Post by Nalyd Khezr Bey on Nov 6, 2013 19:57:27 GMT
I had previously posted the following elsewhere as a critique of certain Chaos Magick practices and what I think are misunderstandings about several things a lot of Chaos Magicians talk about including Spare's "death posture". Or, at best, certain practices that may be understood but not necessarily made clear in print. Marc expressed an interest in this topic in another thread here so I wanted to separately focus on it. Initially I wanted to revise this thing to fit more into the general focus and atmosphere of Typhonian Mysteries but I decided to present it as is to start and then maybe pick it apart later. I think it can be made to fit in here some how. 
For a long time I have had a small issue with the term "gnosis" as it is used in the Chaos system of magick. I feel I understand this use even though I know of no authors on the subject that have made clear what I have come to learn of it from experience. I have never heard any explanation for the choice of this term, especially in regards to what is usually attributed to it.
In the Chaos system the experience of gnosis tends to refer to the peak experience of one-pointedness or a state of no-mind resulting from certain practices like sexual orgasm or exhaustion. This peak is a very short window of time and it is said that one should cast a spell or fire a sigil during this moment. I disagree completely and I’m going to explain why.
The traditional sense of Gnosis is of course an inspired reception of Knowledge which contradicts what is emphasized in Chaos Magick. There is no mention in the literature of Chaos Magick of the very real state of Gnosis that can potentially follow these small peak experiences and that is what I want to address here.
Based on my own experiences the one-pointed peak experience should not be called "gnosis". The flood of reception and/or download of information that follows the peak experience is more akin to Gnosis. To understand this, anyone who has had an orgasm should note one’s state of mind in the afterglow of orgasm. Chaos Magick seems to de-emphasize or ignores the importance of this phase of magical practice. I think it is more important in practical terms as it is where the actual reification of one's intent occurs.
As an experiment, bring yourself to a state of exhaustion using whatever means you're comfortable with. Then in the relaxation of the afterglow when your mind becomes clear and images and thoughts start to flood in, simply allow it all to cross your mind as it wants to. Then pick a topic you would like to make clear to yourself (i.e. to your subconscious); a desire for example. Start talking about it out loud with yourself. Reason it out until it becomes very clear to you. Answer your own questions and comment on your own statements out loud as if you're really talking with someone else. Then just let it go and forget about the conversation. Make note later of any results obtained that correspond with the nature of this conversation with yourself.
To further examine what I mean one need look no further than Austin Osman Spare’s full ritual of the death posture. If this ritual is performed properly one will actually achieve a relative degree of real Gnosis. This is not quite the effect that Spare himself seems to advocate but it is the actual result. Christopher S. Hyatt talked quite a bit about the balance of deep relaxation with energized enthusiasm in his books. These two states are actually what Spare was talking about with his ritual. One needs the other. I will examine the ritual of the death posture here and elaborate what I mean.
The passage that gives the ritual of the death posture in Spare’s The Book of Pleasure has been so grossly misread that when understood for what it is makes a joke out of what has been advocated in Chaos Magick all these years now. Here is the ritual as it appears in The Book of Pleasure with my emphasis on important points usually overlooked:
As may be noticed, Spare actually put these three paragraphs in reverse order, hence my emphasis. The second paragraph is usually the practice that Chaos Magicians refer to as the death posture and its result of potentially passing out being the Chaos form of “gnosis”. That passing out state is not really important at all. It’s just a step in this particular process. You do not need to pass out but you do need to achieve what Hyatt refers to as "deep relaxation" and there are numerous other ways of doing this besides what Spare himself advocates here.
It should be clear that the second and third paragraphs simply explain preliminary exercises that help prepare one for the actual practice of the death posture which is simply lying on one’s back lazily in a kind of daydream state. This is the same as the afterglow stage of an orgasm. If one can concentrate on and hold the initial spark of this state of mind then a prolonged one-pointedness can be achieved. This seems more what Spare himself was advocating. However, in terms of using this altered state to magically project, no-mind or one-pointedness is not at all important.
If one’s guards are let down in this particular state of mind and one allows their mind to wander then a series of vivid thoughts, images, even sounds and voices at times, can be experienced. One can fine tune these receptions and actually achieve a form of Gnosis in the true sense of the word. But this is a two-way current. Just as information can be received so can information be transmitted and the ability to transmit is what is important in something like simple sigil magic or really any magical endeavor along these same lines. I think other uses may be obvious to some.
