Bruce Johnston

The Philosopher’s Stone (Alchemy II)

Cabala, Spiegel Der Kunst Und Natur, In Alchymia. Raphael Custos, (1615).

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Molly Hankins January 2, 2025

“The Philosopher’s Stone is not a stone, but a state of consciousness.”  - Manly P. Hall, author and founder of The Philosophical Research Society.

In ‘The Subtle and The Gross’, we explored each phase of alchemy, both in the literal and existential sense, and here we can bring these two meanings together. The subtle refers to the spiritual substance which is condensed into gross matter, and makes up the physical world we live in. Alchemists and magicians contend that the gross, on the other hand, can be altered by way of the subtle, and as Manly P. Hall said, it all begins with a new state of consciousness. 

The final stage of alchemy leads to the formation of the so-called Philosopher’s Stone, a legendary substance in physical alchemy that has the ability to transmute base metals into gold. On Becoming An Alchemist author Catherine MacCoun tells us that physical and metaphysical alchemy are achieved through a synthesis of the material and spiritual realms, and the Philosopher’s Stone is the union of the two. As we consciously merge the subtle and the gross within ourselves, so we create the conditions for alchemy and magic to become possible in the material realm. 

MacCoun writes, “Between you and anything that you may wish to influence there is a relationship. If either party in a relationship changes, the relationship itself is changed. In turn, any change in the relationship changes both parties. So if you wish to change something, the first thing you must do is discover the true nature of your relationship to it. Then you will be able to see how to change it by changing yourself. This is the basic logic of alchemy.” 

Our existence in the world of the gross is what she calls “the horizontal realm,” and it has a limited vantage point and capacity to affect change within space-time. True alchemy brings in what she calls “the vertical,” or the subtle realm of spirit, which has infinitely more data available than what we have access to in the physical, horizontal world. She believes that the vertical is influencing the horizontal all the time. Understanding the true relationship between these worlds, and then consciously merging them, is how we cultivate the power to create change in our reality. The Philosopher’s Stone is attained when spirit and matter consciously coagulate, a process that is ongoing, but once begun forever elevates our capacity to bend the horizontal world to our will. This is how we change the world by changing ourselves.

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“Our hearts may feel love in a passive sense, but they express little more than “inept good intentions and niceness.”

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Section from the Ripley Scroll, c.1550.

Alchemy, also referred to as The Great Work, is described in On Becoming An Alchemist as, “The process of reincarnating into your own life.” We described the phases of that process in part 1, as well as the characteristics and mechanisms of each phase. But the underlying essence of the merging between the spiritual and material, the vertical and horizontal, was intentionally withheld because it requires consideration of the vertical world. We can only reincarnate into our own lives by first accepting that our consciousness exists beyond the physical and that we have the ability to hold more of that consciousness within form.

Richard Rudd, creator of the Gene Keys, has his own description of this process. As of the publication date of this essay, we are currently in the 38th Gene Key of transcending struggle through perseverance to achieve honor. Richard says of this key, “We’re born to struggle, to fight, to move ever-upwards. We are form forced from within to try and free ourselves, to learn to fly - to be free from struggle, to be effortless like the birds in the sky or the dolphins leaping through the ocean waves. But even these creatures struggle, everything does. It’s the nature of evolution to go on expanding and surmounting itself. In humans, struggle can either free us or trap us.” The process of alchemy describes a process of struggle, but one that ultimately frees us when we become conscious of it. 

MacCoun’s work describes a mechanism we can consciously use within our physical and energetic bodies to persevere in the fine art of transmuting struggle into The Philosopher’s Stone by redirecting the flow of subtle energies. Below is what she calls a “muggle configuration” of the human energy body, which has a fraction of our total consciousness operating within the horizontal. The rest, which many spiritual traditions refer to as our “higher self” operating beyond the limitations of horizontal spacetime, is still up in the vertical. 

