompanied spinning, such as spoken words or music, can also trigger experiences of spinning.
Abusers trigger the re-experiencing of traumatic events by taking advantage of their victims' means of coping with trauma. When a victim experiences a painfully traumatic or terrifying event, including administration of drugs to enhance state-dependent learning, the victim dissociates the experience, breaking it into component parts (as in the BASK Model: Braun, 1988a, 1988b). Abusers apparently record the contents of these dissociated experiences and know which aspects of them to remind victims of in order to bring about a vivid replay of a component or portion of them. By simply introducing such a cue to the victim, the abusers can initiate the experience of spinning.
Dissociated components of any traumatic memory appear capable of being moved from one alter to another, making it possible to "collect" the pain or affective component of dozens of experiences that contain similar elements (e.g., physical pain, terror, abandonment, grief, etc.), feed these into the spinner, and thereby spread massive amounts of these feelings throughout the personality system or to targeted groups of alters.
Visual Aids, Demonstrations, and Practice
All patients reported having observed as children (or when spin training was done, if later than childhood) a wide range of demonstrations apparently intended to teach them to think about and perform spinning in ways that are advantageous to the programmers. For example, several patients report having watched mechanical devices, such as centrifuges or devices similar to those sometimes seen at fairs that make pictures by spreading paint with centrifugal force; people, such as "whirling dervish" dancers who are made (presumably by drugs and special effects) to seem as if they are able to spin so fast that they become a blur; and object lessons, such as people who are tortured or killed for failing to spin properly.
Patients also report having spent a great deal of time as children (again, only those programmed as children) practicing spinning at a conscious level. For example, they may have spun around furiously at play time, but the spinning was done in grim earnestness, not for fun. They may also have been involved in organized activities that involved spinning, such as ballet or figure skating lessons.
Drawings and Doodles
All patients reported having filled or decorated many pages over periods of years from early childhood (again, only those whose training commenced in childhood) through adulthood with doodles that are strikingly similar across individuals. They describe themselves as having produced the doodles in an almost obsessive manner, drawing them over and over for no apparent reason. Certain themes connect these doodles. Many of them obviously depict spinning, such as the drawings of spinning tornadoes (Figure 2a). Others only suggest spinning, such as spirals that may be round (Figure 2b), rectangular (Figure 2c), or triangular (Figure 2d), but they also depict movement or transmission outward from the center. Finally, other doodles depict movement or transmission from one linked unit to another, without spinning, as in the interconnected boxes or interconnected loops (Figure- 2e and f).
Figure 2: Doodles Frequently Drawn by Patients With Histories of Spin Programming
The doodling appears to be intended to reinforce by repetition and visualization the lessons learned through cognitive and imagery training. Doodles may be produced by alters trained as spinners, or they may be produced by others to be seen by the spinners, as reminders to the spinner to maintain their skills and alertness.
Cognitive and Imagery Training
Programmers apparently combine pain transmission training, actual spinning, visual demonstrations, and doodles with detailed verbal instructions that contain a great deal of vivid visual imagery. This training takes place over a period of many years, with countless repetitions and variations, so that the overall effect is very potent. The thrust of all this training appears to be to convey several key ideas to the spinners and other alters, so that they accept these ideas without question as their actual reality.
First, the spinners must learn to spin inside, just as they did while out in the body during actual spinning. Often, they learn to become a spinning object, such as a tornado or a spinning top. That is, their internal representation of self (or internal body), as viewed by both themselves and other alters, is a spinning object (at least while spinning or during rapidly accelerated spinning). T hen, they must link the experience of internal spinning with the sending out of pain, emotions, and other feelings to other alters, so that that two experiences are inseparable and indistinguishable. Finally, they must link the velocity of their spins with centrifugal force, so that the more rapidly they spin, the stronger and more irresistible is the force with which they send out the pain or other feelings.
An additional set of ideas is important to impart to the spinners for spin programs to be effective. The first of these has to do with spinners feeling good (or not feeling bad) about spinning. In order to feel good about spinning, spinners must think themselves separate from other alters, and view the other alters as deserving the painful feelings that they receive as the result of the spinning. It is clear from patients' reports that programmers teach and reinforce these ideas. It ie also useful for the spinners to derive feelings of competence and pride about their spinning. Therefore programmers apparently reward proper spinning with praise and other reinforcements. Next, spinners need to be convinced that they have only two choices once a spin program is activate: Either they must spin, or they will experience all the pain themselves; but, if they do spin, they will experience no pain at all. Programmers apparently teach these lessons too. Finally, it is advantageous to protect spinners from contact with otter alters or outsiders, who might impart information to them that could potentially allow them to think for themselves. Therefore, programmers apparently often set up a ring of guardians around the spinners or impose other security measures.
Transmission Routes
When patients first began to describe pain contests, it was thought that the purpose of these ordeals was to establish transmission routes for the spinning of pain. Soon it became clear that, instead, they were designed to create multiple within multiple systems which would be trained to become spinning mechanisms. This conclusion left open the question of how transmission routes are established. Additional inquiry of patients about this question has not provided conclusive answers, but the one hypothesis that "feels right" to most of them is that pain is sent along the lines of lineage, that is, the connections between alters who split off of earlier alters, who split off of yet earlier alters, etc., going all the way back to the core or near-core personalities. If this is true, then either spinners learn how locate and to send pain to near-core alters, or they themselves are near-core alters who were selected for spin training because of their position in the internal genealogy. The second alternative appears to be the more likely one.
Self-Regulating Spin Systems
One would think that it would be very difficult for a programmer to control a multiple within a multiple system. More than the desired number of alters may be created during the initial abuse, leaving the programmer with a problem of disposition. Alters may be created who are never discovered by the programmer, and are in positions potentially to resist or disrupt the programmer's plans. The number of alters and complexity of their interrelationships would make it difficult for a programmer to keep track of the behavior of both individual alters and interactions among them. Programmers apparently respond to all of these problems by imposing rigid structure and strict discipline. They control alters' personality traits and other attributes, where and with whom they live in the internal world, who may communicate with whom, who watches whom, and who punishes whom.
The outcome of programmers' control efforts appears to be a complex, self-regulating systems of alters, each of whom is assigned specific roles and duties, which is governed by a carefully designed scheme of checks and balances. Certain functions are essential for spinning to take place, and there seems to be some uniformity across patients in terms of which functions are carried out by which alters, and how the alters are allowed or forced to interact.
The first step in creating a spin system appears to be to split up the group of alters comprising the system, keeping them only dimly aware, if aware at all, of the existence of the others. They appear to be placed in specific locations in the internal world, determined by the roles they occupy. Those who occupy the same or corresponding role are often similar to one another in other ways, such as all being children of a given age, all being of the same gender, or all being animal alters. They may also have similar skills or other attributes such as having been taught a performing art, having been trained in psychic abilities, or belonging to a specific cult figure who "loves" them. As additional spin systems are created, alters from other spin systems who occupy the same roles are placed in the same locations. These role-based groups may then be taught to be suspicious of or hate the other role-based groups, thereby keeping them from "comparing notes," cooperating together, or organizing any kind of resistance.
