Integral Magick Notebook

The Long Strange Road to Integral Magick

Fri, 21 Nov 2008 23:06:10 GMT

When last I updated here, my under-research "Integral Magick" book, Scientia, Magica, Mystica, was already three years in the works. I'd had high hopes that within the year I would have the working outline and be in the process of writing. That was two years ago.

A great part of the problem is that I bit off more than I could chew, and it's only just now reaching the end of the primary research stage. End result? Three twelve-gallon crates full of books for my primary sources. It's gone a few directions I certainly didn't expect.

I also got stalled out working on it with this last phase of my wine career, which had me tied up mostly with work and sleep for the past fifteen months. But that's been time for the book to percolate and correlate. I've landed at the Blue House in the Rockies now, and have my writer's den under renovation. (The Great Divide looms beyond the back deck, and for the first time in my life I'm living east of it.) I imagine, holed up during the winter storms on the mountain this winter, I'll get a lot of writing done.

As I start to assemble online what notes I have collected in the latest notebooks, it will all start showing up here again.

The Perrenial Philosophy, The Perrenial States, and Liminal Yoga 101

Tue, 13 Jun 2006 17:37:06 GMT

Ah, one of the real reasons I'm writing a book on magick: so I can explain to the rest of the world just what the heck it is that I do in magick. I'm working on my pre-writing for the integral magick book. As such, I first need to touch on the perrenial states and their conscious navigation. I do this by examining the theoretical foundation of the Perrenial Philosophy and its corresponding Perrenial States with a practicum of liminal yoga and lucid dreaming based upon that theoretical foundation.

I've already drawn up correspondences for the Three Realms model (the "Perrenial Philosophy") that should make sense to anyone who understands what a table of correspondence is. (If it loses you, feel free to ask questions.) I've now also uploaded a scan from my notebooks of the summary position piece regarding the formation of the three realms model. For those who don't want to load the entire 1600x1200 image to read my tiny handwriting (1/8" [~3mm] per line) I transcribe it here:

Manifestation from Kosmos --> 3 Realms

[diagram of wide rectangle with hole/sipapu on one side; inside of box labeled "Kosmos," outside labeled "TWE"]
1) The Kosmos en toto, TWE = "The Whole Enchilada." The sipapu reminds us that the system is unbound and that any lines on the map are created from our own minds.

[Diagram of box with wavy line dividing right third (labeled "Unmanifest") from left two-thirds (labeled "Manifest"); outside labeled "TWE"]
2) We introduce a separation between all that is formless, and all that has form. This may seem entirely unnecessary -- after all, who can talk of formlessness? Nonetheless it will become an important part of our model, and we first acknowledge it here.

[Same rectangle, now divided with wavy lines into three equal thirds; left-most labeled "Physical," middle labeled "Subtle," right-most labeled "Causal," and outside labeled "TWE"]
3) With the introduction of another margin, we separate the manifest world into those things that exist and have a physical form (stones, stars) and those things that exist that do not have a physical form (thoughts, minds). The former we call the physical realm, the latter we call the subtle realm. We call the unmanifest the causal realm. These are the three realms of the perrenial philosophy.

[Same rectangle, each wavy line now doubled to show a narrow line between each third of the box. Labeled, left to right, large left-most box "W" for Waking, narrow section "L" for Liminal Margin, large middle box labeled "D" for Dreaming, narrow section "A" for Abyssal Margin, right-most box "DS" for Deep Sleep; outside labeled "TWE"]
4) The Three Realms correspond to the three great states -- Physical to Waking, Subtle to Dreaming, and Causal to Deep Sleep. The margins between the states themselves represent related transitional states. The liminal margin between waking and dreaming contains the hypnagogic (waking --> dreaming) and the hypnopompic (dreaming --> waking) states, and represent shifts from one waking self to many dreaming selves. The abyssal margin between dreaming and deep sleep represents a respective shift from many dreaming selves to no sense of self at all (ego dissolution) and back again (ego assumption).

That explains the three realms and the margins between them. In religious philosophy this is called "The Perrenial Philosophy" for it represents the lowest common denominator of most of the world's wisdom traditions. The Causal is the realm of deity and spirit, nondual and unmanifest, where God and enlightenment both reside. The Physical is the daily workaday world. And the Subtle is where our ideas and thoughts live (among other things). From this base, most wisdom traditions then begin to make further distinctions.

For example, in Vedanta the main scale consists of five divisions of Matter to Body (the Physical realm) to Mind to Soul (the Subtle realm) to Spirit (the Causal realm).

The seven-chakra model of occidental familiarity consists of Muladhara and Svadhisthana (dealing with the Physical realm traits of survival and reproduction), Manipura, Anahata, Vishuddi, and Ajna (dealing with the Subtle realm traits of interaction, love/connection, communication, and spiritual insight), and Sahasrara (Causal connection to the divine).

