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Post by parzival81 on May 29, 2014 19:35:31 GMT
Can someone please explain to a Typhonian newbie. What spare's concept of atavisms entails and how grant used them.
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Post by Deleted on May 29, 2014 22:45:22 GMT
In biology, an atavism is the reappearance of remote ancestral traits. The word comes from the Latin atavus, strictly meaning a great-great-great-grandfather, but commonly used by the Latin authors to mean any very distant ancestor.
In my interpretation of Typhonian praxis, 'atavism' refers to ancient Thought Forms, ancient modes of being, ancient entities, phantasms, nucleii of sentient energy, dynamic repositories of knowledge, and perhaps sometimes even to the Old Ones, or the Forgotten Ones (my particular interest) themselves.
The process by which these atavisms re-emerge in the sorcerer's present is known as atavistic resurgence, an event which occurs outwith the sequential ordering of time, and so may be considered a probability anomaly.
It is only fair to point out that in Hidden Lore: Hermetic Glyphs Grant defines atavistic resurgence somewhat differently:
“Atavistic resurgence, a primal urge towards union with the Divine by returning to the common source of all, is indicated by the backward symbolism peculiar to all Sabbath ceremonies, as also of many ideas connected with witchcraft, sorcery and magic. Whether it be the symbol of the moon presiding over nocturnal ecstasies; the words of power chanted backwards; the back-to-back dance performed in opposition to the sun's course; the devil's tail - are all instances of reversal and symbolic of Will and Desire turning within and down to subconscious regions, to the remote past, there to surprise the required atavistic energy for purposes of transformation, healing, initiation, construction or destruction.”
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Post by parzival81 on May 31, 2014 0:03:09 GMT
Ok, I see. I kind of use the formula of the ALHIM that way to describe primal forces that existed in the acts of creation and part of the weft and web of creation. Sort of like the Gnostic concept of an Aeon, except without a humanized personality opposed on them like Sofia. More in tune with Nema's Forgotten Ones.
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Post by Deleted on May 31, 2014 7:09:01 GMT
Spare's explanation of atavistic resurgence is rather clearer and simpler than Grant's later elaboration, so I give it here:
The Storehouse of Memories with an Ever-Open Door.
Know the sub-consciousness to be an epitome of all experience and wisdom, past incarnations as men, animals, birds, vegetable life, etc., etc., everything that exists, has and ever will exist. Each being a stratum in the order of evolution. Naturally then, the lower we probe into these strata, the earlier will be the forms of life we arrive at; the last is the Almighty Simplicity. And if we succeed in awakening them, we shall gain their properties, and our accomplishment will correspond. They being experiences long passed, must be evoked by extremely vague suggestion, which can only operate when the mind is unusually quiet or simple. To have their wisdom does not mean the necessity of their bodies- the body modifies in relation to "means" (we travel faster than the hunting leopard, but do not have its body), when it is the means it changes accordingly. Now, if we observe Nature, the early forms of life are wonderful in their properties, adaptablility, etc; their strength enormous, and some are indestructible. No matter what the desire is, it always is its accomplishment. A microbe has the power to destroy the world (and certainly would if it took an interest in us). If you were to dismember its limb, the mutilated part would regrow, etc. So by evoking and becoming obsessed or illuminated by these existences, we gain their magical properties, or the knowledge of their attainment. This is what already happens (everything happens at all times) though exceedingly slowly; in striving for knowledge we repel it, the mind works best on a simple diet.
Source: The Writings of Austin Osman Spare: Automatic Drawings, Anathema of Zos, The Book of Pleasure, and The Focus of Life, NuVision Publications, 2007, p.89.
(This edition is not well done, but is a convenient compendium you can buy on Amazon for £8, or download as a Google e-book for less. The Book of Pleasure on its own you can find as a free download.)
Finally, you will notice that Spare's atavistic resurgence concept overlaps to some extent with Jung's evocation and actualization of archetypes, and that both are informed by Neoplatonism.
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Post by parzival81 on Jun 2, 2014 20:46:08 GMT
I see. My conception is a bit more intellectual and qabalistic. It involves having to go backwards to describe the same phenomena that was experienced by our ancestors but trying to develop a systematic vocabulary, like the Old Ones, the Forgotten Ones--which are more on the levels of the shells that needed to be discarded as we developed our cave drawings of Ursa Major. The material that is denser then mater. I have to pick Dion Fortunes Mystical Qabala to see how the description of the shells. I believe that the ALHIM evolves with us.