The key functions that need to be accomplished for spinning to work effectively are as follows: Of course, there should be an alter who spins. There should also be an alter who locates, obtains, and moves the dissociated memory components so that they can be spun by the spinner. There should be a controller or coordinator of the overall process. There should be informers who report to programmers about whether other alters are performing their duties, including other informers. There should be punishers who discipline misbehaving alters, including other punishers, and one who can punish even the spinner (who is otherwise impervious to pain). There should be a "key" or access alter who makes it possible for programmers to enter the system, obtain information, and make adjustments. And all these functions should be designed to interact in such a way that the system can regulate itself and operate independently.
The roles and lines of communication and influence within such a system can be depicted graphically in some cases, with lines representing the communication pathways and points of intersection representing the alters who occUPY the essential roles. The result is a three dimensional geometric figure resembling a crystal.
Utility of Spin programming
Spin programming has some obvious uses to programmers for designing and building personality systems. The power of the spinners or alters who control them, and the threat of pain that they convey, establish them internally as authorities who must be obeyed The networks (apparently of descent) along which spinners send pain and other experiences represent natural divisions within the overall system that programmers may program separately and use for specific purposes, such as spying/informing, enforcing internal discipline, sexual behaviors, ceremonial behaviors, etc. Spin programming can contribute both to unifying a system and to separating groups from one another. There are doubtless many other ways in which spin programming can facilitate system building.
Harassment and disruption of therapy are easy to achieve with spin programming. For example, only one brief programming session is capable of setting up a spinner to react each time she or he notices the therapist engaging in a predictable behavior by setting in motion a furious spin of the emotions contained in dozens of dissociated traumatic experiences of childhood rejection and abandonment. The patient is then likely to perceive the therapist as behaving in an abandoning and rejecting manner, and as a result the therapy may be dominated by endless sidetracking from other issues in order to deal with the more subjectively pressing issue (to the patient) of the fear and hurt that the patient feels the therapist is causing. And the spinning may continue for days, weeks, or months. Numerous variations of this kind of approach are possible, providing many opportunities for keeping therapy ineffective for years.
Importance of Spin Programming
Spin programming must be of immense importance, judging from the sheer amount of time and energy that programmers appear to have devoted to creating and maintaining these programs throughout their victims' lives. Another indication of the central importance of this kind of programming is the wariness shown by many patients when the subject is initially broached. It is obviously "classified material." These factors, plus the obvious power of spin programming as both a system-building and harassment/disruption technique, indicate that this kind of programming is a fundamental mind control method used on victims of ritual abuse. Therefore, it must be addressed in psychotherapy with victims of ritualistic abuse. In fact, spin programming is apparently so fundamental a technique that our patients may not be unable to heal unless it is addressed in therapy.
Strengths of Spin Programming
Spin-based programs present a number of strengths from the point of view of programmers. They have been difficult to detect, because therapists have been unaware of globally targeted spin programs as a separate type of programming strategy. The reactions created by spin programs, if not identified as such, are likely to be mislabeled as borderline traits or "transference issues," providing little or no benefit to the patient. Containment strategies (utilizing hypnosis or visualization) that may work well at stopping or preventing flashbacks of specifically targeted programs are often useless with spin programs, because of both the sheer volume of memories that are activated by a spin program and the force of the spin. Working with the affected alters is difficult because of the lengthy, intensive attitude training against communicating with outsiders that they have received; due to the fact that they are guarded to prevent contact; because they fear that they will experience pain if they do not spin it out, combined with the immediacy of pain relief if they do; and due to the power, or perceived power, of the spin.
In general, when therapists attempt to deal with a spin program, they are likely to feel as if they are grappling with a complicated, powerful machine. In fact, that is essentially what they are doing. Spin programs "feel" quite different from specifically targeted programs. Many more alters are involvid in spin programs, they are much more highly trained and more automatic and smoothly coordinated in their functioning, and the operations of the programs are much better safeguarded against attempts to tamper with or undermine them. As such, they present a formidable challenge to therapists and patients.
Weaknesses of Spin Programming
In spite of the power and complexity of spin programs, they are nevertheless amenable to therapeutic intervention. with patience, commitment, and compassion, an astute therapist working closely with a creative, motivated patient can gradually make a dent in this kind of programming and eventually overcome it by exploiting its inherent weaknesses.
The first weakness is the fact that all programmed alters, including spinners, guards, controllers, and all those who are part of the spin mechanism, are personalities who were "cut from the same cloth" as the rest of the system and are therefore capable of both reason and emotion. Alters comprising the spin mechanism can actively observe incoming information and react to it by commencing the spin, making decisions about when to block outside contact or punish those who fail to cooperate with the program; therefore, they can reason. Spinners often take pride in being good at spinning, and they are proficient at spinning painful emotions in order to avoid them; therefore, they are capable of feeling emotion. If a therapist or an internal helper can establish communication with these alters, the way is open for them to correct their present, limited cognitive grasp of their situations and options by learning new facts, and to want to change what they do by becoming aware of their feelings about it. They are also capable of positive emotions, and they are likely to be deprived of and hungry for them. Therefore, they are likely, once contacted, to respond favorably to care and concern.
The second weakness is the fact that much of the training that makes up spin programming is conditioned as opposed to unconditioned, that is, based on paired associate or cognitive learning. Therefore, cognitive changes such as consciousness of how the conditioning was done can facilitate breaking the connections rapidly. The connections and beliefs that can be broken in this way include the link between external spinning and internal spinning; the link between internal spinning and the sending out of pain and other feelings; the link between velocity of internal spinning, centrifugal force, and the irresistibility of the pain and other feelings being spun out; the illusion that the spinners are separate from the rest of the system; the pride of being good at spinning; and the belief that they have only a limited number of options.
The third weakness is the fact that spin programming is built on an accumulation of individual dissociated experiences that can be abreacted, one after the other, until the foundation of the spin mechanism has been completely undermined. Three groups of dissociated memories may be addressed: the original training experiences of the spinners and others involved in spinning; the traumatic experiences from which pain or affective components are collected and fed into the spin mechanism; and the programs instructing the spinners what to spin and under what conditions to begin spinning.
The fourth, and greatest, weakness of spin programming is also its greatest strength: the complexity of the system of alters and the checks and balances that control them. An astute therapist can eventually gain access to individuals who occupy the different roles, either directly or indirectly, and then educate them about their betrayal by their programmers, about the compassion they could be feeling toward the suffering of other alters in their system (instead of the hate or mistrust they have been taught to feel), about their ultimate unity with the others (instead of the separation that has been forced on them), and about how to join forces to resist.
Summary
This paper has described spin programming, a type of abuse that until recently was unknown to psychotherapists, but has obviously been in use by ritual abusers for many years -- at least four decades, and probably much longer. I t is possible that most or perhaps all patients with histories of ritual abuse have been subjected to spin programming. Patients who were born into cults that practice ritual abuse (as opposed to having been recruited later in life) are probably more likely to have experienced spin programming, and their spin programming is likely to be both more intensive and more sophisticated.
Spin programming presents some formidable obstacles for psychotherapy. It is apparent that, in the past, lack of awareness and understanding of spin programming by the therapeutic community has contributed to many problems in therapy, and that complete healing has probably been impossible without facing and dealing effectively with this type of mind control technique.
It is hoped that this paper will provide a valuable service by making information available to therapists that may contribute to significant breakthroughs for their patients and ultimately allow for their complete healing, while also providing testable hypotheses to researchers interested in ritual abuse.
References
Braun, B.G. (1988a). The BASK (behavior affect, sensation, knowledge) model of dissociation. Dissociation, 1, 4-23.
Braun, B.G. (1988b). The BASK model of dissociation: Clinical applications. Dissociation, 1, 16-23.
