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| Sunday, November 22nd, 2009 | | 7:21 pm |
What Doesn't Kill Me Only Makes Me Funnier
Brian Thompson, a colleague of mine in Anthropology Graduate School retooled Nietzsche's "What Doesn't Kill Me Only Makes Me Stronger" quotation in a way I find admirable. Too often in the Struggle we take ourselves WAY too seriously. In adding layers of accomplishments, dragons slain, challenges overcome, its easy to build up a Weighty Persona (AKA SPIRITUAL MATERIALISM). Death is the great leveler, and the Echoes from the VOID express a profound Mirth filled with unquenchable lilting laughter. Just remember, The Goddess is Sexier Than Heaven/Hell and has One WICKED sense of humor!!! | | Friday, November 20th, 2009 | | 3:07 pm |
The Wildness of the Beast
In "Wildness" is the preservation of the World. Henry D. Thoreu Crowley was an ardent Mountain Climber, Hiker, Rockclimber, Hunter, Traveller and Outdoorsperson who spent significant amounts of time in wilderness areas. When I think of most Thelemites I know, they are overly urbane, bookish, and sheltered from signicant experiences beyond the pale of their comfortable "civilized" lives. For all the talk of "Trangression" most of these Thelemites wouldn't know what it means to "Transgress" the comforts of their overly sheltered, citified, and logocentric paradigms if they tried. Four weeks in the wilderness without the internet, television, and media might just be the critical key to unlocking some of the deeper inspirations and insights Crowley revealed through his own intimiate experience with life beyond the pale of the mundane. Magick dwells at the edges and in the midst of Wild Spaces. Only in deep knowledge and personal experience of these spaces can the Adept truly say: "Hear me, and make all Spirits subject unto Me; so that every Spirit of the Firmament and of the Ether: upon the Earth and under the Earth, on dry land and in the water; of Whirling Air, and of rushing Fire, and every Spell and Scourge of God may be obedient unto Me." | | 2:33 pm |
Unsustainable Megacity and the Future
White Paper on SF Bay Area's future possiblity for "Sustainability" I wrote in 2005 when I was working at an Architecture and Planning Firm in SF. Somewhere at the Interface of the SmartGrid, the Built Environment and Transport as it relates to people's needs, the "User Experience" and service design, a critical zone exists for elegant and transformative design solutions. | | 11:36 am |
Visualizing the Goat
During Samekh when I visualize the 4 quarters, as well as when I align Vertically and project my Will/Intent Upwards and Downwards I'm getting very powerful Visions of a Baphometic Goat shrouded in Light and scintillating radiant energy. The "Angelos Ton Theon" is not a fairy winged Cherub, but a Powerful and Beautiful Goat of Spirit. The affirmations said at the end, "I am the Truth, I am he who hates that evil should be wrought in the world," are interesting in light of people's fear of the "Satanic" goat of spirit. Who really rules the world of light and darkness? Who is Abraxas, and why is s/he both great and terrible? The fount of All LOVE and all HATE, simulateoulsy..."I am he who make men to "love one another and hate one another." Jung was both inspired and terrified by the realization of Abraxas in the "Seven Sermons of the Dead." (If as above/so below) then the capacity to both Love and Hate are as much a part of the creative matrix as they are in th hearts/minds of men...EROS/THANATOS...the drive to Love/Fuck, and Hate/Kill....Blacks Holes exist at the heart of galaxies devouring all light....and from their destructive forces, new universese are born which give birth to great majestic paths of luminous novelty.... As always, the divine order (Rta/Tao) holds the tensions and opposites together beyond the veil of the abyss...TRUE BEAUTY is both GREAT and TERRIBLE...as it is ulitmately based on DIVINE ORDER and PATTERN. Ulitmately, the evolutionary procreative drive of the Satanic GOAT OF SPIRIT is upward and on torwards higher forms of NOVELTY and BEAUTY. The CREATION, ORGANIZATION, and DESTRUCTION (G.O.D.) of Pan/Shavite polarities pushing ever onward torwards new synergies, new synchronicities, new forms of POWER and DELIGHT. | | Thursday, November 19th, 2009 | | 1:37 pm |
Montauk in Real Life
