Michael Osiris Snuffin's Blog, page 2

Anontological writing

I first learned of anontology from Peter Carroll’s PsyberMagick. I decided to perform antispell one and started writing my journals without using any “to be” verbs. I kept up the practice for a couple of months before reverting back to ontological writing. The process of translating and purging ontological statements interfered with my journaling; the magical record took precedence over the magical experiment.

Several years later, Peter Carroll’s Apophenion rekindled my interest in anontology. The section titled “The Metaphysics of Non-Being” made a lot of sense to me, and I started working in v-prime again, removing ontologies from orations in my ritual/spiritual work and eventually returning to anontological writing. I have found that anontological writing, while sometimes difficult to manage, does improve the clarity and accuracy of my work. As an editor, I’ve found anontological translation helpful for everything from restating awkward sentences to fortifying and clarifying theses.

So when Concrescent Press asked me to write a revised version of Conjuring Spirits, I didn’t just add new material—I rewrote the entire book in v-prime. I even edited the descriptions of the seventy-two spirits of the Goetia. I think anontological writing improved the overall quality of The Complete Conjuring Spirits; when the book finally comes out, you can tell me what you think.

The latest on CCS

Concrescent Press plans to release The Complete Conjuring Spirits this summer, date TBD. I wish I had more details to give you, but the publisher does not include me in the production loop. Concrescent missed the first two release dates they gave me for this book without offering an explanation or even acknowledgement of the fact, so don’t hold your breath.

Meanwhile, I have other writing projects in the works…

Marking and protecting my territory

Over the last six months, I have done much reading and research on the Ancient Egyptians. I have focused on material written in the last twenty-five years, as some of my initial knowledge came from outdated sources such as Budge as well as occult orders that incorporated his work like the Golden Dawn. I have enjoyed my reeducation!

Last month, I created a simple boundary stele inspired by the Stele of king Peribsen. I learned enough about reading hieroglyphs to figure out how to properly spell my middle name, Osiris, simply by changing the determinative in the name from “god” to “man”. I affixed this piece to the fence outside my new home, marking my territory, and making it easier for visitors (and certain spirits) to locate me.

This week I finished my second piece, a winged disc, the symbol of protection found over the entrances to temples and pylons. I looked at a number of examples in museum catalogues and tomb photographs to determine the design and colors. After giving it a few coats of varnish to protect it from the elements, I installed it over my front door.

I think I’ll paint an offering stela as my next project. I have a number of Kemetic deities to thank! I have most of the offering formula put together in hieroglyphs; I still need to find epithets and titles to identify everyone, including myself.

Welcome to 2013! CCS update

Greetings, and welcome to the new year! I had my hands full last month, moving into a new home and dealing with the holiday madness. I love the serenity of January–always a good time to start new projects. I have a few things planned for 2013, but nothing in the immediate future. Time to read, write, research, and reflect.

The Complete Conjuring Spirits will not hit the shelves until mid-February, possibly in time for release at PantheaCon. (FYI: I have no plans to attend.) A book of this quality takes time to put together! When I know more, I’ll let you know.

Five Years of TC!

November marks the fifth anniversary of the publication of my first book, The Thoth Companion. Five years on the shelf! I’ve had my hands full preparing to move to a new home, but I didn’t want to let this little milestone slip by unnoticed.

This summer I purchased the Kindle edition of The Thoth Companion to check it out. (I tried to get a free copy of my own book, but that required communication between Amazon and my publisher…) I think Amazon did a good job of translating my book into electronic format, but the graphics impressed me the most. You can zoom in on the tarot images and make out most of the details, and these images appear larger on the Kindle than in the print edition—about the size of the actual cards. In essence, it puts a copy of the Thoth Deck on your Kindle. Nice! Now if they could only add some color…

Coming Soon: The Complete Conjuring Spirits

It pleases me to announce that the revised and expanded version of Conjuring Spirits will hit the shelves in December! To me, The Complete Conjuring Spirits feels more like a new book that just a simple revision; I completely rewrote and updated the text. I also added new material to The Complete Conjuring Spirits, including:

–An essay on the theory behind sorcery that examines how the spirit world works and how we interact with it.

–A new section on Archangelic evocation.

–The sigils and descriptions of the seventy-two spirits of the Goetia.

–A transcription of an evocation of RAAGIOSL, the Elemental King of Water.

The Complete Conjuring Spirits gives both practical instructions for evoking Archangelic, Goetic, and Watchtower (Enochian) entities and their corresponding grimoires all in one book! Please stay tuned—I‘ll let you know when I have more details.

The Thelemic Heptad: Local Cosmology

Modern astronomy trumps ancient astrology. The idea that the planets and stars influence or reflect events happening on Earth withers in the light of our current understanding of the Universe. The cosmological correlations of the Thelemic Heptad concern astronomical phenomena that have a direct effect on our lives:

Nuit: The Universe.

Horus: The Sun.

Thoth: The Moon.

Isis: The Living Earth.

Osiris: The Black Sun.

Maat: Order; Gravity.

Set: Chaos; Individuality.

Nuit: According to Nuit Theory, the Universe functions as a self-regulating living organism. Now consider our solar system as a single cell in the body of this infinitely large organism. When our Sun finally goes nova and destroys the solar system, do you think the Universe will notice? Do you notice when individual cells die within your own body? That would require an incredible amount of internal awareness, much more information than the human brain could possibly process. An organism the size of Nuit must therefore have a different form of sensory apparatus or consciousness that allows her to possess and process that level of awareness. In the Thelemic Heptad, the goddess Nuit specifically functions as an anthropomorphic interface for interacting with this Universal consciousness, providing us with a way to work with the unknowable.