Coons, P.M., & Grier, F. (1990). Factitious disorder (Munchausen type) involving allegations of ritual satanic abuse: A case report. Dissociation, 3, 177-178.
Ganaway, G.K. (1989). Historical truth versus narrative truth: Clarifying the role of exogenous trauma in the etiology of multiple personality disorder and its variants. Dissociation, 2, 205-220.
Hassan, A. (1990). Combating cult mind control. Rochester, VT: Park Street Press.
Hill, S., & Goodwin, J. (1989). Satanism: Similarities between patient accounts and pre-Inquisition historical sources. Dissociation, 2, 39-44.
Kluft, R.P. (1989). Editorial: Reflections on allegations of ritual abuse. Dissociation, 2, 191-193.
Los Angeles County Commission for Women. (1989, September). Report of the ritual abuse task force: Ritual abuse, definition, glossary, the use of mind control. Los Angeles, CA: Author.
Mayer, R.S. (1991). Satan's children: Case studios in multiple personality. NY: G.P. Putnam s& Sons.
Neswald, D.W., Gould, C., & Graham-Costain, V. (1991, September/October). Common "programs" observed in survivors of satanic ritual abuse. California Therapist, pp. 47-50.
Noll, R. (1989). Satanism, UFO abductions, historians, and clinicians: Those who do not remember the past... (Letter to the Editor). Dissociation, 2, 251-253.
Van Bensehoten, S.C. (1990). Multiple personality disorder and satanic ritual abuse: The issue of credibility. Dissociation, 3, 22-30.
Saturday, May 26, 2007
Monday, May 21, 2007
"I don't understand you," said Alice. "It's dreadfully confusing!"
"That's the effect of living backwards," the Queen said kindly, "it always makes one a little giddy at first."
"Living backwards!" Alice repeated in great astonishment. "I never heard of such a thing!"
The Queen continued, "There is great advantage in it, that one's memory works both ways."
"I'm sure mine only works one way," Alice remarked. "I can't remember things before they happen."
"It's a poor sort of memory that only works backwards," the Queen remarked.
-L. Carroll, Through the Looking-Glass
"That's the effect of living backwards," the Queen said kindly, "it always makes one a little giddy at first."
"Living backwards!" Alice repeated in great astonishment. "I never heard of such a thing!"
The Queen continued, "There is great advantage in it, that one's memory works both ways."
"I'm sure mine only works one way," Alice remarked. "I can't remember things before they happen."
"It's a poor sort of memory that only works backwards," the Queen remarked.
-L. Carroll, Through the Looking-Glass
Saturday, May 19, 2007
Wednesday, May 16, 2007
Tuesday, May 15, 2007
Monday, May 14, 2007
"Dona Mercedes crouched beside me and took the cigar from my mouth. She puffed at it, mumbling an incantation, a different one from mine. I felt a tremor in my body; an invisible hand gripped me by the throat. I heard myself making whizzing, gurgling noises. To my amazement, they sounded like words said by someone else with my own vocal cords. I knew instantly - although I did not understandthem - that they were words of yet another incantation. The apparition hovered over my head, and then it disappeared."
-Florinda Donner, The Witch's Dream, page135
-Florinda Donner, The Witch's Dream, page135
Tuesday, May 08, 2007
Monday, May 07, 2007
In an early morning dream, still laying in bed, I walked into a place where I was supposed to be. A woman there started showing me what I already knew. Then she pointed to an altar with statues of three gods, behind them a picture of a red "X". As I looked up on this image, the woman said, "We must destroy all religion. We must smash all gods. Then we can rise up as god."
Sunday, May 06, 2007
Saturday, May 05, 2007
It is not surprising that a combination of purified senses and disciplined mind would recognize the Black Flame.
One of the first organic thoughts of primitive man must have been the process of death upon his own kind - the physical decomposition, the rapidity in which the skeleton emerges, then the slow disintegration to earth. But was there something else observed, perhaps something beyond the material?
I suggest they realized an ultimate reality - that though change was the nature of physical existence, there existed a Force behind all Forms. For humans today to reach this conclusion, it is logical to assume that this mythical perception sprang forth from an primordial point.
This perception of existence could be referred to as 'the evolution of expansive consciousness'. For it is not just the propensity of matter to metamorphose - for this line of thinking is not evolutionary - but the mind and psyche's interpretation of this event that must have been a catalyst in the broadening of consciousness.
Consciousness searchs for expanded experience; therefore, evolution - like initiation - is the succession and subsequent destruction of resulting form. This would also mean that biological evolution rests upon a trinity of Function, Substance, and Form.
-Function is the creative cause,
-Substance the seed-source, and
-Form the physical existence.
All three seek out the Black Flame, for therein lies the pulse of their evolution.
One of the first organic thoughts of primitive man must have been the process of death upon his own kind - the physical decomposition, the rapidity in which the skeleton emerges, then the slow disintegration to earth. But was there something else observed, perhaps something beyond the material?
I suggest they realized an ultimate reality - that though change was the nature of physical existence, there existed a Force behind all Forms. For humans today to reach this conclusion, it is logical to assume that this mythical perception sprang forth from an primordial point.
This perception of existence could be referred to as 'the evolution of expansive consciousness'. For it is not just the propensity of matter to metamorphose - for this line of thinking is not evolutionary - but the mind and psyche's interpretation of this event that must have been a catalyst in the broadening of consciousness.
Consciousness searchs for expanded experience; therefore, evolution - like initiation - is the succession and subsequent destruction of resulting form. This would also mean that biological evolution rests upon a trinity of Function, Substance, and Form.
-Function is the creative cause,
-Substance the seed-source, and
-Form the physical existence.
All three seek out the Black Flame, for therein lies the pulse of their evolution.
Thursday, May 03, 2007
And in the darkness of my mind,
There was a Blackness of Existence.
This is the Primal Blackness of My Existence;
Its form is unfathomable, its Presence achieved via Initiation.
It is for this reason that Set has given me two gifts:
The gift of Isolation, and the gift of Will.
For these two gifts, I have myself to thank.
There was a Blackness of Existence.
This is the Primal Blackness of My Existence;
Its form is unfathomable, its Presence achieved via Initiation.
It is for this reason that Set has given me two gifts:
The gift of Isolation, and the gift of Will.
For these two gifts, I have myself to thank.
Tuesday, May 01, 2007
"Time, space and natural law hold…suggestions of intolerable bondage, and I can form no picture of emotional satisfaction which does not involve their defeat - especially the defeat of time, so that one may merge oneself with the whole historic stream and be wholly emancipated from the transient and the ephemeral."
-HP Lovecraft
-HP Lovecraft
Monday, April 30, 2007
The hof mistress gave to me a phial
Of that dread opiate that others deny,
To dream-gates opening upon crashing seas
Of acherontic vapors - mile on mile
Stretched ebony coasts untrod wherefrom aspire
Pylons of rough unhewn stone climbing ever higher.
Not of Midgard these monstrous constellations, where arise
Grey mottled moons of cold and outcast fire.
My dreamself roams these Ginnungagap gulfs,
Past troll haunted caves, where in dripping deeps
Of fearful dreams buried underneath
Do Jotun wives deeply sleep.
I see what sends others screaming away
For my doom was woven far into this past,
So that I return, at last, to where Hel resides at last.
