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Capitulum

Paginae

0

Introduction : reclaiming our Gods

1-8

1

Personal Gnosis

9-15

2

Definitions

16-29

3

Divine Downloads

30-6

4

Legends, Lore, and Living Faith

37-55

5

Doubt

56-67

6

Mystic

68-77

7

Judging the Message

78-93

8

Mad Wisdom

94-107

9

Signal Clarity

108-38

10

Solo Divination

139-49

11

Silence and Faith

150-6

12

Neo-Paganism and Its Attitudes

157-89

13

Historical Praecedents

190-209

14

Responsibilities

210-39

15

Community Divination

240-54

0

Introduction : reclaiming our Gods

1-8

"Conquered nations were expected to make obeisance to the conquerers' Deities".

{The authors' statement is historically inaccurate. Far more often, conquered peoples have been rigidly forbidden to worship their conquerors' deities, even though they wished to do so. For example, during the C^in (Manchu) dynasty in China, only ethnic Manchurians were permitted to propitiate Manchu deities; likewise only ethnic Japanese were permitted (during the Japanese dominion over Korea and Manchuria) to propitiate Shinto deities, and at that only in the manner praescribed (and invented during Meiji period) by the government -- any other manner, even any quite traditional mode, being deemed a repraehensible haeresy, and criminally prosecuted.}

pp. 3-4 (A deity of outhouses and of sewage is known in Japan.)

{This sort of deity in even more prominent in China than in Japan. Tsu:/Tsi Ku (Zi Gu) is a Chinese goddess the sieve (this sieve being the "sedan chair of the goddess", "O&GFCh", p. 26 -- cf. the chair of Kassiopeia) and broom used as implements in spirit-mediumship, and (because these implements are kept in latrines) of latrines; she is sometimes misidentified with the historical empress C^>i Ku (Qi Gu) 'Purple Lady'of the Han dynasty (explained in "O&GFCh", p. 25; also mentioned in "PM" & "LCh").} {Goddess Cloacina is her aequivalent in antient Etruscan and in classical Roman religion ("CWhG", "CWhG", "CGS", "PC").}

p. 4 "Within a monotheistic world, ... [a deity] won't deign to be found in a septic tank ... or a rotting pile of trash."

Even less reasonable, however, is the sanctification of cemeteries consisting of nothing but "whited sepulchres" filled with decaying corpses, long since abandoned by the souls which had occupied the living bodies.}

"Helena Petrovna Blavatsky sought the "Secret Doctrine" behind all modern religions.

{Hermetic, Rosicrucian, and Freemasonic organizations have had to keep some of their doctrine somewhat secret, on account of such doctrine's liberality (especial its social inclusiveness) offending some reactionaries.}

Aleister Crowley created tables of correspondences that mixed and matched Deities".

{Such tables as he created were, howbeit, marred by arbitrariness and lack of any discernable significant actual correlations in alleged symbolic correspondences. His methodology for this was quite defective.}

"Mircea Eliade (and later Michael Harner) approached shamanism in a scientific fashion. ... To a certain extent they (and others who followed ...) succeeded."

{The careers of these two professors, however, diverged. Eliade remained a university-professor, whereas Harner resigned and became a social activist, promoting revival of AmerIndian indigenous caerimonies and religions.}

"The enchantment speaks out in his gestures.

{The "gestures" are mudra-s ('sigils'), wherethrough ensigillation of a conjuration is accomplished by means of spirit-entities who are effectively deaf and illiterate, but who see and understand standardized ritual gesticulations.}

Just as the animals now speak

{Divine animals may speak out quite readily in dreams.}

and the earth gives milk and honey, so something supernatural

{Sky, not "earth" : goddess Hera may supply caelestial milk (galaxy) to the infant Hera-klees; while meli[t] (often translated 'honey', but originally the syrup-sap of the Mediterranean variety of ash-tree) abounded in the era of Kronos, the Golden Age.}

also echoes out of him :

{Gold-plating (gilding) of lilies is reminiscent of the name /Liri-ope/ 'Lily-Face' of the nymph mother of Narcissos, the hero beloved by another nymph, Ekhoi, who (according to Ovidius) echoed the speech proceeding out of him.}

he feels himself a god;

{No shaman will claim that the supernatural powers which he ofttimes exhibiteth are intrinsic to himself, but rather are enacted by the divine spirit-guide on his behalf; so that no shaman would ever feel to be a god.}

he himself now moves in as lofty ... a way as he saw the gods move in his dream.

{The deities (spirit-guide and spirit-helpers) are consorted with not only in dreams, but also while awake; it is they (not the mere humble shaman) who move (in the way of motivation of altruistic public ethics) quite as genuinely a "lofty and ecstatic a way" as can be guaranteed by sincere altruism.}

The man is ... here in the transports of intoxication."

{It is the Christian ecclesiast, not the shaman, who engageth in "transports of intoxication", namely that induced by the alcoholic wine which the Church encourageth the copious imbibing of. (Liquor is forbidden by all other religions than Christianity, which is itself no more than an illegitimate renegade cult of liquour-bibbers.)}

1

Personal Gnosis

9-15

[quoted from Del, U.S. Pagan] "Personal gnosis is the end result of asking your [spirit-]guides for ... the answer to a problem ... . It is the spiritual awakening that comes when you realize ... a two-way communication -- you address ... somewhere ..., Something hears. NOt on did it hear, but it is talking back."

"The snide comment is often often bandied about that

"if you talk to the angels, that's prayer;

if the angels answer back, that's insanity.""

