Today I had lunch with stardansr at a small japanese restaurant near her workplace. Nice place, and I've been there before for dinner, but this was my first time eating lunch there. We had sushi. This will likely surprise those who know me, because normally I really don't eat sushi. I've just never cared for it the other times I've tried it. But this time, armed with past knowledge and experience, I managed to find the first two kinds of sushi I can say I actually enjoy: Albacore Tadagi (garlic albacore w/ bonzu sauce) and Smoke Sake (smoked salmon). Both went really well with ginger slices and dipped in soy sauce into which a small quantity of wasabi had been mixed (thanks stardansr for showing me that trick!) All in all, a very enjoyable afternoon. :)

I was doing some more research into the writing of Daniel Schulke, and I came across an interesting thread on Berbalith Underground that referenced Schulke's work in making an argument against Pop-Culture Magic:

I think there is a certain approach to deity work within chaos magic that positions it as a souped-up version of working a sigil or launching a servitor. You do a one-off ritual that you think might be fun, maybe invoking Thoth or Baphomet, maybe invoking Yoda or Buffy. You may or may not utilise "a boatload of drugs" in order to accomplish some sort of communication, and if you get a sense of something a bit weird happening you have had a success. If you ask the deity to do something for you, and you get the results you are looking for, this is even more of a success. I'm not and have never been disputing that you can get results of this nature from working with fictional characters. I know you can, as I have been there and done that.

However, experiences like that are really just the first bars of the opening refrain of what you can actually get out of deity work, as I've encountered it in the context of Voodoo and other traditions of spirit work. As an example, at the moment I'm reading a book called "Ars Philtron" (I know, it sounds a bit like "Arse Filter") by Daniel Schulke. It's about potion making. Going into the woods, building relationships with the spirits, gathering ingredients and making potions for various magical uses. I've never seen anything quite like it in print, and the depth of practice that sings off every page is nothing short of vertiginous. It's obvious that this is someone's life's work and labour of love.

It's not very often that I find myself feeling a bit awed by a book on magic, but it's clear that this is a treatise written by a master of this particular field of operation. I thought I knew a bit about working with the spirits of the woods and making up my own gear - but the first fifty pages of Schulke's book reveal how superficial my own explorations in this area have actually been to date.

The principle deities of his witchcraft tradition are Cain (who is presented as an Eshu-esque crossroads figure) and Lilith (who in this context is Goddess of the Moon), along with various undines, land spirits, and the intelligences of plants, trees and herbs. The spirit work aspect of it is essential to his craft of potion making, and its apparent that his account of this work has arisen out of and been largely informed by direct relationships and communication with nature spirits and the deities of his tradition.

What I'm trying to get at here is how developing relationships with spirits and deities, such as what Schulke describes, can open the door to such richness and depth that you could easily spend a lifetime exploring it and still feel you have barely scraped the surface. That's really what I get out of my Voodoo practice. I've been working with Ghede for ten years, but I feel as if I've hardly even begun to get my head around the politics of the boneyard or the complexities of boneyard sorcery. It's a life's work, and every hour you put in just takes you deeper.

If I came across a book that expressed the same depth of practice as "Ars Philtron" but in the context of pop culture magic, I would instantly revise my opinions of working with fictional icons. So far I haven't really come across anyone who has taken a relationship with Buffy or Yoda and been able to run with it to those sorts of places. Perhaps more tellingly, I've never come across anyone working pop culture magic who has been able to grasp from their practice that such possibilities might exist. The accounts I've seen are invariably more in the mode of "take a boatload of drugs one night and have a funny experience", which is not really what I'm talking about at all. Magic, and spirit work, is far richer and stranger than the rather tedious and pedestrian model of it that your posts suggest you are confined by.

I have to say, I agree very much with this statement.  I'm going to be thinking a lot about some of its potential implications, and the presence or absence of such deep praxis in various magical or spiritual traditions.

http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn17245-londons-magical-history-uncorked-from-witch-bottle.html?DCMP=OTC-rss&nsref=online-news

For the first time, science is used to analyze the contents of an unearthed witch-bottle, giving valuable insight into the actual ingredients used in this aspect of traditional British folk-magic.

