Below are the 20 most recent journal entries recorded in panshiva's LiveJournal:

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Monday, July 13th, 2009
10:10 am	Means and Ends in Thelema "Concentrate on "...thou hast no right but to do thy will." The point is that any possible act is to be performed if it is a necessary factor in that Equation of your Will. Any act that is not such a factor, however harmless, noble, virtuous or what not, is at the best a waste of energy. But there are no artificial barriers on any type of act in general. The standard of conduct has one single touchstone. There may be—there will be—every kind of difficulty in determining whether, by this standard, any given act is "right" or "wrong": but there should be no confusion. No act is righteous in itself, but only in reference to the True Will of the person who proposes to perform it." Morality (2): Magick Without Tears We live in a society where we are taught "The ends don't justify the means." This basic dictate rooted in Judeo-Christian morality would have us doing the "Right thing" and taking the "High Road" on a daily basis on the way towards some lofty version of moral perfection. Crowley provides us a very different formula emphasizing the necessity to stay true oneself and one's "True Will" regardless of what external dictates of conscience and social propriety emphasize. What this means, is that for a person who is in alignment with their "True Will" actions may be taken and choices made that may be directly at odds with legal and moral structures of their society. In true "anti-christian" style, this flips the "Ends not justifying the means" equation directly on its head. The actions, or "means" of a Thelemite are justified by the "ends" of the True Will. As Crowley shows us, the "Means" and "Ends" are both questions that a person engaged in the Great Work is dynamically engaged with, but that ultimately, no outside authority can dictate. Only the individual engaged in this struggle is responsible for the determination of the "rightness" or "wrongness" of both the ends and means.This places such an individual outside the confines of the social contract, and by default, makes them an Outlaw in spirit, if not in action. Our culture lauds the "Righteous Outlaw" with it's romance of "Robin Hood, Billy the Kid and Jack Sparrow," but what about those less "noble" outlaws whose acts, nevertheless, contributed in the long term towards the evolution of the species? Mankinds time frames and moral judgments are too short to truly grasp the long term implications of divine acts inspired by the True Will. In the long run the Outlaw may or may not become the vindicated hero, but those who cling to the structures and walls of the given will only see the criminal. (1 Comment |Comment on this)
Saturday, July 11th, 2009
9:32 am	Man has a right to kill those would would thwart these rights. Liber Oz can arguably be seen as a tract for Thelemic Social Revolution. At the end of its' list of rights stands the adamant statement: 5. Man has the right to kill those who would thwart these rights. "the slaves shall serve." What does it mean to have a tract on Liberty that whole heartedly affirms the right of the indivdual to kill those who would thwart one's personal rights and liberties? This one statment distances Thelema dramatically from "Nonviolent" traditions like Buddhism and Christianity (Which ironically have given birth to much violence historically.) At heart, Thelema is a current of "Force and Fire." It values the energetic friction of oppositional forces that work towards orgiastic fusion in new higher order synergies. One only has to look at the violent Thermonuclear reactions of the SUN (Which necessarily give Life to everything) as the model for the energies Thelema is representing on the Earth. As Jack Parson's shows us in Freedom is a Two Edged Sword to carry the banner for such a commitment to liberty requires one to be in complete ownership of the results of one's actions. No one can "Save you" in Thelema but yourself. Though you may have the "Right" to kill your slave master, you are responsible for the outcome of your actions whether successful or not. You may have the "Right" as a Thelemite to try and overthrow the US government, Break Laws, and Burn down the state building if these institutions are truly vexing your True Will, but you are also ultimately responsible for your actions. So this "Double Edge Sword" of absolute Freedom and absolute responsibility beyond morals, laws, and social norms is the razors edge those committed to true liberty walk. Such responsibility is scary, and thus most would rather cling to the given structures and norms offered them in society, and thus remain servile slaves to their masters. (1 Comment |Comment on this)