Qabala has ten divisions from Malkuth (the Physical) to Kether (The Causal) with eight divisions in-between (making it a useful system for navigating the fine distinctions of the Subtle realm)

But at it's core, we can talk about sticks and stones, ideas and minds and spirits, and the divine. Every day our consciousness navigates its way between these states. We wake every morning to find (usually) an ego that identifies itself as a single physical waking entity. We go to sleep and pass through an in-between state (hypnagogia) where that ego softens and can become many dreaming selves with which it identifies while there. We pass from that into deep dreamless sleep where there is no sense of self and ego has dissolved entirely. Then we pass back up and assume the mantle of many dreaming selves, and back through hymnopompia in which our ego reasserts itself as a single entity again.

These are the "Three Great States" in Wilber's integral model, derived from the Perrenial Philosophy. These are the states available to all human beings at every stage of their development from birth to death and are called the Perrenial States. One need not develop any spiritual practice to journey between these; it's part and parcel of "the precious gift of human birth" as it is known within Buddhism.

It is very easy to diagram the normal ways that we move between these states, shown in the diagram below:

The goal of many spiritual traditions include the development of a greater awareness of how one moves between these states on a daily basis. In the search for the "true self" one must become aware of how that self's perceptions of the kosmos change, and these perrenial states form the foundation of our ordinary, daily shifts in conscious awareness. These practices include things such as lucid dreaming (bringing a conscious awareness to the Dreaming state that one is dreaming); "Witness" consciousness (turiya) or lucid waking (developing a conscious awareness of oneself as an illusory ego in the Waking state); and various forms of enlightenment practice (retaining conscious awareness of one's journey into the Causal realm, characterized by "formless consciousness" or consciousness of consciousness itself without outside perception).

Enough theory, let's get into the practical.

Lucid dreaming is a very simple practice, which is not to say that it is easy. It requires firm dedication if nothing else. As the goal is to retains one's full conscious awareness as one slips from Waking to Dreaming, we must obviously focus on the Hypnagogic state wherein the ego transforms from one self to many potential selves.

The easiest way to do this is by learning to extend the hypnagogic state itself. By extending this state one has the potential to bring more awareness to it, thereby "stepping down" into the dream state rather than taking the quick slide down we normally do. We wish to retain an awareness of who we are and what we are doing. Therefore we find good training tricks in looking for ways to "do something" as we fall to sleep, something that will allow us to step down into Hypnogogia but not slide down into Dreaming.

The easiest trick I've found? Lay on your back and hold your arms straight up as you fall to sleep. Do this every night. As your Waking awareness fades, you remain focused on "doing something" -- holding your arms up -- and it serves as a reminder of the task at hand. As hypnagogia sets in, your awareness of the physical world fades; the last slide from hypnagogia to dreaming includes a fading awarenss of the physical body to be replaced by the dreaming images of body. As this awareness fades the body relaxes and "goes to sleep." If you are holding the arms up, they will fall and this has a tendency to jerk one back from the near-dreaming back into hypnagogia (or, often when first doing this practice, back to a groggy waking state).

Over time what happens is one learns to retain a certain amount of awareness of the physical body that belongs to the waking state as one assumes the bodies of the dreaming state. It promotes a conscious awareness of oneself in both states at the same time, providing a meta-level view of one's "self" that spans the two.

Over time, as one becomes more familiar with the terrain of the Hypnagogic state, the arm-holding exercise can be substituted for others. Perhaps one of the most popular is to adopt a mantra. The repetition of the mantra, rather than the conscious act of controlling one's physical body, becomes the focus by which one controls the descent from waking to dreaming. It also relieves one of the jerkiness of being yanked back from the dreaming when one's arms fall. If you can't hold the mantra down into dreaming, though, it's probably best to stick with the arm exercise with concurrent use of the mantra. Any mantra is suitable, so long as you choose one and don't change it around. I am personally fond of "Om" or the longer "Om mani padme hum" but that's my yoga background speaking. "Would you like fries with that" would theoretically work just as well, though in practice may induce entry into an odd level of the dreaming state. (I wouldn't recommend it.) Pick a mantra you find sympathetic to the goal at hand.

Alternatively, one may instead use a visualized image as a focus. The same guidelines about choosing a sympathetic image apply. I tend to use basic symbols in which I have vested a great deal of meaning: the pentagram, the Om symbol, and the Sri Yantra top my own list. The major downside I have found to this technique is that it is not so easily extended to the crossing of the Abyssal margin in more advanced practice; mantra seems to be a superior method, at least for myself. I suspect strongly that this varies based on which of the five senses is most primary for oneself; most people weight their visual sense stronger than hearing and thus choosing sound helps one dissociate from the senses easier, but someone who perceives sounds more intensely than their vision may get better mileage out of a visualized image. Alternatively, one could experiment with choosing other senses as foci; the arms-up trick relies on the kinesthetic body awareness, generally a low-bandwidth channel for most people and thus as undistracting as can be. Visualizations and mantras have a tendency to wander more than kinesthetic body tricks.

