I’ve often seen people draw a distinction between ritual magick and Chaos Magick that positions them as dualistic opposites. Upon reflection, this strikes me as a counterproductive product of unclear thinking. It seems to me that the resulting mental map narrows thinking about magick in a way that holds magicians back. This entry therefore aims to provide some food for thought re: how we think and talk about these concepts.
One would anticipate, from the term “runic-tarot,” that Tenebrous divination has features in common with both those systems. The tarot side of the influence is the current post’s focus. Tenebrous divination is like tarot in that its omens contain a fourfold division evoking the four classical elements. But it is unlike tarot with regard to which element is assigned to each “suit.” This post will thus discuss elemental symbolism in the Tenebrous runic-tarot – and also in tarot more generally.
Between my in-person and online interactions, I find certain themes and implicit questions recur re: the nature of magick. So for this post, what I thought I’d do is address a few of those. They pertain to such topics as how I define magick, the causal/acausal distinction, and different approaches to magick.
The one-year anniversary of the publication of Nine Keys of Abyssal Darkness falls in September. So this struck me as a good time for something I’ve meant to do for awhile: post a few excerpts.
Here are two .pdfs for those curious to check out the book prior to purchasing it:
Introduction to Nine Keys of Abyssal Darkness
The First Key: The Just Preference of Earth Over Heaven
Read the rest of this post for some related reflections of mine.
Putting baneful magick on the table as an option, in my opinion, comes with an attendant responsibility. On one hand, yes, I do think circumstances arise in which one is within one’s rights to resort to it. But whether that is the best choice for the situation and in true accord with one’s goals is another question. What this entry will therefore discuss is alternative options to consider before or in place of baneful magick. Not because baneful magick is “wrong,” but because sometimes it is impractical or even self-destructive.
For awhile now, I’ve noticed a number of Satanic creeds in list format being posted on social media. These sorts of posts do strike me as an effective way of introducing unfamiliar people to various forms of Satanism. I therefore thought, why not do one for Tenebrous Satanism? The material this post covers can naturally be found in a number of places on my website already. With Nine Keys of Abyssal Darkness having now gone to print, though, the time seems right for a condensed introduction to the creed my book puts forward.
The more I’ve established a social media presence, the more I’ve come into contact with other Satanic, Chaos Magick and otherwise left-hand-path (LHP) practitioners. With this comes curiosity about others’ magickal praxis. I therefore thought I’d write occasional posts about specifics of my practice, to see what others may share re: similarities/differences. The following one is on the specific topic of incense preferences for meditation and/or ritual.
Something I’ve been wanting to do for awhile now is a series exploring the performance and implications of baneful magick. This includes such things as ethical considerations, metaphysical mechanisms, and rationales for recruiting one entity’s assistance rather than another’s. The current entry provides a summary of some things I’ll be covering in that series.
How does magick “work”? I have enough background in Chaos Magick to consider this a non-urgent question – that it works is more the point. It occurs to me, though, that misunderstandings about magickal mechanisms may aggravate misconceptions Satanic denominations have about one another. Toward the end of addressing such issues, the current entry discusses the extent to which magick is “one’s own” power – i.e. how much of magick is the magician themselves “doing something,” vs. how much comes from an external entity/force/ etc.?
I often cross paths online with esoterically-inclined folks – left-hand-path or otherwise – referring to past-life memories / experiences. This phenomena struck me as interesting to reflect upon in connection with Tenebrous Satanism’s beliefs re: spirits, the afterlife, etc. This entry therefore presents my general impressions on this topic, plus some gnosis I’ve received re: my own past lives.