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Archive for March 2010

  1. Theorising Practice II: Habitus/Hexis

    One of the consequences of the mind (theory)-body(practice) divide in contemporary approaches to magic (and more widely, spiritual development in general) is the notion that the spiritual/magical is set apart from the material/everyday world. There is a pervasive belief that materiality (and the concerns that relate to it) is a burden to be overcome; that development requires that the concerns of the body be transcended. This kind of discourse tends to privilege abstracted knowledge over bodied experience. Yet all practices (including those understood as inwardly turning, such as meditation or visualisation) involve our bodies. Continue reading »

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    March 23rd 2010

    Posted by in Occult

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  2. Playful mind

    Meditation is often thought of in terms of stilling the internal dialogue, of calming the endless fluctuations or whirlings (vrittis) of cognition. Often, beginners in meditation find this difficult, and its easy to get into the routine of making meditation a seperate space from the rest of our lives; of practicing it at times when we won’t be disturbed by too many sense-distractions. It is difficult to still the endless flow of cognitions – to lengthen the gap between thoughts. Why not do the opposite? Let the mind play. Continue reading »

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    March 19th 2010

    Posted by in tantra

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    13 comments »

  3. Watkins Bookshop: 1897-2010

    On the 23rd February it was announced that Watkins Bookshop – London’s oldest esoteric bookshop – went into administration, with 11 members of staff being made redundant. Unless a buyer for the business emerges by 25th March, the business will be liquidated. Continue reading »

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    March 6th 2010

    Posted by in Announcements

    Tags: None

    6 comments »

  4. Kula Bodies – I

    “Yes, we perceive our own world in connected, synthesized and unfolded series, always from some specific zone of perception, such as the human eye or body. This is the productive synthesis which is at heart of all experience, not only human experience. We can see the way in which the eye connects its visual field, the way human bodies connect to produce groups, the way organisms connect to produce ecological synergies. But it is illegitimate to go from connection and production to an unseen but presupposed subject or ‘who’ that is the ground or hidden order of production. From organized bodies–assembled through connections–we can extrapolate a ‘body without organs’ that must have been their condition, but this will always be read back from its effects.”
    Claire Colebrook Deleuze: A Guide for the Perplexed

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    March 4th 2010

    Posted by in Deleuze, tantra

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    7 comments »