Ritual

[luka]

is this necessary? to resacralise experience.

 

[DannyL]

No.

A lot of the Westen ritual magic feels a bit false, play-acting. And I think that's 'cos it's coming from a "made up" tradition, that's only a hundred years old, and doesn't have organic roots. If you do some of this stuff, and compare it to,tantric or Buddhist practice, the difference is palpable. There's an internal logic that makes sense.

 

[luka]

i didn't mean that. i posted that video cos the image of his sad old sofa made me laugh juxtaposed with his 'high ritual'

 

[DannyL]

I am only speaking about the Western magic/Golden Dawn tradition. Earlier "Western" magic like the grimoires, idk know about that stuff.

Having said that, the Middle Pillar is one of those exercises I'd recommend, because it's embodied. Why not do it for 6 months, see what you think?

 

[luka]

the bathos of it. but i meant ritual more generally.

 

[DannyL]

The American accent struck me. The yanks love buying into older history.

 

[luka]

what's it supposed to do? the middle pillar thing

 

[DannyL]

It's a bodily energetic exercise. You vibrate different god names at different locations in the body, accompanied by visualisations. It's one of those things that can get a bit.... surprising. I've never done the MP as an extended practice, but I've done parallel things. Pretty sure if you did it for a while, it'd shift things around a bit.

 

[luka]

i can't visualise i've got aphantasia disease. blind inside.

 

[DannyL]

Oh really? That's interesting. I would've thought it came naturally to a poet.

 

[shiels]

Luka doesn't have an inner eye. It's what makes his inner ear so strong. He's great at oral. To compensate.

 

[luka]

that's what i think. that's why im good with the poems. very good inner ear.

 

[shiels]

Makes perfect sense to me

 

[luka]

it's really interesting to think about it. obviously i would like to have movie footage scrolling through my brain and sometimes i can feel down that i don't get it.

 

[DannyL]

Yeah that does make sense. Attention to logos.

 

[luka]

but becasue i feel special it stops me really brooding on it.

 

[luka]

"Sexual gratitude is an emotion much less frequent in modern days that in medevil times, owing to the fact that industrialisation has cheapened the value of the sex-thrill by lowering the ritual-walls surrounding it."

 

[DannyL]

Can you use any of the other senses internally? People who can't visualise sometimes have success by imagining the other senses.

 

[luka]

everyone on dissensus has talked about how a similar thing has happened with music. the ritual-walls lowered and the experience cheapened

 

[shiels]

I think I visualise quite strongly. Sometimes with eyes closed I feel i can literally see things I imagine, but I think a lot of people get that. I have astigmatism in one eye and I often think how things like that shape your perceptions of the world beyond just forming an image of the immediate environment