Powers of the Sphinx

This is a link to the first in a new four part series of articles for Spiral Nature which represents my most ambitious professional writing assignment to date.

http://www.spiralnature.com/magick/powers-of-the-sphinx-part-i-to-know.html

I, Jarred

For me these past ten years have been dominated by the search for an identity. A very long time ago a thought occurred in the mind of a mountain-dwelling ape in Africa; who am I? Ever since then we, his descendants, have sought an answer to that question. On my Occult pilgrimage I paid a visit to the grave of an illustrious predecessor. There are two names on her gravestone but only one body in the grave. That fact has haunted me ever since, perhaps because my own fate may well be the same. It seems to me that in this day and age there is felt to be  no greater insult than to call someone fake.. Is a lover of rock music being fake when they involuntarily sing along to pop’s latest one hit wonder? That seems excessively harsh to me but there are people who talk about identity in such absolute terms. They expect a person’s identity to be easily classified. If you are melancholy and wear black you are a Goth whether you like it or not. No wonder so many suffer from an identity crisis at some point in their lives. My own case is especially complicate given that most people know me by an assumed name. My identity is a deliberately crafted persona.

As many of you will know, a visit to the Enlightenment Gallery one fateful day set me on my current path. If there is a life that I was supposed to live then this path has led me very far away from it. One of my first acts was to adopt a nom de guerre; Jarred Triskelion. There are now more people who know me by this name than by the one on my birth certificate. Liberated from my given name, I felt free to be who I wanted to be rather than who I thought I was supposed to be. Funny to think that so simple a thing as a name could hold such power. Out of my new name a new persona, not by design, began to develop. I could not help but wonder if Jarred was the real  me and my previous identity had been fake. Certainly being Jarred came very naturally to me; I did not feel like an actor playing a role. Likewise those times when I have regressed into my former self have been painful, not comfortingly familiar as may have been expected.

Had the old me been a persona? There is a frankly disturbing argument put forward by the philosopher David Hume that the very fact of there being an ‘I’ is an illusion. It is nothing more than the product of our brain ordering stored information sequentially. What we refer to as ‘I’ is nothing more than the information contained in our brain at that precise moment in time. That information is constantly being overwritten as new data is received. There is no traceable link between the ‘I’ of today and the ‘I’ of yesterday, or even of but a moment ago. Even your own body is without continuity. Your cells are locked in a cycle of renewal as old ones die to be replaces by new ones. Over a period of seven years every cell in your body will be replaced. To look at it another way; you are physically never more than seven years old. If there is no continuity of mind and no continuity of body then how is it possible that we have an identity at all?

The answer of most mystics will be likely to involve a reference to what may be called the soul. In philosophy this would be classified as a form of dualism. I am something immaterial and, consequently, eternal. This is what I have come to believe; that there are fundamental aspects of my identity which are separate & distinct from my material mind and body.There is a very simple reason why I believe this to be true. Of all the many beliefs about the afterlife, reincarnation strikes me as being the most elegant. It make sense to me that many time before now my soul has transferred itself from a dying body to one which is newly born. Though each subsequent life is lived by a distinct identity, each shares shares certain fundamental aspects as a result of their bond to my soul. These aspects will manifest themselves in different ways according to the differences of each body and mind. None the less, there would be predispositions towards certain things as a result of the influence of the soul. A predisposition towards solitude may result in an independent spirit in one life and an introvert in another.

Most of the time the soul is unchanged by these different lives but sometimes particularly powerful memories would seem to be carried over. The Second World War US general George S. Patton was a passionate believer in reincarnation. He based many of his strategies upon his remembrances of past conflicts. Patton went so far as to say that in every life he had ever lived, he had been a soldier. I have much the same feeling about being an occultist. So many of my Occult studies have felt like I was not so much learning as remembering. Both Patton’s identity as a soldier and my own identity as an occultist would seem to be manifestations of certain fundamental aspects of our immaterial souls. If this is indeed so then our presence in the material world, our identity, can only ever be called a persona. Neither Jarred nor the man that I was are actually the real me. Both are a persona in which fundamental aspects of my soul have manifested differently.

