The Waltons of Archeofuturism.

“There was a growing independence in our family as we grew older. With the years we became more individual, often holding firm and differing opinions, approaching life from diverse directions. But let joy or sorrow come to one, it always came to us all, to be faced, to be shared, to be experienced together. When the Waltons needed to be a family we came together as one.” - ‘John Boy’ Walton Jr.

“ARCHEOFUTURISM: The attitude that approaches the future in terms of ancestral values, believing that notions of modernism and traditionalism need to be dialectically transcended. - Guillaume Faye.

“The sea ended right before his eyes. As he watched the final surge of each wave as it drained into the sand, the final thrust of mighty power that had come down through countless centuries, he was struck by the pathos of it all. At that very point, a grand pan-oceanic enterprise that spanned the world went awry and ended in annihilation.” - Yukio Mishima (Spring Snow.)

To say that we live in chaotic times seems to me somewhat of an anachronism, perhaps something I might have believed in some recently obscured timeline, perhaps as the consequence of the speed at which culture now devours itself. There exists a point of realization where chaos no longer adequately describes the overall impression given when staring into the depths beyond the crippled facade of a civilization teetering on the brink of collapse. I suspect the reality of it is closer to the possibility that we are facing an apocalypse or revealing of the true nature of that which gave birth to our cosmos. High weirdness on every level is becoming more and more a fact of life for many people who peer beyond the flattering spectacle on the screen. The surface is beguiling in its hypnotic movements of swirling micro-systems, like a map of some global weather system, we are transfixed by the suspicion of the existence of an intelligence we can barely conceptualize. This, of course, is the trap we are always on the lookout for if we wish to stay on course in our journey across the oceans of pandaemonium. It is the masque of the true face of Chaos as it was understood in ancient times, it is a riddle written in blood and woven into the fabric of life. It presents us with the challenge to go beyond that which is merely “known”. As much as humans have struggled with Nature from the beginning they have struggled with Chaos… so in order to advance as a species without struggling “against” Nature we must re-frame our idea of our travails on this planet. Yes, we do at times struggle, but are we struggling with, or against? It may turn out to be a subtle distinction, but a highly important one, nonetheless. The same will be true for Chaos.

For some of us who stare into the chasm beyond this wreck of a post-society of the spectacle, Traditionalism, with its emphasis on a higher truth than the scientific materialism of our current, disintegrating paradigm, and dealing with certain realities that are inherent in Nature, can present us with much food for thought and inspiration. But it can also just as easily serve as a distraction from the very reality that most of us live and work with, a reality saturated by materialism and all its petty abstractions. In this arena we need strategies that are intelligent, able to learn and adapt without betraying or diluting the core values we find of interest in Tradition. In order to do this realistically we must not lose sight of Tradition, but at the same time we must be oriented in the correct direction with regard to it. To be tied to a fundamentalist traditionalism is a fate worse than death for us, for it is no better than the materialistic individualism that it purports to oppose. A false dialectic, a distraction, a smokescreen for the agents of the status quo, a straight-jacket for the mind (even Evola points this out in his “Ride the Tiger”.) We adopt here the term and general concept of Archeofuturism to denote our Will to live closer to the ideals of our ancestors while maintaining a fixed gaze upon the future and the realities of the present that now face us looking into that future. We are not saying here that one should not be a confirmed Traditionalist, or that strictly kept traditions of all kinds aren’t incredibly valuable, in fact, quite the opposite. If that is ones calling and it comes from an authentic connection to ones place in Nature then it is heartily recommended, not only as a healthy evolutionary strategy (given the right conditions), but also as a good way of living that promotes the natural order and respects the environment. However, many of us were not raised on Walton’s Mountain, although we may be spiritual cousins, we have been nurtured in the belly of the beast some of us, fumbling our way in the semi darkness of an education and culture poisoned by its own ideals towards the distant light of a brighter future, partially obscured by the phantasms of apathy and inattention. If we have pushed through the conditioning dished out liberally by the cultured Marxists in their march through our institutions, then we have successfully freed ourselves to deal with Chaos, but not chaos with a small “c”. We become cyber-shamans of techno-futurism, struggling with Chaos and Nature, not against them. The struggle becomes a striving, and the striving becomes a cause… and a cause begins to take effect.