⬆️

Ideal

⬆️

Thought

⬆️

Word

💚

Territory

⬇️

Desire 

⬇️

Fear

⬇️

Without conscious work to evolve this configuration, we are wired to project all our fears, desires and territoriality out into the horizontal. Many of us then look to a vague, theoretical notion of the vertical - to religion, spiritual traditions, or new age practices. We project our words, thoughts, and ideals out there, all while neglecting to send any energy to what she contends is the true center of consciousness, our heart-center. Our hearts may feel love in a passive sense, but they express little more than “inept good intentions and niceness.” The next diagram illustrates what she calls alchemical energetic alignment.

Ideal

⬇️

Thought

⬇️

Word

💚

Integrity

⬆️

Devotion

⬆️

Confidence

⬆️

Life’s struggles, if we let them, alchemize fear into confidence, desire into devotion, and territoriality into integrity. Becoming conscious of this process, our relationship with the vertical, spiritual world, and the merging of the two is the union of the subtle and the gross which eventually turns our own heart-centers into The Philosopher’s Stone. Redirecting these energies both in meditation and in our horizontal, waking life accelerates our evolution and thus our capacity for affecting change in the world. Meditation, when undertaken with confidence, devotion and integrity, gives us access to the vertical. This takes the form of elevated states of being and profound insights arising in our minds of new ideals, thoughts and words. 

When we cultivate a relationship with the vertical and the heart becomes the meeting point between intention and will, we are merging heaven and earth. MacCoun ends her so-called technical overview of the process of redirecting energy to our hearts by reminding us that  “like a diamond, it is indestructible, cutting and radiant. It loves bravely, shrewdly, mightily and magically. It has become The Philosopher’s Stone.”

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Molly Hankins is an Initiate + Reality Hacker serving the Ministry of Quantum Existentialism and Builders of the Adytum.

Mike Love

Film

Borges and I

How They Met Themselves. Dante Gabriel Rossetti, 1864.

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One of the most significant writers of the 20th Century, the Argentinian Jorge Luis Borges was a key figure of philosophical literature and magical realism whose short stories expanded upon metaphysical ideas with wit and brilliance. Borges often returned to the idea of the doppelgänger in his work, and in this non-fiction piece he explores his self-perception as a writer in contrast with his public profile, as two different Borges’s exist in his mind.

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Jorge Luis Borges December 31, 2024

The other one, the one called Borges, is the one things happen to. I walk through the streets of Buenos Aires and stop for a moment, perhaps mechanically now, to look at the arch of an entrance hall and the grillwork on the gate; I know of Borges from the mail and see his name on a list of professors or in a biographical dictionary. I like hourglasses, maps, eighteenth-century typography, the taste of coffee and the prose of Stevenson; he shares these preferences, but in a vain way that turns them into the attributes of an actor. It would be an exaggeration to say that ours is a hostile relationship; I live, let myself go on living, so that Borges may contrive his literature, and this literature justifies me. It is no effort for me to confess that he has achieved some valid pages, but those pages cannot save me, perhaps because what is good belongs to no one, not even to him, but rather to the language and to tradition. Besides, I am destined to perish, definitively, and only some instant of myself can survive in him. Little by little, I am giving over everything to him, though I am quite aware of his perverse custom of falsifying and magnifying things.

Spinoza knew that all things long to persist in their being; the stone eternally wants to be a stone and the tiger a tiger. I shall remain in Borges, not in myself (if it is true that I am someone), but I recognize myself less in his books than in many others or in the laborious strumming of a guitar. Years ago I tried to free myself from him and went from the mythologies of the suburbs to the games with time and infinity, but those games belong to Borges now and I shall have to imagine other things. Thus my life is a flight and I lose everything and everything belongs to oblivion, or to him.

I do not know which of us has written this page.

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Jorge Luis Borges (1899 – 1986) was an Argentinian short-story writer, essayist, poet and translator, and a key figure in Spanish-language and international literature

Iggy Pop Playlist

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Iggy Pop is an American singer, songwriter, musician, record producer, and actor. Since forming The Stooges in 1967, Iggy’s career has spanned decades and genres. Having paved the way for ‘70’s punk and ‘90’s grunge, he is often considered “The Godfather of Punk.”

Consolations

Two of Swords

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Name: Peace, the Two of Swords
Number: 2
Astrology: Moon in Libra
Qabalah: Chokmah of Vau

Chris Gabriel December 28, 2024

The Two of Swords is the beginning of Thought. It is the mind taking its first steps; comparing and contrasting, balancing opposing ideas and finding peace. This is the card of the beauty that forms when we master this ability.

