From: Tagi@cup.portal.com (Thyagi Morgoth NagaSiva)
Newsgroups: alt.magick
Subject: Re: My answers (was Re: ... Definitions of "evil")
Date: Tue, 29 Dec 92 17:32:51 PST
Organization: The Portal System (TM)
  <1hqijkINNdgr@shelley.u.washington.edu>

9212.29 e.v.

Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law.
The word of Sin is Restriction.



LeGrande posts a marvellous expotition (I been reading Pooh agin).
I'd like to say a word or two about 'That Which Ought Not Be'.


H.P. Lovecraft wrote extenuously regarding evil in this light;
the foul, Unknown Enemy Which Intends Our Destruction And Doesn't
Care About Us At All.  Writings of this type are legitimately
called 'horror'.  

Seen from the perspective of the characters of the stories (largely
academics and know-it-all Owls) the categorization makes an
incredible amount of sense.  It also fits mythically.

Modern book-experts are largely reminiscent of ostriches.  They have
done little original thinking and have consumed much pablum in an
attempt to 'be right' and please their superiors.  As penalty for
this ignorance, they have become subject to detractors on all sides,
many that are other 'experts' in the community from which they spring.

It would be peachy if these differences were of a philosophic nature
(i.e. a matter of simple preference shared among cronies), but what
often occurs instead is that they have, like their colleagues, begun
to KNOW.  It is this knowledge ('Da'ath') which divides them into
sects (such as in Christianity and other modern religious mammoths)
and parties (such as in the 'two-party political system').


How does all this relate to Magick?  Well, seen from the perspective
of head-knowledge, things which challenge this knowledge system are
somehow 'evil' or 'wrong'.  In the case of fundamentalist Thelemites
this can be seen by suggesting that their Lord and Savior, Mr. Crowley,
might be WRONG about things.  In the case of modern 'scientists' this
might amount to suggesting that 'the Big Bang' or 'Evolution' are
nothing more than theories which describe certain data and that in
fact they are just as mythically valuable as 'Creationism'.


'Evil' in this case is the attribution of the ignorant.  I think that
Crowley, while describing his feelings regarding 'black magic' very
carefully, may have suggested that 'evil' is just as much 'sin' as
any other error of division.  To posit an 'other' is 'sin', and this
means that evil is the mark of the ignorant, not that of the moral felon.


Those who bite the apple of knowledge, contenting themselves with
intellectual understandings and the supremacy of surface-consciousness
are doomed to encounter the wrathful Jehovah-Leviathan, who will
not only trash the false Paradise of idyllic fantasies, but will
scare the shit out of those who dwell in them, haunting their dreams
and wake-world.


'Evil', therefore, is that which we fear, that which will splinter
our fragile and precious 'reality' into a thousand shards, casting
us upon the winds of chance to settle into a new dogma.  If we
consume this fecal doctrine of bovine dependency, then we shall
continue to face and fear the Great Unknown Enemy (Shaitan), who
will become associated with, eventually enveloping and consuming,
our Big Friends if we are to do any growing at all.


Look into the Cthulhu mythos and the modern KaOs mages who are
experimenting with the Things Which Should Never Be.  They have
much to say about both evil and magick.  The Enochian magick of
Dee, Kelley and successors is based upon this principle, though
the writings resulting from it and experiments like it (i.e.
_The Vision and the Voice_) are weak and restrictively prudent.


To face the 'evil' is the face ourselves.  Only those who cast
out the discordant will find themselves alienated, alone and lost.
Once they discover their error, they can only seek out the object
of their fear and attempt to slay it (ha!) or make peace in some
fashion (good luck!).

I suggest deep bowing practice immediately before the Master becomes
angry decides to have you for lunch! ;>


Invoke me under my stars.   Love is the law, love under will.


I am I!


Frater (I) Nigris (666)