Once you have learned to control the descent into the dreaming state and retain a conscious awareness of the process, it becomes easy to develop a greater ability at lucid dreaming. The methods outlined here are essentially variations on the "WILD" (Waking Induction of Lucid Dreaming) lucid dreaming technique, in which the goal is to retain conscious awareness from waking to dreaming.

Stage three involves reversing this process -- retaining an awareness of self as one slides up from dreaming to waking through the hypnapompic state. This is still a practice that I struggle with myself, though I have had the greatest success in it by trying to wake up into an awareness of the body first before I open my eyes. I find that laying on my back as a "sleeping asana" (one could use other positions) and trying to retain bodily awareness within the liminal margin aids this the most.

There are, of course, individual problems one will have to overcome in any practice based on individual backgrounds and tendencies. My own personal problem is that I struggle with insomnia. Even when I sleep, I tend to not sleep deeply and don't have a regular dream cycle. This has been exacerbated mildly by extending Hypnagogia and thus training myself away from the dream state as step one. The best cure I've found thus far is .5-1.5mg of melatonin at night; a half-milligram is considered the active dose, and up to 1.5 I have personally found little ill side effect. At higher doses I tend to wake up groggy and have a hard time getting going in the morning, probably because there is still melatonin in my system that has not burned off at night during the sleep cycle. (Standard disclaimer: consult your doctor before taking supplements such as melatonin, even if they are available over-the-counter. Also, most melatonin on the market comes in far too high a dosage, typically 3-5mg. Also, not all melatonin is created equal; research into the manufacturing method and quality control process of the various companies is priceless.)

I find that with melatonin I have a harder time holding the hypnagogic state, but I have developed enough familiarity with its subtleties that this is not as great a problem as it would have been earlier in my practice. It also seems to have the effect of making my dreams more vivid, probably because I am more fully submerged into the sleeping/dreaming state. And when I do have too much and wake up groggy, it actually helps in developing my awareness of the hypnopompic state that I normally fly right through -- I'm one of those "morning people" that tends to wake up quickly to an alert state.

Which brings up an interesting sidenote. In the handful of people I know skilled in these practices, morning people seem to have an easier time learning hypnagogia and night people or people whose bodies start out slower in the morning seem to have an easier time learning hypnopompia.

Further topics for expansion and extension from here:

Expansion of brief ideas covered in the manifestation of the three realms
Tips and tricks for controlling lucid dreams
Finding a balance between control and flow ("Path of Will" vs. "Path of Surrender") when using these practices
Extending the skills gained at navigating the liminal margin to navigating the abyssal margin
Developing skills to bypass the normal flows between the perrenial states; e.g. moving directly from Waking to Deep Sleep such as by formless meditation, magick, or the targeted use of entheogens
Using these skills in both results-oriented magick and in self-transformation
Extending these skills into the development of a more complete Witness awareness (turiya)
Anything people ask me about related to this (until which point I'll keep happily babbling away about what I only think people might be interested in)

I'm out of writing time today. More later.

Integral Magick Notebook Photos

Mon, 12 Jun 2006 18:13:50 GMT

In my various ramblings online, I have often commented on the large number of notebooks I am using to track, sort, and develop the primary ideas of the integral magick model. A large portion of my notebooking efforts for the past weeks has been in developing working drafts of my major supporting diagrams and the finalized set of symbols for use within logick (the diagramming system I use for the model). Because much of my writing is dependent upon these visual aides, I'm now scanning them in (in the rough) so that I may reference them later on as I write more "position paper" type pieces for the integral magick model.

If you want to take a look at them before that, though, I have posted several of the key ones to my notebooks gallery. I don't suspect they will make full sense on their own without the supporting philosophy, but I've done my best to include (usually) short descriptions of them. As always, comments or questions are welcome, but for these I may defer answers for further position papers based on them.

Regarding the Lack of Occultism in Wilber's Integral Model, and the Role of an Integral Magick

Sun, 11 Jun 2006 04:39:32 GMT

Someone emailed me a few weeks back with some questions regarding Wilber's model, it's conflict with occult worldviews, and the reconciliation of the two. The response was well worth sharing, as this is something I've been working towards writing anyway as I stuggle with the early chapters of my book. I imagine that I'll use some of this as rough material for more polished and better-supported thought in the book. For now, this is a good summary of my views.

Date: Sat, 10 Jun 2006 21:18:32 -0700
From: "Fenwick Kaidevis Rysen" <kaidevis@gmail.com>
To: (cut)
Subject: Re: Integral Magick

On 6/1/06, (cut) wrote:
> I used to study and pratice with the HOGD until I discovered Ken Wilber.
> Then I intepreted magick through his lens as some kind of retroromantic
> regression to a pre-rational worldview. I see that you are informed by
> Wilber's work yet maintain the magickal worldview. I'm trying to reconcile
> the two and see you are working on a project called integral magick. Can you
> direct me to your written works on how you manage this? Thanks.