For us an alliance with the forces of Chaos and Nature has been forged, an alliance that penetrates the soul, intersecting at the nexus of past and future in the very now of our being. We have drunk deeply from the cup of indulgence, sowed our seeds in many a fallow field and placed self before all gods, but we have been redeemed, not by grace or by knowledge or wisdom, but by action guided by all three. The great civilizations of the past that we look to for inspiration were all doomed to crumble from the start as is the current project, but it is the striving towards our goals and the authenticity of our cause that gives hope to its future realization. What good are plans without the Will with which to bring them to materialization? What good are plans that do not take into account a changing reality? We must think on our feet sometimes, but it is sureness of action that is the key to attaining our goals, and so our connection to Chaos and Nature must inform our actions in a way that enables us to plan for a future based on ideals that seem radical when looked at from the point of view of contemporary consensus opinion, but which dare to question the overriding norms of the current discourse in art, politics, religion/spirituality and culture. Everything seems a bit too fragmented at times, as if some invisible hand were preventing the cohesion of forces at our disposal. Only a dynamic, intelligent strategy will do against the great tide that bears against us. The Waltons of Archeofuturism will carry the flame of tradition in the hearth of their loving homes, even though they may yet remain among the cities of the damned, they and their progeny shall come together as a family, they will leave the choking metropolis of Mammon to its inevitable fate and resettle in the ancestral lands to create a future for others of their kind, regardless of differences in opinion and belief. It is this flame, this ray of the Black Sun trapped in a prism that we must harness and focus in order to draw strength enough to go beyond struggle and towards Wu Wei and a future for our children.

Love is a battlefield.

Who knows how it all started, this thing that we are gathered here today to get through, this thing called life (to paraphrase a great man). Did life emerge from primal slime, slowly developing consciousness over billions and billions of years, or did it drift here on cosmic winds from galaxies far, far away? Is it all a chaotic, fractal unfurling of organic processes fused with some a-priori intelligence, or the divine plan of a mad architect who fell into its own creation, and if so, was that fall by choice or by some compulsion? Questions, questions... so many questions, about the future and the  past, yet nothing is more compelling, engaging, challenging and mysterious than the present that we live and breathe. There is an old saying in England that goes "there are two things you can be sure of in life... death and taxes." Well, I don't think taxes are going to be around forever considering the way things are going, death however, reigns supreme, but what of struggle? Whether you perceive your personal life as a struggle or not will to some degree be approximate to the success, or lack of, that you have so far attained in manifesting your plans and desires. Certain conditions encountered in life will give rise to choices, the decisions taken will further shape a persons understanding and picture of the world around them. Even though some of us like to imagine that there are plenty of other people in the world who wake up each day, get out of bed and never have a moment of real struggle in their lives from one blissful day of leisure to the next, I suspect that this is never really the case. From the moment we are born we struggle to feed, to crawl and walk, and things get easier, becoming second nature and we're onto the next challenge. Often if we are handed opportunities on a plate, we may discover that they come with responsibilities we did not expect and which challenge us to the point of struggle, until we overcome, or retreat in failure. And even those who can honestly say that life is no struggle for them will be apt to appreciate the struggle of our ancestors and forebears which gave rise to all the joys of life which they are now fortuitous enough to enjoy.

Chaopolitical esoterrorism. Part 3.

"Fascination is always the result of impressiveness. When fascination is not achieved by falsehood, it is always brought about by some piece of impressive staging." - Eliphas Levi.

"To put it another way, the artist exists only if he is known. Consequently, one can envisage the existence of a hundred thousand geniuses who are suicides, who kill themselves, who disappear, because they didn't know what to do to make themselves known, to push themselves, and to become famous." _ Marcel Duchamp.

"Of course it takes courage and imagination and discipline to develop the beliefs and intents to change a situation, but of all these, imagination needs enticement and encouragement first in the quest for personal empowerment. Thus whilst Neopantheists recognise belief as a tool rather than as an end in itself (faith) they may nevertheless select beliefs which appeal to their imagination and stimulate it further, ritualistically acting out the belief 'as if' true." - Peter J Carroll.

The effectiveness of any act, be it the execution of a piece of artwork, political activism, or ritual enchantment may be put down to several factors including timing, preparation, mindset and the random factor. As initiates, artists, sorcerers, and chaoists, it has always been our way to seek the favour of the random factor through sympathy, placation, sacrifice and even threat, acts going back to the ancient shaman at the dawn of the human mind, through the witchcraft of the middle ages and the alchemy and hermetics of the post-enlightenment, to the present post-apocalypse of the senses where a dissolving of boundaries and fornication of ideas together with the promiscuity of information give way to new forms of expression for both the forces of stasis and mediocrity, and their various enemies.  As enemies of stasis and mediocrity of whatever stripe, we have chosen to dedicate our time and energy toward the study of the random factor and the expression of our findings, musings and inspiration through the act of either art, magic, or activism. The overlap between these various expressions of will may give us some insight into how to be more creative, imaginative, more effective. In order to lay the foundations as best we can, careful attention must be payed to timing, preparation and mindset in order to hurdle the random factor and achieve success. Timing we can do away with for the moment as it will be something more specific in each separate case, and all aspects of preparation that pertain to these specifics. Instead we will keep our focus mainly on preparation and its relation to  mindset. An esoterrorist aiming for optimum effect will train as rigorously as befits their physical, mental and emotional means. In the same way that crack martial troops drill with repetition their set pieces and combinations, movements and stretches to stay limber and ready for the fight, so the esoterrorist will dedicate the  body and mind as a temple in which to hone and refine the art. Training also involves privations and self-overcoming, a sacrifice of the individual ego to the collective in the form of the regiment for the soldier. Chaopolitical esoterrorists strive to overcome the reliance on abstractions like collective/individual, set up as they are as false goal posts to distract and further divide all who wish to bring about real change as catalysts in the metapolitical culture war. For us a different set of principles must arise, based on experience, not hearsay and smooth talk, sound judgement, not impulsive reaction. The fundamentals that each person protects and defends may be different to the next according to their life experiences and cultural scaffolding, but all can benefit from the stepping outside of accepted parameters that chaopolitics affords. 