Some CERN physicists are saying particles from the Future are trying to "Sabotage"the current success of the giant particle accelerator. Sounds likes a modern rendition of the "Montauk" experiment but its not Sci-Fi. Crowley spent some time at Montauk and there's a whole conspiracy theory around it/him. Some of these people need to cut back on the Star Trek and bone up on the Liber Thisarb! | | Wednesday, November 18th, 2009 | | 3:59 pm |
Experiment # 23
At work I'm currently working on experiment #23. I ask L to be my GF at Pier #23 in SF. AJ, my ex-satanic GF from Reno, ran the household for "TOPY LUNA" In Seattle in the mid 90's and used to collect people's charged Sigils with their "OV" on the 23rd Day of the Month. She ran the "Topy Archives" that had all of these charged talismans from TOPY Members. TOPY on 23 in their own words: "The Psychick Cross also incorporates the 23 mythology. The number 23 is total neither-neither territory (Austin Osman Spare's mindfuck technique - comparing opposites separate, together, then absent). (But of course it isn't. It is just a number like any other, 22 before it, 24 after, surely?) Except that 23, for us, seems to behave very strangely. It has become a snake in the grass of reason. Thus the exception; for the Temple always the exception. The Individual. Every man and woman is a 23." | | 3:28 pm |
Traces of Saturn
Weird. Ran into this self described narrative of my Ex-Step Dad's Bio online. He isn't my biological father, but you could say he had a major role in "raising me" from the age of 3 to 13. His fascination with cars, and his constant purchase of them always (among other things) weirded me out. Must be related to a need to anchor himself in time via material continuity...As he once said, "People Need a Reference Point." He's an atheist, so I figure he needs to track time for himself on the march towards oblivion. "Originally from West Virginia, I moved to McMinnville in 1967. Seven years U.S. Army, thirteen years Evergreen Helicopters, twenty years as owner of Timberline Helicopters. One semester at Linfield which was rather anticlimactic after serving in the Army with one tour in Vietnam. Forty years around helicopters as mechanic, pilot, ops manager and operator. My first car was a 1951 Chevy coupe bought from an uncle for $150. It ran great. Sold the Chevy to enlist in the Army and while stationed at Ft. Rucker, AL I bought a 1951 Matchless motorcycle for $100. It ran loudly. After a few years at Ft. Rucker I bought a 1956 Ford Victoria for $350 which I drove to Ft. Wolters, TX to attend Army Helicopter Flight School. While there I traded the Ford for a 1963 Impala convertible with rare factory air conditioning for $2900 less $600 trade in. It ran cooly. The Impala subsequently sported Texas, Alabama, California, Virginia, West Virginia and Oregon plates before being wrecked by a young lady during a pre-purchase test drive in McMinnville. Insurance paid $1300 for the Impala so I bought a restored 1955 MGTF 1500 for $2000, the last of the open fender MG's. It ran slowly. I enjoyed driving the MG on the rare occasions that I was home while flying for Evergreen and recently sold it for $20,000. After operating Timberline Helicopters for a few years Mary Lou and I bought a local storage business on Hwy 99W near Whiteson. We named it Vintage Villa because in addition to storage and truck rentals we also sold small antiques, older Mercedes, diesels and classics. Mary Lou ran the business in my absence and our interest in older Mercedes became a hobby during my travels mostly in the southeastern U.S.Atlanta, GA is a wonderful source for Mercedes and other classic cars. We sold the property after ten years leaving us with lots of old toys and three classic Mercedes: a restored 450SLC, an original 1980 450SLC (sport coupes) and an original 1979 450SEL 6.9 liter which was the world's fastest production sedan in the late 70's. It runs Teutonically. Now retired from life on the road Mary Lou and I dabble in old toys, antiques and grandchildren. We are looking forward to bringing one or more of our cars to the next show" | | 11:21 am |
| | Tuesday, November 17th, 2009 | | 1:09 pm |
Designers Are the Problem
