Tsuzuki :: Feeds

From The Zen Teachings of Master Lin-Chi:

The Master instructed the group, saying: “Followers of the Way, what is important is to approach things with a true and proper understanding. Walk wherever you please in the world but don’t let yourselves be muddled or misled by that bunch of goblin spirits. The man of value is the one who has nothing to do. Don’t try to do something special, just act ordinary. You look outside yourselves, going off on side Don’t try to do something special, just act ordinary. You look outside yourselves, going off on side roads hunting for something, trying to get your hands on something. That’s a mistake. You keep trying to look for the Buddha, but Buddha is just a name, a word.

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via Mormon Magus

Discordian Society to Canonize Mormon Leader

http://www.free-press-release.com/news/200801/1201648719.html
http://discoflux.com/node/100

Discordian Society to Canonize Mormon Leader

“The Discordian Society will adopt Gordon B. Hinckley as a Saint”

United States of America (Press Release)
January 29, 2008 — Columbus, Ohio1.29.2008
For Immediate Release:

The Great Googlie Mooglie Cabal, as Ordained Representatives of the Erisian Movement has announced plans for the immediate canonization of Gordon B. Hinckley and the inclusion of him in the pantheon of Discordian Saints as St. Magusundies

St. Magusundies, in life, met all the criteria necessary to prove that he was a special emissary from the heart of the Void and a Child of Eris. We need only point to his temple building, his proselytizing and the fact that before he became President of the LDS, he had dedicated 23 temples to verify his sacred position as a key element, tasked with maintaining the Wobble of the Sacred Chao and its Hodge-Podge balancing act.

St. Magusundies will be canonized on Sunday, March, 23, 2008 at 4:20 in the afternoon. Any and all members of either the Latter Day Saints, or the Discordian Movement are invited to the ceremony to be held at the Googlie Mooglie Cabal, in Columbus Ohio. A special day of celebration will be announced during the ceremony.

Ratatosk, Squirrel of Discord
Muncher of the ChaoAcorn
Chatterer of the Words of Eris
POEE of The Great Googlie Mooglie Cabal

“Text and Ontology”, by Stephen Mace

“Text and Ontology”, by Stephen Mace

This is an article by Stephen Mace that argues that the idea of “being” is an outdated concept, and instead, everything can be described by “doing.” This should hold particular interest to Latter-day Saints, because we believe in a social Trinity that is exactly described in terms of “doing.”

Here is an excerpt, but you should really read the entire article.

“But if it isn’t all Being, then what is it?

I will not say Becoming, since that implies an action too random or undirected to be consistent with our obviously well-designed circumstances. Instead I will offer Doing, presenting us with a universe of process, with all aspects of manifestation pursuing some goal, more or less distant, more or less intelligently. Doing gives us a universe that is dynamic on all levels, driven by an implied purpose, and hence an implicit intelligence, and this is surely consistent with the self-driven contrivance of physical nature.”

Would this make Mormonism a kind of non-Crowleyan Thelema?

“The distinguishing characteristic of a person is the possession of will, the power to accept or reject, to move or to stand still, to obey or to disobey. From the very beginning the being now known as man possessed a will, and by the operation of his will has reached his present condition. Above all other things, man is a will. If that be so, the training and use of the will is man’s first concern.”

“If the world can find out these numbers, so let it be. Amen.”

I’ve noticed that figures 9 through 10 aren’t included in the temple, but are included in what the world can find out.

Is this effectively a green light on modern occultism?

http://scriptures.lds.org/en/abr/fac_2

Fig. 8. Contains writings that cannot be revealed unto the world; but is to be had in the Holy Temple of God.
Fig. 9. Ought not to be revealed at the present time.
Fig. 10. Also.
Fig. 11. Also. If the world can find out these numbers, so let it be. Amen.