Of that dread opiate that others deny,
To dream-gates opening upon crashing seas
Of acherontic vapors - mile on mile
Stretched ebony coasts untrod wherefrom aspire
Pylons of rough unhewn stone climbing ever higher.
Not of Midgard these monstrous constellations, where arise
Grey mottled moons of cold and outcast fire.
My dreamself roams these Ginnungagap gulfs,
Past troll haunted caves, where in dripping deeps
Of fearful dreams buried underneath
Do Jotun wives deeply sleep.
I see what sends others screaming away
For my doom was woven far into this past,
So that I return, at last, to where Hel resides at last.
Thursday, April 26, 2007
Satan and Illegal Immigration
Utah Republican Blames 'The Devil' For Immigration
(KUTV / The Salt Lake Tribune) PROVO - Forget al Qaeda.
If you really want to blame someone for trying to destroy the United States, point the finger at… Satan?
The devil, Lucifer… whatever you want to call it, one Utah Republican says it is he who is trying to bring the USA down.
And Satan’s apparent weapon of choice: Allowing illegal immigrants to cross the border.
According to The Salt Lake Tribune, Utah County District 65 Chairman Don Larsen has submitted a formal resolution to oppose the devil’s plan to destroy the country -- to be discussed this weekend at the Utah County Republican Convention.
“In order for Satan to establish his ‘New World Order’ and destroy the freedom of all people as predicted in the scriptures, he must first destroy the U.S.,” Larsen’s resolution states. “[It is] insidious for its stealth and innocuousness.”
Larsen’s proposal to defeat Satan? Close the borders to illegal immigrants to “prevent the destruction of the U.S. by stealth invasion.”
http://kutv.com/local/local_story_116133225.html
Utah Republican Blames 'The Devil' For Immigration
(KUTV / The Salt Lake Tribune) PROVO - Forget al Qaeda.
If you really want to blame someone for trying to destroy the United States, point the finger at… Satan?
The devil, Lucifer… whatever you want to call it, one Utah Republican says it is he who is trying to bring the USA down.
And Satan’s apparent weapon of choice: Allowing illegal immigrants to cross the border.
According to The Salt Lake Tribune, Utah County District 65 Chairman Don Larsen has submitted a formal resolution to oppose the devil’s plan to destroy the country -- to be discussed this weekend at the Utah County Republican Convention.
“In order for Satan to establish his ‘New World Order’ and destroy the freedom of all people as predicted in the scriptures, he must first destroy the U.S.,” Larsen’s resolution states. “[It is] insidious for its stealth and innocuousness.”
Larsen’s proposal to defeat Satan? Close the borders to illegal immigrants to “prevent the destruction of the U.S. by stealth invasion.”
http://kutv.com/local/local_story_116133225.html
Sunday, April 08, 2007
Resurrection
"And some say, "On the last day we will certainly arise in the resurrection." But they do not know what they are saying,"
"Do not expect, therefore, the carnal resurrection, which is destruction; and they are not stripped of it (the flesh) who err in expecting a resurrection that is empty."
"..the crucifixion and resurrection. This is our pattern for the final abnegation of matter and birth into the Spiritual Hierarchy."
-Jesus, from the Nag Hammadi Gnostic texts
"And some say, "On the last day we will certainly arise in the resurrection." But they do not know what they are saying,"
"Do not expect, therefore, the carnal resurrection, which is destruction; and they are not stripped of it (the flesh) who err in expecting a resurrection that is empty."
"..the crucifixion and resurrection. This is our pattern for the final abnegation of matter and birth into the Spiritual Hierarchy."
-Jesus, from the Nag Hammadi Gnostic texts
Thursday, April 05, 2007
Black Lady of Accomplishment
Protectress and Accomplished One
Who gives gives equal importance to the
Three internal energies of intellect, emotions and physical sensations -
Spiritual might you bring - Black One of the Left-Hand
And evolution for all beings!
Active development of might, acquisition you give:
-knowing of the past, present and future,
-knowing the minds of others,
-knowing how to command others,
-knowing the influence of air and fire, sun and moon, water and earth,
-knowing the lies of others,
-knowing perfect determination,
-knowing the threads through which life's force flows,
-knowing the desirious use of body and emotions,
-and many more.
Black One! Standing apart from Shining Tivar,
Even they fear your rich earth that purifies and elevates
To affirm man's isolate intelligence.
I galdr: Wyrd consciousness attained
Shadow self identity embodied
Fleshy awareness maintained,
Magan experienced!
Yes all this Hel is yours to command!
Protectress and Accomplished One
Who gives gives equal importance to the
Three internal energies of intellect, emotions and physical sensations -
Spiritual might you bring - Black One of the Left-Hand
And evolution for all beings!
Active development of might, acquisition you give:
-knowing of the past, present and future,
-knowing the minds of others,
-knowing how to command others,
-knowing the influence of air and fire, sun and moon, water and earth,
-knowing the lies of others,
-knowing perfect determination,
-knowing the threads through which life's force flows,
-knowing the desirious use of body and emotions,
-and many more.
Black One! Standing apart from Shining Tivar,
Even they fear your rich earth that purifies and elevates
To affirm man's isolate intelligence.
I galdr: Wyrd consciousness attained
Shadow self identity embodied
Fleshy awareness maintained,
Magan experienced!
Yes all this Hel is yours to command!
Tuesday, April 03, 2007
"Oh dark's disturber, thunder's bringer, whirlwind,
Night-flasher, breather-forth of hot and cold...
I'm He who searched with you the whole world and
Found great Osiris, whom I brought you chained.
I'm he who joined you in war with the gods!
I'm he who closed heav'ns double gates and
Put to sleep the serpent who must not be seen..."
...You who are fearful, awesome, threatening,
You who're obscure and irresistable,
And hater of the wicked, you I call,
Typhon, in hours unlawful and unmeasured..."
-The Greek Magical Papyri in Translation Including the Demotic Spells, 154-285; 1986
Night-flasher, breather-forth of hot and cold...
I'm He who searched with you the whole world and
Found great Osiris, whom I brought you chained.
I'm he who joined you in war with the gods!
I'm he who closed heav'ns double gates and
Put to sleep the serpent who must not be seen..."
...You who are fearful, awesome, threatening,
You who're obscure and irresistable,
And hater of the wicked, you I call,
Typhon, in hours unlawful and unmeasured..."
-The Greek Magical Papyri in Translation Including the Demotic Spells, 154-285; 1986
Monday, April 02, 2007
"..In his role as tormentor of the wicked, Set appears in various guises in the Duat (Egyptian Underworld). He is the heart-eating dragon SetNakt (Set is Mighty). SetNakt eats the heart (intellect) of the evil individual. He is the figure of Set the Watcher, who observes the progress of the Boat of Re. This role is one of the observer of the Real, a role that he also fills in slaying the demon Apep. Nightly, the Boat of Re is challenged by the non-created serpent Apep. Apep has the power to hypnotize the other inhabitants of the boat. The other gods fall into a trance, the Boat stops, and Set descends to fight the demon. He kills Apep...Set is a destroyer of delusional thinking. He destroys that which has failed to Become real. As such he is a tester of the dead - a god of Limits. In short, Set works in the subconscious as a destroyer of delusion."
-Don Webb, Seven Faces of Darkness, 1996
-Don Webb, Seven Faces of Darkness, 1996
Sunday, April 01, 2007
"The Devil was walking down the street with a friend, and they saw a man pick something up, look at it carefully and put it in his pocket. The friend said to the Devil, "What's that?" The Devil said, "He has found a bit of the truth." The friend said, "Isn't that bad for your business?" The Devil said, "No, I am going arrange to have him organize it."
