Home > Archive for the category ‘Occult’

Archive for the category ‘Occult’

Occult gender regimes: Polarity and Thermodynamic bodies – II

“…there is no word in any language I know which is an exact synonym for vril. I should call it electricity, except that it comprehends in its manifold branches other forces of nature, to which, in our scientific nomenclature, differing names are assigned, such as magnetism, galvanism, &c. These people consider that in vril they have arrived at the unity in natural energetic agencies, which has been conjectured by many philosophers above ground…”
Bulwer-Lytton, 1871, The Coming Race

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November 23rd 2011

Posted by Phil Hine in Gender, History, Occult

Tags: bodies, nineteenth century, polarity, thermodynamics

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Some reflections on Transcendence – I

“…what is emerging now is the nondualistic understanding of “immanent” and “transcendent.” Long seen as opposites in Western cultural history, transcendence is coming to be understood as “beyond” but not “above” the material plane we can see in every day life. What science calls “complex dynamical systems” has illuminated in recent decades the extraordinarily creative, complex, dynamic processes going on at every fraction of a second within, around, and through every entity in the universe. Our minds will never be able to map the endless networks of what I call “relational reality,” so spirituality that seeks to commune with either immanence or transcendence now sees that they are not apart. This realization is not new to Eastern philosophy or indigenous cultures, of course; we were simply late coming to it in the modern West because of our dualistic and mechanistic worldview.”
Charlene Spretnak, Immanence as well as Transcendence

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October 25th 2011

Posted by Phil Hine in Occult, Pagan

Tags: immanence, intensities, reflections, transcendence

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Shamanism and gender variance: the eighteenth century – “torrid zones”

“On my visit this Morning to Tynah and his Wife, I found with her a person, who altho I was certain was a Man, had great marks of effeminacy about him and created in me certain notions which I wished to find out if there were any foundations for. On asking Iddeah who he was, she without any hesitation told me he was a friend of hers, and a class of people common in Otaheite called Mahoo. That the Men had frequent connections with him and that he lived, observed the same ceremonies, and eat as the Women did. The Effeminacy of this persons speech induced me to think that he had suffered castration, and that other unnatural and shocking things were done by him, and particularly as I had myself some Idea that it was common in this sea. I was however mistaken in all my conjectures except that things equally disgusting were committed.”
William Bligh, The Log of the Bounty, 1789

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October 7th 2011

Posted by Phil Hine in Gender, History, Occult, Pagan, Queer

Tags: colonialism, eighteenth-century, shamanism

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An extract from Smoke and Mirrors

Admin’s note: There follows an extract from Stephen Grasso’s essay Smoke and Mirrors which features in a new anthology – The Wanton Green – out soon from Mandrake of Oxford. For more details and contributor previews, visit The Wanton Green blog.

In the earliest creation stories of London, Brutus the Trojan was caught in a storm on his voyages from Troy, and amid the wreckage of his ship was witness to a vision of the Goddess Diana, the virgin huntress of The Moon. Radiant on the waters like so many incarnations of Our Lady from the Stella Maris to the Virgin Caridad del Cobre, each appearing to those in distress at sea. Diana saved his life, and told him to build her a temple at the place where he struck land. He founded a city and dedicated it to her. Luan-Dun, the city of The Moon, and built her sacred temple upon the hill where St Paul’s Cathedral now stands. Continue reading »

August 23rd 2011

Posted by Stephen Grasso in Announcements, Occult, Pagan

Tags: London

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Occult gender regimes: Polarity and Thermodynamic bodies – I

“Star and nerve-tissue are parts of the system-stellar and nervous forces are correlated. Nay more; sensation awakens thought and kindles emotion, so that this wondrous dynamic chain binds into living unity the realms of matter and mind through measureless amplitudes of space and time.”
Edward Youmans, 1869, The Correlation and Conservation of Force

This post will examine the arrival of thermodynamics in the nineteenth century and consider its wider cultural impact – in particular how it was used to reinforce gender regimes. Continue reading »

June 12th 2011

Posted by Phil Hine in Gender, History, Occult

Tags: bodies, nineteenth century, polarity, thermodynamics

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On the notion of Pagan “Elders”

The term “Pagan Elders” has never rested well with me as a cultural convention. Believe me, I am grateful for those who have gone before, those who have courageously blazed the trails, taught, led and agitated. I am so delighted to honor these people, but I do so at my own judgment, not because I am compelled to by convention. I find this term, elders, problematic in that it apes our perceptions of “respected tribal elders”, and thus smacks to me of appropriation. Continue reading »

May 31st 2011

Posted by Amy Hale in History, Occult, Pagan

Tags: None

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Shamanism and gender-variance: uncovering a history

As I read through the various commentaries and observations in the wake of this year’s PantheaCon I came across people asserting that what happened was particularly reprehensible because Paganism has always been welcoming to LGBTQI people. This might well be the case in the USA, but its certainly not true for the UK. Continue reading »

May 2nd 2011

Posted by Phil Hine in Gender, History, Occult, Pagan, Queer

Tags: shamanism

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Further thoughts on Lineage

Another way to conceptualise lineage is in terms of two complementary axes – the vertical and the horizontal. Continue reading »

February 18th 2011

Posted by Phil Hine in Occult, Pagan

Tags: lineage, reflections

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Ganapati variations: an eighteenth-century interpretation

“But the obvious forms and ceremonies of a religion are not always to be understood in their obvious sense; but are to be considered as symbolical representations of some hidden meaning, which may be extremely wise and just, though the symbols themselves, to those who know not their true significance may appear in the highest degree absurd and extravagant.”
Richard Payne Knight, A Discourse on the worship of Priapus

In the midst of Richard Payne Knight’s A Discourse on the Worship of Priapus, and its connection with the mystic Theology of the Ancients (first published in 1786) there is an early European analysis of Ganesa: Continue reading »

February 12th 2011

Posted by Phil Hine in History, Occult, tantra

Tags: eighteenth-century, Ganesa, Orientalist, Richard Payne Knight

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Kenneth Grant: 1924-2011

So Kenneth Grant is dead. He will be remembered for bringing both Crowley and – perhaps more importantly – Austin Osman Spare into the light of attention. What follows is a bit of personal reflection on how Grant’s work has impacted on my own ideas. Continue reading »

February 8th 2011

Posted by Phil Hine in Occult

Tags: Kenneth Grant, reflections

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