As to the practical realities of training, preparation and mindset, a variety of techniques are available from a plethora of resources, some of which I will list at the end. Here we will talk about an approach that has manifested by varying degrees in the practices of chaos magicians and postmodern esoteric cults, right up to the "insight roles" of the infamous ONA. I'm talking about, of course, the practice of adopting a belief and identifying with it as intensely and authentically as is possible in order for that belief to become "true" to the psychic sensor (the filter mechanism that mediates between the conscious and subconscious mind, it regulates the laws of accepted reality). In the extreme form this is done for a long period of time as the initiate is drawn deeper and deeper into the paradigm and mindset he/she is using (the chosen paradigm is usually selected to challenge or oppose the fundamental principles and/or prejudices of the initiate) until a complete assimilation has taken place, complete except for the thread which attaches the initiate to his/her work and to a transcendent set of magical principles that allows for a resetting to base chaos once the cycle is complete. This base chaos is not the same as it was when the initiate embarked, due to a wealth of experience and insight gained through strict dedication and detached commitment a state, not only of greater empathy, but also of greater personal power has been achieved. On a less intense scale we can look at the practices adopted and developed by the burgeoning chaos magic current in the 80's and early 90's, among them, Pete Carroll was a leading light and I have opened this final installment of our topic with one of his more accessible quotes above. The ideal of all chaos magicians is to step outside of the limiting scope of enclosed paradigms and to adopt a more utilitarian approach toward belief as a tool, rather than an end in itself. The baseline must be the Null-zone of chaos in order to enable the non-attachment necessary to the execution of what Carroll terms "Random Belief". In his seminal work, Liber Null, he sets out some very practical and engaging practices intended to develop the faculty of this "chaoist" mindset. He suggests trying out a different belief system/reality tunnel each week, covering: 1) Paganism, 2)Monotheism, 3)Atheism, 4)Nihilism (Late Atheism), 5)Chaoism, and 6)Superstition (Low Chaoism), each following sequentially, one after the other, until Superstition leads back towards Paganism. Further to this the initiate is then encouraged to use the roll of a dice to select by random chance the belief system that dictates and underpins his consequent actions. This is just a brief description of a type of mental training and discipline that can prove most effective for anyone wishing to engage in the surreal world of shifting image and form that has become the battleground of the (post-)postmodern apocalypse. Imagine what can be done by applying the same approach to the political compass. well, as it turns out, a similar approach has been applied in the realm of political theory, by a Russian author and theorist, whom I have quoted in parts 1 & 2 of this meandering monologue. In his book entitled " The Fourth Political Theory", Alexander Dugin (who, if we are wont to believe such things, has the ear of none other than Mr Vladimir Putin) sets out an exercise intended to aid those whom he invites to take part in the ongoing formation of this 4PT (4th Political Theory) to gain better insights when searching for political solutions to their current dilemmas, or current political "project". We are not interested here in the development of a political theory though. What interests us is the suggested practice, which is simply to read through political books, papers and manifestos while maintaining a particular mindset for the duration of the entire piece which negatively mirrors the political thrust of the content. For example, you would read say, Marx or Adorno whilst maintaining a positive rather than negative right-wing viewpoint in order to pick out nuances in the work that can be applied and expanded on within another framework or narrative, then you might read Evola or Bowden whilst maintaining a positive left-wing viewpoint and so on. Although lacking the eclecticism and extreme relativism that seem to underpin chaos magic in the general use of the term, it appears that the author here has indeed delved into the twilight realms of magic and sorcery (his blatant use of a chaos-sphere/chaos-star on the book jacket of the title just mentioned kind of screams a bit.) Both of these exercises that I have mentioned can be read in context and in their entirety by researching the books mentioned, which will be listed at the end. They can be applied literally, but they can also perhaps spark the imagination to invent new ways of extracting insight and inspiration from areas that would normally lie beyond the reach of the aforementioned psychic sensor. 