-Krishnamurti's story of the Devil
-Krishnamurti's story of the Devil
Tuesday, March 27, 2007
Saturday, March 24, 2007
"I have just now tried to depict a few traits which express the mentality of those on the lowest rung of the social ladder; but my picture would be disproportionate if Ido not add that amid the social depths I still found light; for I experienced a rare spirit of self-sacrifice and loyal comradeship among those men, who demanded little from life and were content amid their modest surroundings."
-A. Hitler, Mein Kampt
-A. Hitler, Mein Kampt
Wednesday, March 21, 2007
The Statement of Belial
Hail, man, who shall bring to the end of the Universe the glory of thy Satanic Will! I am Belial, who bring to thee the third great key of Hell, by whose power ye shall confound all the laws of Heaven and Earth. Before thee shall chaos fall, and thou shalt wield for thyself the great mysteries of the macrocosmos. I speak to thee of that which is called Flame which first brought thy Will to life long ages ago.
To council with Satan I also was called, and the Lord of Light said to me, Into thy charge, Daemon of essence, I give the essence of my own being, the Black Fire whose power alone
can effect creation by force of Will. Against thee who wield the Black magic no law shall stand, and thus I call thee Belial, who art One Without Master. And as I have bequeathed this
essence to thee, so let it come finally to man, who shall overcome the great balance and bring to the Flame a change, for in supremacy it shall become Red with the perfection of the Will of man.
And to Earth came Belial, to view the teachings of Asmodeus and Astaroth. And I saw that Satan, who himself oft chanced company of men, spoke of the Black Flame to the first magi
of men, testing their Wills in the control of the raw forces of the Cosmos unbound from the law of God.
And in his innocence man knew not the majesty of the Flame, using its lesser powers for finite and minor alteration of the divine law on Earth. And as man might unleash the Flame beyond his skill to master it, Satan said, Belial, the Black Flame cannot incline merely to the base
ends of ordered existence. Man must recognize the ultimate potential of my Gift ere he destroy his very race through its abuse. Convoke therefore a Church of Satan to
tend the Black Flame with care and wield it with wisdom, preserving for man this key to infinite Will.
And I answered, So it shall be, and this Church of Satan shall herald the glories of the Satanic Age of man. The days of the god-churches shall pale with decay and dissolution, and the
realm of Messiah upon Earth shall crumble to ruin with the coming of the Satanic man.
To those who would dare the Black magic - Know that what ye accept is the very mastery of all that ye have supposed impossible, by force of Will alone. The Black magus need fear no power save his own, but he must conquer his own Will that he cause not his destruction through ill chance or purpose. Satan himself is not God, and Hell can offer no salvation to those who abuse the Gift of Satan. For the Gift itself is beyond the control of Hell once given, being subject
to the Will of the Black magus alone.
For Hell doth bequeath to man his perfect freedom, and such a gift can never be recalled.
Farewell, 0 man, who art at once child and father of the Universe! Remember the future which is thine, and know, now and forever, that Hell entrusts to thy care the
guardianship of the eternal Will.
-Michael Aquino, The Diabolicon
Hail, man, who shall bring to the end of the Universe the glory of thy Satanic Will! I am Belial, who bring to thee the third great key of Hell, by whose power ye shall confound all the laws of Heaven and Earth. Before thee shall chaos fall, and thou shalt wield for thyself the great mysteries of the macrocosmos. I speak to thee of that which is called Flame which first brought thy Will to life long ages ago.
To council with Satan I also was called, and the Lord of Light said to me, Into thy charge, Daemon of essence, I give the essence of my own being, the Black Fire whose power alone
can effect creation by force of Will. Against thee who wield the Black magic no law shall stand, and thus I call thee Belial, who art One Without Master. And as I have bequeathed this
essence to thee, so let it come finally to man, who shall overcome the great balance and bring to the Flame a change, for in supremacy it shall become Red with the perfection of the Will of man.
And to Earth came Belial, to view the teachings of Asmodeus and Astaroth. And I saw that Satan, who himself oft chanced company of men, spoke of the Black Flame to the first magi
of men, testing their Wills in the control of the raw forces of the Cosmos unbound from the law of God.
And in his innocence man knew not the majesty of the Flame, using its lesser powers for finite and minor alteration of the divine law on Earth. And as man might unleash the Flame beyond his skill to master it, Satan said, Belial, the Black Flame cannot incline merely to the base
ends of ordered existence. Man must recognize the ultimate potential of my Gift ere he destroy his very race through its abuse. Convoke therefore a Church of Satan to
tend the Black Flame with care and wield it with wisdom, preserving for man this key to infinite Will.
And I answered, So it shall be, and this Church of Satan shall herald the glories of the Satanic Age of man. The days of the god-churches shall pale with decay and dissolution, and the
realm of Messiah upon Earth shall crumble to ruin with the coming of the Satanic man.
To those who would dare the Black magic - Know that what ye accept is the very mastery of all that ye have supposed impossible, by force of Will alone. The Black magus need fear no power save his own, but he must conquer his own Will that he cause not his destruction through ill chance or purpose. Satan himself is not God, and Hell can offer no salvation to those who abuse the Gift of Satan. For the Gift itself is beyond the control of Hell once given, being subject
to the Will of the Black magus alone.
For Hell doth bequeath to man his perfect freedom, and such a gift can never be recalled.
Farewell, 0 man, who art at once child and father of the Universe! Remember the future which is thine, and know, now and forever, that Hell entrusts to thy care the
guardianship of the eternal Will.
-Michael Aquino, The Diabolicon
Monday, March 19, 2007
Sunday, March 18, 2007
Friday, March 16, 2007
"The Nagual told me that you and I have an appointment here with something out there. You first had an appointment with Soledad and then one with the little sisters. They were supposed to destroy you. The Nagual said that if you survived their assaults I had to bring you here so that we together could keep the third appointment."
-Gorda, The Second Ring of Power, page 125
-Gorda, The Second Ring of Power, page 125
Thursday, March 15, 2007
"Another kind of witchcraft with its so-called sorceries, charms and binding-spells persuades those attempting to harm their victims that they really are able to achieve such a thing, and persuades their victims that, more than anything, they are being harmed by those who are able to work magic."
-Plato, Laws 933a
-Plato, Laws 933a
Tuesday, March 13, 2007
The Aeonic Words serve to preserve Xeper.
Xem exists as an individual creation to focus Xeper.
Remanifest resides next to Xeper, which is why the word “and” stands between them. Without either one, Becoming, like life, would be meaningless.
Runa is a goad, a prompt to reach further and deeper into Xeper.
Essent into Essence is similar to saying, 'return to unnatural', which is the Gift of Set.
Arkte relates that animals are more aware of their power and glory than perhaps we are; which is why our respect for them must be included in our Xeper.
Xem exists as an individual creation to focus Xeper.
Remanifest resides next to Xeper, which is why the word “and” stands between them. Without either one, Becoming, like life, would be meaningless.
Runa is a goad, a prompt to reach further and deeper into Xeper.
Essent into Essence is similar to saying, 'return to unnatural', which is the Gift of Set.
Arkte relates that animals are more aware of their power and glory than perhaps we are; which is why our respect for them must be included in our Xeper.