For me as a philosopher, there are issues with dualism, not the least of which is the paradox of causal interaction between the material and the immaterial. Much of my academic career shall be devoted to attempting to resolve these issues. For me as an occultist, dualism works as a model for the human experience. There is a perfect form of me, my soul, but nothing perfect can exist in the material world. What exists instead is a persona; a flawed copies of that perfect form. Everyone adopts more than one persona whether they are aware of it or not. Can you really say you are the same person at work as you are at home? Are you the same person to your mother as you are to your lover? Are you the same person today as you were yesterday? To answer no to these questions is frightening at first but, once accepted, the thought is liberating.  You are indeed free to be who you want to be. To consciously adopt a persona does not mean you are being fake. You are not pretending to be a different person; the the greatest of actors could not sustain that. Rather it is a case of choosing to emphasis some of your fundamental aspects over others. In the case of Jarred my fundamental eccentricity is played up to give that persona the kind of swagger which befits a counter-culture rebel.

To borrow an idea from Gnosticism, your soul may be expected to one day find it has no need of a persona and so it will detach itself from the material world entirely. It will pass beyond the limits of the universe to exist outside of space and time. Until that day you may choose to adopt a different persona consciously or allow the process to happen naturally. If you go with the former option then a persona becomes a potent tool. You may be as many different people as you want to be. Perhaps a persona may even be so powerful as to survive beyond the death of the body and the departure of the soul?

The Outsiders

“An ancient Chinese curse runs, “May you live in interesting times.” Since the fall of the Roman Empire, there has rarely been more interesting times than these. Whenever history becomes unstable and destinies hang in the balance, then magicians and messiahs appear everywhere. Our own civilisation has moved into an epoch of permanent crisis and upheaval, and we are beset with a plague of wizards. They serve an historic purpose, for whenever a society undergoes radical change, alternative spiritualities proliferate, and from among these a culture will select a new world view.” – Peter J Carroll

Gerald Gardner was, it seems to me, a man who never quite fit in. Though English born and bred, most of his childhood was spent in India. The climate was thought to be beneficial to those who suffered from Asthma. It was there that he would first encounter magick. For a time after that he lived in London where he was acquainted with Crowley and frequented Atlantis. While living in the New Forest he discovered the coven of witches into which he was inducted. He found some peace in his latter days as resident expert to the Witchcraft Museum, then located on the Isle of Man. Still he could not bring himself to settle down. Gardner’s natural charm comes across in the interviews he gave yet by all accounts he made few friends. So it was that in the twilight of his life, he boarded a ship bound for India. His life had been that of a restless wanderer. It seems he sought to end his journey back where it had begun.

My place of birth is Exeter, or so my birth certificate tells me. Two years of my childhood were spent in Scotland and a further two were spent in Germany. Most of my life has been spent in Portsmouth. Even this period has been spread across half a dozen different homes; from the posh suburb of Farlington to bohemian Southsea. At the time of writing circumstances have left me with no place to call my home. September will see me travel to the northern metropolis of Leeds, there to study philosophy. Who knows where my life will take me after that? Glasgow? New York? London? New Deli? Each one has its charms. More than likely it will be none of there but rather a place which has not yet even occurred to me. Many of you will know that my patron god is Mercury; a god of crossroads amongst other things. Mine is the soul of a gypsy. The greatest mistake of many made in my life was trying to settle down.

To be an Occulist is to be an outsider. It may be said that there are times and places where the practice of magick is accepted by society. England in 2015 is as tolerant a place as you could expect to find in the world. Even here the Occultist remains of the fringes of society. Crowley, even at his peak, was treated as little more than an eccentric clown good for filling column inches in the newspapers. The question may be asked: Does occultism make you an outsider or are outsiders attracted to the occult? For me it is the latter. We may be able to settle or we may wander like Gardner but in the end we never quite belong. Is that too cynical of me to say? So be it. That is my observation.

