Mandrake Speaks Newsletter

• Tantra Sadhana

• Howling "Grimoires"

• The Chemical Wedding (Film Review) Julian Doyle & Bruce Dickinson

• Honoring ancient Pagans and Paganism

• Paganism on "Second Life"

• Lectures Talks

• Groups Meetups

• Conferences & Exhibitions (click to view)

• Iolo Morganwyg
• Gluck/Steyne
• Tree Ogham Camp
• Druid Camp (Forest of Dean)
  Colours of Chaos - Conference (London);
  Thelemic Symposium (Oxford)

SPRING UPDATE
Ashé Journal / Rebel Satori Press
http://www.ashejournal.com

Ashé Journal #7.1 Now Available

ISBN: 978-0-9790838-4-6
Paperback, 120 pages, 6x9, $12.95

PUNK BUDDHISM

Howlings / Scarlet Imprint

210 pages hardback journal, nicely bound in gold blocked turquoise wibaline. £33 plus postage from scarletimprint@...

This particular number focused on grimoires of various ages, with essays on The Picatrix, The Goetia, or Lesser Key of Solomon, Four Books of Occult Philosophy;
The Voudon Gnostic Workbook; Liber 231, Qutub, And the Grimoire itself by David Rankine, Donald Tyson, Peter Grey, David Beth, Stafford Stone, Paul Hughes-Barlow
Krzysztof Azarewicz, Jack Macbeth, Thea Faye, Aleq Grai, and Zaheer Gulamhusein. So a nice range of material, written by practitioner experts. The whole well illustrates the notion that Pagans are very much into their books. I was particularly interested in the twenty-five pages on "Liber 231", of which information is scarce, apart from Kenneth Grant's celebrated, if at times impenetrable (not to mention out of print) "Nightside of Eden". "Liber 231" is one of the more obscure of Aleister Crowley's "Holy Books". Basically it's a table showing two sets of 22 sigils corresponding to the twenty-two tarot trumps and paths on the Kabalistic "Tree of Life". Given that the spheres and paths on the tree are clearly derived from the Ancient Egyptian "Book of Gates" - the array suggest two tunnels through the underworld, one under the patronage of Horus; the other of Seth. It is the Sethian tunnel that has received most attention, I guess because the "Journey of Horus" is well covered by the conventional Tarot sequence.

There is a colour section of four full colour realisations of the "Nightside Tarot" cards, based I would guess on the prototypes in Kenneth Grant's "Nightside of Eden". "Liber 231" itself has no images apart from the very enigmatic sigils, drawn, so it is said, by Crowley's devoted disciple, Major J F C Fuller. Those in "Howlings" were created by Stafford Stone, who has been exploring and painting the cards and the related "Tunnels of Seth" for several years, during which time "his parents, a close aunt and uncle, a best friend and two pet cats all died." He lost his wife and young son, his home and most of his possessions,"close friendships imploded, relationships crumbled, jobs were lost, debts incurred, stupid actions undertaken and grave errors of judgment made." But hey, "Je ne regrette rien". All of which explains, in some perverse way the attraction of this and indeed other grimoires, although for others it might be a good reason to leave well alone. Although some sort of precaution in terms of banishing might be in order, of the kind recommended in the lead article by Krysztof Azarewicz of the Mihrab Camp OTO. He also suggests yogic exercises to calm the ego, before starting. There was much other useful information in this essay, including advice on how to colour the sigils if you decide to dispense with other people's full blown versions and just use the basic sigils and corresponding couplets. The later seems to be the original intention of "Liber 231", as a basic test or "mind gym" for the initiates astral skills.

Well, if the other sections are as meaty as the above, which my friend the cunning man Jack Daw assures me they are, then this is a nifty little volume and well worth the asking price of £33+ My suggestion for the next number would be to maybe make better use of the gold blocking for a more eye catching cover. But on the whole - highly recommended [Mogg]

Honouring Ancient Pagans and Paganism

[Paganism] is "just a collection of ethnic polytheism whatever was not Judaism or Christianity,
but given a name by the lazy cunning of Christian apologists,
who could then use their most salacious material to discredit all their opponents at one go."