I am in the process of writing a book about it right now; I don't have any polished material regarding this available online yet. However, it's not very difficult for me to explain. Wilber claims to be putting forth a model of everything -- his integral model -- which explains anything and everything about human experience. However, what he has done is create a thorough model that shows us more about his understanding of psychology and eastern spirituality (personal interests/foci/biases) than it does about a truly "integral" world view.

As you note, he often (usually) treats magic or the belief in magic as "some kind of retroromantic regression to a pre-rational worldview." Specifically he is following in the footsteps of Freud and many other western psychologists in dismissing occultism merely as "infantile wish fulfilment." The argument is that it is an early stage of development (Wilber's Phantasmic-Emotional, or SDi "Purple" meme) and that a healthy individual should "grow out of it" because magic is not real.

There is good argument for the points he holds; a belief in magic is present at a certain point in childhood development, and in certain undeveloped ("primitive") cultures. It generally is a sort of infantile wish-fulfilment, or a yielding to forces of the world that simply are not yet fully understood by these people.

However, Wilber has ignored -- whether consciously or not -- the great mass of western spiritual traditions that deal with magick. It would be very difficult to take even the most cursory examination of the western magickal traditions without tripping all over some very high-level spiritual experiences analagous to those developed within eastern traditions. Scholars have been drawing parallels and distinctions between the occidental and oriental approaches ever since people began a worldwide trade of ideas.

For example, there is a working in magick known as "The Knowledge and Conversation of the Holy Guardian Angel" which is a rather western mystical way of saying "How to contact your Higher Self and maintain a connection by which it informs and guides your life." Arguably the same goal as many eastern traditions, and often with similar results. The western Hermetic tradition is a body of wisdom philosophy stretching back almost two thousand years. And anyone who has studied or watched performed any amount of ritual magick by skilled practitioners would be able to tell you that the western ceremonial tradition has much to offer in obtaining nonordinary methods of consciousness, many of them higher consciousness of similar types pursued in the east (though magick has its own unique states worth study, as well.)

Wilber has, essentially, discarded all of the Western mystical and magickal tradition outside of a very small slice -- Christian mysticism (because he can't ignore it) and Qabala (because everyone knows about it; though he sticks to the rabbinical views). Everything else he ignores and does not address, filing it away under "Belief in magick: infantile". His study of western esotericism does not seem to contain *any* information about magick as it has existed within the past century -- by that standard (tossing out the last century's advances in theory and practice), *any* field of human endeavour could be easily devalued and ignored.

If I were to write my own book and only cover psychology as it existed up until the first years of the twentieth century, I would have missed all the excitement and definitely all of the relevant information. The same is true when psychologists such as Wilber write about magick and only bring their research about magick current to the nineteenth century. Magick has grown just as much.

At the same time Wilber supports his position that magick does not represent an "authentic" human experience and that magick is not real, he supports a belief in the siddhis or "powers" of yoga. A thorough study of the two shows a great many similarities between the powers gained by a siddha and the skills gained by a truly masterful magician. Many magicians in the western tradition actually begin their practice by following the practice regimens within yoga for developing siddhis. That one fact alone should merit attention; Wilber seems ignorant of it entirely.

Wilber also tends to drop shamanism out of the picture, too; it gets lumped in with magick all the same, even though it represents perhaps the longest continuing thread of authentic human spiritual experience the globe over. How he can say he's including everything and in the same breath dismiss shamanism is beyond me. Wilber has even said himself that one does not need to live in a highly developed culture to achieve highly developed spiritual states, which is exactly what shamanism shows us. Yet it gets discarded all the same. Perhaps we can understand this on the grounds of lumping it in with drugs, important to many (but most certainly not all!) shamanic rites; he tends to not address how drugs fit into his model at all, either, saying only on Kosmic Consciousness that he has friends who've gotten mileage out of entheogens (not the word he uses) but that he himself is almost entirely ignorant of them. (It also seems odd to me to create a model of human experience that does not include chemognostic states all the way from caffeinated tea to LSD; Wilber doesn't touch the topic.)

His model, though highly focused upon eastern visions of higher spirituality, even excludes some from the east as well. His treatment of Taoism, whenever it appears, is generaly brief and also ignores those aspects of it that don't fit in well with the integral model. For example, Taoism as well has a milleniums-long tradition of magick as well, that is considered an effecacious and necessary part of the stream of their tradition.

But before I continue to bash Wilber's model so much, I should play devil's advocate. It is actually rather easy to see how Wilber ended up in the position he has taken. Any psychologist worth his salt would see the masses who pursue magick and dismiss it as wish-fulfillment; that does not, however, address all those people who pursue magick quietly as an internal path to realization without need of external advertising.

Most of the easily available material on "magick" in the western tradition is, frankly, not flattering. It truly is infantile wish fulfillment; people who want to burn a candle and chant their way to wealth and fortune, when what they really need is a lesson in the twin dark arts of accounting and investing. People who want to believe they have the power to change their lives without actually going out and putting the hard work in. People who want an easy fix. People who want to "wave a magick wand" and have it all be better.

