Dysnomia here. This week, we’ll delve into the Zos Kia Cultus of Austin Osman Spare. Spare’s core writings on his sorcery and its psychosexual basis are often quite abstruse, to the point where some consider them pure diversion and not to be taken literally as arcanum in the least. Thus, it seems preferable that we instead read the two final chapters from Kenneth Grant’s The Magical Revival as a condensed and more intelligible primer. Spare was also one of the foremost draughtsmen of his time, and it is in his art and its profound reflection to/of the unbound subconscious that I think we find much of the actual instantiated substance of his sorcerous arte. Therefore I have included below some favorite selections from his hand to not omit this vital outlet and vessel for his life energies.

“Know that everything begotten by you, and in you, is by unities with otherness to further your individuality. Your sincerity will bestow reality. Pleasure shall be our respite from service to others, ourselves, and the Gods. There is no greater pleasure than the mutual; reciprocity is my law.” – ZOS

Zos playing the ‘Overture to Reality’, circa 1954

a manifesting vessel depicting Spare and Mrs. Patterson (1928)

“The Self in Ecstasy” (from The Book of Pleasure, 1913)

Black Eagle (1946), Spare’s familiar and daemon

“General Allegory” from A Book of Satyrs (1907)

frontispiece from A Book of Satyrs

Formula of Zos vel Thanatos (1955), Spare’s stélé for the Zos Kia Cultus

sketch of Mrs. Patterson, the witch who initiated Spare into the sabbatic mysteries

The Vampires are Coming

“Idiotcy” from A Book of Automatic Drawing (1925)

“Astral Body” from A Book of Automatic Drawing (1925)

“The Threshold” from A Book of Automatic Drawing (1925)

notes on the Alphabet of Desire

scribblings

Elemental Materialisation (1955)

This week, at the insistence of Helios, we will discuss the Principia Discordia. They have recommended pages 3-13, 16-18, 21-24, 28-30, 36-37, 42, 49-51, 61-64, and 69-74 as the most essential parts of that delightfully digressive volume.  Given the majestic powers of the Goddess we mean to venerate this week, I wish you the best of luck in keeping the pages straight.

Thine in Chaos – Fr. Gnostrigrangel

Next time, AVDIERVNT brings us an except from The Psychic Vampire Codex. We’ll be discussing subsections 68 – 78 of Part II, Section III – Basic Energy Work, which comprises pages 667 – 767. A really huge text to page ratio in this text’s digitization makes the page count very high, but the amount of material we’re actually reading quite reasonable. Dysnomia flapped her tailfin for the first time this week, so be sure to congratulate her. See ya Wednesday!

This week, at the suggestion of Our Flower Child Lydia, we’ll be reading from Robin Wall Kimmerer’s Braiding Sweetgrass. We’ll discuss the chapters “Skywoman Falling”, “An Offering”, and “Asters and Goldenrod”. That’s pages 3-10 and 33-47. See you Wednesday!

At the suggestion of Helios and Hermafetes con Harrow, this coming Wednesday we will discuss chapters 1-6 of Illuminatiam – The First Testament of the Illuminati. That’s “The Age of Illuminatiam” through to the end of “The Secrets of Power.”  Looking forward to peering into this new can o’ worms.

This week, we’ll discuss the origins of the Headless Rite and the forms it has taken across traditions and practices. First, take a look at Jake Stratton-Kent’s pamphlet on the ritual, The Headless One. Then look at the translations from the Greek and Demotic magical papyri: from the PGM, “The Stele of Jeu the Hieroglyphist” (pp. 103, PGM V. 96-172) and from the PDM (pp. 232, PDM xiv. 675-694).

The Golden Dawn adapted their own version of the rite, translated as “The Bornless Ritual”, found in The Golden Dawn, pp. 442.

Next we progress to Crowley, who first adapted the ritual as the “Preliminary Invocation of the Goetia”, and later expanded it as Liber Samekh. And finally, a new version many of us have celebrated to great effect, Frater Antichristos’ Satanized and fleshed out Liber Thagirion.

OPTIONAL READING IF YOU ARE A GLUTTON:

Wikipedia article on the PGM.

Israel Regardie’s comparative analysis of the versions of the ritual.

From Hans Dieter’s translations, the introductions to the Greek and Demotic papyri found at the beginning of the volume (pp. xlii and lv).

Many thanks to Princess Dysnomia Strophalos for rounding up these sundry texts and yoking them together!

At Frater Gnostrigrangel’s suggestion, this week we’ll be reading Oscar Wilde’s “The Decay of Lying”  – a foundational text indispensable for any student of Western Ceremonial Magic.

This week, more discussion with Sir Lewis Interruptus as we look at the second half (#30-49) of Liber Astarté, the evocation of the intelligence of Jupiter (part six) from “Yoga for Yellowbellies”, and Liber III vel Jugorum. If you weren’t able to make it last time, consider joining us nonetheless, as we broke our prior discussion off at a good place for new voices to jump in. Hope to see you there!

This Wednesday, Sir Lewis Interruptus of the Knights of the Bad Attitude brings us a pair of texts by Aleister Crowley. We’ll discuss Liber Astarté and an excerpt from “Yoga for Yellowbellies” (part six only, concerning the evocation of Jupiter). Look forward to sharing these texts with all of you!

This week, our acephalic princess Dysnomia Strophalos offers up a set of loosely-connected readings on gnosticism and Georges Bataille. First, a short introduction to the phenomenon called ‘gnosticism’ excerpted from Jane Goodall’s introduction to Artaud and the Gnostic Drama. The excerpt begins with the second paragraph of page 7 (“Orthodox doctrines of ontology…”) and concludes halfway down page 16 (“… arising from the field of shadows and reflections which is the natural world.”) Following that, two pieces from the Bataille collection Visions of Excess: “Base Materialism and Gnosticism” (pp. 45-52) and “The Pineal Eye” (pp. 79-90). Remember, all page numbers refer to those within the original text, not the digital document. See you Wednesday!