The Starry Cave

In the Book of the Treasure of Alexander we find in the chapter concerning the fourth art an operation for dispelling “evil in poisons”. The antidote uses the gall bladder and brain of a ferret together with pearl, red coral mixed with Melissa and nuts. This must be done under the auspicious rays of Jupiter, who removes the evil in the poison. This poses an interesting dilemma as evil is stated as different from poison, albeit tend to make part of a poison. If we stay in the world of plants we find that various types of Soleanae, especially the nightshade types are effective antidotes when poisoning hath already occurred. So, what is considered vicious and poisonous can upon the influence of evil be turned into something of a healing nature. I suspect we find a harmony here between evil and d-evil . The icon of the devil is surely soaked in poison, but it is not the image of evil per se, like none of the nightshades are evil. This relationship seem to be quite consistent from the

Palo Mayombe has a most sinister reputation. It is about the ‘darkest forms of black magic’ executed by unholy and sinister criminals that are solely using the nefarious and infamous nganga to do their evil desires. Since the ritual murders in the Mexican city of Matamoros two decades ago by a little band of drug dealers Palo Mayombe also entered as a shocking element in some horror movies. The palero is always depicted as a vile, arrogant and lost soul that communes with the most dirty and hostile of spirits. This image seems to be growing actually. The first book in English that treated Palo Mayombe was a chapter in Gonzalez Wippler’s 1973 book about Santeria, eternally reprinted since then. I believe it was with this book Palo Mayombe lost its autonomy. The fact that a great number of paleros were also santeros might have resulted in her informants resorting to the more well known Santeria to explain Palo Mayombe concepts. Still, her presentation contributed to a distorted und

One can not do one's True Will intelligently unless one knows what it is. Aleister Crowley, Magick, Book 4 True Will or Pure Will gives immediate associations to Aleister Crowley and his vision of Thelema. This vision was taken from the satirical stories of the Renaissance humanist Rabelais. What apparently caught Crowley’s attention was how Gargantua erected a hedonistic mock monastery in response to the rules in the 16 th Century monastic orders. The Catholic Church was confronted with a series of scandals and heresy, the reformation stirring at its burning foundation…and humanism opened up for ridicule in a level not seen since the Roman poet Petronius wrote his Satyricon. Rabelais work is wonderful, at the gate of his Abbey of Thelema is written:   Do here pursue with might Grace, honour, praise, delight. It gives a contrast to the hellfire and guilt ridden psychology of the late medieval Church that is about restraint, sin and purgatory. Rabelais says:   for it is