People who want to dress in black and festoon themselves with silver jewelry and generally "go against the establishment" make a highly visible presence. Everyone knows the type. And while that horde probably represents a significant fraction of self-identified magicians, it does *not* show the people who have taken the lessons of magick to heart and blend in with their surroundings. The people who flow with life. The people who are personally developed enough to have no need to impress others with arcane knowledge of things most people don't even know exist. Most of the truly skilled magicians I know are either very quiet about their practice, or entirely silent.

Once you have reached a certain point in the practice of magick you realize that it is far more easier to just keep to yourself and those who understand so that you don't end up: a) facing the (very valid) worry that people will devalue you for your belief in magick ("because it's not real"), and b) trying to explain it for the umpteenth time to someone with a shallow understanding of magick.

It is extremely important to note that in the west this current is called "occultism." To be occulted means to be hidden. It refers, generally, to the wisdom within the tradition. A cursory glance will not often turn up much. Deeper searches are likely to take you down false paths full of blinds. It is only when one chooses to walk the path with heart that the path begins to reveal itself, and others -- the truly skilled others you'd want to talk to -- that you find people to share the path and share their wisdom. The true wisdom one is truly after, the paths to get there, and the people who share those paths -- all are occulted from view.

So the basic summary of my viewpoint would be:

- Wilber has a very neat model, but like any model it is flawed. Like most comprehensive models, it tells us at least as much about the biases of its creator as it does about the world.

- Wilber tends to favor eastern views of high-level spiritual development, systematically ignores the western parallels. Shamanism, neopaganism, magick, and similar traditions are all dismissed without a thorough (or even cursory) examination.

- Wilber has systematically ignored the western wisdom traditions parallel with the eastern in favor of playing up the Freudian angle on magick as childish belief in things that aren't real. He accepts magick within one hemisphere (siddhis of yoga) while denying it in the
other (western hermetic/ceremonial current).

Much of the time Wilber simply ignores these things. He addresses them rarely, and when he does, they are labeled "early stages" of development and one is told to just forget them and move past them and get on with the business of enlightenment. Where Wilber often goes to
great lengths to examine a topic -- any and all topics -- in order to either fold them into his model or categorically show their irrelevance, he does neither with magick. His support is so weak here that he cannot rule them out of his model other than on the voice of authority and the support of the materialistic side of our culture that dismisses magick outright.

Wilber's model has a great many wonderful aspects to it. It truly is, I believe, a model worth studying. However, I do not find his model to be an accurate representation of the world. He cannot use his model to explain to me what it is that I am experiencing as a practitioner of magick. If I were to believe his model, all I've done is spent the last 12 years learning feel, see, and know things that aren't really there -- things my fellow magicians also feel, and see, and know. The support for Wilber's argument? Because Wilber says so, and lots of psychologist think magick isn't real. (But a lot of them do. It's unproven ground.)

I understand how many people are drawn to his model as complete and comprehensive; it shows them more of the world than they have experienced themselves. Among the crowds that I run in -- full of witches and magicians and shamans -- the general reaction to his model ranges from mild interest ("looks like he might be onto something") to out right disgust ("he hasn't even done his research before saying our beliefs are peurile!"). These people generally see aspects of human experience -- magickal states with which they are familiar -- completely lacking from his maps. And when you go looking for why it's not there, he says, "Because magick isn't real... Oh, but the siddhis are."

Among the people I know who lead more normal lives, their exposure to Wilber generally borders on religious rapture. I've watched at least a dozen people up close go Wilber-wild and fall head first into his integral cult without every questioning whether or not there's something the model might *not* explain. These people take Wilber's views on magick for their own without ever truly questioning the premises those beliefs lay upon. But that's life; that's how humans work.

Myself, I tend to jump paradigms. I have yet to find any attempt at an integral model that explains the world to me that I have witnessed myself. Wilber has done a better job than most, and thus I study him. I use his models where they make sense, and often use his terms to explain personal, cultural, and spiritual development to others. But where his models don't make sense I abandon them, and they make little sense in regards to magick. And that is why, I think, practitioners of magick have generally been nonplussed by his creation.

My personal answer has been to attempt a bigger model. However, I do not have a great interest at this point in my life of tackling all the broad material that one needs to tackle in order to deal with Wilber's topic. I have narrowed myself instead to creating an equivelant integral model of magick for worldwide practitioners regardless of traditions. Using the same premises, I have constructed a model that can explain every aspect of magickal consciousness from its most base (Freudian wish fulfillment) to its highest (pursuit of enlightenment and spiritual wisdom). The details of that model fill a great many of my notebooks (I can relate oh-so-well to Wilber's anecdotal stories of "all those damn yellow legal pads" that he works with) and will likely keep me busy through the end of 2007 sorting and writing it all down.