Fowden, review of Lane Fox 1986, JRS 78 (1988) : 176 quoted in Frankfurter : 75

“Pagan” and “Paganism” was early Christian slang, meaning “civilian” and not as some say, pejorative terms for “rustic” or “provincial”. Some of the most high profile “pagans” attacked by Christians in antiquity dwelt in sophisticated cities. For example the pagan martyr Hypatia, was from Alexandria, a city notorious to Christians, for its intellectual pagans.

Robin Lane Fox /Pagans & Christians/. Penguin 1986:

“In antiquity, pagans already owed a debt to Christians. Christians first gave them their name, /pagani/. The word first appears in Christian inscriptions of the early fourth century and remained colloquial, never entering the Latin translation of the Bible. In everyday use, it meant either civilian or a rustic. Since the sixteenth century, the origin of the early Christian’s usage has been disputed, but of the two meanings, the former is the likelier. /Pagani/ were civilians who had not enlisted through baptism as soldiers of Christ against the powers of Satan. By its word for non-believer, Christian slang bore witness to the heavenly battle which coloured Christian’s view of life.

“Paganism” too, is a Christian coinage, a word like “Judaism”, which suggests a system of doctrine and orthodoxy, as Christian religion knows one. By modern historians pagan religion has been defined as essentially a matter of cult acts . . . pagans performed rites but professed no creed or doctrine. They did pay detailed acts of cult, especially by offering animal victims to their gods; but they were not committed to revealed beliefs in the strong Christian sense of the term. They were not exhorted to faith: “to anyone brought up on classical Greek philosophy, faith was the lowest form of cognition . . . the state of mind of the uneducated.” Although followers of Plato’s philosophy began to give the term more value in the later third century ad, no group of pagans ever called themselves “the faithful”; the term remains one of the few ways of distinguishing Jewish and Christian Epitaphs from those which are Pagan.”

Robin Lane Fox is always interesting, although he does share the tendency of many historians of his generation, who tend to view things either through the distorting filter of Greek philosophy/theology or from a Christian terminus. But we might ask, was everything in the ancient world just preparation for the coming of Christianity - or can it be examined as a set of ideas in its own right? We might therefore question some of his comments about "pagan" religion being all about "cult acts" and void of any notion of inner piety. As always this tends to avoid the "elephant in the room". Ancient Egypt is now widely acknowledged as being a special case. The ancient Egyptians were renowned for their piety. But why do modern scholars never see things from their point of view when writing about "pagan" religion?

"Pagan" and "Paganism" may be loaded terms but they are not pejorative. What is little known, and little studied, is the organised "pagan" resistance to Christianity, which was recognised at the time as a dangerous, anti-intellectual movement, akin to the "taliban" of modern times.

"Paganism" came into being principally in the writings of Iamblicus, who created an eucumenical tradition based on the Chaldean oracles, that valued all major theologies, especially Babylonian, Egyptian and Greek. These pagan "clans" called themselves - "Neo-platonists", "Hellenes", "Chaldeans" or "Hermeticists" - and they were persecuted by state and the mob for several centuries. When the Athenian academy was forcibly closed, they took refuge in Alexandria, Aphroditopolis and finally the open city of Haran in Persia. Here these ideas eventually flowed into the heterodox traditions of early Islam. When the fanatical christian emperor Justinian began to really turn the screws, he was stopped in his tracks by the Treaty of Haran, which stipulated that the local philosophical pagans (Chaldeans) be allowed to continue their studies. In fury Justinian lashed out at the sanctuary of Isis at Philai, in Upper Egypt. (see Polymnia Athanassiadi "Persecution and Response in Late Paganism - the evidence of Damascius", Journal of Hellenic Studies 113 1-29)

I feel a personal desire to remember the struggles, sacrifices and often martyrdom of those "intellectual pagans" of the late classical world. They, like the modern pagans, were eucumenical and eclectic, hence we should be proud to number ourselves amongst their number.

Mogg Morgan

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Paganism on "Second Life"

My current obsession with "Second Life" has certainly raised a few eyebrows amongst my friends, especially after the recent screening of the BBC documentary "Virtual Adultery and Cyberspace Love" in their Wonderland series. It's certainly true that all human life is here, well almost. Yes there is conflict and abuse, but there is also real learning and growth happening in this virtual world. At the moment I tend to avoid the seamier sides and concentrate on its powerful educational and/or transformational possibilities.