At Jump Associates 10th Anniversary, one of Jump's inspirations came flat out and said "Designers are the problem." Known for his work on Conceptual Blockbusting, Jim basically slapped Design in the face saying "IT" was the cause of creating needless consumerism, and furthering the destruction of the planet. I totally agree, and watched with amusement as my Ex companies founders tryed to move on without giving their professor too much attention. It's easy to chalk his cynicism up as the Jaded negativity of a retired curmudgeon. What he was really doing is pointing out that the super sharp and nifty field of "Design Thinking" with all of its creativity and intelligence, doesn't do the world any good if all it does is add more crap to the world (Even if it's more user friendly, Needs Based, Strategic, Elegant, blah, blah...) In general I've found designers to be high on the creativity scale and low on the self assertion/take a position scale. That is, they love to come up with cool stuff, but are loathe to confront others who have a firm direction, or put forward a firm direction of their own (Larger then the design itself.) In essence, they like to create, but they don't like to confront. This is a classic introverted strategy, and the tactic of the weak. Unless Design Thinking is paired with Leadership and Guts built on a Sutainable Vision, it just adds more layers to the machine that is eating the planet. These kinds of sentiments are some of the things that got me booted from my previous job. I saw all of these Stanford braniacs soo excited to "Think" and "Innovate" without actually asking deeper questions regarding how/what/who their "Designs" served. Most people never think past the paycheck, but a firm focused as one of its mission statments around "Postive Social Change" that makes Candy bars, Malt Beverages, and Video Game Consoles (Mental Crack) isn't doing much to positively change anything. That said, I did work on a project focused on Green Business/Design there and that inspired my current endeavors. Unless Design is yoked to a deeper "Design Intent" rooted in sustainable value, or something greater then the mechanics of consumerism, it will just add more crap to the mix and drive us further down the path to global ecological collapse. | | 10:03 am |
Spirals: Back to the Future
I just learned that a very good friend of mine accepted a great job at the University of Oregon. A fellow Kundalini Yoga teacher, she has been instrumental to opening doors and opportunities for me and my life here in the SF Bay Area over the past 8 years. It's funny that she is moving to the town that I moved from in my transition to the SF Bay Area, but it makes sense in light of how I used to talk about Eugene. That said, I left Eugene for a good set of reasons and don't see moving back there anytime soon. I'm too "Californicated" to be able to settle into the mossy, rainy life of the PAC NW anytime soon. I'm also pondering how my current Job/Life feels similar to my experience Nov 2000 when I was working in a large corporation. I know time moves in Spirals and we often move "Back to the Future" on the next Gyre of our evolutionary spiral. Things are so different now, yet so similar. E (Is like Luna). L (Is like Nicole). The Job is Similar to Siebel. So many parallels to my life then, yet so many new doorways and paths being carved into the future. I lookforward to the new adventures to follow! | | Monday, November 16th, 2009 | | 9:23 pm |
AWTA
More on Manson's "AWTA" Philosophy. His approach reminds me of Ted Kazynksi/Unabomber, which bares parallels to John Zerzan's "AnarchoPrimativism." The bottom line of all three of them is that the Machine is eating the Planet and killing the Mother Earth and radical action needs to take place to stop this. I buy their critique in part, but their response would have us Junk the whole system. It might happen anyway, but I prefer Bucky Fuller's approach to an Anticipatory Design Science. It might not be radical enough, but All three of their positions require a mass die off/killing of the human species. That will be the inevitable feedback Loop of Gaia when/if the time is right, but that's not a judgment call I think we humans need to make for one another. | | 4:48 pm |
| | 1:59 pm |
Double Duty + Samekh
Fulltime Cisco and Fulltime MBA a Busy PANSHIVA makes! That said, I went to the Green Festival (Heard Caroline Casey and Paul Stammets) this weekend, volunteered for "Common Ground" and danced at the awesome Hamsilila party. Great and freaky conversation with a dude at SF's "Regal Ballroom"(Ex-Scottish Rite Temple) on the Masons, Thelema, the Masonic Eagle/Phoenix, transparency and revelation in occult knowledge at these times, the Knights Templar, and the Building of the Temple of Solomon. As always drawing dawn the Briahtic impulse through the veil of Yetsirah into the firmament. Oh, and Liber Samekh just continues to amp up my "Vertical" Alignment....as I attempt the "Raising of the Total Person" in a straight line unto Nuit/Babalon. Ohm Shanti!!! | | Tuesday, November 10th, 2009 | | 7:03 pm |
