It’s not good for women to go through the procedure and have something living sucked out of your bodies. It belittles women… Every time a woman has an abortion, it just crushes her self-esteem, smaller and smaller and smaller.
This essay was prompted by an exchange on Twitter. An account named @LiveAction tweeted a paraphrase of the above quote, to which I responded with an excerpt from the Apocalypse of Peter (c. 2nd Century AD):
For those with eyes to see, the blue highlighted sentence revealed what was in my heart. The motive and intent.
Empathy.
A compassionate desire to give something, some small amount of consolation, of encouragement, of hope, to the heart of a stranger who, presumably, feels sufficient inner pain concerning the topic to have committed some part of their own life – Time, and labour energy – to public activism.
Perhaps little more would have resulted from this gesture, if not for a third party reply. An attempt at alchemical transformation; of extracting a more ‘pure’ essence from the base material – a ‘higher’, more ‘en-light-ened’ form of ‘knowledge’ – by the “royal Art” of philosophistry:
My interlocutor attempted to justify the killing of the unborn, based on the ‘logical’ reason-ing that a belief in the idea of the baby going to heaven “would arguably outweigh any bad thing about abortion”.
In doing so, he willfully ignored the majority of the quoted excerpt, detailing the punishments to be suffered by both women and men who cause their children to “be born untimely”; who “delivered us unto death”.
This perfectly manifests what is the reigning spirit – and mental-ity – of our times.
True Lords of the Left-Hand Path will .. identify with the cultural norms of ‘evil’ [..] The practice .. often manifests itself in antinomianism, that is, the purposefulreversal of conventional normatives: ‘evil’ becomes ‘good,’ ‘impure’ becomes ‘pure,’ ‘darkness’ becomes ‘light’. [Flowers, 1997]
Where have we heard that sort of inversion-of-values philosophistry before? In my previousessays, where I have explained the ancient origins of the ontological sex magick principles of Eastern and Western alchemy, that are deeply embedded in the ‘modern’ (neo-Babylonian) double entry accounting, banking, and credebtpromise-based ‘money’ systems:
[The third] justification for the “transgressions” of the Vajrayana consists in the Bodhisattva vow of Mahayana Buddhism, which requires that one aid and assist every creature until it attains enlightenment. Amazingly, this pious purpose can render holy the most evil means. “If”, we can read in one of the tantras, “for the good of all living beings or on account of the Buddha’s teaching one should slay living beings, one is untouched by sin. … If for the good of living beings or from attachment for the Buddha’s interest, one seizes the wealth of others, one is not touched by sin”, and so forth. In the course of Tibetan history the Bodhisattva vow has [..] legitimated numerous political and family-based murders, whereby the additional “clever” argument was also employed, that one had “freed” the murder victim from the world of appearances (samsara) and that he or she thus owed a debt of thanks to the murderer. [Trimondi, 2003].
The same perverse form of messianic, “heal the world” (tikkun olam) by practicing evil, utopian philosophistry, appears in myriad writings of philosopher ‘luminaries’ from the Hermetic Reformation (“Renaissance”, Fr. “rebirth”) and the En-Light-enment, through to modernity’s John Maynard Keynes:
I see us free, therefore, to return to some of the most sure and certain principles of religion and traditional virtue. [..] But beware! The time for all this is not yet. For at least another hundred years we must pretend to ourselves and to every one that fair is foul and foul is fair; for foul is useful and fair is not. Avarice and usury and precaution must be our gods for a little longer still. For only they can lead us out of the tunnel of economic necessity into daylight. [Keynes, 1930]
Satanism is self-Deification; specifically, the deification of the supposedly ‘rational’ individual’s “Divine Mind” – the “Absolute Intellect”, or “Absolute Reason” – associated with the left hemisphere of brain activity.
The Left-hand path ideology identifies with the “eternal rebel” (and trickster) known variously through the ages as (among other names) Prometheus, Hermes, Mercury, Satan, and Lucifer.
The “Light-bringer”. Intermediary agent of the gnosis: the Knowledge of Good and Evil. The archetype of “absolute freedom” from all social, moral, and legal taboos; “unfettered” from all restrictions to the attainment of “ultimate sovereignty” in (or rather, over) the material realm.
On the path of jnana (knowledge) the practitioner is himself transformed into a being of the divine typos without sacrificing his individuated existence… [Flowers, 1997]
The eight “fetters” (does that number ring any bells?) that restrict the “liberty” of the witting (or unwitting) satanist – that hold him/her back from becoming a ‘god’ – are, in the Hindu left-hand path tradition of vamachara, “Sympathy. Delusion. Shame; the idea of sin. Fear. Disgust. Family, kinship, clan. Caste. Customary rites and precepts. As each of these bonds or fetters are broken the [initiate] becomes progressively more liberated.” (Flowers, 1997)
The phase of Blackening which usually marked the beginning of the work, was brought about either by heating the prima materia in the process of Calcination (the ‘dry way’ of the alchemists), or by the process of Putrefaction, a slow rotting or digestion over a period of weeks or months (the so-called ‘wet way’). The Black Crow or Raven was often associated with this Calcination, for on vigorous heating the calcined material would usually carbonise and layers would flake off and move like a crow’s wings in the flask. The Toad was a better symbol of the Putrefaction, the decaying mass slowly pulsating and shifting as gasses were given off, while the substance rotted down to a black mass. [..] The alchemists paralleled these experiences in their souls as a withdrawal into the darkness of their interior space, a darkness pregnant with possibility. [McLean]
The coat of arms traditionally attributed to Satan in European heraldry. In the book The Heraldic Imagination by Rodney Dennys (1975), this is traced back to the late 13th-century Douce Apocalypse manuscript, in an illustration to Revelations 20:7-10. The design is based on the “three unclean spirits like frogs” of verse 16:13. Green frogs on a red background contravenethe heraldic Rule of Tincture – presumably deliberately.
Removing these “fetters” necessarily means eliminating all feelings of compassion, empathy (“sympathy”), and most importantly, guilt (“shame”).
In other words, in order to become fully “free”, one’s own “ultimate sovereign”, and thus “divine”, one must become lawless (“Do as thou wilt shall be the whole of the law”), and a psychopath:
He may have to participate in exercises of cruelty and other aberrations of social and religious norms as a way of placing himself totally outside of profane society. Thereby he is ‘unfettered’ from the bonds and tabus of society as a way of unfettering himself from spiritual bonds. [Flowers, 1997]
Satanism – or Left-hand Path ‘magic’ – seeks “liberty” from “the servitude of conscience.“
In essence, the Left-hand Path is an egocentric philosophistry of separation or “non-union”, that prescribes the willful deception, manipulation, domination, theft, and ultimately, the destruction of one’s Right side – the faculty of emotion, empathy, holistic thinking; the intuitive, compassionate, nurturing Female principle – the Mother Nature felt in us all – in order to attain apotheosis as an individual, Intellectual ‘god’:
[A] symbolic murder is hidden behind this. The black matter, a symbol of the fundamental feminine and of powerful nature from which we all come, is burned or in some cases vaporized, cut to pieces or dismembered. Thus, in destroying the prima materia we at the same time destroy our “mother” or, basically, the “fundamentally feminine”.
The European adept does not shy away from even the most crass killing metaphors: “open the lap of your mother”, it says in a French text from the 18th century, “with a steel blade, burrow into her entrails and press forward to her womb, there you will find our pure substance (the elixir)”. [Trimondi, 2003]
[T]he essence of the vamachara [Sanskrit: “left-handed attainment”] is the total transformation of the human initiate into something superhuman or god(dess)-like. This lies at the root of why antinomianism (inversions of all kinds of normatives) is so important in the methodology of … the left-hand path.
An eternal separation of the individual intelligence from the objective universe is sought in the left-hand path. This amounts to an immortality [divinity] of the independent consciousness… .
[O]n the leftward way one does not worship a god but rather one enacts divinity from a subjective perspective. [Flowers, 1997]
“For God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof,
then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods,
knowing good and evil.”
In the Genesis story, the archetype of Woman (Eve) was doomed to suffer “greatly multipl[ied]” pain and suffering in pregnancy and childbirth, in consequence of disobedience to God’s (cosmic, natural) law, and the resulting Fall from innocence: a pure, ‘god’-like state of being, of not knowing both good and evil.
This then is the message which we have heard of him, and declare unto you, that God is light, and in him is no darkness at all.
The symbolism of the pear – having the form, or silhouette, of a woman with “child-bearing hips” – has important relevance in religious and alchemical lore.
The pear tree represents the Tree of Life. It is mentioned in literature and folklore connected with love and temptation. An aludel is a pear-shaped earthenware bottle, open at both ends, used as a condenser in the sublimation process, and so came to signify the end-stages of transformation. It is also called the Hermetic Vase, the Philosopher’s Egg, and the Vase of the Philosophy.
In Greek and Roman mythology, pears are sacred to three goddesses: Hera (Juno to the Romans), Aphrodite (Venus to the Romans), and Pomona, an Italian goddess of gardens and harvests. The ancient Chinese believed that the pear was a symbol of immortality. (Pear trees live for a long time.)
During medieval times, however, (if you will excuse the dreadful pun) the symbolism went pear shaped, and the pear, as a whole tree and fruit, then symbolised masculinity, which would seem extremely strange until one realises that the symbolism applied largely to the tree and not the fruit. According to Albertus Magnus, writing in the 13th century and accepting the ancient and orthodox view of his time, the pear is considered masculine because of “the hardness of its wood, the coarseness of its leaves and the close texture of its fruit.”
Sephardic Jews – in other words Jews who followed the Kabbalah and were thus part of the mystic groups, used a pear tree as their emblem.
The great Leonardo Da Vinci (1452–1519) reveled in collecting cryptic puns, aphorisms, fables, prophecies, jests, mottoes, and fantastic tales. Codex Arundel 67 contains several botanical fables including one involving the laurel, the myrtle, and the pear:
The laurel and the myrtle on seeing the pear tree being cut down, cried out in a loud voice: ‘O pear tree where are you going? Where is the pride that you had when you were laden with ripe fruit? Now you will no longer make shade for us with your thick foliage.’ The pear tree replied: ‘I am going with the husbandman who is cutting me down and who will take me to the workshop of a good sculptor, who by his art will cause me to assume the form of the god Jove, and I shall be dedicated in a temple and worshipped by men in place of Jove. While you are obliged to remain always maimed and stripped of your branches [while] men shall set around me in order to do me honor.” (Embode, 1987).
Earlier in the Genesis story, the Creator is portrayed commanding Adam and Eve to “Be fruitful and multiply” (1:28). In Judaism, this commandment (mitzvah) – the First Commandment, to the First Man and Woman – is called peru u’rvu (Hebrew: פרו ורבו).
