Path: kudonet.com!kudo20!tyagi From: tyagi@houseofkaos.abyss.com (nocTifer) Newsgroups: alt.magick.tyagi,alt.magick,alt.religion.christian,alt.christnet,talk.religion.newage,talk.religion.misc,alt.consciousness.mysticism,alt.mythology Subject: Jesus Magician, Jungian Great Work Date: 17 Feb 1997 10:11:12 -0800 Organization: KudoNet On-Line Services Lines: 216 Sender: tyagi@bjt.net Message-ID: Reply-To: tyagi@houseofkaos.abyss.com (nocTifer) NNTP-Posting-Host: kudo20.kudonet.com Xref: kudonet.com alt.magick.tyagi:8784 alt.magick:79178 alt.religion.christian:155084 alt.christnet:148671 talk.religion.newage:55762 talk.religion.misc:227104 alt.consciousness.mysticism:7182 alt.mythology:27355 [orig-to silverchalice@hollyfeld.org (Silver Chalice Elist)] 49970217 AA1 Hail Satan! peace be with you, my kin. what happened to y'all? found this yesterday and thought it pertinent not only to the practice of Christian magick but a kind of seed-overview of the framework which I am attempting to manufacture. I'm sure there are others out there, but this was the first I remember coming across within the last few years (sometimes I'll dig up Crowley's comparable entry): E.M. Butler was one scholar who didn't fall into the trap of trying to make his subject mysterious. In his book, _The Myth of the Magus_ [anybody got this? nocT.], he set out ten elements common to the stories of all the great historical magicians. From Jesus to ...anonymous shamans ..., the mythos of a magician's life remain remarkably consistent. First, a magician's origin is supernatural or mysterious. He may be a divine or a demonic infant, but he is never ordinary. Second, there are portents at his birth to indicate his mysterious origins, and his supernatural powers. For example, when Mohammed was born the story is that all the idols of the world fell down. In a more familiar tradition, think of the star that led the three magi to the baby Jesus. The third common element is that the baby magus is imperiled in his infancy. Evil wishes, or simply the power of evil, try to do the magus in at birth. A fourth element is some kind of initiation. Austerities and temptations occur which are either preceded or followed by a fifth stage, of distant wanderings. The magus wanders either to seek for wisdom, or to spread wisdom he has already acquired. The journies may be supernatural. They may involve a descent into the underworld, or an ascent into heaven. Again it is easy to locate Jesus in this tradition. Allegedly he went into the underworld. The esoteric traditions of the Gnostics tell of a Jesus who journeyed to India to study with the sages there. Other stories tell that Jesus went to the Himalayas, and was initiated there. The place for initiation in the Himalayas would be, of course, the legendary secret chamber that opens onto Shangri-la. In his sixth stage a magus faces a magical contest. Butler maintains that this is a constant feature in the lives of all Magicians, both legendary and real. He offers, for example, the biblical contest between Elijah and the prophets of Ba'al. The seventh stage almost always holds a trial or persecution. Eighth, there is a last scene, which often includes a solemn and prophetic farewell. The Last Supper clearly fits into this eighth stage. In the ninth stage there is often a violent or a mysterious death, and in the tenth, a resurrection or an ascension. These last stages throw a very interesting light on human nature. Why a trial or a persecution? Because human beings are virtuosos of denial. People work very carefully to be unaware of any problem when awareness might require taking an active part in finding a solution. The trial comes because the Magician knows too many uncomfortable truths and calls for action. An individual becomes a community scapegoat when he reveals his community's Shadow. If we consider the story of Jesus in this respect, we see a man who knows a lot, reveals a lot, and is killed for his efforts. But interestingly the myth's tenth stage suggests how hard it is to kill the truth. There is a vindication at the story's end, because the magus comes back, transcending his torturers. And it is his truth that ultimately is remembered. ... The institution of the sacred kingship seems to have arisen, at least in Africa and Central Asia, from the office of rainmaker or shaman. In other areas of the world, the most difficult struggles were between tribes rather than against the weather, and kings there came from the warrior class. But in all sacred kingships, the king was believed to mystically embody the vital center of the created world. Through him the various dimensions of reality came together, working harmoniously for the good of all things. All of the king's offices thus grew out of the shaman's responsibilities. Before the king it had been the shaman's office to bridge the gaps between the underworld, the earthly plane, and the heavens. It was the shaman who had first imposed order upon chaos through the force of a powerful will, and by intuited directive from the Self. Thus it had been the shaman once who [sic] constellated the *axis mundi* -- the center of the world -- for his tribe to build their lives around. There is much room for scholarly disagreement over when exactly these shamanic duties were taken over by the king, and also why this happened. And because of their similar tasks, it can be difficult to make a clear distinction between shaman and king. What scholars find difficulty unravelling, the popular culture has confused even further. Sacred kings were always believed to embody magical powers, including the power to heal their subjects and kingdoms, and the power equally to strike them down. Certain magicians have likewise been popularly vested with kingly attributes. Jesus the Magician was believed by the earliest Christians to be the true King of Israel. Later worshippers dubbed him Christ Pantocrator, the cosmic King. The three magi who came to worship the infant Jesus -- the three astrologer magicians, probably from Persia, borrowed by the Gospel's author from an ancient account of Zoroaster's birth -- are often called kings. In Mexico they are "the three magician kings," and we hear this association clearly in an English carol, "We three kings of orient are." ... [try substituting 'Self' or 'soul' for 'Ego', 'God' or 'divine' for 'archetype', and 'Satan' for 'Shadow' with Hir 'bipolar aspects' being those of the heresy of Dualism, in the text below -- nocT.] Our theory emphasizes -- in a way that Jungian psychology since Jung has not -- the vital importance of the Ego in relation to the dynamic archetype structures. If the Ego is not properly accessing the archetype as a whole (including the bipolar Shadow, integrated into the archetype as a transcendent third), then the Ego will be possessed by the Shadow, and left oscillating between the Shadow's two poles. One pole will lead to "positive inflation," or the explosion of the Ego, and the other pole will cause the implosion of the Ego, or "negative inflation." When the two poles are integrated into a transcendent third they lose their pathological impact. In their resulting fusion, their pathology is transformed into a creative advance -- reminiscent of Saint Paul's Christ, whose death is "swallowed up in victory." The key to this transformative experience is the action of the Ego. It must position itself for the maximum apprehension of the intimation of the archetype "above space and time," in the world of the "spirit," or the collective unconscious. The Ego acts like an attractive body, as do the three elements of the archetype, each exercizing a kind of gravitational pull on the others. In the collective unconscious the archetype is whole, with the Shadow fully integrated into it. The Ego functions properly as an occasion for the archetype's embodiment in space and time. In the fragmenting dimention of space and time, the archetype appears to the Ego largely in its bipolar Shadow form, communicating only intimations of its wholeness. The Ego must perceive the wholeness sufficiently well to keep it from mistaking the fragments of the Shadow for the archetype as a whole. The bipolar Shadow is akin to the Symplegades -- the Clashing Rocks between which the Ego must steer a middle course, guided by its intuition of the archetype, lest it be destroyed. If the middle course is managed, the Ego fashions the vital Ego-archetypal axis by which energy exchange is made possible. The Ego needs the lure of the archetype in order to experience creative advance. And the archetype needs the Ego in order to become augmented and enriched for future creative action in the world. By the Ego's actions the opposites of the bipolar Shadow can be integrated into the archetype as a whole. The Ego's methods for achieving this include analytical techniques such as dream interpretation and active imagination. ... The shaman ... uses the modes of perception and thought equally -- in some ways his *modus operandi* is more a woman's than a man's.... _The Magician Within: Accessing the Shaman in the Male Psyche_, by Robert Moore and Douglas Gillette, William Morrow Publishers, 1993; pp. 67-8, 72-3, 75-7. _______________________________________________________________ perhaps this text will go some distance to explaining why I maintain that Satan must be hailed/healed in order to accomplish the Great Work as a Magus. I would compare the last statement as regards the modus operandi of the Magician with Crowley's and others' commentary about the nature of the soul, adeptship, and the divinity of woman (more often than not the soul is ascribed feminine qualities and women are considered to be more near to the divine than men; deservedly as I see it). Crowley's text in his _Book of Lies_ which may apply: THE OYSTER The Brothers of A.'.A.'. [the Order of the Silver Star] are one with the Mother of the Child.... The Brothers of the A.'.A.'. are Women: the Aspirants to A.'.A.'. are Men. commentary/query welcomed. and peace also be with you, nocTifer tyagi@houseofkaos.abyss.com -- see http://www.hollyfeld.org/~tyagi/nagasiva.html and call: 408/2-666-SLUG!!! ---- (emailed replies may be posted) ---- CC public replies to email ---- * * * Asphalta Cementia Metallica Polymera Coyote La Cucaracha Humana * * *