Thoughts on Shantaram
Big fat book full of highly descriptive, pseudofictionalized self narrative of Drug Addict, turned Criminal, Turned Escaped Convict, Turned Slum Healer/Heroe, Turned Fighter/Mercenary/Lover. Lawrence of Arabia meets High Times on Smack Alley with an Australian accent. That said, useful tidbits on Black Markets, Dirty Money, and Funding Creative Pursuits with naughty contraband. | | Tuesday, November 3rd, 2009 | | 9:02 am |
Shooting for a 100
Levi Strauss died at 100: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20091103/ap_on_en_ot/eu_obit_france_levi_straussI never liked his "Structuralism" approach to analyzing cultures because of its decontextualized a-histrocial attempt to reduce mythic structures to binary oppositions rooted in the brain. That said, his attempt to draw the links between the nervous system and cultural phenomenon is interesting if it avoids the reductionism this approach to "deep structures" can so easily take. Regardless, his intellect and energy kept him going till 100! That's a good target to shoot for my Design Anthropology career!!!! | | Sunday, November 1st, 2009 | | 1:02 pm |
Happy New Year!!!
What an over the top Samhain weekend! I started off by going to the "Ecstatic Dance" party at the Mill Valley community center dressed as Pan. I danced like wild and met several of my friends from the Bay Area Dance community. Had a nice connection with a super cutey and promise of future surf adventures together. Also some good discussions with my friend PK on Gnosticism as well as with my friend JW on 2012, Ascension changes, and other signs of the times. Then the party moved to the pool. They had a hot tub, and within 15 minutes, almost all of the women were topless. It was one incredibly wild party with excellent DJing by Noah. Saturday I was more "solemn" and went to the 30th anniversary of the Spiral Dance. I'm not a big fan of Starhawk, but Reclaiming put together a great ritual with some excellent and very talented dancers, artists, singers, liturgists, and performers. On the performance front, the high point was the three "Silks" artists who did a piece of suspension art and acrobatics suspended over 50 feet above the floor. After the event I met my friend Tanya who moved down from the Eugene to the Bay Area the same time I did in 2000. It was nice to connect with her as I'm about to start a new gig with a large company at almost the same time of the year (Nov) as I started my first professional gig out of grad school in 2000. In Eugene Tanya and I both worked for Northwest Youth Corps, but she was a crew member, while I ran a crew for 2 Summers. Both of us have a strong commitment to environmental and green issues, and she used to work for the Presidio trust. I didn't' get a chance to tell her about my Green MBA studies at the Presidio, but I feel it was a fortuitous meeting. When I moved to SF in 2000, I had memories of attending the 1999 WTO protests in Seattle, plus years of hanging with environmental activists in Eugene, resounding in my mind. I had a strong commitment to "Changing" the system, but didn't have the tools, the clarity of vision, the personal coherence, or the professional grounding to do it. Now, 9 years later after many experiences of personal change, growth, professional development, and reality checking, I feel much more prepared go back into big business with a much clearer "Change Agenda" to effect positive transformation as an Intrapaneur focused on coming up with ways to leverage technology and design in support of sustainability. I am so thankful for the Planetwork conference I attended in May 2000, and the list of visioneers, designers, and inspired thinkers that lay the seeds for what may some day become part of the future "Operating Manual for Piloting Spaceship Earth." | | Thursday, October 29th, 2009 | | 4:04 pm |
Local/Global First/Third World Synergy Braindump