Wednesday, July 8th, 2009
11:44 am	Schimogenic Pantamimes of French Postructuralists You disagree with Aiwass—so do all of us. The trouble is that He can say: "But I'm not arguing; I'm telling you." Chapter XLVIII: Morals of AL—Hard to Accept, and Why nevertheless we Must Concur In a "Thousand Plateaus" Deleuzze and Guitarri attempt to provide us a with a language for the nature of being in late post industrial capitalism. In convoluted language, they make the case that Schizophrenia may be an adaptive response to the fragemtary and rootless nature of our extreme postmodernity. With their terminology of Rhizomes, Smooth Space and "Lines of Flight" they pose a bottom up, nomadic rebellion in a networked and fungal resistance to the "Striated Space" of the structurally defined, top down "War Machine" of the late industrial society. But even If you create "Lines of Flight" from the War Machine you're still running, regardless of how "Nomadic" "Networked" and "Edgy" you might feel at the moment. (Note all escapist fantasies in Sci Fi, Steam Punk, Burning Man, ect..." are still forms of "Flight." I.E. Escape. You're still running, no matter how cool you may look and feel at the moment)...It's a momentary rush, the off gassing of one's industrial effluvia of consciousness, but eventually you've got to go back to your cube. For them, the "Body without Organs" or the selfless, empty identity able to morph and shift between frames and flows without attachment, or without definition is the most viable and adaptive relationship to the overarching hegemony of power of the "War Machine." They call this state a "Body without Organs." With this concept they come close, in some ways, to positing a Buddhist "Noself" ideal without the organizational focus on soteriology. What they end up with, however, is a loosely associated, and vacuous sense of entity with many parallels to the schizophrenic. Various flavors of "Schizophrenia" is the modus operandi of the self in late industrial society (incoherent, rootless, fragmentary, flowing, constantly changing without firm direction or purpose). From a Thelemic POV Is the Fragmentary nature of the Schizophrenic an "adaptive response" to late industrial capilalism? No, it's a ultimate symptom. The "Body without organs" is the "Self" without the locus of the Will. The biggest target for post modernism is the "Grand Narrative" (I.E. an overaching ideal or goal that is supposed to garner societies attention and focus it's efforts in a particular way.) One of the biggest "Grand Narratives" is the notion of the "Transpersonal Will." The idea that an individual might be guided by a divinely inspired "Voice" or a "Impulse" that is bigger and more important that the state, laws, media, social order, and social commitments is an absolute threat to the very fibers of feckless and rootless late industrial postmodern society....the world today has no place for taking seriously the voice of prophecy, and must push it to the periphery to maintain its own inauthentic, and highly shaky, sense of self. To hear a voice of a higher Will is to be guided by a spirit that refuses to capitulate to the given. To hear and obey such a voice is to place oneself at odds with the dictates of the status quo which is determined by the money and powered interests of the media, corporations, politics, and religious authorities... all who want a piece of you. To exist in such a state is to embrace the spirit, if not the practice of the Outlaw. As such, the status quo will level every criticism, mocking irony, shroud of doubt, and pecking insult at anyone, or anything the claims to hear, or associate with such a voice. To not only hear, but fully internalize such a voice is to operate from an entirely different operating system from those programed to be "good citizens" under late industrial society. The triumph of the "Body without Organs" is the Triumph of Chronnozon. The triumph of the transpersonal Will is the Triumph of Aiwass. (15 Comments |Comment on this)
10:29 am	Death as One's Greatest Ally Some quotes I value that affirm the power of "Death" to keep one's "Life" in perspective. All of them speak to the necessity to fully embrace and engage "Death" if one really wants to plumb the depths of "Life." "He that lives long & desires death much is ever the King among the Kings."   Liber Al "Sat Siri Akal" (Great, Undying, Deathless Truth)   Sikh phrase for the nature of true reality. Often spoken prior to fearlessly entering into battle.                                  "Today is a good day to die." Lakota Sioux "Keep death on your shoulder, it will remind you to love."  Carlos Casteneda (Comment on this)