- Book of Abraham, Facsimile No. 2

The Unfettered Mormon

I just started a message board for experimental Mormonism, with a focus on everything from Gnosticism and Kabbalah to neopaganism and chaos magic.

http://unfettered-mormon.org/

In heaven, earth, and hell

“If I do not learn what is in the world, from first to last, somebody will be wiser than I am. I intend to know the whole of it, both good and bad. Shall I practise evil? No; neither have I told you to practise it, but to learn by the light of truth every principle there is in existence in the world. […] And inasmuch as the Lord Almighty has designed us to know all that is in the earth, both the good and the evil, and to learn not only what is in heaven, but what is in hell, you need not expect ever to get through learning. Though I mean to learn all that is in heaven, earth, and hell. Do I need to commit iniquity to do it? No. If I were to go into the bowels of hell to find out what is there, that does not make it necessary that I should commit one evil, or blaspheme in any way the name of my Maker.”

- Brigham Young, “Organization and Development of Man” (Journal of Discourses 2:90)

Dark Intelligence

From The Great Secret, by Eliphas Levi:

BOOK THREE

CHAPTER XIV
Dark Intelligence

Those whom initiates are entitled to call profane, the vile multitude, that is to say the feeble masses perverse in mind and heart, those who adore a shadowy god or pay lip service to atheism (you know the type of people I mean) always listen without understanding, because they are presumptuous and unreliable. If a doctrine is presented to them in an absurd form to please them, they inevitably understand it in an even more absurd sense and often take it completely the wrong way.

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via Mormon Magus

The Book of Mormon and Mormonism as hypersigils

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sigil_(magic)#Hypersigils

A ‘hypersigil’ is an extended piece of artwork, be it a novel, song, dance etc, that is created with a similar intent as a sigil. People attempting to create a hypersigil optimally want it to allude to and be referenced by multiple other artworks to reinforce its ’strength.’ The term was possibly coined by Grant Morrison. He used the word to describe his purpose in writing the comic book series The Invisibles. Morrison considers it the key to a memetic complex created with magical intent.

More here:
http://sourceryforge.org/index.php/Narrative_Magic

LDS missionaries at the pagan club

We had the missionaries present Mormonism to the college pagan club today in an effort to promote awareness of different religions.

I think it went pretty well. We started out with the first three discussions for background, and then went into questions and open discussion. There were a few times when things went over some heads, but all in all we had some intelligent discussion.

Naturally with a club that deals extensively with women’s spirituality, the issue of an all male priesthood came up, but I think that was handled well by the elders and myself. The Tongan elder mentioned that his culture was very matriarchal, and he had some positive and insightful things to say about his culture’s native shamanism. I passed out copies of the hymn, “O My Father”, the one that touches on the Heavenly Mother, and a collection of quotes by various LDS prophets on accepting truth from any source (including paganism).

My only regret was that the elders left rather quickly, and I was unable to get feedback on how well they thought it went.

Proper sacrifice

It’s important to realize that the sacrifices we make are for our own benefit, not for God’s, and if we go looking for external rewards we end up robbing ourselves of the blessings that are intrinsic to the sacrifice itself.

There is deep magic in sacrifice, and in a mysterious way, the sacrifice is the blessing. But only if conducted properly.

Put another way, a proper sacrifice is like an electric current, while a grudging sacrifice is a short circuit, and no sacrifice is when the power is turned off. It’s better to have the power off than to get electrocuted, but it’s even better to have everything in working order. Turn off the power, fix the circuit, and then turn it on again.

The Horns of Heresy

THE HORNS OF HERESY
by Ray Sherwin

In a pluralist system such as Chaos Magick, symbols, rather than ending up on the scrapheap of reductio absurdam, tend to become more useful than they were in the system out of which they were lifted. This has been demonstrated quite adequately by champions of Discordianism such as Robert Anton Wilson. I make no apology, therefore, for using an ancient magical symbol to make what is an overtly political point. In any case, so much paranoid nonsense has been written about the symbol in question, notably by Eliphas Levi and the scribes of the Golden Dawn, that to treat it to a breath of fresh air can do no harm. I refer to the sign of the pentagram.

