The Starry Cave

Dear Friend, Parts of your letter read as follows: “I have a question regarding spirits, initiation, and systems of magic.  I have always felt strong connections to these realms of the other, but I have had a hard time with these systems.  Sometimes in my mind I have become connected or imbedded with these principles or forces, but when I attempt a system, it feels so unnatural to me that I feel inside of myself a kind of urge to leave it be and to just shatter it and to directly connect somehow through my own methods developed very intuitively and organically with hints here and there from readings and sources.  I like to think I do not have trouble with the philosophies and the concepts, but when I attempt to use a system it feels completely wrong. ...  I know many people would deem this to be dangerous... Also, I have another question regarding spells.  For instance, if someone wishes to create a work and it involves killing.  I do not wish to pay that price because I

Without doubt the most frequent question I receive concerns ‘fusing of pantheons’ and questions like, “can I incorporate spirit/god/demon X in the eclectic system I created”? In other words it is about eclecticism and it is about treading one’s path and making one’s life unique. While a pragmatic outlook often serves the seeker well – I have great reservations with eclecticism due to its power to mix the planes and invite confusion in all possible directions.  In the process of discovering ones uniqueness many engage in the pursuit of ‘making one’s own system’ and we see odd eclectic hybrids take shape, what I call ‘jigsaw faiths’.   There is nothing wrong in eclecticism per se, if we are mindful about how and why we elect our choices. The problem with eclecticism surfaces when we elect on basis of self-reference and engage in mindless syncretism with the only goal being to give a religious or magical support to our self-construct. I would say that modern theosophy and th

Dear Friend, You wrote; I am writing this letter because I am a follower of your blog, and I saw that some people have been writing to you, so I thought "why not" and decided to write myself. I prefer to remain anonymous, but my name is Jxx. I don’t have a list of questions, but questions will come spontaneously as I write the letter. I have been a seeker my whole life, I've always had the intuition so to speak that there is a hidden reality, where things happen that the mainstream of society does not know (or remains silent) about. I have always sought to penetrate that world, to be a part of it, and yet I have always felt blocked, denied. I have no explanation for this, just a longing, and sometimes a rage, about it. I have joined some of the more available, mail order, occult/esoteric societies, but they have not filled this void, and I have always had the sensation that there is "something missing" about their teachings. So I turned to self e