In Rider, we find a blindfolded woman balancing two swords in her hands. One faces left, the other right. She is seated, and behind her is a rocky shore. This is Lady Justice, for Justice is blind. It is evening, and a crescent moon sits in the sky above her.

In Thoth, we see two swords piercing a blue rose and crossing one another. The rose emits white geometric rays. Two miniature swords uphold the symbols for the Moon and Libra.

In Marseille, we have a central flower and two swords.

Sigmund Freud writes that “neurosis is the inability to tolerate ambiguity.” As a card of peace, the Two of Swords embraces ambiguity, duality, and finds the balance therein. Like riding a bicycle, continual movement is necessary to maintain true balance. One way to look at this card is like a Gyroscope or spinning top. It stands balanced and upright when in motion, but falls without it. Peace is not stationary, and certainly not permanent. 

Beyond the mechanical gyroscope, the Two of Swords calls to mind a baby learning to take its first steps. Once learned and mastered, it will never be forgotten. The development of the Mind is similar, but immensely more difficult.

We must train the mind to engage without belief, without attachment and sentimentality. We must treat it as a tool, sharpening and honing it until, we achieve balance - then the flower starts to grow. This is the true beauty of the mind unpoisoned by belief, natural processes flourish. 

A full mind can be polluted and congested with ideas that are not one’s own. A mind may be taken over by viruses for all manner of reasons. Our desires and fears can be hijacked, thoughts can be inserted in that we believe to be our own, and they then run freely with our bodies. This must be avoided if we want to create great things.

When pulling this card, we can expect a period of peaceful consideration, a lull in things. The hard work that we’ve put in before now grants us the freedom and time to think. 

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Chris Gabriel is a twenty four year old wizard and poet who runs the YouTube channel MemeAnalysis.

CHANNEL, SOCIAL, READINGS

Film

The Curriculum of the Bauhaus

The Bauhaus School Building in Weimar, Germany.

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Four years after the formation of the Bauhaus, its founder Walter Gropius wrote a text entitled ‘The Theory and Organization of the Bauhaus’ as a manifesto, declaration and explanation of the radical new world they were trying to form. The Bauhaus was a new type of art school, founded in 1919 in Weimar, Germany that attempted to unify individual expression and the process of mass manufacturing and modernity. It was inherently inter-disciplinary, and its output ranges from furniture and buildings, to paintings and craft work, each of which was valued individually and as a cohesive part of the greater whole. Perhaps no single movement has had quite as much impact in the 20th century, and the very visual language of the modern world owes its debt to this small school in Germany. Here, Gropius explains the curriculum of the school, and in doing so espouses some of the core philosophical ideas of the movement - that of intersectionality between mediums, rigorous focus on craft and technicality and an emphasis on the freedom that can be found within constraints of production.

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Walter Gropius December 26, 2024

The course of instruction at the Bauhaus is divided into:

The Preliminary Course (Vorlehre)

Practical and theoretical studies are carried on simultaneously in order to release the creative powers of the student, to help him grasp the physical nature of materials and the basic laws of design. Concentration on any particular stylistic movement is studiously avoided. Observation and representation - with the intention of showing the desired identity of Form and Content - define the limits of the preliminary course. Its chief function is to liberate the individual by breaking down conventional patterns of thought in order to make way for personal experiences and discoveries which will enable him to see his own potentialities and limitations. For this reason collective work is not essential in the preliminary course. Both subjective and objective observation will be cultivated: both the system of abstract laws and the interpretation of objective matter. 

Above all else, the discovery and proper valuation of the individual's means of expression shall be sought out. The creative possibilities of individuals vary. One finds his elementary expressions in rhythm, another in light and shade, a third in color, a fourth in materials, a fifth in sound, a sixth in proportion, a seventh in volumes or abstract space, an eighth in the relations between one and another, or between the two to a third or fourth. 

All the work produced in the preliminary course is done under the influence of instructors. It possesses artistic quality only in so far as any direct and logically developed expression of an individual which serves to lay the foundations of creative discipline can be called art.