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via Mormon Magus

Power and authority

Magic = power
Priesthood = authority

Authority without power is like a car that’s out of gas, while power without authority is like being soaked in it. But when the two are combined, great things happen.

“A Bible! A Bible!”

It’s often said that we as a church are under condemnation, and recent prophets have reiterated that that condemnation has not yet been lifted. Perhaps part of the reason is because we have been for the most part ignoring the records of God’s dealings with His children on the Asian continent.

It should be noted that most of the Eastern religions existing today had their beginnings in the early Book of Mormon period of 600-400 BC, and Confucius, Lao Tzu, and the historical Buddha could very well have been alive when Nephi was writing the very verses quoted below. I wonder if they held the priesthood. One thing for certain is that God was busy back then.

2nd Nephi 29:6-11:
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The point of balance in religion

“The point of balance in religion is the most absolute liberty of conscience and voluntary obedience to the authority which regulates public instruction, discipline and worship.”

- Eliphas Levi, The Great Secret

If you are going to practice magic in any organized religious setting, you must be willing to give up any and all magical practices based on the counsel of your religious leaders. Failure to do so, and subsequent clinging to the forms of magic, will result in the loss of the heart of that magic. The solution to this is to be fluid, and learn the inherent magic in seemingly mundane things.

Submit to authority and authority will submit to you.

Response to email

I received an email from Steve Graham, and I thought it and my response were relevant enough to post here. I’ve noticed that a lot of my best words come out in response to others’ questions.

Anyway, here it is.

—– Begin message from Tsuzuki —–

Quoting Steve Graham:

I’ve been reading with interest about a number of different items in the area of magic. Of particular interest was John Michael Greer’s article, A Magical Education. How do you see the intersection of Mormonism and Magic? Are they compatible? Would there be areas which would of necessity be out of bounds for a Latter-Day Saint? Somehow it is hard to reconcile being a priesthood holder and a magician, although I know that Joseph and others of this dispensation seemed favorably disposed to certain practices and Joseph of old did go a’scrying and Daniel was head of the magicians in his day.

I am convinced that Joseph Smith restored the principles of true magic to the world, “out of obscurity and out of darkness,” as D&C 1 states. However, I am less convinced about the specifics, especially when it comes to the interaction with some of the more modern techniques and methods in the magical/occult community. That’s part of the reason for my little exploration. In a way, I’m breaking new ground. Time will tell where it leads.

People have a lot of silly ideas about magic. Magic isn’t about talismans, parchments, or rituals. Those are just the cultural trappings, crutches to help the mind do what it thinks it can’t by itself.

As far as the priesthood is concerned, we read in D&C 121:36 that, “the rights of the priesthood are inseparably connected with the powers of heaven, and that the powers of heaven cannot be controlled nor handled only upon the principles of righteousness.” It is my belief that the principles of righteousness are the principles of true magic. As Eliphas Levi said in The Doctrine and Ritual of Transcendental Magic, “To attain the SANCTUM REGNUM, in other words, the knowledge and power of the Magi, there are four indispensable conditions — an intelligence illuminated by study, an intrepidity which nothing can check, a will which cannot be broken, and a prudence which nothing can corrupt and nothing intoxicate. TO KNOW, TO DARE, TO WILL, TO KEEP SILENCE — such are the four words of the Magus, inscribed upon the four symbolical forms of the sphinx.” And in The Great Secret, he states, “Whatever a righteous man wishes is approved by God. Whatever a righteous man writes, God signs, and it is an everlasting testament.”

On the other hand, just as anything else, the principles of righteousness can be perverted, and Levi also said in The Great Secret, “The power of the mage and the sorcerer is one and the same; with this difference, the mage clings to the tree when he cuts off the branch while the sorcerer hangs from the very branch he is trying to cut off.”

I think it is important to use discernment in everything we do.

Tell me about Chaos Magic. What is it and what do you hope to learn from it?

