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[reds]

Just wondering about anyone who follows a mystical path...

Personally, I'm a pantheist, but I use elements from shamanism and Qahbalah.

Let's discuss?

[Frog Pajamas]

I'm interested in learning more about what you practice.

Before reading a bit this morning, I though pantheism meant belief in more than one anthropomorphized gods... but I see now that the actual meaning is close to the philosophical model I currently subscribe to.

The chaos authors had a huge impact on me during my formative years... Peter J. Carroll's Liber Null and Psychonaut in particular, and I still dig the "map is not the territory" and use what resonates with you, ditch the rest approach. That flexibility seems useful for deconditioning habituated though patterns, if nothing else.

[reds]

Pantheism sounds like pantheon, everyone seems to make that assumption.

I believe the universe itself is the highest power. Physics, per se. However, I also put a lot of faith in every persons power of belief. I don't say gods don't exist. I say they all exist, if anyone believes in them. I may not recognize them, but I'm not going to define someone else's reality. If its real to 'them', its real, as far as I'm concerned.

I've actually never heard of those authors, or "map is not the territory", but just yesterday I had an argument with a friend because I said "reality is a matter of perception." I believe that's a similar thought.

*reads wikipedia a bit*

Wow, yeah. Pretty much exactly. Heh.

I'll look into the chaos authors. Right now, I've been interested in Aleister Crowley. He's the source of my signature.

[Frog Pajamas]

Chaos magic is not so much a specific set of practices or beliefs, more an approach where you are free to work within any system at any time without having to believe it is the ultimate truth. Crowley and Austin O. Spare are large influences to chaos magic, and sigil-casting is probably the specific practice most associated with chaos.

I have a beautiful hardbound copy of Crowley's Magick that I've only read about a tenth of. Actually got a lot out of the small part I read, like started on a yoga practice that I've grown ever more committed to over the previous two years, and have it on my list to pick back up. 

[reds]

:O

Magick in theory and practice?
*jealous*

Been looking for a copy of that!

[Frog Pajamas]

Actually, its this one: Magick: Liber ABA (Book 4). Magick in Theory and Practice is one of the four parts of it.

[reds]

I wasnt even aware it was a series o.O

I just saw theory and practice at a pagan bookstore. Was newer, but hardcover. I didnt get the chance to crack it, but I'd guess at least 25 years old. Nice, for sure, but for the same price i could get the whole set on amazon. It wasn't too bad, like 70.

[reds]

Chaos magick.. The more reading i do, the more I'm convinced I already practice it.

I use a wide variety of techniques depending on my goals.
My ritual structure is heavily influenced by wicca/neopaganism, with qahbalah-like symbols, often doing the base of the ritual in Hebrew (or, whatever phrase of untraceable origin pops in my head. Strangely, often hebrew. I don't even know Hebrew.), and often scrying/summoning a Wendish Slavic diety I feel a strange connection to. Not that Zirnitra is more real than Zeus, Anubis, Yahweh, or Hecate, just that He synergizes well with me and my goals. I do use others fairly often.
I often meditate on the All, or the Universe, or Shamanic spirits of individual plants or species.

I also use saltpetre and sugar to good effect in dramatic rituals. Did I mention I'm a bit of a pyro?

[expanding]

Chaos magick was largely born in the last century or so by examining a very wide range of existing techniques/practises which appear to be effective and analysing what makes them work. It seems to be the most logical/scientific and flexible of magickal techniques i've come across (though im no expert).

I think it lacks grounding and a pre-imposed ethical path though which many more traditional systems have. Theres no given direction which allows freedom but also allows the user to go down paths they maybe should not.
I find a good understanding of science to be my grounding force using any magick, its easy to get lost otherwise in the abstractness of your experiences

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[Frog Pajamas]

Chaos magick was largely born in the last century or so

1978, I believe.  Peter J. Carroll decanted all the old grimoires down to chaos magic, with the first rumblings of chaos magick and the IOT in some occult mag at the time.

At first glance the practice seems to lack grounding, but the absolute beginning is developing the ability for unwavering focus- meditation basically.

Plus, the flexibility in the style is not just for the sake of flexibility; it helps to strip away the idea of a solid and unwavering "I," to begin to see the egoic identifications we make about ourselves as the mental constructs they are, rather than the unmutable structures they seem to be from a lifetime of mental habit. It's a deconditioning tool.

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