Monday, March 12, 2007
Friday, March 09, 2007
Tuesday, March 06, 2007
Saturday, March 03, 2007
Wednesday, February 28, 2007
"Shemhamphorash! all hail, divided Name!
Utter it once, O mortal over-rash! -
The Universe were swallowed up in flame -
Shemhamphorash!
Nor deem that thou amid the cosmic crash
May find one thing of all those things the same!
The world has gone to everlasting smash.
No! if creation did possess an aim
(It does not.) it were only to make hash
Of that most "high" and that most holy game,
Shemhamphorash!"
-A. Crowley, Hashed Pheasant, from The Book of Lies
Utter it once, O mortal over-rash! -
The Universe were swallowed up in flame -
Shemhamphorash!
Nor deem that thou amid the cosmic crash
May find one thing of all those things the same!
The world has gone to everlasting smash.
No! if creation did possess an aim
(It does not.) it were only to make hash
Of that most "high" and that most holy game,
Shemhamphorash!"
-A. Crowley, Hashed Pheasant, from The Book of Lies
Friday, February 23, 2007
Monday, February 19, 2007
"The Temple, as you have wisely observed, has no political agenda. It is like Plato's academy, which sent forth tyrants and scholars, philosophers and generals. We don't take on the world of what is already conditioned and created, but all of our successful graduates do. We seldom lend our Instrumentality to their purposes, knowing that they can network well among themselves, and sure in the knowledge that as they remain in the Temple for the lifelong job of their own Initiation, they will gear their personally assigned Quests for the Temple's expansion and preservation. Well, that's the big secret, I usually don't tell people that one for years."
-assumedly, Don Webb, from an e-mail exchange
http://www.disinfo.com/archive/pages/dossier/id163/pg1/index.html
-assumedly, Don Webb, from an e-mail exchange
http://www.disinfo.com/archive/pages/dossier/id163/pg1/index.html
Sunday, February 18, 2007
Thursday, February 15, 2007
"Do we know how to use our five senses for what they are? Emphatically no! We no longer know. But we can have contact with a few people who trained themselves to see, hear, touch, smell, and taste and who have written about what it is like when the sense are turned to their element and stop seeing, hearing, touching, smelling, and tasting things, an objective world."
-R.A. Schwaller de Lubicz
-R.A. Schwaller de Lubicz
Monday, February 12, 2007
Friday, February 09, 2007
Death is Imaginative Intelligence and Harmonious Elegance, and its path meanders from personality to Higher Self; so be sure to take along the napsack of Ethical Preparation.
Upon this journey, keep the Flaming Sword of Re-Conceptualization before you, allowing it to Transform your desire-nature, so you may fully embrace the Dark Night of the Soul.
Let Temperance and Loki assist you in planting the Tree of Life at the end of your journey - there, past the Gates of Death. Then sit with Agape and enjoy the Feast of Fish as the Serpent is Resurrected.
-a poem by Ninmah
Upon this journey, keep the Flaming Sword of Re-Conceptualization before you, allowing it to Transform your desire-nature, so you may fully embrace the Dark Night of the Soul.
Let Temperance and Loki assist you in planting the Tree of Life at the end of your journey - there, past the Gates of Death. Then sit with Agape and enjoy the Feast of Fish as the Serpent is Resurrected.
-a poem by Ninmah
Wednesday, February 07, 2007
Tuesday, February 06, 2007
Saturday, February 03, 2007
Thursday, February 01, 2007
Aeon Words
Aeon Words are those that conceptualize the next stage of evolutionary development. If all these words could be known, they would appear as a central thread, ontowhich the greater tapestry of existence is woven. An image that - like striations in earth, stone and ice - would depict the movements and torrents of humanities rise towards consciousness.
The history of such words is lost in time, so that only a bare estimation can be assumed. Extending back to the Satya Yuga, the divine age of “purity” and “truth”, and in accord with the hypothesis put forth in Kashmir Shaivism, perhaps Svacchandanath, the great avatar of Tantra, can be said to have uttered the first Aeon Word. Allowing full license in speculation, that first word may have been Sunya, “void”, or “the Nothing which is All; Supreme Nothingness”. A word that would demarcate the adept from becoming one with god, to that of being an absolute individual and so divine.
Continuing this chain-of-thought and speculation along a timeline, the next word could have risen from the Yezidis; perhaps it was even Shaitan – perhaps meaning, ‘that which will not bow down’ - but to this, there is no certainty. Moving to the ancient Greeks, perhaps their word to define individuality was Psyche, “soul”. Certainly the Germanic path gave us Odr, as seen in Odhin; and among the Hamitic LHP, the word could have been Set. It was not until Simon Magus, circa 15 century CE, that a clear idea of aeons can be forged in Western thought; specifically when he defined the Aeon Epinoia. Perhaps that word was Ennoia, the ‘Voice of Truth’, the ‘upright Nous’, and the ‘great Logos’ (this latter meaning, ‘word’).
So many other ‘paths’ exist with the possibility of an Aeonic Word that their discovery would take a lifetime of study. The path of Jesus, of the Gnostics and of Islam, the Sufis and Assassins, of Slavs and Celts, even the Witch craze was an era of great change and upheaval - elevating thought from one level to a peak above.
Certainly there was an Age of Satan - with the Crusades, the Renaissance, John Milton’s Paradise Lost, the Hell-Fire Club, the Marquis de Sade, Goethe and Faust. Followed by the Freemasons and Rasputin, and leading to Nietzsche’s use of the word Ressentiment, meaning, “a profound sense of resentment, frustration, and hostility, that ultimately generates a rejecting/justifying 'value-system'.”
Could Heinrich Himmler’s Black Knights held an Aeonic Word, and what of the Theosophists? A time period that preceeded and so suggestively could have birth the Great Beast himself – Aleister Crowley, the man who clearly defined and lived the Aeon.
Abrahadabra is the “Word of the Aeon, which signifieth The Great Work accomplished”, according to Crowley; a “magical formula” not to be confused with the Word of the Law of the Aeon, which is Thelema, or “Will”.
Also according to Crowley, there have been three Aeons:
-Aeon of Isis,
-Aeon of Osiris,
-Aeon of Horus (which began in 1904).
Crowley defined the Aeon of Isis as a period of female reverence, of ‘simplicity and quiet’, where the ‘material ignores the spiritual’. The Aeon of Osiris was marked by a paternal princple, characterized by self-sacrifice, “suffering and death”. The Aeon of Horus then began a period of self-realization and spiritual interests. And according to Charles Stansfeld Jones - Crowley’s declared “magical child” - the future Aeon is Ma’at; and if so, this would be an age of “law, morality and justice”.
Other influences during this time include:
-the Golden Dawn,
-the Argentium Astrum (A:A),
-the Ordo Templi Orientis (OTO),
-the Fraternitas Saturni,
-Austin Osman Spare, and his possible word Zos (or the Zos Kia Cultis),
-Georgei I. Gurdjieff and P.D. Ouspensky (introducing the Fourth Way),
-Modern Witchcraft (not to be confused with Wicca), then culminating in
-Anton Szandor LeVey, whose Aeonic Word, Indulgence, was the furtile soil from which sprung Xeper.
Michael A. Aquino, the Second Beast, in his revealed text, The Book of Coming Forth by Night, birthed a new age with Xeper, “to become; to be; to come into being.” Which is more a call to action than the previous words (assumed and otherwise), which appear more, seemingly, as definitions.