Rabbinic lore, however, overrides this First Commandment, with an exemption:
Jewish law traditionally exempts women from the obligation of peru urvu [..] This is because pregnancy endangers her life, and one is not obligated to endanger oneself. Such an exemption strengthens the woman’s right to protect her health over that of a fetus that endangers her. [Grossman, 2006]
Rabbinic lore is replete with mutually contradictory exemptions – loopholes – devised by the Sages.
For example, the Sages teach that Leviticus 18:5 (“You shall keep My statutes and My Judgments, which a person shall do, and he shall live by them”) really means that “the mitzvot were given to provide life, but they were not given so that one will die due to their observance.” (Sanhedrin 74a)
Based on this interpretation, the Sages derived the precept that “protecting life” overrides all other commandments (Tosefta Shabbat 15:17).
(Example: the subjective, arbitrarily applied – according to self-interest – “Responsibility To Protect” [R2P] euphemism as justification for U.S. “interventionist” foreign policy.)
However, while pregnant women are not obligated to endanger their own lives for the sake of an unborn child, the rabbinic Sages also insist that one is obligated to endanger oneself rather than violate the commandments against murder (?!?), sexual violence (incest, rape, adultery), and idolatry:
The Gemara now considers which prohibitions are permitted in times of mortal danger. [..] With regard to all other transgressions in the Torah, if a person is told: Transgress this prohibition and you will not be killed, he may transgress that prohibition and not be killed, because the preserving of his own life overrides all of the Torah’s prohibitions. This is the halakha (rabbinic law) concerning all prohibitions except for those of idol worship, forbidden sexual relations, and bloodshed. Concerning those prohibitions, one must allow himself to be killed rather than transgress them. [Sanhedrin 74a]
In other words, according to the ‘wisdom’ of the ‘Sages’, on the one hand, a married or betrothed woman must choose to be killed, rather than submit to rape:
[S]o too, with regard to a betrothed young woman, if she is faced with rape, she must be killed and not trangress the prohibition of forbidden sexual relations. [Sanhedrin 74a]
But, on the other hand, if she is pregnant, then she may commit murder of the unborn, if the reason given is that doing so will preserve her own life and “health”.
Notably, in Satanic lore, the first main tenet (principle, or doctrine), is Self-Preservation. The second tenet, is Moral Relativism.
True black magic is performed with the aid of a demoniacal spirit, who serves the sorcerer for the length of his earthly life, with the understanding that after death the magician shall become the servant of his own demon. For this reason a black magician will go to inconceivable ends to prolong his physical life, since there is nothing for him beyond the grave. [Hall, 1928]
Contrast the first principle teaching of Jesus of Nazareth: “This is my commandment, That ye love one another, as I have loved you. Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.”
Both the Torah and rabbinic lore have much to say concerning the binary notions of Life and Death.
We have seen in earlier essays that Jewish mystical philosophy (Cabala) openly confesses its origins in “Old Chaldean” ontology – a worldview, or philosophy of being and reality, in which every thing in the universe is believed to be created from the sexual union (merging, mixing, fusing, binding, blurring) of exact opposites.
This is illustrated in the Cabalistic ‘Tree of Life’ or ‘Gates of Light’, where the ’emanations’ or attributes of God and Being are depicted as gendered pairs, joined together in a sequence of mystic, ‘sexual’, father-mother-son-daughter unions of opposites.
We have also seen that the ‘trick’ of alchemical sex magick, is the cunning inversion or reversal of the natural “flow” of the (pro)creative fluids, which are considered “energies” – the semen virile and semen feminile.
To reverse the left to right pattern, contrary to nature and cosmic law requires an exercise of the faculty of will. This is an act of rebellion against nature and against divinely ordained cosmic order.
Practitioners .. may often rely on what appears to non-initiates to be chicanery and tricks involving slight of hand.
What is important here is the left-hand path technique or philosophical model of inverting or reversing natural processes through the power of will and consciousness. By being able to reverse natural ‘flow patterns’, be they in the body (subjective) or in the world (objective), practitioners of the left-hand path demonstrate or exercise their independence from the natural universe – thus establishing that which is divine in their individualities. [Flowers, 1997]
In left-hand path sexual alchemy, rather than the male fertilising the female – which would mean giving his vital “energies” to her – he steals the female’s “flows” by a secretly-practiced sexual exercise, or (for the less skilled) by drinking them.
“After he has streamed forth,” Mircea Eliade quotes a text as saying, “he draws in and says: through my force, through my seed I take your seed — and she is without seed”. The man thus steals the seed of the woman under the impression that he can through this become a powerful androgynous being, and leaves her without her own life energy. [Trimondi, 2003]
The Mercurial Rebis: A Crowned and Bat-winged Hermaphrodite, Buch der heiligen Dreifaltigkeit, late 14th Century (Munich MS, Bayerische Staatsbibliothek, CGM. 598). Source: Adam McLean, alchemywebsite.com
This secret Tantric practice is tacitly affirmed in Lurianic Cabala:
[Isaac Luria’s disciple, Chaim] Vital describes how the face-to-face status of the Father and Mother [sefirot] visages was maintained by ‘feminine waters’ (mayim nukvim) emanating from the interior of the Mother. [Drob, 2003]
Naturally – or rather, un-naturally, since antinomianism (inversion or reversal of normatives) is fundamental to satanic practice – it is believed that the greatest power is obtained from internalising those things that have been traditionally considered impure, unclean, and thus off-limits or taboo.
The magical principle of transforming or ‘purifying’ any substance or experience to serve the purpose of the pure Will of the magician is typical at all levels of the left-hand path.
When discussing antinomian left-handed tantrism Renou states “… we observe the inversion of normal worship and common ethical principles. The fact that those objects are ‘worshiped’ is evidence that the stage has been passed at which they would be considered sinful.” So objects or practices which would normally inspire shame, hate or fear in the orthodox .. will be willfully worshipped and engaged in with a sublimated attitude of sacrality.
It is by breaking these taboos [incl. cannibalism and necrophilia] and going beyond the barriers of good and evil that the [initiate] attains new levels of power and ‘liberation’ (from his human limitations).
It is this third category, the libertines, which [Marquis] de Sade saw as the apex of humanity. Libertines, through active use of the imagination, transform themselves through acts of will… . For de Sade the greatest pleasures were to be found in overcoming things which may have at one time inspired fear or disgust. [Flowers, 1997]
This explains why left-hand path philosophers and practitioners throughout the ages and across many cultures have evidenced a peculiar obsession with the cyclical monthly “flows” of the female.
[E]very woman knows that she has two kinds of flow that come from her vagina. Ancient sources called these the River of Life and the River of Death, meaning the clear or white flow at the time when a child is more likely to be conceived; and the forbidden flow of menstruation, when it is most unlikely that a child can be conceived. [Lishtar, 2000]
Trimondi, The Shadow of the Dalai Lama: Sexuality, Magic, and Politics in Tibetan Buddhism (2003).
In the Hevajra Tantra the adept must drink the menstrual blood of his mudra out of a skull bowl. [..] As a tantric saying puts it, “What binds the fool, liberates the wise”, and another, more drastic passage emphasizes that, “the same deed for which a normal mortal would burn for a hundred million eons, through this same act an initiated yogi attains enlightenment”. According to this, every ritual is designed to catapult the initiand into a state beyond good and evil.
According to the tantric logic of inversion, that precisely the worst is the most appropriate starting substance for the best, the yogi need not fear the magical destructive force of the menses, as he can reverse it into its creative opposite through the proper method. [Trimondi, 2003]
“Bufo” (toad) “rubea” (red, reddish; feminine of rubeus)
at ‘base’ (‘Mother’ earth, prima materia) of Tree of Life
“Saturnus Plumbum” (Satan’s ♄ lead; transformation into ‘gold’)
This may also offer a deeper insight into, and explanation for, the Western Establishment’s “liberal” support for abortion … and the sale of body parts.
“Modern philosophies and political ideologies have fully embraced principles basic and fundamental to the left-hand path, almost all of which have become the accepted norm in the west.”
“It’s not good for women to go through the procedure and have something living sucked out of your bodies. It belittles women… Every time a woman has an abortion, it just crushes her self-esteem, smaller and smaller and smaller.”
– Dolores O’Riordan, The Cranberries
*****************
REFERENCES
Stephen E. Flowers PhD, Lords of the Left-hand Path: A History of Spiritual Dissent (1997)
V. and V. Trimondi, The Shadow of the Dalai Lama: Sexuality, Magic and Politics in Tibetan Buddhism (2003), transl. by Mark Penny
John Maynard Keynes, Economic Possibilities for our Grandchildren, Essays In Persuasion, The Future (1930)
Adam McLean, Animal Symbolism in the Alchemical Tradition (alchemywebsite.com)
Mark Passio, Natural Law: The Real Law of Attraction (2013)
Rabbi Susan Grossman, Mikveh and the Sanctity of Being Created Human (2006)
Sanhedrin 74a, The William Davidson Talmud, (sefaria.org)
Manly P. Hall, The Secret Teachings of All Ages (1928)
Sanford L Drob, Towards a Kabbalistic Psychology: C.G. Jung and the Jewish Foundations of Alchemy (2003)
Lishtar, The Avenging Maiden and the Predator Gardener: A Study of Inanna and Shukaletuda (2000), citing Shuttle and Redgrove (1989)
The magic chain of speech was typified among the ancients by chains of gold, which issued from the mouth of Hermes. Nothing equals the electricity of eloquence.
To make the Magic Chain is to establish a magnetic current which becomes stronger in proportion to the extent of the chain.
The Great Work in Practical Magic .. is the formation of the magnetic chain, and this secret is truly that of priesthood and of royalty. To form the magnetic chain is to originate a current of ideas which produces faith and draws a large number of wills in a given circle of active manifestation. A well-formed chain is like a whirlpool which sucks down and absorbs all.
– Éliphas Lévi, Dogme et Ritual de la Haute Magie, (1855)
But whose lives, exactly, are the “our” lives that you marched for?
To find the answer, let us examine the hidden forces behind this well-organised, well-funded social movement, one that is purported to be “created by, inspired by, and led by students.”
Democratic strategists probably view the public uproar over the Las Vegas massacre and the continued persistence of school shootings as a gift from heaven or hell.
No, it is not simply the Democrats. Their involvement, and that of the liberal celebrity set, is hardly hidden – it is plain for all to see.
Depending on one’s philosophical leaning, these forces are either “miraculous” (Jewish), or “magical” (left-hand path, ‘Black Magic’).
The “miraculous” is associated with beliefs derived from the Babylonian Talmud, and commemorated since the Middle Ages as The Great Sabbath – a celebration of the mythical “War of the Egyptian Firstborn” against their own government.
Last Shabbat was Shabbat haGadol, the Great Shabbat, the last one before Pesach. It was also the occasion for another ritual, that national gathering called the March for Our Lives.
The “magical” is associated with Cabalist theurgical beliefs derived from ancient Babylonian astrology, numerology, alchemy, and the conjuration of “spirits” (angels and demons).