Sunday, July 5th, 2009
12:31 pm	70's Esoteric LA: The Solar Lodge, 3HO, and the Brotherhood of the Source What would have happened if Father Yod had encountered Thelema? In the late 60's and early 70's. Hermeticism, Yoga, and even Thelema were afloat in the LA Basin. The charismatic and entrepreneurial Father Yod tried, successfully for a time, to synthesize the former two into his own spiritual community. The Solar Lodge came into being at relatively the same time as Yoga Bhajan's 3H0 and Father Yod's spinoff the The Brotherhood of the Source. All three organizations were rooted in esoteric practices, sectarian behaviors, and a commitment to social transformation. 3H0 is the only one of the three that's still going strong and I attribute that largely to the intense focus on yogic discipline and spiritual practice (Sadhna) which strengthen its members giving them grit and character. Father Yod's organization had its disciplines, and a following of beautiful, health conscious, and artistic people but his own megalomania and ego subverted his intentions. 3H0 has strong and powerful spiritual tools and disciplines, but is pinnioned to Sikh ethics and guruship of Yogi Bhajan. The Solar Lodge had a strong focus on Thelema, but was undercut by it's own cult of personality and internal fractional politics. That said, the social experiments they offered are fascinating to me, and provide food for thought for how one might both succeed and fail in the creation of an esoteric and spiritually oriented organization keyed to fundamental social change based on Thelemic ideals. (11 Comments |Comment on this)
Wednesday, July 1st, 2009
2:08 pm	Propping up a Weak Talent Pool Keith418 recently asked the question: How lame is a "friends only LJ"? Let's say it's totally lame. Then why am I such a big deal and why are people in the OTO talking about me and "Team418" I responded to him saying: Because in a field of the mediocre, the brighter then average person stands out. The OTO isn't a rich talent pool, its largely full of disaffected people who are clumping together because of their insecurities and willingness to defer to a few people who seem to have their shit together. That's not a very challenging space, and unless you recruit from the ranks of a brighter and more rigorous pool of individuals, no amount to prop them up from the outside and get them to "Engage the material" is going to improve the conditions of the organization. If you want a talented organization, recruit talented people. The OTO has an open door policy for anyone to come and join, and so it gets what it asks for. The worst the OTO could do to me is permanantly boot me from its ranks, and that's not really threatening to me given what I said about the nature of the organization. After a while I realized the "Wizard behind the curtain" was just that...a showman. HB, Sabazius...nice guys, but no grand Magi are they. If people want to participant in a master/slave top/bottom hiearchy of the OTO realize that those at "Top" might be better at the "bottom" and vice versa. Personally I'm in favor of the Switch. (5 Comments |Comment on this)
Monday, June 29th, 2009
4:00 pm	Crowley on Innovation We do progress; but how? Not by the tinkering of the meliorist; not by the crushing of initiative; not by laws and regulations which hamstring the racehorse, and handcuff the boxer; but by the innovations of the eccentric, by the phantasies of the hashish-dreamer of philosophy, by the aspirations of the idealist to the impossible, by the imagination of the revolutionary, by the perilous adventure of the pioneer. Progress is by leaps and bounds, but breaking from custom, by working on untried experiments; in short, by the follies and crimes of men of genius, only recognizable as wisdom and virtue after they have been tortured to death, and their murderers reap gloatingly the harvest of the seeds they sowed at midnight. (Magick Without Tears: Chapter LXIX: Original Sin."   This quote sums up the spirit of the Innovator and the Maverick Visionary. It's not by "Laws" and "Regulations" that novelty is born into the world, but rather the risk taking, creative, and pioneering spirit willing to test the edges, and push past the given. As one of my German friends and artists once told said to me, "The Mass eats the fruits of the Genius and rarely offers's gratitude." People who live comfortably inside the frameworks of systems with no inclination to push, transgress, or break against the edges are rarely ever innovators in business, or life. It's only when you are willing to forgo comfort for creation, predictable routine for vision, and security for novelty that you'll come close to the spirit Crowley points to above. (1 Comment |Comment on this)
