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

Sep 2
in the 1977 film ‘wizards’, one of the oddest movies ive seen, the earth is split between two opposing forces: one side uses technology, and one side has forbidden technology and instead uses magic. i thought this was an interesting lens to view the present AI discussion through. Image
the term “magic” gained its present english meaning at a time when our society was entirely religious. so, obviously, socially dominant religion with its hierarchy, history, and institutions used the term magic to denote what was outside it: witches, the occult, and such things.
however, we no longer live in that world. today, if we remove the baggage from the word magic, we have to be slightly honest and admit that talking to superhuman beings, items with supraphysical holy influence, casting out demons - this is all “magical”, as opposed to scientific.
Read 9 tweets
Jul 28
recently a gnome trapped me in a time loop and refused to let me out until i produced a full century of fake 'new yorker' comics, one for each decade.

here they are, in order:

1923: Image
1932: Image
1941: Image
Read 11 tweets
Jul 24
jordan peterson’s ’clean up your room’ became a huge joke but no one ever mentioned that his second step was to try to make the room beautiful, because that involves committing to something, putting yourself out there, and engaging with beauty on your own terms as an individual.
to make an aesthetic statement in the form of creating something, like decorating a room, is to engage with the fear the above person describes. because you have nowhere to hide. someone is going to come to your room and say, “you picked that painting?”, and, you did. thats it.
really as much as im not a devotee of the guy the whole set up was pretty good. because once you make something beautiful, its like cleaning one thing in a dirty room. everything else that isn’t beautiful suddenly stands out as extremely not beautiful, then you have to fix that.
Read 4 tweets
Jul 9
a long time ago i was reading this on the subway. old guy taps me. i take my headphones off. he says, "whats that book?". i say "its... a history of magic". he says, "does he say magic comes from God?". i said "uh... yeah, actually". he says "good." then just stood there quietly Image
this happened at the utica avenue subway station in crown heights which i frequented for some time. a few other interesting things happened there. once another guy started talking to me. he was black, and told me he had been privately studying with a rabbi for like a decade

...
apparently he was privately studying history and judaism with a rabbi, alone, and the rabbi had selected him for this process. i asked a lot of questions and the guy did not seem insane, and seemed to know some things that validated his story, but, i could not make sense of it.
Read 10 tweets
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

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