"Many books in many ages have been written concerning the Ars Magia, but the foregoing elucidations shall serve us best where our Craft is concerned.  Green Sorcery echoes these precepts, but in additoin presupposes a spiritous template, rather than a pshycological or energetic substratum.  Accordingly, the World and the Universe are recognized as being composed of an infinitude of spirits, each with a different character and power.  Thus Green Sorcery also encompasses the dynamic access to, collaboration with, and command of Spirits.  Plant rites, cosmologies, deities and artifacts comprise its Corpus Fecundi.  Embraced by this Way of Knowing are the pathways of Healing and Poisoning; Phytognosis; Chemistry adn Plant Alchemy; Zymurgy; Embalming; Vinology and Viticulture; Aromatics and Perfuming; Horticulture; Dyeing; Compounding Cosmetics; and the diverse, flavorful rituals of the Culinary Arts.  Hylozoistic in stance, Our Arte reverse plants as peers and allies rather than as subservients or mere chymical principles to be manipulated, as is the dominant rationale in modern Herbalogy.  It hails in each plant a wise and intelligent spiritous personality, or Genius.  Intimate knowledges of these genii and their personalities comprise the hart of Our Arte, in the same way congress with angels and demons was central to the magic of the medieval necromancer.  Plant genii may be accessed in many of the same ways, but there are also characteristics unique unto the Vegetal Realm, such as their direct interplay with earth-powers; their shifting affinities by season, planetary motion and starlight; their spiritual amplification during blossoming; the antiquity of their accumulated geomantic wisdom; and their significant alchymical interplay with the powers of the Sun and Moon."
Ars Philtron by D.A. Schulke.

"The Sages of Old instruct that the occult knowledge of Tress and Herbs, as well as the sacred arts of healing, divination, and enchantments, was given mankind in remote times by the gods.  According to the teachings of some religious traditions, these were the so-called Fallen Angels, exiled from the celestial mansions by a jealous demiurge; or descending by will to share their divine power with the races of men.  The ancient Books of Enoch reveal how these heavenly luminaries known as the Watchers took the daughters of men as wives and taught them the arts of astrology, writing, metalworking, perfumery, and herbalism. 

By other accounts, these tutelary divinities were the beloved nymphs, tree-spirits, fairy-folk, sylvan genii, or rustic entities allied unto the dominions of the wilderness, such as good Chiron, that venerable centaur who taught the great god Asklepios the disciplines of medicine.  In many traditions, it was the Trees and Herbs themselves, or the land wherein they were rooted, who taught the plant-doctors their art, often revealing themselves by way of a unique 'Language of the Trees' whereby vegetal powers were accessed by song and incantation."
Viridarium Umbris by D.A. Schulke.

Remarkable books blending traditional magic and science together.  By far the best modern occult books I have ever read, and a very good reminder that "pagan" and "occult" do not have to be synonyms for "poorly researched" or "anti-science".  Also a very good example of how myth can be accepted as true without rejecting either other mythologies or science/critical-thinking in the process.

 
 

The past few days I have been trying to remember an old tv episode or tv movie, with little success.  It was nominally a horror, but I don't think it was all that scary.  It was set inside a cafe or diner, late at night.  There were a bunch of people there, I think they were strangers.  Someone left and was shot.  At that instant, time froze outside the cafe.  The rest of the show dealt with the people still inside the cafe.  That's all I remember of the plot.  I thought it was Night Gallery or a show like that, but I can't find this particular episode in the episode list.  Whatever it was, I'd really like to see it again if someone recognizes the description and can point me to the show.

So, to celebrate my re-employment, Dusk and I went out to dinner tonight at Union Jack's in Ballston.  This is the second time we've been there, and each time the service and food have been outstanding.  And tonight I remembered to try their hard cider:  Magner's Irish Cider.  Very very good times.  I also got the Tower of London with Salmon.  Now, most places if you order a pasta dish that comes with chicken and pay extra to get the salmon, it's a substitution.  Here, it is not.  I got chicken AND salmon in my pasta.  It was kinda fricking awesome, and tasted great together.  And for the amount of food we got, the meal was really quite reasonable.  Definitely going back.

Oh, and get this: This pub is the only place I have ever heard a restaurant play "What's On Your Mind" by The Information Society.  Do I even need to say how many atmosphere points that counts for?

Go there.  For it is Awesome and Made of Win. :)

Interesting text I was introduced to last night: Compendium of Occult Laws by Rev. R. Swinburne Clymber, M.D. from 1966.

I've managed to find a copy online.  Here's one of the most interesting parts, in my opinion:
http://www.denverspiritualcommunity.org/Wisdom/OccultLawChpt1.htm#anchor1085573

So, apparently, importing 8 years worth of my Livejournal posts causes Dreamwidth to have some issues roundabouts the third year.  "XMLRPC failure: Exceeded XMLRPC recursion limit."

As a result, I can presently only import entries up to 2004.  I'll be reporting this as a problem shortly.

And may I just say, dang I've been on Livejournal a long-ass time.