The Starry Cave

J. L. David (1787) - The Death of Socrates Today  many people seems to feel their personal opinions are somewhat important  in a manner exceeding the importance and limited scope of the opinions expressed. This leads to a culture where opinions and discourse is imposed upon others.  If we add to this that language, like society, has degenerated to a level where discourse is often done from a personal materialism and political interest this questions the ethos and pathos involved in discourse. What we see is a maze of disagreements and pointless bickering – a battle between formless opinions. At times, when you make clear that you see no use in entertaining dialogue some people see this as a provocation, because they so desperately want to convince themselves by convincing you. I have no interest in debating who is right and who is wrong with anyone, but I do like the good discourse that arises in the field of agreed proposition where th...

Last month a mother was charged and indicted on charges of cruelty and neglect of a child she tried to rescue from death threatening illness. For her the solution was found in the traditional faith Palo Mayombe where body, soul and spirit were made subject for healing. As the sensationalist reportage tells, the mother ‘exposed her daughter to the bloody rituals of the Palo Mayombe faith’. The nature of these bloody rites consisted in receiving some cuts to the body where medicine was placed and to consume the heart of a chicken that had been offered to the spirit of healing. The child also witnessed ‘the decapitation of a goat’. When the police went to the paleros house they found the following horrors:     “Dolls, a shrine, religious statues, bones, machetes and bundles of sticks bearing numbers and names were among artifacts found at the home. The items, some of which had blood and animal hair on them” The defence was of course one of re...

  Art: Audrey Melo In my book Invisible Fire (2010: Capall Bann) I stated in the preface to the book the following: “The mysteries of Seth will prove to be provocative for many children of the modern spirit... The spirit of the modern world is marked by a high degree of individualism” . I summarized later on page 162 the objective with this book as it transforms into practice in the following way: “This is ultimately the goal with all these practices. Through Wisdom the mystery is revealed and man is drawn one step closer to the Promised Land and the return to the Golden Age is enabled. By Wisdom revealed man can understand how to approach the world of matter and use it as a medium for ascent and thus bring the Divine Kingdom upon Earth and in this way restore the original flow of the axis mundi.” This is of course a provocative proposition, as I stated. I just did not know exactly how the provocation would take shape in the passion rid soul ...

We all have heard the adage: ‘home is where the heart is’ – and home is hearth, where the fire kindles warmth and companionship, home should be a castle and refuge of peace.  When the hearth is overflowing with poison and quarrels and bickering, pride, envy and hatred takes shape in the ill fumes from the hearth there will be no peace. When ones home is poisoned the ugly takes the place of beauty and harm takes the place of healing. This venom is then taken out in the streets and the unrest of the poisoned one will strike to all corners because the world will speak loudly about his misery. The poisoned one will ravage beauty and goodness wherever it shows it face. He will pluck the feathers of the peacock to crown himself – to throw a stolen beauty upon his poisoned state, to hide his ugliness. When a man get’s poisoned at his home his fruits will be bitter and his envy like coals from the caverns of hell will be flung out upon the world.   ...

Art by:  Felicien Rops The Idea of transmission of a lineage as viewed from within the wise Craft proper is one of complexity.  It is a transmission in the original and traditional sense and not simply one of transmitting customs developed in a social conclave. The transmission itself is the conferring of power and memory as it relates to a particular consciousness that hearkens back to the origin of creation. The lineage lies in the blood and the memory that is passed on by virtue of the blood is of the same order as the divine wisdom held by angels and given to the women. This memory comes with a creative power that set the wise apart from the mundane and profane. A rebellion comes with the power of the blood, not a rebellion on antinomian premises – but a rebellion against the profane and vulgar. It is in this the wise goes against the grain as a rebellion against the modern ideas of progress. To be subject for an authentic transmission o...