Now for the motivational closing section...

When I was fifteen, sixteen years old I wasn't really doing school properly, I wasn't doing home-life that well either, in fact I wasn't doing a lot of things the way they should be done if you want to get on in life. Thankfully though, I had learned to make use my talents to express myself to myself and remain relatively sane throughout the chaotic period of my life, which had begun to emerge and would remain for several decades. This expression of self to self is what led me to develop an interest in chaos magic and related works including those of the late William S Burroughs, Robert Anton Wilson and others... I also devoured Crowley and LaVey and their related influences with gusto, but nothing would sustain me for long, even though I retain an interest in many of the books I read and owned then, they seem like footnotes now, in the ongoing journey I started long, long ago. It was at the same age that I had begun to take a real interest in the work of the artist, Marcel Duchamp. I'm not an art critic, and my art history is a little shady at best, but his work always struck a chord of resonance within my struggling soul. I fell in love with "nude descending a staircase" and when I learned about his change of direction and decision to quit painting forever, I was struck by something unexplainable, it hit me on a deep level and rebounded with my adolescent, egocentric worldview, becoming part of the fuel for an inexplicable fire. I work to this day to contain and channel this fire to where it may benefit myself and others. This is why I chose the quote by Duchamp at the top of this final installment of our trilloblog/ue. At first I wanted to find something that would fit in with the shock tactics of esoterrorism, and so I homed in on the quote, "A painting that doesn't shock isn't worth painting." It was repeated by the interviewer in the article I was looking at and Duchamp responded with a kind of rejoinder where he explained in more detail about the reasons that art gets noticed and the struggle that most artists have to endure if they are to maintain their authenticity and from that, the ability to cause shock, though he also admits that artists who become successful and comfortable tend to produce a lot of shit art (my words). For us here and now, the interest lies in not art for art's sake, but in the overlap between magic, art and life/politics. I can't wait for the day when we no longer need to rely on these strange abstractions  to conduct normal life, but as I have a somewhat dim view of our ability as a species to evolve to that point within my own life time, or any time soon for that matter, I remain more than skeptical. We need to apply our Connexion to nature, our nature, to the situation at hand. Our nature is something that stems from Mother Nature, it reaches out into everything we do, in our loves and our struggles and conflicts it shows through and gives our journey a meaning, a persona and an identity that we may share, but is known only in its entirety by our inmost selves. It is in this nature that the question of identity arises and simultaneously nullifies and reconciles the liberty/authority, or, individual/collective dichotomies which were phantasms to begin with... useful ghosts. Our nature, more real, more vital is the key we must grasp with both hands in the thick of the fray or in the passion of carnal desire. Life goes on and we wake up with the same struggles and passions and hopes and anxieties, we do enough to keep going and are exhausted at the effort, yet somehow we still feel the fire. Damaged, but unbroken we forge onward, and when we feel the moldy breath of the tyrants of mediocrity upon our necks we shall seize the hour to redouble our zeal, for as long as nature is desecrated by parasites and the gentrification of every aspect of life fixes the price of the currency we are forced to use, and the enemy looks on from an ivory tower, licking its lips and salivating at the thought of total victory, we shall remain to fight, in Love and Light. Namaste, Motherfuckers!

Books mentioned or otherwise suggested:

Dialogues with Marcel Duchamp [With an appreciation by Jasper Johns]  Da Capo 1979.

Speed and politics by Paul Virilio. Semiotext(e) 2006.

*The Fourth Political Theory by Alexander Dugin. Arktos media 2012.

*Liber Null & Psychonaut by Peter J Carrol. Weiser 1987.

Fragments by Jean Baudrillard. Verso 1997.

Chaopolitical esoterrorism. Part2.

"Not only the highest supra-mental symbols of faith can be taken on board once again as a new shield, but so can those irrational aspects of cults, rites, and legends that have perplexed theologians in earlier ages." - Alexander Dugin.

"The importance of the priest (the Magician), of the patriarch, comes from his ability to establish this commerce of exchange with the gods/nature, to temper their whims, their violence." - Paul Virilio. 

"When I say 'magical', I do not mean what today the majority of people think when they hear the term 'magic', which is almost always discredited by prejudices and counterfeits. Nor do I refer to the meaning the term acquires when referred to the sui generis empirical science typical of antiquity, which was rather limited in its scope and effects. Magic in this context designates a special attitude towards spiritual reality itself, an attitude of centrality that is closely related to regal tradition and initiation." - Julius Evola.