We are the lost and the damned. That is the beauty of occultism. We are a community united by our differences. We disagree about pretty much everything yet it has never been my misfortune to meet with a sectarian Occultist. If there is one in the world then they have sorely misunderstood the fundamental nature of what they do. Most faith movement are typified by conformity but occultism celebrates its free thinkers. As a man with no homeland, occultism is the first thing in my life to make me feel part of something. That is, perhaps, what is at the root of the moment of revelation which set me on this path. A friend of mine is from Malvern. She may travel far and wide in her life. Still, she will always be ‘from Malvern’. To someone like me that is enviable. Occultism is the foundation of my identity, just as Malvern is hers. Occultism gives the outsider a foundation. That was its appeal to Gardner, Crowley, Dee and countless others. We should not be surprised that occultism is thriving in this strange and terrible new aeon.

It is the great paradox of our age that we conform to the idea that we must be unique. This is especially true of occultism. My philosophy tutor, having discussed occultism with me on many occasions, likened our community to the scene in Life of Brian where the crowd chants in unison “We are all individuals.” There is nothing actually wrong with a paradox, provided it serves a purpose. Witches are unable to agree upon a definition of Witchcraft, such is our diversity, yet we proudly associate with each other. Even the divide between Gardnarian and Alexandrian Wiccans proved short lived. Both paths still exist but only as dark mirrors of each other. Despite the fact that we may not even agree to all call what we do Occultism (or Esotericsm or Neopaganism), we all belong together in one community. We are outsiders who belong together. Aleister Crowley belonged with Austin Osman Spare. John Dee belonged with Edward Kelley. Jarred Triskelion belongs, for better or for worse, with you who are reading this now.

On the Shoulders of Giants #2: 007

Countless people down the ages have been drawn to the study magick by a hunger for knowledge. They long for a deeper understanding of the meaning of things. Where others accept their limited perception of the universe these people dare to ask for more. The words esoteric and occult both speak of secrets shared amongst a privileged few. Few men have ever approached the study of magick with greater audacity than Doctor John Dee. Few men have ever been so richly rewarded.

John Dee (1527-1609)

Born into the Tudor court, Dee’s early life spanned some of the most tumultuous years in England’s history. It is not surprising that, as a mathematically minded individual, he sought order in this apparent chaos. When conventional studies failed to enlighten him he turned to more arcane arts. Rather than simply scratch at the surface to uncover the plan for the universe, Dee decided to consult the source. Aided by the scryer Edward Kelley, Dee made contact with a series of angelic beings. Through them he was taught the system we know today as Enochian Magick.

Sigillum Dei Aemeth – A symbol central to the Enochian system

For a long time Dee was largely forgotten by history. Mainstream scholars dismissed him as a brilliant man lead astray by his study of magick. Then came the Golden Dawn and with them the Great Beast. Enochian was elevated to a centrepiece of magick’s twentieth century revival. Here was a magick which was not rude superstition but rather a logical, rational system crafted with precision by an educated man. The grand ambition of Crowley’s magnum opus ‘The Book of the Law’ owes much, I think, to his admiration for Dee’s work.

‘The Great Beast’ Aleister Crowley (1975-1947)

Many years later Dee would serve to inspire another. A lost young man with a growing interest in the occult paid a visit to the British Museum. He gazed upon Dee’s effects and understood magick for the first time. While he admired the primal nature of Wicca here was something he could relate to. This was something to which an analytical mind could devote a lifetime of study. That young man renamed himself Jarred Triskelion and he has never looked back since.

Mister Jarred Triskelion (1987- )

The presence of Dee in the history of magick lends the subject a degree of legitimacy. Dee stands tall as a member of the court of Elizabeth I, arguably the greatest collection of individuals ever assembled. She sought his council often, trusting to his knowledge of Astronomy when selecting the date for her coronation. He served as a secret agent using the code name 007, a fact which Crowley would later share which Ian Flemming.

Code name used in communications between Dee & Elizabeth I

It was Dee who advised that the English fleet should hold off on engaging the Spanish Armada. He was therefore credited with summoning the subsequent storm which wrecked the Spanish ships. This fact would inspire Shakespeare to use Dee as the model for the sorcerer Prospero in The Tempest. Prospero in turn became the template for the archetypal wizard in popular culture. This archetype can be seen today in Galdalf, Dumbledore and Merlin.