That emptiness is the prerequisite to the actual experience of Gnosis. For me Gnosis (a flood of inspired "knowledge") happens after the peak experience. The peak experience is the one-pointedness or emptiness, no thought, no mind, etc. It is a waking experience of dreamless sleep. The after effect of that brief state is the true Gnostic state (of course nothing is true I know). This is NOT the common way it is stated in all the literature on Chaos Magick. In the literature the term "gnosis" refers to just that peak moment. The practice of the kind of magic advocated in Chaos Magick is not as hard as some would have it. Too many aspiring magicians are trying to "fire a sigil" at that very brief one-pointed moment and it's not even necessary to work that hard at it. This is also why you obtain no results. I only know this because I was once in the same boat. I have found it most effective to work all the magick after that moment. Perhaps what I'm referring to is what Carroll, Hine, Lee, etc. actually meant but they never made it clear in their writings.
End of Initial Post
All of that is totally based on my own experimentation and frustrations over the years as well as having developed a dislike for the superficial nature of most of what is found in Chaos Magick. I would also like to know if the experience as I described it there corresponds with others' experiences here. I have only encountered a small amount of individuals who corroborate my own take on this and all of them are experienced practitioners. Those who have disagreed so far seem to have been not so experienced.
For me the real key to Spare's death posture is in found in his artwork and not his writings. There are a few self-portraits I've seen of him titled "the death posture". One of the best of those is the frontispiece to The Book of Pleasure. That portrait seems to be portraying a total receptivity to a kind of Gnostic overload. Perhaps that is what is meant by his "neither-neither" state; to be neither here nor there but to just forget and allow that flood of Gnosis to come through.
Since Grant himself made much of Spare's "neither-neither" state perhaps we can bring this around to that in some way.
Re-Evaluating the Chaos Magick "Gnosis", aka Understanding the Death Posture
For a long time I have had a small issue with the term "gnosis" as it is used in the Chaos system of magick. I feel I understand this use even though I know of no authors on the subject that have made clear what I have come to learn of it from experience. I have never heard any explanation for the choice of this term, especially in regards to what is usually attributed to it.
In the Chaos system the experience of gnosis tends to refer to the peak experience of one-pointedness or a state of no-mind resulting from certain practices like sexual orgasm or exhaustion. This peak is a very short window of time and it is said that one should cast a spell or fire a sigil during this moment. I disagree completely and I’m going to explain why.
The traditional sense of Gnosis is of course an inspired reception of Knowledge which contradicts what is emphasized in Chaos Magick. There is no mention in the literature of Chaos Magick of the very real state of Gnosis that can potentially follow these small peak experiences and that is what I want to address here.
Based on my own experiences the one-pointed peak experience should not be called "gnosis". The flood of reception and/or download of information that follows the peak experience is more akin to Gnosis. To understand this, anyone who has had an orgasm should note one’s state of mind in the afterglow of orgasm. Chaos Magick seems to de-emphasize or ignores the importance of this phase of magical practice. I think it is more important in practical terms as it is where the actual reification of one's intent occurs.
As an experiment, bring yourself to a state of exhaustion using whatever means you're comfortable with. Then in the relaxation of the afterglow when your mind becomes clear and images and thoughts start to flood in, simply allow it all to cross your mind as it wants to. Then pick a topic you would like to make clear to yourself (i.e. to your subconscious); a desire for example. Start talking about it out loud with yourself. Reason it out until it becomes very clear to you. Answer your own questions and comment on your own statements out loud as if you're really talking with someone else. Then just let it go and forget about the conversation. Make note later of any results obtained that correspond with the nature of this conversation with yourself.
To further examine what I mean one need look no further than Austin Osman Spare’s full ritual of the death posture. If this ritual is performed properly one will actually achieve a relative degree of real Gnosis. This is not quite the effect that Spare himself seems to advocate but it is the actual result. Christopher S. Hyatt talked quite a bit about the balance of deep relaxation with energized enthusiasm in his books. These two states are actually what Spare was talking about with his ritual. One needs the other. I will examine the ritual of the death posture here and elaborate what I mean.