I should start here by briefly explaining my use of the quotes which open each section to these musings. They are primarily intended to provoke thought, to throw up a set of ideas that enable the reader to set the stage in an open ended manner. They  do not necessarily reflect my own opinions with regard to those particular authors. A good example of this is my use of the words of Russian political theorist and philosopher, Alexander Dugin. There is much in Dugin's work, specifically that regarding his "fourth political theory"  which made my sensors prick up and set alarm bells ringing. Though initially and perhaps superficially many of the ideas put forward in his book of the aforementioned title were appealing, they began to reek of a sense of Machiavellian obfuscation combined with a kind of Fagin like massaging of the "western" reader's ego (it mainly appeals to the new or alt-right, but it has at least an equal, if not greater influence that stems from Bolshevist, radical leftism, much of which is deftly woven into the text to appear innocuous). The chaos initiate in me cracked a wry grin at the way this wily old Russian fox was using the principle of chaosophy (the use of belief/ideology as a tool for mental constructions) in his political theorizing in what appears on the one hand to have the nature of a PSYOP, and on the other, that of a highly enlightened approach to politics. So although I was somewhat distrustful of his geopolitical intentions, I remained impressed by the approach. This selective picking out of various concepts from both "right" and "left", re-framing and juxtaposing, an admixture of philosophical and occult motifs interwoven throughout, to create an ambiguous, yet alluring (even to its most vehement detractors it seems to hold an almost sado-erotic attraction) manifesto in progress is what I have termed "chaopolitics".

"Esoterrorism" is a term loosely used among some occultists today to denote a sort of sorcery or enchantment that has the ability to cause shock. This could be a literal shock in terms of triggering the fight or flight responses in ones target, or it could be an equally drastic change of situation or circumstance that appears shocking to those who are unaware of the supernatural intervention of magic. It uses propaganda, misdirection and sleight of mind to achieve its aims. Guerrilla troops of an invisible resistance, solo renegades or small cells spread throughout the concrete jungles and highways, bound by no creed, no law, no manifesto... yet somehow synchronized in ways that defy the prying gaze of the big eyeball in the sky. This atmosphere of espionage and intrigue is ritually compressed and manipulated for use as a substrate on which to germinate the seeds of revolution. Weaponized paranoia. Beneath the surface of this apparent anarchy skirmish a motley crew of beliefs and ideologies, all broken on the wheel of repeated failure and prone to self-destructive cannibalism. Everything is use at this level. The utility of any given construct is relative to its value, exclusive of fundamentals whose value is separate and determined by higher principles. Yes, because fundamentalism has its place in the postmodern lexicon clearly marked out, we might find, if we look closer, a multitude of fundamentalisms, a proliferation that engulfs the senses and boggles the mind, yet we are still as far away from the individualist universal ideal as we ever were, are, or will be. Perhaps the future is already  being shaped by a federation of fundamentally sovereign states of mind that are still in their infancy as I write this. 

This non-attachment to abstractions such as left/right, authoritarian/libertarian or even, center/periphery, combined with an identity based on a consciousness of fundamental conditions, is the launch-pad for chaopolitical esoterrorist activities. The repression of  some or all of these fundamental conditions of identity, or the subverting of that identity by displacement or appropriation by another group or entity, when conditions are so disposed that there is no other tangible recourse, can lead to a situation where esoteric warfare presents itself as the most reasonable option, especially if such hypothetical groups or entities have themselves used propaganda, mind control and/or occult means to their advantage. Careful attention has been taken here to present the broadest outline of method and mindset concerning the subject matter, so as to emphasize the diverse range of ideas, and media through which they can be applied, that are at the disposal of the magical activist. From this understanding we can  get to the nuts and bolts of things without the burden of attachment to ideological preference to weigh us down. In part 3 I shall close my ramblings on this topic with a look at things from the perspective of the artist as sorcerer/enchantress, but until then I leave you with one of Dugin's more insightful moments: -

"Learn to oppose not the political idea, program or strategy, but the 'objective' reality of the Status Quo, the most social aspect of the apolitical, fractured (post-)society."  

Chaopolitical esoterrorism. Part 1.

"In our age there is no such thing as 'keeping out of politics.' All issues are political issues, and politics itself is a mass of lies, evasions, folly, hatred and schizophrenia." - George Orwell.

"We are in a society of icy intolerance, where the slightest diversion from, the mildest breach of, the reality principle is violently repressed. Realist Philistinism and Pharisaism are triumphant on all sides. All ideas are immediately cast in concrete. The anathema level is the equal of any religious or Stalinist society. Nothing has changed. The conspiracy of imbeciles is total." - Jean Baudrillard.

"So the only way to save ourselves, to save humanity and culture from this snare, is to take the step beyond the logocentric culture, towards chaos." - Alexander Dugin.