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Instruction in form problems

Intellectual education runs parallel to manual training. The apprentice is acquainted with his future stock-in-trade - the elements of form and color and the laws to which they are subject. Instead of studying the arbitrary individualistic and stylized formulae current at the academies, he is given the mental equipment with which to shape his own ideas of form. This training opens the way for the creative powers of the individual, establishing a basis on which different individuals can cooperate without losing their artistic independence. Collective architectural work becomes possible only when every individual, prepared by proper schooling, is capable of understanding the idea of the whole, and thus has the means harmoniously to coordinate his independent, even if limited, activity with the collective work. Instruction in the theory of form is carried on in close contact with manual training. Drawing and planning, thus losing their purely academic character, gain new significance as auxiliary means of expression. We must know both vocabulary and grammar in order to speak a language; only then can we communicate our thoughts. Man, who creates and constructs, must learn the specific language of construction in order to make others understand his idea. Its vocabulary consists of the elements of form and color and their structural laws. The mind must know them and control the hand if a creative idea is to be made visible. The musician who wants to make audible a musical idea needs for its rendering not only a musical instrument but also a knowledge of theory. Without this knowledge, his idea will never emerge from chaos.

A corresponding knowledge of theory - which existed in a more vigorous era - must again be established as a basis for practice in the visual arts. The academies, whose task it might have been to cultivate and develop such a theory, completely failed to do so, having lost contact with reality. Theory is not a recipe for the manufacturing of works of art, but the most essential element of collective construction; it provides the common basis on which many individuals are able to create together a superior unit of work; theory is not the achievement of individuals but of generations. The Bauhaus is consciously formulating a new coordination of the means of construction and expression. Without this, its ultimate aim would be impossible. For collaboration in a group is not to be obtained solely by correlating the abilities and talents of various individuals. Only an apparent unity can be achieved if many helpers carry out the designs of a single person. In fact, the individual's labor within the group should exist as his own independent accomplishment. Real unity can be achieved only by coherent restatement of the formal theme, by repetition of its integral proportions in all parts of the work. Thus everyone engaged in the work must understand the meaning and origin of the principal theme.

Forms and colors gain meaning only as they are related to our inner selves. Used separately or in relation to one another they are the means of expressing different emotions and movements: they have no importance of their own. Red, for instance, evokes in us other emotions than does blue or yellow; round forms speak differently to us than do pointed or jagged forms. The elements which constitute the 'grammar' of creation are its rules of rhythm, of proportion, of light values and full or empty space. Vocabulary and grammar can be learned, but the most important factor of all, the organic life of the created work, originates in the creative powers of the individual. The practical training which accompanies the studies in form is founded as much on observation, on the exact representation or reproduction of nature, as it is on the creation of individual compositions. These two activities are profoundly different. The academies ceased to discriminate between them, confusing nature and art - though by their very origin they are antithetical. Art wants to triumph over Nature and to resolve the opposition in a new unity, and this process is consummated in the fight of the spirit against the material world. The spirit creates for itself a new life other than the life of nature.

Each of these departments in the course on the theory of form functions in close association with the workshops, an association which prevents their wandering off into academicism.

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The goal of the Bauhaus curriculum

The culminating point of the Bauhaus teaching is a demand for a new and powerful working correlation of all the processes of creation. The gifted student must regain a feeling for the interwoven strands of practical and formal work. The joy of building, in the broadest meaning of that word, must replace the paper work of design. Architecture unites in a collective task all creative workers, from the simple artisan to the supreme artist. 

For this reason, the basis of collective education must be sufficiently broad to permit the development of every kind of talent. Since a universally applicable method for the discovery of talent does not exist, the individual in the course of his development must find for himself the field of activity best suited to him within the circle of the community. The majority become interested in production; the few extraordinarily gifted ones will suffer no limits to their activity. After they have completed the course of practical and formal instruction, they undertake independent research and experiment.

Modern painting, breaking through old conventions, has released countless suggestions which are still waiting to be used by the practical world. But when, in the future, artists who sense new creative values have had practical training in the industrial world, they will themselves possess the means for realizing those values immediately. They will compel industry to serve their idea and industry will seek out and utilize their comprehensive training.