"Educate and Entertain" - said Bertolt Brecht - "Second Life" is entertaining and absorbing. You learn a lot too. It improves hand / eye coordination, your typing improves without you even realising it; and life skills, well they have to get better. So I've had to endure a lot of the "Get a life" type comments - even as in my other incarnation, I help out at the local Homeless Drop-in centre. I might be helping someone discover an interest in Spanish conversation or even Japanese, but I still get sneering comments from folk on the lines of "what's the point of that".

I have two "avatars" - one for my day job, the other to accommodate my pagan interests. What really turned me on was when I discovered it was possible to film yourself in the Second Life world. So using the practice tape of an old lecture as a soundtrack, I was able to add visuals "filmed" on location in Second Life. This is called "machinima" - and the first fruits of that can be viewed as a film on "Egyptian Magick (Typhonian)" currently viewable on Youtube. I spent some time on Second Life getting a reasonable look and perfecting things like gestures before heading off in search of interesting locations.

One of my first hangouts was an island run by the UK's "Children of Artemis". The Children of Artemis, one of the UK's largest Wiccan organisations, is obviously quite ahead of the game when it comes to new technology. Their "witchdating.com" is one of the best I've seen on the net. They obviously have some excellent programmers working for them, as their site has an excellent "bar" - virtual drinks yes, but these are good places to hang out for a chat etc. They also have a shopping mall that mirrors the excellent marketing areas of their regular real life conferences. There was also a fun Greek style temple, and garden area for virtual rituals - but that seems to have been redeveloped now for flats. Sign of the times maybe? In the Second Life "economy" the selling of "real estate" is the primary way people make money - both real and virtual. I hung out at the Children of Artemis site for a while - and although I enjoyed it there wasn't an awful lot of Pagan conversation - mainly it was about clothes and fashion. Although recently I noticed there are lessons on aspects of witchcraft taking place there on a regular basis.

My next stop was the "Cathedral of Thelema" - which really is a fine place, complete with a subsidiary island, as in Liber Al "Build me an island". So far not much has happened in the cathedral, although it is all ready for a gnostic mass. But it's a cool place to hang out and have a chat, or edit one's appearance in private. Some might be sceptical about the value of rituals in cyber space. I have to say that so far I've not been able to make one - despite several invites - but I guess it might be useful for some sort of visualisation or training. Several scenes for my Egyptian Magick film were made in the Cathedral.

Next I went to SPQR Roma - which is a similation based on ancient Rome. I am currently an acolyte in the Collegia Roma, training for the priesthood, although I am really into the Ancient Egyptian religion. I've met a lot of Pagans in Roma and the acolyte training is one of the most thorough I've yet encountered in SL. It didn't take me long to find the deserted Mithraem, just outside the Forum. It's an accurate representation of the real macoy. I should say that as SL is mainly an American thing, it does tend to be deserted when I am about - but that's changing too. There is an excellent Ancient Egyptian simulation although this is used for war gaming. There are many combat areas in SL, but it's not really my thing. But it's usually possible to enter as a non-combatant, as these areas often have excellent simulations. The temples and palaces are really excellent, full of beautful details, including trapdoors and secret passages. All these locations are in my Youtube film. Even so I've not so far found an authentic Egyptian model in SL, neither is there an authentic Hindu Temple. But things are still developing.

My latest excursion is to the Pagan Dawn site - again very quiet when I am there. Pagan Dawn is the publication of the UK's Pagan Federation but I'm not too sure of the relationship between the two. In the island's centre a path laid out in the shape of the Chaos Sphere with eight spikes. Each of the spikes points to a different style of magick. There's also a "traditional English pub" complete with pictures of Austin Spare and Aleister Crowley on the wall. Another spike has a grove for Wiccan type things, another a broken down graveyard for traditional witchcraft. There's a lovely chapel for virtual handfastings. It looks fun. I plan to rendez-vous with some of my SL friends there someday soon. For more details of all these picks, why not look me up on SL. - "Mogg Morgwain"

PS: Here's some intriquing Group Notices: Beltane sabbat on Seasons alter at 9pm slt (skyclad) Please Join us for Beltane sabbat on Seasons alter at salem circle at 9pm slt. And for a Great right renactment *adult content* following Immediately afterwards at 11pm slt. Tonights ritual is sky clad. you do not have to come skyclad but please be advised. Use attached Land mark to attend. This notice has an attachment. The "skyclad" requirement was later made optional, guess it depends on whether one has a big part. For technical reasons, many SL "avatars" don't look so good "skyclad".