2:04 pm	Presidio Management Statement of Intent Letter This is the letter I wrote to gain acceptance to the 2009 class of MBA students at the Presidio Management Institute in San Francisco. It was a highly competitive class with several other Phds seeking the MBA. I look forward to meeting my cohort on August 1st. Luckily the MBA is a "working MBA" meaning I can still work...though likely part time instead of full. Presidio Management Institute Admissions Essay - Presidio Project Focus At a recent conference on Green Opportunities in Mendocino County, John Schaeffer, the creator of Real Goods and the Solar Living Center, said that interest in solar power systems is up 70% from 2007. John, an early pioneer in the solar industry, believes solar power is poised to grow at an almost asymptotic rate over the next twenty years. That said, the industry is plagued by supply chain fragmentation, poorly integrated markets, immature channels, disconnect from existing utility interests, and a lack of consumer awareness regarding the full potentials of solar power and products. ( Read more... ) (2 Comments |Comment on this)
Saturday, June 27th, 2009
9:56 pm	Summer Solstice I'm just back from Summer Solstice in New Mexico at Ram Das Puri. This year we worked with the Water Tatwa...judging by the amount of rain we got over the New Mexico desert, it seemed like an efficacious effort! I enjoyed spending time with teachers, friends and fellow yogis I've known since 1994. I realize more and more how much I truly enjoy spending time with people with a serious and committed whole person spiritual practice. Kundalini Yoga Rocks!!! (Comment on this)
Friday, June 19th, 2009
9:24 am	The Yoga of Power "I am just as strongly convinced as I was before that the practice of Yoga in itself is of enormous assistance to the Magician in his more intelligible path only adding that he should beware lest the logical antinomies inherent in Yoga divert him for or discourage him in his simple path." Magick Without Tears: 506 I read this before I head up to Ram Das Puri for this years Summer Solstice Celebration with the 3H0 Sikhs and the Kundalini Yoga community. I'm a Thelemic Magician and Yogi. Many of them are Yogis and Sikhs. There are huge differences in the value trajectories. They are purists against premarital sex, drugs, or the worship of Gods. I value trangression, working with Demons, Sex Magick, and the cultivation and consumption of Sacramental plants. The "Logical Antinomies" of yoga are all of its Moralism and and layers of obfuscation found in the traditional Yamas and Niyamas. In response to this, as Crowley shows us in "Eight Lectures on Yoga" is the "Simple Path" of the Magician which is "Do What Thou Wilt Shall Be the Whole of the Law." Yoga is a useful technology, but must be purged of all of its old aeonic garbage to make it useful for Thelemic practice. I look forward to conversations and interactions with fellow yogis on this topic over the next week. (1 Comment |Comment on this)
Monday, June 15th, 2009
2:47 pm	Cleantech I've been thinking alot about the role of Innovation and Design Strategy in the emergence of the Cleantech Industry. Cleantech along with healthcare for the aging population, is one of two slated growth industries in an increasingly shrinking economy projected for the next two decades. One of my beefs with the whole "information economy" is that it never touched ground, but stayed in the Braudillardian hypereality of virtual realities. All of the interest in communication technologies and media always seemed to me to be part of the cloud of Simulative Simulacra that obfuscated our relationship to the planet and one another in a haze of informational distraction. As David Hakken wrote in his book "Cybers@Cyberspace" the hype around technology has been heir to an ideological construct he calls "Cyberfacture" that hides the underlying inequalities and alienation much technology produces. One of the primary reasons for this alienation is the disconect of technology from the planet and natural systems. Cleantech, however, is a domain of economic and technological growth that I actually can get my head and heart around. The utilization of technology paired with real world concerns such as the "Smart Grid" in relationship to energy efficiency, or Solar/Hydrogen fuel cells in relationship to transporation, are areas where innovation, design, and leadership mesh with a real world commitment to planetary health and sustainability. This space is going to need creative and innnovative leadership in the future, and I hope to be right at the heart of it. (10 Comments |Comment on this)