How well stated it was, how timely. This week, for the Sabbath before Passover, Shabbat HaGadol, the Great Sabbath .. Could the connection be any better?
As we will see, March For Our Lives also has much in common with the ‘Black Magic’ ritual methodology used by the Nazi Third Reich, “to focus attention on the cause and shape and nature of the cause.”
The importance of ritual and spectacle, public and private, is obvious to anyone who has seen films of Nazi rallies, parades, and so on. The National Socialists were modern masters of symbolism and ritual – what would be called Lesser (Black) Magic in left-hand path circles today. (Nowadays only rock concerts and sporting events remain as pathetic attempts at this kind of spectacle.)
As individuals can be transformed by rituals, whole cultures can also be metamorphicized through collective participation in such rituals. Even marginally effective ones, if repeated often and long enough, will have some result. But it may take only one good jolt from a highly potent rite to have a profound and lasting effect. The Nazis used both kinds.[1]
Please note that our purpose here is not to comment on the pros versus cons of the gun control debate – whether in the U.S.A., or elsewhere. Our exclusive focus is on examining the occult ‘magic’ ritual devices that have been employed to influence public opinion.
The conscious and intelligent manipulation of the organized habits and opinions of the masses is an important element in democratic society. Those who manipulate this unseen mechanism of society constitute an invisible government which is the true ruling power of our country.[2]
To whet the readers appetite for this necessarily lengthy exposition, here following are the subject areas covered. Clicking on each title links to its respective segment. It is recommended however, that they be read in order. A brief summary is included here, for the impatient or time-pressed reader interested only in the bare minimum, sans historic illustrations, photos and other evidences, and explanations. Please consider the words of George Orwell in Nineteen Eighty-Four as you continue:
Crimestop means the faculty of stopping short, as though by instinct, at the threshold of any dangerous thought. It includes the power of not grasping analogies, of failing to perceive logical errors, of misunderstanding the simplest of arguments if they are inimicable to Ingsoc, and of being bored or repelled by any train of thought which is capable of leading in a heretical direction. Crimestop, in short, means protective stupidity.[3]
Shabbat HaGadol – War of the Egyptian Firstborn Talmudic legend: Egyptian firstborn took up arms against their own government, hoping to compel Pharoah to grant freedom to the Hebrews, and thus save themselves from Moses’ 10th plague, the Angel of Death. Jews cannot lie on Sabbath; the firstborns’ intervention, driven by self-interest, saved them from need to lie. Seen as “miraculous” transformation of evil into good for the Jews.
The “Tactical” Sefirot – Hod (8) – Means to an End Claim of 800,000 Washington attendance, 800+ global rallies debunked. Significance of number 8 in Cabalist ‘magic’ and mysticism. Feet as “means to an end,” hidden motive exact opposite of one presented. Hod (8) = left foot, evil side, retribution. Alchemical symbolism: left foot forward. Left-hand Path, occult magic, Tarot divination in context of 8, the Four Eights, Tetragrammaton, mirror reversal, and March For Our Lives logo.
‘Magic’ – Time-ing is Everything Time-dependency: key to success in invocation and command of angelic/demonic powers in medieval Cabalist texts. Brief overview of Cabalist ‘magic’ influences on Renaissance through Enlightenment to post-modern humanist philosophy. Western Establishment culture “spawned from intersections of modernist rationalism and occultist magic and mysticism.”
The Babylonian Sun Seal – Magic Square 111/666 Magical significance of David Hogg speech timing, and social media user names. Babylonian priests’ Magic Square, Sigillum Solis gold amulets. 111/666 connection. Washington rally stage symbolism, and the Rule of 72. The alchemists’ 🜓. “Dragon’s blood.” The Star of Raiphan / Chiun / Saturn / Satan and Shabbat (Sabbath) SaturDay. Lunar cycle: March 24 Half Moon, left side in darkness. Talmudic legend: Ashmedai / Asmodeus the “king of demons,” ruler of “good” Jewish demons, compelled through ‘magic’ to help build Solomon’s Temple, using his feet. Child sacrifice. Nachiel – the “intelligence of the sun”; angel controlling the sun: Hebrew letter gimel, “person in motion.” The Four Princes of the Evil of the World. Conjuration of the Four spirits of darkness.
Hollywood Hamsa – Evil Eye amulet for Sabbath Pussyhat creator’s “Evil Eye Glove” promotion. History of Jewish hamsa (Evil Eye-in-palm of hand) talisman. The “Hand of Miriam” connection to timing of Great Sabbath celebration. Talmudic law allows carrying an “approved amulet” on the Sabbath, rabbinic exception to biblical prohibitions against magic, divination, and working on Shabbat.
Nazi ‘Black Magic’ – Weaponisation of Youth Ritual devices and methodologies. “Ceremonies of the Reich and the Course of the Year” liturgical calendar, replacement for orthodox Christianity. Springtime (late March) “commitment to the cause.” The Pledging of the Youth – David Hogg’s speech mirrors Hitler-Jugend / Bund deutscher Mädel rite of passage formula. Nazi “Holy Nights”, and leaving a chair for Elijah. The Chariot card. ‘Lesser’ Black Magic.
Hear the Chabad-Lubavitch organisation recount the tale:
The Talmud relates what happened when 600,000 Jewish heads of household began rounding up their lambs on the 10th of Nissan. The lamb was worshipped as a deity in ancient Egypt, so this caused quite a commotion. The firstborn of Egypt, who held the key social and religious positions in Egyptian society, confronted the Jews, and were told: “We are preparing an offering to G‑d. In four days, at the stroke of midnight, G‑d will pass through Egypt in order to execute the tenth and final plague; all firstborn will die, and the people of Israel nation will be freed.”
The firstborn, having already witnessed the first nine plagues occur exactly as Moses had warned, approached Pharaoh and his generals and demanded that the Jews be freed immediately. When Pharaoh refused, the firstborn took up arms against Pharaoh’s troops, killing many of them.
This “great miracle” is commemorated each year on the Shabbat before Passover, which is therefore called Shabbat HaGadol, “The Great Shabbat.”
Why do we commemorate the miracle on the Shabbat before Passover rather than on the tenth of Nissan, the date on which it actually took place? We see that the Torah itself mentions only the date rather than the day of the week.
It is because the miracle is closely connected to Shabbat. The Egyptians were aware that the Children of Israel observed Shabbat and did not busy themselves tending animals on that day, so when the Egyptians saw them taking lambs and binding them to their bedposts on Shabbat, they were surprised and decided to investigate what was happening.
The Children of Israel were in great danger when they were confronted and were saved only by virtue of a miracle. We therefore commemorate this miracle on Shabbat rather than on the tenth of the month of Nissan.
Moreover, had it not been Shabbat, the Children of Israel would not have needed a miracle to save them. They would have been able to deceive the Egyptians by diverting their attention or making up some kind of explanation. On Shabbat, however, they would not do so, for, as our Sages said, “Even an ignorant man will not tell lies on Shabbat.” Thus, we see that they were endangered because of their observance of Shabbat, and they needed a miracle to save them.
A further reason why we recall the miracle on Shabbat rather than on the tenth of the month is that, forty years later, Miriam [Moses’ sister] died on that day and the well which accompanied the Children of Israel and provided them with water in the wilderness, disappeared.[4]
The implication that it would be quite acceptable to lie and deceive – to break the 9th Commandment – on days other than the Sabbath, bears highlighting.
As does the first two tenets of satanic ideology: Self-Preservation, and Moral Relativism.[5]
For Hasidic and other esoterically-inclined Jews steeped in ‘magical’ interpretations of the Torah, the Babylonian Talmud, and cabalist texts such as the Sefer Yetzirah (ספר יצירה), Sefer Razi’el HaMalakh (ספר רזיאל המלאך) and the Zohar, this legend has long held another, “higher” significance. It symbolises the “miraculous” transformation of evil into good:
But is this simple victory of good over evil the final goal of Jewish teaching? Chassidic thought presents a higher ideal: transformation of evil into good, of darkness into light. On the national level, the enemy becomes a friend; on the inner personal level, the Evil Desire is transformed to good, and now works energetically in service of G‑d. [..]
This Shabbat before Passover, called the Great Shabbat (Shabbat HaGadol) also expresses the idea of transformation of bad to good.
The ancient Egyptians had enslaved and tortured the Jews. When Moses came with the Divine mission to bring the Jews to freedom, working one miracle after another, Pharaoh continued to resist. Yet on the Shabbat before the Exodus, commemorated by this Shabbat today, the Egyptian firstborn began to side with Moses, actively attacking their own government.
The Sages tell us that the attack was a response to the idea that the final plague, which had been forecast by Moses, would mean death for the firstborn. We might see it as no more than a reaction to personal fear. However, the Lubavitcher Rebbe points out that it was more than that. It was a transformation of the inner spiritual nature of existence. Ancient Egypt represented the depths of evil, implacably opposed to holiness, as indeed we see in the figure of Pharaoh himself. Yet on that Shabbat, what the Sages term a “great miracle” took place. Within Egypt itself, in fact the firstborn of Egypt – meaning the future leaders – began a movement on behalf of the Jewish people.
True, Pharaoh and the Egyptian authorities were not transformed at that point, and the tenth plague and then the Splitting of the Sea, destroying the Egyptian forces, had to follow. But the rebellion of the firstborn was a taste of the transformations of the future, when all darkness will be changed to light, and all violent evil to good.[6]
The “Tactical” Sefirot – Hod (8) – Means to an End
According to the website of March For Our Lives, Inc., the Washington DC rally was mirrored by “800+ sibling marches across the globe”. NBC and many others reported the event organisers’ claim that “800,000 people attended the march” and that, globally, “there were approximately 800 marches organized on Friday and Saturday — even one in Antarctica.”
This was sharply contradicted by CBS News, who reported the findings of Digital Design & Imaging Service Inc (DDIS), a Virginia-based firm which uses a proprietary method for calculating crowd size using aerial photos. According to DDIS, the peak crowd size was 202,796 people – one quarter (1/4) of the organisers’ claim – and the crowd reached its largest size at 1 pm.
Why tell such a bold lie? Is there perchance (or per design) a ‘magical’ significance to the number 8? If so, is that significance in some way relevant to this particular event?
Why yes. Let us count the ways.
In Cabalist doctrine, the eighth sephira (emanation) of “G-d” is the left “foot” of Adam Kadmon (Primordial Man), and is named “Hod” (הוד). Its opposite in the Cabalistic “Tree of Life” or “Gates of Light” is the seventh emanation (right “foot”), named “Netzach” (נצח).
The Jewish Encyclopedia (1906) informs us that “the conception underlying the cabalistic tree, of the right side being the source of light and purity, and the left the source of darkness and impurity” traces back “ultimately to old Chaldea.”[7]
Netzach and Hod: Means to an End Just like a loving parent may seem cruel when harshly disciplining a child in order to instill good values, the “tactical” sefirot of netzach [“victory”] and hod [“awe”] are often not what they seem.
