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Posts tagged ‘reflections’

On Reading Occult Books

“Few people ask from books what books can give us. Most commonly we come to books with blurred and divided minds, asking of fiction that it shall be true, of poetry that it shall be false, of biography that it shall be flattering, of history that it shall enforce our own prejudices.
Virginia Woolf, “How one should read a book”, The Second Common Reader, 1925.

How do we go about reading an occult book? It seems like an obvious question to ask, but thus far, I have yet to see any attempt to explore this issue in any depth. This is strange, given how much occult books are part of contemporary occult practice. The effort and expense we go to acquire them, how we cherish them, and how books influence our trajectories and shape our ideas.
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March 25th 2023

Posted by Phil Hine in Occult, Pagan

Tags: Practice, reflections

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Reflections: On Lovecraft, landscape and urban wonder

I was recently asked to write something about what were the main influences that shaped my short book on Cthulhu Mythos magic – The Pseudonomicon. Reflecting on this was difficult at first, as some of the ideas that went into it had been rattling around in my head since the early 1980s. My first experiments with Lovecraftian Magic were enacted in 1980 or thereabouts, so trying to think back to that time was a challenge, to say the least. At this time of my life, I was studying for a degree in the Behavioural Sciences – a joint honors degree that encompassed Psychology, Sociology, Social Policy, and Philosophy at what was then Huddersfield Polytechnic. I’d been interested in the occult for about three years at this point and was still dipping my toes into actual magical practice in any sustained or coherent way. Some of the ideas and suggestions for Cthulhu Mythos magic in The Pseudonomicon were shaped by my dissatisfaction with how Lovecraft’s themes had been treated by other occult authors. Yet at the same time, those authors had an influence on me, insofar as they at least opened the way to the connection between fictional horror and magical experience.
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October 25th 2022

Posted by Phil Hine in Occult

Tags: Lovecraft, reflections

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Some reflections on a statement

Thus far, I haven’t really brought the subject of Chaos Magic up on enfolding, as I wanted to use this blog as a space to develop other interests. But here’s a little something I wrote after I spotted the image below on Twitter.

“Chaos Magic is not about discarding all rules and restraints, but the process of discovering the most effective guidelines and disciplines which enable you to effect change in the world.”
Condensed Chaos

When I wrote that statement (probably in 1994 or thereabouts) it doubtless seemed to me to be a reasonable and accurate statement to make about Chaos Magic. Now, 28 years later, I’m not so sure.
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January 10th 2022

Posted by Phil Hine in Occult

Tags: Practice, reflections

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Beginnings in Tantra

Here’s a short extract from my new book, Hine’s Varieties: Chaos & Beyond which deals with how I became engaged with Tantra as a subject and a means of practice. It’s a section of the introduction to three essays in the book which deal with tantra-related themes. Hine’s Varieties: Chaos & Beyond is available direct from Original Falcon Publications as both print and ebook. Continue reading »

January 31st 2020

Posted by Phil Hine in Occult, tantra

Tags: New Books, reflections

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biography of a kiss

When you kissed me, my world turned around. Continue reading »

February 14th 2019

Posted by Phil Hine in Pagan, Queer

Tags: reflections

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Jottings: On Kubera, wealth and character

I’ve been neglecting enfolding of late, as I’ve been absorbed in other writing projects that have diverted my attention (more of which, another time). It struck me recently though, that one way of getting back into a regular posting regime would be to try and write about some of the material I’ve been reading of late.

Most recently, I’ve been doing some research on Kubera, the Hindu god of wealth. Google Kubera and you’ll see that he is indeed a popular Indian deity when it comes to petitioning the gods for matters of finance and money and there is an abundance of websites detailing Kubera’s mantras, yantras, and puja: even online pujaris willing to do Kubera Puja for you for a reasonable fee.

You might expect then, for a god of wealth, there would be a corpus of material dealing with Kubera’s character and highlighting Kubera’s generosity and willingness to part with his treasures for the needy and the worthy. But no, it’s not that simple. Indeed, one might say that he has something of a reputation for being miserly. Some of the stories in which Kubera makes an appearance seem to me to indicate a tension in the relationship between wealth and the other major life-goals (Kama, Dharma, Moksha). Here are two sources which I think illustrate the complexity of Kubera and these tensions. Continue reading »

October 12th 2018

Posted by Phil Hine in tantra

Tags: Ganesa, jottings, Kubera, reflections

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To Baphomet, posing as sodomite

“No – it wasn’t that way at all. It was everywhere – a gelatin – a slime – yet it had shapes, a thousand shapes of horror beyond all memory. There were eyes – and a blemish. It was the pit – the maelstrom – the ultimate abomination. Carter, it was the unnamable!”
H.P. Lovecraft, The Unnamable

“He used to wonder at the shallow psychology of those who conceive the Ego in man as a thing simple, permanent, reliable and of one essence. To him, man was a being with myriad lives and myriad sensations, a complex multiform creature that bore within itself strange legacies of thought and passion, and whose flesh was tainted with the monstrous maladies of the dead.”
Oscar Wilde. The Picture of Dorian Gray

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July 11th 2018

Posted by Phil Hine in Occult, Pagan, Queer

Tags: Baphomet, reflections

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Stotra: Ornamented Speech

The Lalitā Sahasranāma is a text I keep returning to, and last year, a friend gave me a fine edition of this work with the commentary of the sage Bhāskararāya. As I want to get back to my work on the Saundaryalahari this year, I thought a good starting point would be to say something about the Stotra genre in general, along with reflections on some of the themes in Lalitā Sahasranāma. Continue reading »

February 24th 2018

Posted by Phil Hine in tantra

Tags: beauty, Lalita, reflections, Sri Vidya, text

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Reflections on a ‘Kundalini’ experience – I

I’ve started working on an autobiographical writing project recently – looking back on some of my earlier writing, and reflecting on what experiences and ideas prompted me to do a particular piece, placing it within the context of my personal trajectory at the time, and how my ideas have changed since. An example of this process that I thought would be of interest to enfolding readers follows, an examination of the events which contributed to one of the first essays I ever wrote relating to the general subject of tantra, entitled “Kundalini: A Personal Approach”. Continue reading »

October 23rd 2017

Posted by Phil Hine in Occult, tantra

Tags: chakras, intensities, reflections

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Jottings: on comparative demonologies

At my May 2017 lecture at Treadwells Bookshop examining Tantra & Trance Possession, I gave a very brief outline of “afflictive possession” in both Ayurvedic & Tantric texts – and what is sometimes referred to as bhūtavidyā (‘the science of spirits’) including some remarks on how this subject is treated in the Netra Tantra – an eighth-century Kashmiri text, possibly composed in court circles, which has much to say on the subject of possession, exorcism, and related topics. Continue reading »

May 21st 2017

Posted by Phil Hine in Occult, tantra

Tags: jottings, mandala, reflections

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