1:51 pm	Avalon West Last weekend I was up in Yreka taking care of my mother's house and ended up going in to Mount Shasta to a spiritual center called the Flying Lotus. Members of the center are avid fans of free form dance as well as Kundalini Yoga. It was an awesome meeting as I didn't expect to meet folks that soon of like mind in the area. The owner of the space asked me to teach a workshop on Kundalini Yoga which I will be doing focused on the topic of the Sun and the Heart Chakra. Interestingly, the owner and group of folks at the center are really focused on the connection, in their minds, between the Shasta and Avalon. They make a yearly pilgrimidge to Glastonbury, and are deeply involved in the Celtic mysteries. It's cool because I've been fascinated by the Grail Mythos and Arthurian lore for years. I'm also happy to meet folks who are artists, performers, dancers and yogis. That said, they are a little too sweetness and light for me, but they have a regular spiritual practice and are actively involved in practices which I enjoy and appreciate. I can see interesting collaborations with them as I develop my land up West of Mount Shasta in the future. On another note, I spent the weeked at the Harmony Festival in Santa Rosa and ran into many friends from different facets of my life in the Bay Area. In particular, I had a great conversation with Elicia David who is the founder of the Eleusis Project which I worked with for a while. I told her that her project was inspirational for my efforts up North in Shasta. We talked about what it takes to start an intentional community/ecovillage and the kinds of challenges involved. The conference also provide alot of knowledge and inspiration concerning my career focusing around green business and alternative/renewable energy leadership. Many synchronistic and synergetic connections were made on multiple levels. Alltogether it's been an awesome and connection rich two weeks as I weave together different threads for an unfolding idea in its nascent stages. And in three days its off to Summer Solstice!!! I wonder how Reuss felt at Mount Verite? (Comment on this)
Friday, June 12th, 2009
12:12 pm	Entelechy, Xeper and the Thelemic Holy Grail 71. But exceed! exceed! 72. Strive ever to more! and if thou art truly mine -- and doubt it not, an if thou art ever joyous! -- death is the crown of all. 73. Ah! Ah! Death! Death! thou shalt long for death. Death is forbidden, o man, unto thee. 74. The length of thy longing shall be the strength of its glory. He that lives long & desires death much is ever the King among the Kings. Liber Al The Will Goes, and in going it brings forth evolutionary novelty. Like the acorn that holds the oak within its pattern, the Entelechy of the universe seeks realization. The great work is the unpacking of the potential of the Bud Will of the individual in its uniqueness and distinction. This process, called Xeper in the Egyptian is a process of constant improvement, refinement, and advancement in power, bliss and knowledge in the never ending evolutionary spiral of becoming. Spiritual practice (Yoga and Magick) intensify and speed up this becoming. The Holy Grail is a process, not a product: "The Quest of the Holy Grail, the Search for the Stone of the Philosophers—by whatever name we choose to call the Great Work—is therefore endless. Success only opens up new avenues of brilliant possibility. Yea, verily, and Amen! the task is tireless and its joys without bounds; for the whole Universe, and all that in it is, what is it but the infinite playground of the Crowned and Conquering Child, of the insatiable, the innocent, the ever-rejoicing Heir of Space and Eternity, whose name is MAN? Aleister Crowley (1 Comment |Comment on this)
Monday, June 1st, 2009
11:12 am	Planetwork It's been 9 years this spring since I went to the first Planetwork conference in the Presidio in San Francisco. The conference focused on trying to bring people together from technology and environmental activism backgrounds to creatively solve sustainability problems. The conference was a huge motivator for me, and partially inspired me to make the move from an academic life in Eugene Oregon to getting my first job in a technology company in San Mateo, the Fall of 2000. Prior to this I had, at times, been a pseudo-luddite eschewing the technogeekdom that had so pervaded the minds and media of the mid to late 90's. In attending the conference, and speaking to people, I really started to think more