When we call these sefirot “tactical,” we mean that their purpose is not inherent in themselves, but rather as a means for something else.
For example … I may use the tactic of kindness, though my intent may be antagonistic. I could lure an enemy into a trap by inviting him with a smile and a pleasant demeanor. The exterior façade of the act is pleasantness, its interior is punitive.
Netzach refers to actions of God that are chesed, “kindness,” in essence, but are presented through a prelude of harshness. Hod refers specifically to those events where the “wicked prosper.” It is retribution — gevurah, “strength/restraint,” in essence, but presented by a prelude of pleasantness.[8]
Gun control activism, presented with a pleasant façade, as a prelude to retribution?
Recall the praise of Jesus for the approaching Nathanael, who, on receiving news of him, had artlessly responded, “Can any good thing come out of Nazareth?” — “Here is an Israelite indeed, in whom there is no guile nor deceit nor duplicity!”
All the sefirot are likened to different parts of a body, and netzach and hod are likened to the two feet of a person: right foot and left foot.
Why feet?
Feet are usually only the means for a person’s activity. The hands are the main instrument of action and the feet are simply a vehicle to bring the person to the place in which he wishes to execute that action.
Secondly, the distinction between right and left foot is nowhere as pronounced as the distinction between the left and right hands. Similarly, while the distinction between chesed and gevurah is sharp, the distinction between netzach and hod is less sharp. Both are a mixture of chesed and gevurah and therefore the distinction is blurred.[8]
Revolution is “pleasant”, and pleasantness conceals retribution?
March For Our Lives, right left.
Readers of my previous essays on alchemy (“transformation”) may have noticed that in alchemical texts from both the East and West, the adept is typically illustrated in a left-foot-forward posture.
Vajra (“diamond scepter”) in the “Burning Circle”. (Source: Trimondi, The Shadow of the Dalai Lama: Sexuality, Magic and Politics in Tibetan Buddhism)
In occult traditions, the 8th sefira hod is described as “a force that breaks down energy into different, distinguishable forms, and it is associated with intellectuality, learning and ritual.” This is the ideology and method of the Left-hand Path: deifying the individual “Divine Mind.” Hod is said to be the sphere in which the magician mostly works. According to 19th century French occult magus Éliphas Lévi, hod represents “Eternity of the conquests achieved by mind over matter, active over passive, life over death.”[9]
In Hermetic-Qabalah, hod’s polar opposite in the Qlippoth (קְלִיפּוֹת), the Dark Side of the “holy sefirot” representing evil or impure spiritual forces, is a demon “called by the Hebrews, Samaël; by other easterns, Satan; and by the Latins, Lucifer”[10], the “angel of Mars”[11] (male, active, war); “The Desolation of God, or The Left Hand,” and its planetary symbol is Mercury ☿ .[12] In his book 777, the “Wickedest Man in the World” Aleister Crowley associated hod with the FourEights of occult tarot, and with Anubis, Thoth, Hanuman, Loki, Hermes, Mercury, Jackal, Hermaphrodite, Opal, Storax, and quicksilver.[13]
Éliphas Lévi affirmed this divinatory association (“The fourEights. Four times he triumphs on the timeless plane”[14]), emphasising that “The Key to the Great Mysteries will be established on the number four — which is .. also the number of the square and of force”:[15]
Turning now to the four suits, namely, Clubs, Cups, Swords, and Circles or Pantacles, commonly called Deniers all these are hieroglyphics of the tetragram [יהוה]. Thus, the Club is the Egyptian Phallus or Hebrew jod; the Cup is the cteïs or primitive he; the Sword is the conjunction of both, or the lingam, represented in Hebrew preceding the captivity by vau; while the Circle or Pantacle, image of the world, is the he final of the divine name.[16]
Observe carefully the four black silhouettes in the March For Our Lives logo, positioned exactly under the “UR” (meaning original, prototypical, primal; name of Abraham’s native city). Note the subtle difference in their forms: male-female-male-female (Left to Right), mirroring the jod-he-vav-heיהוה (male-female-male-female) in the (Right to Left) Hebrew script.
The eighth Major Arcana card in a traditional Tarot deck is Justice, and the eleventh card is Strength. Note the (“blurred,” “tactical”) correspondences to Jewish Cabala’s hod and netzach. Many modern Tarot decks, especially in the English-speaking world, have switched the numbering of these two cards to make them better fit the astrological correspondences derived by the English freemasonic Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn. Éliphas Lévi tells us that the days of the moon possess a special character, corresponding to “the twenty-two Tarot keys.” The eighth day (Justice) is a “Day of expiation”, and signifies the “Murder of Abel” – the second-born (good) son of Adam and Eve – by Cain, the first-born (evil) son.[17]
Perhaps not coincidentally, in Jewish tradition the ‘magic’ covenant ritual of circumcision is performed on male children on the eighth day from birth.
VIII. La Justice (Justice) | An original card from the tarot deck of Jean Dodal of Lyon, a classic Tarot of Marseilles deck which dates from 1701-1715. (Source: Wikipedia)
VIII. Strength | Tarot card from the Rider-Waite-Smith tarot deck, 1909. (Source: Wikipedia)
The eighth letter in the Hebrew alphabet (“Ḥet” or “Chet”, ח) represents the numerical value 8. Its shape traces back to a hieroglyph for “court-yard.”
Éliphas Lévi informs us that Ḥet ח represents “Balance, attraction and repulsion, life, terror, promise, and threat.”[18]
There is one more interesting observation:
In chat rooms, online forums, and social networking the letter Ḥet repeated (חחחחחחחחחח) denotes laughter, just as in english, in the saying ‘Haha’.
‘Magic’ – Time-ing is Everything
It requires only a superficial acquaintance with the contents of cabalist, occult and ‘magic’ texts, to recognise the great importance placed on the timing of magical practices, in order to maximise their effectiveness, and potency:
Inscribing the names of angels on sigils was also thought to be efficacious, a tradition begun in the thirteenth century by the increasing influence of Jewish cabalistic texts such as the Sefer Yezirah and the Sefer Razi’el. These works were used by Jewish astrologers who served as courtiers in medieval Spain, and were later incorporated in Pico della Mirandola’s cabalistic theses in 1486.
The texts claimed that the ‘secret names of the God and the angels provided the means by which the powers were called down into the sublunar levels of the cosmos’, and hence used an intricate and often bewildering angelology in ritualistic magic. The Sefer Razi’el at its beginning gives directions for invoking the angels ‘that change according to the month, day and hour, and for using them for a peculiar purpose, such as prophecy’ or protection. Because astrological influences were also thought to be time-dependent, it is not difficult to see how the two magical traditions of astrology and cabala merged in the casting of sigils.[19]
Mirandola’s Oration on the Dignity of Man, written in defence of his cabalistic 900 Theses, was a key text of Renaissance humanism. A paean to self-Deification and the Hitlerian “Triumph of the Will” (cf. Nietzsche’s der Wille zur Macht, “will to power”), Mirandola’s Oration has been called the “Manifesto of the Renaissance.” According to Left-hand Path adept and writer Stephen E. Flowers:
From the time of the Renaissance, the dawn of the Modern Age, there has been a steady development toward secularization, rationalism, and even materialism within the establishment of western culture. This has manifested in everything from the growth of free-trade capitalism, to representational democracy, to “secular humanism,” to Marxist political theory. But at the same time during the course of the most recent and accelerated phase of modernism (from about 1880 to the present) there has been a growing “occult revival” running below the surface of established norms. In this counter-cultural phenomenon the keys to the current manifestations of the left-hand path can be found. It will be found too that these keys help unlock many mysteries housed in the establishment culture, which were in many cases spawned from intersections of modernist rationalism and occultist magic and mysticism.[20]
Readers who may be interested to discover for themselves the airbrushed-from-history history of occult and magical philosophy, belief and practice, and its influence on ‘science’, politics and culture, from the Renaissance (known as the “Hermetic Reformation”) throughout the so-called Enlightenment and into the 20th Century, are encouraged to begin with the works of English historian Dame Frances Yates.
Flowers explains that:
In reality the true Devil, the exemplary model of the magician of the left-hand path, is fully liberated again from the theological dungeon of medievalism with the advent of Classicism [1700–1800]. The gate was opened during the Renaissance, and his chains were broken by the Enlightenment, but only with Classicism does he begin to walk the earth freely again.[21]
The Babylonian Sun Seal – Magic Square 111/666
The Washington DC March For Our Lives crowd size peaking at one o’clock meant maximum impact for several timely ‘coincidences’.
At 1:11 pm, the figurehead speaker David Hogg concluded his speech with the defiant raised fist salute, a symbolic gesture commonly associated with communism and other revolutionary movements since its use by the Industrial Workers of the World in 1917, the year of the Bolshevik Revolution.
His prepared speech was precisely 4 minutes long. We have already seen a little of the occult significance of the number 4.
The time of Hogg’s triumphant finale – 1:11 – also has a ‘magical’ significance.
Gematria is “an Assyro-Babylonian-Greek system of alphanumeric code or cipher, later adopted into Jewish culture, that assigns numerical value to a word, name, or phrase.” In the Mispar Shemi method, 111 is the value of alef / alephא, the first(born) letter of the Hebrew aleph-bet (1 + 30 + 80; obtained from its spelling, אלף).
111 has explicit ‘magical’ conjuration connections with 666, the Number of the Beast in St. John’s book of Revelation.
How so?
Babylonian priests wore gold amulets – Sigillum Solis – inscribed with the Magic Square of 36 (6×6) – photographs below. The sum of any row or column (including the two diagonals) in the Magic Square, is 111. The sum of all the numbers (1–36), is 666.
The March For Our Lives logo, with its four (4) words plus four (4) silhouettes, was displayed 9 times (3×3) behind the speaker at the Washington DC rally. There are two plausible interpretations: 9 x 4 = 36 = 6×6 Magic Square (also, 36 = 3+6 = 9, 3 3’s); or, 9 x 8 = 72 (and, 7+2 = 9, 3 3’s), the Cabalists’ “Seventy-two-Lettered Name” of Yhwh (יהוה), and the Rule (or “Power”) of 72.
David Hogg at Capitol Hill. ( 9 x 4 = 36 | 9 x 8 = 72 )
Also noteworthy is that the march was held from noon to 3 p.m. (12 (1+2=3) – 3; 33), on Pennsylvania Avenue between 3rd street and 12th street NW (3 – 12 (1+2=3); 33).
From 12–3 pm (33). On 3–12 St. (33).
The alchemists’ symbol for the synthesis of Mercury ☿ (Hermes) + Sulphur 🜍 (Satan) – Mercury(II) Sulphide, or Cinnabar – is 🜓.
I urge readers to ponder each detail in that sentence. Very carefully.