It is therefore fitting to end with Prospero’s final words. I suspect they mirror Dee’s final thoughts as well as those of Shakespeare and Crowley. It is likely they shall mirror my own.

The Aeon of Horus

They promised us a new millenium. A century of war would give way to an age of peace. Technology would liberate us. The future promised tolerance through progress. The nineties was an exciting time to be a child. We were promised more than any generation had been promised before. We truly did believe mankind was ready for the dawn of a new aeon. That belief lasted precisely one year, nine months and eleven days.

After 9/11 everything seemed to spiral out of control. We were at war again. There are few better indicators that a civilisation has not learnt the mistakes of the past than when it invades Afghanistan. To protect our freedoms we were told that we would need to surrender our freedoms. To justified this paradox they condemned an entire faith based upon the actions of a few. We protested but no one listened. The marches were ignored and the inquiries we demanded only vindicated the warmongers.

Then the banking system collapsed. One day there was money and the next day there was not. We were told that bankers were responsible for this. We were told that we would have to pay for it. Defence budgets were safe, naturally. The unemployed, the mentally ill and the disabled would bear the brunt in the name of ‘austerity’. The privileged nations of the world reverted to type by condemning the economic migrant and the asylum seeker.

There was no lack of self-proclaimed messiahs promising to save us. Each proved to be false; corrupt politicians, abusive police officers, pedophile priests and drugged-up athletes. The young lost faith and so found themselves dismissed as the ‘Lost Generation’ as if any of this was their fault. If there had been any truth in the promise of a new millennium it was gone now. The future offered nothing but suffering. We began to look to the past instead. Had we taken a wrong turn somewhere along the way? Had we forgotten something important? Had our obsession with progress led us away from where we were supposed to be?

‘Our own civilization has moved into an epoch of permanent crisis and upheaval, and we are beset with a plague of wizards.’ – Peter Carroll

Magick had always been the private interest of a handful of ‘eccentrics’. All through the 20th it had been growing strong in the shadows. In the new millennium it went mainstream. Wicca was recognised as a legitimate faith; the fastest growing religion in the world. High-street bookshops filled their shelves with esoteric works and decks of tarot cards. Social media became the vehicle through which a global community was formed. Hollywood cashed in with adaptations of Harry Potter and The Lord of the Rings.

A cynic could be forgiven for dismissing all this as a fad. The true test of magick will be whether it’s young converts keep their faith into middle age. I am confident that they will. Magick, unlike science and religion, does not make empty promises. What you get out of magick is relative to what you put in. Magick will not liberate you but it will give you the power to liberate yourself. It is spirituality on your own terms.

Nothing defines this better than the Book of Shadows; a holy book that is unique to it’s owner. Magick is spirituality without the need for the doctrines of religion. The Wiccan puts their faith in the Goddess but sees no reason to judge the Chaote who does not. This tolerance of others, this union of individuals, permeates every aspect of magick. This in turn informs the life choices of it’s practitioners. This is what the pagan knew, this is what the Roman forgot.

Crowley called it the Aeon of Horus. The Hippies called it the Age of Aquarius. The cynics called it the New Age. Call it what you will, my friends, but know that it is upon us. We each of us must fight to ensure it does not die in infancy. Peace, liberation and tolerance will not be delivered on a silver platter. We must fight for these things; the wizards and witches shall form the vanguard.

Arcana Part II

I concluded recently that finding the perfect Tarot deck is not unlike finding the perfect pair of jeans. On the face of it the task is simple; identify the options and eliminate those which do not suit your style until you find one you like. Next thing you know you are at your wits end desperately trying to decide if black stone-washed boot-cut is really going to go with that new hat you just bought. Before I was Jarred Triskelion I never gave much thought to the clothes that I wore. Back then I was blissfully ignorant of just how many different styles of jeans a consumer culture could produce. I had likewise always assumed that Tarot cards were Tarot cards. How wrong can a man be? A search for Tarot cards on Amazon produces no less than 9,004 results. I have now found what I consider to be my perfect deck (and, in case you were wondering, my perfect jeans).