It is the way of the initiate to seek the hidden causes of phenomena, and by observation and experience come to understand the innate workings of both Macrocosm and Microcosm. Just as there will be found to be "occult forces" which act behind the scenes of the apparent cause and effect of our own minds and bodies, so there will also be found certain forces of obscure origin lurking beyond our view on the world stage. Most average folk are more than content to focus on the apparent rather than trouble themselves with the bothersome task of looking a little further, and to a large extent we can hardly blame them for their ignorance when their very identities, let alone their means of existence depend on their compliance with the status quo. One of my pet niggles with the "truth movement" is the way it popularizes often obscure and occult themes by framing them (often in a negative context, but not always) in a conspiracy narrative which may or may not have some root in objective reality (an odd concept I know) and by this method manage to convince a growing community of consumers that they are informed on the hidden workings of the world when in actual fact all they have done is stray into what compared to their previous mindset is just a more exciting comfort zone. There will ever be the many and the few. The finer, rarer insights belong to those of the few... The courser but more practical insights belong to the many. All ancient esoteric lineages were marked by a strict elitism, initiation not only reflecting the spiritual state and progress of the initiate, but also marking them out as one of the "elect". This is perfectly natural and in no way did this fact denigrate those who applied themselves to the trades, the warriors, the artists, general labour, motherhood or any other equally demanding status in the community. As we stand poised at the brink of the disintegration of postmodernity we confront the malodorous cacophony of objections and contrived offense at any suggestion of the reality of human nature. The abhorrent blasphemy against all liberal, "civilized" morality that states "All men are not born equal, nor can they be made equal by any means, not even in death." The quality expressed in deeds and general composure distinguish the hero from the scoundrel, great men and women are remembered because they were more than an atomised unit of society. Universalism, in global, social terms, heralds a tyranny of mediocrity. And so here we come to the matter in hand, the bundle of threads that began to unravel between mundane life, magic and art created a knot, a nexus, that would significantly alter my metapolitical worldview. You could call it a sharpening of focus, or something akin to finding several dozen really important pieces of a jigsaw puzzle that when laid down in their places give a glimpse of something more strongly suggestive than what I had before. I'm going to keep it relatively cryptic, mainly because I want to talk about the entanglement between art, magic and mundane life/politics without the cumbersome and intellectually stultifying flag waving that accompanies all contemporary discussion in these areas. Nonetheless these areas converged at a particular point in space and time for me and it became inescapable to somehow work through it. 

Being primarily an artist, politics is not my first language, in fact I find greater eloquence in the area where art and magic overlap. However, one of the more interesting gifts of the postmodern era is the bleed through, simultaneous cross-infection of art, science, religion, politics... it becomes a blessing and a curse, like the motto of the assassins, "nothing is true, everything is permitted", an ambiguous phrase, unless one possesses the key to its meaning. Some problems do arise when it appears that certain things are more or less true and others more or less permitted depending on the majority consensus. Chaos does not allow us to escape from belief by somehow transcending it, though it can illuminate processes and power structures of belief and their potential for bringing about real physical consequences in the world of things. With this in mind we apply magic to art - art to magic in a way that brings forth the synthesis of our inspiration and reason. 

Because every act that is not sanctioned by the sanctimonious sub-lieutenants of the Synagogue of Satan [at no point do we confuse or conflate Satan with Lucifer here] is necessarily forbidden and therefore dangerous to the machinery of Mammon and its stranglehold on the planet we may find our best recourse, some of us, in chaopolitical esoterrorism.  

The roots of what we suggest here can be found in such diverse works as Hakim Bey's "Poetic terrorism" and "Immediatism"(with its emphasis on "art as crime, crime as art" and its concerns regarding "the extent to which our very involvement in arts such as writing, painting, or music implicates us in a nasty abstraction, a removal from immediate experience.") and "the numinous way" of David Myatt with its emphasis on the "immorality of abstractions." These two distinct concepts by two very different authors attack a similar subject by very divergent means: Immediatism seeks to cause shock and awe through the exercise of unmediated play and insurrectionist actions, whereas the Numinous way seeks to develop the individual to a point where they no longer "meddle with things" or infringe upon the harmonious existence of others due to an addiction to abstractions which stands between them and the world of experience. We are not dealing here with a fully developed philosophy or ideology, but more with a dynamic, living process of self over-becoming, an active participatory relationship towards our connexion with nature and ourselves, a relationship which fosters "individual honour" and empathy by avoiding the abstract dislocation that occurs through the mediation of thought and action. To this end we must admit the existence of an occult war, a clash of dimensions that far exceeds culture or ideology... the religious wars of past times appear somewhat uncomplicated in comparison. The battlefield is no longer that of blood-soaked territories and the prevalence of superior fire-power, it is now the territory of the mind that we desperately struggle to control in the face of counter-intelligence, propaganda and every form of subversion of which the enemy may avail itself in order to control socio-political narratives, and further steer our very existence as a species ever closer to the chasm of irrevocable self-destruction. We are dealing with forces very much antithetical towards the human race and which conquer from within via the  anesthesia produced by mass media and rampant consumerism.  