The art of extracting elemental mercury from natural cinnabar (HgS) appears to have been common practice by the end of the fourth century BC. The reverse process – artificial synthesis of cinnabar from mercury and sulphur – has been known since before 400 AD.[22]
Vermillion is a brilliant red or scarlet pigment made from powdered cinnabar. It was widely used for art, decoration, and cosmetics in ancient Rome, in illuminated manuscripts of the Middle Ages, and in Renaissance art. Differences in hue, from bright orange-red to a duller reddish-purple, are created by varying the fineness of the ground particles. It was highly valuable; in the Middle Ages, despite alchemists then having knowledge of artificial manufacture of cinnabar, vermillion pigment remained almost as expensive as gold leaf.
In the Roman triumphus, a civil ceremony and religious rite celebrating and sanctifying the success of military commanders in the service of the state – traditionally, through victory in foreign wars – the victors’ faces were painted with vermillion, as also the face of Jupiter (alchemical symbol ♃ ), supreme deity in the Roman pantheon, on Capitoline Hill.
The Triumphs of Caesar III: bearers of trophies and bullion, Royal Collection, Hampton Court Palace (Source: Andrea Mantegna, public domain)
Vermillion was used to paint the walls of some of the most luxurious villas in Pompeii, including the Villa of the Mysteries.[23] The principal source of cinnabar was the Almadén mine in Spain, worked by slaves; a death sentence, due to the highly toxic dust of mercury ores. According to Roman historian Pliny the Elder:
Nothing is more carefully guarded. It is forbidden to break up or refine the cinnabar on the spot. They send it to Rome in its natural condition, under seal, to the extent of some ten thousand pounds a year. The sales price is fixed by law to keep it from becoming impossibly expensive, and the price fixed is seventy sesterces a pound.[24]
In the Byzantine empire, cinnabar and the vermillion colour were reserved for the use of the Imperial family and administrators; official letters and imperial decrees were written in vermillion ink, made from cinnabar.[25]
Cinnabar in white calcite matrix. (Source: irocks.com)
The name “cinnabar” derives from ancient Greek κιννάβαρι (“kinnabari”), a foreign word, probably of Oriental origin (possibly the Persian “zanjifrah” in the same sense).[26]
The records of antiquity show that from ancient Rome through the Middle Ages, there was always great confusion in distinguishing between the highly expensive vermillion-coloured pigment derived from the toxic mineral cinnabar, and that derived from the resin of the Dracaena tree species. The Romans were most familiar with Dracaena cinnabari, the Socotra dragon tree or dragon’s blood tree, native to the Socotra archipelago – part of Yemen, in the Arabian Sea – an important trading centre on the Incense Road to ancient Europe since at least the time of the Ptolemies. It is mentioned in the 1st century Periplus (30: 10. 17) as one of the products of Socotra. “Dragon’s blood” was not only an alternate source of vermillion pigment but also a ‘magical’ cure-all medicine. It was used in medieval ritual magic and alchemy, and remains popular to the present day in a wide variety of occult circles.[27]
Note if you will the historic confusion of opposites, by virtue (or vice) of identical colour – deadly (and valuable) mineral cinnabar (Hermes-Satan), versus medicinal curative “dragon’s blood.”
Dracaena draco leaves showing dragon’s blood pigment at the base. (Source: Wikipedia)
Dragon’s blood (Daemomorops draco), powdered pigment or apothecary’s grade and roughly crushed incense. (Source: Wikipedia)
The ancients claimed that God works by mathematics. Their religion was a conglomeration of religion, astrology, alchemy, physical and mental science, and mathematics. Ancient astrology divided the starry heavens into 36 constellations. These were represented by different amulets called “Sigilla Solis,” or the sun seal. These amulets were worn by the pagan priests, and they contained all the numbers from 1 to 36. By these figures they claimed to be able to foretell future events. These amulets were usually made of gold, yellow being the sun color.
These [..] photographs taken in 1910, show actual amulets then in the Berlin Museum. They reveal the veneration the ancients had for the sun-god. On the front side of No.1 we see the god of the sun standing on the lion. This indicated the sun’s position in the constellation of Leo during the hot days of August. On the back is inscribed “Nachyel,” meaning “intelligence of the sun,” and in 36 squares are arranged the numerals 1 to 36 [..] in such a way that adding the numbers of any column either horizontally or vertically, and also the two diagonals crossing the square, the total is the same – 111. The sum of the six columns, computed either horizontally or vertically, is 6 x 111, or 666.
The second illustration is also a solar seal, but it honors the star Basilisco, which was the diminutive form of the Greek basileus (king), thus meaning the same as the Latin regulus. Now, Regulus is the only first-magnitude star in the constellation of Leo. The sun and the moon are again clearly seen on this amulet, and on the reverse side is the same arrangement of numerals, with the actual figure given of the total 666.[28]
Likewise the “magic sign or seal of King Solomon, known to the medieval Jew as the Magen Dawid [✡]”[29] is a representation of 666 (6 points, 6 triangles, 6 sides of inner hexagon). In antiquity it was the Star of Raiphan / Rephan / Remphanρεμφαν, from Hebrew Chiunכִּיּוּן or Kewan, probably derived from Old BabylonianKayawanu (name of the planet Saturn / Satan), whence the Roman god Saturnus’ (Greek “Kronos”, time) Day, our ‘modern’ Saturday, the 6th day of the week.
Saturn, from Chymica Vannus, Amsterdam, 1666. (Source: Adam McLean alchemywebsite.com)
Jewish observance of the Shabbat (Sabbath) day similarly derives from the Old Babylonian Shabbatum, 15th day of the month, day of the Full moon, and of its transformation from waxing to waning; a liminal time, considered unlucky as the evil god Kayawanu / Saturn was believed to scupper attempts to work on this day.[30]
(Source: universetoday.com)
The Great Sabbath, March 24, 2018 in Washington DC was a First Quarter moon, so named for when the moon has reached one quarter of its full orbit around Earth. It is often called a Half Moon, as we can see exactly half of the Moon’s surface illuminated. In the northern hemisphere, the left-hand side of the moon appeared in darkness on March 24.
The Jewish Virtual Library informs us that “[t]he Castilian kabbalists, Isaac b. Jacob ha-Kohen, Moses of Burgos, and Moses de Leon (in his Hebrew works and in the Zohar), linked the existence of demons with the last grade of the powers of the “left-side” emanation (the sitra ahra, “other side,” of the Zohar) which corresponds in its ten Sefirot of evil to the ten holy Sefirot“:
Doing things in pairs, especially drinking an even number of cups, invites the malevolent activities of demons; an exception is the four cups enjoined in the seder on Passover for which reason that occasion is called “a night of guarding” (Ex. 12:42), i.e., of protection from demons.[31]
Passover Craft For Kids: Four Cups Of Wine Paper Doll Chain. (Source: creativejewishmom.com)
In the Zohar it is thought that .. there are also good-natured devils who are prepared to help and do favors to men. This is supposed to be particularly true of those demons who are ruled by Ashmedai אַשְמְדּאָי (Asmodeus) who accept the Torah and are considered “Jewish demons.” Their existence is mentioned by the Hasidei Ashkenaz as well as in the Zohar.[31]
Asmodeus is said to be the king of the demons in Jewish lore. He is the demon of lust, responsible for twisting people’s sexual desires. According to the Testament of Solomon and Talmudic legend, King Solomon acquired the archangel Raphael’s secret knowledge of ‘magic’, by which he was able to place Asmodeus in chains and compel him to help in building Solomon’s Temple, making clay with his feet, and serving as a drawer of water (water boy). Solomon would not give him his liberty “because that fierce demon Asmodeus knew even the future”.[32]
Asmodee. From Jacques Albin Simon Collin de Plancy’s Dictionnaire Infernal, 1863 edition. (Image source: Wikipedia)
In the Bible, the 6-pointed Star of Chiun / Saturn ✡ – called the Double Triangle and/or Seal of Solomon in occult circles – is associated with child sacrifice to the Canaanite god Moloch / Melech מלך (Hebrew for “king” of the Jews). (Acts 7:43, cf. Amos 5:26).
Saturn devours one of his sons. Peter Paul Rubens, 1636. (Museo del Prado)
In cabalistic lore, “Nachyel” (also “Nachiel”) is the name of the ‘angel’ of Leo’s governing planet, the Sun. In Hebrew, Nachiel is represented as ג (Gimel, 3rd letter of the aleph-bet). In Gematria, gimel represents the number three. It is said to be written like a vavו (6) with a jodי (10) as a “foot” – by a vertical inversion of the jod, apparently. It is believed to resemble a person in motion. The word gimel is related to gemul (גְּמוּל), meaning ‘justified repayment’, or the giving of reward and punishment. Spelling out Nachiel’s name (NKYAL נכיאל) gives a numerical sequence 30 + 1 + 10 + 20 + 50 = 111, and multiplied x 6 = 666:
The geometric figure for the intelligence of the Sun is formed by joining the numerical values of the letters forming the name of the angel Nachiel on the Sun’s magic square, the tens and hundreds often expressed by ones if the number is not extant in the square. So, in the case of our magic square for number 6, table of the Sun, beginning with the first row, we connect 3 + 1 + 10 + 20 + 5…[33]
The magic square of the Sun, its planetary angel Nachiel, and figure of the angel. (Source: Ann Marie Roos, ‘Magic Coins’ and ‘Magic Squares’, Notes Rec. R. Soc. (2008) 62, 271–288)
In gold amulet No. 1 shown above, this figure of the ‘angel’ Nachiel, reversed 180 degrees horizontally, appears on the front side near the upper right edge (approximately 2 o’clock position).
Israel Regardie (né Regudy), Aleister Crowley’s personal secretary and transcriptionist, and fellow adept in the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn, explains further:
The method proposed by Abramelin for calling forth the Four Princes of the Evil of the World is by means of magical squares containing, in certain formations, various letters and names. These squares when charged and energized by the magical will set up a magnetic or electrical strain in the Astral Light to which certain beings consonant to that strain respond in the performance of acts ordered by the Magician.[34]
A century earlier, Éliphas Lévi affirmed:
Talismans are consecrated by the four exorcised elements, after conjuring the spirits of darkness by the Conjuration of the Four.[35]
Observant readers may find further remarkable coincidence in the knowledge that the pig is forbidden meat in Jewish law, and that the 4 minute speech of David Hogg included a simple, two syllable, cleverly oxymoronic (Grk ὀξύς–μωρός: “sharp-dull”) crowd energy-invoking chant of defiant rebellion – “No More!” – exactly 6 times.
George Orwell’s blackwhite, the key word illustrating the principle of doublethink – “a vast system of mental cheating” – springs analogously to mind.
Hollywood Hamsa – Evil Eye amulet for Sabbath
Hollywood screenwriter Krista Suh sought to reproduce the award-winning success of her Pussyhat Project™ – the symbol for the anti-Trump protest march on Inauguration Day, 2017 – with a new promotion for March For Our Lives: the Evil Eye Glove.