This was my first deck. It is the Art of Tarot by Liz Dean. It came in a nice little box with a book telling you how to read them. A beginner could not ask for a better deck. The artwork on the oversized cards is bright and cheerful. Most notably the traditionally disturbing images for Death and The Devil have been reinterpreted. This serves to make the deck appear far less threatening to early querents. It is almost inevitable that the first reading a novice performs, usually for a family member or friend, will feature Death in a prominent position. You quickly learn how to reassure people as to the true significance of the thirteenth card. When you are inexperienced it is helpful if it does not feature a leering grim reaper. I used this deck to conduct readings for the three people who have supported me the most during my discovery of magick; my grandmother, my stepmother and my friend KG. All were kind enough to forgive my awkwardness and inexperience. It was not long after these readings that I began to look for a more serious deck.

Next I progressed to the most famous deck of them all; The Rider Waite. This is as close to a standard deck as you are ever likely to get. The majority of decks available today will be based, to varying degrees, upon this. The beauty of it is that the superficially simple artwork conceals layers upon layers of meaning. I truly believe that you could spend a lifetime studying a single card from this deck. Why, then, was it not right for me? Two reasons. Firstly I had come to understand that I was an intuitive reader. My readings are best when I trust my instincts and do not overthink things. Some readers will benefit greatly from reading meaning into the number of roses on The Magician. For to me such things were a distraction. Secondly the universality of the deck was off-putting to me. It is harder to form a personal connection to a deck which is so accessible that you share with thousands of other readers. Therefore my next deck was a very specialist one indeed.

The Deviant Moon by Patrick Valenza. When I saw this deck it really was a case of love at first sight. It was just so unique. The deck is based around a sinister city populated by nightmarish characters (thereby resembling my hometown of Portsmouth after midnight). If you grew up as I did watching Tim Burton movies then this deck is for you. The buildings are modelled on an abandoned insane asylum. The clothes are copied from grave stones. The deck even comes with a custom spread based upon the phases of the moon. When reading for myself this is often my deck of choice. The problem with this deck is that not everyone has a mind as warped and twisted as mine. Having assured wary colleagues that the Tarot is perfectly safe and not to be associated with Ouija boards or blood rituals, this is perhaps not the best deck to produce at the Christmas party. What I needed was a deck that was as personal as the Deviant Moon yet as accessible as the Rider Waite.

For many people magick is all about looking back to ‘the old ways’. I respect that position. Personally I am more interested in bringing magick forward into the twenty first century. To this end my next set of Tarot cards was not a deck at all; it was an App. My iPAD is the most invaluable of my esoteric tools (a subject for another time). If I could use it for Tarot then I why would I not do so? It seemed only natural that I should download the Steampunk Tarot by Barbara Moore. What could be more steampunk that reading Tarot cards on a tablet computer? When I tell other readers that I use an app they are often sceptical. I will be the first one to say that nothing with replace the pleasure of working with a physical deck of cards. None the less I have found it extremely useful to be able to conduct a reading any time and any place on a whim. My readings by this method have proven no less accurate. The ability to save a reading with annotations is particularly helpful to me. I soon realised, however, that a querent will not so easily invest in the idea of a computer reading their fate as they will a deck of cards (which is strange if you think about everything else we trust computers to do).

The more readings I performed, the more I realised that I possessed a genuine talent. I began to consider turning pro. None of the decks I had acquired thus far felt quite right for this purpose. I knew from experience everything I needed from my perfect deck;

1) Unintimidating
2) Accessible
3) Unique
4) Practical

I present to you now my perfect Tarot deck; The Aquarian Tarot by David Palladini. The artwork is beautifully stimulating without being distracting. The art-deco style recalls a period of history to which I feel strongly connected. As I have mentioned in a previous post, I feel that my sigils often have an art-deco quality to them. The cards are sufficiently mystical to put a querent into the right frame of mind without giving them any reason to feel uncomfortable. Some find the images a little simplistic but that is no issue for an intuitive reader such as myself. I hope to soon launch my professional Tarot reading career and this is the deck which I intend to use.