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Walter Adolph Georg Gropius (1883 – 1969) was a German architect and founder of the Bauhaus School. He is widely regarded as one of the pioneering masters of modernist architecture, and one of the most influential art theorists of the modern age.

Víkingur Ólafsson

Film

Christmas Day

Still from The Christmas Angel (Détresse et Charité). Georges Méliès, 1904.

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Published on Christmas Day in 1830, in the British publication ‘The Tatler’, Leigh Hunt’s essay on Christmas grapples with many of the same questions being asked almost 200 years later. How, he wonders, can we celebrate in a world full of suffering? Yet deftly and sympathetically, Hunt makes the argument that the best thing we can do in times of strife and trouble is sow seeds of happiness. Much of the original essay concerns the intricacies of eating and drinking in 19th century Christmas celebration, but the extract presented here is his opening remarks. While dressed in the language of the day, it contains within it universal truths of justice, charity, and kindness that are evergreen reminders.

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Leigh Hunt December 24, 2024

The antiquities of Christmas, its origin, old customs, rustic usages, and mention by the poets, have been so abundantly treated in various publications of late years, that we should have nothing to say on the subject, if the season itself, and the fire-side, did not set us talking. We hope our readers will all enjoy themselves heartily to-day ; but to that end, we have first a word or two to say of a graver tendency. We are not going to tell them that they must have no mirth, because there are many who have a great deal of sorrow. It would be a great pity, were there no sunshine in one place, because there is rain in another. There are many things in the present state of the world, and of our own country in particular, calculated to disturb, even a momentary spirit of enjoyment, if our very humanity did not help to reassure us. We firmly believe, that the end of all the present tribulations of Europe, will be a glorious advance in the well-being of society. This reflection alone may enable the lovers of their species to endure many evils, and to persevere with renewed cheerfulness, in the struggles that yet remain for them to go through. We believe also, with equal assuredness, that the end of the present dreadful calamities of the poor in England, will be a proportionate advance in the whole condition of the English community; and therefore uneasy and cheerful thoughts chase one another in our contemplations, as images of the present or future predominate ; but when we propose to ourselves a special day of enjoyment, or relief, or whatever else it may be called, in proportion to the cares of the individual, it appears to us that we ought not to take it, without doing what we can towards diminishing some portion of it in others, even should our circumstances allow us to do no more than give them an apple or a crust.

What we mean, in short, is, that in all neighbourhoods, there are fellow-creatures to whom Christmas is little or no Christmas, except in reminding them that they cannot keep it; and we would have everybody do something, however small, to shew them that we would fain have it otherwise. The rich can do something in this way, to gladden the hearts of many families; others may be able to do but little for three or four; others for a less number; and some for none at all, to any serious degree, except that the least attention to the poor is welcomed as a serious blessing. But we would say to every one who can spare a slice from his pudding, or an apple from his little children's dessert, “If you can send nothing else, send that.” If you know of no actual distress, still the slice of meat or pudding may be welcome ; the servant will, probably, know somebody who would be glad of it. There is the washerwoman, or the errand-boy, or the poor man who sweeps the cold street at the corner - send out your charity somewhere, and it will find a call for its tenderness.

We give this advice, not because your heart may be wanting in natural kindness, or you may not be even actively beneficent, when affliction is brought before your eyes; but because the best hearted joy may sometimes forget others, in its vivacity, or not have been sufficiently taught to share what it can; but having thus earned a right to be sympathized with by those about you, we say then, “Do forget, if you can, all others." Shut out the world and its sorrows, as you do the darkness of the evening with your curtains, and realize the happiness which you would bestow on all. It is a part of your duty to enjoy what pleasures you can, not inconsistent with others' welfare or your own. 

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Leigh Hunt (19 October 1784 – 28 August 1859) was an English critic, essayist and poet. In 1808 he founded the radical intellectual journal ‘The Examiner’, and introduced many of the greatest poets of his age, including John Keats, Percy Shelley, Robert Browning, and Alfred Tennyson, to a public audience.

