A Nameless Path

[Cunning Witch Angus]

SECTION ONE

Section 1.1 Angus, A History

I was born Christian. My father was Catholic, my mother agnostic with a Prodestant background. I did not feel comfortable being Christian. Ever since I was young I had strange experiences that I couldn't explain. As I grew I met a friend who told me about this occult shop near where I lived. So, one day I visited
the place and picked up a book entitled Merlin's Book of Enchantment. There my journey began. After much reading and many debates and time alone to think, and many ineffable experiences I found my path.

Section 1.2 How I came to be here

By this I mean this thread. I wasn't going to initially post my beliefs because I am very mistrustful of people. Then I learned that I need to be more trusting of who I talk to, especially those of a similar vein: paganism.
Why hide from fellow pagans. I had a revelation that it is okay to talk to others about who you are, that not everyone is going to hate you. So I am exposing myself here, and I stand naked before you all.  

[Cunning Witch Angus]

SECTION TWO: BASIC PHILOSOPHY

Everything that can happen will happen and it happens for a reason; it can not be stopped, it must be; it is not planned, ever. Essentially what I mean is that no one knows what the hell is going to happen. What can have a sort of idea, but things can change it. Different events can influence the change that can occur in reality.

How does this count into Divination, one might ask? Well, divination is never certain, I have found. We can have glimpses of the future if one continues on the path they are on and if the correct events happen. Something might happen along that vein of fate and completely change the course of history.

I believe that time is non-linear. In a way the future is already happening as the present and the past. It all happens at once. What matters is the now, the present. Sure, one can see what would happen if one did this act, but do not dwell on the future, nor must one dwell on the past. There is only the now and every action counts no matter what.  

[Cunning Witch Angus]

SECTION THREE: REALITY

Reality is perceived by the person that is experiencing it. One has the power to affect one's reality and to affect the realities of others. We merge with their reality and thus they become part of our reality and vice versa. They can affect us as much as we can affect them. How is this done? Through the art of magic and willing it to happen.

We create our realities around us all the time. What we perceive is what we wish reality to be. One must also remember, however, that there is an all encompassing reality. An entity of sorts whose reality and consciousness we also dwell in. That reality also affects our reality and we can draw on that to affect the realities of others and, most especially, the reality of ourselves.

I came to this conclusion when I took a course on philosophy and had a conversation with my therapist about reality. We can will things into existence for ourselves, though they may not always manifest in the way that we expected.  

[Cunning Witch Angus]

SECTION FOUR: MAGIC

Basically I go with Aleister Crowley's definition of magic. The science and art of affecting reality in conformity with one's Will. Will is everything in magic. If one wills something to happen then it will surely happen. There are many different forms of magic and I have not yet found a system that I like completely. The basics of ritual are as follows.

0. Banish Ritual Area
1. Recenter Self and breath.
2. Invoke/Evoke or both or niether. These can be entities that you have created or that have already been created. Hermaphroditic deity is suspect to be invoked most often. If there is need then evoke the spirit within the Triangle of Manifestation and station yourself within a magic circle.
3. Create, charge and fire sigils. Create entities. Whatever magical act one needs to fulfill do it here.
4. Come down from altered state of consciousness.
5. Take leave of any entities called in anyway.
6. Banish again
7. Laugh at your stupidity

I pull most of the magical techniques from Peter J Carrol's Liber Null and Psychonaut.

Meditation is of the utmost importance. I find that when I wash the dishes I meditate the best. I also go on walks and go into a light meditative state in that way as well. Any repeated action can become a meditation. I make great use of my scales on the violin and also the use of intoning my vowels.

Magic is accomplished from a point of altered consciousness. In this state one can tap into the subtle energies and manipulate them into the reality that one wants to come into manifest. Then you must forget it. It must go back into one's subconscious. Trance herbs, drumming, ecstatic dancing, and deep meditation in silence and stillness are techniques to reach this point of altered consciousness.  

[Cunning Witch Angus]

SECTION FIVE: DEITY

I am not sure if I believe in deity or not. There is this all-encompassing force of some kind that I have felt that is of both genders and is the source of all power and life and death. Witches in Cornwall call it the Bucca. Elphias Levi called it the Baphomet. Peter J. Carroll calls it Chaos. I have no name for it, it is simply there. I do not pray to it, I work with with. I draw the power into myself during ritual through invocation and work from there. Stupid? Immensely, but it gets the job done.