-Globalization is largely Male/White/Monied. -Localization is largely Female/NonWhite/Poor -Roy's Power Politics shows us the Global System and how much of a misalignment there is with real people on the ground in India and Elsewhere. -Vandaya Shiva and other's work shows us the bottom up struggle from third world women to resist/struggle/thrive on a local level in face of the pressures of globalization: Environmental resistance. Local Markets. Women's empowerment. Areas of Inspiration: -Movements like the Microloan (Kiva) movement, -Shiva's "Chiptko" movement that both deals with environmental problems and fosters economic growth, -The setting up of schools for girls in Afghanistan (Three cups of tea) or the fostering of local renewable energy businesses (Sekhem) and "Drums for Solar" are about empowering women and children in the face of White/Male Globalization and creating a local, grass roots form of prosperity for regular people. -All of this is a form of "healing" on the local level in response to the dysfunctional global paradigm. Yet the corporate elite and enterprise big business is not going to go away. So the question for green minded leaders is "How do we foster synergy/value" between these two groups? -Bottom of the Pyramid Economic Strategies? Global/Local cooperative/power sharing? -How to avoid the Wall Mart model of development? -What do we have in common? How can we foster mutual benefit/win/win strategies. IDEA: How do we tie in the "Smart Grid" and energy saving in the First World with Local Renewable Energy projects and development projects in the Third world? Social Networks? Microloan Strategies? Exchange Models? | | 3:48 pm |
Ba Gua Zhang
I'm looking into Cross-Training In Ba Gua. It's a Taoist Internal Art I've always been very fascinated with. I've studied Tai Chi and Wing Chun, but Ba Gua has always seemed the quintessential "Taoist" Art. I like that it includes footwork based on the Eight Trigrams as well as a heavy dose of grappling. I dont' know any good teachers in the Bay Area. Must do a search and see whose legit, and whose not. Here's a cool Ba Gua Video | | 2:06 pm |
Zhen Ren
There's a Taoist concept called the "Zhen Ren" which I've been reading up on alot lately. I used to be fascinated with the Taoist idea of the "Sage" but found the idea rather impractical given that it seemed most Taoist Sages asbired to Immortality Hsien by living far away from the crowd high in the Mountains. The Thelemic notion of the "Adept" seemed much more interesting given the kind of hands on, engaged approach Crowley articulated in his essay the "Dangers of Mysticism." That said, the bar of the "Zhen Ren" seems incredibly high for the kind of Nietzchean "Higher Examples" that set the standards for the Will to Power as a counterforce to Nihilism. One critique of the "Shenren" paradigm from a Thelemic POV might be the focus on "Virtue." That said, the Chinese notion of Virtue (De) that Shenren have as their primary focus is not the same as Moralism. From an Internal Alchemy/Qi Gong point of view, Virtue is the accumulated power/radiance/energy/spiritual potency born of intensive alchemical work. It's not an exhortation to rigid moral codes, but rather an exhortation to build energy, keep the one (Shou Yi) and act in harmony with the Tao as a force for change in the world. This seems much more resonate with the Thelemic notion of adepthood then the moralistic notions of virtue seen in the Confucian concept of the Superior Man. At the end of the day, regardless of the tradition, it's all about building energy and fostering Coherence and one pointedness of the total self in alignment with divine pattern. | | Wednesday, October 28th, 2009 | | 10:35 am |
Samekh and Satan
Regardless of the "Shaitan/Set/Hadit/Satan" equation Crowley makes, I was a originally put back by the idea of calling and Praising "Satan" via Liber Samekh. Now that I've made it my own I really don't get what the big deal is. I remember asking my Ex-Satanic Girlfriend from Reno what Satan meant to her and she said "All Light, All Love." How many people praising Jesus come closer to the spirit of their own adversary, while those willing to "go there" into the ontological ghetto of our latent Puritanical Culture come back with rich gifts of shadow born insights and inspiration? I've seen more love, light and generosity in the Heart of a committed "Satanist" then many Christians I knew. Pagans who do the dance around the edges of Satan and Satanism for fear of being labeled "Devil Worshipers" are cowardly. The Horned God makes no compromises, and is as happy wearing "Lucifer's" Mantle as that of "Pan." Emancipate yourself from Mental Slavery...Hail Satan/Set/Hadit/Pan/Baphomet...the everflowing, evergoing, ever growing SPIRIT OF THE SUN!!! |
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