Iggy Pop Playlist

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Iggy Pop is an American singer, songwriter, musician, record producer, and actor. Since forming The Stooges in 1967, Iggy’s career has spanned decades and genres. Having paved the way for ‘70’s punk and ‘90’s grunge, he is often considered “The Godfather of Punk.”

Back to Eden

Hannah Peel Playlist

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Mercury Prize, Ivor Novello and Emmy-nominated, RTS and Music Producers Guild winning composer, with a flow of solo albums and collaborative releases, Hannah Peel joins the dots between science, nature and the creative arts, through her explorative approach to electronic, classical and traditional music.

Page of Swords

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Name: Page, Princess, Valet
Number: 4
Astrology: Earth of Air
Qabalah: He of Vau

Chris Gabriel December 21, 2024

The lowest face card in the suit of Swords has a different title in each deck, though their symbolism and meaning are united. They are smoke and fog, the thick and heavy air personified. Each are weighed upon by the material reality of their ideas. 

In Rider, we are shown the Page, a young man with long blond hair blowing in the wind. He holds his sword close to his chest and leans against the wind. One foot is firmly planted on the ground, the other only brings its toes to the ground. Behind him is a great deal of pillowing grey clouds. His face is stern.

In Thoth, it is the Princess; entirely green, we only see her from behind as she swings her sword. She is a young, lithe woman with geometric pixie wings and a diaphanous dress. Her crown is topped by the head of Medusa. She is amidst a great deal of dark smoke. She is a Valkyrie, a brave woman of war. She is the only one who is actively swinging her sword. 

In Marseille, the card shows the Valet. He is a young man with long blonde hair and a large hat. Well dressed, both his feet are planted on the lower border of the card, but go in different directions. He is considering sheathing his sword. 

Both the Page and Valet are confused, uncertain of whether to fight or not. The Princess, however, is right in the thick of it, swinging her sword. As the Earth of Air, this card is the materialization of thought. It is the solid air and the blinding smoke and fog.

Each of these figures are in the fog of war and have no clear path ahead. This can be anxiety and impotence, or terrible blind violence; the unwillingness to fight, or the fury to kill. 

Infact, the phrase “Fog of War” quite cleanly sums up the dignified character of the card. 

War is the realm of uncertainty; three quarters of the factors on which action in war is based are wrapped in a fog of greater or lesser uncertainty. A sensitive and discriminating judgment is called for; a skilled intelligence to scent out the truth. — Carl von Clausewitz

At its best, this card is the sensitive and skilled intelligence, not the uncertain fog. The Princess is the clearest image of this: with her gorgon crest she is Artemis, the lunar huntress. As such, she can see in the dark and cut through the fog. Crowley describes her as the embodied wrath of God. She is also a Fury who, regardless of the complex morality at play in a situation, will blindly punish whoever they determine is wrong.

When we pull this card, we can expect to be met with a call to action. Whether we meet it with ready intelligence or vacillate in uncertainty is up to us. This can also represent a person directly, someone defined by thought. 

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Chris Gabriel is a twenty four year old wizard and poet who runs the YouTube channel MemeAnalysis.

CHANNEL, SOCIAL, READINGS

Film

Rebel Physics and the Chaos Magic Equation

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Molly Hankins December 19, 2024

The lines between magic, science and spirituality have become increasingly blurred, with chaos magic taking the form of what author and chaos magician Peter J. Carroll calls “rebel physics.” A trip to Carroll’s Specularium website reveals in-depth discussions of a particle spin theory related to spacetime and a paradigm he calls ‘hypersphere cosmology’ that challenges the Big Bang theory. While it may feel  impossible for a layman to make sense of, for the past year he’s been in published conversations with Institute of Noetic Sciences’ Chief Scientist Dr. Dean Radin about his theories. These conversations succeed in both vetting Carroll’s work from a scientific perspective and breaking them down for the average person.

Radin, who studies psychic or “psi” phenomena including telepathy, remote viewing, precognition and extra-sensory perception, contends that both magicians and scientists engaged in psi research are studying the same underlying phenomena. He weighed in on the variables of Carroll’s quintessential chaos magic equation, shown here for posterity and interest, but fear not if it is rather hard to follow. The equation is as follows with P equaling probability of natural occurrence, Pm  being probability influenced by magic, and M referring to the amount of magic applied, as defined by G (gnosis), L (a magical link), S (subconscious resistance) and B (consciously aware belief).