I suppose because I see it as a conscious entity it is a deity of sorts. I just don't have a name. The closest thing that comes to it is Baphomet. The Bucca is also of the same sort, is the thing. Both goddesses are represented by a black sabbatic goat with breasts and an erect p***s.

For one to have a deity does one have to pray to it? I just don't really like having to depend on something to get a job done, I suppose. I would rather do it myself. And yet is it selfish to tap into this energy for my workings? Well the answer is yes, because I do not believe in selfless acts. I shall have to experiment with different names I suppose.

Hermaphroditic goat...  

[Cunning Witch Angus]

SECTION SIX: WHAT HAPPENS WHEN YOU DIE

When I die my soul, that external part of my consciousness, becomes part of this all encompassing force. My ego mind melts away unless I have taken the appropriate steps to binding the two together in Hairos Gaimos. There are rites of course that can force reincarnation but in general I am recycled back into the stream.

When I went through my Theory of Knowledge class I studied Socrates immensely. He too believed in a separate part of the consciousness called the Daimon. This is not really the same thing. Beyond my physical body is the subtle body, the body that can travel between this world and the world of the spirit. The astral, the second world, the Other as I like to call it.

There are techniques to bind the ego mind and the subtle mind as one so that when one dies the mind is not wiped clean. In my research I have found this to be called many names, one of which being the Hairos Gaimos, or Sacred Marriage. Upon reaching this one may come back to the world of the living as a spirit to teach others or become a guardian of an area or be forced to reincarnate in the body of new born babe through rites of the working group. This latter scenario has the need that the magician that is to be reincarnated be very old and that after having sex with a woman who is to have the child kill himself.  

[Cunning Witch Angus]

SECTION SEVEN: SPIRITS AND OTHER BEINGS

They are there. I do not know if they are in my head or if I am actually perceiving with them. There are spirits of all sorts of things: spirits of anger, spirits of sleep, spirits of the dead (those that can not or will not pass on), spirits of water, spirits of fire, spirits of a tree. All sorts of things. I also believe in the Demons of the Goetia.  

[Cunning Witch Angus]

SECTION EIGHT: LEFT HAND OR RIGHT HAND

I tend to categorize myself as Left hand path meaning essentially that it is MY will be done, not THY will be done. I also have no real sense of ethics other than those that I create myself. In other words I do not adhere to a strict code of conduct set down by someone. I do believe, however, in paying the coin. There are consequences for every action and you have to be willing to accept them if you are going to do something stupid...like hurt someone. There is also good and evil in everyone and we are all capable of either good or evil.  

[Cunning Witch Angus]

SECTION NINE: ESCHATOLOGICAL BELIEFS

No, there is no damnation for some and paradise for others. The ego mind melts away, one must remember, the spirit has nothing to do with earthly acts of selfishness or evil etc. The soul is neutral.  

[Cunning Witch Angus]

SECTION TEN: SYMBOLISM

I have always felt that the pentagram is one of the most powerful symbols. The spiral pentagram (a symbol discovered I believe by Phil Hine) is wonderful for bringing things in. The Pentagram itself as it is can be either inverted or not. Inverted tends to mean sending of powers and material things whilst non inverted is more spiritual and sometimes a bringing of powers. The pentagram can be used to keep things out as well; I use a banishing pentagram in my banishing ritual to keep things out.

The Cross (X) is used to keep things at bay and should be traced over doors to seal them. The triangle is also one of the most powerful and perfect of shapes. It is meant to trap things, especially if it has the circle traced about it. The symbols of the planets are also very useful especially in the creating of elementals.

I also have a personalized sigil that I use when casting spells upon myself and I trace it in places that I need to keep personal.  

[Cunning Witch Angus]

SECTION ELEVEN: CELEBRATIONS

I have never really celebrated the common pagan solstices (Yule, All Hallows etc). I will go to them occasionally with friends but it is mostly in fun. Nor do I celebrate the full moons. I will acknowledge that the moon has gone through its cycle, but rarely will I hold a full ritual. This is not to say that the moon is not a potent power in ritual, as a full moon will bring much power to a ritual whilst a waning moon with bring much negative power to a ritual for uses in cursing etc.  

[Cunning Witch Angus]

Reserved!  

[Cunning Witch Angus]

Reserved!