Now that I have found my perfect deck there should be no reason for me to purchase any more, right? Wrong. There are so many more deck to explore; very modern Legacy of the Devine Tarot, the exclusive Dali Universal Tarot and the infamous Thoth deck to name but a few. I sense that the Aquarian Tarot will always be my primary deck. I know also that my final deck will be the last one I buy before I die…

On the Shoulders of Giants #1: The Great Beast

Welcome to the first in what I intend to be a reoccurring feature. Here I shall share my thoughts on the great men and women who have come before me. Do not expect a history lesson. For that you have Wikipedia. Instead I will explain the role each person has played in influencing both myself and the wider esoteric community. Deciding who to feature first was an easy decision.

Aleister Crowley, the Great Beast, the herald of the Aeon of Horus, the wickedest man in the world, little sunshine, Uncle Al. Call him what you will but acknowledge the fact that no one person has had a greater impact upon the practice of magick. It does not matter if you admire or revile him; he makes his presence felt either way. He brought magick kicking and screaming into the modern age. For that we all owe him a debt of gratitude.

Crowley gave us perhaps the closest thing we can ever get to a definition of Magick; ‘The science and art of causing change to occur in conformity with will’. He added the ‘k’ to distinguish ritual magick from the illusionists stage magick. He used his notoriety to draw media attention to something which most people assumed had died out centuries ago.

Before Crowley magick had been nothing more than an umbrella term for rituals and supersticions. After him people talked about it in the same terms as science and religion. He made magick into something everyone could understand, even if some understood it as something to hate and fear. He was not alone in this, of course. He was active during a golden age along side so many great names; Gerald Gardener and Dion Fortune amongst them. Still, it was Crowley who did the most to publicise magick using his dark charisma to secure column inches in the tabloid papers.

This is, of course, the cover to the Beatles album Sergeant Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band. There can not be many people who have not looked at this image and tried to name all the famous faces. Those of us who have a knowledge of magick take great pleasure in helping to identify a particular face on the left of the back row.

There he is; the Great Beast standing behind Sir Robert Peel and besides Mae West. In 2002 the BBC conducted a (much maligned) poll to identify the 100 greatest Britons. Crowley came in 73rd place forcing a national broadcasting organisation to profile him. Admittedly Crowley was acknowledged in both cases primarily as a social and sexual liberator. None the less there is, in both cases serving as the primary representative of magick in mainstream history (I recognise that Gardener is increasingly taking on this role).

Crowley’s most direct influence upon magick itself, as well as upon me personally, was a deceptively simple idea. He turned his back upon the rules and rituals which had previously defined the practice of magick. He declared that ‘Do as thou wilt shall be the whole of the law’. Crowley was born into the Plymouth Bretheren, an extremist Christian sect. The Christian fundamentalism so prevalent in America today can, in part, be traced back to their beliefs. Being raised in this world taught him the dangers of doctrine. He advocated that practitioners of magick followed their own instincts and chose their own set of practices (though his ego meant that he preferred it if they chose ones he suggested).

The defining theme of the 20th century is the liberation of the individual from dogmatic belief systems. By redefining magick as something very personal he made it culturally relevant. This idea of individual freedom of though became the founding concept of Chaos Magick (see my previous blog on the subject). The other great movement of modern magick, Wicca, inherited from Crowley the malleability which has made it so adaptable. Gardener copied much of his personal Book of Shadows from Crowley’s writing (something early Wiccan’s were reluctant to admit). The freedom of magick in contrast to mainstream religion is ultimately what would attract myself and countless others.

Without Crowley I do not believe magick would be what it is today. If this is the case, why the animosity towards him? Certainly he was an egotist and a bigot but neither of these qualities have damaged the legacy of the other great figures of his time. Crowley challenged the accepted order of things, not just as an occultist but as a liberal bisexual in a culture which defined itself as imperialist Christians. Such people were labeled as Anarchists and used by governments as bogeymen to frighten the populace much as Terrorism is used today. It was inevitable that Crowley would be cast as one of the villains in the story of the fall of the British Empire. Rather than fighting this Crowley revelled in this, working to turn the publicity to his advantage. Unfortunately his played the part too well.