For example, if the words assumed above can be considered as Aeonic Words, then a pattern can also be seen to emerge.
From Sunya (the void) came Shaitan (that which will not bow down) and the realization of Psyche (soul), which embarked upon Set (the barren wasteland) until it realized Odr (divine madness). This Ennoia (voice of truth) then spoke of Ressentiment (frustrated hostility towards existing ‘values’) and the need of Abrahadabra (the Great Work). Which brought about Zos (individual understanding of self) and a willingness to Indulge itself, and in so doing Xeper’d.
Obviously, more than any other Aeonic Word, Xeper has been the most furtile, the most inwardly and outwardly productive. Where the CoS still explores Indulgence – to the point of stagnation – the Temple of Set’s Xeper has birthed five additional Aeonic Words.
Xem is the necessary focus of Xeper; for it is not enough to simply Become, but to continue Becoming. So that Remanifest emerged, emphasizing the result of Xeper-Xem. (through the lens of Xeper); a perception that revealed Runa, the hidden goal, and its drive to both Essent and Arkte.
Regarding Arkte, aside from being a word of transformation, it is the only word (to the writer’s knowledge) that references a constellation, Ursa Major. In ancient Egypt, the Big Dipper “revolved around a blank center, never dipping below the horizon” (1); seemingly mapping perceptual direction. Otherwise, aside from the bear symbology, the ancient Egyptians saw it either as a bull’s thigh or an entire bull; as the latter, it represented the “power of the high gods”. Further, the Egyptian word for this bull was ka – the same word used to describe one of the three spiritual essences – ka, ankh and ba. It has also been speculated that the adze (the symbol of the Opening of the Mouth) was in the shape of this constellation; if so, could this shape also be seen in the Tcham? Either way, the adze, the bull, and the ka all indicate an intimate connection with life and spiritual power as symbols of rebirth and immortal life.
Reference:
1-http://webusers.astro.umn.edu/~ahelton/HistAstro/2003Archaeo..17...64.pdf
A Trans-Aeonic Perspective
From its generating-point of Xeper, the Aeon of Set matrix has spread to include the discovery of Aeon-supporting Words, including Xem, Remanifest, Runa and Essent. Since Xeper notes the metamorphosis process that all Magi have gone through, the Setian viewpoint offers a trans-Aeonic perspective that illuminates previous philosophies including Agape, Anatta, Aletheia and Thelema.
Aeon Words are those that conceptualize the next stage of evolutionary development. If all these words could be known, they would appear as a central thread, ontowhich the greater tapestry of existence is woven. An image that - like striations in earth, stone and ice - would depict the movements and torrents of humanities rise towards consciousness.
The history of such words is lost in time, so that only a bare estimation can be assumed. Extending back to the Satya Yuga, the divine age of “purity” and “truth”, and in accord with the hypothesis put forth in Kashmir Shaivism, perhaps Svacchandanath, the great avatar of Tantra, can be said to have uttered the first Aeon Word. Allowing full license in speculation, that first word may have been Sunya, “void”, or “the Nothing which is All; Supreme Nothingness”. A word that would demarcate the adept from becoming one with god, to that of being an absolute individual and so divine.
Continuing this chain-of-thought and speculation along a timeline, the next word could have risen from the Yezidis; perhaps it was even Shaitan – perhaps meaning, ‘that which will not bow down’ - but to this, there is no certainty. Moving to the ancient Greeks, perhaps their word to define individuality was Psyche, “soul”. Certainly the Germanic path gave us Odr, as seen in Odhin; and among the Hamitic LHP, the word could have been Set. It was not until Simon Magus, circa 15 century CE, that a clear idea of aeons can be forged in Western thought; specifically when he defined the Aeon Epinoia. Perhaps that word was Ennoia, the ‘Voice of Truth’, the ‘upright Nous’, and the ‘great Logos’ (this latter meaning, ‘word’).
So many other ‘paths’ exist with the possibility of an Aeonic Word that their discovery would take a lifetime of study. The path of Jesus, of the Gnostics and of Islam, the Sufis and Assassins, of Slavs and Celts, even the Witch craze was an era of great change and upheaval - elevating thought from one level to a peak above.
Certainly there was an Age of Satan - with the Crusades, the Renaissance, John Milton’s Paradise Lost, the Hell-Fire Club, the Marquis de Sade, Goethe and Faust. Followed by the Freemasons and Rasputin, and leading to Nietzsche’s use of the word Ressentiment, meaning, “a profound sense of resentment, frustration, and hostility, that ultimately generates a rejecting/justifying 'value-system'.”
Could Heinrich Himmler’s Black Knights held an Aeonic Word, and what of the Theosophists? A time period that preceeded and so suggestively could have birth the Great Beast himself – Aleister Crowley, the man who clearly defined and lived the Aeon.
Abrahadabra is the “Word of the Aeon, which signifieth The Great Work accomplished”, according to Crowley; a “magical formula” not to be confused with the Word of the Law of the Aeon, which is Thelema, or “Will”.
Also according to Crowley, there have been three Aeons:
-Aeon of Isis,
-Aeon of Osiris,
-Aeon of Horus (which began in 1904).
Crowley defined the Aeon of Isis as a period of female reverence, of ‘simplicity and quiet’, where the ‘material ignores the spiritual’. The Aeon of Osiris was marked by a paternal princple, characterized by self-sacrifice, “suffering and death”. The Aeon of Horus then began a period of self-realization and spiritual interests. And according to Charles Stansfeld Jones - Crowley’s declared “magical child” - the future Aeon is Ma’at; and if so, this would be an age of “law, morality and justice”.
Other influences during this time include:
-the Golden Dawn,
-the Argentium Astrum (A:A),
-the Ordo Templi Orientis (OTO),
-the Fraternitas Saturni,
-Austin Osman Spare, and his possible word Zos (or the Zos Kia Cultis),
-Georgei I. Gurdjieff and P.D. Ouspensky (introducing the Fourth Way),
-Modern Witchcraft (not to be confused with Wicca), then culminating in
-Anton Szandor LeVey, whose Aeonic Word, Indulgence, was the furtile soil from which sprung Xeper.
Michael A. Aquino, the Second Beast, in his revealed text, The Book of Coming Forth by Night, birthed a new age with Xeper, “to become; to be; to come into being.” Which is more a call to action than the previous words (assumed and otherwise), which appear more, seemingly, as definitions.
For example, if the words assumed above can be considered as Aeonic Words, then a pattern can also be seen to emerge.
From Sunya (the void) came Shaitan (that which will not bow down) and the realization of Psyche (soul), which embarked upon Set (the barren wasteland) until it realized Odr (divine madness). This Ennoia (voice of truth) then spoke of Ressentiment (frustrated hostility towards existing ‘values’) and the need of Abrahadabra (the Great Work). Which brought about Zos (individual understanding of self) and a willingness to Indulge itself, and in so doing Xeper’d.
Obviously, more than any other Aeonic Word, Xeper has been the most furtile, the most inwardly and outwardly productive. Where the CoS still explores Indulgence – to the point of stagnation – the Temple of Set’s Xeper has birthed five additional Aeonic Words.
Xem is the necessary focus of Xeper; for it is not enough to simply Become, but to continue Becoming. So that Remanifest emerged, emphasizing the result of Xeper-Xem. (through the lens of Xeper); a perception that revealed Runa, the hidden goal, and its drive to both Essent and Arkte.