Chaopolitical esoterrorism rejects the impotence of the unipolar Right/Left dichotomy that dictates the popular narrative in politics, it rejects the folly of all false divisions spawned by an outdated post-enlightenment vision of democracy, a democracy riddled with plague and cancerous usury at the hands of international finance. It sees the mismanagement of the planet by a conspiracy of imbeciles and prepares with meticulous attention to detail, to wage esoteric war on all fronts.        

Stay regular.

You've got to stay regular. It's better to have things ticking over so that the whole system remains in motion than to stay constipated for long periods, resulting in the physically and mentally traumatic effects of passing a giant shit. Such a gargantuan, submersible monstrosity is often the effect of prolonged phases of procrastination and inactivity. There is also another danger that lies in wait, and that is the temptation to attempt an indefinite delay to the inevitable. In this case the shit builds up internally to such high concentrations that it has no other recourse but to exit its host by any available means. In order to avoid such antisocial discomforts, the artist maintains a silver thread throughout every moment in life, a thread that beckons to the creative spark, urging gently, sometimes longingly to scale the heights in search of vistas ever new. This thread shines in our memory, reminding us of experiences that although having receded from the now, still hold immense power when revived by our "magic art". Such an artist never "dries up", only goes slowly (sometimes not so slowly) mad or dies inside, leaving but a shell of what was once the crown of creation. Having exploded in an eruption of stored up logs or faded away, poisoned by the retention of toxins, these poor souls were martyred upon the cross of their art for want of a simple daily evacuation.  

But wait, let us pause to reflect. For some it may be a simple matter through force of habit, maturity of character or strength of will, for others the discipline involved in order to maintain a healthy output does not come so naturally and is either learned the hard way through bitter experience or development and execution of a steadfast resolve. We are not so much talking about the relative input here, although that would be an interesting topic in itself, I will concentrate for the now upon the digestion (which replenishes the finer body of the artist) and the process of materialization of the art.

A "varied diet" is a good starting point. More explicitly, I take an alternating approach to the first phase of drawing. If I have finished a work that began as a concrete idea or set of ideas I will often start the next piece with some free-drawing to inject a fresh influx of inspiration, and so on, alternating so as to create a kind of feedback loop over a period of time. Some people swear by the apothecary and proclaim the efficacy of self medication or micro-dosing, but I leave that for others to expound upon as I believe it is the same with all laxatives, that one must exercise caution and common sense if one is to maintain a sense of dignity and decorum. Alas, who has dignity anymore these days(?)... not even the Queen(!) 

But the Queen does poop, and as sure as the Queen poops the artist must seize the urge to squeeze out a drawing, a song, an idea for a play or to continue on the work in hand. The artist is verb, in this way [is=does]. This is why most shit art is created by shit artists. However, other artists, mediocre, good and excellent will occasionally make shit art, but in such instances it is often recognized as such and either buried or left to die of natural causes.   

How I know where to put everything.

The thumbnail image to this post is a photo of a recently finished, or nearly finished black and white ink drawing of the biblical and Gnostic character Seth (see gallery). As I was putting in a few finishing touches on the cobble stones with some cross hatching, my wife, who had been watching me over my shoulder suddenly asked me, "how do you know where to put everything?" I wasn't entirely sure what she meant initially so she explained: "how do you know where everything goes in the picture?" It was the same question that is often asked but in a variety of different ways..... a question I often deliberately ask myself, rephrasing and re-framing it in order to distill some finer understanding of the processes of being, creating and doing. As I fumbled over my best explanation of the dynamics of imagination and self reflection, from the initial moment of the "idea" or "spark", to the first imaginal composition, through a feedback of ideas and symbols as a meditation, and finally to the finishing process I lapsed into a somewhat contemplative state. In what follows I shall try to explicate the whys and wherefores of "how I know where to put everything"...

Looking at this particular project as an example it started with a definite idea, this isn't always the case though, sometimes the initial "spark" will be developed through free-drawing, especially if there is no compelling subject matter at the time. In this instance I wanted to hail and honour the imminent arrival of our baby boy, Seth, who is due to be born this November. Most parents will tell you that agreeing on names isn't always easy, what with competing family interests, conflicting tastes or cultural differences, often there is a need for careful and considerate negotiations. We settled upon Seth as a name after a few rounds of disagreement, wrinkled noses and blank stares. The name appealed to my interest in Gnosticism and biblical symbolism so it felt strong. With that in mind I decided that I would honour our choice of name by encapsulating it in an ink drawing.