The system of secret societies which had previously defined the practice of magick had began to fall apart. Crowley’s bitter power-struggle for control of the Ordo Templi Orientis and his notorious reputation made it easy to blame him and men like him for the failure of the societies to adapt to the new century. To build something new you must destroy something old. Crowley served as the destroyer, a veritable Shiva to the occult world. Unfortunately a destroyer is never remembered fondly, however essential a role he serves. It would be Gerald Gardener, inheritor of Crowley’s legacy, who would be hailed as the hero of modern magick. Crowley was once again cast as the villain. Barely a handful of people attended his funeral. It would not be until decades after his death that his contribution to the modernisation of magick would be celebrated in the way that it deserves.

Wyrd Tales

This lump of rock is a piece of unworked obsidian. You will agree it looks rather unremarkable? Approximately five centuries ago one exactly like it came unto the possession of an Aztec priest. I am inexorably linked to that rock by the Wyrd. That rock was shaped and polished into a mirror. It might just have easily been carved into a knife or a bowl. The priest, however, desired a mirror. This mirror later fell into the possession of a European. It was transported half a world away and presented to a remarkable man named John Dee.

This man will doubtless be familiar to some of you. Dr Dee was a wizard in the court of Queen Elizabeth I. He used astrology to calculate the optimum date for her coronation, attempted to use alchemy to fill the royal coffers and summoned the storm which destroyed the Spanish Armada. Shakespeare immortalised him in The Tempest as Prosporo. His greatest esoteric achievement was a system of magick known today as Enochian. Aided by the scryer Edward Kelly he used the Aztec obsidian mirror to communicate with extra-dimensional beings. Centuries after his death the mirror was placed on display in the British Museum, where it sat waiting.

What does all this have to do with me? A couple of years ago I was as lost as a man could be. My life had no meaning and it had no purpose. So low was I that I had recently attempted to end it all. I caught a news report about modern witchcraft and, purely out of academic interest, had bought a couple of books on the subject. I was fascinated by what those books contained. I began to perform crude spells in my bedroom. I clumsily experimented with astral projection. I learnt the names of the Futhorc runes. Despite how much knowledge I acquired during this period magick remained nothing more than an exotic hobby to me.

I had learnt a little of Dr Dee and resolved to view his effects. While visiting my brother in London I suggested a visit to the British Museum. Without much expectation I located the correct display cabinet and looked into the obsidian mirror. That was the moment that everything changed. If my life were a hollywood movie the camera would at this point wobble in and out to give a sense of vertigo while the music rose to a crescendo. The reality was far less dramatic yet far more profound. I felt, for the first time in my life, a sense of being part of something bigger than myself.

I realised that by practicing magick I stood at the head of an unbroken line of men and women stretching back to the very dawn of human history. I felt a deep responsibility towards the continuation of that line. I felt a connection to Dr Dee & Edward Kelly looking into that same mirror all those centuries before me. The moment soon passed but I was left with a profound sense of purpose. I knew then that I would spend the rest of my life trying to understand what had happened to me in that moment. I dedicated myself to the study of magick.

The Saxon word Wyrd could be translated as fate. To do so would be to misunderstand the concept. Fate infers determinism; the idea that we are all locked into our destinies. The Greeks saw fate as a tapestry into which our lives are woven. The Wyrd is rather more like a web. It is the idea that everything in the universe is connected. Some of these connections, these strands of the web, are so tenuous as to be negligible. Some are so strong they exert an influence upon our entire lives. Most are somewhere between these two extremes.

A rock became a mirror which passed into the hands of Dr Dee. Centuries later it inspired me to begin the journey which would transform me into Jarred Triskelion. My life has a purpose because an Aztec had a rock. This follows just one strand but picture the wider web. There is a strand which lead my brother to get a job in London where I would visit him. There is a strand which caused me to attempt suicide, the failure of which changed my perspective on live. There is the strand drawing me to visit the Science Museum instead, the pull of which I resisted.

No action occurs in isolation. We are not bound by fate but we are forever influence by that which has happened and that which will happen. Everything is connected by web of the Wyrd.

Hiding in Plain Sight

Just a mini-update today but this is something I have been meaning to post for a while.