My hope is that the model I have created will allow a more open dialogue between people of different magickal beliefs by showing how it all fits within a common model, and how that integral magickal model fits in with a larger view of reality (like, oh, say, the integral model). No one model alone is ever sufficient, but perhaps someone will come afterwards who can fuse the two and rectify the flaws in both Wilber's system (known and obvious) and my own system (unknown and untested). More likely it would be another model -- showing another author's biases -- that offers another, incrementally better view of The Whole Enchilada (Life, the Universe, and Everything).

I read back through this and note that I have rambled a great deal. I hope I have answered some of your questions, those those are for the most part mutely stated in your letter: "I see that you are informed by Wilber's work yet maintain the magickal worldview. I'm trying to reconcile the two and see you are working on a project called integral magick. Can you direct me to your written works on how you manage this?"

I manage this mostly by not letting Wilber's fascinating model get in the way of my own personal experience of reality (that it is magickal, that magick exists, that magick can be worked, that magick is a valid spiritual path, that magick can offer enlightenment as good as anything else.)

I have not entirely reconciled the two -- hence the integral magickal model I have been creating -- but I spend time examining things carefully and sorting it out a bit more each day (and each chapter draft). Truth be told, I don't think the models can be reconciled while Wilber is alive, because so long as he is the final authority on his model it does not seem that magickal beliefs, practices, or experiences will be worked into it. So I've sucked it up and I'm trying to do my best on my own with what information I have. I compare notes with other magicians and refine. I contemplate.

I hope I've answered your questions. Please feel free to write me back with any questions I might have raised, or other questions you might have in this regard. If you are looking for futher resources online you may be interested to read some of the online work of M. Alan at

http://www.kheper.net/topics/Wilber

Alan is an occultist with a strong background and understanding in modern occult philosophy who has also been highly drawn to the works of Ken Wilber. He has several analyses of various points of Wilber's model and philosophy along with several of his own critiques about things like Wilber's failure to incorporate occultism into his model. Specifically, you might be interested in

http://www.kheper.net/topics/Wilber/no_occultism.html

which is one of the papers I am citing in my own book on the topic of Wilber's lack of space for occultism within his Integral model. Alan's insights into Wilber's model carry the clarity one would ask of an academic, with the magickal worldview one would find in an adept of the occult traditions. Alan also examines some other flaws in Wilber's model which need similar shoring up before it can come even close to truly being a "theory of everything."

Thank you for this opportunity to babble. I hope you find the information you're looking for. Best of luck to you.

In Life, Love, and Laughter
~Fenwick Kaidevis Rysen

Help: Egogenesis & Related Magicolinguistics

Thu, 01 Jun 2006 21:47:52 GMT

Help?

I'm finalizing the writing outline for my chapter on "Levels of Manifestation," and I need help finalizing my terminology. I could simply borrow all the spiffy yogic terminology in Sanskrit for all of this, but that would (severely!) defeat the self-stated purpose of a common magicolinguistics within the Integral Magickal Model.

In discussing nonduality (causal realm) and duality (subtle+physical realms) and the experience of crossing them (through the Abyssal Margin between causal and subtle realms) the main subjective characteristic in passing through the Abyss is the assumption of ego (involutionary/descending current causal-->subtle) and the dissolution of ego (evolutionary/ascending current subtle-->causal).¹

I'm trying to come up with simple, sensible, one-word phrases for these two processes. I've currently reduced them to the working-model 2-word phrases, above. (Which I may yet stick with if they ultimately prove to be the most weildly.)

"Egogenesis" is my current handle word for the involutionary aspect, of descending through the Abyss and assuming one's ego (sense of self/identity).

However, I have no corresponding word for the dissolution of ego. Perhaps something with the same format, "ego-" suffixed with a Latin or Greek word/root/stem meaning something along the lines of "destruction/dissolution/removal/shedding." Or maybe something else entirely.

I'm not entirely fixed on "egogenesis" either, if anyone has other suggestions. Because technically I don't see it as a genesis -- ego is not created, ego is assumed as an affectation layered over the higher self. If I could convery that in a single word, I'd be thrilled to death.

Alternate 2-word versions welcomed as well, if they help convey more of the entire picture.

Comments desired, questions answered, discussions welcomed.

¹ If that made no immediate sense, reference the Three Realms diagram.

Three Realms Diagram

Mon, 24 Apr 2006 01:54:56 GMT

The "Three Realms" diagram central to the Integral Magick Model, showing major correspondences. This is still evolving as the book does.