Pm = P + (1-P) x M1/p 

M = GLSB

“My interest in conducting a test involving magic is because the experimental design I’m using addresses a long-standing problem in mainstream physics, the quantum observer effect,” Radin explained. “And if it turns out that magical practices can enhance the results of such an effect, then that would be an interesting advancement for both magical practitioners and for physics.” The factors Carroll has identified that make up M, or the variable of magic in any spell, also determine the qualities of observation from Radin’s quantum physics viewpoint. Observing or measuring a quantum particle such as a photon  has the effect of changing its behavior, and this is the focus of his latest research at Institute of Noetics Sciences is focused on.

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“Laughter is the only tenable attitude in a universe which is a joke played on itself.” 

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When applied to predicting the efficacy of any magical act, each factor carries equal weight so let’s unpack them one at a time, beginning with G, gnosis. A Greek word meaning knowledge or awareness, Carroll defines the state of gnosis as “no mind” and the power source for any act of magic. The mind is emptied via an excitatory or inhibitory state and once achieved, pure energy, unimpeded by other thoughts, can be directed at “charging” our magical will. In his book Liber Null & Psychonaut, he lists sexual excitation, sensory overload, and overwhelming mental states such as anger, fear and horror as viable means of achieving excitatory gnosis. On the inhibitory side, he cites sensory deprivation, gazing into a mirror to achieve a magical trance and by means of physical exhaustion.

L, the magical link, is a deliberate psychic connection established between the magician and an object, person or symbol such as a sigil, which Radin describes as creating a symbol for an intention or goal. According to another of Carroll’s books, Liber Kaos, prior personal contact with the “target” of magical practice is ideal, but an extensive mental image even in the form of visualization can suffice. An internet search for Peter J. Carroll will soon reveal that there’s not a single photograph of him online, and any which claim to be are fakes, for the very reason of protecting himself from anyone being able to readily establish a magical link with him. 

1909 Photograph of William James’ seance.

The last two factors S and B (subconscious resistance and consciously aware belief) refer to mental states that can reduce the efficacy of a magical act.The goal is to reduce these because they typically can’t be eliminated entirely. Subconscious resistance is self-explanatory and can be mitigated by appealing to its highly suggestible nature. Meditation, mindfulness of our reactions, strategic affirmations, and the use of symbols such as the Tarot keys are all means of influence. 

In the reissue of Liber Kaos, Carroll updated his B for belief to an A meaning conscious awareness, but both are relevant to understanding this paradoxical variable. He writes, “In chaos magic we treat belief as a tool rather than an end in itself.” And while tailoring conscious belief to be conducive to successful acts of magic is critical, so is the banishment of conscious awareness once a spell has been cast or a sigil charged. 

This act of forgetting, challenging as it may seem when we’re “lusting for result” as he puts it, ensures the mind doesn’t become anxious of failure which would cause our will to become a mass of conflicting ideas that block manifestation. Non-attachment, however it’s achieved, is essential. Carroll recommends inducing laughter immediately upon banishment. “Laughter,” he says, “Is the only tenable attitude in a universe which is a joke played on itself.” 

And remember, as discussed in another Carroll-inspired essay on the pentagram, the so-called “information load” of the magical act will determine how much GSLB is needed to facilitate effective magic. He reminds us in Liber Null and Psychonaut that it’s far easier to generate the magical effect of causing someone to fall under a 16-ton weight than it is to make a 16-ton weight fall down on someone because fewer variables, and therefore far less information, is required to create the first effect. In the same way, it is much easier to overcome subconscious resistance when working with lighter information loads. 

As the cutting edge of consciousness science and chaos magic continue to inform each other’s areas of study, we’ll be keeping close tabs on both Radin and Carroll’s work. Learn more about the SIGIL experiment here and read the full text of their interviews here. 

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Molly Hankins is a Neophyte + Reality Hacker serving the Ministry of Quantum Existentialism and Builders of the Adytum

Peter Thiel