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I believe the idea was not just to argue both sides, but to actually work on changing your perspective so completely that you inhabited the perspective of the Other for a time. This was a kind of personal, magical work that would allow the magician to get a broader perspective than what would normally occur. Some of this was tied to Crowley's penchant for creating these strange exotic characters for himself (part of his colonialist tendencies) that he could take on and drop at will - often marked by a certain piece of jewelry or clothing. Of course this also played into those times when he literally dealt with his own demons, as in the Choronzon operation, where it's been speculated that Crowley 'became' his demon.

When it comes down to it, this strikes me as not much different from acting and performance theory. The results may be somewhat suspect but the intent is certainly to transcend limited perspectives and magically transform the self.

Mandrake of Oxford <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
Dear Friend
 
Perhaps an element of Crowley's training schema for magicians
ie that they should cultivate the ability to argue the case from both sides -
as in the classical techniques of the sophists.
 
That kind of practice found its way into Pete Caroll's reworking of the whole
Crowley thing into his first book on Chaos Magick - _Liber Null_.
AFAIK chaos magicians still take this idea quite seriously -
ie i sure i read an article either in Chaos International or Oracle where the
current head of the IOT says how he was a 'lefty' most of his life but then
decided he would be a 'fascist' for a while as some sort of intellectual exercise -
which strikes me as about rhetoric - perhaps with the aim of deconditioning etc.
 
Personally i was never that impressed by that idea in crowley et al
 - always struck me as 'bad faith' -
 
 
bb/93
 
mogg
 
 
 
 
 

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-----Original Message-----
From: Society for The Academic Study of Magic [mailto:[log in to unmask]]On Behalf Of Joseph Zompetti
Sent: 08 April 2007 06:44
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: [ACADEMIC-STUDY-MAGIC] magic and rhetoric

I'm working on some academic examinations into the relationship between magic and rhetoric (persuasion).  Does anyone have any suggestions for literature that I should explore?
 
Thanks!
 
Joseph Zompetti, Ph.D.
School of Communication
Illinois State University



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