Regarding Arkte, aside from being a word of transformation, it is the only word (to the writer’s knowledge) that references a constellation, Ursa Major. In ancient Egypt, the Big Dipper “revolved around a blank center, never dipping below the horizon” (1); seemingly mapping perceptual direction. Otherwise, aside from the bear symbology, the ancient Egyptians saw it either as a bull’s thigh or an entire bull; as the latter, it represented the “power of the high gods”. Further, the Egyptian word for this bull was ka – the same word used to describe one of the three spiritual essences – ka, ankh and ba. It has also been speculated that the adze (the symbol of the Opening of the Mouth) was in the shape of this constellation; if so, could this shape also be seen in the Tcham? Either way, the adze, the bull, and the ka all indicate an intimate connection with life and spiritual power as symbols of rebirth and immortal life.
Reference:
1-http://webusers.astro.umn.edu/~ahelton/HistAstro/2003Archaeo..17...64.pdf
A Trans-Aeonic Perspective
From its generating-point of Xeper, the Aeon of Set matrix has spread to include the discovery of Aeon-supporting Words, including Xem, Remanifest, Runa and Essent. Since Xeper notes the metamorphosis process that all Magi have gone through, the Setian viewpoint offers a trans-Aeonic perspective that illuminates previous philosophies including Agape, Anatta, Aletheia and Thelema.
Wednesday, January 31, 2007
"It is quite another question whether he was conscious of any such antithesis - whether he was not merely felt to be this antithesis. Then here for the first time I touch on the problem of the psychology of the redeemer - I confess there are few books which present me with so many difficulties as the Gospels do."
-Friedrich Nietzsche, The Anti-Christ
-Friedrich Nietzsche, The Anti-Christ
Friday, January 26, 2007
Dead-man's Hand
"Throughtout the West, the combination of aces and eights is known as the dead-man's hand. This superstition was handed down from the time that Jack McCall killed Wild Bill Hickok in Deadwood, South Dakota, while he sat in a poker game holding his hand."
-R. Adam's, Western Words: A Dictionary of the Range, 1946
"Throughtout the West, the combination of aces and eights is known as the dead-man's hand. This superstition was handed down from the time that Jack McCall killed Wild Bill Hickok in Deadwood, South Dakota, while he sat in a poker game holding his hand."
-R. Adam's, Western Words: A Dictionary of the Range, 1946
Surt
Surt is the “Jotun .. set free”. "Surt is no enemy of Tivar or wight, but a primal force of nature (unlike frost Jotuns which are absolute uncontrollable chaos). Where Frey is the green-vegetative world, Surt is either the warming hearth fire or the blaze that levels a home. His is a necessary darkness, much like a volcano - ever destructive yet leaving behind new land. The dead reach Hella’s Hall through Surt for he is the Jotun of funeral pyres, the flesh-eater and purifier. Surt is a messenger who conveys all sacrifices to their proper destination."
From: VöluspáSeiðr as Wyrd Consciousness, by Yngona Desmond
Surt is the “Jotun .. set free”. "Surt is no enemy of Tivar or wight, but a primal force of nature (unlike frost Jotuns which are absolute uncontrollable chaos). Where Frey is the green-vegetative world, Surt is either the warming hearth fire or the blaze that levels a home. His is a necessary darkness, much like a volcano - ever destructive yet leaving behind new land. The dead reach Hella’s Hall through Surt for he is the Jotun of funeral pyres, the flesh-eater and purifier. Surt is a messenger who conveys all sacrifices to their proper destination."
From: VöluspáSeiðr as Wyrd Consciousness, by Yngona Desmond
Tuesday, January 23, 2007
Litany Against Fear
I first came across the _Dune_ books, by Frank Herbert, in the early '70s. Immediately, I was drawn to the Bene Gesserit and the Litany Against Fear.
"I must not fear.
Fear is the mind-killer.
Fear is the little-death that brings total obliteration.
I will face my fear.
I will permit it to pass over me and through me.
And when it has gone past I will turn the inner eye to see its path.
Where the fear has gone there will be nothing.
Only I will remain."
I understand this to mean:
"I must not fear. Fear is the mind-killer."
-Indeed, fear is a paralyzing agent that has the ability to immobilize the mind. It is the impetus for 'fight or flight', so that we either stand our ground in calm resolve, or flee to reconsider the original stance.
"Fear is the little-death that brings total obliteration."
-The moment of indecision brought about by fear is an opportunity for death to rush in. Cowardess is never rewarded - the names and deeds of fearless folk are remembered long after their body has expired, so that their memory of boldness remains to fortify those who take heed.
"I will face my fear. I will permit it to pass over me and throughme."
-This is my favorite verse because I can feel it. Instead of running from fear or merely turning our back on it, we face it. Then, "permit" it to "pass over" and "through". When we are able to accomplish this, then fear has lost its grip upon us. Our body has experienced fear, its reaction to this experience, and has mastered the ability to welcome fear, allowing it to enter in and pass through. That is personal power.
"And when it has gone past I will turn the inner eye to see its path."
-Beyond the strength to allow fear's entrance and passage through our being, is the will to "turn" and watch its leaving. A warrior's experience says never turn your back on an enemy, even when they come to the peace-table. This sentence says something more. Beyond simply not-trusting fear and our reaction to fear, we have literally taken a different position in our relationship to fear.
"Where the fear has gone there will be nothing. Only I will remain."
-Fear has "gone" through us, our being, leaving nothing behind. No 'lingering doubts', no 'residual apprehension', but the calm abiding of Nothingness. As such, "only I .. remain".
I first came across the _Dune_ books, by Frank Herbert, in the early '70s. Immediately, I was drawn to the Bene Gesserit and the Litany Against Fear.
"I must not fear.
Fear is the mind-killer.
Fear is the little-death that brings total obliteration.
I will face my fear.
I will permit it to pass over me and through me.
And when it has gone past I will turn the inner eye to see its path.
Where the fear has gone there will be nothing.
Only I will remain."
I understand this to mean:
"I must not fear. Fear is the mind-killer."
-Indeed, fear is a paralyzing agent that has the ability to immobilize the mind. It is the impetus for 'fight or flight', so that we either stand our ground in calm resolve, or flee to reconsider the original stance.
"Fear is the little-death that brings total obliteration."
-The moment of indecision brought about by fear is an opportunity for death to rush in. Cowardess is never rewarded - the names and deeds of fearless folk are remembered long after their body has expired, so that their memory of boldness remains to fortify those who take heed.
"I will face my fear. I will permit it to pass over me and throughme."
-This is my favorite verse because I can feel it. Instead of running from fear or merely turning our back on it, we face it. Then, "permit" it to "pass over" and "through". When we are able to accomplish this, then fear has lost its grip upon us. Our body has experienced fear, its reaction to this experience, and has mastered the ability to welcome fear, allowing it to enter in and pass through. That is personal power.
"And when it has gone past I will turn the inner eye to see its path."
-Beyond the strength to allow fear's entrance and passage through our being, is the will to "turn" and watch its leaving. A warrior's experience says never turn your back on an enemy, even when they come to the peace-table. This sentence says something more. Beyond simply not-trusting fear and our reaction to fear, we have literally taken a different position in our relationship to fear.
"Where the fear has gone there will be nothing. Only I will remain."
-Fear has "gone" through us, our being, leaving nothing behind. No 'lingering doubts', no 'residual apprehension', but the calm abiding of Nothingness. As such, "only I .. remain".
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