owen cyclops Profile picture
Aug 20, 2019 13 tweets 3 min read Read on X
i suppose you could call where im at ideologically now allegorism, esoterica without the theurgic element. everything in the visible world has an emblematic meaning, the relationship of external to internal is innate to man, and we should utilize this to glorify god, basically
many occult philosophers define “magic” in this secular way of doing things, using thoughts and words and actions, to alter things in reality. others define it as using those same tools to influence the divine sphere. theyre both missing the point in slightly different ways imo.
man has a relationship to the divine and can bring others to god but, he cant really tell divinity and divine things what to do, in my opinion. he can only elevate himself to a certain extent by properly understanding and utilizing his place in the cosmic hierarchy.
on the flip side i think the modern western occult definition of magic as “causing reality to conform to ones will” (extremely common + standard) is pretty stupid, as thats what i do when i order a book online, its kind of like secular overscholastic cope + larping, in my opinion
in classical studies of magical practices, for example if you read a book from the 1500s, it breaks up these hands on occult and esoteric engagements with the world into two categories, goetia and theurgy. goetia is what is commonly called black magic.
working with demons, evil spirits, things like that. you may recognize that term from a book that is now called “the goetia”, really thats a misnomer but thats why its called that. on the flip side theurgy is what i suppose would be called white magic.
things that now go under the banner of “angel magic” and such things. personally i think both things are actually bad and, these weird people who think theyre invoking angels via john dee style talismans and tables are assuredly not doing what they think theyre doing, lets say
over the years ive made a separate folder in my mind of other things, spiritual practices that have a proper and efficacious understanding of mans place in the hierarchy and what he can and should “do about it”. things like praying, contemplation, creating theological “works”..
sometimes i just call this stuff clerica as a third category apart from theurgy and goetia when analyzing hands on spiritual practices presently and throughout history. lots of work to be done
wouldnt ever really identify with hermeticism for a variety of reasons. i dont “look up to” hermes trismegistus but more importantly i just see the term applied to so many conflicting and wildly varying things im not really sure it means anything anymore

ive met people who do full on magic rituals + stuff who call that hermeticism, people who call alchemy hermeticism, people who call just looking deeper into symbolism hermeticism, people who call tarot cards hermeticism, i get why ofc but, its like the broadest umbrella possible
and then none of them have actually read the corpus hermetica of course... lol

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More from @owenbroadcast

Jul 6
the movie ‘jesus camp’ is the movie i’ve watched the most in my life. in a way, that makes it my favorite movie. at this point, i’ve probably seen it hundreds of times. there are times working at my desk where i’d put it on every day. admittedly, bizarre behavior. so, why?

[…] Image
if youre unfamiliar, the film documents a bunch of kids who are taken to an evangelical / charismatic summer camp. it’s meant to portray them as somewhat extreme: a small window into this dark undercurrent of american religious life, where kids are … brainwashed, basically. Image
i think this movie has followed me around for most of my life because ive seen it from every perspective. initially, i was teenager atheist who had the perspective of the film: that this was all basically evil

later i turned my back on that perspective entirely, and saw it again Image
Read 7 tweets
Jul 5
one of my favorite stories about america is from a guy who moved to west virginia to be a pastor. someone organized a garbage truck route to come through an extremely rural neighborhood, at a time when this cost some money. a nominal fee was passed over to the residents.

[…]
it was a trivial amount of money, but the residents there were so incensed that someone would do this without asking them and then stick them with the bill that they stopped doing anything at all with their trash, and just threw it outside until the plan was called off.

[…]
later, this pastor, who was there for this, wanted to pave the road leading up to their also extremely rural church. wanting to avoid any conflict, he called a meeting and laid out his plan: a truck will come, and dump gravel along the now dirt road, at minimal cost.

[…]
Read 5 tweets
Jun 26
you hear stories like, person retires then dies very soon after. sometimes this is presented as loss of purpose, or tragic coincidence. my personal theory is the body never takes time “off” to heal so too much “backlog” builds up, then it hits all at once the second you slow down
this also explains the phenomenon of someone taking time off or going on vacation or finally taking a weekend and suddenly getting sick. seems like the universe playing a joke on you. “i never get sick, and im sick now, on my time off”. well, yeah, exactly. not a coincidence.
if a guy has a crazy huge presentation at his job, his mind can tell his body to push getting sick off until after it - or, someone in a situation where they “can’t” get sick usually won’t (this also happens often, once you notice it). apparently people can do this for decades.
Read 4 tweets
Jun 6
the integration of AI and childhood education will progress unhindered unless there is a compelling, easily explainable, and intuitive reason for it to be hindered. below is an extreme example - a fully AI school, but this will be integrated into normal schools.

unless... [...]
unless there is a competing model that fully bars its integration. right now it's very easy for us to be online and laugh about this or dismiss it as openly ridiculous, but as the tech advances and becomes normalized, this will not not be enough to stop it. there's no "reason".
concerns about glitches in the tech will eventually dissipate or be confined or solved somehow, and you're going to left standing there while every classroom or school district has an AI component that has replaced some level of normal education.

so, what's the competition?
Read 20 tweets
May 29
most people have no idea how psychoactive alkaloids work. why would they? i love coffee. look at this chart: if you drink coffee, after 500 minutes, the caffeine is still there. many people experience this feeling as anxiety. theyd never connect it to a cup of coffee 10 hours ago Image
ingesting substances can be modeled with an attack, decay, sustain, release model. each of these phases feels different. this is true for everything from psychedelics to caffeine. my contention is that many people experience the sustain and release period here as ambient stress: Image
they drink coffee. the attack period is what they want, thats good. the decay is fine. the sustain is way longer than they think. they “forget” about the coffee, but are “coming down” off it for hours. they look for an explanation for this feeling and never make the connection. Image
Read 5 tweets
May 14
along the way in my research, people say there are journals found after mens deaths where they describe successfully turning metals into gold, and then mostly using the money to lay low, live comfortably, and give to charity. this has probably happened independently several times
the issue with alchemy at the time, at least in europe, was the procuring materials, equipment, hiding it, and the expense and time involved in inevitable failures. however once you had success (my opinion) you had no reason to reveal it. it would make you a type of slave.
in ‘refiner’s fire’ the author puts forth a model of a type of hermetic folk culture native to parts of europe and places descended from england - this involving alchemy, counterfeiting, and something like the celestial arts - basically magic, the stars, looking into stones, etc.
Read 9 tweets

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