REWARD: $L 750.00
A thief has stolen the Sacred Golden Scarab from the temple while the priests were dedicating the soldiers Barracks yesterday afternoon. The thief was caught, but not before he was able to hide the sacred object (about the size of your foot). Anyone who is able to find the Scarab will be rewarded with special favor from the Gods and will receive a reward of $L 750. The thief was caught on the west side of the Nile. The Medjay will continue to interrogate the prisoner for clues as to where the Sacred item has been hidden.

If you find the Scarab bring it either to to High Priest Akhom (Cal Hainsworth) or High Priestess Neferet (Foxy ) to receive your blessings and reward.

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The Chemical Wedding (Film Review) Julian Doyle & Bruce Dickinson

reviewed by Ivor Davies

Fun trailer, but bereft of the usual hype associated with the launch
of a movie, I arrived at the Apollo West End to see the Chemical
Wedding with mainly my own great expectations.

Stormtroopers from Star Wars greeted moviegoers at the doors as it
was the final night of a Sci-Fi festival and after a few beers at the
bar we all sat in the theatre and waited. Two simultaneous screenings
in adjacent theatres in the same cinema – cast and crew in Screen 4,
us common people in the one next door in Screen 5. After a personal
introduction by Bruce Dickinson (screenwriter), Julian Doyle
(director) and Simon Callow (lead actor) we all looked forward to the
film.

The story begins with the arrival of American scientist Mathers from
Cal Tech to supervise the installation of a virtual reality simulator
suit at Cambridge University. For the very first time this state-of-
the-art piece of equipment is being hooked up to a revolutionary new
British supercomputer, the Z93, which unbeknown to anyone, has been
programmed with a virus by lab assistant Victor who has reduced the
rituals of Aleister Crowley into binary code and infected it with
them.

The film time shifts back to when mild mannered university lecturer
Professor Haddo (Simon Callow) is willingly persuaded into the suit
by Victor for its first trial run. Haddo goes missing immediately
after his experience in the suit and turns up the following day at a
lecture theatre to give a talk on Shakespeare's "Hamlet" – except
that clearly he is no longer the man he used to be, no longer the
meek stammering lecturer he was before his VR suit experience but now
an outrageous sexually explicit speaker who urinates on his audience.
The film goes on to imply that the Z93 supercomputer virus composed
by Victor has actually caused Haddo to become the reincarnation of
Aleister Crowley and so begins a tale of the apparent depths of
depravity that a person possessed by the soul of Aleister Crowley
would sink to.

This is the crux of the problem that this film has – just what would
someone possessed by the late Aleister Crowley do all day long? "Sex
and murder" unfortunately is this film's disturbing answer and then
just how outrageous can this character become? The implication in the
trailer was that this portrayal of Crowley might be tongue-in-cheek
or humorous, but the result is far more worrying than that.

Numerous examples of exactly "just how evil could a person possessed
by Aleister Crowley be" continue in a procession of visual and
conceptual shocks ranging from relatively innocuous excrement
deposited on an office desk to the crucifixion of a prostitute. Now,
controversial a character as Crowley was, I really must ask what
Bruce Dickinson is up to here. I listened to Callow emphasise that
his portrayal of Haddo was "Playing the part of someone possessed by
Crowley… and not actually Crowley Himself" but I see this as a pre-
emptive excuse on his part for what we saw on screen and some of the
issues that we might have with it.

As for the characters: shallow, meaningless and undefined. Haddo
comes over as nothing and we don't care that he's been possessed by
Aleister Crowley (n.b. Simon Callow's performance is a delight – I
just wish the script had been up to it.), Lia the journalist is our
damsel in distress and you don't care if she's rescued or not,
Aleister Crowley is just pure evil and doesn't deserve to be
reincarnated, Victor is just a virus writing geek and got what he
deserved.

Deeply offensive, blatantly sensationalist, Bruce Dickinson's script
leaves me with questions about the target audience of this film –
fans of Simon Callow (?), fans of Bruce Dickinson (heavy metal fans
who will be disappointed by the soundtrack), fans of Aleister Crowley
(please note, only those who specifically want to be thought of as
evil and twisted) or practicing occultists (who will be annoyed by
this film's cold and completely non-spiritual content).

Three words describe this film: "Straight", "To", "DVD".

The Chemical Wedding - Official Trailer (Crowley Film):

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