seriously about the role and value of appropriate technology in the creation of a sustainable world. In particular, I started to read up on Bucky Fuller and think about different approaches Design could be leveraged to help influence the world in a positive way. This focus on Design in Sustainability has been a theme in my work, though not centrally so, for the past 7 years. To that end I've worked in architecture and planning on sustainabilty projects, and most recently in product developlment and strategy consulting where I had the opportunity to work on a 4 month project coming up with a sustainablity strategy for the San Diego Zoo. That said, the bulk of my work as a Design Anthropologist over the past 7 plus years has been on topics and themes completely disconnected from Sustainabilty including such things as: Customer Relaitionship Management Software for Call Centers and Marketers The Built Environment For Education, Healthcare and Business Clients Malt Beverages Branding and Programming for Broadcast TV Water Bottles Relocation Services Video Game Consoles Interaction Design For a Wargame Tool Though this work has been intellectually and creatively stimulating and challening, and though I' have grown immensely as both a researcher, designer, and strategist, my core committments to "Planetwork" outside of the few examples mentioned above, has not been fully satisfied. Realizing I am at a stage where I want to shift from being merely a "Research/Designer" that helps other people with their products, to a Leader who takes point for the direction of entire initiatives, and realizing that I no longer want to compromise the type of work I do for anything less then a sustainability focus, I have decided to pursue an MBA in Sustainable Management from the Presidio Management Institute My goal for this is to take all of my knowledge and experinece in the field of Design Research and Innovation Strategy and plug it back in at an Excecutive leadership position in a Sustainbiilty focused company. My current focus is on the Solar Industry as I see the potential for product and service solutions in that space having the greatest potential positive impact for the future. I feel the current administration, the needs of the planet, and my own passions are aligning in such a way that I can no longer refuse the Call....Planetwork, here I come. Oh, and thanks to Marietta Baba for the inspiration that Anthropology and the MBA mesh very well. (7 Comments |Comment on this)
Saturday, May 30th, 2009
2:44 pm	Cultural Catch All vs. Necessary Hiearchies of Attainment I remember thinking in the Pacific Northwest, that outside of a certain specific individuals and groups, the term "Pagan" seemed to be a cultural catch all for generally disaffected and weird people with low self control, poor taste, and generally in poor physical shape. I am, by nature, an elistist and always gravitated to the people in circles, Pagan, or otherwise, who I think have their shit together, are doing amazing things, and who I feel I can respect and interact with on a peer-peer, or peer-senior level. This is healthy, they way I relate to the world, and something for which I am in no way apologetic. When I hear or see people inviting me to pagan "Salons" or "Meet and Greets" I always ask myself what I think I'm going to get out of the interaction. The answer is usually very little. I know what it feels like to be in a community or context that challenges me. In such an environment I feel a combination of exhilaration, and nervousness. The exhiliration from the knowledge that I'm going to grow. The nervousness from the knowledge that I'm going to be pushed and prompted to go past my current comfort zones. For me most of these experiences have taken place in the context of athletics (Martial arts, track and field) work (Business/corporate contexts, and education), or Spiritual Hiearchies (Yoga Sanghas, training regimens). The kind of pushing and pulling I've gotten from teachers, or competitotors, from business associates, and from peers in these lifeworlds has helped me grow as a person. I'm a different and better person for having engaged, and continue to choose to engage, in such worlds that force me to grow. I can't say I've ever had such experiences in the common cultural catch all that is contemporary "Paganism." To that end I generally avoid most people in such worlds, and seek out other worlds where I know I'm going to be challanged. (5 Comments |Comment on this)
Thursday, May 28th, 2009