Horus: It makes little sense to characterize the Sun (Horus) as the child of the Earth (Isis and Osiris). The Sun predates the Earth in cosmological history, and therefore represents Horus the Elder, the Horus of the Old Kingdom before the rise of the Heliopolitan myth. Our Sun provides the light and heat necessary for life to exist.

Thoth: Our Moon has no life and no light of its own; it reflects the light of the Sun, and the Earth’s shadow creates the phases of the Moon. The cold, barren rock of the Moon no longer serves as a proper symbol for Earthly fertility goddesses. The Ancient Egyptians connected the Moon with Thoth, recognizing that the regular phases of the Moon provided them with an accurate method of measuring time. The gravitational pull of the Moon gives the earth orbital stability; it creates tides and the four seasons, also methods of measuring time. The Moon’s synchronous rotation with the Earth means that the far side of the moon remains forever hidden from observers on the Earth’s surface, representative of hidden wisdom.

Isis: The deities and their cosmological counterparts in the Thelemic Heptad work together to sustain Isis, the goddess of the life force and the Earthly environment that protects and nourishes it. Humanity creates deities, etheric constructs that possess power in proportion to the number of people that believe in them, so in sustaining humanity, the Thelemic Heptad also protects their own existence. Isis represents nature, and rules over the living parts of the Earth: the crust, mantle, and atmosphere.

Osiris: The outer core of the Earth consists of iron and nickel liquefied by intense pressure and heat. The turbulent motion of the fluid core creates the Earth’s geomagnetic field, which protects our planet from harsh solar winds. The core of the Earth operates like a Black Sun, its hidden rays protecting life on the surface from the external Sun. Osiris rules the Black Sun, retaining his role as a chthonic deity associated with darkness and death as elements of transformation.

Maat: Order within the cosmos provides the stability and structure to keep everything functioning properly. Maat embodies the Anthropic principle; she balances the Sun, Moon, and Earth with laws and forces to maintain the conditions necessary for life to exist. In particular, she manifests as the force of gravity, which relates to her traditional rulership over truth, balance, and judgment.

Set: The ancients often characterized the relationship between Chaos and Order as a great battle, usually with Order as the protagonist. However, Chaos Theory, Complexity, and other modern scientific paradigms have shown that Chaos and Order actually work together to maintain the structure of the universe. Past orthodoxies have emphasized the destructive side of Chaos, often failing to realize its constructive aspects such as individuality, innovation, and evolution. Set represents this chaotic principle and governs the development of Hadit within every individual/star.

My Neopantheistic Adventure: The Thelemic Heptad

The Thelemic Heptad paradigm weaves together three important elements of my personal mythology: Thelema, a pre-Heliopolitan Egyptian pantheon, and modern cosmology. I have practiced Thelemic philosophy and magick for over fifteen years, so I chose to use Crowley’s The Book of the Law as inspiration for a new Thelemic pantheon.

The Thelemic Heptad consists of seven primary Egyptian deities loosely derived from The Book of the Law:

Nuit: Revealed in Chapter One.

Horus (Ra-Hoor-Khuit): Revealed in Chapter Three; the god of the third Aeon.

Set: Hadit manifests not as a god (AL II:23) but as the spark of divine individuality dwelling within each of us. The Temple of Set has reestablished Set as the deity that governs the development of that individual consciousness.

Maat: Identified as the goddess of the fourth Aeon (AL III:34).

Osiris: Mentioned in Chapter One (AL I:49); also the god of the second Aeon.

Isis: Mentioned in Chapter One (AL: I:22, 49); also the goddess of the first Aeon.

Thoth: Chapter Two includes a feast for Tahuti (AL: II:39) as one of the Thelemic feast days.

The Thelemic Heptad: Nuit, Set, Horus, Maat, Osiris, Isis, and Thoth.

In working with each of these deities in the past, I realized that the popular Heliopolitan myth puts them in a context that does not reflect my personal experiences. I prefer to draw from Predynastic and Old Kingdom mythology, which presents more realistic and balanced relationships between the deities. Most importantly, it restores Set and Horus to equal status within the Egyptian pantheon by disregarding the demonized Set and the awkward birth of Horus the Child.

Next: cosmological correlations.

Correcting selective evolution

The cosmologies of the Ordo Templi Orientis and the Temple of Set have their basis in selective evolution, where one deity of a pantheon evolves into a modern manifestation while the other deities retain their ancient identities, often becoming antagonists in the new pantheon. For example, as a symbol of the Thelemic Old Aeon and the Right-Hand Path, Osiris does not evolve; he simply becomes inferior and obsolete. This disingenuous comparison of evolved deities to their ancient relatives begs the question: if Horus and Set can evolve into modern, relevant manifestations, why can’t the other Egyptian deities? I think the Aeon of Maat will restore balance among the Egyptian deities by bringing them all up-to-date. In the last couple of years, I have started developing and working with modern evolutions of Egyptian deities, reinterpreted to reflect contemporary scientific knowledge of cosmology. I plan to share more about my experiences and results with this project in future posts.

Nuit Theory: As below, so above

James Lovelock’s Gaia Theory forms the basis for my beliefs on how the Earth functions in the material and etheric realms. The idea that our planet works as a self-regulating living organism certainly feels intuitive to an animist. Gaia Theory coupled with chaos theory and Thelemic philosophy serves as my primary framework for understanding and practicing magick.

I also believe in Nuit Theory, which applies the principles of Gaia Theory to the Universe. Like the Earth, the Universe functions as a self-regulating living organism. As below, so above. I feel that the Thelemic goddess Nuit best represents this living Universe. Nuit Theory provides me with a framework with which I may comprehend and interact with the Universe I live in.