===========================================================================
FIGURE I -- THE THREE REALMS |
-----------------------------+

                             Liminal           Abyssal
                              Margin            Margin
                                 ^                 ^
              Alpha Point        |                 |       Omega Point
              ^                  |                 |                 ^
              |                  |                 |                 |
              +==================+=================+=================+
              +==================+=================+=================+
              |                  |                 |                 |
REALM         |    PHYSICAL      |     SUBTLE      |     CAUSAL      |
              |                  |                 |                 |
              +==================+=================+=================+
              +==================+=================+=================+
PERRENIAL     |                  |                 |                 |
STATES        |     Waking       |     Dreaming    |   Deep Sleep    |
              |                  |                 |                 |
              +------------------+-----------------+-----------------+
              |                                    |                 |
              |              Manifest/             |   Unmanifest/   |
              |              Dualistic             |     Nondual     |
MANIFESTATION |                                    |                 |
              |             Form (Eidos)           |   Mind (Nous)   |
              |                                    |   (Formless)    |
              |                                    |                 |
              | -Things                     -Ideas | Sat/Chit/Ananda |
              +------------------+-----------------+-----------------+
              |                  :                 |                 |
              |                  :                / \                |
              |                  :               /   \               |
              |                  :              /     \    Trans-    |
PSYCHE        |            Egoic Domain        | Abyss |   Egoic     |
              |            (Little Self)        \     /    Domain    |
              |                  :               \   /   (Big Self)  |
              |                  :                \ /                |
              |      -Body       :     -Mind       |       -God      |
              +------------------+-----------------+-----------------+
              |                  |                 |                 |
              |      Nature      |     Deity       |    Formless     |
              |     Mysticism    |   Mysticism     |    Mysticism    |
RELIGIOUS     | (Immanentizing)  | (Transcendental)|     (Empty)     |
FORM          |                  |                 |                 |
              | -Paganism        | -Monotheism     | -Buddhism       |
              | -Shamanism       | -Kathenotheism  | -Zen            |
              | -"Low" Magick    | -"High" Magick  | -Alchemy        |
              |                  | -Scientism      |                 |
              |                  |                 |                 |
              +------------------+-----------------+-----------------+
              |                                                      |
              |                                                      |
              |                  Transcendent Current                |
              |  O------------------------------------------------>  |
              |                 (Spiritual Evolution)                |
              |                                                      |
              |                                                      |
PERRENIAL     |                   Immanent Current                   |
CURRENTS      |  <------------------------------------------------O  |
              |                (Spiritual Involution)                |
              |                                                      |
              |                                                      |
              |   .------------------------------->O-------------.   |
              |  /                                                \  |
              | (                 Tantric Current                  ) |
              |  \                                                /  |
              |   '--------------------------------O<------------'   |
              |                                                      |
              |                                                      |
              +------------------+-----------------+-----------------+
              |                  |                 |                 |
FORMATION OF  |     Setting      |       Set       |       ?         |
EXPERIENCE    |    (Physical     | (Psychological  |                 |
              |   Environment)   |   Environment)  |                 |
              +------------------+-----------------+-----------------+
MAGICKAL      |                  |                 |                 |
WORLDVIEW     |  "Mundane"       |    "Astral"     |    "Aethyric"   |
(SIMPLEX)     |    World         |     Worlds      |      Worlds     |
              |                  |                 |                 |
              +-----------------+++---------------+++------------+---+
              |                 |Y|      Hod      |D|            |A  |
              |                 |e|    Netzach    |a|   Binah    |iS |
QABALA        |    Malkuth      |s|   Tiphareth   |a|  Chokmah   |noA|
(MW COMPLEX)  |                 |o|    Geburah    |t|  Kether    | pu|
              |                 |d|    Chesed     |h|            | hr|
              +-----------------+++---------------+++------------+---+
              |                  :     INNER       :      OUTER      |
              |    ELEMENTS      :    PLANETS      :     PLANETS     |
ELEMENTAL     |      Earth ------:---> Moon -------:---> Jupiter     |
COSMOLOGY     |      Water ------:---> Venus ------:---> Neptune     |
(MW COMPLEX)  |      Air --------:---> Mercury ----:---> Saturn      |
              |      Fire -------:---> Mars -------:---> Uranus      |
              |      Spirit -----:---> Sun --------:---> Pluto       |
              +------------------+-----------------+-----------------+



===========================================================================

Last updated 2006.04.23

Quotes: Arthur Versluis, The Philosophy of Magic

Sat, 22 Apr 2006 18:30:34 GMT

Last night I picked my copy of Arthur Versluis' The Philosophy of Magic (Boston: 1986) off of the shelf. I needed some variety, having burnt out on my current research material. I picked this book up on the cheapo used rack at Green Apple Books in San Francisco a few years ago, and, though I remember being excited about it after thumbing through it, it's been one of those books that got shuffled aside amidst other piles.

I remember why I was so excited about it now. I stayed up a good six hours past bedtime: reading, highlighting, checking against my notebooks. Sucked me right in.

Versluis essentially covers much of the same ground that I wish to: From the foundation of a three-realms model (Physical/Subtle/Causal) and its relationship to Form (Eidos) and Mind (Nous). He sees magick as being a subtle-realm art that serves as a bridge of understanding between the Physical to the Causal, and begins with an examination of the currents of spiritual involution (manifestation/immanentization of Form from Mind) and spiritual evolution (transcendence of Form back into Mind). He also makes an examination of various magickal psychocosms within the western Hermetic tradition while also giving enough context to link them to psychocosms within other spiritual systems of realization. He sees magick not as an end in and of itself, but as one part of an ongoing spiritual evolution encountered by anyone on that path whether as "magick or miracles." As he says in the preface, "In this study we approach magic and alchemy in their highest manifestations as byproducts or aspects of spiritual discipline."