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Post by Deleted on Jun 2, 2014 23:20:52 GMT
I see. My conception is a bit more intellectual and qabalistic. It involves having to go backwards to describe the same phenomena that was experienced by our ancestors but trying to develop a systematic vocabulary, like the Old Ones, the Forgotten Ones--which are more on the levels of the shells that needed to be discarded as we developed our cave drawings of Ursa Major. The material that is denser then mater. I have to pick Dion Fortunes Mystical Qabala to see how the description of the shells. I believe that the ALHIM evolves with us. My position is often very different to anything that can be found in books, so I would encourage you to consult widely until you can articulate sound positions of your own. While Spare's ideas may at times seem exalted, remember that his immediate magickal goals were often as feeble as the desires rehearsed in the Abramelin squares - to win the love of a maiden, to find a hidden treasure, and so on - which in Spare's case translated as sex and beer money. He has influential apologists, of course, people who will somersault to find deeper meanings within his decrepit pursuits, but you should take care to form your opinions. Don't trust any of the occult authors. The greater the claim to wisdom and enlightenment, the greater should your distrust be. The fact is that sorcery has never advanced beyond what at best should be called a very early pioneering stage, and its progress is actually being hampered by claims to the contrary in myriad dud books of 'ancient wisdom'. It is my view that the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn was the most thoroughly constructed mundus imaginalis of which written records remain, and a great deal can be learned from a critical study of its original documents. By a critical study I mean asking yourself questions about the relationship of the many parts to the whole - for example only, what benefit might have flowed from fusing the 16th century material of Dee with the Egyptian Book of the Dead? How much of the Eastern mysticism in the G.D. came from Blavatsky, and how much from primary sources in the Indian sub-continent? What is the earliest example you can find of a procedure similar to the banishing ritual of the pentagram? What effect did the social and economic circumstances of the G.D. membership have on the development and practice of the G.D. system? What similarities can you see between the G.D. cosmology and the theories of Plotinus and Philo? How important was Christianity to G.D. core beliefs? What percentage of the G.D. membership were Anglican clergymen? How important were the art nouveau Egyptianesque costumes to the performance theatre of the rituals? And so on, and so on, until you can clearly and distinctly see how a mundus imaginalis - an imaginal world - was assembled from its constituent parts. Lastly, you should consider how the mundus imaginalis is affected by the inclusion of spurious material in its construction. Does it matter at all? When you know the answer you will be well on your way to becoming a sorcerer. |
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Post by squareye on Jun 3, 2014 19:07:25 GMT
On this subject of 'atavisms' and their resurgence; I always liked Spare's description in BoP giving the example of a bird atavism resurging and thus manifesting as the idea and creation of flying machines.
To my mind Spare is suggesting that our inspirations are the resurgence of old idea forms which he calls 'karmas' in 'new flesh'.
For Spare this only requires a method of communication with the subconscious - the respository of all wisdom and power - the alphabet is one's own. He gives a good example of how to proceed in 'Mind to mind and how... by a sorcerer' using a pack of playing cards.
Whilst it is true that he may have used his methods for 'women and beer money', there is little doubt in my mind that his art, as well as being the result of high technical skill, is truly inspired.
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Post by sandow on Jun 4, 2014 7:00:40 GMT
On this subject of 'atavisms' and their resurgence; I always liked Spare's description in BoP giving the example of a bird atavism resurging and thus manifesting as the idea and creation of flying machines. To my mind Spare is suggesting that our inspirations are the resurgence of old idea forms which he calls 'karmas' in 'new flesh'. For Spare this only requires a method of communication with the subconscious - the respository of all wisdom and power - the alphabet is one's own. He gives a good example of how to proceed in 'Mind to mind and how... by a sorcerer' using a pack of playing cards. Whilst it is true that he may have used his methods for 'women and beer money', there is little doubt in my mind that his art, as well as being the result of high technical skill, is truly inspired. Yes! I always thought that this passage was the most important of the book of pleasure! "The law of Evolution is retrogression of function governing progression of attainment, i.e., the more wonderful our attainments, the lower in the scale of life that governs them. Our knowledge of flight is determined by that desire causing the activity of our bird etc. Karmas. Directly our desire reaches the stratum belonginging to those existences that can "fly" without wings- so shall we fly without machines." This is very close to Timothy Leary's theory that altered states are indeed "precapitulations" of future technologies and real transformations. For instance, Leary's 5th circuit is linked to mass media, sixth circuit to the Web, seventh circuit to genetic engineering and so on . But it seems to me that Spare's notion of atavisms adds some important information to Leary's circuits. I have always been a fan of Leary's ideas, but his theory let us think that the "future", "post-larval" circuits are already planned, waiting for us. This has a teleological flavour very hard to swallow for an orthodox darwinist like me ;-) But if we combine Spare atavisms with Leary's circuits, we may hypothesize that the future circuits are indeed ancient ones, but made conscious. This almost match exactly for the 5th and 6th circuit: 5th circuit, erotic hedonist: retrogression to the 4th circuit social/mating. The dualist imprints, good/bad replaced by multidimensional hedonism: 6th circuit, reality making : retrogression to the 3rd circuit, laryngeal/manual (intellect). Dualist concepts of of true/false replaced by relativistic reality construction. I confess I have more difficulties to map the 7th and 2nd circuits, and the 8th and the first one. But Leary himself was quite evasive on these circuits, especially the 8th...Step seven is probably about DNA mastery, so coming back to the genetic level. And 8th is a coming back to the beginning of the universe, quantum level... |
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Post by piouspeace on Dec 13, 2021 22:14:32 GMT
It is my feeling that atavisms are related to altered states. A Remembering at the subconscious level which produces visions whether of the ecstatic or horrific type. Lovecraft's fear of the unknown may be an ancient horror repressed by the race mind. I call them Feeders. But we are civilized because we have forgotten. We rely on laws and logic rather than these forces ancient. But true self knowledge is worth it. Imho.
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