Path: shell.portal.com!svc.portal.com!sdd.hp.com!elroy.jpl.nasa.gov!news.msfc.nasa.gov!newsfeed.internetmci.com!news.cloud9.net!newsfeed.direct.ca!nntp.teleport.com!ip-pdx04-04 From: duo@teleport.com (Gratuitous Pseudonym) Newsgroups: alt.magick.tyagi,alt.magick,alt.magick.order,alt.pagan.magick,alt.magick.tantra,alt.magick.folk,alt.religion.wicca,alt.horror.shub-internet Subject: Re: High versus Low Magic(k) (fm scrfc) Date: Wed, 03 Jul 96 21:54:46 GMT Organization: Teleport - Portland's Public Access (503) 220-1016 Lines: 91 Message-ID: <4req3c$g2k@nadine.teleport.com> References: <4pkin7$r31@dns.ktb.net> <31CCCB94.1EEE@concentric.net> <31CEA16B.5DA1@sonic.net> <4qomcl$qqo@news.acns.nwu.edu> <4qthg8$mdi@news.acns.nwu.edu> <4r5esu$stv@jobe.shell.portal.com> <4re7kb$lnj@mtinsc01-mgt.ops.worldnet.att.net> NNTP-Posting-Host: ip-pdx04-04.teleport.com X-Newsreader: News Xpress Version 1.0 Beta #3 Xref: shell.portal.com alt.magick.tyagi:9173 alt.magick:78198 alt.magick.order:1553 alt.pagan.magick:920 alt.magick.tantra:2184 alt.magick.folk:304 alt.religion.wicca:32992 alt.horror.shub-internet:647 In article <4re7kb$lnj@mtinsc01-mgt.ops.worldnet.att.net>, ayindaath@worldnet.att.net (A'yin Da'ath) wrote: >Magick isn't a competition of 'My illumination is holier than thou's.' >We should be sharing information and wisdom, and respect each other. >Maybe this sounds like a fucking PC answer, but, well... in a phrase, >kiss my ass. This must be some new version of respecting each other that I haven't heard about yet. >>|hierarchical magick, > >>grades, yup yup >>levels, yup yup > >Correct up to this point. It helps to have a teacher, and to be a >teacher. However, people of higher grades generally aren't fiends who >will exploit their subordinates. Grades and levels tend to be what the Catholics called a Near Occasion of Sin. In an organization which seeks as one of its overarching purposes to transcend ego-consciousness through the pursuit of magick, it seems counter-productive to create a hierarchical rank structure which tends to inflate the ego. Ranks are measures that pit one person's development against another. One needs no rank to know where one is, one needs ranks to know where others are, comparatively. >>good/evil, yup yup >>sacred/profayne, yup yup ("stay out of that temple now, you profane ones!") >As for sacred/profane... are you willing, right now, to go spit on >everyone in your circle (forgive me if this is not the term), to egg a >circle raising the cone of power or some other such ritual, or curse >all the gods? Why, then, are you a Wiccan, and not an atheist? >Everyone who holds a spiritual belief also has sacred items, which >they do not want profaned. A reasonable good translation of the exclamation "Hekas, hekas, esti bebeloi" is "Stay out of the temple now, you profane ones". This phrase appears repeatedly in the opening ceremonies of the Golden Dawn and many other spin-off organizations. Here's a cute little story the Buddha taught me. It seems there was a monk who had been living alone for a very long time and had just shown up in the village. He walked into the temple and spat on the statue of the Buddha that was prominently displayed there. The people were furious with the monk and demanded to know why he had desecrated the temple by spitting on the Buddha. The monk looked at them in confusion. "Show me a place where the Buddha is not," he said, "and I will spit there." >For some strange reason, I've ended up on the same side as >slugmonster. It isn't politically correct to practice Wicca. Does this >make Buddhism politically INcorrect? Somehow I think your average >Republican would disagree. The people in the village thought the monk was politically incorrect to practice Buddhism as he saw it. Politics is a set of strategies to focus group opinions and actions. It plays a large part in the dynamics of magical organizations but is not at all important to the states of consciousness which those organizations claim to be dedicated to. >Your illumination isn't holier than theirs, so yank the stick out of your >ass and show some respect. This must be more of that new version of respect. >>|Northwestern University, Evanston, IL. USA >> ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ >> (institutional learning facility: home of hi majik!) > >I see. So let me get this straight- You live in the woods, have an >education equivalent to a 1st grader's, and can't spell. Are YOU the >unabomber? No, but thanks for playing 'What's My Line?'. The Unabomber was a university professor. >Or should I just make the bland stereotype that you >all think Hermeticists are fools, can't spell, hate places of >learning, know next to nothing, and everything else that slug has >thrown at us here? "Give up learning and put an end to your troubles." -- Tao Te Ching