Chaos magic is all about casting aside old dogmas about magic and focusing on experiment, innovation, and real-world results. I’m attracted to chaos magic not so much because of what I can learn from it, but because of what I can contribute to it.

What do you wish to find through magic in particular?

My own focus is in high magic, or “theurgy,” which is the use of magic for personal development and perfection, but it also comprehends low magic, otherwise known as “thaumaturgy,” which is the working of miracles. To give you an example, Mormonism itself is theurgical in nature.

I understand that in magic one learns to realize what he wills. Are we talking something like psycho-kinesis?

I don’t know, maybe that’s part of it. But if so, it’s part of the larger picture of miracle working. In chaos magic, which has been heavily influenced by the language of quantum physics, it’s the direct increase or decrease of the probability of an event occurring.

On a different topic, one of my wife’s and my favorite new TV shows is “The Dresden Files” featuring a real magician who solves the hard cases with his peculiar talents. Highly recommended.

I’ve seen the first couple episodes, but I’m a bit behind. It’s interesting. Entertaining, but still Hollywood.

—– End message —–

“Transcendental Magic”, by Eliphas Levi

Free ebooks.

Part 1, The Doctrine of Transcendental Magic
Part 2, The Ritual of Transcendental Magic

Book recommendations and advice

I’ve had several people ask me for advice and book recommendations, so I figured I’d post it here as well. I’ll update and fine tune the list of books as I go along.

You can find the list here:
http://mormon-magus.info/?page_id=22

First and foremost, it’s important to match all study of magic and occultism with an equal increase in scripture study. There’s no use veering off the straight and narrow for the sake of exotic glamors. Stay grounded!

Aside from that warning, here are some books that I recommend:

General:
The Great Secret, by Eliphas Levi (Read this first. It will get your head on straight.)
Seizing Power, by Stephen Mace
Practical Guide to Psychic Self-Defense and Well-Being, by Melita Denning and Osborne Phillips

Kabbalah:
Sefer Yetzirah (I recommend the translation by Aryeh Kaplan.)
The Zohar (Stanford University edition trans. by Daniel C. Matt.)

Eastern Religion:
Tao Te Ching, by Lao Tzu
The Unfettered Mind, by Takuan Soho

Chaos Magic:
Condensed Chaos, by Phil Hine
The Book of Results, by Ray Sherwin
Liber Null & Psychonaut, by Peter J. Carroll
Liber Kaos, by Peter J. Carroll
The Paradigmal Pirate, by Joshua Wetzel (Some examples and the attitude of the author my be offensive, but it is none the less a good book. Maybe read this one last.)

If you’re interested, here are some of the above books available as free downloads.

The Great Secret (the first half; second half in progress)
Tao Te Ching
The Unfettered Mind
Oven-Ready Chaos (the first edition of Condensed Chaos)
The Book of Results
Liber Null
Liber Kaos (various chapters from the book)

Martyrdom

I have a natural contempt for martyrs. With notable exceptions, of course. I am in no position to judge anyone, but blood does not seem to be worth that much these days.

In my world view, truth is by nature veiled in mystery, and any attempt to state it in words will be inherently false simply because it is a statement. (”Nothing is true, and everything is permitted.”) Considering that, it is silly to die for a statement that is inadequate anyway. (”The Tao that can be told is not the eternal Tao.”)

Inquisitions only have power because we place so much importance on statements of truth and belief. Take away that importance and the machine collapses, leaving us free to work directly with the mystery. For me that beats martyrdom any day.

The power of the Priesthood

“God in the world means order and authority; it is Satan who stands for disorder and anarchy. Why is it not only permissible but even glorious to resist a tyrant? It is because the tyrant is an anarchist who has usurped power. Do you wish to fight victoriously against evil? Be the personification of what is good. Do you want to conquer anarchy? Be the arm of authority. Do you want to chain up Satan? Be the power of God.”

- Eliphas Levi, The Great Secret