It came to me in a dream, just minutes before waking up – I had a dream of a protest, a huge peaceful crowd with their hands outstretched toward the sky – each palm had a huge EYE drawn on it.
Her promotion gained wide support from the mainstream media worldwide, and from prominent politicians such as Minority Leader of the U.S. House of Representatives, Nancy Pelosi and the Mayor of DC, Muriel Bowser.
You’ve probably seen these uniquely shaped symbols on pendants worn by Jewish women or displayed in Judaica stores. And in Israel the hamsa — whether on necklaces, keychains or displayed on walls — is as ubiquitous as the Star of David.
But what is a hamsa exactly? And what makes it Jewish?
This symbol of an eye embedded in the palm of an open hand has had numerous other names throughout the ages, including the eye of Fatima, the hand of Fatima, and the hand of Miriam. The form is sometimes rendered naturally and other times symmetrically with a second thumb replacing the little finger.
The hamsa has been variously interpreted by scholars as a Jewish, Christian, or Islamic amulet, and as a pagan fertility symbol. Yet even as the magical form remains shrouded in mystery and scholars debate nearly every aspect of its emergence, it is recognized today as a kabbalistic amulet and as an important symbol in Jewish art.
As the references to Fatima (Mohammed’s daughter) and to Miriam (Moses’ sister) suggest, the amulet carries significance to both Jews and Muslims. One of the most prominent early appearances of the hamsa is the image of a large open hand that appears on the Puerta Judiciaria (Gate of Judgment) of the Alhambra, a 14th-century Islamic fortress in southern Spain.
It would not be unusual for an Islamic symbol to find its way into Sephardic Jewish culture, which flourished alongside Islam. However, amulets are somewhat problematic in Judaism because the Bible prohibits magic and divination. Still, the Talmud refers on several occasions to amulets, or kamiyot, which might come from the Hebrew meaning “to bind.” One law allows for carrying an approved amulet on the Sabbath, which suggests that amulets were common amongst Jews at some points in history.[36] (Shabbat 53a, 61a)
In an article for The Jewish Magazine titled “Angels and Demons,” Norman A. Rubin explains that “the use of magical powers was seen as normal during the Talmudic era“:
In the ancient and medieval worlds, Jews were reputed to possess much knowledge about magic: amulets and spells to heal from sickness or harm one’s enemies, mystical incantations to ascend to heaven or bring angels down to earth, and information about the beneficent angels who assisted humans in their fight against the demons of illness and madness. Jewish magic has been part of folk Jewish knowledge and elite rabbinic practice through the years. [..]
Written testimony to the magic formulae in Jewish literature can be found in the Bible, the Mishnah, the Talmud, and the Midrashim – and in archeological finds, i.e. in Qumran a fragment of a scroll was found containing magic compositions that was written in the Hasmonaean era.
Indeed, in Judaic tradition the hamsa is believed to be referenced in Deuteronomy 5:15, stated in the Ten Commandments as the “strong hand” of God who led the Jews out of Egypt.
Some hamsa artifacts have the colors red and blue, both of which are said to thwart the Evil Eye. The symbol of the hand, and often of priestly hands, appears in kabbalistic manuscripts and amulets, doubling as the letter ‘SHIN’ [שׁ], the first letter of the divine name ‘Shaddai’ (one of the names referring to God).
These hands are divided into twenty-eight sections, each containing a Hebrew letter. Twenty-eight, in Hebrew numbers, spells the word Koach = Strength. | Shefa Tal, Hanau, 1612. (Source: Jewish Virtual Library, Witnesses to History: For Students of Kabbalah)
Evil Eye Red String Kabbalah Bracelet with silver Hamsa. (Source: kabbalah-red-bracelets.com, Tel Aviv)
There is much more to the history of the Evil Eye, the concept having appeared in many cultures since antiquity. Wikipedia’s entry offers an extensive overview.
Nazi ‘Black Magic’ – Weaponisation of Youth
Let us conclude our examination of the occult and ‘magical’ methods utilised by March For Our Lives Inc., with a comparative overview of ‘Black Magic’ ritual in the Third Reich.
In Lords of the Left-hand Path, Stephen E. Flowers debunks numerous examples of war-time and post-war propaganda, arguing that “the whole ‘Occult Nazi Mythos’ is bogus in character, and misses the whole point of any real Black Magical, or left-hand path aspects that might have been occurring in the National Socialist movement”:[37]
The magical methodology of the National Socialists, as we can construct it today, extended from private chambers to mass rallies, from traditional folk-festivals to high-tech electronics, from the rites of war to the rites of spring. As with all magic, however, the aim must be kept firmly in focus when attempting to understand it. In this instance the aim was the forging of the Master Race – the Volk made divine.
The most massive problem was cultural in nature – how to motivate millions of the most modern, well-educated people in the world to cooperate in the most radical social and magical experiment in history? The attempt to manipulate the mass-mind to these ends was the underlying factor in much of that which we can readily identify today as real “Nazi occultism.”
The ritual devices were often complex and manifold, but they generally consisted of these elements: ritually shaped space, motion within that space, color, sound (music), and the spoken word. All this was played out in a pattern of dynamic tension between the individual and the gathered mass – nowhere is this more symbolically clear than the sight of the Führer addressing the faithful troops at Nuremberg.[38]
The methods described here must be interpreted as “magical” because they are intended to cause changes in conformity with will and they are making use of theories that exceed, or stand outside of, the established science of their day or ours.[39]
According to Flowers’ research it “was clear from the beginning of the Third Reich that the Party was actively trying to displace orthodox Christianity.” To that end, the Nazis instituted their own “sacred calendar,” named the “Ceremonies of the Reich and the Course of the Year.” One example can be seen in how the German Christmas festivities “became the targets of Nazi liturgical reinterpretation”:
Himmler was especially interested in re-Germanicizing the festival as the Yule-Fest. Goebbels and Rosenberg both used more subtle means. In all cases, however, since this festival always had been (even in pagan times) a private family or clanic and not a public affair, it did not become a candidate for massive Nazi liturgy. It posed a new problem: how to develop National Socialist traditions in private homes. It was 1942 before this began to take on set forms.. .
During the Christmas seasons of 1943 and 1944 the Ministry of Propaganda issued a book called Deutsche Kriegs-weihnachten (A German War-time Christmas) which… went so far as to present the legend of the dead soldier who returned for “Holy Nights” to participate invisibly in celebrations with the family.”[40]
This ritual bears a curious and remarkable correspondence to the Jewish Passover ritual of opening the door and leaving an honorary empty chair for Elijah – the biblical prophet believed to have been taken to heaven alive, and expected to return as forerunner of the Messiah-ben-David:
Chariot of Fire, March for Our Lives
This is one of those texts on which Messianic hopes are built. The prophet promises that God will send Elyahu haNavi, Elijah the Prophet to herald the day and to “turn the hearts of parents to their children and the hearts of children to their parents” ([Malachi] 3:24), to bring reconciliation at long last.
Who is this prophet Elijah? He is the one for whom we will open our doors on Seder night after beginning the ritual with a call for whomever is hungry to come and eat. Our Tanakh teaches that the prophet entered paradise while alive, that “he went up in a stormwind, Elyahu, to heaven,” (2 Kings:2:11) on a “chariot of fire.” Therefore, Elyahu is understood by our Rabbis and Sages to be a kind of emissary between worlds*. In the Talmud he shows up in the heavenly yeshiva and in gatherings on earth.[41]
(*Compare Hermes – the Egyptian Thoth – the alchemists’ trickster god, patron of travellersbetween ‘worlds,’ merchants, hegemons, orators, and thieves. See Albrecht Dürer’s “Allegory of Eloquence” engraving at top this essay)
We might observe here that Major Arcana card number seven (7) in the Tarot deck – “The four Sevens” according to Lévi, corresponding to netzach, the seventh Sefira (’emanation’) in Cabala, and preceding Justice (8), corresponding to hod (left “foot”) which we examined earlier – is known as The Chariot.
VII. The Chariot. | Tarot card from the Rider-Waite-Smith tarot deck, 1909. (Source: Wikipedia)
The fourth ritual celebration in the Nazi liturgical year was held on the last Sunday in March. It was called the “Pledging of the Youth”:
This was analogous to confirmation in the Christian churches. It was the day on which the 14 year old boys and girls could transfer to the Hitler-Youth (Hitler-Jugend) or League of German Girls (Bund deutscher Mädel) from the corresponding “junior leagues” of these organizations. Although this was an individual rite of passage, it had national significance as a time of celebrating the commitment of youth to the movement.[42]
Note the parallels with March For Our Lives’ express encouragement of American youth to enrol to vote – an individual rite of passage – and urging their commitment to the movement and the cause.
Indeed, David Hogg’s speechwriter appears to have understood these ‘magic’ techniques all too well – these very themes were embedded throughout his oration. Pay careful attention:
Now, who here is gonna show up and vote in the 2018 election? If you listen real close, you can hear the people in power shaking.
We are going to make this the voting issue. We are going to take this to every election, every state and every city.
We are going to make sure the best people get in our elections to run, not as politicians but as Americans. Because this .. this (points to Capitol Hill behind him) .. is not cutting it.
Now is the time to come together, not as Democrats, not as Republicans, but as Americans. Americans of the same flesh and blood that care about one thing and one thing only, and that’s the future of this country and the children that are going to lead it.
Now, they will try to separate us in demographics, they will try to separate us by religion, race, congressional district, and class: they will fail!
We, will come together, we, will get rid of these public servants that only serve the gun lobby, and We Will Save Lives! You are those heroes.
Note carefully the messianic implications of this rhetoric.
So let’s take this to our local legislators, and let’s take this to mid-term elections, because without the persistent heat*, without the persistence of voters and Americans everywhere getting out to every election, democracy will not flourish; but it can, and it will.
We can, and we will, change the world!
(*alchemy procedure)
The timing of these rituals (Jewish Shabbat HaGadol / War of the Egyptian Firstborn, Nazi Pledging of the Youth, and March For Our Lives) is also noteworthy – the beginning of Spring, celebrated since antiquity for its association with rebirth, change, the fresh and the new, the blossoming of new life after the ‘death’ of winter.
This was also the time of the 11 day Akitu harvest (barley-cutting, or “reaping”) festival in ancient Babylon, honouring their supreme god Marduk, whose star was Jupiter, and his son Nabû, the god of writing, for their victory over the monster of primeval chaos.
Messiah Hogg’s speechwriter also made reference to these associations, at the very beginning, the middle, and towards the end of his speech.