The passage that gives the ritual of the death posture in Spare’s The Book of Pleasure has been so grossly misread that when understood for what it is makes a joke out of what has been advocated in Chaos Magick all these years now. Here is the ritual as it appears in The Book of Pleasure with my emphasis on important points usually overlooked:
Lying on your back lazily, the body expressing the condition of yawning, suspiring while conceiving by smiling, that is the idea of the posture. Forgetting time with those things which were essential- reflecting their meaninglessness, the moment is beyond time and its virtue has happened.
Standing on tip-toe, with the arms rigid, bound behind by the hands, clasped and straining the utmost, the neck stretched- breathing deeply and spasmodically, till giddy and sensation comes in gusts, gives exhaustion and capacity for the former.
Gazing at your reflection till it is blurred and you know not the gazer, close your eyes (this usually happens involuntarily) and visualize. The light (always an X in curious evolutions) that is seen should be held on to, never letting go, till the effort is forgotten, this gives a feeling of immensity (which sees a small form), whose limit you cannot reach. This should be practised before experiencing the foregoing. The emotion that is felt is the knowledge which tells you why.
Standing on tip-toe, with the arms rigid, bound behind by the hands, clasped and straining the utmost, the neck stretched- breathing deeply and spasmodically, till giddy and sensation comes in gusts, gives exhaustion and capacity for the former.
Gazing at your reflection till it is blurred and you know not the gazer, close your eyes (this usually happens involuntarily) and visualize. The light (always an X in curious evolutions) that is seen should be held on to, never letting go, till the effort is forgotten, this gives a feeling of immensity (which sees a small form), whose limit you cannot reach. This should be practised before experiencing the foregoing. The emotion that is felt is the knowledge which tells you why.
It should be clear that the second and third paragraphs simply explain preliminary exercises that help prepare one for the actual practice of the death posture which is simply lying on one’s back lazily in a kind of daydream state. This is the same as the afterglow stage of an orgasm. If one can concentrate on and hold the initial spark of this state of mind then a prolonged one-pointedness can be achieved. This seems more what Spare himself was advocating. However, in terms of using this altered state to magically project, no-mind or one-pointedness is not at all important.
If one’s guards are let down in this particular state of mind and one allows their mind to wander then a series of vivid thoughts, images, even sounds and voices at times, can be experienced. One can fine tune these receptions and actually achieve a form of Gnosis in the true sense of the word. But this is a two-way current. Just as information can be received so can information be transmitted and the ability to transmit is what is important in something like simple sigil magic or really any magical endeavor along these same lines. I think other uses may be obvious to some.
That emptiness is the prerequisite to the actual experience of Gnosis. For me Gnosis (a flood of inspired "knowledge") happens after the peak experience. The peak experience is the one-pointedness or emptiness, no thought, no mind, etc. It is a waking experience of dreamless sleep. The after effect of that brief state is the true Gnostic state (of course nothing is true I know). This is NOT the common way it is stated in all the literature on Chaos Magick. In the literature the term "gnosis" refers to just that peak moment. The practice of the kind of magic advocated in Chaos Magick is not as hard as some would have it. Too many aspiring magicians are trying to "fire a sigil" at that very brief one-pointed moment and it's not even necessary to work that hard at it. This is also why you obtain no results. I only know this because I was once in the same boat. I have found it most effective to work all the magick after that moment. Perhaps what I'm referring to is what Carroll, Hine, Lee, etc. actually meant but they never made it clear in their writings.
End of Initial Post
All of that is totally based on my own experimentation and frustrations over the years as well as having developed a dislike for the superficial nature of most of what is found in Chaos Magick. I would also like to know if the experience as I described it there corresponds with others' experiences here. I have only encountered a small amount of individuals who corroborate my own take on this and all of them are experienced practitioners. Those who have disagreed so far seem to have been not so experienced.
For me the real key to Spare's death posture is in found in his artwork and not his writings. There are a few self-portraits I've seen of him titled "the death posture". One of the best of those is the frontispiece to The Book of Pleasure. That portrait seems to be portraying a total receptivity to a kind of Gnostic overload. Perhaps that is what is meant by his "neither-neither" state; to be neither here nor there but to just forget and allow that flood of Gnosis to come through.
Since Grant himself made much of Spare's "neither-neither" state perhaps we can bring this around to that in some way.