When you study magick you begin to see it everywhere. It is hiding always in plain sight; from Winston Churchill’s ordination as a Druid to Peaches Geldof’s (thankfully) short time as a Thelemite. Case in point are Led Zeppelin. Can you name their fourth studio album (google is cheating). Having trouble? Listening to Stairway to Heaven might help…

Congratulations if you knew the answer. Do not feel too bad if you did not. The name of the album is:

Yes, the name of the album is in fact four esoteric symbols. As I said, magick hiding in plain sight. Each band member selected a symbol to represent them. So why these symbols?

These two are generic celtic symbols both of which utilise the circle as a symbol of eternity. John Paul Jones and John Bonham chose these symbols largely for their aesthetic qualities. The one on the right was in fact copied off a beer bottle.

Robert Plant’s symbol is a little more interesting. The feather inside the circle is an ostrich feather, an ancient Egyptian symbol for justice. Why an ostrich feather? Unlike birds which fly the feathers of an ostrich’s wing are all the same length. They were therefore seen as a symbol of balance and, by extension, of justice.

Jimmy Page, unlike his bandmates, was well versed in esoteric lore. For his symbol he constructed a sigil. If you are unfamiliar with sigils I suggest you read my earlier post on the subject. As to the meaning of this sigil, that is a secret known only to the man himself. In countless interviews he has refused to comment on the subject. We can only speculate but given the success of the fourth album after their disappointing third I suspect the sigil had the desired effect.

Chaos

In the summer of ’79, in the sleepy Yorkshire fishing village called Whitby, a most extraordinary gathering took place. They came from far and wide but each shared one thing in common; magick. These people understood that there was more to understanding the universe than Einstein’s equations. They knew also that the western world had forgotten what magick was truly capable of. The Great Beast and his contemporaries had tried to remind them but had ultimately failed. Gardner’s Wiccans were growing in numbers but their rituals were becoming a little too much like a religion.

What was required was a new kind of magick which would possess a relevance in the coming new millennium which the ‘old ways’ did not. In the house where Bram Stoker had written Dracula they began to experiment with magick. This melting pot would come to be known as the Whitby Conclave. Liberated from the shackles of tradition they were free to explore the full potential of magick. What emerged from Whitby was something powerful, frightening and magnificent. Chaos Magick has been born.

Ask three practitioners of Chaos Magick to define it and you shall receive five answer, two of which will have changed within a week. Only a madman or a genius would attempt to write about such a subject. Fortunately I am both those things. I have devoted the past two years of my life to Chaos Magick and shall devote as many more as I am given. I first learnt of Chaos Magick when reading The Book of English Magic (a book I can not recommend highly enough). As regular reader will know I found my way to magick through rejecting first religion and then science. While I have come to have a lot of respect for Wicca it felt at the time like just another proscribed belief system. Chaos Magick, on the other hand, offered everything I had been looking for.

So what is Chaos Magick? You are probably wondering why I began with the Sex Pistols. Johnny Rotten, by his own admission, can not sing yet he is regarded as one of the greatest rock frontmen of his generation. This is because he understood that passion and conviction mattered more to people than technical profficiency. He knew that his heartfelt cries could reach people in a way that the cold perfection of Mozart did not. I have not found a better analogy for Chaos Magick than that.

Chaos Magick is about doing what is right for you. We are all individuals and it is wrong to think that any one system of practice could work for us all. There may be people who are sufficiently likeminded to consolidate their beliefs, Wiccans for example, but there will always be those who are not. For these people there is Chaos Magick. I believe what I believe for no other reaons than because it suits my purposes to do so. That may sound shallow but we each find ourselves living in an increasingly shallow world.

I have incorporated the use of Runes into my magick. Most Chaos Wizards have not. That does not make me right and them wrong. It simply reflects the fact that Runes work for me but not for them. They in turn will have aspects of their magick which would make little sense to me. This is the beauty of Chaos Magick. If you like something then do it. If you do not like something then do not do it. The only rule is that there are no rules. Perhaps it is so difficult to define Chaos Magick because it does not truly exist. Perhaps it is simply shorthand for being true to yourself.