One might even perceive a cryptic reference to the Talmudic legend of the Egyptian firstborns’ revolt against Pharoah, the “miraculous” transformation of evil into good (for the benefit of the Hebrews, enabling their “liberty”), in his very first words:
The cold grasp of corruption shackles the district of Columbia. The winter is over. Change is here. The sun shines on a new day and the day is ours. (0.02)
Today is the beginning of spring, and tomorrow is the beginning of democracy. (2:14)
This is the start of the spring and the blossoming of our democracy. So let’s take this to our local legislators, and let’s take this to mid-term elections, because without the persistent heat, without the persistence of voters and Americans everywhere getting out to every election, democracy will not flourish; but it can, and it will. (3:15)
Doubtless many will forgive the speechwriter taking .. ahem .. liberties, with the truth. Even on the Great Sabbath. After all, an “approved amulet” – like the hamsa Evil Eye – is an exception to the ‘divine’ rules. The official beginning of Spring 2018 was .. ahem .. 4 days earlier, on 20 March.
There are some interesting conclusions that may now be drawn.
Stephen Flowers’ review of Nazi ritual in the Third Reich must be understood in context of his being a practicing member of the Temple of Set, and his work being an openly stated apologia for left-hand path philosophy. He is, understandably, reluctant to voice interpretations that non-practitioners of the left-hand path might seize upon as confirming a ‘Satanic’ or ‘demonic’ (i.e., metaphysical) dimension to Nazi rituals and practices. The following should serve as a summary example, and speak volumes for the discerning reader:
In the final analysis we must again ask ourselves whether the Nazis are in any real sense to be aligned with the left-hand path. On the essential element of self-deification, the Nazis present a mixed picture. [..] The deification in Nazism is contained not in the individual, and not in the whole of the human species (as with Communism) but in the particular organic strain known as the Aryans. It is the Volk as an organic construct which will reach the state of divinity in the National Socialist model.
The Nazis were to separate this new “god” from all others, and develop it to a new level of being. If there is a crux to the issue of whether they practiced any sort of “black magic,” surely this is it. The Nazi represents a race-based nationalistic rebellion against the natural cosmic order (or perhaps modern “conventional order”), just as the true Black Magician represents that rebellion in the individual ego.
This fact negates the viability of the essential individualistic component to the practice of the left-hand path. The individual is almost totally irrelevant in the ideology of Nazism – except as a mythic heroic model for behaviour suited to the aims of the State.[43]
Sound familiar?
One feels compelled to suggest the possibility of uncomfortably close correspondences with other self-idealised and separated ‘heroic’ groups, such as (paradoxically, at first glance) Party goodthinkers in George Orwell’s dystopian 1984, and the messianic “heroes” of March For Our Lives.
In context, we might also think to take a much closer and far more critical view of the mainstream media, the ‘entertainment’ industries, technology industries (in particular, those associated with genetic and gender ‘modification’, Big Data, artificial intelligence, transhumanism), and various sects of Christian determinism, Islamic fundamentalism, and rabbinic Judaism.
As a form of Lesser Magic these rituals had many functions. Among them were the forging of a focused “mass will” of the Volk, the creation of a deep sense of self-consciousness as an organic entity, the bonding of that entity to a set of symbols, the projection of the entity through those symbols back in time to the ancestors and forward in time to the descendants.
Indeed the Nazis did use magic of a most sophisticated and modern kind. The Lesser Magical use of symbolism and spectacle to manipulate and direct the masses is only rivalled by Madison Avenue. [..] The degree to which these methods could be called Black magic is open to interpretation. In that the aims are usually collectivist and thought to be “ordained by Nature,” they would seem to be more “white magical.” But seen from the level of the selected (separated and independent) folk-group the picture becomes darker. The separated group, with its own idiosyncratic characteristics, imposes its will on the environment around it – contrary to the “natural” flow of convention and historical development.
National Socialism might best be described as a uniquely post-modern, organic school of the left-hand path. They have an organic, collective basis (Folk), but do have a gradual (initiatory) perspective on the transformation of the entity in question from its mundane into its divine state using magical means – a triumph of the will.[44]
As can be seen, the key concepts associated with ‘Lesser’ Black Magic are (1) separation of a selected (“chosen”) group, (2) having its own “idiosyncratic” characteristics, that is (3) bonded to a set of symbols, and that (4) seeks to impose its will on its environment, (5) contrary to the “natural,” the conventional, dare one say “traditional” and historic flow… and, most importantly, with an aim, motive, or intent, that is self-Deifying or messianic in character.
In this context then, consider the defiant declaration of intent to impose its will on others evidenced in the Mission Statement of the March For Our Lives movement. Observe that this imposition of the will – the ‘magic’ of transforming one’s environment in accordance with self-interest – is rhetorically justified by self-identification with a messianic ideal; a form of self-Deification that is fundamental to the left-hand (‘satanic’) path:
We came together on March 24th and through continued unity, we will save lives. We will not stop our advocacy until we see the change we demand – a change that is necessary in order to save innocent lives across our nation.
******************
REFERENCES
[1] Stephen E. Flowers, Lords of the Left-hand Path: A History of Spiritual Dissent (1997, Second Edition). Runa-Raven Press, Texas. pp. 124-125
[2] Edward Bernays, Propaganda (1928, Renewed 1955), IG Publishing, New York (2005). p. 37
[3] George Orwell, Nineteen Eighty-Four (2003 Centennial edition), Plume Harcourt Brace, USA. p. 217
[4] chabad.org – links in text. (retrieved April 6, 2018)
[5] Mark Passio, Natural Law, seminar at Yale Omni, October 2013 (YouTube, retrieved January 2018)
[6] chabad.org – links in text. (retrieved April 6, 2018)
[13] Hod (Kabbalah), Non-Jewish occult associations, Wikipedia (retrieved April 6, 2018)
[14] Éliphas Lévi, Transcendental Magic: Its Doctrine And Ritual, A.E. Waite translation, George Redway, London (1896). p.95
[15] Éliphas Lévi, History of Magic, A.E. Waite translation (Second edition). William Rider and Son Limited, London (1922), p. 527
[16] Éliphas Lévi, Transcendental Magic: Its Doctrine And Ritual, A.E. Waite translation, George Redway, London (1896). p. 94
[17] ibid., p. 320
[18] ibid., p. 367
[19] Ann Marie Roos, ‘Magic Coins’ and ‘Magic Squares’: The Discovery of Astrological Sigils in the Oldenburg Letters, Notes and Records of the Royal Society (2008) 62, p. 271–288, citing Deborah E. Harkness, John Dee’s conversations with angels: cabala, alchemy, and the end of nature (Cambridge University Press, 1999), p. 174., and Ludwig Blau, ‘Angelology: cabalistic view’, jewishencyclopedia.com (accessed 1 December 2007)
[20] Stephen E. Flowers, Lords of the Left-hand Path: A History of Spiritual Dissent (1997, Second Edition). Runa-Raven Press, Texas. p. 115
[21] ibid., p. 100 – Note that by “Classicism,” Flowers does not mean the 18th century artistic movement of Neoclassicism but rather the “freedom,” “equality,” and “rational” self-interest promoting philosophistries of Liberalism – the Christian values-inverting doctrines of ‘enlightened’ ‘luminaries’ such as Bernardus Mandeville (“Private Vices, Publick Virtues”), formalised in the ‘useful’ ethics, ‘felicific’ (pleasure-seeking, hedonistic) calculus, and Defence of Usury of Jeremy Bentham (“Principles of Morals and Legislation”).
[22] Vladimir Karpenko; John A. Norris, Vitriol in the History of Chemistry (2002), Chem. Listy 96, 997–1005 (2002).
[23] Anne Varichon, Couleurs : Pigments et teintures dans les mains des peuples, p. 112 (cited in Wikipedia, retrieved April 8, 2018)
[24] Daniel V. Thompson, The Materials and Techniques of Medieval Painting, p. 103. (Cited in Wikipedia, retrieved April 8, 2018)
[25] Anne Varichon, Couleurs : Pigments et teintures dans les mains des peuples, p. 112 (cited in Wikipedia, retrieved April 8, 2018)
[27] Dragon’s blood, Wikipedia (retrieved April 10, 2018)
[28] Roy Allan Anderson, Unfolding the Revelation (Revised). Pacific Press Publishing Association, Boise Idaho, Oshawa Ontario, Canada (1953, 1961, 1974). Library of Congress Catalogues Card No 61-10884. pp 125-127. Cited by HackYa, Babylonian Sun Seal Square (retrieved 6 April 2018)
[30] Rabbi Jack Riemer, Appreciating and knowing the Bible, then and now, Jewish News Syndicate, June 11, 2017 (retrieved 8 April 2018). For more detailed examination, cf. Hebrew and Babylonian Traditions, The Haskell Lectures delivered at Oberlin College in 1913, since revised and enlarged, by Morris Jastrow, Jr., Ph.D. New York: Scribner, 1914 – “Jastrow holds that the waning of the moon was in Babylonia a time of anxiety, and that the people were especially anxious to propitiate their gods before entering upon it. He finds several passages of the Old Testament (II Kings 4:23; Amos 8:5; Hos. 2:13; Isa. 1:13; Ezek. 46:1) in which the feast of the New Moon and the Sabbath are classed together, and thinks that the Sabbath in Israel also began as a festival connected with the full moon.” (George A Barton review, American Journal of Theology, doi/pdfplus/10.1086/479398, pp. 426-7)
[32] Kaufman Kohler; Lewis Ginsberg, Asmodeus or Ashmedai, jewishencyclopedia.com (retrieved April 10, 2018)
[33] Ann Marie Roos, ‘Magic Coins’ and ‘Magic Squares’: The Discovery of Astrological Sigils in the Oldenburg Letters, Notes and Records of the Royal Society (2008) 62, p. 271–288
[34] Israel Regardie, The Tree of Life: A Study in Magic (Second edition), Samuel Weiser Inc, York Beach, Maine (1968), p. 199-200
[35] Éliphas Lévi, Transcendental Magic: Its Doctrine And Ritual, A.E. Waite translation, George Redway, London (1896). p.242
[36] Menachem Wecker, What is a Hamsa?, myjewishlearning.com (retrieved April 10, 2018)
[37] Stephen E. Flowers, Lords of the Left-hand Path: A History of Spiritual Dissent (1997, Second Edition). Runa-Raven Press, Texas. p. 121
[38] ibid., p. 128
[39] ibid., p. 124
[40] ibid., p. 127
[41] Rabbi Robin Podolsky, Chariot of Fire, March for Our Lives, jewishjournal.com 28 March 2018 (retrieved April 6, 2018)
[42] Stephen E. Flowers, Lords of the Left-hand Path: A History of Spiritual Dissent (1997, Second Edition). Runa-Raven Press, Texas. p. 126
The buzzard told the monkey “You are chokin’ me
“Release your hold, and I will set you free”
The monkey looked the buzzard right dead in the eye
And said “Your story’s so touching but it sounds just like a lie”
Jordan B. Peterson would appreciate this moment of synchronicity. After all, he is well-versed in Jung.
A friend in the northern hemisphere tweeted a video clip of a Peterson interview yesterday on BBC Radio 5. I just happened to see his tweet, five hours later.