Immediately upon deciding to do this I remembered that I had a book with a depiction of Seth on the cover, so I went to the bookshelf in the living room to take a look at it. The image was of Seth standing between two pillars, one black, one white. It is reminiscent of a tarot card drawing and done in a somewhat naive style. On the white pillar to his left is a black letter Shin and on the black pillar to his right is a white letter Tav, spelling Seth/STh in Hebrew script. In the background is a cave set into a mountain, green rays of light emanate from the man's head and at his feet lie a rose and a lotus or lily with their stems crossed. That same evening I meditated on this image in my minds eye and allowed thoughts and visions to gather around the basic underlying ideogram. I imagined the same basic symbolism, but projected through my own artistic filter which contains the residue of all my esoteric praxis. Certain symbols were replaced or deleted according to ideological preference or for metaphysical coherence with regard to the revised narrative. In line with a certain golden thread which runs throughout the work of such diverse Magi as Johannes Bureus and Miguel Serrano I have attempted to cast a glance back into the ancient of ancients, the Hyperborean past wrapped in the thick, dizzying mists of magic and mythos. A Rune Rita, Runes as old as time, washed up on distant shores after the tumultuous downing of Atlantis. A wisdom that has endured in ever degraded, diluted and adulterated forms, sometimes disappearing from sight only to resurface when such conditions allow. From this initial meditation I made the first pencil sketch. 

From the first sketch an internal dialogue takes place, this is phase two. [I look at the drawing, the drawing looks back at me... I notice various discrepancies and correct them one at a time. Then I take in the composition as a whole, It is simplistic overall, still in line with the aesthetics of a divination card or similar illustration. My attention is sucked into the void and quickly my synapses are searching for the right connections. I fill in the space with an image or symbol and withdraw from the creative gnosis to cast a critical eye over the work in progress. On occasion such an adjustment may lead to a chain of associated thoughts and images, or it may just complement the emerging dynamic interplay of the whole. Hours can be spent looking into the drawing as it develops, feeling out for the subtle suggestions carried on occult frequencies and projecting these images and symbols back into the drawing using strategic intuition. One eye is always kept firmly on balance and composition, the other eye then is free to scale the heights or plumb the depths of its creative desire.] This process can often span weeks or even months, but in this case, thanks to the simplicity of the composition taken as a whole, I was able to work through the necessary adjustments and creative flourishes to bring the piece into a finished state ready for inking in under a week. Contributing also was a wellspring of ideas and associations that were lurking at the threshold, so to speak, waiting... waiting to be released upon a world already in the grip of chaos...

The final stage is donkey work to some degree, and can take some time, lots of meticulous outlining, hatching and cross-hatching. On the other hand, things start to take shape in a different, more concrete way as greater depth and contrast begin to take to the stage. At this point you can start to see how much occult "life-force" the piece has absorbed from the feedback phase. There may still be several adjustments to be made and often small sections will be revised in light of the emerging final aesthetic, occasionally new ideas may work themselves in at this point, but generally its just polishing the finished article.... And that my Dears, is how I know where to put everything.

*The book mentioned in this post is "Invisible Fire: Inner Dimensions of Western Gnostic & Theurgic Tradition" by Nicholaj de Mattos Frisvold. Pub: Capall Bann Publishing Ltd.   

shards.

The illustrations and sketches compiled on this website are on the one hand as fragmentary as the stops and starts, creative outbursts followed by near catatonic pauses of arid desolation that helped to produce them, and on the other, as intimately connected as the non linear essence that pervades the creative ego. The story reformulated itself many times  throughout countless existences. 

There is occult symbolism oozing from every interface, at every level, regurgitating itself in a frantic carnival of chaos and mayhem. Slipping in and out of the semi permeable membrane of the screen, they appear naked, stripped bare  and unshackled from their once potent meanings. What is truly occult now amid this postmodern apocalypse of global mass media and consumption of information? Eternal lies the wisdom of the ages.

There is a symbolic language that flows from the being of every true artist. There is also a shit-show of sham and fakery, cynicism and bullshit paraded as art that dominates public perception. Perhaps ever was it thus. The function of a certain occult symbolism emerging (or re-emerging?) from the bowels of the earth and breaking through the encrusted platitudes of a dying civilization is to convey the secrets of not only survival, but continuance and the final victory of kith and kin over the tyranny of alienation, atomisation and voluntary enslavement, of beauty and culture over banality and un-culture..

Shards of thoughts. Some sharp, some blunt, some in confusing shapes that reflect images warped and frozen.