2:37 pm	Living Danegerously: A Juggler and a Joker Character 1: A Juggler, a Smuggler and Chinese Taoist world traveling vagabond with a heart of gold Character 2: An artist, an esotericist, lecturer on Abraxas with the Star of Babalon tattooed on his Left arm, Talmudic Jew and lover of Antonin Artaud Story: Being written in the Outlaw fields of the Now. (4 Comments |Comment on this)
Saturday, May 23rd, 2009
11:23 am	Templars and Transgression "Love Is the Ultimate Outlaw" Tom Robbins I've been reading alot about how the Knights Templar were involved in everything from piracy to importing cannabis into Europe. In their war against the Pope and the Medieval State they were hell (or heaven) bent on building the New Jeruselem by transgressing against the normative laws and social structures of their times. Which begs the question of who decides what an "Outlaw" is? As Mick Jagger says in sympathy with the Devil "Just as every cop is a criminal And all the sinners saints" and William Blake shows us in the Marriage of Heaven and Hell "Prisons are built with stones of Law, Brothels with bricks of Religion" we run up against a wall when we try to box the impulse of the Spirit within the frameworks of the status quo and powers that be. As I've said before, every true Innovator has the impulse of the Rebellious Outlaw. More Proverbs of Hell: The pride of the peacock is the glory of God. The lust of the goat is the bounty of God. The wrath of the lion is the wisdom of God. The nakedness of woman is the work of God. Excess of sorrow laughs. Excess of joy weeps. The roaring of lions, the howling of wolves, the raging of the stormy sea, and the destructive sword, are portions of eternity too great for the eye of man. William Blake (2 Comments |Comment on this)
Sunday, May 17th, 2009
2:59 pm	Krav Maga Had a hardcore test in Krav Maga yesterday. I'm tired, bruised, weary, and feel great. It was 7 brutal hours of full contact, high stress self defense and fighting to the point of exhaustion. I've been involved in martial arts for over two decades, and I have to say Krav Maga is the most direct, brutal, effective, and impressive system I've ever experienced. It's not even a martial art, but rather a combat oriented survival and self defense system targeted for the battlefield and the street. It pushes you past the point of endurance and demands that you keep fighting... backed into corners, bruised, bloodied, weary...it says keep up or you die. That kind of anti coddling, reality approach to training is exactly where I'm happiest. I'm going down to LA for my instructor certification in 9 months and they promise me pain and glory if I succeed. It's a week long, 8 hours/day, and totally hardcore. They demand that you are in top shape before they even let you take the test for fear of injury. Many of the instructors I'll be studying with are experienced special tactics police officers, as well as special forces in the military. I'm looking forward to the challenge, and will be ramping up to meet it. (1 Comment |Comment on this)
Saturday, May 16th, 2009
11:06 am	Therion Solar "666 is the number of the sun. You can call me Little Sunshine." Aleister Crowley Recently I've been focusing alot my thought and energy on the Solar industry, and am currently taking classes through the Solar Living Center in Hopland, Ca. The solar industry is poised to explode and I'm trying to position myself in a place to help collaboratively lead the charge on what may be one of the largest revolutions to impact industrial civilization since the advent of the internal combustion engine. I find it fitting that as a Sun Worshiper (Thelemite), I'm drawn increasingly to working with "the sole viceregent of the Sun upon the Earth" in cocreative ways with the "one Earth, the Mother of us all." (Comment on this)
Thursday, May 14th, 2009
9:41 pm	Wine and Strange Drugs II Dr. Enoch Page brings it to the April 2009 issue of the American Anthropologist. His piece makes me wonder what it would take to get entheogens and psychoactives protected as religous sacrements under the religious freedom act for Thelemites in ways similar to the Native American Church's use of Peyote. SOCIETY FOR THE ANTHROPOLOGY OF CONSCIOUSNESS Enoch H. Page, Contributing Editor The Sacrilegious or Sacred Pot An entheogen is “a psychoactive sacramental; a plant or chemical substance taken to occasion primary religious experience,” according to the Council on Spiritual Practices. When we imagine psychoactive sacrementals we often think about exotic psilocybin mushrooms, peyote buttons, or ayahuasca vines as the entheogens of Native American ceremonies, but despite its disparaged reputation, marijuana is also an entheogen, functioning as a sacramental herb in Rastafarian and in other ritual ceremonies. ( Read more... ) (Comment on this)