In reference to young men, he said:
“They’re desperate for a discussion about responsibility and fair play and noble being and working properly in the world, and to hear the idea that their lives actually matter; that if they straighten themselves up and fly right that they’ll have a beneficial effect on themselves and their family and community, and that the world is starving for that, and for them, as individuals; not for them as a group but for each of them as individuals.”
When I heard those words spoken, my memory instantly flashed to consciousness the 1943 hit song by Nat King Cole:
A buzzard took a monkey for a ride in the air
Monkey thought that everything was on the square
The buzzard tried to throw the monkey off his back
But the monkey grabbed his neck and said “Now listen, jack”
“Straighten up and fly right
“Straighten up and stay right
“Straighten up and fly right
“Cool down papa, don’t you blow your top
“Ain’t no use in divin’
“What’s the use of jivin’
“Straighten up and fly right
“Cool down papa, don’t you blow your top.”
The buzzard told the monkey “You are chokin’ me
“Release your hold, and I will set you free”
The monkey looked the buzzard right dead in the eye
And said “Your story’s so touching but it sounds just like a lie”
I instantly knew – by intuition, buttressed by knowledge, acquired recently and reviewed only yesterday – what this idiom really means.
It has a profound significance.
I doubt that many today – if any – fully appreciate what these allegorical lyrics mean. Wikipedia provides a helpful hint, by dint of the background story:
The song was based on a black folk tale that Cole’s father had used as a theme for one of his sermons. In the tale, a buzzard takes different animals for a joy ride. When he gets hungry, he throws them off on a dive and eats them for dinner. A monkey who had observed this trick goes for a ride; he wraps his tail around the buzzard’s neck and gives the buzzard a big surprise by nearly choking him to death.
The phrase “straighten up and fly right” is said to mean:
Fig. to improveone’sbehavior or attitudeandperformbetter.(Originallyreferred to an airplane.)
in. to get serious and start behaving properly.
Clearly this is the context in which Peterson used it.
But there is far more to this allegory. I think it extremely important that we fully understand it:
And therefore, it is wisely said, that the stone is born of the spirit, because it is altogether spiritual. For the vulture himself flying without wings cries upon the top of the mountain, saying, I am the white brought forth from the black, and the red brought forth from the white, the citrine son of the red; I speak the truth and lie not.
[F]or the vulture flying in the air without wings, cries out that it might get up upon the mountain, that is upon the waters, upon which the “spiritus albus” or spirit of whiteness is born.
The vulture flying through the air, and the toad creeping upon the ground, are the emblems of our magistery.
Last evening – again, just by ‘coincidence’ – I had tweeted a lengthy thread of quotations from a book I am reading, written by a PhD scholar. The author’s preface openly states his purpose:
This book was composed in large measure as a response to the irrational “Satanic scare” of the late 1980s and early 1990s. It was written with the intention of reaching a wide readership of thinking individuals capable of understanding the historical and cultural scope of ideas underlying the images of the left-hand path. [..] It should also be noted that the author of this book is not a Satanist, but is a practitioner of the left-hand path based on purely indigenous European models.
Stated more simply, the book is a scholarly defense of Satanist ideology, and so-called “black magic[k]”.
In earlier essays, such as Cheating Females Parts 1 and 2 (here, here), Ode to Debt (18+) (here), and Stags and Unicorns: The Alchemical Root of the Normalisation of Cheating (here), I have demonstrated that the left-hand path philosophy has been deeply embedded in modern western culture. It is increasingly evident – brazenly so – in the decadence, nihilism, and orchestrated chaos of postmodern western culture.
Indeed, the “Satanic” philosophy is literally the driving force of ‘our’ capital-ist,¹ Mammon-worshipping (and thereby enslaved) world. I have shown that it is at the very core of double-entry accounting, ‘modern’ banking, and the creation of our ‘money’ supply in the form of Balance Sheet credebt records, deceitfully rented to us at “interest” (usury, compounding):
..Freud cites overcoming incapacity for work as a major motive for entering a pact with the Devil. [..] A major psychological feature of black magic is that it provides immediate gains without immediate payment. The payment is feared as “really” both deferred and excessive. Thus deferred and excessive payment for immediate gain is characteristically associated with pacts with the Devil. The aversion towards usury, in current times as well as throughout the history of Christianity, is not completely coincidental. For usury is exactly a social expression of the Satanic Pact, immediate gains and excessive deferred payment.²
To my repeated assertion that Satanic philosophy is the driving force of modern and (especially) postmodern western capitalist culture, our scholar would appear to agree:
“The existence of the left-hand path is not easily discovered, but once its principles have been uncovered it slowly becomes apparent just how widespread the philosophy is.”
“[T]he basic precepts of the left-hand path have for centuries penetrated far beyond the sphere of magical and occult activity.”
“[M]odern philosophies and political ideologies have fully embraced principles basic and fundamental to the left-hand path, almost all of which have become the accepted norm in the west.”
The true significance of the allegorical sermon by Nat King Cole’s father becomes clear only when we understand the origin and meaning of the left-hand path, versus the right-hand path.
We see then that, rather than “the devil in the detail”, in the lyrics of the song we find the exact opposite: “Le bon Dieu est dans le détail” (“the good God is in the detail”).
I will now present some excerpts from our left-hand path scholar’s book, trusting that your eyes will be opened, and you will see. Note that italicised emphasis is in the original; bold is mine:
The actual origin of the right-hand versus left-hand path terminology itself is rooted in the vocabulary of Indian tantric sects. The two main divisions of these are the dakshinachara, “right-way” and the vamachara, “left-way”. [..] The eventual elaboration of the right-hand/left-hand path distinction is quite complex, but its origins are most probably rooted in the widespread tantric doctrines of a natural flow of universal force through the human body along a left to right line – entering the left, exiting the right. This is mirrored by a cosmic flow of force from the north to the south. When the human being is oriented toward the east this flow pattern is said to be in harmony with the one natural to his body, as his left hand is to the north, his right hand to the south. Here are the roots of the key to the common antinomianism, reversal of patterns, found in left-hand path tantrism. To reverse the left to right pattern, contrary to nature and cosmic law, requires an exercise of the faculty of will. This is an act of rebellion against nature and against divinely ordained cosmic order. [..] In going against this flow, individuals more fully articulate – individuate – themselves within their environments. Independence and freedom are attained and maintained – perhaps even personal immortality is to be gained.
Julius Evola remarks on the distinction between the two paths:
“The creative and productive aspect of the cosmic process is signified by the right hand, by the color white, and by the two goddesses Uma and Gauri… . The second aspect, that of conversion and return (exitus, reditus) is signified by the left hand, by the color black, and by the dark, destructive goddesses Durga and Kali. Thus according to the Mahakala Tantra, when the left and the right hands are in equilibrium we experience samsara, but when the left hand prevails, we find liberation.”
Alain Daniélou remarks that the left-hand path corresponds to a “disintegrating tendency” (tamas) which “uses the power of Nature, the passions and instincts of man, to conquer, with their aid, the world of the senses… This way leads directly from the physical to the abstract because … the descending tendency is at both ends of the manifested, [therefore the left-hand path] may utilize even eroticism or drunkenness as a means of spiritual achievement.”
Clearly the left-hand path .. is associated both with the idea of dis-integration (separation) and with the practice of antinomianism – of “going against the grain” of conventions in order to gain spiritual power.
Here it is quite clear, at least from the masculine perspective,³ that the essence of the vamachara [left-way] is the total transformation of the human initiate into something superhuman or god(dess)-like.
One of the significant differences between the two tantric paths, although both are under aegis of Shiva, is that on the right-hand path the adept always experiences “someone above him,” even at the highest level of realization. However, on the left-hand path the adept “becomes the ultimate sovereign” (chakravartin = world ruler).
It is tempting to expand this essay with details of the antinomian “aberrations” that are practiced on the left-hand path in pursuit of its goal. But to do so would, I think, detract from the importance of the thematic understanding here presented, thanks to Jordan Peterson, a black folk tale, Nat King Cole and his preacher man father, my Twitter friend on the other side of the planet, and what was, for me, a spirit-raising moment of Jungian synchronicity.
If you feel compelled to learn more of the (disturbing) details, then you may wish to read my earlier essays mentioned above. One further quotation from our PhD scholar will be mildly suggestive:
Ultimately, [Donatien Alphonse François, Marquis] de Sade holds that the pursuit of pleasure is the object of human life, and that physical satisfaction is more noble than the merely mental. Happiness depends on the greatest possible extension of pleasure. This is done by enlarging the scope of one’s tastes and fantasies. It is only through wilful imagination that the possibilities for pleasure are extended. Social or religious conditioning prevents this in most cases. Finally, happiness is not so much found in the enjoyment of pleasure as in the desire itself and in the destruction of obstacles in the way of its accomplishment.
For de Sade the greatest pleasures were to be found in overcoming things which may have at one time inspired fear or disgust.
Whether in the sexual or more abstract philosophical sphere, the truest definition of Sadism .. is: “The pleasure felt from the observed modifications on the external world produced by the will of the observer.”
Suffice it to say, the allegory of the trickster buzzard who offers to take you on a jivin’, “fly left” joy ride – one that will “set you free” – is a profoundly cautionary tale:
“It is quite understandable why the forces of orthodox Christianity fought every advance in scientific, political, or religious philosophy, for each advance in spiritual freedom and enforcement of the interests of plurality over unity is indeed a victory for the Prince of Darkness – the principle of isolate intelligence…”
“Evil is the conscious attempt to make the conditions of existence more pathological than they have to be, and it’s motivated by conscious intent.”
The buzzard told the monkey “You are chokin’ me
“Release your hold, and I will set you free”
The monkey looked the buzzard right dead in the eye
And said “Your story’s so touching but it sounds just like a lie”
UPDATE 3 Feb 2018:
Recommend reading this article on the gnostic underpinnings of Jordan Peterson’s philosophy. Compare with Cabala’s origins. Readers of my other essays will hopefully recognise the fundamental connections between gnosticism, cabala, and left-hand path philosophies.
*****************
REFERENCES
Stephen E. Flowers PhD, Lords of the Left-hand Path: A History of Spiritual Dissent
¹ If the reader is tempted to assume that I am opposed to the ideology of capitalism alone, I would say only that there was insufficient time and space to address the subject here. Please consider that I am somewhat widely read on the true origins, intent, and consequences of ‘Marxian’ socio-economic theories; thus my views on what I consider to be an artificial opposition are likely more nuanced than you may have presumed.
² David Bakan, Sigmund Freud and the Jewish Mystical Tradition
I recommend giving thought to this man’s words. But do not watch if you are unable to ignore vulgar, and/or blasphemous language, in the interest of gaining understanding.
“Of course, if I get disassociated from by a domination of empirical science I could be objectified into nihilism but apart from that little hiccup…”