It's very exciting to read a book about magick at a spiritual level rather than a procedural or physical-results-oriented form. He focuses on the high-level "behind the scenes" aspects of what magick is and does, where it fits into other traditions and how they enhance each other as a whole, and how it can be used as a tool for spiritual realization.

This morning I was reading more and found myself completely blown away when, in half a paragraph, he hits all the main points (Perrenial States & Three Realms, Spiritual Involution, Spiritual Evolution) that I plan to expound in my first two chapters on States and Currents. He begins his first chapter with an examination of the Poimandres within the Corpus Hermeticum, after which he writes:

"In this first section of the Corpus Hermeticum, then, we have a remarkably condensed version of the traditional three-world cosmology which is to be found in Neoplatonic teachings, in Gnostic Christian writings, in Qabalistic Judaism, in Islamic Sufism, in Taoism and in esoteric Buddhism, varying with each tradition. There is the realm of the Ideal [Causal], the celestials, the realm of the planets [Subtle], and the realm of samsara [Physical], of birth and death. The soul descends through these [Spiritual Involution] and then, when it is properly matured, disciplined, and enlightened, it 'ascends' [Spiritual Evolution] towards mind again, that which is beyond conception." --pp. 12

It's quite dense with quotable material. Further quotes:

Quotes from the Introduction

"A situation has arisen in which magic and alchemy are regarded as disciplines in themselves, rather than being manifestations one encounters while traveling along a traditional religious Path." --pp. 1

"Although there are a welter of books available on the history and external ritual, the lore and superficial aspects of magic and alchemy, whether sympathetic or hostile, mocking or serious, virtually all leave one dissatisfied; in reading them one knows that there was, clearly, something most essential behind the quests of the alchemists and the rituals of the magi. But what?" --pp. 2

"It is only when such [worldly] pursuit is abandoned in favor of the traditional spiritual path that the true magic... is revealed in the transmutation of the self." --pp. 2

"A common modern assumption has been that magic and alchemy were at best merely haphazard collections of superstition compiled by people ignorant of the rational, physical laws, when in fact magic and alchemy are based upon suprarational laws and principles of which modern man is in general unaware. In short, the abyss between modern beliefs and the vision of traditional cultures arose not because of the supposed ignorance of the latter -- which were in truth not nearly so concerned with the workings of the physical world as in theirs, and our, celestial Origin -- but rather this abyss results in large part from the general eclipse of Pythagorean, Hermetic, and Neoplatonic understanding of the cosmos, in which Western magic arose and was transmitted." --pp. 3

"And hence the modern, flat view of the world as an external mass of matter evolved from chaos, with all its destructive consequences, arose when the magical vision of Bruno and Dee, of Lull and Fludd was suppressed in favor of the logical, categorical Aristotelianism of succeeding generations." --pp. 4

"One... misconception is that magic implies belief. Of course, in a sense it must, since without faith in the efficacy of something one would not undertake it, but at the same time it is absurd to think that the remarkable similarities among all traditional cultures rose by chance, and that magic and alchemy continued within them on the basis of mere belief..." --pp. 5-6

"The magus [stands] between the purely 'religious' realm of the sage or saint and the culture and world as a whole." --pp. 7

"Contrary to the contentions of psychologists like Jung, Eastern wisdom and magic cannot be 'taken out of metaphysics and placed in psychological experience,' for the essence of all traditional religion and magic lies in the apprehension of that which is beyond and above the merely physical or psychological. To drag metaphysics into the realm of the ego and the physical is to rob it of all power and value, forcing it in effect to affirm that which it must deny: the ultimate existence of the illusory ego." --pp. 7-8; contained quote is from R. Wilhelm & C.G. Jung, The Secret of the Golden Flower, New York, 1931.

More quotes to be added here as I further highlight my copy of the book.

Quote: William James, "Our normal waking consciousness... is but one special type"

Mon, 17 Apr 2006 23:19:00 GMT

"Some years ago I myself made some observations on this aspect of nitrous oxide intoxication, and reported them in print. One conclusion was forced upon my mind at that time, and my impression of its truth has ever since remained unshaken. It is our normal waking consciousness, rational consciousness as we call it, is but one special type of consciousness, whilst all about it, parted from it by the filmiest of screens, there lie potential forms of consciousness entirely different. We may go through life without suspecting their existence; but apply the requisite stimulus, and at a touch they are there in all their completeness, definite types of mentality which probably somewhere have their field of application and adaptation. No account of the universe in its totality can be final which leaves these other forms of consciousness quite discarded. How to regard them is the question,--for they are so discontinuous with ordinary consciousness."

--William James, Varieties of Religious Experience, 1902