{If they fail to answer back, then either (1) the prayer was not received by them, or (2) was ignored by them, or (3) it was rejected by them. Essentially all prayers by Christians fail in one of these ways.} {If the angels do answer back, however, that is an indication that the angels are defying the human political government -- for by declaring to hear back from angels is insanity, the human political government is pitting its own repressive force against the liberating power of the angels and of Heaven.}

[quoted from R.A., U.K. Pagan] "Personal gnosis has been crucial to my spiritual journey : it has often turned me round quite abruptly from the path I thought I was following ... -- repeating the process several times if I am to timid ... to make the change. ... Because of this, I am usually disposed to respect other persons' accounts of personal gnosis".

2

Definitions

16-29

p. 17

[quoting Jordsvin {Jo,rd-svin}, U.S. Pagan] "Gnosis is revealed knowledge, by intuition or contact with a Higher Power."

{Intuition is provided to us by a divine power, whether we sense its divine source or not.}

p. 18

"Instead of pistis ..., or faith, they relied on gnosis ... -- knowledge based on experience of the Divine."

{The only faith much worth cherishing is that consisting of direct personal revelation.}

"the Gnostics saw the world of the senses as a pitfall keeping us from reality".

{Gnostikoi perceived not "the world of the senses", but instead the material world, as a pitfall. The non-material divine worlds can be sensed by the senses at least as readily as can the material world -- as may easily be read about in any saint's account of visiting Heaven (such as, the account in the Apokalupsis of Ioannes 'Revelation of St. John the Divine').}

"That which is Beyond All Words is beyond all meaning".

{It would be meaningless if it were actually beyond words. But frankly, terms such as /apophatic/ ('unspeakable') are employed by mystics as a mere ruse to excuse their not reporting the divine communication : for, if would be dangerous to themselves to report the usual communication from the Divine, namely a command to organize for the violent overthrow of the planet's hypocritical and materialist-greed-crazed ruling class.}

[quoted from Del, U.S. Pagan] "your Gods, your guides, and spirits all have different shards of information ... . ... more often than not a sincere request for information or assistance from ... (Gods, guides, spirits) will at least meet with some form of gnosis."

3

Divine Downloads

30-6

[quoted from M.C., U.K. Pagan] "Through personal gnosis I come to know my ancestors, the land spirits, the Gods. ... Information seems to come in a rush of synesthetic data ... .... Sometimes I get messages through coincidences ..., and I find that the city will often pass on messages from the Gods in various ways."

p. 32

"U.S. Heathen Jordsvin comments, "I've gotten spells and answers to ... questions. Sometimes it comes directly from the Gods, sometimes from Great Dreams ... .""

p. 33

[quoted from Raen[-]shadoe, U.S. Pagan :] "The times I am most certain of having experienced my Gods have been in dreams. ... The experiences have been ... real, and ...vivid".

p. 34

[quoted from Del, U.S. Pagan] "sometimes my UPG comes as a whispter in the night, or a voice in the head ... . If I try to dismiss the subtler forms of communication ..., then strange coincidences start. I'll hear songs that refer to whatever it is they're trying to communicate ... . Then I'll have a friend bring it up in conversation, followed by ... some silly e-mail ... that mentions it. Usually it takes three or more strikes before I stop everything and use divination to clarify ... an actual message I'm not getting."

p. 35

[quoted from R.A., U.K. Pagan] "I ... was bowled over to find confirmation of my intuitive worship in the ancient texts."

4

Legends, Lore, and Living Faith

37-55

p. 37

"I also believe strongly that the Gods are alive and magic is afoot (to steal an overused phrase) ... . ...

p. 38

In general, though, I have found that reading the personal gnosis of others has deepened and expanded my knowledge and understanding of my Gods".

[quoted from "SMM"] "Many a S[.]ufi undergoes a state of unveiling of spiritual divine mysteries. When such states coming frome the world of the unseen thus become overwhelming, the S[.]ufi[-]s experience a particular kind of spiritual state of transformation which is called "wajd" or spiritual ecstasy."

"I recommend Missionary Conquest : The Gospel and Native American Cultural Genocide, by George Tinker."

"Iceland historian and poet Snorri Sturluson's Prose Edda is the source of much of our knowledge of pre-Christian Scandinavian spirituality. Yet Sturluson was a Christian talking about worship practices that had long been extinct."

{Though he may have been required by a statute-law (reluctantly passed, by a legislature under external duress -- pp. 245-6 infra) to feign a "belief" in Christianity, surely he would not have put in the effort to write in such detail about the Norse deities if he had not believed in them and in the general validity of Norse religious practices -- and the same would apply also to the contemporary readers of his book.}

"C. S. Lewis's Chronicles of Narnia and J. R. R. Tolkien's Lord of the Rings have had an enormous influence on Neo-Pagan thought and aesthetics, even though both authors were devout Christians."

{As university-professors, these two were required (in order to maintain their tenure) by the universities' rules and regulations of their era, to feign a makeshift "belief" in Christianity. It is a notorious fact that such feigned "belief" amongst university-professors was almost never sincere. 19th-century and early-20th-century England was a miasma of unrelenting hypocrisy.}

5

Doubt

56-67

"Neo-Paganism is generally a sex-positive religious movement.

Doreen Valiente's popular poem "Charge of the Goddess" proclaims "all of love and pleasure are my rituals." ...

In many traditions of witchcraft the Great Rite involves ritual sex between priest and priestess."