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http://mormon-magus.info/?p=40

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

In the previous post, I discussed my decision to find a new spiritual name. I've settled on one that I think resonates with me a lot better than the old one. It just feels special, while the other one felt more like a convenience. Formally I was Vira Cerhaes.

I'm proud to anounce that I have officially chosen Asta Vira as my new spiritual name. You can now contact me at astavira at rendingtheveil.com rather than the former Vira Cerhaes name if you have any questions.

 Other new things going on with me: I approached Sheta about doing a column on festive activities relative to the sabbats. Look for Sabbat Celebrations in the upcoming issues :) I've also volunteered to help edit articles. I'm really excited about these new endeavors.

  

This blog isn't exactly drawing me to post in it. I'm sure many of you share those feelings. It'll pick up in time. Meanwhile I'm more focused on http://www.spiritcompanion.com Much better!

More later.

http://mormon-magus.info/?p=39

“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.”

http://mormon-magus.info/?p=38

“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.”

—————

“Love is the Law. Love Under Will.”

- Aleister Crowley

Joseph Smith and Kabbalah: The Occult Connection
by Lance S. Owens

http://www.gnosis.org/jskabb1.htm

Excerpt:
"Through his associations with ceremonial magic as a young treasure seer, Smith contacted symbols and lore taken directly from Kabbalah. In his prophetic translation of sacred writ, his hermeneutic method was in nature Kabbalistic. With his initiation into Masonry, he entered a tradition born of the Hermetic-Kabbalistic tradition. These associations culminated in Nauvoo, the period of his most important doctrinal and ritual innovations. During these last years, he enjoyed friendship with a European Jew well-versed in the standard Kabbalistic works and possibly possessing in Nauvoo an extraordinary collection of Kabbalistic books and manuscripts. By 1844 Smith not only was cognizant of Kabbalah, but enlisted theosophic concepts taken directly from its principal text in his most important doctrinal sermon, the 'King Follett Discourse.'

Smith's concepts of God's plurality, his vision of God as anthropos, and his possession by the issue of sacred marriage, all might have been cross-fertilized by this intercourse with Kabbalistic theosophy--an occult relationship climaxing in Nauvoo. This is a complex thesis; its understanding requires exploration of an occult religious tradition spanning more that a millennium of Western history, an investigation that begins naturally with Kabbalah."

Well, this should be interesting.

A little bit about myself:
I'm active in both the LDS (Mormon) and occult communities, and I seem to have gained somewhat of a reputation in the former for my activity in the latter. I would say it's mostly positive, but I don't think most of them know quite what to do with me. As for the rest, I've made some friends with similar interests in the esoteric, and I've recently started a message board for experimenting with and mixing Mormonism with practically everything else out there. (http://unfettered-mormon.org/)

I also have a blog that's been up for a while where I muse about Mormonism and various ideas in occultism (chaos magic mostly). I haven't been posting that often, but there's already a nice backlog of posts. I have it set to automatically cross post here for future entries, but you'll have to go there to check out the old posts. (http://mormon-magus.info/)

Anyway, that's about it for now.

Default Settings:
I've set all current users to the following settings:

Public comments: On
Comment notifications: On
File storage: 1 byte (effectively disabling the system except for administrators)
User icons: 20

These settings are being done manually until Matt can set it up as a blanket rule. Since we've only got ~130 registered users right now, it didn't take long.

If you wish to change your comment settings, click "Account Settings" at the top right in the gray bar. You will also find, at the bottom of that page, where to set your blog editor (wysiwyg by default; this can be turned off).

If you have questions or comments, leave a comment at this post.

Premier accounts

I'm considering what to grant Premier account holders who use their blogs regularly. I'm thinking, so far, that anyone with a full profile by the middle of the year 2008 who also regularly uses their blogs for six months following sign-up (posting at least once a week), will be granted 100 user icons permanently, along with any other paid account options we offer within a set period (to be determined), all free. The Premier account will only be offered to the first 500 users who meet the criteria. The terms of this offer may evolve, particularly the mid-2008 time limit if the site doesn't take off very fast.

- Sheta

I hope many of you will do more blogging here as things pick up. I've started crossposting here, pretty much everything I put in my LiveJournal, and intend to post more personal stuff here (which I'm filtering - you can find the filter controls on "Your friends" page in the "Access Controls" link) in preparation for the move. Deeply personal stuff will be on a "safe" filter, and other, less crucial material will be friends only or logged in users only.

Hope you'll join me.

Never Fear, I am working hard on getting my profile here up and running.  I'm just trying to word it so I don't come out sounding like an arrogant jerk or a loon. 

Patience is the watch word here.  Thank you all for your support.